Many economists always rubbed me the wrong way.  As a group they strike me as a bunch of folks who are oh so pleased with the way economies run.  Yet few if any seem capable of making predictions, or even understanding what is going on until it is painfully obvious.  I'm sure there are some very smart economist folks out there but of all fields economists seem to contain an insane amount of people who have little no piratical ability to do anything related to their field other than maybe study the past.  Oh and of course they somehow take credit for how the economy runs when it runs well regardless of their lack of any significant involvement....  It is almost a sort of "I knew the economy was good before it was popular!" thing.

Take Ben Bernanke for example.  I'm sure the dude is way smart but other than his current job one of his big claims to fame was his knowledge and study of ... the Great Depression.  WTF?  The study by economists over the years has been so good that a dude born more than thirty years after the event figures it all out for us?  That's one impressive field of study.  Maybe in a few years we'll figure out what was going on in the last 1970s too.
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And not just the webcam on the cute $ASIAN testers (IMPORTANT: verify which of then are actually chicks).  VNC has changed my life.  Instead of having to decipher "The grongle flobbit dibbled sharply when I gaspled it", I can now ask to see it happen, in real time, via VNC.

As a bonus, it's amazing how many problems go away when you insist on seeing them replicated.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

I did fairly well after I figured out what you were supposed to do, but I wasn't familiar with the piece and had no idea when the tempo was going to change.

I think they should have a high difficulty version using this cello music.

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The three things that make a diamond also make a waffle.

. . . in China, all Chinese have to show their ID card when getting a computer to use at the internet cafe. So, at first, one assumes there is more anonymity because of the widespread use of cafes and very few people having internet access at home. But, people can be tracked down because every piece of info is attached with these ID cards.

As a foreigner, I never had to show ID, just paid money. Used the school computers as well. The last two or three months, I often had 'bad reception' on the phone . . . most foreigners are monitored in some way there, I was told by people in the know.

In China, I have googled "tibetan massacre", "tiannamen square arrests", and the ever popular "Taiwan freedom". It always brought up a bunch of links, but every one would end in "site not found".

As I reported from there, the people don't have to be dissuaded much - there is widespread political apathy. However, most young Chinese know about the three gorges dam, for instance - for some environmental issues, the Chinese do feel they can make a difference. That being said, reports of toxic waste dumping by an economically important refinery or chemical factory are not covered . . . just like here in my backyard, except that we in the west think we are morally superior.

If Mr. A gives Ms. B heroin in exchange for sex, the economist will have a relatively easy time showing why this trade might be undesirable despite the wishes of the two participants. Providing heroin to Ms. B contributes to an addiction, and Ms. B might in the future rob or kill in order to satisfy her craving. The effects on Ms. B's victims, externalities of the original transaction, would swamp the benefits that Mr. A and Ms. B derived from the original exchange.

I find it easy to imagine that Ms. B's life goes downhill and that its chaotic descent ends pathetically with an overdose in a squat. Perhaps though she will get lucky. Perhaps an attempt at shoplifting will lead to her arrest and she will be one of the lucky few who is sent to rehab and benefits from it.

We have plenty of drug addicted prostitutes in Edinburgh and I don't think they commit any murders. It is the men who control the drugs trade who kill. The example comes across as weirdly out of touch.

Shit! I went googling for links to back up my complaint and found what looks like a local female drug addict committing a robbery