Monday, December 21, 2015
Your FSA/OWI Photo of the Day
Southington, Connecticut. Mrs. John Chimbor, one of the newer generations of Americans. She came from Iceland twenty years ago. Fenno Jacobs, 1942.
Barack's burden
I didn't hear the interview, but sounds like Professor Obama the sociologist was trying to be as understanding as possible while accounting for why all those white dudes hate him so. One interpretation is that the man's patience and equanimity are god-like. The other is that he is the most cutting sarcastic bastard ever. I'll take either one... or preferably both...
“If you are referring to specific strains in the Republican Party that suggest that somehow I’m different, I’m Muslim, I’m disloyal to the country, etc. — which unfortunately is pretty far out there, and gets some traction in certain pockets of the Republican Party, and that have been articulated by some of their elected officials — what I’d say there is that that’s probably pretty specific to me, and who I am and my background,” Mr. Obama told Steve Inskeep, a host of “Morning Edition” on NPR. “In some ways, I may represent change that worries them.”
“That’s not to suggest that everybody who objects to my policies may not have perfectly good reasons for it,” the president added. He noted, as an example, that voters living in coal-dependent areas may blame him for the loss of their jobs.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Hanging with the geophysicists
I spent yesterday at the last day of the humongous AGU (American Geophysical Union) conference in San Francisco. The AGU consists of scientists who do an amazing range of work... from planetary evolution to atmospheric and ocean science to climate impacts on agriculture. I was there for my small contribution to the last of these issues, with lead author Chris Bacon and legit geophysicist (hydrologist) Iris Stewart-Frey.
Some observations:
1. You have literally thousands of super-smart people, and hundreds of poster presentations and sessions, and you don't hear people debating the reality of anthropogenic climate change. You do see a lot of interesting work on understanding climate systems and the effects of warming on other earth systems, including human society and wellbeing. These people inhabit a different cognitive planet from the Republicans who play a big role in deciding climate policy.
2. My time was limited, but my favorite presentations were at a session about planetary structure and evolution. Is the core of Mars liquid or solid? We don't really know(!), but another Mars lander (InSight) is going to be sent on its way come March, and it should be able to help answer the question. Bruce Banerdt, the PI on the project, gave a nifty little talk and explained how you can learn a lot about the interior of Mars from one seismograph placed on the surface, without having to triangulate. You can get the gist of it from the video on this page, starting around minute 39.
3. We don't have much of a tradition of poster sessions in economics, but they are a really interesting and remarkably low-tech mode of knowledge transmission. Ten minutes of talking to someone one-on-one about their research is probably a lot more productive than ten minutes of listening to a talk with powerpoint slides. Scalability is an issue, of course.
Some observations:
1. You have literally thousands of super-smart people, and hundreds of poster presentations and sessions, and you don't hear people debating the reality of anthropogenic climate change. You do see a lot of interesting work on understanding climate systems and the effects of warming on other earth systems, including human society and wellbeing. These people inhabit a different cognitive planet from the Republicans who play a big role in deciding climate policy.
2. My time was limited, but my favorite presentations were at a session about planetary structure and evolution. Is the core of Mars liquid or solid? We don't really know(!), but another Mars lander (InSight) is going to be sent on its way come March, and it should be able to help answer the question. Bruce Banerdt, the PI on the project, gave a nifty little talk and explained how you can learn a lot about the interior of Mars from one seismograph placed on the surface, without having to triangulate. You can get the gist of it from the video on this page, starting around minute 39.
3. We don't have much of a tradition of poster sessions in economics, but they are a really interesting and remarkably low-tech mode of knowledge transmission. Ten minutes of talking to someone one-on-one about their research is probably a lot more productive than ten minutes of listening to a talk with powerpoint slides. Scalability is an issue, of course.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
My 2015 Top Ten Lists
Ha! I don't have any! But I will say that my favorite album of the year (which actually was released in December 2014 so probably doesn't even count), hands-down, was D'Angelo's Black Messiah. The best book I read (twice!) this year was Natsume SÅseki's The Gate (1910). More on that to come. Best movie? Got nothing really. Best TV show? Probably Mr. Robot. Best musical performance? James Carter in San Jose. Best cat? Toss-up between Satsu and Mei... not that I would ever toss a cat.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 66
"Cosmic American music," Gram Parsons called it. Is there another pop song of the rock era with two versions as great as these? And did a dude ever play the gender bend as straight as Gram?
Monday, December 14, 2015
Can Music Be Perfect? Vol. 65
Humans sure are capable of some weird shit. Ligeti's music is a good example. Nikki Einfeld's performance of this song last night at San Francisco Symphony's hipster SoundBox venue was the finale, and highlight of the evening.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Good news from Paris
Robert Stavins likes what he sees in the Paris climate agreement. As he notes, "The problem has not been solved," but Paris is a great foundation.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
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