Yep, here' s another one

http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/

and another one

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/setser

Good luck!

The life of an academic is wonderful, now that hard working top professors can blog also, not only publish thick books and bright articles. They can communicate with their students and the rest of the academic community. After having read an article in the Economist Aug. 5th to 11th 2006 p. 63 "The invisible hand on the keyboard" I surfed onto the joint blog of Nobel prize winner Gary Becker and one of the top in my field Judge Posner
http://becker-posner-blog.com/.

If, and when, I become a professor, I promise you to blog my research results to you so that we can really produce.

You like this idea? Great!

The desire to write and research follows a nice solid sine curve. And now in the midst of this30+ C. heatwave I am at the very low of this sinecurve. Luckily, or in the case of Stockholm, Sweden, we will hit another sorry dark period in december- february. The weather alone would make one emigrate to ... let's see San Diego, or Florida maybe. That would be fun.
Any one over there needs a person who is into legal sociology and law and economics? No? You need a lawyer? Ok, I'll seee what I can do.

No, I am not dead. I have just not posted on this blog for a long time. This summer I babysit 40 goldfish of my friend and colleague while he is at home visiting his parents in July. These fish are nice, I like goldfish. They do not eat each other or other fish. However, I have come to doubt their intelligence. Not too much though, they have the basic Pavlov dog instinct, and have learned that whenever I approach the aquarium they will get food. I wonder what they dream about. They probably don't dream at all. Who knows?
I decided that I want my own aquarium. Which fish is the nicest? What is the best fish to have in one´s aquarium?

Yo,

this year is election year in Sweden. Did you know that the ruling party, the Social Democrats have ruled for longer and uninterrupted periods than any other party in Europe (with some competition from the Italian Christian Democrats). This is the closest you can get to a one party state. Did you know that neighbouring Norway and Denmark change from left to right wing governments almost every election? Did you know that our prime minister can asssign anybody the head of more than 500 govermental agencies without a single motivation. or job offer. He just appointed his best friend to a top position in a governmental agency. He has absolutely no merits. Did you know that Sweden is a corporativist society of sorts with labour union backing up the left wing parties? Did you know that Sweden is the most heavily taxed country in the world, and yet the people love the government and the left coalition voters want to pay MORE taxes to steal from the rich and get nicer benefits? You dd not know? Well now you do. Cheers to the abolition of the fake welfare state.

Yooo,

There is nothing like victory, or in my case, the road to victory. It is a golden path, trust me. My victory spells 5. 5 papers. One published, one submitted, (soon the third submitted) and two to submit no later than May. Five papers to get published. Five is victory.


5redrik

Wine anyone?

A really cool hobby is wine, check out the TV site http://tv.winelibrary.com/. You get a connoiseur, who knows his stuff.

Time for recreation and relaxation. Here's a word from the pool in the sunbathing Tenerife. This year has been less productive than it could have been, but there is no reason why I can't make it up in less than a month.
Writing a dissertation is a process of confusion, clarification and more confursion, uphipp battle and then when you have written some stuff that makes sense, the hill becomess less steep, and life can become bearable, almost livable. My home town Stockholm is engulfed in snow and it will be nice to get back, despite the cold.

To all Phd candidates, don't despair, there´s a vacation to be had that will give you inspiration to do what you have to do - finish the job.

Your soon-to-be PhD Fredrik

Hooray,

my region of research, Eastern Europe is pulling itself out of poverty. I quote from the World Bank home page.

"Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union have witnessed a significant decrease in poverty since the Russian financial crisis of 1998-99. Almost 40 million people moved out of poverty from 1998-2003. Three key factors contributed to poverty reduction: growth in wages, growth in employment, and more adequate social transfers. But poverty and vulnerability persist: more than 60 million people live on less than $2 a day."

This is what my research is more or less all about, that these poor countries get a fair chance at a decent living. I am happy. Cheers everybody. Let´s continue working in this same direction.

My dissertatino is about legal conditions for growth. It deepens the understanding of this subject. Law, and legal system development has been very much in focus by major organisations, such as the World Bank, WHO, WTO, UN, EBRD etc etc. That's becuse they are so very fundamental, and difficult to get right in a short time span. However, the World Bank report does not focus at all on legal matters, which is not correct. Law matter for growth, a whole lot. The report was more focused on social matters. The shock therapy that Russia went through, was, detrimental, to say the least. And we need to correct those sad mistakes that have led Russians to distrust their government so much. My poor, sad, and loved Russia.

This blue sucker here can mean doom for millions of people. Let's hope that it won't seek refuge under your skin the following week. It's been captured on photo by one of the world's most renowned medical photographers Lennart Nilsson. Yes, the picture is totally new, and is the result of 6 months of hard work trying to get the virs from a US Defense laboratory, finally the WHO gave it away. And now it's on your screen, in your face.

The T word is here. Tamiflu - the antidote against the bird flu. My dad gave me two packs today. Enough for ten days. Get ready for the big pandemic. I will live ten days. How many will you live? It's really frightening. 50 percent of all afflicted die. I dont mean to start a scare or anything...

Gotta go write my thesis now. Waiting for which comes first, defense, or flu. Let's find a dice, and see how we will do...

Hello PhD student. You write, you suffer and you defend your thesis.
So that did not take a long time to say. But it takes a long time to do.


It is a disturbing thought, but has it occured to you that science is creating and nullifying theories. Research is writing. It occured to me that much of what goes on in academia is purely descriptive, without testing any theory at all. Mere description. The worst type is probably calling a collection of descriptive case studies science. I have seen some of these and they do not qualify as science. The qualify as knowledge. I welcome any comments.
Actually, what we know as academia is probably a mixture of knowledge and science. Many people just record knowledge. I have told a few people this, and they are not happy, obviously. It is not the way to become popular. But since the atmosphere is usually sooo accepting, somebody needs to hightlight what science is.

There is never such intensity in my research as there is when I prepare a paper for a seminar or conference. This gives some special effects, i.e. it's rough falling asleep (and of course getting up), due to my high thought activity. I welcome any good advice on how to cure this.

Maybe, just maybe, you are goin throught the same kind of situation that I am going through. Do not be sad, you are not alone. For reassurance please check out the site Dissertation Hell, www.disshell.blogspot.com.
This woman has made it, she will defend really soon. Be a friend, send her a cheer!

Hey ya all out there. I know you like movies. I know you are busy. So, read the movie in one sentence, it's very practical, go check it out at Movie a Minute http://www.rinkworks.com/movieaminute/.
It made me laugh ;-)
F.

Inspiration, they say, you shall not wait for. But create a routine, in which you everyday type away, inking your thoughts down. Well,now I have collected my thoughts. It seems that the summer has given me the strength now to finally push on through.
I spent the last week waving goodbye to my girlfriend, now she won't be back until x-mas. What a shame. Well, it gives ample time for inking down my thoughts in my thesis...

My Face

Today was one of those wonderful days when I did absolutely nothing to work at all. I just played and relaxed. When waking up, I felt like I had really slept deep. I love it. This summer started with a sharp pain in my right lungue May 30th , which got me hospitalized for three days. It took me almost until today, more than two months later, to recover.

This week, I have to decide what my next paper will contain. It's based on a huge material, which is good enough for no less than 10 papers. I just have to decide which of these I want to write for my thesis. This was tougher than I thought.

It´s only when you do not have something that you can put a value on it. Like the summer house my family had until ten years ago. Then it was sold, and now I understand how valuable it is to recharge one's strenght with all that summer harmony. My next task is to get a new house like that by myself, that belongs only to me, where I can get the best possible summers. Here I come, summer house, don't wait for me too long. Please.

First entry:

This fall is the the beginning of the end for my thesis. I eagerly await D-day.