TED – Ideas Worth Spreading

Once or twice a year I stumble into the TED Conference Website.  TED is a nearly twenty year old conference that is dedicated to spreading ideas.  It is invite only and not exactly cheap with a 6,000 dollar ticket price.  All of the presentations are later put online (or at least 390 of them have been) and that is where I come in.

I stumbled into it today and watched John Hodgman entertain the crowd with almost a spoof of a TED Talk called “A Brief Digression on Matters of Lost Time” where he ruminates about the existence of aliens in a perfectly serious manner which is why it lends itself to TED so well.

I’ll embed it here since it was deadpan funny but that is not what made me write this blog. “However, with respect, I would like to point out two possibilities that Enrico Fermi perhaps did not consider: 1. Is that the aliens might be very far away, perhaps, I dare say, even on other planets.  The other possibility is that perhaps Enrico Fermi himself was an alien himself.”

Instead, I’m writing because of the next one I saw on how education stifles creativity and how the modern school system is just a drawn out college entrance exam.  Even further, Sir Ken Robinson says that in the next thirty years more people will have graduated education systems than in the whole history of the world.  As a result a degree will be worthless.  He calls it academic inflation, meaning that college degrees will be replaced by masters degrees.  He also talks about how colleges have created academic systems in their images and it seems that the academic system’s goal is to turn out college professors.  The whole thing is very interesting but also really funny.  I actually feel like he could be Eddie Izzard’s uncle.  Really funny.

~Forth

1981 just called. It wants its Internet back.

I recently turned twenty-eight and I had those same thoughts I do every January.  1981… Man that was a long time ago.  This year it was brought into a new perspective since the innauguration was in full swing shortly before my day.  Back in 1981, my mother was home on maternity leave on January 20th as Gov. Reagan became President Reagan.  Three days later the Iranian Emabassy hostages were deboarding a plane and my mother was in labor.

It is no secret that I am now a teacher myself and I will be marrying my partner-in-blogging Back this summer.  TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS.  So when I saw this YouTube retro-rewind on Ben Smith’s Politico blog, I did what I often do; I took a moment to wonder at all the crazy things we have today.

Back will tell you that every so often I throw out a comment like, “Can you believe that I am talking to my parents in a video chat as I WALK around my apartment?!?”  This is not an infrequent occurence for me.  Yes, yes, I get how it happened – the microchip – but at the same time I am still boggled by everything.  It is my hope that this all comes off as a youthful exuberance for life rather than a country bumpkin revealing his naivety.

I HAVE A WEBSITE?!?  Can you believe that?  In 1993 or ‘94 when the Internet went public my dad bought an Internet phone book.  That was the only way to find websites and now I HAVE ONE.

I remember the first time I ever saw two people play a video game online.  My friends younger brother was playing Warcraft II-back when there was no World of it- against his buddy across town over the phone line!  They had to dial between one another.  Now I can turn on an XBox 360 and play any number of games with Farmacy any time we want.

Hey, I know this post isn’t going  to top our charts as most viewed and it probably won’t even have many comments but that doens’t bother me. The next time you are Twittering from you iPhone or pulling out your laptop in a coffee shop to use the FREE WiFi -we used to be charged by the minute for the Internet- take a moment, look around and smile at how CRAZY this would have seemed to the people in the video I linked above.

~Forth

Field Runners and Paul Krugman

If you watch the news or pick up a paper or anything of the sort, you have seen in the last few weeks talk of the possible stimulus plan.  I believe the super-uplifting name we are calling it now is either American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan or Where’d All the Monies Go?  I don’t remember which.

If you want the down and dirty on the possibilities floating out there, I recommend you read 2008 Nobel Prize Winner in Economics Paul Krugman’s New York Times column or his blog.  Much of what he writes is so marked by clarity that I wonder why I didn’t get what he writes about on my own.  He is that good at making sense of all of these trillions flying around the world.  It has been his opinion as of late that the numbers that Team Obama have been floating are going to be insufficient to fill the vast void that is this economic slowdown.  His best estimate right now shows that the stimulus plan as proposed will only serve to reduce the problem by a third over the next 2-5 years.

Krugman further points out that the plan includes far too much money for ineffective tax cuts.  If you want to know the capabilities of tax cuts to taxpayers and businesses to effectively save the economy, I refer you to the last eight years.  Instead,  many economists are showing numbers that suggest for every dollar spent by the government there is a 1.5 dollar effect on the gross domestic product.  This number got me thinking about an hour ago while I was playing a popular iPhone game in between grading papers.  

Field Runners

Field Runners is one of those games where I have to stop the little enemies marching from one side of the screen to the other.  For each enemy I kill I profit a specified amount of money that I can then turn into more gun emplacements on the map.  Stay with me, I swear this is about the US economy.

After have played half way through I decided to make a sandwich and just let the game run for a few minutes.  I had a pretty sound maze of guns set up and I didn’t think I’d let any little guys make it across.  I though to myself, Well when I come back I’ll have a big chunk of cash and I can make some sweeping changes.  Really build up the end of my maze.  This is where Paul Krugman entered the picture.

Krugman talks about “shovel ready” projects frequently when discussing alternatives to tax cuts that will probably just end up in the bank or used to pay off credit card debt.  Shovel ready means that if given the money, project supervisors could start building whatever it is they are building within six months to a year.  Awhile back I wrote about the idea of high speed rail in America and how that idea excited me.  With the government about to spend Lots and Lots of money we don’t have, I’d like to see some sweeping changes.  

The second largest economy in the world is Japan; Germany is the third.  When these nations decide to make sweeping changes like the Eisenhower Interstate system was here in the 50’s, they do not have as much ground to cover.  Yes, they have other challenges but my point is that the distances don’t seem so astronomical.  Here in America sweeping changes cross four time zones and go through 200 subcommittees it seems.

Five years ago, there would be little chance for high speed rail or any other great national project to get 1-5 billion dollars.  Much like in my iPod Touch/iPhone game, most of the time we operate by spending little amounts of money to add on little improvements; just enough to keep us ahead of the game.  In five to ten years time the US economy is going to have to be robust enough to start paying back some of these many monies we are about to spend.  There will just be no room for the government to spend the billions necessary to complete projects like these.  As long as we are going to spend the stimulus, I am hoping that we can use it on something as monumental as the US Interstate System was in its day, rather than spending it on Best Buy gift cards and Vera Bradley hand bags, shudder.

Milk

I don’t want to get thrust into the Gay-Rights issue because that really isn’t my political scene but Milk was excellent.  From the writing to the directing to the acting it was well made.  What I enjoyed most was the unexpected parts that came from me being wholly unfamiliar with the plot.  If you’re unfamiliar with the basics, in 1978 Harvey Milk was the first openly gay man to be elected to a major office in probably the United States but certainly California.  His time in office was cut short by his assassination – not a spoiler – but not before he was able to accomplish much in the name of the Gay community.

When I saw the previews I thought the movie looked credible but I was afraid that Sean Penn was overplaying the role.  After seeing the movie it is clear that the trailers were cut to be startling so they used the parts that were overplayed possibly.  At any rate, Penn plays the role of a gay San Francisco City Supervisor admirably.

James Franco, Josh Brolin, and Emile Hirsch round out the cast as his boyfriend, political competitor, and campaign aid in that order.  Loyal readers will recall my distaste for Pineapple Express but Franco has redeemed himself in this movie.  While I would not call his performance spectacular he showed he could act in this movie – far more than he did in Spiderman or Pineapple Express.  As a side note Back has found out that initially Heath Ledger was rumored for Franco’s role.  Josh Brolin takes the prize for my favorite scene.  For those who have seen the movie, this was the scene where Brolin is drunk.  He also seems to fit the period piece well.  Something about his look screams 1970s.  Matt Damon was initially rumored for this role but his schedule conflicted.  I think Brolin does it well though.  Emile Hirsch is good, credible- adds to his resume.

I couldn’t help but connect the chronology in my head though.  There we sat on a December evening in 2008, thirty years after these events.  The movie takes place ten years after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.  Fifteen years after John F. Kennedy.  The death of Bobby stood out in my head more though.  When Dr. King died, Kennedy was supposed to be giving a campaign speech at a rally in what was considered a dangerous ghetto neighborhood in Indianapolis.  He was told not to go through with it by the police but he got up there anyway.  His speech is said to have kept the black population of Indianapolis from rioting that night as they did in other cities but really it was the courage that he showed that made me think of him.  Of course just two months later he too was shot in California.  Ten years later Harvey Milk in San Francisco, by no means the equal of King or RFK but to the Gay Rights movement it felt like it.

Whatever the politics we feel as if we live in a safe and secure environment.  Assassinations such as these seem so improbable these days.  We have a laugh with the President when he jokes candidly about dodging a thrown pair of shoes, “They were a size ten” he says.  Watching a movie such as Milk and then remembering ten years prior to 1968 makes me more skeptical that life is that safe and secure.  How long do we have before something else happens?

~Forth

Under Orders -Tesla

If you haven’t already heard about Tesla, shame on you.  If you’ve heard its a concept car, shame on you.  If you doubt that the car industry needs a MAJOR overhaul shame on you.  If you are pissed because I haven’t posted in a while, well… Shame on me.

Problems abound of course.  The infrastucture in the cities makes this impossible to implement at that moment, but there are a few companies that have lined up to produce curbside and garage systems. It will take the lowering of the price of the infrastructure to make these viable in the casual market.

The major benefit that I have been talking about for awhile is this: we know a lot of ways to produce electricity.  LOTS.  When cleaner greener elect-techs come along it will be hard to replace all of the cars, but we can start replacing the power plants without the consumer actually noticing the difference.  Yes there are flaws in this but it sure as hell beats riding out two pair into the fifth street if you’re picking up what I’m putting down.

~Forth

Casino Royale pt. 2

Quantum of Solace is getting mediocre reviews and hasn’t stood up as well to Casino Royale as people might have liked but I still enjoyed it and some agree with me.

I should preface this review by saying that this movie only works as a second act of the first Daniel Craig iteration.  There is less character development in this movie and it is – dare I say – artsier?  I’m not sure if I can back up the artsy comment (Back says she can so check the comments).  The character development was definitely less though.  The movie assumed a lot from its viewers and that might have created a problem for movie goers who like being spoon fed action plots.

A further issue I see with this movie is that Casino Royale broke the mold of the previous Bond movies and set the bar extremely high for its sequel.  Unfortunately, that put it between a rock and a hard place.  Quantum had to simultaneously break the mold and live up to the first movie.  In effect, it has to do what the last one did and do it in a new way, while ignoring the fact that the last way worked pretty well.

In a three act play, the second act is darker and perhaps doesn’t end as the viewer might expect it.  While the first presents that plot and the third resolves it, the second act makes it murky.  In that way it can leave viewers less satisfied because there aren’t any easy answers.  What is the Quantum? Was the villain Green – like White -  was just another step up the corporate ladder?  Will Bond ever get over his lost love?  All of these questions are left more or less vague by the end of the movie but I don’t mind complexity.

The “Bond Girl”, Olga Kurylenko, does a decent job in her role and I’d be interested in seeing more of her character but at times her choices seemed not exactly fitting.  Maybe that is a result of the Paul Haggis writing but I’m not sure.  Then again it wouldn’t be a Bond film if there weren’t a few issues that made the moviegoer think there is an easier solution than the characters came up with.

I do have complaints though.  The redhead MI-6 Bolivian desk worker – Fields – was disappointing.  The only way I can reconcile her acting and actions is by saying that her jump into bed attitude was an homage to the Bond of old who slept with three or four women each movie.  Her original costume was absurd as well and she constantly walked as if they had just plucked her off the runway.   Her only redeeming value was literally her exit from the film.  That truly was an homage to Goldfinger (Link is a Spoiler).  The irony that oil is today’s gold and often called black gold may have been lost on some movie goers though.  Also, the credits list the character’s name as Strawberry Fields – she refused to give it in the movie – so that gets a har-har on the laugh scale.

Overall, I enjoyed the ride.  I have recently been told that there wasn’t enough action but I disagree.  Though it had plenty of action it wasn’t one long fight scene and that is good.  There are too many hacks making action movies that think that action (pronounced: explosions) equals plot.

And this:

~Forth

The department of backstabbing:

The Bearded Man has been removed from the wedding in case anyone was wondering.

Guuuuuuh.

That is what I have to say.

Hilary?  Whatever, I don’t really care.  Yes, I do care more about Foreign Policy than many of these other subjects but I think HRC will put an Iron Lady face on our FP so that might not be bad.  I’d hate to get in an argument with her.  I mean if she can neuter 42 she can probably take me.

The Auto Industry?  Dunno.  Honestly, I don’t.  Every day I go back and forth. Five days ago I read an article that said let them go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  In 11 they can still make cars and yet have the protection of the government that will allow them to renegotiate certain deals.  I was sold.
The next day I read an article that said something to the effect that while bankruptcy might seem like a good idea – it is what we made the airlines do – it won’t work.  See the auto industry works on a loan system which won’t work under bankruptcy protection.  They take out a loan, buy parts they need, build cars, sell cars, repay the loan. (Farmers do much the same thing bytheway.) Since the credit market is screwed though, this all comes to a grinding halt.  If they can’t get loans, they can’t buy parts on credit, build cars, sell cars and even more damaging they take down the parts industry as well.  I was sold – I didn’t like it but I was sold.
The next day I read an article that said no they will be able to survive under bankruptcy protection. Basically, it goes Forth and Back until I toss up my hands.

Instead, I’m going to dabble my toes in the walking-back-expectations pond.  I may talk about this again later, but I wanted to just put it out there that we (on the left) should keep our “America’s going to change” rhetoric to a minimum.  I don’t want to get into it now but changes happen in increments.  One of the issues with America is that we’re screwed up because we expect results. Now.  That’s why Iraq isn’t working like it might have.  We were unwilling or unable to acknowledge initially that it would take a Herculean effort in Afghanistan and that hubris led us to attack Iraq.  It will take forty years for either country to reach where we’d like it to be.  With Team O winning in ‘08, people may think that the left should take what it can and give nothing back.  I’m not one of them.  I think that the goal over the next two years should be an incremental shift of the center, marginalizing the far right by creating distance between it and the dominant center.
Would I like to see radical shifts in the problematic sectors of the government?  Uh, yeah.  But I also think that Obama is going to be farther left personally than his administration will be forced to be.  I’ll let you know at midterms in two years whether he should be going further with the second half.  It is unfortunate but administrations get maybe 16 months before they have to start running again (Midterms).  Then they get less than a year to breath deep and take on the other side.  I want 8, 12, 16 years of smart Democratic rule.  In eight years I’ll have a child I’m sure /gulp.  I will quickly have to start looking out for his future.  These next four mean nothing to me if in the following decade doesn’t go in our favor as well.  I think that if Team O can get through some good looking reforms and gain seats in 2010 then they’ll have license to try to do something more dramatic.

~Forth

What it looks like.

Reposting from a new blog: Trysting.blogspot.com who re-posted from PatrickMoberg.com

That is all.

~Forth

Deep Sigh of Relief

That is all.

Edit:  THIS is all -

When Zombies Attack Pt. 1

Part 1: Preparation.

This is a first draft of my zombie escape plan.  Since I have never devised such a plan and have no prior experience fighting zombies, I’m going to need feedback.

I’m going to work under the assumption of several precepts here.  First: The zombies are the new sort, meaning they are fast and hungry.  RAWR.  While Shaun of the Dead was an outstanding movie it was satire and I think we can all agree that when the zombies do come they won’t be that easy to dupe.  Second: Milwaukee will not be one of the first cities ravaged but, being a city, it won’t take long.  Third: The public works of the nation -water, electricity, television networks, cell phone towers and other services – would be down in roughly the first 48 hours.  There will of course be pockets of civilization that hold out longer but I think 48 hours is the longest I can absolutely count on.  Third: The looting will start shortly after the power is gone.  Fourth: The government will be slow to respond and cannot be counted on to save everyone.

With these precepts in mind the first step I’d need to take would be to find Back.  Obvious.  This is why it is important that everyone is prepared and recognizes the emergency right away.  If we sit around then by the time we get our act together the grid will be down, cell phones will be useless and looting bands of hoodlums will own the streets.

The next step is to have a list of necessities handy.  A list will be handy when everyone else is panicking, stocking up on ding-dongs and calling their shrink, we’ll be in Wal-Mart and Lowes.  This should probably be kept in multiple places, i.e. the car, the apartment, work.  It might even be a good idea to keep one in my work bag in case I am forced to abandon the vehicle.

List of Necessities*:

*this is a basic list based on the capacity of a 2001 Honda Civic.  I’ll update it as I go.  A later list will be composed for traveling light or hiking.

1. Vitamins and supplements.  I assume these will keep and will help supplement the likely poor eating conditions of the next few weeks.

2. Light weight blunt objects.  My choice because it is hand will be lacrosse poles minus the head.

3. Gas Cans.

4. Heavy clothes.  While we may eventually try to move to warmer climates with the power grid down, winter is coming.

5. Food will obviously be a hard to plan.  Non-perishables are a must.

6. Large batteries, including but not limited to car batteries.

7. Duct Tape. Don’t skimp on this.

8. More will be added to this list later.

Purchasing items on the list will come next.  It is imperative that this comes first because, being prepared, we will be reacting to the news quicker than most.  Credit cards will quickly become useless and bank accounts, these will soon be a memory.  I’d suggest maxing the Visa and emptying the bank account to cash.  Ruining my credit rating won’t matter so much in the coming months of darkness.  I can over buy at this point because some of it can be left behind later if need be.

While the shopping spree is underway, this is a good time to start calling relatives and friends to ensure that they are headed to high ground.  I may be implementing a zombie phone tree to make this efficient.  Later, I’ll address who has to be called and what plans will be implemented by us with regard to these calls.

Still to come: Is the HQ safe?, consolidating with friends, getting Viana_17 out of Capitol City, and when to trust the roads.

~Forth