Taking stock in the track: horse races and brokerages
This column was inspired by an interview I did with sports reporter Mark McGuire at the Albany Times Union. His story, in anticipation of the Saratoga races, can be found…
Posted inBook review
Closing Time, by Joe Queenan
Closing Time: A memoir by Joe Queenan Viking Recommendation: Borrow from a library if you're going fishing and think you won't be catching much. Joe Queenan's dad was a self-defeating…
Posted inStatistics
The MIT Dahn Yoga Brain Respiration Experiment: Part I
This series originally begin 3 January 2009. This is only Part I; the remaining parts are linked below. INTRODUCTION On 20 September 2004, in the Physics Department at MIT, sponsored…
How to gamble if you must
Our title comes from a famous paper by Lester Dubbins and Leonard Savage which appeared at the beginning of the Bayesian Theoretical Resurgence, a movement which, I am delighted to…
Hey, Hollywood, I’ll do it for free
The Problem This relevant scene appears in an uncountable number of movies. What happens when you plunge head first through a glass window? Anybody? That's right. You die. It's you…
Pink horror
Why do people occasionally enjoy having the bejesus scared out of themselves by watching horror movies? Maybe it's a way to relieve stress or to recall vague, primal memories of…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Gay marriage and tradition: a continuation
In Big Jake , John Wayne and Bruce Cabot ready themselves for the final battle against the bad guys. Wayne: Well, Sam, they say the elk in Montana are as…
Posted inBook review Culture
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System by Paul Fussell
Recommendation: read When Fussell wrote in 1982 (and published in 1983), he said that acknowledging the class divisions that exist in America exist was poor form and that doing so…