A Notable Sacrifice

Gilbert Arenas, All-Star NBA player for the Washington Wizards, recently signed a six-year $111 Million contract.

But, get this: "the Wizards actually offered him $127 million, but that he took a lesser contract to give Washington room under the NBA’s luxury tax limit to possibly bring in another player.
“It’s really unheard of for a player to do the kind of things that he did and make the sacrifice for the team that he did,” team president Ernie Grunfeld said."

Let's see him donate a lung, then we'll talk sacrifice.

Done with Exams

So, now I am a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society. Quite an exclusive club; there are only about 3300 members throughout the U.S. and Canadia. There are probably that many lawyers and dentists combined just in the greater Hartford area.

It was a long struggle. Over 5 and a half years of studying and test taking. The demand for actuaries is high, the competition is intense, and the rewards are worth it.

And yet, the examination process leaves much to be desired. I wondered many, many times if the material over which I was racking my brain had any practical application in my own day-to-day work. You study and study and memorize and study some more. You learn every single nuance of every paragraph of every paper on the syllabus. Even if you know you could not be any more prepared, you take the exam and walk out of the room not feeling totally confident that you passed. That never happens in college, right? You study and prepare for the final, walk into the room very confident, finish the exam in half the time, and know you got at least a B+. Not so with actuarial exams.

And if you don't like your results (read when you fail) you can't see your graded exam. One can appeal, but getting a re-grade is very difficult. And how can you appeal that your exam should be re-graded if you can't even see what you wrote to use to defend your position. It's not like you can remember what you wrote down on any particular problem two months later.

I could go on and on about how I feel that the examination system can and should be improved, but I'll stop here. I should say that those who create an exam and those who grade them do so on their own time -- all volunteer work, so it is expected that there should be some weaknesses with the system.

Anyway, I am very relieved that it is all over.

Writer's Lab #9

A Math Puzzle

"A Ben and Jerry's delivery truck loaded with quarts of Phish Food leaves Burlington, Vermont at 9:30 am traveling south-southwest at 55 miles-per-hour with a 4 knots-per-hour head wind.
"At 9:45 am a Breyer's truck filled with Plain Vanilla half-gallons leaves Philadelphia traveling north-northeast at 55 miles per hour with an undetermined head wind.
"When these two trucks collide, how many people will run into the street to feast on free ice cream?"
The class was stunned silent.
"Well?" Mrs. Archive asked. "Martin!" she exclaimed, pointing at him. "How many?"
"Uh, I dunno. Twelve?" Martin answered squeamishly.
"Twelve?" the teacher asked. "How did you come to that answer?"
"Uh, well, uh, 'cause I'm twelve years old?"
"Keep in mind Martin," Mrs. Archive explained, "that the trucks will crash somewhere near New Haven, Connecticut during the lunch rush. It is a hot day, so a lot of people are going to want ice cream."
"I believe I know the answer, " Jamie stated confidently. "Forty-seven."
"How did you arrive at that number, Jamie?" Mrs. Archive quizzed.
"Well, it was simple. I merely calculated the third moment of the arc-coversant derivative ellipsoid field quadrant. Multiplied by a factor to account for those who are honest and won't steal ice cream from two crashed vehicles. Oh, and I factored in the E.M.T. who would otherwise normally jump in for free ice cream, but having been trained in emergency response instead goes to help mend the badly broken bodies of the drivers."
"You are correct," Mrs. Archive said proudly.