Yay! Inflation!

I just ran across this peice at the PI, that espouses more inflation as the solution to all of Seattle's our housing woes. Perhaps rather than visiting the 'West' Mr. Trahant ought to visit a country in say, South America, that was lucky enough to enjoy the pleasures of hyperinflation. I'd love to see his spin on why this is a good thing; it should bring a chuckle or two.

China & The Greenhouse Effect

It looks like China's position on global warming is shifting a bit. A couple speeches have trickled out recently (here and here) indicating the gravity of the issue is starting to be talked about within the country. But China Daily's own reporter's article about the need to penalize foreign firms reminded me of how ludicrous China's positions still can be. The article itself somehow blames foreign companies for the fact that China's government hasn't cared about the environment for years (never mind the fact that Exxon can pollute far more at a Texas refinery than say one on Antwerp; China's standards might not so different from America's in some places). There was a similar argument when they fought for 'developing' status in the Kyoto agreement. Just because your government failed to implement capitalism sooner and you are therefore years behind in development, doesn't mean you should get a free pass now. If anything, China is greatly benefiting from the know-how from advanced economies. If the Chinese government wanted to, they could have avoided the mistakes made by other countries and had a cleaner environment from the start. Now China has embedded dirty technology interest groups that will fight the transition to clean tech, much like what we see playing out in US.

Republican Genius

I love this:

Looks like Harry Reid is being the least bi-partisan majority leader in history. The filibuster is there to protect minority rights. If minorty rights get abused by a majority leader who simply tries to ram through non-bipartisan legislation, what else do you expect?

Found in the comments section here of a post detailing the explosion in filibusters in this senate term. The Democrats are so out-classed. From the sidelines it always looks like both parties believe the public to be irrational decision makers, but only the Republicans bother to take advantage of that fact. Of course bad decisions lead to bad policies, and you can't fool everyone all the time, but in the long run we're all dead anyway, no?

McCain in the Economist

The Economist piece on John McCain last week is a touch specious. What's wrong with firing someone that was "part of Mr McCain's political family"? Perhaps McCain was not happy with the fact that "his campaign managers ... spend like drunken sailors" and decided to fire them. It's called accountability. Here's a link for those unfamiliar with the term.

Hillary Clinton's Disappointment

My two cents on this Hillary discussion: she lacks courage. In the 2004 election she declined to run, knowing full well that we had a president that tortures people and that she, out of all the potential Democratic canidates, had the best chance to deny him a second term. Yes, I'm sure her political calculus told her to wait, that the odds of her winning in 2008 would be higher than in 2004, but 2004 is when the country needed her most.

Proof of arithmetic series

I derived this proof of an arithmetic series. I very much doubt it's anything new. But I didn't see it on Wikipedia or after a quick Google search so I figured I'd record it here for the net.



1) Sum of i as i goes from 1 to n : 1 + 2 + 3 + ... + n

2) Add the summation to itself, but think of adding the second summation backwards:


1 + ... + n

n + ... + 1


3) If you think of the first Sum as (i), then the second sum becomes (n - i + 1)

4) So 2 * the sum is (i) + (n - i + 1) or (n + 1) for each item in the series

5) Since there are n items in the series, the 2 * sum value is n * (n + 1)

6) for a single series, we end up with (n * (n + 1) / 2)


It's pretty straightforwards to convert this proof for a series of arbitrary interval.

Seattle Police II

As an update, later that day an officer did come to our buildling. The person I saw on the street had already been arrested for an unrelated crime. There was not a way to link our breakin with the person however. My landlord found his missing wrench so it couldn't have been the one the person was holding. The officer said that the reason police are hesitant to confront the street people sometimes is that they do not want to talk action without a partner present. I can't blame them for that. Backing three guys high on herion in an ally probably isn't the safest thing to do.

Seattle Police

I have no doubt that some of Seattle's finest have made mistakes in the past; there is ample evidence from the WTO event. So I'm not going to say it's wrong for the NAACP to criticize their actions.


However, Seattlites should be aware that we are in desperate need of a functioning police force. This post is one example, and up in Capitol Hill, it's not much better. This morning my apartment building was broken into. My landlord spent all day trying to get the locks fixed, and when he called the police to report the incident he was told they 'may' stop by. I just saw a few blocks away someone trying to bum cigarettes that carried a wrench in his hand surprising like the one stolen from my building today. He was cursing at people, obviously high. Drugs + wrench + anger is not a good combination. My building residents have seen the same people shoot up in the alley behind our building, and have learned not to bother calling the police for the help they 'may' provide.

How do we get a competent police force that doesn't abuse power while still protecting the people? Maybe it's too much to ask for and I should just move. Greg Nickels's plans don't seem to be working here.