Ever since Grace and I went to see A.S. Byatt speak Grace has been doing nothing but read her book, Possession.
I mean, it's 1 am for crying out loud!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Sunday, February 25, 2007
A.S. Byatt and Econ formal
Also, in the past week, we saw a short talk given by the wonderful British writer, A.S. Byatt, who wrote Possession, which is probably my favorite book. It was wonderful to hear her speak and talk about the research that went into it. She writes a lot of historical fiction, so the talk was about her research process and how the stories are formed. It was even nicer because it was such an intimate setting, just a little classroom basically with about 30 or so people. That is one of the amazing things about Cambridge, they get amazing speakers and it is almost always open to all university students (and their guests.)
On Friday, we went to a formal hall at Jesus College with the other economists. It was a nice night. We went at the end of the night (because nothing else is open that late) to the disgusting Kambar. Although it was repellent, it was not nearly as bad as, for example, the Union in Iowa City, or An Brogh in Cork.
On Friday, we went to a formal hall at Jesus College with the other economists. It was a nice night. We went at the end of the night (because nothing else is open that late) to the disgusting Kambar. Although it was repellent, it was not nearly as bad as, for example, the Union in Iowa City, or An Brogh in Cork.
Grantchester, Football, Hot Fuzz and Animals
Yesterday was one of those days were you accomplish as many things as it would take a week to do under normal circumstances. It was all the more incredible since we didn't get started until noon.
Anyway, we started the day out with a walk down to Grantchester with some of our friends. Grantchester is a little village south of Cambridge. To get there you walk across long level plains (owned by King's College) along the river cam. You can also punt there, but I've never done so. The reason for going to Grantchester is mostly to take a walk and then eat at one of the pubs, which is what we did. It was a thatch roofed place, which means it's roof was a pile of dry straw stuff, over a foot thick. You might think having a thatch roof is just a way of making your place more exciting for tourists, and I'm sure that's part of it, but so many places in villages have thatch roofs that it's more than that. It really is an aesthetic, and we were told thatch roofs last over 50 years when done well.
When we were finished with lunch we had free tickets to a football match between Cambridge United and Southport, but the game started in 25 minutes and we were four or five miles away. So we called a taxi and arrived a few minutes late. We were meeting one of my fellow economists at the game and even though we were only eight minutes late, the score was already 1-1 when we arrived (which means we would be lucky to see another goal).
This was not the big football stadiums you see on the World cup. This was like minor league football, barely professional. There were no hooligans. The stands were not that much bigger than a big high school's. And there wasn't even a scoreboard. But the game was pretty entertaining, mostly because a few fights almost broke out. At one point someone got injured and the ref rushed over, but tripped and fell onto someone kneeling by the injured guy. I guess that made people angry because about eight people threatingly walked the ref all the way over to the sideline. It was tense, but eventually the ref regained control and issued about five yellow cards and one red card.
Here's something strange - the hotdogs came in fancy french bread style baguettes.
After the game we headed walked into town and showed up at the movie theatre right as Hot Fuzz, a new comedy by the guys who did Shaun of the Dead, was starting. So we watched that and it was hilarious, though I'm not sure it would be as funny if you didn't know about England.
After the movie we headed into town for dinner and went to four different places before we found someone that had room. And after dinner we went to a party that Team Economics was having. It was animal themed, but we didn't dress up.
Next weekend I really want to go down to London for a day to see Blue Man Group, the Shell Wildlife Photography Exhibit at the Natural History Museum and maybe the Cambridge v. Germany rowing match. And the following weekend grace and I are going to Paris!
Anyway, we started the day out with a walk down to Grantchester with some of our friends. Grantchester is a little village south of Cambridge. To get there you walk across long level plains (owned by King's College) along the river cam. You can also punt there, but I've never done so. The reason for going to Grantchester is mostly to take a walk and then eat at one of the pubs, which is what we did. It was a thatch roofed place, which means it's roof was a pile of dry straw stuff, over a foot thick. You might think having a thatch roof is just a way of making your place more exciting for tourists, and I'm sure that's part of it, but so many places in villages have thatch roofs that it's more than that. It really is an aesthetic, and we were told thatch roofs last over 50 years when done well.
When we were finished with lunch we had free tickets to a football match between Cambridge United and Southport, but the game started in 25 minutes and we were four or five miles away. So we called a taxi and arrived a few minutes late. We were meeting one of my fellow economists at the game and even though we were only eight minutes late, the score was already 1-1 when we arrived (which means we would be lucky to see another goal).
This was not the big football stadiums you see on the World cup. This was like minor league football, barely professional. There were no hooligans. The stands were not that much bigger than a big high school's. And there wasn't even a scoreboard. But the game was pretty entertaining, mostly because a few fights almost broke out. At one point someone got injured and the ref rushed over, but tripped and fell onto someone kneeling by the injured guy. I guess that made people angry because about eight people threatingly walked the ref all the way over to the sideline. It was tense, but eventually the ref regained control and issued about five yellow cards and one red card.
Here's something strange - the hotdogs came in fancy french bread style baguettes.
After the game we headed walked into town and showed up at the movie theatre right as Hot Fuzz, a new comedy by the guys who did Shaun of the Dead, was starting. So we watched that and it was hilarious, though I'm not sure it would be as funny if you didn't know about England.
After the movie we headed into town for dinner and went to four different places before we found someone that had room. And after dinner we went to a party that Team Economics was having. It was animal themed, but we didn't dress up.
Next weekend I really want to go down to London for a day to see Blue Man Group, the Shell Wildlife Photography Exhibit at the Natural History Museum and maybe the Cambridge v. Germany rowing match. And the following weekend grace and I are going to Paris!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Gambling in the US of A and the UK
We had a homework problem today where we used our statistical knowledge to test how good the Las Vegas spread is at predicting Basketball game winners. But in the UK, and Europe in general it seems, people aren't familiar with the concept of the spread. This led to an ever lengthening tangent on sports gambling by a wild haired english professor.
You see, in America, he explained, the rules of our sports are set up by people in charge to maximize scoring. Basketball games will often end with one team winning 95-85, whereas soccer matches will often be 0-0 or maybe 3-2 in a great game. Also, in America, it's often known beforehand with a reasonable degree of certainty which team will win. So instead of giving odds, like in horse racing or in UK gambling, we bet on spreads to keep things interesting.
Fair enough. I'm getting lots of looks though, from everyone in the course. "For real?!" they ask with their eyes.
The professor kept going though and started talking about the football (soccer for us) pools established in the UK in the 1920's. There was all sorts of debate about whether betting on football was legal or not - it was illegal to bet on games of chance, and so the matter hinged on whether a football match was a game of chance. In the end the experts of the day decided it was not and a great UK institution was born.
But this was before the national lottery, so people basically used it as a lottery, guessing winners at random, even if they did not have any real expertise in the matter. It became such an industry that one particularly snowy winter bets were taken even though no matches could be played due to the weather. Football experts then met and decided who would have won, if the game had actually been played.
The professor then started thinking about the United States again and noted that our laws are also problematic, having been established in the time before phones and internet. For instance, a recent case decided that the law forbidding gambling over the phone applied to internet gambling as well. In the United States, gambling is only legal in Las Vegas and on Indian Reservations which had the class in stitches. I heard someone remark, "what a funny country!"
The punchline was that a lot of gambling took place on riverboats because border rivers are not technically part of any state!
Hey shut up guys! America #1!
You see, in America, he explained, the rules of our sports are set up by people in charge to maximize scoring. Basketball games will often end with one team winning 95-85, whereas soccer matches will often be 0-0 or maybe 3-2 in a great game. Also, in America, it's often known beforehand with a reasonable degree of certainty which team will win. So instead of giving odds, like in horse racing or in UK gambling, we bet on spreads to keep things interesting.
Fair enough. I'm getting lots of looks though, from everyone in the course. "For real?!" they ask with their eyes.
The professor kept going though and started talking about the football (soccer for us) pools established in the UK in the 1920's. There was all sorts of debate about whether betting on football was legal or not - it was illegal to bet on games of chance, and so the matter hinged on whether a football match was a game of chance. In the end the experts of the day decided it was not and a great UK institution was born.
But this was before the national lottery, so people basically used it as a lottery, guessing winners at random, even if they did not have any real expertise in the matter. It became such an industry that one particularly snowy winter bets were taken even though no matches could be played due to the weather. Football experts then met and decided who would have won, if the game had actually been played.
The professor then started thinking about the United States again and noted that our laws are also problematic, having been established in the time before phones and internet. For instance, a recent case decided that the law forbidding gambling over the phone applied to internet gambling as well. In the United States, gambling is only legal in Las Vegas and on Indian Reservations which had the class in stitches. I heard someone remark, "what a funny country!"
The punchline was that a lot of gambling took place on riverboats because border rivers are not technically part of any state!
Hey shut up guys! America #1!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
New Photos
Finally, finally, finally, I've recovered my camera cord and thrown up a pile of pictures. This one is from our trip to the Peak district, and there's a little set of photos from that trip. There's also a new photoset of snow in Cambridge from last week, and there's four new pictures at the end of the Cambridge photoset which show the interior of King's College Chapel (they just changed the rules so you're permitted to take non-flash photos inside). Anyway, all those photos can be found at flickr.
Monday, February 19, 2007
Our World Is Falling Apart
We just wanted to let you all know that our world, the world of Cambridge, is falling apart. In the last week, one of our closest friends in Cambridge has decided to quit and has moved back to Liverpool; my job security is in a perilous situation and I may be jobless any day now; Matt's tuition is going up £3000 next year; the dishes are a mile high in our sink; the couple whose Oxford blog we've been following (since it's so similar to our own) have SEPARATED AND ARE LIVING ON DIFFERENT CONTINENTS; al Qaeda is regaining strength and setting up terrorist training camps on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border!!!!!!!!!! Most of these things affect other people more than they affect us. We're actually doing okay. But for those who are affected more deeply, we're thinking about you and wishing you well. Not you, al Qaeda, so fuck off.
Friday, February 16, 2007
February is a Huge Month
It's got my birthday in it, for one. Also Valentine's day.
The night before my birthday we got into the proper mood for great times with a special showing of the hit movie The Core. If you haven't seen it, I give it my highest reccomendation. We followed up the movie and accompanying beers with more alcoholic beverages at the college pub. You can buy a bottle of wine there for £3.60, which is about the price of a pint of real good beer. The barman calls it the "Cheap and Nasty" but we're not exactly wine connesieurs so no harm.
The barman at the Fitz bar is a good guy. He's always really polite and I think he likes us, maybe because we never get belligerently drunk. Anyway, he served me first before a bunch of Undergraduates who had been waiting for longer than me (take that!) and I took that as a sign of our developing relationship. So I asked him what beer he liked most and he told me he's never drank alcohol in his life, which was a bit of a surprise. He then told me the best beer on tap was the Heinekin, since it had no preservatives that would cause a bad hangover. I had ordered practically everything for the group except Heinekin, so I think that set our budding relationship a step back.
The next day was my actual birthday and I spent most of the day lounging around in shorts reading the NYTimes. Grace got me a bundle of presents and then we were off to a restaurant for some Thai food. At the restaurant we met our mates, and one of them, who also happens to be named Gareth, but is not the Gareth pictured and posted about below, told us all about his upcoming trip to Algeria. This guy, Gar for short, has the sweetest deal I've ever heard. He's a geology student and he's doing his PhD at Cambridge, despite the fact that he has no master's degree, or even a bachelor's degree for that matter. While he was in his third year at University he applied for this PhD program at Cambridge sponsored by the good people at BP ("beyond petroleum"). He got into the program even though he doesn't formally have his degree yet (he'll get it, just a matter of paperwork and bureaucracy). Anyway, despite their green slogan, BP is still pretty interested in petroleum and Gar is sort of in charge of North Africa and figuring out it's geology, presumably so BP can see if there's any chance of oil. Hence the trip to Algeria.
They've already sent him to Greece for a week or two and he's going to Egypt for the better part of month when he returns. Son of a gun. BP pays for everything of course - posh hotel, chartered jet, drivers, everything. Let me tell you kids - if you want a life of adventure get into one of the sciences that can't do it's work in a lab.
Incidentally, Gar is also a really accomplished rock climber (one of the best in the UK, I've been told by our friends, after a night of drinking). So, being in a field that studies rocks is an even better fit for him potentially.
Anyway, after some great Thai food we went bowling which was awesome.
For Valentine's Day Grace and I had a quiet night. I cleaned the whole house, taking out the Christmas tree (sitting by a dumpster, shhhhhh) and pulling down the decorations. We made Grace's famous Mushroom soup and watched a Marlon Brando movie ("I coulda been a contender!").
I was thinking about this, and Valentine's day seems like a much smaller holiday now that we're married. I think it's because it's been largely supplanted by our anniversary. Valentine's day is for anyone, even the kids who nobody likes in elementary school but get a card anyway because you have to make cards for everyone or no one. But our Anniversary is just for us, and it celebrates our wedding which is something much more concrete than love in the abstract. Still, I got Grace flowers, chocolate and a card. But the day just wasn't that big a deal.
The next night we went out to a pub quiz, which we lost. We're trying to keep busy since we all miss our mate (see below), which is one reason why we're going to London tomorrow. While I'm there I'll finally get my camera cord and, finally, I can put some pictures up.
The night before my birthday we got into the proper mood for great times with a special showing of the hit movie The Core. If you haven't seen it, I give it my highest reccomendation. We followed up the movie and accompanying beers with more alcoholic beverages at the college pub. You can buy a bottle of wine there for £3.60, which is about the price of a pint of real good beer. The barman calls it the "Cheap and Nasty" but we're not exactly wine connesieurs so no harm.
The barman at the Fitz bar is a good guy. He's always really polite and I think he likes us, maybe because we never get belligerently drunk. Anyway, he served me first before a bunch of Undergraduates who had been waiting for longer than me (take that!) and I took that as a sign of our developing relationship. So I asked him what beer he liked most and he told me he's never drank alcohol in his life, which was a bit of a surprise. He then told me the best beer on tap was the Heinekin, since it had no preservatives that would cause a bad hangover. I had ordered practically everything for the group except Heinekin, so I think that set our budding relationship a step back.
The next day was my actual birthday and I spent most of the day lounging around in shorts reading the NYTimes. Grace got me a bundle of presents and then we were off to a restaurant for some Thai food. At the restaurant we met our mates, and one of them, who also happens to be named Gareth, but is not the Gareth pictured and posted about below, told us all about his upcoming trip to Algeria. This guy, Gar for short, has the sweetest deal I've ever heard. He's a geology student and he's doing his PhD at Cambridge, despite the fact that he has no master's degree, or even a bachelor's degree for that matter. While he was in his third year at University he applied for this PhD program at Cambridge sponsored by the good people at BP ("beyond petroleum"). He got into the program even though he doesn't formally have his degree yet (he'll get it, just a matter of paperwork and bureaucracy). Anyway, despite their green slogan, BP is still pretty interested in petroleum and Gar is sort of in charge of North Africa and figuring out it's geology, presumably so BP can see if there's any chance of oil. Hence the trip to Algeria.
They've already sent him to Greece for a week or two and he's going to Egypt for the better part of month when he returns. Son of a gun. BP pays for everything of course - posh hotel, chartered jet, drivers, everything. Let me tell you kids - if you want a life of adventure get into one of the sciences that can't do it's work in a lab.
Incidentally, Gar is also a really accomplished rock climber (one of the best in the UK, I've been told by our friends, after a night of drinking). So, being in a field that studies rocks is an even better fit for him potentially.
Anyway, after some great Thai food we went bowling which was awesome.
For Valentine's Day Grace and I had a quiet night. I cleaned the whole house, taking out the Christmas tree (sitting by a dumpster, shhhhhh) and pulling down the decorations. We made Grace's famous Mushroom soup and watched a Marlon Brando movie ("I coulda been a contender!").
I was thinking about this, and Valentine's day seems like a much smaller holiday now that we're married. I think it's because it's been largely supplanted by our anniversary. Valentine's day is for anyone, even the kids who nobody likes in elementary school but get a card anyway because you have to make cards for everyone or no one. But our Anniversary is just for us, and it celebrates our wedding which is something much more concrete than love in the abstract. Still, I got Grace flowers, chocolate and a card. But the day just wasn't that big a deal.
The next night we went out to a pub quiz, which we lost. We're trying to keep busy since we all miss our mate (see below), which is one reason why we're going to London tomorrow. While I'm there I'll finally get my camera cord and, finally, I can put some pictures up.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Snow in Cambridge
There was a big snow in Cambridge today and no one came into work! It was only 4 inches of snow! I, being the intrepid, indefatigueable Iowan, went on in to work only to discover that no one else in my section bothered to come in. I had to sit there all day and work and they were probably playing in the snow, drinking hot cocoa and getting toasty by the fire. Bloody Brits. They're the most staid, stiff upper lip, carry on, business as usual people... until it snows. However it's almost 8PM here and most of the ice has melted and the roads are pretty clear. As long as it stays above freezing driving shouldn't be any different from when it rains. I suspect however they'll find a way to make a long weekend of it!
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