Category Archives: Uncategorized

Most Norwegians do not ski

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A silly proposal to spend public money on giving everyone a type of sports equipment that in average can be used around one quarter of the year got me wondering how many Norwegian actually do ski. So I looked up some data from Statistics Norway’s survey on living conditions: 

skiing1997_2014

Source: Statistics Norway

More than half the population skis at all, skiing (on the extensive margin) is clearly on a downwards sloping trend, but is free skis to everyone the solution? Given that skis can be obtained nearly for free already, perhaps interest is just not that high. Better to build out opportunities for all-year activity close to where people live, restrict time spent watching television, raise sugar taxes, and get more physical activity into school.

Good articles from Vox

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I browsed through Vox.com’s archive after not having visited the site for a while, and they do have some good material (in addition to a fair amount that I do not find that attractive). Here is some of the recent stuff I liked best:

Aging Ironmen

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When following the Norseman Xtreme triathlon online last month, I googled Graeme Stewart, who lead the race for quite some time, and came across his blog. A post of his pointed me to an interesting article about the age and performance of the top ten finishers in the yearly Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii. The authors (Gallmann, Knechtle, Rüst, Rosemann, Lepers ) first show that as in many other sports, the finishing times (of the top 10) have improved considerably the last 30 years (1982-2012): Total race performance-Gallmann Knechtle Rüst Rosemann Lepers 2013 Elite triathletes in Ironman Hawaii

This can be due to many factors. The surprising finding is that concurrently with going faster, the top finishers have become older. The average age of the top 10 men increased by 7 years, from 27 in 1983 to 34 in 2012!

Age of top finishers-Gallmann Knechtle Rüst Rosemann Lepers 2013 Elite triathletes in Ironman Hawaii

The authors speculate that experience may have become more important with time or that the race may have become more attractive to former professional athletes, but do not know the answer. The point Stewart makes is that the results suggest that it takes time to build endurance and that for most people there is room for improvement regardless of age.

One year blogging anniversary

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Today it is one year since I started this blog. The basic statistics:

I have found blogging rewarding, and one post per week is about the expected rate and something I aim to keep up.

Practical reasons for not allowing maltreatment

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There are both principled and practical reasons for why one should not allow torture or maltreatment of suspects or convicts. A practical one that I believe does not get enough attention is the fact that to catch a criminal, one is often dependent on tips from people who know him. Rachel Gillum writes about “Why the NYPD’s decision to drop a unit that spies on Muslims may help counterterrorism,” because it is essential that the police be regarded as fair and impartial. What I am thinking about the fact that the bar for tipping law enforcement about an acquaintance, friend or relative probably depends on the treatment the suspect can be expected to get. For example, the father of the Detroit/underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab gave the CIA information before the son’s capture. Would he have done so if he expected that his son would face extensive maltreatment in the hands of the authorities?

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