Marginal Revolution

Division of labor in the Babylonian Talmud

This reminds me of Leonard Read's "I, Pencil," but of course it came much earlier:

Ben Zoma once saw a crowd on one of the steps of the Temple Mount. He said, Blessed is He that discerneth secrets, and blessed is He who has created all these to serve me. [For] he used to say: What labours Adam had to carry out before he obtained bread to eat! He ploughed, he sowed, he reaped, he bound [the sheaves], he threshed and winnowed and selected the ears, he ground [them], and sifted [the flour], he kneaded and baked, and then at last he ate; whereas I get up, and find all these things done for me.

And how many labours Adam had to carry out before he obtained a garment to wear! He had to shear, wash [the wool], comb it, spin it, and weave it, and then at last he obtained a garment to wear; whereas I get up and find all these things done for me. All kinds of craftsmen come early to the door of my house, and I rise in the morning and find all these before me.

Credit goes to Stephen Dubner.

Ezra Klein on Kindle

At the end of the day, the true advances won'€™t come in the Kindle, but in the content. Just as the capabilities of the device will shape what authors decide to do with it, so too will the decisions of authors shape the evolution of the device. The Kindle a€™s homepage already features videotaped testimonials from such literary luminaries as Toni Morrison, Michael Lewis, James Patterson, and Neil Gaiman. But what the Kindle, and Amazon, need is not their kind words, but more of their written words, composed with an eye toward the possibilities offered by electronic text. Just as the early television shows were really radio programs with moving images, the early electronic books are simply printed text uploaded to a computer. Amazon could use its unique position to change that.

Here is more.  Here is Megan McArdle on Kindle: "Best thing since sliced bread."  Here is me on Kindle, before and after trying it.

The best sentence I read today, circa 6:36 a.m.

Nixon, who became vice president at age 40, was well described as “an old man’s idea of a young man.”

That is from this review of Nixonland, a book which is rapidly approaching the top of my pile. 

Department of Uh-Oh

Until recently, nearly all the thinking about the risks of space-rock strikes has focused on counting craters.  But what if most impacts don't leave craters?  This is the prospect that troubles Boslough.  Exploding in the air, the Tunguska rock did plenty of damage...

That is Gregg Easterbrook in the latest Atlantic Monthly, June issue, "The Sky is Falling," not yet on-line.  Here are previous MR posts on the asteroid problem.