EclectEcon

The Economics of Reducing Search Costs: the importance of network effects

A dating site for conservatives.

I have some conservative friends who seem to have found pretty good matches on regular dating sites. Unless lots of searchers lie about their political preferences, I see no reason why political views (weighted by their importance) couldn't be a part of most internet dating profiles. I expect they are, actually. So is location. So why the attempt to develop a unique Canadian site?

And that question highlights a problem with developing any new dating site --A big problem for those who are actively in the market is that the market seems a bit thin so far on this Canadian site [h/t Jack]:

As of January 30, the site’s Canadian offerings were almost non-existent, with zero men and only two women; a 47-year-old woman in Oshawa, Ont. looking for a husband and a “very busy person” from Antigonish, Nova Scotia.

A larger network means a higher probability of a better match. Hence all the ads for dating sites, trying to increase the value of joining the sites.

These Are Not Just a Few Wackos; These Are Gubmnt Leaders

Whenever you read or hear things like this, you wonder how on earth Israel could survive if it didn't have a strong military and a strong determination.

 A key figure in Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's government called the Holocaust a hoax cooked up by U.S. intelligence operatives and claimed the 6 million Jews who were killed by Nazis simply moved to the U.S.

The outrageous claims, by Fathi Shihab-Eddim, a senior figure close to President Morsi who is now responsible for appointing the editors of all state-run Egyptian newspapers, came as the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27, and also as the U.S. continues to assess its relationship with the increasingly radical Arab state.

“The myth of the Holocaust is an industry that America invented,” Shihab-Eddim said, leaving no room for doubt that the Egyptian government -- like Iran's -- has at the very least significant elements that deny one of history's best documented genocides.

“U.S. intelligence agencies in cooperation with their counterparts in allied nations during World War II created it [the Holocaust] to destroy the image of their opponents in Germany, and to justify war and massive destruction against military and civilian facilities of the Axis powers, and especially to hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the atomic bomb,” Shihab-Eddim said.

See how moderate Egypt's leaders are? They blame America, not Jews, for the "myth" of the Holocaust!

Remember that next time someone calls Egypt or the Muslim Brotherhood anti-semitic.

Guide to Superbowl Cheers and What They Mean

First, my pick: I'll take Baltimore plus the 3.5 points.

and now this (h/t Rebekah):

"Will" and "Shall"

When I was in grade school, I learned that the proper use of "will" and "shall" was precisely the use described here in Wikipaedia:

The most influential proponent of the distinction was John Wallis, whose 1653 Grammatica Linguae Anglicanae stated "The rule is... to express a future event without emotional overtones, one should say I shall, we shall, but you/he/she/they will; conversely, for emphasis, willfulness, or insistence, one should say I/we will, but you/he/she/they shall".

I doubt whether many people today are aware of or care about this distinction today, much less incorporate it in their everyday speech or writing (I certainly find it awkward to say "I shall" meaning intention; in fact I don't know that I ever use the word "shall"). 

Why my interest in this distinction these days? I'll be playing two relatively minor roles in a production of Christopher Marlowe's Edward II  at The Arts Project in London, February 13 - 16. When I initially read the play, I noticed that Marlowe used "will" sometimes and "shall" sometimes. 

For some reason my long-term memory clicked in, and I remembered what I had been taught about the distinction. So I re-read the play, keeping those uses of "will" and "shall" in mind. Understanding the difference has helped me understand a bit better what Marlowe was trying to say when he used the words. 

Wikipaedia offers an interesting pair of sentences to illustrate the distinction:

A popular contrast between shall and will appeared in the 19th Century,^[6] in the 20th century,^[7] and continues to the present:^[8]:

• A desperate cry for help: “I shall drown; no one will save me!”
• The intention to commit suicide: “I will drown; no one shall save me!”

And yet I really doubt if many people notice or care nowadays (nor do I). As the Wikipaedia entry concludes,

Steven Pinker wrote he "was skeptical that any Englishman made that distinction in the past century. Winston Churchill seemed determined enough when he said 'We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.'"^[9]

Update: MA sent me this link to the distinction:

The traditional rule in standard British English is that shall is used with first person pronouns (i.e. I and we) to form the future tense, while will is used with second and third person forms (i.e. you, he, she, it, they). For example:

I shall be late

They will not have enough food.

 

However, when it comes to expressing a strong determination to do something, the roles are reversed: will is used with the first person, and shall with the second and third. For example:

 

I will not tolerate such behaviour.

You shall go to the ball!

 

In practice, though, the two words are used more or less interchangeably, and this is now an acceptable part of standard British and US English. [emphasis aded in this sentence].

Update #2: MA added in a separate message

Pinker is quite wrong.

Churchill may have been determined, but he spoke as to the future and not as to determination:

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=5IHadByMvXk&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5IHadByMvXk&gl=GB

Had it been otherwise, there would have been an emphasis on "shall" which there plainly was not.

If Being Anti-Israel Isn't Anti-Semitic, It's Mighty Close

Melanie Phillips has yet another terrific column (ht MA):

[T]he fact is that Israel is not trying to exterminate the Palestinians – indeed how could this possibly be the case, since the Palestinian population has more than quadrupled since the rebirth of Israel in 1948. Nor are the Israelis oppressing the Palestinians, who have benefited from some of the highest rises in GDP and lowest child mortality ratios in the Middle East.

Nor are the Israelis behaving inhumanely; it is the Palestinians who are committing crimes against humanity by targeting Israeli innocents for mass murder without remission, both from Gaza and from the West Bank. It is the Palestinians, in the West Bank as well as Gaza, who are brainwashed from the cradle to hate Jews and to believe that murdering Israelis is their highest glory. Which they have been doing in Israel and before that in Palestine for more than a century – despite the fact that, as the international community laid down in binding treaty in 1920, the Jews alone had the inalienable and historic right to settle throughout Palestine, including not just present-day Israel but also the West Bank and Gaza.

Moreover, while the Jews accepted proposals for a Palestinian state first made in the 1930s and then in 1947, and while the Israelis offered them more than 95 per cent of the possible land for a state in 2000 and 2008, the Palestinians responded merely by murdering more Jews.

Despite all this, Israel behaves towards its genocidal Palestinian attackers with a humanity that is seen in no other conflict on the planet. Despite the rocket attacks and constant smuggling of ever more fearsome weapons to be aimed at its civilians, it allows humanitarian supplies into Gaza; despite the constant plotting in the West Bank to kill more Israelis, it allows Palestinians to work in Israel, and treats Palestinians from both the West Bank and Gaza alongside Israelis in Israeli hospitals. Yes of course there is Palestinian hardship caused by the checkpoints and security barrier. But the only reason these exist is to prevent Palestinians killing yet more Israelis. If the Palestinians and their Arab and Iranian backers stopped trying to wipe Israel off the map, there would be peace tomorrow.

 

More on Pennies

The last Canadian one-cent coin was minted last May. And on February 4th, the Royal Canadian Mint will stop redistributing one-cent coins to financial institutions. 

You're welcome.

To celebrate this change, the Canadian Mint has put out an "info graphic" about the history of the penny [ht Devin].

Quite frankly, I'm surprised that so few retailers have not already converted to a penny-free environment. When I ask cashiers if their shops have started to prepare for getting rid of the penny, usually I just get a blank stare or puzzled look.

Oh well, it'll happen soon. And it'll be in the news some more.

Meanwhile, I'm still awaiting my invitation from Ottawa to attend the gala celebration as the last pennies are shipped out from the Royal Mint.

For all my earlier writings on pennies, see this.

Apple, Why Didn't You Listen to Me (and many others!)?

The price of Apple's stock is falling. They're losing market share to Samsung. We all know why: screen size. As I argued several years ago, the iPhone was great for everything, but I'd prefer something a bit bigger so that reading would be easier (e.g. see this). I figured I wouldn't even be interested in an iPad if I had a bigger screen on an iPhone. 

So when the iPhone 5 came out just a bit longer but no wider than the iPhone 4, I gave up waiting and switched to a Samsung Note2. I am not entirely thrilled with the Note2, as I've said before: Android is difficult for me to adjust to, and the Note2 has buttons in the wrong places. I like that it takes micro SD cards and has a replaceable battery, and I especially like the big screen. And if Apple comes out with an iPhone 6 the size of even a Samsung Galaxy S3, I'll probably switch back. But preliminary rumours suggest they are moving in a different direction. 

Meanwhile people are abandoning Apple in droves. From the link [ht MA]

"We think Apple is losing the screen-size wars," Mr Misek said, noting that demand was moving away from the iPhone's 3.5-inch and 4-inch screens to screens of 5 inches offered by rivals such as Samsung Electronics.

Makes sense to me.

Addendum: I meant to add that as I had expected, now that I have my Note2, I do indeed rarely use my iPad.

 

Related articles

My Adjustment from iPhones to Samsung's Note2 -- not so smooth

iPhone 5S and iPhone 6: Release date, pricing and specs rumors

Bigger iPhone Screens Coming? Not Yet

A Desert Between Us and Them: a documentary about the war of 1812 as it took place in SW Ontario

I had a minor role in this. So minor, in fact, that I don't appear in this trailer:

Who really won the war of 1812? I was taught as a kid, growing up in the US, that the US won the war. Then when I moved to Canada, I was told that Canada (aka the Brits) won the war. From everything I've read, one thing emerged:

Much of the anatagonism between the the US and the Brits was that the Brits turned a blind eye to the Indians use of Canada as a haven from which they launched repeated attacks, and the US was trying to expand into the Northwest Territories (now the midwestern US). One important outcome of the war was that the Brits sold out Tecumseh and the Indians. Pretty much everything else (oh yeah, there was also the Brit impression of US sailors that was halted) didn't change much.

But no matter what history you read or how it is interpreted, this documentary brings to life a whole lot of action that we never heard much about. It was extremely well-researched and probably did about as good a job as possible in capturing the essence of the era in this area.

Pepsi Max -- Huh?

So these three guys can plot and co-ordinate the complete sabotage of a job interview so a friend gets the job.... but they can't co-ordinate their dancing? Weird.

And then we see three losers in a struggling company collaborating to deceive their boss so they can watch a football game on tv (and forget about the woes of the company). Maybe it's sometimes a good idea to take some time away from company troubles, but approvingly showing goof-off colluders/deceivers drinking Pepsi Max doesn't work for me.

Cars from the 1950s -- a 48-photo-question quiz

When I was a kid, I could identify ANY car (and most trucks); make, model, and year. Or so I thought. 

So when I saw this quiz, I thought, "this should be fun and easy". Fortunately it is a series of matching quizzes (four in each set), and so long as I knew three of the four, it was easy. But some of the photos are from unusual angles in some instances, and there are vehicles here that, quite frankly, I don't remember ever having seen. 

Nevertheless, I got lucky on a couple and scored 100%. 

How Fresh Is the Jetta? .... no, the one on the left

I have laughed out loud everytime I've seen the currently running ad for VW's Jetta. It's set in a meat market and treats buying a car as if it can be as impulsive as buying a pot roast. 

The ad and the acting are so real and yet so bizarre. It may be just for the Canadian market; I'm not sure, but the YouTube site says it is from Volkswagon Canada. One site says it was shot at the Stables of Casa Loma in Trono.

Here it is, from YouTube:

The Most Original Ice Dance... EVER

 

Ms. Eclectic and I are watching the Canadian Figure Skating Championships off and on this week. As we watched the ice dance competition, I was reminded of the very strikingly different performance nearly 25 years ago at the 1988 Calgary Olympics by the Duchesnays. When I saw it then, I was just blown away. It really grabbed me. After their creative dance, the rules were changed (unfortunately). 

Here is a YouTube of their performance. It starts about two minutes in. 

Now that I have watched more ice dancing over the past 25 years, I can see that there were some minor technical flaws in their performance. But I am still appalled that they received such low scores from some of the judges on artistic interpretation. Here is a link to the Russian narration with, it seems to me, slightly different camera work (It's a long video, but the Duchesnays were first, so you can fast forward to about the 2:20 mark):

Wow. Just Wow.

Side Note: The Duchesnays were from Quebec, Canada, but skated for France because they didn't think they could progress to their satisfaction in the Quebec/Canadian skating hierarchy. I'm glad they made that decision.

Prima Facie Evidence of a Lack of Competition:the case of e-books

Have you noticed how expensive e-books are? There might be a good reason, according to the US Department of Justice: collusion to fix prices (via MA).

Penguin has settled with the Department of Justice in the e-book price-fixing case brought against Apple and five publishers this year. Three of the other publishers involved: Hachette, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins — have already agreed to settle.

Penguin and Macmillan were holdouts, insisting that the case had no grounds. "We did not collude," said Macmillan CEO John Sargent in April, when the DOJ brought its case.

They may not have colluded, and unless there is "smoking gun"-type evidence, we may never know for sure. However we do know from all our theoretical models that if the e-book industry were competitive, prices would tend to reflect the costs of publication. But when e-book prices exceed the prices of paperbacks for the same titles, and when paperbacks are more costly to produce, it's an indication that competition is not driving prices down to even approximately reflect publication costs. 

Higher prices for e-books probably reflects price discrimination across different consumers with different price elasticities of demand. But that type of price discrimination can occur only when there is a lack of competition.

Lithium-Ion Batteries: Another Reason to Keep My Cellphone in a Case?

I had no idea that lithium-ion batteries could explode or cause a fire. I've loved using them in my cellphones and my power tools, especially, since they seem so much less damaging to the environment than NiCads. But I didn't know about this:

Small, potent lithium-ion power packs have transformed the world of radio-controlled model aircraft, much as they have allowed smartphones to get thinner, power tools to work longer and electric cars to go farther. But a pair of serious incidents this month involving rechargeable batteries in Boeing 787 Dreamliners have highlighted what model-airplane hobbyists long have known — lithium-ion technology comes with inherent dangers.

... 

When a cellphone battery overheats — a rare event — it can eject itself with a loud “pop,” leaving singe marks behind. Lithium-ion battery packs can have prolonged fires as each cell, typically the size of a man’s finger, gradually ignites.

“It could be a smoke bomb. It could be a flamethrower,” said Gerard Back, a senior engineer with Hughes Associates, a fire-protection company in Baltimore that investigated the Volt incident. “I’ve seen them look like every type of firework you can imagine.”

I keep my cellphone in a case anyway.... a sticky case in my shirt pocket to keep it from falling out when I lean over to flush the toilet, to be blunt. Now it sounds to me as if keeping my cellphone in a case might also be some added protection in the very low probability event that my lithium-ion battery overheats or bursts into flame.

The NFL Conference Play-offs

After going three for four last weekend, I thought I'd try my luck again this weekend. The simple fact is that in the past, over a long period of time, I just about break even against the odds (in fact, I don't bet on NFL games), and there is no reason to expect I'd do at all well over a short haul; I could very well get both picks wrong this week. Anyway here goes:

• The odds makers pick San Francisco over Atlanta by 3.5 even though Atlanta is at home. SF looked really good last week against Green Bay, and Atl struggled against Seattle at home, barely winning in part because of poor clock management by Seattle. This is a tough pick. In the end, I'll take Atl plus the points. It feels like a long shot, but 70% of nearly 60K participants on Sportacular picked Atlanta to win outright, despite the odds from Las Vegas.
• New England is favoured over Baltimore by 8 points (though earlier this week they were favoured by 9.5). NE looked really good in their victory over Houston, but Baltimore looked mighty good last week, too, and has a lot of injured players back on their active roster. They're playing in NE, which is probably worth quite a bit, but I'll go out on a limb and pick Baltimore plus the points. Interestingly, of over 50K participants on Sportacular, 59% have picked Baltimore to win outright. I'm not going that far. After all, as I have said before, "Don't bet against the economist (referring to the head coach of NE)." But I do think they'll have enough of a battle on their hands they could very easily not win by much, if at all.

NFL Picks for the weekend

1. Denver -9.5 over Baltimore. Take Baltimore plus the points.
2. San Fran -2.5 over GB. Take SF minus the points.
3. Atlanta -3 over Seattle. Take Seattle plus the points.
4. New England -9.5 over Houston. Take Houston plus the points.

Big Gubmnt and Cronyism, the case of electric cars

One reason so many people oppose big gubmnt is that politicians, like everyone else, respond to incentives. This means that many politicians, or at least enough that it's a problem, are susceptible to some sort of influence.

Electric cars might well be one of many examples*. From the Washington Post:

An electric car start-up and its sister company sued the Energy Department on Thursday, claiming Secretary Steven Chu and his agency awarded money to politically favored firms and strung along their firms and others in a “fixed” race for federal funds.

In addition to complaints of cronyism, XP Vehicles and Limnia said they have evidence suggesting the Energy Department improperly shared their patented technology with competing companies that won federal funding.  

*Other examples might include bailing out the banks and sacrificing bondholders to bolster labour union support in the auto industry.

An Extra Benefit of Snow-Stomp Art

It stays there after the rest of the snow melts!

The champagne glasses have disappeared, but everything else is there. It even stands out a bit.

The temperature yesterday reached +5C [recall that C = Canadian, F = Foreign] and is forecast to reach +double digits over the weekend. I'm not sure how long the bottle can last under those conditions!

The Bank of Canada Should Bring Me to Ottawa for This

In February, the Bank of Canada will stop distributing pennies in Canada. Given my history and notoriety in recommending that Canada abandon the penny, I think they should have a special ceremony and let me send the last penny out into circulation.

I mean, how often is it that someone from UWO is mentioned in a University of Trono publication like this:

The Bank of Canada has announced it will phase out the penny. Why now?
John Palmer, an economist at Western University, has been telling the Bank of Canada to get rid of the penny for the past 30 years. Pennies are a nuisance. How many people nowadays would stop to pick up a penny off the ground? A century ago, you could pay for a chocolate bar with two or three pennies; now they have no real purchasing power. And they cost the bank 60 per cent more to produce than they’re worth. The question is why the bank took so long! The answer is that it probably just came down to inertia. In any institution, there’s always risk with change.

Actually, it's been only about 23 years or so, but who's counting?

 

Beautifying London (Ontario)a pig in a dress or tux is still a pig

In preparation for the World Figure Skating Championships, to be held in London in March, the City of London has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to dress up and clean up the city, including yet another logo. Meanwhile, the buildings directly across the street from the venue are dilapidated, in danger of collapsing, empty, run-down, etc. I can't see how spending so much to re-beautify a walkway near Market Lane or to design a new logo can have much of a positive impact on the city's image when this is the sight that will greet people from out of town every day:

From the far left:

• a corner storefront that has been vacant, with the appearance of some work-in-progress inside having been abandoned over a year ago.
• a supper club that went out of business (and for which we had little use)
• a store front that has been empty for, I think, at least a year and a half.
• a boarded up building with a wall on top that looks unsafe even if it isn't.
• an okay pub
• and the building on the far right of the photo is a "club" that is open only from 10pm - 2am on Saturdays. Huh? One time when I was walking past it during those hours, I asked one of the security personnel if he thought I'd fit in with their patrons. He smiled.

I don't know what the city can or should do about this situation. My small-gubmnt preference is that the city do nothing (and cancel the order for the new logo). But even ignoring that preference, given the local bureaucrats' goal of promoting the city, here are two bits they must consider:

• Promoting the city will not work very well with these buildings and store fronts that have been abandoned and/or are in disrepair. At the very least, if it is even possible (and I have no idea), it might be nice to clean up the insides of those buildings and display the works of local artists in the storefronts. But who knows what relationships are like between the property owners and the city. Maybe the property owners are at odds with City Council. Or maybe the property owners have plans to rent the storefronts to food vendors or souvenir merchants temporarily during the World Figure-Skating Championship.
• Visitors are not going to be thrilled about running the gauntlet at and around Dundas and Richmond: smokers and pan-handlers make it unpleasant enough, not to mention reports of drug deals, violent attacks, etc.

The point I'm trying to make is that putting a dress or a tux on a pig doesn't change the fact that people will recognize it as a pig the minute they look at it.

I live downtown, about a block and a half from the scene in the above photo. I know parts of downtown can be unpleasant in places and at times. But increasingly there is a regentrification taking place as new, high-end condos are being built. I'm hoping this trend continues.

At the same time, I am sure there are many things I don't understand about why that half block of buildings looks so blighted, so I don't want to go too far out on a limb here. But with those obvious conditions, it's hard to see how beautifying a walkway will help the city's image very much.

Pretty Much the Case These Days

and pretty much consistent with the Atkins diet. [h/t MA]

The Holocaust: Polish Guilt. Polish Sorrow

via MA:

 The film "Poklosie" delves into the dark history of Polish complicity during the Holocaust. Director Wladyslaw Pasikowski's work has sparked fresh debate in Poland by posing the question: How anti-Semitic were the Poles?

Poland's Jewish community was almost entirely decimated during the Holocaust. The Nazis murdered 90 percent of the three million Jews there.

Later, the communist regime fostered a climate of anti-Semitism in the country, forcing many more Jews to leave. A kind of phantom pain was all that remained, the sort experienced by people who've lost a limb.

The loss is, to this day, almost unbearable.

Fierce debates between Jewish and Catholic Poles continue to shake the country on a regular basis. The question is always the same: Did the majority of Christian Poles approve of, or even assist, the mass murder of Jews?

The country's self-image as the most significant victim of the Nazi terror and the Second World War is at stake.

Sparking debate

It's a debate that has been reignited in recent weeks with the release of the film "Poklosie" ("Aftermath") by director Wladyslaw Pasikowski.  

The thriller tells the story of a Catholic farmer, Jozef Kalina (Maciej Stuhr), who discovers the traces of a massacre of Jews during the Holocaust in his village. His research reveals that it was local Polish villagers who, without the help of the Nazis, had murdered their Jewish neighbors.

 

Equus Meets Three Days of the Condor

Last night Ms. Eclectic and I were watching one of our all-time favourite movies, "Three Days of the Condor", starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway.

*** Warning: spoiler alert ***

 

 

 

 

Near the end, as Redford prepares to board a train, what should we see in the background, but this poster for the play Equus. This film was released in 1975.

Very Picasso-ish depiction of the horse. I love the connection.

Here's the poster from our production last September:

Canadian Humour

Shortly after I moved to Canada in 1971, someone from the US asked me, "How big a city IS Canada?"

A couple of years later, I was awarded a prize for having come the farthest to an event because I was from Canada (I'd traveled maybe 900 miles) when there was someone else there from Hawaii (what? a couple of thousand miles?).

Canadians, in general, know a lot more about the US than people from there know about Canada. When I first took my job in Canada, I read a short history book about Canada only to be aghast that

• maybe the US didn't win the War of 1812; 
• after reading that book, I knew a LOT more Canadian history than many Canadian residents.

What all this is leading up to is this article in the Washington Post about Canadian humour and the fuller article in Vanity Fair mentioned there.

From the WaPo piece:

There’s an American joke that Canada is like a loft apartment over the world’s greatest party. It turns out, judging from McCall’s history of Canadian humor, that they might all be chuckling at us up there. The unique national brand of humor is, he writes, a response to — and way of coping with — the oppressive weight of American culture.

Regardless of whether this perception of culture is correct, it is widely held, especially by producers of cultural events in Canada who resent the competition in Canada from the US. But Canadians have been wildly successful in the US entertainment business. The article lists many Canadian comedians:

The list of famous Canadian comedians is long – really long: John Candy, Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman (all of whom, like many others, came through the famous Toronto branch of Chicago’s Second City improv club), Leslie Nielsen, Jim Carrey, Rick Moranis, Seth Rogen, Eugene Levy, Samantha Bee, Mike Myers, Mort Sahl, and on and on.

and the list includes only comedians. Canadians are quite proud of other entertainers who also got their start in Canada.

It makes sense that Canadian entertainers would head south... that's where the big market is.

Stroke Warning Signs/Indications

I know I've blogged about this before, but it is so important and has been brought home again over the past two days.

Here are the stroke warning signs:

• Headache. Sudden severe and unusual headache, especially with no known cause. This is what happened to two friends who suffered strokes recently.
• Vision Troubles. Sudden trouble with vision in one or both eyes, even if temporary.
• Dizziness. Sudden loss of balance or trouble walking, especially when combined with any of the other signs listed here.
• Trouble Speaking. Sudden difficulty speaking or understanding; or sudden confusion, even if temporary.
• Weakness. Sudden loss of strength or sudden numbness in the face, arm, or leg, even if temporary.

One triage-type of diagnosis is the following. It's rough, but it might help. 

• Ask the person  
  • to smile
  • to raise both arms
  • to speak a simple sentence

There is some evidence that speedy recognition of the symptoms of a stroke (blood clot in the brain) will permit quick treatment with a much higher chance of survival. 

We keep these lists (above) on our fridge door.

addendum:

Jack's comments, which I included in my original post, really bear repeating:

There is an additional bit of information to be aware of: the possibility of reversing the impact of a stroke if one gets proper medical treatment within three hours of symptom onset. This applies to the majority of strokes which are caused by blockages in blood supply to part of the brain. It does not apply to those caused by bleeding into the brain. The steps required for possible stroke 'reversal' are:

1/ Get to a major hospital emergency department as soon as possible, and certainly within three hours of symptom onset.

2/ Bring up the possibility of administering clot-busting drugs to the emergency MD immediately; if he/she is on the ball and facilities permit, an emergency CT scan should follow very quickly. The CT is necessary to detemine if the stroke is caused by a blockage /clot (good) or a bleed (bad). If it is the former, then you should receive a clot busting drug intravenously. All of this ideally transpires within a three hour time frame of symptom onset.

Don't assume this will automatically happen. [There are instances when it hasn't.]

This link is an older statement for the public, but still applies.

And this link gives a broader context to treatment.

 

Related articles

10 stroke risks and warning signs for young and old alike

Don't ignore warning signs, top doctor says as he recovers from a stroke

Signs of stroke important to know

Ms. Eclectic Says This Captures the Essence of Me

I don't ordinarily post videos because I know most people skip them. But this one is only a minute long and very _______.

My Adjustment from iPhones to Samsung's Note2 -- not so smooth

As regular readers of EclectEcon know, I was deeply disappointed with Apple's iPhone5 and its mini-iPad. I was hoping Apple would come out with something the size of the Samsung Note2, but I'd have been content with an iPhone the size of the Samsung Galaxy S3. (see this, for example). I certainly wanted something larger than the iPhone5 and smaller than the minipad. 

So, even though I knew there would be serious transition problems, I bit the bullet and bought a Note2.

The Note2 is LARGE. I really like reading on it, so much so that I rarely use my iPad for anything anymore, and I've de-activated my iPhone4. The Note2 gets a bit heavy or awkward when I hold it for a looonnnngg time, and for most people the S3 might be a better choice, but I like the size. The clarity of the screen and the size of the phone make it wonderful for me and probably are enough to swamp all the problems I am having to deal with:

• My problems are almost exclusively due to my difficulties of adjusting from nearly 4 years of using iPhones to using Android. I know that lots of people prefer Android to iOS, and maybe it's as good as or better than iOS, but the transition has not been easy for me.
• Apps. The apps for the iPhone are generally better than those for Android (for example, consider The Weather Network apps). As one friend pointed out, "Android apps are fewer and lower quality." Also, finding the apps I want on the Google play store hasn't been very easy.
• Button placement. I keep hitting the blessed volume and screen-off buttons on the sides of the phone. I never had this problem with my iPhones. Maybe I'm having this problem with the Note2 because it's bigger, but I think the problem would be less if the screen-off button were on top.
• Where's the friggn "silent" switch? I can put the Note2 on "no ring" by pushing the volume down to zero, but then when I turn it up again, there is an annoying sound I can't seem to get rid of. 
• It's weird.... where are my backups? Where is everything? I'm used to having an iPhone back up to my computer. Maybe that's unnecessary but it is definitely disconcerting.
• texting: I haven't figured out how to make text messages show up on the opening screen without having to open the whole Android shebang. That was a nice feature of iOS. I don't like having to turn my phone on and then having to open the texting app just to read a friggn text. 
• iMessage and FaceTime. Those "free" features of Apple were time and money savers. I know we can use Skype video instead of FaceTime, and iMessage isn't all that valuable....but it's a big saver when you're texting people in another country.
• and how do I get all the stuff I bought via iTunes onto my Note2??

But in addition to the size, which trumps everything above, here are some other pluses for the Note2:

• The SD card. I love being able to store a whole bunch of stuff on a $50 64gb micro SD card. That was always a complaint I had about the Apple products.
• Kindle and Kobo, et al. I can buy e-books directly from them. I don't need to exit the app, go to the store to buy the e-book, then go back to the app. I really do miss Stanza, though, and wish it were available in Android.
• Replaceable battery. I'm ordering a second battery so I'll have plenty of backup power whenever I'm away from a charger for a long time.

Several times early on I was so frustrated that I almost sent it back. I'm old, and I hate having to relearn stuff that works reasonably well for me, so learning Android and unlearning iOS has not been pleasant for me or for anyone around me. Fortunately, our 13-year-old granddaughter is familiar with Android and was able to help me through a few things. 

One thing that might be a plus but which often confuses me now is the different type of auto-completion in Android. In iOS, auto completion guesses at a word (and even, embarrassingly at times, corrects it not always in ways I'd like). In Android, there's is no auto-correction, and the auto-completion always presents three good guesses about what word I'm trying to type. I think I'll get to like this feature.

[I don't know when Amazon.ca changed but as you can see from the links below, they now offer a much broader range of products than they used to, and the Canadian prices are often comparable to the Amazon.com prices and sometimes even lower. Yea!]

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