I've noticed that a lot of people sporadically take down and then re-publish their blogs and Facebook profiles. It seems to be when they are depressed that they censor themselves . Then they put their published material back up. I've never seriously considered taking down manicnotes. It has to do with intellectual bravery. I've considered taking down my profile on Facebook when I've felt depressed. But I just leave it alone knowing I'm OK
When people are manic they feel immune to criticism and publish what they think is (or really is) the truth. Then they fall into depression, doubt the intellectual or aesthetic content of their material, feel embarrassed by their disclosures and withdraw. They should have the courage to bare all, stick with unfashionable positions and not be ashamed when they're wrong.
The way I think everything you write is like a tattoo. You should own it. Even if you don't agree with it later. It's intellectual honesty and bravery. It's history. Taking down your online material is akin to burning books in Nazi Germany.
20 February 2009
5 February 2009
Cash Bonuses, ATO and Pensioners
In Kevin Rudd’s second economic stimulus plan, as I understand it, who gets the $950 cash bonus for low and income workers will be determined by the ATO. Many pensioners through depression and other disabilities neglect to put in tax returns and will thus miss out. Even when they’re able to do a bit of work here and there and are therefore owed money by the ATO. They can do their last tax return late and get the bonus but many haven’t claimed for years and would be subject to fines. They would also have to call all their former employers for group certificates - if the employers haven't gone bankrupt. For pensioners the bonus should be paid through Centrelink like the first bonus.
4 February 2009
Kevin Rudd’s Second Economic Stimulus Package
Before Kevin Rudd’s budget is examined, a few ideas on budgets that won’t be accepted by many.
The proposition that the size of change in the fiscal position constitutes the size of contraction/expansion injected into the economy is wrong. Each year should be treated anew. The absolute size of the surplus/deficit is the size of the contraction/expansion injected. For instance, if the budget position moves from a deficit of $20b to a $10b deficit, the government is still injecting $10b into the economy for the year.
The concept of a Platonic budget should be developed. In this concept there is an ideal budget for optimal economic and social development for each year written in the sky. No-one can know what the composition of the ideal budget is but the government should try to divine it and deliver as close to an ideal budget as possible. Thus there would be a Platonic ideal amount of money to be spent on education for a given year, etc. If the government spends $5b on education when the amount that should be spent is $10b then the government is withdrawing $5b from the education sector, not injecting $5b.
So Kevin Rudd’s move from a $20b surplus to a $20b deficit is just $20b worth of expansionism, not $40b. And his $6b for social housing (it seems like it’s over four years but the figures are hard to pin down) is woefully inadequate; if in an ideal budget the amount should be $20b then Rudd is effectively withdrawing $14b from the social housing sector.
It’s impossible to know what the size of the deficit should be and what the spending and revenue compositions should be but it seems that Rudd and his team have been thoughtful. Rudd should be praised for the speed of his intervention, the attempt at a good mix of cash injections and infrastructure spending, the weighting of infrastructure spending to ready-to-go projects, and his alacrity/bravery in treading on the states’ turf in the face of crisis. Tax cuts are hard to recoup when trying to put the budget back into surplus, are too easily saved and produce no extra productive capacity in the economy. Rudd was wise to keep them to a minimum. Most would consider the size of the spending increases to be huge so Rudd should be praised for his boldness. In all probability he hasn’t gone hard enough, though.
Perhaps he’s waiting to watch overseas developments to decide whether he’ll go harder but time is of the essence and it looks like anything can happen given the decimation of the US and European banking systems. We could be in for a decade-long stagnation like Japan went through. Capitalism as we know it could collapse and be replaced by a system we can’t even imagine yet, probably heavily Chinese-directed.
Ultimately on a fundamental level the West has been raping the Third World and there will be a reckoning.
Australia fortunately stumbled back into the land of Labor governments in time for this crisis. A Liberal government hooked on the spin that deficits are bad would have fallen into deficit too but not with the same decisiveness and thought. Peter Costello’s paucity of ideas on the matter is on display for all to see. He derides the December $10b as a virtual transfer of government cash to retailers. Heard of the multiplier effect? Malcolm Turnbull has destroyed his leadership by opposing the second stimulus package. History won’t be kind.
The proposition that the size of change in the fiscal position constitutes the size of contraction/expansion injected into the economy is wrong. Each year should be treated anew. The absolute size of the surplus/deficit is the size of the contraction/expansion injected. For instance, if the budget position moves from a deficit of $20b to a $10b deficit, the government is still injecting $10b into the economy for the year.
The concept of a Platonic budget should be developed. In this concept there is an ideal budget for optimal economic and social development for each year written in the sky. No-one can know what the composition of the ideal budget is but the government should try to divine it and deliver as close to an ideal budget as possible. Thus there would be a Platonic ideal amount of money to be spent on education for a given year, etc. If the government spends $5b on education when the amount that should be spent is $10b then the government is withdrawing $5b from the education sector, not injecting $5b.
So Kevin Rudd’s move from a $20b surplus to a $20b deficit is just $20b worth of expansionism, not $40b. And his $6b for social housing (it seems like it’s over four years but the figures are hard to pin down) is woefully inadequate; if in an ideal budget the amount should be $20b then Rudd is effectively withdrawing $14b from the social housing sector.
It’s impossible to know what the size of the deficit should be and what the spending and revenue compositions should be but it seems that Rudd and his team have been thoughtful. Rudd should be praised for the speed of his intervention, the attempt at a good mix of cash injections and infrastructure spending, the weighting of infrastructure spending to ready-to-go projects, and his alacrity/bravery in treading on the states’ turf in the face of crisis. Tax cuts are hard to recoup when trying to put the budget back into surplus, are too easily saved and produce no extra productive capacity in the economy. Rudd was wise to keep them to a minimum. Most would consider the size of the spending increases to be huge so Rudd should be praised for his boldness. In all probability he hasn’t gone hard enough, though.
Perhaps he’s waiting to watch overseas developments to decide whether he’ll go harder but time is of the essence and it looks like anything can happen given the decimation of the US and European banking systems. We could be in for a decade-long stagnation like Japan went through. Capitalism as we know it could collapse and be replaced by a system we can’t even imagine yet, probably heavily Chinese-directed.
Ultimately on a fundamental level the West has been raping the Third World and there will be a reckoning.
Australia fortunately stumbled back into the land of Labor governments in time for this crisis. A Liberal government hooked on the spin that deficits are bad would have fallen into deficit too but not with the same decisiveness and thought. Peter Costello’s paucity of ideas on the matter is on display for all to see. He derides the December $10b as a virtual transfer of government cash to retailers. Heard of the multiplier effect? Malcolm Turnbull has destroyed his leadership by opposing the second stimulus package. History won’t be kind.
My Autistic Traits; Overlap With Symptoms of Other “Disorders”
Tomorrow I see my psychiatrist. He puts up resistance whenever I want to talk about the fact that I have clear autistic/Asperger’s traits that I inherited in double dose from both my parents. But tomorrow I’m going to push the issue. I think he resists my claim because of his stated reason that I’m too sociable and make too much eye contact but I think other reasons are that the diagnosis would get too unwieldy (Bipolar Disorder + ADD + Asperger’s) and autism isn’t easily medicated. My psychiatrist likes medication.
I read somewhere that if both your grandfathers are engineers then you have a massively increased probability of having autism. Both my grandfathers were working class versions of engineers: one was a fitter and turner and the other could build houses from scratch.
The reason I’m writing this post now is that the past two days I’ve fallen into old behaviours that I haven’t had for years. Due to a prescription debacle I haven’t had Ritalin for three weeks. I also gave up cigarette smoking at the same time. I’ve been off my anti-depressants for two months. I haven't done yoga, which I do daily, for a week and a half due to a bad finger cut. Over the past three weeks I’ve been unable to read books but only short articles. My attention has been diffuse. My energy - which I actually feel/conceptualise - hasn’t been aligned with my physical body. It’s like a cloud leaking out of my body. It’s also more intense than before and when I allow it to compress itself back into my body it feels like I need to do intense physical activity to unleash it. Finally, I’ve fallen back into what I call “wall-staring” in the past two days. Yesterday I spent an hour and a half staring at the wall. Today I spent over two hours doing it. While I do it my diffuse but intense energy makes me perform all kinds of tic-like behaviours like restless leg syndrome -type leg shaking, tapping my fingers on the wall, mouthing lyrics to songs, shaking one arm in the air a certain amount of times and then the other an equal number of times, etc. I groan in a steady monotone that releases energy. Sometimes I allow the groan to turn into a yogic “om”. I feel like getting a chopstick and digging it into my stomach, my arms, my neck and back to release the energy. I get a song - and somehow sometimes even multiple songs simultaneously - into my head in perfect reproduction. Today I have Bjork’s “5 Years” in my head. I can hear every layer of the instrumentation, every nuance in Bjork’s voice (though don’t necessarily understand the lyrics - voices sound like just another instrument).
I have digestive problems like autistics. I rarely feel true hunger like I would when I was a child. It usually feels like anxiety. I also never get constipated - my tendency is towards diarrhoea, but not all the time and not severe. It’s worse when I’m anxious.
I have extreme mathematical and spatial ability.
I’m not a social retard but I’m extremely shy. I’ve worked on it so much that most people don’t realise it. I don’t enjoy conversation - it seems like it should be a functional device rather than a recreational one to me, although I really wish I could enjoy it. I enjoy it when dealing with intense/fresh concepts. I can’t follow group conversation. I don’t like being lonely but conversation takes a lot of energy from having to concentrate on both the content of the conversation and the emotional state of the other person so I end up wanting to spend a lot of time alone. I’m a bad liar, can only manipulate people bluntly and am easily manipulated without my knowledge (though if I realise it’s happening I shut it down). I’m very open. I often spout inappropriate/offensive responses in conversation, although I’ve worked very hard at moderating this.
I really want to fix the problems but know that to do so - on top of my yoga - I’m going to have to totally reconstruct my diet. Which is hard enough for a normal person but I just can’t cook and only have one hot plate in my kitchen.
The symptoms overlap with and interact with other symptoms that could be classified as ADD, Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Hopefully communicating this to my psychiatrist and other interested people if they hit this post will go some way to helping untangle all the symptoms and classifications of “disorders”.
Here’s an article about an extraordinary video in which an autistic woman explains how her repetitive behaviours (which are way more intense than mine) derive semantic content from the external world for her.
I read somewhere that if both your grandfathers are engineers then you have a massively increased probability of having autism. Both my grandfathers were working class versions of engineers: one was a fitter and turner and the other could build houses from scratch.
The reason I’m writing this post now is that the past two days I’ve fallen into old behaviours that I haven’t had for years. Due to a prescription debacle I haven’t had Ritalin for three weeks. I also gave up cigarette smoking at the same time. I’ve been off my anti-depressants for two months. I haven't done yoga, which I do daily, for a week and a half due to a bad finger cut. Over the past three weeks I’ve been unable to read books but only short articles. My attention has been diffuse. My energy - which I actually feel/conceptualise - hasn’t been aligned with my physical body. It’s like a cloud leaking out of my body. It’s also more intense than before and when I allow it to compress itself back into my body it feels like I need to do intense physical activity to unleash it. Finally, I’ve fallen back into what I call “wall-staring” in the past two days. Yesterday I spent an hour and a half staring at the wall. Today I spent over two hours doing it. While I do it my diffuse but intense energy makes me perform all kinds of tic-like behaviours like restless leg syndrome -type leg shaking, tapping my fingers on the wall, mouthing lyrics to songs, shaking one arm in the air a certain amount of times and then the other an equal number of times, etc. I groan in a steady monotone that releases energy. Sometimes I allow the groan to turn into a yogic “om”. I feel like getting a chopstick and digging it into my stomach, my arms, my neck and back to release the energy. I get a song - and somehow sometimes even multiple songs simultaneously - into my head in perfect reproduction. Today I have Bjork’s “5 Years” in my head. I can hear every layer of the instrumentation, every nuance in Bjork’s voice (though don’t necessarily understand the lyrics - voices sound like just another instrument).
I have digestive problems like autistics. I rarely feel true hunger like I would when I was a child. It usually feels like anxiety. I also never get constipated - my tendency is towards diarrhoea, but not all the time and not severe. It’s worse when I’m anxious.
I have extreme mathematical and spatial ability.
I’m not a social retard but I’m extremely shy. I’ve worked on it so much that most people don’t realise it. I don’t enjoy conversation - it seems like it should be a functional device rather than a recreational one to me, although I really wish I could enjoy it. I enjoy it when dealing with intense/fresh concepts. I can’t follow group conversation. I don’t like being lonely but conversation takes a lot of energy from having to concentrate on both the content of the conversation and the emotional state of the other person so I end up wanting to spend a lot of time alone. I’m a bad liar, can only manipulate people bluntly and am easily manipulated without my knowledge (though if I realise it’s happening I shut it down). I’m very open. I often spout inappropriate/offensive responses in conversation, although I’ve worked very hard at moderating this.
I really want to fix the problems but know that to do so - on top of my yoga - I’m going to have to totally reconstruct my diet. Which is hard enough for a normal person but I just can’t cook and only have one hot plate in my kitchen.
The symptoms overlap with and interact with other symptoms that could be classified as ADD, Bipolar Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Hopefully communicating this to my psychiatrist and other interested people if they hit this post will go some way to helping untangle all the symptoms and classifications of “disorders”.
Here’s an article about an extraordinary video in which an autistic woman explains how her repetitive behaviours (which are way more intense than mine) derive semantic content from the external world for her.
3 February 2009
Anthroproximity: Kary Mullis’ and Stephen Jay Gould’s Mistakes
Both Kary Mullis and Stephen Jay Gould err when they attribute disproportionate importance to levels of reality that humans don’t ordinarily deal with or are affected by.
Gould in Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin says bacteria are the dominant life forms on Earth due to the fact that they have the highest numbers and flourish in more varied environments than other types of life. Anyone who has a decent understanding of evolution understands that Gould is right in positing a non-hierarchical picture of the tree (not ladder) of evolution. It’s embarrassing that Gould has had to backlash against linear models of evolution climaxing at the pinnacle of humankind. But this is a purely biological issue. These criteria for “dominance” are ridiculous in any other realm. To equate one instance of a species of bacteria with another instance of the species of homo sapien is lunacy.
Mullis is a Nobel Prize winner. In Dancing Naked in the Mind Field he interestingly both makes the above mistake and grapples with the issue almost explicitly.
Mullis is a climate change sceptic. He correctly says that the Earth’s climate changes erratically and dramatically by itself. This is an attempt to show that the climate isn’t proximate to humans. Mullis tries to write off global warming as a theory requiring human hubris. How dare we think we’re capable of wreaking such colossal change? However, when something as proximate to carbon-based life (carbon) is raised by a proximate species (humans) on our planet by dramatic levels then the issue becomes proximate to humans. The Earth will continue, evolution will continue, etc if global warming destroys our habitat but that’s irrelevant to us. The world was once home to only one-celled organisms. This is irrelevant to us. Relevance being a matter of degree of proximity. What is relevant is whether intelligent human life exists on Earth or not. Carbon sits at 200 parts per million in the atmosphere in ice ages, was peaking at its normal non-ice age peak of 300 ppm in 1960, and is now at 380 ppm. This is a 27% increase on any level on record. The record stretches back 600,000 years. There is also ocean acidification, with increased carbon absorption resulting in a decrease in pH of 0.5 units by 2100 to the lowest level in hundreds of thousands of years. Marine ecosystems producing food for humans (a proximate phenomenon) will be destroyed. The end result of these changes on chaotic systems like the planet’s weather system are totally unpredictable. But there will be anthroproximate changes.
But then Mullis realises it’s important to recognise that humans with our five senses and limited range of devices that increase our range of perception (telescopes, microscopes etc) only get to tune into several of millions of channels that are happening around us. He also recognises that all channels might be equally important on some hypothetical cosmic level but they are not all equal to humans. This is what he means when he decries the amount of resources put into quantum physics (relatively non-proximate) when there are more pressing proximate issues for humans in physics, such as making sure Earth isn’t hit by a huge asteroid.
Even if eventually we find out dogs have bigger IQs than humans due to vastly superior spatial ability or the inclusion of other elements of intelligence, we will never say that dogs are more intelligent than humans. We will simply redefine intelligence again and include things like the ability to read a novel or manipulate the physical environment. And we would be right in doing so. Humans as observers can only ever measure the influence that other humans have in spheres in which they all interact. Extra channels such as levels for phenomena such as psychic activity that mainstream science currently has difficulty detecting, measuring and putting in theoretical context are proximate - but much less proximate - than those that science is currently adept at dealing with.
Gould in Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin says bacteria are the dominant life forms on Earth due to the fact that they have the highest numbers and flourish in more varied environments than other types of life. Anyone who has a decent understanding of evolution understands that Gould is right in positing a non-hierarchical picture of the tree (not ladder) of evolution. It’s embarrassing that Gould has had to backlash against linear models of evolution climaxing at the pinnacle of humankind. But this is a purely biological issue. These criteria for “dominance” are ridiculous in any other realm. To equate one instance of a species of bacteria with another instance of the species of homo sapien is lunacy.
Mullis is a Nobel Prize winner. In Dancing Naked in the Mind Field he interestingly both makes the above mistake and grapples with the issue almost explicitly.
Mullis is a climate change sceptic. He correctly says that the Earth’s climate changes erratically and dramatically by itself. This is an attempt to show that the climate isn’t proximate to humans. Mullis tries to write off global warming as a theory requiring human hubris. How dare we think we’re capable of wreaking such colossal change? However, when something as proximate to carbon-based life (carbon) is raised by a proximate species (humans) on our planet by dramatic levels then the issue becomes proximate to humans. The Earth will continue, evolution will continue, etc if global warming destroys our habitat but that’s irrelevant to us. The world was once home to only one-celled organisms. This is irrelevant to us. Relevance being a matter of degree of proximity. What is relevant is whether intelligent human life exists on Earth or not. Carbon sits at 200 parts per million in the atmosphere in ice ages, was peaking at its normal non-ice age peak of 300 ppm in 1960, and is now at 380 ppm. This is a 27% increase on any level on record. The record stretches back 600,000 years. There is also ocean acidification, with increased carbon absorption resulting in a decrease in pH of 0.5 units by 2100 to the lowest level in hundreds of thousands of years. Marine ecosystems producing food for humans (a proximate phenomenon) will be destroyed. The end result of these changes on chaotic systems like the planet’s weather system are totally unpredictable. But there will be anthroproximate changes.
But then Mullis realises it’s important to recognise that humans with our five senses and limited range of devices that increase our range of perception (telescopes, microscopes etc) only get to tune into several of millions of channels that are happening around us. He also recognises that all channels might be equally important on some hypothetical cosmic level but they are not all equal to humans. This is what he means when he decries the amount of resources put into quantum physics (relatively non-proximate) when there are more pressing proximate issues for humans in physics, such as making sure Earth isn’t hit by a huge asteroid.
Even if eventually we find out dogs have bigger IQs than humans due to vastly superior spatial ability or the inclusion of other elements of intelligence, we will never say that dogs are more intelligent than humans. We will simply redefine intelligence again and include things like the ability to read a novel or manipulate the physical environment. And we would be right in doing so. Humans as observers can only ever measure the influence that other humans have in spheres in which they all interact. Extra channels such as levels for phenomena such as psychic activity that mainstream science currently has difficulty detecting, measuring and putting in theoretical context are proximate - but much less proximate - than those that science is currently adept at dealing with.
Small Penis Pride Movement; RTA Pinkie Ads
There should be a small penis pride movement. I think the main reason there isn’t is because no-one wants the whole world to know they have a little dick. Perhaps also men widely known to have a little dick are looked at with derision. Solution: Have a secret database of members and have someone with a documented big dick front the organisation.
There are RTA ads on TV right now (the “pinkie” ads) in which men who speed while driving are accused by onlookers of having small cocks. How do men in real life with little cocks feel when they see these ads? They’re actually pretty offensive. Imagine if there were government-funded ads in which women were demeaned for having parts of their bodies not being of particular proportions. This is the kind of issue the small penis pride movement should tackle.
There are RTA ads on TV right now (the “pinkie” ads) in which men who speed while driving are accused by onlookers of having small cocks. How do men in real life with little cocks feel when they see these ads? They’re actually pretty offensive. Imagine if there were government-funded ads in which women were demeaned for having parts of their bodies not being of particular proportions. This is the kind of issue the small penis pride movement should tackle.
2 February 2009
Slumdog Millionaire: Bad Politics, Telegraphed Ending, Bad Acting/Direction
Slumdog Millionaire is a poor movie by a poor director, Danny Boyle. The acting is atrocious from both the child and adult players. Theatre-seat cringes come thick and fast. The first half hour has promise with the way the slums are portrayed and the reassuring imprimatur of M.I.A. rinsing over the vision. But by the time the last half hour comes up, bad direction, unconvincing plot devices, simplistic portrayals of motivations, one-dimensional characters and an obvious, telegraphed ending leave the viewer wanting to exit the theatre early. To console themselves with a choc-top in the foyer while waiting for their friends to come out. Who probably agree with the critics, damn them all and their pretensions.
Particularly irksome is the inclusion of the gameshow Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the implied moral that the prize to chase is the girl and the cash that will let you leave the slums. The cash that will put you above everyone else. The slums are the main star of the movie and Boyle treats them with as little an explorative attitude as he does the rest of the characters. The main guy got out, and that’s all that counts. Rich good, poor bad.
Then just when the viewer is ruminating on how Bollywood the plot was, for no apparent reason the main characters appear in a Bollywood film clip dancing and singing after the film ends.
Boyle has mined a realm of deprivation before with similar disdain for its humanity: Trainspotting. Compare the book and the movie of Trainspotting to see how Boyle imparts his cold touch. And the at-the-time uber-cool soundtrack was a disgrace considering the subject matter.
The controversy over whether the main child stars of Slumdog were effectively returned to the slums after the film is as vexing as the plot of the film. Who cares? There are millions in the slums and to take issue with whether one actor a viewer gets acquainted with over two hours gets to leave behind their contemporaries in the slums is to do a Madonna or Angelina Jolie with respect to their Third World adoptions.
Particularly irksome is the inclusion of the gameshow Who Wants to be a Millionaire and the implied moral that the prize to chase is the girl and the cash that will let you leave the slums. The cash that will put you above everyone else. The slums are the main star of the movie and Boyle treats them with as little an explorative attitude as he does the rest of the characters. The main guy got out, and that’s all that counts. Rich good, poor bad.
Then just when the viewer is ruminating on how Bollywood the plot was, for no apparent reason the main characters appear in a Bollywood film clip dancing and singing after the film ends.
Boyle has mined a realm of deprivation before with similar disdain for its humanity: Trainspotting. Compare the book and the movie of Trainspotting to see how Boyle imparts his cold touch. And the at-the-time uber-cool soundtrack was a disgrace considering the subject matter.
The controversy over whether the main child stars of Slumdog were effectively returned to the slums after the film is as vexing as the plot of the film. Who cares? There are millions in the slums and to take issue with whether one actor a viewer gets acquainted with over two hours gets to leave behind their contemporaries in the slums is to do a Madonna or Angelina Jolie with respect to their Third World adoptions.
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