Thursday, December 31, 2009

Lincoln Brent Lorimer

Heather and the baby came home. Before coming home we filled out the birth certificate paperwork, so he officially has a name. Lincoln Brent Lorimer. Lincoln because we like it. Brent after Brent, and Lorimer just comes with the territory.



Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Just for Ryan....

1991 was a good year for Mazda fans. It is the year a rotary won the 24 hours of Le Mans. Mazda beat out the likes of Mercedes and Jaguar with the 787B. I would go on, but Mazda produced a screaming banshee that says it a lot better (and louder) than I possibly could.



Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Now we just need a name to go with the baby....

Heather had the baby today at 11:44 AM. He was 19" long and 7 lbs 12 oz. We still don't have a name for him though.....



Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Happy Joseph Smith Jr. Birthday!




Here is the official LDS Joseph Smith site.

Here is Wikipedia
.
Here is my favorite picture of the Prophet.

Here is my favorite passage of revelation from Brother Joseph:

Doctrine and Covenants 121: 45-46
Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distill upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.

The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Other News





We now interrupt your regularly scheduled post about stuff I am interested in and nobody else is to bring you news of other stuff I am interested in that (probably) nobody else is:

Magnus Carlsen will be the number 1 rated chess player in the world when FIDE publishes their next Elo ratings list. Full report here.

A few questions you might ask:

Q: Why is this significant?
A: Magnus is only 19, by far the youngest to be ranked #1. He is also not Russian, another oddity in the world of chess. He's from Norway.

Q: If he is the number 1 player, why are Veselin Topalov (Boo! Hiss!) and Vishy Anand (Yay! Go Vishy!) playing for the World Championship next year?
A: Because Topalov earned the right to play for the world championship last year prior to Magnus becoming the best player. In chess, the only way to become "world champion" is to defeat the current world champion.

Q: I thought Garry Kasparov was the world champ.
A: You probably also think that Jack Nicklaus is the world's best golfer. Anand beat Vladimir Kramnik in 2007, Kramnik beat Kasparov in 2000. FYI, Kasparov beat Karpov in 1985, Karpov won by default in 1975 when Bobby Fischer went nuts, and Fisher beat Boris Spassky in 1972.

Q: Wait a minute, how do we know Magnus is the best player?
A: Chess uses an Elo rating system to rank the relative strength of players. I am interested in this because the underlying statistical model is very similar to the models that I use to model peoples' preferences in my academic work. Basically, the model uses your performance against other players to calculate how good you are. If you beat another player rated higher (lower) than you, your rating goes up (down) a lot. Beating an inferior opponent won't raise your rating much, if any. The nice thing about the model is that it is completely objective and updated monthly. Magnus' Elo will be 2810. You need to be about 2500 to be a grandmaster. My rating is about 1680. A complete novice is 1200.

Q: Is there anything else you'd like to tell us?
A: Yes. Aside from the Elo ratings, the chess world is completely dysfunctional. Because the only way to become world champion is to beat the world champion, the only way to lose the world championship is to get beaten. Thus, champions have the incentive to avoid playing except under favorable circumstances. There are no universally recognized organizing authorities, so players tend to break away and form new organizations continually. Sometimes years go by without world championship matches.

Imagine if the only way for the Lakers to lose their crown as world champions was to have a team beat them in a 7 game series. Then imagine that the Lakers did not recognize the NBA's authority to organize a playoff to determine a team to play them. Further imagine that the Lakers decide that they will only play on their home court, etc. etc. You get the idea.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Preference Ordering: Jolly Rancher Flavors

1. Apple
2. Watermelon
3. Blue Raspberry
4. Cherry

Not worth eating:

5. Grape (Apologies to Eric. Grape soda is good but not grape Jolly Ranchers)
6. Strawberry

I remember Cinnamon Fire from when I was a kid, but I haven't seen those for ages.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Punishment



Once, I got busted doing something crazy and the judge sentenced me to spend 36 hours in a Chick-fil-a parking lot.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Monday, December 7, 2009

November Happenings



November has been a busy month for the North Carolina Bosworths.

On the 8th and 9th we took a trip to Wilmington. We went to the USS North Carolina, Fort Fisher, and the beach.

On the 22 and 23, I went to the Southern Economic Association Conference in San Antonio where I presented a paper on class size, class composition, and student attainment. I also went to the Alamo and met one of my man-crushes.

On the 30th, I went to VIR for a day of driving fast (tempered somewhat by the rainy conditions) with a member of my stake presidency and a group of friends from my other religious organization. Below is some footage with a familiar white car in it.

Just because