Of Tulip Bulbs and Nucleus Accumbens

NOVA's "Mind Over Money" on irrationality and money. Watch here.

(photo credit: Simon Smith/iStockphoto via pbs.org)

 
 
 

Betting on God

The Economist notes the Large Hadron Collider's record-breaking proton smashing and reports betting odds on the machine finding dark matter before black holes (11 to 10) and on finding God (100 to 1). The Mets are currently 35 to 1 to win the World Series. Seems about right.

Literary Smackdown

Michelle Kerns reviews the "50 best author vs author put downs". (h/t CD)

Faulkner on Twain:

"A hack writer who would not have been considered fourth rate in Europe, who tricked out a few of the old proven sure fire literary skeletons with sufficient local color to intrigue the superficial and the lazy."

Hemingway on Faulkner:

"Have you ever heard of anyone who drank while he worked? You're thinking of Faulkner. He does sometimes -- and I can tell right in the middle of a page when he's had his first one."

I'd like to close the circle but Twain had surprisingly little to say about Hemingway (my wife says this is not a funny joke).

(photo credit: William Faulkner, flcenterlitarts.wordpress.com)