So Amazing!

My father needs to find these people and join, immediately. Robert Goulet. Robert. Goulet. The last time I was this proud of St. Louis was when we won the World Series.

Furloughs in Hawaii: Platinum or not-so-platinum?

So Hawaii, like many states, is having a massive budget crisis. In education, states have chosen from a variety of alternatives in order to deal with the deficits. Some have laid off teachers under seniority and some have laid off teachers using other criteria(which may not be super platinum in it's own ways, HT: Courtney). Other states have used across-the-board salary reductions or just cut funding to specific programs.

Hawaii chose something a bit different: they decided to shorten the school year by having seventeen (yes, seventeen) fewer days of school annually through 2011 using furloughs. I haven't heard of another district using this specific approach when it comes to education. Personally, this seems like one of those too-perfect-for words examples of putting the interests of adults ahead of the needs of children. Adults get to keep the same amount of pay(proportionally) and get more days off while children receive less learning time (in a state with one of the shortest school days and years) and parents must scramble to figure out what to do with their kids seventeen days of the year they hadn't planned to. And now there are some lawsuits saying that the new contract is illegal and the Governor is evil blah blah blah.

So that's the background. Here's a few quick hits.

• Multiple friends of mine have posted on facebook pictures from a "teach-in" protest(with celebrities!) at the state capitol and are blaming the governor for the fact they can't be with their kids. This is completely disingenuous. The contract that cut out seventeen days was ratified by teachers by 81% to 19%. That means that the people protesting have already spoken (with their pocketbooks) and said that preserving the status quo (in pay, their responsibilities, class size) is more important than learning time for their students.
• Speaking of going back on their word, let's go back a couple years. In April 2007, Hawaii teachers voted on a contract (good summary article) that would give across the board raises (11%) for teachers, require only one year of teaching before tenure, and required mandatory randomized drug testing. That contract was also ratified by large margins (61%). Almost immediately after the contract vote, the union announced that their interpretation of random drug testing was that if someone was suspected of being under the influence, they could be tested. The governor, and now they are in court, still fighting two years later. Meanwhile, teachers have been receiving the raise that was part of the contract for the entire time (I'm not sure about the one year-tenure thing).
  

So what does all this mean? Personally, it suggests to me that neither the union nor the teachers they represent negotiate in good faith. Once you agree to something, you are legally obligated to follow through on it. It's impressive that no one stands up and says, "Hey buddy! You voted in favor of this! If this is so bad for the kids, why didn't you just take a pay cut or announce layoffs?" I personally think furloughs are a poor policy solution when it comes to education, but as a practical matter, they do solve the budget issue. But what I consider galling (and highly un-platinum) is the completely disingenuous behavior of everyone involved. Welcome to life in Hawaii.

Update: As soon as I posted the previous version of the post, I regretted using the word, "jackass" to describe some people who I believe are being hypocritical. My bad and I apologize. Completely non-platinum and this is me owning it.

A Platinum Nobel Prize Winner

We've all received news by now that President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize and the general surprise that's followed, but recent announcement of 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences award winners Oliver Williamson and Elinor Ostrom is apparently causing a stir in the economic profession. Williamson won for his work in New Institutional Economics, and Ostrom for her work on the theory and practice of institutional economics. Ostrom is the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Economics.

According to economist Steven Levitt, author of best-seller Freakonomics,

the economics profession is going to hate the prize going to Ostrom even more than Republicans hated the Peace prize going to Obama. Economists want this to be an economists’ prize (after all, economists are self-interested). This award demonstrates, in a way that no previous prize has, that the prize is moving toward a Nobel in Social Science, not a Nobel in economics.

He says this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but that his colleagues would find it unpopular. I don't know what 'circles' Levitt travels in, but news of Ostrom's receipt of the award has generated quite a positive reaction from the scholars I know. Ostrom isn't mainstream and therefore, according to Levitt, would ruffle the feathers of the economic community because (1) she is not well-known, and (2) apparently isn't enough of an economist for him.

Read Paul Dragos Aligica's article at Reason about her. He and many other scholars, ecstatic about Ostrom's winning the prize, have been very vocal about their reactions. AP quotes Dragos here:

"Until her work, the thinking was, 'let the state intervene,'" said Paul Dragos Aligica, a political scientist at George Mason University. "'If you leave it to individuals to do whatever they want, resources will be depleted.' But she said `hold on' and found that's not the case." Aligica wrote his doctorate under Ostrom's guidance.

Not all the Nobel Prize announcements have been confusing or disheartening.

Platinum Traveling

So I apologize for not posting for quite a while. I honestly just haven't had much to write about. Happily, I am on vacation this weekend and traveled to Chicago to see some friends of mine. KM and CS have a great apartment in Wicker Park (yes, that Wicker Park for all you movie buffs out there) and both seem to be doing great in their new respective lives. Seeing as how I've spent the weekend traveling, I thought I'd remark on a platinum and not-so platinum travel moment I had this weekend.

Platinum Packing
For those of you that know my family, you'll know that they are atrocious at packing. Since I was a child, it's always been a more stuff=better mentality when it comes to packing for any kind of trip, be it for a day or a week. The results of this were cramped cars, lots of time spent packing/unpacking, and my family never really being forced to think about what we wanted to do (and therefore needed to pack) on trips. Not surprisingly, my family is also not good about cleaning out old crap we have in our house. Having seen the houses of my relatives, and most importantly my grandparents, I'm tempted to use Psych 101 to describe this as the "Depression Conception of Packing/Storage." DCOPS means that you want quantity over quality and that you hold onto things you have no reason to because "You never know when they could be useful."

I, at least in my adult life, firmly reject this way of thinking. I pack light and think strategically about what are the most likely things I'll be doing on any given trip. I don't check baggage and I don't eat or drink before or during travel for the most part. These are all things that will slow you down. I can pack for just about any weekend trip (and most other trips) in less the 20 minutes. I keep a bag of toiletries packed for just this purpose (including a ziplock bag for TSA). All in all, I'm able to travel about as efficiently as a business traveler, despite having far less practice.

On the home front, I periodically (about once a month) go through all of my paperwork and throw out/shred anything I don't honestly need. All of my bills and paperwork from banks are sent to me paperless via email. I give away/throw out crap that I don't need or doesn't fit me anymore. Being someone who has the attention span of one of my third grade male students, I know that I like to move around and am not likely to stay in one apartment or city for more than a year or two. Staying lean and mean makes it easy for me to do that. Caveat: I'm not saying that how my parents or relatives live/pack is bad; I'm saying it doesn't work for someone with my lifestyle and desire to control my living space.

Metro Non - Platinum Behavior
Anyone who has used public transportation (or probably any kind of transportation) for any period of time can tell you that there are norms for behavior. Don't stand on the left on the escalator. Let people get off the train/bus before you try to get on. Don't play your music loud enough so other riders can listen to it. There are honestly a million of these and the more you ride public transit, the more you learn some of the more nuanced ones, like realizing that where you should stand on a train can be determined based on how long it is till your stop (stand in the middle the of the train if you've got a long way to go so that you don't get in the way of those getting on and off in the interim). But there are few norms of behavior in these situations that are easier to comprehend and follow than "Don't fight."

On Friday night, I was on the metro heading over to a friend's and saw a fifteen (not kidding) girl fight going on at L'Enfant Plaza. I heard it as I came up the escalator from downstairs. A bunch of black girls were arguing and talking very loudly. Being Friday night and a strategically located Metro station, there were a pretty good number of people on the platform, all watching from the corner of their eyes. The arguing continued to escalate until the girls began throwing punches and a scrum ensued (the fight started right as the train was pulling in). Two things were striking: 1) It didn't look as though anyone was going to look for a train attendant or police officers (who should have been there, given this particular station is known for this sort of thing) and 2) The very fact that people were around seemed to agitate the girls more. As many have said before me, no one wants to be the punk, even if it means getting your ass kicked in the meantime. It, along with the other fights I've seen on a metro (see drunk white guys at 2:30 am later that night) are some of the most depressing things I've witnessed in my adult life. Maybe it's because I'm a sissy, but it's incredibly sad to see people fight out of sheer boredom.

Plaxico Burress, I don't get it.

I get that Plaxico Burress had a gun, and that he shot that gun in public, but he only shot himself... by accident... in the leg. Remind me because I can't seem to understand, why are we punishing him? How is he a danger to society?

I think it's safe to assume that Plexico learned his lesson about firearms but where is the civil threat?

Frankly, if I were the football player responsible for catching a pass that toppled perfect season of the New England Patriots, you're god damn right I'm carrying a gun. Fact I might even carry two. This is a perfect example of an individual aiming to protect himself and the state eroding that right. I'm not a big second amendment kind of guy, but I do take some level of comfort, however crazy the thought, in the fact that American can protect themselves.

Maybe I'm missing something big but from my perspective now the treatment of Plaxico Burress's case is totally not Platinum.

Platinum Links

1. Check your grammar online for free...up to 100 words.

2. This is what I will use from now on to explain computer issues to my parents. Enjoy!

3. It's really odd to be able to find out so easily something I've wondered about for quite a while...how much money my parents (well, one of them) makes.

4. This article just makes me sad. This is, check that, was a really great neighborhood that seems determined to drive away business. There are two things that come to mind when I read something like this:

1. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything involves tradeoffs. You can keep your neighborhood looking exactly the way it looked however many years ago you moved in, but that means that there won't be new businesses and many of the old ones will leave eventually.
   
2. "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." - H.L. Mencken

5. I find myself thinking about this article in the context of every job I've ever had. Great quote:

And I know this: the first sign that you are outside of your strengths is when you can’t make yourself do the work you need to do.

6. Smartlists...read the one about the defense department. Fascinating stuff.

Sonos: Triple Platinum

After almost three years coming Sonos has finally released their album, and it flippin rocks like the atomic number 78 thrice over.

They bring a mix of electronic feel, to the extent that at times it's like you're listening to Radiohead, while maintaining a Gardin State soundtrack feel. Basically get used to shivers down your spine and a sudden motivation to do something with your life. The greatest thing though, and here's the curve ball... it's all human voices. Tons of effects but all live and beautiful. Truly the next generation of vocal music.

It also helps that the beatboxer in the group is yours truly's older brother. But in all bias aside. These kids but don't take my word for it. Listen to their samples on Amazon.

No internet at my house till the end of the week...

1. For those of you wondering what I want for my birthday.

2. What's striking about this post to me is how similar it is in many ways to my own experiences. I had some good teachers, but I had a large number of awful teachers. My high school, except for one teacher, was a joke. If anyone deserves credit for the successes I've enjoyed, it's my parents. This whole article just seems to reiterate the idea that for the vast majority of students in low-income schools, there is little value add by the school and you can essentially predict their futures based on their home lives. Very depressing indeed.

3. I'm sure that there's some sort of economic idea underlying this quote from a guy who I consider to be the best sportswriter in America. The post, as they all are, is funny throughout.

You're 29. You've been dating the same girl for nearly three years. She is the best catch of her college friends. One of her less fetching friends meets a guy who is wealthier and more successful than you. Inexplicably, he proposes within seven months. It makes no sense. She totally outkicked her coverage with this guy; he doesn't even know about her "Girls Gone Wild" appearance yet. Still, the whole thing plants those "if she's getting married than what's wrong with me?" doubts in your girlfriend. She wants a ring and she wants it now. You can't believe it. You thought you had already worked this out -- you were going to wait to get married until you were financially stable. You take her out to dinner and make the following argument: Look, just because somebody proposed to your crazy friend doesn't mean that (a) she's better than you, or (b) this should affect your situation in any way.

4. This is probably the best museum website I've ever seen. It's amazing how the videos of 9/11 still visibly shake me. In case you don't know, it takes a lot to get a rise out of me.

5. And on the flipside of that equation, my college has a new website (that they designed internally). My friends and I have already had a long discussion about the website, which we think is a slight upgrade from the previous website, but which still lacks polish. I wonder whether a school has ever done a student competition for redesigning a website like this. Groups of students (art, computer science, psychology, etc.) could band together to create something really cool that actually works. Hell, open it up to students/developers all over the place. Innovate!

Platinum Transparency

I know, I know, ...long hiatus... inconsistent... no excuses... apologies abound. Moving on.

From the majority of my posts about non-platinum activities, you would think I wasn't an optimist. Here's a great up and coming technology that many government agencies have come to use since President Obama's call for greater transparency, in particular with regards to the Recovery Act funds. Learn more by clicking on the demo video, or go straight into playing around with the live applications. The three listed are Recovery Act funds, HUD Recovery Data, and TARP data. The point of the software is not only to mash together seemingly incompatible data sources (whether it's RSS feeds, Excel spreadsheets, or what ever else one could imagine), but it also draws from these sources in real time, and displays the information in a concise and clear way. For example, all of the information in the Recovery Act live application tracks every dollar spent of the money given to federal agencies, states, and even bureaus with agencies. As another example, the TARP live application indicates what banks received money, how much, how they're faring, and their track records since receiving the money. Furthermore, you can embed these applications in iGoogle and the like. My buddy Shawn would certainly be able to explain it better than I can, but I do plan on incorporating the software in the way I do data research. I highly recommend downloading it and playing around with it if you work with data.

Platinum Links

1. Facebook, destroyer of lives everywhere...

2. Oy! Google just added another language...guess which one?

3. Do you go to one of America's douchiest colleges?

4. What is it that makes Roger Federer so awesome? It's truly remarkable to see how clearly they can analyze his game.

5. Here's a fascinating first-person account of a reporter going through the process of becoming a gun owner in DC. Best quote:

Because despite the fact that my government trusts me to own a gun, I'm not sure how I feel about having a weapon that can send a piece of metal the size of a thimble hurtling through space with such speed that it could make someone's head explode.

I can honestly say that I have no idea how I feel about this issue, but that I think the author does a great job of reflecting the ambivalence of how an urban middle class white feels about both guns and living in a rapidly gentrifying city like DC.