Pito’s Blog

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From a few previous posts you know that I have a curiosity about congestion pricing as a way to allay traffic jams, while raising money to improve infrastructure and alternative transportation.

In a recent post in the Freakonomics Blog, which I recommend, there’s an interesting Q&A on that very topic that you may want to take a look at.

“Most people now recognize that congestion is a serious problem and that something can be done about it. There is also a growing movement nationally to charge drivers more directly for the use of the roads and technology. This will make charging easier and more sophisticated in the future by allowing for time-of-day, day-of-week, and level of congestion pricing.” (from What We Didn’t Know About Congestion Pricing)

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People wonder about Wikipdia and what it’s good for. This is an example from a while back, of Wikipedia at it’s best. Lots of details, edited and co-edited by many people giving you a feeling that there’s less bias: Wikipedia on the Virgina Tech Tragedy

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I found my way onto Robin Chase’s blog, Network Musings. She writes about lots of stuff I am interested in. Starting with the top post right now, “Should Casinos Subsidize Car Travel?” where she says:

“The Governor of Massachusetts has asked state legislators to seriously consider encouraging the building of several new large casinos in the state in order to raise revenues, the majority of which will be used for transportation shortfalls.” (from Network Musings)

In the Youtube video, which is short and worth a listen, the bon mot:

“Legalizing Casinos in Massachusetts […] is introducing a second addiction to pay for our first addiction: low cost driving”

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List of Lists is an entertaining blog. He doesn’t post that often but when he does it’s usually interesting. Check out this post from A List of Lists:

“[….]in keeping with A List of Lists factual theme I’ll try to shy away from United States government and The Bush Administration, and instead focus on George W Bush himself and so here are 25 facts about George W. Bush.[…snip]

[…snip] Fact #16. In the days immediately following the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Bush denied having received warnings about the possibility of floodwaters breaching the levees protecting New Orleans. However, the presidential videoconference briefing of August 28 shows Max Mayfield warning the president that overflowing the levees was “obviously a very, very grave concern.”

(from: 25 George W. Bush Facts)

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Who said “your TSA don’t dance and your USPTO don’t rock and roll?” (One free copy of BlogBridge for all of you who get the reference without using Wikipedia)

Here are two cool examples. First up, the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) now has a blog that seems to be much more than a bunch of pre-digested PR drivel, but instead posts from actual people with actual knowledge about TSA and their mission.

From their blurb:

“This blog is sponsored by the Transportation Security Administration to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process.” (from The Evolution of Security)

By the way, a plea: please name your blogs in a way that it doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out what it is. How about calling it the TSA Blog? Duh.

But it is quite interesting, for example, from a few days ago:

“Saturday morning, a Transportation Security Officer working the x-ray machine saw two razor blades in what appeared to be a book in someone’s carry-on bag. During the bag check, the razor blades were found inside the pages of a Bible, and bag belonged to… a priest. Can’t make this stuff up.” (from Saturday Morning, Strange But True…”)

This blog and the way it is being written is a Very Good Idea. I just hope that the politicians don’t grab hold of it and turn it into another propaganda portal.

So that was the dance part, here’s the rock and roll.

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has created a very cool site to allow peer input about patents that are being sought. From their blurb:

“Peer-to-Patent opens the patent examination process to public participation for the first time. Become part of this historic pilot program. Help the USPTO find the information relevant to assessing the claims of pending patent applications. Become a community reviewer and improve the quality of patents.”

So this is kind of a social network to assist the patent office in filtering out bad patents more effectively, something that they have failed to do often and have been heavily criticized for.

The cool thing is that they seem to have thought this through quite well. Particularly the way peer input is used or not used as part of the patent review process seems to protect against competitors trying to somehow manipulate the process. And the site is attractive, sensible in its design, incorporates video and tutorials etc. A thoroughly modern effort. And a valuable service. Kudos!

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Came across this interesting article. You may agree or not, but it’s definitely interesting:

“So now the process can be fully diagrammed, and the cast of characters is stunning. The torture system involves the operations division of the CIA on the implementation side. They rely heavily on contractors, it seems, in torturing people. And a special role is apparently played by a couple of psychologists. (from Harper’s Magazine)

p.s. Happy Valentine’s Day

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People wring their hands about the possibility of having Bill Clinton back in the white house as the first ever First Spouse, working mano-a-mano with Hillary. I like Bill Clinton a lot - I did when he was president and I still do. Yet I can understand the misgivings.

In today’s New York times:

“Which raises an important matter. Do we really want a plural presidency?

This is not a new question. It was intensely debated in the convention that formulated our Constitution. The Virginia Plan for the new document submitted by Edmund Randolph and the New Jersey Plan submitted by William Paterson left open the number of officers to hold the executive power.” (from “Two Presidents are worse than one”)

But the section about Dick Cheney brought an even crazier scenario to mind.

What if Hillary is elected and picks Bill as ……………. VICE PRESIDENT?

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This is what a discontinuity in a graph looks like

That’s the stock market from yesterday to today.

The discontinuity is this morning before we heard of the Fed’s “Shock and Awe” move, lowering the prime rate by 3/4 percent.

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Just check out this well argued, detailed piece, “Wake up to the dangers of a deepening crisis”, by Lawrence Summers:

“Three months ago it was reasonable to expect that the subprime credit crisis would be a financially significant event but not one that would threaten the overall pattern of economic growth. This is still a possible outcome but no longer the preponderant probability.

Even if necessary changes in policy are implemented, the odds now favour a US recession that slows growth significantly on a global basis. Without stronger policy responses than have been observed to date, moreover, there is the risk that the adverse impacts will be felt for the rest of this decade and beyond.” (from Financial Times)

This gloom and doom view is echoed by much of the commentary I’ve come across over the last month, for example, this from today’s New York Times, “Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis”:

“The bottom line is that policy makers left the financial industry free to innovate — and what it did was to innovate itself, and the rest of us, into a big, nasty mess.” (from Paul Krugman in the New York Times.)

You be the judge. I’m calling my broker

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Very interesting article in the New York Times discussing whether the death penalty saves lives,

“According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.

The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. One influential study looked at 3,054 counties over two decades. ” (from the New York Times)

It seems to me that there’s a key flaw in that study and analysis.

Let’s say there’s a correlation between the number of executions and the crime rate. What if we randomly selected people to be executed in each district, no matter whether they were guilty of a crime or not. Would that also deter crime and ’save lives’? These studies imply that they would. It goes to the heart of one of the key arguments against capital punishment, which is the equal application of the law. (There are two additional really strong arguments against it.)

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