EclectEcon

Superballs and Long Halls

The campus at The University of Regina is a large collection of buildings constructed around a central ellipse and all connected (presumably so that people can get from building-to-building without having to go outside and freezing to death in the winter). One result of this design is that there are some very long corridors.

The longest hallway, by far, is on the south edge of the central campus running past the phys ed dept, the gyms, and all the way to a pit that has vending machines and ping-pong tables. When I first saw that corridor thirteen years ago, I had an inexplicably intense desire to stand at one end and try to see if I could throw or roll a ball to the other end.

Alas, I didn't do it, and now there's enough lounge furniture in the way that I'm not sure anyone could get the ball through the morass.

However, there are other corridors. The one in the photo below runs from the east end of the ad-hum (admin-humanities) building past the library and down to the east wall of the classroom building.

There's a large-screen tv-type monitor that you might be able to make out at the far end of the hallway. 

This year I didn't wait. I ordered some superballs from Amazon:

and took two of them with me to campus on Monday to try throwing them.

On the first two attempts, I tried throwing them overhand, but I was horrible and didn't get them past the doorway that you can see in the first photo (there's a reason I never made it as a pitcher in little league).

And so I collected the two balls and threw them underhanded (or rolled them with great speed? I'm not sure). Each of these two attempts barely missed the center post in the doorway and went the full distance. This is where they ended up [the shadow above them in the photo is the shadow of big-screen display unit]. I don't know if they actually hit that wall, but I'm guessing they did:

Looking back down the hallway, the east wall of the Ad-Hum building is way off (I figure about 2 miles*) in the distance.

The rolls had to be fairly straight to get through the initial doorway, and both attempts barely missed that centre post; but after that for all I know the balls bounced and caromed their way to the end. From what I could see, though (keep in mind it was nearly two miles*), both of them went right to the far wall.

Test completed! Success! Fun!

Now to organize a "Superball Long Hall" party with my friends!

*okay, okay, it wasn't really two miles. I'd be surprised if it was over 100 metres.

I Must Go Down to the Seas Again

As some of you know, for the 2022 holiday season, I'm planning to take a huge break from the past traditions that Carolle and I had. I've put up lights on the balconies, but that's about it.

Beginning tomorrow (Wednesday), I'll be house-sitting a very large 'cottage' near Lake Erie for two weeks. Alone.
My plan is to go away, think, write, practice music, and walk along the shore. Alone.
I need to think about my future and not just drift into it.

If this sounds like the identity crisis all over again, yes, it is.
And I laugh at myself about it.
And yet I know I need to do this, even if it accomplishes little or no outwardly recognizable change.

As I prepared for the move to the 'cottage' (which I have named "Nepenthe" even if the owner doesn't adopt the name), I began to think of the poem by John Masefield that we studied in Grade 9 (and which is only barely relevant).

I must go down to the seas again
to the lonely sea and the sky...

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied.
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

That reminds me: I want to pack a kite or two to take with me.

"Raise a Glass to the Good Life" -- Carolle M. Trembley November 1940 - May 2022

Carolle died at home this morning from a combination of congestive heart failure and renal failure. Last fall, it looked as if her health was improving, but it deteriorated during the winter.

Carolle was grateful for everything: every opportunity, every friend, every relative. She always said, “I’ve had a wonderful life!” And that's what she meant: she loved her life.

She was important in the lives of many people. For me, she was both challenging and caring, and she was strongly supportive of both me and my follies. Not a cheerleader, a strong supporter. We were married for nearly 40 years.

About a decade ago, Carolle wrote her own obituary. Here is the concluding paragraph:

There is no need to cry for me. Instead, please share my joy at having lived a life filled with wonderful family, wonderful friends, and many adventures. There will be a celebration of life at Harris Funeral Home in London, date and time to be announced. [UPDATE: 2-4 pm, Sunday, June 5th, Harris Funeral Home, London, ON]

Please no flowers – if you want to buy flowers, buy them for yourselves and for the people you love. And please no donations. Instead, please use the money for a nice evening out, and raise a glass to the good life.

Carolle Marie Trembley (Ms. Eclectic) Nov 08, 1940 – May 22, 2022

 

Tribute

My previous snow stomp art:

        Tribute

        Vanishing Point

        Ukraine (in Cyrillic)

        Calla Lilies

        A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise

        Tecumseh

        Ringing in the New Year (2022)

        Cruising (for Murder)

        Lest We Forget

        Goose

        Fibonacci's Balloon

        Waiting for Our Covid-19 Vaccination

        2020 -- Spiraling

        Wear me

        The Meaning of Life

        Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo

        Fight CV19 and STAY HOME

        Skool Daze

        I Think It Might Rain

        The Penrose Triangle

        Snowflakes (done with my granddaughters)

       Tobogganing Through the Trees   

        Kilroy Was Here

       Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2019

       Spring is Sprung

       You Wanted Spring? 

       Too Cold to Build a Snowman 

       Simply a-MAZE-ing 

       Let There Be Music

      Ommadawn 

      The First Robin of Spring? 

      Be My Valentine, 2018

      Curling AND the Super Bowl

      I'm No Escher... 

      Hark! the Herald Angel Sings

      Nativity Scene, 2017

      Planning an Escape

      Caught in the Net

Surf's Up 

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

        Ukraine (in Cyrillic)

        Calla Lilies

        A Birthday Cake for Laura and Elise

        Tecumseh

        Ringing in the New Year (2022)

        Cruising (for Murder)

        Lest We Forget

        Goose

        Fibonacci's Balloon

        Waiting for Our Covid-19 Vaccination

        2020 -- Spiraling

        Wear me

        The Meaning of Life

        Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo

        Fight CV19 and STAY HOME

        Skool Daze

        I Think It Might Rain

        The Penrose Triangle

        Snowflakes (done with my granddaughters)

       Tobogganing Through the Trees   

        Kilroy Was Here

       Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2019

       Spring is Sprung

       You Wanted Spring? 

       Too Cold to Build a Snowman 

       Simply a-MAZE-ing 

       Let There Be Music

      Ommadawn 

      The First Robin of Spring? 

      Be My Valentine, 2018

      Curling AND the Super Bowl

      I'm No Escher... 

      Hark! the Herald Angel Sings

      Nativity Scene, 2017

      Planning an Escape

      Caught in the Net

Surf's Up 

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

Amazon Prime Video Bleg

Please read the post before making recommendations!

We've had Amazon Prime for years but we never bothered trying to look for Amazon Prime videos on our Smart TV. Several years ago, we tried Netflix for two months and didn't watch anything on it because we never came across anything that looked as if it might appeal to us, so we never bothered with Amazon Prime videos.

But a couple of weeks ago, Amazon was the exclusive broadcaster of an NFL game, and so we had to figure out how to view Amazon Prime videos. And we did.

So here's a request. What do you think we might like to watch on Amazon Prime?

Before you start typing recommendations, here are our tastes, roughly:

• We like convoluted spy stories that we can watch over and over again, e.g. Three Days of the Condor, Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People (the Alec Guiness versions), and the Page Eight trilogy, including Page Eight, Turks and Caicos, and Salting the Battlefield. We highly recommend all of these and we watch them frequently. We have them on Blu-ray and don't need Amazon Prime for these.
• We like British classic mysteries, with little gore, little suspense, and lots of puzzles: Agatha Christie (we have tonnes of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot on Blu-ray), Sherlock Holmes (we have everything ever put out on DVD or blu-ray).
• We never cared much for Morse, but love the Lewis series (again, we have them), and we like most of the Endeavour series (though some are dodgier and/or weaker than we like)
• The Bletchley Circle series was good at the beginning.. but weakened as it went on.
• Vera is okay, but isn't the sort of thing we like to watch over and over again.
• The two different series of Peter Wimsey are both fabulous.

Others:

• We watch tonnes of baseball, some football, lots of curling, no basketball, and very little hockey.
• We watch tonnes of science/space on BBC Earth, NASA Smithsonian, and the Nature Channel (also some on TVO and other channels that sometimes have shows like these).

It looks as if we can get all these things on Amazon Prime. But are there other things like these that we're missing or might enjoy?

Our first attempt was Alex Rider, a teen-spy series. It had potential, but had way too much filler and too much gag-me/meh stuff in the first four episodes. We may watch the last one or two episodes to see what happened but it was exactly the type of thing we don't want to spend much time on.

Some Pithy Thoughts

From JR, my favourite drug dealer:

"Consensus science" is similar to "precautionary principle":  both are terms used by pseudoscientists, regardless of their pedigree, who do not understand that science is simply the denial of the null hypothesis to support an alternative hypothesis to some degree of probability.

 

Of course, denying consensus makes you "deplorable" in every sphere of life, including politics, religion, and science. ...

 

The saving grace for humanity is that men today, as we always have, put to themselves a goal and a destiny which has no common measure with mere life, mere well-being, or mere comfort.  Specifically, it is the domain of freedom and dignity, or the transcendental, which is never compromised by death, poverty, or defeat, especially since victory does not always fall to the just. (William Earle)

 

Well, it is time for men to give the majoritarians, whatever they self-identify as, what they deserve, a good clean Palmer salute.  Trigger warning:  woke this.

 

 

Note for those who haven't been following EclectEcon for years: JR is a pharmacist is some far-off location, a typically soft-spoken very private person.

The Tragedy of the Commons among "Sharing, Caring Elites"

This year and last year I participated in an international convention for The Urban Economy Forum, both as a speaker and as a member of the steering committee.

Last year, not knowing what I was getting into, I prepared a 20-30 minute presentation, only to learn a few days in advance that I would have only ten minutes for my presentation.

The morning of the opening presentations started very late. And then every single speaker took more than their allotted time. By the time we got to my session, I was cut back to only 3 minutes, much to my dismay.

This year, I moderated one session and spoke at another, all via Zoom.

The session I moderated involved mayors and urban planners. They were each allotted ten minutes. One of them actually stayed within the time limit. The rest of them "cheated", some going over the limit by five or more minutes. The implication from their attitude was that they believed that what they had to say was SO important, they should talk longer. [note: I did not have control of the mute function, and I'm not sure I'd have felt free to use it if I'd had it...]

The same thing happened with session on which I was making a presentation with the addition that the moderator went well beyond his allotted time as well.

This is a good example of The Tragedy of the Commons.

The tragedy of the commons is a situation in a shared-resource system where individual users, acting independently according to their own self-interest, behave contrary to the common good of all users by depleting or spoiling the shared resource through their collective action. 

A classic example is overfishing when there are no restrictions on how many fish people can catch. Fishers take too many fish from the common pool, thus making things worse for all fishers.

In the case of conferences when speakers are left on their own merit and integrity to honour the speaking limits, it's the same thing. As the early speakers run over time, those near the end have less time (analogous to catching fewer fish). Transaction costs are high, cheaters can't easily be reined in.

Every one of the speakers would think they were caring and sharing people. And yet also, every speaker also knows they are part of the elites, people who, in their own minds, should plan and control and design for the future. In their minds, they are entitled to more time because of their status.

But it doesn't matter who thinks who is entitled to what. What matters, for this post, is that when property rights (to time slots, in this case) are not enforced, people, even those who think they are decent folk, will cheat (de facto) and take more for themselves.

Clearly The Urban Economy Forum needs to learn some way to avoid this "Tragedy of the Commons" for future meetings.

Maybe in the future, speakers should have to obtain "fishing" licenses?

Rethinking Hoarding (aka Preparedness) for the Second Wave

Fifteen years ago, amidst the threat of Avian Flu, we developed a list of things we wanted to have in our house in case all the dire predictions actually came true. Fortunately they didn't, and since then we've moved into a condo. Jack suggested I develop a list of things people in apartment or condo buildings should try to keep in stock in case serious shortages redevelop. So here's my edited list:

• Canned goods (pasta, soups, chili, vegetables, fruit, tuna, meats, lots of peanut butter, etc.) We keep four or five backup soups, four or five backup cans of tuna/salmon, and at least one backup jar of peanut butter on our shelves; and of course we rotate our stock of everything.
• Ready-to-eat foods (raisins, cheese, crackers, granola/energy/protein bars)
• Some perishable foods (fruits and vegetables)
• Plenty of potent Multi-Vitamins, Vit C, etc. [We try to keep at least a 30-day supply of all the placebos supplements we take]
• Dried milk
• Pancake and biscuit mix & syrup
• Rice -- how much depends on your tastes and storage space.
• Dried beans, again depending on your tastes and space.
• Plenty of flour
• Potatoes. But in an apartment, a box or two of instant potatoes for easy storage works well.
• Quick oats and/or other grains?
• Pasta, several packages
• Extra sugar if you use it much (we don't)
• Extra honey
• Extra cooking oil
• Baking powder & baking soda
• Bottled water (at least one backup package)
• Paper or plastic plates/bowls/cups/utensils
  
• Laundry and dish detergent
• Quality manual can opener
  
• Kitchen matches and disposable lighters
• Candles
• Plenty of liner and garbage bags (water storage & waste storage)
• Toilet paper and, if needed, sanitary napkins, diapers, paper towels
• Baby wipes (saves water for personal hygiene use if there are ever water problems)
• Flashlights (ideally LED) and more than one portable radio (update: maybe a hand-crank one as a backup)
  
• Plenty more batteries, at least three sets, for each of the above
• Backup chargers for phones, watches, tablets, etc.
  
• Solar charger to keep your phones, electronics, and chargers charged
• Alcohol and Hydrogen Peroxide
• Aspirin/Tylenol/Motrin, Pepto Bismol, etc.
• Prescription drugs filled, and as much extra as possible. Always.
  
• First aid kits
• Fire extinguishers
• Plenty of masks
• Water filters
• possibly a Coleman cook stove and fuel,etc. We decided against keeping a camp stove around. We had a small propane bbq that we probably should have kept but we gave it away.
• Duct tape, staple guns, and staples.

Of course a household doesn't necessarily need to keep all these things on hand. This is just a list of things to consider, depending on your circumstances and living arrangements, your available storage space, your risk tolerance, and your expectations about the seriousness of any possible threat.

Our additions (we tend to keep a good supply of these on hand):

• scotch
• vodka
• lime juice
• diet tonic water
• Coke Zero
• chocolate bars
• cribbage board and cards

The Meaning of Life -- Perspectives Matter

It snowed this morning!

And so I was able to do some snowstomp art.

I call this piece, "The Meaning of Life".

Let me explain my interpretation of the work and why I titled it The Meaning of Life:

If you look at the artwork from right to left, it looks as if the circles are being forced smaller and smaller with fewer lines and less body. That is how life looks sometimes. We're born with all sorts of possibilities but as life goes on, we're trained and shaped and forced into various conformities. The extra possibilities are compressed, shaved, and removed as we slowly feel ourselves shrinking into only one or two of the many options with which we began.

But if you look at it from left to right, you see emergence: we grow, we learn, we acquire new skills, we expand our horizons, we explore new possibilities.

Perspectives matter.

Update:

The meaning of life is so elusive. Here's the artwork just an hour and a half later:

 

-------

My previous snow stomp art:

        The Meaning of Life (this post)

        Peter Cottontail Visits the Condo

        Fight CV19 and STAY HOME

        Skool Daze

        I Think It Might Rain

        The Penrose Triangle

        Snowflakes (done with my granddaughters)

       Tobogganing Through the Trees   

        Kilroy Was Here

       Happy St. Patrick's Day, 2019

       Spring is Sprung

       You Wanted Spring? 

       Too Cold to Build a Snowman 

       Simply a-MAZE-ing 

       Let There Be Music

      Ommadawn 

      The First Robin of Spring? 

      Be My Valentine, 2018

      Curling AND the Super Bowl

      I'm No Escher... 

      Hark! the Herald Angel Sings

      Nativity Scene, 2017

      Planning an Escape

      Caught in the Net

Surf's Up 

Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe, Part 2

      Diagonally Warped in a Parallel Universe

      Pikachu

      Happy New Year, 2017

      O Tannenbaum

      Nativity Scene

Special Weather Statement

Think Tropics

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

 

Contest!!! What's the oldest thing you have found in your freezer or pantry during the covid19 isolation?

After I posted a photo to Facebook of some half-year-old ground beef we found in our freezer, others began commenting that they, too, had come across treasures in their freezers that were considerably more past their expiration dates. So here's the contest:

Contest #1:

Post a photo, either in the blog comments or on Facebook, commenting on this post, with a photo of something old from your freezer. The oldest item for which a photo is posted will win a signed copy of one of my novels, either 2605 or Murder at the Office Christmas Party. E.g., here's some not-so-old ground beef:

Contest #2:

Post a photo, either in the blog comments or on Facebook, commenting on this post, with a photo of something old from your pantry (I have a box of tea from 2009, for example). The oldest item for which a photo is posted will win a signed copy of one of those two novels, as well.

General:

• Contest ends 10am EDT, June 1.
• The photo must show the "best before" date on the box, can, or package. It's probably a good idea if the photo also shows what the product is, too.
• Each winner gets their choice of novel.
• I'll add the novel, Susan's Story to the prize list if I receive the author's copies in time.
• Anything dated before 1975 is automatically excluded.
• I reserve the right to alter the rules if people find loopholes. 8-).

I Got It Up!!

It was a lovely day... Sunny and nice breeze... So I took my $6 parafoil kite from Ali Express down to the park to fly it. The breeze was somewhat variable, but after only a few minutes, I had the kite up in the air and flying nicely. I love that sensation!

Interestingly, not one person I saw was wearing a mask today.

Also, interestingly, there were many people on the paved trails through the park, but none on the sidewalks, which I took to return home. I understand it because the paved trails are beautiful and along the river. But from now on when I go out for walks it will be along abandoned sidewalks. And I'll wear my mask.

 

 

Make a Mask from a T-shirt in Fifteen Minutes

I know I'm not going out very often where there will be other people, and I know that finding any factory-produced mask will be difficult, if not impossible (I have friends who work in hospitals, and they can't/shouldn't get them for home use now), and so I was considering making a mask from a virus-shield 3M furnace filter (of which we happen to have a spare). Unfortunately, the YouTube videos that show how to do that, all involve sewing something... which ain't gonna happen.

Then my friend, Ted Frank, posted a video on how to make a mask from a T-shirt.

I did it, and it takes less than 15 minutes. Here are the steps and the photos.

First, find a T-shirt you don't want to keep as a T-shirt. Unfortunately, I had given away most of my less interesting T-shirts, and I hope the students who gave me this one won't be upset that I've used it to make a mask. Think of the trade off: T-shirt sits unworn in a drawer or is used to maybe somewhat reduce the probability of spreading a contagious disease to or from me. (I know, it ain't an N95 or whatever, but at least it'll fit tight).

The chalk in the next photo is important. It not only half-sorta helped me cut straight, but drawing the cut lines before cutting helped me avoid some serious mistakes.

Here is the shirt with my chalk lines. Notice that I drew two bottom lines. I drew the higher one of the two because I didn't really want the word "Assume" to be on the mask but then I realized the underarms of the sleeves will help hold the pieces in the front and back together. Also I wanted a longer (top-to-bottom) mask.

And if I were making another one, I'd probably leave some of the tops of the arms as well.

Those next chalk lines show where to cut so there will be two sets of ties on each side of the mask.

Now it's time to cut (you can probably do all this in less time than it takes to read what I did).

 

And here is the final result. Just tie it on and adjust it.

Before I go out, I'll probably put some tissue between the front and back. And to sterilize it after I've been out, I'll leave it in the sun on the balcony.

 

 

 

The Thing

We were at a birthday party last Sunday evening, and as part of the party, my son brought out some pie with this contraption on top of it. It started out as a closed flower, and when it was lit, a sparkler went off, then the petals dropped, and the candles on the petals were automagically lit.

In addition to the candles, The Thing played "Happy Birthday" in a high-pitched electronic sound, similar to what one might hear with musical birthday cards. It was a fun gadget, and we all enjoyed it.

When the party was over, The Thing was still playing "Happy Birthday", and my son couldn't find a way to turn it off.

In frustration, he broke off all the petals but still couldn't find a switch to turn it off.

Then he put it in water.

That didn't kill it.

So that night he put it in the garbage can in their garage.

It was still playing "Happy Birthday" the next morning... and the morning after that .... and the morning after that.

I salvaged The Thing from his garbage can and shot the video below on Wednesday evening, three full days after it was ignited. It is still playing "Happy Birthday"!

It's annoying and penetrating, but I've become attached to it. So we have it now, and it's under some blankets in our deck box on our balcony.

I call it The Thing because it reminds me of this 1950 song by Arthur Godfrey:

 

It also reminds me of the John Steinbeck short story, "The Affair at 7, Rue de M".

I'll post updates now and then to let you know when it finally quits.

Boxing Day Shopping Expedition, 2017

Today is Boxing Day in Canada (and throughout much of the former British Empire). As in the US, it's a great day for sales.

For nearly a decade, my older son (David Ricardo Palmer) has joined me in going to the Boxing Day sales first thing in the morning, and for the past six or seven years, his daughters have joined us, too. We have gone with no particular purpose, nothing that we really were looking to buy; rather, we've enjoyed the crowds and the fun.

Yesterday he texted me that we'd all meet at Walmart at 7am, but he changed it to 6am when I pointed out that's when Walmart opened this morning.

-17C with the windchill -26C. I know it's colder out west, but that's pretty cold for London, Ontario. But we still went out for the Boxing Day sales at 6am this morning.

I think we were all a bit disappointed this year.

• There were MANY fewer people than usual at Walmart, our first stop. No hussle, no bussle. No gleeful shouts as someone snagged the last big-screen tv, as we used to see. Just some shoppers. Mostly methodical. Not having the fun we thought we had seen in the past.
• Both my son and I had gone out to get additional Christmas lights. We didn't find much of what we were looking for. There were tonnes of icicle lights, and changing spot lights, and "app" lights (whatever those are). There were also strings of all red or all blue C6 LED lights, but there were no standard strings of C6 multi-coloured LED lights.
  
• There were still tonnes of Christmas decorations and musical toys on sale, just none that appealed to us.
• And maybe that was problem this year: in the past we had gone with vague ideas that we might buy stuff I (and we) always did, but we never had things in particular that we were hoping to buy at half price.

So he ended up with a star for their tree, I got a few lights that weren't quite what I was looking for but they'll be fine, and his daughters bought costume jewelry and DVDs.

 

We all agreed that we should move on to Canadian Tire (for those of you not from Canada, picture Walmart with a massively expanded auto and sporting-goods section) and Winners (maybe a bit like Kohls in the US?) next.

 

But guess what: Canadian Tire didn't open until 8am (it was only 6:45am then) and who knows when Winners was going to open. So I decided to call it a day, came home, and went back to bed.

 

Still, it was not a bad shopping outing, despite my whining above. I came home with some lights that should work out well, some nut/chocolate mixtures that will be great the next time the bridge-playing guys meet here, and two tins of Macintosh toffee (I LOVE that stuff; I'll have to give one away, though), all at half price.

 

Maybe next year, if the tradition lives, we'll go later and start at Canadian Tire.

 

I wonder if the move toward more online shopping has carried over to Boxing Day sales, as well as Black Friday, Blue Monday, etc. etc. If so, the in-store sales could well be less interesting in the future.

Is Hugging an Unwanted Sexual Assault? Affront?

Since joining various theatre groups in London, Ontario, six years ago, I have become accustomed to LOTS more hugging than I experience in other parts of my life. Everybody hugs everybody all the time. Well... nearly everybody hugs nearly everybody nearly all the time.

In my adult lifetime, I can think of two times when I may have started to hug someone and then realized that they didn't want to be hugged. There were probably more. It's hard to stop in mid-hug, so when I sensed it, I just gave a very light, perfunctory type of hug.

In my adult lifetime, I can recall two times when I was hugged when I didn't want to be hugged. There may have been more that seemed inconsequential at the time,  but I don't remember them, and I expect the hugger in all these instances might have been unaware that I was uncomfortable with the hug or maybe, as I did, converted it into a perfunctory pretend hug.

I like the hugging, in general, especially among my theatre friends. I like the closeness, and I even like the pretense of closeness. I like both.

And yet, there are times when I'm uncomfortable with it, and I expect others are, too. Most of those times, I or we sense the situation and shake hands, if it's another guy, or avoid the situation somehow if it's a female.

But here's the question: In light of these data from The Economist, what hugging is assault or at the very least an affront?

I know that rarely, if ever, did I see or experience any hugging among my colleagues in the 40+ years that I taught economics at The University of Western Ontario. It just wasn't the done thing. And I expect that's the norm for many, if not most, academic and business environments.

And yet there have been times when a colleague with whom I felt close and I would see each other in a non-work setting and a hug sometimes seemed appropriate and we hugged. Not often, but a few times.

I just wonder how people know what is appropriate? If you feel like hugging someone and start to hug them, you can usually judge the intensity of the reciprocal feeling -- some people go into the hug with more enthusiasm than others. It's possible in these situations to have a perfunctory, polite hug that is probably not offensive. I hope it isn't anyway.

In theatre (in London, at least) hugs seem to be the default. Not always, though.

And given that different actions seem to be unwanted by the recipients at times, it is not always easy to judge.

On Predatory Journals

I'll probably never get another academic job after posting this information ( ;) ), but my last two "refereed" publications were in so-called "predatory" journals. Interestingly, I never felt preyed upon in any way. My co-author(s) and I agreed to the publications willingly.

The first one in the list below was actually a more-than-decent paper, we didn't pay anything to have it published, and the referees' comments indicated they had at least read the paper.

The second paper listed below was a good enough paper, not path-breaking probably, but it was a non-mainstream interdisciplinary piece that would never have found a standard outlet in the standard economics journals. The proceedings of the conference where we presented the paper were never published, and so when we saw the title of the journal, we all said, WTF, kicked in $50 apiece, and sent it there. The refereeing was horrid -- boilerplate comments that bore no resemblance to the article. But the title of the journal was perfect for our article.

We knew what we were doing. And we knew that most schools that don't have committees to actually read an author's work wouldn't much care, whereas the schools where people actually read the papers would nod and say the work was good. So let me repeat. We were not preyed upon. We were glad to have the outlets for our work.

If authors feel preyed upon by these journals, it's because they are ignorant whiners and/or because the current reward system encourages too many schools to count publications without reading people's articles.

I am quite certain that these last two items on my curriculum vitae would count against me at schools that assess people only by the prestige of the journals in which they publish. I call journals like those two, "vanity journals", not unlike the vanity press that publishes some authors' novels: pay-to-publish.

The problem is that reading a candidate's publications is time-consuming and difficult. It's easier to count publications and/or count publications weighted by the number of characters published, weighted by the prestige of the journals in which the articles appear, and perhaps weighted by the citations the article receives.

Misuse of signals is not an indictment of the efficient use of signals. Just don't say I was a victim for having chosen to publish in these journals.

---

Actually, my most recent c.v. item is forthcoming in a refereed conference volume. My article is "Property Rights and Contract Enforcement in the Post-Zombie Apocalypse".

•  “Misallocation Costs under Rent Control: Experimental Evidence” (with Jason Childs), Scientific Online Publications: Transactions in Economic Research, (May, 2014)
• “The Economics of Culture: Implications and Underpinnings” (with Jason Childs and [the late] Gary Tompkins), International Journal of Liberal Arts and Social Science, (May, 2014)

Economists in the Congregation?

Via Marilyn:

Just in case your church pastor got a little too preachy against Donald Trump during the last service or went a little overboard telling people how important your offering was and you want to flip them the bird, it’s good to know you’re safe to do that, at least in Georgia.

The State Supreme Court reversed a conviction for disorderly conduct against a man who gave the middle finger to his pastor, ruling his behavior was protected speech under the First Amendment. ...

All for flipping the bird in church.

In a unanimous opinion, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned Freeman’s conviction.

He could not be found guilty under the disorderly conduct statute, Justice Harold Melton wrote, “because there was no showing here that Freeman’s act of silently raising his middle finger from the back of the church during the church service constituted ‘fighting words’ or a ‘true threat’ that would amount to a tumultuous act.”

“The alleged obscene gesture in this case was the raising of Freeman’s middle finger from the back of the church,” the court said in its ruling. “However, a raised middle finger, by itself, does not, without more, amount to fighting words or a true threat.”

Of course it doesn't. Mr. Freeman was just telling the preacher and the congregation that they need to study economics with Professor Palmer. For details, see this.

Facebook

A number of my friends have noted a marked reduction in my activity on Facebook recently. For about ten days, I have posted nothing there, made one minor comment, and rarely if ever clicked on "like" or added any emoticon to any posts by others. I have, however, continued to read many of the posts and links from my friends on Facebook.

My reasons for the decline in activity are the similar to those of Virginia Postrel:

My reasons for wanting to quit Facebook were pretty standard: It’s a time sink. It exacerbates my depression and, perversely, my sense of isolation. 

Yes, Facebook really is a time sink. Reading it, even without writing or posting a thing, takes up far too much of my time, especially if I think I might want to do something else with my life: learning lines for various acting gigs, practicing my French horn and alto horn, playing Pokemon Go, blogging, photography, watching sports and science shows on television, possibly writing more about economics and other things, et cetera, et cetera. Furthermore, my posting, commenting, and replying to comments had become a nearly full-time task. It was becoming a very heavy weight for me that I no longer want to carry around.

Postrel then adds,

None of this was new, so it’s not clear what set me off. Was it the former magazine editor marveling at the huge sums he’s now making on the speaking circuit? One too many posts from people throwing around words like “libtards,” “warmongers,” and “deep state”? ... All of the above in rapid succession? Whatever the trigger, I was suddenly fed up.

The examples she provides are similar to my own. I have friends from every walk of life, and while I think the diversity of my group of friends enriches my life and helps me understand things I would never even begin to understand otherwise, it also gets me down at times. I have ultra left-wing friends, ultra right-wing friends and everything in between. There are economists, business executives, family members, musicians, artists, theatre friends, socialists, libertarians, social conservatives, sports lovers, sports haters, Islamaphobes, Islamophiles, Israel-philes, and anti-Israel friends.

You get the idea. Nearly every one of my friends writes things I like, but many of them also write or post links to things that rile me up. I was getting too worked up and too depressed, and the hurling of one-line retorts was adding to my despair for life, for humans, and for my own happiness or even contentment. At the same time I am too tired, too old, and too lazy to read and respond to everything that is posted, especially anything that is lengthy and requires considerable mental effort. I needed some separation, a break.

Meanwhile, I had begun to sense that most people don't really care very much about what their friends do or write on Facebook, and while I was having fun posting pictures of my various activities (and meals!), and while many of my Facebook friends seemed to enjoy the photographs, I suspected not many people would notice or care when I stopped those types of postings. And certainly my posts and links about economic policy mattered very little (or worse, offended) many or even most of my non-economist friends.

Like Postrel and Schwarzenegger, I'll be back. And like Postrel, I will likely reduce my time and effort on Facebook so that I can and will do other things. But I really need to rethink what I'm doing there.

Finally, let me emphasize that I enjoy reading what my Facebook friends are doing and thinking. I have loved staying in touch and regaining contact with so many people. It's not you. It's Facebook and my attempt to figure out how to have it (and you) in my life.

 

 

Some Ramblings about WD-40

Recently I received a list of numerous household cleaning/repair tasks that WD-40 can be used for.

That message reminded me of how the first time I used WD-40, it smelled exactly like the waxy cloths we used in 1961 to wipe down and clean the stainless steel walk-up window counters at McDonalds. And after reading the list (but see below). I would not be at all surprised to learn that WD-40 was (and still is) used in many places to clean and protect stainless steel counters and other products.

However, some of the uses claimed in that message for WD-40 made me a bit suspicious. For example, I cannot imagine spraying WD-40 on a chalkboard (do chalkboards even exist anymore?) to clean it -- wouldn't the waxy spray make it much harder to write with the chalk? If anyone has actually tried this, please let me know the outcome.

Anyway, I Snoped the list from that message. Indeed some of the uses of WD-40 are not necessarily recommended by the manufacturer. They might or might not work, but the manufacturer won't go on record supporting them. To see the email listing all the miraculous uses of WD-40, along with the manufacturer's amendment of that list of recommendations, see this.

Also, according to Snopes, no, WD-40 is not made of fish oil. But yes, it does stand for the fortieth attempt to devise a water-displacing lubricant.

 

Economic Poetry

I led off one of my early publications with this paraphrase of a poem written by Dennis Robertson

When I had scarcely learned to toddle,
my parents handed me a model
with lots of little leads and lags
and pretty [hyperbolic] bags.

Robertson wrote the piece in frustration because he was skeptical about the mathematical and econometric modeling that was occurring in the 1940s and 1950s, but his original poem said "... and pretty parabolic bags." I changed it to "hyperbolic" to suit the content of that paper.

"A Further Analysis of Provincial Trucking Regulation," The Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 4 (Fall 1973): 655-664.

• - - - - - - -

Some years later I published a piece on the Social Costs of Adoption Agencies. The lead poem for that was something I read in one of my children's song books, "Sally Go Round the Sun":

This is the day they give babies away,
with a half a pound of tea.
You open the lid, and out pops the kid
with a ten-year guarantee.

One of the administrative assistants back then told me she remembered that rhyme from her childhood in England.

"The Social Cost of Adoption Agencies," International Review of Law and Economics 6 (1986): 189-203

• - - - - - - -

The other day, JR, my favourite drug dealer, attached this poem to one of his messages about economics and health care. I really like it!

“Econometricians are ever so pious,
are they doing real science or confirming their bias?”

He says the poem is from this econ rap battle on YouTube. It's a nice jab at the strength of our prior beliefs and how they influence our attempts at doing science.

Bright Sox

I've been wearing bright, patterned sox almost exclusively for several years. I guess my doing so means something:

Despite our conforming attitudes, a study published in the Journal of Consumer Research^[1] investigated the theory that people who are nonconformists can potentially be viewed as being more high status and more competent than those who conform to social norms.

So what does this say about your choice of wearing bright neon, rainbow-striped, or leopard-print socks? Well, it found people who have shown to deliberately choose to wear whacky socks, are seen as having increased status and competency in the eyes of others. In other words, people have the potential to see you as more brilliant, creative and successful.

Some key words in that quote: "potentially" and "potential". Some of us don't live up to our potential. But maybe wearing bright sox signals some potential; or maybe doing so is just a false signal used by some of us to signal something we're lacking and the bright sox are just wistful signs from wannabes.

Previous posts with photos of my socks:

Are Socks the New Neckties?

More Socks

More on Socks

I have lots more bright sox now than I did two years ago. In fact I actually wore out some of the sox in those photos, I wore them so much.

 

The Nature of Infinity?

There is an infinite number of exact replicas of me typing on a Macbook right now.

There is also an infinite number of exact replicas of me typing on window-based machines right now.

There is, generally, an infinite number of exact replicas of me doing an infinite number of different things right now.

And that's true for every being in the universe.

All prompted by this:

 

Morton's Fork and/or the Horns of a Dilemma

The current US election presents voters with two major candidates, neither of whom is even slightly desirable as a President of the US.

And so voters are faced with a difficult choice between two evils. In some respects, this choice might be viewed by some as Morton's Fork, but really the voters are caught between the horns of dilemma.

If I were still voting in the US, I'd reject the choice. I'd reject the dilemma as false. I'd vote for Gary Johnson. I think I'd like him as a president. And to all his detractors, I know I would prefer him to the other options.

For reference, from Wikipaedia,

A Hobson's choice [EE: only one option is offered] is different from:

• Dilemma: a choice between two or more options, none of which is attractive.
• False dilemma: only two choices are considered, when in fact there are others.
• Catch-22: a logical paradox arising from a situation in which an individual needs something that can only be acquired by not being in that very situation.
• Morton's fork, and a double bind: choices yield equivalent, and often undesirable, results.
• Blackmail and extortion: the choice between paying money (or some non-monetary good or deed) or risk suffering an unpleasant action.

 

My Pebble Watch Burned My Wrist

I was awakened at 5am this morning by a burning sensation on my wrist. I felt my wrist and my Pebble watch was burning hot. I took the watch off as fast as I could, but it left burn marks and blisters on my wrist:

I had had the watch for about two months and was really enjoying it. This is disappointing.

I have loved my Pebble watch. I love the information it gives me, I love the contact with my iPhone. But this watch is dead.

I'm wondering if the battery in this watch has the same problems that have been identified with the Samsung smartphone recently..... or if the new iOS10 for my phone has done something to sabotage my Pebble watch (I really doubt this).... or if the Pebble firmware upgrade was flawed.

It turns out, though, that I'm not the only person to have experienced this problem [see this]. It is apparently a rare event. But of course I'll be a bit wary of using my Pebble watch again. And yet I don't really want any different watch, like an Apple or any other watch that needs recharging on a daily basis (my Pebble held its charge for about 5 days).

Meanwhile, here's hoping Pebble makes the replacement/exchange go as smoothly as possible.

Would Someone Please Teach MLB What Alphabetical Order Means?

I went to a website to vote for players for the July Major League Baseball  All-Star Game today.

At the end, a voter must select a favourite team. I had trouble finding the Toronto Blue Jays on the list Here is a screen capture of the drop-down menu they made available when I voted:

Snow in April? Think Tropics!

I woke up to see snow on the ground this morning! Yea!!!!! More opportunities for snow-stomp art!

This one was far less complex than my previous work (Qubix) but somehow seemed appropriate:

Rum! Palms! A hammock!  No wonder it also looks like a stylized happy face!

Links to most of my previous snow-stomp art:

Qubix

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

 

Titus Andronicus

My granddaughter and I are going to see Titus Andronicus tomorrow evening at The Arts Project in London. If I didn't know the producer/director, and if I didn't know and respect the actors playing the leading roles, and if I didn't enjoy supporting local theatre, I probably wouldn't go to see this play.

Murder, rape, dismemberment, mutilation, torture, fratricide, sacrificial death -- you name it. This play has all that gruesome stuff. I'm not keen on it. From Wikipaedia,

In his 1998 book, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, Harold Bloom attacked the play on numerous occasions, calling it "a howler", "a poetic atrocity", "an exploitative parody, with the inner purpose of destroying the ghost of Christopher Marlowe" and "a blowup, an explosion of rancid irony." Bloom summates his views by declaring "I can concede no intrinsic value to Titus Andronicus." Citing the 1955 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production, directed by Peter Brook and starring Laurence Olivier, which is generally agreed to have provided the impetus for the 20th century revaluation of the play, Bloom said that the audience laughed several times in scenes which were supposed to be tragic, and he sees this as evidence for its failure as Tragedy. He particularly focuses his criticism on the line when Lavinia is told to carry Titus' severed hand in her mouth (3.1.281), arguing that no play which contains such a scene could possibly be serious. He thus concludes the best director to tackle the play would be Mel Brooks.

Say, now there's an idea! I'm going to laugh all the way through the play. Maybe I'll have a few glasses of wine before I go, too.

Qubix Snow Art

I was so excited by the snow we had last night, I had trouble sleeping! I wanted to get out on the lawn this morning to try my latest snow-stomp art idea.

If I'd walk straighter, it would look better, but I'm pretty happy with it anyway.

Update:

By mid-afternoon, there had been some melting and the sun was shining. The contrast made the patterns much more striking:

 

Previous examples of my snow stomp art:

Valentine, 2016

Paisley'd Circles

Happy New Year, 2016

The House of the Rising Sun

Easter Eggs

A weak pattern in the blowing snow.

The same pattern after some melting

New Year's Champagne

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

Happy Valentine's Day

Cabaret

A Christmas Tree (my first effort)

Some Hilarious Q&As at Job Interviews

I have no idea how reliable this source is, but I love the examples posted there, most likely as humour submissions.

My own three stupid stories from interviews. They're nowhere near as funny as the ones in the link though.

1. I was in my last year in economics grad school. I figured I'd probably want an academic job, but decided to interview with General Electric when they came to campus. The interview was going well until the interviewer asked [this is all paraphrased; it happened quite a few years ago], "Would you be willing to trim your hair and shave your beard if you came to work for General Electric?" This is roughly what I looked like then:
   
   
   
   I replied, "No, I really don't think so. Also, your question actually surprises me for two reasons. First the GE Labs, historically were known for hiring people based on their abilities, not on their appearance or political views." I may have mentioned Steinmetz or someone at that point, to show I had done some homework before the interview. "It also surprises me," I added, "because of the slogan, 'At GE, progress is our most important product.'"
   
   The interviewer responded that "In the lab we can see your results; in economics and forecasting, we have to have faith in you, and your appearance will affect that." Needless to say, I didn't get an interview trip or anything further from General Electric.
2. More recently, a few years ago I was auditioning for a role in a classical play with a high-quality semi-pro theatre company. As usual, after such an audition, I was asked to sit and chat with the director and assistant director. At some point in the interview I told them, "Well, actually I'd like to play a ninja warrior...." They laughed, but it was stupid; no reason for them to take me seriously with a statement like that.
3. Even more stupid, after I nailed a monologue at an audition, the director for whom I was auditioning said he really liked the play I'd taken the audition from. I made the egregious error of telling him I hated it and thought it was stupid but that I quite liked the range I could show in the monologue.

Unfortunately the great, brief questions and answers at the Buzzfeed site are screen captures from tweets, so you'll have to follow the link to see them. Believe me, it's worth it. They're funny.

 

 

To All My Smug Friends In Saskatchewan (and Elsewhere) Who Don't Go on Daylight Savings Time

Today was the traumatic spring day for me when we move from Daylight-Wasting-Time to Daylight-Savings-Time [DST]. Traumatic because we have to change the time on so many clocks and watches, and for some clocks it's a pain.

My friends in Saskatchewan tend to sit back smugly and point out that they don't have to change their clocks.

They're right. But they have what I consider a worse problem....... adjusting their television watching habits because everyone else goes onto DST. Let's see, now, Big Bang used to come on at 7pm but now does it come on at 8pm or 6pm? This process of adjustment was worse for me in the fall when I was there as everyone else went onto Daylight-Wasting-Time. It took me several days to figure out when various football games and pre-game shows would be on television.

I honestly don't mind DST. What I mind is switching away from it for a few months and then switching back. I'd be happy to stay on DST year 'round. Yes, I know it would mean going to work and school in the dark in the mornings for many people for a month or two. But staying on DST would also mean fewer health issues, too, that result from the time switches [see this].

I've written about this before. See this.

Related articles

Switch to Daylight-Wasting Time

Are the Clocks Going to be Set Forward or Backward on Tuesday Night?

5 Myths about Daylight Savings Time