Don James, RIP

Very sad news for Washington Husky football fans: legendary coach Don James has passed on.

Hat tip: Ken Troske

Nobel Prize

Congratulations to Eugene Fama, Lars Hansen and Robert Shiller, winners of the 2013 Nobel prize in Economics!

And some background: questions and answers about the economics prize.

Penn State 43, Michigan 40 (4OT)

Michigan looked wretched indeed in a quadruple-overtime (!) loss to sanction-hobbled Penn State.

If Michigan had Washington's schedule, they'd be 2-4. They get another easy opponent next week in Indiana, but at some point they are going to have to get their act together (e.g. find a running game and stop turning the ball over) or things won't be pretty.

Oregon 45, Washington 24

The game was closer than the score suggests, as Washington was in it through three quarters, but there is a reason Oregon is #2 in the nation. Sigh.

I am still trying to figure out why ESPN College Gameday was in Seattle when the game was on Fox.

MIchigan 42, Minnesota 13

This game was closer than the score suggests, though Michigan did improve their performance relative to the game against Akron. I worry that they are in for a rude awakening when they finally play someone good.

Given that Penn State lost to Indiana for the first time in history yesterday, that time is at least two weeks away, and probably three or four weeks away.

Stanford 31, Washington 28

Sigh .. Washington almost beat Stanford on their home turf and was in the game to the final minute or two . The defense was particularly impressive. Unlike the coach, I think the call that ended the Huskies final drive was probably correct. I agree with the Times columnist who says that coming close, while unsatisfying, justifies the hype for this team.

Next week: Oregon at Husky Stadium. I think they have a decent chance to win, which is the first time that's been true in a very long time.

Movie: Rush

This film is fun on many levels, and covers a piece of sports history that few Americans will know much, if anything, about.

A fine review from the NYT hits the right notes

Recommended.

The Economist on the perils and pleasures of roundabouts.

Any Economist story ending in "Swindon wasn't built in a day" is surely worth reading.

Cool projection-mapping video

Hat tip: Dan Black, who found it on Steve Landsburg's blog.

Count day

I am not sure whether to call this "bureaucrats respond to incentives" or "why spending more doesn't increase achievement." My sense is that these sorts of shenanigans happen everywhere in Michigan, though the Detroit response is probably on the extreme end. Count day itself, of course, represents a response to the fact that standard enrollment numbers are not reliable. That fact, in turn, is itself a bureaucratic response to incentives. Public management is not trivial.