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Dance / Re: The Tanks
« on: October 17, 2012, 02:49:55 am »
Why dance at all?
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" ... While others argued that it should be legal to buy and sell organs, Mr Roth tried to understand why we find such transactions repugnant, and designed a practical alternative. He has also advocated an engineering approach to economics: rather than simply proving that something can or cannot be done, his ideas on matching ask fuzzier questions such as “will this work in most cases?” or “is this as good as we can get?” Above all, Mr Roth has understood that if you test theory in a real-world environment, the theory will improve. So may the world itself."
" ... In the years before the crunch, many economists and policy makers thought they had finally gotten a handle on how to control inflation and growth in the real world. They were wrong. The central economic debates we hear now over how best to handle the aftermath of a financial crisis are not much different than when Hayek and Keynes did battle more than 80 years ago. You can see why the awards committee might want to look elsewhere."
... Having initially been upset by the use of their corporate logo in a film that featured a computer that killed several people, the company was further angered when they discovered that the letters H, A, and L are only one letter removed from I, B, and M in the alphabet. Clarke, who said the letters stood for “Heuristically programmed Algorithmic computer” spent many years attempting to dismiss the rumor that this had been done intentionally, claiming as early as 1972, "we were quite embarrassed by this, and would have changed the name had we spotted the coincidence." Despite having gone to the trouble of having Dr. Chandra deny the connection in 2010, by 1997, Clarke acknowledged that the original inspiration for the name had come from Kubrick. In the closing notes to '3001', he noted that, “far from being annoyed by the association, Big Blue is now quite proud of it.” After years of distancing themselves from 2001, IBM now embraced the “reformed” HAL.
“We don’t go in for exploding pens any more,” quips young Q (Ben Whishaw). Nor do audiences, which is why I suspect Skyfall will be a stratospheric hit.
"I accompanied my 18 year old to his appointment with our local NatWest bank manager with the intention of opening his first bank account. She took down all his details (2nd year full-time A level student, not currently in paid employment) then came to halt with the application. The computerised system was apparently demanding that he should produce his four last bank statements plus evidence of his regular income.
Obviously they don't want to encourage students to open their first bank account with them. I'd have thought that evidence I showed her from the local building society regarding his savings over the past few years were a good indication that he's not reckless with money but no, that didn't tick any boxes. He even had two substantial 18th birthday cheques ready to pay in!"
" ... The choice would be whether to transfer a given amount of fresh money to the public or the private sector. Sending a cheque to every UK resident would boost spending; some would no doubt also save theirs. Sending a cheque to the Treasury could fund tax cuts or infrastructure spending, though this would be up to politicians who may even use it to pay down debt. It could also be fatal to budgetary discipline: if the central bank bails out the government once, why not count on it doing so again? The time may never be right for any of these ultraradical policies. However, the time has come to debate which would be best if the helicopters had to be deployed."
