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Thursday, June 30, 2005 Positive Press By Diana Hsieh @ 10:39 AM I'm somewhat surprised -- and even pleased -- that Logan Darrow Clements' proposal to use eminent domain to transform Justice Souter's house into a hotel is receiving positive press from the mainstream media. Various people I respect (e.g. Gus) have expressed qualms in various fora about the proposal and its author. While I wouldn't wish to endorse the author, I do regard the proposal as a brilliant way of showing the concrete, practical results of the majority opinion authored by David Souter, namely that no man is safe in his ownership of his home any longer. It's quite just that David Souter ought to feel the effects of that loss of liberty sooner rather than later. I am wrong? If so, I'm sure that the errors of my ways will be revealed for all to see in the comments. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis "Is It Normal?" By Paul @ 10:35 AM Be forwarned, this is potentially a colossal time-waster. "Is It Normal?" How it works: 1. Read the small story below. 2. Ask yourself "Is it normal?" and choose "Yes" or "No" in the green box. 3. See what others thought on the left. Repeat. Example: "Sometimes I just stare at my hands and my wrists. The backs of my hands and how thin my wrists are and what colors they are and the veins and hairs and any scratches or marks. It just amazes me that these are my hands. I look at my fingernails and the folds of skin and the fingerprints... Does anyone else do this? Do you think it's normal, or weird?" Try it now. (Via Linkfilter.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, June 29, 2005 "Music Without Magic" By Paul @ 7:34 AM I recently ran across this fascinating article on musical aesthetics, which was basically a defense of tonal music and a pointed (but justified) critique of the avante-garde atonal music popularized by Schonberg and his intellectual descendants. Here are some selected excerpts: Let me emphasize immediately that the pleasing qualities of consonant chords and intervals, and the power of tonal relationships in general, are not arbitrary constructs. They were determined empirically, over the course of centuries. And they are firmly rooted in the laws of acoustical physics, with frequency ratios and a natural phenomenon called the harmonic series (or overtone series) playing vital roles. This is why Leonard Bernstein, in his 1973 Norton Lectures at Harvard University (published in book form as The Unanswered Question), devoted considerable time to a discussion of the harmonic series, and why he said, "I believe that from... Earth emerges a musical poetry, which is by the nature of its sources tonal." Or to put it another way, the origins of tonality lie not in a set of inventions and decisions but in the fundamental nature of sound. To be clear: Tonal music contains lots of dissonance. If you were to string together all the dissonant chords in a piece by Bach (or Schubert or Tchaikovsky or any other composer of tonal music) with no other chords between, the effect would loosen your fillings. But the dissonances in tonal music are never strung together that way, because the specific function of dissonance in tonal music is to provide tension, and that tension, in whatever degree it is established, is always resolved by a return to consonance. Indeed, the true genius of the tonal system is that in any given piece it enables a composer to combine the power and momentum of harmonic progressions with the simultaneous manipulation of melodic material, in ways that create the impression of a narrative, a dramatic structure complete with characters, rhetoric, direction, conflict, tension, uncertainty, and ultimate resolution. So, pleasing sounds, striking contrasts, coherent dramatic structures based on expressive musical elements that form clear (if sometimes complex) relationships and patterns -- for more than 200 years this remarkable system served as the unquestioned foundation of Western music, the foundation on which the works of the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods were all built. From Vivaldi to Mahler, Bach to Verdi, Mozart to Mussorgsky, Beethoven to Faure, countless composers of every conceivable individual and national style shared the basic framework of tonality; they spoke what was essentially a common musical language. Is the enduring popularity of these composers' works unrelated to that musical language? Is the still-central role of these works in our musical life an accident, a matter of chance or good public relations? No, and no. Is it fair to say that the powerful and perennial emotional appeal of tonal music reflects its extraordinary capacity to meet our oh-so-human musical expectations, to satisfy our longings for beauty, comfort, and meaning? Yes, indeed. [With respect to the 20th century atonal music] ...[I]t led ultimately to a 50-year modernist reign in the world of Western classical music, a reign in which to have any hope of being taken seriously by the critical and academic communities, composers were obligated, regardless of their specific styles and techniques, to avoid traditional tonal procedures and the comforts of consonance and to accept that dissonance was king. Now, it's true that we often add salt and hot spices to our food to enhance its flavor and heighten contrasts, and it's important to remember that some people like their food much hotter and spicier than others. I should emphasize here -- and I can't emphasize strongly enough -- that there are many contemporary composers, along with a host of not-so-contemporary composers, who have in varying degrees made use of 12-tone techniques and atonal procedures to write richly expressive and, indeed, powerfully moving and beautiful works... It's true as well that harsh elements can be a tool of great visual art, and that much great literature makes use of disturbing images or harrowing episodes, or both. But is there a chef on the planet who suggests swallowing a tablespoon of salt for an appetizer and following it with a bowl of Tabasco for an entree before washing it all down with a cup of vinegar? We know from listening to tonal music that dissonance can be wonderfully useful when it's employed imaginatively. It can enhance and even create meaning. But in and of itself, dissonance is something that people fundamentally don't like -- that's its very definition. When composers nonetheless demand that their listeners endure dissonance at great length and without letup, it's hard not to see that demand as something spiteful, as evidence of a musical philosophy that is stubbornly aggressive, even hostile. And it's easy to understand why that philosophy has never proved terribly popular with the concert-going public. The primary proposition in defense of avant-garde music of the relentlessly dissonant and persistently unpopular variety has always been that, through exposure and familiarity, we often come to appreciate, and even love, things that initially confuse or displease us. Here what we might call "the Beethoven Myth" comes into play. "Beethoven was misunderstood in his time," the argument goes, "but now the whole world recognizes his genius. I am misunderstood in my time, therefore I am like Beethoven." This reasoning, unfortunately, has been the refuge of countless second- and third-rate talents. Beethoven ate fish, too. If you eat fish, are you like Beethoven? But there's a much graver flaw in the argument: Beethoven was not misunderstood in his time. Beethoven was without doubt the most famous composer in the world in his time, and the most admired. And if there were those who didn't "get" his late string quartets, for example, there were plenty of others who did, and who rapidly accepted the quartets as masterpieces. In fact, the notion that great geniuses in the history of music went unrecognized during their lifetimes is almost entirely false. It's difficult to find an example of a piece we now consider a masterpiece that was not appreciated as such either while its composer was alive or within a relatively short period after his death... Inevitably, however, we return to the fact that there's something basic to human nature in the perception of "pleasing sounds," and in the strength of the tonal structures that begin and end with those sounds. Blue has remained blue to us over the centuries, and yellow yellow, and salt has never started tasting like sugar. With or without physics, consonances are consonances because to most people they sound good, and we abandon them at great risk. History will say -- history says now -- that the 12-tone movement was ultimately a dead end, and that the long modernist movement that followed it was a failure. Deeply flawed at their musical and philosophical roots, unloving and oblivious to human limits and human needs, these movements left us with far too many works that are at best unloved, at worst detested. The good news is that there are many composers today who, despite the uncertain footing, are striving valiantly, and successfully, to write works that are worthy of our admiration and affection. They write in a variety of styles, but the ones who are most successful are those who are finding ways -- often by assimilating ethnic idioms and national popular traditions -- to invest their music with both rhythmic vitality and lyricism. They're finding ways to reconnect music to its eternal roots in dance and song. They're also rediscovering, in many cases, the potential of tonal harmonies, and this seems like a positive step. Although the author is not an Objectivist and I don't agree with everything he says, there is much of value to Objectivists with an interest in musical aesthetics. Read the whole thing (original version or printer-friendly version). Via ALDaily. E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, June 28, 2005 An Unpromising Beginning By Diana Hsieh @ 7:35 AM This certainly turns the stomach: What if Ayn Rand and Mussolini got together to write a Hollywood movie? The result would look something very like Batman Begins--the new blockbuster prequel to the Batman screen franchise. Yup, that's the opening line of this review of Batman Begins. It's a stupid review even apart from the Rand and Mussolini theme, but if you search the comments below it for "Rand" you'll find a few funny little gems. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Monday, June 27, 2005 Explaining Grade Inflation By Diana Hsieh @ 10:59 PM Marginal Revolution recently linked to an interesting report on grade inflation by economist Mark Thoma. The data itself is fairly clear: Average GPAs stabilized in the '70s and '80s after a massive upward trend likely due to the Vietnam War draft. Then grades started drifting upwards again, for less obvious reasons, starting in the early '90s. Thoma's analysis of the data suggests an explanation that I've never heard before: My study finds an interesting correlation in the data. During the time grades were increasing, budgets were also tightening inducing a substitution towards younger and less permanent faculty. I broke down grade inflation by instructor rank and found it is much higher among assistant professors, adjuncts, TAs, instructors, etc. than for associate or full professors. These are instructors who are usually hired year-to-year or need to demonstrate teaching effectiveness for the job market, so they have an incentive to inflate evaluations as much as possible, and high grades are one means of manipulating student course evaluations. Even if younger teachers in fairly tenuous positions are largely responsible for the recent upward trend in grades, even a subconscious desire to bribe the students into good evaluations is hardly the only possible explanation for it. (I'm particularly skeptical given that evaluations are often done a week or two before the end of the semester, when students don't yet know their final grade, but only their grades on early exams and/or papers.) So here's another possibility: Due to their lack of experience, newer teachers are less likely to have the skills required for doling out low grades, such as a finely-honed detector of student bullshit, a cultivated indifference to the self-created problems of irresponsible students, an adequate understanding of all that a diligent student is capable, confidence in the justice of the grades awarded, strategies for putting off pushy students, and so on. Those skills can be difficult to cultivate, even for teachers committed to actually educating their students. Of course, honest educators will develop them with time. In contrast, second-handers who primarily seek to be liked by their students, whether in exchange for high evaluations or not, will not. The unpleasant results of the inexperienced teaching the lazy but demanding seems fairly evident in this Washington Post article on grade inflation. I suspect the real culprit has not yet been identified. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis No Stockholm Syndrome For This Swede By Paul @ 8:25 AM A Swede who had been held hostage in Iraq for 47 days has "hired bounty hunters to track down his former captors, promising to eliminate them one by one". Ulf Hjertstrom told reporters, "I have now put some people to work to find these bastards,...I invested about $50,000 so far and we will get them one by one." If Iraq had a fully functioning, effective, rights-protecting government, I would not condone this sort of action. But given that it doesn't, I don't have the same sort of objections that I normally would. Or as Doc Holliday said of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, "It's not revenge he's after. It's a reckoning." (Via Rand Simberg.) In a related story, Douglas Wood (the Australian hostage who had been held captive by the same terrorists) recently called them "a**holes" during his press conference. In response, Andrew Jaspan (editor-in-chief of the Australian newspaper The Age), said that Wood's remarks were "boorish" and "coarse". According to Jaspan, "The issue really is largely, speaking as I understand it, he was treated well there. He says he was fed every day, and as such to turn around and use that kind of language I think is just insensitive." I guess he thinks Wood should have sent the kidnappers a thank you note, instead. (Via Volokh.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Sunday, June 26, 2005 Medical Notes By Diana Hsieh @ 8:03 AM Fun medical humor, supposedly actual notes from medical records: 1. The patient refused autopsy. 2. The patient has no previous history of suicides. 3. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital. 4. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days. 5. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night. 6. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year. 7. On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared. 8. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed. 9. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993. 10. Discharge status: Alive but without my permission. 11. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert but forgetful. 12. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch. 13. She is numb from her toes down. 14. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home. 15. The skin was moist and dry. 16. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches. 17. Patient was alert and unresponsive. 18. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid. 19. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce. 20. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy. 21. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation. 22. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized. 23. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function. 24. Skin: somewhat pale but present. 25. The pelvic exam will be done later on this floor. 26. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall. 27. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Saturday, June 25, 2005 Lost Trivia By Diana Hsieh @ 9:59 AM While poking around on IMDB, I found this interesting little bit of Lost trivia: Due to his childhood in America, Daniel [Dae Kim] knew very little Korean before he did "Lost". He has said that his co-star on that show Yoon-jin Kim, who is fluent in both English and Korean, has been invaluable in coaching him on his Korean, which has apparently improved. Ironically, to the audience's knowledge, Daniel's character knows nothing but Korean. Heh. Just in case I haven't mentioned it before, Daniel Dae Kim is a pleasure to behold. If I were to channel Homer, I'd say: "He appears comely like a god amongst mere mortal men." If I were to channel The Cure, I'd say: "Hot Hot Hot!" E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Friday, June 24, 2005 Unexpected Creatures By Diana Hsieh @ 3:29 PM While biking around Sedalia, I expect to see horses, donkeys, mules, cattle, bison, and llamas, and so on. I don't expect to see camels. So I was pretty surprised to see two of them in pasture on a recent bike ride. It was quite surreal, actually. One was laying in the grass a few hundred feet off, while this friendly guy was near the fence by the road. Although I'm not wholly certain of the division of property, they seem to be at Boomerang Farm, the former home of my two horses. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Immigration Nightmares By Diana Hsieh @ 9:07 AM In speaking to a friend of mine who often travels overseas for business the other day, I was reminded of the pointless horrors of our immigration system. If I recall correctly, his high-tech worker friend must risk life and limb by returning to Nepal so that he might spend months applying for one visa that he knows in advance will be rejected, so that he can then apply for another visa which he suspects will be accepted. Isn't that lovely? I fear that far too many Americans are largely unaware of the problem. They are not directly subject to it, but might only hear of it from foreign friends. (I'm certainly in that boat.) So I'm glad to see (via Virginia Postrel) that business leaders like Steve Forbes are giving the Bush Administration a much-needed thrashing over this issue. If only American business had the grand conspiratorial powers attributed to it by leftists, this problem would have been solved long ago. But they do not, so it has not. Crossposted to The Egosphere. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Thursday, June 23, 2005 Rollback on Rights By Diana Hsieh @ 3:40 PM I'm really depressed by this announcement from the Institute for Justice. I'm used the Supreme Court handing down a mixture of good and bad decisions, but this term seems like all bad, all the time. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 23, 2005 Homeowners Lose Eminent Domain Case Institute for Justice Warns: Supreme Court Leaves Homeowners Vulnerable To Tax-Hungry Bureaucrats & Land-Hungry Developers Washington, D.C.- Today, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a blow to home and small business owners throughout the country by allowing the government to use eminent domain to take homes so that businesses can make more money off that land and possibly pay more taxes as a result. The Institute and its clients issued the following statements after learning of today's decision. Chip Mellor, the president of the Institute for Justice, said, "The majority and the dissent both recognized that the action now turns to state supreme courts where the public use battle will be fought out under state constitutions. The Institute for Justice will be there every step of the way with homeowners and small businesses to protect what is rightfully theirs. Today's decision in no way binds those courts." "The Court simply got the law wrong today, and our Constitution and country will suffer as a result," said Scott Bullock, senior attorney for the Institute for Justice. "With today's ruling, the poor and middle class will be most vulnerable to eminent domain abuse by government and its corporate allies. The 5-4 split and the nearly equal division among state supreme courts shows just how divided the courts really are. This will not be the last word." "One of the key quotes from the Court to keep in mind today was written by Justice O'Connor," Bullock said. "Justice O'Connor wrote, 'Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random. The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms.'" Dana Berliner, another senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, said, "It's a dark day for American homeowners. While most constitutional decisions affect a small number of people, this decision undermines the rights of every American, except the most politically connected. Every home, small business, or church would produce more taxes as a shopping center or office building. And according to the Court, that's a good enough reason for eminent domain." Mellor said, "Today's decision doesn't end the Institute for Justice's fight against abuses of eminent domain. We will work to ensure not only that the property owners in New London keep their homes, but that all home and small business owners are protected from these unconstitutional land grabs by governments and their business allies. This is a terrible precedent that must be overturned by this Court, just as bad state supreme court eminent domain decisions in Michigan and Illinois were later overturned by those courts." Susette Kelo, one of the homeowners challenging eminent domain abuse, said, "I was in this battle to save my home and, in the process, protect the rights of working class homeowners throughout the country. I am very disappointed that the Court sided with powerful government and business interests, but I will continue to fight to save my home and to preserve the Constitution." Mike Cristofaro, another one of the homeowners whose family has owned property in Fort Trumbull for more than 30 years, said, "I am astonished that the Court would permit the government to throw out my family from their home so that private developers can make more money. Although the Court ruled against us, I am very proud of the fight we waged for my family and for the rights of all Americans." This dark cloud does have a silver lining in the hard work of the folks at the Institute for Justice. Still, it's pretty damn depressing. Update: Paul told me of a Slashdot post that summarized this news well: "All your home are belong to us." If you don't know what that means, see this Google search. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Explaining Lunacy By Diana Hsieh @ 6:15 AM At some point, I would like to see an explanation as to why so many very successful businessmen are complete loons. Case in point: Ted Turner. On The Corner, John Podhoretz writes: TED TURNER, SOVIET SUCK-UP, NOW SAYS HE WON THE COLD WAR [John Podhoretz] Check this out: Speaking on the occasion of the network's 25th anniversary, CNN founder Ted Turner told Christiane Amanpour, "I'm absolutely certain I did" play a major role in ending the Cold War. How, exactly? By sucking up to Soviet puppet states from Cuba to the Sandinista-dominated Nicaragua? By paying the Soviet government millions to host a counter-Olympics called "The Goodwill Games"? Turner is a perplexing figure. On the one hand, he's a brilliant businessman -- and if his former colleagues at Time Warner had listened to him instead of sending him to the glue factory, the company wouldn't have made the ridiculously ruinous merger with AOL. On the other, he's a loon. I have personal experience of his lunacy. In 1994, I attended the annual confab of television critics in Los Angeles. One evening, Turner hosted and sponsored an event to promote a documentary series called The Native Americans. This was the most politically correct program imaginable, and the event featured a Sioux dance-and-drum troupe putting on an endless performance in a hotel ballroom. We all watched in respectful silence. Then Turner got up and said, "I want to thank you all for coming. But I better thank the entertainment first. After all, I don't want them to scalp me." One of the show's producers, Jonathan Taplin, put his head in his hands. The musician Robbie Robertson, who wrote the score and was sitting next to me, coughed in astonishment, tapped me on the shoulder and shook his head in disgust. And then Turner laughed at his own joke. And kept laughing. Like a hyena. Lovely. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, June 22, 2005 The World's Gayest Logos By Paul @ 7:22 PM According to Radar Online, these are the world's gayest logos. Not that there's anything wrong with that... (Via Boing Boing.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Giving to Altruism By Diana Hsieh @ 9:55 AM Tom Rowland has two philosophically interesting tales on his blog that I wanted to note. Most recently, he posted a story about inadvertently granting the premise of altruism in attempting to beg off from a salesman, with an excellent alternative suggestion. A bit earlier, he posted a a delightful story concerning a parent's support for the brutal honesty of his child. Both are well worth reading! E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, June 21, 2005 Fake Apologies By Diana Hsieh @ 5:17 PM I've grown to thoroughly hate fake apologies like that recently offered by Senator Dick Durbin. As you might recall, he offered the following astonishing remarks about the treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners last week: If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their prisoners. Unsurprisingly, more than a few people were upset by these remarks. After first refusing to apologize, he issued this statement on Friday: I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings: our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support. Best of the Web correctly observes that "Durbin is trying to appease his critics by offering what looks vaguely like an apology but actually isn't." Unfortunately, the mainstream news media isn't so perceptive. All of the latest headlines report that statement as an apology. If Senator Durbin genuinely believes that American soldiers are acting like the Nazi, Soviet, or Khmer Rouge soldiers who starved, tortured, and murdered millions, he ought to defend that view. If he realizes that he misspoke in some horrible way, he ought to offer a genuine apology, as well as clearly explain the relationship between what he said, what he meant to say, and his "true feelings." In either case, he's likely still be rightly judged an idiot. However, at least he wouldn't be a cowardly spineless weasel of an idiot. This absurd episode makes me all the more appreciative of Aristotle's comments on the qualities possessed by the proud man, some of which I read at Titan Toastmasters last night. Here's the relevant bit: [The proud man] must also be open in his hate and in his love (for to conceal one's feelings, i.e. to care less for truth than for what people will think, is a coward's part), and must speak and act openly; for he is free of speech because he is contemptuous, and he is given to telling the truth, except when he speaks in irony to the vulgar. Although it goes without saying, I'll say it anyway: Senator Durbin is not a proud man. Crossposted to The Egosphere. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Quick By Diana Hsieh @ 4:10 PM That was quick, but hardly unexpected: L.A. Times Suspends 'Wikitorials'. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis "Drop Those Nose Hair Clippers, Soldier!" By Paul @ 3:05 PM US military personnel on a recent chartered flight from Savannah, Georgia to Kuwait City were notified of ...the FAA regulation that requires soldiers -- all of whom were armed with an arsenal of assault rifles, shotguns and pistols -- to surrender pocket knives, nose hair scissors and cigarette lighters. (Via Bruce Schneier.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Listening to Aristotle By Diana Hsieh @ 7:50 AM As I mentioned in my book meme post, I'm re-reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics by listening to the audiobook from Audible.com. (It's just over 10 hours long.) I finished Book I last night. When I purchased the audiobook, I was worried that Aristotle might be too dense and compact to work well in audio form. However, it seemed reasonably comprehensible when I listened to a sample. I'm pleased to report that it's going rather well, although it is quite strange to be listening to rather than reading Aristotle. The narrator is slow and measured in his reading, but not exciting. So it feels like I'm carefully chewing on the text, rather than racing through it, as I sometimes do while reading. Yet listening to Aristotle also requires significantly more concentration than listening to Homer, Herodotus, and Xenophon. (Over the years, I've carefully trained myself to quickly notice when my attention falters, so that I can immediately rewind and listen to the missed portions of an audiobook or lecture again. That habit makes a huge difference in my capacity to absorb the material.) So it's pretty hard work, but well worth the effort, of course. Overall, I'd recommend the audiobook as an worthwhile addition to reading Aristotle. The audio offers a bit of a fresh perspective on the text. However, I suspect that the audiobook would be tough going for someone wholly new to Aristotle's ethics, since it's harder to re-listen to confusing passages than to re-read them. I'd like to try some other philosophy texts in audiobook form, although the mere thought of listening to Kant's convoluted Critique of Pure Reason fills me with existential dread! Crossposted to The Egosphere. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Monday, June 20, 2005 Swimming Pools Vs. Guns By Paul @ 3:15 PM According to this interesting article, A child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident than in gunplay, writes Steven D. Levitt, University of Chicago economics professor and best-selling author. Levitt analyzed child deaths from residential swimming pools and guns and found one child under 10 drowns annually for every 11,000 pools. By comparison, one child under 10 each year is killed by a gun for every 1 million guns... In part because they are so familiar, swimming pools are less frightening than guns, Levitt writes... Water kills an average of three children each year in Tucson and, even with proper fences, swimming lessons and caution, danger lurks. "Living with a swimming pool in your back yard is like living next to the Grand Canyon," said Dr. Bob Berg, a pediatric intensive specialist at University Medical Center and a UA professor. "You should never feel comfortable there." But for some reason, the same people who advocate gun control aren't also advocating mandatory licensing and safety tests for homeowners prior to letting them put a swimming pool into their backyards. (Via Tom McMahon.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis The Book Meme By Diana Hsieh @ 7:48 AM I hope that late is better than never for this "book meme" from The Anger of Compassion: You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be? The Iliad, preferably in its original form, but only if I first learn ancient Greek. (The original poetry would be much easier to memorize than any translated prose version.) Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Hank Rearden, maybe. (Perhaps that's why I always imagine him dark-haired, rather than as the blonde that he is.) Oh, and Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice, of course. The last book you bought is: Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives The last book you read: Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood Oh wait, I just finished The Histories by Herodotus. I actually listened to the two volume audiobook under the title "The Persian Wars," available from Audible.com here and here. What are you currently reading? Since I'm presently reading a bunch of books, I've ordered them by frequency of read: Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle. Instead of re-reading, I'm listening to the W.D. Ross translation available from Audible.com. The Landmark Thucydides, a well-annotated version of History of the Peloponnesian War. The Russian Tradition by Tibor Szamuely. This work is a fantastic cultural study of Russia. It nicely fills in the cultural gaps in Richard Pipes more political/military trilogy on Russia. (Although I'm just in the first section of the book, so far it seems like the best possible source for understanding why Ayn Rand hated the culture of Russia so completely.) The Ideas of Ayn Rand by Ron Merrill. See my comments here and here on this work. Virtue Ethics edited by Roger Crisp and Michael Slote. A collection of better and worse essays in virtue ethics. A Short History of Medieval Philosophy. A good survey, if you're interested in the topic. Oh, and I forgot Return of the Primitive and The Ayn Rand Reader. I'm reading them for the two Front Range Objectivism discussion groups, 1FROG and 2FROG respectively. Five books you would take to a deserted island: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand The Objectivist Newsletter by Ayn Rand et al The Objectivist by Ayn Rand et al The Iliad by Homer Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons)? And Why? Paul Hsieh of GeekPress. To pester him into writing for NoodleFood. Don Watkins of Anger Management. To see what he's been up to of late. Mr. Self of Noumenal Self. To perhaps induce him to blog something, even if silly. As for everyone else, feel free to post your own lists in the comments, if you're so inclined! E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Sunday, June 19, 2005 Paul's True Nature Revealed By Diana Hsieh @ 10:15 PM A few weeks ago, Paul and I were watching an early episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Actually, I was watching intently, but Paul was somewhat distracted by work on his computer.) The episode was that horribly gripping one in which Angel loses his soul after a night with Buffy. Toward the end of the episode, as Buffy is fighting the soulless shell of the man she loves, Paul suddenly pipes up from nowhere with a plaintive "Oh Buff-a-roo!" Of course, I was so delighted with this unexpected cry that I spent the next few days loudly exclaiming "Oh Buff-Buff-a-roo!" at random intervals around the house. (The double "Buff" was my own embellishment, of course.) Truly, I have The Best Husband Ever. Buff-Buff-A-Roo!!! E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Saturday, June 18, 2005 Lost in Translation By Diana Hsieh @ 7:51 AM Somehow, I suspect that something has been lost in the translation of this post to English: Batman begins Mirror-on-line reports that the success of a film depends above all on which the visitors of the first conceptions tell about it. I white not, whether Dinah Mertz Hsieh belonged to the first visitors of the film Batman begins, but in any case drives it eagerly mouth propaganda: "I was considerable baff over the film. I could not be dreamed that he is so good." Despite the jumble of obviously wrong words, its meaning can still be fairly well understood! (It reminds me of the very funny spoof double translated interview with Madonna, actually.) E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Friday, June 17, 2005 The Little Girl and the Telescope By Paul @ 7:51 AM An excellent little vignette. (Via Rand Simberg.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Ayn Rand and Song of Russia By Diana Hsieh @ 7:50 AM I recently finished reading Robert Mayhew's latest book: Ayn Rand and Song of Russia: Communism and Anti-Communism in 1940s Hollywood. (It won't be his latest book for long, since the much-anticipated anthology he edited, Essays on Ayn Rand's Anthem, will be available on June 28th, according to Amazon. Mayhew seems to write and edit books faster than I can read them!) As the title suggests, the book is an examination of Ayn Rand's testimony on the movie Song of Russia before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1947. (As such, it is a work of history rather than philosophy, although it does contain philosophic analysis of the issues at hand.) Part I offers three chapters of helpful background information on the movie. Perhaps most importantly, Mayhew offers a detailed synopsis of Song of Russia. (According to a footnote, the movie is occasionally shown on TCM. I've set the TiVo to record it automatically if it shows up, as I'm very curious to see it now! I've also set it to record Mission to Moscow, which is apparently even worse communist propaganda.) In addition to the synopsis, Mayhew includes a chapter on the making of the movie with particular attention to the involved communists and the changes made in production and a chapter on its reception in the press and elsewhere. (I was particularly surprised to learn of the nature and extent of the meddling in the production of movies by FDR's administration.) In Part II, Mayhew turns to Ayn Rand's testimony before the HUAC. He begins with a chapter on her life up through the testimony, particularly focusing on her childhood in Russia, her work in Hollywood, and the publication of We the Living. He examines Ayn Rand's general view of the HUAC hearings, including a detailed and interesting discussion of the supposed moral crime of "naming names." In the next two chapters, Mayhew examines the accuracy of Ayn Rand's testimony about the utterly false picture of life in Soviet Russia in Song of Russia, as well as her rejection of the supposed need to lie about the true condition of our Russian ally during World War II. The final chapter considers the absurd responses of various leftists to Ayn Rand's testimony. As I've come to expect from Robert Mayhew's work, Ayn Rand and Song of Russia was a careful and thorough examination of the topic at hand. I particularly appreciated the clarity of Mayhew's writing, in both the structure and the prose. The analyses were methodical, but never dragged on in dullness. (In fact, I ever remarked on a number of powerful points of rhetoric to Paul as I was reading.) Although more can always be said about side topics in any writing, I finished the book with a good grasp of the core issues. (Although all that praise is well-deserved, but I'd better stop before I embarrass myself by gushing like a schoolgirl!) As you might have guessed already, I highly recommend Ayn Rand and Song of Russia, particularly to those with an interest Ayn Rand's HUAC testimony or the communist influence in Hollywood. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Thursday, June 16, 2005 It's About Time! By Diana Hsieh @ 2:53 PM I've finally updated my musty old blogroll, as you can see for yourself to the right. (I also switched from a weekly to a monthly archive and moved that list to below the blogroll, as suggested.) A few comments are in order: First, the listing is permanently provisional. Over time, new blogs will be added, defunct blogs will be removed, and listed blogs will be read more or less often. To keep the blogroll relatively fresh, I've set up a recurring task in Outlook to remind me to update my blogroll every three months. Second, if a blog you think I'd like (whether your own or not) isn't listed, drop me an e-mail. (You can also post a link in the comments on this post.) I'll privately bookmark it in my "blogroll in future" folder, read it for a while, and then add it to my blogroll with the next update if I like it. Also, if you've written a particular post in which I might be interested (whether just to read or also to link), drop me an e-mail with the link and text in the body of the e-mail. It's always good to include a sentence or two indicating why I should be interested, even when it seems glaringly obvious to you. Third, I read the blogs I do because I find that the writers have something interesting to say, even though I might strongly disagree on a host of issues. So please do not consider a blogroll listing to be an endorsement of the blog over and above the minimal notion that "Diana finds this blog interesting." Fourth, although Paul posts here on occasion, his musty old blogroll can be found on GeekPress. This blogroll is all mine. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Flight from Facts By Diana Hsieh @ 8:34 AM Why am I not surprised by this news? Schiavo's Parents Not Swayed by Autopsy: "An autopsy that found Terri Schiavo suffered from severe and irreversible brain-damage has done nothing to sway her parents' position that she deserved to live and may have gotten better with therapy." I expected as much. Her family traded in facts for fantasy a long, long time ago. (Also as expected, the autopsy also cleared Michael Schiavo of their malicious accusations that he abused his wife.) Those who savagely attacked Michael Schiavo for wanting to end his wife's life were beyond wrong. Life is not intrinsically valuable. She had a right to end it if she no longer found it worth living. (By definition, someone in her state could not "find it worth living," but that's beside the point, legally speaking.) The worry that Terri ought to live because she never put her wishes into writing is somewhat more reasonable, but still wrong. The man she voluntarily chose to marry was empowered by law to make such decisions for her, should she become incapacitated. Her verbal comments about her end-of-life preferences to him were more than legally adequate. (Frankly, I wish that Colorado law was so clear, in that I'd like the default to be that Paul is wholly in charge. Here, friends and family are supposed to reach a "consensus." For the record, I want the plug pulled if no reasonable hope exists of meaningful intellectual work, i.e. of intelligently reading, writing, and discussing ideas. I don't want to be a permanent moron any more than I want to be a permanent vegetable.) Those who doubted Michael Schiavo's concern for his wife due to his new family (i.e. his live-in girlfriend and kids) were making unreasonable, intrinsicist demands on him. He stayed with Terri faithfully for the first few years, when he had some hope of recovery. After all hope was gone, what obligation does a man have to remain faithful for years and years to his breathing corpse of a wife? None, obviously. He did so in order to faithfully execute her wishes. That shows him to be a more devoted husband than most, I think. Even those sympathetic to Michael Schiavo's side were often confused by his commitment to ending his wife's life. Why not just let her parents take over Terri's care? Were all the years of legal wrangling really worth it? If she's just a breathing corpse, what does it matter? Although I certainly don't know the details, Michael Schiavo's quiet actions suggest a strongly principled stand on the matter. He loved his wife. He knew that she did not wish to remain alive in such a condition. Perhaps he even knew that she doubted or rejected her parents' faith. Out of respect for the person she was, he was unwilling to dump her into the nightmare fantasy world created by her parents. Speaking personally, if Paul was in a similar situation, I would fight to my last penny to end his life. The thought of voluntarily turning him over to faith-driven family wishing to keep him alive at all costs is just horrifying. To do so would constitute a betrayal of all the principles by which we had chosen to live. The fact that he wouldn't know the difference is irrelevant: I would know. (Happily, Paul's parents are reasonable Christians. My parents aren't religious at all. So I have few worries about either family interfering with our wishes in such matters.) Frankly, I think that all reasonable people owe Michael Schiavo our gratitude. His principled commitment to his wife revealed the dangerous ugliness of those advocates of the utterly misnamed "culture of life." Labels: Religion E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Wednesday, June 15, 2005 Oh, Happy, Happy Day By Diana Hsieh @ 9:58 PM Paul and I saw Batman Begins this evening. As I wrote a few days ago, I was cautiously optimistic about the movie. I feared that it would be like all other live action Batman movies to date, namely Yet Another Complete and Total Betrayal of the True Nature of Gotham's Dark Knight. Yet I was also slightly hopeful, since the creators seemed to recognize those past wrongs -- and wanted to right them. I was pretty flabbergasted by the movie. Even in my wildest dreams, I did not expect it to be so good. (I didn't think it was possible!) Since it's too difficult to say what I liked so much about the movie without spoiling it, I won't bore you with a bunch of glittering generalities. Let me just say that it's real Batman movie, particularly in its dark psychology. So if you love Batman, do not fear seeing this movie. Unless you are wholly deranged, you will enjoy it. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Lateral Thinking Puzzle of the Day By Paul @ 7:20 AM This is from the CarTalk website. I'm getting old and a little absent-minded, so my friends got together and bought me a stylish little desk calendar. It's a cradle for two cubes, each with one number per face. They figured I probably had enough left in me to figure what year it was and what month it was, but the date was going to elude me. So, this little gift was going to show the date. So, for example, if it were the 21st, I'd rotate one cube until a "2" was showing, and the other would show a "1". The next day I would know to rotate one cube so, together, the two cubes would read "22". With the two cubes, I was able to express every date. For example, if it were the 2nd of the month, it would be expressed as "02". If it were the 18th you'd put up a 1 and an 8, and so on. Here's my question. If you were designing the cubes, what numbers would you paint on each one so you could express all the dates from "01" to "31"? Here're a few hints: you're going to run into a problem because you're not going to have enough faces. Maybe. There are several right answers and lots of wrong answers. But all the right answers have one thing in common. (It took me 5 minutes; I don't know how long it took Diana.) E-mail Paul    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Ayn Rand on Aristotle By Diana Hsieh @ 10:14 PM Generally, I have absolutely zero interest in memorabilia of any kind, including that related to Ayn Rand. However, when Fred Weiss pointed me to this auction page a few days ago, the prospect of owning Ayn Rand's working copy of Richard McKeon's The Basic Works of Aristotle sent my little heart all a pitter patter. (Then I saw the estimated price. Ouch!) E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis The iPod on Wheels By Diana Hsieh @ 11:35 AM A few months ago, Paul bought a Griffin iTrip, an FM transmitter that enables him to listen to his iPod on any FM station in his car. I wasn't happy with its performance in either of our cars. Even when it worked well, the signal wasn't stong enough. At other times, the static was unbearable, whatever the station. So I certainly didn't want an iTrip -- or any FM transmitter. I was hoping to get the NeoCar Ion. It corrects directly to the stereo, both piping in the music and charging the iPod. It even allows you to control the iPod with the stereo controls. Unfortunately, despite what their web site says, it is not available yet for my 2002 Mazda Tribute. (They were good enough to call me about it after I placed my order. They also promised to notify me once they get it working for my make and model of car.) So until the NeoCar becomes available to me, I decided to content myself with a cassette adapter. However, the one I had wouldn't work at all: it kept autoreversing in my cassette player. Happily, I quickly found these instructions on how to modify the cassette adapter so as to eliminate the problem. (Internal parts must be removed; it took about 5 minutes.) Interestingly, the sound quality is much, much better with the cassette adapter than with iTrip even at its best. Most unexpected results, I must say! E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis Monday, June 13, 2005 Okay, Now I'm Tired By Diana Hsieh @ 4:13 PM I just biked 40 miles south and east of our house, including 2400 feet uphill. (The clip that attaches our GPS to my bike handles was the best $18 I've ever spent, I think.) Most of the ride was stunningly beautiful. Since I began biking this spring, I've realized just how much fabulous countryside we have around Sedalia that can only be properly appreciated from a bicycle. Traveling the same roads by car is inadequate, due both to the greater speed and to the enclosure of the car. One of my other delights, cross country horseback riding offers many of the same benefits, although with territory not accessible by vehicle. I regard it as infinitely superior to hiking in that a rider can cover far more territory. More importantly, the rider is not stuck looking down at the boring dirt and rocks of the trail to ensure his footing. Of course, some territory cannot be traversed except on foot, so then hiking is necessary. In any case, I must admit: After all that pedaling, I'm a bit pooped. E-mail Diana Hsieh    PermaLink    Comments (Popup)    BloggerThis The Ideas of Ayn Rand, Take Two By Diana Hsieh @ 11:07 AM