Something's getting stranger

One of those exchanges that needs no further explanation, from the newsgroup rec.bicycles.misc:

> Bill wrote:

> I keep spare money, $100 bills, rolled up and about 5 each in a piece of
> 1/2" pipe threaded with caps on both ends. Each of these is a $500 stash.
> I don't even remember where I tossed some of them, but I do take a few
> tossed in my car on trips, just in case. If a cop ever pulled me over and
> demanded to see my trunk would they blow up my car?
> This country is getting stranger by the day. I wonder if we will have a
> new, Republican written Constitution by the time Bush get done with it.

Bob responded:
Just so I understand... you say you keep your spare money in what sounds like
phony pipe bombs and you think the country is "getting stranger"? Oooookay.

What states are more generous?

Stephen Harding wrote:
>
> The annual report on charitable giving just came out, and
> once again, the richest states (CT, MA and New England) scored
> at the bottom, while poorest states (MS, AL) where at the top.
>
The overall data is generously provided at
http://www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org/cfp/db/generosity.php?year=2004&orderby=giving_rank

Being a statistician means I have a strange idea of fun, so I took a look at the data.
The way they analyzed it isn't wrong, but it's also possible to reach an entirely different conclusion.

Poor states like Mississippi did NOT come out on top in their ranking because they gave a lot. They don't; they rank 29th among all states in charitable deductions per return at $929, below the US average of $1072.

They come out on top for two reasons. First, relatively few people in Mississippi itemize deductions (21% versus a US average of 31%) and the catalogue divided by the number of returns that itemized, not all returns.

The average return in Connecticut had almost $400 MORE charitable deductions than the average return in Mississippi ($1309 versus $929, ranking 5th).  But more people in CT itemize (40% versus 21%).

So, why do the people in CT itemize more than the people in MS? The answer is simple. You itemize when itemizing makes more sense than taking the standard deduction. MS has lower taxes to deduct, so fewer people will find it to their advantage to itemize. If few people itemize, those that do itemize will tend to be the biggest givers. CT has higher taxes to deduct, so more people will itemize rather than take the standard deduction. If many people itemize, then the donation average per return will be skewed by the fact that those itemize will not just be big givers, but medium givers as well.

The catalogue people also adjusted for adjusted gross income -- NOT adusted gross income for returns which itemized, but total adjusted gross income. This isn't unreasonable, but does create a sort of apple-and-orange comparison.

So, to provide a contrast, I looked at the average charitable deduction per return, which is NOT what the catalogue for philanthropy report, although it can be calculated from their numbers.

I would contend that either way of analyzing the data is useful. The Catalog for Philanthropy's method serves to remind us that states with lower incomes can contain just as much generosity. My method is more useful for figuring out where people are willing to give more cash. But my method is still flawed by the difference in itemizing by state.

Overall, states that look good their way look bad my way, producing a small negative correlation.

By this standard, the most generous states are Utah, Maryland, and New York. The least generous state is West Virginia, followed by the two Dakotas.

The notable exceptions where the ratings agree are Utah, which looks generous either way (#8 on theirs, #1 on mine) and New Hampshire (#50 on theirs, #43 on mine). I would suspect Mormon encouragement of tithing has something to do
with the Utah results.

More typical are states like Louisiana (#4 for them, #42 for me) and New Jersey (#47 for them, #6 for me).

If you e-mail me I will provide the spreadsheet with my added columns of calculations; you won't find the numbers above directly on the spreadsheet the web
link provides.

Stinkin' Lucky

I was riding home from the train station last night in the dark after a hard day. I was feeling tired and lethargic and just wanted to get home.

Suddenly a large skunk sashayed out of the bushes right in front of my bike. I had instant visions of hitting the skunk with my front wheel, going over the handlebars and breaking an arm, collarbone, or other valuable body part -- AND getting sprayed by the skunk for my trouble. I braked.

The skunk, meanwhile, was similarly panicked. The skunk pivoted, claws scratching and grabbing the concrete. He pulled out of the way, I swerved a bit, and rolled by. I may have run over the tip of his tail, but basically missed him. I guess he didn't have time to spray.

Commuter's Triathalon

Many mornings I complete a triathalon before I go to work. It's not quite as strenuous as the Ironman triathalon, though:

Ironman: 2.4 mile swim, 112 miles on bike, 26 mile run

Commuter: 2.4 minute shower, 1.12 miles biking to the train station, .26 mile walk to the office.

Quartercolon making its marks

"The International Grammar Standards Organization has approved the quartercolon for use starting in June of 2004. This is the first new punctuation mark added to the English language since IGSO approved the exclamation mark in 1914."

http://bbspot.com/News/2004/05/quartercolon.html

A colon looks like two periods over each other. A semicolon looks like a period over a comma. The quartercolon looks like two commas over each other.  See the link above for proper usage hints.

Personally, I think it's a sign that some keyboard manufacturer hired a marketing guy who used to work at Hallmark. Just as those fake holidays (Divorced Grandparents Day?) spur greeting card sales, a new punctuation mark every 5 years or so could spur keyboard sales.

Eulogy for a Schwinn Sprint Bicycle

Yesterday, my faithful 1980 Schwinn Sprint bicycle was retired. Stripped. Put into the back of the basement so its remaining parts could be used at some future date.

I bought this bike 5 years ago, in June 1999, at the St. Catherine Laboure rummage sale for $40. I wasn't sure if I ever wanted to ride a drop handlebar road bike again, and this seemed like a cheap way to find out. I intended to do maybe 2,000 or 3,000 miles on the bike until either I figured out drop bars were no longer for me, or I figured out what I really wanted in a road bike and got a new one. I put 8,551 miles on that bike -- only my winter / bad weather / urban commuter bike has more miles on it during the last 4 years.

Our relationship started slowly. The wheels were shot and wouldn't hold a tire on the rim at normal pressure. I tried to sell the bike at my own garage sale but got no takers. But instead of throwing the bike out, I got a new set of wheels for it, moved the shifters from the stem (!) to the downtube, and started riding it in spring of 2000.

It became my summer bike, my club ride bike, and my touring bike for the last 4 years. All of my longest rides (131, 130, 117, 115) and back-to-back centuries are on this bike. I did RAGBRAI across Iowa on this bike (cursing it as I broke 3 spokes on the last day, had to sag in the last few miles).

The Schwinn Sprint was a cheap bike when new. It had gone through one owner already. I didn't maintain it to last forever because I only intended it ride it until I determined what I really wanted. It aged. When I tried to raise the handlebars I discovered rust had fused the front fork together.  The right pedal couldn't removed, because it had been cross-threaded. The frame was slightly bent. 

I bought another inexpensive road bike -- this one a "new" Fuji 10 speed that had sat in a bike shop basement since maybe 1989/1990. I spent yesterday swapping parts -- taking the light brackets, rack, water bottle cage, etc. off the Schwinn Sprint and putting them on the Fuji. I swapped the front wheel as well. The bike is now an amalgam and will be even more so when I swap handlebars and brake hoods (The Fuji has awful brake levers with the extra lever you can use from the top of the handlebars.)

So, in a sense, I just bought some spare parts and a replacement frame. The bike is still evolving, in a way that old bicycles can do, but cars don't. Sort of like the tourist who was shown George Washington's axe.

"Is that really his axe?" asks the tourist.

"Of course it's his axe. We've had to replace to handle 4 times and the head twice, but it's George Washington's axe," replies the tour guide.

I haven't yet figured out what I want in a road bike. In the meantime there's riding to do.

 

 

Too Willing to Help?

A recent nonscientific poll on TheHistoryNet asked:

"Do you believe today's America would be willing to make the same level of sacrifices for other nations as was made during World War II?" We had a total of 2,683 votes for this poll. The results are as follows:

Yes: 23%
No: 72%
Don't Know: 5%

I wonder if this is correct. Before World War II, America was rather isolationist and seemed inclined to avoid foreign entanglements.

These days, we ARE the foreign entanglements, and a little dose of isolationist skepticism might have done us good in 2002 and 2003, and might do us some good now.

There was such widespread support for World War II precisely because we avoided getting in until the issue was crystal clear.

 

 

Specialist Joseph M. Darby, Hero

When you do your duty because it is the right thing to do, that's being a hero to me.

From the New York Times, May 22, 2004

"Specialist Joseph M. Darby had just arrived ...when his friend ...showed him a picture ...of a naked prisoner chained to his cell with his arms hung above him.

"The Christian in me says it's wrong," Specialist Darby would later tell investigators ...Specialist Darby came forward two months later... after deciding that the photo and others he saw were "morally wrong."

He said in his sworn testimony: "I knew I had to do something. I didn't want to see any more prisoners being abused because I knew it was wrong."

....In alerting criminal investigators, Specialist Darby, a 24-year-old from from Maryland, stood out from other soldiers who learned of the abuse. ... many other people, including medics, dog handlers and military intelligence soldiers ... saw or heard of similar pictures of abuse, witnessed it or heard abuse discussed openly at Abu Ghraib months before the investigation started ..."

Where were those other Christians? Where was that small, still voice telling them they were doing wrong?

Religious have more reason to commit crimes

"Helge Moulding"  wrote in message news:c8f02u$nca$1@terabinaries.xmission.com... >
>  > Many non-believers commit crimes.
>
> But believers commit more of them. Believers have more reasons to commit
> crimes than non-believers. Not only are believers subject to the
> ordinary temptations of all people, but they get to add the impulse to
> do bad things in the name of their deity. And, yes, I know, you're gonna
> point out that believers should fear the wrath of God. Except I see no
> actual evidence that that's so. Al Capone went to church on Sundays, you
> know.
>
I'm not sure what's more depressing: Helge's argument, or the fact that I agree with it.   Old friends, most of whom are Catholic, sometimes ask why on earth I joined a small, obscure, declining religion. I explain that this denomination, having so few members and a tolerant ideology, is too small to persecute anyone. If we were large and powerful[*], we would probably turn let power go to our heads in some way [insert obligatory Lord Acton quote about here].     The fact that the church was right across the street didn't hurt, either.    

 

[*] insane would work, too. Even small religions can be dangerous if crazy.

Prison Abuse is Human Nature

If the 20th century taught us anything, it's that civilized people can
easily fall into inhuman behavior. Turks (against Armenians), Germans
(against Jews), Hutu (against Tutsi), Serbs (against Albanians), Cambodians
(against Cambodians) -- these examples show us that the patina of
civilization we wear is very thin and vulnerable.   There's nothing
particular about American history or genetics that would lead anyone to
think Americans would be immune from such behavior.

It is systems and training and discipline and rules of engagement and all
that other bureaucratic stuff that's supposed to keep the amount of bad
behavior under very, very difficult circumstances under control.

Unfortunately, in the Iraq war we prepared for the quick campaign well, but were
inadequately planned for what happened after "Mission Accomplished". The
fact that we didn't adequately plan how to run military prisons is just one
more area where the Bush administration was too darned optimistic that the
Iraq was would be short and glorious.

As we go up the chain of command, they should be blamed if they knew about
it, and blamed if they didn't know about it. It's their job to lead and to
control.

If there is a silver lining to this situation, it may lie in the fact that
the controls will surely be enforced now to prevent more serious
atrocities -- ones in which thousands of people die -- from being inflicted
on civilian populations by American troops.

All brothers under the skin: Mother's Day edition

Sunday, May 9, 7 a.m.:  I drove our minivan to the supermarket. Ahead of me in the
parking lot was another man in a old minivan. I noticed we had opposing
bumper stickers.

His: Bush-Cheney '04.
Mine: Also a Bush sticker, but "Bush '04: Lies, Damned Lies, and Lies of
Mass Destruction".

Him: bumper sticker for a local, born-again Christian high school
Me: bumper sticker for farther away, liberal Protestant high school

Him: bumper sticker for Wheaton College (conservative Christian college)
Me: bumper sticker for Kalamazoo College (secular, slightly liberal college)

Him: NRA sticker (National Rifle Association)
Me: AYSO sticker (American Youth Soccer Association)

Nevertheless, despite our political differences I followed him into the
store, joined him in throwing a bouquet of flowers into the cart, and in
pawing quickly through the remaining stack of Mother's Day cards until we
each found one that was good enough.  We were not so different after all.

The bicycle as religious symbol

Long bicycle rides offer the opportunity to meditate. The steady rhythm of pedals, pavement and breathing focus the mind on essential things.

 

While riding, I have discovered that the bicycle itself is a symbol of the marriage of goodness and truth.  The front wheel steers and therefore represents wisdom.  The back wheel provides the energy to move you forward, represents good works, powered by love.

 

Neither wheel is more important than the other, or sufficient alone. It is true that the back wheel alone (i.e. a unicycle) provide transport, but with more difficulty and more chance of a fall.

 

Since this is such powerful symbolism, might the lack of bicycles in the Bible indicate a flaw in my argument? No.

 

The stories in the Word generally reflect an agricultural culture of permanent relevance. These references were appropriate to the time, and are still powerful. We may no longer be farmers, but agricultural references like “The sower went out to sow the seed. (Luke 8) and “The Lord is my shepherd” (Psalm 23) are still clear.

 

Technological references are often time bound and can be hard to understand once the technology changes. But there are some technology bound references in the Word, indicating they are not inappropriate in themselves. The analogy of the disciples to salt in (Matthew 5) is hard to understand now since our understanding of “salt” is so different: “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its strength, what shall it be salted with? It of no more use than to be trodden underfoot by men.“  How can salt lose strength? Why put it underfoot in a country without ice?

 

Even though the largely agricultural language of the Word is more appropriate for a book that will be read forever, technologically-specific references do occur in the Word, indicating the symbolic value of technology can be useful while that technology is familiar. A bicycle is technology that is familiar to most of us since we were children.

 

So, we should take advantage of bicycle rides to contemplate how, propelled by love and guided by wisdom, the rider progresses forward.

Mouth Breathers

from the newsgroup rec.bicycles.misc:

Badger_South: My brother has just started biking but is in decent shape. He claims to be able to ride with only breathing through the nose. I find this almost impossible to believe [...] 

me: How big is his nose?
 
Badger_South: 5'4"

max: Then your brother is probably telling the truth. :-)

Hey, be nice!

"Except for a tiny number of blogs that have gained prominence, all this techno-chattiness remains just that: an immature form of communication .... Most are moldering in cyberspace..." (Gregory Lamb in the Christian Science Monitor, 4/15/04)

Outsourcing by Fortune Cookie?

There are hundreds of layoffs occurring this month where I work, and the new company president is rumored to be very detail oriented in addition to being very determined to move our jobs to Asia.

Still, when I went for the stir-fry entry at the company cafeteria today, I was unprepared when the fortune cookie that said "A surprise announcement will free you."

That's being a bit more detail-oriented than I'd expect.

Thailand and Cambodia trip notes

I spent much of February, 2004, travelling with my daughter in Thailand and Cambodia. Here are some notes:

http://hometown.aol.com/mikekr/myhomepage/Thailand.htm

Bush ruins marriage

George W. Bush has proposed increasing the federal deficit by starting a ten-digit federal program to improve marriage.

Given the past history of government programs, I'm predicting the percentage marriage stats will decline between now (2003 data) and when W leaves office.

(in line with W, I'm omitting gay marriage, "living in sin", second and subsequent marriages, polygamy, bestiality and anything other than one  man, one woman, of the right age, getting married before their first child)

Bush "Damned Lies" Sticker

Irregular Times took a suggestion of mine and made a bumper sticker out of it.

"Bush '04: Lies, Damned Lies, and Lies of Mass Destruction"

There are a lot of other items there which will amuse or infuriate you, depending on your political leanings. I get no royalties on this sticker, so pick any anti-Bush sticker you like.

Bicycle Commute Glenview to Chicago

I've posted pictures of my bicycle commute from Glenview to Chicago. It's an 18-20 mile one way trip, so there are quite a few pictures and a fair amount of variety to the route. Comments appreciated.

Thought for the Day

If we acknowledge the divine providence of the Lord in everything, the Lord leads us in agreement with our love for goodness and truth.

 

Apocalypse Explained 1174

Emanuel Swedenborg

Adopting a journalist?

Wired News reports “Some politically minded bloggers find a new way to keep themselves busy this campaign season: They "adopt" a journalist and track his or her every keystroke.” (by Noah Shachtman). 

Wow. That’s a lot of work. Somebody like Eric Zorn writes several columns a week, plus a blog. The Wired writer, Schachtman, isn’t suitable either. He’s done 227 other Wired stories.

I’d want to track somebody who didn’t write so much.

Somebody dead, so they can't suddenly go all productive on me.

I could find somebody being tracked by other people. So, I could comment about their commentary.

I wouldn’t want to do it on my own time. And, I wouldn’t want to do it where I had to hide the activity from my employer. Ideally, I’d like to get paid for this. That would be cool.

I’d like this job to be respected. I know the people I’m writing about just used regular names, but I’d like to be called .... Professor.

I guess this explains why academic jobs in the humanities are hard to get, even though the pay is low.

 

Mortality

A bad day for feeling young.
I tried the "clock test" for Alzheimer's on this page: http://www.pbs.org/theforgetting/symptoms/testing.html and my clock pretty much matched the description of early Alheimer's. So, I had my boss take the test. His clock looked exactly like the "good" example.

While waiting for the dentist, I read an article in Bicycling magazine which stated that high mileage cyclists are at increased risk of osteoporesis. I did over 5,000 miles in 2004.

The dentist spent a long time examining my tongue, muttered something like "Hmm ... might be precancerous." He took some pictures, and asked me to see him in a month. He might recommend a biopsy. 

I think I'll go to bed now.

Winter bike to work day

Today was Winter bike to work day, so I figured I'd ride in despite the 8 degree temperature.

There was a small group at Daley Plaza (about 7:20), with the CBF providing hot chocolate, t-shirts, and donuts or cookies or something like that.  I got interviewed by WGN channel 9, probably because my ski mask made a good visual; channel 7 was also there.  I saw two fellow Evanston Bike Club members, Dave Barish and Dave Skogley.

It's odd when people tell you they saw you on TV, but you didn't get a chance to see the film yourself.

2003: a good year for bicycling

Highlights:
I achieved my New Year's resolution to do a century in every month (metric
OK if below freezing).
I finally did a brevet (OK, so it was only the 200K brevet, but ...)
Touring: a 7 day, 650+ mile trip from Kalamazoo, MI to Petoskey, MI and back home to Chicago. This was a wonderful trip -- no rain, no flats, and no negative incidents I can recall.
I finally went mountain biking at Kettle Moraine Forest in Wisconsin this fall. I got a 1-day UCI licence and entered a cyclocross race. Both were great fun (even finishing 39th out of 43 in the race).
Mileage: 5079 (a new high for me).

2004 goals:
Fewer miles. I'm using up most of my annual vacation on a trip abroad, and I want to do more volunteer rehabilitation work in the local forest preserves.
My resolution is not to obsess about the lower mileage.
On the other hand, doing a 300K brevet would be an interesting goal, too. ;)

Santa - the true story

Yes, Fuzzy Math Gurus, there is a Santa Claus.

There are "facts" floating around the internet, "proving" that one Santa just couldn't do it all, but they fail too see the obvious conclusion -- FRANCHISING!  This also explains why "Santa" is often known as "Santa Claus". 
Let me explain:

1.  Yes, it's true Santa would need to make 822.6 visits per second, or 2,961,360 per hour.  However, if we assume that there are 740,340 worldwide Santas (the exact number is known only to the Salvation Army), then each Santa has to make 1 visit only every 15 minutes.

2.  Roughly speaking, this is

5 minutes for travel (footnote below)
1 minute for sorting out that house's gifts
1 minute for chimney diving / lock picking
3 minutes for gift arranging
2 minutes for cookie eating
1 minute for exiting premises and returning to sleigh
2 minutes "slack" time for unforseen events (most commonly, large dogs)
---
15 minutes

3.  "Santa" is, of course, a very sought after title, and the geographic franchises to be the local "Santa" are subject to yearly adjustments due to population shifts.  The changes in the legal paragraphs governing geographic territories in the "Santa" agreement are called "Santa Clauses", a term which eventually has been commonly applied to "Santas" themselves.

Thanks for the opportunity to clear this up.

Footnote: The travel time has been reduced considerably in this century by the use of "jet sleighs" manufactured by Boeing.  The original model 7 sleigh, in fact, is what gave the Boeing corporation its name.  Elves, noticing how the new sleighs (with, sadly, aluminum reindeer) bounced from housetop to housetop, cheered "Boing! Boing!", which in an Elvin accent sounded like "Boeing! Boeing!". 

Picture above: Santas start training -- if they can't ride a bike, they will never master the sleigh!

Leak-thru paths

A list of leak-through paths (bike/pedestrian shortcute) in Glenview, Illinois has been added to my home page, making that home page not quite useless.

http://hometown.aol.com/mikekr/myhomepage/index.htm 

Do bicyclists really get in the way? part 1

This was written in response to Eric Peters' article

http://channels.netscape.com/ns/autos/package.jsp?name=autos/sharing_road1
a piece he wrote on bicycles sharing the road -- or, in his view, hogging it.

  There are some good points on which bicyclist behavior could be improved. Certainly there are bicyclists who ride incorrectly, and a couple of traffic tickets might go far toward improving that. In particular, only idiots bike at night without at least the legal minimum lights and reflectors.
  However, there's a general attitude in your article, that everybody should
get the heck out of my way. There's also, in my opinion, a general
misunderstanding of who is in whose way.
  Are good cyclists really in anybody's way, any more than they would be if
they were just one more solo driver in a Lincoln Navigator? That's doubtful.
I'm in a suburban household with 4 drivers and two cars, and personally
seldom drive. Instead, I bike over 4,000 miles a year (and take the train to
work).
  Back when I was in a car for those miles, I was one more solo driver
clogging up the road. I was the last car that made it through a traffic
light, so you had to wait.  I took up the last close parking spot, so you
had to park a block away.

Do bicyclists really get in the way? part 2

 You had to wait 5 minutes for me while I finished
pumping my gas. I parked in front of your house, which was a real pain in
the butt because nobody wants to see a red 1982 Ford Escort out their front
window. My buddies and I drove to the gym during evening rush hour, and
caused you to be an extra minute late every working day because of the jam
near the gym. I got rid of my pennies at the toll booth, which made the
automatic counter take an extra ten seconds counting them.  My car alarm
went off when you leaned on my car to tie your shoe. Every other month, I
hit the "panic button" instead of the "door unlock" and it took me 20
seconds to figure out how to turn it off. I drove the speed limit in the
left lane of the expressway.
  I was Everyman in a white minivan.  You didn't notice ME, because there were
so many of ME, and because I was YOU, too.
  On my bike, I'm noticeable because I'm different, just like you notice the
neighbor who owns a yellow Corvette. But am I really in your way any more
than I was then? No. I'm just more visible. (and in a lot better shape than
I used to be)