I like both of these photos. Wanna Make Something of it?

Workout notes I tried to run but my stomach rebelled at the jostling; I made it about 100 meters before having to stop. I walked a hilly 5+ mile course though. It was too pretty to not get at least a little exercise even if I am not fully recovered yet.

Posts
I have differential equations papers to grade and so I’ll leave it at this:

Yes, I like both photos; I think it was great that the current Commander in Chief attended the Army-Navy game and that the former one attended the Navy-SMU game. Period.

Week end odds and ends

Workout notes
I felt good enough to walk 4 miles (easily); the temperatures were chilly and the skys clear. I had started to do a 3 miler but extended it to 4; I saw Tracy in the bottom of the Cemetery.

Perhaps I’ll jog 3-4 miles and lift weights tomorrow.

Economy
What is the drag on our economy?
Fareed Zakaria argues that our crumbling infrastructure is a major factor.

Here is a link to an NPR article which points out that we have a demand problem. This makes sense to me for the following reason: companies are in business to make money; they want to get as high as revenue as possible for the least possible cost. Hence they have no incentive to hire even if they are doing very well in terms of profit…unless their demand makes it necessary.

Football: Tim Tebow and his Zombie
Yes, I watched today’s Bears-Chargers game, and yes, I think that Tim Tebow is a good player who really helps his team. But he is very outspoken about his personal superstitions and that has drawn attention from a variety of quarters, including those who really don’t follow football.

My take: on one level: who friggin cares? Really; Mr. Tebow is a football player and not a public intellectual and not a political leaders. Personally, I find what gets said in Congress and by our political leaders to be far more offensive and dangerous; examples:

Who cares what Mr. Tebow has to say on topics not related to athletics?

But on another level, this debate gets to the old “well, a person’s religious beliefs should always be respected” which, to me, is pure nonsense. Also, if someone puts an opinion out there, they should expect it to be critiqued.

This is a bit different than, say, someone asking, with pride, if their baby is cute. Religion involves ideas and publicly expressed ideas warrant a critique.

Of course, people should be respected (IMHO); it is one thing to say “that idea makes no sense” and it is another to say “you are an idiot for holding such an nonsensical idea”.

Getting back to the New York Times article that Dr. Coyne critiqued: I don’t agree with the assertion that Tewbo’s public actions should be off limits to critique. But I do agree that Tebow (and others) sometimes successfully use religion as a type of sports psychology.

One Reason I like Jon Huntsman

psst: 10,000 dollar bet? Yes, Mr. Romney can sure relate to ordinary Americans!

Stomach Bug Part II

No workout today; lots of napping and an aching stomach.

I watched the Army-Navy game on TV. Navy won a sloppy contest 27-21; there were lots of fumbles.

It was a spirited but sloppy game; once Navy forced themselves into a field goal attempt by a offside penalty at the Army 1, but Army went offside on a Navy 4′th and 1 with 2:30 left in the game.

Prior to this game, I caught a bit of the Sam Houston State vs. Montana State FCS playoff game. Sam Houston was too good for Montana State and won 49-13. But I saw perhaps the best catch I’ve ever seen:

Photos from yahoo.

Rick Perry’s Pro-Christmas Ad – The Colbert Report – 2011-08-12 – Video Clip | Comedy Central

Rick Perry thinks there’s something wrong with America when gays can openly serve in the military but kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas.

Rick Perry’s Pro-Christmas Ad – The Colbert Rep…, posted with vodpod

Shoot. Me. Now.

Well, the day started ok; no life guard but I had a decent lifting day: bench press: 10 x 135, 4 x 170, 5 x 170, 9 x 155; military press: 9 x 85, 7 x 85 (barbell), 4 x 30 sit ups on the high level incline, as well as the usual other stuff.

But then later, my stomach went south and I am feeling like death. So I went to bed at a bout 5:30 pm.

I am up 4:30 later and will go to bed again…after a long visit to…well, TMI.

Note: Paul Krugman talks about the occupy movement. He makes the following clear:

So what do we learn from this story? Not that Mitt Romney the businessman was a villain. Contrary to conservative claims, liberals aren’t out to demonize or punish the rich. But they do object to the attempts of the right to do the opposite, to canonize the wealthy and exempt them from the sacrifices everyone else is expected to make because of the wonderful things they supposedly do for the rest of us.

The truth is that what’s good for the 1 percent, or even better the 0.1 percent, isn’t necessarily good for the rest of America — and Mr. Romney’s career illustrates that point perfectly. There’s no need, and no reason, to hate Mr. Romney and others like him. We do, however, need to get such people paying more in taxes — and we shouldn’t let myths about “job creators” get in the way.

Raising taxes on the rich is the smart policy. No, that, by itself, won’t solve everything, but it is a good start. Conservatives crack me up; they cluck “hah, you can take ALL of the wealth of the rich and you wouldn’t the economic problems.” Well, eliminating any single program won’t do it either! So, are we to cut…well, nothing?

Start of Finals: Fall 2011

Workout notes Yoga with Ms. Vickie, followed by a 1:05 run along the Illinois River. It was just below freezing (high 20′s, low 30′s F, or -1 to -3 C). Evidently my yoga teacher likes me again as she yelled “nice ass” at me as I went out for my run.

Blogging will be light as I’ll have a couple of differential equations final exams to give and to grade.

On a personal note, I’ve been yapping to my friends about a project that I want to do. That means I had better do it.

Fun: Science and Groaners…

I’ve heard it that the St. Louis Rams have their eyes on this kick returner:

Ok, but at 2-9, a Rams fan has to have a sense of humor.

About those viral e-mails

(via: Friendly Atheist)

There are several strains about an ex marine punching that smug college professor and about miracles. Personally, I ask people not to send me such rot; I’d rather not associate with people who see any virtue in such nonsense. Ok, let me rephrase that: I don’t mind, say, talking football or running with such a person. But, well, I’d rather not think ill of someone I’d otherwise like.

Laughing at people
Educated people (even religious ones) on the whole will probably be horrified by this:

But this can describe a few of those I grew up with (fortunately not many). What is hilarious is that they don’t even entertain the thought that they might be spouting nonsense.

Note: yes, it is easy to make fun of this obese undereducated woman with missing teeth. But she is acting rationally….IF one takes the Bible seriously at all! The Bible does condemn sorcery, witchcraft and other (non approved) magical arts.

So as to the religious liberals: I wonder by what criteria do they accept the supernatural stuff?

Of course, religious people often reject science (not just evolution) because it conflicts with what they think ought to be true. There was a recent case in which it was reported that some Muslim students were boycotting classes on evolution. I won’t go as far as Jerry Coyne and say that such rejection comes almost exclusively from religion. True, data shows that there is a strong correlation between scientific illiteracy and religious belief, but I wonder if this is mere correlation rather than causation. Here is what I mean: I take the pessimistic view that many will not only be unable to make sense of science, but they won’t be able to admit to themselves that there are truths that don’t make sense to them but do make sense to others (e. g., “if I don’t understand it, it must be BS”); this is one way that the Dunning-Kruger effect manifests itself. In short: religion attracts people that won’t get the science in the first place. Of course, that is just a conjecture on my part.

Science
As we detect more and more exoplanets, we are coming up with classifications for them.

(click for larger).

This is dear to me; as a kid I used to make all sorts of tables with information about the planets that were known at the time. I’d also update the information when new discoveries were made.

More fun
Recursivity talks about the Ellsberg Paradox:

Consider a situation in which you have a urn full of well mixed balls of 3 colors. There are 30 red balls. There are also 60 other balls; all of these sixty have to be either blue or white; you have NO information as to how many blue ones or white ones there are; for example there might be zero white ones and sixty blue ones, or 30 white and 30 blue, or even 15 white and 45 blue, etc. You then have to play two different games.

Game one: you are allowed to draw exactly ONE ball at random. Prior to drawing you can choose either:
A) you get 100 dollars for drawing a red ball.
B) you get 100 dollars for drawing a blue ball.

Game two: again, you start with all of the balls that are well mixed. You draw one ball at random. Prior to drawing you can choose either:
C) you get 100 dollars for drawing a red or a blue or
D) you get 100 dollars for drawing a blue or a white ball.

In each game which strategy do you choose? It turns out that people are logically inconsistent in their choices.

To me, the second game is clear: if you choose D, you are guaranteed to have a probability of 2/3 of a pay-out, whereas in C your probability of a pay out ranges between 1/3 and 1. So is it clear? Surf to the second link to see the discussion.

Obama’s newfound populism, Stuff that never happended and Gingrich

Paul Krugman has this habit of pointing out that people often say things that are flat out not true. You see this in economics:

Via Mark Thoma, David Warsh finally says what someone needed to say: Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.

These days, you constantly see articles that make it seem as if there was a great debate in the 1930s between Keynes and Hayek, and that this debate has continued through the generations. As Warsh says, nothing like this happened. Hayek essentially made a fool of himself early in the Great Depression, and his ideas vanished from the professional discussion.

So why is his name invoked so much now? Because The Road to Serfdom struck a political chord with the American right, which adopted Hayek as a sort of mascot — and retroactively inflated his role as an economic thinker. Warsh is even crueler about this than I would have been; he compares Hayek (or rather the “Hayek” invented by his admirers) to Rosie Ruiz, who claimed to have won the marathon, but actually took the subway to the finish line.

You see this when Republicans try to pass their ideas off as credible (no, Paul Ryan is not a policy expert).

You see it when they say that reports…well…don’t say what they claim that they say:

Via Mark Thoma, Noah Smith reports on a conference held at Hoover in which right-wing economists reached right-wing conclusions. Surprise!

But what’s really remarkable, and what I find a bit shocking even after all we’ve been through, is the way John Taylor misrepresents other peoples’ work. Reading Taylor’s summary, you’d think that Bloom, Baker and Davis had showed that fear of Obama was holding the economy down; if you actually read their paper, while they do conclude that “uncertainty” is an important factor, the biggest sources of uncertainty are Republican brinksmanship over the budget, the situation in Europe, and the legal challenges to health care reform. Not exactly what the GOP ordered.

Worse yet, Taylor makes it seem as if Bob Hall showed that fiscal expansion is ineffective. Yet if you have actually been following Hall — which I have, carefully — you’d know that he has been producing extensive evidence that fiscal expansion does, indeed, work; he argues (pdf) that the Obama stimulus made the slump considerably less severe. His complaint is that the stimulus wasn’t big enough — which is the same argument I made from the beginning.

Of course, the lie all the time when it comes to politics; their big talking point is that President Obama is some leftist ideologue who made no effort to compromise with Republicans.

It appears to me that conservatives conjure up some fantasy world in which certain rules, laws and truths are valid. Trying to bring actual evidence (data and the like) has no effect on them AT ALL. Pity we can’t somehow beam them into some alternative universe and be rid of them forever. Ok, not really…but it is frustrating trying to talk to someone who thinks that an idea conforming to some dearly held ideal is a type of “evidence” (e. g., an intellectual “it is true because the Bible told me so”).

There is some light at the end of the tunnel though. Evidently President Obama has reached the conclusion that the Republicans have no “better angels” that can be reached.

As far as possible opponents, well, no I don’t think that Newt Gingrich will be the one. However Mr. Gingrich remains popular with conservatives even with his baggage and occasional straying from the conservative line. The reason: perhaps it is because he ushered in an age where the Republicans lurched far to the right and got elected anyway; he is one who finally mortally wounded the New Deal compact.

Personally, I’d love to see him get the GOP nomination as I doubt that this physically repulsive, acerbic and crotchety old man stands a chance in a national election. Republicans try to claim that he is an intellectual, but in fact, he is more of “what a stupid person thinks that a smart man sounds like”.

Long Swimming and GPS misconceptions

Workout notes I slept in for an hour later and then swam 2400 yards and walked 4 miles.
Swim: 500 easy (free), 10 x (25 drill, 25 fins), 4 x (100 pull, 100 paddle, 100 free) followed by 2 x 100 IM.

Then walking: 13:37 warm up mile, 11:28 (2-1), 11:12 (3-1), 11:26 (1 easy, 7 harder). I just couldn’t get into it.
The track was all but empty; just one young woman running at about a 9 minute per mile pace. She left the track when I had about 1.5 miles to go and was stretching with her back to me as I rounded the track.

Then I did a few sets of squats on the smith machine and some lunges. In the locker room, a physics professor explained what was going on with regards to the “faster than light” neutrino experiment. Sometimes it is a lot of fun working at a university.

GPS
At running races, I’ve heard runners talk about the readings that they got on their GPS devices. Of course, most runners know that the GPS reading is just an approximation. What some don’t appear to understand that IF the GPS is reading accurately, it should almost always read LONGER than the advertised course distance. The reason: the course distance should be what you would cover IF you stayed on the course and ran (or walked) the minimum distance possible; that is, “cut the tangents”. Certified courses are measured that way. If you are running or walking in the middle to the back of the pack, there is a good chance that you won’t be able to cut the tangents due to crowding and the like. Hence on a properly measured course, you will cover slightly more than the advertised distance.

This article deals with this issue (in detail). It also discusses course measurement.

Open water swimming
I haven’t gotten into the open water in a while. This is a New York Times article about one of the all time greats: Diana Nyad. What is interesting is that she had a long time lapse between her time in the water. Believe it or not, I “get” this.