Author Archives: dunster

Mount Washinton Trip

I’ve wanted to go to Mount Washington in the winter forever. It took until this year for me to finally get the gumption to go. I looked forward to the trip all fall and winter. It was just as good as I hoped – even better. Check out the Tabblo and two short YouTube clips here and here.

Edutrips are run by the Mount Washington Observatory.  I heard about the trips a few years ago, but it wasn’t until this fall that I pulled the trigger and signed up.

In preparation I bought lots of gear (non-cotton layers, jackets, boots, crampons, etc.) and got myself in better shape.  If things go perfectly, you don’t need all of the equipment.  But they were very clear that things don’t always go perfectly.  In those cases you need to be able to hike out safely in severe conditions.

At 8AM I arrived at the bottom of the Auto Road.  The picture above is from the parking lot.  It was cool – 20F or so, but not bad.  While it was sunny at the bottom, the top was clearly “in the clouds.”  We weren’t going to see the sun for a while. A 24-second video of the scene. (The picture above, by the way, is an autostitched panorama created from 5 photos)

We shook hands and met each other.  There was the group leader, a group assistant, the snowcat driver, 8 Edutrippers, and a reporter from Germany.  We walked over to the garage and the gear was loaded onto the snowcat.  One person rode up front with the driver, and the 10 of us packed into the back.
… Read much more here

Small Handful of Small States

Ned ranted about silly parts of the presidential election.  I agree with 90% of what he says, but that last 10% . . . I started to respond in a comment on his blog, but the comment got long-winded enough that I decided to post here instead.  “The whole focus on early primaries seems completely out of whack to me, where a small handful of small states get to make big choices for everyone.”

My response is: If not New Hampshire. . . then which state?  What’s the alternative?  It’s an interesting question.  (And yes, I grew up in New Hampshire.)

I agree with another commenter, Dave, that one of the good parts of having New Hampshire pick first is retail politics.  The voters in New Hampshire, I’d argue, are less biased by the 30-second commercial or, god forbid, the 6-second newsbite quote.  They get to meet the candidates, listen to them for extended periods of time, and answer their questions.  Money matters, of course, but it matters less when you are there to shake people’s hands.

It’s a level of interaction that is inconceivable if you haven’t participated in it.  I went skiing with Bob Kerry and his one leg.  I joked with Elizabeth Dole.  I nearly grabbed Bob Dole’s pen by mistake.  I met every president from Reagan to Bush I (Clinton was elected while I was in college, and he broke my streak).

If not New Hampshire, then where?  A southern state?  A western state?  California is bigger and more diverse, but doesn’t it get decided by the television commercial, and thus the dollar?  If you look at small-population states, they’re all pretty white, just like New Hampshire.  Delaware, maybe, has a case to make; it’s small enough and more diverse than most.  But Nevada?  North Carolina?  Pick your biases, no matter which one you choose.

Another option is to have a national primary – no order of voting, just everyone vote the same day.  Again, I think that favors the best-funded candidates.  The dark-horse candidate doesn’t have a chance to make a run.  The current system permits candidates to rise and fall over time.  During each primary a new scrutiny is applied to the new frontrunner.

I agree with Ned that we have to break out of the two-party rut.  It’s just a matter of where to start.

Civil Service Still Broken

When I ran for state representative in 2004, reform of the civil service system was one of my key themes. There is so much wrong with it. The years pass, and the system is still broken.

The system was originally intended to take patronage and nepotism out of hiring decision. The system is supposed to bring the best applicants into the fire and police departments. It’s supposed to create a pool of qualified candidates that then go through a regular hiring system (interviews, etc.) But, the system has been so warped by arbitrary “preferences” that the candidate’s qualifications (test scores) are almost irrelevant. The best-scoring candidates are routinely pushed out of the hiring pool by lesser-qualified candidates who meet some “preference” criteria. Everyone has to take the exam, but the hiring is driven more by your preference than by your score. MassInc has a fantastic piece by a Civil Service Commissioner that goes into detail explaining how these lesser-qualified candidates get hired.

The current law also discriminates on the basis of age, not merit. How is it possible in today’s Massachusetts that a qualified candidate is simply excluded from consideration because they’re too old?

Today’s Globe has a new reminder of yet another failing of the system: good ‘ol patronage. To recap:

  1. Applicant scores poorly on civil service exam. (633rd on the list).
  2. Applicant calls up Senate President Therese Murray. (” . . . who, said two public officials involved in helping the Hayhursts, told several influential people throughout the process that the Hayhursts were family friends and were deserving of special treatment.”)
  3. Applicant calls up his state rep who activates the Representative Buddy System. (“Representative Stephen Stat Smith of Everett cosponsored the measure. ‘The reason I signed on is, as a new legislator, I’m not really familiar about the process,’ he said. ‘So I looked to some reps who are friends of mine who had some easy things that weren’t going to be controversial, and I just signed on to provide assistance to them and learn more about the process.'”)
  4. Applicant enjoys an 88-minute Senate approval followed by House approval the next time it was in session. Applicant waits for Patrick to not-veto the move.
  5. Applicant passes 632 more-qualified candidates, most of whom will never even get to even interview for the job.

The civil service is just begging for reform. Unfortunately, I think you need to reform the legislature, first.

Vote For The Candidate You Want

I post often enough about my philosophy on voting that I should create a category for it. Not sure what I’d call the category, though. What combines my thoughts on Mass’s one party rule, the press, none of the above, and leaving a ballot blank? In my mind, all of these concepts are linked. They’re all symptoms or partial solutions for problems I see in our political culture.

From the New York Time’s political writer/blogger Matt Bai, writing about this “distinct political culture that we in the media have wrought:”

Ten years of endless blather about the game of politics on cable TV have trained the most engaged American voters to handicap candidates rather than hear them, to pontificate about who might win rather than deciding whom they actually want to win. Voters seem to approach politics increasingly as pundits, and they look to poll numbers to tell them who’s electable and who isn’t, never stopping to realize that they are the ones who get to decide.

He’s absolutely right. How often do you find yourself talking about who you think is going to win, rather than who you want to win?

As a town, as a state, and as a country we’re straitjacketed by our self-imposed limitations. We don’t have to vote for these people when we find them lacking. We can vote for the ones that we want. When we find the courage to do this we will finally get what we want, rather than settle for what we got.

My hope is that by talking it about it, people will become more introspective while making choices in the ballot booth. When you realize your own biases it makes it easier to confront and remove them from the decision making process. I also hope if I noodle around the issue long enough, I’ll find a more powerful tool to solve the problem.

Rock Band (Guitar Hero)

Boston.com posted this video on its job site. The bit is about Harmonix. Harmonix’s famous because it created Guitar Hero I and II, and now Rock Band (Guitar Hero III is from Activision, which is a whole ‘nother story). Boston.com interviewed Eran Egozy. Eran is a co-founder of the company, a fraternity brother, and a friend. I think the interview, and the whole segment, is pretty good.

I particularly notice that they use scooters to get around the office, while HP forbids me to use them. REWS, are you listening?

I haven’t heard Eran play the clarinet in a decade. It was good to hear him again, but funny that it took this piece for me to hear it.

Snow

It’s been a good year so far for snowlovers like me. I’ve been snowboarding twice already at Mt. Wachusett, and I’m going again tomorrow. In the last 4 days we’ve got 20+ inches of snow. The weather forecast holds the cold/snow pattern for the forseeable future. What more could I ask for?

I came across this time-lapse video on Universal Hub. The first three minutes are good. You can see the plows go past, and you also see how ineffectual they are – the snow just keeps coming!