| the undercover economist
In the late 1870s, a magician named Buatier de Kolta was mesmerizing audiences in Paris with the trick of producing big bunches of paper flowers from an empty roll of paper. Nobody knew how the trick was achieved, until a stray gust of wind blew one of the flowers onto the floor in front of the stage. A magician in the audience seized it and ran out, and de Kolta's trick was soon being performed by many of his rivals. The story is told by Jacob Loshin, a recent graduate from Yale Law school, in a working paper on how magicians protect their tricks. Such outright thefts would be hard to imagine today, because magicians have developed a professional code of conduct to defend their most valuable property: their ideas. The research bears—albeit obliquely—on an issue that is only going to become more important: intellectual property in a world where more and more of the wealth that is created takes the form of ideas rather than objects.
Country profile: Kenya
Situated on the equator on Africa's east coast, Kenya has been described as "the cradle of humanity". In the Great Rift Valley palaeontologists have discovered some of the earliest evidence of man's ancestors. In the present day, Kenya's ethnic diversity has produced a vibrant culture but is also a source of conflict. .
Regional Briefs
The pulse polio campaign in Bathinda, which was to be held on November 25, has now been postponed till December 2. The decision was taken by the health and family welfare department of the Punjab government. Interview: Aryans Business School, Chandigarh, is organising an interview to offer scholarships to students for MBA and PGDM courses at Hotel Sun City on Wednesday. Speaking to the media persons here on Tuesday, the school chairman, Anshu Kataria said the group has recently launched the MT Katuria scholarship to help bright students. Golden jubilee: All India State Bank of Patiala (SBOP) Employees Federation is organising its golden jubilee conference at Patiala on November 24 and 25. Apart from holding social identification programmes such as blood donation camps, the federation would also distribute school uniforms to the students.
6,000 free ‘granny’ bikes will bring continental success story to ...
They have helped to calm the traffic-choked streets of Paris and spawned hundreds of romances among strangers. Now the French capital’s free bicycle hire scheme is coming to Central London, where 6,000 sturdy bikes will be deployed outside Tube stations and other locations. Unlike Paris, where the cost of the bikes and docking stations is funded privately in return for advertising space, London council tax payers will have to contribute much of the £75 million cost of the scheme. That apart, Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, is copying almost every other aspect of "Velib", the Parisian scheme, which takes its name from a contraction of vélo (bike) and liberté. The bicycles will be free for the first half-hour to people who preregister and agree to pay an automatic penalty of about £100, deducted from their credit cards, if they fail to return the bikes.
Oconee County police blotter
Damage: On Feb. 15, deputy William Elrod was dispatched after 6 p.m. to meet with the owner of some forested land off Rockingwood Drive. The man showed Elrod where someone had destroyed a deer curtain valued at $400. Elrod thought the damage was done by either a sword or machete and he could see a path cut to the site in the woods, apparently with the same blade. Elrod followed the hacked path to the back of a home on Spartan Lane. He went to the front door, which was open. Elrod announced his presence, but no one answered the door, so he entered to see if anyone was inside. In a bedroom, he saw a large sword with bits of tree sap still on the blade. Elrod secured the home, then returned to the crime scene to speak to the property owner. After returning to the scene of the crime, the deputy could see headlights pulling up to the house on Spartan Lane, so Elrod returned and introduced himself to the man and his teenage son.
The 'eroding' gas tax
In offering a way to balance a state budget bleeding billions in red ink, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill last week brought up a subject that has been taboo for a while: The notion that it is time to raise the state gas tax.In a decade that has seen prices at the pump more than double, the idea is not likely to sit well with commuters who have watched helplessly as the rising cost of fuel has taken increasingly larger bites out of their pocketbooks. But Hill maintained it is long overdue. .
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