Les Jones

Word of the Day: Veblen Goods and Giffen Goods (Economics)

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 | Economics, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

From Wikipedia:

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In economics, Veblen goods are a theoretical group of commodities for which peoples’ preference for buying them increases as a direct function of their price, instead of decreasing according to the law of demand.

It is claimed that some types of high-status goods, such as diamonds or luxury cars, are Veblen goods, in that decreasing their prices decreases people’s preference for buying them because they are no longer perceived as exclusive or high status products.^[1] Similarly, a price increase may increase that high status and perception of exclusivity, thereby making the good even more preferable. The Veblen effect is named after the economist Thorstein Veblen, who first pointed out the concepts of conspicuous consumption and status-seeking.^[2]

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Hat tip to The Online Photographer’s discussion of Leica camera prices.

See also this discussion of luxury goods and inferior goods, which are economic terms of art that don’t mean quite what you might expect. In a nutshell, inferior goods are things that people buy less of as they get wealthier, while luxury goods are things they buy more of.

Related to that is the more uncommon Giffen goods:

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In economics and consumer theory, a Giffen good is one which people consume more of as price rises, violating the law of demand. In normal situations, as the price of such a good rises, the substitution effect causes people to purchase less of it and more of substitute goods. In the Giffen good situation, cheaper close substitutes are not available. Because of the lack of substitutes, the income effect dominates, leading people to buy more of the good, even as its price rises.

Evidence for the existence of Giffen goods is limited, but microeconomic mathematical models explain how such a thing could exist. Giffen goods are named after Sir Robert Giffen, who was attributed as the author of this idea by Alfred Marshall in his book Principles of Economics.

The classic example given by Marshall is of inferior quality staple foods, whose demand is driven by poverty that makes their purchasers unable to afford superior foodstuffs. As the price of the cheap staple rises, they can no longer afford to supplement their diet with better foods, and must consume more of the staple food.

Marshall wrote in the 1895 edition of Principles of Economics:

As Mr.Giffen has pointed out, a rise in the price of bread makes so large a drain on the resources of the poorer labouring families and raises so much the marginal utility of money to them, that they are forced to curtail their consumption of meat and the more expensive farinaceous foods: and, bread being still the cheapest food which they can get and will take, they consume more, and not less of it.^[1]

Giffen goods are also related to experience goods and credence goods in that the two often exhibit increases in demand with price, yet different in that close substitutes are available for the latter types.

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Previous WOTD - John Exter’s Inverted Pyramid of Assets

Word of the Day: John Exter’s Inverted Pyramid of Assets

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 | Economics, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

John Exter’s inverted pyramid. The idea is that things high on the pyramid are derivatives of asset classes further down the pyramid. From FOFOA.

Note that in FOFOA’s expanded version of Exter’s inverted pyramid there are all sorts of derivatives at the top of the inverse pyramid. Those derivatives were wildly inflated and at one pointed passed the one quadrillion mark, which is greater than the value of all physical, privately-owned assets on Earth. See yesterday’s China authorizes state banks to renege on commodities derivatives.

How is that possible? It’s possible because derivatives and paper markets are often larger than the underlying physical markets. See paper oil vs. physical oil markets and paper gold vs. physical gold markets.

In a nutshell, the notional value of the paper market can be much larger than the underlying physical assets. Imagine a desert island with one coconut tree that produces one coconut per year.  Now imagine that somehow that one coconut is supporting a hundred firms trading coconut stocks, coconut bonds, coconut futures, and coconut derivatives. All of that activity is resting on an inverted pyramid supported by a single coconut per year. Like gold, the coconut is real. The farther away from the coconut you go in the pyramid the more derived and abstract the value of the asset and also the larger the market, because the paper market is puffed up with hot air, empty promises, oak desks and horseshit.

Anyway, the theory is that when asset values are inflated and risk is perceived as low money moves up the inverted pyramid (away from cash, gold and coconuts).

During a debt deflation (which is what we are in now), a panic, or a perceived high risk environment money moves down the inverted pyramid (towards cash, gold and coconuts, as well as other more fundamental, less-derived assets).

I agree with FOFOA that gold is not a commodity in the usual sense. Commodities are things that are consumed - wheat is eaten, oil is burned. Gold has some commodity uses in jewelry and industrial processes, but those uses are dwarved by its use as a store of a value and a form of currency. Even gold in jewelry isn’t really used up - it can be scrapped and re-used.

Previous WOTD -  Eurodollar

Tags: gold

Word of the Day: Eurodollar

Monday, August 31st, 2009 | Economics, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

From Wikipedia.

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Eurodollars are deposits denominated in US dollars at banks outside the United States, and thus are not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve. Consequently, such deposits are subject to much less regulation than similar deposits within the United States, allowing for higher margins. There is nothing “European” about Eurodollar deposits; a US dollar-denominated deposit in Tokyo or Caracas would likewise be deemed a Eurodollar deposit. Neither is there any connection with the euro currency. Typically the term is only used for US dollars in European banks, but technically the term could be used for US dollars deposited at any non-US bank account.

More generally, the “euro” prefix can be used to indicate any currency held in a country where it is not the official currency: for example, euroyen or even euroeuro.^[1]

Continue reading the rest of this post right here ›››

Word of the Day: Gresham’s Law

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | Economics, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

Wikipedia:

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Gresham’s law is commonly stated: “Bad money drives out good.” This law applies specifically when there are two forms of commodity money in circulation which are required by legal-tender laws to be accepted as having similar face values for economic transactions. The terms “good” and “bad” money are used in a technical, non-literal sense, and with regard to exchange values imposed by legal-tender legislation, as follows:

Good money

“Good” money is money that shows little difference between its nominal value (the face value of the coin) and its commodity value (the value of the metal of which it is made, often precious metals, nickel, or copper.)

In the absence of legal-tender laws, metal coin money will freely exchange at somewhat above bullion market value. This is not a purely theoretical result, but rather may be observed today in bullion coins such as the South African Krugerrand, the American Gold Eagle or even the silver Maria Theresa thaler (Austria). Coins of this type are of a known purity and are in a convenient form to handle. People prefer trading in coins than in anonymous hunks of precious metal, so they attribute more value to the coins. As there is also demand from coin collectors, coining is frequently profitable.

Bad money

“Bad” money is money that has a commodity value considerably less than its face value, is in circulation along with money with a relatively higher commodity value, and with both forms required to be accepted at equal value as legal tender.

In Gresham’s day, bad money included any coin that had been debased. Debasement was often done by the issuing body, where less than the officially specified amount of precious metal was contained in an issue of coinage, usually by alloying it with a base metal. The public could also debase coins, usually by clipping or scraping off small portions of the precious metal. Other examples of “bad” money include counterfeit coins made from base metal.

In the case of clipped, scraped or counterfeit coins, the commodity value was reduced by fraud, as the face value remains at the previous higher level. On the other hand, with a coinage debased by a government issuer the commodity value of the coinage was often reduced quite openly, but the face value of the debased coins was held at the higher level by legal tender laws.

All modern money is “bad money” in this sense, since fiat money has entirely replaced the commodity money to which Gresham’s law applies. [Emphasis mine - LLJ] This money is not redeemable for any kind of valuable commodity, relying entirely on the government’s decree for its legitimacy, and valued purely in terms of the quantity of money in circulation relative to available goods. The ubiquity of fiat money could indeed be taken as evidence for the truth of Gresham’s law.

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Hat tip to Kenneth Anderson.

Previous WOTD - Nail House

Tags: fiat currency, gold

Word of the Day - Nail House

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Wikipedia:

A nail house (dingzihu or 钉子户) is a Chinese neologism for homes belonging to people (sometimes called “stubborn nails”) who refuse to make room for development, often in an attempt to negotiate a high price in exchange for selling out. The term, a pun coined by developers, refers to nails that are stuck in wood, and cannot be pounded down with a hammer.^[1][2] A number of high-profile nail houses have received widespread attention in the Chinese press.

In one famous case, one family among 280 others at the location of a six-story shopping mall under construction at the location of a former “snack street” in Chongqing refused for two years to vacate a home their family had inhabited for three generations.^[6] Developers cut their power and water, and excavated a 10-meter deep pit around their home. ^[1][8] The owners broke into the construction site, reoccupied it, and flew a Chinese flag on top. Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, made a staircase to their house out of nunchakus, and threatened to beat any authorities who attempted to evict him.^[1] His wife, a restaurateur named Wu Ping who had planned to open a restaurant in the home’s ground floor, granted interviews and frequent press releases to generate publicity.^[2] The owners turned down an offer of 3.5 million yuan (US$453,000), but eventually settled with the developers in 2007.^[6]

Did you catch that? Yang Wu, a local martial arts champion, made a staircase to their house out of nunchakus. That’s it. My next house is going to have a staircase made out of nunchakus.

Knoxville has a number of nail houses. I can think of three past and present in the Fort Sanders/UT area. There used to be a little house on a tiny wooded lot next to the First Tennessee bank on the Strip. It succumbed to a Chili’s restaurant a while back.

There’s the little cottage and the brick house surrounded by Fort Sanders Hospital, Children’s Hospital, and their attendant parking lots. A half dozen blocks away there’s this brick house, which used to be one of many, but all of its neighbors were knocked down and replaced by new apartment buildings.

There’s a payday loan place on Alcoa Highway across from the airport surrounded by new hotels and empty lots ready for construction. I’m guessing the owner is holding out for a jackpot.

Hat tip to Jason Kottke, who has links to some famous nail houses.

Previous WOTD - German Silver, Britannia Silver, Sterling Silver, Sheffield Plate

Word of the Day: German Silver, Britannia Silver, Sterling Silver, Sheffield Plate

Monday, July 6th, 2009 | Economics, Guns, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

I had always heard of German silver in relation to antique firearms. I just recently realized German silver doesn’t contain any silver at all. From Wikipedia:

Nickel silver is a metal alloy of copper with nickel and often but not always zinc. It is named for its silvery appearance, but contains no elemental silver unless plated. Other common names for this alloy are German silver, paktong, new silver and alpacca (or alpaca).

Britannia metal is a pewter-type alloy favoured for its silvery appearance and smooth surface. The composition is approximately 93% tin, 5% antimony, and 2% copper.

Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% by weight of silver and 7.5% by weight of other metals, usually copper. The sterling silver standard has a minimum millesimal fineness of 925.

Britannia silver is an alloy of silver containing 95.84% silver, with the balance usually copper.

This standard was introduced in England by Act of Parliament in 1697 to replace sterling silver as the obligatory standard for items of “wrought plate”. The lion passant gardant hallmark denoting sterling was replaced with “the figure of a woman commonly called Britannia“, and the leopard’s head mark of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths replaced with a “lion’s head erased”.

Sheffield plate is a layered combination of silver and copper that was used for many years to produce a wide range of household articles. These included buttons, caddy spoons, serving utensils, candlesticks and other lighting devices, tea and coffee services, serving dishes and trays, tankards and pitchers, and larger items such as soup tureens and hot-water urns. Almost every article made in sterling silver was also crafted by Sheffield makers, who used this manufacturing process to produce nearly identical wares at far less cost.

Tags: antiques

Word of the Day: Movers and Shakers and Music Makers

Monday, June 29th, 2009 | A&E, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

For Willy Wonka fans: note the first two lines of the poem, which is what Wonka said to Veruca Salt after she declared “Snozberries? Who ever heard of a snozberry?”

From Phrases.org.uk:

Music Makers
People of energetic demeanour, who initiate change and influence events.

Origin
The expression ‘movers and shakers’ is now most often applied to the rich and powerful in politics and business. In a year (2009) in which the movers and shakers of the financial world brought us to the brink of ruin, it is worth a thought as to who the original movers and shakers were.

The public perception of the term began after the first performance of Sir Edward Elgar’s popular choral work The Music Makers, at the Birmingham Festival in October 1912. The work is a setting of Arthur O’Shaughnessy’s 1874 poem ‘Ode’, from his Music and Moonlight collection. In that poem, which singles out poets and musicians as the bards that guide lay thinking, O’Shaughnessy coined the phrase ‘movers and shakers’:

We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

And here’s the complete Willy Wonka script.

Previously - “Button, button, who’s got the button?”

Previous WOTD - Ames Window

Tags: willy wonka

Word of the Day - Ames Window

Friday, June 19th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

From Wikipedia:

The Ames trapezoid or Ames window is a style of window which, when observed frontally, appears to be a rectangular window but is, in fact, a trapezoid.

The window is mounted on a rod connected to an electric motor that rotates it about its vertical axis. When it is observed with one eye from about 3 meters or with both eyes at 6 meters, or more, the window appears to rotate through 180 degrees and then seems to stop momentarily and reverse its direction of rotation. It is therefore not perceived vertically to be rotating continuously in one direction but instead is mis-perceived to be oscillating, reversing its direction once every 180 degrees.

The dark bar on the base seems to indicate when you’re seeing the window head-on. If so then at 0:07 you’re seeing the trapezoid parallel to the plane of the camera’s film or sensor.

LATER: Duh. I had the speakers turned off. With the audio on sure enough the window is being viewed head on at 0:07 and again at 0:37.

See also Ames Room. Hat tip to Jason Kottke.

Previous WOTD - Cack-handed

Tags: optical illusions

Word of the Day - Cack-handed

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

Michael Moynihan writes in Reason: “During his two terms, President Bush sent cack-handed teams of State Department officials on taxpayer-funded trips to remote villages in Belgium, where they were to teach Flemish youths about the NBA and MTV.”

What is cack-handed? From World Wide Words:

It’s a well-known British informal term for somebody who is inept or clumsy. By extension, as I know to my cost, being of the sinistral variety myself, it means somebody left-handed, who does everything “backwards” and so looks clumsy or awkward. It first appeared in the middle of the nineteenth century.

The American Heritage Dictionary suggests it comes from Old Norse keikr, bent backwards, and other American dictionaries also suggest this. I disagree, as do most British works of reference. The direct association is with cack, another fine Old English term, for excrement or dung. Cachus was Old English for a privy, and both words come from Latin cacare, to defecate.

It almost certainly comes from the very ancient tradition, which has developed among peoples who were mainly right-handed, that one reserved the left hand for cleaning oneself after defecating and used the right hand for all other purposes. At various times this has been known in most cultures. Some consider it rude even to be given something using the left hand. So to be left-handed was to use the cack hand or be cack-handed.

There are similar terms in other languages, such as the French main de merde for somebody awkward or butter-fingered.

Previous WOTD - Chunder

Word of the Day: Chunder

Monday, June 15th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 1 Comment |

“I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder
Can’t you hear, can’t you hear the thunder?
You better run, you better take cover.”
– Men at Work*, “Land Down Under”

You know that ad, “Foster’s - Australian for beer”? Well, chunder is Australian for what you do after you drink too much Foster’s.

Previous WOTD - Sixing

Word of the Day: Sixing

Monday, June 8th, 2009 | Blogging, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

Michael Silence:

Let’s meld a new style for blogging/Twttering/texting/Facebooking using just six words. We’ll call is “sixing.” And it’ll be based on the timeless journalistic writing style of the five Ws and an H: who, what, when, where, why and how.

Take this story for example: President Barack Obama promised Monday to deliver more than 600,000 jobs through his $787 billion stimulus plan this summer, with federal agencies pumping billions into public works projects, schools and summer youth programs.

Here’s what we would six: Obama, 600kjobs, summer, U.S., stimulus and $787billion.

Previous WOTD - Spork, Splayd, Spife, and Knork

Word of the Day: Spork, Splayd, Spife, and Knork

Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 7 Comments |

A visual guide:

It looks like the spork is the only spoon descendent that’s practical for lifting soup to lip altitude. Backpackers know that a spoon and a Swiss army knife are all you really need, even if those titanium sporks fill our campfire dreams.

And for East meets West harmony there’s always forkchops.

Previous WOTD - Parasitoid (Biology)

Word of the Day: Parasitoid (Biology)

Sunday, May 17th, 2009 | Science, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

Slashdot - Texas Makes Zombie Fire Ants:

What do you do when a foreign species has been introduced to your land from another continent? Bring over the natural predator from the other continent. Scientists in Texas have introduced four kinds of phorid flies from South America to fight fire ants. These USDA approved flies dive bomb ants and lay an egg inside the ant. The maggot hatches and eats away juicy tender delicious ant brain until the ant is nothing more than a zombie that wanders around for two weeks before the head falls off and the ant dies. A couple of these flies will cause the ants to modify their behavior and this will be a very slow acting solution to curb the $1 billion in damage these ants do to Texas cattle ranches and–oddly enough–electrical equipment like circuit breakers. You may remember zombifying parasites hitting insects like cockroaches.

“Zombifying” is a great word, but the scientific term for an insect pupa that eats its host is parasitoid:

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism which it ultimately kills (and often consumes) in the process. Thus they are similar to typical parasites except in the certain fate of the host. In a typical parasitic relationship, the parasite and host live side by side without lethal damage to the host. Typically, the parasite takes enough nutrients to thrive without preventing the host from reproducing. In a parasitoid relationship, the host is killed, normally before it can produce offspring. When treated as a form of parasitism, the term necrotroph is sometimes (though rarely) used.

This type of relationship seems to occur only in organisms that have fast reproduction rates, such as insects or (rarely) mites. Parasitoids are also often closely coevolved with their hosts. Most biologists use the term parasitoid to refer only to insects with this type of life history, but some argue the term should be used more embrasively to include parasitic nematodes, seed weevils, and certain bacteria and viruses (e.g., bacteriophages), all of which obligately destroy their host.

Most of the common parasitoids I’m familiar with are wasps that prey on other insects or spiders: tarantula hawks, cicada killers, and dirt daubers. The first two bury the paralyzed host underground. The last carries away its much smaller spider victims and entombs them inside mud tubes the female dirt dauber creates by mixing earth and water in her mouth.

Interestingly, the Wikipedia article says that 10% of insects are parasitoid. I’ve have never guessed it was that many.

Aren’t you glad I spent six and half years getting a biology degree so I can explain this stuff?

Previous WOTD - South Pointing Chariot (Inventions)

Word of the Day: Sobek (Mythology)

Friday, May 15th, 2009 | A&E, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

So in Wednesday night’s “Lost” season finale we finally saw the four-toed statue in its entirety, revealing its crocodile face. Reading today’s DarkUFO episode recap clued me in that this was a statue of Sobek.

From Wikipedia:

Sobek (also called Sebek, Sochet, Sobk, Sobki, Soknopais, and in Greek, Suchos) was the deification of crocodiles, as crocodiles were deeply feared in the nation so dependent on the Nile River. Egyptians who worked or travelled on the Nile hoped that if they prayed to Sobek, the crocodile god, he would protect them from being attacked by crocodiles.^[1] The god Sobek, which was depicted as a crocodile or a man with the head of a crocodile was a powerful and frightening deity; in some Egyptian creation myths, it was Sobek who first came out of the waters of chaos to create the world.^[1] As a creator god, he was occasionally linked with the sun god Ra.^[1]

Sobek’s ambiguous nature led some Egyptians to believe that he was a repairer of evil that had been done, rather than a force for good in itself, for example, going to Duat to restore damage done to the dead as a result of their form of death. He was also said to call on suitable gods and goddesses required for protecting people in situation, effectively having a more distant role, nudging things along, rather than taking an active part.

That nudging things along part sounds like what we saw Jacob doing last night, or what Eloise Hawking has been doing for several seasons.

DarkUFO has a more complete wrapup here. JOpinionated has her episode reaction and thoughts on Jacob and the mystery man as embodiments of fate vs. free will.

It’s going to be a long eight months waiting for the next episode.

Previous WOTD - South Pointing Chariot (Inventions)

Tags: Lost

Word of the Day: South Pointing Chariot (Inventions)

Monday, May 4th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

Wikipedia:

The South Pointing Chariot is widely regarded as one of the most complex geared mechanisms of the ancient Chinese civilization, and was continually used throughout the medieval period as well. It was supposedly invented sometime around 2600 BC in China by the Yellow Emperor Huang Di, yet the first valid historical version was created by Ma Jun (c. 200-265 AD) of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms. The chariot is a two-wheeled vehicle upon which is a pointing figure connected to the wheels by means of differential gearing. Through careful selection of wheel size, track and gear ratios, the figure atop the chariot will always point in the same direction, hence acting as a non-magnetic compass vehicle. Throughout history, many Chinese historical texts have mentioned the South Pointing Chariot, while some described in full detail the inner components and workings of the device.

Legend has it that Huang Di, credited as being the founder of the Chinese nation, lived in a magnificent palace in the Kunlun Mountains.

There was also at this time another tribal leader, Chi You, who was skilled at making weapons and waging war. He attacked the tribe of Yan Di, driving them into the lands of Huang Di. Huang Di was angered by this and went to war with Yan Di, initially suffering several defeats. At some stage in the fighting, Chi You conjured up a thick fog to confound Huang Di’s men. However, the South Pointing Chariot was used to find their way and they were ultimately victorious.

Previous WOTD - Googlebombing and Googleboobing

Word of the Day: Googlebombing and Googleboobing

Monday, April 20th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

Googlebombing - A coordinating linking to a page using anchor text to influence search engine results:

Also called “linkbombing,” the most famous Googlebomb was of course the search for the phrase “failure” that produced a link to the current US President, George W. Bush. Some other Googlebombs included associating the search term “waffles” with Senator John Kerry and “talentless hack” with Adam Mathes, but not all Googlebombs were created to slander—some users Googlebombed the word “Jew” to stop pointing to a hate site and instead directed the term to point to the Wikipedia entry on Jewish people.

Googleboobing is a new word that I just made up. It’s the same idea as Googlebombing, but applied to images rather than Web pages. It requires many people to link to a nude image with link text to increase the Google rank of that image for those words.

So far I only know of one example. If you go to Google Image Search, turn SafeSearch off, and search for “new bathroom” one of the first results is for a nude woman in a bathtub. Not safe for work screenshot here for strictly academic purposes, of course.

(And it’s a good thing I took the screenshot in November, 2008. That picture no longer appears in Google Image results.)

Previous WOTD - Biflation

Tags: words i invented

Word of the Day: Biflation

Thursday, April 16th, 2009 | Economics, Word of the Day | Permalink | 3 Comments |

Wikipedia:

Biflation is the state of an economy where the processes of inflation and deflation occur simultaneously. During this period there is a rise in the purchasing prices of commodity items and a fall in the purchasing prices of non-commodity items.

The purchasing price of an item is based on the demand for it and the amount of money in circulation to pay for it.

Biflation is preceded by an overabundance of money placed in circulation within the population by a central bank. Since commodities (such as food, energy, clothing) are essential and are in high demand, the purchase price for them rises due to the increased money available to buy them. This increasing purchase amount is price inflation.

One reason is liquidity flees to the safest and most liquid assets. This causes the money supply at upper levels of the pyramid to shrink while the money supply at lower levels of the pyramid expands. This causes deflation as the money supply evaporates away.

Likewise, biflation is preceded by a decrease in employment within the population. Although there is an increase of money in circulation, fewer people have access to the money to make purchases. As a result, a greater percentage of individual wages is directed toward purchasing commodities and less is utilized for purchasing non-commodity items. Since debt-based assets (such as automobiles, televisions, stocks) are less essential and are in lower demand, the purchase price for them falls due to the decreased money available to buy them. This decreased purchase amount is price deflation.

Previous WOTD - Tentpole

Word of the Day: Tentpole

Sunday, April 5th, 2009 | A&E, Word of the Day | Permalink | No Comments |

I was reading a Variety article about a Fox reporter who reviewed a pirated version of the new Wolverine movie when I spotted a funny use of a familiar word.

Friedman posted a review of the film Thursday, one day after an incomplete version of the tentpole was leaked on the Internet, a breach that occurred a month before the film’s release and that could potentially cost the studio millions in box office receipts.

That’s a new to me take on that word, so I checked the usual sources. UrbanDictionary’s definition is what my inner 10 year old would expect. Wikipedia offers up the movie bidness definition of the term as used above:

In the world of motion pictures and television programming, a tent pole is a production which, with heavy promotion, and probably carrying a large investment, is expected to hold up (as is the function of a tent pole) and balance out the performance of a movie studio or television network. An example of this strategy in television is to schedule a popular program alongside new or unknown programming, in an attempt to keep viewers watching after the flagship program is over. In the movie business, tent poles are sometimes widely released initial offerings in a string of releases and are expected by studios to turn a profit in a short period of time. When the production fails to meet expectations it can be said that the “tent pole has flopped”.

Previous WOTD - Sciolism

Word of the Day: Sciolism

Monday, March 23rd, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 1 Comment |

From Merriam-Webster:

Meaning

: a superficial show of learning

Example Sentence

Some critics of state-mandated testing say it is an exercise in sciolism that doesn’t really demonstrate a student’s grasp of the material studied.

Did you know?

“Sciolism” comes from the Late Latin “sciolus,” which means “smatterer” (or “one who speaks with spotty or superficial knowledge”). “Sciolus” comes from the diminutive of Latin “scius,” meaning “knowing,” which itself comes from the verb “scire,” meaning “to know.” Of course, if you know something about Latin roots, you know that “scire” is the source of many other English words, including “science,” “prescience” (”foreknowledge”), “nescience” (”lack of knowledge”), and “conscience.”

Previous WOTD -The Bezzle

Word of the Day: The Bezzle (Money)

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 1 Comment |

From iTulip:

March 30, 2000 we were the first to note that a chunk of the money supply that John Kenneth Galbraith referred to in his 1954 book “The Great Crash 1929” as the bezzle, derived from the word embezzlement, grows when money is free flowing during a boom and no one is motivated to ask why. The bezzle shrinks when, after a financial bust investors start counting up the money they have left only to discover that not only has Mr. Market taken away a good amount but another pile was stolen by crooks. For Bernard Madoff’s hapless investors, if allegations turn out to be true, the amount left over appears to be zero and the bezzle an astonishing $50 billion, a new record for a single incident.

And from Galbraith, same link:

To the economist, embezzlement is the most interesting of crimes. Alone among the various forms of larceny it has a time parameter. Weeks, months, or even years may elapse between the commission of the crime and its discovery. (This is a period, incidentally, when the embezzler has his gain and the man who has been embezzled, oddly enough, feels no loss. There is a net increase in psychic wealth.) At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in — or more precisely, not in — the country’s businesses and banks. This inventory — it should perhaps be called the bezzle — amounts at any moment to many millions of dollars. It also varies in size with the business cycle. In good times people are relaxed, trusting, and money is plentiful. But even though money is plentiful, there are always many people who need more. Under these circumstances the rate of embezzlement grows, the rate of discovery falls off, and the bezzle increases rapidly. In depression this is all reversed. Money is watched with a narrow, suspicious eye. The man who handles it is assumed to be dishonest until he proves himself otherwise. Audits are penetrating and meticulous. Commercial morality is enormously improved. The bezzle shrinks.
- John Kenneth Galbraith, 1954

The bezzle becomes more visible as the economy shrinks. Or as Warren Buffett put it, when the tide goes out you can see who’s swimming naked.

The currently-shrinking economy is exposing the bezzle in crooked investors, rotten mortgages, bad lending standards, over-leveraged businesses, and crony relationships between politicians and industry.

Galbraith above notes that embezzlement also includes money not put in. That would include underfunded, over-generous public employee pensions and the great American ponzi schemes of Social Security and Medicare.

Previous WOTD - Obamanfreude

Tags: warren buffett

Word of the Day: Obamanfreude

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Tam found the WOTD at Aubrey Turner’s.

Obamanfreude - 1. taking pleasure from the discomfort of Obama supporters as they come to realize that The Chosen One™ is just another Chicago politician. 2. taking pleasure from the misfortunes of an Obama supporter as he or she is adversely affected by the policies of their Dear Leader.

There’s lots of Obamanfreude going around, such as Allahpundit’s delight over NY Times columnist David Brooks realization that Obama isn’t the angel from heaven he expected.

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice. As Clive Crook, an Obama admirer, wrote in The Financial Times, the Obama budget “contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.”

Here’s the Clive Crook column Brooks mentions:

Barack Obama’s first budget is a revelation. The US president’s plans will not come to pass in the form he suggests. Congress writes the laws and will make a hash of it. Still, this first full statement of intentions speaks volumes, and leaves me in a paradoxical position. On one hand, I admire much of what the budget says. On the other, I feel I owe Republicans an apology.

As you recall, in the debate over the fiscal stimulus, Republicans accused the president of presenting a measure they could not support, disguising this with an empty show of co-operation. Bipartisanship, they said, is more than inviting your opponents round for coffee and a chat. I did not buy it: I accused them, in effect, of brainless rejectionism and a refusal to compromise, and congratulated the president for trying to come to terms with the other side.

This budget says the Republicans had Mr Obama right all along. The draft contains no trace of compromise. It makes no gesture, however small, however costless to its larger agenda, of a bipartisan approach to the great questions it addresses. It is a liberal’s dream of a new New Deal.

Previous WOTD - Baba Jaga’s Hut (Mythology)

Tags: obama

Word of the Day: Baba Yaga’s Hut (Mythology)

Friday, February 20th, 2009 | A&E, Word of the Day | Permalink | 3 Comments |

DarkUFO put together a poll of top Lost mysteries. One such mystery is What happened to Jacob’s cabin?

In comments bongzilla suggested Googling for Baby Yaga’s hut. Sure enough, that produced an interesting result at Wikipedia. I’m not saying Lost is following the legend faithfully, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the writers are borrowing pieces of the legend the way they’ve done with other legends and literature. Asterisks go to Lost connections.

Baba Yaga (Russian: Ба́ба-Яга́, Macedonian and Serbian: Баба Рога, Bulgarian: Баба Яга, Polish: Baba Jaga, Czech: Ježibaba (also: Baba Jaga), Slovak: Baba Jaga, Croatian: Baba Roga, Slovene: Jaga Baba) is, in Slavic folklore, a witch-like character who flies around on a giant mortar, kidnaps (and presumably eats) small children*, and lives in a house on chicken feet. In most Slavic folk tales, she is portrayed as an antagonist; however, some characters in other mythological folk stories have been known to seek her out for her wisdom, and she has been known on occasion to offer guidance to lost souls**, although this is seen as rare.

The name differs within the various Slavic languages. It is spelled “Baba Jaga” in Czech, Slovak and Polish (though Czech and Slovak also use Ježibaba). In Slovene, the words are reversed, producing Jaga Baba.***

In Russian tales, Baba Yaga is portrayed as a hag who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder and sweeping away the tracks behind her with a broom made out of silver birch.**** She lives in a log cabin that moves around***** on a pair of dancing chicken legs, and/or surrounded by a palisade with a skull on each pole. The keyhole to her front door is a mouth filled with sharp teeth; the fence outside is made with human bones with skulls on top, often with one pole lacking its skull, leaving space for the hero or heroes. In another legend, the house does not reveal the door until it is told a magical phrase: Turn your back to the forest, your front to me.

In some tales, the house is connected with three riders: one in white, riding a white horse with white harness, who is Day; a red rider, who is the Sun; and one in black, who is Night. Baba Yaga is served by invisible servants inside the house. She will explain the riders if asked, but may kill a visitor who inquires about the servants.

Baba Yaga is sometimes shown as an antagonist, and sometimes as a source of guidance; there are stories where she helps people with their quests, and stories in which she kidnaps children and threatens to eat them.* Seeking out her aid is usually portrayed as a dangerous act.****** An emphasis is placed on the need for proper preparation and purity of spirit, as well as basic politeness.******* It is said she ages one year every time she is asked a question, which probably explains her reluctance to help. This effect, however, can be reversed with a special blend of tea made with blue roses.

There are indications that ancient Slavs had a funeral tradition of cremation in huts of this type. In 1948 Russian archaeologists Yefimenko and Tretyakov discovered small huts of the described type with traces of corpse cremation and circular fences********** around them; yet another possible connection to the Baba Yaga myth. ^[3][4]

Modern fantasy writers, such as Tad Williams and Elaine Cunningham use the character of the cabin on chicken legs in their works, as do Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser) and Mike Mignola in his portrayal of Baba Yaga in his Hellboy comics. The castle in Hayao Miyazaki’s film version of Diana Wynne Jones‘ novel Howl’s Moving Castle also moves on mechanical chicken legs.

*Women can’t can’t conceive and deliver children on the island.

**Ben takes Locke to Jacob to seek advice. Locke returns later to find Christian Shepherd and Claire, and is told he has to move the island.

***”Jaga Baba” is sorta kinda like Jacob, but I admit this is a stretch, especially since the little we know of Jacob strongly suggest he’s male, beard and all. I think the name Jacob is more likely to be based on Biblical mythology, which Lost follows in a big way with regard to characters’ names: James, John, Benjamin, Aaron, Michael, etc.

****The Others apparently cover their tracks by sweeping them with brush.

*****Much like the Losties have difficulty re-finding the cabin, which seems to move.

******Ben seemed to seek Jacob’s advice reluctantly.

*******Ben emphasized that Jacob didn’t like technology, so they stopped using flashlights and switched to a lantern before entering his cabin.

**********Jacob’s cabin is surrounded by a circle of what looks like ash. Possibly unrelated, but the Barracks are surrounded by a circle of sonic fence that keeps out the Smoke Monster who seems to have some parallels to Baba Jaga, based on the description of her flying around in a mortar with her pestle as a rudder, though that’s once again stretching things. I’m much more comfortable thinking of Baba Yaga as a broad inspiration.

Previous WOTD - Psychopomp

Tags: Lost, mythology

Word of the Day: Psychopomp

Thursday, February 12th, 2009 | Word of the Day | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Wikipedia:

Many religions include a particular spirit, angel, or deity whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek word ψυχοπομπός (psychopompos), literally meaning the “guide of souls”. Their role is not to judge the deceased, but simply provide safe passage. Frequently depicted on funerary art, psychopomps have been associated at different times and in different cultures with horses, whippoorwills, ravens, dogs, crows, owls, sparrows, cuckoos, harts, and dolphins.

In Jungian psychology, the psychopomp is a mediator between the unconscious and conscious realms. It is symbolically personified in dreams as a wise man (or woman), or sometimes as a helpful animal. In many cultures, the shaman also fulfills the role of the psychopomp. This may include not only accompanying the soul of the dead, but also vice versa: to help at birth, to introduce the newborn’s soul to the world (p. 36 of ^[1]). This also accounts for the contemporary title of “midwife to the dying,” which is another form of psychopomp work.

Hat tip to Entertainment Weekly’s recap of this week’s Lost episode:

These are stories about the underworld, the mythical place where souls hang after they’ve shed the mortal coil. And now recall the Egyptian hieroglyphics in “The Hatch,” which according to the producers of Lost translated into ”Underworld.” And Smokey’s scene-stealing, arm -ripping presence in this episode reminds us that the guy who made the Map in “The Hatch” called the Monster by a different name: ”Cerberus,” the three-headed demon dog that guarded the gates of Hades. And finally, know that Christian Shepherd, the dude with the Jesus pun name, played the part of ”psychopomp” in this episode — a ”psychopomp” being a mythic underworld figure who serves as a ”guide to souls,” escorting the dead between states of existence. Psychopomp?! Yes: Psychopomp! Psychopomp! Psychopomp! Psychopomp! You can’t just say it enough. PSYCHOPOMP!

Is Lost’s Christian Shepherd a psychopomp? That seems reasonable. He’s long since dead - his son Jack was taking his coffin from Australia back to LA for burial when Oceanic flight 815 crashed on the island. He appeared to Michael moments before he was killed in a massive explosion, saying “You can go now, Michael.” He appeared in Jacob’s cabin with Claire, who we’ve been led to believe is dead. He appeared to John Locke telling him he had to die, and in the flashforwards we know that Locke dies off-island.

So if Christian Shepherd is a psychopomp, then presumably anyone who sees him after his death is going to die. Who else has seen Christian Shepherd? Answer: his son, Jack, who saw him several seasons ago in the jungle at the edge of the beach and again in LA.

I’m guessing Kate is a goner. Like Jack, she saw something from her past that couldn’t have been there. In her case it was the horse.

It’s hard to imagine watching Lost in a pre-Internet age. You need a global network of computers to keep up with this show.

Previous WOTD: Ouroboros

Tags: Lost

Word of the Day: Ouroboros

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 | A&E, Word of the Day | Permalink | 2 Comments |

Wikipedia:

The Ouroboros (Greek Ουροβόρος, from ουροβόρος όφις “tail-devouring snake”, also spelled Uroboros in English pronounced /ʊˈrɒbɔrɔs/ or /ˌjʊəroʊˈbɒrəs/), is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle.

The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (See Phoenix (mythology)). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist’s opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.

Carl Jung interpreted the Ouroboros as having an archetypical significance to the human psyche. The Jungian psychologist Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego “dawn state”, depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child.^[1]

Hat tip to JOpinionated’s recap of last week’s episode of Lost:

I also believe it is significant that Ms. Hawking was wearing an Ouroboros pin during her encounter with Desmond. I first became aware of this symbol when Scully got a tattoo of one on The X-Files (nerd alert). There are many interpretations of what it represents, but most versions of this symbol feature a snake swallowing its tail, illustrating return (to the island?) and the cyclical nature of life. However, Hawking’s serpent is not doing so. The open nature of her Ouroboros may indicate her ability to travel back and forth in time without getting stuck.

Previous WOTD - Vacuum Pot Coffee Maker

Tags: Art, Lost

Word of the Day: Vacuum Pot Coffee Maker

Friday, January 9th, 2009 | Food & Drink, Word of the Day | Permalink | 4 Comments |

I’ve mentioned vacuum pots to several people this week and no one else knew what they were. I mostly know them from seeing them in antique stores. From Wikipedia:

The principle of a vacuum coffee maker is to heat water in the lower vessel of the brewer until expansion forces the contents through a narrow tube into an upper vessel containing coffee grounds. When the lower vessel has more or less emptied itself and enough time has elapsed, the heat is removed and the resulting vacuum will draw the brewed coffee through a strainer back into the lower chamber from which it can be decanted. The device must usually be taken apart to pour out the coffee.

An early variation of this principle is called a balance siphon. This implementation has the two chambers arranged side by side on a balance-like device, with a counterweight attached to the heated chamber. Once the vapor has forced the hot water out, the counterweight activates a spring-loaded snuffer which smothers the flame and allows the initial chamber to cool down thus creating a vacuum and causing the brewed coffee to seep in.

Previous WOTD - Scaramouche

Tags: youtube