Longread #21 -- Trouble at Hanford -- 2/27/12

Now that I'm back from abroad, we can get started up again with a daily longread. This one comes from the Seattle Weekly and documents a wide range of problematic things going on at the Hanford nuclear site. Not only is the scope of the work to be done at Hanford extremely daunting, but the contractors hired to perform this work have routinely cut corners and prevented employees from putting quality and safety first. Sadly, the DOE has only made things worse. Now we are looking at a ridiculously-expensive, dangerous, and possibly totally ineffective solution being implemented.

"Hanford's Toxic Avengers" by Joshua Frank
Published in the Seattle Weekly, February 22, 2012
http://www.seattleweekly.com/content/printVersion/1697249/

Eric

Longread #20 -- Why We Travel -- 1/31/12

I'm leaving the country for a few weeks, so there will be a hiatus on daily longreads. I know this is disappointing for the zero regular readers out there, but the logistics of posting daily while in SE Asia are just too daunting. A timely longread about why we travel from Jonah Lehrer is posted below. Hope to find some of these benefits over the next few weeks. See you on the flip side.

"Why We Travel" by Jonah Lehrer

Published in The Guardian, March 13, 2010

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/mar/14/why-travel-makes-you-smarter

Eric

Longread #19 -- Waldorf Schools -- 1/30/12

This is an interesting article about Waldorf Schools, which avoid using technology in their classrooms. This is in stark contrast to most other schools, which are rapidly working to incorporate new technologies into curriculum. This article plays on the seeming contradiction that exists of having a Waldorf School in the Silicon Valley where its students largely come from families of big-time technology executives. As the article states, it is extremely difficult to formulate clear comparisons about educational quality between Waldorf Schools and more conventional classrooms. I think that nostalgia for the past (before everything was so plugged in) has a tendency to bias a lot of impressions about things like this (whether it be schools or the article on social relationships I posted a few days ago), but it does seem there may be some definite ways that a more interactive and engaged classroom can benefit students.

"A Silicon Valley School That Doesn't Compute" by Matt Richtel
Published in the New York Times, October 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/23/technology/at-waldorf-school-in-silicon-valley-technology-can-wait.html?_r=2

Eric

Longread #18 -- Civil Commitment of Sex Offenders in Washington -- 1/27-12

Today's longread is a recent piece published by the Seattle Times. Washington was the first state in the U.S. to authorize civil commitment for sex offenders, which keeps people deemed to be at high-risk of recidivism detained rather than released into society. Keeping someone in civil commitment, however, requires due process, and the Seattle Times did an excellent job of delving into what that entails in practice. It turns out that the state is expending huge sums to maintain this program, and many of those funds go to experts who testify about the offenders risk to society. This article raises a lot of interesting issues about how to balance individual rights versus the public good, especially in the context of cash-strapped state government.

"State wastes millions helping sex predators avoid lockup" by Christine Willmsen
Published in the Seattle Times, January 21, 2012
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017301107_civilcomm22.html

One interesting point in that article is the fact that most attempts to reform the civil commitment process to reduce costs generate huge uproars that largely are based on claims that due process is being denied. This follow-up article, which talks about some specific proposed steps to control costs, seems to illustrate this point very clearly. This is a tough issue with a lot of shades of gray.

"Tiny office says it can save state money on sex-offender defense" by Christine Willmsen
Published in the Seattle Times, January 24, 2012
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2017323669_civilcomm25.html

Eric

Longread #17 -- How Bain Makes Money -- 1/26/12

A lot of debate has been going on recently about private equity firms and whether they are job creators or job destroyers. This article provides a concise and persuasive argument about how PE firms use debt and exploit the tax system to reap large profits at considerable expense to taxpayers and many employees. Refreshingly, it also offers some simple policy solutions that could limit the opportunities for exploitative profit by PE.

"Private Inequity" by James Surowiecki
Published in the New Yorker, January 30, 2012
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2012/01/30/120130ta_talk_surowiecki

Eric

Longread #16 -- Apple, America, and a Squeezed Middle Class -- 1/25/12

This is an eye-opening report about how the manufacturing and supply chain operations for building the iPhone (and tech products more generally) have migrated internationally. While some might argue that this article is an attack on Apple, I actually think it does a pretty good job of laying out the rationale for why so many of these jobs have been relocated out of the U.S. (and aren't coming back). Most of us probably realize at a very superficial level what's involved when our tech products say "made in China," but this article does an amazing job of casting some light on how that really comes to be. The implications of this transition for the global economy and workers has been profound, and that is also a focal point of this piece (especially as it pertains to the middle class in the U.S.).

"How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work" by Charles Duhigg and Keith Bradsher
Published in the New York Times, January 21, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

Eric

Longread #15 -- The Joy of Quiet -- 1/24/11

Maybe it's just me, but this criticism of the disconnectedness caused by modern society and technology seems really banal and played-out. Of course it's annoying when people you are hanging out with are constantly checking their phones and seem completely disengaged from the present company. But is that really unique to this moment in technology? Sure, smartphones and tablets enable a level of being always plugged into everything that didn't exist before, but in the past someone might have been disengaged because he/she was daydreaming or thinking about what he/she would write if in constant contact with someone remote.

If anything, I think the biggest interpersonal impact of new technologies does not stem primarily from their social purposes (e.g. texting friends or checking in somewhere on Facebook). Instead, I think it comes from the fact that new technology has enabled many employers to expect employees to be "on call" 24/7. E-mail from a client or boss could come at any time, which makes ignoring that phone buzzing in your pocket impossible. Even if, upon investigating the buzzing phone, it turns out to be a purely social contact, the fact that it could have been work-related makes it hard to be completely unplugged or unaware of incoming messages. As a result, many people have become conditioned to having a phone or tablet in hand at all times, which then ups the temptation to stay constantly engaged in Words With Friends or Angry Birds or the latest celebrity tweet war.

In my mind what has changed is not our level of distraction (at least not to a huge degree) but rather the means by which we are distracted. All that means is that everyone should find people with whom they can truly engage. In other words, don't hang out with people who act like they don't want to be hanging out. The best conversations are not the ones that stem from when you have intentionally left your phone behind; they are the ones that you are fully devoted to and rapt by even if you know your phone is ringing.

I've written enough already but all of that is without even going into the ways that new technologies and media can enable new types of social relationships. Are these social relationship different? Yes. Does that mean they are necessarily worse or less valuable? No. Maybe we'll get into some longreads that address this topic another time. Until then, read this piece by Pico Iyer and let me know what you think!

"The Joy of Quiet" by Pico Iyer
Published in the New York Times, December 29, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all