We learned once more, at a very high price, that markets need laws and limits. Self-regulating markets are a myth, voluntary regulation a cover for corruption.The whole thing is a fantastic read. Will post more when I'm not quite so tired and have caught up on things. Whee!Cleaning up the Washington mess was, back in the day, a central part of Obama's attraction as a force of change. That's why the deals cut in the health-care legislation, so patently part of the old way of doing things, were dismaying. That's why bailing out the banks without vigorously reorganizing them has been so corrosive. And that's why the president's halting, at times inarticulate, response to the catastrophe in the gulf has been painful to witness.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Updating for the sake of updating...
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Antivaxers are crazy and wrong. Also, the sun rose in the east this morning.
Why, then, do I have massive writer's block? The answer is simple, dear Amaryllis: It is very, very difficult to write this paper objectively and without at some point saying, "Look, I get that everyone is entitled to their opinions, but seriously - these people are wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong, irresponsible, and most importantly, wrong!"
In the last few hours that I've been researching, I've read more crazy that I ever wanted to. Here is one example, courtesy of the ThinkTwice Global Vaccine Institute (warning: May induce massive facepalm):
And that's just one of the FAQs. On one of the websites. "Use vitamin C to induce diarrhea and flush the toxins of vaccines from your baby's system!" Jonas Salk, give me strength!Q. Dear Thinktwice, I love your website. Is there any way that the immunization shots can be flushed out of the system? Please email me if there is a way this can be done.
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Q. What can parents do once they've already immunized their children? Our children did not experience any "noticeable" harmful effects, at least in the short term. Do you know of any remedies that can be administered to undo the harm we have already done in ignorance? What options do we have?
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A. I have heard Dr. Viera Scheibner, author of "Vaccination: 100 Years..." recommend doses of vitamin C, just high enough to cause a mild case of diarrhea. However, some health specialists claim that viral vaccines probably remain in the system for life. We suggest feeding your children with healthy, wholesome, organic foods. Some naturopaths and homeopaths (check your local telephone book) may have other protocols. Our website also provides Alternatives and Solutions -- a list of organizations and practitioners that claim some success flushing vaccines from the system and/or reversing vaccine damage.
Here's a sliver of my family's experience with vaccines. Take it for what you will. My parents had a dear friend when I was very young; his name was Lew, and he was one of the sweetest, funniest guys around. He was my introduction to "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" and "Brazil" - two of my favorite movies to this day, though Brazil creeped me out when I was little. He was always bringing me and my brother presents; tractors for him, usually, and crayons or other toys for me.
Lew used crutches everywhere he went. One of my vividest early memories is tripping over them when he was sitting on our couch. When he was a kid, he just barely missed the age limit for getting the polio vaccine - he was just a year or two older than my parents. He contracted the virus and his legs were partly paralyzed. He died when I was still pretty young - six or seven, maybe - from complications associated with that childhood case of polio. His was the first funeral I remember attending. Now, this was a good few years ago, and I doubt that most of the parents now refusing to give their children the polio vaccine because it is "dangerous" understand the consequences of not doing so. No doubt they've heard some stories as tragic as Lew's. The main difference here is that mortality rates from illnesses like Lew's have been greatly reduced by the action antivaxers scorn, while childhood mortality rates have not increased with the use of vaccines.
On the other hand, my brother and I have both had all our shots. I've even had shots most people don't get because I went to Africa in 2006. Neither of us is autistic. Neither of us had SIDS. We both have solid immune systems and no epilepsy, no seizures, no neurological damage, nada. Not only that, but we've never had measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, smallpox, tetanus, yellow fever, polio, influenza or hepatitis. Neither of us will ever be paralyzed by the unseen the way Lew was, nor will we need an iron lung or be permanently pockmarked. True story. And you know why? Because my mom, who sees value in natural treatments - ginger tea for an upset stomach, echinicea for colds - also saw what those diseases did when she was growing up. When serious illness comes up, my mom treats it with real medicines, not orange juice and organic food.
Vaccines may have some associated risks, but those risks are far less serious than the diseases vaccines prevent. Not only that, but vaccines are based in science, not superstitious nonsense. Everyone is, of course, entitled to his or her opinion, but when your opinion is stupid and dangerous I have a really hard time pretending that it isn't. I know, I know - we're supposed to keep open minds and not be ethnocentric and use cultural relativism as a lens to understand beliefs without judging them and so on and so forth. But I'm sorry - these people grew up in the same culture I did. They are apparently incapable of rational thought.
The closer I get to graduation, the more I realize that I cannot handle academic life in this major. It's hard not to dismiss people based on their utter, utter ignorant wrongness. And I get that they probably feel about me the same way that I do about them - I really do. I just can't see what relevance that has when my beliefs are not based on word-of-mouth horror stories, bad science, and woo.
I totally feel like Penny in this QC comic right now.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
The Proust Questionnaire
The Proust Questionnaire was not invented by Marcel Proust, but it was a much loved game by the French author and many of his contemporaries. The idea behind the questionnaire is that the answers are supposed to reveal the respondent's "true" personality.
I'm going to try doing this now, then again in a few years so I can see what changed. It should be fun!
_________________________________
What is your dream of happiness?
Exploring places - all kinds of places, all by myself. Getting a job at a graphic design studio and making posters and prints for musicians and concert venues, or running a magazine that makes interesting things available to as many people as possible. Falling in love. Walking on perfect spring and fall Technicolor afternoons.
What is your idea of misery?
Accounting.
Where would you like to live?
Someplace with lots of people and energy. A city preferably? Chicago is nice, but I haven't been to nearly enough places to be able to answer this properly. Right now, Chicago, or maybe London.
What qualities do you admire most in a man?
Manual dexterity; that sounds stupid, but I really admire people that can do things with their hands. Intelligence. Charm. Good manners. Convictions. Empathy. Curiosity. Competence. Mystery. A peculiar sort of energy and magnetism that is difficult to describe in words but which seems to result in part from a combination of the aforementioned qualities plus a little something extra.
What qualities do you admire most in a woman?
Same as above.
What is your chief characteristic?
People usualy say intelligence, so I suppose we'll go with that, though I don't think I'm nearly as smart as people make me out to be.
What is your principal fault?
Arrogance. Laziness. Procrastination. A tendency to shoot off my mouth when I should know better. Being too retiring. Swearing too much. Also, I overshare.
What is your greatest extravagance?
Late-night trips to Walmart.
What faults in others are you most tolerant of?
Being an asshole. Being a smartass. Promiscuity. Alcoholism and drug use. Flirting too much.
What do you value most about your friends?
They're smart and funny and sexy and interesting. Duh.
What characteristic do you dislike most in others?
Stupidity.
What characteristic do you dislike most in yourself?
I'm kind of a bitch and sometimes I don't know when to rein it in.
What is your favourite virtue?
Kindness, as long as it isn't saccharine.
What is your favourite occupation?
I'm gonna go with journalism, but I mean real journalism, not that school-concert-review bullshit.
What would you like to be?
A spy in the 1940s French Resistance. Failing that? Someone who uses her talents and accepts her limits.
What is your favourite colour?
Green, closely followed by everything except yellow.
What is your favourite flower?
Marigolds. Croci. Narcissi. Daffodils.
What is your favourite bird?
Sparrows.
What historical figure do you admire the most?
FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt. Kurt Vonnegut, though I'm not convinced he's historical quite yet. Anybody who did something noble and didn't pretend to be something he or she wasn't.
What character in history do you most dislike?
James Watson, closely followed by Frances Crick. Also anybody held up as a paragon who is revealed, upon closer examination, to be kind of a douchebag.
Who are your favourite prose authors?
Dorothy Sayers, Kurt Vonnegut, Jane Austen, Wilkie Collins, Joseph Heller, Neil Gaiman, Shakespeare of course though I'm not convinced the plays couldn't fall under poetry as well, and a number of others. And I'm throwing Roger Ebert in as well.
Who are your favourite poets?
Robert Pinsky, Bob Dylan, Seamus Heaney. I haven't read enough poetry to be able to answer this properly, though. I'm really much more of a prose girl.
Who are your favourite heroes in fiction?
The Doctor. John Constantine. Spike. Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. Elizabeth Bennet. Yossarian. Jonathan Creek. Jake and Elwood Blues. Beatrice and Benedick.
Who are your heroes in real life?
My mom. Jane Goodall. Clea Koff. Anybody who sees a difficult or challenging task and runs into it head-on, knowing the consequences and acting anyway.
Who is your favourite painter?
Edward Hopper. Rembrandt. Anybody that can capture emotion.
Who is your favourite musician?
I absolutely cannot choose one, or even a few. It depends on too many factors.
What is your favourite food?
My mom's lentil soup.
What is your favourite drink?
Non-alcoholic...tea, limeade, orange juice or water.
Alcoholic...I'm still figuring that out, but I like screwdrivers and rum and rum-containing mixed drinks. Mojitos are good. I like some beer, but not cheap beer or really strong stuff.
What are your favourite names?
Some Greek, some Irish, some Welsh, some English. They are many and varied and are frequently associated with people I am or were fond of.
What is it you most dislike?
Stupidity, closely followed by wilful ignorance, closely followed by ignorance.
What natural talent would you most like to possess?
Remember that magnetism I mentioned earlier? It's more of a quality than a talent, but I really wish I had it. Failing that, some sort of musical talent.
How do you want to die?
Quickly and quietly.
What is your current state of mind?
At the moment? Calm and impatient and distracted all at once.
What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
Still working on this one.
What is your motto?
Love all, trust few, do harm to none.
(I sort of ripped it off.)
Monday, February 1, 2010
New feature: Things I learned today
I'm not talking about the nuts-and-bolts parts. I do readings and go to class and study for exams; however, in the last couple of weeks I've found myself neglecting other parts of being a student - things like simply exercising my mind or working to learn something beyond the books and beyond the practical, day-to-day things I need to know in order to do my job properly. The job tends to take over quickly and my mind tends to fill up very rapidly with things that are necessary to do that job - things like how to file a public information request or fill out a reimbursement form, both of which are major thorns in my side that I have to deal with all the time. Even more abstract things, like what kinds of coverage to push for on the sports page, end up taking precedent over non-essential information-gathering.
Is it really non-essential, though? I've always been a fan of knowledge for knowledge's sake. I wouldn't be a social science major if I didn't believe that aggregating and processing information are as important as implementing that information practically, and of late I've shamefully neglected my aggregation of non-job-related information. It's ridiculous. I can't (and shouldn't) let my job rule my mental life to that extent.
To that end, I'm using this blog in part as the journal it's designed for. Every day, I will post a new entry of things or people I learned of or about that day. It doesn't have to be in-depth or essential knowledge, just something I didn't have to look up or learn about as part of being a semi-competent editor. The goal? A minimum of two things per day. It shouldn't be hard to meet and I may increase it, but it's a starting point.
So. Here goes entry No. 1. Things I learned about today:
1. I learned about red-green colorblindness, which I've always been curious about because colors are such a major part of how I perceive the world. I couldn't even imagine what the world looked like to a colorblind person; even the simulated images made no sense at all and I was frankly pretty incredulous about them. It came up today when I was talking to the managing editor - who happens to be red-green colorblind - because I was writing on a wipe-off board with a red marker. We ended up looking up all kinds of simulations and comparing photos. It turns out that red and green both look this sort of hideous olive-y green-yellow to people with red-green colorblindness, which isn't news to those of you who ARE colorblind but which still completely blows my mind. Also, some people with colorblindness can still apparently distinguish between red and green when they're separate, just not when they're together. The whole perception thing continues to blow my mind, especially since I can't imagine never seeing the color red or experiencing it the same way the majority of other people do. The whole thing is fascinating and has me thinking about all kinds of sensory perceptions that are governed entirely or almost entirely by brain wiring. Neuroscience is insane!
2. I learned that Dr. Paul Farmer is a complete badass. We talked a lot about his work in Haiti today and although this doesn't technically count since we covered it in class, I'd really, really like to learn more about his work. Paul Farmer, for those of you who don't know, is a doctor and medical anthropologist who co-founded a group called Partners in Health that works to improve health in developing nations by helping people obtain drugs and improve their living conditions. He's done a ton of social and ethnographic work in different places but has done a lot in Haiti. He's also received a MacArthur Genius grant, is a continuing lecturer at Harvard, graduated from the top of his class at Harvard while still doing social work in Haiti and returning home only for lab practicals and exams, and has a list of other accomplishments as long as a very long-armed person's arm. I imagine it would be difficult to live with him, because he is an extremely driven, intelligent and charming person who has accomplished a great deal and clearly expects a great deal of himself and others. He's a fascinating person who has done a great deal to further the cause of human health, though.
3. I learned that my classmates apparently do not understand the irony of handing out Haitian-style cake and hot chocolate during a video about how much it sucks to be in Haiti right now.
And that's all. It wasn't a terribly learning-packed day, but hopefully this assignment will help me focus on things other than getting through class and getting through work. We'll see how it goes.