Category Archives: Mail

Mail 685 Tuesday, July 26, 2011

· On Peggy Noonan

· NASA Swat

· Khan Academy and Education

· Learning Calculus

Do not miss the item on the Khan Academy

Birth of Fire by Jerry Pournelle is now available for Nook as well as Amazon.

Government Job Security

"In the Los Angeles School District some 7 teachers have been dismissed for incompetence in a dozen years."

And in case you missed the story last week about Federal job security:

"The federal government fired 0.55% of its workers in the budget year that ended Sept. 30 — 11,668 employees in its 2.1 million workforce. Research shows that the private sector fires about 3% of workers annually for poor performance, says John Palguta, former research chief at the federal Merit Systems Protection Board, which handles federal firing disputes."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-07-18-fderal-job-security_n.htm

Karl

It’s pretty well the same in most school districts. The purpose of the education unions is to protect all the members. That should be no surprise: but it should also be the objective of the school boards and funding authorities to protect the children, not bad teachers. Teacher competence is difficult to rate except at the ends of the spectrum: that is, it’s never very hard to determine who are the 10% worst teachers, and it’s never very hard to determine who are the 10% best. It would be a lot cheaper to fire the worst 10% and divide their salaries among the 10% best. The schools would be more effective, and there would be fewer legal expenses. You’d think someone might try that.

WH: US in imminent threat of default

Jerry,

It’s clear to me, that such a pronouncement from the Whitehouse is nothing short of an out and out declaration of a joint-political suicide pact. This would be a perfect storm cover for our numerous enemies to give us a pearl harbor up the wazoo, especially with a POTUS who wants to take his football and go home. This, coupled with a speaker of the house who seems to be a poster child for mental illness. ( or should that be speaker of animals, ala’ RingWorld?)

We are long past reaping the harvest. In the words of Robert Heinlein, we are now going to "eat what is set before us" I always knew that, like ancient Rome, the USA was destined to follow that path, however, Rome took centuries, we are doing it in my short half-century lifetime.

Mark Bender

Perhaps it is not as bad as all that, but we are certainly moving in that direction. Do understand that Emperors are usually “friends of the people”, not old conservatives. On the other hand, Julius Caesar rather clearly had good intentions, perhaps to restructure the Republic which was still in dire straits. Impossible to know. Caesar was generous to his enemies. His friend and general Mark Anthony was not. And Augustus allowed Cicero to be on the Proscription List.

When the Republic collapses here, political enemies are more likely to be imprisoned for lieing to a Federal officer than to be executed. Or of course for tax fraud.

Ms Noonan’s opinion

Hello Jerry,

"She seems to believe that Obama is sincere but misguided. I hope she is right. "

Of course you HOPE that she is right. As do I.

However, I cannot possibly imagine that, after watching Obama and his handlers in action for more than two years, you BELIVE that she is right.

I realize that it is unnecessary to ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity and incompetence, but, given the facts as we know them, Mr. Occam and his razor pretty much jump competent malevolence to the head of the ‘What the heck are they doing?’ line.

Naturally malevolence only applies if you believe that turning our country into a Marxist/communist/socialist/fascist/tyrannical dictatorship (At least ONE of the preceding applies to EVERY policy of the Obama administration.), as the Obamunists have been doing 24/7/365 since the day they took office, is evidence of malevolence. Unfortunately, many, maybe a majority, of our fellow citizens do not. And therein lies the problem.

Bob Ludwick

I think you are insufficiently schooled in the undergraduate logic of the Liberals, most of whom genuinely think they are saving mankind. True believers seldom believe they are malicious.

Subject: Who the President pays

Jerry, you wrote, "Obama is making it clear that he prefers Bunny Inspectors to paying the Army." Of course he does. If President Obama is anything, he’s a politician, and he’s going to make sure his people get paid before anybody else. The Bunny Inspectors know that they owe their jobs him and his party, and they’ll vote Democrat come hell or high water to make sure they keep them. The Army, on the other hand, tends to be conservative and Republican. Few, if any of them are likely to vote for him under any circumstances. Of course, doing everything he can to help them, their families and the millions of vets in this country might buy him a few votes, but that’s not how he thinks. If they’re not part of his core constituency, he hasn’t the slightest interest in pleasing them, because he can’t see the long-term benefits.

Joe

The question is whether we can get to more elections, and who gets to vote in them.

NASA SWAT

Jerry,

I’m informed that the NASA SWAT Team at least has a verifiable valuable mission in terms of protecting shipments of hazardous cargo and protecting very high profile public events (e.g. Shuttle lau…well, perhaps, never mind now) from terrorist attack.

http://www.nasa.gov/returntoflight/main/swat_feature.html

I first learned about them in an article on their weaponry (hardly remarkable) in a gun magazine a couple of years ago.

Whether that mission is better contracted to other law enforcement or to private security, further deponent sayeth not.

Note the following on Google search:

"Department of the Interior SWAT" turns up numerous comments (mostly blog posts but some credible sources including washingtonpost.com and rushlimgaugh.com) about Interior Department SWAT teams supposedly deployed to the Gulf during the oil spill crisis.

"Department of Agriculture SWAT team" turns up references to such a team from the State government of Ohio, raiding unsanitary farm operations.

"Department of Homeland SWAT Team" turns up reference to DHS training of state and local SWAT teams. There are probably more.

Jim

==

NASA swat team

Of course they do. Kennedy started gearing up when the first shuttle arrived. I saw brands of sub-machine guns I had never seen before in the hands of our rent a cops. We hired so many sworn officers from around Florida, that the Sherifs started to complain. They were not organized into a an official SWAT team, but a large percentage of them were heavily armed. It’s the Iron Law in action that eventually they would come around to a SWAT team, probably one for each center. You can make a pretty good argument that Kennedy should have something like a SWAT or crisis response team, they were a pretty good terrorist target. HQ on the other hand, not so much.

Of course the joke was, they had all of those guns, but only one bullet. They had to send for the bullet.

Phil=

One might ask whether the Administrator of NASA or any of his deputies has any necessary training or even interest in Constitutional Law, the rights of citizens, or the problems of running a Federal law enforcement agency. We have Senatorial Hearings and Confirmation for a reason: someone should be held accountable. When we have a Federal Case of a Federal armed agent harrassing a citizen and exceeding authority, whose head should roll? I don’t want the Administrator of NASA to be an expert on law and order. I would prefer that he know something about rockets.

Federal law enforcement can generally be contracted to local authorities, who can use the experience and revenue; and if they are not competent there are other measures. As you say, it is the Iron Law in action.

Jerry, I think you should challenge your readers to identify all federal SWAT teams outside of DOD and DOJ.

John from Waterford

Putting a chimney on a Hummer

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htarm/articles/20110725.aspx

As a physicist and engineer, my first thought was "Wow, why didn’t I think of that?!" An inspired application of the principle of least resistance.

Steve Chu

As you say.

After Killings, Unease in Norway, Where Few Police Carry Guns – NYTimes.com

Jerry,

Gun Control really works!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/world/europe/26police.html

It is ironic that I’m rereading Half Past Human and The Godwhale by TJ Bass. The Norwegians remind me of Bass’ fictional Nebishes, four toes rather than five, four feet tall, and neutered.

Jim Crawford.

Next we will have a sharps committee to determine who can own kitchen knives?

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education

Jerry

How’s this for a switch – you listen to lectures at home, then do your homework with your teacher at school:

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1

So Bill Gates’ kids are learning math from this guy, which resulted in a $1.5M gran from Gates and a $2M grant from Google. It’s definitely fascinating.

Ed

= =

And more:

Calculus: an old time alternative, and a new one

Dear Dr. Pournelle:

You have recently written of the need of those American H.S. students learning science, engineering, etc., first to learn mathematics in general, and calculus in particular.

I have two recommendations which may perhaps be useful to filling that need, one an old method, and the other a new one.

The old method can be found here:

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

That wikipedia link gives one any number of public domain links to the original book by Silvanus P. Thompson. I believe you have referred to this estimable tome a time or two before. I have found it rather useful myself.

The second, newer, method can be found here:

http://www.khanacademy.org

This is a website developed by a financial wizard with multiple degrees from MIT, who started by putting up YouTube clips to explain Algebra to his cousin, and which has since grown to more than 2300 clips (ten to twenty minutes each), which explain mathematics from arithmetic to linear algebra, differential equations and calculus, and such sundry other matters as biology, physics, economics and finance. A fair appraisal of his website can be found here:

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

I hope this might be of some help to your readers. These have certainly helped me.

Very truly yours,

Bernard Brandt

Thanks. It is indeed useful. For this with high school graduates: bribe them to go through Calculus Made Easy. Five hundred dollars cash if you get through the book and do all the exercises. It’s a bit like using Mrs. Pournelle’s reading program before they start school to make certain they can read: the public schools may or may not teach them, but reading is too important to be left to strangers. The same is true of the ability to use Calculus for practical matters; it’s useful for the rest of your life. And the Khan Academy is well worth the attention of any student or parent.

And I am not sure what to make of this:

‘Khan’s programmer, Ben Kamens, has heard from teachers who’ve seen Khan Academy presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could modify it “to stop students from becoming this advanced.”’

<http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/07/ff_khan/all/1>

—

Roland Dobbins

In any event it is worth your attention.

"By showing that single photons cannot travel faster than the speed of light, our results bring a closure to the debate on the true speed of information carried by a single photon."

<http://news.discovery.com/space/time-travel-impossible-photon-110724.html>

—–

Roland Dobbins

Niven among others points out that if there is time travel, at some point someone will use time travel to travel back and uninvent it, so there won’t be time travel. And Heinlein had much fun with “All You Zombies”, as did David Gerrold.

‘Some believe that it was built as a dwelling for helpful goblins.’

<http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,druck-775348,00.html>

——

Roland Dobbins

Or perhaps the Dawn Elves…

Mail 684 Thursday, July 21, 2011

· News on climate and models

· Police State ability or counter terrorism capability?

· Dengue Fever?

· A Chinese scam: alert Steve Jobs

· We got prizes?

· Pluto Has Another Moon

There is a variety of mail on matters related to climate modeling and global warming’

Enormous Underwater Volcanoes Discovered Near Antarctica

Jerry: You’ve been suggesting that underwater volcanoes might have some effect in the warming of the earth, if there is any way to measure the warming of the earh.

Enormous Underwater Volcanoes Discovered Near Antarctica <http://shar.es/HyJU5>

Source: popularmechanics.com

A British expedition finds more than a dozen underwater volcanoes, some of which are two miles high, near Antarctica. The remote area is home to hydrothermal vents and unusual, previously unknown animal species. <http://shar.es/HyJU5>

Russ

==

Earths Internal Heat

I have read on your website about the amount of heat coming from the interior of the earth. A recent post on Watts Up With This speaks to this subject: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/21/20-trillion-watts-is-not-even-trenberths-missing-heat/#more-43819

Take care

Don

Don Horne

==

Heat from the Earth

Dr. Pournelle,

As usual, I much enjoy your blog. I have seen you wonder aloud how much heat comes from volcanoes under the oceans. This doesn’t quite address that problem, but gives a more general answer.

Adrian Ashfield

"The researchers found the decay of radioactive isotopes uranium-238 and thorium-232 together contributed 20 trillion watts to the amount of heat Earth radiates into space, about six times as much power as the United States consumes. U.S. power consumption in 2005 averaged about 3.34 trillion watts.

As huge as this value is, it only represents about half of the total heat leaving the planet. The researchers suggest the remainder of the heat comes from the cooling of the Earth since its birth."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43786480/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Adrian Ashfield

==

And Dr. Spencer believes the evidence is overwhelming that the AGW theory is not credible:

http://www.drroyspencer.com/

I remain concerned about unrestricted increases in the amounts of CO2; enough so that I strongly recommend research and development into ways to remove it, probably by biological means, if the need becomes great. I don’t like open end experiments. That does not mean that we ought to bankrupt the United States reducing our CO2 emissions because even if ours were driven to zero the atmospheric CO2 would continue to increase as China and India develop. If CO2 is a threat, it will have to be dealt with, but Kyoto and carbon taxes and all that won’t do it; and without wealth we won’t be able to do anything else either.

Police State News

Dozens of police departments nationwide are gearing up to use a tech company’s already controversial iris- and facial-scanning device that slides over an iPhone and helps identify a person or track criminal suspects. The so-called "biometric" technology, which seems to take a page from TV shows like "MI-5" or "CSI," could improve speed and accuracy in some routine police work in the field. However, its use has set off alarms with some who are concerned about possible civil liberties and privacy issues. The smartphone-based scanner, named Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, is made by BI2 Technologies in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and can be deployed by officers out on the beat or back at the station.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/20/us-crime-identification-iris-idUSTRE76J4A120110720

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

I am a conservative, not an anarchist. I do not always fear when law enforcement gains new technical abilities. I don’t worry about that as much as I do about our inability to recognize a threat when we see one.

Our northern neighbor…

http://takimag.com/article/menstruating_at_the_mosqueteria/print

"As they might say on The Simpsons, the Toronto District School Board turned into the Taliban so slowly, I hardly noticed."

‘…even the Toronto District School Board didn’t notice, or else it would have been forced to charge itself with violating its own policy against “gender-based discrimination.” <http://www.tdsb.on.ca/_site/viewitem.asp?siteid=15&menuid=5016&pageid=4375> ‘

"Who are the appointed “menstruation inspectors”? The teachers? The imams? The boys who’d formerly played hooky?"

"Belligerent Muslims come as no surprise. It’s their infidel enablers and defenders that have me confused (again). "

Charles Brumbelow

The question is, can the West win a cultural war? Do we have enough faith in our own culture even to recognize that we may be in danger?

This is bad.  This mosquito fits the profiles for a dengue fever mosquito — based on my memory of places I went that had that disease.

  The Asian Tiger mosquito made its way as far West as Arizona and as far north as New York!

<.>

The Asian tiger mosquito, named for its distinctive black-and-white striped body, is a relatively new species to the U.S. that is more vicious, harder to kill and, unlike most native mosquitoes, bites during the daytime. It also prefers large cities over rural or marshy areas—thus earning the nickname among entomologists as "the urban mosquito."

</>

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303795304576454312427933764.html

The dengue fever mosquitoes bite in the daytime and these mosquitoes are more common in urban environments or places where many people gather on certain islands.

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

 

‘ . . . the set-up of the stores was so convincing that the employees themselves seemed to believe they worked for Apple.’

<http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Entire-Apple-stores-being-apf-403861469.html?x=0&.v=10>

Roland Dobbins

An amazing story, actually.

Globalization for you.

http://birdabroad.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/are-you-listening-steve-jobs/

Being the curious types that we are, we struck up some conversation with these salespeople who, hand to God, all genuinely think they work for Apple. I tried to imagine the training that they went to when they were hired, in which they were pitched some big speech about how they were working for this innovative, global company – when really they’re just filling the pockets of some shyster living in a prefab mansion outside the city by standing around a fake store disinterestedly selling what may or may not be actual Apple products that fell off the back of a truck somewhere.

Prizes…we got prizes…
Importance: High

I was reminded of your exposition of “an instant space program” stimulated by prizes in your recent interview with Glenn Reynolds when I read the story below. Apparently prizes for technology development are good for shit…so why not space travel? Hmmm…maybe that is not a compelling argument…on the other hand, this will likely fertilize many Windows jokes…

Chris Christopher

 

BILL GATES SEEKS TO REINVENT THE TOILET

By Zoe Fox

Mashable

July 19, 2011

http://mashable.com/2011/07/19/bill-gates-reinvent-toilet/

The man who revolutionized the personal computer is putting his efforts — and foundation — to revolutionizing toilets. Microsoft founder Bill Gates said he will dedicate $42 million towards reinventing the toilet.

Water hygiene and safe waste disposal are two of the biggest causes of infant mortality in the developing countries. Gates and his foundation hope to create inexpensive toilets to vastly improve the living conditions of millions of people. It may seem like a silly subject but it’s one that could save lives around the world.

“No innovation in the past 200 years has done more to save lives and improve health than the sanitation revolution triggered by invention of the toilet,” said Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the president of the Global Development Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. “But it did not go far enough. It only reached one-third of the world. What we need are new approaches. New ideas.”

The initiative was launched by Burwell on Tuesday in Kigali, Rwanda.

Part of the foundation’s plan is the Reinventing the Toilet Challenge http://nhne-pulse.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/wsh-reinvent-the-toilet-challenge.pdf which funds research at eight universities around the world to develop a toilet that will turn waste into energy, clean water or nutrients. The solution must be a stand-alone unit without piped-in water, a sewer connection or outside electricity. The foundation partnered with USAID to fix water sanitation as part of the UN’s 2015 Millennium Development Goals.

Today, 40% of the world’s population does not have access to flush toilets. One billion people defecate in the open. Each year, 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhea, many of which are preventable with improved sanitation.

The foundation is prioritizing convenience and affordability in the solutions it considers. The toilets must be easy to install and cost no more than $0.05 a day to maintain.

Parkes Radio Telescope, Shuttle & ISS

Jerry,

Today’s APOD has the Australian Parkes radio telescope with Atlantis and ISS streaking overhead. The telescope was featured in the delightful "little" film, "The Dish."

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

<http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110721.html>

"The Parkes 64 meter radio telescope is known for its contribution to human spaceflight, famously supplying television images from the Moon to denizens of planet Earth during Apollo 11. The enormous, steerable, single dish looms in the foreground of this early evening skyscape. Above it, the starry skies of New South Wales, Australia include familiar southerly constellations Vela, Puppis, and Hydra along with a sight that will never be seen again. Still glinting in sunlight and streaking right to left just below the radio telescope’s focus cabin, the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis has just undocked with the International Space Station for the final time. The space station itself follows arcing from the lower right corner of the frame, about two minutes behind Atlantis in low Earth orbit…"

3d

Dr. Pournelle,

Jay Leno has been using a 3d printer for two years to fabricate parts for collector cars–the finished copy

goes to a machinist, who then can have an exact model while machining the new part.

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/search/?tag=3D printer

jomath

Hubble Spies Another Moon of Pluto

Jerry,

I just saw this release on the New Horizons website. Note the PI for New Horizons calls Pluto a planet–right on! To me Pluto will always be a planet; I remain a fuddy-duddy.

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

Headline on New Horizons website:

<http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/20110720.php>

"Fourth Moon Adds to Pluto’s Appeal

July 20, 2011

"Could this planet get any more interesting?" says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder Colo. "We already know that when New Horizons provides the first close-up look at Pluto in July 2015, we’ll see planetary wonders we never could have expected. Yet this discovery gives us another hint of what awaits us in the Pluto system, and we’re already thinking about how we want to study this new moon with New Horizons. What a bonus for planetary science and for New Horizons!"

A Hubble Space Telescope observing team led by Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif., and Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park, detected the new moon in five sets of Hubble Space Telescope images taken over the past two months. Astronomers are still trying to better peg orbital details on the object, designated "S/2011 P1" or "P4" until it receives a permanent name. They’ve put its diameter at between 8 and 21 miles (13 to 34 kilometers) and estimate that it travels on a circular, equatorial orbit nearly 37,000 miles (about 59,000 kilometers) from Pluto – placing the new moon between the orbits of the moons Nix and Hydra….

In a Box Offset:

…P4 is the smallest moon discovered around Pluto. By comparison, Charon, Pluto’s largest moon, is 648 miles (1,024 kilometers) across, and the other moons, Nix and Hydra, are in the range of 20 to 70 miles in diameter (32 to 113 kilometers). On the anniversary of the first landing of men on our moon, New Horizons mission team scientists have announced the discovery of a fourth moon around Pluto…

P4 on Jun 28, 2011 & July 3, 2011:

<http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/news_center/news/pictures/20110720_01_lg.jpg>

Pluto is a planet. Clyde Tombaugh told me so personally.

Mail 683 Tuesday, July 19, 2011

· 3D Printers

· Deficit Debates

·

3D Printers

Jerry,

We bought a 3D printer from Z-Corp about 5 years ago ($70,000) and it does make the models. The problem we have with the printer is that if we make scaled models of our structures the models break before we can remove the powder. Unless they have improved the binder I don’t see how it’s possible to reach into the powder and remove the wrench without breaking the model. The binder is used to hold the powder together then the extra powder is removed an super glue or epoxy is applied. If you want, I can send some pictures of the models we have made, it’s no hoax.

Regards,

Curtis Owens

I never seriously thought it was a hoax or that it would not prove to be important. The news to me is how far along we are already.

= =

3d printing

They are called Fabers. One of my USB core customers is Stratasys which makes the competing product to the one on the you tube video. Both companies have made products for several years in the 100K class price range. Both companies are pushing the price point down. We will all have one on our desk sooner rather than later. A friend of mine makes high end telescope mounts. His newest model was completely designed in Solid Works, a 3D cad program for mechanical design. He designed and simulated the mount before the first piece of metal was cut. He did not use a faber, but he could have used one to "print" his design and have a working model. The model, of course, would not have been made of metal and would not have been suitable as a heavy telescope mount, but he could have printed an accurate model that would have moved.

Phil

= = =

Dentistry and 3D Printing

My dentist has a system (for a couple of years now) that works like this:

For crowns (I have had four done this way) he uses a scanner to map the surface contours of your existing tooth. This is done with some datums taken for use later. He then manually, and in about 10 minutes, touches up the contour scan to eliminate/check for spurious artifacts.

The next step is to mill down the tooth to prepare for the crown. The scanner is synched to the existing datums and maps the recontoured tooth.

The software then mates the inner and outer contours to produce a 3D model of the crown. A CNC control file is then generated, which is fed to a small machining center. The machining center, about 1 ft by 1 ft by two feet in size, has , I think, about 7 degrees of freedom and uses small ball end cutting tools to mill out the crown from a block of green ceramic which is premounted on a spindle. The machine has two cutting spindles and cuts from two sides at once. Fascinating to watch! When finished the crown is separated from it’s mount and fired to proper hardness in a small oven. Elapsed time is about 50 minutes for the machining and firing.

In my case, two crowns fitted and finished, with excellent matching against the mating teeth, in about 4 hours. The machines and software, all PC based, are about $450,000 as a complete system. Charge for the crowns is about $1600 each. The dentist can run about 4 patients a day with proper staging of the appointments, so it is a money maker with good patient results.

Best regards,

John Witt

And the conclusion is that we are closer to Minsky’s ‘Thingmaker” than ever we thought.

Deficits History

Jerry,

RE historic deficit sizes, the chart at http://logisticsmonster.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/deficitgraph.jpg is worth a look – it gives deficits by year through 2010, in both dollars and as a percent of GDP.

That "Largest Deficit In History" (less than a third of current levels) under Bush was in 2004. Interestingly, and little-mentioned, deficits dropped steadily after that through 2007.

Things started heading skyward again in 2008, allowing Dems to say "this started under Bush", but I expect the key factor there was actually Pelosi-Reid taking over the Congress in 2007. Congress writes the checks, Presidents only cash them. FY’08 was the Dem Congress’s first budget, and it shows. Then in ’09 we added Obama in the White House asking for a stimulus, and the era of trillion-dollar deficits had arrived.

My take is, Bush gets more blame than he deserves, and going along with this only helps the Dems obfuscate their responsibility for the current mess. Which in turn only encourages them in their current campaign to extend the mess till after the election next year.

Henry

I do not see this as a blame fixing thing. I have no brief for the Country Club Republicans with their crazy spending spree, and the fact that it wasn’t as bad as it could be, and that the Left predictably spent even more isn’t as important as that nothing seems to be halting the trend. Either you believe in liberty – which is to say that government isn’t the optimum means of allocating investment – or you don’t. More and more don’t. The argument that government ought to take any money lying around to spend as government wants, and that this is ‘fair’ so long as it soaks ‘the rich’ seems to be gathering strength.

I don’t want to fix blame, I want freedom back. Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

= = =

factcheck.org

I offer this:

http://factcheck.org/2011/07/fiscal-factcheck/

“Washington’s spending has recently been higher as a percentage of the nation’s economic output than at any time since World War II. But by the same measure, Washington’s revenues are the lowest in more than 60 years.

“So does the U.S. have "a spending problem," as Republicans keep repeating in the current debate over how to reduce the nation’s record deficits? Or is the problem that taxes are not high enough? Those questions frame a long-running partisan debate, and as usual we won’t offer an opinion one way or the other. But for those seeking their own answers, we can offer some fiscal history and factual context.” <snip>

Mark

The argument is essentially that revenue as a percentage of GDP is very low, and more taxes are fair: we can afford all this spending, we just need to raise taxes in order to pay for it.

Obviously I don’t believe that, but the argument is made. As for me, I want to eliminate the bunny inspectors, and a great deal of other stuff that the government is doing for us. I want to restore the Republic of de Tocqueville in which citizens and associations did most of the civic functions, not government. Give me liberty…

= = =

The Debt Ceiling debate in US

Hi Jerry

I came across this blog recently and have found the content riveting. From the global warming climate debate, to war in the Middle East and central Asia, to the domestic concerns of the USA. As a Canadian living close to the border, local news from New York often times feels like local news just down the block from Oakville where I hale from (just west of Toronto).

Here is my take 2 cents for what it is worth, as an outside observer. Obama is well on his way to herding the GOP elephant into another political box, in which it will be perceived by the independent vote — which seems to control all Presidential elections, but not the Congressional majorities — as close to treasonous.

History operates in a long arc, and as you point out on your site often, in the greater sceme of things this too may pass.

But as a fiscal conservative what is happening in the US makes one apprehensive. That a great nation and the last defender of free market principles is being hurt in the process only renders the tragedy more painful.

Gold at $1600 an ounce may be a commentary on the behaviour of the Fed; but you can’t eat the stuff. One must take with a grain of salt any politician who says we have a plan to balance the budget in five years. What can one say about politicians who have no plan to ever balance the budget?

My best to you….

Sam Mattina

They show no means for getting rid of the bunny inspectors, either. And it’s a joke that the shovels weren’t as ready as we supposed. Let’s go borrow more mone. We are only borrowing $180,000,000 an hour now…

The article puts an important point most clearly

Being poor in America is NOT being homeless on the street. It’s just a whole lot better than being poor in Brazil or most any other country.

63.7% of our "poor" have cable service. 38.2% have computers. 48.6% have coffee makers.

Being poor isn’t what it used to be http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/07/being-poor-isnt-what-it-used-be

If I recall correctly the official definition of "poor" in America is the bottom X% of the nation’s incomes set as a dollar figure. If it is set as a percentage of all incomes you can never spend you way into being a nation with nobody in poverty. You’ll always have X% poor. So poor that 78.3% have air conditioners. 32.2% have 3 or more TVs.

Click through to http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/07/what-is-poverty to see a full report.

This is nonsense. We need to set the bar at say "air conditioning" rather than at jacuzzi (0.6%). They can bloody well do their own dishes (25%).

{^_^}

I would go further. While no one should be starving, poverty is primarily a local problem, and is best left to civic pride and charity. It is not charity to send the public hangman to collect money to give to the poor. We can institutionalize a safety net, but what we are building is not a net.

Mail 684 Monday, July 18, 2011

· 3D Printer

· The bunny story

· Borders

·

3D Printer

Some of you have seen this, and others haven’t.

Here’s one of the futures of computing. Very cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw

We saw prototypes at CES this year. Remarkable! Really cool

On bunnies

Dear Dr. Pournelle:

Here’s some more bunny-related idiocy for you to contemplate.

http://biggovernment.com/bmccarty/2011/05/20/family-facing-4-million-in-fines-for-selling-bunnies/

Regards,

Tim Scott=

Actually we have seen this story before but it does no harm to be reminded of it. The program has to cost millions of dollars a year in borrowed money, yet there appears to be no off switch. There just isn’t any way to get rid of silliness like this. It goes on and on, at millions a year, and you can’t stop it.

Birth Certificate Forgery

You’ve probably heard this about five hundred times by now, but they’re referring to the Dan Rather "Texas ANG Memo" scandal, dubbed "Rathergate".

The "birth certificate variable type" is much less convincing. It depends on quibbling over whether a blotchy reproduction of a typed character on a 40-year-old piece of paper is .002" bigger than another.

You say "the people who handled this could have handled it better", but this is like the "9/11 Truth" movement. It doesn’t matter how well you handle it, because the people who want the certificate to be fake will just find other ways to convince themselves it’s fake.

—

Mike T. Powers

It’s a distraction. If that turns out to be a forgery and can be shown to be one, it says a lot about the competence of the forgers, but not much about the birthplace of Barrack Hussein Obama.

Borders left the business:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303661904576454353768550280.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

First the chains took over the independent book stores, then the big stores drove the chains out of the malls. Now the chains devour each other. The distributors went from a couple of hundred to about 3. The publishing business implodes and concentrates. We watch in fascination or horror. Or both.

Surveillance Grid Goes Green

It took Americans 30 years to figure out that Don King rigs his

fights. How long before they figure this con out?

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/07/18/city-testing-new-technology-aimed-at-reducing-traffic-congestion/

——–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Probably not a lot longer.

Too Big to Fail

"Any enterprise that is too big to fail should be too big to be allowed to exist."

And at what point does the US government become "too big to fail"?

Karl

Clever

CERN ‘gags’ physicists in cosmic ray climate experiment

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/18/cern_cosmic_ray_gag/

CERN ‘gags’ physicists in cosmic ray climate experiment

What do these results mean? Not allowed to tell you

The chief of the world’s leading physics lab at CERN in Geneva has prohibited scientists from drawing conclusions from a major experiment.

= = =

Slide show of Bert Rutan’s designs

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/18/rutan_bipod/

Cool!

Money we don’t need

Hello Jerry,

Well, it is official: "All your money and stuff are belong to us!".

The ‘us’ in question being the government. Of course we will be

allowed to keep what we ‘need’, but THEY will be the self-appointed

arbiters of that need.

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/13/morning-bell-obama-aims-for-the-money-you-dont-need/

Bob Ludwick

The theory is that government will spend any surplus funds better than those who have the money, and after all, those who have it probably don’t deserve it. I vaguely remember thinking that way when I was an undergraduate. Lyndon Johnson spoke of the haves and how they had to give up some for the have nots who need it so much. It is standard undergraduate socialism. Most undergraduates grew out of it in my time. Not so much now.