Author: David Wright

Now THIS is how a boxer builds his PPV audience.

“Kauto’s talented and flashy like Muhammad Ali, whilst Denman’s a slugger like George Foreman,” he said.

Kauto and Denman are horses.

See here for more brilliant self promotion

From the BBC:

Eddie was informed of his qualification for the Games whilst working as a plasterer and residing temporarily in a Finnish mental hospital due to lack of funds for alternative accommodation (rather than as a patient).

More on Eddie here.  Relatedly, see Eric the Eel

Thanks to Saxton for the pointer.

The front page photo is a heluva draw to the eye.
Interview here.

Ebert reacts (positively) here

Yep

Great blog.

I love investigative scoops on deal machinations. Could read this stuff all day.

If you like it too, I recommend Too Big to Fail.

You callin’ me unproductive?!

What kind of people become middlemen?:

Middlemen are not looked upon fondly; it’s usually a term of derision. It seems that reputation is well-deserved:

The question of how certain types of market-intermediating middlemen can be held in low regard is addressed. A model in which pure rent-seeking middlemen emerge endogenously is provided. Individuals differ according to their persuasiveness and according to their productivity. Those who are highly persuasive but relatively unproductive are the people most likely to become middlemen. However, only productivity differentials are shown to be essential for the emergence of middlemen.

But it’s fun nevertheless. More here.

Political Systems: US vs Canada

I’m mostly indifferent to politics because the opportunity cost of the time and energy I’d spend on political lobbying (or “rallying” or whatever) is way too high for the returns I’m likely to get.

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Added: Arnold Kling pushes back

Makes me happy there aren’t any ‘traders’ in my business. So terribly uncivilized! Hehe

TED on $GS’s PR strategy linked below. Wonder what the endgame is?

http://epicureandealmaker.blogspot.com/2010/02/mouth-of-sauron.html

I’ll start today!

I like this from Barker

It reminds me of this from Scott Adams.

Mental focus and practice are easy to talk about. They’re very hard to stick to.