Natural Resources Depletion Allowance:
The depletion allowance permits firms to take a tax deduction for their investment in a natural resource, as the resource is used up. The availability of a depletion allowance serves to make the extraction and use of virgin materials more profitable relative to the use of recycled materials. This favorable depletion allowance for these hazardous materials provides a continuing incentive to utilize them in preference to other, safer materials.
In clear speak: your tax dollars are used to encourage relatively more polluting investments; aren't you proud?
Tax deductions that subsidize undesirable activity may also detract the effort to achieve environmental goals. Two particularly poignant examples are (1) deductions for the cost of cleaning up industrial waste and (2) the deduction of punitive damages imposed for egregious environmental misconduct. Tax deductions of this nature amount to a public subsidy for the polluter and hence are arguably socially undesirable.
Doesn't the study of tax laws feel a lot more relevant and urgent all of a sudden?
Finally, the 'nice' effect of setting a cap on court awards:
The capping of awards and/or risk spreading through insurance decreases the risk averseness of the firm and, hence, expenditures for developing or adopting safer product and processes.
There you have it folks: three ways to encourage pollution. You no longer need to wonder why we've made so little progress in getting to environmentally sustainable development in the last 3 decades...
[all from a book by one of my profs. if you want the full details, ask me].
Sunday, February 27, 2005
Saturday, February 26, 2005
famous separatists
Good tea-time to y'all,
Washington state is in the national news on this side of the ocean, with the "You take the dry side" story in the Economist.
Wal-Mart is making waves in Canada by closing down the unionized Woolco stores, regardless of their profitability. I tell you, Europeans should really tighten up relationships with Canada; it's doing a great job of fighting some of Europe's favorite battles. Politicians are even calling for a boycott of the store. And the unions are attacking the chain's mandatory morning cheerleading session.
In other news, I'm in the process of applying for jobs - not always fun given that they generally want people to start right away but that now is the recruiting cycle. Mmh... I've got my first rejection letter (which I'm actually grateful for, the others generally don't even bother). If I believe the Economist (a giganormous IF), I could try to market myself as a logistician instead (true, I'm only taking one class, but work with me): chiefs of purchasing departments and "spend-management experts" (what jargon crap) are now increasingly reporting directly to the boards. Oh wait, I forgot: I don't want to work in a for-profit again.
All is not rosy in China: they've realized that the famous little emperor single-child cocooned by 2 parents and 4 grand-parents will one day have to be the one person earning income to pay for 6 pensions. ouch. As a funny side, the picture that adorns the story (Economist of Feb 26-March 4th, p.74) cracks me up: it's a store-front for a swimsuit/lingerie store, and all the mannequins are adorned with a couple of bras strapped around their thighs. Interesting fashion statement !
Finally, we are back on the topic of education.
Washington state is in the national news on this side of the ocean, with the "You take the dry side" story in the Economist.
A handful of state politicians, mostly from the eastern half, don't see colourful diversity; they see a reason to split the state in two.The big city vs. the rural farmers, the centralization of decision-making, Microsoft and Boeing, the rain and the dry side, the Cascades, the Columbia River and the salmon - all the normal soundbites are in there. And in a brilliant lack of comparative analysis, the article goes on to conclude that it's just a matter of the West being more deferential. But do they realize that the American political system is in fact one that forces/incentivizes the most politicians to actually travel to all the more remote areas because votes are weighed more heavily towards rural areas? Anyway, don't be surprised if the BBC starts to interview you next time you drive over the cascades ;) .
Wal-Mart is making waves in Canada by closing down the unionized Woolco stores, regardless of their profitability. I tell you, Europeans should really tighten up relationships with Canada; it's doing a great job of fighting some of Europe's favorite battles. Politicians are even calling for a boycott of the store. And the unions are attacking the chain's mandatory morning cheerleading session.
Reaction was swift. There were bomb threats at other Wal-Marts. Columnists spoke of "capital terrorism" and called the closure "brutal and savage". (...) News of the Jonquière store's closure was widely reported south of the border. Two days later all 17 workers of the car-maintenance department at a Wal-Mart in New Castle, Pennsylvania voted against joining the union.
In other news, I'm in the process of applying for jobs - not always fun given that they generally want people to start right away but that now is the recruiting cycle. Mmh... I've got my first rejection letter (which I'm actually grateful for, the others generally don't even bother). If I believe the Economist (a giganormous IF), I could try to market myself as a logistician instead (true, I'm only taking one class, but work with me): chiefs of purchasing departments and "spend-management experts" (what jargon crap) are now increasingly reporting directly to the boards. Oh wait, I forgot: I don't want to work in a for-profit again.
All is not rosy in China: they've realized that the famous little emperor single-child cocooned by 2 parents and 4 grand-parents will one day have to be the one person earning income to pay for 6 pensions. ouch. As a funny side, the picture that adorns the story (Economist of Feb 26-March 4th, p.74) cracks me up: it's a store-front for a swimsuit/lingerie store, and all the mannequins are adorned with a couple of bras strapped around their thighs. Interesting fashion statement !
Finally, we are back on the topic of education.
As most education was publicly funded, the state had a big say in what was taught, to how mnay and for how long. Insofar as it existed at all, competition was a gentlemanly business; few educators thought much about customers, fewer about profit.I disagree about the battle for educators: even a century ago, the battle to attract top faculty was brutal and savage among the top American schools. But that's not the point of the article. They, you guessed it, go on to extol the virtues of managing education like any other business, profit margins and getting rid of least attractive students.
In short, the system resembled a Soviet-style planned economy. (...) So, just like their counterparts in manufacturing industry 20 years ago, rich-world universities are concentrating on businesses that make money, dumping lines do do not and shifting production to cheaper markets abroard.So, if I get this right, not only is the education sector 20 years behind in realizing that education equals another form of manufacturing (and who cares if majors are dropped because they're insufficiently profitable, I mean, who needs art historians when you can ride on the booming demand for forensic science degrees?), but education in "rich-world universities" so far resembled the worst of communist USSR without us noticing - how dumb we must all be.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
the human spirit
On a trip with my parents through the states of Washington and Oregon, I picked up a small gray stone from a sun-drenched beach. I loved its warmth and its smoothness; and I use it to remind myself of our connection to environment whenever I feel disconnected in a world of concrete.
On Tuesday night, Jane Goodall came and gave a talk. She was launching a Roots and Shoots program - environmental sustainability, making a difference, not giving up despite our anger wrt to the legacy from previous generations. She had an aura - an aura of integrity is the best way I can describe it. Several times she credited her PhD supervisor (she went straight from secretarial school to PhD without BA or MS) for supporting her, and steering her in the right direction. We were lucky enough to have met him earlier this year at a formal dinner at one of the more formal colleges - an adorable old man with a great passion for teaching and for learning. He did sociology and anthropology, biology, zoology, a whole range of things. I believe he taught a class on human sexuality until, as he explained, he didn't think it was a decent thing for him, a 70+ year old man, to teach teenagers how to do it.
The Friday before, I was sitting in a lecture hall in the Department of Chemistry, listening to the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor, David King. His talk was around Science and the government, tracing his advice to the government, some salient programs (the foot and mouth, climate control, UK scientific position wrt other countries, etc.). Although he never addressed it directly, it was the first time I realized with such clarity the tension between providing the UK government with a scientific competitive edge/advantage on the one hand, and being dedicated to worldwide advances in human knowledge and to global advice (e.g. global warming). It was also horrific to learn (I at least didn't know) that top UK seismologists had been to India and Indonesia the past summer to raise the need for a broad tsunami alert system in the area, which the governments said they couldn't afford. Some of the scientists were so alarmed (since a 1979 study they'd known it was the most unstable of plate boundaries), that he/she went back and put posters on beaches warning of tsunami signs in November, a month before the catastrophe. (Now, why should I be more horrified: it doesn't change the impact of the tsunami. )
I guess what I'm getting at is that although this place can be awfully stifling in creativity, suffocatling soaked in traditions and hair-pullingly slow in implementing changes, there is also an outstanding amount of lectures and possibilities in knowledge cross-pollination once one learns where to look.
On Tuesday night, Jane Goodall came and gave a talk. She was launching a Roots and Shoots program - environmental sustainability, making a difference, not giving up despite our anger wrt to the legacy from previous generations. She had an aura - an aura of integrity is the best way I can describe it. Several times she credited her PhD supervisor (she went straight from secretarial school to PhD without BA or MS) for supporting her, and steering her in the right direction. We were lucky enough to have met him earlier this year at a formal dinner at one of the more formal colleges - an adorable old man with a great passion for teaching and for learning. He did sociology and anthropology, biology, zoology, a whole range of things. I believe he taught a class on human sexuality until, as he explained, he didn't think it was a decent thing for him, a 70+ year old man, to teach teenagers how to do it.
The Friday before, I was sitting in a lecture hall in the Department of Chemistry, listening to the UK's Chief Scientific Advisor, David King. His talk was around Science and the government, tracing his advice to the government, some salient programs (the foot and mouth, climate control, UK scientific position wrt other countries, etc.). Although he never addressed it directly, it was the first time I realized with such clarity the tension between providing the UK government with a scientific competitive edge/advantage on the one hand, and being dedicated to worldwide advances in human knowledge and to global advice (e.g. global warming). It was also horrific to learn (I at least didn't know) that top UK seismologists had been to India and Indonesia the past summer to raise the need for a broad tsunami alert system in the area, which the governments said they couldn't afford. Some of the scientists were so alarmed (since a 1979 study they'd known it was the most unstable of plate boundaries), that he/she went back and put posters on beaches warning of tsunami signs in November, a month before the catastrophe. (Now, why should I be more horrified: it doesn't change the impact of the tsunami. )
I guess what I'm getting at is that although this place can be awfully stifling in creativity, suffocatling soaked in traditions and hair-pullingly slow in implementing changes, there is also an outstanding amount of lectures and possibilities in knowledge cross-pollination once one learns where to look.
The Journey
an old poem I stumbled upon this morning in my stupor:
The Journey
One day you finally knew
What you had to do, and began,
Though the voices around you
Kept shouting
Their bad advice –
Though the whole house
Began to tremble
And you felt the old tug
At your ankles
“Mend my life!”
Each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
Though the wind pried
With its stiff fingers
At the very foundations,
Though their melancholy
Was terrible.
It was already late
Enough, and a wild night,
And the road full of fallen
Branches and stones.
But little by little,
As you left their voices behind,
The stars began to burn
Through the sheets of clouds,
And ther was a new voice
Which you slowly
Recognized as your own,
That kept you company
As you strode deeper and deeper
Into the world,
Determined to do
The only thing you could do.
Determined to save
The only life you could save.
- Mary Oliver
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
white chemistry
It's white this morning - it's been snowing on and off for the past couple of days, but it wasn't sticking. This morning though, there's a small layer - the rugby fields outside my window look especially cold and unwelcoming. It's a small enough amount of snow that it doesn't look fluffy, just about to be gray, cold, and muddy.
I'm taking an intensive course which spans just two weeks and starts next Monday. An MIT guy, that's why he can get away with the unusual schedule. And because it's a legal course, the reading is crazy - BUT, bless them, it's all photocopied into one neat little package. No more hunting books around across 5 libraries (which is what I'd started doing after I got the reading list and before I was told about the reading pack). It's utterly depressing (the topic of the class is environmental legal frameworks and economic incentives).
Quoting a study. On Air Quality:
It gets worse. On Chemicals,
And later in the chapter,
Finally on the petrochemical industry,
Well, good morning to you all anyway :S
I'm taking an intensive course which spans just two weeks and starts next Monday. An MIT guy, that's why he can get away with the unusual schedule. And because it's a legal course, the reading is crazy - BUT, bless them, it's all photocopied into one neat little package. No more hunting books around across 5 libraries (which is what I'd started doing after I got the reading list and before I was told about the reading pack). It's utterly depressing (the topic of the class is environmental legal frameworks and economic incentives).
Quoting a study. On Air Quality:
There are roughly 48,000 industrial chemicals in the air in the United States, only a quarter of which are documented with toxicity data.
It gets worse. On Chemicals,
Of the 70,000 chemicals in commercial use in 1995, only 2% had been fully tested for human health effects, and 70% had not been tested for any health effects of any kind. At least 1000 new chemicals are introduced into commercial use each year, largely untested. The chemical industry continues to grow at a rate of 3.5% each year, thus doubling every 20 years.
And later in the chapter,
In the early 1980s, the National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council completed a four-year study and found 78% of the chemicals in highest-volume commercial use had not had even "minimal" toxicity testing. Chemical safety can't be based on faith. It requires fact.
Finally on the petrochemical industry,
produces about 265 million metric tons of hazardous waste annually. About a third of this waste is emitted, uncontrolled, into the environment. Only about one per cent of the industry's toxic waste is actually destroyed. Unlike the steel, auto, and electric-power industries, the petrochemical industry -- on its present scale ast least - is not essential. Nearly all its products are substitutes for perfectly serviceable preexisting ones: plastics for paper, wood, and metals; detergents for soap; nitrogen fertilizer for soil, organic matter, and nitrogen-fixing crops (the natural sources of nitrogen); pesticides for the insects' natural predators...
Well, good morning to you all anyway :S
Sunday, February 20, 2005
book reviews
130 - that's the number of books and articles I've read since October. It's actually a big understatement, it's only the number of books and articles I've taken notes on and compiled into my reading database. All in all, there's probably 50 more I've at least used in some assignments. That feels pretty incredible!
Just recently I finished "Chaos" by James Gleick. It's a very accessible history of the science of chaos and chaos theory, with much in terms of the biographies of the major scientists. Chaos is fascinating, and yet trivially obvious in a way. Why shouldn't simple rules create incredibly complex behavior? Actually if you know nothing about it, I'd start with one that caught my imagination even more, it's called "Ubiquity: the science of history - or why the world is simpler than we think" by Mark Buchanan. Terrific account of the applications of power laws and chaos theory in everyday life.
The other I'm about 15 pages away from finishing is Foucault's "Discipline and punish" (surveiller et punir in the original French title). He's one of those authors who seems to have more of a following in the US and UK than in France. You honestly can't miss him here, everyone from political scientists to economits, sociologists, anthropologists and lawyers quote him and his "panopticon" (more on that in a sec). The book is really an account of the evolution of punishment, while at the same time being a brilliant analysis of power relations in society. Whether you're interested in class structures, education, torture, the evolution of hospitals or prisons, the difference between gender power relations, Foucault is relevant. What he's most famous for, probably, is the explanation of the panoptic society: a society which is constantly monitoring and examining and keeping files on everyone. And even when it's not, the citizens think it might be, which means that citizens internalize a strong sense of being watched, and self impose discipline upon themselves.
Just as a side note, the "Panopticon" is an architectural design introduced by a man named Bentham, originally for prisons, where all prisoners look onto a courtyard with a tower. They cannot see whether someone is in the tower or not, but if someone is, that person can surveil (?) everyone at the same time. The tower acts as the reminder (just like a camera would) that you are or might be under surveillance.
Do you think reality TV is our version of the panopticon, i.e. our way of playing voyeurs onto everyone else's life without being seen?
Just recently I finished "Chaos" by James Gleick. It's a very accessible history of the science of chaos and chaos theory, with much in terms of the biographies of the major scientists. Chaos is fascinating, and yet trivially obvious in a way. Why shouldn't simple rules create incredibly complex behavior? Actually if you know nothing about it, I'd start with one that caught my imagination even more, it's called "Ubiquity: the science of history - or why the world is simpler than we think" by Mark Buchanan. Terrific account of the applications of power laws and chaos theory in everyday life.
The other I'm about 15 pages away from finishing is Foucault's "Discipline and punish" (surveiller et punir in the original French title). He's one of those authors who seems to have more of a following in the US and UK than in France. You honestly can't miss him here, everyone from political scientists to economits, sociologists, anthropologists and lawyers quote him and his "panopticon" (more on that in a sec). The book is really an account of the evolution of punishment, while at the same time being a brilliant analysis of power relations in society. Whether you're interested in class structures, education, torture, the evolution of hospitals or prisons, the difference between gender power relations, Foucault is relevant. What he's most famous for, probably, is the explanation of the panoptic society: a society which is constantly monitoring and examining and keeping files on everyone. And even when it's not, the citizens think it might be, which means that citizens internalize a strong sense of being watched, and self impose discipline upon themselves.
"to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automicati functioning of power. so to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action." "a power that objectifies those on whom it is applied. discipline is the unitary technique by which the body is reduced as a 'political' force of the least cost and maximised as a useful force. the extreme point of penality today would be an infinite discipline: an interrogation without end, a judgment that would at the same time be the constitution of a file that was never closed, a procedure that would be at the same time the permanent measure of a gap in relation to an inaccessible norm.
Servan: A true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas; this link is all the stronger inthat we do not know of what it is made and we believe it to be our own work.
Just as a side note, the "Panopticon" is an architectural design introduced by a man named Bentham, originally for prisons, where all prisoners look onto a courtyard with a tower. They cannot see whether someone is in the tower or not, but if someone is, that person can surveil (?) everyone at the same time. The tower acts as the reminder (just like a camera would) that you are or might be under surveillance.
Do you think reality TV is our version of the panopticon, i.e. our way of playing voyeurs onto everyone else's life without being seen?
UL and blah blah
I have an ongoing love-hate relationship with the biggest of the 123 libraries of the university, the UL. Now, it's convenient (just behind the college) and it's got a ton of stuff and books can be borrowed for 8 weeks, BUT it's the craziest of bureaucracies.
I've gone over some of them before, but most recently, I was happily reading my Foucault when I received a stern letter asking me to return my book (due on April 1st) within the next 5 days. Just like that. the uncaring bastards!
It was truly a beautiful (and freezing) day yesterday, but I've learned to re-arrange my weekends such that on Saturdays at least I do some work (the library being closed on Sundays). So I climbed to the top of 'my' habitual corner, the 6th (7th if you're in the US) floor of the South Front, found a seat that allowed me a good view of the top of King's College Chapel, and read up. After a while, I knew I'd have to work my way to a new corner of the UL, the microfilm/microform room (they use both names, just like they use Cam Uni and Uni of Cam).
I set out on my trek - I guess I should mention that there are no elevators and that the UL is like a small block in and of itself -, scouting for signs to the microform reading room. My girl scout skills must still be tuned in because I made it remarkably effortlessly. A quick glance around and I notice three different 'order forms' for requesting items. Ha, not knowing better I pick one at random, feel it out as best I can, hand it in to the frontdesk for inspection. "Sorry, love, you'll have to bear with us for a while, the lady's on a coffee break". Fine, i sit down and keep reading. 45 minutes later the afore mentioned lady comes over, hands me a CD-ROM (?!?) and asks me if I have access to the digital libraries area. the what? You mean the UL has stepped foot in the 20th century already (I'm not expecting them to realize we're in the 21st yet)?? Of course I don't have access, I didn't even know it existed ! Off I pack my stuff in a hurry to follow her to Ali Baba's cave as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately neither does she have a password. I wonder why we trekked all the way then. She informs me (finally there's a bit of pity in her eyes) that it's not manned on Saturdays. That to get access to the digital resources I need to ask the front desk but the people who do it aren't here on saturdays either.
so much for rearranging my week around my saturdays at the UL! Oh well, at least there was the nice view of the chapel. I'll do better next time. I actually think (am I becoming masochistic?) that I'll bravely attempt to get my hands on a pre-1975 book, because I know that this requires yet another set of byzantinian rooms and request forms and mapping tables. There's nothing like great adversity to build character !
I've gone over some of them before, but most recently, I was happily reading my Foucault when I received a stern letter asking me to return my book (due on April 1st) within the next 5 days. Just like that. the uncaring bastards!
It was truly a beautiful (and freezing) day yesterday, but I've learned to re-arrange my weekends such that on Saturdays at least I do some work (the library being closed on Sundays). So I climbed to the top of 'my' habitual corner, the 6th (7th if you're in the US) floor of the South Front, found a seat that allowed me a good view of the top of King's College Chapel, and read up. After a while, I knew I'd have to work my way to a new corner of the UL, the microfilm/microform room (they use both names, just like they use Cam Uni and Uni of Cam).
I set out on my trek - I guess I should mention that there are no elevators and that the UL is like a small block in and of itself -, scouting for signs to the microform reading room. My girl scout skills must still be tuned in because I made it remarkably effortlessly. A quick glance around and I notice three different 'order forms' for requesting items. Ha, not knowing better I pick one at random, feel it out as best I can, hand it in to the frontdesk for inspection. "Sorry, love, you'll have to bear with us for a while, the lady's on a coffee break". Fine, i sit down and keep reading. 45 minutes later the afore mentioned lady comes over, hands me a CD-ROM (?!?) and asks me if I have access to the digital libraries area. the what? You mean the UL has stepped foot in the 20th century already (I'm not expecting them to realize we're in the 21st yet)?? Of course I don't have access, I didn't even know it existed ! Off I pack my stuff in a hurry to follow her to Ali Baba's cave as far as I'm concerned. Unfortunately neither does she have a password. I wonder why we trekked all the way then. She informs me (finally there's a bit of pity in her eyes) that it's not manned on Saturdays. That to get access to the digital resources I need to ask the front desk but the people who do it aren't here on saturdays either.
so much for rearranging my week around my saturdays at the UL! Oh well, at least there was the nice view of the chapel. I'll do better next time. I actually think (am I becoming masochistic?) that I'll bravely attempt to get my hands on a pre-1975 book, because I know that this requires yet another set of byzantinian rooms and request forms and mapping tables. There's nothing like great adversity to build character !
Saturday, February 19, 2005
two for one
"For around a decade, a group of campaigners have been arguing that the public shouldn't have to pay to read the results of the scientific research which it has, through its taxes, financed. Feelings are particularly high when it comes to government-funded medical research. Patients' rights groups argue vociferously that it is ethically wrong to charge for access to the latest medical discoveries. (...) On Feb 3rd American's National Institute of Health (NIH), the world's biggest sponsor of medical research, announced that from May it wil expect the research work which it has helped to finance to be made available online, to all comers, and free, within a year of that research having been published in a journal. (...) A victory, then, for the open-access campaigners. But only a partial one. The NIH's announcement is actually a retreat from the proposal originally circulated last year, which was for open access within six months of first publication. The NIH appears to have backed down under pressure from commercial publishers, as well as from professional societies tht fund their activities by publishing journals." (The Eco, Feb 12th-18th 2005:83-84)
"Love me, love my dog
A few years ago, some researchers studying human mating patterns tried the following experiment. They took photographs of individuals in established relationships, mixed them together, and asked their experimentl subjects to pair up likely looking couples from the pictures. More often than chance, the photo-couples thus created were also real couples. This is an example of what biologists call assortive mating - that who chooses whom (and also who is willing to be thus chosen) - is to some extent predictable. But despite the corny observation that owners grow to look like their dogs, and vice versa, no one really expected the same rules to apply to people and their pets.
But it seems they do. (description of basically the same experiment as above. note that clothing is blanked out to not give a clue). As in the case of human couples, correct guesses were made significantly more often than chance. (Note that it only worked with pedigree, not with mongrel.). " (Id.)
Now I feel less bad that a Canadian customs officer once asked us if we were siblings.
"In America, Howard Dean was elected as chairman of the Democratic National Committee". everyone is speaking of the public regaining a hold of a party that was losing its popular base. the republicans seemed especially pleased at this 'unbred' leader. (The Eco, Feb 19th-25th)
"Is the MBA responsible for moral turpitude at the top?
(This one's for you, Sonia!)
In an extraordinary mea culpa, Sumantra Ghoshal, a respected business academic who died last yer, argued in a paper to be published shortly that the way MBA students are taught has freed them "from any sense of moral responsibility" for what they subsequently do in their business lives." (id.) The article then goes on to argue that the recently most corrupt execs often didn't have MBA's, and that business schools now have tons of ethics courses.
Still, there remains, I believe, a serious underlying issue of mistrust wrt MBAs, not least of which among engineers.
"Anti-Americanism
George Bush will encounter a more complex animosity than is often portrayed when he ventures abroad next week.
Most people's feelings about America are complicated. 'America', after all, is shorthand for many other terms: the Bush administration, a Republican-dominated Congress, Hollywood, a source of investment, a place to go to study, a land of economic opportunity, a big regional power, the big world power, a particular policy, the memory of something once done by the United States, a set of political values based on freedom, democracy and economic liberalism, and so on.
The incandescent third-world demonstrator, shrieking "Down With America!" in one breath and "Can you get me a green card?" in the next, has become a commonplace." (id.)
That's the trouble with this magazine. It chooses interesting topics, gets close to interesting remarks, and always sinks before the end into pathetic contempt for the world. arg.
And in the end, an article on education policy in the UK. But their argumentation is faulty. They place excellence and a drive for equality in opposition. But that only works if the old elites are the only ones ever to produce excellent minds, what about the potential of the others?
Oh I forgot a couple, let me append them here, starting with New York:
"The residents of just 20 streets on the east side of Central Park donated more money to the 2004 presidential campaigns than all but five entire American states. " wow.
"... the puzzle that the city seems to be a caring socialist republic of cut-throat capitalists. ... yet it is pretty much the most segregated city in America. ... although the place is famous for business and finance, plenty of New Yorkers work in jobs that come with a built-in social conscience." (we'll come back to that one as it's closely related to my thesis).
Did you know that the new hippies take a year off to go work at a call center in India, payed Indian wages? What a world (p. 70).
And, since I rarely miss an opportunity to complain about the absurd dominance of the US, some figures on the new passport standards mandated by the US. "In a trial conducted in December at Baltimore International Airport, three of the passport readers could manage to read the chips accurately only 58%, 43% and 31% of the time, according to confidential (no more) figures reported in Card Technology magazine (An official at America's Department of Homeland Security confirmed that "there were problems"). ".
that'll be it !
"Love me, love my dog
A few years ago, some researchers studying human mating patterns tried the following experiment. They took photographs of individuals in established relationships, mixed them together, and asked their experimentl subjects to pair up likely looking couples from the pictures. More often than chance, the photo-couples thus created were also real couples. This is an example of what biologists call assortive mating - that who chooses whom (and also who is willing to be thus chosen) - is to some extent predictable. But despite the corny observation that owners grow to look like their dogs, and vice versa, no one really expected the same rules to apply to people and their pets.
But it seems they do. (description of basically the same experiment as above. note that clothing is blanked out to not give a clue). As in the case of human couples, correct guesses were made significantly more often than chance. (Note that it only worked with pedigree, not with mongrel.). " (Id.)
Now I feel less bad that a Canadian customs officer once asked us if we were siblings.
"In America, Howard Dean was elected as chairman of the Democratic National Committee". everyone is speaking of the public regaining a hold of a party that was losing its popular base. the republicans seemed especially pleased at this 'unbred' leader. (The Eco, Feb 19th-25th)
"Is the MBA responsible for moral turpitude at the top?
(This one's for you, Sonia!)
In an extraordinary mea culpa, Sumantra Ghoshal, a respected business academic who died last yer, argued in a paper to be published shortly that the way MBA students are taught has freed them "from any sense of moral responsibility" for what they subsequently do in their business lives." (id.) The article then goes on to argue that the recently most corrupt execs often didn't have MBA's, and that business schools now have tons of ethics courses.
Still, there remains, I believe, a serious underlying issue of mistrust wrt MBAs, not least of which among engineers.
"Anti-Americanism
George Bush will encounter a more complex animosity than is often portrayed when he ventures abroad next week.
Most people's feelings about America are complicated. 'America', after all, is shorthand for many other terms: the Bush administration, a Republican-dominated Congress, Hollywood, a source of investment, a place to go to study, a land of economic opportunity, a big regional power, the big world power, a particular policy, the memory of something once done by the United States, a set of political values based on freedom, democracy and economic liberalism, and so on.
The incandescent third-world demonstrator, shrieking "Down With America!" in one breath and "Can you get me a green card?" in the next, has become a commonplace." (id.)
That's the trouble with this magazine. It chooses interesting topics, gets close to interesting remarks, and always sinks before the end into pathetic contempt for the world. arg.
And in the end, an article on education policy in the UK. But their argumentation is faulty. They place excellence and a drive for equality in opposition. But that only works if the old elites are the only ones ever to produce excellent minds, what about the potential of the others?
Oh I forgot a couple, let me append them here, starting with New York:
"The residents of just 20 streets on the east side of Central Park donated more money to the 2004 presidential campaigns than all but five entire American states. " wow.
"... the puzzle that the city seems to be a caring socialist republic of cut-throat capitalists. ... yet it is pretty much the most segregated city in America. ... although the place is famous for business and finance, plenty of New Yorkers work in jobs that come with a built-in social conscience." (we'll come back to that one as it's closely related to my thesis).
Did you know that the new hippies take a year off to go work at a call center in India, payed Indian wages? What a world (p. 70).
And, since I rarely miss an opportunity to complain about the absurd dominance of the US, some figures on the new passport standards mandated by the US. "In a trial conducted in December at Baltimore International Airport, three of the passport readers could manage to read the chips accurately only 58%, 43% and 31% of the time, according to confidential (no more) figures reported in Card Technology magazine (An official at America's Department of Homeland Security confirmed that "there were problems"). ".
that'll be it !
Monday, February 14, 2005
Guatemala over Microsoft
Ok, they've officially pissed me off. Microsoft has no business pushing for specific interest-serving international government policies. They probably choose not to know what actually goes on in these countries, and the amount of fighting against CAFTA that's been happening on the ground.
It would warm my heart to see a few good people resign after this.
See below a Microsoft ad on the op-ed page of the NY Times extolling the virtues of CAFTA. (credit to my Guatemalan friend N.. for passing along).
Doesn't 'peace and progress' strangely resemble the language of 'shock and awe'?
http://www.microsoft.com/issues/essays/2005/02-09trade.asp
Peace and Progress
Congress has an opportunity to boost jobs in the United States and
reinforce stability in our hemisphere
Resources
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Read background and the full text of DR-CAFTA.
Business Coalition for U.S.-Central America Trade
Learn why hundreds of U.S. companies support free trade with Central
America
The Case For CAFTA
Get a briefing paper from the Center for Trade Policy Studies.
U.S. Department of State
Find out more about Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Microsoft Corporate Citizenship
Learn about the company's efforts on behalf of people and communities
worldwide.
Posted February 9, 2005
This year, decisions before Congress on three key trade issues may
determine whether the United States continues to make progress in
opening markets around the world - and whether we continue to nurture
rising democracies at our doorstep.
Congress will be asked to vote on maintaining U.S. membership in the
World Trade Organization, renewing the president's trade-promotion
authority and approving a free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA, signed last
year by the United States, the Dominican Republic and five Central
American nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua.
Map of Central America
Click on map to enlarge
On all three issues, Microsoft urges affirmative votes that will help
create jobs, stimulate economic growth and sustain innovation here in
the United States and around the world. Staying in the WTO and renewing
trade-promotion authority will simply maintain policies that have helped
open global markets for U.S. goods and services. Approval of DR-CAFTA
will accelerate this progress and promote stability in a region vital to
U.S. interests.
In recent years, many of us in the United States have barely noticed as
peace and democracy have spread across Central America. Peace agreements
in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala have ended all guerrilla wars in
the region. All the nations signing DR-CAFTA have now had a string of
free elections of civilian governments.
Yet these countries still face enormous challenges - including
widespread poverty and growing competition from other emerging economies
in the markets for their agricultural and textile exports. To raise
living standards and stem the flow of emigrants headed north, these
countries are looking for help from increased trade with the United
States.
For the United States, approval of DR-CAFTA will immediately reduce
trade barriers that affect 80 percent of our industrial goods and more
than half our agricultural products. It will create the second largest
market for U.S. goods and services in Latin America, after Mexico.
Particularly important to U.S. technology companies, DR-CAFTA mandates
strong protection for U.S. patents, trade secrets and other intellectual
property - continuing the progress made in other recent trade
agreements. It also requires fair treatment for products delivered
online, and requires that government procurement be open, transparent
and based on merit. These policies are needed for the U.S. technology
sector to compete fairly in global markets.
Congress has consistently approved trade agreements negotiated and
signed by the president - a fact that has contributed to U.S.
credibility in trade talks. Approval of DR-CAFTA - along with continuing
membership in the WTO and renewed trade-promotion authority - will help
advance trade principles that the United States is promoting around the
world.
Favorable votes on all three issues will create jobs and economic
opportunities in our country - and help maintain U.S. leadership in the
global economy. As well, DR-CAFTA will aid six of our close neighbors in
their hard-won progress toward a brighter future.
It would warm my heart to see a few good people resign after this.
See below a Microsoft ad on the op-ed page of the NY Times extolling the virtues of CAFTA. (credit to my Guatemalan friend N.. for passing along).
Doesn't 'peace and progress' strangely resemble the language of 'shock and awe'?
http://www.microsoft.com/issues/essays/2005/02-09trade.asp
Peace and Progress
Congress has an opportunity to boost jobs in the United States and
reinforce stability in our hemisphere
Resources
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative
Read background and the full text of DR-CAFTA.
Business Coalition for U.S.-Central America Trade
Learn why hundreds of U.S. companies support free trade with Central
America
The Case For CAFTA
Get a briefing paper from the Center for Trade Policy Studies.
U.S. Department of State
Find out more about Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Microsoft Corporate Citizenship
Learn about the company's efforts on behalf of people and communities
worldwide.
Posted February 9, 2005
This year, decisions before Congress on three key trade issues may
determine whether the United States continues to make progress in
opening markets around the world - and whether we continue to nurture
rising democracies at our doorstep.
Congress will be asked to vote on maintaining U.S. membership in the
World Trade Organization, renewing the president's trade-promotion
authority and approving a free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA, signed last
year by the United States, the Dominican Republic and five Central
American nations: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and
Nicaragua.
Map of Central America
Click on map to enlarge
On all three issues, Microsoft urges affirmative votes that will help
create jobs, stimulate economic growth and sustain innovation here in
the United States and around the world. Staying in the WTO and renewing
trade-promotion authority will simply maintain policies that have helped
open global markets for U.S. goods and services. Approval of DR-CAFTA
will accelerate this progress and promote stability in a region vital to
U.S. interests.
In recent years, many of us in the United States have barely noticed as
peace and democracy have spread across Central America. Peace agreements
in El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala have ended all guerrilla wars in
the region. All the nations signing DR-CAFTA have now had a string of
free elections of civilian governments.
Yet these countries still face enormous challenges - including
widespread poverty and growing competition from other emerging economies
in the markets for their agricultural and textile exports. To raise
living standards and stem the flow of emigrants headed north, these
countries are looking for help from increased trade with the United
States.
For the United States, approval of DR-CAFTA will immediately reduce
trade barriers that affect 80 percent of our industrial goods and more
than half our agricultural products. It will create the second largest
market for U.S. goods and services in Latin America, after Mexico.
Particularly important to U.S. technology companies, DR-CAFTA mandates
strong protection for U.S. patents, trade secrets and other intellectual
property - continuing the progress made in other recent trade
agreements. It also requires fair treatment for products delivered
online, and requires that government procurement be open, transparent
and based on merit. These policies are needed for the U.S. technology
sector to compete fairly in global markets.
Congress has consistently approved trade agreements negotiated and
signed by the president - a fact that has contributed to U.S.
credibility in trade talks. Approval of DR-CAFTA - along with continuing
membership in the WTO and renewed trade-promotion authority - will help
advance trade principles that the United States is promoting around the
world.
Favorable votes on all three issues will create jobs and economic
opportunities in our country - and help maintain U.S. leadership in the
global economy. As well, DR-CAFTA will aid six of our close neighbors in
their hard-won progress toward a brighter future.
Sunday, February 06, 2005
peace, love, and understanding
If you could give a country one but not the other, would you give peace or would you give democracy?
I'm not sure that the question is in fact as stupid as it seems at first.
I'm not sure that the question is in fact as stupid as it seems at first.
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
suggestions, anyone?
Good morning,
I've had an incredibly frustrating hour and a half simply trying to scan an illustration from a book and get it sized and oriented correctly. So I'm in no mood to be nice to computers.
From the book I most recently finished, "Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender" (Kirkup, Gill and Laurie Smith Keller (eds.), 1992. London: The Open University), a paragraph on computers and the military. I'd always noticed it at microsoft (the war teams, the triage, the windows guy who was an israeli tank commander), but I hadn't actually paid attention to the language of computing itself. The author, in this case Gill Kirkup in a short article titled "The social construction of computers: hammers or harpsichords?", points out the importance of military needs in determining developments in computers, then goes on to say,
"Unfortunately the language and imagery of computing retains an association with its military origins even when it is being used outside that context. Terms like 'crash', 'abort', 'terminate', 'kill', 'execute', 'violate', 'penetrate', 'degrade', 'disable' are part of a discourse which is deeply implicated with aggression and militarism."
On a lighter note, all hail rock climbing! I have found 'evidence' that it makes other people happy too. An academic whose name is Csikzentmihalyi did research on what makes people fell good. He talks about a sense of "flow" (people usually call it 'the zone' though), an experience where the person feels no more self-consciousness, no sense of time, is in total concentration. And he uses rock climbing as the perfect example. (This is from a book called "Lean Thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation" by Womack and Johnsen).
Finally, suggestions anyone? I had a talk with my dissertation supervisor who happily noted that I had enough interest to cover 50 PhD dissertations. Given that I need to perform 1 small MPhil dissertation, I need to scope it down but remain interested. please send suggestions !
I've had an incredibly frustrating hour and a half simply trying to scan an illustration from a book and get it sized and oriented correctly. So I'm in no mood to be nice to computers.
From the book I most recently finished, "Inventing Women: Science, Technology and Gender" (Kirkup, Gill and Laurie Smith Keller (eds.), 1992. London: The Open University), a paragraph on computers and the military. I'd always noticed it at microsoft (the war teams, the triage, the windows guy who was an israeli tank commander), but I hadn't actually paid attention to the language of computing itself. The author, in this case Gill Kirkup in a short article titled "The social construction of computers: hammers or harpsichords?", points out the importance of military needs in determining developments in computers, then goes on to say,
"Unfortunately the language and imagery of computing retains an association with its military origins even when it is being used outside that context. Terms like 'crash', 'abort', 'terminate', 'kill', 'execute', 'violate', 'penetrate', 'degrade', 'disable' are part of a discourse which is deeply implicated with aggression and militarism."
On a lighter note, all hail rock climbing! I have found 'evidence' that it makes other people happy too. An academic whose name is Csikzentmihalyi did research on what makes people fell good. He talks about a sense of "flow" (people usually call it 'the zone' though), an experience where the person feels no more self-consciousness, no sense of time, is in total concentration. And he uses rock climbing as the perfect example. (This is from a book called "Lean Thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation" by Womack and Johnsen).
Finally, suggestions anyone? I had a talk with my dissertation supervisor who happily noted that I had enough interest to cover 50 PhD dissertations. Given that I need to perform 1 small MPhil dissertation, I need to scope it down but remain interested. please send suggestions !
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