Using Twitter For CMC-Related Blog Posts

I haven't joined the legions of people who apparently tweet away. In part, I don't trust myself with it. I feel like I'd just be writing things all the time. But that doesn't mean I won't use it to find blog posts about our fair college.

For Twitter to be something really cool that I use nearly every day, it's going to have to come up with something that's the equivalent of Google news alerts, whereby I receive an email or SMS every time someone metions CMC or the other five colleges. If this already exists, let me know.

I learned just recently that someone had tweeted a blog post that I wrote and so I figured, what the heck, let's check it out. (At around the same time, I watched Evan Williams, founder of Twitter, give a somewhat lackluster talk at Ted.com.) I've become a Twitter search fiend ever since.

Here is some of the more interesting posts in the last few weeks.

• 
  lcpelaez: On a board member call for the Claremont McKenna College Alumni Association.
  about 4 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

• 
  MandyManray: i passed compsci! did my thiiing in my pitzer class and fuckclaremont mckenna classes, what is that school anyway? just glad that's over.
  2 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

• 
  NAICU: Claremont McKenna College to eliminate 11 jobs (Inland Valley, Calif., Daily Bulletin) http://tinyurl.com/qgxl7u (expand)
  3 days ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet

• 
  ClaremontBuzz: One More Sign of the Times: Layoffs at CMC: An article in the Daily Bulletin noted that the Claremont McKenna Co.. http://bit.ly/9AJCe (expand)
  3 days ago from twitterfeed · Reply · View Tweet

• • 
    tssanders: @leolaporte Claremont Mckenna is a really beautiful/good school. I live in Claremont, nice small town.
    5 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

  • 
    kerrym007: At Claremont McKenna College's Commencement. Beautiful weather and beautiful location. :-)
    12 days ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Tweet

  • 
    CMCnews: Claremont McKenna College's 62nd Commencement is tomorrow, Saturday, May 16th at 2:00 pm. http://tinyurl.com/c2mhhy (expand)
    13 days ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

WayneMarr: Lisa K. Meulbroek: 02-24-09 Economist of the Day, ClaremontMcKenna College http://bit.ly/FkNZd (expand) #economics #finance

15 days ago from TweetDeck · Reply · View Tweet

• 
  DavidCMurphy: Really excited about the upcoming CMC (college) reunion! :)
  about 22 hours ago from web · Reply · View Tweet

DCdoozy: At CMC alumni board meeting to kick off Reunion Weekend. We all have given to the alumni fund this year, and it's needed!

about 3 hours ago from TwitterFon · Reply · View Twe

Detoxing with Globalization: TED Takes Care of the French Whines

I recently had to argue that globalization was bad for a class, which for an econ. major, is like asking a physicist to deny the existence of gravity. 

Trade, of course, is always good. And globalization is just the newest synonym for global free trade.

My professor wanted me to argue that globalization was bad for France's economic growth. 

Isn't it bad enough that I had to impersonate a French man? No, sadly, no, but I had to also use the French left's silly talking points. Silly, in the sense that I speak and read fluent French and know that the anti-globalization screeds are thinly-veiled anti-American attacks on l'hyperpuissance americain and not really worthy of serious intellectual study. 

I used this TED talk from Alex Tabarrok, who often co-authors papers with CMC Professor Eric Helland, to detox and I took a shower. Ahh, I feel better now. 

Mobile Phones Cannot Become Viral, Says Dan Shapiro HMC ' 97

Once (if?) I graduate from Claremont McKenna, I plan on creating a bunch of (mostly tech) companies. I have a long way to go yet, but I think this will be my life's work.

In truth, this mission was inspired by my parents who owned and operated their own business for a number of years, the Kauffman Foundation (the place where I now work), and following the life of eBay founder, Peter Thiel, who has argued that technology can help make the world more libertarian and who recommended an absolutely amazing book titled, The Sovereign Individual.

One of the areas that seems rife with potential innovation is mobile phones. Since about age twelve or so, I have thought of five or so ideas that would make mobile phones a lot more innovative and evicted. (Think Craigslist meets eBay meets the iPhone apps meets Google translator -- an auction market for labor that allows contractors to essentially live in their cars.)

Part of the success of this would be company depends upon deregulation in the telecom market and the near ubiquity of phones similar to the iPhone penetrating the entire market. I suspect that that day will be here by the time I turn twenty-five, in a little under five years' time. It would certainly help if the iPhone or similar style phones become de-linked from AT&T, but I anticipate this will come as the iPhone gains popularity in other countries and as the world makes a transition over to VOIP.

Given my future business plans, I'm dismayed to read this article by CEO of Ontella, Dan Shapiro HMC '97 who using a comparision between infectious diseases and the widespread use of technology, suggests that the immunity rate for some mobile phone based app is just too high for it to take off. Here's what he writes. [Emphasis mine.]

...Immunity counteracts R0: If half of a population is immune, R0 must be twice as large to get the same effect. If three out of four people are immune, R0 must be four times as big or the outbreak dwindles away. Immunity can come from many sources, but the most important is heterogeneity. That is to say, things don’t spread because the world is full of variation. There’s a reason that we’re not afraid of the pandemic threat of corn smut or potato scab—they can’t infect us because we’re not produce.

And this is why mobile is so damn hard. Imagine the most exciting mobile service or application in the world. Something so useful, the average person exposes 25 others to it. Something so compelling, half of them try it. In other words, a perfect mobile viral application where R0 is 12: twice as infectious as Facebook and the bubonic plague.

There’s just one problem. Only 35 percent of those people have a data plan. The rest of them are immune. Actually, make that a few problems: 20 percent of those people don’t have SMS enabled and can’t receive your “You should try this” message. 30 percent are on a carrier that only allows certified, paid applications which it deploys on its own deck. 1 percent, on average, have an iPhone. A typical application available on all US carriers and 4 smartphone platforms is facing a market with 95 percent immunity. iPhone apps are looking at 99.8 percent.

And it’s worse than that. Because after a half dozen people text you back—“Sorry, can’t get it on my phone”—you’re going to stop asking. It’s theoretically possible. And, that’s five times as compelling as Facebook and twice as infectious as the measles, ported to every Java, BREW, and smartphone in existence, and available on every carrier, could be a runaway hit like Myspace. And like poplar blight in a forest, apps can move virally in little niches—between businesses that standardize on BlackBerry, or in the venture community where the iPhone has 60 percent marketshare and 100 percent mindshare. Services that leverage common infrastructure, like Twitter via SMS, can skirt this problem almost entirely (but there’s a reason the growth didn’t take off until nearly everyone had SMS capability).

But until that magical day comes when most new phones have data plans and a compatible operating system, viral is simply not a viable model for mobile applications.

Still, I'm optimistic, but then I sincerely believe what CMC alum Jonathan Rosenberg of Google said when he came to the Ath: "Bet on a trend or fall victim to it."

On Writing for The Forum

I'm now a writer at The Forum and I have stopped being editor of The Claremont Independent. Though rest assured, I still intend to write for The CI. I joined up once Abhi Nemani, the old editor of The Port Side, took over its reigns. I find him balanced, fair, and intelligent and so I'm thrilled at the opportunity to write for a more mainstream, Claremont McKenna audience. Rest assured, I still believe that The Forum should be defunded from ASCMC, even though I now get one of those checks. I guess I'm just helping along the process, one measley post and paycheck at a time.

I'm hoping to use my column at the Forum to promote some solutions that I don't have the time or inclination to promote here. My writing there will be some of my best thought out pieces and will hopefully provoke dialogue with some of the more heterodox ideas I have. This is the first stage of a plan that I have to actually fix some of the problems with the school I love so much. Anyone can be a critic, but it takes something special to be a reformer. Do I have what it takes? We'll see.

My first piece of the summer is about how to deal with the Claremont McKenna deficits that will be upon us in four years time. We know, from a post George Posner wrote earlier this year, that Claremont's financial aid is in trouble, and so I've suggested that Claremont McKenna can use this opportunity to radically rethink how it funds financial aid. Instead of treating us as companies capable of issuing corporate bonds, it should treat us like we're capable of issuing stocks. (Full disclosure: I got the idea from Thomas Sowell, but I make that clear in the post.)

I worry that such a creative solution might run afoul of the law, unfortunately. Here's part of what I wrote at the end that didn't quite make it into the piece.

Claremont McKenna would do well to take a look at its own history before it opens its wallet. CMC alumna and philosophy major Laura Susan Reynolds '92 got a discounted ride when the Eighth Circuit ruled that her depression made it too difficult for her to pay back her $140,000 worth of college and grad school debt. The Supreme Court denied cert. (Today, Reynolds, according to her LinkedIn profile, is an editor at FindLaw, a position which requires a JD, and so I find it doubtful that she really couldn't pay back the money.)

Such a court precedent might make it tough for would be students who know that they're smart and that they'll make money, but come from less than wealthy families -- at least for those who live in the Eighth Circuit's jurisdiction. Prospective lenders might be skittish about doling out funds for people that won't pay them back. To many this idea may sound far fetched, but isn't it what Robert Day is doing with his selection of students to be Day Scholars?

Fashion and the Claremont Colleges: Or Alternatively, Tasteless Conservative Writes Mean-Spirited Post

In the Claremont blogosphere, it seems as if the only things that are being talked about is fashion. First, John Whitledge, CMC alum and founder of Trovota, decided to sue Forever 21 for infringing upon his shirt design (yes really). This strikes me as yet another argument for why we need to seriously reconsider our intellectual property laws. Now even shirts have lawyers that'll sue to enforce fashion, as if our courts weren't tied up enough.

Seeing as I am not, nor have I ever been, nor am I likely to ever be a metrosexual, I've felt left out of this important conversation. What's a guy with little to no money in his bank account to do for clothing? I ask you, E. Madison Shimoda and denizen of all things fashionable, what am I to do?

Over at the LA Times Blog, there's a post about Pitzer alumna, Nancy Judd '90, who apparently went dumpster diving and made the above pictured dress from the refuse of Obama Nation. Ms. Judd's work will be on display from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM at Pitzer College where Ms. Judd will receive Pitzer's 2009 Most Distinguished Alumni Award.

For my part, I think that the dress and clothing made from garbage is a fitting metaphor for the Obama campaign: You can dress socialism up as much as you like, but it's still garbage.

Professor Rossum Weighs in By Comparing Sotomayor and Souter

It's great to see a Claremont McKenna professor turn around and write an op-ed in the same day as Obama named Sotomayor. It's time for a blog, Professor or a guest blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy or Bench Memos. The article ran in The Orange County Register. 

President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court created by David Souter invites a comparison of the two.

Both have reputations for being solid liberals and, despite very different backgrounds, both have impressive academic and legal credentials. Sotomayor graduated summa cum laude from Princeton and received her J.D. from Yale where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. She worked in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, served as a federal district court judge from 1992-97 and as a federal court of appeal judge since then.

Souter graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, earned an M.A. as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, and received his J.D. at Harvard. He served as the attorney general of New Hampshire from 1976-78, as a state trial court judge from 1978-83, as a member of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1983-90, and as a federal court of appeals judge for less than a year before being nominated as associate justice.

Their pedigrees are impressive, but pedigrees do not guarantee significance. Take Souter, for example, who announced his retirement during the NBA playoffs, inviting a consideration of the position he has played for the past 19 years on the Supreme Court's liberal team. A review of his opinions makes clear he was never a starter and was typically brought off the bench only when the game was no longer in doubt (known by sports fans as "garbage time") to write inconsequential majority opinions on non-constitutional questions or, on those occasions when the liberal team had lost, long and desultory dissents (so long that Justice Scalia described them on one occasion as "laying waste great northern forests").

There is no question that Souter has been a longstanding member of the liberal team. He provided the fifth key vote that invalidated term limits imposed on members of Congress, the juvenile death penalty, the death penalty for the rape of an 8-year-old child, Nebraska's partial-birth abortion statute, the posting of the Ten Commandments in a county courthouse, the offering of a nondenominational prayer at a public school graduation ceremony, and Congress' power to authorize the president to continue to hold, interrogate, and try enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. His fifth vote also affirmed the liberal teams' approval of McCain-Feingold's restrictions on free-speech, racial preferences for law school admissions justified in the name of diversity, and its decision to read the Takings Clause out of the Constitution by redefining its "public use" language to include any "public purpose" that a municipality's economic redevelopment agency believes will generate more tax revenue.

In critical 5-4 decisions when the liberal team lost, Souter also provided a reliable fourth vote. Some examples: he joined the losing liberal side in voting against vouchers for public school students and the right under the Second Amendment for an individual to possess a handgun for self-defense; he joined the losing four-member liberal coalition in voting for racial preferences in government contracting, racial gerrymandering of legislative districts, and the assignment of elementary and secondary school students on the basis of race by local school districts seeking to achieve racial diversity.

There is every reason to believe that Sotomayor will be an equally reliable member of the liberal team. The crucial question, however, is whether the Souter seat she is assuming will remain at the end of the bench.

The question is crucial because, while Souter added "bench strength" for the liberal team, he was seldom assigned to write the majority opinion. Some statistics: Since Souter's elevation to the bench in 1990 through the end of the last court's term, the Supreme Court has handed down 1,587 decisions. Souter has written the majority opinion in only 135 of them –considerably below the average of 182 majority opinions for his other eight colleagues.

And, Souter has been given the "low hanging fruit": over 53 percent of his majority opinions have been in noncontroversial unanimous decisions. In 5-4 decisions in which Souter has been in the majority, he has been assigned the majority opinion only 22 times and 13 of those 22 have involved questions of statutory construction – less momentous than questions of constitutional interpretation. Only nine times has he been assigned the writing of the majority opinion in 5/4 constitutional decisions; just one is worthy of comment: In McCreary County v. ACLU (2005), he held for the five-member liberal majority that the Establishment Clause "mandates governmental neutrality between religion and nonreligion" and on that basis banned the posting the Ten Commandments on the wall of a county courthouse; his argument, however, was so unpersuasive that he could not keep that five-member majority together in the companion case of Van Orden v. Perry in which the court held it was constitutional for Texas to inscribe the Ten Commandments on a monument placed before its statehouse.

Many conservatives are taking comfort in the fact that President Obama has merely replaced one liberal with another. Their complacence ignores two key facts: Souter is 69 and is being replaced by someone 16 years younger; and Sotomayor, a New Yorker with sharp elbows and a reputation for aggressive and domineering questioning from the bench, may well win a starting position.

I'm not around to discuss so-called affordable housing in Claremont, but if I were, I'd just have a series of questions to ask the town's elders. 

But before I begin, it's best you know where I'm coming from. I'm generally opposed to affordable housing because it ends up distorting the local economy. As per usual, my intellectual influence, Thomas Sowell, puts it best.

What they[, the politicians who support so-called affordable housing,] are saying and doing usually boils down to trying to enable people to choose what housing they want first-- and then have some law or policy where somebody else, somewhere else, somehow or other, makes that housing "affordable" for them...

 The ultimate irony is that increasing government intervention in the housing market over the years has generally made housing less affordable than before, by any standard.

A hundred years ago, Americans spent a smaller percentage of their incomes on housing than they do today. In 1901, housing costs took 23 percent of the average American's income. By 2003, it took 33 percent of a far larger income.

For California, Sowell described in a Reason Magazine interview that  in some areas, including California—coastal California—people were paying half their family income to put a roof over their head. That in turn was a result of local political people putting all sorts of restrictions on building."

 So I turn now to our friends in Claremont, CA politics. Are they aware that there are statistically higher rates of crime in areas with affordable housing? Are they also aware of the distortions to housing market that affordable housing does? If so, why are they go along with the plan? If they are unaware, maybe it's time to educate them. I recommend Sowell's lastest book, The Housing Boom and Bust. I'm nearly finished and its great. In fact, if they wait until I get back to campus, I'd be more than happy to give it to all of them. 

Pitzer Kid Stops Robber By Tackling Him!

Possibly the coolest Pitzer kid ever? He gets this CMCer's nod of approval.

Just remember that Eric Yingling CMC '12 was J-Boarded for doing what amounts to the same thing: subduing a thief. And our current vice president, Josh Siegel, was behind that J-Boarding. 

And here's the link with the story.

Former Claremont High wrestler stops alleged suspect

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer

Created: 05/22/2009 04:34:10 PM PDT

CLAREMONT - A former Claremont High School wrestling captain on Wednesday morning used his mat skills to pin a stolen car suspect to the ground.

Gabriel Acosta, 25, drove in a stolen car from West Covina to Claremont, before he exited and ran through some residential backyards, according to the California Highway Patrol.

He was stopped by Zack Lester.

Lester, 22, a Pitzer College student, said he was inside his converted-garage room on Geneva Avenue about 2 a.m. when he heard a helicopter in the southern portion of Claremont.

Lester said he was awaken by the helicopter and decided to listen to music and surf the Internet.

"At one point, I saw the light flashing in the yard and thought `Wow, that's really close,"' Lester said.

Lester said he then heard someone jump into the backyard.

"I could hear him walking through the backyard. He broke part of the fence" to get inside a neighbor's backyard, Lester said.

Lester called the Claremont Police Department and provided his address.

"I was panicked and scared," Lester said. "Then I see him walk by my window, which is a few feet between he and I. I watched him walk and try to pry open the doors on the main house, which really scared me."

While Lester was in the converted garage, his mother and brother were asleep in the main house with the doors locked.

"I was scared he was going to hurt my mom and my brother," Lester said. "I got to grab him before."

Lester stands 6 feet and 210 pounds. The alleged stolen car thief is 5-feet-9 inches tall and weighs 150 to 160 pounds.

"I ran outside and tackled him," Lester said. "We got in a brief fight, but I subdued him. He stopped fighting back. Then I told him to lie on his stomach and I twisted his arm behind him."

Police broke through the fence and ran in with shotguns drawn, he said.

"I held him until the cops grabbed him," he said.

Lester said he was later told by authorities that Acosta had a knife. That information could not be confirmed.

Lester, who hosts the 88.7 KSPC-FM radio show Lovelectric, is now having second thoughts about his actions.

"If I had thought about it, I would have stayed in my room. The house was locked. I wasn't really thinking clearly I guess," he said.

Claremont police Lt. Paul Davenport said the Police Department received a call at 2:24 a.m. Wednesday that the CHP was in pursuit of a stolen vehicle and the driver had fled in the area of Mountain and San Jose avenues.

"There was some sort of confrontation between the person calling us and the suspect," Davenport said.

The entire incident started at 2:05 a.m. Wednesday when CHP officers tried to stop a 1989 Toyota Camry in West Covina for a possible driving under the influence violation, Public Affairs Officer Edmund Zorrilla said.

Acosta's Camry continued eastbound and and exited Vincent Avenue in West Covina. The vehicle made a "sudden evasive move to the left" and accelerated rapidly down the east 10 Freeway, Zorrilla said.

The Camry then went to Indian Hill Boulevard, exited and went north from the freeway to Claremont into residential areas, Zorrilla said

The Camry went southbound on Mountain Avenue from San Jose Avenue and the car came to a stop at a dead end.

Acosta allegedly climbed a fence and took officers on a foot pursuit.

Thanks to a Los Angeles County sheriff's helicopter, Acosta was spotted jumping into people's backyards and hiding there until Lester struggled and fought with Acosta, until Acosta was arrested.

Acosta is a parolee from previous burglary and was arrested on suspicion of evading, driving a stolen vehicle as well as suspicion of driving under the influence of a controlled substance.

The pursuit was over 12 miles and the incident lasted an hour to an hour-and-a-half, Zorrilla said.

Lester said he was captain of the Claremont High School wrestling team during the 2004 and 2005 seasons. He graduated from the school in 2005.

"I've always been confident around physical altercations because of my wrestling background," Lester said. "But I never thought I would do something like this. I referee high school wrestling during the season to stay in shape and earn extra money."

Lester's father, Greg Lester, 55, of Covina, said he is and proud of his son's actions.

"I just thought it was cool he used his wrestling skills to subdue the guy," Greg Lester said. "I guess he picked up the guy, slammed him and started hitting him and held him" until the police respond.

"I'm really proud of him. I thought he thought quickly and made the right decision."

Pat Morris, a Los Angeles County sheriff's air support helicopter pilot and resident of Claremont, said he could see Lester's actions from his helicopter.

Morris said he would not recommend Lester's actions to others, but "he did the right thing," because Acosta was trying to break in the house with Zack's mother.

Davenport said he did not have much information about the case, but, "If that can be avoided, and they can call us and let us handle it, it's much safer for them."

"We don't want people to get involved at the risk of getting hurt ... thank God the victim, he was not hurt," Zorrilla said.

A New Day for California

If there has been one thing that I appreciate more than outcome of the other day's special election has been the reaction of assorted left-wing friends and family, "but Charles, don't you know that California will now be ungovernable?"

As if it weren't already.

I wager that The Wall Street Journal is correct -- that this new tightening of the budget will cause state bureaucrats to think a little harder before spending our money.

There's much to do yet, but this is a good thing for the state. No pain, no gain, eh, Arnold?

I'm optimistic that this two-to-one vote against overspending by Sacramento will make Californians reexamine their priorities.

David Feldman Delivers 2009 Pitzer College Commencement

A Good Response to Those Who Would Make Our Endowment "Transparent"

Commentaries "Endowment Transparency" No, students do not have a right to know how Duke invests its funds. By George Leef May 17, 2009

A dispute erupted last month at Duke University when a student group increased its pressure on university officials to reveal how the school’s endowment is invested. The term is “endowment transparency.” Students are calling for it through petitions online. One of the student leaders, quoted in a Duke Chronicle story, said that students “need to know where this money is coming from and how the University is investing the money.” And why do the students “need” such information? Putting aside the obvious retort that they don’t actually “need” but merely want it, what’s the reason for making the demand? For some years, activist groups pushing causes such as environmentalism, unionism, and various “social justice” concerns have been insisting that corporations and large non-profit organizations disclose many of their financial dealings to any and all “stakeholders.” They claim that people who are in some way connected to the corporation or non-profit are entitled to know how it is investing its funds. Naturally, mere knowledge is not the ultimate goal of the activists. They are after influence on or even control over decision-making so they can steer money toward investments they like and away from those they don’t. They want to compel “socially responsible” investments. The campaign for “endowment transparency”—public information—is the camel’s nose under the tent. One student promoting “transparency” wrote, “We know Duke is voting with its wallet…the question is, what is it voting for? If Duke is invested in corporations that use sweatshop labor, contribute to global warming or practice discriminatory hiring, members of its community have the right to know.” Like many other universities, Duke has said no. A Web site under the name “The College Sustainability Report Card” grades colleges and universities on a host of criteria supposedly vital to “sustainability” and its average grade for endowment transparency was D+. Duke did slightly worse than that—a D. Duke’s vice president for public affairs, Michael Schoenfeld, contends that if the university had to disclose all its endowment decisions, that would hinder its ability to maximize the return on its investments.  I think that’s true. Disclosure would inevitably lead to demands for participation by those activist groups claiming that they not only have the “right to know” but also the right to have a say. Valuable time could be lost while debating whether a proposed investment should be disallowed due to “sustainability” concerns of the activists. Buying or selling at the optimal moment might be lost if all the “stakeholder” groups have to give their blessing. There is, however, a more fundamental reason for Duke or any other private university to say “no” when activists start demanding information. People and organizations are entitled to privacy. If they don’t want to let outsiders know things or participate in decisions, they don’t have to. That is different from public universities, where taxpayers are the owners and have greater rights to disclosure.  The students who demand “transparency” are arguing that simply by virtue of having enrolled at Duke and become part of its “community,” they are entitled to determine what information the university will disclose. That argument is wrong. The relationship between the school and its students does give them certain rights—to take classes, to be on its grounds, and use certain facilities—but that is as far as it goes.  Being a student at a college or university no more gives you the right to define what the school must do than being a customer in a store gives you the right to define what the company that owns it must do.  Or try turning the students’ demand around and imagine the reaction if the university said that because students are part of “the community,” they have to disclose to school officials private details about themselves and their conduct. Undoubtedly, most students would say, “That’s none of your business.” They would be right. They’re entitled to draw the line and decline to cooperate with demands that cross it. Activists have the right to ask for anything. They also have to accept “no” when that’s the answer.

Mushrooms Solve Yet Another Problem: Pitzer Students (and EnviroMentalists) Should Take Note

At the risk of sounding on yet another crazed all-nighter, I've decided that I must fully articulate what it is about environmentalists that so disappoints me. This topic is Claremont specific in a way, because it tries to explain the rationales behind taxing us for take out boxes

Like all human beings and middle class Americans, I believe stewardship for the planet serves us well, but it's when that stewardship becomes all controlling that it needs to be seriously reexamined. Such has become the track record of the modern environmentalist movement which seeks to limit choice, rather than inform and educate the populace to choose well. In its more disgusting forms this kind of anti-choice rhetoric exists in books like Tom Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded, who writes that China -- yes, China, seriously -- will get the drop on us technologically because they don't have this pesky thing known as property rights that limit the power of the state. They can simply declare, as they have during the Olympics, that companies must stop polluting or be shut down.

To the environmentalist left, this is music to their ears, though few come out and say it. You see, they often argue that there are inefficiencies and externalities hiding in every power switch and that government needs to be used to "fix" or "solve" the market through the use of Pigovian taxation or subsidies. (This is the economic equivalent of seeing demons everywhere. It simply excuses the policy you'd prefer in the first place.)

But history does teach us that markets are one of the best ways to end up reducing pollution and as we learned yet again from this past week's Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson and Steven Hayward. It appears that almost every single country that gets beyond a certain threshhold in income starts demanding and use tech to reduce its pollution foot print.

Indeed, without markets, we would never get one of the cooler applications ever: Greensulate, Styrofoam made from mushrooms. Oh, and by the way, it's (probably) cheaper than those containers at Frary or Collins and could probably even be produced on campus if greens cared.



So environmentalists, how about it? Why limit choice when you can use tech from a new start up that actually works? Why not push for them to get the contract rather than limit our take out options here on campus? We can have our freedom and save the planet.

George Posner CMC '12 and John-Clark Levin CMC '12 Win World Handshaking Record

Ojai man, friend try to break record for shaking hands

Sunday, May 17, 2009

John-Clark Levin and George Posner well may hold a new record for social networking. Not online social networking where people talk about themselves in the third person and take quizzes like “If you were pasta, what kind of noodle would you be?”

Theirs is Social Networking Version 1.0. In the time before Facebook, there was face to face; and before MySpace, there was welcome to my personal space.

Levin, of Ojai, and his college buddy George Posner recently set the world record for shaking hands. Earlier this month, they pressed the flesh for 10 hours, 10 minutes and 10 seconds to achieve their 15 minutes of fame.

I would have imagined this endurance title would be held by a politician 17 points behind in the polls or a Big 10 university president handing out sheepskin rather than these two freshmen at Claremont McKenna College in the San Gabriel Valley.

The college stunt is hardly new to this generation. Youth of bygone eras danced until they dropped. And of course baby boomers did that thing we did so well: Grow hair. Undergraduates have been known to swallow goldfish or pack themselves into a phone booth.

With nary a phone booth to be found these days, what can a guy do to raise money for charity?

Levin hit upon this obscure form of marathon while surfing the Internet looking for a Guinness World Record to break. He suggested it to Posner, a native of Brookline, Mass., who had been looking for a way to raise cash for the Cancer Research Institute, which funds studies of immunological approaches to conquering cancer.

Levin saw the record in their grasp. After all, shaking hands was something they could do right on campus and it wasn’t dangerous like juggling chain saws, Levin rightly observed.

What could be the downside of a marathon handshaking, they asked themselves? A few blisters maybe. So they went for it.

Posner, an engineering major, set about enhancing their performance. To prevent the friction that could result from sweaty palms, he discovered spritzing isopropyl alcohol into their clenched hands would dry them rapidly. Not to mention keep swine flu at bay.

Applying the laws of physics, he determined the best way to save energy and prevent the possibility that their motion might stop accidentally was for one of them to do the shaking while the other rested. In this one oddball case, a limp grip is a winning strategy.

They went into training, practicing a few hours at a stretch while they ate, a regimen that drew more than a few stares from fellow diners who thought they might have lost their grip on reality.

As for bathroom breaks, they decided to gut it out. The camera and its operator, which Guinness World Records requires to record every second, would have to accompany them into the men’s room. Neither relished the thought of that footage going viral on YouTube.

Their attempt started at 10:14 a.m. May 5 in the college’s auditorium. Students stopped by throughout the day to check on their progress, they reported.

While it beats watching grass grow hands down, the stunt was hardly electrifying. Levin figures the only job that might prepare one for it is working on an assembly line.

Through e-mails, the campus was alerted to the fact the pair would break the record at 8:14 p.m. And a crowd gathered to watch them best the previous mark, set by two naval intelligence officers in Hawaii, also for charity.

In all, Levin and Posner raised about $1,000 in pledges for the Cancer Research Institute.

Only slightly less tedious than shaking hands was compiling the proof for the Guinness World Records. The materials, including a video and notarized witness statement, had to be mailed to England for verification. Levin and Posner hope to hear by the end of the month if they have made handshaking history.

I asked Posner if the experience had given him insight into the pleasure and purpose of this simple greeting.

“The handshake, although originally western, is a nearly universally accepted symbol of goodwill,” he said. “I found it to be very functional, friendly and old-fashioned.”

I don’t need to shake a person’s hand for 10 hours to wonder if in all this high-tech networking we lose the human touch. A handshake is a socially acceptable way to feel the skin of another human being and to look that person in the eye and to get a measure of him or her. It is such a personal gesture because while doing it is impossible to hold that person at arm’s length.

Virtual social networking connects us in many interesting ways, those silly quizzes not withstanding. But this real form of social networking underscores something basic in our humanity.

As someone astutely observed. Life is and always will be a contact sport.

— And you can contact Colleen ccason@VenturaCountyStar.com.

Time to Ban this Student From Pomona?

Earlier today a Pitzer student sent the following information about the guy who was coordinating the protests at Frary/Frank. Wouldn't you know that it wasn't a Pomona student at all, but a Pitzer one.

Given their love of banning students, when can we expect Dean Miriam Feldblum or Marcelle Holmes to ban them outright?

The Pitzer student involved in the Frank/Frary protest is a transfer student named Paul Waters-Smith '10. Waters-Smith was also instrumental in organizing the Karl Rove protest earlier this year. He was recently elected to be the Vice Chair of the Pitzer College Student Senate for the coming year after serving on the Curriculum Committee this year. He was part of a self-titled "Vanguard" movement that took control of next year's Student Senate Executive Board. Christopher Wohlers '10 (who ran and won for Treasurer) sent the following email to student-talk@pitzer.edu (I'm copying and pasting):

------------------------------

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AS THE CONCLUSION OF THE ELECTIONS NEARS

The SELF-GOVERNANCE VANGUARD DRAFTS

A DIRECTIVE TO THE PEOPLE

The Self-Governance Vanguard, having having triumphantly reached the last day of Student Senate elections, has now launched a large-scale final offensive. Our candidates are advancing on the Executive Committee positions, our candidates are advancing on the appointed positions. Wherever our candidates go, the opponents flee pell-mell before us and the people give thunderous cheers. The whole situation between the opponents and ourselves has fundamentally changed as compared with a week ago.

The aim of the Self-Governance Vanguard in this election, as proclaimed time and again to the college and the world, is the liberation of the Pitzer people and Pitzer College. And today, our aim is to carry out the urgent demand of the people of the whole college, that is, to sweep the elections for Student Senate, and form a democratic coalition government in order to attain the general goal of liberating the people and the college.

All comrade candidates and supporters of our Vanguard! We are shouldering the most important, the most glorious task in the history of our college's revolution. We should make great efforts to accomplish our task. Our efforts will decide the day when our great mothercollege will emerge from darkness into light and our beloved fellow-collegewomen will be able to live like human beings and to choose the government they wish. All candidates and supporters of our Vanguardmust improve their campaigning art, march forward courageously towards sure victory in the election and resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely liberate Student Senate in the name of the Self-Governance Vanguard. They must all raise their level of political consciousness, learn the two skills of defeating political opponents and arousing the masses, unite intimately with the masses and rapidly build the new Liberated College into a sustainable revolutionary zone. They must heighten their sense of discipline and resolutely carry out orders, carry out policy, carry out the Fıve Points of the Self-Governance Vanguard Platform -- with Vanguard and people united, Vanguard and student government united, candidates and voters united, and the whole Vanguard united -- and permit no breach of discipline. All our candidates and supporters must always bear in mind that we are the great Self-Governance Vanguard of Pitzer College. Provided we constantly observe the directives of the Vanguard, we are sure to win.

AROUSE THE MASSES AND UNITE INTIMATELY WITH THEM

CANDIDATES FOR THE SELF-GOVERNANCE VANGUARD

Brain Orser - Chair

Paul Waters-Smith - Vice Chair

Christopher Wohlers - Treasurer

Buddy Bennet - Secretary

Leah Kahn - Communications Secretary

PLATFORM OF THE SELF-GOVERNANCE VANGUARD

Rebuild the Decision-Making Architecture

Student government is ineffective. This is a truth universally held by successive generations of Pitzer students. While each generation has tried to fix this, none have succeeded in creating a sustainable solution. We believe that our student governance is not just ineffective; given its current form it is incapable of being effective. Thus our goal is not reform; our goal is fundamental structural change. We see the ideal form of student governance as an egalitarian Community Union that directly channels the Will of the Pitzer community into action through Direct Democracy. Our realization of this goal will only come when you stand in Solidarity and Unity with the Self-Governance Vanguard and join the Glorious Revolution.


Smash Irrelevance

Student Senate is generally completely irrelevant but for the allocations of club Moneys. This is a result of structures that prevent students from efficiently and directly enacting the Power that they have, as well as an extreme limitation on the types of meaningful decisions that Student Senate has the power to make. Currently Student Senate does little more than debating funding requests or begging the administration for concessions. Student Senate should be the main-decision making body on issues primarily concerning the students. The implacable force of the Self-Governance Vanguard will bring Power and Relevance to a democratized student governance.


Democratize the Plan, Fight the Man

Pitzer is changing. We believe that this change should come from the community, not the Bureaucracy. Pitzer's new Five Year Plan should reflect the collective Wisdom and experience of our community. Our future must be guarded against the influence of hermetically sealed elite committees and the control of self-declared 'experts' who claim to know better than we do what is best for us. Students' ideas should be incorporated in the plan, even those ideas that conflict with the continuing corporatization of Pitzer College. The Self-Governance Vanguard will strive for a completely open and democratic planning process.


Uplift the Masses

Pitzer must seek out and embrace those who have the least access to education. Colleges should never be a Bastion of the Privileged Élite; they should instead be a force for the removal of inequality and oppression in society. The Self-Governance Vanguard will create changes in policy that will result in a greater representation of the working class and historically oppressed groups in the Student Body at Pitzer.


Abolish all Platforms

Dogmatic adherence to programs, agendas or theses immobilizes the creative regeneration and vitality of any movement. It is a tool of exclusion that enforces the opinions of the powerful on those who lack a voice. It idolizes and fetishizes the theoretical ideal over the practical demands of the present problems. Therefore the Self-Governance Vanguard declares its strict opposition to the notion of adopting a party platform.


This reflects one interpretation among many of the Five Points of the Self-Governance Platform.

Anatomy of a Protest: Pomona Students Try to Shut Down Frary

If you'll remember correctly from the controversy surrounding the banning of David Daleiden and Kyle Kinneberg, Feldblum insisted that the reason the boys were banned was that they were disruptive. It was not that they were pro-life.

Dean Feldblum, by the way, maintains that she had the right to ban those students and that they were disruptive of the proceedings of the Women's Union, even though the video from the event shows just the opposite. (They were unfailingly polite.)

Well, I wonder what Dean Feldblum will do now that we have many of her very own students on tape disrupting the proceedings on campus by effectively shutting down Frary. Reportedly, several of the members of the coalition for workers and staff stood in the door, Wallace-style, and prevented students from entering.

This first video was filmed at around 5:00 PM. As you can see, one of the protestors who was leading it, walked out of the shot, making me wonder why it is he's unwilling to be on camera if he's so proud of what he's doing. He also said that I was not an honest observer of the event. To be fair towards him, I have kept the videos entirely unedited.

I came back after I ate at Collins to see what was going on. Apparently, the coalition members were standing in front of the door to block students who wanted to enter. They were led by the guy who is pictured here. (Does anyone know his name?)

Here's some of the promotional material that the protestors put up throughout Pomona's campus. As you'll notice it doesn't have any official stamping on it saying that it is permissible. Now to be fair, I oppose that stamping, but still I find it odd that no one else has brought up the lax enforcement.

This is the video I took on the other side of Frary. As you can see, at around 6:00 PM, there are several students who are eating their dinners. As they told me off camera, they really enjoyed the banning, but they were upset that there were no tacos present.

This food was brought down by a member of the dining hall staff. He also brought water for the students. Unfortunately, this shows that the workers were supportive of the forced boycott. Given that the protestors probably did not pay for the tacos or the burritos, doesn't this constitute stealing? Will Dean Feldblum punish these students? (The chubby guy in the second video told the students to eat up.)

Make Mine Freedom

I know it's hokey, but I believe it and would fight against any 'ism.' (But remember at CMC, you mustn't throw bottles. It's a J-Boardable offense.)

Remember what Steinbeck wrote in East of Eden, p. 131. 

And now the forces marshaled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on that preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning blows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged. It is a sad suicidal course our species seems to have taken.

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost.