In some sense, my “gift” to Prof. Ronald Coase for his 99th birthday is “special”. More on this later.
For the last 20+ years of my life, many of my thinking has been shaped and influenced by Coase, and yet I have not met him in person. Of course, how much have I actually learned or understood remains a mystery. (big smile) Allow me to share two stories.
I remember some years ago during the first year of my MBA program, somehow the topic of lighthouse came up. And I, quite off-handedly, mentioned to my classmate (he majored in economics, and I majored in computer science) that lighthouse is usually given as an example of a public good but this categorization is actually wrong.
Well, to my surprise, my classmate insisted that, “No no no. Lighthouse is a public good and you cannot charge any money for the use of it.” After a minute or so of discussion, we got back to our schoolwork. To me, from that moment on, I realized I was lucky to have some special insights. I’ve learned Coase’s ideas, including those in “The Lighthouse in Economics” via Prof. Steven Cheung’s articles in Chinese when I was attending high school in Hong Kong. I have learned the importance in asking questions. And try not to take things/”established facts” for granted.
In yet another MBA class, this time an ethics class. The professor asked a simple question, something like, “Why do we have ‘company’/'corporation’?” In hope to lead to some discussions about ethics (well, it was an ethics course after all). What my professor didn’t expect was me raising my hand and answered, “To reduce transaction cost.” :)
Now, without further delay, allow me to present my “special” and virtual gift to Prof. Coase. Wishing Prof. Coase a very happy 99th birthday (in advance) and good health for many more years to come.
My “special” “gift”
This gift is “special” because I think the best gift to give to someone like Prof. Coase, who has everything he needs in the world and likely every material thing he wants, is to “pay it forward“. Prof. Coase himself doesn’t really benefit from the gift itself, it is the people who may learn from Prof. Coase that are benefitting. So I am “paying it forward” or “gifting” forward.
As you may know, the wonderfully insightful (and often funny) 2003 Coase Lecture was delivered by Prof. Coase himself. And the full lecture has been available online via Coase Institute for free download and viewing for some time now. Unfortunately, unless the person has an extremely fast internet connection and have patient to wait for an hour or two or more, downloading the 525MB quicktime video file (this is very big)can still be quite a challenge. And for those that have slower regular internet access, viewing the lecture is practically impossible.
So as a “special” gift to Prof. Coase for his 99th birthday, I have taken the initiative and spent most of the night (well, actually last night and now well into the wee hours) to compress and upload the video onto YouTube.
This “gift” is “special” also because I’ve bent quite a few rules. Since this is a gift for Prof. Coase’s 99th birthday, I hope the “deciders” don’t mind and will let me give this “gift”. :)
Hope you enjoy the 2003 Coase Lecture (in 6 parts).
My 2009 “big read” is going to be the recently published 832 pages“Just Watch Me – The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau: 1968-2000″ by John English. I feel it is time for me to read up on Mr. Trudeau and get an inside look of some Canadian history. The reviews of the book I’ve read are mostly positive and I hope this will be a fun read. Wish me lots of luck.
“Kate and David Bagby, who live in California, joined Avalon MP Scott Andrews in his riding just outside St. John’s Friday to bring attention to proposed Criminal Code changes.
The Bagby’s 13-month old grandson, Zachary Turner, was drowned by his mother in Conception Bay in 2003, shortly before she killed herself in a murder-suicide.“
I have the privilege to interview Kate and David when they visited Calgary in 2008, have a look of my video interview with them. You can also listen to an interview I had with Kurt who made a documentary about the case and was Andrew’s friend.
So far the opaque ACTA negotiation makes me nervous. I hope Ministers Tony Clement and James Moore knows they can’t consult us and then ignore our opinions. That will be very bad.
This Conference brings together a group of scholars to honor the life and research of Ronald Coase. 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Coase’s seminal paper on the Federal Communications Commission. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of his paper on “The Problem of Social Cost,” and his 100th birthday.
The presentations on this occasion cover specific topics on which Coase’s work has exerted profound influence, including such areas as telecommunications policy, airline regulation and development, environmental economics, economic development, organization of the firm, and general discussions of the questions of transactions costs and social rationality to which he has contributed so much.
The Conference is being organized by Richard A. Epstein of the University of Chicago, Thomas Hazlett of George Mason University, and Roger Noll and Greg Rosston of Stanford University. These papers shall be published in special issues of the Journal of Law and Economics and the Journal of Legal Studies. The Conference will be held at the University of Chicago Law School on Friday, December 4, and Saturday, December 5, 2009. The public is invited.
Note: I don’t know if these prizes have been claimed already. And if you think the challenges are dead easy, then your solutions are most likely wrong. :)
*******
A $289 Prize
Prize offered by: Stephen Fenner, Charles Glover and Semmy Purewal
I am really excited to hear Eric Howell’s Ana’s Playground now qualifies for an Oscar nomination. Here is what Eric wrote in his blog,
I am very pleased to report that “Ana’s Playground” has won “Best International Short Film” at the 22nd Foyle Film Festival in Northern Ireland. This festival is one of a few festivals that are sanctioned by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. WIth a win in the short film category, Ana’s Playground has automatically qualified to be considered by the Academy for an Oscar nomination in NEXT year’s award cycle. Wow.
Congrats Eric! I am really happy for you.
You can check out my previous interviews with Eric and a film trailer linked here and here.
Bill Buxton at BIF-5 (30 mins talk, video) – “Leading designer and Microsoft principal researcher questions why the design of most technology doesn’t incorporate important social, cultural and historical perspectives.”
This Energy Efficient Spiral Compact Fluorescent Light Bulb started to flicker and I thought it was going to die pretty soon. So I took my camera out and decided to shoot a video of its death.
What I didn’t expect was the chemical burning smell that came afterwards. I am glad there wasn’t any fire but the chemical smell was strong enough that I opened the window for half an hour.
I hope better and more affordable LED light will come to the market soon.
Posted by kempton 
Posted by kempton 
Posted by kempton 
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