Glimpses of yesterday

CNN offers new video footage of the arrival of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. The footage was shot on 8 mm by a 15-year-old (now 61) boy, since Texas school kids had the day off because the president was in town.

What is amazing, in our post-Kennedy-assassination world, is how close the young man was able to get...and, ironically, how happy everyone looks.

This is surely the month for seeing new video of old events, since the Challenger footage was released earlier this month.

Glimpses of yesterday

CNN offers new video footage of the arrival of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. The footage was shot on 8 mm by a 15-year-old (now 61) boy, since Texas school kids had the day off because the president was in town.

What is amazing, in our post-Kennedy-assassination world, is how close the young man was able to get...and, ironically, how happy everyone looks.

This is surely the month for seeing new video of old events, since the Challenger footage was released earlier this month.

How fragile is human kind?

Watching the supply truck arrive...from the ISS. Stunning image.

How fragile is human kind?

Watching the supply truck arrive...from the ISS. Stunning image.

Where the money goes

The New York Times offers fascinating interactive graphic of where the federal budget dollars go in President Obama's current proposal.

Where the money goes

The New York Times offers fascinating interactive graphic of where the federal budget dollars go in President Obama's current proposal.

What's your news IQ?

When you give students grief about not knowing current events, you'd best be able to take a quick quiz yourself and do better than average. So, I'm relieved that I got 100% on this news quiz.

What's your news IQ?

When you give students grief about not knowing current events, you'd best be able to take a quick quiz yourself and do better than average. So, I'm relieved that I got 100% on this news quiz.

Sorry, Alaska. You weren't worth the price.

Fascinating paper from David Barker at the University of Iowa shows that Seward's Folly might have been the right name for the place. By looking at cash flow, costs of governance, revenues from various industries, etc., the author concludes that the purchase price of the largest state in the U.S. "was greater than the net present value ofcash flow from Alaska to the federal government from 1867 to 2007."

The author concludes:

The price paid for Alaska was clearly much higher than the benefits obtained from reduced consumption variance. This calculation does not necessarily assume foreknowledge of actual cash flows from Alaska, but it does assume rough knowledge of the distribution of cash flows relative to aggregate consumption. It seems reasonable for decision makers in 1869 to have guessed that expansion of the United States might hedge consumption risk, but if their guesses had been anywhere near the true distribution of cash flows, they would have concluded that the price was too high.

Via Neat-O-Rama.

So...should we give it back to the Russians?

Sorry, Alaska. You weren't worth the price.

Fascinating paper from David Barker at the University of Iowa shows that Seward's Folly might have been the right name for the place. By looking at cash flow, costs of governance, revenues from various industries, etc., the author concludes that the purchase price of the largest state in the U.S. "was greater than the net present value ofcash flow from Alaska to the federal government from 1867 to 2007."

The author concludes:

The price paid for Alaska was clearly much higher than the benefits obtained from reduced consumption variance. This calculation does not necessarily assume foreknowledge of actual cash flows from Alaska, but it does assume rough knowledge of the distribution of cash flows relative to aggregate consumption. It seems reasonable for decision makers in 1869 to have guessed that expansion of the United States might hedge consumption risk, but if their guesses had been anywhere near the true distribution of cash flows, they would have concluded that the price was too high.

Via Neat-O-Rama.

So...should we give it back to the Russians?

With high position comes *some* power

One of my favorite presidential quotes ever:

"I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."
– George H. W. Bush

With high position comes *some* power

One of my favorite presidential quotes ever:

"I do not like broccoli. And I haven't liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm President of the United States, and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."
– George H. W. Bush

Science destroys romance

Modern instruments have shown us a bit more about King Tut, and it turns out that, although his funerary trappings were brilliant, his physique was much less so:

Egypt's famed King Tutankhamun suffered from a cleft palate and club foot, likely forcing him to walk with a cane, and died from complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria, according to the most extensive study ever of his more than 3,300-year-old mummy.

The study examined DNA from 16 mummies, and showed, among other things, that Tutankhamun was the offspring of a brother-sister union, not atypical in ancient Egyptian royalty.

Science destroys romance

Modern instruments have shown us a bit more about King Tut, and it turns out that, although his funerary trappings were brilliant, his physique was much less so:

Egypt's famed King Tutankhamun suffered from a cleft palate and club foot, likely forcing him to walk with a cane, and died from complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria, according to the most extensive study ever of his more than 3,300-year-old mummy.

The study examined DNA from 16 mummies, and showed, among other things, that Tutankhamun was the offspring of a brother-sister union, not atypical in ancient Egyptian royalty.