09.14.08
Posted in Politics and Issues, Business and Economy at 8:22 am by Jeff
Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution explains the real reason gas prices are high:
My wonderful mother is upset, like pretty much everyone else, at the price of gas. “Well, the hurricane has knocked out a lot of production on the gulf coast,” I say. “Yes but there’s plenty of gas in the pipes that was produced before the hurricane - the suppliers are gouging.” she responds. Arrghhh….must resist, must resist, must be ….nice. “mmm,” I say. You and my Econ 101 students (103 actually), however, are not so lucky…
Read the rest: Marginal Revolution: Response to my Mother
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06.10.08
Posted in Politics and Issues, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy at 11:20 am by Jeff
Food for thought in an election season.
Public Choice Theory: instead of imagining what a wise, omniscient, benevolent government might do, one should pay attention to how government operates in practice.
So You Want to be a Masonomist
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06.09.08
Posted in Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet at 7:56 pm by Jeff
I’m glad I haven’t bought an iPhone (yet):
“If I’d spent that original US$599 on Apple stock instead, I’d be able to buy a new iPhone 3G and have about US$599 in assets to my name.”
Investing Strategies for iPhone Customers
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Posted in Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy, Humor and Sarcasm at 3:34 pm by Jeff
Wow, an airline that charges you based on weight. Not just the weight of your luggage, mind you. Your weight.
http://flyderrie-air.com/
Guess I should work on losing those extra couple of pounds before I fly again. Heh.
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05.13.08
Posted in Science and Technology, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet at 8:04 pm by Jeff
Myspace and LinkedIn and Facebook, oh my!
I set up a myspace page probably 2 years ago. Then I got around to creating a linkedin page. And a few weeks ago, I finally drank the kool-aid and joined facebook.
Of course getting in touch with old friends and keeping it touch with new ones is nice. But what’s been really interesting is discovering the ways that my friends know each other. I’ve already had a handful of experiences now where I’ve been shocked to discover that “friend A who I met in college and friend B who I met at a summer camp met each other on the other side of the world, and now they are friends.” I can’t imagine how else I would have ever discovered these random connections.
The world is getting way too small.
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02.05.08
Posted in Politics and Issues, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy, Justice and Compassion at 11:16 am by Jeff
My wife and children participate in a home school co-op that meets every Friday. A couple of months ago, Amy wanted to teach the kids about wealth disparity and worldwide population distribution. I scoured the CIA and WHO websites for the necessary data on GDP and population size by country, and then consolidated this data by continent. Whew!
For those of us in North America, this is a good reminder of how thankful we ought to be.
Wealth and Population
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12.31.07
Posted in Science and Technology, Business and Economy at 11:31 am by Jeff
Count me among the bench warmers.
“Despite the increasing variety of programs on the Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats, most US consumers are staying out of the DVD format war. This is a wise decision, the article states, because the two formats are essentially at a stalemate.”
Slashdot: Most Consumers Sitting Out The High-Def War
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11.13.07
Posted in Business and Economy at 10:00 pm by Jeff
My two favorites, now together as one.
Widmer and Redhook to merge
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Posted in Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy at 1:26 pm by Jeff
Margaret Heffernan has an interesting article up at Fast Company.
My favorite blurb from the article:
If you treat employees like children, they will behave that way — which means trouble. If you treat them like adults, they may just respond likewise.
This statement struck me because I think it can be applied to how parents treat their children. This isn’t to say that parents should try to force their kids to become adults too quickly. But often, treating your children like they are immature will result in a self-fulfilling prophecy–you’ll get immature children.
If you treat [your children] like children, they will behave that way — which means trouble. If you treat them like adults, they may just respond likewise.
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10.15.07
Posted in Science and Technology, Politics and Issues, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet at 10:50 pm by Jeff
- Ever wonder what gives the government the power to just take away your family’s home?
- Ever worry that the medicine that keeps you alive might be declared illegal by the Feds?
- Ever think that the government doesn’t always know best?
Check out reason.tv
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Posted in Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy, Music and Literature, Computers and Internet at 10:53 am by Jeff
Late to the party, Led Zeppelin to sell music online.
Well, it’s not a big deal to me because I already own the box set, but interesting to see one of the last hold-outs come around to online music sales.
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08.01.07
Posted in Science and Technology, Politics and Issues, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy at 11:21 am by Jeff
Wow, Rolling Stone magazine gets it right on Ethanol.
In Brazil, ethanol made from sugar cane has an energy balance of 8-to-1 — that is, when you add up the fossil fuels used to irrigate, fertilize, grow, transport and refine sugar cane into ethanol, the energy output is eight times higher than the energy inputs. That’s a better deal than gasoline, which has an energy balance of 5-to-1. In contrast, the energy balance of corn ethanol is only 1.3-to-1 - making it practically worthless as an energy source. “Corn ethanol is essentially a way of recycling natural gas,” says Robert Rapier, an oil-industry engineer who runs the R-Squared Energy Blog.
Finally, a cause on which right and left can agree.
Read more: Ethanol Scam
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05.31.07
Posted in Science and Technology, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet at 12:24 pm by Jeff
If you haven’t yet heard about Google’s new Street View feature, where have you been? Here’s the view from Hyde and Lombard in SF.
Here’s an article on how they are accomplishing this: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/31/google_maps_zoom_her.html
Update: Google Streets has certain brought out the Orwellian/Huxleyan conspiracy theorists. But maybe we actually have something to worry about. I decided to follow that little red car from my Lombard Street link above and found that the car’s license plate is easily viewable. Is a line being crossed? Are we moving into a world where “as long as you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear?”
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05.07.07
Posted in Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy at 2:33 pm by Jeff
Just three more seasons of “Lost”. Now they will actually have to start closing up some loose plot-line threads!
Ahh, just three more years and I can reclaim my Wednesday nights.
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01.02.07
Posted in Science and Technology, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy at 1:23 pm by Jeff
At a recent retreat with some class-mates, I was reminded just how much I stink at ping-pong (though I still enjoy playing). Now someone has invented 3-player ping-pong, so I can get beat by two people at once!
Inventor creates ping pong for three
But the more interesting part of the article gets minimal treatment:
His spatial relativity theory involves the String Theory, the Big Bang theory, quotes from Albert Einstein and something Boyd calls the “elemental particle.” It is, he contends, the smallest possible piece of physical matter in the physical universe.
He claims that if he could break down space into these basic particles, they could be used for electricity.
. . .
Boyd is seeking investors to build a prototype spatial energy converter to test his theory, which he said could have energy, medical and military-industrial applications.
“This should be easy to disprove,” he said, “But if we are correct, we’ve revolutionized physics and the electric grid as we know it won’t be needed anymore.”
Now that could get interesting. But I can’t find anymore information on this guy or his theory. Probably junk science anyway. Oh well.
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12.15.06
Posted in Politics and Issues, Business and Economy at 9:23 am by Jeff
Ah, the irony…
A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company’s work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.
NPR : Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers
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12.13.06
Posted in Faith and Practice, Culture and Ideas, Business and Economy at 9:55 pm by Jeff
As if the books weren’t horrible enough, now we have Left Behind video games. My favorite description of the game-play action is this:
Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.
Onward Christian Soldiers!
If you’re so inclined, you can read all about it.
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11.16.06
Posted in Business and Economy at 3:14 pm by Jeff
Milton Friedman, champion of free market economics, died today.
Milton Friedman, one of the most influential economists of the past century and winner of a 1976 Nobel Prize, died on Thursday morning of heart failure at a San Francisco area hospital, a spokeswoman for his family said. He was 94.
Free market economist Milton Friedman dead at 94
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11.15.06
Posted in Science and Technology, Business and Economy, Computers and Internet at 10:23 pm by Jeff
I am loving my new phone.
I highly recommend acquiring one.
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