On the 8 Spot

Ugandan killed for smoking in bar

Map of Uganda

Ugandan officials have expressed shock after a mob killed a man who refused to stop smoking in a public bar.

BBC NEWS | Africa | Ugandan killed for smoking in bar.

On another note, one of the puzzling underlying findings in this paper is the relationship between moderate alcohol consumption and increased lifetime earnings. For men and women alike, people who report downing two or fewer drinks a day earn slightly more than teetotalers do, on average. Heavy alcohol use tends to negatively impact earnings, as you might imagine, but not as much as abstinence. Sloan and Ostermann aren’t clear on the mechanics of this relationship, but the science seems solid.

Does drinking lead to higher earnings, or vice versa?

Can Binge Drinking Save Social Security? – Freakonomics – Opinion – New York Times Blog.

I’d like to borrow his phrasing.  We exist doing everything, accumulating many things, experiencing the newest things, and the fanciest fads, everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

from youtube, thanks to mark thoma here:

more information:

Forty years ago, Robert F. Kennedy challenged the basic way we measure progress and well-being in America. Today, the Glaser Progress Foundation is raising the same questions through a new medium. The Seattle-based foundation released a new web video marking the anniversary of a famous speech in which Kennedy said the Gross Domestic Product counts “everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.” (emphasis mine)

I was talking to rain last night after our videoke session with jizelle.

I was decrying my observation that most people I meet in school do not really come to love what they are studying. And it comes from the observation that most professors who could help students find love for their field of study just don’t. This creates two problems.

1. People who were gonna love what they were learning loved it much later
2. People who weren’t gonna love what they were studying found out much later.

I hope professors try to challenge their students, tell them if after this class you do not think you love what we are studying, shift , shift NOW.

“Joy first, theory second.”

Do It First, Then We’ll Talk | Addison Road.

I haven’t studied this enough to even start forming an opinion.

emphasis mine from the excellent Dani Rodrik’s blog here:

As one might expect, the book takes swipes at the usual suspects: the Washington Consensus, the IFIs, the MNCs, Tom Friedman, and Jeff Sachs. Against the growth-focused and globalization-centered views of these institutions and commentators, Robin and John argue for a localized, community-based, self-sufficient model of development. What many others would celebrate as real development (for example the spread of commercial farming for export in the Philippines) they see as the destruction of local communities. They write: “We stand at a moment marking the end of what may well be the most destructive development era of modern history.”

Dani Rodrik’s weblog: Alter-globalization.

I think this is excellent advice for problem solving in general.

1. Imagine what you have to do to solve a problem. Now multiply it by 10(adjust by level of uncertainty) and that’s what you really have to do.
2. Trying to keep things as they were is futile, be prepared for change.
3. The surest way to solve a problem is to confront the roots of the problem. The disease and not the symptoms.

from pk here:

Be sure to read this too from the conclusion:

If there are lessons from the experience, several come to the surface:

1. Costs of intervention are generally larger than anticipated;

2. Interventions aimed at preserving the current institutional structure generally do not achieve the expected outcome;

3. The only sure resolution appears to come from confronting the insolvency directly and addressing its financial implications, no matter how large.

Paul Kedrosky: Evaluating Good Bank/Bad Bank, Banking Bailouts, etc..