The Yin Blog

The Civil War: who to root for?

Wow, this is pretty cool.  My first year here, and Oregon and Oregon State are playing their annual rival match for the right to go to the Rose Bowl (and trash Ohio State)!

Since I'm new to the area, though, now I'm at a loss about which team to root for.  When I moved from Los Angeles to Iowa City, it was easy, since my employer was the University of Iowa, and I had no preconceived reasons to root against it (as I would have against a number of "bully" schools).  Here, however, it's entirely different.  I'm not teaching at the University of Oregon, so there's no employment-related reason to favor the Oregon Ducks.  Indeed, Oregon has a law school, so in a very indirect sense, it's a competitor!  Oregon State, on the other hand, does not have a law school.  So that favors the Oregon State Beavers.

When we turn to the mascots, the duck is not a particularly fearsome mascot, though neither is the beaver.  The beaver, at least, is a mammal that engages in engineering feats (dams), which is appropriate given Oregon State's engineering focus.  On the other hand, the beaver is also Caltech's mascot, and therefore brings up the negative memories that I have of that place.  I suppose this points in favor of the Ducks.

In the end, I'm drawn to the underdog.  Although both teams have been strong in the 2000s, I remember how much of a doormat Oregon State was during my time at Berkeley, and it's been almost 45 years since the Beavers have gone to the Rose Bowl (compared to 15 for the Ducks).

So . . . go Beavers!

How incompetent was Capt. Picard, anyway?

Last night, while watching the preposterous but nevertheless entertaining "Star Trek: Next Gen" episode where a rampant virus makes everyone on the Enterprise "devolve" into giant spiders, lemurs, and other creatures, I had an insight.  This is yet another episode where if it weren't for the fact that the Enterprise happened to be fortunate enough to have had Data on board, it would have been destroyed or lost.  (Don't even get me started on the times Wesley Crusher saved the ship!)

Yet, we know that Data is the only sentient android serving in Starfleet.  That means no other Starfleet vessel has a Data-like being on-board.

We don't hear about tons of Starfleet vessels being lost.  Does that mean that Captain Picard is incompetent, failing to protect his ship where other captains do?

Of course, the Enterprise is the flagship of the fleet, so perhaps it's put in dangerous situations more than other ships are.  That might absolve Picard of blame for the near-destruction of the ship in highly hazardous situations like the Borg episodes.  But in the devolving virus episode, there was no special danger; and in the "Die Hard on the Enterprise" episode, where the ship is almost hijacked by terrorists during Barion radiation cleaning, it's just routine maintenance taking place.

I used to think that Picard was more competent than Kirk, but now I'm not so sure.

US to prosecute KSM in federal court

Not all Guantanamo detainees are going to face trial in an Article III (federal) court, but September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his key associate Ramzi Binalshibh will.  President Obama's statement was:

“I’m absolutely convinced that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice,” Mr. Obama said. “The American people insist on it, and my administration insists on it.”

I have to admit, I'm not altogether certain what it means that KSM "will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice."  Does that mean that he will get the highest level of due process rights?  That would seem to be the sentiment behind trying him in a civilian court, as opposed to a military commission.  Yet, if that's the intent, "subject" is a strange way of putting it.  Subjecting someone to something connotes a negative, not a positive; otherwise, you'd say that the person was entitled to whatever it is.  Plus, is it fair to say that the American people want the highest level of due process for KSM?  I'm sure some do, but I'd be surprised if it's a majority, or even close to a majority.

So, if subjecting him to the most exacting demands of justice is meant to convey that, if guilty, he'll be treated harshly enough by the civilian criminal justice system, does it follow that this is "better" (more efficient, etc.) than a military commission?  I have a hard time seeing that the punishment will be more severe here.  KSM could get the death penalty in either forum.

The only thing that jumps out is that, because of the greater procedural protections and greater openness about Article III court trials, a conviction and death sentence in federal court will carry more legitimacy than the same verdict and sentence in a military court, notwithstanding President Obama's efforts to increase the procedural protections in the latter.

This suggests in turn that the Obama Justice Department believes that it can convict KSM and others despite the fact that KSM's initial confession was obtained through seriously coercive interrogation (i.e., 180+ instances of waterboarding) -- a fact that defense counsel will no doubt highlight.  It seems like the Obama lawyers may believe that KSM's subsequent re-confession, obtained at Guantanamo by new government lawyers without any coercion, is valid because he could have, but did not repudiate his prior confession.  We shall see.

A quick thought on ABC's "FlashForward"

Spoilers up to 11/5/09!

I've been watching ABC's serial sci-fi drama "FlashForward" almost in real-time, meaning that it just sits on my TiVo for an hour or so.  (To put it in context, I haven't gotten around to the "V" re-make yet, despite having high hopes for it.)

In "FlashForward," everyone on the planet -- except for one creepy person spotted in a baseball stadium surveillance camera -- blacks out at exactly the same time, for 2 minutes, 17 seconds.  Thousands are people are killed in plane crashes, auto accidents, hospital operations, and the like.  Most, but not all, of the survivors had a glimpse of where they would be in six months.  Some had happy visions, others not so happy.  The ones who had no glimpse at all begin to fear that they're going to be dead.

It's a pretty intriguing set-up, and the producers have been doling out small answers regularly, for which I'm grateful.  The one big complaint I have is that the producers have revealed too much, yet not enough, with regard to two characters -- Lloyd Simcoe and Simon Costa -- who are revealed to have caused the global blackout.

Now, the difference between American mysteries (as opposed to British, Agatha Christie type mysteries, where there's no action at all) and thrillers might lie primarily in the fact that thrillers generate suspense by showing you things from the point of view of the protagonist and the antagonist, whereas mysteries show you only the point of view of the detective.  I think Alfred Hitchcock once explained how he built suspense -- if two men are in a room playing chess and a bomb blows up, that's shocking but not suspenseful.  On the other hand, if you see someone plant the bomb before the chess players walk into the room, that's terribly suspenseful!  With a mystery, on the other hand, it works if the detective unravels the clues pointing toward the planted bomb, and then the detective must race the clock to get to the room before the bomb blows up.

Back to "FlashForward": it's nice for us to know that Simcoe and Costa are responsible, but it's frustrating that we aren't told everything they obviously know.  Why do they think they're responsible?  What project were they working on together, and how might it have caused the global blackout?  They might not know, but they obviously have suspicions.  By not sharing those with us (the viewers) -- only showing us the same conversation over and over ("We're responsible for killing 20 million people!"), the producers are artificially dragging things out.

It's too late to unring the bell, but really, I think it would have been better to have shown us nothing about Simcoe's and Costa's conversations, and simply give us only the same information as the FBI agents have.

I moved to the right state!

Because of Halloween trick or treating, I didn't get to see all of the Oregon-USC football game, but what I saw, including the end, was plenty satisfying.  It's hilarious to think that the USC football team has not won in the state of Oregon in four years now!