Category Archives: Mail

Mail 787 Thursday, August 29, 2013

H. Beam Piper

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/165184-life-on-earth-originally-came-from-mars-new-study-suggests

Chris Barker

Omnilingual

"The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians; that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock."

<http://news.sky.com/story/1134431/life-on-earth-started-on-mars-say-scientists>

–

Roland Dobbins

Not quite what Piper envisioned, but still…

Actually I have long accepted the panspermia hypothesis in most of my science fiction stories.

Constitutional question re Nidal Hasan

Dr. Pournelle,

In reading the reports of the death sentence recommended by the jury, I learned something interesting: military death sentences require confirmation by the President.

The constitutional question this fact raises is this: In the event that President Barack Obama fails to confirm the death sentence for the Fort Hood workplace violence incident, would the prohibition on double jeopardy prevent Hasan from being brought up on treason charges when Obama’s term is over?

—Joel Salomon

“[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb “ says the Fifth Amendment, which means no. For that matter, the President could but certainly will not pardon Hasan. What I do wish is that he would rule that this as an act of war against the US and the soldiers wounded deserve Purple Hearts and all the benefits accruing to those injured or killed in combat.

HASAN to death!

Finally, we see a sensible outcome:

<.>

A military jury on Wednesday sentenced Maj. Nidal Hasan to death for the 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, handing the Army psychiatrist the ultimate punishment after a trial in which he seemed to be courting martyrdom by making almost no effort to defend himself.

The rare military death sentence came nearly four years after the attack that stunned even an Army hardened by more than a decade of constant war. Hasan walked into a medical building where soldiers were getting medical checkups, shouted "Allahu Akbar" _ Arabic for "God is great!" _ and opened fire with a laser-sighted handgun. Thirteen people were killed.

</>

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/08/28/Soldier-sentenced-to-death-for-Fort-Hood-shooting

This is the first time I’ve known of a military death sentence in my lifetime.  I wanted to check to make sure; what I found was on April 13, 1961, U.S. Army Private John A. Bennett was hanged after being convicted of rape and attempted murder — deathpenaltyinfo.org.

With the context of the previous paragraph in mind, Major Hasan’s execution seems fitting albeit severely delayed. 

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I’d like to see Hasan dance Danny Deever, but it won’t happen. Wall him in a secure place with a ham sandwich, water with a pork chop in it, and a live grenade, and come back in six months… But I suppose that would be cruel and most certainly would be unusual.

Gas Attack – Whodunnit

This from RTV explains why the Russians don’t believe it.

http://rt.com/news/syria-chemical-prepared-advance-901/

They say that though the Syrian government officially did it on August 21st, 3 videos of the attack were posted by the rebels on August 20th.

I assume they are right about this since the dates could be easily checked. In which case I can see no alternative to rebel fraud.

So why do our media keep silent on this aspect?

Neil Craig

Two Questions on Syria

I have thoughts and two questions:

Would it be possible?  Who would be capable of doing such a thing?

<.>

Last Wednesday, in the hours after a horrific chemical attack east of Damascus, an official at the Syrian Ministry of Defense exchanged panicked phone calls with a leader of a chemical weapons unit, demanding answers for a nerve agent strike that killed more than 1,000 people. Those conversations were overheard by U.S. intelligence services, The Cable has learned. And that is the major reason why American officials now say they’re certain that the attacks were the work of the Bashar al-Assad regime — and why the U.S. military is likely to attack that regime in a matter of days.

</>

http://tinyurl.com/q9otn9g

We have SIGINT intercepts proving a chemical attack?  At best, someone has a confession with details concerning use of chemical weapons. Does this prove an attack?  How can we verify those SIGINT intercepts? 

<.>

"Gentlemen! We have called you together to inform you that we are going to overthrow the United States government." So begins a statement being delivered by Gen. Carl W. Steiner, former Commander-in-chief, U.S. Special Operations Command.

At least the voice sounds amazingly like him.

But it is not Steiner. It is the result of voice "morphing" technology developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

By taking just a 10-minute digital recording of Steiner’s voice, scientist George Papcun is able, in near real time, to clone speech patterns and develop an accurate facsimile. Steiner was so impressed, he asked for a copy of the tape.

Steiner was hardly the first or last victim to be spoofed by Papcun’s team members. To refine their method, they took various high quality recordings of generals and experimented with creating fake statements. One of the most memorable is Colin Powell stating "I am being treated well by my captors."

</>

http://tinyurl.com/7xxy

Consider Syria:  Would it be possible?  Who would be capable of doing such a thing?

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Nerve Agents

Jerry,

I looked at some of the victim tapes and they sure were twitching in a familiar way. Admittedly, my personal experience is with demo goats. A bit of neurotoxin in the eye; twitch,twitch; a syrette of atropine in the haunch; artificial respiration by the modified chest pressure/hoof pull method. About five minutes later the star staggers off the stage back to the pen. Survive three shows and you are off to Pelham Range to live a feral life.

Folks around Anniston might be able to tell us how the herd is doing these days.

Since the MSF doctors did not bring anybody back from the brink and there is plenty of atropine available in the area, it looks like somebody came up with old(probably) Russian rockets loaded with GD. Atropine won’t help with that.

As to whodunit, now there is plenty of room for speculation. May not even have been any of the serious participants.

Val Augstkalns

Dr. Pournelle,

Scrolling through currant view I saw several reiterations, by you, that no wmd was found. Well perhaps yellowcake isn’t a weapon as such, but what else would it be used for? here is your link: http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-202_162-4235028.html

and then there is this: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-experts-help-iraq-destroy-chemical-residues-44204378.html

I also recall a lot of speculation during the (2nd) war that perhaps it was moved to Lebanon.

Martin Lee Rose

Colorado

Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. -Haile Selassie I

I think I do not entirely understand. Yellow Cake is useful only if you have lots of centrifuges and a very complex chemical industrial lab.

I personally met soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division that not only stumbled upon bunkers of 55 gallon drums full of it, they had to go through the complete decontamination procedures

——————-

I am willing to bet, the WMD was seriously deteriorated to the point where it was hardly useful, but the USM is careful on such matters, so decontaminates in an abundance of caution.

The stuff the Poles found was decayed a lot.

I am assuming the “stuff” referred to was a war gas? We know Saddam had plenty at one time, but he does seem to have played a complex game after. He almost certainly had no “weapons” in the sense of usable and deployable weaponized war gas dispensers. He we found even one of those Bush would personally have gone on TV to show it. And no wonder.

Syria –

Hi Jerry,

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/28/israeli-intelligence-first-confirmed-assad-regime-behind-alleged-chemical/

I would not consider that a reliable source. Israel has strong self-interest in American involvement. I’m not saying that there is deliberate deception (though that’s certainly a possibility), but I’d argue that their desire for intervention may very well cause questionable intelligence to be given more creed than it deserves. I’ll say the same thing about Assad as I said about Saddam. They both want to be the big fish in a small pond, and they’re not likely to go teasing a shark. Saddam was never an existential threat to America, and Syria certainly isn’t. If we want to solve the tin-pot dictator problem, a good and cheap way to do it is to go back to the 1970’s….let them retire in luxury to the riveria. When the alternative is prison, war crimes trial, and death, of course they will fight to the end.

The war powers in the Constitution, and in the war powers act, only authorize the president to respond to an actual or imminent attack on us. That’s why Bush had to get congressional approval to do anything. Syria clearly isn’t an immediate threat and ‘doing something we don’t like’ isn’t an enumerated authorization for military action. Not that Obama cares one whit about separation of powers, limits on executive authority, or the constitution.

But I agree, McCain has lost the last shreds of his credibility on this one. I’m sure you remember the old tale of the tar baby – getting stuck to a petroleum product by our own bad choices made in a fit of righteous anger, seems an apt analogy. Brer Rabbit got free, but somehow we keep going back and getting stuck over and over again.

Cheers,

Doug=

Kandi Technolgies Corp. (KNDI): Kandi Technologies: Exceptional Strategy For China From An Urban Planning View – Seeking Alpha

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1658262-kandi-technologies-exceptional-strategy-for-china-from-an-urban-planning-view?source=email_the_daily_dispatch&ifp=0

Dear Jerry:

The article linked above gives some extraordinary insights into the future. It’s comprehensive and well researched.

Regards,

Francis Hamit

MLK III, claim, the color of your skin has become a license to murder.

Jerry:

Here is an interesting blog article addressing a subject that few people want to talk about.

http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2013/08/24/is-this-what-ryan-julison-intended-all-along/

In his speech in Washington, MLK III complained that the color of their skin has become a license to murder. He is partially right. Except having Black skin has become a license to commit murder, not be murdered.

The specter of lynchings is particularly interesting.

A racist conspiracy is by definition a conspiracy. A conspiracy by definition involves more than one perpetrator.

Here are some pertinent statistics from the FBI-SHR database. Here is a link to an online app to access the database.

http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/asp/off_display.asp

In the last three decades, over 15,000 Whites have been murdered by groups of Blacks.

Only some 3,600 Blacks have been murdered by groups of Whites during that same time period.

Given the fact that Blacks account for only one-eighth of the population, if the probability that Blacks would enter into a conspiracy to commit an interracial murder was no greater than Whites, the ratio of such group killings would be eight Blacks killed for every White killed. The fact that it is Six Whites Killed for every Black killed reveals that Blacks are almost fifty times as likely to enter into a conspiracy to commit interracial murder as Whites.

While the total number of interracial murders by groups of Blacks has decreased slightly in recent years, the percentage of such murders relative to the total number of murders has increased dramatically.

Exactly who are the racists?

James Crawford

SUBJ: Ben Stein nails it

"The Oklahoma Story"

http://spectator.org/archives/2013/08/21/the-oklahoma-story

A money quote: ". . . the real race problem in this country is not racism against blacks, but an astounding epidemic of violence among blacks, especially black youth? Will the media superstars start talking about the sickening worship of violence in the rap culture? Will anyone ever tell the truth again? Or is the fear of even a hint of an accusation of racism going to make us keep our blinders on?"

It is ironic that those who shout "racism" at every turn are in fact enabling the self-destruction of the very group they claim to defend.

Cordially,

John

Judge Jeanie lights off a nuke criticizing the Obama regime

Judge Jeanine: US gov’t full of nothing but hot air?

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2627341572001/judge-jeanine-us-govt-full-of-nothing-but-hot-air/

Bravo! Now, when can we impeach the so and so at whose desk the buck stops?

{^_^}

Iron Law

Dr. Pournelle;

I came across this and thought you might appreciate it. I and a few others have been embroiled in a struggle with local government in the Gulf Islands North of the border. They periodically attempt to enslave the local peasantry with draconian and far-reaching bylaws intended to strip us of our rights in a way that the Federal Government wouldn’t (yet) dare. At any rate, hope this missive finds you well. Keep fighting the good fight.

–Eric Gilmer, Gabriola Island, British Columbia.

In the year 2013, the Lord came unto Noah, Who was now living in America and said: "Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated, and I see the end of all flesh before me."

"Build another Ark and save 2 of every living thing along with a few good humans."

He gave Noah the blueprints, saying: "You have 6 months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights."

Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard – but no Ark."Noah!," He roared, "I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?"

"Forgive me, Lord," begged Noah, "but things have changed."

"I needed a Building Permit."

"I’ve been arguing with the Boat Inspector about the need for a sprinkler system."

"My homeowners association claim that I’ve violated the Neighborhood by-laws by building the Ark in my back yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the local Planning Committee for a decision."

"Then the City Council and the Electricity Company demanded a shed load of money for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark’s move to the sea. I told them that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear none of it."

"Getting the wood was another problem. There’s a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the Greater Spotted Barn Owl."

"I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls – but no go!"

"When I started gathering the animals, PETA took me to court. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. They argued the accommodations were too restrictive and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space."

"Then the Environmental Protection Agency ruled that I couldn’t build the Ark until they’d conducted an environmental impact study on Your proposed flood."

"I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew."

"The Immigration Dept. Is checking the visa status of most of the people who want to work."

"The labor unions say I can’t use my sons. They insist I have to hire only union workers with ark-building experience."

"To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to leave the country illegally with endangered species."

"So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least 10 years for me to finish this ark."

"Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine and a rainbow stretched across the sky."

Noah looked up in wonder and asked, "You mean you’re not going to destroy the world?"

"No," said the Lord. " The Government beat me to it."

“The emotional and financial burden has been staggering. Never in my wildest dreams did I somehow imagine I was committing a crime.”

<http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/16/199590/seeing-threats-feds-target-instructors.html>

—

Roland Dobbins

Re: Making Sense from Snowden

Jerry,

See the linked article Making Sense from Snowden (I found it linked on Bruce Schneier’s blog). It’s a good analysis of what we’ve seen revealed so far.

http://www.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/pdfs/MakingSenseFromSnowden-IEEESecurityAndPrivacy.pdf

Regards,

George

Noonan’s column for Friday "A Nation of Sullen Paranoids" at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324619504579029170678905440.html

You may need to go via Google news and search "Noonan paranoids" to get past the firewall.

"If you assume all the information that can and will be gleaned will be confined to NSA and national security purposes, you are not sufficiently imaginative or informed. If you believe the information will never be used wrongly or recklessly, you are touchingly innocent."

SDI, Pseudo Science?

Jerry,

You commented on the missive asserting the cliché argument that SDI could not be successful because it couldn’t be 100% effective. While your response about making missile silos more survivable enhancing deterrence invalid, I think you ignore the potential benefits of even a marginally effective interceptor system.

IIRC, the cliché was that even if SDI was 99% effective, the country would be destroyed by the 1% of the warheads that reached their targets.

The first flaw is presuming that the 100 warheads that penetrated the defenses would destroy 100 separate targets. This argument ignores the fact that the attacker can not predict in advance which warheads will be intercepted. All he can do is aim 100 warheads each at 100 separate targets. The number of targets surviving given a 99% effective intercept system will then be (.99)^100 = 36%

The second flaw is presuming that an attacker needs to destroy only 100 targets to destroy the US. The last time I checked, far less than half of the US population lived in the largest 100 cities. More importantly, modern missile warheads are not the multimegaton, city busting nukes of the 1960s. Almost all deployed nukes are less than one megaton. If you crunch the numbers for the probable lethal area of modern weapons and compare this to the area of US cities, you find that an attacker would need to hit over 500 separate target areas to kill the inhabitants of the 100 largest US cities.

The third flaw is the presumption that you can’t reduce the fatalities inflicted by warheads that aren’t intercepted. The above calculation was predicated on the "lethal area" demonstrated by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs as well as nuclear test data with the two-thirds scaling law applied for increased weapons yield. However; Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined with test data reveals that the lethality of nuclear weapons is greatly dependent on the types of structures (or lack of structure) that people are in. The lethal area of a nuke against people in steel reinforced masonry structures is dramatically smaller than for people standing out in the open. Relatively simple, low cost bomb shelters based on underground fuel storage tanks developed by Professor Arthur Robinson can reduce the lethal area of a nuke by about 95%. Given such shelters, an attacker would need to deliver 10,000 nukes to 10,000 different target areas to kill the people in the 100 largest US cities. Bomb shelters can transform overkill into severe under kill.

Finally; the argument ignores the synergistic effect that shelters would have on missile interceptors. To protect unsheltered populations, the missile interceptor system needs to intercept at very high altitude. Given shelters that can protect people from 50 psi overpressure, the minimum intercept altitude can be as low as 2,000 feet. Simpler, lower cost antimissile systems included the Goal Keeper 30 mm Gatling gun can be employed for shorter ranged intercept. Suddenly; that seemingly impossible goal of a near perfect interceptor system becomes extremely plausible.

James Crawford=

Actually General Graham, Dr. Possony, Dr. Kane, and I made those arguments back in the 1970’s in various documents.

The Interstate Highway Act was justified in part by the provision that every major freeway intersection would house a large and well stocked fallout shelter, and at least one such shelter was built as part of a demonstration in the University District in Seattle. I saw it. Eisenhower was much in favor of it.

The USSR and much of the anti-anti-communist establishment in the US academic scene denounced this as an act of aggression against the Soviet Union. If this seems hard to believe, you can still find the papers by the Union of Concerned Scientists among others. Clearly since the Soviet Union would never attack the US, and US actions that would mitigate the destruction and death in the US was in preparation for an American first strike.

McNamara got rid of the civil defense aspects of the highway. Meanwhile the USSR required every Soviet citizen to take about 40 hours of civil defense instruction; but since this was in the peace loving USSR it was not an act of preparation for war with the US.

There are those who believe this yet.

Jeffrey Singer: The Man Who Was Treated for $17,000 Less

Great spot Jerry, but the problem of ‘associations’ vs. ‘government’ come down to the last sentence in your comment – "And the associations were better able to deal with the problems of ‘entitlement’, justice, fraud, and the whole question of the deserving and undeserving poor." Who decides which poor are deserving and which are undeserving? In my view certainly government is too far removed, but ‘associations’ may too have biases which reward those with allegiance to local power authority, while ignoring the plight of those with a different point of view. I don’t see an easy solution at present.

Pete Russell

Perfect is always the enemy of better.

Jerry,

I thought that you would recognize and appreciate the reference to "blood and treasure."

Bush at least was proceeding in the hope that he could bring a secular democracy to Iraq and was willing to spend blood and treasure to nurture that hope. Obama has every expectation and hope that Islam-fascists will prevail.

James Crawford

Begin forwarded message:

From: Sarah Palin Information Blog <comment-reply@wordpress.com>

Date: August 29, 2013 7:15:40 PM PDT

To: <mailto:starbirdfarms@hughes.net> starbirdfarms@hughes.net

Subject: [New post] Gov. Palin asks Obama who he’s rooting for Syria conflict

Reply-To: "Sarah Palin Information Blog" <comment+cy3_ld57f2h833hchvo5iqy@comment.wordpress.com>

Dr. Fay posted: "Posted on Governor Palin’s Facebook page this evening: Sarah Palin ———————- Mr. President, please give America justification before you spend blood and treasure to intervene. Start with: who are you rooting for in this? ———"

Mail 787 Tuesday, August 20, 2013

I have been off to the beach with the grandchildren, and there’s a lot of mail. We’re back now and I can try to catch up.

Newt Gingrich’s Turn-Around

Dr. Pournelle,

I’ve been getting updates and news link from the former Speaker’s “Gingrich Productions”, and I’ve noticed a theme recently:

Gingrich: Republican Party Needs A Debate On National Security <http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/08/02/gingrich_republican_establishment_is_growing_hysterical.html>

Newt Gingrich: I’m on Team Paul-Cruz

<http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/newt-gingrich-rand-paul-ted-cruz-95053.html>

Newt Gingrich sees major Mideast mistakes, rethinks his neocon views on intervention <http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/4/newt-gingrich-rethinks-neoconservative-views/?page=all>

Losing the War

<http://www.gingrichproductions.com/2013/08/losing-the-war-2/>

Nothing you haven’t said and predicted over these last years—but, Ecclesiastes (2:14) reminds us, even his seeing what is in front of his face may justify calling him wise.

—Joel Salomon

Subj: Groklaw is gone 8-(

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130818120421175

>>The foundation of Groklaw is over. I can’t do Groklaw without your input. I was never exaggerating about that when we won awards. It really was a collaborative effort, and there is now no private way, evidently, to collaborate.<<

I’ll miss her.

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

We all will.

Subj: Oracle vs. Google trial: Jury verdict: No patent infringement

Dodged another bullet, we did!

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20120523125023818

[quote]

And now to the media: Here’s a homework assignment for you, if you are willing. I want you to think about those $6 billion damages headlines.

Where did the "information" come from? Was it an accurate tip? Remember all those articles about Google and how they were hopelessly in a mess because they had no patents to use in a counterclaim against Oracle?

Where did that come from? Was it an accurate analysis? Was it expert?

Think: If someone is being paid by a party to litigation, what is he likely to say? There is a difference between information and propaganda.

Here at Groklaw, we told you that there would never be a $6 billion damages award, and I told you that Google has a phenomenal record in beating back patent infringement claims. And I wrote that the patents looked goofball to me. Just like with SCO against the World, Groklaw called it right.

Think of the smearing that Google has had to endure. I hope you fix that now, if you participated in it unwittingly. What does this verdict mean?

It means that Google did nothing wrong with Oracle’s patents ever at any time. It was Oracle who was in the wrong. There was no patent infringement. Period.

[end quote]

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

Subj: Paul Allen’s Great Aspiration: To be the Biggest, Baddest Patent Troll of All Time? 8-((

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20100829012006847

>>Allen’s suing practically everyone who has been successful in ecommerce on the Internet, except for Microsoft and Amazon…<<

When an Archangel falls, you get an Archfiend. When a Great Innovator falls, you get …

We’re Doomed!

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

Groklaw is closing down

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

Not sure if you’re aware of this but the Groklaw site set up in 2003 is closing down.

It was set up to collate and comment on data from copyright and legal cases impacting modern technology – in particular the SCO cases (against Novell and IBM), but not limited to those. Lately for example it took a particular interest in the Sony v Hotz affair, in which the root security key for the PS3 game console was leaked.

The purpose was to restore Linux to those consoles which had been running it till Sony issued an update which removed Linux. (Since that had been marketed by Sony’s daughter corporations as a reason for the purchase, many were upset, including the US Air Force which has a cluster of 2000 of the things. There is a separate class action lawsuit about that). I had been looking forward to Groklaw’s in-depth style of investigative documentation. Too bad that won’t happen now.

Regards,TC

—

Terry Cole

Re: Potpourri

Jerry,

A few items that might interest you. First, from Bruce Schneier is an excellent essay on our surveillance crisis. The link is to his blog, the article first ran in/on The Atlantic.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/08/the_nsa_is_comm.html

Next up is an article that tangentially relates to our own over-spying issue. It’s not very encouraging.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER

An article about the management problems that terrorist organizations face (linked from Bruse Schneier’s page).

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/139817/jacob-n-shapiro/the-business-habits-of-highly-effective-terrorists?page=show

This a little more upbeat. Have we finally sent something to interstellar space?

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/08/scientists-are-arguing-about-whether-voyager-has-left-the-solar-system/

This last one – enjoy! The theremins are hidden inside the dolls.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/08/17/beethoven_s_ode_to_joy_9th_symphony_played_on_theremins.html

Regards,

George

: SSTO question …

Mr. Pournelle –

First of all, I enjoy your writing (fiction and non-), and am thankful for your advocacy. Having been a certified space nut since boyhood, I have supported & followed passionately many of the same goals toward which you have worked. Specifically, I have always been an avid supporter of commercial space, cheap access to space (CATS), and the development of SSTO.

I had great hopes for DC-X (SSX), and even for Gary’s Roton … and when I read the recent articles on the 20th Anniversary, I thought I would ask you a question:

I would enthusiastically support *any* SSTO concept that actually got built and tested, and I presume you would feel the same. In that light, what are your thoughts about the Skylon/SABRE concept being developed in the UK?

i realize you are busy and have many higher priorities than this sort of spit-balling, but I do look forward to (hopefully) eventually hearing your thoughts.

Regards!

Eric Walusis

I no longer follow all the space projects, and I have not studied Skylon/SABRE. I do believe that Congress ought to fund a USAF SSX Project. See my two papers, http://www.jerrypournelle.com/slowchange/SSX.html The SSX Concept, and

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/reports/jerryp/gettospace.html How To Get To Space

Both are fairly old, but I haven’t seen any reason to make major revisions. We need to develop savable and reusable rockets, ships that fly, land, get refueled, and fly again without other major operational activities. The SSX might or might not make orbit with a payload – I rather think that at 600,000 pounds gross liftoff weight it would – but it need not make orbit in order for us to learn just what is needed for reusable orbital ships. Shuttle was originally intended for a flight a month, but they skipped the X-project stage and went to an operational design. That didn’t turn out to be reusable in any rational sense of the world. We need to be able to build flying hardware that is savable and reusable, and go on from there, and an X project devoted to that would be the best thing government could do for commercial space flight.

Lack of lethal injection drugs 

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

You may find this story interesting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/us/death-row-improvises-lacking-lethal-mix.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&_r=0

It seems European pharmaceutical companies are refusing to sell the sedatives and chemical used to make lethal injection cocktails to the US prison system.

Heh. sounds like a business opportunity! Anyone want to set up a pharmacy to sell drugs to the US government? I’m surprised the slack hasn’t already been picked up by some shop in China. Quality control? What, the patient might die or something?

If worst comes to worst, we can always bring back the rope or the chair.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

If the objective is to render someone painlessly dead, the problem is simple. If the actual objective is to maximize income for lawyers, it is already solved.

: Ashton Kutcher – thumbs up

Ashton Kutcher has earned my thumbs up. Of course, with that he can’t even purchase a paper cup of water. He’s also earned Ted Cruz’s endorsement.

That means somebody I respect more than not agrees with me. And Cruz is somebody other people listen to. But the real gold is his Teen Choice Award. That means the teens like and respect him. And THAT is important for the nation’s future.

Ted Cruz endorses Ashton Kutcher’s Teen Choice Award speech

http://washingtonexaminer.com/ted-cruz-endorses-ashton-kutchers-teen-choice-award-speech/article/2534428

This is a thin ray of hope for the future if this is the kind of person teens are idolizing.

{^_^} [Joanne Dow]

Of course we are not the first generation to believe that the coming generation is leading us to barbarism. On the other hand we are one of the first to generously finance those who say they intend to teach our children to hate all we stand for.

APOD: 2013 August 19 – Noctilucent Clouds and Aurora Over Scotland:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130819.html

Both green and magenta aurorae. I remember seeing a huge display of the latter. Awesome when you can see it.

This particular video shows all sorts of nocturnal events. Very cool.

Ed

Of course aurora events often usher in big solar ejection events…

S-groups become a reality

Heinlein described this in "Friday" and possibly some of his other works as well, I forget which ones.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23726120?ocid=socialflow_facebook_newsmagazine

I’ll stick with monogamy, myself, not just for religious scruple but also because 4 times the people means approx. 16 times the drama potential.

I can think of no legal reason to ban polygamy, polyandry, line marriages, and the other social contracts Mr. Heinlein postulated in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Your quote

Jerry,

You are fond of repeating that “Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

May I suggest that this aphorism would be more cogent if "tombstone" was substituted for the word touchstone.

John Edwards

I just think it well to be reminded that one reason many voted for the current President was that he promised Hope and Change and that it would all happen in the open.

Question and Observation, short.

Sir,

First an observation. Re ascribing malice as a motive to people in D.C. Valentinian the Third wasn’t acting in malice towards the Empire when he murdered Aëtius. He, like our current President, simply did not grok that the Empire COULD fall. Just as Valentinian took the Empire for granted, today’s Democrats take America’s superpower status and economic prosperity for granted. They don’t know or understand how it came to pass, and thusly they have no concept that it CAN collapse. Electing Democrats is akin to hiring remodelers that don’t know what a "load bearing wall" is.

Secondly, a few years ago I wrote and asked if I should be raising my children to be good citizens of the Republic or good subjects of the Empire, as there is a difference. Well I came to an answer and wanted to share it with you. Briefly, I did the math.

My son is 15, my daughter is 8, and the current average American life expectancy is 75.6 for a man and 80.8 for a woman. Assuming the Chinese don’ t launch on us, and there are no DWI’s on Prom night, the United States would still have to be operating under the 1787 Constitution in approximately 2080 for them to not outlive the country of their birth.

That, and a glance at the headlines, pretty much settled the question for me.

Take care and best wishes

Brendan Kelly

The Emperor Valentinian cut off his right hand with his left. There is no evidence that there is more wisdom in the current President.

SDI as pseudoscience

Dear Jerry Pournelle:

As ever, I am touched by your gallantry in repeating my snark. This time about SDI, which I called a ‘childish fantasy of magical warfare’; a view you called ‘remarkably uninformed’. I agree; I insist only that everyone else on Earth is just as remarkably uninformed as I am about SDI; for it is an untested speculation.

I dismiss the rigged experiments. Any missile-intercept experiment with a homing beacon on the target is an implicit admission of the technology’s worthlessness.

In any case missile defense is not a kinetic-kill vehicle. Nor smart rocks, nor brilliant pebbles, nor a bomb-pumped X-ray laser, nor a pop-up booster, nor superior optics, nor massive supercomputation, nor net-based C&C. It is all of those things and more, operating in concert, perfectly the first time against a deadly determined enemy in the chaos of war. 100% performance alone would suffice; 99.9% performance would have meant the death of DC, NY, Boston, Chicago, LA and SF; 99% performance, so long every state capital.

Need I tell you, of all people, that such first-time technical perfection never happens? That Murphy rules, and errors will come? High technical quality is indeed possible, but only after rigorous instruction in the fool’s school, Experience. I’ll even grant that building a 99.9%-performing SDI system would be possible… but only after several dozen nuclear wars; and fortunately we haven’t had even one.

Some of SDI’s critics said that it would have been useful as a back-up for a first strike by the USA against the USSR. A war crime; but I dismiss this too, as another speculation without evidence. Fortunately.

In the absence of actual combat experience, all of SDI is speculative. This is harmless enough as a bluff (though I hear that Sakharov was unimpressed, and said as much to the Politboro); but once you start spending megabux on rigged tests, that’s when speculation becomes pseudoscience.

– paradoctor

Even before 1980 there was considerable evidence for the effectiveness of missile interception, and the general in charge of Homing Overlay was at the Council meeting at Niven’s house in December 1980 when we wrote the Reagan space policy.

I believe Casaba and Howitzer are still classified, so absent open sources I can’t discuss them, but Excalibur got into the Congressional Record and became public knowledge: a nuclear pumped x-ray laser system. Even with the rather primitive computer systems available in 1980 that was a significant weapon.

The mistake often made is that SDI was supposed to be an iron dome over the US, stopping all incoming missiles. Nothing is ever 100% effective and terrible weapons would get through: Douhet writ large. But that wasn’t the point. Against the USSR and its 26000 nuclear tipped missile warheads the purpose of SDI was to ensure that the attacks would not be able to take out the US missile forces in a strike without warning. Enough would survive to allow the US a chance at survival by taking out the remaining USSR strategic forces. SIOP planning was a pretty depressing business in those days, but if you could factor in some strategic defense capabilities it became a bit less so.

The first benefit of SDI was that it eliminated the threat of a mad dictator – or a mad defecting general – with a missile or two. That sort of attack could be 100% intercepted, simplifying foreign policy. I discussed this in some detail in my book Mutual Assured Survival, as well as in a number of defense community documents.

Operational analysis of nuclear war is never easy, although it is easy enough for those outside the analysis to convince themselves they understand everything. The purpose of SAC was to ensure that on no day could the Marshal of Soviet Rocket Forces could tell the Politburo that there was a significant probability that at the end of a nuclear war with the United States the Politburo itself would survive. SDI added to the credibility of that; and technology developments were beginning to favor the defense after decades of favoring the offense. Lasers were getting better, the possibility of ground lasers with mirrors in space was very real, and there were other concepts including nuclear.

NSA Content Collection Confirmation?

Jerry,

Judge Andrew Napolitano this morning on Fox Business News stated that the NSA has been collecting and storing content on all US emails and phone calls for the last two and a half years.

He also makes the statement in writing, clearly and unambiguously, in a piece at http://reason.com/archives/2013/08/08/domestic-spying-is-dangerous-to-freedom.

(His lead point is that Snowden’s leaks are no different in kind from the government’s counter-leaks attempting to justify the program. Both are equally illegal.)

I went looking for confirmation elsewhere on the net, and the closest I could find was this NYT story that makes clear they’re collecting content for communications with at least one overseas party involved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/us/broader-sifting-of-data-abroad-is-seen-by-nsa.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

Hmm. That, plus the two-additional-degrees-of-separation rule? Still not clear, I’d say.

Either Napolitano is misreading something badly, or he knows something we don’t yet. Given that collecting and storing all call content is at this point technically possible within the general scope of facilities and funding the NSA has, given the repeated references to going back and listening to content that have slipped out in the metadata discussion, and given the general disinclination of our current government to worry overmuch about minor matters of Constitutionality, I’m inclined to believe Napolitano knows something.

Fourth Amendment? We don’t need no stinking Fourth Amendment.

Meanwhile, Bob Zubrin’s piece suggesting Congress immunize Snowden and bring him home to testify, so that at least it’s us rather than our enemies in a position to benefit from his knowledge, is the most practical single suggestion I’ve seen in this mess. Of course, acting on that suggestion would require that our betters in Washington be more worried about the Russians finding out what the NSA is doing than about us finding out.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/355218/give-snowden-immunity-robert-zubrin

feeling more naked every day

Porkypine

Lavabit

Dr. Pournelle,

Thought you might find this interesting:

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/13/20008036-lavabitcom-owner-i-could-be-arrested-for-resisting-surveillance-order?lite

"The owner of an encrypted email service used by ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden said he has been threatened with criminal charges for refusing to comply with a secret surveillance order to turn over information about his customers. ‘I could be arrested for this action,’ Ladar Levison told NBC News about his decision to shut down his company, Lavabit LLC, in protest over a secret court order he had received from a federal court that is overseeing the investigation into Snowden"

Hard to believe, but the article seems to imply that the government is threatening to file criminal charges against a business owner who shut down his business instead of allowing them to drill a back door into it.

Owen Charles

I am not sure that comment is needed.

US Navy lets Japanese Imperial Navy know how to reach them: 13 August 1945

http://andstillipersist.com/2013/08/us-navy-lets-japanese-imperial-navy-know-how-to-reach-them-13-august-1945/

"FROM US NAVY HEADQUARTERS GUAM TO IMPERIAL JAPANESE NAVY BT IF COMMUNICATIONS DESIRED CALL RADIO GUAM NPN FREQUENCY 4235 KCS OR HARMONICS THEREOF AND INDICATE APPROPRIATE CALL SIGN AND FREQUENCIES FOR FURTHER COMMUNICATION IN PLAIN ENGLISH BT SIGNED NIMITZ FLEET ADMIRAL AR"

VJ Day. This is what victory looks like, for those who get their information from the news today.

Graves

At one time every cadet at West Point learned this on his first day:

“From the Far East I send you one single thought, one sole idea—written in red on every beachhead from Australia to Tokyo— “There is no substitute for victory!” Douglas MacArthur

Days before the CoDominium

Mr. Pournelle,

I see your stories on the CoDominium and the Empire of Man as warnings, yet I wonder if those in the political leadership in this nation and others who’ve read them see them as a primer as it seems they see Orwell’s 1984. Although I like the tales of Falkenberg’s Legion and the time of the Empire of Man, the CoDominium scares the, well, it frightens me almost as much as Orwell’s Big Brother state. So much of the CoDominium looks like what we see these days and I fear that the leaders of the major powers are going about making their own version of it to satisfy their masters in the boardrooms of the major corporations around the world. I hope that I will be in the Tax Payer Class and not the Citizen Class when this nations takes this turn, but I’m not holding my breath.

Regards

Denise Hemmingway

I had hoped that with the fall of the Soviet Union and world communism we might avoid that world, but now I am not so hopeful. Yet we still have a chance. Do we have the will?

Elysium, the Movie

Jerry:

I just saw this movie and thought I would share some thoughts.

On the surface, this movie seems to be a propaganda piece for socialized medicine and immigration reform. However; when viewed from a technological perspective, it seems to be an indictment of the environmentalist movement. The premise includes advanced robotics and very small, single stage to orbit winged craft that should make space travel easy and cheap. In spite of this, only a small fraction of humanity is allowed to enjoy an affluent lifestyle. Could it be that the disparity in living standards is the result of environmentalist dogma that insists that the economy has to be restrained to save the planet? Are all of the inhabitants of the utopian space station dot com billionaires who embrace global warming theology.

It just seemed needlessly depressing.

James Crawford=

The sad part is that they technology that built Elysium could have built space solar power satellites and flooded the world with cheap clean energy. Given cheap clean energy and some economic freedom, the kind of grinding poverty seen in that movie would not happen. You cannot solve famines by feeding people, but you can alleviate poverty by producing enough goods. If you can build Elysium you can have a thriving economy.

MB in the White House

  Jerry,

Regarding your comments and in response to https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=14949:

1. It is well known that Valerie Jarrett was born in Iran; her parents were American doctors who ran a clinic there. The family returned to the United States when she was about six. While I have no direct knowledge or confirmed information that she is Muslim and/or involved in a MB infiltration of the White House, as some of the extreme conservative blogosphere assert, I think I can say with some confidence that her background, as with the President, makes her more sympathetic to Islamic interests and (probably) less sympathetic to Jewish/Israeli ones.

2. According to her Wikipedia biography, Mrs. Weiner, Huma Mahmood Abedin, was born in Michigan to an Indian father and Pakistani mother, and grew up in Saudi Arabia (where her mother still teaches sociology at the university in Jeddah). She came to Georgetown in the early 1990’s and first met Mrs. Clinton while working as a White House intern in 1996. She is a practicing Muslim, and married her husband in an interfaith service officiated by former President Clinton in July 2010, less than a year before her husband’s first sexting scandal broke. (It hadn’t occurred to me before now, but one may speculate – and it is speculation – that her submission as a Muslim wife explains her acceptance of her husband’s peculiarities as much as her political ambitions.)

The Wikipedia article includes the following information (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin):

On June 13, 2012, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michele_Bachmann> (R-Minn.), Congressman Trent Franks <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Franks> (R-Arizona), Congressman Louie Gohmert <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Gohmert> (R-Texas), Congressman Tom Rooney <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Rooney_(politician)> (R-Florida), and Congressman Lynn Westmoreland <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Westmoreland> (R-Georgia) alleged, based on a report by the conservative Center for Security Policy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Security_Policy> ,[14] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-Feffer-14> [15] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-15> that Abedin "has three family members–her late father, her mother and her brother – connected to Muslim Brotherhood operatives and/or organizations"[16] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-BachmannDoc-16> [17] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-17> These claims have been widely rejected and condemned by a variety of sources, and are generally regarded as a conspiracy theory <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_conspiracy_theories> .[18] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-BuzzFeed-18> The Washington Post <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post> called Bachmann’s allegations "paranoid," a "baseless attack" and a "smear."[19] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-WaPo-19> Republicans John McCain <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCain> (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsey_Graham> (R-S.C.), Scott Brown <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Brown> (R-Mass.) and Ed Rollins <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Rollins> called the allegations "nothing less than an unwarranted and unfounded attack on an honorable woman, a dedicated American and a loyal public servant… The letter and the report offer not one instance of an action, a decision or a public position that Huma has taken while at the State Department that would lend credence to the charge that she is promoting anti-American activities within our government."[20] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-20> [21] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-Terkel-21> The Anti-Defamation League <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Defamation_League> condemned the letter as well, referring to it as "conspiratorial" and saying that the Representatives involved should "stop trafficking in anti-Muslim conspiracy theories".[22] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-adl-22> Abedin was subsequently placed under police protection after she received threats of violence, possibly connected to the allegations.[23] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_note-threats-23>

The references are as follows (note: renumbered sequentially from above when I pasted it into the e-mail; my apologies):

1. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-Feffer_14-0> Power Trip: U.S. unilateralism and global strategy after September 11 <http://books.google.com/books?id=t8PQgoFju7UC&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22center+for+security+policy%22+right-wing&source=bl&ots=QIaiexRgjC&sig=lH_FZI9q55jQ1Ap0nKs6JPY34_U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jxP2UeS8JKHwigK8xYH4DA&ved=0CGIQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22center%20for%20security%20policy%22%20right-wing&f=false> , Seven Stories Press <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Stories_Press> , 2011

2. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-15> Jeffrey Lord (July 24, 2012). "Is Huma Abedin the New Alger Hiss?" <http://spectator.org/archives/2012/07/24/is-huma-abedin-the-new-alger-h/print> . The American Spectator.

3. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-BachmannDoc_16-0> Bachmann: "Letter to the Deputy Inspector General," June 13, 2012 <http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/402379/rep-michele-bachmann-correspondence.pdf> , accesses Aug 1, 2013

4. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-17> Cordes, Nancy (19 July 2012). "Michele Bachmann refuses to back down on claims about Huma Abedin" <http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505267_162-57475483/michelle-bachmann-refuses-to-back-down-on-claims-about-huma-abedin/> . CBS This Morning. Retrieved 19 July 2012.

5. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-BuzzFeed_18-0> Hannity Panel: “Real” Weiner Scandal Is Insane Muslim Brotherhood Conspiracy <http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/hannity-panel-real-weiner-scandal-is-insane-muslim-brotherho> , Andrew Kaczynski

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Kaczynski> , BuzzFeed <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BuzzFeed> , July 29, 2013

6. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-WaPo_19-0> Michele Bachmann’s baseless attack on Huma Abedin <http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michele-bachmanns-baseless-attack-on-huma-abedin/2012/07/19/gJQAFhkiwW_story.html> , Washington Post <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Post> , July 19, 2012

7. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-20> Rollins, Edward. "Bachmann’s former campaign chief — shame on you, Michele" <http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/07/18/bachmann-former-campaign-chief-shame-on-michele/> . FoxNews. Retrieved 24 July 2012.

8. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-Terkel_21-0> Terkel, Amanda. "John McCain Slams Michele Bachmann’s ‘Unfounded’ Attacks On Huma Abedin, Muslim-Americans" <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/18/john-mccain-michele-bachmann-muslim_n_1683277.html> . Huffington Post. Retrieved 19 July 2012.

9. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-adl_22-0> "ADL Responds To Conspiratorial Letter From 5 Members Of Congress; Urges Bachmann, Others To Stop ‘Trafficking In Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Theories’" <http://www.adl.org/PresRele/DiRaB_41/6356_41.htm> .

10. ^ <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huma_Abedin#cite_ref-threats_23-0> "Report: Huma Abedin gets police protection" <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78836.html> .

I had heard some of this before (probably from reading reference "two" above) but had not followed up in detail on the assertion and the aftermath. All I can suggest is reading the articles and drawing your own conclusions as to whom is telling the truth and whom is lying.

3. As to the Muslim Brotherhood in the White House, I submit the following (Note that I have not read all of these items myself; I’ve been frying too many other fish lately….) http://voiceofrussia.com/2013_08_01/Muslim-Brotherhood-operatives-infiltrate-Obama-Administration-9710/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_Brotherhood_conspiracy_theories

And one cannot forget Pamela Gellar, probably the most vocal speaker on this and related issues; http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/08/obama-reportedly-to-meet-with-muslim-brotherhood-officials-in-the-white-house-.html and other items at her site.

For what it’s worth, in a conversation with a family member and former soldier a couple of weeks ago, he asserted (this is not a direct quote) that wide-spread acknowledgement of the level of MB involvement in the White House will be the factor that brings the Obama Administration down.

4. My own analysis can be summarized as follows: where there is smoke, there is fire. There are enough known facts that one may infer that some – I would assert the nominal 70% ("70% of all rumors are true") as a working hypothesis – of the unproven/not separately documented assertions are likely true. And it is very difficult not to acknowledge that the only beneficiaries of US foreign policy in practice (as opposed to rhetoric at all levels) over the past four years has been Iran and the MB (this includes by removal of Al-Qaida leaders in drone strikes as "internal" opponents to these other groups).

Jim

Re: Restoring Trust in Government and the Internet

Jerry,

Another essay from Bruce Schneier, this about restoring trust in our government and the Internet. Obviously it is speculative whether any such restoration, especially justified, will take place. Too many in government and business believe that convincing you of a lie is the same as telling you the truth.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/08/restoring_trust.html

George

Public Education

The argument "repaying the cost of your own education" is only a placebo. The real answer is "We all pay for a public service". I don’t see anyone complaining (maybe they do) that they don’t have a car so why should they pay taxes to support roads or the interstates? The constitution didn’t say anything about federal roads (I think) but nobody seems to think that the ability to travel quickly across the country should depend on the generosity taxpayers of some county in Montana or Colorado… The idea that people in South Carolina gave a damn about how passable roads were in New England, probably never crossed the constitutional framers’ minds.

The fact is that like a common phone system, interstate roads, common power grids, the internet – there are some things that are functionally required for a modern society to function. We expect people to read directions, fill out forms, read labels… Many of even the basic jobs today demand a certain level of literacy that was not needed by people staring at the ass end of a horse while guiding a plough in 1788. In the same way, the federal government cannot afford to have a whole section of the country that is so functionally uneducated that they cannot be part of a modern society – hence common standards.

You are paying for that "infrastructure" whether you want it or not. Whether the government is (governments are) doing an appropriate or a good job of providing it, that’s a separate debate.

Maurice Daniels

pyramid scheme

Dr. Pournelle,

Another correspondent wrote "…everyone who pays school taxes is simply re-paying the cost of their own education, with interest, after inflation, and generally in proportion to how much they benefited from that education…" This sounds like a classic con job to me — which came first? My albeit slim reading of the development of the American public education system seems to show that the first students were paid for by their parents’ generation’s taxes for the good of the country’s economy (and slightly, for the purpose of generating a literate electorate). In addition to your excellent points, I would ask a few questions of my own: Hasn’t my education already benefited society? Why should I pay twice? Or twice as much? Or pay an amount corrected for inflation? If there has been severe inflation, have I really benefited? Shouldn’t I get a discount for poor product quality?

IMO most of those increased costs are going to poor resource management. If education was a product for which I could select between competitors, I would probably choose another over the current supplier. In my children’s case, I chose another supplier. Can I be reimbursed for my expenses? Why should I be forced to pay for a lousy product over which I have no quality control?

As with any other product of a government monopoly, the education system provides least value for most cost. I want my education system back.

Keep it up, you are on the right track!

-d

I’m not sure I understand the reasoning in this.

Quote:

Childless Taxpayers Funding Schools

It is a common misconception that it is somehow unfair for childless people to pay taxes that fund schools. In fact, everyone who pays school taxes is simply re-paying the cost of their own education, with interest, after inflation, and generally in proportion to how much they benefited from that education.

Thanks,

Jim Melendy

End Quote

If I understand Jim’s thinking here, it’s okay with him that Congress stole money from local schools during his great-grandfather’s day to pay bureaucrats in Washington to tell the local schools how to mess up their education system. It is so okay with Jim, that I somehow owe for the theft of that money so that he and others can now pay for educating their children.

To put it simply, I’m supposed to pay for this out of some sense of debt that my great-grandfather was robbed, that local schools didn’t have the money they could have, and that I got less of an education than I might have if the money were collected locally, spent on education, and controlled locally; not on some politician in D.C.

I must have missed something.

Braxton Cook

"Even those who went to private or religious schools? And why should it be federal? The old notion of local school boards which also controlled the school taxes made the best education system in the world at one time."

Your point about private school is well taken. My observation that people are really paying back for their own education is limited to people who try to use their childlessness to justify not supporting education. Whatever other arguments they put up, such as not getting value for their money or allocation of funds, has to be discussed separately, and I don’t disagree with your arguments there. The federal government should not collect nor distribute money for schools, nor do much to regulate them. I completely agree with your point about local control. The state governments should do much less and largely differently than most of them do. A good move for a state would be to use state colleges and universities to write and publish free e-textbooks that schools may use if they wish, and allow the schools to have those printed if they wish to. They could produce lesson plans, and provide a repository for lesson plans from various successful schools. This would provide basic resources to districts with limited funds. The key is that the schools must have the choice whether to use any of these resources or not.

Thanks,

Jim Melendy

Mail 7845 Monday, August 05, 2013

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.”

President Barrack Obama, January 21, 2009

Childless Taxpayers Funding Schools

It is a common misconception that it is somehow unfair for childless people to pay taxes that fund schools. In fact, everyone who pays school taxes is simply re-paying the cost of their own education, with interest, after inflation, and generally in proportion to how much they benefited from that education.

Thanks,

Jim Melendy

Even those who went to private or religious schools? And why should it be federal? The old notion of local school boards which also controlled the school taxes made the best education system in the world at one time.

NSA Intel Goes Domestic

Jerry,

The DEA has been using a mix of data from a massive (subpoenaed) domestic phone and internet taps database, informant tips, overseas law-enforcement partner info, *and overseas NSA intercepts* to support domestic law enforcement. This setup is called SOD, for Special Operations Division.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE97409R20130805

Two problems:

The Reuters story says that SOD’s role in providing evidence is being deliberately hidden when cases come to court, by policy. Alternate explanations for how the investigators got that info are being invented and provided to the defense and prosecution. Apparently, we don’t need genuine Due Process anymore, as long as we can convincingly simulate it.

Also, the Reuters story fails to note an additional implication. As we’ve seen elsewhere, NSA "overseas" intercepts can include domestic traffic up to two additional jumps away from a connection one of whose ends is an actual overseas party. IE, DEA SOD may well be tapping deeply into the NSA domestic phone metadata (and content? There have been numerous hints, and it is technically feasible) database, then using the domestic surveillance results for prosecutions in which the defense is denied knowledge of the true source of evidence against them.

Other Federal agencies are reportedly now pushing for access to the NSA domestic database. The DEA may well already have it. How long until access trickles down to the Fawn Squad and the Bunny Inspectors? Not, on the evidence, nearly as long as you might think.

And so it begins.

ever more transparently

Porkypine

Star Wars…

Since another reader brought up the subject of Star Wars, channeling Ted Kennedy, I must ask: Haven’t at least two nations – the United States and China – public ally demonstrated successful shoot downs of dummy warheads and/or satellites? How many (or what percentage) of the USA’s GSL and spy satellites would need to be disabled and/or destroyed before our military was largely blinded? And wouldn’t achieving that be a very effective execution of Star Wars?

Charles Brumbelow

Space will be a definite theater of war for the next world war. Defense of space assets is important to war prevention.

Modern view of SDI

Dr. Pournelle,

I’m 34, and most people in my generation were raised with exactly your correspondent’s view (and Sen. Kennedy’s) of SDI. I have heard rebuttals like yours before, but I would like to know more -particularly details that I could use in conversation. It is difficult to find information about SDI that is not mixed with the contemporaneous liberal political reaction to it.

By the way, I became a fan of yours through the Mote in God’s Eye (and The Gripping Hand), which I came to through being a fan of Niven’s other works. I have since read much of your bibliography, and it’s fascinating to see the difference between Niven, Pournelle, and Niven/Pournelle books – you have complementary strengths. I have recommended Mote and Gripping Hand many times, and they have always been well received.

Thank you!

Matthew Picioccio

Dean Ing and I covered part of this a long time ago in Mutual Assured Survival. Ben Bova also did a book called Assured Survival although that phrase was first used by me and then by President Reagan. There are numerous unclassified reports of successful ABM tests. Also look up Excalibur. And if you can get Google to work, try Homing Overlay. Google seems to stop working when I look up SDI papers, including my own books. I am sure it is a coincidence.

About Star Wars

Dr. Pournelle

"Two things in America go by the name “Star Wars”. One of them is a childish fantasy of magical warfare, spectacular but incoherent, whose obvious flaws are thinly disguised by pseudoscience. The other one involves wookies." –paradoctor@aol.com

When President Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, aka Star Wars, I was a lieutenant, and I was seated in the Officers’ Club slurping down beers with my buddies at a table with a view of the O Club bar’s TV. Except for the slurping, we watched the President’s televised speech in silence. When he announced that he would abandon MAD for UAS (Unilaterally Assured Survival), we leaped to our feet and slapped high fives around the table.

SDI gave us the chance to do what we had sworn to do: defend the United States. None of us cared to hold a gun to the heads of the Russia people with the threat that if they shot we would.

Some of my buddies worked on kinetic kill (missile interception of incoming ICBMs). Some worked on directed energy kill. Later, I worked on launch vehicles to put their platforms in space. The work was not spectacular, but it was coherent. I do not recall any flaws, obvious or otherwise, but I do recall numerous technical and management difficulties that we overcame. None of us did pseudoscience.

‘Man who says thing cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it.’

Surprised and pleased to see that aol still runs. I thought they had gone the way of the dodo.

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

In my original report to President Reagan I pointed out that the Constitution provided for the common defense, not the common destruction, and if it were technically possible the United States had a constitutional obligation to defend the American people.

My friends at SAC were cheering after Reagan’s Star Wars speech.

Dr. Pournelle,

Star Wars humor:

Chewbacca decided to retire from spaceflight. Needing employment, he considered opening a restaurant, but hair net problems aside, being called a ‘wookie cookie’ didn’t appeal to his ego. Therefore, he sought a partnership with Norm Abram from PBS, and the two will open, when Norm finishes the building, an extraterrestrial sex shop selling masturbatory aids for aliens. They will call it "The New Wookie Yankshop."

jomath

Deer

An emailer writes: "There’s a lot of deer in the woods after all."

You betcha, and that’s the problem. The deer do just fine keeping their numbers up without squeamish dogooders and well-meaning Aunt Nellies saving the poor sick babies. Deer are herd animals, who evolved to keep their species alive through fecundity; now that humans have killed all the predators, deer expand without limit. Trying to save baby deer is like trying to save a cup of pond scum.

"What about hunters," you might ask. And the problem there has the same root. People think deer are cute, so they pass laws making hunting illegal.

Then you might ask "how can the government have the power to pass laws like that", and that is one that nobody has a good answer for.

Well, that is certainly a reasonable but likely to be unpopular view…

Terror threat

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

Is it unduly cynical of me to read this and immediately think "Security theater?"

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/08/05/embassy-closures-extended-until-saturday/

Also, it appears that Newt Gingrich is at least willing to contemplate the idea that neoconservatism was a fallacy.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/aug/4/newt-gingrich-rethinks-neoconservative-views/?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS

That’s about 2 years after I came to the same conclusion, and about 50 years after you did :). So long as McCain keeps pushing for intervention my own relationship with the Republican party grows ever more strained.

Respectfully ,

Brian P.

View 784

You write "In 1859 the only long insulated wires in the world were telegraph lines."

I assume that you mean that the wires were insulated from the poles by glass spacers rather than that the wire was wrapped in insulation as is common in commercial wiring? Ezra Cornell was a clever guy but I don’t think he was as clever as all that….

—

Tim of Angle

Yes, of course. The original telegraph wires were bare copper, although they had cloth insulation in leadins. The point is that there were plenty of fence wires where there were no fires, but any long lines insulated from ground generated a good bit of electrical potential.

One reason many are afraid of inoculations:

Subj: CDC Admits 98 Million Americans Received Polio Vaccine Contaminated With Cancer Virus

http://tinyurl.com/pnhu4zr

Removed from the CDC website – this is cached copy:

http://tinyurl.com/p6ta9an

THE LAST CUP OF BRANDY

The Doolittle Raiders last meeting.

Verified. The item below is from CNN, April 4, 2013, by Bob Greene.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/opinion/greene-doolittle-raiders

There are additional pictures and video at the web site.

Most have never even heard of them; it’s not PC and might "offend" someone to know there were men that were this patriotic.

This is something that has been lost in the dust of time! To all I send my thanks for their service.

Skol

Stand your ground

Jerry,

you wrote that "I think the requirement to retreat before employing deadly force is reasonable so long as you are not in your own home. Or perhaps it is not."

Here is why this is not (necessarily) a good idea. Several years ago I lived in South Carolina, and I took (and passed) a concealed carry class. According to SC law, every aspect of the class has to be approved by the state police. The instructor spent a good deal of time talking about legal repercussions. He also pointed out that Stand Your Ground arises partly because of court cases where a duty to retreat was taken too far. He mentioned one case where a shop keeper retreated from a robber in to a back room. He shot the robber, who then sued him, claiming the shop keeper did not meet the duty to retreat because there was a small window high up on the wall that he could have theoretically used to flee further. Presumably, had he asked the robber to give him time to get a stepladder or pile some boxes up so he could reach this window, he would not have had to shoot.

Rick C

RE: Stand your ground

No legal wording will protect you from fugghead prosecutors out to make headlines

Jerry Pournelle

Absolutely true. It’s been probably 6 years so I don’t have the details fresh any more but the way I remember it, this was a case of the robber had a better lawyer. A reasonable person wouldn’t conclude that a small window that may have been 6 or 7 feet off the ground was a reasonable escape hatch and that failing to go through it meant you didn’t meet your duty to retreat.

This, of course, is the problem with phrasing the law as "Stand your ground." These laws simply state that if you have a legal reason for being somewhere, such as a place of work, you don’t have a duty to retreat, exactly as if you were at home, where you also generally don’t have such a duty. The instructor’s point is that a sharp lawyer, or a fugghead prosecutor, can try to twist the wording of the law to go after you this way, or the way the state went after Zimmerman.

Rick

Zimmerman had no path to retreat when he fired the shot. He was prevented from retreating by Martin. The Stand Your Ground law had no influence on the jury verdict. I doubt it influenced Zimmerman’s actions. He may have been a busybody, but he had some reason to do so. We have no way of knowing who said what to whom, but it is not unreasonable to assume that Martin decided he was going to stand his ground. The question is who struck the first blow. Given the discrepancy in the sizes and known past patterns of behavior it is not likely that Zimmerman assaulted Martin.

Subj: Is MIT killing its Hacker Culture?

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130730122632843

>>[T]there has been a persistent undercurrent of concern over the past

>>several years that MIT’s hacking tradition is being vitiated by a

>>perceived increasing tendency to interpret hacking as a criminal

>>activity. Some of the concern stems from incidents in 2006–2008 where

>>students engaging in “unauthorized access” to various areas of campus

>>ended up in Cambridge District Court, charged with breaking and

>>entering with intent to commit a felony. … How can we prevent a

>>robust hacking tradition from becoming a casualty of the Aaron Swartz

>>tragedy? … Where does MIT draw the line between risk-avoidance, so

>>as to protect its more parochial interests, and risk-assumption, to

>>promote those things in which it is interested?<<

It would be a tragedy if MIT were to eviscerate itself, but there’s a larger issue: To what extent has America’s past superiority in technology rested on a permissive Hacker Culture that would appall the political masters of authoritarian regimes like China’s? Will that superiority evaporate as our own regime becomes more authoritarian — as research funding, for example, gets channeled more effectively away from dissenters from "consensus" positions and toward those proficient mainly in toadying to self-perpetuating cliques of peer reviewers?

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

First burger made of TEST-TUBE MEAT to be eaten on August 5

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/29/test_tube_burger_to_be_eaten/

Just the beginning, of course.

What will the vegetarians-out-of-conscience do now?

Ed

Subject: LA Schools Out of Money? Hardly

The LA schools are buying an iPad for every single student. The initial purchase will be $30million. I don’t want to hear that there is not enough money for education ever again.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/7/26/4559066/free-apple-ipad-school-children-la-district

—

Dwayne Phillips

Mail 784 Tuesday, July 30, 2013

archive.org has Byte digitized

http://archive.org/details/byte-magazine

Finally I can browse through all of the issues I had to recycle when I moved into an apartment in 1996 — I’d had a subscription since around

1986 and had saved all the issues.

Brioan Lane

Microsoft pen computing

I’ve not handled the Surface Pro, but I have been an avid user of Thinkpad pen-enabled tablets (both IBM and then Lenovo) for some years now, and I think Microsoft’s handwriting recognition works great. I don’t use OneNote much—mostly MindManager by Mindjet (a mind-mapping package), which forces a little more organization on me than OneNote does. I very much hope that Mr. Softy gets his tablet act together at some point…

Neil

Well, Microsoft handwriting recognition works on my handwriting because it was developed in Moscow, and I visited there at just the right time: they needed samples of American handwriting so I let Stepan copy about 100 pages of my handwritten log. I should look into pen enabled ThinkPads but I admit to being a bit intrigued by the Surface Pro. I loved the Compaq tablet but it was just too slow, alas.

Education

Jerry,

Had I shared this?

Top Ten No Sympathy Lines for Students

Top Ten No Sympathy Lines <http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/nosymp.htm>

Jim

If you have kids in high school or about to go to college, you should show them this. Of course that depends on where they will be going…

The real damage in the USAF

Dr. Pournelle,

Here is one source of some real damage in the USAF. Bottom line up front – Here is a senior enlisted member telling airmen that their job performance really doesn’t matter, and what matters is what they do in what would otherwise be their "free time". Basically, in the AF you have no personal life because you’re expected to work 24/7 so you can document how awesome you are at everything except your job. Family life and not killing yourself comes a distant third and fourth, behind volunteer extra duty and not fouling up your primary job. Excelling at your primary job becomes a single line in a 6 line performance report, and should be prioritized accordingly.

The source: http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123351830

From the source article: "To be competitive for awards and promotions, we must commit ourselves to goals such as education, passing the fitness exam, and community service. It is through completion of these expectations and requirements that we become better leaders, managers and Airmen. However, somewhere along the way, we fail to internalize the importance of why we fill these squares."

The commentary:

http://www.jqpublic-blog.com/?p=431

From the commentary article: "In one fell swoop, this article delivers a heartbreaking message to young airmen: you will not be promoted or recognized based on your duty performance. If you want to succeed in this Air Force, you’d better play the game we’ve defined for you, which has nothing to do with excellence on duty … but the checking of off-duty squares. Your work ability is pass/fail. Square-checking is where we will judge your worth."

This is real, and I think it is far more dangerous to national security than the taliban or our budgetary woes. Military members who want to actually do their military duties are more and more marginalized, family life is getting crushed, and the suicide rate continues to rise.

S

Impoverish America

Jerry,

Obama’s Energy Plan: Impoverish America by Robert Zubin, author (most recently) of Merchants of Despair

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/352362

Jim

Teacher certification

Dr. Pournelle,

In reference to comments on teacher certification (or any skill certification) I have a story.

I teach catechism (called CCD as you are aware but some of your readers may not be) at my parish and have been for four years. I teach teen aged boys, 13 – 17 years old. This takes three hours on Saturday for class plus the usual planning time. Since it is for the Church, it is volunteer work. I enjoy it and have some reason to believe I am effective at it. So far, nothing unusual.

Our bishop requires that catechists (teachers of catechism) be certified. He (quite reasonably) does not want children taught heresy. This requires 160 classroom hrs for the catechist in a 5 year period and continuing classes after that. Some of the classes are free. Most are inexpensive, $5-10 for 3-5 hours plus books sometimes (another $10-20). These classes are held at various parishes around the diocese usually in the evening or on weekends. Of course if you cannot make those, you can do the whole thing online at a Catholic university for a $40-50 registration fee plus books plus, occasionally other fees.

I have no problem with taking classes where my knowledge is deficient. The problem I have with this is:

1. There is no method in place for me to prove I already know the material, or what I know, 2. I have to pay to volunteer my time to help and use scarce free time for classes even if I know more about the material than the teacher.

The bishop is the controlling authority on this. No one can override him so it is not like he has to knuckle under to a superior or some outside organization such as a union.

So far I am way behind if I intend to be certified by the end of my fifth year, I only have about 50 or 60 hrs. I guess I am going to see how serious they are about this. They already cannot get enough volunteers.

Patrick Hoage

I suspect the certification process can be improved…

RE: Mr. Hellerstein

Jerry,

Responding to Mr. Hellerstein (Mail 779):

I entered the 1980’s with the delusion that we had elected an anti-intellectual President. I exited the decade working on that President’s defense initiatives and with a completely different notion.

Blaming Reagan’s election for what happened to schools during that period – a period of increasing school control by unionized Democrats – doesn’t scan. It is the Democrats who are anti-intellectual, who consistently refuse to fund cutting edge scientific and technical research in favor of turtle tunnels, and who would rather spend money paying people not to work than to spend it on research and development. (In the 60’s and 70’s we called that "eating the seed corn." It now comprises the vast majority of government spending. The remaining portion of government spending on "productive" use is devoted to equally political objectives with net long-term economic regret.)

J.

I missed this when it was sent but it is still relevant.

926 And All That

We’ve already discussed the phenomenal rate at which medieval archives are being uploaded.

Now Rory Stewart MP has some interesting things to say about making local history available to the public once it has been entered online- a transatlantic echo of calls to open access to scientific work carried out at public expenses

http://www.rorystewart.co.uk/a-meeting-of-kings/

—

Russell Seitz

Fellow of the Department of Physics Harvard University

Dry asparagus

Dear Dr Pournelle,

I suggest that the story you link to of someone complaining about dry asparagus is not actually a sign of a wholly novel Craziness Of Modern life ™, but rather of a well-known, ancient Craziness Of Petty Bureaucrats ™. The petty bureaucrat in question even admits to having gone looking for trouble:

> Olander admitted to being in an “ornery mood” the day he visited the store. “I just felt like stirring it up a little bit, letting them know that somebody cares,” he said, according to the recording.

In other words, someone with a bit of power wanted to pick a fight he thought he could win, saw some asparagus he didn’t like, and decided that he’d found his victim. Then he couched it in terms of racism because that’s the fashion. It is not clear that this is any better or worse than complaining about bad service, or allowing black people in your store, or the insolence of merchants, or the Bad Manners Of Youth These Days, which would have been the equivalents in the Good Old Days. I suggest that a change in the form of petty bullying is not actually a legitimate source of worry; if you can demonstrate that there is more petty bullying than there was in the past, irrespective of form, that’s a much better argument.

To be sure, in the days before the Internet, such a story would not be likely to be picked up nationally; I suggest, however, that this is a feature of the Internet and not specific to the accusation of racism. No doubt, if we’d had the web in the fifties, some petty civil employee would have made the news for complaining about the long hair of the employee at his local store, and suggesting that the city should Look Into It. The form changes, the contents are the same.

Regards,

Rolf Andreassen.

But the Civil Servants are our new aristocracy. Get used to it. Or, of course, you might actually take back your government.

Your Thoughts on the Slingatron Hypervelocity Launcher

Dr. Pournelle,

I’m curious to hear your opinion on something that’s come up on Kickstarter and Slashdot just recently–The Slingatron.

Here are the links to an article about the company and the Kickstarter page.

Before I make any pledges on Kickstarter, I’d be interested in your opinion on the feasibility of building a large scale Slingatron that would have the 6 – 7 kilometers per second velocity to get payloads into LEO.

The ability to get fuel into LEO would be a game-changer, making SSTO craft much more feasible if they could refuel before descending to Earth.

I can’t think of anyone with the physical sciences background that might be better at evaluating this.

RAH would be chuckling at the thought of Slingatron’s constructed on the moon!

Thank you,

Ray Ciscon

I did not find any links in your mail but I did look up Slingatron. A few minutes work with the numbers would convince you that to reach orbital velocity by using some kind of centrifugal device on the surface of the earth (or on high mountains) requires strengths of materials that we don’t have, and there are heat problems because of the very high velocity you must achieve while at low altitudes.

The same applies to linear acceleration devices, but those can at least be put on much higher mountain locations.

I wish them well, but I don’t think I will be investing just yet.

solar cycles 

Jerry,

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/28/solar-cycle-24-update-2/

Solar "nowcast"

28JUL2013 1400Z

www.solarham.com <http://www.solarham.com/>

SSN 64

F10.7 108

A=10 K=2

There have been 3 C2-C3 flares in the past 24 hours (actually since midnight Zulu) Forecast risk of M or higher flare <10% today

And I will again remind you…this has been anticipated for at least fifteen years:

Past and Present Variability of the Solar-terrestrial System: Measurement …

edited by Giuliana Cini Castagnoli, Antonello Provenzale

See figure 6 at bottom of page

http://books.google.com/books?id=45HGQBD79WwC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=bolometric+solar+constant+measurement&source=bl&ots=drEMyJHnXU&sig=3CqbtFeHAuykcLaz3UL0ww-Vq5Y&hl=en&ei=Up5NTcjaF8j0gAeBlLjXDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

Jim

And we are overdue for a major flare.

Too Patriotic?

Who are these people who think being patriotic is un American? Why is this Schulah guy occupying the position? 🙁

Iconic Ground Zero photo was nearly excluded from museum for being too ‘rah-rah’ American <http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/pic_fire_fight_Bl5WA1MEU7AaQeabPas4uK>

* By MELISSA KLEIN

* Last Updated: 5:47 AM, July 28, 2013

* Posted: 12:03 AM, July 28, 2013

This iconic picture of firefighters raising the stars and stripes in the rubble of Ground Zero was nearly excluded from the 9/11 Memorial Museum ­ because it was “rah-rah” American, a new book says.

Michael Shulan, the museum’s creative director, was among staffers who considered the Tom Franklin photograph too kitschy and “rah-rah America,” according to “Battle for Ground Zero” (St. Martin’s Press) by Elizabeth Greenspan, out next month.

“I really believe that the way America will look best, the way we can really do best, is to not be Americans so vigilantly and so vehemently,” Shulan said.

http://tinyurl.com/qxa4r7u

Aviation Human Factors Expert Earl Wiener Dies,

Jerry

You were, I think, in the same line of expertise, yes?

Ed

P.S.—See below the obit.

Aviation Human Factors Expert Earl Wiener Dies

Aviation Week & Space Technology Jul 22, 2013 <http://www.aviationweek.com/awin/awst.aspx> , p. 12

Earl L. Wiener , known to many as a founding father of aviation human factors, died on June 14 at his home in Menlo Park, Calif., after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 80.

Armed with military pilot training and a doctorate in psychology and industrial engineering, in the early 1980s Wiener began researching what happens when humans and computers attempt to coexist on a flight deck. Though his “day job” was professor of management science at the University of Miami, Wiener is widely known for riding in jump seats with his airline-pilot subjects as part of research projects funded by the NASA Ames ResearchCenter <http://www.aviationweek.com/awin/OrganizationProfiles.aspx?orgId=12097> . He worked on NASA <http://www.aviationweek.com/awin/OrganizationProfiles.aspx?orgId=19991> human-factors projects for more than two decades. “ Earl was an ongoing grantee,” says a NASA co-worker from that time. “He would publish a paper and 25 people would write their masters’ theses or doctoral dissertations on the topic.”

Wiener was an outspoken critic of the notion that technology, through automation alone, can solve aviation safety problems. “It is highly questionable whether total system safety is always enhanced by allocating functions to automatic devices rather than human operators, and there is some reason to believe that flight-deck automation may have already passed its optimum point,” states “Flight-Deck Automation: Promises and Problems ,” a 1980 paper he co-wrote with NASA ‘s Renwick Curry.

Compilations of scholarly papers by Wiener and his colleagues resulted in two seminal human-factors books, one of which— Human Factors in Aviation —is still in print today, albeit as a new edition with new editors.

Tap the icon in the digital edition of AW&ST to read how Wiener was highlighting the debate about the safety of cockpit automation long before this month’s Asiana accident, or go to AviationWeek.com/wiener <http://www.AviationWeek.com/wiener>

———————————————–

WIENER’S LAWS

(Note: Nos. 1-16 intentionally left blank)

17. Every device creates its own opportunity for human error.

18. Exotic devices create exotic problems.

19. Digital devices tune out small errors while creating opportunities for large errors.

20. Complacency? Don’t worry about it.

21. In aviation, there is no problem so great or so complex that it cannot be blamed on the pilot.

22. There is no simple solution out there waiting to be discovered, so don’t waste your time searching for it.

23. Invention is the mother of necessity.

24. If at first you don’t succeed… try a new system or a different approach.

25. Some problems have no solution. If you encounter one of these, you can always convene a committee to revise some checklist.

26. In God we trust. Everything else must be brought into your scan.

27. It takes an airplane to bring out the worst in a pilot.

28. Any pilot who can be replaced by a computer should be.

29. Whenever you solve a problem you usually create one. You can only hope that the one you created is less critical than the one you eliminated.

30. You can never be too rich or too thin (Duchess of Windsor) or too careful what you put into a digital flight guidance system (Wiener).

31. Today’s nifty, voluntary system is tomorrow’s F.A.R. (Federal Acquisition Regulation).

We were very much in the same line of business, but I was out of it before he got into it. RIP

Bye Bye Santa

Herewith, from the ElfCam, last weeks meltdown of the North Pole:

http://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/2013/07/22/how-ice-cam-2-learned-to-swim-as-the-north-pole-melted/

—

Russell Seitz

Fortunately Santa’s workshop has been temporarily relocated. His granddaughter Chrissie has also moved the research department…

Ticket quotas 

My hero.

http://hotair.com/archives/2013/07/25/video-auburn-cop-fired-for-blowing-the-whistle-on-ticket-arrest-quotas/comment-page-1/#comments

"Auburn, Alabama is home to sprawling plains, Auburn University, and a troubling police force. After the arrival of a new police chief in 2010, the department entered an era of ticket quotas and worse.

“When I first heard about the quotas I was appalled,” says former Auburn police officer Justin Hanners, who claims he and other cops were given directives to hassle, ticket, or arrest specific numbers of residents per shift. “I got into law enforcement to serve and protect, not be a bully.

…

“There are not that many speeders, there are not that many people running red lights to get those numbers, so what [the police] do is they lower their standards,” says Hanners. That led to the department encouraging officers to arrest people that Hanners “didn’t feel like had broken the law.””"

Now if he could just run for sheriff in my country, I’d vote for him in a heartbeat.

Read the comments as well. Some of them are … insightful.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

I would rather have pockets of this sort of thing than federal inspectors making sure it never happens…

Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks 

Henry Ford didn’t need an iCar…

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/07/24/hackers-reveal-nasty-new-car-attacks-with-me-behind-the-wheel-video/

Subj: Hackers Reveal Nasty New Car Attacks

http://tinyurl.com/mwapnez

Stomping on the brakes of a 3,500-pound Ford Escape that refuses to stop–or even slow down–produces a unique feeling of anxiety. In this case it also produces a deep groaning sound, like an angry water buffalo bellowing somewhere under the SUV’s chassis. The more I pound the pedal, the louder the groan gets–along with the delighted cackling of the two hackers sitting behind me in the backseat.

Luckily, all of this is happening at less than 5mph. So the Escape merely plows into a stand of 6-foot-high weeds growing in the abandoned parking lot of a South Bend, Ind. strip mall that Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek have chosen as the testing grounds for the day’s experiments, a few of which are shown in the video below. (When Miller discovered the brake-disabling trick, he wasn’t so lucky: The soccer-mom mobile barreled through his garage, crushing his lawn mower and inflicting $150 worth of damage to the rear wall.)

“Okay, now your brakes work again,” Miller says, tapping on a beat-up MacBook connected by a cable to an inconspicuous data port near the parking brake. I reverse out of the weeds and warily bring the car to a stop. “When you lose faith that a car will do what you tell it to do,” he adds after we jump out of the SUV, “it really changes your whole view of how the thing works.”

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/ <http://www.forbes.com/forbes/>

Frightening

Inmates running the asylum, indeed.

<http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-25/homeland-securitys-future-home-a-former-mental-hospital>

—-

Roland Dobbins