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Badminton & Racquet Club Pro-AM

My squash club has wonderful squash doubles pro-am that runs over the first few weeks of February. The pro at our club, Eric Baldwin, does a great job organizing and it is well supported by the pros around Toronto, which is an very active squash community. Jonathon Power is now a member, as is Gary Waite, who was #1 doubles player for about 15 years. Both are interesting and personable. Jonathan played in our Pro-Am two years ago and Gary has played in it for about 6 years. It’s a real privilege for the amateurs who get to play. (When recently asked for affiliation in submissions to academic journals, I contemplated saying Badminton and Racquet Club, but decided on Climate Audit instead.)

Eric tries to balance the teams so that the best amateur gets last pick of who he plays with. The losing team in each game gets a 3-point head start in the next game. So that it’s a recipe for 5 game matches. In the first round, 4 of 8 matches were decided 15-14 in the fifth. Squash is one of the few sports where you have 2-way match points – sort of like a buzzer beater in basketball where a team is one point down. (Hockey has sudden death but the puck is only in one end at a time.)

Last night, the proprietor of this blog got to play against Paul Price, currently part of the #1 ranked squash doubles team in the world.

One of the club members made up promotional posters for the various players, one of which featured the proprietor of Climate Audit. To spare the unwary, you are not obliged to look at this poster merely because you came to the blog, but continue reading if you’re brave.

The squash players think that my enterprise into the climate world has been rather fun, but they tease me about it and now I have a new nickname on the squash court (as you can see from the text on the poster). I’ve got a bit of a quirky squash style, as relative to my ability, I hit a lot of winners and kill shots. Meager when you’re on the court with someone like Price, but you go with what you’ve got.

And, oh yes, the match. I played with Alex Carter, an excellent up-and-coming 25 year old amateur (playing as the pro) against Paul Price and his partner, John Hughes. Squash doubles is a wonderful spectator sport. Price is a shot-maker and fun to watch from the gallery. Hey, it was fun to watch him on the court. You feel like clapping.

But strange to relate, your blog proprietor is advancing to the final on Wednesday.

  1. Freddie
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 1:31 PM | Permalink

    Steve, you are a “Tausendsassa” as we say in Swiss. ( Jack of all trades) I enjoy so much all of your work. How in the world do you find the time to play squash. Best regards and thanks for everything. Freddie from the cold, snowy Swiss mountains.

  2. jae
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 1:35 PM | Permalink

    Good Luck!

  3. bernie
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 1:41 PM | Permalink

    Was squash something else you picked up at Oxford? Perhaps we could settle some of these debates on the squash court, as in “winner gets the code”!

    Steve: My father played squash and I played some as a teenager, but more at University of Toronto. I played for my college team at Oxford, but was not Blue calibre.

  4. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 1:43 PM | Permalink

    Steve, Why don’t you and Anthony challenge Michael Mann and James Hansen to a best of three squash doubles. The losers will concede that their theories are incorrect…

  5. Fred
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 1:48 PM | Permalink

    Whacking ’em on the court and whacking ’em on the climate blogs.

    Makes you a whacker twice over.

    Go get ’em.

  6. Howard S.
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 1:58 PM | Permalink

    I like the background pic of vanishing glaciers.

  7. Ron Cram
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 2:07 PM | Permalink

    So if I understand this right, Alex Carter is the amateur and you the pro. I knew you were good, but I didn’t know you made money at it. Wow. A climste skeptic funded by the squash cabal.

    Steve: No, Alex is an amateur but was playing as the pro. Here’s a link to a picture of Alex.

    • Ron Cram
      Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 8:53 PM | Permalink

      Re: Ron Cram (#7),

      Wow… two amateurs beating a team with a top pro. Now I’m really impressed. Still, I have to admit I liked typing “squash cabal.”

  8. Glacierman
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 2:13 PM | Permalink

    I think Alex Carter (Steve’s partner) is listed as playing as a Pro.

  9. Phillip Bratby
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 2:20 PM | Permalink

    I gave up both squash and Badminton because of a torn arm muscle and too much strain on the knees. Like an idiot I took up running instead (mainly off-road), but touch wood the knees are still going strong. Well done and keep doing it as long as you can. There’s nothing better than hard exercise to keep the brain going.

  10. AJ Abrams
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 2:29 PM | Permalink

    It’s nice to hear that you didn’t get “squashed” playing price(I couldn’t help myself). Good luck in the finals.

  11. steven mosher
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 2:49 PM | Permalink

    geek. nerd.

    you rule.

  12. PhilH
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:04 PM | Permalink

    I used to play a lot of handball before my knee went out. Paul Haber, the U.S. champion at that time and maybe the best there ever was, came to play at our Y one weekend. When he was on the court he never took his eye off the ball even during the breaks. I always thought that was a pretty good rule for life.

  13. Alan Bates
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:06 PM | Permalink

    Well done to “The Professor”. All the best in the final!

    You seem to have a halo of confidence in the picture.

  14. Ross McKitrick
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:16 PM | Permalink

    Are those foxtail pines in the background?

  15. Edward
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:19 PM | Permalink

    I like the phrase “he possesses all the tactics and weapons to dismantle even the best opponent”. We’re fortunate that Steve is similarly skilled in both of his “recreational” activities.

  16. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:19 PM | Permalink

    Arrrggghhhh!!!! My eyes!! My eyes!!

    Steve: you were warned, but you ignored the warning. 🙂

  17. Urederra
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:24 PM | Permalink

    Time to change the background pic of climate audit.

    Good luck with the tournament.

  18. tallbloke
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 3:38 PM | Permalink

    I see it snowing in the background. Was Al Gore spectating?
    Congrats on the victory, good luck in the final.

  19. Anthony Watts
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 4:26 PM | Permalink

    Are those bristlecone pines on the side of that mountain?

  20. Urederra
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 4:32 PM | Permalink

    After studing tree rings of millenian bristlecones, some of them with damaged bark, this graph has been generated.

    The graph is called the squash racquet graph because its shape reflects the uncertainities of temperature reconstruction during the first part of the millenium.

    The data and code will be available some time around 2015.

  21. Reid
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 4:43 PM | Permalink

    Now Steve’s critics will accuse him of raqueteering and they will be correct.

  22. PaddikJ
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 4:43 PM | Permalink

    I don’t get it. The poster says “Steve McIntyre;” who’s that funny looking guy with the scraggly beard?

  23. richard clenney
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 4:59 PM | Permalink

    I wanted to play squash, but never found a “yellow crooked neck” racquet. Keep up
    the good work.

  24. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:05 PM | Permalink

    Graduate to Real Tennis (?the Elizabethan origin of squash) and maybe you can get to play Real Climate. Maybe they’ll have to acknowledge your existence, Professor.

  25. bender
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:08 PM | Permalink

    … the reconstructed image was interpolated using RegEM.
    … and the similarity with FBI computer generated records is uncanny. A real smoking gun.

  26. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:08 PM | Permalink

    Seeing your poster has moved me to congratulate you on your great site Steve. It has that rare quality of doing three things at once:

    Many, many thanks

    • JimB
      Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 6:53 PM | Permalink

      Re: Stuart Huggett (#26),

      which yields “ICE” ;*)

      The Iceman cometh…

      • FrederickMichael
        Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 9:27 PM | Permalink

        Re: JimB (#33),
        Once the gray shows up, it has to be:

        Steve: today’s been Rest.

  27. catilac
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:29 PM | Permalink

    UrederraRe: Urederra (#20), lol, nice work.

    glad Steve doesn’t play golf

  28. Patrick M.
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:53 PM | Permalink

  29. RoyFOMR
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:54 PM | Permalink

    Not just a court-Jester but a squash court-Jester
    and,notwithstanding the beard, you’re a Hansen(sp?)devil too!
    Keep up the ‘Gourd’ work (sry!)

  30. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 5:56 PM | Permalink

    Squash? Squash??? Why, that makes you even less qualified to audit climate science than we though!

  31. kuhnkat
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 6:41 PM | Permalink

    Good luck Steve!!

    Uhh, was that a joke airbrushing in the grey in the hair and beard?

  32. sprats
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 6:55 PM | Permalink

    Long time fan. Nice segway into a hobby of yours. My brother plays doubles out of the RCYC. I’ve watched him play a few interclub finals at the Cricket. You may have been there. Back to climate change, I have been thinking recently that you and Lawrence Solomon need to do a show on CFTR some drive-home show as John Moore is an AGM promoter evn though Mr. Solomon was on and tried to convince him of some inconsistencies in the data.

    Steve: Last year, I played on finals day at Cricket Club with Bruce Taylor against Kitchener Waterloo (B-league). We won a marathon match against two young guys after being down 2-0 and down in the third. I probably know your brother from league. He’d know Alex Carter – Alex used to play at RCYC. My brother Sandy sails at RCYC. I really really like the interclub squash league. I played my first interclub league match (singles) in 1965, if you can imagine.

  33. PaddikJ
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 7:01 PM | Permalink

    the reconstructed image was interpolated using RegEM . . .

    . . . and extrapolated where required by “sub-prime data sets” using sophisticated facial mapping algorithms.

    the similarity with FBI computer generated records is uncanny.

    I believe the word you’re looking for is “robust”.

    A real smoking gun.

    And wouldn’t that be “fingerprint”?

  34. Horace
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 7:05 PM | Permalink

    Age and treachery coupled with youth and enthusiasm – sounds like an unbeatable combination.

  35. Jeff Alberts
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 7:36 PM | Permalink

    Yuk! I hate squash!

    A game?

    Never mind!

    Good luck Steve!

    • D Johnson
      Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 7:59 PM | Permalink

      Re: Jeff Alberts (#37),

      I prefer the edible kind, personally. I usually grow acorns, buttercups, and hubbards each summer. I wonder where the name of the squash game came from. I could Google, but someone here will probably tell me.

  36. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 8:05 PM | Permalink

    squash does need to b a lot active! cant be for lazyman

  37. PeterS
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 8:08 PM | Permalink

    Steve – you appear to have developed your own troposphere in this pic. Either that, or it’s the well-deserved aura of success!

    May it continue into, and beyond, the squash final.

  38. Gary Hladik
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 8:21 PM | Permalink

    There are professional squash players??? 🙂

  39. steven mosher
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 8:49 PM | Permalink

    Anthony should use RegEm with surface stations.

    I have a diabolical analysis plan.

  40. sprats
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 8:56 PM | Permalink

    So your brother is Sandy. I have sailed/raced with him on Red Jacket/Venture some years back. He has had less time to waste on the water with his recent position. Small world. Again, great work with CA. Brian Spratley.

  41. Hu McCulloch
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 9:03 PM | Permalink

    The text says,

    Steve “The Professor” McIntyre is one of (if not the) most dangerous players to play against. He possesses all the tactics and weapons to dismantle even the best opponents. He applies his precise scientific techniques to the game, calculating odds of shots from all positions whether he’s making the shot or his opponents. A “loose ball” to Steve is devastating as he will most certainly use his pin-point accuracy to terminate the point. Catch Steve in this year’s 2009 Pro-Am.

    Well put!

  42. Hank
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 9:46 PM | Permalink

    Chuckle, chuckle, Ask Gavin if Steve McIntyre knows how to finesse an opponent into serving him up the kill shot.

    • bender
      Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 9:51 PM | Permalink

      Re: Hank (#47),
      I would. Except that question would never make it past RC’s gatekeepers.

  43. jae
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 9:50 PM | Permalink

    If you lose, don’t feel too bad; we will still value your opinion on sadistics.

  44. Jaye
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 10:04 PM | Permalink

    Tennis player here but have tried and enjoyed speed-minton.

  45. Geoff Sherrington
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 11:12 PM | Permalink

    Many of life’s high achievers in business and academia had athletic success, especially in their younger years. So enjoy your younger years, Steve.

    Who won?

  46. Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 11:18 PM | Permalink

    I used to play squash a lot more regularly than today. (These days I mostly row on Lady Bird Lake here in Austin.) But when I was really into it I lived in New York City, typically in tiny apartments. I remember the feeling of being on the squash court and thinking, “Ah, space.”

    Great game!

    And good luck!

  47. Gerry Morrow
    Posted Feb 10, 2009 at 11:20 PM | Permalink

    Is playing squash in the open air a Canadian thing?

  48. Justin Sane
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 12:56 AM | Permalink

    You better get running, it looks like there’s a new ice age coming to Toronto, what with the mountains and glaciers and all.

  49. Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 2:37 AM | Permalink

    I ran a quick Probit analysis on the incomplete data you have presented (but not archived). Near as I can tell you have a .543789 likelihood of winning assuming that the wind is at your back. But I have to admit I spliced some data sets and, for the eighteen year gap in your scores, just made stuff up.

    I’d be willing to bet a loonie.

  50. jeez
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 2:45 AM | Permalink

    Nice change to the site title.

    Steve: that was John A being mischievous during night time here.

    • Alan Wilkinson
      Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 2:56 AM | Permalink

      Re: jeez (#57),

      That title is really going to annoy some people.

      When I played squash in Canada (long ago, badly and lazily) they used funny big heavy balls and changed the court markings. Do they still do that in North America?

      Steve: Squash doubles is on a completely different court than either singles game. The court is about 4 times bigger than a singles court and way higher. It uses a hard ball and has a low tin like North American singles. The result is that kill shots are way more effective than singles and also you get to use the top of the court in interesting ways. So there are a variety of shots that you don’t see in singles – with their own nomenclature: reverse corners, Philadelphias,… The risk-reward ratio is totally different than singles. There’s a much bigger success rate for winners (at least at the level that I play at.) The top pros really heat the ball up and it becomes more of a power game, but Price hits a lot of winners even against pros. It makes for a far flashier spectator sport than singles. I like watching squash doubles even if the calibre isn’t superb, but don’t watch much squash singles.

  51. stephen richards
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 3:11 AM | Permalink

    Have you lost weight since the Starbuck trip or has the pic been touched. 🙂

    Steve: How nice of you to notice! Yes. Soon sfter the Starbucks trip, I had a checkup and the doctor told me to lose weight, so I promptly put on 10 pounds and at the 2007 AGU was by far the heaviest I’d ever been in my life. I felt bad; my squash was horrible. I was afraid to step on the scales. Finally I weighed myself and couldn’t believe it. For the first time in my life, I went on a serious diet and in the last year, I’ve lost a bit over 25 pounds (about 15 pounds since the Starbucks photo). I haven’t lost anything in the last 5 months or so, but will try for another 10 pounds.

  52. Robinson
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 3:33 AM | Permalink

    I played squash once (literally one time)….about 23 years ago. I was beaten 20 something nil and never played again!

  53. Robinedwards
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 4:09 AM | Permalink

    Great to read this thread I gave up squash about 40 years ago, I guess, but really enjoyed it for many years.

    Best of luck (and skill) in the Final.

    However, have a care, Steve! It’s been said that there are more heart attacks per square meter on squash courts than anywhere else on earth. We do NOT want to lose you.

  54. Rejean Gagnon
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 7:02 AM | Permalink

    Go get ’em, Steve – best of luck today.

  55. Steve McIntyre
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 7:30 AM | Permalink

    #61. There are defibrillators at our squash, though not at every club. I don’t know whether I mentioned an incident a couple of years ago with our club team in an away game. I was playing the #2 match; the 3s came off the court, I was stretching and one of players look like he’d fainted. Well, he hadn’t. He’d had a massive heart attack; he was only about 38 years old (it was a hereditary problem). He had his heart attack about 6 feet from a defibrillator; one of the guys who was having a drink at the club bar had been trained (tho, unlike Team climate articles, defibrillators are designed to be usable). On went the debrillator within a minute or so and boom, Sam was back to life. This club was downtown, but the ambulance took about 15 minutes to arrive. The attendant said that Sam would have been dead without the defibrillator. By coincidence, we were playing at Paul Price’s club; the two people responsible for saving Sam’s life, John Hickey and Paul, were both given civic awards. My own take right now is that fairly strenuous exercise right by a defibrillator is probably safer than shoveling snow.

  56. kim
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 8:15 AM | Permalink

    Don’t worry about the plateau in weight loss. The slower you lose weight, the more likely it is to stay off. A great trick for many people is to figure out how to eat more slowly. Once your stomach doesn’t think your throat’s been cut satiety ensues. Really, though, you have to give the nutrients time to get through your liver and to your brain.

  57. Steve McIntyre
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 8:26 AM | Permalink

    #45. It’s funny that one can, so to speak, bring a similar style to squash doubles and statistics. Monday’s match was really fun for me. I’ll remember it as long as I can remember things. One of my friends sent the following email report on Monday’s match to another friend:

    He won 3-1 – and did what steve does best standing up there and putting away those stuff shots and the squibbly side fronts and the odd reverse with a quick snap that not even a Paul Price could get to!

    I’d like to think that Climate Audit has the same sort of ambiance.

    One big difference between squash and climate is that squash players learn to leave it on the court. It’s grown out of English traditions that I find admirable. Squash leagues are not just about the game, but about dinner and drinks afterwards. College rugby at Oxford was like that; the guy that you tackled the hardest bought you a drink. I was blown away by the civility and thought that this was great.

    The NAS presentations in March 2006 had a cocktail reception and I joked that Mann and I were going to sing rugby songs together. Unfortunately, he didn’t show up for the reception. I walked by him at AGU one year and said hello, but he stormed by not even looking at me.

    • Phil
      Posted Feb 13, 2009 at 8:15 AM | Permalink

      Re: Steve McIntyre (#64), The Oriel College chap who broke my cheekbone playing football didn’t buy me a drink. Admittedly he would have had to visit the Radcliffe Infirmary to find me, but I never saw him again. That was one of a number of unfortunate experiences. Though I’m an Oxford graduate, I wouldn’t call myself an alumnus. I found Oxford snobbish rather than civil. I felt anything but nurtured by Oxford University.

  58. Ron Cram
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 11:04 AM | Permalink

    Steve, congrats on another championship! I’ve seen you come up with a quick snap not even a Michael Mann could get to! Too bad Mann doesn’t know any rugby songs.

    not there yet. one more match.

  59. Kenneth Fritsch
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 11:16 AM | Permalink

    Steve M, nice pix and promo/caption. Someone beat me to it, but your weight loss looks good on you.

    I quit smoking (for good) many years ago because I was losing singles tennis matches to opponents I should have beaten (wind factor). Doubles tennis was not so revealing of my smoking related inadequacies. I have progressed in my life from participating in baseball, basketball and track to softball and golf to tennis and now I do gardening, cooking and occasional fishing. I have a son, who attributes the lessening of the competitiveness of my activities to a diminishing supply of testosterone and I tell him, no, it’s that I am at peace with myself.

    Once in while, I have to prove to myself that I can still sink a twenty foot jump shot and throw a curve ball and not look like I remember my grandfather throwing a baseball in his later years. From all reports Grandpa was a very good baseball player in his youth, but I always wondered as a youth how that could be with his “restricted” throwing motion when we playing catch. Now I know. So, Steve, keep using it to keep from losing it.

    One quick question for you, Steve, how long have you been “the club member making up promotional posters for the various players, one of which featured the proprietor of Climate Audit”.

    Steve: Pat McMurrich did the posters and photos. The other ones are fun too. (He’s in the final as well.)

    • Mark T.
      Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 12:22 PM | Permalink

      Re: Kenneth Fritsch (#66),

      it’s that I am at peace with myself.

      Because you don’t have as much testosterone raging through your body and confusing your brain. 😉

      ^Steve: Mann was pouting, no doubt.

  60. Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 12:49 PM | Permalink

    Haha! That’s awesome, deadly at statistics and squash!

  61. DJ
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 12:56 PM | Permalink

    Congrats on the move to the next round..You would think playing this game would definitely keep the weight off but do you play all the time? Also, how’s your Granddaughter doing?

  62. Mike C
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 1:39 PM | Permalink

    I’ve seen you mention squash from time to time and never knew what it is… I envisioned a laid back game like bowling or billiards or something… I’m surprised to see it’s a racket game, obviously something that requires a bit of exertion for a guy of your extended youth.

  63. G Goodknight
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 2:12 PM | Permalink

    Regarding badminton, being a good player could have benefits. Death is a master player, and if you beat him in a game you just might live.

    This is an oscar nominated, brilliant satire of at least two Ingmar Bergman films, and it’s wonderful to see an uncut copy finally posted on the web. Some may find it in bad taste for very adult dialog and minor nudity, but in wonderful taste involving a pre-Saturday Night Live Madeleine Kahn.

  64. TehDude
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 3:14 PM | Permalink

    Rock that white beard!!

  65. Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 4:31 PM | Permalink

    As I am thinking about it Dr. Schmidt (he hasn’t asked me to call him Gavin yet) has a good point. Why would there be any correlation positive or negative between his model data and the temperature anomaly differences? If you treat his model output as essentially random at this scale then you wouldn’t expect correlation except in a small number of cases. This seems too frequent. If the output is non random, I can’t see why it would be affected one way or the other by socioeconomic factors.

    I believe you have commented on something like this, but you may have to make it simple for me to understand.

  66. Stuart
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 7:08 PM | Permalink

    Dear Steve

    There may be snow on the mountain top but there’s still a fire in the cave.

    Or I think, maybe in both our cases, my father summed it up ” You to can have a body like mine if you let it go”

  67. Terry
    Posted Feb 11, 2009 at 8:53 PM | Permalink

    Who won? Enquiring minds want to know! 🙂

  68. PHE
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 12:02 AM | Permalink

    I like Urederra’s (20)squash racket graph. I think much more than a joke. Comparing it to the hockey stick makes a serious point.

    The poster is just right for a desktop!

    Moving off-topic, the AAAS anual meeting starts this week. Prof James McCarty says ‘The planet will be in “huge trouble” unless Barack Obama makes strides in tackling climate change’ (quote via BBC).

    Looking at the programme, there is a mix of ‘serious’ and ‘non-serious’science (eg. ‘Science of kissing’, Math for origami and hip-hop music’) and a ‘Dance your PhD’ contest. Climate Change is in there, with a presentation from Al Gore. But its not clear which camp these are in. I suppose you can make your own judgement.

    By the way, the picture of Prof James McCarthy on the front page bares a remarkable resemblance to the picture of Steve above. Are they by any change related??

  69. Pierre Gosselin
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 6:08 AM | Permalink

    For whatever reason, you look much younger in the photo than I expected. I thought you were retired.
    Steve is going to be around for awhile. Much to everyone’s delight!

    • PaddikJ
      Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 1:59 PM | Permalink

      Re: Pierre Gosselin (#77),

      Steve is going to be around for awhile. Much to everyone’s delight!

      Not quite everyone’s, I think; but certainly to Steve’s many admirers, both here at CA & elsewhere (certain parties are probably breathing a sigh of relief that he was distracted from his auditing for a few days).

      Congratulations on your win, Steve. What a kick it must be for a 60-something – to not only hold you own, but to walk off with the trophy.

  70. Steve McIntyre
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 1:08 PM | Permalink

    Your 2009 Pro Am champion is tired and sore and a little hung over. 5 games – 15-12 in the fifth. There must have been about 300 people there for the match, so the atmosphere was very lively. Jeff Lurie’s band, Still Sol, livened things up. Jeff is a fine squash player as well and called his band the “Steve McIntyre Band” for the evening. I felt very cool. Some of the pros, including Paul Price, came for the final. Paul’s band is playing at Loki Lounge on King St W next Tuesday and gave us an invitation. I think that my wife and I will go; it seems a little too cool for people in their 60s, but hey.

    Here I am looking grandfatherly with some of the young people. The two girls are both champion squash players and the cell phone photo doesn’t do them justice. I told you it was a great game. My Pro Am partner Alex Carter is on the right.

    • Kenneth Fritsch
      Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 11:00 PM | Permalink

      Re: Steve McIntyre (#78),

      Here I am looking grandfatherly with some of the young people. The two girls are both champion squash players and the cell phone photo doesn’t do them justice. I told you it was a great game. My Pro Am partner Alex Carter is on the right.

      I’ll just say a great win for anyone at any age.

      I am confused was the young man at the far right in the picture your partner and if so who would drive him to the matches.

      Yeah and we get it: jocks and particularly winning jocks are chick magnets.

  71. kim
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 1:15 PM | Permalink

    Wunnerful, wunnerful, wunnerful. I feel like I won.

  72. Steve McIntyre
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 1:39 PM | Permalink

    I was thinking that my reporting shows some possible confirmation bias. I reported results only after I had won 3 matches. We won 15-14 in the first round with 2 match points against us (the last point was a 2-way match point.) Would I have reported results had we lost in the first round? Probably not. Not that I would have been “withholding” results; it’s just that they wouldn’t have been “interesting”. That left one match for a “validation period” – we had about a 50-50 shot in the final. So “validation” doesn’t mean a whole lot. Sort of like a Team proxy reconstruction – except this was fun.

    • bender
      Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 1:48 PM | Permalink

      Re: Steve McIntyre (#80), Reporting-time bias. Should be familiar to any despotic political regime that is allowed to time its elections to coincide with favorable bounces in the polls.

  73. Gong
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 3:26 PM | Permalink

    Thought this blog was related to climate issues… What/Whom is this post for? Strange, confusing to a first time visitor at Climate Audit.

    • Dave Dardinger
      Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 4:33 PM | Permalink

      Re: Gong (#83),

      Is this a joke? Most blogs I’ve ever been to have some social / fun posts as well as the serious threads. Though I do have to say that I wondered if keeping Steve’s squash exploits thread at the top for more than a day might confuse some casual passers by.

      If you’re serious, I’d suggest going down the left column to “Favorite Posts” and read the first couple of entries to get a taste for the site.

    • Jeff Alberts
      Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 5:12 PM | Permalink

      Re: Gong (#83),

      This IS a climate issue, a sporting climate.

  74. Terry
    Posted Feb 12, 2009 at 5:48 PM | Permalink

    Job well done – Congrats!!

  75. KevinUK
    Posted Feb 13, 2009 at 6:32 AM | Permalink

    Steve (and of course your partner Alex as well)

    Congratulations on your obviously very hard and well fought victory. We’ve had several ‘wee small hours of the morning in the UK’ chats about squash, past tournaments you’ve taken part in and of course your tendency for squash name dropping, but hey nothing wrong with that IMO (its just that it makes me very jealous) on unthreaded in the past so I know how much this win means to you.

    For fun I used to run a handicapped invitation only (mainly friends) little tournament at my local Squash club (the Northern Club in Crosby, Liverpool which my friends called ‘The KS Classic’) for a while. It was very hard for any of the squash club team players invited to win the tournament because of the handicap system that we employed as their handicap actually increased if they won a previous round and severely if their win was by a large margin in the previous round. It was great fun for all and was rounded off with the (as you already know obligatory best bit the) meal and drinks session afterwards. All in all a great way to spend you spare time in the holiday period between Christmas and New Year when most companies have closed down for the festive period. In the 10 years or so I ran it I only ever won it myself once and was very proud when I did. That year someone else did the handicapping so perhaps slipped up or maybe perhaps I just got lucky :-).

    Buoyed by your victory, I really think its time now that you took me up on the offer I made quite sometime ago now to challenge Billy ‘the Wiki’ Connelley and some of his squashing playing Green Party mates to a team match over here in the UK. I’d consider it an honour to be on the same squash team with none other than the famous (infamous to some) Steve McIntyre. Lubos, I wonder if Ms Evets Erytnicm will be on their team :-)?

    Well Done!

  76. Steve McIntyre
    Posted Feb 13, 2009 at 8:19 AM | Permalink

    #88. Doubles squash is a related-to but different game than singles squash. You can compete with younger players a LOT longer in doubles. The risk-reward ratio for kill shots is much better than singles because of the big court and low tin. I’ve found that my hand-eye reflexes have deteriorated less with age than my leg speed (especially the starts and turns that you need in squash). The net result is that you can stay competitive against younger players. In interclub doubles league (not pro am), I can win against players who are 20-35 years younger with a clubmate older than 50 but I wouldn’t be able to win a point any more against them in singles.

    Older players at my club gravitate towards doubles. Plus it’s more fun. The game is intrinsically more interesting than singles because of the big court and kill shots and there’s a lot more chit chat and pleasantries on the court, for some reason. Probably like golf foursomes rather than twosomes – they end up being more companionable.

    • Kenneth Fritsch
      Posted Feb 13, 2009 at 12:04 PM | Permalink

      Re: Steve McIntyre (#90),

      I find it interesting that most of us as younger athletic participants took our bodies and their functioning for granted (unless we were operating at its limitations) but as we grow older we are very much aware of our limitations and nearly all the time. Compensating for those limitations is the key, but even that has its own limitations.

      I used to play basketball, one on one, with my younger sons and used my distant jump shooting and muscle under the boards to prevail. Then my sons grew stronger and taller (than me) and I finally ended my one on one games with them when they frequently blocked my long distance jump shots (how embarrassing that was) and when instead of muscling them out under the basket I would simply get bounced off them.

      I have experience playing tennis- singles and doubles – but have only known a few squash players (who approached the game with an almost religious fervor) and only watched matches intermittently. I have heard that squash can be more of a power game than tennis, but when I look at the top squash versus top tennis players I see the body builds of squash players looking like faster, but less powerful versions of their tennis counter parts.

      I also understand that squash is on the list as a potential future sport for the Olympics. I am still pouting about their removal of women’s softball – a great athletic sport that was easy on the eyes to watch.

  77. Posted Feb 24, 2009 at 1:36 AM | Permalink

    I personally prefer badminton to squash 🙂

  78. Posted Apr 17, 2010 at 7:27 AM | Permalink

    To Saina Nehwal above – I wish I could agree with you.

    Squash is a lot funnier than badminton! 😀

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Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Truncated: length

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text:
Try our beta test site

Hot Saline Irrigation Study (HSI)

This study has been completed.
Information provided by (Responsible Party):
Amin Javer, St. Paul's Hospital, Canada Identifier:
First received: October 26, 2012
Last updated: April 13, 2016
Last verified: April 2016

Many methods have been used to reduce bleeding during sinus surgery (FESS) in order to allow for the best surgical view and to reduce risk while in surgery.

Warm irrigation fluid is believed to accelerate the clotting mechanism in the human body. The investigators would like to determine if hot saline irrigation (HSI) compared to room temperature saline irrigation (RTSI) can control bleeding during FESS.

The hypothesis is that HSI is more effective than RTSI in reducing intraoperative bleeding during FESS.

Condition Intervention
Procedure: Hot saline irrigation

Study Type: Interventional
Study Design: Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Double Blind (Subject, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
Official Title: Hot Saline Irrigation vs Room Temperature Saline Irrigation in the Control of Intraoperative Bleeding During Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery (FESS)

Resource links provided by NLM:

Further study details as provided by St. Paul's Hospital, Canada:

Primary Outcome Measures:
  • The Boezaart and van der Merwe intraoperative surgical field scale [ Time Frame: Every 15 minutes for the duration of surgery.. ]
    The Boezaart intra-operative surgical field scale will be used to grade the level of bleeding during surgery. This 0 to 5-point scale will be used to outline the amount of suction required to rid the area of blood disrupting vision. A score of 0 is given for an area with no bleeding, 1 for slight bleeding with no suction required, 2 for slight bleeding requiring suction, 3 for moderate bleeding which improves for several seconds once suction has occurred, 4 for moderate bleeding which restarts directly after suctioning and 5 for severe bleeding which occurs faster then can be removed

Secondary Outcome Measures:
  • Total Estimated Blood Loss [ Time Frame: Duration of surgery ]
    Total blood loss will be recorded over the duration of surgery.

Enrollment: 60
Study Start Date: November 2012
Study Completion Date: April 2015
Primary Completion Date: March 2015 (Final data collection date for primary outcome measure)
Arms Assigned Interventions
Experimental: Hot saline irrigation
Hot saline is prepared by first placing 2 litres of sterile normal saline (0.9%) into a basin (IntraTemp Therma BasinTM) that is wrapped in a sterile disposable drape (IntraTemp Therma Basin DrapeTM). The basin is then placed in a medical grade warmer (IntraTemp Fluid Warming SystemTM). The warmer is set to heat the saline up to a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius. An external digital thermometer is placed in the saline at all times to ensure that the temperature is between 45-50 degrees.
Procedure: Hot saline irrigation
The surgical field is flushed with 20 cc of hot saline (45-50 degrees Celsius) at five minutes intervals. This is in contrast to the standard of care, room temperature (20-25 degrees Celsius) saline irrigation.
Other Name: HSI
No Intervention: Room temperature saline irrigation
Room temperature saline is prepared in the same manner as the experimental arm except that the warmer is switched off and the temperature of the saline in the basin is left to equilibrate to the temperature of the operating room.

  Show Detailed Description

Ages Eligible for Study:   19 Years to 75 Years   (Adult, Senior)
Sexes Eligible for Study:   All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:   No

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) classification <2
  • Patients with chronic or recurrent sinusitis (as defined by the American Academy of Otolaryngology) with or without nasal polyposis refractory to medical treatment

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients with a history of coagulation disorders
  • Patients with severe ischemic heart disease (IHD), pulmonary and renal disease
  • Patients with tumours or vascular anomalies
  • Patients with cystic fibrosis, allergic fungal sinusitis and Wegener's granulomatosis
  • Patients who are unable to speak, read and write English
  Contacts and Locations
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below. For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its identifier: NCT01717274

Canada, British Columbia
E.N.T. Clinic, St. Paul's Hospital
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6Z 1Y6
Sponsors and Collaborators
St. Paul's Hospital, Canada
Principal Investigator: Amin R Javer, MD, FRCSC, FARS St Pauls Hospital
  More Information

Publications automatically indexed to this study by Identifier (NCT Number):
Responsible Party: Amin Javer, Principal Investigator, St. Paul's Hospital, Canada Identifier: NCT01717274     History of Changes
Other Study ID Numbers: HSI-2012
Study First Received: October 26, 2012
Last Updated: April 13, 2016

Keywords provided by St. Paul's Hospital, Canada:
Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery
Hot water irrigation

Additional relevant MeSH terms:
Paranasal Sinus Diseases
Nose Diseases
Respiratory Tract Diseases
Respiratory Tract Infections
Otorhinolaryngologic Diseases processed this record on March 22, 2017

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publisher: CommonCrawl
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text:
Try our beta test site
1 study found for:    21099672 [PUBMED-IDS]
Show Display Options
Rank Status Study
1 Completed A Study of Acyclovir to Help Prevent HIV Infection in People With Genital Herpes
Conditions: HIV Infections;   HIV Seronegativity;   Herpes Genitalis
Interventions: Drug: Acyclovir;   Drug: Acyclovir placebo

Study has passed its completion date and status has not been verified in more than two years.


text:
You are here

FAST Act: Veteran Drivers

  • FMCSA’s commitment to serving our veterans and assisting efforts to attract and retain skilled commercial motor vehicle (CMV) drivers is bolstered by several FAST Act provisions.
  • An FMCSA rule will provide military personnel with a time extension to apply for a skills test waiver and also permit active duty military personnel to apply and be tested for their commercial learner’s permits and commercial driver’s license in the State where they are stationed.
  • FMCSA will establish a process that allows veteran operators to obtain their DOT medical certification exams from their Department of Veterans Affairs physician.
  • The CMV Operator Safety Training grant program will provide grant funds to commercial driver training schools that train veterans to transition into civilian motor carrier careers.
  • The FAST Act military pilot program will allow select military personnel between 18-21 years of age to operate a commercial motor vehicle in interstate commerce.
Updated: Friday, August 19, 2016
Submit Feedback >


text:
Opened 11 years ago

Closed 11 years ago

Last modified 10 years ago

#1055 closed defect (fixed)

Models should have better default __str__() and __repr__() methods

Reported by: GomoX <gomo@…> Owned by: Adrian Holovaty
Component: Database layer (models, ORM) Version:
Severity: normal Keywords:
Cc: gomo@… Triage Stage: Unreviewed
Has patch: no Needs documentation: no
Needs tests: no Patch needs improvement: no
Easy pickings: UI/UX:

Right now, the default __repr__() method as defined in the Model class (in django/core/meta/ looks like:

def __repr__(self):
    return '<%s object>' % self.__class__.__name__

I think we should have at least a __str__() definition and a better __repr__(), which includes at least the object id, so that when using the interactive interpreter, you can tell an object from another. Something like:

def __str__(self):
    return '%s %s' % (self.__class__.__name__,
def __repr__(self):
    return '<%s object ID=%s>' % (self.__class__.__name__,

Change History (3)

comment:1 Changed 11 years ago by anonymous

comment:2 Changed 11 years ago by Antti Kaihola

The annoying thing about <> -enclosed Python-style repr strings is that when inserting them in templates for debugging you must remember to escape them to actually see them on the page.

comment:3 Changed 11 years ago by Adrian Holovaty

Resolution: fixed
Status: newclosed

This was fixed a while back.

Note: See TracTickets for help on using tickets.
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text:
Software Quality

September 16, 2010

automatic dependency injection requires a different style of object and constructor design

Filed under: Practices — David Allen @ 5:12 am

Problem:  Thanks to the amazing book Dependency Injection in .Net, but Mark Seemann, I recently learned how to use automatic dependency injection, but I experienced a lot of friction with my existing object designs and my approach to object construction. Why is that? Well, it has to do with my personal history, and the gaps in my education.

September 6, 2010

I found a great new book on Dependency Injection and Architecture

Filed under: Practices, Testing — David Allen @ 9:20 pm

The book is a work in progress, by Mark Seemann, to be published by Manning Publications.  It is entitled Dependency Injection in .Net.  This book fills in a serious gap my software development education by explaining how automated dependency injection can help improve testability and composability of modules. It shows me both how to do something (with compilable sample code), and it also shows me why things are done (the resulting benefits).  I love this book. It is by a real programmer, about a really important topic. And I’m learning a lot of stuff I can use in my daily programming work (more…)

September 2, 2010

Why do we write acceptance tests before we code?

Filed under: Case Study, Practices, Testing — David Allen @ 6:18 am

Topic: Acceptance tests as requirements

Thesis: We should write acceptance tests before we accept a story for development. The story is not ready for coding until acceptance tests have been developed (or at least started).  (more…)

Blog at


text:
The NFL’s “Bad Day” Fantasy Football Commercial Is A Yearly Tradition

The NFL playoffs are almost upon us, and the stretch months of December and January are probably a favorite time of Daniel Powter. Who? While you might not remember his name, you surely remember his one hit, 2006’s “Bad Day.” I absolutely hated this song, and the fact that I just found out it was Billboard’s #1 song in 2006 makes me very sad. But there is one place where it works very well…this great fantasy football playoff challenge commercial which has been playing since around 2008.

Having a lot of experience with mediocre at best fantasy football teams, I can relate. The semi-witty, semi-corny team names are also fun. And the amusing, overwrought reactions of the crappy team owners are amazing. This one still makes me smile.

About joshw24
30 year old guy. Into sports, pop culture, advertising, and trivia among other things.

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Category:Species of Coleoptera

This category contains Species of Coleoptera.

This category is automatically filled by the use of {{Taxonavigation}} with parameter include=Coleoptera (include) or by the use of {{Coleoptera}}.

This category should only contain Species categories and galleries. It should contain no file.

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PSA Laundry Detergent Pods

3D/4D ultrasound

Posted 03/20/2017

I had to share my 3D/4D ultrasound pic of my sweet baby boy smiling. I am so ready to meet him!!

Comments (2)

Posted 03/20/2017

IFirst BirthdayFirst SmileFirst StepFirst Word

Posted 03/20/2017

So cute!

Halfway ThereCrawlingFirst Tooth!Top PosterFirst Smile

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At 25 weeks pregnant, your little one is starting to add some baby fat and grow more hair. Your hair may be looking extra lustrous, too. Read More

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2 Replies Latest reply on Nov 20, 2012 4:38 PM by Pradeep Navin Kumar

    Workflow From Role.

    Pradeep Navin Kumar
      Hi all,
      In some cases in Irecruitement i am getting From role as <Please Enter>. I have to replace it with Some standard name like 'HR Team'. How can i achieve it.

      I tried it by creating a adhoc user. But it is of no use. Should the From role should definetly be an employee of the organization. Can i randomly create a adhoc_user and use it?


text:
0 Replies Latest reply on Oct 24, 2012 4:28 AM by Cypress

    How to achieve this OIC Calculation?

      Scenario likes this:

      Two dimensions:
      Dimension#1 Year Target Fulfillment Percentage
      Dimension#2 Discount (Selling Price/ List Price) for each transaction

      Ratetable is based on the two dimensions.

      So the formula is like this:

      Individually, no accumulative

      Input1: Year Target Fulfillment Percentage ( How to achieve this?)
      Input2: Discount (Easy to do)

      Is there anyone has any thought about it? The headache is when calculating the rate for each transactions (different discount), you need to know the whole year Target Fulfillment Percentage.

      帖子经 967311编辑过


text:
7 Replies Latest reply: May 5, 2012 8:35 AM by Stefan Wühl RSS

    Creating a graph where you can choose different years... (noob)

    Erik Hultgren

      Im totally new to qlikview, i have tried to look at some videos and stuff but i have som questions now and im hopefull that someone here can help me out.

      Im having a excel file, with jan-dec and every month have a value say between "0-500" and then i have this information for 2 years. I have managed to create a barchart for each year, but i really want a graph just showing the "months" on the x-axis and the values on the y-axis. Then i want a listbox where i can choose between 2012 and 2013.

      But when i try to create a graph i only get dots and not the line between the dots, and also i don't know how to do to change between years.

      I hope this makes sence, it's quite hard to explain and english is not my native language.

      Thanks for all help!!


text:
The Bureaucracy of Automatons

An introduction to the notes on Confucian Software.

Software and the Sage

Among the many dissimilarities between software and gentlemen of the classical Chinese Spring and Autumn Period, two in particular stand out. One existed in a pre-scientific feudal society on an agricultural technological and economic base, and the other presupposes the scientific method and a modern (or post-modern) industrial base. Secondly, the concept of virtue or potency (德) is central to The Analects, but software artifacts are, in our day and age, non-sentient. Morality requires some degree of self-awareness – of consciousness – and so software does not itself practice virtue any more than a spoon or a lawnmower.

The immediate relevance, for a developer, of the Analects, are the two other grand concerns of Confucius, which are existential fundaments of software. These are names (名), and the rites (礼).

Continue reading

XIII.3 Name Oriented Software Development

子路日:卫君待子而为政,子将奚先.子日:必也正名乎. 子路日:有是哉!子之迂也.奚其正.子日:野哉由也.君子于其所不知.蓋阙如也.名不正,则言不顺.言不顺,则事不成.事不成,则礼乐不兴.礼乐不兴,则刑罚不中.刑罚不中,则民无所措手足.故君子名知必可言也.言之必可行也.君子于其言,无所苟而已矣. — 论语 十三:三

Tzu-lu said, ‘If the Lord of Wei left the administration (cheng) of his state to you, what would you put first?’ The Master said, ‘If something has to be put first, it is, perhaps, the rectification (cheng) of names.’ Tzu-lu said, ‘Is that so? What a roundabout way you take! Why bring rectification in at all?’ The Master said, ‘Yu, how boorish you are. Where a gentleman is ignorant, one would expect him not to offer any opinion. When names are not correct, what is said will not sound reasonable; when what is said does not sound reasonable, affairs will not culminate in success; when affairs do not culminate in success, rites and music will not flourish; when rites and music do not flourish, punishments will not fit the crimes; when punishments do not fit the crimes, the common people will not know where to put hand and foot. Thus when the gentleman names something, the name is sure to be usable in speech, and when he says something this is sure to be practicable. The thing about the gentleman is that he is anything but casual where speech is concerned.’ — Analects XIII.3 (Lau)

If something has to be put first in programming, it is, perhaps, the rectification of names. Names are what place the system and the not-system in the same reality. They are the bridge between the externalized machine without use and the internalized emotion without expression.

What in Confucian philsophy we call the rectification of names we can in Confucian software call Name Oriented Software Development. This does not yet exist, but it can be defined simply. Name Oriented Software Development uses a toolset that promotes the continuous rectification of names across all the interstices between natural languages and machine languages in the system.

The nominalist toolset should span package, class, variable and method names. It should span library and project names. It should cover layers of code around the core system, including message protocol definitions and protocol dictionaries, configuration entities, unit and performance tests, and run scripts. The aim in managing machine facing names is to enforce consistency and coherence of names while making precision in naming, including type restriction, easy. The same name appearing in different machine-facing contexts, eg a message protocol field in a script and a Java class, should be linked in an automated and machine verified way. This might at first seem to make the internal technical dialect (namespace, one could say, if it were not taken) too rigid. This is not the intent, and if we look at the rename variable refactoring, not its effect in smaller scopes. It is because we can execute refactorings in a reliable, automatic way that it becomes viable as a low-risk change. This is the same across the entire internal technical dialect – enforced formal consistency allows mutability to be low risk.

By contrast, the aim in managing people facing names is to allow a consensus jargon to emerge backed by a literature of interaction and aspiration which is still moored to the technical reality of the system as it exists. This covers specifications, use cases, test documents (even and especially automated acceptance tests), application messages or labels for users or external parties, internationalization, log messages (ie, a UI for support) support and developer faqs, and user manuals and documentation. Changes to this shared understanding should be reflected as immediately as possible and not tied to a long software release cycle. A label, for example, is essentially a piece of simple key-mapped static data; changes to it can therefore be routine and implicit. When treating this sort of text as static data, it is essential to keep it automatically linked to the running widgets themselves – otherwise it is merely the domain of style guides and moral exhortation. A true dialect is owned by a community – a folksonomy – so the entire community must be able to use and contribute to it. The editors for these documents should be as broad as possible within organisational constraints. Where editing constraints exist (organisational not technical), annotation on these documents should be easy. Cross referencing within the docset and outside it to external sources of expertise (for instance on domain jargon) should also be easy to add and maintain.

Or, via Wittgenstein, Tractatus 7: Whereof one cannot speak clearly, one must damn well link to a wikipedia entry.

This approach owes more than a little to Knuth’s Literate Programming. A distinction is that instead of putting documentation with source code in a single artifact to be owned by a single philosopher-developer auteur, it puts editable, often executable content in the hands of a community of expertise.

Historically, the Confucians became increasingly sophisticated in their theory of names. I know of no record of Confucius addressing names changing over time, apart from a general openness to political reform (Analects IX.3). Indeed, as old Kongzi was often conservative, the quote above might reasonably be taken to advocate reverting to old names now in disuse. Xun Zi (荀子), who lived in the century after Confucius and was one of his major intellectual heirs, saw fit to reuse the Mohist (墨家) theory of names.

单足以喻则单，单不足以喻则兼; […] 名无固宜，约之以命，约定俗成谓之宜，异于约则谓之不宜。名无固实，约之以命实，约定俗成，谓之实名。名有固善，径易而不拂，谓之善名 — 荀子 – 正名 6-8

If a single name is enough to communicate, make it single; if not, combine. […] Names have no inherent appropriateness, we name by convention; when the convention is fixed and the custom established, we call them appropriate, and what differs from the convention we call inappropriate. No object belongs inherently to a name, we name by convention, and when the convention is fixed and the custom established, we call it the object’s name. Names do have inherent goodness; when straightforward, easy and not inconsistent, we call them good names. — Xun Zi – Rectification of Names 6-8 , AC Graham translation

AC Graham’s use of the word “combine” (兼) above is in the sense of “compound”. This is the term the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy uses in preference. That entry points out Xunzi’s concern with names is also in rebuttal to the paradoxes of the Chinese sophists. Furthermore, Xunzi is rather more open to mutability and the pragmatic construction of language from a vernacular folksonomy. (The term 俗成, translated as convention, includes 俗 which now spans meanings including custom and vulgar.)

Computer science launched itself out of the western analytical tradition, though. A sometime description and criticism of Object Oriented design is that it is reheated Platonism. See, e.g., blogs by Vlad Tarko and Richard Farrar. ((Should the frequent light analogical treatment of Platonism and software sound a note of alarm for this very project? Perhaps. But there is heavier academic firepower behind us as well. Are we not grappling with code, which Berry and Pawlik call the defining discourse of our postmodernity? In an article that has more code metaphors than a house full of crack-addled Java-monkeys at teatime.))

The platonic analogy has legs. We do construct a parallel world of sorts in code. It is also revealing to think of classes as ideal representations of some external physical element. Isn’t that why we often fail as programmers? We critique the world for being less perfect than our ideal programs, for failing to match up to their strict conditions, for making them ugly, for crashing them. Code, and OO, can have a kind of brittleness that happens when we stop thinking of software as a model of the world and start thinking of it as the true world. We fit our shape to the name.

My suggestion is not to stop doing taxonomy – we could not navigate the world and construct alternative worlds out of software without it. We couldn’t even speak without it. Instead, we should use Xunzi’s advice and fit our names to the shape. We name by convention. We continually rectify names. If a single name is enough to communicate, make it single. If not, combine.

‘RenameClass’ is the most powerful refactoring. — Michael Feathers


text:
News Ticker – June 15, 2010

Bemis agrees to sell WI, OK facilities to Exopack for $81 million
The flexible-packaging converting giant signs a definitive agreement to sell its Menasha, WI, and Catoosa (Tulsa), OK, plants to Exopack Holding Corp. Under US court order, Bemis was required to divest the two facilities, which were part of its Alcan Packaging Food Americas acquisition.

“This purchase of the Menasha and Tulsa facilities reflects our commitment to our customers…that we will continue to expand our capabilities and product offerings and strengthen the presence of the Exopack brand in the global marketplace,” said Exopack chairman/CEO Jack Knott. The two facilities convert plastic packaging for retail natural cheese and shrink bags for fresh red meat.

Supermarket/grocery prepared foods sales to hit $14 billion in 2011
The Great Recession may mean fewer people are dining out, but that’s good news for sales of supermarket and grocery-store prepared foods, says a new report by Packaged Facts. About 50% of respondent restaurant goers say they are more likely to eat dinner at home compared to “three months ago.” Further, 64% of adult consumers have purchased ready-to-eat/heat-and-eat food from a grocery store or supermarket in the last month.

Packaged Facts forecasts supermarket/grocery prepared foods will achieve sales of $13 billion and $14 billion in 2010 and 2011 respectively, due to growth of 7% during both years. (Converters of foodservice packaging, take note: If you’re not already marketing a line of products for this venue, time’s a-wasting. –CC) More info

Phoseon Technology joins SGP as Gold Patron
The Sustainable Green Printing Partnership welcomes Phoseon Technology as its newest Gold Patron. The supplier joins a growing number of companies that support the transition to sustainable business practices for the graphic communication industry. Phoseon Technology provides clean-energy, UV-LED lamps and systems for the drying and curing of printing inks.

This entry was posted in flexible packaging, package printing, paper/paperboard/cartons, sustainability and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

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Balanced packaging: When less is worse than more

Last week, The Consumer Goods Forum released its report on “A Global Language for Packaging and Sustainability.” This common framework and measurement system for the supply chain is intended to help trading partners make more informed decisions about packaging and sustainability. Download the full report HERE. A group of about Earth Recycling84 stakeholders contributed to the project, including CPG manufacturers, retailers, packaging converters, trade associations, academics and consultants. It will next work on some pilot projects using the measurement system with the first results expected by November.

One thing that stood out: Less packaging is worse than too much. The report’s Innventia AB model showed that the environmental consequences of product loss caused by “excessive packaging reduction” are far greater than when guaranteeing adequate protection through using too much packaging. “The industry has a responsibility to review the packaging it uses and to ensure that any negative impact arising from its production or disposal is minimized,” the report says. “But this analysis of impacts must be done in the round. It must include the impact of product losses that may result from the use of too little packaging as well the impacts of using too much.”

My Thoughts: Your CPG customers are getting a lot of flak from environmentalists and the mainstream media when it comes to over-packaging. Being in the packaging-materials business makes you a target, too. Along with educating suppliers, customers, consumers and your employees on your company’s eco efforts, don’t neglect telling them about all the positives that packaging brings. Reduction in food waste; long-term product protection; availability of items from around the world, to name a few.

As The Consumer Goods Forum report states, “Finding the balance between under-packaging and over-packaging is the aim for all of our businesses.” I couldn’t agree more.

This entry was posted in flexible packaging, labels, paper/paperboard/cartons, sustainability and tagged , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Balanced packaging: When less is worse than more

  1. Emma G says:

    You’re right. It “is” all about finding the balance.

    I’m always amazed at how quickly we jump to go 110% into a major shift without necessarily weighing the cost vs. value equation from all sides. We need to remember to hold back and make those decisions in context with as much information as we can muster. Once we make those choices & implement the changes, educating the user & promoting the benefits are absolutely paramount.

    That mindset should be applied to everything we do – not just the packaging we design – actually, you inspired me to write a post on howlean & sustainable choices should be made in context. I just think this observation is more of a large-scale pattern stretching beyond packaging into manufacturing as a whole. Or any industry, for that matter.

    Thanks for a good post that makes you think 🙂

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Devastating Night For Award Winning Country Group As Their Tour Bus Goes Up In Flames

Lady antebellum Songs | Devastating Night For Award Winning Country Group As Their Tour Bus Goes Up In Flames | Country Music Videos
Photo credit: Eli Young Band

It was a rough night for the guys of the Eli Young Band. Sometime around 1 a.m. CST, the band posted a video to social media showing their tour bus engulfed in flames. According to the post, the bus caught fire outside of Topeka, Kansas.

"We've lost more than a bus here. There are memories and possessions that we can't replace! It's really sad to see her go. We're just happy that our driver, Randy, is safe!" the caption reads.

It is unclear who was aboard the bus at the time of the fire and what caused the fire.

Unfortunately, tour bus fires aren't an unusual occurrence. Late last year, rising country star Chris Lane lost his tour bus and most of his equipment when his bus caught fire just outside of Nashville.

"We were almost home from a long trip...and a loud noise happened in the back lounge - next thing we know it all went up in flames," Lane told Taste of Country shortly after the accident.

In April 2015, Lady Antebellum's bus caught fire outside of Dallas, Texas. Lady A's Hillary Scott, her husband, tour manager and driver were all on board at the time.

Thankfully, no injuries were reported in any of the bus fires.

The Grammy nominated group is scheduled to perform a the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, Minnesota, Friday night (January 20). At press time, that concert is set to go on at scheduled.

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Elderflower Martini Cocktail Recipe

Welcome in 2013! Hope you had a blast yesterday 🙂

Today’s cocktail recipe is an Elderflower Martini:

Elderflower Martini

5cl Vodka
2,5cl Elderflower Liqueur
2,5cl Fresh Lime Juice
4 fresh elderflowers

Method: Muddle, Shake and Double Strain
Preparation: Place the elderflowers and vodka in a mixing glass, muddle together, add the rest of the ingredients, fill with ice, shake and double strain into a chilled martini glass.
Decoration: Fresh elderflowers

Wishing you the best of luck and a lot of amazing cocktails in 2013! 🙂

If you would like to order the Creative Cocktails: 101 Martini Recipes book for Only 2.99 please click HERE!

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we are selecting 20 hot couples and 10 single girls from many applications to party at a 30 million pound mansion in central london with hot tub very close to Oxford Circus underground Station.

This will be a very exclusive event and the average age of the 16 couples and 7 single girls so far is 27.

There will be free drinks on arrival and you wil be welcomed by your hosts.

The party is a red lingerie / underwear theme. But smart sexy (as if you were to go to a top london club) for entry

This party is not for profit and therefore we are being very selective with who we invite.

Please email us if you wish to join the party!


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A Special Gift with Special Names

Christmas Eve Candlelight Worship Message

Text:  Matthew 1:18-25

“That’s not what I wanted dad!”  “Yes it is, son.  You wanted a new pair of blue shorts for Christmas.”  “Yeah.  But I wanted Nike shorts, dad.  These are made by Target.”

“Mom!  I didn’t want a doll for Christmas.  I wanted a Barbie doll for Christmas!  Argh!  It’s not the same!”

Isn’t it amazing how finicky and fickle children can become when it comes to Christmas presents?  Rather than being thankful that they receive any gifts at all, they can become demanding for special gifts with special names.  It can’t be any old hand held video game.  It has to be a Nintendo DS.  It can’t be any old toy or puzzle. It has to be made by Mattel or the Disney Corporation.  And don’t even dare buying a car unless it’s Lightning McQueen or an action figure if it’s not Buzz Lightyear!

But do we change when we become older?  Somehow we think shoes won’t run as fast if they aren’t Nikes.  Meat won’t taste as good if it’s Walmart Big Value brand and not Boar’s Head or Oscar Mayer.  And I’m still trying to figure out how my wife can try to convince me a purse will hold things better if it has the name Gucci or Prada.

William Shakespeare once said, “What’s in a name?  A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  We understand his point.  Names don’t change the essence of who we are or what something is.  But at the same time, names are important.  Names can be very special.  Names can mean something very special.  Names can tell us something very special.

And surely, the most special Christmas gift of all—Jesus—has the most special names of all.  Here’s what the angel Gabriel told Joseph about Mary and her child:  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

This would be no ordinary child.  This child would be named Jesus, which means, “He saves.”  Even his name describes what he came to do—save his people from his sins.

This child would be the long awaited Savior.  He would be the one to change everything—to live a life unlike any other.  He would walk and talk and live and love with absolute perfection and in fulfillment of all of God’s demands.

Then he would go to a cross to die for all of our imperfection.  Our lies, our lust, our cursing, our swearing, our greed, our envy, our anger, our hatred, our rage, our spiritual apathy and laziness, our doubts, our worries—any and every sin we have ever committed or ever will commit—he came to save us from them all.  So he fulfilled his special name of Jesus.  He saved us from our sins.

Matthew tells us in verse 23 that this also fulfilled a prophecy of the prophet Isaiah from 700 years before:  “’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’—which means, ‘God with us.’”  This special gift of God, this special child, would also be called Immanuel which means in Hebrew the with us God or God with us.

Another profound name!  This special child was not just another baby boy, but he was also God—come to be with us.  What incredible love of God that he wouldn’t just leave us to rot and die in our sins, but he himself came to save us.  He himself came to live with us and to die for us.  God came to be with us, so that we could be with him forever in heaven.

There’s nothing like watching children open their Christmas presents.  What joy they have, in particular when they know how special a gift is.

So too this year we behold our special gift lying in a manger.  We know how special he is because of his special names.  He is Immanuel—God come to be with us.  He is Jesus—the one who came to save us.  This Christmas cherish your special gift with his special names—Immanuel; Jesus; Savior.

About Pastor Phil Huebner

Pastor. Missionary. Principal. Husband. Father. Serving in love as each. http://www.ctkpalmcoast.com

Posted on December 26, 2011, in Church, Sermons and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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cURL / Mailing Lists / curl-library / Single Mail

[PATCH] Test 1800 not running

From: Paul Howarth <>
Date: Sat, 23 Jul 2016 22:27:49 +0100

Test 1800 never runs because it says the http2 feature is not enabled,
even when it is. I think there's some mix-up between "http2", "HTTP2"
and "http/2" in the feature name in various places. Attached patch
fixes this for me.

List admin:

Received on 2016-07-23


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Monday, October 13, 2014

The Company Wishes You ....

Today's Culture

GOP's WAVE election

On Monday, The Washington Times reported on the Homeland Security Inspector General's finding that detention facilities for illegal border-crossers are teeming with diseases because the guests don't know how to take medicine or use toilets. By Tuesday, there were more than 1,000 comments.

It is a mark of how utterly useless the national Republican committees are that roughly half the comments questioned whether Republicans would be any better on immigration than the Democrats. Any party that is incapable of capitalizing on this justified rage about our country being overrun with illegal aliens doesn't deserve a Senate majority.
That's a lot of comments. Articles on ISIS usually get between five and 100 comments.

True, a month ago, a CNN poll reported that 90 percent of Americans said they believed ISIS was a direct threat to the United States. What else could they say? You'd feel awfully silly if you told a CNN pollster ISIS wasn't a threat and, the next day, the group set off a bomb in Times Square.

When it comes to what Americans are angry enough about to post more than a thousand comments, there's only one issue. It's immigration.

But the Republican leadership won't touch it. Their consultants have kids who are going to need college tuition, and the donor class wants cheap labor.

So instead, the big thinkers of the party give us the same soporifics a 5-year-old could produce. In Karl Rove's recent Wall Street Journal piece announcing the main issues Republicans needed to raise to win back the Senate, he listed tax cuts, regulatory reform, spending restraint, the Keystone pipeline and national defense ... Zzzzzzzz.

Anything missing? Maybe something that would produce 1,173 comments on a single article in The Washington Times?

Here's a representative sample of the comments:

-- defiant1: All the more reason why they should not be in the US; these illegal alien lawbreakers need to be deported immediately; I am tired of paying for this human garbage.

Sorry, girls, Defiant1 is married.

-- Erminilildo Zenga: After the demographic shift, this will be "the people."

Read More »

Media Engineering

Democrat Media Monkeys

I'm indulging myself with this total throw-away I stumbled over last week.  Here's the part that grabbed my attention.
Thanks in part to his rhetorical prowess, President Barack Obama has been credited with restoring prestige to the presidency—in contrast to his predecessor, George W. Bush, who was often derided for sounding vacuous.
The false predicate, a left-media device, is set.    Obama restored prestige to the presidency  after it was trashed by Bush.

Let's start here ..

The official left-media  Fact Checker steps in)

Lately, there’s been a rumor swirling around about the current location of the bust of Winston Churchill. Some have claimed that President Obama removed the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and sent it back to the British Embassy.
Now, normally we wouldn’t address a rumor that’s so patently false, but just this morning the Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer repeated this ridiculous claim in his column.  He said President Obama “started his Presidency by returning to the British Embassy the bust of Winston Churchill that had graced the Oval Office.”
This is 100% false. The bust still in the White House. In the Residence. Outside the Treaty Room.

The White House was forced to apologize late Tuesday after incorrectly insisting that it still had a Churchill bust on loan from the British government that in fact was sent back during the presidential transition between George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Why does it matter? Because the return of the Churchill bust has become a symbol in the eyes of Mr. Obama’s critics that the president does not hold the same values as Britain’s iconic wartime prime minister or adequately appreciate the “special relationship” between London and Washington.

Etc., Etc. As we speak, the only allies Obama, and the United States,  can count on world wide, are nations controlled by various factions of  al Qaeda style Islamos.

Oh, the "study" found that the quality of presidential rhetoric have steadily declined with media reliance on sound bites.  Bush and Obama were about the same.  As if anyone will read this.  Or care.   Carry on.

*Fact Checker  (along with Saturday Night Live) was the official agency the media relied on to settle accuracy disputes during Obama's 2008 campaign.
** I only skimmed this article, but found no mention of Ronald Reagan's speaking ability; Bill Clinton was singled out.

Entrovirus D68

                                           Mexican Invaders

Entrovirus D68

Enterovirus Likely to Spread Through Schools, Experts Say

What You Need to Know About the Enterovirus Outbreak

Unidentified Respiratory Virus Likely to Hit Kids Across Country

As of Saturday, enterovirus D68 had spread to 21 states across the Midwest and East Coast, with confirmed cases spanning from New Mexico to Montana to Delaware.

The virus is likely to spread across the country, ABC News' Dr. Richard Besser said Sunday morning.

"It's very hard for a virus to be limited by borders," Besser said. "I expect that it's going to hit the whole country."

There have been no reported cases of adults contracting the virus.

Adults may already have built an immunity towards the virus from previous infections, or may just get a milder version of the disease, Besser said.

Children who contract enterovirus D68 first suffer from what appears to be a common cold, with symptoms including a runny nose, coughing, and sneezing, according to Besser.

The symptoms then escalate to difficulty breathing. Besser said parents should look out for their children exhibiting signs of wheezing, difficulty eating or speaking, and blueness around the lips.

Doctors have found a way to treat the symptoms, helping kids breath more easily so they can get through the virus, Besser said.

My Son-I-L had an old band member friend visit last week.  He wasn't feeling well.  Went to the emergency room.  Died.  Coroner has the case,  but Enterovirus D68 is suspected as a possibility, despite there being no prior case of adults being infected.

Children are the most vulnerable; it was once contained on the west coast.  Now there's just a few states without cases.

Nobody is mentioning the huge influx of illegal aliens engineered by Obama, and the huge increase in TB and other third world disease associated with them, so I won't either.  Probably just a coincidence.  If you have school age children, know the symptoms.


text:
Medical Device Scientific Affairs

This six-report collection offers detailed metrics for medical device scientific affairs.  Findings show how companies allocate budgets, staffing and activity timelines for 11 scientific affairs subfunctions, with a focus on these areas:

  • Medical Science Liaisons (scientific/medical field force)
  • Medical Communications
  • Thought Leader Development
  • Medical Device Speaker Programs and Continuing Medical Education
  • Medical Device Regulatory Affairs and Compliance

The best practice discussions included in each report examine how medical device companies organize their scientific affairs teams and position them for maximum strategic impact. The reports also explore internal and external trends affecting medical device scientific affairs functions.

Download Now! speak-to-an-expert

Top Reasons to Purchase these Medical Device Scientific Affairs Reports

Benchmark resources for 11 vital subfunctions of scientific affairs: Launching new medical devices requires a skill set specific to scientific affairs groups. To maximize impact during new product launches, effective medical device companies align their scientific affairs teams’ structures and resources under a dedicated organization. Device companies seeking to grow their scientific affairs budgets and staffing will benefit from these reports’ insights on product support throughout the brand’s lifecycle — from early-stage development to more than five years post-launch. Use the data in these studies to right-size medical affairs subfunctions’ resources and evaluate the pros and cons of scientific affairs teams’ structures.

Establish and track scientific affairs performance metrics: Measuring the scientific affairs team’s value is a common challenge for life science companies. Medical Device Scientific Affairs: Combining Strategy with Technologydetails how top companies use multiple performance metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to demonstrate the value of scientific affairs teams and their subfunctions. Use these reports to determine what performance measures are most appropriate for your scientific affairs teams and how to implement them to have maximum impact.

Develop and resource dedicated scientific affairs teams with high-level visibility within the organization: Learn how medical device companies elevate the strategic value of scientific affairs teams. These studies evaluate the benefits of hiring a chief medical officer (CMO), as well as how they disseminate global resources to markets of different size. Through these practices — and others — scientific affairs teams position themselves to demonstrate greater strategic impact to the organization. These reports are a valuable tool for any scientific affairs group that wants to elevate its visibility within the larger organization.

You may also like CEIConnect: The Lifesciences Industry’s On-Demand Research Resource

Price $9,995
Publication Date April 2016
Pages 440
Chapters 25
Metrics 500 +
Charts / Graphics 200 +

Key Questions That These Studies Answer About Medical Device Scientific Affairs

  1. How do device companies approach the medical affairs function?
  2. How can companies resource medical affairs to ensure adequate product support from early-stage development through five years post-market?
  3. What factors and benchmarks do teams consider to right-size their MSL teams?
  4. How can companies communicate MSL value? What metrics can they use to measure MSL performance?
  5. What are the benefits of outsourcing medical publications? How does outsourcing med pubs impact time and costs?
  6. What structures would help medical information call centers better handle incoming inquiries?
  7. What proven methods and structural changes help companies to identify key opinion leaders for a wide range of activities?
  8. What are the advantages of centralized and decentralized teams to support promotional speaker programs?
  9. How can outsourcing speaker programs help to mitigate the cost of these events?
  10. What strategies can companies use to continually and reliably disseminate regulatory information companywide?
  11. How can companies establish and maintain cross-functional communication to ensure compliance?
  12. How often and in what ways should compliance training occur to be effective across different stakeholder groups?


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Government Debt Has No Upside

by Robert Murphy

When the government spends more than it takes through taxes or other methods of acquiring funds (such as printing money or auctioning off federal land), it must make up the difference by borrowing. This shortfall between current revenues and current expenditures is the deficit. If revenues should exceed spending, the difference is a surplus. The overall debt is the sum total of all previous deficits and surpluses (due account being made for interest). When the government runs a deficit, the debt goes up, while running a surplus allows the government to pay off some of the debt.

Just as in the private sector, when the government needs to borrow it issues bonds to lenders. The essence of such a transaction is quite simple; the government sells an IOU right now for cash, and at some future date the holder of the IOU redeems it. Because of positive interest rates, lenders never pay the full face value of a bond when it is first issued. For example, if the interest rate were five percent, an investor would only be willing to pay (approximately) $95.24 now for a note that will pay $100 in twelve months. It would be silly to pay any more than this price, because (by assumption) the investor can lend his funds out at five percent, and $95.24 x 1.05 = $100.

The discounted price of bonds (relative to their face values) at time of issue also explains the interest cost of servicing the debt. For example, suppose an initially debt-free government runs a $10 billion deficit. It raises the needed funds to cover its excess spending by issuing 105 million one-year notes, each with a face value of $100. (Each such bond fetches $95.24 from a capitalist, and $95.24 x 105 million = $10 billion.)

Now suppose that this hypothetical government, following this one-shot deficit, runs a balanced budget year after year indefinitely. Even so, every year it must “roll over” the one-year notes. That is, every year 105 million notes are turned in to the Treasury, with people demanding their $100 per note. After redeeming all of the maturing notes, the Treasury reissues 105 million one-year notes, raising $10 billion again. However – and this is the crucial point – because of the discount, the government loses money every year during the roll over. When the 105 million notes are redeemed for their full face value, the Treasury pays out $100 x 105 million = $10.5 billion, whereas it receives only $10 billion from reissuing them. Thus, in order to perpetually carry a debt of $10 billion, the government must devote (out of general tax revenues) $500 million annually to interest payments. (Of course we have assumed a 5 percent interest rate throughout.)

We are now in a position to examine some of the clichés concerning government debt.

I have never seen a textbook discussion of colonial America that didn’t mention this alleged wisdom from the champion of infant industry, Alexander Hamilton. The idea is quite simple: As we have seen above, the national debt consists of financial claims (such as government bonds) against the Treasury. The holders of these bonds would be disappointed, therefore, if the government fell, because then their bonds wouldn’t be paid off.

What the textbooks fail to note is that (typically) the government can only pay off its creditors by taxing the money away from them first. Suppose you lend me a $20 bill, and I give you a piece of paper saying, “IOU $20 next Monday.” I take my fresh twenty and go spend it on a nice dinner. Then Monday rolls around and you hand me the piece of paper. I reach into your wallet, pull out a different $20 bill, and hand it to you as I crumple up the IOU. Aren’t you glad I didn’t get hit by a bus Sunday afternoon? You might never have gotten paid back!

Of course, the real logic behind Hamilton’s proposal is that wealthy capitalists could lend money to the government, which would then levy taxes on the general public to pay off the bondholders. In this more realistic scenario, the privileged few would indeed support the regime, because it pledges to use its coercive powers to transfer wealth into their pockets. But if this is the mechanism we use to gain support for the regime, why go through the shenanigans of issuing debt? The government could just openly state to the elite, “Support us and we will use our guns to siphon off money from the unorganized rabble every year and give you a cut.” (Now that I think about it, that probably wouldn’t have been too popular, and even history textbooks might not have approved.)

As we shall see, there is a certain sense in which this statement is true, but generally speaking it is very superficial. As Ludwig von Mises pointed out, in order to consume in the present, resources must be used in the present. When the government runs a deficit, politicians don’t use a time machine to literally steal TVs and pizzas from people in the year 2050 and bring them back for our own consumption.

Perhaps the easiest way to see that something must be wrong with the conventional wisdom is a financial analysis: Yes, running deficits now means that our children and grandchildren grow up in a country with a higher national debt than they otherwise would have. But at the same time, running deficits now means that our children and grandchildren inherit more Treasury notes from us when we die.

As I noted, there is a certain truth to the statement. Government deficits siphon savings from the private sector and thus divert real resources from potential investment and waste them on unproductive lines. This means that the structure of physical capital goods that the next generation inherits will be less developed than if the government had refrained from deficit spending. In this sense, our descendants will indeed be materially poorer, because their labor and other resources will be less productive (since they are augmented by fewer tools and equipment). But the point is, it is not the accounting figure of the national debt per se that indicates their relative impoverishment; rather, it is the reduced supplies of capital goods with which they can work. This insight leads to the final cliché:

From an accounting viewpoint, the federal debt is a wash for the country as a whole (assuming it is US citizens who own the debt). Each government bond represents a claim on taxpayers, but if those bondholders consist entirely of US taxpayers, the size of the debt is irrelevant to total financial wealth.

However, there are two fundamental problems with this type of analysis. First, as we saw in the Hamilton section, it ignores the fact that not all people are identical; some groups may suffer on net while others may gain. For example, a poor immigrant with no savings who lives paycheck to paycheck certainly will not find the higher taxes (necessary to service the debt) to be exactly offset by the dividend stream yielded by his portfolio of Treasury notes.

Second, as we saw in the previous section, the flippant dismissal of the significance of the debt ignores the fact that deficit spending isn’t just an accounting operation. When the government buys things, it really does consume resources that might have been devoted to other ends, and in particular might have been devoted to the production of capital goods.

The old wisdom still applies: $25

Even if everyone were identical (so that there were no distributional effects), it certainly makes a difference if the government, with tax revenue of (say) $1 trillion, decides to spend $1 trillion versus $1.5 trillion. In the latter case, the government’s behavior will almost certainly reduce the amount of gross investment, and hence production in future decades will be lower than it otherwise would have been. This technological fact cannot be offset by pieces of paper issued by the Treasury.

Of course, some readers will object that I am overlooking the most salient problem with our current state, namely that foreign individuals and governments are financing American profligacy by buying up US corporate and government bonds. Yet I have always been troubled by the emphasis on the nationality of bondholders, because it implies that federal deficits are benign so long as “we owe it to ourselves.” As we have seen, this is simply not the case.

Government finance is a messy affair, particularly when politicians use “off budget” expenditures and other gimmicks to cover their tracks. However, the basic principles are quite straightforward. If we are careful to avoid thinking in terms of simple aggregates, and keep in mind the role of savings and investment, we can spot the fallacies in popular statements concerning government deficits and debt.

The Daily Reckoning


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Translational Research

Translational Research

Closing the gap between scientific discovery and patient care must be a top priority.

Our Thinking

As practicing physicians, we never forget to put patients at the center of all we do. Our research is designed to match the demands of a rapidly changing clinical practice environment and establish new treatment standards and guidelines. From bench to bedside, clinical research designed with patient care in mind can help to speed the translation of scientific evidence into practical therapies, changing the healthcare system for the better and improving the lives of patients around the world.

Eric D. Peterson, MD, MPH, FAHA, FACC
Executive Director

"How can we accelerate the adoption of research into practice?"
cropped photo

Pamela Douglas on PROMISE

Hear Pamela Douglas, MD, discuss the PROMISE trial, a phase IV randomized clinical trial in the diagnostic strategy space comparing the effectiveness of anatomic versus functional testing strategies for the evaluation of chest pain.

Scientific Evidence Underlying Clinical Practice Guidelines

These findings highlight the need to improve the process of writing guidelines and to expand the evidence base from which clinical practice guidelines are derived.

Daniel Benjamin

New NIH-funded center to study inefficiencies in clinical trials

Researchers at the DCRI and Vanderbilt University Medical Center have received a major federal grant to study how multisite clinical trials of new drugs and therapies in children and adults can be conducted more rapidly and efficiently.

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Collaboration: The Baseline Study

“As a clinical research site for the Google Baseline Study, the DCRI will help deliver on the vision for a new kind of medicine—precision medicine—and help to usher in a new model to practice it. Advances in technology now give us the ability to gain insights from huge data sets to accelerate research and see faster progress for patients. This study holds the promise to generate insights about health and transitions between health and disease that will help to transform patient care from reactive to preventative—for multiple conditions, not just a single disease. As a practicing cardiologist and researcher, I am optimistic for the patients I see each day and for patients and generations of families who will benefit from this research.” - L. Kristin Newby, MD, MHS