Ducks and Economics
A blog by Eapen Thampy
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Assorted Links
Today’s assorted links post is a selection of interesting reads from my blogroll. Enjoy.
1. Alanna Bauer on bigotry and equality.
2. Jimmy Li on perception.
3. Niki DeWitt on hypochondria.
4. Adam Ozimek: Can the Tea Party be pragmatic?
5. Michael Roberts on the relationship between weather and agriculture markets.
6. Josh Smith on why the earnings tax in St. Louis and Kansas city is bad.
Thoughts on Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy
At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen responds to my request for thoughts on Margaret Atwood and Arundhati Roy.
On Paranoia and Bobby Fischer
From Bobby Fischer vs. the Rest of the World, pg 232:
(Bobby) took a notion that he might be the next target of the Palestinian terrorists who had attacked the Olympic Village (in Munich). Davis demanded protection. There were twenty-three Arabs in Iceland at the time, and the Icelandic police put a tail on every one of them.
Against Sarah Brodsky re: Parents as Teachers/Pre-Natal Care
I originally posted this as a comment on Show-Me Institute blogger Sarah Brodsky’s post today on Parents as Teachers, but for some reason the comment hasn’t been approved yet, and I thought there might be some value to posting an independent response. If you haven’t read it, Brodsky takes the parenting education program Parents as Teachers to task for *gasp* teaching parents how to assist their unborn child’s cognitive development through reading aloud to their baby in the womb. I find Brodsky’s arguments on this point to be aggravatingly bad, as it is clear that she is completely unfamiliar with the entirety of the scientific research on pre-natal cognitive development.
The Median Voter Theorem, Utah Edition
In the short term, however, Martin’s concern is surviving the Republican convention. Beyond courting delegates, he said he is counting on traditionally low turnout in the primaries.
“I think people will come around once they get to know my ideas,” Martin said. “People are tired of boring politicians who are married to the system. I have real ideas.”
The article is here. Martin is running for governor of Utah. His policy stances are:
Gold reserves and statewide food storage are the keys to Utah’s future, said businessman Richard Martin, who joined the race for governor Monday.
Standing outside the Salt Lake City Library, Martin announced he is challenging Gov. Gary Herbert for the Republican nomination.
Economic stability will depend on innovative ideas, something current state leaders lack, Martin said.
My only comment is to note that while Martin’s stances are, *ahem*, a little out of the mainstream, I wouldn’t qualify gold hoarding as innovative (China does it). Neither would I qualify emergency food storage as particularly innovative; the United States Federal Government administers an emergency good reserve called the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust.
Assorted Links
1. A defense of merit selection for judges (HT: Chris Miller)
2. One solution to the matching problem (engineers take note!)
3. You can browse 137 years of Popular Science
4. Aliens and original sin, a Catholic perspective
A Data Point For Homeschoolers
The 2009 National Geographic Geography Bee state qualifiers were composed of 41 students (out of roughly 5800) who are listed as sponsored by a homeschooling organization. The true number of homeschoolers participating at the state level might be higher, since some of them qualify through competitions held by regular schools, but disaggregating that from this level of the data would be impossible. In any case I find it somewhat implausible that the number is much higher (over 100).
In any case, less than 1% of state level qualifiers are nominally from homeschool organizations. By contrast, 6 national qualifiers (out of 58) are nominally homeschoolers, about 10.4% (I’m including the Alaskan state champion, who qualified through a distance learning school).
Quick Missouri Supreme Court Bleg: Springfield v Adolph Belt Jr.
I received an email from Beth Riggert, Communications Counsel for the Missouri Supreme Court, noting today’s Missouri Supreme Court decision in the Springfield red-light camera case, City of Springfield, Missouri v. Adolph Belt, Jr. Riggert’s email noted that neither her email nor the summary of the case were to be quoted (does anyone know why this is the case?), but here is an excerpt from the decision:
This is a $100 case. But sometimes, it’s not the money – it’s the principle. When Adolph Belt, Jr., a 30-year veteran of the Missouri State Highway Patrol and a former Kansas City police officer, received a notice that his car had been photographed running a red light in Springfield, he did not take the matter lightly. Undeniably a traffic expert, Belt timed the yellow caution light at the intersection and found that it was rather quick. He also concluded that the stoplight and the cameras needed to be synchronized.
The Springfield city code provides that hearings for violations of this ordinance are to be heard in an administrative proceeding. In Belt’s proceeding, the hearing examiner denied Belt’s challenge to his citation and found him liable for the prescribed $100 penalty. Belt then appealed, requesting a trial de novo before the circuit court. The circuit court dismissed the request for a trial de novo, finding it had no jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Belt now appeals the circuit court’s dismissal, arguing he is entitled to a trial de novo for a municipal ordinance violation.
Violations of municipal ordinances such as this one cannot be determined administratively but must be heard in a division of the circuit court. Section 479.010, RSMo Supp. 2009.1 The administrative proceeding is void, and Belt’s $100 penalty is vacated.
You can also listen to the audio of the oral arguments here.
My Incipient Modeling Career
I just modeled True/False Film Festival apparel for a photographer friend, Mallory Taulbee, who owns her own photography business under the name Avia Photography.
This is of course not my first experience with the high-strung world of professional modeling. Earlier I appeared on the main poster for the CASA Speed Dating event in January 2009, though I can’t find a non-Facebook photo to link to.
On the Uniqueness of St. Louis
Generally speaking, the monuments that represent cities can be categorized as masculine phallic symbols. A quick list: Paris/Eiffel Tower, Seattle/Space Needle, Washington DC/Washington Monument, London/Tower of London, etc.
This is by and large true with one very unique exception: St. Louis. St. Louis is the only city that I know of that is represented by a monument that is a feminine sexual symbol: an Arch. The conceit also underlies the famous slogan: St. Louis, Gateway to the West.
HT: Dr. Barb Osburg
Edit: Here is the Liberty Memorial in KC, courtesy Sam Burnett.
Axis of Evil, and Other Assorted Links
1. The axis of evil, by Land and Magueijo in 2005. Roughly speaking this paper discusses data that indicates the standard model of cosmology needs revising. As far as paper titles by theoretical physicists go, this one gets props for being accessibly clever.
2. What is the bloop? Wiki here: “…it was several times louder than any known biological sound.”
3. “…the only thing that is clear when it comes to diversity and publishing is its utter and complete lack of consistency…” (via Bookslut)
4. Crayola’s law.
5. What hallucinations reveal about our minds by Oliver Sacks M.D. As an aside I recently finished Musicophilia and recommend it in the canon of superb medical writing.
6. Richard Posner on consumer protection with a specific discussion of obesity and medical costs: “Somewhat more promising measures are: instruction in nutrition and the dangers of obesity in elementary and high schools; healthful school-lunch programs; expanded compulsory physical education in schools; restrictions on foods that can be purchased with food stamps; a tax on advertising fast food; a tax on video games; a ban on food advertisements aimed at children; a relaxation of regulations of health insurance that discourage charging higher premiums to the obese (and that thus subsidize obesity); a tax on soft drinks that contain sugar; and a calorie tax.”
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