Fractal Geometry

Huh.

2009-03-16T09:34:32Z

Apparently I have a box # at my school.

I do not think I physically have a box, so, what, does the Chem E Desk Lady (JoAnne--yes I know her name!) just send me an email if someone ever sends me mail?

And how the hell did I not know this until 1 day before I graduate?

Weird. Weird, I declare.

...

2009-03-09T09:53:19Z

Hi.

So.

CJ has totally lost track of what has been going on on LJ. Yeeps. >_<

So here's a short summary of my life as it stands.

Final week of classes EVAR (at least for a while) starts today.
Final paper of UO due Thursday (12th) morning.
Monday (16th): Final in Alternative Energy class.
Tuesday (17th): Plane flight to Denver
Wednesday (18th): Interview with the CSB (OMGWTFBBQ AAARGH)
Wednesday (18th): Plane flight to Seattle post-interview.
Hopefully Ursula picking me up from airport is also Wednesday.
Thursday (19th): hang out with people and demolish room decor.
Friday (20th): dad comes, we cram all my stuff into the Acadia and drive back to Richland
Weekend (21st-22nd): Lots of celebratory graduating-ness.  Will be there alcohol?  I think so.
Monday (23rd) drive back up to Seattle to meet friend named Morgan from teh Internets
Tuesday (24th) Seattle tourism, The Watchman concert (Tom Morello?  Very yes.) at the Crocodile Cafe.
Wednesday (25th): drive home from Seattle, hopefully without hangover.
Thereafter: TBD

The concert thing literally just happened tonight.  WOW I was not anticipating being back in the city quite so soon.

Am really hoping I get this job in Denver. It looks like the kind of thing I would actually enjoy. I mean, who doesn't want to go all CSI on industrial plant accidents? Also, it's the only employer who's answered my application since January....  Don't get me wrong, though.  Still my 1st choice.

So...what's everyone else been up to?

Overheard at the metaphorical water cooler

2009-01-20T23:54:51Z

As anyone who hasn't been living in a cave for the last several months knows, today Barack Obama became the acting President of the United States. I dragged my sorry butt awake at 8 in the morning to watch the proceedings. They were lovely and poignant and truly something that felt shared by every citizen of this country.

One thing I've noticed about Obama and anyone on his staff who makes public statements is that he avoids the topic of race. He made a few little omages to racism in the inauguration speech, acknowledging the moment without being too dogmatic about it. The implications of his election are pretty obvious.

...Or so I thought. But now I'm not so sure it's so obvious. Take what I overheard a classmate say:

"Everyone's talking about how this just means so much to black people. But it's basically irrelevant. George W. Bush was a white guy. Did the fact that he was white have an effect on us [whites]? Not really."

I'm between being horrified and embarrassed by this guy. I'm so dumbfounded, in fact, that I'm finding it difficult to throw together a coherant rebuttal. But I'm going to try here, for the sake of my own sanity.

Racism exists. The only people who consistently say that racism doesn't exist are people who have lived such isolated, homogenous, or possibly ignorant lives that the best they cannot recognize their own hypocracy. It is a deep primal instinct to be discriminating of those who are "different," "not of the tribe," "genetically defective." It's a natural selection thing that must be consciously overcome. Declaring "I'm not a racist" is almost always false. "I do my best to live by the belief that all people deserve equal treatment under the law and by their fellows" is probably more accurate, if legalistic, statement, and even then most of us build in moralistic loopholes.

This is not to say that everyone, or even most of us, are vindictively or even intentionally racist. And as we as a society become more refined in our definition of discrimination, institutionalized racism is waning. It is by no means gone. Statistically speaking, there should be about 15 black senators. There is one--Roland Burris, who currently fills Obama's vacated seat.

The statistics inspire some to change, but more often they suppress the motivation to do so. I've had many black classmates who consistently say that they're fighting an opposing current, that they can't get ahead of the curve, that the system is against them. Obama's election sends a powerful signal that the "system," be it beurocracy, democracy, civil rights law, or something less definable, that the time for inspiration is here. It tells them, you are a minority, but we are listening. We hear you. We are fighting for you. Don't settle for less.

George W. Bush was the "settle for less" candidate, classmate. He has never been an inspiring or inspired mind. He was the public face of the right-wing hawks, and the rest of us didn't care enough to go vote for the other guy. His white, Texan blandness was fine because we felt fine. We weren't in a recession, we didn't have any outstanding internation crises to deal with, and frankly the Republican party had all the better strategists.

But over the last eight years we have seen our rights eroded, our financial system protections gutted, our industries become more irresponsible, and our international integrity disappear. As a measure for any president, it is decidedly uninspiring.

Obama's race has always been a secondary factor next to his policies. I don't know a single person who voted for him or against him because he was the black guy. The very fact that race has become irrelevant to policy is the reason it's relevant to the demise of institutionalized racism.

That matters for all of us, black, white, asian, latino or other. It says that we are better now than we were, and that all of us, especially oppressed people, have brighter hopes. And if we have hope, all things are possible

Note: this still feels sloppy to me. I will come back and edit it later.

I vote for Option 3

2008-11-29T14:15:44Z

Sophomore year of high school (so, six years ago now) I was rollerblading and fell hard on my flat palm. I had a very sharp, intense pain followed by numbness. The PE instructor inspected it, said it was fine, and sent me on my way. Later, I fell on it again. Ever since then, I have reoccurring pain and consistent weakness in a very specific place in my left hand, right near the wrist in the exact middle, dorsal ("out") side.

The pain comes on gradually. I notice it when putting on my backpack or opening doors. I wear my carpal-tunnel brace to keep me from doing anything else that would bring a sudden jolt of pain, but keeping my hand straight doesn't seem to make the condition itself subside. It just keeps me from cursing and crying in public as much.

This happens roughly every 2months or so, and ranges from mildly annoying to excruciatingly painful. It's most noticeable when my hand is flexed backward, like for a push-up. As I am pretty much ambidextrous, there are quite a few things I do with my left hand. I almost always open doors with it, for example. It makes this condition 10 times more annoying.

I've seen three different doctors; a family practitioner, a feet & hands specialist and a sports medicine doctor. The sports medicine gal was the only one who ever really offered me an explanation. Once she established that no bones were broken or dying (don't ask) she suggested they do a CMRI to see if there was a torn tendon in there that has scarred over. Considering my symptoms, this fits. However, since there's no good treatment, and surgery doesn't usually fix this type of injury very effectively, and because the CMRI procedure would involve them sticking big needles directly into my wrist, I have just kind of lived with the pain.

One of the things the docs always ask is, is there anything in particular that causes the pain to come back--sudden impact, lots of typing, etc.? My answer is no, I've ruled out pretty much everything because nothing consistently brings on the pain. A case in point has been the last few days.

Yesterday it was pretty bad. I amounted it to having written a 50,000-word story in 25 days and spent a number of hours on video games the day before. I stretched it out a little (which is painful as HELL. Anyone here who's been through physical therapy probably has an idea about that) and went right back to playing video games for oh, 12 or 14 hours.

Today? The pain is gone, just back to the perpetual stiffness. This sudden disappearance is unusual. Usually it just gradually subsides. Even the ganglian cyst that developed in my hand two years ago has shrunk. This leaves me with 3 theories:

1. Doctors are wrong and I have some even more bizarre condition. Say, Leprosy.
2. Stretching once every 90 minutes or so is a cure for scarred tendon pain and/or causes rapid healing.
3. Video games are in fact an awesome treatment and I should play more of them.

I think I will experiment with option 3 over the break and see how it goes.

Teh Winnar

2008-11-28T13:47:07Z

So here's what happened today.

I got up at 11, threw on a sweatshirt and ran down to the only open convenience store on University Way for milk for my non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner of chicken alfredo, only to discover that Rite Aid's fridge is broke and they, in fact, have no milk.

I came back home, and after grumbling for a while set out to finish up my novel today. I had actually ended the novel the night before, but as it stood at 48,010 words, it did not qualify to win the contest. So I went back and found a place I could shove in some extra scenes, which turned out decently and left me at exactly 50,010 words.

Well, not so much according to the idiot bot that counts the words on the website. Some difference between it and Word '07 caused the website to only accent 49,009 of those words. I think it has a prejudice against hyphens.

So I grumbled a little more, went back and shoved in an extra 125 words in the premise that nobody would probably notice, and resubmitted. The glorious winner's site loaded, and I stole from it this graphic:

I will officially be able to concentrate on neglected lab reports, papers and presentations for the remaining week of the quarter. Oh, and maybe some Christmas shopping.

As for the novel (if any civilized person could call it that), I am not sure if I'm going to go back and clean it up, or at least anytime soon. It started out as a neat idea, or at least neat imagery, but looking back I'm finding it full of gaping plot holes, ambiguities and unaddressed character angst that I'm not sure is redeemable. 50,000 words is *about* 140 pages of hardback novel, plus or minus 15 and depending on the font, and I'm not sure I have enough material in the story to flesh out out into a more reasonable and hole-less work of literary awesomeness. Yes, as the NaNo people keep reminding me in their emails, the brainchild that comes out of NaNo is rarely pretty, as it is written at breakneck speed and zero back-editing or research. But that doesn't make any of it less cringe-worthy on the readthrough.

Still, if you want to read the draft and egg me on about pushing it further, be my guest. Just ask for a copy.

I can haz sleep naow?

Universal complaint letter

2008-11-24T19:08:05Z

Dear people in the Subway line (or any other line for that matter):

1. It is not okay for you to make out while standing in front of me. You're ugly enough without the visual onslaught that is your grotesque pink tongue. No, I don't care HOW much sex you're having.

2. If you brush up against my backpack one more time, it's war. It's not a personal space thing; I just assume you're trying to steal my wallet.

3. Are you that girl who talks 120 mph at Volume 20 about your overly-neurotic scheduling habits in a way that makes it sound like you are complaining that what little you have to do is driving you crazy? Two words: Shut. Up.

Now that all of you have totally turned me off my lunch, I guess I'll just throw it at you.

No love,
CJ

Song Bleg

2008-11-24T16:01:37Z

I've grown quite attached to this album, even though I just bought it. Love the piano and the UK accent. :-3

I only wish it wasn't DRM-enabled. I thought the Zune marketplace didn't have DRM stuff, but now I am stuck only listening to this album on my laptop and Zune and not with the awesome sound card on my PC.

"Somewhere Only We Know"
Keane
Hopes & Fears (2004)

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete

Oh simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting older and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches, are the looking at me?
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?

Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I'm getting older and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin

And if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go somewhere only we know?

Curses!

2008-11-19T21:37:22Z

I was working on my NaNo project during TC class this morning (this prof I have can make volcano eruptions and wildfires boring), and then something terrible happened.

Some stray key was swiped that made the next few key strokes close out of Word without saving. I lost 600 words in one go.

That does not help the fact that I'm 2,500 behind right now. ;_;

Stupid school.

How NaNoWriMo works.

2008-11-10T09:28:43Z

I announced here in my LJ that i was going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month this year. For those...2?...of you who don't know how NaNo works, the goal is to write a 50,000-page novel by the end of November. While it's not impossible, it ain't easy, either. This is a wonderful and frustrating month. And here's how mine has gone so far.

Day 1: It is the wee hours of the morning, after having worked at the start of my new novel since the midnight start. 3,000 words in one day? I'm going to be finished before they even open the word counter for submissions!

Day 3: I actually have not only characters but an emerging plot. And I'm still ahead on the word count. This is going to be cake.

Day 5: Well, ok, even after I got that paper written I'm still caught up to where I should be. All I'll have to do is keep up.

Day 6: Crap, I have a midterm next week. Should probably work more on the novel now and get ahead so I'll have time to study.

Day 9: Behind in the word count all of a sudden. Stupid lab write-ups.

Day 10: Still behind and in desperate need of plot bunnies. The ship, she's goin' down Cap'n! WAAAAAAAARGH!

So there you have it. I'm going to go back to searching the dusy corners of my brain for ideas now.

You know what I know?

2008-11-04T00:23:52Z

Racism is such a touchy subject that even your friends accuse you of hypocrisy when you try to move beyond it.

There is something seriously wrong with this country.

Dreamlog

2008-11-02T01:13:45Z

I had my first-ever "Forgot to Register/Drop classes" nightmare last night. I all of a sudden realized I had been enrolled in a freshman-level math class all quarter and could no longer drop it, having not done any homework or taken any midterms all quarter.

I've never come close to doing something like this in college, so I have no idea where this dream came from. I know it's a common one, but I'm <i>so</i> confused as to why.

End of dreamlog.

I seem to be on to something

2008-10-29T21:51:39Z

My third diary over at the Daily Kos. It is about why I (and young voters) am inspired by the broad sweeping oratory of our favorite Democratic Presidential Nominee.

It had 27 comments and 16 recommenders in under an hour. That's pretty awesome.

Dreaded November

2008-10-27T10:53:52Z

Oh, by the way, I AM participating in NaNoWriMo this year. You can read my author and story info here. Bug me to let you read it!

You know...

2008-10-22T20:10:55Z

You know it's going to be a long line for smoothies when the two counter girls can't figure out the special order "but can I have strawberries instead of mangoes?"

New essay

2008-10-20T07:21:42Z

Come read my first-ever diary over at the Daily Kos! (Intro cross-posted here):

College campuses are always a great venue for extremist views and spiteful slogans, and I've seen my share of them in the last four years. I believe in respecting others' views, even if I don't share them, but once and a while I find myself disturbed by an activists' sign or the flier on the cafeteria table.

If your argument is honest, there should be a way to persuade your audience by complimenting them instead of insulting or scaring them, and as the election nears I have seen more of the latter than I care to remember. Through these observations, I'm reminded that the extremists who aim to perpetuate fear and rage and reason-less ideology exist not only at McCain-Palin rallies, but on the far left flank as well. And I can't stand it.

We admonish right-wingers who use tactics that misinform, intimidate and shame voters, but I think we must be cautious in those admonitions. We must also be prepared to disavow those who share some of our beliefs, but whose goals are ultimately to undermine genuine and serious concerns.

More below the fold.

Live Debate Blogging - The Last

2008-10-16T01:07:42Z

6:04: John McCain says Americans are angry. Have you noticed that at your rallies at all John?  The angry seems to manifest as calling Obama a terrorist, not in calls for cuts in capitol gains tax. And speaking of cap gains taxes, who exactly is paying them right now? My impression was that stock prices are falling faster than those brass parachutes.

6:14:  I hardly believe my ears. McCain just said we SHOULDN'T spread the wealth around. Yes, let's let those CEO's become billionaires while people in south central LA starve and struggle with crack addiction. They don't need our help, they can lift themselves up by their boostraps if they try.

6:18:  John McCain insists that big government is bad. He says big government has never been bigger since the era of "The Great Society."  So, we're no longer aspiring to be great? Bad choice of words, if only that.

Aside: Yes, I'm snarky tonight.

6:39:  I've been yelling for a while now. I can't BELIEVE McCain wants to validate his campaign's idiotic claims about Obama associating with terrorists by bringing them into this debate. Every outlet has cried foul about how exaggurated and alarmist these claims are. I did like Obama's response--basically, "you guys are being dicks and you should shut up."

6:44: The question was, why would Sarah Palin be a better president than Joe Biden, John. Not whether or not she's your "partner."

6:46:  John McCain doesn't think that requiring accountability and oversight in government is going to cost any money. Wow, that's mavricky. He's reached across the reality isle now.

6:48:  In case anyone didn't know this already, and you can take my word on this as an engineer with three internships at Hanford, nuclear power plants don't spring up overnight. They take ten years OR LONGER to build and cost lots and lots of money. We don't have the capability to do it immediately. The Alaska natural gas pipeline won't work immediately either, because we don't have a lot of power plants that burn gas. No solution to high oil prices is implementable RIGHT NOW. McCain needs to stop deceiving people, it's mean.

7:01: McCain thinks that if you like Obama's healthcare plan, you must like Canada and England. I think there are plenty of people out there that are fond of Canada and England, if for no other reason than that their accents are cute. Although Canada's healthcare system has many problems, John, England's is ranked among the best in the world. As is Germany's--and universal healthcare doesn't interfere with the profitability of drug makers. Germany's pharmeceutical and medical technology industries are booming.

I can't believe he wanted to use the same tired line of criticism when Obama stomped on it so thoroughly in the last debate, and is doing again.

This Joe guy is really convenient. Is his last name "Sixpack"?

7:05:  Senator Government. Yeah, That One. He's not Senator Maverick. Boo.

7:09:  John McCain says that any judge supporting Roe v. Wade is not qualified to be in office. I don't want to remind my audience about that whole partisan judge scandal thing that the white house is being investigated about right now, so I'll just say that Obama...should answer the question.

7:12:  McCain wants to change the nation's view on abortion. Pro-life people understand that everyone needs to think that abortion should be banned. Speaking as a "pro-abortion" (who calls themself that?) movement member, take a read-through of the first amendment, will you? Also? Only 10% of people in this country believe that abortion should be absolutely illegal. Why does EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM seem to work for the government?

7:21:  Did I just hear McCain propose that we deregulate teaching certification? Oh dear god.

7:26:  McCain keeps trying to fight Obama on issues they agree on. What the hell is this supposed to accomplish other than the impression that McCain has no idea where his opponent is on these issues?

7:28:  McCain's closing statements are so general that Obama could have made the exact same speech and his his demographic nodding. Oh, but there goes the "country first" and "great honor/POWPOWPOW" thing. Does his campaign really run on about 5 catchphrases?

EDIT: A commentator on MSNBC declared the winner of the debate tonight to be Joe the Plumber. Heh.

Live Debate Blogging

2008-10-08T01:10:51Z

6:10: Sen. McCain says that the new Secretary of the Treasury should be someone ordinary Americans identify with. Knowing how bad the math skills of most ordinary Americans are, I don't want any of them NEAR the treasury...

6:13: I'm really getting tired of this "greed and excess" line. Greed and excess have always existed. It's up to regulators to make sure they don't get out of hand. Obama mentioned AIG a few minutes ago. If the Feds had been paying attention to the loan money, that executive spa trip would never have been allowed to happen in the first place.

6:20: Obama: "We are mortgaging our children's future." Effective line.

6:23:  McCain is anti-planetarium.

6:29:  There's the overhead projector again. Does McCain not think that making kids interested in science is a good thing? Education standards have gone up; with it the cost of educational equipment.

6:36: McCain mentioned that the last time taxes were raised was when Hoover was in charge. Weren't we talking about the Great Depression earlier?

6:40:  I kind of wanted to hear a full answer to that question about entitlements, but I think it's good that Obama's spelling out the tax plans. Surveys show a lot of people still believe mistruths about Obama's tax plan.

6:41: McCain: "It's not that hard to fix social security."  Oh yeah?  How come nobody's done it yet?
6:44:  McCain [On Nuclear Power]: "Senator Obama says it has to be safe...or...something like that. But look..." Whoa, whoa, whoa. Not good John. If you're going to tell the audience what the other guy thinks about the issue, you should probably know. Also, dismissing nuclear safety? A LOT of people in this country are still very uneasy with how safe nuclear power generation is.

6:53: McCain counters Obama's accusation that his healthcare policy will combust employer-based healthcare is to....ignore it. If you ignore it long enough, it goes away, right?

7:07: Obama: we have a moral obligation to help others, if we can successfully convince others that that obligation exists. McCain: Obama doesn't understand the complexity and delicacy of situations like that. We could make things worse, or better. These answers both reflect bad steriotypes of the candidates: Obama is young and niieve, and McCain is old and lacks conviction.

7:18: ZOMGWTFBBQ McCain said Obama was right about stuff!!!!one!eleventy1

7:21:  Uh, Senator McCain?  I'm not sure that talking to Russia like the country's leadership is a bunch of criminals in need of reform is going to make them like us more.

"He banned Fahrenheit 451! He banned a book about banning books!"

2008-09-29T20:19:11Z

Before I forget:

This week is National Banned Books week. Take a few hours and read Harry Potter or Catcher in the Rye or (Really?) Huckleberry Finn. Thank your librarian for fighting the power.

It's a low key commemorative week.

Edit: Check out this link from the American Library Association.

Quick Hit: Pakistan

2008-09-27T04:03:51Z

John McCain said during the debate that Pakistan had not had leadership since the time of Alexander the Great. He said he'd seen the tribal areas and that they were chaos.

I think there are a lot of tribal leaders in Pakistan who would strongly object to the notion that the lack of a big centralized Western (dare I say imperial) government is the only kind of substantive leadership that counts.

I think there are plenty of tribal leaders who would disagree with him.

I have never been to Pakistan, but I do know people who have, who are actually from tribal areas of the middle east. They get offended at the idea that tribal peoples don't understand the concept of leadership, that the lives they lead are full of chaos. They balk at westerners who promote that westernized democracy is the only kind of government and deeply believe that such concepts are shortsighted and even prejudiced.

One of the big reasons that tribes in the mountains near where Al Qaeda is hiding have not helped the US more in removing the terrorist organization is an ancient custom in Islam stating that whether or not you agree with him, a guest in your village is your responsibility to protect. It's a "good neighbor" sentiment, a type of "small town" civility that conservatives often tout.

A psychology professor I once had said that you can boil global cultural viewpoints into two main categories: that there is only one governing philosophy behind human action, or that there are multiple philosophies that are all valid. John McCain's camp seems to believe very firmly in the former.

While I may not agree with Pakistani tribal leaders' decision to shelter Al Qaeda, as it ultimately undermines their safety as well as the safety of all people on Earth, I think John McCain's comments about a lack of leadership in the country are glib and even insulting. We may not agree with these people, but we can't treat them as lesser human beings simply because of that.

Debate: first impressions

2008-09-27T02:39:09Z

Obama: Things are complicated, and it will take a complex strategy and a complex and flexible government to address them.
McCain: Senator Obama doesn't understand. I'm OBVIOUSLY the better candidate.

And who's the elitist here?

Bailout -- ooh, the shiver.

2008-09-26T20:38:15Z

Hunter over at the Daily Kos has a very good rundown of what's going on in D.C. with the negotiations on the bailout plan.

From watching the news and reading the blogs over the last couple of days, I am struck mainly with the impression I get anytime I see more than one economist talking: there is no such thing as a "solution."

The math and science behind the economy (a soft science, I must add) is complex and fluid. Civilized societies are so vast and varied that even the soundest theories have serious flaws, shortcomings that are present only because no one can come up with a better explanation.

I'm no expert in economic theory, and I do understand why negotiating this action in congress is so difficult. I can't blindly accept the $700 billion - $1 trillion figure they've cited, and like Hunter and DevilsTower I'm annoyed that nobody can seem to come up with a plan that has more details, justification and (gasp!) agreeability.

Several prominent democrats have been on television since yesterday deploring attempts by members of the house and senate (mainly a group of uber-conservative republicans) to introduce a completely new bill. While the one that's currently on the table does have deeply concerning flaws, introducing entire new pieces of legislation is not exactly an ideal solution -- the whole negotiating process would have to begin anew.

Many of these republicans also object strongly to the bailouts. They can object until the cows come home, but that doesn't change the fact that it would be suicide not to do it.

"The real problem is that those banks are, literally, too big to be allowed to fail. Their failure would present a liquidity problem for the rest of the market. They can do anything -- they could even burn money on the street -- and the strong preference of government would be to bail them out for it, because the alternative is financial chaos.

The subprime mortgages aren't the problem. And the overleveraged firms shouldn't be a problem. The problem is keeping the rest of the economy afloat no matter what happens to the firms in trouble."

The bill these republicans are proposing also includes a lot of proposals democrats will never accept, including massive deregulation of the market and release of private companies from government stewardship. Anybody who has been reading about this should recall that the general belief is that deregulation of the mortgage industry is largely to blame for people obtaining loans they really shouldn't have, causing the bubble, the collapse and now bankruptcies left and right on wall street.

Economic historians also place at least some blame for every major market collapse/"adjustment" on a lack of regulation. To make an analogy, this also seems to be what has happened with the Executive Branch in this country in the last 8 (ok, 12) years: signing statements, executive privilege, partisan judiciaries and a hog-tied congress. And while Economics is not an exact science, this is a pretty strong correlation.

Without substantive inquiry into the practices of wall street while it's recovering from this crisis, things could go very quickly downhill again. I imagine the cost of this oversight is at least some of the missing $550 billion Hunter can't account for. And despite the indignation of bloggers and the press, I don't think the $700 is completely unsubstantiated. There's probably a very complex equation behind it...I just would like Bernake and Paulson to come out and explain it.

I imagine the fighting will continue throughout the day today, and spill into the presidential debate tonight. I'm looking forward to hearing from Obama and McCain about foreign policy and the economy. More later tonight with my take on the debates.

Scientific and Journalistic Integrity

2008-09-17T17:51:23Z

A couple of posts ago, I quoted (as I do frequently) Alan Barth:

“If you want a watchdog to warn you of intruders, you must put up with a certain amount of mistaken barking...But if you muzzle him and leash him and teach him decorum, you will find that he doesn't do the job for which you got him in the first place. Some extraneous barking is the price you must pay for his services as a watchdog. A free press is the watchdog of a free society.”

I read a dissertation about this quote once, and the author (who I can’t recall at the moment) went on at length about this statement. Yes, having a free press is one of the most essential ingredients of a free society. But, the author said, that is only part of what Barth meant by the statement. The other implication, which at least to me is pretty straightforward, is that the press also must maintain some measure of integrity in their reporting.

I could go on about this subject for hours, probably even days. I hope most people agree with me in that accurate reporting is the cornerstone of public knowledge.

It is this subject of public knowledge (and the systematic destruction of it) that makes me wince. It isn’t just that the press is not being fair. It’s that they dumb it down so much that it loses integrity by default. This is the result of a number of different things, ranging from Dick Cheney and Karl Rove’s systematic destruction of science in the public domain to abysmal public school science knowledge rankings to the “knows almost nothing about everything” nature of most journalists. I’m not placing blame; I don’t know where to start.

What sent me off on this topic (today) was this article in the Washington Post. Before you go reading the whole thing, just look at the headline, as I did when I clicked: “Study: Exposure to Plastics Chemical Elevates Health Risks”. You’re probably familiar with this. Bisphenol-A (BPA), an ingredient in some #7 plastics products, was banned by the Canadian Health Ministry because of studies done in animals showing health problems such as cancer and heart disease. I guess the FDA has done a similar study with people.

But here’s where the inconsistencies start. I read the article looking in vain for the “link” they claimed existed. The word “link” was used, but there was nothing that any well-versed scientist or doctor would call that. A correlation between BPA levels in the urine and blood and heart problems and diabetes is not a “link.” Correlations do not necessarily indicate causation. It’s what lawyers refer to as post hoc ergo propter hoc, “after, therefore because of it,” and even courts find it a weak defense.

A famous net-culture phenomenon mocked this sloppiness. Global average temperature has been rising since at least 1820, while the number of pirates has been declining. The CFSM’s conclusion is that, therefore, pirates must stave off global warming. How novel! All we have to do is make more pirates, and we’ll save the planet!

Obviously this is not true. Which was exactly the CFSM’s satirical point. Just because two statistics show a trend doesn’t mean they are connected. And while sometimes this is the case, these correlations are what scientists think of as “preliminary” or “weak” evidence.

To its credit, the WP article notes that scientists are calling strongly for further study to back up these findings.

This is not to say that I think correlative evidence is entirely useless. There are many things in science that we know to be true even though we have yet to prove it. Take gravity, for it. Since the time of Gallileo people have been calculating and defining how gravity works, to enormous degrees of success. We have the math, but it’s based entirely on observed evidence: things fall. Observed evidence, under scientific definition, can only go so far as supporting a theory. Gravity is just a theory.*

So what would be stronger evidence, you ask? As a scientist, I am qualified to tell you: Strong evidence in the case of a chemical interaction or causation.* Strong, conclusive evidence would be discovery of the chemical reactive process that causes BPA to create abnormal liver enzymes, kill off the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas (which is what causes diabetes), and create artery blockages or other things that cause heart disease. This kind of evidence is much harder to obtain. Research takes more time, is more expensive, and a lot of non-scientists (including reporters) can’t read the findings because they are so technical. In fact, different scientific fields are so specialized that even other kinds of scientists can’t necessarily read them.

Here’s the part where I blame the scientific illiteracy of the public at large … at least a little.

Even people with a high school education should know—and schools should teach—basic scientific principle. Even someone who never takes a class about biology or organic chemistry should understand the difference between a theory and a postulate, what constitutes evidence, what science considers a “scientific” teaching versus an “unscientific” one. Textbooks often provide an introductory chapter which talks about this subject, but I think many teachers skip or gloss over them…and that many students don’t pay attention because they aren’t tested on it.

Understanding the principles behind the practice of science is, I believe, more important than knowing how many biological kingdoms there are or what the pH of pure acetic acid is. And it would clear up a lot of confusion in the domain of public knowledge. Copy editors, journalists and PR directors might benefit from (unintentionally) inaccurate headlines. Maybe it would even be possible to call out politicians when they slaughter statistics and conclusions.

I believe this so strongly that I’d go so far as to say it’d be acceptable to replace or even require a year or semester of a specific science discipline with a “foundations” class in middle or high school. Such a class could address not only the concepts addressed above but also how statistics are (and aren’t) useful, how current issues in science are debated (global warming, endangered species, organic food, evolution, etc.) among scientists, instead of the politicians who often misconstrue it.

It’s a difficult task to maintain vigil against the onslaught of inaccurate reporting in the news on these subjects, from HPV to BPA to global warming to NASA. Science is the greatest school of rationality, but often a defiance to our natural instinct to “listen to our gut.” But the more people understand the subtle differences, the more people will get the right idea. Society benefits.

Complex ideas can lead to deceptively simple results. It's the first bit that's more difficult.

*Just like evolution is “just a theory.” The word “theory” in the public domain is not the same as the word we scientists use. To a scientist, a theory is actually pretty kick-ass. But try explaining this to a fundamentalist and you get a lot of stubbornly blank stares.

itsumademootaku @ 2008-09-15T15:46:00

2008-09-15T23:04:45Z

I join the Cadre of Eye Rollers with Keyboards in ceaselessly mocking Bill Kristol, whose utterly bizarre disconnect from the real world always has me looking forward to his next editorial.

Shorter Bill Kristol:

Using big words make me sound smarter, especially if I follow by adding that I actually looked it up. It's a good thing, too, because now that the world is going 13 directions at once, it'll be really crucial to know what I know, or what I might change my mind about. Because change is bad. Er, good. Yeah. One of those.

I know 8th graders who write more cohesively than this. Which unfortunately means I know 8th graders who write better than some people earning journalism degrees.

And seriously, Bill. Use those big words too much and you might start sounding like one of those Starbucks-sipping university professor philanthropist elitists who disagree with your doctrine that George Bush and John McCain were touched by the hand of God and absolutely destined to run the most awesomest country on earth. Or do you think maybe the Iraq war wasn't the best idea ever now?

Or maybe living amongst the rest of the NYT editorial board is starting to chip away at that shiny cocoon of Stupid. But I'm not holding my breath.

=====

For a slightly more intelligent opinion, pay a visit to Frank Rich.

Taxes: The Math

2008-09-10T22:29:49Z

Short and sweet today.

The massive amounts of spin coming out of the McCain campaign could probably supply electricity to several continents, but here's an analysis of something that's always a key issue: tax cuts.

McCain's campaign has consistently insisted that Obama's tax cut would raise taxes on everyone and balloon the national deficeit...and it's a lie. You can fact check that "accusation" here and here, and also here and here if you like slightly more partisan reporting.

Conveniently, though, there are people out there who can do math. And then translate that math into something even easier for those non-mathy folk out there. (Mostly) From The Washington Post:

Where's your wage bracket? It''s more than likely you're one of those 95% of people making below $603,402/year who will see a tax break under Obama's blan.

Facts are great, aren't they?

UPDATE: Fixed picture

A Sign of a Falling Empire: Crumbling Infrastructure

2008-09-08T23:28:37Z

I point to IntrepidLiberal's diary over at the Daily Kos:

"Infrastructure is the lynchpin for any nation's ability to compete in a modern global economy. Sixty-two years ago we had a forward looking Republican President named Dwight Eisenhower who signed The National Interstate and Defense Highways Act. The law appropriated $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways. It was the largest publics works project in American history at the time. Gasp! It required the power of our federal government.

Ninety-percent of the project was paid through a highway trust fund while the states contributed ten percent of the funding. Eisenhower believed this law vital to America's national security interests to help the military to mobilize troops more effectively in case of invasion by a foreign power. Ultimately, the investment more than paid for itself through jobs, economic growth and the development of the suburbs.

However, the Interstate Highway System also resulted in vehicle pollution and increased our dependence on foreign oil. Hence, with global warming and collapsing bridges our infrastructure requires a twenty-first century upgrade."

IntrepidLiberal goes on to talk about the '08 presidential candidates' position on the issue. You can read the entire summary over the link, so I won't bother to repost the majority of it. Basically it comes down to this: Barack Obama's position on infrastructure is that the feds need to increase funding and modernize projects to repair neglected public projects like roads and bridges across the nation. John McCain wants to finance high-speed internet systems through local community efforts and private investors.

Let's forget for a moment that McCain seems to think the word "infrastructure" refers only to those newfangled Ted Stevens' Internet Tube Things that bring The Google to your Computer Machine. Let's even forget that all during the GOP convention last week the speakers railed against Obama's community organizing. He wants to what? Like, um, the cable companies that hold local monopolies and therefore can gouge their customers while providing limited, highly interruptable and privacy-violating service?

I have to wonder sometimes exactly how many common-sense brain cells this man and his policymakers possess.

Our country has for years suffered from an aging and increasingly-dilapidated infrastructure. Companies like those mentioned above have no incentive to spend money or be competitive, so they aren't. The technology ages, breaks down, and customers are left holding the short end of the stick.

The Hanford Nuclear Power Plant, near where I live, is a well run, accident-free, clean source of power for a significant number of people in this country. The plant engineers recently put in a request to extend the contract life of the plant, which was scheduled to close this year. But closing the plant would mean building another source of power to replace it. Dams or even a newer, more efficient nuke plant is simply out of the question. Why? No federal financing available. No infrastructure funding. It's not about 3-eyed fish. It's about a fiscally conservative government not willing to let go of the cash. They'd rather keep the old plant running at greater expense and increasing risk of something going wrong due to aging facilities. It makes me crazy.

Having the *dreaded* Feds, devote/regulate funds and resources to infrastructure actually saves money, time, and resources, and also creates jobs and encourages industry competition. Numerous case studies show this, concerning everything from the German rail system DeutcheBahn to High Speed Internet in Japan.

Take my experience for example:

My hometown of about 45,000 in Eastern Washington State finances and contracts all its road construction projects to the lowest bidder, almost always a local company. These companies can take months to do a simple project like repaving a stretch of 1 blocks of 3-lane road. I go to school in Seattle, population about 580,000, and I have seen similar and even more complex projects done in 1/5 of that time for about the same amount of money. Not to say the Seattle transportation authority doesn't have its foibles. But most "domestic" road construction? Done in 2 days, weather pending.

Another article in the Times recently went on about how local wind farms do not possess infrastructure to power as much of the country as they theoretically could. I mean, my god, the country is different than it was 50 years ago? Shock, horror. Those trip-back-to-the-50's conservatives must be stunned speechless.

Any fiscal conservative who complains about red tape and earmarks in federal projects should look at the overhead costs and CEO "perks" of your average publicly traded corporation. Federal regulations could theoretically close many of the loopholes that keep these guys in such comfy mansions, but the GOP doesn't exactly have the "fight the power" attitude that would get that accomplished, either. Who would, if they got paid so much money to look the other way?

So in the end, it's a choice between having the costs of those runaway corporations trickle down through product pricing and wasted money in government contracts, or paying taxes. The taxes end up being cheaper for 99% of Americans. Who knew?*

If the McCain camp really believes that no progress needs to be made in regard to infrastructure (assuming they know what it means), they should at least say so. Hiding behind one element of it doesn't make you look mavricky--it makes you look ignorant.

*This, by the way, is also the theory behind universal healthcare, an insitution that in England, France and Germany has notably not become the poster boy for economic catastrophe or failing pharmeceutical research.