Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

[Eeyore]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

No confusion exists. It is a great way because politicians can't have it printed up on a whim like they can with a fiat currency which allows them to spend what they don't have and thereby eventually bankrupting their country while mortgaging their great grandchildren's lives. Which is why politicians generally hate gold...they can't prostitute themselves to their electorate by buying votes if the currency is backed by such a hard asset...which, also, by no coincidence, makes the currency that is backed by it way more stable. It's a win/win situation.

Because countries never managed to bankrupt themselves when they used gold and silver as their primary currencies. And I repeat: the value of gold simply is not stable. Its historical volatility is actually much higher than are those of the fiat currencies you hate. And it is prone to nasty bouts of deflation, which are more damaging than the inflation you hate.

 

[OnMAA]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

No!

Good answer. Succinct and to the point. !!

 

[OnMAA]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

(And I asked this question yesterday: why do Ivy League schools not offer plain old scholarships in the first place?)

Not entirely sure of the answer, but given that there are a myriad of Ivy League rules, No Athletic schollies allowed is probably one of them. Another example of an Ivy rule is red shirting, much more strict than at non-ivy D1 schools.

 

[OnMAA]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Not entirely sure of the answer, but given that there are a myriad of Ivy League rules, No Athletic schollies allowed is probably one of them. Another example of an Ivy rule is red shirting, much more strict than at non-ivy D1 schools.

Looked it up and my guess was right, longstanding Ivy rule:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League


"In 1945 the presidents of the eight schools signed the first Ivy Group Agreement, which set academic, financial, and athletic standards for the football teams. The principles established reiterated those put forward in the Harvard-Yale-Princeton Presidents' Agreement of 1916. The Ivy Group Agreement established the core tenet that an applicant's ability to play on a team would not influence admissions decisions:
The members of the Group reaffirm their prohibition of athletic scholarships. Athletes shall be admitted as students and awarded financial aid only on the basis of the same academic standards and economic need as are applied to all other students.[60]"

 

[Blackbeard]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Because countries never managed to bankrupt themselves when they used gold and silver as their primary currencies. And I repeat: the value of gold simply is not stable. Its historical volatility is actually much higher than are those of the fiat currencies you hate. And it is prone to nasty bouts of deflation, which are more damaging than the inflation you hate.

You're not getting it. You are confusing the concept of value with price. The value of gold doesn't change...it is static. It doesn't care what you and I think of it. What changes is the fiat currency or currencies in which one chooses to price it. It is the value of the currencies which are not stable.

When one starts thinking in terms of how much things cost in terms of gold instead of in terms of dollars or pounds or rubles or Yuan one very quickly starts to see that the value of gold does not change. It has high intrinsic value among other important properties which a good honest money must have which is why there is nothing else on the planet that is as good as gold for the purpose of being money. It's not perfect but it is the best that there is.

The US began its current experiment with fiat currency on Aug.15/71 when Nixon closed the gold window...thereby defaulting on its obligation to convert paper currency into the hard asset that was backing it and for which the currency was a receipt. This was the real beginning of the process that has caused the US to be a bankrupt nation today. The average life of a fiat currency is approximately 40 years. Every fiat currency in history has ended the same way...with its total destruction. The US fiat currency is almost 43 years old...it's getting long in the tooth. This (delay in its decline) was certainly assisted by the very beneficial reserve currency status that the US dollar has enjoyed for the last seven decades. That also is coming to an end. It won't be pleasant. One can either do nothing or, alternatively, they can educate themselves and understand how to protect one's self in preserving the purchasing power of whatever wealth that they have accumulated. But time is rapidly running out. The financial world is in uncharted waters and running close to the shoals.

I've long contended that a correct understanding of money and sound money management skills should be mandatory curricular requirements starting at a fairly early age in school. A new generation with a sound grounding in this very important topic would go far to begin to eliminate the distorted but commonplace thinking on the topic at all levels which causes so much misery in society.

You might find these of interest. The first is an article which is over thirteen years old but that is irrelevant in explaining the basics which it does.

http://www.goldmoney.com/images/media/Files/GMYF/evolution-of-currency.pdf

And, secondly, this excellent video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

 

[Eeyore]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

You're not getting it. You are confusing the concept of value with price. The value of gold doesn't change...it is static. It doesn't care what you and I think of it. What changes is the fiat currency or currencies in which one chooses to price it. It is the value of the currencies which are not stable.

When one starts thinking in terms of how much things cost in terms of gold instead of in terms of dollars or pounds or rubles or Yuan one very quickly starts to see that the value of gold does not change. It has high intrinsic value among other important properties which a good honest money must have which is why there is nothing else on the planet that is as good as gold for the purpose of being money. It's not perfect but it is the best that there is.

This is spectacularly wrong.

You might find these of interest. The first is an article which is over thirteen years old but that is irrelevant in explaining the basics which it does.

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you are the first goldbug I've interacted with.

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Next Wisco-Harvard match-up would occur in March or April only if the men's basketball teams were to make it to the Final Four (they are in the West and East brackets, respectively; think there's discussion of east/west disparity on some basketball fan forum somewhere?).

Otherwise it will be in the rowing nationals this spring!

 

[Trillium]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Well, it's not hockey talk Watson, but at least it's a Harvard sports discussion rather than more dreary monetary policy debates, haha.

 

[OnMAA]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Well, it's not hockey talk Watson, but at least it's a Harvard sports discussion rather than more dreary monetary policy debates, haha.

Were you not into Policy ?

But do agree...The FA/money debate took a turn towards a general monetary "I don't care and not gonna read all that" discussion.

 

[Blackbeard]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

This is spectacularly wrong.



You seem to be under the mistaken impression that you are the first goldbug I've interacted with.

Then that must be the end of it.

And the only impression that I was under was that you had some degree of interest in this topic.

Although you may or may not have meant it this way I find it interesting that those who, out of ignorance or otherwise, are interested in continuing the lies and misery that fiat currencies propagate as opposed to educating themselves on what actually constitutes sound money, usually quickly devolve into using the disparaging "gold bug" term in a feeble and telling attempt to wave off the logic and historical evidence.

So, if you are happy collecting your 4% nominal rate (which is a negative actual or real rate after factoring in inflation) then so be it.

It would be interesting to revisit this conversation in a year or two or three to compare notes not to mention adding our differing opinions on derivatives to it.

In the meantime, happy money managing.

 

[Eeyore]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

So, if you are happy collecting your 4% nominal rate (which is a negative actual or real rate after factoring in inflation) then so be it.

And I think a large part of your problem lies in not understanding that the actual rate of inflation is below 2%. I realize that a lot of people have been screaming that hyperinflation is coming ANY DAY NOW for a couple of decades but that doesn't mean that it's happened.

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Well, it's not hockey talk Watson, but at least it's a Harvard sports discussion rather than more dreary monetary policy debates, haha.

We've at least avoided the word "bitcoin" so far on this thread. Oh no, did I just unleash a new topic? (ouch)

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Having been eliminated in women's hockey, we could be conventional and say "how 'bout those Bearcats Thursday afternoon" or we could be more imaginative and turn to a discussion of Harvard's only co-ed contact sport, the Harvard Horntails:

Harvard Quidditch Club

Club Contact: harvardhorntails@gmail.com

Overview: Quidditch is the only co-ed contact sport offered at Harvard and features a unique mix of elements from rugby, dodgeball, and handball. A quidditch team is made up of seven athletes who play with brooms between their legs at all times. While the game can appear chaotic to the casual observer, once familiar with the basic rules, quidditch is an exciting sport to watch and an even more exciting sport to play. An overview of the rules can be viewed here: http://iqaquidditch.com/about/rules.Our team was founded by Stacy Rush and Alana Biden in 2009, and is one of 1000 teams worldwide, 600 of which are in the United States. We generally hold practices twice a week and have regularly scheduled games as part of the Massachusetts Quidditch Conference, which includes Tufts, BU, Emerson, and Q.C. Boston. At the most recent Northeast Regional Championships we placed 9th in the region, qualifying for this year's World Cup in South Carolina on April 5-6th. We have practice on Tuesdays from 4-5 pm and on Saturdays from 11-12:30 in the MAC Quad each week, and encourage everyone with any level of interest to come by and see what Quidditch is actually like, although remember to wear clothes you don't mind getting a little bit dirty!

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Or we could talk about Harvard's Oldest Sport, the only remaining team still using the name Radcliffe:

I wrote over on the Wisconsin board:

Looking at your schedules, the next Wisco-Harvard match-up will occur in March or April only if the men's basketball teams were to make it to the Final Four (they are in the West and East brackets, respectively; think there's discussion of east/west disparity on some basketball fan forum somewhere?).

Otherwise it will be in the rowing nationals this spring!

Quote Originally Posted by robertearle View Post

I hadn't thought about it before today, but the 'top ten coldest winter' and 'thickest ice on the lakes in 25 years' news stories surely means that the UW crew is going to be late actually getting out into the water this year. That's gotta hurt getting ready for "rowing nationals this spring".

To which I responded:

No worries: given the number of national titles Wisconsin has won over the years, they can never be counted out. Somebody should do a report for extra credit on how many times the two schools have met on the water, how many national titles they've each won, how many times they've defeated archrival Washington (aka "the "lurch, lurch, wobble, gobble" crew) going back in both cases (Wisco and Hvd, that is, obviously not Washington) to the 19thC ("before there was football, there was rowing").

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Or we could try to get to the bottom of the urban legend over at the Wisconsin thread that the Band didn't go to Madison and Drew Faust hired a group of freelance musicians to impersonate them:


Quote Originally Posted by Eeyore View Post

Apparently that was the Concordia band in disguise.
I thought you guys were just kidding around with all the 'rented band' stuff. But I just did 'google images' if the Harvard Band.

You not kidding!?! OMG, that is a whole range of things like hilarious, pathetic, insulting to ALL involved... what the what???

 

[Veritas]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

One point about the endowment at Harvard. It is not a tub of money that may be used for any purpose that the President and Fellows see fit to use it for. Much of the endowment was given to Harvard to endow very specific things.
If I were to give Harvard a few million to endow a chair in, for example, Medieval Irish Poetry they funds could not be used to fund a faculty chair in mathematics or biological chemistry.

The endowment is part of the reason that Harvard has so many diverse areas of study available to students that are not available at other universities. The daughter of a friend was AB and AM at Harvard concentrating in Akkadian and Sumerian with some work in Coptic. She was able to go on to a PhD at Yale and do a post-doc fellowship at Columbia but there are **** few schools that provide opportunities to study in her area of interest.

As to endowments for sports, one only has to watch the garish new scoreboard at Bright to see a listing of the various coaching positions that have been endowed by various individuals of families.

 

[robertearle]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

Or we could try to get to the bottom of the urban legend over at the Wisconsin thread that the Band didn't go to Madison and Drew Faust hired a group of freelance musicians to impersonate them:


Quote Originally Posted by Eeyore View Post

Apparently that was the Concordia band in disguise.
I thought you guys were just kidding around with all the 'rented band' stuff. But I just did 'google images' if the Harvard Band.

You not kidding!?! OMG, that is a whole range of things like hilarious, pathetic, insulting to ALL involved... what the what???

I was the source of the 'googled image' comment. Every photo on Google shows the band wearing crimson suit jackets with ties, etc. Whoever it was that showed up last Saturday was MOST definitely NOT dressed that way.

(I also pointed out that at *every* UW game, the UW band plays the opponent's fight song, and that if all "you guys" wanted was somebody to play the fight song a couple times, I have no doubt that the Wisconsin band would have been happy to do that.)

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

I was the source of the 'googled image' comment. Every photo on Google shows the band wearing crimson suit jackets with ties, etc. Whoever it was that showed up last Saturday was MOST definitely NOT dressed that way.

(I also pointed out that at *every* UW game, the UW band plays the opponent's fight song, and that if all "you guys" wanted was somebody to play the fight song a couple times, I have no doubt that the Wisconsin band would have been happy to do that.)

You guys really have been kidding us about this, right? Just because the band looked weird or goofy or pathetic doesn't mean they weren't authentic; they often look that way other than at football games. What exactly were the musicians at the rink wearing? Sometimes the band wears replica uniforms of the sport in question, even though in this case most of them probably couldn't keep their balance on double runners, like an eight year old at a Bruins game wearing a "CHARA" sweater. I repeat, just because the band looked embarrassingly bad doesn't mean they weren't real. We've been embarrassed by them over the decades.

Another possibility: they may have been Schneider's Band, which is a subset of the band which does illegal stuff such as stopping to serenade the Brown campus before dawn during a bus trip to points south elsewhere along I-95. The Schneiders are carefully auditioned for lack of musical talent so that if they are arrested by campus police, they won't be missed.

At least they don't dress like bumblebees, as another Beanpot band (which shall be nameless, but they know who they are) does.

 

[robertearle]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

You guys really have been kidding us about this, right? Just because the band looked weird or goofy or pathetic doesn't mean they weren't authentic; they often look that way other than at football games. What exactly were the musicians at the rink wearing?

I didn't pay all that much attention, and I thought the others were kidding, until I did the Google image search Sunday morning. They were ...sloppy, didn't match one another well (at all), some were wearing jeans. At the time, I just shrugged it off, thinking it was some sort of 'irreverent' thing like the Stanford band likes to tell everyone about (over and over and over...).

The only thing I remember them playing (I wouldn't know the Harvard fight song without being told) was when they tried to play 'Sweet Caroline'; until they got to the chorus, I couldn't even tell what it was supposed to be. And I remember thinking that a band from Boston should certainly be able to play a song now associated so strongly with Boston a heck of a lot better than they did.

I'll look around and see if I can find any photos or video of them. They were in the top half of the last section against the wall over Maschmeyer's right shoulder during the first and third periods.

 

[Watson Rink]

Re: Harvard Crimson 2013-2014

....I'll look around and see if I can find any photos or video of them. They were in the top half of the last section against the wall over Maschmeyer's right shoulder during the first and third periods.

Thanks! I'd love to get to the bottom of this. There's a question of financial responsibility lurking here. If the Hvd president made a Faustian bargain to hire a local group, that's one scandal. If the university paid for the real band to attend and they looked like idiots, that's another. Or it may just be, as Veritas adverted to, that there is a well-endowed Friends of the Harvard Band that has donated funds to send the band to major sporting events around the country (to our embarrassment) but we can't complain because the donated funds are earmarked to the band. We can perform a reality check during the Cincinnati men's BB game on Thursday in New York, which ought to draw the real band, however they are funded (underground bus tickets to NYC cost about $15).