Exasperated Calculator: Star Trek & Economics
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Been a Long Time
[Led Zeppelin’s complete catalog coming to iTunes](http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/music/led-zeppelin-changes-tune-puts-whole-catalog-online-310757.php). I’ll certainly be buying a stairway to heaven.
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Films: October to November 2007
Movies coming up in the next couple of months, and my thoughts ([as according to IMDB](http://us.imdb.com/Recent/Australia)). * *[A Mighty Heart](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0829459/)*: Interesting, has a few good reviews it seems. Does also look pretty depressing… Probably. * October 18: *[Saw IV](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0890870/)*. I have a fond hope to never, ever see any of the movies in the *Saw*…
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Election07: Hitchcock edition
*Annoucements*: * ALP: [$6 billion worth of Commonwealth land to be sold to alleviate housing affordability problems](http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/16/2060873.htm). * Coalition: Nothing announced. *Non-policy*: [The debate debate](http://www.smh.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/just-one-debate-pm/2007/10/16/1192300739761.html). Kevin Rudd wants three debates, closer to the election. John Howard wants one, this Sunday. *Line of the Day*: [Kevin Rudd, on John Howard’s refusal to allow ‘The Worm’ in…
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What does that symbol mean?
[A field guide to the strange icons on many electronic devices](http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/15-10/st_symbology). Given that they’re trivial to forge, I don’t really know what benefit a lot of these provide – a lot of them are for certification required to legally sell the device.
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US Supreme Court addicts only
[8 years of cert pool memos from the US supreme court](http://epstein.law.northwestern.edu/research/Blackmun.html). The Blackmun archive is the gift that keeps on giving for Supreme Court nerds.
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In case you were wondering
[The line of succession to the British Throne](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_of_succession_to_the_British_Throne). Sadly they seem to have to omitted me, but I’m sure they’ll fix it in the next edition. First Australian (by blood) on the list: position 217.
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University entrance exams
[The 1869 entrance exam for MIT](http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/exam/). Actually, it’s surprisingly easy. About grade 10 level on average, I think.
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Election flashback
For this exciting election season: [The ALP pre-election advertising from 1996](http://clubtroppo.com.au/2007/09/30/i-can-do-that/). Taxpayer funded, too.
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2007 Economics Nobel Prize
The 2007 prize goes to [Hurwicz, Maskin and Myerson](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/2007/press.html) for their work on mechanism design theory. While the work (which I’m not familiar with, so I’m just working from the press release) looks very useful and interesting, this continues a trend of the Nobel Prize that’s a bit worrying: they tend to focus on pretty…
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Election07: Noah edition
*Annoucements*: * The Government announces a [$34 billion, five year tax plan](http://budget.gov.au/2007-08/myefo/html/02_part_2.htm) to dramatically reduce income tax rates. * No significant announcements from the ALP. *Polls*: [Newspoll](http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/files/newspoll-15-oct.jpg): ALP 56, LP/NP 44 (no change from the previous fortnight). Line of the day: > I Phillip Michael Jeffrey, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia […] prorogue the…