Monday, April 30, 2007

Asperger's Syndrome and Economics

Marginal Revolution links us to a video of Vernon Smith talking about living with Asperger's. Smith's "symptoms" describe almost every economist I have ever met, and I certainly include myself (if I can be called an economist yet). Certain professors, possibly on the west coast, obviously suffer more seriously than Smith. Here's my unofficial transcript of part of Smith's interview:
Interviewer: Do you feel that you seem strange in the eyes of other people?

Smith: Oh yes

I: How so

S: Sometimes I’m described as not there in a social situation. A social situation that lasts for a couple hours I find a tremendous amount of strain, so I’ve been known to go to bed and read

I: What led you to teaching?...

S: Teaching forced me into being more social…it’s in professional dimensions that I’m more comfortable.
The economics profession is as much a dating service and social club for Asperger's sufferers as anything.

Later in the video, they interview a doctor who claims that many people with Asperger's require help to function and succeed. But, and this is my informal understanding of people with more serious austism as well, no case is made that I know of to substantiate the idea that people with these problems are actually unhappy. I do not mean to be insensitive, and I am the first to admit that I know close to nothing about this, but I will say that, as someone who has some of the Asperger's symptoms described in the interview, I have never felt like people who have felt sorry for me or tried to change me have actually done me a positive service.

When I was at tennis camp, when I was not playing tennis, all I wanted to do was sit by myself and read...whatever. Shut up.

New A's Stadium

I reproduce part of an email from my brother, both to credit his investigation and because I'm too lazy to do my own research:

Two epic details about the new A's stadium:

"Cisco will provide a cellphone system fans can use to purchase tickets and upgrade them on game day. There will be digital signs everywhere and embedded cameras around the ballpark to promote things."

-The article goes on to detail how, because of the digital signs, all refreshments and such will be price-adjusted as the game goes on. The example provided is that, if, as the game goes on, the A's are not selling very many hot dogs, they will use the digital signs to reduce the price!

"The Baseball Village will include 3,000 townhouses of various styles and prices ("We'll even let non-baseball fans buy them," said Wolff). Income from the residential portion of the project will help pay for the ballpark, which is expected to cost $400 million-$500 million, not including the land."
-You get to "literally" live in the ballpark!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Putin is Short

Check out Clinton and Bush the Elder - they dwarf him. I believe Hitler and Stalin were also unusually short, especially for leaders. Are short leaders more likely to be cruel and evil?


Picture is from the New York Times.

What's...Unusual...About This Ad?

I was glancing at the sports.yahoo.com/mlb page, as is my wont, when I saw this ad. It was flash-based, but I was able to capture both relevant frames using OS X's handy screen-capture command.

Before:
After:

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Back( to Back){3}

So the Red Sox were pwning it up tonight. After their fourth consecutive homerun, my phone started to ring off the hook (naturally, since I'm the man). First it was John Friedman, with whom I celebrated the events that had just transpired. Then I saw it was my brother's number, so I picked up the phone expecting to hear joyous revelry, but it turned out he was calling randomly to find out the status of the game. He was on an airplane, about to takeoff or get off or something, and he just wanted to know the score. He called at the right time...

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Give the pizza-thrower a prize

An epic Red Sox fan moment: after going to the trouble of getting a slice of delicious pizza, fan decides to use it as a weapon when another fan inadvertently obstructs a play on a foul ball.

Jerry and Don at first try to treat it as a serious crime, but they soon break down in hysterical laughter.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Andy Hall's Highly Anticipated Directorial Debut

Here's a teaser. It is widely predicted to be the greatest movie ever made, though few details are available as to its release date, plot, or cast.

Monday, April 16, 2007

A Healthy Physics-Inspired Rage

I am proud to say that I am among that happy few, that band of brothers, which has never attended a Physics 15a section (except the first one). Today I received the following unfortunate note from "Esteban," the more paternal of the two TF's:
Dear all,

There are a few of you who consistently don't come to section. What I'm about to say is for your benefit, not because I want to micromanage you, so don't take it personally.

It is the policy of this course that section grade is based on attendance and that it counts for 3% of your final grade. This may seem little but...

I just checked last semester's grades and found, to my surprise, that 108 students out of a total of 127 were within 3% of having a different letter grade.

I also was surprised to find that all of those who got a final A- were within 3% of getting an A or a B+.

I figured you may be surprised to know that too, in particular if you haven't been showing up.

Esteban.
Where to begin ripping this outrageous passive aggression apart with my rhetorical fangs? I'll ignore the internally inconsistent "I don't want to micromanage you," and I will forgo bothering to address the pathetic "for your benefit," and cut straight to the chase: what exactly it is that Esteban finds "surpris[ing]."

Tell me this, Harvard Physics Students: what are the odds of NOT being within 3% of the grade either above or below the grade you receive? Is it even possible for that condition not to be satisfied? The last sentence really puts the icing on the cake. I reproduce it below in full:
I figured you may be surprised to know that too, in particular if you haven't been showing up.
First of all, "Esteban," if you were so surprised by this, then, since you attend every section, shouldn't everyone be surprised? Second of all, what in the name of our Lourd and Saviour Jesus Christ does section attendance have to do with knowing this inane, possibly tautological, and anything but surprising fact? Finally, who exactly do you think you are, power-tripping over a bunch of freshmen (and me) who, in the hours in which they weren't attending your section, probably had more sexual intercourse than you will ever enjoy in your entire life? Perhaps the last answers itself.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Physics Limerick

Turned in on my problem set:
There was once a girl named Mia
who said many an Ave Maria.

She prayed night and day
for physics answers to say,

and concluded 2 Magisteria.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Moral Quandaries of Flying

It was midnight, my flight was already 30 minutes delayed, and I was settled into my carefully-selected seat 10A, which is the window seat on the 757 closest to the front that is not a bulkhead (i like having a place to put my backpack so i don't have to get up to access it). Seats 9B and 10B housed a couple who wanted to sit together (I'll note that sitting next to me was the girl, who weighed about 100 pounds and smelled pleasantly like flowers, and had a charming South African accent).

The guy, who seemed cheerful but exhausted, asked if I would switch seats with him so that he could sit with his girlfriend. He was in a middle bulkhead seat. After a long and awkward silence, I mumbled something about how I wanted the window. I felt mildly bad, but also mad at him for asking me because it was somewhat unreasonable. Then he asked the 50-year old female doctor in the aisle seat, who mumbled that she needed to keep her laptop under the seat in front of her. This was strange because she obviously didn't have a laptop, and right after take-off, she went instantly to sleep.

But God did not look kindly on me, because the overweight and odoriferous man in seat 9C agreed to switch with the skinny girl. So I had the pleasure of an unpleasant seatmate spilling slightly into my personal space for 5.5 generally sleepless hours. I dreamed up a solution to problem 1c on game theory, but the solution was...deeply wrong.