Waterboarding Is Torture: Shut Up and Watch

Hat tip to SD Humanist:

Chicago radio host Erich "Mancow" Muller said waterboarding wasn't torture. He agreed to have a U.S. Marine waterboard him live on air to prove it. Six seconds in, he changed his mind.



Waterboarding is torture.

SAT/ACT Test Prep: Worth the Money?

I taught for eight months at the Coquitlam branch of Elite Educational Institute, an SAT test-prep outfit. I felt a bit hypocritical, since I had always told high school students (and continue to tell them) that special courses and tutoring for college admission tests are a waste of money. At Elite, we did some good things in our after-school, weekend, and holiday classes: practiced writing, discussed novels (Frankenstein! Pride and Prejudice!), drilled vocab (especially good for all the Korean immigrant kids), even talked about some SAT-specific test-taking strategies. Elite boasts of 40 alums who have earned perfect SAT scores, but did those scores come from our efforts, or were those smart kids to start with who would have aced the test (or come darn close) anyway? It couldn't hurt kids to read more, but did we really make that much of a positive difference on test scores?

Making $26 an hour and thus covering our $1000-a-month Vancouver rent assuaged my guilt just enough to get me to work each day.

Now Marketplace's Wednesday show highlights a study by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling that supports my lack of faith in the very test-prep services I once provided... sort of. NACAC finds that commercial test prep boosts test scores by meager averages of 30 points on the SAT and less than one point on the ACT.

I want to get excited about this study, but if you read page 1 of the full report, you see a number of caveats:

1. NACAC looks at a lot of old data. Not much research has been done in this decade. The test prep you buy your kids this year may be much better informed than the test prep available ten years ago.
   
2. There are only two published studies on ACT scores and none on the new SAT that added the writing section in 2005 (a section we coached hard on at Elite).
3. Even if the gains are statistically small, they may still have a big impact on getting admitted and winning scholarships. A one-point boost to your ACT isn't a big deal... unless that point moves you from 23 to 24 and wins you the Jackrabbit Guarantee. NACAC also finds that, like it or not, colleges say they use cut-off scores or factor even small differences in test scores into their admissions decisions. It may be a silly game, but for now, it's the game colleges are playing.

One could argue that if the expected value of test-prep is only a small point boost, you might get a better deal just by paying more attention to your regular classroom teachers (free for most of you), searching for some extra practice online (sometimes free!), or just buying one good test study guide (new running $15 for SAT, $22 for ACT). Compare that to dumping hundreds of dollars into extra courses (try $1500 for a ten-week program from MEK in New Jersey).

Or you could beat the rush and drill vocabulary with your three-year-old. There's my plan!

Good Citizen Journalism: Hudson Covers KAUR Broadcast Shutdown

Hat tip to South Dacola!

Sioux Falls blogger Scott Hudson provides something no other area media have: a full, detailed account of why Augustana radio station KAUR is shutting down its broadcast signal and switching entirely online operations. Hudson has a passion for good music and the local music scene. He was also a DJ for KAUR for 18 years and even enjoyed a stint as its music director back in the 1980s.

Disappointed with the thin coverage the matter received in the professional press, Hudson goes to KAUR general manager Tom Prochazka to get the straight poop. Hudson provides a lengthy interview transcript that tells how the decision was announced to the staff and gives the reasons cited by Augie Dean Mark Braun for the station's mission change:

1. low student listenership and preference for online radio
2. lack of student DJs
3. no fit for KAUR in the curriculum
4. physical space
5. worries the FCC could fine Augie into bankruptcy for one naughty word
6. possibility of leasing the frequency to MPR or the Catholic Diocese

Prochazka tells Hudson that the move online results in a serious reduction of potential listeners:

The drawback with streaming is the royalty and licensing fee schedule. In order to stay within our budget, we would have to limit subscriptions to an average maximum of 212. There is some wiggle room here but the math works out that 212 people listening 24 hours a day would be just under a consumption level requiring a higher fee. 213 people would put us into the next category. So, access to over 300,000 potential listeners by broadcast or access to under 300 listeners via stream? Why not 300,300+ by both? [Tom Prochazka, interviewed by Scott Hudson, "Augie's Bonehead Decision Regarding KAUR," Rant-A-Bit, 2009.05.19]

Yikes—I didn't realize the added complication of calculating royalties online. I'd like to think that, as portable Web-enabled devices become more common, we could all listen to KAUR and other radio stations online just as easily as we can listen to the standard AM and FM broadcasts on our radios (and think about this: what do you have in your backpack or pocket more often, a cell phone or a radio?). But online broadcasts just can't reach as many people at once as a good radio signal.

Hudson offers his own commentary, noting the importance of a broadcast signal for catching new listeners and introducing them to new music. After all, it's a lot easier for a casual Sioux Falls listener to scan the entire radio dial and discover KAUR than it is to scan the entire Internet. Hudson notes that a campus radio station is a great learning experience, regardless of whether it fits in a specific academic program. Hudson also points out that KAUR is one of Augie's best community outreach efforts.

I do look forward to being able to listen to KAUR here at Lake Herman, right alongside my favorite online radio station for new non-top-40 music, Alberta's CKUA. But Mr. Hudson is right: Augustana College and Sioux Falls are losing a good cultural resource in KAUR's over-the-air broadcasts. Let's hope that Augie can at least find a broadcaster like MPR to lease the station and fill the gap with some good music.

And let's hope Mr. Hudson keeps up the good citizen journalism.

MWAIS 2009 Conference Comes to DSU: Local Boys Present Paper

Egghead alert! Experts from all over the Midwest are coming to Madison for the Midwest Association for Informations Systems (MWAIS) 2009 conference right here at Dakota State University. Conferences are a big deal for us academics: it's where we prove how smart and deserving of tenure (for profs) or doctorates (for us lowly grad students) we are. We get good ideas from other researchers. There's also that networking thing that my profs tell me is really important but which I still just don't get into very eagerly.

But hey! I get to read a paper! My good friend and fellow Bulldog debate alumnus Toby Uecker and I co-authored a paper on using storytelling as a way to research (formal title: "Scholarly Personal Narrative as Information Systems Research Methodology"). Toby had to go to Europe this week, so he's missing out on the fun here. I'll have to present our paper solo on Saturday morning.

I'm just a little nervous: information systems researchers tend to be pretty numbers-oriented. Storytelling might be outside their methodological comfort zone, and they might bring some stiff questions. But hey, it's no worse than debate round I ever competed in. Bring on those questions!

Nymity for Neighborly Conversation: Comment Policy Reminder

I'm receiving a welcome stream of pleasant comments that I am nonetheless deleting in adherence to the anonymous-comment moderation policy. Thus, a reminder is in order: the nymity-only comment policy remains in effect. If you want your comment to stick, I need to know who you are. Include your name—full name, or at least a link that will allow me to easily verify your full name and your actual existence as a real neighbor. If you prefer to conceal your identity but still want to share info, contact me privately. It's nothing personal, and it has nothing to do with whether you agree or disagree with me. It's just about keeping the conversation real. Public discourse is great; identity is the price of admission.

Wind Turbines Kill Goats with Noise?

Wind turbines and ethanol plants do make noise. But can that industrial noise kill goats? A farmer on the Penghu Archipelago off the western shore of Taiwain says that since the installation of eight wind turbines near his fields three years ago, 400 of his goats have died... of sleep deprivation. Taiwan's Council of Agriculture is investigating, and Taiwan Power is promising to compensate the farmer if their turbines are responsible for the farmer's losses.

Talk about unintended consequences! I'm all about wind and other alternative energy sources, but even we greenies need to be ready to acknowledge and solve the problems new technology may cause. And we also need to remind ourselves that instead of filling the planet with more noisy, stinky, and otherwise disruptive power plants, the greenest path, for us and our goats, may be simply to use less power.

-----------
Update 13:10 CDT: Meanwhile, I hear from a neighbor of the Loomis, SD, ethanol plant that the company performed some bare minimum efforts to satisfy the county commission, like planting some 18-inch deciduous trees (meaning the leaves fall off, meaning they don't block sound for six months of the year) in a low ditch. No noise reduction whatsoever. Keep the earmuffs on your goats!

New Credit Card Rules: The Personal Perspective

So what do the new credit card rules mean for me? I like to think of myself as a "good" credit cardholder. I've carried a balance once, for two months. For the last ten years, I've paid the full bill every month, with maybe two late payments due to sheer forgetfulness. Of course, "good" is in the eye of the beholder. Credit card companies call cardholders like me deadbeats, because I don't generate profits for them. Heck, with rebates and no annual fees, I'm costing Citigroup and Chase money. Who wants a customer like that?

There have been some suggestions in the news that credit card companies may nuke those cashback awards and other perks and impose more annual fees in order to recoup what they'll lose now that they'll be forced to play fair with borrowers. And if Citi does hit me with an annual fee, then I face the choice of eating that cost or cutting up my card and dinging my credit score. Ouch.

But you know, I've been having a free lunch for years. Citi has been providing me a service and losing money. Worse, I've been making money, in the form of cashback rebates, on the backs of folks carrying more debt and suffering from the very predatory, usurious practices of which I've been so critical. There's a bigger ouch.

Ezra Klein reminds us that there is no such thing as "good" and "bad" credit cardholders. Each of us is just a layoff or a car wreck or one lost envelope away from finding ourselves on the wrong end of the credit card companies' big guns. Why should I profit from folks just like me whose abuse at the hands of credit card corporations is triggered by nothing more than bad luck?

The new credit card regulations will give Citi a convenient excuse to jack up fees and cut benefits (but wait a minute: even before these new regs, was anyone getting letters from Citi et al. announcing lower rates and fees?). If Citi decides it can no longer afford to pay me for using its card, I won't like it. But I can live with it. Nobody should profit from deceptive business practices... not even me.

New Federal Credit Card Rules Won't Kill Jobs, Will Restore Fairness

So Bill Janklow, a Harvard prof, and the Madville Times walk into a bar....

The Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights, which is headed for the President's desk, may be a bigger deal than I thought. No, not because it will kill thousands of South Dakota usury jobs, but because it will restore fundamental fairness to the credit industry, and maybe even help the free market.

Former Governor Bill Janklow, the man who brought South Dakota the credit card boom, doesn't see any job losses coming. He apparently disagrees with current Governor Rounds's assertion that Premier BankCard et al. won't be able to compete without their current preadatory lending practices:

"I don't think the people in this state are going to have any trouble. Citibank is an honorable credit card company this mothership they have in Sioux Falls is the best in the world. The same thing is true with First Premier and First National in Yankton," Janklow said.

The former South Dakota Governor says this bill levels the playing field for all the companies across the country.

"So, as long as everybody in the NFL, everybody in Major League Baseball, or everybody in the credit card industry have to follow the exact same rules I don't think it makes any difference. It's when you have an un-level playing field where they give an advantage to one player, or one set of players over another, it becomes a problem" [Ben Dunsmoor, "Janklow: SD Credit Companies Will Adapt to Rules," KELOLand.com, 2009.05.20]

Speaking of a level playing field, Tony Amert rightly directs our attention to Elizabeth Warren. She's a Harvard law prof and overseer of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. She emphasized the need for a level playing field between lenders and borrowers in a Frontline interview in 2004:

[Question]: So the credit card industry says ... "We provide the credit, in many cases, for people to start businesses ... to buy more, to live a better life, to do things that they could never do any other way." So what's the problem?

[Warren]: There is no problem if they would do it on terms that are fair and if they would make their contracts transparent so that the person who's borrowing the money is borrowing it in a way that he or she understands and appreciates the risks.

I believe in free markets. I teach contract law; I believe that value is created when two people come together, and they understand a contract, and they say, "I think if I borrow this much money at this interest rate, I can do better than that; I can start a business; I can buy something I want to buy that's going to be important to me, and I can make money out of this proposition." That is a good use of credit. It's a use of credit we've had in the United States since colonial times.

What's changed is [that] when credit was deregulated in the early 1980s, the contracts began to shift. And what happens is that the big issuers, the credit card companies who have the team of lawyers, started writing contracts that effectively said, "Here are some of the terms, and the rest of the terms will be whatever we want them to be." And so they would loan to someone at 9.9 percent interest. That's what it said on the front of the envelope. But it was 9.9 percent interest ... unless you lost your job, or 9.9 percent interest unless you applied for a couple of other credit cards, or 9.9 percent interest unless you defaulted on some other obligation somewhere else that doesn't cost me a nickel. And at that moment, that 9.9 percent interest credit suddenly morphs to 24.9 percent interest, 29.9 percent interest, 36.9 percent interest. Well, you know, ... nobody signs contracts to buy things that say, "I'm going to pay you $1,200 for the big-screen TV unless you decide, in another month or two months, that it should really be $3,600 or $4,200 or $4,800." But that's precisely how credit card contracts are written today.

...But [the credit card companies] would say they're just making capital or money available to people in a convenient way.

Well, in a convenient way, and changing the price after people borrow it. You know, that's a heck of a deal. I don't know any merchant in America who can change the price after you've bought the item except a credit card company. After you have borrowed the $5,000, they can change the interest rate from 9.9 percent to 29.9 percent. I just don't know anyone else who can do that.

Contrary to the curmudgeonly (and implicitly self-righteous?) grumblings of various arch-conservatives, the new credit card rules aren't about giving handouts to irresponsible borrowers in the name of wimpy liberal "fairness." They're about making credit card companies play by the rules of the free market that we expect every other player to follow. Transparency and honest dealing—not so novel concepts.

(Tony also points to a couple of intelligent videos with Prof. Warren's insight: This 2007 lecture at UC Berkeley on "The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class," and this 2007 NightLine feature. Warren is an engaging and passionate speaker about economic topics that many folks would consider dry.)

Digital TV Sucks: Let's Watch YouTube

I believe in the power of science and technology to make our lives better. (I saw Star Trek last night, loved it—expect a full review by the weekend!) However, technology's power to bring progress is not unlimited, as demonstrated by digital television, the biggest tech boondoggle of this decade.

Here at Lake Herman, I used to receive SDPB, KELO, and KSFY reliably. KDLT came in with some rabbit-ear wiggling. On lucky Sundays we could pick up KTTW and watch new Simpsons.

Then came digital TV, which is supposed to be spectacularly better than analog broadcast signals. If we lived in a giant dome, stopped all air and land travel, and turned off all other electronic devices, I bet it would be.

But in the real world, digital TV sucks. Sure, we get more channels now: 3 from SDPB and 2 from KELO come in pretty well... usually. But we catch only glimpses of KDLT's two channels. KSFY and KTTW have never registered on our taxpayer-subsidized converter box (memo to KTTW: better order more hamsters for the wheel-generator).

Digital signals wax and wane with environmental conditions, just as analog signals do, but the performance differences in digital signals are far more drastic. Sunday night, when it was calm and cool outside, we got to watch the Giro d'Italia whizz around Milan on KDLT's second channel, 46-2. The picture was regularly dotted with pixellation, and the sound cut out regularly... and that's the best 46-2 signal we've ever received. But when the high heat rolled in Monday, poof! Zilch from KDLT. SDPB has also disappeared, all three channels. No Sesame Street today, and someone in our house could use some Elmo! Even KELO this week produces only unwatchable snatches of signal.

Whatever causes the problem, it's the unwatchability of a degraded digital signal that drives me nuts. Get goofy weather, run a hair dryer, answer the cordless phone, and an analog signal would go fuzzy, but you could still hear the audio and follow the action through even mild static. But interfere with a digital signal, and its toast. It pixellates, it freezes, it drops the audio completely. If I bring my laptop to the couch to do some work while the little one watches Nature, the computer produces just enough interference to destroy what should be a quiet, pleasurable evening of watching penguins or hippos.

And just try fixing the reception by fiddling with your antenna. Swing the old rabbit ears around, and you would immediately see the effect on an analog signal. The digital receiver takes its time deciding whether it can make the new antenna position work, so you're stuck nudging the ears, waiting, nudging again, waiting....

Even I, for all my promotion of higher culture, still want my Letterman, my Don and Angela, my SNL, maybe even just some sports background noise every now and then. And on those occasions when I want it, I want it now. Ideally, digital TV should bring me higher quality and less time. Practically, I'd settle for one or the other. Currently, digital TV is bringing me neither. The signal is less reliable, lower quality, and I spend more time pushing buttons, twiddling the antenna, and waiting for the signal to lock in.

Am I the only person having these problems? If not, it would appear we can count on digital TV bringing the death of broadcast TV as we know it. If we really want to see video, we'll get a DVD or watch Hulu.com or YouTube. Instead of just telling people about the funny thing we saw on TV last night, we'll e-mail our friends the link to the online video, or embed the video with our commentary on our blogs. If we need a weather report, we'll tune the radio to KJAM or WNAX and pull radar from the Web.

Digital TV is supposed to be a revolution. It certainly is: a continuation of the Internet revolution, and a termination of one more form of old-style media.

Heidelberger Destroys Economy with Gardening... Hooray!

Hey, that's my wife on TV! Of course, I suppose she's out to destroy the economy with all this talk about growing our own food to spend less money.



Read more subversive greenness at Erin's blog, Prairie Roots!

Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights Passes... No Thanks to South Dakota

The cheese stands alone: Senator Tim Johnson is the only Democrat in the U.S. Senate to vote against the Credit Cardholders Bill of Rights. Senator John Thune was almost the only Republican Senator to do so: only three other senators could rustle up a reason to vote against making credit card companies deal honestly with customers.

Recall that three weeks ago, Representative Herseth Sandlin similarly played the cheese in the House on this bill. So South Dakota has the distinction of its entire Congressional delegation voting in favor of supporting deceptive, predatory lending as a basis for economic growth. How embarassing. Fortunately, the vast majority of our delegation's colleagues from other states are able to see the sensibility of requiring credit card lenders to play fair. President Obama will sign this bill, and we will have the pleasure of calling Premier BankCard's bluff: Are you guys really going to close down because of this law? Are we really going to see consumer credit dry up just because you won't issue cards to people who are bad risks any more? Go ahead, make my day. Even if Governor Rounds's worst-case scenarios come true, our state and our economy will still be better off getting rid of these near-criminal business practices.

But remember, by Rep. Herseth Sandlin's logic, if she's catching hell from conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats, then she must be doing a good job. Cool: then the liberal Democrat writing this blog will be happy to forward her cause and Senator Johnson's by heaping plenty of criticism on them for their bad, bad, bad votes on this credit card legislation.

Question for Rep. Herseth Sandlin and Sen. Johnson: where are all the moderates you so ably represent who are crying out for you to protect the usury industry from regulation?

South Dakota: Bear Crossing!

A black bear visited Milbank, South Dakota, a couple weeks ago. I think it was originally bearing for Brookings to give Pat Powers something to worry about besides mountain lions. Fortunately for PP and all tasty bloggers to the south, said bear headed back to North Dakota, where it met an untimely demise at a farm near Fairmount.

Memo to bears and drunks alike: keep your paws off people's houses, and don't look in the windows.

South Dakota State Wildlife director Tony Leif assures us the bear visit was "probably unique" since there's no habitat suitable for bear (or anyone else?) in North Dakota.

But if it wasn't, remember: if you meet a bear, be respectful. Stand tall, wave your arms, and talk to the bear, preferably in a loud, low voice (if possible, play Isaac Hayes).

Of course, maybe the bears are coming to South Dakota to help keep down our moose population, and that could be a good thing. Moose can be just as dangerous as bears. (Moose will trample you—ouch!) Over a 29-year period in British Columbia, bear and moose each killed 19 people. During that same period, mountain lions killed only five people... and horses killed 47.