Monday, October 27, 2008

Happy Halloween


DSC_0072, originally uploaded by SP Photofile Chair.

Walden Pond


IMG_0534, originally uploaded by eesley.

I biked to Walden Pond with Yoojin on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, instead of taking the Minuteman Bikeway, we took a shorter, but much, much more hilly route. So it was quite the workout but made the picnic once there that much more enjoyable.

I had wanted to visit Walden Pond ever since reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau in Mrs. Eddy's English class in High School.

I was inspired then and re-inspired by his words once confronted with life's many choices in undergrad. This particular quote still strikes me and it was printed next to the site of his cottage near the pond.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

I was a bit disappointed though to learn that the site by the pond where he stayed was only a 30 minute walk from his parents house!

p.s. Unlike some of the photos I've posted recently, I actually did take this one. It was a beautiful fall day in New England.

Monday, October 20, 2008

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How to Build an Economic Model in Your Spare Time by Hal R. Varian UC Berkeley

Ohio


IMG_0517, originally uploaded by eesley.

Sending in my absentee ballot tomorrow...

Monday, October 13, 2008

Krugman wins Nobel for economics

Krugman wins Nobel for economics

An MIT alum has won the Nobel Prize for Economics.

I first read one of Krugman's papers when studying for my General Exams. One section on my reading list was on regional variation in entrepreneurship and theories of why we see clusters of entrepreneurial firms or more innovation in some areas. The work that Krugman won the Nobel for was on international trade and economic geography. It seems a further signal of how hot international research and economic geography have become. Krugman's NY Times article is a bit strident for my tastes at times, but I'm still happy to see him win. Usually the MIT Econ dept. runs a poll (sort of like the NCAA basketball bracket) to try to predict the winner. I seem to have gotten out of the loop on that one this year.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

STATA Center

I got to give a 1 hour guest lecture tonight, here in the STATA Center for a freshman seminar on Entrepreneurship in China. It brought back memories of the freshman seminar I attended at Duke with Prof. Boynton, one of the pioneers of biotech.

I accidentally tried to fit way too much material into the presentation. Next time I will have to calm down and remember to focus more on just a few main points.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Guest lecturer


IMG_1313, originally uploaded by eesley.

I'm guest lecturing for a class here on Entrepreneurship in China Tuesday evening. Looking forward to it!