Mindless Philosopher

I went canvassing for HRC today (and on Saturday) to help GOTV. (That’s “Get out the vote” for all you non-politicos.) The HRC office in Bristol, Bucks County, PA was very organized, which seems to be a theme from what I’ve seen in the campaign. I am also pleased to provide an epilogue to the following story:
Back in 2006, Taren and I canvassed MD before the general election and I was dissappointed to find that the campaign was still creating turf manually, with scissors and a highlighter. In the summer of 2006, I wrote TurfCutterGM as a “proof of concept” program to show how you could canvass without resorting to such crude, 20th Century techniques. I promised Taren that day that this would be the last election cycle that people “ran (for office) with scissors” and that in the future campaigns would use online mapping tools to “cut” their turf.
Flash forward to 2008, and I am happy to report that the prophecy came true. I’m not sure what system the Bristol HRC campaign was using, but I assume it was the VAN, since it seemed to integrate so seemlessly into their voter file (which is VAN). VAN bought a license to the TurfCutterGM code in early 2007 for $1 (still haven’t seen that check!), so it’s possible that my canvass route was created with some of my own code, but my guess is that VAN just took my concept and wrote their own code.
And, I must say, canvassing with a computer-generated, unobscured-by-highlights map with each house displayed as a pin point was a very pleasant experience and made the whole process much more efficient from the canvasser’s perspective. We’ll all find out shortly if my efforts paid off!

My MIT friend Kate is managing her very own campaign in Alabama: Josh Segall for Congress. In an impressive start to his candidacy, Segall raised just over a quarter million dollars (enough to buy the Twickham House!) in the first quarter of 2008. Democrat Segall is looking to unseat Mike Rogers, who only won the district with only 50% of the voter (to 48%) in 2002. Since then, Rogers has seen the usual “sophomore surge”, but a spirited run by Segall could cost the Republicans money, and potentially another seat. Help out Segall (and Kate!) at his ActBlue page.
And, I’m pleased to see that progressive Jewish are finally getting their (our) act together by forming a competitor to AIPAC. I welcome J Street into the political world and hope that it helps prove that you can be pro-Israel and pro-Palentine (-ian) at the same time. I’ve already sent in my donation — are you in?

How does Hillary know I am Jewish? Did other people get this email?

Dear Aaron,
As Jewish families across the world prepare to gather together around the Seder table, I am delighted to offer greetings and good wishes for a joyous Passover.
I have always been inspired by the enduring words of the Haggadah: “In every generation, each of us must see ourselves as if we personally came out of Egypt.” It’s through remembering the past that we become strong and effective advocates for all who suffer the indignity and pain of servitude and injustice. I am deeply moved by this timeless cry to stand up to oppression, tyranny, and discrimination — wherever they are found.
As you prepare your homes and your hearts for this Passover season, please know that Bill, Chelsea, and I join you in celebrating freedom and family.
Hag Sameach — May this be a season of joy for all!
Sincerely,
Hillary Clinton

Simply put: the Galapagos trip was amazing (view all pics). It was the end of the rainy season so everything was so green for volcanic islands. In about five months, all the plants will be dead. But, in March, the rain was dissipating, and all the animals were in mating season. Just the perfect time to go. Highlights:

• We started in Quito, Ecuador, where we took a day trip to the Bellavista Cloud Forest. (Unfortunately, the rain forest was a bit too far away.) They had amazing food, for both humans and hummingbirds. Beautiful birds, cool snakes, and elixir-filled trees. The leaves of ferns were used as ponchos by the locals.
• Also, in Quito-proper, we found this amazing restaurant, La Boca Del Lobo (The Mouth of the Wolf). They had great empanadas, shakes, eggplant, and desserts. Chicklet was very happy.
  Then we flew to the Galapagos! The animals we out to welcome us. The highlights of the first Island (Chinese Hat): nursing sea lions, pelicans, north-of-the-equator penguins (!), lava lizards (so many you almost stepped on them often), iguanas, crabs, Darwin’s finches singing their mating songs, and herons.

• Oh, I should mention the cruise ship. A 99-person vessel, with a 70-person crew. We bought the cheapest cabin possible, but we were pampered. Beds changed three times a day. Two bars. Swimming pool. Sauna. Salsa lessons! (I found a great partner.) Our group of 14 (who we went on most of our treks with) included: a worldwide-traveling couple, two families from New York, and this family from Norway who now lived in Venezuela with a Romanian father, Russian mother, and two daughters, the younger of whom was a riot (Maria). Maria could speak five languages (Roamanian, Russian, Norwegian, Spanish, and English), and she didn’t stop speaking the entire trip. I think the funniest story was that to calm Maria down at dinner one evening, I taught her the “Questions Game.” Chicklet thought that this game would be too tough for a six-year-old, but Maria (after a five-minute learning curve) was equal to the task. Her standby reply was “Why do you want to know?”, but the funniest round came when I asked her to start us off. She led with “Do you like to feel sexy?” How do you respond to that question to a 6-yr-old?! You can’t, and I couldn’t, partially because we couldn’t stop laughing. So Maria won that round. We only left the ship twice a day (two islands a day), so Maria and her family made the entire trip that much more enjoyable.
• Back to the islands, the next of which was Cerra Dragon (on Santa Cruz). The highlights were flamingos (including on in flight!) and land iguanas. Other than that, it was just your standard Galapagos island.
• That afternoon, we visited Floreana for a trek and snorkeling. More flamingos, finches, sea turtle tracks, and our first look at boobies from afar. The real adventure came snorkeling. Sea lions were right next to us as we hopped in. Chicklet took the underwater camera, and took a picture of tiny fish when I stopped her and reminded her that we only had 27 exposures on the underwater camera. Since we were going scuba diving in a few days, I said that we should only take pictures of really cool things. So I took the camera, and went out snorkeling. About five minutes in, I met this neat school of fish and debated whether it was picture worthy. Possibly hypocritically, I took a picture. Just as I was finished winding the camera to ready it for the next picture, this SHARK blindsides me from the right. After my heart skipped half a beat, I took an action shot and prayed that it came out. I think I did pretty well, given the circumstances. Thank goodness that shark didn’t come three second before when I was still winding! (Aside: I don’t know much about sharks…does anyone know what kind that is…dogfish shark maybe?)
• On our way back from Floreana we saw this beautiful rainbow.
• Española island was next. We saw lots of boobies, and this pile of aquatic iguanas. Seeing an iguana swimming is an odd site, but it quickly become apparent why they have their long, thick tails: they need them to swim! The main attraction on Española was the birds (including two hawks). But, one cool scene was iguanas battling over territory (more benefits of mating season!); I captured a small fight in this video.
• At night, the ship would shine external lights, and the sea lions were attracted to the boat so that they could see their prey: flying fish (impossible to get a picture of them unfortunately). Hard enough to photograph the slow-moving seas turtles.
• San Cristobal island was the only island we visited that was pretty much full inhabited. Mostly farms — the conditions looked very third-world. We visited to tour the tortoise breeding facility. At first we could find any grown tortoises in the reserve and only got to saw the caged young ones. (Very Jurassic Park — the only thing that was missing was “Frog DNA”.) But eventually, we caught sight of some females and a couple of the huge males.
• The last stop of the cruise was North Seymour island, which included the famed red frigates. The males have pouches under their necks; the females don’t. During mating season, the males fill their pouches with air in an attempt to attract the females. The frigate flapping its wings in this picture is really trying to attract some attention, but needs some more air in that pouch of his. Note the male adolescent watching and learning how to (unsuccessfully) woo a mate.
• On our own, after the cruise, we headed to the Charles Darwin Research Center, another tortoise breeding center. We started in the female pen, which we had to ourselves. When we headed over to the male pen, we found out why: everyone was watching male gay giant tortoise sex. I expected Scalia to appear any moment with his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas to put a stop to the whole affair. Oh, and if you’ve ever wonder why tortoises’ shell bend down/inward near the tail, it’s apparently because they fall off during sex.
• During scuba diving, we saw more sharks (no good pics though) and rays. The coolest thing though was being surrounded by a tornado of fish. I learned from Planet Earth that swimming in a cyclone is a defensive mechanism against predators, so getting out of the swarm is diffifcult, as the fish will not break ranks. Instead you have to swim under the tornado.

That’s about it. By visiting the Galapagos, you really get a sense of what Darwin was thinking. All of the islands look pretty much the same (they come from the same underwater volcanic hot spot), but the mockingbirds and tortoises that Darwin encountered were unique to each island in small but visible ways. (So were the finches, but despite legend, Darwin didn’t realize this.) It didn’t make sense for these animals to be of different species when it appeared that one species would do the trick for all the islands (from an intelligent design point of view). So maybe when isolated on their respective islands, each species changed slightly…an the Origin of the Species was born. (I recommend reading The Beak of the Finch for a good accounting of this train of thought and the evidence for evolution. If you have read that book, you may find these pictures of Daphne Major interesting.)

Ever since Mike Huckabee said he didn’t believe in evolution, I’ve had my doubts. So, tomorrow, I’m off to the Galapagos Islands, with Darwin’s finches, tortoises, boobies, and sea lions!
Some notes from the past month (which about how long it has been since I’ve blogged).

• Taught the Trenton high-schoolers about the presidential primaries. They were somewhat knowledgeable, but the most interesting part was when they took a “Who should you vote for” quiz. The issues responses these African-American and Latino youngsters uniformly produced John McCain as the best candidate for them! I think the issue with the quiz was the structure: there was serious acquiescence bias among the students — they often agreed with the statement no matter what it was! And since this produced conflicting ideological answers, “middle-of-the-road” McCain came out on top.
• Speaking of politics, Scalia came and spoke at Princeton! Luckily, Anthony and I got the last two seats before they moved people to the overflow room. Scalia came off as very sharp (of course). The main thrust of his talk was about strict constructionism. But when it came to the Q&A, it was obvious that he would ignore the text of the law/constitution when it suited him! Strict constructionism doesn’t work when it’s a conviction of convenience.
• On the next trip to Trenton (today), the topic was climate change, and were we (the Princeton teachers) blown away by the in-depth knowledge of these students. They knew everything from which ice would raise the sea levels (Antartica but not the Artic) to why Greenland has “Green” in its name if it’s so icy! They could rattle off alternative energy sources, and some of them had seen an Inconvenient Truth! The science of the greenhouse effect was second-nature to them. Al Gore: job well done, sir. Job well done.
• Speaking of teaching, I guest-lectured an undergrad class of about 20 on survey experiments. Not to toot my own horn (well, yes, to do precisely that), I brought my “A-game” and the class went great. The students didn’t look bored even though they had their laptops out (I enforce a no-laptop rule in my precepts), and responded to my brainstorming challenges quite well.
• And on a weird-but-kind-of-sad note, I saw the Farnsworth Invention again right before it closed, and the play had several understudies, including the two main characters. The understudy for Philo majorly flubbed one line, and paused in the middle of half-a-dozen others. We felt kind of sorry for the actor, but the rarity of seeing such poor delivery on broadway made it something to blog about.

That’s all I can think of. I can’t believe I’m taking a vacation during the first round of the NCAAs! My Mom has already called me a hypocrite for such a choice (I complained incessantly when she scheduled family events in March). But here’s to a week full of trekking, creatures, and Scuba; and devoid of work, Internet, and this never-ending campaign! (Oy, wait, how am I going to survive? ;)

Despite the global warming trend, it still gets cold in the winter in NJ — too cold to run outside. Thus, the past two years, I have taken Step Jam classes at the Princeton gym. They’ve been a great workout, and lots of fun, mostly due to the instructor who was very welcoming. Basically, you work out in a group to music, listening to the instructor for the choreography; in each class we would learn a long routine, which would be repeated until we were exhausted. You constructed your own variable-height step to hop on at the beginning of the class so that the workout was personalized.
This year, however, the gym replaced Step Jam with the new fad of Zumba, and I decided to sign up (the descriptions sounded similar enough). As with Step Jam, I was the only male in the class, but unlike Step Jam, the class was much less welcoming. First, despite Tuesday being the first class of the term, there was very little introduction for us beginners. The instructor gave few verbal cues: you were supposed to follow along by looking for subtle hand signals and mimicing the instructors movements. Since we did a different routine for each 5-minute song that played, the moves kept changing and I found it difficult to keep up. Second, the lack of a physical step (you’re just moving within a small, 10-ft circle) meant that I didn’t get enough of a workout. And third, so much of the choreography required either hip movement, butt wiggling, or chest jiggling — clearly all designed for women. I felt excluded as I don’t have the hips, butt, or chest to move, wiggle, or jiggle.
The only thing keeping me in the class at the moment is that I know three other people who were there Tuesday, and I wouldn’t normally see these people around campus. I think I’ll give Zumba one more shot before passing final judgment. But the odds aren’t looking good on my (Rory Gilmore-patented) Pro-Con list.

I’m sure no one who reads this blog needs a reminder, but Go Vote today (for Hillary) in VA, DC, or MD. I FedEx’d my absentee ballot on Saturday and recorded for posterity my vote for the first woman President!

Went into the City last night to take advantage of “college students ride NJT free week.” Saw Alissa and we went to Gotham Improv (UCB didn’t have show times that worked for us). Three groups were peforming: Beaver Las Vegas, Thank You Robots, and The [Something] Orphans. All were below my standards, but it was only a $6 show, so we got what we paid for.
The funny part (for me) came when the Orphans did their bit. Right after they came on, one of the cast asks for “a word”. Normally, improv groups ask for something more specific: a celebrity, an occupation, etc. Clearly the audience is thrown off with his vague request, as the performer is unexpectedly met with silence. I’m good at breaking silences, so I shout the first word that comes to my mind: PARABOLA! Yes, I’m a nerd.
Anyway, they performer clearly doesn’t want to take the suggestion, but he has no choice, as I was the only one to say anything! So, all five improvists sit in a semi-circle and start the routine (or so I think). The guy in the middle chair starts a story to the effect of “So, I took algebra really late, in 10th grade. And I did so poorly the first time, that I had to take it twice. But the next time, I did really well in it.” And I start laughing, because taking algebra in 10 grade is just funny. And taking it twice? Unthinkable. So, this guy is clearly playing a stupid person, doing it well, and I’m laughing….but, wait, no one else is laughing. Why is no one else laughing? So, I slowly end my external laughter and keep it internal.
It readily becomes apparent that the skit has not started and the actors are discsussing, stream-of-consciousness style, memories (keyed off of the initial word “parabola”) that they will perform momentarily. Whoops, the guy wasn’t playing a stupid person, he was just really (really) bad at math. And I was playing the fool laughing at him for it.

Since I’m working for the Clinton campaign, I can’t comment on the Democratic primary, but I must point out what I think is a blatantly idiotic move on the Republican side.
John McCain ended 2007 with $4.5 million in debt, hampering his ability to capitalize on his SC/FL momentum by advertising in Super Tuesday states. But, Mitt Romney and his $200 million net worth should not have money woes. Yet, he is not advertising in Super Tuesday states! In many cases, politicians spending their own money is a terrible decision because they often get such low return on their dollars. (True, money and votes are often correlated, but I think that reflects that the ability to raise money is correlated with the ability to attract voters.) In high-information races (e.g., Governor, Senate, and President) political realities often trump personal wealth (viz: Steve Grossman in MA-Gov, Steve Forbes for Pres.).
However, Super Tuesday presents a unique opportunity for Romney. On, Tuesday of this week, the AP reported that neither Romney nor McCain had bought paid media for 2/5. That day, I began discussing this oddity with politico friends, who also found it odd, especially since Romney should be able to afford these advertisements. Simply put, he missed a huge opportunity to have the airwaves to himself in these crucial states. While political advertising can often be ineffective, especially in television markets inundated with paid media, being the only candidate on the air can be very beneficial. One need only look to Bush’s flipping of West Virginia from Blue to Red in 2000 when his commercials went uncontested for (approx.) two weeks to see the power to television in politics.
Perhaps Romney thinks that McCain won’t go on the air at all and he can consolidate his uncontested ad buy in the final days. But now he’s let multiple pro-McCain news cycles (Florida, Rudy endorsement, etc.) proceed unabated, and I have no doubt that McCain has generated much-needed support (both in votes and cash) over this last week. When the Romney ad buy finally goes up, he might find the airwaves a bit more crowded than he expected. An additional investment of $20 million probably would have secured the nomination for Romney, and no matter what business you’re in, that’s a great rate of return.

I do some occasional consulting work, and I was on a conference call recently when this humorous event happened:
The “insiders” (incl. me) jumped on the call ahead of time to game-plan before the “partner representatives” showed up. But, some of the partners started getting on the call early. So our project lead tells them that by arriving early they get “to listen to the comedic stylings of Aaron Strauss.”
Oy. Vey. Talk about being put on the spot! And telling a joke on a conference call is even harder than in person because you can’t see the other people’s reactions. I immediately regressed to one of the first three-line jokes I was ever taught. In 7th grade Speech and Drama class, Mr. Andrukonis would let people out early if they could complete the “182 pun.” The first example he ever gave, and the one I used on the conference call was:

182 cows walk into a bar. The bartender says “We don’t serve your kind here.” The cows say: “That’s okay, we’ll just go to the utter bar.”

Now, on the call, I’m pretty nervous, and I’m trying to speed through the joke, so I don’t lose people’s attentions. But, I hit the punch line, and they all laugh. Phew. A colleague says that he “knows a five year old who would love that joke.” Running with that line, I report that I’ve got another joke for five year olds. This pun I owe to one of my Wigwam campers:

Why couldn’t the bicycle stand up?

Now I’ve told this riddle/pun about a dozen times, and no one has ever come up with the answer. So it was a big surprise when one of the partners chimed in with “it was too tired.”
At that point, we all agreed, it was time to start the meeting.