Scenes Improved By Swearing: American Pie 2

A few weeks ago, I introduced the concept on this blog of movie scenes that would have been improved by the addition of swearing with a re-examination of the finale of Lethal Weapon II. This time out, I am taking a look at another sequel in a long-runnning franchise.

I know that American Pie 2 has a lot of swearing, but there was a particular word that didn't come up during the movie which I think would have been a great additional joke in the movie, though it has been a while since I saw it, so perhaps it was indeed in the movie.

The setup for this is the fact that Paul Finch and Steve Stifler have never liked each other, and the tension between the two was amplified after Finch had sex with Stifler's mom.

So I think there should have been a scene where Stifler called Finch a motherfucker... with the former realizing he just burned himself by using that term.

There was two scenes where I think this might have worked well in.

The first is when Stifler is talking on the phone with someone (who turns out to be his brother), and Finch starts to ask if it was his mother, which Stifler answers in a non-definite, but angry way before walking away. I think if he called Finch a motherfucker and then walked away after realizing he just burned himself with that truthful assessment, it would have been funny.

There is another scene near the very end of the film where Finch was picked up by Stifler's mom, and the other guys are getting ready to head back to Great Falls. Stifler notices a car pulling away from the house, and the others lie about the reason the car was there. Then when they are pulling away, he asks where Finch is, and the others give him three different answers, and Stifler realizes who was in that car and what is about to happen. He would have then called Finch a motherfucker, and one of the other guys might have quipped "Well, I think that's the idea," and then the following scene would have been Finch and Stifler's mom, which was the original ending of the movie.

Perhaps I am thinking too much about this particular topic.

Tags: american pie 2, steve stifler, paul finch, scenes improved by swearing, lethal weapon, seann william scott, eddie kaye thomas, jennifer coolidge

Unusual August Rainfall

An unusually heavy rainfall event for August is going to strike our region during the next two days, and its coming from the west and northwest--not the usual southwesterly direction of our big winter rains. Take a look at the latest satellite image above--see those clouds offshore?--they are the leading edge of the first a several, unusually strong, late summer disturbances that will strike soon.
How wet? Here are the latest 24-h rainfall total predictions for Washington State ending 5 PM Tuesday and Wednesday (click on the images to get larger images). The coast and western side of the Cascades get hammered, with 1-2 inches being widespread. Some locations may get 2-3.5 inches. The lowlands could receive .5 to 1 inches over the next two days. My advice: you won't have to water for a few days!



Here is the computer forecast of water vapor in the atmosphere (total from the surface to the upper atmosphere) for 11 PM tomorrow. See the extraordinary long plume stretching westward into the Pacific? If that graphic was larger you would see the tail dip down into the subtropics!


Later this week, a ridge of high pressure moves in, the thermal trough moves northward, and we get a few days of warmer weather. But the latest runs suggest it won't last. Sorry. The good thing is that this event will severely damp down the potential for wildfires.

All Your Memes Now Belong to Us

I grabbed this meme from Samuraifrog, and it seemed up my alley. It is all about video games.

1. My favorite genre of game
Beat em Up/Hack n Slash games. Loved them as a kid, and I love them now. Yes, I was seduced by the power of open world games, but that was an affair, not a marriage.

2. Favorite Games
God Hand, River City Ransom, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Super Dodge Ball, Disgaea, Urban Chaos: Riot Response, Guardian Heroes, Unreal Tournament

3. My hated game(s)
My disdain for Raiders of the Lost Ark for the 2600 is legendary at this point. Bring up E.T. for that same console, and I will launch into a diatribe about Raiders.

4. My favorite minion enemies
I always enjoyed killing slimes in the Dragon Warrior/Quest games... and nailing the ones that run away all the time was particularly satisfying. I also enjoyed shooting/tasing gang members in Urban Chaos: Riot Response.

5. My Most Hated enemies
When I read this question, a lot of the minor enemies in Odin Sphere came to mind, because you can hit them, and it doesn't stop them from moving, and there is a lot of them (and it is a game which slows down when there is a lot of enemies on screen), so while I may come up with a better response if I think about this, this seems like a good answer now.

6. My Favorite Enemies (Bosses)
Harvey Volodarski in No More Heroes, The End in Metal Gear Solid 3, Lavos in Chrono Trigger, Lucha Gorilla in God Hand.

7. My Most hated Enemies (Bosses)
Mizuchi and the other SNK-type bosses in fighting games. I hate this cheap douchebag SO much.

8. Most Loved Good Character
I've always been partial to Solid Snake and Sly Cooper, though Samus Aran is high on that list too... she's just awesome. The Prince from the Katamari games is pretty cool too.

9. Most hated good-character
I am taking this to mean protagonist. I was never very fond of Claude in Grand Theft Auto III, which might seem like a shocking pick based on my love of San Andreas.

10. Most Memorable Game
I rented Bubble Bobble once when I was kid... once. The theme song has been floating around my head since then. And there was an arcade game called Xain'd Sleena that I couldn't get enough of back then.

11. Least Memorable Game
There are a lot of Nintendo and Super Nintendo games that I know I played through, but for the life of me, I can't tell you anything about them.

12. Favorite segment of a game
You know when you are playing a game and you've encountered a challenging bit... and you have that moment where you have not yet beaten it, but you are at the point where a breakthrough has been made and you are going to finally beat it. That's elation right there.

13. Least favorite segment of a game
I hate grinding... hate it with a passion.

14. Most loved storyline
Well, I've always been partial to Final Fantasy II. San Andreas and Persona 3:FES rank highly as well.

15. Favorite secret/easter egg/cheat
Two of the classics: The Konami Code, and the warp pipes in Super Mario Brothers.

16. How many games you've think you've played in your life
With Arcade, PC and all the consoles I've had combined, it would easily top 1000.

17. How many games do you (think) you own?
I have around 600 games.

18. Favorite Weapon
Unreal Tournament's Redeemer.

19. Favorite spell/power
I love confusing/controlling enemies, so I tend to abuse those kinds of spells when they work.

20. Hardest boss you've ever beaten
This is a tough one, because I am sure there are some from my NES/SNES days which were brutal that I can't remember now. I beat a lot of games as a kid.

21. Easiest boss you've ever beaten
Oh, Bordin in Urban Reign. I mean, if you avoid getting shot, he goes down in 2-3 punches.

22. Favorite System
Playstation 2

23. Favorite gaming controller
Dual Shock 1/2

24. Best Level Design
There was an early level in the PS2 game Ghost Hunter which had you exploring an eerie mansion, which was just full of all this creepy imagery... and then there is a point where you encounter a painting which is a view of that same mansion... and to progress, you have to walk into it, and it is like walking into the past, while you can still see the room you were just in through it.

25. Console or PC
Console. You know that the game you are playing has at least been superficially tested and designed for that hardware in mind.

26. Scariest moment in gaming
Games don't really scare me. I get tense though. Though when I was a kid, the first time I saw the Giant Baby in Zombies Ate My Neighbors, I got freaked out.

27. Most suspenseful moment in gaming
I remember playing the original Driver, and there was a particular mission in Los Angeles where I ended up almost destroying the car I was driving, and then I had to drive all the way back home to my garage. The police also wanted to talk to me because of my wreckless driving, and if I got into a chase, well, I couldn't drive too fast with that busted up engine, and my car would most likely explode if I hit anything. So I drove that wreck as carefully as possible across the city, and I had to be careful not to be seen by the police. At one point, I ended up wedged into a small area between the sight lines of two cop cars, and I was fortunate that the one in front of me drove past before the one behind me saw my car. But I did make it back.

Tags: disgaea, god hand, urban reign, raiders of the lost ark, e.t., 2600, grand theft auto, san andreas, no more heroes, beat em ups, hack and slash, river city ransom, super dodge ball, unreal tournament, urban chaos, riot response, slime, dragon quest, final fantasy II, odin sphere, the end, metal gear solid 3, mizuchi, snk boss, driver, zombies ate my neighbors, ghost hunter, playstation 2, konami code, persona 3, fes

What do Arcade Fire and HTML5 have in common?

This week, a lot.

Today we’re excited to announce the band Arcade Fire’s new project “The Wilderness Downtown,” an interactive HTML5 music experience that is being showcased on Google’s Chrome Experiments site. The project was created by writer/director Chris Milk with Arcade Fire and Google.

We put everything except the proverbial kitchen sink into this project: It features HTML5 audio, video, and canvas, animated windows with JavaScript controllers, mash-ups with Google Maps and Street View APIs, and an interactive drawing tool. You can take a look at how all this works by viewing the source code.

Check out the project or learn more about the techniques used to make it happen at www.chromeexperiments.com/arcadefire.

We hope you enjoy it.

By George Michael Brower, Google Creative Lab

Sunday Video: Naked Dawn

I am surprised this isn't a real movie, given some of the other movies Rob Schneider has made. I mean, this seems up his alley.

Before you watch this video, be warned there is some bare male asses in it, so if your workplace frowns up on that sort of thing, you shouldn't watch this video.

Disclosure: I didn't hate Big Stan. There I said it.

Tags: big stan, rob schneider, naked dawn, funny or die, red dawn, parody, nudists, mena suvari, vinnie jones

A Change in the Sky

Yesterday from the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency Visibility Camera

Today from Dale Ireland's web cam

Notice that the sky has a very different look the past two days? Yes, there are clouds...but the clouds have a very different look...with the sky filled with cotton-ball, cumulus type clouds (see above two images). Some of the cumulus have grown into cumulonimbus with rain and lightning (see satellite picture below, particularly over the eastern Cascade slopes)


What has caused these changes? Destablization of the atmosphere. And what has caused that?--moving in of cool air aloft.

There really has been an amazing decline in the lower atmospheric temperatures this week. For example, at roughly 4000 ft...the height of Stevens Pass...the temperatures of the free atmosphere has declined 20F or more from the warm period of a few days ago. With the sun and surface heating still being relatively strong, and cool air moving in aloft, there develops a large change of temperature with height. This destablizes the atmosphere, producing convective mixing, like you see in a saucepan when you cook some oatmeal by turning on the burner.

Tomorrow will be like today, perhaps with more convection over the Cascades. And then things go downhill as a series of system move across the region. Looks like the coast and the southern half of western WA (and Oregon) will get seriously wet as the jet stream dives south of us. I would avoid hiking in the Oregon Cascades for a few days starting late tomorrow unless you are ready for wet stuff.

And keep in mind an important safety issue: the first real rain of the season often produces highly slippery conditions as all the oil that has accumulated during the summer emulsifies with the water. Nasty stuff.

In a future blog I will talk about the upcoming La Nina winter. Hint: this will be a better year to secure an annual ski pass.

Week 16: Pageant of the Transmundane

A woman refused to take 33 thousand pennies as a property tax payment. I have a feeling the people who were behind him who might have been there to pay their bill on their lunch hour would have had some words for him out in the parking lot if the clerk accepted that payment and subsequently counted it.

Or maybe that is just me.

Anyway, this week's winning entry comes to us from the blog Devilham's Attic.

It is just a picture of Gary Busey. Because Gary Busey is Transmundane all by himself, though the captioning is a massive part of this particular success.

And because this week's winning entry also has to do with babies and the concept of eating, well, Homer as a baby eating pizza.



Congrats Devilham. Here is your badge.



The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: devilham, gary busey, homer simpson, baby, pizza, pageant of the transmundane, evil, eating, pennies, property taxes, parking lot, beating, justified

Nike Maybe Making Self-Tying Shoes

Remember those sweet shoes everyone wore in 2015 Hill Valley in Back to the Future II? Well, Nike has just filed for a patent on that technology.

So we may have self-tying shoes in all of our near future.

Now if only we can somehow get Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactors and those home rehydrator machines on the market by 2015. That would be sweet.

And remember, there have been prototypes of the Hoverboard built too.

Luckily, we have not been subjected to Jaws 19-3D. Though, we are being currently subjected to Piranha 3D.

Well played, Back to the Future. Well played.

Tags: self-tying shoes, mr fusion, hoverboards, 2015, rehydrator, nike, jaws 19, piranha 3d, back to the future II

An update on JavaOne

Like many of you, every year we look forward to the workshops, conferences and events related to open source software. In our view, these are among the best ways we can engage the community, by sharing our experiences and learning from yours. So we’re sad to announce that we won't be able to present at JavaOne this year. We wish that we could, but Oracle’s recent lawsuit against Google and open source has made it impossible for us to freely share our thoughts about the future of Java and open source generally. This is a painful realization for us, as we've participated in every JavaOne since 2004, and I personally have spoken at all but the first in 1996.

We understand that this may disappoint and inconvenience many of you, but we look forward to presenting at other venues soon. We’re proud to participate in the open source Java community, and look forward to finding additional ways to engage and contribute.

By Joshua Bloch, Google Open Source Programs Office

Google Buzz API adds Track and some improvements

Let's say you're really interested in coffee and tea and would like to know every time someone talks about them. You've been able to do that for the web with Google Alerts. Now you will be able to do the same thing for Google Buzz with our latest feature: Track. Plus, you can restrict your search to a specific geographic area! This API will allow you to enter a search query and from then on receive any new public Google Buzz posts—in real time—that match that query. It uses PubSubHubbub, which is the same open standard used by our fire and garden hoses.

To start receiving updates, you only need to send a query to the track endpoint, subscribe to the returned link, and then start receiving updates. If you'd like to take it for a quick spin, simply subscribe to a track endpoint via Google Reader (which happens to support PubSubHubbub). For example, if you’d like to receive all the new public Google Buzz posts about coffee or tea, simply open Google Reader, click "Add a subscription," and paste in the following URL:

https://www.googleapis.com/buzz/v1/activities/track?q=coffee+OR+tea

Two of our firehose partners, Gnip and SuperFeedr are already using this feature. Gnip was able to add the feature into their API aggregation service with only a couple hours of work; their service update should be live early next week.

We’re excited to see what you develop with this cool new feature. Please note that it’s experimental and we may make changes in response to its use.

Additionally, we’ve been looking for ways to make the development experience with the Google Buzz API easier. One of the things we think we can improve upon are error messages. So, over the next couple weeks we’ll be rolling out significantly improved error messaging.

For example, if you tried to read an activity without including the activity id before today, you’d receive an HTTP error code and nothing else. Starting today, you’d also get a detailed error message returned in the body of the response:

<errors xmlns="http://schemas.google.com/g/2005">
<error>
 <domain>GData</domain>
 <code>required</code>
 <location type="parameter">postId</location>
 <internalReason>Post ID is required.</internalReason>
</error>
</errors>

The count API we announced back in mid-July has been returning the the number of times a specified link was shared on Google Buzz. We have started including short links (e.g. tinyurl.com/runningwithfins) in the count as well. Now you can specify the long link or any corresponding short link to get the total available count. This will give developers a much more complete count of links to a certain URL, however indirect.

Please visit the Google Buzz API documentation site for more details on these updates and swing by the Developer Forum if you have any questions.

By Ivaylo Popov, Google Buzz Team

Questioning these New Motion Control Schemes

You know, I've really been questioning the value of motion controlled games for a while now, but the issue came to a head for me after I started playing a game on the Wii that really didn't need to have motion controls to begin with, a game which was released outside of North America on other consoles without those controls.

Even though I am not wholly a current gen player, I must admit that my heart sank when it both Sony and Microsoft announced and demonstrated their own motion-based gaming schemes.

I mean, I get why they did it. The Wii is a hugely popular console, and Sony and Microsoft want a piece of that action, but it is an incredibly short-sighted move.

I liken this strategy to another set of decisions in another related industry. I am of course talking about the huge push by the Hollywood studios to make everything 3D.

I mean, 3D is great if from the moment the project started, that was how the film was being developed. But if the project was processed into 3D after principle photography had already taken place, well, the results are usually and predictably awful. Wii Sports/Resort are fun because they were designed for that control scheme from the ground up. There are other games which have been ported over to the Wii from the PS3/360 which are questionable at best because motion control has been laid upon them.

I've heard complaints from some of my peers that because of these new motion control schemes, developers who were working on DLC and new titles are now being told to develop versions of their existing games to work with these new control schemes, so instead of getting new content, the market is going to be loaded with duplicate works, which is also going to take shelf space away from new titles as well. So it is a mistake from that standpoint as well.

And of course, the other thing that people tend to overlook when discussing this matter is the quality of titles that actually come out on the Wii. Aside from the first party stuff Nintendo releases and a few titles from some of the other major publishing companies, the games to put it bluntly, suck. They are the very definition of shovelware.

People talk about E.T. being the thing that killed the Atari and led to the Great Video Game Crash, but that was only one of the factors. The other was the flood of low-cost, low quality games that glutted the market, something which the Wii has an abundance of.

You don't think that those same developers who are currently blighting the Wii with their wares aren't going to now start releasing those same substandard titles on these new platforms. And both Sony and Microsoft, who have invested heavily in this folly, are likely going to support these titles, despite the fact that they denigrate their system and in the long term, will end up costing their respective companies money in lost sales.

They want to appeal to casual gamers, but if someone's first few experiences with modern gaming are terrible, do you think they really going to want to stick around. And because consoles are being sold as a loss leader, they need people to buy first party games to make a profit.

Yes, they have higher standards than Nintendo these days, but if the choice is between having a few quality titles which use motion controls and a decent amount of mostly terrible choices, they will both likely choose the latter and let a few games through that they likely wouldn't let by if they were being designed with a more traditional control scheme in mind.

I think the most likely scenario is going to be that motion control on both the 360 and PS3 are going to be short lived fads, and in the end, there are going to be a lot of unhappy gamers out there who will feel suckered into buying the necessary equipment to play an exclusive, but found little use for it afterward, because Nintendo has this particular niche sewn up pretty tight.

I just think this is a strategy which will end in abject failure for Microsoft and Sony. But I guess I will have to watch the sales numbers when they come in starting next month for Sony and later in the year for Microsoft.

Tags: wii, nintendo, motion control, kinect, move, sony, playstation 3, xbox 360, shovelware, standards, niche, casual gaming, atari, game crash, et, no more heroes

Demystifying the app ranking criteria in orkut

Over the months, we’ve had many requests to explain the way we rank applications in the orkut directory. Developers often wonder why one of their very popular apps doesn’t appear as high up in the directory as they believe it should. Well, it’s not exactly magic but simple math, and we wanted to share with you how our algorithm works out the rankings.

As you’d expect, we rely heavily on stats that tell us not only the number of users who have installed your app but also the number of users who actively use it. The number of installations is further broken down into the number of weekly as well as total installs. We hope you’ll agree that counting the number of users who uninstall your app is also crucial, since that is an indication of which apps didn’t live up to user expectations in some way and could be improved, and we lower the ranking score by a few points to account for the weekly uninstalls.

However, it’s not enough to judge the popularity of an application by the number of its installations alone – how often it actually gets rendered is a definite index of how addictive, useful and well-designed it is, and you can surely expect us to feed those numbers back into the formula, too!

Besides these, we think apps that users find good enough to put up on their home page should be given some weight, thus the number of weekly renders of those apps in profile view figures into our calculations too. We then add one last parameter to this equation: a popularity index that is a function of the weekly renders of each app over the number of it’s total installations.

In short, the formula looks something like this:

Total Score = Base Score + Popularity Score

where

Base Score = Score (total installs) + Score (weekly installs, adjusted for weekly uninstalls) + Score (weekly renders in canvas and profile views)

and

Popularity Score = Score(weekly renders / total installs)

We hope this gives you a clue to the “mystery”. We look forward to hearing your comments and feedback on the forum!

By Prashant Tiwari and Tiago Silveira, orkut Team

Laissez Faire

Following having our dirty laundry aired on NPR, the Gans household has swiftly moved back to fundamentals in the allowance policy. No more arbitrary restraints on spending although the health tax remains.

This has led to a upkick in spending -- just at the time the US economy could use it -- and, for the most part, it is responsible.

I say, "for the most part," because the 6 year old has moved quickly to corner the Silly Bandz market. You can see the result to the left. It is an embarrassingly large number -- in fact, that's 222 elastic bands. We know this because the only thing one does with 222 elastic bands is count them. This, of course, moves it partly from frivolous purchase to educational one but there will be no subsidy forthcoming.

When I asked the 6 year old why she bought so many she claimed that so and so had more, "a Googol-plex" in fact. Suffice it to say, keeping up with the Jones is a losing cause. I pointed out that she would eventually run out of money and asked what would she do then. She said, "I'll just stop buying things." She has that right. That is a day I'm looking forward to.

Major Change

For the last few days the weather over the Northwest has been warm and sunny...nearly perfect for outdoor activities. The only negative of the warm, dry weather is fire..and if you look at this evening's visible satellite image you can see the smoke from two large fires over northern Oregon. Plus lots of low clouds along the coast, with a sliver entering the Strait of Juan de Fuca.


Here is a summary of the temperatures of the last 4 weeks versus the normal highs and lows. Pretty normal pattern, with periods of warmer and cooler than normal temps--average out the period, it all is close to normal. There is a good lesson in this--daily temperatures are rarely normal!

A major transition is now occurring and you can expect MUCH cooler weather and the return of some showers for the next 4-5 days. A weak front is now approaching the coast, and the thermal trough, which has been sitting over or just to the east of the western lowlands is rapidly moving eastward. The pressure gradient has turned onshore and cooler air will be moving in overnight. But this will not be like a strong marine push, the decline will be gradual overnight and the first half of Thursday. Here are the pressure patterns for today and tomorrow ... very different indeed.

Aloft the temperatures will be around 20F cooler tomorrow ... you will notice it.

And as the front moves through and the coastal winds turn westerly, a Puget Sound convergence zone will form. As a result the models are predicting a band of precipitation over central Puget Sound late tomorrow afternoon and into the evening (see graphic). Lets see if they are right!

Finally, there have been some ultra-high temps over the inland portions of California, with the warmth extending into Oregon (see graphic). Over 105F in the central valley and over 110F over the SE part of the state. And I might note that nearby Medford, Oregon got to 105F and Redmond, OR a hot 100F! In contrast, the NE U.S. is now cool, with temps in the 70s.

Midweek Video: Frozen Crossing

A few weeks ago, there was a flurry of attention for a video called Time Crisis -Ft Andy Whitfield. I watched a lot of other videos by that same production crew, most of which are awesome action scenes, and I found a hidden gem which I think deserves some more attention.

This crew put together a two part live action Call of Duty inspired mini-movie called Frozen Crossing, and it is totally pro. It is awesome work, and I just wonder what kind of budget they are working with.

The second part is here.

Tags: freddie wong, frozen crossing, time crisis, andy whitfield, call of duty

Color Me Disgusted

There is going to be a sequel to The Human Centipede?

Why, why would anyone do such a thing?

Just the idea of the first one is enough to give me a full body shudder, and now someone is making another one.

I've just looked at the box office for it, and I don't know where they are getting the money for the sequel either.

Frankly, I think I would be more interested in a movie based on the old arcade game Centipede than anything in this now movie series.

Wow. Even I have standards. Who knew?

Disclosure: I worked on a screenplay about a giant centipede killing people in the woods, so I may be also having some professional envy.

Tags: human centipede, disgusted, centipede, atari, horror, professional envy

Trailer Scoffing: Devil

I've been reading stories about a particular set of incidents that have been happening at movie theatres in the past couple of weeks (and I suspect in living rooms now too).

It seems that people have been rather intrigued by the trailer for Devil when they first see it... but that soon turns to derision and laughter the moment the name M. Night Shyamalan is revealed. And the kicker is, he didn't even direct the movie, but merely wrote the story it is based upon.

So yeah, Shyamalan is now both a punchline and potentially box office poison. Given some of the stories floating around out there about him, some of this seems fitting.

Then again, I remember back in 2006, I had read an anecdote about the showing of the trailer for Apocalypto, and the audience was really into it. And then Mel Gibson's name appeared and there was a collective groan of disappointment. That movie still made quite a bit of money.

Let's face it, though, if Mel Gibson was trying to open that movie today, I don't think it would have been so much a groan as booing when his name came up.

I wonder if MNS can redeem his own name at some point or if he will now forever be the stuff of derision.

Tags: devil, mel gibson, m night shyamalan, apocalypto, twist, last airbender

Some allowance tools

The NPR podcast has brought forth a number of online tools to assist in allowance setting and management.

• FamZoo: this site allows you to set up virtual accounts -- which can have real world mirrors -- and offers tools to teach your kids about saving and interest. 
• ThreeJars: this also allows you to set up virtual accounts (with real world mirrors). It looks a little less economically sophisticated with FamZoo but then again it offers some other tools to think about allowances. For instance, there is this tool (discussed here) that tries to help you answer the question "well, in my day ..." by adjusting your allowance for inflation. In my case, my children are getting too low an allowance relative to that benchmark.
• PayJr: this one has similar management tools but also a Visa card for teenagers.
• SmartyPig: again allows online management but also seems to use social networks to foster goal keeping habits. I guess that makes it more for older kids although the design seems targeted at younger ones.
• NetworthIQ: you might be thinking, hey, maybe I could use some online tools like these. It turns out that this site, featured in the NYT Magazine can do just that.

There are also a few iPhone and iPad apps that can help too including Kids Allowance and Rewards, iRewardChart, and BeGood.

Of course, you can just use Google Docs as this post suggests. I haven't really tried any of these but if anyone has, feel free to leave your impressions in the comments.

Warm Water in the Cool Northwest

Want to swim in relatively warm water while staying in the Northwest?

Hit the surf while avoiding that expensive trip to Hawaii?

Its possible. Just like our weather features, local water temperatures also have some interesting variations.

For example, check out the average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) for the last three days for our area:

The warmest temperatures...in the mid 60s!...are found in the inland waters between Vancouver Island and the mainland. Along the Pacific coast the coolest water temperatures are right near the coast, and temperatures warm considerable (into the 60s!) offshore. So cancel that trip to Hawaii...warm water is just a short boat ride away.
Here is a view father down the coast...again, cool water right along the shore and warmer water offshore. You got to go south of Santa Barbara before the coastal sea surface temps become swimable.


So what is going on? A conspiracy against swimming on the Pacific beaches? And why are the inland BC waters so warm?

The reason behind the cool coastal temps is well known...upwelling. During the summer northerly winds dominate along the west coast as the east Pacific anticyclone (high pressure area) strengthens. These winds put a force on the water towards the south. But something else is going on. The turning of the earth produces a Coriolis Force to the right of motion, which in this case creates an offshore (westerly) component to the surface water. Well, if water is moving away from the surface near the coast, some other water has to take its place...water from below. This water is cooler than the surface waters and thus this upward motion (upwelling) causes cooling within tens of km of the coastline. (see my book for a more detailed explanation). The offshore warm water is why many fisherman head west to catch warm-water species (like albacore tuna).

Loads of tuna offshore of the Washington Coast.

Picture courtesy of Ocean Charters in Westport

Coastal BC waters have limited input from the Pacific, are relatively shallow, and get fed by a number rivers, whose waters are relatively warm. That is why many BC people don't feel the need to go to Hawaii. I have been to Hawaii a few times and have never met anyone from BC there, which proves my point.

Relatively warm water is found in some of the large Puget Sound lakes. Take Lake Washington. After a warmer summer period the surface temperature can get into the low 70s. But beware, very cold water is below. Want to see proof? Here are some vertical distributions of temperature (black line) and other parameters from a buoy on Lake Washington. Warm near the surface (20C is 68F) , but head down more than 10 meters (roughly 30 ft) and it gets very cold, very fast.


Of course, high mountain lakes (like Lake Diablo in the N. Cascades) can be much cooler, some in the 40sF. Not good for swimming.

So I hope I have convinced all of you that there is no need to go to Hawaii to enjoy temperate waters. You can send me all the airline tickets to that destination that you won't be using.

Random Thoughts Redux

-Never in my entire life have I seen anyone buy a single thing from an olive bar at a supermarket. Not once. And yet, they are ubiquitous. Honestly, has anyone aside from the companies that manufacture those carts actually made money from the olive bar? Are they there just for the ambience?

-Was I the only one to see some weird subtext with the hiring Asian actor George Takei as the spokesman for Sharp Electronics' new tv's with an additional yellow color component? Or am I really over thinking this? Don't get me wrong... George Takei is awesome and everything, I just thought there may have been something else going on there.

-Pinups with Robert Downey Jr's face: If I hadn't discovered it this weekend and someone had blogged about it, we'd be looking at an easy contender for this week's Pageant of the Transmundane.

-I so want this as a print. I mean, Princess Peach actually looks like Uma Thurman. Awesome.

Tags: kill bill, super mario brothers, robert downey jr, pinups, sharp, george takei, olive bar, scam

A quick rant on school supplies

OK, I have just spent an hour in Staples armed with a 5th and 7th grade school supply list. I figured that since Staples rakes it in at 'back to school' time that they would find an organised way in which to take our money. But no. Despite it surely being the case that everyone is coming in with much the same list, the whole organisation of the place was just as it always was and I had to search high and low for the few graphed paper spiraled notebooks that there were. Sure there were some displays with some of the stuff but that was not what I needed. I needed organisational sense and marketing saavy.

If you are in a local area, surely they could contact the school district and have collected some boxes with all of the supplies needed and then charged us for them. It must be easier than the search we had to go through. I'd also have been happy for a web site where I could have simply sent through our lists of needs and bought the lot. The Staples website, for one, seemed so unsuitable for this that I figured going to the store was better. Sounds like I got that wrong.

I'd be very happy for anyone to report and advertise common sense approaches that they have heard of in the comments.

Sunday Video: Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury

I debated whether to post this video or not, because frankly, that title, wow. But in the end, the sheer geekish obsession displayed in this song by Rachel Bloom won me over. Of course, I think it is safe to say this may not

I got some hearty laughs while watching this.

And the news is that Ray Bradbury actually saw this video and liked it:

According to Youtube user sgerbic, they just showed "Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury" to RAY BRADBURY HIMSELF AND HE LOVED IT!!!!!

Happy 90th Birthday Mr. Bradbury.

Tags: rachel bloom, ray bradbury, parody, humor, britney spears, illustrated man, something wicked this way comes, martian chronicles

Sunday AM

A brief note---here is the visible sat picture and the latest radar....as predicted by the models a convergence zone has set up, plus clouds/precipitation on the western mountain slopes. SUN is available even on the west side...for example, south of Tacoma there is bright sun right now. Or head east of the crest...get past Easton on I90 and you are out.

It's BACK!

Rain that is...

During most years there is a weather event during the third week of August that is the harbinger of the fall, when it becomes clear that the summer dry spell is over and cooler temperatures are coming.

Yes, it can still be nice, and often Septembers have spectacular periods around here, but it is not the same.

I am sitting in my home right now, listening to an unaccustomed sound....rain pattering on the roof. Take a look at the latest radar image:


Showers develop over the Olympics during the past few hours and then drifted into central Puget Sound. Its also raining on the north coast, but there isn't any radar coverage to show it (that will change next September!).

A remarkable point about this rain was that the high-resolution numerical models were predicting it well ahead of time--both the start over the Olympics and spreading downstream over central Puget Sound (see graphics). Here are the simulations from Saturday morning showing 3-h rainfall ending 5 and 8 PM:


Tomorrow, the UW WRF model is going for a convergence zone over central Puget Sound and some showers over the mountains (see graphic). The NWS models are doing pretty much the same thing.


Want to be dry? Go north or south of the convergence zone and avoid the western slopes of the Olympics and Cascades. A hike on the eastern slopes of the Cascades will be fine.

Major improvements in store for Monday and Tuesday and things go downhill on Thursday. Guess who planned on outdoor party that night? The weather gods clearly like to keep meteorologists in our place....

Week 15: Pageant of the Transmundane

A bank robber was arrested this week after he wrote a newspaper that wrote about his crime and berated them for getting details wrong. The police quickly arrested him after they looked at the personal information it contained. There is one word that describes this individual: dumbass.

Anyway, this week's winning entry comes to us from Semaj's Blog Your Blog.

On Thursday, he found and posted a ridiculous ad for the Snuggie featuring a takeoff of the Macarena. And seriously, what the hell was up with the Snuggie centerfold. That was bizarre, and that was the moment that put it over the top.

And because this week's winning entry has to do with long, flowing robe-like warming devices, I thought that Homer as a Movementarian, in similar garb, would be most appropriate.



Congrats James. Here is your badge.




The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Tags: homer simpson, pageant of the transmundane, semaj's blog your blog, snuggie, macarena, ridiculous, centerfold, bank robber, email

NPR and Potty Training

Half of the NPR Planet Money podcast was on potty training and its challenges -- particularly for an economist.  That was the subject of the very first post on this blog back in 2003. In celebration of all of that, I thought it would be good to post the entire chapter from (the Australian version) of Parentonomics on the subject.

NPR's Planet Money Podcast

Last week, Child No.1 and I recorded an interview with Chana Joffe-Walt for NPR. You can download and listen to the result on the Planet Money podcast. The topic for the interview was supposed to be the economics of allowances but it steered more broadly.

Before I get on to the economics of allowances, I have to just say how proud I was of Child No.1's (now known as 'B's') performance. We were in a hot small studio for 90 minutes with the interviewer in another city. Nonetheless, she rose to the challenge of communicating the complexities of our household to a global audience including speaking in American rather than Australian (although you can see, she hasn't lost her accent).

Child No.1 would also like to make it clear that she is not buying any dresses and will resist all efforts to have her wear one. There was some ambiguity in the interview but she would like it to be known that that all has to do with higher little sister.

In preparation for the interview I put some thoughts on the economics of allowances into an email and I thought I'd just share that here:

There are two main economic motives for allowances: (i) giving children incentives to work hard and/or (ii) giving children incentives to purchase well. In each case, the parenting goal is supposed to be generating good habits and experience so that 'cash doesn't become king.'

The idea that allowances are a form of payment for effort is fraught with difficulty. Basically, if I say to a child you will get your allowance if you take out the garbage each week (without being nagged), the child may want to broker a fee for any household chore. When it comes down to it, most parents think the child is part of the household and when they can they should contribute without some extended negotiation and possible legal claims based on precedent. That doesn't mean you can't use payments to get something extra but my guess it is better to have an independent bonus system than having that as part of a regular wage.

The other motive for allowances -- getting children to purchase well -- makes more direct sense. The idea is that a budget constraint can teach kids the 'value of money' or to translate it into another form -- it can allow parents to say 'no' to stuff more credibly. 'No you can't have those silly bandz. If you want them, you should use your own money.'

But here is the difficult part with that -- it works well in theory but what happens when your child wants to buyer what for want of a better word you consider 'crap.' The idea of giving them a budget of course is for them to make crappy decision so that they learn from their mistakes. You just have to grit your teeth and let it happen. The problem is that it may be that they want to spend their hard saved pocket money on special treats. So you think it is crap but they don't. That's a tougher issue and it is the one Tim Harford grappled with.

Here is how I dealt with the issue with our eldest daughter. She could purchase sweets but every time she did so, I would impose a health tax to compensate us for the additional expected health costs this behaviour would cause. The tax as a pretty hefty 100% of the sweet purchase price. My ever frugal daughter decided that was too much and figured that she would wait until she left home and enjoy the full benefits of the likely sizable fortune she would accumulate by that time.

That all leads me to another thing I have been thinking about and comes out nicely with allowances: how much should parents use behavioural economics to guide them (i.e., Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge)? For instance, you can get your child to save their allowance rather than spending it but not giving them cash but doing transfers to their bank accounts. They don't spend because it is 'out of sight, out of mind.' Another thing you might do is a create a friction. The kids wants to buy X on impulse at the store and you say, well, not now but if the next time we are here you ask again then you can buy it. That quashes the impulse and more often than not, they forget.

It seems like that would work but in some respects is killing the whole point of providing a budget for the purpose of learning about the value of money. You actually want to set them up for mistakes. That way, when they make them, it is off small amounts of accumulated savings. If you nudge towards saving, then they have a ton of money and when they make a mistake it is a big one. That strikes me as problematic.

Anyhow, it is a great issue and a big one for parents. I haven't even got to the amount of the allowance. We do $1 times their age per week but that is just poetic. Others eventually use some benchmarking. I suspect that I would want our kids to suffer a little from a low amount and then use evidence to negotiate a higher allowance. At the moment, with all of their money transferred directly to savings they haven't thought to do that. But it will come.

Adventures in Nostalgia: Fun Dip/Lik-m-Aid

I've thinking lately about the things I enjoyed as a child, and I've been wondering how they've held up, and if I can still like them as an adult.

So in a series of recurring posts, I am going to go back and look at some of the things that I loved as a child/teen and see if they've held their appeal.

I thought it would be nice to start with something most kids love: candy.

Unfortunately, most of the candy that I ate as a child I've had as an adult, so there was no great shock when I kept rediscovering them every few years.

However, there was one confection which I haven't had in about 15-20 years, and that is Wonka's Lik-m-Aid, which is also known as Fun Dip (pictured below).



I ran across some of them when I was at a dollar store recently, and I thought it would be an interesting experiment to document what happened when ate it again.

And last night, I documented my experience eating it.

First 10 seconds: That is a nice intense flavor. It is like someone took some pixie dust and smashed some Sweettarts into it.

30 seconds: That is a strong cherry flavor. Is this what is it like to eat ready to mix Koolaid from a packet?

45 seconds: I think I can actually feel my teeth rotting.

75 seconds: Should my tongue be hurting? Is this too much flavor?

100 seconds: Yeah, this isn't good. It feels like I've been licking sandpaper for a few minutes now.

180 seconds: Oh good, now I can't feel my tongue. Wait, yes I can. Ow.

300 seconds: OK, I have to stop now. It is official. The Fun Dip has beaten me.

Looking at the remaining powder, I can tell I haven't even made a dent in either flavor, and with my tongue feeling like steel wool, I don't plan on finishing this treat. So I would say that no, the Fun Dip is no longer fun.

In retrospect, I don't know what I ever saw in this candy. I know I was hyper and everything, but surely there were better ways of getting sugar.

Tags: adventures in nostalgia, fun dip, lik-m-aid, wonka, candy, recurring feature, tongue, burn

The Big Question

I have repeatedly gotten asked one question--including tonight--so let me answer it for all.

Why is the warmest period of the year in early August, when the sun is strongest on June 21st? How could that be?

Or a similar question: Why are the highest daily temperatures in summer around 5 PM when the sun is strongest at 1 PM (PDT)?
The temperatures should be highest when the sun is the strongest, right?Nope...that isn't correct.

The temperature of the earth depends primarily on two things. The amount of radiation coming IN and the amount of radiation going OUT. Everyone is familiar with what is coming in--radiation from the sun. Nighttime, no solar warming. During the day, the sun's radiation peaks at solar noon (12 PM PST, 1 PM PDT).But there is ALSO radiation going out. That is INFRARED radiation. The earth (and even you) emit infrared radiation. The warmer you are, the more infrared radiation you emit. (no jokes about "hot dates" please). This radiation is going on 24-h a day.

Whether the earth warms up or cools down depends on the sum of what is coming in and what is going out. More coming in than going out...the earth warms. More going out than coming in..the earth cools.

Consider the figure below for the daily situation (standard time). The curve with the yellow fill shows the solar radiation--which of course goes from zero at sunrise and sunset to a maximum at noon. The blue shows the infrared outgoing radiation, which varies as temperature changes. The red line is the temperature. You will notice for a period after noon, the incoming is still greater than the outgoing and thus the air temperature warms. Temperature rises until the outgoing equals the incoming...that is the time of maximum temperature--sometime in the afternoon. (Remember that the amount of infrared radiation depends on temperature, so it is greatest when temperature is highest).
Interestingly the minimum temperature each day often occurs AFTER the sun rises, because it takes a while for the incoming solar warming to exceed the outgoing infrared cooling (see figure).

The same idea works with the annual temperature variation. Yes, the sun is strongest on June 21st, but for a period of time the solar radiation is greater than the outgoing radiation. The crossover is in early August.

And there is something else that influences the time lag between maximum heating and surface temperature..the thermal inertia or heat capacity of the planet: the surface...and particularly water...takes a while to heat up during the summer. Over land, the thermal inertia is relatively small, while for water the thermal inertia is very large. Shallow bodies of water heat up more rapidly than the deep oceans.

Another way to think of all this is to consider you bank account. As long as more money is being deposited than being taken out, your bank balance will increase...even if your deposits are falling off!

Or your bathtub...as long as more water is coming in than draining out, the water level rises.

Makes sense?...let me know if I have confused things even more!

Spencer Pratt Writing A Book, Society Yawns

Spencer Pratt is writing a tell-all book about Heidi Montag. I am wondering if I should put the word writing in quotation marks because we all know that you don't write with a crayon, you print.

Now, I am going to save those of you who might buy this book some money and tell you exactly what Spencer Pratt is going to say.

He is going to call Heidi Montag stupid, slutty and a bitch. He is also going to regale the world that cares about his supposedly fabulous stories about The Hills and I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here before devoting a chapter to Heidi's plastic surgery.

I am willing to bet money that I just outline that entire book in those two sentences. The sad part is, someone will actually have to read it to tell me if I am right.

I don't like Heidi Montag at all, but after seeing that douche once, it is clear who I would have to side with in this entirely inconsequential battle, and I basically want him to never make another dime from his celebrity. Is that so wrong?



Though, if someone could convince Vinnie Jones to beat him up on a weekly basis and film it, I would pay a vast sum of money for that. I am sure more people would pay for that than will for this book.

And I think that post is going to be the first and last time I ever discuss this individual. Well, maybe he gets a mention on an enemies list post, but not likely.

Tags: spencer pratt, heidi montag, vinnie jones, epic beatdown, book, punch, kick, smack, video, attack cardio