If your observables are correlated with the variable of interest, how dare you assume your unobservables are not?

Trees reduce crime. I love trees, but I'm not sure I buy it.
http://grist.org/cities/in-baltimore-the-gods-will-not-save-you-but-the-trees-will/

OK, maybe I should actually read this paper before calling it out, but just because you control for SES, doesn't mean you fix the problem. Unless you've got a convincing identification strategy, you've still just got an interesting partial correlation.

People don't always have mustaches when you think they do.

A friend told me we were watching a secret movie last weekend. The only clues were "1970's" and "Mustache."

My first thought was John Cazale, Dog Day Afternoon.

"I was only in five movies, but they were all awesome."

She told me that was wrong. My next thought was Burt Reynolds, Smokey and the Bandit. OK, I actually thought Deliverance, but then I googled it, and saw that Burt was clean shaven.

Will someone please buy me a vest like that already?

She told me Smokey and the Bandit was wrong.  She also told me Sally Field was not a total looker in Smokey and the Bandit. Clearly, she was wrong, but this post is about mustaches, so you'll have to look that one up yourself.

Sally Field was hot. Believe it.

Tom Selleck is 80's. There was one Cheech movie in the 70's, so that could technically count. But then I got really excited when I thought my friend told me the movie was going to feature this:

Why do more people not go like this for Halloween? (Marcus, I'm looking at you.)

Sean Connery in Zardoz, although I think Zonad might be a better name. I was thoroughly disappointed when I discovered this was not actually the movie we'd be watching.

Instead, the movie we watched was this:

Which is pretty damn good, and features this guy:

Notice how I'm smiling? That's because I have a full beard.

Who may have once looked like my father once looked, but does not have a f---ing mustache.
But I guess that's OK, because actually, neither did this guy:

So there you have it.

Mostly Puppies

George in the Window

Chameleon

I discovered a pottery collective nearby. Car wheel as throwing wheel.

My haul from the collective.

Naps

Sugar Cane Kids

Field Work

Breakfast spread at Martha's Guest House outside Butere

Farewell visit to my buddy S; he happened to have three adorable puppies. Blurry, but I like how this one turned out.

Licking

Looking

Holding two of them

Please do not appear at my house having driven this rig from South Africa. The jealousy cannot be contained.

Synchronized grooming

Synchronized sleeping

How Kenyans fuel their sports; I'm giving it a try. It is dirt cheap, and, you know, tastes like sugar.

The Obama Villa, one of the themed rooms at Martha's Guest House. I went for the Princess Margaret room instead.

Holding all three of them

Goodbye

Well, I've been working like crazy on some grant proposals. After George was hit by a car I bailed on Mfangano island, but he was recovering well (and still is) so I managed to get in a motorcycle ride Sunday afternoon and headed to a guest house an hour away in Butere. It was nice, but vastly overrated by the Rough Guide. This weekend Miles and I ran a good 14.5, I visited my buddy S's house and his windmill workshop, and I hung out with friends in Kisumu.

Economics just got a tiny bit more honest

http://www.aeaweb.org/aea_journals/AEA_Disclosure_Policy.pdf

Perhaps thanks to Inside Job and Charles Ferguson are in order?

Run Free: NYT on Caballo Blanco

"He was a free spirit who survived on cornmeal, beans, and wild dreams"
I inserted the Oxford comma myself. I believe in them in general, and especially in this case.

Florida 8th District Representative Daniel Webster is a [expletive removed].

NYT:
The Beginning of the End of the Census?

“We’re spending $70 per person to fill this out. That’s just not cost effective,” he continued, “especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey.”

In fact, the randomness of the survey is precisely what makes the survey scientific, statistical experts say.

Ha ha ha ha!
When your idiotic ideology fails you, just eliminate the empirical evidence. Free platitudes for everyone!

Me on a Bored Saturday

We got a blender a few weeks ago. Hummus and lara bars from scratch. Mung beans in the background. Energy bars next. Lentil loaf tomorrow.

George is running around (albeit on three legs) and licking my face like normal.

Dammit

George got hit by a car last night. He'll survive but might have a broken leg. Miles and I were having a great run with George off-leash as normal, but we were out late so it was getting dark. It was only the second time I'd gone to this area so I didn't know the trails and we ended up hitting the main tarmac road much further south than I wanted. It didn't have much of a shoulder, and he went out into the road and got hit. The matatu saw him and slowed down a bunch, so it could have been worse. The vet is on his way, but I'm not sure what he'll be able to do. It's not a compound fracture or very bloody, but it's badly swollen.
Dammit. Obviously could have been avoided if any of a dozen things had been different, but he pulls like a sled dog when he's on a leash and is under pretty good voice control when off (hasn't killed a single chicken) and we took the left turn sending us out to the paved road, and it was getting dark... Dammit.

[UPDATE: The vet, 6 hours late because he got arrested by traffic cops on the way, seems to think there's no break; George'll be walking on it in 2 days. That's great news; I'm still in a funk, and I'll believe it when I see it. I went around town looking for another vet (mine had to come from Busia) and met the District Veterinary Officer, who seemed like he had the facilities to put George under general anesthesia and set and cast any broken bones. I'll take George to him on Monday if it's not looking better, but I think everything will be OK.]