Before getting on to this let me state the following for those of you who, for whatever reason, don't know it. I am (in no particular order and with no hierarchy of ranking) a 26-year-old, male, heterosexual, married, white, non-religious, South African man studying a PhD in Economics at the Università di Siena, Italy.One of the things that I have wondered about for a significant period of time is exclusivity in movements. Specifically in activism surrounding race and...

So, I read a number of blogs and other things on neuroscience, psychology and economics. I also try to keep up to date, if I can, with little things going on in the Science world. Anyway, one of the things that piqued my curiosity was this article on Chinese-Indian cooperation in science. The main thesis is that China and India collectively have about 38% of the world's total population. Moreover, they both have scientists educated domestically and internationally...

We took a walk down our road today. We try to do walks around and about our place every so often, so you'll get photos here and there. We were walking towards a place we were looking at for some friends to stay. It's quite a walk from where we are, but still on our road which runs all the way to Pieve al Bozzone (Hence the Strada di...).Anyway, here are the photographs.Amy, not as called as she might be, but looking over the fields toward the pond.The road we had just...

3 Medium Melanzane (eggplants) Coarse cooking salt Vegetable oil 1 Large Brown Onion, chopped finely 2 Cloves of Garlic, crushed and separated (each clove goes somewhere) 3 Medium Tomatoes, chopped 400g Tin of Tomatoes, crushed ½ Cup Fresh Oregano 2 Tsp Sugar 500g Spinach, trimmed 250g Ricotta Cheese 1 Egg, lightly beaten ½ Tsp Nutmeg ½ Cup Grated Cheese Cheese Sauce 50g Butter 2 Tbl Sp. Flour 1 ½ Cups Milk 1 Cup Grated Cheese Cut eggplant into slices, place...

I have long wondered what specifically makes an individual economist the way that they are. An associate of mine back in Cape Town, Mandisi Majavu, made me aware of this paper and I was wondering what others thought of it. It's called The Making of An Economist Redux (JEP, 2005), by Prof. David Colander and comments on a number of the top graduate schools in the States. Thoughts? Opinions?You can get the paper at this link.And also, for those of you who care, you...

Hello Dear Friends and Family,Well, it has been some time and I haven't written anything. Amy has been the one keeping many of you informed about our life here since our arrival. So yes, my life, apart from celebrating being married to my lovely wife, has been filled with my studies. Not too much exciting there. It's the typical first year of a PhD Economics program. Gruelling work on quite unbelievably boring, yet occasionally exciting stuff. Other than studying,...

Ok, so it has been some time. I promise to get back on the wagon and add more write-ups to this blog. I have been very lax of late, so I apologise. I finish exams tomorrow, and yes I am avoiding work right now. I thought I would change the look of my blog too, to go with the whole New Life thing. Who knows? Anyway, instead of my usual political rants I thought I would entertain you all with some recipes. the first recipe is for some banana muffins. I love banana...