In other news... (humorous news items, etc)

[emceng]

This while not the funniest article, does have some great lines in the comments section.

[Dark567]

How to change the price of a Big Mac, make it an index

Spoiler:

The Big Mac is an icon of globalization and as such becomes a useful tool for various explorations of international economics. The Economist runs a regular feature called the Big Mac Index where they look at the price of a Big Mac in local currency and show you which countries have unusually expensive or unusually cheap Big Macs. That's a form of Purchasing Power Parity analysis and you can spin the whole saga out into a whole tale about economic development if you care to. But if you look at the photo above of a McDonalds menu in Buenos Aires (note that in Argentina the "$" sign means pesos not dollars) you'll see an interesting price anomaly around the Big Mac. It's cheaper than a Quarter Pounder. It's so cheap that a Big Mac and a Hamburger combined are cheaper than a "Triple Mac" even though a Triple Mac is just a Big Mac with an extra burger patty.

What's more, even though that sign is in the store on a wall somewhere, the big displays that are clearly visible while you're standing in line don't so much as advertise the existence of the Big Mac. Instead, the Argentine McDonaldses are all about pushing you to buy a Triple Mac or a Cuarto de Libre. What gives?

Well, it's all a sordid tale of capital controls and fuzzy math. Some time ago, Argentina defaulted on its debt and ever since Argentine households are inclined to hold a substantial share of their savings abroad in foreign-denominated assets. But the Argentine government wants to limit capital flight so they've put curbs on how much foreign exchange an Argentine can buy. This in turn has led to a dual exchange rate system. Officially, a dollar is worth about 4.2 pesos. Unofficially, you can get more pesos for your dollar on the black market. Hostile press reports I've read suggest the black market rate is 5 pesos to the dollar. In practice, I wasn't able to get a deal that good from either of the people I traded under the table with but still I got a substantial discount vis-a-vis the official rate. But the real state of Argentina's currency is visible in the rising price level, since the country engages in a lot of trade. The government, however, insists that the inflation rate is considerably lower than independent observers say. The Big Mac Index is one well-known international check on government number-fudging, and the Economist's editorial line is very hostile to the kind of populist economic policies Cristina Kirchner has pursued, so the government knows it's vulnerable to the wrath of the index. To that end, the Argentine state leaned on Argentina's McDonaldses to exercise restraint in their Big Mac pricing. That, in turn, has led the McDonaldses to radically de-emphasize the suddenly non-profitable signature sandwich in favor of the Triple Mac and other offerings.

[Роберт]

How to change the price of a Big Mac, make it an index

Spoiler:

The Big Mac is an icon of globalization and as such becomes a useful tool for various explorations of international economics. The Economist runs a regular feature called the Big Mac Index where they look at the price of a Big Mac in local currency and show you which countries have unusually expensive or unusually cheap Big Macs. That's a form of Purchasing Power Parity analysis and you can spin the whole saga out into a whole tale about economic development if you care to. But if you look at the photo above of a McDonalds menu in Buenos Aires (note that in Argentina the "$" sign means pesos not dollars) you'll see an interesting price anomaly around the Big Mac. It's cheaper than a Quarter Pounder. It's so cheap that a Big Mac and a Hamburger combined are cheaper than a "Triple Mac" even though a Triple Mac is just a Big Mac with an extra burger patty.

What's more, even though that sign is in the store on a wall somewhere, the big displays that are clearly visible while you're standing in line don't so much as advertise the existence of the Big Mac. Instead, the Argentine McDonaldses are all about pushing you to buy a Triple Mac or a Cuarto de Libre. What gives?

Well, it's all a sordid tale of capital controls and fuzzy math. Some time ago, Argentina defaulted on its debt and ever since Argentine households are inclined to hold a substantial share of their savings abroad in foreign-denominated assets. But the Argentine government wants to limit capital flight so they've put curbs on how much foreign exchange an Argentine can buy. This in turn has led to a dual exchange rate system. Officially, a dollar is worth about 4.2 pesos. Unofficially, you can get more pesos for your dollar on the black market. Hostile press reports I've read suggest the black market rate is 5 pesos to the dollar. In practice, I wasn't able to get a deal that good from either of the people I traded under the table with but still I got a substantial discount vis-a-vis the official rate. But the real state of Argentina's currency is visible in the rising price level, since the country engages in a lot of trade. The government, however, insists that the inflation rate is considerably lower than independent observers say. The Big Mac Index is one well-known international check on government number-fudging, and the Economist's editorial line is very hostile to the kind of populist economic policies Cristina Kirchner has pursued, so the government knows it's vulnerable to the wrath of the index. To that end, the Argentine state leaned on Argentina's McDonaldses to exercise restraint in their Big Mac pricing. That, in turn, has led the McDonaldses to radically de-emphasize the suddenly non-profitable signature sandwich in favor of the Triple Mac and other offerings.

Nice find.

[Nylonathatep]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/artic ... t-zoo?bn=1

WASHINGTON—An elephant named Shanthi at the National Zoo in the U.S. capital is developing her musical talents by playing a harmonica with her trunk.

Video released Wednesday by the zoo shows the 36-year-old Asian elephant has a harmonica attached to her stall and plays tunes even when no humans are around.

Elephant keeper Debbie Flinkman says Shanthi is musically inclined, playing her own songs that always have a big crescendo at the end. Shanthi also likes to tap things, flap her ears against objects to make noise and rub her leg up and down shrubs to repeat noises.

Flinkman says she does not make Shanthi play the harmonica. It is something she enjoys.

Shanthi was a gift from Sri Lanka and is the mother of 10-year-old Kandula.

[addams]

That was fun.

[Jave D]

Sure, but you shouldn't get to say "X is part of a complete breakfast" if X is an entirely superfluous part of a complete breakfast ie if the breakfast is still complete without X.

Except "complete breakfast" is pretty damn vague to begin with. Who decides what a "complete breakfast" is?

My stomach, with veto power held by my lower gastrointestinal tract.

[SlyReaper]

Lion wants to eat a baby; fails miserably.

[Krealr]

Lion wants to eat a baby; fails miserably.

Apparently this is a common occurrence. http://www.kgw.com/home/Oregon-Zoo-lion-mistakes-small-visitor-for-prey-149880215.html

Zookeepers said it's not uncommon for the lions to interact with little kids peering through the glass at their exhibit.

[buddy431]

Lion wants to eat a baby; fails miserably.

That story links to someone Demolishing a house with a tank. What's most interesting about the story to me is that there's a company in Minnesota called "Drive a Tank" whose business model is letting people pay to drive military equipment.

[SlyReaper]

Lion wants to eat a baby; fails miserably.

Apparently this is a common occurrence. http://www.kgw.com/home/Oregon-Zoo-lion-mistakes-small-visitor-for-prey-149880215.html

Zookeepers said it's not uncommon for the lions to interact with little kids peering through the glass at their exhibit.

Actually that's the same story.

[Krealr]

Actually that's the same story.

Yes but it includes the statement that this wasn't a unique thing.


Also the same zoo.
http://www.kgw.com/video/featured-videos/A-new-lion-and-girl-at-Oregon-Zoo-video-150164135.html

[buddy431]

Mice that eat yogurt have larger testicles

Pretty much what it says on the tin. The experiment was initially to look for the effects of yogurt on weight.

[Роберт]

Mice that eat yogurt have larger testicles

Pretty much what it says on the tin. The experiment was initially to look for the effects of yogurt on weight.

Now expect yogurt marketing to drop the "women smiling with yogurt" schtick and give their adverts more balls.
Man dies of spontaneous combustion. (Not really that funny, but odd.)

"I think if the heavens were striking in cases of spontaneous combustion then there would be a lot more cases. I go for the practical, the mundane explanation," he said.

[emceng]

Lion wants to eat a baby; fails miserably.

That story links to someone Demolishing a house with a tank. What's most interesting about the story to me is that there's a company in Minnesota called "Drive a Tank" whose business model is letting people pay to drive military equipment.

Fuck yeah! I read about this a few years ago, but misplaced the article. Then couldn't find it with the googles! I'm seriously debating spending the money on this. It's a tank!

[Lostdreams]

Got 2 billion dollars lying around? You too could own the world's tallest building!

[Arrian]

Lion wants to eat a baby; fails miserably.

That story links to someone Demolishing a house with a tank. What's most interesting about the story to me is that there's a company in Minnesota called "Drive a Tank" whose business model is letting people pay to drive military equipment.

Fuck yeah! I read about this a few years ago, but misplaced the article. Then couldn't find it with the googles! I'm seriously debating spending the money on this. It's a tank!

There was a Groupon for it a while ago, normally it's like $300, but I still couldn't convince myself to do it at $150. It was close, though, had it been payday when the Groupon came out...

Now expect yogurt marketing to drop the "women smiling with yogurt" schtick and give their adverts more balls.

I expect it will change to women smiling as men eat yogurt...

[SlyReaper]

Dinosaur farts destroy the world.

[Роберт]

Dinosaur farts destroy the world.

I saw a terrible article that was apparently about the same research, but they said the world was "twice as hot" then.
:facepalm:

[Iulus Cofield]

Facepalm? It makes perfect sense. Dinosaurs were large enough to install massive air conditioning systems in themselves and everything else lived underground. It is like you don't even misunderstand science.

[Роберт]

Facepalm? It makes perfect sense. Dinosaurs were large enough to install massive air conditioning systems in themselves and everything else lived underground. It is like you don't even misunderstand science.

It looks like they figure 20 degrees C, give or take, is twice as hot as 10 degrees C, give or take.

I hate when people try to compare heat in percentages or what have you and fail miserably. It makes sense in Kelvins, but not Celsius.

[Adam H]

22 C is the perfect temperature, so 30 C is twice as hot as 26 C.

Actually, since hotness is probably not linear, we need to run some tests. We put test participants in rooms with controlled climate and ask them to tell us on a scale of -100 to 100 "how hot" each temperature is. From several dozen participants, we should be able to get some sort of calibration curve.

[buddy431]

One of Google's automated cars is given the First license plate for a self-driving car, making it legal for it to drive on public roads. Nevada changed their laws last year to allow driverless vehicles to be licensed, provided they met a set of safety criteria. The terms of the license requires two people to be in the car when it's driving - one behind the wheel who can take over if needed, and another monitoring the car.

[Qaanol]

One of Google's automated cars is given the First license plate for a self-driving car, making it legal for it to drive on public roads. Nevada changed their laws last year to allow driverless vehicles to be licensed, provided they met a set of safety criteria. The terms of the license requires two people to be in the car when it's driving - one behind the wheel who can take over if needed, and another monitoring the car.

Woohoo! It’s a start at least.

I know I certainly trust a properly-programmed computer to follow the rules of the road—to actually yield when merging, to see me in the next lane, to stay focused—much more than I trust squishy, inattentive, emotional, easily-distracted human beings.

Of course, I also insist there must always be a manual override. Sometimes you’ve just gotta make the car do something the computer doesn’t want to do, or the programmers didn’t think of, or just plain take over when the computer crashes or the sensors get broken.

[Dark567]

My first thought is, in 30 years the could completely get rid of drunk driving.

[Shivahn]

Look man, I've seen Futurama, and I don't think robots are going to decrease the incidences of drunk driving.

[BoomFrog]

22 C is the perfect temperature, so 30 C is twice as hot as 26 C.

Actually, since hotness is probably not linear, we need to run some tests. We put test participants in rooms with controlled climate and ask them to tell us on a scale of -100 to 100 "how hot" each temperature is. From several dozen participants, we should be able to get some sort of calibration curve.

You will need to control for humidity, but I think you could make this into real science.

[Hawknc]

My first thought is, in 30 years the could completely get rid of drunk driving.

There will be manual driving for at least the next half-century, and where people are behind the wheel there will always be errors, but if this takes off then I expect driving will become more of a recreational hobby than a necessity. Heck, think bigger: if your car drives itself, do you really even need to own one? What if you can call a car from a central lot to pick you up from a party and drop you home, not unlike a driverless taxi?

Our driving habits and transportation systems haven't yet caught up with the progress we've made elsewhere, but my personal opinion is that we've seen the last generation where car ownership is a rite of passage into adulthood. So much of Gen Y already has no desire to buy a car, and why would they? Expensive, stressful, bad for the environment - if you're living in a major city and don't have kids, it doesn't make much sense to buy one at all. There's a wide-open market for car "borrowing" that services like Zipcar only partially fill, because you still need to be able to get to where the cars are and you need to be licensed. Driverless cars remove both of those obstacles. If I had the money I'd be waiting eagerly for the first automaker to put Google's tech in its vehicles and meeting that demand myself.

[Angua]

Personally, I can find even 22C cold. Of course, I come from a place where the aircon in an old person's home is at 26. (Humidity normally around 100%, but obviously aircon makes it seem even cooler because it also seems to dry out the air).

[Ulc]

Our driving habits and transportation systems haven't yet caught up with the progress we've made elsewhere, but my personal opinion is that we've seen the last generation where car ownership is a rite of passage into adulthood. So much of Gen Y already has no desire to buy a car, and why would they? Expensive, stressful, bad for the environment - if you're living in a major city and don't have kids, it doesn't make much sense to buy one at all. There's a wide-open market for car "borrowing" that services like Zipcar only partially fill, because you still need to be able to get to where the cars are and you need to be licensed. Driverless cars remove both of those obstacles. If I had the money I'd be waiting eagerly for the first automaker to put Google's tech in its vehicles and meeting that demand myself.

And in some places this is already the case - practically no-one I know that doesn't have a kid, or a business where wares need transportation, cares to own a car. It's just not necessary, it's not faster than biking in a city, hell, often just walking is faster than getting to your car, driving those 3km, and then another 2km of driving around trying to find a parking spot. And with a well developed public transportation, it isn't even necessary for longer travels within a city.

[Dauric]

Our driving habits and transportation systems haven't yet caught up with the progress we've made elsewhere, but my personal opinion is that we've seen the last generation where car ownership is a rite of passage into adulthood. So much of Gen Y already has no desire to buy a car, and why would they? Expensive, stressful, bad for the environment - if you're living in a major city and don't have kids, it doesn't make much sense to buy one at all. There's a wide-open market for car "borrowing" that services like Zipcar only partially fill, because you still need to be able to get to where the cars are and you need to be licensed. Driverless cars remove both of those obstacles. If I had the money I'd be waiting eagerly for the first automaker to put Google's tech in its vehicles and meeting that demand myself.

And in some places this is already the case - practically no-one I know that doesn't have a kid, or a business where wares need transportation, cares to own a car. It's just not necessary, it's not faster than biking in a city, hell, often just walking is faster than getting to your car, driving those 3km, and then another 2km of driving around trying to find a parking spot. And with a well developed public transportation, it isn't even necessary for longer travels within a city.

And in yet other places it's completely the opposite. Colorado has lousy public transportation (it tends to shut down late at night, light rail is fairly limited in locations, and if you're on the periphery of the system, say the last two or three towns in from the edge a metro area, it only runs during standard commuting hours), and a lot of suburban and rural territory to cover. Colorado and most of the American western states are significantly more than one generation away from car ownership no longer being a rite of passage.

[Zamfir]

And in some places this is already the case - practically no-one I know that doesn't have a kid, or a business where wares need transportation, cares to own a car. It's just not necessary, it's not faster than biking in a city, hell, often just walking is faster than getting to your car, driving those 3km, and then another 2km of driving around trying to find a parking spot. And with a well developed public transportation, it isn't even necessary for longer travels within a city.

Then again, most people do get kids at some point in their lives, or a job that requires a daily car commute. Even related, because the kids drive people out of the city and towards commuter towns or suburbs.

Is there really a break with the past here? I am under the impression that there always were groups of young childless urbanites who could afford a car but didn't have one.


EDIT: I produced a graph for the Netherlands, it shows strongly rising car ownership for people over 30, slight rising for the group 25-30, and clearly falling for the 20-25 group. A complication is that the Netherlands introduced a free mass-transit card for students in 1991, which presumably had a significant impact on car ownership for the youngest groups.

[maybeagnostic]

Heck, think bigger: if your car drives itself, do you really even need to own one? What if you can call a car from a central lot to pick you up from a party and drop you home, not unlike a driverless taxi?

I've been waiting for these cars ever since I heard google is working on the self-driving cars. It really is a much better way of transportation than owning your own car.

And in the spirit of this thread- Lincoln tried to patent facebook. Ok, so the story is a hoax but it was really entertaining to read and the hoax part doesn't come until the end. Probably.

[omgryebread]

Senators introduce bill to remove "lunatic" from US Code.

Yay! Also, I read the comments section and, as always, that was a poor decision.

[K-R]

Our driving habits and transportation systems haven't yet caught up with the progress we've made elsewhere, but my personal opinion is that we've seen the last generation where car ownership is a rite of passage into adulthood. So much of Gen Y already has no desire to buy a car, and why would they? Expensive, stressful, bad for the environment - if you're living in a major city and don't have kids, it doesn't make much sense to buy one at all. There's a wide-open market for car "borrowing" that services like Zipcar only partially fill, because you still need to be able to get to where the cars are and you need to be licensed. Driverless cars remove both of those obstacles. If I had the money I'd be waiting eagerly for the first automaker to put Google's tech in its vehicles and meeting that demand myself.

And in some places this is already the case - practically no-one I know that doesn't have a kid, or a business where wares need transportation, cares to own a car. It's just not necessary, it's not faster than biking in a city, hell, often just walking is faster than getting to your car, driving those 3km, and then another 2km of driving around trying to find a parking spot. And with a well developed public transportation, it isn't even necessary for longer travels within a city.

And in yet other places it's completely the opposite. Colorado has lousy public transportation (it tends to shut down late at night, light rail is fairly limited in locations, and if you're on the periphery of the system, say the last two or three towns in from the edge a metro area, it only runs during standard commuting hours), and a lot of suburban and rural territory to cover. Colorado and most of the American western states are significantly more than one generation away from car ownership no longer being a rite of passage.

I was looking into public transport directions the other day to a place that is a 25-30 minute drive from here. It's impossible to get there via public transport in less than an hour, and can take up to an hour and a half.

[Dark567]

Is there really a break with the past here? I am under the impression that there always were groups of young childless urbanites who could afford a car but didn't have one.

That was always my impression. But I am also a young childless urbanite who can afford, but does not have a car... so maybe its just anecdote.

[mike-l]

I was looking into public transport directions the other day to a place that is a 25-30 minute drive from here. It's impossible to get there via public transport in less than an hour, and can take up to an hour and a half.

It can vary a lot. In cities with subways, it's almost always faster to take transit if you are going between two places on the subway line (provided there isn't too much backtracking) As soon as you get off the line though it can be quite costly time wise though. Transit needs advantages to be a better time alternative than cars, mainly ways to avoid traffic, either by being on a separate track (train/subway) or by having bus only lanes, bus right of way, etc. Here in Toronto we have a bus only lane on our main north-south highway which makes taking the bus during rush hour actually very fast (provided you are going far enough north, as the first stop is 3 towns north)

[K-R]

I was looking into public transport directions the other day to a place that is a 25-30 minute drive from here. It's impossible to get there via public transport in less than an hour, and can take up to an hour and a half.

It can vary a lot. In cities with subways

The only subways we have in this country, as far as I know, sell sandwiches.

To be fair, neither I nor my destination are in the city. That said, getting from the CBD to the destination point is a ten minute drive, max, and takes 28 minutes, minimum, by bus.

[Diadem]

That graph for The Netherlands is interesting, but I suspect The Netherlands is really an anomaly, because of our relatively good public transportation and omni-present bicycles.

Inside a city, a bicycle beats any other form of transportation. This is true for both small and middle-sized cities. In very big cities if you have to go all the way across than bicycling can take quite a while. But using a car is an even more unappealing idea. It's terribly slow, and you'll have major trouble finding a parking spot. So it's still either use a bicycle or public transportation.

If you want to go the next city over, bikes are generally still a very good solution, though now a car can become attractive. Public transportation depends on your location.

If you want to travel longer distances, bikes become impractical. Cars generally defeat public transportation, but it kind of depends. If you go from one rural area to another, public transportation is a mess. But if you have to be somewhere in the centre of Amsterdam, cars become a headache, and parking is very expensive.

So all in all, if you live in a major city, and don't have many friends or family living in or other reasons to visit rural areas, there is really little reason to own a car.

But most countries don't have our bicycle infrastructure. And especially in the USA the infrastructure is really built with cars in mind. So cars become a lot more attractive. Also in USA fuel is so cheap gas stations almost pay you to take their gasoline.

[ShootTheChicken]

I was looking into public transport directions the other day to a place that is a 25-30 minute drive from here. It's impossible to get there via public transport in less than an hour, and can take up to an hour and a half.

It can vary a lot. In cities with subways, it's almost always faster to take transit if you are going between two places on the subway line (provided there isn't too much backtracking) As soon as you get off the line though it can be quite costly time wise though. Transit needs advantages to be a better time alternative than cars, mainly ways to avoid traffic, either by being on a separate track (train/subway) or by having bus only lanes, bus right of way, etc. Here in Toronto we have a bus only lane on our main north-south highway which makes taking the bus during rush hour actually very fast (provided you are going far enough north, as the first stop is 3 towns north)

And in York Region unless you want to travel on Yonge street or Hwy 7, you can't get fucking anywhere by bus.

[mike-l]

And in York Region unless you want to travel on Yonge street or Hwy 7, you can't get fucking anywhere by bus.

Even then... I used to live in Newmarket (On Yonge) and was dating a girl in Brampton (Hwy 7), and it was still a 3-4 hour trip by transit door to door.