Market Power

Wordsmith

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has taken a big political risk:

After months of saying he would not agree to any statewide tax increases, Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Friday said he would break the budget stalemate with a proposal to increase the wholesale cost of cigarettes by 75 cents a pack, with the money going to health care and schools. …

While Pawlenty said he did not think his proposal to raise cigarette fees broke the no-tax-increase pledge he took as a candidate, one important critic differed -- the group that administered that pledge.

David Strom, president of the Taxpayers League of Minnesota, the lower-tax advocacy group that had Pawlenty publicly sign the pledge as a candidate, said that Pawlenty appeared to have gone back on his word.

"Is it a breaking of his pledge?" Strom said. "I think so. I don't see how this is a fee. One could put an impact fee on anything with this reasoning. What's next? A drinking-whole-milk impact fee? An eating-red-meat impact fee? This sure sounds like a tax increase to me."

Strom said that Pawlenty had just been named Hero of the Month for May by Strom's national parent group, American Taxpayers for Reform. "I suspect they'll be revising that now," he said. Moreover, he said, Pawlenty could find that any national political aspirations have fizzled.

A charge set by the government on a good with the purpose of raising revenue is a tax.  This cigarette fee is a tax.  I understand what Pawlenty is doing by calling it a fee. He's trying to save face while trying to do something that good politicians do - compromise.  Pawlenty has been suggested as a candidate for national office and I admire his willingness to compromise, but this sort of wordsmithing gives his potential competitors a lot of ammuntion to use against him. 

MOB Meeting

I enjoyed meeting other members of MOB in St. Cloud at Granite City Food and Brewery on Saturday.  It was good to finally meet King, Brian of Heavy-Handed Politics, Psycmeister, Kevin of Eckernet, Cathy of Cathy in the Wright, Gary of Let Freedom Ring and the other MOB bloggers and blog readers who descended on GCFB Saturday night. ****

I knew it would be a good evening when I walked into GCFB.   Having never been to St. Cloud before and knowing that the closest I had been to actually seeing a MOB member was seeing King's picture on his university web page.  I walked into GCFB and was greeted by a hostess.  I told her I was meeting people and I had no idea what they looked like.  The hostess merely inquired "Bloggers?" and showed me to the group.

I'd also like to thank Luchiano's Pizzeria for helping me with my pizza craving that I got at 1:00 AM while lounging in my room at the hotel.

**** Update 5/23/05 10:20 AM - I sooooooo forgot the Night Writer, a fellow Mizzou alum.  It's always good to run into others who have tramped, tramped, tramped around the columns and who downed beers and grease food at the Old Heidelberg.  My apologies for forgetting you, Night.

Juiced Bats and Balls

Co-blogger Skip Sauer over at The Sports Economist has this post on the game of softball.

Technological advances in equipment have rendered grand old golf courses obsolete for professional tournaments. Many have adapted by lengthening and narrowing fairways, "Tigerproofing" themselves in an attempt to keep scores from plummeting. There is serious discussion of more restrictive regulation of the golf ball as well.

In softball, technological advance has done much the same, rendering local ballfields obsolete, as described in today's WSJ: 

By the beginning of this decade... softball bats had become too powerful -- often resulting in longer games with inning after inning of home runs. Last year, the ASA [Amateur Softball Association of America] responded by telling makers to limit how fast a regulation softball could fly off their bats in a lab test -- its "98 mph rule." After years of better performance, bats were effectively dampened.

Until, that is, the bat doctors went to work: 

"It's amazing the lengths teams will go to win an $18 trophy," says Joe Morice, a player and manager of Cassie's Italian, a men's softball team in Fairfax, Va.

Bat doctors have devised various procedures to give players that age-old satisfaction of launching a ball over the outfield fence. One method, called "end loading," involves removing the cap on the end of the barrel and adding weight, shifting the bat's balance to give it more momentum when swung. Bat doctors may also use a lathe to shave the inside of a bat's barrel to make it springier, in effect giving the ball an extra boost on contact. Then there's the painting routine -- taking a high-performance bat that isn't allowed for league play and disguising it as a regulation model.

Hitting the ball hard and putting it over the fence is a nice feeling - one of those he-man feelings.  That's why guys use juiced bats (off the shelf bats) and doctored bats.  It's not about winning trophies and it's not for the team.  It's personal - it's for the "me" in team.

There's a big difference in balls too, even within "cors."  In Missouri, we used .Cor47 balls, and our ball of choice was the Super Duper Blue Dot by Worth.  There was no comparison between the Super Dupers and the Dudley Titanium balls.  When dropped from about 5', the Super Duper bounce about 3-4" higher.  Imagine how much further the Super Dupers would fly off a bat, especially one of the juiced bats.

There are other rules that either are or have been in place to lessen the effect of the bats on the duration of games.  Before the bats got juiced, there was a limit of one home run in my coed and men's leagues.  Not long after the juicing began, the limit was increased to 3.  Now, I'm told, the limit is 4.  Hitters who put one out also only had to run to first instead of running the bases.

But there's a real safety issue with the juiced bats and juiced balls. 

Umpires say bat doctoring is getting hard to detect, as bat doctors become increasingly sophisticated. For Brad Crerar, the ASA umpire who officiated Mr. Consiglio's game in Connecticut, the larger worry is that players will get hurt when balls are hit with extra velocity. "It puts everybody on the field at risk," he says. (Injury statistics are inconclusive: U.S. emergency rooms reported about 113,000 softball injuries in 2003, down more than 10% from 2001, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.)

I play outfield, but my infielders, especially the thirdbasemen I've played with had to move back at their position to give themselves a better chance to react to and field the juiced balls hit off the juiced bat.  But they would also tell stories about balls that made it through their legs so fast that they didn't have a chance to.  If that ball's coming at your head, it's grope and hope time.

Spring Storms

It is the spring storm season in the midwest.  Here is a webpage describing the history of weather radars.  Here is a page about tornadoes.  Here is the oldest known photograph of a tornado.

Now that's a mean-looking sucker!  It looks like an inverted devil!  Here is a bigger picture of said twister with more information on it.

Changing Incentives

Legislation designed to protect endangered species doesn't alter ipeople's incentives, right? Not so fast, my friend.

State wildlife officials believe someone planted endangered flowers at a Sebastopol building site to try to stop a disputed housing development.

The issue is not settled, but it still shows that legislation may very well alter incentives. 

HT to the Commons Blog.

For The Record

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has some thoughts on the Star Wars saga.

For the record, I saw the 4th episode (the first release) 12-13 times in the theaters in 1977 and 1978.  I have never gone to any other movie more than once in the theaters.  It was Star Wars that got me interested in astronomy.  It's quite possible that I would not have ever have had a subscription to Sky and Telescope magazine (which I read before going to bed last night) or a telescope had Star Wars never come out.  I own the original trilogy on DVD and VHS.  Episode IV is still my favorite movie of all time.

That being said, I have never seen episodes 1 and 2.  How unlikely is that?  What is the probability that some random person has never seen episodes 1 and 2 given that you know he/she is a huge fan of the first three releases?

Happy Birthday, Mom

My mother, the ravishingly gorgeous and totally cool Beverly Mae Miller turns 75 years young today.  Happy Birthday, Mom!

Memorial

This post is a memorial to those Minnesota State University, Mankato students who were killed in a traffic accident in Michigan on Tuesday.  Jamie Schlachter, 23, of Rochester, MN., Wesley Loutsch, 21, of Remsen, IA, and Chad Wilson, 20, of Rose Creek, MN. all perished at the scene.  All 3 were part of a group of 15 who were travelling to the Detroit, MI area for a Formula Series competition put on by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).  They lost their lives when the driver of one of the vans carrying the students lost control of the vehicle on I-94 in Sawyer, MI.  The van rolled through the median and was struck by two semis.

Here is a Mankato Free Press article on the students that appeared on the day the crash occurred.  Here is a Minneapolis Star Tribune article on the crash.  Here is some information of the SAE's Forumla Series competition.  Here is the Department of Automotive Engineering Technology's website.

I offer the following two images as my memorial.  I did not know any of the students or faculty involved in the accident, but being a faculty member at MSU, I am saddened by the tragedy.

                

New Toll Lanes in the Twin Cities

I posted here about congestion pricing on roads.  Tolls depend on the amount of traffic using a road.  When there is more traffic, tolls increase.  I-394 in the Twin Cities now has the first such toll road in Minnesota. 

Here is a graphic that describes the technology behind the tolls.

A Tragedy Close to Home

3 Minnesota State University students were killed in a traffic accident in Michigan.  The names of the students have not yet been released.

Three Minnesota State University, Mankato, students died and five other people riding in the same van were injured when the vehicle crossed a freeway median and collided with two oncoming semitrailers.

My heart goes out to their families and friends.