Monthly Archives: April 2014

Costa Rica Fishing

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There have been three previous commentaries about Costa Rica, and this is the final of that series. Our grandson and I offered that we would be willing to share the $475 cost of a four hour Pacific Ocean costal fishing trip with another party. No one agreed to that offer, so I told Grace at the resort diver’s shop that the two of us would pay the full price for the fishing trip. It was a wonderful decision!  (I hope I have provided the correct link. Go to the Hilton Papagayo dive shop and ask for Grace or Auxi, and they will schedule your fishing trip.)

“Nacho” and “Marvin” pulled the “Vahia” in close to the resort shore and grandson and I waded the short distance to get on board. We cruised out to some reefs to do some bottom fishing, but had limited success. We did manage to catch a few fish in an hour and a half. Our grandson was pleased that he caught a poisonous lion fish (or scorpion fish). I was more impressed that he caught a “keeper” grouper that was eventually cooked by the resort for our dinner. Continue reading →

Tyranny of the Status Quo

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bookcvr_status_quoI was looking for a different book by Milton Friedman, but this was the only one available at the library. This book lists both Milton & Rose Friedman as the authors, and I initially thought it would probably be too out of date to be of much interest since it was written in the latter part of Ronald Reagan’s first term as President. I plunged ahead and was rewarded. The book is perhaps even more appropriate to discussing government-caused problems than when first published. The message I want to emphasize is that the Friedman’s warn that politicians often campaign against raising taxes but then engage in deficit spending. They explain that a deficit is a “…hidden tax whether it is financed by pieces  of paper or bookkeeping entries called money or…notes or bills or bonds.” We are liable for the deficit, although it might be our children or grandchildren who will eventually have to actually pay the bill. That is a thought that should be frightening to anyone watching what has happened to the federal deficit in the last decade.

I had never read a Friedman book, although I’ve always admired his many Libertarian-based quotes. My favorite, and I don’t have the exact quote in front of me, is “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in six years we would have a shortage of sand.” I was disappointed that I found only one such pithy quote in the book, but more about that later in the review. Continue reading →

All the Marbles

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I’m going to break with my tradition of attempting to summarize the origin of expressions, because the explanation at mentafloss is far too interesting to summarize! I’ll list some history I found interesting, but encourage you to read the full description. No one knows where marbles originated, but “…they’ve been found in the ashes of Pompeii and the tombs of ancient Egyptians, and they were played by Native American tribes…”  The link provides numerous names for the various kinds of marbles, and I wonder whether the sack of marbles from my childhood might contain some of the incredibly valuable types. Smaller marbles called “mibs” or “ducks” “…can run from anywhere from $10 dollars to a few hundred dollars.”  “Shooters” start at $50 and go up from there to more than $10,000 for a “peacock Lutx onionskin (whatever that is?) or an “…amber glass Swirl for $10,800.” I suppose I should have the sack of marbles evaluated more closely, although I only thought of them as fun parts of a child’s game!

Costa Rica Travel

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Two previous commentaries referred to our vacation to the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica in the northwest part of the country bordering on Nicaragua the North and the Pacific Ocean on the West. Our vacation only allowed us to see and experience a small sample of what is available in Costa Rica or even in the Guanacaste province. However, we have to say we completely enjoyed our trip and are pleased to recommend it to others. We travelled with our oldest grandson, and part of the enjoyment was how appreciative he was of the trip.

We planned our visit based on recommendations of a friend who has had two trips to Costa Rica. We settled on an Apple Vacation with Broadlands Travel that included a chartered direct flight on Frontier to Liberia, Costa Rica.  Our resort, the Hilton Papagayo, was about thirty minutes away from the airport on a cove on the Pacific Ocean. We were very pleased with everything, although we had trouble finding our transportation at the airport. An entrepreneur earned a well-deserved tip by leading us to the Swiss Travel agent wearing a distinctive orange shirt. Swiss Travel arranged our transport to and from the airport and the tours we took while at the resort. Don’t be confused by the “Swiss Travel” name, because it is a Costa Rican company. They have an extensive web site for travel and many activities in the country. Continue reading →

Thinking Fast and Slow

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thinking fast and slowParts of this book by Daniel Kahneman were interesting reading and other parts were too much about psychological research to hold my attention.  You will enjoy the book if you are a fan of heuristics, which is defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary as …”involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial and error methods.” The book mentions that “applying the rule of thumb” is another way of defining heuristic thinking. The book makes a strong point that we are comfortable in relying on our intuition to address a problem or situation to reach a quick decision and that decision is often wrong. The dust cover of the book “…explains the two systems that drive the way we think. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System 2 is slow, more deliberative, and more logical.” There are numerous examples of how our analysis using System 1 often misleads us. The Conclusion includes the observation that when you have an overconfident intuition you are thinking correctly you should “…recognize signs that you are in a cognitive minefield, slow down, and ask for reinforcement from System 2.” Continue reading →

Rule of Thumb

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Wikipedia has an extensive discussion of this expression. It says it is “…a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination.” It is compared to heuristic, which is a similar concept used in math, psychology, and computer science.  The origin is uncertain, but likely comes several possible instances where the thumb is used to make an imprecise but convenient measurement. There is less evidence that the expression originated from prohibition of using a stick wider than the thumb to beat a wife.  Early colonial law often specifically rejected the concept. However, “…the phrase and connection gained currency in 1982, when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights issued a report on wife abuse, titled ‘Under the Rule of Thumb’.”