Tuesday, 15 May, 2007. 12:22:33 PM
From the latest issue of Crypto-Gram:
In 1970, American economist George Akerlof wrote a paper called "The Market for 'Lemons,'" which established asymmetrical information theory. He eventually won a Nobel Prize for his work, which looks at markets where the seller knows a lot more about the product than the buyer.
Akerlof illustrated his ideas with a used car market. A used car market includes both good cars and lousy ones (lemons). The seller knows which is which, but the buyer can't tell the difference -- at least until he's made his purchase. I'll spare you the math, but what ends up happening is that the buyer bases his purchase price on the value of a used car of average quality.
This means that the best cars don't get sold; their prices are too high. Which means that the owners of these best cars don't put their cars on the market. And then this starts spiraling. The removal of the good cars from the market reduces the average price buyers are willing to pay, and then the very good cars no longer sell, and disappear from the market. And then the good cars, and so on until only the lemons are left.
In a market where the seller has more information about the product than the buyer, bad products can drive the good ones out of the market.
Sunday, 13 May, 2007. 10:17:57 PM
A brave entomologist named Justin O. Schmidt has experienced the stings of 78 species of Hymenoptera, and classified them into the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. According to this arcticle, Schmidt didn't deliberately set out to be stung by so many different species, it's just a hazard of his profession. Christopher Starr also came up with the Starr Sting Pain Scale. Both indices classify stings on a scale from 1 to 4, with stings like the fire ant being a 1, and stings like a Pepsis wasp being a 4. The paper wasp ranks as a 3 on either scale. Justin O. Schmidt is also an author of this book on how insects defend themselves. Google has some of the text online.
I'm not sure what the real difference between the scales are, but the Schmidt measure features some funny commentary on the nature of the pain caused by the sting. The paper wasp sting is described as "Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut." The yellowjacket sting is described as "Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue."
Sunday, 13 May, 2007. 08:41:54 PM
I just got stung by a paper wasp.
Saturday, 12 May, 2007. 09:53:12 PM
Kristiana eating Jello
Saturday, 12 May, 2007. 04:43:52 PM
We bought a little digital camcorder today at Costco. It's a tiny little thing called the Flip video camcorder. It takes a half-hour of 640x480 video that looks pretty good on either a computer or TV screen. It's got a built-in USB connector too, so there's no wires needed to connect it to a computer. Here's Alex washing windows.
Friday, 04 May, 2007. 09:27:54 PM
I received a 411 spam from China, similar to the famous Nigerian scams. This is how I responded. I hope the poor fellow and his government enjoy a good joke.
Thank you for you considerable donation to Falun Gong. I agree with your comments that the Chinese government is corrupt, and can only be overthrown by violent revolution supported by patriots such as yourself.
The family of the late General Chiang Kai Shek is grateful that there are such patriots as yourself living in China, who are willing to take up arms against their country when the signal is given.
Please await the next message from your contacts. We will be in touch. Until then, remain calm and don't lose your head.
Thursday, 03 May, 2007. 12:46:21 PM
Today is the National Day of Reason. The website says "The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason - a concept all Americans can support - and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship."
The date was chosen because the federally supported and constitutionally abusive National Day of Prayer also falls on this day. The National Day of Prayer is a sectarian event designed for the promotion of only one religion. Though they call it a "Judeo-Christian" celebration, that's a lie to cover the true purpose of the day. The official organizers don't actually include Jews in what they are celebrating.
This is their official mission statement, from their official website:
Mission
The National Day of Prayer Task Force's mission is to communicate with every individual the need for personal repentance and prayer, mobilizing the Christian community to intercede for America and its leadership in the five centers of power: Church, Education, Family, Government and Media.
No Jews there. They must define the "Judeo" part of "Judeo-Christian" as Jews who believe in Jesus. And no Muslims or Hindus or any of the other thousands of beliefs are there either. Their website goes on to say that other people who are not "Judeo-Christian" are free to organize their own events.
OF COURSE people can organize their own events. The problem is not that they can't have their own events, it's that the non-Xtian events are not in any way an official part of these celebrations. They aren't included in the national recognition of the holiday either, according to the official website. The National Day of Prayer is for the Christian community.
So, there is for everyone a National Day of Reason, something that all Americans can stand behind. It celebrates the diversity of the nation, and it celebrates the separation of the government from involvement in religion, enabling every American no matter what their belief to enjoy their right to believe things their government has not approved for them.