A web site about physics and other things
vttoth — February 28th, 2009
I take it back. There are still some sane conservatives out there in America. Some even think that right-wing talk radio is destroying conservativism. I only wish they were listened to.
How Radio Wrecks The Right
Categories: Politics | No Comments
vttoth — February 28th, 2009
I am watching Rush Limbaugh on CNN and I shudder. Is this what the once mighty conservative right has become? A middle aged drug addict spewing poisonous populism? And this was once the party of Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, or even, gosh, George H. W. Bush?
President Obama gave conservatives a chance to have their say about the stimulus package. They turned their collective backs on him. Unsurprisingly, the result is a stimulus package that serves Democratic priorities. And now they gripe. Even in the middle of a worldwide financial crisis, they’re not addressing real issues, they, Limbaugh among them, have nothing else to discuss but their partisan hatred of Democrats who, in their view, are out to destroy America.
Categories: Politics | No Comments
vttoth — February 25th, 2009
Every time I hear American politicians warn their citizens about the dangers of a government-run health care system putting in the hands of government bureaucrats health care decisions that should be left to patients and doctors, I feel outraged.
I have experienced the government-run health care system in several countries. NOT ONCE was a government bureaucrat in any way consulted… on the contrary, all health care decisions were made by me and my doctor.
Indeed, the only country I know in which health care decisions are routinely scrutinized by (insurance company) bureaucrats is the United States of America, with its privately run health care system.
So I think I can tell with full confidence to my American friends that if what they are looking for is a health care system in which decisions are made by patients and doctors with no bureaucrats involved, a government-run health care system may be the very solution they’re looking for.
Categories: Health, Politics | No Comments
vttoth — February 23rd, 2009
I don’t usually write about things such as the Oscars, as the topic leaves me supremely uninterested. However, it is hard to avoid it if you watch, listen to, or read the news. And I suddenly realized something, one of the reasons why I consider awards like the Oscars so irrelevant.
I probably wasn’t even in grade school yet (my guess is that it was the summer of 1968 and my family was watching the Mexico City Olympics) when I observed that there really are two types of sports. The results of sprinters, jumpers or weightlifters are measured by an objective standard: the reading from a scale, a ruler, or the face of a clock. But others, like gymnasts, are judged entirely differently: by a panel of experts who make subjective judgments of their performance. The ranking of a weightlifter doesn’t depend on which scale was used, as all are calibrated to the same standard; the ranking of a gymnast, on the other hand, depends heavily on the constitution of the panel of judges supervising the competition.
But what bothered me most is not that these differences exist, but that the world of adults did not seem to take notice. Grownups all talked about the Olympic gold of a weightlifter the same way as they did about the gold of a gymnast, as if there was no difference.
My disconnect with the world of grownups began around this time, I think. And, as my misgivings about the Oscars demonstrate, it has not ended.
Categories: Film, Society | No Comments
vttoth — February 23rd, 2009
Here’s this infamous political cartoon that everyone was so upset about:
Stimulus bill chimp
But… why? All I see is a clever political cartoon suggesting that the stimulus bill is so stupid, it must have been written by a chimp, perhaps the cimp that police shot the other day, so they need a new one to write the next bill.
Not in my wildest dreams did it occur to me to view this cartoon as racist. With all due respect, not in my wildest dreams would it occur to me that an intelligent person might compare Barack Obama to a chimp. I doubt it occurred to Barack Obama either. He doesn’t strike me as a person who takes offense when none was intended.
Categories: Politics | No Comments
vttoth — February 21st, 2009
The White House cat during the Clinton years, Socks, died yesterday.
Socks in the White House
Categories: Cats | No Comments
vttoth — February 19th, 2009
When the Canadian do-not-call list was brought into existence, I dutifully registered my two landline telephone numbers. Little did I know that the list is available to anyone (including foreign operators who are not subject to Canadian do-not-call legislation) for a few dollars. I have not checked (stupid mistake!) only naively assumed that the list will be implemented properly, meaning that the government will offer a means for operators to submit their list of numbers for do-not-call verification. I never expected that the do-not-call list itself will be made available in its entirety. On the odd chance that I know personally some of the people behind this lousy implementation, I’ll refrain from using stronger words but… this really wasn’t a very smart thing to do, was it.
Fortunately, I never registered our cell phones. And I don’t think I will. I doubt the do-not-call list will stop fraudulent operators from trying to tell us about our vehicle warranties or Florida vacations and why help them by making our numbers readily available in the form of an easy-to-purchase, government approved list?
Categories: Canada, Technology | No Comments
vttoth — February 17th, 2009
There are times when I wonder if moving to North Korea might be a good idea.
No, I am not altogether serious, but still… in North Korea, they may send you away for half a lifetime of hard labor for looking cross-eyed at a picture of the Dear Leader, but only in Canada can the driver of a passenger vehicle be fined for smoking while carrying a minor… even though, while the officer was writing the ticket, the minor, being a smoker, got out of the car to have a cigarette herself.
Categories: Society | No Comments
vttoth — February 17th, 2009
I’ve been listening to a Hungarian public radio station, Radio Bartok, much of the day today. There was some serious classical music there, and by serious, I mean something other than what you would expect to hear from the Boston Pops. There was an arts news broadcast. There was a classic radio play (Ferenc Karinthy’s “Steinway Grand“, a hilarious “play in one act”). In short, there was culture.
Culture that used to be there on CBC Radio 2, too. Until it was at first slowly eroded, and then completely destroyed last fall.
I used to be proud of CBC Radio 2. Whenever I traveled, in the US or in Europe, I always proudly spoke of the quality of our public broadcaster. Alas, those days are gone. Now, I am just ashamed.
And annoyed. Annoyed because neither the CBC’s masters nor its critics really “get it”. The former demonstrated their utter contempt toward their listeners when they attempted to placate them with Internet-only playlists that have no hosts and no commentary, nothing that would give them life. The latter, by bemoaning the fate of classical music on the CBC, not realizing that a lot more was at stake; indeed, that many of the old programs that we mourn were not exclusively classical either, but had a well-balanced mix of music of all genres, so long as it was music worth playing, that is, to a civilized, educated audience.
Categories: Radio | No Comments
vttoth — February 16th, 2009
I received some sad news yesterday from Hungary: my high school math teacher, Gusztáv Reményi, died last week, at the age of 88. He was a very kind teacher. Our class was a specialized mathematics class, and we were supposed to be the best in the country. In this class, being good at math didn’t just mean that, say, you got sent to national math competitions; you were expected to win them. Perhaps this made Mr. Reményi’s job easier, but I suspect that he would have done well with less talented pupils, too, if not because of his teaching style then due to his personality. If you met him and remembered nothing else, you’d have remembered his smile. I last met him a few years ago, at our high school reunion. He was old, he was frail, but the huge smile was still there, just as I remembered.
Categories: Mathematics, Personal | No Comments
