The Lagrange multiplier: Work of the devil, or opiate of the masses?
If you haven’t had enough calculus to know what I’m talking about… be thankful. Roughly speaking, imagine taking a function of three or more variables and finding its extreme values with respect to a constraint represented by another function of three or more [...]

Posted on February 13th, 2005 by Lee
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It’s true, things between Alicia and I have been up and down, but let’s just hope I never need to use this.
An Australian phone company is offering customers the chance to blacklist numbers before heading out for a night on the town so they can reduce the risk of making any embarrassing, incoherent late-night calls…
…The [...]

Posted on December 2nd, 2004 by Lee
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Marginal Revolution: The Difference Between Men and Women
For those who think that economics is boring, or has nothing relevant to say about daily life, I submit the following. Read this and tell me that economics doesn’t rock:
What’s the most effective pickup line on a college campus? Psychologists Elaine Hatfield and Russ Clark had actors [...]

Posted on October 29th, 2004 by Lee
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Absentee voting sucks.
OK, fine, so you don’t have to stand in line to vote, which is good. But it’s worse, especially if you’re a student whose street address has changed. You have to fill out a registration form. Then you have to have the whole thing notarized, before you can actually vote. [...]

Posted on October 27th, 2004 by Lee
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A physicist, a chemist, and an economist are stranded on a desert island. All they have is one can of food, and if they can’t open it, they will starve. So they set about the task of deciding how to open the can.
The physicist speaks first. He says “I’ve got it! [...]

Posted on October 3rd, 2004 by Lee
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