Benton Crane

All search engines face a problem:

How do you label all the images on the web with descriptive terms so your image-search-engine produces highly relevant results? Do you hire people to go through one by one and describe them? Of course not!

Google set up a simple game to swindle bored internet surfers into doing it for free (I’m amazed that people actually participate). This is how Google describes it:

You’ll be randomly paired with a partner who’s online and using the feature. Over a two-minute period, you and your partner will:

• View the same set of images.
• Provide as many labels as possible to describe each image you see.
• Receive points when your label matches your partner’s label. The number of points will depend on how specific your label is.
• See more images until time runs out.

After time expires, you can explore the images you’ve seen and the websites where those images were found. And we’ll show you the points you’ve earned throughout the session.

Next time you find the image you are looking for make sure to think of that sad little internet drones who made it possible–for free!

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I just added up the receipts for our move across the country:

• Miles Driven: 2576
• Number of states: 11 (Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virgina) 
• Average miles per gallon in our 96′ Camry: 31.74
• Average price per gallon of gasoline: $4.04
• Gallons Burned: 81.16
• Money spent on gas: $329.03
• Money spent on toll roads: $36.25
• Location of most expensive fill-up: Parachute, CO ($4.30/gal)
• Location of least expensive fill-up: Topeka, KA ($3.89/gal)

I learned a few interesting things along the way:

• There are road bikers who are insane enough to ride over Vail Pass (elevation 10,500 ft above sea level).
• As you cross the Continental Divide at the top of the Colorado Rockies, there is a tunnel that cuts through the mountain so you only have to clime to around 11,000 ft above sea level instead of 13,000).
• Pennsylvania has a similar tunnel through their Allegheny Mountain, but after coming from The Rockies it seemed unnecessary to drill through a mound that most westerners would consider a hill or a butte.
• Kansas Sucks
• The “Tom Sawyer Cave” really exists near Mark Twain’s home town of Hannibal, MO.
• The College Football Hall of Fame closes at 5pm (we arrived at 5:08).

Here are some pics from the journey:

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I spent 2002 and 2003 in Portugal as a Mormon missionary. At some point I remember calculating their gas price in dollars per gallon. If I remember correctly, it was around an astonishing $4.00/gal. I remember feeling grateful that I had never faced such an outrageous price back home (our prices were around $1.50/gallon).

I read a headline today about another record break in the price of oil (not exactly eye-catching news anymore). It caused me to wonder, though, “What are other countries paying?”

I started with Great Britain. As of today their average price of unleaded “petrol” is 113.7 pence/liter or 1.14£/liter. Convert that to gallons you get 4.31£/gallon, and with today’s exchange rate it comes out to $8.47/gal!

As of April 3, Japan was paying $4.96/gal. Both GB and Japan make our average of $3.79/gallon seem reasonable.

My curiosity led me to a CNN report from 2006. Although it is two years outdated, it shows the extreme disparity in gas prices throughout the world. Great Britain and many other European countries top the list (not surprising). The big shocker comes at the bottom of the list—Venezuela only pays a few cents per gallon! Apparently, there are no gas taxes, and they only consume their own oil.

Anyone want to go to Venezuela?

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I just finished my term project for my environmental economics class. I started out looking for a relationship between recent gas prices and hybrid sales. What I found was interesting. Check out the graphs below (click on them for a clearer picture).

You see that gas prices have a lot of seasonal fluctuation. I was only interested in the overall trend, so I applied what we call a “weighted moving average smoother” to the data–basically it just takes out the “noise” and leaves the overall trend (I used this smoother on all the graphs below). Here is what is looks Like:

Because nominal prices tell us nothing about the real cost of gas (doesn’t account for the changing value of the dollar or the level of wealth we enjoy), I also collected GDP data:

Using nominal gas price and GDP data, I created a relative gas price (gas price/GDP). It is interpreted as the cost of gas relative to our level of wealth:

Notice the relative cost of gas was falling all through the 1990s and for the most part increasing throughout the current decade. Now look at the ratio between car and truck sales in the U.S. during the same time period:

In 1990 there were about two cars sold for every truck. That ratio continuously fell until it finally bottomed out in late 2004 when there were more trucks being sold than cars (relative gas prices had already been increasing for 2-5 years).

Now look at the number of hybrids sold as a percentage of total vehicle sales:

Notice that hybrids took a sharp turn around the same time the car-truck trend switched directions.

My data does not allow me to control for consumer tastes and preferences or countless other factors that contribute to these trends. That aside, it appears that consumers react to shifts in relative gas price trends with about a 2-5 year lag (at least in terms of the type of vehicles we purchase).

In hind sight, I wish I had collected data for a larger time period. It would be helpful to see other shifts in relative gas prices (think 1970’s gas crisis). Did consumers react similarly? Was the lag in their reaction similar?

I collected GDP and U.S. automotive sales data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Gas price data came from the Energy Information Administration. And hybrid sales data came from Green Car Congress.

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Britt’s parents took us to Moab. Here are some photos from the trip.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

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Britt and her mom, for quite some time, have been saying they think we are having a girl. I took an opposite stance and started telling everyone it’s a boy (because I decide of course).

I was wrong. We just got the ultrasound and we’re going to have a little girl!

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I voted yesterday. I was nervous there might be things on the ballot that I didn’t know anything about. Fortunately, the only thing on the ballot is the presidential primary.

I was glad I went early for three reasons:

1. There was absolutely no line!
2. I recently moved and had to fill out a change of address form and show proof of my new address. Apparently you can’t make that change on election day.
3. I wasn’t affiliated with any party so in order to vote for Ron Paul* I had to affiliate myself with the Republican party. I guess you can’t do that on election day either.

So if you haven’t voted yet, go! All you need is your driver’s license and a few minutes (if you’ve moved since you registered to vote you will also need a piece of mail with your name and address). For those of you here in Utah County, go to the county building in Provo (Center Street and 100 E.) between 8am and 5pm. Or you can also go to the American Fork Library between 3 and 7pm. You have until Friday February 1st for early voting.

* I chose Ron Paul because ALL of his platforms are based on very simple and true principles: personal liberty and limited government. If you haven’t taken 15 minutes to listen to one of his interviews or read an article, please do. Here is a good article. You will be shocked to find a politician that makes perfect sense and is 100% unapologetic about standing for what’s right.

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After deciding awhile back that I want to go into market research, I started working hard to learn econometrics and make myself qualified and prepared to enter that field. Today an opportunity opened up that I am confident will be a huge stepping stone. Professor Joseph Price hired me as a research assistant to aid him in a study that shows the effects of pornography on marriages.

I am super excited to get on the job training in data collection, interpretation, and analysis. I am even more elated that the job will place me in such an important study.

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Brittany and I got the happy news about a month before Christmas, but because she was threatening miscarriage (I think that was the term the doctor used), we decided to hold off on spreading the news. On Christmas day we gave both her parents and mine some baby clothes and a note announcing the due date of their up and coming grand-child. Because of the somewhat precarious situation of the pregnancy, we asked both families to keep it a secret until things were a little more stable. Both sets of grandparents-to-be, however, couldn’t contain themselves and both extended families knew within days.

The pregnancy has smoothed out and we now have a status of “normal.” Assuming things continue to go well, we will be parents in August. Any suggestions on a name?

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Things I’m extremely grateful for (I would fight and die for them):

• Liberty–I’m blessed to live in one of the world’s most free countries.
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ–I’m grateful for its guiding principles as well as its ability to heal pain and change people.
• Brittany–I’m grateful for a wife who loves me and loves the Lord.
• Family–I’m grateful for parents, siblings, and even in-laws who all somehow put up with me.
• Friends–I’m grateful for the fun and the support they provide.

Things I’m grateful for (I would pay good money for them):

• Recreation–skiing, snowboarding, wakeboarding, biking, hiking, camping, climbing, etc.
• Nice Cars–fast, refined, quiet, luxurious sport-sedans are my favorite.
• Motorcycles–nothing quite like a cruise with my wife up the canyon on a summer’s afternoon.
• Sports–the NBA playoffs are probably my favorite.
• Technology–electronic devices are cool, but the Internet is freak’n awesome.
• Books–careful, they are addicting.
• Movies–two hours where I forget all my stresses.

Things I’m grateful for but shouldn’t be:

• Maple Bars–I have a love-hate relationship with whoever invented that dang delectable.
• Tan Skin–It’s nice to look at and gives us confidence, but I guess it will kill us some day.

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