tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9297168132755768752024-03-12T21:04:55.812-07:00The Misanthropic EconomistMatthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.comBlogger176125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-35528988196577561802014-01-19T08:49:00.000-08:002014-01-19T08:49:27.063-08:00Thoughts On Grad School, One Grad Student and his 'Better'In considering what my career path could've been as opposed to what it is, I'm struck by how many opportunities I've had to give up to placate the wishes of another (my supposed better). <br />
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One reason I chose the grad school I did were the multiple faculty connections to a think tank I would've have loved to spend a summer at and hopefully start a relationship with. I soon determined that my better didn't like said think tank. I have no doubt reprisals or general harassment would've resulted had I tried to spend a summer there.<br />
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Once in grad school, I wanted to do some research of my own choosing. I had ideas and worked on mergers and churches and the distribution of church sizes. While both deal with churches and religion (a topic my better belittles on a regular basis), the basic tools of both studies could be used to analyze similar problems in business or economic applications. My research just analyzed a certain type of firm called a church. I also did some work on firm location choice.<br />
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All of this research had the potential to broaden my horizons, produce a publication or two, and create some marketable skills. None of this fit with my better's research agenda so my efforts in these directions were discouraged and occasionally ridiculed.<br />
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If my memory serves, I did some background work on six different topics that had some relation to my better's research interests and pitched them to him in the hopes of getting a dissertation topic. These were either ignored or received a response of 'Ok, but.....' I wasted a good year and a half doing this. <br />
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Eventually my better had me set up a meeting with someone he had tried unsuccessfully to make contact with in order to acquire research funding from him. We had a meeting supposedly about 'my' dissertation, but the meeting was dominated by my better. I finally gave up and gave in and agreed to a topic he wanted in order to try to escape. <br />
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My better later told me (probably a year later) that he had chosen 'my' dissertation topic before I ever step foot on campus. It was then that I realized that I never had a choice in anything I had done. If 'my' research didn't fall in line with what my better wanted, it was not worth doing and I was discouraged accordingly. I honestly believe that part of the reason I was discouraged from doing other research was to make sure that I didn't have any other options with my dissertation and had to do what my better wanted or else. My better once told my office mate that grad school was the last chance you'd have to research what you wanted to research. What a cruel joke!<br />
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The complete and total lack of respect for what the grad student desires, for the desire to push his career in the path he desires, and the thinly veiled manipulation of the grad student for the objectives of one's better is inexcusable. The topic I've been forced to work on uses very specialized methods that are not useful in any other application. The data does not exist to properly conduct his study. 'My' dissertation is a joke and is nothing but an attempt by my better to further his agenda. If I escape, I will be in the subbasement of the profession. I do not possess basic proficiency in any commonly used methods in the profession or in industry. <br />
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If my better had told me that I was his indentured servant for the next five years and that the façade of pretending to care about my desires was simply a cruel trick, I might have dropped out of grad school with a little dignity intact. Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-10205896031103352622013-07-23T21:08:00.001-07:002013-07-23T21:08:40.472-07:00Is it Possible?That I'm still in grad school? Why yes it is!<br />
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It comes down to a battle of wills and one person's expectations (yours truly) that the dissertation process would involve the student picking a topic and the advisor giving guidance and advice on directions to take the research in order to further the student's career goals. Instead, the dissertation process for me has been all about furthering the career goals of the advisor, with nary a concern for what the student desires career wise. The dissertation process for me has been a tool for the advisor to use to further his career and ambitions at the expense of the career and goals of the student. My career will start from square one as a result of the advisor's manipulation of the situation for his own benefit.<br />
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This entire process has truly been a crime and a waste of time.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-87411592122227686892010-09-26T14:38:00.000-07:002010-09-26T14:44:09.954-07:00Professional RequestsA couple of weeks ago I gave a departmental seminar on my current research. Afterwards, one professor approached me and had a "professional request" as he called it. He requested that I cite a paper that he was a coauthor of. I did a thorough literature review of my topic. His paper did not come up in my search.<br /><br />There is a huge difference between telling someone about a paper and saying "Take a look at this, it might be helpful" and saying to a graduate student "Please cite my paper." Just another example of the character, or lack thereof, exhibited by members of academia.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-64031848183916600622010-09-09T19:17:00.000-07:002010-09-09T19:35:54.564-07:00On the Dangers of GrantsOne day after deciding to change formats I get some excellent food for thought. What luck! For the blog, not for me!<br /><br />I'm currently working with several colleagues on a grant from a private organization. The time commitment has been well beyond what was specified in the agreement. In addition the organization has continuously changed their objectives, making our task that much more difficult. They have also expected us to do things that are beyond our capabilities given the grant size, and quite frankly some of the things they have in mind couldn't be done if we had a blank check. It has degenerated into a pseudo scientific endeavor that is devoid of any real policy relevance. All of the academics involved are sorry we got involved.<br /><br />Now this organization is seeking to file suit against us for failing to deliver what was promised. Never mind that what was promised initially is nothing like what they now expect given the expanded demands they placed on us. This could get ugly quickly. I had to waste an afternoon that I didn't have chronicling for the third time my contributions to the project so my colleagues can show proof of the time and effort we have expended and hopefully stop this nonsense before it goes any further.<br /><br />The lesson I draw from this is to avoid working with groups who have no idea what they're doing. The problem is determining who is stupid before you start working with them! I've come close to concluding that grants should be avoided at all costs, but I'm sure there are a few organizations that are intellectually honest and seek to conduct and support sound scientific research. I do believe though that this goes to show that just because a research idea is funded does not make it superior to an unfunded one. The lure of research dollars is quite alluring. However, that funding can come with strings that strangle you.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-17315948650494835072010-09-08T16:57:00.000-07:002010-09-08T17:09:13.100-07:00New Format<em>The Misanthropic Economist</em> is about to undergo a dramatic change in format. I started this blog with the intention of posting occasionally on topics from an economic perspective. As is plainly visible, that approach hasn't yielded very good results. An new approach is in order.<br /><br />I am now in the midst of finding a dissertation topic and conducting research. This process has proven even more frustrating, demoralizing, and down right silly than I ever could have imagined. From now on, I will use this blog primarily to chronicle my journey from finding a topic, to looking for funding (<strong>insert prostitution joke here</strong>!), to data collection, to analysis, to programming, to writing, and every other piece of rubbish and nonsense in between and every moral compromise along the way. I hope to one day look back and be able to writing something of value to society (<strong>imagine that!</strong>) on the pitfalls of graduate education in economics. I hope that students considering graduate education can use it as a cautionary tale and enter grad school with no misconceptions about what is about to take place. Assuming I survive this process, I also hope to use this chronicle to make the process better for any grad students I might work with in the future.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-71931154716272794892010-05-02T12:36:00.001-07:002010-05-02T12:43:14.965-07:00Research and GrantsIt has been awhile since my last activity here; this semester was horrible and it is not over yet. I have a paper for a conference due Monday. That being said, something I really want to research is the corrupting effect of research grants. While I have minimal familiarity with grant funded research outside of economics, I would wager that the same corrupting influences hold sway.<br /><br />In short, my hypothesis is that grants create perverse incentives for researchers in two ways. One is that it encourages researchers to conduct research that someone else wants regardless of how interesting, relevant, or socially beneficial it is. It creates an incredible bias toward doing research that someone is willing to fund which may or may not be something that is productive. Two is that often the funding source expects a certain answer and the researcher is then prone to twist the results in order to deliver the desired answer to the funding source.<br /><br />More to come, hopefully. If this isn't a way to derail my academic future before it starts I don't know what will!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-72863898813668031912010-01-18T11:21:00.000-08:002010-01-18T21:46:40.514-08:00Grad School LessonsI don't how many people have told me this. I don't know how many times I should have realized this before. Now I get it. The Number One Lesson of grad school is:<br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center">"It doesn't matter what you think!"<br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">They hold the keys to getting you out of this four year hell storm. If they want it done, do it. If they don't want it done, don't do it. Get your union card, then you can do what you want. I FINALLY understand. </div></div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-84881974856536532072009-12-15T11:16:00.000-08:002009-12-15T11:22:50.256-08:00Solutions Not from CopenhagenJohn Tierney, myself, and a few others are showing how green we are by NOT flying to Copenhagen to discuss global warming. Ross McKitrick, an economist at the University of Guelph in Ontario has a better solution. From Tierney's <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15tier.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">article</a>:<br /><br />"To end this political stalemate, Dr. McKitrick proposes calling each side’s bluff. He suggests imposing financial penalties on carbon emissions that would be set according to the temperature in the earth’s atmosphere. The penalties could start off small enough to be politically palatable to skeptical voters.<br /><br />If the skeptics are right and the earth isn’t warming, then the penalties for burning carbon would stay small or maybe even disappear. But if the climate modelers and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are correct about the atmosphere heating up, then the penalties would quickly, and automatically, rise.<br /><br />'Either way we get a sensible outcome,' Dr. McKitrick argues. 'The only people who lose will be those whose positions were disingenuous, such as opponents of greenhouse policy who claim to be skeptical while privately believing greenhouse warming is a crisis, or proponents of greenhouse gas emission cuts who neither understand nor believe the I.P.C.C. projections, but invoke them as a convenient argument on behalf of policies they want on other grounds even if global warming turns out to be untrue.'"<br /><br />This way everyone puts their money where their mouth is.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-11243679532455350152009-11-18T08:28:00.000-08:002009-11-18T08:39:19.171-08:00My Return and Family Violence and FootballI know it has been a while since my last post. I've been incredibly busy with comprehensive exams, course work, teaching, and research. I've resolved to blog occasionally to further develop my writing ability. If anyone still comes by here, thanks for checking back in.<br /><br />This <a href="http://papers.nber.org/papers/w15497">study</a> made me laugh this morning because it seems to confirm my intuition about people getting too worked up over sports. "Family Violence and Football: The Effect of Unexpected Emotional Cues on Violent Behavior." Here's the abstract:<br /><br />Family violence is a pervasive and costly problem, yet there is no consensus on how to interpret the phenomenon of violence by one family member against another. Some analysts assume that violence has an instrumental role in intra-family incentives. Others argue that violent episodes represent a loss of control that the offender immediately regrets. In this paper we specify and test a behavioral model of the latter form. Our key hypothesis is that negative emotional cues – benchmarked relative to a rationally expected reference point – make a breakdown of control more likely. We test this hypothesis using data on police reports of family violence on Sundays during the professional football season. Controlling for location and time fixed effects, weather factors, the pre-game point spread, and the size of the local viewing audience, we find that upset losses by the home team (losses in games that the home team was predicted to win by more than 3 points) lead to an 8 percent increase in police reports of at-home male-on-female intimate partner violence. There is no corresponding effect on female-on-male violence. Consistent with the behavioral prediction that losses matter more than gains, upset victories by the home team have (at most) a small dampening effect on family violence. We also find that unexpected losses in highly salient or frustrating games have a 50% to 100% larger impact on rates of family violence. The evidence that payoff-irrelevant events affect the rate of family violence leads us to conclude that at least some fraction of family violence is better characterized as a breakdown of control than as rationally directed instrumental violence.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-76320814645454142009-07-27T06:48:00.000-07:002009-07-27T07:04:59.760-07:00On Babies (Chinese) and Schools (Charter)Two stories have recently caught my attention.<br /><ul><li>Chinese officials are now urging some couples to have <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2009/07/24/world/international-china-babies.html?hp">two children</a>, primarily to ease the coming strain from the population aging. The One Child policy has created an incredible generational, and gender, imbalance. They'd better hope and pray a disproportionate number of these two child couples have girls.</li><li>I have practically no hope that any education reform will work. The flaws go way too deep for vouchers, charter schools, merit pay, etc. to have any meaningful impact. The <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/education/27charter.html?th=&adxnnl=1&emc=th&adxnnlx=1248701851-oN5oMCU0+2TJofnzcdWzOw">unionization of charter schools</a> is one more reason I don't think school choice vouchers (or charter schools) would have any significant positive effect. Under a voucher plan, why wouldn't the current unions make every effort to unionize the teachers in voucher financed schools, thereby perpetuating the flaws of the current system? Even if school choice gathered momentum, the institutional structure of education remains intact. The financing mechanism might change, but the box within which (most) schooling occurs will still have its four walls in exactly the same place. For any significant and lasting change in education to occur, the walls must come down. I'm not betting on that happening.</li></ul>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-80188469202233346212009-06-25T05:27:00.000-07:002009-06-25T05:28:11.358-07:00Rooftop AgricultureAn interesting article on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/dining/17roof.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&th&emc=th">urban and rooftop agriculture</a>.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-32846130114676479622009-06-07T15:37:00.000-07:002009-06-07T15:41:22.752-07:00Energy Use and Sin TaxesTwo great articles. Both are well worth reading in full, but a fantastic quote from each.<br /><br />John Tierney on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/science/earth/21tier.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">energy use</a>:<br /><br />"But among researchers who analyze environmental data, a lot has changed since the 1970s. With the benefit of their hindsight and improved equations, I’ll make a couple of predictions:<br /><br />1. There will be no green revolution in energy or anything else. No leader or law or treaty will radically change the energy sources for people and industries in the United States or other countries. No recession or depression will make a lasting change in consumers’ passions to use energy, make money and buy new technology — and that, believe it or not, is good news, because...<br /><br />2. The richer everyone gets, the greener the planet will be in the long run."<br /><br />Robert Sirico on <a href="http://www.american.com/archive/2009/may-2009/hate-the-sin-tax-the-sinner">sin taxes</a>:<br /><br />"When it comes to public policy, the preferred method of discouraging sin should fall under the category of alternative, mediating institutions, notably family, church, and school. That would leave government officials more time to focus on the sins they can really do something about—their own."Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-69889246490309042782009-05-25T17:43:00.000-07:002009-05-25T18:02:32.064-07:00On Christian Movies and MusicThere is a great post from the Acton Institute on <a href="http://blog.acton.org/archives/9992-pbr-cheesy-christian-movies-and-the-art-of-narrative.html">sub par Christian movies</a>. It points out that Christian and conservative writers have not mastered the art of narrative, therefore most Christian and conservative themed films are dreadful. Read the whole post. It is well worth a few minutes.<br /><br />I would put Christian music in the same boat. The lyrics can be quite inspirational, but with few exceptions the music behind the vocal melody is absolutely terrible and often times makes me envy the deaf. While I am a self avowed music snob, I can't help but think that the terrible, and often cookie cutter, music drives people away who would otherwise give contemporary Christian music a chance, especially non Christians.<br /><br />If you look hard enough, you can find a few Christian bands that write half way decent music. A few this music snob enjoys are: Decyfer Down, Jonah 33, Hymns of Eden, and We As Human. Even a few secular musicians have written some music with Christian imagery. Alice Cooper put out two albums, <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutal_Planet">Brutal Planet</a> </em>and <em><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragontown">Dragontown</a></em>, that one critic compared to C.S. Lewis in Cooper's use of imagery at various points.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-20939048050850079562009-05-15T19:33:00.000-07:002009-05-15T19:42:35.495-07:00Targeting the Older FolksPeter Drucker is closer to being vindicated. More goods and services are being <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/20/business/20adcol.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">marketed</a> to consumers 50 years of age and above. The recession has played a role in this as have demographic shifts, but businesses are also finally realizing that the over 50 segment of the population is the wealthiest.<br /><br />The Oldsters are also tech savvy. Over <a href="http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2009/04/old-people-love-kindle.html">50 percent</a> of Kindle owners are 50 years old and above. A piece of interesting anecdotal evidence on Oldsters and technology comes from churches installing the projection screens in the front of the sanctuary to reduce the need for hymnals and readings printed in the bulletin. I've heard that the Oldsters are usually the loudest to object to the screens, but once they are installed they love them because they can see the words better than in the hymnal!Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-35139536437153820802009-05-07T06:27:00.000-07:002009-05-07T06:37:04.951-07:00Family and EntrepreneurshipThis brief <a href="http://www.american.com/archive/2009/may-2009/the-importance-of-family-for-entrepreneurial-success">essay</a> points out the vital role of the family in transmitting business skills to the next generation. When entrepreneurs work in a family business before starting their own business, these new businesses are 10 to 40 percent more successful than they would otherwise be (that is one heck of a range, but that's beside the point). So it appears that much entrepreneurial skill is transmitted outside of a classroom; no big shock there. This is the primary reason I have very little good to say about child labor laws.<br /><br />The most troubling aspect comes in when considering the weak family bonds many possess. For instance, the black rate of business ownership is below that of whites. How much of this is due to a distressingly low number of black children having the opportunity to work in family businesses? This creates a self perpetuating cycle. The current generation has a low rate of business ownership and thus the next generation has a lower rate of business ownership and thus fewer opportunities in life.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-66839848227671128132009-03-25T14:00:00.000-07:002009-03-25T14:06:35.061-07:00Post Office in TroubleThe <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29877702?GT1=43001">U.S. Postal Service</a> lost $2.8 billion last year and will be in trouble this year if Congress doesn't step in. How about opening up first class mail to competition? FedEx, DHL, UPS, and however many other package delivery companies there are do a fine job. How about letting them, or anyone else, take a crack at first class mail? The Internet has taken a huge cut out of the Post Office's business and as people become ever more Internet savvy and postage increases, it will continue to decline.<br /><br />Now granted, other first class mail delivery services wouldn't be as entertaining since I think UPS frowns upon its employees carrying weapons, but I'm sure we can find plenty of entertainment elsewhere.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-38900370995440442722009-03-16T19:13:00.001-07:002009-03-16T19:35:46.240-07:00Externalities in the AirI was on a flight Saturday. The man in front of me reclined his seat back to an extent that it slightly restricted my leg room. This seemed like an externality. The actions of this man reduced one of the goods, comfort, in my utility function.<br /><br />It would have been very easy for me to attempt to remedy this situation. I could have politely asked the man to lean his seat forward a bit. If that failed, I could have called the flight attendant over to force him to lean his seat forward. I found that option a bit extravagant given the circumstances so we're left with the two of us bargaining over his optimal seat position should I raise a fuss. This man obviously valued having his seat reclined in order to increase his comfort, or possibly annoy me (probably not the latter, but it is a possibility). I valued having as much leg room as possible, but maximizing that would result in the cost of bargaining with the man. I did not bargain with him, his seat remained reclined for the remainder of the flight, and I continued to work.<br /><br />Given that my net benefits of increased leg room (additional leg room minus the cost of bargaining) was obviously less than the value this man placed on reclining in his seat, social value was maximized. What appeared to be an externality was willingly accepted by me because the cost of remedying the situation was higher than the additional leg room I would obtain.<br /><br />Now, the 12 year old boy sitting between myself and the attractive young lady in the next seat <em>was</em> an externality that should have been remedied immediately! I'm sure a meager cash payment would have eliminated that externality and added to both our utilities. However, she might have incurred an externality and then the whole process would start over.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-62681411335271559122009-03-02T08:30:00.000-08:002009-03-02T08:39:49.874-08:00The EU and the Economic CrisesThe differing impacts the economic crises is having across the European Union is causing some <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/world/europe/02euro.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">splits</a> in the EU. Some members of the Central and Eastern bloc are doing well given the circumstances (Poland, the Czech Republic) while others in the bloc are in dire straits (Hungary, Romania). There are differences across the Western countries, with Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Greece being hit harder than the rest. Since these nations are prohibited from taking substantial unilateral action to stimulate their economies, the EU is facing its first major challenge.<br /><br />A professor of mine about 6 years ago speculated that the euro zone would be fragmented when some of the member countries had especially bad economic circumstances and the EU wouldn't act as aggressively as they hoped. Could they be facing that situation?Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-69602607759966949882009-02-21T09:58:00.000-08:002009-02-21T10:06:40.521-08:00The Right to Earn a Living<a href="http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/the-right-to-earn-a-living-under-attack/">Here</a> is a great article from <em>The Freeman</em> on how existing economic interests team up with state and local governments to restrict the entry of new competitors. An interesting side note is that veterinarians are some of the worst offenders. The article profiles one woman in Maryland who was prohibited under penalty of criminal prosecution from massaging horses. Another example happened in Texas 3 or 4 years ago when the vets sought to prohibit non vets from floating horse teeth. The vets succeeded in 2007 and the battle <a href="http://www.ij.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2476&Itemid=165">continues</a>.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-32453704459867617722009-01-30T15:13:00.000-08:002009-01-30T15:23:17.867-08:00Rainforests and Health Care<ul><li>The rain forests are <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/science/earth/30forest.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">expanding</a> as farmers move from the countryside to the cities in search of better opportunities. Their farmers are reverting back to rain forest. From the article: "By one estimate, for every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than 50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics on land that was once farmed, logged, or ravaged by natural disaster." So native peoples win by gaining better employment opportunities, the animals win by getting increased habitat and environmentalists/conservationists get more rain forest. Three cheers for a win, win, win situation!</li><li>Here are two divergent, in both underlying perspective and solutions, views on health care reform: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/opinion/30krugman.html?th&emc=th">Paul Krugman</a> takes the government provided universal health care line and <a href="http://www.acton.org/commentary/501_christian_prescription.php">Donald Condit</a> takes the more market oriented line with a healthy dose of Christian ethics thrown in. </li></ul>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-25399178629835386082009-01-20T15:34:00.000-08:002009-01-20T15:37:56.923-08:00Now the Economy is Going to Tank!Expect the unemployment rate for January to rise significantly. No, not because we now have President Obama. Because the Professional Bush protesters are now unemployed.<br /><br />As a side note, Christmas break is now long gone and I will attempt to blog somewhat regularly.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-40873111376467334902008-12-11T18:40:00.000-08:002008-12-11T18:43:14.513-08:00BS about the BCSThere are plenty of criticisms you can level at the Bowl Championship Series. One thing is for sure though: the BCS and any flaws it has are <em>NOT</em> the business of this <a href="http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/35901759.html">clown</a>.<br /><br /><div align="center">Saying the BCS “consistently misfires,” Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, plans to introduce legislation Wednesday that would force college football to adopt a playoff system to determine the national champion.</div>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-33362705008084280592008-12-02T15:33:00.000-08:002008-12-02T15:42:26.766-08:00No Trans Fats Mean We Eat More Calories?John Tierney has found that, despite increased attention to nutrition, Americans are still over eating partly due to what he calls the "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/science/02tier.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">health halo</a>." He and a colleague conducted an experiment where people were shown a picture of a meal (Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad and a 20 ounce Pepsi if you're curious) and asked to estimate the calories. On average, the number of calories were overestimated. Another group of people were shown the same meal and two crackers labeled "Trans Fat Free." This meal had more calories than the original meal, but this group underestimated the calories in this meal due to the "Trans Fat Free" label.<br /><br />So in effect, Americans are fooled into thinking anything that has "Fat Free" on it is healthier and therefore consume more calories! It is the classic case of "Coke Classic has too many calories; I'll have a Diet Coke. Oh yeah, and a brownie!"Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-29775787909454140242008-11-29T11:08:00.000-08:002008-11-29T11:15:33.200-08:00Unintended ConsequencesThe owners of buildings that have been tagged by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission are either altering or demolishing buildings before they can be classified as a landmark. Read the story <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/arts/design/29landmarks.html?_r=1&th&emc=th">here</a>.<br /><br />I'm not going to take the time to dig through the fine print of New York City's Landmark Preservation Commission, but if it is like other such commissions and boards around the country, once a piece of property has been designated as historical, the owner is prevented from using the property in any way not approved by the commission. A very strong case can be made that this is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taking">taking</a>.<br /><br />The commission would be better off buying the property from the owner and preserving the desired building itself. But then that would get in the way of a free lunch.Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-929716813275576875.post-13570620145468476182008-11-13T15:12:00.000-08:002008-11-13T15:19:22.963-08:00NIMBY: Big Box Edition<a href="http://www.nobigboxonissaqueena.org/">No Big Box on Issaqueena!</a><br /><br />Some South Carolina residents don't want a Lowe's in a certain part of town. Two observations:<br /><ol><li>If people want it, it will come and it has to go somewhere.</li><li>If the developer is getting special treatment, you've got an argument. Fight that.</li></ol>Matthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13234110335004586832noreply@blogger.com0