Rethink. » links

Links, 1/19/12

ashok — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:05:36 +0000

Steve Jobs (h/t Josh): If we gave vouchers to parents for $4,400 a year, schools would be starting right and left. People would get out of college and say, “Let’s start a school.” You could have a track at Stanford within the MBA program on how to be the businessperson of a school. And that MBA would get together with somebody else, and they’d start schools. And you’d have these young, idealistic people starting schools, working for pennies.
Btw, re: the above link. I was asked if I want to teach today and I made such a face that the questioner immediately backed away from that question. I didn’t even realize how much I was scowling.
Putin and the Uses of History (again, h/t Josh): Excellent, hopefully useful profile. The word “law” occurs exactly once, in reference to a professor of Putin’s.
How Copyright Industries Con Congress: It won’t surprise you to know those job-creation numbers Congressmen and lobbyists spout at us are completely phony. Just how extensive the scam is, though, is another story.
Megan McArdle, “Mayor Vincent Gray, Protector of Incumbents Everywhere (in D.C.)” – yeah, its about D.C. But I think the larger lesson is that a reformer or two or even a small movement isn’t enough. You’ve got to get an entrenched interest or two on your side to prevent every entrenched interest from using the law as their enforcer. Or you can hope everyone is severely discontented just like you are.
Yuja Wang plays Scriabin – I’m messing with the first of the Preludes played right now, so I’m listening to this too much.

Links, 1/6/12

ashok — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:40:22 +0000

U.S. Navy saves Iranians from Pirates (Wired) – from the article: Just days after Iran threatened the U.S. Navy and bloviated about closing off the Strait of Hormuz, the Navy saved 13 Iranian commercial sailors from pirates.
Jay Cost, “The Nomination Rules Are Rigged Against Grassroots Conservatives” – so let’s say the GOP nominated no less than Ronald Reagan again. Is the country the same it was in 1980? Cost has several notions which are in themselves correct and yet may add up to nothing: 1) conservatives are the backbone of the Republican party 2) the primary system is a mess 3) people get regularly nominated who are out-of-step with the base. I’m not clear on how establishing fixes from these observations one gets a more electable candidate who makes conservatism more palatable to the country (I’m not saying you would get a worse party, though). Cost’s older posts that worried about how partisan and factionalized we are as a country are more on the money, are by far the larger concern.
Richard Striner, “Abraham Lincoln’s Audacious Plan” – from the page: …in late 1861 he began to develop a plan that, even during that most unusual of times, was audacious in the extreme: the federal government would buy out Delaware’s entire slave population.
All the fine art you could ever want – one of the nicest places on the web: http://www.reddit.com/r/museum
Beethoven, String Trio No. 3 in G major Op. 9 No. 1 – Allegro con brio

Links, 12/28/11

ashok — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:38:01 +0000

Shalom Auslander, “Grabbing Life by the Horns” – from the article: When I was a child, my mother told me that everyone in the world hated me. They hated me, she said, because I was a Jew.
Megan McArdle, “Saving the New Year” – from the article: The recession should have driven home some hard facts, but the nation’s 3.5% personal savings rate indicates that these lessons haven’t quite sunk in…
China’s Noisy Subs Get Busier – And Easier to Track (Wired) – from the article: But the Navy’s just discovered that China’s homemade subs are even louder than 20-year-old Russian boats. “Apparently they [U.S. subs] are making first convergence zone detections and holding them,” the analyst reports.
Eleni Traganas performs Chopin, Impromptu Op. 29 – live recording of a short, charming piece.

Links, 11/30/11

ashok — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:35:41 +0000

Handel, “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” – I think Handel is a hack who reused the same melody a billion times over for cash. That having been said, sometimes he has amazing melodies and his work makes your hair stand on end. One of the better ways I can think of starting this Christmas season.
David Dobbs, “The Only Time Gabriel Garcia Marquez Saw Ernest Hemingway” – you need to read this for yourself. It’s a gem, I’m taking notes on it.
David Frum, “When Did the GOP Lose Touch With Reality?” – no, I don’t agree with everything in it. I’m more positive about the Bush years than he is, at the least. But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t thoughtful and interesting, with some sharp perceptions about American politics. Consider the implications of this all-too-true statement; I wonder how exactly we’re supposed to be upbeat about the next election: We have entered an era in which politics increasingly revolves around the ugly question of who will bear how much pain.
Megan McArdle, “The Real Reason to Miss Barney Frank” – from the article: I like Barney Frank. I also think that, whatever his mistakes, he’s pretty knowledgeable about finance. And you need only look at the committee list to see that it could have been so, so much worse. Guess which Democrat now becomes the ranking member on the financial services committee? That’s right, none other than our favorite batty aunt, Maxine Waters.

Links, 11/9/11

ashok — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 08:42:20 +0000

I know. It’s been a while since one of these. But these links are very good:

Felicia Day, “RSS Rant” – this requires extended comment, as it has me thinking of the user experience of this site. She details how she uses RSS: RSS is a way to consume a LOT of information very quickly, and STORE it in nice categories if you miss it. So I can catch up with a small blog’s output at the end of the week and, if I so choose, read EVERY article easily in one sitting. You think on Friday I’m gonna go browse that same site’s Twitter feed on their page (digging through all the messy @ replies) and see what they did that week?! Or go to their Facebook page that is littered with contests? No way dude, I’m too busy for that!
Megan McArdle, “Capitol Gains” – about whether Congress can plausibly be accused of insider trading. The data is inconclusive, and it doesn’t help the definition of “insider trading” is itself problematic. McArdle’s conclusion shows a concern for the fundamental issue.
Diana Damrau sings Mozart’s “Queen of the Night” Aria from “The Magic Flute” – if you haven’t liked the Rethink fan page, you’re missing out. This has been up there a while.
“Second Interview with Ashok Karra” – from the article: The best thing you can give our students is freedom.

Links, 8/23/11

ashok — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:44:05 +0000

Adam Sternbergh, “Five-Ku: Short poems on the Conan the Barbarian Remake” – these poems are really good. Also hilarious.
Joe Nocera, “How Democrats Hurt Job Creation” (h/t Josh) – from the article: The law, to be sure, forbids a company from retaliating against a union. But the word “retaliation” suggests direct payback — a company shutting down a factory after a strike, for instance. Boeing did nothing like that. It not only hasn’t laid off a single worker in Washington State, it has added around 3,000 new ones.
Geoffrey Cain, “Watching Titanic in Pyongyang” (h/t aldaily.com) – from the article: Foreign governments donated food aid, hoping to feed at least a third of the population, but half the respondents [North Korean refugees] in Haggard and Noland’s survey said they were unaware of foreign food aid before they left North Korea. Among those who did know about the aid, more than three-quarters reported not receiving it.
Megan McArdle, “Can a Professional Woman Go Curly?” – my interest is piqued.

Links, 8/20/11

ashok — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 10:11:36 +0000

Of interest:

Megan McArdle, “Somali Famine Victims Have to Give Food Aid Back After Posing for Photos” – from the article: And the aid is not even safe once it has been distributed to families huddled in the makeshift camps popping up around the capital. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it.
“Horror Stories from Tough-Love Teen Homes” (h/t thag) – from the article: The girls’ behavior was micromanaged down to the number of squares of toilet paper each was allowed; potential infractions ranged from making eye contact with another girl to not finishing a meal.
Sam Kean, “Where Did Those Naked Ladies Come From?” – (warning: smut alert) From the article: It was yet another reminder that although the periodic table is universal, people’s reactions to it are anything but.
Jay Cost, “Welcome to the Invisible Primary” – from the article: The “New Politics” reformers of the early 1970s thought they were sending the power to nominate back to the people, but that didn’t really happen. The people have some power, no doubt, as exercised through the primaries and caucuses, yet the party establishment still retains significant control. Through the money and endorsements that are dispensed over the course of the invisible primary, they determine who is and who is not a viable candidate – and it is from this list that the voters ultimately must make their choices.
“Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players” – a comment on this sort of thing and the university as an institution is forthcoming.

Links, 8/9/11

ashok — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 12:30:35 +0000

Sara Ruffin Costello, “Everyone in the RV, It’s Road Trip Time!” – from the article: That afternoon we roll into a shady hookup site in the accurately named Red Valley. After sampling homemade raisin pie from the restaurant at Bryce Canyon Pines Resort, I declare this to be my favorite campsite-cum-gas station. Then I notice a rape-hotline flyer in the campground bathroom and flip-lock the RV doors.
Charley Rosen, “White’s Life Should Not Be Forgotten” – from the article: In the end, White’s lawyer failed to show up for his trial and he was sent to prison for eight months – a sentence that none of the white point-shavers suffered.
Jay Cost, “The Left Will Never Abandon Obama” – the historical examples he cites are plentiful and interesting.
Megan McArdle, “What Will Fitch Do?” – I should be selling gold on this site. I’d make a fortune.
Gabriel Faure, Pavane Op. 50 – a very accessible and enjoyable piece of classical music.

Links, 7/23/11

ashok — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 23:55:42 +0000

Kristine Lowe, “Terror in Oslo” – from the article: VG, Norway’s largest newspaper and also my main employer, was right across the street from the governement headquarters where the bomb went off, and large sections VG’s glass walls facing the explosion fell out…
Megan McArdle, “Getting Specific on Spending” – from the article: The tea party is not a majority. If you piss off every single other constituency in the United States, they will gang up against you, and they will win.
Questions for Lisa Kudrow (Slate) – from the article: It was only, like, the second season of The Amazing Race, and people were vomiting and crying on national television. And I just thought, “That’s the end of the world.” You don’t even care that someone is watching you vomiting and crying while your husband is yelling at you to eat the horribly spicy ipecac.
7 Fantastical Indie RPG’s Worth Playing (Wired, h/t Josh) – looks like I have a new way of killing incredible amounts of time. Watch the trailer for the Charles Barkley post-apocalypse epic.

Links, 7/15/11

ashok — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:55:57 +0000

A few of you have asked about the campaign. It’s going well – we have a plan and are implementing it. Money would help enormously. One thing I’ve learned is that what I’m doing with this blog is doubly remarkable: not only is the content unique, but having an audience at the price only of time is rare. Media for a campaign – i.e. mailers – is significant cash. Do visit Rocks for Freeholder and help us get out the word about our latest appeal.

While we can’t get a budget together and so-called adults are willing to default, the Marines in Afghanistan have been badass (h/t Josh), paying with blood for a better world. Read the whole thing. From the article: On Oct. 13, the day 3/5 took control of Sangin, the first Marine patrol to leave the wire came under fire 150 feet from the perimeter. One member of this patrol was shot dead. Within the next four days, another eight Marines died.
Two good reads by Megan McArdle on the debt ceiling. First, what the GOP should do that will benefit them: So how can the GOP get something it wants out of the sodden mess of our debt negotiations? Here’s my answer: pass a short-term debt-ceiling increase. It seems pretty clear to me that there’s no time or common ground for a grand bargain before August 2nd, so pass a short-term increase. Give him nine months. Call his bluff.
Second: if you don’t understand what’s wrong with default yet, it’s everything. Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul and Jim DeMint are dangerous demagogues when they imply that default is harmless or easily avoided. They’re risking the future and destroying the present.
One more: David Weigel finds this nutcase, Rep. Mike Lee of Utah (h/t Kishore). Give me the money and I’ll run against him or find someone good who will. With $3.7 trillion in expenditures – half of which is nothing but Medicare and Social Security, a third going to fight a war described above – and $2.1 trillion in cash, there can be no balanced budget right now without throwing old people on the street or abandoning our Marines. Mike Lee “thinks” differently: “Why is the president willing to push us into a debt-ceiling-induced financial shortfall by virtue of the fact that he’s not willing to convince his party to support a balanced-budget amendment?” asked Lee. “What is so wrong with that request that the president is willing to withhold Social Security payments to current retirees?”
Finally, a really good essay on the pain of divorce and its surprising non-representation in recent popular culture: “The Divorce Delusion,” Heather Havrilesky