Weather

I've lived in both Bozeman, MT (very dry and very cold winters) and Chandler, AZ (very dray and very hot summers) for multiple years. I also consider myself to be a lover of moderate weather. I'm not much of a skier, so I don't love the cold snow, and I'm not much of a swimmer, so I don't love the sun. Considering all these things...I consider myself to be the world's foremost expert on the tolerability of very hot versus very cold weather. What is easier to survive -- the winters in Montana where the temperature dips down to 20 below or the summers in Arizona where the heat reaches 115. Some people love the cold or the hot, and, for them, the answer is simple. For the average person, however, the debate comes down to two facts:

(1) very cold weather (define here as below zero) is both very painful and very inconvenient because you need to wear so many layers. Very cold weather is undebatably more painful than very hot weather.

(2) the Arizona heat is simply relentless since you expect triple digit highs every day from May 15 till Sept. 15. The Montana cold may be painful and annoying, but it usually lets up after a week or two.

There are a number of lesser considerations: (a) the Arizona heat that keeps you indoors happens when the days are longest, and the nice weather happen when the days are relatively short, (b) you don't have to shovel photons, and (c) the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is, on average, less in Arizona. However, these are all smaller issues. Ultimately, if you have to choose Montana weather or Arizona weather it is simply a question of do you like your pain short and severe (i.e., Montana) or milder but relentless (i.e., Arizona).

Book Review: The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons

I love to read. I especially love anything written by Bill Simmons. The Book of Basketball is the best NBA related book I've read by a large margin. It is very informative and incredibly funny. I'd give it an A. In honor of Simmons, I'll include a top five list. Imagine you are on a deserted island, and you get five books to read per year, one from each of your five favorite authors (they must be living, which eliminate D.F. Wallace and M. Crichton). Here's my list:

(1) Donald Miller (although I can't imagine him writing one book per year)
(2) Malcolm Gladwell
(3) Phillip Yancey
(4) Chuck Klosterman
(5) Bill Simmons

backups:
(6) John Case
(7) John Grisham (both 6 and 7 are entertaining but not especially interesting)
(8) Robin Cook
(9) John Gierach (both 8 and 9 are too repetitive for the top 5)
(10) John Krakauer

Book Review: Where Men Win Glory by Jon Krakauer

There are only a few writers that I will pretty much read anything and everything that they write: Donald Miller, Bill Simmons, and Jon Krakauer are definitely on the must read list for me. Krakauer's latest book is about Pat Tillman and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I really enjoyed the background on Afghanistan and Tillman. Tillman is an ASU alum and I taught at ASU from 2004-2008 so I feel a small connection to him (I also feel a connection to Krakauer because I rode mountain bike with him for 3 days in Utah once upon a time). After the detailed background, the book focuses on Tillman's death and the subsequent cover-up. It is very well written.

Reading this book will make you more informed --- doesn't everyone want to be more informed. You will read about some incredible individuals, some frustratingly stupid individuals, and individuals that fall somewhere in between. I highly recommend this extraordinary book. Grade: A-.

Book Reviews

I read a couple books recently that discuss Game Theory, Sociology, and Economics.

Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life by Len Fisher. The focus of this book is on the basics of game theory (a branch of mathematics) and its applications to 'everyday life'. The book emphasize the importance of cooperation and how to obtain cooperation in situations where it may not be obvious. Fisher is an excellent writer and the book is fairly easy to read. So easy to read, that I would have actually preferred a little more mathematics along the way. I would suggest this book to anyone interested in learning about the types of problems game theory can address. Grade: B

The Logic of Life: The Rational Economics of an Irrational World by Tim Harford. This book is basically a collection of summaries of behavioral economic studies that yielded interesting results. Harford tends to focus on studies that show mathematically (and often using game theory) that the decisions we make are rational. The book is similar to Freakonomics or Predictably Irrational except those books were written by the researchers that did the studies while Harford mostly describes the work of others. The book is well written and had a few especially interesting sections, but, overall, it felt a little recycled. Grade: C+

Author's Note

Donald Miller is the greatest living author (and Bill Simmons is second). Here's the authors note from Donald Miller's latest book (A Million Miles in a Thousand Years):

"If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn't cry at the end when he drove off the lot, testing the windshield wipers. You wouldn't tell your friends you saw a beautiful movie or go home and put a record onto think about the story you'd seen. The truth is, you wouldn't remember that movie a week later, except you'd feel robbed and want your money back. Nobody cries at the end of a movie about a guy who wants a Volvo.

But we spend years actually living those stories, and expect our lives to feel meaningful. The truth is, if what we choose to do with our lives won't make a story meaningful, it won't make a life meaningful either.

Here's what I mean by that..."

Follow-up: I just finished the book. Excellent -- certainly in my top 10 all time. Grade: A

My healthcare story

I won't pretend to know how to fix health care in the US. I just know it is broken. I learned this 2 years ago when I injured my wrist in a biking accident. It was a pretty bad wrist injury requiring surgery and a few weeks of physical therapy. My surgery and recovery treatment were excellent examples of the good parts of US health care. We have the best specialists in the world. The bad part of my treatment came after I arrived at the hospital as a trauma patient. (Yes, the emergency/trauma parts of the system are horribly broken). I had to wait a few hours for surgery (I had eaten food), and someone ordered an MRI scan of my abdomen. This is just crazy since I was completely coherent and I had zero abdominal pain (they could have pushed on it all they wanted). The biggest crime here was that no one asked me about the scan. They just wheeled me down to the MRI machine and sent my insurance a HUGE bill for a completely unnecessary scan. I'm sure the person that ordered the scan would say that he/she was just being careful and trying to avoid a lawsuit, but I also suspect that the fact that I had good insurance had something to do with this. Shouldn't reasonable evidence of internal injury be required before ordering a horribly expensive test?

Book Review: Forever on the Mountain

One sign of a really good book is that you cannot get it out of your head for days or even weeks after you finish it. Well, I cannot stop thinking about this book. It is the true story of a group of 12 young men that climbed Mt. McKinley in 1967. A huge storm hits while 7 of them were near the summit, and all 7 died. Beyond just retelling the story, the book is a comprehensive look at events before and after the climb. I found the book to be simply riveting, and James Tabor is clearly a brilliant writer. One thing thing that struck me while reading the book is the importance that people placed on the expedition leader in 1967. While I've climbed a dozen 14ers and another dozen 13ers in my life, I've never climbed anything close to McKinley. That said, I think that climbers today take a more personal view of their safety and rely less on the group leader. The huge importance (and blame) placed on the group leader in 1967 (Joe Wilcox) may be related to the fact that many of those young men served in the army (WWII, Korea, or Vietnam) before climbing the mountain. In summary, great book. Grade: B+

Almost Perfect Things....

(1) Urban/commuter bike: Kona Dew. Properties that the perfect commuter bike should possess: knobby road bike tires for efficiency, flat bar for comfort, NO shocks for weight/efficiency, and a very low price. I purchased a 2008 Kona Dew for $300 and it possess all those properties. I love it.

(2) Mountain bike: Specialized Stumpjumper. I have owned and ridden a number of mountain bikes, including full suspension and hard tail. For the type of riding I like to do -- riding up 1000-2000 verticle feet on fire roads and trails and then riding down single track -- a light weight hard tail is ideal. The stumpjumper, in my mind, gives you the best bang for your buck in the light weight hard tail catagory. You could upgrade to a stumpjumper pro or comp model, but I would save the money and just by a new stumpjumper a little bit sooner.

(3) Sunglasses: Smith Slider 01. Very light weight, very comfortable, and changable lenses. I've owned my pair for about 8 years and I still love them (although the are getting pretty scratched).

(4) Coffee Maker: Keurig B77. This coffee maker uses K-cup pods, which are expensive at about $0.50 each and they fill up the landfill, but, overall, it is so convient and the coffee is wonderful. I am just sick of cleaning the old coffee pot and love getting a nice cup of coffee at the push of a button in the morning when I am half awake.

(5) Bag: Timbuk2 Messenger Lapton bag. Very comfortable and useful. Perfect.

Funny...

From the NY Times regarding the potests around healthcare reform:

"There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands."

Book Review: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

Let us begin by exploring what it means to describe a book as being part of a trilogy. I would expect that a trilogy of books would contain at least one common character, common geography, and sequential time periods. The common character requirement is probably the strongest, in my opinion. With this in mind, I decided to read "The Crossing" because I enjoyed "All the Pretty Horses", and I assumed the next book in the "Border Trilogy" would tell the story of what happened next to John Grady Cole. Wow, was I disappointed. As far as I could tell, there was no connection whatsoever between the two books -- no common characters, no common towns, no common time period. Just because two book are set on the border between the US and Mexico and they both have horses, does not mean they are a trilogy!

Beyond feeling deceived by the "Trilogy" description, I really did not enjoy this book at all. McCarthy's unique style that made "All the Pretty Horses" enjoyable was much weaker in this book. There were a few compelling pages in the book, but 90% of it was incredibly boring, overly dark, and just plain miserable drivel. I recommend skipping this book. Grade: D

Interesting Statistics

• Today's 1,125 billionaires hold more wealth than the wealth of half the world's adult population.
• The wealthiest 7 people on earth control more wealth than the combined GDP of the 41 poorest nations.

Are we okay with this? Are the strict capitalist ready to argue that the rich people worked 3,000,000 times harder than the poor? Source: The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, President of World Vision.

Two Book Reviews

I read two books recently that are considered important classics in American Literature.

(1) All the Pretty Horses by Comack McCarthy -- My friend Dave recommended that I read a book by McCarthy because he is such an important figure in current literature. I told him that I strongly prefer books with happy endings, and he suggested "All the Pretty Horses". Dave may not realize this, but when the hero has to leave the love of his life and settle for a life of riding the deserts of the southwestern US --- THAT IS NOT A HAPPY ENDING!!! However, the book is one of the best I've ever read, which is especially remarkable when you consider that I hate books with unhappy endings and lots of horses. Very, very well written -- grade: A- (N.B., this is the first part of a trilogy that I plan to finish some day -- if the hero ends up with the girl, I'll give this book an A, and if he stops riding horses, I'll give it an A+).

(2) Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck -- this is a very short, character driven book. If you like books with interesting and unique individuals, and not much of a plot or suspense, this is the book for you. Grade: B-

My screen door saga....

I would like to thank Tiffany and Chris G. for their excellent customer service in helping me with my screen door issues. Chris G., in particular, should be referred to as "The Employee of the Month".

The Growing Cable Problem

There is a growing problem with cable television and the FCC needs to step in soon. Let me explain. First, all cable companies with wires (Comcast, Time Warner, etc.) and those without wires (DirectTV, etc.) have a finite amount of bandwidth. They cannot transmit 10,000 HD channels even if they wanted to. Therefore, they have to make choices, and that is where the problem starts. There are certain channels they must carry like ESPN and ABC, which happen to be owned by the same company. Now, when they are negotiating a price for ESPN and ABC with their parent company, the parent company says we will charge you $X for ESPN and $Y for ABC and we will throw in ESPN 2-10 and ABC 2-7 for FREE! The cable company probably doesn't want those 15 channels for free because they contain mostly crappy, unpopular content, but they do not have a choice since they must have ESPN and ABC. Now, why would the parent company throw in 15 channels for free --- especially when the content they carry is not completely free. Because, they know that Comcast et al can only carry so many channels, and by filling up their bandwidth with ESPN 2-10 they can indirectly force Comcast to drop potential upstart competitors to ESPN. The ABC/ESPN parent company is using their powerful channels to block possible competitors and gain a near monoply.

Solution: The FCC needs to step in an require: (1) ala cart channel availability to consumers, and, more importantly, (2) big content providers (i.e., ESPN) cannot bundle channels when negotiating with the cable companies --- they must negotiate a single price for ESPN, a different price for ESPN2, another for ESPN3, etc.

Review: The Soloist by Steve Lopez

I just finished this book on an airplane.  I was in a hurry to finish it because the movie is already out.  I really enjoyed the bood and felt like I learned a lot.  It explores the incredibly difficult question of how much freedom/control should be given to someone that is mentally ill.  Should the mentally ill individual be forced into treatment?  The current law is basically someone cannot be forced into treatment unless they are a danger to themselves or others.  Obviously, the definition of "danger" is highly subjective.  Overall, the book explores the issue without providing an answer.  The book does, however, provide hope, and that makes it a wonderful book to read.

TED

One of my favorite discoveries recently is www.ted.com.  This sight posts videos of short talks and performances by the top scientists and artists in the world.  I especially loved the talks by Bonnie Bassler, Pattie Maes, Dan Arlie, Sean Gourley, Peter Donnelly, and Nate Silver.

My Job

Many people ask me "How is your job going?" or "Do you like your job?" ever since I moved from Arizona State to Montana State.  I don't know the answer to these question so I usually just mumble something like "good".  The short answer to the question is I absolutely love my job, but it often keeps me awake at night, and I don't think this is a contradiction.  The job is very complex and diverse since it is a combination of teaching, research, meetings, community service, councilor, and cheerleader.  I absolutely love lecturing and teaching.  I love it when a student working in my lab solves a problem.  I work with a wonderful group of colleagues and I have the best department head in the world so the meetings part of my job is enjoyable.  The hard parts are getting proposals rejected and seeing students fail even though they are trying hard.  Those are the parts that keep me awake at night.  On balance, I have the best job in the world and I hope I can do it forever.  I also hope I can sleep tonight since I should be getting a proposal review back soon.

Fixing the Airlines

I had a rough travel experience last week due to a combination of bad weather and bad customer service.  It  got me thinking about how to improve the customer service delivered by the airlines.  I've interacted with a few 100 airline personnel over the past 10 years, and 98% of the time they have given me outstanding (seriously, outstanding) help.  However, many of us have also encountered the rare helpless (or worse) airline employee, and unlikely a bad employee at Starbucks, this bad employee can really ruin our week, not just our coffee.  For example, I arrived at the airport an hour before my flight and the kiosk wouldn't print my ticket.   I picked up the phone, as instructed by the kiosk, and the person on the other end was not only completely helpless (costing me at least 10 valuable minutes), but she sent me in the wrong direction.  Thus one person ruined my day, and caused half a dozen co-workers  to have to make up for her failure.  This is simply unacceptable.  The airlines NEED to find a way to identify employees that cannot or will not help customers and get rid of them.  In many cases this is impossible because there is no record of the customer interacting with the employee, but, in my case, there should be a record of the call and a record of non-help.  They can take the money they save by not paying worthless employees, and give bonuses to the top 2% or top 5% of employees --- you know, the ones that FIX your problem.

Grey's New Mojo

In 2006 I wrote the following about Grey's Anatomy in my previous blog:

"The only other show I watch regularly, Grey's Anatomy, started out as an interesting show that explored the experiences of young doctors going through their internships. I've always found the psychological, emotional, and physical impact of the medical internship to be fascinating after reading Robin Cook's excellent "Year of the Intern", which basically argued that the workload and stress experienced by medical interns may not be the best way to train someone to be a doctor. Since the first season, however, Grey's Anatomy has descended into a soap opera that explores only a few medical/internship issues and now explores having affairs….how pathetic."

Grey's Anatomy soap opera continued for 2007 and 2008, but, for unknown reasons, the show has returned to its roots and been amazing this year. Welcome back and congratulations.

The Death of the Newspaper

Bill Simmons and Chuck Klosterman had an interesting podcast this week in which they argue about the rise of the internet and the death of the newspaper.  Klosterman identifies the loss of advertising revenue to Google, Craigslist, etc. as the cause.  This was, of course, one of the major factors.  Simmons argues that it is the low quality of writing in newspapers compared to the best options available on the internet.  For example, on the internet I can read about sports as  written by the 3 or 4 best sports writers in the country.  In my local newspaper, I can read about sports as written about by the 498th best sports writer.  (And, yes, on the internet I can read about sports as written by the 1 billionth best sports writer.)  Simmons also identified a major factor in the downfall of the local paper.

I think, however, that they missed a third major factor in their debate -- the  flattening of the world.  By 'flattening' I mean that we care more about our country and world and less about our local town than  people used to...relatively speaking.  For example, my Dad loves to go to the local coffee shop (cafe) and catch up on the local news (i.e., gossip).  I love to go to the local coffee shop (Starbucks) and read magazines.  We, and by 'we' I mean generation X and younger, care less about the local news that the newspaper has a monopoly on.  There you have it, Simmons', Klosterman's, and Heys' theories on the downfall of the newspaper.

Finally, a book review for the road....I loved "Same Kind of Different As Me".  I learned more from an illiterate cotton picker from Louisiana than I have from any PhD.

Review: Dell Mini 12

Here's a partial list of computers I've used for at least 100 hours:

PC jr, Apple IIc+, some 386sx, some Pentium I, Compaq laptop (Pentium), HP laptop (Pentium III), Mac clone, Gateway Pentium III desktop, Mac iBook (the white one), Dell Inspiron 610 laptop, Dell Inspiron 530 laptop, Dell Desktop (dual Xeon chips), Dell Latitude notebook, ASUS eee, and probably 3 or 4 others I'm forgetting.  My point is, that I've used a ton of computers with a ton of different operating systems including DOS 4, every flavor of windows including 3.0, Mac OS, Mac OSX, Linux 2.4 and 2.6 (RedHat, Ubuntu, Fedora, and CentOS).  However, my favorite computer is the one I'm typing this blog post on ... my new Dell mini 12.  Here's what I love...the screen is just big enough at 12", the keyboard is just big enough since most of the keys are full size, the hard drive is just big enough at 60GB, and the processor seems to be fast enough...but the best two numbers are the price (less than $500) and the weight (less than 3lbs)...I LOVE those two numbers!!!

I've only used the computer for three days now (so I'll post a longer review in a couple months), but here's what I've found:

(1) While I wouldn't want to work on the computer for 8 hours straight (you'll still want a desktop or full feature laptop for that), I can easily work for 3-4 hours without being annoyed with the screen, keyboard, or speed.

(2) The new Intel Atom processor is okay -- you do not want to try running three applications at once (it has only a single core), but the speed is generally not an issue.  I watched Daytona 500 highlights on ESPN.com, and they were a little choppy, but still acceptable, and that was the processors biggest problem. 

(3) The bloated software known as MS Office seems to run just fine on the computer.  I've editted some big Word documents and powerpoint presentations without a problem.

I plan to add an SD memory card to help speed up access to big files, but the computer is generally just awsome.  I love saving my shoulder and only paying $450.  Seriously, I may just buy a new Dell mini every 18-24 months and never again by an expensive laptop that weighs a ton.

Book Review: Panic by Michael Lewis

First, this book is EDITTED by Michael Lewis, not written by him!  You think they could put that a little more clearly on the cover?  Any way, this book is a series of articles/essays about various financial collapses begining with the Wall Street collapse in 1987.  The major crashes covered are 1987, east asia (late 1990's), tech bubble in 1999-2000, and the subprime mortgage collapse in 2007-2008.  I enjoyed the book and felt like I learned a lot about topics such as currency exchanges, hedge funds, and CDO's.  I think reading about previous crashes really helps provide valuable perspective for the current economic situation.  The best essay in the book was a hillarious tongue-in-cheek article by Dave Berry. All the people waiting at gate C71 in the Salt Lake Airport think I'm insane because I was almost rolling on the floor I was laughing so hard while reading this article.  I wish the book was a little shorter, but I'd still recommend it (especially since all the proceeds are going to help rebuild New Orleans).

Reading a finance book has me thinking about the future.  Econimists nearly unanimiously agree that inflation is coming because the US government is printing money.  This means any money you have in the bank will shrink in value (be worth less), and any debt you have will shrink relative to its previous size (although most debt will still be bad).  So, how should we act if we know inflation is coming.  Clearly, we don't want too much money in the bank, and we would really like to exchange any dollars we do have for some other asset that will hold its value better.  I'd be reluctant to exchange dollars for Euro's since Europe will probably have a similar inflation problem.  One possible asset is real estate.  It is really cheap at the moment, and you can lock in debt at historically low interest rates.  What's the down-side here?  The only real downside is that real estate could continue to fall in value so it may be wise to wait another 3-6 months to ensure that we are at/near the bottom, but, other than that, what's the down-side?  With all the forclosures out there, there will be millions of people that can only rent for the next few years so finding renters shouldn't be a problem.  Alas, while this sounds like a good plan to me, I have neither the resources or desire to follow my plan.  In five years we'll know if I guessed right or was just crazy.