Update from Shapiro

Here I am again in the Shapiro Science Library working extra shift earning extra bucks. Working 5-8 am is definitely not as bad as working 10pm-5am; there's less work and more pay (15 hourly rate). Technically working during such hours provide me ample opportunities to do some serious studying, but apart from completing my Spanish homework, all I did was surfing the net and calling home. And yeah, now I'm updating my blog...

Finals week is crawling in surreptitiously, and it's less than two weeks before I can go back to Malaysia. I am not particularly excited about it knowing that I still have to do tonnes of studying for my course M exam. Hope everything will turn out fine though.

Last week, I finally experienced my first bar crawling (in fact it's the first time I've gone to a bar in AA). Informally organized by SAM, we went to 3 bars in total (Mitch's, Jug and Ricks). Unavoidably I drank a considerable amount of beer, but was doing quite okay I think. It's interesting enough to see a whole different "world" out there, and seeing friends that get all rowdy was even more entertaining :P.

Went to Birch Run also to get a couple of stuff. Got a flat tire on our way back, but luckily a highway patrol officer was there for help. Learned an important lesson that day: persevere and don't give up easily. Thanks Hewei!

Grand Canyon Skywalk

Starting from March 28th 2007, tourists to Grand Canyon will be able to admire the breathtaking scenery of the multicolored gorge in a different way; they can now choose to experience "floating" 4000 ft over the valley! This is made possible by the completion of the Grand Canyon Skywalk project. Basically the Skywalk is a U-shaped glass walkway extending off the cliff. The height of the structure over the basin is simply astounding. The diagram follows illustrates why:


Attached is a video that featuring this newly opened attraction:

Tourists should not get too excited yet though, as each visitor is currently charged 75 USD in total to experience such a walk. Perhaps the most ridiculous thing is that cameras are not allowed in the structure!! Simply stupid...but I think I'll still go for it if I ever visit Grand Canyon. The height should make my legs all wobbly!!

p/s: A post by a blogger who felt cheated:
Hicks-Wright.net

Matsu Takako - 松隆子

Simply mesmerizing! I can watch it over and over again...it just soothes my soul!! She's so natural, so unpretentious, her smile so infectious...Can't believe there's such divine beauty in this world!

Game theory application

So today I participated in a paid experiment entitled "Game Theory, Culture and Institutional Path Dependence". A study funded by the National Science Foundation, it intends to provide insight into certain features of decision making. But that is none of my business really. I was signed up for it because of the enticing 15/hr rate, and also because Ren Jie had previously earned tonnes for just playing games. Since I have the time (well, did I?), I was like 何乐而不为?

Basically, the gameplay required me to make decisions choosing strategies in each individual game. Everything was done on the computer, and there was no way of knowing who your partners were. A total of 200 rounds were played, plus extra rounds given in a 90% chance basis. The payoff matrix was as followed:


Clearly, choosing B would be my dominant strategy, since it makes me strictly better of regardless of what player 2 chooses (I'm player 1). If the player 2 plays his dominant strategy too, both of us will end up achieving the Nash equilibrium. After playing the dominant strategy repeatedly for like 30 rounds, I got bored (because the partners kept on playing the same strategy too) and started thinking whether there was any other way to play the game. Then it struck me that I could actually apply my game theory skills in the game.

Instead of playing the dominant strategy, both me and my partners could actually be better off if we "collude". We could each take turns sacrificing our payoffs to make the others profit more. For instance, instead of getting (5,5) all the time, we could get (4,14) in the first round, (14,4) in the second round, (4,14) again in the third round and so on. In that way, the average payoffs would be higher for us.

Hence, I started sending out "signals" to my partners. I began to commit in playing A and B alternately, and to my delight, my partners took the hint after like just 2 rounds. So from that point onwards, we happily "colluded" all the way till the end of the game.

Too bad there was like only about 215 rounds. In the end I got 33 bucks from the game, plus a base pay of 5 bucks. That's a total of 38 dollars (tax free since it's in cash) in 70 minutes!! Only if they have such games every week...