Assorted links

That is a new paper of mine, co-authored with Michelle Dawson.  There is much more to Turing's classic essay than meets the eye.  The famous "test" is not a standard for distinguishing human from machine intelligence but rather one step in an argument showing that such a distinction is not as important as we might think.  Turing cleverly shows why the supposed test is misleading and the real qu

1. Greg Mankiw's very good column on health insurance and marginal tax rates; Greg adds comment.2. Somerset Maugham: the perfect traveler?3. Ten smelly foods from Asia.

1. The essence of the Roman empire. 2. Some charming side streets (Genoa could be added to the list). 3. The supply elasticity of Bitcoin, and macroeconomic bras, from Japan.

1. Ben Casnocha comments on multitasking. 2. Outsourcing to North Korea.

1. Physical, paper books with embedded hyperlinks, via Michelle Dawson. 2. Why it's hard to find good teachers in China. 3. How they are improving Rybka. 4. Baseball markets in everything edition, unused ticket edition.

With two new biographies being covered in all the major newspapers, The Daily Show, and elsewhere Ayn Rand is in the news.  Yet all of the reviews that I have seen have focused on her personal life rather than her ideas.  Nearly five years ago Tyler and I both wrote on Rand's ideas on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth.  It seems like a good time to reprise.  Here is

1. China theory of the day: The Chinese save so much to compete for mates.  Should I believe it?2. Paying interest on reserves, and why it should be easy to end nascent inflationary pressures.  Do I believe it?

1. Transcript of Bob Lucas talk, with eminent questioners and, at one point, Bob Lucas falling down the stairs.2. Bloggingheads.TV between Mark Thoma and Scott Sumner.3. What Larry Summers learned at a hedge fund.