Shabbir's Diary

The article you MUST read

This last Sunday the New York times ran an article by Kevin Kelly about the future of books and the business model of print.  I'm telling you that it's a must-read:

Brewster Kahle, an archivist overseeing another scanning project, says that the universal library is now within reach. "This is our chance to one-up the Greeks!" he shouts. "It is really possible with the technology of today, not tomorrow. We can provide all the works of humankind to all the people of the world. It will be an achievement remembered for all time, like putting a man on the moon." And unlike the libraries of old, which were restricted to the elite, this library would be truly democratic, offering every book to every person.

People constantly talk about how it is that we can aid other countries.  We send them advisors, guns, money, cows (a la the Heifer project) and many other things that they may or may not want.  Why is it that we can't consider giving them access to a library containing the sum total of human knowledge also a sort of aid?  What will education mean once you can have all that source material at your fingertips? 

It's a project that's achievable with today's technology.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/magazine/14publishing.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Forces Regain Control in Pakistan

Violence broke out along the border in Afghanistan, in the tribal area Sarah and I visited in December 2004 called the Northwest Frontier Province.

Under pressure from the United States, the government has been trying since early 2002 to assert control over the tribal areas, whose forbidding mountainous terrain serves as refuge for Taliban and remnants of al-Qaeda and is considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.

But the government campaign in the region, which has blended military force with development aid, has not always been welcomed by the Pashtun tribesmen who dominate the area and have resisted outside influence (emphasis by Shabbir) for centuries.

"Resisted outside influence" is really an understatement.  "Never been successfully conquered and held" is more accurate.  The concept that anyone using conventional weapons, including the Pakistani government, can gain control of that area while the Pashtun are there is absurd.  Any study of history would tell you these people have kicked the ass of the British, the Mongols and the Russians.  And frankly, since the Pakistanis have never tried to invade and hold that territory, they can notch them on their belt as well.

Those who do not read history....

Link: Forces Regain Control in Pakistan.

Moneyball and Football

One more thing you shouldn't miss in the Sunday NYT: Coach Leach Goes Deep, Very Deep by Michael Lewis, also author of the seminal work on the application of advanced statatistical analysis to baseball,  Moneyball.  I'm not what you'd consider a baseball fan, but reading Moneyball was a riveting experience.  It was amazing to watch a guy dissect the game of baseball with statistics, challenging everything that everyone else believed about how you should run a ball club, and then prove them oh so wrong.

This NYT article describes the success of an innovative college football coach whose techniques have made Texas Tech's football team much more effective than colleges with better-funded programs.  He's not the same sort of quant-head Beane was, but I see why Lewis loved him.

A quick quote:

What a defense sees, when it lines up against [Coach Leach's] Texas Tech, is endless variety, caused, first, by the sheer number of people racing around trying to catch a pass and then compounded by the many different routes they run. A typical football offense has three serious pass-catching threats; Texas Tech's offense has five, and it would employ more if that wasn't against the rules. ... He regards receivers as raffle tickets: the more of them you have, the more likely one will hit big. Some go wide, some go deep, some come across the middle. All are fast. (When Leach recruits high-school players, he is forced to compromise on most talents, but he insists on speed.)

All have been conditioned to run much more than a football player normally does. A typical N.F.L. receiver in training might run 1,500 yards of sprints a day; Texas Tech receivers run 2,500 yards. To prepare his receivers' ankles and knees for the unusual punishment of his nonstop-running offense, Leach has installed a 40-yard-long sand pit on his practice field; slogging through the sand, he says, strengthens the receivers' joints. And when they finish sprinting, they move to Leach's tennis-ball bazookas. A year of catching tiny fuzzy balls fired at their chests at 60 m.p.h. has turned many young men who got to Texas Tech with hands of stone into glue-fingered receivers.

And if you get a chance, go read a recent article on Billy Beane, the star of Moneyball, on why his techniques are becoming less and less effective.

The woes of being a Connecticut indian withou a casino

Check out this Washington Post story about the Indian tribes in Connecticut that don't have casinos, and the ongoing tensions with the ones that do.  The door appears to have closed on indians getting federal recognition of their tribes, which is one of the predicates for opening a casino.  (and by the way, how cruelly ironic is it that as a Native American you have to have the US government issue you a license to state who you are?)

"We love the two casinos that are there," said Ken Dautrich, a public policy professor at the University of Connecticut. "But we would hate to have more."

Read Some Conn. Tribes Have All the Luck, by David Farenthold, WP Staff Writer

No Sunday's papers today

Sarah and I had friends over for bagels and then walked the baby all over town to art museums.  Only today (Monday) am I starting to get to the NYT Sunday magazine.  I'm postponing reading the article about why the world is running out of fish. 

Clearly the situation would be helped if places like Cafe Japone in Dupont Circle would stay open.  Their sushi on Saturday night was so past its prime that I couldn't finish my meal.  A few more Cafe Japones in the world and sushi consumption will start to decline.

No sunday's paper review for you.

Sorry, but I left you to read the NYT and the WP and figure out yourself what’s worth reading.  I would have recommended, of course, the magazine.  Instead of reading the Sunday papers for you, I spent the weekend up at the farm in rural, western Maryland with a Presidente-sized Macanudo, a bottle of Talisker scotch, and a rocking chair on the porch.  Woe is me. 

While we were there a relative came by.  Remember, we’re in rural Maryland.  We’re sitting in the house of a non-working farm.  The relative arrived, partly to see the baby:

She: Now what’s his name?  I can’t say it…

Sarah: Moishe.

She: Uh huh.  Is that his natural color?  He looks dark.

Me: Yep, that’s my son!

I just love conversations like that.   Reminds me why we don’t see some of these people much.

In lieu of my review of Sunday’s papers, entertain yourself with this photo of Sarah using the Japanese Pigeonbaby snot-sucking device.  It was a gift from some friends who are currently living in Japan.  Sadly, we can’t seem to catch Ish with any quantity of snot in his nose worth sucking, but we’ve tried it out just for fun.  We’re diligent parents!  We’ll keep our kid snot free!

Or emotionally traumatise him for life in the attempt.

Below is the original packaging for your consumer enjoyment.

 

 

Sunday's papers: Sep. 25, 2005

The adoption of the automotive hybrid technology, the price of gasoline and where it actually comes from, and economic integration of schools.

By the way my mom finished her chemo with a trip to the hospital for fluids.  Thanks to everyone for their notes of concern.  She starts her approximately 15 or so remaining radiation treatments this coming week, so the worst is still in front of us.

By the way, I do not like the new funny section of the NYT magazine.  It's not funny.

What bubble? The cheap American gasoline bubble.

[My previous article about Katrina’s effect on our economy is echoed in today’s New York Times, “Katrina's Shock To The System”.]

Welcome to this edition of What I Think You Shouldn’t Miss in Sunday’s Papers.

I’m not enamored with most of the WP and NYT Katrina coverage, finding it either heart-rending stories of tragedy, boring and pointless analysis of the politics of hurricane relief, or updates on the relief effort that were went out of date within the time it took to print the paper.  My cynicism at the politics around disaster relief are centered around the belief that no matter how badly the relief is bungled, the President will not feel any serious political damage, and therefore nobody from his cabinet will lose their jobs.  The Bush’ are fiendishly loyal.  In the rare case of complete incompetence, such as in the case of George Tenet’s al-Qaeda-ignorant CIA, the perpetrators are given medals of Freedom instead of held accountable.  I admit that I am cynical, but my cynicism has been beaten into me by five years of no accountability, not affected out of laziness.  If Bush’s Cabinet worked for Mindshare, I would have fired them all a long time ago.  (And I hate firing people.)

NYT Magazine: How to judge a judge

On Sunday, I started out my day in the Mission in CA and said to Sarah and a friend, "The NYT Magazine is the only thing worth reading in the Sunday paper!"

Ok, so I'm full of crap. 

Are we running out of oil?

You know how oil is made, right?  Old dinosaurs and plants decay for thousands of years and turn into that golden sludge we have become so addicted to.  So then you know that "Are we running out of oil?" isn't really the question.  Since the planet is finite, there isn't an infinite supply.

The question is posed by the NYT Magazine this past Sunday was "When will we run out of oil?"  (Link: The Breaking Point - New York Times).  The answer may be "soon".