Sunday, October 30

Painting the pumpkin

Tomorrow's the big day!




Oliver's big four-0

We celebrated Oliver's 4th birthday this Saturday at a local gynastics studio. Mom and dad think it went well. When asked how he liked it, ODB concluded: "it was the best day, ever." Nuf sed.

Nate, ODB, Sam and Dimitri wait their turn in line.



Oliver ready to exhale. Dad ready to join hair club for men.



The moment we've all been waiting for!



Parachute time.

(free) Software that helps you do stuff you want to

"I want to..." or "I need to" or "How do I?" These are all questions we all ask all the time. This is a small collection of resources that will help to answer those questions.

Link

Monday, October 24

The Dead Schembechlers




The Dead Schembachlers are a band that hail from Columbus, OH. I have not heard the band's music, but I must say they are intriguing. Here is there website, which includes info on their upcomeing gig: The Hate Michigan Rally 2005 this November 18.

And here are the lyrics to their recent hit "M Means Moron":

M MEANS MORON
M MEANS MORON
M MEANS MORON
ON YOUR HAT

M MEANS MORON
M MEANS MORON
M MEANS MORON
HOW 'BOUT THAT?

They also have one titled "Hey Fuck Lloyd Carr" and of course "Michigan Stadiums A Pile of Shit."

Tuesday, October 18

Yahoo! circa 1996

In the previous year (1995), Netscape 1.0 was rolled out, and the world wide web was born. So what did Yahoo!'s homepage look like in 1996? See for yourself. Link

(Cribbed from what seems to be a funny, interesting blog Wall Street Jackass)

Update: This from Boing Boing, a list of the 100 oldest .COM domains currently registered. To get a sense of the internet's newness, note that the oldest currently regestered name is only 20 years old. The list offers some historical perspective: who was visionary enough to register a .COM domain, and when? Link

Sunday, October 16

Last night's race had 15 yellow flags!

That is a lot of race stoppage, a lot of ads, and its why I fell asleep before the race ended. Still, what I saw was entertaining and I've come to learn that NASCAR is not all about the race. The race is but one dimension of the boogity-boogity experience. Another dimension is the cast of down-home characters. Last night was about one character in particular, Humpy Wheeler.

Yes his name is Humpy, Humpy Wheeler, and you will come to appreciate the irony of that name in a minute. Back in spring of this year they resurfaced the Charlotte track and the race in May was a distaster; the tires couldn't handle it. So Humpy decides to regrind the track for a second time. Whatever the strategy, it didn't work. It made the track exceptionally fast and also exceptionally "grippy." That combo caused the cars' tires to blow out unexpectedly. Ok, so its not perfect. It'd be better were his name, say, Tirer, but Wheeler is pretty good. And with a name like Humpy, does it really matter? Anyway, the drivers were pissed.

"I need a renewal of my life insurance policy, to tell you the truth," Stewart told his crew when asked late in the race what he needed. "I just can't wait for this thing to be over so I can get out of here and hopefully not be hurt."

Biffle realized just how perilous the situation was for the drivers: "Guys, we're not racing to win here. We're racing for a finish, whatever we can do to survive," he radioed to his crew.

As more and more tires popped -- leading Kevin Harvick to call the problems "the biggest joke in racing I've ever seen" after losing his right front -- NASCAR again called a competition caution and [mandated all racers to maintain a specified minimum tire pressure].
Link

Thursday, October 13

2005 Nobel prize winners in Economics

These two articles - one by Tim Harford (Financial Times) and the other by Fred Kaplan (Slate) - are worth perusing if you want to read up on Thomas Schelling, this year's co-winner of the Nobel prize in Economics.

The other winner is Robert Aumann, a mathematician and economics theoretician who, among other things, has created complex game theoretic models. Schelling, in contrast to Aumann, is a practitioner of these complicated models and has been highly successful in articulating game theory to laypeople. Plus, his contributions to public policy (see, eg, Kaplan's critical discussion of Schelling's role in the Vietnam war) are a much bigger draw to readers than are Aumann's equally significant, but less titillating contributions.

Hence, there appears to be much more in the newspapers that discusses Schelling's background and contributions than Aumann's. I'll take a stab at providing a "from 30-thousand-feet" example of one of Aumann's important contributions: equilibrium that derive from an infinitely repeated game. Aumann's work provided insight on the distinct outcomes that derive when a non-cooperative game is repeated indefinitely. Take the "prisoner's dilemma" game, which is a single-period game. Given the assumed payoffs, the outcome of a prisoner's dilemma game is typically that the two prisoners tattle on each other and end up in the executioners chair. However, over the long-run (that is if one allows the game to be repeated indefinitely) the conflict observed in the static/single-period game can become one of cooperation; namely, the prisoners come to understand that cooperation is in their best interest. Well, at least, that is the gist of it.

For those that want to read more, the blog Marginal Revolution has this on Aumann and this on Schelling. Dan Drezner responds effectively to Kaplan's critique of Schelling here.

Update: It seems that my Aumann "prisoner's dilemma" example is pontificated (with much greater rigor, I add) in the paper by the Royal Swedish Academy describing the winners' contributions. See, p. 14. Link (pdf document)

Monday, October 10

Bedtime arms race

It started with Sam deciding that he'd like to go to bed with a few books. ODB matched him and upped him some Lincoln logs. Sam returned Oliver's volley with a box of K'nex and legos. See pic of Sam below.




And so it went. I bid them goodnight at that point, and when I returned I found Oliver's bed in the following state. See pic of ODB below, and yes, he is sleeping in his pillowcase. Apparently, that was his only option, seeing that his covers were completely submerged in toys and books.




My conjecture is that (as is usually the case) Sam tired of this arms race and went to sleep. Oliver, on the other hand, remained awake and continued to expand his bedtime arsenal. As you can see, he reached capacity, literally. I frequently wonder what is going on in that head of his. Amazing.

Parent-child bonding?

Dear Abby, I've tried connecting w/ my child, but nothing seems to work. What should I do?

Dear Nincompoop [pun intended], You need to put them on the can and force them to take a dump. Just try it.

Ok, I made this up, but is not there something wrong with such advice? No, apparently it is sound. Excerpt from article:
A growing number of parents are experimenting with infant potty training, seeing it as more sanitary, ecologically correct and likely to strengthen bonds between parent and child.
Testimonial:
Ms. Ryman, the mother of 7-month-old Neshama, added, "I feel like it's been such a gift in our relationship."
Finally, the article comes with instructions:
To start, parents are taught to hold the baby by the thighs in a seated position against their stomachs and to make an encouraging hiss or grunt.
Sounds rather messy, to say the least, and no, the article is note published in The Onion. Link

Friday, October 7

Drinkin Appletons at DP

A dive instructor returns to his former abode on Grand Cayman after a 20-year hiatus. Guess the name of his former residence? Thats right, DP.
Standing today at the exact same spot where, 20 years ago, I waited for wind to blow and waves to grow angry, I realize how foolish I was. Last year, another monster rose from the south and threatened the island. But this one didn’t back down. If someone was sitting at the Dolphin Point gazebo to welcome Ivan, his body is probably still in a tree — on Cuba. The gazebo itself is gone; only bits of foundation remain on the ironshore. A guy who rode out the storm in a condo next to the one I lived in said that when the storm surge reached its high-water mark the sea was just inches below the second-floor balconies. All the lower units were totaled. The ocean crashed in through the front doors and windows and carried away every possession when it blew out the back. Because the insurance claims here have yet to be settled, the grounds are a still bomb site, with purses, shoes, toys, roofs, hot-water heaters and green pieces of tennis court scattered all over. It’s a disheartening first stop on my homecoming tour, but as I drive away, I can hear the buzz of power tools all around the neighborhood.
It is a wonderful article. Read the whole thing. Link

Wednesday, October 5

Thats not for rent

Hats off to Doors drummer John Densmore for refusing to allow Doors' songs to be used in TV commercials. Excerpt from the always amazing blog, Boing Boing:
"People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music," Densmore said. "I've had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music, other people say they know someone who didn't commit suicide because of this music…. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That's not for rent."
In economics terms, the benefits he describes are external benefits; ie, the Doors' music provides benefit that are external to the decision maker. Hence, in such instances it is frequently the case that the decision maker chooses a course that personally optimal but socially suboptimal. Some call this a consequence of "missing markets." In this case the missing market is reflected in the inability of Doors fans to express their preferences or influence the decision. By nixing the commercial use of Doors' tunes, Densmore seems to have internalized these external benefits. Thank you, John. Link

30 Gigs!

Google started the madness a little over a year ago. In April 2004, Google announced Gmail, a free email service with 1 gig of storage capacity. Yahoo and others subsequently matched Google's offer. Google then announced earlier this year that it would double its Gmail storage to 2 gigs. And so on and so forth. Link

Now I read that some mooncalf (which by the way, I just now learned, is a crazy person) is offering a free email service with 30 gigs storage capacity! It is currently only available with an invite. Link

Tuesday, October 4

Restrictor plates, why?

I'm pretty sure you're asking the same question. Yesterday's post re: the race at Talladega got me to thinking about the irony of "restrictor plate races." That is, the plates are mandated at certain super-speedways (ie, Daytona and 'dega) to improve driver and fan safety. But if that is the rationale, then why does "the big one" (ie, a grand-daddy, multi-car pileup) always seem to occur at these restrictor plate races? It is apparent that I'm not the first to mull this quandary. Excerpt from Wikipedia:
The [restrictor plate] device limits the power output of the motor and hence slows both the acceleration and the overall top speeds obtainable on the tracks where the cars are so equipped. These restrictions are supposedly in the interest of driver and fan safety, although many members of both of those groups feel that the close packing of cars and their inability to achieve separation may actually make the racing at these tracks more dangerous, as there are often massive and frightening multi-car pile-ups during those races.
I wonder how or if NASCAR has resolved this apparent conflict? Or whether the evidence, in fact, supports the claim that the incidence of crashes at restrictor plate races is higher (or the "intensity" of crashes greater) than they are at non-restrictor plate races? Link

And another follow-up on yesterday's post: after reviewing the tape, Johnson has accepted responsibility for the crash. Seems the crazy sob caused a similar crash at last years race too. Link

Monday, October 3

This is Talladega

Race three of ten and it was a dandy with Dale Jarratt sneaking past Tony Stewart (the Burnstein boys' favorite driver) and Matt Kenseth on the final lap to take the victory. Steph's dad and brother, by the way, drove from Peoria to Talladega, Alabama for the race.

There were some big crashes, which I hear is not uncommon at the "restrictor plate" races, run at Talladega and Daytona. By way of digression, don't you just love that word "talladega"? It makes you want to stand up, wave your STP cap in the air, and yell boogity-boogity-boogity! It does. Anyway, the biggest and most controversal crash was the first, on lap 20 or so. The facts: Jimmie Johnson smacked into Sadler's car and this triggered a pile up, with Waltrip taking the worst hit and going upside down several times. But why did Johnson hit Sadler? Did Jr. cause it by hitting Johnson first? No one knows for sure and this, my friends, sums up the anarchy that is NASCAR racing.
"I don't know what happened ... but all anybody can say is, 'This is Talladega.'"
Link

Sunday, October 2

More fancy pics

By popular demand, some more pics of the boys all dressed up.



One more. But the high point of the day, of course: the open bar!

The power of incentives

Or an alternative title: When all else fails, resort to bribery.

The Burnsteins went to a Bar Mitzvah this Saturday. These shots were taken by our friendly electrician, Tom. The third time is a charm. Actually, there was much more that went into coaxing Oliver's cooperation.