All the boonies of the world

Inspired by the town that time forgot by North!

There's a Russian proverb, which says, that 'Moscow is not Russia'. True to form, all the sticks on this Earth suffer the kind of oblivion that are spared to distant regions out of their conglomerating metro areas.

The regions of Russia are massively muddy and decrepitly derelict. Asphalt on the main roads is like the surface of the Moon, with a 20 km/h speed limit, or simply a distant dream. No war traversed those roads.

Stateside regions are adorned with flying trash, dysfunctional police, the smell of meth, and the edges of city blocks littered with people standing upside down. Not just in the sticks somewhere, but in Philadelphia, too. An entire city of brotherly love. For some obscure reason, the cult of AR-15 has strewn its deathly mandibles throughout all these tiny places we never knew the names of.

And then there is the very pockmarked Ukraine, mixed with light where there is freedom, and darkness where there is none. Albeit less-developed, it was and is striving to where Estonia is now.

Compared to all that hopeless despair, Viljandi is like a little island of paradise: there is no war, there are no junkies, the streets are clean and safe to walk, and the roads don't have potholes. Everything works, and the police do, too.

Undeniably, there is some poverty. All countries have poverty. But in Viljandi, in Estonia, there is this uncharacteristically strange sense of contentment, that everything will turn out to be ok. — Like an enduring hope for a better future: "some things are not nice, but they'll be fine one day." Maybe this is how peace feels like.

And so, I am to end this post with a somewhat sarcastic coda: "All the boonies of the world, unite!" :>

Trains and roads in Europe and America

This was in reply to a comment in YouTube about trains.

The reason that European high-speed train routes from London to Athens and Paris to Athens are not there, is, because they have not been built yet. A lot of it had, and still has plenty to do with world history.

Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007, and this formally connected Greece with the rest of the Union on contiguous land. Romania and Bulgaria have yet to join the Schengen Area.

Italy's problems have more to do with mismanagement of their money, and Greece is only slowly emerging from its debt crisis (due also to then-really-bad finances).

Now that there's Brexit, the UK's position with regard to future rail connections to the rest of the EU is uncertain.

In the U.S., the Insterstate Highway System was built, because Dwight D. Eisenhower and other leading politicians noticed, that existing roads were below standard to support a modern state; the historic Route 66 was particularly overused. While the congestion of Route 66 supported all manner of roadside businesses and livelihoods, then it was also an infrastructure bottleneck.

On the other hand, the flipside to having built the Interstate Highway System is, that a large number of private traffic and short-haul business moved to the asphalt, with rail infrastructure displaced — "thanks" in no small part to then-the Big Five automakers greasing the wheels of politicians. Perhaps less intentionally, but with greater disruptive effect, rail got sidelined by airplanes and jumbo jets. The latter reduced travel times so much, that the jets and the Interstate in combination substantially decreased demand for passenger rail services, reducing the status of rail in America the even further.

To the best of my knowledge, California's problems with high-speed rail have been related to the politics almost anywhere in the U.S. of habitually not wanting to dish out enough taxpayer money for any large project, while at the same time, nursing pipe dreams of federal funding, when the state (any state) is legislated and governed by one party, and the federal government by another.

Today in History (04.07.2013)

* News that Douglas Engelbart, inventor of the computer mouse, has died at 88 (passed away on 02.07.2013);
* NASA decommissions weather satellite Jason-I (11), because the satellite's last transmitter finally failed;
* King Albert II of Belgium (79) announced that he will abdicate on July 21.

In other news:

Europe
* France apologizes: Je Suis Sorry;
* And now it's been reported that France's own French Fries are not much different from Freedom Fries somewhere far, far away;
* while in

United States
* ...most everyone else rather ungratiously confirms what has been going on all along at the Ministries of Peace, Love, and Truth.
* A huge wildfire in Arizona still remains out of control.

Middle East
* Egypt's military stage a coup yesterday, installing a judge to be acting president today. The U.S. threatens withdrawal of aid to Egypt, while Israel tries to be nice.

Science and tech
* Vine and Instagram fight like a cat and dog: competition in video sharing functionality heats up. Ten years ago we would not have known what these things even are;
* Livers can be grown in laboratory from stem cells. We really are living the future.

Why Falling Skies is too 'family-friendly'

And why is there little to no swearing.

This was in reply to a Falling Skies IMDb thread posing just these questions.

Well, people do swear in real life, but it's probably very difficult to make that balance right on television.

If you'll ever see an episode of "The Borgias" (a historical tv series produced in Canada and filmed mostly in Hungary), then people there don't swear either, but you'll see everything else: death, murder, battles, intrigue, sex, whores, flogging (torture), subterfuge and politics. Even urination.

Most of the time, people don't swear and generally discourage swearing (in public) in a prude, vain, and hopeless attempt to instill polite (aka more 'cultured') language in children, while in real life all it amounts to is just procrastinating the use of such verbiage by young people.

One of the reasons swearing is not used on American tv is that it would turn off many older/prude/conservative viewers, who would then prohibit their children from watching a show. That would result in dismal ratings from those with Nielsen boxes, no matter how flawed that system is (I have a suspicion these boxes aren't distributed all that evenly, either).

On the other hand, Falling Skies seems to be meant for a slightly younger audience than your average teenager who already knows foul language.

So, for example, if you want to know which is the youngest demographic a show is catering to, see who's the youngest major character (babies don't count). In Star Trek: The Next Generation, that was "Wesley Crusher" (played by writer and actor Wil Wheaton, who now has over two million followers on twitter). So, the older the youngest character in a show, the greater likelihood there is to encounter more mature themes.

And if suddenly the characters in "Falling Skies" started swearing as they actually would in real life, then by now it would be very out of character of them to do so. In a way, they should have done that from the outset, but now it's most likely far too late, because we all know now that they are coincidentally a very polite lot.

In conclusion, the only recourse to actual people with children would be not to swear themselves, or at all — just in case them kids accidentally overhear something — and suggest the youth not to use such language in polite company. This would basically ensure the kids learn by example. (Disclaimer: Your mileage may vary.)

Reflections on the Politico/NBC News Republican Presidential Candidates Debate at Reagan Library

What began as a quick write-up based on comments written during the debate, became a more lengthy post, due to my near-perfectionist efforts at design.

So, in the quickest order, I found the best stream of the chatter at Ronald Reagan Presidential Library was embedded at The Right Scoop website, courtesy of the-always-resourceful-MSNBC.

The candidates start and often continue with spewing rhetorical crap, mostly dodging difficult subjects and questions. Bachmann and Cain outshine everyone else in this.

The Republican candidates always mention the number of children they have and the number of adopted children they have. Lots of children for "old times' insurance", I suppose...
Jon Huntsman only has two and these are adopted, also, and legally brought over to the U.S. Why didn't he adopt American children??

• Michele Bachmann frets about "Obamacare", mentions Obama rather often, maybe just as Obama mentioned Bush-Cheney throughout his campaign. After that, other candidates are very much agreeable enough to fret about "Hillarycare". Otherwise lots of hot air. Bachmann criticizes Obama on Libya, thinks it was wrong to go there (Obama really didn't, but I don't understand where her allegiances lie). I infer her support for oil drilling in Everglades (talks about energy and responsibility). Confuses green job creation in Spain and its high unemployment, which was caused by a construction and property bust.

• Mitt Romney manages to mention renewable resources, too, where he proposes a mixed package, which I say, is a wise move. Mentions even oil shale (!).

Thinks that Obama has to go (which everyone else heartily agrees with), yet offers no solutions himself, except creating nebulous "jobs" — maybe in the fashion that Bachmann talked about getting gas prices to $2/gal.

Romney believes in the Tea Party movement. Foundlessly criticizes Obama. Talks about the middle class, only that the Republican middle class are the rich.

• Ron Paul is old, criticizes Reagan's policy (though loves his 'message'), and criticizes really everything, so remaining an eternal opposition figure. Wants to abolish TSA (maybe because of probably having been subject to a 'pat-down', given his frequent trips on airplanes, but we don't know that :).

• The Texas governor Rick Perry says stupid things, thinks Social Security is a Ponzi scheme. Calls Texas education cuts 'thoughtful reductions', then claims that there's no dearth of educated people in Texas, because of Facebook and Toyota having opened base there — but that's because Texas has about the lowest taxes in all of the U.S.

Perry, though, likes a balanced budget by wanting an amendment passed to support it. Then somehow offers platitudes to Obama (I hear an attempt to woo conservative democrats). Wants clear entrance and exit strategies when invading another country, criticizes Obama on this, yet that was a burden bourne out of Obama's predecessors.

Gaffe: "Ozone levels down Xx%!"

As governor, has signed the most executions in a state to date (which means more than GWB), doesn't lose sleep if even one person executed is innocent, because he believes that there is a working (and 'just') system in place.

• Herman Cain (the only African-American Republican candidate, who's speech also has a nice twang :) wants to fix everything — this infers all things being broken, even in crisis, which everyone agrees with. Does not answer about GE getting huge profits, but legally not having to pay taxes in the U.S. The answer is iffy.

• Jon Huntsman (Idaho) is too slick in both speech and appearance and has a deep tan. Did he spend a vacation in Mexico? Thinks "we've lost our confidence as a country," wants to make his eyes misty — Is that for real? Has two adopted children. What about biological children? Wants to bring troops home (audience claps hands) and has good ideas about how to go on in Afghanistan. Does not cut down on hot fluff, though. Supports science (vis-a-vis creationism, climate change caused by human activity, I didn't hear anything about stem cells).

Everyone agrees with Homeland Security Dpt.

• Newt Gingrich is seasoned, agrees with Obama's programme of charter schools. Proposes humane treatment of illegal immigrants, not deporting them.

• Rick Santorum is a Roman Catholic candidate. Has the most balanced rhetoric, but is very uninformed and stutters — the latter not necessarily being a bad trait, given the popularity of "The King's Speech", all of which also reminds me about Lt. Reginald Barclay in "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Was positive about immigration.

Misc and Other gripes

Sarah Palin's noted absence has taken away some of the entertainment value from the debate.

For a long while Telemundo journo's face is not shown at the beginning.

To follow the debates further, see here.

Conclusion

Of most Republican candidates, each have at least one good idea — These are Romney, Paul, Perry, Huntsman, Gingrich, and Santorum (well, so-so). Perry even has two, Huntsman three, Gingrich is tied between the two. Santorum has said the least, so in many ways he's trying to cover his base.

My wish-list of Republican policies based on the debate
(In a somewhat increasing order of importance)

• Support science vis-a-vis creationism and climate change caused by human activity (Huntsman);
• Implement charter schools — this should circumvent stubborn teacher's unions (Gingrich);
• Abolish TSA (Paul) — then what?
• Diversify energy production and supply (Romney) — this would put a simmer on oil and gas prices;
• Balance the budget (Perry) — How? Only with cuts and no tax increases?
• Bring troops home, realign Afghanistan strategy and tactics to adapt to asymmetrical warfare (Huntsman);
• Have clear entry and exit strategies when invading a country, and then only under a U.N. mandate (Perry);

  See in-depth commentary in the sidebar —

  Necessary exceptions could be had with a budget surplus, as happened with the Bosnian War and Kosovo, which actions met stiff opposition from Russia and China.

  OTOH, the actions taken re Libya (before UN-mandated action) and Syria in the condition of a lack of money for any further U.S.-based adventures are cheap — just wait until the local people have protests, an uprising, and then a revolution. Maybe a civil war, if the dictator is a nasty d***head.

  Afghanistan notwithstanding, such a flow of events could have taken place in Iraq, and with a substantially lesser loss of lives, blood and treasure on either side, popular support guaranteed (see current events, like the Arab Spring). This could even have inspired more people in Iran.

  Furthermore, lots of friendly oil-rich countries post-Arab Spring should be happy to export to the West (potentially a mutual feeling), which should bring petrol prices well down from current levels. Suppose the U.S. were always like it now is during the Arab Spring, then countries of that region would have been even friendlier, but The Street over there is very suspicious because of heavy infractions past and current. Now it's not the U.S., but Facebook, Twitter and Google.

  Not so in North Korea, but we can wait ... :>

  A very unfortunate thing is that dictatorial states are fairly often supported and propped up by large authoritarian countries that are not particularly friendly towards the West. This is usually caused by a lack of Western friends because of various human rights infringements and other failures of state. Well, if there are no Western friends, odd and interesting Eastern players don't have the ethical qualms to be the new partners.

  Some would claim that Iraq was very much like that, stubbornly being in a situation that made inevitable an invasion on itself, but who knows. Suppose if the regime there fell in the fashion of an "Arab Spring", the corruption of the Oil for Food programme would eventually have been unveiled anyway. Look at all the uncovered wheeling and dealing done with Ghaddafi, Sons, & Co. prior to his regime's fall.

  Given the impetus for the Arab Spring, then maybe there's still good reason to have awkward friendships?
• Humane treatment and no deportations of illegal immigrants, the latter provided there is no criminal record (Gingrich and Santorum) — What to do with those who are still crossing over now?
  
  Then someone (Romney?) proposed fixing the legal immigration system — What really are the Republicans' good ideas as to how?
  
  

  Both legal and illegal immigrants that do get over, find work and live normal lives are some of the best people already. Here's why:
  
  • The legal immigrants, because they have the necessary skills and language abilities, and because they have persevered throughout the bureaucracy of the legal immigration system;
  
  • The illegal immigrants from Latin America, because they have persevered through a very taxing endeavour from whichever South American country over to the U.S.

  Do keep in mind that some of the immigrants don't survive the journey.

  Same with African immigrants to Europe. At least Al-Jazeera now has a whole programme devoted to warning about the pitfalls of life in the West.

The Fake Lottery Ticket Prank is Staged

If you've seen a video where a dude gets a lottery ticket and hollers around and calls his boss, tells him off and quits and then announces a divorce to his wife, whom he's been pinching when she's been sleeping, then tells his (best?) friend that he's been cheating on him with the best friend's wife... The sketch is so believable that it's really impossible to say at first sight whether it was real or not, so I decided to snoop around a bit.

Proof:
Original upload by user adamray24

At 0:05 seconds, the small tv set shows "Adam Ray TV", so you know.

Another original upload, this time at funnyordie.com — the site's logo can't be seen well on third-party YouTube uploads (because they are too low-res and information is not clear based on these):
"America's Funniest Home Video" (note the quotes, which mean to tell that it's really not America's Funniest Home Video tv show)

Furthermore, the uploader there is Adam Ray, too, and his avatar is that of the protagonist in the video.

Moreover, if you click on "Additional Credits" well below the video at funnyordie, the section will expand to show names of other actors from the video (who are good).

So you know.

This doesn't mean there aren't home video uploads around that show real people doing about the same stuff in real life, but the video at hand is even better than real :>

The Golden Age of Mustamäe

In reply to Giustino's missed america

I guess what Giustino is referring to about the simpler times of 1950's is what for some people resembled the Golden Era, a time, probably ending in 1940's when things were good and fine in America. I can't really put a spot on that one, but this might be a span of time before television took hold in the States, so for a similar reminiscense of "old good times", this time before the time of television, I'd tentatively put The Golden Age of Radio as the one.

When I further thought of this and similar terms, I realised that they have a tendency to come to use well after a period of growth and/or progress has (either gradually or abruptly) ended, in a time when people are a whole lot more sober about their outlook and look at the past with some nostalgia.

This is the kind of past that is not always known by today's contemporaries, but passed down by their older brethren and ancestors, through folklore and culture. We may not have a first-hand feeling of what the 1950's were like, but we've seen it in in the movies, read about it from the books.

Perhaps most interestingly, the books and movies that we refer to when reminiscing about an era may have had less significance in their time than now.

Some cultural items that proffer to establish in the minds of masses the way how things felt like at the time fail to do so, IMO, and some don't.

It's difficult to assess nostalgia. Sometimes it's as simple as having a meal with friends (or alone) in a local diner, or that you actually spent quite a lot more time actually talking, discussing, and interacting with friends and family.

---

"Nüüd elan Mustamäel...", which Liivimaa parim ratsutaja referred to, is "Mustamäe valss", the lyrics for which can be found here. The page has an inset which says that the song was written in 1971 and explains that Mustamäe was first known as All-Nõmme or Mustamäe-alune (I'm too tired to parse all this into English). The inset explains further that to people suffering from cramped dwellings in "wooden" districts, a spacious property seemed like a godsend.

Historically, before Mustamäe and Õismäe and Lasnamäe, there were more wooden houses and dwellings across all of Tallinn than Kalamaja (which is just representative of the type). A large amount of those wooden houses have been replaced by newer fare both in Soviet and post-Soviet times.

Even in 1980's, upgrading from ühiskorter (communal apartment) in ühiselamu (ühikas) or a one-room flat to a three-room flat anywhere in the city was like a huge stroke of luck. I know there are absurd-sounding, but probably true stories of even three generations living in a one- or two-room flat, and maybe a cat and a dog, too. In those times, a three-room flat was never unreasonable, but a dream not always attainable; well-todo people had a four-room flat and teh rich ppl had a private house, or eramaja :)

More on ühiskorter in Estonian Wikipedia can be read about in article talk about the term.

Two points: World's soundest banks and how forward-looking Estonians are

In July, a family member in Canada wondered if another depression is going to happen in the U.S. and how it will affect Canada.

Well, it may be somewhat early to think of a depression yet (I'm trying to be an optimist, or maybe is it, that my worrylessness may actually be complacency), but it's always best to be careful. "Better safe than sorry" sounds perhaps a bit too cliché. At least right now, people are bracing for the impact that this negative growth is (also called a recession, mostly after the fact).

I do have to add that Canada has soundest banking system in the world, with Sweden at #2 and most large Estonian banks belong to Nordic banking companies.

Of course, the latest Time article about Estonia is not so bloomy anymore about Estonia. After all, if you're exemplified all around the world for being great when times are good, remember to expect being reported on at difficult times (and how you're faring).

This Time piece by Andrew Purvis reflects on Estonians' reputation for "being practical, down-to-earth, and forward-looking." The latter notion being rather telling, because in "The Baltic Mourning After", the same author has noticed "Black banners for a lecture series [...] in Tallinn asking: IS THERE LIFE AFTER CAPITALISM?"

The lecture series happened in October (with the end of the month culminating with the screening of "The Corporation", a Canadian documentary) and still continues to happen in November.

Links and comments

• 21.10.: Canada rated world's soundest bank system
  You just have to love those oddball news sites that still keep their articles :-)
  
  Op-Eds:
• 31.10.: Strong, safe and open for business
• 03.11.: Mel Watkins . Still strong and free
• 10.11.: Why Canada's Banks Don't Need Help
  — With a link to a somewhat sardonic gallery of Top Ten Scared Traders at the end of the article. || I guess the guys and gals there will be remembered as really-really brave for having had the guts to yo-yo, swing and zigzag through the precarious financial mêlée that befell in their midst.
  
  Doubt has also been creeping in:
• 13.11.: Experts not sold on bank strength
  I'd say rather that a sound banking system allows a country to tough it out through the rough times with less pain than those rated to be in their forties. I remember a piece in The Economist which mentioned that wealthy countries will have it harder than poor countries, because the latter have a difficult life anyway.

USA: Majake kanajalgadel ja transport hajusasustatuse tingimustes

Niisiis, USA-s müüakse maju sõna otseses mõttes hinnasildiga, millel peal võileivahind. Vau.

Kuid isegi niisuguse hinnaga elamu müümine võib võtta aega kuni kaks nädalat ja rohkemgi veel.

Asjast kirjutab PMO, mis viitab E24 kirjutisele, mis omakorda viitab "The Detroit News"-i artiklile.

Mis siis eesti keeles välja jäi ja täiendavalt taustalugu:

Niisuguselt majalt on võetud (kas vajadusel omaniku või lihtsalt niisama isegi metallivaraste poolt) maha kõik jooksvad ja mittejooksvad kulud ning kõik väärtuslik, sh. aed, fassaad, uksed, vee- jm. torud, soojaveepaak, kraanikauss, ahi, vaskjuhtmed. Isegi avausi katvad puulauad näpati ära selleks, et need ühele uuele orvuks jäänud majale peale naelutada.

Kohtunikud pankadel lobudiku otsas niisama istuda ka ei lase ja käsivad maja kas lammutada või maha müüa. Pangale maksab üks niisugune müük umbes $10 000 (sõltuvalt viimasest kahest komponendist): komisjonimaks müügi eest $2500, $1000 boonus müügi vormistamise eest, $500 boonus ostjale müügi vormistamise eest ning võimas veearve ja maksmata maksud.

Peale säherdust paljaksajamist ulatub hoone infra väljavahetamine ja lisamine niimoodi kümnetesse tuhandetesse dollaritesse ning omanikul on katusealust raske metallivaraste eest hoida.

Lammutamine maksab vaid $5000, ainult et maamaks ikkagi on uuele omanikule $4000 läheduses, kui see maamaksu mõjutavat [maa] hindamist just ei vaidlusta.

Laenuandjad omavad krahhi tagajärjel nüüd terveid elamurajoone.

---

Kokkuvõttes sedapsi, et maja on taandkestendatud katusega karbiks, sest eelmised omanikud (nende seas ka pank) ja metallivargad võtavad absoluutselt kõik ära ja ostjad peaksid teadma, et kaela võib sadada raske taak remondi, infra, maksmata maksude ja arvete kujul.

Siin väitis keegi, et ega ameeriklased nagu ei elakski hajusasustatuna, kuid tegelik pilt on suurlinnu välja jättes umbes nii nagu igalpool regioonides ikka.

Ehkki kõrbelises Nevadas kõik ei ela, tuleb arvestada sellega, et 'meerikas on kõik väga palju laiem ja avaram võrreldes Eesti ja paljude Euroopa linnade ja linnakeste kompaktsusega. Kui välja jätta suurlinnad, võib tõepoolest elukoha ja poe kaugus olla võrdeline küla kaugusega lähimast keskusest.

Et näiteks kõige lähem tõelist toitu müüv pood on hüpermarket, on täiesti tõsi, sest sealne suurim jaemüüja Wal-Mart on oma peamiselt Hiinas toodetud kaupade superodavate hindadega oma "pesitsuskoha" lähemas ja kaugemas ümbruskonnas kõik elukohale lähemad väiksemad müüjad lihtsalt välja suretanud.

Pika teekonna ja nädalapalga süsteemi tõttu -- nendest asjaoludest johtuvalt või nagunii -- sõidavad paljud suburblased kord nädalas hüpermarketisse varusid täiendama.

Vahepeale jäävad (õnne korral) igasugused purksiputkad ja -restod, kus külastajad rasvumise eest veel peale maksavad.

Ning ühistransport äärelinna ja keskuse vahel on paljudes kohtades tõepoolest täiesti ebaefektiivne. Isegi kui see eksisteerib, lõpetab see töö kuskil õhtupoolikul -- ehe näide "30 päeva" ("30 Days") esimeses osas "Miinimumpalk" ("Minimum Wage"), kus kusagil Ohio osariigi linnas lõppes bussiliiklus kesklinnast välja kell 18:00. Sari "30 päeva" ise on TV6 peal, seega võisid mõned seda ka näha. Vot nii.