JS

Today is the National Day of Sweden. The national day is celebrated on this day for some specific reason, but I always forget it. I think there was some king that sneezed really magnificently and loud.

The day used to be called the Swedish Flag Day and that was cute in a weird way. In 2005 it became a public holiday. Since there is not enough nationalism in the world, this move was obviously a great improvement. Now, I do not have anything against patriotism (i.e. being proud of my country) but for some people it seems to be spilling over into nationalism (i.e. my country right or wrong, my country is better than yours). And nationalism is unnecessary.

Here are three other (and better?) reasons to celebrate June 6:

• 1. National Doughnut Day
• 2. D-Day
• 3. The birthday of Thomas Mann (one of my favorite authors)

written by Jacob \\ tags: Sweden

I am a big fan of simple road bikes. Last night I was putting one together at IRO. They have a nice web page that lets you pick the parts you prefer. The red bike below is based on the Mark V frame. An alternative is the Bianchi Pista.

While these bikes are relatively cheap compared to other bikes, they nevertheless cost a lot anyway ($600-$700). My third option is to buy an old road bike, perhaps a 10-speed, and convert it to a fixed-gear bike.

P.S. 1: I am far from the only political scientist enjoying race biking. There is a link to a great video at the end of their post. It shows bikers racing through NYC.

P.S. 2: The election? Oh well, I feel a little like this commentator. It is time to move on to the general election.

written by Jacob \\ tags: bikes

There are signs that Hillary Clinton is dropping her bid for the nomination.

1. She is holding her speech after tomorrow’s primaries in New York rather than in one of the election states. This is unusual.

2. She is inviting long time staffers and donors to New York. There is no reason to do that unless there is something important to announce.

To make this much of so little, as many commentators are doing, is close to reading tea leaves and looking for omens. A spokesperson for Clinton is also denying the rumor. Apparently, it does not take much at this point for someone to jump to the conclusion that she is dropping out.

If she actually quits tomorrow it follows the regular pattern of how candidates drop out. One day they give the impression that they will continue the fight until they are completely defeated. Yet, the next day they concede the fight.

written by Jacob \\ tags: Hillary Clinton, politics, primaries

Facebook has a feature called Lexicon and it can be used for several interesting purposes. Facebook explains:

Lexicon is a tool to follow language trends across Facebook. Specifically, Lexicon looks at the usage of words and phrases on profile, group and event Walls. For example, you can enter “love, hate” (without quotations) to compare the usage of these two words on Facebook Walls. You may enter up to five terms, where each term can be a word or two-word phrase consisting of letters and numbers.

One of their examples is party tonight and hangover. As the graph below shows, party tonight peaks on Friday and Saturday and hangover lags closely behind, peaking on Saturday and Sunday.

I did a search on Obama, Barack, Clinton, Hillary. (Click on the picture below for a bigger graph.) I also point out a few important primaries/caucuses in the graph. And I admit willingly that I do not have a black belt in calligraphy.

A few results:

• Barack Obama is discussed more than Hillary Clinton.
• Big jump for Obama after his surprising win in Iowa.
• People refer to Barack Obama as Obama and Hillary Clinton as Hillary. Perhaps because there are many Clintons, perhaps because she is a woman. I do not know.

That Obama is a more popular discussion topic than Hillary Clinton is perhaps not surprising since the average Facebook user is young and often well-educated.

But note also that publicity is not always good. The graph below is for Knicks, Celtics, the two basketball teams from New York and Boston, respectively. Knicks played poorly this year, as they have done many years now. Celtics, on the other hand, improved their game dramatically compared to last season. The jump during the spring for Celtics reflects the beginning of the playoffs.

The spike for Knicks reflects a spectacular loss against the Celtics in November 29, 2007. They lost by about 10,000 points and it was shown on prime time television.

So just because people talk about you does not mean they praise you. However, I think it is a safe bet that the spikes for Obama reflect mostly positive comments as polls repeatedly show his popularity among young people.

written by Jacob \\ tags: facebook, Hillary Clinton, Obama, politics, sports

The new name of the blog is JS. My initials, plain and simple.

I thought about changing the title to Leaps tall buildings in a single bound. However, it is too long and winding for a name. Besides, I think the name might be confusing for some visitors of the blog.

I put that phrase in the tag line instead. The reason? In a relatively recent article in Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Nelson and Norton (2005) prime participants unconsciously with words associated with Superman. Those in the experimental condition were more likely to volunteer and help compared to people in the control condition. Interestingly, the effect lasted for at least 3 months after the experiment.

And I endorse helping.

If you are interested in unconscious priming methods and automaticity, check out almost anything by John A. Bargh.

written by Jacob \\ tags: psychology, title

Over at Engadget they discuss the new Jawbone bluetooth headset. The Jawbone is the bluetooth equivalent of everything iSomething. That is, it is hot, nice and overpriced ($130).

One reader is clearly not familiar with the gadget, so he/she asks what it is and what it does. The response comes quickly: “You stick it in your ear and then you hear voices in your head. It also has active noise reduction so you can hear those voices better.” For us on the brink of lunacy: stay away!

written by Jacob \\ tags: gadgets

With gas prices “soaring“, Americans are considering their options. A $4 per gallon is already a reality in some places. New York is not there just yet, but it is close. What can be done?

Chrysler has one solution in their Let’s refuel America-campaign. Chrysler offers buyers a 3-year cap of $2.99 per gallon of gas if they buy a new vehicle (read SUV).

Another solution is the gas tax holiday, an idea promoted by McCain and Hillary Clinton. The proposal aims to reduce prices temporarily over the summer by removing the 18.4 cents per gallon federal gasoline tax. Obama is not the only one to call this election-year pandering.

Now, reality check: A $4 per gallon translates into a little over $1 per liter. Compare this with Europe. With current exchange rates, most Europeans pay around $2 per liter - twice the American price! From the American perspective it is probably easier to think in gallons. For instance, the British pay above $8 per gallon and the Dutch pay almost $9 per gallon of gas. (1 US gallon = 3.785 liter, 1 liter = 0.264 US gallons.)

Although prices have increased lately in Europe as well, the increases are small. Previously European gas prices were three or four times higher. Now Europeans only pay twice as much as people in the United States.

I wonder what effects European type gas prices would have on the United States. How much would change? We are already seeing that a lot more people are using mass transit compared to last year (NY Times). Keep in mind that this increase is taking place even though gas is cheap (from a European perspective).

written by Jacob \\ tags: Europe, gas, politics, USA

The Stanley Cup playoffs ended this afternoon for the NY Rangers and Jaromir Jagr. This is sad, mostly because it seems like Jagr might be going somewhere else next season.

To me, Jagr is an acquired taste, much like pickled herring (sill) and screeching monkey candy (djungelvrål). He grows on you. I took me a long time to accept his greatness. For most of his career I have felt that he did not try hard enough. He was playing good, scoring lots of goals and so on, but it often seemed as he could play harder and with more intensity.

Not until mid-season last year did I start to enjoy his game. It was at the time when he refused to take shootouts because, well, he felt like he would miss. (He got over this issue a few games later.) It all fell into place. Jagr is extremely neurotic. And pretty smart. He is the Larry David of hockey. Read more about how Jagr thinks.

The picture below is from 1997, at least 6 years after the mullet became a fashion faux pas.

written by Jacob \\ tags: hockey, jagr, sports

Ever wonder of how to really track your mail? Why was it delayed? A company suggests that the solution is to include a GPS tracking device in your mail. Once you get the mail you can track its path, stops and even altitude.

What struck me, however, was not the nice cheap $700 gadget, but the ad. Check it out below. It is a beautiful mix of odd beats and typesetting, stereotypes and CRT-monitors. Steampunk, anyone?

From Crave

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjMKJzdwcwQ[/youtube]

written by Jacob \\ tags: ads, gadgets, gps

Finally. After a long and useless winter there is spring in NY and Stony Brook. There are many good things that come with the spring, e.g., I get to torture my students with a final, I have to write a final paper for a course, and there is that dissertation proposal. Anyway, all of this seems a little bit easier now that there are flowers and skirts.

Some more pictures.

written by Jacob \\ tags: spring, weather