Category Archives: Mail

Mail 726 Sunday, May 27, 2012

First glory, then gold; then?

Now that Dragon capsule has docked at the ISS, people are saying that the era of commercial space-flight has arrived. The New World was explored for three reasons; God, gold and glory. Government spaceflight

– Apollo especially – was about glory; commercial spaceflight will be about gold; but looking to the future, who’ll go to space for God? What mission would there be?

I propose two. The first is the clearing-away of the Earth-crossing asteroids. A long-term project, for the good of all mankind, indeed of all life on Earth. Some of the commercial spacefarers have expressed an interest in mining the Earth-crossers for precious metals and water; which is fine, but there will be a residue of worthless but deadly flying mountains. Who disposes of those? This is where private charity can step in. I foresee the Mormons and Greenpeace launching ion-driven gravity tugs on search-and-tow missions; remote-operated for decades by unpaid volunteers.

The second mission is the terraformation of Mars. This is a very long-term project; many generations of hard and dangerous experimental labor on an alien world; of no benefit to anyone on Earth except the pleasure of having neighbors. The time-scale and reward structure favors a religious organization doing this job. Terraformers have to believe in terraforming; so whatever the source religion, Terraforming itself would become newborn Mars’s de facto founding religion.

Paradoc

I would think the first goal is to become a sparefaring civilization. There’s plenty out there. We need to make it possible to go get it. Then we can pick paths and missions.

A great day dawns

Dr. Pournelle

re: Dragon Docks and the commercial space era begins. <http://>

An associate asked me what I thought of the Space X launch. I said it opened a new era in space transportation and for the better. He asked me why, and I launched into a lecture on operational efficiency versus performance which led to a lecture on propellants and ended with my prerecorded rant against NASA ("Kill ’em all. God will know his own").

He then brought up that ‘some guys’ were planning to mine a ‘meteor’. I said that there was a new corporation formed to mine near-Earth asteroids and that they would use commercial launch services.

Yeah, it’s a great day.

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

It is indeed.

Backdoor found in Chinese-made US military chip

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sps32/sec_news.html#Assurance

—

Eric Smith

I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.

Bjarne Stroustrop, Developer of C++ programming language

I have always been concerned about security in manufacturing routers and other important electronic equipment. It’s an obvious thing for an intelligence agent to want: a secure and hidden way to see what’s going on in telephones, internet mail, you name it. Of course one can try to get one’s electronics Trojan horses into equipment manufactured in the US, but it had got to be easier if you’re the one providing the security…

If we put the Bunny Inspectors out of business, they can retrain as Henhouse Inspectors.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/229533-senators-propose-federal-standards-for-egg-laying-hens

I saw nothing in the Constitution about eggs and hens, and I cannot think that the Framers had any such thing in mind for the federal government. States can decide to be kinder to chickens than tro chicken farmers; but I do not think there is any such power for the Federal government. Nor should be.

TV Truth Revealed

I maintained for quite some time that "content" refers to the commercials and "fill" refers to the crappy shows between the commercials e.g. Dancing with the Stars, America’s got Talent, CSI, Creeping Around with the Kardashians.  Well, Fox filed suit and in that suit they prove as much in their arugment:

<.>

"We were given no choice but to file suit against one of our largest distributors, Dish Network, because of their surprising move to market a product with the clear goal of violating copyrights and destroying the fundamental underpinnings of the broadcast television ecosystem," Fox said in a statement. "Their wrongheaded decision requires us to take swift action in order to aggressively defend the future of free, over-the-air television."

</>

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-fox-sues-dish-network-over-adblocking-feature-20120524,0,3654685.story

No, you did that when you put more commercials in an hour than content I would want to see if it wasn’t so watered down that I would have to have an IQ below 85 to want to watch it.  As far as it being an "ecosystem", I hope the judge laughs you out of the courtroom.  But, we all know government is a tax-payer funded enfrocement agency for big companies like Fox.  And, if Fox fails, they’ll steal MORE of our money to "bail out" the too big to fail company.  What a joke. 

The Journal also reported on this:

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP65148c316b8a4afc90693391f1913f8a.html

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I confess that I have taken to recording my TV shows and watching them half an hour later so that I can skip past the commercials. I generally watch any commercial I haven’t seen except for a few that I know are designed to be irritating, and I often go from fast forward to play when there’s an ad that might or might not be interesting; and I generally feel a little guilty because I know that without the ads no one would pay for the shows I like (which turn out to be more now than a couple of years ago even though the ones we have now aren’t as good – it’s just that I seem to watch a bit more mindless TV than I used to). But it’s like newspapers: they have made the print so small, and so filled the papers with ads to the detriment of news, that I generally get news on line now. I prefer what we used to have in news, with properly written stories, but that takes money for real editorial staff, and the papers don’t have that or say they don’t. A death spiral, perhaps. My local papers clearly hate their readers, and work to make the paper harder and harder to read. I’d pay a lot more for subscriptions if there were some good stories once in a while that were printed in types I could read…

‘A 2010 study by Chinese economist Wang Xiaolu found that the top 2 percent of households earned a staggering 35 percent of national urban income.’

<http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/05/22/bear_in_a_china_shop?page=full>

Based upon my experiences in China and the fact that thisstudy was produced by a Chinese economist, my guess is that the actual amount of concentrated wealth is considerably higher, somewhere on the order of 50% – 60%.

—

Roland Dobbins

We all know that most of the wealth and nearly all the progress comes from about 10% of the population; ‘equality’ is very expensive, and if enforced in allocation of education resources leads to ruin. We all know this, and apparently choose ruin.

Stupidest Event Ever

Now, I’m constantly irritated at stupidity, stupid people, and stupid events.  But, this takes the cake and — as always — it invovles public servants who are also stupid as well as stupid parents and the aquiesence of a stupid society:

<.>

A 17-year-old high school honor student who works two jobs and financially supports her two siblings is heading into summer on a sour note after spending a night in jail for being too tired to attend school.

Diane Tran was arrested in open court and sentenced to 24 hours in jail Wednesday after being repeatedly truant due to exhaustion. KHOU reports that Tran, a junior at Willis High School, was warned by Judge Lanny Moriarty last month to stop missing school. When she missed classes again this month, Moriarty wanted to make an example of Tran.

“If you let one (truant student) run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em? Let them go too?” Moriarty asked, according to KHOU.

Tran told KHOU that in addition to taking advanced and honors classes, she works full-time and part-time jobs in an effort to try to support her older brother at Texas A&M and a younger sister in the Houston area. After Tran’s parents divorced, they both moved away from the honor student and her two siblings.

Tran was also fined $100.

</>

Why is a 17-year old being ordered to attend school when most kids are allowed to drop out at 16 anyway? 

Why didn’t the judge note the girl is an honor student?

Why didn’t the judge note the girl’s parents both moved away from their children after their divorce?

Other than that, I have questions that any person with two brain cells working in unison could ask and I will not insult anyone by asking those questions here.  Stupid people cost this country a lot more than money; I believe we need to have an IQ test before people work in society or in government.  Imagine cops that had high IQs, imagine elected servants with high IQs, imagine teachers with high IQs.  WOW!  What a great society that would be.  Let the epsilon semi-morons wear their khakis, go to work, and shut up.  We don’t need more idiocy.  I’d rather have that than the bs I read on a daily basis in the newspaper. 

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Come now, I suspect we can all think of even greater stupidities. One should be careful with superlatives when rating follies. And it’s a brave new world that has such people in it…

Excellent article on long term voter preferences

Partisan voters really color issues by party. Independents don’t.

http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/05/24/are-voters-just-rooting-for-clothes/

Well, perhaps.

. ‘The ubiquitous distribution of abiotic organic carbon in Martian igneous rocks is important for understanding the Martian carbon cycle and has implications for future missions to detect possible past Martian life.’

<http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2012/05/23/science.1220715>

Roland Dobbins

Transfer of Life-Bearing Meteorites from Earth to Other Planets.

<http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.1719>

<http://arxiv.org/pdf/1204.1719v1>

Roland Dobbins

I was critical of the original Viking experimental design, and have been of all the ones since, but I am not really much of an expert on biochemistry. Still, you’d think they could come up with something definitive given how much they have to spend.

: NYT 3 part series on Philip K Dick

Dear Jerry,

In case you haven’t seen this.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-1/?src=recg

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-2/?src=

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/philip-k-dick-sci-fi-philosopher-part-3/?src=recg

May 20, 2012, 5:00 PM

Philip K. Dick, Sci-Fi Philosopher, Part 1

By SIMON CRITCHLEY <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/simon-critchley/>

The Stone<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs_v3/opinionator/pogs/thestone45.gif>

The Stone <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/the-stone/> is a forum for contemporary philosophers on issues both timely and timeless.

TAGS:

PHILIP K. DICK <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/philip-k-dick/> , PHILOSOPHY <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/philosophy/> ,SCIENCE FICTION <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/science-fiction/>

This is the first in a three-part series <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/philip-k-dick/> .

~~~

Part 1: Meditations on a Radiant Fish

When I believe, I am crazy. When I don’t believe, I suffer psychotic depression.

— Philip K. Dick

Philip K. Dick is arguably the most influential writer of science fiction in the past half century. In his short and meteoric career, he wrote 121 short stories and 45 novels. His work was successful during his lifetime but has grown exponentially in influence since his death in 1982. Dick’s work will probably be best known through the dizzyingly successful Hollywood adaptations of his work, in movies like “Blade Runner” (based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”), “Total Recall,” “Minority Report,” “A Scanner Darkly” and, most recently, “The Adjustment Bureau.” Yet few people might consider Dick a thinker. This would be a mistake. <snip>

There is a good TV special on Phil Dick in the Masters of SF series. I was interviewed for the one on Mr. Heinlein. The one on Dick used Tim Powers, perhaps not as much as it should have: Tim was close to Phil and has thought about him a good bit. Phil Dick was arguably mad, but he was a very intelligent madman…

scribd and DMCA

The "scale" thing is important. I recall an article where someone pointed out that back when the DMCA was first written, the most common method by which Americans connected to the Internet was by a land-line modem running at 56 kilobaud. Yahoo! was the big name in Internet search and there was no Google. AoL and Prodigy were still going concerns. Amazon was some niche thing that college students used to score cheap CDs.

It’s actually kind of funny, because all along the anti-copyright crowd has been saying that technology has outpaced litigation, and you know what? They’re *right*. But that doesn’t mean that copyright needs to go away.

—

Mike T. Powers

Good observation

scribd, specific urls, and the amount of work required for takedown

Hello Jerry,

I read this:

"Our agent is painstakingly accumulating a list of URL’s to works by her clients that are up on scribd. It takes a good bit of work on her part, but it will be done,"

And I immediately wondered why she was doing this by hand. This seems to be the perfect application for a computer! Every morning, your script runs, searching for new posts related to each author, for each one found, the URL is compared to your database of already cited URLs, the correct paperwork is printed (or formatted for electronic submission), database is updated. Agent scans each submission quickly for accuracy and content, signs it, and submits. Minimum work, maximum effect…

Distribute the script /app /whatever to several agents, and then scribd starts getting hammered daily with takedown orders. When it gets too expensive for them to deal with, they change their policy. (Best possible outcome, maybe least likely though.)

FWIW, I have used scribd for manuals, and other tech support documentation, but never for works of fiction. Never even looked for that. On at least 2 occasions I was able to find the documents in their original online location, after finding them on scribd. For whatever reason, search engines found them on scribd, but not in their original locations.

Please keep producing new fiction, and re-releasing your old. Keep up with the site as best you can. I think it is one of the best on the web. I’ve stopped consuming mainstream media completely, knowing that if something is important, it will end up on your site. Saves me a lot of time, and yelling at the TV.

Thanks again for all you do,

zuk

Bill Zukley

Mail 725 Monday, May 21, 2012

Russell Seitz attempts to inject something new into the climate debates:

As we discussed , I have some new ammunition on offer for both sides to try out on each other– here is the WaterWired link.

http://aquadoc.typepad.com/WaterWired/2011/07/hydrosols-and-microbubbles.html

For those interested in heavier artillery, the April 2011 _Climatic Change_ paper is attached

It is available as a free preprint pdf at <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.5823"></a>

I’m chuffed to report it has also been mentioned in dispatches in an Annals of Science piece, entitled ‘The Climate Fixers'<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/05/14/120514fa_fact_specter">

in the May 14 issue of <i>The New Yorker</i></a>

Russell Seitz

Fellow of the Department of Physics

Harvard University

What seems to me to be certain is that we will not ‘conserve’ our way to lower CO2, We may replace fossil fuels as a primary source, but we will not do it by starvation. Changing albedo by painting roofs, or with microbubbles to make brightwater, or through biological means all seem good alternatives to investigate – but we need data, both scientific and engineering, and while we’re at it operations data on finances. The one thing that seems certain to me is that if the United States beggars itself there will be no power with the financial and engineering resources to Do Something when we finally understand what it is we must do.

Climate scientists say they have solved riddle of rising sea, and it ain’t global warming:

http://news.yahoo.com/climate-scientists-solved-riddle-rising-sea-172928909.html

How interesting that we had our global religion theory first, and the measurements are only now happening.

Ed

Interesting. I am not sure I agree, but I do think it would be well to get some data. Of course it’s always a good idea to have some data…

Comment on Mixed bag, May 17, Florida school testing

Jerry,

The problem is that the Florida Dept of Education, in their nigh-infinite wisdom, toughened the writing section of the test this year (given to grades 4, 8 and 10), and succeeded in driving the passing rate from around 80% depending on grade, to around 30%. Reference from FL news bureau http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/fcat-writing-scores-plummet-force-question-what-do .

While I’m all in favor of testing students’ achievement, the idea that passing rates declined by roughly two-thirds in one year does not suggest a sudden plunge in teacher performance; the reality seems to be that the test-MAKERS in this case changed the rules with little-to-no guidance to the school districts as to what to expect, and have reaped the whirlwind for their efforts.

Bob Halloran

Jacksonville FL

That certainly seems a reasonable argument. It also seems to be a dilemma best attacked at local levels. Try many approaches in many places, and observe what happens.

‘A tiny 0.03 percent of California teachers are dismissed after three or more years on the job. In the past decade, the LAUSD — home to 33,000 teachers — has dismissed only four.’

<http://www.city-journal.org/2012/22_2_california-teachers-association.html>

—

Roland Dobbins

And yet it is clear that firing the worst 10% of the teachers brings startling improvements in schools. Alas, it is nearly impossible to fire an obviously incompetent teacher. The system exists to pay bad teachers perpetually: that’s far more important than any service to students or any educational accomplishment. The education outcomes go lower and lower, the schools get worse and worse, and the teacher unions wring their hands – and  threaten strikes to protect incompetent teachers. So it goes.

Maturing beyond Byte Magazine

Mr. P,

I have followed your columns since they began in The Byte Magazine. You inspired me to get into engineering and then IT. I find that the expanded scope of topics that you include in your own web site to be of even more interest. Keep up the good work.

—

Paul Devey

Thank you for the kind words.

Bunny Inspectors

Hello Jerry,

I’d gladly keep the Department of Bunny Inspecting if we could eliminate every OTHER department that contributes a dime to maintaining this guy and his herd in the lifestyle to which they have obviously become accustomed:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-tennessee-man-

has-30-kids-20120518,0,4036567.story#tugs_story_display

Bob Ludwick

What is clear is that a system that can’t fire bunny inspectors but instead borrows the money to pay them (and give them raises) is no longer under rational control. By anyone.

‘So the lunatic theory that Barack Obama doesn’t meet the minimum eligibility requirements to be president of the United States was first advanced by Barack Obama’s official representative.’

<http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/300468>

—–

Roland Dobbins

I find this startling.

.

SNAP Cards

Hello Jerry,

You asked: "Want to bet that they will be advertising them just before the election? "

Yes. If they are not advertising them already, making the bet moot.

Do you think it possible to find someone who will bet that they won’t?

Nothing attracts a US voter more effectively than the prospect of obtaining another citizen’s money without the use of (personal) force. So they will definitely be advertised.

Bob Ludwick

SNAP

Dr. Pournelle,

In the 1970s, I worked at a grocery store. I was running a cash register on the day after Valentine’s Day. All holiday candies, from marshmallow eggs to chocolate bunnies, were marked 50% off. A customer came up with a shopping cart full of (mostly chocolate, if I recall correctly) candy, nothing else. The total came to $49 and change. She gave me food stamps to pay for this purchase. Candy wasn’t then (and may not be now) on the list of ineligible items. That much money went a lot further in those days, but $49 is still a lot of candy. Back then, it was a cart heaped full.

I’m a bit surprised that the USDA doesn’t have chocolate candy bunny inspectors. Wait until the next Federal Register is published, I suppose.

jomath

Vote for Obama and Get Stuff from the Obama Stash.

Sounds like what you’ve been saying for years

“The physical sciences produce detailed and precise predictions, but social sciences do not.”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/how-reliable-are-the-social-sciences/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120518

CAPT Chris Christopher, USN (Ret.)

Indeed. I wrote The Voodoo Sciences for the CP Snow Memorial Lecture I gave decades ago…

Well, it gets more interesting:

<.>

A witness told Florida cops that he saw Trayvon Martin straddling George Zimmerman and pummeling the neighborhood watch captain “MMA style” shortly before the unarmed teen was felled by a gunshot to the chest.

</>

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/trayvon-martin/martin-zimmerman-witness-758903

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

It does seem that the evidence increases that the local authorities made the correct decision in the first place. One may draw one’s own conclusions from that.

Federal Concert Inspectors

Now we have concert inspectors!  The last concert I went to was in Orange County; they had several deputies dressed in olive drab uniforms.  I decided that I would not be attending a concert in the state of California again — ever.  Why bother going in public if you’re going to have some bureaucrat staring at you the whole time?  Well, now the federalis are ruining concerts nationwide:

<.>

Lawmakers are scrambling to save the summer concert season from federal agents poised to seize the instruments of rock and country stars because the wood used to make them may have been illegally harvested–and without their knowledge.

</>

http://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/washington-secrets/2012/05/feds-threaten-disrupt-summer-concerts/626621

Scrambling, eh?  I can just see them scrambling around to make my life easier.  *snorts*  The sarcasm is thicker than clam chowder…  Maybe next they’ll have inspectors to make sure everyone wipes their bottom properly after they poop?  Though, I am unsure as to how many bureaucrats can do this properly anyway…

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I have been following this bizarre case from the beginning, and I can’t say I understand it, or why the Congress doesn’t just put an end to it. Or the President for that matter. It’s not as if it were a matter of partisan politics. This is the Iron Law of Bureaucracy run riot.

Mail 724 Thursday, May 17, 2012

Victor Davis Hanson

I have a few things to say about Mr Hanson’s article

1) Slap a user tax on the some $10–15 billion that is estimated to leave the state in remittances to foreign countries, or at least through executive action make foreigncash <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/299975/can-california-be-fixed-victor-davis-hanson#> remittances grounds for disqualification from state public assistance <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/299975/can-california-be-fixed-victor-davis-hanson#> .

So, what prevents anyone from opening up a bank account in Nevada, transferring money there, and then to a foreign country? What prevents someone from taking cash money, deposit it in a foreign bank account?

What prevents someone from making out a 7-11 money order and mailing it to a foreign address?

4) Cap the amount one can receive from a California public pension, or multiple pensions at $100,000.

So, all of a sudden, pensioners are going to have their contracts abrogated?

If it is legal to do that, then can you do the same to Social Security?

The State enters into a legal agreement, even if an absurdly ridiculous one, then decides that even though we agreed to pay you this pension, and you agreed to work for us to earn it, we now decided it was a bad decision on our part and we are cutting back? Maybe he means no future pensions may be paid this way, but it is not clear.

9) Deport the 20,000 plus illegal-alien felons now in California state prisons to their countries of origin.

And President Obama will not sue the State of California over the matter?

The practicalities often get in the way, of course. Good points.

It’s not just California where the teachers are dumber than the students.

Tonight on Fox business they had a story where Florida is dumbing down their tests they give to 4th graders because the 4th graders failed a statewide test. The example they gave was one where students were asked what it is like to ride a camel and were asked to describe it. And they couldn’t.

The problem with teachers in this state and in other states is that they’re unionized and for the most part can’t be fired nor is there any accountability nor any apparent way to determine which teachers are doing a good job and which are doing a bad job.

When I worked in retail, I had to review all of the applications we received and it was incredible. The people who applied for cashier jobs could barely write, could not describe their last jobs, could not pass a basic math test ( addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. ) had spotty work records or none at all ) and in some cases when we hired people they could not grasp how to use a cash register to ring up a sale.

This is not to blame all teachers nor to call all of them incompetent. There are stupid graduates out there.

But I don’t see this kind of thing happening when I talk to children who go to private schools. They know history, math, etc and are intelligent as hell.

The liberal states would NEVER do it, but what we really need to do is scrap the entire lower education system and give the money to the parents with the codicil that they must send their kids to private schools.

I went to private schools and Catholic schools ( and got a dispensation because I was Jewish ) and I LEARNED the fundamentals of English, passed Algebra with an A after failing it twice in public schools and didn’t have gangs of students attacking me which I saw and had done to me in the schools of San Francisco.

Public teachers are in a guild which is even more exclusive than those of the middle ages. Those in their unions who are not liberals are forced to donate to political candidates they don’t approve of yet have NO power to say no.

As for California, the legislature continually passes new laws that spend more and more without cutting spending except for the poor who have no co-ordinated voice to object.

There is a ballot initiative to turn the legislature into a part time legislature which is what it used to be prior to 1966, but one Democratic legislator told me in his public forum that we need to keep it full time while he complained that he gets no pension.

As long as liberals keep voting for anti business politicians who also pass new and increasingly onerous regulations yet also pass laws that allow illegals to attend our colleges for free, its going to get worse.

I expect that when there’s rioting in the streets people might wake up, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

The only way to avoid this is to leave California but where does one go where liberalism doesn’t run rampant ?

———————-

As for the sun, we’ve had a quiet period and will probably see increased activity with increased solar flares. There’s a huge sunspot on the sun that has sent out a couple all ready. Even the psychics are saying that the sun is going to give us problems.

———————-

I don’t know from where you get your information on Afghanistan. Are we going to continue to prop up a corrupt government that the people in the countryside do not support.

I did find something curious in last months Leatherneck magazine ( a great magazine if you want to know what our Marines are really doing over there ). There’s a project in 5 cities to build air conditioned solar powered produce facilities so that Afghans can bring their produce to market and sell it without it wilting in 130 degree heat. The article showed a Marine SOLAR engineer ( Imagine that, I thought engineers just built bridges ) supervising the finishing of the installation of solar panels at the first solar powered facility built.

So we’re spending millions on solar powered a/c facilities over there, while wasting billions to prop up failed solar companies over here. Look at the prices of stocks of coal and solar companies today, the solar companies that Obama is pushing have dropped big time and he’s wasted $ 3 billion on subsidies to them.

How many homes and businesses could have gotten off the grid for that kind of money thus reducing pollution and our dependence on using coal ?

I read the alternative magazines and people are building their own solar panels for workshops on their properties, they aren’t waiting for government aid to do it.

Glad you’re feeling better from whatever the hell kind of crud you had.

Me, I just had 2 teeth pulled and my sinusitis is lessening. The idiot dentist told me you can’t get sinusitis from an infected tooth or abcessed gum. He couldn’t be more wrong.

best wishes,

george

george senda

I said when the Taliban fell that we should now get out, leaving behind the message that we’d be back if any part of Afghanistan was used to plot malice against the United States. Afghanistan makes nothing that we want, and while it has some minerals we could use, the Chinese are closer. WWe made our point when Kabul fell to the Northern Alliance and a few hundred SEALS and Rangers.

Prison costs in Louisiana vs. California

An article happened to mention that the private prisons in Louisiana cost $24.39 a day for each inmate. I looked up the number for California and it was $129.04 a day.

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_prison.html

http://www.ehow.com/about_5409377_average-cost-house-inmates-prison.html

California has about 170,000 inmates, so they could save 6.5 billion dollars a year by sending their prisoners to Louisiana.

Joel Upchurch

Is comment needed?

A whiff of humility.

Dr Pournelle

A whiff of humility. (As you have said, we seldom need educating, but we often need reminding.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtAuEYHaI1w7m2s

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

Just lower the standards

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/05/ap-army-leaders-mull-sending-women-ranger-school-051612/

"WASHINGTON — Army leaders have begun to study the prospect of sending

female soldiers to the service’s prestigious Ranger school — another

step in the effort to broaden opportunities for women in the military.

Gen. Raymond Odierno, Army chief of staff, said Wednesday that he’s

asked senior commanders to provide him with recommendations and a plan

this summer. And while he stressed that no decisions have been made,

he suggested that Ranger school may be a logical next step for women

as they move into more jobs closer to the combat lines.

“If we determine that we’re going to allow women to go in the infantry

and be successful, they are probably at some time going to have to go

through Ranger school,” Odierno told reporters. “If we decide to do

this, we want the women to be successful.”

Among the joys of diversity, women firefighters are now exempt from the requirement that they be able to carry a disabled comrade or fire victim down a flight of stairs. That’s in the LAFD which is still a pretty good outfit. There are regulations preventing men from playing in the women’s NBA, but I think they have none forbidding women to compete in the NBA.

‘Once a patient goes brain dead, and relatives sign his organ donation consent form, he will get the best medical care of his life.’

<http://discovermagazine.com/2012/may/10-the-beating-heart-donors/article_print>

—

Roland Dobbins

Lamar’s better idea?

> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304371504577405782138051376.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

>

"When I [Lamar Alexander] was governor of Tennessee in the early 1980s, I traveled to meet with President Ronald Reagan in the Oval Office and offer that Grand Swap: Medicaid for K-12 education. The federal government would take over 100% of Medicaid, the federal health-care program mainly for low-income Americans, and states would assume all responsibility for the nation’s 100,000 public schools. Reagan liked the idea, but it went nowhere."

> I do like this idea much better than his Internet sales tax scheme. Now maybe he and others can write and co-sponsor a bill to accomplish this. Said bill should eliminate the federal Department if Education as well. We will see…

Charles Brumbelow

Exploding Liquid Nitrogen: Where Does the Energy Come From? 

Jerry

LN2 + H2O = explosions, videorecorded:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/exploding-liquid-nitrogen-where-does-the-energy-come-from/

Ain’t science grand?

Ed

I found the video fascinating, and I confess I am having trouble understanding how you get the explosions, But it sure rained ducks…

Subj: Our tax dollars at work: stimulus-funded routers for West Virginia

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/16/speaking_in_tech_episode_8/

"At one library, the router cost more than the structure of the library itself."

We are _so_ Doomed!

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

Ha, want to hear a joke that isn’t really a joke but it is because we don’t live there?

<.>

The Board of Education decided in an emergency meeting Tuesday to lower the passing grade on the writing portion of Florida’s standardized test after preliminary results showed a drastic drop in student passing scores.

</>

http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Passing-score-lowered-for-FCAT-Writing-exam/-/1637132/13396234/-/k1ckc2z/-/index.html

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

‘The Board of Education decided in an emergency meeting Tuesday to lower the passing grade on the writing portion of Florida’s standardized test after preliminary results showed a drastic drop in student passing scores.’

<http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Passing-score-lowered-for-FCAT-Writing-exam/-/1637132/13396234/-/k1ckc2z/-/index.html>

They obviously should vote themselves a new student body.

—

Roland Dobbins

Subj: Harvard and MIT announce edX online learning initiative

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/05/mit-and-harvard-announce-edx/

>>EdX will release its learning platform as open-source software so it can be used by other universities and organizations that wish to host the platform themselves. Because the learning technology will be available as open-source software, other universities and individuals will be able to help edX improve and add features to the technology.<<

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

It is quite possible to get a good education at low cost; but you will have to pay for credentials.

Mail 723 Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Is intelligence a genetic mistake?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/07/intelligence_and_bad_gene_copies/print.html

A paper “finds that a gene dubbed SRGAP2 has, during cell divisions, been incompletely copied three times in human evolution: once around 3.4 million years ago, and again 2.4 and 1 million years ago. The gene in question is associated with cortical development.”

“The researchers also find the timing of the mutation suggestive (although not conclusive): one of the partially-copied genes seems to arrive in the human genome at around the same time as modern humans began to supplant their hominid predecessors.”

Ed

Carl Sagan used to speculate that one answer to Fermi’s Question – “Where are they?” – is that when a race gets intelligent enough to go to space it will have nuclear power and other such sources of energies of mass destruction – see McPhee’s The Curve of Binding Energy – and will be unable to control everyone who has access to weapons of mass destruction – and will decivilize and destroy itself. That’s why there are no aliens landing on the White House lawn.

I have always thought that humans developed intelligence because we were fortunate enough to have dogs as partners. They use their forebrains to smell intruding enemies, leaving us free to use ours to develop smarts.

Our lives are being sold in the name of political idealism — again:

<.>

69 members of the U.S. House of Representatives have sent Barack Obama a letter expressing their concern that a new international treaty currently being negotiated would essentially ban all "Buy American" laws.  This new treaty is known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and it is going to be one of the biggest "free trade" agreements in history.  Critics are referring to it as the "NAFTA of the Pacific", and it would likely cost the U.S. economy even more jobs than NAFTA did.  At the moment, the Trans-Pacific Partnership includes Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.  Barack Obama is pushing hard to get the United States into the TPP, and Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, Japan and South Korea are also reportedly interested in joining.  But quite a few members of Congress have heard that "Buy American" laws will essentially be banned under this agreement, and this has many of them very concerned.  You can read the entire letter that was sent to Obama right here.  Unfortunately, the leaders of both major political parties are overwhelmingly in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, so the objections of these 69 members of Congress are likely to fall on deaf ears.  The Trans-Pacific Partnership will accelerate the flow of American jobs out of this country, and meanwhile our politicians will continue to insist that they are doing everything that they can to "create jobs".

</>

http://www.infowars.com/is-obama-negotiating-a-treaty-that-would-essentially-ban-all-buy-american-laws/

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

The question of Free Trade vs. selected protectionism is complex and bitterly debated. We will probably reopen the debate here. Lincoln once famously said that if he bought a shirt from England, he got a shirt, possibly at a bargain, but the money left the country. If he bought it from New England he got the shirt, the money stayed home, and could be taxed. Obviously the situation is more complex than that, but Lincoln understood that. Unprotected industries seldom survive starup. On the other hand, over protected industries generally grow stale and inefficient – look at Detroit in the 1950’s. Or the history of the steel industry.

One thing seems clear to me: if you put in a lot of expensive regulations without some tariff, you cannot compete with those who don’t face the regulations – especially if they have bought your production technology.

Tax loophole costs billions – 13 WTHR Indianapolis

http://www.wthr.com/story/17798210/tax-loophole-costs-billions

4 Billion dollars in tax fraud. Worse than bunny inspectors.

How truly good. Hardly a surprise of course.

Markets for human flesh

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I believe you once stated that unbridled capitalism would lead to a market in human flesh. It appears you were not mistaken .

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57428878/south-korea-cracks-down-on-human-flesh-capsules-from-china/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140702/South-Korea-customs-officials-thousands-pills-filled-powdered-human-baby-flesh.html

Of course, thousands of babies are aborted or die soon after birth in the land of the one-child policy. I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone decided it was a shame to see all that material go to waste.

The irony that China is not, technically, a capitalist country is of course not lost on me.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

This is neither the first nor the last. Welcome to the future.

‘The world could not get enough of Mussolini until he teamed up with Hitler and the Nazis.’

<http://takimag.com/article/red_flags_and_a_red_rose_nicholas_farrell/print>

Roland Dobbins

Mussolini made the trains run on time and actually built much of the railroad system. He was a socialist. Generally socialism requires a command economy. Mussolini was admired by many including FDR and Huey Long (who understood him quite well). Argentina is still recovering from Peron who was a would be Mussolini – as is Chavez. John Stuart Mill once said that a society unable to govern itself must settle for a Charlemagne or an Akbar if they are fortunate enough to find one. Some would add Mussolini to that list, but what you are more likely to get is a Castro, Peron, Chavez…

McAfee founder raided in Belize by gang-busting police

My organization has had similar experiences in third world countries … but mostly in Africa.

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/04/mcafee_busted_belize/

McAfee founder raided in Belize by gang-busting police

Claims political persecution and dog murder

By Iain Thomson in San Francisco <http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2012/05/04/mcafee_busted_belize/>

Posted in Business <http://www.theregister.co.uk/business/> , 4th May 2012 18:31 GMT <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/04/>

John McAfee, retired founder of McAfee Antivirus, has had his Belize laboratory raided and his dog shot during a dawn raid by thirty officers of the local police Gang Suppression Unit.

At 6am on Monday morning the officers with a warrant stormed McAfee’s laboratory, which researches ways to use bacterial communication to fight disease. In a statement <http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/69892> [1] to local station Channel Five, McAfee said police smashed open unlocked doors, handcuffed the 12 employees and "murdered my dog in cold blood."

"This is clearly a military dictatorship where people are allowed to go and harass citizens based on rumor alone and treat them as if they are guilty before any evidence whatsoever is obtained," he said. "It is astonishing, it is beyond belief and I intend not to let this stand. I will not stand idly by to let this happen to me."

The police claimed that the facility had unlicensed firearms, and McAfee claims the correct documents were all handed over, but after the raid a single firearms certificate was missing and he and his staff were left handcuffed in the compound for 14 hours. It took copies of the original certificates and the intervention of the US embassy to get him released, but his passport was seized.

McAfee claims that he was approached by a local politician who asked for a donation to his campaign. He refused. McAfee has spent millions on local health and police programs, but has not wanted to get involved in politics, he said.

"I am an old man, I am sixty-six. I have a fair amount of money and not much to do. So I spend it where I think it will do good. And I don’t ever invest in politics," he said. "I don’t donate to any political party; I don’t have any political affiliations. I think politics is foolish for a private citizen like myself to engage in — the winning party, you never get your money and the losing party, you’re on the outs."

McAfee originally started researching the Brain virus as an intellectual exercise, before marketing code <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/01/07/in_computer_disease_there/> [2] to handle the first malware by pioneering shareware. He eventually started McAfee before selling it to Network Associates and retiring to study yoga, while still investing in technology and research.

Of course you must expect this sort of thing if you put your trust in princes. But who would have taught McAfee that?

With this announcement, I expect the AGW doomsayers will increase their strident rhetoric by several decibels.

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/04/greenland_the_glaciers_are_ok/

Greenland glaciers not set to cause disastrous sea level rises – study

Another blow for hippy doomsayers

By Lewis Page <http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2012/05/04/greenland_the_glaciers_are_ok/>

Posted in Science <http://www.theregister.co.uk/science/> , 4th May 2012 11:24 GMT <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/04/>

US government funded scientists have measured the speed of glaciers in Greenland as they move down to the sea over the past ten years, and discovered that – while the glaciers have speeded up somewhat – there’s no indication that this will mean major sea level rises.

"Observed acceleration indicates that sea level rise from Greenland may fall well below proposed upper bounds," write the boffins, who are based in Seattle and Ohio.

There’s a lot of interest in Greenland’s glaciers, as opposed to the rest of the Arctic ice cap, as they rest on solid land and thus – if they should all slide off – sea levels would rise seriously around the globe. Just a few years ago, the fearmongering hippies* at Greenpeace were bandying <http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/features/greenlandmelting170206/> [1] a wild figure of seven metres about, adding:

That’s bye-bye most of Bangladesh, Netherlands, Florida and would make London the new Atlantis.

In the real world, scientists had thought that – if the glaciers accelerated faster and faster as some models predicted – melting Greenland ice might cause 19 inches of sea-level rise by the year 2100. Other scenarios pointed to a lower figure, of four inches. Combined with melting from the Antarctic and mountain glaciers around the world – though many of these latter don’t appear to be melting at all <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/16/himalayan_karakoram_glaciers_gaining_ice/> [2], according to recent research – this could still mean greater rises than the normal 6-7 inches as seen in the 20th century. <clip>

Of course sea levels were much lower when much of the Northern Hemisphere was under kilometers of glacial ice. The Persian Gulf was marshland…

Fred, on education

Fred nails it again.

http://www.fredoneverything.net/Enstupidation.shtml

Al Perrella

Yes, I covered that in View, and thanks. https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=7235

NUIverse

"The amazing NUIverse astronomy application by Dr. David Brown puts the cosmos at your fingertips like never before."

http://www.flixxy.com/nuiverse-astronomy-application.htm

Quite something!

Andrew.

Sable has hunted gophers on that hill for all of her eight years, and today she caught one

So… did she offer to share with the leader of her "pack" ie- you?

John

I hadn’t thought about it, but yes. She was of course astonished that she caught it, but clearly she is programmed to kill them quickly without thinking about it. It’s not as if we have any shortage of gophers, although the rattlesnakes are keeping them a bit in check. The West Nile virus has far worse than decimated the crow population, and the crows haven’t thinned the latest rattlesnake hatch. Of course there is always an ecology. I’d rather have crows and more gophers than rattlesnakes, but that’s just my convenience. The Nature Conservancy bought up the hills to take them out of the development market, and the cuts in state budget keep the ranger population down, so we’re seeing natural development in the California scrub hills – and without fire. For a while. Of course eventually there will be a fire they can’t control.

Jedi Jerry –

I’m sure others have brought your attention to this: dinosaur flatulence may have warmed the Earth –

http://news.yahoo.com/gas-dinosaur-flatulence-may-warmed-earth-160634516.html

And here I thought beans and onions were Cenozoic.

Ed

Jerry

A better description of the dinosaur flatulence scenario:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/07/dinosaur_flatulence_warmed_earth/print.html

Ed

I remember many years ago being part of a briefing in which Possony told Reagan that much “greenhouse warming” was caused by “the flatulence of cows.” I have never actually worked the numbers on that. And how many dinosaurs were there? Surely not as many as people and cows now?

Climate Wars: The Heartland Billboard Fiasco

Long, long ago, on a billboard far, far away :

http://vvattsupwiththat.blogspot.com/2012/05/umpire-strikes-back.html

Russell Seitz

fake minorities in academia, who would have thought it?

http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/all-fall-down/?singlepage=true

Phil

I know a genealogist who is doing very well in constructing ancestries that include privileged minorities…