Monday, September 29, 2008

Primogeniture

Primogeniture: Being born first, or in my family's case, this guy:

Term also refers to the law where the first-born son would inherit land.

I have yet to find a word to describe "guy-in-family-best-at-putting-sisters-into-a-headlock," but I'll keep looking.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Comparative advantage

Hypothetical:
1. Tiger Woods has a lawn that needs mowing.
2. Tiger Woods has a teenage neighbor who charges $10/hour to mow lawns.
3. Tiger Woods can mow his law three times as fast as his neighbor.
4. Tiger Woods makes $80 mil a year, or about $913.25/hour in endorsements.
so
5. Although Tiger Woods can mow his own lawn three times as fast as his neighbor, his time would be better spent filming another ad or working on his swing.

Tiger Woods has the absolute advantage in this situation. He is better at mowing, golfing and making money in endorsements. However, if he pays someone else to mow his lawn, he can not only increase his own productivity by filming an ad, but also the productivity of his neighborhood.

And that is why we get our flowers from South America, kids.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Rabbit Killer

Rabbit killer: A slayer of the weak who can look fragile against the strong.

BBC sports used this term to describe Robinho: "His truly great performances came in the two meetings with Chile, a 3-0 win in a group game and a 6-1 rout in the quarter final. Both times Robinho was dazzling. But Chile were not only very poor defensively, they were also falling apart after internal discipline problems."



He's a pretty sweet player, but probably not good enough to warrant all his sulking.