An alternate take on global warming

You know what? Maybe carbon dioxide isn't the primary cause of global warming. It's cell phones. The second law of thermodynamics tells us, along with that perpetual motion machines are impossible, that a change of state for a closed system (the Earth, for example, is basically a closed system) is accompanied by an increase (or in very particular cases no change, but never a decrease) of entropy, qualitatively understood as "the state of disorder". This is why the process of making toast is not reversible. Go ahead. Try putting toast in the freezer and see if you get bread. Anyway, information is a lack of entropy. Rather, to produce information, you need to reduce the entropy locally. But then you need to increase it somewhere else. It's the law. The primary manifestation of entropy is heat. Think about it, a crystal is completely ordered. How do you disorder (more entropy) it? Heat it up. Cell phones transmit information. Now, when I say "information" I mean no implication of usefulness. For the purposes of thermodyamical interactions, "OMG, did you see what Jenny did?" represents order. Order being imposed somewhere within the system. Somewhere else within the system, entropy must increase. The proliferation of cell phones across the world has meant that this local imposition of information has increased in volume exponentially over the last 10 years at least. The cumulative effect of entropy augmentation must be the cause of warming.

[note: the preceding is an example of why physics should not be applied haphazardly to social situations]

The unfortunate irony of capitalism

At this time the presidential campaign of Republican Mitt Romney is in turmoil in large part due to some unfortunate comments he made at a fund raiser in Florida. The country as a whole is confused as to how to interpret an apparent  right-off of 47% of the population. Romney tried to walk his statements back, saying that he is in favor of policies that will create opportunities and prosperity for all Americans. The problem is, he's right.  Furthermore, Obama and the Democrats are really in the same position. Capitalism is a shell game. That's the irony of sending Bernie Madoff to jail for stripping the dross off the very nature of Capitalism and running an "honest" Ponzi scheme. The truth is, Capitalism cannot work for all the people. Sooner or later, the pyramid collapses, the music stops and anyone without a chair can't sit at the table.

Now, it is well established that Capitalism, like musical chairs, is an efficient engine for innovation and industry. The problem is, simple conservation principles and economic imperatives combine to thwart any possibility that everyone can be a winner. There just isn't enough to go around. And even if there was, there's no way to win if there aren't losers. That's just the nature of musical chairs. So, of course the government, which is just the manifestation of society, needs to redistribute wealth. Ponzi schemes are incapable of self-restraint.

Chili Con Tofu

First of all, let me weigh in on the notion of whether or not a stew containing beans can be called "chili". I say it can. I mean no disrespect to the great state of Texas, whose denizens believe with religious fervor that true chili has no beans. They gave us Kinky Freedman, after all, so I say, cut them some slack. Nevertheless, my earliest encounters with chili were in LA and if I'm not mistaken, they always involved beans. Anyway, what else to call a dish comprising beans and tofu (a bean derivative, after all) that has all the major characteristics of chili (except for the fact that it has beans, and doesn't have meat, that is)? Beans? I'm not really asking. I call it chili.

While I'm on the subject of beans, I like kidney beans. I have learned that not everyone does. I'm given to understand that most people (outside of Texas) use pinto beans in chili. I'm not a big fan. Feel free to substitute pinto beans or even black beans. Just don't leave out the beans. Then it would just be "nothing con tofu" which is, you know, "tofu". And speaking of substitution, I use sunflower oil. The only real consideration is that the oil needs to be tolerant of high heat. So not olive oil. Lots of folks use canola oil but my wife says they're wrong. I am not going to wade into that. Stay with an edible oil though.

OK. Here goes.

• 1 cup of dried kidney (see above) beans
• 1 package, i.e., 1 lb, tofu (note, I like the firm but it doesn't matter)
• 2 medium size jalapeño peppers
• 1 or 2 tomatillos (depending on how big they are; should be ~1/2 cup diced)
• 2 cloves of garlic (or one if you're feeding vampires)
• 1/2 cup of diced (~1/8" cubes) onion (that's about 2-3 slices from the wide part of a normal sized onion)
• 3 1/2 tablespoons of oil (see above)
• Spices:
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of coarse ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 2 teaspoons of chili powder
• cayenne pepper to taste (I use about 1/4 teaspoon)

I suppose you can use canned beans but I don't so let's start with the bean preparation (if you use canned beans, use the whole can - around 2 cups, right?). Put the dried beans in a large jar or bowl and cover them with water at least twice as high as the beans.  Let them soak for at least 24 hours. Then drain them into a colander and rinse them thoroughly. This is to make them less "musical" so short this step at your own risk. You might even change the soak water once or twice during the soaking period. Now put the beans in a covered pot with enough water to cover them and about an inch more, bring them to a boil, and let them simmer (boiling) for at least 2 hours. You want them to be easily smushed. You can't overcook them here but don't let them run out of water. When you're done, drain them and put them aside.

Dice the tofu (half-inch chunks), onions, and jalapeños. Take the husks off the tomatillos and wash them until the waxy coating is gone. Dice them the same as the others. Mince the garlic. Put the oil in a high-walled skillet or sturdy-bottomed pot.  I use a cast-iron skillet but it gets pretty full. You want to fry some stuff and then add some more stuff and fry that, too and then simmer so a wide shallow (but not too shallow) pot or pan with cover. Set the flame or heat level to medium high and when the oil is hot, add the garlic and onions.  Fry them until they soften and start to caramelize but don't let them burn. Add the tofu and continue frying and stirring.  Add the spices. Stir and fry so that all the tofu gets covered with spices and onions and oil.  Add the jalapeños. Stir and fry. Add the beans. Stir and fry. Once everything is starting to crust, add the tomatillos, lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 15 minutes.

Guilty Pleasure

The only reason I feel I can post this confession is that I'm pretty sure nobody ever reads this. I have developed a guilty addiction. I'm not proud of this and I can barely admit it to myself, let alone anyone else. Last night I steeled myself, summoned courage I didn't know I had, and I confessed to my wife. It went better than I had feared.

Let me explain how I got here. I discovered a brilliant Dominican composer/performer, Juan Luis Guerra,

on the radio, well into his career, that is, well after he was really, really popular. This was in 1997. The song was Burbujas de Amor and I was blown away. It was quite popular on the Spanish Musica Romantica station in Houston where I was working on a temporary assignment. I heard it several times and once I was sure I understood all the words I realized the lyrics were surreally fanciful and, well, great. Then there was all the percussion and the subtle blending of instruments. It was fantastic. I became an avid fan and collected all of his music. I even studied some of his influences. This isn't so strange when you think about it. A serious Rolling Stones fan might be led to Howlin' Wolf and then to Mississippi John Hurt and then to Blind Willie McTell and so find himself an aficionado of delta blues in short order. Anyway on one of JLG's tracks, El Costo de la Vida, a dance-able protest song, if you can dance, which I can't, the composer credit was shared with Diblo Dibala. It turns out Google knows Diblo Dibala.

That led me quite naturally to an exploration and appreciation of (primarily Congolese) Soukous. As an aside, I feel disappointed in myself (nothing like the guilty pleasure admission but I had always thought of myself as cooler than it turns out I am) that I missed the whole Soukous scene in the 1980's. I mean, I was even in Africa!. Anyway, here's where Google, and especially through their YouTube avatar, comes in. I searched for various examples of Diblo Dibala, then his seminal group, Loketo. YouTube has suggestions on the side and one of those was another Soukous group, Soukous Super Stars, doing a song called Sina Makosa. That, in turn led me to the original group, Les Wanyika, doing the same song. That moved me across the continent and got me going on East African (mostly Kenyan and Tanzanian) music. I discovered a Tanzanian remix of Sina Makosa by James Dandu.

YouTube thought if I liked that, maybe I'd like another Tanzanian group, FM Academia. I did. Well, they said, if you like that, maybe you'd like this. I think maybe it was the dancers in the videos. Who knows?

Now here's where it gets a little dicey. I was raised with no religion. Well, if you think communism is a religion then I was raised with that. But the closest I ever got to religious indoctrination was daily prayer in the 1st and 2nd grades before it was outlawed. My exposure to the religion of my ancestors was almost entirely through The Pictorial History of the Jewish People.  That meant that I knew as much about Hebrew Mythology as I did about Greek Mythology. All I knew about Christianity was pogroms, crusades, and, as I said, school prayer.

So, it is a matter of some personal shame that I find myself fascinated with and a little addicted to Tanzanian gospel music. Not all of it, of course, and it certainly helps that I don't understand any Swahili. But still, I do get the idea and I'm not proud of myself. It's my guilty pleasure.

According to Google, I find myself boring

...and who can argue with Google (my host after all).
Let me explain.  I have this blog (obviously).  Last year my son went to Lithuania for work and he kept a blog of his adventures.  Sometimes when I need a distraction (like I'm on a telephone conference that requires no attention) I'll start either at my blog or his and hit "Next Blog" which goes on some random blog hunt.  Now, I don't claim to know how Google plots a course from one blog to the next.  Maybe it's based on title.  Maybe it's based on keywords.  Who knows?  All I can say is that starting from my blog I wind up mostly at the blogs of argumentative fringe libertarians and starting at his I get to interesting artists (and breathless Malaysian college kids).

The bully always remembers it wrong

Today's headline:    Romney apologizes for hurtful high school pranks

It seems the presumptive republican nominee led a group of his friends in prep school to capture, restrain, and hold down a younger boy he thought was gay and cut his hair, that Romney thought was too long to be "right".  It is, I think, typical that a bully will recall brutal physical assault as a "prank".  A prank is putting the principal's VW on the basketball court.  A prank is stealing another school's mascot.  Abuse is not a prank, however amusing it might be to the bully.

What happens after Capitalism succeeds?

Last night the Republican candidates and many of their potential GOP voters in South Carolina made more or less the same point: the creation of jobs and the creation of welfare support (food stamps, subsidies, whatever) are not compatible.  Well, that's probably not true but it got me to thinking.

One of the advantages of Capitalism, at least as articulated by Adam Smith and Milton Friedman, is that market forces (as opposed to physical forces) create efficiencies in production and marketing.  That is, when Capitalism works well, things become more available, more cheaply available, more widely available.  So, fine.  What are we to do when everyone needs a job but jobs for everyone are not needed?  That is, in a Capitalist economy, as envisioned by, say, Mitt Romney, what if the economy (that "thing" that underlies the "market") produces enough and distributes enough and sells enough with only, lets say 80% employment.  That's the goal of Capitalism, after all, isn't it?  That the market should drive food production and clothing production and housing production and general goods production to such efficiencies that some of the people can make and deliver and sell all the stuff that all the people need.

So, what, then, does it mean to "create jobs"?  Wouldn't jobs for that 20% of "surplus" workers be, in the context of capitalist efficiency, the same as "welfare"?  There is, of course, no mechanism within a Capitalist framework for people without jobs to get access to any of the "stuff".  In a Capitalist framework, they are not "needed".  They should be made to go away.  It looks to me like we're there, now.  There's certainly plenty of stuff, probably more than enough to go around.  But of course it doesn't go around.  Why can't we just make it go around more?  What's so bad about distributing the stuff, of which there is plenty, to everyone?   The Capitalists will say that that will cause the 80% to stop working and then no one will have stuff.  But I don't think there's any evidence for that.  The alternative is to make the unemployed go away.  Where should they go?