tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73973502024-03-13T14:56:43.401-04:003WA forum for Classic Apt 3W, and those peering in from the outside.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.comBlogger628125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-90942709413315964762011-02-08T17:16:00.003-05:002011-02-08T17:23:06.759-05:00Winding Down3W has been a wonderful resource for me. I have been able to correspond with you for a number of years both during and following life at the UfoC and in the process I almost learned how to write. But as the things I write become longer, 3W seems to fill a smaller role (the advent of FB also diminished the need to broadcast interesting links via the internet). I might still use 3W from time to time, but nothing regularly. <br /><br />For brief and flighty thoughts, I have started a new blog <a href="http://otiot.tumblr.com">Otiot</a> on Tumblr. This is for random quotes I encounter throughout the day. The more I study the more I recognize that others are capable of saying thing better than I.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-59877982418730629282010-09-21T14:56:00.003-04:002010-09-21T15:04:58.430-04:00A Metric of DifficultyI came across this statistic yesterday and was intrigued/unsettled.<br /><br />Infant mortality rate: rank/@ birth (UN/CIA)/under five<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Iraq</span>: 169/(81.5/43.8)/105.4<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Afganistan</span>: 194/(157.0/151)/235.4<br /><br />Afganistan is second to last of all countries in the UN list of infant mortalities per 1000 live births. The CIA puts Afganistan third to last at 222nd of 224. A kid has a 1/10 chance of dying in Iraq before the age of five, but more than double that in Afganistan! That should give some sense of the level of civic development in the country and (through some unspecified logic) the likelihood of political stability there.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-47685147650509522902010-06-06T21:22:00.004-04:002010-06-06T21:30:48.776-04:00Universal ReactionI met a fellow at a wedding last week who was transferring from the UofC to Penn. Mark D had told of this student the week prior and I was really upset (given that I didn't even know the guy). How will frum discourse ever improve if Jews keep going to Penn? When I ran into the student at the wedding (totally by coincidence) he told me that the universal reaction he received when he told people of his decision--students, faculty, administrators--was dismay that he had chosen "to give up on his education." <br /><br />I was thinking the same thing. <br /><br />God, UofCers are so pompous.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-73439808579492357632010-05-25T03:57:00.002-04:002010-05-25T04:00:27.881-04:00Glenn Beck's Socratic DiscourseFinally a serious thinker addresses Glenn Beck: <a href="http://beckstudies.blogspot.com/">http://beckstudies.blogspot.com/</a>. I highly recommend these well-considered remarks on the important contemporary thinker, Glenn Beck. This blog presents a welcome addition to the nascent field of Beck Studies.Yehudahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04472453413892018818noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-36547252997792154842010-05-16T21:40:00.002-04:002010-05-16T21:57:14.714-04:00Cutting and Pasting from Google BooksJust thought of a nifty way to copy text from Google Books (say, in one needs to quote an extended passage in a paper).<br /><br />1. Place the desired page in the viewable portion of the screen.<br />2. (On a Mac) Crtl+Shift+3 for screen capture.<br />3. Cut and Paste the portion of text using Preview into a new file, Save As 'pdf.'<br />4. Open PDF with Adobe Acrobat Pro and use the OCR.<br />5. Voila! <br /><br />Neeto.<br /><br />The good is that I am less likely to mistranscribe text. The bad is that the OCR is not perfect, particularly with transliterated Arabic (though it got Mu'tazalite every time!) so I did have to fix the I~;I which was actually an H.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-15714348541141516862010-05-14T12:56:00.000-04:002010-05-14T12:57:20.241-04:00Why do Dems have so much more academic firepower on the Judiciary committee?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Aj1OqR9exWU/S-2A5t6U6KI/AAAAAAAAAC8/MDzSB6Hqse0/s1600/Untitled.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 198px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Aj1OqR9exWU/S-2A5t6U6KI/AAAAAAAAAC8/MDzSB6Hqse0/s320/Untitled.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471170851390154914" /></a>Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-31686695527716370612010-05-13T23:53:00.002-04:002010-05-13T23:57:38.586-04:00Why is FB so Evil?I feel like much of the internet has desisted with the evilness arms race. Google and Wikipedia have both been upfront about the alterations they undergo and take precautions not to trample over people's privacy (pace Google Buzz). Why can't FB do the same? Or rather, why does FB believe that the only way to grow its corporation is by exploiting its users when other companies choose to take a different tact?Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-35093740316745447242010-04-11T00:10:00.002-04:002010-04-11T00:21:09.979-04:00Quick thoughts on Stupak's resignationSo I have been reading NYT's <a href="http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/stupaks-abortion-deal-and-his-exit/">discussion of Stupak's resignation</a>. I think that the conversation is largely off base. Stupak represents MI-1, which includes northern Michigan and the UP (upper peninsula), a region with some of the highest unemployment in the country. I don't care to find out exact figures, but it saw unemployment as high as 25% there. <br /><br />As I see it, Stupak is not running for another term in part because he is being targeted by republicans, yes. But also in large part because he knows that this election would have been a tough fight with or without HCR. When your district suffers economically, your constituents will hold their elected officials (in part) accountable. Not only will 2010 be a slog, but 2012, 2014 and 2016 will also be tough. Such a economically depressed region of the country will not see a rapid decline in unemployment quickly, and the district will remain vulnerable the whole time. After 18 years in congress I think that Stupak decided it is not worth slogging through <span style="font-style:italic;">n</span> more dogged campaign cycles. Instead retire now when the Dems owe you big.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-42742690160431363472010-03-14T22:35:00.004-04:002010-03-14T22:48:46.407-04:00What do I know from global warming?!So I had an idea that I am not going to fully flesh out because I have a lot of reading to do. I was reading a paper by Bob Axelrod "The Dissemination of Culture" Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1997. The article uses Agent Based Modeling to demonstrate that if you have a lot of little cultural blocs, each distinguished by five characteristics, if two of those blocs have common elements and one bloc is allowed to mutate to be like its neighbor you quickly get a few (1-3) dominant cultural regions. <br /><br />I think this model helps explain why the frum world takes issue with global warming. It is strange, right? What do frum people care about global warming? My hypothesis is that the frum world has become very similar to the liberal elite over the past half century. Not just the MO, but also the Monsey crowd go to fancy law schools, buy Beamers and fancy clothes and drink good scotch and wines. Because of these similarities it risks being imbibed by the liberal American cultural region. In a move to reduce the number of sites that it shares with this cultural region it has strategically altered its character--regarding issues with which it has no intrinsic fight--in order to better ensure that it cannot be swallowed. Instead it makes itself more similar to the less well educated and Evangelical communities with which there is very little likelihood that any real assimilation will occur.<br /><br />(Social) Science!Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-74588888430490514582010-03-01T02:50:00.003-05:002010-03-01T02:52:22.980-05:00Happy Shushan Purim<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9baBPrp8CG8/S4tyHLTpl9I/AAAAAAAAH58/dk52vcu6QO8/s1600-h/purim.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443570042227234770" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 217px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9baBPrp8CG8/S4tyHLTpl9I/AAAAAAAAH58/dk52vcu6QO8/s320/purim.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>I'm sure most of you have already seen this photo, but just in case you haven't....</div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div>Danhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01419844036258090525noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-91826697822745589312010-02-23T10:18:00.001-05:002010-02-23T10:33:37.157-05:00Why Germany?Germany currently has 21 medals to the U.S.'s 25. Pretty good for a country that is roughly 1/4 the size of the U.S. This isn't a fluke either. Germany had a combined 33 medals in the winter games in '88 and has not gotten fewer than 22 in any winter olympic since. I wonder if it has something to do with the historical communist influence. The olympics offered bragging rights for the Free and Communist World. Communist countries were renowned for the resources they would devote to the games. To that end, East Germany always received more medals than did West Germany. When the wall fell Germany was reunited, but the institutions that trained top athletes were able to persist because of the relative affluence of the country. Impoverished Russia, on the other hand was not able to maintain their olympic training organizations and as a result their medal count has diminished. That is why (according this speculative theory, anyway) Germany has been so dominant in the winter olympics.<br /><br />As for Norway, I got nothing.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-48802571591786531692010-02-10T00:53:00.000-05:002010-02-10T00:54:09.662-05:00New StuffsThe Oatmeal and Toothpaste 4 Dinner on sidebar. They are funny, if odd.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-82257223555487990872010-01-26T21:47:00.001-05:002010-01-26T21:48:58.874-05:00This is amazing<a href="http://cafehayek.com/2010/01/keynes-vs-hayek-rap-video.html">http://cafehayek.com/2010/01/keynes-vs-hayek-rap-video.html</a>Orenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06193819212320717660noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-61069474167981157912010-01-19T09:33:00.006-05:002010-01-19T09:57:15.122-05:00Principled DisinterestI am confused. I got an email Friday from a member of the minyan asking us to "do a mitzvah" before shabbes and support his son's charity that is in the running to receive a grant through the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving">Chase Community Giving project</a>. My sense is, however, that there are lots of really worthy charities out there, and it is rather difficult for me to assess that one is more deserving than another. Furthermore, the money has already been allocated, so my vote won't increase the funds given to charity, only affect the recipient. What then is my ethical incentive for participating? <br /><br />This seems to be a perfect instance where a specialist might well be a better arbiter than the demos.<br />UPDATE: If you were to, ex ante, choose between giving microloans to the developing world or find innovative ways to remind women to perform self-exams on their breasts, which would it be? I suspected as much; 14,000 for breasts and 8,000 for microloans. So this is not a question worthy-ness, breast cancer kills more than 40,000 of women every year. But it is unclear that self-exams <a href="http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1823096,00.html">go very far to prevent those deaths</a>, whereas microfinance won a Nobel Prize for saving the world. I just don't think people are very good at prioritizing when there are no constraints on their decisions.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-65754299875979989672009-12-13T23:27:00.002-05:002009-12-13T23:29:57.688-05:00Shout Out to JosefMartha Nussbaum <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/magazine/13FOB-Q4-t.html?hpw">likes your channukiah</a>.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-3912951873977538712009-12-13T22:14:00.004-05:002009-12-13T22:24:22.654-05:00Silly IdeaIs it possible that the Tiger Woods hoopla is society performing a passion play, projecting angst regarding its favorite squeaky clean African-American icon onto its second favorite?<br /><br /><blockquote>Dear Pres. Obama, <br />Please, please don't cheat. I don't think my tolerance of stupidity can withstand such an assault.<br /><br />Very Truly Yours.<br /></blockquote><br />In other news, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/health/policy/14health.html?hp">Leiberman has defected</a>. Should the Dems play Tit for Tat, Grim Trigger or just suck up their Sucker payoff? I am guessing Reid will go for the latter most.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-33921989694495280462009-12-04T00:33:00.001-05:002009-12-04T00:35:13.063-05:00How to Win the War in Afghanistan and Why it Will Never HappenHow to win the war: legalize smack.<br />Why it will never happen: an African-American president will get nowhere (politically) by legalizing dope.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-55384112790290866982009-11-19T09:09:00.006-05:002009-11-19T09:28:58.807-05:00Leiberman ReduxQuick thought: Reid's payoff for having Lieberman in the party is <span style="font-style:italic;">n(v)-c</span> where:<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">n</span>= frequency he votes with the party from 0 to 1<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">v</span>= value of Lieberman's votes<br /><span style="font-style:italic;">c</span>= opportunity cost of giving the Homeland Security committee chairmanship to someone else. <br /><br />As the Democrats approach 60, <span style="font-style:italic;">v</span> increases. At the same time <span style="font-style:italic;">c</span> might be rather small because it is good for the Democrats to have a hawk chairing HS. If <span style="font-style:italic;">v</span> is high and <span style="font-style:italic;">c</span> is low, <span style="font-style:italic;">n</span> can dip and Lieberman will keep his chairmanship.*<br /><br />I was wrong. He's not nuts. And he <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/special-interest-money-means-longer.html">gets</a> <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/recips.php?ind=H03&cycle=2006&recipdetail=S&mem=Y&sortorder=U">money</a> from the insurance industry.<br /><br />* We had a separate argument in the department about the utility Lieberman reaps by keeping his chairmanship. I don't think he needs it as much as others do, and even if he did, he seems to benefit by signaling that he will defect.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-27965641852430003792009-11-08T17:21:00.002-05:002009-11-08T17:32:23.343-05:00Self-radicalized, homegrown nutSen. Joe Lieberman has cracked under five years of alienation and pressure. After being turned aside by the Democratic party, feeling alone with no alternatives, he has cracked.<br /><br />So I am responding to this article about the <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/66859-lieberman-wants-probe-into-terrorist-attack-on-fort-hood">Ft. Hood shooting</a> (which the FBI has said is not a terrorist incident), but also to his statements about <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jlMpJGn28kqCcgU-aGcYE_ZHW-ywD9BRJTJG0">supporting a filibuster</a> against health care reform. CT is a fairly liberal state and all five representatives voted yea on HR 3962. So why would Lieberman not only vote against the bill (which would reduce its margin of victory), but also threaten not to impose cloture? What does he have to gain?<br /><br />My detached sense (no longer in the DC world) is that he is finished with politics and wants to throw his weight around. I was not upset when he decided to support McCain, as that did not affect his legislative duties to the party. But when he not only doesn't support the party platform, but actively undermines it I just can't see how he can retain his HS chairmanship.<br /><br />The Ft. Hood thing is just weird. It was a guy that cracked. Case closed. Is it really worth the time of the US Senate to understand why outliers happen?Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-43247496675354475342009-11-08T01:23:00.007-05:002009-11-08T01:44:06.484-05:00A Special Shout Outto Rep. Owens (NY-23) on HR 3962. I will sleep happier tonight knowing that Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck made this vote possible. <s>It would have happened without him, but it still makes me happy.</s> The bill actually passed by 3 votes, one was Owens and another Cao of LA. So Owens's votes might have actually been fairly decisive.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-80608635099496825142009-10-31T21:11:00.004-04:002009-10-31T21:27:10.804-04:00Health & CareI had a series of shabbes conversations on health care today. What astounds me is the often callus regard physicians have for their patients sentiments. They agree that the highest level of care should be provided to every patient, but that excessive wait times (5 hours in the emergency room) and curt explanations are just a fact of life. Deal with it. Often, doctors claim to be exceedingly busy and unable to spend the necessary time to explain their diagnosis to patients and do general hand holding. My instrumental counterclaim is that more time hand holding will yield fewer malpractice suits. My friend's response was, don't sue so much and your health care premiums won't go up so fast. This is obviously silly, as the the cost of malpractice suits is 1) negligible to the entire cost of health care in America and 2) shouldered far more by doctors than patients. The reply strikes me as exceedingly arrogant, however, and reveals a certain bravado amongst physicians.<br /><br />What really bothered me, however, was my inability to give a non-instrumental argument as to why health CARE is important. Why am I owed an explanation? I come in which a life threatening illness that almost kills me. Doctor enters, grunts, writes a prescription, and leaves. Five days later I am totally healthy but without a whit of understanding as to why. Has the doctor shirked her responsibility? Is she blameworthy? I feel like I could offer some souped-up Kantian 'respect' argument, but somehow that feels forced. Are we entitled to <span style="font-style:italic;">care</span>, above and beyond <span style="font-style:italic;">health</span>?Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-74227151457275519052009-10-13T22:47:00.004-04:002009-10-13T22:56:48.681-04:0011221, you are so predictable like thatNetflix has this cool feature that lets you see the top 100 movie rentals across the country. Of course shlock like "The Pursuit of Happiness" and "The Bucket List" are on it. But then you can get a list of the top 25 rentals in your area. Ann Arbor is a bit more posh than the rest of the country so we get Season 5 of "The Office" and "Annie Hall." I know those titles, though. Where are they uber-hip, where do all the cool kids hang out? So I googled "Williamsburg, NY zip code" pulled 11221 and punched up the list. What do I get? A documentary of Hasidic Jews, a 1983 PBS documentary on Style, "Masculine/Feminine" and nine foreign titles (two of which are Ingmar Bergman). <br /><br />Oh 11221, it's good to know that you so are predictably trendy.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-9434429182725557732009-10-02T10:15:00.002-04:002009-10-02T10:19:23.079-04:00I want to see any moviewhich, <a href="http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/10/02/movies/02serious.html?8dpc">according to the NYT</a>, is rated R for, "drug use, swearing and the repeated violation of Commandments 3, 5 and 7 to 10."<br /><br />It would be funny if the MPAA characterized moral breaches in movies according to the Rambam's minyan hamitzvot. That would be a very Coen brothers thing to do.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-21900785629180722772009-09-17T22:51:00.002-04:002009-09-17T23:11:33.856-04:00Kinda AnnoyedHere is Obama's Rosh Hashana message:<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GzDRAZDR3ps&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GzDRAZDR3ps&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />Here is his Nowruz message:<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/HY_utC-hrjI&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/HY_utC-hrjI&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br />I just don't appreciate that he uses the same tone to address the (unfortunate) Palestinian problem as the Iranian dictatorship. As if I am not perfectly aware of the suffering that the Palestinians endure. I just don't believe that if only we, the Jewish people, looked back on our cherished heritage* and our outspoken condemnation of oppression that somehow the Palestinian problem would be solved. It takes two to tango. Harumph.<br /><br />* I think it is possible that the first Jewish intellectual to give the line from Yishaya "or lagoyim" discursive currency was Jesus. See Matt. 5.14 "You are a light unto the world. A city built on a hill." I find it weird when people quote that line as distinctively Jewish.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7397350.post-23290812247573687342009-09-14T09:21:00.002-04:002009-09-14T09:33:46.875-04:00TrustWhy do Republicans not trust government to promote social welfare, but defer to the government on matters of security and law & order? Why do Democrats trust government to promote social welfare, but mistrustful of the government on matters of security and law & order?<br /><br />Security and order <i>is</i> a matter of trust. There exists a local power differential and the body on the low end must trust that the superior will not take advantage of its position. The police officer can pull me over, rip me from my car, beat me like a nag, and arrest me for resisting arrest. It is going to be difficult for me to make a sufficiently persuasive claim to seek recompense--the burden is on me. I just have to trust the officer and the government in turn. Now you might have a good story as to why that trust is warranted (bureaucrats want to retain power, elected officials don't want to lose office, the gov't primary role is to maintain security, not meddling in health care), but we can talk about trust in that context.<br /><br />Health care, however, is not an issue of trust. The government might screw up, because that is what big bureaucracies are wont to do, but it is not a failure of trust, it is a feature of institutional design. That is why I find it so odd that the language of trust is bandied about regarding health care, it just seems out of place.Zevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02174266905866513724noreply@blogger.com0