The Neo-Paleo Gourmet

Dear Sir - Take Three

To the Editor at the Economist:

SIR - Of the many reasons that America is beginning to rein in its oil
consumption, one was notably absent from your list: fear that we might
run out of the stuff.  It brings to mind the saying of Sheik Ahmed
Zaki Yamani, Saudi oil minister of the 1970's: "The Stone Age did not
end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world
runs out of oil."  We might also add, "And not for fear of running
out".

John Durant
New York, NY

The highest return investment available

"[A]n extensive body of research conducted at the World Bank and elsewhere has convinced me that once its benefits are recognized, investment in girls' education may well be the highest return investment available in the developing world."

That's Larry Summers, circa 1994.

The convergence of Mind and Body

Riding a stationary bike is boring, but gives you a workout.  Video games are engaging, but makes you obese.  We're starting to see them converge.

From the video game side, the Nintendo Wii is holding its own against Playstation 3 and XBox 360.  Here are some more innovative examples.

From the exercise side, more gyms are starting to install stationary bikes with video game monitors where you go your actual speed, and compete against other riders.  This causes people to (1) ride faster, because they're competing, and (2) be more willing to go to the gym, because it's not so damn boring.

Most people's workout routines are cognitively sterile.  Here are a few ways to make it more engaging:

1. Work out with other people
2. Compete against others, (or yourself, by times or weights)
3. Exercise outside
4. Increase the variability of your exercises
5. Shorten your workouts (but compensate with higher intensity)
6. Add (a little) danger to your workout (headstands, rock climbing, etc.)
7. Play video games that simulate these qualities

The hunt was physically and mentally demanding.  As was battle.  A quality we need to regain.

Tuesday

8:30am:
- A grapefruit, some almonds

1:45pm:
- Left-over porkchop
- red grapes, a Macintosh apple, celery, almonds

6:16pm:
- Half a porkchop
- Red grapes, almonds

7:00pm: CrossFit workout

8:30pm: Volleyball league

11:00pm:
- Medium salad of greens, cucumbers, red pepper, and celery w/ oil & vinegar
- Two fried eggs
- A few almonds, half a dozen olives

Moneyball follow-up

From the Michael Lewis interview posted below comes "An Economic Evaluation of the Moneyball Hypothesis", an economic paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.  From the abstract:

"Consistent with Lewis's story and economic reasoning, as knowledge of the inefficiency became increasingly dispersed across baseball teams the market corrected the original mispricing."

As "On Base Percentage" has become efficiently priced, Moneyball teams (Oakland, Boston, Cleveland, Toronto I think, many others)  have had to find inefficiencies elsewhere.

If you look at Oakland, they've gone after defense.  As Lewis discusses in the interview, defense is a much more difficult ability to measure.  Any stat based on errors doesn't cut it, since the best way to avoid getting an error is not to even reach the ball.  Slow players look better than fast, aggressive players.  So teams are developing proprietary systems to evaluate defensive ability, and then bargain hunting come draft time.

But in the long run, small market teams are doomed.

More on indexing

It's nice when you beat the WSJ to the punch.  Great article today on the proliferation of index funds. 

On features of a good index:

"Yet many financial advisers and industry experts fear that the alternative index funds sacrifice many of the traditional benefits of indexing, including low cost, broad diversification and simplicity."

On fees:

"Fees are also an issue. Many offerings from WisdomTree and PowerShares Capital Management, another major seller of alternative index funds, charge expenses of roughly 0.5% to 0.6% of assets. While that makes them cheaper than many actively managed mutual funds, they are more expensive than some traditional index funds, such as those offered by Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments, which charge as little as 0.1% to 0.2%."

On performance:

""Investors should not just buy into [alternative index funds] thinking they're getting the passive replication and low costs and longer-term outperformance of indexes," says Srikant Dash, an index strategist at Standard & Poor's, who has developed both market-cap-weighted indexes and newer alternative indexes.""

When growing older doesn't bring you closer to death

You life expectancy will sometimes increase as you age, all things equal.

For example, average life expectancy at birth is calculated to include all infant deaths.  Once you survive infancy, your average life expectancy jumps.  This is because risk is not spread evenly across ages.  Modern medicine has smoothed out many of the discontinuities, but they still exist. 

Among hunter-gatherers there have always been many examples of very old people...it's just that life was so risky, they frequently got injured just trying to survive, and wounds would lead to infection and death.  And don't forget murder, which according to anthropological accounts of modern hunter-gatherers, was much more prevalent than in modern societies. 

So next time you go to bed, consider that you might have more days ahead of you than when you woke up that morning.  A very encouraging thought, even if it is mostly true for infants, 18-24 year old males, and folks in their 60's and 70's.

On a related note, being the world's oldest person seems to be very bad luck:
World’s oldest person dies for the second time in two weeks

Another battle scar from the homefront

Wustof knives are sharp -- I didn't feel a thing.  Not to worry, it was a re-growable part of my thumb.  Lots of blood, but nothing a little toilet paper, neosporin, and duct tape can't fix.

10:15am: A grapefruit, mixed nuts

1:00pm: 8 piece eel sushi (brown rice), seaweed salad

6:45pm: Volleyball match

8:00pm: CrossFit

10:25pm: The Wustof Incident, cutting mushrooms

10:45pm: Red grapes...salad with some leafy green, a whole avocado, celery, mushrooms, and a bit of thumb dressed with oil and vinegar....pork chop with broccolli, shallots, and red hot peppers...a glass of wine

Frank Miller's 300 and CrossFit

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                          "300" hits theaters on March 9.

I recently learned that all the actors playing the Spartan warriors trained on a CrossFit program.

See a video about their training (i.e., CrossFit training) here.   It's also on the official site under "Making of 300", "Video Journals", "3. Spartan Training".

See the movie trailers here

Sunday

1:30pm: Three egg omellette with lots of sauteed spinach, red peppers, mushrooms, and shallots...a grapefruit

3:00pm: A few almonds

7:15pm: Cucumber salad with red peppers, snap peas, and mushrooms, with balsamic vinegar drizzled on top, some pepper....almonds....a bunch of brocolli

9:30pm: An orange