Freakonomics

In the bestselling book "Freakonomics", Steven Leveitt advocates that "abortion was one of the greatest crime-lowering factors in American history." This conclusion was based on research done by himself and John Donohue which was published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics in 2001.

However, an article (Oops-onomics) in last week's issue of The Economist states that 2 economists at the Federal Reserve Bank in Boston recently discovered that Messrs Donohue and Levitt committed "an inadvertent but serious computer programming error" which, if removed, shows "that the impact of abortion on arrest rates disappears entirely"! Ooops!

Anyway, shame on anyone who thinks that unwanted children should just be aborted to reduce the crime rate. If that's the case, is he advocating that unwanted people be killed off too? Those jobless do not contribute to society so does that mean they should be killed off? How about those unreformed criminals who are a burden to tax payers money? Kill them off too? What a ridiculous argument some pro-choice people have!

An apt conclusion to the article in The Economist sums up the boo boo: "To be politically incorrect is one thing; to be simply incorrect quite another."

Is there any environmentally friendly source of energy?

Is there a panacea to our every growing global energy woes that does not cause environmental pollution? At the moment, no. Oil, coal and gas, which require large amounts of combustion, are obviously out since their waste products contribute to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

A few decades ago, hydroelectric dams, harnessing the power of moving water, were cited as the next big thing. However, today, dam construction has proven to be ecologically damaging, resulting in siltation, adverse thermal gradients upstream, destroyed habitats, amongst other woes. Many parts of the US have banned the construction of new dams, and environmentalists have condemned the Three Gorges Dam in China.

Lately, there has been a lot of revived interest in nuclear power. Politicians say less greenhouse gases are produced by nuclear power, so it solves all our problems! If only things were that simple.... Firstly, nuclear power plants discharge large amounts of hot water (product of the water-cool process) which gets dumped into the rivers and lakes, killing all the fish in the vicinity. Secondly, there is NO KNOWN method of safely disposing nuclear waste. And yes, I mean it, despite what those politicians tell you, there is NO KNOWN method of safely disposing nuclear waste.

So what about wind power then? What can be wrong about wind power? Well, its been shown that to generate sufficient wind power, you have to use lots and lots of wind turbines. So many that people use the term "wind farms". And wind farms need to be placed at the top of a hill to be effective. This takes up a lot of good land and kills scores and scores of birds! Yes, you'd be grossed out by the carcasses found below the wind turbines.

Now we come to solar power. Harnessing the power of the sun is probably the best we've got. However, for it to be of any use, you need to have a large solar farm, which is very expensive, and difficult to maintain. By the way, solar cells are made of silicon, and producing silicon creates pollution.

Geo-thermal power was supposed to be the next big thing. Except that it didn't become anything... 'nuff said.

So is there ever an environmentally friendly source of energy? Probably not. So are we doomed to having to live with a dying planet? There may not be an environmentally friendly source of energy, but there is an environmentally friendly solution: ENERGY CONSERVATION.

There was a fish....

There was a fish
Just a teeny weeny fish
And the fish was on the hook
And the hook was on the rod
And the rod was on the hand
And the hand was on the boy
And the boy was on the rock
And the rock was on the bank
And the bank was by the stream
And the stream was on its wa-ay.....
And the moon shines high in the clear blue sky
And all is bright and gay!

Theta Chi

That's Chris with the axe after this year's Big Game. We just had a little alumni gathering just now to watch the Big Game, and LV was there! I haven't seen LV in more than 3 years. 3 years seems like a really really long time ago! The last time we met, we were playing basketball with the Indonesions along with N, PP and YJ at the Albany Middle School along Brighton Ave. After shooting hoops we adjourned to the usual lunch at the mee pok place at Ranch 99 (where I usually just park my car illegally somewhere at the back). That particular day I had a long chat with LV and N after lunch, and after that, I never saw them again, and never really played basketball again for that matter.... I did, however, in my last days in the "Land of the Free (and home of the Bears!)", introduce my juniors to this wonderful basketball court, so that the tradition of Saturday basketball would carry on...

LV said that this Indonesian guy in his batch "revived" a frat along with some other smart guys he gathered. These smart guys would go on to win the frat "academic honors" and eventually steal the StanfUrd tree! I thought about it for a while, and I remembered that there was indeed one frat which had an Indonesian and a lot of smart guys, and that was Theta Chi on Frat Row just to the south of the Piedmont "circle". I used to hang out at Theta Chi with my floormates in freshman year. Theta Chi was an unusual frat. They didn't drink much (I think I enjoyed the free drinks more than the Brothers did), but they had real good BBQ ribs! There was this real tough guy called Art who was like one of the big Brothers. He was a personal trainer at the RSF and would be the bouncer at the door during parties. All you had to do was to befriend this guy and you'd have no problem getting in! I gained his respect by trashing him at pool one day after he had downed like 10 drinks (I don't really play pool haha). Towards the end of freshmen year Theta Chi bought a karaoke system, and they practically karaoked to "punk" all night long! I had absolutely no idea that "punk" was karaokeable....

Our sturdy Golden Bear
Is watching from the skies
Looks down upon our colors fair
And guards us from his lair!
Our banner gold and blue
The symbol on it too
Means fight for California
For California through and through!

Infantry

More exerpts from "The Yom Kippur War" by Abraham Rabinovich:
"The Israeli armored units, no longer presuming to win the war by themselves, called for foot soldiers.... As at Tel Shams on the Golan, the infantry proved capable of rapidly overcoming resistance that had stopped armor."
Armor calling infantry for help? Go infantry! Now that's what I'm talking about! Hooah!

Bread of life

Bread of life and cup of hope
We come as gift to you
Change our hearts, fill us with peace
Transform our lives anew
Open our eyes so that we might see
Your presence in one another
Your life poured out in love today
Unites us all in you!

Loving Lord, Creator God
Open our eyes to see
The good that lives in each of us
That called the world to be
And when we fail to see the good
When friendships falter and crumble
Give us the courage to forgive
That we may live in peace!

Living Word, O Son of God
Your love shows us the way
That we may live in harmony
And from you never stray
Wipe all oppression from our midst
Give us a love for all people
Your song of justice sing in us
To live for peace today!