Rudy Project Syton Review

I bought the Rudy Project's Syton Supercomp helmet, which is basically the Syton with removable ear covers and a windshield. It is my first aero-helmet. I wasn't sure how much of an advantage it would give. I wore it for the olympic distance Mexico Beach race, but since it was only my second olympic, it was hard to tell. I also just wore it on Saturday for Emerald Coast #4. That's when I realized how much it helped. My bike time was only 30 seconds slower than last year...but I was in way better shape last year and last year's race didn't have the killer bi-directional headwind. That's right...the wind changed just after I turned around, so I got a headwind both directions.

Makes me feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of the Syton.

Wall St. v. Main St.

I've heard a lot of bullshitting about Wall St. v. Main St. out of these politicians mouths. They attempt to manufacture a dichotomy between those who have greed and wealth v. the good and upright people of the middle class. WTF? Ok, I guess they want you to think of CEOs with bogus (even from an economist's standpoint) compensation packages as being Wall St. and think of home made apple pie for Main St. The reality is that half of American households own stock. THERE IS NO SEPARATION BETWEEN WALL ST. & MAIN ST. I own stock. I've never been near Wall St. I bet that over half the people reading this blog own stock.

I'll be glad when this election's over and 3/4 of the highly visible political bullshit dies down.

While I'm at it, don't blame Wall St.'s greed for bringing down the financial markets. It was stupid people playing in a game with fucked up incentives that brought this mess about. First of all, anyone who decided it would be a good idea to pay someone to generate loans is a moron. Of course the commission-paid mortgage broker doesn't care if you can make the payments...you get one anyway. Secondly, I really don't know how the markets were duped for so long...does "O-ring" mean anything to you?
So, don't blame anonymous suits for bringing down the economy; blame your neighbors who bit off more than they could chew. Dumbasses who decided to live the lifestyle of the rich on the means of the middle class via credit. Blame yourself it you fall into this category. Go ahead and blame the government for lack of regulation, but realize that you would also blame them if they had imposed too many regulations ex-ante and you thought that those regulations stifled growth.

By the way, I figured out what people need to do to fix this...we need everybody's cooperation, kind of like that "don't buy gas on this one day" crap, only I think that my idea might actually work. Everybody needs to be more productive and less wasteful. Work more, spend more, save more... I think that this is the time to spend. Stocks are selling for a good discount (you might want to wait a week or so before buying), inflation is about to erode the value of your savings account, so buy consumer durables that you can use to generate a utility stream while your money is still worth something.

More Money, More Problems

I saw a kid today wearing a shirt with this graph. I laughed. He said that he saw it and just had to get it. I personally think that the intercept should be shifted up and that there are concavity issues to deal with, but agree that the general point coincides with the message presented by Biggie, repeated by Puff Combs.

Mortgage Relief?

I hear that part of the economic recovery plan is to help out people who are having a hard time making their mortgages. Maybe I can look into that and reduce my interest rate or something. If you know how to do it, drop me a comment pointing me in the right direction.

Tri to Save the Economy

Right now, I hear a lot of talk about negative things for the economy. The bank bailout can cause inflation and produce the wrong incentives for businesses. People are losing confidence in the economy and therefore are going to stop spending so much, etc. I now modestly propose a fix that would (at least partially) revive the economy.

If everyone picked up triathlon as a hobby, they'd be forced to spend some money. A lot of equipment for triathlon is made in the USA, which helps GDP. Not only is the equipment domestically produced, but also the money spent on races is in turn used to purchase T-shirts, law enforcement, trophies, beer, and food. There's a good Keynesian multiplier effect in this process. Currently, people usually drive an hour or 3 to get to a race and stay in a hotel room, which is good for the city in which the race is held. However, if everyone adopted the sport, then the density of demand for races would increase and each town could have its own race, reducing the amount of fuel consumed in order to get to a race. Speaking of fuel consumption, more people would be commuting on bikes to fit training into their busy schedules. This would produce a lower wear on the road system and we wouldn't have to spend nearly as many resources repairing roads. Road work is costly for a few reasons: 1. it slows drivers down when it's happening. 2. it uses up scarce resources. 3. it doesn't add anything that wasn't there before (like building a new road would do).

Another effect of widespread adoption of triathlon is that people would be healthier on average and they would require less health care. Health effects can be realized in a short amount of time. There's a kid on the FSU team who lost 10% body fat over the summer. Also, triathletes are less likely to smoke than the general population. Between smoking less and driving less, they are imposing fewer negative externalities on the rest of the economy.

It's better than eating your children.

Pick #96

Spoon - "Everything Hits at Once" from Girls Can Tell

With a lead-off track like this, you just want to keep listening to the whole album.

Hummingbird Pic

I finally managed to get this little fella on camera!