Random Reaction

New Orleans' Rebuilt Levees "Riddled With Flaws" - National Geographic Not to beat a proverbial dead horse , but is this really news? Is anyone truly surprised by this? Nothing against NGS of course - they are investigating and reporting, but I am just stunned at the level of denial in New Orleans, and indeed around the country about what has to happen on our coastlines. I understand that a traumatic event happened to their hometown, and people want to make it like it used to be, but that is denial of the highest order,and satisfies the pop culture definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Face it: New Orleans either needs to be moved or restricted to higher ground (I understand this is why the French Quarter suffered relatively little damage). I didn't mention it in my last post, but do they think rebuilding New Orleans below sea level is going to become a better idea with global warming leading to sea level rise? No...

Paul Krugman gets close to a concept that I thought of from the very beginning of the sales job leading up to the Iraq War: "I wasn’t really surprised by Republican election victories in 2002 and 2004: nations almost always rally around their leaders in times of war, no matter how bad the leaders and no matter how poorly conceived the war." He doesn't quite go there, but to me, the next logical step to this, cynical as it sounds, is that war can be a useful tool for the party in power to get re-elected. The whole changing one's horse in mid-stream concept. It is a staggering thought that one of the main motivations for going to war in Iraq under false pretenses was to maintain power, but this administration has proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that politics and maintaining power trumps everything else. I mean, it has been well-documented that the president was telling everyone he wanted to link Saddam to 9/11, within days of that tragedy, even though everyone knew it...

I think it is quite hypocritical of Apple to have a commercial indicating how all this "crapware" comes pre-loaded on PCs, and doesn't on Macs. I expect that there is more, on average, in a PC than a Mac, but the commercial implies that the Mac has none, which is patently not true . The apologists come out in force in the comments to this blog: http://theappleblog.com/2007/04/16/new-stuffed-commercial/ It's OK when Apple does it, just not the PC world.

Let a Hurricane Huff and Puff - New York Times On the Gulf Coast of Texas, Jim Hayes is building houses on concrete stilts that he says will shrug off winds of more than 130 miles an hour and will easily survive the worst hurricane flooding. Near Orlando, Fla., modest but striking cottages are being built with safe rooms and ballistic nylon storm shutters. In the Florida Panhandle, Jason Comer is putting up a village of gleaming white mansions with eight-inch concrete walls and heavy, ridged concrete roofs. Is it just me, or does this represent a special version of stupidity?  Does it occur to any of these people NOT to keep building on the coast?  Does it occur to the taxpayers that we should not be subsidizing building in the hurricane zones and floodplains, only to further subsidize the rebuilding of the houses when the disaster strikes?  Talk about a vicious circle!  [Caution: logic-based sarcasm ahead - use at the risk of penetrating your denial and hubris]...

WWdN: In Exile: catching up, part two http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4919866 Wil Wheaton is on the money as usual, talking about a lack of time to do everything we would like to do with our lives. I have WAY more ideas than I have time to execute. Totally agree with the practice discourse as well, both as it relates to creativity and to performance. Kung Fu is my classic example of performance. I have done martial arts on and off for years, and the value of practice is fairly obvious at the beginner level - you have to practice to learn the moves. But now that I am into traditional Shaolin Kung Fu , I am starting to understand more deeply how practice starts to bring pieces together. Practicing allows you to make moves without thinking about them, so you can then focus on learning to make the moves in a relaxed way, which improves speed, and paradoxically, power. The next step (I would imagine - we have not been taught this), is to bring your chi into your every move, which...

Miles Per Cob - New York Times This article in the NY Times prompted me to write about what I think should be happening with regards to the CAFE standards.  They propose that it become the "Carbon Alternative Fuel Equivalent," which is fine, but they say that the proposed changes to the CAFE standards misses the point.  I think they are overly focused on ethanol as a solution.  We need more fuel efficient cars, period.  Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. made this point clearly (and presciently, only months after 9/11) here .  There is not enough ethanol available to make a huge difference in our overall gas needs, as Howard Simons notes in his article on TheStreet.com:  We could run through a similar exercise with ethanol. If we distilled the entire U.S. corn crop and used none of it for human or livestock consumption, we could displace 85 days of gasoline consumption. That is not to say ethanol cannot help us in our current situation - it can.  But not nearly as...

I know Brad has quite the social conscience, what with the trips to Africa and Asia to help those less fortunate, etc. So clearly, his move to help the unlucky folks in New Orleans to get back into housing and on their feet comes from a desire to do the right thing. But (and you knew there had to be one, didn't you?) why is he focusing on rebuilding the Lower 9th Ward? My understanding is that is one of the lowest areas of the city. How is helping rebuild there helping people in the long run? If you really want to help them Brad, get them out of the hole in the ground below sea level!! While I understand the desire to help people rebuild their home, isn't it the definition of insanity to keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result? With hurricane intensity and frequency increasing, and sea level rising, can anyone make a convincing case that this is a good idea? I mean is it just me , or is this an incredible amount of human hubris that we can somehow hold back n...