Because I Can

Bryan Caplan is a proud subscriber to satellite radio, and has a few things to say about the merger. My intentions are not to talk about the public choice and benefits for consumers, though; rather I want to talk about why nobody wants to waste their money on that crap.

Caplan states in his post, in the parentheses:

I pre-paid XM for five years, and I get nervous every time I poll my undergrads and find that none of them subscribe.

Now why could this be? Actually, there are about a billion reasons for this, but here are the easiest ones.

1. Undergraduate college students gain more utility from normal radio stations than Caplan. A large part of this has to do with Caplan's taste for classical music, which is not popular among younger people, generally.
   
   
2. Undergraduate college students have lower levels of income, so the trade-off is much higher than it is for Caplan. This kinda goes with #1, but still.
   
   
3. Nobody listens to radio by itself. The radio is something that people listen to while multitasking, rather than just sitting there and listening. It's one thing to listen to the radio at work, but who watches ESPN while they're on the job? People listen to morning radio more than anything, because that's what wakes them up on their clock radios, it's what they listen to in their cars, etc, and a huge part of that is the news and traffic reports.
   
   
4. There is nothing special about listening to the radio at all. Back when the radio aired dramas, etc just like television shows, everyone gathered around and listened. At the time, there were three TV channels. But most of what is on the radio is music or talk shows. Of that music, very little of it is live or exclusive; rather, most of it is readily available for purchase at your local record store, or on iTunes, or you can download it legally, or illegally. Radio is basically what life would be like if all TV channels were like TBS (without the Braves games) and TV-Land. While it provides a variety, this can be overcome by getting an iPod and finding some way to hook it up to your car. Or in your office.
   
   Even the sports content on satellite radio isn't that special. You can sit at your computer and get it just as easily.

But that's my take on the whole thing. Even if I had the money for such a thing, I'd prefer the one-time fixed-cost iPod to the variable cost satellite radio.

Labels: Economic Stuff, Other News Items

Tim Hardaway, who obviously doesn't care what people think, decided to say this:

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said. "I don't
like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I
don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

He's retired, so he doesn't care about anything. What makes this particularly amusing is that on Pardon The Interruption on ESPN, Charles Barkley said that he has gay friends and played with a couple of gay guys. If you get more public outrage than Charles Barkley, then that's something to stare at.

But I have no idea why Hardaway said that, or for that matter felt that. I mean, that's pretty harsh to say you wouldn't want the guy as a teammate, just because he went 1 for 13 from behind the arc and never played for the Rockets after he was traded to them for Glen Rice. He made an apology, and for once someone actually cares that it's not a genuine apology because he didn't apologize for how he felt, just what he said.

Hope Hardaway didn't blow all his money, because he'll have a hard time getting endorsements now.

Labels: NBA, Other News Items

It occurred to me that people may forget just how awful this year's superbowl commercials were. The chest-hair ripping, suicidal robot, and old Coke commercials were utterly worthless, and those who spent their time, stayed at the office late, wasted part of their lives putting them together. Madison Avenue should be kicking their own asses when a user-generated commercial beats their stuff out, except for the Fed Ex and the Bud Lite commercials.

I want to challenge everyone to remember this next year. Advertisers should be given an oppurtunity to recant. In the event that they do so, and the commercials are decent, then pardon them, and do what you usually do. If another series of commercial breaks matches last year's superbowl, then screw the commercials. If any of them are actually any good you can check them out on YouTube anyway (I don't think any advertiser will complain that people are watching their copyrighted commercials). Then nothing bad will happen.

In the event, however, that the commercials are as bad or worse, then it is time to realize that just like any other commericials, Superbowl commercials are useless and should just be skipped. Flip through the channels instead. If you're not a football fan, then you have 4 hours of your life back on a Sunday night. But you'll probably waste it, by reading this blog, or watching good commercials on youtube.

Labels: Other News Items, Superbowl Ads

In one of my many journeys in the land of Wikipedia, I stumbled across something. Rolling Stone came out with the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in November 2003, and provided that nobody does anything great after that date, that's useful. Wikipedia says that it was made by votes from various Rock musicians and other industry guys, and being a Rolling Stone list, you would expect much more of a rock bias. But nonetheless, here's the list.

Here are the ones I own:
12. Kind of Blue, Miles Davis
17. Nevermind, Nirvana
26. The Joshua Tree, U2
61. Appetite for Destruction, Guns n' Roses
73. Back in Black, AC/DC
94. Bitches Brew, Miles Davis
467. Love and Theft, Bob Dylan

Granted I did skim the list, but I was still rather surprised that this is all I've got. I'm pretty sure I have more on the AFI 100 movies list (and I'd love to compare it to this years update).

Upon further review, I agree with the critics that there is quite a bias towards the 60s and 70s, and further that a "greatest albums of all time" should encompass music a bit more broadly. Frankly, I think this list looks completely different in 10 years, and 10 years after that, and is hardly a good "all-time" list.

But it's something to look at anyway.

Labels: Lists

Here's some commentary from Yahoo! if you care to read that, but there are a couple things that went unaddressed.

1) Chevy had terrible and creepy ads. None of them were funny in the first place, but at the same time were all quite stupid. After the one with the old guys dancing around the car, I thought they were really trying to top the Whopperettes from last year (as a sidenote, the Whopperettes was funny, at least, in that Mel Brooks kind of way). But the suicidal robot was terrible. I drive a Chevy, and after those ads, I don't think I ever want to again.

2) Coca-Cola gets a big fat BOO! for not airing new ads; I had seen all of them before. If you're gonna get that many spots, you need something new. One new ad would have been better than this. I guess the fact that they can't make a decent root beer wasn't bad enough for them.

3) Budweiser's clydesdale "awwww" ad was ok, but didn't quite live up to the previous year's one. Granted, that was a tough act to follow, but still.

Honestly the Nationwide ad was one of the best ones, as was the FedEx ad, although I think my favorite was the Bud Light rock, paper, scissors one.

Labels: Superbowl Ads