Trillionfold 

Brad DeLong provides a great graph from Bill Nordhaus’s latest research. Nordhaus estimates the price of computation has fallen a trillionfold in 60 years.

Foxes counting chickens 

“You could say that this administration is uniquely well qualified to chase after corporate evildoers. After all, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have firsthand experience of the subject.” Paul Krugman is on fine form.

Counting coins 

Applied mathematicians are using the diffusion of euros to study how epidemics spread. The New York Times quotes Dietrich Stoyan, from the University of Freiberg: “This is a historically unique opportunity. I hope that studying this process will help people studying epidemics. We know when this ‘epidemic’ broke out [January 1, when the coins were launched across Europe].”

In typically unhelpful fashion, the Times doesn’t provide the URLs of the websites it mentions in the article (why is The Guardian just about the only newspaper that tries reasonably hard to do this?). I found both the German site and the Dutch research site. Both sites welcome participation. What a great thing for teaching students about statistics.

Out of Africa 

Brad DeLong is depressed because the only product he could find in his California suburban supermarket from Africa was a carton of guava juice. He should come to my local Sainsbury’s in London.

A lot of the fruits and vegetables on sale are from Africa, as are a tolerable selection of packaged goods, like Brad’s guava juice. There’s seasonality to it, of course, since at this time of year Spain in particular can supply a lot of the hot weather products. But if you want mange-tout in winter, I can guarantee they’ll come from southern Africa. Increasingly, too, the products have some value-added at source, like trimming the beans.

The global sourcing of products in our local supermarket is, I suspect, a byproduct both of Britain’s own constrained agricultural output (we don’t have California’s size or weather) and the adventurous nature of our highly competitive food retailers.

I have mixed feelings about this, since I want to see African economies prosper, but worry about the environmental impact of jumbo jets hauling produce around the globe. Given the scale of the issues, however, I think it’s better that I try to do my tiny bit to support Africa’s struggling economies.

Worthwhile, but too late 

Tom Friedman weighs in at last on Bush’s Middle East speech. As always when it comes to the region, Tom is worth reading for his broad perspective.

“There are three trends converging in the Middle East today. The first is this vicious Israeli-Palestinian war. The second is a population explosion in the Arab world, where virtually every Arab country has a population bubble of under-15-year-olds, who are marching toward a future where they will find a shortage of good jobs and a surplus of frustration. The third is an explosion of Arab satellite TV stations, the Internet and other private media.”

But the column highlights a frustration I have with The New York Times. Bush’s address was on Monday 24 June. The rigidities of The Times mean that Tom writes on Wednesday and Sunday — those are his slots. He happened to have a column from Tehran last Wednesday, so Sunday was his first chance to talk about Bush. Too late! A less hide-bound newspaper would have swung its authoritative voice on the Middle East into action no matter what. I looked for Tom’s comment last Tuesday when it should have appeared.