Gross Complement » Observations http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement Thoughts of living people. Lives of thinking people. Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:10:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Bear Meat http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2007/02/21/bear-meat/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2007/02/21/bear-meat/#comments Wed, 21 Feb 2007 08:10:46 +0000 Luke http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2007/02/21/bear-meat/ Primo Levi captures something important about the experience of the mountains in this story, only recently translated into English. My reaction thus far is emotional rather than intellectual. It is a striking story.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2007/02/21/bear-meat/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Best job ever… compulsive letter writer http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/07/best-job-ever-compulsive-letter-writer/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/07/best-job-ever-compulsive-letter-writer/#comments Fri, 08 Dec 2006 00:19:56 +0000 Luke http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/07/best-job-ever-compulsive-lett nytlogo153x23.gif

IvyGate reports that Brown University prefessor Felicia Nimue Ackerman has (under several pseudonyms) published 130 letters to the editor in the New York Times, including 23 in the last 23 months. Perhaps Duke should hire her to teach summer school?

According to the New Yorker, The Times accepts just under 2% of the letters it receives. Whatever her batting average, I suspect Ackerman is taking a lot of swings.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/07/best-job-ever-compulsive-letter-writer/feed/ 0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Just wondering… about movies http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-sequels/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-sequels/#comments Tue, 05 Dec 2006 05:08:02 +0000 Luke http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-sequels/ Claims Gui: “Sequels are always terrible.”

I certainly buy that sequels are typically worse than the original film. We should probably chalk this up to regression to the mean, before we try any fancier explanations.

Also, it’s hard to say whether sequels are actually worse than the average movie. Most of us are only aware of a biased subset of the movies that get released, hopefully a subset biased towards better movies. [Depends on your friends, right?]

The average movie may well be worse than we think. Since we are conscious of sequels (and watch them on airplanes) because of their famous big brothers—not their quality—they look bad when compared to our usual, biased sample.

]]> http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-sequels/feed/ 2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Just wondering… about Christmas http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-christmas/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-christmas/#comments Tue, 05 Dec 2006 03:59:14 +0000 Luke http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/grosscomplement/2006/12/04/just-wondering-about-christma 3.gif

Seems like lots of Christmas decorating here at sunny Stanford. There’s a tree in our department lounge, some absurd holiday tunes playing at dinner tonight, and probably lots more.

Is there more tinsel because it’s warm here? Maybe if there’s snow on the ground, you feel all Christmassy even without smiling Santas on the secretary’s desks. Are winter weather and holiday decorations substitutes?

Gui suggests maybe the phenomenon is amplified by all the carpetbaggers here from colder climes.

Data, anyone?

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