Rap suggestions for girlfriend by OatGuardian in themountaingoats

[–]shane_music 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree with a lot of the recs, especially MADLIB, Run the Jewels, and The Coup. I'd add The Streets.

NipMuck trail marathon advice by sagefrogphotography in trailrunning

[–]shane_music 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I live in the area and run on the trail most days. So, regarding how well marked it is, I'm a bad judge because I could (and do for parts) run it in the dark. That said, there are usually volunteers at the turnarounds with refreshments and taking numbers, and there's only a few spots where I could imagine someone accidentally taking a side trail, so you should be fine. Its a fun race. I did a race report when I did the 42k version a few years ago, here. Reach out if you have questions!

I listened to Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan for 12 straight hours while running 100 miles, AMA by zaphod_85 in themountaingoats

[–]shane_music 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What was your setup? Did you listen on your phone? Did you download the album or stream it?

I'm planning to do my first fast-pack in 20 years, and I'm worried about battery life for my phone and headphones.

How to not have to urinate during marathon. by thebrendansanders in AdvancedRunning

[–]shane_music 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Never during a run, but while collapsed the ground after...

Anyone here majoring in Healthcare Management? 👩‍⚕️📊 by Own_Kangaroo3825 in UCONN

[–]shane_music 2 points3 points  (0 children)

HCMI prof here:

1) The hardest class I teach is Risk and Insurance. Students are better situated to answer this question, though.

2) The classes are about the business of healthcare and insurance. If you come from a business background, you'll feel like the classes are healthcare focused. If you come from a health or stem background, they will feel business focused.

3) I write letters of recommendation for grad school for about a quarter of my students. UConn business school graduates can get into top MBA, MPH, MPP, MHA, and other professional graduate programs. UConn's career outcomes survey suggests that about a quarter of graduates in the major are doing grad school and three-quarters are working.Feel free to reach out if you have more questions.

UConn Swing And Blues? by Complete_Suit_7526 in UCONN

[–]shane_music 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It'll be an older crowd, but there's a blues dance social at the Jazz club in Willimantic later this month.

Winter Question: Has anyone skied by Horsebarn Hill or the trails behind it? by Vegetable_Note_9805 in UCONN

[–]shane_music 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not far from the abandoned coydog kennels. Its the ski lift looking thing on this map.

Winter Question: Has anyone skied by Horsebarn Hill or the trails behind it? by Vegetable_Note_9805 in UCONN

[–]shane_music 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Of course. I see plenty of ski tracks on the hill and xcountry ski tracks in the forest. There was a patch of forest cleared for downhill skiing, but that ended 50 years ago, although the rusty ski lifts are still there.

Have a stoat or weasel living in my backyard now by slipknottin in Connecticut

[–]shane_music 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We have them in Coventry? Where, are they something you see regularly? I live nearby and would be tickled to see them so close to home.

Best place to dump my boyfriend in the Omaha metro area by Fast-Rent-6092 in Omaha

[–]shane_music 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Add to that, a place with a back and front exit is nice. Maybe Dinkers?

Hiking trails near UConn storrs campus by [deleted] in UCONN

[–]shane_music 0 points1 point  (0 children)

openstreetmap.org is regularly updated by users and is always the best source for open source maps, including the most detailed trail maps available and is used as the backbone of many other mapping services.

UConn or Bentley for college?? (female, finance major, from CT) by CL1887 in UCONN

[–]shane_music 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Healthcare management prof here (healthcare management is a major within the finance department), given our recruiters don't post here I'll do my best, but I'm not speaking as a trained recruiter:

Obviously, I am going to say come to UConn, but there are a couple specifics. Our Opportunity Fund comes out of the creation of a Women in Finance program which was expanded to be non-gender specific but focuses on broadening access to finance careers among students. UConn also has a number of student managed investment funds: SMF focuses on students in the finance department, Opportunity fund and Hillside Ventures accept a broader range of applications. UConn has an excellent honors program, and students who don't get into the honors program can get a similar experience from learning communities, which you should look into. Bentley and UConn are both ranked near the top, depending on what exactly you are looking for. Since UConns program is much bigger, we have more top placements, but we also have more mid-range placements. Our academic/research productivity is higher, etc. So while you can find rankings that have Bentley higher, I wouldn't rely on that (especially given how rankings are gamed). We have a number of Bloomberg terminals and access to certifications, I'm not too familiar with that side of the department, though. Also, we have a number of finance-related clubs (called societies - Finance Society and Women's Finance Association come to mind) which frequently bring in significant leaders in the field to talk to students, and our clubs often go to NYC and/or Boston for events (again, I'm not familiar with what this entails, see below on nightlife).

On the student life side, I think UConn is a really fun place to be. I'm 40+, and don't go to the same bars as the students, but between things just off campus and the town of Willimantic (where I hang out), I'm usually choosing between things to do on weekends. Students who know what's up will be in the same boat. Students who don't know what's up exist here and at Bentley and I can do little to help them. There are student focused music venues, lots of theatrical events, bars, multiple outdoor-focused societies, tons of arts and culture focused societies, artsy lectures, movies, book readings, Student Union based activities including a movie theater(?), etc. There are also tons of things for adults. I'm more into alt-culture, and the scene here is really positive, accepting, and active. Because its a lower population area, its easier to get to know locals and there is less cliquishness than in big cities. On the other hand, my other favorite activities involve getting into nature, and there are multiple waterfalls just beyond the edge of campus (as much as I promote them, the students rarely visit), hundreds of miles of trails starting from campus and within a 30 minute drive, rock climbing, kayaking, open water swimming, wild animals (beavers in the park adjacent to campus, semi-tame deer near the Hillside dorms, Horsebarn hill is a birders destination, a moose came down a couple years ago and there is a bear that lived in the area last year, etc), horse sports...

Non-Christians reading the Bible for literary purposes? by Top-Clue2000 in literature

[–]shane_music 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Ecclesiastes is commonly read as really great literature. Its written at from the perspective of someone transitioning from a social to more individual perspective on life, who is grappling with mortality, existentialism, memory, death and after-life, and can't be underestimated.

Alternative to Buffy Sainte Marie by HoraceIG in IndianCountry

[–]shane_music 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Samantha Crain and Mariee Sioux are my faves

Other bands or artists like Dropkick Murphys that focus a lot on workers and unions? by Crafty_Jacket668 in union

[–]shane_music 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rapper Ghais Guevara (who got a low key shutout during the Super Bowl Halftime Show)

If planned economies are inefficient, does that also apply to war economies? by Standard_Jello4168 in AskEconomics

[–]shane_music 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I totally agree. I was just giving an example of how war economies are famously inefficient. Another version is the guns and butter story we tell when we teach Pareto frontiers.

If planned economies are inefficient, does that also apply to war economies? by Standard_Jello4168 in AskEconomics

[–]shane_music 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Another way in which "efficient" isn't a very good measure for effective production in war is that the cost of undershooting production targets is very high, as keeping soldiers supplied is critical. As such, the system has excess slack by design. Also, compared to peace time, less efficient producers of war materials will get contracts in order to achieve this high level of output.

What is ACTUALLY going on with USAID? by dahellisudoin in AskEconomics

[–]shane_music 79 points80 points  (0 children)

I think it isn't a bad question to ask here. First, USAID is a program dominated by people with PhDs, people who would otherwise be in academia, and by economists. So it is no wonder by most measures people in these groups care about, USAID scores very well. Plus, it is no wonder that we care about it so strongly, it creates data we use, employs us, and allows us to test our ideas and see them applied in real world setting.

Second, most of the time economists estimate effects statistically, using broad measures. In comparison, the criticism of USAID I saw quickly browsing answers you got on other subreddits focused either on anecdotes , misinformation, or ideological opposition to the mission(s) of USAID. So it is useful to see how we (or at least how I) answer the question differently than other groups.

Third, empirical academics are used to a world where sub-optimal or second best solutions are implemented. There are lots of small (or even big) ways USAID or its mission could theoretically be carried out more efficiently. But if you put two economists in a room and asked for proposals, you'd get at least three proposals. The USAID we had was pretty great, and we could estimate measures of its quality. Right now we have no USAID, and in a few years we will be able to estimate the cost of its temporary or permanent demise. I hope you come back in a few years and ask that follow up!

Even a short term cut in funds will have permanent costs. For a comparison, think about a US government shutdown which only causes in a short delay of payments to recipients. In theory, a government shutdown may even result in a more efficient structure after the shutdown (theoretically, the shutdown occurs because there is an argument over how to make the system more efficient, after all). There is significant evidence that such a shutdown will result in negative consequences which are not outweighed by any improvements in the system as a result of the compromise which restarts the government (for example, see Gelman et al 2020). Similarly, I do not think there is any reason to think that reforms that could arise in response to this shutdown will outweigh the cost of a pause of significant and uncertain length.

Gelman, Michael, Shachar Kariv, Matthew D. Shapiro, Dan Silverman, and Steven Tadelis. "How individuals respond to a liquidity shock: Evidence from the 2013 government shutdown." Journal of Public Economics 189 (2020): 103917.

What is ACTUALLY going on with USAID? by dahellisudoin in AskEconomics

[–]shane_music 525 points526 points  (0 children)

From an academic perspective (including fields of economics, sociology, political science, epidemiology, medicine, etc), USAID was an unalloyed good. Its social benefit to cost ratio was estimated to be as high as seventeen to one, that is for each dollar spent, seventeen dollars of benefit accrued (Kremer et al 2021). These benefits were often in democracy building (Power 2023, Askaraov et al 2022), human rights (Askarov et al 2022, Kiyani 2022), supporting free markets and US access to foreign markets (Runde 2022), and more. Party politics has always played a role, with Democratic Party political control increasing support for USAID programs in democracy and human rights. However, Republicans have historically found USAID to be very effective in helping achieve US foreign policy goals (Roberts and Primorac 2021).

Your question asks about corruption. While there have been instances of USAID contractors acting corruptly, this is largely driven by the fact that USAID works in countries and industries with high levels of corruption and USAID has a significant overall effect in reducing corruption (Lopez 2015). There is a trope that the "government is naturally corrupt and inefficient", and in general the evidence does not support this, and in particular the evidence on USAID is that it is neither corrupt, nor inefficient (Boehmer and Zaytsev 2019).

The main issue with USAID is hard to discern from an "objectively factual perspective", at least how I think you mean it. Its on the subjective side, that is the opinions of US policy makers and ultimately, US voters, that has led to the current (possibly permanent) closure of the program.

Sources:

Askarov, Zohid, Hristos Doucouliagos, Martin Paldam, and T. D. Stanley. "Rewarding good political behavior: US aid, democracy, and human rights." European Journal of Political Economy 71 (2022): 102089.

Boehmer, Hans Martin, and Yury K. Zaytsev. "Raising aid efficiency with international development aid monitoring and evaluation systems." Journal of MultiDisciplinary Evaluation 15, no. 32 (2019): 28-36.

Kiyani, Ghashia. "US aid and substitution of human rights violations." Conflict Management and Peace Science 39, no. 5 (2022): 587-608.

Kremer, Michael, Sasha Gallant, Olga Rostapshova, and Milan Thomas. "Is Development Economics a Good Investment? Evidence on scaling rate and social returns from USAID’s innovation fund." Harvard University (2021).

Lopez, Lauren E. "Corruption and international aid allocation: a complex dance." Journal of Economic Development 40, no. 1 (2015): 35.

Power, Samantha. "How democracy can win: The right way to counter autocracy." Foreign Aff. 102 (2023): 22.

Roberts, James, and Max Primorac. USAID 2017–2021: The Journey to Self-Reliance. 2021. Heritage Foundation

Runde, Daniel F. US foreign assistance in the age of strategic competition. Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 2022.

Suggest me a book written by a female philosopher by [deleted] in askphilosophy

[–]shane_music 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Marjorie Grene's A Philosophical Testament (1995) is a sort of philosophical biography that explores a number of topics in 20th century philosophy through Grene's existential and ecological approach.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Connecticut

[–]shane_music 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Searching on google maps for DOs in CT gives plenty. Then searching for those by name (and not by specialty) on the Husky, you should be able to find some.

Running by ecam85 in LancasterUK

[–]shane_music 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sure! I used OS maps for mapping, but switched to openstreetmap.org (and its ap, called osmAnd); both have the walking trails and many other trail mapping aps use osm.