Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Free Rice

Posted on November 13, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

The whole world is linking to (and playing) FreeRice. They give you a word, often quite obscure, and four definitions, even the best of which is sometimes not all that perfect:

For each word you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program

The annoying and addictive thing is that I can almost never seem to get past level 48.

I gather there about 2,000 grains of rice in a quarter of a cup, so it will take a lot of games to feed anyone…..

I think this must be one of the most brilliant publicity stunts ever. Let's pull out the back of the envelope: Even if they did promise to give away 136,236,930 grains on Nov. 11, that's only about 68,118 cups, or circa 457 bushels. A rice bushel weighs 45 pounds. It appears that US rice currently trades for about $10.50 per cwt (hundredweight) on the wholesale market.

So we take our 457 bushels, multiply by $10.50, and then by .45, and we get about $2160 worth of rice being donated on their record day — which must be the lowest cost-per-eyeball going when you consider how many people had to be playing for how long to get to that total. (After all, wrong answers don't count.)

Now, if they are paying retail prices, this is going to cost them a lot more, but I doubt they are.

Posted in Internet | 25 Comments

Financial Markets Explained

Posted on November 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

This is one of the finest explanations I've ever seen of the sub-prime crisis, and of market volatility in general:

This really is excellent. Very highly recommended even if you are not an investor.

(spotted via Calculated Risk)

Posted in Econ & Money | 1 Comment

Hard Disks Spying For the Chinese

Posted on November 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Here's a new twist on an old method of stealing data.

Taipei Times: Portable hard discs sold locally and produced by US disk-drive manufacturer Seagate Technology have been found to carry Trojan horse viruses that automatically upload to Beijing Web sites anything the computer user saves on the hard disc, the Investigation Bureau said.

Around 1,800 of the portable Maxtor hard discs, produced in Thailand, carried two Trojan horse viruses: autorun.inf and ghost.pif, the bureau under the Ministry of Justice said.

The tainted portable hard disc uploads any information saved on the computer automatically and without the owner's knowledge …

The bureau said that the method of attack was unusual, adding that it suspected Chinese authorities were involved.

Of course, in the USA, we use more subtle means to get your data.

Posted in Sufficiently Advanced Technology | 3 Comments

Miami is a “Brain Gain” Zone

Posted on November 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Miami is a “brain gain” zone, defined as “share of a county's population that is college-educated.”

Click for a bigger picture.

We're not alone:

Nationwide, all types of metropolitan counties enjoyed a brain gain on average, with major metropolitan areas gaining the most. On average, nonmetropolitan counties that were not adjacent to a metropolitan area fared the worst. Somewhat surprisingly, all rural counties enjoyed a brain gain on average.

Posted in Miami | 9 Comments

I Can Haz Translation?

Posted on November 12, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

lol2.jpgLOLCat Bible Translation Project Wiki:

Hai! Teh blessigs of teh Ceiling Cat b pwn u, lol! This is a new translation wiki to get the entire Bible translated into kitty pidgin (the language of lolcats). Zotnix saw a link to a picture with this done to Genesis and thought, “Why not the whole darned book?”

I can think of several reasons…. (and other people will think this is a reason).

(Image via PHP LOL Cats Generator)

Wikipedia on what is a LOL Cat, for those fortunate enough to have been spared.

Obligatory cite to pedantic analysis.

Icanhascheezburger.com.

Posted in Internet | Comments Off on I Can Haz Translation?

More Evidence for the ‘Carriers Are Obsolete’ Theory

Posted on November 11, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

While they excel in force projection against weak third world nations, there have been increasing signs that aircraft carriers are also awfully big targets. Some suggested that in these days of cruise missiles, the carrier's days were numbered.

Now comes some suggestion in the UK Daily Mail that even old-tech submarines are too quiet for anti-sub technology: The uninvited guest: Chinese sub pops up in middle of U.S. Navy exercise, leaving military chiefs red-faced.

Not from the world's most reliable source, and there seems very little about it in the newspapers as yet, although the blogs are all over it. The Agonist asks if this Daily Mail story (which gives neither the name nor the date of the US exercise) is actually old news being re-floated at budget time?

Posted in National Security | Comments Off on More Evidence for the ‘Carriers Are Obsolete’ Theory