Marcus' World

My Back Pages: Re-reading "Apostasy"

Mom and Bob are beginning to clear out their Ohio home, in preparation for a permanent move to Arizona next year.  This month they mailed me some papers from my college years.  Most of them are shreddable--I can part with financial aid documents from 1995--but some interesting items were in the mix.

Way back before there were blog posts, there were essays.  In the spring of 1998 (when I was 21) I wrote "Apostasy,"  my first serious attempt to document why I abandoned the Christian faith of my youth.  Reading it again a few days ago, I chuckled at the use of phrases like "unjust opprobrium" and "petty neuroses." And I noted my somewhat odd intonation of the concept of the "secular university," because when I entered Northwestern I perceived myself as attending such a place.

Oh well; I was young.  I'm still proud of these sentences, almost ten years later:

1. "Who cares if the fundamental truths of different faiths contradict each other? Might this not be because the truths are only valid within the particular contexts in which they arose, and are not meant to be universal?"; and,

2. "I have recently realized that Christianity's penchant for moral codification is not necessarily a bad thing, as part of everyone's life is sorting out what is desirable from what is not. The problem with Christianity (and other religions, too) is that this codification becomes extremely rigid, so that it is eventually reduced to a rule-making contest rather than an examination of how to live a good life."

With those thoughts, Happy New Year!

At the Movies: Juno

Yesterday Helen and I watched Juno, which Roger Ebert has called "just about the best movie of the year."  That "just about" gives me pause: Ebert probably thinks that the soul-sapping, blood-soaked No Country for Old Men as the best film of 2007.  No Country is very gripping, but Juno beats it in both intelligence (narrowly) and heart (by many orders of magnitude.)

Ellen Page plays Juno McGuff, a smart and sassy teenager who becomes pregnant after an ill-considered act of intercourse with a lovably awkward boy named Paulie Bleeker. Although Juno considers getting an abortion, she decides to carry the baby to term and then give it up for adoption to a wealthy couple, the Lorings (played by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner), who've placed an ad seeking a child.  The story takes place over the course of Juno's pregnancy, as she gets to know the adoptive family and struggles to understand her strong feelings for Paulie.

Juno is loaded with hilarious one-liners and quick turns of phrase.  It's also visually inventive, including a catchy animated sequence near the beginning.  But these elements would only add up to a good movie.  What makes it great is the way the story unspools so that you really care about all the main characters.  Juno's parents help her get through the pregnancy, and the Lorings adjust in very different ways to their impending parenthood.  There are no stock villains here, just complicated people.

Helen pointed out an oddity: everybody in the movie uses old-fashioned land lines, even though iPods exist.  While something of an anachronism,  I think it's a deliberately quirky choice. There are many such quirks in Juno (Juno uses a phone shaped like a hamburger, for some reason, and Paulie has a thing for orange Tic Tacs.)  These touches humanize a potentially grim story about teenage pregnancy, keeping things light while not denying the gravity of the situation.  That spirit is what makes Juno a keeper.

"Run Mike Run" Revisited

Back in June I supported New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's possible run for President as an independent.  This was in response to a Bob Herbert column that lamented the negative effect a Bloomberg candidacy would have on the chances for Democrats to reclaim the White House. (Side note: Herbert's column was within Times Select at the time, but it's freely available today.)

I thought Herbert's fears were lame, and betrayed the fact that he doesn't support US democracy so much as a US oligarchy comprised only of the Republican and Democratic parties.

At the time this was a theoretical debate, because Bloomberg  frequently denied that he had any interest in running.  Six months later, his interest is rising.  I'm still all for it. 

Talk about "spoilers" and Bloomberg being the "Ralph Nader of 2008" misses the point.  In an honest democracy, anybody (or at the very least, anybody worth billions of dollars) should be able to run for President regardless of whether they belong to a political party. 

Of course there are many practical advantages for candidates who align themselves with a major party.  But Bloomberg's billions make those advantages a moot point.

Run Mike Run, and let the people decide.

Patriots Go Undefeated

Before tonight's New England Patriots-New York Giants football game I was pulling for the Patriots, because an undefeated football season is an amazing accomplishment.  But then the Giants gave the Pats a fierce game, and my natural inclination to root for the underdog reasserted itself.  The Patriots ultimately prevailed, 38-35, making history as the first team to go 16-0 in the regular NFL season (the Dolphins were 14-0 in 1972, before winning the Super Bowl.)

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick--a laconic man who sometimes videotapes  his opponent's  play calls--will be remembered as one of the greatest head coaches in the history of football. Not many people today focus on his lackluster years at the helm of the Cleveland Browns, but my Dad remembers those days. Living in central Ohio, we were a Browns family even though Cincinnati was closer (we rectified matters by rooting for the Cincinnati Reds).

Dad became livid at Belichick's inability to coach to quarterback Bernie Kosar's strengths; Bernie was not the most nimble quarterback, but he was smart.  From Dad's point of view, all Belichick wanted Kosar to do was to hand off the  ball to running backs who powered up the middle.  Belichick's most controversial move--which can still rile Dad to anger today--was benching Kosar in favor of Vinny Testaverde in 1993.

At the end of Belichick's five year coaching tenure  in 1995 (record 36-44), things were so bad that the Browns relocated to Baltimore, leaving Cleveland without a team for three years.  By this point, I was away at college and my devotion to Cleveland began to fade away. Dad never lost that devotion, and never forgave Belichick for his part in a chain of events that shuttered his team. If it seems silly to care so much about a ball game, then you've never known a football fan.

Many years have passed, and I hardly ever think about pro football.  But as the Patriots came closer to achieving an undefeated season, it was hard not to hear the news. If this had happened ten years ago, I would have been right alongside Dad in rooting against Belichick. Ten years on, Belichick's undefeated season is worth admiring. 

Times have changed, in my family just like in the NFL.   

The New Law of the Land: Open Access to Federally Funded Research

By now it's old news that the NIH mandate--requiring authors of publicly funded research studies to make their work available within 12 months--is the new law of the land in the United States.  But it bears repeating that this is a very big deal that will fundamentally change how researchers report their findings and how librarians interact with faculty members. 

I'm be quite excited to see how this change will impact  scholarly communications work at UCSF and throughout the country.  This surely will bring changes, like nothing else that has come before.

Benazir Bhutto's Assassination

Today we drove from Phoenix to La Jolla, CA (just north of San Diego.) We enjoyed amazing views from Point Loma this afternoon, and a delicious dinner in La Jolla tonight.  A very good day indeed, and by tomorrow night we'll be home in Berkeley.

Before leaving this morning I read about Benazir Bhutto's assassination.  This sad news stayed with me throughout our windy drive across the desert, and our more temperate drive along the coast.  It was the lead news story on NPR this afternoon, but throughout the morning--when we were listening to CDs rather than the radio--the dark fact of the murder kept creeping into my mind.

I'm not sure why. It's certainly not because I'm an expert on Pakistan. Next month I'll need to talk to Helen's business school colleague Ali Butt, a native Pakistani, for such a perspective.  I have a superficial grasp of the power struggles between the various political parties in Pakistan, and a solid hunch that the US has placed too much trust in Pervez Musharraf's ability to combat terrorism. But you should talk to someone else if you want an informed opinion about these issues.

Bhutto's death struck a more elemental chord with me. Although it occurred in Pakistan, inhumanity manifests itself everywhere and strikes unequally.  My life is very easy; my hardest decision today was what to order for dinner.  That's mighty small potatoes compared to the millions of people in Pakistan now mourning and fearing for their lives in the violent aftermath of Bhutto's death.

Today Pakistan, tomorrow somewhere else.  That's the reason for my sadness,  I guess. 

The comforting thing is that there's goodness in this world too, which struggles to make the news.  Perhaps this means that violent acts are the aberration and not the norm.  I hope so. 

Learning to Like LA

After departing from Berkeley Saturday morning, we arrived in Maricopa, AZ last night. Maricopa sits 16 miles south of Phoenix, and was only incorporated (as a town within Maricopa County) in 2003. Mom and Bob have a home here, built for people who are "55 and better." Mom’s in her final year as a teacher in the Columbus Public Schools, so for now they have homes in Maricopa and Grove City, OH. Twelve months from now the Grove City home will belong to someone else and they’ll live in Arizona year round.

We rented a car in Berkeley Saturday, and drove down the Pacific Coast Highway to Manhattan Beach, CA (close to LAX) for the night. This became an epic journey of thirteen hours, when we could have done it in 6 or 7 hours on Interstate 5. The reasons: we allowed ourselves to be diverted, and the PCH is awfully curvy (slow) between Monterey and San Luis Obispo. But the views were magnificent, and this was the first (perhaps only) time we’ve stopped to buy kiwis at a U-pick farm. At one of the most remote stretches on the PCH, gas was available for $4.45/gallon. We persevered, and eventually paid the comparatively thrifty price of $3.79.

Yesterday morning we ventured out to Santa Monica—away from Phoenix—and ate breakfast at the Santa Monica Farmers Market. This is a zero-waste market; we dumped the appropriate items in the compost bin, and it felt like we hadn’t left the Bay Area. After breakfast we caught our last glimpse of ocean before rolling onto I-10 (it starts in Santa Monica) and heading east. Lunch was a dry chicken sandwich at a Depression era restaurant in Desert Center, CA.

As we left LA I finally admitted to myself that I like “So Cal.” This feels like a sin for someone who currently lives in northern California and previously lived in Manhattan. But it’s true; there’s a certain charm in the way everything laces together, and since we’ve yet to be stuck in horrible traffic that lacing makes sense. Besides, where else can you buy coffee at a place named Urth Caffe? Or eat breakfast at the Literati Café on Wilshire Boulevard the day after a delicious lunch at Cafe Santorini in Old Town Pasadena? We did the latter on a weekend trip to LA in early November.

Now we’re here in the Phoenix area, which has its own charms (Scottsdale and Tempe). For the next few days we’ll be a bit south of that action, though, close to where John Wayne used to own a big cattle ranch. This is the old cowboy West, and it’s just fine for a visit. But for me the California coast has a more lasting appeal.

National Environmental Policy

This week the Environmental Protection Agency denied California's efforts--and the subsequent efforts of numerous other states--to set more  stringent standards for automobile emissions than those established by the federal government.  According to state Attorney General Jerry Brown, this was the first time the government has denied such a request from California, of approximately 50 attempts.

EPA administrator Stephen Johnson argued that the government wanted to avoid creating a confusing "patchwork" of state environmental laws, in favor of uniform national standards.  On the same day the EPA denied California's request, President Bush signed the first enhancement in emission standards in approximately 30 years.  But those enhancements are less stringent than California's, which helps the automobile companies and consumers; easier standards make for less expensive production costs.

If I thought the Bush administration sincerely wanted national environmental standards, this wouldn't be such a concern.  But Republicans typically value the right of individual states to chart their own course, while Democrats extol the virtues of national policies.  So the EPA's argument feels disingenuous; the boon to car makers is the real story behind denying California's request.  Even though the tougher emissions standards the President signed this week will make a difference, those standards could have been even tougher for cars in my current home state.

Just Thirteen More Months to Go

So now we learn that four White House lawyers were involved in the shady decision to destroy CIA-AL Qaeda  interrogation tapes, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.  A few weeks ago the big news was that Iran ceased its nuclear weapon program in 2003, and is not fomenting World War III. 

Oops.

2009 can't arrive soon enough.

Changes at Biomedical Digital Libraries

For several years I've been involved with the open access journal Biomedical Digital Libraries, first as an Associate Editor and now as Editor.  Since its founding in 2004 BDL has been published by BioMed Central (BMC).

When we started librarians enjoyed deep discounts on author fees, or often paid nothing at all to publish.  At the time many academic institutions were members of BioMed Central; the prime membership benefit was a reduction in author fees.

In the intervening years BMC's membership packages have become quite expensive.  Libraries have responded by dropping memberships, or by purchasing memberships that provide for a much more modest reduction in author fees.  These days it's not uncommon for an individual paper to cost at least $1,000 to publish. 

For an author with a major grant--who has chosen to allocate some publication funds--this is not a problem.  But for librarians, who generally have no publication funds at their disposal, this is a showstopper.  I can waive the publication fees for a certain number of articles, but I maxed out that ability early this year.  After that point we had to pay our own freight with BMC, and our author base was not in a position to help us do this.

After concluding that our relationship with BMC was untenable, BDL amicably severed our ties. All content published to date will be preserved and accessible. 

We're now in the process of transferring publication to Open Journal Systems, a move that will allow us to abandon author fees. My goal is to have us up and running in January. This move will shift  the burden for managing editorial functions squarely on us--BMC won't be there to assist us any more. If the no-fee policy proves successful (just as BDL was successful in its early years, when we effectively had no author fees because of institutional subscriptions), BDL will be back in business.

Time will tell if the author fee was the only barrier to publication. Another change between 2004 and 2007 is that library blogging has become routine. (I'm blogging about a library topic right now, in fact.) The formality and rigor of peer review is not as central to a librarian's professional advancement as it is in other fields, but this doesn't mean that the flow of ideas isn't critical to us. So over time the "biblioblogosphere" may supplant formally published papers as the means of sharing ideas, research, and insights among librarians. Eric Schnell sees the potential for this, and has promoted the concept of a "blog citation index."

Only time will tell what happens with BDL.  In the meantime, our impending move to OJS is causing some ripples in blog-land. Eric blogged about it, generating a question from Charles Bailey about why BMC's waiver policies were not sufficient for our needs (I hope I've answered your question, Charles.)  Then Peter Suber shared the news about our decision not to charge author fees, and by now readers in Japan also know the latest.  And all of this after I merely wrote a short email to the BDL editorial team (Eric's a member) explaining the news. 

Some days  I'm still in awe of the Internet.