Category: news-chum

📰 Lighting the Political Fires

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

As I continue the process of clearing out the news chum, here is a collection of articles that should serve as political incendiary catalysts, sure to light that political spark of discussion:

  • Nobel Laureate Economist Says American Inequality Didn’t Just Happen. It Was Created. Quote: “Those with power used that power to strengthen their economic and political positions, or at the very least to maintain them. They also attempted to shape thinking, to make acceptable differences in income that would otherwise be odious.”
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic Socialists of America member. Here’s what that means. Just as Trump was a whistle to the hard right folks, Bernie Sanders was a whistle to the hard left. We’ve seen the growth of a subgroup in the Democratic party called the Democratic Socialists. This isn’t a particular party, and it isn’t your father’s socialism. Further, it doesn’t add up financially.
  • Why Are Jews So Pro-Choice? Abortion / Choice. It is one of the driving forces of those on the right to oppose it. But it is also one of those areas where those who aren’t that ilk of Christian feel they are having a Christian moral shoved down their throats. Here’s an explanation of the Jewish position.
  • I Was Fired For Criticizing Trump. We have a President who seems to feel any criticism of him is fake, and he’s convinced some in the news profession that criticism is not allows. What happens when a liberal editorial cartoons runs into a change of ownership at his paper?
  • How to be an uncivil Trump resister without leading a vigilante mob. We’ve all heard the calls for civility. But when should you be uncivil, and how?
  • Immigration in America. Think immigration is a new problem? It is both what made America, and what some claim is destroying it. But do you understand it? Here’s a visualization of immigration to America as the rings in a tree trunk.
  • Trump’s Republican Party, explained in one photo. A real T-shirt at a Trump rally read: “I’d rather be Russian than a Democrat”. This captures what Trump’s identity politics has done to America, and how it can destroy this country. Since when has the Russian system of government with its dictatorship, false democracy, and draconian laws been better that what we have in America, even with the opposition party? I wrote about this with respect to Israel and their new National law about Jews coming first a few weeks ago. Identity politics — in which one group is 100% right and the other group is subhuman — is destructive.
  • Remaining Trump Supporters. What camp do you fall into: (1) Too arrogant to admit Trump was a mistake; (2) Too embarrassed to admit it; or (3) Too dumb to see it?
  • Fake News (no link here — just look at any Trump tweet). A challenge of the day, for those who purport that the news is “Fake”: Find multiple verifiable sources demonstrating a pattern of false news from the source claimed to be fake, other than the one making the claim that it is fake. A couple of times is human error: there needs to be a verifiable ongoing pattern of falsehood, from sources across the spectrum that can be verified.  Note: Bias is different than Fake. Biased news can have the bias filtered out, but is ultimately based on the truth and that underlying truth can be verified. Fake news is false and untrue, and cannot be verified.

As I say, “ready, set, discuss”.

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📰 Design You Haven’t Thought About

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

I’m finally past the mapping project for the highway pages, and I’ve posted the theatre reviews for the last weekend. Do you know what that means, boys and girls? It means I can get back to clearing out the accumulated links for news chum (as in, “ready, set, discuss”). This collection all struck me as having to deal with design issues you might not have thought about:

  • Coffee Cup Lids. Have you ever thought about that styrene lid you get on your take-out coffee or tea? Who designed it? What is the meaning of all those symbols. It turns out that there is a new book on the design of the humble lid, and there is even more details in an Atlas Obscura post on the same subject, where they decode the lid.
  • Concrete. If you were to think about what makes our civilization possible, your mind might turn to the humble man-made rock, concrete. It allows us to build in a variety of shapes, it makes our roads and tall buildings possible. But its manufacture comes with a tremendous environmental cost, and it is one of the reasons we are at peak sand today. The manufacture of cement creates loads of greenhouse gases, and the manufacture of concrete traps water and sand in a way that can’t be easily recovered (certainly, the sand).
  • Airline Maps. Consider the humble airline route map in the back of your in-flight magazine. Have you ever thought about how it is designed? How it shows you the detail the airline wants you to see while hiding others? How it conveys messages about the brand itself. Here’s an interesting exploration of the design process behind the creation of the map.
  • DC Metro Stations. When you travel on transit, you probably don’t think about the station design. But that design can tell you a lot about the system, when it was built, and the messages and wayfaring notions the transit operator wants to convey. Just consider all the different station types in Washington DC.
  • Highways and Cities. When you think about the design of highways, what thoughts go through your head? The material the road is made out of? How much easier it will make it for you to get from point A to point B? The fact that it completes a line on a map? But do you ever think about how the design and routing of a freeway can impact a city? Building a highway can divide communities and make racial segregation worse. This isn’t new; think about the “other side of the tracks” distinction. Look at how freeways such as the Harbor divide south-central LA. But that raises the next question: Would removing a highway undo the damage? How might we build these structures so that they do not divide.
  • Batteries. Finally, here’s a questions of A, B, Cs. More properly, I should say AAA, AA, C, and D. Here’s a handy diagram of all types of batteries.

 

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News Chum Of Prurient Interest

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

Before I start filling your feed with the Highway Page updates, or the reviews for the seven shows I’m seeing this weekend, some more clearing of the news chum. This is a collection of articles that caught my eye, but that I’m less than comfortable posting at work during lunch. You’ll see why.

  • Theatre Nude Night. The Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles has an interesting blog post related to  an article in the New York Times.  A contemporary art museum in Paris conducted its first-ever tour of its galleries given only for nudists. For one night in the museum, the art wasn’t the only handiwork on exhibit. The French nudist group, Paris Naturist Association, received interest in the museum tour from 30,000 people on Facebook. So, the Fountain asked, “will “Nude Night” one day become a popular American night out at the theatre? American audiences may no longer be astonished to see nudity on stage. But what about seeing it on the patron sitting next to you?  Think about the actors. In an intimate theatre like the Fountain, would any costume-wearing actor be able to concentrate on their own performance while playing to a full house of naked people? It’s the classic “actor’s nightmare” coming true, in reverse.” This is less of a pie-in-the-sky idea than you might think. In 2016 and 2017 at the Fringe, there was a show that required both the actors and audience to be nude. Needless to say, I didn’t go. No need to scare anyone.
  • Nude Woman in a Mall. But do people even notice nudity anymore? Here’s an article about a woman who walked through a mall naked with nobody noticing. This was the work of someone named Jen the Body Painter, who sent one of her models to the mall without any clothes on, but with a painted-on outfit that would allow her to walk around in public without causing too much of a stir. Jen wrote about this experiment beforehand and she wanted to see if people noticed a nude woman walking alongside of them.
  • Diversity in Porn. Another interesting article was on the porn industry — specifically, the diversity therein. In this episode of “What Porn Stars Want You to Know,” porn stars talk about misconceptions about the porn industry. Jiz Lee, Asa Akira, Stoya, and Nikki Darling discuss their experiences with diversity and representation in porn. The question is: What makes a woman beautiful? The video makes clear that the industry thinks beauty is one thing, but that with people, there’s an incredible diverse range of desire. I think that reinforces something I tend to believe: that for any body — any body — someone will find that body attractive.
  • The Porn Business. Mayim Bialik posted an extremely interesting interview with an Adult Film director and producer, Erika Lust. It explored how she worked in the adult business while raising two daughters, and what message it was sending to them. There are some interesting discussions in the article. Again, I’ll opine: Given the choice between someone watching something sexual and something with violence, I’d rather have them watch the sex anyday. I don’t want people desensitized to violence. But then again, often what is presented as sex in visual imagery is often overly violent, disrespectful of partners, or presenting bad images of what beautiful bodies are. That’s a bad thing. Further, although some go in the industry voluntarily, many often are forced and mistreated, or subjugated. That’s just wrong. I wrote on my blog a while ago (alas, I can’t find the link easily) about an interview with Mia Khalifa on the Lance Armstrong podcast where she talked about why she went in, and how they exploited just a month or two in the industry. I think this may be a case where the concept, if uncoerced and with consent, is fine; but the execution as it is today is extremely flawed.
  • Oversharing. An interesting article in the LA Times explores a new art trend in Sweden. Online art entrepreneurs from Gothenburg, Sweden, have launched the Penis Poster. The premise? Men love their best friend. And that has led to a proliferation of men sending women uninvited pictures of their best friend.  The website suggests that men fulfill their urge to share via line art, watercolor or sketch printed on 19.7-inch-by-27.6-inch matte paper for $45 a pop. Braggers, fear not: Designs are to scale, using dimensions the customer provides.
  • Comedy and Sex. An interesting piece by a student at UC Berkeley explores the relationship between comedy and sex. It starts out noting “In a piece written by the Atlantic, it’s proposed that comedians are guided by a central “benign violation” theory. Break your audience’s expectations, but in a way that is harmless. It’s not so different from visiting a haunted house, knowing that people try almost anything to terrify you, but they’re paid not to touch you — so it’s still fun.” The article explores the author’s use of sexual humor, noting “Audiences laughed at my representations of myself as sexually proactive. The worst part was, I hadn’t been in on the joke.” In other words, when someone who doesn’t fit the mold of a sexual creature makes jokes about being agressively sexual, what does the audience’s laughter say? An interesting piece, made more interesting by the fact that I might personally know the author — the name is the same as someone who was a friend of my daughter when she was in high school.
  • Branching Out of Porn. In an interesting business move, Pornhub has launched a VPN. When you think about it, what makes more sense than for a company built on porn videos to allow anonymity of where you browse on the net. It supposedly offers free and unlimited bandwidth. The VPN is supposed to help users avoid ISP throttling and geographic limitations. It’s also designed to let users transmit data anonymously without saving or collecting any of that data.
  • World’s Largest Orgy is a Bust. I’ve noted a few articles on the promotion of the World’s Largest Orgy in Las Vegas. There was the announcement of the intent of the orgy, which noted: ” An organization for sexual enthusiasts called Menage Life is planning to break the record for the world’s biggest orgy. The current record was established in 2006 in Tokyo when 500 people congregated to copulate. The Las Vegas orgy will take place at the Embassy Suites on June 2, and Menage Life is aiming for at least 1,000 participants.” That was followed by an announcement that the Embassy Suites didn’t want that particular business associated with it (can you just imagine the free breakfast!), and so it was being move to the Erotic Heritage Museum. But never mind, there was more science: “Erotic Heritage Museum Executive Director Dr. Victoria Hartmann will conduct a qualitative research project during the orgy to help fill holes in the study of the evolution of group sex.” Help fill holes. Right. But after all of that, the attempt fell short. Despite having more than 1,000 registrants (according to reps from Menage Life, which produces Sin City 8), only 375 of them made it to the Green Door sex club that Saturday to break an unofficial record established in 2006, when 500 participants gathered in Japan. But don’t worry, there’s always next year.

And with that, I can get those links off … my bookmarks list.

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Can You Explain It To Me?

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

In between various things, I’m still trying to clear out the accumulated news chum. Here are some good explainers for things you might be curious about:

  • QAnon/The Storm. A new conspiracy theory called “The Storm” has taken the grimiest parts of the internet by, well, storm. Like Pizzagate, the Storm conspiracy features secret cabals, a child sex-trafficking ring led (in part) by the satanic Democratic Party, and of course, countless logical leaps and paranoid assumptions that fail to hold up under the slightest fact-based scrutiny.  Here’s the explanation.
  • News Deserts. One of our big problems these days is that many of us live in news deserts, a result of the nationalization of the media, which has been good for news junkies but not as good for those who want and need news about their local communities. Here’s the explanation.
  • Family Separation. The news is full of people upset about the new family separation policy from the Trump administration. Wonder what it is? I posted this yesterday, but it’s worth reposting: Here’s the explainer.
  • Blockchain. You’ve probably heard of blockchain. It is the basis for cryptocurrency, and it is supposedly the savior for everything from sliced bread to the water in Flint MI. Here’s the explainer of what it is.
  • Dishwashers. Dishwashers are magical devices. You put in your dishes, and without scrubbing, they are clean. Ever wonder how they work? Here’s the explainer.
  • Milk. Even something like milk sometimes needs an explaination. For example, why is milk white, as opposed any other color? Here’s the explainer.
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The Mother and Child Reunion

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

userpic=trumpI’ve seen a number of good articles come across my feeds today that explain this whole child separation kerfuffle quite well:

  • What is Happening: Vox had a great visual explainer of what is happening, and what is different. Basically, in the past families seeing asylum who entered illegally had the asylum addressed first, keeping the families together. Trump hasn’t changed the law; what he has done is place prosecution of the illegal entry misdemeanor above the asylum request. As kids can’t go to jail with their parents, separation then occurs, and there are no mechanisms to get the kids back with their parents. Combine this with the belief that many of the families are not real families, just taking advantage of the family loophole in the law, and you get what we’ve got.
  • Why It Is Viewed as Acceptable By The Administration. The simple answer is race. Trump believes that people who look different from him don’t have the same capacity for pain and emotion. This is all part of the dehumanization that I’ve written about before, where people who are different are viewed as something lower that can’t feel pain and are somehow less than human, and can be treated as less than human. It’s clearly a wrong belief, for if that same person were raised in a country where they had access to the same privileges as you and I, they would be no different. Hell, even where they were raised, there is no difference.
  • How Did We Get Here. The Revisionist History podcast just had an episode on General Chapman, and the belief that strong fences make good neighbors. It is well worth listening to. It points out how, before Chapman, our more “open door” immigration policy meant that people could come in easier, but they could also leave easier. This meant that there was a regular ebb and flow of seasonal workers. Under the tightened policy, that broke. People would come in illegally, and then not flow back for fear they couldn’t get back in next season. This led to a net flow inward. Essentially, building the fence made the problem worse. Quite a good listen.

Hopefully, these articles will prove useful in your discussions.

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💊 Safe and Effective … Or Perhaps Not

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

As I work, between other tasks, to clear out the news chum, here’s a collection of articles related to health, medicine, and drugs:

  • Co-Pay Accumulators. One of the big problems with our medical system in the US today is how we pay for drugs, and a large part of that are the games insurers make us play. Consider co-pay accumulators. These impact use of those coupons drug manufacturer’s provide to make their drugs affordable. Copay accumulators mean that coupons no longer will be counted toward patients’ deductibles. When you use the coupons, you pay a fixed amount. The drugs manufacturer takes care of the difference between that fixed amount and what the drug company charges (or what insurance would pay). More importantly, the coupons are often applied to the insurance deductible (especially for injectable drugs ), speeding up the point where your out-of-pocket max is met. Co-pay accumulators, on the other hand, allow insurers to double dip: They get their full co-pays and they get to extend the duration of patients’ deductibles. The article is an interesting read for the exploration of the pros and cons.
  • Anticholinergic drugs and Depression. Recent studies are showing that some classes of anticholinergic drugs — particularly those used to treat depression, Parkinson’s and urinary incontinence — carry a higher risk of cognition problems or dementia. The concern is those anticholinergics used for depression (e.g. amitriptyline), urinary incontinence (e.g. oxybutynin) and Parkinson’s disease (e.g. procyclidine) were associated with around a 30% increased risk of developing dementia. Amitryiptyline is of interest to me, as it is a common drug used for migraines as well.
  • Depression Drugs and Suicide. More than a third of American adults use medications that list depression as a risk, and a quarter use drugs that increase the risk of suicide. The 203 drugs researchers identified aren’t obscure; they include some of the most commonly prescribed medications around — like birth control, beta blockers for high blood pressure, and proton pump inhibitors for acid reflux. Many are drugs used for migraines. The researchers from the University of Illinois and Columbia University discovered people using these drugs had an elevated risk of depression compared to the general population. And the more medications with depression as a side effect people took, the more their risk of the disease increased. It is certainly something to be aware of. [And while I’m ending a sentence with a preposition, here’s why that is considered bad.]
  • Yogurt and Chronic Inflammation. A recent study provides new evidence that yogurt may help dampen chronic inflammation. The study explored the hypothesis that yogurt may help reduce inflammation by improving the integrity of the intestinal lining, thus preventing endotoxins — pro-inflammatory molecules produced by gut microbes — from crossing into the blood stream. While anti-inflammatory medications like aspirin, naproxen, hydrocortisone and prednisone can help mitigate the effects of chronic inflammation, each comes with its own risks and side effects. There is a need for additional options — particularly safe, gentle, long-term treatments. Researchers have been exploring dairy products as a potential dietary treatment for more than two decades. Findings have been mixed, setting up a scientific debate about whether dairy products are pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory.
  • Baking Soda and Auto-Immune Disease. Here’s another interesting study, this time concerning baking soda (the most effective antacid, in my book). It appears that a daily dose of baking soda may help reduce the destructive inflammation of autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. The study is some of the first evidence of how the cheap, over-the-counter antacid can encourage our spleen to promote instead an anti-inflammatory environment that could be therapeutic in the face of inflammatory disease, Medical College of Georgia scientists report in The Journal of Immunology.
  • Dealing with Chronic Pain. We’re all hearing about the opiod epidemic. Yet for those with chronic pain, they are often the only choice. What if they weren’t, and I’m not talking CBD as an alternative. Pain often has a psychological cause or at least a psychological component. There are 100 million Americans who suffer from chronic pain, and an unknown number of them with back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia symptoms, or other forms of pain that have no diagnosed physical cause. There have been numerous studies showing the benefit of placebos — in other words, belief that something will work — and belief is a large component of why prayer works for some. The problem is  the psychological component is often dismissed or never acknowledged. Cognitive behavioral therapy, meanwhile, shows meaningful benefits on chronic pain — both for psychogenic pain, and for pain with a physical cause — according to systematic reviewsof the research. There’s also promising research around mindfulness-based stress reduction and therapies inspired by it.
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Life in the Classroom

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

What is the purpose of school? An article today from NPR on the fading away of “Home Ec” classes, combined with another article about LA Unified establishing the goal of preparing every grad for CSU or UC, got me thinking: Should we be preparing students for college, or for life? I think both, m’self.

When I was back in Junior High (and yes, we called it that), there were still shop classes for boys — wood, metalworking, electrical, drafting — and home ec — sewing, cooking — for girls. By the time I was in high school, the classes were still there but mixed sexes, plus there was auto shop and photography. We also had courses available in Driver Education and what was called “Health”, but it was really Sex Ed and teaching you what drugs were on the street.

Today that has changed, and there appear to be courses called life skills, but based on the NPR article, I’m not sure they are teaching the right stuff, however. I believe, that by the time you get out of high school, you should know the following life skills:

  • Basic cooking
  • Basic clothing repairs and sewing
  • Basic electrical and plumbing
  • Basic wall repair and painting
  • Basic car repair
  • Basic financial skills: balancing a checkbook, what a loan is, how interest works, what impacts your credit score, what insurance is and how it works
  • Basic legal skills: how to read a loan contract, how to read a rental contract
  • Basic driver education

In general, you should come out of high school with sufficient skills to “adult” on your own. But that’s not enough.

I agree that schools should prepare you for college. That doesn’t mean you should go, but they should not preclude the option beforehand. This goes well beyond the academic course prerequisites that UC or CSU require. It also includes “collegeing” skills — which are appropriate even for those going the vocational route. These include:

  • How to manage your time
  • How to write papers with convincing arguments
  • How to get up and speak and present findings
  • How to think critically, examine issues critically, and argue issues.
  • How to navigate the academic process: not only financial, but exploring the wide variety of post-high school education options

We’re just now seeing the impact of a generation that cannot critically think. It occupies an office that is neither rectilinear nor circular, but something that has two focii.

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Breaking Up is Hard To Do

Posted onAuthorcahwyguy

The news today is filled with discussions around a proposition that will be on the November ballot. Quoting the LA Times:

If a majority of voters who cast ballots agree, a long and contentious process would begin for three separate states to take the place of California, with one primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south. Completion of the radical plan — far from certain, given its many hurdles at judicial, state and federal levels — would make history. […] Northern California would consist of 40 counties stretching from Oregon south to Santa Cruz County, then east to Merced and Mariposa counties. Southern California would begin with Madera County in the Central Valley and then wind its way along the existing state’s eastern and southern spine, comprising 12 counties and ultimately curving up the Pacific coast to grab San Diego and Orange counties. Los Angeles County would anchor the six counties that retained the name California, a state that would extend northward along the coast to Monterey County.

Of course, this proposal will never go all the way: it has to pass Congress at the national level, and they would be loath to create something that might topple the balance of power in either the House or Senate. That’s why neither Puerto Rico nor DC have achieved statehood: they’d come in a strongly Democratic. But there are so many other problems with this proposal. One can easily see why the last successful state split was West Virginia, during the Civil War, in an era where there wasn’t much state level infrastructure.

But splitting California would have so many problems:

  • What would be the state postal code? After all, both NC and SC are taken. CN and CS and CA?
  • You think the state bureaucracy is bad now? Splitting means duplicating and recreating all of the government bureaucracy: Three governors, Three Lt. Governors, Three of every executive, Duplications of staffs and such. Where does the money to pay for all of that come from?
  • How will you divide infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance, especially when Caltrans districts straddle and cross state lines?
  • Think about all costs associated with resignage. Almost every sign on state highways would need to be replaced if they referenced the state name or used the state highway shield.
  • What do you do about funding of multiyear infrastructure improvement projects? How do you split the bonded indebtedness of projects that straddle state lines?
  • How do you handle water, especially when all of the major urban areas are importing their water from new California states?
  • How do we divide the costs of prisons, when they aren’t evenly distributed across the new states?
  • Think about the mess this creates for Cal State and UC, as they now become multiple systems? How would USC react to there being another USC (and note that both SCU and CSU are also taken)? How will UNC react to their being another UNC (and note that both NCU and CNU are also both taken)?

Most importantly, would I have to do the Californias Highway Pages?

Seriously, if you want to break up a state, break up Texas. They already have the Congressional approval to do so. Malcolm Gladwell of the Revisionist History podcast has a great episode on the subject; even the Texas Law Review cites it. Hint: No matter how you do it, the Republicans will lose, and lose big.

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