Following the financial crisis these last two days

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I've been reading tons about the proposed plan to bail out Wall Street (and save us all?) What I twittered this morning ("I'm seriously worried that the Bush admin is trying to pull another fast one with the Paulson plan -- time to call my congressional reps.") is still pretty much how I feel tonight.

I wish I could just summarize for you this complicated situation. Instead, I'll just list some of the articles I've read and let you draw your own conclusions. (I am proud to say that I did call the office of my local congressman (Mike Doyle) to express my concerns.)

  1. “The Wall Street Bailout Plan, Explained - Question - NYTimes.com,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21qanda.html?em.
  2. Brian Knowlton and David M. Herszenhorn, “Bipartisan Support for Wall St. Rescue Plan Emerges,” The New York Times, September 22, 2008, sec. Business, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22talkshow.html?hp.
  3. “Fair Game - Your Money at Work, Fixing Others’ Mistakes - NYTimes.com,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21gret.html?em.
  4. “Foreign Banks Hope Bailout Will Be Global - NYTimes.com,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22global.html?hp=&pagewanted=all.
  5. Thomas L. Friedman, “No Laughing Matter,” The New York Times, September 21, 2008, sec. Opinion, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/opinion/21friedman.html?em.
  6. “Few Limits Proposed for Treasury - WSJ.com,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122204156493561237.html?mod=article-outset-box.
  7. “Banks Rush to Shape Rescue Plan - WSJ.com,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122204115528161189.html?mod=article-outset-box#articleTabs%3Darticle.
  8. “No deal - Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog,” http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/no-deal/.
  9. “U.S. Bailout Plan Calms Markets, But Struggle Looms Over Details - WSJ.com,” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122191819568460053.html#articleTabs%3Darticle.
  10. “Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle,” http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider.
  11. “Mixed reviews of relief plan sent to Congress,” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/20/MN28131DBP.DTL.
  12. “Powell Memo - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Memo.
  13. “A Fair Plan to Pay for Economic Recovery,” http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/collins.
  14. “Democrats Begin to Set Own Bailout Terms - NYTimes.com,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/business/22paulson.html?hp=&pagewanted=all.
  15. John Harwood and Michael Cooper, “2 Candidates Back Bailout, With Caveats,” The New York Times, September 22, 2008, sec. U.S. / Politics, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/us/politics/22campaign.html?pagewanted=all.
  16. “High Anxiety,” http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=15590&R=13C1A13C72.
  17. “Busch: The Political Process And The Plan - CNBC Guest Blog - CNBC.com,” http://www.cnbc.com/id/26835648/print/1/displaymode/1098/.
  18. “The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan,” http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/09/trust-us.html#more.
  19. “Democrats want pay limits, loan aid in bailout,” http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/22/national/w091157D44.DTL&tsp=1.
  20. “John Steele Gordon on the Financial Mess: Greed, Stupidity, Delusion and Some More Greed - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog,” http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/john-steele-gordon-on-the-financial-mess-greed-stupidity-delusion-and-some-more-greed/.
  21. “News Analysis - In Bailout, Seeing a Need for a Penalty - News Analysis - NYTimes.com,” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/business/23skeptics.html?hp=&pagewanted=all.

I’d vote for Obama if I could….

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Deciding which of the candidates running for president of the USA must surely be one of the most important decisions as an American citizen can make this fall. As a Canadian living in the US as a permanent resident, I don't have the vote. However, I would urge anyone reading this blog who can vote to vote for Barack Obama in November. I won't attempt to make an argument today for why you should vote for Obama. Instead, I'll simply express my support for Obama and follow my friend Lloyd's lead by embedding one of Obama's latest political ads ("Plan for Change"):

Lloyd quotes the text of the speech, which you can find in many places, including an analysis of the speech in the NY Times today, which concluded that the ad "is substantive, providing a simple, easy-to-follow outline of Mr. Obama’s campaign promises, but its length and monotonous visuals could lose the viewer’s attention."

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill Branch

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Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Squirrel Hill Branch, originally uploaded by Raymond Yee.

One of the first pieces of official business for me upon relocating to Pittsburgh this fall was to obtain a library card. I've been very happy with the Squirrel Hill branch of our public library (the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh). It's not a large building, and there are not a lot of books at the branch -- but the selection and decor are winning. Moreover, the reading chairs provide a nice view of Forbes Avenue while you immerse yourself in your book or magazine.

following the predictions for Obama vs. McCain

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The American presidential election has become quite a horse race. As a political junky, I like the follow the latest predictions of who will win and why. Websites that I have found helpful for this purpose include:

Social life around books

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In posts to come, I will write about books that are currently on my mind and my reading list. But first: a bit about the process of discussing books on the web.

Over the last couple of years, I've used various websites that let you record books that you own or read and what you think of those books: LibraryThing, goodreads, Visual Bookshelf (a Facebook application), and Shelfari This selection of sites doesn't even include my Amazon wishlist ("Stuff I find interesting"), a WorldCat "Stuff I find interesting" list, my Google Books "My Library", and other lists I must have forgotten about. Some of these lists I use actively, while joining (in response to a friend's request) has been the only activity I've performed.

I've been intrigued by book-oriented social network services for some time now, but none of them has won me over. I explained my reluctance to adopt these services on p. 238 of my mashup book:

One thing that keeps me from investing too heavily in these sites is the struggle of how to move my book data in and out of any of these sites. For any given site, I look for APIs that help in that regard as well as any feeds that might allow users to easily import and export data.

In other words, I'd like to use any website of choice and have my information show up on all of them. I'd even be willing to program such information exchange (that's where the APIs come in.)

When I write about books, I have a choice about where to write -- on this blog or on one of the book social network services, or in a traditional print publication (among others). I will try to write in a lot of places and see what happens.

Learning from the everyday

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I've not thought seriously about physics since I finished my Ph.D. in biophysics in 1997. But now I think often about how to get back into studying physics. Not the physics of graduate school requirements, but the physics of everyday life. Doesn't it make sense to get students to tie their learning to what they encounter in their own worlds? Of course, the world is much bigger than what's in our faces and immediately under our feet. But it's in the way buildings stand, water freezes and boils, and how insects fly that are the hints to the deepest stuff we know. Like Lex Luthor quipped: "Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story. Others can read the ingredients on a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe."

To find out whether there's been much work put into designing curriculum based on everyday life, I will look at references such as:

Taking First Steps in the Right Direction

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First thing yesterday morning, I took a 2 mile stroll around my neighborhood. I used to go for long walks all the time but had settled into a rather sedentary lifestyle while writing my book. I had certainly thought often about how to get in better shape.

Yesterday morning, without all my plans in place, I decided to pause the planning and just walk! Lesson for myself: taking a simple action in the direction in which I want to go is more effective than continued planning. (I don't have to convince myself that some planning is important but I'm much more likely to over-cogitate than to under-think situations.)

Where to recycle compact fluorescent bulbs?

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Yesterday morning, as I was cleaning up my desk, I came across some compact fluorescent tubes that I needed to properly dispose. I had to do a bit of web research to figure out where I could bring both these bulbs and also batteries. A directory at the Ecology Center points to IKEA as well as the Berkeley Recycling Center (see also Berkeley Energy Office). Moreover, Home Depot just started to accept compact fluorescent bulbs (as reported in the Times today: Home Depot Offers Recycling for Compact Fluorescent Bulbs)

James Wood on the problem of evil

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I enjoyed reading James Wood's essay on the problem of evil in the New Yorker. He captured well at the end of the essay a question I've had for a long time, namely, why do we have go through life on earth when we have heaven as the ultimate destination? If it's the exercise of human free will that enables evil to take hold on earth, how will heaven not be earth redux in which freedom will lead again to a fall? And if heaven is some special place in which freedom is fully consonant with the impossibility of human evil, then why does God put us on earth in the first place? Or maybe we won't be truly free in heaven at all.

I've never seen a satisfactory answer to the question that Wood poses. The essay made me think that it would be a great idea for New College Berkeley or my church First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley to host a class -- or at least a talk -- on the topic.