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Showing posts from September, 2011

Adam West = Hunter S. Thompson?

I'm reading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 , and stumbled across this: I used to watch that show when I was a kid. Awesome.

Working stiff, ctd

Online master's degree outlines the best options for young people today: Created by: Online Masters Degree

The "price" of food

Mark Bittman, food columnist and blogger for the New York Times , has an article arguing that, contrary to a spate of recent studies, junk food is really more expensive than groceries and that cultural reform is needed to get people cooking and eating healthy again. His premise, while flawed, isn’t completely preposterous, but his solutions are dubious. Here he is: In fact it isn’t cheaper to eat highly processed food: a typical order for a family of four — for example, two Big Macs, a cheeseburger, six chicken McNuggets, two medium and two small fries, and two medium and two small sodas — costs, at the McDonald’s a hundred steps from where I write, about $28. (Judicious ordering of “Happy Meals” can reduce that to about $23 — and you get a few apple slices in addition to the fries!) In general, despite extensive government subsidies, hyperprocessed food remains more expensive than food cooked at home. You can serve a roasted chicken with vegetables along with a simple

View from my rooftop

I like to take the stairs to the top at least once during the day to get some blood flowing. Sitting down all day sucks!

Why it can be cheaper to go to an expensive college

I graduated from Reed College in 2008 with $11,000 or so in student loans outstanding, a piddling amount by today’s standards. I was lucky. I was within a hair’s breadth of going to the University of Colorado at Boulder, where I would have likely ended up with a great deal more debt even with in-state tuition. This might seem surprising. It’s true, Reed is a very expensive place, one of twenty or so liberal arts colleges with total costs per year coming in at around $50,000 (or around $40-45k back in my day), but its aid policies were extremely generous for someone like me. My mother is a public health nurse and my father is a general contractor. On the other hand, my home state of Colorado is one of those states with a balanced-budget amendment , and facing declining revenues and legally mandated spending (on things like police), it’s been frantically cutting higher education spending, even long before the latest recession . So even though CU’s sticker price was vas

Charts of the day

This is old news, but worth emphasizing. Our healthcare system sucks.   This is percent of GDP spent on healthcare by country.  On first glance, you might think, what's the big deal?  We're right in the middle of the pack. But look closer. Just to our left is Canada, where they have single-payer universal coverage .  We're spending more just on the government slice of our system, and we don't even cover everyone.  In total, of course, we spend staggeringly more than anyone else on healthcare: Source .

Nonprofits squeeze their employees too

My girlfriend just started at a nonprofit place here in DC, and watching her get worked like a pack mule (three nights in the first week getting off after 9:30 pm) is a good illustration of the significant price even white-collar types are paying for the collapse of the labor movement.  In most other developed countries, such a situation would mean the organization is drastically understaffed.  Check out this chart : This might be an underestimate, since so many people are underemployed , meaning they would take full-time work if they could.  Almost 86% of men and 67% of women work more than 40 hours per week . It also occurs to me that nonprofits are not really immune to the broader trend in American business of wringing maximum labor out of one's employees, especially the salaried ones.

Collected links

1. Which country has the world's second fastest internet ? As you might imagine, the US is way down the list.  If only we had created that technology so we could have had a head start. 2. Legislators actually listen to constituent s. Be a pain! 3. Tyler Cowen has the Eurozone crisis licked . 4. Watch Mitt Romney speak French .

Fist pump

My first piece ever under a real publication: Moreover, this whole issue seems caught up in the broader macroeconomic downturn. The handwringing about preparedness and educational effectiveness, while a worthy topic, seems ancillary to the issue of massive unemployment and excess capacity. Look again at that chart—every single occupation save five has more claimants than jobs, some hugely so. The only real labor shortage there is in “healthcare practitioners & tech” and there’s no way it could absorb all the excess from the giant blue bars on the left. (Again, that graph is from Maine, but US statistics are quite similar—a few sectors showing many openings, but the vast majority swamped with claimants.) Indeed, I suspect whatever data that one might need to reconfigure community colleges is lost in the swarms of unemployed. The whole idea of colleges providing the wrong preparation for students seems to assume the whole “structural unemployment” narrative, when there is overwhe

The New Yorker takes a look at my corner of Colorado

This really cute piece about Nucla, Colorado even has a Cortez reference: One day, his mobile home was broken into, and thieves made off with some stock certificates. Mr. Brick had never used a broker—to him, they were just as untrustworthy as doctors—so he went to the Apothecary Shoppe for help. Before long, Don was making dozens of trips across Disappointment Valley, driving two hours each way, in order to get documents certified at the bank in Cortez, Colorado. Eventually, he sorted out Mr. Brick’s finances, but then the older man’s health began to decline. Don managed his care, helping him move out of various residences; on a couple of occasions, Mr. Brick lived at Don’s house for an extended stretch. At the age of ninety-one, Mr. Brick became seriously ill and went to see a doctor in Montrose. The doctor said that prostate cancer had spread to his stomach; with surgery, he might live another six months. Mr. Brick said he had never had surgery and he wasn’t going to start now. Re

How do musicians like Girl Talk actually do their work?

A fellow named Madeon fills us in with a live-performance of a mashup (complete with improv solo!): It's way more spontaneous than I would have thought! I was imagining a lot of preparation. I have no idea what that thing is, or the slightest idea how it works other than what I can glean from the video. All I know is I want one. UPDATE: This dude (?) is good: Apparently he's seventeen years old. Sigh.

Article for the weekend

Steven Pinker writes about the massive decline of violence : Whatever its causes, the implications of the historical decline of violence are profound. So much depends on whether we see our era as a nightmare of crime, terrorism, genocide and war or as a period that, in the light of the historical and statistical facts, is blessed by unprecedented levels of peaceful coexistence. Bearers of good news are often advised to keep their mouths shut, lest they lull people into complacency. But this prescription may be backward. The discovery that fewer people are victims of violence can thwart cynicism among compassion-fatigued news readers who might otherwise think that the dangerous parts of the world are irredeemable hell holes. And a better understanding of what drove the numbers down can steer us toward doing things that make people better off rather than congratulating ourselves on how moral we are. Also check out the video for his awesome hairdo:

Will blog for food

It occurs to me that I've taken a rather staggering risk working at an unpaid internship in one of the most expensive cities in the US. Thus but I've been fiddling around with the new Google support widget to try and extract rents out of my vast fanbase. It seems like a complete longshot, but who knows. Right now, it appears to work with Chrome but not with Firefox on my computer--no idea why. But if it appears on the right there, and you feel like supporting a young broke-ass journalist risking it all (or at least a significant fraction) to follow his dreams, well plug in any amount $1 or greater. Thanks.

"We were witness to a great evil"

TNC has an absolute must-read guest post on the judicial murder of Troy Davis.  See here as well. Words fail. As Rachel Maddow outlines here, it beggars belief that a state that was buying its poison from an illegal supplier in West London could possibly have the kind of institutional quality necessary to ensure 100% accuracy. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy

The financial sector and allocating capital

Kevin Drum flags Ezra Klein talking about tech investment: Eric Jackson, a former employee of PayPal and now the CEO of the online-investing platform CapLinked , worries that implementing the “Buffett rule” would hurt the pool of investment money available to tech start-ups. His logic on this point is unimpeachable: If the Buffett rule means taxing capital gains more like normal income, then it will, on the margin, hurt investment of all kinds, including investment in tech start-ups. Drum has some good thoughts there, but this reminded me of something I read in 13 Bankers the other day.  I've often wondered why it is growth was so weak during the Aughts.  Interest rates were super-low for most of that period, and usually one would think that would light a fire under the economy's ass, so to speak.  If macroeconomics is to be believed, we should have had screaming growth, bordering on an inflationary spiral.  Why not?  In 13 Bankers , Kwak and Johnson argue, in a quick

"Oh, my lord!"

Sullivan flagged this video about the end of DADT that caught me right in the gut: I reckon it's a father-son thing, but shoot. Everything about it resonated with me, even the buzzing sounds as he uses his cell phone. I used to get those calling home on Skype all the time. Who hasn't been there, in one way or another? Imagine how good that must have felt.

I have the right job

I'm not even getting paid and I can already say this is the best job I've ever had.  Just love the work.  "Cooper, will you become a quick expert on this heretofore obscure subject?  Check these facts?  Write some blog posts??"  You bet your ass I will.

Starcraft II and DRM

Now that I'm back home and I've got blazing fast internet, got a chance to play the "starter version" of Starcraft II, basically a tarted-up demo, and I have to say it is an amazing game to play.  Like everything Blizzard does, it's not particularly groundbreaking—in fact, there's little gameplay innovation from the original game—but man, it is polished .  Everything is beautiful, streamlined, and intuitive.  There are little gems and finishing touches everywhere that reveal stupendous dedication and perfectionism on the designers' part.  Great strategic depth.  I was immensely pleased to hear they brought back Robert Clotworthy to voice Jim Raynor, probably my favorite video game character of all time.  (Him or Gordon Freeman.)  The map editor, by all accounts, is absurdly powerful. The game is nearly crippled, however, by borderline-insane DRM (digital rights management) restrictions that interfere with even the simplest session.  To even get to the s

My new house

Cute, eh? Apparently it was built back in the 30s.

Collected links

1. The famine in Somalia remains terrible .  How surprising there's not a chorus of voices calling for humanitarian intervention. 2. The shame of college sports . 3. Funny analogies . 4. Economics remains a kinda dubious discipline .  Worthwhile, but dubious. 5. Where did the phrase "cell phone" come from?

This random XKCD brought to you in honor of Charlie Peters, Washington Monthly founder

(Peters' column is called... )

The new place

So I just moved in to my new place in Silver Spring. It's a little dingy, but about a 7 minute walk to the metro which is then a 30 minute ride into town, give or take. In direct contravention of some advice a Peace Corps official in Zambia gave me, it is a basement. However, it's in a nice neighborhood and hopefully I can schedule in some outside time during the week. So far, so good. The next step, I suppose, would be to purchase some kind of device I can put my clothes in.  And perhaps a desk, given that I work at a magazine.

Living in DC

Actually, my new place is in Silver Spring across the border in Maryland, but the Monthly's offices are in DC, and I spend a lot of time there.  First, it is deeply weird to go from being the only white person in a village to being a one of roughly a hundred gazillion buttoned-down, white collar, shoulder-bag-wearing professional types with a smartphone.  Which, apparently, I need to be looking at every second I'm not working on my computer or ordering something from Starbucks.  Speaking of stimulants, I overcome my terror of the espresso machine and made my first cup.  Considering the racket the thing makes, it was surprisingly easy and tasty, but I half think I'd rather just cut to the chase and start snorting amphetamine. I'm still feeling the culture shock in irregular bursts, but I think I may be an atypical example in this regard.  I seem to have a kind of autopilot mode that I unconsciously turn on whenever things get real stressful, so I don't have to thi

Could a GOP president take credit for an accidental recovery?

I totally agree with Yglesias's quibble here : I half agree with the sentiments in Ezra Klein’s Bloomberg column about the importance of the 2012 election , but I think there’s a dangerously misleading idea lurking there. He quotes Larry Bartels’ brilliant exposition of the point (see this PDF but also this one ) that you have to put FDR and the New Deal realignment in comparative perspective. All governments that were in office when the Depression hit lost power, and all governments that were in office during recovery regained it. The implication in the column seems to be a kind of nihilistic one, where economic outcomes are just driven by luck and a bad recession just so happens to take a long time to recovery from... But the existence of some policies that promote robust recovery from the recession is a necessary ingredient to that mix. The policies we got in 2008 and 2009 were pretty good — they prevented calamity — but they didn’t promote robust recovery and tha

Working stiff

Yesterday was my first day at the Monthly. So far it seems fairly good! Apparently, I'll be a fact-checker and general grunt work man. It's quite the shoe string operation, which might redound somewhat to my benefit as they'll likely work me like a pack mule--better that than just pouring coffee. I seem to be disguising my total unfamiliarity with DC and office life well, or at least the actual employees here are gracious enough not to point out my glaring mistakes in haberdashery and comportment, whatever they are. I'm feeling very good about this. UPDATE: Multiple sources who previously worked at the Monthly confirm that, compared to the old days, the magazine is practically swimming in resources. I'll take them at their word—I just hadn't seen a Pentium 4 in the States in quite some time.

Getting settled

Well, it's September 11th, and I spent the day touring various monuments around DC. Though there were a few things going on, the place seemed a bit subdued. It was a bit more than ten years ago that I visited DC for the first time. I was a freshman in high school, and my marching band was in the Independence Day parade in 2001. It is extremely strange to be here, especially at such an auspicious time. I saw the WWII memorial for the first time, which seemed, well, a bit too busy.  And not to put too fine a point on it, a bit self-congratulatory.  Old man Lincoln is still my favorite, though it was a bit of a shock to see that they've torn up the Reflecting Pool. In lighter news, I've now officially got my own place! It's up in Silver Spring, about seven miles or so north of DC, but right on the Red Line so commuting should be a breeze.  The first day of my internship is tomorrow.  Wish me luck!

Quick update

I'm scrambling around trying to close on some part-time jobs, find a place to live (looks like I'll be staying in or around the Silver Spring area), and prepare for my internship.  For now, I'm just incredibly grateful to some old Colorado friends who have graciously allowed me to crash in their spare bedroom until I get on my feet.  Afloat in a sea of the milk of human kindness, as my dad once wrote .

Big news

Apologies for the dead air, I've been in Phoenix meeting some family and friends. Now, however, I'm moving to Washington DC where I'll be interning with the Washington Monthly magazine. Gonna try to make a career out of this blogging thing, we'll see how it goes. Phoenix is much changed from last time I was there, mostly from the catastrophic collapse of the housing bubble. It's a nightmarish place to build a city, with every day I was there well over 100 degrees, but really it's the inefficiency and sprawl that get to me. You could have a decent city with massively increased density and public transport , but right now it's so utterly dependent on the automobile change is hard to imagine.

Epic sky

Colorado sure is beautiful.

I must still be in Colorado

This is from a bike ride I took with my dad today.

More ways in which America is unquestionably superior to South Africa

1. Washing machines . Reading Noah's comedic masterpiece about handwashing stuff made me appreciate once again what a magnificent appliance the washing machine is. I bow down and give thanks to the mines, the iron smelters, the steel foundries, the (probably) Chinese manufacturers, the 104,400 ton freighters , and the national transport system that makes it all possible. ( Dryers, on the other hand, seem to me to be mainly an expensive waste of electricity.  Wet clothes are why God made the sun.) 2. Low crime . By developed world standards, America is a rather violent place.  But in my corner of Colorado, we sleep with the doors and cars unlocked.  That is simply unheard of in South Africa, and it's quite the psychological relief to not be constantly looking over your shoulder.  It's the kind of thing you don't really notice until you stop doing it, like a muscle you didn't realize you were constantly clenching.  (I'm moving to DC though, lets hope I don

Epic sky

Colorado sure is beautiful.