L.A. Times: Shaming Johns

This looks like another variation of the "scared straight" scams that are shown not to change impulsive behavior....

Shaming and scaring johns into becoming average joes
(Los Angeles Times, 2/26)

At first glance, it seems these schools shouldn't work, said Michael Shively, a researcher who recently completed the first comprehensive study of the San Francisco program for the National Institute of Justice. The one-day, throw-everything-at-them-and-see-what-sticks approach, he said, lacks the intense, targeted and longer-term therapy that is generally thought to be needed to change a person's behavior.

Indications are, however, that the classes are a relatively cheap and effective carrot to dangle in front of johns. California prostitution arrest records, Shively's team found, show that recidivism rates among San Francisco men dropped 30% in the decade following the launch of their john school. A newer program in San Diego posted similar results, he found.

I am skeptical of this statistic because a lot of things can change in 10 years. It depends on there being a credible control group (similar offenders assigned to a non-treatment social group). There is often a benefit in giving people attention of any kind, but the "scared straight" component is usually ineffective.

See my essays, Words Don't Work and Things You Don't Need: Addiction Treatment.

L.A. Times: Iceland is Steamed

Iceland is steamed
Its economic meltdown, and the violent reaction of its people, may be echoed worldwide.
(Los Angeles Times, 2/8)

By the mid-1990s, Iceland had, through dicey finance and lots of debt, launched its journey to becoming one of the world's most affluent societies. Fortune continues: "But the principal fuel for Iceland's boom was finance and, above all, leverage. The country became a giant hedge fund, and once-restrained Icelandic households amassed debts exceeding 220% of disposable income -- almost twice the proportion of American consumers."...

"It's official: capitalism is monstrous. Try talking about the benefits of free markets and you will be treated like someone promoting the benefits of rape."

L.A. Times: "Flying Palace"

The 'Slumdog' fight
Some say the Oscar contender is 'poverty porn,' but that criticism misconstrues the nature of art.
(L.A. Times, 2/4)

These critics are angered by the fact that hordes of Pepsi-sipping, popcorn-munching, affluent Western audiences are entertained by a spectacle of India's poor struggling for survival in the slums of Mumbai. They're also upset that director Danny Boyle, a white guy, is being lauded for a film about India that just doesn't get it right, that's filled with cliches and exaggeration and people who are downright bad.

L.A. Times: TV and Depression

Study links TV and depression
The amount of time teenagers watch television increases their risk of becoming depressed as adults, researchers find.
(Los Angeles Times, 2/3)

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard Medical School looked at the media habits of 4,142 healthy adolescents and calculated that each additional hour of TV watched per day boosted the odds of becoming depressed by 8%.

L.A. Times: Wine Judges Unsteady

Wine judges are rather unsteady, study finds
(Los Angeles Times, 1/28)

A judge samples entries at the New York Wine and Food Classic at the Copia food, wine and arts center in Napa, Calif., in August 2007. Copia closed late last year. Only 10% in a four-year study of California State Fair judging were able to consistently give the same rating, or something close, to the same wine sampled multiple times in a large blind tasting.

The whole thing is a fraud to begin with. It's fermented grape juice!

L.A. Times: "Flying Palace"

Get a load of the interiors of the new A380 jumbo-jumbo airliner...

Slideshow: Innovation aboard the Airbus A380
(Los Angeles Times, 1/25)

A tad ridiculous if you ask me. I just want to get there!

No comfort shown here can beat having three seats to yourself in coach class.

L.A. Times: Earthquake Overdue

Study finds troubling pattern of Southern California quakes
(Los Angeles Times, 1/24)

The southern stretch of the San Andreas fault has had a major temblor about every 137 years, according to new research. The latest looks to be overdue.

Just what we need right now!

L.A. Times: Indians Not Liking 'Slumdog'

Indians don't feel good about 'Slumdog Millionaire'
(Los Angeles Times, 1/24)

Even as American audiences gush over "Slumdog Millionaire," some Indians are groaning over what they see as yet another stereotypical foreign depiction of their nation, accentuating squalor, corruption and impoverished-if-resilient natives.

Yes, the movie's all a cliche, but that doesn't make it any less powerful. See my own review.

L.A. Times: U.S. economy may sputter for years

U.S. economy may sputter for years
(Los Angeles Times, 1/19)

Transfixed by the daily spectacle of dismal economic news and wild Wall Street swings, few Americans have looked up to see what a wide array of economists say lies beyond the immediate crisis.

And with good reason: The picture isn't pretty.

The sleek racing machine that was the U.S. economy is unlikely to return any time soon despite the huge repair efforts now underway. Instead, it probably will continue to sputter and threaten to stall for years to come.

L.A. Times: Bush was a uniter after all

Bush was a uniter after all
(Los Angeles Times, 1/15)

Bush broke many of his initial campaign promises, but he ended up keeping his promise to be "a uniter, not a divider," though hardly in the way he intended: He leaves behind a united nation, brought together at last by a heartfelt desire to see him gone.

L.A. Times: Martyrdom Beckons

Martyrdom beckons Lebanese teen, but she really wants to direct
(Los Angeles Times, 1/12)

L.A. Times: "Audacity as economic experiment"

Audacity itself as economic experiment
(Los Angeles Times, 1/11)

In a measure of how quickly its options are shrinking, the United States is about to embrace an economic theory that was widely thought for most of the last generation to have been discredited: the idea that great bursts of deficit-funded government expenditure can jolt an economy back to growth.

And the nation is poised to put this theory to the test on a scale untried in peacetime by any developed country on Earth. ...

Obama's plan represents an unexpected comeback for the ideas of the late British economist John Maynard Keynes, who argued in the 1930s that governments could end the Depression by spending heavily to maintain demand for goods and services until frightened consumers and damaged businesses gained the courage to resume buying and selling on their own.

L.A. Times: Gambling Runs Dry in Mesquite

Out in Nevada desert, gambling runs dry

(Los Angeles Times, 1/3)

Locals and travelers passing through have long kept Mesquite's casinos afloat. But like the spent mines that have busted many Western towns, Mesquite's source of wealth ran out. As the economy soured, tourists hoarded their cash, and the town's gross gambling revenue plummeted 11%. Visitor volume fell 7.4% last year; the average daily room rate fell 35.4%.

L.A. Times: A Home for the Homeless

It's a nice humanitarian idea, but it won't work in the real world.

Upgrading from a cardboard box for the homeless (L.A. Times, 12/10)

MY COMMENTS: Here's the essential problem: If you give the homeless a comfortable place to stay, they are going to stay there... and stay and stay. If you give someone a tent to live in, you are implicitly giving him permission to set that tent up somewhere, probably on land owned by someone else. That someone is going to protest and squelch the program.

It is a little like feeding the pigeons in a city park. If you do, then more pigeons will come, and eventually whoever controls the park is going to have to put a stop to it.

Essentially, there is no institutional solution to homelessness. By definition, it exists at the limits of tolerance. If someone is sleeping under a bridge, it may be illegal, but the authorities probably won't intervene. If 100 people are sleeping under a bridge, then authorities have to intervene.

Like with many well meaning acts of charity, if you give people tents, you could be upsetting the local ecology -- the equilibrium that has already been worked out. That's the potential risk with any technological solutions to social problems. -- GC

L.A. Times: Paul Volcker is Back

From today's Los Angeles Times...

Paul Volcker is back, and he warns of tough times ahead

His concerns go to the very core of how America lives and how Wall Street operates. A child of the Great Depression and a man of legendary personal thrift, Volcker thinks Americans have been living above their means for too long.

"It is the United States as a whole that became addicted to spending and consuming beyond its capacity to produce," Volcker lectured the Economic Club of New York in April. "It all seemed so comfortable."

Bringing consumption back in line with income would not only crimp individuals and families, but also require major readjustments in the global economy, which has relied on the U.S. as consumer of last resort.

L.A. Times: Dido

A profile of the singer Dido Armstrong appears in the Nov. 18 Los Angeles Times:

Dido picks up sticks, lays down her own groove

I consider her a two-hit wonder ("White Flag" and "Thank You"), and I'm not a fan of her other songs, but her style is interesting.

Entertainment Not Recession-Proof

Los Angeles Times, 10/29/08:

Hollywood may not be recession-proof this time

For decades, entertainment executives have boasted that Hollywood is "recession-proof." No matter how dire the economy, the argument goes, consumers will always be willing to spend on entertainment to escape. ...

This time, however, past may not be prologue. Unlike the rudimentary entertainment economy of 75 years ago, when the downtown Bijou was about the only diversion, consumers now have a near-limitless array of entertainment options to occupy their leisure time.