Mixed bag during a strenuous week

Mail 701 Wednesday, November 16, 2011

It has been a ghastly week, but it is stabilizing. Here is a mixed bag of mail worth your attention. I’ll be back up to speed shortly.

PLEASE DO NOT put carriage returns or line feeds at the ends of sentences. Best for me is plaintext with CR’s at the ends of paragraphs.  I try to reformat to make things look better, but it’s very late, I am tired, and some of the mail looked good in Word but formatted awful in LiveWriter. I sure miss FrontPage.

 

First let us deal with the browser situation.

Browsers

Jerry,

I’d noticed all the problems you’re having with FireFox. I’ve used multiple browsers over the last several years (IE, FireFox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Dolphin, etc). On my PC I’ve actually recently made the switch almost completely over to Chrome. I find it far more stable than IE and FireFox. Opera and Safari have their own strange usability/stability issues. Of course, it’s all about comfort level of course.

Erik

As most readers know, I installed Firefox 8 upgrade, and the result was quite horrid. Actually over a few hours things got better, some because I learned how to tame the beast – you must use the alt key as a toggle to get the tool bar that has file and view and tools and help – and you must always let Firefox load all its open tabs before you try to do anything with it. That includes trying to read one of the tabs if it requires scrolling. It includes clicking a link that would normally open a tab. While Firefox 8 is loading it don’t want to be disturbed nohow. After that it seems to work quite well.

Slavery for the unemployed?

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I thought you might appreciate this story in the Guardian.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/nov/16/young-jobseekers-work-pay-unemployment

In yet another example of good intentions gone astray, someone hit on the idea of putting unemployed people to work in unpaid positions, the better to give them experience for real jobs.

The problem, of course, is that if they start getting paid, they’re no longer unemployed. So the benefits get cut off.

Result: They are compelled to work 30 hours a week for benefits but no pay.

Check me on this, but isn’t that the literal definition of slavery? When you give people basics such as food, shelter, etc. but deny them an actual salary and any economic opportunity?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

There is also debt slavery. In America we call it the middle class.

Don’t get old, poor and lonely – in the Netherlands

Dr. Pournelle –

I really don’t understand the thinking. Considering modern European history, you’d think this would be one of the last things that would be on the social docket.

Informed consent in Netherlands: euthanasia

http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/9826

"A 64-year-old Dutch woman with dementia was euthanased earlier in March, it has been revealed. According to the Dutch daily De Volkskrant, it was the first time that a person in an advanced stage of dementia had been euthanased."

"As in other countries, the Netherlands is facing a dementia tsunami. It is estimated that 500,000 people will have dementia in 2050 [~ 3.2% of estimated 2050 pop. of 15,845,000]. The death of this unnamed woman probably foreshadows many more."

Netherlands looks to expand euthanasia grounds to include lonely, poor http://uk.news.yahoo.com/netherlands-looks-expand-euthanasia-grounds-lonely-poor-190804973.html

"… the Netherlands is caught up in its own controversy over a proposal from the Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) to expand the definition of who may qualify for assisted suicide — including for the first time such nonmedical factors as loneliness and financial struggles."

"Prior to publishing the study results, the KNMG polled its members online. More than 68 percent agreed with the statement that doctors should be “permitted to factor in vulnerability, loss of function, confinement to bed, loneliness, humiliation and loss of dignity” when determining whether a patient is a good candidate for euthanasia."

And then there’s this from last summer:

Organs of those killed by euthanasia being used (14 Jun 2011) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/belgium/8572849/Organs-of-those-killed-by-euthanasia-being-used.html

"The paper showed that about 23.5 per cent of lung transplant donors in Belgium and 2.8 per cent of heart transplant donors are killed by euthanasia. "

Apparently, organs from the euthanized are better for transplantation than those from accident victims.

It seems a very slippery slope.

Pieter

And it has always been predictable. Once you can get rid of people because they are inconvenient, there is no obvious limit on the number of people you can discover to be inconvenient or top have a bad quality of life, or who’d be better dead.

sexual harassment

The other night my wife was watching one of those crime dramas on TV and I was half watching. You know the type, investigators in the field talking to an eccentric female computer whiz back at headquarters who almost instantly gets them the information they need to solve the case. Anyway, there is friendly banter between the woman and the cops, with mild sexual innuendo, presented as normal and acceptable; both characters are smiling… the exact same kind of behavior that gets political candidates and other public figures in big trouble for sexual harassment nowadays when a woman remembers it years later. The same media that shows it as OK in fiction reports it with disdain if not horror on the news.

DH, Connecticut

Dana Hague

I am always suspicious of accusations that don’t come out until years later. As for instance with Mr. Justice Thomas who was unanimously approved as a court of appeals judge. But that’s another story, and one we needn’t get into.

Energy from Orbit News Release

Hi Jerry,

I thought you might like to see that some mainstream types are finally taking this seriously.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-iaa-power-orbit.html

Thanks for all you do!

—

E.C. "Stan" Field

Space based solar power

Hello Jerry,

Looks like I was a bit premature in writing off SSP. Check this out:

http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Solar-Energy/Energy-of-the-Future-Spaced-Based-Solar-Stations.html 

In fact, since it is due to start supplying much of the world’s

energy requirements by 2030 and we are expected to be the sponsors,

we should be the beneficiaries of the early systems, certainly much

earlier than 2030. Maybe I’ll get to use electricity from space to

cook my words, prior to eating them.

Some interesting excerpts:

"A solar power station in space measuring several kilometres in

length may sound like something from a science fiction film, but the

reality is that this idea could well be operational and supplying

much of the worlds energy requirements within less than 20 years.

Space based solar power stations are not a new idea, in fact they

have been researched since the 1970’s."

and

"According to Reuters, the paper provides little precise detail on

how the technology could be deployed, nor on the estimated cost of

new solar power stations."

Of course, the really interesting part comes later in the story:

"The report recommends that governments help subsidize private sector

firms to fund further research into the technology, arguing that the

risks associated with such new technology are too great for private

firms to undertake prototype projects on their own.

According to businessgreen.com the US National Space Society is

scheduled to hold a news conference in Washington later today to

promote the new report."

Lets see. Solaren. Solyndra. VERY expensive up front, but HUGE

payoff expected. Government subsidies required.

Naaahhhh, GOTTA be a coincidence. Or the output of a focus group

somewhere that says that if you have a company named ‘Solxxxxx’ it is

good for at LEAST a $5e8 in unaccountable government subsidies. If

there are a few FOB’s on the board, that is.

And, just curious, wonder how you go about building an inflatable 1

km mylar concentrating mirror with the surface tolerance and

mechanical stability required for it to ACT as a concentrating

mirror? And how do you maintain that tolerance and stability while

slewing the mirror to track the sun and compensating for the ‘solar

sail’ thrust produced by the reflected beam? And how do you get the

solar power produced by the solar array ((1 GW insolation)*(overall

conversion efficiency of insolation to downlink beam)) from GEO to

the power grid on the earth? And what fraction of the energy

departing GEO in the downlink beam appears on the grid as 60 Hz (or

for the rest of the world, 50 Hz) power? And is the system self-

assembling or does it require an installation team in spacesuits,

working outside in GEO? Is the overall MTBF so good that an on site

O&M team and an ongoing earth/GEO supply line is not required?

Oh well, fortunately, I am not an engineer so I don’t have to worry

about such things. I can just let the real engineers handle them

while I sit back and, over the next 20 years or so (if I am still,

very optimistically, here), watch those nasty old CO2 belching coal,

oil, and gas plants being taken off line as they are replaced by

clean, infinite solar power.

Can’t wait.

Bob Ludwick

Solar power satellites will come, but for the moment we have natural gas. Just as we no longer have forests of burnable wood… Solar power does require a spacefaring nation to sustain it.

Packing & the Friendly Skies

This is a very interesting talk (from a security conference, no less) on

how to travel in a way that neither the airline nor the TSA can get

access to your luggage.

The trick: use the TSA’s own rules against them and pack a

pistol – even a cheap starter’s pistol, in your luggage.

(a starters pistol is less likely to cause problems while travelling to

the more unfree US states (or internationally), but is still considered

a firearm for TSA purposes).

Carrying a handgun or long gun requires a hard sided lockable

container…

Of course, you’ve cleverly sized the container so that your valuable

stuff (digital toys, external hard drive, network stuff etc) rides along

with the gun.

http://deviating.net/firearms/packing/  The first link is the video.

Worth watching and recommended:

There’s another video out there on youtube that shows how a zipper-

closure suitcase / softcase can be opened with nothing more than a

Bic pen, even if the zipper pulls are locked together, and then closed

back up so you’ll never know it was opened, except your stuff is missing.

And with no visible damage you have a very weak claim.

Ever since I first saw this I’ve been watching the local industrial / military

surplus stores for a military case that is shown in the video, or even a

hardshell suitcase sized Pelican (or similar) case.

Google "Pelican 1560 case" to get an idea….

The talk is particularly informative and rather entertaining – a quite

obvious pleasure in using "The Man’s" rules to your advantage.

It’s a little long but excellent info, I especially like the tip

about carrying

a prepaid mailing envelope for unexpected things. The prepay won’t

expire (unless the rates change).

Language warning – there’s the usual sort of mild profanity commonly

heard at the less "corporate" security conferences.

Mike

Crony Capitalism Undermining the Space Program

Jerry,

Mr. Simberg has an interesting article in the Weekly Standard.

Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

<http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/blogs/how-crony-capitalism-undermines-space-program_608068.html>

"How Crony Capitalism is Undermining the Space Program

Rand Simberg

November 14, 2011 1:27 PM

…. A little over a year ago, Congress approved a NASA authorization bill that mandated the agency to spend billions in taxpayer dollars over the next few years on a congressionally specified giant rocket with no defined mission and no budgets with which to build payloads for it.

This boondoggle, called the Space Launch System (SLS), is based on hardware derived from the now-obsolete Space Shuttle program. It is expected to have a minimum of $18 billion in development costs with a first flight six years from now. However, based on history, most expect that schedule to slip and the price tag to increase far above that by the time it is operational over a decade from now. NASA already acknowledges that it will only fly once every year or two, which means that each flight will cost billions.

The Space Launch System is supported primarily by Senators Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and has garnered support from others, such as Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, for whom the project promises jobs in their respective states-at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and solid motor manufacturer ATK in Utah. Thus, some cynics have taken the acronym SLS to really mean "Senate Launch System." Conveniently, it happens that some of the major campaign contributors to those senators are contractors who will benefit from the no-bid, sole-source, cost-plus, fixed-fee contracts for the system-under which they get paid for time and materials, not results. Note that, unlike Solyndra and other loan-guarantee programs, there is no chance of taxpayers ever getting their money back…."

Subject: If you get excited about maps, you will probably find this funny:

http://www.xkcd.com/977/

Tracy

research harvesting and repub Jerry,

And article from CERN about companies harvesting research and wikipedia data from the internet and republishing for profit.

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/journal/CERNBulletin/2011/45/News%20Articles/1394589?ln=en

Jim

This is a serious matter, and I will have an essay on it in future.

I’m an economic nitwit, but . . .

Dr. Pournelle:

You’ve often repeated that if you want less of something, tax it; if you want more of something, subsidize it. With that in mind i wonder how this would work in a non-liberal government US: guarantee that domestically-produced oil from US-owned companies would get a $1/barrel bounty in addition to the market price of oil. When the price of foreign oil goes up, US-producers would get that, plus a dollar more.

I assume there are all sorts of problems with this, but in a free-to-drill US this seems like a good incentive to increase domestic production.

Then again, as the subject line says, I’m an economic nitwit.

Pete Nofel

Food production and population

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I saw this thread on a message board and I particularly appreciated the last post in it:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221712&page=3

"Re: Resources

Myth-Overpopulation is the cause of starving people.

Fact-There is enough unsustainable food production to feed everyone on this planet as it is. The UN has published several reports on food production VS population, the biggest barriers are economical, not production.

Myth-The way we make food now is the best way to do it.

Fact-There are far more sustainable ways to proceed, all of which would greatly increase our ability to produce food.

www.omegagarden.com

Myth-Humans have a massive footprint and there isn’t much we can do to minimize it.

Fact-Centralized and decentralized systems can greatly play a role in reducing our footprint. Energy can be saved in all kinds of ways without negatively impacting quality of life, or in some cases, such as the link below, improving quality of life. Superior usage and management of energy also plays a substancial role.

www.earthship.net

"

Respectfully submitted to your attention. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of his links, but it’s still worth thinking about. I also am of the opinion that complaining about 7 billion people on earth is like people on a pacific island complaining that there isn’t enough food on the island for everyone. If overpopulation is a problem, it is one that needs to be met with imagination and resolve, not handwringing.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

As I said a long time ago in A Step Farther Out, historically wealth has always been the most effective means for stopping population growth. Wealthy people have fewer kids. This seems always to have been the case. There’s a lot more to be said on this, but that’s for another essay.

Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence. The third time, it’s enemy action.

<http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=47438>

Roland Dobbins

A few stories of interest

Israel attempts to muzzle critics with funding curbs http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/13/israeli-ministers-criticism-ngo-funding

Israeli biometrics database for the entire country is hacked and exposed on the web

http://www.fastcompany.com/1790444/the-downside-of-biometrics-9-million-israelis-records-hacked

Amazon cloud vulnerable to hacking.

http://www.infoworld.com/t/cloud-computing/sloppy-use-amazon-cloud-can-expose-users-hacking-178575

Rule by technocrats http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/13/europe-rise-technocracy-editorial

Concern with UK courts becoming involved with politics

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/13/anticuts-litigation-court-politics-editorial

—

Harry Erwin