Later On

So far as I can tell—and my knowledge of Spanish is still quite limited—Spanish uses “menor” for both “less” (things measured rather than counted: water, sugar, coffee, freedom, and so on) and “fewer” (things counted rather than measured: persons, pencils, stalks of celery). Thus the common supermarket sign “Express Lane: 10 items or less” is incorrect (and quite grating). Obviously, the sign is about things counted and should be “Express Lane: 10 items or fewer”. (The distinction does seem to be dying because it is too difficult for many people—sad, but true.) So Spanish here is just ahead of the curve.

I just learned the “personal a“: the preposition “a” is placed before a direct object that is a person, a pet, or a domestic animal. For direct objects that are things and wild animals (no personal connection), the “a” is omitted. It’s not translated into English, but very important for Spanish. I like it.

A couple of other things: Spanish “b” and “v” are pronounced exactly alike. Moreover, the letters make two (slightly) different sounds. I know what you’re thinking: “Two letters? And two sounds? Then each letter represents one of the two sounds, right?” Wrong: each letter makes the same two sounds.

Now, me, if I had to represent two different sounds with two different letters, I’d just take the easy way out: one letter per sound.

On the other hand, Spanish easily distinguishes “This apple is green” (unripe) and “This apple is green” (in color: a Granny Smith, for example).

For the apple’s color, use “ser“: Este manzana es verde.
For the apple’s ripeness, use “estar“: Este manzana está verde.

I like the Spanish usage. The mention of apples reminded of a time some years ago when the word “rotten” was used for anything that struck one as bad: “a rotten movie,” for example. The usage was so common that to say that an apple actually was rotten, it was necessary to say “this apple is bad.” If you said the apple was “rotten,” people would have assumed that the apple was sound but you really didn’t like flavor and/or texture (e.g., me with McIntosh apples). Maybe that’s past now.

I find it refreshing to see evidence that public figures can learn. All too other, a public figure will stick with a (poor/incorrect/insane/stupid) position simply to avoid being a “flip-flopper” (i.e., someone who changes their position on getting new information or thinking further about what the position means). Equally bad, in my view, is changing one’s position without acknowledgement or explanation—more or less trying to pretend that the current position is their only position (cf. Newt Gingrich for a splendid example, but—just one example—all the Republicans who came out strongly in favor of cap-and-trade of CO2 emissions (an idea that originated with Republicans) and who now strongly oppose it without any reference to their earlier support).

Diane Ravitch supported No Child Left Behind, but now that she’s seen the results, she strongly opposes it. She’s now written a book to explain her views:  The Death and Life of the Great American School System. NPR has an excellent review of the book and an interview with Ravitch. Worth the click.

I long since discontinued eating catfish and tilapia. Both are farmed fish, and because they are fed primarily corn and soy, their omega-3, -6, and -9 ratios are screwed up. One of the main benefits sought in eating fish is to gain the omega-3 fatty acids.

Elisabeth Rosenthal writes in her report in the NY Times

. . . Compared with other fish, farmed tilapia contains relatively small amounts of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids, the fish oils that are the main reasons doctors recommend eating fish frequently; salmon has more than 10 times the amount of tilapia. Also, farmed tilapia contains a less healthful mix of fatty acids because the fish are fed corn and soy instead of lake plants and algae, the diet of wild tilapia.

“It may look like fish and taste like fish but does not have the benefits — it may be detrimental,” said Dr. Floyd Chilton, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center who specializes in fish lipids. . .

The economist Dean Baker:

It seems that NPR is unable to get access to data from the OECD or even the Center for Medicare and Medicaid services. If it were, it would not have so badly misinformed listeners about Medicare costs yesterday.

NPR told listeners that Medicare’s costs are unsustainable and that the reason is that patients do not see the cost of their treatment. Actually, private sector health care costs have risen as rapidly on an age-adjusted basis as Medicare. Furthermore, health care costs in the United States average more than twice as much per person as costs in countries like the United Kingdom and the Netherlands where patients see a much smaller share of their costs than they do under the Medicare system. If the United States paid the same amount per person for health care as these or any other wealthy country it would be looking at huge budget surpluses in the long-term, not deficits.

The article also mentioned Representative Ryan’s plan without pointing out that the Congressional Budget Office’s projections show that it would hugely raise the cost of providing care to retirees. The CBO projections imply that the Ryan plan, which was passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives last month, would raise the cost of buying Medicare equivalent insurance policies by $34 trillion over Medicare’s 75-year planning period. This is almost 7 times the size of the projected Social Security shortfall.

In this context it is probably worth mentioning that the Republicans in Congress have targeted NPR for budget cuts.

Some good comments at the link.

That’s not really a “spot what’s wrong with this photo” puzzle. The lid fell over and I rearranged things, and I put the lid back without noticing I had it upside down. It’s Monday—cut me some slack.

I’m feeling much more alert now, after shave, breakfast, and reading the news.

The QED Frankincense & Myrrh delivered a fine lather, thanks to the Simpson Chubby 1 Best. The fragrance is quite pleasant, though light. And the Edwin Jagger Chatsworth with a Swedish Gillette blade did a fine job on the stubble, though I do indeed note the difference between the straight bar and the slant bar in terms of ease of shaving: with a heavy stubble, the slant br is definitely the way to go.

A splash of Klar Seifen, and I’m ready to get to work.