Tumblr

I started a Tumblr. It's linked in the sidebar too. I've been posting a photo almost everyday that shows some small part of my day.

I had a photography professor at IIT who I was a TA for say that if you don't have a purpose/concept when you're making photographs then you're engaging in photojournalism, not art. I wanted to say that that wasn't the case but for me it mostly is. I'm okay with that.

Gasoline Prices, Cheap as Ever

I can't bear to hear people make statements that are demonstrably false.

"Gas prices are so high!"

No, they're low compared to the rest of the world and adjusted for inflation they're about the same as they've ever been in this country, so stop saying it. You're lying.

Source

Average is EUR 1.39 per liter.

1.39 x $1.30 (conversion to USD) x 3.78 (liters in a gallon) = $6.83 / gallon (premium grade)

The current average in the US is $3.85 / gallon of premium, so about half of what Germany pays ($7.76).

Same as it ever was. Source: NYT

Woodshop Update #2

Actually got out to start working at the shop now that it's not below freezing. Just welded some 1-1/2" square steel tubing up overhead for board storage and to hold the electric, lights, and ventilation equipment. Lots to do.

Update #1

My dad welding while I do layout.

The amount of lumber is staggering. Good problem hopefully.

Misleading Statistics

On my Facebook feed I found this from MoveOn.org:

This is a description of my thought process:

Wow, 1.38 million dead since 1968... but aren't there roughly 10,000 gun related homicides a year in the US? So about 450,000... where are the other 2/3's?

Wait, you're twice as likely to take your own life as to be the victim of a homicide. Are they counting suicides? I mean, I know a gun makes one more likely to succeed at suicide but surely they're not counting that.

Let's check their sources. What? I have to type that crap in... ugh.

But they're misrepresenting the numbers!

I know, I know, I'm typing.

Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4 < That's my favorite

They counted suicides. I get the logic, but this is a gray area and to be fair if you're going to count suicides in that number it needs to say so. It's misleading.

Oh, and I looked up the war deaths too. Suicide was not listed as a cause of death in any of the tables cited, but it very well may be counted. The chart does appear to take into account all deaths caused by war and not just those in battle. That's good. However, they don't count Confederate soldiers' deaths from the Civil War. Which is strange because more Americans were killed during that war than every other American war combined.

Kind of disappointed MoveOn.

Sunday Reading

Long reads this week:

Wired's Q & A with Mark Zukerburg reveals a more thoughtful person than expected.

Philosophical Landmines on LessWrong.com

There's a legal drug called modafinil that many productive people seem to be exploiting.

The Bitcoin bubble.

I've been looking for this for a long time now - Loevinger's stages of ego development. Backed by good research, but I'd caution understanding this in hard science terms.

This Atlantic article places much of the economic blame on Baby Boomers.

Psilocybin, the active chemical in psychadelic mushrooms, may improve personality in the long term. What's interesting about this is the credible source.

And a random quote from Noam Chomsky:

Students who acquire large debts putting themselves through school are unlikely to think about changing society. When you trap people in a system of debt they can’t afford the time to think. Tuition fee increases are a “disciplinary technique,” and, by the time students graduate, they are not only loaded with debt, but have also internalized the “disciplinarian culture.” This makes them efficient components of the consumer economy.

Picturequote

The greatest and most important problems of life are all fundamentally insoluble. They can never be solved but only outgrown. - Carl Jung

This is Paley Park in New York City. This was during a class trip my first year of grad school in the Fall of 2009. Kodak 400 TMX medium format (120) on a Mamiya 645.

L > Vija, Jason, Catherine, Ric, Kareem, Aryne > R

Details

I've been sketching a lot of details by hand lately. This is the progression of vertical plywood to a gyp wall that I'd be using to make built in bookshelves.

Have to do something while my soon-to-be shop doesn't have power.