Min Zin

I meant to post this a while ago.  I am lazy.  (And then I forgot to click “publish” last year when I wrote this.)

Anyway, I said I would post a link a few months ago and I am finally doing it today.  I felt this link deserved an entry.

Min Zin is an exiled Burmese journalist. He also serves as Burma’s country analyst for several research foundations including Freedom House. He took part in Burma’s democracy movement in 1988 as a high school student activist, and went into hiding in 1989 to avoid arrest by the junta. His underground activist-cum-writer life lasted for nine years until he fled over the Thai-Burma border in August 1997. He is now pursuing a PhD in Political Science Department at UC Berkeley.

In full disclosure, I attended a seminar at UC Berkeley with Min Zin.  We are not politically aligned and my support of his link in no way conveys any endorsement he may have on my politics.  We are colleagues and do have discussions and I do support his struggle for freedom in his home.

Min Zin is a good person that gives us a lot of insight into what it means to be “Free.”  His blog is a great perspective on freedom and democracy.  I encourage everyone to give it a read.

If, for any reason, the links above didn’t work properly, you can use this or cut & paste it from here:  http://minzin.blogspot.com/

Tags: Asia, Bears, Berkeley, Burma, democracy, East Asia, freedom, liberty, Min Zin, Myanmar, Thailand
Category Main category |

The Devil In The Details

I recently came upon an article that kind of struck a nerve.  It’s not necessarily the article, but what it represents.  I decided to put a response to the article here because it represents something that has been nagging me a lot lately and I am doubtful they would allow my full response to the article.  Now, in the nature of full disclosure, I do use Apple computers and I do know people that work for Apple Inc.  I also have a whole laundry list of complaints for Apple.  I’m not a blind “Apple apologist.”  In fact, none of this is really focused on Apple.  I am also not trying to just attack this other site.  I’m just using this entry as an example for effect.

The article I read is The Devil You Know: Apple and Slave Labor.  It is an editorial on The Big Slice.  Part of their mission statement claims:

To avoid sensationalism, dog whistling, and hyperbolic headlines in our content and not appeal to the lowest common denominator of political, social, and cultural discourse.

But I find the opposite in the article.

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Tags: antebellum, Apple, capitalism, confederate, exploitation, foxconn, iPad, iphone, iPod, Kindle, Mac, OSX, player hater, Playstation 3, slave labor, slave labour, slavery, Sony, Starbucks, The Big Slice
Category Economics, Main category, news, trends |

Ennui

Some days, I wonder if it matters at all.

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Wanted to upload this

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Here’s a recipe

It was a bit funny (odd) that today, someone commented on an earlier entry stating an “obvious” conclusion to statistics presented and actually seems to not understand what “obvious” means, as well as how to do empirical analysis.   It’s funny because I was also telling someone today that I dislike empirical analysis and positivist claims.  I rather enjoy normative claims.  I also like to make sweeping claims and backtrack to support them later.  I understand this… I am a grandiose bastard at times.

When I tell people that I dislike cooking meals and I dislike eating, they often offer me recipes.  My internal response to this is, “Thanks for giving me tips on how to do something I already dislike to do.”  Or, “Are you telling me to do something I just fucking said I hate to do?”  The truth of the matter is that I dislike cooking.  It does not mean I don’t know how to do it.  In fact, I am pretty good at preparing food.  I know this because I have done it.

The same thing can be said for statistical analysis.  I hate it.  But that doesn’t mean I can’t do it.  It means I don’t like to do it.  So, yes, I will deploy various rhetorical tactics to avoid doing any empirical analysis.  But when pressed, I can engage in an empirical argument.  I just dislike it.

And really, that’s my point.  I don’t think you can claim to dislike anything you have never done.  Keep that in mind the next time you tell someone you do not like giving oral sex to someone of the same sex.

Tags: analysis, data, empirical analysis, fellatio, recipes, statistics
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