Friday, December 31, 2004
I haven't blogged very much this month. Today is the last day of my week in Ohio; tomorrow I head back to upstate New York to get back to work in the plasma lab. I don't have any particular plans for new year's celebrations. I did spend a nice Christmas weekend with Drew, and watched him make three dishes out of one duck. (Poor Mr. Duck.) I love duck.
My parents are hopping mad, because I would prefer to return to Korea after graduating from college a year from now, instead of sticking around and attending graduate school in America. However, I have had about as much of America as I can withstand, and I've grown tired of the rejection and isolation that I've felt for most of my life as a foreigner in this country. I guess it is accurate to say that I am being pushed more than pulled towards Korea, and it isn't clear what would wait for me there, other than a 2 year conscription. On the other hand, I do think I know what awaits me here in America if were I to stay, which is just more rejection.
Or maybe I just enjoy doing to my parents what they have done to me for so long. No concrete plans yet, but I can still hope.
My parents are hopping mad, because I would prefer to return to Korea after graduating from college a year from now, instead of sticking around and attending graduate school in America. However, I have had about as much of America as I can withstand, and I've grown tired of the rejection and isolation that I've felt for most of my life as a foreigner in this country. I guess it is accurate to say that I am being pushed more than pulled towards Korea, and it isn't clear what would wait for me there, other than a 2 year conscription. On the other hand, I do think I know what awaits me here in America if were I to stay, which is just more rejection.
Or maybe I just enjoy doing to my parents what they have done to me for so long. No concrete plans yet, but I can still hope.
Physics students are used thinking in terms of "order of magnitude" calculations. In an order of magnitude calculation, all numerical quantities are rounded to an even power of 10. Thus, 234 becomes 100 and 512,123 becomes 100,000. The final answers are then only correct up to the order of magnitude.
Since I've been driving across the country a lot lately, I've been wondering what the true cost of gas is, given that 2 dollars a gallon is pretty hefty already. As I've noted before, in America much of the cost of gasoline isn't paid for at the pump, because so much of America's military spending is actually used to secure the nation's fossil fuel resources. What would be the cost of gas if we were to pay for the financial cost of the war in Iraq simply with a gasoline tax over the course of 2005?
This is easy, in an order of magnitude calculation. America's daily gasoline consumption is on the order of 100 million gallons a day. Since there are on the order of 100 days in a year, this brings annual gasoline consumption to 10 billion gallons a year. It has been reported that (for America) the financial cost of the war in Iraq is on the order of 100 billion dollars. Thus, if we were to pay for the war in Iraq with a gasoline tax over the next year, and hence pay for the true cost of gas, we would pay on the order of 10 extra dollars per gallon.
The good news is that all the oil that America has won through the conquest of Iraq is likely to last much longer than one year, and by paying for the war over the course of many years, the indirect gasoline tax becomes much lower, per gallon. The bad news is that no matter how it is hidden, the cost of stealing oil is real, and it will be coming out of our pockets one way or another, through one tax or another.
Another number that has been thrown around quite a bit in the media recently is the true number of deaths from the tsunami in Southeast Asia. I think that the physics undergraduate's perspective might be a good one to take here, as well. After all, the exact number of dead shouldn't be as important to us as what is being done to help those who have survived, but have lost everything. That there was on the order of 100,000 dead should be a good enough number to give us a feeling for the magnitude of this disaster, and how urgently we should feel about offering aid.
As for the aid offered, Motte informs me that the South Korean government has offered on the order of 1 million dollars in aid. I should point out here that South Korea's GDP is on the order of 1 trillion dollars. The American government, on the other hand, has pledged on the order of 10 million dollars in aid. America is, of course, a 10 trillion dollar economy. By these numbers, it would seem that the generosity of we who live in wealthy industrialized societies scales logarithmically.
Which speaks volumes about our generosity indeed.
Ed: Ironically the day after this post the US increased its aid pledge by a factor of ten (one order of magnitude), due to charges of stinginess.
Ed: The South Korean government, facing similar charges, also increased its aid to 50 million dollars (one order of magnitude) on Jan. 3.
Since I've been driving across the country a lot lately, I've been wondering what the true cost of gas is, given that 2 dollars a gallon is pretty hefty already. As I've noted before, in America much of the cost of gasoline isn't paid for at the pump, because so much of America's military spending is actually used to secure the nation's fossil fuel resources. What would be the cost of gas if we were to pay for the financial cost of the war in Iraq simply with a gasoline tax over the course of 2005?
This is easy, in an order of magnitude calculation. America's daily gasoline consumption is on the order of 100 million gallons a day. Since there are on the order of 100 days in a year, this brings annual gasoline consumption to 10 billion gallons a year. It has been reported that (for America) the financial cost of the war in Iraq is on the order of 100 billion dollars. Thus, if we were to pay for the war in Iraq with a gasoline tax over the next year, and hence pay for the true cost of gas, we would pay on the order of 10 extra dollars per gallon.
The good news is that all the oil that America has won through the conquest of Iraq is likely to last much longer than one year, and by paying for the war over the course of many years, the indirect gasoline tax becomes much lower, per gallon. The bad news is that no matter how it is hidden, the cost of stealing oil is real, and it will be coming out of our pockets one way or another, through one tax or another.
Another number that has been thrown around quite a bit in the media recently is the true number of deaths from the tsunami in Southeast Asia. I think that the physics undergraduate's perspective might be a good one to take here, as well. After all, the exact number of dead shouldn't be as important to us as what is being done to help those who have survived, but have lost everything. That there was on the order of 100,000 dead should be a good enough number to give us a feeling for the magnitude of this disaster, and how urgently we should feel about offering aid.
As for the aid offered, Motte informs me that the South Korean government has offered on the order of 1 million dollars in aid. I should point out here that South Korea's GDP is on the order of 1 trillion dollars. The American government, on the other hand, has pledged on the order of 10 million dollars in aid. America is, of course, a 10 trillion dollar economy. By these numbers, it would seem that the generosity of we who live in wealthy industrialized societies scales logarithmically.
Which speaks volumes about our generosity indeed.
Ed: Ironically the day after this post the US increased its aid pledge by a factor of ten (one order of magnitude), due to charges of stinginess.
Ed: The South Korean government, facing similar charges, also increased its aid to 50 million dollars (one order of magnitude) on Jan. 3.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
I often see diamond commercials on television, beating the message into my head that a diamond is forever, and that if I am to ever hold the affections of a woman, I should present her with diamonds. I find these commercials as offensive as that other commercial, which goes "You aren't a true friend unless you give them a barrel of Iraqi oil for Christmas..."
There was something of a scandal in the physics department on Monday morning. An email that was supposed to be sent to the undergraduate advisers' list was instead forwarded to the physics majors list. This email contained the accumulated grades of all of the seniors in the department, and had the seniors ordered according to rank. I found myself near the bottom of the list, with a small comment by my name explaining that I had started near the top of the list, and had fallen to the bottom during 2003.
Of course, I know better than anybody that 2003 wasn't the best year of my life, but nonetheless it was discouraging to see just how much I lost over the course of one year. Depression is indeed a debilitating disease, and I can't help but feel resentment for the enemies who pretended to be my friends, who threw me into that depression.
As discouraging as all that is, I suppose I should be grateful to be sitting in a heated room. Lee is crashing at my place for a few days, as he got kicked out of the fraternity house he was boarding at, after a fight with one of the frat boys. Apparently Lee was attacked over a dispute about his rent, and since he decided to defend himself with a knife, he is now facing charges of assault. Considering how well-to-do the residents of this fraternity are, it's a little inconceivable to me that they should pick a fight with one of their boarders about a late rent payment, and then kick him out into the 19 degree weather. I find it petty that the frat boys would testify against him in retaliation for his inability to pay rent, since to them that money would mean little more than a few more lines of cocaine, a few more joints of marijuana.
It seems to me that there is not a more vicious creature than a young adult of upper middle class upbringing. And America is a cold and sad place to live when you don't have enough money to pay your bills.
Of course, I know better than anybody that 2003 wasn't the best year of my life, but nonetheless it was discouraging to see just how much I lost over the course of one year. Depression is indeed a debilitating disease, and I can't help but feel resentment for the enemies who pretended to be my friends, who threw me into that depression.
As discouraging as all that is, I suppose I should be grateful to be sitting in a heated room. Lee is crashing at my place for a few days, as he got kicked out of the fraternity house he was boarding at, after a fight with one of the frat boys. Apparently Lee was attacked over a dispute about his rent, and since he decided to defend himself with a knife, he is now facing charges of assault. Considering how well-to-do the residents of this fraternity are, it's a little inconceivable to me that they should pick a fight with one of their boarders about a late rent payment, and then kick him out into the 19 degree weather. I find it petty that the frat boys would testify against him in retaliation for his inability to pay rent, since to them that money would mean little more than a few more lines of cocaine, a few more joints of marijuana.
It seems to me that there is not a more vicious creature than a young adult of upper middle class upbringing. And America is a cold and sad place to live when you don't have enough money to pay your bills.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Looking back on my entries on this blog from a year ago, I'm amused to see how cold I've grown compared to then. I suppose a lot changes over the course of a year.
Classes ended somewhat anti-climatically here, which means I have a couple weeks of study period and finals before the semester expires. As usual, I'm left wondering what it is I learned after staying up so many nights studying and working on homework. I plan to stay around Ithaca this winter, so that I can continue to work at the plasma lab here, blowing up wires and so forth. Motte has been forbidden to visit me this winter, so apparently I will be spending the winter alone.
Though she really isn't missing much... Ithaca is unbearably cold in the winter, after the permafrost settles in.
Classes ended somewhat anti-climatically here, which means I have a couple weeks of study period and finals before the semester expires. As usual, I'm left wondering what it is I learned after staying up so many nights studying and working on homework. I plan to stay around Ithaca this winter, so that I can continue to work at the plasma lab here, blowing up wires and so forth. Motte has been forbidden to visit me this winter, so apparently I will be spending the winter alone.
Though she really isn't missing much... Ithaca is unbearably cold in the winter, after the permafrost settles in.
