Saturday, April 03, 2010
A delightful piece
One of the chief priests, a "Dr. Romer," once appears to have worshipped different dieties, but now worships the god called "Porkulus." Angus had pointed this out at the time, of course, but it is worth remembering.
(Nod to the NCM)
Hot Links!
Some Days, You Learn Things.
There some days when you learn things. I have been looking at transit data and saying that transit only covers 15% to 30% of operating expense from their fare boxes except in top 5 markets where it can up to 30% to 48%. Well after reading Sam Staley’s blog at the Reason Foundation, I now have to rethink this since it now appears that there has been some fare box stuffing. It turns out “Some 120,000 federal workers in the Washington region receive up to $230 a month for transit, which amounts to taxpayer-funded free rides or at least a hefty bite out of even the most expensive trips.” according to the Washington Examiner. Amazingly that could add up to $331 million a year for a transit agency that collects $683 million a year in fares with a $1.9 billion operating budget.
The examiner later states that “For years, federal employees received free and subsidized parking. Taking away the perk hasn't been a viable option: When President Carter tried it in 1979, federal employees protested and started a boycott of U.S. savings bonds”.
So what can be done? May be the Feds can apply a little Ricardian comparative advantage. Find the price point that Federal employees think the dough that they will get is equal to the transit or parking and get out of the “Green Washing” with the transit and the diametrically opposed “Brown” parking subsidy at the same time. There are markets in everything and I for one would be happier to be paid in dollars than in subway tokens or parking passes. I think it would be worth seeing if federal employees felt the same way.
Nor is it gloom and doom for the transit agency. There are plenty of consumers who would be willing to pay to avoid DC traffic. Now, they just would be a little more like choice riders.
Tell the Truth?
"I, as an elected official, make a personal pledge to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth while representing my constituents and conducting the business of the office to which elected."
Only about their public acts and duties, mind you. If Bill wants to lie to Hillary about Monica, that's between them.
I should note that I met Miles when we both had kids at RCHS.
Discuss, please.
Friday, April 02, 2010
Thursday, April 01, 2010
The Problem is NOT That Women Don't Know What They Want....
Mike, in an earlier comment, is led to think a bit out loud about an analogous experience.
It WOULD be amazing if one could build a single custom made piece of furniture for less than a manufactured unit that sold thousands.
The EYM Lays Down Some Smack
TO THE EDITOR:
Though I’m thrilled to learn that our University is attempting to provide sustainable dining, Tuesday’s article, “Local Food, Big Business,” failed to explain what that actually means.
I’m inclined to think that “sustainable food” is food produced, transported, prepared and consumed without consuming finite natural resources or damaging the environment.
The article implies that subsumed under the term “sustainable” are the terms “local,” “organic,” “smaller farms,” “grass-fed beef” and “free-range eggs.”
The first two agree with my understanding of the term, but they get increasingly ridiculous.
Eggs produced by caged chickens are no more or less sustainable than free range eggs; they are more humane, but not more sustainable.
So by using the word “sustainable” to mean so many different things, the article robs itself of any actual weight or significance.
In my eyes, “sustainable” now means “any of a variety of liberal buzzwords designed and propagated to make people feel better about themselves.”
Kevin Munger
Sophomore
Mathematics
Oh, where, WHERE did I go wrong? Clearly, I failed as a father. A kid who doesn't realize that "sustainable" is something we worship.... well, I blame the LMM. She's a lawyer, and tends to think that words have meanings, rather than emotions.
"The Entire Island Will Tip Over and Capsize"
Watch the question asked at 1:20.
This should be on the Onion. Is he kidding? He must be kidding.
If he is NOT kidding, then is he perhaps worried about underpopulation? I mean, the island might well float up into the sky and block out the sun if there are too FEW people on the island. Has anyone thought about that? I mean, no one worried about global warming, right?
(Nod to Angry Alex)
And these are our allies?
Attorney May al-Khansa said she learned from a judicial source that Ali Sibat is to be beheaded on Friday. She added that she does not have any official confirmation of this. Saudi judicial officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
A Lebanese official said Beirut has received no word from its embassy in Riyadh about Sibat's possible execution. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Saudi justice system, which is based on Islamic law, does not clearly define the charge of witchcraft.
Sibat is one of scores of people reported arrested every year in the kingdom for practicing sorcery, witchcraft, black magic and fortunetelling. These practices are considered polytheism by the government in Saudi Arabia, a deeply religious Muslim country.
Al-Khansa said she has called upon Saudi King Abdullah to pardon Sibat, a 49-year-old father of five. She also says she is in contact with Lebanese officials about the case.
She added that Sibat did not make predictions in Saudi Arabia and was neither a Saudi citizen nor a resident in Saudi and therefore should have been deported rather than tried there.
Sibat made predictions on an Arab satellite TV channel from his home in Beirut. He was arrested by the Saudi religious police during his pilgrimage to the holy city of Medina in May 2008 and sentenced to death last November."
The full story is here.
I guess I just can't stomach the "realist" school of international relations because our propping up of heinous regimes like this disgust me.
Pirate To-Do List
1. Remember to get parrot and AK-47, and other "effects"
2. Make sure that ship you attack at night is not extremely heavily armed US warship
They forgot #2, it appears.
Here is what USS Nicholas was packin':
One OTO Melara Mk 75 76 mm naval gun
two Mk 32 triple-tube (324 mm) launchers for Mark 46 torpedoes
one Vulcan Phalanx CIWS
four .50-cal (12.7 mm) machine guns.
SM-1MR Standard anti-ship/air missiles (40 round magazine)
What is a Phalanx? It's a 20mm Gatling gun, which fires 4,000 high explosive/incendiary rounds per minute. That is putting quite a bit of lead downrange in a hurry.
Furthermore, the main gun, the Melara Mk 76 mm, gun....it can fire more than 80 rounds per minute, with each shell carrying 15 pounds of high explosive. (Yes, 80 rounds per minute, and that's limited only by the loading device. The rate of fire on the gun is actually more than 100 rounds per minute. So a three second burst is 5 or 6 massive shells.)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
When Robert met Edmond
They argue that Lucas, who modeled an effect of improving health on growth and Nelson and Phelps who modeled an effect of the level of health on growth are both correct.
Hello Lakers?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
All Hail Greg Weeks
Here's Schumer on meet the press:
MR. GREGORY: Senator Schumer, is immigration reform dead then?
Now here's Greg on Schumer:
Kudos, Sir!
Not Fiction, but a Cartoon Videotape
The link is kind of hinky, so let me just give the dialogue.
Man and woman in restaurant, ordering, waiter is writing down orders.
Man: "I'll have number 7."
Woman: "I'll have a wide assortment of ingredients from your menu, in different combinations than you offer them, but first, this series of probing questions."
But, GOSH, I do love her anyway. Even though in restaurants I generally want to hide.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Whale-y boy
Open Marriage
Best line: If you have slept with n people, then anyone who has slept with n+1 people is a slut. Our own experiences form the outer boundary of what is morally acceptable.
Amazingly perceptive remark. And it transfers to other areas. We are all immigrants, in the U.S. Even the "native Americans came here just 8 or 10 thousand years ago. But somehow, the arrival of one's own particular ancestors seems to have perfected the U.S. Before my people came: America sucked. After they came: America was perfect, and all additional immigration should be outlawed.
The KPC view--on marriage, let people do what they want. Rules=tyranny.
On immigration--let people live where they want. More people=better country.
What if the Coen brothers had written the Old Testament?
Game Theory
Thomas Schelling
Economics and Philosophy, March 2010, Pages 27-46
Abstract: To a practitioner in the social sciences, game theory primarily helps to identify situations in which interdependent decisions are somehow problematic; solutions often require venturing into the social sciences. Game theory is usually about anticipating each other's choices; it can also cope with influencing other's choices. To a social scientist the great contribution of game theory is probably the payoff matrix, an accounting device comparable to the equals sign in algebra.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A Libertarian Protests McCain-Palin, Gets Roughed Up
Still, every time I think of John McCain, I do want to go do something that might get me arrested for saying bad words in public. So I don't blame the "libertarian," either. We don't think much of John McCain.
Oh Hi! Got any Fish?
Congressman Rangel Goes From Avuncular to Homoncular
Look, Angus and I don't hate Democrats. We hate incumbents. So don't hate us.
Good Samaritan arrested in Pennsylvania
Police say they charged a Pennsylvania man with public drunkenness after he was seen trying to resuscitate a long-dead opossum along a highway. State police Trooper Jamie Levier says several witnesses saw 55-year-old Donald Wolfe, of Brookville, near the animal Thursday along Route 36 in Oliver Township, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
The Associated Press could not locate a home telephone number for Wolfe.