Peter Dizikes

2 weeks ago | news.mit.edu | Peter Dizikes

Give Dwai Banerjee credit: He doesn’t pick easy topics to study. Banerjee is an MIT scholar who in a short time has produced a wide-ranging body of work about the impact of technology on society — and who, as a trained anthropologist, has a keen eye for people’s lived experience. In one book, “Enduring Cancer,” from 2020, Banerjee studies the lives of mostly poor cancer patients in Delhi, digging into their psychological horizons and interactions with the world of medical care.

2 weeks ago | phys.org | Peter Dizikes

Well into the late 19th century, the U.S. retail sector was overwhelmingly local, consisting of small, independent merchants throughout the country. That started changing after Sears and Roebuck's famous catalog became popular, allowing the firm to grow, while a rival, Montgomery Ward, also expanded. By the 1930s, the U.S. had 130,000 chain stores, topped by Atlantic and Pacific supermarkets (the A&P), with over 15,000 stores.

2 weeks ago | news.mit.edu | Peter Dizikes

Well into the late 19th century, the U.S. retail sector was overwhelmingly local, consisting of small, independent merchants throughout the country. That started changing after Sears and Roebuck’s famous catalog became popular, allowing the firm to grow, while a rival, Montgomery Ward, also expanded. By the 1930s, the U.S. had 130,000 chain stores, topped by Atlantic and Pacific supermarkets (the A&P), with over 15,000 stores.

4 weeks ago | news.mit.edu | Peter Dizikes

When most people buy cars, the sticker price is only part of the cost. The other part involves the loan, since folks usually borrow money for auto purchases. Therefore the interest rate, monthly payment size, and total repayment cost all matter too. And yet, on aggregate, people do more comparison shopping about car prices than about lenders, and they frequently settle for relatively expensive loans. What happens when the financing costs more?

1 month ago | phys.org | Peter Dizikes

Two years ago, MIT professor of literature Arthur Bahr had one of the best days of his life. Sitting in the British Library, he was allowed to page through the Pearl-Manuscript, a singular bound volume from the 1300s containing the earliest versions of the masterly medieval poem "Pearl," the famous tale "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," and two other poems.