??

The Underbelly has a nice piece on Louis Mountbatten here. I mean nice in the near-hyperbolic sense.

As a follow up, Ludovic Kennedy reports on a happening in a confirmatory vein - a retelling of a story by the late great British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan:

On one of the last occasions I [Kennedy] saw him [Macmillan], I mentioned my dealings with Mountbatten and asked what he thought of him. 'Very good at his job, but very vain.' He paused a moment. 'After Winston had retired, he used to give lunch parties every two weeks or so in the basement of his house in Hyde Park Gate. One day there were about a dozen of us there, including Dickie and myself; I was Prime Minister at the time. Winston wasn't in a very good mood. Dickie bored him all through the first course with stories of the Navy in the First World War, and all through the second course with stories of the Navy in the Second World War, and then he got up and said, "I've got to go out to a meeting of the Chief of Staff, but the Prime Minister will keep you amused." Winston was furious. He waited until Dickie had reached the foot of the stairs and then said in a very loud voice, 'Who is that fellow? Ought I to know him?"'

On My Way to the Club, pp. 378-79.

Ghosts of Empire

I'm working my way through Ludovic Kennedy's autobiography. I'm not yet sure on where I stand, whether on the whole I would recommend it to anyone else. It has the virtue of humor in places, mixing the author's intersection with historical events in others, and near-profound observations in yet more.

In the early 1960s he reports on a trip to India. There he visits post-independence Poona (now Pune), site of a former British garrison.

"There was another side to Poona in the vast and neglected British cemetery on the edge of town, a wilderness of crumbling gravestones and parched, brown grasses where goats munched and browsed and long ago time had stopped. Here in microcosm was a history of the British Empire; and walking among the derelict plots, abandoned by all except their occupants, one was made aware of the harshness of life in foreign parts in Victorian and Edwardian times, of the self sacrifice of those in the army, the police the telegraph service and other branches of the civil administration who had come here with their families to live ad die in the service of king and country. 'In loving memory of Trooper David Brown, aged 19. Died of the Cholera.' 'In dearest memory of June Dunn aged 4 and Emily Dunn aged 2, beloved only children of John and Laura Dunn. Died of the Cholera. Ever in our thoughts.' 'To the sacred memory of my dear husband, Robert Asketer of the Postal Service. Died of the Fever, aged 31.' The graves and headstones with similar inscriptions stretched almost out of sight, monuments to doomed youth. 'Gone but not forgotten', they cried, but it was no longer true.Here at Poona and in England too they had been forgotten as though they had never been."

Kennedy, "On My Way to the Club." Fontana Paperbacks 1990 at 270.

The Debt Economy

In the 11/23/2009 New Yorker James Surowiecki points out that "the government helped pay for the debt binge that created the mess in the first place, thanks to a tax system that actually subsidizes borrowing."

His point is, I think, to argue that there is a "debt bias" in the tax code, and that the debt bias - among other things - creates an illusory social benefit. For example, with respect to "tax shield" provided by home mortgage interest deductions, seller's know a buyer's ability to buy is extended by the tax benefits they can claim, and so they tax a bite out of the shield by increasing their sales prices. The deduction "simply inflates house prices."

That's good as far as it goes.

But isn't it a little contradictory to say there is a debt bias? If the market drives away the advantages the tax code puts on debt, shouldn't there be some point at which the advantage is priced out of the market, and the decision to buy or rent equalized. Similarly, isn't there a point at which the value of a corporate tax break for interest deductions is offset by a lower dividend tax rate that might prefer to raise lots of amounts of capital through shareholder contributions over incurring obligations of debt? In other words, doesn't the market price out bias?

That's not to say there wasn't a distortion created by a tax break, but that's not the same as saying the market priced the distortion away. In fact, there is a body of thought that simply says the tax gimmicry that tends to favor one decision (like to take on debt) over another (life to raise capital) only works for a time. That's the reason why economists say the effects of tax breaks are temporary. If you really think about it, tax breaks get compounded into the market fairly quickly. For example, when President Clinton enacted the 2001 tax relief - and allowed a $250,000 exclusion from capital gains on the sale of a principal residence - the probable effect was to raise the price of homes. This was a good thing for sellers at the time. Later sellers simply bought and sold homes that were inflated by the value of the break. The net effect of the break to them would have been zilch.

It's not at all clear to me why a debt bias, as it is, "means the over-all tax rate is higher." Is this to suggest that corporate tax rates must be raised to counter the effect of the tax break for debt? I'm not sure that's the case. That maybe ignores the other preferences built into the code: the loss of corporate tax through use of limited liability companies taxed as partnerships, REITs, S-Corporations, business trusts and the like. Whatever he may say, corporate tax rates have stayed remarkably stable since about 1988 (after dropping from a top marginal rate of 46% in 1988).

Also, claiming there is a debt bias ignores the various preferences for capital gains (especially the preferences that drive capital investments chasing lower gains rates) and - particular to the residential market - their effect on homebuilding. Mr. Surowiecki is right to say debt drives economically inefficient home purchases, and other inefficiencies, but only partly so. Low capital gains rates play a pretty big role here too.

If that's the case, there is a much bigger problem here than his article suggests. The fix is not simply to eliminate debt bias. If taking the mortgage interest deduction away is impalpable, consider combining that with eliminate capital gains rates, taking away the residence exclusion, eliminate the deduction for state and local taxes. I suggest the author's fix would not be a fix, and that a real fix isn't something we are ready for. Or something we're much used to doing at all.

A Message of Love

As Kraxy Krazy as in some say it with a brick would say. Let's set the stage.

This morning Jamie McCourt speaks in the LA Times: "until now she hasn't said anything publicly since being fired by her husband as Dodgers CEO, being labelled an adulterer in the process and pounded in court filings."

I have to say I am no fan of the McCourts. Frank McCourt strikes me as a bit more than slick. And in the past the Mrs suffered as a result.

But today I find my opinion changed. Clearly she is a beauty, and she is smart. She is also - apparently - very socially astute. Certainly enough to turn LA's record to her advantage.

As she opens: "Jamie says [her children] are the ones who have been really hit hard ... 'I want my kids to look back and say she took the high road. It's hard, but that's what I'm going to try and do.'" "Boys tend to defend their mother, but they're caught between a rock and a hard place." Bringing the kids to her side. Exactly what every good mom (and lawyer) knows to be true: the kids go with the dam.

With every statement, a strike. Jamie (I am now going to presume a first name basis) knows enough to turn each thing to an advantage. Is Mr McCourt going to play the same game? "He will respectfully decline comment." Nice, a one sided fight in the news. I could look forward to seeing her beat him in the press.

How was their marriage? Not quite perfect. "I met Frank when I was 17, dated him for eight years and was married to him almost 30 years." Almost. Nice.

Is Frank retaliating against loyalists in the Dodger's organization? "It bothers me that people not working for tons of money in most cases were let go when all they cared about was helping the Dodgers to get a [World Series] ring."

Adultery? "Absolutely not ... I have never been with another man until the marriage broke up. Ever. Ever." Emphatically qualified. She is born to do interviews like this. She is an animal, a natural. She's been crossed and she is out to get even. "I'm not ever going to talk about my private life, that's craziness."

Love of the game? "I don't need to be the controlling interest. I just love baseball so much and want to stay a part of it and lend my expertize in any way can."

The ostentatious pre-split life? "I'm with you. Frank is a real estate guy."' Nuff said.

On the fans: "I can't speak for Frank ... I like to think that you try to blend what fans can afford with what the game should be and still have quality players."

Future contributions to the Dodgers: "When you have partners and you have equity, you have an opportunity and the wherewithal to have an expended budget for player compensation."

On her contributions to the club: "I was running the team from day to day. I was handling everything from catsup dispenser to whether Joe Torre should be hired." She hired Joe Torre. Very good.

Future of the Team: "Our first order of business is to win the World Series."

Ticket prices: "That wa big fight with me and Frank. I haven't wanted to raise ticket prices for several years. It was a big debate. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to know this isn't the time to raise ticket prices."

Let's be clear. Jamie is worth every cent of $400,000 a month plus flowers. Plus the Maccabiah games. And negotiated swimming time. I'd give her the Dodgers in a heartbeat. As an independent analysis, we are told, found, "It was clear that Jamie believed that the success of the relationship is the key to all doors. She believes that the partnership is at risk because Frank 'doesn't get it.' He doesn't value her talents, listens to her only on his terms and shows little respect/acknowledgement for her in public. Jamie says that she can be a bigger asset to them if Frank could get by this need to dominate the public stage and better understand her business value." Jeesh. They could have been talking about all of us. A guy just can't forget that popularity is the grace of the person standing by him.

First Attempt At Audiobook

I've been on a Charles Dickens kick recently. I have searched for some time for an author who could write well both from the head and the heart. I'm not sure why I had not read Dickens when I was younger. A part of me is glad that I waited, for hs words are the words of life. It is good to save certain things for later.

I also recently acquired an iPod. Naturally wanting to find an agreeable intersection between these two media I searched for and found Dickens on the iTunes store. Yesterday I downloaded a full copy of "Sketches by Boz" and looked forward to putting on my headbuds as I lay down to rest at the end of a very long day.

Did I mention the Boz was recorded by Babblebooks?

What a complete shock to begin to listen to the first story and to hear what sounded like a person with an electro-larynx and no personality atonally reading words that it did not understand into a recorder. I say it because although the vioce sounds vaguely human, it is clearly a reading machine.

Reading is a skill that only humans possess. It is one of the skills, like reading a map, that humans do well and machines do not do well. Machines lack the intuition - the fuzzy logic - to make sense of the world as we do.

A machine should not be allowed to read Charles Dickens. Babblebooks has made a mistake. I imagine it is the product of some techno geek - perhaps an MIT student's senior project - who thinks that making machine read classics available to the masses is doing a service to mankind. Let's be clear, the point of a book is more than the words on the page. A human voice brings warmth to the reading, and allows the reader and the read to to establish a connection to pass thoughts from voice to mind. Man is a gregarious animal and is hard-wired to enjoy time spent with another human. A book, the connection between humans over a written page, is truly a wonderful thing.

Babblebooks is based on a horribly technical view of what reading is, an overly Utilitarian notion of the value of words and their meaning. Words have meaning, but they also have structure within sentences and sentences within the paragraphs of a page. Sentences may yield to the strict rules of punctuation, but they also have context. A human reader can understand the flow of the story as it crosses a page and can imbue imbue its voice with that flow and the meaning that follows. A machine simply cannot do that. Dickens should be read by an Englishman. I would like to hear him read by the same people who read the weekly Economist.

Stay away from Babblebooks. Babblebooks is performing a more than a disservice, it is insulting great works.

I am going to see is I can get iTunes to delete Babblebooks from any personal preferences that I can generate on the ITunes store.

Quote 3 of 3

The supposed Evreemonde descends, and the seamstress is lifted out next after him. He has not relinquished her patient hand in getting out, but still holds it as he promised. He gently places her with her back to the crashing engine that constantly whirrs up and falls, and she looks into his face and thanks him.

...

'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known."

Quote 2 of 3

'If I may ride with you, Citizen Evreemonde, will you let me hold your hand? I am not afraid, but I am little and weak, and it will give me more courage.'

As the patient eyes were lifted to his face, he saw a sudden doubt in them, and then astonishment. He pressed the work-worn, hunger-worn young finders, and touched his lips.

'Are you dying for him?' she whispered.

'And his wife and child, Hush! Yes.'

'O you will let me hold your brave hand, stranger?'

'Hush! Yes, my poor sister; to the last.'

Fifty Two. Id.

Quote 1 of 3

The great grindstone, Earth, had turned when Mr Lorry looked out again, and the sun was red on the court-yard. But, the lesser grindstone stood alone there in the calm morning air, with a red upon it that the sun had never given, and would never take away. The Grindstone. From "A Tale of Two Cities" Penguin Classics 2003 (but first published in 1859).

ID Theft

A friend's Sprint ID was stolen recently. Apparently this is not new. Reports are that Sprint's internal security is relatively easy to circumvent. Once a user's ID is captured, new phone lines are ordered and charges are made.

I'm not sure why anyone would want to order additional phone lines. I suspect this is similar to postage stamp theft. Stamps are easy to steal and easy to use. They are a simple form of cash substitute. Steal a bunch of phones, register a free account, and sell the phones with free phone service.

Chilling With the Past

I always thought Big Country's "In a Big Country" was a great song. But this tribute version from Bruce Watson just gives me the willies:

For the Record

It took Google less than a second to find over 800,000 reasons why U2 sucks.

"Results 1 - 10 of about 880,000 for reasons why u2 sucks. (0.22 seconds)"

Web site of the day

Wooden Boards

Water

Here in LA, each tribal subcultures holds fast to the notion that their particular interest trumps all. I have a more generalized notion. I am not a surfer, but I surf. I think I can surf better than most "surfers" - at least the ones I see around here. No doubt, having grown up with some who could have turned pro (and some who did) I know my place in the order of things.

Rather than stake my claim (badly) to one piece of turf, I conceive of myself as an all around waterman - an older (and truer - I do it too) ideal. The next series of posts are a video representation of what I mean.

Here is where the modern sport is widely recognized to have started. Okay I agree this is a surf centric piece.


Here is some classic surf footage - I can't resist:


A crossover shot - Aaron Piersol bodysurfing:


More bodysurfing:


Women paddling across the Molokai Channel:


Outrigger Sailing (too bad the sound was disabled):


Spearfish (wish the sound was disabled):


Kauai Surfer Girl:




Something a little more competitive:


Janet Evans dominating a bunch of very strong Europeans (it's really a shame there isn't a better video of this because this is a great sports feat):


WOW:

Run Run

More Classic Joe Raposo

Call for an Editor

I realize these have received a lot of negative comments. Still, they are a classic archetype. Although there are undoubtedly some letters that simply display the author's ignorance, others are well written and, just maybe, they hit a little too close to home.

It would be nice to see someone compile them with contextual notes and publish them. I'd send as gifts to a list I'm compiling in my mind right now.

I've Described this Before

It's frustrating trying to remind friends of things you know they've seen but forgotten. Here's another instance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViqBJI7IXGw (10/31 update: I could have better scribbled in my haste to post - here is a video link:)



Joe Raposo. My my.

Something not for the Bookstore

Last summer I was on Catalina Island and in need of a quick read. I picked up a copy of "The Secret History of the American Empire" having a vague recollection that its predecessor "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" had received favorable reviews.

The story begins:

I was ready to rape and pillage when I headed to Asia in 1971. At twenty-six, I felt cheated by life. I wanted to take revenge.

I am certain, in retrospect, that rage earned me my job. Hours of psychological testing by teh National Secutity Agency identified me as a potential economic hitman.

Thinking back on my decision to buy this book, the dissonance of these first few sentences should have tipped me off. What, exactly, at 26 makes you feel cheated by life? Is this the kind of fellow the NSA chooses - an ex-Peace Corps draft dodger - to wreak havoc on the economies of Latin american countries? Someone who cut his literary teeth on Paine and Jefferson? A conservative who believes the founding ideals of America are "justice and equality for all?"

From its first pages, this book seems contrived. Just for the record:

(i) The NSA is our listening service. Although it is certainly a very specialized and secretive organization, I'm not sure they are hiring "economic hit-men" as field operatives.
(ii) The book perpetuates the idea that the Peace Corps is really a CIA cover. I've known a number of Peace Corps volunteers and they just don't fit the mold. Unless the US government is getting very tricky indeed and hiring lots of biology majors to further their nefarious goals.
(iii) Apart from the importance of what they wrote, are Paine and Jefferson "literary" figures? I'm not sure anyone reads them as literature.
(iv) Are there any conservatives that actually have read Jefferson or Paine?
(v) Since when were the ideals of conservatives "justice and equality for all"?

The book reads like a set-up. I don't particularly like the notion that American economic and political interests may be achieved at others' expense. But it seems natural to me that we make use of the advantages we have. That is not a conspiracy, that is just life. I get the impression that John Perkins' intended audience is a little confused. You'd have to be to take this book at face value. I get the impression the author is confused as well.

I should have been tipped off by the jacket cover recommendations by Sting, Howard Zinn and John Gray - each someone for whom generality is crafted as reality. What they miss is an appreciation of human motivations and a willingness to broadly - as opposed to generally (hint- the difference is judicious scholarship) - assess the world as it is and not as it is presented.

Anyway, this was a book for the recycling bin. I can't honestly recommend it to anyone.

The Season Ends

VS calls it lucky they got this far. I get the sense he personally didn't think much of the team's chances in the post-season.

Grey Screen of Death

My hard drive crashed last week. I recall when I bought my MacBook that I'd told the sales representative about my prior experience with dell, which included a hard drive failure, as well as other failures. I was told that I would "be happy with my Mac."

It's a little unseemly to complain at this point, as I have complained before and I should say that I've never quite had the same issues as I had with Dell. Mainly, I think that since I basically run the Mac like a PC, the "PC-like" interface: quick keys, functionality of Word and Excel, just are not quite up to snuff.

Still, I always felt that buying a Mac at least I didn't have to worry about major failure. But it turns out I do.

Anyway, this post really is not about a complaint.

When I called Apple I was told my computer was no longer under warranty. I'm not surprised since I figured I did not need to get a warranty. Am I so naive?

Anyway, the upshot is that although I lost everything I had created on my computer (not much - I've effectively cloud computed for years) the folks at Apple claim to have a special program due to all of the hard drive crashes that accompanied the MacBook I had purchased. In short- I was comped a new HD, with an upgrade in RAM.

Nice.

Although I am sure I will experience frustration again in the future, I must say I am happy to have my Mac back.

But please, be sure to run timemachine from now on.

Creamed

Josh says the final score was 11-0, but the game wasn't as close as the score would indicate.

The Bitter Taste of the Road Less Travelled

I'm just saying, I've always liked Veronica.

A Proper Hedge

I'm generally depressed by the ragged hedges I have encountered here. A hedge should be "leaf-full" so that when it is trimmed, the branches don't show through. In other words, you should never be able to see through a hedge.

This is an example of a proper hedge. So is this (at the top).

Analog to Digital Conversion

I discovered, probably late to the game, that I can download my Economist paper into an audio file (an MP3 I think).

Cool. But that simply leaves an audio file on my computer - although I think it is possible to download directly to a mobile device. Why would I want to leave the files on my computer? I can't easily listen to them that way. And although some day I do plan to dedicate a computer to my stereo system, it seems like a very expensive and time consuming proposition just to be able to listen to the Economist.

More to the point, when I am at home, I just as soon read the magazine (or newspaper - or whatever its called). The point is to be able to take the magazine with me in a more portable manner - like with a little MP3 player. Unfortunately, the audio edition is too big to fit neatly onto my player. What a bother, my player is all gummed up with electrons and won't play. Sigh. So much for that idea. I may be forced to buy a new player just to listen to the Economist. What are the chances of that? Slim.

What would get me to buy a player would be to be able to listen to something that I can't easily access by other means - baseball audio files. I've called MLB to speak to them about purchasing their gameday audio (I've had it in the past but, again , the lack of portability from a computer is an issue for me). One of the most pleasant things I can think to do would be to download a game to a player, take it out to the back yard (not something I am willing to do with my MacBook) crack a beer and listen and read the paper.

MLB's gameday audio is constrained in two respects: first you really only get live access to games. For many reasons, this is not always an option. Baseball simply is not on my daily schedule as a general matter. Second, the archived games are not complete. In other words, the archives may not contain all games. So there really is only limited access to games. Pity.

The kicker is that the archives can still only be accessed as a direct stream from MLB. You can't download the games directly from the site to put on, say, a portable player to take out to the backyard and listen to. MLB is still linked to a computer (in the main). Forgive me for being a Luddite, but baseball is a Luddite sport. And computers really aren't meant to serve as a music platform. They are just an accident of innovation. Apple, as well as other companies, has it right. Portable electronic devices will be more prevalent at the expense of computers. Computers are for word processing and making spreadsheets and power point presentations and graphic design. As an entertainment system, something better is needed.

I recognize that you can get gameday broadcasts for the iPhone, which has many of the features of a computer - and the all important link to mlb.com.

Still, I'm not about to buy an iPhone just to listen to baseball games while I'm out hiking or at the beach. I'd either break the thing or it would get dirty/salty/sandy and its little gears and wires would freeze up. What I need is a simple portable and inexpensive device - like a used iPod - that I could download game files to. Not something easy to find at a price that includes the risk I'd take on buying used electronics (i.e., not yet found).

Not that I don't understand the reasons mlb might have for not wanting to allow such access. Once transferable electronic property is created, it gets hard to control and profit from its transfer. But it should be technologically possible. Such is iTunes raison d'etre. Maybe at some point mlb will figure out the demand for old games and start selling them. There is lost opportunity here.

I understand there is technology that allows you to record the streaming media to an MP3. So, one could dram of setting a computer to stream a game, and record it, and thereby create MP3 files. A neat little fantasy. But it reminds me so much of an older method: just buy a cassette player and set it next to the radio and press "record". It's an old and inelegant solution. And it takes time. And it kinda defeats part of the appeal of the digital revolution. It's like converting English measurement to metric units. It's just English units in new clothing.

Three New Reads

I find myself incredibly short of time. I am gainfully employed and, my profession being somewhat counter cyclical, am very busy right now. Not all of this is due to straightforward economics. Finding myself at the bottom of the pile in a second career means I generally feel pressure to work like I did through my twenties and early thirties. But I do it for more non-strictly economic reasons: I acquired debt to retrain myself that is not easily repaid over the typical 40 year career window. My window has been shut partway - so I have a lot of catching up to do.

I have three themes for the evening.

First: 100 things to do is partly about a love for the dodgers, and also a love for this town. Here you can love the clippers and hate the lakers, but I don't see how you could hate the dodgers.

Second: apparently Thomas Pynchon lived here in the last sixties and has now written about it. It is said to be a noir piece with hallucinations. Hopefully it is better than the Robert Altman movie version of the long goodbye. Reviews are positive, the price for a hardcover is not. I'll wait for the paperback.

Finally, somehow I became aware of belle waring and john holbo. A couple with a mighty fine web-site(s) and who I suspect are much smarter than me. John has written a book on classics and reasoning - with pictures. As a lawyer trained engineer, I have to admit that pictures help a lot.

PS: I still keep box score when I can. It keeps the game in much better focus. Like tonight in SF where LA is winning.

August Evening

We drove home at the end of an afternoon riding the subway out to North Hollywood and decided the best stop was the first one - the bar at Union Station. As you get to the train stops past downtown, the areas get more kitschy (or just tacky). Hollywood is kinda dog-eared and smells like urine. NOHO is new and just feels like it was pulled out of any newly created urban space and plunked down n the Valley. Most of the people we saw there were headed to a new bar that was showing MMA 101.

Driving the ten freeway we came through what was, probably once, the heart of West Adams, but we couldn't see the mansions from the road. Just lots of palms and an incredible sunset. Something like this. Except from farther away.

One good think about the bad air here - great sunsets. And old neighborhoods marked with palm trees like tall grass in an unkept cemetary.

Good Food

How is it that Irish Spring smells so good and yet tastes soooo bad?

No More TV

I tried to tune in the Wimbledon final just now. Alas, there is no longer even the fuzzy analog signal I had relied on for my infrequent t.v. viewing of live sports.

The controversy over the switch to digital has been covered enough. On the one hand I have to agree it is hard to gather much sympathy for television in general. On the other hand, the cynic in me is sure the switch is about selling new digital televisions. I've watched the digital signal at my in-laws for the past year and I can't say I really think the picture is much better. Clearer, maybe, but the screen looks strangely compressed and unnatural. Also, the signal is subject to that strange digital pixillation problem. Then again, I'm a guy who heard CD's back in the 80's and couldn't get past the strange compressive quality of the sound. I still have my old record albums and cassette tapes and, although CD's have their place in my collection, they did not replace the old stuff (as the cynic is sure was the intent). Generally speaking, I still think analog is superior. I think the Impressionists got it right when they showed most of life as viewed from the periphery.

I will miss television, much like I would miss radio. It is an option I liked to have when I want to remotely watch events. We have a cart which we wheel away when the t.v. is not in use. It's a simple setup and the lack of a t.v. removes its focus from our living room. I hate to visit friends and see the most social room in the house is directed, not at the guests, but at the entertainment console. The switch to digital meant we needed another box to add to the dvd/video boxes that already overburden the bottom rung of our t.v. cart. I just can't be bothered to add more clutter. So now we just won't have t.v.

Tipping Point

I thought the point of FB was to not let people join who were not my friends. This is silly.

Apparently I'm not the only one that thinks so. H/T the underbelly.

I have two real issues with FB. First, I don't want to be telling everyone what I am doing all of the time. Nor do I really think it a wise course for anyone else who thinks it proper to do so. Second, there are just way too many people using the service. At some point, there will be too much "friend" information to track and the whole service will lose its appeal.

As far as I can tell, FB is just glorified email. When everyone is on FB, that should become apparent enough.

Why I Liked My Audi

So lavishly appointed there are virtually no options

ta da

Driven to the ultimate!!

Mason Park

In Chatsworth. Visited the field today, this is apparently where the (original) Bad News Bears was filmed. Driving up to it seemed familiar, the long long straight road that Buttermaker drove down as he careened into the unpaved parking lot off Mason Drive, poured out some Bud and topped the can off with Jim Beam (a fine start to the day).

But the park layout is barely recognizable. The parking lot is now a grass strip between the road and the field, and the hill the "North Valley Marching Band" walks down on opening day is where the new parking lot is. The field itself has been reworked, the wooden backstop and dugouts and the wooden outfield fence are gone and the grass infield is now bare dirt. Only the sight line from the visitor's bench - the trees in the outfield - seems familiar.

There was no little league this afternoon. But the field was well used by two latino teams playing hardball. If the original movie's inclusion of Miguel and Jose Aguilar acknowledged the diversity of 1976 Los Angeles, today's visit maybe reflected that reality even more. I think I was the only white guy in the whole park. Glad to see the field is well used, but are the white kids just home playing video games (or driving around LA wondering at how much the city has changed)? Sigh.

[Come to think of it, there was absolutely nothing - no plackard or marker that I could see- in the park to commemorate its part in film. Could it be that this is not the field?]

Paradox Watch

The March 12 edition of the "newspaper of record" weighs in with its take on child poverty in India.

Small, sick, listless children have long been India's scourge - "a national shame," in the words of its prime minister .... But Even after a decade of galloping economic growth, child malnutrition rates are worse here than in many sub-Saharan African countries, and they stand out as a paradox in a proud democracy.

Now I'm not about to take issue with the misery that is poverty, in India or elsewhere, but describing it as a paradox is wrong.
A paradox is an absurd statement that yields truth. There is nothing absurd here - that India is filled with grinding poverty that is unlikely to soon, if ever, reach the worst off in society is not hard to fathom. A country's economy, like its political system, is shaped (to a great extent) by its culture.

This is not about paradox. This is not even ironic. Poverty in India, much like in the US or Africa, is more about indifference than anything else. Maybe we read too much into "economics" and "democracy", two terms which are often used in the normative sense (we're a democracy - Yay), and forget neither has much to say about altruism. To a casual reader, the quoted passage may suggest that causality, that democracy should infer general well-being. I tend to think its the other way around, the fact of a strong economy or a vibrant democracy has little to say about how equitably the "general welfare" is spread about.

Ka-Zuma

Have been on hiatus for a while - these are busy times.

No pictures this morning, but it was gorgeous north of point Dume and I ran 10k to impress some co-workers (who characteristically said they were impressed I showed up). I've never run that far before, and I hardly sun at all.

Anyway, the run took us south of Zuma to a really beautify stretch of beach. I had a hard time paying attention to where I was running, the water was so lovely, but I know so cold.

After the run I grabbed my swag (new re-useable grocery bag - yay) and headed for that beach, put on my fins and dove in. Oh my it was cold. But I adjusted and caught some fun, if small, waves.

When I left, a lifeguard was opening a nearby tower and had the water temperature posted: 54 degrees. Chilly. But it's march, baseball season's beginning, and there is a full summer of swimming ahead.

Summer Fun

I spent a summer in Montanna, not too long ago, but long enough for me to have gotten two degrees in the meantime. My friends and I were working on a ranch and the owner gave us this to think about one evening:

Let A = B.

It follows that Asquared = Bsquared

Also Asquared - AB = Asquared - Bsquared.

Rearranged: A x (A-B) = (A+B) x (A-B).

Dividing each side by the common term we get

A = A+B which is rearranged (via substitution from the original statement) A=A+A= 2A

1=2

I thought it was a neat trick, which it is. But there is good list of them here. Have fun.

Paradox Reporting Watch

Many writers like to use the word "paradox". Rarely do they actually show a paradox when they use the word. For instance, a reporter might say, "Early in his career, Lance Armstrong was an uninspired bicycle rider. Paradoxically it was his winning his fight against cancer that drove him to his greatest successes."

Finding inspiration in beating a disease is not paradox. While being slightly ironic or incongruous, it is explainable.

Paradox is found in a self contradictory or false proposition like: there is an exception to everything. Or it can be contained in a contradictory or absurd statement that expresses truth like: God is omnipotent, so he should be able to create a rock so heavy that he can't lift it.

Opinion Unreliable

In the January 3rd Economist, Lexington writes of the passing of Samuel Huntington who he (she?) describes as
"a lifelong Democrat, a representative of that dying breed, the hard-headed cold war liberal."

I'm not sure what to make of this statement. Characteristically Lexington does not quite identify why being "hard-headed" (reality-based?) is in short supply among liberals, or what is meant by by the term "liberal". Is this the classic economic liberal, or or is it used in the British sense or is it the popular American sense (conservative verses liberal). I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with optimism.

Maybe it is the reference to the cold war that is the important qualifier here. If the war ended in about 1989, time should be taking its toll (as in this case it has).

Lexington makes the point that Huntington's opposition of the neoconservatives is, somewhat contradictory, that a mix of "liberalism with a pessimism rooted in a conservative reading of history" is vital. In other words, free markets do not go hand in hand with democracy and that culture and institutions have an important role to play. The ideas contained in "the End of History" were wrong. Of course they were. Everyone knows that neoconservatism is simply wishful thinking (and I think there is many a damaged psyche at its core).

This is good as far as it goes. But Lexington goes on to criticize Huntington's work, "The Clash of Civilizations", as having glossed over the fact that much of the 20th century involved conflict within civilizations.

So what? The larger truth is that history, and culture, remains relevant. Huntington, who believed that immigration and multiculturalism threatened America's Anglo-Saxon based culture, and that Western Civilization was bound to be in conflict with the Muslim World, may have ignored other significant "clashes". But he certainly was not distracted by the fuzzy notion that increased democratization and the end of the cold war would unleash an unprecedented era of peace. We all know democracy is often just an expensive cover word for something far less idealistic.

If culture is relevant, Lexington does a bad job with his counter-examples. For instance he gives one example of the universal appeal of the "American model" as the Chinese business elite's interest in Silicon Valley rather than "in their Confucian past". But here Lexington loses track of just what it admired about Huntington. Putting aside the quibble over what exactly Silicon Valley represents about the "American model" (over-hyped technology, market dominance, unearned wealth, unaffordable home prices?) I doubt China's interest is egalitarian and there is little sense that the Chinese, who still refer to non-Chinese as barbarians, look to America for advice on how to govern their people or create popularly accountable institutions or regulate their economy.

If China's admiration does not extend beyond an admiration of our avarice, it may just be a reflection of theirs. Greed, after all, is a universal value. One that may have much to do with liberal economics and republican democracy but which is, as we all know, a necessary but not sufficient precondition. Lexington charges Huntington with excessive pessimism, but I don't see that agreeing with Huntington necessitates succumbing to pessimism. History may simply "be", but learning from it is possible. But you need much more than wishful thinking.

Coldest Water?

Went for a New Years swim at Venice beach. There was the annual Penguin race and I just missed placing in the top three. It was the shortest swim I've competed in all year (yuk) and I clocked in at 3:20. Funny, though, the water seemed much colder to me. I was talking on the beach with a couple of spectators and, although I've recently swum for much longer in the ocean, my words were very slurred. The NOAA data for Santa Monica puts the water temperature at just under 57 degrees (56.7).

That's about as cold as it gets here in this City of Angels.

Funny. But the water did not feel over-cold and I suspect reckon I could have stayed in much longer with negligible additional effect. And I probably normally slur, or at least would have slurred, but it is rare that anyone joins me at the beach this time of the year. Normally, the first time I talk with anyone as I get out of the water is about 20 minutes later, after I shower and put on warm clothes, and hike up a small hill to order a cup of coffee. And then the thing I notice most is the constant chill to my body, usually accompanied to some extent by a shiver, which I did not have yesterday.