Disqus - Latest Comments for Ivan

Re: Making some noise

Ivan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:47:25 -0000

Congrats on the new features and hires!

Re: Trying Out A New Comment System

Ivan — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:58:19 -0000

This is a test of an emerging comment system.

Re: Trying Out A New Comment System

Ivan — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 13:58:45 -0000

threaded

Re: python valentine - a program for your day

Ivan — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:23:06 -0000

from datetime import datetime # ironic to be called datetime
import sys
if self.beenDumped and self.dateDumped==datetime.now().date():
sys.exit(1)

Re: Hate Facebook

Ivan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:29:40 -0000

I had some comments on starting a country here.

I'd also probably try to build a space elevator. Building a team of assassins would also be convenient.

Re: Hate Facebook

Ivan — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:43:14 -0000

I know it's drastic, suggesting starting a new country in the face of facebook sucking. But rather than copy the comment to the right thread, I think I'm going to have to go ahead with the plan.

Re: Things I Would Do If I Were The World’s Richest Man

Ivan — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 09:18:02 -0000

Yah know that Ben Franklin invented the pot-bellied stove? You could have a Franklin Franklin stove. It would be very good at distributing the money-heat throughout the room.

Re: Guns vs. Ninjas

Ivan — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 13:38:24 -0000

That's the problem with a 1D political spectrum. Libertarians in favor of gun rights and the right to screw any adult you want are not the same as conservatives.

Also, as far an Ninjas, there are laws about levels are martial arts that designate people as "deadly weapons". This might be a Cali only thing a 3rd degree black belt is a leathal weapon, and the state registers them.

For example, if you get pulled over driving a car registered by a deadly weapon of a person, the cop can approach you like any aggressive target, gun pulled.

But most ninjas are libertarians fearing the state, so they avoid any public record.

Re: TechStars

Ivan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:57:04 -0000

For actors, New York is a fine choice. Far less likely to end up in porn too.

Re: Phone call wakes me up

Ivan — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:12:10 -0000

Good strategy for evil companies to hurl competitors through impersonation. "Hi, we're the Stasi from Twitter."

Re: We all have tunnel vision

Ivan — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 13:05:30 -0000

There was an interesting talk at last year's Singularity Summit at Stanford. I think it was Nick Bostrom's talk.
http://www.thesingularity.tv/video/61298-nick-b...

He is author of "Anthropic Bias".

The way humans treat catastrophic events that are extremely low probability is perhaps related to the "7 things" that fit in your head. We deal very poorly with such events, though they are important.

Re: Installing TipJoy onto a Wordpress Theme

Ivan — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:12:42 -0000

Thanks for posting this! We can't wait to have full coverage on all the blogging platforms.

Re: Best of TED 2009 - Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius

Ivan — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:50:23 -0000

Nice video. I'm a bit bothered by her equating fame with quality. That will be especially false as more people enter the creative class. More people making good work mean that wider popularity is harder.

The motivation for creating should be from within. Others enjoying it is also feels great.

Luckily, the result is the same. You should just work like hell at making something great. No need to get mystical though :P

Re: http://adam.blog.heroku.com/past/2008/4/23/the_startup_curve/

Ivan — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 15:25:03 -0000

In case you can't read that last one it is:
my "oh" face

Re: Why Does Quitting Your Job Bother Other People

Ivan — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 14:23:09 -0000

I've gone through something similar. My wife and I cofounded a new web startup that just launched -- we have an 11 month old son. This involved a move across the country and all sorts of other craziness.

The two parts that helped us actually do it:
- We got some seed funding
- We realized that the worst case scenario was equivalent to the status quo

My wife also mentions our son as a motivating force. It helps you realize that even if you lose a house, you'll still have your family. It makes you reprioritize and get the focus you need to start a business.

Mandatory plug:
Our startup is Tipjoy, an easy way to leave tips for stuff you love. It's a micropayment tipping system we hope blogs will use. I just left you a $0.25 tip with a single click. Check it out:
http://tipjoy.com

Re: Adult Webcam Site Hacks Twitter Accounts

Ivan — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 15:45:22 -0000

It is much more likely that it is a XSS attack than a password theft issue. You can currently access protected updates by grabbing the stream using an HTTP GET to http://twitter.com/statuses/friends_timeline.json from javascript running on any page a signed in user visits. This might have been solved, but not as far as I know.

Re: How’s this for a green idea?

Ivan — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:19:50 -0000

Chris Anderson mentioned this recently, and gave some (poor) reasons why it happens.

http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/t...

Re: Outsourcing: An Update

Ivan — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:48:56 -0000

Anger over poor immigration policies is simmering, and will boil over soon.

It isn't the likes of Camilo (and me), who complain that the US draw of foreign brains is excellent and not to be limited. No, they complain about illegal immigration of low education, poor people.

Perhaps the best response would be to stop the illegals (say, by building a wall), raise the caps on legal immigration, and just remove the caps on immigrants with a given level of education, skills, or IQ.

I wish politicians were a bit more realist when it comes to such policies, including outsourcing.

More talent coming to the US is good.

Using better production facilities off shore is good.

As an aside, I recently got an MS in robotics. A friend of mine in the program was in India over a Holiday break, and wasn’t allowed back in for 7 months. Apparently, robotics is equivalent to nuclear engineering with respect to security, and his having lived some time in Kuwait (which, I’m told, is very common for Indians), raised some flags. The problem isn’t that he raised flags. The problem is that it took so long to resolve. Ridiculous!

Re: Outsourcing: An Update

Ivan — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:01:04 -0000

There is a difference between a bad company looking to restructure and fire some employees, and the industry and skill-set as a whole.

Re: Sad Day

Ivan — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 11:57:04 -0000

Ridiculous, but none too surprising.

People think that the unskilled are forced to work there.

What percentage of those responding that Wal-mart is bad actually shop there? What percentage work there?

God, I would love to see those numbers.

Re: Distinguishing Prices From Market Values

Ivan — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 05:48:03 -0000

This all reminds me of the difference between market value and perceived value of unskilled labor.

The desire for a "living wage" (usually around $15/hr) is another way of saying that the price paid is under the real value.

Just as there are negative consequences that are ignored with calls for a "windfall-profits" tax for oil companies, there are negative consequences for a minimum wage, many of which go ignored by those commenters usually disagreeing with the posts.

Re: No Laffing Matter

Ivan — Wed, 07 Dec 2005 16:31:16 -0000

"P.S. I think the justification for progressive taxation is not, as usually stated, the ability to pay, but rather that the greater the individual's economic power, the greater the ability to pass on the tax burden."

Wouldn't that mean that you shouldn't push the rich to avoid taxes as much?

Isn't that the whole point of the Laffer curve: making it worth it to avoid taxes with ridiculously high rates means you collect less taxes from those people.

A flat tax, low enough to not be avoided, and simple enough to expose loop-holes, is a good goal.

Add an earned income tax credit, perhaps with allocations explicitly for catastrophic health insurance and HAS for non-catastrophic health care costs, and you have a complete tax system that will fit on a single page, or even a single graph!

Re: Rather than Conscript, Why Not…..?

Ivan — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 09:23:02 -0000

If you consider the high-value training received in the military, I wouldn't be surprised if many more people enlisted but avoided war.

The military is probably one of the more successful government training programs. I know for a fact that military experience is a great aide in jobs requiring complex management and logistics.

The value of having more people in society trained in self-defense, first aide, and crisis management would be high. It actually goes well with the modern asymmetric war, where a knowledgeable and enabled distributed society is the best defense against a liquid threat like Al Queda.

Re: Minutemen Vs. "Minutemen"

Ivan — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 05:49:09 -0000

"free themselves from burdensome restrictions on their economic activities"

These folks find a pretty good argument in that illegal, low-skilled, uneducated labor will cost them far more in taxes than they will save in cheap labor. Certainly the immigrant benefits (that is why they come), but those paying higher taxes because of it (for higher crime rates, worse school performance, and higher dependence on government provided medicine) aren't exactly getting a square deal.

That, at least, is the only reasonable reason someone would be against today's massive illegal immigration, IMHO.

I think many people could rally behind a simple compromise:

-Control the border with a fence and many entry points.

-Allow more guest workers so those seeking work are legitimized.

Re: Minutemen Vs. "Minutemen"

Ivan — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 08:21:17 -0000

Mark:

"Would it not make more sense to address the root cause - i.e the burden of government - rather than try to fix the problem by adding more government?"

I would totally agree in theory. In practice, in this political environment, you can make gains with smaller and more widely acceptable changes.

Believe me, when I start a country, it won't have government-administered education etc. But, today, in America, don't make perfect the enemy of the good.

yellowfintuna:

"the fact of the matter is that these people drive labor costs down (it is part of the reason why we enjoy low prices on our agriculture products) and their will always be market for them to cross the border. my advice: you cant fight the market, so stop trying"

First, there are externalities, as I've mentioned. It isn't just cheap labor; it’s subsidized. Second, you can fight the market. Look at Japan. Look at Israel. Those countries aren't exactly dirty or starving for lack of immigrant labor, are they? My point for this isn't that those countries have wise policies, but that they can enforce their laws. We simply don't.

And let me stress, generally immigration is great. But there are very reasonable arguments to show that it is currently out of control with high negative effects.

Re: A Note on Global Warming

Ivan — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 10:30:13 -0000

" it is neither absurd nor irresponsible to argue that the best course of action is to ignore the problem."

How about this for proof positive:

The US has done more to curtail GHG emissions than the EU, while maintaining higher growth rates. Further, even backers of Kyoto admit that a fully successful implementation (where countries actually meet the deadlines), would cause a very small change in temperature: around 0.7 degrees over 100 years.

The solution to this problem is technological, not governmental. This can be seen in the Prius+ movement for 200+mpg cars:

http://www.calcars.org/priusplus.html
</p>

Also, strong research is causing alternative energies to become more competitive. This blog is quite good:

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/
</p>

There are good reasons for government to stay out. One of the big ones is that the market is making progress faster!

If you really must have government intervention, something more passive like researching new batteries, solar, and fusion would be great.

Re: A Note on Global Warming

Ivan — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:07:29 -0000

"What are governments for?"

The US constitution is a great document. It almost defines our government by what it can't do, which is almost everything.

The enumerated powers exist because government often goes beyond its mission and does some pretty nasty things.

National defense is important, but an aware and prepared citizenry is good.

Rule of law is important.

Re: The Toll of Economic Ignorance

Ivan — Sat, 17 Dec 2005 05:57:16 -0000

I think most complaints about obsession with money have to do with the environment. Some are valid.

Other complaints have to do with "consumerism", which can be defined as anytime somebody other than me buys something.

Re: Who is We?

Ivan — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 18:04:11 -0000

Funny choice of cities.

I grew up in Bakersfield and live in Boston.

All you have to do to stop worrying about trade deficits is look at times in history when we ran a deficit or surplus. The former is almost always during times of growth, and the latter during times of recession.

I think people worry about this because news of red-ink and doom-n-gloom sells.

Re: Market Utopians

Ivan — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 08:24:13 -0000

Perhaps it is in relation to the universal answer "free markets are better".

Plenty of people can seem like idealists if that is always the answer. It isn't utopia, because it's achievable :)

Re: Milton and (Charlie) Rose

Ivan — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 08:35:42 -0000

"inflation-prone currency"

Compared to what? Over the last few years, the CPI has been low.

A bigger risk is a transition away from using the USD as the unofficial petro-dollar. The EU is trying to get Russia to sell oil for Euros. That could get very ugly.

Re: The Lake Wobegon Fallacy

Ivan — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 08:26:55 -0000

Reminds me of definitions of poverty as the lowest 15%.

Heh. How rich does a society have to before no one is in the bottom 15%?

You could define it as those households earning below 15% of the median, but that is a measure of equality, not wealth. The lower the median, the fewer people earn a small percentage of it. Perhaps a survey of a place like N. Korea would be helpful, where I’m sure there are so many destitute people that almost no one earns below 15% the median.

What I wish we'd see more often is actually a much simpler idea: visualize inflation-adjusted distribution of income over time. Y-axis: # households, X-axis: binned income (e.g. $20-25K/yr).

It would be a big bell-curve, moving swiftly to the right over the course of the 20th century.

Re: Power to the People

Ivan — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 08:21:47 -0000

"But I also think that the implied contracts between large corporations and their workers have changed over the past three decades."

Firms are as flexible in hiring as they are in firing. I would rather risk losing my job, knowing it is less of an issue to be hired elsewhere, than have a significantly lower risk of losing my job, but knowing there are fewer opportunities if I wanted to leave or were fired.

Flixibility is good. It is the multitude of potential employers that give real security, not the single firm that can break unspoken "life-time" contracts.

Re: If You Can't Beat 'Em, Intoxicate 'Em

Ivan — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 08:45:23 -0000

I doubt the deaths were caused by the study. These people have been drinking obscenely for years.

Part of the point is that they drink less because of the program.

I disagree with all of it, and have yet to be surprised by the ridiculous government programs. That said, this is probably not the worst I've seen.

Re: The Sausage Factory

Ivan — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 09:41:09 -0000

I'm not sure incentives for indiginous peoples to have more children are bad.

Either way, I would prefer my mobsters have an interesting cultural background, rather than a bunch of NJ italians :)

Re: The Temptation to Subsidize

Ivan — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 12:20:54 -0000

I am very much in favor of subsidies for _research_ into alternative energies, but not for individual products. Funding an idea that turns out to be worse than something else doesn't mean that other product loses. Peer review and selective commercialization are excellent filters.

Re: Munich

Ivan — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 10:08:56 -0000

The conundrum Jason presents: you don't want to support (pay) the moviemakers, but you want an educated opinion.

Bittorrent is your friend :).

Also, Jason... if things aren't even, if there really is one side doing wrong, then an even-handed approach is wrong. I'm not saying Israel is correct in all it's actions in history, just correct in this specific case.

How do you think Spielberg would feel if someone remade Schindler's List without brutal Nazis? Such an "even-handed" approach would be totally inappropriate.

Re: Maryland Malfeasance II

Ivan — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 10:17:04 -0000

Perhaps Maryland should just mandate that consumers purchase goods from select businesses deemed by the government to need more sales.

This is all pretty sad.

Re: Misleading Nationalism in Economic Discussions

Ivan — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 04:55:22 -0000

How about if we measure average debt/income of Americans?

For taxes, take your income level, and the average percentage of taxes paid at that level. Then figure your share. Dividing total debt by number of taxpayers doesn't make sense in a progressive & loophole filled system.

Try to account for private debt, e.g. a home improvement loan a family takes.

Try to account for corporate debt according the share holders.

I would imagine this is all pretty difficult, but would actually be an excellent way to measure debt.

Does anyone have any numbers like this?

Re: Please Do Your Job

Ivan — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 05:25:59 -0000

Reminds me of discussion here:

http://www.samizdata.net/blog/archives/008517.h...>

Don't take surveys, because your leaders will become planners.

Re: Please Do Your Job

Ivan — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 08:40:43 -0000

Poverty matters. Income inequality doesn't.

People that are starving or without basic health care are in trouble. I hope they get helped by charities in their community to turn their lives around. Some would like the government to act.

The fact is that discounting immigrants, there is a far smaller proportion of destitute people today than anytime in America's history. Immigrants start at the bottom, and very often do very well for themselves.

Note that I've only addressed what is important: the minimum needed to stay alive and healthy.

Anything beyond that in relative measures is based on jealousy or socialism.

Also, another good point about stats & planning.

http://www.globalisationinstitute.org/blog/0601...>
'I met Cowperthwaite in 1963 on my next visit to Hong Kong. I remember asking him about the paucity of statistics. He answered, "If I let them compute those statistics, they'll want to use them for planning." How wise!' - Milton Friedman

Re: Working for Sears Goods

Ivan — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 19:54:15 -0000

Don,

Can you clarify what a "production worker" is? I hope it isn't a sub-category of labor. I understand manufacturing takes up a very small percentage of jobs today.

Cote:

The obvious government intrusion today into certain areas has already been noted. Let me add that movies cost more because 1975 was pre-StarWars, aka the movie which woke up Hollywood. More money has been spent, and far more money has been made on movies since then. What a horrible example anyway, considering the immensely larger amount of inexpensive entertainment out there.

For health care, you can look at life expectancy, or the percentage of people that can get their cancer treated, or the availability of advanced surgical procedures. There are a number of measures to show meaningful improvement. Also, read this:

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=013006D...>

For college tuition, perhaps you will be happy to note that far, far more people go to college today than 1975.

For housing, the rate of home ownership has never been higher.

Are you suggesting things aren't significantly better today? Is it a mixed bag?

Re: Serving Your Country

Ivan — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 08:53:10 -0000

You can't just group all government employees together.

Public choice theory dictates that politicians certainly serve themselves in policy actions which maximize votes. Public Union leaders advocate policy which increases union rolls and their pocketbooks.

Military servicemen and women certainly don't serve for the money. They get very little. Often the jobs are not glorious. Certainly they get a great deal of job training and experience, which is worth a lot. But generally, it's a safe bet to people enlist because they love their country.

Note that this doesn't say much about private service all together.

But again, rather than generalizing, perhaps we should break down private sector services. Entrepreneurs create wealth. Clearly that is a service to everyone.

Reporters often serve their country by bringing facts to the masses. That is certainly the declared mission.

MANY reporters and editors today do a disservice by not doing their jobs -- by spreading only conventional wisdom and the assumptions of their class, rather than reporting the whole story. Iraq is a perfect example where probably the majority of reporters seek to portray military failure, which would be bad for the country (not just the government).

I'm pretty certain the letter is a reflection of the specific difference between not simple public and private workers -- but particular self-serving private workers in the media, and particularly selfless public workers in our voluntary armed forces.

Re: A Note on Budget Deficits

Ivan — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 06:35:54 -0000

The problem is raising revenues in a way that are growth-neutral. Raising capital gains taxes has a very clear effect on investment.

Perhaps raising gasoline taxes will not have as big of an effect, as recent sustained increases have shown.

If I were starting a country (look for Ivanistan in 20 years), funding would come through inflation, with strong constitutional checks on level of spending and areas of spending. All tax rates are explicitly zero, but implicitly are a flat rate against every unit of currency. There is no separation between spending and taxing -- all spending has an immediate taxing effect that can't be removed. Clearly, minimal government would be needed.

Does anyone know a number for the effective increase in the money supply given printing and interest rates from the Fed? I wonder how close it is to $2.7T yearly.

Re: Woe is us?

Ivan — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 04:31:14 -0000

James,

liberty said that comment, not Richard Gadsden. I think he is right: relative definitions lack meaning, and absolute definitions are hard. I would define lower class as anyone who does not have enough to live: food, shelter, and basic medical care.

In that sense, there has been a very, very small lower class for quite some time.

Most government programs for the poor imply, in their justification, that without them, people would suffer horribly or die. If you have food, shelter, and basic medical care, then that just isn't true.

You can add in education I suppose, but education in America is, for the most part, ubiquitous, public, and bad: a whole other can of worms.

I would maintain that regardless of the divisions between middle and upper class, facilitating the optimal number of people moving from "middle" to "upper" requires policies which tend to be seen as favoring the upper class: low marginal tax rates (preferably a flat rate), low regulation on small businesses, corporate taxes only through income taxes on profit/dividends per shareholder, zero capital gains taxes.

The first means people have a higher incentive to earn more. The second means more businesses can start and flourish: good for everyone. The third is there for fun :). The last means everyone in their right might mind will try to join the investor class, which is nothing but good.

Re: Yale Medical Professor Proposes that Kidney Sales be Legalized

Ivan — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 10:57:29 -0000

Slocum,

You are currently free to give up a child you don't want for _whatever_ reason to adoption.

That people don't do this en mass for "mutts" shows that wouldn't give them "'free to a good home'"

"Combine the sales of parental rights and surrogacy, and one might imagine blond, beautiful college students with perfect SATs earning large sums by donating eggs & sperm, hiring a surrogate to carry the fetus, and then selling the rights to the designer baby."

That sounds like an excellent business.

Re: Government Ain't Us

Ivan — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 16:33:20 -0000

Perry would have you go a bit further: "the state is not your friend"

http://www.google.com/search?hs=SXz&hl=en&a...>

I do get annoyed by this. When folks at my office in MA comment about the lack of preschool education in NH, they don't even blink when I point that they pay for private preschool.

Re: Government Ain't Us

Ivan — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 06:15:07 -0000

John Dewey hits on an important point: priorities.

As has been mentioned here, and elsewhere, there is a difference between absolute and relative poverty. Is the goal of government programs to help the former or latter?

If the former, then there is a legitimate moral reason, and very targeted programs can and do help.

If the latter, all talk is grandstanding, and programs warp education and the education market in ways that hurt more than they help. People not in absolute poverty can choose for themselves how much to spend on human capital investments like education.

The same could be said for other industries.

Re: When Does Inequality Matter?

Ivan — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:46:10 -0000

Andrew,

All voluntary exchange has mutual benefit. Competing firms are offering their shared customers more enticing offers of mutual benefit. Almost all business interactions are of this character. It is simple really: there are more firms you deal with outside your industry than inside.

Individuals are certainly not competing with one another. There is little my neighbor could do that would hurt my chances of success if we're both living in a free society. My neighbor does add wealth to society through labor, and I do benefit from that.

Re: When Does Inequality Matter?

Ivan — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 07:59:15 -0000

Actually Don, it could be argued that moving from a small town to a big city makes you relatively much better off compared to those you care about: the folks left in the small town.

Considering how much more local domain knowledge and nepotism matter in small towns, it is easier to do relatively better than folks in your town by moving to a bigger one that might reward raw talent more freely.

Re: When Does Inequality Matter?

Ivan — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 09:07:56 -0000

"those living hand-to-mouth are oppressed."

I don't think that follows.

Firstly, someone living hand-to-mouth is living in a sustainable fashion, though uncomfortable. Secondly, assuming someone is not well off because of external factors takes all accountability away from individual decision making.

I worked hard in school, and I don't live pay-check to pay-check. Does that mean I just happened to not be oppressed? Ridiculous

Re: A blogoff on inequality

Ivan — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:56:27 -0000

"There has been very little work on the question of absolute mobility."

I don't get it.

Can't the IRS just track a given SSN's increase in income over time?

Adjust it for inflation, and things like filing jointly after marriage, and you have a hard measure of absolute mobility.

Of course, this won't count those whose tax returns misrepresent their lot in life. It would probably be skewed towards making the rich look less so.

Re: The Flutie Factor

Ivan — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 15:11:39 -0000

To be blunt, I hate university sports. The main reason? Two words: opportunity cost.

Take UCLA as an example. They needed to build more parking space. On campus, there are two fields: the football team's practice field, and the intramural field. Guess which was made unavailable for over a year in order to add parking?

Mind you, this is in Westwood, where land is not cheap. Sports facilities directly compete with academic facilities as far as space, and certainly as far as attention of the student body.

For all the loving memories of UCLA's glory days under Wooden, I can't help but feel it is all a big waste of time -- especially considering how amazing the LA Lakers are. Add the option for independent sports clubs, and the need to combine universities with sports establishments shrinks.

Re: The Flutie Factor

Ivan — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 07:55:10 -0000

Don Mynack,

Actually, my point wasn't that they lose money, but that they displace other more important activities. Other departments also make lots of money -- computer science will bring in more research funds than many humanities.

Further, I would argue that intramural sports are better for the student body than elite sports. More people play, and intramural rivalries are very healthy. In addition, no students go to college for intramural sports -- so there is no distraction.

I can tell you how many times I've seen athletes beg for extensions on assignments. This is after they get free special tutors to effectively do their homework -- much more attention than anything in the honors program (at UCLA).

That is why I transferred :-D

I went to NYU which is also a large school, with a very diverse student body. T-shirts with “NYU football” are literally a joke. Their honors program was awesome and undergraduate research is very common.

Re: The Flutie Factor

Ivan — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 10:11:25 -0000

GMU @ wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason_Unive...>

Public

I'm beginning to find Wikipedia to be faster than Google for very directed searches.

Re: Are 'Illegal' Immigrants Illegal?

Ivan — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 13:07:55 -0000

Don,

I've commented here about immigration before. I would agree with you that being against something because of the current set of laws is against it is a pretty bad reason.

Similar arguments could be said for the current laws surrounding same-sex mairrage and smoking pot.

" Their contribution through the market is far more important than any contribution they do, or might, make by paying taxes."

I'd be interested in seeing number about this. I've seen studies that point out that the lower price of unskilled labor is less than the greater taxes from a higher propensity to use government services. More recently I've decided that this is mainly an issue with those services, and not so much the immigrants.

That said, it is a simple fact that the US can't accept everyone who wants to come to the US. Our institutions would probably suffer greatly, there would be extreme social stress, and I'm not interested in shanty-towns.

So there must be a strategy for immigration. I would prefer letting in many millions more immigrants, and an unlimited number of people with skills or traits that are rare and highly desireable. How about IQ greater than 125, or a masters degree+, or a great deal of money?

As for the 12 million people already here, the question is really one of the welfare of those that would attempt to cross the border if we grant those already here amnesty.

If we tighten the border and grant amnesty to those already here, wouldn't that mean than many more would-be immigrants die?

Re: A Brief Note On Oil Industry Profits

Ivan — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:08:12 -0000

"oil company CEO pay "repulsive and wrong.""

I would say that the rate of growth in CEO compensation recently is pretty ridiculous. BUT, i still find such statements idiotic. Public companies are self correcting for the most part.

It's funny when you figure the price of gas compared to the difference in price of fuel efficient cars. It would take $6+ gas to begin to justify the cost difference between a small sedan and the same sedan in hybrid version.

That, combined with the pretty small percentage of income spent on energy, makes me think talk of oil prices is usually news for news sake.

Re: Bush breaks the tie

Ivan — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 05:30:47 -0000

I hate talk of "restricted stem cell research".

There is no limited research, only limited federal funding.

States and private entities have donated money to the effort.

I disagree with Bush's views on this. I think we should have quadruple the funding for anti-aging research and a more unified misssion.

I just wanted to point this out for all those alarmists out there.

Re: Democracy & Irresponsibility

Ivan — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 08:23:33 -0000

Don,

The article was a bit pointless.

Are you questioning democracy? We have no good alternative.

You should have made a more direct attack on unlimited government that lets voters' imaginations run wild.

Politicians operating in a limited setting are obviously liars if they promise the moon.

Don't let my criticism get you down though. I love the blog :)

Re: Can't Buy You Love

Ivan — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 07:28:34 -0000

Yah, the good-life argument is big fat bait-and-switch.

People complain workers aren't getting enough money. The response is, in part, that you can buy a lot more stuff with that money.

They the retort is that life isn't about stuff.

Why bring up the stats about workers' incomes if life isn't about stuff?!

Moore's law is exponential, and we're complaining about a +/- 5 percentage points for growth of real compensation. Ridiculous.

Re: Dynamics of Economic Well-Being

Ivan — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 09:03:50 -0000

I find this odd.

Don't some measures of poverty count someone if they entered into poverty during that year?

Wouldn't 2 years mean they would count more people?

I suppose a 2-year average income window would indeed lower poverty rates. Wouldn't it also lower things on the highest end?

Re: Balanced Reporting

Ivan — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 12:28:18 -0000

No reasonable free-trader would be interested in restricting trade to communists.

Isn't that just punishing a populace unlucky enough to have a communist revolution even more?

I really can't believe the embargo still exists. What a waste.

Re: Feedback, please

Ivan — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:37:57 -0000

Please add a longer delay for the snap-popups.

Re: The most beautiful toy, yet

Ivan — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 05:46:59 -0000

"This phone wouldn't pass muster at even a basic requirements analysis."

It has OSX.

That means it can probably run 3rd party software easily. Those issues aren't too important.

Besides email, if you consider the media and music options, it should be great. You can open up safari and watch flashed based video (youtube, etc.). 4GBs should be enough for most people who store more than 100GBs of music elsewhere -- where there currently is no iPod option.

Wifi, GSM cellphone, cell network internet connectivity, unix-based osx, multi-touch display, widescreen, many GBs, fits in your front pocket.

why would you buy anything else?