Tyler Cowen's Blog, page 465

Astronaut self-insurance durable goods monopoly problem

During the 60s and 70s it would appear that private life insurance was not available to astronauts.  Autograph Magazine has a good post about how astronauts of the time used their own autographs as a form of life insurance for their families.

Here is more.  Here is further explanation with photos.  Here is the Byrds tribute to Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins.

The Twelve

Neil Armstrong, first moon walker, died yesterday.

In total, there have been twelve. Armstrong who was first, Peter Conrad who was 3rd, Alan Shepard who was 5th and James Irwin who was 8th, are gone, leaving just eight. Just eight of 7 billion. Alan Shepard was the oldest, he was born in 1923, the others were all born in the 1930s at a time when Orville Wright still lived. The youngest, Charles Duke, will be 77 this year.

Could we soon have an age where all the moon walkers are gone? Will children then wonder whether it happened at all?

From Neil Armstrong

I fully expected that, by the end of the century, we would have achieved substantially more than we actually did.

And this:

I guess we all like to be recognized not for one piece of fireworks, but for the ledger of our daily work.

And finally:

I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful.

There are more Armstrong quotations here.

The new Thomas Nagel book

The title is *Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False*.  Here is a brief summary of his “teleological” argument.  My bottom lines on it:

1. He is good on attacking the hidden hypocrisies of many reductionists, secularists, and those who wish to have it both ways on religious modes of thinking.

2. He fully recognizes the absurdities (my word, not his) of dualism, and thinks them through carefully and honestly.  Bryan Caplan should beware.

3. The most typical sentence I found in the book was: “We can continue to hope for a transcendent self-understanding that is neither theistic nor reductionist.”

4. He doesn’t take seriously enough the view: “The Nagel theory of mind is simply wrong.”

5. People will dismiss his arguments to remain in their comfort zone, while temporarily forgetting he is smarter than they are and furthermore that many of their views do not make sense or cohere internally.

6. It is ultimately a book about how Christian many of us still are, and how closely the egocentric illusion is connected to a broadly religious worldview.  I don’t think he would see it that way.

For the pointer to the book — now out early on Kindle — I thank David Gordon.

New and noteworthy

Justin Yifu Lin, The Quest for Prosperity: How Developing Economies Can Take Off.

There is also Diane Coyle, editor, What’s the use of Economics? Teaching the Dismal Science After the Crisis.

Solve for the equilibrium

Here is the short video.  Here is text with photos and another video.  Five Ukrainian women, in an Ukrainian art museum.  They are sleeping, or rather pretending to sleep, dressed up as Sleeping Beauty.  Men come along and kiss them, on the lips, with each man allowed only one kiss.  They have all signed legally binding contracts.  If a woman responds to a kiss by opening her eyes and “waking,” she must marry the man.  The man must marry the woman.

Who will kiss?  When do eyes get opened?

The museum gives out free breath mints.

For the pointer I thank the excellent Daniel Lippman.

Assorted links

1. Via Chris F. Masse, robot stand-ins for professors.

2. Is the falling U.S. birth rate a temporary or permanent demographic shift?

3. Response to Orszag on competitive Medicare bidding.

4. Keeping Indian roots music alive.

5. The Chinese electricity numbers are scary.

6. “The fact that I don’t hear more people delivering the same clear message suggests to me that we don’t have enough objective observers.”  Link here, that is James Hamilton, “Federal Receipts and Expenditures.”

7. The past essays of the already-missed Arnold Kling.

Steve Jobs was a Great Artist

On the bright side the jury found that Apple’s patent on rounded rectangles was not infringed. Just to be clear, I have no objection to the jury’s findings only to the law.

Hat tip: @mmasnick

Relative price effects

The worst drought in decades has destroyed more than half the U.S. corn crop, pushing prices to record levels and squeezing livestock owners as they struggle to feed their herds.

To cope, one Kentucky cattle farmer has turned to a child-tested way to fatten his 1,400 cows: candy.

“It’s so hard to make any money when corn is eight or nine dollars a bushel,” said Nick Smith, co-owner of United Livestock Commodities in Mayfield, Ky.

The chocolate and other sweet stuff was rejected by retailers. It makes up 5% to 8% of the cattle’s feed ration, Smith said. The rest includes roughage and distillers grain, an ethanol byproduct.

The candy’s high caloric content is fattening up the cows nicely, Smith said.

The full article is here.  For the pointer I thank Dave Bieler.

Which countries benefit the most from euro depreciation?

Based on these calculations, Ireland is a clear first.  Pulling up the rear are Italy, France, Greece, and Portugal comes in last.  Note that these calculations assume a kind of average/marginal equality.