2005-04-28
The last day approaches
Friday is the last official day of classes. Although I usually only have one (online) recitation on Friday, this Friday I have a test in Futures & Swaps (which is a final but only 50 minutes long), a presentation in Decision Analysis and Decision Support Systems, and a graduation meeting. This isn't going to be a fun 48 hours, but at least when its over school will be over with the exception of 3 finals.
2005-04-27
Newspaper Scandals
This post covers an event that's been unfolding for around a month, but I haven't thought to write about it until tonight.
We all remember the Jayson Blair scandal at the New York Times, where a young reporter was caught faking an article, plagiarism even more, got fired, and then wrote a book blaming affirmative action for the whole thing. Personally I think most of what he said in the aftermath was just to save his ass and blame people higher up, but it is rather strange that no editor ever questioned him.
Recently there has been a new scandal in my hometown, Detroit. Mitch Albom, Detroit's best known sports and opinion columnist, was caught writing an article a few days before the events happened. He was caught because he described two guys at a basketball game who ended up not going to it.
I once met Mitch Albom. In ninth grade English class, the teacher took us on a field trip to the Free Press to here Mr. Albom talk about writing. I don't remember much of what he said, but I'm sure he said something about journalistic integrity. My impressions of him at the time (which was almost 8 years ago) were that he was pompous and felt that he could do no wrong. Guess that overconfidence got him in a bit of trouble...
but before all that happened...
He's written two bestsellers, has a radio show, is known by all in Detroit, but now he really fucked up big this time. It will be very hard for him to be credible now, and I suspect his career will be over in the coming months or years. He wasn't fired over this, but had to apologize enough times that it has become quite annoying.
I don't think what he did was that bad, I never trusted his writing anyway. He's very liberal and tends to dramatize the most mundane details, in effect wasting the reader's time. Of course, that's better than what he'll be now: boring as fuck. He'll be under a microscope and probably avoid any type of controversy.
The lesson to take away from this is that if you are a journalist, writer, blogger, etc, you shouldn't lie or steal someone's work. Not only is it bad as far as the ethics go, but you risk losing many of your readers if you get caught. At any rate, you'll lose your trust.
To my readers: You'll never have to worry about me lying on here, unless you consider hardcore cynicism to be a lie... and if I'm going to plagiarism anything, I'll link to it.
We all remember the Jayson Blair scandal at the New York Times, where a young reporter was caught faking an article, plagiarism even more, got fired, and then wrote a book blaming affirmative action for the whole thing. Personally I think most of what he said in the aftermath was just to save his ass and blame people higher up, but it is rather strange that no editor ever questioned him.
Recently there has been a new scandal in my hometown, Detroit. Mitch Albom, Detroit's best known sports and opinion columnist, was caught writing an article a few days before the events happened. He was caught because he described two guys at a basketball game who ended up not going to it.
I once met Mitch Albom. In ninth grade English class, the teacher took us on a field trip to the Free Press to here Mr. Albom talk about writing. I don't remember much of what he said, but I'm sure he said something about journalistic integrity. My impressions of him at the time (which was almost 8 years ago) were that he was pompous and felt that he could do no wrong. Guess that overconfidence got him in a bit of trouble...
but before all that happened...
He's written two bestsellers, has a radio show, is known by all in Detroit, but now he really fucked up big this time. It will be very hard for him to be credible now, and I suspect his career will be over in the coming months or years. He wasn't fired over this, but had to apologize enough times that it has become quite annoying.
I don't think what he did was that bad, I never trusted his writing anyway. He's very liberal and tends to dramatize the most mundane details, in effect wasting the reader's time. Of course, that's better than what he'll be now: boring as fuck. He'll be under a microscope and probably avoid any type of controversy.
The lesson to take away from this is that if you are a journalist, writer, blogger, etc, you shouldn't lie or steal someone's work. Not only is it bad as far as the ethics go, but you risk losing many of your readers if you get caught. At any rate, you'll lose your trust.
To my readers: You'll never have to worry about me lying on here, unless you consider hardcore cynicism to be a lie... and if I'm going to plagiarism anything, I'll link to it.
2005-04-25
Crazy Italians
And you thought we had weird laws in the US... It is now illegal in Turin, Italy to walk your dog less than 3 times per day. Pet owners found guilty of this type of animal abuse (letting their dogs rest, it would seem is now abuse) can be fined the equivalent of $650.
This law is complete nonsense, but it goes well with many other European laws, as socialist countries like Italy, France, etc. frequently tell their citizens how to do EVERYTHING or risk being fined. In Rome, you can't even lead your friends on an informal tour of the city, or you'll be fined big money for conducting a tour without a license.
This law is complete nonsense, but it goes well with many other European laws, as socialist countries like Italy, France, etc. frequently tell their citizens how to do EVERYTHING or risk being fined. In Rome, you can't even lead your friends on an informal tour of the city, or you'll be fined big money for conducting a tour without a license.
2005-04-24
Interesting Magazines
A few of my favorite magazines, click to see the online content (some of them publish the entire current issue for free online):
Reason. The best political magazine in existence. Mostly libertarian but has contributing writers from different political philosophies. Usually has a very interesting main article. My favorite section of the magazine are the brickbats, showing enemies of liberty around the world and the horrible, stupid, and sometimes funny things that happen to people when the government gets out of control. I'd recommend this magazine to ANYONE interesting in politics or current events.
SciAm. I've always been interested in science. This magazine leaves out many of the heavy technical jargon so that the layperson can understand new discoveries, but it doesn't talk down to you either. Each issue has a large variety of topics. It's also been around for over 100 years so that says something. Recommended to anyone with a casual interest in the sciences.
Liberty. I haven't read this one much, but what I have read impressed me. Not quite as polished as Reason and probably a little bit more hardcore libertarian, but the few issues I've read have been super!
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. An interesting niche publication focusing on global security issues. In the past it has had very important people write in it, but it is most famous for the Doomsday Clock, which proclaims that humanity is only a few minutes to midnight (i.e. nuclear war). Clock gets adjusted depending on what's going on in the world, currently set at 7 minutes to midnight). You may get nervous reading about the crazy stuff going on or may be comforted by new anti-terrorism technologies. Its worth checking out at the least.
Reason. The best political magazine in existence. Mostly libertarian but has contributing writers from different political philosophies. Usually has a very interesting main article. My favorite section of the magazine are the brickbats, showing enemies of liberty around the world and the horrible, stupid, and sometimes funny things that happen to people when the government gets out of control. I'd recommend this magazine to ANYONE interesting in politics or current events.
SciAm. I've always been interested in science. This magazine leaves out many of the heavy technical jargon so that the layperson can understand new discoveries, but it doesn't talk down to you either. Each issue has a large variety of topics. It's also been around for over 100 years so that says something. Recommended to anyone with a casual interest in the sciences.
Liberty. I haven't read this one much, but what I have read impressed me. Not quite as polished as Reason and probably a little bit more hardcore libertarian, but the few issues I've read have been super!
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. An interesting niche publication focusing on global security issues. In the past it has had very important people write in it, but it is most famous for the Doomsday Clock, which proclaims that humanity is only a few minutes to midnight (i.e. nuclear war). Clock gets adjusted depending on what's going on in the world, currently set at 7 minutes to midnight). You may get nervous reading about the crazy stuff going on or may be comforted by new anti-terrorism technologies. Its worth checking out at the least.
CMU Part II
Continuing with my freshman year:
I found classes at CMU to be easier than those at high school. Huge surprise, but then again, I took 5 AP classes in high school which were taught pretty well (meaning they were very difficult). I was supposed to take 5 classes my first semester, but they placed me into a higher level French class and it was well beyond my abilities. I dropped my first class within a week.
Also met a few girls within the first month of being here. None were very impressive, CMU tends to attract girls of a certain character...
The other classes included a required business calculus course that was easier than calc BC in high school, a psychology course, a required history course, and introduction to business.
The psych class was probably the most interesting. We had two professors for intro to business because our professor had heart surgery within the first month. The new professor had a lot different expectations for the course. Being an intro level course, it wasn't supposed to teach very much. I remember almost nothing from that one... oh well.
The second semester was more of the same. Took intro to econ, the only econ class I didn't mind. The professor was an ex Gulf Oil exec who was extremely rich and used his own plane to commute to CMU from Florida every week. He was enthusiastic about teaching certain concepts but at the same time didn't seem to care very much about the class. At least it was a (relatively) easy A and the only homework was extra credit.
Towards the end of freshman year I met Carlos who continues to be a good friend to this day. I also decided I hated living in a dorm and made plans to live with Sergey in the CMU controlled off-campus apartment for my sophomore year.
The summer after freshman year I had my only internship at FORASOL, SA in Switzerland. My father's friend had recently become an owner of the company and I was able to help them with some web design, technology issues, and a marketing campaign. It was kind of boring at times and I had to do some menial office tasks like making copies and binding things. Switerland wasn't too bad, but its not an extremely fun country. Thankfully I got to go to Paris several times over the summer.
I found classes at CMU to be easier than those at high school. Huge surprise, but then again, I took 5 AP classes in high school which were taught pretty well (meaning they were very difficult). I was supposed to take 5 classes my first semester, but they placed me into a higher level French class and it was well beyond my abilities. I dropped my first class within a week.
Also met a few girls within the first month of being here. None were very impressive, CMU tends to attract girls of a certain character...
The other classes included a required business calculus course that was easier than calc BC in high school, a psychology course, a required history course, and introduction to business.
The psych class was probably the most interesting. We had two professors for intro to business because our professor had heart surgery within the first month. The new professor had a lot different expectations for the course. Being an intro level course, it wasn't supposed to teach very much. I remember almost nothing from that one... oh well.
The second semester was more of the same. Took intro to econ, the only econ class I didn't mind. The professor was an ex Gulf Oil exec who was extremely rich and used his own plane to commute to CMU from Florida every week. He was enthusiastic about teaching certain concepts but at the same time didn't seem to care very much about the class. At least it was a (relatively) easy A and the only homework was extra credit.
Towards the end of freshman year I met Carlos who continues to be a good friend to this day. I also decided I hated living in a dorm and made plans to live with Sergey in the CMU controlled off-campus apartment for my sophomore year.
The summer after freshman year I had my only internship at FORASOL, SA in Switzerland. My father's friend had recently become an owner of the company and I was able to help them with some web design, technology issues, and a marketing campaign. It was kind of boring at times and I had to do some menial office tasks like making copies and binding things. Switerland wasn't too bad, but its not an extremely fun country. Thankfully I got to go to Paris several times over the summer.
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