Night At The Nobel Museum

Every year since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded for achievements in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and for peace. The prize for Economics is strictly speaking an award given in memory of Alfred Nobel that was started in 1968. The Economics Nobel winners for this year were announced today a few hours back. And Ezra Klein made the major goof up (and soon corrected it) on the Washington Post site claiming "Larry Diamond wins the Nobel Prize, continues being blocked by the Senate." The Nobel winners name is Peter not Larry points out Stephen Levitt of Freakonomics fame. According to Alfred Nobel's will, the Nobel prizes were to be awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." The Peace Prize specifically was to be awarded to persons who had been working for "fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses." The Peace Prize has always been the most controversial. This year's decision is no exception. Liu Xiaobo, the jailed Chinese dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize, was informed of his award in prison and has dedicated it to those killed when the Chinese government crushed pro-democracy protests around Tiananmen Square in 1989, says the Wall Street Journal.