Caeden

This is an old photo of Caeden, but it is also one of my favorites. It really captures his blue eyes, and the blue in the photo makes them even more striking. I also love his crazy hair, which captures how he often looks pretty well.

I find it totally crazy that he is coming up to his second birthday. It seems like he was a baby just the other day. And even though I am glad that he is getting older, and stronger and more independent, it is also bittersweet. It is kind of fun having a little baby, and I very much doubt that we'll be having another one.

IQ

I really like this opinion piece from Kristof in the Times. That a child's IQ is highly dependent on the environment in which they are raised makes a great deal of sense to me. Frankly though, it is sad that this article still needs to be published, as though this is not bloody obvious. It is also serves as reminder as to how difficult it will be to help to children in disadvantaged situations, as well as how critical this is.

And now that I get to closely watch and observe my own children growing up, the malleability of IQ really makes intuitive sense to me. Brienna and I basically surround Aralyn and Caeden will stimulating and enriching experiences, loads of love, praise and encouragement, and with as few limits as possible. Our children don't get parked in front of a TV, instead they get their mum and dad questioning and talking with them, reading books and twisting their tongues into knots with strange and long words. And that's when they aren't in day care having to learn a whole different language or out at the zoo looking at the elephants.

So regardless of how smart, or not, Aralyn and Caeden end up, they will at least have been given every opportunity to grown and learn. But not every kid gets the same environment, nor two loving parents, nor the same stability that allows our kids to relax, be happy and just have fun exploring and playing in their little world.

To a large extent, if children grow up in difficult circumstances there is no way the state can make for up this deficit. You simply cannot have a school make up for the years of enriching experiences that you get in families when they work well. Up to this point I think that conservatives, with their theoretical focus on families, have a point.

But articles like Kristof's point out a challenge for the US. For many children in impoverished inner cities or rural areas, not only are their families failing them, but society is as well. It is now clear that intensive, dedicated, early education programs and high quality education can make a huge difference in children's lives. Unfortunately however, in practice, children in these situations often end up in extremely poor performing schools. Obama wrote about much of this in his books and it would be wonderful if, despite all the current crises, at least some progress gets made in this area.

Kid Art

I am sure that all parent have much the same thoughts when their children bring their latest artistic creations home, beaming with pride. "Look what I did today daddy!". The first thoughts that flash through your head are usually curiosity about the item itself coupled with satisfaction that your kid is proud of their work and obviously had a fun day.

But these thoughts are fairly quickly followed by a kind of groan, and a sadness, over what to do with this latest item. Usually it joins the heap in their portfolio, really a box in a corner of their room, or gets hung up somewhere. But how long do you keep this stuff? Do you take it with you when you move? That seems kind of crazy, but it also seems kind of heartless to just through it out.

So, why not share it on the web, so that everyone can get the same joy? Or perhaps more accurately, Aralyn and Caeden's grandparents can admire the handiwork of their grandchildren, and everyone can just move on to the next post. Of course, it also means that Aralyn and Caeden, if they ever wanted to, could go and look back and what they did years later.

So, in this spirit, here are some pieces by Aralyn. Caeden isn't producing too much right now, but I'll post his creations as well. Enjoy!



The item below is a beluga whale swimming around. Aralyn seems to have fallen in love with belugas ever since we actually saw one at the gorgeous Chicago Aquarium.



And lastly, here is a maze that Aralyn developed herself, and then got Brienna to solve. She's moved from solving mazes to making them for others:

Easter

Well, we finally got a vacation worth its name, and it was just gorgeous. The clouds rolled away, the sun came out, and while the water remained a chilly 5 degrees, warm air gently blew in.

Given that in Europe you automatically get a four day weekend over Easter, we rented a car and took off to explore the local beaches and countryside. We spent two days in Prerow, one in Ahrenshoop and another day in Nienhagen. The photo above is of the coast near Nienhagen. All three spots were really lovely, with pristine beaches nestled behind forests, and old fashioned thatched roofed houses in abundance.

Given that Caeden is two and is somewhat high maintenance, our days fell into a pattern pretty quickly. We got up, drove to our destination, wandered around for a little bit and found a nice restaurant, and when Caeden fell asleep, ate a gloriously relaxing lunch. Aralyn often drew or read books, while Brienna and I took turns reading. For us, or maybe myself in particular, there is almost nothing better than the combination of interesting reading material (in my case LRBs courtesy of a good friend), beer or wine, good food, and an hour or two of relatively undisturbed free time. I get positively dreamy just thinking about it.

After lunch we headed for the beach, and splashed, paddled, explored and sun bathed. Aralyn finally got rid of the circles under her eyes and almost immediately started turning brown. Caeden's fair skin mostly managed to avoid getting burnt and both children had a blast. Who wouldn't, with a whole beach to explore, sand to dig and adventures to have?

The Lines a German Won't Cross

This is a fun little article in the New York Times Magazine by Nicolas Kulish about the power of rules and conformity in Germany. The main thrust of the article is that Germany is generally very well run, and that Germans tend to deeply internalize and live their lives according to the law. If there was ever a society that best exemplified the rule of law, it would have to be Germany.

I like the central example Kulish used of the swimming pool, with a line demarcating the shoe and no shoe areas. That this line was treated with respect, despite any mechanism for enforcement, seemed to Kulish to exemplify how Germans approached rules and laws. This example also brings back my own similar, and happy, memories of swimming in Ribnitz-Damgarten, a beautiful pool just a bit outside of Rostock.

I have somewhat conflicted thoughts about this whole thing. Perhaps I just think too much, but literally every time I come to a dratted street crossing, I come face to face with this phenomenon. You will likely have a cluster of Germans patiently waiting for the light to change, and do I step into line and follow their lead, or do I follow my own instincts and just cross?

It seems to me that unthinkingly following all rules has some rather obvious downsides. But these particular rules just cover street crossings, are designed for safety, and are not particularly objectionable. They probably even save lives. Nonetheless, my usual pattern of behavior is to make sure it is safe to cross, then make sure there are no police around, and finally, follow my gut instinct and just cross the damn street.

Why do I have such a hard time following these basic German road rules? I am fully aware that I am a visitor and that this is not my country, and that I really ought to follow the German way of doing things. But given my Australian and American background, and a certain irreverence for authority, I just can't look at any empty street and wait patiently. It is not in my genes.

Ice Bridge Ruptures in Antarctic

Another article, this time by the BBC, reporting more bad news on the global warming front. Sebastian pointed this one out, so I figured I write a little about it too. Apparently the collapse is not good news as it is both an example of the rapid changes in the Antarctic as well as possibly making it easier for the glaciers and other ice flows now on land to move into the sea, possibly affecting sea levels.

Following from that thought, and regarding sea levels, it is paragraph near the end that really gets me:

Such acceleration effects were not included by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) when it made its latest projections on likely future sea level rise. Its 2007 assessment said ice dynamics were poorly understood.

I must admit that I hate reading things like this. It is just scary when, as often happens, you read about a previous worst case output or warming scenario, followed by the statement that actual CO2 output or whatever was dramatically greater again.

East Germans Face Their Accusers

This old article, "East Germans Face Their Accusers", about former East Germans dealing with the communist legacy is still very good reading. Depressingly, the evil that people can do to one another appears to have a deep well spring of creativity.

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an interesting paper. The news inside the paper is generally first-rate, with often very insightful, original and well written articles. The opinion pages, however, are another story entirely. Given the Journal's reach, prestige, and audience, the editorial page occupies a preeminent position within conservative American political discourse. In this sense, it is intellectually interesting to read their stuff, to observe which issues are discussed and how, as well as the silences when issues are ignored or glossed over.

"Is This The End Of Capitalism", by Daniel Henninger, is a good example. That I generally agree with the point he is trying to make is ironic, but largely beside the point. What I think is interesting in this article is how it sets out a conservative view of the housing bubble and the resulting financial crisis.

This conservative view is interesting for a number of reasons. First, it glosses any involvement of conservative principles or actors in the creation of the crisis. Actual agency by the Bush administration, Congress, the US Federal Reserve Bank, financial banks and insurance firms seems to be missing. Instead, we have a housing "blob" that ate the world, with private banks and insurance as passive victims.

Further, the idea that conservative principles or financial deregulation may have played a key role is not even hinted at. There is something utterly disingenuous about this given the key role the Journal played in pushing these agendas. Instead we get pablum like this:

In a normal environment, the problems revealed by the crisis in mortgage finance would produce fixes relevant to the problem, such as resetting the ratios of assets to capital for banks and hedge funds, or telling the gnomes of finance to rethink mark-to-market and the uptick rule. More energetic reformers might consider Gary Becker's suggestion that as financial institutions expand in size, their capital requirements tighten, so that compulsive eaters like Citigroup can fit inside their capital base.

There are numerous other points that could be made in this paragraph, but Henninger chooses not to discuss the real reforms necessary and instead puts in some relatively mild points so as to not offend the sensibilities of his readers or his editorial page superiors. You can't critique the conservative brand too much I guess.

But the really galling thing for me is that the American citizens are the ones really being suckered here, yet seem to warrant nary a mention. After all, the US taxpayers are the ones who have to foot the bill for the stimulus package, to pay for the bailout of AIG, the recapitalization of the financial system as well as taking on prime responsibility for the toxic debt created by the financial system in the first place.

NATO

So there was a NATO summit in Strasbourg last week. This being the 21st Century and France, there were a series of protests. It looks like the protests turned quite violent, with a couple of hotels and a supermarket set on fire.

I find this all a little hard to comprehend. The protests in London against the G20 meeting almost make sense in comparison. At least with the G20 meeting there is something dramatic to protest: millions of people are now unemployed, and many will be struggling to make ends meet, let alone the millions of people in the developing world who will face severe hardship, because of the greed of a few thousand captains of industry. But what exactly are the NATO protesters protesting?

The BLOCK NATO group seems to be one of the main groups, but I cannot get much sense from their web site, beyond an interest in peace and a visceral reaction to what they term a "war alliance". There doesn't seem to be much to explain or argue their position on their website, though perhaps I missed it.

To be honest, this all just strikes me as pathetic, sad and uninformed. One of the more wonderful things to have happened in my lifetime has been the collapse of the Soviet Union and the escape of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and many other countries from Russian influence. And the military guarantee of NATO membership provided to these countries is to my mind the core foundation underpinning this freedom.

Moreover, several of the key historical reasons that NATO actually became a strong military alliance include the blockade of Berlin and North Korean invasion of South Vietnam. What exactly would these protesters have had their governments actually do when confronted with these situations?

It is not as though I disagree with their desired ends. I too would far prefer more peace in the world, and frankly would rather our political leadership spent their time dealing with global warming, poverty or other myriad issues.

But evil does exist, with Stalin and the early USSR being particularly good examples, and there is a practical matter of what exactly to do about that. The Kremlin seems quite happy right now to deploy rather brutal means to ensure favorable political arrangements within its' zone of 'privileged interest' as described by Medvedev. Given this, I would very much like to know how Block NATO would propose to help Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia maintain real independence from the Russian bear right next door.

Children

What a simple and sweet article. It is so refreshing to read things like this after the debacle of the last two Bush administrations.

Having a daughter makes this a more compelling article for me, and it raises a point that I think about every so often. Specifically, how do you raise your children so that they are confident, curious, but still have just enough street smarts to not get themselves into too much trouble?

To a certain extent, I think the modern world is easier for girls. There are no boundaries, no limitations; just a world to explore, and in our privileged situation, opportunities and life to seize.

Boys, ironically enough, seem more complex. What does masculinity mean in the 21st century? How do you raise boys who are thoughtful and kind, and yet still boys? When I was a boy I was never into team sports or rough housing and given that I grew up in sports mad Australia, the result was that I had a somewhat conflicted relationship with my own masculinity. Ultimately, I became very confident and comfortable in my own skin, but it is a topic about which I still wonder at times.

But perhaps I am just too old school and this just really isn't an issue anymore. Indeed, while I did ponder these thoughts earlier when Caeden was just a baby, I find that as he slowly turns into a happy, boisterous little boy, that it all seems rather natural and easy. We wrestle on the bed, read books and he leads me around the house by a finger, demanding that I sit down and play trains or cars with him.

Every so often though, I can't help but say a short prayer, of the secular humanist form, thanking God that I am doing this now, and not in some decade before, when we can all just be ourselves.