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Jun
22
Their food may or may not be worth the price, I’ve never been there for dinner. However, I do know that their club is crap. I would have to say that tonight was definitely the worst experience I’ve ever had in terms of going out for a night of fun. First of all, I got to the Powerplant Live area and no one knew how to get into Babalu Grill. The people blocking the area told us to go down the block, the people at the end of the block told us to go back to the original people. When we finally get in, the bouncer said it was $5 per person, but the person taking the cash said it was $10 per person. It was so loud outside from a concert going on that it was impossible to reconcile. Perhaps I was just tired from a long day’s work, but had the concert not been going on a mere 20 feet away, I would have disputed this.
We got there at 2215 (1015 pm) and their website said it becomes a club at 2200. They didn’t even play any music until 2315. Then it was one reggae song after another. My wife went to ask the DJ what was up with all the reggae, where was the merengue, salsa and bachata? (We waited until 2330 because I’ve been a DJ before and didn’t want to be rude) He told her that there was no spanish music tonight. I’m sorry, but is it such a bad assumption that a CUBAN restaurant that moonlights as a night club should play CUBAN music - ie merengue, salsa, and bachata????
So we left right away. I F-ING HATE dancing to reggae. I don’t mind listening to it and if we’re at a dance club and one or two songs go by, I’ll dance to it. But I didn’t pay $20 to dance reggae all night long, I wanted to dance to Spanish music. We haven’t been out dancing in over a year and really wanted to.
If Babalu had put a sign up that said it was going to be a reggae night, I would have never paid the $20 cover. But they didn’t say anything. I ask again, was I wrong to assume that a CUBAN restaurant would play CUBAN music???
I’m never going there again and, frankly, I’m pretty fed up with Baltimore and Inner Harbor. I’m going to give this one more shot some time in the future with a Salsa club in DC, but if they don’t play at least 50% salsa, I’m going nuts on the management.
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May
19
Finally, dominoes that won’t be knocked over while setting up!
Category: Baltimore, computer animation | 
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Back to Basics - Bullet Physics Engine Dominoes Part 1 from djotaku on Vimeo
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Jan
17
Funky Weather
Category: Baltimore, science | 2 Comments
I don’t know if it’s Global Warming or El Niño, but 2 weeks ago in the Baltimore-DC area it was 70 degrees and outside in a tank top in January. This week, in fact, yesterday or so, it’s snowing in Dallas, Texas! I’m hearing this has ruined orange, lemon, and avocado crops. What the heck is going on here?
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Jun
26
Everything has a price
Category: Baltimore, Financial, News | Leave a Comment
You may know, because they are relatively famous examples, that in British citizens wishing to enter inner London streets during peak times have to pay a toll. This was enacted based on the economic premise of marginal benefit. In case it’s been a while since you took Econ101, marginal benefit is the amount of money someone is willing to pay for a service. If they pay less then that, they feel they are getting a good deal. If they pay that price, the believe it is fair. They refuse to pay a price above that price. In other words, if your marginal benefit from a bag of chips is $0.50, you will cease to want a bag of chips if they cost $0.60. If you still want it at sixty cents, then that was your real marginal benefit. Therefore, the British government figured that they just had to raise the price high enough that a majority of people wouldn’t use the roads and then congestion would vanish. It has mostly worked out right.
In the United States the Route 91 Expressway in California is based on a similar concept. Instead of driving on the free roads, full of so much congestion, come drive on the toll roads, guaranteed to have less congestion because most people don’t want to pay to use a road. (Even Sim City 4: Rush Hour used this concept) It worked on first, until everyone started taking the road and then it wasn’t work paying anymore. The correct economic solution? Raise the price! So they did and it went from $2 to use to the road to $12.99 to use the road. And it worked - as the prices went up, people stopped using it until the right amount of people were using it again. It has been operating for about 10 years and now other states are getting ready to try this.
Hitting home for me is the fact that Maryland is looking to add a similar toll highway on the Capitol Beltway. Anyone who’s ever been there knows that it is infamous for have WAY too much congestion. A toll road would relieve some congestion while providing additional tax dollars for the state. Additionally, this road is going to really be high tech - at least that’s what they have planned for it. Sensors in the road will communicate with the toll boths to dynamically adjust toll prices to reflect the actual congestion on the road. The more congested it was, the more it would cost. This would allow a more complex pricing structure than just peak and off peak. As a techno-geek, I’m excited about the prospect.
When I do move to Maryland, I probably wouldn’t be using either one too often because I’d be workign in-state, not commuting to DC. However, as I think the current shortest route to NYC goes through the Beltway, I’d certainly welcome the ability to go a little faster.
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