Private Money

Posted on December 31, 2004 by Paul — 4 Comments ↓

PBS is reporting a minor story that I’ve heard in a couple of other places, namely that the aid the US government has so far pledged to the areas affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake is less than what the Republlican party plans to spend on the upcoming presidential inauguration. Now unlike many residents of blogistan, I don’t think the amount that the government is contributing is too low, for several reasons:

I’m sure more will follow
US companies are doing an astonishing job, providing cash and resources that overshadows the $35 million from the government
Private citizens are giving an astonishing amount

Having said that, I think the way the issue has been handled could have been improved considerably:

React faster – make it look like the president was engaged from the start by cancelling his holiday. Totally symbolic, but symbols matter
Promise more – Make it clear from the beginning that the $35 million was just a start
Get prominent faces on the scene to show that we are there for the people of the region. And under no circumstances should they smile in what could be interpreted as gloating in any way.

The point of this post, however, is pretty minor. The explanation for the inauguration vs. aid imbalance was along the lines of “The inauguration is paid for through private funds.” So? Does that mean that the inauguration money couldn’t be spent elsewhere? Couldn’t it be better spent improving our image abroad, not wallowing in our own excess?

Sudden realization

Posted on December 28, 2004 by Paul — 3 Comments ↓

Certain people who visit here will say the following is obvious. Others might think it’s not even English. But for me this was something that was sitting there to be realized, but I’d never quite noticed. I’m watching a program about string theory (a way of describing how the universe works at the most fundamental level), and one of the things they’re discussing is Einstein’s work on gravity and space-time. They’re showing a familiar image, a model Sun distorting a large taut sheet (space-time) like a bowling ball, with a model Earth following the distortion in the sheet to create its orbit. What I hadn’t ever thought about before is that this is an analogy. Not in the sense that the Sun isn’t really a bowling ball (though if you’re in doubt, it’s not), but because space-time isn’t a sheet. it is, in fact, four dimensional. So what is often presented as a dip in a sheet is actually a contraction in three-dimensional space, with some degree of persistence in time. So a more accurate analogy, though less useful, would be to stick a straw in a bowl of jello/jelly, and suck on the straw just enough to have the gelatinous substance distort, in three dimensions, towards a point (the end of the straw.)

Don’t worry, I’ll get back to important stories about supermodels and worthless journalists soon.

In other news

Posted on December 28, 2004 by Paul — 1 Comment ↓

You may have worried that the terrible Asian earthquake was so serious an incident that even the American media couldn’t trivialize it. Worry no more:

SI model survives tsunami

(For foreign readers: SI is Sports Illustrated, a magazine. Apparently supermodelling is a sport.)

Beer, Beer, Beer, Beer…

Posted on December 28, 2004 by Paul

I used to live in Burton, home of many a fine hostelry. The area near my house was a flood plain, and to preserve the quality of the water used for brewing chemicals such as pesticides were banned from the plain. But I didn’t realize quite how important the water was. Until now.

New Consumption

Posted on December 26, 2004 by Paul

One of the differences between the US and UK that I’m reminded of at this time of year is the use of sales. In the UK sales have two purposes. The major one is to shift merchandise that isn’t going to sell, whether it’s out of season, out of date, or just overstocked. Because of that, sales happen mostly in the New Year, when there’s lots of crap lying around that people no longer have the money to buy. Some retailers will also have seasonal sales, particular for fashion items. The minor reason for sales is to promote general spending, either through the use of spurious sales (that aren’t really sales, just rigged to make things seem cheaper) or through well promoted but limited sales of a selection of goods.

Compare that with the US. The prime reason for sales here, aside from the need to shift seasonal/fashion items, is to get people into your store rather than somebody else’s. That means sales happen when people are spending mostly in the run-up to christmas, or as seasonal changes bring a new raft o’ crap that someone thinks they need. What you don’t really get is an organized sale in the New Year, or indeed pretty much any time between Christmas and May.

This is another side of the established tradition of paying a lot more in the UK just because we do. By contrast Americans pay as little as possible, because they expect to. Naturally paying less is better than paying more, all other things being equal. But of course, all other things are rarely equal. Which sounds like a future post idea.