lightcastle

Have not been feeling up to snuff the last couple of days. Hopefully the final bureaucratic hurdles to the renewal of my health care card are being cleared and I will soon have the advantage of the social safety net here.

Meanwhile, the health insurance reform debate has kicked into high gear in the Senate. I still remain skeptical of much good coming out of this, but am hoping to be surprised.

Meanwhile, DARPA may have simulated a cat brain with computers. Or not, depending who you ask.

If they have, can it do this?

On the radio this morning here in Montreal, they discussed the need for more economists to take the role of public intellectuals and seriously talk about economic issues. Economics has been unduly and unfortunately focused on the financial markets, causing a serious distortion in the debate and policy. Outside of that, you mostly get the uber-glib "contrarian" approach of the Freakonomics-style crowd, which tends to be deeply unhelpful as well. The two economists discussing this pointed out that in Quebec it is a problem compounded by the fact that almost all the economists they can get to talk come from universities in the US or France, which puts them at a remove from a Quebec perspective.