Category: Culture

Five principles and seven actions for Rapid Language Acquisition at TEDx talks here. Fascinating stuff!

Longitudinal economic data used by the IMF to detail how increased inequality is the wrong path for growth. It is disturbing how difficult it is to get this rather simple idea across to policy makers.

Couple this document with the fascinating discussion of the capability approach at Crooked Timber here.

And read Thomas Piketty for the best analysis of inequality thus far here.

Here are the main conclusions from the IMF study:

First, more unequal societies tend to redistribute more. It is thus important in understanding the growth-inequality relationship to distinguish between market and net inequality.

Second, lower net inequality is robustly correlated with faster and more durable growth, for a given level of redistribution. These results are highly supportive of our earlier work.

And third, redistribution appears generally benign in terms of its impact on growth; only in extreme cases is there some evidence that it may have direct negative effects on growth. Thus the combined direct and indirect effects of redistribution—including the growth effects of the resulting lower inequality—are on average pro-growth.

The New York Times has an interesting article here detailing some of the reasons for the recent Russian actions in the Crimea, along with the actions of pro-Russian Crimeans. It posits the argument that Putin’s actions are not part of a grand design; rather they show how reactive Putin has been, and how the issue of NATO expansion is the main driver of Putin’s actions. I also suggest taking the time to read some of the earlier (2005-2010) US diplomatic materials via wikileaks. What you can see from wiki leaks is that the Western looking Ukraine is clearly concerned with attracting investment and reforming the banking sector, the lure of liberalism is intoxicating. What we see recently from the Eastern looking Ukraine is that it is concerned with the important economic investments, especially in the oil and gas sector, made by Russia. These two visions of whither Ukraine may be incompatible.

And some good links on the subject.

Mark Ames from Pando here.

Ben Judah at Politico here.

Anatol Lievan at Zocalo here.

So I finally received my Mitakon Lens Turbo from Hong Kong. It is a knock off of the pricier Metabones Speedbooster that I got for around $200 bucks. Here are some samples but I didn’t use a tripod, these were just some walking around shots to test out the adapter. It fits like a glove and the lens went on my m4/3 without a hitch. I cannot wait to test it with my Tokina 11-16!

I set the camera to A and the shutter speed was automatic. Here are some samples with and without the LensTurbo. Shots 1 and 3 are with the LensTurbo, the others, without. The Nikon lens is sharp and a light eater in any case but I cannot wait to get some dusk shots to take advantage of the additional stop of light. IIRC the lens was manually set to f5.6. If my math is right, the extra image makes my 50mm X 2 crop factor =100mm X 0.71 = 71mm.

Amazing video here of Shozo Kato describing the art of stillness in battle. Beautifully shot. And here is another great video that I found on itsutsu no tachi, the first sword kata.

Nothing of substance has occurred. The Russians have increased their control over the Crimea and many countries seem unaware as to the seriousness of this situation and seem to think that belligerent language is what is needed now. It is not. Hans Morgenthau’s work on power tells us that influence is not empty rhetoric, it has to be backed up. I know of no force in the region that will expel Russian troops from the Crimea. The fact of how integrated the EU, especially Germany, is to Russia means that while the verbiage is high, cooler heads must prevail. It is in the best interests of both economic blocs. Angela Merkel is, according to this article, quietly working behind the scenes recognizing that increased tensions would cause Germany’s economy to falter. The EU would have even more difficulties than it already does now if this were to unfold. The interesting question for me is whether or not Merkel can come to a reasonable accommodation with Putin negating intervention by the USA.

Update: A thoughtful opinion piece here by Neil Macdonald on the CBC website highlighting that there is enough hypocrisy and hyperbole on both sides of this issue already. If we were to use the same arguments on other countries as we are doing here, many countries would face international sanctions, letting alone some recent spurious historical assertions that Putin is Hitler and this is a replay of Czechoslovakia. Hint: it’s not. I always wonder if this is sheer ignorance and laziness on behalf of the media or something more sinister. Probably the former, the latter would entail some intelligence that seems to be in rather short supply of late.

Another update: Crimean MPs will vote on whether or not to join Russia on Thursday. The West really bungled this entire situation. It is quite clear to me that the people who are engaged in this affair are clearly out of their depth. In the lead up to 1914 the Foreign Offices of many European countries were staffed by connected people whose only expertise was their ability to choose their parents, it appears that those in political positions today are chosen due to their ability to raise capital for politicians or as rewards for political service. These are not the “experts” who should be in charge and many more will suffer due to arrogance, myopia, and ineptitude.

Normally all of the really nicely designed places that I like seem to be from nice climates in Europe or California or Japan. Here is an excellent example of Canadian architecture built into a base of a hill. Partially buried housing had always been very interesting to me since I read about it in Popular Mechanics in the 1970s. While demanding acreage to build into, using earth as an insulator, especially in our climate, seems to make sense. As does aligning the windows to allow for maximum light penetration.

And here is a link to an online architectural contest with some awesome designs!

Here is my favorite under 1000 square foot home from Australia.

An interactive timeline, looks great on my iPad, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here.

It appears that Russia has moved troops into the Crimea. This video shows Russian attack helicopters moving into Crimea ahead of 6000 troops to (to paraphrase the Russian media) protect Russian language speakers in the region. And it also appears that neo-Nazi groups are patrolling the streets in Kyiv. Strange bedfellows and all. The UN has asked Russia to explain its actions while the United States is calling on Russia to withdraw.

From a purely power politics perspective it is quite difficult to see what resources that the UN, the EU, or the US have to confront Russia in the Black Sea. A deal with Russia will have to be made but it is difficult to see the typology of the framework needed to de-escalate tension in the region outside of the issues with the Ukraine itself. I think a fair amount of pressure can be applied through both the EU and North American banking system with threats of confiscation of the offshore wealth of the Russian elites, but that would require a type of cooperation unseen in a while.

An interesting historical analysis at al Arabiya outlines the relationship between Russia and Turkey regarding the Crimea over the last several centuries. A treaty signed in 1793 holds that Crimea was never to be independent and, if so, would return to Turkish rule. More on the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca here.

And here is a transcript of the leaked comments by the US ambassador on the overthrow of the pro-Russian leader. I put this link up because this forms a crucial piece of the puzzle when interpreting recent actions in Kyiv by the opposition parties. This provocation as a deliberate “new Cold War” thesis is provocative, to say the least.

Another point that it also interesting is the potential for this action by Russia as a precedent for other states “protecting language minorities” in, say, the Far North East.

Click here for a great read on how they lit Ontario’s largest indoor rock climbing gym. The lighting tutorial is interesting but the size of the indoor gym is also impressive!