Finally! Good news for old people!

The aging brain: Why getting older just might be awesome
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/19/health/enayati-aging-brain-innovation/index.html?hpt=hp_bn12

Though my previous post indicated that my brain was atrophying, I in general I feel that getting older gets you smarter (unless, of course, you are a moron). Though I am still not quite old enough to deal with age discrimination, I can see that train approaching through the tunnel and am quite aware of its potential. Simply being old is not enough to be smarter, one has to work to think and thinking is often painful, but it is pleasant to read something like this after so many articles that have discussed the bad side of getting old (not that getting physically older is great, it sucks, but at least there appears there may be tradeoffs).

I have always ascribed to the notion that old age and treachery will overcome youth and enthusiasm, even when I was younger. With age comes the potential for wisdom and with wisdom comes the ability to anticipate and anticipation not only allows for a more effective outcome with less effort (thus dramatically making up for declining physical abilities), it allows for the ability to co-opt the energy and effort of the youth and turn that to your benefit. Sadly, I am not smart enough to apply that to maneuvering our boy and resort to physical threats (largely threats, anyway, though I warn him his mom won’t always be around to protect him). I have learned that it is one thing to know the path and another thing to walk it (very Morpheus of me, eh?). Perhaps as I get older still I will learn the ability to actually apply the wisdom I have gleaned over the years, but some days that seems very far off indeed.

Lost skills

I spoke earlier about my efforts to work on a personal project part-time, I have a rather depressing update to report. Though I did manage to design the algorithm and code the core of it, it seems my motivation problem that has crept in over the years has risen its ugly head (or, more likely, never laid its head down to begin with). There were many interruptions in my first week and I did very little coding, but did get a design on paper (very short-hand, I doubt anyone else could make any use of my notes, better than encryption!). Early last week I got the core algorithm written (the part that evaluates the evolving program), then additional interruptions. Finally, last Thursday, I had a day totally to myself. The boy was at camp, I had no obligations and the hard part of the design was done. All I had left to do was adapt existing evolutionary code to this particular application, then start unit testing to ensure that what I had written matched with my design expectations. I expected Thursday to be a very productive day and might, with a bit of luck, be able to start the real testing with market data that night.

Instead, I wasn’t able to get anything done, not one single line of code. I tried everything I have used in the past to focus and even went on a long walk/jog, but to no avail. I was completely unable to write anything. I guess it is like writers block, though I haven’t really had this coding before (I have been stuck in analysis paralysis a number of times, but not when I knew exactly what needed to be written). So, in giving up a week and a half’s worth of pay, I produced less than a thousand lines of code, barely tested any of it, and have nothing working to show for it. I am not sure if this is permanent brain atrophy (I was, after all, able to design and code the core) or if it is somehow recoverable, but I decided not to waste any more money by taking time off (yesterday I wasn’t feeling well and spent most of the day in bed). After discussing things with my wife I am going to attempt to utilize the morning hours on the weekend (the hours I tend to be most productive coding anyway) and see if I can get the program completed and unit tested. If I can, then at least I can start the real testing and learn if the algorithm has any value.

I am worried about my lack of motivation. For quite a while I have blamed my inability to work on projects after work and on weekends to being mentally exhausted from my unmotivating work. However, prior to a couple of years ago, I was working extensively on my DNA sequencing research and building a house, so in retrospect it seems like I was quite busy and productive, but the last couple of years has really sapped my energy. Though I am working on a new construction project (the greenhouse pool) I am suffering similar ennui on that project and often have incredible difficulty in getting started each weekend and sort of drift along and get less done than I feel I should, based on past results. I blame part of that on not having any real vacation time in over a year and when I do take a break for some reason it is often due to illness (which really isn’t a break!) or because I just cannot get motivated, yet still have the negative thoughts, thus no real mental relaxation. Physical relaxation isn’t an issue, my regular job is sitting on my ass all day and I have to make time to exercise.

I am not sure how to address my situation. My wife isn’t a lot of help, she loves her job and thinks I complain too much. I do have projects in the works (aquaponics and biofuel from duckweed), but they are dependent on the completion of the greenhouse/pool, so my negative feelings just compound themselves when I think about how slow things are going. My ennui makes me more irritable than usual (and I have always had a short temper), which has me snapping at my wife and boy, which of course cycles more negative feelings back into the mix. I used to relax reading, now I don’t do much of that any more, instead I just sit in front of the TV and stare. Maybe it gives me an excuse to ignore what is going on around me, I dunno. Therapy is expensive and based on my research, nearly useless, so I guess this blog post acts as the great shrink in the sky.

They say it is always darkest just before the dawn, but dammit, it just seems to keep getting darker!

War with Iran increasingly inevitable

Bipartisanship and Iran
The most liberal and conservative senators join together to demand a harder line, and more threats, against Iran
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/18/bipartisanship_and_iran/

I am not sure what to add to this. It is very important, so I encourage you to read it, but it is very much like my blather on the police state: largely irrelevant since it is happening anyway and there appears to be no way to change course.

Wow! 15% of Americans believe in Evolution!

As America grows more polarized, conservatives increasingly reject science and rational thought
The Tea Party has intensified social pressure on conservative-leaning Americans to shun science and academia
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/18/as_america_grows_more_polarized_conservatives_increasingly_reject_science_and_rational_thought/

I had no idea it was this bad. I knew our country was turning against science, but I naively presumed that most of the population believed in evolution. When I read reports that “46 percent of the population” believed in creation, I thought that the remaining 54% therefore believed in evolution. It turns out that I am the dummy in this case and have engaged in a huge logical fallacy. Instead, some 85% of our population does not believe in evolution, thus I am in a tiny minority even though the article states that the number of people believing evolution has “been a steady rise” to 15%.

I guess I have really been lying to myself all these years. People really are as stupid as I complain about on my bad days. It is no wonder that our political situation is so thoroughly fucked up, how can you possibly develop critical thinking skills if you start your thinking process that evolution is a farce?

It is going to take me a while to adjust to this ‘new’ paradigm. Emigration is really starting to look like the only viable future for me. Too bad my wife doesn’t agree.

We are brainwashed, not stupid! It Isn’t Our Fault!

We’ve been brainwashed
It’s no accident that Americans widely underestimate inequality. The rich prefer it that way
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/14/weve_been_brainwashed/

Flippant title aside, this is an interesting article and I will slide in some quotes to try to motivate you to read the whole thing.

Of course, I do believe that stupid people are easier to brainwash, though I mean ‘stupid’ as in ‘stupid is as stupid does’, not as in lacking intellect. I have read several articles recently about how ‘intelligent’ people (generally measured by IQ or SAT scores, though I would (have) argued that those measurements are a very poor proxy for intelligence) often make poor decisions because they take lazy shortcuts rather than actually think. I am guilty of that myself (not that I tend to include myself with the ‘intelligent’ group, standardized test scores notwithstanding), I tend to make lazy decisions. I swapped a couple of emails with my friend Erik the other day regarding this article and described my situation this way:

Of course, the definition of ‘smart’ is questionable to begin with, SAT scores do not necessarily reflect intelligence, instead it is more about knowledge and experienced problem solving. I admit to falling for the bat and ball issue, but not the lily pad doubling. I think because I work with binary so much that the lily pad doubling fits within a world view I am very experienced with so my natural answer happens to be correct in that case. As for how smart I am, that is also a difficult thing to measure. Just because I might have some facility at doing things that are difficult for most people to do doesn’t necessarily make me smart; I recall one story an old girlfriend likes to tell: I was examining a pepper grinder, took the top off to see inside, then turned it over to look at the bottom. Naturally the pepper corns all poured out onto the floor, so how smart was that? My wife always rolls her eyes when I told her I married her because she is smarter than I am because she tends to equate complex problem solving with smarts and I tend to equate smarts with being able to make better-than-average decisions regarding cost/benefit in shopping and child rearing.

I have also read (but since I am one of the naysayers, can’t generate a bunch of empathy) that the more educated someone is the more likely they will find fault in the science of global warming (just as an aside, I have been reading an interesting book on the ‘Great Basin‘ and how the lake levels have risen and fallen over the last 20K years due to what might be tiny variations in climate, all long before humans had anything to do with anything). So, perhaps ‘smarter’ people can be the most dumb/stupid, perhaps because they are lazy in their thinking and instead rely on whomsoever they choose to believe instead of doing their own research. Since I am a research-minded sort of guy (I still consider myself a scientist, though I haven’t made a living as one for 20 years) and enjoy that sort of thing, I tend to do lots of research (so much easier today than it was when I was younger, thank you Internet and Google!) so believe (perhaps egotistically and mistakenly, but I am human after all) I am better informed and make better judgements (though I am sure that the climate change promoters wouldn’t be so kind (indeed, haven’t been when I have commented)).

So, what does this have to do with the GOP/oligarchy brainwashing us? Well, I think that humans in general are lazy thinkers and would rather avoid thinking novel thoughts. ‘Avoid’ is a bit mild, though, I think the proper term would be ‘run screaming’ from novel thoughts. As such, then seek people/opinions/information that reinforce their preconceived notions and in our information age where nearly any information is just a few pecks at a keyboard away, they actually spend less time researching or thinking then people did when they had less information (of course, that could be reporting bias, mebe in the ‘old days’ the vast majority of people’s thoughts and opinions were totally irrelevant as they were slaves, peasants, underclass, etc.). Thus, in my mind it really isn’t about the oligarchy brainwashing us, it is about us choosing to believe what the oligarchy tells us because that way we don’t have to think.

OK, some quotes from the article in an attempt to tease you into reading it:

In a recent study respondents on average thought that the top fifth of the population had just short of 60 percent of the wealth, when in truth that group holds approximately 85 percent of the wealth. (Interestingly, respondents described an ideal wealth distribution as one in which the top 20 percent hold just over 30 percent of the wealth. Americans recognize that some inequality is inevitable, and perhaps even desirable if one is to provide incentives; but the level of inequality in American society is well beyond that level.)

Not only do Americans misperceive the level of inequality; they underestimate the changes that have been going on. Only 42 percent of Americans believe that inequality has increased in the past ten years, when in fact the increase has been tectonic. Misperceptions are evident, too, in views about social mobility. Several studies have confirmed that perceptions of social mobility are overly optimistic.

and

Even perceptions of race, caste, and gender identities can have significant effects on productivity. In a brilliant set of experiments in India, low- and high-caste children were asked to solve puzzles, with monetary rewards for success. When they were asked to do so anonymously, there was no caste difference in performance. But when the low caste and high caste were in a mixed group where the low-caste individuals were known to be low caste (they knew it, and they knew that others knew it), low-caste performance was much lower than that of the high caste. The experiment highlighted the importance of social perceptions: low-caste individuals somehow absorbed into their own reality the belief that lower-caste individuals were inferior—but only so in the presence of those who held that belief.

More wasted breath

Al Qaeda’s best friend
An amazing Op-Ed in the NYT by a 23-year-old Yemeni explains that U.S. attacks are strengthening the Terrorists
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/14/al_qaedas_best_friend/

I like Glenn a lot and he is a reliable voice in the wilderness. I hope he never gets exhausted reporting the same thing over and over and over again and as long as he appears to hold out some hope, I will try to also be hopeful and attempt to interest my reader(s) in the subject.

At a minimum, with regard to the US foreign policy at least, the inmates are now in charge of the asylum. Of course, it is always remotely possible that these people really do believe that bombing people makes them more compliant (ask how that worked when Britain, Germany and Japan cities were bombed (except for the atomic bombs and believe me, that was very close to not resulting in capitulation)), but that would make them even more insane, so the thesis still holds. Of course, it is quite remarkable how few of these people have anything at risk with their policies. Neither they nor any of their children wind up on the front lines, though as the US increasingly turns to drones, even that price is no longer required. It is interesting to me, though, how many actually have a substantial financial stake in continued war. Either they make money off of war directly, because they make bombs or drones, or they make money a wee bit indirectly in the so-called intelligence community. Since the US now operates as an oligarchy controlled police state, naturally they suffer no consequences for any of their actions (foreign or domestic). So, they are now making policies that directly enrich themselves and have no consequences for them personally, no matter what happens. These were once the inmates of the asylum that Eisenhower warned against, now they are in control of everything and are implementing policies that continue to put the US and its economy at risk for personal gain.

Of course, that is what an oligarchy is all about, so I guess I shouldn’t complain so much. That is just the way it is here in the US, the latest Third World country.

Penny wise and pound foolish

New York to Repeat Chicago’s Parking Meter Catastrophe
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/new-york-to-repeat-chicago-s-parking-meter-catastrophe-20120613

This is symptomatic of our oligarchy. Lets sell our nation’s assets for pennies on the dollar today, then complain about the lack of revenue tomorrow and further cut taxes! The new American Way.

Every time I can’t think of how things can get worse, along comes yet another way for things to be worse.

Voucher socialism

Will conservatism bankrupt America?
The right’s privatizing alternative to the welfare state will leave us broke
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/will_conservatism_bankrupt_america/

I think this is an important article to read, hence my posting here for my reader(s). I am not able to organize my thoughts such that any post isn’t just a rant against the idiocy of the GOP, so will just leave you with the plea to read the whole thing.

No shared pain

Are politicians too rich to understand us?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/12/opinion/stanley-money-in-politics/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7

I think the answer to this is an unequivocal ‘yes’. Having been homeless and destitute, I have an acute understanding of the lowest rungs of the earnings ladder (though I did have friends that kept me out of the gutter, so never got to live like troll under a bridge, nor did I have to dig through trash cans to eat), so I see the huge value in the dribs and drabs of what is left of our tattered social safety net. Yes, there are a few cases of people taking advantage of the situation, but the vast majority of people who utilize these resources do so for the minimum amount of time possible, because, even ignoring the embarrassment factor, there really isn’t that much being offered, so real jobs are vastly preferable to what our ‘great’ country offers its disadvantaged citizens. I do think that places like Europe have gone a bit too far in providing a social safety net, but we have certainly gone too far in shredding ours. There is no way that someone who has been a millionaire for several generations can possibly comprehend what it means to dig through dumpsters to get enough food to be able to sleep under the bridge (hoping that no one will attack you, thus not getting really sound sleep). While our current ‘great’ President has had some experience living at the lowest levels of our society’s rungs, he has plenty of other issues that make him unfit for leadership (not the least is his Constitution shredding decisions that provide vast fuel for hatred against our country, or, of course, his police state tactics that one day, very soon, will be turned onto non-Muslim US citizens in the US). Our Congress, as the article mentions, is not representative in the slightest (of our country; they do represent the oligarchy quite well), so their decisions about ‘Obamacare’ and increasing tax rates can’t be trusted (the first is irrelevant since they have their own (lifetime, I believe) healthcare and the second, they all stand to lose significant take-home, so can’t be considered unbiased).