| Wednesday,
August 10, 2005 This will be catchup day.
It will be Short Shrift, but there is a LOT of mail that needs attention and
posting.
Star Wars Revenge of Sith translations
Dear Jerry,
A friend sent me this terribly funny page by a fellow
in Shanghai who purchased a bootleg "Revenge of the Sith" DVD. It had been
dubbed in Chinese, with English subtitles. HOWEVER, the subtitles are not
transcribed from the original English dialogue, but are an English
translation of the Chinese translation. "Revenge of the Sith" translates as
"The Backstroke of the West" My favourite malapropism is that "The Jedi
Council" translates to "The Presbyterian Church".
<http://www.winterson.com/2005/06/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west.html>
I was surprised that one of the Imperials didn't say
"Your bases are now belong to us. :D
Cheers, Rod Schaffter
=========
Computers for Kids and Bombs on Planes.
Jerry,
Thirteen schoolchildren in Berks* County are charged
with the felony of computer trespass. It is alleged that they bypassed the
security on the Apple iBooks that their school had issued them with and then
used the iBooks for inappropriate purposes. They discovered the
administrator password that they needed to commit this crime on a sticker
attached to the computer when it was issued to them.
Not to be outdone by a mere schoolmaster's accidental
stupidity, the TSA hit back at once. An airliner with 141 people on board
was very sensibly diverted to a remote part of Houston Hobby Airport when
some passengers found a note that said there was a bomb on board. The
passengers were not allowed to disembark for an hour. Some of them would
like to know why there was this delay. Others would like to do horrible
things to the TSA.
* "Berk" is a shortened form of the Cockney rhyming
slang phrase "Berkley Hunt" which has passed into common usage. The Berkley
Hunt was, until foxhunting became illegal, a notable organisation devoted to
the killing of foxes.
John Edwards.
===========
Luddites or reasonable people with justified fears,
Dr. Pournelle?
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,1844663,00.asp
"The 700,000-member General, Municipal, Boiler makers
and Allied Trade Union is demanding the European Commission outlaw radio
tags in ware houses. Not on merchandise, but on workers.
"The stated fear is they'll be tracked every time they
take a break or head for the rest room. The unstated fear: Every movement
becomes trackable. Employers, using the information gathered by ever-present
radio waves, could see which warehouse worker really is most efficient and
prioritize hiring, firing and overtime accordingly."
Charles Brumbelow
==============
Insufficient data. I know that efficiency
experts were hampered by union rules back in the 30's and 40's. Comments
welcome.
============
Subject: Mortgaged to the House of Saud.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/
la-oe-scheer9aug09,0,745396.column?track=hpmostemailedlink
-- Roland Dobbins
I am less than a fan of Robert Scheer, but
perhaps he has a point?
=========
Subject: DTV.
http://participatoryculture.org/download.php
--- Roland Dobbins
Participatory Culture....
==============
Subject: New way to store information on Hazmat
There's a story at The Register,
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/09/papyrus_nuclear_waste/ , telling
how the British are printing all the documentation about the waste products
from the research reactors they're dismantling and storing it in conditions
as similar as possible to those in an Egyptian tomb. After all, the papyrus
has lasted for thousands of years, so there's a good chance that this will
too.
-- Joe Zeff
Prime Technology....
==============
Subject: Eminent Domain and Native Americans
Thought of an individualized approach to the problem
of eminent domain being used to benefit developers, Dr. Pournelle. Bury a
few family members in the back yard; special rules apply to cemeteries. This
is even better if your ancestors are native Americans or if you can persuade
a few Native Americans to be buried there. Of course this brings its own set
of problems if YOU as the owner later want to develop the property.
Charles Brumbelow
That ought to do it.
Actually, the healthy publicity of the US
Supreme Court saying this was not a Federal matter and one ought to look to
your state for protection here has been quite beneficial. And it is NOT a
federal matter, in my judgment.
================
Subject: Federalism at work?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2005/08/08/AR2005080801353.html
--- Roland Dobbins
This one is definitely worth following up,
and the questions raised are important; I'll try to get back to this when I
have a few minutes.
On a related matter:
Subject: "We can help you LEGALLY!"
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-house
9aug09,1,634837,full.story?coll=la-headlines-california
-- Roland Dobbins
The mind boggles.
======================
Subject: Pool of Siloam found?
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world
/la-sci-siloam9aug09,1,1584700.story
- Roland Dobbins
So John wasn't just being symbolic, and
boy is there egg on the faces of some revisionist Biblical interpreters.
================
Subject: Harry Erwin's Letter from England
Dear Jerry,
Like many of your readers, I always enjoy the
insightful links Harry Erwin supplies in his "Letter from England" for the
British perspective on world events, and, recently, in depth coverage of the
events in London. One problem I used to have was that many of the links
appeared broken. Recently in examining the links closely (not as they appear
in the letter but as the appear on my browser's address line after clicking
on them) I discovered the key to following every link. Something in the
process sometimes occasionally plants extra space characters in the link.
For instance the first of the two links in this paragraph:
Comments on events: <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1544798,00.html
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/%200,5673,1544798,00.html>
> <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/ 0,,22989-1726157,00.html <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/%200,,22989-1726157,00.html>
>
Shows up in my browser address line (IE
6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519) as:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/%200,5673,1544798,00.html
Which gets a "Site not found" response. Look closely,
and you'll see that there was a space in the original URL after the slash
after the word "Column", and that somehow in the linking process this has
become "%20" in the browser window. If you edit out the "%20" the link works
fine. Don't know where in the process of Harry's letter to your site to my
browser this occurs, but it's a simple fix to see all Mr. Erwin's links.
Don't know how many of your other readers this affects, but I hope any that
were as frustrated as me can find some relief.
-- Cecil Rose
Thank you for the feedback. I am glad to
see that at least some readers find Dr. Erwin's letter as interesting as I
do. We'll see what we can do to stop this linkage error in future.
=========
Subject: Virginia Postrel on
'Economic Sociology'.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/
articles/2005/07/24/market_share/?page=full
- Roland Dobbins
The American Sociological Society broke
free of the economists' professional society back around the turn of the
19th-20th Century. It was changed to American Sociology Association after a
few years when acronyms got into wider use. It has always claimed to be a
"science" but there are few examples of scientific behavior on the part of
sociologists. This isn't without exception. Holloway at Columbia, Charles
Murray, George Lundberg all stand out as scientists rather than "social
scientists"; but most sociology is Voodoo Science. (Alas there is a tendency
toward voodoo in the parent economist profession as well).
Few students of sociology acquire any
tools of science or scientific analysis. The number who have any
understanding of statistical inference and the assumptions of statistical
thinking -- who could read Savage's The Foundations of Statistics with any
possibility of comprehending even one chapter -- is very small. They don't
learn statistical inference (beyond "taking stat courses in the sosh
deparment", i.e. cookbook courses in how to calculate means and standard
deviations without any comprehension of what those mean, and how to do
correlation coefficients without comprehension of what a correlation
actually implies). They don't learn differential equations. They are
encouraged to "have the sociological experience" whatever the heck that
means (and I didn't make it up; a prominent sociologist tried to tell me
what you would get from a major in sociology).
There was I think a recent essay on the
origins of sociology. I'll try to dig it up.
==============
Subject: NYT - Debunking the Drug War 2005-08-09.pdf
This might be of interest, Dr. Pournelle.... FWIW,
he's singing my song.
To quote:
"America has a serious drug problem, but it's not the
"meth epidemic" getting so much publicity. It's the problem identified by
William Bennett, the former national drug czar and gambler.
"Using drugs," he wrote, "is wrong not simply because
drugs create medical problems; it is wrong because drugs destroy one's moral
sense. People addicted to drugs neglect their duties."
"This problem afflicts a small minority of the people
who have tried methamphetamines, but most of the law-enforcement officials
and politicians who lead the war against drugs. They're so consumed with
drugs that they've lost sight of their duties."
Some would say we've learned nothing from Prohibition.
IMHO that is incorrect, we've learned a great deal. Specifically, we've
learned that criminalizing any behavior creates opportunities for wealth and
power for politicians, government employees, and those who would organize
and market that behavior. We've also learned that such criminalization gives
government an additional set of restraints and controls to apply to all the
citizens.
Charles Brumbelow
One might expect the sociology departments
to have views on this, but I haven't seen any that make much sense.
==================
Dr. Pournelle, I have to admit I am a little confused
about your answer on Monday's mail. How did Cromwell's Parliament have
anything to do with Thomas More's execution? As I recall, More was executed
by Henry VIII and Cromwell's Parliament came after the reign of Charles I a
hundred years later.
M
Thomas Cromwell, Wolsey's successor. (See
Ann of the Thousand Days; it's pretty good.) The Cromwell family were not
unimportant people even before Henry VIII. Wolsey was both a Cardinal and
Lord Chancellor. "If I had served my God half so well as I served my king,
He would not leave me to die in this awful place." Not the best last
words...
Oliver Cromwell would have been several
generations later. I believe Thomas Cromwell is still buried in his original
tomb. Oliver's remains were dug up and thrown into the Thames by the common
hangman. Macaulay lamented that they "threw into the Thames the bones of the
finest prince who ever ruled England." The Irish have a somewhat different
opinion of him...
==================
Subject: School Diversity and Xenorxian Overlords
'If I can be candid, some parents and students within
District 603 have been less than welcoming of our growing Xenorxian
immigrant community. Without "pointing fingers," this has too often led to
unnecessary incidents of misunderstanding and vaporization.'
See
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2005/08/see_you_in_sept.html
- Kevin Cheek
Very important. Zero Tolerance for
insufficient sensitivity to Xenorxian customs...
=======================
Subject: Global warming and USA Today
Jerry,
This article gives a good overview of the current
state of global warming political science.
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/
2005/07/global_warming.html
It covers mostly familiar ground concerning the
"hockey stick" and those who object to the it's methodology.
The article is a followup to a mistaken reference to a
USA Today piece as reporting settled fact.
http://news.thomasnet.com/IMT/archives/2005/07/
attention_usa_t.html?WT.mc_t=imt&WT.mc_n=site_entry
The engineers who read thomasnet (the web version of
the Thomas Register) objected, which seems to account for the followup
article..
Regards, Charles Lipari
==================
I'm delighted to learn that despite being at Columbia,
I have some scientific credibility, but a sociologist I ain't. I'm a
physical anthropologist, specializing in fossil hominids and human brain
evolution. My only sociological insight is that the species is nuts.
Best, Ralph L. Holloway Dept. Anthropology Columbia
University
My apologies. I read several items by Dr.
Holloway a while ago and was impressed enough to recall his name if not his
department.
TOP
CURRENT
VIEW Wednesday
|
A
Serious Warning for all Windows 2000 Users
