timothy's Journal: A few nearly bare links of interest ...

I tend not to like link-only journal entries, but would feel guilty to spend the time it would take to comment fully on each of these.

Therefore, here are a few links of interest and ultra-brief notes on why they're here:

http://www.bigheadpress.com/tpbtgn?page=0 :"The Probability Broach." This might be what you'd get if Rbt. Heinlein wrote webcomics. Parallel universe / alternative history / Randian escapism-idealism (a good thing). Webcomics are another thing I generally dislike; I guess I'm accidentally expanding my horizons ;)

http://www.econtalk.org/ : EconTalk. Russ Roberts of George Mason University hosts some very interesting economists and other economic thinkers. He's pro-market at least generally (I haven't heard enough to find any exceptions to that yet). I really like this: "The cuneiform inscription in the logo is the earliest-known written appearance of the word "freedom" (amagi), or "liberty." It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash."

http://uc.princeton.edu/main/ : "University Channel" -- Princton's set up a very nice page collecting lectures (a mix of audio and video presentations) on several topics;l they're primarily (all?) from lectures given at the several schools which are affiliated with the site. The quality varies, both in production value and content; the Steven Levy lecture (with some further thoughts since Freakonomics) is especially good.

http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/ :: I forget (though it was only yesterday) whether I reached this one through Russ Roberts' site linked above, or vice versa. At any rate, another engaging economics-centered online journal written by Russ Roberts and Don Boudreaux. The sort of thing to make you smile when the weather is not to your liking and being indoors is nicer.

s/Levy/Levitt/

[extra88]

Steven Levitt is the economist author of Freakonomics [freakonomics.com]. Steven Levy [stevenlevy.com] is the technology journalist with a (positive) thing for Apple and author of the kick-ass non-fiction book, Hackers [stevenlevy.com].

In the 50s, geeky kids probably read books about Lewis & Clark and other explorers. In the 80s, we read Hackers. Freakonomics is pretty good, but a bit padded and not as unassailable as some people seem to think. It's better for illuminating the methods used rather than the particular conclusions found.