Later On

The very fact that TSA refuses to release the information—and also refuses to allow independent testing of the body scanners—is a strong indication that there is a serious problem. (Organizations seem universally to respond to serious problems by trying to cover them up.) Full story here. The body scanners are one reason I now avoid flying.

Understanding comes in two flavors, it seems: clear and murky.

Murky understanding is when you can replicate some argument or answer, but in your heart you know you’re doing it by rote. In the worst case, if you stumble—get a word out of order, for example—you’re lost and have to start over.

Clear understanding is when you grasp the argument in its essentials and thus can deal comfortably with starting anywhere, unexpected variants, etc.

In early years I couldn’t always tell the difference. I would stop working, satisfied with a murky understanding. The problem is that a murky understanding, like sand in a sieve, can be carried a little ways, but it’s constantly draining away and when you need it, it’s gone. A clear understanding is like boxes stacked in an organized way in a storeroom: you can get what you need whenever you need it.

Getting people’s names seems related: most are satisfied with a murky understanding of a new acquaintance’s name, figuring that we’ll gradually learn it, and within ten minutes we have no idea of the name. But if one can tell the difference between a murky and a clear understanding, and makes sure s/he has a clear understanding of the name, then the name is permanently remembered. I got to understand this idea when I was working in admissions: it was important that I remember people’s names, and suddenly I could: I just opened my mind, somehow, to a clear understanding of the name.

One reason that teaching something makes you learn it well is that explaining the idea, and answering questions about it, promotes a clear understanding. Questions from students force you to come at the idea from all directions, so soon you know it in the round, as it were: rather than knowing only the initial view, from when you first approached the idea, you now can immediately recognize it from any approach, and you can even recognize it in unrelated contexts, like a familiar face in a crowd.

I’m working through the irregular preterites on this page, noting any verb in which I make an error so that I can work more on it later. By doing many of these in a row, and thinking about why they have the forms they take, I’m starting to get a clear understanding. I’m beginning to grasp the underlying patterns. Cool.

James Fallows is, to my mind, a national treasure. He represents an ideal of a certain type of journalist/investigator, and his writing is a model of clarity—plus, he’s fascinated by software of the type that assists in organizing one’s thinking (e.g., Lotus Agenda, Personal Brain, Scrivener, and others).

Often some particularly nifty software was Mac-only, putting it beyond my then reach—but things have changed. So on reading this review, I am instantly intrigued.

This sounds like something one should have around the house.

My instructor occasionally points us at the site Spanish Language & Culture, which has a wonderful array of instructional materials and exercises. In particular, this week she pointed out the Preterite section, which includes this wonderful exercise page. I’ll be filling that out multiple times today. It’s a terrific workout, and I really like the format: a sort of verb-by-verb set of flashcards per person and number, and you can work on the verbs individually. Great stuff.

Virgilio Valobra shaving soap comes as a bar of soft, white soap about the consistency of Silly Putty. I smooshed mine into this little jar, and age has darkened the soap somewhat—but the lather is still a very fine, bitter-almond-scented abundance, worked up easily with the Omega Lucretia Borgia artificial badger brush. Three passes of the Hoffritz Slant Bar with a much-used Swedish Gillette blade smoothed my face, and a splash of Stetson Sierra aftershave set me up for the day.

I need to use that Virgilio Valobra soap more often.

I have spent the day working on Spanish, and I feel I’m a better person for it. Mostly I studied the preterite, forms and meanings. I was able to save a little time—for example, the verbs “to be” (ser) and “to go” (ir) are exactly the same in the preterite. That is, they don’t mean the same, but to save time, Spanish uses the identical words for both forms throughout: first, second, and third persons, singular and plural. The idea is to figure out which one it is from the context.

The problem is, they didn’t take it far enough. Why stop with ser and ir? Why not use the same identical forms for “to drive” and “to cook”, for example? Just tell which is meant from the context…

Also, in Spanish the preterite denotes completed action, and some actions are, by nature, not completed. For example, if you knew some fact yesterday, presumably you know it today as well, so saber (to know, as a fact) doesn’t work so well in the preterite… except that they noticed, and that provided a way to overload that word as well (just as the preterite forms fui, fuiste, fue, etc. are overloaded, meaning both “to be” and “to go”; or the letters “b” and “v” are overloaded: the two are pronounced exactly alike, but each has two different sounds). So saber in its preterite is taken to mean “to find out, learn, discover”—which makes sense: it marks when the knowledge of the fact began.

Conocer means to know, as one knows a person, and again the preterite sense of that meaning—with the requirement that the action be completed in the past—doesn’t make sense, so there’s another opportunity to overload a word: conocer in the preterite means “met”—when knowing the person began.

And there’s another way to overload words—something the Spanish language seems to do a lot: you can use the same word for two totally unrelated meanings by changing the gender of the word. For example, el panda is the iconic bear from China, and la panda is a gang. La calavera means “skull” (or, in Mexico, a taillight), and el calavera means “rake” or “madcap.”

And then there are the feminine nouns that take a masculine definite article in the singular, though not the plural: el agua, las aguas; el ave, las aves. But adjectives for those words use the feminine form: el agua bendita, holy water.

Some of you know lots more Spanish that I ever will, but I’m finding it interesting and like to share what I’ve learned with those even more ignorant of Spanish than I.

Brian D posted this extremely interesting video in the comments. Worth watching. I think the moral implications of Burson-Marsteller’s business are quite clear.

The US is pretty clearly backing dictatorships as they struggle against the democratic uprisings of the oppressed citizenry. In Syria, we don’t seem to be doing anything. In Bahrain, where the dictatorship is leveling the Shiite mosques of the majority, the Obama Administration won’t even show up for a Congressional hearing on what’s happening—perfectly consistent with Obama’s atrocious human-rights record.

And now Blackwater’s Erik Prince is building a mercenary army for the UAE, which undoubtedly will be called into action to protect the dictatorship from the people. Although we don’t know of US government or CIA involvement in this effort, the fact that an American is heading the effort simply adds to the image that the US is gaining as it continues to slaughter civilians in Afghanistan and in general hold itself as unaccountable for its misdeeds.

I’m still having trouble grasping that the Obama Administration is continuing to imprison at Guantánamo men that it knows are innocent. It keeps them locked in prison because…  why? Because it’s easier than releasing them? Because it would mean admitting a mistake, and the US can never ever do that, however obvious the mistake is? Because the US simply no longer gives a shit?

The governor of Georgia (in the US) needs to grow up. Barring reporters from a public meeting is beyond the pale—and to do it merely because they reported factually is beneath contempt. Here’s the story. Government obstruction of the press is always worrisome, particularly when the objection is that the story was reported accurately.

The movie Facebook presented an unflattering picture of Zuckerberg, or so I assumed. But as he reveals himself more, I begin to understand that the  movie portrayal did indeed flatter him: he’s much worse. Take a look at his secret smear campaign against Google.

Interesting post.

Very fine shave today. The Omega Pro 49 boar bristle brush worked up a fine lather after being soaked in hot water while I showered. Yardley, a vintage soap, is still going strong. Three passes with a previously used Bozano Inox blade in the Gillette NEW, followed by a splash of June Clover from Booster, and I’m ready for a good Saturday.

TYD knows my interests well, and sent me a link to a fascinating story on two guys who set out to talk to chile farmers about changes they’ve noticed. The story is well worth reading it. I learned, for example, about the Minorcan Datil chile and have ordered some products to try. But that’s far from the only chile they discuss. Do read it if you like hot peppers—and who doesn’t?

UPDATE: Here’s a good interview by Grist of the two guys and their chile/climate-change adventure trip.

I love to try gadgets, and despite not drinking coffee much at all lately—I switched to tea—I was intrigued enough by this little French-press-esque coffeemaker to order one to try. It seems like a significant improvement on the regular cup-at-a-time Melitta method: paper filter, pour in ground coffee, pour water through, and that’s it. With this one, the coffee actually gets to brew a bit in the hot water. And, since it uses a paper filter, it should be cholesterol-neutral.

So I tried it, and the resulting brew was utterly horrid: rank, ugly, and foul. I poured it out, a little surprised at how bad it was. Then I started to get suspicious of the beans. Now that I thought about it, those were freshly roasted beans when they went into the coffee grinder 2-3 years ago before it was put away in the pantry. Could it be possible that the beans were past their expiration date?

So, still determined to try the new toy, I bought some roasted Mocha-Java beans at Whole Foods yesterday—they smelled quite wonderful and were roasted fresh 3 days ago. I just made a cup of coffee, following the detailed instructions that Sweet Maria sent with the maker. Man, it’s wonderful! Just the right acidity (low, but enough for sparkle), lovely taste and aroma.

When I went looking for my previous post on the Clever Coffee Dripper, I browsed through the posts in the “caffeine” category—not the most efficient, but I had time and wanted to browse. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety and the information, including some things that I noticed only in this review—for example, that coffee seems to prevent type 2 diabetes, but once you have it, it can also screw up your blood glucose control. And coffee seems to help prevent Alzheimer’s. Interesting stuff.

UPDATE: I should note that the Clever Coffee Dripper has about a one-cup capacity. Since I have a 16-oz (2 US cups) coffee mug, I use the CCD with 1 oz ground coffee and fill it to the top of the (#4) filter, letting it steep for 4 minutes. I then drain the coffee into my cup and fill the cup with hot water, thus getting the 16 oz of coffee. The strength is just right.

This sounded tasty to me.

Excellent post (with graph) by Kevin Drum. And you’ve probably noticed that none of the people calling for raising the retirement age work in jobs that require heavy lifting or manual labor…

I don’t think John Ensign is going to escape just by resigning. Take a look at the list of particulars.

The Right seems rich in fat slobs who talk tough but avoid any actual danger like the plague—e.g., Rush Limbaugh escaping service in Vietnam because he had a boil on his butt (and who now mocks men who served (John Kerry, for example)). But their strutting displays are dangerous to our troops.

For any substantial writing—something long enough that you can’t simply sit down and knock out the whole thing—Scrivener (Mac and Windows) is ideal because it allows you to build the work in pieces, and switch easily from working on a segment and working on the whole.

It’s a remarkable program, and the price (USD45 for Mac version, Windows currently free in public beta) is right. Over the years it has been continually improved and developed with the result that it is now extremely powerful—i.e., there’s a lot to learn. The Scrivener videos are some help, as in plunging in and starting to use it—but I quickly discovered when I tried the latter that the former is a necessity: the program is extremely feature-rich, and the features are in some cases hidden.

So this email I received this morning was most welcome:

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