Later On

Joshua Foer interviewed Daniel Tammet and discussed him in Moonwalking with Einstein.

Just back from Whole Foods, where I was delighted to discover padrón peppers as a new produce item. These, you may recall, are the small, wrinkly green peppers that you sauté whole in olive oil, then enjoy with a chilled beverage of your choice. Almost all of the peppers are mild, but occasionally (around 5%, I’d guess) you’ll get one that’s spicy, though not terribly. About 1%, however, are terribly spicy: a-cup-of-yogurt-and-a-scoop-of-ice-cream spicy. (While it was going on in my mouth, I kept repeating to myself, “No one dies from this” but I didn’t really believe it.) It’s a gastronomic version of Russian roulette. Google will tell you more if you ask.

Also stopped by a local tobacco store (cigars, pipe tobacco and pipes, chess sets, traditional wetshaving supplies, etc.) and gave them a couple of copies of the book to see whether it sells in person. (See note below for retail info.)

I did my morning Spanish with all the new words, and I find (a) that I really now enjoy the process: having to repeat the card multiple times in the same session when I first encounter it, and then, as I learn it, see the intervals grow longer and longer for that card—though occasionally, of course, one will get a more extended return engagement; and (b) that it’s becoming easier to learn new vocabulary: I have now a large enough lexicon that some parts form a net with which to catch related new words as they pass by. So some new vocabulary I learn almost instantly—and, of course, there’s the delightful (and repeated) experience of having a new word suddenly illuminate one or more words you already knew, only now you view them differently because of what the new word has shown. .. An example would help, wouldn’t it? Well, I had learned descubrir (to discover) and then later learned cubrir (to cover), and I thought, “Aha! des-cubrir” and then realized it worked exactly the same way in English. Another: I had learned partir (to cut) and then learned compartir (to share), and somehow that made sense in terms of mnemonics if not etymology: to share, you cut it up to divide it out. And sometimes a single new word illuminates several others, but I can’t think of an example offhand.

Note on retail sales (in case you’re a shaving vendor):

The book is available from third-party distributors Ingram/LSI and Baker and Taylor. These distributors have this title available to purchase through their channels. If a business has an account established with either one, it can purchase the title directly through either distributor at a wholesale price.

If the Ingram/LSI or Baker and Taylor account is infeasible because of volume purchase requirements, then you can apply for a CreateSpace Direct account by visiting www.createspace.com/info/createspacedirect.

To be eligible, an applicant must be a licensed business and an active reseller. After submitting information, CreateSpace will validate the qualifications for access to CreateSpace Directs wholesale pricing, and notify the business of its status within one business day. Titles with CreateSpace have the following discounts when available via CreateSpace Direct:

Libraries – 20% discount
Retail – 35% discount
Distribution – 45% discount

Extremely interesting post (with useful links) by Ed Brayton, in which he points out that previous practice in the US government has been to use surveillance to collect damaging information on powerful people to be used to coerce cooperation if such coercion were to be required. J. Edgar Hoover was expert in collecting this sort of information—indeed his hoard of blackmail-level material is how he was able to remain in office: no one dared oppose him for fear of what he would reveal.

It’s worth reading Brayton’s post. You can see the steps through which the US is abandoning freedom in favor of control.

Very interesting review of a book challenging the traditional view. The review begins:

Is there anything new to say about how we should understand the nature-nurture problem? The answer is yes, and it is not because there are conceptual matters still unresolved. It is because no one has offered a way to think about the problem that is simple and grabs the imagination. Absent a clarifying story, teachers continue to struggle to explain it to students. And some of us continue to write books and papers in which we say or imply things we do not literally mean about nature and nurture, genes and environment, heritability and plasticity — things we later regret having phrased the way we did. So wouldn’t it be nice if there were a small book that explained, clearly and simply, how to understand the problem, pitfalls and all; if there were a concise manual — something like Strunk and White’s famous style guide – that we could just hand to our students; if there were a little manifesto that we could curl up with and reread every couple of years to restore to our thinking the clarity we know this difficult subject deserves? The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nurture, by Evelyn Fox Keller, may be just the book we’ve been waiting for.

Here is the issue she is addressing. . .

Continue reading.

“Slowly at first, then all of a sudden”: Climate change, like so many other things, seems to follow this model. Janet Raloff reports in Science News:

Sea levels began rising precipitously in the late 19th century and have since tripled the rate of climb seen at any time in at least two millennia, a detailed analysis of North Carolina marsh sediments shows.

“This clearly shows the recent trend is not part of a natural cycle,” says Ken Miller of Rutgers University in Piscataway, New Jersey, who was not associated with the analysis.

Andrew Kemp of the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues spent five years plumbing salt marsh sediments that had . . .

Continue reading.

Trent Hamm has an interesting post at The Simple Dollar. The basic idea is this: Put 25% of any income (paycheck, bonus, outside income, etc.) into a savings account (e.g., at INGdirect). When the account reaches $5000, invest it. My own choice is one of Vanguard’s funds—Vanguard fees are extremely low—but Hamm suggests some variety.

Start this at 25 and by 53 you can easily retire. As he points out, it sounds tough to put aside 25% of your take-home pay, but:

What you’ll find is that your lifestyle adjusts when your checking account does. The perks of life become actual perks that you appreciate instead of just a static routine of disposable pleasures. You can look forward to a future that involves doing whatever you want instead of working at a job until you’re unable to work any more.

Read the whole post.

It’s always a day to note when the sun once again reaches it apex and starts to slide back down the ecliptic. The days grow shorter, and we head once again into winter. What a lot of changes for me since the last solstice!

Today’s shave was extremely pleasant. First, I worked up a Creamy Lather™ deliberately, easily, and efficiently: practice—the deliberate accumulation of experience—really does work work wonders.

The Gonzalo is really an excellent brush, IMO. Once again the low sides of the soap bowl allowed the early “puffy” lather to drop away, and as I continued to work the brush, I quickly had Creamy Lather. After I completed the shave, I attacked the Truefitt & Hill again, this time with a badger brush, and I was able to get creamy lather once more. The secret seems to be to load my (badger) brush with more soap that I normally do. Tomorrow I’ll go with a badger and try again for Creamy Lather.

The OSS with its Shark Chrome blade, continues to provide a most satisfying shave. Three easy passes to perfect smoothness, than a little Castle Forbes Lavender aftershave balm and all is well.

Plus I then did the first three exercises for the beginner from Pilates for Men.

I’m a great admirer of Thomas Geoghegan’s writing, and I hoped he might win the seat vacated by Rahm Emanuel (but he didn’t). He does, however, have a very interesting op-ed in today’s NY Times:

As a labor lawyer I cringe when Democrats talk of “saving” Social Security. We should not “save” it but raise it. Right now Social Security pays out 39 percent of the average worker’s preretirement earnings. While jaws may drop inside the Beltway, we could raise that to 50 percent. We’d still be near the bottom of the league of the world’s richest countries — but at least it would be a basement with some food and air. We have elderly people living on less than $10,000 a year. Is that what Democrats want to “save”?

“But we can’t afford it!” Oh, come on: We have a federal tax rate equal to nearly 15 percent of our G.D.P. — far below the take in most wealthy countries. Let’s wake up: the biggest crisis we face is that most of us have nothing meaningful saved for retirement. I know. I started my career wanting to be a pension lawyer. In the 1970s, lawyers like me expected there to be big pots of private pensions for hourly workers. By the 1980s, as factories closed, I was filing hopeless lawsuits to claw back bits and pieces of benefits. Now there are even fewer bits and pieces to get.

A recent Harris poll found that 34 percent of Americans have nothing saved for retirement — not even a hundred bucks. In this lost decade, that percentage is sure to go up. At retirement the lucky few with a 401(k) typically have $98,000. As an annuity that’s about $600 a month — not exactly an upper-middle-class lifestyle. It’s too late for Congress to come up with some new savings plan — a new I.R.A. that grows hair, or something. There’s no time. We have to improve the one public pension program in place. Should we means-test it? No. I don’t care if they go out and buy bottles of Jim Beam: let our elderly have an occasional night out at a restaurant.

The most paralyzing half-truth in this country is . . .

Continue reading.

The problem in part are the judges, but primarily it’s the result of turning government functions over to private industry. So long as prisons were run by the state, things went along normally: bad conditions periodically reformed after scandals, but basically judges and prisons doing their jobs.

But once prisons were in the hands of private industry… Send in the lobbyists! We must grow the revenue and profits!!

One way to do that is to put more people into prisons (so a big push from lobbyists for mandatory prison sentences and “three strikes” laws) and keep them there longer (mandatory minimums). “Three strikes” helps not only send people to prison but keeps them there as well: even a minor third felony results in a life sentence, which the company views as guaranteed long-term revenue.

Think how subscription-based services must envy the prison industry for the “three strikes” law: a guaranteed on-going source of lifetime revenue.

So our prison population balloons enormously—and, oddly, so does the tax money flowing to private prisons, which turn out to be quite expensive.

Truly, the government should do government jobs. The government doesn’t have to show profits, and profits come about by companies that charge more for their services than they cost (government services just charge for the cost). Moreover, private companies must show revenue/profit growth or suffer, so private companies doing government jobs hire lobbyists to grow the tasks they’ve taken on.

Take a look to see some of the outcomes of privatization:

I skipped my morning Anki review a couple of mornings, and the backlog built up quickly. Today I not only worked through the backlog (it goes quickly), but I also did the first 20 words from ¡Adelante! Dos. Favorite new word: alarm clock = el despertador. I like that it reminds me of “desperate,” but in fact it’s straight from the verb despertar: to awaken, wake up, arouse, evoke, stir up, whet (appetite), come round.

So perhaps we all should be looking at stand-up desks. The site at the link specializes in those.

Enjoy. And tell how many you got wrong. (A high score will make me feel better.) Don’t game the quiz: choose the answers you believe are actually correct.

I remember this vividly.

Take a look. Just $3.

James Fallows has a good comment and the entire 24-minute exchange (not the 14-minute version commonly available). Take a look.

These look pretty cool. I like how Kickstarter is working out.

I used the Vie-Long Gonzalo boar+white horsehair: let it soak in hot tap water while I showered, then took it vigorously to the La Toja. Once again the short sides allowed the early, bubbly lather to escape, and when I stopped I did have Creamy Lather once more.

You can see the cork lid well in this photo. The dark underside the lid, facing up in the photo, is the bark’s interface with the sapwood.

Three passes with the Mühle open comb holding a previously used Astra Keramik blade. I wanted to try this one because I have on order a copy of their new open-comb design.

This is balm week, and today is Weleda day. (Check your calendar.) I used a tip from the forums and, once the balm had dried/been absorbed, I add a splash of New York aftershave for the fragrance.

Good start to the week. Did the full number of the first two exercises in Pilates for Men and shortly will go for a walk. Pulling up your socks and reaffirming your resolve creates a good feeling.

Vocabulary entry only, I should point out: 1556 new cards, and I’ll start them tomorrow. Plus I’ve created cards for the various new words I encountered in the first page of Isabel Allende’s La Ciudad de las Bestias, a Father’s Day present from The Eldest. My plan is to work through the book, learning all the vocabulary therein as I go.

It’s a young-adult book, which helps a lot. As The Eldest pointed out, a young-adult book has to address quite an educational range, so any difficult words are surrounded by clues for the younger (or less educated) reader.

I opened the book when I got it, picked a sentence at random, and I could read it all, though the verbs were, I think, in the imperfect (which I’ve not had) and the sentence referred to “la misma pluma verde”: the same green feather. I was mightily confused—same as what?—but then realized, of course, that I had picked a sentence in the middle of a paragraph and possibly—even probably—the green feather was previously mentioned.

I did come across quite a few new words in the first page, but the action is definitely exciting, and that will help propel me through the book. But I have to learn the vocabulary as I go.

I’ve been bringing out the pens and using them again—and as usual finding the occasional pen that writes too dry or too wet or skips on the downstroke. A fountain pen is a wondrous thing when it works well, but quite a few are not quite there. The one I have in my pocket now, a Stipula 22 (the point is made of titanium, which has the atomic number 22) is writing extremely well. The Alfred Dunhill AD 2000 seems to skip a bit on the downstroke—the red one; haven’t brought out the carbon-fiber one yet. My Pelikan 800 green demonstrator—with the first point that I modified myself to be an italic point (from Broad)—writes extremely well. The rotring writes with great smoothness on some papers, struggles a bit on others. The Waterman pen that is modeled on a reed writing instrument is beautiful, but right now it is writing way too dry and the point seems to have sharp edges—this one may have to go to Mottishaw.

But, of course, one has to try various things to see if it’s just a blip: wash out with ammonia, try different inks and different papers, etc.

But this Stipula 22 is right now doing a great job.

After learning for the 10th or 20th time that restricting food intake without exercising doesn’t lose any weight, I went for a 30-minute walk. Lovely sunny day, light breezes, on the warm side (72ºF), and I have recently learned how to walk—my Pilates teacher spent some time showing me, and I realize that I’ve not really been using my feet but rather swinging them at the end of my legs like sacks of sand. The feet should be doing considerable work—and my stride shortened when I tried walking per her instructions.

I also broke the ice on Pilates mat exercises: this morning I did just two, and only two repetitions of each, but that’s enough to get me going. Tomorrow I’ll do more reps of each and perhaps add one. I have The Everything Pilates Book, but I started the exercises from The Complete Book of Pilates for Men: The Lifetime Plan for Strength, Power & Peak Performance. It garnered good reviews, and the first two exercises seem quite good. I particularly like (and find useful) the paragraphs describing what your various muscles should be doing. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp.