The New Republic has a piece of Mitt Romney’s latent urbanism. I found this paragraph noteworthy:

Then there was the day Romney and Foy were together at a ribbon-cutting for a traffic-calming project and Romney started lamenting that Salt Lake City’s streets were too wide because they were designed in the days of wagon trains that needed to be able to turn around. “He thought that that was a problem and that New England had thankfully not had wagon trains, so its streets were more tightly knit … and more pedestrian-friendly,” Foy remembers.

Though Salt Lake City is not pedestrian friendly, the wide berth of its city streets is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of the SLC auto transit system. It’s absolutely amazing. One of those anachronisms that proved the city particularly well-suited for the age of the automobile. That’s not to say that there isn’t significant traffic downtown, but (a) it’s still considerably better than most places I’ve been and (b) due to the fact that all of the streets are so wide, it’s remarkably easy to avoid the worst spots. Or was when I was driving down there regularly. The freeway system is nothing but headaches. I look forward to getting off the interstate and onto the city streets. There aren’t many places I would say that about. At all.

To deal with the increasing downtown traffic, though, they’re doing something rather neat with the busier areas in order to cut down on left-hand turns (h/t Abel). They show a sign for the “thruturns” and I swear that I have actually seen it before but didn’t know what it meant. Now I know! It’s a pretty great concept, where you get to take a protected u-turn away from the congested intersection. It’s the exact sort of thing I do on a pretty regular basis when I can’t get to the right lane in time, except it’s implemented into the system.

Colorado tried something interesting where they sped everybody up by keeping and enforcing a 55mph speedlimit. By enforcing, I don’t mean straw-picking to get a ticket, but rather police cars out there actually making sure nobody is going faster than 55. If the age of antcars ever come, this should prove to be a real timesaver.

The Atlantic endorses congestion pricing. I am actually sympathetic, though tired of hearing about how “increasing the size of freeways doesn’t speed traffic up.” It’s not true anecdotally, and arguably not true at all or at least not true in any universal sense.

I was reminded to look into something relatively trivial today: Whether a former apartment complex I used to live in (Midlerth) was located in a particular district in town. I discovered, to my chagrin, that it’s not. I say “to my chagrin” because, with a city as sprawling as Colosse is, it’s helpful to be able to say I lived in Cameron Grove rather than trying to find the two nearest streets of note and saying “around there.” On the upshot, being able to say that I lived right by Cameron Grove is almost as good.

Anyway, Cameron Grove is actually more known as a business district. It includes the corporate headquarters of a global software company that you have probably never heard of but is actually one of the largest in the world. It was founded by a Southern Tech alumnus and benefactor. There is actually a sweet story about one of the nicer water fountains on campus that was placed there because he proposed to his wife at that particular spot on campus decades ago. They divorced three years ago.

Another generous benefactor of Southern Tech died not too long ago. This is important to Sotech, but not because he was universally beloved. In fact, a lot of people don’t care for how he made his fortune. He was also known for being a rather personally difficult, reckless, and an alcoholic. He had a DUI conviction and died in an automobile accident with a passenger (and without a seatbelt). Unmarried and childless, he left his entire state to his do-good foundation. Southern Tech, his alma mater, is expected to see a lot of that. So, god bless the bastard. (It’s actually kind of funny: Most well-known Southern Tech alumni are… somewhat disreputable individuals. The guy from the previous paragraph is an exception.)

How siblings shape our personality.

Why cheap maple syrup tastes best. I had genuine maple syrup once. I thought it was disgusting.

Some einsteins are coming up with a laser powerful enough to tear apart the vacuum of space. What could possibly go wrong?

It’s actually somewhat hilarious to me that as Microsoft starts to put out really good browsers, it’s marketshare continues to decline. Maybe if they’d cared seven years ago?

Someone may need to save Save the Dolphins. Turns out, they’re kind of… animals.

Ethical people are happier. I wonder if this ties into religion? Also, disagreeable people have better credit scores. It pays to be an arse, apparently.

Okay, so maybe I was wrong and Apple products do need to be made in China. But will it cause us to lose our ability to design new problems? The article suggest so, but I’m not so sure. China may start also designing the things that we design, but we still design TV sets in the US. Beyond which, Chinese companies employ American designers.

People are shuffling out of science majors because… it’s hard. I knew a number of science majors in college, but only one science graduate. And that was after he dropped out and later went back.

This just won’t do. The real victims here have to be women who can’t find a man with a good enough paying job.

Clancy and I both prefer our meat well done, though she is more of a stickler for it than I am. We went out over the weekend to a diner across the street from the hospital. They are inclined to undercook the meat, so we both make a special point of requesting “well done” and about half of the time they do it. Saturday was one of the other half. Clancy waited a bit to ask them to cook it further, but the waitress was MIA and she was hungry enough that she ate it anyway.

When the waitress gave us the bill, she commented on it, politely requesting that she say something to the cook for future reference. Now, whenever we say something, we don’t actually expect them to say something to the cook. When I went to the front to pay the bill, the waitress said that the cook felt bad about it. Before she took the credit card, though, she asked if we wanted another burger for each of us. Suspicious soul that I am, combined with the fact that she hadn’t taken the credit card, I thought I was being asked to buy two more burgers because the first two weren’t done right. I was a little irritated.

But no, they were free. Apparently the cook actually felt that bad about it. So we got free burgers for lunch the next day.

I am generally of the type to not bother telling anybody that they got something wrong. Like I said, I don’t think they actually tell the cook about it. Or feel bad about it. I expect them to be irritated by the unctuous customers who want things “just so”, don’t order tip-enhancing drinks, and probably aren’t going to tip very well for a reason they view as being frivolous. Clancy is more the type to speak up. And it scored us two free burgers. Not bad.

I ate my burger straight out of the fridge the next day. Clancy thinks that’s bizarre. Is she right?

My sister-in-law recently asked me for some advice on a new laptop that she wants to get. I’ve decided to generalize it here for any of you all that are seeking to get a laptop.

As people who know me know, I am a Thinkpad guy. And so, if you’re looking for a cheap PC, I am not your guy. My advice would actually be to buy a used PC of a good make and model (maybe I will do a separate post on that). Most of the advice I give here is not limited to Thinkpads, though. The options on Dell Latitudes E’s are very similar. Notably, LatE’s are a part of Dell’s business line. That is perhaps my first piece of advice: Go with a business-grade laptop, unless you are on a serious budget or want a gaming machine. The main reason being that more care is put into quality of business laptops. Why? Because when they sell to a business, there is a strong likelihood that the customer will be buying another laptop. Customer satisfaction matters more. When selling discount laptops, they know that either (a) the person won’t be in the market for a few years if their laptop lasts, and (b) they’re looking at price-points and are less likely to be loyal customers the way businesses are (or are at least more likely to be.

Outside of Lenovo, I have generally heard good things about Asus, though I have never owned one. Dell’s business lineup is probably okay, as well. I’ve heard good things about Toshiba and Sony, though my experiences with both have been abysmal (quite possibly because I went with the consumer line). I’d be wary about Gateway, too. Truth be told, though, a lot of the laptops are built in the same place with similar or the same parts. The difference is often going to be how much care they put into parts. That’s why I recommend business line machines, where they are likely to put more care. Though I wouldn’t bet my purchase on it, what is true of Dell (which at least used to be notorious for cutting corners) is probably true of HP, Gateway, and the others. Increasingly, Lenovo is releasing cheaper models. Though they may be quite good, I am going to steer you away from that, as well.

Model:

For Thinkpads, I most strongly endorse the T-Series. I’ve never had a bad one, and I’ve owned more than half a dozen. Since they canceled the R-Series, I’ve more or less committed to T’s. The only one I ever had that wasn’t an T or an R was an X60, which quite frankly was a disappointment. The current model for Thinkpad T’s are the T420, T420S, and T520. The T420S are stock machines, meaning that there won’t be much customizing involved. The T420 has a 14″ screen and T520 has a 15″ screen. So the first decision is what size monitor you want. This is, of course, a personal decision. Get what you want.

Processor:

The processor is the main driver of everything. That makes it sound important, and it’s not *unimportant*, but processors have become so good over the years that it’s hard to go wrong. Since the conversion from Windows XP to Windows 7, though, this is less the case than it used to be. Windows 7 requires more in the way of resources and so you might struggle more than with a Windows XP machine with what used to be lower-end processors (excepting netbook processors, which can struggle with anything). This is the only reason I would steer anyone away from an Intel Core i3 processor. As more and more gets installed, it’s likely to struggle more and more.

When it comes to processors, the main thing you want to ask yourself is what you plan to be doing with it. If you’re only going to be using office software, email, and a browser, you don’t need much. The only exception is if you, like me, tend to keep a bazillion browser tabs open at once. Even then, I might suggest focusing more on RAM than on processor power. An i7 processor is still pricey at this point, so I wouldn’t get it unless you’re looking at a really good deal or plan on doing intense tasks. The other reason to consider it is if you want a quad-core processor. Quad-core processors can be useful to prevent overloading the CPU. With more flexibility, they generally keep responding even when your computer is hard at work. With single-core or dual-core processors, I occasionally have to killtask an overloaded Firefox. I’ve never had to do that on my quad-core processor. It’s also generally the case that newer processors will remain useful longer.

But the sweet spot right now is the Core i5, and for most people I think you would be okay going with a lower-end i5. In my experience, it tends to be processor model rather than hard speed that dates a processor. For instance, my lower-end Pentium and upper-end Pentium both became useless at about the same time. Ditto for the Pentium II. Speed is speed, and it’s nice. Pay for it if you want it. But this is a corner you can more easily cut.

Most Thinkpads come with Intel processors, though some will offer AMD. There is nothing wrong with AMD processors. For desktops, I almost always go with AMD. For laptops, however, since IBM and Lenovo have so long relied on Intel, I don’t have much in the way of good advice as to individual processor models. Phenom generally beats Athlon (and is more likely to come with more processors), and, be wary of anything that has a number with an “e” at the end of it (ie Athlon II 245e). AMD used to be a cost-cutting alternative to Intel without sacrificing performance, though more recently Intel has gotten their act together and done a better job of justifying the price premium.

Operating System:

I always go with Windows 7 Professional (and Windows XP Professional before that). However, Windows 7 Home Premium is going to be fine for most people who don’t tinker like I do. The main reason to consider going with Professional is if you want to be able to run programs in XP mode or the Backup and Restore. I’ve personally never used either; I just like to know that they are there.

I would go with Home Premium as a good way to save money by sacrificing features you probably won’t need if you’re not a geek. The Thinkpad T-Series doesn’t offer anything less, but if you do run across something that offers less, don’t do it. Just trust me on that. You never know what these lesser versions can’t do until you need to do it.

If for some bizarre reason you are buying a laptop with Vista on it (first, I would question why I am buying this particular laptop…), go with the 32-bit version. My experiences with the 64-bit version cost me a lot of headaches. With Windows 7, go with the 64-bit version. The transition is going in that general direction and I fear that 32-bit will rot faster. I’ve noticed no difference in terms of reliability. Also, 64-bit allows for more RAM. I rarely see the 32-bit version advertised anymore.

Display Type:

My philosophy is “the higher the resolution the better.” The resolution is the pixel-width by the pixel-height. So 1366x768 means that you have 1366 pixels wide and 768 pixels of height. The main reason that I prefer higher resolutions is for things like spreadsheets and databases. It also allows for you to use splitscreen and more easily look at more windows at once. For instance, right now, on the left side of my monitor is the Lenovo customization page in the browser and I am typing this on the right. You can do this with less resolution, but it’s more cluttered. (Also, if you care, 1600x900 looks nice and in my opinion 1366x768 does not.)

However, this is something that a lot of people don’t care about. Plus, lower-resolution notebook monitors tend to be more reliable. So if you don’t really multitask and want to save a bit of money, here is a place you can do that. Also, while higher resolution looks nicer, it can also be a little harder on the eyes because the text is smaller (albeit much more clear).

I recommend 1600x900 if you have a 14″ monitor. Either 1600x900 or 1920x1080 should be fine for 15″. But if the price differential ($50 between 1366x768 to 1600x900) puts you in a pinch, it’s not hugely important and here is a corner you can feel perfectly okay cutting.

System Graphics:

Unless you intend on doing graphic-intensive stuff, the standard (usually something like “Intel HD Graphics 3000″ or will contain the word “Integrated” and NOT the word Discrete) should be fine provided that you get enough RAM (see below). Some models (Thinkpad or not) will only list one or the other.

Total Memory (RAM):

Do not, under any circumstances, go with less than 4GB. Do not. Under any circumstances. I would recommend 6 or 8. My laptop has 6. I intended to upgrade to 8, but got an especially good deal on 6. It’s been acceptable, though I may still upgrade to 8. I think you would be fine with 6.

Memory remains one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of a computer. With too little RAM, it doesn’t matter how fast your processor is because the bottleneck will be swapping information back and forth from the hard drive. Cut corners on the processor (within reason). Cut corners on video, or audio. Do not cut corners on RAM.

The most miserable time using a computer (except when it’s broken) is when it is having to swap data from the memory to the hard drive and when the CPU is overloaded. If you’re buying a new computer, you don’t have to worry about the second part. The more RAM you buy, the less you have to worry about the former.

Pointing device:

A touchpad is a little pad below the keyboard that you drag your finger across or gesture to move the pointer. A trackpoint (also known as an eraserhead or a combo word referencing a part of the female anatomy) is a little stick that points out of the keyboard with a hat that looks like a pencil eraser. Almost all Thinkpads will come with both. Almost all non-Thinkpads will only come with a touchpad.

Hard drive:

Thinkpads generally come with 500GB and that is more than sufficient space. There is also something called a Solid State Drive. These are smaller and more expensive, so why get it? Because it’s faster. When a computer has to move data from the hard drive to the RAM, that immediately becomes the system’s bottleneck. With SSD, the bottleneck just became a lot larger. I won’t say that it makes RAM a non-issue, but it greatly mitigates the effects of RAM overload when it does occur.

Also, having an SSD means that boot-up will be much faster. I upgraded an old, struggling machine with an SSD drive and boot-up went from taking six minutes to taking under sixty seconds.

I love SSDs, but if you have a tight budget, I would go with the standard hard drive for now and just stock up on RAM.

Expansion slots (of the Cardreader variety):

They’re nice to have, but far from a necessity. Thinkpads often come with them standard. Sometimes there is a “smart card reader” option. Ignore it.

Battery:

Whether to upgrade to a 9-cell depends on how often you want to use it without it being plugged in. If you want to be as wireless as possible, get it (I always do). But it’s not a necessity. You can always get a separate 9-cell later when you have more money. It can be helpful to have more than one battery.

One thing to keep in mind: On Thinkpads, at least, 9-cell batteries protrude from the laptop. So it makes it less likely to fit in a tighter carrying case and can be awkward-looking. This never bothered me, but I could see it bothering some people aesthetically.

Bluetooth:

Sometimes they come with it, sometimes they don’t. Honestly, I wouldn’t worry about getting it. If you need bluetooth, you can always buy a dongle later.

Wireless (WiFi) adapter and Mobile Broadband:

Here you can get the standard, as long as it is G-band and N-band. All of the Thinkpad options are (I would suspect the same is true for non-Thinkpads, too). Do not worry about “3G capable” unless you plan on paying a monthly fee for 3G access.

Women in committed relationships ditch their slutty friends..

An interesting point-counterpoint on whether Mormons count as Christian. I tend to agree more with Goldberg on the issue (I mean that in no way as an insult), though I thought the Economist made some good points. Good enough that - in combination of the BoM itself - it sits as a matter of perspective to me.

Speaking of Mormons, it seems a bit ironic that two of the more moderate candidates in the GOP primary are Mormons, coming from a religion that votes 90% Republican. Timothy Stanley makes the case that Mormonism actually moderates their politics. I’m not sure I agree, though it is fair to say that Mormons are not particularly conservative from an economic standpoint and it is those issues at the forefront right now.

Should people be able to take smart drugs if they choose to? I lean towards yes, but am open to being convinced otherwise.

Why movies are in the TV business. The studio revenue chart is interesting. And a little depressing, seeing as how it actually does make sense for American movies to de-Americanize their products (”GI Joe… International Heroes!”) for foreign sales. It’s sort of like finding out that “cooling off a kicker” in football actually works.

I think Jobs has been dead long enough that we can speak ill of him, now.

Austin is exploring photo parking ticket snitchery. Take a picture, send it in, get somebody a ticket. As long as people aren’t being paid to do it, I don’t mind all that much. Houston, meanwhile, is going to be launching unmanned drones that might have weapons. What could go wrong?

If this isn’t prole drift, I don’t know what is. So what? The notion that “tattoos are not really the taboo they used to be” is part of the problem.

How northern transplants are ruining southern manners.

The BCS wants you to know it’s sorry:

“I don’t think any of us are happy that the BCS is one of the contributing factors to conference realignment,” BCS executive director Bill Hancock said Monday after a meeting of conference commissioners and university presidents. “It’s certainly not the only (factor), by any means. The BCS was never intended to be a divisive event. To the extent that the BCS can be a part of lending stability to the conferences, I think that’s what everybody would like to see.”

The current BCS TV and bowl contracts run through the 2013 season. Beyond that nothing about the BCS is a given.

Sorry for what? The role that the BCS has played in realignment has been almost non-existent. That hasn’t stopped a lot of people from blaming the BCS, but there’s absolutely no there there. Let’s track all of the conference changes:

Nebraska from Big 12 to Big Ten - Nebraska went from one BCS conference to another. The issues at stake almost entirely involved internal disagreements with the Big 12 and perceived instability. The Big Ten was expanding so that they could have a championship game and so that they could make more TV money.

Boise State from Western Athletic Conference to Mountain West Conference - Neither the WAC now the MWC have a BCS bid. The MWC may have been on the road to one, but Boise had already gone to two BCS bowls and the WAC provided an easier path to one than the MWC. This one was primarily about conference prestige.

Colorado from Big 12 to Pac-10 - The Pac-10 expanded for TV-related reasons. Colorado has always felt itself more of a western than Great Plains school and has a significant alumni basis in California. Instability was also a factor. The Big 12 was in no danger of losing its BCS bid.

Utah from the Mountain West Conference to the Pac-10 - This is closer to being BCS-related than the others, but it still falls short. The MWC was arguably on its way to becoming a BCS conference, but it didn’t matter. The conference was sitting on a bad TV contract. Plus, the Pac-10 is the Pac-10. It’s a desirable conference for western schools to be in for a whole host of reasons. Even if MWC had the BCS slot in hand, they still would have gone. As would BYU have.

Fresno State and Nevada from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West Conference - See Boise State, more or less. It was apparent by this point that there was no AQ status in the MWC’s future, so to whatever extent it might have been a motivator for Boise it wasn’t for these two. The MWC, for all of its faults, was and is a better place to be than the WAC.

BYU from the Mountain West Conference to Independent and the West Coast Conference - BYU got no special Notre Dame type of consideration from the BCS. In fact, going indy made making a BCS bowl game more rather than less difficult. But the money was better, the MWC’s TV deal was terrible, and they didn’t want to be left behind by Utah.

Hawaii from the Western Athletic Conference to the Mountain West Conference (football only) and Big West Conference - See Nevada, Fresno State, and Boise State.

TCU from the Mountain West Conference to Big East - Okay, this was one was all about the BCS. The TV contract also played a role, but a secondary one.

Texas A&M from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference - From one BCS conference to another. Texas A&M felt overshadowed by UT in the Big 12 and there were issues with the TV deal and Texas’s lucrative TV network deal.

Pittsburgh and Syracuse from the Big East to the Atlantic Coast Conference - This one had a BCS component to it, but they were still sitting in a conference that had an AQ spot within Conference USA and, with the addition of TCU, was likely to keep it. They were also in a very dysfunctional conference, however, half-full with basketball schools and half-full with football ones. The basketball schools were making expansion on the football side difficult. Plus, the ACC is a more prestigious conference academically.

TCU from the Big East to the Big 12 - This one had a BCS component to it as well, but at the end of the day they went from a conference where the nearest school was in northern Kentucky to one where there were three other schools in their state and two in the neighboring state northward.

West Virginia from the Big East to the Big 12 - This one is also BCS-related.

Missouri from the Big 12 to the SEC - Despite its losses, the Big 12 is not remotely in danger of losing its AQ bid. They left the Big 12 for the same reason that everybody else did. It’s an uncomfortable place to be compared to the greener pastures of a more stable conference.

Now, from here we are going to be seeing some more BCS-related changes. It’s certainly the case that the Big East would not be looking at Boise State for any other reason. If BYU joins, it would be due in good part to the BCS status of the conference (but not just that). On the other hand, despite its losses, the Big East is expected to pull in a pretty lucrative TV deal. So with the exception of BYU, all of the other rumored schools are as much motivated by money as anything. And, with the exception of Boise State, it’s true the other way as well. Houston, SMU, and UCF offer good TV markets for the conference (East Carolina would probably help their numbers more, but they don’t appear to be interested in ECU). BYU has a national market and should help their TV deal considerably, if they choose to join. If BYU chooses not to join, they’re supposedly looking at Temple and San Diego State, both of which offer more in TV sets than in BCS calculations.

New York Magazine has an interesting slideshow on the ratings of various shows. These are what I thought were the highlights (Quotes are in italics):

Men and women are more in sync about Two and a Half Men, however: It’s the No. 2 show on TV among both men and women. // Really? The Gamesters are going to have a field day with this, bad boy Charlie Sheen (even if he isn’t on the show anymore) and all that. This is one of those shows that I really thought would tilt pretty heavily in the male direction.

Not counting football, NBC has zero shows in Nielsen’s list of the 40 most-watched shows on TV. // There really is no end to the bad news of NBC doldrums. Given the success of USA (owned by NBC) you wonder at what point they don’t just start taking USA show ideas and putting them on NBC instead.

NBC may not have a lot of viewers, but the viewers it does have are well educated. The Peacock boasts eight of the top ten shows with the greatest concentration of adults 18-49 with four or more years of college. // This doesn’t surprise me. For a network nobody watches, it’s #2 among the shows I watch. So that’s good news, but…

TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles, with nearly 9 million viewers, is the most-watched scripted show on cable this season, and its overall audience is bigger than every show on NBC save SVU and Harry’s Law. // And Harry’s Law “doesn’t count” because its viewership is old. I’ve been meaning to watch HL, but the more I read about it, the more I fear that the politics of the show will make Boston Legal pale in comparison. Notable tidbit: Kathy Bates replaced James Spader as the headliner in a David E Kelley legal drama (albeit not the same show) and Spader replaced Bates on The Office. I’ve seen a couple episodes of R&I, and while it’s not bad, I don’t for the life of me understand the popularity. I guess I’m not the target audience.

Young women hate nerds: Among females 18-34, the lowest-rated scripted show on any network, including the CW, is Chuck, with a 0.7 rating. // So they’d rather be watching programming where the women are the butt of jokes rather than where an alpha chick falls in love with a nerdy guy. Gamester vindication, again.

The network show rich people like the least? Fox’s Cops, which averages a mere 0.6 rating in upscale adults 18-49. // No further comment.

As the college football season descends into chaos, the subject of playoffs is again coming up. Which, as many of you know, I oppose. One of the main reasons for that opposition is that playoffs can render regular seasons moot.

Long before I took this stance, I got an object lesson in this. A particularly absurd one. This is more a telling of a story than a post about the BCS. I said almost all I have to say about college football playoffs here.

I am not a particularly athletic person. But there are two things to keep in mind: I started playing little league from a very young age. And I was pretty good at baseball. On the first point, it meant that while I didn’t have a whole lot of talent at sports like basketball or soccer, I was at least considerably more practiced than most. So when we played these things in PE, I was actually an asset to anyone willing to overlook that I was fat.

When it came to basketball, the “team leader” - Donnie - was not particularly willing to overlook that even despite the fact that I was 6′0″ tall in the 8th grade. There were six to a team and he had me swapping in and out for the 5th spot only because everybody had to play. One time we had six and the other team had four and I played for the opposing team and did remarkably well. It didn’t matter, though. I was not very athletic-looking. Our team came in second place (of six) overall, though. First and second place won a week of free time (fifth and sixth had a week of running laps).

After basketball came softball. This time there were only two teams. Donnie was one of the team captains. The other was Cory. Cory was on my little league team. Because he - like myself - was plugged in to the local little league, he knew who was good and who was not. So while Donnie was picking the jock-types, Cory was picking people he knew to be good. Donnie actually chuckled when I was Cory’s third pick, Cory, for his part, said he actually would have picked me sooner - as I was the best hitter on our little league team - but he knew he could wait for me. We both agreed he should have waited longer since it was apparent Donnie wasn’t going to pick me any time soon.

We destoyed them. Day after day, game after game. There were a lot of games because the mercy rule was called into effect regularly and we started over. Every now and again they would get lucky. We won 15 and they won twice. On the last day, the coaches announced it was the last day and that we were playing a “championship game.” And wouldn’t you know it, they won their third game that day. The end result? They had a week of free time and we had a week of running laps*.

What stood out to me was that nobody thought there was anything wrong with this. So hardwired into our thinking that a playoff is how champions are determined, that this seemed perfectly fair to everybody involved. We’d had a playoff for basketball, hadn’t we? Well yes, because there were six teams, two of which had tied for first and a third was only one game back. This, on the other hand, was essentially stating that the first 17 games were scrimmages.

* - I say a week, but it was probably only a couple of days. The 15-2 record I am more sure about. If I’m off, it’s not by more than a game or two in either direction. I know they won no more than three games. I know we won no less than 13.

Such is The Atlantic’s solution to the problem of bullying:

Instead of asking why bullies bully, scientists led by University of Illinois psychology professor Karen D. Rudolph are beefing up the coping side of bullying research by looking into why victims retaliate, ignore, or repair relationships after an attack. Through a series of surveys to 373 second-graders and their teachers, they investigated how each child approached and valued his or her peer relationships, how many of the children had been bullied, and how they responded to such attacks.

The data was revelatory. Though it wasn’t astounding to find out that half of the children reported being the object of taunts, gossip, or intimidation, how they reacted to their harassers was. The key to anticipating victims’ responses, it turns out, is to figure out their motivations for interacting with their peers in the first place. That is, kids who wanted to be popular and feel superior tended to retaliate impulsively. Those who wanted to appear cool by avoiding criticisms were more likely to pretend like nothing happened. And those who were genuinely interested in fostering friendships tended to react in healthful, positive ways. They asked their teacher for advice, sought emotional support, and found means to solve the tension with those who harassed them.

From a moral perspective, it is, of course, beyond agitating that we put the burden on the bullied to smart their way out of the situation. Of course, as I’ve said in the past, there is a certain logic to it. After all, it’s the victims that care what’s happening. It’s the victims that agree with society as a whole that bullying is a bad thing. It’s not, of course, the bullies themselves.

And there are some truths to this. While some people will get bullied no matter what, there are different ways to cope with it and some are more productive than others. There were three things that worked for me, two of which involved changes on my part and the third a system change at the school district.

If we look at the public school popularity echelon as we look at economics, I was a low-class kid. One thing that improved my situation was making middle class friends. The more of those I had, the less of a target I was. Middle class folks have at least some upper class friends, and the bullies to some extent watch themselves. The more you surround yourself with people that the bullies don’t want to get into it with, the more they will target people that are alone or that associate in target-rich environments. Of course, this was a negative-sum approach. Being less a target than the next guy doesn’t help the whole. Unless you become middle class yourself and lend aid to lower class people. I did this a little, though not much.

The second thing I did was crass bribery, which no school would recommend but which worked for me. Instead of giving away money, I helped a couple of bullies with their homework. On the first order they stopped picking on me and even became friends of sorts, but on a second order they provided a degree of implicit protection. They never threatened other bullies, but so long as I was on friendly terms with the former bullies, the others started avoiding me. Unlike the previous, this actually may have been positive-sum. Not only did the bullies I bribed not go after me, they also stopped going after my friends. And I think there was a net gain. (My friends didn’t receive the second-order effects that I did, however.) It was this that got me through my eighth grade year.

The third change was a systems one, and I believe a positive net gain. I changed schools, from a relatively unwealthy middle school to a wealthy high school. The bullies were vastly outnumbered, and made smaller by the fact that the worst were shipped off to the alternative school. I hated my high school, but it was great in this respect. It provided me enough breathing room that I could at first be invisible, and then start making middle class friends.

My experience in substituting has reinforced the notion that dealing with bullies - at least from an institutional standpoint - is exceptionally hard. Even for teachers and administrators that mean well. Last spring I mentioned a story at Pitts Elementary where two kids got into a fight, of sorts, and when the detention slips were sent out one of the kids was crying and the other was showing it off to all of his friends. How, precisely, do you punish a kid who shows off his punishment slips to all of his friends?

In six months, dad, you’re probably going to lose your kids for good. I think you do suspect this, but won’t admit it to yourself. And you don’t want me to tell you why. They’ve been gone a year already, yet you don’t really want to know why.

I can tell this because you make it extremely unpleasant to interact with you. That is what scammers do. When you’re in a situation where you have some power, this may be very effective. It’s called bullying. People want to avoid the conflict, so maybe they get nervous and don’t scrutinize you appropriately, and your bad check or stolen credit card is accepted. Or maybe they give you the refund you want, even without the required receipt, so you’ll go away. But you are not in a one-on-one conflict. Your adversaries are not your equals, and they have very little duty toward you. You are fighting a court and a powerful government agency, backed closely by the police. Your arguments are worth nothing against that. And I’m your only friend in the fight. You shouldn’t want to make me avoid you.

Yet you make it miserable to talk with you, so I do the minimum. I’m just your lawyer; all I have to do is give you adequate legal advice and make sure you don’t get screwed legally. You decide what to do with that. Confronting you with stuff about yourself that you don’t want to hear, well, that goes beyond adequate. I didn’t have the energy or the time yesterday to deal with you arguing and yelling at me for an hour, which is the minimum it would have taken to have even a small chance of getting this through to you. So I’m in that gray area where I know I did my job, butI still feel bad because I know you’ll still fail. I don’t like my clients to lose, even when they’re assholes.

And that is the number one reason why the social worker will not recommend you getting your kids back and the court will follow that recommendation, regardless of what your lawyer argues at trial, regardless of what complaints about the system you have when you take the stand against your lawyer’s advice and ramble on over sustained objections. ( “Motion to strike after ‘Yes.’” “Sustained. SUSTAINED. That means the witness needs to STOP TALKING.” Bailiff approaches menacingly.)

There are a few reasons, and they build on each other to create something we call the totality of circumstances. In summary:

1) You’re a hothead.

2) You’re a hothead who smokes pot.

3) You’re a hothead who smokes pot and has a criminal background, and misses lots of drug tests and skips lots of scheduled visits with your kids because of things that are always someone else’s fault, and is 30 and has never held a job, and has absolutely no shame about telling a social worker that you need your children back so you can get the welfare turned back on. You make this demand to a social worker in your children’s mother’s publicly subsidized Section 8 apartment, where you shamelessly acknowledge that you live illegally because your criminal background precludes you from living there, but there’s no way anyone’s gonna come between you and her. NO WAY! GOT THAT? And during this conversation, your video game station is turned on. Yes, you have a video game system, a newish one, while you are moaning that you have to sell plasma to get by and have no time to do your weekly drug tests and visit your kids AND go to rehab classes three days a week.

If that’s too complicated, I’ll boil it down further: You are the kind of person that taxpaying citizens consider the scum of the earth. When you’re that kind of person, you don’t get to smoke marijuana and parent, even though the voters of California have (graciously! compassionately!) empowered a doctor to defy federal law and grant you a certificate that protects you from criminal conviction for possession (and he/she can do this for virtually any ailment you claim, even if it’s something ridiculous like having eating problems when you’re obviously obese).

And your children are under the control of a system that can, and does, kick parents like that out of their children’s lives permanently. Even when the kids love them and want to go home, like yours do. Under the law, you don’t have to beat your kids to lose them. You just have to be, well, crappy. Legally, it’s called “the nexus,” meaning a connection between substance use and risk of harm to the children. But what the nexus often means is, “you’re crappy, so you don’t get to.”

General crappiness, coupled with almost any illegal activity or use of a mind-altering substance, is enough. That’s the real trouble with medical marijuana. It’s not the bulletproof vest people think it is, not when you have kids. And that’s the problem with you, dad. You either can’t see, or refuse to see, that you’re one of those people whose ice is too thin to stomp around on. I wish I could figure out how to explain it so you’d understand. Lots of crappy people love their kids, and their kids love them back. But the law won’t protect both your family, and your way of life.

Casual sex is good if you’re depressed, but bad if you’re not.

Why weed is cheaper west of the Mississippi.

A regular topic of conversation of Hit Coffee is red light cameras and yellow light durations. Despite claims to the contrary, longer yellow lights hold violations down five years later. Also, a non-partisan group releases a report highly critical of red light cameras.

Speaking of traffic violations, variable speed limits are something that make sense in theory, but in practice is problematic. To their credit, even the cops don’t like this one. Not that it’s stopping anybody…

Why workers are losing the war against machines. Losing your job in the Great Recession will cost you $112,000.

Via Abel, a bias-confirming article on employers and how they shoulder some of the blame for their inability to find employees. As we have tried to gear colleges and such towards vocational training, we’ve spoiled employers into thinking that they shouldn’t harbor the training costs.

In our rush to vocationalize college, maybe something got lost along the way. Here’s a counterargument.

Scott Adams broaches a subject I’ve talked about here and there but never done a full-fledged post on: the subjectivity of fairness.

An interesting look at Ron Paul. The bit about refusing to take government money is interesting. It seems to me that it’s unnecessarily taking it too far, but this is Ron Paul we’re talking about.

Over at the League - heck, over at the whole blogosphere - you get a lot of right-wing pundits and libertarian types talking about how regulatory capture or rent-seeking behavior wouldn’t be a problem “if government were just smaller with less regulation” because then there’d be no reason for large corporations to try to capture the government.

But in a Slashdot discussion about an incredibly slanted set of congressional hearings today, I saw a gem. To wit:

The core problem is not that government has gotten too big. The core problem is that businesses have become bigger than government, big enough to engage in regulatory capture and rent-seeking behaviors.

This is something that’s happened time and again. The British East India company essentially took over the British government for far too long, leading to the ruin of Britain as a nation for some time. In the early 1900s, we needed a major slew of trust-busting activities BY the government [u-s-history.com] because of abusive companies like Standard Oil and Nortnern Securities who had engaged in regulatory capture and were exerting unfair monopoly controls, slowly taking over more and more sectors of the economy.

Sound familiar? Strike any parallels at all to the incredibly abusive megacorporations of today that gobble up sectors at an alarming rate? Or did you notice - for instance, that of the “fast food chains” in the US, more than 50% of them are actually owned by ONE company, “Yum Brands”, which is itself owned by Pepsi - which also owns Lay’s potato chips, Ruffles, Lipton, Doritos, “Quaker” brand, and on and on…

Still think there’s any real competition left in the bullshit “free market” the Republicans worship so much? Might as well melt your coins down to a golden calf right now, buddy. There’s not a real christian left on the “religious right”, they’re worshiping greed instead.

This struck a nerve. Many of the parallels today to the trusts of the late 1800s/early 1900s are very apt. You have one factory making multiple labels of a food type. Or two. Or three. You have 101 brands of cat food contaminated because a single company is involved in making them all. You have single companies that make the entire array of supposed “competing products” that people believe are competing with each other.

There’s something very wrong about this. It seems to me that the anonymous commenter on Slashdot is hitting the point quite close to home; we wouldn’t have a problem with regulatory capture if there weren’t huge, overarching megacorporations running fake “competing brands”, exerting monopoly or near-monopoly pressures that destroy the idea of the “free market” that the libertarian/conservatives believe exists.

So I’d like to ask some readers from both sides of the aisle here (not political parties mind you, but just economics-wise): do we actually have a “free market” today? Can we even consider our market a “free market” when there are megacorps like Kraft, or Pepsico/”Yum Brands”, or any of the other giants that constitute monopolies, skewing the result? If not, is there a fix to be had, short of another round of trust-busting and the re-institution of most of the anti-monopolist rules that it seems have been done away with in the “deregulation fever” of the past few decades?

EDK writes on Forbes about the changes we’re going to need to make for a better environment and to deal with Peak Oil.

The car culture we’ve cultivated since Eisenhower’s highway project won’t survive when gas prices get too high, and even the electric car requires power generation, which requires coal.

It’s not likely that solar and wind can power the vehicles of the future unless those vehicles drive a lot less. Alternative modes of transportation, such as rail, are a key ingredient.

Redesigning our cities to be more dense, walkable, and green will be another key. And the political forces arrayed against solar quite literally pale in comparison compared to the thicket of political resistance to improving zoning laws, increasing dense urban development, and putting an end to the suburban model of city planning.

I have to confess that I do have a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction to proclamations that the solution to a pressing problem (or more than one) are to redesign a society in a way that we would prefer society be redesigned even without the pressing problem(s). There seems to be an astonishing correlation between those who believe (a) suburbs are culturally dreadful places and (b) they will just have to change their ways because of such-and-such problem.

In a previous piece, I asked what if suburbanism and increased oil prices are not incompatible? Because they might not be. Granted, our current car culture is environmentally wasteful and may indeed be unsustainable. But this treats the question as an either-or. We can still be reliant primarily on automobiles and still consume a lot less resources than we presently do.

The issue with the car culture is not entirely one of a lack of density and public transportation. People can choose to live closer to their jobs, for instance, and still drive. Decisions within the car culture are presently being made with comparatively inexpensive gas in mind. As gas prices go up, people may start making different decisions. Those decisions may be something other than holing up in a condo or row-house less than half the size of their current abode.

The last three places we’ve lived have all been chosen specifically to be near my wife’s work. Walking distance, really. But she drives. And if gas were $20 a gallon? She’d still drive. Walking takes too long and biking isn’t an option for much of the year due to ice (at her previous jobs, ice wasn’t an issue but personal safety was). And $20 a gallon doesn’t add up all that quickly when you’re refilling your tank once every couple of months.

My commutes have, historically, been much longer. If gas had been $20 a gallon, that would have factored pretty heavily into my decision to work. I might have been more eagle-eyed towards finding work near me, but more density wouldn’t have been all that favorable to me seeing as how I worked and lived in different towns. For three straight jobs, I did this.

A lot of long (and therefore gas-eating) commutes are not the subject of the typical suburb-to-city (which is to say, sprawling-to-dense) situations. And when you can live within a few miles of your work, you can afford some pretty expensive gas. And, if we run out of gas, electrically powered cars fueled by other fossil fuels, nuclear, solar, or whatever.

When we talk about the things that make our day-to-day cost of living, one of the big ones is real estate. Sprawl, for all of its faults, can help keep real estate prices down. Maybe you can ease housing costs in the dense areas cheaper with ever-more and ever-higher construction, but I still maintain that there is a really strong chance that the price tensions will result in less density as jobs relocate and satellite offices are opened up in places more near where people actually live. And rather than a thousand corner markets opening up, people may instead make monthly trips to Walmart where they can get everything in a single trip.

In conclusion, tough decisions are going to need to be made. A world in which people have to live closer to their work would result in sacrifices. But those sacrifices are not necessarily the ones that urbanites are expecting or hoping for.

It raises my hackles when I see a title “The PC is dying” even when followed by “but very, very slowly.” No, the PC is not dying. It will probably never die. It will simply become a device for certain kinds of productivity tasks. Not all devices need to be portable. What’s ironic is that the whole “cloud computing” thing which has been right around the corner since I was in college but is only now coming to fruition, is something that makes having a desktop in addition to a portable device more easy. I say “ironically” because it’s the same techie tastemakers who have been pumping cloud computing who are also pumping the Death of the PC.

Richard Florida, not known for having anything but disdain for anywhere but hip coastal places, puts his prejudices aside and writes a good piece on the rise of the high-tech south.

Happiness looks good on a woman, but not on a man. I actually find this a little puzzling, because giving off an aura of happiness seemed to help me socially, with both genders. Then again, maybe it was just the absence of gloominess. Or alternately, the happiness came off as pride, which looks good on a man and bad on a woman.

Lecturers Against Online Learning. I understand some of the concerns, but as long as we’re encouraging everybody to go to college and we’re charging so much for the privilege, we have to find more economical ways to deliver the product.

Felix Salmon makes the case that we should abolish the 30 year fixed rate mortgage. It’s kind of funny (not “ha ha funny”), but it wasn’t long ago that everybody thought that these things were the best thing ever, especially when combined with No Prepayment Penalty. It turns out that it played a significant role in all that transpired in the housing market. When interest rates fluctuate, fixed-rate mortgages is all-upside for the consumer. If interest rates go down, they can refinance, if they go up, the bank is stuck.

When we talk about American car companies, we’re still talking about truck companies.

Why so many cars are white and silver. As someone for whom white and silver are my least favorite car colors, I always wondered about this. I thought it was because it was cheaper. It turns out it’s because it allows them to do some enticing stuff with the paint. I still don’t understand why gleamy silver is better than a real color, even if not in a gleamy shade.

It’s common in the US for people who are waaaay up the economic chain (and some who are down it) to claim or see themselves as being “in the middle.” It turns out, it’s not just an American thing.

Why funny TV commercials work.

Via Microsoft’s help page:

* Changing the drive letter of the system volume or the boot volume is not a built-in feature of the Disk Management snap-in.

* Many MS-DOS-based and Microsoft Windows-based programs refer to specific drive letters for environmental or other variables. If you modify the drive letter, these programs may not function correctly.

With this in mind, why in the world would Microsoft ever, ever have Windows assign the boot drive as anything other than C:? Seriously, because now Windows is installed on the G: drive and I have a lingering suspicion that a lot of applications are not going to like the C: being a removable disk drive for SD cards. How hard is it to make sure that Windows, when there is no other OS installed, always has the drive it is installed on as the C: drive?

In any event, a valuable lesson learned. Historically, I disconnect all other drives when I am reinstalling Windows. But I couldn’t remember why I was doing it other than the vague fear of a drive getting formatted over. Well, now I know why I am going to need to do this in the future, I guess. I wonder if this is one of the reasons why I did this before.

In the grander scheme of my life - indeed, even my love life - Cecilia played a bit role. In the small pantheon of former love interests, she would rank about fourth of fifth in terms of how likely it would have been that I would end up with her. Those of you that have been reading HC for a while may remember her. If you want the full story, read below the fold. It’s not integral to the post.

The short story: Cecilia and I met at an anime convention and were taken with one another relatively quickly. Due to circumstances, we were never able to fully pursue a relationship. But she was, really until I married my wife, sort of on the periphery. Someone with whom I seemed to have solid potential, if only things would work out a certain way. It never happened, and so her primary role in my life was that she was instrumental in mentally/emotionally dislodging me from my then-relationship

Though I haven’t talked to her since I married, I’ve been vaguely keeping tabs on her the way that I do a lot of old acquaintances. In her case, mostly to see that she’s turned out alright. A while back, I discovered that she joined the other team. That was possibly related to her seemingly quick exit from the military. The whole thing feels… weird. Were Dickwad and I just dalliances before she figured out what she was all along? Was she flipped along the way? Of the various women I’ve known and been either involved with or near-involved with, she would not have been high on the list of possibly homosexual. It’s not that I find such things unthinkable - I think one girl I actually dated was and didn’t know it or was fighting it - but her? A part of me was in denial. This was just to get out of the military. This is her response to a series of screwed up relationships with guys (mainly a particular boyfriend and her step-dad, but I can’t say that I was a positive figure in her life in the final analysis).

Whatever its origins, though, it has stuck. I checked up on her Facebook and she is apparently still with the same girl that she was a couple of years ago. They moved to another city together.

I’m a 30-something year old man that’s married in the mountain west. She’s a late-twenties girl in the south with someone that she can’t (yet) marry. We do have one thing in common, though: very similar taste in women. (more…)

I don’t keep up with the celebrity gossip, but apparently some woman that pop sensation Justin Bieber (allegedly?) had sex with is claiming that she is pregnant by him. The problem is that he was below the California age of consent:

Mariah Yeater, the woman who claims Justin Bieber fathered her baby in a backstage bathroom, could be investigated for having sex with a minor because the singer was 16 at the time.

While no crime has been reported, Los Angeles Police Commander Andrew Smith told The Associated Press on Thursday that the department could investigate after Yeater filed the paternity suit against the teen heartthrob in San Diego Superior Court.

“If it’s brought to our attention, of course we’ll look into it,” Smith said.

Of course, even if the child was a product of “rape”, Bieber would still be on the hook for child support:

“The issue of statutory rape, even if she’s guilty, hypothetically, that has no bearing on the duties to provide child support,” said one of Yeater’s lawyers, Matthew Pare. “It’s a totally separate issue.”

He absolutely should be on the hook for child support, if the kid is his. But that’s not indicative that it should be “separate issue[s],” but rather that the sex should not have been illegal in the first place.

Seriously, the age of consent in California is 18? I would not have guessed that it would be particularly high in that particular state.

–{This post is somewhat touched off by Patrick Cahalan’s over at The League; his story has some similarities to my own. Due in part to the lesser information I have on hand, and in part to the anonymity level of this blog vs the League, I’m going to be slightly vague. I hope my point comes across, though.– Web

Today is Veteran’s Day. It’s supposed to be a day where ALL of America honors our veterans of military service. Those who served and lived, those who served and didn’t come home. Those who served in time of war, those who served in times without.

A lot of stories of remembrance will go out today. For my part, I honor my currently living grandfather and uncle, who have served in various capacities in the Army. I honor another uncle, who served with distinction in the air force. I honor my cousin, currently in the US Navy and training to become an officer. I honor my friends who have served, and the family of friends who have served or are currently serving.

And I honor my other grandfather. He died when I was nine. His tale is not so grand. He enlisted in the US Army during World War II. War did terrible things to him - physical and mental both. By all accounts, he and my father were never on very good terms, something I know still haunts my father to this day because they never did reconcile; my father was mostly raised by my great-grandmother, taking care of his own siblings while my grandmother tried to take care of my grandfather. My grandfather was physically disabled, mentally destroyed, and spent most of his day in a bottle. He died when I was 9 years old in a VA hospital, the result of complications from diabetes and alcoholism. To the best of my knowledge, this is the ONLY time after his discharge when the US government or army gave a crap about him.

The most vivid memory I have of my grandfather is from a christmas eve when he, my grandmother, and my aunts and uncles came over to visit. It was one of my father’s attempts to make things better between them. I remember him sitting in a recliner, watching TV, drinking a few beers as the two attempted to talk with each other, or at least my dad was trying to talk with him. I remember going over to give him a hug; I don’t remember being hugged back. I’m not certain he was coherent enough to do so. A little over 6 months after that, he was gone.

Because of this, Veteran’s Day always carries mixed emotions for me. On the one hand, I have relatives alive to thank and remember. I have friends, and their family, to think of as well.

On the other… I remember my grandfather. And every year at this time, I see a bunch of politicians getting up and making speeches. Some do so sincerely. Some are veterans themselves. Some say something respectful, meaningful, and get it right. Others… well, some of them are trying to claim all the veterans to themselves. Trying to claim that “the other side” doesn’t care about the military, doesn’t care about the veterans. And that infuriates me to an endless degree, because Veteran’s day is NOT supposed to be about politics. I want to grab them by the shirt. I want to shake them. I want to shout at them. I want to say “Where the hell was your political party when my grandfather needed help? Where the hell was your political party when my father and siblings were put through all the hurt of watching a family member in that pain? Where the hell was your political party for all the other veterans who went through things similar to what my grandfather went through?” I want to look them dead in the eye and ask them “where the hell were you, where the FUCK was your supposed caring about the veterans, when the neglect you heaped on them stole my grandfather from his family?”

Rest in peace, Grandpa R. You deserved so much better.