Wednesday, May 31, 2006

photo: san diego petting zoo


pink twins and a deer, originally uploaded by BrianS..

photo of the week

Thursday, May 25, 2006

An Inconvenient Truth

Al Gore's movie about the greenhouse effect, "An Inconvenient Truth," will soon be showing everywhere. The film may convince skeptics of global warming that there is no longer any doubt (from a NYT Op-Ed):

Many who already believe global warming is a menace will flock to the film; many who scoff at the notion will opt for Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks. But has anything happened in recent years that should cause a reasonable person to switch sides in the global-warming debate?

Yes: the science has changed from ambiguous to near-unanimous. As an environmental commentator, I have a long record of opposing alarmism. But based on the data I'm now switching sides regarding global warming, from skeptic to convert.

[The] research is now in, and it shows a strong scientific consensus that an artificially warming world is a real phenomenon posing real danger.

Check out the film's website, ClimateCrisis.net

Sunday, May 14, 2006

what to do about OBESE children

NYT Talking Points feature, "The Big, Fat American Kid Crisis"

Over the last 30 years, obesity rates have doubled among pre-schoolers and tripled for those age 6 to 11. For those added pounds, the young are starting to pay a terrible price. Adult diabetes has rapidly become a childhood disease. Pediatricians are seeing high cholesterol and high blood pressure and other grown-up problems in their patients. Teachers and school psychiatrists are coping with a plague of shame and distress among children whose size subjects them to hazing and other cruelties by their classmates.
The author's list of how to reverse the trend of childhood obesity:
  • 1. Stop Bombarding Children With Junk Food Ads
  • 2. Proselytize for Healthy Eating
  • 3. Ban the Junk Food in Schools
  • 4. Upgrade the School Snack
  • 5. Tax the Fatteners
  • 6. Stop Subsidizing Junk Food
  • 7. Start Subsidizing Healthy Food for Poor People
  • 8. Label Food in Chain Restaurants
  • 9. Educate Parents and Teachers
  • 10. Exercise for Everybody

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Intelligent Thought : Science versus the Intelligent Design Movement

via Boing Boing...

John Brockman of Edge.org on "Intelligent Thought," a new book of essays released today:

This book — sixteen essays by Edge contributors, all leading scientists from several disciplines — is a thoughtful response to the bizarre claims made by the [Intelligent Design] movement's advocates, whose only interest in science appears to be to replace it with beliefs consistent with those of the Middle Ages. School districts across the country — most notably in Kansas and later in Pennsylvania, where the antievolutionist tide was turned but undoubtedly not stopped—have been besieged by demands to "teach the debate," to "present the controversy," when, in actuality, there is no debate, no controversy. What there is, quite simply, is a duplicitous public-relations campaign funded by Christian fundamentalist interests.
Amazon has some great quotes in their Editorial Review of Intelligent Thought
An evolutionary understanding of the human condition, far from being incompatible with a moral sense, can explain why we have one. —Steven Pinker, a cognitive scientist

What counts as a controversy must be delineated with care, as we want students to distinguish between scientific challenges and sociopolitical ones. —Marc D. Hauser, evolutionary psychologist

Incredulity doesn’t count as an alternative position or critique. —Marc D. Hauser, evolutionary psychologist

Rather than removing meaning from life, an evolutionary perspective can and should fill us with a sense of wonder at the rich sequence of natural systems that gave us birth and continues to sustain us. —Scott D. Sampson, paleontologist

Monday, May 8, 2006

The Accidental Empire : Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977

from the NYT Sunday book review...

Generally speaking, there have been two prevailing explanations: one of Israeli innocence, the other of guilt. In the first, the tiny state was forced into war in 1967 and grabbed Gaza, Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan Heights in self-defense, planning to hold them only until they could be safely traded for peace. In the other, Israel used its victory in 1967 deliberately to expand its borders. It disenfranchised the locals, stole their land and settled the territories with religious fanatics.

Now Gershom Gorenberg, an American-born Israeli journalist, has produced a remarkably insightful third account. In "The Accidental Empire," he portrays the first two decades after '67 as a melancholy story of inadvertant colonialism. It's a groundbreaking revision that deserves to reframe the entire debate.

According to Gorenberg, the Israelis did not quite acquire their colonies as the British were said to, in a fit of absent-mindedness — but just about. In 1967, Israel won an unexpected victory in a war it didn't seek and found itself sitting on new territory three times its original size.

But Prime Minister Levi Eshkol was paralyzed by this unhappy prize. He refused either to annex the land (since this would mean either expelling or absorbing 1.1 million Arabs) or to return it (since Israel's 1949 borders were deemed indefensible).
Instead, he and his Labor Party successors (Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin) pursued a policy of no policy. The tragedy of this dodge, Gorenberg reveals, was that it ended up amounting to a policy anyway, for "stalemate was the soil in which settlements grew." As the deadlocked cabinet dithered, a decisive few — mostly young zealots dreaming of a biblical "Greater Israel" — took action.
The Accidental Empire : Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977 by Gershom Gorenberg

a bicycle resurgence

Bicycle is king of the road as gas costs rise.

London, Paris, Chicago, Bogotá and Seoul have embarked on major campaigns to incorporate the bicycle into traffic grids. The results have led to substantial shifts in fuel consumption, commuting times and even real estate values.

Consider the case of Enrique Peñalosa, the mayor of Bogotá from 1998 to 2000. In that city of seven million, he set in motion a transformation of the transport grid with measures like peak-hour restrictions on cars and about 300 kilometers, or 185 miles, of bicycle paths. He said that cycling has become a primary mode of transport for 5 percent of the population, up from 0.1 percent when he started. The share using the car as primary mode, by contrast, has fallen to 13 percent of the population from 17 percent.
The IHT article goes on to discuss the economic advantages of accommodating cyclists as well as the reversal of the trend in some developing countries like India and China, "Eight years ago roughly 60 percent of Beijing's work force cycled to work but that percentage has dropped below 20 percent."

Sunday, May 7, 2006

stars are made (through practice)

Switching to sports for a moment. Dubner & Levitt (the Freakonomics guys) highlight the Expert Performance Movement, led by Anders Ericsson. The idea is that great "talents" in any given field aren't as naturally gifted as might be assumed, but that they have honed their skills through deliberate practice:

Deliberate practice entails more than simply repeating a task — playing a C-minor scale 100 times, for instance, or hitting tennis serves until your shoulder pops out of its socket. Rather, it involves setting specific goals, obtaining immediate feedback and concentrating as much on technique as on outcome.

Friedman: "With a Congress like this, who needs Al Qaeda?"

Friedman decries empty political gesturing in a NYT Op-Ed entitled Lets (Third) Party.

What would OPEC do if it wanted to keep America addicted to oil? That's easy. OPEC would urge the U.S. Congress to deal with the current spike in gasoline prices either by adopting the Republican proposal to give American drivers $100 each, so they could continue driving gas-guzzling cars and buy gasoline at the current $3.50 a gallon, or by adopting the Democrats' proposal for a 60-day lifting of the federal gasoline tax of 18.4 cents a gallon. Either one would be fine with OPEC.
Friedman envisions a centrist, forward-looking third party (the "American Renewal Party") as a solution. Less narrowly focused and less liberal than the Green Party, its primary focus would be on energy.
The only way Americans are ever going to enjoy relatively cheap gasoline again is if we raise the price now with a gasoline tax— and fix it at that higher level for several years — so investors know that it is not coming down, and therefore it makes economic sense for them to make the long-term investments in alternative, renewable sources of energy. That is the only way to break our oil addiction and ultimately bring down the price.

Friedman on Energy

Thomas Friedman opining on our addiction to OPEC oil:

Economists have long taught us about the negative effects that an overabundance of natural resources can have on political and economic reform in any country: the "resource curse." But when it comes to oil, it seems that you can take this resource curse argument a step further: there appears to be a specific correlation between the price of oil and the pace of freedom.

I call it the "First Law of Petropolitics," and it posits the following: The price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions in petro-ist states.

According to the First Law of Petropolitics, the higher the price of global crude oil, the more erosion we see in petro-ist nations in the right to free speech, a free press, free elections, freedom of assembly, government transparency, an independent judiciary and the rule of law, and in the freedom to form independent political parties and nongovernmental organizations. Such erosion does not occur in healthy democracies with oil.

Saturday, May 6, 2006

finals matchup: LeBron vs Kobe?

A quote at the end of this NYT article on LeBron's rise to stardom caught my attention.

If the N.B.A. is as much like professional wrestling as I think it is, the league will find a way to manipulate a Kobe-LeBron finals matchup within the next two seasons.
If only it would come true.

Friday, May 5, 2006

the Shangri-La Diet :: the next fad?

The Shangri-La Diet is based on a simple and crazy premise: adding 2 tbsp of olive oil a day to your diet will speed up your metabolism, make you feel a lot less hungry, and regulate your body weight (the author lost 35lbs in 3 months!?). I remember first reading about this quirky professor's idea in Freakonomics(silly name, great book) and how over like 20 years he methodically/scientifically tested many different diet regimes on himself.
If this works anything like he claims (clinical trials are scheduled!), then I really should start buying stock in the olive oil commodities market.
Goodbye Atkins, hello extra virgin extra light olive oil.

more about the the Shangri-La Diet from Amazon's book description(just released, it's currently a top-5 best-seller)..

Psychologist and professor Seth Roberts has spent years analyzing why most diets don't work. A maverick with a curious mind, and a yen for self-experimentation, he started by asking a simple question most experts haven't tackled: What makes us feel hungry in the first place?

After scouring the scientific literature and tirelessly testing various theories and practices, Roberts hit upon a simple, effective strategy for controlling the body's internal "set point"- that is, the thermostat that controls weight gain or loss. Roberts lost thirty-five pounds in only three months, and he has kept it off for five years. Since then, others have replicated these results, andThe solution was counterintuitive: By taking two daily servings of either extra-light olive oil or plain sugar water, he took control of his appetite, with astonishing results. Formal clinical trials will soon be under way.

Tuesday, May 2, 2006

booyah JC


I have to admit to loving Jim Cramer's investment theories, his rules for investing, and the emphasis he puts on doing your own homework. Yes, his rhetoric is over-the-top and his show seems overly focused on entertaining. But, every once in a while JC demonstrates just how sincere and normal he is, in a genius with ADHD type way. The evenings that I miss his show I find myself waiting impatiently for Mad Money Recap to post his every spoken word.
His book, Real Money, of course is exceptional too.
And what's more fun than going over to Mad Money Performance (sadly only 2 months tracked) at the Street.com to see his track record and the few he's been completely wrong on.

essential program list

these programs are free, some are opensource, and all are better than what else is out there.

  • Google Pack - use Google Pack to install the latest versions of Firefox, Picasa, Ad-Aware SE Personal, Google Talk, and Adobe Reader (I recommend only installing these and not all the other ones)
  • Firefox - best internet browser
    Ad-Aware SE Personal - for spyware removal
  • OpenOffice - free office suite (use instead of Microsoft Word, Excel, etc)

  • Zone Labs: Zone Alarm - firewall

  • avast! antivirus

  • VLC media player - plays every file media file type (mp3, avi, mpg, etc)

  • 7-Zip - for archives, compressed files (better than WinRar, WinZip)

  • Google Toolbar - for Firefox

  • MP3tag - rename and tag MP3s

  • 1-4a rename - bulk file renamer

  • CDex - rip CDs and transcode MP3s

  • File Sharing

  • eMule edonkey2000 client

  • Azureus - bittorrent client
  • Monday, May 1, 2006

    preparing to make money

    My own scattered ideas have been focused by Marshall Brain's plan: How to Make a Million Dollars
    He advocates a "go-for-it" entrepreneurial spirit coupled with a solid idea, and hopefully a little luck, as the best way to escape the work-for-someone-else/make-money-for-someone-else cycle.
    Brain has made me rethink my entertainment-filled free-time ways.

    You are never going to get rich practicing video games. What I would suggest is that you stop playing video games. And get rid of your television. Take the music off your iPod. Instead go get some books-on-CD that talk about starting businesses. ... Put those on your iPod and listen to them over and over again.
    I had already reserved 1/100th of my iPod for Michel Thomas's excellent Spanish (and previously German) learning language series. By deleting some bizarre French alternative rock (I never really got that excited about) I made room for Brain's first recommended audiobook, Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad


  • How to Make a Million Dollars

  • Understanding and Controlling Your Finances

  • Rich Dad Home

  • Rich Dad Poor Dad

  • The Automatic Millionaire

  • The One Minute Millionare

  • more Business & Investing books
  •