Sun, 28 August 2005 8:52 pm Comments (0)

Second looks and double-takes

  • Women’s Rights. Gay Rights. Healthcare. Anti-Torture. Pick One.
    A good if longish rant on how the idealistic approach to politics favored by single-issue groups (and Third Parties, in my view) is fine for generating discussion but a terribly impractical method for making that final decision in the ballot booth:
    That’s all this single-issue, not-single-issue argument is about. That choice, right there, and how to make it. It’s not about “disrespecting” people, or “abandoning” people, or “not understanding the severity” of the issue. It’s about the fundamental problem with representative democracy: if you’re not your own representative, you’re by definition going to have to figure out who should be. And it’s a brutally imperfect process.
  • The prize for the worlds most redundant book title
    Scary that there’s enough demand for the book for a major house to publish it.
  • Age-Old Cures, Like the Maggot, Get U.S. Hearing
    And why not? Much of medical and pharmeceutical research amounts to finding ways to concentrate or control naturally occurring compounds and processes to affect human physiology in beneficial ways. If the natural operation of some creatures can do exactly what we want in certain situations, why shouldn’t we use these ‘medical devices’? The eww factor should only apply when such critters show up in uncontrolled ways.
  • Brain’s Own Pain Relievers At Work in Placebo Effect, Study Suggests
    Aha, it’s not just psychosomatic then. Methinks that a firmer understanding of the mechanisms by which this works could have great potential for medicine, especially for the treatment of pain.
  • In Asia, the Eyes Have It
    Always interesting to read research that yet again confirms that people’s cultures and personalities have significant effects on how they observe the world. (It underscores how much training is required to even approach looking at anything ‘objectively’.) On the other hand…why does this continue to surprise people? Taoism and Buddhism (among others) have been pointing out this effect for millenia, and quantum theory has laid it out more ’scientifically’ for nearly a century.
  • We’re No. 17! We’re No. 17!
    Um, okay, anyone who says that Chicago’s being midway down the liberal-conservative spectrum is ’surprising’ hasn’t really paid attention to this town’s politics over the last century or so. Democrats control the town because ward-machine politics gets things done, and the Dems got there first. The ‘liberal’ tendency towards lots of public services exists because providing those services helps bring in the votes. Chicago Democrats have never really staked out policy positions that strayed very far from moderate, especially in comparison with their party brethren on the coasts.
  • Medics attack use of homeopathy
    It has been established beyond doubt and accepted by many researchers, that the placebo-controlled randomised controlled trial is not a fitting research tool with which to test homeopathy
    Wow…that’s pretty much an admission that homeopathy is doomed to fail any tests that follow our silly ‘conventional’ ideas of how logic, science, evidence, and data analysis. Well then, if a controlled and randomized study isn’t appropriate, what pray tell is an appropriate method?
  • GnuCash - Open Source Accounting Software
    Astounding how many questions can be answered and annoyances allayed by actually bothering to read the documentation.
Categories: astronomy, Chicago, politics, science, technology, quotes
Mon, 22 August 2005 11:34 pm Comments (0)

NCAA name follies, stress tech, rocket seeds

  • NCAA outlines appeals process for tribal mascots
    Glad to see they’re at least pretending that the recent edict won’t be a complete top-down dictatorship of the hyper-PC. However, even this will probabaly turn into a mess…consider my alma mater. A look at the tragic history of the Illini tribes shows that the University’s athletic moniker is essentially their last vestige. If there’s no one left to give blessing, is the school therefore denied any successful appeal? On the other hand, if there’s no one around to approve or protest, who is the team name offending? And if it’s more ‘generally offensive’, why stop at college sports teams? Should GM be forever banned from any association with college sports (or the dollars of the righteous) due to its appropriation of Pontiac? What about place names in the U.S. and Canada, often named after tribes and chiefs who lived hundreds or thousands of miles away? Shouldn’t the NCAA flee the state of Indiana altogether?
  • VR Goggles Heal Scars of War
    Good to see that some people are putting some advanced ideas into something that too often gets lost in the debates about war
    We spend a lot of money on training people and conducting war, We have to put what’s needed into helping these people when they come back.
  • NASA Launches Startups for Ships
    At this point in time, I don’t think there’s any doubt that robotic missions provide a much better cost/benefit ratio for science and engineering than do manned missions, so I would strongly prefer that NASA direct its (taxpayer) funding in that direction. But of course such cold reasoning can be thrown out the window when it comes to privately funded ventures–if some people with tens upon tens of millions of dollars to spare think a few moments of almost-orbital flight are worth the cost, who are we to argue? For NASA to provide seed money, coordination, and encouragement for private ventures to develop new vehicles seems like a wondeful idea. Perhaps the biggest obstacle to more routine manned missions is the efficiency, safety, and cost of propulsion technology, so expanding the base of people who will experiment and explore–even (especially?) if for reasons of vanity and thrill–might improve things more quickly than the centralized, bureaucratic process that is current NASA rocket science.
  • Bill in Congress to Overhaul Patent Law Seeks to Quell Suits
    Wow, rather than try to address the issues that lead to the filing (and granting) of frivolous and contentious patents, rather than expand upon our valuable first-to-invent concept, what goal does Congress set for revising the patent system? Change the rules so as to reduce the number of lawsuits that can happen. A brilliant example of treating the symptoms while ignoring the disease if I’ve ever heard one–not to mention why logical-, techical-minded people get so exasperated with politicians and lawyers.
Categories: science, sports, USA, society, rants, law, quotes, business
Tue, 16 August 2005 8:53 pm Comments (0)

Human judgement at TSA, social education, DNA modifiers

  • Fighting the Last Hijackers; ‘Babies hit’ by terror flight ban
    The ever-growing list of false positives registred by the TSA in screening airline passengers indicates that their methodolgy for keeping our airways safe is severely flawed. They simultaneously recognize that a small pocketknife tucked away in someone’s carryon isn’t really a major threat while sometimes pondering whether a toddler might instead be suspicious because he happens to maybe sorta share a name with someone on a watch list?? It seems that TSA screeners either believe that the process is so inviolate that they don’t recognize when the plain facts indicate its abusurdity or else are simply unwilling to abandon it in such cases. Regulatory overreach or simple mismanagement on the part of DHS are probably to blame, but there seems a more fundamental problem: a misguided desire to remove any human judgement from the process. The Left wants to prevent prejudice, the Right wants to ensure no one can slip through any cracks, and all seem to believe technology is less fallible than people; however, given the important limitations on analytical technologies and, perhaps more importantly, that terrorists are people (often clever, if evil), I think that any screening system that removes informed judgement from the process is almost certainly doomed to fail.
  • No Emotion Left Behind
    I have no doubts whatsoever that improving children’s social and emotional skills are not only good on their own merits, helping to produce more well-adjusted adults, but also important in producing an environment and mental state more conducive to effective learning. However, I really don’t think the touchy-feeling-sounding approach of mandating social/emotional classes is going to be astoundingly effective. Some level of instruction and encouragement in such matters is fine, but I have trouble believing that anything learned in such sessions will be significant when compared with the type of social nurturing they experience at home–positive or negative. Aiming such programs at parents might have a much better cost/benefit ratio.
  • Whew! Your DNA Isn’t Your Destiny
    Interesting stuff here for genetics and medicine, but it seems these results might provide a bigger boon to bioethicists and civil libertarians: if the underlying genome isn’t the overwhelming factor in the expression of various traits, both desirable and undesirable, but instead such expressions are strongly influenced by continually evolving environmental factors, then efforts to use genetic testing for discriminatory purposes could be more successfully stopped on the grounds that such screens are inaccurate and pointless.
Categories: science, USA, society, travel, observations
Mon, 15 August 2005 10:25 pm Comments (0)

Viva straight streets and quirky houses!

Living Large, by Design, in the Middle of Nowhere
This piece tried to run with the idea that developers’ exurban plans might require important calculations from the major political parties, but it seemed to fall a bit flat: that people with a certain outlook on life and public affairs tend to congregate toghether isn’t really news. What struck me more was the sense of confinement I get whenever I find myself in overplanned locales like Naperville, Columbia, MD, or suburban Atlanta, which emanates from shock and dismay that the decisions about the important design aspects of a house (and neighborhood) have been blatantly based on projected revenue and profit targets. Doesn’t it bother people to have the minute (but often important) details of their houses and community’s future development plans laid out in advance, by people with no interest in the community beyond the margins available in plopping it on the map, with little left over to the creativity and chance interactions of the people who will actually live there? I guess many people actually do like that, but to me such a desire to have everything all planned out seems somewhat child-like, as I always thought part of the advantage of being an adult was the opportunity to forge ahead and make something where there wasn’t any path previously laid out.

the company designs its communities with winding streets with sidewalks and cul-de-sacs to keep traffic slow, to give a sense of containment and to give an appearance distinctly unlike the urban grid that the young, middle-class families instinctively associate with crime.

Ugh! I happen to like the neat urban grid! To me, it implies a sense of order and structure (with easy navigation, even for out-of-towners!). Even as a child I thought the briar-bush-like street layout of a place like Park Forest was annoying and silly. Curving a road to fit the needs of the terrain is good civil engineering; curving it unnecessarily to import some particular view of What Is Good For The Community seems paternalistic and manipulative. No thanks.

However, what I think ultimately drives me nuts about these developments aren’t the minutia of home or street design but the bunker mentality of the people who flock there. Yes, perhaps some of the older urban neighborhoods have gotten run down, but is the proper solution to flee, to hunker down in isolated–often gated–communities of homogeneity that strive to physically and culturally separate themselve from Others? The developers and upwardly mobile denizens will likely call it progress, but it smacks of feudalism to me. Perhaps running away from community decline to start anew is expedient, but staying and striving to remake the old more vibrant again seems a bit more noble.

Categories: USA, society, rants
Sat, 13 August 2005 2:59 pm Comments (0)

Morality vs. pragmatism, skepticism, detecting jerks

Categories: politics, science, USA, society
Wed, 10 August 2005 7:57 pm Comments (0)

Bemusing Cubs, data mining, privilege, scripture study

  • The Cubs slide began innocently enough with a Little-League type gaffe in Philadelphia last week, but as it has grown longer the losses have become more and more breathtaking in their ineptness. The last few games have held a morbid sort of entertainment value, for while sinking towards oblivion with a series of heartbreaking, close losses seems more valiant, a spectacular implosion has a certain kind of stupefying panache.
  • Analyze This: Combining Data
    It seems to me that the ability to sift through unstructured data and drawn meaningful content from it–especially emergent properties rather than mere induction or deduction–is a key element of artificial intelligence, perhaps even more so than the venerable Turing Test. Somewhat ironic here that after decades of academic AI studies, an important step forward may have come out of the simple desire to cut costs.
  • Silliness On Stem Cells
    Life, however, is lived on a slippery slope: Taxation could become confiscation; police could become gestapos. But the benefits from taxation and police make us willing to wager that our judgment can stop slides down dangerous slopes.
    And people sometimes thik that politics and law will lead to clarity and simplicity? Ha.
  • Privilege at Stake With Nominees
    Executive privilege has its place, but it’s really unfortunate how its extent all depends upon the political climate rather than a more holistic debate on its merits and limits. Really, any public official should expect that any discussions and deliberations made about public issues–on taxpayers’ time and money–are to be public knowledge; anyone who can’t deal with that should go instead into private enterprises where disclosure can be as broad or narrow as employment contracts specify. Certainly there are a few situations–ongoing criminal investigations, specific information that could compromise public safety, etc.–where withholding information is in the public interest, but any such cases should be provable to an independent entity (judge, arbitration panel, whatever) and limited to the minimum time necessary; no one, not even the President, should be able to self-certify information as ‘privileged’ without the possiblity of independent review.
  • Bible Course Becomes a Test for Public Schools in Texas
    Given its importance in European and American cultures, the Bible–and the ways in which it is interpreted and used–is most certainly a valid topic for study; in that light I would have no objections to elective courses in public schools. Yet the rumblings from otherwise supportive parents that the current implementations reflect a very particular sectarian bent indicate that, despite protestations of the course creators, the current efforts are less about education and more about proselytizing. Besides, if it’s really For the Children’s Education, given that the course covers material that the kids should already know pretty well, wouldn’t it make more sense to explore other religions–gee, I dunno, understanding the Koran springs to mind–either in comparision with the Bible or on their own merits? I’d love to see how the Bible-course advocacy groups would respond (squirm?) in the face of that idea.
Categories: Chicago, Cubs, politics, science, technology, USA, commentary, law, quotes
Mon, 8 August 2005 10:58 pm Comments (0)

At least the confines are still friendly

Warm summer night, slight breeze off the lake. An all-beef hot dog and a beer as we settled into our upper-deck box seats, looking down the right-field line over a beautifully kept field, smooth cutout and freshly chalked lines all just waiting to be trampled. That part of the Wrigley experience never, ever gets old.

But by the second inning, that was all gone as the listless Cubs continued their struggles. No spark, no pizazz, still no clue at the plate. Defense didn’t fail them tonight, but I guess Williams and Rusch decided it was better (certainly more dramatic) to simply serve up the runs via gopherballs before the fielders had the chance to imitate Little Leaguers. Did the Cubs just discover in the ninth that they were down nine runs and decide maybe they should wake up and score? But, of course, too little too late. At least there was the novelty of Kerry Wood as an 8th-inning reliever.

As several innings passed with little else to spark my interest, I mused that at this point in the season, with this roster, Dusty Baker is probably the worst manager the Cubs could have. The issue isn’t his general quality as a manager–he’s proven himself competent and was great for the Cubs in 2003 when they needed someone to loosen them up then keep ‘em calm through the wild ride that was August and September; I’m not even talking about his (perceived) strategic shortcomings, overuse of starters, or handling of the 8th inning of Game Six. No, the problem is that the Cubs need to decide in the next few days (if it isn’t too late) whether to pusue a catch-Houston-or-bust charge for second place (and the Wild Card) or pull back to assess what they can build upon in 2006. The former requires spectacle–bold lineup changes, mind games to scare veterans and rookies alike to revert to fundamentals, occasional histrionics on the field or in the press–while the latter requires sitting the Proven Veterans (what is his fascination with Jose Macias? In center field?!??) in favor of seeing what the rookies can do. Baker seems determined to maintain his ride-it-out approach no matter how much the standings and schedule indicate against it, and getting him to play rookies has always been worse than pulling teeth. So, it looks like the Cubs will spend the remainder of 2005 foundering towards fourth (fifth?) place yet may have to start their evaluation process all over again come February 2006.

Categories: Chicago, Cubs, commentary