The lack of posts here is because I've been transferring all my information from Weebly to Blogger. Here's a link to my new site and the new rss feed and comments feed. I switched for various reasons, but the important thing is I'm happy to say its over and regular posting can return. In celebration of over 200 posts here's my favorites from the second 100 (here's my favorites from the first 100):
1) This Recession is a Result of Rationality (or maybe Irrationality)
2) Let's Not Do the Numbers
3) Three Part Series on the Economic Stimulus Package
4) Blockbuster's Future, A Personal Story
5) Wisdom from Comic Books
General Petraeus, the leader of the coalition forces in Iraq, recently did an interview with Fox News explaining some of the mistakes the US made after 9/11. One of them, he states, is that "the existence of Gitmo has been used by the enemy against us". Evidence that torturing prisoners has actually made us less safe. These "alternative techniques" are not necessary and as Petraeus points out, the "Army Field Manual is all that we need to use to interrogate prisoners." Here's a snippet from the manual:
The use of force, mental torture, threats, insults, or exposure to unpleasant and inhumane treatment of any kind is prohibited by law and is neither authorized nor. condoned by the US Government. Experience indicates that the use of force is not necessary to gain the cooperation of sources for interrogation. Therefore, the use of force is a poor technique, as it yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say whatever he thinks the interrogator wants to hear. However, the use of force is not to be confused with psychological ploys, verbal trickery, or other nonviolent and noncoercive ruses used by the interrogator in questioning hesitant or uncooperative sources. In the interview he suggests a responsible closure of the infamous
Gitmo prison and trying the prisoners in American courts. That latter part
is an important idea. We must trust the legal system that we are fighting
to protect. We cannot be proponents of the rule of law overseas and
ignore the Geneva Convention (Petraeus says we have) at home. This is
especially true given the evidence that torture has been used not to
protect American people from future attacks, but to justify
past militaryaction (hat tip to
Justin). Even though the most talked about technique,
waterboarding, has only been
used three times, it should not be doubted
that it is torture. If you're unsure, watch this video of
someone beingwaterboarded.
Ecocomics is a new blog that focuses on the Economics of the comic book world. Here are some experts from my favorites:
On how the construction industry must be booming:
In order to recover from such devastating blows, the comic book world must have an array of daring contractors and craftsman, willing to jump into the fray at a moment's notice. They are the truly amazing people in the comics universe. Somehow they are capable of repairing the Chrysler building overnight after Thor has been punched through it, only for the Green Goblin to the blow the top off of it the next day. And they do this consistently. For this to work, the public works department of Marvel's New York must be 1 billion workers strong. Batman should spend less on customizing weapons and more
on installing:
more motion detectors and reinforced doors in Arkham Asylum In the world of comic books any individual who has more than 5 million dollars in saving or assets immediately becomes bat-shit insane. It's a strange rule, but it seems that every independently wealthy individual in superhero comics decides that fighting/committing crime is the best way to spend their free time. They ignore possible hobbies like golfing, yachting, and collecting antique cars and go straight into wearing a mask and creating a global organization designed to save/destroy/conquer the world. Each mutant possesses a special skill which has its own inherent value. Because of this, a mutant can be viewed as a craftsman or a skilled laborer. Mutants with enhanced strength can work in construction, demolition, or even transportation. Storm could irrigate the crops of all the suffering farmers in the Midwest and California when the droughts of summer are destroying their crops. Quicksilver could sort the daily mail output of the United States in 3 hours. And the extraordinary power of these abilities would only make the economic effect of using mutant powers that much more extraordinary itself. Time, labor, and machinery costs would all be cut dramatically. How labor market benefits are short lived but technology
last forever:
I feel that these mutants may ultimately prove unable to increase long-run living standards. Any effect that Magneto may have on productivity will only temporarily move the economy to a higher steady-state output per person (y/n). With his death the economy will move back to where it was (and probably experience some unpleasant distortions during the transition).
[...]
Being mere humans in a giant multiverse of galactic powers, it’s a fair assumption that earth is an LDP (less developed planet) with a comparatively small capital stock. According to the Solow model, alien entrepreneurs should be jumping at the opportunity to invest in Earth. Add a growing stock of technology from metahumans and falling debris and you can get productivity and standards of living rising indefinitely.
Now if I can just can an Econprov blog.
1) Hands down the coolest bicycle tricks video I have ever seen.
2) The atomic bomb was Plan B (after thousands of bats carrying bombs).
3) Looking for a job? See what your references say about you or what interview questions certain employers are likely to ask.
4) Penn and Teller use magic to make a point about airline security.
5) A way around smoking bans, become a "smoking research center" (thanks Justin).
6) This company takes care of your online identity when you die?
7) Great pictures from a tent city outside of downtown Fresno.
8) Economics of The Office.
9) Classical Indian music + Bluegrass = Hindugrass
10) Really cool curve ball optical illusion.
Are these links lists even worth it? About how many do you actually click on? No response might make me think you didn't even read this far, so please comment. And if you like them, then here's my daily Bookmarks.
The authors of
Marginal Revolution are releasing their own economics textbook and asked their readers for a fitting
epigraph. I think they chose a good one:
Economics is the study of how to get the most out of life. What a great explanation of how important efficiency is. Sometimes I'm guilty of portraying the market as uncaring and cold, but that's only true if the collective decisions of the people are uncaring and cold. Efficiency is letting the most people get the most good. Not too bad for the "dismal science".
Been wanting to post this for a while. It's from a BBC show called
The Real Hustle, which demonstrates cons and scams on unsuspecting people using hidden cameras. See more
here.
If you listen to NPR's Marketplace, or most news shows for that matter, then you've probably heard them ramble off the day's stock market price changes. Marketplace even plays positive or negative music based on the up or down direction of the prices. Not only is this a waste of time for its listeners, it distracts the public from real measures of economic health. The direction of the stock market on any given day is not based on overall economic health, but is instead the result of countless decisions based on even more countless information. The daily change means nothing to the average American, what really matters is the long run trend.
The long run trend is up; that's what matters. The average person doesn't invest in the stock market to get rich quickly, they do it to get rich slowly. But here's the kicker, not only does the daily direction meaningless to regular Joes like us, it is borderline worthless to the "experts" as well. The Wall Street Journal has been running a contest since 1988 based on Burton Malkiel’s book A Random Walk Down Wall Street. In the book he proposes that "a blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper’s financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts." Here are the results:
The pros won 61 of the 100 contests versus the darts. That’s better than the 50% that would be expected in an efficient market. On the other hand, the pros losing 39% of the time to a bunch of darts certainly could be viewed as somewhat of an embarrassment for the pros. Additionally, the performance of the pros versus the Dow Jones Industrial Average was less impressive. The pros barely edged the DJIA by a margin of 51 to 49 contests.
So stop telling me "I'm in the Money" or that there's "Stormy Weather".
Another insightful post from Penelope Trunk:
We should judge people by their ideas, their creativity, their enthusiasm. None of this naturally comes at the heels of good grammar.
Writing without typos is outdated. It’s impossible to proofread your own work, and it is not financially viable to produce typo-free copy—if it made financial sense, the newspaper industry would be booming. But instead, the riddled-with-typos blogging industry is booming.
A general rule I try to follow is to not spend more time producing a post than my collective readers will take consuming it. So if it takes me 30 minutes to write, it better take my 30 readers at least 1 minute to read, 1 loyal reader 30 minutes to read, or somewhere in between. That way the more popular a blog is, the more time a writer can justify spending on it.
As a follower of "The Wheel", a fan of general game strategy, and as the brother-in-law of two past contestants, I've often wondered what the best show strategy was. Who better to ask than the professionals themselves? Here is a Pat Sajak v. Vanna White April Fools episode from the late 90's:
Here are three strategies I gleaned:
1) By default, start your guesses with the 5 consonants they give you in the bonus round, RSTLN.
2) If you are not confident in what consonant to guess next, buy a vowel (Pat even commended a contestant for using this strategy on today's episode).
3) Even if you know the answer, keep going to get your maximum amount of money. Not necessarily guessing every letter, but definitely not solving right when you know it (you have an 11/12 chance of not losing your turn on the spin).
For the first time in a long while, I went to Blockbuster. Here's my story:
Me: Hey I'm looking for Bull Durham (It's a movie that takes place in the area I recently moved to, Durham).
Employee: Yeah it's over there in the $1 movie section.
Me: $1 movie? I didn't know y'all lowered you're prices.
Employee: It just happened a couple of weeks ago.
Me: Great (It's at this time I start to question my disloyalty to Blockbuster. Maybe they've come around after all. So I go find Bull Durham, walk to counter excited to spend less than I predicted [...] 3 minutes later I arrive at the front of the line).
Employee: Do you have your Blockbuster Card?
Me: Oh, no. (Do people still carry those around?) I have one under my wife's name, Traci Brookie, B-R-O-O-K-I-E.
Employee: Is she here?
Me: No.
Employee: Oh, then you won't be able to use it.
Me: ...
Employee: Let me see if your name is on the card too. What's your name?
Me: Harrison Brookie
Employee: I don't see it. Did you get this in another state?
Me: Yeah, South Carolina.
Employee: Oh, well that's the problem. You'll have to get another account from this state. Just come over here (to an entirely new desk across the room) and fill out this form (that has at least a dozen information questions. It's at this point I realize my hope for Blockbuster has been dashed. I quickly fill out what I feel is the bare minimum and hand it back.).
Employee: Don't forget your license number.
Me: ...OK
Employee: Oh and your debit card info.
Me: ......OK
Employee: And your contact number.
Me: .........OK
Employee: And also your home address.
Me: You have my license number, debit information, and my cell phone number, why do you possibly need my home address?
Employee: We need to know where our products are going!
Me: ...
Employee: Look, you don't have to do anything you don't want to.
Me: This is why Netflix is kicking your ass (I may have said "Redbox", but either way, I definitely said "kicking your ass").
Employee: Uh, well actually no their not (others would disagree, so would the facts).
Me: Ok here... (I hand him my filled out sheet with everything short of my social security number and he hands me a laminated card. I guess I'm supposed to file this with my BILO Bonus Card and CVS Extra Care Card in the annoying things to hold on to box).
Employee: Thank you, now just show that to the cashier (I head back over to the original line. [...] 3 minutes later I arrive at the front of the line. I give him money. He gives me the movie).
Employee: That's due back by midnight tomorrow (Which means I had to drive back up there again the next day. Luckily it was the last time).
