Observations on economics, the academy, the wider world, and things that run on rails.

"Cold Spring Shops" was the name of the primary repair and car building facility of The Milwaukee Electric Railway and Light Company ... builders of trolley dining cars and the Christmas parade train ... perhaps I can be that creative too.

 
CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES NO. 63 calls at Begging to Differ this week.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:40

 
TAIL TRACK. Barring signal troubles, links to any posts of substance ought to work.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:44

 
ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT. (Warning: omnibus post.)

First, some unusual incidences of spouse abuse, and some commentary on the changing nature of the conversation about such things.

Second, some anticipation of wacky statements to come.

Third, some ongoing wackiness. Laura at Apartment 11-D wants everyone else to be comfortable with her prejudices:

Just as we shouldn't discriminate against homosexuals and feel that it is right to accommodate people with disabilities, society has to accommodate parents. That means changes in the workplace. And it means sacrifices from the childless.

Catch the howling non-sequitur in there? The Americans with Disabilities Act and the continuing attempts to determine positive or negative rights for homosexuals are two fronts in the Culture Wars. And there is more than one change in the workplace by which "society" can accommodate parents. I was under the impression that the old accommodation, with Dad working and Mom minding the kids, had to be changed precisely because it meant Dad was away from the kids too much and Mom was with the kids too much. Perhaps that was just another Silent Generation experiment against reality, to go with no-fault divorce and tax-supported day care. And Dr. Laura loses any sympathy for her demand that "the childless" sacrifice on behalf of her leaving work early with this:

Couples who work full time without the expense of childcare or diapers are much better off than we are. They have houses, while we live in a dumpy apartment. They take vacations and only pay for two plane seats. They have two full time salaries with benefits. Children are the leading indicator of poverty.

Um, this is somebody who lives in New York City, making a classic argumentum ad misericordiam. Further, it is somebody who still has failed to read and understand the Say Aggregation Principle. Furthermore, it is a bit disingenuous to demand further changes in working life, when it is precisely the end of the old sex roles that made it possible for two-income power couples to outbid one income, or income-and-a-half couples for the good houses and the good cars. (Although, as there is a large premium for good houses in good school districts, there must be some bidding by power couples WITH CHILDREN going on in such neighborhoods.)

Harry at Crooked Timber has chimed in with some observations of his own, which are worth a look, but ought to be read in light of two realities that are difficult to change. First, high achievers might be childless by choice (and quite willing to pick up some of the slack the early-leaving moms and dads create, for an eminently sensible price: the promotions and the prestige.) In that light there might not have to be any additional sacrifices. Second, women have babies, which makes de-sexing the division of labor in child rearing a bit more cumbersome in practice than in principle.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:36

 
MEDIA CONCENTRATION? If that new Democratic National Committee liberal radio network gets going, will its commentators have to keep still about the fact that a rich financier made possible the purchase of the first five stations, all in large cities? Byron York sees an option value in buying the radio stations, independent of the opportunity to run programs of the owners' choices, and Charlie Sykes sees a little market saturation problem facing the owners.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:13

 
FOOTBALL IS NOW A RADICAL CAUSE. King at SCSU Scholars sees no causal link between affirmative action bake sales and poor performance on the gridiron. Today's Best of the Web does some additional research not at all supportive of the claim.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:09

 
QUOTE OF THE DAY

I put together a small box of school supplies, stuffed animals, small toy cars and special items I thought each would like, with a couple of new toothbrushes and toothpaste to top it off.

That's a report from Chief Wiggles, grateful for what readers have sent, asking for more. As Dean at Dean's World notes, "Get involved, people. Especially if you ever said you support our troops, or said you want the best for the Iraqi people."
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:06

 
PELTZMAN EFFECTS. Stephen Moore is unimpressed with claims that higher speed limits lead to more traffic deaths. Key observation: "The study found that deaths on rural highways had risen by 35 percent because of the new law." Rural highways are not equivalent to interstate highways, where the higher speed limits are more common. (Illinois only allows 65 on rural Interstates -- a law honored more in the breach than in the observance -- and Wisconsin permits 65 on some divided limited-access highways, which I refer to as the Cheddarbahns.) Rural highways are less likely to be safe for a number of reasons: two lanes, people taking risks in the passing zones, stop signs at blind intersections thanks to the tall corn, which makes defensive driving techniques in anticipation of inattentive cross-traffic more difficult, farm equipment headed to or from the field, and development bringing greater traffic volumes.

Curiously, some of the plains states have taken measures in the interest of safety that might raise the accident rates. A few years ago, I noticed railway-style gates that can be used to block access to interstate highways in Minnesota, a practice that Wisconsin has adapted through Kenosha and Racine counties. These gates have the effects of diverting traffic from the interstates to the rural roads, putting the people with get-home-itis on the more dangerous roads.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:01

 
INCOMPLETE SPECIALIZATION. Dean at Dean's World expresses surprise that the ongoing economic recovery includes an expansion in manufacturing, with spot shortages (or upward price pressure) in some manufactured goods. No big surprise, really. Mr Esmay is conflating two effects, a shifting production possibility frontier (with the higher opportunity cost of manufactured goods in the United States being reflected in a reallocation of resources out of manufacturing and into knowledge-intensive goods not ordinarily classified as manufacturing; the comments to his post about the adjustment cost effects on older workers are worth a closer look) and a general economic expansion that might involve producing more of both manufactured goods and knowledge-intensive goods as the economy moves closer to its production possibility frontier.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:54

 
BUCKLE AND SWASH. Two new Hornblower movies coming up, and Blogger Rabbit points to an Atlantic Monthly retrospective on pirates and privateers. (I'm not sure under admiralty law what a commerce raider for rebellious states not recognized by any government is, perhaps privateer gives the Secessionists too much status.) In the stack of pleasure reading are some pirate books. Perhaps a review will be in order in the new year.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:45

 
I'M JUST A SWEET TRANSVESTITE FROM BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVAAAANIAAA! Truth is stranger than fiction:

In order to be more transgender-inclusive, I would like to prepare a list of all bathrooms in campus buildings that are single stall AND have a lock - this list would be made available on our website so that if an individual on campus is questioning their gender identity they will have a safe place to go to use the facilities. In the future it is my hope that we will be able to successfully lobby to have the signage changed on these bathrooms to say gender-neutral rather than man/woman.

The memorandum originates at Lehigh University. (And for the illiterate, what international symbol? A frankenfurter?)

(Hat tip: Tongue Tied, who provided this goodie without comment, but offers plenty of comments on other goodies.)
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:39

 
TRIMMERS TO THE WEATHER RAIL! You'd expect that in a yacht race, but a ship rounding the Horn on a broad reach. Just another day for Master and Commander, although he had to break off the stern chase when the mizzen mast carried away (not uncommon at the Horn.) Some technical notes from experienced deepwater sailors for your information.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 19:04

 
PRIMERS ON FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICY. Deinonychus antirrhopus grades Cal Pundit's grading of the Bush economic policy. The essay is more favorable to the Administration albeit its defense uses Keynesian arguments the Pachs hesitate to offer and the Donks have forgotten. Econo Pundit looks at the burden of the national debt and the logic of borrowing against a future in which the economy will be more productive. Hugh Hewitt makes some on-point observations.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:25

 
THE FACTOR PRICE EQUALIZATION THEOREM. First, the technical version, from Mas-Colell, Whinston, and Green, Microeconomic Theory, p. 535:

An important consequence of this discussion is that in the 2x2 production model, if the factor intensity condition holds, then as long as the economy does not specialize in the production of a single good, the equilibrium factor prices depend only on the technologies of the two firms and on the equilibrium prices p. Thus, the levels of the endowments matter only to the extent that they determine whether the economy specializes. This result is known in the international trade literature as the factor price equalization theorem. The theorem provides conditions (which include the presence of tradable consumption goods, identical production technologies in each country, and price-taking behavior) under which the prices of nontradable factors are equalized across nonspecialized countries.

Now the qualifications, in ibid at pp. 537-38:

Consider the general case of an arbitrary number of factors L and outputs J. For given output prices, the zero-profit conditions constitute a (nonlinear) system of J equations in L unknowns. If L > J, then there are too many unknowns and we cannot hope that the zero-profit conditions alone will determine the factor prices. The total factor endowments will play a role. If J > L, then there are too many equations, and for typical world prices, they cannot all be satisfied simultaneously.

The preceding does not mean, as one science fiction writer (let us not be too harsh on science fiction writers; they start from the premise that laws of conservation of motion do not hold, it is too much to expect they be aware economics has laws of conservation) asserts,

Once the Invisible Hand has taken all the historical inequities and smeared them out into a broad global layer of what a Pakistani brickmaker would consider to be prosperity -- y'know what? There's only four things we do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode (software), and high-speed pizza delivery.

From there comes a Winds of Change omnibus post on social stratification that takes the Science Fiction version of factor price equalization as its premise, and a Glenn Reynolds column asking why that Science Fiction version isn't greeted with glee by (some on the Left) individuals who prefer to reduce income inequality, and a Greenfield Gerbil post that hints the prosperity might be only illusory, while suggesting much of trade policy is motivated by "I've got mine" thinking, and hoping for some economics commentary.

There is in fact some recent economic commentary, on point, from Paul Krugman, who is very good when he is writing about international trade. Sample:

Now we know that the club isn't that exclusive, after all. South Korea and several smaller Asian economies have made a full transition to modernity. China is still a poor country, but it has made astonishing progress. And there are signs of an economic takeoff in at least parts of India. I'm not talking about arid economic statistics; what we've seen over the past generation is an enormous, unexpected improvement in the human condition.

How was this improvement achieved? Whenever I give talks about my latest book, someone asks whether I still believe in free trade. The answer is yes — not because I have any fond feelings about multinational corporations, but because every one of those development success stories was based on export-led growth. And that growth is possible only if rising economies can expand into new markets. Some critics of globalization seem to be nostalgic for the era before the big growth in third-world exports of manufactured goods. I'm not, because I remember the way that era really felt, our despair over the possibility of development.

Thus, contrary to Glenn Reynolds's worst fears, it is possible for the factor-price equalization to mean higher living standards for trading partners, rather than lower living standards.

I’m not sure what I think about this issue. I don’t think that jobs and wealth are fixed — thanks to technology and the spread of democracy and lawful government, the world is a wealthier place overall. But that doesn’t mean that everyone will be better off, at least in a relative sense. And there’s no question that changes that make people feel economically insecure — even those that make society as a whole wealthier — can engender political problems.

In particular, trading partners can be made better off in an absolute sense if not in a relative sense, and that is sometimes hard to see. The difficulties of coping are particularly great for older workers in industries for which imports are being substituted, such as steel, which might be losing its tariffs to head off a more global tariff war that might ultimately be ineffective at stopping the gales of creative destruction although they're less foolish than some alternatives (in both cases I have linked to articles that take on particularly foolish arguments.)

It could be worse. Consider Japan. There is a country that has to export manufactured goods as its only natural endowment is knowledge. (Precious little by way of farm fields or mines there; most of their railroads are rapid-transit lines.) The adjustment costs there are likely to be particularly severe.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:20

 
ON THE FASHION FRONT. Abercrombie and Fitch will limit distribution of their skin magazine catalog to subscribers only. Repeat after me: a boycott is not censorship.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:24

 
HOW OTHERS SEE US. Sensitivity policy at the University of Virginia channels blasphemy policy according to Monty Python. No doubt it will take a Stanley Fish to make the policy clear to the rest of us, or else to damage the academy's reputation further.

SECOND SECTION: More at Hit and Run.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:14

 
QUESTION OF THE DAY: "Do men have to eschew reading to prove that they're not gay?" Thus does The Calico Cat express his distaste for the neologism, "metrofexual." I suppose somebody had to invent the word. "Dandy" is a bit archaic, the surfers stole "dude," and "gay blade," well, the mind boggles...
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:04

 
CARNIVAL OF THE CAPITALISTS NO. 8 rolls through Rocky Top.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:58

 
BALANCING WORK AND FAMILY. Harry at Crooked Timber has a number of ideas. Some of them might even work. The problem with attempting to plan for division of labor, or determining what the most desirable division of labor is, lies in the evolution of division of labor in the first place. The evolution might be slow and spontaneous. Plans tend to neglect both of those realities.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:56

 
TRANSIT ADVERTISING. Live from the Third Rail sees it as beneficial. (And why is the Washington Metro more worthy of operating subsidy from elsewhere than, say, the Chicago L, a genuine work of art?)
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:46

 
PRACTICE MAKES A MASTER. All the same, requiring introductory (read: middle-school) ciphering and composition courses to be graded on a credit-no-credit basis with apparently unlimited repeats, and only one "credit" appearing on the transcript, strikes me as neither efficient nor desirable. (Or have the folks at Alabama discovered a dodge for keeping the football team eligible?)
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:19

 
PLAYING FOR LEASTER? Rams defeat Vikings.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:02

 
RENAMING STUDY HALL? Yup. But to argue, as one school administrator does, that it's the traditional high school that is the root cause of dropouts, Columbine, vandalism, and harrassment is a bit much.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:01

 
BAD DAY FOR THE FEDAYEEN. We mourn the deaths of our neighbors and our allies. The bad guys take losses as well.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:58

 
WATER WARRIORS. The Governor of Michigan can be a one-man blocking coalition when it comes to exporting Great Lakes water. The depopulation of Chicago provides a boost to suburban development along the Sanitary and Ship Canal.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:56

 
WEBLOG CONTESTS. Wizbang offers a Weblog Awards poll (at writing, this site is under construction) and notes that the 2004 Dead Pool opens December 1.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:51

 
ONE FISH, TWO FISH, OLD FISH, NEW FISH. John at Discriminations is unimpressed with soon-to-be-ex-dean Stanley Fish's special pleading as was I, but his responses are instructive, proposing some word substitutions and letting old Fish fisk new Fish.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:46

 
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Bush is doing what parties in power do." Why else set up an office in the Commerce Department for manufacturing?
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:36

 
PRESENTING A SEMINAR. Resist not the notion that you are delivering a performance. The paper is merely a prop. Read and understand. (Hat tip: Milt's File.)
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:32

 
AUDITORS REPORT. Reader Chris Lawrence notes that in Characteristics and Mantissas, (a+b)-(c+d) = (a-c) + (b-d), which would have come out right had I simply copied and pasted the formula from here in the first place. Five demerits for the Superintendent, and thanks to soon-to-be-Dr. Lawrence for finding it. Hustle on over there and read some thoughts on occupational birth control by limiting Ph.D. production and some advice on whether there should be a Ph.D. in your future.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 15:09

 
SETTING THEM UP FOR FAILURE? "Any kid who has an SAT score of greater than 1300 who doesn't know that he or she is most likely good college material is definitely attending a school with a poor guidance counselor. And again, I ask, why should it be considered inviting for Amherst to tell these kids that their race (which they have no control over) is as important to the college as their SAT score (which they do) in admissions?" That's Number 2 Pencil looking at some admissions follies.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 01:08

 
THEORRHEA. Invisible Adjunct offers "A Brief Note on Parody and Self-Parody" that expands on this theme. The comments to her post include some excellent examples of earnestness taken to an extreme. Perhaps there are some individuals that deserve institutionalization, not a position at an institution of higher learning.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 01:05

 
EVADING THE QUESTION. Soon-to-be-ex-Dean Stanley Fish continues to tilt against what The Leiter Report characterizes as a "right-wing attack" on the university. (Professor Leiter correctly points out that viewpoint diversity requires well-reasoned viewpoints, and that there's likely some bad teaching going on -- you get what you pay for -- but methinks he doth protest too much about a right-wing smear machine.)

Soon-to-be-ex-dean Fish, however, quickly goes from the polemical to the ridiculous. Let's start with his response to the second rhetorical question (from this website, which the soon-to-be-ex-dean brands dishonest):

If students or parents wanted to understand college financing (an understanding apparently beyond the reach of members of Congress), wouldn't it be their obligation first to frame the question (easier said than done) and then to do the research, just as it is the obligation of buyers in any marketplace to make themselves into informed consumers? I use the vocabulary of "consumers" and "marketplace" only because Boehner and McKeon do (I consider it wildly inappropriate), but in the mercantile contexts from which the vocabulary is drawn, the rule is still caveat emptor, and no vendor is expected to explain in detail how the product he offers is made.

Really? I guess you can get tenure and a reputation as a Milton scholar (or perhaps as enfant terrible) without ever having to understand nutrition labels, instruction manuals, Material Safety Data Sheets, or patents, not to mention the class of books (used to be called "boy's books;" the girl worth the while has read and understood such things) that revealed the inner workings of steel mill or cereal factory. Never mind that no such things exist for universities, and university administrators seem reluctant to reveal some of the more basic things.

None of which deters Dr. Fish:

The "consumers" for whom McKeon and Boehner show such solicitude are, in the jargon of any trade, lazy; and indeed it is the beauty of the question that it allows those who haven't bothered to learn how colleges work to transfer the culpability of their ignorance to another party. "I don't know what I'm doing; it must be your fault." Answering the question makes you feel good and even self-righteous about a failure that is finally yours.

The previous is a paradigm of disdain. First you produce glossy brochures that suggest that your students will work with professors working on cutting-edge stuff. You then give them the opportunity to enroll in the few sections that remain open, which might be staffed by graduate assistants just off the plane (why not make the case that professors CANNOT possibly be underworked and overpaid given the reluctance of lazy Americans to get into doctoral programs) or by temporary employees (start here and surf around for some additional career hassles.)

Not content to blame the students and their parents for discovering the university's bait-switch-and-drag-completion-out, the retiring dean tries a little sleight-of-hand with the issue of building construction.

But what would it be? Constructing laboratories? Dormitories? Libraries? Classroom buildings? Could an academic institution be doing its job and not be constructing facilities? What's the point of this question? No point really, except to add one more (underdefined) item to the list of crimes of which colleges and universities are presumed guilty in this indictment masquerading as a survey.

Sorry, Stosh, you're writing a lie masquerading as an essay. You neglected to mention jacuzzis, administration buildings, additional offices for therapists to prolong the fiction that the unprepared can finish college, and athletic facilities.

Add to the lie a whine: why is everyone always picking on me?

It is not an indictment solely constructed by Boehner and McKeon, who are merely playing their part in a coordinated effort to commandeer higher education by discrediting it. If the public can be persuaded that institutions of higher education are fiscally and pedagogically irresponsible, the way will be open to a double agenda: strip colleges and universities of both federal and state support and then tie whatever funds are left to "performance" measures in the name of accountability and assessment.

And why should the taxpayers pay for failed programs? For that matter, where is the refutation? I search the balance of the soon-to-be-ex-dean's post for anything resembling evidence that the money is being spent well or that the universities aren't taking on the task of certifying entry-level file clerks that the high schools (heck, the middle schools) used to do. I see more polemics:

The folks who gave us the Political Correctness scare in the '90s (and that was one of the best PR campaigns ever mounted) are once again in high gear and their message is simple: Higher education is too important to be left to the educators, who are wasting your money, teaching your children to be unpatriotic and irreligious (when they are teaching at all), and running a closed shop that is hostile to the values of mainstream America.

I see half-hearted attempts to defend research, but it's a muddle of talking points lacking coherence. Sometimes the essay gets silly:

I would say first, that it is a supply-side problem -- if conservatives really want to spend their lives teaching modern poetry and Byzantine art, they should stop whining and do the dissertations and write the books, and they'll get the jobs -- and second, that it's not a problem.

Interesting. These are two of the fields most in need of occupational birth control, and it might help to have like-minded advisors on the dissertation committees, something Stoshy doesn't care to address. Then comes this howler:

Brooks laments that students "often have no contact with adult conservatives" (a version of the "role model" argument that he and his friends usually reject as demeaning); but the real shame would be if students had no contact with highly qualified, cutting-edge instructors

The real shame is that the deans and curriculum committees have control over how many sections the cutting-edge instructors teach -- and those folks get first dibs on the graduate seminars and other classes with self-selected students. The real shame is that Illinois-Chicago appoints such a shameless hustler as a dean. Get this:

Intellectual diversity is not a respectable intellectual goal. The only respectable intellectual goal is the pursuit of truth, and if in the course of that pursuit many different approaches arise, as they will in some fields, that's fine; but it would also be fine if in a particular field there were (at least temporarily) a convergence of views and not very much diversity at all.

By that standard, who needs to study poetry? And doesn't it matter what the convergence of views is? If historians agree on the chronology of events, is that equivalent to the department agreeing that the liberation of Iraq is a bad thing? It is the lack of intellectual diversity of the second kind to which the academy's critics wish to speak.

Unfortunately, Dean Fish will leave his position believing that he and his Silent Generation brain-brothers had noble intentions and some primitives spoiled the party.

I could go on listing the signs. They are everywhere, and what they are signs of is the general project of taking higher education away from the educators -- by removing money, imposing controls, capping tuition, enforcing affirmative action for conservatives, stigmatizing research on partisan grounds, privatizing student loans (here McKeon is again a big player) -- and handing it over to a small group of ideologues who will tell colleges and universities what to do and back up their commands by swinging the two big sticks of financial deprivation and inflamed public opinion.

Again, note the bundling of a number of things. Privatizing student loans might make a lot of sense, as the primary beneficiary of a university degree is likely the recipient. Let the beneficiary bear the burden. And to claim that control will be handed over to a small group of ideologues is to distract people's attention from the reality that a small group of ideologues have hijacked the university and use it to their own ends. I for one will be happy to see the day when the Diversity Advisory Committee and the various Commissions on the Status of This Group and That Group stand down, and the remedial classes vanish from the catalog.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 00:56

 
LOUTS WHELPING LOUTS. Did anybody really expect "do your own thing" to lead to better decorum? (Via Joanne Jacobs.) Silent Generation grandparents, Thirteenth Generation parents, neglected and crude kids, is anybody surprised?
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:53

 
RECOMMENDED THANKSGIVING READING. Make haste to Michael Graham and scroll thee down. (Hat tip: Insta Pundit.)
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:31

 
AVOID THE STRAIN, SIT IN TRAFFIC? A Voyage to Arcturus looks at the difficulties of commuting in most cities with bus service, finds the walking, waiting, transferring, and difficulty of combining trips to be costly. (And you can't even get to Williams Bay, Wisconsin (iceboating capital of the world) on the bus. (Via Chicago Boyz.)
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:27

 
CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES NO. 62 calls at Setting the World to Rights.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:12

 
MARKING OFF. I give thanks to you for looking in. Count your blessings, and happy Thanksgiving. Back toward week's end.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 19:00

 
WHAT PART OF "NO LAW" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? Read the following directions silently while I read them aloud:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances

.Kindly be advised that there is no limitation of these stipulations for reasons of diversity or who is seeking redress or the purposes for which people are assembling peaceably.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:59

 
QUOTE OF THE DAY:

Indeed, the state of the humanities has real implications for the state of our union. Our nation is in a conflict driven by religion, philosophy, political ideology and views of history--all humanities subjects. Our tolerance, our principles, our wealth and our liberties have made us targets. To understand this conflict, we need the humanities.

That's from an essay by National Endowment for the Humanities chairman Bruce Cole. How much reclamation work is there to be done? It's not just the follies of a sex-gender continuum; it's the intellectual dry rot implicit in making a virtue of transgressiveness, which Theodore Dalrymple (via Porphyrogenitus) dissects.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:44

 
RULES WRITTEN IN BLOOD. 36 dead, many hurt in a fire at the quarantine dorm for students recently arrived from overseas at Moscow's People's Friendship University. The building had numerous doors and windows locked apparently as part of the quarantine procedure. How many times will people have to learn what a dangerous practice that can be, particularly if they're not paying much attention to fire loadings inside?
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:37

 
RESTORING THE DEMPSTER ST. SHUTTLE? The Chicago Transit Authority is contemplating adding stations at Oakton Street and Dodge Avenue, restoring two of the five local stops from days when the Chicago Rapid Transit Company was a tenant on the North Shore Line main line to Milwaukee. Current plans to extend the Skokie line to Old Orchard would bring the line nowhere near Milwaukee, although it has the potential to resurrect the Harms Woods station.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:30

 
BRONZE STAR, PURPLE HEART, CY YOUNG. Warren Spahn, 1921-2003.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:12

 
GENDER IS A GRAMMATICAL TERM, SEX IS A BIOLOGICAL TERM. Via Best of the Web, a University of Chicago Maroon article about the theoretical and practical problem of providing necessary rooms for Ladies and for Gentlemen. Excerpt:

Ana Minyan, the moderator of the panel, said that bathrooms will be called gender-neutral, rather than co-ed, because, “this terminology is generally used to refer to two sexes while the gender-neutral tends to be associated with more diversity and fluidity within the sex-gender continuum. As our aim is to make everyone, no matter what their gender and/or sexual persona is, more comfortable, we are using the term gender-neutral.”

I believe she has just made my point. If a form asks me to provide a "gender" I am completely correct to enter "Non-Quiche-Eating Real Guy" without fear of reproach.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:08

 
RETURN TO HUDSON TERMINAL. Jeff Jarvis files a report on his routine train ride to the Hudson and Manhattan station in lower Manhattan, still referred to as "World Trade Center." (As I understand the rebuilding, the temporary platforms are at the World Trade Center location. The original, stub-end platforms of Hudson Terminal remain mostly in place elsewhere in the tube.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 18:00

 
BROOKINGS LINKS ON IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION. Common Sense and Wonder located this survey of a variety of primary sources.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:56

 
CARNIVAL OF THE CAPITALISTS NO. 7 calls at Company Mail source Truck and Barter.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:54

 
MEASURING INPUTS, NOT OUTPUTS? Perceived advantages and disadvantages of basing grades in part on attendance. My position? Too much recordkeeping work for too little return. Some people can be in a class regularly, and ask a lot of questions, and still grasp nothing. Others can keep current with the requirements, slip their assignments under the office door, and show up only for the examinations and do just fine. The latter are few and far between. Typically, the irregular attenders are the irregular performers, grade policies notwithstanding.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:50

 
CHARACTERISTICS AND MANTISSAS: Coda to Tom Lehrer's New Math: "Come back tomorrow night. We're gonna do fractions." Wouldn't it be nice if the teachers understood that (a+b) - (c+d) = (a+c)-(b+d)? It's not as if you have to be Leonhard Euler to figure this out.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:44

 
TODAY'S DILBERT MOMENT. Former Texas Railroad Commissioner Jim Hightower is not impressed with the Union Pacific Railroad's licensing requirements ("Applicants are reviewed carefully to ensure they will positively represent Union Pacific brand values") which the company is now attempting to require of all manufacturers of model railroad equipment.

Commissioner Hightower: "Over the years, railroad corporations, including Union Pacific, have been delighted to be the subjects of model trains, seeing it as a form of flattery, free promotion, and goodwill. For it now to threaten and demand loot from these small modeling companies is an act of PR suicide." Indeed. Not only that, the company is setting itself up for all sorts of teasing by the manufacturers. It has, for example, announced its continued ownership of the Chicago and North Western ball and bar (I'll let the lawyers make the case that if the ball and bar is no longer in use as a trade mark, the claim to ownership of the shape is no longer valid) but its site does not similarly claim ownership of Chicago Great Western, Minneapolis and St. Louis, Litchfield and Madison, or Galena and Chicago Union, and as those have not been in commercial use for years, those claims might similarly not be valid.

Trademark law aside, it's pretty stupid for a company to antagonize potential supporters in this way. How many heavy industries have legions of enthusiasts who are neither consumers nor workers? Dumb, dumb, dumb.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 00:36

 
SOMETHING DOESN'T ADD UP. Last Thursday, I attended a steel industry technical session that focused on the international expansion of U. S. Steel (motto: At United States Steel, we're involved) in light of the world trade in steel. The presenter noted two features of the steel market that struck me as internally inconsistent, and one feature of the restructuring of the U.S. steel industry that leads to friction between the old and the new manufacturers.

Short term, the speaker anticipated a world steel shortage in 2004. Here is one trade publication's view. Note the internal inconsistency. We first read, "World Steel Dynamics says there is a better than even chance for a steel shortage in 2004, which portends rising prices." OK, and for full credit, note that rising prices have the effect of calling forth more supply and encouraging conservation, thus eliminating the shortage. That's not what the commentator expects, however: "Despite improving demand, the U.S. market will see fewer imports due to the weakening of the dollar, leaving a larger market share for domestic mills. A nearly 30 percent drop in the value of the dollar vs. the euro in the past year has made it untenable for steelmakers in Western Europe to compete in the United States." (Yes, but if steel prices rise, won't the steel price of a dollar fall? Wouldn't it be nice if business analysts understood markets as they really work rather than as abstractions to be trotted out for polemical purposes?)

The next paragraph introduces the internal inconsistency: "Little steel production capacity is being added to the world market, with the exception of China, WSD notes. The number of companies producing sheet steel in China will rise from 13 to 28, adding 50 million tons of capacity by 2010. Meanwhile, in the United States, the trend is toward consolidations, as evidenced by the high-profile mergers of U.S. Steel and National, ISG and Bethlehem, and Nucor and Birmingham." And why might that be? Might the existence of 200 million tons of excess capacity (the article doesn't specify the prices at which this capacity is uneconomic) have some bearing on the unwillingness of investors to build new capacity? The existence of that capacity suggests that there will be a price at which suppliers will be willing to provide sufficient steel to serve buyers; there might be some difficulties in some types of product if there isn't sufficient casting and rolling capacity for those shapes or grades.

To put the global excess capacity in perspective, 200 million tons of annual production is roughly equivalent to twice the steel production of the United States. And it's that excess capacity, rather than any export subsidies or any dumping, that drives the industry difficulties the trade barriers are supposed to address. Scroll down and read, "In negotiations conducted under the auspieces of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, major steel producing countries have pledged to cut excess steel capacity by 115 million tons by 2005. While the Bush administration has welcomed these pledges, U.S. officials said that much remains to be done with the 100 million-ton excess capacity and market-distorting practices in place." The developed countries, in fact, have a plan to manage the withdrawal of resources from the steel business. It is not only the developed countries that complain about the excess capacity leading to economic hardships.

Capacity rationalization is not everybody's strategy, however. In China, a rather primitive steel sector anticipates further expansion, perhaps as an import-substitution strategy? Vietnam is another country with plans to expand steel production. Something there is about building additional capacity in a mature industry where there is currently excess capacity that doesn't make sense, but it certainly does not bode well for the ability of tariffs or quotas to protect U.S. steel producers.

In the United States, the old-line producers have been closing plants and reducing their work forces for years. The antitrust authorities have allowed mergers that the Carnegies and the Morgans would have feared to attempt: see this and this. The consolidations are not without controversy, as the old steel companies have contractual commitments to retired workers, referred to as legacy costs, which current earnings might not be sufficient to cover. The old steel companies propose to shift those pension costs to the taxpayers in exchange for closing some capacity. Not surprisingly, the new steel companies don't like such proposals, suggesting inconsistencies in working to close outdated capacity elsewhere while subsidizing it here. This release notes an interesting way of financing the legacy cost relief -- which didn't pass Congress.

What, then, for the future of the steel business? Until there's something resembling equilibrium in capacity and consumption worldwide, look for continued trade spats. And perhaps it's time to short China.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 00:18

 
THE COMPARISON IS INSULTING TO THE CIRCUS. Invisible Adjunct is not pleased with a Regina Barecca essay on the sartorial failures of academics. (The article notes that most professors are sartorially challenged, although its references to tweed jackets with elbow patches is a bit off the mark. It is rare any more to see professors wearing shirt and tie, and that might contribute some to the academy's losing some respect. Schoolteachers, too.)

The part of the article that most annoys the Invisible Adjunct is the reference to female academics dressing like circus ponies. I haven't seen anybody with the feather plumes or the other attire mentioned. On the other hand, one of the identity politics cliques on campus recently hosted a visiting speaker, a bearded lady (wearing a beret, of course) with several tattoos. Therein lies the insult to the circus. No self-respecting circus would ask the Tattooed Woman to double as the Bearded Lady.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:21

 
THE COMING WATER WARS. Not Mexico and California. Not Iraq and Turkey, or Israel and Jordan. How about Waukesha County and Milwaukee County. Why? Because Great Lakes water cannot be piped outside of the Great Lakes Basin. The Mississippi River watershed begins very close to the shores of Lake Michigan in places.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:13

 
FREE THE POLITICAL PRISONERS. Is there some way to persuade the Global Fans of Saddam that Michael Jackson is a victim of the Patriot Act?
posted by Stephen Karlson at 23:06

 
ONCE A CARTEL, ALWAYS A CARTEL. Thus King at SCSU Scholars on the latest attempts by the university presidents to temper one principle (access) with another (academic integrity in sports.) The latest set of rule changes lend themselves to all sorts of possibilities, depending on how you perceive the sports program. Some degree programs continue to offer refuge to potentially marginal students participating in sports, particularly the (misnamed) revenue sports. Number 2 Pencil (what did I say about Bulletin Orders?) draws some of the more evident inferences. But there is more. Big-time sport well might be the Berlin Wall of higher education. Demonstrate the frauds behind that wall, and perhaps the frauds elaborated here and commented upon in this Bulletin Order will prove easier to bring down.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 22:55

 
ONE DAY THEY'LL FIGURE IT OUT. "DuPage traffic signal project cites quicker rides on 2 roads." D'oh! The timing has speeded up westbound commutes by several minutes. The effects on fuel consumption, wear and tear on brakes, and driver patience remain to be calculated.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 22:35

 
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Her mother is against it. 'Tough shit', I believe is what I said to my mother-in-law. (I actually have a great relationship with her, and can say such things). I cut the debate off when she said 'But what about socialization?'. My answer: 'I smoked my first joint because of 'socialization'. How bout you?'" That's from a Number 2 Pencil post about homeschooling and the school establishment's reactions thereto. The Friday posts are today's Bulletin Orders. Read and Understand them all.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 22:21

 
SANITIZING HISTORY. It's not just teaching Milton without Puritan doctrine, it's now teaching Thanksgiving without Pilgrims, this time in the elementary grades.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 17:00

 
OUR NEIGHBORS AT WAR. Northern Illinois University honored troops past, with veterans from all the armed services except the Coast Guard, present, with a color guard provided by the Department of Military Science, and future, with a march-past by about 24 young people who have opted for a deferred enlistment into the Army at today's halftime show. (The team was on the road closer to Veterans' Day.) There was a game. The results are not yet available online, but I can report that it's 38 cents off on a cup of pop this week, and the fans have been developing a tradition of ringing the Victory Bell in in the west campus parkway. 10 wins, now it's up to the vagaries of bowl-eligibility elsewhere.
posted by Stephen Karlson at 16:58