Sunday, January 10, 2010
Sunday sports page.
[] The Babes of Tiger Woods 2010 Calendar is a full-size wall calendar that rewarded purchasers the New York Post as an insert this week. It's not available online, and wouldn't be the same if it was. But you can sort of see it.
Dead tree publication is good for something! My copy is already sealed airtight in plastic and set aside to be a valuable collectors item that will pay for my later retirement years. If you have a friend in NYC get yours from his newspaper recycling bin.
[] Two things that apparently do not go well together: breast implants and Olympic hurdling.
[] After several NYC sports media outlets reported that the New York Giants "mailed in" their last two games this season, losing by a combined 85-16, the U.S. Postal Service threatened to sue.
[] National Hockey League teams are playing for the tie in regulation time -- in another example of "incentives work":
Traditionally in the NHL a win was worth 2 points in the standings, a tie 1, and a loss 0. Then the league decided to get rid of boring ties by having games that are tied at the end of regulation time be decided in overtime or by shootouts. The "point" system was changed to 2 points for a win, 1 point for an overtime/shootout loss, 0 points for a regulation time loss.
See what happens? Now teams that take a game into overtime share 3 points, whereas if they decide the game in regulation time they share only 2. For instance, if a team goes 50% in 10 games, 5 wins and 5 losses, and the games are overtime games it gains 15 points in the standings, but if the games are decided in regulation time it gains only 10. Those extra five points in the standings could be the difference between making the playoffs or not (or being in first place or not).
Phil Birnbaum now points us to research showing -- guess what! -- when games are still close in the third period, scoring plunges as NHL teams play for the tie.
[] Plan your investments for 2010 by the sports pages. Dave Berri reminds us of the Lakers Indicator...
Dead tree publication is good for something! My copy is already sealed airtight in plastic and set aside to be a valuable collectors item that will pay for my later retirement years. If you have a friend in NYC get yours from his newspaper recycling bin.
[] Two things that apparently do not go well together: breast implants and Olympic hurdling.
[] After several NYC sports media outlets reported that the New York Giants "mailed in" their last two games this season, losing by a combined 85-16, the U.S. Postal Service threatened to sue.
[] National Hockey League teams are playing for the tie in regulation time -- in another example of "incentives work":
Traditionally in the NHL a win was worth 2 points in the standings, a tie 1, and a loss 0. Then the league decided to get rid of boring ties by having games that are tied at the end of regulation time be decided in overtime or by shootouts. The "point" system was changed to 2 points for a win, 1 point for an overtime/shootout loss, 0 points for a regulation time loss.
See what happens? Now teams that take a game into overtime share 3 points, whereas if they decide the game in regulation time they share only 2. For instance, if a team goes 50% in 10 games, 5 wins and 5 losses, and the games are overtime games it gains 15 points in the standings, but if the games are decided in regulation time it gains only 10. Those extra five points in the standings could be the difference between making the playoffs or not (or being in first place or not).
Phil Birnbaum now points us to research showing -- guess what! -- when games are still close in the third period, scoring plunges as NHL teams play for the tie.
[] Plan your investments for 2010 by the sports pages. Dave Berri reminds us of the Lakers Indicator...
The best kept secret of the past 20 years has been this: When the Los Angeles Lakers won the NBA championship, the market would almost always fall that year. When the Lakers lost, the market would usually rise ...Ah, but that's only 20 years. I refer you to the 40-year track record of the Super Bowl Indicator...
An investor who put down $1,000 into the Nasdaq at the start of 1987 and stayed fully invested through 2007 would have ended up with $7,604. But an investor who bought the Nasdaq in years the Lakers lost and stayed in cash when the Lakers won would have finished with $21,189. This strategy would have kept you in the market during the 1990s bull market, avoided the 2000-2002 bear and then got back in as the market uptrend resumed...
A triumphant team from the old American Football League (now the American Football Conference or AFC) foreshadows a down market, but a winner from the old NFL (now the National Football Conference or NFC) means dust off your red cape, because the bulls are coming. The Super Bowl Indicator has been on the money 32 years out of 40, a success rate of 80%.Hey, if you want to be sure of making money in the stock market, use the two of them together. How can you lose?
