BetFair trained a bunch of eagles and hawks for publicity at the 2010 Ryder Cup. – [PICTURES]

Thanks to Mike Robb, we have now access to those great, awesome pics. Enjoy. [You can right-click them and save the bigger pics on your hard drive.]

HOW THOSE PICS WERE TAKEN:

– An &#8220-eight year-old Ferruginous Eagle called Olga and a family of Harris Hawks [] have been in-flight training for the past two weeks in the run up to The Ryder Cup&#8221-.

– Bird handler Trevor Smith: &#8220-The birds have been hand-reared and normally perform at shows or in films, but this is certainly one of their most unique jobs. The training has been good and the birds are raring to stretch their wings across Celtic Manor and take on a Tiger.&#8221-

Justin Wolfers pumped up the shitty, play-money prediction exchange run by InTrade/WSJ.

Shit here.

The fake-money exchange is pitiful, and to have a professor pumps up that shit is pitiful too.

UPDTE: That was the 2008 election. Fortunately, this crappy exchange is dead. Here&#8217-s Freakonomics on the 2010 election.

Political Forecasting: Justin Wolfers vs. Nate Silver

Andrew Gelman nailed it:

In summary, &#8220-momentum&#8221- can exist, but the places where you&#8217-ll see it is in races where current public opinion is out of step with best predictions. The mere information that a race has a 5-point swing is not enough to predict a future shift in that direction. As Nate emphasizes, such a prediction is only appropriate in the context of real-world information, hypotheses of &#8220-factors above and beyond the direction in which the polls have moved in the past.&#8221-