Blog - Revision history

Tim at 16:15, 24 January 2022

2022-01-24T16:15:23Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:15, 24 January 2022
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	===[https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/24/opinion/west-ends-lesson-mayor-wu/?event=event25 west-ends-lesson-mayor-wu]		===[https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/24/opinion/west-ends-lesson-mayor-wu/?event=event25 west-ends-lesson-mayor-wu]===
	snippets		snippets
	:When incomes are similar, those of different backgrounds tend to get along, would be valuable and sought-after But an emphasis on achieving “affordability” through subsidized “mixed-income” complexes risks Logue-style hubris public ownership and management, advocates of subsidized mixed-income housing, relax zoning to allow builders to create naturally-occurring affordable housing based on a time-honored formula of small homes on small lots. Low-income neighborhoods can and should be good neighborhoods — so long as city governments ensure safe and clean streets and effective schools		:When incomes are similar, those of different backgrounds tend to get along, would be valuable and sought-after But an emphasis on achieving “affordability” through subsidized “mixed-income” complexes risks Logue-style hubris public ownership and management, advocates of subsidized mixed-income housing, relax zoning to allow builders to create naturally-occurring affordable housing based on a time-honored formula of small homes on small lots. Low-income neighborhoods can and should be good neighborhoods — so long as city governments ensure safe and clean streets and effective schools

Tim at 16:15, 24 January 2022

2022-01-24T16:15:14Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:15, 24 January 2022
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	When incomes are similar, those of different backgrounds tend to get along, would be valuable and sought-after But an emphasis on achieving “affordability” through subsidized “mixed-income” complexes risks Logue-style hubris public ownership and management, advocates of subsidized mixed-income housing, relax zoning to allow builders to create naturally-occurring affordable housing based on a time-honored formula of small homes on small lots. Low-income neighborhoods can and should be good neighborhoods — so long as city governments ensure safe and clean streets and effective schools		===[https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/24/opinion/west-ends-lesson-mayor-wu/?event=event25 west-ends-lesson-mayor-wu]
			snippets
			:When incomes are similar, those of different backgrounds tend to get along, would be valuable and sought-after But an emphasis on achieving “affordability” through subsidized “mixed-income” complexes risks Logue-style hubris public ownership and management, advocates of subsidized mixed-income housing, relax zoning to allow builders to create naturally-occurring affordable housing based on a time-honored formula of small homes on small lots. Low-income neighborhoods can and should be good neighborhoods — so long as city governments ensure safe and clean streets and effective schools

	Using the story of the West End as an argument against 'subsidized “mixed-income” complexes' is initially intriguing. Renovating public housing like The Mildred Haley Apartments - Bromley Park, however, will be very good for Jamaica Plain and the city. But this is hardly the entirety of Mayor Wu's housing policies. They cover a wide range of initiatives spanning affordable rentals to first-time home ownership. By painting Wu as at risk for "Logue-style hubris", Husock uncovers his own agenda which is, in itself, troubling. His solution is to "relax zoning". That's what the developers of the West End convinced the city to do. It does not get you "naturally-occurring affordable housing". The role of the government is not to modestly "provide basic city services " for developers to exploit. A democratically elected government should not be denigrated as "centrally directed". There is a role for government in dampening the excesses of a "free" market and there is a role of regulation in creating the framework for a built environment of character and diversity, accessible to all its residents.		Using the story of the West End as an argument against 'subsidized “mixed-income” complexes' is initially intriguing. Renovating public housing like The Mildred Haley Apartments - Bromley Park, however, will be very good for Jamaica Plain and the city. But this is hardly the entirety of Mayor Wu's housing policies. They cover a wide range of initiatives spanning affordable rentals to first-time home ownership. By painting Wu as at risk for "Logue-style hubris", Husock uncovers his own agenda which is, in itself, troubling. His solution is to "relax zoning". That's what the developers of the West End convinced the city to do. It does not get you "naturally-occurring affordable housing". The role of the government is not to modestly "provide basic city services " for developers to exploit. A democratically elected government should not be denigrated as "centrally directed". There is a role for government in dampening the excesses of a "free" market and there is a role of regulation in creating the framework for a built environment of character and diversity, accessible to all its residents.

Tim at 16:12, 24 January 2022

2022-01-24T16:12:46Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:12, 24 January 2022
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			When incomes are similar, those of different backgrounds tend to get along, would be valuable and sought-after But an emphasis on achieving “affordability” through subsidized “mixed-income” complexes risks Logue-style hubris public ownership and management, advocates of subsidized mixed-income housing, relax zoning to allow builders to create naturally-occurring affordable housing based on a time-honored formula of small homes on small lots. Low-income neighborhoods can and should be good neighborhoods — so long as city governments ensure safe and clean streets and effective schools

			Using the story of the West End as an argument against 'subsidized “mixed-income” complexes' is initially intriguing. Renovating public housing like The Mildred Haley Apartments - Bromley Park, however, will be very good for Jamaica Plain and the city. But this is hardly the entirety of Mayor Wu's housing policies. They cover a wide range of initiatives spanning affordable rentals to first-time home ownership. By painting Wu as at risk for "Logue-style hubris", Husock uncovers his own agenda which is, in itself, troubling. His solution is to "relax zoning". That's what the developers of the West End convinced the city to do. It does not get you "naturally-occurring affordable housing". The role of the government is not to modestly "provide basic city services " for developers to exploit. A democratically elected government should not be denigrated as "centrally directed". There is a role for government in dampening the excesses of a "free" market and there is a role of regulation in creating the framework for a built environment of character and diversity, accessible to all its residents.

	===MLK day===		===MLK day===
	'I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is... the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom...Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.' [http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html Letter from a Birmingham Jail 16 April 1963]		'I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is... the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom...Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.' [http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html Letter from a Birmingham Jail 16 April 1963]

Tim at 16:50, 19 January 2015

2015-01-19T16:50:36Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:50, 19 January 2015
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			===MLK day===
			'I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is... the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom...Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.' [http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html Letter from a Birmingham Jail 16 April 1963]


	===NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class===		===NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class===
	Perhaps the unions deserve to die. They bring on their own demise. As soon as you make a decision that protects existing workers while reducing benefits for new hires you are done. By agreeing to bar new workers from defined benefit retirement plans you lose the high ground. Now you are just sitting ducks allowing management to take pot shots to reduce the expensive workforce. (They call it evaluations.)		Perhaps the unions deserve to die. They bring on their own demise. As soon as you make a decision that protects existing workers while reducing benefits for new hires you are done. By agreeing to bar new workers from defined benefit retirement plans you lose the high ground. Now you are just sitting ducks allowing management to take pot shots to reduce the expensive workforce. (They call it evaluations.)

Tim: /* NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class */

2012-09-26T14:22:36Z

NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:22, 26 September 2012
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	All the value that was defined benefit plans has left the middle class and moved up the food chain to the investors class. Its easy, just under-fund the plans, say 'oh no' and then claim the money for your stockholders.		All the value that was defined benefit plans has left the middle class and moved up the food chain to the investors class. Its easy, just under-fund the plans, say 'oh no' and then claim the money for your stockholders.

	Where are the 99%? Watching football complaining about the refs. Where is the media? Writing about football complaining about the refs. Coverage never rises to to a level that asks how this very public controversy relates to all of our lives, to the bigger picture of the dissolution of the middle class by fat-cat business men used to getting their way. Nobody want to mess with that. We are all complicit in our own destruction.		Where are the 99%? Watching football complaining about the refs. Where is the media? Writing about football complaining about the refs. Coverage never rises to to a level that asks how this very public controversy relates to all of our lives, to the bigger picture of the dissolution of the middle class by fat-cat business men used to getting their way. Nobody want to mess with that. We are all stars in our own fantasy league, complicit in our own destruction.

Tim: /* NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class */

2012-09-26T14:21:43Z

NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:21, 26 September 2012
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	===NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class===		===NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class===
	Perhaps the unions deserve to die. They bring on their own demise. As soon as you make a decision that protects existing workers while reducing benefits for new hires you are done. By agreeing to bar new workers from defined benefit retirement plans you lose the high ground. Now you are just sitting ducks allowing management to take pot shots to reduce the expensive workforce. They call it evaluations.		Perhaps the unions deserve to die. They bring on their own demise. As soon as you make a decision that protects existing workers while reducing benefits for new hires you are done. By agreeing to bar new workers from defined benefit retirement plans you lose the high ground. Now you are just sitting ducks allowing management to take pot shots to reduce the expensive workforce. (They call it evaluations.)

	It's not just the NFL refs union. Unions have been reduced to solely protecting existing members. As a force to right the imbalances of predator capitalism and restore and protect a middle class they are impotent.		It's not just the NFL refs union. Unions have been reduced to solely protecting existing members. As a force to right the imbalances of predator capitalism and restore and protect a middle class they are impotent.
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	All the value that was defined benefit plans has left the middle class and moved up the food chain to the investors class. Its easy, just under-fund the plans, say 'oh no' and then claim the money for your stockholders.		All the value that was defined benefit plans has left the middle class and moved up the food chain to the investors class. Its easy, just under-fund the plans, say 'oh no' and then claim the money for your stockholders.

	Where are the 99%? Watching football complaining about the refs. Where is the media? Writing about football complaining about the refs. Coverage never rises to to a level that asks how this very public controversy relates to all of our lives, to the bigger picture of the dissolution of the middle class ~~in America~~ by fat-cat business men used to getting their way. Nobody want to mess with that.		Where are the 99%? Watching football complaining about the refs. Where is the media? Writing about football complaining about the refs. Coverage never rises to to a level that asks how this very public controversy relates to all of our lives, to the bigger picture of the dissolution of the middle class by fat-cat business men used to getting their way. Nobody want to mess with that. We are all complicit in our own destruction.

Tim at 14:17, 26 September 2012

2012-09-26T14:17:45Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:17, 26 September 2012
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			===NFL refs, 401K plans, screwing new workers and the middle class===
			Perhaps the unions deserve to die. They bring on their own demise. As soon as you make a decision that protects existing workers while reducing benefits for new hires you are done. By agreeing to bar new workers from defined benefit retirement plans you lose the high ground. Now you are just sitting ducks allowing management to take pot shots to reduce the expensive workforce. They call it evaluations.

			It's not just the NFL refs union. Unions have been reduced to solely protecting existing members. As a force to right the imbalances of predator capitalism and restore and protect a middle class they are impotent.

			401K plans suck compared to defined benefit plans. I you've got on you know. There just a big pool of money that gets plundered every ten years or so, cleaned out by the financial sector as part of bursting bubbles.

			All the value that was defined benefit plans has left the middle class and moved up the food chain to the investors class. Its easy, just under-fund the plans, say 'oh no' and then claim the money for your stockholders.

			Where are the 99%? Watching football complaining about the refs. Where is the media? Writing about football complaining about the refs. Coverage never rises to to a level that asks how this very public controversy relates to all of our lives, to the bigger picture of the dissolution of the middle class in America by fat-cat business men used to getting their way. Nobody want to mess with that.



	Please consider disciplines that cannot (or can hardly) be learnt by oneself - where there is a gap between self taught		Please consider disciplines that cannot (or can hardly) be learnt by oneself - where there is a gap between self taught
	students and master graduates.		students and master graduates.

Tim at 17:32, 25 September 2012

2012-09-25T17:32:30Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:32, 25 September 2012
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	Self taught is a misnomer, none of us are; we just aren't in a formal class. We still read and research materials that we did not develop. Online even offers the chance to interact. The sciences and engineering need tools to keep you from getting stuck, lots and lots of worked out problems. Every discipline needs good questions to ponder, a way to refine your understanding, make it precise.		Self taught is a misnomer, none of us are; we just aren't in a formal class. We still read and research materials that we did not develop. Online even offers the chance to interact. The sciences and engineering need tools to keep you from getting stuck, lots and lots of worked out problems. Every discipline needs good questions to ponder, a way to refine your understanding, make it precise.

	~~A lot~~ of what we learn from a teacher is by watching interactions between that teacher and other students and between students, the social component.		I suppose we can't dismiss that some of what we learn from a teacher is by watching interactions between that teacher and other students and between students, the social component.

	Thank God for StackExchange. When a Khan academy topic is sufficiently narrow, a short video lecture can be brilliant. I'm rooting for edX.		Thank God for StackExchange. When a Khan academy topic is sufficiently narrow, a short video lecture can be brilliant. I'm rooting for edX.

Tim at 17:30, 25 September 2012

2012-09-25T17:30:53Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:30, 25 September 2012
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	students and master graduates.		students and master graduates.
	Is it Economics, Computer Science, Law, Arts, Astronomy or any other disciplines ?Edit		Is it Economics, Computer Science, Law, Arts, Astronomy or any other disciplines ?Edit



	Hmm, one can hardly claim mastery just by graduating. Formal education is just an introduction to topics that could take up to a lifetime to master.		Hmm, one can hardly claim mastery just by graduating. Formal education is just an introduction to topics that could take up to a lifetime to master.

			I suppose we pay for the value we can afford.

	The most valuable element in it all is a great teacher. They inspire and beguile us, set the bar and plot the exploration, answer the questions and pose them. Great teachers aren't available to all of us. Often, we can't afford them.		The most valuable element in it all is a great teacher. They inspire and beguile us, set the bar and plot the exploration, answer the questions and pose them. Great teachers aren't available to all of us. Often, we can't afford them.

Tim at 17:28, 25 September 2012

2012-09-25T17:28:40Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:28, 25 September 2012
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			Please consider disciplines that cannot (or can hardly) be learnt by oneself - where there is a gap between self taught
			students and master graduates.
			Is it Economics, Computer Science, Law, Arts, Astronomy or any other disciplines ?Edit

			Hmm, one can hardly claim mastery just by graduating. Formal education is just an introduction to topics that could take up to a lifetime to master.

			The most valuable element in it all is a great teacher. They inspire and beguile us, set the bar and plot the exploration, answer the questions and pose them. Great teachers aren't available to all of us. Often, we can't afford them.

			Self taught is a misnomer, none of us are; we just aren't in a formal class. We still read and research materials that we did not develop. Online even offers the chance to interact. The sciences and engineering need tools to keep you from getting stuck, lots and lots of worked out problems. Every discipline needs good questions to ponder, a way to refine your understanding, make it precise.

			A lot of what we learn from a teacher is by watching interactions between that teacher and other students and between students, the social component.

			Thank God for StackExchange. When a Khan academy topic is sufficiently narrow, a short video lecture can be brilliant. I'm rooting for edX.



	The blog hasn't had a facelift in a long time.		The blog hasn't had a facelift in a long time.