Author: Probable Pattern

Former Marine and Curious Critter

Divine Ecstasy

This program was not nearly as popular as Tristan and Iseult earlier this week but I was pleasantly surprised by the voicing of the Gabrieli pieces. I am not sure how much that should be attributed to the arranger versus the original since the brass instruments featured in the original are not longer commonly available. Of course, Iestyn Davies was very impressive as the countertenor in Bach’s Cantata No 170. Program

Ordinary Least Squares

Let’s estimate a stock’s beta and alpha using the CAPM. First prepare the data by calculating stock returns and market returns. Subtract the risk-free rate from both and form a data.frame called “urdata” where ExRet is the excess return on the stock and MktRP is the risk premium on the market. Next, specify the formula for the estimated model and call it “m2”. Use the lm() function to estimate the model and assign the results to a variable called “ols”. Finally, use summary() to see the regression results.

m2=ExRet~MktRP
ols=lm(m2,data=urdata)
summary(ols)

If you are using a lot of fixed effects, try using coef(ols)[1:5,] to get the first 5 rows of coefficients.

Ama

Another beautiful combination of aesthetics and athletics by French freediver, Julie Gautier. “Ama” is Japanese for “woman of the sea” and refers to Japanese pearl divers. Listen carefully to the time signature of the music.

Dvorak Symphony No. 8

Dvorak8I am always pleasantly surprised when I attend a Cleveland Orchestra concert for the featured piece and discover another piece to love even more. This evening, both the Watersprite by Dvorak and Samuel Barber’s Cello Concerto were far more interesting than Symphony No. 8. I almost feel the need to look up the score for the Watersprite since conductor Alan Gilbert seemed to have trouble keeping woodwinds and strings together on some phrases. While I find it hard to believe such great musicians would mess this up, the resulting sound did not fit within the context of the piece so it is equally hard to believe that Dvorak meant for that interpretation. I do have to mention that during the Watersprite, Dvorak clearly had a fever and the only prescription was more triangle. The cello soloist, Alisa Weilerstein, was impressive as expected from musicians featured with the orchestra. Program

LaTeX Template

Learning LaTeX can be daunting if you don’t know where to start. Here is a template for a standard paper that only has text. Tables, figures, and equations can be added later and there are plenty of examples available to those who spend a few minutes on Google. I recommend using a web based LaTeX distribution like Overleaf or ShareLaTeX to get started but eventually you will want to install LaTeX on your own computer.

documentclass[a4paper]{article} usepackage[english]{babel} usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} usepackage{geometry} geometry{body={6.5in, 9.0in}, left=1.0in, top=1.0in} usepackage{setspace,anysize} usepackage{harvard}
title{Your Title}
author{ {small textbf{Your Name}} \ { small University or Organizationthanks{primary contact information.}} \ }
date{today}

begin{document} maketitle singlespacing

begin{abstract} Short explanation of what your paper is about. end{abstract}

noindent textit{Keywords:} \ \ noindent textit{JEL classification:} letthefootnoterelaxfootnotetext{*Thank people that helped you get data or made suggestions to improve your paper.}

newpage setcounter{page}{1} doublespacing

section*{Introduction} Describe your question, why it is important, and how other people have contributed to the knowledge about the subject.

section*{Methodology} How are you going to investigate your question?

section*{Results} What are your findings?

section*{Conclusion} What does it all mean?

begin{thebibliography}{999} singlespacing

harvarditem[]{}{}{}LastName, F., 2012. Paper Title. textit{Journal}, 104(3), 519–534. harvarditem[]{}{}{}LastName, F., 2012. Another Paper. textit{Journal}, 104(3), 519–534.

end{thebibliography}

end{document}

Lebanon

IMG_20151113_074021I was invited to give a research presentation at the American University of Beirut. Unfortunately, there was a bombing from the Islamic State shortly after I landed. The day of my presentation was a national day of mourning but the finance faculty was incredibly friendly and hospitable.

AUB

Beirut felt safe to walk around on my own although there are constant reminders of the civil war. Bullet holes remain in some buildings and there was a problem with trash collection for the past few weeks. Electricity is cut off twice a day at a relatively regular schedule due to insufficient generator capacity. Syrian refugees where moving farther into the city to beg on the streets. Lebanon had allowed approximately 1 million Syrian refugees into the country despite having a population of approximately 6 million.

IMG_20151113_190811

As a former French colony, there are wonderful French restaurants and bakeries everywhere. Cats are also everywhere which keeps the rat population in check. The Most Lebanese Taxi is famous in the city and everyone takes pictures of it wherever it goes.

The next day, I visited the city of Byblos, known as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. There are some ruins from the Romans and a crusader castle in the UNESCO World Heritage Site which is well worth the tour. The city itself is entirely modern with a thriving nightlife despite the evening power outage.

IMG_20151114_143913IMG_20151114_151108IMG_20151114_144504IMG_20151114_172233