Here's a funny comic strip that I would like to share with all of you, it is done by Jorge Cham of the Pile Higher and Deeper fame (phd comics), a famous homourous comic strip depicting graduate student life. In case you cannot read it, just click for larger image. That's all for now, I have to get back writing my paper....isn't procrastination wonderful?:D

A Book on Science

This book is not really a new comer. Yet as I do love physics, I find it really interesting. Part which I like the most is “Evolving Universe..”. It discusses recent advance in physics, such as, String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity- two theories which seems to compete each other for unifying all of physics. A good quote of Lee Smolin, one of the leaders of Loop Quantum Gravity theorists

“Nature is a unity. This pen is made of atoms and it falls in the earth’s gravitational field. Hence there must be one framework, one law of nature of which these two theories are different aspects. It would be absurd if there were two irreconcilable laws of physics, one for one domain of the world and another for another domain.”

I’m not truly following the debate between String Theory and Quantum Gravity, particularly in technical terms. However, it is likely that fierce competition between them take place. In the last paragraph of his article, Smolin writes

“The good thing about science is that you get these shocks from real world. You can live for a few years in an imaginary world, but in the end the task of science is to explain what we observe. Then you look in the mirror and ask yourself ‘Do I want to be out there in eleven dimensions, playing with beautiful math when the experiments start coming in”

Here, Smolin attacks string theorists who believe that there are eleven dimensions in universe. Smolin's words somehow reminds me to Samuelson’s words arguing to those of Friedman.

Happy Birthday GATT!!

On Tuesday, April 10 2007. GATT or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade turns 60 years old. Here's an interesting article written by economist Douglas Irwin commerating the event.

On Growth Theory and Kaldor Facts

Among macroeconomics theories, Growth Theory is one of the most classic fields. Its popularity among economists is like roller-coaster. Once, economists lost appetite scrutinizing the theory. But it revives.

Here are some good suggestions of my prof for those working on economic growth: start from a simple model, then fit your model with Kaldor Facts. If the model is doing well, it is really a good model. The Kaldor facts are (based on the article by Nicholas Kaldor Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth 1961)

1. Output per worker grows at a rate that does not diminish over time.
2. Capital per worker grows over time.
3. The rate of return to capital is constant.
4. The ratio of capital to output is roughly constant.
5. The share of labor and capital in national income are nearly constant.
6. Growth rates differ across countries.

These facts truly portray growth patterns among countries except for many African countries. What has happened is the opposite of first two facts true in Africa. Yet, interestingly, neoclassical growth theory-one of economic growth models predicts that in the long run (hopefully not very long) African countries will enjoy high economic growth and catch those of rich countries. Why ?

The 75th anniversary of Sydney Harbour Bridge…”Our Bridge”

Sydney just celebrated the anniversary of one of its famous icons, Sydney Harbour Bridge. Sydney-siders (the inhabitants of Sydney), if not most, maybe have little idea about when Sydney Harbour Bridge was built and who the man behind was. Knowledge over Australia’s history or even historical dates has been hot-debated issues.

I recall a shameful accident when New South Wales Education Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, once was interviewed by a radio about why Australians should celebrate Australia Day and she accidentally, mixed up between Australia day and Federation day. Australia day is the day when the first Europeans arrived in Australia (some call it as imperialism day) while Federation day is the day when the states joined together to the Commonwealth of Australia.

What happened to Mrs Carmel Tebbutt, perhaps, looks so common for some but for others, it means a degraded spirit of Australian identities and values. Despite rarely do people really know for sure what Australian values are.

Opinions may stand in the opposite way, but Australians seem to know how to break fun and view up. That is when these two groups may stand side-by-side. Finally celebrating the 75th of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is not only about remembering the day when such a mega-structure for the first time was built in Australia but also about making attractions during autumn for Sydney-siders and international tourists. Surely, there were senses of being proud and of belonging as people wore hats dan T-shirt labeled “the 75th of Sydney Harbour Bridge…“Our Bridge”…” and paraded crossing over the bridge.

For people like me who are not part of Australia’s history, at least, enjoyed the latter part. Sitting at a café in the side of the Opera House, drinking a cup of hot coffee and taking pictures of the bridge were really a lot of fun

Colbert on Bill Gates' Altruism and US Foreign Policy

Stephen Colbert told it like it is on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and US foreign policy, i.e. altruism, policies towards developing countries, international politics. Oh, and it's funny too.



I especially like the part where Colbert showed the guy wearing the "Buchanan for President 1992" t-shirt. Here's why the guy wearing the Buchanan t-shirts is so funny.

Banana anyone?

A while back ago our friend at café salemba wrote about Indonesia's new tariff law on bananas coming from the Philippines here. Now, there's a new development in the WTO regarding the EU tariffs for bananas here, which relates to my comment here.

Everyone has gone "bananas" over bananas, don't you think?