Although he seems in top shape and, inter alia, managed to even win against world champ Vishy Anand both at the Linares and at the Amber (Blindfold) tournaments (through wonderful games)…, there is definitely something wrong with Magnus Carlsen and the final games of most recent chess tournaments he has been participating in– which is probably more frustrating to his fans than to himself, it seems, given he continues on the same frequence :-).
→ Read more Month: May 2009
And there was Alicante
… and with that also my very first time in Spain (though, with Seville and Barcelona to follow within the next few months, this will definitely be my ‘Spanish year’). The ‘city of lights’ was ultimately a pleasant surprise, although, to start with the lows, I thought it was already too hot for this time of the year–however, evenings were perfect–, the architecture of the city is really not my very favourite (I recall here an earlier post of Andy on Alacant–he was way more negative on the city looks— while I think there are also some nice spots), and if you happen to stay in one of the fancy hotels next to the Casino, the music/noise will not stop until 4:30 AM, only to restart at 7:30 AM with the hyperactive hotel housekeeping ladies… :-).
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Cheaptalk post on the theory and history of open source software (with link in their text to the very interesting new NBER paper by Schwarz and Takhteyev)
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“A neat project would be to infer the extent of school spirit from the estimate of the price elasticity implied by the prices that different university cemeteries charge“– very much so, indeed– though looks only applicable/relevant for a few places in the USA (most likely unrepresentative even of the USA entire university universe, not to even mention Europe or others).
Budapest redux, with a Cserszegi Fűszeres flavour
My whereabouts: returning to Aarhus after a couple of days in wonderful Budapest, where, inter alia, I had a poster presentation in an interesting ‘Wages, Firms and LEED data’ workshop, at CEU.
→ Read more Sunday night econlinks
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Bilingualism and early child development: very interesting brand-new research in PNAS (institutional or individual subscription needed, else only abstract is free). And yes, bilingualism clearly pays off, if you were wondering.