Psychic powers over the mundane

Yesterday a couple of odd things happened.

- o O o -

I was walking to work listening to a 2-guys-chatting podcast. They talk about all sorts of things, often slipping from one subject to another. They were talking about companion animals and specifically dwarf donkeys. Conversation moved on to science fiction's strike rate at predicting the future. As I listened I was also thinking about where I could get a boater hat; the key ingredient of my costume for an upcoming "1930s garden party". Maybe my dad might have one.

Suddenly one of the podcasters said "I saw a straw boater for sale the other day and I was sorely tempted". (it happens at 36:20 in this episode if you would like to verify) At first I thought had imagined it, daydreaming that I was part of their conversation. But no, it really happened. Obviously the podcast was recorded some weeks before I listened to it, so I somehow psychically affected the minds of the podcasters before I even knew the theme of the party. From Florence.

A boater

- o O o -

In the afternoon at work Dire Straits were on the stereo; a song I have heard many times before called Tunnel of Love.

And girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids

I even have sung along many times, but I have never wondered before; which Spanish city? Was Mark Knopfler thinking of Madrid? Barcelona? Valencia? I was just wondering this to myself silently when I heard my workmate Chris who was born in Yorkshire say "The Spanish City was a funfair at Whitley Bay near Newcastle". Which it is.

I didn't ask the question, and I didn't hear anyone else ask the question. Chris just announced it. I was really gobsmacked and said "Uh, weird, I was just wondering that very thing". I had earlier told everyone about the boater thing so I didn't make a fuss about this one because I don't want to be burned as a witch.

Spanish City, Whitley Bay, UK

Note 1: Chris and I work in a room with ten other people and two of them are also called Chris. Yesterday morning first thing (just after the boater incident) I and one of the other Chrises appeared in our then-empty room from opposite doors simultaneously as a third Chris emerged from the toilet. We just have to get used to these things happening.

Note 2: Chris from Yorkshire's mum used to know Mark and David Knopfler's mum.

Dr Rush's mercury laxatives

I just found out a fab fact on the [highly recommended] medical history podcast Sawbones. This episode is about the 18th century American doctor Benjamin Rush. He loved bloodletting, and is said to have been largely responsible for the deaths of George Washington and Ben Franklin.

He equipped the Lewis and Clark expedition with mercury laxative pills. And he gave them so many and they used them so enthusiastically that the best way for modern researchers to track the route of the expedition is the reliable trail of mercury they left behind.

So Sawbones - its free, look it up on the iTunes store.

The subject of cricket arises on an American pop-culture podcast

The hosts, Jesse and Jordan, have been blatting on about computer games and baseball trivia. The guest is comedian and gaming expert Kumail Nanjiani.

Kumail Nanjiani: If you know of a podcast that specialises in cricket trivia from 1982 to 1997, let me know.
Jesse: Because you're a Pakistani American, and Pakistan is the nation of cricket, the world's premiere cricket country.
KN: We're one of the best, yeah.
Jesse: Not even England can claim to be more passionate about cricket right?
KN: No, Pakistan and India are the two most.
Jordan: Is there, like, a rivalry there?
KN: [Stunned moment of silence] What do you think? We do have nuclear weapons pointed at each other.

A magnificent story from This American Life

There is a sting in the tail of this story. Near the end, the innocent man's lawyer says "If Collin Warner had lived in Texas, or Florida, or Louisiana, he'd have been dead a long time ago. And that would have been the end of it."

If you believe in capital punishment, that must be a pretty sobering thought. The people in the bureaucracy responsible for catching and killing the right person are OK at it, but no more than that.

Every time Collin Warner came up for parole (he was sentenced to 15 years) he was asked if he was sorry for what he had done. Every time he stated that he didn't do it. He served 20 years.

Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell

I first encountered Sarah Vowell on the This American Life podcasts. She is scholarly, interesting, wry, quirky and has an amazing sort of 11 year old girl/munchkin voice. You may well have heard it - out of the blue she was called up and asked to do the voice of Violet, the daughter in The Incredibles movie. If you haven't heard her, she's a little bit Lisa Simpson-y.

Which would be relevant if I was consuming this work in its audiobook form - one day I would love to do that, as apparently its got all sorts of guest stars doing cameos as famous dead people. Now though, I am merely reading the printed book.

But, its a cracker of a book. She is a memorial addict - she spends all her holidays travelling around the many, many sites related to the four* assassinated presidents. She is an assassination expert  - at home she has a dedicated book collection in what she calls her Assassination Nook. Apart from reading all the books, she has visited all the sites, talked to the guides, and actually listened to the guides, which probably not many people do. She says she is always either the youngest or the oldest on the tours - which are otherwise made up of either senior citizens or schoolkids.

*Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy. President Warren G. Harding died in office of food poisoning, however it has since been widely rumoured that he was bumped off by his wife.

Two fabulous facts I want to share with you;

1. John Wilkes Booth, who shot Abraham Lincoln in 1865, was from a famous acting family. His elder brother, Edwin Booth, was America's foremost Shakespearean actor. During the US Civil War, years before Lincoln's death, he was at a train station in New Jersey, when a young man fell onto the tracks. Edwin Booth saved the young man's life. The young man was Robert Todd Lincoln, eldest child of Abraham Lincoln.

2. Although Lincoln is widely venerated today (with some scary but interesting exceptions), he was a controversial figure in his lifetime. The current state song of Maryland, describing Lincoln as a "despot", was written during the civil war. Although Maryland stayed in the union, and was notionally on the Northern side in the war, sympathy for the Confederate cause and antipathy to Lincoln ran hot. Incredibly, the song was not chosen officially as the state song until the 1930s, and despite pressure to modify it, it never has been. So now, sing it with me! (to the tune of O Tanenbaum). Some of the nine verses are omitted, but  feel free to look up the whole thing.

The despot's heel is on thy shore,

Maryland! My Maryland!

His torch is at thy temple door,

Maryland! My Maryland!

Avenge the patriotic gore

That flecked the streets of Baltimore,

And be the battle queen of yore,

Maryland! My Maryland!

Hark to an exiled son's appeal,

Maryland! My Maryland!

My mother State! to thee I kneel,

Maryland! My Maryland!

For life and death, for woe and weal,

Thy peerless chivalry reveal,

And gird thy beauteous limbs with steel,

Maryland! My Maryland!

I see the blush upon thy cheek,

Maryland! My Maryland!

For thou wast ever bravely meek,

Maryland! My Maryland!

But lo! there surges forth a shriek,

From hill to hill, from creek to creek-

Potomac calls to Chesapeake,

Maryland! My Maryland!

I hear the distant thunder-hum,

Maryland! My Maryland!

The Old Line's bugle, fife, and drum,

Maryland! My Maryland!

She is not dead, nor deaf, nor dumb-

Huzza! she spurns the Northern scum!

She breathes! she burns! she'll come! she'll come!

Maryland! My Maryland!

Stuff I learned from podcasts #5

"On every British nuclear submarine, there is a safe. Inside that safe is another safe. And inside that safe is a handwritten letter from the British Prime Minister, to be opened only if the country has been decimated by nuclear war."

From a BBC radio documentary called "The Human Button" (click to download/listen). Should the sub commander retaliate if Britain is annihilated? Surrender? Sail to Australia or America and operate under that government's direction? The letter will provide the answer. Totally fascinating stuff.

Stories for your ears

One of the podcasts I am into is the New Yorker magazine Fiction Podcast. Each week an author reads one of their favourite short stories by another author, living or dead. It was here that I first heard the amazing story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - a brilliant piece of writing. Apparently it has long been a standard in English Lit classes in the US but I had never heard of it.

I am prompted to mention it here by the latest story, Adams by George Saunders. I had never heard of him either, but I am now going to seek out what I can and read it.

After each reading, the reader and the fiction editor of the New Yorker chat about the story. My reaction is always "bloody hell - I didn't realise THAT was going on in there". Suffice to say Adams is a near-anagram of Saddam, and the narrator of the story ends up breaking into Adams' house and taking away all his pool chemicals.

What can you buy with US$1 trillion?

A podcast I love called Common Sense with Dan Carlin just referred me to this blog article. It's a bit of an eye-opener. If you are easily frightened by large numbers, look away now. This article refers to the US Federal government bailout plan. All costings in US$.

By Barry Ritholtz - November 25th, 2008, 7:19AM

Whenever I discussed the current bailout situation with people, I find they have a hard time comprehending the actual numbers involved. That became a problem while doing the research for the Bailout Nation book. I needed some way to put this into proper historical perspective.

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

______________________________________________________________________

data courtesy of Bianco Research

That is $686 billion less than the cost of the credit crisis thus far.

The only single American event in history that even comes close to matching the cost of the credit crisis is World War II: Original Cost: $288 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $3.6 trillion

The $4.6165 trillion dollars committed so far is about a trillion dollars ($979 billion dollars) greater than the entire cost of World War II borne by the United States: $3.6 trillion, adjusted for inflation (original cost was $288 billion).

Go figure: WWII was a relative bargain.

I estimate that by the time we get through 2010, the final bill may scale up to as much as $10 trillion dollars…

Podcasts

Do you listen to podcasts? I'm always on the lookout for good ones. Don't be scared off by the "pod" thing, I know not everyone has an i-pod, in fact I listen to them on my desktop computer while I work. I used to listen to just Australian Radio National shows, but gradually migrated to American podcasts. I still listen to This Sporting Life from Triple J, and I think that's about it for regular Australian material. Here is my current listening list.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History (Punic Wars to WW2 and everything else) and Common Sense (current affairs). This is like a one hour ride with an affable but passionate and very well informed taxi driver, who wants to convince you that while Alexander would have outwitted Caesar in battle, Caesar actually set stuff up in peacetime, which Alexander never bothered with. And my understanding of and interest in US politics has leaped ahead since I also subscribed to Common Sense. Today I listened to an interview with a conservative history professor, talking about the benefits of the now-lost classical education. I can feel my opinions being taken out and beaten soundly like a rug, and they don't always go back to the original shape.

You Look Nice Today, "a journal of emotional hygiene". Three guys who skype to each other over the net. Witty, sharp, erudite. Recommended by the cast of...

Jordan Jesse Go. 2 manchilds. Jesse Thorn, America's Radio Sweetheart, and Jordan Morris, Boy Detective.

This Sporting Life. An Australian radio institution. HG Nelson is the commentator par excellence. Roy Slaven, the retired star who pulled on the green and gold in tennis, rugby league, surfing, golf... Also owner and trainer of two of the turf's finest conveyances, Rooting King and Princess Underpant. Sprinkled with ads for the products of their business the Slaven Nelson Group, such as Blue Light Twitching Love Logs, and The King Tide Sleepmaker (a water bed full of fish). To quote Wikipedia "Other memorable Slaven recollections have included the assistance he gave to music star Cher during her bout with chronic fatigue syndrome - which included a daily regimen in which Slaven tied Cher to the back of a car and dragged her behind it for several kilometres.

Football Weekly. Men and women talk UK and European soccer. I never actually get to see the games they talk about, and a lot of it washes over me, but the banter is so lively and the digressions quite funny that I still listen anyway.

This American Life. National Public Radio from the USA. A groundbreaking radio show that I now realise is the stylistic template for a lot of Australian Radio National programmes.

They Might Be GiantsThe band. Rare music and interviews. They also have a kids video podcast that is educational and great.

OK. Let me know if you have any recommendations.