Tiger Woods Finally Wins PGA Tournament

Its surely been long and arduous, mixed with some disappointment but Tiger Woods finally won after more than two years. reports of his personal indiscretions notwithstanding, my view in several blog posts here, here and here has been that the skill level required of a golfer of such calibre remains with one for a considerable period. It was really just a metter of time before Tiger won resoundingly again, as happened over the weekend at the Arnold Palmer Invitational in Florida.

While the tenor of the CNN story is more measured and neutral, I think that many people had unwisely written off this athlete. All the naysayers and his competitors and former colleagues who have been critical played to the nature of sports journalism. The defining nature is to highlight momentary difficulty and try to show who is in decline against new entrants to the game. I am glad that Tiger is back and that he is doing his best where he has been among the best. he has time yet to make history. May this guy continue to prosper as his work ethic shows that he deserves it.     

Minimum Alcohol Pricing Policy

In my view, one of the paradoxes in the control of substances harmful to health and with adverse effects is the differential policy options taken in respect of alcohol, tobacco and narcotics. Many times, sensible policy dialogue is carried out as if it is a given that narcotics are more harmful relative to alcohol. More importantly, it is often unacknowledged that price mechanism could be used as part of policy for alcohol and health policy. As this article in the Guardian states, the government of the United Kingdom is considering the introduction of a minimum price policy for alcoholic beverages in order to reduce binge consumption and effects on other people.

The details state that the policy would establish a price floor of 40 pence for every unit of alcohol and that this would reduce crimes and accidents. Understandably, the retailers argue that this policy would affect income groups differently because it would raise the costs of consumption disproportionately for poorer individuals. As described in the story, this effect would almost certainly be the case. To my mind, it is also the lower income people who are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of alcohol consumption.

Should We be Freed From Passwords?

It took me a while to realize that security in the Internet and related gadgets in use today is an arms race that will keep security consultants perpetually at work. This stance came to me after reading the analytical model that Bruce Schneier adopts to discussions on security. That notwithstanding, I was impressed with the idea expressed in this article by Randall Stross of the NYT. It correctly identifies that most people use very sloppy passwords by not giving much thought to it in addition to the fact that really strong passwords will be difficult to remember. In recognition of this human weakness, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has commenced thinking to go beyond passwords as known today.

This project seeks to design a mechanism that allows for use of a a connected device by detection of an individuals' user signature, which he calls "Cognitive Signature". This means that access and use of computers and devices will be left to software that has the ability to detect the individual's unique interaction pattern with the keyboard. "Keystroke Dynamics" are actions that are undertaken repeatedly and therefore not subject to deliberate thought. I sense that they would build a profile which will authenticate the user of the device. 

This is without doubt an extremely clever approach as the tests show that it is very difficult to consciously bypass. This will raise the threshold for those who would breach security but it also means that it will be difficult to log in people who are authorized to share a machine unless their "Keystroke Dynamics" is embedded in the system. Unlike Randall Stross who speaks of the password free environment as providing a near perfect environment,  I remain less sanguine. The requirement for simplicity of systems is part of the reason why securing computer systems remains difficult. I do not see how this password-free system makes it disappear. 

Did Goldman Sachs Forget Obliquity?

My memory fails me in nailing where I read this comment but in discussions about Goldman Sachs, many people I know refer to the firm as the indisputable creator of millionaires every year. Being this great millionaire creation machine, it is clear that the professionals in there work extremely hard and provide value to their clients in order to retain them. And yet since the publication of this article in the NYT by an executive in the firm, the reputation of this firm stands in the balance. 

Greg Smith is without doubt an accomplished person and probably a millionaire as well but chose to state clearly why he felt that he cannot continue to work in the firm. His claims have understandably been denied by the firm but it is also clear that dispassionate commentaries should consider that he left on his own terms and is therefore unlikely to be an employees lashing back because of dismissal for poor performance.  The letter is clear that the ethos of the firm has changed from being marginally helpful to clients to the direct pursuit of opportunities to bill clients. That the letter specifically mentions the president and the CEO as particularly responsible for the sharp turn towards making money by all means and leaving clients to their own devices is telling. 

I am unsure that this state of affairs is merely about "moral bankruptcy" or obsession with billing clients only. I think that Goldman Sachs is far too large, influential and remains highly regarded by its clients probably too loyal to be damaged severely by George Smith's claim. That notwithstanding, it is still a measure of deep failure on the part of Goldman Sachs that a twelve year blameless staffer leaves with the thinking that the firm is lying to its client and providing professional services of dubious value. In my book, that is failure and this firm ought to get its executives to think seriously about what its very highly selected and capable workers think about it. Remember that the its external critics may be envious or ignorants but Greg Smith clearly falls in a different category. 

And my advise to Goldman Sachs' leadership: Please find this book and read it thoroughly. That expenditure will not be wasted. In addition, it is best for the firm's employees to learn some etiquette because denigrating clients by use of rude names is not classy.

Airlines Getting Top Class Menus for Paying Fliers

In my view, air travel in economy class is burdensome and uncomfortable because of poor air circulation, cramped seating space and terrible food. I have sought a simple model of economics to explain this fact and sometimes conclude that space and air circulation are real problems but that food is a less genuine challenge but driven by the need to save funds since most travelers will not eat much anyway. I have had in mind that it is possible to vastly improve the quality of airline food but that it is not feasible immediately because of the conditions of its preparation, packaging and storage. As a result, I have often confirmed to myself that the incentive to create better food would not yield much advantage due to the thin margins that exist for this industry.

Reading this article in the NYT, I have confirmed a few of my hunches and also been vastly educated on some very brave assumptions that I made earlier. For instance, it appears that food changes taste dramatically with elevation and this may part of the problem in perceiving food quality in the air as less sumptuous. The taste buds and the nose, which are important for detection of flavor are changed substantially when a plane cruises miles high. And so this shows that it is not for want of effort but that one should not anticipate that dining in a plane will be as pleasurable as it is in one's kitchen or favorite restaurants.

That notwithstanding, selected airlines are attempting to improve the experience of business class passengers by consulting highly-regarded chefs to design menus for their airlines. The business case for this attempt is clear as there is a quest to improve the experience of the higher paying fliers. and so one sees competition among airlines in Europe and the United States in securing the services of top chefs to improve the food and beverage service. It is noteworthy that the economy class and domestic fliers are not going to partake of the same pleasures. The signal to the latter is clearly that an upgrade gets you eat from a menu designed by Gordon Ramsay. Payment for the activation of a discerning palate is available on the ground and coming to the air too.

I do not begrudge business class travellers at all. If only similar dedication was placed on solving the other problems of the freshness of cabin air and the more leg room.

Cities and Building

"Successful cities must build in order to accommodate the rising demand for space, but that does not mean that building creates success." Edward Glaeser in, The Triumph of The City. P.53

Cato Institute's Moment of Trial

It has always been in my mind that think tanks generally provide a good ground for developing thinking and generating new policy ideas in society. Holding this truth asnd self-evident, I have always argued that there is a solid correlation between the number and quality of think tanks in a polity and the quality of life of citizens. Taking this idea further, I have maintained that the variety in quality of the think tanks is in many respects a measure of the fact that larger economies have surpluses and firms that may contribute towards the support of dispassionate thinking and idea generation.

I have posted a number of pieces on this blog such as this, this and this in which I mused on a number of issues pertinent to think tanks. Following a single visit years ago, I acquired and have often maintained enormous respect for the Cato Institute as the example of an ideas institution with rigorous analysis and a wide range of policy interests. Added to the fact that it is well-endowed with intellectual and financial resources, it remained in my eyes the libertarian's think tank. And yet it is clear that this think tank is about to go through an internal civil war that would leave its credibility in tatters and with a major loss of its secure financial base if a takeover that is being proposed by the Koch brothers is successful. 

David Weigel's article narrates about the sudden change that the institution would undergo if the composition of its Board of Directors changed as desired by leading financial supporters. It impresses me that the structure itself mirrors that of a corporation but the assertiveness of the new members is undesirable because it is specifically calculated to ensure that research and policy prescriptions take a predetermined political shape. The lesson of this event is that no individual should place political interests ahead of a working and respected institution and that when all this is done, Cato will not be the same again. It is impressive that the staff is clearly aware that this shift will affect their work adversely and are supportive of the president. May reason prevail.

Population Control for Dartmoor Ponies

It is not often that one encounters a problem related to the need to control animal populations in the world today. It is more frequently reported that a certain species of animal is faced with extinction all on account of human activity or demand for products of that animal. Tracy McVeigh of the Guardian reports here that the Dartmoor ponies in the UK have been over breeding and the authorities have designed a mechanism for birth control among the female animals in order to control their numbers. This is an elaborate system driven by a solution based on biology to reduce fertility and maintain numbers. It would be interesting to see how it works over the period of its implementation.

No doubt this approach will have some effect but my concern is that the story does not mention whether this was considered the most cost effective means for the identified problem. As I stated in a blog post a while ago, Australia had the same problem with its camel population and chose to shoot them from the air.  In both cases, my concern was that a solution was predetermined and there is no information whether the alternatives were chosen on the basis of cost effectiveness or merely because these were the methods that were most attractive to the decision makers. The question remains whether there may have been better solutions that were not considered.