Month: May 2007

I was just emailed the following invitation:

An Evening with Gilly Mundy

Come and celebrate the life of campaigner and activist Gilly Mundy,

who died on 17 March 2007 aged only 36.

I wonder if they’re planning to summon him from beyond the grave…

Mainly for rachelfmb: Crooked Timber have far too much fun with a planned film biography of Marx:

OPENING CREDITS

SOUNDTRACK: Jim Morrison sings “The Internationale”. Fade into overhead shot of Karl lying flat on his back on his desk.

MARX: (V/O) Bloomsbury. Shit. Two weeks and I was still in the British Museum Reading Room. Every time I looked around, the political philosophy shelves moved in a little closer. Everyone gets what he wants. I wanted an overarching critique of the modern politico-economic system. And for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service.

…

ENGELS: (puts down dog-eared copy of “Elements of the Philosophy of Right”) It is clear to me that Herr Hegel has gone insane.

MARX: Yes, sir. Obviously insane.

ENGELS: And he is still out there, still discussing the nature of existence. We want you to go to Germany, and terminate his tenure.

PROUDHON: Terminate with extreme prejudice.

Here is a nicely tongue-in-cheek economics paper, claiming that people drive better bargains listening to Brian Johnson than to Bon Scott. What’s impressive is that they manage to keep up their oh-so-serious tone all the way through…

Our results suggest that having participants listen to songs by AC/DC in which Brian Johnson served as vocalist results in participants realizing more efficient (*) outcomes.

…

Our analysis has direct implications for policy and organizational design: when policymakers or employers are engaging in negotiations (or setting up environments in which other parties will negotiate) and are interested in playing the music of AC/DC, they should choose from the band’s Brian Johnson era discography.

(*) Efficient=mean and self-interested, it seems

In Sharm el-Sheikh, Ban Ki-moon and a gaggle of presidents finally [launched](http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EGUA-72URTH?OpenDocument) the International Compact for Iraq today, supposedy gathering billions of dollars in aid for Iraq. [1]

They’re probably eviscerating their webmaster right about…..now.

[1] They claim $30bn, but most of that is debt relief (i.e. it is only worth a fraction of the face value)