tofias dot net

When to leave the stadium is the new standing ovation problem. Pass it on.

Atul Gawande on complexity in medicine and healthcare.

Via Give Me Something to Read.

Robert Frank on “expenditure cascades” and running to stand still in the market for education for which, more often than not, the price is a house:

That cascade has raised the cost to poor and middle-income families of maintaining their places in the educational hierarchy. A good school, again, is one that compares favorably with other schools. To gain access to such a school, a family must bid for a house in the neighborhood that surrounds it, and that’s what has gotten more expensive. For example, in 2007 the median new house built in the United States had almost 50 percent more floor space than the corresponding house in 1980, notwithstanding the fact that median real household income had risen little during the intervening years. People could have abstained from trying to keep up with the housing expenditures of their peers, but that would have meant sending their children to worse schools than before.

Implicitly then families felt pressure to purchase expensive mortgages that they might not be able to afford in order to send their children to good suburban schools. Perhaps part of the the case against federalism? Link via MR.

Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolution provides the most clear explanation I have seen of how financial markets tried and failed to manage risk.

It’s a search problem:

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi searches for votes and the WH hunts for compromises on health care reform, party strategists on both sides remain convinced that a legislative overhaul will pass.

From NPR:

Tomatoes are certainly nutritious — a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But consider this: if you eat a tomato without adding a little fat — say a drizzle of olive oil — your body is unlikely to absorb all these nutrients.

It’s all about food cultures. Sadly, I like too many of them.