created 31 October 2008 in links tagged economist, future, lasers and niven.
“You fight with light? Surely this is forbidden.” I’m sure the Economist puts more effort into its headings than its actual writing.
The public may have misgivings about a silent and invisible weapon that would boil the body’s fluids before tearing it apart in a burst of vapour
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_i...
created 20 November 2007 in blog tagged economist, environment and shopping.
Two-thirds of the social costs of the food distribution system have nothing directly to do with the environment at all: They are attributable to accidents and congestion. More than half of those costs are caused by driving to the shops.
created 08 November 2007 in notes tagged auction and economist.
In 1999, Germany sold some mobile-phone spectrum by auction, with one rule specifying that any new bid had to exceed the previous high bid by 10 percent. Two serious bidders were involved.
One company bid 18.18 million marks on blocks 1 to 5 and 20 million on blocks 6 to 10. Why the difference? Note that 18.18 million plus 10 percent is just about 20 million. The first company was sending the second a message: ”We think 20 million is the right price: let’s not compete to push it up.” The signaling strategy worked: the auction ended after two rounds, and each bidder got half the blocks at the same low price.
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2007/11/...
