tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65291902011-10-21T09:58:41.762-04:00An economics blog focused primarily on Intellectual Property issues, with an occasional foray into baseball.Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.comBlogger1541100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-62325731535242355202007-02-21T15:15:00.000-05:002007-02-21T15:28:24.015-05:00

I came across this thread today, which catalogs Apple enthusiasts' responses to the rumors of Apple's new product in 2001... the iPod. It's a fantastic read. Some choice predictions from the first few pages:hey - heres an idea Apple - rather than enter the world of gimmicks and toys, why dont you spend a little more time sorting out your pathetically expensive and crap server line up? or are you

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-15073462383997981062007-02-01T08:40:00.000-05:002007-02-01T08:50:08.191-05:00

It seems that we don't have to wait to see whether or not Arlen Specter is as big a baseball fan as he is a football fan. The AP (through ESPN) is reporting that Sen. John Kerry is going to raise concerns about the proposed deal between Major League Baseball and DirecTV which would make DirecTV the sole provider of MLB's Extra Innings package, which allows fans to watch virtaully any

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-79187377136004250842007-01-31T16:54:00.000-05:002007-01-31T17:20:18.417-05:00

President Bush finally recognized the rising income inequality of the US in his "State of the Economy" speech today. From the NY Times article on the speech:''The fact is that income inequality is real. It has been rising for more than25 years,'' the president said. ''The earnings gap is now twice as wide as itwas in 1980,'' Bush said, adding that more education and training can liftpeoples'

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-55145518816146739032007-01-22T14:34:00.000-05:002007-01-22T14:52:55.173-05:00

Well, this sucks.Word on the street is that MLB is close to assigning the rights to its "Extra Innings" package, which allows fans to watch out-of-town games on a nightly basis, to DirecTV on an exclusive basis, similar to the deal that DirecTV has with the NFL and its "Sunday Ticket" package. As a Red Sox fan living outside of New England, who doesn't and won't have DirecTV, this is terrible

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-4500459311573222402007-01-19T09:08:00.000-05:002007-01-19T09:20:25.851-05:00

David Pogue, the New York Times' main technology writer, has written a tune about the RIAA, to be sung along to the tune of, what else, "YMCA". Here's a link to his post. Based on the lyrics, I'm guessing that he won't mind my presenting his work here:“R.I.A.A.”Young man,You were surfing along,And then, young man,You downloaded a song,And then, dumb man,Copied it to your ‘Pod,Then a phone call

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-43709998998448888122007-01-18T10:34:00.000-05:002007-01-18T10:56:58.322-05:00

They watched the season premier of American Idol, with over 37 million total viewers and 41 million people watching the final half-hour, according to overnight numbers reported at Zap2It. What is most amazing is that the season finale last season had only 36 million viewers.Those ratings numbers are just outstanding. There are so many TV programs these days, and so many other entertainment

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-36710949701210445952007-01-12T09:49:00.000-05:002007-01-12T09:58:54.620-05:00

The current issue of Sports Illustrated has a short article on the coach of the boys' ice hocey team at Catholic Memorial High School, Bill Hanson. CM is a top-ranked Massachusetts high school program and routinely wins the MA state title. They have also produced a large number of NHL players. They are the Mt. St. Charles of Massachusetts, making Bill Hanson the Bill Belisle of Massachusetts. (Mt

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-64038496224238124222007-01-05T16:03:00.000-05:002007-01-05T16:15:58.685-05:00

Over at the Freakonomics blog, there's the normal cyptic preview of their upcoming NY Times Magazine piece, including a link to some background research. Included in that is an excel spreadsheet with recent ebay auctions in which gift cards were sold (.xls), which I found fascinating. Some stats:The average gift card included (there are 100), sold for a total cost (price + shipping) equal to

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-75585524903386092892007-01-04T09:49:00.000-05:002007-01-04T09:59:05.561-05:00

We've often pointed to concerns raised about other about e-voting systems. Generally, the amount to someone showing that a machine could be hacked and that there would be no way to know. Then the makers/administrators says "it's not a problem" or "trust us", and as economists we know what to make of that. But today the NY Times is reporting that "trust us" means even less than we thought:A

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-28457528463384713212007-01-02T10:44:00.000-05:002007-01-02T11:11:40.475-05:00

Happy 2007 to anyone still checking Econball.The end of 2006 was very hectic for me, and as you can see, resulted in a scarcity of posts. I'm hoping that in 2007, I'll be able to maintain a more consistent scheudle of 2-3 posts per week. There's still plenty of crazy IP stuff going on out there (see the post below about the RIAA's damage claim against AllofMP3.com, for example), so there should

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-55181356120635396082007-01-02T10:21:00.000-05:002007-01-02T10:41:28.086-05:00

As found in Zero Paid, it appears that the RIAA is finally suing AllofMP3.com, the Russian website which has, for a while now, offered MP3 downloads of songs and albums for pennies per track. The RIAA is citing approximately 11 million songs, and is asking for $150,000 in damages per song, for a total of approximately $1.65 trillion. That's a lot of money.It's also an absurd damages claim. (I

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1165609873225757682006-12-08T14:45:00.000-05:002006-12-08T15:31:13.816-05:00

The New York Times is reporting today that we should be expecting wholesale changes in the method of electronic voting to be used in 2008, compared to what was used in 2006. Specifically, it seems that there is now a growing movement to eliminate paperless voting systems in favor of systems with paper "receipts." As has been pointed out here (at at the Social Econ Blog, among many other places)

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1164060439190145632006-11-20T17:05:00.000-05:002006-11-20T17:07:19.206-05:00

Fox has announced that it is canceling the O.J. Simpson special and book.Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation, announced this afternoon that his company had canceled publication of the pseudo-memoir/confessional by O.J. Simpson, “If I did it,” as well as the corresponding television special scheduled to be broadcast on the Fox network next week.“I and

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1163609277594999522006-11-15T11:38:00.000-05:002006-11-15T11:49:07.506-05:00

I've been a bad blogger recently, as real life has slowed me down. Here's to hoping I can pick it back up again soon. That said, I saw something today that is truly incredible, if not really related to economics at all:Sorry is also what O.J. Simpson is *not* saying:In a stunning announcement, FOX TV says it plans to interview the 59-year-old former football star and actor about "how he would

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1162838665860721022006-11-06T13:32:00.000-05:002006-11-06T13:44:25.876-05:00

From today's nytimes.com: Bush Trumpets Iraq Verdict to Rally SupportWASHINGTON, Nov. 5 — President Bush on Sunday seized on the conviction of Saddam Hussein as a milestone in Iraq, seeking to rally Republican voters with the issue of national security as some polls suggested that his party might be making gains in the final hours of the campaign.How can the conviction of Saddam Hussein have any

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161896833079826492006-10-26T17:04:00.000-04:002006-10-26T17:07:13.100-04:00

In case we haven't harped on this enough, from Arstechnica (via /.), comes a guide to using electronic voting machines to steal an election:What I'll show you instead is a road map to the brave new world of electronic election manipulation, with just enough nuts-and-bolts detail to help you understand why things work the way they do. Along the way, I'll also show you just how many different

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161894403570049112006-10-26T16:18:00.000-04:002006-10-26T16:26:43.690-04:00

In the tradition of Ernest Hemingway ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn."), Wired magazine searched out current authors to write their own six word stories. Some are less than interesting, others are quite good. None have the power of Hemingway's story, and several of them rely on well-known stories to provide important context for the six-word stories... those are more sequels than stories of

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161803376824055702006-10-25T15:06:00.000-04:002006-10-25T15:10:07.193-04:00

The season 6 trailer for 24 came out last night. In case you weren't watching, here it is:

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161698175067615012006-10-24T09:48:00.000-04:002006-10-24T09:56:15.116-04:00

It seems that just like Superman, Captain Copyright has a day job at a newspaper. While Clark Kent worked at the Daily Planet, it seems that Captain Copyright's alter ego (who presumably looks just like Clark Kent) works at the North Country Gazette. From the front page of the paper's website:In accordance with Fair Use of Copyright: WE FORBID ANY REPRODUCTION in part or in whole of The North

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161353902324939202006-10-20T09:39:00.000-04:002006-10-20T12:42:41.083-04:00

It's casual Friday in the office today and, for whatever reason, I found myself wondering why we have casual Fridays instead of, say, casual Mondays. The obvious answer is that it's a way to start the weekend early, by letting everyone dress like it's Saturday. The other question is: "why do we have casual Fridays at all?" I think we'd all guess that it's a way of giving employees a little

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161283159262553972006-10-19T14:37:00.000-04:002006-10-19T14:39:19.263-04:00

The New York Times today reports that:Advertising sales continues to sag at major newspaper publishers, judging by the quarterly results reported today by The New York Times Company and the Tribune Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and Newsday. Given today's discussion on the effects on online newspapers, this is not surprising.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161282690698533712006-10-19T14:28:00.000-04:002006-10-19T14:31:30.703-04:00

Entry, Exit and Patenting in the Software Industry (Iain M. Cockburn, Megan J. MacGarvie)We examine the effects of software patents on entry and exit in 27 narrowly-defined classes of software products, using a dataset with comprehensive coverage of both mature public firms and small privately held firms between 1994 and 2004. Reflecting the complex economics underlying the relationship between

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1161282440428969362006-10-19T14:09:00.000-04:002006-10-19T14:27:20.450-04:00

In a paper that has been around for a few years, but recently came out in NBER working paper form (and also forthcoming in the AER), Matt Gentzkow argues that online newspapers and print newspapers are strong substitutes. In fact, using data from the DC metropolitan area, Matt finds that online newspaper availability reduces print newspaper profits by $5.5 million per year.So, what's the

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1160573851447672222006-10-11T09:15:00.000-04:002006-10-11T09:37:31.463-04:00

That's what movie piracy costs the U.S. economy, along with 140,000 jobs and over $800 million in tax revenue, according to a new study released by the Institute for Policy Innovation (and paid for, in part, by NBC/Universal and the MPAA). The number is reached at by taking a figure of $6 billion in lost sales of legal DVDs and online films that comes from an earlier report by a consulting firm

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1160141678930162892006-10-06T09:32:00.000-04:002006-10-06T09:34:56.050-04:00

Really, it is a little over-the-top that MIT's buildings all have numbers rather than name....

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1160064316311020422006-10-05T10:37:00.000-04:002006-10-05T12:05:19.950-04:00

Microsoft has annouced much stricter controls to combat piracy of its soon-to-be-released operating system, Vista:Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, said Wednesday that people running a version of Windows Vista that it thought was pirated would initially be denied access to some Vista features. That includes Windows Aero, an improved graphics technology.If a legitimate copy is not

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1160054102291417592006-10-05T09:10:00.000-04:002006-10-05T10:06:49.716-04:00

Doonesbury today takes a friendly jab at MIT:

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1159803876575867542006-10-02T11:28:00.000-04:002006-10-02T11:55:57.190-04:00

Continuing Bryce's campaign against electronic voting, courtesy of Slashdot, we have a Washington Post story on questions that still exist surrounding Brasil's use of electronic voting machines. Here's a couple of choice quotes:Some Brazilians are lobbying the tribunal to switch from Windows CE to an open-source operating system for the voting machines, since Microsoft Corp., citing trade

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1159565833922349822006-09-29T17:23:00.000-04:002006-09-29T17:37:13.963-04:00

Some interesting macroeconomic news came out recently, so I thought I'd pass it along:India's economy grew at 8.9% last quarter. Wow. They can't keep that up forever, obviously, but the "Rule of 69" implies that they would double their national output in eight years at that rate!Nigeria and Venezuela announced that they will cut oil production by 200,000 barrels of oil/day. This sounds like a

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1159387168762646432006-09-27T15:52:00.000-04:002006-10-02T11:02:55.090-04:00

I came across two different answers to this question today in two different sources. I don't know the answer, but I do know that I would like more money, so revealed preference tells me "yes." Decide for yourself:Yes, say Jonathan Gardner and Andrew Oswald, courtesy of Andrew Gellman:One of the famous questions in social science is whether money makes people happy. We [Gardner and Oswald]

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1159206267899099622006-09-25T12:43:00.000-04:002006-09-25T13:44:28.093-04:00

It's a victory for common sense (and social optimization) as the government has annoucned that liquids will once again be allowed on planes, starting on Tuesday. (Though still with some added restrictions meant to make it easier to screen liquids at security.) This irrationality of this restriction has been pointed out by many (including Steve Levitt and Bryce). Lifting it is a good thing.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1159189310645739492006-09-25T08:46:00.000-04:002006-09-25T09:01:50.703-04:00

Tonight, the NFL returns to New Orleans, as the Saints hosts the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football. Listening to the radio this morning, I heard over and over again how this is a sign that New Orleans is well on its way back, that the city is doing great, etc.While I will note that it is certainly nice that an NFL game can be played in New Orleans now, and even admit to the likely truth

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158935903553302842006-09-22T10:19:00.000-04:002006-09-22T10:40:23.940-04:00

The NY Times has a recent article covering the use of online "dating" services which are meant to help match college applicants to schools. The article tells the story of Annie Allhoff, who is a freshman at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. Annie had never even heard of Pomona when she was looking at schools, but learned about it after going through the matching algorithm at Counselor-O-Matic.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158692908240386412006-09-19T14:25:00.000-04:002006-09-25T12:30:32.426-04:00

A new study, backed by the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think-tank, and authored by Bethany Peters and Edward Stringham, claims to discover why drinkers earn more than non-drinkers, which is apparently a well-established fact. (I had no idea.) Here's the abstract:A number of theorists assume that drinking has harmful economic effects, but data show that drinking and earnings are positively

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158606905880749202006-09-18T15:12:00.000-04:002006-09-18T15:18:11.696-04:00

Following up on other potential electronic voting problems, Slashdot points us to this:"As if Diebold doesn't have enough to worry about! On the Freedom To Tinker blog, Ed Felten, one of the co-authors of the recent report 'Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Voting Machine', reveals an even more bizarre finding related to the initial report. It turns out that you can gain access to an

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158338726529129972006-09-15T12:20:00.000-04:002006-09-15T12:45:29.323-04:00

The New York times today runs an article on the split lives of New Yorkers who spend much of their summers in the Hamptons.This Labor Day weekend, as on so many Labor Day weekends past, Mr. Lipnick said, his family and their friends exchanged phone numbers and promises to meet for dinner in the city during the off-season: “They said, ‘We’ll get in touch over the winter,’ and we said, ‘We’ll get

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158245917988791102006-09-14T10:51:00.000-04:002006-09-14T10:58:38.006-04:00

Saddam Hussein was not a dictator, according to the lead judge at his trail:Questioning a Kurdish witness Thursday, Saddam said, ''I wonder why this man wanted to meet with me, if I am a dictator?''The judge interrupted: ''You were not a dictator. People around you made you (look like) a dictator.''''Thank you,'' Saddam responded, bowing his head in respect.Wow, ok. Here's Webster's definition

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158076787704792312006-09-12T11:57:00.000-04:002006-09-12T11:59:47.723-04:00

Check out this flash animation (with sound) on how one might imagine ten-dimensional space. Pretty cool.(h/t to Alex Tabarrok.)

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158075072308156542006-09-12T10:41:00.000-04:002006-09-12T11:31:12.513-04:00

Patent data (and data on inventors) has often been used in economic research. However, it is difficult to track inventors over time due to name changes, different spellings, and non-unique names. Since over 3.1 million patents have been issued by the USPTO between 1963 and 1999 (the patents included in the NBER patent data file), this is an impossible hurdle to overcome manually.Manuel

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1158070379283898162006-09-12T09:52:00.000-04:002006-09-12T10:13:08.070-04:00

I was watching the Presidential Address last night on CBS (why CBS? I admit, I was watching a rerun of The New Adventures of Old Christine) and after the speech, Bob Schieffer came on and spoke with Katie Couric. He raised the point (a point I admit I've heard elsewhere) that it seems odd for the president to impress upon the country that it is a time during which great sacrifice is needed,

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157748949523081242006-09-08T16:51:00.000-04:002006-09-08T16:55:49.553-04:00

Revealing my inner geekdom, today is Star Trek's 40th birthday. On September 8, 1966 NBC aired the first ever episode of Star Trek, "The Man Trap." (Further revealing my inner geekdom, I am well aware that although The Man Trap was the first Star Trek episode to air, it is episode #6 in production order.) So Happy Birthday, Star Trek.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157738548303170522006-09-08T13:43:00.000-04:002006-09-08T14:04:26.696-04:00

You know, I really like Netflix and all (I was a very early subscriber, but have since moved from the Netflix model to the Tony V "buy them used and keep them forever" model of DVD renting), but I can't get behind their move to sue Blockbuster for infringing their (dubious) patents. From law.com:Netflix argues that it has patents covering its many online features, including allowing subscribers

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157689367785698292006-09-08T00:21:00.000-04:002006-09-08T00:22:47.803-04:00

In the NY Times:Six weeks before Kyle Paxman’s scheduled wedding, a stranger walked into her office with e-mail messages and other evidence that Ms. Paxman’s fiancé was cheating on her — with the stranger’s girlfriend....But rather than cancel the reception, planned for this Saturday in Vermont, Ms. Paxman, 29, has turned it into a charity benefit, at which strong women will be celebrated...Ms.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157647254094346342006-09-07T12:25:00.000-04:002006-09-07T13:32:21.833-04:00

A commenter, JerseyKnave, left the following note in my most recent post on the relationship between self-service laws, gas stations, and convenience stores:Well as a resident of NJ, I would speculate that the number is low because when building new gas stations adding a conveinence store would be unwise because there are alreay enough conveinence stores around.If you're building an Exxon next to

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157645013256268992006-09-07T11:50:00.000-04:002006-09-07T12:03:37.253-04:00

Microsoft has this one:United States Patent Application20060195313Method and system for selecting and conjugating a verbAbstract A verb conjugating system allows a user to input a form of a verb and display the verb forms. The verb conjugating system allows the user to input the infinitive form or non-infinitive forms of a verb. When a user inputs a non-infinitive form of a verb, the verb

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157643170060925422006-09-07T11:24:00.000-04:002006-09-07T11:42:55.906-04:00

Found over at Andrew Gelman's blog:

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157575712946230542006-09-06T16:24:00.000-04:002006-09-06T17:04:01.623-04:00

A couple of days ago, I raised the 1% question, holding off on my answer. Here it is:I would clearly take the $1 million/year over raising everyone's income by 1%. I'm not sure how high the number would have to be in order for me to decline the $1 million, but it's at least 10%. Why is this?1% is very, very little. I don't think I'd really notice a 1% increase in my income. (If I got it in a

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157571532965811052006-09-06T15:28:00.000-04:002006-09-06T15:38:52.990-04:00

According to the NY Times, playing fantasy football helps you make friends:The Fantasy Sports Trade Association, an industry marketing and lobbying organization, worked with an associate professor at the University of Mississippi to study fantasy sports behavior.Some highlights of the study: — 40 percent of players say participation increases camaraderie among employees. — 36 percent of

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157146271241648682006-09-01T17:27:00.000-04:002006-09-01T17:31:11.306-04:00

The current crop of next-generation DVD players (Blu-Ray and HD-DVD) are underwhelming, both in terms of sales and performance. This should comes as no surprise because, frankly, nobody wants to be stuck with the losing format, which is really going to slow adoption.If both sides could have just agreed on a format, and agreed to split the licensing revenues from the format, EVERYBODY (consumers,

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157134692608357322006-09-01T14:16:00.000-04:002006-09-01T14:18:12.623-04:00

To blog or not to blog. The choice is easier when you end up at a string of places with no internet access, as I did.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157119420615968642006-09-01T09:36:00.000-04:002006-09-06T16:56:33.976-04:00

In my vacations last week, there were, obviously, lots of economists and a fair amount of conversation that would only appeal to economists. (Though less so than you might imagine- I've found that my group of economist friends are much more capable of having non-economist conversations. This was pointed out by some others during the trip. But I won't be presumptious enough to claim that our "

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1157119574576051132006-09-01T09:05:00.000-04:002006-09-01T10:10:09.156-04:00

Keith Olbermann is mad at Donald Rumsfeld:

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1156867470482475252006-08-29T12:02:00.000-04:002006-08-29T12:04:30.510-04:00

after a nice, long vacation among a number of friends and economists much smarter than I. Posting should resume soon; for now, there's too much abandoned work to catch up on.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155911553670774702006-08-18T10:28:00.000-04:002006-08-18T10:33:10.380-04:00

The New York times runs a fun article about the writer's trip visiting towns to determine a rough border between Red Sox Nation and Yankee Nation. Nothing particularly scientific, of course, but a fun read nonetheless.Here's the map:Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155905592185758342006-08-18T08:46:00.000-04:002006-08-18T08:53:12.200-04:00

I'm headed off for some vacation with family and friends over the next ten days or so, and with no idea of how much (a) internet access I'll have or (b) how much news reading and blogging I'd do anyway, I would expect that there will be very limited posting until at least August 29.If you're new, why not take the time to scroll through some of the archives:April 2006May 2006June 2006July

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155839128659036992006-08-17T14:24:00.000-04:002006-08-17T14:25:28.676-04:00

Justin Timberlake says Taylor Hicks "can't carry a tune in a bucket."For whatever reason, I find this hilarious.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155821374615079282006-08-17T09:17:00.000-04:002006-08-17T09:29:34.646-04:00

But this time, it's the peer-to-peer companies suing each other. Altnet, holders of the "TrueNames" patents (US patent nos. 5,978791, 6,415,280, and 6,928,442) which cover the use of hashes in peer-to-peer networks (don't ask me the technical details), has filed a patent infringement suit against StreamCast, makers of the Morpheus P2P client. An Altnet representative states, with no sense of

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155649224487724052006-08-15T09:35:00.000-04:002006-08-15T09:40:24.490-04:00

A while back, this story was all the buzz, detailing the animosity between the editor of Sociological Methodology and an unnamed "Thin-Skinned Scholar." It seems that the scholar has named himself (it was, as rumored in some places, James Heckman, Clark Medalist and Nobel Prize winner) and has created a website detailing the whole sorted affair. (Of course, from his perspective.)I've not yet

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155326103569074652006-08-11T15:40:00.000-04:002006-08-11T16:02:09.056-04:00

From The Social Econ Blog:This is scary:NEW YORK A new Gallup poll finds that many Americans -- what it calls "substantial minorities" -- harbor "negative feelings or prejudices against people of the Muslim faith" in this country. Nearly one in four Americans, 22%, say they would not like to have a Muslim as a neighbor.While Americans tend to disagree with the notion that Muslims living in the

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155153118071395302006-08-09T15:50:00.000-04:002006-08-10T11:59:24.916-04:00

I don't want to rekindle the debate (here, here, and here) because we are not likely to agree, but in the course of looking up some other information yesterday, I noticed that the 1997 Economic Census numbers that we threw around in our previous debate about full-service gas station laws have been updated now with the 2002 Economic Census. If you recall, we agreed that self-serve stations are

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155150540736390432006-08-09T14:54:00.000-04:002006-08-09T15:09:00.876-04:00

A couple of months ago, I commented on the lawsuit focused on whether or not CBC (a company that runs fantasy sports leagues) had to pay a license to MLB in order to use the statistics from games (and the names of the players that generate those statistics). The legal issue focused on the "right of publicity" of the players, but from an economic perspective, the case is a no-brainer, as I wrote

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1155131582448057962006-08-09T09:28:00.000-04:002006-08-09T09:57:10.390-04:00

Microeconomic students should all be familiar with the concept of the "principal-agent problem." A common example used for this is that the people that make decisions (the CEO) on behalf of the owners of a firm (the stockholders) will have different incentives, and thus make different choices. For example, a CEO might care less about the long-term prospects of a firm, and thus take steps to

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154986131412796122006-08-07T17:17:00.000-04:002006-08-07T17:28:51.483-04:00

This is interesting.... the Indian government has widened a ban on Coke and Pepsi, after testing revealed excessively high levels of pesticides in the soft drinks. This is apparently not all that strange in India, where large amounts of pesticides make their way into ground water. As a result of this controversy, the Indian Supremem Court ruled on Friday that Coke must reveal its secret recipe

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154979294371829722006-08-07T14:40:00.000-04:002006-08-07T15:50:59.686-04:00

The NY Times is reporting that after an accident at an Alaska oil field, oil prices jumped by $2 a barrel today. According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), oil was going at $66.57/barrel at the end of July. As we all know, oil prices have skyrocketed in recent years, as a barrel was $50.59 at the end of July 2005, $35.14 at the end of July 2004, and $26.72 at the end of July

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154699006906853782006-08-04T09:37:00.000-04:002006-08-04T09:43:26.930-04:00

I've just run across SeatGuru, an online encyclopedia of airline seat information. This website allows you to select the airline and the model of plane you are going to fly on, and then provides you with detailed information about the seats on the plane, including which seats have more or less space, more or less recline space, misaligned windows, underseat storage, electrical power, etc.As a

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154466041625917602006-08-01T16:11:00.000-04:002006-08-01T17:00:42.250-04:00

A new paper by Christopher S. Ruebeck, Joseph E. Harrington, Jr. and Robert Moffitt studies the job-market outcomes of left-handed vs. right-handed people:We examine whether handedness is related to performance in the labor market and, in particular, earnings. We find a significant wage effect for left-handed men with high levels of education. This positive wage effect is strongest among those

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154445448545866202006-08-01T10:55:00.000-04:002006-08-01T14:01:45.836-04:00

David Ortiz is just incredible, really. He hit another game-ending home run for the Red Sox last night, a 3-run homer down by two with one out in the ninth. That makes, apparently 7 walk-off home runs with the Red Sox in the regular season, plus of course two more in the 2004 post-season. (He also hit a walk-off home run for the Twins in 2002. The Twins then released him after that season, to

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154377854659555002006-07-31T16:22:00.000-04:002006-07-31T16:30:54.683-04:00

I've not posted before on electronic voting machine issues, but this is just outright scary:Upon examining the inner workings of one of the most popular paperless touch screen voting machines used in public elections in the United States, it has been determined that with the flip of a single switch inside, the machine can behave in a completely different manner compared to the tested and

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154124232654476652006-07-28T17:59:00.000-04:002006-07-28T18:03:52.693-04:00

Entertainment Weekly has a great article about the unique path that next month's Snakes on a Plane took from simple idea to pre-release internet sensation.Money quote from Samuel L. Jackson, who touches on our recent conversations (here, here, and here) about movie critics:''Snakes on a Plane doesn't speak volumes about s---. I just hope people go to this film and have a good time. Laugh, scream,

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154092704337041472006-07-28T08:59:00.000-04:002006-07-28T13:33:10.913-04:00

It struck me during lunch yesterday that despite many signs that people are generally risk averse (such as their behavior on Deal or No Deal), when making non-monetary choices it seems that people are quite risk-loving. Take, for example, where to have lunch (or what to eat once you've chosen a restaurant). Living in Manhattan with so many restaurants around, I've seen that many people have

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1154009479747052502006-07-27T10:09:00.000-04:002006-07-27T10:18:37.473-04:00

According to the AP (through the NY Times), Sharman Networks, the makers of the Kazaa file sharing program, have reached a deal to settle its piracy lawsuits with the music and movie industries. Sharman Networks's Kazaa (and the FastTrack network it runs on) has been on the world's major peer-to-peer (P2P) networks in the post-Napster period. Although Kazaa did not catch on immediately after

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153849852914488352006-07-25T13:18:00.000-04:002006-07-25T13:51:49.833-04:00

to my movie critic question ("why isn't there a market for a `regular guy' (or girl) film critic?") is provided by Rod Dreher, a former critic for the NY Post. In a response to the NY Times piece I discussed last week, he argues that while he was paid to be a "consumer guide", he instead behaved as a "pure critic":A final, minor point: because professional critics see everything for free, we can

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153756967007112822006-07-24T11:39:00.000-04:002006-07-24T12:02:47.073-04:00

Macroeconomists are often troubled by the inability of central banks to avoid the temptation that printing and issuing paper money offers in the way of seigniorage, the "earnings" a government gets by printing, say a $100 bill for a cost of 50 cents and then spending the $100. The major problem, of course, is that this can lead to rampant inflation, as time-inconsistent governments print money

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153747294385270002006-07-24T09:12:00.000-04:002006-07-24T09:21:34.463-04:00

Billboard gives a mid-year concert update:In general, the North American touring industry is maintaining a healthy pace. Gross dollars for January-June of 2006 are up 24.6% from the same period last year, driven mostly by the tours cited above. With attendance up just 5.4%, high ticket prices have helped boost the increase.Worldwide, revenue is up 13.3% and attendance up 2%.We've talked about

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153487203294685712006-07-21T08:30:00.000-04:002006-07-21T11:20:17.676-04:00

Chris Anderson's The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More and The Long Tail blog have focused on the idea that due to technological changes in recent years, big money in the future will come from selling very little of a lot of things. From Chris' blog FAQ, this is the idea:The theory of the Long Tail is that our culture and economy is increasingly shifting away from a

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153344056700169892006-07-19T16:56:00.000-04:002006-07-19T17:23:06.710-04:00

CinemaNow, the uninsipiring legal download service (for movies), has announed a "Burn to DVD" program for a select number of films. The service lets you take a movie you've purchased through CinemaNow and create a DVD with the film on it, so that you can now watch the film in your living-room TV (or wherever), rather than watch it on your computer monitor. Films available to "Burn to DVD" will

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153250971754920722006-07-18T15:13:00.000-04:002006-07-18T15:29:31.793-04:00

A while back, I talked about how movie studios have started avoiding preview screenings for critics, thus presumably avoiding negative reviews before opening night. This sparked a comment from dave, wondering why movie critics and movie goers have such mis-aligned tastes. That is, why isn't there a market for a "regular Joe" critic who likes White Chicks and Underworld: Evolution, since the

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153239923088785382006-07-18T12:12:00.000-04:002006-07-18T12:38:36.893-04:00

Children!According to the NY Times, authorities in Hong Kong have commissioned a group called the "Young Ambassadors," to be made up of up to 200,000 youths, to visit message boards and web sites in search of available copyrighted material. Their duty will then be to report the locations of these materials to the authorities who will then pass that information onto the appropriate organization (

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153228838714055272006-07-18T09:15:00.000-04:002006-07-18T09:20:38.740-04:00

The New York Times today reports on the beginning of a crack-down on Internet gambling. Yesterday, federal authorites arrested David Carruthers, the CEO of BetOnSports, a Costa Rican-based company that is publically traded in Britain, on charges of "racketeering conspiracy for participating in an illegal gambling enterprise." Carruthers was arrested while in Dallas-Fort Worth International

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1153144430222158532006-07-17T09:36:00.000-04:002006-07-17T10:56:48.776-04:00

A while ago, the internet was abuzz with the story of Kyle McDonald, a Canadian who was attempting to trade a red paperclip for a house. Not directly, mind you, but in a series of trades that he would "win" by enough to eventually end up with a house. (Bryce first brought this to my attention.) It seems that Kyle has finally succeeded, as he now has a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan.According

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152894272253700782006-07-14T11:45:00.000-04:002006-07-14T12:34:00.513-04:00

Freakonomics addressed this question recently, focusing on the birthdates of elite soccer players. The hypothesis is that children whose birthdays cause them to be old in their playing cohort will be more developed and therefore the better players in their cohort. As a result, they receive extra training, attention, and coaching, and are therefore more likely to develop into elite professional

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152740371053159132006-07-12T17:26:00.000-04:002006-07-12T17:41:20.503-04:00

Allstate Insurance gave away free gas today in Milwaukee, WI as a reward for Milwaukee ranking as the #1 mid-sized city in Allstate's safe driver list. The AP/NY Times reports that the giveaway (predictably?) resulted in long lines, fights, disorderly conduct arrests, and hospitalized police officers. People started lining up before midnight for a service that started at 6am, and the lines got

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152732652913845162006-07-12T15:00:00.000-04:002006-07-12T15:36:30.946-04:00

...is to search using the Google search page, at least according to Google themselves.The LA Times recently ran a story on the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary adding the word "google" to the 11th edition of the dictionary. The article focuses on the trademark concerns that arise when a brand name starts to creep into everyday use as a generic word. Everyone has asked for a "Kleenex" or to

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152639802323701462006-07-11T13:40:00.000-04:002006-07-11T13:43:22.346-04:00

From Stephen Colbert:More and more companies are cutting pensions. The good news is they're also cutting health insurance, so you won't live long enough to be affected.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152546231148904832006-07-10T11:25:00.000-04:002006-07-10T11:45:17.523-04:00

A ruling was handed down in Hollywood's case against companies that release "censored" versions of Hollywood films. From Reuters: Senior U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch came down squarely on the side of the Directors Guild of America and the major studios in his ruling that the companies must immediately cease all production, sale and rentals of edited videos. The summary judgment

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152538692844713692006-07-10T09:33:00.000-04:002006-07-10T09:38:12.860-04:00

Not surprisingly, conspiracy theories abound as to the recent death of Ken Lay, which will make it difficult, if not impossible, for authorities to seize his ill-gotten assets. It's not that I believe any of them, but they are amusing. This is my favorite:As we all know Ken Lay, was moonlighting as senior citizen porn star Dave Cummings... Ken Lay is alive and very well and will assume his Porn

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152300517715130342006-07-07T15:09:00.000-04:002006-07-07T15:28:37.763-04:00

I've been tracking win probabilities for the World Cup since the quarterfinals, using ELO rankings, and so far, the ELO rankings have called 4 of the 6 games (failing to predict Italy's win over Germany in the semis and France's quarterfinal win over Brasil). So as we head into the final weekend, here are the updated ELO rankings, following the method outlined here to update after the semi-final

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152283587660070102006-07-07T10:26:00.000-04:002006-07-07T10:47:15.643-04:00

I've talked before about the foolishness of the next generation DVD war, and a recent article at eetimes.com highlights the first salvo in the war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. They cite a study done by a analysis firm (iSuppli) which finds that Toshiba is pricing its introductory HD-DVD player (the HD-A1) far below cost.The HD-A1 retails at $499 and iSuppli estimates that the parts in the machine

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152196420971162402006-07-06T10:17:00.000-04:002006-07-18T12:03:44.263-04:00

The Associated Press is reporting that three people have been arrested after stealing trade secrets from Coca-Cola and attempted to sell them to Pepsi for $1.5 million. The plot involved the theft of trade secrets and product samples (of an as yet unreleased Coke product) and one of the three alleged conspirators is a Coke employee. According to the article, after being contacted with an offer

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152108611018733482006-07-05T10:03:00.000-04:002006-07-05T10:10:11.040-04:00

The LA Times today argues that, in order to the jump-start the stalled Doha trade talks, the US ought to unilaterily drop its farm subsidies. Since the US's farm subsidies are widely used in intro economics courses as an example of how government regulations distort markets and cause deadweight loss, this proposal is one that most all economist should be behind. Money quote:Who does the U.S.

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1152105023413870872006-07-05T09:00:00.000-04:002006-07-05T09:10:23.456-04:00

Thanks to the long weekend, I've not been around much lately, but I thought it would be worthwhile to check in on how the ELO rating system did in predicting the quarterfinals. If you include the 100 point home field bonus for Germany against Argentina, then it nailed 3 of the 4 finals, with only France's dominating performance against Brasil going against what the system saw. As for yesterday's

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1151519906995883602006-06-28T14:02:00.000-04:002006-06-28T16:00:27.823-04:00

Baseball Prospectus today devotes a column to ELO ratings for baseball teams ($ reg.), after one of its writers stumbled upon ELO ratings for national soccer clubs. Since I had never stumbled on ELO ratings either for baseball or soccer, I found this very interesting.The ELO rating system was developed as an alternative rating system for ranking chess players and has since been adapted as a

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1151421232590943722006-06-27T10:44:00.000-04:002006-06-27T11:13:52.630-04:00

The Supreme Court agreed to consider a case that hinges on the "obviousness" standard of patent law. The "obviousness" standard holds that an innovation that would be obvious to someone skilled in the relevent art is not patentable. The specific case, Teleflex v. KSR, focuses on the alleged infringement of a gas-pedal patent that Teleflex holds for cars and light trucks. KSR had originally had

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150997063551179852006-06-22T13:14:00.000-04:002006-06-22T13:27:12.113-04:00

Bob Hebert's op-ed (paid sub. req.) in today's NY Times focuses on former Senator (and VP candidate) John Edward's speech at the national press club. The speech is today, but Hebert obtained a copy of Edward's draft, which he apparently wrote himself.Edwards (as he did in the 2002 campaign) is focusing his unofficial presidential campaign on a new war on poverty. He currently works as the

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150981388179419772006-06-22T09:01:00.000-04:002006-06-22T09:03:26.276-04:00

In the New York Times. There doesn't seem to be the best university system in China, no? Here's an excerpt:Shengda College in central China has a diverse curriculum, foreign faculty members to teach English and a manicured campus, where weeping willows shade a recreational lake.But many students paid the college's rich tuition — at $2,500 a year one of the highest in China — primarily because

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150979894402784322006-06-22T08:34:00.000-04:002006-06-22T08:38:38.483-04:00

I use all of the top 25 nouns in one (non-sensical) sentence:This time, I'd like to point out to the world that it's a fact that a major problem with the way things are done these days (either by a man, woman, or child) is that at work, or any place that involves a company or the government, a person is likely to work on a number of different cases in a week, a month, or a year and a person in

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150978562240767972006-06-22T08:04:00.000-04:002006-06-22T08:16:02.273-04:00

Yesterday the FCC launched a review into the ownership regulations for media, specifically the ban on cross-ownership of print and television media in the same market. (That is, currently the FCC does not allow a company to own both a television station and a newspaper in the same market.) The Republicans on the commission are seen to be in favor of lifting these restrictions, and chairman

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150842069576609882006-06-20T18:09:00.000-04:002006-06-20T18:23:04.700-04:00

A neat new working paper from Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Rob Waldfogel entitled Media Markets and Localism: Does Local News en Español Boost Hispanic Voter Turnout? has just been released. They point out that as regulators struggle with the decisions to allow national (and international) "control" of local media outlets, it is important to understand the different effects that local media have

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150819829946053262006-06-20T12:03:00.000-04:002006-06-20T12:10:29.960-04:00

Slashdot links to a Reuters story on cheating in Chinese university entry exams:With 9.5 million students competing for only 2.6 million vacancies, some universities installed cameras and mobile-phone blocking technology at exam halls to foil the cheats.But students "racked their brains" and in some cases injured themselves with "low-quality devices" to come up with new ways to cheat, state media

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6529190.post-1150811985524407932006-06-20T09:21:00.000-04:002006-06-20T09:59:45.560-04:00

I found this chart in US Weekly this week: (Who knew US Weekly actually had facts in it?)Celebrity CoupleBaby/iesPhoto Sale PriceDate of BirthBrad Pitt & Angelina JolieShiloh$4.1 millionMay 27, 2006Catherine Zeta-Jones & Michael DouglasDylan$875,000August 8, 2000 Britney Spears & Kevin FederlineSean Preston$500,000September 14, 2005Julia Robert & Danny ModerHazel & Phinnaeus$100,000-

Tony Vallencourthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06640680964080820351noreply@blogger.com0