Catching Up: Humor and Miscellany

Imgaine if Republicans realized that we got Reagan confused with Eisenhower.... Would we hear comments like these? According to RNC chairman Priebus: “When I heard about Eisenhower's presidential accomplishments—holding down the national debt, keeping inflation in check, and fighting for balanced budgets—it hit me that we'd clearly gotten their names mixed up at some point.” Gingrich might say: "It's absolutely mortifying to suddenly realize that the man you had long credited as a champion of fiscal conservatism actually tripled the national debt and signed the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history." Yes, that's the Onion.

Elliephant recently discovered that I linked to their list of reasons why “you might be an economist if…” a while back and brought a drove of people here. In retaliation, here is some follow up humor from the comments:

Female economists reject single men.
"An economist is a surgeon with an excellent scalpel and a rough-edged lancet, who operates beautifully on the dead and tortures the living." -- Nicholas Chamfort

Learning economics through Monopoly: the perils of deregulation combined with wanton money printing leading to depression and bankruptcy. The excerpt at the link is easily the best part of the article to which it links.

What if you would be shot  if you couldn't do advanced mathematics under pressure?

Some remarkable pictures of the history of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Africa

The Way We See Ourselves

An article on national symbols (that I meant to post 6-7 months ago) that largely comes from Wikipedia. Of note is that the US's anthropomorphic symbol (Uncle Sam) is a stand in for its government rather than its people. 

Also featured are Britain's everyman, John Bull, whom Wiki tells us is "well-intentioned, frustrated, full of common sense, and entirely of native country stock ... a yeoman who prefers his small beer and domestic peace, possessed of neither patriarchal power nor heroic defiance."

The German Michel (Michael) similarly shows a national character: "his easy-going nature and Everyman appearance. He also represents the innocent and simple person who must endure and fight against tyranny and injustice."  

Portugal's Joe Public or John Doe is appreciated for "his kindness, his will to help others and, most of all, his utter contempt and disrespect for the powerful ones that try to dominate him."

Despite the popularity of male everymen, every one of the countries the article considers uses a female ideal to represent the country itself.

Some pictures I liked

Another unposted post, from July, but I'll add to it:

Utopia and dystopia side by side. The future or today? Amazing picture.

History of the Beatles told by their hair.

Daily life in Pakistan in Big Pictures (mostly children).

The protests in Egypt in Big Pictures.

Haiti, one year later, also in Big Pictures.

Big Bag of Thursday

On democracy in poor countries (and on the election in Ivory Coast whose results are still delayed): "In the bad old days of post-colonial Africa, dictators would hail their landslide re-elections as a demonstration of the will of an adoring people while international observers would dismiss the polls as electoral farce. In the brave new Africa, it is often the other way round." That is, internationalists hail re-elections as free and fair while the people murmur that it was not. The article argues that this is because it is harder to rig elections now and the international political economy favors smooth transitions and playing nice.

The US Senate passed the food safety bill. This article, recommended by M. Nestle, covers the differences between the House and Senate version that need to be hashed out.

Aid Watch's headline: "WHO: 20 to 40 percent of money spent on health wasted, more funds needed to be wasted."

The aid skeptics' Thanksgiving:

• For the largest reduction in world poverty in human history, which has already happened in our generation.
• For the largest improvement in health and life expectancy in human history, which has already happened in our generation.
• For all those who contributed to these successes: whether individuals operating in private, social, nonprofit, charitable, civic, public, aid, or international realms.
• For all those who helped themselves and those around them escape poverty through their own efforts.

Improving the efficiency of the bribe market may actually be good for the economy. That is, making bribe prices more transparent/widely-known reduces transaction costs for bribery, which in turn reduces bribe sizes.

A chef preparing to head to a job at an elite hotel instead stays in his home town in India to provide three nutritious, freshly cooked meals to around 400 of the poorest people in the area.

National Geographic's annual photo contest - many of the results on Big Picture.

Blindfolded humans walk and drive in circles. Hunh?

A whole lot of water

I missed the day that by secret appointment everyone was supposed to blog about water. But there's sure enough water to go around:

A typhoon in the Philippines is threatening the rice crop with too much water: "The Philippines is the world's biggest rice importer and damage from the typhoon could see it buy more than had been expected for 2011, which could push up international prices."

Benin has also flooded. "Half the country is under water, and it's still raining."

Kenya, meanwhile, is predicting an upcoming drought. You have read down a ways to find the drought - most of the article is about Kenya's food marketing structure and lack of investment.

On the right to water and who has the responsibility to provide it. Pictures of water's importance in developing countries. Attempts to make crops in Mali flood-resistant.

Big Bag o unusual Blog Links

The effect of political connections: say you're a former Congressional staffer and you become a lobbyist. When your former boss leaves the Senate, your income goes down by over 50%.

Yglesias continues to excuse and praise Republicans for being two-faced

As you see here with Ryan (and in the generally Calvinball like approach the GOP has taken to the reconciliation question over the years), Republicans are determined to follow the actual laws and rules. When in the minority, they don’t rebel. They don’t murder their political opponents, they don’t organize coups d’état. What they do is they try to win legislative battles through all the tools at their disposal. And when in the majority they . . . do the same thing. They believe, strongly, that letting wealthy businessmen get what they want is good for America, and they go about doing that with seriousness of purpose. Many Democrats, by contrast, seem to believe that their highest responsibility is to make themselves look good, to preen for the cameras, or to maximize their own personal authority.
But they’re wrong and Ryan is right. The procedural rules are levers to be deployed on behalf of important goals, not holy writ to which policy objectives should be subordinated.

Extra points for using Calvinball in a sentence.

Two great websites with interesting maps: one of US city segregation, the other of European stereotypes (the rest of Europe according to France, according to Germany, etc.)

How swimming lessons saved Taiwan. No, really. [if only I could remember to whom I tip my hat...]

A gathering of over 10,000 West African LDS youth, many of them discovering theater for the first time as they act out religious scenes. Lots of colorful, engaging pictures of the event.

It's called "The economics of Star Wars" but really it's the accounting of Star Wars, and only the revenue portion at that.

Blattman compares and contrasts rural vs. urban living and the advantages of each, coming out in favor of urban. I share his skepticism of the overly romanticized rural but that isn't enough to convince me.

Asian immigrants and their effect on cuisine:

South Korean investment in the U.S. got a major boost in 2008 when the federal government decided to no longer require visas for visiting South Korean citizens. The move has already shown results. For the first six months of this year, some 450,000 South Koreans entered the U.S., a 38% rise over the same period last year. [This worries Korean-American restaurant owners who will have to step up their game or be outshone.]

And a use for extra garden produce: Woman fends off bear with zucchini.

Travelogue - Thorvaldsen

I posted this a couple years ago on my family blog and it's easily my most visited page because of the pictures I took of the Thorvaldsen apostle statues. I'm moving it over here to reduce unfamiliar traffic. Because the audience was different, the writing was more explicitly religious than I try to be here generally. But then, this is religious artwork.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Tuesday and Wednesday will be just work, so today was my one chance to tour Copenhagen. I was wondering last week what I should go see. Then I listened to General Conference and heard with new ears an old story told by Boyd K. Packer, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles:

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In 1976 an area general conference was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Following the closing session, President Spencer W. Kimball desired to visit the Vor Frue Church, where the Thorvaldsen statues of the Christus and of the Twelve Apostles stand. He had visited there some years earlier and wanted all of us to see it, to go there.

To the front of the church, behind the altar, stands the familiar statue of the Christus with His arms turned forward and somewhat outstretched, the hands showing the imprint of the nails, and the wound in His side very clearly visible.

The second shot is crooked because my camera wouldn't lie flat on the pillar
but this is the most steady and clear shot of the lot since I didn't want to use my flash while people prayed.

Along each side stand the statues of the Apostles, Peter at the front to the right and the other Apostles in order. ... In Peter’s hand, depicted in marble, is a set of heavy keys. President Kimball pointed to those keys and explained what they symbolized. Then, in an act I shall never forget, he turned to [the Copenhagen Stake President] and with unaccustomed firmness pointed his finger at him and said, “I want you to tell everyone in Denmark that I hold the keys! We hold the real keys, and we use them every day.”

I will never forget that declaration, that testimony from the prophet. The influence was spiritually powerful; the impression was physical in its impact.

We walked to the back of the chapel where the rest of the group was standing. Pointing to the statues, President Kimball said to the kind custodian, “These are the dead Apostles.”

Jacob (known to most of you as James); John; Andrew;
Bartholomew; Matthew; Jacob (known to most of you as the other James);
Philip; Simon the Zealot; Thaddeus;
and Thomas. Paul (with a sword!) rounds out the group to 12.

Pointing to me, he said, “Here we have the living Apostles. Elder Packer is an Apostle. Elder Thomas S. Monson and Elder L. Tom Perry are Apostles, and I am an Apostle. We are the living Apostles.

Standing: Elders Scott, Hales, Holland, Uchtdorf [now in the place of John], Bednar, and Cook.
Seated: Pres. Packer, Elders Perry, Nelson, Oaks, Ballard, and Wirthlin
not pictured: Pres. Monson [Peter], Pres. Eyring [Jacob/James], and Elder Christofferson [perhaps in the place of Paul]

“You read about the Seventies in the New Testament, and here are two of the living Seventies, Elder Rex D. Pinegar and Elder Robert D. Hales.”

The custodian, who up to that time had shown no emotion, suddenly was in tears.

I felt I had had an experience of a lifetime.

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And so did I. I've visited Bach's St. Thomas Church and the church where Martin Luther hung his 95 theses, as well as several cathedrals and missions around California, New York City, and Germany. None touched me as profoundly as seeing the two rows of apostles, with Jesus in the center, arms outstretched. Under him the inscription reads (translated) Come to me.

It wasn't quite like being in the temple. Very little is -- that's why it's the temple. As with Bach's and Luther's church, I felt the sacred dedication that had happened there. But there was one important difference: this church made me think about Jesus. Bach's church was special because of Bach and his dedication to God, and with pictures of Bach posted on the walls and a museum to Bach in one of the wings and a tour guide talking about Bach in the background, I thought about Bach and how he tried to bring people to Jesus. Luther's church was special because of Luther and his dedication to God, and with Martin Luther Day being celebrated outside (by drinking), I thought about Luther and how he tried to bring people to Jesus. But there was no sign of Thorvaldsen anywhere in the building. He was completely absent. The entire focus was on the cross-lit Savior in the front and His witnesses along the side. That directed my focus not towards the artist or the artwork, but the Master Artist. It was wonderful.

The rest of the building was very simple, with relatively little ornament (compared to other great churches in Europe).

Peter, John, and Jacob are on the right side furthest from the camera.
Paul is the furthest on the left. Peter and Paul face Jesus.

Standing outside as sentinels are David and Moses (both depicted with their shopping lists ;) )

Rice Paddy Art

Simply amazing. That's just rice, folks. And lots more where this came from. The culture that is Japan. HT: The World Bank.

Russian Development in Pictures

A photographer went through the Russian Empire between 1909 and 1912 taking three copies of each picture he snapped. With one in red, one in blue, and one in green, he could combine them to create full color pictures of how things looked. Puts Turner Colorized Movies to shame. In addition to the country now known as Russia, there are pictures from Uzbekistan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Hungary, and Turkey; many locations are linked to Google Maps. Several hat tips.




For comparison, here is Tblisi, Georgia in 1910 from St. David's Church and

... some more modern time.

Steve McCurry photos

A nice selection of 22 photos from the Middle East and Asia. Two pictures that particularly stood out to me were of Afghani markets, in both cases depicted as sources of light and life.

The Cathedrals of Helsinki

The Uspenski Eastern Orthodox Cathedral (Uspenskin katedraali) rests on top of a small hill looking over downtown.




With a good view of The Helsinki Cathedral (Helsingin tuomiokirkko or Suurkirkko - Lutheran Evangelic) across the way. The rest of the pictures in this post are from this other cathedral.

I would like to acknowledge the good weathermen of Helsinki for predicting rain the entire time I was there and instead providing me these wonderful, varying skies to shoot against.

A peek between the columns

The Resurrection. Another mural next to it depicts the crucifixion, but my shot wasn't as detailed as I'd like it.






I wish blogspot would let me arrange these pictures so they lined up. Oh well.

No Lions Here

It's not often that National Geographic gets a gold star for its reporting on African society, but Africa is a Country caved and gave the upcoming article "Mandela's Children" some love for depicting ongoing racial tensions in a sophisticated way:

The feature–the pictures and the text as a unit–presents South Africa as a hybrid of modernity and tradition, rich and poor, violent and compassionate; in short, an entanglement of realities that while complicated, is certainly not unworthy of the world’s attention next month.
P.S. my sincerest gratitude goes to The Society for getting through an African feature without the single mention of a lion. Thank you.

The caption for the photo gallery reads: "South Africa is a vibrant, multiethnic democracy striving, with mixed success, to fulfill its promise." The photos range from ballet and bagpipes to strip searches, Scrabble, and shacks.

Against Poverty Porn

There's a Calvin and Hobbes comic with Calvin taking pictures of himself with combed hair, room tidy, and everything idyllic. He informs Hobbes this will be used as proof one day that he was a model child because pictures don't lie. But they do tell only the stories you choose to shoot:

We’ve all seen it: the photo of a teary-eyed African child, dressed in rags, smothered in flies, with a look of desperation that the caption all too readily points out.  ... I reacted very strongly to these kinds of photos when I returned from Africa in 2008.  I compared these photos to my own memories of Malawian friends and felt lied to.  How had these photos failed so spectacularly to capture the intelligence, the laughter, the resilience, and the capabilities of so many incredible people?

The truth is that the development sector, just like any other business, needs revenue to survive.  Too frequently, this quest for funding uses these kind of dehumanizing images to draw pity, charity, and eventually donations from a largely unsuspecting public.  I found it outrageous that such an incomplete and often inaccurate story was being so widely perpetuated by the organizations on the ground – the very ones with the ability and the responsibility to communicate the realities of rural Africa accurately.

This is not to say that people do not struggle, far from it, but the photos I was seeing only told part of the story.  I thought that these images were robbing people of their dignity, and I felt that the rest of the story should be told as well.

So Duncan McNicholl decided to try his hand at photography. He told people to choose how they would dress for two pictures: "'wochena' (the Chichewa equivalent of 'dressed to kill') and another of him 'wosachena,' or 'dressed very poorly.'" The results are magnificent.

Here is a subsistence farmer

(Ahem, Watson, he does have a Name. He is a Person.)

Right. Bauleni Banda.The name won't mean anything to most readers while his occupation communicates additional information.

(It still dehumanizes him to only give an occupation, perpetuating thinking about individuals as masses and groups.)


Hat tip: Aid Watch

Africa Photos

The instructions at Digg tell us to forget everything we know about Africa as the pictures transform our conception of the continent. ...

And they are lovely pictures. Some of them impressive if overshopped. ...

For a photo series claiming to depict the second most populous continent, though, I notice there are 2.5 times as many elephants depicted as people.

So let's look at the people: one hovel in the middle of nowhere with a starving family, check. one nomad on a camel, check. one group of tourists in a land rover, check.

Sit back, relax, and prepare to have all your misconceptions confirmed while you enjoy some pretty impressive landscape and animal shots.

Fine Art, Bad Pun ... or is that Bad Art, Fine Pun?

I say, Holmes, what ever am I looking at?

It claims to be fine art by Mr. Jez C Self.

But what is it?


"A lemon entry, my dear Watson."

That's terrible, Holmes.

That's only what the caption says. Don't blame me.

And how did they arrive at a cost of $53.50 for an unframed poster of an aging room divider?

That, my dear Watson, is economics beyond my ken.

More Middle-Class Africa

They have added 38 pictures on middle-class Mozambique including: a day at the beach, at a supermarket, kids playing, an ICU unit, and a jump rope aerobics shot that might as well be in LA.

Middle Class Africa

An ongoing project to chronicle people earning between $1.50 and $12 per day, what counts as middle and lower-middle class in many parts of the world. Shop owners, office workers, teachers. Another hat tip to TiA.

The leaders

Platon, the New Yorker photographer, did a pretty major photo shoot with a lot of top world leaders at the UN general meeting in September. Africa is a Country very kindly posts the pictures of a handful of African leaders with a bit of their descriptions. Particularly the Mugabe story is fascinating: another leader saw Mugabe get up and waited to sit down; when asked what was wrong, he answered, "There's blood on that chair." (hat tip Texas in Africa):

You can see the entire collection here but most of the stories Platon tells aren't worth it. "Beautiful" is his favorite word. A few of his comments, however, are quite interesting, so let's make a game of it, shall we?

Can you match the world leader with his description by New Yorker photographer Platon?

A. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Iran
B. Silvio Burlisconi - Italy
C. Yukio Hatoyama - Japan
D. Andry Rayjoelina - Madagascar
E. Jacob Zuma - South Africa
F. Ban Ki-moon - UN Secretary General

1) "said, 'You have to separate yourself from your job. I wouldn't be criticized if I didn't have this responsibility.'"

2) "had a warmth and exuberance, it wasn't natural, perhaps," "perhaps no photographer has ever shouted at him 'You look wicked' before, but that tickles him"

3) is "incredible, so cheeky," "he gave me that cheeky, naughty kind of smile," he was "loving every second of it"

4) "looks like he's 15," "I thought this guy was an intern"

5) is "totally Fred Astaire"

6) is "a very childlike man," "he giggles like a little boy," "this irony that there's this innocence about his eyes."