Puzzles: Queues, Coups and More

Diagnosing Rickettsia: crimps, complications, and coups.

TO THE EDITOR—The recent publication by Denison et al [1] conducted a study on the detection of the 3 most common spotted fever group rickettsia (SFGR) species endemic to the United States: Ricksettsia rickettsii, Rickettsia parkeri, and Rickettsia akari. When patients present with fever and rash and SFGR is in the diagnosis, serology and skin biopsy are often done. Serology can be negative ear...

coups and ethnic politics in fiji1

Coups, Corporations, and Classified Information∗ Arindrajit Dube

We estimate the impact of coups and top-secret coup authorizations on asset prices of partially nationalized multinational companies that stood to benefit from U.S.-backed coups. Stock returns of highly exposed firms reacted to coup authorizations classified as top-secret. The average cumulative abnormal return to a coup authorization was 9% over 4 days for a fully nationalized company, rising ...

The Thermodynamic Arrow: Puzzles and Pseudo-puzzles

For more than a century, physics has known of a puzzling conflict between the T-asymmetry of thermodynamic phenomena and the T-symmetry of the underlying microphysics on which these phenomena depend. This paper provides a guide to the current status of this puzzle, distinguishing the central issue from various issues with which it may be confused. It is shown that there are two competing concep...

Machine-Made Puzzles and Hand-Made Puzzles

Originally puzzles were not for recreation, but serious questions you might be killed if you couldn’t solve them. But in modern times, puzzles had become a sort of recreation, decreasing the seriousness and religiousness gradually. Now, the ‘rule creators’ of puzzles began to attract notice. I, as a rule creator, published a book, Kyoto University Student, Higashida’s Puzzles. I’ll show several...