Later On

Sorry about the upside-down lid—why does that happen with QED? But, as you see, it is the marvelous Special 218, with its mysterious fragrance. If you’re good with identifying fragrances, help me out here. What is the fragrance of Special 218?

A fine lather with the G.B. Kent BK4, then three good passes with the Red-Ring Eclipse with a slowly dying Swedish Gillette blade. In fact, the end result was still a bit less than perfection, so I did an oil pass, which I normally don’t do. That did indeed get it to perfection, and a splash of Geo. F. Trumper Spanish Leather (class today, so wanted something Spanish) finished the task.

I’ll now replace the blade in the Eclipse.

I’ve decided that I will make one of those life changes one reads about. I’m going for an innovation I call “the uncrowded refrigerator.” I realized I had a problem when I would lose food in the fridge underneath other food, and would discover that as I piled in more food from a trip to the grocery store.

At first I rationalized by telling myself, “Produce is bulky. It’s not your fault. Besides, some of it is the CSA.”

But the problem well antedates my CSA participation. And the freezer is just as bad.

I’m going for the stereotypical post-college bachelor fridge: a jar holding two olives, a half-empty jar of mustard, and a quart of milk. That, plus just enough food for two days of meals, say.

So right now I’m eating through what’s there, freezer and fridge, buying only what I need to accompany it.

I got this email from the Drug Policy Alliance:

The U.S. government has said many things about the drug war, including that it’s over. But as we’ve seen in recent months, it continues to rage on.

We’re tired of all the empty rhetoric about the drug war, and now that public opinion and state legislatures are moving in our favor, we need to show that there is broad public support for legalization and ending the war on drugs.

Tell Congress: I stand with Americans across the country in demanding an end to the war on drugs.

http://www.democrats.com/end-the-war-on-drugs

The war on drugs has destroyed lives in our country and sapped our nation’s resources for nearly 40 years. It’s widely agreed to be a failure, but has continued unabated.

Public opinion is increasingly against the war on drugs, and many states facing tight budgets have finally changed their policies to de-emphasize criminalization in favor of strategies that work.

The coalition of people who want to see the drug war end is one of the most diverse, broad-based alliances in America today: we come from every state in the nation and every spot on the political spectrum. I stand with this coalition in demanding public accountability for the war on drugs, and serious consideration for legalization.

Tell Congress: I stand with Americans across the country in demanding an end to the war on drugs.

http://www.democrats.com/end-the-war-on-drugs

When you go to the link, you fill in your address and a click sends it to your Representative. Mine is Sam Pharr, so I added this note:

Sam, For the love of God let’s end this thing now. It’s getting to the point where the Feds are going after state officials because the Federal law has lagged so far behind social change. When the Federal government finds itself arresting people who are terribly ill and using an easily grown plant to treat their pain or nausea of whatever—surely then the government should recognize that it’s in the wrong?

Do what you can.

Thanks.
Mike Ham

I’m hoping that some staffer will assume I’m one of Sam’s personal friends. Only those probably call him by some nickname—”Steamer” or something.

I have been beating an obvious drum for a while: that climate change will drastically cut our food supply. Last summer Russia has had such a poor harvest that they cut off all grain exports—total harvest was a third less than normal. That’s a substantial cut, no? Drought was the problem, as I recall.

And, as we watch the climate change, without taking any effective action at all because oil and coal companies want to keep making money, we will watch world food supplies fall off a cliff. It will get extremely ugly: “slowly at first, then all of a sudden.”

From American Scientist:

A new study published last week in Science finds that the effects of climate change are already evident in farm yields. Among other things, the global production of maize is estimated to be about 3.8 percent lower than it would have been without warming — the equivalent of Mexico ceasing production of the crop.

I’m amazed that Congress is so placid in the face of this threat.

I didn’t even understand “travel quiz” as a category, but some of these look pretty cool.

I still don’t have an iPad, but The Wife has one. These browsers seem pretty slick, in fact.

You can expect to see more of this sort of thing: changing our legal system (our government) to allow corporations to do whatever the hell they want, with impunity. (We’ve seen that new reality in operation already, with the lack of pushback to the financial industry after their raid on the public treasury.)

Interesting that the collapse of the American Imperium is going this route. But I imagine we’ll see a lot more thrashing about as the giant goes through its death throes. For the Roman Empire, the collapse took centuries, but things seem to move faster these days.

Dan Colman explains at Open Culture, along with a very nice clip of Vivaldi’s “Winter” from Four Seasons.

Interesting how-to article in the NY Times Sunday Magazine on how to lower your effective airfare to some cities.

Cool Tools has an ingenious little coffeemaker.

If only this person had been elected president:

“My attitude is if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the way to relieve pain and suffering is medical marijuana then that’s something I’m open to because there’s no difference between that and morphine when it comes to just giving people relief from pain. But I want to do it under strict guidelines. I want it prescribed in the same way that other painkillers or palliative drugs are prescribed.” — November 24, 2007 town hall meeting in Iowa

“I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users. It’s not a good use of our resources.” — August 21, 2007, event in Nashua, New Hampshire

“I don’t think that should be a top priority of us, raiding people who are using … medical marijuana. With all the things we’ve got to worry about, and our Justice Department should be doing, that probably shouldn’t be a high priority.” — June 2, 2007, town hall meeting in Laconia, New Hampshire

“You know, it’s really not a good use of Justice Department resources.” — responding to whether the federal government should stop medical marijuana raids, August 13, 2007, town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire

“The Justice Department going after sick individuals using [marijuana] as a palliative instead of going after serious criminals makes no sense.” — July 21, 2007, town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire

If that person were president, the Department of Justice would no doubt release a memorandum that would include text like this:

The prosecution of significant traffickers of illegal drugs, including marijuana, and the disruption of illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking networks continues to be a core priority in the Department’s efforts against narcotics and dangerous drugs, and the Department’s investigative and prosecutorial resources should be directed towards these objectives. As a general matter, pursuit of these priorities should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana. For example, prosecution of individuals with cancer or other serious illnesses who use marijuana as part of a recommended treatment regimen consistent with applicable state law, or those caregivers in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law who provide such individuals with marijuana, is unlikely to be an efficient use of limited federal resources. On the other hand, prosecution of commercial enterprises that unlawfully market and sell marijuana for profit continues to be an enforcement priority of the Department. To be sure, claims of compliance with state or local law may mask operations inconsistent with the terms, conditions, or purposes of those laws, and federal law enforcement should not be deterred by such assertions when otherwise pursuing the Department’s core enforcement priorities.

Typically, when any of the following characteristics is present, the conduct will not be in clear and unambiguous compliance with applicable state law and may indicate illegal drug trafficking activity of potential federal interest:

• unlawful possession or unlawful use of firearms;
• violence;
• sales to minors;
• financial and marketing activities inconsistent with the terms, conditions, or purposes of state law, including evidence of money laundering activity and/or financial gains or excessive amounts of cash inconsistent with purported compliance with state or local law;
• amounts of marijuana inconsistent with purported compliance with state or local law;
• illegal possession or sale of other controlled substances; or
• ties to other criminal enterprises.

And all that did happen—but the president in question is one who feels free to break his promises. And now the Federal government has decided to clamp down on the scourge of medical marijuana.

I would welcome explanations or defenses of Obama and/or Holder regarding this issue. To me, it seems like yet another example of bad faith.

Very good column by Paul Krugman, who (research by an independent group found) is the most accurate of our public prognosticators.

Interesting article on the narrow line separating a gourmet experience from food poisoning in the world of foods with bacteria.

User-centered design is where it’s at.

Interesting post, with an introduction to the upcoming book:

All complex systems contain parasites. In any system of cooperative behavior, an uncooperative strategy will be effective — and the system will tolerate the uncooperatives — as long as they’re not too numerous or too effective. Thus, as a species evolves cooperative behavior, it also evolves a dishonest minority that takes advantage of the honest majority. If individuals within a species have the ability to switch strategies, the dishonest minority will never be reduced to zero. As a result, the species simultaneously evolves two things: 1) security systems to protect itself from this dishonest minority, and 2) deception systems to successfully be parasitic.Humans evolved along this path. The basic mechanism can be modeled simply. It is in our collective group interest for everyone to cooperate. It is in any given individual’s short-term self interest not to cooperate: to defect, in game theory terms. But if everyone defects, society falls apart. To ensure widespread cooperation and minimal defection, we collectively implement a variety of societal security systems.

Two of these systems evolved in prehistory: morals and reputation. Two others evolved as our social groups became larger and more formal: laws and technical security systems. What these security systems do, effectively, is give individuals incentives to act in the group interest. But none of these systems, with the possible exception of some fanciful science-fiction technologies, can ever bring that dishonest minority down to zero.

In complex modern societies, many complications intrude on this simple model of societal security. Decisions to cooperate or defect are often made by groups of people — governments, corporations, and so on — and there are important differences because of dynamics inside and outside the groups. Much of our societal security is delegated — to the police, for example — and becomes institutionalized; the dynamics of this are also important. Power struggles over who controls the mechanisms of societal security are inherent: “group interest” rapidly devolves to “the king’s interest.” Societal security can become a tool for those in power to remain in power, with the definition of “honest majority” being simply the people who follows the rules.

The term “dishonest minority” is not a moral judgment; it simply describes the minority who does not follow societal norm. Since many societal norms are in fact immoral, sometimes the dishonest minority serves as a catalyst for social change. Societies without a reservoir of people who don’t follow the rules lack an important mechanism for societal evolution. Vibrant societies need a dishonest minority; if society makes its dishonest minority too small, it stifles dissent as well as common crime.

Interesting development.

An extremely good shave today (two-day stubble, good prep, Slant Bar). De Vergulde Hand makes a nice lather, this morning with the Omega 643167 artificial badger. Then three passes of the Hoffritz rhodium-plated slant bar holding an increasing aged Swedish Gillette blade, still going strong. Finally a splash of Paul Sebastian, one of my faves. According to BaseNotes.com:

Top Notes: Sage, Lavender

Middle Note: Armoise

Base Notes: Sandalwood, Patchouli, Myrhh, Musk, Vanilla

Andrew Sullivan blogs:

Under the Convention Against Torture, member states can refuse to extradite citizens to another country where they might be subject to torture. A Canadian court has just denied extradition of an al Qaeda suspect to the US on exactly those grounds. We are no longer trustworthy when it comes to prisoner treatment:

The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a decision to halt extradition proceedings for an alleged Al-Qaeda arms supplier, citing the extent of US human rights abuses tied to his capture in Pakistan. A 3-0 ruling by the court ruled that a Toronto judge was justified in releasing Abdullah Khadr, the older brother of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp’s youngest detainee Omar Khadr. Both are Canadian. Khadr’s lawyer Dennis Edney hailed what he called a “victory for the rule of law.” “Evidence should be (obtained while respecting) human rights, and it was not,” he told AFP.

The entire news story is worth reading.

I was thinking about the modern corporation and how, unleashed from regulation and oversight, it becomes a fearsome beast indeed. Its only purpose is to make profits, and it is legally required to do whatever it takes to return those profits, short of actions later found to be illegal. Thus corporations do not hesitate to injure their customers (it’s a long list, but: Ford Pinto, unsanitary conditions in food industry leading to continual recalls (each generally following a new wave of food poisoning), the tobacco industry, and so on) and corporations fight regulations that would make injury to customers less likely.

And, of course, corporations have very much gotten the upper hand in the US. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but the financial industry got billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars to pay themselves off for bad paper they created and sold, and no one has gone to jail. No one, so far as I know, has even gone to trial. And the Supreme Court is building up a solid wall of protection for corporations as fast as they can create new precedents minimizing workers’ rights, GOP state governments are busting public employee unions and the killing off of other unions is just about complete. The Citizens United decision allows corporations to spend from their increasingly heavy profits to control the legislatures—and, so far as I can see, control it they do, with the result that teeth are removed from regulation after regulation and new regulations die before enactment.

And, of course, the modern corporation is not only powerful—and becoming ever more powerful as it consolidates its control of all major governments—it is also effectively immortal. Already some corporations are working on their second century and a few are even older.

The corporation is a meme—and a highly successful one, at that. But of course humanity has been creating—and supporting—memes for millenia—indeed, at least since the time language originated, itself a spectacularly successful meme. Humanity is the proving ground and environment through which memes compete: we are the jungle, they are the beasts—we the environment, they the creatures who live in that environment.

So memes compete and resources are limited. Thus: evolution. And the modern corporation can be seen as the culmination (to date) of the meme genus “human organization.” Organization, in itself, has been part of human culture (which is the sum of memes) ever since humans began to cooperate. And, as a meme, “organization” evolved, developed, speciated, and competed, and evolved further.

Looking about today, one sees all sorts of organizations and organization structures and methods. The modern corporation seems to be, in terms of survival and control of its environment, the most successful. In one sense, its a highly damaging virus of the mind, but in another it’s a highly successful meme. Other organizational forms so far have been unable to compete successfully with (or control) the modern global corporation.

The modern corporation has evolved to be a predatory, powerful, controlling, and highly damaging machine: they are, in effect, the Terminator robots of the future. In the movie those were physical robots and they were in the future. But the dangerous human creations that today follow their own imperatives, taking control and indifferent to our fate, are not physical robots but a meme beyond our control. John Connor, where are you?

My fountain-pen interest apparently is now fully reawakened: I now have half a dozen pens filled and ready for use—and have been using three already—but felt an intense pleasure on rediscovering what a pleasure the italic tip is on my Dunhill 2000 pen, and what a great pen it is. I bought it at the Dunhill shop in Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on some long-ago business trip. Red, smooth torpedo shape, cool mechanism to raise and lower clip—cartridge fill, it’s true, but an ingenious pump cartridge with cute internal float. Great pen.