Random rants

So it's been almost 2 years and I have a lot to rant about right now.

I just finished reading "This Book is Overdue. How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All" by Marilyn Johnson. I highly recommend this book to anyone in the library profession or anyone who wants to get a better idea of the kind of people who work in libraries. Good stuff including the notes which indicates that a librarian who worked for the famous New York Public Library managing the Bronx branch left because of the pay. It's unfortunate that in the most expensive city in the world a Master's degree holding librarian was making less than $35,000 a year. This is especially galling when there were people in her system making mid to high 6 figure salaries. When the economy picks up it may be the libraries that start to suffer the most because librarians are like any other employee - we want to be paid commisserate with our skill set. It's a small wonder there is such great competition in Florida for the academic librarian positions given the low salaries for public library positions which require an M.A. It's not like getting an M.A. in Information Studies costs any less than getting an equivilent degree in Computer Science, Business or any other field.

Point number 2: The absurd continuing arguements about high-speed rail. A person commenting on a recent article about the stimulus money spent on high-speed rail in Florida indicated that not enough people commute between Tampa and Orlando to justify the expense. Data from the state department of transportation estimated that the average annual daily traffic leaving Tampa going into Polk County was ~80,580 units and it rose to 148, 000 units by the time it reached the Central Florida Parkway. Those numbers came from the year 2000 and it was expected to grow to 141,326 and 186,695 by the year 2020. Despite the current downturn, it should be expected that with a robust economy those numbers may be on the conservative side. To claim that not enough commute was typical of someone who failed to do any research into the matter. In addition, the creation of a high-speed rail corridor would create jobs and reduce pollution and automobile emmissions.

Point 3: To those people who are complaining that the democrats haven't done anything to help the economy. It's going to take time to fix problems that are 8 to 20 years in the making. Many of the seeds of the current economic recession can be dated back to the 1980s and a president named Ronald Reagan. Keep in mind that the ancient Greeks discovered that "trickle down" economics was a fallacy because people are greedy. Cutting taxes on people with high incomes does not create jobs, it just ensures the rich will continue to make more money.
Point 3a: Quit complaining about the spending of stimulus money - President Bush signed the initial bill with Republican support and that money was mostly spent to ensure that overpaid bankers got bonus checks.

Point 4: No Child left behind is a disaster. Teachers are no longer allowed to "teach" but they are required to spend only set amounts of time on too many subjects and give homework to kids who are not ready to handle the responsibility. Teachers no longer have "teachable moments" explaining questions to children when the child has an inquiry because they don't have the time. There is no flexibility in the classroom. You will teach math for 30 minutes, then 40 minutes of English, take the kids to resource (music- if available -, P.E., Library, etc.) It's no wonder there is a shortage of good teachers - they don't get to "teach" and they don't get paid worth a darn either. If they really want to fix education, focus on the basic skills - Math, Reading, and Writing - and raise the minimum standards and pay for teachers to a reasonable amount.

Final post

To my small group of readers, this will be my final post on this blog. I may start a new one at some point, but right now I just don't have time to keep up with it. Thank you all for reading and (hopefully) laughing at my cynicism about the world. Let me know what you think and if I decide to start a new blog I'll be happy to email you the name...

I rant a lot about journalism. So many articles in many newspapers in this country are just one step up (if that) from tabloid journalism. This problem becomes even more obvious when you notice that a major bank fails in this country - IndyMac was taken over by Federal regulators on 7/11/2008 - and the major newspaper here barely mentions it. The same day the major newswires are producing a number of articles on the problems with Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac - more fallout from the real estate bubble - and this only gets a short article in the local paper.


I begin to suspect that the problem here is one of misunderstanding who makes up your core audience. The population of the metro area here has grown by about 1 million people in the last 30 years. That kind of increase brings in a larger pool of educated people, yet the local paper seems to continue to aim it's coverage at the least educated; in effect they "dumb down" the news. Case in point is the lack of coverage on the IndyMac debacle. Not front page news but buried in the business section after 7/12. Can't let people know what's going on when it's far more important that they know about the new Batman movie or the that the local gymnast broke her leg and can't go the the Olympics. Don't do any real research or find an actual news story because that might require work.


I guess I shouldn't be surprised, after all some of the local reporters don't do their own research anyway, they just call the library. Then they have the nerve to complain that the library only directed them to sources and didn't just give them the answer. It makes me wonder if "journalists" in this town are just a bunch of 8th grade drop outs who still think that a "homework help" line will do the homework for them so they don't have to bother.

Update on the Tequila is the new wine

I ran across an article from AP yesterday saying that bourbon was gaining popularity worldwide. So I guess that means that Bourbon is the new Tequila which was the new wine which was probably the new beer right????

Interesting story about creating petroleum products from agricultural waste - http://www.hcnonline.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19786825&BRD=1574&PAG=461&dept_id=639295&rfi=6



The story claims that the inventor is able to take regular farm waste - cracked soy beans, cotton, etc. - and turn it into crude oil. The most interesting part is that the oil then burns at 100% efficiency - i.e. there are no discernible waste products after burning.

Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit skeptical about a number of things. If this oil can truly burn at 100% efficiency, I will have to revise my view of chemical reactions or retake some science courses. I can admit that my science background is a bit dated. I haven't taken any kind of chemistry class since my first year of college 17 years ago. I do have a more recent background in physics - 4 hours short of a minor - but again I haven't studied that in 6 years. I mention this because I recall vaguely that nothing burns at 100% efficiency - there is always something lost to waste and heat even if it's a very small amount.

That said, I find this inventor's experiment intriguing. What it appears he has done is speed up the process of decomposition for specific forms of organic material. Crude oil as pumped from the ground is generally made up of organic material that has decomposed. Wikipedia's article gives a good basic synopsis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum

So if what this inventor has done can be independently repeated, we could have a partial solution to our current energy woes. However, I think this leads to an additional problem - we haven't weaned our dependency on oil. What good will it do if suddenly we're using all this "farm waste" to create fuel? Will we suddenly be facing a shortage of food as farmers grow "waste crops" to produce petroleum? What kinds of new pollution will result as a part of the refining process to create this petroleum and what new by-products will start to appear?

The other think I'm pondering is this: Could this experiment not be a modern day successor to the early 1900s "automobiles that run on water" demonstration - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water-fuelled_car and http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/car-runs-on-water-inventor-to-be-kidnapped-by-exxon-177716.php

The reason I wonder is that I live by one simple rule: If it's too good to be true it probably isn't.

Living in the past

Random thought about Fourth of July in this country. While I think it's a great time to get together with family and celebrate, I get really sick and tired of the people who feel they need to set off firecrackers, fireworks, etc. hour after hour into the night. I come from a state which has banned almost all handheld fireworks - bottle rockets, and any others which can fly - due to the increased chance of injuries. They also enforce the law and I've seen many people get cited for having illegal fireworks which were then confiscated.



Then I moved to Florida and I feel like I stepped into the 10 year time warp. I came to a state that still allowed drive up windows on liquor stores, had radio stations that played '80s music like it was still 1985 - the same 10 songs on the play list, play 2 songs, 18 commercials, 5 minutes of inane DJ chatter, a few more commercials, 3 songs, etc. In addition, they had the same STUPID morning shows which had the "Thursday Morning" psychic, and that kind of drivel -and Florida allows an obscene number of different fireworks packages to be purchased regardless even when the state is having a huge drought. Totally bizarre. Plus, the majority of jobs in this state seemed to be service oriented -restaurants, gas stations, clothing and other mall stores - or tourism related. There was no apparent "big business" in Florida. Skip ahead a few years and .... it still seems like nothing has changed.

The drive-up windows at some liquor stores such as ABC Fine Wines and Spirits, have closed down, but that wouldn't have happened if not for a newspaper article pointing out how much drive up alcoholic beverage sales contribute to drunk driving. Closing the windows was a huge improvement considering how ABC allegedly used to hand out a cup with ice and a swizzle stick in it to anyone asking at the counter or through the drive up. They had stopped the cup of ice policy by the time I worked there in 2002 - not that the same people didn't CONSTANTLY ask for it and whine when we wouldn't provide it -, but the drive up windows (in Tallahassee) didn't close until at least 2003, right around the time for Florida A&M's homecoming game as I recall.

My point being this state is backward in a great many ways. Those of us that have moved here from elsewhere in the US, probably came for the weather, I know I did. In my case, I also came to attend one of the top Master's programs in my field. I love the weather here - including the occasional hurricane - and want to be in Florida. Unfortunately, unless some things change, such as moving the economy away from tourism, I won't be able to stay. There just aren't enough jobs for those of us who got our Master's degree and expect to be paid as such in this state, and I find that unfortunate.

Pregnancy Pact Fallout

Now it's being contested that there was no actual pregnancy pact in the Massachusetts high school. See this article from the Boston Herald http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_06_25_Preg_pact_story_unravels/srvc=home&position=0



I find this disturbing on a great many levels. First, the journalist of the original piece is still insisting that she is correct. While I can understand her motivation, I want to ask a question "Are you just trying to maintain your 'journalistic integrity' by refusing to admit you may have misinterpreted an off-hand remark?" One of the benefits and curses of having a very free press is that often remarks that were made for specific individuals in an attempt to be humorous get completely taken out of context and turned into "news" stories. It's like the revenge of the National Enquirer set. Based on the above link and other related stories, it could appear that one of the social workers may have been trying to be funny when she said that the girls all made a pact to get pregnant by the end of the school year.



Second, the backlash, deserved or not, is going to dominate the news and take away from actual news stories that people need to know about. For example, when was the last time that current information about the war on Terror in Afghanistan made the news? Have we caught that Bin Ladin character yet? No? Don't care? Well, that's sad, because that is actual news from a war that affects everyone, not just those of us in the US.

There's a reason that the American news is ridiculed, it's that we have no content in our news. It's just one sensationalistic story after another - such as the continuing coverage of the b-list (or lower) celebrities like Britney or Paris - while some people care about what happens to people who are famous for their meltdowns or what their grandparents did to make money, it is NOT news when they break a fingernail! Interrupting a news broadcast about Afghanistan to show Ms. Hilton going to jail is absurd.

Finally, when there is a retraction due to shoddy journalism, it's buried on the back pages of a newspaper or footnoted at the end of the broadcast. And those two conditions only occur when the "news journalists" ADMIT they may have erred. All too often, the mistakes are just ignored in the hope that they will go away.

It's unfortunate that so many "news" sites, magazines and TV shows seem to run this kind of sensationalized story in an effort to improve hits, ratings or sales. Sensationalizing the news can only reduce the quality of the news source to one step, if that, above the supermarket tabloid.

Regardless of the outcome, it's still painfully obvious that whatever we are teaching our teens about sex and babies, it's horribly flawed. I feel that the basic understanding here must be that teens are going to have sex, REGARDLESS of what we teach them about it. No amount of abstinance pacts, abstinance only sex ed, contraceptive use sex ed in the classroom is going to change that. Scaring them does not seem to work either, just look at the rates of STDs in this county. So what is the solution? Perhaps parents should make the effort to talk to their kids about uncomfortable subjects. Surely talking to them can't do a worse job with sex ed than politically dictated sex ed does. The advantage to having the parents do the talking means that the schools/teachers will no longer have to listen to as much complaining about the lousy job they did preparing a daughter to get pregnant by her hook-up boyfriend.