Restaurant Review: Kappo Masa on the Upper East Side New York Times (Scott). A reader quips: “A place made for the 0.1%.”
Sotheby’s and Christie’s Return to Guaranteeing Art Prices New York Times. Proof of robust demand at the top end.
“I’m the poster child of evil [art] speculation…The Bohemian Art World’s Patron Satan” An excellent piece, also NYT
There is a new paper on sinking ships by Bruno Frey, rather by Mikael Elinder, the abstract is this:
Since the sinking of the Titanic, there has been a widespread belief that the social norm of “women and children first” (WCF) gives women a survival advantage over men in maritime disasters, and that captains and crew members give priority to passengers. We analyze a database of 18 maritime disasters spanning three centuries, covering the fate of over 15,000 individuals of more than 30 nationalities. Our results provide a unique picture of maritime disasters. Women have a distinct survival disadvantage compared with men. Captains and crew survive at a significantly higher rate than passengers. We also find that: the captain has the power to enforce normative behavior; there seems to be no association between duration of a disaster and the impact of social norms; women fare no better when they constitute a small share of the ship’s complement; the length of the voyage before the disaster appears to have no impact on women’s relative survival rate; the sex gap in survival rates has declined since World War I; and women have a larger disadvantage in British shipwrecks. Taken together, our findings show that human behavior in life-and-death situations is best captured by the expression “every man for himself.” Do sinking ships put women and children first?
Computer program ‘perfect at poker’ BBC
Family ties that bind: Having the right surname sets you up for life (Imrich did not make it) Springer
