MushNet

Welcome to MushNet, my periodic commentary piece about politics, business, economics, technology, international relations, and the arts. This site is a tad disorganized and needs editing, but I hope you enjoy it.

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Daily Comments & Observations

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Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Government Staying Out of the Way - After StarShipOne won the X-Prize, the head of the FAA, who was on hand, indicated they want to promote future private spaceflight. In fact, aside from making sure no one on the ground is injured and that customers understand the risk, the FAA plans on staying out of the way. Her quote was: " There will be a bad day sooner or later,...,however, that as long as potential passengers truly understand the risks, the government's approach will be caveat aviator." This is the way the government should regulate (i.e. don't!)

Turkey Headed Towards the EU - The EU Executive Body today agreed to start negotiations with Turkey for EU membership in a decade or so. I am astonished this was even a question, as obviously Turkey and the EU have an intertwined future, not to menion as a secrlar Muslim state, but also as a bridge to Asia and the Arab world to the south. Geopolitically, this is of course the right thing to do; it might even force the EU economies to get their house in order (doubtful), though the currently joining countries might catalyze that first. Anyway, Go Turkey !

Monday, October 04, 2004

X-Prize & StarShipOne - Yeah ! We are now in space as private citizens. I cannot say enough about the brilliance of Burt Rutan, nor in this case the foresight of Paul Allen back him. Better still, we have a dozen or more teams all competing with various innovative designs. I now fully plan to go to space in my lifetime, to see this blue ball we live on from above ! Go to space, young man !

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Sentenced to be Gang Raped - This is so sickening I want to vomit, but it is unforunatley all too common in many places. See the NYT
op-ed piece on women sentenced to be raped, after which she was expected to kill herself. So horrific that it strains the mind to just comprehend such a thing. As the writer notes, sex equality, i.e. promoting women's rights is a, if not the, key issue for the 21st Century. Education, reproduction, micro lending, etc. are all key to lifting the developing world.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Redistricting - Time for a tiny new blog entry as I try to do more of this. Listening to an NPR interview today about the loss of freedom of speech due to politics, security, and economic growth. Haven't heard the whole thing yet, but it's certainly true that fixing redistricting to be non-partisan is probably the best single thing we can do to fix poliitcs; this would remove safe seats, making House races really competitive again. Sorely needed.

Sunday, February 29, 2004

Went on a Cruise - Wow, been a while since I've written. Just went on a cruise with my family - very interesting week long trip in the Caribbean; my first time. Only 3,000 other passengers - very impressive organization, basically running a 1500 room hotel and convention at sea, with various ports of call, dozens of tours, etc. Food was okay, weather was fantastic. Amazing how four super ships can show up at Grand Cayman and dump 12,000 tourists for a day - and not even a dock there; everyone comes and goes by ferry. Passengers were almost universally white, overweight, and from the north. Not to mention the 400 person tattoo shop owners convention on board.

Thursday, September 04, 2003

Cluelessness among Bush Team - A good NYT op-ed piece by Maureen Dowd about the novices in the Bush team, their continual policy reversals, and just the general cluelessness. It's truly embarassing to be a Republican as this piece neatly outlines the mess that's been created by poor planning, lack of knowledge, and hubris. Of course, as it focuses on Iraq, it leaves out the assault on liberties, the lack of real homeland security, and the rise of the religious right's power and influence.

Monday, August 18, 2003

That's Lobsterman, thank you - It's always an interesting challenge to know the right title for a woman in a role such as Chairman of the Board or other 'man'-oriented titles. As a feminist, I'm very supportive of, and sensitive to, women's needs such as respect and getting beyond stereotypes. I do, however, support titles such as Chairman. My whole perspective on this was reinforced lately while reading a note about a dicussion with Zoe Zanidakis, a female lobsterman- her quote was that she was "A Monhegan Island Lobsterman" - with disdain for any lesser title such as Lobsterwoman; she had grown up with that term and had earned the right to be called a Lobsterman, period. This is from one of the toughest and hardest working women (or person) in America. If she's okay with "...man" on her title, then it's okay with me, too.

Sunday, August 17, 2003

Perspective on Diversity - A great Atlantic Monthly (a great magazine) article on diversity and our lack of it on a local level. This all seems to make sense to me, though it's unfortunate - please work to make your circle of friends, neighborhoods, and churches more diverse. I would note that his opening paragarph indicates he sees no places where a very diverse group of folks live, but i'd argue that my old San Francisco neighborhood comes close.

Harsh Crime Penalties Causing Discord with Mexico - See my letter to the editor (scroll down quite a ways) about this article on problems extraditing US nationals from Mexico due to our life without parole sentences.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Bush & Marriage Just heard President Bush speak about gays and marriage - supporting all of us individually by saying we are all sinners and we need to respect those with good hearts. But, unfortunately, he strongly supported laws or other 'ways to codify' marriage as only between a man and a woman. Let's hope this never happens; perhaps the Supreme Court will overturn all of this - certainly it'll all go away within a decade or two, just like past limits on inter-racial marriage.

Hong Kong Visit - Just visited the Chinese city by the sea - very busy and interesting, as usual. Serioius issues abound, though, in addition to the obvious ones surrounding Chinese heavy-handedness. The economy has slowed, unemployment is up, and jobs continue to be drained away to China. It's not at all clear how things will improve, especially for the lower skilled classes. My visit to China itself, in Guangzhou, vividly demonstrated how vibrant things are there - entire economic zones swarming with shipping containers, factory construction, messangers on bikes, and everything that goes with a rapidly growing economy.

Wednesday, July 02, 2003

Stupidity in Iraq - It sure seems we can't do anything right there - stop looting, provide security, etc., but what really bugs me is our total lack of communication with the people. The local papers can't get interviews, we have no Arabic speakers who talk to them to quell massive and destructive rumors, etc. Why don't we have daily press conferences, hotlines for things, explain why there is no power, etc. Beyond that stupidity, we allow people to steal everything - see this report on stolen construction equipment lined up at the Iran border - we don't bother to stop it, so the future just melts away; it's been the story of the occupation, where we rapidly lose the capability to keep the lights on, to maintain order, to communicate, to fix things, etc. All that just makes the people feel worse and time is not on our side, as they will rebel eventually and it will be totally our fault.

Tuesday, May 20, 2003

Stupidity & Culture - Now, I'm a very culturally sensitive guy, especially in letting people do as they like; however, there are some global minimum requirements, especially in the area of women and children. It's really amazing what cultural norms can do to ruin people. See a NYT op-ed piece on this, talking about starving women and children in Africa: "The man eats first, and then the children and the wife eat together," Mr. Loka explained. Others confirm that across rural Ethiopia, the father eats first and the mother and children get leftovers — with the smallest kids mostly squeezed out. To address that problem, we need not just more food but, above all, education, so that, as in Ethiopia's cities, families eat together and understand the need to look out for their youngest members. I talked to members of one family who were hungry because their crops had failed from the drought, just 100 yards from a lake. Why hadn't they irrigated? The risk of being stomped by hippos was one factor, but another was that carrying water is women's work and tending the fields is men's work, and this cultural impasse left them stymied — and starving. "

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Bush Super Conservative ? Maybe not - Many claim he's an arch conservative and will push his religous views on everyone, yet in two key cases, he's walked away from, or at least tempered the far right. On stem cells, he could have easily banned them, but instead took a middle ground and hoped for breakthroughs and more evidence to help push forward their use. On the recent AIDS bill, he has pushed for the Uganda approach of ABC: Abstinence, Being Faithful, and Condoms, to the dismay of the Right. Yes, I would have decided in a bit more liberal fashion, but this is not the far right driving the president. Now, personally, I wish he'd do the right thing on Cuba, Abortion, AIDs, gays, race, etc. even if it pisses off the far right; who else are they going to support anyway, Democrats ?

State Budget Cuts; Chop Wages ? Interesting to watch all the discussion in California about the massive budget cuts; every single vested interest is arguing about why they should be spared. This is especially true in education, as people are naturally sensitive to their child's learning situation. Of course, the cuts are coming as job cuts, presumably of the youngest / newest (and cheapest) teachers; not a word about salary cuts, major reorganizations for effectiveness, or anything else truly useful. Same on transportation or prisons; why not cut salaries for folks are who are probably over paid in the first place. They all wanted raises when times were good, but of course not cuts now, so we are stuck with bloated salaries all the way around. Be interesting to see how we get out of this mess.

Monday, April 28, 2003

Legislating Morality - Senator Santorum is rightly under fire for his views on gays, though, as others have noted, he raises an important issue which is being lost in the larger noise of protest. His original question, which still stands, is how much should the government control what private, consenting adults do, and if we draw lines, where and how should we draw them ? He appears in favor of disallowing gay-sex, which I would not agree with, but what to do about polygamy and even incest - as a commentator asked, if three consenting adults want to be married, so what ? A good question. Further, the same commentator mentioned "what if a brother and sister, as adults, want to have sex; it's creepy, but should we outlaw it?" In this case, society has some interest in that activity, as any children of that liason would tend to have more inherited diseases, and thus it may fall closer to the current ban on marrying your first cousin. But, beyond that, what should be made illegal, and why ? Whose morals and judgements should be used ? There are no easy answers.

Friday, April 25, 2003

Never say Never - I love this quote, recently floating around the nanotech circles: "When a scientist says something is possible, they're probably underestimating how long it will take. But if they say it's impossible, they're probably wrong." - Richard Smalley of Rice University.

Thursday, April 24, 2003

Breakthrough Cancer Detection at UCSF - Was at a very interesting presenation at UCSF by Thea Tisty on her recent work on breast cancer detection by detecting the earliest changes in a cell as it begings its march towards cancer. Specifically, they have determined that the promoter for the p13 anti-cancer gene is hypermethylated and thus inactivated. This, in turn and among other things, causes COX2 to be produced, leading to other changes that eventually lead to cancer. Her group was able to detect cancer cells in 5 of 14 women whom were declared cancer free by multiple pathologists. She also noted that these detections occur decades before a lump would be found - the majority of women have breast cancer when they die, they just die of something else (in the same way most men have prostate cancer when they die). This is very exciting work for two reasons - one, the development of very early stage tests and two, COX2 can be inhibited by aspirin or the new COX2 inhibitors like Vioxx and Celebrex, leading to simple pre-cancer treatments that may delay the onset until after death. So, another reason to take a bit of aspirin, at any age.

Reach for the Stars - I love the American dream, especially one that reaches for the stars. Burt Rutan, the famous aero engineer, as done it again. He's built and entire private space program from sratch, in secret, with private funding. Not a dream, or a prototype, but a complete ready to go launcher and orbital plane that's been flying for over a year. They are ready for suborbital tests in a few months and real orbits soon. See Scaled for details. We need this type of drive and dreaming to bring down the costs of space, enabling a wide variety of interesting benefits from low orbit communications to cheaper space and earth probes to who knows what else. Now I need to find a way to get involved . . .

Tuesday, April 08, 2003

Arab Intellectuals and How to Make Progress - Responding to friend about good article in the NYT yesteday: He seems to make sense on most fronts (except the reasons for the war); even-handed, especially with regard to Israel, we are not. We have, have, have to find solutions there ASAP. Whether or not it really matters to others, they say it matters and use it as a big leverage point - we have to do right by Iraq, fix up Afghanistan, and get a peace settlement come hell or high water (which will mean pushing the Israelis whether they like it or not). Next, we have to find a new government path for Arab states, starting with Saudi Arabia, who should be told if one more dollar finds its way to extremist groups and if they do not fix their state media with regard to messages then regime change will happen sooner rather than later (remind them we are in a pissed and violent mood); same message to Pakistan; Yemen, etc. have already gotten the message while Egypt has not fully gotten it. We need Saudi more than Egypt, so we need to work on them on media, messages, etc. We are paying their ass for compliance to Israel and on various issues, but not getting much leadership these days. If it kills Mobarak (as it did Sadat), we need him to say the right things.

The biggest exhibited challenges we have in the Arab world, and why this guy doesn't support us, is Israel and dictator states in the Arab world; we need to fix both, this decade or sooner. Unfortunately, going to democracy in Saudi and elsewhere will be a disaster, as the extremists will win, so we need a strategy to avoid that, which includes cultivating guys like this to re-educate the population / Arab street. This is very difficult, but we need to lay the groundwork if we want democracy this decade. We also need to embrace Iran ASAP; Iranians love us far more than Arabs and we can make a big difference there and in that part of the world if we can do it (but, of course, we can't even talk to Castro, so I don't hold out lots of hope on this).

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

Stupid Backlashes Against Allies - How short-sighted can we be ? Sure, we are not happy with the French government for their position vis-a-vie Iraq, but now the House has renamed French Fries to Freedom Fries (see this CNN story). Idiotic stuff like this is a major reason other people dislike us; we are so simplistic and feeble minded sometimes. We should be supporting all our allies and friends Russia, Germany, and Mexico don't agree either, so do we start insulting them, too ? Bush should go out of his way to say we like the French people and the government, but we have differences to iron out; in the long run, all will be okay, instead of threatening and being the foolish bully we sometimes are.

Saturday, March 01, 2003

Fundamental Christianity as bad as Islam, etc. - Especially in the eyes of others. Interesting quote from a Davos reporter: "I attended a small lunch with
Ashcroft, and observed Ralph Reed and other prominent Christian fundamentalists working the room and bowing their heads before eating. The rest of the world's elite finds this American Christian behavior at least as uncomfortable as it does Moslem or Hindu fundamentalist behavior. They find it awkward every time a US representative refers to "faith-based" programs. It's different from how it makes non-Christian Americans feel -- these folks experience it as downright embarrassing." I couldn't say it better - looking at some of these pronouncements, they do indeed look foolishly religious as not terribly indistinguishable in tone from what radicals sometimes say. As I've written before, there is no place in government for overt faith, including in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Monday, February 03, 2003

Loss of the Columbia - It is of course a sad day, as we have lost a space shuttle and seven brave explorers. Much has been said about this elsewhere and it's not clear what I can add beyond a general celebration of their lives and accomplishments and the need to move forward. Why are we in space ? Why do we spend billions of dollars to fly a few folks around the Earth when there is so much to do here ? Many reasons, of course, including the science, though a fair amount of that can and probably should be done without humans invovled. Beyond that, we get useful technologies and knowledge from space travel, especially in materials and biology. But, in the end, it's about exploration and the world's richest country leading the effort to reach for the stars, as man has wanted to do for thousands of years. That search is highly motivational to the young men and women who want to be fly in space, go to Mars, build rocket ships, and improve the lot of humankind. Can we do it better ? Of course. Can we be more efficient ? Of course. Is it dangerous ? Of course. I was watching an interview with Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon; he said he was talking with his 10 year old granddaughter who indicated she understood what had happened and that brave people had died, but that she had always wanted to go to the moon. He asked her if she still wanted to go; she thought for a moment and said, "Yes." It's that spirit that we must keep alive as we reach for the stars . . .

White Collar Rust Belts ? - In a trend that has been building for some time, we are seeing more and more movement of white-collar jobs overseas. See a good Bueinss Week article and SlashDot posting. This is and will be the new reality, where not only blue collar jobs are being done elsewhere, but also professional positions such as fianancials, tech support, engineering, and research. The driver is of course cost and availability of brilliant minds elsewhere, something which improves productivity and generally increases our standard of living - keep in mind that all of this lowers our costs for everything. Of course, this also means millions of unemployed workers here, with the associated lower future earnings, turn to the remaining service positions, etc. The answer ? Same as it's always been - education, productivity, and moving up the value chain. Just as our answer to the Japanese in the 1980's was to improve training, quality, and technology, so shall it be here - you are responisble for your future and I hope you are learning new technologies and languages such as Chinese, as you'll need those skills in the next decade or two.