Author name: Lynne Kiesling

Check out Michele Boldrin’s and David Levine’s joint work on intellectual property if you are interested in such issues. For example, this abstract of their paper titled “The Case Against Intellectual Property”, puts it clearly: Argues that the downstream licensing agreements implicit in current intellectual property law are anti-competitive and that there should be a …

Boldrin And Levine: Intellectual Property Read More »

Many thanks to Randy Barnett and David Bernstein for their recommendations of the Claremont Review of Books. I enjoy reading book reviews, but the NYT, NYRB, and London RB have all driven me sufficiently crazy with emotional, non-analytical, bad postmodern (as opposed to Hayekian postmodern!) reviews that I just don’t bother any more.

A new discovery may make room temperature superconductors possible: A long-sought new form of matter has been created for the first time. The matter, called a fermionic condensate, consists of atoms that are ordinarily forbidden to exist in the same quantum state but have been tricked into it by linking into pairs. It occupies the …

New Matter Discovery Read More »

The hybrid Toyota Prius has been named the 2004 North America Car of the Year. “If you want to understand the future of automotive design and production, then you have to understand the Toyota Prius,” Motor Trend said.

Please, do check out the funny comment on haggis hunting (isn’t haggis a small animal that lives in the heather?) from my dear friend Adam Bruce, from the haggis post immediately below. A good chuckle to start the day!

Wine: Gustave Lorentz Gewurztraminer Reserve 2001 ($12.99 at our local wine store) Front taste: sweet, full of orange flower, but not cloying. Thick mouth feel from the residual sugar. Initially some chalky mineral, but that dissipated over the course of drinking the whole bottle. Very robust fruit, peaches and pears especially. Mid taste: syrupy, but …

Wine Tasting: Alsatian Gewurztraminer Read More »

As is his wont, Tyler Cowen has a very thought-provoking post on the economics of haute couture. I have wondered recreationally about this myself, given that I am an avowed shoe (boot, really) fiend and love the visual, tactile, and psycholgical aspects of dress. The one-off couture for the runway creates the buzz, but only …

Economics Of Fashion, And Of The Environment Too Read More »