The decline of high culture

Sometimes I hear about a past America where people wrote better (stylistically and vocabulary-wise) and people were more interested in culture that went beyond their narrow life experiences. I wonder if it's true. Maybe I'm imagining things or being nostalgic. Yet a recent New York Times op-ed piece seems to corroborate my feeling that popular culture was different a couple generations ago.

I lamented the decline of writing skills a while ago in a February post. Imagine a society where middle-class people spend their leisure time reading literature and find world politics interesting. Why has that world disappeared? Part of the reason may be economic. It seems like many middle-class families have parents who both work full time, perhaps even overtime. After taking caring of the kids, there isn't much time left. I think another reason may be the career-driven, goal-oriented nature of today's society. We're too busy trying to match or better the living standards of our parents, trying to be as successful as the people we see on TV and read about in the papers. And there's the backlash against the American melting pot. Maybe people are sick of hearing about diversity and the rehashed mantra of learning about other cultures. Maybe they just want to protect what they know.

Link of the day: language, culture, and politics

Geoff Nunberg is a Stanford linguist who caught my attention when I read a profile on him in the Stanford alumni magazine.

You can find more information about him on his website.

What caught my interest is Nunberg's talent in applying his academic knowledge of linguistics to politics and culture. Nunberg is quite well known for his witty commentary on the NPR radio show "Fresh Air" and in the New York Times. Check out this link for audio segments from Fresh Air and this link for some of his written commentary.

Addendum to future projects list

8) Launch home-made rockets. Apparently, this is a hallmark of budding young engineers and scientists. I was supposed to do this as a child, but I'm making up for lost time.

9) Learn to drive and buy a car (probably used).

Future projects

It's summertime -- that time of year when life becomes less hectic for us academics and we have time to think about the course of our lives. I've decided to post a few of the long-term (non-academic) projects I have in the pipeline:

1) Work out more often and build a ripped body (well, maybe). I currently go to the gym three times a week, but my workouts aren't too serious.

2) Build a Linux box (down with Microsoft!)

3) Learn more about personal finance and investing.

4) Score another goal in an ice hockey game. I have one so far.

5) Ice skate on the Netherland canals.

6) Visit Maine and Arcadia National Park.

7) Visit Italy and see Michaelangelo's sculptures.

Feel good movies

Today, the New York Times published an article about the 40th anniversary of "The Sound of Music." The movie was apparently bashed by critics at time. One called it a sugar coated pill. Well, of course it is! But for "normal" people looking to have a good time, it's a exhilarating, delightful film. I think the music is wonderfully engaging and the cinematography is beautiful (particularly for 1965). The best musical film of all time is still, in my humble opinion, My Fair Lady, but The Sound of Music comes close.

That reminds me of another movie. When I was feeling down a few years ago, a professor asked me if I had seen Galaxy Quest. He said there was a really great quote from the movie, but he wouldn't tell me what it was. I was pretty skeptical but I watched the movie with a friend. If you're not familiar with the movie, it's a spoof of Star Trek. Boy was I embarrassed during the scenes with rabid fans seeking autographs of the TV stars at a Star Trek-like convention. (I've been to two Star Trek conventions.) The professor was right; the film was incredibly funny and hardly what I would expect a sophisticated Ivy-League educated professor to recommend. For the record, the quote he liked was "Never give up, never surrender!"

Sometimes we have to forget about our busyness and just have some fun.

Mascot of Magedeburg, Germany

The famous German scientist Otto van Guericke demonstrated the properties of vacuum with two copper bowls ("Magdeburg hemispheres") in 1663. He put the bowls together to form a hollow sphere and pumped all the air out of the sphere. Two teams of eight horses were unable to pull the bowls apart. The German emperor was impressed!

Now Magdeburg, in honor of their favorite son Guericke, has chosen the copper hemispheres as their mascot. They even have a stuffed animal version:

Hockey drills

The two (inanimate) things I love most in life are physics and ice hockey. In the last few months, I decided that I had spent too much time away from hockey, so I joined a summer league. Then I found out there was a development group so I joined that, too. The development group is basically a skills session where you work out different aspects of your skating and puck handling. The coach is really good, so I want to post some ideas I've learned here.

The usual athletic weight program is squats, benching, etc. But for hockey, much of an athlete's power comes from twisting and turning. You twist your torso to put power into a shot or make a sharp turn. So a hockey player should really spend a significant amount of time building abnominal strength.

We've also been doing some nice drills. For now, I'll just give a short written description. When I have a chance, I'll draw them out.

1. The basic slalom. You skate around all the red face off-circles, emphasizing your cross-over. Do it forward and backwards, then with the puck.

2. The modified slalom. You zig-zag between the red dots on the ice and make a sharp hockey turn at each dot. Then do it with the puck.

3. Pivot drill (this is hard one.) The basic pattern of movement is a big "W". You skate up to a cone forwards, pivot backwards around the cone, then skate backwards to the next cone, and pivot to go forward around the cone, etc.

4. Butterfly warm up drill. Skate forwards up the middle of the ice, doing some kind of stretch (touching your toes or arm circles). Then you turn and come up the boards working on outside or inside edges.

5. Basic passing drill. Line up across from a partner so when you extend your arms your sticks touch. Then pass forehand to forehand. Increase the distance and repeat. Do the same thing with backhand to backhand. After that, practice catching passes on the backhand, stepping around the stopped puck, and passing back on your partner on the forehand. Don't stick handle in between receiving and giving the pass.

6. Moving passing drill. Line up across from a partner so when you extend your arms your sticks touch. One person skate forwards and the other skate backwards. Keep passing forehand to forehand. The goal is to make as many passes as you can between a fixed distance.

The coolest bandana

Actually, it's not a bandana at all. It's called "Buff" headwear. I originally found it on sale at REI.com. I never thought I'd get excited about headwear (not to be confused with the dental appliance headgear). To see why it's so cool, check out the demo video at the company's US website. You can wear it as a scarf, a ski mask, a bandana, etc. The material is silky smooth and seamless. It supposedly wicks, too. The best part are all the awesome designs (US site, European site). Apparently, Buff has been quite popular in Europe (particularly as a fashion statement for athletes and bikers). Yet it is still a relatively unknown treasure here in America. No, I was not paid by the company to write this testimonial. If you're curious, here's the one I got.

Popularity of my favorite books on Friendster

I'm a member of Friendster (not that I've found it particularly useful so far.) One interesting aspect of the service is that you can search for people who have similar interests.

Here are the numbers of people on Friendster who liked the same books that I do:

I, Claudius [240]
Middlemarch [287]
To the Lighthouse [607]
Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, David Copperfield, Ender's Game, Foundation Trilogy [> 1000]

Maybe I should screen for potential friends by asking them if they like I, Claudius or Middlemarch.

Notable blogs: personal finance and life aspirations

The first notable blog is "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi. As crass as that title may seem, the blog is filled with concise entries teaching the lay person how to be practical with money. After reading Ramit's blog, I have started paying more attention to my spending (currently I save about 50% of my disposable income, but I hope to do better). I will also probably get a money-management software program (like Quicken or Microsoft Money) to track my spending.

Ramit's blog pointed me to another cool blog by Ian Ybarra. Like Ramit, Ian is also interested in long-term aspirations. His entire blog is about figuring out what your career goals are and chasing your dreams. I like how he tries to inspire people to do what makes them happy and fulfilled rather than following social expectations or trends. As I noted in a previous entry, I could have used more of that perspective when I was a young undergraduate.