Friday, September 30

Popcasts: a directory of the most popular podcasts

This looks useful and interesting:
"Popcasts is an aggregator of the most popular podcasts from many different directories and ranking sites, all on one page."
The webpage consists of various directory listing that seem to reflect the interests of the folks that frequent the various podcast sites. In this regard, I found one directory listing, noted at the very bottom of the page, particularly revealing. The no. 1 podcast on Digital Podcast is "Air America Radio: The Al Franken Show." The second and fourth most popular podcasts, respectively, are "open source sex" and "Pod-Porn.com." Nuf sed. Link

Thursday, September 29

Writing as a form of learning

In economist Robert Frank's "Economic Scene" article in today's NYT he explains that the process of writing is, in fact, an important learning tool that helps us understand what we're writing about and retain that understanding over time. For instance, in Professor Frank's class he asks students to write a short paper on an everyday issue that has puzzling economic implications. Two student questions he notes in the article are:

Why do the keypad buttons on drive-up cash machines have Braille dots? or

Why do brides often spend thousands of dollars on wedding dresses they will never wear again, while grooms often rent cheap tuxedos, even though they will attend many formal social events in the future?

These are interesting questions and it is worth reading Frank's article for the student's answers alone. However, Frank's discussion of writing and his explanation that it holds value above acting as a means of communication is excellent. He explains:
Although the human brain is remarkably flexible, learning theorists now recognize that it is far better able to absorb information in some forms than others. Thus, according to the psychologist Jerome Bruner, children "turn things into stories, and when they try to make sense of their life they use the storied version of their experience as the basis for further reflection." He went on, "If they don't catch something in a narrative structure, it doesn't get remembered very well, and it doesn't seem to be accessible for further kinds of mulling over." Even well into adulthood, we find it easier to process information in narrative form than in more abstract forms like equations and graphs. Most effective of all are narratives that we construct ourselves.
...
Daniel Boorstin, the former librarian of Congress, used to rise at 5 each morning and write for two hours before going into the office. 'I write to discover what I think,' he explained. 'After all, the bars aren't open that early.' Mr. Boorstin's morning sessions were even more valuable than he realized. Writing not only clarifies what you already know; it is also an astonishingly effective way to learn something new.
Link

Wednesday, September 28

Pointless incessant barking

This made me laugh. A comic strip published in The New Yorker, Sept. 12. Link (Thanks Lesley for the pointer.)

Bryan Caplan on the idiot's stigma

There is an additional benefit to buying certain insurance that, ex ante, we tend to under-appreciate. Excerpt:
Consider these two scenarios:
1. You lose $1000 in some unforeseen way.

2. You lose $1000 in a way your spouse specifically warned you might happen.

It seems to me that #2 is MUCH worse for most people than #1. $1000 is no big deal; but $1000 plus the scorn of your spouse is a very big deal.
This captures only the kernal of the issue, so read the rest here: Link

Tuesday, September 27

More on Ivan and Cayman

The St. Petersburg Times has a fact-ful and fairly comprehensive article detailing the effects of hurricane Ivan on Grand Cayman and the progress of recovery over the past year. The picture accompanying the article is a backside view (or frontside, depending on your perspective) of the same location photographed here. Excerpts:
Winds of 155 mph moved just south of Grand Cayman, which is about 26 miles long, seven miles wide and home to about 35,000. With a wind field that expanded to 85 miles, the entire island was smashed. The storm surge brought a wall of water 10 feet high on land. About 12 inches of rain fell.

"Most of the island was covered in water," said Andrew Bacon..."There were rumors about the island disappearing from radar because of so much water."
...

"Cell phones worked until about 5 in the morning and I remember calling Monica in the States. We had had about six hours of the most horrendous winds. I said, 'Well, listen, the house has held up pretty good. I think we've weathered it pretty good.'

She said, 'It's not even there yet.' I remember the chill I got in my body.

A few hours later, it hit into full gear."
And finally, this one struck a cord personally:
"We were all without electricity and water in the beginning and as a safety measure, we had a curfew. I remember lying in bed one night, next to an open window and trying to be very still in the stifling heat. The night sky was pitch black (there was no artificial light from signs or streetlamps) and the stars were brilliant - diamonds on black velvet."
I spent four days on the island following the hurricane and it is the nightimes, with the curfew and no electricity, that I recall most vividly: beauty, tranquility, and misery, all in one package. Link

Pass the dutchie on the right hand side

This is a story about a 10-yr old boy, Montana, dying of an inoperable brain tumor. Notre Dame Coach Weis met with Montana the week before the Washington game and agreed to let the boy call ND's first offensive play. The boy passed away Friday before the game. Weiss called Montana's mom the morning of the game to tell her that he still planned to run Montana's play. ND's first offensive possession was at its own 1-yard line. What play did he call? "Pass right." Excerpt:
"He said 'What are we going to do?' I said 'We have no choice. We're throwing it to the right'"

--Charlie Weis, on what he told Brady Quinn before the Irish' first play.
As a rule of thumb, it is very risky and, hence, ill-advised to throw when you're pinned down at your own end zone. Fortunately, Quinn completed the pass for a 13-yard gain. Now if only Montana had called for, say, a triple reverse, that would have been really interesting. Link

Sunday, September 25

Whats the word?

Boing Boing has a hilarious and informative post re: the history of Thunderbird (which, by the way, is a fortified wine). Excerpt:
Hawkes is responsible for one of the more divertingly notorious tales of Ernest Gallo. She tells of him driving through the streets of the inner-city, eventually pulling up to a stranger on a street corner. According to Hawkes, Gallo called out the lyrics to one of his jingles 'What's the word?' As the tale would have it, the man immediately called back the correct answer: 'Thunderbird!'

Hawkes' tale is partially corroborated by at least one online source, a former Gallo salesman who recalled handing the drink out to Native Americans who were just being released from jail -- 'to get the brand started.' 'Wino Samplings,' as this former employee calls the practice of passing out free samples to hard drinkers, 'used to be widespread.'
Link And be sure not to miss the review from Bumwine. Link

Hurricanes are getting stronger, but why?

Research finds that hurricanes have been getting stronger in recent decades. Scientific American reports:
According to an analysis published today in Science, the number of Category 4 and Category 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the past 35 years...

"In the 1970s, there was an average of about 10 Category 4 and 5 storms hurricanes per year globally," Webster notes. "Since 1990, the number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled, averaging 18 per year globally."
Link

But can we blame this trend on "global warming"? It seems that the jury is still out:
Dr Peter Webster [the same guy that headed the previously noted study], believes there may be a link to climate change.

'What I think we can say is that the increase in intensity is probably accounted for by the increase in sea-surface temperature,' he told the BBC News website, 'and I think probably the sea-surface temperature increase is a manifestation of global warming.'

'The problem is,' observes Julian Heming, 'that we can only look back about 35 years with satellite data; before that the record is somewhat unreliable, and 35 years isn't long enough to draw a definite conclusion.
Link (emphasis added)

What The F*ck?

If only I'd thought of this first. Damn.
I don't know, just had the idea one day and thought it would be funny. So I printed out stickers in a bunch of different sizes, took them everywhere with me, and started taking photos. It quickly turned into an obsession, and now here we are.
Don't ask any questions, just clich thru..Link [hint: once you're there, click the "this way" / "that way" links on the LHS to get the gist.]

Five Best Books About Baseball

Having got my full of NASCAR books (among which my favorite is American Zoom: Stock Car Racing-From the Dirt Tracks to Daytona), this article looks timely. Tim McCarver, a former MLB player and broadcaster on Fox, has compiled a list of his five favorite baseball books. I've excerpted his description of the first two books. The rest, for those interested, are found in the article (subscription only). Link

1. Ball Four (1970) by Jim Bouton
Jim Bouton's 'Ball Four' was a terrifically revealing book, and for writing it he was ostracized by the baseball establishment -- both by the players and by Bowie Kuhn, the baseball commissioner at the time. He'd kept a diary about his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots and the Houston Astros -- material filled with locker-room stories and other forbidden topics. It was hilarious stuff. Now here it is 35 years later, and it all seems so tame -- so innocent! The innocence is one of the book's charms today. But back when it first appeared, and this says something about where we've come, it was like 'Peyton Place.'

2. The Summer Game (2004) by Roger Angell
This collection of essays takes you into the heart of baseball as it was in the 1960s, conveyed with humor and insight. There are in-depth looks at the major players -- Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Sandy Koufax, Casey Stengel and Roberto Clemente, among others -- and of classic World Series in the decade. There are views, too, of the Miracle Mets and of the Yankees, who could have used a miracle. The key here is that Roger Angell is a stunning writer. He is also in many ways a highly cerebral one and yet utterly down to earth -- a writer who can translate the nuances of the game with perfect clarity.

3. The Great American Novel (1973) by Philip Roth

4. The Boys of Summer (1972) by Roger Kahn

5. October 1964 (1994) by David Halberstam

And if gettin fancy is your thing, there is a list by Simon Doonan on the 5 best books on fashion. Link

Friday, September 23

Never mind Rita

Ok, I know Rita is approaching Texas, NOLA is recovering from Katrina, and our boys are dying overseas, but never mind. The primary topics of conversation among many Chicagoans are:

Gasp! Marshall Fields to be renamed Macy's

White Sox Inch Toward Historic Collapse

Omitted variable bias

Mahalanobis does a splendid job describing an obstacle faced by applied economists: the importance of controlling for all relevant independent effects. This is called the omitted variables problem and when not resolved properly it can result in biased coefficient estimates.

The crowning achievement of his discussion is a simple one: it is the ability to graphically demonstrate (ie, to visualize) the problem in a two dimensional diagram. Link

Thursday, September 22

More grammer and usage tidbits

Search The New Yorker for a word that doesn't appear in an on-line article, and you get a message reading "I'm sorry I couldn't find that for which you were looking." The "language log" blog is not amused and offers a sharp (and informative) rejoinder. Link

A blog named "43 Folders" offers some excellent advice on writing "sensible email messages." Link

And, finally, The Chicago Manual of Style website has a Q & A forum, described as follows: "Even at nearly 1,000 pages, The Chicago Manual of Style can’t cover every detail. In this forum we interpret the Manual’s recommendations and uncoil its intricacies." LInk

Monday, September 19

Pledge-A-Picket

What is an effective way of counteracting protesters that picket in front of your place of business? Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania has come up with a novel possible solution:
Here's how it works: You decide on the amount you would like to pledge for each protester (minimum 10 cents). When protesters show up on our sidewalks, Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania will count and record their number each day from October 1 through November 30, 2005. We will place a sign outside the health center that tracks pledges and makes protesters fully aware that their actions are benefiting PPSP. At the end of the two-month campaign, we will send you an update on protest activities and a pledge reminder.
Link

Sunday, September 18

The Burnsteins' visit to Millenium Park

Stephanie and ODB



Grandma Marty and Sam


The whole gang, including Steph's legs (see, ie, top of bean)


Euge and David

Thursday, September 15

A Political Bias in Petrol Prices

The "Financial Methods" blog has an interesting post on state petrol taxes. The author observes the following correlation:
Looking at the 10 states with the highest gasoline taxes, there is 1 red state and 9 blue. Indiana is the red state with the highest gasoline taxes...Of the 10 states with the lowest gasoline taxes, the pattern reverses - 9 red states and 1 blue. New Jersey wins the prize for the blue state with the lowest gasoline taxes (at 14.5 cpg).
My guess: the correlation is largely explained by variations in population density in red vs. blue states. As the author (I think) says or suggests, there are probably valid reasons for adopting a relatively high petrol tax in an urban environment where congestion is an issue and public transport may be (more) widely available. Link

Furl it!

Furl is a free web archive service that lets you save anything you see in your web browser. For instance, if you find a NYT article that has a shelf-life of a week or two, and you'd like to be able to access it in the future, then just Furl it! Link

In general, I "Furl" all websites that I find useful and/or interesting, and that I may want to check out again in the future. Hence, when/if I want to find the site again, I need only go to my Furl account (instead of, eg, trying to track it down on google.com). If you are interested in seeing how I use Furl, then check out my archive: Link As you may notice, I use it to archive many things, but for the most part I use it to archive noteworthy telecom and economics articles that I've read on the web. Also, from time to time, I find it interesting to see what other people are "Furling" (which Furl tabulates on its home page).

Monday, September 12

25 Mind-Numbingly Stupid Quotes About Hurricane Katrina And Its Aftermath

It'd be funny if it weren't so sad...
1) "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

--President Bush, on 'Good Morning America,' Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina
And there are 24 more just like this. Link

Offshore: The Dark Side of the Global Economy

This book review, which appears in the Washington Monthly and was forwarded to me by my dad, encouraged me to go out and get the book. Excerpt from article:
If America needs a new enemy, the Cayman Islands might be a refreshing choice. They're dismayingly wealthy, temptingly close by, and, with a population of only 41,000, surely defeatable. Any post-war occupation and reconstruction phase would probably last under 24 hours, including swim breaks.

Luckily, we're also miffed at them. John Kerry singled them out during the 2004 campaign, complaining, "There are enough brass-plate companies down in Georgetown, the Cayman Islands, different places, to make anybody in America sick when they look at their own tax bill." Tax-sheltering aside, there's also a Caymanian coziness with companies that later go bust--according to one investigator looking into Enron, "We found 441 entities setup in the Cayman Islands," most of which were "inactive shells." Even the Islands' essential selling points--tax-free banking, adventurous financial instruments (of the not-legal-in-some-states variety), sweeping secrecy laws--seem to carry the whiff of, well, prison.
Link

Music Therapy for Newborns

This made me laugh. The headline reads "Mozart to a baby's ears helps ease birth trauma," but the picture accompanying the article seems to contradict this conclusion. Check it out: Link to pic

What went wrong, two words: Chad Henne

Michigan defense started crappy, but came on strong as the game progressed. This is heartening given their performance against Northern Illinois. In contrast, the offense started crappy and remained consistently crappy thru out the game.

If nothing else, Henne made clear that he has some real skillz at sucking, committing two unforgivable mistakes: first, starting the 2nd half with an interception at the 1-yard line; and second, fumbling the ball with 5 minutes left in the game and down by 2 TDs, at (you guessed it) the 1-yard line. Shit, now thats NOT racin'. Which reminds me, I again fell asleep midway thru the NASCAR race this Saturday evening. My takeaways: first, I spent 2 hours watching the race, didn't understand a thing (could be a consequence, however, of takeaway item three below); second, Jeff Gordon finished way back, didn't make the Chase; and three, enjoyed my High Life in style with my very own Nextel Cup beer warmer thingy! End of digression.

One could gripe about the fumble, which was the result of a ref review. In particular, I think Henne scored on the play immediately preceding the fumble. There was no review of that play. Not sure why.

Well, to top it off, TB Hart went down with an injury and is out for an indefinite period. And Ohio State and Iowa lost their games too. Nice. Link

Friday, September 9

Ivan: One Year On...

Today's Cayman Net News carries a supplement on Hurricane Ivan. Its mostly full of ads and crap, but it has some interesting stuff too. To access the supplement, go here and scroll down to the heading "Special Net News Supplement: Hurricane Ivan... One Year On"

For instance, on the front page of the supplement is an overhead shot of our former abode, Dolphin Point. Link Our Condo, unit 401, or what is left of it, is on the far right-hand side, adjacent to the shoreline. (My own post-Ivan pics of DP, if you're interested, can be found here.) The supplement also contains some before-after shots of various island landmarks, see pp. 16-18. See, also, an ad from our infamous insurance broker, Chuck Jackson, on p. 26.

"Pass the potatoes, Sterling's running Talladega"

A nice article on Clifton "Coo Coo" Marlin, who passed away a couple weeks ago. Coo Coo is Sterling's dad,
a colorful character who raced hard, partied harder and still found time to finish his chores on the family farm. Link
In industry parlance, Coo Coo knew how to git-r done! I'm not sure if its a patented phrase or not, but in its entirety it goes something like this:
It's simple...Kick ass and gitr' done...Shit...now thats racin'! Yee haw. Link
I added the 'yee haw' at the end. And another common phrase shouted at the beginning of a race goes:
Boogity Boogity Boogity!!! Link
To be honest, it gives me goose bumps just typing it.

Speaking of boogity boogity boogity, this Saturday is Richmond, the final race before the Chase. Now that Jr. is out of contention, the big question is whether Jeff Gordon (currently 12th in points) will git-er done. Given the number of racers on the bubble, it should be a good race regardless of who ends up gitn-er done. So git yourself a six pack of Miller High Life, turn it to TNT, and enjoy. Link

Dubya and the Sunk-Cost Fallacy

Barry Schwartz provides a nice tutorial on sunk costs in today's Slate:
In recent speeches, President Bush has offered several reasons for staying the course in Iraq. One of them is the almost 2,000 Americans who have already died in the war. 'We owe them something,' the president said on Aug. 22. 'We will finish the task that they gave their lives for.'

Psychologists, decision scientists, and economists have a name for this type of argument: the 'sunk-cost fallacy.'
Read on...Link

Thursday, September 8

Katrina Timeline

A timeline of events leading up to Katrina (8/26) through Saturday (9/03). It is presented in a nice "lets blame it all on Bush" sort-of-way I'm sure you'll appreciate. Link

"Automobility" key to New Orleans Tragedy

Or so says Randal O'Toole in this provocative article.
What made New Orleans more vulnerable to catastrophe than most U.S. cities is its low rate of auto ownership. According to the 2000 Census, nearly a third of New Orleans households do not own an automobile. This compares to less than 10 percent nationwide...

[T]he number of people killed by hurricanes in the U.S. steadily declined during the twentieth century. Economists commonly attribute such declines to increasing wealth...But what makes wealthier societies less vulnerable to natural disaster? There are several factors, but the most important is mobility.

O'Toole then goes on to explain how money spent on public transport in N.O. might have been better spent on improving "automobility." It is a partial, one-sided analysis (that is, it does not account for many of the benefits of public transport or the costs of "automobility"), but it is nonetheless persuasive (if not obvious). Certainly the auto industry will exploit this new-found fear ("honey, we have no automobility!!") just as our administration exploited fear of terrorism post-9/11 to invade Iraq. Link

CJR's "Language Corner"

Columbia Journalism Review has a page called the Language Corner, which offers (or should I have said "that offers"?) "various rules of the language, including rules of thumb..." It looks interesting and useful. Excerpt:
Why use “that” in one place and “which” in another? Well, consider:

The cars that were green failed to run.

In that sentence, "that were green" is a restrictive, defining, or (the favorite here) essential clause.

It’s essential because without it, we have “The cars failed to run” — not at all what we set out to report. Orange cars, say, may have hummed right along; it’s green cars that didn’t. Now consider:

The cars, which were green, failed to run.

Take out the clause, and the intended meaning of the sentence remains: the cars — all the cars we’re discussing — failed to run. Their color is incidental, not essential.

The principle is the same even if the content of the (nonessential) “which” clause is exciting:

“The pistol, which was the murder weapon, was a Mauser.”

For the purpose of the sentence as it's structured, what is essential is not what the pistol was used for but who made it. (The commas are characteristic around “which” clauses but not “that” clauses.)

Does that/which matter? Writers of the British school seem to use “which” routinely in both kinds of clauses, even though their great mentor, H.W. Fowler, favored a distinction. For Americans, the “rule” is worth understanding not because it’s intrinsically sensible — it’s not — but because many teachers and editors insist on it.

Wednesday, September 7

Katrina could help Cayman

Look on the bright side folks, Katrina isn't all bad. Get a load of this...
“Clearly New Orleans, being a very major US city, is also a major tourist attraction and it is now out of commission,” Minister for Tourism Charles Clifford said.

“I believe the Caribbean region will benefit from that,” he said.

Speaking of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Clifford was quick to add, “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their homes and loved ones and they continue to be in our thoughts and prayers”.
Oh yeah, and speaking of that devastation thingy, Chuck, shut your pie hole. Link

Katrina: two perspectives

I know, this is totally unfair and uncalled for. The "photoshopped" picture consists of two seperate pics, interestingly enough, taken on the same day last week. Draw your own conclusions.




And summing up the whole mess is Keith Olbermann, in an editorial piece on MSNBC:
[M]ost chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Do listen or read the the whole thing. Link to Olbermann video and text version here. Pic and quote stolen from the amazing Xani Jardin over at Boing Boing.

Update: Ms. Jardin has posted another amusing pic of dubya picking his gee-tar. Link

Tuesday, September 6

What did we do this weekend?

It took me two full days to put this POS together. But it is nice to watch the "kids" enjoy it.


Euge in action

Barbara Bush: It's Good Enough for the Poor

This has been making the rounds. Caught out of context or just caught (being an a--hole)? You decide.
"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them," Mrs. Bush told American Public Media's "Marketplace" program, before returning to her multi-million dollar Houston home.

On the tape of the interview, Mrs. Bush chuckles audibly as she observes just how great things are going for families that are separated from loved ones, people who have been forced to abandon their homes and the only community where they have ever lived, and parents who are explaining to children that their pets, their toys and in some cases their friends may be lost forever.
Color commentary provided by our friends at The Nation, so take it for what its worth. Link, and another link

Monday, September 5

The big disconnect, part deux

It turns out the Department of Homeland Security is preventing the Red Cross from entering New Orleans. Link

It is one thing to be incompetent - that to a large extent is to be expected from government - but it is another thing entirely to actively block efforts to assist. Simply amazing.

Update: Don Boudreaux, an economics prof at George Mason, posted previously on this same issue. He offers a cogent critique, well worth reading. Link

Saturday, September 3

The big disconnect

FEMA's Brown is going down. You can't make this stuff up. Link

Friday, September 2

Opportunity Cost

Lets break briefly from Katrina, and take a pop quiz...
Virtually all economists consider opportunity cost a central concept. Yet a recent study by Paul J. Ferraro and Laura O. Taylor of Georgia State University suggests that most professional economists may not really understand it. At the 2005 annual meetings of the American Economic Association, the researchers asked almost 200 professional economists to answer this question:

'You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan. Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of seeing Eric Clapton? (a) $0, (b) $10, (c) $40, or (d) $50.'
Hint: The answer is in the article. Link

Another hint: The opportunity cost of seeing Clapton is defined as the cost associated with foregoing Dylan. And that cost is equal to the consumer surplus you would have garnered had you seen Dylan.

Yet another hint: Its not (a), (c), or (d).

What a turd

Did you read this?
(CNN) -- The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.

Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.

"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN.

"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said...
But, you know? WTF? New Orleans is not a rich city; it is disproportionately poor. While some that stayed behind certainly bear accountability, many simply had no reliable transportation, no money (they're living hand-to-mouth), and nowhere else to go, even if they had the means to get there. Link

Thursday, September 1

New Orleans in Anarchy

This cannot be happening. Link