Tag: Culture

First Borgen and now this: an ad campaign that rewards women for getting pregnant while on vacation! Yes. That’s right, after discovering that a large percentage of baby making occurs while on vacation, there is now added incentive for doing so. Let’s see in one year what the impact is on the birth rate!

My friends and I fly helicopters once in a while at the office. Flight Club would be insane with one of these.

Here is an awesome video using the quadcopter in Alaskan ice caves.

While I love my iPad, I still have issues reading on it. I read manuals and other materials but I prefer books but could be convinced that digital is more than supplementary. This new option from Sony is a large screen wifi enabled reader but it also includes a digital pen for annotations. Cost around $1000 so not a price point that interests me.

Sony is rolling out its new technology that looks quite interesting here.

Crimea is now part of Russia. The pro-EU leadership in Kyiv is staying.

So what next?

The pragmatist in me thinks that the only viable path is to de-escalate this situation through a declaration of neutrality for Ukraine. Ukraine will not join NATO, Russia will agree not to annex more Ukrainian provinces. Ukraine will be between the East and the West and resources can then be used to stabilize the economy and give the people of Ukraine the opportunity to have a legitimate chance to build a better future. This way Russia’s Eurasian Union will not begin with an aggressive stance against the European Union and tensions between these heavily armed powers will ease. This is the first precondition to the success for the people in the streets of Kyiv. I hope that the demands for transparent political and economic structures is fulfilled, not simply the reestablishment of another set of corrupt systems. Time will tell.

The BBC website has some historical maps of the Crimean region here.

And some awesome historical maps for sale of the same here.

National Geographic maps here.

Wiki maps here.

I post these to highlight the changing nature of the political boundaries of this region. Including the Crimean Khanate.

Update: Russia is firmly in control in the Crimea, post vote. Moscow has accomplished several goals, one of which is that a clear signal has been given by Russia that political liberalism is not acceptable in Kyiv and, in a pre-emptive fashion, in Moscow. Political liberalism is antithetical to the oligarchs in Russia and any dissent will not be tolerated. Moscow, like Beijing in 1989, will roll out the tanks to quell any unrest. Any attempt at a “colour” revolution or a Tahir Square type movement will not be tolerated. Look for Putin to assert that the Crimea has always been Russian, an appeal to historical rights that the West will have difficulty countering due to their support of Israel. The two most important players have yet to reveal their intentions: Ankara and Beijing. More to come.

Mr friend RP and I went to Edwards ON yesterday to Stanley’s sugar shack. Quite busy but we were a week or two early for the running of the sap. Breakfast was quite good and the people were super friendly! We enjoyed the outdoor air but the best part was the farm animals! A very large pig, super ugly turkeys, super cute barn kitten, and horses, lots of large horses! Since I was enjoying myself so much, I didn’t really take too many photos.

Today the people of the Crimean Republic (I had to wiki its political configuration) will vote on whether or not they will join the Russian Confederation or return to its pre-1992 status as a quasi autonomous entity within Ukraine (whatever that means). My assumption is that the vote will be for option 1. There will be a pro-Russian political apparatus established, a recognition from Moscow, and a withdrawal of the not-Russian forces back to Russia. And then the rest of the Ukraine comes into play.

An autonomous state, as the new Crimean Republic would be, is able to control its own foreign orientation, as long as it is the direction of Russia. With the visit of the President of Tatarstan to the Crimea, Moscow’s agenda is clear: the only non-option is a Western oriented Crimea and old animosities with ethnic Tatars can be accommodated as with the other ethnicities within the Soviet, er, Russian sphere of influence. Access to the Black Sea will not be inhibited. And if other areas within the Ukraine desire the change, perhaps a referendum could be held there as well. The only potential hiccup for Moscow is Ankara, who seem to be taking a position of non recognition toward the results of this vote regardless of the outcome. Turkey has its own successionist issues.

But this leaves the EU oriented leadership in Kyiv, with a fait accompli.

While Kyiv and Berlin and Washington and Paris and London will not recognize the validity of these election results, the problem is that they don’t have the boots on the ground to affect any change. Negotiations will now begin for the rest of the Ukraine. The region is an important artery for energy and foodstuffs, important for Europe and an important source of wealth for Russia. The key consideration for Angela Merkel is whether or not Ukraine as a political entity is worth the potential disruption to the German economy. The leadership in Kyiv and the people demonstrating for greater political openness and economic liberalism are, to an extent, secondary in this geo-political game. The United States will refuse this concession as well but it seems doomed to rattle its sword once or twice as the media attention turns, becoming obsessed with a missing Malaysian airplane. And both Paris and London, again, don’t seem to be willing to risk too much. The new leadership in Kyiv and the people in the streets with their legitimate demands for fair and transparent political and economic systems may find that their allies in the West are willing to lend token sums and platitudes, but not much more.

#Shocker 95% voted to join Russia.

And the situation as seen through game theory here. Arguing that a tipping point has been reached whereby unilateral actions, such as Russian actions in the Crimea, become the norm. While possibly a statistical abberation, if this is true then expect more aggressive military postures by states seeking to solidify their regions of influence. Interesting hypothesis.

The finale of True Detective certainly has the intertubes abuzz. Most thought it bland and anti-climatic. I am not one of those people. Here are the best commentaries on the show including a very fine piece on the philosophy that was quite apparent throughout the show here. If you only read one piece I would suggest this one from Jacob Mikanowski in the L.A. Review of Books that touches each element of the show from the gorgeous and haunting cinematography of Adam Arkapaw to the music of T Bone Burnett in the opening credits.

Five principles and seven actions for Rapid Language Acquisition at TEDx talks here. Fascinating stuff!

Longitudinal economic data used by the IMF to detail how increased inequality is the wrong path for growth. It is disturbing how difficult it is to get this rather simple idea across to policy makers.

Couple this document with the fascinating discussion of the capability approach at Crooked Timber here.

And read Thomas Piketty for the best analysis of inequality thus far here.

Here are the main conclusions from the IMF study:

First, more unequal societies tend to redistribute more. It is thus important in understanding the growth-inequality relationship to distinguish between market and net inequality.

Second, lower net inequality is robustly correlated with faster and more durable growth, for a given level of redistribution. These results are highly supportive of our earlier work.

And third, redistribution appears generally benign in terms of its impact on growth; only in extreme cases is there some evidence that it may have direct negative effects on growth. Thus the combined direct and indirect effects of redistribution—including the growth effects of the resulting lower inequality—are on average pro-growth.