Expat Expression

They're Gonna Need to Outsource

2008-10-22T13:20:00.001-07:00

Tough times, hard decisions. « The Jason Calacanis Weblog

While I anticipated and prepared for the ‘internet winter’ we’re now facing (you’ve read my posts and e-mails about the startup depression I’m sure), I failed to realize how bad the situation would get. It’s much worse than I thought it would be, and ignoring market conditions today would only mean deeper cuts down the road.

Tuff times ahead for startups. I suggest find small smart teams to outsource to. And I hear there's a new firm in town. ;-)

Secular Saviors

2008-10-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

This post from Don Boudreaux makes me wonder how many atheists hold BigGovernment ideas. Personally, I'm willing to live without a belief in God or salvation by man.

Cafe Hayek: It's a Difficult Job Saving Society

And yet, so many people -- so many decent people -- believe in (or at least crave, child-like) secular salvation through secular saviors. It's no surprise, then, that persons unashamed to act deceitfully and disingenuously crawl out from under their rocks to pose as saviors.

Buenos Aires has a tradition of technology innovation...

2008-10-08T05:40:00.001-07:00

Scioli - apparently suffering from the reality-distorting effects of telepresence - thinks BA is a technological innovator.

PRdomain.com | Cisco Systems | Governor of Buenos Aires and John Chambers Discuss Socio- economic Development over Cisco TelePresence

Buenos Aires Province Governor and J. Chambers
The leaders also discussed the impact of globalization and the fundamental role that network technologies can play in helping enable people from different geographies around the world to collaborate and work together.

"The province of Buenos Aires has a tradition of technology innovation, and today we have the largest connected government network in Argentina. Technology is a key aspect in my management as a facilitator to achieve an efficient and collaborative government with the response capacity to satisfy citizens' needs," Scioli said.

Coping With The Market Meltdown

2008-10-06T14:02:00.001-07:00

I was just telling Julia that I plan to spend the summer with an ice bucket cap on my head like Brando in the Island of Dr. Moreau, when she suggest that:

Maybe we need one of these to ease our anxiety about the stock market : http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26974105/

Fake babies ease women's anxiety, sadness - Getting Personal - TODAYshow.com

It’s typical to think something is weird or creepy when it’s unknown, far from the norm, or common only to a different culture.

But there are cases when it is quite understandable for someone struggling with feelings of loss — possibly an empty-nester, a childless woman, or someone who has lost a baby — to fill the void with a realistic doll baby.

Okay. That's it. I'm getting a midget.

The Importance of Being Eton

2008-10-03T11:03:00.001-07:00

Hitchens has a new piece on Eton.

The Eton Empire: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com

The Etonian system is not designed to turn out a uniform product, in other words. “It also has one great virtue,” wrote the austere egalitarian George Orwell in 1948, “and that is a tolerant and civilized atmosphere which gives each boy a chance of developing a fair individuality.” Boys have their own rooms rather than sharing. Thus, though John le Carré—who taught there under his real name, David Cornwell—claims to be able to detect an Etonian in a crowded room 80 percent of the time, he told my Etonian friend Nick Fraser (author of The Importance of Being Eton) that the salient characteristic of his pupils was “cool impertinence.… The boys were adult, funny, a little removed from life even as they evolved effortlessly into the shrewdest operators. They were at once innocent and worldly.” This cultivated affect dovetails perfectly with the Niven-ish image of the deceptively polite and modest Englishman, outwardly unflappable and possessed of steely inward ruthlessness.

So, like... I attended the anti-eaton and turned out as you'd expect. Oh, well.

Burn The Speculators

2008-10-02T10:06:00.001-07:00

Linsey McGoey: Marx is dead: don't resuscitate him | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Soros, together with market enthusiasts such as Nassim Nicholas Taleb, have long pointed out predatory behavior such as short-selling is not an aberration. It's the raison d'être of capitalism. "I call them crisis hunters," writes Taleb of those who profit from market volatility. "I am happy to be among them." Taleb wrote this in his bestselling Fooled by Randomness, a book that has become both a bible and an operating guide to many financiers and investors.

What's troubling about this is not the realisation that capitalists profit from speculating about – and therefore generating – the financial combustion of their competitors, but that this is striking so many people as shocking.

Let me get this straight, a financial failure can be created merely by making a bet? WTF?

BA Newbies - Next year in Jerusalem!

2008-09-30T15:40:00.001-07:00

Since I didn't get invite to a Rosh Hashanah dinner, I thought I might blog a little something about the trouble being Jewish and an expat in Argentina.

Sometimes posters to BA Newbies can say things that seem insensitive. Like the following post that might be implying the existence of a secret South American banking system for Jews only. But wait, no one really believes that kind of crap do they? No, no. We must remember that not all posters speak English as their native language. So, let's test the waters and see what this person really thinks:

Poster :

There is private banking, among the Jewish community, or you have lot's of money.

Me :

I think I missed the memo. Can you say more about private banking in
the Jewish community?

I had no idea that I'd get a free checking account w/ my circumcision.
Frankly, I'd take a do over. ;-)

What the hell is private banking in the Jewish community? I never got an answer but I did get this:

--- Knock off the stupid comments...

There are predominantly Jewish Banking are there are Muslim Banking.

It's available in Central American & South American. There is a branch

here in NYC.

Oh, this really clears things up, genius.

I should also mention that after I sent this post, I got a private email from someone that seemed to be accusing me of being antisemitic. I suppose the emoticon wasn't a big enough hint. Next time I'll use a bigger font so you geezers can see it.

Oh, and for you gap-year kids that wonder what the big deal is, here's a hint. Antisemitism is as uncool as not voting for Obama.

BA Newbies - Stick it Where The Sun Don't Shine

2008-09-30T13:53:00.001-07:00

Expats come in all forms. Here we have an example of the sort that feel compelled to irrigate their colon. I've never understand these folks and their belief that the human intestine works the same as kitchen plumbing or that sometimes it gets clogged up with "toxins."

Your little email tells me that you don't know what you are talking
about...

Yes...you can find a Colonic Hydroptherapist...usually located in
health spas.

If you are dehydrated, you drink water. You can get a colonic for
health or you can get several for weight loss.

As the author makes perfectly clear, colonics do nothing to prevent one from being full of shit.

BA Newbies - I'm Gonna Blow!!!

2008-09-30T13:36:00.001-07:00

Sometimes being an expat can be hard. This poor soul has been pushed to the edge. After kindly soliciting for folks interested in exchanging dollars for peso -- something this poster does monthly in order to pay his rent -- he's met with few verbal barbs. Today he'd had enough:

I can't believe you retarded fucks are starting this shit again! If you are not interested in the exchange described be an intelligent mature person and recognize it does not apply to you and just pass the message. I am not looking for comments, suggestions or opinions. If you are interested please contact me via private email.

I know just how he feels. Hang in there, brother.

BA Newbies - Criminal Wages

2008-09-30T07:29:00.001-07:00

Rather than bother folks on the BA Newbies list with my opinions, I thought I'd start blogging my reactions to some of odd things I see on the mailing list. I won't include the posters name because I suspect it will upset them if I do. With that said, here's comment that caught my attention.

What to pay a full time maid-response:

Paying someone 1000 pesos a month for full time work is criminal! It might be the market rate, but we all know what things cost.

The market rate is criminal? If that were the case, why are so many willing to work at this rate? It could be that 11 dollars a day is better than 1 for someone trying to move out of poverty.

So here's the take away: If you are not paying your maid more that a 1000 peso a month, do the compassionate thing and fire them. I'm sure they will thank you.

Tropical Drinks

2008-09-27T06:40:00.001-07:00

Megan McArdle (September 26, 2008) - Okay . . .

My position on global warming: a federal program to make sure everyone has an adequate supply of little umbrellas for their tropical drinks!

Okay, Megan was making fun of Obama's Georgia comment but I think she's on to something. We might as well enjoy our new climate.

BTW, I'm skeptical that man as *the cause* of global warming.

Philosophy Matters

2008-09-21T08:06:00.001-07:00

I'm on a number of mailing lists where the topic of Fannie Mae has been broached. Oddly, people are advocating throwing the baby out with the bath water. That is, they think we are seeing a failure of the market and are calling for government regulation and oversight. Most of these folks probably unfamiliar with root cause analysis because if you apply the 5 whys exercise to this problem, I think it's clear that the cause is government meddling.

Fannie and Freddie: Socialist from the Start (Cato-at-liberty)

When the Cato Institute was founded in 1977 one of the first things the board of directors did was set a policy that we would not accept government funding. A simple libertarian principle, really, that money forcibly extracted from people who do not agree with our approach to public policy should not have to fund it. For 32 years, that has been our policy. In 1995 I received a letter from John Buckley, a v.p. for communications at Fannie Mae informing me of the good news that Cato was going to receive a $100,000 grant from his institution. I wrote back, Thanks, but no thanks, we have a policy against receiving money from government institutions like Fannie Mae. Boy, did I ever get a nasty letter back from Buckley stating that in no way was Fannie Mae a government entity.

Oops.

2008-09-21T07:10:00.001-07:00

Edge: THE FOURTH QUADRANT: A MAP OF THE LIMITS OF STATISTICS By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Clearly, with current International Monetary Fund estimates of the costs of the 2007-2008 subprime crisis, the banking system seems to have lost more on risk taking (from the failures of quantitative risk management) than every penny banks ever earned taking risks.

I wonder if this will turn out to be true.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

2008-09-17T07:42:00.001-07:00

There's a nice piece over at The Distributed Republic about Freedom, Empire and claims that state and large corporations are one in the same. One idea that jumped out at me was the following:

Yes, the US is, in essence, a free country | The Distributed Republic

There's a lot of wackjob blathering about how the "entrenched political class" screws over the helpless little guy. Bullshit! The little guy, for as low as $8 a trade, can profit off of anything pretty much anyone in this country does.

Next time I run into some wild-eyed expat punching above their weight in a discussion about the nature of the US economy, I think I'll ask them if they've placed a bet.

Talk is cheap.

Agreeableness

2008-09-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

This explains a lot. According to researchers from the University of Cambridge, my home state of Maine might explain why I'm such a pain in the ass.

New Yorkers are neurotic and unfriendly, says Cambridge University 'personality map' - Telegraph

AGREEABLENESS

Personality traits: Warm, compassionate, co-operative and friendly.

Highest-scoring states: North Dakota, Minnesota, Mississippi, Utah, Wisconsin, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Nebraska.

Lowest-scoring states: New York, Nevada, Wyoming, District of Columbia, Alaska, Maine, Rhode Island, Virginia, Connecticut, Montana.

...but I have issues with the study. ;-)

Lean Mean Hunting Machines in Paraguay

2008-09-12T12:30:00.001-07:00

Describing the Paleo Diet & detailed inquiries; frequently asked questions about Paleolithic nutrition, health, and disease prevention

My research colleague, Dr. Kim Hill from the Univ of NM has spent the last 30 years studying the Ache people and has gone along with the men as they hunt peccaries in the forests. Kim reports that the men frequently would get up in the morning, eat no breakfast and then chase after peccary herds, in hunts that could last 6-8 hours or more. During this time the Ache men took no food and only drank water during the extended chase. Kim said he tried to "run with the hunt" with the Ache men, but could never do it. He always had to have his breakfast to be able to keep up. He told me the Ache men would laugh at him. Apparently, these hunters have metabolic systems that make magnificent use of the fatty acid metabolic pathways. It would be interesting to measure IMT stores, and beta-oxidation pathways (fat breakdown) in the Ache and compare them to westerners.

IMT stores? beta-oxidation pathways? Where's the home test kit?

US Protectionism : Argentina is no friend of ours

2008-09-12T08:34:00.001-07:00

Here's a great example of a US cattle rancher doing all he can to prevent competition. Ass.

The Prairie Star: Montana Ag Newspaper

In the middle of the Farm Bill fight, the USDA introduced a plan to open up the U.S. market to meat from a country with documented Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) problems. Argentina does not have a tradition of democratic government and beneficent leadership. Indeed, the country has often been ruled by corrupt and incompetent leadership which is only interested in enriching itself at the expense of the Argentine people. Therefore it should not surprise anyone that Argentina has a long history of debt-default and declining standards of living for its inhabitants.

Exercise Intensity vs. Volume

2008-09-10T10:38:00.001-07:00

I use to be a volume guy putting in as much as 20 hours a week in preparation for 50 minute criterium races. Not a good use of time and not event specific.

Maybe this time I can be a little smarter.

Dr. Tabata

Dr. Izume Tabata’s groundbreaking research published in 1996, on short, intense intervals. Dr. Tabata and his colleagues at the National Institute of Health & Nutrition, Tokyo, Japan, reported: "[Six to 8 very hard 20 second intervals with 10 second rest periods] may be one of the best possible training protocols…” Dr. Tabata told Dick Winett in a personal communication: "The rate of increase in VO2max [14% in only 6 weeks] is one of the highest ever reported in exercise science." What’s more, anaerobic capacity increased by a whopping 28%.

That's only 2 minutes of hell total over a 2:50 period assuming 6 intervals. Tabata's test subjects did this 5 days a week for 6 weeks.

Moral High Ground

2008-09-09T09:16:00.001-07:00

I won't read too much into the study mentioned below but it is interesting and reflects much of my experience with those that call themselves liberals. I'm certain that when I considered my self a liberal, I was biased in this way.

Harris is a fine thinker and think you'll enjoy his rebuttal to Haidt.

The Reality Club: WHAT MAKES PEOPLE VOTE REPUBLICAN? By Jonathan Haidt -- Response by Same Harris

Haidt is, of course, right to worry that liberals may not always "hold the moral high ground." In a recent study of moral reasoning, subjects were asked to judge whether it was morally correct to sacrifice the life of one person to save one hundred, while being given subtle clues as to the races of the people involved. Conservatives proved less biased by race than liberals and, therefore, more even-handed. It turns out that liberals were very eager to sacrifice a white person to save one hundred non-whites, but not the other way around, all the while maintaining that considerations of race had not entered into their thinking. Observations of this sort are useful in revealing the biasing effect of ideology—even the ideology of fairness.

hHurricanes and the Village People

2008-09-08T10:18:00.001-07:00

BBC Will and Testament | William Crawley's broadcasting diary

"You prove it is not true..."

Why should I have to prove it's NOT true? You prove it's true! You're the one making the claims, dude. How's about this: I assert that there is a huge, invisible, revolving penis in the sky, which is responsible for hurricanes and the Village People.

Prove it is not true.

Hat tip to John Wright.

Welcome to the World Bank Developer Network!

2008-09-05T05:52:00.001-07:00

This just rocks!

World Bank - Welcome to the World Bank Developer Network!

Labor Day -- Francisco d'Anconia

2008-09-01T15:22:00.001-07:00

"Francisco's Speech"

"To the glory of mankind, there was, for the first and only time in history, a country of money--and I have no higher, more reverent tribute to pay to America, for this means: a country of reason, justice, freedom, production, achievement. For the first time, man's mind and money were set free, and there were no fortunes-by-conquest, but only fortunes-by-work, and instead of swordsmen and slaves, there appeared the real maker of wealth, the greatest worker, the highest type of human being--the self-made man--the American industrialist.

"If you ask me to name the proudest distinction of Americans, I would choose--because it contains all the others--the fact that they were the people who created the phrase 'to make money.' No other language or nation had ever used these words before; men had always thought of wealth as a static quantity--to be seized, begged, inherited, shared, looted or obtained as a favor. Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality.

"Yet these were the words for which Americans were denounced by the rotted cultures of the looters' continents. Now the looters' credo has brought you to regard your proudest achievements as a hallmark of shame, your prosperity as guilt, your greatest men, the industrialists, as blackguards, and your magnificent factories as the product and property of muscular labor, the labor of whip-driven slaves, like the pyramids of Egypt. The rotter who simpers that he sees no difference between the power of the dollar and the power of the whip, ought to learn the difference on his own hide-- as, I think, he will.

"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns--or dollars. Take your choice--there is no other--and your time is running out."

A roadie without Roads

2008-09-01T05:31:00.001-07:00

For the cyclist, the hectic city streets of Buenos Aires never seem to end and the traffic is down right relentless. You just can't escape into the country by bike and that means no five hour group rides, 3 hour recovery rides before work or any other sort of distance training. The city just not deisgn for that. How on earth the local triathletes train for the bike leg of an ironman on the KDT circuit is beyond me. I find those endless 2 minute loops mind numbingly boring and the more my mind struggles the less intensity I can hold.

So what's roady to do? How can a cyclist every get really fit without spending 20 hours a week on the road? The Tabata Protocol is one way:

Tabata Protocol training is named after it's Izumi Tabata, Ph.D., who did research at Japan's National Institute of Fitness and Sports. The actual creator of the workout was a coach of a Japanese speed-skating team, but the protocol was refined after research by Tabata affirmed the aerobic and anaerobic benefits of the interval training. It was simple enough for the team, 20 seconds of full effort skating followed by 10 seconds of full rest repeated 6 to 7 times. The entire session is meant to last 14 minutes including 5 minutes of warm up and 5 minutes of active cool down. Tabata helped prove that just 4 minutes of this extremely intense training would promote stronger cardiovascular fitness and anaerobic performance. Here we will break down examples of the training into two sections, the average person and the advanced athlete.

What I like best about Tabata style training is how quickly it's over. The mind only needs to be highly focused for the short "on" period. 20 seconds of intense suffering ain't so bad. I did this sort of training during my last season of criteruem racing to good effect and I think it fits the city life rather well.

Come to think of it, much of the cross fit work that Julia did in Santa Cruz resembled Tabata's protocol and that worked wonders for her too.

Fallacy of the week - No true Scotsman

2008-08-30T07:32:00.001-07:00

No true Scotsman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

No true Scotsman, or the self-sealing fallacy, is a fallacy of equivocation and question begging. Its name was coined by philosopher Antony Flew in his 1975[dubious – discuss] book Thinking About Thinking – or do I sincerely want to be right?.

...

Imagine Hamish McDonald, a Scotsman, sitting down with his Glasgow Morning Herald and seeing an article about how the "Brighton Sex Maniac Strikes Again." Hamish is shocked and declares that "No Scotsman would do such a thing." The next day he sits down to read his Glasgow Morning Herald again and this time finds an article about an Aberdeen man whose brutal actions make the Brighton sex maniac seem almost gentlemanly. This fact shows that Hamish was wrong in his opinion but is he going to admit this? Not likely. This time he says, "No true Scotsman would do such a thing."
—Antony Flew, Thinking about Thinking, 1975

Argentina Takes the Olympic Points Race

2008-08-19T05:42:00.001-07:00

CBC Olympics | Argentina shocks the field to win men's madison

Argentina's Juan Esteban Curuchet and Walter Fernando Perez shocked the track cycling world by winning Olympic gold in the men's madison event on Tuesday at the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing.

Danny and Hugo

2008-08-15T05:07:00.001-07:00

Why am I not surprised to learn that Hugo is funding Danny?

Google Reader (1000+)

Apparently actor Danny Glover’s planned film on Haitian independence hero Toussaint-Louverture is being shelved due to lack of funds.

Though the Venezuelan government has provided $18 million of the $30 million needed to shoot the epic, foreign producers are supposedly reluctant to sign on to the project:

WTF?

2008-08-14T18:01:00.001-07:00

CNET News.com

Hunters claim to have nabbed Bigfoot, Internet goes nuts

;-)

Making Mac Development Fun

2008-08-14T08:56:00.001-07:00

It's getting harder and harder for me to avoid developing something in objective-c.

entropydb - Google Code

EntropyDB can be used similarly to db4objects (db4o). The current preview version is distributed as a static library and can be embedded in Xcode projects by adding the header files and the file libEntropyLib.a to Classes and Frameworks, respectively.

Aint Reality a Bitch?

2008-08-12T11:28:00.001-07:00

Megan McArdle (August 12, 2008) - Dope fiends

Athletes are crazy competitive. They will do anything to win. Why not acknowlege that, rather than making fruitless rules? It's not "natural" or "fair", you say? But is there anything less natural or fair than sport? I will never be a good athlete because I don't have the genes for it--hours of practice would make me somewhat better than I am, but not good enough to compete with a decent JV athlete. Hardly fair, that I am shut out by accidents of birth. And as for natural, just imagine what our Homo Erectus ancestors would think if they could see us suiting up for a modern track circuit, swimming competition, or basketball game.

The time is coming when the average Joe is gonna have to come to grips with these facts. The sooner the better, if you ask me.

Intelligent drug use is a good thing, people.

Originality is Overrated

2008-08-12T07:01:00.001-07:00

Here's some product development advice that really resonates with me.

Stevey's Blog Rants: Business Requirements are Bullshit

The easiest way to build a product that kicks ass is to start with someone else's great idea (camcorders, for instance), and take stuff away.

In any event, originality is overrated. Coming up with something completely original isn't just hard to do: it's also hard to sell, because investors (and possibly customers) will need to be educated on what this new thing is and why people would want it. And when it comes to buying stuff, nobody likes to be educated. If the product isn't immediately obvious, investors and customers will pass it up.

It's easy to come up with new product ideas if you start with the understanding that everything sucks. There are no completely solved problems. Just because someone appears to be dominating a market with an "ideal" offering doesn't mean you can't take market share from them by building a better one. Everything can stand improvement. Just think about what you'd change if you were doing it for yourself, and everything should start falling into place.

Found In Comments - The Conscience of a Slave

2008-08-12T04:33:00.001-07:00

I was doing some research on the effects of inflation and came across this comment on Paul Krugman's blog "The Conscience of a Liberal."

As far as the rugged individual, how long do rugged individuals last in a corporation? It is 20 years of saying “Where and how high?” and 5 years of Ayn Rand to restore your confidence and to dismiss the image that you actually are a loser, once you finally claw your way to the top over the dead bodies that were your tests of loyalty along the way.

Clearly not all of us are happy with the choice to work in the Corporate world.

Nanny State News - Christina To Keep us Lean

2008-08-11T03:28:00.001-07:00

Argentina Lurches Toward an Obesity Law… | The Temas Blog

By all accounts, Argentina’s Senate will pass an “obesity law” this coming week. If President Cristina Fernandez signs it, Argentina will become the first Latin American or Caribbean (LAC) country to adopt a national law or regulation directly addressing the issue. [Some Brazilian states have laws on aspects of the issue, and several nations currently have bills pending on the subject.]

Will the new Argentine law deserve brickbats or bouquets, or both?

I'm all for improving food choices but give me a break. Does anyone, besides the ego maniacs that draft such legislation, believe that government can solve this problem?

Paraguay's War of the Triple Alliance - 1864 to 1870

2008-08-10T12:25:00.001-07:00

While listening to a podcast, I cam to learn about Paraguay's War of the Triple Alliance.

War of the Triple Alliance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The specific numbers of casualties are hotly disputed, but it has been estimated that 300,000 Paraguayans, mostly civilians, died; up to 90% of the male population may have been killed. According to one numerical estimation, the prewar population of approximately 525,000 Paraguayans was reduced to about 221,000 in 1871, of which only about 28,000 were men. Definitively accurate casualty numbers will probably never be determined. After the war, the Catholic church temporarily allowed polygamy to help repopulate the country.

Is it just me or are we getting better (fewer losses) at this war thing?

Food sovereignty

2008-08-10T07:28:00.001-07:00

How would you like to be told to work like a slave?

A brief history of Argentinean “withholdings” « Machetera

Let me explain…if to have a dairy farm, with cows and milking barn, you have to pay many employees, veterinarians, medicines, etc. and “work like a slave” from dawn in order to clear 200,000 pesos a year, but planting soy, with very few workers and without having to get up at 4 in the morning, clear 600,000 pesos, logically you’re going to kill your cows and dedicate yourself to soy.

So, the way to preserve food sovereignty is to make it so that soy is not such a brilliant business (if the state were to appropriate a large part of the earnings).

Food Sovereignty? What the heck is that? Let's go ask Wikipedia:

Food sovereignty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.

If a person has a right to food, that means they are entitled to have it supplied to them without doing anything to earn it. This is called a Positive Right and implies not only that tax payers have to feed people but supports of Food Sovereignty go further and place restrictions on how that is to be done.

Can anyone seriously defend this sort of policy?

Fear of Poor People

2008-08-09T12:07:00.001-07:00

It's always been my view that poor people simply lack money; not brains, work ethic, etc as some imply. For example, being poor is often cited as a cause of terrorism. If this were true you'd expect to see a hell of a lot more terrorism given that much of the world is poor, don't 'cha think?

Arthur De Vany

The wealthier the country, the more likely is terrorism. The absence of democracy is also cited as a “root cause” by some commentators. Professor Weinberg says there is no evidence for that proposition either. Indeed, the more democratic a society, the more susceptible to terror.

In short, the Islamist movement is not primarily socioeconomically driven. That is a serious misunderstanding of the enemy. Its impulses are perversely ideological. The central stimulus to contemporary Islamist atrocities is to be found in the rejection of the values deriving from the 18th century liberal and sceptical enlightenment. Its epicentres were Scotland and England. The civic culture that arose from it is central to Western civilisation. It recognises the role of reason in social life, a liberal economy, democratic forms of governance, the rule of law, equality of women, individual liberty and pluralism in religion.

Most organizations are average, act accordingly

2008-08-08T07:36:00.001-07:00

The Bill Gates Interview

GATES: I don't know anything about employees in tears. I do know that if people say things that are wrong, others shouldn't just sit there silently. They should speak. Great organizations demand a high level of commitment by the people involved. That's true in any endeavor. I've never criticized a person. I have criticized ideas. If I think something's a waste of time or inappropriate I don't wait to point it out. I say it right away. It's real time. So you might hear me say, That's the dumbest idea I have ever heard many times during a meeting.

Term of the day - Moral Hazard

2008-08-07T07:51:00.001-07:00

Hey, Enterprise Architects! Pay attention.

Moral hazard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Moral hazard is the prospect that a party insulated from risk may behave differently from the way it would behave if it were fully exposed to the risk. Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not bear the full consequences of its actions, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it otherwise would, leaving another party to bear some responsibility for the consequences of those actions.

And by the way, how did it come to be that we call ourselves architects? Nothing I do all day looks much like architecture. We're more like a CIO's Professional Shoppers.

Maybe I'm biting the hand that feeds but the IT industry is a joke. I won't be surprised if Silicon Valley goes the way of Detroit in 20 years.

Hugo's Crystal Ball

2008-08-07T05:29:00.001-07:00

Venezuela's Chavez welcomes lower oil prices | Markets | Reuters

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday "it's good" that oil prices have come down, saying $150 per barrel would be irrational.

The leader of OPEC member Venezuela has said several times recently that $100 per barrel is a fair price for oil.

How the heck does Hugo know what a fair price for oil is? For that matter, what's fair and for whom? He goes on to deplore speculators.

Why is it that when oil prices go up, it's the fault of speculators but when the price goes down they are not give "credit?"

You Might Be an Expat If...

2008-08-06T01:33:00.001-07:00

You watch this video and think she's on to something rather than simply on something.

[Hat Tip to Jeff Foxworthy]

Decriminalization

2008-08-05T09:05:00.001-07:00

This ought to keep tourism rock'n.

Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use - CNN.com

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) -- President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner repeated her call this week to decriminalize personal drug use and crack down on traffickers and dealers.

"I don't like it when people easily condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if he were a person who should be persecuted," she told a meeting of the National Investigation into the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, Psychopharmaceuticals and Illegal Drugs.

"Those who should be persecuted are those who sell the substances, those who give it away, those who traffic in it."

Funny how a government that is so wrong with regard to its economic policy seems to get its drug policy right.

Obama Interpretations

2008-08-03T05:08:00.001-07:00

Debbie Schlussel

An Israeli journalist called out to Obama: "Can you ensure that there will be no second Holocaust?"

Obama walked into the museum's main building without responding. . . .

In the "Hall of Remembrance," Obama put on a white yarmulke, lit the "eternal flame" and placed a white chrysanthemum wreath on a stone slab.

Obama then went to the museum's Janusz Korczak Plaza, where he signed the guest book.

Once again an Israeli journalist asked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee how he'd help prevent a second Holocaust. "Senator can you assure Israel that there will be no second Holocaust despite Iran's threat to wipe us off the map?" he asked.

Obama demurred, saying that it wasn't appropriate to answer the question there.

"This is Yad Vashem!" the journalist responded.

Obama said he would answer the question at a later press availability.

There sure are a lot of ways to interpret this. What is he signaling and for whose benefit? Why couldn't he just say something like "In so far as it is in my power, I will work to prevent the genocide of any people."

I wonder if the story is even true.

Simulating the Future

2008-08-03T03:56:00.001-07:00

I'm in a complete Alan-Kay-Fan-Boy frenzy tonight. This happens to me every couple of months, usually after realizing that the joy I once found in computation is fading. It's a lot like discovering that you've been taking your spouse for granted. I think this is called shame.

In moments like these, I try to re-kindle the flame by reading Christopher Alexander, Alan Kay or Hayek. Tonight I reached for The Power of Context by Kay. What stood out for me on this reading was the description of the principles that enabled Kay and the other folks at PARC to create much of the computing environment that we use in today.

Begin with good will
Have visions rather than goals
Funded people, not projects
Respect complexity and lack of knowledge
Grow your systems
Avoid putting any externally controlled system, in-house or out, on one's critical path. This included vendors. This was called committing Error-33.

In summarized form these principles look simplistic or even a bit formulaic but if you read his explanation, I think get a taste for depth of the man's thought.

I'll leave you with this mind bending quote.

Most things done by most people today are still "automating paper, records and film" rather than "simulating the future".

Alan Kay, IT Slavery and Coping.

2008-08-03T02:04:00.001-07:00

Alan Kay on Mark Guzdial's Amazon Blog:

So, I've been positing that it is precisely "powerful ideas in computing" that needs to be taught more in universities, even as I doubt seriously that most professors in most universities are up to it. The reasons for this are partly the difficulties of academia in general with respect to a developing field.

...
Another part of the problem has to do with the psychology of being a programmer (I worked my way through college as one) and it's mostly about *coping* (with someone else's computer, OS, programming language, problem, techniques and architectures, etc.). I did just that until I got into an ARPA grad school by complete accident and into a culture that was as "anti-cope" as one could imagine -- they were quite happy to invent everything they needed, and to build from scratch everything they needed, including every gate of the HW if necessary, and every bit of the SW.

This was a shock and a revelation to me. And it was followed quickly by an even bigger shock: it wasn't as difficult to work from scratch as it seemed from the outside. And it got much much easier when techniques from real math, science and engineering were adapted to the weak shapes of computing. The results from this "ARPA/PARC" community are well known and revolutionized computing. But in spite of their success, essentially none of the processes, techniques and learning curves used and invented by ARPA/PARC are taught anywhere today.

But we can't build! We have to buy, right? Isn't that the way to get ahead, make forward progress and be a responsible IT slave, er, I mean citizen? Well not always. I know that folks like google and ebay have taken the "from scratch" approach with some of there IT infrastructure and the result has been competitive advantage.

I suppose it comes down to whether or not IT is merely a cost center. I can also appreciate the drivers that lead IT Managers and Architects to think the way forward is to hire more slaves -- er, I mean contract labor -- to cope with the mess but, as Alan Kay pointed out in his Turing award speech, this approach to architecture and development does not scale.

So what's the powerful idea that will move us forward?

I don't know what to think about academia, but in corporate IT, where we treat developers and architects like slaves, I think the big idea is the "Free Man." I work with a couple of Distinguished Architects and none of them own a budget or are empowered in any meaningful way to evolve our systems. The net result is that the systems collapse and the new budget holders start over again.

And what does starting over look like? Well, they turn to the same vendors, talent pool, and institutions that got is into the problem in the first place. What's worse is that we turn around and buy the latest version of their bad ideas and expect different results. And its all done in the name of Core vs. Context. Blah, blah, when's my next promotion and cap award?

I wish someone was keeping score.

Common Knowledge

2008-08-01T20:05:00.001-07:00

I was just reading a paper called "The Argentina Crisis: Bad Luck, Bad Management, Bad Politics, Bad Advice" and came across the following:

At a time when the IMF had given no real indications that further funds would be forthcoming, there was now an admission that there was no prospect of any private sector funding either. In the terminology of game theory, this might be thought of as an event that changed the degree of ‘common knowledge’ among investors.

Common knowledge in game theory sounded interesting so I looked it up in Wikipedia. Here's a little puzzle that provides a taste of the concept.

It is common to introduce the idea of common knowledge by some variant of the following logic puzzle:[2] On an island, there are k people who have blue eyes, and the rest of the people have green eyes. There is at least one blue-eyed person on the island (k >= 1). If a person ever knows herself to have blue eyes, she must leave the island at dawn the next day. Each person can see every other person's eye color, there are no mirrors, and there is no discussion of eye color. At some point, an outsider comes to the island and makes the following public announcement, heard and understood by all people on the island: "at least one of you has blue eyes". The problem: Assuming all persons on the island are truthful and completely logical, what is the eventual outcome?

The answer is that, on the k dawns after the announcement, all the blue-eyed people will leave the island.

Infant Mortality & Cuba

2008-07-31T07:55:00.001-07:00

I have a friend that loves to tell me that Cuba has no infant mortality. Now we all know there is no such thing as zero infant mortality but what are the reported numbers for Cuba? Is the US health care system really worse than Cuba's? Here are the numbers as :

Cuba - 16 6.0 per 1,000
USA - 7.2 per 1,000

[note: This needs a citation.]

As you can see Cuba is doing better. Or are they? As per usual the devil is in the details. Have a look.

Overpopulation.Com » Blog Archive » Cuba vs. the United States on Infant Mortality

Recently released statistics on the infant mortality rate in the Western hemisphere yielded an odd conclusions — Cuba’s infant mortality rate, 16 6.0 per 1,000, is now lower than the U.S. infant mortality rate, at 7.2 per 1,000. Given Cuba’s poverty level, its 6.0 rate is very impressive, but is it accurate to say that Cuba now has an infant mortality rate lower than the United States? No.

...

Why? Because the United States also easily has the most intensive system of

emergency intervention to keep low birth weight and premature infants alive

in the world. The United States is, for example, one of only a handful
countries that keeps detailed statistics on early fetal mortality — the
survival rate of infants who are born as early as the 20th week of
gestation.

How does this skew the statistics? Because in the United States if an
infant is born weighing only 400 grams and not breathing, a doctor will
likely spend lot of time and money trying to revive that infant. If the
infant does not survive — and the mortality rate for such infants is in
excess of 50 percent — that sequence of events will be recorded as a
live birth and then a death.

I Love Me Some Hate Mongers

2008-07-30T14:39:00.000-07:00

I can't get enough of this non-sense.

Although I'm a non practicing and non believing Jew, as long as there are people that think like this, I'll proudly defend Judaism.

Bring it, morons.

Happy? Where Do You Live?

2008-07-30T13:21:00.001-07:00

Technorati Tags: buenos aires, happiness

Market Parasites

2008-07-30T12:42:00.001-07:00

Megan McArdle (July 30, 2008) - The death of Doha

What to say about the most recent collapse of the Doha Round? I feel like I've just gotten out of one of those relationships where you both knew it was over a year before it finally ended--practically relieved, really. It's been obvious to me since early 2007 that Doha wasn't going anywhere, and going through the motions had become a painful parody. The forward motion on trade has ground to a halt, because most trade in goods and services has been liberalised in the Western world. The remaining issues are either sacred cows, like agriculture, or require much deeper integration of sensitive areas like finance and law. Moreover, we're now at the point where poor nations can no longer simply free ride on rich country liberalization; to get further benefits from trade, they need to prise open their own markets, and few places have a political system capable of attacking those entrenched interests.

That's right folks. Uncle Juan is gonna have to sober up, get off the couch and get a job. He'll be better for it and his children will thank him.

D4-7 Allele - The Expat Gene

2008-07-27T12:53:00.001-07:00

I've always been a novelty seeker, so the following really caught my attention.

Sample Chapter for Lal, D.: Reviving the Invisible Hand: The Case for Classical Liberalism in the Twenty-first Century.

A recent book, American Mania, by a colleague, Peter Whybrow, director of UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute, summarizes this evidence. He begins by noting that human migration is one major form of risky and novelty-seeking behavior. Only a few of our species left their ancestral home in the African savannahs and began that long walk to the ends of the earth which allowed homo sapiens to colonize the world. Who were these earliest migrants? It turns out they had a particular genetic profile. They had a higher percentage of an exploratory and novelty-seeking gene than those remaining behind. As novelty seeking and risk taking “are . . . behaviors essential to exploration and migration. . . this should be reflected in a distribution pattern of the relevant allele [the D4-7 allele gene] that is similar to the ancient migratory paths of our species.”2 How do we know this? The geneticist Luigi Luca Cavali-Sforza of Stanford University and his colleagues have provided a genetic mapping of the geographical dispersal of homo sapiens from their original home in Africa.3 Subsequently, Dr. Chauseng Chen of the University of California, Irvine,4 found that a coherent pattern emerges from this mapping “where those who stayed close to their original homeland have a higher percentage of the common D4-4 allele in the population and a lower prevalence of the exploratory and novelty-seeking D4-7 allele.”5

I wonder if this would explain why I seem to live in google reader.

Five Things I'll Likely Never Do (Again) - Age 37

2008-07-22T13:31:00.001-07:00

1] Take on Bad Debt

Obvious, right? I may take on a loan for the purchase of property or some other fruitful endeavor but credit card or car loans (bad debt) are things of the past. I'd rather go without.

If most of our earnings are spent on an empty game of status, we should not expect much improvement in quality of life.

Hat tip to Robert Frank.

2] Not Own a Home

Outright ownership of my home (aka the bunker) has been the greatest financial achievement in my life. Talk about options!

3] Work for a boss I don't respect.

Thanks to #1 and #2, I'll never make this mistake again.

Rule 8: If you don’t respect your boss, resign before you are fired.

Sometimes you can suddenly find yourself working for someone you
despise. Listening to this walking calamity will make your face express incredulity or sniggerly turn toward those who share your outrage. If not your boss, one of his or her henchmen will notice your disloyalty. All too soon, your job becomes hell with the odds overwhelmingly favoring your being forced out as opposed to your orchestrating your enemy’s removal by a still higher-up official. Cut your losses by quitting before you are axed.

Hat tip to James Watson.

4] Breed.

Many folks reading this will feel a little uneasy at the thought of not having children but if you don't already have them, read this.

5] Let my Ego Start a Business
I was young, what can I say? What are Residual claims? Sure I know what Profit is... sorta.

Strict economists point out that much of what is conventionally called "profit," especially in a small, owner-operated business, is nothing more than wages received in a variable form. Even a successful owner-operated business-- and the bankruptcy rate is high-- often pays no more under the name of "profit" than the proprietor would have earned for the same amount of work for someone else who paid him under the name of "wages."

Hat tip to Thomas Sowell.

What 5 things will you never do again?

Garcia : Charly or Jerry?

2008-06-24T10:09:00.001-07:00

And I thought Jerry Garcia was the only famously self destructive rocker. Turns out this Weird Al look-alike could give a pre-rehab Robert Downey Jr. a run for his methadone.

Jokes aside, I'm listening to Charly's 1985 release "Piano Bar" and it's not bad.

Next up -- Hayek: Frederick or Salma.

Scalable Professions

2008-06-20T05:21:00.001-07:00

Nassim Nicholas Taleb on scalable professions:

A scalable profession is good only if you are successful; they are more competitive, produce monstrous inequalities, and are far more random, with huge disparities between efforts and rewards--a few can take a large share of the pie, leaving others out entirely at no fault of their own.

Billers, Players, and Income Inequality, Arnold Kling:

Yes, this is just the economics of superstars. But it suggests a simple dichotomy. As Taleb points out, there are safe professions where you charge by the hour, so I might call them Billers. As a Biller, your earnings tend to have a high floor but a low ceiling. Think of an accountant.

What Taleb calls scalable professions are ones where you are not limited by what you can charge for an hour. Recording artists, professional baseball players, entrepreneurs, corporate CEO's, and financial speculators enjoy scalability. But, as Taleb points out, they have to compete in tournaments where there are a few winners and many losers. So we can call these sorts of people Players.

I think this can be a helpful frame in which to view the financial choices faced by the modern-nomad. Rules of thumb follow:

Context is King or 50 is not middle aged.
Never confuse your Billing job with a Scalable job.
For the modern-nomad, Billing is better

What's Wrong w/ The Valley

2008-06-20T04:42:00.001-07:00

As if I needed more reason for never going back to Silicon Valley.

Julia Allison : The worst person in the Valley.

I had my doubts about the creative and moral bankruptcy of the valley but when people like this start showing up, it's hard to deny it.

Hamstrung by Knowledge

2008-06-11T08:17:00.001-07:00

Seth’s blog » Blog Archive » “My Advantage Was Ignorance”

“The main advantage I had was ignorance,” he said. He didn’t know all the things that could go wrong. “I wasn’t afraid.” Someone who knew more would have been. Geoffrey Bateson said something similar: If I’d known how hard everything was going to be, I would never have done anything. This is the upside of the ignorance that Nassim Taleb talks about.

Amen brother. For some time now, and especially since Julia has started her own business, I've been thinking about starting a software venture of some kind. I've thought about doing a micro ISV servicing the mac community, an agile consulting firm, a voip market place, a opensource PPM, and a handful of other ventures. In each case I've been hamstrung because I know, or at least think I know, the risks.

I'd probably be better off in a line of business w/ fewer bits and more atoms.

We're meeting some interesting people.

2008-02-10T10:59:00.001-08:00

Killer Queen Lyrics

2008-02-05T08:51:00.001-08:00

QUEEN - KILLER QUEEN LYRICS

She keeps a Moet et Chandon
In a pretty cabinet
'Let them eat cake' she says
Find me on the internet
A built-in remedy
For Khrushchev and Kennedy
At anytime an invitation
You can't decline

Ah, no Jr. That's not the lyric.

Ordinary People of The City

2008-01-31T00:17:00.001-08:00

Just read a story about a local tradition celebrating the life of a woman named Felicitas. After she came to an untimely death her parents funded a church in her honor. Here's what happened outside that church today.

line of sight » hoy es el día, no?

…today’s the day, right?

No. The official day for Saint Felicitas is November 23rd… not today. We priests only worship the one, true God. We don’t pay tribute to ordinary people of the city.

But on the radio they said…

Well, that’s why people come here & do this nonsense [pointing to the ribbons]. And I have to come out here & remove them.

Tip-o-the-hat to Robert Wright.

What's Good for the Goose

2008-01-25T03:26:00.001-08:00

What's up with smart people talking about reworking capitalism? How about enforcing rule of law and dispelling w/ corruption?

Gates calls for creative capitalism to help poor | Business | The Guardian

Gates
insisted that this was not dumping the basic tenets of capitalism but
argued market forces must be better used to address the needs of those
left behind by advances in technology and healthcare.

Seems like hubris to me. And on a related note:

Economist's View: I See What You Mean, It Is Broken

However, when executives face the same dynamism and their income falls (so that they also face a reduction in their income, say from a million to half a million), global capitalism is broken and needs to be fixed (e.g. "Market Bloodbath Highlights Cracks in Capitalism," one of many along these lines).

US States Renamed For Countries With Similar GDPs

2008-01-17T06:16:00.001-08:00

Hat tip to strange maps.

Mean Time To Failure

2008-01-16T06:17:00.001-08:00

Lately it seems like the mean time to failure here in Buenos Aires is about 4 hours.

Massive leak in the kitchen
OS X updates hoarked my Mac
Fibertel internet access won't stay up
Two of the Air conditioners aren't producing cool air

I just got my Mac working again...

Selling Crazy Abroad

2008-01-12T16:59:00.001-08:00

I find statements like the one bellow deeply troubling.

Martin From the comments section : Varsavsky: Is There Something the U.S. Can Learn from Argentina? - Business on The Huffington Post

AMERICA and it's CIA created the crisis in Argentina. The CIA helped oust Allende in the 1970's and put Pinochet in to run Shock Therapy economics created by Milton Friedman.

Milton Friedman economics has systematically destroyed country after country since the 1970's with it's Shock Therapy economics.

Milton Friedman's economic plan was put into fast forward mode in America after

9-11. 9-11 was the shock.

Since 9-11 BUSH has paved the way for Corporatism, privatization of services and free market economics - all espouted by Milton Friedman and neo-conservatives.

Milton Friedman economics creates '' rich get richer'' society and the rest fall into state of poverty.

Americans need to realize that this economic meltdown we are teetering on has been planned for a long time.

Thanks a lot, Naomi. Nice job muddying the water.

Okay, so have a look at this and tell me if this man even approaches evil. For crying out loud, don't lie to people. There's a real debate to be had and spreading lies and misinformation doesn't help.

Dennett Singer, if you hear this...

2008-01-04T13:55:00.001-08:00

"Dennet singer, if you hear this, I have lost your address and I will like to reply to you"

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John Frum

2008-01-04T13:37:00.001-08:00

John Frum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1941, followers of John Frum rid themselves of their money in a frenzy of spending, left the missionary churches, schools, villages and plantations, and moved further inland to celebrate traditional custom through feasts, dances and rituals. The movement gained traction in the 1940s when some 300,000 American troops established themselves in Vanuatu. The islanders were impressed both by the egalitarianism of the Americans and their obvious wealth and power. This led them to conflate perceived benefactors such as Uncle Sam, Santa Claus and John the Baptist into a mythic figure who would empower the island peoples by giving them cargo wealth. Followers of John Frum built symbolic landing strips to encourage American aeroplanes to land and bring them "cargo". In 1957, a leader of the John Frum movement, Nakomaha, created the "Tanna Army", a non-violent, ritualistic organisation which organised military-style parades, their faces painted in ritual colours, and wearing white t-shirts with the letters "T-A USA" (Tanna Army USA). This parade still takes place every year on February 15.

Sorta hard to believe ain't it?

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He Has a Lisp!

2007-12-09T16:31:00.001-08:00

Julia and I were watching the signing/official kick off of Chavez' South American bank initiative. This even was held here in Buenos Aires and aired on TV. It was pretty uneventful except for the Kirchner speech. This was the first time I had ever heard the mad speak and you know what? ........He has a serious lisp. I mean, like, big time.

news.nacla.org » Archive » The Mysterious Mr. K

In 1966, he tried to enter a teaching school, but his speech impediment prevented his admission. He went back to finish high school and graduated two months before celebrating his 19th birthday. Back in those days he wasn’t called “K,” but rather “Lupo” or “Lupín” after a character from a comic strip, an airplane pilot with whom he bore a striking resemblance. He liked his nickname. After all, flying had a heroic ring. And in Italian (did he know it then?) “Lupo” means wolf.

Guiliani's got nutt'n on 'dis guy.

Also, where was Chile? Why are they not participating?

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More Cheddar for Steve

2007-10-27T10:42:00.001-07:00

Last night the better half and I went over to Los Gatos for the OS X Leopard release. I'll write more about it later but here's my initial pros/cons list.

Highlights

Time Machine

CoverFlow in the finder

objective-c 2.0

Scripting Bridge

Updated Interface Builder

Suckage

Real Java Support

Fortune Cookies

2007-10-26T11:51:00.000-07:00
Wonder what's really happening with inflation in Argentina? Here's an Indicator:
Argentina's benchmark inflation-linked bonds have tumbled 24 percent this year, making the country's debt market the worst performer in the world, according to data compiled by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bloomberg.

`Argentine inflation-linked debt is the single worst long- term asset in all of emerging-markets,'' said Paul McNamara, who manages more than $1 billion of fixed-income at London-based Augustus Asset Managers.
Political Leaders

I don't know what's worse: blatantly cooking your books and thinking it'll all work out (Nestor), or believing god has some plan for you and your nation (George). Historically, I think the god delusion has caused more suffering but failing to understand and appreciate the realities of trade in this day and age is inexcusable.

Take the Chinese government, for all their many flaws, they've figured out that if they want to feed their people, they'll have to play the trade game and that means playing by a set of rules - become a bad actor and no one can/will trade with you and your people will suffer and soon you'll be out of power. Keep the people happy. Keep your power. Pretty simple.

And how do you keep the people happy? Give 'em the means to pursue their happiness.

Now, if you're flush with oil, you can run around like some trustafarian but eventually it's gonna catch up with you or your progeny. It's the later case that I find so tragic -- think generations of young men without meaningful work, ala the Kingdom of Saud.

Small tangent... Confucian Meritocracy. Heard of it? I hadn't until recently:
The Confucian view is that political leaders should be the most talented and public-spirited members of the community, and the process of choosing such leaders should be meritocratic, meaning that there should be equal opportunity for the best to rise to the top. Historically, Confucian meritocracy was implemented by means of examinations, and there have been proposals to revive and update Confucian examinations for contemporary China.
I wonder what Aristotle would make of this? In any event, I think I'd prefer a system where people are competing to be the most competent (for some measure of competency) rather than the most appealing to the largest and most active voting blocks. Obviously, People would game the system and fiddle with the tests and test administration ( think gerrymandering ) but I wonder if, on balance, we wouldn't end up with a more optimal system of governing.

Maybe a Meritocracy would help prevent the National Statistics Institute from being so easily dismissed by politicians. On second thought, probably not.

Should I be Worried?

Hell yeah! But no one here gets out alive.

Moving Quotes

2007-10-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'll miss the sea, but a person needs new experiences. They jar something deep inside, allowing him to grow. Without change something sleeps inside us, and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken. --Duke Leto Atreides

Technorati Tags: argentina, dune, puppy

Mistakes Were Made

2007-10-24T22:19:00.001-07:00
Consider this a kind of internet confession.

You just don't up-and-move to a foreign country without making a few mistakes. and today I had to clean up one of mine.

Like a bone-head, I placed an add for my Jeep on craigslist the same day I placed it on ebay. I expected the sale to be protracted and thought I would cast a wide net. I couldn't have been more wrong.

I first setup and auction on ebay motors and, figuring it wouldn't sell, placed an add on craigslist. I priced the jeep for a quick sale but little did I know the phone would immediately start ringing once I place my add on craigslist. Within the hour, the Jeep was sold and in route to its new home in San Jose.

But what about the ebay auction!? I'm not going to embarrass myself by giving the details of how I failed to cancel the auction, suffice it to say, the auction went on even though I no long was in possession of the vehicle. Cringe.

Long story short... Turns out the auction would have brought in twice the cheddar as the craigslist sale and because I was unable to cancel the auction, I sold the Jeep twice. Ouch!
I cleaned up the mess with the ebay buyer, but boy do I feel like a schmuck.

I hope this is the worst of it, but I somehow I doubt it.

The Bunny House - The fine art of sex selling design: hooker flyers, postcards, advertising, posters, etc.

2007-10-24T10:54:00.000-07:00
"Recoleta Escorts"

Recoleta (neighbourhood). Your place from 9am to 9pm / With the best escorts

I'll have more to say about this once I finish my morning todo list.

New Post

2007-10-23T19:39:00.001-07:00
Some hopeful words on Argentina's future from Bill Bonner.
Debt-Free Argentina is Ready to Boom:
It’s going to boom because it has no debt…and it is a major producer of food. And not only that, it’s already made almost every mistake you can make. It’s had socialism, hyper-inflation, price controls, debt, coups d’etat, military governments - you name it

...
Argentina’s economy is growing nearly three times as fast as the United States. It is coming off a major depression, when GDP growth went negative for a year and a half…when the local currency lost two-thirds of its value…and in which the economy actually shrank as much as 16% in a single quarter.

I've ben hearing about this Bonner guy and finally looked him up in wikipedia. I'm always very skeptical of of folks that make money selling financial advice based on wild claims but I hope he's right about Argentina.

Bill Bonner on Argentina's Future

2007-10-18T10:59:00.001-07:00
Some hopeful words on Argentina's future from Bill Bonner.
Debt-Free Argentina is Ready to Boom:
It’s going to boom because it has no debt…and it is a major producer of food. And not only that, it’s already made almost every mistake you can make. It’s had socialism, hyper-inflation, price controls, debt, coups d’etat, military governments - you name it

...
Argentina’s economy is growing nearly three times as fast as the United States. It is coming off a major depression, when GDP growth went negative for a year and a half…when the local currency lost two-thirds of its value…and in which the economy actually shrank as much as 16% in a single quarter.

I've ben hearing about this Bonner guy and finally looked him up in wikipedia. I'm always very skeptical of of folks that make money selling financial advice based on wild claims but I hope he's right about Argentina.

When Things Go South

2007-10-14T22:32:00.001-07:00
Today I had lunch with my banker friend -- we'll call him M. M grew up in the Czech Republic and I was looking forward to picking his brain regarding the immigrant experience. I was also just happy to see him since we've not had much contact in the last year.

We met in downtown Santa Cruz at a little cafe. After being seated, we ordered brunch and quickly got right to the subject of my move to Argentina. M had lots of questions about my move to Argentina. He wanted to know the details of my real estate, the neighborhood, work, etc.. Soon we got to the real meat of the subject: Why Argentina? I imagine Argentina is a Banker's worst nightmare.

We talked about Argentina's recent past, the upcoming election, the IMF and a host of other things I really don't have any business talking about for lack of any real knowledge or understanding. Eventually, The conversation turned to worst case scenarios. What if there's a military take over? What if the government kicks out foreigners? What if Hugo turns the southern cone into commies?

Being from a former soviet block country, M knows a little something about the consequences of government instability, so I was all ears when he explained how quickly things can go south (punlicious, no). He walked me though his view of the conditions that can lead to a government collapse. The description was peppered with sighs, thoughtful pauses -- uncomfortable memories. He looked troubled.

Which Way Argentina?

I can't even begin to fake an answer to this question. I need to do more home work...

Brazil: A 'Test Case' for Continuation of Free-market Reforms in Latin America - Knowledge@Wharton:
What that poll shows is, across the board, a disillusionment with the sort of lofty, unrealistic claims or expectations that were promoted in the 1990s in the name of economic reform," states McDermott, who has advised governments in Latin America and Eastern Europe. "So what you see now is uncertainty about what to do. The figures show, in general, that people don't want to go back to the old ways but still don't know what it means to have privatization or democracy. They're not happy with most privatizations. But they don't want dictators. They don't really know how to improve the management of their democracies to get results.I wouldn't say there is a 'return to populism.' I think most economists and analysts use that phrase as a sort of jingoistic shorthand to say the Washington consensus isn't going well.

Technorati Tags: argentina, economics

I Dare You

2007-10-08T10:40:00.001-07:00

Second Language Pedagogy

2007-10-04T22:08:00.001-07:00

There are a number of different theories of second language acquisition and a vast number of teaching strategies but this has got to be my favorite.

If only it were a castellano class.

Chasing Cool - Music Edition

2007-10-04T15:50:00.000-07:00
If you're growing tired of your current playlists or maybe you're shuffle is begging for some new bits you might check out Argentinian Juana Molina.

I'd affectionately describe her music as down-tempo acoustic cotton candy with a twist of electronica. This is just the kind of undemanding musical pudding that can decorate the air waves while you brainstorm your next blog entry.

Some folks compare Juana'a music to Bjork but I fail to see the similarities. I imagine this is marketing speak for: "Hey, you liked that weired Icelandic chick, right? Well Juana's weired too. You should check her out."

I'm reminded more of Brian Eno, Adrian Belew, Robert Fripp and just about anything from Windham Hill Records in circa 1980.

Baggage Allowance

2007-10-02T15:15:00.001-07:00

Ran across this while I was reading American Airlines' Baggage Allowance fine print. For some reason this just struck me as funny.

Frank Miller I'm Not

2007-10-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

Vittles in the Barrio

2007-09-29T00:01:00.000-07:00
Got a tip on where to get good foodstuffs in our barrio:

The block of the old Mercado Norte, bordered by Rodriguez Peña, Vicente Lopez, Montevideo and Las Heras (mainly the first 2 of these streets) has the finest selection of small shops in the area that sell meats, vegetables, fiambres and cheeses, bread, fish, etc., etc. (It also has a large Norte grocery store.)

I've highlighted the block that the streets surround in yellow:

Melancholy

2007-09-28T22:34:00.001-07:00

We're a little sad these days. Thinking about leaving so much behind. Trying to find homes for our pets and knowing that we'll be leaving behind friends and family has got us in the dumps. Lucky for us there's Cat Stevens music and Harold and Maude. If you don't know the movie, here's a taste:

Harold and Maude

In one particularly poignant moment in the film, Maude asks young Harold what kind of flower best describes him. He absently points at a hedge of little white flowers and says "one of those, I guess." Maude asks him why, and Harold says it is because they are all the same. "Oh," Maude says, "but they're not. Some are big. Some small. Some grow to the right. Others to the left. All kinds of observable differences. You know Harold, much of life's problems derive from people who are this (holding up a unique little white flower), but allow themselves to be treated like that."
Now I think its time for some CSPAN.

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Bad Waters in Buenos Aires

2007-09-28T11:59:00.001-07:00
I'm growing more and more excited about our impending move to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I just can't wait to explore the city and I can't imagine anything going wrong. Everything is going to be just perfect. Yeah, Right.

Confirmation Bias.

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions and avoid information and interpretations which contradict prior beliefs. It is a type of cognitive bias and represents an error of inductive inference, or as a form of selection bias toward confirmation of the hypothesis under study or disconfirmation of an alternative hypothesis.

So, with that in mind... have a look

Escape to Argentina? WWIII?

2007-09-27T22:26:00.001-07:00

I think Argentina is a great place to be if you're looking for a western mega-city but gee whiz.

Scoopit - The Greater Depression: Escape to Argentina ? / NZ News

And let me give you a tip, okay? Forget about Europe, it's going to become a petting zoo. It's like Disneyland with real stones instead of paper Mache stones. I mean, Europe is on the slippery slope. I wouldn't touch Europe with a ten-foot pole. If this war with Islam gets out of control, Europe is going to be an epicenter. It's going to be a disaster. I'll tell you where you ought to look. Argentina is the place to be. It's the cheapest country in the world. It has low population, incredibly beautiful, the climate is great. One hundred years ago, it was in competition with the US for being the best place in the world and the richest place. But it went downhill radically, radically.

But let me tell you something. It's turning around I think. And what's going to happen is driven by the fact that everything in Argentina costs between 10% to 30% of what it costs in North America. That's correct. It's that cheap. It's free. It's free. It's free for us as North Americans. But the Europeans really think it's free with that strong Euro. So you're getting a massive immigration from rich Europeans that can see the handwriting on the wall and like it down there. And I really like it down there. It's just a great society, great society, great place to hang out, prices are right. I mean this can solve most of your investment problems right there, just by transplanting yourself, if you've got some capital. Furthermore, Argentina is going to be insolated from WWIII to a good extent.

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The Truth About Argentina

2007-09-26T10:49:00.000-07:00
Ricardo López Murphy -- Argentina's Ron Paul?

Be sure to watch the entire clip...

Blow My Mind Frank

2007-09-26T01:26:00.000-07:00
On the topic of sex, business and even Al Gore's wife, Frank was such an honest and original voice.

Kirchner Signals Sanity

2007-09-25T19:30:00.001-07:00

Bloomberg.com: Latin America

``Terrorism can't be tolerated, neither by those who support, finance or protect it, be it people or countries,'' Kirchner said.

Big sigh of relief. Thank goodness.

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News Roundup

2007-09-24T18:17:00.001-07:00

Beware of Venezuelans Bearing Gifts - WSJ.com

But thanks to investigative reporting by the Argentine daily La Nación, we now know that there was good reason for Guido Alejandro Antonini Wilson to think he could just walk off that plane with a bag of money. As it turns out, the Argentine government of President Nestór Kirchner has a policy of allowing Venezuelans tied to the government in Caracas to come and go freely at Buenos Aires' Aeroparque airport, with no scrutiny of their baggage whatsoever.

Argentina's Kirchner says rates must come down | Bonds News | Reuters.com

BUENOS AIRES, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Argentine President Nestor Kirchner said on Saturday that the government would do everything it could to bring down interest rates, after interbank lending rates shot up in the last two months .

"Interest rates must come down. They will come down. We are going to take all the necessary measures," Kirchner said in comments to Mitre Radio.

"Banks must understand that the country has to work for everyone. There are some people in the financial sector who still don't seem to understand that," he said.

Interbank rates, or call money, shot up in August to higher than 20 percent when the global credit crunch ignited a flight in Argentina to safe-haven dollars.

But rates came back down lower than 8 percent this past week after a series of measures by the Central Bank, including buying back its own notes, auctioning and selling repurchase agreements, and temporarily relaxing the minimum average deposit rule for banks.

I suspect that by necessary he intends to invoke the full power of the government.

Argentina-Iran Row Over Terrorist Bombings -- 09/24/2007

The foreign ministry over the weekend criticized Mohsen Baharvand, whose official rank is business attache, for his statements about Kirchner, saying they were "unacceptable" and unbecoming the envoy of a foreign country.

Baharvand caused a stir when he told the Clarin newspaper that if Kirchner during his speech accuses Iran of involvement in two bombings in Argentina in the early 1990s, "many countries will interpret this [as a sign] that Argentina supports the war [against Iran]."
I would bet that Argentina and the rest of South America will not end up on Ahmadinejad's side. Anyone disagree?

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On Culture Shock

2007-09-24T15:21:00.001-07:00

Stage 1: The Honeymoon

Wow! I just love Disney Land. Look there's Mickey. Wanna go on a ride?

Stage 2: Isolation

Holy crap! Will this never end? They just want to sell us stuff. Did you know everything here is monitored by camera and there are underground tunnels where they hatch their plans for absconding with our money.

Stage 3: Integration

Did you know goofy is pursing an advanced degree in urban design? He's such an interesting fellow.

More about the 3 stages here:

WorldWide Classroom: About Culture Shock

Americans, for instance, who go abroad in various governmental and business capacities, are usually members of the middle class and carry the values and aspirations of this class, some of which are an accent on the practical or utilitarian - work as a means to personal success, and suspicion of personal authority.

Accustomed to working in large hierarchical institutions like business corporations, governmental agencies, or scientific foundations which have a life of their own and persist in time, Americans tend to become impersonal. Individuals no matter how able are replaceable parts in these large institutions.

This will not stand, ya know, this aggression will not stand, man.

2007-09-23T09:54:00.001-07:00

AFP: Iran warns Argentina ahead of Kirchner UN speech

BUENOS AIRES (AFP) — Iran has warned Argentina against joining the enemy camp if Argentine President Nestor Kirchner criticizes Tehran at the UN General Assembly, the Iranian ambassador said in an interview Friday.

Kirchner is expected to mention Argentina's probe into alleged Iranian involvement in a deadly attack on a Jewish association in 1994, a leading representative of the Argentine Jewish community told AFP.

Authorities have yet to convict anyone for the bombing of the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association that left 85 dead and 300 injured.

But if Kirchner accuses Iran of wrongdoing, "numerous countries will understand that Argentina is in favor of war," the Islamic republic's ambassador to Buenos Aires Moshen Baharvand told the daily Clarin.

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Supreme Leader Tax

2007-09-20T22:08:00.001-07:00

I'm watching a talk on CSPAN from the AEI on Iran and I just learned of a 6% tax that is paid into the personal account of the Supreme Leader of Iran. Now I find this *really* hard to believe, so I went to google and I have yet to find anything authoritative.

I did find another blogger who thought this "fact" was blog worthy.

Makes corruption in Argentina look sophomoric, no?

Marathon Pundit: February 2007

The straightest of shooters, Iran expert and Pajamas blogger Michael Ledeen discusses with moderator Austin Bay the mullahocracy of Iran.

One thing I didn't know: Every purchase in Iran has a 5 to 6 percent "Supreme Leader tax" into the pocket of Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei.

Ledeen knows of no other such "tax" among the world's nations.

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Buenos Aires and Books

2007-09-19T16:53:00.001-07:00
One of the aspects of Buenos Aires that excites me is its book culture. I have no idea how long it will take me to learn to read in spanish but I look forward to it. I was telling Julia the other day that there's a nice bookstore near the place we are trying to buy. Here's some info:

El Ateneo Bookstore - Buenos Aires - Argentina 1860 Ave. Santa Fe

I hope they have wifi.

Here are some folks taking a very different approach to the book trade.

Broadband Adoption in BA

2007-09-19T15:38:00.001-07:00

Net4Now :: News Story

Head counters at Argentina's National Statistics Institute have released their quarterly report on Internet usage in the country, which shows a steady growth in broadband adoption.

The public statistics body began researching the Internet usage trends back in 2002 and started publishing quarterly reports in 2004. Five years ago, the total number of internet connections was near one and a half million, at 1,468,073. In 2007, that number nearly doubled to a total of 2.7 million users.
Source:theinquirer.net

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We're not in Kansas Anymore

2007-09-19T09:38:00.000-07:00
I'm thankful their are people like Rob watching al jazeera.

Scary what things one must consider when moving to Argentina. We're not in Kansas anymore...

I'll Take Urban, Please.

2007-09-19T00:42:00.001-07:00

I was reading Jacob's Cities and the Wealth of Nations tonight and decided to google her idea of "import replacement" being the vehicle of urban development. As per usual, I got a little side tracked along the way and found these images and ideas at City Comforts. Nice, no?

Back to Import Replacement:

At the same time, Jacobs makes it clear that development can only happen in one way: import replacement. A city develops by having entrepreneurs and inventors take apart imported goods and learn how they work and how to produce parts for them until they can produce them more cheaply than they can be imported. The example she keeps referring to is Tokyo's bicycle industry, which replaced American imports with
local production. Once a city replaces an import, it can use the extra money it gets to import other, typically more expensive goods, triggering further import replacement. This process is coupled to the full cycle of division of labor, in which division of labor involves adding new work, which in turn triggers more division of labor, and so on.
Now this bit about division of labor seems to be in the air lately. Over on the Kanbandev yahoo group we are talking about division of labor, the craft development model, and lean as it applies to software development. Then, during lunch, I was listening to the econtalk
podcast with Ed Leamer and it came up again -- no surprise for an academic econmics podcast, but still.

This was a great podcast and I look forward to listening to it again:
Ricardian model doesn't apply to everywhere (neither does
Heckscher-Ohlin). Economies of scale idea is implicit in Adam Smith. James Buchanan, earlier podcast (Mike Munger, Division of Labor): Two reasons for specialization: we're different, and extent of the market. Leamer: It's not really economies of scale, but rather keeping the human capital operating for long periods of time during the day.
Building a pin requires two tasks, building the shaft and building the head. When done by one person, most of the person's capital sits idle, as opposed to at a factory, which minimizes the capital costs. Market
creates specialized activities, legal system is now highly specialized, deployed for long hours during the day. Multitasking helps a little, but the brain is physically constrained by being in separate people.
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Assorted Bits

2007-09-18T11:32:00.000-07:00
People often complain about how difficult it is to get things done in Argentina. Well, Santa Cruz, CA is far from a efficient environment to do business in. Today we found out that a recent largish money transfer was miss handled by our local bank. Seems it was missing information and improperly formated. I knew I shouldn't have allowed the 22 year old new-hire to process my order. Oh, well. Not his fault.

It's 2 AM in the morning and I can't sleep. Time to study some spanish...
My tongue is in a rut and subsequently I can't trill my "R"s to save my life. It's as if I have some sort of proprioceptive disorder or something. I just can't get my tongue to trill those bloody "R"s. Time to look for help....

The technical term for this feat of the mouth is called a alveolar trill and the trick is to develop toungue strenght:
How to roll your "R"s?
It is the strength in your tongue and your ability to shape your inner mouth that make the trill possible.

The sound is made because of the Bernoulli's principle, an aspect of physics which defines the movement of fluids and gas over different shapes, and one of the principles of flight. In other words, the shape of your tongue will partially resemble an airplane wing, with the exhaled air passing over the top of the stiff, shaped lower tongue and vibrating the tip against the ridge like the flaps on an airplane wing.
At least I'm not alone.

The Libertarian Dream

2007-09-16T09:36:00.001-07:00

Libertarians come in many flavors, of course, but they share certain enthusiasms beyond free-market economics. They are often great consumers of science fiction, with an avid interest in space travel. And they have an almost unlimited enthusiasm for biotechnology, especially for advances that might allow us to manipulate our natures and extend our lives. Taken together, these elements constitute what might be called the libertarian dream--the dream of shaping your own meaning, liberated from family, from the past, from tradition, from biology, and perhaps even from the earth itself.

Oh, please.

[hat tip to art de vany]

A Happy Buenos Aires

2007-09-15T20:56:00.000-07:00
This just in:

Buenos Aires, Sept 15 (Prensa Latina) A Dutch citizen was arrested at Ezeiza international airport, in this capital, carrying more than 26,000 pills of ecstasy, Argentine authorities said on Friday.

The 58-year-old man, whose identity was not disclosed, came from Amsterdam, Holland, and arrived in Buenos Aires on Thursday night via Madrid on an Iberia flight.

Sources from the Customs Police were surprised because the man had succeeded to get around security measures at two modern and well-equipped European airports.

They added that due to their low content of amphetamines, it is hard to detect the pills, but the Argentine officers showed great skill in their work.

This was the largest shipment of ecstasy seized in Argentina over the past ten years, they said, and the third drug capture over the past three days, so experts think drug addiction is increasing in the country.

I'd like to think this has less to do with addiction and more to do with the upcoming Bjork concert. ;-)

Morning Coffee

2007-09-14T10:21:00.000-07:00
Still having the most fun? Hope she lands on her feet.
So, that's the trip. It was a very nice ten day getaway. The only downside was returning to work on Thursday and being informed that I no longer had a job.
Here's another local design and development firm. I wonder if there's a more accurate named for these types of businesses?

When I Grow Up

2007-09-13T15:40:00.000-07:00
Via crummy, I took the career quiz. In bold are the careers I've considered many of which I've already held.

Interior Designer
Exhibit Designer
Animator
Video Game Developer
Multimedia Developer
Computer Animator
Artist
Business Systems Analyst
Graphic Designer
Web Developer
Medical Illustrator
Database Developer
Computer Support Person
Industrial Designer
Computer Programmer
Desktop Publisher
Venture Capitalist
Potter
Craftsperson
Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator

Morning Coffee

2007-09-13T10:41:00.001-07:00
Apparently the coffee in Argentina sucks and the state controls what you can name your kids. Lucky for me, I'm not planning on kids but the coffee issue...

My Nightstand

2007-09-12T21:58:00.001-07:00

I no longer go in for those self help business books you see a lot of these days but I really did enjoy reading Seth Godin's the dip. It's a short book about quitting. This was a fun and fast read.

Next up, some Warren Elis.

Julia's Rules for Surviving a Relocation

2007-09-12T20:05:00.001-07:00
As you may know, Julia and I are in the process of moving to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This move entails a wholesale liquidation of our possessions, the purchase of property in a foreign country, and the possible loss of employment. Yowza!

Needless to say, things have been a little stressful in casa evans. Being a clever soul, Julia's in the processes of formulating some rules that should help us maintain our sanity while we seemingly put everything at risk.

Only one person can e paranoid at a time
Reason first, emotions second.
Move something forward each day
Kepp the big picture in mind
If the ultimate risk is small enough, then jump
Our home is wherever we are together.
We can let go of everything but each other.
Beer, music and beautiful things help.
My additions would be:

Watch Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain or maybe Zardoz. ;-)