Sunday, October 21. 2007
 Reposted from 2005
A dog's view: It's seared - seared in my cultural-bio-psycho-social memory, just like Jung meant. Remember the George Papoon campaign? As I lie here on the kitchen floor, hoping some cherrries will fall off the plate, I am remembering that glorious "One Organism - One Vote" campaign. "Papoon for President - Not Insane" We animals and other organisms lost that election, but it was a wonderful time back in 1970. The voting machines were designed to exclude and to discourage one-celled animals from voting. Gosh, Uncle Steve Post and those guys on WBAI....great stuff. A Revolution that failed. You human gods would be lying on the kitchen floor, being fed dry cardboard kibbles for supper, and we dogs would be going to work all dressed-up like dandies - wow - I mean bow-wow - and running the country. We figured that Papoon would get the massive bacteria and amoeba votes and that would turn the whole country into Greenish-Brown-Pond-Scum-colored states. Plus, if we were short a few votes, they could all just divide, and double their vote. It's all from The Firesign Theater. (By the way, can you name that breed in the photo?)
A re-post from 2005 We have enjoyed him since the 60s - some memories there - but just stumbled into this perfect, but too short, CD - oh yeah, it has John Coltrane too, plus Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and Tommy Flanagan. Kenny Burrell and John Coltrane. Look at Round Midnight, too. Can I compare Burrell with Wes Montgomery? No, too ignorant to do so.
Friday, October 19. 2007
 I enjoyed The Barrister's intro to Signalling Theory, especially the lengthy biology link. It's really all just about non-verbal communication, isn't it?
To what extent is my public presentation (hair, clothes, deportment, jewelry, etc.) designed to signal things about myself which I might want known, or to signal things about myself which might not be true? And how much of conventionality and conformity is an effort to not signal anything personal? After all, there are many occasions in life when one's personal "stuff" is not welcome, wanted, or appreciated. And signaling one's conventionality is, in fact, signaling that one is clued in enough to know how to do that, when necessary. At work in the office or at my Boston hospital, I tend towards Ann Taylor and Brooks Brothers business wear, with either simple jewelry, or none. If everything is "text," as the dopey lit profs say these days, what's my message? I suspect that people get into the most trouble when they signal messages unwittingly. Our Editor wonders what this young Theo lady in the photo might be signaling, above and beyond "Check me out, dude."
Tractor with the Maggie's Farm staff. But can you find the tractor? NSFW or for older fellows, on continuation page below.
Continue reading "A nice old John Deere"
On a recent flight while readying to depart for New Orleans, Jack was seated on the plane when a guy took the seat beside him. The guy was an emotional wreck, pale, hands shaking, moaning in fear. "What's the matter?" Jack asked. "I've been transferred to New Orleans, there are crazy people there. They've got lots of shootings, gangs, race riots, drugs, poor public schools, and the highest crime rate in the country." Jack replied, "I've lived in New Orleans all my life. It's not as bad as the media says. Find a nice home, go to work, mind your own business, enroll your kids in a nice private school. It's as safe a place as anywhere in the world." The guy relaxed and stopped shaking and said, "Oh, thank you. I've been worried to death. But if you live there and say it's OK, I'll take your word for it. What do you do for a living?" "Me?" said Jack. "I'm a tail gunner on a Budweiser truck." 
Wednesday, October 17. 2007
Ingrid Fliter plays Nocturne in D-flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2. (h/t, Classical Virtuoso)
Buddy made me think about David Gelernter's book, Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber. A stunning, serious, soulful book by the Yale computer science prof, which made a big impression on me when it came out. On the lighter side, I am reading Greenspan's best-selling memoir, Age of Turbulence. A fine read without a dull moment. I didn't know he had gone to Julliard, and wanted to be a jazz sax player. The guy was always the smartest guy in the room. You realize that being a central banker means learning as you go.
Tuesday, October 16. 2007
 The link to Assistant Village Idiot's piece on signaling and politics, in which he proposes, just for the sake of discussion:
Let’s pretend for purpose of discussion that all our religious, political, and social beliefs are entirely hollow. They have no intellectual content to speak of, and are mere social signals. We use them as birds use song, marking territory, calling attention to ourselves, attracting mates. We use a particular vocabulary of values to keep some people away and draw others in, to attempt to assign ourselves a certain status in the world.
Bumper stickers, what is displayed in your office, and choice of avatars are essentially just social signaling.
I decided to try to learn just a little about Signaling Theory, but first I had to make sure the word didn't have two "l"s, so as to avoid signaling that I am a dunce. (It's one of those many words that the Brits spell wrong.) Moving ahead, I learned that the sociological/economic/game theory notion of signaling comes out of biology and animal behavior. I found a good introductory piece on the subject, Honest Signalling Theory (I noted that this American Bio prof likes to use two "l"s.) It's an interesting multi-page piece which begins: The gazelle's leaping behavior, the nestlings' begging, the expensive suit - all of these things are signals. All are intended to convey information about a signaller, to a signal receiver. For humans, the fancy suit - like a fast car, an expensive bottle of wine, or a precious gemstone - indicates some property or quality of the signaller. In this case, that property might be the relative wealth of an individual.
I realized that maybe I do more signalling than I would like to think. Then I stumbled into a piece by Econlog's Caplan after reading some brief essays about education and signaling (Would you rather have a Berkley Diploma and No Education, or Education and No Diploma? and Jane Galt's Who are we signalling? and Tyler Cowen's Why Education is Productive - a parable of men and beasts) about the signaling value of education. Is education purely about social signalling? Of course not, but partially, yes. Caplan, in Mixed Signals asks: Which would do more for your career: A Princeton education, but no diploma, or a Princeton diploma, but no education? All my personal experience (30 years in school!) tells me that there is a lot of truth in the signaling model. I don't use most of my schooling in my job, and I'm a professor, for God's sake! But would I have my current position if I had failed high school Spanish? No way.
Well, this was all fun, but one is quickly reminded of how often people who have cool ideas tend to get reductionistic about them: Man is all about economics, man is all about gender, man is all about libido, man is all about adapting to his environment, man is all about signaling, etc, etc. So if you look at the world through a "signaling" lens, all you will see is signaling. And now I am out of time and getting too long anyway.
Now you know how WalMart gets all its stuff from China: 15,000 containers and a 207' beam. Look at the crew size for a ship longer than a US aircraft carrier, which has a complement of 5,000 men and officers.
Think it's big enough? Notice that 207' beam means it was NOT designed for the Panama or Suez canal. It is strictly transpacific. Check out the "cruise speed". 31 knots means the goods arrive 4 days before the typical Container ship (18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. So this behemoth is hugely competitive carrying perishable goods.
This ship was built in three sections, floated together and then welded. The command bridge is higher than a 10 story building. There are 11 crane rigs that can operate simultaneously.
Additional info:
Country of origin - Denmark
Length - 1,302 ft
Width - 207 ft
Net cargo - 123,200 tons. Cruise Speed - 31. Knots Cargo capacity - 15,000 TEU
Crew - 13 people First Trip - Sept. 08, 2006; Construction cost - US $145,000,000+. Silicone paint applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year.
Monday, October 15. 2007
A useful life skill to learn in college. These guys are amazing. Cannot embed the video, which is here. (h/t, Grow A Brain on the subject of beer.)
Chris took this photo in Connecticut on Saturday, and sent it over with an email which said drily "I have some reason to believe this might be the Nantucket Lightship." 
Coast Guard Lightships marked the dangerous Nantucket Shoals since 1854. The Shoals are located on the heavily-trafficked transatlantic route to New York, 50 miles off the Nantucket coast. This lightship, "Nantucket 2," was decommisioned in 1983. She has been refurbished as an elegant charter and events ship. The photos of the interior would surely not be recognizable to the guys who manned her. You can tour the Ambrose Lightship, familiar to all sea travellers due to its old ocean station outside New York Harbor, in its original condition at New York's South Street Seaport.
Sunday, October 14. 2007
 It's good fun to look for villa rentals in Tuscany. One has to wonder how people found these things before Al Gore invented the internet.
We like this one, south of Siena and not too far from the tourist trap of San Gimignano. Sleeps 12, if you are lucky enough to have some friends.
Saturday, October 13. 2007
A piece in which the Viola does not play second fiddle. What fun these guys have with this piece.
Friday, October 12. 2007
Our contributor Roger de Hauteville, the one-time King of Sicily, reminded me of Roxy Music the other day. Some called them the triumph of artifice over substance, and some saw in them the precursors of punk and other pop styles. I have no idea why this was called "art rock" and "glam rock," but it was, and it isn't really my cup of meat but it is lively.
Wednesday, October 10. 2007
Only a person in Rhode Island could make this up. From the state where drunk driving is considered a manly sport comes this tale (thanks, Craig):
Recently a routine police patrol parked outside a bar in Lincoln, RI. After last call at the Lodge, the officer noticed a man leaving the bar so apparently intoxicated that he could barely walk. The man stumbled around the parking lot for a few minutes, with the officer quietly observing. After what seemed an eternity in which he tried his keys on five different vehicles, the man managed to find his car and fall into it. He sat there for a few minutes as a number of other patrons left the bar and drove off.
Finally he started the car, switched the wipers on and off - it was a fine, dry summer night- flicked the blinkers on and off a couple of times, honked the horn and then switched on the lights. He moved the vehicle forward a few inches, reversed a little and then remained still for a few more minutes as some more of the other patrons' vehicles left.
At last, when his was the only car left in the parking lot, he pulled out and drove slowly down the road headed toward 146. The police officer, having waited patiently all this time, now started up his patrol car, put on the flashing lights, promptly pulled the man over and administered a breathalyzer test.
To his amazement, the breathalyzer indicated no evidence that the man had consumed any alcohol at all! Dumbfounded, the officer said, I'll have to ask you to accompany me to the police station. This breathalyzer equipment must be broken." "I doubt it," said the truly proud driver. "Tonight I'm the designated decoy."
Sunday, October 7. 2007
This superb lady has come to speak and to talk with the kids and sing a little at my kids' school for the past few years, but I have been an admirer forever, it seems. If you don't have her CDs, you are missing out.
One more load yesterday morning. This is well-seasoned White Ash, the tree from which baseball bats are made. I see some log-splitting in my future. Yes, that squiggly green thing on the window is a Fisher's Island sticker, for those with sharp eyes. Very nice place, Fisher's - but no place for tourists. This truck can use the Fisher's Island dump. 
Saturday, October 6. 2007
Femme Fatale. It was never clear to me whether Nico was forced on the Velvet Underground by Warhol, or whether they wanted her. Nico, as many recall, died young of a stroke. (Those who say that she sounds like Lilly von Schtupp when she says "twue" are cruel-hearted.)
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