Steve Barr’s Blog

On Monday, September 3, 2007, Steve Fossett, the first person to fly a plane around the world without refueling and the first person to fly around the world in a balloon went missing in Nevada. An airplane he was flying failed to return. No one has any idea where he is.

Through the generous efforts of individuals at several organizations, detailed satellite imagery has been made available for his last known whereabouts.

Using Amazon.com’s mechanical turk service, a satellite pass has been made and the imagery has been divided in to about 5000 pieces. Mechanical turk will present you with 1 piece, which you can look at and see if that picture/area warrants further analysis. Do it!

On Monday, some friends and I rented canoes at the University of Washington aquatic center. It is really cool, in that it is really inexpensive ($4.50/canoe/hour) and there is a lot of exploring you can do. The entire area near under 520, under the on and off ramps, and small trails that lead through the arboretum, are open to exploration.

This is where we were:

View Larger Map

And here are some pictures



On Monday, as mentioned on my econsteve.com site, I went hiking. In particular, I went to Mount Si. If you are in the Seattle area and haven’t done Mount Si, I highly recommend it. It is near North Bend, and gains 3000 ft. in 4 miles, for an 8 mile round trip. Our group, Ray, Jerkolas, and myself, embarked from Seattle at 6:20 AM and were there just after 7.

We made great time on the way up and reached the trail’s summit (4167 ft.). From there, there is a quick scramble up “the haystack” a big rock formation, to reach the true summit (~4300 ft.). We of course did the scramble, and our view was that much better.

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure. Not quite as good as the real thing, but good nonetheless.

The group, on top of the haystack. Check out Mount Rainier in the background

The forest, taken on the way down

Ray and I looking out over North Bend. We could see all the way to Seattle and the sound

Tom, looking stoic as he gazes at Mount Rainier

Quote of the trip:
Tom: “I wonder where we can go for a lunch. A place where they well let in some tough, sweaty, sexy men like ourselves?”
Me: “Tom, anywhere will let us in. We’re tough, sweaty, sexy men. We’ve got the golden ticket to anywhere.”

A while ago, I took some pictures in “The Quad”, an area of the University of Washington campus that is known for its cherry blossom trees. I tried a couple of close up shots with blurred backgrounds. I’m not much of a photographer, but here is what I have.

A nice blossom.

A flower.

The trees, blurred people.

Enjoy.

Today is the launch of www.econsteve.com, my site for economics and mathematics. It will feature daily updates according to the following schedule:

• Monday - News
• Tuesday - Economists’ Toolbox
• Wednesday - Review of a paper from an academic journal
• Thursday - Theory
• Friday - Mathematical economics

Please check there often. I promise consistent, high quality content. There will also be a wiki hosted there for another of my projects, building innovative economics teaching environments using virtual worlds (Second Life), but that hasn’t been developed yet.

The launch of econsteve.com also forces a change in this blog to a more personal blog. Hence, the updated layout. This blog will become a repository for pictures, funny stories, and the entirety of my life that isn’t math or economics (which is hopefully substantial).

Enjoy.
-Stephen

Sorry for the lack of posts. There are some developments that have been happening purposely off the radar that will launch soon, revitalizing this blog and launching it into new echelons of content, utility, and glory.

Here’s an interesting observation. In the last 8 days, 90% of my consumption has occurred in either a resort, airport, movie theater, or sports stadium. After spending some time in these places, it has really affected my ability to judge what is a decent price. For example, at the resorts where I was staying, a Fiji water costs between 50 and 70 pesos ($5 to $7). At either the movies or stadium, water (not Fiji brand) was a bargain at $3.75. Airports are similar (for the record, I have been in 5 different airports in the last 8 days) Last night, near a hotel in downtown Chicago, I ran into a 7-Eleven to get some water, and, lo and behold, Fiji water priced at the low price of $2.83. I had never had a Fiji water before last night, but after seeing such a bargain, how could I refuse?

Arnold Kling at EconLog has a great post regarding taxing consumption, rather than income. Mike Moffat over at economics.about.com, adds a great insight.

To summarize, currently, the idea of “income tax” is that those who make more, should be taxed more. That seems fair, based on some notion of fairness. Kling makes the point that “When you earn income, you can either spend it on consumption, save it, or give it to charity. The latter two should not generate taxes.” This is a very valid point. Saving is good for the economy, and the US could certainly use higher levels of savings. And charity is good from an altruistic standpoint. A tax is a negative incentive, and there should never be a negative incentive on a positive behavior.

Moffat adds that the type of taxes we should pay on consumption are ones that compensate for the social cost, allowing consumers to pay the true cost of their consumption. True cost = nominal cost + social cost, where nominal cost is the “sticker price” and social cost is the cost of the effects of consumption. This would be a good way to implement a tax policy. If the true cost of consumption is inflicted upon consumers in the form of taxes, and those taxes go towards the improvement of the relevant issue (pollution, congestion, etc), then the market will naturally reach some equilibrium at some optimal level. Since the social costs have been factored in price, this will be the socially optimal level of consumption. That would be great.

• Work through Business, Economics, and Finance with Matlab, GIS, and Simulation models
• Backpack to the enchantments
• Overnight trip to Camp Muir
• Attend SLCC
• revamp this blog and build a list of topics, such that I can have a consistent daily post
• Climb Mount Adams and/or Mount Saint Helens

That should be a good start to the list. Any more ideas?

Matlab - a mathematician’s quantitative best friend. I just got matlab up and running on my Ubuntu’d laptop. There were some issues with JRE. I emailed Mathworks for support. They did a great job in addressing my problem and persisting until a solution was found. Kudos to Brian Worthington @ Mathworks for the great set of emails troubleshooting my problem. I highly respect a company that offers this level of support, especially on a $100 student version of the product.

As was the case with IBM, Mathworks has made me a loyal customer due to their tech support.

Sending Word documents as attachments is the internet equivalent of going to a house full of heroine addicts, stabbing them with intravenous needles, and then stabbing yourself right after, and then licking their toilet seat. Either behavior will likely lead to getting a virus.

So, don’t do it.