tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39956422011-04-22T00:07:16.653-05:00painpillpaulnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3171100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1060802376894010342003-08-13T14:19:00.000-05:002003-08-13T14:49:01.123-05:00Mantaskakim! Jan Axsaramti!
No more blogging here - I've started a new weblog over at www.locussolus.com. The content will probably stray a little from the mostly political and economic commentary I've posted here, but hopefully it will still be worth a read! The good news is that Movable Type and my own server will allow me to branch out a little more - I'm hoping to put together some more paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1060263368980876152003-08-07T08:36:00.000-05:002003-08-07T17:10:31.306-05:00Judicious intervention
With Arnold Schwartzenegger, Arianna Huffington, and now Cruz Bustamante putting their names in the recall hat, not much attention has been paid to the California Supreme Court:
Invoking the specter of a Florida-style polling debacle, the governor's lawyers claimed voters will be disenfranchised because counties do not have enough money or time to properly prepare for paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1060223608893313382003-08-06T21:33:00.000-05:002003-08-06T21:33:28.800-05:00Flashmobs in Chicago
Well, since most of my traffic these days seems to be coming from "chicago+flashmob" searches (you can get the latest by joining the email list here), I guess I should write something more about the whole situation. I don't know how this sort of thing is taking place in other cities, what the organizational backend looks like, etc, but here in Chicago it's marked by paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1060108021018753042003-08-05T13:27:00.000-05:002003-08-05T13:42:52.863-05:00Things which were cast down
Yesterday was shaping up to be a big day for the Episcopal Church, but now the approval process for the first openly gay bishop is mired in allegations of "inappropriate touching" etc. Pretty disappointing, and a disaster for the chuch's progressive image - in a few short hours it went from an institution on the cutting edge of social reform to one approximating the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1060001647391422402003-08-04T07:54:00.000-05:002003-08-04T12:56:06.440-05:00Unspeakable
It looks like the comments are no more - apparently what seemed free wasn't, or at least wasn't for very long. I feel especially bad because I know some people began using this service after my referral. In any case, I'm a little too cheap to upgrade right now, but I am working on a solution that should be in play within the week. Unfortunately, it looks like all the old comments paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059746507209698902003-08-01T09:01:00.000-05:002003-08-07T08:11:35.296-05:00Markets and information
There's more on the terrorism futures market here, from the guy who wrote my intro econ text. Also Haggai links to this article by Joseph Stiglitz in comments.
I find it interesting that everyone has such a negative reaction to the idea of markets as information aggregators. OK, I can understand the revulsion at the possibility that someone would profit from an paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059744265936264602003-08-01T08:24:00.000-05:002003-08-01T08:26:07.846-05:00Flashmob update
There's some controversy brewing this morning over today's planned first Chicago flashmob. Here are the details (go here to be added to the list):
Time: Fri, Aug 01, 2003 05:30:00 PM
Location: Federal Plaza, Chicago
Assemble at the Calder sculpture (flamingo) by the Post Office. Bring a YELLOW sticky note with you, with the words: Alexander Calder written on it. Place paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059623831031685912003-07-30T22:57:00.000-05:002003-07-30T22:59:09.523-05:00The Hyde Park perspective
Slate's James Suroweicki has an interesting article about the whole free-market experiment in counter-terror intelligence. He details some of the market's successes as a predicive tool and argues that in this case it has been unfairly dismissed. I'm incline to agree - when I first heard about the project (in the context of calls for its dismantling) it sounded like itpaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059622944858023702003-07-30T22:42:00.000-05:002003-07-30T22:42:48.253-05:00More on publishers
Comments and other stimuli (from real life) have had me considering my post from the other day about the publishing industry and its motivations, etc. I have to admit, there is a tremendous selection out there now, and more than ever before, thanks to the near ubiquity of Borders and the internet (just discovered abebooks.com, truly the store to end all stores). But in the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059573575536840602003-07-30T08:59:00.000-05:002003-07-30T08:59:35.516-05:00Multiple choice
A - B - C - Dpaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059399241584709742003-07-28T08:34:00.000-05:002003-07-30T23:03:45.830-05:00The work of the devil
A good friend/tireless reader puts me onto the bizarre (yet wonderful) phenomenon of the flashmob - sort of a postmodern protest feel with some performance art retrofitting. Blogger cheeesebikini has extensive coverage and links. For interested New Yorkers especially there's more information here as well. Nothing yet in Chicago, sorry to say (but not that surprised).
paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059365922563984312003-07-27T23:18:00.000-05:002003-07-28T00:06:43.353-05:00Foreign borrowings
As a student of foreign literature in particular, I find this phenomenon pretty disturbing. This part especially:
"A lot of foreign literature doesn't work in the American context because it's less action-oriented than what we're used to, more philosophical and reflective," said Laurie Brown, senior vice president for marketing and sales at Harcourt Trade Publishers. "As paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059105665600598572003-07-24T23:01:00.000-05:002003-07-24T23:01:05.410-05:00Half the sins of mankind
Was talking yesterday with a friend about the relative lack of high-profile female bloggers; with another friend separately about the same with American fiction, especially before the past twenty or so years. For the first problem at least, ms.musings has a solution. The new blogrrrll there has some great selections, I'll be taking note, and you should too. I know paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1059017656539379692003-07-23T22:34:00.000-05:002003-07-23T23:32:32.540-05:00Other worlds
Studying Aymara this summer has me increasingly isolated from world events. One of my classmates, upon seeing the headline that Saddam's ruthless sons were dead, remarked only that "ruth" is a bound morpheme, ie you can't be ruthful, only ruthless. Meanwhile car problems have kept me from listening to my beloved NPR; I've been doing fiction instead, certainly a way better use of paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1058897090838072762003-07-22T13:04:00.000-05:002003-07-22T13:04:50.783-05:00Even if the popcorn is stale...
My girlfriend and I have a running argument about the food (especially fast food) industry's complicity in Americans' massive weight gain of the past two decades. I usually come down on the side of blaming big corporations and the capitalist system (big surprise there) and she's a little more circumspect - and of course there's always a bit of subtext revolving paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1058844307124884002003-07-21T22:25:00.000-05:002003-07-21T22:25:07.090-05:00And all the king's men
Haven't weighed in on the whole Iraq debacle in a while, I actually find the situation pretty depressing and to a certain degree events simply speak for themself. But maybe a little bit of persepctive: looking back on the neocon plan for Iraq - for the whole Middle East, really - it's hard to see the American presence there as anything but an unquailfied disaster. I'm paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1058572747200560732003-07-18T18:59:00.000-05:002003-07-18T18:59:39.740-05:00For your viewing pleasure
My roommate from college has been doing a quote of the day (QOTD) over email since 1994, with pretty much remarkable consistency. The quotes are usually funny or harshly striking/badass rather than touching or sentimental, which is fine by me... maybe at some point I can get him to let me syndicate them here? Quoting daily seems like a fairly common blogging apparatuspaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1058552233932863282003-07-18T13:17:00.000-05:002003-07-18T13:17:13.920-05:00Star Wars trivia?
Heard recently (in my Aymara class) that Greedo, the green skinned bounty hunter from Star Wars, is actually speaking Quechua. A quick Google search comes up with more votes for backwards Quechua than Quechua proper, but it's somewhat interesting either way. Too bad they're doing the new movies with thick racist accents rather than honest to god foreign languages.
paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1058291329712782432003-07-15T12:48:00.000-05:002003-07-15T12:50:41.766-05:00Unplanned parenthesis
Sorry for the lack of posts - the weekend was a hellish melange of painting the spare bedroom, attending a wedding of someone I hardly know, and running into "old friends" I didn't particularly want to see. Meanwhile a not-so-old friend dropped in more or less unexpectedly after cleaning up at some chess tournament in Elmhurst. So, I've been entertaining (but not for you,paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057881153535937802003-07-10T18:52:00.000-05:002003-07-11T12:50:45.143-05:00Smile!
The Chicago PD announced today that it will be putting surveillance cameras on the streets to help fight crime in some bad areas, as well as at some busy intersections to snag wayward drivers:
The camera units will be marked with Chicago Police Department logos, be bullet-proof, weather-proof and remote-controlled by joystick with the ability to zoom and pan 360 degrees, and have paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057843976797786282003-07-10T08:32:00.000-05:002003-07-10T08:40:53.813-05:00You can trust him
Apostropher, who's been awfully good lately, links to this fascinating/disappointing story about the provenance of this story, which seems to have been edited after the fact (Apostropher has some of the original here). The even more interesting story would be: who was this guy? Makes me feel a little less animosity toward journalists to see what they have to wade through to paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057811103570864322003-07-09T23:25:00.000-05:002003-07-09T23:25:03.516-05:00In other blogs
Ms Magazine has a blog up, not sure how long it's been there but I know people have been reading it because they keep mentioning it to me. The latest is a long piece about Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, decrying the whole backwards notion that the film has something to offer in terms of a coherently positive feminine role. Definitely check this out.
Also, from a couple paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057810626919125342003-07-09T23:17:00.000-05:002003-07-09T23:23:57.630-05:00Political endorsement
For readers in Chicago, check out Barack Obama on Channel 2's Eye on Chicago this Sunday (July 13) at both 10am and 10:30pm. Obama is trying to get the Democracic nomination to run for US Senate in 04.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057810040761822282003-07-09T23:07:00.000-05:002003-07-09T23:07:53.566-05:00The fine print
NPR reported today (no link, but this opinion piece confirms) that fully one third of the US aid to Africa to fight the AIDS epidemic must be used for abstinence-only programs. Obviously I don't agree with the ideology that's pushing this; it belies a sick moralistic attitude toward AIDS victims that really amounts to cultural blackmail. And while abstinence may in fact be the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057721344419756852003-07-08T22:29:00.000-05:002003-07-08T22:43:25.076-05:00Book collecting
The prof I was closest to as an undergrad was seriously into book collecting, so much so that now he's become the director of the Lilly Library at IU, where he continues to collect everything from pop-up books to the original manuscript of On the Road. I'm actually hoping to make it down to Bloomington sometime this summer to take a look at some of the Spanish-Aymara paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057630965788035972003-07-07T21:22:00.000-05:002003-07-07T21:31:33.613-05:00Uka jach'a uru, jutaskiway
A good friend brought this (also here) to my attention, it's a worm you should watch out for, one that brings up pictures of Aymara leader Evo Morales, a Bolivian cocalero (takes over your addressbook too, of course). It's aparently not the first politically motivated worm, but I mention it because I'm studying Aymara at the moment. (No, I did not come down with the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057602851820796102003-07-07T13:34:00.000-05:002003-07-07T13:41:17.370-05:00The compassion of our country
Letting Americorps slip into disrepair (or even oblivion) is a seriously bad idea. This has been an enormously successful program, with tens of thousands of volunteers each year making valuable contributions in every imaginable area. Now legislative minutiae have left it with only half the funding necessary for the coming year, despite support from the president paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057602363375805402003-07-07T13:26:00.000-05:002003-07-07T13:26:18.286-05:00That'll teach you
Haggai links to Fareed Zakaria's excellent suggestion that we internationalize not just the humanitarian aid to Iraq, but some of the policy decisions as well. This might alleviate some of the pressure our forces there face, and lend the legitimacy of international institutions to the whole debacle. The only problem with this approach, it seems, is Bush's unwillingness to paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057544641746923002003-07-06T21:24:00.000-05:002003-07-06T21:39:30.673-05:00A seam of online middle-class resentment?
Apropos of Dean's impressive internet campaign take, EJ Dionne suggested today on This Week that the internet is doing for liberalism what talk radio did for conservatism 10 years ago. I wonder how others feel about this. If for instance we were in the middle of a Republican primary right now, would some candidate on the Right have demonstrated similar paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057543872481407372003-07-06T21:11:00.000-05:002003-07-06T21:11:12.470-05:00Rethinking California
Well, it's looking more and more like California will actually recall its governor. What's really bizarre about it is the way in which his replacement will be selected - basically anyone who wants to pay the $3500 registration fee can be on the ballot (which will take the form of an afterthough question to referendum on Davis's recall), and a simple plurality will be paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057203941139064202003-07-02T22:45:00.000-05:002003-07-03T08:40:55.923-05:00By airplane to the rocket
Saw the TMBG documentary the other day, Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns it's called. I thought it was excellent and highly reommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the Giants. It was probably worth the entry fee just to see what Ira Glass looks like, and there are plenty of other great celeb interviews (I'll definitely be picking up something by Sarah paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057203200354387452003-07-02T22:33:00.000-05:002003-07-03T08:42:04.950-05:00A new foreign policy?
I'm completely fascinated by the Bush administrations attitude toward Liberia - they're obviously sending up trial balloons for an investment for forces, and it seems so straneg given what we've seen in the past couple years. After all, Liberia has no oil, no WMD program, and no apparent terrorist threat. Meanwhile, there's been a complete lack of interest in other paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057191124589554142003-07-02T19:12:00.000-05:002003-07-07T12:47:12.486-05:00So that's how they do it
In the desert outside Jaisalmer (the one where they do their nuclear testing, apparently) last summer I was totally amazed to see these dung beetles moving backwards, usng their hind legs to roll pieces of dung several times their size. Now it seems they (or at least their African counterparts) navigate with the help of the moon.
Speaking of India, I have a friend paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057190675279996932003-07-02T19:04:00.000-05:002003-07-02T19:04:35.276-05:00Bring them on?
Via Metafilter, here is our president daring the Iraqi resistance to attack American troops, and Ari Fleischer backpeddaling furiously to try to explain the remark.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057104420069747812003-07-01T19:07:00.000-05:002003-07-03T08:06:12.570-05:00The terrorists have won!
Witness, from the New York Times:
French wine sales to the United States, once French winemakers' most promising market and now one of their greatest competitors, are going down the drain.
"It's clear from our American distributors that there is a hesitation to promote French wines for the time being," said Bruno Finance, sales manager for Yvon Mau, one of paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1057103924064100482003-07-01T18:58:00.000-05:002003-07-01T18:58:43.880-05:00Chicago blogmap?
Does anybody know of a Chicago blogmap? I can't find one, and I'm seriously considering putting one together. I've been doing a lot of smalltime scheming with respect to upgrading/reinventing this site, and a blogmap could be a fun summer project. Anyone interested in going in with me - eg someone with programming competency beyond html?paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1056997617041974302003-06-30T13:26:00.000-05:002003-06-30T15:52:49.413-05:00This time it's personal
PG, a little vexed by the law school application process, wonders what he'll think of affirmative action if/when it adversely affects his admittance decisions. It's interesting that even though I've long supported affirmative action, I've never been comfortable telling institutions about my racial composition. For one thing, it's often not even clear to me going in paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1056996820149842322003-06-30T13:13:00.000-05:002003-06-30T13:13:40.133-05:00Local correspondent
BigOldGeek was practically an eyewitness to the porch collapse here in Chicago that made national news yesterday. His fiance is a doctor, so he has a somewhat unique perspective. paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1056996155220053652003-06-30T13:02:00.000-05:002003-06-30T13:30:03.576-05:00Foreign correspondent
Matthew Yglesias, blogging from Florence, is complaining about the price differential in museum entrance fees for EU citizens vs the rest of us.
In all seriousness, though, I do wonder what the rationale for this policy is supposed to be. The economic logic behind age-based price discrimination is pretty clear, but I can't see any logic behind citizenship-based paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1056688387635278812003-06-26T23:33:00.000-05:002003-06-26T23:41:06.833-05:00Better than painpill
Would you take a polypill? According to this article, British scientists want to combine five drugs (aspirin, folic acid, and three blood pressure and cholseterol medications) into one pill that would help protect those at risk from heart attacks and strokes. The projected benefits are incredible:
The researchers estimated that one-third of those taking the pill would paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-1056635581793871672003-06-26T08:53:00.000-05:002003-06-26T19:08:57.850-05:00Working out the kinks
Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday - Blogger was down, but I was a little preoccupied anyway, reinventing Szechuan chicken and learning the Soviet national anthem (you can learn it too, here).
I did want to say a few words about the so-called MoveOn primary yesterday. I know it was essentially an internal thing for MoveOn, but it was also much-hyped as the wave of paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-960042492003-06-24T23:19:00.000-05:002003-06-24T23:20:11.000-05:00Narrative threads
Apostropher links to this fascinating story (also here) about Incan Khipus and the strong possibility that they may be a form of recorded language, not written, but woven and knotted. This is of great interest to me beacuse of my nascent study of Aymara - it looks like many of these khipu are found among the Aymara, which may be provocative. I'll be investigating this furtherpaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959892002003-06-24T13:34:00.000-05:002003-06-24T13:34:44.000-05:00Scrimp and save
Nathan Newman has a post demonizing the 401(k) program; basically his argument is that allowing these savings to exist tax-free not only takes away a huge chunk of potential government revenue, but it encourages the savers to lobby congress for tax cuts so that when the accounts mature, they won't have to pay as much. I've never thought about this second problem before - I paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959799312003-06-24T08:30:00.000-05:002003-06-24T08:48:48.000-05:00Let's see some ID
Indianapolis is going to start accepting the Mexican matricula consular as a valid form of ID, tremendous news for the numerous Mexican immigrants in the area. Even more than other cities in the midwest, Indianapolis has experienced a massive wave of Mexican and other Hispanic immigrants in the past few years, and this is a sign that the city is finding creative/assertive wayspaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959679862003-06-23T22:27:00.000-05:002003-06-23T22:32:43.000-05:00Atalji makes his move
Is this more of Vajpayee's legacy-making? I had thought he was an outgoing PM, but now that I look at the Indian press I'm totally confused on the issue - apparently he's referred obliquely to his own retirement on a couple of different occasions, but there doesn't seem to be any consensus about what's next for the old man.
Suman Palit's concerns aside, I think this canpaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959675922003-06-23T22:14:00.000-05:002003-06-23T22:16:24.000-05:00Hot pursuit
This is a little bit frightening:
US military forces crossed into Syria and engaged in a shooting match with border guards last Wednesday after destroying a caravan that was suspected of carrying Saddam Hussein or members of his family, Defense officials said Monday.
The incident occurred near Qaim, a town close to the Iraqi-Syrian border, when U.S. ground troops sought to paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959672502003-06-23T22:01:00.000-05:002003-06-23T22:01:52.023-05:00Cooking clinic
Does anybody have some good advice about cooking tofu? Mostly I want to put together some simple Asian sauces and stir frys, but I can't stand tofu when it breaks into little pieces. I was thinking of lightly frying it beforehand, but maybe there's a better way? paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959540692003-06-23T13:33:00.000-05:002003-06-24T08:49:04.000-05:00Do it for the children
BigOldGeek apparently took almost 20 hours to finish the new Harry Potter, which isn't as fast as some I've heard about, but still demands... admiration? As someone who hasn't read any of the books or been to any of the movies (and he writes children's opera? you say) I can't really speak to this particular obsession. But I will mention a children's book I have been paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-959532212003-06-23T13:05:00.000-05:002003-06-23T13:05:24.800-05:00Anything but French
Just finished with my first day of intensive Aymara - should be a pretty interesting way to spend my mornings this summer. There's nothing quite like the giddiness that comes with learning the first few words in a new language, with all the crazy sounds you didn't know you could make and the obscene politeness of all the little dialogues. I'm not sure how useful Aymara willpaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-958778642003-06-20T18:13:00.000-05:002003-06-20T18:15:04.000-05:00Self improvement
Now they've found a way to make you smarter by magnetizing your brain. The phenomenon is apparently related to the condition of savants, who are able to perform incredible tasks but have significant social or lingustic limitations. It sounds like a step forward (especially for autism research), but I have to say the idea of magnetically enhanced painters and novelists gives mepaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-958774852003-06-20T17:54:00.000-05:002003-06-20T17:54:40.803-05:00Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful
The new documentary about They Might Be Giants opens in Chicago today at the Music Box. The film is called Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns, and it's getting pretty good reviews so far. I'll let you know.
Speaking of documentaries, does anybody know what happened to Alexandra Pelosi's documentary Journeys with George? A Google search paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-958346682003-06-19T12:53:00.000-05:002003-06-19T12:56:49.000-05:00Two American ragazze
Terrific news: my sister Jackie Goyette and her friend Corrie Cook have a new weblog. Jackie's been in Italy for the past year, and the weblog is about her experiences - so far it looks like she's playing with different travel writing styles, and I'm impressed. If you're interested in travel writing, make sure to check out her online magazine, The Long Trip Home - I think paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-957673312003-06-17T16:14:00.000-05:002003-06-17T16:15:45.000-05:00A new kind of therapy
Someone over at Metafilter links to this odd article from Utne on the Sopranos and ecopsychology (I say odd beacuse the connection between the two is awfully tenuous/contrived, but obviously kept me reading anyway). I'm not sure how I feel about these ecopsychologists, who for one thing have some pretty strange intellectual roots, but I've always felt that modern paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-957561802003-06-17T10:35:00.000-05:002003-06-17T10:44:56.000-05:00Dereliction of duty
Am I the only left-leaning blogger who isn't gaga over Paul Krugman? It's not that I don't agree with him (I almost always do); but unless he's talking about economics, he hardly ever says anything new, and he never does any research. In today's column he makes generalization after generaliztion, finally bringing us to the bizarre conclusion (or does he call it a suspicion?paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-957365912003-06-16T20:31:00.000-05:002003-06-16T20:49:53.000-05:00Political machinations?
Well the career advice isn't exactly pouring in, but PG (who btw couldn't resist that mini-melon story either) tells me I should join one of the political campaigns. But I've got a pretty bad attitude toward ths sort of thing after getting screwed by the Hart campaign - Ezra Klein (who's now blogging over at Not Geniuses, if you're interested) and Kevin Thurman had theirpaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-957035852003-06-15T22:59:00.000-05:002003-06-15T22:59:44.650-05:00Truth in advertising
I'm thinking of getting broadband soon... I'm sick of waiting for this phoneline to connect all the time, and the university's connection speed isn't exactly convenient. I'll have to wait to see if I'm even going to be in town for the summer, but I'll probably go for this SBC/Yahoo! broadband unless anybody writes to put me off of it. I saw the commercial today where Yahoopaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-957032412003-06-15T22:49:00.000-05:002003-06-15T22:55:07.000-05:00The world of children's opera
The Chicago Opera Theatre's production of Brundibar was good, although I have to say that the Indianapolis Children's Choir was able to muster just as much talent and heart from within their own ranks. Also, I think it was a little strange to double bill it with Martinu's Comedy on the Bridge, which isn't really a children's story at all. Sendak's sets for paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-956944762003-06-15T16:43:00.000-05:002003-06-15T16:45:18.000-05:00Greatly exaggerated
So it's been 2 wks since I've written an entry here, amazingly enough I survived all my finals, even the group work, but I still haven't figured out what I'm doing with my summer. Possibilities at the moment range from obscure language study to a couple of rather dry sounding Washington policy internships. If anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears. I fully expect to be paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-951758232003-06-01T22:50:00.000-05:002003-06-01T22:58:23.000-05:00The rest is opera
I heard Maurice Sendak speak today about the upcoming production of Brundibar here in Chicago. I'm familiar with Brundibar because it's the only opera I know of (besides The Trio of Minuet) written to be performed by children. And of course Mr Sendak wrote Where the Wild Things Are - both the children's book and the opera libretto. In recent years he has moved to production paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-951755512003-06-01T22:43:00.000-05:002003-06-01T22:43:22.120-05:00Playing Poseidon
I think the Chinese may have Mr Putin beat with this iffy plan to turn the Yangtze into a reservoir the size of Lake Superior.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-950861822003-05-30T11:25:00.000-05:002003-05-30T11:47:30.000-05:00Playing Zeus
Talk about authoritarian:
On orders from President Vladimir Putin, 10 planes equipped with chemical charges will try to keep Russia's second city dry as tourists and world leaders attend the jubilee celebration.
"Our aim is to empty all clouds of rain before they hit the city borders," Vladimir Stepanenko of St. Petersburg's Geophysics Observatory told The Times of London. paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-950348142003-05-29T09:24:00.000-05:002003-05-29T09:29:11.000-05:00Caesura
If this isn't apparent already, posting will be quite light for the next week or two, since my finals are coming up and I'm in real hot water this quarter (spending a week out of town for the opera didn't help, nor did all this blogging). At the moment I'm trying to wheedle some edits out of some of my classmates for a group project due in an hour. And after that, it's on to another paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-948988972003-05-26T10:11:00.000-05:002003-05-26T10:11:55.433-05:00A unionless utopia
PG has the skinny on the union problems over at Whole Foods.
paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-948984972003-05-26T10:00:00.000-05:002003-05-26T17:37:43.000-05:00Betrayed
This is what I get for defending the Bush administration:
The American occupation authority in Iraq, apparently preserving the prewar distinction between Kurdish-controlled northern areas and the rest of the country, will allow Kurdish fighters to keep their assault rifles and heavy weapons, but require Shiite Muslim and other militias to surrender theirs, according to a draft paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-947865462003-05-23T09:25:00.000-05:002003-05-23T10:32:36.000-05:00Hypocrisy?
Both PG and BigOldGeek (and probably others) have pointed out that there's an inconsistency between the Bush administration's gun control policy here in the United States and the current seizing of weapons in Iraq. I think this is a somewhat irresponsible line of argument. I don't disagree that we have too many guns here in the United States, and I definitely think there's a lot we paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-947254032003-05-22T01:45:00.000-05:002003-05-22T01:45:57.636-05:00Food fight
Bush is absolutely right to declaim the EU's ban on genetically modified food:
In a speech that the White House said would put forward what aides called a positive agenda that would show a far softer side to American foreign policy, Mr. Bush insisted that widened use of "high-yield bio-crops" would greatly increase agricultural productivity in some of the poorest nations.
"Yet paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-947251022003-05-22T01:34:00.000-05:002003-05-22T01:34:53.603-05:00Wind dummies
FedEx has discovered that hybrids are good business. The company has plans to phase 30,000 hybrid delivery trucks into its fleet:
FedEx says that while the new trucks will be more expensive to purchase, they increase fuel efficiency by 50 percent and will be less costly to maintain. The company hopes to break even over the 10 to 12 years that the trucks are expected to last, Mr.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-946743612003-05-21T02:11:00.000-05:002003-05-21T02:11:25.883-05:00Self improvement
Went to see the new Neil Labute effort today, called The Shape of Things. It didn't really live up to my hopes - the dialogue was kind of unweildy (written for the stage?) and the vicious interpersonal dramas weren't nearly as vivid or believable as what we saw in Your Friends and Neighbors. Instead, the film was built on a central conceit, sort of like In the Company of Men, paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-946739362003-05-21T01:55:00.000-05:002003-05-21T02:03:28.000-05:00All those other bastards were only practice
I've never been a golf fan, and I probably never will be, but I'm totally impressed that Annika Sorentsam is taking on the PGA men this Thursday... at the Colonial, no less! I hope she takes them apart... it would really do wonders for the world of pro sports.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-946738492003-05-21T01:51:00.000-05:002003-05-21T02:10:26.000-05:00More room for guns & ammo
BigOldGeek directs me to this article from the New York Times on how WalMart is changing the rules of them game in publishing and other media. Their market share is apparently so big they can sink an author or artist by refusing to carry her... or at least, it's close to that - Eminem seems to be doing pretty well on his own, thank you very much.
I guess I have a paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-946133962003-05-19T22:06:00.000-05:002003-05-19T22:06:04.110-05:00It's better by far to get paid
I've been having a hard time motivating myself to write lately... the news is all depressing, terrorist attacks all over the map, and the Bush people looking less and less earnest every day on Iraq. Plus I'm a little burnt out I think - yes the opera experience was terrifically energizing, but by comparison blogging about current events is almost a chore. I'm paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-944301522003-05-15T23:17:00.000-05:002003-05-15T23:44:12.000-05:00Meaningful machines?
Metafilter links to this article about improving the quality of machine translations. It seems like a smart enough approach, but it's not going to solve all the translation problems out there. Specifically, I don't think there's a wide enough pool of translated discourse for a computer to be able to solve larger contextual problems.
Let me put it this way: Is the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-944289472003-05-15T22:51:00.000-05:002003-05-16T08:14:21.000-05:00Chasin' a rainbow dream
An interesting thing about A Mighty Wind is the way it backs away from the documentary framework that was so successful in Christopher Guest's previous films - I'm told it's actually been criticized for this. I guess such a critique comes out of the notion that documentary/mockumentary was central to Best in Show or Waiting for Guffman, but I'm not sure I buy it. Yes, paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-943345812003-05-14T11:00:00.000-05:002003-05-15T23:11:53.000-05:00I didn't know the moon had a song
I've been back from Indianapolis for a couple of days now, trying to get reacquainted with the real world. Watching The Trio of Minuet come alive last week was absolutely magical for me on so many levels. Audiences young and old responded well to it, and the children on stage had a wonderful time. I can't wait to start writing another one...
The paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-943340242003-05-14T10:48:00.000-05:002003-05-14T10:48:51.303-05:00Not just the worm
BigOldGeek is wondering about the difference between Mezcal and Tequila, and this LATimes article I read a couple months back is somewhat illuminating:
The main difference between tequila and mezcal is the method of production. Mezcal dates back almost 500 years to the arrival of the Spaniards, who brought the art of distillation to Mexico. Tequila came later. Originally paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-943335902003-05-14T10:40:00.000-05:002003-05-15T23:47:26.000-05:00Help wanted
Lots of shakeup in the Republican race for Illinois senator in the past few days. Jim Edgar, Judy Barr-Topinka, and Jim Ryan have all indicated they don't plan to run. Meanwhile ice cream magnate James Oberweis may be interested...
MORE:Archpundit has some analysis over at Political State Report.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-938632472003-05-06T09:18:00.000-05:002003-05-06T10:43:19.000-05:00Break a leg
OK, I'm headed for Indianapolis for the rest of the week - The Trio of Minuet opens this Saturday, and I want to be there for all the dress rehearsals, etc. I don't expect to be blogging much, although I would like to put together a post on how the opera came to be. But hopefully the break will give me some time to recharge a little... as of today I've been blogging for 3 months!paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-938626172003-05-06T09:06:00.000-05:002003-05-06T09:47:08.000-05:00Pelted off the public stage
I haven't yet posted about the revelation of Bill Bennett's big blunder, but I guess that's because I regard it as an amusing anecdote a la Boccaccio more than anything else. What I mean is: I don't think I'm constitutionally capable to turning the tables and becoming the monster moralizer, even to ferret out hypocrisy (from all the bombast). Michael Kinsley is a paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-937800332003-05-04T22:55:00.000-05:002003-05-04T23:23:33.000-05:00The world's most destructive weapons
I was absolutely appalled by this report:
A specially trained Defense Department team, dispatched after a month of official indecision to survey a major Iraqi radioactive waste repository, today found the site heavily looted and said it was impossible to tell whether nuclear materials were missing.
It's incredible to me that, after justifying this war paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-937793312003-05-04T22:40:00.000-05:002003-05-06T09:53:24.000-05:00The black hole of Asia
This is reassuring. The Bush people have apparently given up on negotiating with the North Koreans, in favor of a policy of preventing exports of nuclear weapons and technology. The catch:
Mr Bush's approach is a major gamble — one that depends on superb intelligence about North Korea's efforts to sell its weapons. So far, though, the nuclear program has been what onepaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-937539982003-05-04T13:05:00.000-05:002003-05-04T13:05:17.460-05:00AWOL
Apologies for the lack of posts. It's been a busy time for me, trying to balance midterms, the upcoming opera, and ballooning responsibilities for the not quite Gary Hart campaign. And to make matters worse, the phone line has been out since the thunderstorm Wednesday night. Maybe it's time to get broadband...
The latest on the opera is this preview from the Indianapolis Star.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-935740672003-04-30T22:52:00.000-05:002003-05-01T11:59:22.000-05:00So complicated as to defy concise explanation
Brent Snowcroft and Arnold Kantor have an editorial in tomorrow's NYT calling the Beijing talks between the US and the DPRK a surprising success. But on balance, they don't seem to be particularly optimistic. Fundamentally their plan is about trading disarmament for a security guarantee - something the US has so far been unwilling to do:
United paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-935518722003-04-30T15:30:00.000-05:002003-04-30T18:29:00.000-05:00Wired and well-spoken
Here's more on Fareed Zakaria. The link comes via Gary Farber, who I'm glad to say is back to posting regularly - although it may have something to do with a SARS-like bout of pneumonia. Hope he gets well soon.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-935515452003-04-30T15:24:00.000-05:002003-04-30T15:24:36.773-05:00Wooden nickels
What's with all the changes at the US Mint in the past few years? I guess the new bills addressed security issues, but there's also this business of making nickels into collectors items:
Latest figures show nickel circulation at 18.9 billion. The Mint said it would increase production if the public began collecting the new nickels in large numbers.
So, if large numbers of paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-934433532003-04-28T22:48:00.000-05:002003-04-29T15:40:16.000-05:00The mutinous winds
Thanks, Haggai, for directing me to Gary Hart's review of Fareed Zakaria's The Future of Freedom. I definitely need to get myself a copy of this book. A couple of comments. Hart concludes:
Zakaria is a serious enough thinker and has produced a serious enough book to require serious attention. Either one-dimensional "democracy" or a more nuanced constitutional liberalism paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-934416892003-04-28T22:17:00.000-05:002003-04-29T01:04:27.000-05:00And refuse thy name
There's been a lot of discussion about anonymous blogging lately - The Invisible Adjunct and Amitai Etzioni's posts come to mind - and I've been doing some thinking about it as a result.
When I started this blog (almost 3 months ago!), I knew I didn't want it to be anonymous. It didn't have anything to do with the communiatrian concerns voiced by Amitai Etizoni, or with paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-933805382003-04-27T23:56:00.000-05:002003-04-28T00:14:36.000-05:00Substantial noninfringing uses
Obviously this has huge implications for the future of art. I haven't thought about it much, but my gut reaction is to applaud anything that will help rescue the human creative impulse out of the clutches of corporate greed and American consumerism. On the other hand, I'm not sure how much of what I consider art really has corporate handlers anyway. Maybe this paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-933800802003-04-27T23:46:00.000-05:002003-04-27T23:46:40.890-05:00A sexy alternative to nuclear annihilation
Bruce Sterling discusses some of the motivations behind the Indian and Chinese space programs. paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-933797782003-04-27T23:40:00.000-05:002003-04-27T23:41:23.000-05:00Oh, what a feeling
Yes, the new Toyota Prius gets 55 miles per gallon, but there's this too:
New hybrid technology will enable the 2004 Prius to accelerate to 60 m.p.h. in about 10.5 seconds, two seconds faster than the current model and on par with a 4-cylinder Camry sedan, Toyota Senior Vice President Don Esmond said at the car's unveiling at the New York Auto Show.
Sounds great... but paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-932667642003-04-25T17:50:00.000-05:002003-04-25T18:46:30.000-05:00The right to face your accuser
Indefinite detentions are now the Justice Department's blanket policy for illegal immigrants:
US Attorney General John Ashcroft has ruled that the government may detain groups of illegal immigrants indefinitely if federal officials say their release would endanger national security.
The attorney general said that in a time of national emergency such as the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-932070132003-04-24T18:34:00.000-05:002003-04-24T18:34:01.126-05:00Anxiety of influence
From Metafilter, this is odd... didn't the 300th episode of the Simpsons air a couple months back? I can only conclude that there's some kind of delay between its initial airing in the states and its airing in the UK. But what possible reason could they have for delaying? It seems kind of backwards, in an age when they could probably have emailed the episode as an paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-932065212003-04-24T18:24:00.000-05:002003-04-24T18:26:00.000-05:00Cash and carry
In a fun piece on traffic jams, Michael Kinsley makes this suave argument in an aside about what it would mean to have a kidney market:
Should a rich person who needs a kidney replacement be allowed to buy one from a healthy poor person? The answer of all the advanced democracies is: no. Human kidneys should not be part of the dollar economy. A rich person shouldn't be able to paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-932062102003-04-24T18:17:00.000-05:002003-04-24T18:17:51.360-05:00Burgernomics
The Economist has an understandably self-satisfied explanation of their long-running Big Mac index. Hopefully their predictions for the coming year will be so accurate.
paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-931642302003-04-24T02:09:00.000-05:002003-04-24T16:24:04.000-05:00Papa, don't preach
Behold, the creative genius of Madonna. Or maybe the marketing genius... I guess the two are pretty similar where she's concerned. Still, it's worth a laugh. According to Metafilter, the remixes have already begun.
paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-931642092003-04-24T02:08:00.000-05:002003-04-24T02:08:20.960-05:00Any future entitlement
PLA, whose permalinks never seem to work, has a very long, very good post on the basics of the funding side of Social Security. He ends up arguing that even though Social Security funds current benefits with current tax revenues, it's not irresponsible as long as our leaders are fiscally responsible. He's right, of course.paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-931638892003-04-24T01:58:00.000-05:002003-04-24T08:56:17.000-05:00Likely contributors?
Via Matt Yglesias, Patrick Belton explains that he's been added to the Bush admin's database of potential campaign contributors, and it is probably because he applied for a federal job.
Having actually held a federal job (with the Social Security Adminstration), I can tell you that many federal employees are forbidden from taking part in political activism at the paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-931143362003-04-23T09:45:00.000-05:002003-04-24T01:54:17.000-05:00Your story didn't hold up
Brett Marston links to this disturbing article on the lack of serious investigative reporting in the American press. Go read it.
MORE: Shock & Awe links to this related commentary from Morning Edition's Bob Edwards. The bit about the media watching the polls as closely as politicians is particularly incisive.
paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-931140222003-04-23T09:39:00.000-05:002003-04-23T15:24:28.000-05:00Confirmation wars
This is good news - high profile interventions by the Europeans and now an Egyptian envoy have led to an agreement on the Palsetinian cabinet. One thing that bothers me about this is that through this crisis there hasn't been any mention of a serious US effort, even though Bush has expressed his support for Abu Mazen. Is this because we don't have any credibility with them, paulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-930704402003-04-22T16:32:00.000-05:002003-04-22T16:32:35.000-05:00Clark's plans
This report via Taegan makes it look like Wesley Clark won't be running for president. If this is true, it's a big blow to Democrats. Clark is one of the few potential candidates who has any credibility on national security issues, and having him in the primary would have forced others to address these issues. I think if he walks away now it rules out VP too, but look for him aspaulnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995642.post-930697402003-04-22T16:19:00.000-05:002003-04-22T16:24:18.000-05:00Unintended consequences
The Bloviator (whose permalinks aren't working) has some observations about the tradeoffs between voluntary and involuntary quarantine:
Obviously, for purposes of maintaining the proper balance of human rights/dignity and public health protection, a voluntary approach is recommended. And while there are risks to this approach, as evidenced in the above case, the paulnoreply@blogger.com