:: Life of Dave ::

:: Tuesday, February 1 2005 ::

This is interesting - I didn't know it existed, perhaps because I scoff at Friedman, but apparently there is a news service dedicated to translating arabic television (subtitling, one supposes). It's called memri, and if you go there now you can see an iraqi election advertisement, among other things. I don't know yet what their agenda is, although based on some of the clips I am a little skeptical. Nevertheless, being able to see for yourself is always welcome.
:: David (01:36 in Michigan, 07:36 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Monday, January 31 2005 ::

There's a list of 'corporate terminology' on Urban Mainframe, one of which I just had to share:

SITCOM: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids or start a "home business".

You know these people. I know you do.
:: David (18:36 in Michigan, 00:36 in Paris) - Comment

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Why does China matter to you?
If you own a house (and haven't already paid it off), China is very important to your financial future. How's that for bizarre? Allow me to explain:

In order to keep their exchange rate pegged to the dollar, it is necessary for the Chinese to buy dollars. These dollars are then invested in bonds. This keeps the demand for bonds high, which keeps the interest rate on bonds low.

With me so far?

Now here's the trick - if the Chinese were to decide to loosen their currency controls, they would stop buying bonds. The demand for dollars would fall, and the Chinese currency would rise. At the same time, the demand for bonds would fall and the interest rate would rise. Possibly dramatically.

And, if you don't have a fixed rate loan, the loan on your house would also experience a rise in interest rates. Having recently played with an interest rate calculator, I have seen how amazing the change in payments can be for a small interest rate change.

And there's no guarantee this would be a small change....
:: David (18:09 in Michigan, 00:09 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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In Iraq, the CIA estimates the following population breakdown:
0-14 years: 40.3% (male 5,198,966; female 5,039,173)
15-64 years: 56.7% (male 7,280,167; female 7,094,688)
65 years and over: 3% (male 357,651; female 404,046)
This is according to the CIA world factbook, and is a 2004 estimate. Now, according to estimates I'm seeing around 8 million people voted, which is a fairly high percentage of the adult population (adults being defined, for convenience's sake, as 15 and over). In the US in 2004, for comparison, 117 million people out of 232 million adults voted - that's 50.5%.
:: David (18:07 in Michigan, 00:07 in Paris) - Comment

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Anybody but me find it ironic that probably the most credible news source in the middle east, Al Jazeera, couldn't report on the 'free elections' in Iraq because they had been thrown out of the country by the United States? In fact, the US suppression of Al Jazeera goes deeper than that: according to a report in the IHT, the US has put pressure on Qatar to stop funding the station. According to the article, "U.S. officials have been reluctant to talk about the station, being sensitive to charges of trying to suppress free expression." Unsurprisingly, as the charges would be well founded.

What I found amazing was that Al Jazeera is not yet profitable. I have a sneaky suspicion that is because in places where you would expect it to run (like France, for example, with its huge Muslim population), it is not carried (and thus doesn't get fees from the cable companies which would carry it).
:: David (01:40 in Michigan, 07:40 in Paris) - Comment

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It would seem that Kofi Annan isn't the only one who can have trouble with money in Iraq:

The BBC's File On 4 programme has learnt that out of over $20bn raised in oil revenues during US-led rule, the use of $8.8bn is unaccounted for.

That, for those of you counting, is almost half the money, which was made by selling Iraqi oil, and was theoretically destined to help rebuild the country. Blame it on the war, says the man in charge of the money:

In response to the report, the former head of the coalition, Ambassador Paul Bremer, said the auditors had failed to understand the context in which the Authority was operating.

You can read the article here, and they will be webcasting the show (I believe) sometime this week.
:: David (01:25 in Michigan, 07:25 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, January 30 2005 ::

I redid my home page today, making it a bit more clear (I hope) about the function of the page and directing people where they want to go (I hope). It's crazy that I have so much material - I think there are 3000 photos now, and there's a small html file for each photo, plus my stories, docs, etc. I wonder if I'm setting myself up to have my identity stolen in a big way. Ah well - it gives me a chance to put everything in one place, in case I ever decide to write that biography I've been promising myself.

Speaking of which, I've been thinking of doing something kinda crazy and time consuming (but again, possibly useful if I write that novel), and getting the journals I started writing when I was like ten out and converting them to some sort of weblog. It would, of course, be a pure waste of time, but it would also ensure that, if I lost the original paper copies I had a backup.

You know, as I've been typing this I realized that I wrote my first piece of blogging software, or at least electronic journal software, a long time ago - I think I was inspired by Doogie Howser, M.D. but I'm not sure. You may remember that at the end of each show he had a little journal he would type into. I thought that was an excellent idea - quick and easy to record your thoughts and then go away. It was of course a command line program, I think journal.exe, and it would simply append my most recent blatherings onto the ones which came before (just as my blog program does). Of course, I still had several years to wait before I got turned on to the web, though I was using BBSs in those days.
:: David (16:47 in Michigan, 22:47 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, January 29 2005 ::

We went out today to acquire some useful things for the house. We went to Les Halles, the big mall which lives on the same metro line as we do, and has several furniture stores. We finally settled on a small table, and because it would have cost extra to have it delivered (and it's not all that convenient), we decided to carry it home on the train. Now, I don't know if you've ever carried a heavy table through a mall and into a subway system, but there are more entertaining ways to spend a Saturday. But, we managed to get it home, and now it is nicely installed in the dining room.
:: David (11:25 in Michigan, 17:25 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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Apparently the Irish president, Mary McAleese, recently made some remarks comparing Nazi hatred with the situation in Northern Ireland. This caused quite a stir, and she has now apologised for her comments. The exact quote was:

They gave to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred, for example, of Catholics, in the same way that people give to their children an outrageous and irrational hatred of those who are of different colour and all of those things

She apologised for drawing a parallel between the Protestants (the most likely people to teach hatred of Catholics in Northern Ireland), which makes good sense - as she noted, it cuts both ways. However, what other people have said is that what she said "trivialises the experience of European Jewry and trivialises the Holocaust"

But of course, there's a problem here. If we pretend that nothing can ever be as terrible as the Nazis, what we do is to invalidate the very reality of the Nazi era. It wasn't just that the Nazis were terrible - it was that they were supported by people who weren't quite as terrible, but who didn't intervene. It's that in the early part of the 20th century it was very fashionable to hate those that were different, and the Nazis, far from being an aberration, were simply a product of their time. That should be the warning we draw. The Nazis were monsters, but they were created by events and actions that, one after the other, were allowed - because they weren't seen as being all that bad.

This is the lesson we should draw, and the warning we should sound. If people are teaching their children hatred, the Nazis should serve as a warning of where that can lead. And we should invoke them for what they are - not an aberration which can never happen again, but a (un)natural consequence of letting hatred fester and grow.
:: David (10:17 in Michigan, 16:17 in Paris) - Comment

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Well, sooner or later it had to happen. The New York Times has a rather long article all about the joys of blogging motherhood. On some levels, interesting. On other levels, pure narcissism. But then, show me a blog that isn't....
:: David (04:38 in Michigan, 10:38 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Friday, January 28 2005 ::

An article in the February issue of Forbes Global talks about the film mondovino, to be released in March in the US but originally shown at Cannes last year. The film talks about the state of the wine industry, and the globalisation of taste. It's actually an interview with the filmmaker, Jonathan Nossiter, which makes it quite entertaining.

FORBES GLOBAL: Some leading figures in the wine world, including Michel Rolland, the famous Bordeaux wine consultant, feel betrayed by your film. Is their anger justified?

Nossiter: A number of very powerful people are pissed off at the boldness of this movie because they're used to a completely subservient wine press. Rolland is in a state of shock. He is furious at me, but he has only himself to blame. The French press treats him like a God.

Apparently there will be a massive DVD including more of the interviews he did with various wine people. I'm quite looking forward to it!
:: David (07:44 in Michigan, 13:44 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Thursday, January 27 2005 ::

Ah hah! It turns out there is an organization that exists to promote one of my favorite causes - the abolition of standardized testing. Here's what they have to say about the GRE. Maybe I can get a job with them. Fear me then, all you college admissions representatives!
:: David (07:59 in Michigan, 13:59 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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I'm quite curious how this will play out: according to CNN, a company in Chicago has told its employees to quit smoking or find another job, and is using urine tests to check.

Now, you may be thinking things like 'invasion of privacy' and somesuch, but remember - it was you or your parents who let drug testing for employees in the door. To complain that it's being used for a different drug might be difficult. We'll see.
:: David (02:03 in Michigan, 08:03 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, January 26 2005 ::

Three years incarcerated without trial by the Americans. One night incarcerated without trial by the Brits. The four british citizens sent back to the UK yesterday from Guantanemo Bay were released to their families today. Said one, "I can guarantee you we will sue the American government".
:: David (17:54 in Michigan, 23:54 in Paris) - Comment

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An article in Newsweek titled Dream On America suggests that the idea of other countries looking to the US for inspiration is a concept whose time has passed, and that only in the US does anybody think it true.

Blinded by its own myth, America has grown incapable of recognizing its flaws.

However, the article continues, if the US cannot recognize its flaws, it cannot fix them, which will only lead to further marginalization.
:: David (11:04 in Michigan, 17:04 in Paris) - Comment

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There's an article in the IHT by Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, both former Secretaries of State, titled Election in Iraq: A rout is not an exit strategy, which argues that cutting and running from Iraq is not a viable strategy. They paint a dire picture of some possible outcomes, which I would dismiss were it not these two talking. Kissinger may be a war criminal (wikipedia has the details), but he is well versed in foreign policy, in a way few others are. Some of the things said are self evident:

It is axiomatic that guerrillas win if they do not lose. And in Iraq, the guerrillas are not losing, at least not visibly in the Sunni region.

but others, such as possible outcomes of US failure, appear to have a great deal of knowledge behind them, and are worth giving additional thought to.
:: David (08:10 in Michigan, 14:10 in Paris) - Comment

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You know, I was just looking at my photos from my trip around the world in 2001, because the server logs told me there were links broken (now the links just point to the wrong place, which is better in my opinion than broken!) There are some truly remarkable shots in there. I was in the UK, and this was during the big foot & mouth problem, and I have a picture of a disinfection station, and then of course I was there for September 11th and took a photo of all the newspaper headlines the next day. Truly amazing stuff. It's too bad the pictures are so badly organized. I imagine that one day I'll get everything put in order, but that's all it is, really, is imagining. I have enough trouble just making sure the links aren't broken!
:: David (02:07 in Michigan, 08:07 in Paris) - Comment

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This is the lead headline on CNN this morning:

Democracy finds hope in Iraqi town
The concept of democracy appears to have taken root in the dusty town of Karma, a predominantly Sunni community just north of Falluja -- the city at the center of fierce fighting last year. Although most say they don't know who the candidates are or where to go to vote, they say they will vote come January 30 -- for a variety of candidates for a variety of reasons.

Is it any wonder that I don't like the American press? This headline may be the worst piece of tripe I've ever seen - I'm almost embarrased for CNN. I wonder if I had turnd the sound on if I would have heard some stirring music. I'm actually finding it difficult to try and condense my disdain for CNNs so-called 'reporting' into coherent sentences, because I'm so disgusted.

So, instead, I'll discuss what the headline could have said, because as it turns out the article, shockingly, is more than just words freighted with emotional charge. It is basically a report on a particular Iraqi town that was visited by the Americans to guage whether or not people would vote. One gets the impression from the article that they are visiting many towns. So the headline could have included something about this - "Across Iraq, soldiers guage popular support for upcoming elections". They also omit the fact that people in many places (even in this city their story focuses on) seem equally or more happy to talk about the electricity that doesn't work than about the elections.

But they didn't include any of that information on the front. Why they didn't just title the article "Let Freedom Ring" or some other nationalist sentiment is beyond me - since it's clear they've already sold their souls, they might just as well.
:: David (01:41 in Michigan, 07:41 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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:: Tuesday, January 25 2005 ::

I downloaded skype today. That's the internet telephony program. I called Misty, and the quality was quite good. Sadly, I discovered my new computer doesn't have a built-in microphone, so the conversation was rather one-sided. Which it would have been anyway, given that I got her answering machine both times. It's 12 cents a minute to Egypt, and less than 2 cents to the US, so I'm going to give it a try and see if I can make it work for me. If you want to track me down my username on skype is 'odoketa'. I understand that if you both have the program you can voice chat for free, but you can do that with all the other chat programs too, so I'm not sure why I would add yet another chat program to my list. But cheap phone calls to land lines I like.
:: David (18:38 in Michigan, 00:38 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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There are several really interesting articles in today's Guardian. The first one, titled "the love business", talks all about the manner in which people in relationships share their finances. Or, more to the point, do not share their finances. The 1950's might be gone, but some of their ideas remain.

The second article is all about the World Bank, which is looking for a new leader. Due to a 'gentleman's agreement', the post will go to an American. However, as the Guardian notes, all the good ones are gone. So the Guardian stumps for somebody I never thought of, but makes a lot of sense: Bill Gates. He has an obvious interest in development issues, and experience dealing with lots and lots of money. Is he the best choice? Probably not. But the best idea of the ones so far put forward? Maybe.

Finally, stop me if you've heard this before: large british landowners in a poor country are crying foul because squatters have occupied their land, and the government appears to be supporting them, as well as making noises of land redistribution. Are we in Zimbabwe? Not this time - now we're in Venezuela. History repeating itself (before it's even really history)?
:: David (04:07 in Michigan, 10:07 in Paris) - Comment

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The danger of having a coffee machine that makes the coffee so that it's ready when you wake up is that it increases the danger of doing something brainless to your first cup of coffee. Like pouring a full mug of milk, and then realizing you need to leave space for the coffee. Or putting the milk in the mug and then forgetting to add the coffee.
:: David (01:36 in Michigan, 07:36 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Monday, January 24 2005 ::

The PISA report on international education has once again smacked Germany around, stating that success is contingent on social and ethnic background, with only six percent of those with an immigrant background making it to the top tier schools.

As I understand it, the German system splits kids out into one of three levels when they are ten. By and large this means that the socio-economic class you will occupy as an adult is largely determined before you make it to middle school. Although there seems to be a lot of desire for reform, there doesn't seem to be a lot happening. I've heard people blame the unions, but I don't know the truth of that, though I do know the unions can be a little slow to accept change.
:: David (13:32 in Michigan, 19:32 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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There was an article over the weekend on CNN about the magnetic fields, a wonderfully obscure and strange band who appear to be less obscure these days than I thought.
:: David (02:17 in Michigan, 08:17 in Paris) - Comment

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Johnny Carson. What can you say? The man was funny, and he was funny for a long time. I have always felt the late night talk show field wasn't the same after he left. To know more about his life and times, the BBC has an obituary.
:: David (01:15 in Michigan, 07:15 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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:: Sunday, January 23 2005 ::

A lazy Sunday, spent watching some TV, shifting furniture, and otherwise relaxing. Monday brings a new week, and a new book - I'm on book three of the Tad Williams Otherland series, which some of my friends have disliked but I am finding quite enjoyable. I guess it's all what you dig.

I also think I finally managed to dig up the last difficulty with my web page, so now perhaps I can forget all about perl once again....
:: David (17:40 in Michigan, 23:40 in Paris) - Comment

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What a great evening! We went to a dinner party at a friend's house - a woman I used to work with, and there we met some other friends of theirs. It was a laugh riot - literally - one of the people actually got wine in their nose by laughing too much. It was a good time, and I hope to be able to do more of it. That's two night in a row we've gone out, which is a very social month for us, let alone weekend!
:: David (19:09 in Michigan, 01:09 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, January 22 2005 ::

I just put through some minor repairs on the comments program - we'll see if they work. Hopefully this will save me from having to do more work later. On the other hand, I'm not really sure if I fixed the problem or not. But it seems worth a try to put in a simple solution, and see if it works, before I do something silly like rewrite everything!
:: David (08:27 in Michigan, 14:27 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[5]

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We had a great night out last night with Twixer (aka Olivier) who I met through a guy a work. We went out to play pool with him last week, and this week he was getting together with a bunch of his friends at a bar in town, so we dragged ourselves out of the house and stayed out until the last train. Great good fun. I'm always amazed at how well people do in a second language (much of the evening was in English, although it also spent good chunks of time in French). I am not, sadly, all that amazed by how well I do in a second language. That said, I'm able to hold my own much of the time, so I can't really complain. This evening we'll be going out again, to my old co-worker's house for dinner. We have to track down some flowers before that, I think, so the day will be full of random fun.
:: David (07:08 in Michigan, 13:08 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]

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:: Friday, January 21 2005 ::

Every Friday the BBC does a roundup of the front pages of the UK's big papers, showing an image of each one so you can see exactly what they've said, and also how they've said it. This week's roundup features a couple of really interesting images. The Times has a down-home wholesome family shot of the Bushes as its cover story. On the other hand, the independent chose to split the page in half - a photo of the glitzy ceremoney on the left, a photo of a blindfolded Iraqi held by soldiers on the right. The telegraph headlines a photo of the swearing in with "Defiant Bush doesn't mention the war", which I find kind of interesting - all the talk of ending tyranny, and no mention of Iraq?
:: David (01:39 in Michigan, 07:39 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Thursday, January 20 2005 ::

Well, over the past couple of days I've managed to restore much of what I thought was lost when my old computer died. The epic journey I described yesterday was in fact to purchase a USB to IDE interface so I could pull the hard drive out of my old computer and plug it into my new one. It turns out that although the disk is fried when right side up, if you simply turn it upside-down it works, some of the time. So I've been able to get my old photos restored and now all the old blog entries dating all the way back to the first ones are working again. I've had, in fact, a very productive couple of days. I've even done my French homework for tomorrow. Lots and lots of irregular verbs. Yuck. Il vaudrait mieux si on n'etudie pas la francais.
:: David (18:10 in Michigan, 00:10 in Paris) - Comment

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I was unable to make it all the way to work today, but it wasn't because of the strikes. I got off to change at Trocadero to find that there had been an accident involving a person somewhere in the direction I needed to go, so the line had been closed. So I got out of the subway, and wandered past the eiffel tower on my way to work, grumbling all the while about how some darned person had caused me to be late for work. When I got to La Muette, the stop where I work, I saw lots of emergency vehicles all around the metro entrance, and realized that the person who had been injured could have been someone I know. I felt bad for having been irritated that someone had made me late. A very sobering way to start your day.

:: David (14:39 in Michigan, 20:39 in Paris) - Comment

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The Times of London has published an article with the provocative headline "Radical White House plan would cut pension benefits by a third", which talks about the fact that basing social security check increases on price inflation, rather than on earnings growth, would lead to continually shrinking checks, as compared to earnings before retirement. In this article and in others I have seen them touting the fact that the replacement rate (i.e. the percent of your income when you were working that you receive when you retire) would fall to 20%. Thus if you were earning $100,000 you would get $20,000 per year in social security. The trick is that if you were earning $50,000 per year you would only get $10,000, which is not enough to live on. And $50,000 is above-average earnings in the US. That's going to be a hard thing to sell to people who already think their check is too small....
:: David (11:34 in Michigan, 17:34 in Paris) - Comment

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Want to become the second in command of the Department of Homeland Security's computer systems? Go get some fake degrees from a Motel 6. Don't worry - noone will know the difference, because apparently the government never notices little things like fake university degrees....
:: David (02:05 in Michigan, 08:05 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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Some of you may have heard the flap about Harvard's president, who, according to some reports, said women could never be as good at math and science as men. According to the apology posted on Harvard's website, he had originally intended his remarks to reinforce his "strong commitment to the advancement of women in science." Obviously that didn't work.
:: David (01:56 in Michigan, 07:56 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]

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As you may or may not be aware, there are huge public sector strikes going on this week in France. Transport for some people is virtually nonexistent. I myself am quite lucky, as my train is operated by a different company, and doesn't need to change tracks at all. I note the changing tracks detail because the people who throw the switch to change tracks are on strike, so even though the train might be running, in some cases it might not be able to get where it's going.

So I decided in all my infinite wisdom to go to the other side of town last night to buy a computer part I needed. Despite the strike. So I wandered down to the station of the train I needed, and the sign said one would arrive in about fifteen minutes. Which seemed fine. But when I got to the quai, there was nobody. Ghost town. People were taking the train in the other direction, but nobody seemed to be going into town. So, just to be sure there was even going to be a train, I walked the length of the quai until I found someone else waiting. So long as there were two of us, I wouldn't feel so stupid if there in fact was no train, and I spent half an hour sitting. But in fact the train arrived when it said it would. And it was quite nearly empty. Like creepy empty. I assume people thought it wouldn't run, so nobody was even trying. But it took me across town, so no complaints.

Once I had gotten my computer part, I managed to walk the wrong way out of the store, which took me down to the Place d'Italie. Feeling sheepish, I decided to take the metro back up to where I was supposed to be. Because the metro wasn't on strike, right? But when I got to my line there was a staff member waving people off, saying that line five was 'under construction'. By the reaction of some of the other people waved off in this manner, I think this may have been a euphamism for 'we're on strike, even though we didn't give advance notice like we're supposed to'. So I trudged back up the road until I finally made it to the train station I needed. There I encountered other travellers who were also having a rough time of it, as they needed to get to one of those out-of-the-way places that only one line went to - the mysteriously closed line five. I tried to help, but in the end couldn't come up with anything creative to get them where they needed to be.

And then I finally made it to my train. I knew the interconnections weren't working, as Sasha had texted me to warn me of this. What I didn't know was that I was one of the lucky ones who didn't need to change tracks. So I spent some time in the station reading the various screens until I discovered that I would be able to get home in one go, rather than needing to walk from some station miles from my house. And then my train arrived, and zipped me straight home.

Today will be the third day. Officially there aren't supposed to be any trains on strike, but I'll believe it when I see it.
:: David (01:41 in Michigan, 07:41 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Wednesday, January 19 2005 ::

There's an article in Wired magazine all about a new place for wine tasting which opened in September in San Francisco. The name of the place is VinoVenue, and the reason it has caused a stir is because it is a high tech wine tasting centre with more than 100 wines on offer, all dispensed at the push of a button (and the deduction of some money from a smart card you purchase at the door). It's an interesting idea, and something I could see being useful if you need to find a good wine or ten for your cellar. But any delusions the article's author might have about replacing wine-tasting tours are, I think, sadly misguided.

That said, I do find some of the technology described in the article intriguing, and hope to see some wine tasting goodness hitting some of the more posh stores across the country in the not-too-distant future.
:: David (11:37 in Michigan, 17:37 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Tuesday, January 18 2005 ::

Oh, sad. I have been very excited for some time about the fact that Smart was going to be selling its wares in the US. And in fact, two Smart products were on display at the Detroit Auto Show (here are pictures of the Smart ForTwo and ForFour). But, according to Le Monde,

Après presque huit années d'activité, Smart continue de perdre de l'argent - la note atteindrait 500 millions d'euros pour l'année 2004 - et Daimler s'impatiente.

After operating for close to 8 years, Smart continues to lose money - nearly 500 million in losses for 2004 - and Daimler (Chrysler) is impatient.

Apparently they pulled one of the cars they were going to display - a 4x4, of all things. Looking at their other offerings, I'm not sure how a 4x4 fits in their game plan, but if it allowed them to continue making cute little cars, I'm all for it!
:: David (03:56 in Michigan, 09:56 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[7]

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:: Monday, January 17 2005 ::

Both the BBC and Reuters have stories about Seymour Hersh, a writer for the New Yorker who reported the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, and who is now reporting that the US currently has military units in Iran, choosing locations for airstrikes.
:: David (11:57 in Michigan, 17:57 in Paris) - Comment

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There's a new IZA paper entitled Self-Selection, Immigrant Public Finance Performance and Canadian Citizenship by Don J. DeVoretz and Sergiy Pivnenko, which talks about contributions to and withdrawals from public coffers for naturalized citizens versus people born in Canada versus immigrants who do not obtain citizenship. Although I believe they have omitted some important elements, some of the descriptive tables and charts are quite interesting, indicating that naturalized citizens might in some cases contribute more to a country (in monetary terms, at least) than people born in the country.
:: David (11:55 in Michigan, 17:55 in Paris) - Comment

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I've been following with some interest the landing of the Huygens probe on Titan (one of the moons of Saturn), waiting impatiently for photos and other data to emerge. Thus I found myself reading a story on the BBC this morning, which contained the latest updates. One amusing part of the report stated

Measurements suggest the area it landed on has the consistency of "creme brulee" and may have once been flooded.

This is amusing for two reasons - one is the image of landing a spacecraft on a giant intergalactic crème brulée. The other reason I found this amusing is because I watched the press conference where the quote comes from, and the person speaking (I believe it may have been Professor John Zarnecki, principal investigator on Huygens' surface science package), who was quite an excellent and amusing speaker, said something along the lines of 'there is thin crust, with something soft, maybe sand, underneath. One of our wittier scientists suggested crème brulée, but I don't think that will go in the final report'. So of course it is the crème brulée which gets reported.

According to all reports, the mission was a great success. Apparently no data was dropped in transmission (the same speaker noted that all the work they had done in creating special software to fill in gaps in the data was 'wasted', but he didn't sound unhappy, and I doubt he was). There were, I believe, 8 or so separate instruments on board, and only the wind speed guage failed, and it is believed they will be able to recreate that data because there were instruments on earth tracking the probe's descent.
:: David (11:54 in Michigan, 17:54 in Paris) - Comment

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An article in the economist, titled "George Bush's second term", points out the pros and cons of social security reform:

[The] numbers can be hard to interpret, but the larger point is that Social Security is on an unsustainable trajectory, one that goes well beyond the retirement of the baby-boomers. It is not an immediate "crisis". in fact, payroll-tax revenues will exceed pension payments until 2018, masking America’s overall fiscal imbalance. Nor is it America’s biggest long-term fiscal problem. The financial burden from Medicare will be much bigger (see chart 2 on previous page). Mr Bush’s first-term decision to introduce a prescription-drug benefit for retirees worsened Medicare’s long-term financial imbalance by more than twice as much as the entire Social Security problem. Nonetheless, Social Security needs fixing. And that means either boosting revenues (for instance, by raising payroll taxes) or reducing promised benefits.

Generally you don't hear people in the states mention that the drug cards made things much worse than social security is en route to be.
:: David (11:53 in Michigan, 17:53 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Sunday, January 16 2005 ::

Well, this is interesting: according to the BBC, politicians in Germany have called for a ban on the swastica throughout the EU. This is, of course, related to the Prince Harry scandal (which I'm sure he regrets more than people can possibly realize). But will it work? I doubt it. Witness my recent trip to Italy, where there was swastica graffiti left up for a week. Some people just don't get it.
:: David (03:59 in Michigan, 09:59 in Paris) - Comment

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I was cruising the job boards, seeing what sort of grunt work one might do in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Since I work with governmental organizations, I thought, for a lark, I would see what jobs were open in the government. Sadly, no permanant jobs were available. But there was a temporary job that caught my eye:

ZAMBONI DRIVER
Salary $10.75 - $12.75/ hr
Operator of ice resurfacer and all other assigned motorized equipment. [...] Must possess a valid drivers license. Mechanical aptitude and past experience using large equipment is desirable, past management experience is helpful. First Aid and CPR certification is required.

Now, in addition to all the various fun things there are to say, I want you to think about a Zamboni driver leaping from his resurfacing vehicle to administer CPR to someone in the crowd (I guess you would leap from the zamboni, over the plastic barrier). Very superman-esque. It seems like, if you are going to be asked to do that more than once there ought to be combat pay or something....
:: David (19:27 in Michigan, 01:27 in Paris) - Comment

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Sasha and I were discussing recently, and I had been thinking about it at other times as well, and we determined that it was a touch difficult to tell where one post ended and the next post began. So I've changed the program slightly, to put some cute little lines at the left (you'll see them after this entry - no time like the present, I always say). Hopefully that will make it a bit easier to tell when I've stopped blathering on about how Bush is going to screw up Social Security or how everyone in Finland is so fit, so that you can start reading again.
:: David (19:02 in Michigan, 01:02 in Paris) - Comment

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:: Saturday, January 15 2005 ::

I downloaded a program which allows me to analyze my website, and one result of this has been finding photos which were unavailable for public consumption, mostly because I had made a mistake when putting things online and hadn't bothered to check. So, for giggles, how about photos from my trip to Korea in February of 2000? There's also a text description of our adventure.
:: David (17:29 in Michigan, 23:29 in Paris) - Comment
...

Why I don't use blogging software: apparently LiveJournal has been down for at least 12 hours. Quoting the people fixing the mess:

The four of us have been at this almost 12 hours, so we're going to take a bit of a break while the binlogs replay... Again, our apologies for the downtime. This has definitely been an experience.

It's amazing how many levels of redundancy you can have, and yet still things will break in a horrible fashion while you are looking the other way. This is also what we like to call a 'real-world' test of their backup strategy. It's funny, because lots of companies think they back things up, but all too often, they are wrong (my own hosting company lost several months of stuff the last time they had a real crisis, and it was only because I keep backups as well that things didn't go more wonky).
:: David (12:02 in Michigan, 18:02 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]
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:: Friday, January 14 2005 ::

OK - this is a little weird - according to CNN, 28 prisoners from Abu Ghraib escaped while being transported to another facility in Baghdad. What's weird? Read on:

A source with the Iraqi Interior Ministry said authorities were investigating the trip because it was odd for prisoners to be moved at night with little security.

Which makes you wonder if some of our 'phantom prisoners' - you know - the ones that were not being put on lists of prisoners and were shuffled around secretly - were the ones who escaped...?

Given that Human Rights Watch has stated that the US is "less and less able to push for justice abroad, because it’s unwilling to see justice done at home", perhaps a few people getting away (and telling their story) would be a good lesson for the US government.
:: David (13:02 in Michigan, 19:02 in Paris) - Comment
...

The royalty is expected to reflect the people of a nation. Thus the flap this week over Prince Harry going dressed as a Nazi. But isn't he just doing what he's supposed to?

"People dress up as Nazis all the time for various reasons," said Duncan Mundell, the owner [of a costume shop], who had some sympathy for Prince Harry. "The poor guy. He's just gone out to a fancy dress party without thinking," he said. "The same thing happened at my 40th birthday party at a restaurant in Wandsworth. Three or four people had come dressed as Nazis. What we didn't realise was that there was a bar mitzvah going on in the same restaurant. Eventually we were asked to change or leave."

An article in the Guardian tells us more about the penchant for tasteless dress. I would say 'the British penchant' but I don't think the Brits are alone in their costume choices....
:: David (05:53 in Michigan, 11:53 in Paris) - Comment
...

Following on Wednesday's comments on the measurement of happiness, there's a book review in the Economist all about the conundrum of richer people who aren't happier people. The book is titled Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard. In it, the author suggests that it is the relative measure of wealth (i.e., am I as wealthy as my neighbours/peers?) that influences happiness, more than any absolute measure of wealth. His solution? Tax the living crud out of the rich, so that everyone is on an equal footing. The Economist, needless to say, objects:

The author singles out income inequality as a psychic wound uniquely worthy of state intervention. But if raising the level of happiness is to be the chief aim of government policy, as he argues it should, where then is the call to make divorce harder, given the pain that he says broken homes inflict on children? Further, where is his desire to compel the worship of a higher being, also on his list as a source of happiness? Thankfully, both are absent, but he never mentions the obvious reason for why they are: namely, that most people value freedom as a greater good than enforced happiness. The pursuit of happiness, Lord Layard's book will convince most people, is a private matter.

I'm not positive I see high taxes in the same realm as forced conversion to religion, but, on the other hand, if you religion is the accumulation of wealth, perhaps you would. I myself feel that the Economist doth protest too much, but at least they point out interesting reading material.
:: David (02:15 in Michigan, 08:15 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Thursday, January 13 2005 ::

According to the BBC, Kenya plans to bid for the 2016 Olympic games. The article notes that "No African country has ever staged an Olympics and only four nations outside Europe and North America have ever won the right to do so", which probably means that if Kenya could get their act together, they would stand a chance of being given the games. But here's the thing: on the heels of reports that "the budget deficit for 2004 might have reached or even exceeded 6 per cent" (according to the Southeast European Times), in part because of huge cost overruns on the 2004 olympics, do we really want to urge, encourage, or otherwise, a country that doesn't have a great deal of money to spend huge amounts on white elephants like stadiums and somesuch?
:: David (07:14 in Michigan, 13:14 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Wednesday, January 12 2005 ::

Well, so much for that:
US gives up search for Iraq WMDs

Intelligence officials have confirmed the US has stopped searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

They say the chief US investigator, Charles Duelfer, is not planning to return to the country.

I think we're all surprised by this revelation, because we were all expecting the WMD to be found....
:: David (11:52 in Michigan, 17:52 in Paris) - Comment
...

There's an article in the Financial Times (which you -might- be able to read here) which talks about the new wave of 'happiness measurement' sweeping the field of economics. The reason this is occuring is because, in the past, income was used as a shorthand for happiness. As the FT notes:

Economic output as measured by GDP has risen steeply in recent decades in the developed economies but people have not been getting significantly happier.

If the link between GDP and happiness no longer exists, one of the key objectives of government policy in keeping GDP on an upward trajectory is called into question. This is partly why economists have increasingly turned their attention to the study of happiness, once exclusively the preserve of psychology.

Now, as we all know, the 'growth is good' agenda has permeated to some pretty high places - the US government is a huge fan, and allows tendrils of this concept to permeate almost all regions of government. If the link between happiness and income no longer exists (allowing, for the sake of argument, that it ever existed), that would leave a lot of people lost without a compass, having based their lives on the 'more income' mantra.
:: David (04:59 in Michigan, 10:59 in Paris) - Comment
...

...and the rumours prove true. Mac has introduced the Mac mini, a low cost ($499) Mac designed expressly to replace your PC. It doesn't come with a monitor, keyboard, or mouse, so you'll have to scavenge them from the PC you're replacing. But it's cute cute cute. And cheap. I'll be very interested to see if Apple picks up a ton of market share this year. It would be good for everyone if they did. It would more than likely help the Linux market as well - once people realize that using another operating system is easy, there might be no turning back.
:: David (01:37 in Michigan, 07:37 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]
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:: Tuesday, January 11 2005 ::

The IHT presented me with a surprise today. Like many people, I had thought that France was much more unionized than other countries. Else, I thought, why would there be so many strikes. Well, according to the article, I was wrong. Very wrong:

France [at 9.6 percent] has the lowest level of unionization in the Western world - the average proportion of unionized workers is 30 percent in Europe and around 13 percent in the United States. Unions in France appear to wield greater power than their numerical strength, labor specialists say, because they receive widespread attention in the French media, and the small minority of unionized workers, mainly in the public sector, strike relatively often.

[...]

The situation is altogether different in Denmark, where 75 percent of employees are union members, one of the highest rates in the world.

Of course, as the article notes, the reason we hear about the unions in one country, France, where there are very few unions is because they are very active and loud. They strike often, and they are very adversarial. In Denmark, by comparison, they are very, very quiet. And very powerful.

Which is interesting, because it opens the question as to what, exactly, is the purpose of a union. In Denmark the union helps administrate, working hand in hand with the company. And they almost never strike, because it is not in anyone's interest to do so. On the other hand, to paraphrase one French union person, 'that's not our job'. So now the debate runs: partner, or adversary?
:: David (10:36 in Michigan, 16:36 in Paris) - Comment
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It has been said, many times and in many places, that people in the lower socioeconomic regions prefer education they can use to education that has 'nothing to do with them' - reading, for example, about people like them. This may be the case today (though I am dubious), but it certainly wasn't the case in the past. An article in City Journal points out the people from the poorer classes were, in the past, quite avid consumers of culture:

Even more impressive is a 1940 survey of reading among pupils at nonacademic high schools, where education terminated at age 14. This sample represented something less than the working-class norm: the best students had already been skimmed off and sent to academic secondary schools on scholarship. Those who remained behind were asked which books they had read over the past month, excluding required texts. Even in this below-average group, 62 percent of boys and 84 percent of girls had read some poetry: their favorites included Kipling, Longfellow, Masefield, Blake, Browning, Tennyson, and Wordsworth. Sixty-seven percent of girls and 31 percent of boys had read plays, often something by Shakespeare. All told, these students averaged six or seven books per month.

Of course, I think it much more the fault of society than the educational system that today the results are less impressive:

in 2002, 43.4 percent of American adults had not read any books at all, other than those required for work or school. Only 12.1 percent had read any poetry, and only 3.6 percent any plays.

That said, however, please don't ask me how to popularize literature in this day and age - I don't know. And my own reading list, while extensive (more than one book a week) does not exactly hold to the high standards of literary quality.

That said, regardless of any and all speculation we might have about the who, what and why of it all, it is worth remembering that, not that long ago, people who you might not have expected it of read more literary works than you did last year. So maybe a little extra funding for the libraries and museums to keep everything free and open to all isn't such a bad idea....
:: David (01:55 in Michigan, 07:55 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Sunday, January 9 2005 ::

Well, after several hours work, the photos from Venice are up, complete with captions in some cases.
:: David (18:27 in Michigan, 00:27 in Paris) - Comment
...

The end is near, people. How do I know? The Casa Moda "S'mores" Maker, which appears to be how the British would have made s'mores in India a hundred years ago, if they had done that sort of thing....
:: David (19:02 in Michigan, 01:02 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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:: Saturday, January 8 2005 ::

Did very little today. It was wonderful!

Actually, one really good thing - I finally managed to get a guitar (one that plays, as opposed to the one that doesn't). So hopefully I can get my fingers (and ability to read music) back into shape at some point....
:: David (18:31 in Michigan, 00:31 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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Happy 70th birthday, Elvis! Even if you aren't alive and well in West Michigan, you're still remembered....
:: David (08:41 in Michigan, 14:41 in Paris) - Comment
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Everything you ever wanted to know (and then some) about Roman numerals.
:: David (05:08 in Michigan, 11:08 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Friday, January 7 2005 ::

Well here's something somewhat unexpected: according to the BBC, a new study has found that organic milk is higher is certain fairly well known vitamins and such (vitamin E, omega 3, and antioxidants) than regular milk. Very interesting indeed....
:: David (12:33 in Michigan, 18:33 in Paris) - Comment
...

There's an interview with Bill Gates on News.com, in which he pushed a number of people's buttons, including Apple people, open source people, Firefox people, etc. And some really random groups, like communists:

I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.

But my personal favourite is his comment on Firefox, and web browsers in general:

In terms of our agility to do things on the browser, people who underestimated us there in the past lived to regret that.

I believe what he is referring to is Microsoft's illegal leveraging of monopoly power to drive other browser makers out of business. Very subtle, Bill.
:: David (11:45 in Michigan, 17:45 in Paris) - Comment
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Well, it looks as though Monsanto got caught with their hand in the cookie jar, as it were. They have just been hit with a 1.5 million dollar fine for bribing an Indonesian official. According to the BBC:

Monsanto admitted one of its employees paid the senior official two years ago in a bid to avoid environmental impact studies being conducted on its cotton.

Apparently the bribe was entered into the books as a 'consulting fee', which isn't that far off, I suppose.

Of course, it's been widely assumed that this was happening in poorer countries, not just Monsanto but all the larger companies, simply paying their way out of regulation. It's nice to see somebody get caught though, even if the fine seems insignificant.
:: David (07:24 in Michigan, 13:24 in Paris) - Comment
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The BBC has an article today which points out the obvious, but in a more blunt manner than people seem to have been doing of late:

The head of Iraq's intelligence service Gen Muhammad Shahwani now puts the number of insurgents at 200,000, of which 40,000 are said to be the hard core and the rest active supporters.

These figures do not represent an insurgency. They represent a war.

I have seen mention recently that not only might we not have enough troops to maintain order in Iraq, we might also actually be outnumbered. Now, you could argue that, even if there were more 'insurgents' than American troops, the Americans will be better equipped. But the 'insurgents' will always have better intelligence (meaning knowing the land and the language, for example).
:: David (07:23 in Michigan, 13:23 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Thursday, January 6 2005 ::

Well, I'm not sure I buy it (I'll have to see the film to judge, and that might be asking too much of me), but according to the Guardian, Oliver Stone says moralism killed his movie:

"There's a raging fundamentalism in morality in the United States. From day one audiences didn't show up. They didn't even read the reviews in the [American] south because the media was using the words: 'Alex is Gay'."

Of course, it's also possible that 'Alexander the Great' simply wasn't. According to one user on IMDB:

[T]he script really sucked. It just sucked. I don't know what else to say except to say that it sucked.

Which would seem to me to be a much more believable reason it didn't make scads and scads of cash. Anybody out there actually watch it, and care to comment?
:: David (13:05 in Michigan, 19:05 in Paris) - Comment
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I'm sure most of you have heard that Lt. Gen. James R. "Ron" Helmly, the chief of the Army Reserve, has written a memo saying the Army Reserve is in danger of becoming a 'broken' force. Apparently the Baltimore Sun broke the story yesterday. They also have published the memo itself, which, in addition to all the usual points everyone likes to make, makes a comment I found very interesting, concerning what it means to only take so-called 'volunteers':

Demands to use only "volunteers" from the Reserve Components threaten to distort the very nature of service in the Reserve Components. Use of RC Soldiers for wartime service is not an anomaly in our Nation's history. Arguments for less use or no use of the RC in this war fail to recognize the potential grave danger to future RC readiness and involuntary use policies, caused by a failure to modernize RC readiness and mobilization policies and procedures. Requirements to use other than involuntary mobilization authorities places the burden of responsibility for service on the Soldiers' back instead of on the Army's back. While the Soldier is still protected under USERRA, the Soldier is seen as having a clear choice by his family and employer. Faced with this, the most likely "volunteers" are those who often enjoy lesser responsible positions in civilian life.

I find the idea that giving people a pseudo-choice in the matter not only weakens the army reserve, but also puts undue pressure on the reservists themselves, a very interesting point. And, of course, the fact is that the reserve isn't a 'volunteer' group - the only 'volunteer' portion is whether you join or not. You can't pick and choose conflicts after you join. He claims, and I have to agree, that it sets a dangerous precedent.

Now, I'm not a big fan of the concept of 'the military', or of the ideas it seems to engender. But we have seen, with the Asian tsunami, that having a well prepared, well equipped force able to move themselves, and other things (like medical aid, or food), quickly and efficiently can be the difference between life and death. And by the same token, I do think that the ability to defend civilians from harm is something that, in the real world, is necessary. Sadly, there are all too many places I can think of off the top of my head where having peacekeepers is, or would be, a good idea. And for that we need well trained, well equipped people.

And that's a point I think that gets missed in a lot of these debates - and why I chose the particular quote I did from the Lieutenant-General. People who are not prepared, in any way, can do more harm than good. His choice of euphemistic phrasing does not conceal his meaning - the reserve may end up with fewer people who are responsible in places where responsible people are needed.

Which brings me to another thought: do we need to use young people in the military? Could we have a more numerous force, and a more effective force, if it were not composed primarily of very young people? I'm just throwing that out there - I don't have an informed opinion on it.
:: David (08:21 in Michigan, 14:21 in Paris) - Comment
...

There was a really interesting quote on Arts and Letters Daily which made me think there was going to be a really thought provoking article behind it:

If we woke up tomorrow and there was no hiphop on the radio or on television, if there was no money in hiphop, then we could see what kind of culture it was

It was a thought provoking article, but not in the way I had hoped, as it linked hiphop to black american culture (and had some strong points to make in that regard).

But what I had hoped for was more of the above - more of the 'you know it's art because...' line of thought. We gave this some thought while we were in Venice, because we got a Polish music channel which featured a good chunk of Eastern European rap. Now, former communist Europe has some pretty spectacular ghetto-age going on, and I found it really interesting how well the hiphop formula fit. Of course, in the states we have the whole 'who ever heard of a white rapper' stumbling block, but the rest of the world doesn't seem to suffer too much from that (and acts like eminem have probably been a force in that). Which means that rap can actually be the protest voice of the poor, without all the racial confusion that seems to accompany everything we do in the states.
:: David (02:06 in Michigan, 08:06 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Wednesday, January 5 2005 ::

For a contrasting view on what needs to be done to the budget in the US in the next few years, you can check out the article by N. Gregory Mankiw, the chairman of Bush’s council of economic advisers. In the article, titled The Economic Agenda, he paints a dire picture of where the US is headed, and even goes so far as to point out why one of the most obvious solution to a budget problem, higher taxes, would be a bad idea:

Raising taxes to solve the Social Security shortfall would, in essence, make the U.S. economy more like those of Europe. That is not the direction we should be heading.

Those nasty Europeans - can't trust them to get it right. They don't work enough, and they take really long holidays!

On the other hand, this article is the most succinct view you're likely to get of the arguments which will be made in the coming months, and it is for the most part stripped of rhetoric (and of fact, but that's my opinion). So it might be worth reading, just to prepare yourself.
:: David (10:26 in Michigan, 16:26 in Paris) - Comment
...

...And speaking of social security, Paul Krugman has written a lengthy article for the journal The Economist's Voice which talks about the coming battle over social security reform. Titled confusions about social security, it makes an excellent point about the questions raised by the current administration as to whether or not social security is in danger at all. Noting that the fund which supplies social security is currently doing quite well, thank you, and that it is in fact the budget as a whole which is in a dire state (as has been widely reported elsewhere).

Krugman also makes the point, just as I noted earlier, that the stock market is risky - a word that seems to have lost meaning to a lot of people who ought to know better. As he states:

claims that stocks will always yield high, low-risk returns are just bad economics. And tens of millions of small private accounts are a bad way to take advantage of whatever the stock market does have to offer. There is no free lunch, and certainly not from private accounts.

If you have an account invested since the mid-90s, you probably already know this. I myself had money invested with a company (Dreyfus) for close to ten years, which had, in the end, a negative rate of return. I would have done better putting the money into bonds. And this was considered a nice, safe investment. Now consider if every pensioner had their pension invested in a nice, safe investment that tanked. Would we turn them all out into the cold? Well, maybe. But more likely we would bail them out, leaving social security even less well off than it is now.

Think on this, when the government's marketing blitz comes to tell you that, this time, they've found the miracle cure-all.
:: David (10:26 in Michigan, 16:26 in Paris) - Comment
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The Consumer Electronics Association says that "[t]he average person has a library of 600 digital images". I took quite nearly six hundred pictures in a week. It appears I am not 'the average person'. I have thousands upon thousands of photos - now that I have a camera in my palm as well as my real camera, I take a lot more photos. Fortunately for all of you, I haven't put them all on the web....

I ran across the quote in a BBC article on the big Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, taking place this week.
:: David (10:25 in Michigan, 16:25 in Paris) - Comment
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P.G. Wodehouse created Jeeves, the most famous butler in all creation. A.A. Milne created Winnie the Pooh, the most famous bear in all creation. Apparently they started off as friends, but then Wodehouse made his ill fated broadcasts from Berlin at the beginning of World War Two, and all bets were off:

Wodehouse "has encouraged in himself," Milne wrote, "a natural lack of interest in 'politics' -- 'politics' being all the things grown-ups talk about at dinner when one is hiding under the table.

I find it especially amusing, because I believe I would have, to some degree, reacted with Milne's fury (or exasperation). I tend to find inexcusable in others ignorance of the basics of current events. And I think, at the beginning of World War Two, I would have considered the fact that the Germans were invading lots of other countries, and thus might be considered the 'bad guys', one of those 'basics of current events'. The article goes on to suggest that Milne was jealous of Wodehouse's ability to generate ever more stories, which may or may not have been true. But the basic thing seems to have been something that should ring as true for us today as it did for Milne in 1941 - ignorance carries a price, and often the price is not for ourselves, but for others.
:: David (02:21 in Michigan, 08:21 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]
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Social Security is probably going to be revised in the US sometime relatively soon. I have the advantage of working at a place where we analyze social security, so I hear lots of talk, lots of options. From the sounds of it, people in the US aren't going to be nearly so lucky. According to CNN, there is about to be a massive ad campaign in the US to sell Bush's plan on social security. This is too bad, because an intelligent discussion of the issues would serve everyone more. Of course, the big news for many people is that "the White House is seriously considering changing the way benefits are calculated, a shift that could mean lower benefits for future retirees." Sadly, it looks as though they plan to lower benefits for the wrong people. By indexing payments to a different measure of inflation (price of goods inflation rather than wage inflation) those at the lowest end of the benefit scale would fall further and further behind. A better solution is to cap the maximum payout, and/or implement means testing, so that those who are in no danger of poverty would see a reduced benefit, but those closest to the bottom would not. Sadly, the administration would rather sell their 'private account' scheme - despite the fact that this would spend more money from the social security pool for management fees, and would have the distinct potential to leave people worse off (since the market is not a guaranteed thing).
:: David (01:45 in Michigan, 07:45 in Paris) - Comment
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Since the beginning of hostilities, 10,000 American troops have been wounded in Iraq. Another milestone.
:: David (01:31 in Michigan, 07:31 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Tuesday, January 4 2005 ::

Were you aware there was a French speaking part of India? Neither was I, until I met some folks from there. French India got started in the mid 1600's, and remained a colony until the 1950's. So there are many native French speakers from the region.

I bring this up, because I was speaking with one of them today, whose family, it turns out, lives right on the coast where the tsunami hit (in or near Pondicherry). Fortunately for all involved, the city where his family lives erected a retaining wall some time ago, which broke the wave, and thus all was well. Nearby areas, sadly, were not so lucky. I chose not to explore the details.
:: David (17:20 in Michigan, 23:20 in Paris) - Comment
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Shelby was talking about the Philip Pullman books, and I went looking for info on one of the older ones, and found the Philip Pullman website, which is quite interesting, and worth a read. If you ever had any questions about the theme of His Dark Materials, the website clears them up.
:: David (17:20 in Michigan, 23:20 in Paris) - Comment
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Speaking of bad grammar, CNN apparently has determined that it can save space by making all the bad things happening in Iraq into a single event. Witness today's headline:

Baghdad governor assassinated
Suicide truck bomb kills at least 10 near Green Zone

Now, in fact these were two separate, unrelated events, which took place in different places. Halfway though the article, the story simply changes places, with the sentence "Also Tuesday, a suicide truck bomb killed 10 people and wounded 60 others near Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily fortified area where Iraqi government offices and the U.S. Embassy are based."
:: David (12:06 in Michigan, 18:06 in Paris) - Comment
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According to the BBC, blog reading has exploded in America. This despite the fact that "[o]nly 38% of online Americans have heard about blogs". I suppose a 58% increase in readership is impressive. Microsoft, of course, finally glommed on and now has their own site, called spaces (prefixed by MSN, of course). It's integrated six ways from Sunday with everything else they have, including hotmail and messenger. I'll stick with homemade, thanks. Although I suppose if people actually start using RSS to any degree I'll have to create an RSS version of the site. But that will require me to figure out RSS, which is obviously something I'm not that thrilled about (although, that said, the Firefox feature called 'live bookmarks' makes me thing they might be more amusing than I expected...).
:: David (11:06 in Michigan, 17:06 in Paris) - Comment
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There's an interesting rumour going around (I found it on the CNN website, but I think ThinkSecret might have broken the story) that Apple might start selling an ultra-cheap iMac sometime this year (probably in the next couple of months). There is an impression among some that the iPod has made Mac a viable alternative. Especially, it notes, in the face of continued security concerns with the Windows platform. I'll be interested to see - it would possibly inject some tasty competitive goodness into the computer market....
:: David (11:05 in Michigan, 17:05 in Paris) - Comment
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According to the Boston Herald, alcohol is good for you, in moderation:

In a blow to smug teetotalers everywhere, men who enjoy one or two hard drinks a day three to four times a week were found to have a 32 percent lower risk of stroke than guys who don't drink at all, according to a new study.

And in a bow to the smug French and to Francophiles everywhere, the same report also found that men who drink one or more glasses of red wine a day had a staggering 46 percent lower-than-average risk for stroke

Just another reason to break out the wine bottle. But be careful - if you overdo it, your chances of stroke go up, not down. According to the article, people who have "three or more hard drinks a day" are subject to an effect equal and opposite - they are "nearly 45 percent more likely" to have a stroke, as compared to teetotalers.
:: David (08:10 in Michigan, 14:10 in Paris) - Comment
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10 things about David. The statue. Not me. A school bus stop in Connecticut was not moved because a girl could see me from the waist down. It was that other guy.
:: David (06:56 in Michigan, 12:56 in Paris) - Comment
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Alternet has a story which details some of the so-called 'guerilla marketing' campaigns of 2004. One of them caught my eye:

At Fourth of July cookouts throughout the United States, guests brought Al Fresco chicken sausages to throw on the grill, without telling the other guests that they were actually working to earn premiums from a PR firm that was hired to promote sales of the product.

Now, on the one hand this is freaky and bizarre. But on the other hand, other than the omission of the statement that you are working for the 'Al Fresco' company, is this any different from, for example, pampered chef or Avon? The idea is to infiltrate conversations of food or beauty with a brand. It isn't really a new idea, is it?
:: David (02:24 in Michigan, 08:24 in Paris) - Comment
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Apparently Hanson (of MMMbop fame) are still making records. The Guardian has a story about how they are trying to be taken seriously as an indie band, and how the past is difficult to escape:

Tall, big-haired drummer Zac remembers one UK interviewer who, during their first visit to London seven years ago, "just wrote about how obnoxious I was". Ah, that would probably be me. Nonplussed, he continues: "You didn't say anything about the music, but just how hard we shook your hand." Well, I tell him, you were 11 years old, and you kept shouting. Though intended flippantly, this throws him, because Hanson don't do banter. Middle-American openness is their thing, and they answer every question lengthily and without levity.

I must admit, I'm curious what the new sound could be like. It's not really fair to suggest that people should be held responsible for their younger days, but we tend to do it, so I would imagine they'll have quite a time getting the recognition they might (or might not) deserve.
:: David (02:12 in Michigan, 08:12 in Paris) - Comment
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So, the United Kingdom has just instituted a Freedom of Information Act (similar to the one in the US). It came into effect on the 1st of January, and it's already uncovering some very interesting details. Like the fact that from 1957 to 1977 the UK army had an explicit, and secret, policy of excluding anyone they considered 'non-white'. Basically there was a little check made on a form when you did your medical checkup, and the army simply didn't admit people who had that mark, save a token few. They didn't tell anyone about this policy, didn't admit it existed, and lied through their teeth when asked. Absolutely shocking. The up side is that this sort of thing is now coming to light. Unlike the US policy, it appears the limits on what will be released are much smaller, so I think we'll be seeing more secrets coming to the fore in the coming months.
:: David (01:34 in Michigan, 07:34 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Monday, January 3 2005 ::

I finished (finally) the application process to the University of Michigan this evening. I'm of two minds about the whole thing. On the one hand, I would be completely offended if they rejected me, because I'm too cool to reject. On the other hand, I'm not really that gung-ho on the whole deal - I have mixed feelings about the University, about the PhD program (two more years of math? Do I really need that?), etc. And, of course, there's the third element - what would I do in Ann Arbor if I don't go to school? Is there actually anything else to do? I'm too overeducated for a coffee house job, and too undereducated to teach at one of the schools. It's a crazy place. And it's in the US, which makes it all that much more difficult, especially given the current political (etc.) climate. We watched an amazingly disturbing show recently, a program the BBC did on 'middle America'. Now, I'm sure they picked a real winning city for their show intentionally, but nevertheless the idea that there are towns like that fills me with dread of returning. I just can't face the idea of being surrounded by that much ignorance and fear.

Chipper, aren't I?

But, the truth is, I like Ann Arbor - it does a good job of trying. So if they decide to let me try for yet more paper, I'll see what I can do about adding some additional letters to my name.
:: David (18:23 in Michigan, 00:23 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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I put some of our photos from Christmas up this evening.
:: David (18:15 in Michigan, 00:15 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]
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The BBC seems to have a problem with its sentence structure. I originally heard this headline read aloud, and thought it was terrible. Now they have put it in print, as well:

Suspected left-wing rebels in Colombia killed 17 peasants at a party to celebrate New Year's Eve, police say.

Who was at a party? What was the celebratory action? Ordinarily grammar mistakes aren't quite so gruesome, but I really did find this one inexcusable.
:: David (07:18 in Michigan, 13:18 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]
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I mentioned yesterday that the tsunami had greatly affected Europe, with many people missing or confirmed dead. According to Le Monde, here are the figures for Europe:

Austria: 6 dead, more than 200 missing.
Belgium : 6 dead, more than 100 missing.
Croatia : 1 dead, nine missing.
Cyprus : 20 missing.
Czech Republic : 1 dead, 40 missing. Denmark : 7 dead, more than 100 missing.
Estonia : 3 missing.
Finland : 15 dead, 186 missing.
France : 23 dead, 99 missing, but presumed dead. Another hundred or so unaccounted for.
Germany : 60 dead, some 3200 missing.
Greece : 7 missing.
Italy : 18 dead, 570 Italiens missing.
Latvia : 15 missing.
Lithuania : 1 missing.
Netherlands : 6 dead.
Norway : 21 dead, 462 missing 980 more might have been in the region. It is expected that over 1000 Norwegians have died.
Poland : 1 dead, 3 others are probably dead, and 39 missing.
Portugal : 5 missing, dozens unaccounted for.
Russia : 9 dead. 39 missing.
Spain : 7 missing.
Sweden : 52 dead, 2915 missing.
Switzerland : 16 dead, 95 missing, and no news has been had of 550 others.
Turkey : 1 dead, 55 missing.
U.K. : More than 40 dead, hundreds missing.

And for North America:

Canada : 5 dead, 150 missing.
U.S. : 15 dead. Hundreds missing.
Mexico : 4 missing.

:: David (05:06 in Michigan, 11:06 in Paris) - Comment
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Lots and lots of reasons why you shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart. I especially like the calculation on how much subsidy each store receives from the government, due to their low wages.
:: David (02:38 in Michigan, 08:38 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]
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I'm sure you've all heard from some source or another that 'foreign fighters' were the ones doing all the fighting in Iraq, and that the Iraqi people were less involved than these imported guerillas. Hogwash. In this week's Economist aricle, "when deadly force bumps into hearts and minds", General George W. Casey, Jr. says that of more than 2000 men detained in Iraq, fewer than 30 were were non-Iraqi.

So why does the US continue the charade, as with this recent statement on Syria where the US claims Syria has made 'progress' in keeping foreign fighters out of Iraq? Worse still is the undertone of the article which says that some in the administration think Syria hasn't done enough. What is Syria supposed to be doing, exactly? Keeping non-existent fighters from going into Iraq? It's garbage, specifically created to convince people that it isn't Iraqis killing Americans, and each other.

The economist article also has some truly disturbing details about the way the Americans are conducting the war. Stuff like firing buckshot at jeering schoolchildren, or rounding up random people (70 of them) and sitting them outside in near-freezing temperatures, hooded and bound. As the magazine quotes one officer, "When we do this, we lose."
:: David (02:20 in Michigan, 08:20 in Paris) - Comment
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:: Sunday, January 2 2005 ::

There was a madhouse in the airport when we left last Sunday, which was still there when we got back. At the time we thought nothing of it, except that clearly something big had happened, because there were lots and lots of strangely dressed men and women with their heads covered, and some of the women were ululating (something I have not heard done in earnest before). We assumed it was a funeral. It was only when the crowds of people were still there when we got back that we realized who they were. People touched, in some way, by the tsunami.

It was very strange being away, and in some ways out of touch, during such a tragedy. It's clear the effects are worldwide. Had it happened at another time I could have been one of the victims (I have been on the tourist island of Phuket, in Thailand - it may even have been for the Christmas/New Year's holiday). Across Europe the losses are still being tallied. There was a call that came over the intercom for anyone who had any information at all to please give it to the airport authorities on arrival. And through it all, we were on holiday (in an oceanside town, no less). Very surreal indeed. In some respects I wish I could go help out. But I think I shall have to make my contribution monetarily, this time. I sincerely hope all of you will consider doing something as well. I don't need to tell you the scale of the thing - I'm sure you've all seen it on the evening news. So please consider helping in some way - I'm sure there are people affected near you, as well as those you could help far away.
:: David (15:39 in Michigan, 21:39 in Paris) - Comment
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Happy New Year!!!

We're back from an amazing week in Venice, where I did not check my email or in fact touch a computer at all. But I did take a million zillion pictures, which will someday soon grace this website. But not today.
:: David (15:23 in Michigan, 21:23 in Paris) - Comment
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