eapen

Closing Up

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:26:31 GMT

April 3rd I will be switching to a new blog on Wordpress to be announced soon. The limitations of livejournal are a few too many but this journal has certainly served its purpose.

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Found a really good review of Explosions in the Sky:

With a reputation for a scathingly intense live performance and a quickly sold-out CD-R demo, How Strange, Innocence, which was later reissued in 2005, Explosions in the Sky was touted early on in their career as the next phenomenon in moody and dynamic instrumental indie rock à la Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor! The quartet of Texas kids, made up of Mark Smith and Munaf Rayani on guitars, Michael James on bass, and Christopher Hrasky on drums, was signed for its first release on Temporary Residence Limited after half a listen to their demo, which was submitted by the American Analog Set with a brief note saying "This totally f*cking destroys." From that, they released their first six-song album, Those Who Tell the Truth, in the latter half of 2001. After a new record, 2003's contemplative The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place, and the 2005 re-release, Explosions in the Sky, who had by this time garnered a dedicated fan base, came out with All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone in 2007. ~ Blake Butler, All Music Guide

Thought of the Day

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 12:56:18 GMT

Initial thought: Risk is systemic and it is futile to assume it away or to think you can completely arbitrage or diversify out of risk.

Immediate revision: Erroneous! Just convince the government to guarantee all your risk!

Sobering reflection: Party-line GOP/conservatives don't make fine distinctions between economics, god, and social issues or national security. And no one listens to the libertarians. And the Democrats have broad social coalitions that are great in terms of coming to terms with liberal democracy but unfortunately incentivize populist economic platforms.

Friday Night Lights

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:33:15 GMT

I am highly enjoying the television series Friday Night Lights, which is available on Hulu. It is a richly textured sports drama that has to be one of the top efforts in the genre.

And it doesn't hurt that Explosions in the Sky do all the music for the soundtrack.

Line of the Day

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 14:13:35 GMT

From the animated cartoon The Simpsons, Episode 300 (You Kent Always Say What You Want) comes this gem.

Lisa Simpson: There are a lot of religious watchdog groups out there keeping the world safe from the horrors of free expression..

Oh, how true.

Trent Reznor on the Economics of Scalping

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:30:21 GMT

Worlds collide as Eric Crampton, economist at Canterbury University, gets some commentary from death metal god (and classical pianist) Trent Reznor on the economics of scalping. Haven't listened to Nine Inch Nails in forever but the group is of course extremely important if you ever are interested in the alt-rock/goth-rock scene and its evolution...or if you are interested in some precisely articulated goth rock that does not back down even when it gets uncomfortable NIN is it. I prefer their slower, more melodic work but there is certainly a time and a place for the harder, more cynical stuff.

Hat Tip: Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

The Legacy of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:29:46 GMT

It's worse than I imagined. Hearing the details of American torture of prisoners evokes the accounts of torture that I've read from books covering the Holocaust or Soviet secret prisons, or the NKVD in Poland. I recommend people read those accounts, though they are stomach-churning. Link to the New York Times op-ed here. An excerpt from the conclusion follows:

For the men who have committed great crimes, this seems to mark perhaps the most important and consequential sense in which “torture doesn’t work.” The use of torture deprives the society whose laws have been so egregiously violated of the possibility of rendering justice. Torture destroys justice. Torture in effect relinquishes this sacred right in exchange for speculative benefits whose value is, at the least, much disputed.

As I write, it is impossible to know definitively what benefits — in intelligence, in national security, in disrupting Al Qaeda — the president’s approval of use of an “alternative set of procedures” might have brought to the United States. Only a thorough investigation, which we are now promised, much belatedly, by the Senate Intelligence Committee, can determine that.

What we can say with certainty, in the wake of the Red Cross report, is that the United States tortured prisoners and that the Bush administration, including the president himself, explicitly and aggressively denied that fact. We can also say that the decision to torture, in a political war with militant Islam, harmed American interests by destroying the democratic and Constitutional reputation of the United States, undermining its liberal sympathizers in the Muslim world and helping materially in the recruitment of young Muslims to the extremist cause. By deciding to torture, we freely chose to embrace the caricature they had made of us. The consequences of this choice, legal, political and moral, now confront us. Time and elections are not enough to make them go away.

Many American Presidents and elected officials have broken the law egregiously at times; earlier in American history the nation's government was responsible for perpetrating very serious crimes against humanity. What is so profoundly depressing to me is that after all these years that this nation should know better. The promise of America and the reason why this nation has been so successful in its search for greatness is that we seek to be honest with ourselves and the world in seeking truth and justice and it is a promise that is poorly served by a return to the ethics of the barbarian.

Propaganda-like Marketing On Twitter

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:44:57 GMT

From @USHousing:

I am going to challenge everyone to be more positive.Even if life looks horrible, being negative won't help! Both sides need to be positive!

Sounds vaguely like rhetoric from totalitarian governments. I clicked through and found out that @USHousing is a company that's apparently presented a recovery plan to congress. Their brochure sounds kind of sketchy and quickly skimming the introduction did not enlighten me what exactly their plan was. They also were very careful at one point to claim that they were not a "vulture fund".

Another Day, Another Game-Changing Google Service

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 12:11:14 GMT

Google Voice debuts. NYT story here.

Line of the Day

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 15:19:04 GMT

The blog Subject to Change has the subtitle:

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

The author of the blog would know. Link here.

Mr. President vs. The Pope

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:32:29 GMT

President Barack Obama's lifting of restrictions on federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research puts him at odds with Pope Benedict and the American Roman Catholic Church.

After Obama signed the order on Monday, the Vatican and U.S. Church leaders condemned the move. One commentator said the test of "a real democracy" was its defense of the most defenseless.

link here.

<sarcasm>Of course the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church would know all about real democracy, with its long history of inclusive participatory decision-making and vigorous prosecution of wrong-doers.</sarcasm>

Perhaps the Catholic Church could start by turning child molesting priests over to the authorities, stop hating gay people, and stop thinking that 1200 years of psychotically bad policy-making qualifies them to ride a moral high horse.

A Profound Truth from a Sad Article

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:23:31 GMT

Ed Hickling believes he knows why. Hickling is a clinical psychologist from Albany, N.Y., who has studied the effects of fatal auto accidents on the drivers who survive them. He says these people are often judged with disproportionate harshness by the public, even when it was clearly an accident, and even when it was indisputably not their fault.

Humans, Hickling said, have a fundamental need to create and maintain a narrative for their lives in which the universe is not implacable and heartless, that terrible things do not happen at random, and that catastrophe can be avoided if you are vigilant and responsible.

--From the Washington Post, by Gene Weingarten, Sunday, March 8th.

This was a difficult article to read, but the insight is profound; I feel it is applicable and has powerful explanatory power for much of human behavior. I also think that this article is worth a Pulitzer. It is only a gesture, but there are far too many people are unreasonably vindictive in response to completely random events. And the writer approaches a difficult topic with humanity and a necessary deftness.

Why I hate the social conservative abortion agenda

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:54:36 GMT

I am chronically aggravated by the fact that abortion debates are so powerful in terms of distracting people. Right now there is a bill in the Missouri Legislature that would criminalize attempts to coerce someone to agree to an abortion. While I strongly dislike social structures where that is possible and where women are denied information and choices, I'm stunned that people think that this is a big issue. I would rather have our legislature fixing the underlying problems of the social strata that are far more relevant to the citizenry. This does not have to conflict with your idea of a pro-woman agenda. Rather it's quite true that problems like meth labs and gang violence are vastly more credible in terms of impact calculus and result in great human pain and suffering.

It seems to me that this bill is in the legislature because of the tendency of social conservatives to ignore big picture problems and play hardball on a couple issues. My guess is that social conservatives want to pass a bill in some state legislature that results in a lawsuit through which they can issue a more direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. It would be far more productive for these intellectually bankrupt moralizers to stop wasting my time and act as mentors to disadvantaged children in their communities. If they were concerned about abortion as an issue, steering kids away from bad life choices is a much more effective route.

Seriously! Do what I've done! Go to your local high school and find out where you can volunteer your time.

A Serious Goal

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:59:25 GMT

I want to see Explosions in the Sky live. Two show dates are here. I do not forecast having either the time or the money to see either of those shows. But I would go if the conditions were right.

The Randian Comparison Strikes Again!

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:17:19 GMT

The merits of libertarianism can be debated elsewhere (and I regard those debates legitimate) It seems to me though that few take Ayn Rand's monolithic view of human nature and action to be realistic. Wherever you stand on that is your business, but it seems to me that everyone can agree that it's straight up painful to read her books, either because the writing is bad or because the thinking is bad (tends to attract the irrational and the fanatic). This is so true that every once in a while you get a good snippet of criticism that uses The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged as a basis for comparison. Like this paragraph, from a rather negative review of the Twilight series:

Basically, this book makes it sound like marrying the guy you had a baseless crush on in high school is a good thing (just don't have sex with him until then!). It encourages young women to make irrevocable, life-altering decisions based on the sensation of being seventeen and in love and reinforces a sick, patriarchal view of sexuality.Like The Fountainhead, it should probably not be read by young people.

Link here.

Quick Obama Thought

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:49:51 GMT

I think it is worth noting that in many respects Obama is right in claiming his arguments are far more nuanced than the big vs. small government nomenclature elucidates. I see many of his arguments as falling neatly into statements articulating the critical linkages between legal development/architecture and financial development.

The Enemy of My Friend

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:36:29 GMT

Asim: and pelase root against arsenal
(13:35:17) Asim: for me
(13:35:23) Me: of course
(13:35:23) Asim: they are my sworn enemies
(13:35:25) Aim: thank you

On Patriotism, Criticism, and the Military

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:55:02 GMT

One of the things that I don't understand (or that seems illogical to me) is the populist (conservative?) attitude to the military. As someone who takes the idea of military service fairly seriously, I have a few thoughts. I might also add that my father is in the USAF Medical Reserve.

First, I don't assign automatic respect to people choosing to serve in the military. My argument here is twofold; the first half is that you can't assign noble intentions to people joining the military. There are many reasons to join the military; patriotic, noble reasons aren't the only ones and I hazard a guess that the prospect of stable, long-term employment is a big one, though there are others. And militaries typically don't screen your motives so it's not the case that only the soldiers that make it to employment are exclusively the ones with noble ambitions. Second, I don't think its correct to automatically assign privileged status to soldiers; if anything, I think that precisely that since they're the ones handed such great power that they are the people we should hold to a much higher standard.

I have two other major arguments: First, corruption and evil are endemic human tendencies and it is not the case that even the best militaries have always acted honorably. A brief and unvarnished look at American military history is not a flattering one, and anyone who is intellectually honest should admit that. Second, evaluations should be at least partially outcome-based; it does not matter what your intentions were upon joining the military when your unit becomes involved to war crimes.

Militaries I think tend to reflect the societies they are culled from; I think that in some ways that ignorantly criticising militaries or governments is a way for people to scapegoat their own complicity in those same systems of power and governance. And militaries are incredibly effective tools at defending liberty. Criticism of the military or of the systems that control military should I think be much less emotional; one of the things that I truly regret is the vapid polarization of the public debate that involves militaries. Criticism is patriotic, but patriotism is rarely solely a good idea to do something.

Nabokov, Interviewed

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:17:54 GMT

Question: In  Ada Van says that a man who loses his memory
will room in heaven with guitarists rather than great  or  even
mediocre  writers.  What  would be your preference in celestial
neighbors? 

Nabokov: It would be fun  to  hear  Shakespeare  roar  with  ribald
laughter on being told what Freud (roasting in the other place)
made  of  his plays. It would satisfy one's sense of justice to
see H. G. Wells invited to more  parties  under  the  cypresses
than  slightly  bogus Conrad. And I would love to find out from
Pushkin whether his duel with Ryleev, in May, 1820, was  really
fought in the park of Batovo (later my grandmother's estate) as
I was the first to suggest in 1964.

-Time, 1969.

They don't make interviews like that anymore.

Another Good Line

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:49:19 GMT

Machinery is a way in which human beings express and confess their own powerlessness...
-Mike Hagan

On Plans

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:16:25 GMT

If I were serious about studying and learning economics, one of the most useful things I could do with my live is go to India. I have a sense that there are incredibly important things to be learned there and after all, some of the most important work in economics is on understanding developing economies.

On Courtesy

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 02:57:18 GMT

I'm not very good at this, but I hope my shortcomings don't influence other people in bad ways: Showing courtesy and consideration is important.

Have you passed through this night?

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:59:38 GMT

This great evil - where'd it come from?
How'd it steal into the world?
What seed, what root did it grow from?
Who's doing this?
Who's killing us, robbing us of life and light, mocking us with the sight of what we mighta known?
Does our ruin benefit the earth, aid the grass to grow and the sun to shine?
Is this darkness in you, too?
Have you passed through this night?

The Next Few Days

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:32:01 GMT

As I approach the next few days, I want to say that I am in deep debt. I owe my parents more than I can repay, my sisters and brothers a debt of gratitude that's larger than the norm.

I'm grateful also to my friends. The company and knowledge of others may be the only true pleasure granted to us in this life.

I hope that I am a good and intelligent person because of what has been given to me and that I become a man of character and integrity.

A Good Auspice

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:00:31 GMT

I am glad to note that I live my life surrounded by literate, intelligent people. Honestly, I don't think I've been this happy in years. Perhaps that is more a comment on my emotional maturity.

The Cost of Saying No

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 12:39:34 GMT

The article discusses this from a female-oriented perspective, but I feel that this is true for men as well. I also hypothesize that sexism happens most within the context of micropolitical relationships in developed economies. This is a very loose hypothesis so please take it at face value: a loose hypothesis.

These super achievers would be the first to tell you that they do not have it all together. They have their little crises. They forget birthdays; they're late to staff meetings and soccer games more often than they'd like. They cry in the car every now and again. That's no shock, really; everyone's life has ragged edges and little dings.

What is more of a surprise, to me at least, is how much these superwomen tend to agree about the "yes question" as they reflect on their career bumps and bruises, many sustained from falling off the ladder and scrambling to get back on.

Go ahead, they'd all tell you, say no anytime you want. Say no to the relocation 500 miles away from the one house and one town that your kids know as home. Say no to working one weekend so you can be with your ailing father before it's too late. Say no to the client who wants it done tomorrow so you can go on the vacation you've been planning for a year with your best friend. But before you utter that word, know the consequences of that answer, or, as my friend the corporate president calls it dryly: the consequence kickback.

"You can say no, and you can restore some order and balance to your life," she says. "And your career can even thrive, but you will have narrowed the opportunities. That's the way it is."

Article here.