Amanuensis
A blog by simonhalliday
Blog description:
Thoughts on Economics and Science
Blog Rank:
Amanuensis ranks 60 in Africa and 41 in South Africa. According to site visitors it ranks 126, and 139 according to page views:
According to blogroll links it ranks 235 and 191 according to the amount of links within Afrigator blog posts
The Temptation of Magic
A recent post by William Easterly at The Aid Watch blog, 'Who Gets the Last Seat on the Plane?' reminded me of an article by Deirdre McCloskey, 'Voodoo Economics' in which McCloskey relates the wishes of children (and, in the context of Easterly, development officials) to magic and magical
Gender in the Press
Last week I started something I'd like to try and make semi-regular: comments in the popular and academic press about gender. A new NBER paper (one of the authors of which is Rachel Croson, one of my favourite economists) describes the results from a randomized controlled trial that some
M&G on Water
Janice Roberts at the M&G reports on water issues in South Africa. The article's headline is 'SA water demand will exceed supply by 2025'. So, first off, the title is wrong. Second, the article doesn't tell us what the underlying models are, what's being held constant, what's varying. We
DSW on Econ and Evolution
David Sloane Wilson, a controversial and fascinating figure, has a series of posts up on Economics and Evolution. I commented quite comprehensively on the first post in support, and I'll reproduce it here for the sake of interest. Here are the links to the three posts that are currently
Harford on Probabilities and Clustering
After getting a bit frustrated with Tim Harford last week for his inaccurate discussion about altruism, yesterday he offered an insightful post about probabilities and clustering. So, how likely do you think it is that you will get 6 two yolk eggs in your half-dozen egg box? Well, Harford
Regarding Harford
Today, in his column for the FT, Tim Harford describes some of the troubles with paying people to do things, they might have done through altruism anyway, the most famous example of which is Richard Titmuss's book about blood donation in the UK, with another example - the Haifa
What else shouldn't I say?
I'm reading Joseph M. Williams' Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. I began it some time ago having borrowed it from the library, but I didn't finish it because I had to return it. I bought it recently to finish it at last. In the 'Concision' chapter, Williams describes the
SA Science Blogroll - Update
Ladies and Gentlemen, please take a moment to look at the several blogs below that are part of the (Southern) African Science and Scepticism blogroll. Several new editions to this list since last time. Our thanks go out to Mike Meadon for his work to keep the list updated.01
Gender in the Press
I thought I'd give a couple of comments about recent stuff about gender in the popular and scientific presses. Nothing comprehensive, just a few tidbits.Nature reports that men prefer women who are less powerful than other women (their headline was poorly written, else it could be interpreted as
Books II
Here's the fiction and memoir section of this books post series. See Part 1 here. Gosh, it feels never-ending. Since writing most of this I've already finished several other books. Oh well, the next books post will arrive in early February, I'm sure. In the
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