2 Americans win Nobel economics prize
AP:Alvin Roth and Lloyd Shapely have won the Nobel economics prize for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.
‘Even though these two researchers worked independently of one another, the combination of Shapley’s basic theory and Roth’s empirical investigations, experiments and practical design has generated a flourishing field of research and improved the performance of many markets,’ the academy says.
Photo: Representatives of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences present the winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday in Stockholm. (Henrik Montgomery / AP)
In which two economists get lumped together because someone important thought their work was similar.
The EU is currently undergoing grave economic difficulties and considerable social unrest. The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to focus on what it sees as the EU’s most important result: the successful struggle for peace and reconciliation and for democracy and human rights.Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland • Discussing why, exactly, an entire continent, with millions of people, is worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize — he says it’s because the continent has converted “from a continent of wars to a continent of peace.” Does this mean we have to preface any time someone does something terrible on the continent with a phrase like “Nobel Peace Prize winning dictator”? The union will now split the $1.2 million prize between roughly 500 million people — though we’re assuming a few hundred million will be left out.
Physics Nobel goes to Serge Haroche, David Wineland
BBC: This year’s Nobel prize in physics has been given to Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the US for their work with light and matter at the most fundamental level.
Haroche says he had been told he had won just 20 minutes before telling reporters, ‘I was lucky - I was in the street and passing near a bench, so I was able to sit down immediately.’
Photo: Serge Haroche (left) is based at the College de France and David Wineland is based at the US National Institute for Standards and Technology. (AFP/NIST)
The Indiana University political science professor, and first woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics, died as a result of cancer on Tuesday. Ostrom overcame societal barriers on women’s education, and obtained her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles. Ostrom won the 2009 Nobel Prize for her work with Oliver Williamson, studying the organization patterns used by people to manage available resources. She is survived by her husband Vincent Ostrom. (Photo via Indiana Public Media) source
Three examples of strong female peace-fighters: On Saturday in Oslo, the three winners of this year’s Nobel Peace Price — from left, Yemeni Tawakkol Karman, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Liberian president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf — accepted their honors. The three women were chosen together as a reflection of women’s rights at large. Karman’s case is particularly of note — at 32 she is not only the youngest winner of an award, but also the first Arab woman, one reflective of this year’s Arab Spring movement. Gbowee, meanwhile, led an anti-rape campaign in her country; and Johnson-Sirleaf went a long way in easing tensions by leading the country past a long civil war. Congrats to all three. (Photo via AP) source
We have included the Arab Spring in this prize, but we have put it in a particular context. Namely, if one fails to include the women in the revolution and the new democracies, there will be no democracy.Nobel Prize Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland • Explaining how the committee worked the Arab Spring into the Nobel Peace Prize while giving it a broader context — the repression of women. One of the three winners, Yemen’s Tawakkul Karman, has been a leader the anti-government protests in that country. The other two, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and fellow Liberian Leymah Gbowee represent different parts of the issue — Sirleaf is Africa’s first freely elected female leader, while Gbowee led a successful campaign against the usage of rape as a weapon during Liberia’s civil war. As the Arab Spring has plenty of moments which might be considered problematic for giving out a Nobel Peace Prize (such as war and violence), this is a compromise that de-emphasizes all that, while focusing on a quite-important issue. Think it’s the right approach? source (via • follow)
When people reach a point when they are in so much pain they just can’t stand it anymore, it was like being drunk. The ability to hold information was really impaired.Ig Nobel Prize-winning scientist Peter Snyder • Describing his team’s findings — that really having to use the bathroom creates an effect on drivers similar to driving drunk or on limited sleep — at the 2011 Ig Nobel Prize awards ceremony Thursday. Snyder’s bladder-busting team (who won for medicine) was only one of many to get awarded for their weird or dubious honors, including that crazy Lithuanian mayor who used a tank to prove his point about illegal parking (he won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize), a Norwegian group that produced a useless study on sighing (psychology), and a group of Japanese researchers who created a fire alarm that uses the smell of wasabi as its key alarm agent (chemistry). All in all, a pretty Ig Nobel night. source
The Nobel Prize won’t give you advice when you’re down, it won’t hug you when you need it most, hell it won’t even return your phonecalls…
Pssh, it’s a Nobel Prize for Economics. They give those to you after you get enough Frequent Flyer miles from heading to conferences on monetary policy. It doesn’t count.
» Who are these people? Besides China (duh), the countries are Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Venezuela, Vietnam and Ukraine. Most aren’t very surprising, but a couple (The Philippines, Russia) are. So why are they choosing to boycott Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony? Simple. China probably threatened economic retribution against countries that supported the ceremony. And China is powerful.
In her last days, my mother occasionally became confused....
”The reporter...
I can’t add much to what’s already been (and will be) ...
One of the perks of being an early employee...
Over the last 90 days, the Digg...
#FMMDI (at 30 Rockefeller Plaza)
Show-off: Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize for literature: This Peruvian dude is the first Latin American Nobel Prize winner in literature since 1990. What you’re witnessing now is this guy’s head getting big. source
I hope that graphene and other two-dimensional crystals will change everyday life as plastics did for humanity.University of Manchester, England professor Andre Geim • On winning the Nobel Prize for Physics along with his partner in really-thin-material crime, Konstantin Novoselov. The two of them have done a bunch of research into graphene, a carbon-based material that is really, really, thin. Among other benefits? It’s super-flexible and ultra-strong. Steve Jobs is going to figure out a way to make an iPad out of this. Just you wait. source (via)
» Why Robert Edwards won the prize: It wasn’t just for his pioneering spirit, though that helped. It was for the way that he followed his technique through and was able to allay moral concerns. “In retrospect, it is amazing that Edwards not only was able to respond to the continued criticism of in vitro fertilization, but that he also remained so persistent and unperturbed in fulfilling his scientific vision,” wrote Nobel Prize committee member Christer Höög.
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
