Guz's World

Oil, Cars, and Looking Forward

2010-06-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

To those of you who would rather keep going how things have been, just check out this post from the Big Picture. I have been in so many arguments, typically with other conservatives, who say we cannot change, and that being "Green" is bullshit. There is no stopping progress, humanity is doomed, we will run this carriage off the cliff.

Perhaps they are right.

Then again, maybe with enough will, we can do something different than how things have been so far. There are other ways of gathering energy besides using the petrochemicals that we have been mining from the earth thus far. They are highly energy dense and cheap, true, but they always come at a cost. A cost which we are now seeing in full. Yes it will take very expensive infrastructure changes to adopt an electricity only transit system. Yes it will take governement investment for this to happen, and I know that is anti-competitive, and oh gosh not the socialism no no word!

Here's the deal. We have the technology to do this, Tesla recently released its new Model S. It is a luxury level car (think BMW and Mercedes). It can go faster (yes faster) than these similar luxury model cars, it is all electric, and has a range of 300 miles - approximately the same range a tank of gas has. It can charge up in about 30 minutes, and in 5-10 minutes you can swap out the battery pack at a changing station. We just need the stations and people willing to buy these cars. Tesla just recently invested in a new production facility right next to my work. They have plans to produce a car with similar specs, sans luxury in the mid-high $20k range.

I ask you old foggies who are, in the words of Sarah Palin- Pro-Growth, how much is that oil worth to you?

Off Shore Oil Drilling

2010-04-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

Approximately one month and eleven years ago the Exonn-Valdez oil spill was being cleaned up in Alaska. Today on the news I heard that ~5,000 barrels of oil are being released by an underwater leak due to a drilling station exploding about a week ago. All of this amidst a renewed debate about offshore drilling. Yes we need to get some of our own sources of oil, and yes we need to reduce our dependence on Middle Eastern and Russian oil. Agreed. The problem I have is what costs are we willing to pay? Are we willing to wipe out entire ecosystems whenever one of these "incidents" occurs? President Obama just approved more offshore drilling, keeping in line with his campaign promises. OK- I get the idea, I understand the plan, but how about we reduce our dependence on oil, period. Leave out the Foreign part. Really we are in a long term struggle against fossil fuels in general. The longer we put off the inevitable, the more it's going to bite us in the ass later. The less our economy is tied to the inevitably disappearing carbon producing fuels of yore, the more we can grow in a forward direction without the inevitable tether that will be around our feet in the future.

Finally, a rough calculation based on the 5,000 barrels of oil per hour, or ~225,000 gallons/day - this spill will reach the level of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill in approximately 50 days. They expect this to take months to fix and clean up.

Incentivisation

2010-04-14T10:20:00.001-07:00

Recently, I have been thinking about how incentivisation effects systems. Most recently in the news is the Goldman Sachs inquiry going on in Washington. Fabrice Tourre, a prominent GS trader stands up for himself saying that he has done no wrong doing. I happen to think that Fabrice is correct. These guys set themselves up so that they would make more money if the market fails than if the market succeeds. This is legal. Why is everyone so pissed off? Well then they started doing things to ensure that the market would fail. Shiesty? Yes. Illegal, no. It's really just a matter of incentivisation. The system is setup in such a way as to provide benefits for the people who produce the greatest gains in a given period of time. If that period of time is short (typical for any manager/director/CEO) then no one should be surprised when record profits come during on year, and record losses come during the following year, or in this case for everyone else. Why should they care of they put the entire economy at risk? That wasn't part of the contract. The contract said, you make us money, we pay you money. It didn't say, as long as we make money over the 5 years after we pay you this bonus, you can get the bonus. That doesn't make any sense. What does make sense is to make a huge chunk of the bonus pay off over 5 years based on the long term performance of the company. This is good incentivisation.

The exact same thing can be said for doctors. They have been getting paid based upon the amount of work they do. Sounds good right? The issue arises from what we should value from our doctors. Isn't the big end goal for better health? Better health rather than more health, because really how can you have more of health? Not to mention that many procedures (what they are incentivised to perform) often cause more problems than they solve. Imagine someone who needs to have a biopsy. You have to go in cut them open and remove the stuff. If there was nothing wrong to begin with say the cells are abnormal, but just sitting there, now the person has to heal from the surgery, deal with the mental stress of waiting for the death sentence, take of work, lose money, spend money. It really creates some adverse effect. YET, the Dr still makes money from performing the procedure even though his/her patient may be in worse health because of the procedure. This is all because of the incentivisation of the Dr.

Snake Oil Chart

2010-03-23T17:24:00.001-07:00

Check out this chart of "natural" remedies. Worth the gander.

Weird Goober

2010-03-23T16:42:00.001-07:00

Found this very odd goober at work today. I really don't know what it is and didn't have time to investigate. So odd...

Holding Hands

2010-03-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

When did you stop holding your parents hand? I don't mean the every-once-in-a-while-I-love-you kind of hand-holding. I mean the I-need-reassurance-because-I'm-a-kid-crossing-the-street kind of hand-holding. I seem to remember it being before I was ten, but not as far back as six. What happened in those years that makes a kid think, I'm not afraid to walk alone? Do we stop holding our parents hands because it becomes something else? Something you do with a lover more than with your parents. Do you remember the first time you held someone's hand in that way, as something more than security? A hand kiss before the real kiss.

Did you know that if you type "holding hands" into Google, the first link to a Wiki about "How to hold hands." Seriously? We need instruction on this most basic forms of affection? I understand there's some finesse involving in making the move to hold someone's hand, but it is a rather natural motion. Nick told me that if your hand is on top of the hand holding sandwich, you are taking a dominant position, and vise versa on the bottom. Apparently men in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East don't need any instruction as they hold hands with each other. Really goes to show how homophobic our western culture can be sometimes. What else can explain the utter lack of affection and physical contact between us males? It's just unmanly? I doubt it, everyone feels comfort from physical contact. Period.

Here's the reason's people hold hands according to Wikipedia, my favorites are arm wrestling and sky diving.

in various rituals:

handshake
in certain religious services, to pray
in various religious rituals

to express friendship or love

to enjoy physical intimacy (not necessarily of erotic character)

for emotional support

to guide (a child, a blind person, in darkness, etc.)

to urge to follow

to keep together (in a crowd or in darkness)

to help the other walk, stand or climb up

to dance

to arm wrestle

when crossing the street

while sky diving

to rescue in a dangerous situation:

pulling someone to safety

Toyota, The Supreme Court, and the Recession

2010-02-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

There is one tenuous string connecting the recent gas pedal recall, the Supreme Court decision regarding campaign finance, and the entire Recession- it's name is George W. Bush. I know, I know, haven't we blamed him enough? Well until I see his and Cheney's asses dragged before a Grand Jury- No we haven't blamed them enough.

First I'd like to start with a small discussion on what I consider to be the three major pillars of power in the United States; 1. The Government, 2. The Media, 3. Corporations. These three powers keep each other in check as a sort of unwritten checks and balance system that is on a social level (rather than the checks and balances that the Gov't has between the judicial, executive, and legislative branches). Hence the First Amendment stating keep your grubbing fucking hands off the media.

Corporations don't really need that protection because they have their own protective power- MONEY! Hello, Supreme Court, I'm talking to you. What The Fuck (I thought an abbreviation would just dilute) were you thinking? Did you think that that Corporate America was not influencing politics enough? Did you think that somehow we had left them out of the power pie in the last decade? Corporate America almost single handedly erased 20 years of gains by the middle class in a matter of 5-8 years depending on how you want to slice it. Now they can spend any amount of money they want influencing the other two pillars. The Media has already been bought by Corporate America, luckily it is really difficult to run a for profit newspaper these days because of things like blogs and the internet. That all has yet to be flushed out, but I can guarentee that if there is money to be made there, Corporate America will be on the coattails. So anyway, "Screw You little guy, your opinion doesn't count," is what I heard from these five robed ones.

Whew, I feel better. What does this have to do with GW? Well he got the chance to appoint two of those five justices to the court. What a wonderful legacy he is leaving us to deal with for the next 10-20 years. I can only hope that Obama gets to swap out at least one of the conservative judges during his (fingers crossed) eight years in office. It really is going to be the only way we have a chance to balance the court back out to something more reasonable (if this recent act of lunacy is any indicator).

Next, Toyota- lately in the news is this huge recall over gas pedals. Did you know that the agency that oversees transportation saftey The National Traffic Highway Safety Association (NTHSA) didn't have a head for the last eight months while GW was in office. Also, since Obama has been in office we haven't had a head either. The wonderful Republicans have been blocking most of Obama's nominees for other more important offices and so the committees are way behind in approving other less important offices like NTHSA. Basically the NTHSA has gotten behind the ball on looking into reports. They actually did look into the Toyota gas pedal issue a few years ago, but took Toyota's word that it was "operator error" meaning people were pressing the gas instead of the break. Yeah, that was their argument, and the NTHSA accepted it.

The bigger issue here is why they would side with Toyota? Well it is because of the politics of GW Bush. He systematically put people into the various watchdog agencies (EPA, FDA, CPA, etc) who were friendly to business. He made sure that the so called revolving door was in full effect by allowing lobbyists, industry insiders, and former employees of the very businesses they were supposed to be watching run the show. This is all very well documented and explains the various issues that we have seen cropping up regarding lead paint in toys, insane credit card companies raping people, and now cars going on acceleration rampages.

Finally, I'd like to wrap this all up by pointing to the complete and epic failure of government regulators to notice the ridiculous practices going on Wall Street. Many people have been asking why the failure? I have always thought that the answer is relatively simple. The people who were watching were specifically hired to look the other way. They knew shit was going down, but why would they rat out the very people that they were working for in the first place? When you put stupid people in charge, stupid things happen. The bigger issue is when you put a stupid person in charge of the entire country- REALLY stupid things happen.

To Save the Planet

2010-01-26T01:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know why environmentalist and climate scientists even think they can "Save the Planet".

There really isn't anything to save.

It really isn't about "Saving the Planet". It isn't about "Healing Mother Earth" either. Stopping global warming is really about saving our own asses. The whole environmental moment is just as self-serving as dumping loads of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere unchecked. Really it is.

We aren't really trying to be "green" in order to help the planet remain alive, we are trying to keep humanity alive. That's really all that this stuff is about- having a planet that is habitable by humans for generations to come. Besides, the Earth is going to survive anything we humans can do, including global warming, deforestation, and species extinction. You name it, the Earth can survive through it.

I am tired of this misnomer "Save the Planet", and I think it is wrong. It should be "Save Your Ass," or perhaps "Save the Children,", or even better "Save Your Children's Asses". The fact of the matter is, Mother Nature will remove us from the planet, without thought, remorse, and with a swiftness that is frightening. This isn't about her, she can take care of herself.

From Preacher

2010-01-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

I've been reading "The Greatest Graphic Novel Ever" called Preacher by Garth Ennis.

Here is a gem I found today, seems fitting considering the times:

"The Myth of America: That simple, honest men, born of her Great Plains and woods and skies have made a nation of her, and will prove worthy of her when the time is right...

Under a harsh light it is false. But a good myth to live up to, all the same."

An Arguement for Taxing the Wealthy

2009-12-23T10:38:00.000-08:00

I was recently sent a mass email (I will paste the email into the comments) from a family member which outlined the plight of the small business owner. Basically, when you own a company and it makes a profit at the end of the year, this is what you have to put on your tax return. So, when one considers Obama's screw all the people who make over $250,000 shtick, one cannot help worry about the group that is responsible for something like 80% of all employment (I'm not sure about this number and didn't feel like looking it up, feel free to do so, it might be even higher). Personally, I think it would be dumb to do anything to hinder job growth right now. The email that I am referring to was told from the perspective of the president of a company who made $530,000 in profit from the company. He argued that with that $530,000 he has to re-invest in the company so it can grow, and that how can he do that when he is getting taxed so strongly. With these things in mind, I present An Argument for Taxing the Wealthy (including small business owners to make over $250,000).

1. While it is true that the profit of a small business gets recorded as income for the business owner, I'd like to point out that the taxable income (net) is after business expenses which includes re-investing in the company. So using the above example, if this guy were to invest $284,000 back into his company then his net would be $250,000- and he'd be under the threshold. And by the way, if someone were to net out more than $250,000 from their company- well then I'd argue that they do deserve to pay that extra 5%, as you will see below.

2. Furthermore, a small business is an asset, just like a home or a car is an asset. When you re-invest into an asset, you typically increase the value of the asset in the process. I mean what kind of a moron would invest money in their company without the hope of it increasing the revenue/profit/value of the company by doing so. So, the boo-hoo I have to re-invest into my own company line is bullshit, you are investing in an asset you posses just like you invest in your 401k, or your house- the hope is that you will be able to sell it later and cash out the money you put into it. Now granted, a small business is a LOT risker than a 401k, savings, or a home- but hey that's the perils of a small business owner.

3. People should pay in proportion to the services they use, right? If I use more electricity, I should pay more. If I drive a truck on the government funded highways, and I profit from these taxpayer funded roads, then I should pay more to help keep them up and running. This is also true for the wealthy. By definition, if you are wealthy then society has benefited you. Granted, you may have worked hard for you money, but regardless, the social system that we live in and is how it is structured has lead to you being able to accrue wealth in one form or another. If we had a chaotic society, or an anarchical society, then odds are, you wouldn't be doing as well, or benefiting so much (freedom of economy is typically the first thing to go in a totalitarian or fascist regime).

This disproportionate benefital relationship between the haves and the have nots rationally leads to the conclusion that the haves should pay a bit more to keep society functioning, so that their business will continue functioning, so that they will be able to continue with their way of life. It is actually a selfish view that I am taking here, even though the results are unselfish. Makes sense to me...

4. This guy is basically a proponent of the trickle down economic theory adopted by Regan in the 80s. All that I have to say is that after 20 years of growth, this latest downturn has reduced us to pre-1982 levels and erased all of the supposed gains that trickle down economics (which reigned over those 20 years) produced. This may be surprising, but trickle down economics do not work. It has been proven to not work over these past 20 years, over the past 8 years, the average income of Americans has fallen by approximately 5%. Meanwhile, the top 1% wealthiest managed to accumulate 99% of the wealth in the country, a first in the history of the US. Never before in the history of our country has so much wealth been accumulated into such a small percentage of people.

Really though, is it surprising that trickle down economics does not translate into wealth for the middle class? I mean basically what you are saying is, Once you are rich, you stop being greedy. That really is the fundamental tenet of trickle down economics. Being as skeptical as most conservative economist who believe this, you would think that they wouldn't believe so strongly in the philanthropic soul of the rich. They got rich by being cut throat and saving every dollar they can (which I have no problem with), but why would you expect that to change if you just give them more?

5. $250,000 for your net income is over 500% of what the average American makes. That's five times (5x) more than the average American makes. I mean if you make that much more than the average person, shouldn't you foot a greater percentage of the bill? I make more than my girlfriend does (right now) so I pay proportionately more rent and bills and stuff. I consider this just and fair, why wouldn't this same principle apply to the wealthy?

The Universal Villian

2009-12-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Here is an article on a blog that Liz likes called Jezebel about this ad from Dockers.

I thought the article was rather funny, especially the sarcastic remark to Dockers. I mean seriously, do you really think that wearing a pair of Dockers will make you manly? Thinking that manliness is somehow a function of what you look like on the outside is a serious misrepresentation of all that is man. But, I may ask what is manly?

From what I can tell from Jezebel and other female writers, it is something dark and evil. Manliness seems to wreak of patriarchy and misogyny according to these writers. Personally, I really don't see how opening a door for a person (note not woman) is somehow degrading. You don't open the door because you think the person is weak, you do it to be polite. A little bit of social grace in an otherwise rude world.

The bigger question I have right now, at this instant in time, what is equal? I mean that's what we are all striving for with the whole gender/minority inequity thing right? We are trying to make things equal and fair. Well what does that look like?

Is it that women need to be in overarching power, the kind of power that men have had for eons? Control of all systems of society from the economy, education, and government for a long period of time to balance out the past wrongdoers?

Or is equity when we have it 50/50? Equal numbers of female CEOs and judges and senators and a female president from time to time? Split nicely down the middle across the board, everywhere? In this case men have to lose some pay, and women need to gain some. Men need to give up many many seats in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of government. BUT, we would need some quotas for men's admission to universities and some balancing of the workforce for men as well. Sounds kinda wacky right?

Or could it be that maybe men are ahead in certain regions, and women are ahead in certain regions? How large of inequities in a given region are acceptable? To me this seems to be the inevitability. There is no way that we will ever have a statistically perfect 50/50 split of power between men, women, minorities, you name it. It will always ebb and flow.

Now I'm NOT suggesting that things are anywhere near equal right now. Women need to be paid the same as men, and need to have a hell of a lot more positions of power in business, education, and the government. Period. The thing that I am questioning, is when is enough enough?

Furthermore, when can men stop being punished for being men?

When can we be released from the role of Universal Villian?

Update: After I wrote this, I went to lunch and read this section of my favorite graphic novel, Preacher. Just too fitting to not add it to the end.

Down with the Trolls

2009-12-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

Looks like shit hit the fan tonight with the Trolls. There were four or so cop cars sirens blasting chasing down people streaming from the undersides of the bridges. I could hear on the nearby cop radio people yelling and excited voices. So often do cops remind me of teenagers jacked up on adrenaline. None-the-less, I am glad that the police officers were there as there was a female victim of violence, and boy did they act fast. The witness to the crime was a tall scruffy looking man who was walking in orange crocs.

As soon as the first cop called it in, BAM, there was at least four cops patrolling (trolling ha) the local neighborhood. The firefighters showed up and started treating the girl who was directly across the street. She seemed shook up, but otherwise in good form. The interesting part is that every five to ten minutes another cop car zooms by at top speed, lights, sirens, the works.

As the incident wears down, the police take their statements from the witness. The SFFD ambulance takes the victim away to the local somewhere, and the street quiets back to it's normal grumble.

The Mark of the Beast

2009-11-11T10:29:00.000-08:00

Today at work, I was chatting with one of my coworkers about her cat's new found outdoor adventuring. I suggested that she get her cat microchipped, in case she gets lost especially w/o a collar and tags, the pound will know who to call. She quickly shook her head in a peculiar way and said quitely, "I don't believe in that." Immediately, I said, "Why?" Her response- "It's against my religion."

Woah, wait a second, backup here. The last time I heard this mumbo-jumbo was back when I was living in Michigan, and thought it was shit back then. First of all, we are talking about cats and dogs, and cows here, not people. Though some nutter parents are considering microchipping their kids, creepy if you ask me (control freak much?) How does this all relate to religion? Well those microchips are the mark of the beast. Yup you got it, the Devil works through silicon! Who knew...?

Here's the two relevant passages, forgive me for using two different Bible versions, but since it's all the word of God, I suppose it doesn't matter of they were edited by King James or not.

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

-Rev. 13:17-18 (KJB)

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

– Rev. 13:16-17 (NIV)

Left hand everyone, that's the key. You can do whatever you want to your left hand, bar code it, microchip it, tatoo 666 all over it, and it doesn't matter. Right hand only, oh and watch the forehead too...these passages just go to show how bonkers this whole line of reasoning really is. Now it may be that this whole thing is metaphorical, as religion really should be received. Perhaps it is some kind of a spiritual marking that it is referring to, and the whole forehead/righthand/lefthand thing is just some made up bullshit passed on over the years.

Furthermore, the kind of nutters that believe this crap are the same nutters who think that kitties have no soul, and are simply beasts put on earth for us humans. In that case, she should feel free to microchip her kitty anyway, who cares if it is a minion of the devil?

A Nice Chart

2009-11-05T11:34:00.000-08:00

Via Boing Boing via International Federation of Health Plans.

Time- Human Invention, or Part of Reality?

2009-10-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

I was listening to another perspective on KQED today. A rather artsy hippy type talking about time, and specifically how it is a human construct built upon an agreement of the concept of time. This lead me to wondering, is time a purely human construct?

This wouldn't be too suprising, as so many things are human constructs (in my humble opinion). For example, color distinction (there's really a spectrum, discrete colors are human), God and religion, money and economy (sorta- interesting work has been done on primates, but hey they are like our retarded cousins), and fashion. Some of these things extend into the animal world, but typically they don't go very far (like I've never seen a croc with a hat, or banana slug accounting). Even our political system is a hierarchy that extends from the same alpha/beta/gamma/delta system you see in social species like the great apes troops, prides of lions, etc- but clearly the political construct is a reflection of our humanity.

So, why not time?

In some ways I agree with the lady. Take the international date line. Is it really a different day on one side of the line vs the other? No. Obviously you can't have half of your body in one time/space point, and the other half one day later but same time/space point...it just doesn't make sense. That line is a human construct that helps to mesh the human perspective (living on a rotating sphere with a big bright sun in the center of our solar system) with the very non-human ticking of the atoms that make us up. Hell, I'd go so far as to say that the second is a purely human construct. Think about it, a second is 1/3600th of an hour, and an hour is 1/24 of a day, and a day is 1/365th of a revolution around our sun...OUR SUN. That's the human bit. A space invader from alpha-centuri isn't going to know what the hell a second is, they'll know what a falkinboo is- that's 1/4598th of a bookinva, which is 1/45 of a revolution around alpha-centuri. Or it's how many times their baby farts in an hour, whatever. The point is that clearly there are some things wrt time that really are human.

But that about time?

Personally, as a scientist, I think that time is one of the few things that is not simply human. We have a time t=0 - um the Big Bang; and we have an absolute metronome- the cesium atom. There was a gun that started the race 13.7 billion years ago, and every time an electron zips around a cesium atom, there is a steady ticking to count off the time between the bang of the gun and where we are now. This is pretty much all that you need to account for time.

It all gets screwed when you throw in the beautiful wrench that is Relativity. Basically time is not constant and depends on the frame of reference. If the frame of reference is moving or is in a gravitational field (eg Earth/Sun), then atomic clocks will tick differently. This has been proven with GPS satellites. They cruise around in an orbit around the Earth, in a smaller gravitational field than we do down here on Earth's surface, and their on board clocks slowly go out of sync with the ones on Earth. Now consider the Big Bang itself. Imagine the crazy gravity fields and energies and velocities and crazy shit that must have happened in those first few thousand ticks. Who knows what time was doing in those quantum moments.

Perhaps 13.7 billion years isn't so black and white. Perhaps that atomic clock isn't so tick-tock.

More Women Employed Than Men

2009-10-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

In the next year or so women's employment numbers should surpass men's for the first time in US history.

That's big news.

On KQED they have a program called "Perspectives". It showcases different essays from people in the Bay Area. Yesterday, they had a labor guy on called Dick Meister who commented on some new statistics to come out of the Recession. Here's an article he wrote and some quotes from it.

"The number of women workers has been growing steadily for decades, but the number has boomed during the recession. That's partly because the greatest job losses have been in male-dominated fields such as construction and manufacturing. Men have lost more than three million jobs in those areas alone since the recession began in late 2007. Three-quarters of all jobs lost - a total of 4.75 million - were held by men. Women lost three million fewer jobs."

This translates into the fact that women have or are about to become the dominate gender in the workforce. One sad part is that some of this is due to the fact that women make less, and so were hired in greater numbers during the recession. That still needs to change because the quality of your work doesn't really depend on having a vagina or a penis (unless you are talking about certain heavy lifting jobs like fireman- I mean watch Rescue Me for a couple of seasons if you really want to debate this subject, in which case an over abundance of testosterone is an asset). Here is how Dick Meister put it.

"The figures are downright spectacular. Local governments, for instance, have laid off 86,000 men during the recession, but they have hired 167,000 women. That's largely because women generally are paid less than men and are hired mainly for office jobs, which typically are better funded than other government positions."

I am encouraged and frightened by all of this, which I think anyone in the position of "majority" going to "minority" might feel. I am encouraged to see that minorities status groups are capable of gaining equality. I suppose surprised wouldn't be the right word, as I've been mentioning the higher graduation rates of women for a few years now, but I am excited to see what will happen. I am frightened by what they may decide to do with that majority. So often in history the oppressed become the oppressors, and I just hope that this time will history will not repeat itself. Personally, I don't see how women could possibly fuck things up as bad as their male counterparts. Not to mention that most (if not all) matriarchal societies that I have read about are much more peaceful and prosperous than many patriarchal societies. I figure we've had our chance, time to move over and see what the ladies can do.

So I for one welcome our new overlords, and hope they are kind to their new minions.

Sorry for the recent drought. I've got a couple things on deck, but work has been busy, and these blogs get wearing. Photoblog is still going!

Michael Pollan's Take on The Healthcare Debate

2009-09-10T14:26:00.000-07:00

Read this from NYTimes contributor, Michael Pollan.

We have known about the link between diet and health for such a long time, it amazes me that nothing is being done to address this side of the puzzle. Even with a perfect healthcare system, can we really hope to expect to take care of every fat ass? At least the cost of healthcare is an incentive against unhealthy life choices, all be it a poor incentive. Can we really hope to keep people healthy if they get out of bed, eat breakfast, get in a car, go to work, sit in their office chair, get in their car, sit and eat lunch, get in their car, sit in the office, get in the car, go home, eat dinner while watching TV, and goes to bed- oh wait, was that a question?

"But so far, food system reform has not figured in the national conversation about health care reform. And so the government is poised to go on encouraging America’s fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet. To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup."

Personally, I don't see how it is possible to attack one issue (the system and its problems) while not addressing the lifestyle issues as well. We as a culture are over fed, over worked, under rested, and we exercise far too little. Add on to this the issues that Pollan has consistently raised regarding farm subsidization and the Big Agro which runs our sad food supply.

What really strikes me as depressing is how you immediately see the same logical chain as any other societal problem, only inversed. Normally, you have a group that has its corporate model tied to a piece of legislation that will typically harm the industry by creating restrictions on a part of their corporate model. They lobby the government by lining the coffers of the government officials in charge of making these decisions. This derails the legislation, and voila nothing is accomplished.

Trying to take a notch out of Big Agro means government deregulation of their industry. This means taking out legislation in order to remove the restrictions on the industry. These incentives are things like farm subsides encouraging the growth of #2 Monsanto Corn. Here we are back at the corporate/government interface; Monsanto and Cargil lobby the department of agriculture and the Congressional committee that is responsible for the Farm Bill each year, and voila you get no changes in policy.

The light that Pollan sees at the end of the tunnel is something like this; we have the insurance companies fight the agro companies because when the insurance companies cannot just boot out chronic illness like type 2 diabetes anymore, then they have to deal with the root of the problem- the food system:

"But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change."

New Favorite Camera - What I've been doing

2009-09-04T09:37:00.000-07:00

Is actually a microscope, and it doesn't use light but uses electrons.

This is a sample of CIGS (CdInGaSe) which is the newish cheap way to make solar cells.

This is an attached x-ray spectrometer which looks at the energies of the x-rays that spew off of the sample b/c of the electrons that are bombarding it. It can be used to determine what materials are being looked at because each element gives off a special spectrum which is like a fingerprint of that element.

Here is what is inside an LED. There is a gold (Au) ball bond (it's squished) on the top colored in yellow. Red is gallium (Ga), and blue is arscenide (As) which is what makes up the material that actually shines light and you can see there is a bunch of Ga at the top, and a mixture (purple) towards the bottom. The teal is silver (Ag) that electrically and thermally connects the whole thing to the lead at the bottom in red which is made of iron (Fe).

Kinda awesome!

Chillin on Top of the Hyatt

2009-08-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Liz and I met up with Brian and Anne for some pre-movie drinks on top of the Hyatt. I just liked this picture of Brian with the face shirt behind him too much to not post it. We all enjoyed a bottle of the bubblies, and went to our respective shows. They saw District 9 and gave it a positive review, and Liz and I saw the new Miyazaki movie "Ponyo" which was barfingly adorable, and a great little kid movie on par with My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and The Cat Returns. I highly suggest you go see it, especially if you need a little moral pick-me-up.

The Only Healthcare Debate - The Numbers

2009-08-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

I think this debate can be had by simply looking at the numbers. People keep referring to these "other" nationalized health care systems like Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and France as examples. Typically the right will demonize them as socialist-commie-bastards who give their elderly cyanide tablets and shoot their cancer patients with a $0.99 bullet. As a person who actually knows the numerical facts, this has really been getting on my nerves, especially since the left are too wimpy to actually stand up and defend these national health care systems. I thought it was about time to see just how "bad" Canada, et al are actually faring. I highly recommend you read this Krugman editorial from NYTimes on the debate.

Firstly, I will be looking at the United States, Canada, the UK, France, and Switzerland.

How much does each of these countries pay in health care per year?

United States of America - 15.3% of GDP (#2 of all countries), $7,439 per capita (2007), 27.8% of the population covered by gov't but pays ~44.7% of the total cost due to the uninsured, medicare, and medicaid, 15.3% of pop uninsured (2007)

Switzerland-11.6% of GDP, $4,629 per capita (2008 est), 25% funded by gov't, 0.5% uninsured

Canada- 10.6% of GDP, $5,170 per capita (2008), 71% funded by gov't, 0% uninsured

United Kingdom- 9.4% GDP (2006), $2,560 per capita (2007), too much work for the rest of the statistics, UK is broken down by providence so it was difficult to get straight answers

France - 11.2% of GDP, $3,926 per capita (2005), 77% funded by government, 0% uninsured

(from Wikipedia, and various sources in the interwebs)

Now lets ask about the quality of care. I mean if we are paying the most, and since all those other countries are shooting their old and sick, then we should have the best health right?

The two major indicators of health of a population are infant mortality rates and life expectancy, as the very young and very old are the most helped/hindered by good/bad health care systems.

Life Expectancy (from Wolfram Alpha):

1 Canada | 81.23

2 France | 80.98

3 Switzerland | 80.85

4 United Kingdom | 79.01

5 United States | 78.11 (in years)

Infant Mortality rate (under 5yrs old deaths/1000 people- Wolfram Alpha 2009):

1 | France | 3.33

2 | Switzerland | 4.18

3 | United Kingdom | 4.85

4 | Canada | 5.04

5 | United States | 6.26

So, now, I have to ask, what do you think of the people who vilify all of these country's health care systems? What is the debate? There is no debate! We spend the most, and get the least- this means that something has to change. Personally, I think we should look to Canada and Switzerland as role models because they still have private healthcare. I know that this sounds like a lie, but it is true, look it up, health care insurance is provided by private enterprises in those two countries. The only difference between theirs and ours is that tax payers pick up a portion of it, and well, their health care system actually works, based upon the numbers.

Tennessee Valley Hike

2009-08-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is a really nice loop hike just north of SF in the Marin Headlands called Tennessee Valley. The loop (not complete in picture) is approximately 7 miles in total, with a 1000ft elevation gain/loss. We went with Becca, Bri, Dave, and their little bro Andrew (Drew).

Round My House

2009-08-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't really been able to get any great pictures of the areas directly around my house, until now. This new wide-angle has really opened up the city-scape for me, and I thought I'd break it in by walking around my neighborhood at dusk. This is the typical time that Liz and I go for a walk to the corner market, LaLoma Market #13. It is on the far right of the picture at the top. We also hung out on the Richland Bridge for 10 minutes or so watching the traffic and trains go below.

Nihilism, Agnosticism, Angels, and Belief

2009-08-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

I thought it was about time to revisit my discussions on various points of view. This time I would like to discuss belief. What do you believe in? This is a very important question, one which sheds a floodlight on who you are as a person. This question can be applied to small things like, do you think (believe) that it will rain today? It can be applied to the big things like, do you believe that the universe started in a massive outward explosion of particles? Or everything in between, do you believe girls fart (yes I do), or do you believe that people should be put to death by the state (no I don't), do you believe that there are guardian angels?

Turns out that approximately 55% of Americans DO in fact believe that they have their very own personal guardian angel watching over them and protecting them (according to this Washington Times article from almost 1 year ago):

"Half of all Americans believe they are protected by guardian angels, one-fifth say they've heard God speak to them, one-quarter say they have witnessed miraculous healings, 16 percent say they've received one and 8 percent say they pray in tongues, according to a survey released Thursday by Baylor University."

Now, that's fine with me, sure a little on this side of delusional, but hey, to each their own. I've said this before, but I happen to be agnostic. This basically means that I think the verdict is still out on the whole God thing (which, in my book includes angels at the very least). The question that I'd like to pose is, does that mean that I believe in something? I mean who's verdict am I waiting for while sitting on the fence? Is it the scientists? If that's the case then I believe and have faith in science, logic, and reasoning (I'm cool with that). Or am I waiting for God to show me a sign of her existence, in which case I will believe fully in that God? If that's the case then I believe and have faith in God (something that is not independently verifiable- which leads to existentialism- something I'm not so cool with). Or do I not believe in anything and am just sitting on the fence for the shits and giggles...

That leads me to Nihilism which according to Wikipedia:

Nihilism (from the Latin nihil, nothing) is the philosophical doctrine suggesting that values do not exist but rather are falsely invented. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism which argues that life^[1] is without meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. Moral nihilists assert that morality does not exist, and subsequently there are no moral values with which to uphold a rule or to logically prefer one action over another.

How is this position possible? To me it seems like circular logic, I don't believe in anything except for a firm belief in nothing. I mean think about it, how can you believe in nothing (We believe in nothing Lebowski!) when the statement of the belief in the absence of belief is belief itself. Not to mention the conundrum of the fact that there seem to be some absolute moral truths; don't rape children, don't murder if possible, genocide is bad, hugs are good, sex is good, sure I'm leaving a bunch out but those are some moral truths that I certainly believe in right now. To believe that morality does not exist on some level just seems to be naive and hopeless. Maybe I just don't want to live in the same lonely dark filled world that nihilists and existentialists believe in living. I really don't think that what I believe or what anyone believes is just as good as any other view point. There are somethings that we can all agree upon and that is where we can start, on what we all can agree to be true.

In the Belly of the Beast

2009-07-30T10:35:00.000-07:00

I have now been working at my new job for about one month now and my first impressions are along the lines of, Whoa...

This company is much larger than my previous employer and I am finding the sheer scale of operations to be a bit daunting. I now realize that previously I was performing the tasks of people who fill 5 or 6 (more like 10ish) positions at this new place. I now can focus more directly on my own role in the lab, rather than on keeping track of all the different responsibilities I had before. This has its pros and cons. I am able to get more done and in a faster fashion, but at the same time, I'm not juggling as many balls, which had it's own invigorating merits. I have to say that I am lucky for my previous multi-faceted work experience because it gave me a good overview of how a company is run internally through many different departments and will be a huge asset moving forward. Not to mention that now I am mainly dealing with ICs (integrated circuits), where as before I was dealing with everything high tech, across all sectors and fields. This too will really allow me to remain broad within the narrow field of Failure Analysis (though not too narrow to be fair).

My second major revealation comes from how I as an individual am being treated here- like a Grownup of all things! I mean I know that 28 is still rather young, but not having to take competancy tests, not needing to fill out a time card, and having my opinions honestly considered really makes me feel like a professional adult. I guess what it really boils down to is trust. I am being trusted to be intelligent and not waste time. Before, I was being trusted to not screw up the lab while my boss was out, but not trusted to be intelligent and not waste time. I always found that juxtaposition to be rather daunting.

Finally, THE DRAMA! It is amazing how the amount of drama goes like the number of people cubed, well, acutally I think it's more like n! b/c it probably scales with the number of relationships that are possible and I think that is n! in math terms. You go from 24 possible relationships with 4 people (ie groupings of people who can talk and generate drama) up to 120 possible relationships when there are 5 people involved. I am working with approximately 6 people who directly affect my life which is approximately 360 possible relationships, mmm drama. There isn't even that much drama, just a few conflicts of personality (by others around me, but not actually me btw, I love everyone!) that affect my life, but it is still very stark in comparision to zero drama (well, near zero drama).

Anywho, I just thought I'd share some of my first impressions on going from a small company to a medium company. It has been an interesting experience and I am still learning loads everyday about business, failure analysis, engineering, and myself. (The above image is an x-ray image of the cross-sectional view of a wire bonding to a lead.)

What Does Jesse DO?

2009-07-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

People ask me what do you do? It's often a hard question because there is so much to this industry, that when I say, well I work in high tech, it doesn't quite capture it. It's really more like, I try to figure out whether/why a high tech thing is breaking, broken, or otherwise messed up in various ways. There is a number of techniques that can be used. At my lab we can use optical microscopy, x-ray transmission microscopy, and acoustic microscopy to look at something without messing with it. However, to get a more complete picture of what's going on, you have to mess with it. This is done by removing parts to directly inspect what is left with things like an optical microscope, or a scanning electron microscope (which will be coming soon). Basically I'm making pretty pictures, so I thought I'd show some of them to illustrate what it is that I do.

These are all optical images:

This is a typical BGA (Ball Grid Array) package. From the top down you have the copper heat sink, followed mold compound (plasticy stuff) with filler particles (SiO2 particles), and that's followed by the brains of the operation- the leads connecting to the silicon die. The bottom of the die is attached to the ground though the "die attach" which also dissipates heat.

Here is a closer view of the leads, silicon die, die attach, and the via (metal filled with plastic) that grounds the die. However, in this image you can see that there is a "void" in the plastic filling the via.

This is what's called a "dark field" image. Basically instead of looking at the direct reflections of the light, which makes all of the metal bits very bright, this looks at the sides of the beam rather than the center of the beam. Here you can really see that void.

This is the higher magnifications of the leads connecting to the active side of the silicon die. If you look close you can see the transistors and the pad that the lead frame.

Here you can see the individual transistors (or whatever it may be) which here which look to be about 5um thick. There is an empty pad, or something, off to the far left. You can see the boxed in area on the right is something like 20 um2, and is the pad has now become an intermetalic mixture or alloy.

Trolls Live Under the Bridges

2009-07-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

This is our bridge, the Richland Ave bridge over San Jose Ave (which becomes Guerrero St a few hundred yards up). It is a nice bridge and I think it looks cool. However, there is more here than the eye can see. Notice the area between the hillside and the bridge abutment? Trolls live there. I'm serious. Real-life honest-to-goodness, trolls.

Here is a slightly better shot of the space to which I am referring. They don't exactly extract a toll from crossers, but there is an unusually high rate of car vandalisation and break-ins on the bridge. I had both of my locks messed with, the driver's side no longer works ($200 to fix), you often see broken windows and glass in the parking areas, and even Liz's old school 1984 Accord was broken into (they didn't get anything but left the door open and the battery went dead).

One hole in the fence means a troll infestation on the order of dozens. Liz has counted between 10 and 20 people going in and out of this space under the bridge during a typical day. During the nights you can hear them yell and shout and scream, sometimes they will throw glass bottles down into the abutment for 5 or 10 minutes creating quite a racket. The sounds that echo up from these spaces makes me think of how it will sound when civilization comes apart at the seams. But who knows...

What do they do under here? Drugs? Sex? A little of both? You can see in this picture that they have made a bit of a nest under there for themselves. The other day we saw a perfectly normal looking red head skulking around our Troll hole. What did she need? She kept darting up and down from below. Was she waiting for her dealer, her hookup, a hookup, to hookup, or what?

Are they just poor sad homeless people who need some shelter from the wind and fog? I have spoken to a couple of them, typical immigrants from Mexico or Central America, down on their luck. I truly feel for these poor folks, but that doesn't change the facts, they are our very own, modern day- Trolls.

Ray's First Show

2009-07-11T18:18:00.000-07:00

Great job Ray!

The Desolation Crew

2009-07-08T19:07:00.001-07:00

Brian in true form.

Liz soaking up the last rays.

Anne reading on a split rock.

Desolation Wilderness

2009-07-05T22:02:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went away with Liz, Brian and Anne to do some backpacking in Desolation Wilderness. This was my second time going, but it was just as beautiful as I remember. Here's what the hike looked/felt like. I will be posting some pictures later.

Another Photo Published

2009-06-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

Today I got a nice little treat, one of my pictures made it on the SFist blog seen here. Always nice to be appreciated by others. Sorry I haven't been posting as often here, but I've been busy with life!

New Job!

2009-06-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

I have managed to secure a new job at a new company with new pay and new skills to learn. I am sad to leave my co-workers, as I've always enjoyed their company. I've enjoyed working with all of them and will miss the laughs. However, I am very excited about this new prospect as my previous job didn't seem to have much in the way of a future if I stuck with it for too long, especially as I have said before, at the pay scale they were offering. The problem can be explained by the following:

When I was interviewing with one of the higher ups he said something very interesting to me, there are two teirs in any industry; Technician and Technologist. You want to be the Technologist. I was worried that I would get stuck at Technician. The problem is that there is a barrier between the Technicians and the Technologist. For starters, there must always be more Technicians than Technologists. This means that the Technicans must be paid much less than the Technologists or else the business model won't work. Also, you can only move up through when a Technologist leaves their position. Now, I don't know if you noticed, but the stock market crashed, which means that people's retirement investments crashed, which means they are going to be working for longer than ever before as they need to make up the difference. This coupled with the fact that people are living longer and healthier lives means upward mobility for the rest of us is squashed, not to mention that older people tend to say, "Well that's how we've always done it." I would say I am now at the upper reaches of the Technican status, but I am that much closer to breaking through the veil.

The great thing is that I accomplished my two goals with this company. I wanted to get into the high tech world and get a feel for the industry and key players, and I wanted to develop my network of people to help me find a new job. I can honestly say that these goals were accomplished. This allows me to walk away with my head held high.

Penelope Trunk - Brazen Careerist Blog

2009-06-04T10:53:00.000-07:00

Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist Blog is one of the best to which I am currently subscribing. She is insightful and willing to take on the uncomfortable issues like how much oral sex different demographics receive, and today she's pointing her finger at overpaid doctors.

I also found these two articles (End of the Glass Ceiling, Forget a Wage Gap) discussing gender equality to be very enlightening. These in conjunction with this article about the Gender Gaps that still exist. She has a very interesting take on how to view the problem, rather than starting with the assumption that there even is a problem. I don't know that I 100% agree with her, but I am happy that someone (especially an intelligent lady) is discussing our assumptions about the issue, and questioning what the true definition of equality really means. Do you really want to have the same life as men have had? As I posted before, it doesn't mean happiness.

Finally, I wanted to link to her discussion of how to politely wiggle around the interview question, "How much do you want to be paid?" I made two (among many) rookie mistakes when getting my current job, I answered this question, and I didn't come back with a counter offer. When you are out there looking for you next employment, always make sure that they give you the number first, and that you always come back with a counter. The first is important because you can only undercut your value by giving them a number (because if you are high, then you might not get the job, and if you are low then you are selling yourself short). The second is important because what's the worst they can say to a counter offer? No. I just know that some of you are/will be looking for jobs, and I HIGHLY recommend that you read this post before you go into the interview.

Thank you Penelope for an excellent blog, I will be reading avidly.

Mom is a Graduate

2009-06-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, my Mom at age 55, became a college graduate, the first in her family. I am very proud of her achievement, and know how hard it was for her on many levels. She graduated valedictorian with a 3.96 GPA from Marygrove College in Detroit with a BSW (Bachelors in Social Work). I would like to take a minute to reflect on some of the hurdles that my Mom had to overcome to arrive a such a wonderful achievement this spring.

She grew up in Auburn Hills Michigan in the farm country which was in the process of developing into the suburbs of Detroit. Fairly classic white flight region, she was the daughter of a WWII vet who came home to work for a construction firm doing bids and various other tasks. The family had its problems with the typically rambunctious kids getting the attention while my Mom just tried to keep her head down and stay out of trouble. She was the classic "good one" and manged to keep her nose out of drugs, sex, and all the other things that can so easily de-rail the teenager life.

The problem was with society. You have this obviously intelligent girl who has a bright future, but no one to tell her that she could and should achieve the stars. In fact my Mom has told me a story about her high school guidance councillor, whom we all know can be rather hit or miss. My Mom wanted to become a teacher when she was in high school, and said as much to her councillor. The councillor (among others) basically told her, why? All you need to do is marry a rich man and you will be all set. Look out for that diamond ring, pop out a baby and go from there. It is so sad to think about how different my Mom's (and my own) life would be if that person had said something encouraging. I probably wouldn't even be alive...

My Mom has always harped on getting a proper education. I can't tell you how many young girls my Mom grilled about getting into college and getting some kind of a degree. I think that she always felt partially powerless about her employment situation, and didn't want other girls to go through the same trials and tribulations. I can remember time and again when girl-friends would come over to my place, they would always get an ear full from my Mom about graduating from high school and going on to college. She always painted it as a non-option, rather, something that you JUST DO!

Now, after a marriage, having two kids, losing one of them tragically to a drowning, a divorce, raising her niece through the trials of puberty, a re-marriage, getting her son through college, some financial distress, and the pressure of being an older student- she has done it! She has put her money where her mouth is and snagged that degree from the sky.

I am so proud of her, I can hardly stand it. Here is to you Mom, I hope this boosts you to a profession that you have always wanted- to be a teacher.

She has been accepted at the University of Michigan School of Social Work for the 2010 Class. UofM has a great program (ranked 2nd according to this site). She's been pretty snarky about it being "HER" school, but I'd just like to point out who went first! =P take that mom!

The Traps Are Set - We Told You So!

2009-05-29T11:28:00.000-07:00

I was listening to Tom Ashbrook's Week in the News from last week and the guests were talking about the recent face-off between President Obama and former Vice President Dick "Dark Side" Cheney. One commenter pointed out that the Republicans, specifically Dick, have set up a very interesting trap for President Obama. They are claiming that by ending the torture of the detainees at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, Obama and the Dems are risking the lives of American citizens by increasing the probability of another terrorist attack. This way, in the event that we get attacked, they can point their fingers and say, "HAHAHAAaa we told you so!"

The other interesting part of the Republicans defense of their tactics and methods for "Making America Safe" is that we were never attacked again after 911. I have never found this to be a compelling argument because they are using a non-event as proof, which is simply ridiculous child logic. Let's see what else I can come up with using this same logic. How about, I've smoked every day, and I haven't died yet, so clearly cigarettes aren't lethal. Or what about, I've had unprotected sex my whole life and I haven't gotten an STD, clearly STDs are something made up by the media. Try on this one, we've been burning fossil fuels for hundreds of years with no consequences, clearly this does nothing to the environm-oh wait.

Finally, I'd like to point out that Dick is putting himself on the same side of the fence as the terrorists by making this argument. He is setting Obama up for a fall in hopes that something horrible like another attack will occur so that he can point his finger and say, Told ya so!

I'd like to point to Ann Coulter's book Treason: Liberal Treachery from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism and ask her, who are the treasonous ones now? Personally, all I see is a bunch of hardcore right wingers rooting for the bad guys to come and blow us all up so that they can dance around the flames singing, We told you, we told you, we told you, hahahaa! (The image is from the Ghostbusters movie.)

The Rise of Women and Fall of Their Happiness

2009-05-26T16:06:00.000-07:00

Many of you have heard me talk about this, here is an article describing an interesting statistic. According to some polls women's reported happiness has fallen over the last 30 years despite rising rates of salary, education, graduation, employment out of the home, etc. On the flip side, over the same period, men have grown happier. What gives? Any theories?

More on Pessimism and Optimisim

2009-05-26T13:03:00.000-07:00

From this Smarterware blog which is talking about this Atlantic article. Appearantly there is a Harvard medical study that has been going on since the 1930s tracking some male graduates through their entire life with yearly psychological evaluations. The goal of the study is to gain a better understanding of what makes us happy, sad, fufilled, etc. Turns out that optimism and good squishy things like kindness, understanding, empathy and all that fuzzy good stuff is the best for long term happiness, but suprisingly pessimism and negative emotions like anger, fear, and all those dark melancholic things are good for the short term. In the words of the lead researcher,

"Positive emotions make us more vulnerable than negative ones. One reason is that they’re future-oriented. Fear and sadness have immediate payoffs—protecting us from attack or attracting resources at times of distress. Gratitude and joy, over time, will yield better health and deeper connections—but in the short term actually put us at risk. That’s because, while negative emotions tend to be insulating, positive emotions expose us to the common elements of rejection and heartbreak."

Clearly this connect to the previous post, and I think even more interestingly, to Matt's comment about the direction of time with reguard to the cynical and skeptical viewpoints. How does the past influcence your view of the future?

BBC: Your Pictures- Tiny

2009-05-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

I was published on the BBC's user generated content photoblog. They do a different subject every few weeks, and I submitted this image of a little newt on Anne's hands for their recent subject of "Tiny". Here you can find the slideshow and here you can find the organizer's blog for the "Your Pictures" section, where he chose the same picture to headline his article about the section.

Pretty cool!

I'd like to point to a new feature on my photoblog- I added a place to buy the pictures if you would like. It starts at $10 for a 6"x9" and goes from there. It is all done through 3rd parties, and will be billed and shipped to you by them. I'm not even sure how much I get per picture, but I jus thought it might be a convenient way to get my stuff out there. Here's the link to the newt picture on my photoblog. Thanks!

Optimism and Pessimism- Skepticism and Cynicism

2009-05-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

This is hopefully the start of a series that I have been rolling around in my brain for the past six months. I am curious, what is the difference between skepticism and cynicism using the framework of optimism and pessimism? I think we can all agree that on one end of the spectrum is optimism and on the other end of the spectrum is pessimism. Using this as our basis, where do the various mental view points fall? More to come.

In this entry, I would like to talk about skepticism and cynicism. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about each:

"In ordinary usage, skepticism or scepticism (Greek: 'σκέπτομαι' skeptomai, to look about, to consider; see also spelling differences) refers to:

(a) an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object;
(b) the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertain; or
(c) the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism that is characteristic of skeptics (Merriam–Webster)."

Cynicism (Greek: Kυνισμός) originally comprised the various philosophies of a group of ancient Greeks called the Cynics, founded by Antisthenes in about the 4th century BC. The Cynics rejected all conventions, whether of religion, manners, housing, dress, or decency, advocating the pursuit of virtue in a simple and unmaterialistic lifestyle.

By the 19th century, emphasis on the negative aspects of Cynic philosophy led to a new and very different understanding of cynicism to mean an attitude of jaded negativity, and a general distrust of the integrity or professed motives of other people. Modern cynicism, as a product of mass society, is a distrust toward ethical and social values, especially when there are high expectations concerning society, institutions and authorities which are unfulfilled. Cynicism can manifest itself by frustration, disillusionment and distrust in regard to organizations, authorities and other aspects of society, and can result from a negative evaluation of past experiences."

As I read it, skepticism is similar to the classical definition of cynicism, but the modern definition of cynicism has a negative slant to its description. It seems that the skeptic doesn't care about positive/negative viewpoints, but rather is concerned with the truth, and believes that the truth may very well be unattainable. It does not seem to me that the skeptic falls on either side of the optimistic/pessimistic midpoint, but rather skeptics straddle that line with a doubtful eye on all knowledge.

The strange thing is that the cynic was originally framed to be similar to skeptic, except for perhaps being more extreme and throwing away all beliefs in everything. Today it seems that the cynic is a jaded version of the skeptic. I feel that the cynic is skeptical that anything is good or positive, especially with reguard to people and society. I would say that a cynic is a skeptical pessimist. They aren't ready to always throw a negative slant on everything without appropriate consideration, but generally their consideration leads them to a negative viewpoint.

I bring all of this up because I hear people throw all of these words around interchanably and I wanted to know what these viewpoints actually mean. Also, I have learned that I do not want to be cynic. I am (I think) a skeptic, and nothing more.

Homeless Treatment

2009-05-07T13:32:00.000-07:00

With homelessness on the rise (I looked for statistics, but doing statistics on the homeless is difficult, and the numbers from the recession haven't come out yet, however, I'd like to point to the number of foreclosures and the tent city in Sacramento as proof), I thought I would write about an interesting and sad feature of the urban landscape. Anywhere there is a flat area of concrete you will find rocks turned on end jutting from the surface of the pad. Here you can see a very small island, barely large enough for a person, had rocks strategically placed to discourage laying down on it.

This type of discouragement was unknown to me until I moved to San Francisco. Now, I see it all over the Bay Area, anywhere there is a slab of concrete, especially when the concrete is protected from the elements. For example, a new bike/ped overpass was installed in Sunnyvale (near my work), and sure enough where the angle of the ramp leaves the bulk of concrete foundation, they placed big rocks on end, closely spaced and jutting up in an unfriendly way. I wonder, how much did those rocks cost to install? Would it have been enough to house and feed a homeless person? Consider design, materials, and implimentation.

Maybe it is about time for us to treat our homeless like humans. I see so many people on the streets of San Francisco, and I always look them in the eye, nod, and say hello. Most of my fellow San Franciscans look forward, blankly, and act as though the homeless don't exist. Personally, I don't think it would be very hard to fall on bad luck, and end up on the street. I don't think it is a choice for most of these people, who typically have serious mental problems, many of which are caused by our own society (take the homeless veterans who account for 23% of the homeless population (!) as a prime example).

Urban planners of the world, please stop installing these rocks in concrete, it doesn't fix the problem any more than the war on drugs has ended drug abuse. There is a deeper root to the problem that needs to be fixed first.

Higher Ed is Broken

2009-04-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

This NYTimes article nails the problems with higher education in a way that I can only envy. In one article Mr. Taylor manages to clearly lay out the over arching problems with our education system. Not only that he lays out solutions to the problems quite cleanly:

"1. Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.

2. Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs. These constantly evolving programs would have sunset clauses, and every seven years each one should be evaluated and either abolished, continued or significantly changed.

3. Increase collaboration among institutions.

4. Transform the traditional dissertation. In the arts and humanities, where looming cutbacks will be most devastating, there is no longer a market for books modeled on the medieval dissertation, with more footnotes than text.

5. Expand the range of professional options for graduate students. Most graduate students will never hold the kind of job for which they are being trained. It is, therefore, necessary to help them prepare for work in fields other than higher education.

6. Impose mandatory retirement and abolish tenure. Initially intended to protect academic freedom, tenure has resulted in institutions with little turnover and professors impervious to change."

Video of the Dog, and Cat, and Rat

2009-04-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

The Rise of the "Nones"

2009-04-27T16:45:00.000-07:00

There is a very interesting article over at NYTimes (again) discussing the rise of the Athiests in this country. They discuss the difference between a poll in 1990 and a poll recently completed in 2008. Here is the jist:

"Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed “no religion” were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.

Nationally, the “nones” in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the “nones” are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters."

Where does this put me?

Now I happen to be Agnostic. In case you don't know what that means, I basically don't believe that either side of the argument has any definitive proof on the existance of God. (Don't get me wrong, I believe in the Big Bang, Evolution, and all that wonderous jazz, not to mention I think that all that hokey crap in Genesis and various other places in the Bible, ie Revelations, is a bunch of fireside tall-tale lengend bullshit.) I mean prove or disprove the existance of God and I will be right there with either the believing or non-believing zealots. But right now, I'm on the fence and happy to be there. Show me proof and I'll hop off.

So back to my question, Where does this put me? I wouldn't say I'm a non-believer, but I'd also say that I am definately not a believer either. I'd say I'm more comfortable around athiests, but I have some great relationships with very devout Catholics. Anyway, here is to rationality and the God of the Utterly Indifferent.

Student Loans Underwater?

2009-04-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

There is a loan term that has been flying around lately, "underwater" is when you owe more than something is worth. Lately, I've been hearing this term used to describe student loans- something people would have considered ludicrous 5-10 years ago. Yet here we are. I read these two (article1 and article2 from NYTimes and Slate respectively) different articles in the last two days describing the situation as the following; students who are educated and skilled cannot get jobs, have to take lower paying much crappier jobs, and can't really keep up on their student loan payments. What is worse is that student loans are FOR LIFE and BEYOND! You cannot claim bankruptcy and get out of student loans, the follow you through the bankruptcy and wait on the other side with accrued interest. What is more is that you can even DIE and they will get passed on to the closest relative. That fact still boggles my mind.

The first article says that you shouldn't owe more than you will make in one year. After two degrees, I am happy to say that I am managing to say above that low water mark. I am sad to say, barely.

Now for the good news. I found out that all of the interest I payed on student loans (nearly $2,000 for last year alone that's $2,000 I could have burned and gotten more out of) is deductible from your income. This is deductible is in addition to the standard standard whatever $5k deduction, and in addition to the individual whatever $3k deduction. So it is possible to jack yourself into a lower tax bracket by eating rice and living in Wyoming while paying those loans off asap. This was the difference between owing the gov't and having them owe me on this year's return. Also, as the end of that second article points out, if you think that us college graduates are fucked, just imaging how the high school graduates must feel right now...but then again they didn't get sold anything...

Raise the Nation's IQ?

2009-04-17T10:41:00.000-07:00

This article from Nicholas Kristoff at the NYTimes discusses a book written by at (ahem) University of Michigan psychology professor Richard Nisbet. Anyone who is interested in education/academia/students and IQ, I suggest you read it.

For me the most interesting section was about telling middle school/high school students that a person's intelligence is malleable and expandable. This is in some (but not all) conflict with the genetic view of IQ, which has scientific support, but there is also support for education/experience increasing a person's IQ. For example, kids IQ goes down over summer break, but then returns to higher levels when school begins again (more reason for more schooling and smaller breaks). Either way, they found that students performed better, got better grades, and generally tried harder when told that they had the power to change their intelligence. In particular girls did better at math because they didn't have the excuse that "Girls don't get math." Instead they were thinking, if I am bad at this, then I can work hard and get better. Now, granted there will always be people who are naturally smarter, and people who are particularly better at one subject versus another, however, I just think that as a principle a you-can-do-whatever-you-put-your-mind-to-philosophy is a good standard to set.

Bolinas Sea Wall

2009-04-17T05:54:00.000-07:00

Do you like this program or think it sucks? Having fun with it or think that it is annoying?

I also published the full version over at the photoblog.

(Nothing but) Flowers by John G. McDaid

2009-04-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

"No horror could be worse than now and real."

From this free on-line novella, it is sci-fi post-apocalyptic goodness. I haven't finished it so if the ending sucks I apologize.

Nice Large Picture Viewer

2009-04-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

From the website www.closr.it comes this nice picture viewer.

And another

When you mouse over the pictures you can use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out of the picture. I recommend starting by zooming out until you can see the whole thing and then zoom in on regions of interest like the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges. The first picture doesn't work as well because the long exposure messes with the crispiness on zooming into the image.

Always Shoot RAW!

2009-04-13T15:41:00.001-07:00

Never heard it put any better than from this 13 tips on outdoor portraits- I mean come on, trade RAW for cheap memory?

"A thousand times these words have bellowed from my mouth, and it will surely come out a million more. Raw is an unmodified compilation of your sensors data during the time of exposure. It is your digital negative. When you shoot in JPG format, everything but what the image processor needs to make a shell representation of the image you intended to capture is stripped away. For every edit you make to a JPG, you lose more data. With RAW, you can make a vast range of edits before creating the JPG. How can this make you portrait better? Think about the last time your white balance was set incorrectly, and you tried for hours to remove the color cast only to destroy the image with every attempt. RAW would have saved you by allowing you to fix the color before opening the image for retouching."

Two Protests Compared

2009-04-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

I'd like to take a minute and compare two very different protests in two very different countries in two very different parts of the world. The first occurred a little over a week ago at the beginning of April in London, England. The protest was over the G20 summit, globalisation, world trade, etc. The hipsters showed up in their tight black faded jeans, cute little caps, and razor blade hair-dos. The thing that really blew me away was seeing all of the photographers that showed up for the event. I mean seriously guys, it's called Flickr- share.

The second protest occurred in Bangkok, Thailand over the weekend. These protesters are all dressed in red, wearing bandannas to deal with the tear gas, have machetes, slingshots, Molotov cocktails. These folks are taking on the army rather than the bobbies, and they even blew up a few buses. Now, I am not condoning violence. Violence is bad period, and I don't like the nature of the Thais protest, but you really have to hand it to them. No gaggles of photographers following them around as they break windows, oh no, this is clearly too dangerous for that kind of coverage. Maybe it is just me, but our western protests seem practically benign compared to what has been coming out of Asia these days...maybe it is just me, but is this the difference between a newer democracy and an older one looks like...is it just pure complacency?

Pictures were taken from the Big Picture, and The Frame respectively.

Mt. Tam to the Sea Hike - via Steep Ravine

2009-04-12T17:59:00.000-07:00

While staying at the Steep Ravine cabins we went on an epic day hike from the ocean to Mt. Tamalpais the local maximum. It was pretty rough, being 14.5 miles and 2500ft, I think I tweeked my ankle a bit, and I'm sore, but shall live on. There were many interesting things along the way. There is an inn that you must hike to with its own pancake breakfast. The stream down to the ocean was beautiful. I took the super zoom and while it was nice, I didn't take as many pictures because of lighting issues.

Steep Ravine Campground

2009-04-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Liz, Brian, and I went to Steep Ravine Campground with the Winking Lotus crew. We had to rent these cabins out in October, because the advanced reservations are that far out! It was well worth being online early in the morning many months ago for what we got in return. The cabins were on a cliff facing the ocean with huge windows. The first night we arrived the almost full moon showed up just after we got settled into the site. We had a great time hanging out with our friends, having some great margaritas, laughs etc. It really makes me wish that I had more time to spend being outside and seeing the pretty places California has to offer.

AP Says Show Me the Money

2009-04-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

Link

This or rather the lawsuits that results may be game changing. Many more people are getting their news on-line for free which is causing a void of revenue for media generators like the newspapers. The television model will break as well if they can't figure out how to make money off of internet television. Perhaps this will all boil down to a direct transferrance between the content creator and the content consumer, skip the middle man- the content "provider" (meaning the network broadcaster, the music industry giant, or the newspaper itself.)

Cats, and Rats, and Animals!

2009-04-06T22:23:00.001-07:00

Liz and I were walking around the financial district this weekend in a failed attempt to get some bargain first editions from a closing bookstore when we came upon this unlikely trio. They were part of a team working for their keep on the streets with a homeless fellow. Keeping these guys fed and cared for earned him some bills from the small crowd.

10,000 Hits!

2009-04-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

In the lifetime of this blog it has had 10,000 hits total! Of those, 6,000 have been in the last year!

Unlikely Defenders of Gay Marriage - Iowans

2009-04-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

You know that the world is in a weird strange state of affairs when California rejects gay marriage and IOWA defends it! Link

The Iowa State Supreme Court unanimously (!) upheld a county ruling saying that marriage should not be limited to one man and one woman (what about otters though). They are they third state nationally to approve of these rights, and the first midwestern state to do so. The California State Supreme Court will be returning their ruling on the legality of Proposition 8 sometime in the next month or two.

My thing is really WHO FUCKING CARES!!! I'm straight, why do I care what gay people do? It doesn't even effect me in any tangible way. Give them their tax breaks, give them their healthcare, give them their right to collect their partner's estate. WHO CARES!!! Religious zealots, you are not God, and thus, have no business saying what you think God thinks about gay people. For all we know, God could be a hermapherdite- both sexes. Sure as hell makes more sense than some white bearded Zeus like character, or wait that was the Pagans right?

Anyway, whoever you are, whoever really cares about this issue and thinks that family values are going to be fucked up by the gays...please, please just let it go. It really isn't that big of a deal when you consider all of the other things we could/should be doing with our tax dollars.

Hail! Hail! The Gangs All Here!

2009-04-01T01:04:00.000-07:00

These are the lovely people I was hanging out with this weekend. In order; the Lady Liz, Heather and Dave- his brother Brian and Anne, Nick and Anna, the man Ray(mundo). Sorry to Ryan and Holly for not getting a good head shot of them.

What Saturation Gets You

2009-04-01T00:06:00.001-07:00

This first panorama always felt kinda flat and lacking color. After talking to Dave about his white balance settings, I've been a bit more generous with the saturation and have been happy with the results. I will still, always and forever, argue in favor of shooting with RAW formats so that you can always fiddle with the white balance/color settings postforma and have it be lossless. Any of you that have Canon products, like point and shoots (Powershot etc), I suggest you check out a hack that you can do to shoot in RAW (and access a shit ton of other cool options not normally available). Link

Without much saturation increase.

With a good amount of saturation increase.

Crescent Beach

2009-03-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I went up to Redwoods Nat'l Park with Liz, Brian, Anne, and Ray to meet up with Nick, Dave, their ladies, Anna, and Heather, as well as a friends of Nick's from Seattle, Ryan and Holly. Yeah, so that's 11 people total and we had a very good time. This is the beach that was only 100 yards from our campsites. We ended up finding another great hybrid campsite, where you have to hike in so it's not car camping, but it isn't far enough to really call backcountry camping. We went hiking, basked in the sun, played games, got good and drunk, and had a great reunion of friends. I look forward to the next opportunity we have to spend time with such lovely people. It really warms my heart that there are people like my friends in the world.

Welcomed Back with a Shake

2009-03-30T10:58:00.001-07:00

A scary-fun reminder of where I live.

Link

Doing One Thing and Doing it Well

2009-03-24T13:46:00.000-07:00

With this whole introspective, what-do-I-want-to-do-thing, comes the question, is it better to be good at many different things, jack of all trades character, or is it better to be really really awesome at one specific thing? The industry seems to reward those who are great at one specific thing, but maybe that's just because people like that are easier to filter out candidates who fit the bill.

I have always tended to be a jack of all trades type, mostly because I start to get bored too easily and just want to move on to the next learning curve. I think this speads into all sorts of areas of my life. Take photography for example, this guy Clark Little, has decided to do waves, and I mean really do them. I mean go check out some of his stuff. It is really striking. When I look at these pictures, all I can think about is, DAMN this guy really got into taking pictures of the water wave in its essence. And he NAILS it!

Still, I just see myself getting bored after the 300th hour of shooting waves in a wetsuit and getting banged into the shore for the millionth time. Should I focus down on something, or continue trying to learn it all?

Water is a Big Deal

2009-03-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Check out this link. It shows water use, verus viable options that reduce your use. For example, it takes about 2/3 the amount of water to make a beer vs. a glass of wine. It really makes you think about your choices and what you can/cannot live with/without. For example, I don't know about giving up my morning coffee. That will be tough, along with my eggs. I love my eggs in the morning. If I eat cereal in the morning I am hungrier much earlier b/c of the lack of protein. However, I am totally willing to trade chicken/fish for beef, and beef to chicken savings is incredible. Check it out!

Flower Layers

2009-03-14T01:44:00.000-07:00

Flower pictures have gotten kinda boring for me lately, but they are out again this spring, and so I thought I'd try to do something fun with them.

The final is a "burn" effect with the tow above pictures!

The End of La Contessa

2009-03-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Photo from Flickr user Scrunchface

I have been wondering what happened to La Contessa, a replica of an 18th century Spanish galleon that sailed the desert waves of Black Rock City. Liz sent me this link which describes the death, burial, and lawsuit of La Contessa. For those of you who never got to see this baby in action, hopefully something may rise from its ashes.

Windmill in the City

2009-03-08T23:54:00.000-07:00

I would love to know the stats on this guy. It was in the back of a business building or maybe an apartment. There was a very light breeze and this thing was spinning away. This really can happen if we just invest properly.

Unemployment on an Exponential

2009-03-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

That looks awefully close to an exponential to me...

This NYTimes article talks about how people are starting to talk about this as a demographic shift. What does that mean to you? This article basically asserts that so many jobs have been lost, so many sectors of the economy have been abandoned by companies, so many jobs have been relocated, that we are seeing a paradigm shift. Do you agree? Or is this all just overblown drama for a power grab by Washington at the hearts of Americans?

All administrations use fear to get what they want. I have to say this crisis erily reminds me of Sept. 11th and a newly minted rookie president who used that event to lock down on civil liberties, clamp down on freedom of the media, regularly infringe on privacy, and grow the military- things that the Republicans are all about. Now, we have a rookie president using an economic crisis to get what he wants, more social services, more government spending on the poor, more money in education, more money in health care, and a larger governement role in the daily lives of its citizens- things that the Democrates are all about.

Now, here's the rub; look at that list and compare them. Do we want a government which has priorities of defense and privacy infringment, or a governement that wants to support the health and education of its citizens?

Not much of a choice if you ask me.

The question still remains, is this a fundamental paradigm shift? How long will we have rates of unemployment over 6 or 7%? Some people are saying that we won't see a 2006ish job market until 2012 (NPR this evening- I think the comment came from David Brooks, but they had two economists on so I'm not sure.) I don't know about ya'll but that scares the shit out of me...

How much is $1 trillion in deficit spending? Really?

2009-03-04T16:47:00.000-08:00

All the conservative blogheads have been busting a nut about Obama's plan to spend $1.75 trillion this year, and $1.15 trillion next year. So, what exactly does this mean? Well, Boing Boing - a counterculture weblog posted this post of this post from some website called Econobrower. The best part is an explaination of just how big of an impact tax increases/reduction to the upper super duper rich really changes the tax burden in this country.

Basically the article states that in 2006 the US gov't brought in about $1 trillion in taxes. So we are about to ring up $2 trillion in debt over the next two years, so we need to double our taxes right? Well it's not that simple.

I'd also like to point out that there is only 10% of seperation in taxes between the top tax braket and my own lowly one, not to mention the article that I posted earlier about how the top 400 richest get away with a mean tax rate of 18% after deductions/loopholes. For me, I finally understand where that surplus went, into already full pockets - sweet!

From a commenter:

"I think this is really misleading since it assumes you would double all equal tax rates equally and pay for the whole thing in 1 year -- which is downright silly.

The top tax bracket is 35% - it was 92% in 1952. A tiny change in the top tax bracket (like 3%... I mean we are talking about adjusted gross income over $357K) would generate $1 trillion in revenue in only a few years. I mean you should know this since that's how we got rid of our > $1 trillion surplus. Or alter corporte income tax accounting rules to raise a miniscule amount from corporations."

Exercise, the Garmin, and Triathlon

2009-03-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

Oh no, I have not let this set back take the wind completely from my sails. I still plan to do a triathlon this year, and now that I have more time on my hands, I can start running again. I'm suprised to find that I haven't lost much stamina because of the biking and swimming. Basically I'm just going way slower, also to let my legs adjust a bit again. I mean come on a 10 minute mile. I can do better than that!

This software package is really great for anyone who happens to have one of these Garmin Forerunners. Really cool mapping and graphing tools, so much better than the POS that Garmin sends with the device.

In Other News

2009-03-03T18:21:00.001-08:00

My Mom got accepted to the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan. She will be the first person from her generation in her family to get a Master's degree. Congratulation Mom! Go BLUE!

Partially Laid Off

2009-03-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

I have been debating writing about this, but I've basically been laid off.

I would have been fully laid off if it weren't for my co-worker Jeff. He was willing to take a 40% pay cut FOR MY SAKE! I am still astounded by this unbelievable act of selflessness and have nothing but respect and gratitude for Jeff. This is what people talk about when they speak of random acts of kindness. Thank you again for this window of time Jeff.

This has been an interesting experience to say the least. Feeling each day like you don't really deserve being unemployed, and yet knowing that there are millions out there feeling the same exact way as you. Not to mention, the hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed, and in a much worse situation than I am. To my advantage, I have an advanced degree in a subject known for its difficulty and that does carry some weight. I can't even image being in manufacturing doing the same job for 20+ years, having a mortgage, family, et al - and then having your job disappear, just like that? Reeling is the only word that comes to mind.

Today, Liz and I went to the unemployment office, and the health and human services office. I simply cannot even imagine being mentally disabled (as many of the people were) and having to navigate the bureaucracy of forms, and documents, and signatures, check boxes, finger-print identification, etc. I think it would be too much (but then that's why they have a councilor/social worker there to help). Turns out that I cannot get much in the way of help while still partially employed, but even a little bit will be a load off right now. Thank the Gods that we live in a country (and I in a state) that made the decision long ago to help the unemployed to have a grace period for which to find new employ. It is clearly a way to stop and avoid the downward spiral of a failing economy by bolstering the lower strata into purchasing those needed goods like food, heat, and shelter - preventing further degradation of the local economy.

The most difficult part of this transition has been keeping my chin up. I do not like how life has decided to make this event on terms not of my choosing. I guess I've naievely thought of life as something I could control, even in face of being proven wrong on this point in the past. That's the catch, you can have control of keeping your chin up. You can work towards the next stage and try to influence in a positive direction. You can stay positive and try to roll with life's punches.

If any of you hear of ANY job that you think I would be capable of performing, please contact me, and I will apply for it. I am looking at engineering (failure, mechanical, electrical, and software -depending on the specifics), teaching (high school, community college, technical institutes, tutoring, college), or civil service (gov't, UN, Peace Corps, etc). Thanks!

Krugman Suggests "Pre-Privatization"

2009-02-23T17:03:00.000-08:00

Well a blog called Calculated Risks suggests it, but Krugman writes about it in this NYTimes article. Basically he says that the FDIC has been taking over insolvent (read: not enough cash) banks at a rate of about 2 per week. They take them, expose all their bad loans, debts, etc. and then resell them to the private sector. This is exactly what we need right now as these big banks are basically dead man walking banks, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. That's why they aren't lending (they can't - no money) and why we are beginning to see a stagnating economy.

I guess we could just let the private sector take care of it, as we can see from the last 8 years how well leaving the banking industry free to their own accords really seems to do the trick.

I Love British Slang

2009-02-19T19:36:00.000-08:00

My new favorite word:

squiffy (adj.)- to be slightly intoxicated

She's been out with a couple of people for a drink after work, and she's a bit squiffy.

The Great Divide (Theory v. Engineering)

2009-02-19T12:25:00.000-08:00

Anne has been in town again this past week, which is nice as always. Last time, I didn't have a chance to talk to her about grad school, careers, physics, and all that jazz- so I've tried to step it up a notch. Some of you may or may not know this, but I personally feel like my 3 years in physics grad school was a 100% complete waste of my time. The degree didn't increase my job prospects, salary, or knowledge. It didn't increase my network of people in business. It didn't really get me much better at teaching (though I have to admit it did on certain levels). None of these very important career skills were encouraged- actually I'd say that they were discouraged for the sake of research. Sure I got much better at solving 4 dimensional partial differential equations using tensor notation (I'm not joking here), but does that really do anything for you besides massage one's already over-blown ego?

I suppose it does if you are planning on going into the blossoming and ever increasing field of high-energy particle physics, or maybe if you are studying the Big Bang, Inflationary Theory, and Black Holes- but I've never really been interested in that fringe theorizing. Here's the thing about physics that seperates it from philosophy- experiment. Something goes from being a mathematical theory to a physical principle through the mode of experiment. YET, the theorists typically get all of the glory and experimentalists get all of the money (read- funding).

The one thing that I keep coming back to is the fact that theory, experiement, and engineering are inseparably inner-twined. They all work together in this great big community to create the Next Great Thing- the problem is that professors chest bumping and inflated egos always get in the way. The theorists yell, "It's all about a good Theory!" The experimentalists yell, "You've got to test it to be certain!" The engineers yell, "You better build the damn thing first!" The thing that I find remarkable is that very few people realize just how depenant each group is on the other groups. The theorists think up shit that no one has thought of before, the experiementalists think of ways to make that made up shit into some kind of physical reality, and the engineers actually take metal and bits of glass, put it together and turn the machine on.

Anyway, here's a great blog from a Stanford professor who seems to get it.

UPDATE:

Oh and one more note along the career lines and why you shouldn't go into science grad school: I make ~$10k less than the bottom 25% of dental hygenists (country average, not Bay Area). My degree = 7-8 years, their degree = 2 years...do the math.

Bitterness and an Onslaught of the Darkness

2009-02-18T18:31:00.000-08:00

Very rarely does a passage in a book hit me over the head so hard as to insue a bout of the Darkness. The Darkness being a word that Liz and I have picked up to describe feelings of ill will towards one's self, and a general poopy-ness that accompanies the Darkness. I was reading this section from High Fidelity, and it sent me into a tail-spin. A right ol' nasty spin to be perfectly honest about it. I've been debating on posting this at all, as I generally try to keep a sunny disposition even in the face of Life's bullshit, but this is just too good, too succint to ignore, and to be honest the impact it has had is reason enough to put it into the open. I read this to my friends who were over this weekend trying to describe any funkiness that they were sensing from me, and they all agreed that this is some pretty dark shit- you've been warned:

"I guess you could see it as bitterness, if you wanted to. I don't think of myself as bitter, but I have disappointed myself; I thought I was going to turn out to be worth a bit more than this, and maybe that disappointment comes out all wrong. It's not just the work; it's not just the thirty-five and single thing, although none of this helps. It's ... oh, I don't know. Have you ever looked at a picture of yourself when you were a kid? Or pictures of famous people when they were kids? It seems to me that they can either make you happy or sad. There's a lovely picture of Paul McCartney as a little boy, and the first time I saw it, it made me feel good: all that talent, all that money, all those years of blissed-out domesticity, a rock-solid marriage and lovely kids, and he doesn't even know it yet. But then there are others- JFK and all the rock deaths and fuck-ups, people who went mad, people who came off the rails, people who murdered, who made themselves or other people miserable in ways too numerous to mention - and you think, stop right there! This is as good as it gets!

Over the last couple of years, the photos of me when I was a kid, the ones that I never wanted old girlfriends to see ... well, they've started to give me a little pang of something - not unhappiness, exactly, but some kind of quiet, deep regret. There's one of me in a cowboy hat, pointing a gun at the camera, trying to look like a cowboy but failing, and I can hardly bring myself to look at it now. [...] I keep wanting to apologize to the little guy: 'I'm sorry, I've let you down. I was the person who was supposed to look after you, but I blew it: I made wrong decisions at bad times, and I turned you into me.'"

-Nick Hornsby "High Fidelity"

Evolution? Meh

2009-02-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

A recent Gallup poll shows that the majority of Americans either do not believe in evolution, or don't really have an opinion. The breakdown is that 39% believe in evolution, 36% have no opinion, and 25% do not believe in evolution. Wow. That means that 1 in 4 people in America thinks that God poofed us out of thin air. *POOF* Man. Scary...

"I mean you gotta have an opinion." (John Travolta in Pulp Fiction before he shoots Marvin in the face- sorry couldn't resist.)

Nothing Like a Sucker Punch...

2009-02-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

...on the way out the door.

It appears that employers are disputing unemployment claims in record numbers (as a percentage of the claims). Just one more shot to the belly of the average worker. I just can't believe this, as if losing your job isn't bad enough, but to have that same employer turn their back on you in your time of need is just wrong. Not to mention, the company pays taxes to cover these benefits- it gets it's taxable revenue from the work you have done at that company- to deny you those funds is like stealing the money you put in that fund.

How much longer are we the working class, the proletariat, going to put up with less overall wealth, less free time to ourselves, less family time, less healthcare, and less of the good life than our own parents had? Meanwhile, we twiddle our thumbs with a dumb- OH GEE- look on our faces while we get burned and pillaged by the aristocracy...we need to step up and say no more!

Link- Washington Post

Plenary Indulgence

2009-02-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

This week the Catholic church has decided to re-instate a pre-1960s Vatican rule of plenary indulgence.

Again, from Wikipedia:

"An indulgence, in Roman Catholic theology, is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution.^[1] The belief is that indulgences draw on the storehouse of merit acquired by Jesus' sacrifice and the virtues and penances of the saints.^[2] They are granted for specific good works and prayers.^[2]

Indulgences replaced the severe penances of the early church,^[2] or, to express it more exactly, they replaced the shortening of those penances that was allowed at the intercession of those imprisoned and those awaiting martyrdom for the faith.^[3]"

That doesn't mean very much to me, so I dug a bit deeper. Basically, the Church thinks that they can be the middle man between the ultra-good and the ultra-bad. They take some of the good that is done, and allocate what bad that it should cancel out. Hence, the part about "the intercession of those imprisoned and those awaiting martyrdom." Now, the thing that I've always heard about (specifically from Nick) is how these indulgences were abused by the Catholic Church. From what I understand, they would let the super rich get away with murder (literally) as long as they paid up the cash, they would receive a document stating that they had been absolved of their sins and in the eyes of the Church, would still get entrance to heaven. In this way, the Church paid for many of it's cathedrals and monestaries.

Here's the rub, isn't God the ultimate judge and jury? I mean, sure Peter's the one at the gate with the key, but doesn't he get the list from the big man himself? What happened to vengance shall be mine? I just find it interesting that the Church thinks of itself as the broker of morality. I guess I shouldn't really be suprised. I do have to say that I don't like this new Pope. Trying to drag the Church back to the good ol' days just seems wrong on so many levels.

Quote - High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

2009-02-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

"It's only just beginning to occur to me that it's important to have something going on somewhere, at work or at home, otherwise you're just clinging on. If I lived in Bosnia, then not having a girlfriend wouldn't seem like the most important thing in the world, but here in Crouch End it does. You need as much ballast as possible to stop you floating away; you need people around you, things going on, otherwise life is like some film where the money ran out, and there are no sets, or locations, or supporting actors, and it's just one bloke on his own staring into the camera with nothing to do and nobody to speak to, and who'd believe in this character then?"

This book is full of great paragraphs. I highly recommend reading it to anyone. There's much more to the main character, Rob, than you get from Cusak in the film (which is also one of my favorites).

In a Taqueria Near-by

2009-02-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Click on this picture to see the full image, as the detail is really interesting. This is one of those pictures that looks like two different pictures. I have always thought that these are rather fun. This particular taqueria has something like 4 or 5 of these pictures. This was my favorite.

Pass It Already!

2009-02-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

Link

With the number of economists screaming at the top of their lungs that the gov't NEEDS to act now, you'd think that this would be a done deal. I read today that the Republicans are trying to cut out things like Food Stamps (proven to be one of the most efficient vehicles for economic stimulus b/c the money will be spent immediately), Head Start, Public Transportation, and replace it with things like Defense construction, tax breaks (which have been shown to do very little as people save that money instead of spend it).

And, based on the above image, even the media is trying to screw this up by not having equal coverage of both sides of the debate. So much for that "liberal" media eh?

US passes Germany in Wind Production

2009-02-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

This really is possible everyone, it just takes a commitment.

US Passes Germany for #1 producer of winder power- SciAm

Guzman - Mapped

2009-02-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is an interesting website called dynatree. Using phone/address records, the map out the frequency of your last name across the country. Obviously, with a Mexican name like Guzman, one would expect California and Texas to lead the pack. Was interesting to see Michigan fall into the top 10.

Update: A better link here.

IRS Report on the Top 400

2009-02-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

IRS Top 400 Earners-through 2006

Here's some highlights:

They average $263 million per year income, of which 63% is from capital gains.

Over the six years of the Bush administration, their income DOUBLED! What's worse is as a percentage of the total wealth in the country, the top 400 earners went from just under 1% (0.81%) up to about 1.33%- meaning that an extra half of a percent of the TOTAL wealth in the country went into the hands of 400 people, meanwhile average income of the middle class remained flat (and actually decreased when you account for inflation).

Through the capital gains tax, some crazy deductions, and political lubrication, the top 400 earners in this country only pay an average of 17.2% in tax.

So let me see here, I make approximately 0.017% of what these people average, and I pay ~25% or 7.8% MORE in taxes then they do. Woah!

Only in America!

Link-Bloomberg

HFCS Contains Traces of Hg/Pb - One More Reason to Ditch CORN!

2009-01-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

According to this Washington Post article printed yesterday, high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) contains trace amounts of mercury (Hg) and lead (Pb). In two different studies, they found that between one-third and one-half of foods containing HFCS have trace amounts of Hg, the worst culprits being dairy, dressing, and condiments. Almost everything that is processed and non-organic contains HFCS. Look at any label of most "foods" that aren't just food, basically anything you find in the middle sections of the grocery store, rather than the good stuff found around the egdes (ie fruits, veggies, milk, eggs, meat). The real problem is that you don't really know what HFCS foods have Hg and which do not.

So, you may ask, what's the big deal? Well here is what Wikipedia has to say about mercury and how it damages our bodies.

"Mercury is such a highly reactive toxic agent that it is difficult to identify its specific mechanism of damage, and much remains unknown about the mechanism.^[9] It damages the central nervous system, endocrine system, kidneys, and other organs, and adversely affects the mouth, gums, and teeth. Exposure over long periods of time or heavy exposure to mercury vapor can result in brain damage and ultimately death. Mercury and its compounds are particularly toxic to fetuses and infants. Women who have been exposed to mercury in pregnancy have sometimes given birth to children with serious birth defects (see Minamata disease).

Mercury exposure in young children can have severe neurological consequences, preventing nerve sheaths from forming properly. Mercury inhibits the formation of myelin, the building block protein that forms these sheaths.^[10]

There is some evidence that mercury poisoning may predispose to Young's syndrome (men with bronchiectasis and low sperm count).^[11]

Mercury poisoning's effects partially depend on whether it has been caused by exposure to elemental mercury, inorganic mercury compounds (as salts), or organomercury compounds."

Going Out with the Gang

2009-01-26T04:36:00.000-08:00

On Thursday night we all went out to see some musica. Angie, Ray, Brian, Anne, Liz, and I all climbed into the Volvo and went out for papusas. After we went and got toasty listening to some damn good music.

Anne managed to remember this guy from some YouTube Video which I looked up on my iPhone, and we verified her memory!

Fluffys Share a Look

2009-01-22T00:32:00.001-08:00

I just think their faces are both funny. I tried to crop out Brian’s blue t-shirt, but then the moon is way to the right…not sure.

Dude Put Away the iPhone

2009-01-21T11:19:00.001-08:00

This was from the NYTimes homepage today. Look at the politician behind and to the right of Obama. Look whats in his hand. Dude, seriously, it can wait like 5 minutes. I'm sure that Israel just bombed Iran or some shit, but seriously- 5 minutes isn't going to make much of a difference. This is why I love photojournalism- no changing that photo, it's there. By the way, Jeff and I think that it's either Al Gore or Steny Hoyer (majority leader House of Reps). Either way, tsk tsk gentleman- have some respect.

UPDATE:

Ok, so with all of these Anon. repsonces I had to say something. First thanks to whomever pointed out that it is Paul Pelosi, Nancy's husband. Also, yes, I didn't see the address, I live in California, which means it all got going at 8:30AM my time. I was listening to the entire thing on NPR, but was unable to view it as I was commuting at the time (ie on a train or on my bike). So, no I didn't see the inaguration, unfortuantly, work once again limited my lifestyle choices.

Now, as a photographer, I have learned that there are times to take pictures, and times when you don't take pictures, because, well, it would be rude. I wouldn't go shoving my camera in a grieving widow's face to get a great picture of grief. Honestly, if it were me, and I were on the center stage, behind the soon to be president of the United States, at a historic moment like this...well I guess I'd put away my camera (especially a crappy cellphone camera), and just try to soak it up. I'd leave the photo taking to the professionals, the photographers all over the place who do amazing work- and leave my iPhone's whomping 2MPs in my pocket.

Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museum

2009-01-19T23:37:00.000-08:00

A few days after Christmas we all went to the Legion of Honor Art Museum in the Presideo. Liz is a little tea cup.

Salvador Dali

Some crazy ass Jesus is life and the opposite (or same?) as death...was probably 3-4" high.

Mom and Monet.

The Golden Gate and a ship.

Opening the Garmin 305

2009-01-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

This GINORMOUS device is amazing. It is a GPS hooked up to a heart rate monitor. You then download the data to the compy and can map our your workouts, or use it for directions (if desperate or in the bush). I have to say that it has been fun seeing what it can do.

Today I figured out how to export the data to Google Earth/Maps which is a very nice convenience. I also found some software called SportsTracks that will be very nice to see progress overtime and better mapping. From all reports people say that this can be taken swimming. I'm not sure bout the main device, but the heart rate monitor seem secure (and cheap enough to replace), so maybe I'll try it keeping the main unit safe.

I thought it'd be fun to post some exercises that I've done over the past few weeks to show what this toy can do, and how different exercises effect your heart rate.

This is from when I went weight lifting on Monday. I'm sore today, but notice that my peak was only 150bpm, and that it was very up and down. You only get a highish heart rate in bursts when lifting the weights, and I wasn't really taking breaks, I was doing sit-ups between sets.

This is my entire commute. Notice the blue is my speed. I included the train part of the commute out of curiosity. You can clearly see the stops and that it actually goes over 80mph in some sections. I average about 17-18mph while on the bike, and my heart averages in the 160s during the biking sections. The peak at the end is the hill climb up Folsom to Bernal Heights. That big dip in my HR is me waiting at a couple of stop lights.

This is from a hike that Mom, Liz, Liz's Dad-Tom, and I did a couple of days after Christmas. You can see that I plotted it versus distance rather than time, and I have speed and elevation, but not heart rate. It was a good hike with interesting folks with lots to tell.

Here is an export to Google Maps of a hike that Liz, Mom, and I did that a posted photos of a few posts ago. It's kinda weird and creepy to see it laid out like this, but as is the way of the future!

Is this where YOU want to live?

2009-01-14T11:25:00.000-08:00

Courtsey of The Big Picture

Marin Headlands Hike

2009-01-13T23:31:00.000-08:00

Liz, Mom, and I went for a hike with Liz's parent's hiking group. Tom was there along with all of family friends who meet up once a month to go on a hike. Good times. This is one of the things I've really enjoyed about California, people of all ages get out and do stuff. I don't know when or where my concept of "retirement" became holing up in your house and work on the dent in the Lazy Boy...

I do however know when and where my concept changed. Dave and I were in the Grand Tetons for my first real outdoor experience. I was dying. We just got into the elevation the day before, and I'm out of shape. We are going up to a lake at 8,000 ft, on a relatively easy hike looking back on it, but then, I was really gassing it. On the way up, I see this couple coming from deeper in the mountains, on that trail that sorta looks like a trail, that goes up, all twisty-like. The one you can't go on yet but have aspirations to do so in the near future. From that trail emerges a 60+ year old couple. Both not gray, but white hair, and BOOKIN. I mean BOOKIN. They are cruising out of those mountains with hiking poles and FULL packs. When I mean full, I mean 20-30lbs of tents and poles, sleeping bags and therma-rests, water-filters and food, pots and pans, the whole nine-yards and the kitchen sink. I will never forget them.

Here is a picture of the Tetons because I'm feeling nostalgic.

Along the Bicycle Lines

2009-01-13T13:46:00.000-08:00

It seems that bicycling as a form of transportation has been gaining some ground in Congress. There is a bicycle caucus in Congress that is 140+ members strong, and on going. They even approved a bit of that stimulus money to go into an employee rebate program, I don't have the details right now, but I think it's something like $30-40 a month rebate if you can prove you ride as your main form of transit. All of this is because of a guy a named, Earl Blumenauer. From the NYTimes article, Earl is defending bicyclist to the typical breaking the law/hogging the road criticism that comes from motorists:

"Mr. Blumenauer brushes off this criticism. 'They are burning calories, not fossil fuel, they are taking up much less space, they are seeing the world at 10 miles per hour instead of 20 or 30,” he said. “And even though there are occasionally cranky or rude cyclists, they are no greater a percentage than cranky or rude motorists.' Plus, he added, 'they have really fought for their place on the asphalt.'"

Well said Mr. Congressman!

From an Obama Speech Today:

2009-01-08T12:30:00.001-08:00

"To finally spark the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. We will modernize more than 75% of federal buildings and improve the energy efficiency of two million American homes, saving consumers and taxpayers billions on our energy bills. In the process, we will put Americans to work in new jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced – jobs building solar panels and wind turbines; constructing fuel-efficient cars and buildings; and developing the new energy technologies that will lead to even more jobs, more savings, and a cleaner, safer planet in the bargain.

To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years, all of America’s medical records are computerized. This will cut waste, eliminate red tape, and reduce the need to repeat expensive medical tests. But it just won’t save billions of dollars and thousands of jobs – it will save lives by reducing the deadly but preventable medical errors that pervade our health care system.

To give our children the chance to live out their dreams in a world that’s never been more competitive, we will equip tens of thousands of schools, community colleges, and public universities with 21st century classrooms, labs, and libraries. We’ll provide new computers, new technology, and new training for teachers so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future."

Googlie Eyes

2009-01-07T08:56:00.001-08:00

Brian came home with googlie eyes. He has been spreading them all over the house, and I have to say it makes me chuckle. I thought they could use a pow-wow.

What is Terrorism?

2009-01-05T13:43:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia:

"Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion.^[1] At present, there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism.^[2]^[3]Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal (as opposed to a lone attack), and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants."

Israel recommensed its bombing of the Gaza Strip. The bombing is aimed at the Palestinian "terrorists" who have been suicide bombing Isreal. Here's the rub, what is "terrorism" and what isn't? In my opinion, if you use the above definition from Wikipedia, I'd argue that Isreal and the United States are both very guilty of acts of terrorism, just as flagrant as the acts of the Palestinians. How is it that remote bombing of a villiage that kills men, women, and children is not considered "terrorism" by either of our governments? How can the other governments of the world allow this bombing to continue? Personally looking at these pictures of children with bleeding heads, and the untargeted bombing done by these rockets sure as hell looks like the same kind of pictures I see when someone blows themselves up in the middle of a town square. Is it the willingness of the "terrorist" to commit suicide that bothers us? If that is the case, then isn't it worse to deny the reality of a soldier in an American army? The reality being that they are out there risking their lives every day, and yes, sure it isn't intentional suicide, but to me there is something more frightening; the concept of random and pointless death. The soldiers in the Israeli and American armies are just as willing to die for their cause as the suicide bomber are, in fact, that's the job discription every soldier has agreed to- either willingly or unwillingly. Sure, many of these men return unscathed, but that concept of the randomness in life and death never really leaves.

Anyway, I just wanted to rant about semantics. Killing is killing- no matter how you do it, especially when innocents die in the process.

UPDATE:

I thought that it might be good to end with a quote from the Economist who quotes Israel's deputy chief of staff as saying, "By the time we're finished, there won't be a Hamas building left standing in Gaza."

Sounds a little, oh I don't know, extreme...but I guess only the enemies are the extremists.

{Pictures are from the Associated Press and Getty Images respectively.}

Post Christmas Madness

2009-01-03T11:57:00.001-08:00

We all woke up the day after Christmas to ten (10) count them, cop cars on my street. They had the policia tape and everything. There was SUV cops and emergency fire trucks, woah. You know its serious when they strategically position the parking officer in the middle of the group of cop cars. That's serious...

Anyway, the reason they came was because someone on my street attempted suicide. It immediately got me thinking about holidays and suicides and how "everyone knows" that people kill themselves during the holidays right? Well, I thought I’d look up some statistics for the blog here. You know how I love statistics. The first thing to strike my eye when I Googled “holiday suicide statistics” is an article from Psychology Today.

“Suicides drop during the winter months, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and they usually peak during the spring months.”

The holiday suicide increase is a myth. And this is just a coincidence. I love things like this, a little discovery of truth amongst the bullshit.

Christmas Hike with Ma and Liz

2009-01-03T07:24:00.000-08:00

My Mom, Liz, and I went for an evening hike after dinner on Christmas. The sun was low and setting and casted some very nice warm evening light on everything. What do you think about the ‘oil’ or ‘paint’ effect in the second image?

Original picture. From my daily Photoblog.

Picture with a high “threshold” (basically sets the “pixel” size, higher threshold means more “real” pixels per “shown” pixel) used to create an oil/painting feel. Does it work?

Panorama of Mt. Tam using something like four images. Look at the lower right corner of the mountain, there is a little sun dog rainbow.

Hosted by Flickr (legal thing)

Christmas with Me Ma

2009-01-01T14:04:00.001-08:00

This year Mom came out for Christmas and my birthday/New Years. This is in part why I have been so inactive on the blog here, we’ve been running around busy, and vacation is time for getting out and about! Tomorrow we are going to the Academy of Sciences which was totally renovated recently with some very interesting exhibits. I’m excited. These are some pictures from the past week.

Christmas evening sunset hike on Liz’s parent’s hill behind their house.

“The Look”

Mom and Liz hanging on top of Bernal as the fog rolled in.

Hosted by Flickr (legal thing)

Ponzi Scheme and Mortgage Meltdown

2008-12-19T16:27:00.000-08:00

From Wikipedia: "A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that involves paying abnormally high returns to investors out of the money paid in by subsequent investors, rather than from the profit from any real business. It is named after Charles Ponzi.^[1] The term "Ponzi scheme" is used primarily in the United States, while other English-speaking countries do not distinguish in colloquial speech between this scheme and other forms of pyramid scheme."

From what I can tell, this is precisely what was going on in the mortgage market from ~2000 to 2006ish. The people involved in these loans to potential homeowners were only able to make money because of the new money coming in from subsequent investors. Meaning, the only reason the scheme was functioning and generating returns for investors was because of the fresh blood coming into the market next week, willing to pay more for the same house that just sold for $30,000 less only one week ago. That kind of high turnover/short turn-around time was basically an over-glorified Ponzi Scheme. Think about it, what have these financial institutions been saying all along? We just knew the price of homes would never go down, so we'd just say, Don't worry, you can just refinance, or sell the home in a few months. So, the homeowner finds some new person entering the market (at the bottom of the pyramid), who has to pay out the most (thus far), they cash out, the bank cashes out, and New York cashes out. Meanwhile, the investment hasn't actually made anything in the process. Now read what Krugman has to say about the New York bankers and their bonuses.

From Krugman's Op-Ed in the NYTimes: "Consider the hypothetical example of a money manager who leverages up his clients’ money with lots of debt, then invests the bulked-up total in high-yielding but risky assets, such as dubious mortgage-backed securities. For a while — say, as long as a housing bubble continues to inflate — he (it’s almost always a he) will make big profits and receive big bonuses. Then, when the bubble bursts and his investments turn into toxic waste, his investors will lose big — but he’ll keep those bonuses."

I think that I finally understand this whole mess. Yeah sure, it's interesting to consider how this spread to the money and credit markets, and yeah it's interesting to ask why the gov't didn't step in and prevent this from happening, but really...it's just another scam like anything else.

Winter Storms

2008-12-17T14:58:00.001-08:00

It’s been a rainin’ here for the past couple of days, and now today it is freezing cold (literally there was frost on the ground this morning! The massive upside are all of these beautiful fluffy clouds everywhere. This picture was taken on my morning commute (I put the bike aside to avoid all the bad weather nastiness) and you can see the clouds trying to get over the Santa Cruz Mountains. Just after this I saw a very strong double rainbow as the sunlight caught the rain falling from this cloud.

Hosted by Flickr (Legal Thing)

Frank Frazatta

2008-12-17T14:09:00.001-08:00

These are some examples of the work of Frank Frazatta. I don’t know why but I’ve always been attracted to his work. It is all dark, mysterious, fantastical, and sexual- all very good adjectives. I find the slightly comic book and heavily epic feel of the art to really click with me. I mean look how evil the black knight looks, you can almost feel the agony of being suffocated by that huge anaconda, and the shadows, muscles, and butt on the third picture really takes you into that dungeon. I guess the uber-geek in me, the one that loves tearing through a fluff filled sci-fi/fantasy novel just gets all riled up when I look at these images. Good stuff Frank, RIP and I hope to own one for my wall someday.