Shabbir's Diary

The cost of the inauguration

On Inauguration Day one of my oldest friends asked on Facebook quite innocently "[I] just read that this inauguration cost 170 MILLION dollars... Wow... Don't care who's going in to office... did we really need to spend that much at this time?"

With all the respect that's due someone I've known for 20+ years, I responded with: "You're acting like a tool of Fox News."

A 39 comment Facebook thread ensued, whereby the merits of spending that much were debated.  A couple of interesting points:

1. A country with a history of enslaving an entire ethnicity elects a member of that class as it's highest leader.  Millions pour into the capital to celebrate, and you complain about the price tag?
2. The bulk of the figure was security costs, something that can't be reduced.  You simply can't tell people not to show up at a historic national event in a functioning democracy.
3. The money is put to good use, in that it's mostly overtime for middle class workers (firemen, EMTs, and police).  I argued that its like a little economic stimulus package.  I was told it's too small an area for that to be appropriate, but that's from someone in St. Louis, a city about the same size as Washington DC.

Finally, the media looking to create controversy got the facts wrong.  A good fact-check of the true inauguration costs was published by left-leaning media watchdog Media Matters.  ABCNEws and Drudge kept comparing Bush's 2005 inaugural at a supposed price of $42 million to the cost of this year's inaugural at $170 million.  In fact Bush's inaugural had approximately $115.5 million in security and infrastructure costs.  I've made a handy chart to help you understand the bullshit.

Here's the short version: Bush's inaugural in 2005 spent $157m on infrastructure and events for 300,000 people, approximately $526 / person.  Obama's 2009 inaugural spent $169,000,000 on infrastructure and events for 1.8mm people, approximately $94 per person.  Click here for the full chart and sources from where I pulled this data.

Indeed, even if the attendance estimate for Obama is wrong by half, that's still $190 per person, less than half of what Bush's team spent in 2005 at $526 per person.  A new era has dawned in Washington, indeed.

How To Build A Cold Frame To Start Your Seedlings

God knows I'm a complete punter when it comes to building anything in my workshop, but I'm even worse at growing things, so when there's work to be done on the house or in the yard, I'm the guy that uses the power tool to build things or (intentionally) kill things.  Given that our yard is in a state of flux right now (and by "flux" I mean "a muddy mess") I'm mostly involved in the building infrastructure phase.

I've built a compost bin, about 4 foot square, which was quite a trick since I'm mostly dangerous to myself with power tools, and slightly dangerous to wood with them.  I also built Sarah some raised beds for Sarah's tiny industrial farm out back.  She's growing spinach, kale, broccoli, enormous leeks, peas, and garlic right now.  Our haul is pretty impressive, and since she's also an incredibly good cook, any effort I put into helping her with her garden is paid back tenfold.

So she described to me a tiny greenhouse like box called a "cold frame" that she would use to protect seedlings from the elements while they were sprouting.  The cold frame is key to growing plants from seed, and she said you can save a lot of money by just buying the seeds and starting them.  She added a couple of caveats for my hack construction of the box:

• it had to have a lid that opened;
• it had to be clear all around for maximum sunlight; and
• it couldn't have a bottom, so she could put seeds in the ground and then just set the cold frame over them.

I thought about this for a while and stumbled across some Lexan at Home Depot.  I chose the thick Lexan.  Though it adds to the overall weight of the box, it will provide maximum insulation from the cold with minimal loss of incoming light.

To build the cold frame, I started with some long redwood square pieces cut roughly 2 feet long.  They're eight feet long, and 1 3/4 inches square.  I used redwood for the coldframe because it will weather well outside without needing to be treated.  I made a square, cutting precisely by measuring twice and cutting once with a mitre box saw.  I find that when I need precision, like I needed on the cold frame, cutting with the mitre box saw eliminates most of the errors I usually induce just using my hand saw.  When you're making something where the edges have to be square, getting it right by 1/8th of an inch is a requirement.

I build the square frame top and the bottom with L-brackets on the inside edges.  Then I cut four 7 inch pieces and used them for the supports in between, making the cold frame 2 feet by 2 feet by 10.5 inches.

Having previously obtained the Lexan for the side and top windows of the coldframe, I cut it to size using my Dremel with a diamond cutting wheel.  When you use the Dremel to cut something like this, you have to be careful and wear safety glasses.  The speed of the Dremel generates heat, which melts the plastic as it cuts.  The result is flying bits of molten plastic, and let me tell you, it's not good to get that in your eye.  Even with lab glasses on and my own glasses underneath, I still felt somethiing get in through the air vents.  It wasn't until I managed to learn the trick of running the Dremel away from me as I cut, instead of towards me, that I stopped getting a face full of molten polycarbonate.

So once you have these cut you need to attach them to the sides of the cold frame.  I used, wait for  it.... L BRACKETS!   Seriously, I'm a one technique sort of guy.  It wasn't difficult and I used longer than normal screws to put them through the Lexan all the way into the wood.  If I'd done a little more research I might have chosen to use deck screws that won't rust, since the cold frame will be sitting outdoors most of the time.  Live and learn.

The top was a little more challenging.  I had some hinges chosen, but I worried that if I attached them to the Lexan it would just cause the Lexan to break, so I had to come up with something else.  I ended up building a wood frame for the top, using non-redwood 1"x1 3/4" pine.  Since I didn't have redwood laying around, I went ahead and primed it, which was a project Moishe helped with.  Nothing like a painting project to thrill a three year old.

After making 45 degree cuts on the edges and assembling it with L BRACKETS (hahaha) I just attached the Lexan to the top with screws and washers.  I hinged the top to the frame and added a couple of handles to the sides and voila, I was done.

You can see the cold frame in the attached Flickr set the cold frame from a couple of different angles.  If you're going to attempt this yourself, you'll need the following materials for the cold frame:

• 12 feet of redwood, 1 3/4" square
• 8 feet of 1"x1 3/4" pine
• a million L Brackets (well, more like 28)
• 2 small hinges
• 2 handles

The tools for building your cold frame (and I recommend for your workshop):

• A mitre box saw.  Seriously, you need the precision it offers vs. that free hand cutting thing you've been doing.
• 2 clamps with soft surfaces so you don't crack the Lexan during assembly
• A Dremel multi tool with a diamond cutting wheel
• A good collection of screws (though your L brackets will come with them).

"Falling Off The Edge: Travels Through The Dark Heart Of Globalization", by Alex Perry

So I've been to some crazy places in this world (Cuba without a visa, Northwest Frontier of Pakistan with minimal bodyguards) but I've got nothing on a war correspondant like Alex Perry.

His book, "Falling Off The Edge: Travels Through The Dark Heart Of Globalization" is not the anti-globalization screed you might expect it to be. Though he does point out that many of the negative consequences we have brought upon ourselves by our pursuit of falling global trade barriers, the more interesting thesis of the book is in showing that in a globalized world, very little that happens anywhere fails to have global implications.  If you ponder that for a second, you'll come to realize that non-agenda laden observation is not a good thing for Americans (or anyone in the civilized world).

The examples are numerous and engaging, including:

• A trip to Shenzhen, China, where most of the electronics (including iPhones and iPods) we obsess over are made, and a hard look at the economics of electronics manufacturing and the human rights abuses in the supply chain.
• A first hand account of the famous battle at Qala-i-Jangi prison in Afghanistan, where inmates overtook their captors and the first American was killed in the beginning of the Afghan war.  The battle was a truly global one, with soldiers of several different nationalities participating in the fighting.
• Accounts of how a torrential rain brought Bombay/Mumbai to it's knees, and reminded the billionaires that reside there just how extreme their wealth is, and how close they live to people in diametric poverty.
• Interviews with "pirate kings" on Babi Island, in Indonesian waters, who disrupt global shipping for pennies compared to the worth of their cargo.

Though it certainly isn't lacking in the analysis of globalization's impact, Perry tells an entertaining and engaging story, so this book is for those who find the less touristy parts of the world interesting, especially the dangerous ones.  Pick it up from Amazon.

Embrace change

My first day in the office of the new year is also the day I hung up my favorite art: a woodblock print of turbulent sea.  It's very much in the tradition of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa by Hokusai.  In fact, it may be by Hokusai [Amazon link to book of his work], but I can't read Japanese, so I don't know the artist's identity.

The ocean as a metaphor for change is nothing new.  I would be pompous blogger to even waste your time expanding upon the world's volume of literature that does it better (and worse) than I would.  This print, a gift from Sarah, has hung in every office I've worked in for almost 8 years now.  Personally it embodies the way I approach technology.  Nothing is fixed, it's constantly changing.  You cannot become attached, as the change happens to you whether you are ready to change technology or not.  Your only choice is how you prepare or react to it.

It's a good attitude for Texas Hold'em poker as well.  You can start out with the best hand but subsequent cards could improve others and not you.  Your attachment to your previously best hand will end up costing you greatly if you choose to remain committed to it. 

2009 will be lots of change: new baby, new skills, and possibly a new job for Sarah if she finds something that fits well.  Here's to steady sailing.