Monday, May 31, 2010

(zany) Flying off the handle.


I was absent from here for a good long while. Semester got to me. However, I have been experiencing moments of love from my friends and close ones, illuminating, like flashes, the things I miss when I do not make time for love and whimsy in my life.

This video comes courtesy of The Venus Project, of which I know preciously little at this point, but of which I am learning more every day, because the way we are now, is clearly unsustainable. And such is that case even if I bust my butt doing the best darn job I can.

For now, especially, as I move to temporarily-unfunded realm of existence, I am re-evaluating the way I allocate my resources. As Zimbardo once said (paraphrasing, because my quotation memory is out of order):
Most people in the U.S. complain that they spend too much time working and lack enough time for their families, and friends. But when asked to imagine how they would spend an eighth day in the week, they say, they would spend it .working. .more.

I want to work efficiently to bring structural change. Maybe that entails throwing out the the rule book, and writing a new one.

I will leave you with a short one from Woody Harrelson, but I could put George Carlin or many others up here just as well (and likely will, later).

Remember Whimsy. I 


the venus project: link
the venus project challenge on youtube: link
image credit: the onion

Monday, March 29, 2010

Sunday, March 28, 2010

(liberating) Bikers and Pedestrians to be Allowed to Breathe


The U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood was busy lately. First he stood on a table in front of the national assembly of the bikers' mob, and then he announced a change in national policy requiring consideration for bikers and pedestrians in new infrastructure projects.

The new rules are to include such controversial measures as:
1) sidewalks and bike lanes on bridges
2) biking and walking corridors for children to walk and bike to school
3) maintain sidewalks and bike lanes the same way roads are maintained: e.g., plow them.
(as always full text at the bottom)


These seem no-nonsense enough. Some municipalities and states are moving in this direction already, but at the same time, many other sit idle on this issue and build roads without any consideration for foot and bicycle traffic.

Heck here in Austin one does not have to go far from downtown or even the Campus to find streets with no sidewalks. North Campus, and even the area around Central Market-North are one of many I am aware of. Their central location with high foot traffic only serves to highlight this infrastructural oversight!

I do not own a car, so I am biased. I bike from downtown to campus, most often using Brazos and Congress on the way north and Congress and San Jacinto returning home. I am lucky, though. I have an option of a path with low vehicular traffic, and bike lane most of the distance. However, Austin, is far from reliably bike friendly. Crossing Lamar and IH35 is difficult and crossing MoPac is virtually impossible.

Despite the pervasiveness of the problem even in a progressive city such as Austin; despite the idiot-proof nature of the solution - pay attention to all modes of transpiration in future infrastructure projects - we can count on clueless representatives to counter it. Let's see:

From NYTimes article:

At a House appropriations committee hearing last week, Congressman Steven LaTourette, Republican of Ohio, brought up the new policy and asked a Transportation Department official to clarify what Mr. LaHood means by “equal treatment.”

If we’re going to spend $1 million on a road, we’re not going to have half of it go to a bike lane and half of it go to cars?” he asked, according to a transcript of the hearing.


My interpretation of that would be equal in the eyes of policymakers as what is the expenditure you make, what is the benefit you get,” responded Roy Kienitz, D.O.T.’s under secretary for policy. “And if the freight project offers the best bang, great, but if the bike project offers a good bang, great for them.


I don’t even understand how you get a bang for the buck out of a bicycle project,” Mr. LaTourette subsequently commented. “I mean, what job is going to be created by having a bike lane?

A beautiful use of our tax dollars. Heavens forbid any of Mr. LaTourette's tax-payer paid salary is spent on actually thinking!

Let's see what LaHood said to the assembled bikers last week:



It is amazing what happens when government wants to actually fix things that are broken and, you know, do its job. Thank you Mr. LaHood.

biker photo credit: flickr / b roll
mr. LaHood photo credit: Wikipedia/DOT
new york times article: here
straight from the horse's mouth: dot press release

Monday, March 22, 2010

(liberating) United States Approaches the Status of a Developed Country


As of 10:30pm CDT, the House of representatives passed the H.R.4872 a bill that appropriates the previously passed version of the bill (H.R.3962)  with the already passed senate bill H.R. 3590 (the full text of all three bills is linked at the bottom of this post). Due to clever exploitation of congressional rule loopholes, after a simple-majorty vote in the Senate, the bill will head straight to the President bypassing the full Senate floor discussion, where Democrats no longer hold the filibuster-breaking majority.

What follows below is an analysis of what this bill does for the U.S. citizens and legal residents (undocumented immigrants are left with the current emergency-only level of "care").

However, as a disclaimer, I ought to own up to my position on this bill. Despite being a moderate, strongly socially liberal, yet strongly fiscally conservative, this bill has my unanimous support, as do the Democrats who have passed it. The reason is utterly simple. As a policy-focused social researcher,I task all the policy-makers to participate in the legislative process. We pay them from our taxes to critically evaluate societal issues and act on them to the best of their abilities, in line with their ideologies. Democrats, back in the summer of 2009, introduced a decent draft of a legislation, and gave it to GOP for critique and improvement. Despite being rarely done, this kind of critiquing is how the best policy is made; if both parties are willing, that is. Republicans scoffed at this chance to rise from politicians to statesmen and stateswomen and chose the low road of smear tactics, lies and avoiding the legislative process. In what turned out to be a reincarnation of the 60's with is racial, bigoted  rouse of ignorant loot of provincial, demagogic, and corrupt "politicians," the debate over healthcare in the U.S. was effectively stalled. Every single Republican just lost my respect and my support; they wasted a year in taxpayer-paid salaries avoiding their job description. Just as people who cannot be bothered to vote lose their right to complain about the election's results, Republicans lost their right to speak on this issue.


President Obama in the Roosevelt Room watching as HR4872 gained 216 votes. 
(photo credit:  White House Flickr)


With that out of the way, let's see what HR4872 actually brings to the U.S. residents. First, this is much less a healthcare overhaul, than a long-overdue regulation of the health-insurance industry. Vast majority of the provisions in this bill are aimed at regulating the behavior of the insurance companies. Second, the bill expands and reforms Medicare. This entitlement system originally designed for, and still overwhelmingly used by, the elderly and the disabled (not the poor, or children), will be expanded a lot and then contracted some, and its working will be reformed. Third, the bill will eventually regulate the way we and our employers buy health-insurance. Finally, the bill introduces taxes to fund the bill.

Let's take this thematically and from the top

First, the bill moves swiftly to ban certain behaviors by the heath insurance companies such as dropping their insured for getting sick, not covering children who are already sick, and imposing annual limits on benefits. The bill will also extend the coverage of dependents through age 26 (instead of the current practice of 19 or college graduation). Over time the bill will also ban not-insuring adults who are already sick and imposing lifetime limits on care, will regulate policy and premium changes, and will force insurers to cover preventitive care. Finally, by 2014 and 2018 health insurance companies will compete in a much more competitive market, the large ones will pay additional taxes, those that hold a virtual monopoly on markets will be pushed to free up market. In return, they will get more insurers on their rolls (more on that later)

Second, the bill reforms Medicare. Temporarily, those currently-uninsurable will be placed under the wings of Medicare, until the legislation is in effect banning discrimination against them by the for-profit insurers. Concurrently the care under Medicare will be reformed. Following the efficiency models from the best for-profit insurance companies, Medicare will begin monitoring the flow of their insured through the medical system, and introduce financial stimuli for care providers to conduct prevention, to coordinate care, and to provide high quality care. In return, the care providers will receive more money for their services for  Medicare clients than they do now. These payments will still not equal payments they receive from private insurance companies - that provision is missing in the current bill. Finally, the bill will close the prescription drug donut hole currently in the medicare legislation.

Third, beginning in 2014 every resident in the U.S. will need to purchase health insurance. Those earning less than four-times the (meager) poverty line will receive government subsidy, but will be still free to buy insurance of their choosing. We will buy health insurance through 'health insurance exchanges" which will compare the coverage and cost of different plans from different providers. Those earning more the $200,000 a year (families earning more than $250,000 a year) will pay additional taxes to cover the insurance expenses. Employers with more than 50 employees will be required to buy insurance for their employees (or pay fines), and pay fees for generous insurance policies for their executives. Employers will also have to disclose the value of the employee health insurance on the employees' W2 tax forms, so the employees can see the value they are receiving from their empployers (ending the era of employers pretending to buy healthcare for their employees - I am looking at you WalMart!). The bill does not adeuqtely spell out how it will handle the working poor that do not quite qualify for Medicare and Medicaid, but cannot afford private insurance. My perception is that they will be rolled under the public insurance, which will, of course, drive up taxes.

Finally, the bill is funded through new taxes on the wealthy, on employers providing extraordinarily-rich insurance plans (for their executives) or not providing insurance for their employees, and on wholesale medical purchases.

This bill is far from "government takeover of healthcare,"  or from "socialized medicine." U.S. already has socialized healthcare for prisoners, employees of the federal government, soldiers, the elderly, those with work-impeding disabilities, and poor children. Especially the last program CHIP has been surprisingly successful in covering chindren of poor- and lower-middle-class parents for very little money. However, until now there were no provisions dealing with the insurance of the hard working adults, and middle to upper-middle class children; we simply assumed, they will be covered somehow.

In essence this bill will reduce the extent of communaly-funded health insurance; currently everyone without insurance uses the emergency rooms to receive basic care without paying. These expenses are then passed to the rest of us through higher bills covered by our insurance. Curiously the only ones left in this communally-funded misery are undocumented immigrants, because they will not qualify for the government programs, and being undocumented, their employers will continue to lack any incentive to treat them as decent human beings (but I digress).

This bill mainly adds regulation of the health-insurance companies covering those unlucky schmucks not already covered by the generous government plans. It also aides the purchase of insurance by the working poor, and helps those that are around the threshold to not be left behind and uninsured. Most importantly, it will force employers to finally purchase coverage for their hard working employees, eliminating the fictitious care provided to millions of employees in the service and retail industry. Ted Kennedy's vision has not quite been reached, but we are a one giant step closer - we have access to healthcare for most, we help most actualyl afford it, we strenghten the rule forsing employers to buy coverage, and we finally care how the insirance companies treat their "clients" (controversial, I know!)


Links:
text of H.R. 4872: Thomas.gov
text of H.R. 3962: Thomas.gov
text of H.R. 3590: Thomas.gov

contributing analyses: Reuters analysis by type of effect and by timeline.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

(liberating) World Changing Games


This woman is crazy! The kind of crazy that figures out how to put McGiver to shame! My current obsession is how we (as a society) manage to socialize our children to feel like there is nothing they can achieve, that the best option for them is to relegate to the life of crime, violence, and general lack of hope. How do we generate entire generations and neighborhoods that are depressed, frustrated, and lack the verve to break through just to show the world that they can (a metaphorical middle finger to the system and the man).


She took the opposite proposition, and actually got somewhere. Her approach is as unorthodox, as it seems effective!

So in the spirit of the recent Game Developers Conference, the recent Society for Research on Adolescence conference, and the ongoing SXSW Interactive - here she is!

Epic win! I



ted talks: TED.com
video credit:TED.com
photo credit: TED.com
bio: TED or IFTF
the institute for the future: IFTF

Saturday, March 6, 2010

(zany) Harmony of systems

Older friends of mine know that I am an intense car guy. I used to write for a car magazine, and love learning, talking, listening, and arguing about cars. I am still a nerd, however, and I cannot change that, simply because cars are supposedly for "tough guys" and whatnot. 


Engine from Jaguar XK

So, my geeky, nerdy side is amazed, amused, and fascinated by all the little pieces, that work together seamlessly at 6,000 or more cycles a minutes to let you, me, and everyone else travel in comfort and safety at 70 miles and hour (more in Europe, of course!). These systems made of metal, plastic, rubber, brain-sweat, oil, and coolant vibrate, oscillate, rotate, and explode in a series of intricate interconnected events in one giant system of parts that together bring us .. motion! 

Likewise, we are similarly responsible for the grand achievement that is civilization and life! I have no interest in reducing human beings into proverbial cogs in a machine, but we are very much interconnected and interrelated. We are communally responsible for our future. Some believe that we ought to be sovereign, and we ought to be responsible solely for our own actions. Such ideas, I believe, are misguided and ignore just how much of our daily existence would be absent without communal thinking. It saddens me that we, as humans, with so much cognitive capacity, so much creativity, and so much moral acumen, are unable to grasp the significance of community. Oftentimes, we fail to see this importance for the sheer reason of a blinding light of ideology. 

Every choice we make, is another step in keeping this machine churning. Every time we do something as simple as turn on the internet, or a light, illuminates (forgive the pun) the importance of communal good. 

We can understand this concept when it comes to monetary issues. Pooling our resources, we can build better houses, better cities, reap more return on our investments. Why can we not understand this with human development? How about investing communally in better schools? How about safer neighborhoods, or better food for all of us? Are we so ignorant of the common fate we share with "the others" - the evil, nebulous, often brown, always poor others? Are we so ignorant and so arrogant, we rather buy our own swing set, pay exuberant tuition, drive a 100 miles daily to work, and live exclusively on credit, just so can completely prevent (heavens forbid)  any encounter with the others

Lost analogies be damned, the current popular thinking has us believe that we are islands, cruising the seas in our metal yachts, living in bubbles called house, or in better scenarios subdivisions, ignoring the benefits of community. We (ought to) live in complete isolation, believing we are better off for it. Yet, we are relegated to reinventing the wheel, and paying for it. We are draining our pocketbooks, our lives, and out happiness in pursuit of ill-conceived dream of wealth and prosperity. All the while that very prospect is staring us straight into our face! 

My roommate would likely talk about the conspiracy that brought this on. The same conspiracy that brought on so many other tangible failures in decision making (e.g., high fructose corn syrup just about any food on the shelves) but I want to give us a little more agency than that. We are oppressed. Most of us are oppressed of the mind - not even realizing we are oppressed .Some of us can see pieces of the puzzle (or matrix if you will) and some of us, even, are approaching liberation through acting against this oppression. Most, however are still obliviously, bovinely toiling at their lives, routinely smiling while dying inside from boredom and apathy. 

There, likely, is a way to tie this story together with a nice red bow and give it a conclusion, but social movement, social struggle and my particular crusade against the oppression of the mind among my peers, relatives, and neighbors is not a concluded story. It will unravel going forward. 

Love ... I

(harmonic) Ghetto Cowboy by Mo Thugs Family

Harmonica has had a presence in hip hop for a while, but it has always been a sporadic one. The unpredictable,   here-now-gone-tomorrow presence does not, however, diminish the beauty of the songs that do come out.

The Cleveland-based Mo Thugs Family  and its sister Bone Thugs n' Harmony have been the stalwarts of hip hop harmonica, and their best-selling single thus far, Ghetto Cowboy, with is delightfully lighthearted throwback tone is a perfect song to spotlight.

Thanks to Matt for introducing me to this band.

Yeehaw. I



photo credit: http://picasaweb.google.com/cocoakacarolyn/

Saturday, February 20, 2010

(harmonic) To Ohio by The Low Anthem

The Low Anthem has been all over the place musically, but their 2008/2009 album Oh My God, Charlie Darwin slowed things down to a mellow, relaxing, introspective experience. With this, the harmonica parts popped to the forefront in a hauntingly beautiful way. Below, I posted the quite popular and melancholic To Ohio. the Another song from this album that highlights harmonica beautifully is Home I'll Never Be

Thanks to Jonathan and RocΓ­o for adding this band to my consciousness.

Smile. I



PS: Like the new player? I am psyched is works on Blogger.

song credit: Melophobe
photo credit: Wikipedia

Friday, February 19, 2010

(liberating) T: -24 minutes from you being inspired

TED talks are great. If you do not know about TED - look it up and watch at least a few of them!

This TED talk, however, is special. Dave Eggers talks about the 826 Valencia project, which has spawn The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Company and even Austin's own, and great, Austin Bat Cave.

All these projects show the genuine, unmitigated excitement of children's minds, and the genuine, limitless unmitigated force that is us and our goodwill.

Arrrr. I



TED Talks: www.ted.org
826 Valencia: www.826valencia.org/
Austin Bat Cave: www.austinbatcave.org/

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

(harmonic) Leavng Chicago by George "Harmonica" Smith

Today, I listened to one of the greats of the slow, painful Chicago-style blues : George "Harmonica" Smith. This video was taken from a documentary, and shows his incredible energy while playing. I shiver everytime I see him play.

Exhale. I


video credit: youtube
biography: bluesharp.ca