  We propose an effective description of 0-brane black holes, in which the
black hole is modeled as a gas of non-interacting quasi-particles in the dual
quantum mechanics. This simple model is shown to account for many of the static
thermodynamic properties of the black hole. It also accounts for dynamical
properties, such as the rate at which energy gets thermalized by the black
hole. We use the model to show that the entropy of the quantum mechanics is
proportional to the black hole horizon area in Planck units.
