Geeky Chic

HLS likes to complain that it gets shafted in the USNews & WR rankings because the magazine overemphasizes faculty to student ratio. 99.99% of the time, I am ready to go along with this complaint. But on a deceptively sunny day, such as this one, when schedules for next year are posted, I must say that this ratio accounts for something. Through the fortuity of the general lottery, I have a pretty ugly schedule for next year. I’ve been shut out at of half of my top 10 choices. Even though I ranked Federal Courts near the top, my priority number is 87, a guarantee that I will not move off of the waitlist come fall. It feels a little perverse to make a rising 3L waitlist for 8 classes, due to space restrictions.

Okay, that’s my rant for the day.

It’s odd how one’s parents can pass on their nostalgia to their young. I do not recall ever eating at a Doggie Diner, though I recall passing by the dingy looking one that was across the street from the San Francisco Zoo. Even so, everytime I hear the words “Doggie Diner Head,” my heart beckons back to SF. On that note, a trio of heads have completed a road trip to NYC, and Liquid Squid has documented the trip. So if any of my NYC friends want to view some NorCal campiness, here’s your chance.

Today’s WSJ reports that the entertainment industry is doing a much better job of coordinating efforts to market the same movies and toys to kids on different continents. For instance, the original Blond Barbie seems to be taking the world by storm. The Journal reports:

“For example, Mattel’s Rapunzel Barbie, whose ankle-length blonde locks cascade down her pink ball gown, was released on the same day last fall in 59 countries including the U.S. — the company’s biggest product launch ever. Since then, Rapunzel Barbie and related merchandise has generated $200 million in global sales, nearly half of that outside the U.S. The doll made the top-10 bestseller list in Britain, the U.S., Italy, Spain, France and Germany and was a huge hit in Asia. At a time when the U.S. market has been stagnating, Rapunzel Barbie helped boost international sales at Mattel, based in El Segundo, Calif., to $1.9 billion in 2002, up from $1.5 billion in 2000. Mattel no longer makes Asian-featured Barbies.

Two recent developments are changing kids’ tastes. One is the rapid world- wide expansion of cable and satellite TV channels, which along with movies and the Internet expose millions of kids to the same popular icons. For example, Walt Disney Co. now operates 24 Disney-branded cable and satellite channels in 67 countries outside the U.S. — up from zero eight years ago.”

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I am not sure if I am supposed to be disturbed by the idea of Asian Barbie’s extinction (Barbie can already be attacked at so many other levels. Asian Barbie equates to Asian anorexia, right?). And the advent of Star Wars probably did more to globalize entertainment for kids more than all of these recent efforts combined. Also, many of the cartoons of yore were bad Japanese imports. So perhaps this fluidity between borders is not a new phenomenom.

Yesterday, I decided to clean out the old magazines that have been accumulating, untouched in my room. After reading through a copy of The Economist from three weeks ago, I feel quite stupid. It turns out that the dissident crackdown in Cuba has been going on for a couple of weeks now, and it just surfaced on my radar this week (thanks to the BBC). I want to take down the post right before this one, which savors the idea of the Olympics in Cuba, but I will leave it up as a monument to my own ignorance.

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On a completely other note, it seems that a lot of good public policy ideas that are coming out of the US are being implemented in the U.K. First, the British government includes a provision in its current goverment to create “Baby Bonds,” accounts for all newborns, with the starting capital from the government, plus a provision to allows friends and families to add to the account (the government may add to the account too). The account matures when the child reaches 18, and the money can go towards college, a new car, or anything else the child desires. This concept was convieved by American academics in the book The Shareholder Society.

Next, the mayor of London places a toll on any car that enters central London during business hours. As a Times article pointed out, however, this idea was the brainchild of the former head of the NY Transit Authority.

I just find it facinating that stodgy old England has become the social lab for these very forward thinking American ideas.

Fidel wants to bid for the 2012 Olympics as well. Earlier this year, when SF and NYC battled it out for the U.S. bid for the Olympics, I did not want SF to win, because I felt that it would do the Bay Area more harm than good. I feel that Cuba, however, could use the 2012 Olympics as a good launching point for re-entering the free world. Now that the U.S. has “new enemies” in the Middle East (or “new friends” with its successful incursions into both Iraq and Afganistan), does the land of baseball and Mojitos seem less threatening? The Olympics in Cuba could be the final step to lifting the American embargo and travel restrictions on the Island.

Ms. Simone has always stood out in my mind as the most outspoken (civil rights) and throaty of the old female jazz vocalists. The first song that I first heard her perform was Gershwin’s Summertime, and since then, she is the singer that I most associate with Bess. The ironic thing is that I hadn’t realized she was still alive, until the obit came out today.

On Friday, I went to a reception for the Boston Premiere of Justin Lin’s new Film, Better Luck Tomorrow. At the reception, one of its main actors, Roger Fan, described being at a meeting with the execs at Paramount and MTV films. They brought out a pie chart, that had a large wedge for the “white demographic,” a fairly large slice for African Americans (according to the actor, African Americans are 13% of the population, but 26% of the entertainment $$ in the country), and finally, there was a tiny sliver for Latino Americans. Of course, the actors asked, “Where’s our piece of the pie?”

The exec answered, “We know that Asian Americans have the highest education per capita in the US, and we know you have the highest income per capita in the US, but Asian Americans spend their money like white people, so we group you in with them.” The actor’s follow up question, was “How do we get our own piece of the pie?”

And the response was, “If you make a film, and can get 10% of the Asian American community to come out the opening two weekends, then you’ll get your piece of the pie.”

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And to amend yesterday’s post, my sister Michelle is this year’s Miss Teen Charity. She did not win the larger title of Miss Teen Chinatown, but her fundraising efforts brought in the other title, and a scholarship. Congrats, Michelle! I know you worked very hard for this, and you are the “pretty sister” too!

My sister, Michelle, the most beautiful girl in the world will be crowned Miss Teen Chinatown tonight.

Good Luck Michelle!  Knock ’em off their rockers!

The title links to an article from the Times, that discusses how “Leave no Child Behind” Act is forcing states to design and implement standardized testing for severely disabled students. I could rant about why this is wrong, but I think that the article does a good job of it on its own.

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I had a conversation with an ex-floormate last Saturday about a book written by a Harvard grad student who gave birth to a child with down symdrome while in graduate school here. She was married to another Harvard grad student, and when they found out their new baby would have down syndrome, they struggled with the decision to keep the child (right now, I am hesitating as a use the words “child” and “baby” because I know from Con Law, that a fetus is neither one, but my natural instinct is to use those words). She reported that her husband’s advisor stopped talking to him when he found out that they would keep the baby. Later, when she went in for delivery, she asked University Services, if the doctors had felt that she had made the right choice. The answer she was given was, “No.”

So, my question is, is there a trend for modern medicine and for parts of society to push for termination of imperfect babies? Is the practice of eugenics informally taking place?

Finch commented that children with the same problems as my sister are much rarer today because neonatel surgery corrects for hydroencephaly. But for diabilities that cannot be corrected early, are couples simply terminating the pregnancy? Are couples making this decision for selfish reasons, or have they bought into Pete Singer’s belief, that a severely diabled life is worse than dying before birth (as as an infant)?

When I started reading the Times yesterday, I knew something was different, when I reached individual articles, but I couldn’t point it out. This morning, as I glanced at a few articles, I finally figured it out — the side tool bar, which allows you to access different sections of the paper is gone! Gone! It feels very disquieting, as though someone went into the supermarket and rearranged all of the aisles in the middle of the night. Let’s hope that this is only temporary.

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Just as a note, the title of each entry links back to either another site, or to an article, if I discuss an article in the post.