Market Power

PSL's at Berkeley

So no, Berkeley hasn't exactly been a football factory the last half-century. But that hasn't hurt the self-esteem at Cal, where the university is asking fans to pay $225,000 -- yes, $225,000! -- for personal seat licenses.

...Across the bay, Stanford ticket director Rich Muschell couldn't help but take a shot at his school's archrival. "They're asking $225,000?" he told the Chronicle. "And they give us crap for being elitists."

LOL.  Story here (via Newmark's Door).

Food and Fun on the Shores of Gitche Gumme

If you've never been to the Lake Superior area, you should take a trip there sometime in the summer.  I've never been to the south shore, the drive up the north shore from Duluth up into Canada presents some of the most breathtaking scenery I've ever seen.

Oh, and there's good food up there too.

Early Commits in College Football

Early commitments in college football are non-binding and always have to be taken with a grain of salt.  16-18 year old boys can and will change their minds all the time.  While I have no data at my hand, my impression is that most kids who commit early stay with that commitment.  But others, such as Missouri's Blaine Gabbert, who originally signed with Nebraska but later switched to Mizzou, illustrate that commitments can be broken.

According to the KC Star, some players are committing earlier these days, which has some folks worried.

What is to prevent a high school star from accepting even a nonbinding college offer and then, as a form of insurance against injury, passing up his senior season of prep ball while concentrating on private coaching in preparation for college ball?

That already is happening in other sports (Jeremy Tyler in basketball and Bryce Harper in baseball), although those are examples of kids opting out of high school to get ready for the pros. Here we are talking about a kid getting ready for college ball, where there are academic requirements already in place for incoming players.  If the kid (and his family) feels that private coaching is the best way to go, is it the NCAA's duty to force kids to finish high school per-se even if he can get all his ducks in order in some other manner (i.e. get a GED)?

Sony Walkman: Tool of the Dinosaurs

A teenager has traded in his iPod for a Walkman, a first-generation walkman. 

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

We weren't sophisticated like that back in the old days.  When I was young, we had to walk to school, uphill both ways, and we could only put approximately 2 full albums on a tape.  Egads!  But give the kids some credit:  he figured out how to make it shuffle:

Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn't is "shuffle", where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down "rewind" and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

HT Instapundit. I can't remember if I had a first-generation Walkman, but I remember getting one for Christmas way back in the day.  I fondly remember listening to Loverboy's Everybody's Working for the Weekend.  But don't tell anyone about the Loverboy.  It's our little secret.

Testing Email

I'm testing another way to post to Typepad: via email. Here's what's on my night stand. Yes, that is the current Sports Illustrated with Joe Mauer on the cover.

Posting from my Blackberry

Since I've started blogging again, It's unwieldly and good for, perhaps quick messages.*

*That's the original message, and I'm going to leave it like that.  Egads.  I better check with the grammar police before I post from my BlackBerry.  Either that or get more practice.

Bureaucracies and Health - The Right to Have a Drug

One man's fight with ALS and his quest to get a drug to fight it.

Insurance companies typically do not pay for drugs that are part of a not-quite-finished scientific process. But even affluent families like the Thompsons find themselves pleading simply for the right to buy a drug, with institutions and individuals that often seem to them to have no logic — and sometimes no heart.

Doctors worry about instilling false hope and doing unnecessary harm. Companies fear damaging a drug’s chance of winning approval from the Food and Drug Administration if a patient suffers a bad reaction. The F.D.A. itself does not want patients to bypass clinical trials, which require that some participants receive a placebo to determine reliably whether a drug works.

HT Art Diamond

Mizzou Ranked, But Not Like You Think

Mizzou is ranked 21st, but in a poll where the lower the rank, the better the rank.

But the Tigers’ recent success is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving. In a less prestigious poll, the streak endures. According to odds set last week by BetUS.com, an online gambling site, MU is No. 21 among schools most likely to be the next caught having committted an NCAA violation. The opening line is 18-1.

USA Wrestling to Pay More for Medal Winners

As we economists often say:  "people respond to incentives."

In an effort to keep the sport’s top athletes from jumping to potentially lucrative MMA (mixed martial arts - Phil) careers after a disappointing three-medal haul in Beijing, wrestlers in 2012 will receive $250,000 for gold, $50,000 for silver and $25,000 for bronze. The payout also increased for world championships medals, with prizes of $50,000, $25,000 and $15,000.

Former Husker Trev Alberts Hired to be AD at Univ. Nebraska, Omaha

Trev Alberts made his name terrorizing opposing quarterbacks while a defensive end of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  Now he's going to be leading the University of Nebraska-Omaha's athletic department.  I can't vouch for his ability to run an athletic department, but no doubt a major reason for his hire is his name. 

I realize I'm about 2 months late on blogging about his return to one of my alma-maters, but better late than never, I guess.