Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from October, 2010

Vote!

I don't have much to add on who to vote for in the coming election that isn't probably mostly encapsulated by the letter next to their name on the ballot.  I do, however, want to strongly encourage California voters to vote YES on Proposition 19.  It's high time we had a dramatic confrontation over drug policy, and the fact that Mark Kleiman is in full concern troll mode over it is only a good sign.  Nicholas Kristof is making sense here : I dropped in on a marijuana shop here that proudly boasted that it sells “31 flavors.” It also offered a loyalty program. For every 10 purchases of pot — supposedly for medical uses — you get one free packet. “There are five of these shops within a three-block radius,” explained the proprietor, Edward J. Kim. He brimmed with pride at his inventory and sounded like any small buinessman as he complained about onerous government regulation. Like, well, state and federal laws. But those burdensome regulations are already evaporating in

Too much democracy?

Radley Balko had an interesting essay in Reason the other day about too much democracy in the justice system: In 1970 one in 400 American adults was behind bars or on parole . As of 2008, the number was one in 100 . Add in probation, and it's one in 31. The number of people behind bars for drug crimes has soared from 40,000 in 1980 to about half a million today. States today spend one of every 15 general fund dollars on maintaining their prisons. According to the King's College World Prison Population List (PDF), the U.S. is home to 5 percent of the world's population but nearly a fourth of its prisoners. Judging by these official numbers, America's incarceration rate leads the developed world by a large margin, although it's doubtful that authoritarian regimes such as China's are providing accurate data, especially about political prisoners. But among liberal democracies, the competition isn't even close: As of 2008, the U.S. incarceration rate was

Navajo solar news

The view from my front porch. Back from my old stomping grounds comes some news that the Navajo Nation, the USA's largest native tribe, is getting ahead of the curve on alternative energy: BLUE GAP, Ariz. — For decades, coal has been an economic lifeline for the Navajos, even as mining and power plant emissions dulled the blue skies and sullied the waters of their sprawling reservation. But today there are stirrings of rebellion. Seeking to reverse years of environmental degradation and return to their traditional values, many Navajos are calling for a future built instead on solar farms, ecotourism and microbusinesses. In Navajo culture, some spiritual guides say, digging up the earth to retrieve resources like coal and uranium (which the reservation also produced until health issues led to a ban in 2005) is tantamount to cutting skin and represents a betrayal of a duty to protect the land. “As medicine people, we don’t extract resources,” said Anthony Lee Sr., preside

Living in the city

Atrios has an interesting thought on urban life: Walking around my urban hellhole today I'm reminded of how not owning a car really changes the way you think about the world. Obviously cars are useful things in that they let you basically go "anywhere" at relatively low perceived marginal cost (one problem with the way we pay for cars is that a lot of things which are really marginal costs are perceived as fixed costs by people). I think I've been car free for about 6 years now, and where I can go reasonably is dictated by where I can walk, where there's decent public transportation access, where is accessible by a cab ride I'm willing to pay for, or what's accessible by a carshare car that I'm willing to pay for. While there isn't a perfect mapping, carshare costs make perceived fixed costs (insurance, maintenance, car payments) into marginal costs to some degree. All that makes the accessible world quite a bit smaller. Not saying that's goo

Coincidence?

I report, you decide. Bonus HST quotes: "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours." "I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. Never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed." "Morality is temporary, wisdom is permanent." "There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation."   "I feel the same way about disco as I do about herpes." See here and here for context.

Collected links

1. Good discussion of skepticism of altruistic motives . 2. What the heck is gegenschein ? 3. How political views are influenced by smell . 4. Was Lincoln gay? The evidence is pretty persuasive . 5. TNC on Malcolm X .

Afrikaners

Karen Kaye has an excellent post on going to a white school:  I was biased against Afrikaners on coming to South Africa. In my mind, they were some of the worst “oppressors” in South African history, it was at their hands that black South Africans suffered the most. When we were in our initial training with Peace Corps, we were taught greetings in Setswana (the language of the black people I would be living with) and we were also taught greetings in Afrikaans (the language of the white people I would not be living with, but the language that all of the black people that I would be living with would assume that I would be speaking.) I bristled at the thought of learning Afrikaans. I DID NOT WANT TO LEARN OR SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF THE OPPRESSOR. Mercifully, I was brought me to my senses rather quickly when I realized, “Wait. I SPEAK THE LANGUAGE OF THE OPPRESSOR.” (Having realized, of course, that the native language of the Americas is not English, and that my country was indeed, co

Kindle review

This review will be short and sweet.  I like practically everything about this device.  It's light, it's fairly tough, it's intuitive, the battery lasts forever, it holds thousands of books, and most importantly it's very easy to read.  I've read three books on it so far and it's pretty much identical to paper.  I find computer screens a bit taxing after a couple hours, but the e-ink technology makes for excellent contrast and the lack of backlighting is very easy on the eyes.  The pdf support is a trifle rickety, but especially as you can switch the layout from portrait to landscape it's possible to get reasonable font size even on small scanned pdfs. Basically my only complaint—like most devices these days—is the annoying DRM gateways that they put up to try and lock you into the Amazon service.  It doesn't support EPUB, for example.  It's not that much of hassle even for the marginally computer literate like myself to convert your books to the p

Pop music

I go through art forms in binges.  Authors, musicians, genres, whatever.  I'm totally unsystematic, but tend to obsess foolishly over complete back catalogs.  Longtime readers might have noticed the seven or eight Philip K. Dick books I went through some time ago.  It's the same with music, though I tend to stick more to genres there.  Some examples: rock (Tool, Queens of the Stone Age), trance (ATB, Tiesto, Blank and Jones), metal (Strapping Young Lad, Opeth), progressive rock (Porcupine Tree, King Crimson), psychedelic trance (Infected Mushroom, Juno Reactor), etc. Lately I've been on a dance bender.  Back in the States I scorned most pop music.  Though there was the occasional breakthrough, I was too concerned with the political implications of whoever was on the TV to really give the songs a fair shake.  Part of it is music as signaling as well—who can name the most obscure indie bands, totally unconcerned with profit?  (Of course, I've always been a huge Daft Pun

Love in prison

This thread is absolutely riveting. It's a question and answer session by an ex-con who just got out. (Impossible to tell if it's true, but it feels about right to me, whatever that's worth.) The whole thing is a long must-read, but this view of love has to be the the most horrible and heartbreaking thing I've read in a long time: QUESTION: This is a question for later or tomorrow or something because you've got enough to contend with for now but what did you miss most about sex while inside? Just the sex itself or the intimacy? I know there are cliches on both sides about that so I was wondering what your thoughts were. ANSWER: This is a really interesting question. So much so I went and had a smoke and a think about it. You know how a lot of people that hang around these boards will say how they're desensitised to sexuality? How years of the most twisted porn the Internet's underbelly can offer has made them numb? I guess I was like that going in

On joining the military, ctd

TNC has the best comment section on the internet.  One of his regulars came up with this gem that really must be read in full.  I still have days where I am very happy that I'm not in jail, dead, addicted to something, or paying child-support to a woman I don't love. There but for the grace of god go I. It could have happened, a kid I used to spend time with when we were growing up went to jail a few years ago for rape. My little brother's best friend was stabbed three days before he was supposed to graduate. My best friend in high-school who I haven't heard from in years --a person who was at one time head and shoulders above me in intelligence, dropped-out, obtained his GED, and is presumably working a dead end job somewhere. I haven't heard from him in years, and it breaks my heart to think of what might have been under different circumstances. I hope he is doing well, but we cannot however hard we wish go back and try to re-create or change the past. No one

The man question

Becca has a smart post on gender in South Africa: Here in South Africa, you can say that there are issues of gender inequity and there certainly are. The rape rate is extremely high. The HIV prevalence rate is higher in women then men (partially for biological reasons as women have more Langerhans cells in their vagina than men who have been circumsized do on their penis). It is difficult for women to exert control over their sexual lives – to say no or to say to use a condom. Transactional sex is also an issue. That being said, I know many more formally employed women than men in our village. Of course, many men who are employed live outside of our village, but among those who do stay in the village and those who come to our village to work – teachers, nurses, etc – there are more women then men. Of the men who stay in our village, many are employed informally in different types of labor. Some of these men and some who are not employed at all spend a good amount of their days drin

Baby goats

Visiting my new neighbor we saw these little guys mere minutes after they were born.  We thought they were slaughtering the mom at first but then it turned out better.  They were so new they were trying to nurse from our kneecaps, which was cute but slightly unnerving.  I'm still stubbornly using the lousy camera on my phone, which seems to have developed a weird haze around everything.  We'll pretend like it's fogged with a half-century's oxidation.

Post of the month

Dave Roberts brings some optimism on the politics of climate change.  He says the problem is not education, but intensity of advocacy: Along these lines, it's worth digging into the new study from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. At the NYT , Felicity Barringer highlights the ignorance it reveals -- for instance, over two-thirds think aerosol sprays contribute to climate change (er, no, that's the ozone layer you're thinking about). Most people accept the basic fact that the climate is changing but know very little about the nature and causes of those changes. On the somewhat brighter side, most people know they don't know much and want to know more. And they trust scientists, more than anyone else, to provide them good information: Americans' most trusted sources of information about global warming are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (78%), the National Science Foundation (74%), scientists (72%), science programs

Book review: The Big Short

Summary: this work is by far the best thing I have read on the financial crisis.  Highly recommended. Up today: The Big Short , by Michael Lewis.  He takes a situation caused mainly by obscure and complex financial derivatives and makes it not just intelligible but fascinating .  He follows around most of the people that saw the crisis in the financial sector coming (as opposed to the housing bubble, which a somewhat larger number grasped but was more obvious).  His style is appropriate, down-to-earth and often sarcastic and cutting: "The Big Wall Street firms, seemingly so shrewd and self-interested, had somehow become the dumb money.  The people who ran them did not understand their own business, and their regulators obviously knew even less."  His subjects have similarly jaded outlooks.  One of them, a man named Steve Eisman: The second company for which Eisman was given sole responsibility was called Lomas Financial Corp. Lomas had just emerged from bankruptcy. "

Social engineering in schools

My school motto One of the things I notice often in the schools here is the deliberate social engineering that is built into the curriculum. In nearly all subjects, the raw content is subsumed to varying degrees by a social justice "context." Mathematics provides the most obvious examples—different historical number systems are supposed to be taught to Grade 4, and a Grade 9 maths test last year turned into a massive personal history project compiling the voting records of the entire village with an essay on the success of the democratic government thrown in for good measure.  These efforts seem misguided to me, as I will explain later. I am reminded of similar efforts in the US.  Conservatives have a semi-permanent campaign to install their dogmas into the classroom, from the perennial creationist efforts to David Horowitz's program for affirmative action for conservatives at universities.  This is not to say the left doesn't do this as well (I'm thinki

Tuesday cat blogging

My friend Hunter S. Thompson Kristen's cat just had some babies ! Hooray! But, unfortunately, she didn't include any pictures (ahem). I was just visiting her site recently, so this antenatal picture of the mama cat will have to suffice. Let's hope she can beat the mortality rate of the kittens at my site, which is at least 75%.

Never trust the banks, ctd

Here's a couple selections from a jaw-dropping Daily Caller article : Wells Fargo wanted to foreclose on a condo unit which had multiple mortgages attached to it. Wells Fargo also owned one of those second mortgages. So Wells Fargo spent money to hire a law firm and file suit against the irresponsible lenders at Wells Fargo. Then, Wells Fargo spent money to hire a different law firm in an understandable effort to defend Wells Fargo from the vicious legal attack coming from Wells Fargo. The second law firm even prepared a legal statement for Wells Fargo which called into question the dubious claims being made by Wells Fargo. Sadly, Wells Fargo won the case, crushing the hopes of Wells Fargo. [...] For financial institutions, the problem isn’t the “missing” documents. It’s the missing documents—the real ones, which say much different things than the “missing” ones, and which the banks can’t seem to get their hands on. Everyone in the financial industry has been looking for them in

Mitch Hedberg selections

I drank some boiling water because I wanted to whistle. I don't like grouper fish. Well, they're okay. They hang around star fish. Because they're grouper fish. I've got a wallet, it's orange. In case I wanna buy a deer. That doesn't make any sense at all. My manager said, "Don't use liquor as a crutch!" I can't use liquor as a crutch, because a crutch helps me walk. This one guy said, "Look at that girl. She's got a nice butt." I said, "Yeah, I bet she can sit down excellently!" See here for more.

My music project

Karen Kaye brought up a little feel-good project I put together awhile back in a rare spasm of sociability: We were to choose a song that best represents our mental process, and the songs would be collected, compiled, and distributed. The exercise involved mystery and suspense: who would choose which song to best represent themselves. And would we be able to match the song to the fellow Peace Corps volunteer? Now, think about it: a song that best represents your thought process. What would you choose? It's actually something that I did back on in my freshman dorm at Reed College, and it wasn't my idea back then.  But still, even considering that it was me initiating it, I'd call it a smashing success.  The tracklist: 1. Bela Fleck - New South Africa: Intro 2. Simon & Garfunkel - 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) 3. Kenny Rogers - The Gambler 4. Joni Mitchell - Carey 5. Robert Earl Keen - It's the Little Things 6. Ludacris - Rollout (My Business

Self promotion

So me, Matson , and Karen Kaye were selected as featured bloggers for South Africa on this site called Go Overseas for reasons that so far remain mysterious.  However, I'm always happy to accept some attention.  I do feel a bit guilty in that a great deal of my content has nothing to do with South Africa.  If anyone is looking for specific advice about traveling, volunteering, or the like drop me an email and I'll be more than willing to help as best I can.

Layout feedback bleg

I've customized the layout of this place a little. I inverted the color scheme, changed the font and my picture, and removed that annoying blogger header thingy at the top. I find the black background-white text to be a lot easier on the eyes, but I'll switch it back if people hate it. I was also thinking about changing the header picture (though I do like the current one a lot, it doesn't seem to fit very well now). Any thoughts? (And yes, I know the beard is ridiculous.) UPDATE: Well, after letting it stew for awhile, I decided to switch back to dark text, light background.  The main issue was that bolded text was almost impossible to see regardless of the font I picked.  So now I'm going for a kind of old-school parchment look.  Again, feedback would be highly appreciated. UPDATE II:  And now I've redone the header as well.  The picture is of the Little Colorado far up in the drainage, and I like it a lot and think it fits.  The font is a little goofy I

Collected links

1. Fuckin' magnets, how do they work? 2. A breakdown of straight vs. gay sex and the curious . 3. The scale of mortgage bond fraud is staggering . This is tied up with the foreclosure mess. I've heard the words "TARP II" bandied about. 4. "Goldilocks planet" may not actually exist . 5. Colorado billboard depicts Obama as a terrorist, a gangster, a bandito, and a gay man. 6. Hitchens on why politicians suck.

Sunrise

This from the archives. It was taken in Belize, actually.

Never trust the banks

I've collected a few simpler articles on the crisis. Check this one in the Washington Post , this one about the foreclosure that started it all, and this one about a Florida man (to be mentioned later). As usual, Paul Krugman has the clearest explanation : The story so far: An epic housing bust and sustained high unemployment have led to an epidemic of default, with millions of homeowners falling behind on mortgage payments. So servicers — the companies that collect payments on behalf of mortgage owners — have been foreclosing on many mortgages, seizing many homes. But do they actually have the right to seize these homes? Horror stories have been proliferating, like the case of the Florida man whose home was taken even though he had no mortgage . More significantly, certain players have been ignoring the law. Courts have been approving foreclosures without requiring that mortgage servicers produce appropriate documentation; instead, they have relied on affidavits asserting t

A vision from your dystopian future

The WWF's annual Living Planet Report has some bracing findings : If business continues as usual, the report predicts, “humanity will be using resources and land at the rate of two planets each year by 2030, and just over 2.8 planets each year by 2050.” The editorial team that produced the latest report writes that human demand on the planet’s ecosystems more than doubled between 1961 and 2007. Humankind is now consuming the planet’s resources at a rate that outstrips the natural replenishment of those resources by 50 percent.

Book review: The Duty of Genius

Summary: this biography by Ray Monk is a brilliant work about a fascinating and tortured soul. Highly recommended. Up today: Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius , by Ray Monk. As a biography, it is truly excellent, and the subject is both hugely important and interesting. Monk's portrait of Wittgenstein is simultaneously deeply sympathetic yet clear-eyed and unsparing. This is especially praiseworthy as Wittgenstein is the type of person that tends to inspire either hero worship or withering scorn. Wittgenstein seems like the kind of person it would be easy to admire from afar. He reminded me of Thomas More in his unceasing dedication to do and feel as he thought was right , though compromise would have made him happier. Actually interacting with the man would probably have been a nightmare for most people. He was deeply needy, yet so moody and tempestuous he was beastly to practically everyone he knew at one point or another and drove many of them away. His idea of lov

Collected links

1. The Nobel Prize in chemistry goes to... (yay O-chem!) 2. A case for abolishing drunk driving laws . 3. Help save Science Friday! 4. Amateur astronomy alert: there's a comet passing near the earth . Unfortunately it can only be seen in the Northern Hemisphere. 5. Scrutinizing the Millennium Villages .

Global warming analogy

Ryan Avent has a great comparison : Let me reiterate this. We’re not talking about a nuanced, Jim Manzi-argument in favor of a recognition of the science but inaction on the policy. If that were the median GOP position, a bill much tougher than any placed on the table would have flown through Congress. No, it’s far worse than that. No GOP leader of consequence is able to make and sustain the argument that climate change is occurring as the scientists say it is. That’s remarkable! Imagine the world’s major powers sitting down in the early 20th century to negotiate a treaty on the law of the sea, only to have one of America’s major political parties vow to defeat any settlement, on the grounds that the world is in fact flat. His conclusion: We are sowing the seeds of catastrophe. I keep thinking that at some point, a conservative of conscience will take a stand and force the GOP to do some soul searching on this issue. There are hundreds of millions of lives depending on the decisions t

RIP Stephanie Chance, Niger Peace Corps volunteer

Our Peace Corps family has been suffering some tragedies lately. Stephanie Chance, a volunteer in Niger, has died of what appears to be natural causes. My thoughts are with her friends and family. Below I'm posting a letter from Director Aaron Williams. I am deeply saddened to write that Municipal Development Volunteer Stephanie Chance, an admired member of the Peace Corps family in Niger, died on Thursday, October 7, 2010. Stephanie, 26 years old, was found in her home in Zinder, and, at this time her death appears to be from natural causes. Her sudden passing is mourned by the entire Peace Corps community, including her fellow training group members, who were recently sworn in together as Volunteers on September 23, 2010. Stephanie was a native of Phoenix, Arizona, and she had arrived in Niger for training in July 2010. She had just arrived at her site in Zinder and was busy getting to know the community to help local officials better coordinate local government servi

Varanus albigularis albigularis

That is the Latin name for the white-throated monitor lizard , a large reptile native to southern Africa that can grow up to two meters long (see pictures of one at the Oakland Zoo here ). In Setswana, it's called a "gopane." I saw one of these in my village yesterday on the way back from my run. Some kids from school found it in the riverbed and tortured it to death, stabbing out its eyes, cutting off its tail, and gutting it which finally killed it. It seemed to be a female as there were a bunch of round white things I can only imagine were eggs amongst the guts. I only arrived after it was already dead, but they described what had happened with much hilarity and re-enactment. When I asked why they killed it, they said it was because it would eat their chickens and eggs, which is probably true, and because it sucks blood from people, which is completely ridiculous. It might bite a person, but not unless threatened. It seems roughly the same as killing wolves that

On Western paranoia about China's development

I've gotten the sense both from the zeitgeist and from several volunteers and friends that China will soon surpass the United States as the world's foremost power, and this has something to do with their singleminded focus on building the economy. China, so the story goes, doesn't have to worry about all this crap about civil liberties or getting things through the Senate or buying off the agricultural lobby. I think there's a lot of truth to these beliefs, particularly about how political paralysis (particularly in the Senate) is choking necessary government action to boost the US economy. But I've been doing some reading, and I think China faces a much steeper challenge than many suppose. This classic article by Paul Krugman shows how these sorts of beliefs have arisen before about the Soviet Union, and how alarmists then and now don't make a crucial distinction about rising economies: growth of inputs (basically bringing the poor into an industrial econom

Collected links

1. Page from the annals of financial crisis history . 2. On single-party democracies . 3. Great primer on the continuing foreclosure train wreck . This is something I am still not paying enough attention to. After a lot of work (I just finished The Big Short —review to come), I think I have a decent handle on the financial crisis; my next project will be trying to untangle the foreclosure mess. Suffice to say there's a staggering amount of fraud involved. 4. Thoughts on the masturbation gap . Apparently one of the best predictors of female sexual health and happiness is having masturbated. 5. Understanding the suicide bomber .

Happy 600 posts!

Ok, I'm slightly late, but close enough anyway. To celebrate, I present a picture of my new fan. I give thanks to the gods of phefo (wind).

The taxi ride from hell

Today was by far the worst taxi trip I've had since coming to South Africa. The reasons were two drunk men, one so utterly wasted he could not stand. I sat in the far back corner with three young women, hiding behind a biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The men at first were only shouting randomly at everyone. To me they said, "Lekgowa! Put down your book! You read too much!" but then they started trying to grope the women on the taxi and to take things out of my bag. They were so drunk that these efforts were rather ineffectual and easily rebuffed by the other people—I didn't have to get involved which was probably for the best. Then the drunker one started puking everywhere. The smell was horrific and made the girl next to me retch, but luckily she managed to hold it in and I kept the window wide open. Throughout they continued to drink, sometimes between heaves even. I was astonished at the amount of compassion shown to these two men. I suspect they were

On joining the military, ctd

This post certainly sparked some discussion both in comments and email about several topics, but I'd like to concentrate on how my friend's rationale overlapped with my own for joining Peace Corps. One person used "bored" in correspondence to describe his feelings, but I think a better term would be alienation. Profound alienation. The United States, for all its vast material prosperity, is notorious for this sort of thing. Call it what you will—spiritual fulfillment, purpose, meaning, whatever, often one confronts only a sucking void of meaningless acquisition and consumption that is actively complicit in wrecking the planet. Those of a philosophic or analytic bent are most prone to it, I reckon, particularly if none of the mass-production religions holds any attraction. I sympathize deeply with this sense of alienation, though I feel it less strongly than my friend. This is, I believe , because of my roots in the river culture of the Southwest, something that