Category Archives: Angst

An American Parliament?

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There is an interesting post at the Daily Kos by Mentarch detailing the “Eight Principles of Incompetence“. Now, I’m not sure that this list constitutes a manifesto, guiding light, or even a footnote in a Polysci text of the future.  But the author has cogently reduced to writing some observations that I have struggling to put into words. I tip my hat. 

Much has been said about the growing problem with Cheney.  There is precious little to say about this fascist that is new. Cheney is doing a fine job of self destructing without my input. Mentarch has highlighted many of Cheney’s questionable actions over time with links to www references.  It is hard to escape the conclusion that the electorate is collectively incompetent sometimes.

But I would like to observe that the USA might have been well served by a parliamentary form of government, especially in this present troubled stretch of history. I think there are merits to a system that can vote out troublesome and destructive executives like Bush-Cheney without having to wait for the election timer to run out.  Impeachment is not the same as a vote to form a new government.  And if ever the USA needed to have a different executives in government, it is now.

In fact, one has to answer the question of why parliamentary systems proliferated during the 20th century while the American model as set forth by the US Constitution remains largely limited to the USA.  Why hasn’t our system been more closely copied? Could there be a better way?

The US needs a president that is less showhorse and more workhorse. We need administrators who can manage the executive branch more effectively. And we need executives who are not beholden to absolute doctrines and are willing to re-examine their fundamental assumptions on occasion.

The Bush-Cheney epoch has had a retrograde effect on American civil liberties, privacy, the freedom of assembly, and America’s credibility as a leading force for the advance of civilization. This damage will take many people a long time to make right. 

Obviously we will not change the structure of government in the next 25 years. We will not be able to yank bad executives out of office midterm for incompetence.  Bad executives will hold on to their office for the duration, enacting laws that benefit subscribers of their particular creed. They’ll have to commit a felony and be shamed into resignation like Nixon. 

The USA needs better checks and balances to protect the republic and its diverse constituency from Trojan Horse carriers of fringe doctrines and monotonic ideologies.  I’d rather have a president who cracks the books once in a while rather than one whose sole intellectual reflex is to whisper to iron-age deities.  I’d prefer to have a president who thinks analytically rather than devotionally.

Burning Man

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If you are what might be called a Bohemian and have never heard of the Burning Man project, you have a treat coming. I won’t spoil it- just click in the link and navigate around to see for your self. 

A friend attended last summer but only recently did I see his pictures from the desert. It is a total immersion experience. To really understand the event, it is worth reviewing the 10 principles.  It is a very civic minded event, though in a bacchanalian way.  The pyrophoric theme brings an element of ceremoniousness and awe that seems to appeal to brain stem centers long dormant in our suburban lives.  To be in attendance means that you camp for days on a desert dry lake with nary a sprig of green to be seen anywhere. It takes endurance .

Th’ Gaussling hopes to attend in 2008.  Perhaps recent attendees can comment and set me straight in my anticipation? 

Dark Energy and the Corporate Cosmology

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It is a wonder indeed to behold the awsome forces of the corporate cosmos.  Against the vacuous backdrop of mom & pop businesses and meager franchise operations are the corporate galaxies in this business universe.  There are the super massive galaxies consisting of giant business units orbiting around the central holding company. On occasion, these galaxies collide, sending fragments hurtling into space and leaving a merged core of black holes sucking dividends into the shareholder event horizon to points unknown.

I said it is a wonder to behold. But I didn’t say it is necessarily a “good” wonder.  Occasionally a fellow gets a look into that gaping maw, the churning core of the organizational furnace and sees more than he bargained for. 

To perpetuate the methodical ratcheting in of ever more profit, large corporations filter the continuous stream of applicants for people who can administer the hard-as-steel facts of corporate life.  Certain personality profiles, or folks with certain predilections, need to be advanced in the system to promulgate the mechanical and financial needs of the corporate entity.  Hatchet men and enforcers, rain-makers, and sneering sycophants seem to find these organizations and achieve buoyancy.

At some point a person will run into the reptilian brainstem (management) of the corporation.  Large, impersonal corporate management is the perfect venue for many of our brothers and sisters to express their most antisocial and misanthropic inner selves.  As long as the behaviour is in parallel with the fiduciary goals of the organization, the most vile actions are validated with flippant phrases like “business is business” or “nothin’ personal, it’s just business”. 

The seasoned employee knows that the Human Resources department, for all of the caring talk, really isn’t your friend.  HR is the mechanical arm of the corporate entity that dips into the human melting pot to stir things up from time to time, occasionally pulling out the unsuitable or the plain unlucky for a “rightsizing” exercise.  If you’re aged 50 and well up the pay scale, look out.  That mechanical arm is never far away.

Corporate life has its rewards for certain kinds of people.  Some corporate cultures are better than others. Some understand that they are institutions and have a beneficial role in the advancement of civilization. Other corporate cultures are driven only by the mathematics of growth and are essentially extractive industries charged with the rapid accumulation of wealth by the end of the present quarter.  There is always a rationale for ugly corporate behaviour and there always hordes of aspiring hard-asses trying to get in to do it.  The greedy corporation is a physical manifestation of dark human desires which supplies the tools and opportunities for the acquisitive. 

If some recent experiences are any guide, I have to conclude that civilization is still paper thin. To paraphrase a comment by another blogger, we’re only three missed meals away from anarchy.

Toxic Personalities- The Alpha Male

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If you were to look at me, Th’ Gaussling, as a chemist, you might suppose that the biggest obstacle I or other industrielle Ubermenschen faced in our exalted careers related to the transmutation of matter.  Easy conclusion.  To civilians who can barely mix Ovaltine in their 2 % milk, making a metric ton of sensitive, high value-added product to specification from dirt and motor oil would seem daunting.  And to be sure, it is.  But it’s all in a days work. (wink wink, nod nod)

However … (dramatic pause) … chemistry is easy when compared to other issues in the fabulous world of work.  The truly challenging part of work is having to deal with difficult people.  Overexposure to toxic personalities can cause chronic chafing, distress, or worse. 

It is amazing how outrageous some people can be.  A while back we interviewed a swaggering gasbag who proved to be 4 or 5 standard deviations from the mean in his cockiness.  The word that comes to mind is sphincter.  I hadn’t seen this chap in nearly 10 years. But in the first 5 sentences of our brief reunion he had already established his career and organizational superiority. It was only partly in jest.  Then to top it off, he declared after 3 minutes of awkward discussion and glances at the watch that he had no more time to talk. No doubt in his absence there would be utter chaos back at work. 

Afterwards I stood there in awe of the natural phenomenon I had just witnessed.  What do you do with such people? We’re not supposed to shoot them.  This fellow is one of those alpha males who consume all of the air when they walk into a room. If he isn’t able to dominate the situation, he just leaves.  When he walks in, the room lights up due to all of the sunlight shining out of his arse.

When asked about the hardest group of people to manage, this chemical engineer said without hesitation “Ph.D. Chemists”.  He said that he greatly preferred to work with hourly plant people and that Ph.D. chemists tend to pose problems that are more intractable than plant operators. Chemists on salary tend to argue and hourly folk just shrug and do what they are told.  Damned right, bucko!!

If you have ever met a company president, you may notice that they are peculiar sorts who seem to be cut from a certain kind of cloth.  Those who aspire to such elevated status have to rework themselves from mere management soldiers into an executive.  Executives are beings who become organic manifestations of the company.  When the CEO of NewCo visits, later you would say that “NewCo was here”.  And you’d be right.   

It is not enough to be merely competent to be a company executive.  Luck, organizational skill, and a bit of ruthlessness are the stars that have to line up to get to the top.  Ruthlessness by itself usually isn’t enough.

>>>End Rant Subroutine<<<

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

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This early May morning was crisp and sunny in our small neighborhood wetland park. Looking west through polarized lenses, the scattered cumulus clouds stood out against an azure blue sky and above fresh snow in the high country. The drone of a Cessna overhead lowered in pitch as the pilot throttled back to decend a bit.  Gonna buzz somebody’s farm from the sound of it.  The fresh layer of snow covers the front and back ranges of the Rockies down to what I’d estimate as the 6000 ft level just a few miles west.  Missed snow by a thousand feet of elevation yesterday.

In the marsh, last seasons cattail stems bounce enthusiastically as red-winged blackbirds jump from stem to stem, pausing for a moment to make their call.  As they sing the long black triangle of their beaks bisect open and a shrill call issues.  As they call their splayed tails drop in unison with the sound, causing the cattail to nod in time with their song. 

These birds are scrappy buggers.  Frequently they join in squabbling groups while in flight to settle some kind of dispute known only to them.  As quickly as it started it is finished and the individuals disperse.

Alberto Gonzales as Jungian Archetype

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For a good essay on the Alberto Gonzales mess, see The Smirking Chimp.  Th’ Gaussling has been searching for a Jungian archetype representing people who are “never in doubt, but frequently wrong”.  Maybe Gonzo is the man. 

There have been many possible nominees in the Bush II administration- POTUS, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc. But Gonzo seems to be the most tragic of the lot.

Note to future generations: I was going to further criticize POTUS, but given that he is sure to be savaged by historians, I’ll just stand clear and let experts have at it.

Dammit. The three horses I bet on in the Kentucky Derby all lost.

Blam!

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There are quite a number of YouTube videos featuring explosions.  One that caught my eye recently features the reactions (explosions) of the heavier alkali metals, Rb and Cs.  The “experiments” could be legitimate, but with television you never know.  Then there is the lab demo of the reaction betwen bromine and potassium.  My personal favorite is the combustion of Magnesium in CO2 (Dry Ice).

Some years back I decided that I would treat my class to a demo on the reduction of CO2 with magnesium.  I had already done the Mg/CO2 demo before, but I learned in Bassam Shakhashiri’s book on demonstrations that the addition of a smidgen of potassium chlorate to the magnesium would assure that the Mg would ignite properly.  Make no mistake, Shakhashiri is much beloved in the chem educator field and rightfully so. His demonstrations are legendary.

I was a little uncertain of the wisdom of using potassium chlorate, so I decided it would be prudent to try out Shakhashiri’s modification in advance. One evening in my research lab I chiseled out a small indentation in a block of dry ice and added a Mg ribbon “fuse”, Mg turnings, and the recommended mass of potassium chlorate.  I ignited the ribbon and held the second dry ice block in front of me, ready to place it on the burning Mg.  As the burn reached the chlorate there was a blinding flash and a loud BLAM! When I opened my eyes I saw that the papers on the benchtop were ablaze and that the block of dry ice I was holding prevented burning Mg frags from lodging in my clothing. The air was cloudy with MgO dust, my ears were ringing, and expletives were flying out of my mouth.

Better that it happened in private than in front of 65 students. The students’ burns would heal.  But, more importantly, the damage to my reputation would have been horrific.

A few years later at an ACS meeting, in the mens room at the convention center in San Diego, I was standing at the urinal when who should take the urinal right next to me?  Bassam Shakhashiri.  I pondered the opportunity this might present.  Suddenly the moment passed and we both finished our business and went on with our day.  One of us nearly left with a wet shoe.

Nanosquat

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Th’ Gaussling is getting an eye-opening introduction to the maddening world high purity products and trace element analysis.  Multiple analytical methods seems to translate to multiple layers of confusion.  I’m a 3-Nines pilgrim in a 4-Nines land of opportunity.  Ya picks yer analytical method and ya stays with it.  Cripes.

It’s an alphabet soup of methods- GDMS, ICPMS, and XRF.  Gonna hafta crack the books again. Watch out. That shadow darkening the library stacks could be cast by a trustee of the f-block.

Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburgers

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I suppose I have lost more frequently than I have won in my lifelong avocation of taking on sacred cows in the battle of wits.  But, truly, sacred cows make the very best hamburgers.  Pass the A1 …

Some new blogs have been given a place of honor in the blogroll.  Good writing and laser sharp insight are the keys to this ascendency. If the dear reader is conservative and prone to weeping or bed wetting, it is probably best to click along at this point.  

There is a hilarious post over at Lawyers, Guns, and Money called Birthday Girl.  Side note: A lawyer friend is fond of saying “Lawyers, guns, and money- pick any two”.  

And then, what can I say about Jesus’ General?  Read General JC’s letter to the Secret Service re Cheryl Crow.  If you are keen on some serious in-your-face-atheism, check out Hellbound Allee. Then there is one of the best Christian evangelical lampoons ever, Landover Baptist. 

The Huffington Post is a recent find and is a treasure trove of political blogging at its finest- well, if you are a liberal.  Read the open letter to Rudy Giuliani by my fellow Coloradoan, Gary Hart. 

Then there is the Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society.  The post on the Do-Nothing Machine is particularly amusing.  The reader may recall Th’ Gaussing’s previous post on the Katzenklavier. 

Finally, The Agonist has some interesting insights into politics and is well written. I also like Goosing the Antithesis for its skeptical stand against belief in the supernatural.