Have you ever shelled good money for “free” air.
Bet you have.
It’s called “slack fill”.
Say, what?
Let’s start with a confession …
Archive for June, 2015
FTC makes it official: Size matters !
June 30, 2015Why we make mistakes: Winging it, too few constraints, greener grass
June 29, 2015In this and a couple of preceding and subsequent posts, i’ll be excerpting the 13 reasons from:
Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinanm, Broadway Books
Today, we finish the list … ending with an old standby: The Grass Looks Greener …
Why we make mistakes: We’re all above average (or at least think we are)
June 26, 2015In this and a couple of preceding and subsequent posts, i’ll be excerpting the 13 reasons from:
Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinanm, Broadway Books
Today, we add reason #10 to the list. we all think we’re above average
Why we make mistakes: Men shoot first, then …
June 25, 2015In this and a couple of preceding and subsequent posts, i’ll be excerpting the 13 reasons from:
Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinanm, Broadway Books
Today, we add reason #9 to the list. Men shoot first, then …
Why we make mistakes: frame of mind, skimming, tidiness
June 24, 2015In this and a couple of preceding and subsequent posts, I’m excerpting the 13 reasons from:
Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinanm, Broadway Books
Today, we add reasons 6, 7 and 8 to the list.
Why we make mistakes: The myth of multi-tasking
June 23, 2015In this and a couple of preceding and subsequent posts, I’m excerpting the 13 reasons from:
Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinanm, Broadway Books
Today, we add reason #5 to the list: the myth of multi-tasking…
Why we make mistakes …
June 22, 2015In this and a couple of subsequent posts, i’ll be excerpting the 13 reasons from a summer read:
Why We Make Mistakes, Joseph T. Hallinanm, Broadway Books
Today, the first 4 reasons on the list …
TPA & TPP for Dummies (like me)
June 19, 2015As an economist by training and a political junkie by avocation, you’d think that the current hubbub re: TPA & TPP would be immediately clear to me.
Nope.
I’ve listened closely to the politicos (Paul Ryan included) talk about TPA and TPP … all they’ve done is muddle things.
After chatting with a pol-in-the-know, I think that I at least understand the questions … and the reasons for the dust-up.
Hacked: Cards expose Moneyball’s strategic vulnerabilities …
June 18, 2015Moneyball – the Oakland As use of data and metrics to ID undervalued players — was one of the major catalysts for the current rage around big data and data analytics.
The Houston Astro’s were one of the teams to adopt the Moneyball philosophy in a big way.
This week, the NY Times broke the story that the St. Louis Cardinals had hacked into Astro’s proprietary database.
Big news.
In fact, this hack seemed to get more media time than the Chinese jacking the personal info of all government employees.
Hmmm.
Baseball competition aside, here’s why I think there’s a big teaching point in the story …
Want to be rich?
June 17, 2015The most recent Census Bureau data … sorts households by income quintile … the highest quintile are “rich” households and the lowest quintile are “poor” households.
A fundamental conclusion drawn from the data: if you want to be rich, it helps to have a job and be married to someone who has one, too.
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Let’s dive into some of the details …
Do the top hedge fund managers really make more than all kindergarten teachers combined?
June 16, 2015During her campaign re-launch rally on Saturday, Hillary Clinton decided to take a swat at fat cats (with the present company excluded, of course).
Her applause line:
“The top-25 hedge fund managers making more than all of America’s kindergarten teachers combined.”
Really?
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Since I didn’t hear the media do much fact-checking, I took a shallow dive into the numbers.
The answer may surprise you …
Sparkling water … but, no brown M&Ms !
June 15, 2015This came up in conversation over the weekend, so I thought a reprise was in order …
Awhile ago,, I was invited to do a radio interview on NPR.
When I told my daughter-in-law, she suggested that I request sparkling water and green M&Ms.
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I thought that was pretty funny, but didn’t know the story behind it (more…)
Problem Solving: A matter of perspective …
June 12, 2015According to ChinaSmack.com, most Hong Kong elementary school applicants are able to answer this admissions test question in the allotted 20 seconds.
Can you?
Psst: It’s ok to use scratch paper and a pen or pencil.
Stumped? Here’s the answer and the teaching point …
How soon can I get some of those ‘next day‘ blinds?
June 11, 2015Of course, it’s a trick question.
I started thinking about this a couple of weeks ago.
Heard a commercial for ‘3-Day Blinds’.
My thought: not a very compelling selling proposition when you’re up against NextDay Blinds
Then, we had a set of mini-blinds break.
Of course, being instant gratification folks, we called NextDay Blinds.
What an eye-opener …
Hacked: The purloined smart card …
June 10, 2015A friend reported an interesting – and very ironic – breach of credit card security.
She had one of the fancy new cards with an embedded chip intended to confound cyber-thieves.
In “normal” operations, no problems.
But, she encountered a truck-sized hole in the program .
Here’s what happened …
Baltimore prosecutor moves to keep Freddie’s autopsy secret … hmmm.
June 9, 2015OK, I love conspiracy theories … and, here’s one for you.
According to the Baltimore Sun, “Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby plans to seek a protective order that would block the release of Freddie Gray’s autopsy report and other “sensitive” documents as she prosecutes the six police officers involved in his arrest.”
Not surprisingly, “an attorney for one of the officers said the effort shows that “there is something in that autopsy report that they are trying to hide.””
What’s going on?
Unsettled Science: AP wins … pulling away.
June 8, 2015There’s a trite sports adage:
“When these teams get together, you can throw out the record book.”
Same holds for American Pharoah … the first horse to win the Triple Crown in 44 years.
The betting odds were in AP’s favor … part wishful excitement, part herd mentality, part “uniqueness bias” that stipulated that this horse is really different from past Triple Crown contenders.
Let’s look back at the pre-race punditry …
American Pharoah: Odds-on favorite, but scientific long-shot …
June 5, 2015In prior posts we reported how history is against American Pharoah — How often do Derby & Preakness winners nail the Triple Crown? — and how bettors like long-shots — Biases: The favorite-long shot bias … ».
Today we’ll wrap up Triple Crown Week, excerpting an interesting piece in Wired titled “Science says that American Pharoah won’t win the triple crown”
Here’s the essence of the scientific argument …
Biases: The favorite-long shot bias …
June 5, 2015In gambling and economics, there’s an observed phenomenon favorite-long shot bias.
Here’s how it works …
How often do Derby & Preakness winners nail the Triple Crown?
June 4, 2015On Saturday, American Pharoah will try to win the Belmont — capping off his Derby & Preakness wins to capture the oft-elusive Triple Crown.
Based on Triple Crown history, what are his chances?
The simple – but very deceiving answer is 35%.
31 horses have won both the Kentucky Derby & the Preakness …
11 of them have won the Belmont and the Triple Crown.
35% … about 1 out of 3.
That’s not bad, right?
Let’s slice the numbers a little finer …
95% failure rate gets TSA Director reassigned … not fired?
June 3, 2015This is a truly amazing story of our tax dollars at work …
In case you missed the headlines, the TSA’s Inspector General dispatched an audit team to try to sneak simulated bombs and guns past the crack TSA teams at several high traffic airports.
The good news: the TSA agents sniffed out 3 of the fake weapons.
The bad news: they missed 67.
That’s a failure rate of 95.7%.
Not exactly 6-sigma performance.
Here are a couple of story snippets that got my attention …
“Slow-boating”: What’s up with Amazon?
June 3, 2015I used to heap high praise on Amazon. Not so much any more.
First, some background …
Free shipment time from Amazon used to be one of my primary economic indicators.
If a free shipping order arrived in 2 or 3 days, I concluded that the economy wasn’t doing so well.
Why?
Free shipments essentially fly stand-by,
If there’s space on planes & trucks then they get loaded.
If there isn’t, then the orders sit on the docks.
So, in a slow economy, orders come fast.
In a hot economy, orders take longer.
At least, that’s the way things seemed to work.
Not so predictable these days.
What’s up?
What has 8 legs and 6 wings?
June 2, 2015Answer: Definitely not a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
When I heard a news blurb talking about KFC genetically raising chickens with 8 legs and 6 wings, I bought in.
I figured: smart move.
Kids devour drumsticks and wings are still one of the hottest bar foods around.
My thought: good operations move … improve the “yield” from each chicken.
Turns out that my read wasn’t the story at all …
Carpal tunnel is so yesterday … thumb tendonitis and AHS are maladies du jour …
June 1, 2015From the “had to see this one coming department” …
In the old days, folks who who banged computer keyboards day in and day out suffered nerve damage in their hands & wrists called carpal tunnel syndrome.
More time on tablets and phones may have abated that problem a bit … but, of course, new problems have cropped up.
Here are the son and daughter of carpal tunnel …
The Homa Files 