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Sunday, January 31, 2010
Media Consumption and the Low Information Diet
I was listening to a podcast with Tyler Cowen. Tyler is a brilliant economist at George Mason University, a blogger at Marginal Revolution, and a cultural omnivore. The interviewer asked him how many blogs he subscribed to in his feed reader. The answer was 19. I was amazed at that answer, and I started counting the number of feeds in my Google Reader and stopped counting...
Robert Muir-Wood on the Stern Report
Robert Muir-Wood is quoted in today's Sunday Times on how the Stern Review Report used his work. Muir-Wood was a valuable participant in our 2006 Hohenkammer workshop. It is unfortunate that both IPCC and Stern chose to misuse his work, which has placed Muir-Wood in a difficult position. Here is what the Times reports today (emphasis added):Robert Muir-Wood, head of research...
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Royal H. Mixte Logos
Some of you have asked what the decals on my Royal H. mixte will look like, and I now have pictures. But there won't actually be any decals: the logos are being painted (stenciled) by hand, by Circle A in Providence, RI. I chose these designs out of many that were available, because I thought the aesthetic would suit my bicycle very nicely.So this is what the downtube logo...
Can you Believe it?
Who would of thought it?A game of soccer in Christchurch could get 19 thousand+people.Wasn't even an international, but a club game, that didn'tinvolve Christchurch.The Wellington Phoenix must now make this an annual fixturewith Adelaide, to bring soccer to Christchurch.The night was a 100% success, they double what they thoughtthey would get, the crowd was singing and chanting,...
Wairarapa Dressage Champs
What a weekend - Saturday, wall to wall sunshine and people nearly toppling off their horses with heat exhaustion vs Sunday, raining steadily all day and raincoats and very wet riders and horses. Crazy summer!!!!Nicola and Lagan had an interesting competition but can take a lot from the two days and Nicki now has plenty to work on and some goals to work towards for their next...
Pop Quiz -- Who Said What?
How well have you been following the climate debate?Nature asked six climate change experts their views on the significance of the Copenhagen Accord. Before I provide the link, I've listed the experts below and a passage from each. Your job is to match the expert with the phrase. No cheating!Feel free to enter your guesses as comments. I'll update this post with the answers...
More Quiet Post-Publication Changes to the Stern Report
The Telegraph reports today that several sections of the Stern Review report were altered subsequent to its publication, with no formal notice given. Apparently, the quiet change of the hurricane loss error that I recently noted was one of a number of such changes. The Stern Review on the economics of climate change, which was commissioned by the Treasury, was greeted...
Snatch & pulsmäterier
Oa swing 16kg: 10/10 (110bpm)Snatch 16kg: 10/10 (125bpm)Snatch 20kg: 5/5 (130bpm), 54/58 (8min, 181bpm), 10/10Snatch 24kg: 10/10 (almost dead hang snatches)Oa swing 30kg: 2x 20/20 (161bpm & 163 bpm, respectively)Ja, jag har alltså gått och skaffat mig en pulsklocka. Jag brukar inte komma överens med kluriga elektroniska inställningar och ville ha nåt billigt - Claes Ohlsson's à 500,-. Den innehåller ändå för många effekter för min smak (typ förprogrammerade träningsprogram & dito bs), men verkar jämförelsevis basic. En fördel med dyrare...
Random Thoughts on Various Subjects
1. THE STATE OF THE UNIONI did not watch or listen to the State of the Union speech Obama gave Wednesday night, and I don't think I missed anything new from that shithead. It is clear to me and the rest of the country that Obama has learned nothing from the election of Scott Brown to Ted Kennedy's old seat. The country has learned something from Obama though. Barack Obama is an arrogant motherfucker who thinks the country is stupid. So, he doesn't consider that his ideas may be wrong. He concludes that he is not communicating them effectively....
Friday, January 29, 2010
Cycling and Weight: Realistic Outlooks
It may be controversial, but weight is such a commonly discussed topic among women (albeit usually in private), that it feels disingenuous to pretend that I do not think about it myself. Specifically, I want to say a few words about the relationship between weight and cycling. In many cycling blogs, I find the recurring suggestion that "cycling will make you thin" - whether...
Rumble at the Ri: Ward vs. Pielke
Next Friday evening in London, I am going to debate Bob Ward, policy and communications director of the Grantham Research Institute at LSE, at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The announcement has just been posted up, and you can see it below. Click here for background on the Royal Institution. Click here for more about the remarkable venue where the debate will...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Science has an extended interview with Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, that is quite revealing. Here are a few interesting excerpts.Dr. Pachauri clearly indicates that he sees the job of the IPCC to be motivating political action on climate change:I mean, let's face it, that the whole subject of climate change having become so important is largely driven by the work...
Cause and Effect Sports Law: Who Dat Style
As a trial lawyer who has seen any number of moves/reasons for a continuance of a trial, fellow members (and future members) of the trial bar take note: sporting events that enjoy the support of a community in which that team or school resides may provide a "basis" for a continuance. HT: The Volokh Conspira...
Stöt
Ser lite bättre utOa jerk 16kg, then 20kg: 5/5With timer,* 1min on/1min restRound 1: jerk 2x20kg: 10 rpm2: jerk 2x24kg: 8rpm3-4: jerk 2x26kg: 7rpm5-8: jerk 2x24kg: 8rpm9-10: lccj 2x24kg: 7rpm 11: jerk 2x20kg: 6 rpm (cooldown)Oa swing 20kg: 10/10Oa swing 30kg: 20/20Tempo-höjningen till 8rpm med 24or funkade bättre idag (provade för ett par veckor sen') - fast det är en drastisk...
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
The Master Builder: Mike Flanigan in His New Workshop
Last week we visited the new A.N.T. Bikes workshop in Holliston, Mass., and the Co-Habitant took a series of black and white photos of the excellent Mike Flanigan. My job was to take the digital test shots, which were mostly to meter light and try out compositions before the "real thing". So here are a few of these test shots, which A.N.T. fans might find enjoyable.For those...
3rd Annual Tulane Law School National Baseball Arbitration Competition
The 3rd Annual Tulane Law School National Baseball Arbitration Competition took place this past weekend at Tulane Law School. The event was a huge success, with 38 teams from schools across the country participating in a simulated baseball salary arbitration competition. Special thanks to Professor Roger Abrams and Jon Fetterolf for serving as the judges for the final rounds...
Karen Clark on Short-Term Hurricane Loss Predictions
Karen Clark and Co. have an interesting new report out which evaluates the performance of short-term hurricane predictions issued by the catastrophe modeling industry. In short, they are not doing so well, as the image above indicates, with predicted losses far exceeding actual losses. Here is an excerpt from the report:Given all of the uncertainties, near term projections...
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
West Legal Education CLE on "Guns Up! Legal Issues Surrounding the Firing of Texas Tech Head Football Coach Mike Leach"
Rick and I are hosting an on-line 1-credit continuing legal education tomorrow (Wednesday January 27) from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. Eastern Time with West Legal Center to discuss the assorted legal implications of Mike Leach's firing. A number of us on Sports Law Blog have discussed the Mike Leach firing. Here is West's description of the CLE:On December 28, 2009, Leach was suspended...
Phoebe Prince
Phoebe Prince was a 15 year old girl from Ireland,who moved with her family to the USA.She was a victim of "Mean Girls" bullying.She took constant abuse from a bunch of populargirls at South Hadley High School, they calledher every name under the sun, one day she waswalking home, and some more abuse was hurledat her from these girls, a bottle was thrown ather head, she continued...
Hot on the Trail of the IPCC Mystery Graph
UPDATE:I think I have figured it out.1. The Figure above does not appear in Muir-Wood.2. A different figure, 1.5 from the SOD, was criticized by reviewers. Figure 1.5 was a scatter plot of temperature anomaly and normalized damage 1950-2005, shown below.3. In response, the IPCC instead chose to make its own Figure SM 1-1 above at the top of this post, which plotted only 1970-2005...
Bob Ward's Big Day
Bob Ward is at it again. It is interesting that no scholars have stepped up to defend the IPCC on the disasters and climate issue, leaving the task to Lord Stern's spokesman. Below is a piece that he had on the Guardian site today, defending the IPCC against claims that it had sexed up its sections on disasters and climate change. Bob is a PR pro, and while there is enough...
Lord Stern's Spokesperson Responds
Bob Ward, Policy and Communications Director at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, where Nicholas Stern in the Chair, has kindly written in to the comments, responding to my post on how the Stern Review Report misused the Robert Muir-Woods paper and quietly altered a typo that revealed the fuzzy math. Bob's comments are below, with my responses...
