Why No Blogs?

Turns out that even though one can buy Internet service on the ship, there are bandwidth restrictions that prevent me from uploading my blog if it has pictures. I don't have a photo editor loaded on my iPad, so I can't reduce their size enough to get past the restriction. I've been writing every day, so once I reach civilization, all of them will appear.


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The Longest Day(s)

In case you hadn't heard, our flights to Copenhagen were canceled yesterday, so we had to find an alternative route. Turns out there are no good options to get from Scotland to Denmark except by plane. So...

We're on the train to Copenhagen, and it looks like we are going to make it to the cruise. We're scheduled to arrive about 22:15, at which time we will have been traveling for about 34 hours. Some of it was on the ferry, where we got a little sleep, in bunk beds, no less, but it's been a stressful couple of days. I've been too frazzled to take any pictures, but they would have been mainly of harbors and train stations anyway. We don't know if our flight went today, but if it was cancelled, we wouldn't have made the cruise. We decided that we needed to take the best chance to ensure we made it, thus the rush to Hull via two trains, the ferry to Rotterdam and four trains to Copenhagen. All together, we've schlepped our luggage 10 times.

Turns out the train from Hamburg to Copenhagen also includes a 45 minute ferry ride. We had to get off the train, but we didn't have to take our luggage. It's a bit different from the last time we took a ferry to Denmark. That time it was overnight from Hamburg. This is a better deal.

Tonight we'll sleep at the Marriott (we hope) and board the cruise ship tomorrow.


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Stirling Castle and Loch Lomond

Another tour today. We went northwest from Edinburgh to Stirling, which is the ancestral home of the Stuarts, who ruled Scotland and, after the death of Elizabeth I, the whole of the English empire. I didn't think Stirling Castle was as impressive as Edinburgh Castle, but it's historically more important to Scotland. It was the key strategic point for the control of the whole country. Two of the most famous battles, Stirling bridge and Bannockburn were fought within sight of its walls.

From Stirling we headed towards the Trossachs and Loch Lomond. When we arrived at Loch Lomond, the weather turned really nasty. We tried a hike to a waterfall above the loch, but the weather and mud turned us back about two-thirds of the way there. Had wet feet the rest of the day. The loch was beautiful and the sun shone through before we left.

Here are some pictures.

Stirling Castle from below.




The main gate.




Scottish noble coat of arms from the great hall at Stirling Castle.




The coat of arms of James IV of Scotland--Scotland's greatest king.




While this may look like a cow, it's actually a Scottish "coo." Note the horns.




This is not a blue bell, those grow in England. It's a blue hare.




Loch Lomond.




More Loch Lomond.




We were reliably informed that these goats are descended from animals abandoned by Rob Roy, the most famous inhabitant of the Loch Lomond area.



The 10th green at Dalmahoy.




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Scottish Musical Suggestion

When there's not much to talk about on our tours, the guide often plays some music. Yesterday, our guide played a CD by the Peat Bog Faeries (I kid you not). They do modern music on traditional instruments, i. e. bagpipes. Check them out on YouTube. They're pretty cool.

We also heard The Claimers, another group new to us. They are kind of an 80's rock band and pretty good, too.


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A Wet Day in Glasgow

Today we took the train to Glasgow. The two largest cities in Scotland are only about 50 miles apart. It brought home to us (as if we hadn't already figured it out) how much more expensive things are here than in the states. The trip on the train was about 50 miles in 50 minutes--about the same as a trip from Elgin to the Loop on my old commuter line in Chicago. I think the trip in Chicago costs about seven bucks person. Our trip was about eighteen dollars each.

We didn't get to see as much of Glasgow as we would have liked, because it rained all day. We bought a ticket on a hop-on/hop-off bus, so we didn't have to do a lot of walking, but we did do a lot of standing in the rain. Plus, several of the attractions we wanted to visit were closed for one reason or another.

We did see some good stuff, however. The cathedral is very nice, especially the stained glass, which was as good as anything we've seen. There are some photos below. We also had a good time at the Kelvingrove Gallery. We saw some paintings by two schools of artists that we'd never even heard of before. They are not represented in the museums we've visited in the states. The Glasgow Boys (which includes some girls) and the Colourists have done some really nice work. They run the range from Impressionism to Fauvism and some other work that sometimes suggests the Hudson Valley School (one of my favorites). We also made a quick stop at the University of Glasgow, which has a unique look.

Here are some photos.

The outside of the cathedral.




Some stained glass examples.










The Kelvingrove Gallery (named after Lord Kelvin the chemist).




A weird exhibit from the Kelvingrove--a set of masks showing different emotions, suspended from the ceiling.




The University of Glasgow (in the rain).




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The Borderlands

Took another tour today. It was the best one so far. We went southeast from Edinburgh into the country on the border with England (hence the name). The countryside was very pretty, with rolling hills and forested areas. The highlights of the tour were Melrose Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel. For 50 points, can you remember why Rosslyn Chapel ticked your mind? If you remembered the Da Vinci Code, you win. Rosslyn Chapel has the most ornate interior of any church I've ever seen. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside--something about an accident and a lawsuit. I've posted some pictures of the countryside and Melrose Abbey below along with some exterior shots of Rosslyn Chapel.

Borderland hills. There was once a Roman fort on top of the tallest one.




Susan in the gorse.




There are lots of sheep in Scotland.




Melrose Abbey. It was destroyed several times and not rebuilt the last time. The English under Oliver Cromwell had a bad habit of destroying cathedrals across the British Isles during the English Civil War.



Most of the abbeys and churches in this part of Scotland are made from native sandstone, which gives them a beautiful multicolored look.




A flying buttress from Melrose Abbey.




The front of the Abbey.




Exterior shots of Rosslyn Chapel.




Note the detail of the carving. These shots also illustrate one of the problems with using sandstone--it wears away pretty quickly (in historical terms).




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St. Andrews and the Kingdom of Fife

We took a tour today to St. Andrews, which is northeast of Edinburgh across the Firth of Forth. We decided to tour rather than drive because we thought it would be less stressful and we would actually get to see more. The tour took us across the Firth of Forth (the bay on which Edinburgh sits) and along the coast of the Kingdom of Fife. We stopped at a couple of fishing villages and ended up in St. Andrews for lunch. You've probably all heard of St. Andrews--it's where Prince William went to college and where he met Kate Middleton. There's also a golf course there.

Here are some pictures from the day.

The railroad bridge over the Firth of Forth. It's over 100 years old and expected to last another 100 (unlike the nearby highway bridge which is about 40 years old and has only about 10 more years of life).



The first and eighteenth fairways at the Old Course. It turns out that there is a public right of way that crosses the fairways. Our driver, who admitted he doesn't like golf, took great pleasure in driving the minibus across the fairways.



The eighteenth green.




The eighteenth green with some guy in the way



St. Andrews University.




A close up of gorse.




The royal castle at Falkland.




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Walk Around Edinburgh

We did a lot of walking today. Edinburgh is built on a long slope that runs from the castle down to Holyrood Palace (which closed yesterday for three weeks--bummer, we were looking forward to visiting it).

We spent a couple of hours at the castle and then walked all the way down to the palace and then walked back--in the rain. The weather has been generally OK, but today it rained while we were trying to get back up the hill. We did some shopping and then had some dinner at an Indian place before coming back to the hotel.

One drawback to where we are staying is that it's a 30 minute bus ride from town. That means that we'll have to get up pretty early tomorrow to make our tour to St. Andrews. We've decided to do tours rather than drive. The company we've booked with only does tours of 16 people or less and comes highly recommended. We'll see.

Here are some pictures from today.

Saint Margaret from the chapel at Edinburgh Castle.




Memorial Hill



The Castle from Princes Street (where we got off the bus).



Part of the Castle.



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First Day in Scotland

We've made it OK so far. We had a little scare when our flight from Austin was delayed just over two hours, but we had a pretty good layover in Newark, so we made our flight to Edinburgh with time to spare. I had a little mishap at the airport--I left a carryon in baggage claim. Because it was behind security, I had to wait almost an hour for the airline to bring it out.

We were wiped when we got to the hotel, but our room wasn't ready (after all it wasn't noon yet). So we got a bite to eat and went for a walk, then took a nap. It's not yet 9, but I'll be in bed as soon as I finish this.
Here are a few pictures from today.

Our hotel.



This is a golf resort (we don't plan to play).







There's an old church and graveyard nearby.





Tomorrow we're going in to Edinburgh to see some of the city.

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Lying with Statistics--the Wall Street Journal Edition

The conservative Tax Foundation has called the WSJ on its misleading income chart.

Recital

Somehow, this post got deleted from my blog. Maybe I haven't figured out how BlogPress works. Anyway, I decided to repost this picture from my four year old granddaughter's dance recital.




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How Can Anyone--Much Less Anyone over 60--Support the Republican Party?

I'm not eligible for Medicare yet. And I'm not sure just how my former employer would respond to the Republicans' proposed changes to Medicare (I guess I ought to be finding out). But it astounds me that anyone, much less anyone at or getting close to 65 would support Republican economic policies. In a way, it's even worse for younger people because by the time they get to Medicare, it will be vastly more expensive for them than it is now--if the Republicans get their way. The arithmetic is simple, but Republicans choose to ignore it--why? Are they stupid or do they just not care?

Dance Recital

Went to my granddaughter's dance recital on Saturday. It was fun. She's been taking lessons for only a few weeks, so it wasn't exactly the Bolshoi, but she was awfully cute.



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The Deficit

One has to wonder at the ignorance of people who believe that the deficit has been caused by excessive government spending. They simply haven't been paying attention. The current deficit has three main causes: the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the economic downturn, and, primarily, the Bush tax cuts. It's as if an individual decided to spend a little more and at the same time reduce income by working part time and then got laid off. The sudden increase in debt should come as no surprise. This study by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities lays out the data.

Bob Clower Has Died

Bob was one of my teachers at Northwestern (and often my bridge partner). Bob was a terrible but enthusiastic bridge player and often came to class unprepared for the material he was supposed to cover. On the other side, he was a brilliant economist who caused many of us to think about things in a different way. He was one of the most likable people I ever met. As Brad DeLong notes, we'd have a better profession if current macro/monetary theory had descended from Bob rather than the likes of Edward Prescott and Robert Lucas. Bob was not as prolific a publishing economist as some who won the Nobel, but his papers were of very high quality and extremely insightful. This very sad news.

Intellectual Barbarians at the Gate

How long will Republicans be able to get away with the economic nonsense they are spouting? One fears that it will be too long. I for one will have no joy when the public finally awakes and votes the bastards out. By then it will be too late for many ordinary Americans.

It's embarrassing how many economists who ought to know better continue to spout partisan nonsense--that they knew to be nonsense when they were making policy themselves. Taylor, Mankiw, et al. are intellectually bankrupt practictioners who serve a political ideology rather than economic science.

Worrying about the Wrong Things

Despite the horrible human cost of the high rate of unemployment/underemployment in the US, politicians continue to worry about things that hardly matter.

And it may be worse than you think.

Test Blog From iPad

This is a picture of my Austin granddaughter vamping for the camera.


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University of Chicago Economists Argue that Sacrificing Goats Can Stimulate the Economy

In the NYT, Casey Mulligan, a U of C economics professor has published a bizarre and confused essay on the "New Keynesianism" and its approach to economic policy. I could not for the life of me figure out what he was trying to say, but Paul Krugman explains.

If You Wonder Why I'm High on Krugman

I'm not surprised that Paul Krugman's performance as a "prognosticator" was better than anyone else in this Hamilton College statistical study. Krugman had the advantage over most of the commentators because his opinions (as opposed to those, say, of Newt Gingrich) are based on objective fact and thus more likely to prove to be true. Commentators who argue from belief without evidence are far more likely to be wrong. George Will is a perfect example. He has a world view that informs everything he believes--evidence is secondary. Thus, he is more often wrong.

What Is There About "Balance" That Republicans Don't Understand?

From "Crooked Timber:"

Contrary to the beliefs of nearly all anti-Keynesians—and, regrettably, some Keynesians, too—Keynesianism demands more, not less, fiscal rectitude in normal times than does the orthodox theory of balanced budgets that underpins the EU. John Maynard Keynes argued that surpluses should be accumulated during good years so that they could be spent to stimulate demand during bad ones.

While the Crooked Timber essay is about the EU, the same principles apply to the US. When Bush II and Greenspan frittered away the surplus built up during the Clinton Years through tax cuts, they set the stage for the deficits we are experiencing now. The parable of the grasshopper and the ant is true. The Republicans are super-grasshoppers--they want to spend the surplus and then when times get hard, they want to raid the ants to give the grasshoppers even more.

Bob Dylan: No Direction Home

Just watched Scorcese's documentary on Netflix. It covers Dylan's life up until the motorcycle accident in 1966. Really interesting, especially to compare the uncertain, shy public Dylan of the 60s with the mature version giving the interview. Plus the contrast between the sophistication of his music and his public persona is stark.

It's always good to be reminded of the impact Dylan has had on American music. In context, one can see how he evolved from teen rock wannabe in high school to the songwriter of the 60s and then into the electronic Dylan who was booed at the Newport Folk Festival. He changed, even though people didn't want him to.

Also: "Like a Rolling Stone" in new music on the left.

What's to Be Done About Education in the US?

We spend a lot of time criticizing how ineffective our educational system is. Conservatives (and some liberals) want to privatize education through the use of vouchers, but recent evidence shows that voucher-based education doesn't differ much in the long run from public education. Numerous countries outperform the US in international competitions in science and math. The real difference seems to be the gap in the way the public perceives teaching as a profession. In other countries, especially those where students out perform US students, teaching is a highly respected--and highly paid--profession. This article in the NYT presents some data comparing the status and compensation in the US and some high achieving countries. Here's a key bit of information.

At the moment, the average teacher’s pay is on par with that of a toll taker or bartender. Teachers make 14 percent less than professionals in other occupations that require similar levels of education. In real terms, teachers’ salaries have declined for 30 years. The average starting salary is $39,000; the average ending salary — after 25 years in the profession — is $67,000. This prices teachers out of home ownership in 32 metropolitan areas, and makes raising a family on one salary near impossible.

But there are other parts of the US education system that provide some ideas regarding how we might improve our process. This article from the NYT talks about the differences between more successful and less successful teachers.

The Facts on Retirement

If these statistics from the Employee Benefit Research Institute don't scare you, I'll be surprised. here's the real shocker:

A sizable percentage of workers report they have virtually no savings or investments. Among RCS workers providing this type of information, 29 percent say they have less than $1,000. In total, more than half of workers (56 percent) report that the total value of their household’s savings and investments, excluding the value of their primary home and any defined benefit plans, is less than $25,000.