Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

As the image shows, the book Freakonomics is subtitled A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. In it, Levitt answers such questions as

• What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
• How was the Klu Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents?
• If drug dealing is so profitable, why do most crack dealers live at home with their mothers?
• What was the real reason for the drop in crime in the United States in the 1990s?
• Are swimming pools or guns more dangerous to children?
  

There are also sections on parenting, baby names, and probably some areas that I've forgotten. Basically, the authors look at data to answer questions.

As for swimming pools vs. guns, the authors claim that approximately 100 times as many children in the United States die in a swimming pool accident than die in a gun accident. This was really small section in the book. Regarding the other sections, the authors use data to show how

• We can detect cheating by sumo wrestlers in tournaments and by teachers giving high-stakes standardized tests.
• The Klan and real estate agents used information to their advantage, and how Stetson Kennedy used information to help reduce the influence of the Klan (and not in a way that you might guess, if you're not familiar with the story).
• The organization and finances of one drug-dealing street gang shows that big money was made by some, but the average dealer made around $3.30 per hour.
  
• The major drop in US crime was due to a reason you might not expect. Also, other possible explanations for reductions in crime are explored.
• Parents may be obsessing over areas that might not make much of a difference to their children's development.

I also found the section on names to be interesting. The book discusses the fact that there are some names that seem to be only used by blacks, while others are much more commonly used by whites. For example, using the common last name of Williams, what can you surmise about the backgrounds of the fictitious Jake Williams, Dashawn Williams, Molly Williams, or Shaniqua Williams. And what, if anything, do these names predict about their bearers prospects for success?

Basically, I thought the book was great, and I highly recommend it. It's probably not for everyone, and it has its critics. But if you like to ask questions about why people behave how they do, and if you like to wonder about what kinds of things make a difference and what kinds of things don't, then this book is for you. Five stars out of five.

What's on Your Gravestone?

I saw an interesting gravestone recently*. As you can see, it contains a name, birth and death dates, and the "common" gravestone symbols of a train engine and a tow truck. I am not an expert on the subject, but I don't remember seeing anything like it, which is why I snapped a picture.

I've seen nature scenes before. Military service designations are common, and I don't think it's unusual for even the complete agnostic's stone to have a religious symbol. But nothing says "second half of the 2oth century" like a tow truck. I wonder how it will look to future generations.

I remember reading Phil Niekro's autobiography. In it, he said something like, "My parents taught me the things they held most dear. My mother taught me faith in God and a respect for others. My father taught me the knuckler." Likewise, a gravestone is a limited slate to display what is most important to you. I can't say that I have given much thought to what I want mine to display, and I don't intend to consider that subject now. However, things like a computer or the logo of my favourite sports franchise are not the first items that come to mind.

I certainly give them credit for their honesty.

* - Let me say that no disrespect is meant towards the deceased or his family. I do not know them and have blurred out identifying information. If you know the deceased or his family and are offended by this post, ask nicely (and fill in the blanks) and I'll remove the photo.

The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

The Silmarillion is a collection of tales encompassing the entire history of Middle Earth, from the creation of the world to the end of the Lord of the Rings saga. (However, this last bit is in the form of a three-minute epilogue.)

Tolkein can be a master storyteller. When I was in high school, I read The Hobbit at a quicker pace than any other book of that size, though I admit that I never read any of his other works before Silmarillion.

As a bit of explanation, the book is named after the Silmarils, which are three jewels of near-infinite value, beauty, and power. Much of the book revolves around their loss and attempts to regain them.

Unfortunately, the good bits are far-between. The book does contain a history of the dark lords Morgoth and Sauron, all the various lines of elves, and all kinds of neat things like that. But it also has boring genealogies and brief mentions of minor characters who appear once and are forgotten. And, there are all kinds of descriptions of geography, and lots of stuff only a fanboy could love.

It's a shame because, as I said, there are good bits. But I don't remember being so happy to get through a work. And yes, this includes the Faulkner. If you're the kind of person that likes to dress up as a Hobbit and go to fan conventions, this book is for you (but you've probably already read it). Otherwise, stay away. One star.

Professional Asset Management

For reasons that I won't get into, I have a retirement account valued at about $10 associated with a former employer. They have been persistent in asking me to sign up for some kind of "Professional Asset Management". Normally, I would say that this kind of thing is definitely not for me, and I prefer to manage my own accounts. However, I figure that I can afford to let a "professional" manage this account and see what happens.

Usually, the killer with these kinds of things are the fees. They charge a "maximum of 0.45%" of my account per year. Long-term, this would make a definite impact in the returns of an account. However, considering the value of the account, they will be charging me somewhere between 4 and 5 cents. Per year. They're working hard to get my money. I'll let 'em at it.

Seriously, maybe I'll learn something by watching what they do. Or maybe I'll get a nasty letter from somewhere about it.

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

When I started Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, I had no idea what the book would be about. The cover of an old painted door may be fitting, but it didn't do much to explain the basic themes of the book before I began.

Anyway, Gilead is set in the fictitious town of Gilead, Iowa, in the southwestern part of that state. The basic premise is that the year is 1956 (or was it '52?) and 76-year old John Ames knows he won't live much longer due to problems with his heart. Ames married late in life and has a 7-year old son. Aware that he won't live to see his young son reach adulthood, the book is a series of letters to his son that he intends him to read as an adult.

Ames is a Christian pastor, and he's at least the third generation of men in his family to have that calling. There are Christian themes throughout, as well as references to 19th and early 20th theologians. He starts off describing his thoughts on life, his father and grandfather, and his childhood. His grandfather was active on the abolitionist side in Bleeding Kansas and related events. This part of history is largely forgotten, but it was certainly a critical historical event, whose legacy affects a good deal of the book.

However, Ames' recollections are interrupted by the return of his friend's son, Jack Boughton, who comes back to Gilead after being exiled for years. Jack's past and Ames' knowledge of it causes him great concern. Why is he here? What does he want? And will he cause Ames' family harm after he's gone? So, a large part of the "letters" to Ames' son involve descriptions of current events, rather than thoughts on life and his past.

Discontinuity Alert: At one point, Ames says something like, "I'm still old enough to remember the Depression". Assuming he's talking about the Great Depression of 1929 to ~1939, that seems like an odd thing to say. Would someone in his 70's really think it worthy of mentioning that he's old enough to remember what happened in his 50's? To use US politics as an example, wouldn't this be like someone born in 1921 stating in 2007 that he was old enough to remember the days when Ronald Reagan was US President?

Overall, it's pretty good. For me, it was a book to be read in small pieces -- it's 256 pages, but for some reason it seems longer. I mentioned that there are Christian themes throughout, as you would expect from a pastor's thoughts on his life and on life in general. However, I doubt there is much here that would offend a non-Christian. I would recommend it to anyone, but not highly. Three stars out of five.

This Year's Dance Costumes

Who designs these?

Relative Concert Tickets Prices

I'm not sure what it means, but Rush tickets cost a lot more than "Weird Al" Yankovic tickets, by a factor of maybe 2 1/2. But Weird Al tickets still cost more than Pat Benatar tickets.

I'm trying to think up something snazzy to say involving song titles but I'm drawing a blank. If you want to be hit with Pat Benatar's best shot, it won't cost you the big money of a Rush concert. Just don't go callin' in sick the next day

Bleeding Heart (Liberals?)

(Of the Genus Dicentra)

Backyard Kickball

Changing the Country's Tastes in Fast Food Sandwiches

Through a round-about way, I am on the list of product testers for a local market research firm. I think they do all kinds of research, but I've only been involved in the "Fast Food Sandwiches" department. This evening, I went for the second time this year to test and give my opinions on a new sandwich idea for a major fast food chain.

You sit at a little private desk, a sandwich appears through a sliding door. You eat it and then enter comments and answer questions on a computer.

Tonight's concept was a mushroom bacon double cheeseburger. It was rather large, I thought. I'm not much of a fan of mushrooms, so they didn't really add to the experience as far as I'm concerned. But the biggest problem, as I saw it, was that the drippy cheese sauce. It was kind of messy -- I can't imagine enjoying eating that sandwich while driving after picking it up at the drive-thru. Plus, the suggested price of more than $4 seemed (more than) a little high for a fast food hamburger, as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I think it's kind of neat to get to try a new food product and give my comments on it. I might willingly do it for free. The fact that they give you $20 for your time makes it a nice way to spend 30 minutes.

Next time, maybe I'll try to sneak a photo of the concept! (And run the risk of ruining such a gig? Think again!)

Thoughts on the Uncle I Never Knew

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

I last saw you when I was three or four,
I long had the gold Matchbox my cousin gave me.
I saw him thirty years later,
but I didn't see you.

He had lived alone for years,
Had been dead for days before he was found.
Had disowned his sons and his first brother, my father.
Or (let's be frank) was it the other brother he hated,
Leaving him to deal with the wretched house and the estate?

What troubled you so? Was it always like this?
I can only guess.
The cerebral aneurysm of your young wife,
(The aunt I never knew)
Surely, one likes to think he's not controlled by his circumstances,
But that couldn't have been easy.

As a claim to fame, you were the man with one name,
(I hear that the cops didn't see the humour in that.)
Interestingly, M² was one of the gentlest people I've ever met.

I'd send a card, but where should it go?
Is anybody grieving?

For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.

K²: 1937-2007

Sites Blocked at Work

Recently, at work, I wanted to convert some nroff files to html. (If you've never heard of nroff, you may want to skip this post.) I have nothing against nroff exactly, but I kind of consider it obsolete (is it really?) and make it a point to not learn it. So, confident that this is a problem that has been solved before, I went to Google and entered "nroff to html". The top site was the roffit tool by the kind and generous Daniel at http://daniel.haxx.se/projects/roffit/. When I clicked on that link (try it, especially if you're at work, and let me know if you can connect) I got a message (thankfully I no longer get the big red stop sign) saying that the site was blocked because it is a "Hacking" site.

Since this was something I felt I needed to do my job efficiently (I mean, I could have taken a few days or whatever to learn nroff and make my own converter), I was puzzled. I found another C program that claimed to do the job, but it didn't really work well for me. I called the first line computer support at work and asked what the process was for getting a site unblocked. I was given the procedure, but also advised that it was rather unlikely that I would be permitted to download and execute code from an internet site that was blocked by the automatic system.

Hacking can mean various things in different circles, so I can't be sure what meaning was intended by the web filter at work. One meaning is "Unauthorized use, or attempts to circumvent or bypass the security mechanisms of an information system or network." This, of course, begs the question of whether hackers are are people who like to convert nroff files to html. Or, do hackers pepper the web with perl scripts with hidden malicious code, for their own nefarious purposes? (They may do that too, but I trust the security and permissions of our UNIX boxes at work.)

As for solving my original problem, let's just say that it no longer is one.

Early Returns: Le Parc Ben et Jarry is in the Lead

For this season, the Dave Spiwack league is down to 10 teams and has moved over to ESPN. Coming up with a good team name is always a challenge. This year's team is Le Parc Ben et Jarry. After winning the league title for the past two seasons, I didn't have high expectations for the year. But as of now, I'm in first. There's a long way to go, but I'd rather be looking down than up.


While I'm at it, I'll show a photo of the league home page. This is what you get when the owner of Hugo Chavez Ravine is the league commissioner:

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

What do you get when you mix Charles Dickens and William Faulkner? You might be surprised, but the answer is Harriet Beecher Stowe in the form of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Published in 1852, Cabin apparently galvanised anti-slavery opinion in the Northern United States on the eve of its Civil War. As it was the second best-selling book of the 19th century (guess what was #1) it might be good to gain familiarity with it.

The book's title character is a Kentucky slave who is sold "down river" (every slave in the Upper South's worst fear) to Louisiana. As a sub-plot, it tracks the progress of George, Eliza, and their son: slaves who are attempting to escape to that land of freedom, British Canada, by way of the exotic port of Sandusky, Ohio. George and Eliza are tracked by bounty hunters and helped by Quakers along the way. I tended to find these sections more interesting than those that focused on Tom, even though they became few and far between.

Regarding Tom's owners, the infamous Simon Legree only appears in the last quarter of the book. His first stop in Louisiana is at the St Clare mansion, which, if memory serves, is the longest section of the book. There, he becomes the personal friend and attendant of the St Clares' young daughter, Eva. In the tradition of a Dickensian heroine (or did Stowe come first?), Eva is nothing but purity and goodness, whose only flaw is a poor physical constitution. Eva's mother Marie seems to be the literary role model of the self-centred hypochondriac, which is also seen in Faulkner's Sound & Fury.

At the St Clares', Tom's life seems pretty good by the standards of the slaves of the day, and the reader (or listener) has plenty of opportunity to hear from Augustine St Clare, who seems to be the most interesting and realistic character in the book.

Good things can't last, of course, and Tom eventually winds up on Legree's plantation, setting up the final showdown between good and evil and all that.

The book is interesting in several ways, including what one can read into the author's views on slavery and racial issues. From Stowe's occasional, but repeated racial stereotyping, it's clear that one can be against the legality of slavery and still be completely against the legal or moral equality of the races. I've seen it claimed that Cabin was the source of long-lasting stereotypes of former slaves, but I wonder if she was just reflecting the existing views of the time.

As almost an epilogue, African colonisation is discussed, and favourable press is given to the thought of transporting ex-slaves to Liberia (where they apparently can become American-Africans). Of course, I have the hindsight of 155 years of history that Stowe didn't have, but I don't think that experience of Americo-Liberians (or Africo-Liberians) was as rosy as predicted at the time.

What would you consider to be the worst aspect of slavery? It Stowe's eyes, it apparently was the internal slave trade, which resulted in the breaking up of families.

Also, the term "Uncle Tom" has developed a specific meaning in United States English. As a man of strong character who stuck to his principles and morals at great personal cost, Uncle Tom was definitely not an Uncle Tom.

The book's a little long and doesn't quite flow the way a modern novel would. Some readers may not enjoy the prominent place Christianity is given. It does have its ups and downs, but overall I give it a Recommended rating.

Swingset Photos

Two New Additions to My Reading Inbox

Despite the fact that items seem to enter it quicker than they leave, I added two books to my reading list today. When walking into the library, I usually walk right by the little section of discarded books for sale. Today, I stopped and took a look. It's $1 for paperbacks and $2 for hardcovers, so the cost isn't bad, but it's above trivial. There were some interesting selections. I bought these two:

• A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I think someone (was it DFV?) recommended this one.
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I assume I'll love it or hate it.

End of the Road

I went on a non-trivial bike ride today for the first time this year. I rode with some other former employees of my former employer. (For some reason, nobody expressed any regret about the employment relationships being past tense.) We ended up going 50 km (31 miles), which compares to the 8 km that I had previously ridden this year. I'd kind of like to ride more, but when I have time to exercise, I'm working on running rather than biking. I don't feel all that bad -- I think the second half of the ride was easier than the first half. Then we finished it off with a dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant.

Here I am with Jim and Brent at the end of the road. Or, if the bike trail continued from here, I didn't see it. We turned around.


My motto is, "Always stop for pictures with the gigantic carved wooden fire dog."

It's Been Too Long

It had been too long since I've been to a "Student of the Month" luncheon. Here's a photo from today's:

Is Pluto a Planet? by David A. Weintraub

Here's a non-fiction book that I picked up from the library. This is a good example of the typical book I would have read at one point in my life. However, in the past 9 or so years, I've been reading more fiction than non-fiction.

Is Pluto a Planet? is subtitled "A Historical Journey through the Solar System". The subtitle is fitting. A good part of the book covers a history of man's understanding of the solar system, from pre-Aristotelian days to the present. For example, in its earliest form, the 7 planets were the sun, the moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In addition to those first two, which might sound odd today, note that the Earth isn't one of them. As man's understanding of the solar system improved, in addition to adding Uranus and Neptune to the list of planets, the Earth was added and the sun and moon removed. Interestingly, there no less than 15 other objects that were at one point considered planets by a sizable segment of the scientific community. These were the 4 Galilean moons of Jupiter, the 5 largest moons of Saturn, the first 4 asteroids discovered (Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta), and also Vulcan and Hind's Planet (which doesn't seem to have a large web presence).

Then there's Pluto, which was the fourth object to be considered the 9th planet, and is a focal point in another redefinition of the word "planet".

The book has its good and bad points. On the plus side, in addition to what I've mentioned, it traced the history to the present, including a section on the Kuiper Belt, which was discovered after I finished school. On the down side, there are sections where the discoveries of several Kuiper Belt and Scattered Disk Objects are boringly described in paragraph form.

Also, the author seems to feel strongly about his opinion. He's looking for a physics-based definition of the word "planet", and if I understood him correctly, he feels that it should be any object that isn't, wasn't, and won't be a star, and is large enough that its shape is primarily determined by hydrostatic equilibrium (is mostly spherical). In real terms, how does anything larger than Miranda sound*? (That is, a diameter of about 500 km.)

In being a scientist looking for a physics-based definition, he is forgetting any historical basis for the word, so I'm not sure I agree with him. It seems like we need a new word, but as we learn more, there will always be borderline cases. For example, Chiron was originally thought to be an asteroid when it was discovered in 1977, but now it's also considered to be a comet.

All-in-all, it's not bad, but not something I'd recommend to someone who's not interested in astronomy. For the general reading population, I give it two stars out of five.

* See mirandasound.com.

Some Spring (Or "Dreaming of a White Easter")

So much for Spring flowers this year. The tulips look even worse, but since my forté seems to be daffodils, I'll refrain from posting sick tulip photos. I've heard that the area fruit trees will also be unhappy this year.

We may be warmer on average this year, but we seem to have also had snaps where it was considerably colder than normal. Today's forecast high is 14C (25F) colder than normal for April. Granted, it's still early April, so today's normal high is likely lower than the month's average.