voluntaryXchange

Snake Venom and Blood

OMG. Now I know what they mean when they say a poison is a coagulant:

Via bookofjoe.

Technorati Tags: snake,venom,blood,coagulant

EPA Grants … to Foreigners

Our EPA has been awarding grants for environmental research to foreigners doing research in foreign countries about foreign issues. Here’s one:

Project Title: Scale-up of Biomass Stoves in Western China
Grant ID Number: XA – 83366201-2
Recipient Name: China Assoc. of Rural Energy Industry
Award Date: 28/04/2010 Cum Award: $230,000
Project Start: 01/08/2007 Project End: 31/01/2011
The China Association of Rural Energy Industry will help 100,000 Chinese adopt cleaner technologies that improve health while protecting the environment (reducing deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions).

You can’t make this stuff up.

Via Watts Up With That.

Technorati Tags: epa,china,grant

First They Assign Labels

Administration at my school has classified a class* I teach commonly as “challenging”.

To me, a challenging class is about the inputs required of a student.

To my school, challenging is about the grade the student earns that I output. A course is labeled challenging if more than 25% of students earn a C- or lower.

You read that correctly. We still label a C as “average”, so if more than 25% of your students are below average you’re challenging. Huh?

The message from my chair was clear: give the students some assignments early on that clue them into what they’re in for. Fair enough.

The message from my university was not clear.

* In fairness, there are other classes labeled this way as well. In fact, the entire slate of 1000 and 2000 classes in my Department of Economics and Finance were labeled challenging.

This post is sponsored. Visit www.paydayloan.org.uk for a short term cash loan.

Technorati Tags: challenging,class

Words Republicans Use

Call me crazy, but I just don’t see much there about abortion … or guns … or race. Maybe it’s just the other folks that are worried about that stuff.

Via I Love Charts and The New York Times.

Technorati Tags: republican,convention,words

Isaac At Night

Such a cool shot:

Via bookofjoe.

Technorati Tags: isaac,night,city,lights

Just Wonderin’ … About Executive Pay

Do you know anyone who is worried about median pay of executives?

Kind of funny, that … the only thing anyone seems to be worried about is the executives at the top of the list.

That’s right … the outliers.

Do you know any other area of study where we focus on the outliers first?

I didn’t think so.

This makes me thing that all of our worry about high executive pay isn’t based on deep thinking, but is really just about envy.

N.B. This thought was motivated by a seminar given by Robert Pichler.

Technorati Tags: executive,pay,outliers,envy

Beef Up Your Password Hints

Ars Technica is reporting a very easy hack that might be able to get in your machines.

Windows allows you to set up a” password hint”. It’s not the actual password. But think about it: if your hint was obvious, could someone use your online life to figure out the real password?

If the answer is yes, you may be in trouble.

It turns out those password hints are stored on your machine in a very easily hackable form. Check it out:

I kinda’ think that Frank’s password is “bananas”. Whadya’ think?

This is an easy thing for you to go and fix right now. The hard part is figuring out a clue that only you can figure out.

Via Office Watch.

Technorati Tags: password,hint,hack,windows

Isaac

For Love Boat fans.

Via TA, a student from way back when … who may have to live through this.

Technorati Tags: isaac,love,boat

Print A Gun, and the Future of Gun Control

3-D printing is the wave of the future … and the first working gun has been printed.

Exactly what are the gun control people going to say and do about this? Interdicting the transfer of guns will simply not be an issue in the future.

And what about the use of guns? Think about it: we’re on the verge of being able to print a gun, use it once, and melt the evidence. The police are certainly not ready for that.

On the other hand, parts of the gun control lobby just want to slow people when they want to buy a gun because they’re hot-headed. Having stores that could print guns would actually self-enforce that.

Even worse, what if someone figures out a way to print ammunition? There would need to be some way to fill the shells with powder, but there are lots of gun enthusiasts who do that on their own already. But all of the regulations on “cop-killer” and other forms of exceptionally lethal ammo go right out the window.

Oh … and Europe … where centralizers have gotten rid of most of the guns? You are in for a wild ride.

My mind is boggled by this.

All of this is speculative. But the economics of gun production have changed dramatically. This has historically been an industry with huge fixed costs and low marginal costs: you make guns in factories, and if you make enough you can retail them pretty cheaply. Now, the fixed costs can be transferred to the individual at an affordable price, and the marginal costs of printing guns will plummet towards zero (the plastic is cheap, and the printing time factor will be improved by technology). Call me crazy, but this sounds a lot like the music industry in 1990.

Here’s a prediction: the biggest opponents of 3-D printing may be the gun companies.

Here’s another prediction: people uninterested in guns will start to have working plastic replicas of ones they like. That Luger from the movie you saw last weekend … it’s yours.

Here’s another prediction: there will be metal gun snobs around in a generation.

Via Carpe Diem.

Technorati Tags: 3-d,gun,print

Google Tip: Verbatim

Google introduced a new feature a few months back that I’d missed.

When you enter a search field, Google tries to improve it. This is great if you don’t know what you’re looking for, and is part of the reason Google works so well.

But, this is a problem if you know exactly what you’re looking for. You don’t want Google changing the keywords that you know are correct.

So, now, after you search, there is a link on the middle left of your screen called “More Search Tools”. Click it. A longer list will open up with “Verbatim” towards the bottom.

If you click “Verbatim” you get Google’s search for the exact phrase you typed: no correction for misspelling, no expansion of abbreviations, no substitution of synonyms for what you typed, no exploitation of your previous search history to narrow you results, and so on.

Technorati Tags: google,verbatim