I shall be out of pocket for a couple weeks visiting Wisdomie, my eldest, a Scuba Instructor, in Hawai'i—parental duty, don'cha know. Don't expect posting here for awhile. But if you have a blog and your Stat Counter drops a pin somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific at some bizarre hour in your home time zone, don't get too excited. It's probably just little old me checking in for a quick read during surface intervals or when there's nada surf. No big whoop!
Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky and run into Todd Rundgren on the beach in Kaua'i. Something? Anything? Nazz Nazz.
19 May 2013
16 May 2013
Who Are You Calling an Idiom?
This one gets me all the time: Ever hear the expression "You can't beat a dead horse."? That, I believe, is a misconstrual of the phrase "You can't flog a dead horse." Now, "flog" has a couple meanings: it can indeed mean 'to whip or beat', so that the phrase means something like 'there's no sense in engaging in useless labor.' And that's its predominant use nowadays. But "flog" also means 'to sell or hawk', especially illegally. So the expression "You can't flog a dead horse" is actually an idiomatic expression of a British common law maxim. It's against the law to sell a horse that's already dead—unless, of course, it's for the purposes of glue or dog food or, lately, Ikea's Swedish meatballs. As with U.S. "lemon" laws w/r/t automobiles. Funny how language mutates.
Here's another: "He's the spitting image of his father." That's a bastardization of the phrase "spirit and image."
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Can you spot the influence?
Here's another: "He's the spitting image of his father." That's a bastardization of the phrase "spirit and image."
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Can you spot the influence?
07 May 2013
Lysenkoism, or Thought Control
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| Trofim Lysenko |
Lysenkoism was the name given to centralized political control over the sciences of genetics and agronomy in the old Soviet Union from the late 1920s to 1964. Named after Trofim Lysenko, a minister of agriculture under Lenin and Stalin, the term "Lysenkoism is used metaphorically to describe the manipulation or distortion of the scientific process as a way to reach a predetermined conclusion as dictated by an ideological bias, often related to social or political objectives."
If you think Stalinism died with the passing of the Soviet Union, you've got another think coming.
"In March, at the urging of U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Congress halted funding for political science—“except for” research that the agency's director certifies as “promoting national security or the economic interests of the United States.” This extra test might not stop with political science. Representative Bill Posey (R-FL), in an NSF oversight hearing on 17 April, asked John Holdren, President Obama's science adviser, why Coburn's two criteria were not “a good and proper filter” to apply to all NSF grants..."Then, on April 17,
"over the course of two contentious hearings, the new chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology floated the idea of having every NSF grant application include a statement of how the research, if funded, "would directly benefit the American people." Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) said that he was not trying to "micromanage" the $7 billion agency but that NSF needs to do a better job of deciding what to fund given the low success rates for grant applicants and a shrinking federal budget."And now, "[t]he new chair of the House of Representatives science committee has drafted a bill that, in effect, would alter peer review at the National Science Foundation by embracing a set of criteria chosen by Congress."
Lamar Smith, the Republican head of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, seems to believe that the NSF needs a political director to oversee its grant-funding process rather than its current peer review process which relies on the informed opinions of knowledgable and qualified experts in the specific areas under review.
This is, precisely, thought control. Nothing less.
Think through the implications of such a political position: Scientific research and discovery should only be allowed if it serves or pursues the interests of the State (or, better, the party in power). Truth only counts if it's consistent with prevailing ideology. Ignorance is preferable to inconvenient truths.
The denial of reality does not make it go away.
[Wait, didn't we see this ideological position take in on the chin in the last election cycle with the Republicans' rejection of analytic polls that critiqued the methodological assumptions of their own preferred polls and didn't match their victory narrative? Oh, and hey, didn't I ask this same question in a post last month about the economics of austerity?]
How does one arrive at such a know-nothing position. Turns out Rep. Lamar Smith is a Christian Scientist.
"Christian Scientists [] subscribe to a radical form of philosophical idealism, believing that spiritual reality is the only reality and that the material world is an illusion. This includes the view that sickness and death are illusions caused by mistaken beliefs, and that the sick should be treated by a special form of prayer intended to correct those beliefs, rather than by medicine. Between the 1880s and 1990s the avoidance of medical care and vaccination led to the deaths of a number of adherents and their children; several parents and others were prosecuted for manslaughter or neglect, and in a few cases convicted."These are the anti-vaccine activists, or at least their ideological mother ship. These are the people who choose, or at least chose, to pray for their sick kids rather than allow medical treatment. This may not be fully explanatory, but it is insightful.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the censorious urge is clearly strong with Coburn, Posey, Smith, and their party.
If Lamar Smith is such an anti-science, anti-reality, know-nothing, political ideologue, how did he get to be the head of the House committee on science? Doesn't the question imply its own answer?
But then arise the contradictions for conservatives, libertarians, and Republicans: How is this "smaller government"? How is this getting the government out of the way? How is this freedom? It seems to be in direct opposition to their professed ideals and, moreover, their proclaimed reasons for people to vote for them.
How is this not Lysenkoism? How is this not Stalinism? What's next? Loyalty oaths? Purges?
29 April 2013
In Disrepair and Desuetude, Dilapidated, Decrepit, Ramshackled, Racked and Ruined...But Damned Photogenic
Posting hereabouts will be sparse for the next month or so. After this weekend's Ultimate Frisbee State Tournament and then the Senior Prom for Wesdom, we've got his HS graduation next weekend and Wisdaughter's graduation from Emory U. the next weekend. Then we get to go visit Wisdomie who's a Scuba Instructor in Hawaii for a couple weeks and help him move and get ready to complete his college at UH. After that I have to move Wisdaughter to a new apartment before she starts work (in her chosen field!!).
So, for now, some pics from Wesdom's prom pic session at an old (putatively haunted) mansion about three miles from my home I had no idea was there. The site was picked by the mother of one of the kids who happens to be a professional photog. These, unfortunately, are my pics (not hers), taken with my iPhone. As always, clic pics to embiggen slide show, mouse over for sometime surprise text:
So, for now, some pics from Wesdom's prom pic session at an old (putatively haunted) mansion about three miles from my home I had no idea was there. The site was picked by the mother of one of the kids who happens to be a professional photog. These, unfortunately, are my pics (not hers), taken with my iPhone. As always, clic pics to embiggen slide show, mouse over for sometime surprise text:
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| The house. The site pre-shoot |
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| The old sunroom |
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| Looking in |
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| Brighten the corner |
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| Hail, Hail the gang's all here! |
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| Classic lines |
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| The old greenhouse |
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| Stairway to nowhere |
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| The grounds |
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| The garden path |
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| Musta' been grand |
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| While a photo shoot happens, Jim H tries to get fancy |
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| The house from the grounds |
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| Can't keep the forest out |
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| Can't you just hear the creaking and cracking? |
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| Love in the ruins |
24 April 2013
What If Everything You Believe Turns Out to be Wrong?
So, what happens when it turns out that everything you believe, the ground of everything you do, is based upon an error, a lie, an illusion, misinformation?
This is the sort of question I've been asking, in an esoteric, philosophic vein, in my series Being v. Becoming. (If the metaphysics of substance is supplanted by a process metaphysics of flux, whence the religious notions, e.g., of soul? salvation? etc.? Can humanity simply eschew its religions once they've been foundationally discredited? Or will some remnant survive, even when the illusion is revealed?)
This same sort of drama is playing out now in a clear-cut arena. For years, Conservative economists around the world have taken it as an article of faith that growth stops and, in fact, recedes when the national debt passes 90% of GDP. This has been the justification for austerity policies, including the Republican budget-slashing, welfare-bashing, social security-smashing sequestration mania of the last few years.
Turns out that 90% figure comes exclusively from a 2010 working paper entitled Growth in a Time of Debt by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff of Harvard University.
One of the initial problems with the paper was that it was never peer reviewed. That did not prevent its becoming the rationale for cutting social programs around the world among true believers. It reified their ideology. Paul Ryan's budget forays cite it as "conclusive empirical evidence." The Washington Post editorial board takes it as dogma.
Recently, Thomas Herndon, a graduate student at U.Mass Amherst, had the assignment of replicating the findings of an important Econ paper for one of his classes. He chose Reinhart/Rogoff. When he couldn't replicate the results, he reached out to R/R, and they emailed him their data spreadsheet.
After reviewing the R/R underlying data, Herndon found several serious problems:
Paul Krugman, the Princeton Economist and columnist for The New York Times, has been all over this. Here. Here. Here. And everywhere. He's much more authoritative on these matters than I. You should read him on matters such as these. (Of course, he found R/R skeevy for a number of other reasons long before this colossal coding error in Excel came to light.)
It will be interesting to see how the European austerians and the Paul Ryans, Rand Pauls, WaPo editorial boards, Pete Petersons, Erkine Bowleses, Alan Simpsons, Richard Haasses, and Conservative economists in general, etc., adapt.
Economics is one of those not-quite hard, not-quite soft sciences. As a hard science, there are replicable experimental results in many areas. Theses are propounded, proved or discredited, and revised to account for new findings. Unfortunately, it also tends to have aspects of the sorts of social sciences where individual preferences and biases can find confirmation in observations—especially where data is obscured, ignored, selected, or otherwise manipulated.
We saw an instance of this in the recent U.S. election, where ideological polls (polls based on faulty but favorable assumptions) showed the Republican candidate Mitt Romney either winning or within striking distance of President Barack Obama going into election day. More scientific/analytic polls, however, showed Romney to be clearly losing. In that case, the election itself proved to be a slap in the face. Reality prevailed. Obama won by nearly 5 million votes in an Electoral College landslide. It was a huge embarrassment to many professional pollsters.
In this instance, I fear there is no such accountability moment for the true believers in austerity economics. And the world's economy is the worse for it.
Here's Herndon's interview with Stephen Colbert:
This is the sort of question I've been asking, in an esoteric, philosophic vein, in my series Being v. Becoming. (If the metaphysics of substance is supplanted by a process metaphysics of flux, whence the religious notions, e.g., of soul? salvation? etc.? Can humanity simply eschew its religions once they've been foundationally discredited? Or will some remnant survive, even when the illusion is revealed?)
This same sort of drama is playing out now in a clear-cut arena. For years, Conservative economists around the world have taken it as an article of faith that growth stops and, in fact, recedes when the national debt passes 90% of GDP. This has been the justification for austerity policies, including the Republican budget-slashing, welfare-bashing, social security-smashing sequestration mania of the last few years.
Turns out that 90% figure comes exclusively from a 2010 working paper entitled Growth in a Time of Debt by Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff of Harvard University.
One of the initial problems with the paper was that it was never peer reviewed. That did not prevent its becoming the rationale for cutting social programs around the world among true believers. It reified their ideology. Paul Ryan's budget forays cite it as "conclusive empirical evidence." The Washington Post editorial board takes it as dogma.
Recently, Thomas Herndon, a graduate student at U.Mass Amherst, had the assignment of replicating the findings of an important Econ paper for one of his classes. He chose Reinhart/Rogoff. When he couldn't replicate the results, he reached out to R/R, and they emailed him their data spreadsheet.
After reviewing the R/R underlying data, Herndon found several serious problems:
"First, Reinhart and Rogoff selectively exclude years of high debt and average growth. Second, they use a debatable method to weight the countries. Third, there also appears to be a coding error that excludes high-debt and average-growth countries. All three bias in favor of their result, and without them you don't get their controversial result."This is a pretty big deal, it seems to me. What happens when the foundation of everything you believe about how government should respond in a time of recession is discredited? Do you go back and change/revise everything you've done based on this belief as a rational person might do? Do you increase social spending and thus economic exchange activity? Do you implement Keynesian-style, job-creating policies which put people back to work, say, upgrading infrastructure? Or, do you continue to hold to your discredited austerian view of reducing the economic activity of the government in time of recession because of stubborn political affiliation or ideology?
Paul Krugman, the Princeton Economist and columnist for The New York Times, has been all over this. Here. Here. Here. And everywhere. He's much more authoritative on these matters than I. You should read him on matters such as these. (Of course, he found R/R skeevy for a number of other reasons long before this colossal coding error in Excel came to light.)
It will be interesting to see how the European austerians and the Paul Ryans, Rand Pauls, WaPo editorial boards, Pete Petersons, Erkine Bowleses, Alan Simpsons, Richard Haasses, and Conservative economists in general, etc., adapt.
Economics is one of those not-quite hard, not-quite soft sciences. As a hard science, there are replicable experimental results in many areas. Theses are propounded, proved or discredited, and revised to account for new findings. Unfortunately, it also tends to have aspects of the sorts of social sciences where individual preferences and biases can find confirmation in observations—especially where data is obscured, ignored, selected, or otherwise manipulated.
We saw an instance of this in the recent U.S. election, where ideological polls (polls based on faulty but favorable assumptions) showed the Republican candidate Mitt Romney either winning or within striking distance of President Barack Obama going into election day. More scientific/analytic polls, however, showed Romney to be clearly losing. In that case, the election itself proved to be a slap in the face. Reality prevailed. Obama won by nearly 5 million votes in an Electoral College landslide. It was a huge embarrassment to many professional pollsters.
In this instance, I fear there is no such accountability moment for the true believers in austerity economics. And the world's economy is the worse for it.
Here's Herndon's interview with Stephen Colbert:
18 April 2013
Boston v. Waco
I can't hold my tongue. I'm a runner, and I deeply empathize with the Beantown marathoners and their supporters. Hell, those people just ran 26+ miles and were about to cross the finish line when they got blown off their feet. A bunch—including Wesdom's calc teacher (who's okay, btw)—was just nearing the finish line and got turned away. Not allowed to finish their first Boston.
If you're not a runner, you should know: Boston is the pinnacle. You can go out and run a 5K or 10K or a half mary or even a full marathon and never be allowed to run the Boston. You have to post a fast time on a legit 26.2 mile course before you can even submit an application. You get some handicaps for age, gender, etc. But still. Finishing the Boston is a BFD!
I've been running regularly for nearly four years. In that time I've competed in 43 foot races. Got 43 shirts, even took first place in my age division on occasion. Five of those races were half marathons—13.1 miles. You've seen some of the pics. But I've never—not once, not even in practice—run that distance. And my halves' times wouldn't qualify me to apply to Boston even if I doubled them.
So, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Deep and abiding.
The Boston Marathon bombing was a big deal. It deserves the full weight of governmental intervention and sanction. Go get the bastards! They terrorized my friends and fellow runners. And they killed at least three innocents and wounded hundreds others who were either just running or just watching running. What country do we invade?
But wait. Last night a fertilizer depot near Waco, Texas blew up in the middle of the night. Initial reports say somewhere between five and 15 people were killed and many, many more injured. Plus, neighborhoods had to be evacuated.
These innocents were sleeping in their beds or otherwise simply going about their business, maybe at work doing their jobs. And this industrial blast blew them into oblivion. Not to mention the environmental damage.
How is this not also domestic terrorism? Why should not its perpetrators, whether from neglect or negligence or even criminal incompetence, be punished to the same extent as the Boston bastards? Do they get a pass in our minds simply because they have an "Inc." shield?
Some people put together a small, crude bomb and set it off in a public place with the intent to kill, maim, and terrorize a few bystanders at a public even. Some others allowed a known hazard stored in public proximity to explode with sufficient force to register a 2.9 on the Richter earthquake scale, the result of which was death, mayhem, and terror.
You tell me.
If you're not a runner, you should know: Boston is the pinnacle. You can go out and run a 5K or 10K or a half mary or even a full marathon and never be allowed to run the Boston. You have to post a fast time on a legit 26.2 mile course before you can even submit an application. You get some handicaps for age, gender, etc. But still. Finishing the Boston is a BFD!
I've been running regularly for nearly four years. In that time I've competed in 43 foot races. Got 43 shirts, even took first place in my age division on occasion. Five of those races were half marathons—13.1 miles. You've seen some of the pics. But I've never—not once, not even in practice—run that distance. And my halves' times wouldn't qualify me to apply to Boston even if I doubled them.
So, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Deep and abiding.
The Boston Marathon bombing was a big deal. It deserves the full weight of governmental intervention and sanction. Go get the bastards! They terrorized my friends and fellow runners. And they killed at least three innocents and wounded hundreds others who were either just running or just watching running. What country do we invade?
But wait. Last night a fertilizer depot near Waco, Texas blew up in the middle of the night. Initial reports say somewhere between five and 15 people were killed and many, many more injured. Plus, neighborhoods had to be evacuated.
These innocents were sleeping in their beds or otherwise simply going about their business, maybe at work doing their jobs. And this industrial blast blew them into oblivion. Not to mention the environmental damage.
How is this not also domestic terrorism? Why should not its perpetrators, whether from neglect or negligence or even criminal incompetence, be punished to the same extent as the Boston bastards? Do they get a pass in our minds simply because they have an "Inc." shield?
Some people put together a small, crude bomb and set it off in a public place with the intent to kill, maim, and terrorize a few bystanders at a public even. Some others allowed a known hazard stored in public proximity to explode with sufficient force to register a 2.9 on the Richter earthquake scale, the result of which was death, mayhem, and terror.
You tell me.
17 April 2013
Orn Porn
You knew there would be pics. Scroll over for secret message (sometimes) or click pic to embiggen and slide show:
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| Shore birds by the dozen on deserted strand |
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| More on the dock of the bay |
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| Plovers |
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| Pelican |
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| Heron |
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| Indigo Bunting! |
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| Ditto. Sorry for the quality. But what beauties! |
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| This guy came into the restaurant on his friend's shoulder and agreed to pose for a pic while waiting for his fries |
Okay. Here's the thing. You want to hike/drive with me. Otherwise you'll miss stuff. For example, the Indigo Buntings above, taken from the driver's side car window on my iPhone.
And see those trees on the horizon over there as seen out the passenger side car window?
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| Look closely. I could see them in flight. |
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| Two Bald Eagles all up in there |
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| More Bald Eagle |
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| Whose is it? I see a little silhouetto of a head. Poking out. Poking out. |
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| Somebody's coming home: Osprey! |
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| The Money Shot! |
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| Naked Bird Sex! |
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| Of course, I could've set up a hidden camera here for some more naked bird sex |
Noisy gulls.
I love how they do this!
05 April 2013
A Break in the Action. Plus Bunny Goodness!
I'm sure going philosophical on you these last few weeks has pretty much bored the four of you who still read this detritus to something like migraines. Hits are way down. As are links to. Thus interludes. Still, I think it's a good thing to take your mind out for a walk occasionally.
Now intervenes Spring Break ATL-style. I'll be stepping away from the edge for a week or so and heading to the edge of the Continent. (Not attending, btw, the Final Four. No Carolina, no me.)
Before I do, speaking of "animal deals," I want to share an email I received this week. Some of you may recall my "A Nest of Bunnies" post from April, 2010 (which serendipitously presaged my "Fouling the Nest" post). In fact, if you Google "nest of bunnies" one of the images from that post comes up first. (FIRST, Yo! Does this mean I win the Internets?)
Anyway to the email, and I quote:
Here's the awwww reprised:
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If you're interested, we'll be at St. George Island, FL, on the Gulf:
Now intervenes Spring Break ATL-style. I'll be stepping away from the edge for a week or so and heading to the edge of the Continent. (Not attending, btw, the Final Four. No Carolina, no me.)
Before I do, speaking of "animal deals," I want to share an email I received this week. Some of you may recall my "A Nest of Bunnies" post from April, 2010 (which serendipitously presaged my "Fouling the Nest" post). In fact, if you Google "nest of bunnies" one of the images from that post comes up first. (FIRST, Yo! Does this mean I win the Internets?)
Anyway to the email, and I quote:
Hey Jim,
Hello and happy Easter!
I am an intern at the Wildlife Rehabilitation center at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, NC and I am working on an educational flier for springtime. I was hoping to use one of your baby bunnies photos from your post "A nest of baby bunnies" posted April 26th, 2010.
The flier is to help people understand when wildlife needs their help and when wildlife should be left in the wild. As an example of wildlife that does not need help, we want to use a nest of baby bunnies. Your vet had it right, they have not been abandoned - mom will come back in a bit and people should leave them be :) I google image searched baby bunnies and I liked your photo the best.
Please let me know if it's ok for us to use your photo - we will site it properly and give you credit and I'd be happy to send you the completed flier if you are interested!
Thank you for your time!Believing this not to be an April Fools' Day catfishing prank, my prompt response (all true):
I am really honored. I have been going to the NC Zoo since it first opened. I'm a Carolina native and a UNC grad. I try to take my nieces and nephews and children (or at least I did when they were all younger) to the zoo in Asheboro every time I get back to visit family. We have some wonderful family memories of being there.This was just as satisfying as the email I got from a prof at Boston University telling me my blog was on the optional reading list for an undergrad class in Humanities.
Please feel free to use my bunny-nest-in-the-ivy photo. True to life, their mom came back and moved them. Occasionally, we see a juvenile or other adult rabbit in the vicinity and wonder if it was once a nestling there.
Thanks so much for respecting my post enough to ask to use the photo. And YES! I would love a copy of the flier.
Here's the awwww reprised:
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If you're interested, we'll be at St. George Island, FL, on the Gulf:
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| Deserted Beaches |
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| Barrier Island, Three-Mile Bridge
The Apalachicola Bay is home to the bestest oysters in the world. (Sorry Chesapeake)
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02 April 2013
Pictorial Interlude
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| A visitor Sunday for brunch (along with 40+ people). When we came to ATL 13 years ago to look at houses, an identical mallard was in the same place in the creek. It was the first week of April. He (or his doppelganger) returns every year, often with a gal pal. |
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| Opening Day! Great seats! Go Braves! |
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| 52,000! |
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| Skyline at sunset from the upper deck |
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| Twilight |
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| Skyline at night up close |
LOUD! And yes, the Braves beat the Phillies.
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| I am so sure |
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| Look what the mailman brought today! Spring Break beach reading. |
01 April 2013
Interlude: Penis Festival
Yes. It's that time again. While billions of people around the world celebrate a theology of sadism and state-sanctioned murder and the hope there is some paradisical abode beyond all that (and this) they're entitled to because of how emotional they get about the whole suffering thing, Shintoist Japanese celebrate their annual penis festival: Kanamara Matsuri, かなまら祭り or, "Festival of the Steel Phallus," which itself follows the Hōnen Matsuri, 豊年祭 or, Harvest Festival.
You knew there would be pics:
(click to embiggen. Heh heh)
However you choose to celebrate, it is Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere—a time for renewal—and I wish you the best of the season. As for me? It's Opening Day! and for the first time in years the Braves are in town for their first game of the year. I'll be at Turner Field on what looks to be a lovely early Spring evening for baseball.
[You're welcome!]
You knew there would be pics:
However you choose to celebrate, it is Springtime in the Northern Hemisphere—a time for renewal—and I wish you the best of the season. As for me? It's Opening Day! and for the first time in years the Braves are in town for their first game of the year. I'll be at Turner Field on what looks to be a lovely early Spring evening for baseball.
[You're welcome!]
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