“…scientists in Australia have found a way to stop the body from attacking organ transplants…”

This is awesome news if it works out.

Now we just need to allow folks or estates to be compensated for Organ Donation to increase the supply/availability.

Energy/Incentives Idea That I Like

I can’t find where I heard this, but it was a neat application of incentives (economic thinking) to energy policy.

The suggestion was something like:

1) States That don’t allow drilling for oil and natural gas off-shore shall have their federal gasoline tax increased $1 (or $2 or $X) per gallon.

2) The collected money shall be redistributed on a per capita basis to people living within 50 miles (or 100 miles or X miles) of working coal mines.

If I can find the reference I will post that.

2 Funny Econ Video Snippets From YouTube

You might find these videos funny (I did):

Sparse Elegance: Charles Koch’s “The Science of Success”

This is not a self-help book. It is an excellent slim introduction to free market economics and economic thinking masquerading as a business book.

While I picked up the “Science of Success” to see how he applied economic thinking to running a business, I was blown away the authors clarity and elegance in describing economic thinking.

I also found his business system – MBM (Market Based Management) The Science of Human Action Applied to Organizations – to be interesting. It was not a how-to guide though.

Recently Listened to – “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game”

I finished listening to a copy of mp3 of Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The author says the book is about the “search for new baseball knowledge”. It is applying economic thinking to baseball strategy. I loved it.

When I was young, my buddies and I (pre-fantasy baseball stuff) made our own fake baseball leagues and ran games using players from our baseball cards and a homemade card deck for outcomes (matrix of batter positions and AB outcomes: walk, strike out, fly out, ground out, singe, double, etc.). The fun also came from keeping the stats (pen, paper and calculators – no computer yet).

Overtime, my interest in baseball waned do to strikes, lockouts and Bud Selig. I haven’t gone to a game this century. I haven’t watch a game in ages. I started to watch the end of the all-star game that was in Milwaukee a few years ago. I LOL when Bud Selig, as Commissioner, canceled the game at the end because it was going to long into extra innings. He’s a douche.

Had I read this book and come across sabermetrics when still in high school, I would have been sucked back in. I would most likely have majored differently (this and this, instead of this and most of this) at UW-Madison too.

I kept thinking…where’s Moneyball for American Football (maybe this)? Where’s Moneyball for Organizations (maybe this)?