What Do the Kia Rio and Lincoln Navigator Have in Common?
[thanks to Jack for the pointer]
Economics and the mid-life crisis have much in common:
Both dwell on foregone opportunities
C'est la vie; c'est la guerre; c'est la pomme de terre
. . . . . . . . . . . . . email: jpalmer at uwo dot ca
* The alleged wife-beater who, on being arrested by police, stumbled drunkenly down the stairs and broke his ankle, though he got nothing from a Manhattan jury;There are more here.
* The legally blind Bronx man who "drove his car into a
concrete barrier" and sued arguing that better lighting might have prevented the accident
Those who consumed half a drink to one drink each day for at least fourWell, if one drink is good, would two be better? What about three? More? At what point do these benefits from drinking level off (i.e. have a marginal physical product of zero) or turn negative?
years were about 20 percent less likely to have an impairment in their thinking abilities and about 15 percent less likely to experience a decline in their mental powers over the two years they were studied, regardless of what type of alcohol they preferred, the researchers found. On average, women who drank moderately tended to have the memory and reasoning agility of someone about a year and a half younger than those who abstained.
No benefit was seen among women who drank more than that [onePlease note: I titled this posting "marginal physical product" for a reason. I am asking only about the incremental effects of alcohol on brain power. I realize full well that there are other ways in which additional drinks might confer benefits and that a decision as to the optimal amount of drinking would also take into account the expected marginal costs.
drink].
"We hope that if some of the leading role models within our community
become donors, others may follow suit,"
In December, 2004, an Australian fertility clinic in Albury, south-west of Sydney, offered students in Canada a free two-week holiday in Australia in return for sperm.So why just students???
On Pornography, Obscenity and Spectacle
Programs in Comparative Literature, Theory and Spanish
APRIL 7-10, 2005University of Western Ontario
Call for PAPERS:
We invite proposals (500-750 words) for 20-minute presentations on literature, literary theory, visual arts, cinema, music, science, philosophy, social sciences, linguistics, media studies, etc. ...
Points of DEPARTURE:
Scandal… scopophilia… Narcossism… OBSCENITY… onanism… Snuff Wars… softwear & hard-c drives… DILDONICS… ennui décor netiquette... Pearl divers… comics stripped… pornology… speech-acts… Le Dernier Cri… Happiness… Pink Flamingos… shoes… rouge… RISK… Naked Lunch… cut&paste… flâsheur… private eye… DISGUST… toys R’ us… propaganda… slut machines… speed… Comstock… rigid canon… Bang BANNED… clinical eye… Venus in Furs… confession books… celestinas… heresy… secret museums… asepsis… divino furore… sin-optics… catoptrics… albur(del)… words 4-play… rape in wrappers… funk punk hippyhop… fun-house… peep-show... schlock shock plush KITSCH itch trash Abash lash cash sash SHhhhhhhhhhhh… ADD-gimmick. ®
It's worth looking at.Owens Valley holds lessons for today. Given the booming cities in the semiarid West and the increased demands for water for wildlife and
the environment, there is no doubt that water will be reallocated away from agriculture. The question is how to facilitate those transfers in the smoothest, least-costly, and most timely manner.Water markets are an important option. But as the experience of Owens Valley shows, water markets do not develop seamlessly, even when the gains from trade are huge. Specifically, transaction costs stemming from valuation disputes, bilateral monopoly, and third-party effects can stymie trade.
Unfortunately, there have been no scheduled speakers to discuss women’s equality issues either in the workplace or before the courts in Palestinian society. There will be no discussions on honour killings; and no one will update the crowd on how the battle goes to end the barbaric practice of female circumcision. Finally, don’t look for anyone to discuss the lack of rights and brutal treatment meted out to the Christians, Druze, Domi or homosexuals in Palestinian society.
It's all in the numbers.I love it already, partly because one of my best friends from long ago is named "Charlie", and he is really smart. In the show, they use math, probabilities, and statistics to solve crimes. I wonder how long it will last. The increasing use of biology and chemistry to solve crimes on tv shows has caught on really well, with all the CSI shows; maybe, just maybe, it's time for math. After all, people are finally beginning to recognize the importance of statistical analysis in sports, as in Moneyball, or as exemplified in many sports blogs (e.g. The Sports Economist or Sabernomics).
As a male who would likely have risked being left without a partner in a society that permitted polygamy, I am understandably opposed to polygamy out of pure self-interest. It strikes me that in a society of free choice, permitting polygamy only increases the demand for women as potential marriage partners, thus making women better off relative to men, in comparison with the situation under monogamy. Do you think the funding committee would fund a research project along these lines?Status of Women Canada (SWC) believes that good policy depends on
good policy research. Any debate regarding polygamy, religious freedoms and the Criminal Code and related policies should be centered on finding policy solutions which fully respect gender equality.
Little independent research exists that has been published on polygamy and its effects on participants and on our wider society. In order to best repare [sic] for possible debate surrounding Canada's polygamy policy, critical research is needed. It is vital that researchers explore the impacts of polygamy on women and children and gender equality as well as the challenges that polygamy presents to society.
Based on your reports, we will be visiting a number of schools to see what the administration's official position is on political advertising in class. If you help us, you could end up in our movie!If the socialist/interventionists were doing this, I might upset. But it's probably not a bad idea overall to try to rein in some of the professoriate who abuse the notion of academic freedom.
What intrigues me about this story is that a semi-pro league paid this player, well-known for his proclivity for fighting, so much money mostly to attract fans. Even though there have been studies indicating that goons might have marginal revenue products that justifies hiring them, one of my students (thanks, TH) noted that goons systematically do not get nearly so much playing time during the playoffs. That finding leads me to suspect that goons contribute to drawing fans during the regular season, but their contribution to wins is not so great. I expect that says a lot about regular season fans.Philadelphia Flyers enforcer Donald Brashear has been suspended for the remainder of the season by a semi-pro league in Quebec for repeatedly punching a player in the face while he was lying on the ice.
Brashear was one of three Radio X players suspended Thursday by the Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey following violence during a Dec. 7 game in Thetford Mines.Radio X has appealed both Brashear's ban and a 12-game suspension to former Montreal Canadien Sylvain Blouin. The league also suspended Quebec's Chad Richards for the rest of the season, but the team opted not to appeal his suspension.
Richards, a 6-foot-6, 235-pounder from Anchorage, Alaska, was
suspended for the remainder of the season for a violent crosscheck to the head of Thetford Mines' Hugo Poulin. Richards continued to apply pressure to Poulin's neck and left the player unconscious on the ice.Blouin received an automatic three-game suspension for leaving the penalty box and the additional 12 games were assessed for hitting a player lying on the ice.
Brashear, who is reportedly being paid $300,000 to play for Quebec while awaiting a settlement of the NHL lockout, was suspended indefinitely following a fight with Glen Kjernisted of the Thetford Mines Prolab.
Thetford Mines Prolab? Radio X? $300,000? I really have to wonder about our assumption of rational maximization sometimes.
It is true that the initial analysis of the data indicated a
significant positive association between high consumption of red meat and the risk of cancer of all parts of the colon (large intestine). But what the news writers didn't point out is that when other factors that could influence the appearance of colon cancer were taken into account, the association with high red meat consumption was no longer significant. These other factors included body mass index, cigarette smoking, physical activity, aspirin use, and alcohol consumption.
So does that mean there's nothing to the story of a connection between red meat and colorectal cancer? Not quite. The researchers did find a significant link between high red meat consumption and cancer of the distal colon (the part closest to the rectum) in people who reported the highest consumption in both 1982 and 1992 and 93: the risk was increased by 50%. In addition, people who had the highest intake of red meat in only the later questionnaires had a 70% increased risk of developing rectal cancer.
This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered.[Thanks to Lisa at London Fog for the pointer; Dave Friedman has some additional links.]
This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things.Let's extend such warnings to other textbooks. Here are some that might be reasonable:
Also, see this New Yorker Cartoon.
Update: Tom Hanna thinks the warning sticker quoted at the beginning of this post should be placed on a banner for every school!
...it's generally possible to get a grade C - the benchmark for league tables - with a score of roughly 30-35%, which means that you can pass double science quite easily while knowing next to no physics...
The practice of women sharing breast milk is nothing really new. It's been going on for centuries -- dating back to the era of wet nurses. What is new is a phenomenon in which women, often perfect strangers, exchange breast milk through the Internet, in mommy chatrooms, and even through mainstream sites like Craig's List and eBay.Established organizations question the safety of the milk distributed through the newly-developing internet markets (surprise, surprise).
Some mothers believe they can do their own screening process since it's more expensive to buy through a milk bank, but others say private screening is still not enough.It will undoubtedly take some time for liability rules to be established, but technology will clearly help with efficient exchanges.
"Would you want him as a role model? Would you want your son or daughter to be like him?" asked Don Hammond, a member of the Hall of Fame selection committee. "I haven't talked to anybody yet who's for him. The word to describe Michael Moore is embarrassing. He embarrasses everybody."It's good to learn I'm not the only one who feels this way about the king of the non-sequitur.
When shareholders have more rights, people are more likely to invest in markets, because they have more protections against dishonest executives. When creditors have more rights, they are more likely to lend money, which spurs markets to grow. And when countries are free from corruption, investors put more money into them.That quotation is from Legal Affairs, which summarizes research showing that economies based on the Common Law tend to have high growth rates than economies based on the civil or Napoleanic Code.
Would you want your mother to be looked after by a trainee who's been on her feet for 30 hours? I wouldn't.Indeed.