EclectEcon

International Astronomy Day

September 15th is International Astronomy Day. For more, see The Night Sky Guy.

Driftwood Horses

Photos of these sculptures have been making the rounds in e-mail. If you haven't seen them,yet, they're worth a look -- quite interesting.

Psst. Got Anything for the Head?

If you want to get high on cannabis, the low-price places to do it are Canada or Britain according to this piece in The Economist:

High prices

THE costliest place in the world to get high is Japan, according to the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime's annual World Drug Report. The street price of a gram of cannabis weed was $58.30 in 2005, over twice as much as in the next most expensive nation, Australia. Americans pay nearly twice as much as Canadians. Similar disparities occur in Europe. Although the Netherlands is the only Western country where cannabis can be bought legally, punters pay more there than in Germany or France. Prices are cheapest in developing countries, where enforcement is less strict.

But check out South Africa (click on the image to enlarge it enough to see the comparative prices, from The Economist [$ required]):

I have always wondered: how does The Economist collect the data for items like this? I wouldn't have the faintest idea of how to collect these price data. I don't even know how much cannabis is in a gram (please don't comment to say "one gram").

A Journalist with some Economics Literacy?"if something sells out, the price is too low"

Magda Konieczna, writing in the Guelph Mercury, tells about gas stations that ran out of gasoline over the Labour Day weekend (h/t to Brian Ferguson):

I drove to Ottawa Labour Day weekend...



And there were far too many others taking advantage of cheap gas by doing the same thing. So many, in fact, that I encountered a gas station on the way, at one of those Tim Hortons/Wendy's service stations, that had run dry. ...



There was a tangible sense of excitement, if not panic, as the crowd of dazed 401 drivers found nothing coming out of the gasoline nozzles.



I had a momentary — and in large part exaggerated — flashback to my parents' stories of Communist Poland.



I'm no economist. But it seems to me that if something sells out, the price is too low.

We can probably think of other reasons that something might sell out, but given the writer's parents' experiences in Poland, under administered prices set below the market-clearing equilibrium, one can readily understand this writer's perspective. Besides, for the most part, it is correct.



Consider this option though (suggested by Brian when he sent me the piece): Suppose the gas station had posted signs that said,

Due to unanticipated increases in demand, we are going to ration the remaining gasoline by raising the price to its current equilibrium (as if we know for sure what it is).

The outcry would have been horrendous, with more screams about price-gouging. So while Ms. Konieczna says in the story that gasoline was too cheap, her suggested solution isn't to raise its price. Rather, she compares the cost to her of driving vs taking the bus or the train.

Here's how much it costs to make the 1,000-kilometre round trip by various modes of travel:

• My fuel-efficient Yaris — $63.05
• Greyhound — $172.70
• Via rail — $169.60-$267.12 (price varies on how far you plan ahead)

Clearly she has stacked the numbers in this example. Presently, the University of Guelph allows 40 cents per km for private automobile travel, meaning the standard cost of making her trip by car would be $400, not $63.05. She has left out all marginal costs of automobile travel, even with a fuel-efficient small car, other than gasoline (e.g. wear and tear, oil, tires, effect on insurance premia, probabilities of other losses, etc.). I would be surprised if the costs of driving even a Yaris were less than 17 cents/km, making it comparable to taking the bus or train (though see this site for some estimates).



There are also driver costs: one reason I like to travel by bus or train is that I can read then, but I'm not supposed to do that while driving.



Fortunately the writer is clear that requiring bus and train services to lower their fares would not work (be inefficient and not cover opportunity costs is the way most economists would put it). So one wonders how more public transit is to be provided then.



The Pigou Club suggestion: tax the snot out of gasoline (and reduce other taxes commensurately so that the entire programme is revenue/tax neutral). Doing so would increase the demand for other forms of transportation.



For a more thorough discussion of the Pigou Club proposed solution, see this, complete with an explanatory supply and demand graph.

Food Prices RISE During a Month of Fasting?

John Chilton, aka The Emirates Economist, explains that in the United Arab Emirates,

During the fasting month [Ramadan] the demand for food actually rises. Fasting takes place during the daylight hours. Iftar, the daily breaking of the fast at sundown, is a festive event. In homes families gather for large meals that have been under preparation all day. Restaurants offer buffets to serve the crowds at Iftar. I'm speculating, but my guess is that demand rises through a combination of celebration and the inevitable waste of dealing with feeding a crowd all at once.

Check out his full posting for discussions of the UAE's attempt to regulate prices in the face of shifting supply and demand curves.

Population Implosion?

For several decades, developed countries have been experiencing declining birth rates. Perhaps we all read and took to heart the concerns raised in Paul Ehrlich's The Population Bomb, regardless of how poorly its predictions compared with the evidence (see here and this by Julian Simon).



Population implosion raises a number of concerns for countries experiencing low birth rates:

• Who will fund the social programmes as the population ages?
• Who will do the work to look after the country's senior citizens?
• Will the indigenous culture be altered in ways that would be unacceptable to current residents if mass immigration is permitted to provide a labour force and a tax base?
• Can the population implosion be reduced via any programmes?

The answer to this last question is most assuredly "yes", as gubmnts rush to provide family allowances, tax deductions for children, and day care for working parents. Russia also offers prizes and has given people the day off work to conceive (see this, but the story was on most sites).

The governor of Ulyanovsk region in Russia is offering prizes to couples who have babies in exactly nine months - on Russia's national day on 12 June.



Sergei Morozov wants couples to take the day off work to have sex. If a baby is born on national day, they will receive cars, TVs or other prizes.



Mr Morozov has declared Wednesday "family contact day" as part of efforts to fight Russia's demographic crisis.



The population has sharply declined since the Soviet Union collapsed.



This is the third year that Ulyanovsk, in central Russia, is offering prizes for babies born on 12 June.



This year, a couple won the grand prize of a sports utility vehicle (SUV).



The initiative seems to be paying off, as the region's birth rate has risen by 4.5% over the last year.

And nationally within Russia,

President Vladimir Putin has introduced a scheme to encourage more children.



Women who have a second or third child are eligible to receive $9,000, which can be used to pay for education or home purchases.

Is that in U.S. dollars?



.

Israel? Apartheid? Get Serious

From a letter to The Globe (h/t to Alex):

It is ironic that black Africans from Sudan are fleeing from murderous Muslim Arab racists of Sudan and Egypt. Their destination is Israel, a country slandered repeatedly at the United Nations and in the "liberal" media as an "apartheid" state.

Minimum Average Cost Golfing

Last weekend, my older son, David Ricardo Palmer, suggested we go golfing together at The Woodlands, a links-type golf course of well-above average difficulty. I hadn't been golfing for over six years; and the last time I golfed, I averaged losing one ball per hole and shot an embarrassingly high score.



This time was much better: my score was still very high, but not outrageously so, and I lost only one ball over the entire 18 holes (well, I lost three and found two, so it was a net loss of only one). Despite that comparative success, I have decided I am much too old for that silliness — especially when it involves walking and golfing 18 holes. From now on, it's 9 holes or get an electric cart.



In the end, between us, I was the minimum-average-cost golfer, a prize I have often claimed in golf tournaments. Minimum-average-cost golfer means I paid the least amount per stroke.

Financial Calculators

This fall, while visiting Guelph University, I will be teaching a finance course for the first time in many years. One of the changes since the last time I taught this course is the wide availability of inexpensive financial calculators. Although they are not required for the course, many students find them useful for (a) checking their work and (b) use in later careers. They have the added advantage that they are more portable than laptop computers. I have bought the Texas Instrument BA II Plus Pro version, but there are many others that provide more than the basic financial calculations for a lower price or that offer considerably more options for a higher price.

. . . . . . .



Of course, as I wrote earlier, these calculators are currently much cheaper in the US than they are in Canada because the Canuck buck is over-valued due to the high demand for oil. Even with taxes and shipping, many of these financial calculators are much cheaper from Amazon.com than from, say Staples.ca; and the variety available from the US is much greater; often the wait is worth it.

Ideological War: Terrorism Teamed up with Class-Action Lawsuits

I don't know the source of this. It was sent to me by Judith:

“Last week The New York Times carried a story about the current state of the 9/11 lawsuits. Relatives of 42 of the dead are suing various parties for compensation, on the grounds that what happened that Tuesday morning should have been anticipated. The law firm Motley Rice, diversifying from its traditional lucrative class-action hunting grounds of tobacco, asbestos and lead paint, is promising to put on the witness stand everybody who ‘allowed the events of 9/11 to happen.’ And they mean everybody—American Airlines, United, Boeing, the airport authorities, the security firms—everybody, that is, except the guys who did it. According to the Times, many of the bereaved are angry and determined that their loved one’s death should have meaning. Yet the meaning they’re after surely strikes our enemies not just as extremely odd but as one more reason why they’ll win. You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen. But that’s the American way: Almost every news story boils down to somebody standing in front of a microphone and announcing that he’s retained counsel...



Those 9/11 families should know that, if you want your child’s death that morning to have meaning, what matters is not whether you hound Boeing into admitting liability but whether you insist that the movement that murdered your daughter is hunted down and the sustaining ideological virus that led thousands of others to dance up and down in the streets cheering her death is expunged from the earth...



On this sixth anniversary, as 9/11 retreats into history, many Americans see no war at all.” —Mark Steyn

What is the risk? Who is the least-cost avoider of the risk? These are not easy questions!

Factor Mobility: Efficiency Is a Very Powerful Force

If one input into the production process cannot move to where it is more efficient, then others will sometimes move to it. Economic efficiency is a very powerful force.



Here is an example [h/t to Brian Ferguson]: with the crackdown on illegal immigrant labour, the land cannot move to Mexico, where the cheap labour is located. However, capital goods can move there, and that is what is happening.

Steve Scaroni, a farmer from California, looked across a luxuriant field of lettuce here in central Mexico and liked what he saw: full-strength crews of Mexican farm workers with no immigration problems.



Farming since he was a teenager, Mr. Scaroni, 50, built a $50-million business growing lettuce and broccoli in California’s Imperial Valley, relying on the hands of immigrant workers, most of them Mexicans and many probably in the United States illegally.



But early last year he began shifting part of his operation to rented fields here. Now some 500 Mexicans tend his crops in Mexico, where they run no risk of deportation.



... A sense of crisis prevails among American farmers who rely on immigrant laborers, more so since legislation in the United States Senate failed in June and authorities announced a crackdown on employers of illegal immigrants. An increasing number of farmers have been testing the alternative of raising crops across the border where many of the workers are, according to growers and lawmakers in the United States and Mexico.

This example of the Heckscher-Ohlin Theorem (some might say, in reverse) exemplifies one of the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement. So long as there were restrictions on the importation of produce from Mexico to the U.S., it became a second-best efficiency solution for labour to migrate to the U.S. But now the combination of NAFTA and the crackdown on illegal immigration makes it more efficient for capital to migrate south of the border instead.



However, contrary to the views stated in the NYTimes article quoted above, the result is not a crisis; rather it is a move toward more economic efficiency.

We're Not Just Drinking Buddies Now

A couple of times a month we get together with friends for dinner, wine, scotch, and to play cards. We've been doing this for over a year.



Last week we all agreed that if we ever needed help of any kind, the other couple would be the first ones we would call.



That's when John said,

You mean were not just drinking buddies now?

An Open Letter to My Students(3rd Edition)

As a new academic year begins, here is an update of my open letter to my students.



To my students:

• When I was an undergraduate student, I had friends who got out of all sorts of things for all sorts of reasons; further, any excuse I didn't hear about as an undergrad I have heard enough times in my 58 years as a prof to be familiar with it. Deaths in the family, apartment fires, tears on command, cars breaking down, feigning symptoms of depression, you name it: I either knew someone who used it or have had to deal with it. I have a pretty good feeling for when you are trying to bull$hit me, so don’t try. And while I am very sympathetic if it’s legitimate, I am ruthless if you lie to me.
• I read quite a bit, and I am an okay writer. People who read copious amounts and who write a lot notice writing style, so if you try to plagiarize, I will almost always be able to tell. If I suspect you plagiarized work for my course, I will report you, and I will fail you in the course, and I may try to get you expelled from the university (as I did several years ago with one student whose offence was repeated and flagrant).
• If you miss class, please do not ask me if anything important happened. I wouldn't give the lecture if I didn't think it was important. What do you expect me to answer? “Yes, actually, on the one day you missed I decided to give a pop quiz that counts for 50% of your grade. Then we discussed the answers to the final exam, and then I gave everybody real, not invisible, chocolate chip cookies. Too bad you missed it.”
• Cell phones are disruptive. Please turn them off before you come to class. If yours rings in class, you will have to leave. In fact, because of past disruptions from students playing games or text messaging, if your cell phone is on your desk or in your lap, you will have to leave class, regardless of whether you are actually using it.
• The same thing applies to laptop computers. Don't bother bringing your laptop to class because I will just ask you to close it and put it away.
• And while we're on "don'ts", please do not eat in class. Doing so is very distracting to the students around you.
• During the lectures and discussions, I may seem fun and amusing, but that does not mean my tests are easy. My exams are hard.
• University is different from high school: reading all the material and going to class does not guarantee you an A or even a B unless you are considerably above average in ability. You actually have to study too.
• Class clowns may have been funny in high school, but they aren't in university. My classes are not like Canadian Parliament --- heckling is not permitted.
• If you are out on the town drunk and want to yell at me about your grade, then please do not ever take any of my classes again. Even though I strive to maintain anonymity in my marking, I will not want to see you again.
• And don't send me nasty e-mails about an exam or mark when you are in a drunken stupor at 4am. Believe me, you will regret it the next day.
• Please do not tell the other faculty members (including those in the department of hydraulic socionomology) what I say, unless it is good and about them or it is something you learned that you thought was really neat that also does not clash with their theoretical viewpoint; academics tend to be sensitive about criticism.
• I hope you are not offended by my jokes. They are funny, but sometimes not to religious conservatives or most liberals.
• If I am late for a meeting and rushing out of my office, or if I am trying to eat lunch in between classes, or if I am out with my colleagues for dinner, I might not be all that keen to answer questions about the upcoming midterm.
• This is for the boys: I'm hetero.
• This is for the girls: If you are flunking my class, do not make sly little suggestions about what you might do to earn a passing grade. You are flunking my class — why should I think your performance would be better in any other areas? Besides, I'm too old to care.
• Incompletes are for students who, for legitimate, documented reasons, could not finish the class. If you don't like your grade, you cannot take an incomplete.
• I will do my best to give the first midterm exam or at least a major assignment before the drop deadline. If you take the midterm and do badly, and then don't drop the class, and then come back 3 months later and try to act as if you were never in my class and you want me to sign a form, I won't. I'm a pushover for many things, but that does not include unwillingness to accept responsibility for your own actions or inactions.
• If I see you out on the town or at the sports bar, and you want to buy me a drink, you cannot currently be in my classes or ever take any of my classes again. Then probably you can buy me a drink.
• Similarly, I am delighted that you like my art work (The next major showing will be at Starbucks/Chapters in Masonville, North London, February 2008). And, yes, it is for sale. But do not think that if you buy some, you will get a higher mark in my class. You won't. So it is probably best if you wait to buy anything until at least a year after you have had your last class from me. And do not tell me while you are taking a class that you would like to buy something a year later - that won't work either.
• If I set up extra office hours to help you, and you don’t show up, I will refuse to set up any other office hours outside of regularly scheduled ones.
• When you tell me, “I’m getting kicked out of school because of the grade I got in your class,” this might make me feel bad, but it certainly makes me question whether this is the first/only bad grade you have ever received.
• If you come to see me because you are worried about your grade, and you use all the study suggestions that I might provide, and I really honestly believe that you are trying hard but you are still getting a bad grade, I will wish I had the guts to tell you that not everyone is meant for university, but most likely I won’t.
• If you ask a stupid question in class, I will try not to laugh at your question. I apologize if I do.
• Please ask all the questions you want to in class. Really. I learn from my mistakes. If I see anyone so much as roll an eye, I will pull them aside after class and tell them that’s inappropriate. If it is a very large class, though, and your questions seem to be dominating the class discussion, I may have to ask you to save some for after class.
• I like to tell stories. Once you figure this out, please do not use it to try to reduce the content and coverage of the actual, regularly scheduled lecture, and hence, the amount of material for which you will be responsible: You will still be responsible for the assigned material regardless of whether we cover it in class.
• If you work for me on a project, and you do a good job, I will write you a glowing letter of recommendation. If you work for me and do a lousy job, I will write a letter that, while not direct, will let the program or job you are applying for know what kind of a student you are. Remember that things like, “She was often on time,” or, “From my conversations with him, it is clear that he very much wants to go to graduate school,” are not really compliments.
• And, please, if you liked my class, if you feel that it changed the way you think, if you learned a lot, if you were challenged, please tell me. Because people in our economy face limited resources and time, seeing the lights go on for you is what keeps me going. I love teaching, and I am clearly not in it for the money. Actually, this last item goes for all your professors.

Golden Silk Spiders

Last weekend we visited my younger son, Adam Smith Palmer, and his wife. They live near Houston, Texas, where both are studying/working. On Labour Day, they took us to Brazos Bend State Park.



While there, we saw smallish alligator (we were told it was maybe 4-5 years old)

and tonnes of Golden Silk Spiders.







It's a nice park with a great hands-on programme for touching snakes and baby alligators, and for learning more about golden silk spiders.

Afternoon Tea at The Boathouse in Guelph

During the coming academic year, I will be on sabbatical, spending much of my time visiting Guelph University. Earlier this week, Ms. Eclectic and I made the two-hour drive there to move some supplies and equipment into the office I will be using there. While in Guelph, we visited The Boathouse for afternoon tea.



Overall it was a pleasant experience, and certainly far less expensive than the places where I had taken afternoon tea in England. For my earlier reviews of those afternoon teas, see my postings about The Four Seasons in London, the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath, The Pump Room (also in Bath), and Claridges in London.



The Boathouse is nothing like those four places. Let me make clear again that we enjoyed it, despite its short-comings.



First, The Boathouse refers to its afternoon tea as high tea, not afternoon tea, listing it on the reservation and receipt as "hi tea". As I have written before, a proper English afternoon tea is not at all the same thing as "high tea":

A proper English afternoon tea is something that refined people take in an elegant atmosphere. I have been told by several people that it is not the same thing as "high tea", which the plebian middle classes take much later in the afternoon/evening in their attempts to emulate the aristocracy.

Second, the atmosphere is nothing like the tony places I visited in England. The outside temperature was 32C (recall that C stands for Canadian and F stands for foreign) and there was no air conditioning and there were very few open or openable windows — it was uncomfortably warm in the tearoom portion of the establishment.



Also, it is not just a tearoom. It is also an ice cream parlour and upscale yuppie restaurant for seniors (i.e. people like Ms. Eclectic and me). The setting in a former boathouse on the river is pleasant, and so is the interior; but it isn't the atmosphere of the more upscale places in London. Further, The Boathouse uses paper serviettes — not my idea of a classy afternoon tea.



The tea list at The Boathouse is lengthy but far from extensive. The list of herbal and decaf teas is longer than the list of black and green teas! I was disappointed not to find Lapsong Souchong tea on the list, and so I tried their special blend. It was quite nice. And Ms. Eclectic thoroughly enjoyed their black currant tea. The teas are all loose teas, and they are presented already in the pot in long paper filter sleeves. The server was less attentive than some, but she was perfectly on the spot with additional hot water when I was ready for more.



The food was presented in the standard 3-tiered tree with sandwiches on the bottom layer, scones in the middle, and desserts on the top. Unfortunately, the server placed this contraption smack-dab in the middle of the table, making it difficult for us to see and talk with each other. Of course, we eventually rearranged things on the table, but that should not have been necessary.



The sandwiches at The Boathouse were very good. They were presented on delicious multi-grain bread with the crusts trimmed, as expected. But the sandwiches there were more basic than the exotic ones served at the better places in London. The sandwiches were larger than the English ones, and were tuna, curried egg salad, and cucumber and creamed cheese. They were very good, but they weren't crab or smoked lobster or chopped olives or...



We were both hungry and uncomfortably warm, and we finished the sandwiches in record time, even for us. Unlike the better (and pricier) tearooms in England, The Boathouse did not offer us additional sandwiches when we had finished the first batch.



So we moved right on to the scones. They were big and slightly moist. The dough was a bit sweet, which I liked, but that meant they didn't really need the granulated sugar, which was abundant on top of them. The jam with them was standard, but the cream was a far FAR cry from the clotted cream or Devon cream to which I had become accustomed in England; it was much airier, with virtually no substance — quite a disappointment. Again, after we finished the scones, we were not offered any additional ones.



They presented us with four petite desserts — small cakes and mousses, and all of them were quite tasty.



As I have tried to emphasize, for the most part we enjoyed the afternoon tea at The Boathouse. But the heat in the place was overwhelming, and as a result we rushed much more than we should have, just to get out of there and off to some place that was air conditioned. And the price was about a quarter what I paid for the snooty afternoon teas in England, so we didn't really mind not being served extras.



Digression: There are many old photographs adorning The Boathouse accompanied by write-ups explaining the history of the location. I found them quite interesting, but I suspect the aboriginals from the area might take exception to the statement that Peter Gow was the original owner of the land on which The Boathouse is situated.

Mystery's New Cat Bed

It is my shoulder bag, in which I carry my computer, books, and other supplies when I commute to work. It is usually standing up in that place, but she pulled it over to investigate it, at which time she decided to make it one of her many beds.

Geographers Assert the Price Elasticity of Demand for Air Travel is Zero!

I expect that I could hire a good research assistant, and s/he would take only an hour or less to find plenty of studies indicating that the price elasticity of demand for air travel is not zero. They would find instead that as prices drop, the quantity demanded increases; and as prices go up (remember when that happened two years ago?) the quantity demanded drops.



Nevertheless geographers at Exeter University have pronounced that the price elasticity of demand for air travel is zero. Well, not in so many words, but they said the same thing. From the BBC [h/t to Brian Ferguson]:

The government raised air passenger duty in February, and the European Union is set to include aviation in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which could increase costs further.



But the Exeter research suggests price hikes would have a minimal impact.



"We found that flying is quite embedded in peoples' lifestyle choices," said Stewart Barr from the university's Department of Geography.



"And it's not people on lower incomes taking these flights, it's middle class people taking more flights to go on city breaks, and they can afford to pay higher prices."



... The findings come from a series of focus groups run in Devon in 2005, and from a prior questionnaire.

The customers can afford it, so they won't respond to price increases? That flies in the face of both economics and common sense. Even rich people respond to incentives.



And I would not be at all upset if journalists and academics were a bit more skeptical about results from focus groups and questionaires. Invariably people say one thing in focus groups or on questionaires, but then behave quite differently.



If the article hadn't said otherwise, I'd figure these "researchers" were from the department of socionomology.

The London Free Press:More Poor Customer Service

We recently left town for a few days. Not wanting to tie up phone lines and not wanting to be put on interminable hold, I used the on-line service of the London Free Press to put a start/stop on our newspaper. It didn't work for some reason, and this is not the first time that has happened to us. Fortunately, we had someone looking after our house and pets, so they took the newspapers inside for us. Otherwise, we'd have been advertising to all the local criminals that our house was empty.



The morning after we returned, I called the newspaper to let them know that we'd had this problem and that I was somewhat perturbed about it. I was put on hold for "only" 15 minutes.



The person I spoke with did not even know that they had the on-line facility for starting and stopping one's home delivery of the newspaper. She then confirmed that there have been some problems with the provider of their website services. [my response: no foolin'"]. And then she offered the helpful suggestion that from now on when I leave town, I speak directly with a representative rather than use the on-line start-stop service. I know she was trying to be helpful, but it was annoying.

The Centre of the UniverseNo, It Is NOT Toronto

I have long had a difficult time grasping the concept that the universe has been expanding from something called the Big Bang. If there really was a big bang, I reasoned, where did it take place? My younger son, Adam Smith Palmer, is an astrophysicist. He answered my question by gesturing vaguely and saying,

Over there.

Thanks son. So I explained my question to an astronomy professor who said,

Yes. And over there. And over there. And....

I asked how that was possible. Surely if there was a big bang, and things have been expanding away from it, we should be able to trace backward to find out where the big bang took place.



But both my son and the astronomer told me that a good analogy is as follows. If we take a two-dimensional surface, it is possible for every point on that surface to be moving away from all other points as the surface expands if, in fact, the two-dimensional surface is the skin of a balloon in three dimensions. By analogy, it is possible that every point in our three-dimensional universe is moving away from every other point AND that the universe is expanding if we add just one more dimension. Well, maybe, but that sure is hard to visualize.



I wonder, though, if maybe the recent discovery of a big hole in the universe means that is where the universe began. I know from nothing about astrophysics and could continue to be more than a little confused, but it seems plausible to me that if there was a big bang it might have left a hole as everything expanded away from that site.



My son just laughed at me for even suggesting such an idea, but that (and some scotch) just made me more insistent: the big bang took place at the hole in the universe.....



8-)

Sunflowers

I am about 6-feet tall. I have heard of sunflowers as tall as these (and much taller), but until this year I had never seen them "up close and personal". Now we have them in our yard. We have staked them in two places, but I fear the next really strong windstorm will take them down.

The Magic of Kevin James

How do people do these things? Absolutely amazing!

Brit Academics Far Less Anti-Semitic Than Their Union Leaders: Whew

From this source [h/t to Rebekah]:

"The members of Imperial College UCU have voted overwhelmingly - by more than five-to-one - to reject Motion 30 - the boycott of Israeli academic institutions," said Imperial UCU member and leading UK academic Michael J. McGarvey, Reader in Molecular Virology at Imperial's Division of Medicine.



"In conjunction with the very similar results from the recent ballots of members at the University of Oxford and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, this clearly demonstrates that the vast majority of ordinary members of UCU are against a boycott and the damaging effects that this could have on British academia."

At the Imperial College, 82% of the faculty members voted to reject the boycott, 2% abstained, and 16% voted in favour of the boycott. These results lead to two questions:

• What's wrong with the 18% who did NOT vote against the boycott, and
• How can "leadership" like the UCU union leaders claim to represent their membership in the face of such overwhelming rejection of their motion? They should resign en masse.

I Admit it: I Am a Specie-ist

I eat meat. I think humans, by dint of evolution, have the right to breed and kill animals for their meat and pelts. Further, I don't hunt and fish, but I have no problems with those who do so for food and skins. I tell my friends to think of animals on farms simply as inventory, capital goods, or goods in process.



So why does what Michael Vick did offend me so much? I have similar problems with people who abuse their pets. I guess it is because of the cruelty, the causing of pain in animals for the sake of causing pain in animals. Sadism seems wrong to me.

For some thoughts on animal rights that exemplify why I do not understand most philosophers and am clearly a bundle of inconsistencies myself, please see this by Robert Nozick [h/t to Megan McCardle].

Regardless Nozick's brilliance, sadism seems morally wrong to me, and yet killing animals to satisfy other human desires does not. From that perspective,

I hope Michael Vick doesn't play in the NFL again for a long time, if ever.

I realize he has been suspended "indefinitely", but that could end up being just a few years.

The Canada Memorial in London, England

Last May, I visited the memorial to Canadian soldiers who helped fight for England in WWI and WWII. It seemed to be a flat-ish but non-level pond-like thing with maple leafs in inverse relief, over parts of which water gently flowed. I remember noticing at the time that it had some pigeon droppings on it — is there anything in London that doesn't?? But I did not think the memorial was in any sort of disrepair or even neglect. After all, it would be pretty costly to maintain around the clock pigeon-dropping cleaning services.



So I was surprised to read this in the Globe and Mail last week:

Premier Dalton McGuinty says Ontario could foot the bill to maintain a neglected Canadian war memorial in London, England.



Mr. McGuinty says the federal government should pick up the $25,000 tab, but if it doesn't, the Ontario government might step in.



The Canadian War Memorial near Buckingham Palace has fallen into disrepair, amid arguments over maintenance responsibilities...



The monument was inaugurated by the Queen 13 years ago to honour Canadians who fought and died in the two world wars.

$25,000? What's the problem? Or is there some question about whether the memorial really needs any maintenance?



Below are some photos I took at the time. I really don't see the neglect or disrepair.

More Moral Bankruptcy at the UN

From Ynet news:

A UN conference, held at the European Parliament in Brussels, heard an array of speakers call for a boycott against Israel and strategize on ways to achieve its international isolation, during the first day of an event billed by organizers as a gathering to promote "Middle East peace".



The 'International Conference of Civil Society in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace' has been organized by the UN's Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, and attracted political figures and pro-Palestinian members of non governmental organizations (NGOs).

WHAT? The UN actually has such a committee?



The loaded language of such rhetoric is very disturbing. It is the same people dragging out the same tired arguments we heard from Durban in 2001. They were wrong then and they are still wrong.



[h/t to Scoop]

Pen-y-Ghent

Pen-y-Ghent is one of the higher peaks in England. Compared with the Rockies, that may not seem like much, but it is still a beautiful part of the Yorkshire Dales. Pen-y-Ghent is the usually the first peak tackled by hikers attempting to do the Three Peaks Walk of 24.5 miles in under 12 hours.



When I was in Yorkshire last June, I stayed in Settle, which isn't very far from Pen-y-Ghent. One morning, I took the train to Horton-in-Ribblesdale and then walked up Pen-y-Ghent and then down through the village of Stainsford and back to Settle. It was about 13 miles and took me about 9 hours, including stops for beer at a pub and a very pleasant time with Duncan and Gaynor along the way, who introduced me to geocaching, an activity/sport which has provided hours and days of interest and amusement for both Ms. Eclectic and me.



Here are some photos I took along the way that day.



In this first photo on the left, you can see one of the coves that I passed on the trail along the way to Pen-y-Ghent (on the horizon). It turned out that about 10,000 people were attempting the three peaks walk that day as part of a British Telecom charity fund-raising event. I could not bear the thought of being passed by all those fit young folks, and so I took a different route up to the peak (along with some fun side trails) that meant I didn't meet many of them [Oh, the male ego is such a devastating force!].



You can see Pen-y-Ghent in the distance in the photo on the left, and if you click on the photo on the right, you can even make out some of the hikers coming down the trail from the peak. There were tonnes of them.



I came down from the peak along the trail that most people went up. It was not pleasant for someone whose knees object to coming down stairs:

It was a glorious day, followed by a brass band concert in a church in Settle, where wine was provided during the intermission.



and 30 hours later I was in the hospital with kidney stones.