The Slack Attack

This weekend

2012-01-30T01:01:00.001-05:00

Firstly, an observation: Rick Santorum is, by every account, a loving husband and father. He doesn't present a false face to the public - he's an honest, big-government-y social conservative, and he has a three-year old with a genetic convention.

He left the trail, shortly before a vote that will likely end his candidacy, to be with his daughter, and my thoughts are with him and his family. One girl, one life, is ultimately a statistic most of the time, unless we know them personally, but in this case I think such stories and our respect for them are part of a common humanity that I want to preserve.

But in other news, I had a great weekend. I indulged by inner geek and watched a tournament of my company's Starcraft 2 team, currently competing in an online tournament, and went from that event to a rollicking party at a friend's apartment, where a few stronger friendships were made. :) Saturday I went skiing, and left feeling good about it.

After a tough time snowboarding, and an even rougher ski excursion during college, I was a little wary and was planning on going back to boarding. But with all of my friends on skis, I followed the crowd, and found myself.....not falling.

So then I took a "blue" course (more difficult), and....didn't fall. Reality re-asserted itself a bit later when a snowboarder got in my way and I realized that braking and steering were mutually exclusive for me, but as I got better at sharply turning right (think Zoolander, but opposite) I felt more and more comfortable. I now feel confident on skis. Yay!

And then there was another party that will really need its own post to explain, and snow tubing today.

So in all....good weekend.

More on Epic

2012-01-29T22:31:00.000-05:00

Steve Dickmann, of Epic, recently gave a talk in Madison about my company and its history. It's fascinating if you want to know more about Epic (looking at you, parents), but also for how new and recent the company infrastructure is.

On Yale, Sexual Assault, and College Hearings

2012-01-27T00:11:00.000-05:00

The New York Times is up with a story about Patrick Witt, the Yale Quarterback that famously chose to play against Harvard instead of attending his Rhodes Interview in Atlanta.

But Witt was no longer a contender for the Rhodes, a rare honor reserved for those who excel in academics, activities and character. Several days earlier, according to people involved on both sides of the process, the Rhodes Trust had learned through unofficial channels that a fellow student had accused Witt of sexual assault. The Rhodes Trust informed Yale and Witt that his candidacy was suspended unless the university decided to re-endorse it.

Witt’s accuser has not gone to the police, nor filed what Yale considers a formal complaint. The New York Times has not spoken with her and does not know her name.

This is one subject with which I am entirely acquainted, with over three years of membership in Williams's student-led Rape And Sexual Assault Network (RASAN) and four years on Williams's Honor and Discipline committees. I know enough about Yale, as well, to claim some familiarity with its campus culture, which resembled Williams in many ways.

I have nothing but condemnation for whoever leaked that story to the Times.

Sexual assault is an incredibly fraught subject at colleges - alcohol and hormones often lead to decisions that one or both parties regret. In some of these cases, explicit consent is never given, and while legal line is clear (no consent = rape), the moral line is much less so, especially when memories are blurred and intentions are misunderstood. Yet while this is true, it is also true that many, many sexual assaults on college campuses (and beyond them, in the real world) are never reported - the perpetrator is generally someone well known to the victim, unlike "stranger rape" scenarios of dark alleys, self-defense classes, and pepper spray.

But such accusations are violent to the social fabric of a campus, and for this reason often remain only as rumor, hearsay, or unproven allegations. And even if brought up: what proof can be found to differentiate between a sexual act with consent and a sexual act without it, save physical bruises? Anyone who reacts by "playing dead" in the situation has no recourse, and is faced with a variety of obstacles in the form of "friends" who would never believe that anyone would do something so horrible.

This is a recipe for all kinds of problems, because in this environment, survivors are silenced even as the forces that seek to aid them can cause miscarriages of justice in the other direction. But in my experience, the former is much more true than the latter.

We don't know what happened with Patrick Witt and the unnamed female - alcohol could make both of them unsure. But now, because of the rush to raise him up as the best example of us, the media will tear him down via an allegation that Yale MUST keep private. I have been on the inside of these sorts of discussions and conversation; what is known publicly can often vary radically from the truth - students who say they want to "take time off" but are actually suspended, for example.

All we know is that the accusation made its way to the Rhodes folks, and that they wanted a re-endorsement. We know also that Witt withdrew his application. That's all.

I can make bets, based on my own experience, about what actually happened. But that's irresponsible in a public forum. Instead, I just hope that Yale's internal processes provided justice to both parties, whatever that was in this case, and that this incident does not dissuade other survivors from coming forward.

Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square to mark anniversary of uprising

2012-01-25T15:30:00.000-05:00

Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square to mark anniversary of uprising:

Tens of thousands of Egyptians gathered in Tahrir Square in Cairo today to mark the anniversary of the uprising that eventually led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak. Political divides are still in force with liberals and Islamists differing on their visions for the future of the country. Mubarak is now on trial for complicity in the deaths of protesters. The uprising in Egypt last year was one of the initial protests of what is called the Arab Spring, which has included the slaying of Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy and the ongoing protests in Syria. -- Lloyd Young (31 photos total)

Egyptians gather in their thousands in Tahrir Square to mark the one year anniversary of the revolution on Jan. 25, 2012 in Cairo Egypt. Tens of thousands have gathered in the square on the first anniversary of the Arab uprising which toppled President Hosni Mubarak. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Creativity

2012-01-24T23:38:00.000-05:00

April Fool's Day 1974: The Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe: Residents of Sitka, Alaska were alarmed when the long-dormant volcano neighboring them, Mount Edgecumbe, suddenly began to belch out billows of black smoke. Did this mean that the volcano was active again and would soon erupt? Terrified residents spilled out of their homes onto the streets to gaze up at the volcano, and calls poured into the local authorities. Luckily it turned out that man, not nature, was responsible for the smoke. A local prankster named Porky Bickar had flown hundreds of old tires into the volcano's crater and then lit them on fire, all in a (successful) attempt to fool the city dwellers into believing that the volcano was stirring to life.

SOTU

2012-01-24T23:30:00.000-05:00

The State of the Union is a long speech, and a chance to talk directly to Americans.

But when I don't remember anything an hour later except the slogan "Built to last," there's a problem. This speech didn't bypass the media filter - it requires it, and takes advantage of populism to get applause that's not deserved. I wanted a smart speech. What I got, for the most part, was a cynical one.

Texas UAV Enthusiast Uses Pilotless Aircraft to Uncover River Contamination | Security Management

2012-01-24T23:08:00.000-05:00

Texas UAV Enthusiast Uses Pilotless Aircraft to Uncover River Contamination | Security Management: Pig blood had been flowing from the packing plant into the creek from an underground pipe near the back of the facility, according to Dallas County Health and Human Services and the search warrant. There is an active criminal investigation into the discharge, said Andrea Morrow from the TCEQ press office.

Columbia Packing Company issued a statement Wednesday saying that it was “surprised by the allegations raised last week and was previously unaware of any such concerns.”

“A good news drone story for a change. Every environmental department really ought to have one,” Mortimer wrote.

On Epic

2012-01-24T23:07:00.000-05:00

Wisconsin State Journal:

The company has 5,225 employees and will likely add 1,000 this year.
Between 33 percent and 44 percent of the U.S. population is served by hospitals and clinics using Epic's software systems, which track about 100,000 data elements involved in health care.
The company started with an $80,000 loan "to buy our first computer," Dickmann said. Since then, Epic has turned a profit every year but one and expects to show 2011 revenues of $1.2 billion.
Fifty-five percent of the employees install the software systems or handle technical support. "We have 600 to 700 people breaking for the airport on Monday afternoon," Dickmann said. Epic has only five sales people.

This is just adorable - start at 1:20 or 1:25.

2012-01-22T01:16:00.002-05:00

Fumblerules of Grammar

2012-01-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

Fumblerules of Grammar:

(Source: Maximum Awesome; Image: William Safire in 1968, courtesy of NYTimes.)

Remember to never split an infinitive.

A preposition is something never to end a sentence with.

The passive voice should never be used.

Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.

Don't use no double negatives.

Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn't.

Reserve the apostrophe for it's proper use and omit it when its not needed.

Do not put statements in the negative form.

Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

No sentence fragments.

Proofread carefully to see if you words out.

Avoid commas, that are not necessary.

If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.

A writer must not shift your point of view.

Eschew dialect, irregardless.

And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.

Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!

Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.

Hyphenate between sy-llables and avoid un-necessary hyphens.

Write all adverbial forms correct.

Don't use contractions in formal writing.

Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

It is incumbent on us to avoid archaisms.

If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck in the language.

Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.

Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.

Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, resist hyperbole.

Also, avoid awkward or affected alliteration.

Don't string too many prepositional phrases together unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Always pick on the correct idiom.

"Avoid overuse of 'quotation "marks."'"

The adverb always follows the verb.

Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; They're old hat; seek viable alternatives.

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

Employ the vernacular.

Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

Contractions aren't necessary.

Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

One should never generalize.

Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."

Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.

Be more or less specific.

Understatement is always best.

One-word sentences? Eliminate.

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

capitalize every sentence and remember always end it with a point

No, the power of reason. Kinda.

2012-01-20T20:11:00.000-05:00

The Power Of Internet Protest:

In an infographic:

Alex Howard notes that all of the GOP candidates spoke against SOPA last night:

Santorum, Romney and Gingrich have publicly come out all against these bills. If asked last week, would they have given the same answers? I’ve been frustrated that so few questions about the Internet and technology have been asked. Clearly, the political calculus around supporting them has shifted. At least Ron Paul is consistent; he — and Rep Michele Bachmann — came out against SOPA weeks ago.

The Private Sector And Gay Equality

2012-01-20T20:07:00.000-05:00

The Private Sector And Gay Equality:

The consensus view was that federal anti-discrimination laws were much more vital, and the top priority of the Human Rights Campaign. That was in 1988. Such a federal law remains out of reach more than two decades later, despite massive support from the general public. But without such a law, we've been able to test whether the free market logic of non-discrimination can work. Today, we hear this news:

For the first time ever, all 100 firms on Fortune's Best Companies To Work For list this year have non-discrimination policies that include sexual orientation.

This is not because they are somehow being noble. It is because they are serving their shareholders by employing the absolutely best people for the jobs they have and do not want to miss someone's talents because of something irrelevant like sexual orientation.

Hence capitalism enables equality. And the last entity to get with the program is the government.

Wow.

2012-01-20T20:05:00.000-05:00

Chart Of The Day:

Via Mike Konczal, who captions:

The economy is terrible for all Americans right now and we desperately need action to both expand the economy and repeal attempts to contract it. But it is worth remembering that the unemployment misery all Americans are experiencing right now is equal to what it was like during the best two years of the 21st century for African Americans.

Hahahahahahaahahaahah

2012-01-20T19:52:00.000-05:00

Ugh,

2012-01-18T19:58:00.000-05:00

This ad popped up today in my Google Reader, and while I think Walker has had quite a few bad ideas, this sort of criticism is distasteful.

The biggest reason is this - Walker isn't the one "allowing" anything - the law came out of the WI legislature. Furthermore, businesses can ban whatever they want, and beyond that: if you want to carry a hidden gun into a bar, its not like Walker be around to stop you. Grumph.

Commutes

2012-01-16T23:16:00.000-05:00

Today I woke up at 3:30 AM, crossed a small mountain range, and flew (with a layover) back to Madison, where I took a taxi across town to my workplace, where I joined the other ~5k employees of my company in our monthly staff meeting. Walking into that large auditorium, it was almost like the previous hours hadn't happened, and I had passed straight from one community to another.

The three homes I have are different - one is heavy on family, another friends, and another my livelihood, but I don't mind occasional commutes like the one I enjoyed today if it allows me to spend time with those I care about.

This is all nonsensical prattle, I'm sure, but the upshot is that I'm happy to work here, but happier still to have loved ones in other places. Here's to seeing more of them.

Williamstown!

2012-01-15T09:44:00.000-05:00

I've had a great visit back at Williams - coming back is always going to be nice, especially as the projects I was involved in continue to progress. I've had a lot of coffee visits, some good chats, and a few long conversations, all with the right people who are in town.

However, I can't say I'm that happy to have come in with the 0 degree fahrenheit weather, though apparently Madison was also slammed. Alas.

Encounters with America's version of Royalty

2012-01-15T09:02:00.000-05:00

When Michelle Obama Came to Lunch: In my dream scenario, entitled, “Michelle Obama Drops by for Lunch,” there are a few givens. I’m:

Clean;
Well-rested;
Impeccably dressed;
Well-versed in current events and prepared to deliver a handful of hilarious yet tasteful jokes on relevant topics; and
Ready to Dougie, if asked.

In reality, when Michelle came for lunch,

I hadn’t showered in two days;
I’d slept less than five hours each night for the previous three weeks, due to a recurring nightmare about burning risotto and disappearing pan handles;
I was in a carrot-spattered chef’s coat and oversized pants held up by a belt made of twisted Saran Wrap;
I hadn’t read a paper in weeks and felt comfortable conversing mainly about legumes; and
I’d spent the last week picking up heavy objects “properly,” according to a chiropractor, which required that I continually squat while sticking my butt out. As a result, I was unable to do a stiff-limbed waltz, let alone a shimmy.

Maybe true?

2012-01-15T08:59:00.000-05:00

Iron Lady Falls to Anna Quindlen Doctrine: Virginia Postrel - Bloomberg: In the days of the old Hollywood Code, female characters were inevitably punished if they strayed from traditional sexual mores. Today, female characters (and many men as well) must suffer if they violate a different, unwritten code. This new code declares that one’s worth depends on personal relationships, not public actions, and that sacrificing family time for the sake of achievement is nothing but short-sighted selfishness. Hollywood enforces the Gospel According to Anna Quindlen.

What matters, then, is not the nature of Thatcher’s policies, or even the quality of her real-world family relations. It’s that she dared to forge her identity in public, through what she did rather than what people she cared about, and that she did it very well. For that unseemly daring, we must see her suffer.

NYTimes on Epic

2012-01-15T00:28:00.000-05:00

Epic Systems, Digitizing Health Records Before It Was Cool - NYTimes.com: THE push to move the nation from paper to electronic health records is serious business. That’s why a first look at the campus of Epic Systems comes as something of a jolt.

A treehouse for meetings? A two-story spiral slide just for fun? What’s that big statue of the Cat in the Hat doing here?

New Debating Rules for Moderators

2012-01-07T22:56:00.000-05:00

Do not quote the candidates on stage. They are in front of you and can speak for themselves.
Do not get into a back-and-forth with a candidate except to clarify or restate a question.
Establish a clear method of delegating speaking time. Those who speak quickly in the debates should get more questions and/or time at the end.
If you served in a Democratic presidential campaign and the subsequent White House, you don't have standing to moderate anything except a Democratic primary debate.
The less you talk, the better.

With a hat tip to the worst offender for this crap in '08 and '12, ABC News.

The ABC News Style of Debate

2012-01-07T21:08:00.001-05:00

"Fight Fight Fight Fight!"

(please?)

The places you'll go (but warning, nsfw for near-nudity)

2012-01-07T19:31:00.000-05:00

oops

2012-01-01T17:40:00.001-05:00

been posting to the wrong blog. my mistake, will rectify.

Welcome 2012! New Year's Around the World

2012-01-01T17:38:00.000-05:00

Welcome 2012! New Year's Around the World:

As midnight marched across the world's time zones last night, people welcomed the start of a new year, ushering out the old and toasting the new. From Beijing to Moscow, Beirut to Paris, and London to New York, parties, fireworks and festivals welcomed 2012, the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Lunar Calendar. Gathered here are images from these celebrations last night, and the many people who took part. Happy New Year everyone, may it be a fantastic year for you and yours. [39 photos]

Fireworks light up the London skyline and Big Ben just after midnight on January 1, 2012, in London, England. Thousands of people lined the banks of the River Thames in central London to ring in the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

The lucid writings of a ceritifed madman.

2012-01-01T17:29:00.000-05:00

How a routine jab sent me so mad I sobbed (and saluted) through the Royal Wedding - then became convinced I was the Messiah... | Mail Online: Before wielding the syringe, the middle-aged nurse in the scruffy Greek prefectural office warned me to expect symptoms similar to mild influenza.

But nothing could have prepared me for the catastrophic adverse reaction that I endured and which has left me a ruined, broken man.

Stamaril, the yellow fever vaccine made by Sanofi Pasteur, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies, is credited with saving hundreds of thousands of lives. But the jab fried my brain and transported me to within a whisper of death and paralysis.

New Calendar? Meh. Taking away midnight? Oh hell no.

2012-01-01T16:58:00.000-05:00

Proposed New Calendar Would Make Time Rational | Wired Science | Wired.com: Not satisfied with conquering calendrical irrationality, Henry and Hanke take on timekeeping, too. “The time in Australia is the same as it is for us, but their clocks are set different,” Henry said. “We’re just saying, ‘Set your clocks to the same time, because it is the same time.’” All the world’s clocks would be set to Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time as it’s generally known. Time zones would be abolished, as would Daylight Saving Time, of which Henry is especially not fond.

Oh, Paris....

2012-01-01T16:49:00.000-05:00

George Whitman: A bibliophile in Paris | The Economist: INDIFFERENT as he was to modern amenities, George Whitman took some convincing to snuff out the candles for good and install electric lights in his Paris bookshop in 1959. His ramshackle labyrinth of dusty nooks and sagging bookshelves, some secured with twisted coat-hangers, was more a commune than a shop. Over the 60 years since he bought the place from an Arab grocer, using inherited money, an estimated 40,000 travellers have slept among the books, on makeshift beds or the floor, in his “socialist Utopia that masquerades as a bookstore”.

Mr Whitman expected guests to recite or write (choosing “cannonball” words, preferably), or at least help with chores. Most stayed a week or so; several settled in for half a decade. Le Mistral bookshop, renamed Shakespeare and Company in 1964, was a fitting endeavour for a self-described communist. He liked to say that all humanity was his teacher.

Top Ten Myths about the Arab Spring of 2011 | Informed Comment

2012-01-01T16:45:00.000-05:00

Top Ten Myths about the Arab Spring of 2011 | Informed Comment: 2. President Obama was wrong to ask Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down. This position has been taken by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. It is a crazy thing to say. Mubarak could not have stayed in power, with nearly a million people in the streets and order breaking down in the country. If anything Obama was far too slow to act, and there was danger of Egypt turning seriously anti-American if he had not stepped in when he did. Trying to keep a dictator in power who has worn out his welcome is always a big mistake on the part of a great power, as was seen in the case of the shah of Iran.

BBC News - Three big questions for the eurozone

2012-01-01T16:40:00.000-05:00

BBC News - Three big questions for the eurozone: Starting from where we are now, there are three big questions:

* Is the ECB's unofficial money printing operation - a massively expanded bond-buying venture combined with unlimited provision of cash by global central banks - going to be enough to prevent a second credit crunch, centred on Italy?
* Does Greece spiral finally into default, social crisis and chaos, raising the prospect of the near-dictatorial economic policies needed if you have to exit the Euro?
* Do the French banks take so many losses on the sovereign debt of southern Europe that they have to be part nationalised, thus removing the country's AAA credit rating and the all-important financial parity between Germany and France that lies at the heart of the European system?

Right now my answers to these questions would be yes, yes and yes.

Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies - Salon.com

2012-01-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies - Salon.com: Then there’s the full-scale sacrifice of intellectual honesty and political independence at the altar of tongue-wagging partisan loyalty. The very same people who in 2004 wildly cheered John Kerry — husband of the billionaire heiress-widow Teresa Heinz Kerry — spent all of 2008 mocking John McCain’s wealthy life courtesy of his millionaire heiress wife and will spend 2012 depicting Mitt Romney’s wealth as proof of his insularity; conversely, the same people who relentlessly mocked Kerry in 2004 as a kept girly-man and gigolo for living off his wife’s wealth spent 2008 venerating McCain as the Paragon of Manly Honor.

MwIvz.jpg (JPEG Image, 459x445 pixels)

2012-01-01T16:03:00.000-05:00

MwIvz.jpg (JPEG Image, 459x445 pixels)

Do not forget the evil of North Korea

2011-12-31T17:04:00.000-05:00

North Korean defectors: Escaping the reign of Kim Jong-Il | Matador Network: “North Korea talks about ‘Korean nation’ and reunification, but if you are impregnated by a South Korean,” says Joseph, “you are considered a political prisoner.” The officers waited until the woman’s pregnancy had reached its eighth month, then tied her arms and legs down on a table to perform an “abortion.” One of the men introduced himself as a doctor. Without giving the woman any anesthesia, he thrust his bare hands into the woman’s vagina and yanked the baby from her uterus.

“They did this because they considered the woman and her child to be traitors of the country. When they did it, the baby was alive,” Joseph says, quietly. The woman pleaded for the doctor to spare her crying baby, but he only tossed it to the military dogs. Watching her baby get torn into pieces, the mother passed out, laying still while bleeding. The guards took her for dead and brought her to a pile of cadavers.

Let’s Start Paying College Athletes - NYTimes.com

2011-12-31T16:54:00.000-05:00

Let’s Start Paying College Athletes - NYTimes.com: Players aren’t stupid. They look around and see jerseys with their names on them being sold in the bookstores. They see 100,000 people in the stands on a Saturday afternoon. During the season, they can end up putting in 50-hour weeks at their sports, and they learn early on not to take any course that might require real effort or interfere with the primary reason they are on campus: to play football or basketball. The N.C.A.A. can piously define them as students first, but the players know better. They know they are making money for the athletic department. The N.C.A.A.’s often-stated contention that it is protecting the players from “excessive commercialism” is ludicrous; the only thing it’s protecting is everyone else’s revenue stream. (The N.C.A.A. itself takes in nearly $800 million a year, mostly from its March Madness TV contracts.) “Athletes in football and basketball feel unfairly treated,” Leigh Steinberg, a prominent sports agent, says. “The dominant attitude among players is that there is no moral or ethical reason not to take money, because the system is ripping them off.”

Christians Protecting Muslims in Prayer during Egypt Protests

2011-12-30T15:09:00.000-05:00

Quoted Content Below!

2011-12-27T00:33:00.000-05:00

http://slackfeed.blogspot.com/ is a link blog: a collection of links and quotes from articles I find interesting, informative, or entertaining. Some of the content you'll find there is below, in the Sidney Awards. For more of those, and much else, head over to the other site.

Thanks!

The accidental universe: Science's crisis of faith—By Alan P. Lightman (Harper's Magazine)

2011-12-27T00:31:00.000-05:00

The accidental universe: Science's crisis of faith—By Alan P. Lightman (Harper's Magazine): Here we have a clear example of fine-tuning: out of all the possible amounts of dark energy that our universe might have, the actual amount lies in the tiny sliver of the range that allows life. There is little argument on this point. It does not depend on assumptions about whether we need liquid water for life or oxygen or particular biochemistries. As before, one is compelled to ask the question: Why does such fine-tuning occur? And the answer many physicists now believe: The multiverse. A vast number of universes may exist, with many different values of the amount of dark energy. Our particular universe is one of the universes with a small value, permitting the emergence of life. We are here, so our universe must be such a universe. We are an accident. From the cosmic lottery hat containing zillions of universes, we happened to draw a universe that allowed life. But then again, if we had not drawn such a ticket, we would not be here to ponder the odds.

Sidney Awardee: What College Rankings Really Tell Us : The New Yorker

2011-12-26T23:12:00.000-05:00

What College Rankings Really Tell Us : The New Yorker: Some years ago, similarly, a former chief justice of the Michigan supreme court, Thomas Brennan, sent a questionnaire to a hundred or so of his fellow-lawyers, asking them to rank a list of ten law schools in order of quality. “They included a good sample of the big names. Harvard. Yale. University of Michigan. And some lesser-known schools. John Marshall. Thomas Cooley,” Brennan wrote. “As I recall, they ranked Penn State’s law school right about in the middle of the pack. Maybe fifth among the ten schools listed. Of course, Penn State doesn’t have a law school.”

Sidney Awardee: Xerox PARC, Apple, and the Creation of the Mouse : The New Yorker

2011-12-26T23:10:00.000-05:00

Xerox PARC, Apple, and the Creation of the Mouse : The New Yorker: So was what Jobs took from Xerox the idea of the mouse? Not quite, because Xerox never owned the idea of the mouse. The PARC researchers got it from the computer scientist Douglas Engelbart, at Stanford Research Institute, fifteen minutes away on the other side of the university campus. Engelbart dreamed up the idea of moving the cursor around the screen with a stand-alone mechanical “animal” back in the mid- nineteen-sixties. His mouse was a bulky, rectangular affair, with what looked like steel roller-skate wheels. If you lined up Engelbart’s mouse, Xerox’s mouse, and Apple’s mouse, you would not see the serial reproduction of an object. You would see the evolution of a concept.

Sidney Awardee: MODERNIZING CONSERVATISM

2011-12-26T22:19:00.000-05:00

Breakthrough Journal: Issue 2 : MODERNIZING CONSERVATISM: The de facto starve-the-beast strategy was the great cop out of the Reagan years. By assuming that restricting revenues would eventually compel reductions in the size of government, the Reagan administration was able to justify avoiding any serious attempt to reform entitlement programs. Beyond a few very minor trims, every trial balloon of deeper entitlement reform was swiftly routed and withdrawn. It is uncomfortable but necessary for conservatives to acknowledge that Reagan's disinclination to attack entitlements was one reason for his popularity -- after an initial flurry, he did not seriously attack the welfare state.

Sidney Again: Paper Tigers

2011-12-26T18:23:00.000-05:00

Paper Tigers: Though Chu is not merely fluent in En�glish but is officially the most distinguished poet of his class at Williams, he still worries that other aspects of his demeanor might attract the same kind of treatment his father received. “I’m really glad we’re having this conversation,” he says at one point—it is helpful to be remembering these lessons in self-presentation just as he prepares for job interviews.

It is a part of the bitter undercurrent of Asian-American life that meritocracy comes to an abrupt end after graduation.

“I guess what I would like is to become so good at something that my social deficiencies no longer matter,” he tells me. Chu is a bright, diligent, impeccably credentialed young man born in the United States. He is optimistic about his ability to earn respect in the world. But he doubts he will ever feel the same comfort in his skin that he glimpsed in the people he met at Williams. That kind of comfort, he says—“I think it’s generations away.”

Sidney Awards: A small town druggist

2011-12-26T16:43:00.000-05:00

Pharmacist Don Colcord Sustains Nucla, Colorado : The New Yorker: Elderly folks refer to him as “Dr. Don,” although he has no medical degree and discourages people from using this title. He doesn’t wear a nametag. “I wear old Levi’s,” he says. “People want to talk to somebody who looks like them, talks like them, is part of the community. I know a lot of pharmacists wear a coat because it makes you look more professional. But it’s different here.” He would rather be known as a druggist. “A druggist is the guy who repairs your watch and your glasses,” he explains. “A pharmacist is the guy who works at Walmart.”

thought

2011-12-26T16:33:00.000-05:00

The decisions we pay attention to - the political fights, the dividing paths history writes of, the moments of personal anguish movies portray - these are only a part of the choices that bind and carry us, the visible actions. Our lives are much more shaped by a chorus of non-decision decisions - the times when our backgrounds and our identities shape our actions, in decision points so automatic we easily miss them as they pass by.

These decisions, these choices, are called culture. We give gifts for Christmas because we always have; we pass on the left because we always have; we work hard because we are supposed to - because working hard is a part of being ourselves.

For some of us.

The great work, the great discipline that we honor and know, is not in the single decisions, but in shaping the predictable long-term choices that we can expect from someone, of honesty and steadfastness.

Christmas Mysteries

2011-12-24T20:15:00.000-05:00

(source)

Losing & North Korea

2011-12-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

I believe that it is vitally important to continually seek out activities and areas where one is weak. The easy reasons are that we can learn versatility, and from weakness develop new areas of strength. But in a world where it is so easy to be continually entertained and stimulated, the shock of weakness - of possibly losing - is an expanding force, reminding us of how much isn't certain. For me, this means seeking out organized team sport, where my occasional lack of coordination is put into the spotlight, as well as my poor VO2max. I don't know if I really enjoy looking so bad, but I do come away feeling different - perhaps more alive. Sports give me another look into life.

On a mostly unrelated note I've been watching a web series on North Korea, a place where people must show devotion to the "Dear Leader" - of face death. Power over one's own life does not exist there - even the entire country is reliant on American food aid (what they label as "tribute"), and as long as it stands, with closed borders, I always want to remember how bad things could be if I had been born somewhere else.

Kim Jong Il, 1942-2011 - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic

2011-12-19T14:21:00.000-05:00

Kim Jong Il, 1942-2011 - Alan Taylor - In Focus - The Atlantic: Early this morning, North Korean state television reported the death of North Korea's longtime ruler Kim Jong Il. Kim reportedly died two days earlier, on Saturday, December 17, 2011, suffering a heart attack while riding on a train outside Pyongyang. The 69-year-old had been North Korea's "supreme leader" since 1994, after succeeding his father, Kim Il Sung, the founder of the communist state. Kim Jong Il presided over a long-suffering, isolated nation, antagonized the western world, indulged himself while millions starved, and funneled much of the country's meager funds into military spending and the pursuit of nuclear weapons. His nominal successor, son Kim Jong Un, remains untested and the sudden power vacuum in such an unpredictable nation has neighbors, allies, and enemies on edge. Collected here are images from the life and times of North Korea's Kim Jong Il, and a few recent images from the reclusive country and those who have noted his passing

This is awesome.

2011-12-16T23:31:00.000-05:00

Swedish Citizens Now Control @sweden Twitter Account: Sweden’s people have officially taken over the @sweden Twitter account — and with the blessing of the Swedish government. One Swedish citizen will control the handle each week, tweeting about whatever they’d like, as part of a new project called Curators of Sweden.

“No one owns the brand of Sweden more than its people. With this initiative we let them show their Sweden to the world,” says Thomas Br�hl, CEO of VisitSweden, the tourism ministry that had been updating the @sweden account since January 2009.

Random Friday Thoughts

2011-12-16T22:38:00.000-05:00

I had some time to think thoughts today:

I have a roommate, but I live alone.
Christopher Hitchens's greatest enemy was totalitarianism of thought - the idea of a cohesive whole of "rightness" from which all wisdom could spout.
That might be true, but I'm more worried about stupid, partial thoughts than the big lie. The big lie can be ganged up on. A chorus of foolishness is more subtle.
I need something to live for - perhaps someone or ones to live for. I am surviving in this status quo, but I don't feel personal growth in the number of ways I would like.
Conservatives believe in what is real. This is unifying. Liberals believe in what "should" be real - this is dividing. That's why I think conservatism is more powerful today.
Barack Obama's recognition of process failures was taken by many to be a promise to address them (albeit not explicitly, as to avoid process becoming a focal point. Process is boring.)
In many ways, the Obama admin has not done this.
I owe someone I respect a great deal a blog post about Troy Davis's execution. I've been feeling guilty about it for months.
I believe that technology will build a new way of living, gradually reshaping old paradigms, but for now the question is how to exist in a world defined by old trains of thought, but yet using the bullet trains.
"Good" people can do awful things. "Bad" people can be incredibly kind.
Labels are stupid.

"Nor Law, Nor Duty Bade Me Fight"

2011-12-16T18:01:00.000-05:00

"Nor Law, Nor Duty Bade Me Fight":

Hitch loved poetry, as he expresses in this brief flash of brilliance here. But he knew this one by Yeats by heart:

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above; 
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love; 
My country is Kiltartan Cross, 
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before. 
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds, 
A lonely impulse of delight 
Drove to this tumult in the clouds; 
I balanced all, brought all to mind, 
The years to come seemed waste of breath, 
A waste of breath the years behind 
In balance with this life, this death.

The Best of Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011 | Longform.org

2011-12-16T16:49:00.000-05:00

We got beat

2011-12-16T03:05:00.000-05:00

Exclusive: Iran hijacked US drone, says Iranian engineer - CSMonitor.com: Iranian electronic warfare specialists were able to cut off communications links of the American bat-wing RQ-170 Sentinel, says the engineer, who works for one of many Iranian military and civilian teams currently trying to unravel the drone’s stealth and intelligence secrets, and who could not be named for his safety.

Using knowledge gleaned from previous downed American drones and a technique proudly claimed by Iranian commanders in September, the Iranian specialists then reconfigured the drone's GPS coordinates to make it land in Iran at what the drone thought was its actual home base in Afghanistan.

From The Annals Of Chutzpah

2011-12-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

From The Annals Of Chutzpah:

“Over 4,000 brave young Americans gave their lives in this conflict. I pray that their sacrifice is not in vain. I hope that their families will not mourn the day that their sons and daughters went out to fight for freedom for the Iraqi people. Unfortunately, it is clear that this decision of a complete pullout of United States troops from Iraq was dictated by politics, and not our national security interests. I believe that history will judge this president’s leadership with the scorn and disdain it deserves," - John McCain.

Yes, it was determined by politics: Iraqi politics and the 2008 SOFA. Does McCain believe the US has a right to occupy a sovereign democratic country against its explicit wishes for as long as he believes it to be in America's interests? That isn't neo-imperialism. It's imperialism.

Library Quidditch - YouTube

2011-12-15T03:26:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney: Too good to be trusted? | Deseret News

2011-12-12T02:03:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney: Too good to be trusted? | Deseret News: The problem, you see, is that there are three very different skill sets required for: 1. Getting nominated; 2. Getting elected; and 3. Governing as president. The skill set required for No. 1 seems to be rigid, uncompromising, far-right positions and a total distrust (or even hatred) of all moderates and liberals. The skill set required for No. 2 is the ability to reach out to the center of the political spectrum and to take positions that everyone can understand and appreciate even if they don't agree. The skill set required for No. 3 is to be able to attract the best and the brightest, to listen well, to analyze well, and to make and clearly explain strong, reasoned decisions that turn our country around and move it forward.

Mitt is best at skill set No. 3, second best at No. 2 and probably worst at skill set No. 1. If he gets over that first hurdle, he will be a remarkable general election candidate and, we believe, an extraordinarily successful president.

RIP

2011-12-12T02:00:00.000-05:00

The boys and girls at my high school are remembering two 2010ers that lost their lives a few days ago in separate incidents. Life is precious and amazing, and it's a privilege to enjoy it.

This is protest.

2011-11-21T01:46:00.002-05:00

(reference)

Courage

2011-11-10T23:27:00.002-05:00

Clair de Lune - YouTube

2011-11-05T16:50:00.000-04:00

AP Exclusive: CIA following Twitter, Facebook - Yahoo! News

2011-11-05T00:30:00.000-04:00

AP Exclusive: CIA following Twitter, Facebook - Yahoo! News: At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the "vengeful librarians" also pores over Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms — anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

From Arabic to Mandarin Chinese, from an angry tweet to a thoughtful blog, the analysts gather the information, often in native tongue. They cross-reference it with the local newspaper or a clandestinely intercepted phone conversation. From there, they build a picture sought by the highest levels at the White House, giving a real-time peek, for example, at the mood of a region after the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden or perhaps a prediction of which Mideast nation seems ripe for revolt.

Yes, they saw the uprising in Egypt coming; they just didn't know exactly when revolution might hit, said the center's director, Doug Naquin.

What If Middle-Class Jobs Disappear? — The American Magazine

2011-11-04T23:20:00.000-04:00

What If Middle-Class Jobs Disappear? — The American Magazine: The recent trend in job polarization raises the possibility that gains in well-being that come from productivity improvements will accrue to an economic elite. Perhaps the middle-class affluence that emerged during the latter part of the industrial age is not going to be a feature of the information age. Instead, we could be headed into an era of highly unequal economic classes. People at the bottom will have access to food, healthcare, and electronic entertainment, but the rich will live in an exclusive world of exotic homes and extravagant personal services. The most popular bands in the world will play house concerts for the rich, while everyone else can afford music downloads but no live music. In the remainder of this essay, I want to extend further this exercise in imagination and consider three possible scenarios.

The world is pretty amazing sometimes

2011-11-03T22:24:00.001-04:00

Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.

Famous Last Words

2011-11-02T22:45:00.000-04:00

enhanced-buzz-11067-1320098435-3.jpg (JPEG Image, 625x800 pixels) - Scaled (79%)

Should I make a new link blog?

2011-11-02T22:43:00.001-04:00

Libya taps engineer who lived in U.S. for decades as interim leader - CNN.com

2011-11-02T22:42:00.000-04:00

Libya taps engineer who lived in U.S. for decades as interim leader - CNN.com: Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libya's transitional government picked an engineering professor and longtime exile as its acting prime minister Monday, with the new leader pledging to respect human rights and international law.

The National Transitional Council elected Abdurrahim El-Keib, an electrical engineer who has held teaching posts at the University of Alabama and Abu Dhabi's Petroleum Institute, to the post with the support of 26 of the 51 members who voted. El-Keib emerged victorious from a field that initially included 10 candidates.

"This is a new Libya," El-Keib told reporters. "It's been 42 years with our friends and people all around the world dealing with a brutal dictator, so concerns are in order, but I want to tell you there should be none of those.

Reader redesign: Terrible decision, or worst decision? - >*

2011-11-02T22:39:00.000-04:00

Reader redesign: Terrible decision, or worst decision? - >*: After I left Google in July, I heard that there was renewed effort around the project and that a new team was bringing some much-needed attention to the product. I expected them to give the product a facelift, and integrate G -- both things that needed to happen.

But killing off functionality that could have easily been built on top of G , and missing the mark by so much on the UI... and then releasing them under the guise of improvements?

Bad decisions, indeed.

Boston Review — Morgan Meis and S. Abbas Raza: Violence and Human Progress

2011-11-02T22:38:00.000-04:00

Boston Review — Morgan Meis and S. Abbas Raza: Violence and Human Progress: The degree to which Pinker is willing to celebrate the joys of bourgeois life is refreshingly honest. He is fully aware that such celebration looks uncouth to many. “A loathing of modernity,” he writes,

is one of the great constants of contemporary social criticism. Whether the nostalgia is for small-town intimacy, ecological sustainability, communitarian solidarity, family values, religious faith, primitive communism, or harmony with the rhythms of nature, everyone longs to turn back the clock. What has technology given us, they say, but alienation, despoliation, social pathology, the loss of meaning, and a consumer culture that is destroying the planet to give us McMansions, SUVs, and reality television?

But that’s not the way it really is, Pinker explains. In fact, “unsentimental history and statistical literacy” can take our blinders off and show us that even the negative aspects of modernity are a huge improvement over the ways we used to live. This applies not only to brute matters such as the decline of violence and the greater access to material goods, but also to the finer things as well, such as beauty, knowledge and truth. We are, in short, experiencing progress in almost every way imaginable.

History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States

2011-11-02T22:37:00.000-04:00

History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States: And there was a second tax. (and again, these are hypothetical figures but they will show you how it worked.) was a tax of a thousand dollars of every single non-medical exchange of every one of these drugs. Well, since nobody was going to pay a thousand dollars in tax to exchange something which, in 1914, even in large quantities was worth about five dollars, the second tax wasn't a tax either, it was a criminal prohibition. Now just to be sure you guys understand this, and I am sure you do, but just to make sure, let's say that in 1915 somebody was found, let's say, in possession of an ounce of cocaine out here on the street. What would be the Federal crime? Not possession of cocaine, or possession of a controlled substance. What was the crime? Tax evasion.

Iraq Troop Withdrawal: The Zero-Sum Game - By Douglas Ollivant | Foreign Policy

2011-11-01T23:32:00.001-04:00

Iraq Troop Withdrawal: The Zero-Sum Game - By Douglas Ollivant | Foreign Policy: In short, it is time for the United States to stop being a "helicopter parent" to the Iraqis. To extend the metaphor: The Iraqis have graduated and are now legally of age. Let them go. They will doubtless not do everything perfectly or in the way the United States would prefer. So be it. They are no longer America's wards, no longer its charges, no longer in receivership.

This is how the U.S. war in Iraq ends.

24 Hours at Fukushima - IEEE Spectrum

2011-11-01T23:32:00.000-04:00

24 Hours at Fukushima - IEEE Spectrum: Unlike the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, the chain of failures that led to disaster at Fukushima was caused by an extreme event. It was precisely the kind of occurrence that nuclear-plant designers strive to anticipate in their blueprints and emergency-response officials try to envision in their plans. The struggle to control the stricken plant, with its remarkable heroism, improvisational genius, and heartbreaking failure, will keep the experts busy for years to come. And in the end the calamity will undoubtedly improve nuclear plant design.

News Desk: The Fringe Frontrunner : The New Yorker

2011-11-01T21:20:00.000-04:00

News Desk: The Fringe Frontrunner : The New Yorker

Either way, Cain represents the emergence of a truly new phenomenon in Presidential politics: the fringe frontrunner. Every Presidential campaign attracts eccentrics with slim résumés and no chance of winning. Sometimes they are wealthy businessmen (like Steve Forbes) who buy their way into the spotlight. Other times they are minor celebrities among a small, passionate group of ideologues within the party (like Ron Paul). They exist in every open Presidential primary in both parties. They often enliven debates and force their more electable, centrist colleagues to take uncomfortable stands on difficult issues, which is generally a good thing for our politics. In previous elections, these fringe candidates have never come close to becoming serious contenders. They run to push the ideological debate further to the right or left and to make a name for themselves in the process. If they are lucky, they end up with some notoriety, a new national fundraising base, and perhaps a show on cable TV. These types of fringe candidates don’t truly prepare for the absurdities and difficulties of a Presidential campaign because in their heart of hearts they never believed they would make it very far.

The price for ridding society of bad is always high

2011-11-01T11:20:00.001-04:00

With Google Reader killed off, this is now my best method of sharing content. Not very happy with it though. -W

The price for ridding society of bad is always high: In June of 1945, the following striking letter arrived at the home of 3-year-old Dennis Helms in Washington, written on a sheet of Adolf Hitler's letterhead. It had been penned by his father, Lt. Richard Helms, an intelligence operative with the OSS who, following Germany's surrender the month before, had managed to acquire some of the recently-deceased Nazi leader's stationery from the Reich Chancellery. He then wrote to his son.

Richard Helms later became Director of the CIA. His letter to Dennis now resides in their museum.

Transcript follows. Image courtesy of The Washington Post.

Image: The Washington Post

Transcript

OBERSALZBERG, DEN V-E day

ADOLF HITLER

Dear Dennis,

The man who might have written on this card once controlled Europe - three short years ago when you were born. Today he is dead, his memory despised, his country in ruins. He had a thirst for power, a low opinion of man as an individual, and a fear of intellectual honesty. He was a force for evil in the world. His passing, his defeat - a boon to mankind. But thousands died that it might be so. The price for ridding society of bad is always high.

Love, Daddy

Trick-or-Treat: The Google Reader Changes Are Coming Tonight - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic

2011-10-31T22:27:00.000-04:00

:(

Trick-or-Treat: The Google Reader Changes Are Coming Tonight - Rebecca J. Rosen - Technology - The Atlantic: Given the intensity of the opposition, Google must be calculating that even if many people flee Reader to HiveMined or another system, at least a few will transition over to Google . And if even a few high-volume sharers begin to use Google , that could inject the flagging network with a fresh shot of content that attracts many more readers.

The lesson is that thousands of people -- even tens of thousands of people -- who use a mostly ad-free service without charge just don't have very much power. Google Reader users: You get what you pay for.

Wow

2011-10-27T21:49:00.002-04:00

If you're ever going to fly into the ground....do it with Scots.

2011-10-26T02:07:00.000-04:00

(no catastrophe here, just..... )

The Long Goodbye

2011-10-24T21:09:00.000-04:00

Flying westward
Over snow
The sun runs ahead
Leaving a long, lingering glow
A stretch of red between the horizon's clouds
That we chase in a long farewell to daylight.

Atlas Shrugged

2011-10-23T23:29:00.000-04:00

I'd always heard about Objectivism and such, but never read Atlas Shrugged for myself until this weekend. Having made it through part I - I'm bored. It's a black-and-white portrayal of good/bad ethics mixed with decent prose and thoughtful takes on the human condition. There is something Rand misses in her celebration of productivity - something Dale Carnigie understood, and even as it led to a small group of diehard fans, it also dooms her ideas on the wider stage.

FYI: Links Feed at risk

2011-10-22T21:00:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

I don't know how big the audience is of my links feed (it's at least 20 people, and probably more), but after this announcement I'm not sure what will happen to it - the sharing feature is going to get Google+'d.

My goal is mostly to maintain my ability to curate an archived RSS feed - as long as I can do that, I'll be fine.

Anyhow, just an FYI.

Not convinced

2011-10-20T20:29:00.000-04:00

This picture is making the rounds on Facebook, but I'm not really a fan. The information Assange shared was gathered under conditions that it wouldn't be distributed. The information you put on Facebook is given under terms of use that are much more open. This picture ignores the role of the individual - you don't have to use Facebook.

Is Assange good? I'd say its a mixed bag. Wikileaks had a good thing going as a distribution mechanism to newspapers that would vet the content, but allowing the unencrypted files to get distributed (however much not intentioned) was damn foolish. Wikileaks is a target because it annoys powerful people, yes, but also because of Assange's style and ridiculousness. His goal is to remove privacy from deliberations behind closed doors - but we need those. Sunshine is a disinfectant, but it can also kill deals that need a little bit of time to grow.

Thoughts on the value of higher education

2011-10-19T23:13:00.004-04:00

Written originally for a friend, on the subject of the usefulness of analysis:

I'd suggest this metaphor: On the Sing-Off, groups perform, sometimes well, and sometimes poorly. One of the best groups, Afro-Blue, does lots of complicated jazzy stuff that is AWESOME to listen to, but I have to read online review to understand how they constructed all of the crazy chords in the arrangement. There's a lot of difficult-to-learn theory in what they do. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHmjR1-vUpU&feature=related)

On the other hand, anyone can tell when a performance works - its obvious, and the talent that leads the base in that performance to be so awesome at improvising isn't learned - its grown.

So there's a triad here: everyone can tell if the song works or not; talent (and practice) determines if you can sing it, but education is required to understand what's going on in a communicative way.

Your talent to theorize is different than having real interactions, and different than being able to make rational judgments about the world around you. You can have a constructive voice with just those two, it's true: but there's no learning without the other third; no ability to see, long-term, how things have changed and shifted, and to predict from there the lessons that the first two talents can apply in the future.

Do we need music, or musical training to survive? Nope. Do we need voyeuristic operas? Not really. But are they worth doing, by someone? I'd say so.

And in choosing our leaders, within our own communities and within the wider cities and states and countries we identify with, pragmatic ability and common values might be the most important, but scholarship and study make for valuable components as well. The more stuff our leaders know, the less time they need to spend understanding the complex issues that reach their attention and the more time they can spend leading.

Continued, on the split between educating to do "stuff" or to understand stuff."

The academy is the only professional group in America that gets to take a crack at "everyone" (at least, those who want access to the wide opportunities that a college degree provides in terms of credentials). Ministers used to be the same way - everyone was supposed to go to church, but that role has disappeared. Coaches also only serve a portion of the populace. Only our professors remain.

Out of that comes a dual responsibility - to train and equip *everyone,* and to train and equip those who will join the academy. In a real sense there are two brands of success: the "actual" (and I mean that word in terms of "acting") and the theoretical. Williams has, perhaps inadvertently, promoted both separately: the JA variety for raw social effectiveness (in theory), and the Oxford variety for ass-kicking thinking.

In that way, Williams facilitates both the networking that some of our peers seek and the thinking that we're all "supposed" to be studying, even if its only a true priority for some of us. A lot of me is in the former category - I loved doing things at Williams, and discussions like this, but sticking to established formulae was hardly enjoyable; my largest conflicts were with history books that didn't do what I thought was useful. I picked a fight with the discipline and lost.

But that was fine, for me, because I still learned and grew from the course. I don't want to be a professional historian.

So Williams the institution celebrates its "successful" alumni, and invites Cory Booker to speak at graduation. Williams the faculty DOES NOT approve of the trustees' honorary degrees (and has told me), and celebrates research and so forth.

It's the same fight other D1 schools with big athletic programs have with underfunded classrooms - our professors own the classroom, but the classroom is hardly the whole of the campus.

Some professors engage in the real; they come on Mountain Day and advise Dodd Neighborhood; they bring their children to Shabbat dinner so that I can chase the kiddos around. They step out of math and sociology into this world.

Others choose not to.

Likewise, some at Williams cared a lot about their GPA and others phoned it in. We were a meeting place between the doers, the consultants and leaders and organizers, and the learners. In some occasions, we have individuals that fit both categories, and they (you) can feel the split you describe.

Brian Williams's expression of shame, after reporting that the % of Americans supprting legalzation is at an "all time high."

2011-10-19T01:44:00.000-04:00

On Evangelism and Politics

2011-10-19T00:08:00.001-04:00

Responding to this article:

Americans have always trusted in God, and even today atheism is little more than a quiet voice on the margins. Faith, working calmly in the lives of Americans from George Washington to Barack Obama, has motivated some of America’s finest moments. But when the faith of so many Americans becomes an occasion to embrace discredited, ridiculous and even dangerous ideas, we must not be afraid to speak out, even if it means criticizing fellow Christians.

"Evangelical anti-intellectualism" is, to me, a false pairing. God gave us minds for thinking, and logic for reasoning: to assert that the mind is against God is akin to asserting that the heart is against God - both the mind and heart have done great good, and great evil. The mind has led to great scientific discoveries; it has also led to Eugenics and clever methods of thievery. Or hearts summon us together, and yet draw us to bad decisions, or to rise up in defense of a perceived slight with an assault that outweighs the infraction.

There are those among us who embrace Evangelism, and those who reject it. There are those who embrace the mind, and those who reject it. The groups are not the same, though I'm sure you can find a statistical correlation thanks to hidden variables. But the evangelism I speak of - loving, witnessing, and sharing one's love of Christ - is different than the political Evangelical movement. In that movement of fundamentalism, doctrine is king - regardless of the facts. I fear that, years ago, the leaders of the Republican party are so worried about a small number of doctrinists attacking them that they fail to call white white and black black.

We are now at the result of that decision taken decades ago - where the absence of truth has allowed falsehood to run rampant; the farthest right can declare truths with impunity - "LET US DEFAULT" - without caring about the economic rampage that would result. This battle between doctrine and evidence is dangerous - but it is not evangelism.

That's the premise of this piece's authors; we only differ on the role of politics in today's Evangelical movement, and how far fundamentalism has infiltrated the Christian heart. Perhaps they are right; I can only speak for my personal experience. But that experience has showed me that fundamentalism isn't the issue - standard politics are the issue, such as differences about abortion, the death penalty, and other questions we wrestle with as a country.

Is there an evangelical "parallel universe?" Sure, but considering the depravity of culture today (Toddlers and Tiaras) in some places I could hardly blame communities for turning inward. We all do that, when we reject politics, the news, in favor of the local, the untainted. Do charismatic leaders manipulate their flock? Yes, but such men and women have always done this. To give a new name to an old phenomenon is not to make a strong argument.

It may appear more extreme now, but I see that as a sign of insecurity as young people turn away from homophobia and towards Christian pursuit of social justice. Just as it is always darkest before the dawn, the language of politics will become the most frightening before the revival of values and the reassertion of truth. There is so much that can be done in partnership, if we can ignore the voices from the verge that urge us towards clashes and their profit.

mention

2011-10-12T02:09:00.000-04:00

I'm currently traveling for business, so sing-off recaps to come later, but there are a few good links in the right hand feed (which is far more interesting than my scrawls).

Could an Unmarried Woman Sink Obama?

2011-10-09T03:59:00.000-04:00

That the title of this article, and some VERY creative spin. Let's deconstruct.

Barack Obama won, in part, because of his huge support in the 18-25 demographic, and in younger Americans more generally.
A lack of voter engagement and turnout could hurt Obama in 2012.
Young women constitute some young Americans.
Younger Americans tend to be unmarried.
Therefore, unmarried women were strong Obama supporters, and failing to turn out might hurt him.

Thoughts on Radio, from a friend

2011-10-07T01:04:00.000-04:00

From my friend Julian, a long post worth the read:

To take it back half a step, radio is still a fundamentally viable form even in these internet days. People still like listening to human voices, and people still like listening to music. And, beyond that, I think that it’s sort of an important piece of our popular culture, and one worth saving. We’ve sort of touched upon some of the things that good radio traditionally can/does do, but there is plenty of room for expansion within the form, and we can perhaps draw some inspiration from our cousins over in the UK, where the BBC is alive and well (another indication of radio’s fundamental viability as a technology). According to a pretty good article in the LA Times about a year ago, there is still a huge audience for radio in BBC-land, partly derived from a radio-listening culture (one interviewee had a radio for every room, I believe, and left them on in the way that Americans leave televisions on), but also from a great deal of excellent programming. Because radio is still respected, and because the BBC is state-run and therefore beholden to nobody, the money to produce quality programming can meet the quality talent required, creating a number of excellent shows. Plays are serialized, new works commissioned expressly for radio, esteemed commentators are heard nationally, and yes, they have a pretty thriving music show lineup too (Mark Lamar’s show God’s Jukebox is quite nice). The moral is many-fold: an expansion of public radio would greatly enhance our national culture, as we’d be able to support no-strings attached works of critical radio excellence; we should be so lucky as to have the same intellectual-respecting and cross-media popular culture as there is in the UK (where dudes like Stephen Fry can show up basically anywhere and say insightful things, and get listened to!); and the only limitation on radio is that it’s a purely auditory medium.

A conservative/liberal epiphany

2011-10-07T00:52:00.000-04:00

Reading Bobby Jindal's "Leadership and Crisis," (which is a decent book for the anecdotes, but nothing to write home about in terms of political persuasiveness - see "Audacity of Hope), I had a sudden thought:

Human nature drives our affairs, and its not always pretty, as psychology has showed. We as a species are capable mass rape, with slavery, with torture, just as we are also capable of loyalty, bravery, and decency. We have a range of motivations and methods to our mass thinking.

Conservatives see these motivations and seek to harness them - they are authentic, true, and powerful. Liberals see these motivations and imagine higher, purer ones - less authentic, but still true and powerful once nurtured. Witness the acceptance of all sexualities, the societal condemnation of racism and slavery. Each of these causes were taken up first by liberals, and achieved success upon the adaptation of conservatives.

In other words, liberals and the left are broadly like the US House of Representatives, and Conservatives like the Senate.

No doubt there are a million holes in this but (obviously) I think it was worth posting.

Start at :46

2011-10-07T00:40:00.002-04:00

I can't stop laughing at this image.

2011-10-06T00:36:00.000-04:00

Sing-off picks

2011-10-06T00:12:00.000-04:00

First place for showmanship: Yellow Jackets

Still waiting for a kickass opening number a la "Use Somebody" from Season 2 on the Sing-Off. Then again, there were only 8 groups left at this point; we're still looking at 11, so there may be better work in store. I hope.

First place for technical excellence: Afro-Blue.

Steve Jobs thought. Just as Jobs excelled in understanding human nature in his life, achieving raw success in a cutthroat corporate world against a range of detractors, his death is also a window into our true nature. We forgive his megalomania; his questionable labor practices; his ridiculous markups that led to gigantic profits. We do this because he found a way to build products that we LOVED - had some attachement to, both via marketing and a all-consuming attention to perfect design that literally led to pointless screws put in place solely to provide visual symmetry.

In any case, I'll keep watching, and cancer sucks. RIP Steve, and thanks for everything you did, and everything you revealed.

Tabloid Journalism and Thankfulness

2011-10-05T02:26:00.000-04:00

November 1, 2007: I'm writing on our college discussion board about limited card swipe access to dorms. Another ongoing topic of focus is the JK Rowling declaration that Dumbledore was gay. Somewhere else, a college student is murdered; another student displays some reportedly "odd" behavior.

The next 3.7 years: I study politics, economics, sociology, more, graduating in June of 2011. Somewhere else, as written later that month:

She continues to study Italian (which she now speaks fluently, with occasional sallies into jailhouse vernacular), reading textbooks from cover to cover three times each. She has also become proficient in German and French, and is studying Japanese, Chinese and Russian. She is devouring the Western canon, and lists in her journals each book she completes. She has become something of a specialist in Existentialism (Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil, Sartre's No Exit and Nausea), Magical Realism (Calvino, Borges, Eco), Absurdism and Despair (Vonnegut, Beckett, Woody Allen, Kafka).

I travel to Rome, to Florence, to Paris and Taize, to Jerusalem. Somewhere else, a long stay in a jail cell. I am free. Someone else is - was - not.

It's regretful that so many stories that could be told are not told. We don't read or hear about the countless stories of brutality that brave men and women have survived. We don't read about the thousands killed by natural disaster in China; of the German solders killed defending what they thought were their interests. But we do hear about Natalee Holloway, and the sister case that reached its conclusion today in the city I'm visiting on business.

Quoth the same:

When an attractive young woman from a privileged British family is murdered in Italy, you've got a popular crime story. When the person suspected of killing her is an attractive young woman from a privileged American family, you have tabloid gold. When the prosecutor hypothesizes that the victim was slaughtered during a satanic ritual orgy, you've got the crime story of a decade. When a sitting U.S. senator declares that the case "raises serious questions about the Italian justice system" and asks if "anti-Americanism" is to blame, and when 11 Italian lawmakers in Silvio Berlusconi's coalition request a probe of the prosecutor's office — well, at that point, you have an international crisis.

We don't need this example to understand the media's bias, though. We don't need it for anything except our own fascination (I didn't know that much about this until reading the article linked above, but I got sucked into an online argument about the evidence yesterday. I'm guilty as anyone else.)

But what I'm trying to remember - trying to maintain focus on - is that something like this could have happened to me. I remember the death of my grandfather when I was 10 or so, and how my tears were in private, in secret. I also remember not crying - feeling overwhelming "control" - upon learning the news, and how guilty I felt that I couldn't or wasn't displaying my grief like others. I'm still learning how to do that. I remember various dumb decisions I made when abroad, such as getting deliberately lost in a french wood surrounded by a fence during a rainstorm (a twisted ankle would have been more than problematic), and my solo sojourns in countries where I spoke little-to-nothing of the native tongue. Curiously, I have never returned to Spain, though Spanish is the second language I know best.

All of this to say that the world is strange sometimes - cruel even - I'm lucky to have enjoyed what I have, and to have had all of the wonderful experiences over my past 4 years that I enjoyed. I hope we can leave others involved in this case alone (I haven't mentioned names here deliberately), and that there can be some lesson learned from sorrows so that we can avoid repeating them or their cousins ourselves.

Obama Administration Puts Pressure on Israel

2011-10-03T01:05:00.002-04:00

I find it interesting that the Secretaries of Defense are the administration's method of sending public messages to Israel: perhaps attacking them would be harder?

One stupid, cowardly cop in NYC.

2011-09-29T00:38:00.000-04:00

We have given ammunition to repressive regimes everywhere. Thank you, Deputy Inspector Bologna. You have harmed your country, her* values, and her interests.

*Interested if folks think this is sexist....

MDKKs

2011-09-28T01:00:00.000-04:00

The MDKK is everywhere. You probably know MDKK members: they drive on the roads with you, work alongside you, and participate in community events.

MDKKs declare themselves to be socially superior, but are characterized by their morally aberrant behaviors. Adultery, domestic violence, alcoholism, and much more are all present at high rates within MDKK cells, many of which take advantage of American tax code advantages and American banks to further their own wealth. Even worse, MDKK cells will occasionally split into two, three, or ever four pieces, which will soon form into separate, individually functioning cells that maintain an ever-widening network of MDKKs and their affiliates. They are responsible, some experts say, for the decline of the American educational system, and drive many of our worst economic trends through their purchasing power.

You might even be a part of an MDKK cell right now. I am.

Don Draper, Selling Facebook Timeline

2011-09-27T22:48:00.002-04:00

Sing-Off Week 2

2011-09-27T22:29:00.000-04:00

Pentatonix - This week's best. (Hon Mention: DelTones)

A weaker week, overall. Pentatonix was the only group to reach Afro-Blue or Delilah's height of last week, and the "middle" groups of week 1 were more consistently solid.

Mind Games

2011-09-26T23:11:00.000-04:00

From Scientific American:

The cost of hiding the logistical details of perception is that we are always a beat behind. The brain must strike a balance. Cognitive psychologist Alex Holcombe at Sydney has some clever demonstrations showing that certain forms of motion perception take a second or longer to register, and our brains clearly can’t wait that long. Our view of the world takes shape as we watch it.

The 80-millisecond rule plays all sorts of perceptual tricks on us. As long as a hand-clapper is less than 30 meters away, you hear and see the clap happen together. But beyond this distance, the sound arrives more than 80 milliseconds later than the light, and the brain no longer matches sight and sound. What is weird is that the transition is abrupt: by taking a single step away from you, the hand-clapper goes from in sync to out of sync. Similarly, as long as a TV or film soundtrack is synchronized within 80 milliseconds, you won’t notice any lag, but if the delay gets any longer, the two abruptly and maddeningly become disjointed. Events that take place faster than 80 milliseconds fly under the radar of consciousness. A batter swings at a ball before being aware that the pitcher has even throw it.

The cohesiveness of consciousness is essential to our judgments about cause and effect—and, therefore, to our sense of self. In one particularly sneaky experiment, Eagleman and his team asked volunteers to press a button to make a light blink—with a slight delay. After 10 or so presses, people cottoned onto the delay and began to see the blink happen as soon as they pressed the button. Then the experimenters reduced the delay, and people reported that the blink happened before they pressed the button.

Other Good Music

2011-09-23T00:05:00.002-04:00

Troy Davis was killed tonight

2011-09-22T02:13:00.000-04:00

http://multimedia.savannahnow.com/media/pdfs/DavisRuling082410.pdf

I mourn the death of anyone, and the monstrous taxpayer expense that the death penalty incurs. More later.

I Love the Sing Off

2011-09-21T00:06:00.002-04:00

This week's winning group (Hon Mention: ~~Vocal Point~~ Afro-Blue).

So much real talent, so little stupid will-they won't-they drama. Episodes are simple:

Happy group number
Songs (with long intro sequences...the one eh)
Informed commentary with musical terminology I don't always know ("rubbing seconds")
Quick elimination as decided by smart judges I rarely disagree with.

This is what TV is supposed to be, right here. And if the groups get better (Kinfolk 9, Urban Method, Yellow Jackets, looking at you).....oh boy.

Birthday Graditude

2011-09-12T00:48:00.000-04:00

It is a gift to have had freedom in my life.

I am working at a job I chose, after attending a college I chose, after growing up in a house my parents chose in a town that they chose.

Such a gift, and one that's denied to so many. If you're likewise so lucky, take a moment to remember those that aren't. Thousands of innocent civilians lose their lives every day to hunger, to preventable disease.

You aren't one of them, simply because you have the ability to access this blog.

Isn't that remarkable?

Without further commentary

2011-09-11T12:31:00.002-04:00

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

September 11, 2001

www.thedailyshow.com

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