I want you to channel surf

This is the greatest country on earth. Not only do we mandate that every television station must soon be broadcast in beautiful high definition...

Starting Feb. 18, 2009, full-power television stations in the U.S. will turn off their old-technology analog signals and broadcast only in a digital format, potentially leaving millions of televisions displaying nothing but snow.

Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine, says 36 percent of respondents in its survey were unaware of the transition - a big number, but much lower than what has been reported in studies from a year ago.

The great majority of consumers - anyone whose television is hooked up to a cable or satellite service or owns a digital set - will not be affected.

...but we will pay so that the poor saps stuck with antennas can get free converter boxes.

Keep television free and legal!

Just War Theory and consequentialism

In a new paper, Thomas Hurka of the University of Toronto discusses how Just War Theory considers consequences, but in a deontological framework. [pdf]

But this interpretation is neither most intuitive nor truest to how the conditions have usually been understood. A more attractive reading departs from consequentialism, first, by distinguishing among types of benefit and harm, saying only some are relevant to the assessment of a war or act in war while others are not. Second, it distinguishes among causal processes,saying benefits and harms with one kind of causal history can count toward the assessment of a war or act while the same benefits or harms with another history cannot. Finally, it does not always weigh benefits and harms equally but gives more weight to harms an act directly causes than to any benefits it produces. In all three respects the resulting theory assesses consequences in a deontological way.

The paper is highly useful to anyone running--or running against--Just War Theory in the present resolution.

(For further information, check out Hurka's "The Consequences of War," which goes into more depth.)

NoSpace for atheists

Previously, aesthetic and snobbish reasons were enough to keep me away from MySpace forever. Now refusing to join the worst website in the world has acquired a moral dimension: MySpace has deleted an atheist / agnostic page just because some Space-cases find it offensive.

things to come

Huckabee will bow out after Super Tuesday. It'll be sad--I'm going to miss his baffling foreign policy views, his bizarre supporters, and his folksy lite wisdom / recipes.

The Giants will win the Super Bowl. Up against the soulless, life-crushing machine, they may not have the odds behind 'em, but they've got heart. Rocky IV comes to Arizona this Sunday.

In a surprise move, John Edwards will endorse John McCain. Think about it.

No Country for Old Men will win the Best Picture Oscar, but not Best Director. Or vice versa. I think it deserves both, but I didn't get a ballot.

Update: The Giants won, thanks to the most incredible postseason catch since the Immaculate Reception. All hail Tyree!

don't walk like an Egyptian

Around 8:00 tonight, I drove over to Evergreen's library, almost-due books in gloved hand, warily navigating the treacherous ice-trap that is Red Square. I watched as one incautious fellow slipped and fell, and narrowly avoided the same fate at least thrice. No gait is as graceful and clumsy as the shuffle-slide of an icewalker.

Ten minutes away, at CHS, the ground isn't even frozen. Evergreen is a microclimate unto itself--and not just ideologically.



[Today's tie brought to you by the letter G.]

crunching the words

A natural-language computer analysis shows that Bush's latest SOTU is a "legacy speech," while psychologists note that SOTU speeches tend to become simpler as elections near.

Someday, we'll find out that computers have been writing the SOTU since at least 1997. Will that be terrifying, liberating, or both?

primary? caucus? I already voted.

In the only election that really matters: Best of South Sound.

So many write-ins.

snow rumors confirmed

Today was a snow day; the Olympia School District, like so many others, canceled classes. No complaints here. I had plenty to work on, including...

• A letter of recommendation
• Plans for Finals (which might be pushed back, if the snow dares to fall again)
• National Board self-analysis
• Reinstalling Windows XP (Service Pack 1!) on a dying HP, in hopes that a fresh start means fresh life

To cap the day: a trip through the Black Hills. Wish me luck.

wake me when the science happens

I haven't blogged much about Intelligent Design lately, because--and this is going to start sounding like an echo--not much of real interest happens with ID this days. Its pitchmen are a collective embarrassment who do nothing in the way of research and much in the way of antics. Sad.

what are the chances?

Chances are, you're bad at probability. Don't fret too much, though--comes with being human. Your emotion overrides your calculation*, and you tend to be very bad at probability quizzes. Try this one:

1. What's more common in the United States, (a) suicide or (b) homicide?
2. What's the more frequent cause of death in the United States, (a) pool drowning or (b) falling out of bed?
3. What are the top five causes of accidental death in America, following motor-vehicle accidents, and which is the biggest one?
4. Of the top two causes of nonaccidental death in America, (a) cancer and (b) heart disease, which kills more women?
5. What are the next three causes of nonaccidental death in the United States?
6. Which has killed more Americans, bird flu or mad cow disease?
7. How many Americans die from AIDS every year, (a) 12,995, (b) 129,950, or (c) 1,299,500?
8. How many Americans die from diabetes every year? (a) 72,820, (b) 728,200, or (c) 7,282,000?
9. Which kills more Americans, (a) appendicitis or (b) salmonella?
10. Which kills more Americans, (a) pregnancy and childbirth or (b) malnutrition?

Answers found at the bottom of the linked page, which goes into great depth explaining just how bad at probability you probably are.

Don't bet on sports.



[via Joe Carter]




*I don't say "reason," because Spock-like, emotionless reason is humanly impossible, as Antonio Damasio's work shows.

reassessing the WASL

Make it shorter, make it smarter, make it actually useful to teachers. Small changes, if legislators go along:

With a five-year testing contract set to expire this fall, state lawmakers are discussing adjustments that would address many criticisms of the WASL, which is given each year to students in third through eighth grades and grade 10.

Educators have long complained, for example, that the WASL eats up too many days of instruction, and teachers can't use it to figure out what help students need.

In her budget, Gov. Christine Gregoire included money to create short classroom tests that teachers can use to determine whether students are on track to pass the WASL, and another set to diagnose why they fail. She supports reducing the length of the WASL for students in third through eighth grades (but not grade 10), which would mean less testing time, quicker results — and cost savings.

She also proposes translating the math and science sections into six languages, so that many immigrant students can show what they know even if their English skills aren't strong.

In all, Gregoire is asking for about $38 million for the WASL program in the 2008-09 school year. That includes about $4.3 million in enhancements, and takes into account an estimated $12.5 million in savings from shortening the exam.

No proposed changes for 10th grade in Gregoire's / OSPI's plan. For those who think the WASL's too costly, and was never meant to track individual student progress, this news won't change a thing. But at least it's an admission that, from a teacher's and parent's perspective, the WASL as it stands isn't reaching the standard implied by the second letter of its acronym.

Meanwhile, trouble still brews in the 12th grade...

the week in lies and ties

In the same week hackers declared war on the lyingest cult that ever culted, and America was introduced to the pseudoscience of televised lie detection for fun and profit, and two journalistic nonprofits counted up 935--no more, no less--"false statements" Bush et. al. made justifying the Iraq War, and Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama cast aspersions on each other's characterizations....

In this very same week Tussaud's began dumping its un-wax-museum-quality heads on collectors everywhere.


Theme!


[Ties from Tuesday and Thursday of this week.]

the new new world order

What is America's role in the world? LDers coming across--or using--hegemony or political realism cases for the current resolution might want to check out two recent essays.

The first, by Parag Khanna, declares that American hegemony is in its last throes.

At best, America’s unipolar moment lasted through the 1990s, but that was also a decade adrift. The post-cold-war “peace dividend” was never converted into a global liberal order under American leadership. So now, rather than bestriding the globe, we are competing — and losing — in a geopolitical marketplace alongside the world’s other superpowers: the European Union and China. This is geopolitics in the 21st century: the new Big Three. Not Russia, an increasingly depopulated expanse run by Gazprom.gov; not an incoherent Islam embroiled in internal wars; and not India, lagging decades behind China in both development and strategic appetite. The Big Three make the rules — their own rules — without any one of them dominating. And the others are left to choose their suitors in this post-American world.

Khanna, after analyzing the present situation, calls for a modest pragmatism as a stabilizing strategy for the future--no American exceptionalism, and no dreams of empire. The entire essay is well worth digesting.

Derek Chollet and Tod Lindberg, however, take a slightly different view. Though they also realize that unipolarity is not an option, they still want to preserve the "moral core" of American foreign policy.

Moving beyond the slogans, would a truly values-free foreign policy really secure U.S. interests, strengthen U.S. power, and draw the sustained support of the American people? We think not. American values are an indispensable component of the U.S. role in the world — they are a key part of what unites the United States to allies in Europe and elsewhere and distinguishes the United States from countries like China. Instead of dividing conservatives and liberals, American values in foreign policy can in fact translate into a moral core that both sides can rally around. In the current political environment, as we approach the first post -9/11, post-Bush election, building such a policy bridge will be difficult. But given the stakes, it is imperative.

How this plays out in practice is outlined in the rest of the essay. Again, worth reading for insight, ideas, and blocks.

the voices outside my head: thoughts from Mitt Romney

Hello, I'm presidential candidate Mitt Romney. I'm running for president of the United States, and I approve this message, since, in all probability, I had a hand in drafting it. I mean, I at least endorse its sentiments until they prove unpopular.

More than any other politician, I know how to listen to the vox populi. That's a little Latin for "voice of the people." These days, I've noticed, the people tend to sound like a stage whisper.

One time the people whispered, "If you build it, he will come," so I hustled to make sure Utah got an Olympics bid. "He" turned out to be thousands of German tourists, which was nice.

Another time the people whispered, "Rosebud," so I moved to Massachusetts where the snow falls like in one of those cool globey things. I was there to shake things up, let me tell you.

Now I'm asking you, America, to whisper loud and clear what you want from me. Don't whisper "raise taxes," because I know that's just help with a trick question. Even though I love Ronald Reagan, who once raised taxes, I love not raising taxes more, because I love you, America, more.

But if you really want me to, I'll do it.

breathe easy

Calabasas, the much-loved City of Shining Air, is back in the news. Perhaps in response to Belmont's no-smoking-and-we-really-mean-it measure, the city has banned smoking in most apartments.

Last week the Calabasas City Council unanimously approved an ordinance that requires landlords to reserve 80 percent of their units for nonsmokers as of January 1, 2012. The law (PDF), which was supported by the L.A. chapter of the California Apartment Association (clearly a bad sign), not only allows smokers to rent up to one-fifth of apartments; it grandfathers current tenants who smoke.... The ordinance's one saving grace is that it "prohibits smoking on all multi-unit apartment residence balconies, porches and patios." Now there's the Calabasas I love to hate.

Even though the summertime toking of my downstairs neighbor bugs the crap out of me, I'm not going to throw down the wrath of the State upon him over some bogus health concern--and I'm entirely uninterested in making him homeless.

snow, and rumors of snow

No snow. Yet. Everyone's hoping. But in all probability, we're going to get dumped on over the weekend, which, from any student or teacher's perspective, is as good as no snow.

Meanwhile, Hershey's is halting production of mints that look like packages of snow--the other kind, of course--since police are worried that children might get confused and think that drugs are fun.

In related news, General Mills is giving up the flour business, fearing that children will try to make cocaine cookies in their Easy-Bake ovens. No worry, though, because Easy-Bake is shutting down production, too, fearing that meth-heads are using the lightbulb ovens in mobile meth labs.

a time for heterodoxy

The problem:

While the basic education funding from the state follows the student to the new district, the bill to the student's home district is determined with a formula that takes into account the amount of the high school district's levy, said John Molohon, fiscal assistant superintendent of Educational Service District 113.

So, when the levy rises in the high school district, the smaller district's bill also rises, whether or not its taxpayers would have approved the levy, Brannam said.

That's a situation that's applies only to high school students who live in areas without a high school, he said.

If a transfer student comes to Griffin — as 20 percent of its students do — they are funded only through state basic education funds, leaving the district to cover the rest.

The solution:

"We wouldn't be so reliant on our special levies as we are if the state funded us at the right level," [WSSDA's John Dekker] said.

Amen and amen. Simple majorities are a bandaid, but the wound's still bleeding.

Atlantic Monthly lowers the paywall

Starting now, The Atlantic Monthly won't charge for online content. At least, they won't charge you. Advertisers will cover it.

Huzzah!

[via Eugene Volokh]

support your local librarian: part II

Permanent funding for librarians not coming from levy dollars? Sounds crazy enough to work.

[Rainier's Steve] Coker is set to testify today in support of Senate Bill 6380, which would provide state funding — $12 per student — for materials, and require a certain number of certified-teacher librarians based on the size of the district.

Hope that went well for you, Mr. Coker. In today's techno-climate, we need teacher-librarians--and a stable funding structure--more than ever.

yelling "shush" in a crowded theater

Yesterday my wife and I saw There Will Be Blood, my last cinematic excursion until at least April. We went with another CHS teacher and his wife, meeting at the theater. As the women stood in line for overpriced snacks (free popcorn--thanks, Crown Club!), the men scoped out and saved seats in the #6 auditorium.

He and I were chit-chatting about the merits of Daniel Day Lewis's recent work when an elderly grouch in front of us turned around. "Excuse me," he snapped. "I didn't come to the theater to listen to you two talk."

We sat in stunned silence for about thirty seconds, and then busted out laughing. You see, he shushed us during the pre-preview commercials. Feeling no need to apologize, I eventually griped, "Yeah, well, I didn't come here to watch TV, but with these hard times, whaddayaget?" We turned to the folks behind us, who shrugged in sympathy.

Our spouses returned, snacks in hand. Five minutes later, the sound quit during the previews, a surreal, music video-esque experience. I ran out to find a manager, and then came back, explaining to the crowd that help was on the way. Crabby Pants just sat and stewed.

Once the show started, we were perfectly quiet angels throughout--so quiet that at the end, the wiseacre behind us said, "Okay, y'all can talk now."

I respect cinema. I respect the lovers of cinema. I turn off my cell phone and shut my yapper. That's part of my moral code.

But so is the First Amendment, and I'll exercise it during the commercials. Sorry.