tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58847910423712607712024-03-05T20:18:56.040-08:00Accident of HistoryCommentary on world history, economics, technology, sports and other cultural trends.arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.comBlogger69125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-30554221006735409602016-11-12T16:33:00.003-08:002016-11-12T16:33:55.734-08:00Sex EducationLike most American boys of my generation, everything I learned about sex before I was an adult was from my peers. The kids who were just like me and who lived in my neighborhood passed along information, usually from the older kids to the younger ones. And of course much of it was misinformation.<br />
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I "learned" things like:<br />
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<li>Most girls don't want to have sex. A boy had to trick a girl into having sex by misrepresenting himself. You needed to make her believe that you are stronger, more courageous, richer, more compassionate, etc. than you really are.</li>
<li>Ugly people don't have sex. When we heard in school that such-and-so had sex under the bleachers after the football game last week, only the most attractive girl and boy were involved. The ugly people in school were left out and would be left out for life as far as many of us were told.</li>
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arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-61705314816018114642015-10-12T07:31:00.000-07:002015-10-12T07:31:36.779-07:00Economic IgnoranceThe Change Express machine at the local bank says that if you are an account holder, they will convert your change to bills at no charge. But if you aren't an account holder, you'll have to pay 10% of the transaction. When Lillian read that she said, "Wow, that sucks! Why do they take 10% just because you don't have an account. I mean, it's YOUR money, right?"<br />
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I see this kind of thinking from time to time, especially among young adults. It supports the forgotten quote that I have been trying to find again which says something about ignorance of economics being a scourge on society or something like that.<br />
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In the example above, Lillian fails to recognize transaction costs and up front costs of the Change Express machine that the bank has to somehow recover. She may think that they should be able to convert coins to bills for everyone since it's a bank and "they've got all the money," but that shows an ignorance of the business model of banking.<br />
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The lack of knowledge of how business is conducted seems to be pretty widespread. Our lives are shielded from the manufacture, transport, marketing, consumption and eventual disposal of consumer goods. The most obvious example is in the food industry whereby most of us would become vegetarians if we saw how our pork, poultry and beef were made.<br />
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We don't know and we don't want to know.<br />
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Our meats are no longer raised but rather manufactured on farms using industrial scale methods whereby animals never stand or see the light of day during their brief and near-artificial lives. This reality is hidden behind the Potemkin facade of the packaging in which our chicken breasts or pork link sausages are delivered, showing a kind-faced farmer riding his tractor next to a red barn and silo with the sun rising over green hills. This is of course a gross misrepresentation of what the farm really looks like.<br />
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But beyond the unpleasantness of food processing are the consumption of other goods and services which involve abusive systems and practices that would shock most of those who buy them. Labor or environmental abuse which are part of the production of things we buy every day are hidden from our view. The sleek and handsome packaging hides what goes on in the supply chain just as the false houses of a Potemkin village hide the reality that the town is destitute.<br />
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One additional example that comes to mind is gold, jewelry and the mining behind it. Some of the most sophisticated among us love to wear jewelry of gold and gems but we are shielded from the brutal reality of how these items are brought out of the ground and eventually sold in the finest stores in our cities.<br />
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What is odd is that we all know that products are manufactured and services offered for sale by profit-seeking organizations or individuals and that the sale price is necessarily above the cost* of all the ingredients. But it seems that most consumers lose sight of this, which becomes clear when they express surprise and dismay when they learn the lengths to which corporations will go to seek profits. (They're surprised perhaps because no person would so disregard the welfare of others in pursuit of profits. They forget that corporations are not people and do not have souls.)<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">*With some exceptions, i.e. loss leaders</span>arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-51841101194671825162015-10-06T17:17:00.002-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.278-08:00Big Man-Little Ref<br />
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In this game was a big kid from Walbrook High named, C. Williams. He was probably 6 feet 7 inches and young enough to still have some baby fat. The other kids in the game were shorter and skinnier but all were very talented ball players since it was something of a high school all star league.</div>
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Well, C. Williams was getting hacked and fouled under the basket and the referees apparently missed a lot of the illegal contact. Frustrated after a mishandled possession and with the lightning fast kids racing off to the opposite basket, C. Williams turned to the referee, a white man in his 60s and before the ref could follow the play down court, C. Williams bent down and said to him, "Baby, you got to get in the game!"</div>
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He said it as one would say to a teammate on the pickup basketball court if the latter was having a lousy game. Admonishing others to step it up is common in pickup basketball especially because rule number 1 is that winners stay on the court while the losing team has to yield to whomever is waiting for next game.</div>
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This case is humorous because C. Williams disregarded any authority-subordinate relationship that is understood when players are subject to a referee's direction. He sort of forgot who he was talking to and just spoke as if to a teammate.</div>
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[<i>Note: This incident happened in 1985. I have related it to many over the years but during the first year or two after it happened, I told people that Williams bent over <b>and also patted the referee on the rear </b>while admonishing him to, "get in the game." I suppose I added that little bit for emphasis or because I thought my audience wouldn't find the truth as funny as I did.</i>]</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-6661576054247165322014-12-24T19:14:00.002-08:002015-01-17T16:20:29.027-08:00Online Privacy and Values ReadjustmentThe disruptions that come with new technology often bring discomfort to those who would rather return to the way things were before (keeping of course the benefit that the new technology brings).<br />
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Consider automobiles in the early 20th century as an example. Most of us today drive or at least ride in automobiles but also realize that there are drawbacks. We enjoy the benefit of personal, flexible travel but would like to eliminate the traffic deaths and injuries, air pollution, generalized stress of automobile traffic and a host of social ills such as anonymity and isolation and the alterations to our landscape that the use of autos has brought. We like the mobility but not the public health and environmental drawbacks. These unintended consequences are disruptive and although objectionable to us, they are not enough for most of us to stop using cars.<br />
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While we've had a century or more to adjust to the automobile, a more immediate disruption is in information technology. Extensive media coverage of the Internet and its cultural trappings seems to encourage particularly strong opposition to the side effects of new gadgets and ways of collecting and using data. Automated information collecting and dissemination has made many things possible that we could only dream about just a few decades ago but like all innovation it has brought some irritations. Just as with automobiles, information technology is blamed for social isolation and de-personalization of daily life among other things.<br />
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But advances in information technology also mean that our understanding and long-held assumptions about personal privacy are going to have to change. A general feeling seems to be that we would like to control information about our personal lives just as we believe we have always done but it is becoming clear that this is not nearly as achievable as many would like to think.<br />
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The surreptitious loss of privacy is not limited to data collected by shopping websites and other online activity. The proliferation of cameras, and the systematic capture and storage of images means that our more and more of our activities are recorded, most often without us knowing about it.<br />
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Popular outrage is directed most recently at at the National Security Agency and recent credit card data breaches by retailers. But people are also resistant to the tracking of benign activities from which web sites we've viewed to what public places we've physically visited. And it appears that this information gathering will only become more refined and detailed as technology becomes more sophisticated and affordable.<br />
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What many fail to recognize is that at least in the near term, personal information is to the web what paid advertisement is to broadcast television--a key part of the business model. Trying to keep personal information off websites is like trying to watch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commercial_skipping" target="_blank">television without ads</a> which is a failure to recognize the basic economics of television broadcasting.<br />
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We may discover someday that the same is true of the Internet. Television producers have little incentive to create programs without advertiser/sponsors, if we kept our personal information away from the websites we visit, media and other companies with an online presence would have little incentive to create sites with free content. Nobody can give something away that costs money to produce--it's not sustainable. It is said that, "surveillance is advertising's new business model."<br />
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Still, there are those who believe we can protect our personal information from being reproduced and accessed in digital form. Unfortunately for them I think that battle has been lost. Instead of recovering and reclaiming the "rights" to privacy that we thought we had in the pre-Internet era, we will instead probably reconcile the loss by adjusting our expectations and values.<br />
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This mass readjustment of values has happened before in response to social change. Instead of turning back the clock and eliminating what many (but not all) thought objectionable, some of these problems in the past were "resolved" by mass acceptance of the objectionable behavior. Below are a few examples that might be instructive with regard to current dissatisfaction with online privacy.<br />
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At one time voters in the U.S. would never have elected a president who had admitted to past marijuana use. Some might still maintain that previous marijuana use is a reason to reject an individual who is running for president. But given the times and culture today, it is no longer a test for elect-ability; it seems that most of us don't care. We seem to accept this not yet as normal, but within a certain spectrum of the norm. That never would have happened in the 1960s.<br />
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Many of these attitude shifts are evolutionary in that they take effect only after a period of generations who bring new ideas.<br />
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Another example is premarital sex. Although it's been with us forever, in western Christian culture having sex before marriage had generally been scorned until the recent past. Prior to the middle of the 20th century, we taught our sons and daughters that bad things would come of having sex before marriage and we discouraged them from indulging before their wedding night. In fact, there are still some today who think that the way to prevent teen pregnancy is to stress abstinence and tell our teens to wait until they're more mature before intercourse (most have given up on a marriage between virgins) . But the fact is that preventing sex before marriage is entirely impractical. Most all of us have become used to the idea that our sons and daughters will do what they please. We didn't change the behavior, we changed our attitudes toward it.<br />
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You could go even further back in history. At one time we did not let our sons and daughters leave the house unchaperoned. If two teenagers wanted to spend time together, they had to be accompanied by an adult. Fierce adherence to that principle was doomed so it became routine to let youngsters go off by themselves.<br />
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Homosexuality is another sphere where many members of our society have accepted something that had been disapproved of for decades. There were (and still are) those who believe that homosexuality can somehow be "cured" or stamped out and removed from our society. Before the mid-20th century (and even now, in some places) people believed that gays and lesbians should keep their sexuality a secret. Letting others know, the conventional wisdom went, would mean that job and housing opportunities would be fewer and the individual would be socially isolated. But instead of prohibition or censorship, what is happening is more like widespread acceptance. The conflict is being resolved but not by eliminating gay and lesbian people (as some might have liked) but by not being bothered by it.<br />
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With these and many other social issues the easiest resolution was for the old-fashioned to become comfortable with the behavior they object to rather than any attempt to eliminate the behavior. I have to believe that the same will happen with personal privacy in the digital age. The strong opposition to details of our personal behavior being circulated among strangers will one day disappear, not because our privacy will be reclaimed and protected by courts and legislation but because we will adjust to the idea that it is not reasonable (or even possible) to keep this information under our own control.arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-16612743501597443812014-11-30T18:36:00.003-08:002015-01-17T16:21:47.031-08:00Cultural Choice or Cultural Marketing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In recent decades we in the industrialized world have a variety of cultural experiences available to us which we consider a form of recreation and entertainment. It usually involves an immersion into a different way of life, one that we would never see other than as cultural tourists. We buy the clothes that we wouldn't normally wear and try to talk the same way and about the same things as the people where we're going. But we're outsiders pretending briefly to be a part of the world that we've only read about or watched in the movies.<br />
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One example is going to a honky-tonk blues or nightclub. It's a gritty scene and to fit in we wear leather jackets and black boots, smoke cigarettes and drink straight bourbon. But when a white-collar professional changes into that costume and tries to blend in to the dimly lit environment, it's only a matter of time before it's clear he isn't a member but a visitor. It's simply not who he is. He may have listened to a lot of Eric Clapton and Muddy Waters and he knows the names of the famous clubs in New York where these guys go their start. But he's never been to one and is essentially at a costume party, dressed as a rock-and-roller.<br />
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Another example is the dude ranch vacation. In the late 1980s and 1990s it was a popular trip. College educated intellectuals from back east would fly out to Montana or Wyoming and spend a week being broken by real ranchers who tried to teach them about cattle and horses and how to start a fire and cook coffee over an open fire. Before the end of the week, these greenhorns inflated their confidence enough to start saying things like "I think that heifer will go for a decent price at market," even though they had never bid on any animal much less been to a livestock auction besides the one that was staged for them as part of their exorbitant resort fee.<br />
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A similar experience is a fantasy baseball camp where major league ball players spend a week or two of their off-season enduring with a smile the attempts by desk-sitters to impress them with their athletic ability.<br />
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Others travel to a place like Middleburg, Virginia to join the fox and hound set in horse country. We sip white wine and the ladies wear gaudy hats that they'll never wear again, talking loudly about exotic vacations they might intend to but realistically will never take.<br />
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Although middle class incomes have stagnated for the last quarter century or more, it is affordable for an increasing number of us to have a meal in what once might have been an off-limits restaurant or a stay in an equally exclusive hotel or resort. And when, for example we rent a limo for a party it really amounts to little more than pretending ("playing", we used to call it as kids) we are a part of the limousine culture.<br />
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We can afford to participate in these cultural experiences now and we can pretend we are part of the group we are immersing ourselves in. But the truth is, most of us are merely voyeurs, looking at a lifestyle that we've heard about and that has been marketed to us in popular movies or music.arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-66476196203002710012014-11-02T16:39:00.002-08:002015-12-18T08:50:35.287-08:00Now or NeverGraceland, 1987<br />
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After being dumped by our respective girlfriends, Hans and I decided on the spur of the moment to drive to Graceland in August 1987 for the 10th anniversary of Elvis' death. Hans' mother had been a big Elvis fan and owned a lot of his old LPs that we'd made fun of as kids. They had cheesy photos of Elvis with his arm around some buxom girls or a picture of him in his military uniform driving a convertible with the caption, "A Date with Elvis." We thought it was ridiculous. But then he died and we changed our tune, so to speak.</div>
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One thing about Graceland is that no matter where you are--the gift shop, the Zebra room or the memorial gardens--they pipe in Elvis music 24/7. And it includes a lot of songs that you don't normally hear on the radio. Sort of the forgotten Elvis, I would call it. Songs like, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_When_Your_Heartaches_Begin" target="_blank">That's When Your Heartaches Begin</a>" or "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treat_Me_Nice" target="_blank">Treat Me Nice</a>."</div>
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While we were following our appointed group across the hallowed grounds, we ran into two French girls who were on a whirlwind tour of the U.S. by bus. They visited something like 17 cities in 22 days. They'd drive all night (sleeping on the bus) then visit New York, Washington, Atlantic City, Disney World, New Orleans, Memphis and everything else they'd soaked up in the mass media back in (<i>ooh la la!</i>) Paris.</div>
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They didn't speak English very well (as far as we could tell) but they were just our speed and Hans and I being unattached, we tried our best with them. (I will remind the reader, these were <i>French</i> girls. See my <a href="http://historicalaccident.blogspot.com/2011/07/french-misrepresentation-in-us-culture.html" target="_blank">earlier post </a>about cultural stereotypes and the French.)</div>
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Our tour leader had to call out to these two French girls to stay off the lawn, please. They had been taking pictures of one another in front of every historic marker and monument in the eastern U.S. and didn't seem to hear or understand. But boy, were they ripe. Hans stepped in and generously volunteered to keep an eye on these two as we made it through the mansion. Our tour leader was relieved.</div>
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As the tour progressed and we were being led back down the lawn to the gift shop, we knew these French girls were about to board a bus to Chicago or something and we had to act fast. The song, "Now or Never" began playing and boy was it timely. That's what He would have told us if he could see what was happening, we figured.</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-88716813530276125542014-11-02T16:23:00.004-08:002014-11-02T16:39:53.189-08:00The U.S. Presidency and Hero Worship<a href="http://hakthuy.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/superman-standing.gif?w=245&h=300" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://hakthuy.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/superman-standing.gif?w=245&h=300" height="200" width="163" /></a>The U.S. presidency has become a committee of a couple of dozen well connected and well educated people who advise a single, charismatic, photogenic person who implements the policies decided by the committee.<br />
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This may be objectionable, especially to those who have never considered the idea and who are accustomed to hero-worship. But it is unreasonable anymore to expect a single individual to have the capacity to handle the duties of the office. No single person knows the intricacies of energy and science policy and is at the same time able to negotiate trade or arms agreements with a variety of nations.<br />
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But that's just want most Americans want and expect from their president. They want John Wayne (as Gil Scott-Heron once surmised) or George Washington. A man who will walk over and punch the collective Islamic State right in the nose and tell them to sit down and shut up. Then walk calmly back home. That's an allegorical scenario but that kind of thing is just what this country thinks it can find if it just keeps looking for the right candidate. Delusional is what I would call it.<br />
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<br />arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-88031863404259187942014-08-28T11:36:00.000-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.296-08:00Things We Used to Do<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DJhcyDI9GtqYUbFcqYzxpOIVruwdD_InY6qvjs3KE9kMdJ4fReKb5d1hlpNkzIfxGgi8NMo97jvQhyphenhyphenoeSZuPSWSQez4iT5v2QrjwaovdhACBQS2m-tZJ-BZ9owD1P58d2Umt_KWhBBZI/s1600/old_fashioned.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6DJhcyDI9GtqYUbFcqYzxpOIVruwdD_InY6qvjs3KE9kMdJ4fReKb5d1hlpNkzIfxGgi8NMo97jvQhyphenhyphenoeSZuPSWSQez4iT5v2QrjwaovdhACBQS2m-tZJ-BZ9owD1P58d2Umt_KWhBBZI/s1600/old_fashioned.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a>I guess I'm getting old when I start talking about the way things used to be. I suppose every generation could create one of these lists.<br />
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We used to go to the bank on Friday night to get pocket money for the week. Either that or we'd cash a check at a local grocery, liquor or other store. This was before ATMs and at a time when communities were small enough for the local grocer or liquor store owner to know a person personally and trust that his or her check was good.<br />
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We used to get up and walk over to the T.V. to turn it on, change channels or turn down the volume. There were only 4-5 channels so surfing wasn't very rewarding and we mostly just passively watched what came over the air waves. I sometimes wonder how this "watch whatever is on" versus channel surfing has changed our cultural and psychological make up over the past 30-40 years. I doubt the general satisfaction with television is higher today than back in the 1960s or 70s.<br />
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We used to put snow tires on our cars in November and take them off in March. We had a spare pair of rear tires made specially for driving in the snow mounted on rims that we stored in the basement or garage.<br />
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We used to put a toolbox in the trunk of our car when going on a long trip since at one time it was not unreasonable for a man to fix his own car if it broke down.<br />
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We used to call one another and if nobody was home it would ring until we hung up. (A courtesy rule of thumb was to let it ring 10 times before hanging up.) There were no answering machines so if no body picked up, there was no evidence that someone had called.<br />
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For the very few of us who could afford airline tickets, men wore ties and women wore skirts and heels when flying. (Then airline deregulation happened and they let knuckleheads like you and me board dressed however we wanted).<br />
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Among the more embarrassing things we used to do:<br />
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We used to perform surgery (lobotomy) on a person's brain, believing we could cure mental illness.<br />
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We used to tell our sons to grow up to be doctors and lawyers and worse, tell our daughters to grow up and <b><u>marry</u></b> a doctor or a lawyer.<br />
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<br />arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-12420825112853428292014-08-28T07:36:00.001-07:002014-12-24T19:24:45.819-08:00Best Basketball Players in the World<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fzNdWfcGNSG2cWmnjAmxUPyT3e9NOIE6lEpDPi-SdDI8YQcgh3fzffWQFpBZLC5wYj6cNrc1c1tEnVBUQRC5KdbWn3fycnNeAjhbXMF7skbVIPFTva08TRm2CYM39oGAL1zzcallC_DG/s1600/durant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3fzNdWfcGNSG2cWmnjAmxUPyT3e9NOIE6lEpDPi-SdDI8YQcgh3fzffWQFpBZLC5wYj6cNrc1c1tEnVBUQRC5KdbWn3fycnNeAjhbXMF7skbVIPFTva08TRm2CYM39oGAL1zzcallC_DG/s1600/durant.jpg" height="200" width="133" /></a><br />
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Kevin Durant has pulled out of international basketball competition's U.S. team and few can blame him. Durant has been thinking about an NBA title for probably 10-12 years. </div>
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The fact that the US team has lost some recent international tournaments only shows that basketball is a team sport which relies more on continuity of 10 or so players practicing and playing together full time and less on throwing together 10 of the best players in the world for 2-3 weeks.<br />
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It is a testament to my longtime assertion regarding Bobby Knight and Mike Krzyzewski and their extreme success at coaching but (with 1-2 exceptions) abject failure to produce quality professional players. If you look at Duke and Indiana over the years, they both have a record of multiple NCAA tournament wins and Final Four appearances. But few NBA superstars have come from these college teams.</div>
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I have argued that it is because Knight and Krzyzewski play the game in such a way as to minimize single players who excel in favor of teamwork, sharing the ball and lack of a league-leading scorer.</div>
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As I've aged I no longer feel the need to prove anything that I know to be true. And I know that the United States has the best basketball players in the world. We don't need to win (or lose) a Gold Medal or FIBA tournament to convince me otherwise.</div>
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I wonder if instead of an all star team, the U.S. sent the NBA champions to play in the Olympics and FIBA world championships. Of course that wouldn't get much traction because it would mean that the members of the current NBA champion team wouldn't get enough rest between seasons. But how about sending the NCAA champions instead? Afterall, we know we have the best players in the world here. Who cares if we don't win it all?</div>
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arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-17173122367041213782014-04-28T15:04:00.001-07:002015-12-27T14:28:00.241-08:00Beer Graduate<div style="text-align: right;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xA_KIoy9-5hIN6s84CY9osOXtmB1cp-2INDTUSpVte2Qe8p0eVqzLr_W6J03ASpWxnS1vXmPqm4Oj0WlBedJjENPw-SkjVvBxO6g0NhZ9KEfinXKhDjd1almsh0tashSt13QjJzlojw9/s1600/martini4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6xA_KIoy9-5hIN6s84CY9osOXtmB1cp-2INDTUSpVte2Qe8p0eVqzLr_W6J03ASpWxnS1vXmPqm4Oj0WlBedJjENPw-SkjVvBxO6g0NhZ9KEfinXKhDjd1almsh0tashSt13QjJzlojw9/s1600/martini4.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I started drinking beer when I was 16 and I spent the rest of high school in hot pursuit of the foamy beverage. Because I was too young to be served in a bar, my friends and I usually bought six-packs from the groceries and markets which were known to sell to just about anyone over 5 feet 9 inches. We then drank can after can in somebody's parents' car or basement when the adults were away. It usually ended with some foolishness, uncontrollable laughter and often, vomiting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Loads of fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But when I got to college and was out from under my father's roof, I graduated to hard liquor. I never really liked the taste of booze when I was in high school but I had to keep pace with the upper class-men in college so I moved on to mixed drinks with everybody else.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">In Baltimore back in those days, the red light district was known as, "The Block". It was actually a 3-4 block area of downtown full of strip clubs and adult book stores and peep shows. The City police headquarters was at one end of this The Block and I gather everyone liked it that way. People could sin if they wanted but they knew the cops were just down the street.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Being that I was a college student and had an unlimited supply of fellow teenagers who were interested in having drink most any time, it wasn't too difficult to recruit one or more of them. We borrowed a friend's car and drove down to Lombard Street one weekday after "The Big Valley" which came on from noon to 1:00 PM on Channel 45. The strip joint we selected was dark and empty but welcome relief from the late summer heat (it was early September of my first year and we wasted no time in exercising our new-found freedom.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bar owners at the Block wanted patrons to buy more than just liquor, so the drinks were cheap and watered-down but we post-teenagers didn't notice. We thought drinks cost $1.25 everywhere you went and liquor was strong enough that we didn't notice how diluted it was. We thought that real </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">bartenders would respect a man who looked like he belonged and who knew what he was doing, so w</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ith the place to ourselves, we freshmen threw our sophistication into high-gear. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My friends and I assumed that the quickest way to convey that image was to appear decisive and that meant ordering a drink by name. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No hesitation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Soon all the names of mixed drinks I'd learned as a boy from movies and T.V. came out in a stream of sophisticated banter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Bartender, I'll have a Rob Roy and an Old Fashioned for my friend here." </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I took a single sip and didn't like the taste. I couldn't understand it because in the movies I'd seen they all seemed to enjoy mixed drinks. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I didn't let on. No Sir. I just put down my tumbler and ordered another. "Sir, bring me a Tom Collins, extra dry please."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">It was as if we had a copy of the <i>Time-Life Encyclopedia of Familiar American Cocktails</i> and I was just going down the list.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I turned to my classmates, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">John, how's that Manhattan?" </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How about a High Ball, Ed?</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The afternoon wore on and the strippers got tired. Each asked us to buy them drinks but we knew better. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Then at five o'clock, I knew exactly what to do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Bartender, a round of martini's please."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So savvy was I.</span></div>
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arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-71597505712218705002014-04-23T14:49:00.001-07:002014-04-23T14:50:15.339-07:00Taxpayer RuleI've sometimes thought that election day should be held on April 15th rather than the first Tuesday in November so that people have it fresh in their minds that they pay for services from the government and can vote accordingly. But undoubtedly some political scholar would say this is a bad idea because (for example) we don't want elections to be about how much we pay in taxes or we don't want to elect someone just because he or she promises to reduce spending more than everyone else.<br />
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I've also wondered if we could send an itemized list of government spending to each taxpayer, calculated to show how much each of us paid the previous year for entitlements, defense, scientific research, farm subsidies, education and all the other things our tax dollars go to pay for.<br />
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That would be a good first step: a breakdown (within reason) of where our tax dollars have gone over the past year. We can't itemize every last penny that Uncle Sam spends; he probably can't either, to tell you the truth. But a list of our major expenditures, maybe the top 50 government line items and our personal share of each might be enlightening. Just as we now get a regular mailing from the Social Security office telling us how much we've contributed and how much we can expect our monthly check to be at retirement, given age and years of working etc. I don't see why a breakdown of what we're buying from the federal government would be so hard.<br />
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The second step would be experimental and just for our own information at first. It would allow taxpayers to rank or vote on the various line items in the federal budget. Their top choice (whether it was social security or head-start programs for young children) would be the government program they most desire and their last choice would be the expenditure they would most like to get rid of. Of course these choices would be non-binding on government administration, but I'm sure it would be informative both to the government budget types as well as to the rest of us Americans to see what exactly we want and don't want to spend our money on.<br />
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And of course the more radical third step would be to actually implement the choices that we taxpayers made when we review the breakdown of where our money went and what programs it funded. We'd all probably be in for a rude awakening if the U.S. government took us seriously in cancelling the programs that many of us say we would rather do without. From what I understand from reading the newspapers, many U.S. taxpayers don't realize the degree to which they benefit from government expenditures and that were their preferred cuts to be implemented, they would soon clamor for a return to the old way of doing business.arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-35924085464220505592014-02-15T13:39:00.002-08:002014-05-06T10:38:54.414-07:00Wage Stagnation and Increased Purchase Power<a href="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7397/8727783645_a52eeb047a_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7397/8727783645_a52eeb047a_n.jpg" /></a><br />
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I consider myself an armchair economist so what I am about to say might be missing something but I will summarize what I understand to be two sides to an issue.</div>
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We know that wages or income have been largely stagnant for most Americans since the mid-1970s. That is, when we take the incomes of Americans 40 years ago and adjust it for inflation, there has not been any improvement. There are a number of things to account for in this statistic and while I can't go into the reasons here, I will say that generally I believe it is true; despite an increase in productivity and increases in GDP since 1975, the average worker is not bringing home more money today than 40 years ago. (I say 'he' because it appears that the glass ceiling notwithstanding, women's income has risen on average since then. But of course the gender pay gap is still quite common and unfairness in pay between the sexes has not been adequately dealt with.)</div>
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We are a more productive economy with more things being produced and services being provided per labor hour today than 1975 but (the argument goes) the increase in productivity has not been reflected in wages and salaries for front line workers. However, the top incomes and earners in our economy have seen wealth increases commensurate with productivity gains during the same period. Hence the problem of inequality we are seeing today (and which has cycled to and fro for the past 130 years).</div>
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But there is a second side to this argument. There are those who say that despite flat incomes, the purchasing power of our average working person's take home pay buys a lot more today than in 1975 and that's where productivity advances have shown up. Most of the things our flat incomes buy today (the argument goes) are of higher quality, last longer and are more affordable than in 1975.</div>
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The automobile is one example that comes to mind. Although I don't have any industry information handy and what I am about to say is based strictly on observation and anecdote, I remember that in the 1970s it was common to purchase a new car every 4-5 years since they tended to break down and become more trouble than they were worth. Today, thanks to Japanese and European engineering and the sharing of that technology, a person can drive their car for 150-200,000 miles easily and keep their car for 10-15 years. Additionally, adjusted for inflation the price of a $4000 car in 1974 comes to about $18,000 today.</div>
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A couple of other examples are the microwave oven and the VCR. Although both were introduced in the late 1970s or around 1980, the price of each adjusted for inflation would today be something like $750. Of course both are priced at $100 or less today. So the response to the 40-year stagnant wage argument is that at least the goods for sale today are better or less costly (or both) when compared over the same period.</div>
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I can only speculate on the flaws of either argument. Anyone care to comment?</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-38734640783988342502013-11-29T14:30:00.001-08:002015-12-18T08:50:35.274-08:00Charis T. HutchinsonMy sister, Charis is named after my father's aunt Charis (pronounced Kare-iss). Great-aunt Charis.<br />
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She was born in the last year of the 19th century and died in 1983, spending almost her entire life on Long Island, NY. She attended Smith College but didn't find any men at Yale or Harvard or Brown to marry. She undoubtedly met a few but she remained single, spending her whole life living with her father until he died in 1946. At that point she and her stepmother moved to Port Washington in Nassau County. (Aunt Charis' biological mother died when she was a teenager)<br />
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She had two brothers, one of whom was my grandfather. Her other brother, Harold was exposed to poisonous gas during World War I and along with a lifelong smoking habit, died at around age 50. Neither he nor Charis ever had any children. But they all got together at holidays and aunt Charis doted on her niece, nephew and eventually the grand-nieces and grand nephews. <br />
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Out of curiosity I once asked my aunt Ruth if there was ever a man in Charis' life and she said she thought she had heard something about some guy once when she was young. I asked if she'd heard it from her father (Charis' brother) and she said, "Oh, no. He never talked about things like that."<br />
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Charis worked for the State of New York in Manhattan and commuted by the Long Island Railroad everyday. When he was a young man, my father would visit them and he and aunt Charis had a system whereby each Friday she would walk on the train station platform to the last car where my teenaged father sometimes met and rode with her.<br />
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If I had to say something about Charis Tuthill Hutchinson it is that she was an interesting lady, probably due to the fact that she was college educated (a rarity for a woman in 1915-1920) and that the absence of children undoubtedly freed her to pursue a lot of extra-curriculars that most parents are unable to find time for.<br />
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The old saying, "The only interesting people are <i>interested </i>people," certainly applied to my great aunt Charis.arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-39146796384629566572013-11-29T14:13:00.001-08:002015-12-23T07:53:34.951-08:00Close Captioning's Beginnings<br />
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The deaf have benefited greatly from the close captioning of television. I wrote <a href="http://historicalaccident.blogspot.com/2011/08/american-broadcasting-and-deaf.html">previously </a>about the use of television in a deaf household prior to the 1980s and the limited amount of programming they found worth watching.</div>
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For many years the deaf have been able to rent films and although they were American productions and the actors spoke English, they were sub-titled like foreign films so the hearing impaired could enjoy them. Several nonprofit organizations including public libraries rented not only films but projectors and screens for the enjoyment of schools, clubs and deaf individuals.</div>
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Around 1980 or so, many television productions began including close captions with some broadcasts, however users had to buy a set-top decoding device to display the text. Still it was a small price to pay for the American deaf community to finally be able to enjoy some programming, if only limited to certain stations and certain times.</div>
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<a href="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7051/6819222950_57212bd315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7051/6819222950_57212bd315.jpg" height="320" width="219" /></a>One of the first companies to produce close captioned broadcasts was ABC. They limited content to their prime-time shows which included the memorable, Love Boat, Dallas, Dynasty and Fantasy Island. I went away to college in the Fall of 1979 and shortly after I came home for my first visit, I saw my father watching this stuff. I had been exposed to world literature and philosophers like Karl Marx and Voltaire so I considered myself (perhaps naively) a deep-thinking intellectual. Naturally I couldn't stand to see my father hypnotized by such garbage. It was a reversal of roles that television usually evokes whereby the parents are disgusted with the material their children are exposed to and enthralled by.</div>
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When I objected to the stuff he was watching he agreed but pointed out that he bought his first television in 1955 and for 90% of the time until then it had been nearly useless to him. He knew it was pretty much soap opera he was watching, but it's what's on. After catching only a fraction of the value of T.V. for so long, it would be hard to expect him to be discriminating when it finally came time to have close captions on prime-time television.</div>
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So I watched him watch this stuff, just has he had watched me watching cartoons and things as a young boy, unable to share the experience with me. I all but stopped viewing any television around 18 or 19 years of age but I don't know exactly why. The only notable exception is that today I still watch some sports--but with the sound off.</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-64368963337984771942013-11-19T10:38:00.001-08:002013-12-05T07:21:04.390-08:00Animal Eradication and Ecology<br />
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Even before the emergence of agriculture, the humans that walked the earth hunting and gathering undoubtedly feared certain animals which were either predators (e.g. saber tooth tiger, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dire_wolf">dire wolf</a>) or that otherwise inspired fear for some reason (snakes, crocodiles, other reptiles). Superstitious beliefs about certain animals being evil persist even today and in certain cultures it is taken for granted that one must kill any of a species which crosses your path.</div>
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As humans began growing crops, breeding animals and remaining stationary, a different but related set of creatures posed a threat which was met with eradication efforts. Carnivores such as coyotes, wolves and wild cats may have begun to fear man but found sustenance in killing livestock while groundhogs, mice and rats threatened plant crops. In either case, the early farming communities spent a lot of effort not only not only to control but ideally eliminate these animals from their turf for good. I say this because it took some effort away from farming to battle these four legged creatures and it would likely have suited folks just fine if they could finish the job and get rid of these "intruders" once and for all.</div>
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Over the centuries, trade and technology grew alongside civilization and soon agricultural man discovered advanced methods to fight the insects that had ravaged his crops from since the beginning. Chemicals and powders were developed that could wipe out certain insects (and unwittingly, others as collateral damage) with a minimum of effort, especially after the use of airplanes to administer this form of biological and chemical warfare on animals. Poisons also proved useful in the longstanding battle against mammalian pests as well, making it much more efficient than hunting and trapping, although bounties and other economic incentives made the latter very efficient.</div>
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The battle to eliminate pests gradually moved inside the home from farm and field. Technology permitted the emergence of manufacturing for retail customers and soon companies were marketing products for ridding one's household of flies, cockroaches, mice, ants and all manner of animal visitors. Not knowing anything about ecology or the health of the planet, housewives and their husbands in the mid 20th century would have been just as happy to remove these home invaders not only from within their four walls but from the surrounding lawns and the entire countryside.</div>
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Soon the war against all animals that weren't human, livestock or house pets turned to the smallest of creatures--microorganisms. It became affordable and easy for people to attempt to rid their homes of bacteria using chemicals available at retail stores. We began to see anti-bacterial wipes and sprays which purported to clear your kitchen or bathroom of all living organisms, leaving a sterile (and by implication healthier) home to live in. Soon enough it came out that a number of illnesses and allergies prevalent in American youth were due in part to the sterilization of their environment as infants. Still, when advertisement portrayed bacteria as evil beings many persisted in a desire to remove all organisms from their environment.</div>
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There was even a lawn care products company which promised to eliminate insects and other invertebrates from the top 12 inches or so of your lawn so that your children would not be threatened by these evil beings.</div>
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And finally, our eradication efforts have turned to the internal bacteria which all of us host by the billions in our gut. The battle moved from forest to farm to home and finally, inside ourselves. If you told (or better yet showed) the average person about the billions of microorganisms inhabiting his body, he might look for a way to sterilize every cavity and chamber within himself.</div>
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So we humans have moved the battle against animals from forest and field to farms, our homes, kitchens and baths and finally into our bodies. In recent years we've all heard of the drawbacks of the overuse of antibiotics both in hospitals and agriculture. Instead of eradicating all bacterial (a foolish pursuit) we have enabled only the strongest to survive. Today our antibiotics are nearly worthless because of this effort.</div>
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Many also are beginning to realize that the elimination of certain animal species outside of our homes leads to unintended and undesirable consequences. Deliberately getting rid of any single plant or animal species is foolish but few people notice.</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-8717707058105521212013-10-07T11:30:00.003-07:002014-06-15T10:05:44.418-07:00Allocation of Housing<a href="http://www.hdphoto.com/data/photos/689_1great_falls_va_pools_002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hdphoto.com/data/photos/689_1great_falls_va_pools_002.jpg" height="209" width="320" /></a><br />
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Many people today see an unfair distribution of wealth and income more easily than ever before. According to most statistics, wealth has not been this polarized in the U.S. since 1929.</div>
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I don't know if the average American can suggest a reasonable remedy, though. Simple confiscation of wealth from the top 1% of income earners and redistributing it to the rest of us is just not going to be practical. Even if we taxed the highest incomes at 90%, the revenue from those increased tax receipts would not be divided equitably, we can assume.</div>
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I'm afraid that although people have a legitimate gripe in the disparities in wealth, we all have bought into this system of distribution at least in part. For example, almost none of us believe that there should be an absolute cap on income. That is, a law saying that all income above $XXX,000 will be confiscated by the government will not be popular when personal liberty is concerned.</div>
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One piece of evidence to support this buy-in to the current system of wealth distribution is housing. The U.S. (and any metropolitan area) has a large stock of housing--some of it desirable and some not very desirable. In the Washington, D.C. metro area, for example, there are beautiful homes along the Potomac river in Great Falls, Virginia, Georgetown in Washington or in the neighborhood called Potomac in Montgomery County, Maryland. These homes often cost upwards of several million dollars.</div>
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By contrast there are homes in poorer sections of the metro area which sell for less than $100,000. Some might be in a neighborhood with a lot of foreclosures or boarded up properties, or an area with poor schools, crime and litter.</div>
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In any case, almost all of us realize that the good, the average and the poor quality housing stock is distributed among the population according to certain circumstances--namely income. If you can afford it, you can buy a house in Georgetown. If not, you have to look elsewhere. Few of us dispute that--if we want to live in a million dollar home, we need to have a lot of money.</div>
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Utopians (and perhaps Communist hangers-on) might argue that this limited commodity (housing) should be shared equally among us and that perhaps residences should rotate among people, giving all of us a chance to live in Potomac or Great Falls while others are sent to public housing or blighted neighborhoods.</div>
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But even the poorest among us believes that the only reasonable way to move to Potomac is if you are rich. It is foolish to expect anyone to voluntarily give up that home (as none of us would do if we were the occupants) in the interest of sharing with our community.</div>
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So in that narrow sense, despite rising anger at disparity in wealth these days, few of us dispute that the most desirable homes should be distributed (or re-distributed) by anything but the ability to pay.</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-90997515810835107622013-10-07T10:17:00.001-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.299-08:00The King is bornI was born in 1961. That's also when Elvis Presley was at the height of his popularity.<br />
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To illustrate . . .<br />
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You may know that my parents were deaf and although they each had a usable voice, only those familiar with them could clearly understand them. That is, they could speak and be understood by their children, neighbors and some others who were close to them and communicated day-to-day with them. For most other times, they carried around pencil and paper (like most other deaf people back in the middle 20th century) to navigate and negotiate transactions with the hearing world.<br />
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Although I never confirmed this with them, I can only imagine that upon my birth they were visited in the hospital by someone from the D.C. department of vital records or something like that who asked for statistics like age and name of the parents, weight and race of the baby, etc. Presumably they passed a pad of paper back and forth in question-and-answer style so that this public health official could create a birth certificate.<br />
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After getting the statistics, he asked about a name and he asked my mother and father what they had decided on.<br />
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But instead of using pencil and paper, after they read his question they spoke in unison, "Elvis."<br />
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"How's that?" he asked. "Alvin?" and wrote down what he thought he heard.<br />
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At least that's what I'd like to think happened.<br />
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<br />arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-71076088555725717712013-09-27T07:28:00.002-07:002014-09-24T17:13:56.570-07:00Pickup Basketball and Street Prostitutes<a href="http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2010/01/20/1225821/816860-prostitute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img border="0" src="http://resources0.news.com.au/images/2010/01/20/1225821/816860-prostitute.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a><br />
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I've said earlier that on the pickup basketball circuit, it is often the case that there are many more players than basketball courts to accommodate them, spawning rituals around rules of succession, calling the next game, and the many disputes that can erupt over who actually "called" next game. etc. This is an attempt to fairly distribute a scarce resource (time on the court). But occasionally the reverse is true where a perfectly good basketball court lacks enough players to run a full game. In this case the early birds at the park or playground can only wait around for others to show up and jump start a game. [This admittedly became more common in my later basketball-playing years, as I was up earlier on the weekends than the younger ball players.]<br />
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It is common to see potential players drive to a certain schoolyard or park and before parking, look to see how many people are there. If there isn't any action, they can easily move on to another local playground to see if there are more potential players hence more promising opportunities for a game. You can often see from your car whether there are 8-9 adult males ready for action or just 1-2 kids fooling around. In the latter case it's better to just move on to the next stop in the basketball court circuit.</div>
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But for those who are among the first to arrive and who get out of the car and start shooting baskets, it can be frustrating. You're ready for action and see a carload of 4 athletic looking males slow down to take a look then quickly drive off toward the next stop on the circuit.</div>
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Sometimes it seems that the sound of a bouncing basketball is the equivalent of animal mating call and players tend to materialize shortly after the repeated thump-thump of the ball permeates the neighborhood. On a summer's evening some guys may be sitting around with nothing to do and one of them notices a faint but persistent drum beat coming from the middle school on the next block. So he and his pals get their sneakers on and head over, watching others join in along the way.</div>
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Occasionally when I've been at a basketball court waiting for a game to materialize, I see the carload of young men slow down but decide to go for greener pastures at another playground nearby. I've caught myself moving out to the street (after warming up) and flagging down any car that looks like it fits the profile.</div>
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If there are 4 men (better, 4 <a href="http://historicalaccident.blogspot.com/2012/03/basketball-and-race.html">black men</a>) in the car, I can almost guess what they're looking for, driving around in a crowded vehicle so early in the morning. If they can get a good look at the playground from afar and don't need to drive up close, they sometimes get away before I can get their attention. It begins to look like a street prostitute flagging down customers who fit a certain profile (white, middle aged men driving alone and alertly looking around). When I see a carload of potential players, I'm equally unashamed of getting their attention and enticing them to come on over and check it out.</div>
arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-13274440623634130922013-08-23T10:38:00.001-07:002014-06-15T10:05:33.840-07:00Math Scores Down. Is Teaching 'People Skills' to Blame?The Washington Post reports that in one of the nation's best school systems (Montgomery County, Maryland) test scores in math are at their lowest point in a long time. And it <a href="http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ190461">appears </a>that this is a nationwide trend<br />
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And of course the question is, Why?<br />
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Poor teaching? Poor discipline and study skills at home?<br />
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I wonder if this fall in numeracy isn't related to the teaching of soft skills in schools. Soft skills (or people skills) teach children about relationships, getting along, negotiation, conflict resolution, etc. all of which are worthy lessons for maintaining harmonious citizenry in our increasingly crowded and interconnected world.<br />
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But teaching and cultivating these interpersonal skills may undermine mathematics concepts and teaching. Math is a 'hard' discipline. By hard I don't mean 'difficult' but rather unforgiving. In mathematics, there is very often a right answer and none other. No flexibility is accounted for. The rules are hard and fast in contrast to the lessons we teach our children regarding navigating the unpredictable ways in which we relate to one another.<br />
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Another potential reason for the noticeable drop in math scores also relates to soft-skills teaching and that is that there seems to be a "math gene" that science has identified in humans. This gene (as far as I have read) enables its bearer to better understand values, ratios and other concepts that seem to elude (despite formal training) those who lack the gene.<br />
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I'm not sure about all that but if it's true it might explain at least partially the drop in scores. That is, that the numerate (those with the math gene) tend to be more socially awkward than those who excel in the people (or soft) skills. Therefore the latter tend to marry earlier (or at all) and have children earlier and have larger families, thus passing on this mysterious "math gene." The geeks on the other hand, are more studious and delay marriage and childbearing (either by choice or by lack of opportunities, skills and/or abilities) and therefore produce fewer children with this gene.<br />
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Popular culture is also (and as usual) a willing participant. We've seen for years in movies, television, music and other entertainment media that geeky math geniuses are undesirable companions. Children who might otherwise excel in reason and logic (both core to mathematical achievement) are excluded from many peer groups enough to modify behavior so that some of them conform by feigning ignorance and distaste for numeracy.<br />
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And voila, in 10-15 years you've got a cohort of school-aged children with a large proportion of innumerate who tend to drive down test scores in math.<br />
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<br />arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-16726296752626139742013-08-21T09:02:00.002-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.261-08:00Top Draft Picks at Druid Hill ParkOne of the rules in pickup basketball is first-come, first-play. That is, those who show up to the <br />
basketball court first are the first to play. Generally there are a lot more players than there are courts to accommodate them, especially in urban areas so some method has to be arrived at to allocate the scarce resource.*<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7L_VM-h0wpaIxUTTKK7QgJqHhtr9PVzPttlHI4o0bogsDVZVM6A9d23lDaytKOlgEmWWikKGKSIz9eDGoFqO1ZarezbFlLV8xhQjUMOtHFLaYDT2FfmlUrRniLsUpKceNoI1bJles492D/s1600/druid_hill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7L_VM-h0wpaIxUTTKK7QgJqHhtr9PVzPttlHI4o0bogsDVZVM6A9d23lDaytKOlgEmWWikKGKSIz9eDGoFqO1ZarezbFlLV8xhQjUMOtHFLaYDT2FfmlUrRniLsUpKceNoI1bJles492D/s200/druid_hill.jpg" width="200" /></a>One day back in 1991 my friend, Don and I went to Druid Hill Park in Baltimore which had a reputation for some good basketball being played. We went on a Sunday just after lunch and the action hadn't really heated up yet. In fact, no games had started and that meant Don and I would get at least one game in. Had we shown up when there were games already in progress, the activity at Druid Hill Park is so heavy that it's likely we would have had to wait two or three games to get into one ourselves--if we succeeded at all.<br />
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But because we were there early, we waited while enough players wandered over to the courts. Soon we had a complete group of ten and we chose teams. Splitting up into teams can be complicated sometimes but often the easiest way to divide yourselves up is for two of the players to start choosing. It can be based on familiarity, for example if you've played with one of the other players before and know what he can do. Lacking any previous experience with the selection pool, the choice is frequently based on height (and yes, on race sometimes). The choosers are called "captains" but it has little to do with any authority; their role as captain pretty much evaporates after teams are chosen.<br />
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Don and I were chosen last and ended up on the same team. We were picked pretty much based on our physical characteristics (we're both 6'3" or taller) and not on any familiarity we had with the two guys doing the choosing.It turns out our team won, mostly due to tenacious defense, sharing the ball with teammates and moving without the ball--things that Don and I both knew how to do.<br />
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We were both about 30 years old at the time. Another reliable rule-of-thumb in pickup basketball is that while young players may be fast and good shooters and able to jump better than others, they're generally pretty dumb when it comes to technique, court sense and efficiency. The older folks can exploit this and we both did that day on our way to a win. (See my <a href="http://historicalaccident.blogspot.com/2012/10/man-versus-boy-as.html" target="_blank">earlier post </a>on this subject.)<br />
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On Sunday the following week we went back just about the same time and like the previous week, the action hadn't started yet. However when it came to choosing sides one of the captains had been on our team the week before. He'd seen Don and I play last week. But the rest of the guys were new and you should have seen their jaws drop when Don was chosen first. The opposing captain then chose one of his buddies from the neighborhood and the first guy then chose me. That was the real shock for the guys who wanted to get picked. Two white guys--the top two draft picks.<br />
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<i>*[Interestingly there are sometimes empty courts available but players seem to gravitate toward the crowded, more popular courts. It's very similar to nightclubs and trendy spots in a city; there are plenty of watering holes available but most people want to go to the one they feel everyone else is headed, hence the velvet ropes outside the hottest clubs in town while others are empty.</i>]<br />
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arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-81951648019476326502013-06-02T18:17:00.003-07:002013-07-07T11:08:51.804-07:00No Longer NewsworthyA syndicated feature in many alternative newspapers for many years was called, "News of the Weird," (NOTW). It featured (as the title suggests) stories detailing freak occurrences or idiotic actions of common folk like you and I. Many considered it a welcome alternative to the mainstream stories which dealt with heads of state, business tycoons, wars or public policy decisions. Sometimes NOTW contained accounts of people caught or somehow trapped in compromising situations (on the toilet, having sex, etc.). Others might include extremely pampered pets, delusional beliefs in aliens leading to odd behavior or freak accidents resulting in deaths, etc.<br />
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Every so often the News of the Weird had to retire a certain type of story because it happened enough to make it no longer, "weird." One example was stories about would be crooks who, before holding up a store, would ask for a job application, fill it out and use their real name and address before carrying out the armed robbery. It seems to happened so much that the NOTW had to stop running that kind of story as odd.<br />
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Similarly a certain type of event is sometimes reported in the mainstream news with such frequency that it becomes no longer newsworthy. The one that comes most immediately to mind is stories of corruption in municipal governments. How many times have we read about a big city mayor or town council member that has been forced to resign or indicted by authorities for monetary impropriety, bribe-taking or skimming funds, etc.?<br />
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It happens so much that it is now found primarily among the news wire briefs rather than the headlines.<br />
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I would add to that genre the school test cheating stories that we've seen in recent years. This also relates to municipal governments, but it appears that standardized test cheating by both students, teachers and abetting by higher officials is so common that it barely attracts any attention anymore. 5-10 years ago it was quite a scandal to read about a school district where teachers were helping students or erasing answers on tests but more and more today it attracts little notice.arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-27348196734890131632013-05-10T08:04:00.002-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.267-08:00Foul Language and Deaf Parents<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXx2zgxAwlhwA3dlTqaGIed6IYPt2LDkPzlYD6O7BpQQYKGrMi" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRXx2zgxAwlhwA3dlTqaGIed6IYPt2LDkPzlYD6O7BpQQYKGrMi" width="200" /></a>Being the child of deaf parents brings a different set of experiences than that of children of hearing parents. Learning American sign language, for example or taking on adult-like responsibilities gives the offspring of deaf adults a unique view of things compared to growing up in an all-hearing household.<br />
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One fairly common experience among the children of deaf adults (<a href="http://coda-international.org/blog/">CODA</a>) is the early and liberal use of foul language. With parents unable to catch and correct this bad habit, children repeat what they've heard from the older kids at school or the playground and there is almost no barrier to repeated utterances around the house.<br />
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In some ways it's like the viruses and bacteria that children constantly bring home from school but in this case, the infection is nearly impossible for the parents to see and do anything about. Fortunately many children are still very indiscreet and eventually another adult (perhaps a neighbor or adult in a shopping center) will overhear and, recognizing that the parents are deaf, intervene with the bad news for the parents: Your son and daughter cuss like sailors.<br />
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Of course things are different today with the way foul language is liberally strewn throughout popular media. But back in the day an eight or nine year old cussing out his younger brother at Kmart might attract a lot of unwanted attention. But it doesn't seem to any longer.<br />
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Deaf parents can't overhear anything their children do and that puts them at a disadvantage not only because they miss those endearing utterances from toddlers that make us all smile, but also because they aren't aware when their children need to be taught good manners. For example it is common for a very young child--maybe 3-4 years old--to say something like the following in a public place: "Mommy that man standing over there sure is fat!" or "What happened to that lady's face, Mommy?" Most parents quickly put the kibosh on this kind of thing but deaf parents don't necessarily notice it if the banter takes place between two children. Anything like that spoken or relayed from child to parent (I would hope) is extinguished, but when the 4 year old says it to his 6 year old sister, it can be embarrassing.<br />
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But without any barrier at home to put the kibosh on childhood cursing, it quickly gets out of hand. And the first that deaf parents learn of this new habit is often from the (hearing) neighbors who might either tell the parents, or tell the children directly to put a sock in it. Sometimes they can't resist foul language themselves when offering this corrective measure.<br />
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<br />arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-65130335843028201302013-04-30T09:58:00.000-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.284-08:00Post Civil Rights ReflectionsOccasionally I'll meet a person who went to Catholic school or otherwise had strictly religious parents and who now feels permanently harmed by the whole experience. They talk about being fearful of the nuns commands or of attending all manner of religious services and performing associated rituals, giving the impression that they've never been the same. And they now reject the whole experience and call it a scar on their past. A similar set of cultural baggage is associated with Jewish motherhood; certain people (mostly Jewish women) complain of the guilt or other emotional trauma associated with having a Jewish mother.<br />
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Both experiences have been exaggerated enough to become in some instances the stuff of stand-up comedy these days. The whole Catholic school-as-torture makes for good copy, probably because so many Americans feel that they share the experience. George Carlin turned his experiences into very entertaining banter. And the Jewish-mother-guilt-trip <i>schtick </i>has gotten plenty of mileage from those in show business.<br />
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I didn't face either of these circumstances as a young boy. I went to public school in a liberal suburban district of Washington, D.C. I attended Episcopal church but stopped after I was about 8 or 10 years old. However if I could say that I have any experience even closely comparable to the Catholic school survivors, it would be the teachings of a secular nature but equally as dogmatic, it turns out. As a child in Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools, we were taught early about civil rights and taught to revere equality at all costs. Montgomery county was (and perhaps still is) one of the most liberal jurisdictions in the nation and we were told again and again of the parallels between the civil rights movement of the 1960s and the founding of our great nation.<br />
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In the immediate aftermath of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, U.S. popular culture embraced a "Do Your Own Thing," ethos. In fact this slogan appeared on bumper stickers and t-shirts in the late '60s and early '70s. Conformity was out and individualism was in.<br />
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Around this same time the seeds of the diversity movement were planted. We began to see t-shirts saying, "Kiss me, I'm Polish" or "Proud to be Irish," when in the first half of the 20th century those traits may have been treated as a handicap.<br />
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[Incidentally this movement never really died, rather it morphed into the multi-cultural and "celebration of diversity" that became popular in the 1990s and beyond. This recognition and welcoming of diversity is undoubtedly the best thing for our culture and civilization in the long run but in the short term, it is tearing us apart. Many see the "culture wars" of the 1990s as simply the logical outgrowth of the civil rights movement and subsequent liberalizations. But that's another story.]<br />
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Television and movies of the 1960s and 70s denigrated what we would call type-A personalities, preferring to heap praise on the flexible, easy-going types. The message was that the latter would enjoy their lives more and especial emphasis put on the sexual opportunities of type-Bs. If you want to get laid, you're going to have to leave the shirt and tie at home, was what we were taught as youngsters.</div>
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This over emphasis on acceptance of an ever-wider circle of behavior is my equivalent of Catholic school or Jewish mothers. I am so molded by this experience that I have a hard time making any judgments at all about a person based on physical appearance. A man can approach me on the street with all the characteristics of a criminal and I will accept and engage with him, having been taught that appearance is not to be used in any judgement of character.<br />
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As an example, I have a difficult time understanding the rejection that some men or women display toward a potential mate but who is of a different economic status. We were all taught as youngsters that love conquers all and that different backgrounds can be overcome. The Civil Rights era emphasized that. But the truth is that matches like these fail very frequently despite utopian ideals.<br />
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I suppose I should just get over the free-love, do-your-own-thing message that characterized the period in which I grew up and just call it a freak cultural accident. Of course this period freed a lot of people from a degree of racism, homophobia and sexism (although not entirely) and we should all be thankful for that.<br />
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But should I really ignore a person's physical appearance, grooming and speech when deciding whether to allow him or her into my house or trust them with the care of my children?arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-32257058218858458402013-04-30T09:51:00.002-07:002013-04-30T09:55:35.486-07:00Copyright: Educational versus Entertainment ContentSince the introduction and widespread use of digital media, many people have come to believe that copyright law needs to be amended. And while it may not be likely to happen, there are some things worth considering if the laws were updated. For example, it might be helpful to distinguish between types of content to balance commercial interest versus the greater good. Balancing the interests of the private sector (businesses) and the public good has after all engaged government since the Progressive Era of the early 20th century.<br />
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With regard to copyrighting publications in the academic world, it would help if the law at some point in the past had distinguished between material which is educational and that which is of entertainment value; this might have avoided much of what is called the Open Access (OA) movement. OA has been an effort by the scientific and research community to make as widely available as possible the publications resulting from research conducted at universities, laboratories and other not-for-profit facilities and which has very little commercial appeal outside of the university libraries which purchase it.<br />
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If the law had treated educational content more fairly it would allow for wider distribution and copying due to the general belief that education is a public good whether it takes place in a school or formal institution or on one's own. If material that is designed to inform rather than entertain was easily available and reusable, separate from (for example) feature films or popular music, we wouldn't have what Jim Neal of Columbia University called civil disobedience in copyright violations that take place today at universities among faculty and graduate students.<br />
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It is not helpful to subject use of an article on the evolution of reptile locomotion to the same restrictions as the use of a popular music release or a feature length Hollywood production.<br />
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This is one fairly easy call that copyright law amendment could address: is the work primarily educational or research in nature or is it purely entertainment. Undoubtedly there would be some debate over certain creative works, but recognizing the distinction would be a good framework for debate. Disputes could perhaps begin with the establishment of whether the work is mostly factual or mostly artistic. Again, a Beatles single is a creative, artistic work while an article detailing the morphology of bone marrow cancer cells is almost entirely factual.<br />
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[see my <a href="http://historicalaccident.blogspot.com/2010/09/technology-and-other-media-consumption.html">earlier post</a> on other alternatives to rights in the entertainment realm]arhutchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672081974258415184noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5884791042371260771.post-14927454909743400832013-04-20T17:00:00.001-07:002015-12-18T08:50:35.257-08:00The Alvin Award<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEiOiCzmqsBejVKO24GrCPkC3IcwFGBaZDB_RXN6NCGtpRObsO1FGi-_vzTG4jVHR9Q_1MuBmHlJbhcMm4_4G_FP99o6UsO23ik37WSL__QqwXcgdAqZKq6b-HDt9mZu_gi7OE2INb4TV9DnNy_ddih_pwyETr86c4mFMwvhJlu7DJVBUqAb8GxkJFRW8FWOHfs=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.hoopshall.com/clientuploads/directory/HallofFame/Larry%20Bird%202.jpg" height="100" width="74" /></a>After Larry Bird retired from basketball in 1992, I loudly declared to anyone who would listen, "The NBA will never name another white man its Most Valuable Player."<br />
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And boy was I wrong.<br />
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Since that time, the award has gone to a white player three times: twice to Steve Nash and once to Dirk Nowitzki.<br />
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But since the Larry Bird Era I've kept a mental note of who is the best white basketball player at any given time. It's obviously a bit more controversial than naming the best player generally, partly because there are no commentators or pundits to give us their opinions and change our minds. Throughout the years the "Alvin Award," (as a friend once called it after I let him in on my little secret) has gone to people like Craig Ehlo, Mark Price, John Stockton, and Kevin Love (who wouldn't be too surprising if he were selected as the league's MVP in the next year or two).<br />
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I've noted <a href="http://historicalaccident.blogspot.com/2012/03/basketball-and-race.html">elsewhere</a> that I can't talk about basketball without talking about race and this may make many readers uncomfortable. But not the players themselves, I'm sure. Dennis Rodman once said that if Larry Bird was black, he'd be just another good ball player. It was a hot topic at the time, but I think I understand what he was trying (and failed) to say.<br />
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Larry Bird was a great basketball player but so were half a dozen other guys. Black guys. Despite making up only 20% or so of the general population, blacks clearly dominate the NBA. So clearly numerically dominant are blacks in basketball that it is noteworthy when the best player is white. Or at least that's what Rodman was probably trying to say. The average basketball fan is not color blind; we all notice a player's race.<br />
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But of course now we have plenty of players who don't simply have Caucasian ancestry but who are the product of a white and a black parent. Blake Griffin and Jason Kidd come to mind. The immediately biracial (as opposed to antebellum biracial) individual is common enough today so as to almost render the Alvin Award moot.<br />
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Although I'd like to see the NBA institute the award, maybe based on fan votes, I would be turned off if it eventually turned into an over-commercialized televised awards program with celebrities opening the envelope between commercial breaks carefully timed to carry viewers to the climax of the program.<br />
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The American public is just not ready for that yet.
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