Don't Worky--Be Happy

The UN calls for a "happiness economy."

Reminds me of the old joke:  Guy making a speech about how, come the revolution, everyone will have mass transit and "planned urban communities" to live in, so they can walk to everything.

Guy in the back, timidly, says, "But what if I don't think those things will make me happy?"

Speaker roars, into the microphone:  "Oh, citizen, come the revolution, those things WILL make you happy!"

My Week at Hermosa Beach

So, here is the panorama.  My hotel, the Beach House, is the one with the white railings, the one I stop on briefly going from the left to right.  A pleasant little spot...

Mr. Rajoy gets something right

And that something was,"España no es Uganda".

No mountain gorillas, no chimps, no tree-climbing lions, no future for their young people, a worse credit rating, Spain is indeed quite distinct.

 Hey Mariano! Want to know something else Spain isn't anymore? Spain.


 Hat tip to Matt Y, who perhaps not surprisingly has a different take.

Jeff Sachs never gives up

Sachs has taken it on the chin recently with his Lancet piece being widely attacked and partially retracted. But he's not been humbled. Check out segments of this recent interview:


Q: Well, do you have evidence the approach is working? 


 JS: It depends what you mean by evidence. Some of my critics say we need to do these ‘randomized controlled trials’ (aka RCTs) as if what we’re doing is testing a red pill against a blue pill. What we’re doing has nothing to do with anything like that. It cannot be reduced down to such a simple and narrow test. We have been working with these communities for years to figure out how best to improve food production, get more kids in school, deliver clean drinking water, build infrastructure and encourage business development. This is not a randomized controlled trial; it’s a learning process.

Nice Bill Clinton (it depends on what you mean by "is") there Jeffrey!

Also an impressive summary of how RCTs work. They are science fiction, right out of the Matrix.

People, you know there's more:

Moving on up

As we wait on the Finals to begin, I thought I'd write a bit about the Thunder's playoff run so far.

As is well known, the team committed the most turnovers in the Association and got the fewest assists in the regular season. However, I want to compare last year's playoff stats to this year's. I think this is a better comparison rather than regular season to playoffs as the bad teams are not in the playoffs.

In the 2010-11 playoffs (17 games) the Thunder has the most turnovers (14.9),  were 10th in assists (17.6), shot 44% (31.6% on 3s).  Russell shot 39% and averaged 4.6 turnovers. KD shot 45%.

In the 2011-12 playoffs (15 games so far) the Thunder are 14th in turnovers (11.2), and 6th in assists (18.7). Russell is shooting 43.6% (35% on 3s) and averaging only 2.3 turnovers.  KD is shooting 50.5 %.

So compared to last year's playoff run which ended in the Conference Finals, the Thunder are passing the ball and taking care of the ball much better. There is much less of KD trying to "post up" while Russell dribbles out the shot clock. The offense is much more efficient.

They are also playing much better defense. In the 2010-11 playoffs, they gave up 100.6 points per game. In the 2011-12 playoffs they are only giving up 95.7.

It sounds like a dumb cliche, but Durant has really calmed down, matured, "grown up", and Westbrook is making progress in those areas as well. San Antonio really contained Harden when he drove to the basket so he's going to have to make some adjustments there, but I think the Thunder will beat either Boston or Miami and win the championship this year.

If Boudreaux wore a barrette....

.......he'd be Mike Miller!

Don't take my word for it; feast your eyes:

Living it up at the Hamptons

So, the feds prosecuted former Senator John Edwards.  FAIL.

And the feds are going after Douglas Hampton, really hard.

But former Senator Ensign gets a free pass.

Even though Hampton cooperated with the Justice Department, and gave the lawyers PLENTLY to hammer Ensign with.  There is actually a case against Ensign.  He should go to jail.  But.... nothing.

A deal?  Ensign may know something about Democratic Senator..... Anonyman wants to know.

BlogDolt

Got this email today:

Hello Mike,

My name is Matilda Thompson, social media manager at Blogdash.com. We’ve been following your blog at http://www.duke.edu for a while now and your writing style is pretty great! I’m willing to bet PR agencies and Brands might find it appealing as well.

So we selected your site to offer you a revenue share partnership.  Let me know if you’d be interested in this opportunity and I’ll follow-up with more details!

Best regards,

Matilda Thompson

Matilda@blogdash.com

www.blogdash.com

My response:  Gosh, Matilda, thanks for the compliment!  It would mean more if the "blog" you identify as admiring were something other than the main Duke University web site.  I'll give you credit, Duke does post often, has lots of links, and they do produce some pretty impressive content!

However, if this is the level of care you idiots at BlogDash put into your work, I'd like to try to make sure that no one falls for your spam-phish.  So I thought I'd post your email on my ACTUAL blog.

And please don't contact me again.  You can contact that "blog" at Duke directly, if you want.  Just send an email to IMAmoron@duke.edu, and I'm sure they'll get right back to you.

Frampton Comes Unglued

As part of our continuing coverage of news of the arrest and incarceration of UNC physics Prof. Paul Frampton, we have some...well, some continuing coverage.

I have to admit they guy is growing on me.  We have talked about this before, and there may have been some incredulity in our electronic voices.  But as more facts come out, it turns out Dr. Frampton is pretty much like...most 65+ college profs.

(Read on, below the fold, for details)

Holy Spumoli!

"I can go all night" ~ Kevin Durant

"We have always been old" ~ Manu Ginobli

That pretty much tells the story, and Mrs. Angus and I can't wait til Tuesday night!