Interesting

The Benefits of Being the Youngest Child

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Photo: Joel Dinda

I recently came across a study that examined how two brothers who are both professional baseball players approach the game differently. The Berkeley researchers actually had a pretty good sample size to work with – over 700 brothers have played in the majors. Their hypothesis was that the younger siblings take more risk.

Stolen base attempts are the most obvious element of the game to inspect. The result? Younger brothers are 10.6 more times likely to steal. They also noticed the younger brother is more likely to be hit by a pitch which means they probably crowd the plate slightly more. The research paper even extends beyond baseball as well – younger siblings are more likely to engage in dangerous sports across the board like football and skydiving.

This study is not proposing any new theories – older siblings are generally more conservative and younger ones take more risks. So why is it cool? Well first, I appreciate that it relates this idea to baseball. More importantly, other studies have shown that risk takers are happier overall. Thus, through the transitive property of equality, younger siblings are happier. QED.

A Few Facts About the Netherlands to Share at Your Next Cocktail Party

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The Netherlands is always listed as one of the happiest, most democratic, most liberal, and tourist friendly nations. Boring! Here are a couple interesting facts you probably don’t know:

  • Orange is not their official color even though that is all they wear at the World Cup and Olympics. The official colors? Red, white, and blue! So why do they wear orange? To honor the royal family, the House of Orange-Nassau.
  • Marajuana is actually illegal in Amsterdam (and all of the Netherlands), but the law is deliberately not enforced. – by leaving the law on the books they are in compliance with international drug agreements. What is the “unofficial” policy of their judicial system? A person can possess up to 5 grams and a “coffee shop” can have up to 500 grams as long as it doesn’t distribute more than 5 grams per person daily. Because it is technically illegal the government only receives income tax on the proceeds, rather than jacking up the tax rate like we do for cigarettes.
  • The Netherlands is possibly the country with the most to lose from global warming – a whopping 50% of its land is less than 1 meter above sea level. In only 200 years the portion of the Netherlands below sea level is expected to go from a fifth to a well over half. Maybe that is why the are kicking the worlds butt at making use of renewable energy?

Answering the Question: Is Driving to the Airport More Dangerous than Flying?

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Photo: Luis Argerich

A person with an irrational fear of flying is frequently told “you’re more likely to die driving to the airport than on the flight” – is this actually true or just calming words?

Let’s look at some statistics
From the perspective of a passenger in the car/airplane:

  • Driving = 1 fatality per 88 million miles driven (excluding motorcycles which have a 25 times higher death rate and any pedestrians/bikers killed by cars)
  • Scheduled flights (mainly airlines) = 1 fatality per 64 million miles flown

(These numbers would skew in favor of airplanes if you cared about how many people were transported. But, knowing my readers as well as I do, you only care about yourself.)

It looks like the expected value of death favors driving, but I would argue that you should be trying to avoid fatal accidents all together – if you are in one, it is a crap shoot whether or not you are the one that dies. This is definitely not a situation I want to be in, otherwise I would play Russian Roulette.

  • Driving = 1 fatal accident every 76 million miles driven
  • Scheduled flights = 1 fatal accident every 2 billion miles flown

What are the odds of surviving this so called Russian Roulette?
Each fatal plane crash averages over 30 deaths, which is only 42% of the passengers on the flights. On the other hand each fatal driving accident averages 1.15 driver/passenger deaths. Unfortunately it is harder to track the number of occupants or even cars involved in these collisions. My approximation is 3 people involved – most cars have only the driver aboard, and the ones that do not are offset by solo car crashes. If the number is 2.75, this would equal the 42% survival rate for being in a fatal plan crash. Pretty darn close!

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American vs. British English – Two Versions of the Same Language

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Photo: Maurice

I considered writing a post on the differences between American English and British English, but then I realized I am not particularly qualified considering I have lived in California my whole life. Instead, here is a funny rant by a British man telling us how we are misusing the language:

Mentioned in the video – American vs. British (links go to audio):

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Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies – A Warning that You’re in Danger of Being Compared to Hitler

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Photo: MattGo74

In the early days of the internet, discussion boards were all the rage. These discussions took place on the Usenet long before chat rooms or blogs even existed. During this time Mike Godwin made a simple observation that people were being maliciously being compared to Hitler or the Nazis across a wide array of topics.

There are some discussions that practically beg for these comparisons – for example arguments pro gun control or censorship (both supported by Hitler). But no matter the topic, as the online discussions grew longer the participants resorted to attacking each others credibility. From there it is a only short and eventual hop to call someone a Nazi.

More generally, reductio ad Hitlerum (dog Latin term – made up Latin to make it sound official) extends this principle beyond the realm of the internet. Comparisons to Hitler and the Nazis show up in all types of debates – even if you think you are in a civilized discussion where such an immature comparison wouldn’t take place.

It was Godwin’s contention that these comparisons only serve to weaken the intended point and make the entire debate look like childish name calling. To quote the great Jay-Z – “A wise man told me don’t argue with fools cause people from a distance can’t tell who is who.”

Herein lies the problem: if you stay in the debate forever a comparison to Hitler will eventually be made and you will look like an idiot, even if you were not the one saying it. The takeaways: avoid YouTube comment debates at all costs, stick to areas of the internet where mostly intelligent people congregate, end the debate as soon as possible, and don’t be surprised if you still end up falling pray to Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies.

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Personal Informatics – What Gets Measured Gets Managed

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Photo: Tyrone Shum

The often quoted Peter Drucker said “what gets measured gets managed.” If you can’t measure it you are merely guessing, not managing. Of course he was referring to applying metrics to better manage a business, but the same principle applies to individuals as well. How are you to optimize your life when you do not measure how exactly you spend it?

Personal Finance
Personal finance is the best example of this — in order to get your spending under control and save money you first need to know where your money is being spent. Track where your money is going, create a budget to control problem areas, and continue tracking to observe the improvements. Mint.com is a terrific website to help individuals focus on tracking their expenses. From their website:

If you’ve tried to build a budget in the past and just couldn’t stick to it, we understand. Until now, trying to see where you’re spending and where you can cut back has been too difficult. But once you understand a few basic principles and start tracking your spending with Mint.com, you’ll be able to set and stick to realistic goals, easily and automatically.

Mint.com has developed impressive technology to easily track and report on your spending – in turn allowing more people to stick to their financial goals. This website is only one example in an abundance of new tools utilizing technology to help you track your life. Beyond personal finance, there are similar services you can use to for almost any facet of your life.

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The Jefferson Bible – Who Has Time to Read the Whole Bible Anyway?

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Photo: Robert Paul Jr.

Regardless of your religious beliefs, you have to admit the Bible is huge, hard to read, and contains some ridiculous stories with outdated ideologies — talking donkeys, people turning into pillars of salt, sexism, and stoning other religions … whether you believe those stories wholeheartedly or dismiss them as parables from which we are to learn is up to you. Unfortunately all the aforementioned shortcomings have resulted in most people, even those you would describe as religious, never picking up the Bible to read it all the way through. This is unfortunate not in a religious sense, but because it is the only account of the life of Jesus, one of the best role models of all time. How are supposed to learn about this man? Which parts of the Bible are actually important and not outdated or unbelievable? How are we to know which passages to skip over? Luckily Thomas Jefferson took care of this for us.

The third president of the United States?
The same. Jefferson created what we now call “The Jefferson Bible: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth” by thoroughly reading the Bible and cutting out the passages he deemed important to paste in his shortened version of the bible. What were his criteria? Mainly it was based upon the passage’s demonstration of Jesus’s teachings and authenticity.

He didn’t believe the Bible was authentic?
Nope. Jefferson was a deist who believed the four evangelists were grossly unqualified to write the account of the life of Jesus. He thought the authors made up or greatly exaggerated numerous elements including the virgin birth, walking on water, rising from the dead, and being the son of God. Despite the perceived fallacies Thomas Jefferson realized the importance of learning from the core teachings of this great man.

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Eye Opening Abortion Statistics

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Photo: Matt Smith

Abortion is a hot button issue in the United States and nearly everyone has an unwavering opinion – there is no argument that can be made here that will instantly change your belief. Instead I will share with you some eye opening statistics regarding abortion and let you draw your own conclusions.

I am not one to wholeheartedly believe in statistics as a statistic can be dug up (or created) to support any viewpoint. My main issue with taking statistics at face value is that there can be numerous errors in the study which are reflected in the final data. Is it truly a random sample? Is it a big enough sample to draw any conclusions? Was the study funded by an organization that had an interest in the results coming out a certain way? Fortunately, abortion is not a difficult activity to track as nearly all abortions take place in a hospital or abortion clinic. The healthcare industry accurately tracks everything – in a 2008 sample of 100 hospitals there were 4 injuries relating to slicing zucchini, including one for trying to slice it with a mandolin …

In the case of abortion the margin of error is largely irrelevant — are you even able to come up with a ballpark answer? How common are abortions? 5% of all pregnancies? 10%? 20%? 40%? Higher?

In the United States 20% of all pregnancies result in an abortion. What’s interesting is that this number varies greatly across the country and the world. The District of Columbia and New York are close to 40% while many rural states are under 10%.

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