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July 26th, 2008
12:09 am - The Last Lecture
Believe me, I'm not the kind of guy who spends time listening to inspirational speeches.
That being said, I do recommend spending an hour and a quarter listening to The Last Lecture by Dr. Randy Pausch (died 7/25/08). Dr. Pausch, an esteemed and popular professor, had already been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer when he gave a talk last September (although, as you will see, he was in impressive physical shape other than that). His lecture is called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," although the title is, as you will see, a "head fake." This is an hour and a quarter of humor, compassion, love of having fun, and something I have no problem calling courage.
Don't skip to the last few minutes, but if you watch it, please do watch it through to the end.
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July 24th, 2008
08:06 pm - this evening after work
wooded trail. breathe hard.
sprints. curves. cool swift breeze. dappled
sun. bird calls. two wheels.
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/smile.gif) peaceful
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July 23rd, 2008
08:58 pm - Talk Therapy For Schizophrenia
I am very, very excited and moved by this book review. Although I am not psychoanalytic (the orientation cited in the article), I do provide ongoing therapy to some clients with (stabilized, medicated) schizophrenia and other chronic, severe mental illnesses. In my experience, this is a rare occurrence, at least in a community mental health setting such as mine. Now I've learned not only that I'm not the only one, but that there is a person with severe, active psychosis who has been helped by a talking therapist.
Obvious disclaimer: this is not about a quantitative study, so Saks may be one in a thousand, or one in ten thousand, etc.
( 'Talk Therapy For Schizophrenia' by Garry Cooper )
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06:54 am - Enthusiastic workers
This was my comment to a friend who mentioned that Obama campaign field staff are expected to work 12-14 hours per day, 7 days a week.
You know, I'm a little burnt out on the exploitation of workers' enthusiasm in some fields.
Until last fall, I worked at an addiction treatment center. Many of its employees--I think more than half--were recovering alcoholics and addicts, who saw their work as "more than a job." Accordingly, the company treated people like absolute shit, rarely gave out raises, shitty health benefits, no retirement plan, ultra-authoritarian management style, and fired people at the drop of a hat. If I'd known I was slated to be one of them, I would have pursued one of my dreams, which was to start talking to people about a union.
As an MSW, I am paid a little less than if I had a master's in, say, engineering, but I still do OK. Most of the dollars I earn are there because Social Workers spend generations clawing their way up from the status of "noble, self-sacrificing semi-volunteer" to that of "licensed professional." As excited as I am about Obama, I would stand in solidarity with the campaign's paid workers rather than their bosses. I don't think I would cross a picket line to volunteer.
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06:43 am - Global warming and the fake controversy
The conclusions underscore the research of Naomi Oreskes, a science historian at the University of California at San Diego, who reviewed 928 abstracts of articles on global climate change published in scientific journals between 1993 and 2003 and could not find a single one that challenged the scientific consensus that human-caused global warming is real. "There have been arguments to the contrary," she wrote in a 2004 editorial in The Washington Post, "but they are not to be found in scientific literature, which is where scientific debates are properly adjudicated."
...Another factor, writes Dominique Brossard and colleagues in a 2004 study published in Mass Communication and Society, is the American media's inclination to generate stories with drama and conflict. "American media actively constructed narratives about global warming to maintain public interest," they wrote. "In developing their narratives, they may choose to frame stories in a particular way ... ignoring others or simply reporting facts or perspectives more interesting or challenging than others.... The journalistic tendency to draw in discordant opinions in a story can lend strength to a viewpoint that may have very little credence in the scientific community at large."
Global Warming: What's Known vs. What's Told
Linked via ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) gregrichey because I'm too lazy to redo all that bold and italics. I agree with Greg that "On this and many other issues, our media has failed us."
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July 21st, 2008
10:32 pm - Walking across America
Last night, it was my pleasure to host Nick Moffat on my couch. Nick, American born but British raised, is walking across America to raise money for wounded veterans and their families. Yes, literally walking with a backpack from NYC to LA, usually camping by the side of the road in whatever open field he can find. He found me via Couchsurfing and asked to stay for a night. Nick is funny, adventurous, humble, and has some great stories to tell. I hope to see him again some time. He would be glad to meet up with any of y'all who live or will find yourselves near the route from here to LA.
Neighbors maevemacaraab and p_liberation cooked dinner and brought it over. Shortly after, we took a picture via my camera's timer. I leaned over more than necessary, but the world map in the background was a nice touch.
( Michael, Christina, Nick, Jeff )
Current Mood: good
Current Music: fish tank
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July 20th, 2008
11:04 am - Nick Walks America
This guy is currently walking east through Reynoldsburg, on US 40. Some time this afternoon or early evening, he will arrive at my house for some Couchsurfing. I could offer him a ride, but he'd turn it down. But if I have time, I might drive by and honk at him. :-) And see if he needs any water.
I think "trouper" is the appropriate word.
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July 15th, 2008
08:54 pm - Clever fundraising email
I'm not a member of Jewish Voice for Peace (or Jewish anything!) although I get and read their emails. And I like what I know of what they do.
( But I want to quote this fundraising letter, which is funny and creative. )
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July 14th, 2008
10:37 pm - I am so disappointed with La Bella Italia
It's not hyperbole to say this hearkens back to the days of Mussolini, the days when the Jews were despised money-lenders...
Italian government cracks down on Roma people
The ethnic fingerprinting drive is part of a broader crackdown on Italy's three-and-a-half million migrants, most of them legal, carried out in an atmosphere of increasingly hysterical rhetoric about crime and security. But the reviled Roma, some of whose families have been in Italy since the middle ages, are taking the brunt of it. The aim is to close 700 Roma squatter camps and force their inhabitants out of the cities or the country. In the same week as Maroni was defending his racial registration plans in parliament, Italy's highest appeal court ruled that it was acceptable to discriminate against Roma on the grounds that "all Gypsies were thieves", rather than because of their "Gypsy nature"
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10:03 pm - What do y'all think?
The New Yorker cover:
The article in The Guardian: 'Terrorist fist bump' cartoon misfires
The magazine hit the newsstands yesterday. But its editor, David Remnick, evidently anticipating a liberal backlash against the cover - described yesterday as incendiary and irresponsible - gave an interview to the Washington Post ahead of publication. He said the image was meant to be seen as humour, poking fun at the smear campaign against the Obamas.
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July 13th, 2008
09:20 pm - 1984
I was reminded of this quote only recently, and I really like it. I should read 1984 again some time.
The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
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09:02 pm - This is funny...look closely at Barack
From David aka ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/syndicated.gif) safde5
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04:12 pm - My morning bicycle ride with Charlene
Clifton, Cincinnati to downtown Cinci via Central Parkway. And a nice ride it was. Fast on the downhill, nice workout peddling back up, not too much traffic and plenty of urban scenery.
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July 10th, 2008
10:51 pm - Give An Hour
I'm in the midst of registering for Give An Hour. I don't really know how this will work, with my not having independent office space. Also, I'm going to steer clear of marital/couples work or kids. But I think it's worth offering them a little help if I can.
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July 6th, 2008
10:44 pm - My LJ friends
( Pictures only--and only those they chose. )
FWIW, less than a third are portraits of the authors.
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July 4th, 2008
09:39 am - A question that's been trickling through my mind
For myself, I don't know the answer, well, I kinda sorta do. I think I do know the answer for several friends, such as ceiligrrl, blumsha, autumnpoet, jingoperiod, and dachte. For others, I have no clue.
Answer if you like, in one word or 1000...
What was the biggest change in your philosophical, ethical, political or religious beliefs in the course of your life?
A corollary might be: Did you make a change from point A to point B in the past, such that you are now settled on B? Or are you now in the midst of a major reconsideration? Perhaps you have decisively abandoned point A but are not confident as to where point B should be.
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July 2nd, 2008
11:38 pm - A rare half-way decent Time/CNN piece
10 good things about $4 gas
Although, they forgot one. Someone said on Marketplace the other day, "The best remedy for high gas prices is HIGH GAS PRICES." Supply and demand. It works, bitches. GasTaxHoliday, my ass.
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12:49 am - Charlene's article about Festival Latino
Letter to the Columbus Dispatch
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June 28th, 2008
10:46 am - At last, some (mostly) positive coverage of Comfest
Cols Dispatch article
At least they didn't call it a "hippy festival."
Current Music: WCBE-FM, Columbus, Ohio
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June 26th, 2008
06:48 pm - An interesting ruling, but it doesn't seem to answer all of the questions.
Justices Rule for Individual Gun Rights
'The amendment’s prefatory clause announces a purpose, but does not limit or expand the scope of the second clause,' wrote Justice Scalia. 'The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms.'
BUT:
'It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose,' Justice Scalia wrote... 'The court’s opinion should not be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.'
So I'm not all that partisan on the gun issue, but I'd like to see the constitutional questions more clearly sorted out. Scalia clearly does not believe that this "shall not be infringed" is not meant to be as strong as, say, the "Congress shall make no law" of the First Amendment. What appears extremely unclear, at least from the excerpts in the article (and I'll grant that the complete opinion may answer this) is what weapons are to be allowed. I'm sure that neither Scalia, nor the majority of gun-rights advocates, would support civilian purchase and ownership of Stinger missiles. So where is the line to be drawn?
Note that this doesn't help all that much: Alluding to the 1939 Supreme Court decision, which held that the weapons protected under the Second Amendment were those 'in common use at the time,' Justice Scalia said, 'We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’ ' Firearms are dangerous by definition. And unusual could mean a lot of things. The extremists on the gun rights side sometimes claim that civilians need weapons to defend themselves against a tyrannical government--which brings us back to Stinger missiles.
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08:11 am - My news website problem has been solved.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa
I would rather it wasn't cluttered with video and slideshows--but that seems to be the case for every major news site. I get what I was looking for, which is US news and opinion from an international point of view.
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June 25th, 2008
09:53 pm - Triple chocolate caramel Twix ice cream
WTF is with this sole emphasis on women liking chocolate and chocolate flavored things?
My friend James may be known as the "world's gayest straight guy," but I enjoy supposedly-feminine chocolate as much as I enjoy supposedly-masculine football and beer.
Current Mood: delicious
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June 24th, 2008
12:19 am - A quote
I'd be interested to hear any responses to that from those of y'all who chose to get married.
As George Bernard Shaw said of people who preach the joys of matrimony: "If the prisoner is happy, why lock him in? If he is not, why pretend that he is?"
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