The Nobel Truth Revealed

I saw this post here, on Mankiw's blog. Here's some more good satire from Harvard economist N. Greg Mankiw about winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

First-Year Grad Student Wins Nobel Prize in Economics!

From the Associated Press (with some light editing):

Pfuffnick's Nobel Economics Prize triumph hailed by many

LONDON — The surprise choice of first-year graduate student Quintus Pfuffnick for the Nobel Prize in Economics drew praise from much of the world Friday even as many pointed out the youthful economist has not yet published anything in scholarly journals.

The new PhD candidate was hailed for his willingness to tackle difficult problems, his commitment to improving the economic system, and his goal of bringing efficiency and equality into harmony.

Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton, who won the prize in 2008, said Pfuffnick's award shows great things are expected from him in the coming years.

"In a way, it's an award coming near the beginning of the first year in grad school of a relatively young economist that anticipates an even greater contribution towards making our economy a better place for all," he said. "It is an award that speaks to the promise of Mr Pfuffnick's message of hope."

He said the prize is a "wonderful recognition of Pfuffnick's essay in his grad school application."

Eid Mubarak! (Happy Eid!)

The Hajj is one of the most important holidays for Muslims, right up there with Ramadan, (though I must confess, I'm not sure which is more important). You can see a great interactive graphic/map of the hajj on here on cnn.com. I'll give a bit of an explanation below, but for those of you who are more knowledgeable, feel free to comment!

So what is the Hajj, exactly? Some people are probably aware that in Islam, there are five pillars that each Muslim must do in his or her life: giving alms, saying the shahadah (There is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his prophet), praying five times a day, fasting during Ramadan and lastly, going on the pilgrimage to Mecca, or, the Hajj. The Hajj in particular retraces some of the steps of Ibrahim (Abraham, as most westerners would know him) as outlined in the Qu'ran, where Ibrahim was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael to God.

Here in Bahrain, while many people are not participating the pilgrimage to Mecca, there are plenty of others who are participating in celebrations. One thing that is commonly practiced is the killing of a sheep, and then giving the meat to people who are in need. I haven't seen the actual slaughter yet, but I did see a very large truck-load of sheep being taken somewhere. And probably not to the green pastures near still waters.

As for Alison and I, we are grateful that this Eid (which means festival) falls on the weekend of American Thanksgiving! Alison does not have school tomorrow (Thursday) and does not start school again till next Wednesday. Nor am I teaching classes at the ACEC, which means we both have some time off. Tomorrow we are hosting thanksgiving in conjunction with our neighbor, Linda, for 25 or 30 some odd people! Its going to be quite a feat, none of it organized by me. Me - I'm just the brute labor. I'll probably be moving furniture and carrying turkeys.

The Masjid al Haram, the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The large black structure in the middle of the mosque is the directions that all Muslims pray towards, where ever they are in the world.

All Speaking English, But Not All the Same Language

This last week, I sat down in a meeting with a woman who was visiting Bahrain and is originally from New Zealand. With us was another man from India who's lived in Bahrain for the last two years or so. As we started getting down to business, it wasn't long before I realized that, while we were all speaking English, these two people didn't really understand - at all - what the other was saying.

It wasn't that one was using vocabulary that the other didn't understand, or that someone's accent was too strong and therefore unintelligible (for the most part). Quite often, they understood the words coming out of their mouths. However, they didn't at all understand what each was meaning!

In fact, it became such an issue that eventually I became the translator. At first, I was just putting in a few words to help clarify, but it became evident that doing this was the best method of communicating what the other meant. After a little bit, they would both look to me for translation. One would say something and ask a question and they would both turn their heads to me so that I could translate. Then the other would respond - after which they would both look at me so I could translate!

Who would've known that such things are possible!

Physics is Phun! And Projectiles are the Icing on the Cake

Really, what boy doesn't like projectiles - particularly throwing his own projectiles. Now, just imagine the excitement that comes from CREATING something that can launch projectiles! That's what I call homework. Incidentally, that's what Alison calls homework, too.

In her 10th grade physics class a few weeks ago, she had them all do a project where they needed to create a catapult that could project a ping-pong ball at least 50cm. I'm not sure what the unit was - probably something to do with motion and projectiles (she has thus informed me that "projectile motion" was the name of the unit. I get an "A").

The students had a good time doing it, and I was duly impressed with the projects and posters hanging in Alison's classroom. The students obviously worked very hard on these. If you look closely at two of the pictures, you can even see the pingpong ball being launched. Much further than the required 50 cm. You can see four of the catapults in the pictures below.*

So to all of her students - congratulations on fantastic projects! Yes - that's right. I know you read this blog. There are more pictures, and if you're interested, tell Ms. Alison and I'll post the rest of them on my picasa site (see link on the right), and you can download them yourself.

Setting up the catapult just so.

Watching carefully as the ball is launched.

I must say - that's quite a large catapult!

Small, but obviously very effective.

This makes you want to teach or take a physics class, doesn't it!
*You will notice an equal amount of pictures of boys and girls. This is to highlight the fact that we are equal opportunity teachers. We believe that both boys and girls have the same potential to do fantastic things in physics and we encourage all of them to go on and be famous scientists that will revolutionize the world with their inventions. I also believe they will all make stellar economists in 12th grade!

Cartoon of the Day

I'm an Obama fan in general, but I thought this was funny - and maybe a bit true. It comes as Germans (and many others) celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. As you may know, its a play on Ronald Reagan's declaration, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall!" only a few years before the wall crumbled.

In general, though, expectations have been too high for Obama, and after a year in office, I've heard people say that he hasn't done enough. Unfortunately (or fortunately), the system is made to be slow and cumbersome - not just in his case, but in any politicians case (which is by design). Hopefully some of those expectations will wain and become a little bit more realistic - even if I don't agree with some of his goals and aspirations.

I originally saw this cartoon here, on Carpe Diem.

Under Construction: A Little Blog Facelift

After over three years with this blog, I've decided to give it a bit of a face lift. I'm not quite sure if I am completely settled on it, so I may change it in the future. I'm sure you can handle that. However, I had a bit of a time trying to find a site that would give me a template for my blog.

You see, I know other people who have fantastic looking blogs - but they come from websites like "Cutest Blog on the Block". I mean, how could I keep my manly dignity and get a blog template from a website like THAT. I couldn't. Fortunately I found this one. If you have a blog, feel free to check out All Blog Tools to see other templates they have.

Who knows. Maybe I'll find some other interesting things to put on here.

Guidelines For Spending Time With Our Baby

If you are thinking of spending time with Alison and I and our baby once Round 2 comes (however little that may be), this will be an important blog for you to read.

One of the things I enjoy doing is downloading podcasts from Talk of the Nation, an NPR news show on in the afternoons (US time). Its fantastic because I can stick them on my ipod and listen to them throughout the week and keep up on all the drivel that's happening back in the US. Today, the topic of the show I listened to was on baby development. That is, how do parents make their babies smarter (apparently disney is refunding people who bought the Baby Einstien videos). In the course of the show, various parents called in singing praises about their own child's intelligence, and the show's host and guests were very careful not to say anything that would suggest the callers child was in any way 'average' or 'below average'.

Lets switch gears, but this will all tie in beautifully in the end.

I found a website this last year called "Stuff White People Like" (SWPL)- a blog written by someone who wants to articulate exactly what it is that white people, like myself, like. The commentary is biting and hilarious at the same time, often making observations that, while absurd, are oh-so-true. For instance, sea salt:

Regardless of how much a white person cooks or how long they have lived in their current home, they all have a tube of sea salt in their pantry. In fact, it’s one of the few foodstuffs that white people will actually bring with them when they move. This is because sea salt is expensive and while white people have money, they didn’t get that way by throwing away $7 packages of salt.

When white people think about regular salt, all they can think about sodium and poor health. When they think about Sea Salt they think about France. So it’s no surprise that it has become so popular.

Now, I'm no chef, but the whole idea of sea salt does seem a little over the top to me. Alison might disagree. However, the observations are very true, particularly the one about France.

This website, SWPL, also has a very important blog post on child ettiquite. I'm not sure if this applies just to white people or if it applies across the board. If you are not white and have children (or spend lots of time with non-white people who have children) - please feel free to inform me of the proper ettiquite. More accurately, this post is on gifted children and how all children are gifted. I've included the most important part here.

If you see their kid playing peacefully, you say “oh, he/she seems very focused, are they in a gifted program?” at which point the parent will say “yes.” Or if the kid is lighting a dog on fire while screaming at their mother, you say “my he/she is a creative one. Is he/she gifted?” To which the parent will reply “oh, yes, he’s too creative and smart for school. We just don’t know what to do.”

But NEVER under any circumstance imply that their child is less than a genius. The idea that something could come from them and be less than greatness is too much for them to bear.

So there you have it. Guidelines for what you say to Alison and I about our child. He/she is gifted and will be the next Albert Einstine or Madam Curie.