Month: April 2004

file under: those who forget the lessons of the past

Josh Marshall is getting updates on current events in Iraq:

I refer to this entire mess as the second Intifada of Iraq. The first Intifida was last August in Fallujah when US soldiers killed 15-17 Iraqis and Fallujah fell into revolt.

I wonder how many of the armchair generals or even the ones in the field are aware of how Iraq’s last liberation by a Western democracy worked out.

Telegraph | Opinion | This Vietnam generation of Americans has not learnt the lessons of history:

What happened in Iraq last week so closely resembles the events of 1920 that only a historical ignoramus could be surprised. It began in May, just after the announcement that Iraq would henceforth be a League of Nations “mandate” under British trusteeship. (Nota bene, if you think a handover to the UN would solve everything.) Anti-British demonstrations began in Baghdad mosques, spread to the Shi’ite holy centre of Karbala, swept on through Rumaytha and Samawa – where British forces were besieged – and reached as far as Kirkuk.

The words of Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Stanley Maude — “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators” — in 1917 sound eerily like the propaganda surrounding the current war. [more links here]

It took the rest of the year — 1920 — to restore order: what if the current strife will still be raging come the end of this year? And bear in mind that three years elapsed from the general’s words to when order was restored. So much for bringing the troops home by Christmas Election Day.

And what does this mean for the idea that the Iraqi people would welcome the coalition forces as liberators? How does it match up against the assumptions that the Iraqis were somehow of one mind and would take the initiative to build their own nation once Saddam Hussein was gone? How many casualties will US forces have to suffer before these or similar questions are answered?

new study correlates internet usage with CD purchasing

Freedom to Tinker: New Study of the Net’s Impact on CD Sales:

First, what the study found was correlation, not necessarily causation – it may be that some common factor is causing both Internet usage and CD purchasing. Second, the study measures marginal effects, not average effects. We cannot conclude that every Internet user in a metro area contributes an extra 3.5 CD sales; we can say only that adding one more Internet user would increase sales by that much.

What does it all mean? And how does this connect to previous studies on filesharing? For my answers to those questions, tune in Monday, when I’ll unveil my Grand Unified Theory of Filesharing.

So if this is true — that internet usage is correlated with music buying — the entertainment colossi who have interests in both music and internet access are missing a bet if they don’t work out some way to drive that even further to their advantage. Arresting music lovers would seem like the wrong approach.

3.5 CDs a month, at $5-8 profit per CD, is a nice revenue stream.

It will be interesting to see what Professor Felten has up his sleeve.

outsourcing

An Outsourcing Finger Exercise: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong’s Webjournal:

A Finger Exercise:
Let’s try a finger exercise to evaluate the effects of expanded international trade via “outsourcing” on an economy. We’ll set up a simple model–not a realistic model, an unrealistic model, a model that has only the features we absolutely need to understand the principal impacts of expanded trade on an economy.

The model is simple but works well enough to demonstrate what principals are at work here. And the comments, though a bit stroppy at times, are informative. Needless to say, not everyone agrees with the model or it’s conclusions.

surplus strawberries

The gentle California spring has favored us with a bumper crop of red, juicy strawberries these past two weeks, so bumperous we can get them 4 lbs for $5.00. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t buy so many, but I havehad 3 lbs in the house and as ripe as they are, there’s only one thing to do with ’em.

* for one pound: hull and slice into 1/4 inch slices, or whatever you like: just halve them if they’re small (these ones are mammoth).

* put them in a glass bowl and sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar.

* cover with cling film, and shake gently but thoroughly to get the sugar everywhere.

* put them to stand at room temperature or in gentle sunlight for a few hours. Shake them around once in a while.

Serve with a dash of balsamic vinegar in a bowl by themselves or over shortcakes, dessert cups, or ice cream.

Sometimes too much of a good thing is just right.

nomenclature

Civilian employees of Dick Cheney’s former company are carrying out military missions around the world – for profit

After my post about the use of the word “mercenary” to refer to the civilian contractors in Iraq, I have read up a little more on it. I haven’t changed my mind (I would have to change the definition, and it makes clear that the soldiers thus named are from another country, not one of the ones engaged), but I think “soldiers of fortune” is both more appropriate and more evocative. There is a fair amount of money at play here — yours and mine, if you’re a US taxpayer — and whatever these contract workers’ politics, it’s not unreasonable to assume the pay is part of the appeal.

On a certain level, doesn’t the phrase fit a large contingent of the current administration?

an iTunes playlist waiting to happen

normblog: Bob Dylan’s best-loved songs:

What else can I say? Listening again to this music – so as to make my own picks, or to remind myself of songs some of you had chosen and which I didn’t remember well – I found the wealth and inventiveness of it just staggering. A compilation set of what’s here wouldn’t be bad.

There has been some grumbling that this is the oldsters version since it omits anything newer than 1976, save one track.

I’d buy either or both of these proposed collections: ain’t the Remix Culture grand?