Got Milk Commercial -- The Baby and the Cat

Another humorous commercial from the Got Milk series. By the way, when I ran for the California Legislature, I opposed California's milk advisory board. (Their policies resulted in higher milk prices, and low milk consumption in California.) I wonder if they funded these commercials. Odd, that I enjoy some of their output.

This link is best viewed with a high bandwidth connection.

The Baby and the Cat

David

Christmas Movies and Bad Econonomics

There are some Christmas movies that are pleasant tales; but if you think through the economics, well, humor ensues.

Christmas Movies and Bad Econonomics

The James Randi Million Dollar Challenge and My Mini Challenge

A while ago I posted about the Randi Foundation challenge.
In the comments was this:

At 3:21 PM, Smokefoot said...
I have heard some people who feel that the Randi tests are rigged to guarantee failure. Certainly I have not seen any sign of this in the reading I have done on his tests, but it shows one way people deal with the failure to show beat Randi's test.

I got to thinking, how can I verify that some of the common excuses are merely lame excuses? I suppose I could accept the challenge, make a claim, pass the tests, and win the prize. Next best would be to make a claim, fail the tests but closely observe the process and be satisfied that all was fair.

The one thing I can think of that might be easier for me to verify would be to check the following particular excuse: the James Randi Education Foundation doesn't even have the money. On his web site Randi even explains how one might verify that the money is real. Shall we try and find out if the money is real, and thus show (to ourselves) whether the people who use that excuse are just scared to be tested?

David

What Makes People Think Like Economists?

Somewhere I heard this joke: If you laid all the world's economists end to end, they still wouldn't point in the same direction.

So.

Do economists disagree with each other on everything?

And for that matter...

Are economists liberal or conservative?

The following web site answers these questions.

What Makes People Think Like Economists?Evidence on Economic Cognition from the Survey of Americans and Economists on the Economy

Buy a House, Lose Your Job?

I stayed interested in economics because of the surprises it sometimes yields. Here's an example:

Buy a House, Lose Your Job?
The surprising connection between homeownership and unemployment.

Back to School Commercial

This one got put in early by request.

Alice Cooper is a male rock and roll artist who emphasized a bad guy image, and he wore black mascara around his eyes. He had a hit song "School's Out Forever" decades ago.

This ironic link about buying back-to-school supplies is best with broadband.

School's out forever

David

Why Jews Don't Farm

Historically, why haven't Jews been farmers?

Steven Landsburg's answer might be wrong, and the replies to the essay raise some good objections, but I found his answer interesting as a possibility.

David

Hotelling's Theorem (Why I'm Not Much Afraid of Running Completely Out of Oil)

Some folks are quite worried that the world will run out of oil. There was even one fellow who seemed worried that perhaps a century off, someone will put his key in the ignition of his car and it won't start because there is no gasoline left in the world.

Hotelling's Theorem

That doesn't mean that oil won't get expensive, though.

David

Ozymandius (Why Boasting Is Embarrassing)

A poem titled Ozymandias

I think Ozymandias is supposed to be Ramses the Pharaoh.

David

The James Randi Educational Foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

Decades ago, magician Harry Houdini disapproved of the swindlers who claimed to contact the dead, and thereby bilked grieving and vulnerable customers out of their life savings. Houdini went to seances. As a stage magician, he was skilled in how magicians misdirect people into paying attention to the wrong things and missing the tricks. At those seances he discovered (and unmasked) sneaky deceptions that had fooled otherwise skeptical people.

There is a stage magician today who continues Houdini's tradition. His foundation challenges anyone who claims they can repeatedly make something supernatural happen to come forward and show that they can do it while experts trained in misdirection watch. If they can show their powers under controlled conditions under their watchful eyes, they get one million dollars.

The James Randi Educational Foundation's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

What's interesting is the excuses are made by the folks who want to claim the million dollars. Some make excuses instead of taking the test. Others take the test and (so far) fail, and make different excuses after the test.

David