Changing topics a bit, I wanted to announce that my latest "article" (entitled Krog's New Weapon) is posted on the Defense AT&L website, along with the rest of the Mar/Apr 2008 issue. Don't miss the lively exchange in the From Our Readers section (hoo-boy, that was fun!). All you subscribers out there will receive your hardcopy in the mail in a few weeks.
There's a reason I referred to it as an "article," because this time, it's actually a science fiction story. So even if you're not a highly-decorated, often certified and fully trained defense technologist or acquisition professional like myself, you might still enjoy the story (it helps if you're a sci-fi fan).
I do this sort of thing periodically - writing fiction instead of a more traditional article. The first time it was a fairy tale, and there was the film noir spoof. And of course, there were the FIST comics (here's Part II). Now there's this sci-fi bit, and coming up in a few months is a modern fiction story, featuring none other than Socrates (assuming the editor like it).
Happy reading!
(UPDATE: The file they posted at the link above is missing page 3 (of 4) - so go here and scroll down to page 24 to read the whole thing. I'll let them know on Monday and it should be fixed soon.)
Friday, February 8, 2008
Rural Poverty -vs- Urban Sweatshops
My friend and fellow blogger Keith Giles clued me in to an interesting article about the positive impact of Walmart on world poverty and world peace.
It's a thought-provoking, well-written, well-researched (as far as I can tell) and clearly provocative piece. I hope you'll check it out, whatever your opinion might be of Walmart. One section sort of jumped out at me:
China is the most populous country, with 1.3 billion people, most still poor enough to willingly move hundreds of miles from home for jobs that would be shunned by anyone with better prospects.
Maybe that is indeed the case, and 100M Chinese people who left farms for cities seem to indicate it's true. Maybe sweatshop labor is better than rural poverty. I realize subsistence farming isn't all idyllic and lovely. But I'm not convinced sweatshop labor is really a step up. Maybe it's because I'm desperately hoping for a third alternative. Maybe it's because I don't know enough about either situation. I just have a hunch there's something missing in this equation.
It's a thought-provoking, well-written, well-researched (as far as I can tell) and clearly provocative piece. I hope you'll check it out, whatever your opinion might be of Walmart. One section sort of jumped out at me:
China is the most populous country, with 1.3 billion people, most still poor enough to willingly move hundreds of miles from home for jobs that would be shunned by anyone with better prospects.
If we care about alleviating global poverty we need to take this fact seriously. Without Wal-Mart, about half a million of these people each year would be stuck in rural poverty that is, for most of them, far worse than sweatshop labor.
It's that last part that sort of jumped out at me. Is rural poverty really worse than sweatshop labor? Maybe it is - I don't know anything about either, to be honest. I can only speculate, and I'm reluctant to even do that. But it seems to me the author makes an unproven assertion, that a sweatshop worker is better off than a farm laborer, because the sweatshop worker makes twice as much money. Is that really the way to assess the situation - in dollars (or Yuan)?Maybe that is indeed the case, and 100M Chinese people who left farms for cities seem to indicate it's true. Maybe sweatshop labor is better than rural poverty. I realize subsistence farming isn't all idyllic and lovely. But I'm not convinced sweatshop labor is really a step up. Maybe it's because I'm desperately hoping for a third alternative. Maybe it's because I don't know enough about either situation. I just have a hunch there's something missing in this equation.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Economic Stimulation, Part II
Some great discussions going on in the Comments section of my previous post - click on over and check them out if you get a chance. They got me thinking about a few other things on this topic.
Maybe this makes me a communist, but I'm not sure economic stimulation (i.e. government intervention) is all it's cracked up to be. That is, I think economies work best when they're left alone, and allowed to self-correct. That includes allowing the occasional downturn.
That probably makes me a free market capitalist, doesn't it?
(I'm actually a distributist, if you're really interested in what sort of economic -ist I am).
Anyway, this situation reminds me of a recent Newsweek article about the value of sadness. Healthy people have a variety of emotions, and get sad when sad things happen. Being happy all the time isn't all it's cracked up to be, but the psychiatric community has a tendency to view sadness as pathological and in need of medical intervention. Divorcing? Here, have some Zoloft. But there's a growing backlash against treating sorrow as a disorder (and a number of new books out, making that case). I wonder if perhaps economies should be allowed to get the blues periodically. Maybe that's a sign of health? Maybe the economy is doing what it's supposed to be doing. Maybe it's a market correction?
In any case, if we really think economic stimulation by the government is good and necessary, what's more economically stimulating than helping those at the bottom of the spectrum?
More to the point, I think serving the poor, hungry and needy is more important than boosting middle class economic fortunes, no matter how much my master bathroom needs to be refurbished.
I hope others will join in...
Maybe this makes me a communist, but I'm not sure economic stimulation (i.e. government intervention) is all it's cracked up to be. That is, I think economies work best when they're left alone, and allowed to self-correct. That includes allowing the occasional downturn.
That probably makes me a free market capitalist, doesn't it?
(I'm actually a distributist, if you're really interested in what sort of economic -ist I am).
Anyway, this situation reminds me of a recent Newsweek article about the value of sadness. Healthy people have a variety of emotions, and get sad when sad things happen. Being happy all the time isn't all it's cracked up to be, but the psychiatric community has a tendency to view sadness as pathological and in need of medical intervention. Divorcing? Here, have some Zoloft. But there's a growing backlash against treating sorrow as a disorder (and a number of new books out, making that case). I wonder if perhaps economies should be allowed to get the blues periodically. Maybe that's a sign of health? Maybe the economy is doing what it's supposed to be doing. Maybe it's a market correction?
In any case, if we really think economic stimulation by the government is good and necessary, what's more economically stimulating than helping those at the bottom of the spectrum?
More to the point, I think serving the poor, hungry and needy is more important than boosting middle class economic fortunes, no matter how much my master bathroom needs to be refurbished.
I hope others will join in...
Economic Stimulation
The government is talking about sending us checks as a means of stimulating the economy. The last figure I heard was $600 per adult, plus $300 per kid, so a family of four ends up with $1800... unless you're on the upper or lower end of the economic range, in which case you probably won't get anything.
At the risk of sounding un-American, I don't need that money. I hope that doesn't sound like bragging. It's not that I'm so rich - we just live within our means, we're comfortable and not in debt and not itching to go out and buy $1800 worth of anything. Sure, we're planning to remodel our tiny master bathroom, and the money would help there, but we were planning to do that long before anyone started talking about these checks.
So yeah, I don't really need the money. The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to conclude that I don't really want that money. At the same time, I'd rather the government not have it either, so I guess giving it to me is better than not, but I'm thinking there must be a meaningful, creative way to put that money to use, serving the community rather than just myself.
Wouldn't it be cool if a big group of us all banded together and decided to use the money for real "economic stimulation," giving it to people and causes that really need it? All those people who used to wear WWJD bracelets should seriously consider this course of action. And for what it's worth, I think it would be a relatively easy $600 (or $1800) to give away, because we weren't expecting it, weren't counting on it, hadn't budgeted for it...
How about you? Do you really need that money, or are there people around us who need it more?
At the risk of sounding un-American, I don't need that money. I hope that doesn't sound like bragging. It's not that I'm so rich - we just live within our means, we're comfortable and not in debt and not itching to go out and buy $1800 worth of anything. Sure, we're planning to remodel our tiny master bathroom, and the money would help there, but we were planning to do that long before anyone started talking about these checks.
So yeah, I don't really need the money. The more I think about it, the more I'm coming to conclude that I don't really want that money. At the same time, I'd rather the government not have it either, so I guess giving it to me is better than not, but I'm thinking there must be a meaningful, creative way to put that money to use, serving the community rather than just myself.
Wouldn't it be cool if a big group of us all banded together and decided to use the money for real "economic stimulation," giving it to people and causes that really need it? All those people who used to wear WWJD bracelets should seriously consider this course of action. And for what it's worth, I think it would be a relatively easy $600 (or $1800) to give away, because we weren't expecting it, weren't counting on it, hadn't budgeted for it...
How about you? Do you really need that money, or are there people around us who need it more?
LOTR Video Game
I'm a sucker for medieval fantasy strategy games like Total Annihilation: Kingdoms. Give me a chance to build some farms and archery towers, train up an army and march out against a mob of goblins and orcs, and I'm good to go for quite a while (yeah, I know it's not exactly consistent with my "in favor of living" thing... heh).
Anyway, my latest game is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (no, I haven't played part I). I'm not a hard-core gamer, and haven't gone in for the multi-player online mode, but I definitely enjoy spending the occasional hour building up big armies of elven archers (love the archers!) and doing battle against the forces of Mordor.
(I think it's because, in my head, I'm still 12 years old...)
(And speaking of ages, happy birthday to Jenna, who turns 5 today!)
Anyway, my latest game is Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II (no, I haven't played part I). I'm not a hard-core gamer, and haven't gone in for the multi-player online mode, but I definitely enjoy spending the occasional hour building up big armies of elven archers (love the archers!) and doing battle against the forces of Mordor.
(I think it's because, in my head, I'm still 12 years old...)
(And speaking of ages, happy birthday to Jenna, who turns 5 today!)
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Relaxing...
My favorite used book store in the world (Cornerstone Book Shop, in Plattsburgh NY) has this sign hanging near the register. I think it's an interesting combination of gift certificates - very relaxing in either case...
Monday, February 4, 2008
Ze Frank on the Superbowl
Ze Frank speaks for me too (thanks to Andy Sernovitz for posting this on his blog).
My favorite line? "Football is a game you play with a ball... and your hands."
My favorite line? "Football is a game you play with a ball... and your hands."
I Finished A Book!
I got a huge stack of books for Christmas, and on Friday as I flew home from Boston, I finished the first of them (Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates). This is an unusual feat for me, and if not for the pair of 4+ hour flights, who knows how long it would have taken me to finish the book.
See, I read a lot of books, but usually 5 at a time, so finishing one is a rare accomplishment. My wife is the opposite -she reads one at a time, and blows through them 10 times faster than me. She's so fast that she occasionally runs out of books to read. I never find myself wondering "What will I read next?" 'cause my stack of unread/unfinished books is perpetually growing. But since Christmas, Kim has read all of Jane Austin's novels, plus two books based on the tv show Monk, plus some other stuff I'm sure... and like I said, I just finished my first. Yay me! :)
I'm still in the middle of a few others. There's The Birth of the Chaordic Age, by Dee Hock. There's two design books by Don Norman (Emotional Design and The Design of Everyday Things), a collection of steampunk stories (The Steampunk Trilogy) and The Best of Isaac Asimov. Oh, and I'm planning to start Un Lun Dun (by China Mieville) sometime soon...
How about you? What's on your list?
See, I read a lot of books, but usually 5 at a time, so finishing one is a rare accomplishment. My wife is the opposite -she reads one at a time, and blows through them 10 times faster than me. She's so fast that she occasionally runs out of books to read. I never find myself wondering "What will I read next?" 'cause my stack of unread/unfinished books is perpetually growing. But since Christmas, Kim has read all of Jane Austin's novels, plus two books based on the tv show Monk, plus some other stuff I'm sure... and like I said, I just finished my first. Yay me! :)
I'm still in the middle of a few others. There's The Birth of the Chaordic Age, by Dee Hock. There's two design books by Don Norman (Emotional Design and The Design of Everyday Things), a collection of steampunk stories (The Steampunk Trilogy) and The Best of Isaac Asimov. Oh, and I'm planning to start Un Lun Dun (by China Mieville) sometime soon...
How about you? What's on your list?
Sunday, February 3, 2008
A Cracked Pot
I'd previously posted a shot of this funny flower pot... and am sad to report that it recently broke.My theory - water collected in the basin, then froze and expanded, cracking the bowl. I think that's the best explanation for how the bowl could be broken but the seat is intact. Interestingly, nobody has cleaned up the pieces (it's been broken for a while now)...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
