Georgia in 2008 = Czechoslovakia in 1938?
I’m not a good student of history or of global politics, but it did occur to me that the situation in Georgia is awfully similar to that of the infamous Munich Agreement. Will Ossetia be just Russia’s first step to taking all of Georgia while the West is too timid to intervene?
The New York Sun has a nice little article that compares this conflict to similar situations in modern European history.
Frogger: Game Over
Part of my jog route takes me down Clover Street along the park. It’s a major road, and the frogs from the pond don’t stand a chance. It’s like Frogger on the impossible level. I often jog around their little corpses.
I assumed that crows and ants cleaned up the remains, but the truth turns out to be a bit more gruesome:
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Telemarketer vs. Google
Hello, Mr. Stein. My name is Susan. I’m calling on behalf of the Cancer Fund of America Support Services. We give aid to the ill and needy and provide support and services to cancer patients who can’t afford treatment. May I confirm your address to send you a pledge card?
[Walking to computer] What organization did you say you were calling from?
Cancer Fund of America Support Services.
[Typing] OK. Cancer… Fund… of America… Support… Services… Ah, yes. It appears that you spend over 60% of your money on fund-raising. I think my contribution would be better spent elsewhere.
*Click*
My first political cartoon
In reference to the public reaction to the FLDS raid:
SQL Server Performance Benchmarks
I’m not allowed to tell you how slow SQL Server is.
Seriously.
To install Visual C# Express, I had to agree to the following:
SQL SERVER BENCHMARK TESTING
You must obtain Microsoft’s prior written approval to disclose to a third party the results of any benchmark test of the SQL Server software that accompanies this software.
They must have included that clause because, while SQL Server is the fastest database, it doesn’t do well on benchmarks. Kind of like your barber’s kids are really smart but they just do poorly on tests.
Can you imagine Google forbidding search results comparisons? Or Amazon forbidding price comparisons? Or Toyota forbidding reliability comparisons?
You use Google because when you compared their results to what you were getting from Yahoo (or Lycos, or God forbid MSN), you found you got better results from Google. You shop at Amazon because, although you’ve looked for lower prices, you found it’s usually cheapest at Amazon. You bought that Camry (or Prius, or Gore forbid Highlander) because your research showed that Toyotas last longer.
These companies are all vulnerable to misleading benchmarks. Yahoo has better search results for “elliptical machines”. Buy.com has a better price on Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul III. Your coworker had a Volkswagen that lasted forever. For Google, Amazon and Toyota, the best way to combat unflattering “benchmarks” is simply to encourage more of them.
I’ve never performed a benchmark on SQL Server, but I don’t think I need to. Microsoft has made it pretty clear what kind of results they expect.
Know Why You Believe
I believe democracy is the best form of government. It’s practically self-evident, isn’t it? We wouldn’t want to be godless Communists, would we?
I finally read The Republic and was amused to hear Plato disparage democracy:
SOCRATES: See too, I said, the forgiving spirit of democracy, and the “don’t care” about trifles, and the disregard which she shows of all the fine principles which we solemnly laid down at the foundation of the city—as when we said that, except in the case of some rarely gifted nature, there never will be a good man who has not from his childhood been used to play amid things of beauty and make of them a joy and a study—how grandly does she trample all these fine notions of ours under her feet, never giving a thought to the pursuits which make a statesman, and promoting to honor any one who professes to be the people’s friend.
ADEIMANTUS: Yes, she is of a noble spirit.
SOCRATES: These and other kindred characteristics are proper to democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
And a subversive thought popped into my head: what if he’s right? It wasn’t really even an idea, let alone a conclusion; just a thought. A thought I realized I’d never had before. It occurred to me that the primary reason I believe democracy is the ideal form of government is because I was indoctrinated with this idea my whole life. Now, I doubt I’d start promoting aristocracy as soon as I completed Comparative Forms of Government 101, but it is interesting to note that I’ve never taken such a course—at least not one that was unbiased. From this perspective, my entire elementary school social studies curriculum appears to have been one big marketing program for Democracy and the American Way.
This post is not really about democracy. It’s about opinions, biases and beliefs that we have acquired through doctrine rather than reason. I don’t mean religion; religion can’t be acquired through reason. I mean beliefs that have been placed in our minds as fully-developed opinions lacking the scaffolding of logic that should have built them.
I was struck by this aside from Chuck Shepherd:
…so many people these days wake up every day with the same, or stronger, sociopolitical biases as they’ve had for decades, and filter any “new” news that day into the same ol’ biased cubbyholes. As a college professor, I hated that habit by students and strived to break them of it. As a law student and lawyer, I was trained that you’re not in command of an issue until you can see the other side in its most favorable light, not as a caricature, which is how biased people typically see the other side. source
How often we see the other side only as a caricature! I’ve often thought the correct debate format would be to have two sides argue the opposites of their own positions. Then the winner would be allowed to explain why his side was actually superior to what he had just presented. I don’t believe anyone can really know why his opponent is wrong until he understands why his opponent is right.
It’s not easy to identify one’s own biases. They are often so integral to our world view it feels like trying to smell the inside of one’s nose or taste one’s tongue. But I think the fate of being simply a product of one’s immediate culture is worse than the trouble of reconsidering.
4213 is an odd number
Tuesday was the first election since our move to a new town. I figured I was doing well to find the actual voting place, but it seems I was supposed to know my district number as well. Four voting districts each with its own table and voting booth were represented in the building. A map on the wall showed that my street was right on the dividing line between districts. I started with district 1.
“Hi, I’m not sure I’m at the right table.”
“Address?”
“4213 Clover”
“OK, let’s see.” [Mumble, mumble, discuss something about odd/even house numbers] “Try table 4″
So I moved to table 4. “Hi, district 1 sent me over here.”
“Name?”
“Jeremy Stein”
“Hmmm… it’s not in the book. What’s your address?”
“4213 Clover”
“Let’s see… Clover Street. Yes, we have the even numbers. I guess you’ll need to fill out a provisional ballot. Now, where are those…”
“Oh, so odd numbers are at table 1?”
“Uh, yes…” [Confused look]
I moved back to table 1. They gave up trying to determine whether my address was in their district and just looked up my name. It was there. I signed in and voted.
Tacky Sun
I would rant, but Jacob Davis already did.
U.S. National Debt has Fallen!
Congress has increased the ceiling on the national debt to $9.8 trillion. Let me assure you that the U.S. debt is increasing only superficially. Counting the debt in U.S. dollars is like counting the money in your wallet by the number of bills you have, ignoring their denomination. You can’t measure the U.S. debt in U.S. dollars; we need an external measurement. How much has the national debt changed in, say, Canadian dollars?
| Month | USD | Exchange | CAN |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2002 | 6.2 trillion | 1.576 | 9.8 trillion |
| Sep 2007 | 9.0 trillion | 1.027 | 9.2 trillion |
Over the last five years, the U.S. national debt has fallen by $CAD 600 billion. There are advantages to having the U.S. dollar in a free fall. Those suckers who have loaned us money are actually paying us to use it!
Not like those bad kids
Once when I was shopping at Aldi, there were some children running around and making noise. I overheard a woman talking to her infant:
You’re such a good baby… not like those bad kids… no, a good baby.
Meta-error
From my favorite IDE:
Fidelity mistake
About a week ago, I received a letter from Fidelity informing me that their privacy policy was enclosed. It wasn’t. I figured I was the victim of an envelope-stuffing-machine error and forgot about it. Today, I received another letter. It begins:
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Animal Testing
Subprime Bailout
After all the talk from my fair senators on assisting troubled subprime mortgage-holders, I was delighted to read Patrick Killelea’s diatribe: Stop the Subprime Bailout.
Politicians will exploit your emotions by saying they want to help people “keep their homes”. But remember that the people in financial trouble already had houses. They got into this mess by trying to buy bigger and fancier houses than they could afford. If we do help them, it should involve them moving back into houses they can afford.
Dysfunctional IT
I emailed our company’s IT department to report that my telephone stopped working — I could hear others but they couldn’t hear me.
IT called me for more information.
CD Ladders are Stupid
I made a mistake. I created a CD ladder.
It sounded like a good idea. CDs have high rates because the banks can hold on to your money for a longer time. By staggering your investment so that the rates average out, you can take advantage of these high returns without risking losing money on bad timing.
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Pray for Lobbyists
Our church has a prayer-request email distribution list. Today, a member forwarded this email to us on the list: (more…)
I blame my mother
You could say it’s society’s fault. I could have been helped by teachers or school counselors. Perhaps adults in the church could have seen what was happening and intervened. But ultimately the blame lies on the person who was directly responsible for raising me: my mother.
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Slowly approaching
Statistically, I’ve got 40-something years before I die. That’s a good chunk of time to do important things, make something of my life, etc. But it doesn’t matter how successful or interesting or happy my life may be. In each moment, whether it be used for industry, pleasure, or loitering, death is moving steadily closer. It may be far away and it may be moving slowly, but it is always moving.
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My Encounter with the Paranormal
James Randi is a magician and debunker of paranormal claims. He is probably most famous for exposing the trickery used by psychic Uri Geller who supposedly bent spoons with his mind. James Randi has a Million Dollar Challenge for anyone who can demonstrate paranormal or supernatural powers. Many people apply, but no one so far has been able to demonstrate the ability in a properly designed testing environment.
I occasionally read the claims of the latest applicants. I found that one of the claimants was from my city. He claimed to have telekinetic abilities. (more…)
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