BRAIN DRAIN

Apple Computer announced yesterday that the 2nd generation iPod Shuffle will now come in four new colors. Amazingly, even orange looks nice.

Now will someone get me one in blue? Please?

While browsing at a nearby Barnes & Noble, I came across a copy of Richard Posner’s The Little Book of Plagiarism on one of the featured shelves of short books near the checkout counter.

Naturally, the title caught my attention. I began to wonder whether it was going to be a tongue-in-cheek compedium of shamelessly plagiarized passages to drive home the broader point about intellectual honesty. After browsing the book, I learned that it wasn’t; rather, it was more akin to a philosophical treatise on the subject by one of America’s more established legal scholars, occasioned by the recent publicized controversy of such practices in the chick lit genre. Overall, the book reminded me of Harry Frankfurt’s On Bullshit; yet unlike that one, this book didn’t nearly have enough novelty value to merit adding to my shelf. Thus I decided to come back another time just to browse it at my convenience.

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I take a very hard line about plagiarism. If memory serves, in the two years I spent teaching at the University of Asia and the Pacific I caught upwards of twenty cases of plagiarism among my students. Within an academic environment, plagiarism strikes me as a cop-out for laziness rooted in poor values, undoubtedly performed with malice. It doesn’t take that much effort to cite a source, and plagiarism belies an intention to deceive, where “submission for submission’s sake” or “the need to make the grade” become more important than the learning that underlie such requirements. This is the same point I would try to get across to my students: Have some self-respect. Take pride in your work. And exert the effort to give credit where credit is due.

Which brings me back to the book. Seeing it brought to mind a dilemma I’ve experienced now that I’ve begun blogging that doesn’t have anything to do with what I write. No, I have too much pride to out-and-out cut and paste off someone else’s work; instead, my dilemma has to do with the images that I employ to make my blog a bit more interesting.

Within the blogosphere, I’ve noticed that people generally take liberties “borrowing” images from websites for posting on their blogs, albeit observing the norm that one shouldn’t “piggyback” on another site’s bandwidth by simply linking to an existing image. For the most part I’ve observed these unwritten rules, and by and large most of the images I’ve put up on my blog are stock photos of items I write reviews about. I would like to think that what I do is no worse than what most maven bloggers do on their sites, and certainly nowhere near as egregious as some self-styled journalists-cum-bloggers with an axe to grind. But I’ve become increasingly uneasy about this, more so now that I’ve seen how consistently at least one former colleague gives props to the photos he uses on his blog. Shouldn’t my sentiments about plagiarism and intellectual honesty extend to the images that find their way onto my blog? Am I not obliged to walk my talk?

I think the answer has to be in the affirmative, even if this makes me borderline obsessive. Thus let me issue a blanket mea culpa for the images of the past, and promise to be more steadfast in giving credit to the images I will use in the future, either contextually or by adding descriptive tags to them that can be viewed upon mouse-over (which, pathetic as it sounds, I have only just learned to do). Don’t get me wrong: I will think no less of bloggers and blogs that churn out original posts and make use of images across the web as is common practice. Ultimately, a blog is a blog is a blog, and the internet is much more interesting this way. I do hope, however, that people start thinking more of me and mine.

Now that I’ve been able to size up my academic load for the semester, I’ve stepped up the effort to find a dissertation topic.

The way things look right now, the dissertation will be all that stands between finishing my doctorate as soon as possible and, well, not finishing. When I first applied for graduate school, I did so under the assumption that there was nothing wrong with coming into it “blind”, that it would be healthier and more interesting to see what might intrigue me rather than enter into it placing boundaries upon what further studies had to offer. In some ways I still believe that, yet at the same time my aimless academic posturing thus far has made me painfully aware of the poverty of my professional experience.

Apart from my other thoughts on the matter, I’ve conveniently divided my preliminary topic criteria into “what I will absolutely not do research on” and “things I’m interested in”. Where the former is concerned, I’ve decided to steer clear of topics with the “economic development” angle. Given my academic history, I’ve come to find the field a little tiresome and am leaning towards the view that the best development policies are nothing more than sound economic policies in and of themselves. Also, if I had a choice I’d prefer to groom myself into a microeconomist rather than one of the macro variety, though this may be out of my hands.

Then there are the things that (I think) I’m interested in, at least in broad strokes. If worse comes to worse, I have a feeling I’ll settle for doing research on remittances. It’s more or less a hot topic in the Philippines (isn’t the Philippine economy just being kept afloat by remittances?) and does fall within the rubric of financial economics. Besides, it wouldn’t hurt to do some work on something that I might profit from in the future. Maybe.

However, I am more inclined to do research on something along the lines of behavioral economics and thus behavioral finance. To some extent, this is perhaps driven by reading a little too much of Malcom Gladwell, Nassim Taleb and James Surowiecki (among others who perhaps write only tangentially on the subject), but more because it comes across as a topic that will hold my interest given my knack for the curiosities of human behavior. I’ve already found at least one internet resource on the subject at the International Center for Finance at the Yale School of Management, which will hopefully help me get the ball rolling.

It won’t be another year until I have to formally put together a dissertation proposal, and I am still convinced that the right topic will find me rather than the other way around. But I do have every intention of helping the process along from here on out.

It would appear that the beginning of the end for the Harry Potter series is in sight.

J.K. Rowling has announced that the seventh and supposedly final installment will be entitled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. No publication date has been set yet - at least, not from Scholastic, which carries the US distribution rights to Harry Potter - though the book-in-progress already rates a page on Amazon.com, as the screenshot on the right indicates. Pre-orders aren’t being taken on the site as of now, but users can subscribe to email alerts about the item.

(Obviously, this should be old news as the announcement was made about a month ago. But not all muggles have such wizardly foreknowledge!)

The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal have released the 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, a ranking of 161 countries across ten categories that measure components of economic freedom. Predictably, a bunch of the usual suspects (i.e. developed countries) top the list, though it is noteworthy that three Asia-Pacific economies (Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, respectively) rank on the top three. The United States is ranked fourth, China is ranked 119th, and at the bottom of the table are the likes of Zimbabwe, Libya, Cuba and North Korea.

Interestingly, the Philippines ranks among the countries described as “moderately free”, coming in at 97th with an aboslute score slightly worse than last year’s (by one-tenth of a percentage point). For context, this showing is better than neighboring Indonesia (ranked 110th), but worse than, say, Swaziland (ranked 64th). Also, it is curious to note that the country fares well in some areas more than others, which tends to bring to light the contradictions in the Philippine political-economic environment. The index reports that the country does well where trade, fiscal and monetary freedoms are concerned, and does exceedingly well in the category described as “freedom from government” (the country’s strongest category). At the same time, the Philippines rates poorly on items such as investment freedom, property rights, and especially “freedom from corruption” (its weakest category).

The complete report, explaining in detail the methodology used, is freely available for download on the Heritage Foundation’s website, where the complete rankings can be viewed online. The website also allows visitors to make country-by-country comparisons across all or selected categories, as well as view countries’ scores over time.

Well, I’ve finally decided to get started with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, nearly two months to the day since I bought it along with the Wii. This got me thinking about the other games I have on queue for one reason or another (yes, geek that I am there is such a thing) that I either haven’t started with or finished yet (I have a thing for seeing a game through to the end). Here’s what I put together:

Maximo vs. Army of Zin (Playstation 2). Actually, I’m about seventy percent through this game, but stopped playing when I started working. It’s a shame because the game is every bit as good as its predecessor despite being less difficult (those who’ve played the first one know that the crazy difficulty was part of the fun). The next time I’m home, I should remind myself to pick up where I left off. Wherever that is.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (Playstation 2). I think I bought this for myself three Christmases ago. Unfortunately, if memory serve, that was the same year I got my brother Metroid Prime for the GameCube and thus deferred playing in favor of watching him play his game. Now that I know that Snake doesn’t have a radar in this game, among other things, I’m not sure I’m all that interested in giving this a whirl.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Game Boy Advance). This one I bought a year ago and was nearly through the game. However, I lent it to my brother when he came over with the folks to visit, then told him he could bring it back home. Methinks I’d like to finish it (it was actually quite fun), but I doubt that’ll ever happen (it requires a disproportionately huge investment of time).

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Game Boy Advance). This was the first Zelda game I ever played (when an uncle lent it to me for the SNES), so I picked up this copy to relive good times. Now, I think I’d rather hold out to see if it’ll ever become available on the Wii’s virtual console, even if I’ll have to spend for it again.

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Game Boy Advance). Decided to check this out because of the rave reviews. I just never got around to actually playing it.

Sonic Rush (Nintendo DS). One of the games my brother got me for Christmas. I’m told it’s relatively short and very faithful to all the elements that made the franchise great. My gut tells me I’ll be playing this one very, very soon.

Children of Mana (Nintendo DS). The other Christmas gift from my brother. It looks interesting, but because it’s one of those games that requires a relatively long time to play through, I worry I might not get to finish it. Ironically, the first installment of the series, the SNES’s Secret of Mana, was one of the few games I also never got to finish back in the day.

Hmm…considering this is only the subset of games I haven’t gotten around to yet, it’s obviously a wonder I get anything else done. At the very least, it looks like I shouldn’t be buying any new games soon.

On the subway as I was making my way to the University, I found myself seated across an elderly couple. They were maybe about seventy, and their clothing belied the fact that they were probably not well-to-do, though perhaps not wanting for much either. Inevitably, I could not help but observe them (they were seated opposite me, after all), and found them to be the typical picture of a couple that had grown old with each other, practically joined at the hip as they were even in their advanced age.

Then I could see that something was wrong. The lady started to grow pale. Her breathing became more labored, and she would close her eyes in obvious discomfort. Without saying a word her husband sensed this, and began fumbling about his overcoat for his handkerchief and a plastic bag, for he knew that his wife was feeling queasy and was going to be sick.

He was right.

I remember thinking to myself how this man was the picture-perfect image of a boy scout: always prepared, in this case armed with a handkerchief and a throwaway plastic bag, ready to come to his wife’s aid. This image was burned into my memory because I have throughout my life been labeled a boy scout, what with my tendency to be clean-cut, my need to always have a hanky on hand, and my knack for having all sorts of useful accoutrements I could pull out of my pocket or bag that one would ordinarily not think to have on their person.

Yet for all of the old man’s preparedness, there was a flaw in the design: the impromptu plastic that he had handed to his wife had a hole, and thus the “sick” began to make a mess of her gloves, cap and coat. The husband tried to do his best to contain the untidiness - he still had his handkerchief, after all - but his wife continued to be sick, and the cloth could only do so much.

At this point my concern got the better of me: groping through my backpack, I found a stash of plastic bags I’d kept secreted away for some time and passed one on to the old man. He did not hesitate: he took it, placed it beneath the one he had given to his wife, and carefully began to tidy up the small mess on her things, all the while asking if she was alright and reassuring her that the mess was really nothing.

The both of them were very grateful for my gesture, and the old man even thanked me one last time before I stepped off the train at my stop.

It was at this point that it struck me: I don’t mind being a boy scout, even if good guys proverbially finish last. For if this old man, caring for his wife in the twilight of their years, is any indication of what lies ahead for the boy scouts of this world, then what a wonderful fate it is. There is a certain nobility in that against which even my present troubles cannot cast their ugly shadow.

The things left behind. Why is it that people can remember to bring unnecessary things at the last minute but forget to bring things they intended to bring long before and only realize this when it’s too late? In my case, this time I left behind a pair of jogging pants I intended to have altered (but didn’t) as well as a paperback copy of Water for Elephants that I’d bought precisely for the plane ride. While I’m on the subject, I also regret leaving before seeing how Final Fantasy XII turns out, through I hold out hope that my brother will not find the energy to pick it up again until some time after I can join him for the ride.

HKIA and PCCW. Apparently, the entire Hong Kong International Airport has Wi-Fi access courtesy of Richard Li and PCCW. Even more amazing is that it’s both free and quite fast - at least, much faster than even that offered at Cathay’s Business Lounge.

Wii Like. A funny thing happened at the security checkpoint before the boarding gate at Hong Kong. The inspector that went through my handcarried baggage was a fairly youngish fellow who, typical of most of the staff at HKIA, was very professional. He went through my cabin bag quite thoroughly, and was thankfully very delicate with my gadgets: iPod, Nintendo DS and my Wii. After going through the motions, he closed the bag and his professional demeanor left him completely as he flashed this big smile and, referring to the Wii, remarked “Very nice, sir, very nice!”

Vancouver vs. Seattle. I’ve flown to and from New York at least twice now, once via Seattle and this time via Vancouver. While Vancouver has a nicer view and far more pleasant locals by far, Seattle is a friendlier airport: there is no greater torture than being stuck in a transit lounge where there is barely anything by way of refreshments and entertainment, only to see numerous stalls beyond the transparent glass. I was tempted to ask passersby (since I could pass cash over the glass divider) if they could get me a snack or two, but realized I didn’t have any Canadian dollars on me either way.

Warning: Wolverine at Immigration! JFK has one of the more confusing and poorly laid out immigration checkpoints for a busy airport, especially when it gets loaded with three arriving flights. However, because it is set up to have the lines snake around so as to conserve space, I was quite surprised to find I was perhaps twenty persons ahead in line of, and momentarily beside, none other than Hugh Jackman, who apparently came in from Spain on an Iberian Airways flight. He seemed quite nice as he was chatting up some of the folks around him and trying to blend in. But before anyone asks: no, I was unable to unleash my inner groupie and ask for an autograph. Ah, me.

And so here I am. It is said that life is what happens while one is making plans. How very true. I regret this will be a very long semester, perhaps my worst yet. I hate my life.

Under the rubric of “there and back again”, these are the movies I caught on the different flights I was on (that I hadn’t seen in theaters):

Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. I knew coming into this one what to expect, and it did not disappoint (and yes, that’s a backhanded compliment). Where mindless comedies are concerned it is terribly predictable but not all too bad, seeing as it takes a dig at the entire NASCAR phenomenon and the perceived hillbilly crowds that surround it, something long begging for satire. I find however, that the gags by way of the faux television commercials throughout the movie and especially as the credits roll are a whole lot funnier than the movie itself. On the whole, I’m glad I passed on this one in theaters.

Invincible. The Disney film starring Mark Whalberg about an unlikely rookie who makes it to the Philadelphia Eagles’ roster. The film attempts to do for football what The Rookie (the Dennis Quaid movie) did for baseball. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, and the film comes out fairly decent but none too remarkable. Certainly, Rudy pulled it off much better, although the circumstances surrounding Invincible - the economic downward spiral facing 1970s (?) Philadelphia and the aspirations that the city’s residents project onto their football team - are quite different and do give the film its own powerful emotional hook. If there’s anything really to complain about it’s probably Greg Kinnear, who despite his talents comes across as miscast in the role of the Eagles’ coach.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend. Surprisingly, a quite enjoyable romp. The first thing to appreciate about this movie is that the premise, setup and execution of the story - Luke Wilson’s character breaking up with his girlfriend, who happens to be a superhero - actually make a reasonable amount of sense, which is rare for a comedy. Second, and this might seem trivial, the soundtrack is not just well chosen but very expertly incorporated into the movie. I remember deciding to pass on this film when it was out in theaters for no other reason than it seemed ridiculous. I truly regret ever having thought that.

Little Miss Sunshine. Certainly a most unusual film. In many respects it reminded me of Sideways, another movie with an excellent cast, largely well-written dialogue, and a story that doesn’t really seem to go anywhere yet manages to keeps one’s attention (ostensibly just to find out where things are headed). Here, however, the story surrounds a disfunctional family that goes on a road trip in order to get the younger daughter to a beauty pageant she has always dreamed of competing in. Typically, along the way they get to resolve some of their issues and come to a better understanding of each other (sort of). The film largely meanders along and tends to be interesting, but in my opinion the twist at the end, while initially humorous, also ruined the movie. I know that the film has achieved critical acclaim, but I fail to grasp the underlying point, even if the ride is meant to be more important than the destination. At the very least, I was pleased to see that Greg Kinnear was not miscast in this film.

The Departed. Well worth the buzz that surrounded it. Martin Scorsese makes good use of his stellar cast in this gem of a movie about the Irish mafia. A-list headliners Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Leonardo di Caprio (who made a believer out of me after watching his performance) play their parts to perfection. With the exception of the affected New England accents that sometimes comes across as forced and inconsistent (but what do I know, right?), this gritty and intense film never lets up from start to finish. I now wonder how the Asian film on which it is based, Infernal Affairs, compares.

The Guardian. A straightforward, predictable, but completely satisfying film. I think it’s about time that an interesting movie were made about the US Coast Guard and its training program for rescue divers. At the very least, this film demonstrates that Kevin Costner is capable of starring in a film that involves lots of water and isn’t at all terrible. Fancy that.

The Black Dahlia. Something tells me I should have liked this film, but instead it was quite disappointing. I think Brian de Palma has to accept most of the responsibility for this: the story itself was very poorly put together, and de Palma’s style just made it that much less palatable even if he tried to get the noir-ish mid-1940s feel right. Further, Josh Hartnett’s voice-over narration, a critical component to the film, was even worse than his acting, which by comparison had some promise. Also, in what universe do Mia Kirshner and Hilary Swank look even remotely alike? Anyway, I presume that the book was more interesting than the film, though now that I’ve seen this I have no desire to even see whether this is in fact the case.

I wonder what my roommates in New York have been doing while I’ve been out…