Labels: Maybe the protectionists were right...
¶ 12:27 PM 0 Comments
Labels: Increasingly we can win them all
¶ 10:18 AM 1 Comments
- Computers are incredibly flexible and powerful, and I spend the majority of my time in front of one. But my first love will always be a notepad and a pen. The physicality of writing out your thoughts is primal.
- Portland may be overwhelmingly white, but it spreads its minorities pretty evenly across the metro area.
- I listen to less and less music as I get older, and that's not only scary but kind of silly. My opportunities to listen to music aren't really that diminished, I just don't do it. I know part of that is simply because my sexuality has changed, and music was a way to express and even fulfill (?) that sexuality when I was younger. But, there's always time for 3/4 year's resolutions. More music in 2011!
- At a dinner I was talking with a group of people (1 NYer, 1 Indian, and 1 Bay Arean) discussing our energy problem. The NYer kept going back to "densify", the Indian wanted us all to ride scooters, and the SFer wanted people to do what they do, but do it more efficiently. This parable offers clues.
Labels: Cognitive surfeit
¶ 7:37 AM 0 Comments
Copying whole cloth from articles and blogs isn't a pattern of mine. Today, it's the right thing to do.
"You can change the basis of your life from avoiding pain to seeking beauty. It's just a heck of a lot more interesting that way. And if you're not afraid of dying, then there's really nothing standing in your way.
It really doesn't make sense to be afraid of dying.
So I suggest that rather than try to find a life devoid of discomfort, embrace the discomfort. Let it be. Focus on the things that interest you. Allow yourself to feel bad. It won't kill you. And life will be much more interesting.
Go have some experiences. Endure some discomfort. Get used to uncertainty. Change your principle from avoidance of discomfort to seeking of beauty.
Keep finding beauty. The beauty is worth the pain. There is much in life that can get you through the awfulness. Keep seeking it out. Find music and art and literature that will sustain you. The Void won't go away. You have to keep filling it. But the more you fill it, the less of a void it is. One day, you may be able to completely avoid it."
Original here: Since You Asked
Labels: "You have to realize that someday you will die. Until you do that, you are useless."
¶ 7:50 AM 0 Comments
- I always remember the February doldrums, because the weather was bad and vacations seemed so far away. But my money's on March as the most miserable month these days. "Is there no sun in this cursed land?"
- There is, in fact, some truth to this: "For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow."
- It's amazing how little value I add to the economy. The same thing is true for most of Manhattan. Finance schminance.
- On a lighter note, I really am looking forward to this summer. Hope does spring eternal.
Labels: Better luck next time
¶ 2:17 PM 0 Comments
Labels: Academy: Not Just for Holocaust Films Anymore
¶ 10:20 AM 0 Comments
As a teenager, a friend’s dad sent a gift package that included a tape of the testimony of a NJ crime boss turned Christian. Here at Stremf HQ, we've always been huge fans of the oral story tradition (Yo, Beowulf raps!), and we'll listen to just about any story if it's either a) interesting or b) told in an interesting manner
This includes churchy testimonies. Most of the content of this crime boss done good was dismissible save one line. He said, "It's always just as easy to make an honest dollar as a dishonest dollar." A little bit of thought about this statement since makes us think it's true more times than false. The following cases provide evidence:
Evidence for:
Two high school “skater” friends. Two charming and affable guys who, at times, burned a lot of calories to make $20 or $50 on a deal.
The small time criminals and junkies who plot, scheme and hustle to make much less than minimum wage on an hourly basis
Evidence against:
Madoff. The guy was obviously a talented salesman and smart. Could he have done that on the right side of Johnny Law? Doubtful. See also: Milken, etc.
It seems to shake down like this: for blue collar crime it seems to be an issue of laziness. Our high school friends didn't make much money. But, they could stay stoned and play Mario Kart in perpetuity. On the other end, it seems there's a ceiling on what people can do legally; or, rather, a bonus for stepping outside the law.
Questions for our gentle readers:
1. What's your take?
2. If you were to turn to a life of crime what do you think you could pull down?
3. Bonus question: how would you do it?
Some thoughts:
The benefits of a criminal lifestyle closely mirror the benefits of a manual laborer lifestyle. You can live very well from 16 to 22 by being sheisty and taking advantage of the trust and kindness of others. But things start to break down very quickly after that, particularly since I think people are far less tolerant of shenanigans once you are very clearly an adult. High school criminals would have a more difficult, if not impossible, time trying to connive a free meal at 30 than they did at 18.
Generally speaking, I think it is more difficult to make a dishonest dollar, due to the low barriers to entry and the rock-bottom discount rate of the other players in the market (ex-cons). White collar crime is a little better bet, since there are some barriers to entry, typically in the form of knowledge of an industry. Those mortgage guys (not the Wall Street guys, the dishonest Main Street guys) deserve to go to jail for what they did, and I honestly think unethical financial advisors are barely a rung up the criminal ladder. Selling products that are more expensive and perform no better to unwitting doctors is not an honest living.
If you have to commit to a life of crime in the classic sense, it seems drugs are where the money is at. A little bit of foresight, an ounce of planning, and a lifetime of not using the drugs could net you a tidy profit. It seems like you could easily make $50k with almost no risk of going to jail. Going big brings serious risk of jail time, but as far as earnings, sky's the limit.
White collar crime is a little bit harder to pinpoint. In my industry, insider trading would pay off handsomely, but getting into a similar position when starting from zero would take at least six years of focused planning and a bit of luck. If you did make it in, you could pretty quickly make enough profit that you could chill in Baja for the foreseeable future, by buying options on deals that you know are going to be announced. Let's call our annual profit $500k, although you'd be risking real jail time.
Labels: "A book about prison breaks? Doesn't that belong in how to?"
¶ 7:38 AM 0 Comments
Josef Stalin – Insiders said that Lenin kept this guy around because he had a superhuman ability to bureaucratic work. DMV employees the world over rejoice.
Malenkov – Ruthless Soviet politicians were a rouble a dozen. I’ve never heard of this guy.
Nasser – Egypt was once the powerful nation on earth. Now this?
Prokofiev – Monotov’s Private Opera
Rockefeller – Rockefeller was rich in a way that Gates and Buffet can only dream of.
Campanella – We can’t even understand what racism was really like
Communist Bloc – Novels about a land war with Eastern Europe? C’mon
Roy Cohn – It’s scary that the government really can ruin you like in the movies
Juan Peron – South America is a tragically romantic place. Africa is just tragic.
Toscanini – Conductors? I guess I’m not smart enough to get it.
Dacron – Sailing? EAST COAST BIAS!
Dien Bien Phu Falls – 9/11 was a tragedy, but how many thousands of battles resulted in more deaths?
Rock Around the Clock – Being young rules
Einstein – His early letters are so intense, full of the scientific equivalent of piss and vinegar. I can’t help but love.
James Dean – Died young. Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain offer clues.
Brooklyn's got a winning team – Baseball sucks, but in the decades before basketball developed a mythology, the history of baseball cannot be beat for readability.
Davy Crockett – It takes unbalanced people to lead us up out of caves. The pioneers were this type of person.
Peter Pan – Literally, a fairy
Elvis Presley – See “James Dean”
Disneyland – See “Peter Pan”
Bardot – Racquel Welch was the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen, but I won’t argue with you if you say Brigette Bardot.
Budapest – This place STILL looks like they just got done strafing bombing runs during WWII.
Alabama – See “Budapest”
Khrushchev – I wonder what would have happened if the U.S. had engaged in a little more theater in regards to the USSR.
Princess Grace – The first reality TV star
Peyton Place – Never heard of this book.
Trouble in the Suez - Wish I’d never heard of the Middle East. Booooring.
Little Rock - using the screaming eagles to get 9 students into high school? i've said it before and i'll say it again. the south sucks.
Pasternak - Russian Authors can suck me sideways
Mickey Mantle - i also like [girls with] small hands
Kerouac - try re-reading that shit. what rambling incoherence. it's like going back on a chat between me and jardon at any point from 2005 on
Sputnik - all is not right with america
Zhou Enlai - a bomb on a plane? c'mon. if you want to kill somone, just kill them. don't act like a james bond villain.
Bridge On The River Kwai - british world war 2 movies? i'll wait for john wayne
Lebanon - xtians vs. muslims round 80gabillion
Charles de Gaulle - dude's got a lot of stuff named after him
California Baseball - dodgers leave brooklyn and the giants leave the polo grounds. there are still old people and their kids that hate these teams for leaving. two teams leave for california and the next closest team is in kansas city? it's like the left their fans for a new planet.
Starkweather homicide - don't know why specifically but there's something very exhilarating about spree killers. and something very hot about women losing control and going nuts. (i'm fucked)
Children of Thalidomide - i'd rather put leeches on my body than go to a doctor before 1972
Buddy Holly - what's with these homies dissing my girl? or the day the music died, if you are my mom
Ben Hur - first epic i ever saw. heston is the hammiest fuck since porky pig and his only redeeming role was in wayne's world (maybe 2?) but that movie has stuck with me for a long time. also reminds me of when mr. burns gives judah ben hur some water in his biopic directed by señor spielbergo.
Space Monkey - what is wrong with us? we act like children so much of the time it's a wonder we even have a different word for them (Able died four days after the flight from a reaction to anaesthesia while undergoing surgery to remove an infected medical electrode.)
Mafia - a long love affair.
Hula Hoops - you know, for kids!
Castro - i was going to say something along the lines of "what if castro hadn't been cut by the major leagues?" but it turns out that shit was just rumors, so i'll smoke a cigar and dump the ashes on the people of cuba once the embargo is lifted.
Edsel is a no-go - Ford spent $400 MILLION dollairs (in the 50s!) to develop this car and launch it on a lebron james type decision platform. the edsel will never be forgotten, thanks in part to will shortz and marketing 101 classes.
U2 - do i talk about a pilot surviving after his plane was shot down or do i talk about the absolute failure of a SPYPLANE being espied and shot down?
Syngman Rhee - CIA sucks, no two ways about it. (hi guys!)
Payola - The term Payola is a portmanteau from the words “pay” and “Victrola. isn't this legal now? wait, who cares about the radio? i get my new music from car commercials.
Kennedy - this kid was going places. with bottle full of back pain meds and a bimbo on each arm.
Chubby Checker - come on baby
Psycho - one of many popular and well made movies about ed gein. they actually buried that car in the movie and left it there.
Belgians in the Congo - pobre africa.
Hemingway - he's a bit tight. his writing is definitely not tiiiiiight.
Eichmann - Yo Adolf, the Mossad ain't nothing to fuck with
Stranger in a Strange Land - never read it. sounds worthwhile
Dylan - Bob, it was time to hang up the spurs in '69. Srly, retire already.
Berlin - a place I'd like to spend more time in. especially when my pants don't look like this
Bay of Pigs invasion - Mr Kennedy, you can't win them all
Lawrence of Arabia - I'd rather hear about Lawrence of Alabia
British Beatlemania - Biebermania
Ole Miss - no comment
John Glenn - coolest job on earth (and also not on earth)
Liston beats Patterson - boxing, as a mainstream sport, is dead. Enter MMA.
Pope Paul - amazingly not the worst vicar of Christ we've had in recent history.
Malcolm X - Malcolm to George Wallace: "Where all the white women at?"
British Politician sex - tags: interesting bedfellows.
JFK - once again, you can't win them all.
blown away, what else do I have to say
Birth control - best economic tool and gender equalizer ever.
Ho Chi Minh - it staggering how little we (westerners) know about the majority of civilization (asia)
Richard Nixon back again - read Nixonland. or at least the first 3 chapters.
Moonshot - Billy Joel's apparent obsession with astrophysics is a welcoming sign
Woodstock - honestly, this wood have been a great time.
Watergate - sadly this little B&E far, far outshines Nixons worst crimes. Cambodia, for instance.
punk rock - this was a game of mine. then I turned 20
Reagan - I wish I was cognizant of politics at the time.
Palestine - step one: evacuate. step two: nuke. For real. I say give it the King Solomon treatment and see who cries uncle first.
Terror on the airline - zut alors! we missed one. srly, they let him out of jail?
Ayatollah's in Iran - theocracy is about to break
Russians in Afghanistan - ...and got their asses kicked all the way back to Moscow.
Wheel of Fortune - I watched it as a kid. I wish they would have played a double segment of Jeopardy instead
Sally Ride - NASA: we can do a lot with the smartest, most motivated people in the world. And, $471,000,000,000 helps
heavy metal suicide - best video set to rock music
Foreign debts - we haz some
homeless Vets - Portland and Anchorage are two miserable cities, weather-wise. Also, full of homeless. huh?
AIDS - prevalence rates get thrown around willy-nilly. But 1 out of 4 Swazis. Think about that for a moment.
Crack - yikes. no thanks
Bernie Goetz - did you say Death Wish?
Hypodermics on the shores - yikes. no thanks
China's under martial law - bleh ¶ 9:07 AM 0 Comments
Books:
Modern Times
I consume a steady diet of liberal propaganda. It was bracing to read a sweeping, epic history as written by a Reaganite conservative. Liberalism is the only rational response to an unjust world, but 20th century American liberals made some serious mistakes.
Freedom
Tom Wolfe writes about American males better than anyone from the last 30 years. But Jonathan Franzen is making a case of his own. This book is beautiful in every way. I promise you’ll cry more than once.
Whole Earth Discipline
Nuclear power is a hobby horse of mine, and it’s fun to see hard-line environmentalists come around to the reality that this is a good technology. But this book addresses
Blogs:
Marginal Revolution
Tyler Cowen is obnoxious, but he’s brilliant. A very large piece of me lives whenever someone plays devil’s advocate and takes an unpopular but likely correct position.
Econometrix
Any NY Times blog is worth reading, due to the quality of writers it attracts, the resources at their disposal and the editorial leeway they are given in developing their material. Econometrix provides a great platform to aggregate interesting pieces of work. And Times blog format is very clean and elegant.
Magazine:
Esquire “What I’ve Learned”
A bit too celebrity focused, but even when they interview celebrities they pick the interesting ones. Life is long. There’s nothing wrong with building a narrative on the back end.
Economist Obits
My favorite element of the Economist is the sense of fun that they bring to the journalistic table. The obituary page let’s them display a bit of sentimentality as well. As with “What I’ve Learned”, it’s only when we get to see the aerial view that the pattern shows.
My initial enthusiasm was dampened once I considered how little I've read in the last year. Typically my capacity for digestion is roughly equal to new material on hand. This has been a very mild 12 months, and quite front-loaded. But on the other hand, it's possible that I'm overlooking a lot of material. My reading has shifted from memorable pieces (books and long form articles) to more forgettable essays.
I'll start with books and move on to articles.
Nixonland
The Know-It-All; One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person Ever by A.J. Jacobs
This is less an epistemic how-to and more along the lines of trivia porn. The author reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica and writes about it. His excerpts and commentary are interesting but the book has an annoying B-story plot.
The Wisdom of Crowds - James Surowiecki
A fun read on the Googleization of our world. Ironically this book is already outdated, but the principles are sound and it's still an interesting read. Information, and the liberalization of information, is a powerful thing. It's pretty easy for me to dismiss Twitter as trivial. Then Iran, Tunisia, Egypt and Libya happen.
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
This brilliantly empathizes with an increasingly common situation. Additionally it's mind candy for your math side.
Thomas Jefferson, Author of America - Hitchens
The founding fathers were too legit to quit. Write this down and don't take anything away from it: MC Jefferson was verily, verily the truth.
The Times' Opinionator blog is a fascinating series of essays. Their best attribute is the capacity to draw from a cross section of fields. If you ask a historian, director and scientist to write about what they care about you'll gather some interesting responses.
Errol Morris wrote a delightful 5 part series.
Questions for Vicente Fox
I never tire of reading questionarires in this format. The editing delivers a concentrated dose of goodness.
Also, Vanity Fair's Proust Questionaires are always a delight.
Foreign Policy's Stories You Missed in 2010, especially China's one child policy. Oddly enough, throughout my childhood, I've always considered this policy from the perspective of the parents. It was only recently that I considered the single children's situation. I can't imagine growing up in a community where the words "brother" and "sister" have a stronger association with the Communist Party than the familial way we think of them.
Labels: the writing on the wall is just one of the things I'd like to be able to read
¶ 10:15 PM 0 Comments
