The fad of “living green”
“Green” is a major hype and propaganda these days. Hybrid cars, compostable cups, re-usable grocery bags, this and that. Makes us believe we care for the environment. Fancy TV advertisements regularly feature a smiling family of four “living green” in a huge mansion, driving a hybrid monster SUV.
What an epic hogwash in the light of overpopulation and global warming.
The biggest inconvenient truth is that we don’t need more humans for several decades before the world’s population comes down to a stable level. That means one thing – “thou shalt not reproduce unless you contribute to the society”. In other words, there should be incentives and rewards for people who choose to stay childfree, and high taxes for parents opting for more than two children.
Childfree by choice couples can even drive hummers and live opposite of a “green” lifestyle and still be consuming resources several orders of magnitude lower than a family with one or two kids. Living “green” is like saving up pennies, and when a child is born, the effective expense of the planet is of the order of several hundreds of dollars in comparison. Saving those hundreds of dollars and spending pennies in “guilty luxuries” is much much better in my opinion.
In a geek friend’s words: “Don’t have a kid unless he/she can invent cold fusion.”
Mortgage rate vs points
When you take a loan for a home purchase, the rational thing to do is to grab the lowest interest rate offered, right ? But that usually comes with an another variable, points. A point equals 1% of the loan amount, and lenders typically offer you to buy some points in exchange of a reduction in rate. So what will you do, pay some cash upfront to lower your rate, or take up a slightly higher rate ?
Basically it all comes down to a threshold number of years that you plan to stay in your home before selling it. If you take a higher rate then you must sell the home within N years to come out ahead versus taking the lower rate.
A nice calculator is here: Time to recover cost of points
A good read: Choosing Rates vs. Points in a Mortgage Loan
Here is how to use the calculator: Suppose you want to know if it is worth paying $2760 in upfront costs to reduce interest rate from 4.875% to 4.5%. Here is the calculation. We see that the break-even is 3yr 10months, that means the lower rate will be beneficial if I stay in the home for more than that duration.
Now some of you will argue that it is better to get a no-cost rate, but that rate will be higher than a lower rate at a cost. Suppose you get a no-cost rate now and then the rates went up, you can end up missing the opportunity of securing a lower rate which could be worth the upfront costs in a few years.
We are about to enter another ice age
I found a very interesting and downright scary post while researching on climate change and extreme weather.
http://english.pravda.ru/science/earth/106922-0/
We humans are all wound up with global warming and how we should reduce our carbon emissions, as if that will stop the natural cycle of earth’s climate. We are trying to understand and change a cycle of hundreds of thousands years from data worth only a thousand years. The most interesting fact from the article is:
…increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.
And the scariest part is:
The Vostok ice core data graph reveals that global CO2 levels regularly rose and fell in a direct response to the natural cycle of Ice Age minimums and maximums during the past four hundred and twenty thousand years. Within that natural cycle, about every 110,000 years global temperatures, followed by global CO2 levels, have peaked at approximately the same levels which they are at today.
Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it. The Ice Age will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the effects of AGW.
The article makes sense to me. It is only natural to be short sighted and not try to be scared of life changing events even if they seem to be knocking our doors. Media does not like to highlight the harsh scientific facts because truth is not popular.
I guess we got to get ready for a chilled future, if we get to live through the transition at all.
Aperture vs Lightroom
Posted by therider in Photography on April 23, 2010
I have been a lightroom user for over an year and just wanted to try out the new Aperture v3. What got me excited about Aperture are the two cool features – making books with professional templates and slideshows with stills, videos and audios.
I tried to evaluate Aperture for my day to day editing which I am pretty fast in LR with the keyboard shortcuts. The feature that makes my workflow fastest is how the arrow keys work with LR. The left and right keys always browse through the photos. The up and down keys modify values whenever focus is on a adjustment slider like exposure, white balance, etc. This makes editing much faster than with wacom tablet and pen, since the increments are spaced apart thereby needing less computations. However, in Aperture, both left/right and up/down movement of arrow keys browse through the photos and I need to use mouse on the sliders – a big disappointment.
I might check out the book and slideshow features, but for the time being LR will remain my workhorse editing tool. Unless someone can show me that Aperture can be configured to be as fast as LR in the editing department.
The world is dumbing down
Last night I watched Idiocracy. Despite the exaggerated satire, I felt there is no other movie that relates to the situation and direction the world is heading to. If you look around you will find evidence everywhere. From quality of education to popular TV shows to the sheer incompetence of the financial and healthcare systems. Whether it is profit driven greedy corporations bombarding senseless advertising to every demographic, or stupid people breeding like rats, it is evident that the human race as a whole is getting no smarter.
Look at the senseless media explosion and the priorities of news consumption by the masses. A celebrity scandal is perceived to be ten times more important than the serious geographical, social, political and economic issues we face today. Why ? Because the former is a no-brainer entertainment while the latter demands some maturity. It is all about popular culture now. The government does not care since the big guys are well fed by the profit making corporations and can woefully ignore the smart and geek minority.
Creative destruction is rampant in the modern technology world as well. Social networks, facebook, twitter. Everyone is busy doing status updates of the most trivial things in their lives. It is a big cacophony. No one listens. No one has any attention span anymore. How important you are is proportional to how many followers you have. And anyone who has a decent number of followers is a “guru” or a “ninja”. It is unlike anything we have ever seen.
Look at all the usability initiatives that go so far as to make common sense optional. Everything should be so easy that even a caveman can do it. There you go. Products and services must be made to appeal to the dumbest people on earth. And then there is the biggest joke of legal machinery here in the west. Fine prints everywhere to prevent lawsuits for when people hurt themselves by accident or by lack of common sense. Beware, the knife is sharp. Beware, the coffee is hot enough to burn your skin. Beware, you can fall from the ladder. You get it. How about a generic “Beware, you can possibly kill yourself if you are stupid enough to be omitted by natural selection” label in anything and everything ? Ok, I digress.
When I look at the kids here in the west it makes me sad. No genuine curiosity, no manners, no respect for elders. Despite free public schools, the abysmally low standard of curriculum and lack of discipline from parents are making them far from the generation we need in the future. The amount of tax money that goes to pay for the wasteful education system here is just incredible. The developing countries are catching up as well. It makes me feel incredibly lucky to have grown up in a small place, with strict discipline and some real education. I actually had to work hard to get into one of the best undergrad colleges in the country. The entrance exam was one of the most difficult in the whole world. But, as I found out later, those tests are significantly diluted by now to bring average students with money to fill up increased seats and new colleges. It is downright disappointing.
Sometimes I think we humans are just another species who are on this planet for a limited length of time. Our collective intelligence might already have peaked a few years back. And while we still produce newer technologies, the proportion of smart people is dwindling in our societal system. Idiocracy could be awfully accurate. I just hope I won’t be there when the tipping point is reached.
Relevant reads:
Worldwide dumbing down: it’s happening
Dumbing down: the awful truth
Royal Enfield experience in USA
Posted by therider in Motorcycling on April 11, 2010
Vaibhav, my enfield buddy from Bangalore, craved for a bullet motorcycle after a long 8 years of stay in the US. We picked up a nice 2005 Bullet 500cc from Paradise, CA last weekend. Original plan was to ride the 200 odd miles home on the same day, but thanks to the freezing cold, rain and gusty winds, we only made it to Folsom by nightfall. Left the bike with Vaibhav’s cousin brother there for the week and went back there yesterday.
Saturday started well. Cloudy weather, no rain. Soulful breakfast at Ihop. We needed to fix the sticking throttle first. Borrowed tools from a tire shop, removed the tank and took care of the pinched throttle cable. Problem solved. The mechanics and a few customers stopped by to admire the bike.
We took some country roads to avoid the major freeways. And boy that was a good decision. CA-160 and CA-4 was fantastic. Two lanes, no traffic, lush greenery everywhere. An Indian guy followed us taking photos for a few minutes, totally dumbstruck seeing a bullet. On a photo break, a passing patrol officer stopped to check out the bike.
After 165 blissful miles we were home. Went to Kragen to pick up some necesssary tools and got to work on the bike. We did the following, including a late night visit to walmart for more tools:
1. Carb adjust for idle speed.
2. Front brake cable lubing and brake adjust (clockwise rotation of the link shaft).
3. Oil change to Pennzoil 20w/50 non-synth. Planning to do again after 1000mi to change oil filter.
4. Air filter check (no dirt right now),
5. Pushrod tappets adjustment.
6. Clutch cable tension adjustment.
7. Rear wheel alignment and chain tension adjustment.
8. Replace spark plugs.
The bike is much better after front brake adjustment and rear wheel alignment.
How to save our planet
I know this is yet another brain dump from the over-thinking and over-worrying head of mine. It will probably not change anything in the world in my lifetime. But it sure feels good to put down the weight of thoughts I have been carrying for a while. And for sake of today’s readers with acute attention deficitness, I will make it short and to the point.
Our planet is in serious danger from the exploding low-quality human population. As a photographer, nature lover and traveler it is my natural concern to conserve and protect the beauty of our place in the universe. In short, I dream of a planet with a sustainable population of high quality and efficient humans. And yeah, where common sense is MANDATORY !
So,
to all the parents-to-be from my generation, consider having a kid if and only if you can devote 100% of your energy in raising a well balanced, smart, energetic, not-spoilt-rotten human being. If you can’t, then for the love of our dear planet, please DON’T. No matter what your parents want, or your breeding siblings and close friends want. Just don’t do it !
Look at the sheer population around you. Look at the mind numbing crowds in countries like India. Most people breed because either it is “going with the flow” or simply because it takes no brainpower of skill at all. I bet for most it is nothing but parental and societal pressures. For the poor, it is an extra hand for free. But then what happens ? If not raised well, it is no good. Not smart ? No good. Not willing to work hard ? No good either. An entire generation of humans raised in a half baked way is nothing but waste to the society and the human race in general.
So how do we stop that ? No easy way but I can only imagine two broad methods.
1. The moral way – consider having kids as the most important choice in life. Yes, a damn choice and nothing else. No it-is-my-destiny bullshit. No because-we-are-married-couple bullshit. No God’s wish bullshit either. Either you dedicate 100% effort on making a worthy human as your replacement, or you just enjoy your abundant free time in life with or without a partner. Take this decision sooner than later in life. The late you are, the higher chances of producing “low quality” offsprings. That is just how biology works.
2. The government/systemic way – Make it extremely easy (affordable or even free) to get an abortion, or standard surgical procedures done to prevent future offsprings. Also, discourage more offsprings beyond a threshold by imposing higher taxes and other financial stress for couples.
Of course the long term gain comes with short term costs. Not easy for a government to take the step #2 because it does not help many corporations who make profit off the younger demographics, among a multitude of other reasons.
Those who become parents will of course say it is all worth the freedom, money, time and energy. I guess that is the only thing to say because you can’t regret after the fact, right ? On the other hand, not having to sacrifice two decades (or more) worth of personal time is something worth considering, too. In my opinion these are both comparable choices, at least as long as new humans are born as a result of a conscious decision, and only to be raised to mature, sensible adults.
Comments are welcome !
Update: Here is a fantastic perspective shared by a friend: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/9grca/the_planet_is_fine_the_people_are_fucked_pic/
Ok, so according to it, I am being a dork for putting a cliche subject. But what I actually wanted to convey is nothing but the convenience of the future generation who will be raised with care and genuine effort. Maybe this article is right, nothing will happen to the planet eventually. Our lives are after all just a flash in the eternity of time.
Update: Great discussion here: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/best-way-you-can-go-green-have-fewer-children.php
Update: Some related links worth reading:
Say it loud: I’m childfree and proud
Without kids… and loving it – Opinion – theage.com.au
Child-free – and lovin’ it
Childfree Clique: Without Childfreedom, My Good Life Turns To Shit
JournalLive – News – News Archive – ‘I’m child-free and loving it!’
The plus side of being childfree
BBC NEWS | Europe | The rise of the ‘childfree’
This Childcentric World
A reader’s comment in this aggregated article:
I have always believed that NO ONE should ever have a child unless they were prepared to devote 24/7 to him/her. Sometimes that is a necessity, if the child has health problems, for example. Parenthood is a sacred lifetime commitment. Too many people have children just as an accessory to their lifestyle. There is no shame in not having children. The shame is in having children and not being a good parent.
Royal Enfield and Goldwing
Posted by therider in Motorcycling on March 18, 2010
“I find the plethora of buttons and navigation system display on my thoroughly modern GL1800 almost a laughable waste.”
Came across this perfect comparison of riding the modern goldwing GL1800 and an old classic Royal Enfield chugging along on a rural county road. I can 100% relate to this experience. I still believe my 40,000 kms in 2 years of riding in India has made better memories than all the four different modern bikes I have ridden here in the US for 6 years. Last year we did our longest journey on the goldwing – CA to NY and back in 30 days covering 10,360 miles. Even that seems not a big deal now. We did not even write up our daily experiences in detail, maybe because there wasn’t much exhilarating details to remember, except for a few specific days.
http://www.royalenfields.com/2010/03/royal-enfield-ride-on-wisconsin-roads.html
Using color blend mode in Photoshop
Posted by therider in Photography, Software on March 13, 2010
Over the years, I have been processing thousands of images in photoshop, but the various layer blending modes don’t get used much. Except for overlay and soft light for when I do high pass output sharpening.
Very recently, I came across a specific requirement. A favorite photo had abrupt vignetting and the color of the sky in the upper corners were different in hue from the rest. I would normally use the clone stamp tool with low opacity, but I had one problem, there were some power lines that went right through the corner. Then I tried using clone stamping in a new transparent layer with blending mode set to color instead of normal. That gave me exactly what I needed, the color mismatch was fixed without doing anything funky with the power lines. The photos below illustrate this technique.
Original with color shift in corner
Problem with clone stamp tool using normal blend mode
Clone stamp tool using color blend mode
Using color blend mode in photoshop
Speeding up Pixelpost blog browsing
Pixelpost is a very popular framework for photoblogs due to its simplicity and ease of tweaking. A while back I posted an article on how to enable keyboard navigation on a pixelpost photoblog. It works very well considering it allows mouse free browsing. But the browsing experience can be improved even more.
Lets consider how a photoblog is browsed most of the time. A visitor typically lands on a home page showing the latest image and goes through the previous images sequentially, spending a few seconds on each image. Leveraging this fact, if the “previous” image is downloaded in the background using javascript right after the current image, it will be almost if not completely ready for viewing when the visitor is on the “previous” image page. The same can be done for the “next” image, but in most of the cases that image will already be in the browser cache.
This is a very simple change for a tangible usability benefit. Below are my tweaks:
index.php:
// expose the previous image name through tags, so previous images can be
// pre-downloaded in the background for faster browsing experience
$tpl = ereg_replace("<IMAGE_PREVIOUS_NAME>",$image_previous_name,$tpl);
templates/theworldin35mm/image_template.html:
window.onload = function() {
...
var prevImg = new Image(); // for downloading prev image in background
img.onload = function(evt) {
...
// after current image load, load previous image in the background
if('<IMAGE_PREVIOUS_NAME>' != '') {
prevImg.src = '<SITE_URL>images/<IMAGE_PREVIOUS_NAME>';
}
}
...
};
To verify that this extra javascript is actually doing its job, look at the Net section in Firebug (in Firefox browser, ofcourse). Clear the cache first. On first page load it will show several items getting downloaded. On left arrow, the previous image page will load, and then you can see that an extra image got downloaded at the bottom. Compare with and without my code. Here is a screenshot:
About
Hi, I'm Joy, a Javascript engineer at Zoosk. While code pays my bills, I enjoy hang gliding, photography, motorcycling, woodworking and home renovation. Welcome to my blog.
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