Blackcap Blog

Published at 18:32 on 23 July 2014

What’s Torre David, you ask? It’s one of the tallest buildings in Caracas, Venezuela, still incomplete despite construction commencing in 1990. In recent years it’s been occupied by squatters who have at least been putting the structure to some meaningful use for the first time in its life.

The establishment BS is that it somehow represents “the failure of the late Hugo Chávez’s experiment in socialism”. That, despite the boondoggle being the result of completely capitalist action (it was capitalists that decided to start building it, and then failed to complete it). That, despite construction grinding to a halt in 1994 and Chávez not being elected until 1999.

Of course, the putting of the structure to meaningful use wasn’t the result of Chávez’s state socialism, either: it was grassroots action. The Chávez government at least did that effort the favor of doing nothing and letting it happen (as opposed to the more traditional governmental role of repression).

Yes, it was a dangerous place to live. And yes, there should have been better housing alternatives. No arguments there. But trying to blame a boondoggle that came to full fruition five years before Chávez was elected on Chávez is more than a little dishonest.

It’s all ending this month, because the Venezuelan government has cut a deal with Chinese state capitalism to complete the building. And yes, skepticism about the State’s promise to adequately house the displaced is completely justified.

But it should be possible to express skepticism about the Venezuelan government (something I’ve done here many times, by the way) without blaming it for boondoggles which happened well before the Bolivarian movement even came to power.

Published at 17:18 on 18 July 2014

They’re pure garbage.

Really, all they mean is that some Bozo somewhere registered a Twitter account while claiming to be a pro-Russian rebel in the Ukraine, and then used said account to post something boasting about shooting down a plane. And then later removed the post.

Maybe it was an actual rebel who actually shot down the plane and then realized it was bad PR to boast about it. Maybe. Or maybe it was someone pulling a joke who decided the joke was in bad taste and should be removed. Or maybe it was someone on the pro-Ukraine side who was posting “black propaganda” designed to make the enemy look bad. Or someone connected with the US military-industrial complex who wants a new cold war with Russia. Or one of dozens of other plausible possibilities.

If, that is, such a post was even made in the first place. Curiously, I haven’t seen so much as a purported screen shot (itself an easy thing to fake) of it. Just an assertion that it was there and then later vanished.

Unless some far better evidence comes up, the only prudent response to such reports is to wave them off as the unsubstantiated rumors that they are.

Published at 20:26 on 19 June 2014

This, that is.

I’m not exactly the biggest sports fan in the world, but I’d have to be dead not to notice how much more popular soccer is in the USA than when I was in high school. Back then, there were no professional soccer teams in the USA, and the USA typically didn’t even bother to field a team for the World Cup (an event most in the USA were blissfully ignorant of).

Many of my co-workers are talking about the World Cup, and there’s typically a TV showing matches in the break room. That would have been unthinkable in the USA even 20 years ago. Yes, they’re a young crowd and the demographic from which soccer fans are disproportionately drawn in the USA.

But, so what. 20 years ago, you could pick any age demographic you wanted, and you wouldn’t have found much interest at all in professional soccer in the USA. There’s been literally tremendous growth in the popularity of soccer in this country.Arguing that Americans “don’t like” soccer and that it’s somehow a failure because it hasn’t immediately soared to No. 1 popularity amongst all sports as soon as it was introduced professionally is just plain stupid.

Published at 15:19 on 5 June 2014

This sold, that is. Seems as if a fool and $310K of his/her money just parted.

 

Published at 22:56 on 12 May 2014

Despite the claims of the techno-futurists, taxis still very much serve useful purposes that services like Uber and Sidecar cannot fill.

Here’s one good example.

Two more examples is anonymity and universal access. In order to use the new ride-sharing services you must own a smart phone and register ahead of time. No anonymity, and if you don’t have an expensive phone (or if you’re traveling internationally and don’t want to shell out for a local phone contract or pay extortionate roaming fees) you’re SOL.

I have no particular loyalty to the taxi industry. Find a way to replace it that preserves the above things and I’m all for it. Until then, however, there is a public interest in preserving taxi service.

Published at 22:23 on 1 May 2014

I’m 51 years old, I marched in both the permitted immigrants’-rights rally and the unpermitted anarchist/anti-capitalist one. I wore black and chanted anarchist slogans.

I am hardly perfect, nor in my estimation particularly effective, but I have not sold out. Quite the contrary; I’m more radical now than I was in my twenties. Not because I sought out radicalism as a goal but I kept observing the world around me and thinking fearlessly about it.

In short, I am winning.I am winning because I have not sold my life away. Yes, I have a professional job that pays well, but my career is merely something I do to get by in this world, not my identity. The high-tech salary the system pays me can buy my labor but it can’t buy me. My mind is still my own, and I do not love Big Brother.

I could write many more things about today, but this will suffice for now.

Published at 17:48 on 4 April 2014

Posted because if you Google “freeze dried durian review” you mostly get useless hits like this one. After this post, I will return to more typical subject matters for this blog.

I mean, sure it’s not as pungent or flavorful as the frozen kind, but it’s still not bad by comparison, and it lends itself much better to be taken as a snack on hikes than thawed frozen durian (which could be very messy should its Ziploc bag spring a leak). Some of the savory aspects (in addition to the expected sweet ones) of the flavor even managed to survive the freeze-drying.

Actually, “not bad by comparison” means “very yummy”, because face it, it’s still durian. I can only imagine how awesome it must taste fresh. If I ever visit Southeast Asia rest assured my trip will be during durian season.

The one surprise is how big the the three bags that came in the mail were; about twice the size that I was expecting, in fact. (Not that it’s going to be any challenge to consume it all or anything; maybe I’ll try concocting a recipe for durian-flavored granola.)

Published at 12:36 on 14 February 2014

A hatchet-job of a modernization is being proposed for a 1989 Postmodern office building in San Francisco, and John King is objecting.

Rightly so. Sure, it looks dated. Guess what? Buildings of that age have always looked “dated,” throughout history. A building that’s about 25 to 50 years old (maybe 20 to 40 is a better range) is old enough to be considered “dated” yet not old enough to be considered “historic”.

It’s not an unsafe structure, or an obviously bad design. It’s just a bit “dated” looking, nothing more. That’s a really bad reason for altering its appearance.

The desire to modernize “dated” buildings is one of the reasons that intact, historically correct period buildings tend to be so rare. This tends to particularly be a problem in the USA, a relatively new country with little sense of history.

There’s lots of Beaux Arts and Victorian buildings which are beloved today but which were at one time considered dated embarrassments. There’s far more that we regret having torn down or butchered with hatchet-job modernizations.

I’ve now lived long enough for mid-century modernism to have gone from being “dated” (in the 1980s, at about the same era this building was built) to being considered a classic, historical style of its own. Most of the “tasteful modernizations” of the 1980s are now seen as the hatched jobs I always knew them to be.

Such regrets should be taken as lessons to be cautious about embarking on modernizing. I’m not saying “never do it”, just “think twice”.

Published at 19:51 on 11 February 2014

None of the talking heads seem to get it with regards to why the Bay Area in general and San Francisco in particular is so expensive. Most focus on one or two reasons which very conveniently dovetail with their pet political beliefs and preconceptions, but almost nobody gets the big picture.

A robust local economy that creates ample amounts of well-paying jobs, ensuring a continual supply of new residents who are able to bid up housing prices should the need arise.

Regulations make it very hard to expand housing supply, but easy to expand the supply of business offices. Commercial areas tend not to have homeowners and long-time tenants who get upset about new neighbors.*

Politics determined largely by narrow self-interest. There’s lots of self-professed liberal and even leftist sentiment in San Francisco, but the politics is often very shallow. If it doesn’t affect them personally, many simply do not care if the policies they advocate hurt others.

Price controls that help shield the narrowly self-interested from the consequences of the hurtful policies they advocate. Both rent control and Proposition 13 play big roles here (funny that those so willing to rake rent control over the coals are silent about Proposition 13).

Regulations elsewhere in the Western USA that make it impossible to build a city like San Francisco, which is pretty much unique in the West in consisting entirely of low- and mid-rise attached housing. If you want a home of your own, but you dislike yard work and don’t like condos, and you don’t want to live on the East Coast, there is basically only one city in the USA that satisfies your requirements.

Worldwide popularity which ensures that the many see San Francisco as a highly desirable place to live.

A mild climate without extremes of either hot or cold. So mild that I personally find it monotonous, but many find it completely to their liking.

Scenic beauty, another geographic attribute that people are willing to pay a premium for.

Just a couple of the above could doom a place to housing affordability problems, yet all of them apply to SF. Worse, some of them are entirely out of the City and County of San Francisco’s ability to fix. (Or are desirable attributes that nobody would want to fix.)

* Much ink is spilled about how rent control supposedly “causes” the problem. Rent control does play an role, but it’s hardly the prime driver of the situation. First, rent control in California by state law exempts new construction, so its supposed baleful effect of discouraging new rental construction simply does not exist. Second, if rent control primarily was the problem, you’d expect a disconnect in prices between rents and ownership costs; SF would be an expensive place to rent in but not all that expensive a spot to buy a home in. The real issue is supply restrictions in the face of robust demand.

Published at 19:19 on 9 February 2014

It’s been a mostly disappointing winter due to a general lack of storms and a near-complete lack of snow. On the subject of the latter, I’m glad I don’t live someplace like New England or the Northern Rockies where the snow can drag on for months and there’s a near-interminable season of lingering and very slowly melting dirty snow which often takes up a good chunk of the spring. But I do like to see at least some fall every winter (so I’m glad I don’t live in coastal California).

This past week has been particularly frustrating because it’s been cold enough to snow but storm after storm has gone south and missed us. Portland and Eugene have been getting dumped on, but nothing more than a flurry or two here. Yesterday the forecast was for another chance of flurries with this time maybe a half-inch managing to dust the ground by the next morning in the most favored spots. Portland, of course, was forecast to get yet another big snow-and-ice storm.

So I assumed it was going to be another bust, bundled up, and took my dry-weather bike on the ferry for a long day in the city (first coffee with friends then a meeting). The latter dragged on past dark, and it started to look as if the leaves on the laurel hedge out the window were turning whitish. Hmmm… yup, everything was dusted in white already, and it was only 6:30PM. A few hours later, it looked like this:

Nope, not going to ride a bike in that, particularly my dry-weather bike without knobby tires or fenders, and with a bottle generator prone to slip and cause the light to go out if the tire sidewall gets wet or icy.

By today, my birthday, it was all over, but the morning did dawn with a nice snowy scene:

Not an epic snowstorm by any means, but far better than last winter’s disappointing performance, and the fact that it was only a few inches (and that the temperature is starting to moderate) let the arterial streets melt clear by mid-afternoon.