Rants

You can kiss my ass. Talking about the risks faced by humanitarian workers, you said: People in this business have always accepted the risks, there have always been losses, there have always been horrific incidents There is NO SUCH THING as acceptable losses for humanitarian aid. Period. PS: I noticed that, according to your bio, you’ve never even worked in the field. So please do not count my life and the lives of my colleages as “acceptable losses”. Thanks. ...

MoveOn suggests that the best way to further your liberal agenda of reduced carbon emissions is to… (wait for it, wait for it…) Driving Change: Carpool to a swing state If you don’t live in a swing state, how can you volunteer in one? Drive! You can’t make this stuff up… This is like Daily Show funny. This is like irony at 11 on the irony scale. This is like the look on Tina Fey’s face when Palin kicks her off the stage. ...

There’s an interesting little nugget of reality near the end of the first page of Ask the Pilot this week: If I have grown more cynical in recent years, it is travel, I think, that has pushed me in this direction. Exploring other parts of the world is beneficial in all the ways it is typically given credit for… But traveling can also burn you out, suck away your faith in humanity. You will see, right there in front of you, how the world is falling to pieces; the planet has been ravaged, life is cheap, and there is little that you, as the Western observer, with or without your good conscience, are going to do about it. ...

Marina and I could have used this useful training film before we arrived in England. It seems the film needs to be updated some to reflect the current state of the privatized English bus system: First, be sure to find out which company has bought the route you want to ride from the government. Be careful not to buy a ticket for a competing service, it will be refused. Don’t bother checking the schedules, your friendly First driver will come when he’s ready. In order to assure prompt and reliable First service, we will sometimes send three busses at a time. Sometimes you’ll have to wait 30 minutes or more on one of our “every 10 minute” lines, so as to ensure that three busses can travel together. Be sure to wave at the bus driver as he passes you without stopping. Like that, you are sure he enjoys a pleasant and friendly day, without the bother of carrying passengers. Cheer up, there will be three more buses in 30 minutes!

A wonderful open letter from a fellow stockholder to our new investment’s board of directors. If only it were so easy… This is what justice would look like in a society that craved social justice and capitalism in equal parts.

The dirty secret of aid work… it always comes down to this… the navel-gazing, “why am I here”, “why is it so ineffective” conversation. Usually it happens around the campfire, over a bottle of locally made beer, or perhaps for the lucky coordination team in the capital city, at the nearby expat-only restaurant over a nice bottle of South African wine. As with everything this century, it’s moved onto the Internet. But the essential tone of the conversation, and the impossibility of resolving the problem remains. ...

Clarity on what’s wrong with our economy and our society, and advice on how to correct it, all in just 3 lines, and 21 words: You buy things and you don’t need. With money that you don’t have. To impress people that you don’t even like. From Aaron Stewart, " Our economic woes in three lines".

Headline from a Scientific American blog posting: Measles is back, and it’s because your kids aren’t vaccinated There was a measles epidemic in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland this year. MSF was thinking about intervening and setting up a vaccination site in Place Ripon, but the corrupt, inefficient, and chronically underfunded local health authorities managed to handle the crisis themselves and MSF just monitored the situation from it’s base in Geneva. ...

Compare The Candidates is a nifty web app that I found when looking into AppSpot, a Google cloud computing thingie. It shows a new style of design that rose in the last few years. I really admire it, and I love interacting with sites like this. It’s a little scary though, it feels like a generation gap. I don’t really feel like I know how to make something that feels like it. When HTTP and CGI came on the scene, I had my feet under me right off the bat. With this generation of design sensibility, I feel a little lost still. ...

I got an email from Chris Shipley today, who is also writing a blog about Measure Q. Chris is right, I did vote no on Measure Q when I sent in my absentee ballot last week. I did so for two reasons, each of about the same importance to me. For one thing, I feel like the Yes on Q campaign is bought and paid for by a developer who is ramming this development down our throats, and I want to send the developer a message that democracy still works, and money does not buy votes. The other reason that I am against it is because I believe such high density development should be within walking distance of Caltrain. I don’t mind the idea of high-rises on the Peninsula, but I want to see them someplace which will at least make it possible for people to live car-free. ...