Discriminations

News we hope we can use from the Chronicle of Higher Education:

Observing that athletes who wore red uniforms in the 2004 Olympics were more likely to win when competing against athletes wearing blue uniforms, researchers at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, in Romania, decided to pit the two colors against each other. They compared the performances of red and blue teams in virtual multiplayer shooting games and found that red won nearly 55 percent of the matches.

Posted by John Rosenberg at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Say What? (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I bought my first house way back when Jimmy Carter was president. As I recall interest rates were around 20%, and so I came up with the bright idea of leaving the cash I needed for the down payment in an interest bearing account until the last possible minute. My plan, brilliant in theory if I do say so myself, was to stop by the bank on the way to settlement to get a cashier’s check for the down payment of around $20,000, which I would pay for by a cash advance on my credit card linked to the brokerage account that held the money.

I’d never gotten a cash advance on a credit card before (or done anything on that or any card amounting to $20,000), and to make sure this would work I went by the bank the day before the fateful day just to check. The bank officer I spoke with didn’t see any problem, but just to make sure he called to confirm that I had that much cash available in the account, explaining my plan for the next day. No problem, he was assured.

The next day, just before settlement, I went by the bank, and by now you’ve guessed: sure enough, problem. Big problem. Merrill Lynch, or its agent managing its VISA card transactions, would not authorize my cash advance!

After much frantic shouting into the phone and going through a supervisor or two, I finally managed to get an explanation. Apparently calls such as the one the bank officer had made the day before asking about the availability of funds automatically puts a hold on those funds in the amount of the inquiry that lasts for a certain amount of time. The fact that I was responsible for that call made no difference. Merrill Lynch or its agent wanted to be sure those funds were available to whomever had made the initial inquiry if a request for them came in later.

This story has a happy ending. I finally got someone in the bank or at Merrill Lynch who arranged to release the cash in time for me to get to the settlement almost on time, but it was a very close call.

Why, you ask, am I telling you this? Good question. I thought of this experience today when reading this story:

A series of bailouts, bank rescues and other economic lifelines could end up costing the federal government as much as $23 trillion, the U.S. government’s watchdog over the effort says – a staggering amount that is nearly double the nation’s entire economic output for a year.

If the feds end up spending that amount, it could be more than the federal government has spent on any single effort in American history.

For the government to be on the hook for the total amount, worst-case scenarios would have to come to pass in a variety of federal programs, which is unlikely, says Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the government’s financial bailout programs, in testimony prepared for delivery to the House oversight committee Tuesday.

.... “The potential financial commitment the American taxpayers could be responsible for is of a size and scope that isn’t even imaginable,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. “If you spent a million dollars a day going back to the birth of Christ, that wouldn’t even come close to just one trillion dollars – $23.7 trillion is a staggering figure.”

Posted by John Rosenberg at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Say What? (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Virginia speeders are nothing if not literary. From today’s Charlottesville Daily Progress (quoted material, from p. A7, is not online):

High Speed Chase Ends With Crash

... According to police reports, Deputy Rick McKinley was headed north on U.S. 29 when he noticed Glen Thomson, 23, driving about 80 mph on U.S. 29 south near Alanthus Road at 10:50 a.m. on Thursday.

The pursuit ended when Thomson’s 1998 Ford Taurus SHO hit a tree on Auburn Road after the five mile chase. No injuries were reported.

Thomson faces a felony charge of alluding police.

-- Media General News Service

Posted by John Rosenberg at 2:18 PM | Permalink | Say What? (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well, she says no, but read the review (link may not last) of her new book, Our School, sort of suggesting Sally Field for the lead in the movie version, on OpinionJournal or at the book's home page.

ADDENDUM

One passage in the review (and I believe one theme in the book) I think is especially interesting:

Charter schools almost always take a few years to refine their efforts, and not all succeed at doing so. But Downtown College Prep and schools like it adapt more quickly than traditional schools--because they can. It's not merely a matter of their being free from various rules and regulations. The bigger difference is attitude.

It appears that observation may apply to schools as well.

Posted by John Rosenberg at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Say What? (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sidney Morgenbesser, who taught philosophy at Columbia for many years, died recently at 82. I don't know the field of philosophy well enough to know whether Sidney was an important philosopher, but I do know that anyone who ever had any contact with him (as I did briefly a number of years ago) will never forget his famous wit. An article about him, not really an obituary, in the New York Sun gives some of the better known examples:

The most celebrated Morgenbesser anecdote involved visiting Oxford philosopher J. L. Austin, who noted that it was peculiar that although there are many languages in which a double negative makes a positive, no example existed where two positives expressed a negative. In a dismissive voice, Morgenbesser replied from the audience, �Yeah, yeah��

asked about Mao Tse Tung�s view of the law of non-contradiction, Morgenbesser replied, �I do and do not agree.� Asked why there is something rather than nothing, he replied,�Even if there were nothing, you�d still be complaining!� Asked to prove a questioner�s existence, Morgenbesser shot back, �Who�s asking?� He also once cracked a joke about wanting to teach a class on the philosophy of engineering called, �The Abstract and the Concrete.�

• Jewish logic: "If P, so why not Q?"
  
• Gentile ethics: "ought implies can" vs. Jewish ethics: "can implies don't"
  
• Pragmatism: it works in theory but not in practice.
  

UPDATE

Here's a terrific article about Morgenbesser.

Posted by John Rosenberg at 2:09 AM | Permalink | Say What? (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Daughter Jessie graduates from Bryn Mawr this weekend, and so my wife and I are headed up to Philadelphia today. As a result blogging will be light until the first of next week.

(Please don't feel obligated to send congratulations. After all, Helene and I freely admit that we couldn't have done this without Jessie....)

Posted by John Rosenberg at 8:49 AM | Permalink | Say What? (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I apologize for leaving town without warning (you do care, don't you?), but I went up to Philadelphia for the weekend, got back late Monday, and still haven't caught up with email and other items.

The occasion was one last set of discussions with daughter Jessie about her graduate school decision. Those of you who have been here from the beginning will recall that Jessie orginally provoked me into starting Discriminations with promises of posting and additional help ... and then she disappeared into the woodwork of her work at Bryn Mawr, from which she's about to graduate.

(Jessie, if you're reading this, stop, because it'll make you blush.) Anyway, she was accepted into a whole bunch of the top Ph.D. programs in Applied Physics (MIT, Harvard, Cornell, UCLA, Caltech, and Stanford), and she has just decided to attend Caltech.

What she's been doing all year wasn't blogging, but it obviously hasn't been bad.

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As I was writing about half an hour ago the house began to shake. Now I like to think I�ve written powerful stuff before, but it never had that effect. Also, as a veteran of many years in California (and one in Tokyo), I thought I recognized the culprit. Sure enough:

Officials say at 3:59 p.m. Tuesday, an earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale was reported.

Its epicenter was 30 miles west of Richmond. There is no word on the length of the tremors.

If this becomes a habit, I may as well be back in California.

UPDATE � The house is still standing. The U.S. Geological Survey�s initial report can be found here.

UPDATE II � Do you think this might be an omen? I mean, Gore kisses Dean and the earth moves. Could this be what the London Telegraph meant when it said Gore �set off a political earthquake� with his endorsement of Dean? From where I sit (more nervously than before; the earth moving will do that to you), they coulda dropped the �political.�

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Really. I check the weather sites with some frequency, especially when storms are predicted. But I don�t recall ever seeing a weather service statement like this one for Albemarle and Nelson counties, Virginia (we live near the border between them), even when Hurricane Isabel blew by recently:

Albemarle VA-Nelson VA-

... Winter Storm Warning in effect until noon Friday...

Snow and sleet will continue overnight. Three to six inches of accumulation is possible by Friday morning. Some freezing rain may mix in overnight.

Any travel is strongly discouraged. If you leave the safety of being indoors, you are putting your life at risk

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The University of California has just instituted a new policy that bans �romantic or sexual� relationships between professors and their students.

Apparently, this prohibtion is too complex for many on the faculty to understand.

Like a lot of people on campus, Catherine Gallagher, a professor of English ... , is confused.

What precisely does the word romantic mean, she wonders. "Does it mean a personal relationship? Does it mean you can't go out for coffee?"

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Trés chic sports cars, that is. Yes, folks, this is about cars, and not only cars but performance cars. And not only performance cars but a very unlikely performance car, the Subaru Forester XT, which looks to the naked eye (and to many automotive reviewers) to be nothing more than your average everyday small SUV, or “sport ute” as they’re called. Looks, however, can be deceiving; in real life, the XT is a veritable tiger in house cat’s clothing. So, if you’re not interested in this sort of thing, tune out now.

On the other hand, it is altogether fitting and proper that I do this. After all, if SuperBloggers Mickey and Glenn can interrupt their usual high-brow commentary from time to time to discuss matters automotive, why shouldn’t I? Especially since they seem mainly interested in sports cars (Mazda RX-8 and Nissan 350z) that actually look like sports cars. Indeed, maybe car commentary is all it takes to make me a Great Blogger like them! (For some of Mickey’s gearbox goings-on see here, here, here, here, here, and here. For Glenn, here, here, here, here, and here.)

The Mazda RX-8 and the Nissan 350z, the object of their affections, are hot, high performance sports cars. They will carry two people with little luggage in fine style, and fast. The Subaru Forester XT, a newly turbocharged version of the venerable van-looking family box, will carry your kid’s basketball team — minus the coach, if one kid sits in the open area behind the rear seat (or is tied to the roof rack).

Now, let’s look at some numbers. But first, let me say that numbers aren’t everything, and I’m only giving two of them anyway, 0 - 60 speed (the first number in parens) and elapsed time to 1/4 mile (the second number in parens). Still, since those of us who are interested in performance are particularly interested in those two numbers, I think the comparisons will be worthwhile. I apologize for not taking the time to figure out how to make the following list look better, but at least you’ll be able to read it. These numbers were taken from the August 2003 issue of Car and Driver, but every issue of C&D has a road test summary in the back. Prices are manufacturers suggested base prices taken from the same issue; your prices will vary. So, without further ado:

SPORTS CARS (0 - 60mph / 0 - 1/4 mile) $Price
Mazda RX-8 (5.9 / 14.5) $28,300
Nissan 350z (5.7 / 14.3) $33,788
BMW Z4 (5.4 / 14.2) $45,320
Porsche Boxster (6.0 / 14.6) $43,365
Porsche Boxster S (5.3 / 13.9) $58,088
Porsche 911 (5.5 / 14.0) $85,934

SPORTY SEDANS (just for the heck of it)
Audi A4 3.0 (7.5 / 15.9) $44,385
BMW 330i (7.4 / 15.6) $40,319
Mercedes E500 (5.8 /14.3) $63,602
Jaguar S (7.9 /16.1) $46,775

SUVS (again, just for the heck of it)
BMW X5 3.0i (8.1 / 16.2) $46,570
Mercedes ML 500 (6.7 / 15.3) $45,615
Volkswagen Toureg (7.5 / 15.7) $46,500
Porsche Cayenne Turbo (5.0 / 13.5) $94,980

And now, the ugly duckling that’s always ignored in these automotive comparisons:

SUBARU FORESTER XT (5.3 / 13.8) $25,520

We had a 1999 BMW M3, a fabulous performance car, and a 2001 Subaru Forester with about 90,000 trouble-free miles on it. We hated to give up the M3 but thought Jessie’s final year at Bryn Mawr was more important (though it was a close call), and so we sold it and then traded the Forester for a new Forester XT.

What’s the best thing I can say about the XT? I don’t miss the M3 at all. Charlotte, our yellow Labrador, likes the XT much better, but I wouldn't put too much stock in her opinion since we never let her in the M3.

ADDENDUM

If you look at Glenns last couple of posts linked above, you’ll see that Mazda has given recent purchasers of its RX-8 an offer to buy back their cars at full purchase price or a whole basketfull of expensive goodies because it overstated the RX-8’s horsepower. Interestingly, the various Subaru discussion boards (a good one is here) have been teeming with speculation that Subaru understated the XT’s horsepower (given as 210) so as to minimize competition with its own WRX and WRX Sti performance cars. (The consensus seems to be, however, that the combination of variable valve timing, a very responsive turbocharger, and a very fast final drive ratio make it possible for its claimed 210 horses to perform like more.)

Posted by John Rosenberg at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Say What? (7) | TrackBacks (1)

One of the rewards of blogging is that occasionally you get to meet nice and interesting people whose writing you've come to appreciate. I've just met my second one this summer, and like the first�Garrett Moritz of gTexts�Andy Lazarus is also a liberal. A frequent commenter here (who's usually wrong), in real life Andy is just as thoughtful and interesting as he is in comments trying to puncture my balloon (and succeeding more than I would like.) Life would be simpler, but less enjoyable, if all liberals were as unappealing as their arguments.

And speaking of Garrett Moritz, he has some very perceptive comments about the significance of Justice O'Connor's 25 year hope.

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The more observant among you will have noticed a longer that usual gap between my last post and the one before it. Since that, or a similar, gap may recur over the next two or three weeks, let me explain that I'm now house-sitting in San Francisco. And a lovely house it is, too, except that its DSL connection (and any other connection) is a sometime thing and, mistakenly, I didn't bring my laptop this time. There is both an Internet cafe and a public library in the neighborhood, however, and I may even get our host's computer to work right eventually.

Because there may be small children in the audience I will refrain from saying anything about our trip out here, since doing so would involve slander against United Airlines. Well, not all of United: the pilot did a terrfic job of turning around and landing what turned out to be our first plane when it lost an engine ten or fifteen minutes out of Dulles.

More later. Or even later than that....

Posted by John Rosenberg at 4:21 PM | Permalink | Say What? (1) | TrackBacks (2)

If you noticed a decrease in postings over the past day or so (you have noticed, haven't you?), it's because Helene and I took Jessie up to Boston to deposit her at MIT for the summer. She's now moved in (still receiving email at her Bryn Mawr address if anyone is trying to reach her), and we're in Philadelphia now, on the way home.

While in Beantown we had a delightful meeting, walk through Cambridge, and coffee with Garrett Moritz of gtexts fame (or what should be fame). I am happy to report that he is just as enjoyable in person as on blog, which is saying a lot. (Do not, however, be confused: the fact that Garrett is charming, erudite, and wise beyond his years should not lead anyone to conclude that he is generally right about discrimination.)

I have just seen Garrett's kind comments about our meeting, and I think he's right on target in his view of the appeal, at least for some of us, of meeting the flesh and blood behind the blogs we like.

Posted by John Rosenberg at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Say What? (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Fritz Schrank of Sneaking Suspicions has some good advice for Sen. John Edwards (D-ATLA) as he violates the NAACP boycott by attending a meeting in a former slaveholder's mansion in Charleston.

Fritz also reports that he's just learned from his new tax software that (direct quote, he says) "Delaware now allows deceased taxpayers to electronically file."

Perhaps Fritz will report later whether the Delaware tax department will actually accept returns (from live or dead Delawareans) that is filed using software that so egregiously splits infinitives.

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Anyone who has blogged for long will tell you that making new friends is one of the greatest rewards of blogging. These new relationships are often electronic only, and that is fine. Today, however, Jessie and I had the pleasure of meeting Howard Bashman, of How Appealing fame, in person, in the flesh, for lunch in Bryn Mawr. And thus we can assure you that in real life Howard is every bit as Appealing as his fine blog.

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From the "KidsPost" section of today's Washington Post (not, you understand, that you are a kid).

Readers List the Best and Worst Treats of Halloweens Past
....

My mom is not a normal mother. She feels it's her duty to give out toothbrushes at Halloween. Now this would be completely understandable if she was a dentist. But guess what? She's not. My mother just finds it funny to embarrass me as much as she can. Please tell her to stop.

-- Karen Orrick, 13, Bethesda

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Today is Jessie's 16th birthday!

This blog never would have been launched if Jessie hadn't insisted on it, and done all the heavy lifting to make it happen. She's been too busy to participate lately, but here's hoping that, now that she's a year older, she'll find time to make some appearances here.

You know, Jessie, phsyics may explain everything, but it isn't everything....

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