It's back, folks!
Appetizers
A Weighting Game: Pacific trade talks expose the limits of economic modelling - The Economist
- [M]ost economists use what is known as computable general equilibrium (CGE) analysis. CGE models are built on top of a database that seeks to describe economies in full, factoring in incomes, profits and more. Researchers line things up so that the model yields the same output as a real benchmark year. Once that is achieved, they “shock” the model, adjusting trade barriers to see how outcomes shift, both immediately and over time.
- Financial regulators in Britain and the United States fined Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, the Royal Bank of Scotland, UBS, and Bank of America nearly $6 billion after it was discovered that bankers conspired to set foreign-exchange rates in invitation-only online chat groups they named “the Cartel” and “the Mafia.”
First
- ... to get a better sense of the dearth of snowpack on Shasta’s lower slopes, I drove a semicircular route on a maze of service roads on the mountain’s eastern side. I passed heaps of cement-colored debris piled up along Mud Creek, remnants of last September’s flood from the Konwatikon Glacier on Shasta’s southern flank, which sent a slurry of pale ash and huge boulders careening down the drainage. The pavement soon gave way to volcanic scoria, but the road remained dry. I continued upward, sure deep drifts would eventually block my progress. But for mile after mile the road was a Mars-like red, crunching satisfyingly under the tires of my Volkswagen.
Second
Consciousness Began When the Gods Stopped Speaking - Nautilus
- In the beginning of the book, Jaynes asks, “This consciousness that is myself of selves, that is everything, and yet nothing at all—what is it? And where did it come from? And why?”
Dessert
Review: San Andreas - The New York Times
Coffee
You always manage to find articles I haven't read yet. That should be extremely difficult. Loved the piece on Muir. Was just in Yosemite learning about his investigations there. The main canyon is perplexing because it forms a sort of box shape, as opposed to a river canyon (pointy) or a typical glacier canyon (rounded, if I recall correctly). He concluded that it was still a glacial canyon. Then he pitched the area to TR and got it made into a national park. Ironically, it snowed on me there two weeks ago. However many of the waterfalls, such as Sentinel, are almost invisible at the moment. May is normally waterfall season. Been an odd year for Yosemite.Surveyors announced that the water content in the state’s snowpack (determined by taking measurements at dozens of sites) was a mere five percent of average, the lowest since 1950.