Crooked TimberOut of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever madeIllness: a moving and important book- September 17, 2008 This blog post is a shameless plug for a friend&8217;s book. But I wouldn&8217;t be writing it if I didn&8217;t believe that the book is a tremendous achievement, as well as being a very moving personal document. Havi Carel&8217;s Illness: The Cry of the Flesh (UK link ) is published tomorrow by Acumen. It is ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/17/illness-buy-this-book/ Reiss forced out- September 17, 2008 Michael Reiss has been forced to resign as Director of Education of the Royal Society . Absolutely shocking, in my view. Several of those calling for his head, such as Sir Richard Roberts, made much of the fact that he is an ordained minister. But since at least two FRSs&8212;John Polkinghorne and Bernard Silverman&8212;are also ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/17/reiss-forced-out/ That didnt last long- September 17, 2008 Two days after the US authorities made much of standing firm against calls for a bailout of Lehman, the Fed has announced an $85 billion rescue of insurance company (and large-scale counterparty in all kinds of derivative markets) AIG. There&8217;s none of the ambiguity surrounding Fannie and Freddie in this deal. AIG is not a ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/17/that-didnt-last-long/ Whats so great about the family anyway- September 16, 2008 A while ago I asked for picture suggestions to advertise a talk I would be giving at the Humanities Center in Madison, and a couple of people asked that I post the text of the talk here. I apologise for the delay, which is not, for once, due to my laziness, but my reluctance to ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/16/whats-so-great-about-the-family-anyway/ Valuing Children- September 15, 2008 Finally and long overdue, here is my book review of Valuing Children, Nancy Folbre&8217;s latest book. The overall goal of this book is to show how and why children matter for economic life, to provide estimates of the economic value of family (nonmarket) childcare and parental expenditures in the USA, and to raise critical questions ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/15/valuing-children/ How much is AIG worth- September 15, 2008 Now that Lehman Bros and Merrill Lynch are gone, attention is turning to insurance company AIG. When the first big failure, that of Bear Stearns was coming up, the initial offer of $2 a share suggested that the company was worth less than the building it operated it (the deal was subsequently sweetened, courtesy of ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/15/how-much-is-aig-worth/ Crowdsourcing works!- September 15, 2008 In the comments to my last post, reader Peter Schaeffer provides exactly what I asked for: a breakdown of the discrepancy between 30 per cent growth in US household income over the last 40 years and 117 per cent growth in income per person. In addition to the factors I&8217;d mentioned (falling household size and ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/15/crowdsourcing-works/ After all this time- September 14, 2008 I&8217;m on leave this year and enjoying catching up with old colleagues and meeting new ones. I was at a reception the other day and was graciously introduced by a famous senior sociologist to a visiting senior sociologist as an &8220;insert some very kind words scholar who studies the social aspects of Internet use&8221;. ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/14/after-all-this-time/ Where has US household income gone- September 13, 2008 I was at a seminar the other week on inequality in US household income, and I asked the speaker about something that&8217;s puzzled me for a while. I didn&8217;t really get an answer, so rather than do a lot of work myself, I thought I&8217;d try this crowdsourcing all the cool kids are talking about. ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/13/where-has-us-household-income-gone/ Dealing with creationism- September 12, 2008 There&8217;s much anger circulating around the blogosphere about the comments of Michael Reiss, Director of Education at the Royal Society about how to deal with creationism and ID in school science classes. In fact, the whole thing could stand as an example of how on some issues (of which this is one) people ...http://crookedtimber.org/2008/09/12/dealing-with-creationism/ |