ztraffer

Asian-Caribbean Stew

2011-01-26T18:10:00.016-05:00

After years of being laughed at every time I used the words "I" and "cook" in the same phrase, I decided to attempt to redeem myself. This recipe is the result. It turns out I quite enjoy the creative process of this tasty art form...

This dish fuses elements from Caribbean and Asian cuisines. I conceived it as a warm-season dish, hence all the Caribbean/tropical ingredients. Originally only the white pepper added some spice to it, but the addition of some hot sauce might go well with it if you feel like turning up the heat. I feel that a dry or semi-dry white makes a nice companion to this meal. I hope you enjoy it.

Note: the quantities are approximate, I suggest you use this as a guideline.

Ingredients:

-4 largish onions

-4 medium tomatoes, diced

-2 yellow bananas (firm), diced

-1.5 to 2 cups of coconut milk

-1 cup salted roasted cashew nuts in halves

-250 cm3 (1 cup) plum jam (it should be not just sweet but tangy)

-1 Kg cubed chicken

-250 g small diced lean bacon

-2-3 cups of rice noodles (you can substitute with white rice)

-white pepper powder

-yellow curry powder

-soy sauce

-1 tablespoon lime juice

-cooking oil

Procedure:

Cook the rice noodles and have them ready.

Cook the diced bacon until it is well done, but not crisp.

Grind the onions until they are almost a paste, add oil, and cook, always stirring frequently.
When it starts to darken, pour the bacon into the onions and continue to cook.
Add the plum jam. There should be a balance between the onion and plum flavors, so that neither predominates. -Adjust quantities to this end. Add the soy sauce, white pepper, curry powder, salt, lime juice, coconut milk, and mix well.

Add the diced tomatoes and cook for about a minute. Mix in the diced bananas.

Pour the stew over the rice noodles.

Sprinkle the cashews on top of each serving.

Enjoy!

Jedi Fun

2010-09-28T22:23:00.004-04:00

Shopping for lightsabers? Enjoy.

Saudi humor

2010-08-01T17:05:00.004-04:00

I've always seen the ability to laugh at one's self as sign of sanity and good nature, so this article from ArabNews.com really made me laugh...

LOCAL PRESS: Thefts impossible on Saudia flights

By MUHAMMAD SULEIMAN AL-AHIDIB | OKAZ

Published: Jul 26, 2010 23:22 Updated: Jul 26, 2010 23:22

NEWS agencies, newspapers and satellite channels have all carried the story of an Air France flight attendant who had been stealing from passengers while they slept, especially on long haul flights such as those between Paris and Tokyo.

The reports noted that Japanese passengers usually carry with them large amounts of cash as well as valuable mobile phones, and that the air hostess was caught after it was discovered that most of the thefts happened on flights she was on.

This woman would not have been able to steal if she were working for Saudi Arabian Airlines. First, she could easily find a job with Saudia because our people do not thoroughly scrutinize résumés. However, I do not say she would not be able to steal because she would have lost the tact for stealing but because of the special features and characteristics of the Kingdom’s national carrier.

Saudia passengers are unable to sleep on flights because they usually get enough sleep at airports while waiting for their flights due to delays. They usually sleep well enough and do not need to sleep during the flight no matter how long it may be.

The second reason why this woman will not be able to steal on board a Saudia aircraft is that the bell that passengers press to summon flight attendants never stops ringing.

This is not because passengers are demanding but because flight attendants simply ignore them. The continuous ringing of the bell would scare any thief and make him or her hesitant to steal. She will know that all passengers who have called will be waiting for her.

A third reason is that air hostesses on board our flights sleep more than passengers during long haul flights. As soon as air hostesses finish serving food, they go to sleep because they are certain that the management on the ground will ignore passenger complaints.

The management does not follow up on flights. An example of this was seen recently when an Abha to Riyadh flight was delayed by about 11 hours because the crew did not show up. It is little wonder since this coincided with a World Cup match in South Africa.

A fourth reason why this woman cannot steal on Saudia flights is that our airlines only employ young air hostesses who have little need to steal while airlines such as Air France employ much older and experienced hostesses who have financial obligations toward their family that cannot be met by their salaries.

World Cup Fever

2010-06-20T11:58:00.006-04:00

Every four years, the world gets together for the biggest party in the planet: the World Cup. What used to be a European and South American club, is now truly global, with North America, Asia, and now Africa having hosted the event. The last World Cup final was watched by 725 million people -and that number grows with every event. Here in Uruguay, every match is televised, and you can pretty much tune-in to a World Cup-related show 24/7. When Uruguay plays, an eerie calm befalls and it suddenly feels like a ghost town -at work, in school, at home or at restaurants, every last soul is in front of a TV.
World Cup fever is here.

Southern Fall

2010-05-27T13:55:00.008-04:00

Montevideo is a city full of trees. They line most streets in abundance. Yet the species chosen don't produce the full spectrum of red and gold leaves come fall, as do most trees in North America; just a few shades of dull brown and yellow. I miss the symphony of color.

House Passes Health Care Reform

2010-03-21T23:04:00.008-04:00

The health insurance industry is very powerful and so is their lobby. They have almost limitless resources, and have used them to apply enormous pressure to congress and to conduct a missinformation campaign of legendary proportions in order to maintain the status quo. They don't want to give up the golden egg goose -everything else is inconsequential. This is of course, predictable. Why give up the such an enviable situation?

The truly remarkable fact is that the current administration managed to break the status quo.

Altruism over self-interest. Truth over deception.

History will rememeber this day as a good day for the US.

Chinese Democracy

2010-03-21T04:44:00.011-04:00

Some snapshots from the Guns 'n Roses concert I attended last Thursday... No bad, but it started 90 minutes late, at 10:30 PM, and it ended around 4 AM... GNR started playing around 1:30 AM, and people were starting to fall asleep... there were rumors that Axl Rose got there really late, so we had to put up with Sebastian Bach a bit too long.

In spite of it all, it was an awesome concert.

Avatar

2010-02-14T21:56:00.014-05:00

In case you haven't heard enough about this film, it's a visually stunning, very well executed epic about a technologically primitive but environmentally advanced people living in harmony with their home, Pandora, a moon orbiting a gas giant in a distant star system.

Their only sin was to stand between belicose, technically savy, and environmentally primitive humans, and the object of their greed: a valuable substance with the comically foreshadowing name of "unobtanium". The story has been told before: western/transnational powers steamrolling the innocent natives for King or quarterly reports. Watching this film, I found myself wishing I could live a simple and full life in this beautiful quasi-magical land among these free-spiritited people and their tropical paradise, in perfect synergy with their surroundings, free of materialistic concerns, lacking nothing.

Then I realized they lacked a very important something: the keys to the Universe.

It is true that the natives of Pandora, like many native peoples on Earth, have an enviable lifestyle, a harmonious, compassionate society. But the "greed" that causes more developed cultures to do evil deeds is just one side of the coin. On the other side there is the drive to know more, to do more, to be more. Devastating weapons and environmental tragedies, but also medicine, and starships, and new frontiers. This drive is what will enable us someday to be both masters, and nurturing stewards of our biosphere(s).

The people of Pandora are happy with what they have and want nothing more; but we do, we always want more -and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Why do people vote against their own interests?

2010-01-30T09:28:00.010-05:00

I often find myself doumfounded by how often policies that are in the best interest of the majority -that are aimed at fixing major problems- are met with strong antagonism by large sectors of the the public. Helth care reform in the US is an obvious example. I have a hard time living with the fact that significant percentages of the population can be so easily manipulated, regardless of how much money special interests throw at maintaining the status quo. I'm not sure what upsets me the most: that politicians will play to the tune of special interests against the people they are supposed to serve, or that people will actually fall for it. The article below goes a long way to explain why this happens, so I decided to copy the whole thing into my posting. Enjoy.

The Republicans' shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US.

Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why is there often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

Last year, in a series of "town-hall meetings" across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama's proposed healthcare reforms.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.

Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.

In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.

Anger

Instead, to many of those who lose out under the existing system, reform still seems like the ultimate betrayal.

Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?

Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?

It might be tempting to put the whole thing down to what the historian Richard Hofstadter back in the 1960s called "the paranoid style" of American politics, in which God, guns and race get mixed into a toxic stew of resentment at anything coming out of Washington.

But that would be a mistake.

If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them.

They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best.

There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots.

As the saying goes, in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing. And that makes anything as complex or as messy as healthcare reform a very hard sell.

Stories not facts

In his book The Political Brain, psychologist Drew Westen, an exasperated Democrat, tried to show why the Right often wins the argument even when the Left is confident that it has the facts on its side.

He uses the following exchange from the first presidential debate between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000 to illustrate the perils of trying to explain to voters what will make them better off:

Gore: "Under the governor's plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under Medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18% and 47%, and that is the study of the Congressional plan that he's modelled his proposal on by the Medicare actuaries."

Bush: "Look, this is a man who has great numbers. He talks about numbers.

"I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It's fuzzy math. It's trying to scare people in the voting booth."

Mr Gore was talking sense and Mr Bush nonsense - but Mr Bush won the debate. With statistics, the voters just hear a patronising policy wonk, and switch off.

For Mr Westen, stories always trump statistics, which means the politician with the best stories is going to win: "One of the fallacies that politicians often have on the Left is that things are obvious, when they are not obvious.

"Obama's administration made a tremendous mistake by not immediately branding the economic collapse that we had just had as the Republicans' Depression, caused by the Bush administration's ideology of unregulated greed. The result is that now people blame him."

Reverse revolution

Thomas Frank, the author of the best-selling book What's The Matter with Kansas, is an even more exasperated Democrat and he goes further than Mr Westen.

He believes that the voters' preference for emotional engagement over reasonable argument has allowed the Republican Party to blind them to their own real interests.

The Republicans have learnt how to stoke up resentment against the patronising liberal elite, all those do-gooders who assume they know what poor people ought to be thinking.

Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America's poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

Thomas Frank says that whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:

"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining.

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."

As Mr Frank sees it, authenticity has replaced economics as the driving force of modern politics. The authentic politicians are the ones who sound like they are speaking from the gut, not the cerebral cortex. Of course, they might be faking it, but it is no joke to say that in contemporary politics, if you can fake sincerity, you have got it made.

And the ultimate sin in modern politics is appearing to take the voters for granted.

This is a culture war but it is not simply being driven by differences over abortion, or religion, or patriotism. And it is not simply Red states vs. Blue states any more. It is a war on the entire political culture, on the arrogance of politicians, on their slipperiness and lack of principle, on their endless deal making and compromises.

And when the politicians say to the people protesting: 'But we're doing this for you', that just makes it worse. In fact, that seems to be what makes them angriest of all.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/8474611.stm

Published: 2010/01/30 00:57:43 GMT

Southern Summer

2010-01-27T22:48:00.006-05:00

No winter for me...
:-)

Architecture as Art

2010-01-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

How to drink "mate"

2009-12-26T21:42:00.020-05:00

1) Pour

2) Sip

3) Look cool

Mate is a traditional caffeinated tea-like drink from southern South America. Unlike tea or coffee, the filtration process happens while drinking, not before: a special metal straw has a closed end whith tiny holes in it that allows in the infusion but keeps out the herbs. A special "cup" or gourd is filled with "Yerba Mate" once, and then hot water, usually from a thermos, is poured into the gourd. Lastly, the straw goes into the gourd and the infusion sipped via the metal straw. You can read all about it here.
The habit of drinking Yerba Mate is so common in Uruguay that you can often see young and old drinking it on the streets.

Iran: how long will this government last?

2009-12-23T20:56:00.009-05:00

Its been six months since the fraudulent elections in Iran, and despite all the arrests, imprisonments, torture, and killings of protesters, the opposition is still very strong, as the recent demonstrations follwing lead opposition cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri's funeral show.

It seems clear this goverment won't complete its full term, the question is how long will it last, and what will happen afterwards. I pray for a fully democratic government in Iran that will help stabilize the middle east and prove that full-fledged democracies are viable in muslim countries.

Panic Attack

2009-12-17T21:29:00.014-05:00

A few weeks ago I arrived home in Montevideo anticipating a peaceful vacation in this small corner of the world.
Little did I know...

Distrito Federal

2009-12-14T23:55:00.006-05:00

More snapshots from Mexico City

Teotihuacan

2009-12-03T20:51:00.017-05:00

Walking down the Avenue of the Dead in this precolumbian city, you can almost feel the weight of time adding to the thousands of tons of masonry -over twenty centuries since its first buildings were erected.

I was particularly aware of this fact because only a day before, I had been marveling at five hundred year old cathedrals in the historic distric of Mexico City and all the history since the Spaniards arrived in Mexico.

Knowing that the builders of this city faded away without ever coming into contact with the people of the Old World feels like watching the remains of an alternate current of history. What if the the Europeans had never crossed the Atlantic and the Mayans had thrived and expanded? Perhaps I'd be posting pictures of ancient Roman ruins and wondering the same thing.

Viva Mexico!

2009-11-04T10:48:00.007-05:00

The Zocalo

You can feel the flow of history in this town, from the 500 year old cathedrals, to the glass towers from the age of corporate globalization just a few blocks apart, to the great cities abandoned long before Columbus was born. It is also a city of sights and smells: ubiquitous food vendors fill sidewalks with the smell of cooking, the ever-present always-on flashing red and blue police-car lights, the pedestrian-only commercial streets. And in spite of all the hustle and bustle one would expect from the second-largest city in the world, it is surprisingly orderly, and it feels quite safe -at least it feels that way so far -maybe I haven't come across a "fun" neighborhood yet...

Family pictures

2009-10-29T02:17:00.005-04:00

I found this old family picture, and I thought about how the past seems like a foreign country: most things are easily recognizable, but just different enough to make them seem a bit strange, unfamiliar. The infant on my great-grandmother's lap is my Dad.

Fall

2009-10-25T14:41:00.006-04:00

Chevy Chase, Maryland

Story

2009-10-11T22:43:00.006-04:00

Of course they had to be French...

Europa in distress

2009-10-10T03:07:00.010-04:00

After reading this article, my original intention was to reflect on the irrational fear of change that afflicts so many of our species. A useful survival trait perhaps, in an era of tribal warfare, but no more. At a certain level, I feel that Europeans are avoiding their responsibility to take on their share of leadership in the world.

I was reminded of the ancient myth of a Europa in distress, and started searching for an appropriate image to go with my yet to be written post. Aside from finding the great bronze piece above, I became more interested in the details of this mythical woman who lent her name to a continent, and so I -ahem- binged her. Thus I found myself browsing this lost presentation. Intrigued by its, shall we say, uniqueness, I looked into it and found it was put together by a school kid. It was then that it hit me -I always talk about how everybody has something to teach and today I was taught ancient mythology by a 6th grader.

This was a completely wasted half-hour, you say? Maybe, but I could never give up such care-free moments of surfing on this world wide web, our brave new sea of information.

Massive protests in Iran -again

2009-09-18T19:29:00.006-04:00

It's been two months since the election fraud in Iran energized the reformist movement. Since then protests have continued, but the government has gotten better at repressing the opposition, and things seemed a bit quieter in tha past few weeks.

Today's demonstrations -piggybacking the Jerusalem Day ceremonies-, have shown that the opposition is alive and kicking, pulsing just below the surface.

I think it is reasonable to wonder if Iran's recent softening nuclear policy isn't at least in part an effort to appease the opposition.

GPS Drawing

2009-09-01T22:51:00.006-04:00

Sport, artform, or too-much-spare-time?

Washington Monument

2009-08-25T18:36:00.002-04:00

Jellyfish

2009-08-13T11:10:00.004-04:00

Smithsonian National Zoo, Washington D.C.

Special Interests vs. Public Interests

2009-08-12T01:20:00.016-04:00

In theory, lobbying is a tool of democracy. It is how citizens can make sure their voices are heard when they are not voting. Lobbying has helped important causes like civil rights, labor, environment, etc.

The corporate sector however, having far more resources, can pretty much outspend anyone else to protect and further their interests -unfortunately they tend to act with short-term benefits in mind. Today, the professional lobbyist, working for the special interests, has far more influence in the legislative process than can possibly be considered ethical.

The NRA actually warned senators that it would punish those who voted to confirm justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court -few Republicans voted for her. (article)

Like this article explains, it makes perfect sense for the interest groups to hire former congressional members to do their lobbying: it's a win-win: the former congressmen have the experience and contacts needed to know how, when, and to whom to apply pressure, making far more money without the trouble of running for office every few years. The industry gets the most bang for their buck. So there you have a clear career path: get elected to congress, work for the lobby group from the inside, get hired by said lobbying group... and continue to work for them from the "outside". What could possibly be unethical about that?

Indeed.

The pharmaceutical lobby spent over 40 million in lobbying in the past few months, and have more lobbyists working for them than there are memebers of congress.
Would they spend all that for nothing?

"Today the government is empowered to negotiate how much it pays doctors, hospitals, laboratories — almost anyone who does business with Medicare. Anyone except pharmaceutical companies". (article)

Apparently not.

The fiercest enemy this country faces, is not the economy, the health industry, or global warming, it is not even Al Qaeda. It is a system that over the decades has entrenched itself on the inside of the halls of power to the point that it has become a virtually integral part of how lawmaking is done to the detriment of the public interest. Ironically, in the long run this often works against the industry that is trying to protect its own interests. Look at how the US has lost its leadership in the auto industry, and how China is set to control the new green energy industry -how much better off would these major industries in the US be right now if they had had to abide by more "unfair" legislation? History shows that when facing challenges, the industry always responds by producing innovation and increasing efficiency, but the lesson of the Dodo is wasted in corporate America.

It is my belief and hope that the Obama administration will reap all the fruits of its hard work to easily win a second term, in which it will find itself with renewed spirit and energy to tackle the most important of all problems: special interest lobbying and campaign finance reform.

日本酒

2009-07-27T23:16:00.025-04:00

I've given in to the pleadings of my conscience and removed the really bad sake haiku I had authored -good riddance!

Iran's significance

2009-07-26T18:53:00.011-04:00

Chaplin's "The Dictator" has become quite poular in Iran

In the past decade, Iran has made headlines often because of its nuclear research and hostile stance in the world stage. Unfortunately it is easy for people reading headlines to think that most of Iran is composed of zealots, especially during a time when the Bush administration made Iran a part of “the axis of evil”.

However, the events of recent weeks in which the people have massively protested the election fraud, have helped the world see that in spite of its alleged democracy, Iran’s regime has no mandate from its people. In other words, the people in Iran massively oppose their government:

-They do not want to pursue the development of nuclear weapons.
-They do not wish the destruction of Israel.
-They do not hate the West, Israel, or care to be seen as a destabilizing force.
-They are very unhappy with the way the regime has managed the country, in particular the economy, and want to have a say on how it is conducted.
-They want the clergy to have a respected but advisory role in government, similar to how some European monarchies have an influential voice at certain times, but no real power in state affairs.
-They want a more liberal society, with less state/religious control.

This is why reform in Iran is so important, much more so than in other countries. A truly democratic government in Iran would:

- Cease funding of Hezbollah, Hamas, and Shiite extremists, which would go a long way to bring peace and stability to Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, and the region at large.
- Show the world that Islam and Democracy can easily coexist, and make Iran a catalyst for reform in the region.
- Allow a population that is among the most educated in the region to bring about economic and social progress, serving as an example of the benefits of Democracy to its neighbors.

This is why we must let the people of Iran know that there are hundreds of millions of people all over the world that admire and support their valiant efforts and the sacrifice of their martyrs’ to take control of their destiny and claim their place among the free peoples of the world. We are paying close attention and are waiting to welcome them to the fraternity of nations who seek peaceful coexistence, mutual respect, and global cooperation to the betterment of all. Because all of our lives are intertwined, their fight is also ours. To intervene would only make things worse, but to show our solidarity, is our duty.

Other posts about Iran:

Qom challenges regime
Rift at the top
Marg barg dictator
Iran wants change
A note to tomorrow's children
Iran's ticking clock

Health Care: Reform vs. Satus Quo

2009-07-14T00:47:00.023-04:00

It's been said over and over: the US spends twice as much in health care as the average developed nation, and yet 1 out of 6 US citizens are uninsured. If nothing is done, the number of people without health care will continue to grow, or the government will eventually go belly up -or more likely, both.

OK... but why is this happening in the first place?

Answer:

The underlying problem has to do with the lobbying mechanisms that allow interests groups to exert such enormous influence on the Congress that it amounts to legalized corruption. Lobbying should be a democratic mechanism for minorities and groups that otherwise would have no voice; unfortunately it has become a tool for groups with huge sums of money to push legislation that favors their interests at the expense of the country, and over the past decades it has had a negative effect on health care.

Specifics:

1. Doctors get paid based on the drugs and tests they prescribe -the more they order the more money they make. Yes, this is a fact, and the result is doctors are rewarded for unnecessary spending and labs have no incentive to control prices.

Guess who benefits from this?

a) The drug companies
b) The hospitals/labs/health contractors
c) The doctors
d) All of the above (Yes, you won!!)
e) The patients

Solid evidence suggests that by cutting back on unnecessarily expensive procedures and prescriptions, between 10% to 30% of health costs could be saved. As the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, the California-based Kaiser Permanente system, and others have shown, it is possible to save money and produce better outcomes at the same time.

2. The government subsidizes half of the cost of employer provided health insurance. This means that:

a. Insurance companies are encouraged to come up with expensive/luxury coverage options.
b. All taxpayers share this burden, including those who don't get insurance via our employers, or no insurance at all.

3. Health insurance is not mandatory, therefore most uninsured people don't go to the hospital until the problem becomes serious enough, turning a potentially easy treatment into a an expensive one.

4. There is no incentive for preventive health care. Again, catching a problem before it gets expensive and crippling would benefit everyone... except the health industry. If you're like me, having health insurance is not enough of an incentive to do what we hate the most: going to the hospital. We are big babies, we are legion, and we need to be disciplined because if we don't, everyone has to share the burden of our poor decisions, and that is not fair. A tax break, a tax penalty, our names on the wall of shame -something. Preventive-oriented health care, I suspect, is the most important piece of the puzzle.

5. Lack of competition.

Lots of health care price-fixing lawsuits seems to demonstrate this point, and here is a report that shows that most states are dominated by one or two insurance providers.

6. Obsolete and expensive bureaucracy.

Question: OK... so just put in place legislation to correct these issues, what's the big deal?
Answer: Because when you spend less on health care, the health care industry earns less providing it -the industry is very profitable as it is, and therefore it is exerting its very considerable influence to maintain the status quo.

Question: but the legislators in congress say all kinds of scary things, they make it sound like the people would suffer terribly if we do anything to seriously cut costs.

Answer: If you look at all those arguments, you will first find that some are easily answered, for example, the Mayo Clinic case proves that you can definitely increase quality AND reduce cost at the same time. But most interestingly, you will find that all these arguments have one thing in common: the end result either protects the staus quo, or changes things in a way that does not compromise the interests of the health care industry. What a remarkable coincidence, isn't it?

But here are some specific points to ponder:

-If some go out of business, it means they were not efficient to begin with and/or not able to adapt, this means business from the least efficient providers would go to the more efficient; a net gain for patients and the country at large.
-As in the Mayo Clinic example, costs can be reduced and quality improved at the same time -we shouldn't lower the standard of the whole industry so that the worst providers don't have to change, which if you reduce it to the essentials, is exactly what some people in Congress are saying.
-There are many examples of health care systems on other developed nations that provide better care for less money, besides, to measure the quality of health care without factoring in the 50 million uninsured is a sad joke.

Question: who will win, Reform or Status Quo?

Answer: I think there will be modest reform, better than what we have now, but not the kind of real solution that we need to provide quality health care for all and not mortgage the future. I hope I'm wrong.

Web War II

2009-07-09T03:43:00.024-04:00

Google just announced it is launching its own operating system: Chrome OS. Someone described this as dropping a nuclear bomb on Microsoft, and it kind of feels that way. There's no question a war has been brewing, and the object of that war -market dominance of the Web- is now moving into Microsoft's core territory.
As Google put it, existing OSs were designed before the web -that is, they are computer-centered, to run local applications. It has been clear for a while that the computer world is moving from the local PC to the web. So not only is Google threatening the Windows OS, it is threatening MS Office, or pretty much ninety percent Microsoft's revenue.

This reminds me of the first web war: the battle between the Netscape and Internet Explorer (see browser wars) -of course, back then Microsoft used to bundle IE with Windows in new PCs while Netscape couldn't do much but watch helplessly. Google plans shipping its OS with new netbooks and later full laptops and desktops, so Microsoft will get a taste of its own medicine. Also, unlike on the first Web war, both rivals are evenly matched, so this will be a long battle, and hopefully we'll see a lot of innovation on both sides.

I am wondering if we will finally see the public at large adopting web based office apps -especially, I wonder about the one advantage of MS near-monopoly: the ability to send a Word document or a PowerPoint and not have to worry if the recipient can open it. So this is really about whether small carry-everywhere netbooks and ubiquitous wireless broadband will complete the change that started with laptops and smartphones.

Either way, I think this will ultimately be a win for users worldwide -not to mention, fun to watch ;-)

Shahrizoda شهريزاده

2009-07-06T04:47:00.008-04:00

I found myself reading the news about the riots in Xinjiang, and wondering, who are the Uyghur people, and why can't the central government just let minorities thrive instead of drowning their cultures among Han mainstream? Fear, of course. But I don't want to think too much... here is some Uyghur pop music, enjoy.

Qom defies Khameini

2009-07-05T00:47:00.008-04:00

Iran's tide of change continues to advance.

According to this NYT article, leading celrics in Qom declared the elections illegitimate, in a direct challenge to the Ayatollah, showing the regime faces strong opposition at all levels.

What is most interesting is that there this is supposed to be a stronghold of the regime as there are "...no liberals or opposition groups here(Qom); this is the center of mullah control over the government, culture, and politics of Iran." If the regime is finding strong opposition here, it means it is standing in very shaky ground indeed.

This in turn will undoubtedly embolden others to openly opose the regime, which would require even more repressive violence, which would enarage the people even more.

The possible arrest of Mousavi seems to be more and more likely -this may prove to be an unintentional boost to the reformists, as it would provide a rallying focus to the protesters.

Arrests of citizens and media repression continue: The BBC reports that "despite threats people are still uploading videos onto sites such as YouTube - which is more difficult to trace. Others have already paid the price of being in touch with the media. A long-standing contact in Tehran had been keeping us across events in the capital since the election.

But this week she wrote to say: "I've been fired from work. I can't give you any more info right now. They have been going into our computers at work and found out that I'd emailed you. Wish me luck." "

Good luck to her and all the brave people of Iran in their quest for freedom.

Happy Birthday, America!

2009-07-04T23:50:00.008-04:00

May your true spirit shine in this new era of hope.

Honduras coup: ambivalent feelings

2009-07-02T15:03:00.012-04:00

The creative graffiti in the streets of Tegucigalpa turns Mel Zelaya to Mel Ze Vaya (Mel Go Away)

Honduras' legitimately elected president, Manuel Zelaya, has been ousted in an alleged coup.
I say alleged because in spite of the international backing of Zelaya, so far I have seen no clear evidence that his removal from office was illegal -after all, the move to attempt re-election violated articles of the Constitution that forbid changes to the presidential limit of one four-year term and establish the legal procedure for constitutional amendments- however, the mode of his removal seems hardly a democratic measure and adds legitimacy to Mr. Zelaya's claims. In any case, declarations from OAS, UN, and the US, state their support for Zelaya and demand his return to power. Perhaps I should humbly assume they know exactly what they are doing and are acting out of their selfless devotion to Democracy. I'm not being sarcastic this time (really, I'm not).

Elected on a center-right platform, Mr. Zelaya decided he liked the left better half-way through his term. After he became friendly with Venezuela's Chavez, he embraced a Chavez-style leftisit/populist campaign to have a referendum to change the constitution so as to allow for a consecutive second term.

The Supreme Court, his own party and other government bodies declared such a referendum unconstitutional, and declared his lack of compliance to stop the referendum as an illegal act. Soon after the military flew him to Costa Rica in his pajamas. The Honduras Congress produced a dubious letter of resignation -which Zelaya says he never wrote- and appointed Roberto Micheletti as his replacement.

If you're like me, you must be thinking this is pretty strange. If congress voted him out of power, and Zelaya's actions were truly illegal, why the coup-like forceful exile?

Let me take a wild guess at the story behind the story...

1. Zelaya becomes friends with Chavez

2. Chavez starts courting Zelaya.

3. Zelaya makes a 180 degree ideology turn

4. The Honduran government and upper classes think: "this guy wants to stay in power forever by using populism to appeal to the impoverished masses, just like Chavez did... if it worked for Chavez, it can probably work for Zelaya -after all, the poor here don't read the news and have no idea that Chavez is ruining Venezuela and trying to become pseudo-king. We can vote him out of power, but with Chavez's funding, he can find a way to get reelected or stage a coup. This isn't good, we have to do something or it's bye-bye democracy (and bye-bye our elite privileges)"

5. Zelaya gets free one-way trip to Costa Rica.

6. Regional leaders don't want anyone getting bad ideas about overthrowing elected leaders, decide to show strong condemnation of coup.

7. The international community at large, fearing a return of civil war to the region, threatens sanctions and withdraws ambassadors, pressuring Honduras to undo the coup.

8. The US, complying with new foreign policy, repudiates coup publicly and pressures Honduras as well (though many breath easier in private. Same for many Latin American countries).

9. Chavez delights in being able to parade around region making noise and taking the high moral ground, feeling important and siding with his protege.

In this article of El Heraldo of Honduras, a Venezuelan citizen writes to congratulate the people of Honduras and thanks them for showing Venezuela that would-be dictators are not invincible and wishes they could do the same with Chavez. Many others ad comments to second the thought.

While I sympathize with the writer, it seems like Zelaya has plenty of popular support in Honduras, though it isn't clear if his supporters outnumber his opposition. Given the mounting international pressure, it seems possible that a negotiated return to power of Zelaya may happen, in which he agrees not to attempt to run for a second term. This of course, would be ideal, but the question hanging in the air is: is it OK to risk a second Chavez in Honduras? While Venezuela had the oil boom to mitigate Chavez's devastating policies and corruption, Honduras is already very poor to start with, and a Chavez-style regime would likely bring utter ruin and even more corruption. Unfortunately, if the Honduran people chose to go that route, knowingly or not, they have every right to do so, and should not be opposed by force or unlawful actions -otherwise we are no better than the Zelayas of the world.

Article by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

Iran's ticking clock

2009-07-02T01:36:00.010-04:00

The government continues to supress demonstrations, and blames the West on government television, even showing "confessions" of protesters supposedly incited by western media outlets. The Iranian bloggers make clear that no one is fooled by this, but since the Supreme Leader decided to show his hand and intervene in the elections, he doesn't have a choice but to play his role and go on with the act, leaning on his security forces. Although Khameini has succeeded in making the public demonstrations diminish significantly, the unrest persists in the minds of the people. It seems clear that this isn't simply going to go away. The clamp down on the media, scare tactics on the party leaders and reformists, violence on protesters, and monitoring of Internet comunications may have calmed things down to an extent on the surface, but underneath the tension hasn't gone away.

So far the government has been threatening to arrest Mousavi; if they do, a general strike may likely ensue, as Mousavi himself has exhorted the people as follow up to that eventuality. Or perhaps a massive demonstrations will be planned for the forty day anniversary of the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan. Perhaps the catalyst will be something else, but it is good to remember that the last revolution didn't happen overnght -it took a year until the Shah was toppled -and it's been a short three weeks since June 12th.

ندا آقا سلطان

2009-06-22T15:13:00.012-04:00

Neda Agha-Soltan

Rift in Iran's top clergy

2009-06-21T13:23:00.011-04:00

Widening Rift in the Clergy

It appears that the rift among the the top religious authorities in Iran continues to gain momentum, with the Ayatollah Khameini having to lean more and more in his enforement agencies and less in the rule of law, while his moral authority seems to be spiraling down in all but the most conservative Iranians.

According to Reuters the most senior opposition ayatollah, Hossein Ali Montazeri, distanced himself further from Iran’s supreme leader, saying that “Resisting people’s demand is religiously prohibited … I am calling for three days of national mourning from Wednesday.” and described the election results as something that “no wise person in their right mind can believe.”

Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who leads the 86-member Assembly of Experts -a goverment body with legal authority to remove the Supreme Leader-, is supposed to be playing a quiet but critical role in organizing the opposition. His daughter Faezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani is a former member of Parliament who gained notoriety for opening sports to women and was seen at a rally for opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi on June 17.

Mounting Evidence of Election Fraud

Read the analysis from Chatham House

Street Demonstrations Continue

Below is what is reported to be a demonstration in Shirazi street in Teheran from earlier today. It seems that demonstrations continue throughout Iran today, but with less violence than Yesterday in spite of the large number of police in the streets. Indeed, they are chanting "we are all together" -I wonder if we are beginning to see the turning of the enforcement agaencies -the only thing that seems to be keeping the government in place -to the reformist camp...

Here is a great blog from inside Iran, with great updates and photos

Marg Bar Dictator

2009-06-20T21:27:00.019-04:00

With chants of "Allah-o-akbar!" ("God is great!") and ”Marg Bar dictator!” ("Death to the dictator!"), the people marched all over Iran today in defiance of Yesterday's threats of violence by the Ayatollah Khameini. Reports of massive use of tear gass, water cannons, and in some cases live bullets slowed slowed down the demonstrations, but did not manage to stop them completely.

It looks like the government of Iran has but two options: become a plain dictatorship in all but name, or veer towards freedom and reform.

Here is one of the many websites following the ongoing events

Videos, photographs, and blogspostes abound. The people are leaving no room for doubt about what they want, and their willingness to pay whatever cost is necessary:

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBOBhguAjjY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t54KKSVl-c

Don't miss these revealing facts about the election results here.

Meanwhile, demonstrations by Iraninan citizens and their supporters took place all over the world.

A Note to Tomorrow's Children

2009-06-19T21:36:00.024-04:00

A blog post in Persian, translated by the NIAC

"I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! There are a few great movie scenes that I also have to see. I should drop by the library, too. It's worth to read the poems of Forough and Shamloo again. All family pictures have to be reviewed, too. I have to call my friends as well to say goodbye. All I have are two bookshelves which I told my family who should receive them. I'm two units away from getting my bachelors degree but who cares about that. My mind is very chaotic. I wrote these random sentences for the next generation so they know we were not just emotional and under peer pressure. So they know that we did everything we could to create a better future for them. So they know that our ancestors surrendered to Arabs and Mongols but did not surrender to despotism. This note is dedicated to tomorrow's children..."

It is incredible to see what is in the hearts an minds of so many Iranians right now. It is touching, it is moving, it is amazing. History tells us of armies of long dead people who put themselves in harm's way for the sake of freedom, but that can never compare to the reality of seeing it happening, right this moment, by people like you or I, who go to school, or have a job, who for all that matters could be our next door neighbors -placing freedom above all else. Moments like this make me fall in love with the people of Earth.

The Ayatollah made clear where he stands -and has given a clear warning to the people and opposition leaders -but the protests will go on in a few hours. I hope the cost to the people is not too high.

Iran wants change

2009-06-18T17:22:00.014-04:00

In 1979, the people of Iran raised up to overthrow a goverment they did not approve of. That revolution was supposed to put in place an islamic goverment, empowered by the people. But the recent and highly contested election results triggered a series of protests in which the people of Iran made clear that they did not feel empowered by their government. "It's not about Mousavi, or any candidate, it's about democracy" explained a young protester in the streets of Teheran. It seems to me, from the multiple accounts, interviews, tweets, blogs, and cell-phone videos from the streets, that the people weren't particularly upset with the system of government -at least at the beginning- they just wanted to have a say in how things are run, and they want to be able to express themselves freely -the problem is that this is a classic example of what happens when one branch of government has power over the others: the people's sovereignty soon starts to fade.

So now, with the whole world paying close attention, Iran finds itself at a fork in the road. The Supreme Leader must be thinking about what happened to the last Shah during the revolution, armed forces or not. Using force to repress the protests would discredit whatever credibility it has left before its own people and abroad, and it might backfire, triggering another revolution. He even has strong opposition within the clerical branches of government, supporting the protests. The safest way out seems to be to call for a re-election, and this time making sure it is legitimate. This of course, may weaken his position in the eyes of his opponents, and probably his own; though it seems to me that with the right moves, he could easily turn the situation to his advantage and gain popular support.

Khamenei said he would address the people tomorrow, and in the meantime, the people continue to flood the streets to make sure no one forgets what they want.

The world watches, and holds its breath.

>Al Jazeera article

>The Economist article

>Iran Timeline

Government of Iran:

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

2009-06-06T21:54:00.010-04:00

I find that knowing my own and other people's personality types can be helpful to understand behavior and motivation, and therefore help find the logic in apparently confusing or contradictory behavior. This tool can then help counteract the classical mistake of assuming that behavior in others is caused by the same motivations or understanding of the world as one's own.

Type selector >

Test >

This is what I got:

Your Type is INTJ

Strength of the preferences %

Introverted - 78
Intuitive - 75
Thinking - 38
Judging - 22

What did you get...?

Tiananmen Square

2009-06-04T11:51:00.015-04:00

On June 4th, 20 years ago, many brave people died for demanding that their voices be heard. They wanted reform, freedom, and democracy. I think that when someone takes a stand for freedom at the risk of their own lives, they not only bring honor upon themselves, but elevate all of us, as a species, and we should all be proud of them, our brothers and sisters in the human family. As a small tribute to them, I spent some time reading about, and pondering the events that took place during the weeks that culminated that night on Tiananmen square.

Two quotes in particular caught my attention:

"Whether you like or not, the events ensured 20 years of fast economic growth"
Beijing Netizen, Beijing

"June 4th was a time when a group of people sacrificed their lives for democracy. We need to remember their efforts"
Steve Chan, Hong Kong

It cannot be denied that a peaceful demonstration for freedom is an honorable action and stems from basic human rights -on this belief we should not waver. We must also consider that freedom has many dimensions; political freedom does no good if people are starving, or can't educate themselves. These too are basic building blocks of freedom. History shows that lack of stability is detrimental of economic growth, and economic growth is necessary to elevate people from poverty, to provide education, and raise standards of living. Thus, it could be argued that the violent repression of June 4th was necessary for the long-term wellfare of the people.

So the question is this: was the benefit of crushing a potential revolution enough to justify the taking of so many lives?

I suggest that before answering, you take a deep breath, close your eyes, and imagine yourself in a room large enough to contain all the mothers, fathers, children, and friends of all those who were killed -a very, very large room.

Now imagine you have to ask that question to them.

Bada BING

2009-06-01T03:11:00.005-04:00

After brief experimentation, I have found no great performance gap between Google and Bing -Microsoft's latest Search Engine re-launch. They are marketing it as a "Decision Engine"; it is supposed to help you sort through results better by selecting more "credible" sources (better-paying sources?) I can't wait for the conspiracy theories on that.

While Bing doesn't really have more to offer than Google, it does a better job of presenting and advertising its features. Even the simple, clean-looking Google interface, one of its best liked features, looks a bit too simple after Bing's nice interactive wallpapers. I am sure that if a proper comparisson is done, Google will come out on top performance-wise, at least initially, but for the first time, Microsoft appears to have come up with a credible adversary to Google, and in view of Microsoft's past history, even mighty Google should be losing some sleep. Or has Microsoft finally met its match?

Either way, the web landscape has become a bit more interesting...

Gala de Tango

2009-05-27T17:22:00.017-04:00

Play

I used to dislike Tango, but this genre seems to grow on you. No doubt some will attribute that to increased wisdom; tango evokes sadness, melancholy, despair -not usually appealing to the very young. It is a reflection, perhaps, of the society in which it was born, and wether good or bad, it seems to have a deep effect on the listener...

Mustang Drift

2009-05-26T19:00:00.006-04:00

Check out the whole series

Kabardino-Balkaria

2009-05-19T00:00:00.013-04:00

I recently learned -completely by chance- of the existence of a country I hadn't even heard of before: Kabardino-Balkaria. I was amazed at my own ignorance -I thought that by know I knew of every country on Earth, at least by name, so I had to look it up. It turns out this former Soviet repubic is not an independent contry but one of the many oblasts (a type of province) that make up the Russian Federation.

Sino-Dollars?

2009-05-15T00:35:00.002-04:00

I found this pretty funny. he who has the money, sets the rules, no?

Television

2009-05-14T03:45:00.011-04:00

I’ve been thinking about a posting dedicated to this mainstream component of our culture for a long time. It turned out much longer than I had anticipated.

As a young child (way before cable or DVRs) I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time than watching TV. Even when there was nothing I liked, I’d still rather watch TV than do anything else. Why do so many children have this addiction for something so worthless? This question kept nagging at me so I had to try to figure it out.

For somebody relatively new to the world, few things can provide as much effortless information input density as TV. A child’s mind is an avid information sink. Any information is excellent when you have almost none, so even the dullest cartoon is a synaptic feast of new objects, concepts, and interactions; thus the young brain latches on to it. Eventually, however, information density drops, as most of it is no longer new. The increasingly more complex intellect becomes more demanding, and TV loses its preeminence; most information coming out of it no longer has much value even as entertainment, as ninety-nine percent of it is nothing but thinly disguised repetition. At least this was the case with me during my mid-teens (no, I don’t mean I was nothing but thinly disguised repetition) I mean that I started to find TV quite dull and rather a waste of time. Once in a while I’d find something worth watching, but those were the exceptions.

Then, in the past decade or so, TV’s landscape changed. I am talking about entertainment– comedies and dramas. A new generation of TV shows started to appear. I found myself enlightened, moved, or challenged by ideas and situations in a TV show. Suddenly, TV was an enriching experience.

Around the end of the millennium, I had been hearing lots of good things about The Sopranos, I was a bit curious, but never got around to watch it –after all work was an all consuming monster at the time, and that was just a TV show, right? Eventually, though, I found myself with a lot more time than usual in my hands, and I was impressed by the show. All kinds of unexpected things happened. Unexpected and TV show in the same sentence -imagine that. I was hooked. Then I found Six Feet Under, my first dramedy, and I watched the first two seasons. That show was totally groundbreaking back in 2002, and it still hasn’t lost its edge in 2009 (I watched the rest of it recently thanks to an involuntary extended vacation :)

But in my opinion the prize goes to The West Wing, this show has single-handedly risen the bar on broadcast TV by a couple of orders of magnitude -hands down my absolute all time favorite.

Sure, regular and bad TV shows still outnumber good ones, but why the relatively sharp change upwards in the quality curve in the past decade? Part of it is the normal trend on any field –people build on previous advances, and so the bar keeps rising. I wonder if people are becoming more demanding as well. I think it is a fact that the average citizen is less naïve or conventional, society in general has become less static, more open and multi-faceted than it was a couple of decades ago, and it takes some time for writers and producers and studios to catch up to the new paradigms; especially, if as this article suggests and I have no trouble believing, profit margins in broadcast TV became the primary goal of management, creating a downward spiral of declining ratings, followed by declining budgets and quality and so on:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/85828-the-end-of-broadcast-tv-nears (I found the comments even more interesting than the article). So the advent of cable must have been a magnet for talented and creative writers and producers, helping to save TV –at least the evidence seems to match this theory.

Finally, the spread of technologies and services like DVRs, Netflix, iTunes, streaming, and file sharing; laptops and mobile devices are allowing people to watch shows at a time and place of their choosing, rather than having to seat in front a designated screen at a designated time –this is really significant, because for the first time, content originally created for TV is independent of TV channels, TV schedules and TV sets, allowing people to watch shows that otherwise they would never get around to see (and BTW, here is yet more proof that freedom is something we can never have too much of).

The really exciting thing about all this, is that producers and writers of TV shows will continue to gain artistic independence from management. Sure, we still need studios and money-people, you can’t (yet) produce something like The West Wing in your garage, but it is pretty clear where things are headed -and it looks like a better place to me.

Happy Earth Day

2009-04-22T16:54:00.013-04:00

After a very long campaign by green activists and responsible leaders, environmental awareness has finally been responisbly met by political will in the White House.

(Worldwide sigh of relief...)

After Sunset

2009-04-20T22:33:00.001-04:00

Tai Shan

2009-04-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

I think it is virtually impossible not to like Pandas, they are the rock stars of the animal kingdom, people go to the zoo just to see them -and yet they are the most gentle creatures, as if they existed inside a bubble of peace .

Embraer

2009-04-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

In a commercial airliner market dominated by two companies -Boeing and Airbus- it is a rare opportunity to come accross a third player in the medium range class. Especially if you don't fly very often. So I was pleasantly surprised when a few days ago I found out I'd be boarding an Embraer 190. It was nice to have no middle seat to deal with, and for a smaller plane they were as roomy for a passenger as a 737 or equivalent -Jetblue boasted to have "the most legroom of any domestic airline" -also, each seat had its own TV screen with free music and TV channels to choose from. Not bad.

More Boston Pictures

2009-04-05T13:52:00.003-04:00

ICA

2009-03-26T19:56:00.000-04:00

This brand new museum is architecturally very appealing.
The exhibitions were realy good as well. I strongly recommend visiting it.

How to Learn Chinese

2009-03-23T14:04:00.000-04:00

It may take a while...

Orchestra

2009-03-22T14:44:00.000-04:00

This was rated one of the top orchestras in the world -worth listening to.

MIT

2009-03-20T18:55:00.000-04:00

Parts of the MIT campus, and views from the surrounding area.

Cloudy Day

2009-03-18T23:08:00.001-04:00

It's been a week since I left; and the sky is grey.

The Back Bay

2009-03-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

This is one of the affluent areas of Boston. A former marshland, it was reclaimed from the river, a major development project at the time. As you can see from the pictures, it is quite old (by new world standards) and many of the apartment buildings date back to the 18th Century. Most of the buildings are well kept and have been modernized inside while keeping the original look outside. Brick and stone can bee seen everywhere, including the sidewalks. The distinctive blue glass skyscraper is the John Hancock Tower. At its top there is an observation deck and museum dedicated to the Independence.

The Furniture Store

2009-03-15T23:51:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night I met my old friends Willy (left) and Charlie (aka "Carlitos", aka "The Asshole" ;-) We had not seen each other in years, but it felt like it had only been a few weeks.

We went to see the "Watchmen"... at a furniture store. The place has two IMAX theatres, a water -light show, attractions for children, resturants, ice-cream parlor, etc. It's a furniture store. Yes, it is weird, but a lot of things are a bit strange here, in the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Revere Beach

2009-03-15T23:24:00.000-04:00

One of Boston's most ill-reputed neighborhoods, this was my home for over three years. Sure wasn't pretty, but it was close to the subway and the airport, and within waking distance of the ocean. It has a great sidewalk where I used to walk or bike while breathing in the ocean breeze, and a wide sandy beach. We used to have some great "brew-fests" at my place there with my old roomate Steve -biochemist and brewmaster extraordinaire- and the old gang. OK, so what if you heard a gun shot now and then in the middle of the night? Small price to pay... :-)

Peter's Super Beef

2009-03-15T23:06:00.000-04:00

Located in my old neighborhood of Revere, MA, this is my favorite place in the world for cheese stake sandwiches... seen here are the "small" fries and sandwich -and they give you your own ketchup container -as it should be ;-) Nothing like real food...

The "T"

2009-03-14T22:15:00.000-04:00

Bostons Subway System is the oldest in the US -it's oldest line, is still partly a surface tramway.

More Harvard Square

2009-03-13T16:02:00.001-04:00

In the heart of Cambridge, accross the Charles River from Boston.

Harvard Square

2009-03-13T15:54:00.000-04:00

All that we can leave behind

2009-03-13T15:41:00.000-04:00

While leaving Seattle seemed like the only thing I wanted to do and I hardly felt anything during the short weeks before my departure, it did hit me after I got on the plane for the rest of the day, and is only now starting to fade. Unrealized possibilities left behind seemed like a non-issue. Or were they...? All that remains now, is to look forward. But can a single thread of the past have a place in the fabric of the future? And do I want to pursue it?

I think I do, maybe.

Modern Travel

2009-03-13T15:13:00.001-04:00

Try sitting still staring at this picture for almostfive hours -fun, isn't it?

High Castle

2009-03-07T17:22:00.000-05:00

I got my view from the high tower -I thank the princess for opening the gates :)

Photograph

2009-03-04T22:30:00.000-05:00

As it is often the case, I found myself surfing the web instead of doing what I had planned -thus I found this amazing photograph. Light, dark, depth, lines and angles, all fitting together elegantly with a completely contrasting element that adds a whole other dimension to the picture. It has a quality that always seems to mesmerize me -solid reality posing as abstraction.

Winds of Change

2009-03-03T19:08:00.000-05:00

Question

Why does the Republican party leadership keep doing all the same things that gave them the lowest regard in public opinion in decades -which keeps getting lower? Can't they see their tactics are backfiring on them? Why do they keep giving the Obama administration free ammo? Do they really not see that they are painting themselves into a corner, alienating all but the most radical among their base? I used to consider myself an independent, and I find many of the traditional Republican values appealing: individual freedom, personal responsibility, self-reliance, pro-life. These have been supplanted with anti-science, anti-environment, anti-oil independence, anti-fiscal responsibility -if that was a result of principles, at least it could be defended. But it just so happens that all those things are nothing but the side effects of protecting corporate and christian-right interests (the latter only when it doesn't conflict with the former).

I, like many millions of others, consider myself a centrist -but I look more and more like a leftist because the actions of the Republican leadership have been dragging the party more and more to the right. If Obama were to run in almost any other developed country, he would be considered to be center or center-right, but here some call him a socialist. The world -even the US, is evolving politically, and while the tide can be contained for a while, it cannot be stopped. Older generations of loyalists are being replaced with younger generations of fact-checkers. Big Business campaign financing cannot compete with popular funding. Eventually the GOP leadership will have to adapt to the reality of a more informed and more involved voter, or be swept away. That much seems clear.

Paradigm

What is so incredible about the Obama campaign and election? His policies are not revolutionary. He has not uncovered new issues. He does not have a miracle strategy. What he has is the hope for change. But what kind of radical change is that? To manage the environment and avoid a global catastrophe. Stop a useless war that is filling the pockets of corporations and hurting everyone else. Go after terrorists at the source. Use the considerable influence of the US to seek peace in the Middle East. Seek consensus rather than imposing policies -both internationally and domestically. Modernize the economy and manage it responsibly. Education and health care. All things that should have been top priority for every administration regardless of party. But after the Bush dark ages, an administration that is actually pursuing all these common sense policies seems like some kind of heaven-sent miracle.

The other aspect of this paradigm change, as I see it, is the fact that the Obama team has managed to be politically successful without compromising their principles or selling their souls to interest groups. They just get it. That, I think, is the most hopeful thing of all.

Uruguay

2009-03-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

I have been contemplating visiting my childhood home. Perhaps for this reason I drifted towards this photo blog of Uruguay. The photograper/author knows what she's doing, and before I knew it I had spent the best part of an hour looking at dozens of pictures... I felt like a tourist.

Amazon

2009-03-02T19:17:00.000-05:00

As the day of my departure approaches, I suddenly feel the urge to visit places that I never got around to seeing.

One of Seattle's landmarks is Amazon's world headquarters. Ever since arriving here, the building has intrigued me. Not only its castle-like appereance, nested on top of a hill draws the eye, but the view from it promised to be stunning. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures from the top... I just have to get past security.

I got this picture from this photo blog site, it has some great pictures of Seattle.

Sailing Away

2009-02-20T18:33:00.001-05:00

As much as I love Seattle's stunning geography, progressive environment, and mild weather, as of late the anchor that held me here has been losing its grip; like the song says "if the wind is right, you can sail away."

Well, the wind is right.

Where to...? Well, figuring that out is part of the fun, but a change of hemisphere looks pretty good right now.

Jardín Japonés

2009-01-14T18:36:00.000-05:00

Not really my style, but....

LHC

2008-09-13T20:22:00.000-04:00

I have been too absorbed with work to make any postings lately, but now that I have some free time, I want to talk about a momentous event: The switching on of the Large Hadron Collider (the most powerful particle accelerator ever built) last Wednesday. Why is this exciting? Aside from it being likely to change our fundamental understanding of the Universe, for someone like myself, who grew up reading science-fiction and day-dreaming about what wonders FTL, or anti-gravity, or wormhole technology, or force fields, (non-sensical or not) may bring, it feels like a re-awakening of hope that the future will arrive, not in tiny bits and pieces, but in a resounding, trumpet-blaring, triumphantly big chunk. For all of my life, there have been no major applied physiscs breakthroughs. We have basically two types of motors: electrical and chemical -stop counting. Electrical motors are about one century old; rockets are centuries old, internal combustion about century also, and jets (the cutting edge!!!) a mere 60 years old. OK, there is potential with nuclear propulsion especially in space, but those are basically glorified rockets (or glorified steam engines in ships). So why haven't we developed anything better in all this time?

I think because we have gone as far as good engineers can go -that is, by learning through experimentation, trial and error, and testing prototypes. There is only so much we can do by perfecting and building on what we already know; We need new, raw knowledge to start a new cycle of discovery. It is also true that a theory without a means to test it and get specific data, won't bear much fruit.

With the LHC, we have a tool to test those theories. Will we find the mass-carrier particle? Will we find the hidden dimensions that superstring theory predicts? Will we find dark matter? Will we finally figure out the "Theory of Everything"? I don't think anyone has a clue, I sure don't. What I do know, is that major new discoveries are usually followed by a cornucopia of pratical applications.

Maybe even a gravity-generator engine, to swiftly propell us accross space ;)

Dark Night

2008-07-28T01:06:00.000-04:00

In a newspaper article, a reporter attempted to use this movie as an example to justify the doctrine of the current administration. In essence, that the end justifies the means. That if the only way to defeat our enemies is to play by their rules now and then -to become like them- then that's OK.

I agree that extraordinary times require extraordinary measures. Herein lays the key: what we do makes us what we are. If you knowingly act like a bad guy, you are one. This is why there is a line that should never be crossed. The moment we do, we give up the higher ground, loose our credibility, and our identity. Is it worth surrendering our core values, to win a fight? Some would have us believe that it takes strength to do "what is necessary" -I believe real strength lies in abiding by your principles, no matter how hard, no matter what's at stake. It is giving up on those principles that makes us weak. America strengthens its enemies and weakens itself when it practices torture, or lies to its citizens.

There is such thing as moral complexity, but there are also moral absolutes. Batman is a dark character, faced with difficult choices, but his actions don't contradict his principles; more than any heroics, this is what makes him a hero.

Here is an excerpt from Batman Begins:

Henri Ducard: "You are ready to become a member of the league of shadows. But first you must demonstrate your commitment to justice" (by killing a captured criminal)
Batman: "No. I'm no executioner"
Henri Ducard: "Your compassion is a weakness your enemies will not share"
Batman: "That's why it's so important. It's separates us, from them"
Henri Ducard: "you want to fight criminals, this man is a murderer!"
Batman: "this man should be tried"

POTUS Action Items

2008-07-22T00:55:00.001-04:00

During the past two terms of the current administration, the US has plunged from a relatively good situation -budget surplus, sympathy abroad after 9/11, environmental progress- to what seems like the dark ages: a huge deficit, an environmental policy deviced to favor the oil industry, lying its way into a war designed to funnel funds into contractors of all kinds, despised and ridiculed abroad as much as by its own citizens.

Perhaps a positive note can be recovered from the catastrophe of the Bush administration: that many of those who, unquestioning, fell for the deceit that sank us into the current disaster, now know better. The eye-opening experience may perhaps explain the shift away from the right, and towards the center in the republican party. In any case, and regardless of the winner, both candidates are far closer ideologically and tactically than either one would ever admit in public. This, in my opinion, bodes well for the ability of the future president to get things past the legislative and accomplish the seemingly impossible task of repairing the damage done, only cooperation can achive that and all that needs to be done to make that happen. I believe that neither candidate can be bought by the those who own the current administration, both want to do what is right, and have what it takes -the task at hand, however, is monumental -heroic, even. But not impossible.

Here are my humble suggestions for the next President of the US:

1. Regain the trust and respect of the international community by promoting peace:

a. Apologize unequivocally in the world stage for the Iraq war and its consequences
b. Sponsor and lead the effort to create a Palestinian state. Do so with the support and agreement of the regional states G8, and the thirld world powers. Privately make clear to the Israeli authorities that anything short of full cooperation is not a good idea.
c. Publicly regret and reject categorically the use of torture in any form; enact laws to that effect.
d. Lead the creation of a global club of the richest nations on both the developed and developing world to faciliate development in the poorest nations, beginning with Afghanistan.
e. Encourge the creation of a European Chancelor and a European Armed Forces. A united Europe speaking with a single voice will add stability and balance to the world stage.

2. Embrace environmental responsibility:

a. Put in place and strongly pursue a strategy to replace the oil economy with one of renewable energy, by facilitating and encouraging the development of new technologies and industries.
b. Join global environmental efforts and lead by example on conservation and restoration projects.

3. Regain scientific and technological leadership; promote and invigorate scienceific research:

a. Put in place and strongly pursue technologies to replace the oil economy with one of renewable energy, by facilitating and encouraging the development of new industries.
b. Establish a permanent settlement beyond Earth orbit to capture the imagination of the new generations, promote the study of science, and invigorate the development of advanced technology.
c. Increase funding for scientific research accross the board.

4. Move to break the grip of special interest groups in the government and regain sovereignty for the people. Start with campaign finance reform.

5. Re-think the educational system:

This is not about getting students to learn more, although bringing the level of learning on par with other developed countries should be a priority. This is about a system that has largely remained unchaged for a hundred years. It is about changing the priorities, and preparing the children not just for a career, but first and foremost, for success in life. We now have the know-how to teach how to avoid the social and mental traps that lead to poor decisions, and reprogram our drives to follow our decisions, instead of the other way around. This cannot be accomplished in two presidential terms, but it should be enough time to firmly seed the idea.

Independence Day

2008-07-04T18:14:00.001-04:00

Today, the United States of America celebrates its birthday. To me this should be celebrated in global brotherhood as one of the great milestones in human history as the begining of modern Democracy, not just American history. After all this idea was inspired by the thinkers that paved the way; by France and Britain, by the Roman Republic and classic Greece. This idea that the people should rule their own lives instead of a tyrant or a monarch, grew out of many minds, in many countries, until it found fertile ground in this young nation. It seems so obvious now, that even dictators pretend to be legitimate representatives of the people. Let's remember the high price paid for it by so many people in so many nations, and let's not forget that many more have yet to enjoy it. Let us, at least, be grateful for what we have.

Science

2008-07-04T06:12:00.000-04:00

The Speed of Dark

Science is more than a collection of theories or dusty books in some academic library, it is a powerful force that can add a new dimension to your life. Once you experience the wonder of it, your view of the world has a new depth of perspective that stretches the mind. Science is a also a way of thinking. I am not a scientist, but no one needs to be one to experience this. You see, coming up with a new scientific idea is the hard part -but understanding that idea once it has been discovered, is something anyone can do. Science has the power to make you rich in a way that money never will, but it's free for the taking. For generations, scientist have been accumulating and perfecting knowledge, refining it, adding to it. Billions are invested in it; like a corporation in which workers and technicians and bureaucrats labor day after day to produce a profit -but you don't have to, you are the shareholder and all you have to do is reap the benefits. Isn't that something?

The Fourth Screen

2008-06-02T04:50:00.000-04:00

At first I didn't know it was a commercial, I couldn't figure out where it was headed. It sounded intriguimg, until I realized they were just talking about mobile phones, and the seriousness of it just made it amusing -but still, it appealed to the part of me who loves to search for trends.

What will really make a difference, is not so much the "4th screen" itself, but mass mobile internet access and the radical ways in which it will change our lives, and our society.

Pangea Day

2008-05-10T15:01:00.000-04:00

I hope you were able to join the global campfire, a day when we got together to contemplate that peace is more than just hope.

Zen Moment

2008-04-14T21:11:00.000-04:00

Time to change

2008-03-22T16:52:00.000-04:00

Do you remeber Internet Time? It was intended to eliminate the hassle of time zones, as real time interactions across time zones started to raise dramatically. No matter where you are, or what time scheme is in place, everyone shares the same exact time. Under Internet Time, the day was divided into 1000 units (beats), starting at midnight European Central Time. It came out right after the internet boom, and it seemed like an awesome idea (at least to me) -if you've ever tried to coordinate an activity with someone in a different part of the world, you've surely gone through something like this:

A: OK, how does tomorrow at 10 AM work for you?
B: 10 AM your time or my time?
A: My time
B: You are US Pacific, right?
A: Yes.
B: OK, you're 8 hrs behind me so that's 18:00 my time
A: Is that military time? I'm not sure...
B: Right, sorry -that's 6pm.
A: Are you sure, we're on daylight savings time here
B: All right, why don't we set up the meeting on Outlook, that should adjust the time automatically for everybody's time zone.
A: Well, they changed the daylight saving time this year, and IT says there have been problems with the exchange update patch...

How about this, instead:

A: OK, how does tomorrow at @750 work for you?
B: Can we make it @815?
A: Sure, that works.

I don't know about you, but I know which conversation I like better.

I think the reason Internet Time never took off, is that people are resistant to change and easily confused, but we don't have to give up regular time, we can display both times side-by-side. How hard would it be to add a little bit of code to time servers and operating systems and save millions of headaches every week?

Internet movers and shakers, how about some moving and shaking here?

Netscape

2008-03-01T14:53:00.000-05:00

Today, the life of Netscape Navigator oficially comes to an end. This posting is my tribute to this icon of the internet's dawn.

Though its real death came about in the late 90s, after loosing the browser wars to Microsoft's IE, it was given a new lease in life when it was acquired by AOL, though its market share continued to decline, and faded into irrelevance at the turn of the millenium. While Netscape was a better browser in the beginning, IE's eventual superiority became irrelevant in the face of its strategic advantage: IE was pre-installed on all new Windows PCs.

In the early years of the web, Netscape soon attained dominance over Mosaic, and was the first browser for most people back then. For those of us who lived immersed in the emerging web, it was like exploring a new world. There were no commercial websites, just individual pages with all kinds of weird content. Forget about media-rich pages, with neatly laid-out content designed by web-design firms. Back then, my idea of multi-media was colored text. The occasional GIF (picture) was a slow-loading event, at 9.6 kilobits per second on a dial-up connection. Every new release of Netscape seemed to introduce a whole new dimmension to the web. Tables, text alignment, the web-shattering support of JPG images... Every conversaton included rumours about how the next Netscape release -never more than a few weeks away- might change the web's landscape. It was hard not to see Netscape as the brave startup company that brought us the Web.

When I realized its days were numbered, sometime in '98, I couldn't help but to feel a little sad, not unlike parting ways with a travel companion, in the middle of an interesting journey.

So long, Netescape.

Leap Year 2008

2008-03-01T02:51:00.000-05:00

I could not let today pass without a posting to mark the event. Happy February 29th, world!

Lunar Eclipse 02.20.08

2008-02-20T23:45:00.001-05:00

The combination of two events -a total lunar eclipse, and a clear night sky (in Seattle both are quite rare) prompted me to go out and document the occasion.

I could see a lot of detail with my binoculars, and managed to take a few photos and video, but most of the detail was lost.

Unlike solar eclipses, lunar ones aren't particularly spectacular. The Moon does not go completely dark, but acquires a redish hue. While Earth does block all direct sunlight to the Moon, some is refracted through Earth's atmosphere, the blue portion of the spectrum being absorbed in the process -just like at sunset, when sunlight paints everything red.

I wonder how it looked like from the Moon. I imagine the Earth slowly blocking the Sun, its black circumference bordered by a red-gold ring of glowing atmosphere... but that of course, would be a solar eclipse.

Caucuses

2008-02-18T19:08:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the democratic party presidential caucuses -where voters have the opportunity to vote for their choice of nominee. I almost didn't make it, but I am glad I did. The caucus location was -a very large room at a highschool- filled to capacity; but more than that, the crowd seemed to be humming with a kind of electricity. After speaking with several caucuses veterans, my impression that this caucus had attracted much larger crowds than usual was confirmed. For starters, for the first time in US history, a candidate that is not a white male has a serious chance of becoming president. Add to that the fact that a large part of the population is desperate for change -even on the republican side, those who supported the current administration are fed up with it, according to the polls. This could explain, at least in part, why McCain -the most anti-establishmentarian force within his party- has become the republican front runner in spite the hostility of the party's conservative core and after all the pundits forecast his early demise -he, more than anyone in his party, represents change; at times it seems like he is single-handedly saving his party from obsolesence.

What I found most interesting about the caucus, however, is the willingness of people to listen to other's views. While there were, of course, those who had made up their minds long before, many wanted to hear what others had to say, and made their choice at the tables, moments before casting their vote.

Seeing so many people together, genuinely interested in doing their part to ensure the best possible leader got elected was very reassuring and left me with a positive feeling of optimism -but then again, after the past seven plus years, things can only get better.

Expiration date

2008-02-09T01:33:00.000-05:00

As I looked through my usually empty kitchen cabinets earlier this evening, I was happily surprised to find a TV dinner, just when I was debating which of my healthy and nutritious meal options to opt for (go hungry, order pizza, or suck on some mustard packets).

The TV dinner's history is divided into two distinctive epochs: pre and post- convenience store. The former began sometime between its arrival at the convenience store, and an unknown point in time after the big bang. The latter ended a few moments ago, and started when, sometime last year, I picked up the TV dinner at said convenience store on my way to work. Somehow, it ended up in a remote corner of an unused drawer, where its existence soon faded from my mind. A few weeks ago, it again saw the light as I was cleaning my desk, and I decided too bring it home for later examination. Again, I threw it in yet another unused drawer -this time in the kitchen, and soon forgot about it.

This time, when I found it, noticed something I usually never look for -the expiration date, which in this case happened to be 03/29/07. I firmly believe that expiration dates are set with a generous margin of safety to minimize unpleasant legal complications, but this one was pushing the envelope. In the interest of science, I decided to test my theory.

It was actually much better than I expected -I would say that it was even borderline pleasant- and what it lacked in quality, it made up for in quantity -not much, but more than the mustard packets.

So far, I feel OK.

Pangea Day

2008-02-06T21:42:00.000-05:00

Don't miss it: http://www.pangeaday.org

About McCain, Eisenhower, and real change

2008-01-30T03:43:00.000-05:00

John McCain, republican presidential hopeful for the US elections of 2008, has just won the State of Florida primaries, leaving him well positioned for "super Tuesday", a key event in the presidential race. I am very happy about this.

First of all, because I just think that he is one of those rare exotic species: the honest politician. Of course, I don't really know, I can't know for certain, what is in his mind, what his true motivations and intentions are. However, I do believe that a person's eyes are a window into their soul, and that if you pay attention, you can see a lot through them. What I see, is honesty, selflesness, and the drive to do what is right -not too scientific, but I think that intuition, when balanced by analysis, is a powerful tool.

Second, because he is one of the very few -certainly the only one this close to the top- who feels strongly about finance campaign reform, which in my opinion is the single most important issue in US politics. Why is this issue so important? The answer is clear when we look at the "achievements" of the current administration in light of president Eisenhower's farewell address speech, and we realize that his worst fears expressed almost five decades ago, have become true. I am convinced that Mr. McCain wants to change this. Can he actually make campaign reform happen, return sovereignty back to the citizens, even as president? It certainly would be an uphill battle, perhaps it would be wiser to attack the issue on a second term, after accumulating political capital and popular support. In any case, knowing that he wants to tackle the worst problem in our political system, and knowing that he went for it, when he could have ignored it just as the other candidates did back in 2000, speaks better of him, in my opinion, than any speech writer could possibly dream of doing.

Unfortunately, and paradoxically, the consequences of eight years of catastrophic leadership in the Republican party at the hands of the Bush administration will prove a far worse enemy to senator McCain than the Democratic candidates could ever hope to be; I believe that as american voters have finally awaken to the truth about the Iraq war, and the "legal corruption" within the administration, they will be driven away from the Republican party, stacking the odds in favor of a Democrat.

Interestingly, a democratic win will almost certainly place a member of a minority in the oval office for the first time in US history. While this fact in itself would be a boost for both the country's self-image, and for its reputation abroad, I think we still need to vote for the right candidate, regardless of race, creed, or gender, and while I think both Clinton and Obama would make capable leaders, I doubt either one would bring real change -I hope they prove me wrong.

Direct democracy

2008-01-23T03:08:00.000-05:00

Limitations of Representation
Have you ever thought to yourself, “if I was president, I would handle this issue this way” or “drastic changes are needed in this area now” or “this important issue is being ignored”? As individuals, our direct influence on the policies and actions of our nation are limited at best. So we settle for hoping that the people in office don’t upset things too much for the rest of us, and perhaps -dare we hope- actually make things better. And yet this system -representative democracy- is the best practical system of government us humans now have. By best, I mean a system that maximizes the ability of the society and individuals abiding by it, to thrive and achieve their potential.

An intrinsic problem of political power is that for the most part –there are of course, exceptions to the rule- the kind of people that are good at acquiring it, are not the best choice for wielding it. If you crave power above all things, you probably shouldn't have it. By the same token, I believe the same set of virtues that would make individuals excel at wielding that power, would also make them averse to the process of acquiring it.

So while it is probably better for the people with the most political savvy, the most funding, and the most support to be in charge, than say, the people with the most military might, it is still not ideal. But how do you define ideal? Good question, but dangerous ground because what is best for the governed body, and what that same governed body wants, are not necessarily the same, a point often used by supporters of totalitarian systems; but we can probably agree that the ideal government follows as closely as possible the will of its citizenry, in the most efficient way possible within the parameters of a constitution.

Let’s go back to the issue of having the right individual in power. Just because we have found an extremely wise, acutely intelligent, unselfish, dedicated, and visionary individual, doesn't mean she or he wants the job, or the kind of action needed to obtain it. So, save exceptions, we are left with those that want the job and have managed to make their way into it. For most of us this does’t make for an appealing leader. Yet for the most part those are the people we elect as leaders, because the choice has been narrowed down to what a handful of interests consider acceptable, and for the rest of us, some choice is better than no choice. Thus representative democracy goes on. Not because it is ideal, but because it’s the best system we have.

Potential

So what happens next? Is this the best we can do? Do we have better feasible alternatives? It is said that a political system can only be as good as the society it emanates from. Assuming we continue to progress as we have in the past few centuries, we will continue to become more educated, and will have better sources and access to information. Slowly but surely, we will become more aware of the political environment. Today an election can be won or lost over circumstantial issues. A charismatic candidate can briefly talk about “traditional values” or “social justice” without really saying anything of substance, and turn those words into votes. I believe that as society advances and becomes more enlightened, it will become harder and harder to obtain votes in that manner. Campaign funds will steadily loose vote-purchasing power as people are less influenced by campaigns or misinformation, and more inclined to make decisions aligned with their personal values, and based on facts and figures, rather than emotion. Little by little, political power should shift away from interest groups, and towards individuals.

Now, let’s assume that we do evolve and continue to advance as time goes by. In this hypothetical future, we would reach a near ideal representative system, driven by an enlightened citizenry. Let’s ponder this hypothetical wonderland for a moment: a government without corruption of any sort, where office-holders are selfless individuals driven by a passion to serve, working together for the common good, in an efficient and cooperative manner. Elected by individuals who are balanced, knowledgeable, and believers in the greater good -yet diverse in their thinking, as humans will be. As good as that sounds, it is nothing revolutionary, just a description of how the system that we have today should actually work. Nothing more. The problem with that picture, is that a representative system has built-in flaws that prevent it from reaching that idea -nevertheless, let's assume that we do get there somehow: is that it? Will we reach a dead end in our sociopolitical evolution with an ideal version of what we have today? I believe history and human nature hold the answer.

Looking Back

In small enough societies, such as pre-colonization native-American tribes, the naturally occurring structure of government was usually a direct democracy. A council of elders with a leader chosen by consensus. It seems obvious that we favor direct democracy as the natural way of governing ourselves; but civilization became an obstacle for this kind of government. With large numbers of people, making decisions in this fashion becomes difficult at best. In spite of this, the ancient Greeks managed to rule themselves through direct democracy. Of course, citizenship was significantly restricted by today’s standards, but it shows that it is indeed practical and can be incorporated into our daily lives. If you are still not convinced that we do have a tendency in that direction, think about how any of us reacts as soon as someone tries to tell us what to do, or how to manage our own affairs. The point is this: to rule ourselves directly is in our nature, a representative system is just what we settle for.

Why

We have talked about our instinct to govern ourselves directly, but we have lots of instincts, unfortunately not of all them good. We need to have a valid reason to put it into practice. In what ways would a direct democracy actually benefit us, and to what extent? Let's name a few:

Special interest groups severely weakened, or rendered powerless

Minimizing government corruption

Better decision-making

Efficiency

The Obstacles

OK, we have agreed -hopefully- that a direct democracy would be in our best interest. But can it be done?

The obstacles between us and a direct democracy are social, political, economic, and technological. When people are starving, they don’t have time to think about politics. Ironically, prosperous societies also tend to be unfertile soil for seeds of political change. Even if we had the collective will, we lack the means for a secure, inexpensive voting system –though the Internet today would be an adequate vehicle for the legislative and voting processes, access to it is still far from universal. Additionally, those in the best place to lead the way -the politicians- may not feel compelled to change a system in which they have a privileged status –and in which, even those with honest intentions, find themselves in a herculean struggle simply to correct its flaws. Lastly, we need to have a voting body that will not decide to increase spending one day and vote off all taxes the next -or at least conscientious enough to legislate without catastrophic results -and most importantly, we need to get a majority of people to get involved and participate actively.

How long will we have to wait until we can overcome these obstacles?

You could argue that we have already started down this path. Many countries, cities, and provinces consult their citizens directly on key issues via referendums on a regular basis. With all circumstances being favorable, a strong political will and an above-average citizenship, perhaps a small and progressive nation could implement some form of direct democracy in as little as a half a century from today; but even that seems unlikely now. A safer conjecture is that as time goes by, perhaps in a century or two, a combination of factors will lead gradually closer, in stages, to the point where it occurs naturally. Just as the advent of the printing press eventually made possible the spread of ideas that eventually led to the French republic and the modern democratic state, the current wave of media democratization as we see on the internet, a continuing advancement of access to more and better education, the constantly improving communication and information distribution technology, may provide the means for a direct democracy. With instantaneous, ubiquitous communications and information management tools beyond anything we have today, staying abreast of all significant events related to a particular area of human activity may not need to be a full-time occupation –I imagine a prominent citizen participating in a legislative or judicial debate, while in a photographic expedition in Antarctica, or perhaps while attending to the care of a child at home. In this true global village, an average citizen-legislator may have an active, involved role in government, without having to sacrifice personal pursuits or ever visit a hall of government. Thus freed of the need to be tied to a particular schedule, desk, or city, we may see the tasks of government become appealing to the population at large.

Taking Action

But how do we make this vision a reality? A change of this magnitude I think, can only happen in one of two ways: as a gradual process, where it is adopted by lower hierarchy entities or portions of government, where the system and infrastructure can be streamlined and the bugs worked out with a smaller impact, until adoption at the highest levels becomes the next logical step -or by a new society or state being created from scratch, as in the birth of a new nation, or perhaps a relatively isolated scientific outpost, where undoing the previous sytem is not the largest obstacle. Either way, we can help ease the way by creating a blueprint of how such a system could work. So how do we make most people interested in participating actively in government , and have a system that works efficiently? First, let's divide these challenges into three areas: the system itself, its integration into our daily lives, and the infrastructure to make it possible.

1) System: A new set of instruments and governing bodies to replace the functions of our current executive cabinets, legislatures, judicial bodies, etc. so they can be performed directly by all of us, citizens, instead of elected/appointed representatives.

2) Infrastructure: communication and information-processing tools to enable the new system, adequate to handle the billions of simultaneous exchanges, and sort out massive amounts of information in an efficient and user friendly manner, instantaneously and ubiquitously.

3) Integration: the most important piece; for the system to be appealing enough for most of us to participate, it has to enable us to perform these functions without giving up most of our time or becoming professional politicians, so that our political lives can merge with, and enrich other aspects of our lives, rather than take away from them.

TED

2008-01-12T19:30:00.000-05:00

For the past month or so, it seems that as soon as I get a free moment, I find myself watching yet another fascinating talk at TED. Soon I'll run through all the archives and will have to do with just a couple a week. Delirium tremens looms.

Saturn

2008-01-11T17:55:00.001-05:00

Perhaps the most beautiful solar eclipse in our system. This breathtaking picture was taken by the Cassini spacecraft. Besides the stunning views of Saturn's ring system, our planet can also be seen as a tiny blue dot, a billion miles away.

2008

2008-01-01T16:13:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year, world!

Stay

2007-12-11T05:04:00.001-05:00

I just saw a movie by Mark Forster. I love the photography and the architectural look of it; how the camera plays a part in the movie, the visual clues. The scene transitions are great, and the music was very well chosen to enhance the general feel of the movie. Above all, I like the originality and unpredictability -you don't feel for a second that you are seeing a retelling of a hundred similar stories.

The critics are mostly negative. While it is true that the movie could be more, the style and atmosphere alone are worth watching. But I can see why people may not like it, be upset by it. The movie is not linear and logical, breaks a lot of rules of filming and story-telling, and there appears to be no point to all this, until the end. The problem is, I think, that most people assume a movie is always told in a sequential, logical way.

But what if the story is told from the point of view of an individual experiencing some kind of psychological disorder, or a dream. Does that make it any less valid as a story? Imagine you are attending an art exhibit: you thought it was about photography, but the pictures look nothing like reality, they are surreal, distorted. It turns out they are paintings -there is absolutely nothing wrong with them, other than your own wrong assumptions.

Luckily, artists need not be bound by their audience's comfort zone.

Detachment

2007-11-27T02:43:00.001-05:00

Us humans have an urge to make things our own; objects, ideas, other people. Knowing, seeing, touching, are not enough: we have to posses. The more we are attracted to something, the more we are driven this way. And if we can't have it, we become restless, distraught; we suffer, even. Why this urge? As a way to incorporate them into our own identity, or as a way to counter the fear of loss, perhaps. As someone once said, the things we own end up owning us -or in the words of Master Yoda: "train yourself, you must, to let go of that which you are afraid of loosing." Giving up on something we want can be harder than straining every muscle in our bodies, and yet it requires no physical energy; why is that drive so strong? If we do let go, however, the benefits become clear -a sense of liberation, of freedom, of lightness. Why then, is it so hard sometimes, to just let go?

Black Rocket

2007-11-22T05:16:00.000-05:00

Way back when, at the turn of the millenium, I was part of a big family called Genuity. As in all families, there were disagreements, triumphs, bitter fights, great friendships, and the bond of common goals and struggles. It was in a way, a coming of age, a rite of passage at a critical time. Though for me it only lasted three years, it seemed like much longer -they were after all, not regular years, but internet years, and events that would normally develop over months, took only weeks. We were all still riding the internet boom, and things happened fast. Not surprisingly, they also ended fast. The much anticipated crash was finally beginning to happen. Then came the coup de grace on 9/11. Three rounds of lay-offs later, there was no longer a "u" in Genuity, as the joke went -and a pink slip was my inspiration to migrate westward. A few months after that, Genuity was little more than a billion-dollar garage sale.

It is amazing how quickly time erodes the past. Today, while updating my resume, I decided to google Genuity. I had to dig deep to find any links, and then all I came up with were old IT news articles. It raises all sorts of existential questions when three out of four employers in your resume are little more than dust in the wind. If not for the few trinkets with Genuity lables I still have, I would be wondering if I had just imagined the whole thing.

When I found this link, I couldn't at first believe my eyes: that looks exactly like Black Rocket... -I thought to myself- could it be that somebody made a replica...!? No, wait! It is THE Black Rocket!! It is flying, flame shooting out of it, for real!!!! At first I started laughing, exhilarated, it was just too cool -then mixed feelings crept in. To see the icon of so much effort used as a toy, the remains of a previous life bought at some online auction for a few bucks...

Black Rocket was Genuity's prodigal son. Conceived by marketing, and suffered by the rest of us, its needs and wants extended to every corporate nook and cranny. To accomodate it, adjustments were required, processes expedited, trips made, people trained. Inevitably, we all developed feelings for it. When the first TV spots aired on prime-time, we would all proudly point at it and say to whoever would listen: "pretty cool, isn't it? -I worked on that", then launch into a monologue about our Network Services Platform, and how our stock would shoot straight up like a black rocket, or just show our Black Rocket tattoos -yes, I even had a fake tattoo in my arm, they used to pass them around at meetings -and was secretly proud of it, too.

Funny, even though the commercials were really cool, it somehow seemed like something was missing... the black rocket was just sitting there -it had a presence, they got that part right -but it didn't move. Nice to finally see it flying after all these years -as a rocket should.
Team Vatsaas, your next beer is on me.

Free Press

2007-11-12T23:25:00.000-05:00

OK, maybe not free, but definitley affordable. [x][>]

Fight

2007-11-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

...I didn't start the fight, but I'm definitely finishing it

Garbage

2007-09-30T17:30:00.000-04:00

Moving to a new place made me realize how incredibly dependant our lives are on all kinds of non-essentials. One kind of soap for the dishwasher, another for hand-washing, another for laundry, another for manual dish-washing, another for hair-washing (called shampoo), another for car-washing; printer-paper, toilet paper, resume-letter paper, paper-towels, lens-cleaning paper, bureaucracy-related paper; usb cables, dvi cables, rgb cables, coaxial cables, ethernet cables, power cables, speaker cables, s-video cables, hdmi cables, rca cables... at times I felt like I was wading through a garbage dump, only I depended on the garbage for my daily existence. Such is the way of the industrial age -without the mass consumption of all these "goods" our civilization as we know it could not sustain itself -and so, I fill box after box with add-ons to accessories to things needed to make other things work, which together with yet other things, while connected to even more things, enable me to perform one simple action -such as making a blog entry.