links for 2008-10-24

"Credit default swaps are interesting - in the same way that a Rube Goldberg device is interesting. They are in a fundamental sense very simple, but the structure that's built up around them is so bizarre, so ridiculous on the face of it, that when you look at it in retrospect, it's hard to believe that anyone actually thought that it was a good idea, or that it could ever work."

"John Thomas and colleagues at Duke University found that about 60% of the lithium-6 atoms became segregated and that the spin-up and spin-down atoms remained apart for several seconds. However, they are puzzled as to why the segregation lasts much longer, and is more intense, than predicted by theory."

A reminder of why I have a dim view of many liberal activists.

"Students' happiness with their major appears to vary by type of institution, with one factor making all the difference: whether or not a college has a competitive business program. That, the authors argue, determines whether students who would rather study business are forced to settle for economics."

Physicists from the Naval Observatory explain how an atomic clock works.

"[I]t's easy to see why the film was such a dud at the box office. For data processors and middle-managers across the country, the prospect of seeing your personal hell projected on a big screen is the furthest thing from escapist fun. But as legions have discovered on DVD, the experience is thrillingly cathartic; finally, someone who understands how a desk job can, in fact, be worse than logging time doing the drywall at a new McDonald's."

"HILARY: This never would have happened when Tim Russert was our GM."