Look out internet shoppers, two electronic systems  called “dynamic pricing,” and “differential pricing,” are stalking you.  Dynamic pricing is the program retailers use to adjust to supply and demand.  Airlines determine fares with it, for example, and so do hotels.  The

A blog reader wrote to thank me for sharing the latest PEW Research Center’s survey about Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations. In the main, the attitudes expressed there were similar to those found in the PEN survey I discussed earlier. (Bog 12/2/13)  Snowden’s revelations about t

Who knew?  While some members of Congress are fuming about immigration across our southern border, the US is opening the gates to other folks, primarily from China.  Over the past few years nearly 48 million of that nation’s wealthiest citizens have migrated to other countries

Who doesn’t love a clash of Titans?  Not Hollywood certainly.  But in the world of economics, something in that vein is going on as Nobel laureate, Joseph Stiglitz, takes on Thomas Piketty and his recent best seller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.  Piketty’s tome is 700 p

After spending an August afternoon shopping with her granddaughter for back to school clothes, a friend sent me an email saying that all the child talked about was her determination not to be a chatterbox in the coming year.  A month has passed since that conversation and I’m wonde

From time to time, I’ve speculated about how changes in technology will affect the future. (Blogs 7/25 & 2/14/14)  Some consequences I hadn’t foreseen, however, until The Week brought them to my attention. (8/29/14)  Let’s think about prostitution for a moment.  Even the

In his new book, Super Intelligence, Nick Bostrom, director of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, issues a warning about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Huffington Post  One of the problems lies with language which can been dangerously ambiguous. Tell a robot its mission is to m

Not long ago, I received an email from a writer whose book I’d rated as 3 stars on Amazon.  She complained that my ranking was too low and countered with the opinion of someone I did not know but whose reputation she considered to be greater than mine.  He said her novel was a mas

The evening  I met with the actors who would read my play, I was nervous, as if I were auditioning for a part.  The drama requires  5 actors — 2 men and 3 women – so, with the director and me, 7 of us gathered round a table to get acquainted.  I’d eaten earlier but the o

Literature has been no more kind to its prostitutes than real life has been. While fallen wives have made memorable heroines — Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina among them —  few novels feature the travails of working girls.  Fannie Hill and Moll Flanders are the exception