Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

The charms of the installation art exhibits in Marfa, Texas are often lost on Americans but the place is very popular with German tourists.  My favorite new experience in Marfa was a dark room filled with blue LEDs hung from wires (photo doesn’t really do it justice due to massive overexposure compared to the darkness you feel with just your eyes) by Erwin Redl.  Shortly before our little group was enjoying the high desert scenery and trying to understand the art, the Associated Press reported that “In a scene reminiscent of Somalia, frenzied [Iraqi] crowds dragged the burned, mutilated bodies of four American contractors through the streets of a town west of Baghdad on Wednesday and strung two of them up from a bridge” (source).

A German couple talked about how they’d met some retired U.S. Air Force pilots in California.  “They were lied to,” the wife noted.  “They were just 19-year-olds and nobody told them they would be bombing civilians.  Otherwise they would never have bombed German cities.”  The implication was that bombing civilians was so clearly immoral that nobody would do it knowingly.  Certainly the results of the bombing were terribly painful for Germans:

“The total bomb tonnage for the Second World War dropped by both the RAF and the 8th and 15th Air Forces in Europe on Germany totalled 1,234,767 tons of bombs more than 60 percent of which were dropped between July 1944 and April 1945. The Allied aerial onslaught killed no fewer than 305,000 German factory workers or area residents in targeted cities. It wounded about 780,000 other persons, made 1,865,000 people refugees, compelled the removal of another 4,885,000 additional persons, and cut off 20,000,000 people from their public utilities. By the third quarter of l944, coping with the aftermath of the Allied air strikes tied down an estimated four and one-half million workers, about 20 percent of the non-farm labor force, in cleaning and rebuilding operations.” (source)

Equally certain is the fact that for every German civilian killed or inconvenienced by bombing there was a statistical chance that an Allied soldier’s life would be spared.  The German death camp system for Jews was also impaired in efficiency and brought to an earlier end by the Allied bombing of German civilians.  Apparently there is a large school of thought within Germany at least that saving the lives of Allied solders and Jews did not justify killing German civilians randomly in hopes of striking those who were useful to the war effort and/or death camp system.

1940s summary:  We were at war with the German and Japanese governments and we killed many civilians who did not support those governments and with whom we had no quarrel.

What about today?  I have not been following events in Iraq very closely but I seem to recall American officials saying that it is tough to prevail against our enemies there because we can’t find them.  They hide amongst the general population and only come out at night in small bands.  Yet last week in Fallujah a huge group of people who apparently hate Americans and are prone to expressing that hatred violently exposed themselves in broad daylight, right in the open.  What better opportunity for rolling out the helicopter gunships?  Apparently the military commanders in Iraq did not think so because they didn’t bother to attack any of the rioters.

Modern summary:  We are at war with subsets of the civilian population in various countries around the world but we are only willing to attack governments.  It is tough to see a path to victory via this strategy because we’re actually at peace with the governments of France, Germany, et al., and in many cases close personal friends with the owners of countries such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, et al.  We can only occasionally find a government or country owner that we don’t like, e.g., the Taliban in Afghanistan or Saddam in Iraq.  Our military is able to dispose of said government or dictator very quickly but with victory we become the new government in that corner of the world.  And then we discover that it was not the former dictator trying to kill us but rather a subset of the civilians in that country.

Full post, including comments

The tour of the Salk Institute yesterday reminded me of what a land of opportunity California has been for immigrants.  Jonas Salk was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants (bio) and obtained enough funding from the March of Dimes to develop the polio vaccine (perfected in the mid 1950s; our tour guide said that the disease was due to be eradicated from the world by now but Muslims in places such as Pakistan and Afghanistan are refusing to take the vaccine because they believe it causes sterility).  By 1960 Salk had obtained $20 million to build the Salk Institute and hired Louis Kahn (bio), who’d emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 5.

It seems that nearly every corner of California has been a place where an immigrant’s dream has come true.

[More:  see the movie My Architect.]

Full post, including comments

After a tour of Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute complex in La Jolla I went to lunch with some local friends.  These guys used to make big money programming or administering computer systems and small money playing blackjack.  Now their computer jobs are gone and they’re living off their card-counting trips to the casinos.  One friend was missing, however.  His last job was a $150,000/year position as a system administrator for a large publisher.  He was never part of the blackjack team, however.  What’s he doing now?  After a nationwide search the best job that he could find is doing tech support for America Online in Tampa, Florida.  He earns $10.50/hour now.

Full post, including comments

The Tyco CEO and CFO are in the news right now after a mistrial (story).  Allegedly they looted $600 million from the company.  This sounds bad but if you look at this profile of Tyco, the $600 mil is less than the most recent quarter’s income of $720 million and only about 1% of the company’s market value of $58 billion.  Let’s compare that to some other looters in the news:

• Richard Grasso took $200 million or so that he took from the New York Stock Exchange, a non-profit org.  Grasso’s haul is roughly comparable to ten years of profits for the NYSE.  Grasso got his looting approved by his friends on the Board and therefore won’t face criminal prosecution though the NY State attorney general is trying to force him to repay some of his booty.


• Jack Welch, in his autobiography, talks about having transferred 30 percent of General Electric from the investors into the hands of “employees” (the lions share to himself and a few other top guys presumably).


• William T. Esrey and Ronald LeMay looted $311 million in one year alone from Sprint, about half of the company’s profits in a good year.  They were not prosecuted for their looting but the IRS became upset with their scheme to avoid paying any taxes on this income.

From the very fact of their prosecution we can infer that the Tyco guys did not dot their i’s and cross their t’s as effectively as the average corporate looter but is there any evidence that their looting was above average?

Full post, including comments

Some of the topics covered are rather ancient and/or embarrassing but if you’re curious to hear what I sound like… http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail94.html

Full post, including comments

A post for airplane nerds only…

Mountains climbing nearly to 12,000′ separate the Los Angeles basin from the Palm Springs and Joshua Tree area.  A layer of clouds between 4000′ and 6000′ covered all of the Los Angeles airports.  Thus it was necessary to proceed from Sedona into Los Angeles on an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) clearance.  The minimum enroute altitude on the direct airway from Twentynine Palms into LA is 13,500′ due to the fact that this airway goes straight over some of the tallest peaks.  I was flying along at 14,000′, breathing bottled oxygen, and got called by ATC:  “Fly heading 230 for a train.”

I banked the airplane and looked down wondering what kind of monster freight train they might have out West that would require an airplane at 14,000′ to adjust its course.

Then I realized that perhaps the call was “Flying heading 230 for terrain.”

Full post, including comments

We just had a perfect day in Los Angeles, starting with a drive from Pasadena straight into the heart of downtown Los Angeles and parking underneath the magnificent new LA Cathedral (see photos at the bottom of my Alaska 2002 trip report).  From there we walked two blocks to the new stainless steel-clad Walt Disney Concert Hall and took a self-paced 1-hour audio tour.  No need to go to Bilbao, Spain anymore to see a really large all-metal Frank Gehry and the audio commentary is very interesting.  From there it is only a 1-block walk to the LA Museum of Contemporary Art, a building designed by Arata Isozaki.  After all of that minimalism and modernism it seemed natural to have lunch at … Langer’s Delicatessen (see this New Yorker article).  [Did Donald Judd eat pastrami?]

We got into a conversation with a fellow dining alone in the next booth.  He was on his way to play poker at one of the traditional California card casinos.  What does he do when not at the gaming tables?  “I live in Venice.  I’m a screenwriter.  Nothing filmed yet but I’ve got a few projects in development.”

Full post, including comments

The first piece of paper they hand out at the visitor’s center is a publication from the Sedona Arizona Chamber of Commerce:

 

“The term vortex was first used in 1980 by psychic and writer Page Bryant to describe Sedona’s four popular meditation sites. …

 

“According to the scientific point of view, a vortex is an ‘area of enhanced linear energy flow’.  … The scientific perspective proposes that ‘upflow vortexes boost spiritual energy and expansion of consciousness’ while ‘inflow vortexes help one turn inward and enhance introspection.’

 

“Vortexes are also believed to be one of the reasons those seeking growth and renewal find a welcome home in Sedona.”

There seems to be some truth to this because most of the thousands of tourists who throng Sedona every day congregate around the energy sources of the strip malls, linearly arrayed along Highway 89A.  Nonetheless after meeting a large number of Sedonans who profess belief in crystal energy and vortexes it occurred to me to “Thank God these people don’t build cars or airplanes.”

 

It would be nice to send white supremacists on a field trip to Sedona.  New Mexico offers scenery similar to Arizona with a cultural mix of Anglo, Hispanic, and Indian.  Modern-day Sedona seems to have been constructed as a demonstration project for what a city would look like if built and occupied exclusively by Anglo refugees from Los Angeles.

 

[Oh yes, as suggested by some of the readers here Jerome, AZ was a great place to hang out for a day.]

Full post, including comments

About halfway across the country now in Oklahoma City.  The general aviation airport here, Wiley Post, has an 8000′ runway, longer than many of the major airports back East.  Avgas is ridiculously cheap:  $2.20/gallon at the self-serv pumps.  A quick drive in a brand-new Ford Taurus borrowed from the Millionair FBO brought me to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, formerly the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

The paintings by Albert Bierstadt, Russell, and Remington were fantastic as expected.  The outdoor koi pond underneath a statue of Buffalo Bill was a pleasant surprise.  The volunteer docents were a good source of entertainment.  For example, according to the Death Penalty Institute of Oklahoma the state has the second highest per-capita rate of executions in the U.S.  This fact had come to the attention of some German tourists and they asked the volunteer how he could be happy living in a state that executed convicted criminals.  He responded “Different countries have different justice systems.  We Oklahomans execute murderers.  People in other countries execute their Jewish neighbors.”

Just next door to the museum is County Line Barbecue.  After serving up some brisket and black-eyed peas, Terri explained how the old gun culture documented at the museum lives on today:  “Generally I don’t shoot at animals but we get too many alligator turtles in the pond behind our house and I don’t want them getting at my 3-year-old daughter.”  What kind of gun works best for turtles?  “Oh I generally use a 12-gauge shotgun.”  Isn’t that rather unsporting?  “That way the turtle is divided up into lots of little pieces that sink to the bottom for the fish to eat and he doesn’t go to waste.”

Full post, including comments

People in Cambridge, Massachusetts often complain about the apparent lack of intellectual and academic achievement displayed by our top politicians.  A Harvard PhD in an appropriate field ought to make one more qualified for any job.  Why then do Americans elect to high office people who sound as though they were strangers to the world of the university?

A glimmer of an explanation emerged when a friend told me about the loud argument she’d had with her father, a humanities professor at a university here in Boston.  Professor X, an immigrant from Europe, stated that Osama bin Laden was one of his heroes because he was a champion of the working man.  Daughter X asked for some clarification as to how a Saudi who had inherited $250+ million from his daddy could be said to represent the interests of the average worker.  Professor X noted that Americans deserved to be attacked on September 11th because the U.S. exploited workers in poor countries and that Osama represented those workers.  Even those who believe that Professor X is correct will admit that his opinions are out of sync with those of the average American voter.

How about the students?  An increasing number of graduate students, especially in technical and scientific departments, are foreigners.  A kid who grows up in a Muslim country where the mood is relentlessly anti-American can’t be expected to abandon his antipathy to the American government and the American lifestyle merely because he is so excited to be studying here at U.S. government expense.  If you wanted to attend an anti-Israel rally 10 years ago the local university would have been the most likely place to visit.  Those rallies turned into anti-Jewish events 5 years ago and are today places to denounce the current U.S. government and the millions of Americans who voted for it.

For better or worse American universities have become our main local venues for displays of anti-American feeling.  Perhaps this is one reason that our most successful politicians don’t sound as though they’ve spent too much time on campus.

[I’m off to Oaxaca, Mexico now and will be there on November 2 during what, no matter who wins, promises to be something of a national tragedy.  I managed to be away for all of September 2001 in Nova Scotia and am beginning to feel lucky to have escaped our nation’s most painful moments.]

Full post, including comments