How fast could Bolt have run?

This great article computes the time Usain Bolt would have taken for his 100m dash had he not decided to celebrate towards the end of the race.

The article has an excellent plot of Bolt's speed as a function of time, and the peak speed is a phenomenal 12.5 m/s. From the data in the article, the 9.5 second barrier is not far.

On this subject, another interesting entry on Freakonomics notes that the peak speed record is now held by the 200m race. The low speed in the initial 20m of the 100m dash keeps the average low.

The economics of auto dealers

Had my second car buying experience yesterday. The economics of buying a big ticket item is quite strange because of the small margins and customization options on cars. A 5% increase in price for the customer may translate to a doubling of profit for the dealer. So there is a natural incentive for the dealer to push high margin options to the customer. This makes the whole process of buying a car painful for the alert customer, having to say not a million times. Worse, for the for the unaware customer, there is plenty of ripoff. Given the tenacity of dealers in selling LoJack, Teflon Coat and other crap, it is quite likely they do catch a good share of unsespecting users.

Now the question is this. Honda is making a good product, and from what I know they have respectable business practices. They want to sell me a car. Why do they have these shady characters coming between me and them? Part of the answer is that under the current model, there is no incentive for any one company to clamp down on dealers. There will always be unsuspecting buyers, who can be parted with more of their money. Any car company that does not take the "stupid money" will end up with lower profits for its dealers, and in the end raising the price for the smart money.

But this trend is reversing, and I see great potential for sites like CardDirect.

Kobe Beef

On my trip to Japan, I got to try Kobe beef, possibly the most famous beef in the world. Yes, the rumors are true: Cattle are raised in small farms (20 cattle is considered a big farm), they are fed beer for fattening, and they are hand massaged to improve muscle tissue. And probably most importantly, the cattle are from a special breed called Tajima-ushi.

Kobe beef is extremely tender, unbelievably juicy and superb in taste. The presentation in Royal Mopr restaurant was in a traditional Japanese style. We sat at the Chef's table, which had a large steel hot-plate. First the chef fried some garlic slices in the oil to flavor the oil. Then he very carefully cut the meat into small pieces, and cooked them with a small touch of this oil. All cooking was medium-rare, to avoid the criminal penalties that should be associated with overcooking Kobe Beef. The meat was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper, and its natural taste did the rest.

The only catch is the price. The economics of raising such cattle makes gives a $100 price tag for a 150g cut, making Kobe beef one of the priciest foods in this pricy nation.

A Bollywood Tehelka

itwofs.com is a website that lists Bollywood's copying of song tunes from various sources: Korean to Hindi (Bhool bulaiya), German to Hindi (Dilbar mere), English to Hindi (Ek haseena thi), Rabindra Sangeet to Hindi (Chookar mere man ko), Polish to Hindi (Dil Tadap Tadap ke). And there are some which just make you weep (Akele Hain from QSQT).

As one can expect, Mr Inspiration, Anu Malik, has the longest list of all.