January 15, 2007
January 14, 2007
Welcome to Double Punishment
Governor Patrick has come up a way to pay for more police officers:
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he had come up with a way to pay for more police officers in Massachusetts: charge convicted criminals a fee.
Unveiling his most detailed account yet of his plans for next year's state budget, Patrick said he would propose a "safety fee," which every person convicted of a crime would have to pay.
It's not clear whether he's proposing that the courts assess the fee as part of laying out a punishment. Presuming he isn't, this sounds a lot like a double punishment scheme - a judge hands out a fine for a misdemeanor, and then the governor adds on his own fee. This reminds me of the scheme South Carolina uses to fund the "uninsurable motorist" insurance pool - by charging a fee based on the number of tickets a driver has had in the last three years (it doesn't matter that you've already paid your fine to the jurisdiction in which you were ticketed, or that your insurance rates have gone up to reflect the violation). And the fee is collected - you guessed it - through your insurance company; you can't get insurance without paying the fee.
January 04, 2007
Amendment fun
The legislature split its understanding of the SJC yesterday - voting on the same-sex marriage ban, but not on the affordable health care initiative. Both are citizen initiatives, which needed two consecutive votes in the legislature to then be placed on the ballot. (Affordable health care already had one). What's interesting here is that both of these are bad initiatives, each one favored by one end of the political spectrum. And, that sadly, both are likely to pass if put before the people.
But first, a primer on how the Massachusetts initiative system works: First, you get ten signatures, submit your initiative to the Attorney General for validation (the crayon rule). Then you take a petition out and get a bunch of signatures. Now it goes to the legislature - they have to vote, as noted, in two consecutive sessions, but they only need 25% yea votes to pass (the leper rule). Then it goes on a ballot. It needs more "yes" votes than "no" votes, and 30% of the votes cast (the mob rule).
So it's pretty easy for an initiative to succeed if put before the people - because a number of folks might abstain (on the 2006 ballot, 6% abstained on Question 1, and about 11% on Questions 2 & 3), a lot might not show up (only 60% of registered voters showed up in 2006 (and only 80% of adults are registered to vote)).
Why are both of these bad, though?
The same sex marriage ban is bad - simply because government needs to be careful on its interaction with the bedroom. This initiative is, unfortunately, the logical next step in the battle - same sex marriage proponents need to get same sex marriage enshrined in law, and out of the wacky limbo state it is in, to take away the precedent argument (exercise for the reader: Argue the cases for polygamy, line marriages, and incest marriage using the current state of same sex marriage as a precedent). We shouldn't ban it, but we need a law here.
Affordable health care is not a right. And, in fact, we already have it; what advocates really want is the institution of the Dole, because that controls the mob's votes.
Update: The number of required signatures on a petition is 3% of the ballots cast for governor in the prior election; that currently means 66,594 signatures.
December 15, 2006
Dilberting Stata
As we've noted before, MIT students can be dangerous with their architecture:
The building, folks, is the Stata Center; and apparently, the decor is in response to this from the Wired article:
Given Stata's crew, it's no surprise that a lot of the gripes focus on their caves - or lack thereof. Stata has 370 lockable offices for 1,000 people, and math is something this crowd is good at. When Microsoft comes to recruit, notes one doctoral candidate, "one of their big selling points is: 'Our offices have doors.' With the kind of focused work people do here, spin-up and spin-down times are excessive." (Translation: Distractions are bad.) Gehry's team came up with plywood partitions. To which the grad students answered: Dilbert.
Update: Clearly I just failed my iconic knowledge test. It's actually a Where's Waldo hack, and Waldo is everywhere.
October 10, 2006
The New Logan
I'm flying out of Boston today to DC, and I got to experience the new Logan airport. Well, at least parts of it.
Central Parking now has 7 stories. Parts of each floor are still under construction, but hopefully, this is going to lead to fewer weird parking situations. The top floor has some beautiful views, of Boston, the airfield, and the water. (The airfield view is potentially disconcerting, if you worry about shoulder-launched munitions, as Central Parking does not have a trunk check, unlike Terminal B parking).
The Terminal B extension (Gates B 22 through B 26, where American Eagle operates) is now part of Terminal B. No longer are commuters stuck with a small food kiosk and no restroom while waiting for their flight, as a nice stroll down a sunlit walkway connects these gates to the main section of Terminal B. On the down side, there was clearly a lack of foresight - there is exactly one available power outlet left in the annex (If someone finds some, other than the one outside Fan Room 8, let me know!).
The new security measures are ... interesting. You can have fluids and gels, but only if they are in 3 oz. containers, and all the containers fit into a liter ziploc bag. Okay, so clearly, volume is an issue. But only the liter constraint provides protection, as an attacker could easily divide their liquids into multiple 3 ounce containers.
And now my flight is delayed. I had a one hour buffer, and we're delayed 35 minutes. Fortunately, the plane just arrived, so another delay is unlikely.
September 29, 2006
Animal "rights" terrorism
Apparently, animals have the right to a horrible death, instead of a home with humans:
A fire that killed more than two-dozen exotic snakes, frogs, fish, and other reptiles in a Cambridge pet shop Wednesday night was deliberately set, perhaps by the person who spray-painted the message ``No more exploitation of animals" on the store front, fire officials said yesterday.
...
Store owner Dianne San Filippo took offense at the message. ``One of our largest snakes was found melted in his tank," she said, standing outside her gutted store yesterday morning. ``Is that kind of death better than exploitation? I don't think so."
September 26, 2006
Efficiencies of driving
This morning, I had a question: is the route I drive to work, which is a straight line across several hills, with lots of stoplights (which makes fuel efficiency painful) cheaper in fuel than a more roundabout approach which crossed no hills?
Now, I assumed that my fuel efficiency is poor because of the hills and stoplights; I normally average about 22 mpg on that route, driving a hybrid SUV. Generally, stopping at the bottom of a hill (and burning your momentum) isn't a way to get good fuel efficiency. So I decided I'd measure the fuel efficiency today, and then take a more circuitous route in a couple of days. But in measuring it today, I decided that maybe the problem has been my driving; not the hills.
You see, there are two ways to drive a hybrid. One way is to treat it like any other car, and quickly accelerate and decelerate. At the opposite end of the extreme is the obnoxious hybrid driver mode - slow acceleration; lots of coasting, and never really getting to the top speed you might otherwise. So today, I drove closer to the obnoxious end of that spectrum, but within reason. And what I noticed was interesting. I have a 4.7 mile commute, and the first mile and a half - going to work *and * returning - sucked: about 16 mpg. The combustion engine just wouldn't turn off. The remaining 3 miles, on the other hand, averaged in the mid-30s for fuel efficiency; I netted 25.7 mpg on the way to work, and 28.7 on the way home (27.1 average).
Clearly, my fuel efficiency is getting killed by that first five minute interval while the engine runs to warm itself up. So my next two experiments are going to be different than the circuitous route. First, I'm going to let the car idle until the combustion engine shuts off, and see if the cost of letting the engine idle is lower than the cost of having the engine run while driving (logically, it isn't, but it's a necessary experiment). Second, if the engine is going to run anyway, I should attempt a trip where I try to cover as much distance as possible in the first 5 minutes of my commute, when I have an inefficiency added in, and then try to be efficient once the combustion engine stabilizes.
More on this later. But an interesting time. I think the biggest drawback is that focusing on efficient driving reduces my relaxation time while driving.
September 11, 2006
Meminimus
This is a nice tribute, courtesy of some enterprising students:
It is a long standing tradition, and this year, students at MIT also commemorated the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.On Monday, students mysteriously placed a 25-foot fire engine on the roof of the school’s 150-foot high Great Dome. The phrase “memininum,” which means “we remember” in Latin, appeared on the truck’s side.
More info:
- Jonathon Weiss (photos)
- MIT Press
Erik Nygren (photos)- A Land of Dreams and Fire
- IHTFP Hack Gallery entry
Also covered by:
September 09, 2006
Khatami reveals Harvard's intolerance
Alan Dershowitz has an op-ed on Khatami's visit to Harvard:
THE KENNEDY SCHOOL of Government at Harvard University should not cancel the scheduled speech by former president Mohammad Khatami of Iran. Universities must never submit to censorial pressures by individuals or groups that disagree with, or are deeply offended by, a speaker's ideas.This does not mean that those who invited Khatami to deliver a lecture on the ``Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence" -- a subject on which, based on his lifetime of intolerance, he has nothing to contribute -- made a wise decision. Would they have invited David Duke to lecture on racial harmony or the late Meir Kahane to educate our students on the proper way to protest? I doubt it.
...
Derek Bok, acting president of Harvard, is right when he says that ``a wide exchange of views" is essential to a university. But there are only two tenable positions a university may take in this regard: the first is that they have no substantive standards for who should be invited -- in other words any speaker who wishes to engage in ``a wide exchange of views," and who is invited by any student or faculty group, must be entitled to stand on the Harvard podium. Under this ``taxi cab" approach -- a cab driver must accept any rider who can pay the fare -- Duke and Kahane would have to be invited to speak if there were students or teachers who wanted to hear them, regardless of who might be offended. The second alternative is to have substantive standards -- such as academic achievement or political prominence -- that are applied rigorously and equally, without regard to whether the speaker is left or right, offensive to Jews or to Arabs, etc.
Sadly, Harvard is selective. I recall ROTC cadets having to fight simply to allow their commissioning to take place on campus, simply because any serving military officer was offensive to some groups.
I think Khatami chose the perfect spot to speak from - an intolerant institution.
Update: I see Betsy has much the same thought.
September 05, 2006
No love for Khatami
Governor Mitt Romney denounced Harvard University today for inviting former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s to speak at the school on Sept. 10 and ordered all state agencies to boycott the visit by refusing to provide state police escorts and other service typically given to former heads of state."State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel," Romney said in a written statement, calling Khatami’s visit a "disgrace" on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
So, I wonder who is going to provide security for Khatami?
Update: I should have read to the bottom; the State Dept is providing it. Maybe he can have Armitage on site.
September 03, 2006
Gas prices
I filled up my gas tank today. The good stuff - at $2.69 / gallon. That's 70 cents a gallon less than I paid for gas one year ago when we vacationed on the Outer Banks. Hmmm, what high gas prices?
September 01, 2006
Implied traffic norms
It's September 1st, and that means that Boston's roadways stopped working.
Why, you ask? Because we've got an influx of new college students, with their parents driving around town. Other kids are going to new schools, and parents need to figure out the new routes. And, unlike most cities in America, a significant number of Boston's intersections cease to function if people don't follow the rules.
What rules? The ones that aren't written down. Like when people are trying to drive across Comm Ave next to the BU bridge, and trying to get on Storrow drive, pedestrians should stop using that crosswalk. And drivers shouldn't try to pull a fast one from the left lane. Or, when you're getting off I-93S at Storrow drive, you don't race ahead in the right lane and try to merge at the last second. Unless you're competent, of course.
I could race through a whole bunch more (like not driving moving vans on Storrow Drive), but the effect is interesting. For the next few weeks, until people learn their routes, and apply some etiquette to them, commutes are just going to take a bit longer than usual.
I'm sure there is some deep metaphor in there for international social norms.
August 09, 2006
Take a breath, folks
A gift for everyone struggling today, this week, this month. Whether you're fighting terrorists, the media, your own political party, or your own demons, just enjoy. And I promise you, Adnan Hajj did not take these pictures.
August 07, 2006
Amnesty International holds a "vigil"
Amnesty International scheduled a vigil in Davis Square tonight. Odd, since a vigil, in my book, doesn't look like a bunch of election workers on the side of the road:
Oh, wait. What's that right underneath me? The irony of the moment:
August 01, 2006
Not enough of us protest!
Apparently, protesters at MIT held a small gathering of 60 to protest Israel. This quote caught my eye:
Harvard’s Pierce Professor of Psychology Ken Nakayama, who supported the Harvard-MIT petition to divest from Israel in 2002, was present at the event.“Harvard professors should take a more evenhanded view and not just be all pro-Israel,” he said in an interview before the event, holding a poster that read “NO U.S. $$$ FOR ISRAEL AGGRESSION!”
While I've known that certain political elements live in a fantasy world, that's a pretty impressive leap, given:
- The push for divestment
- The Israeli Lobby paper
- The Harvard Israel Review noted that "if an undergrad wants to learn about Modern Israel, most of the classes he will end up taking will be about Middle Eastern conflicts. The Harvard faculty thus sends the message that Israel is a troublemaker, worthy of study only in that respect."
- Pro-Palestinian professors being invited onto campus to speak
Apparently, the real problem is that professors like Ruth Wisse and Alan Dershowitz are pro-Israel, and proud of it.
July 29, 2006
Boston support activities at Temple Israel
Temple Israel has a host of support activiities coming up:
Give generously to Or Hadash, our sister congregation in Haifa. Continue below to read the first-hand report of the situation in Haifa from our beloved friend, Edgar Nof, Rabbi of Or Hadash: Congregation Or Hadash.
...
we urge you to join Rabbi Zecher and Rabbi Kolin and other members of the congregation at the Temple on August 15 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. for a briefing on the current crisis and an opportunity to discuss personal reactions and concerns. Joining us will be Seth Brysk, director of the Israel Action Center, JCRC.
...
As I write this lengthy letter, my wife, Irene, and I are preparing to leave Boston on August 3rd for Israel. Our initial reason for the trip was to celebrate the wedding of the son of our intimate friends. Now we’ll travel also as an expression of our solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are forced yet again to fight for the right to live in their own land, free from terror. We pray that our people will be protected from harm and that the day will come soon when it is no longer necessary for them to resort to force in order to defend their children, their land and the Jewish future. I look forward to sharing our stories with you upon our return. My clergy colleagues, Cantor Einhorn and Rabbis Zecher, Morrison and Kolin join me both in this correspondence and in wishing you the very best for the rest of the summer.L’shalom,
Rabbi Ronne Friedman
July 25, 2006
Boston Rally for ....
Solomonia has interesting coverage of an anti-Israel rally at Government Center (Boston) on Friday:
freelance operative Seva Brodsky was in the house, camera in hand -- and there was much jostling, grabbing, profanity and threats of violence directed toward our intrepid defender of Israel and America. The remainder of this post is either submitted by, or based on descriptions from, Seva. The pictures and video are his.
...
In the ensuing commotion, I suddenly noticed that Noah Cohen grabbed my camera and was quietly trying to break off its swivel monitor. This really stunned me -- I didn't expect he would go to such length and engage in criminally punishable behavior, but I guess, he figured he could afford to do so and get away with it, being surrounded by his comrades-in-arms with no police in sight.
...
Why is it that when we Jews have our demonstrations and rallies, we behave overwhelmingly in a civilized manner in the face of the opposition, and if one of us steps over the line of propriety, the rest admonish such a person? Why do we see such a drastic difference between our behavior and that of our opponents and enemies?
Best quote from Seva, while on the cellphone and taping:
"I'll take an inaccurate Katyusha any day over being in the middle of this crowd."
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