Nobody Enjoys Grading

This is why I try not to grade papers for more than 4-4 1/2 hours at a time.

Hot Ladies Talk Money With Bald Dudes

I try to expose my students to the lingo of financial markets (both the "standard" terminology and the looser dialect used in practice). To that end, I think I'll play this piece by Jon Stewart next time around.

HT: The Big Picture

I Want My Ph.D.

The other day I was discussing common anomalies like the Size, Market/Book, and Accurals effects with my investments class. The key point I was trying to make is that these proxies must be capturing some underlying risk factor (for example, the Mkt/Book effect is often explained by linking it to distress risk). In other words, if there's not greater risk of some kind associated with investing in low M/B stocks, then you'd be getting (just like the old Dire Straits song), Money For Nothing. In case you don't remember it, here's the video:


In a strange coincidence, Mike Munger just linked to a cover of this song by the band "Breezewood Honeymoon" titled "I Want My PhD":

Now look at those professors—that’s the way you do it
You do your research with your PhD
That ain’t working—that’s the way you do it
Money for talking and write for free

That ain’t working—that’s the way you do it
Let me tell you those professors ain’t dumb
Maybe get a blister on their typing fingers
Maybe get a little blister on their tongues

They want to publish peer-reviewed papers
They got the fire in the bel---ly
They are movers and shakers
Because they have that damned degree

See that rumpled fellow with the pipe and the tweed coat
Granny glasses and the thinning hair?
That rumpled fellow is a famous scholar
That rumpled fellow is a luminaire

He wants to publish peer reviewed papers… (etc.)

Someday I’ll finish my dissertation
I’ll write it up and I’ll turn it in
Someday I’ll have me a tenure-track position
Man, that’s when the fun begins
I’ll teach class Tuesday and Thursday
I’ll leave the research to my advisees
I’ll criticize them in office hours
I’ll give them all the third degree

They’ve got to publish peer reviewed papers… (etc.)

That ain’t working—that’s the way you do it
They leave the research to their advisees
That ain’t working—that’s the way you do it
Money for talking and write for free"

Now all we need is a gangsta version.

Dilbert's A Bayesian

Nuff said.

Job Satisfaction

Best line of the day: "I'm drowning and monkeys dressed as lifeguards are throwing me anchors"


I'm sure I'll find a way to use that in the next few days.

The World's Hottest Chili Pepper

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Bhut Jolokia pepper in India is 200x hotter than a jalapeno:

"When you eat it, it feels like dying," touts one online retailer. Even packaging the stuff is a pain. "Our workers wear goggles, face masks, head cover and protective clothing," says Ananta Saikia, whose firm is the pepper's sole exporter. "They look like astronauts." He and his wife have started shipping tons of dried bhut jolokia around the world, including Germany, England and the U.S. Annual sales, he says, are expected to jump 500% this year.

Read the whole thing here (online subscription may be required). And for a video of someone eating one, click here.

HT: Carpe Diem

Court Marshalled For Using Weapon of Insufficient Caliber

This very un-PC story made my day:

An octagenerian retired Special Forces member was put on trial by his peers for shooting an intruder in his home who'd threatened him with a knife. Unfortunately he used a 22 caliber handgun, so he was charged with "failing to use a weapon of sufficient caliber."

It was all tongue in cheek - he was acquitted with a round of applause from the room.

HT: Neal Boortz.