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dragojustineThings that make me happy:
I got my motherboard back! And I think my computer still has minor Issues, but it WORKS! And I'm sitting in front of my Really Big Monitor, which doesn't give me posture issues, typing on a fullsize keyboard, saving Prison Break episodes to a hard drive that has like 100 gigs of room left, and yes little laptop you have served me faithfully I know but Yaay!
Random:
The South Korean military discharged a female pilot for lacking breasts, after a double masectomy, on the grounds that "army regulations require soldiers who are missing body parts to be discharged." This news story makes me go huh.
Thinky Thoughts:
This article from Reason magazine Sometimes I think that economics is bogus, what with the desire to quantify things that can't be quantified, except that while the numbers may be bogus the relative numbers and general conclusions probably aren't, and do we maybe learn enough from the attempt to quantify these things anyway? In any case, it ties in to lots of things I've been thinking. For one thing, about all the conversations back during the justification of the Iraq war, the constant argument of "does prosperity follow Democracy, or the other way around?" with the Republicans claiming the first, and many other people pointing hopefully to China and claiming the second. Except they were both missing (and several political scientists were saying this, but I didn't hear too much talk of it) the third factor, which is institutions. Both prosperity and democracy follow institutions- not inevitably, but they can, and neither one happens without them. Rule of law, trustworthy banking systems, transparent accounting practices... (as well as education and infrastructure, of course) Doesn't game theory 101 say that trust between participants is the only way to maximize outcomes? Institutions are the culture's way of establishing and then enforcing that trust. I think when we have conversations about being "business friendly" or liberals like me being "anti-business" I think maybe we lose sight of the fact that transparent and evenly enforced regulation is a drastically better climate for overall prosperity than the lack of same, that more money spent on infrastructure, education, and public healthy does more for the prosperity of a country than anything else, that a well-established tax system with a minimum of corruption is the ultimate "pro-business" pro-prosperity position and the rest is wrangling over details, and I wonder if sometimes, in a first world country, we take some awfully fundamental things for granted? </end ramble>
Wincon:
Wincon is now four days away and counting down fast, and I am SO EXCITED and SO FREAKING OUT. I need to start leaving comments for a few people about how they don't know me from Eve but I really really want to buy them a drink at Wincon. EEEEE!
Life:
This xkcd strip basically sums up my life for the last week. I need to get a job, obviously. I have started researching temp places, because that's a quick fix and I have very temp-place-oriented skills. I want to start advertising for tutoring but I am lacking a lot of the safety net here that I had in Seattle and it makes me nervous and I keep putting it off until I have a printer and local phone number, which will be awhile so maybe I need to step up, no?
I got my motherboard back! And I think my computer still has minor Issues, but it WORKS! And I'm sitting in front of my Really Big Monitor, which doesn't give me posture issues, typing on a fullsize keyboard, saving Prison Break episodes to a hard drive that has like 100 gigs of room left, and yes little laptop you have served me faithfully I know but Yaay!
Random:
The South Korean military discharged a female pilot for lacking breasts, after a double masectomy, on the grounds that "army regulations require soldiers who are missing body parts to be discharged." This news story makes me go huh.
Thinky Thoughts:
This article from Reason magazine Sometimes I think that economics is bogus, what with the desire to quantify things that can't be quantified, except that while the numbers may be bogus the relative numbers and general conclusions probably aren't, and do we maybe learn enough from the attempt to quantify these things anyway? In any case, it ties in to lots of things I've been thinking. For one thing, about all the conversations back during the justification of the Iraq war, the constant argument of "does prosperity follow Democracy, or the other way around?" with the Republicans claiming the first, and many other people pointing hopefully to China and claiming the second. Except they were both missing (and several political scientists were saying this, but I didn't hear too much talk of it) the third factor, which is institutions. Both prosperity and democracy follow institutions- not inevitably, but they can, and neither one happens without them. Rule of law, trustworthy banking systems, transparent accounting practices... (as well as education and infrastructure, of course) Doesn't game theory 101 say that trust between participants is the only way to maximize outcomes? Institutions are the culture's way of establishing and then enforcing that trust. I think when we have conversations about being "business friendly" or liberals like me being "anti-business" I think maybe we lose sight of the fact that transparent and evenly enforced regulation is a drastically better climate for overall prosperity than the lack of same, that more money spent on infrastructure, education, and public healthy does more for the prosperity of a country than anything else, that a well-established tax system with a minimum of corruption is the ultimate "pro-business" pro-prosperity position and the rest is wrangling over details, and I wonder if sometimes, in a first world country, we take some awfully fundamental things for granted? </end ramble>
Wincon:
Wincon is now four days away and counting down fast, and I am SO EXCITED and SO FREAKING OUT. I need to start leaving comments for a few people about how they don't know me from Eve but I really really want to buy them a drink at Wincon. EEEEE!
Life:
This xkcd strip basically sums up my life for the last week. I need to get a job, obviously. I have started researching temp places, because that's a quick fix and I have very temp-place-oriented skills. I want to start advertising for tutoring but I am lacking a lot of the safety net here that I had in Seattle and it makes me nervous and I keep putting it off until I have a printer and local phone number, which will be awhile so maybe I need to step up, no?