About the author

 

Interested readers may contact the author via this animated GIF:

the feedback logo. It rotates.

It has come to my attention that many people who are not me read this page. Some of you find it through references by pals of mine, and some through searches for terms such as `ecuadorian dwarves', `tom sawyer spanking fantasy', or `translate chew to spanish' (masticar).

Thus, I feel I should offer some explanation as to who I am and why all these words are filling up your screen. My name is Eric Blair. I am a scrawny White male, 177 cm, blood type AB positive; see Figure 1. In the past, I have studied so much economics and political science that (name of institution) felt compelled to gave me a PhD, putting me alongside a mere 2.1 million other Americans who have similar accreditation.

I don't normally smile, though, since I'm an economist.
Figure 1: The author having a grand old time on the carney rides.

Currently, I work as a freelancer, in a way. I have a Guest Scholar position at (name of institution), a Washington think tank, where I am working on such topics as the software market and smoking among junior high kids. I have a contract at (global development organization), where I am designing a simulation of immigration and do sporadic consulting on intellectual property. Also, I recently finished a postdoctoral stint at (name of university), where I taught game theory to impressionable youths.

My core competencies are economic analysis and sitting in front of computers. Both of these are the sort of dull things which have a direct, tangible effect on us humans and how we live, which is why I feel they're worth writing about in a non-academic setting. I also like to complain about things.

As an economist, I have great faith in the individual's ability to process information. So, I present whatever comes to mind, and you, dear reader, get to decide what is fluff and what is info.