Trump the Real Estate Guy Part 2

The Guardian reports that Trump cancelled his Denmark trip after Mette Frederiksen, the Danish Prime Minister, said Greenland was not for sale. And after all the nice things Trump said about them, too

Update:
The Danes aren't happy about Trump's actions.

Stalingrad: The Pity and the Terror

     Antony Beevor.  Stalingrad (1998) One of my uncles went missing at Stalingrad, so my reading of this book was coloured by that knowledge. What stands out most to me is the appalling mistakes made by Hitler, and the toadying of the careerist generals who put their careers ahead of their loyalty to the Nation. And of course there were generals who believed the Nazi race theories. They were Prussians; the Prussian military caste was supposedly raised to put the Nation first.

     The other take-aways simply make that military betrayal all the more poignant. The siege was a battle of attrition. The Russians won because they could support their supply lines better than the Germans could; because they produced more materiel (a fact that the Nazi-imbued command couldn’t believe); because they were willing to sacrifice their men; and because Hitler and his general staff understood neither the sheer size of Russia, nor the violence of the Russian winter. Like Napoleon’s, their conception of the battle field was limited by their circumscribed European experience.
     In the end, the battle cost about one million lives, most of them soldiers. The city was reduced to rubble. And Hitler, supported by a general staff and  Nazi hierarchy that would not disobey his increasingly crazy commands, prolonged the war and the slaughter for another two years.
     Beevor tells his story clearly, but it helps to have the maps at hand while reading. It would also help to have coloured maps, and more of them. Still, the shape of the battle and siege are clear enough on a first reading.  I won’t read this book again, though. Beevor includes many verbatim reports gleaned from written records and interviews. These, even more than the accounts of the troop movements, bring the waste of Stalingrad to vivid life, and death.
     I don’t want to think about what happened to my uncle. He was a Lutheran pastor, who volunteered as a private because he didn’t want the officer rank of chaplain to come between him and the men he expected to serve. Less than 10% of the 5th Army eventually returned. These men brought what news they could, but much of it was garbled, or incomplete, or little more than a name. My uncle may have survived the siege. If he did, he did not survive Siberia.
     Recommended. ****

Rumpole's Creator

   John Mortimer.   Clinging to the Wreckage (1982) A re-read, and just as exhilarating and moving as the first time. Mortimer’s style is anecdotal: he’s a story teller, but an artful one, who knows how to bring the story to a point, a punch-line, or a twist that recasts the whole meaning of what he has told. The ambience is wry amusement at the follies of being human, and melancholy regret for the losses that make up our lives.

     The reminiscences about his father were made into a TV show, Voyage Round My Father, which I’ve seen, and recommend. Available on Youtube.
     Mortimer was apparently a good lawyer. His practice clearly informed Rumpole of the Bailey, which has the same combination of amusement and regret as this book. He was married twice, and had four children. He’s reticent about the details of his private life; the impression is of the same mix of joy and frustration that most of us know. Wikipedia gives more information.
     This book is worth reading in part because it’s a witness to England as it was between the world wars and after the second one. For Rumpole fans, it’s worth reading in any case. ****

Trump the Real Estate guy

So Trump has confirmed he's considering buying Greenland.

ROTFLMAO.

He's become the master of unwitting self-mockery. Really, you can't make this stuff up. Nobody will ever take him seriously again.

Update 20200728: I have underestimated the, um. loyalty of his followers.

Need to tweet? No phone? No problem: Use the fridge.

The Guardian reports that a teen's tweets from her smart fridge went viral.

If the fridge can be used to send tweets, you can bet that it's being used to monitor the family's refrigeration habits. That data is valuable to advertisers, which can use it to "suggest" that some supplies need to be replenished....

Because you see, tweeting requires a link that works in both directions. So if the frdige can be used to send data out, it can also be used to send data in. And that, my friends, is the real purpose of smart devices.

Say Hello to Alexa..

Update: This news item has been  outed as fake. As you can see above, I was fooled, too. The effect of too much confidence in my expertise,

Mother and Child Reunion: Dactylografies

  

     2019-08-08 Dactylografies (Timber Village Museum, Blind River. Until September 3, 2019) Jonathan Brodbeck saw his mother Isabelle Michaud using her typewriter (she likes the tactility of the machine). He decided he wanted to use it too, and began writing notes about his daily life. He’s on the Asperger’s spectrum, and expressing himself was highly unusual. Isabelle, with his permission, began making abstract paintings incorporating his typewritten notes.
     She uses acrylics on 2ftx4ft mahogany plywood intended as floor underlay. She likes the texture created by the interaction between brush, wash, paint, and wood. So do I. Some of her paintings include organic forms based on the typewriter: beasties with scrawny necks and round, blank heads, like typewriter keys transformed and given life. Most of the paintings use colour fields, some randomly shaped, some rectangular, some indefinite, made with wash or paint. The colours somehow relate to Jonathan’s words, an effect I can’t account for.
     I liked the show. We met Jonathan and Isabelle there. They are interesting people. Recommended ****

Why Crack Dealers Live with Their Moms (Freakonomics, 2006 edition)

     Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner. Freakonomics (2006, expanded edition). A re-read, and just as much fun as the first time around. Almost in one sitting, it's that good. This edition is the expanded one of 2006, with the original New York Times Magazine article, a handful of columns written by Levitt and Dubner, some blog entries, and extensive Notes.
     I was again impressed by the way Levitt was able to find data that would answer his questions. However, most data out there can't be used the way Levitt uses it. Just because the data is related to a question doesn’t mean it can be used to answer it. I was a teacher, and the perennial question is how to evaluate students. For example, how would you prove that an objective test measures insight and understanding? What scores would show mastery of content? Are essays a better instrument? Is it meaningful to compare students to each other? Etc.
     Some of those questions are matters of principle. I don’t think comparative grading tells you much, but that’s what teachers do. Claiming that a student’s performance is measured against some expected standard just interposes a layer of obfuscation, which may soothe the teacher’s conscience, and certainly reassures parents. But grades merely quantify two features: the student’s stage of development; and their family’s socio-economic status.
     Other questions are worth asking, but answers require data sets that are hard to come by. For example, it’s fairly obvious that the test questions must relate to the insights we wish to measure. It’s not obvious how such questions should be framed. Nor is it obvious how to determine whether the results tell us anything useful about anything else, such as the student’s future performance. What data we have show that test results correlate most strongly with postal codes, which in turn identify neighbourhoods, which in turn correlate with socio-economic status.
     As you see, Freakonomics prompts musings and questions. That alone makes it worth reading. It’s well written, entertaining, and mind-stretching. ****
     Footnote: Many years ago, I administered a series of vocabulary tests to my classes. I found that my students consistently picked the same "incorrect" answers for some words. The reason? Subtle differences between the regional dialects spoken by my students and the test makers.