link to Debunking the “Upset” Myth
Weirleader, required reading now that NCAA men’s basketball has begun to pick up steam.
(I particularly like the writer’s comparison to upset mania for this college football season)
Question: If one agrees that rankings are significant/valid isn’t every instance of an unranked team beating a ranked team automatically a real upset?
Or is such a result only technically an upset?
Who would disagree, for instance, that when it comes to (let’s say) NBA playoffs an eight seed trumping a one seed is most definitely an upset, a season’s injury-addled backstory notwithstanding?
Or is comparing those seedings comparing apples to oranges?
Pictured above, btw, is the great Oscar Robertson, the man in whose name the annual trophy is awarded to the best men’s college basketball player.
Ed O’Bannon won in 1995–the most recent year it was awarded to a Pac-10 player.
Best Totally Out of Context Quote from the Ig Nobel Awards
“Chicken lays egg–it’s a standing ovation.”
It out-haikus haiku, doesn’t it?
Audio at NPR.
Their summary:
Talk of the Nation, November 23, 2007 · Sure, there are the Nobel Prizes, but what about the Ig Nobel Prizes?
Ten Ig Nobel awards were given out in early October by the editors of the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research. Join us for our annual post-Thanksgiving selection of highlights from the awards ceremony, a salute to the strange and silly in science.
This year’s honorees include researchers studying the physics of wrinkled bed sheets, medical investigations into the side effects of sword swallowing, and the discovery of an unusual new source of vanilla flavor. Our guest is Marc Abrahams, author of The Ig Nobel Prizes 2: An All-New Collection of the World’s Unlikeliest Research (Dutton, 2005); master of ceremonies; editor, Annals of Improbable Research.
$200.00 Desktop from Wal-Mart
As a possible alternative to the $400 one hundred dollar laptop, check out these specs on the Everex TC2502, a so-called Green (desktop) PC available for $200.00 at Wal-Mart.
The basic rundown on the system:
Key Features & Benefits:
1.5 GHz Via Technologies C7-D processor
Preinstalled Software: OpenOffice.org 2.2 (includes WRITER, IMPRESS, nMATH, DRAW, CALC and BASE)
gOS Software Applications and operating system
DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
512 MB of DDR2 system memory (expandable to 2 GB)
10/100 Mbps Ethernet
80 GB hard disk drive
See a detailed review written from the perspective of Ben Crowell as he opened the box and set up the computer with his daughter.
His bottom line (though, by all means, do read his well-considered review):
My overall impression of the gPC’s hardware was that it was very good, for a non-gaming machine, although its supposed environmental friendliness was overblown, if you compare with other non-gaming machines. The software, however, seems very raw and unpolished, and I wouldn’t recommend gOS to anyone as a Linux distribution. Anyone who prefers Enlightenment as their WM can simply install Enlightenment on a standard Ubuntu system.
According to the Wikipedia entry on gOS the following applications are either standard (built-in) or compatible online:
Firefox Webbrowser, Google Mail, Google News, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Froogle, the Blogger YouTube and Facebook online communities as well as Meebo to online chat with a.o. Yahoo! Messenger and Windows Live Messenger users, Rhythmbox (ITunes like program for music and radio), Skype, Wikipedia, and the Xine media player. The rightmost icon is for Faqly a system developed for gOS to offer a built in on line community based help system. Other programs can be added to the Dock as well.
(Crowell review via Slashdot)
Got My Mind on the Paddies and the Paddies on My Mind
A propos of my recent investment, I thought it would be interesting to track some basic economic indicators in the countries where I’ve invested.
First up: Vietnam (via Thanh Nien News)
Vietnam’s intense growth – calculated at 8.16 percent in the first nine months of 2007 – has caused the price of food and foodstuffs to rise 8.12 percent so far this year.
The price of food, which forms more than 40 percent of the ‘basket of consumer goods’ used to calculate Vietnam’s rate of inflation, rose 13.94 percent in October.
The cost of rice and other grains alone increased by 15.98 percent.
Suppliers have blamed higher costs for production materials and transportation for the trend, which is feared to continue even more fiercely until years end.
Authorities are making efforts to fight artificial price inflation as well as encourage retailers to increase their stocks of goods.
As is it pertains to our Kiva.org investment we read of this news with mixed emotions.
On the downside, this sort of inflation invariably brings unwelcome anxiety; as it pertains to my Vietnamese partner I certainly feel for her as a consumer.
On the bright side, however, the influx of capital will certainly help our rice seller, Ms. Thi Vy Nguyen, increase her stock of goods, something beneficial not just for her and her family but also for the country (insofar as aggregate increased production in an agriculture-rich but capital-poor country like Vietnam should help counter inflation).
Two-faced kitten
Via BoingBoing:
Updside: cleans itself twice as fast.
Downside: hairballs of double the mass exiting … where?
Pie (Squared?)
I’m joining some extremely hospitable Filipino friends from work this Thanksgiving at their home in Northridge.
My paltry contribution to the day’s bounty will be picking up two French Silk pies (which will hopefully go around to feed the 18-plus extended family sure to be in attendance).
What makes this post-worthy?
Well, for one thing everybody loves pie …
But really its just me sharing the astonishment (and joy) with which I discovered I could reserve my Bakers Square pies online for Thursday morning, 9am-10am. Bakers Square makes it painless. I even paid online and printed out a bar coded confirmation page. It’s probably too much to ask but there’s a fair chance I’ll be in and out within 5-10 minutes.
Bakers Square, my funny silver-buckled pilgrim hat is off to you.
May random business find you on the web via this lame post.
Update on the Kiva.org loan (pasted directly from the email I received)
Loan has been disbursed
Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Thi Vy Nguyen by SEDA in Viet Nam. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 – 12 months, SEDA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.
SEDA
Posted by Long Nguyen from Bac Ninh, Viet Nam
Nov 19, 2007
I am a microlender twice over
This morning, while driving in to work, I heard a snippet of a Marketplace story about New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof lending via a website that faciliates microloans to business people in developing countries. (also see his followup blog entry)
To make a long story short I tracked down the website via his column at the Times and ended up lending a combined $300 to two different businessess–one in Afghanistan and one in Vietnam (the latter of which I was able to fully fund myself as the business owner was only asking for $125.00).
She’s the one pictured (above right), Thi Vy Nguyen, owner of a rice mill and small pig farm.
From what I can tell the loans are paid back at a modest interest rate (0.25%) and usually within a period of 6-12 months. The average default rate on these loans (though the numbers almost certainly vary by country) is well under 0.5%. As I see it my money could hardly go so far here as to help finance two family businesses expand their operations.
It’s strange. It’s addictive, even. At the risk of sounding like I’m playing dice with the lives of these people there is something of the feeling of running a SimBank. But, really, it’s just a little leg up for these folks at a very reasonable rate. To be honest, I didn’t even look hard at the terms and whether or not the interest will be paid to me or whether it will go towards administrative costs–to help support the website, Kiva.org.
The funding happens via PayPal and so does the repayment, making it extremely easy to finance additional loans by rolling the money into a new loan after a funded and repaid loan has run its course.
The other loan I funded was roughly 17% of the loan for Mohammad Aslam Hanif’s sweets shop.
Go Mohammad / go Mohammad / it’s your sweets shop / it’s your sweets shop.
*mentally pictures Mohammad doing the Running Man*
