| Friday,
June 29, 2007 I marked this for
posting but it didn't get in.
Swords back on Yale stages, Trachtenberg
not backing down
Published: Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Univ. rescinds stage weapons ban
Tyler Hill <http://www.yaledailynews.com/authors/view/93>
Staff Reporter
Stage weapons will again be allowed in
University theatrical productions, in a reversal of last week's ban,
Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said Tuesday morning.
Administrators decided Monday afternoon to
require that audiences instead be informed of the use of stage weapons
before the start of every performance, she said. In the wake of the
Virginia Tech massacre, which left 33 students dead last Monday, Dean of
Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg had told students that they would be
required to substitute obviously fake props for realistic stage weapons
in theatrical productions.
Klasky said the University reversed the
policy because of concerns about free speech.
"As an institution that has always valued
free speech, we wanted to uphold the principles that we have always
adhered to," she said.
Klasky said the policy of announcing the
use of stage weapons in advance will hold for all future campus
productions.
The ban affected at least two shows that
went up over the weekend: the play "Red Noses" and the opera "Orpheus in
the Underworld," and attracted national media attention as well as
causing a stir among students involved in theater on campus. Several
students complained that the requirement infringed on their free speech,
while others pointed out that the policy was unlikely to assuage anxiety
about Virginia Tech.
But over the weekend, Trachtenberg, who is
retiring at the end of the academic year, said student criticism of the
stage weapons ban had been exaggerated.
"I think people should start thinking about
other people rather than trying to feel sorry for themselves and
thinking that the administration is trying to thwart their creativity,"
Trachtenberg said. "They're not using their own intelligence. We have to
think of the people who might be affected by seeing real-life weapons."
Klasky declined to name the people involved
in making Monday's decision.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/20913
So there are a few sane administrators at
Yale, but Trachtenberg upholds the traditions.
=========
I missed this one too:
How to prepare for alien invasion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0934498720070425
- Roland Dobbins
========
So much for anthropocentric global warming.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18333735/
- Roland Dobbins
========
Subj: SciFi.com interviews Michael Flynn
http://www.scifi.com/sfw/interviews/sfw15599.html
"In _Looking at History Through Mathematics_, Nicholas
Rashevsky discussed how in principle various historical processes could be
described mathematically. How large can a village grow before it has to
split? ..."
Also of interest: what he learned from collaborating
with Niven&Pournelle on _Fallen Angels_.
Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com
The O'Flynn is always worth paying attention
to.
===========
Subject: home digital video and politics
www.hotair.com
is a website where, among other things, conservative blogger-types produce
home-made political videos for Youtube distribution.
Think about that for a second. You don't need a studio
or a half million dollars to get a reasonable quality message across to
millions of citizens (and voters). You just need a DV camcorder and a modern
PC. Anyone, on the left or right, can do it.
Attack ads. Detailed analyses of complex issues (that
you'll never see on "real TV"). Takedowns of posturing politicos.
Uncomfortable truths. Truly embarrassing moments captured forever.
No "fairness doctrine", no $100,000 per minute ad
fees. Just $3000 in equipment and a free Youtube account. And once it's on
Youtube, viewers will just email their friends the link, and many will watch
the video over and over and over. Try buying enough air time to do that on
the networks!
Here's an excellent sample, possibly the "Dean scream"
moment for Senator Brownback's presidential aspirations:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdyVIZkC57Q
Election 2008 is going to be very interesting.
Steve Setzer
Indeed. Actually I doubt that it requires
$3,000 in equipment. Perhaps some readers have recommendations on equipment
that will do the job.
========
To all Southern California AIAA Members:
Did you work on the Atlas launch vehicle?
Mark your calendar for the:
*"Fifty Years of Atlas Launches Reunion"
*Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first launch of the Atlas
vehicle
The reunion will be held at the Scottish Rite
Center in Mission Valley on /Saturday July 21, 2007/, from 1:00 PM to
5:00 PM, in the Corinthian Room.
Join your Atlas Team for this afternoon of warm
reminiscence. Present and former employees of General Dynamics, Convair,
LMCO, NASA, USAF, Associate Contractors and Sub-contractors are all
invited to this reunion. Attendance is estimated to be from 400 to 1000.
For further information, go to the reunion website
at:
http://members.cox.net/atlas_reunion/
========
Subject: Those who haven't read Ricardo . ..
Good afternoon, Dr. Pournelle;
But what do those who have read Ricardo think of
Gomory <http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070430&s=greider>
?
I certainly don't have your background in economics,
but I do find your opinions to be cogent and certainly succinct. I find
myself thinking of healthcare, which no one seems to be able to do to its
population's satisfaction. The US spends on the order of 16% of its GDP on
healthcare vs. about 12% in the rest of the developed world, yet the number
of days it takes to see a doctor in the US is second worst only to my home
and native land of Canada <http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18674951/>
(I fortunately live in the middle of nowhere in Canada <http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl
=en&geocode=&q=yellowknife,+nt&ie=UTF8&ll
=64.168107,-101.601562&spn=40.96895,
143.613281&z=3&iwloc=addr&om=1> , and thus get excellent medical
care).
Surely there must be a productive and effective middle
ground methodology that can deliver excellent health care in a cost
effective way, but I'll be dipped in that gooey stuff they put in Spam if I
can figure out what it is.
Sincerely, jay
-- I must study war and politics so that my children
shall be free to study commerce, agriculture and other practicalities, so
that their children can study painting, poetry and other fine things.
-- John Adams
"Getting your moral direction from politicians is like
getting health tips from Keith Richards."
-- Scott (no relation) Adams
==
Subject: Ricardo, free trade, and outsourcing
Hello again Dr Pournelle,
Since it comes up fairly often in the discussions, I
thought to read a bit of Ricardo:
<<The Beneficent Effects of Free Trade and National
Profit Equalization
Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each
country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are
most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably
connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by
rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers
bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most
economically: while, by increasing the general mass of productions, it
diffuses general benefit, and binds together by one common tie of interest
and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilized
world. It is this principle which determines that wine shall be made in
France and Portugal, that corn shall be grown in America and Poland, and
that hardware and other goods shall be manufactured in England.
In one and the same country, profits are, generally
speaking, always on the same level; or differ only as the employment of
capital may be more or less secure and agreeable. It is not so between
different countries. If the profits of capital employed in Yorkshire should
exceed those of capital employed in London, capital would speedily move from
London to Yorkshire, and an equality of profits would be effected; but if in
consequence of the diminished rate of production in the lands of England,
from the increase of capital and population, wages should rise, and profits
fall, it would not follow that capital and population would necessarily move
from England to Holland, or Spain, or Russia, where profits might be higher.
—On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 133–34.>>
Can I assume when he says "perfectly free commerce" he
is referring to some alternate reality wherein US goods can enter other
markets just as easily as the goods of other countries enter our markets?
And in the last sentence, Ricardo seems to be saying
that rising wages and falling profits should NOT cause capital to move
elsewhere in search of higher profits. Am I missing something?
In my own very unscientific poll taken from casual
everyday conversations, many of my acquaintences have expressed a
willingness to pay more for something if it was made here. I know there are
internet sites that track such things, perhaps there is an entreprenurial
opportunity for a chain of Made in the USA stores?
I get really rankled when a longtime US manufacturer
of high quality, relatively expensive products moves production to China,
but keeps retail prices the same, or higher than when production was here.
Several years ago, I willingly paid $200.00 for a pair of very well made
hunting boots. They were made here in the US by the Danner Boot Company of
Portland, Oregon. Today, you can spend $250.00 and more for Danner hunting
boots that are made in China.
Maybe the ever increasing list of Chinese products
that seem to be toxic will stem the outsourcing tide.
Respectfully, Dave Porter
There is a finite limit to how much of our
capital resources we can sell; and a limit to the "services" we can provide
to the rest of the world.
More important though is the question:
what shall happen to the citizens rendered useless by free trade? Is it
better to have citizens who can buy cheap goods but are kept docile by bread
and circuses, or to pay more for goods made by those citizens who see
themselves as productive and useful members of the community?
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