Monday, November 28, 2016

If Republicans want to force through massive tax cuts, we will fight them tooth and nail.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide.

James Burnham

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

“Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Immigration without assimilation is invasion.

if Romney had treated Obama half as roughly as he treated Gingrich in the primaries, he might have won in ’12 and saved us all a LOT of trouble.

Roberta comes home tomorrow, and we’re in the throes of repairs and alterations to make things ready for her. She’ll still be in a wheel chair, unable to get about very far with a walker. I’ve got more support for her, as she’ll need more than I did. It’s likely to be hectic, and I’ll have less time for work including this place, but I’ll manage somehow. There aren’t a lot of places for rational discussion despite what the web offers.

I spent part of the weekend at LOSCoN, the LASFS run Thanksgiving weekend local science fiction convention. The topic I was most interested in was the Em Drive, and it got brought up on every panel as well as in dinner discussion with Greg Benford, retired UC professor of physics. The problem is, there’s nothing to discuss: either it produces thrust, force, action, without losing mass, or it doesn’t. The evidence is that it does, but the run times have been short and the force is low.

We all pretty well agreed that if it works at all, we’re going to need some new physics, possibly a meld of Newtonian and Quantum physics, and we have given that a lot of thought but got nowhere in decades; but if this thing does work and produces a reactionless drive, it changes the nature of space exploration. The observations calculate about 1.02 (they give it to two decimal places) milliNewtons per kilowatt of electric power inputted.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/emdrive-news-rumors/ has a picture and a purported video of a “flight” (rotation, similar to what G. Harry Stine said he witnessed when Dean showed him the famed Dean Drive). In both these cases and in all other claims I know of, there is a hard connection to an immovable object. The digital trends report is of a purported leak of a NASA test; NASA has since released the report, and published it in a peer reviewed journal. The test reports force exerted against a torsion pendulum; that is it turns about a central hard and fast anchor, as do all the other tests I know of. That reports 1.02 millinewtons per kilowatt, but does not report the total thrust measured, and my reading did not detect any claim to long term operation.

There is a detailed and revealing analysis of possible errors of measurement, and the conclusion that none of them, or even all combined, could account for the observed forces.

That seems to be more than sufficient data to warrant an experimentum crucis to settle once and for all if this “works”. I propose that they hang it in a gravity swing; leave it unpowered long enough to determine the exact resting position; and turn it on. Presumably it will thrust forward to some angle off vertical, where the thrust will be more or less equal to the gravity forces dragging it back to the rest position. Now leave it on for a week, or weeks if possible. If at the end of the run it still hangs off vertical and has lost no mass, I would think that enough evidence to warrant spending the money for a test in orbit. If it can change orbits consuming power but expending no mass, I see no other explanation than reactionless drive. Thrust without mass loss, and the length of the experiment overcomes any possible error of measurement.

Depending on the ship size and how large the Em drive can be built, time to Mars is reduced by hundreds of days; forty days or so depending on when you depart. No fuel expended: the whole ship makes the trip, and doesn’t through 90% of it overboard for propulsion. I don’t know how to keep a crew alive in orbital travel to Mars for hundreds of days; I can imagine ways to do it for forty.

I am not saying we have a reactionless drive: I grew up with Newton’s Third Law and the physicists notion of conservation and I’m not ready to give them up easily. On the other had, I had old physics textbooks in science class that stated that matter could be neither created nor destroyed: Conservation of matter, and conservation of energy. Then, in 1945, just as I was leaving grade school, came Trinity… We got new textbooks.

I have been experimenting with Precious, the Surface Pro 3 tablet/laptop with a Surface Pro 4 keyboard. The 4 has a fingerprint reader, which the 3 did not have, but the software for the 3 runs the ID program. That has worked, but otherwise the software has been a nightmare. Now understand, my granddaughter is perfectly happy with her Surface, and I’ve got used to windows 10, sort of, and 10 is running on all my systems; and I suspect that if I hadn’t enlisted in the experimental “insiders” program which gets me early releases of Windows 10; I’d be happier. Microsoft seems to have too many updates even for my big machines, but I can live with that; but Windows 10 Insider has made a living Hell out of using the Surface Pro. When I first had the stroke, Eric was able to get the Surface Pro out to me in the hospital, and I could use it; I soon reverted to the ThinkPad because it was bigger and easier to read, but I used the Surface and liked it.

I was hoping to use the Surface Pro the way I used my old Compaq tablet long ago; that laptop/tablet combo was great. I took it to COMDFEX and other shows, and it was all I needed. The Tablet with keyboard and Microsoft OneNote were the best research tool I have ever had. It was too slow, of course, and both the system and disk memory were too small, but it was enough to get my BYTE columns done, take notes in presentations and lectures in both keyboard and handwriting, and do Internet searches either wireless or the Ethernet connections usually supplied in the Press Room,and even in motels that still made you use modems.

But every time I’d get used to the Surface they’d have an update, usually needless improvements, and more complications, and more, and crazier defaults, and no accommodation for those who had learned on DOS and earlier versions of Windows. At this point I’d only wish the Surface on enemies. It has now decided that it must access some pst files on OneDrive. I don’t recall ever telling it, or Microsoft, that I want any of my pst files on OneDrive. I don’t want any of my mail files on Microsoft servers or anyone else’s.

Meanwhile, Outlook won’t open without access to that OneDrive pst, and without Outlook the Surface isn’t much use for me.

I’m going to scrub the Surface and reinstall a release copy of Windows, as vanilla as I can get, and update only when forced to, and see if I can make the Surface work for me, stand by. But as of now, I sure think learning to live with the frequent updates makes the Surface Pro more trouble than it’s worth to a user.

While I am at it, I love the ASUS ZenBooks. I have the big ones, and they have the best keyboards I know of: that is, for a two-finger typist which I have been since the stroke. The keys are BIG, and well separated, and I do not often hit two keys at once. I can see the big screens pretty well. All told, excellent. Recommended if you need that much laptop, which I do.

I’ve just got a final notice from email updates to go get their malware or else. I sure wish I could believe it was their final notice…

EM Drive Potential

Jerry,

The recent peer-reviewed paper on EM-drive tests showed 1.2 milliNewtons of thrust per kilowatt input power. That’s not much, no. Not a practical space-drive due to ridiculously low thrust-to-weight for any realistic power source.

But (assuming the effect is real at all) nobody seems to think that 1.2 milliNewton per kilowatt is any sort of a theoretical limit.

The drive’s inventor, for what it’s worth, has been quoted in the press saying he thinks up to five orders of magnitude (100,000x) efficiency improvement are possible. I’ll take that with a LARGE grain of salt for now, as I’m still not entirely convinced the effect is real at all.

But just to see what the outer bounds are, that’d be 120 Newtons thrust for a kilowatt input (in english units, 27 pounds force.)

To illustrate the possibilities at those levels, an LM-2500 marine power gas turbine puts out about 25 Megawatts (MW) of torque and masses about five tons. A 787’s ~200 kilowatt engine-mounted generators mass 235 lbs each – I assume they’re near state-of-the-art. That works out to roughly another 15 tons for 25 MW of generators. Call it 20 tons total to generate 25 MW of mobile power (not counting fuel, structure, thrusters, etc.)

That 25 MW, at 27 lbs thrust per kilowatt, would produce almost 340 tons of thrust. Plenty to spare for fuel, structure, thrusters, and substantial payload. Aerial battleships, anyone? Or add oxidizer storage and have a space battleship… And that’s WITHOUT even looking at what you could build around a submarine reactor.

The stuff of a Doc Smith novel, yes.

But the EM-drive would be immensely useful at far short of those 100,000x efficiency levels. Figuring 10 kg of (space) ship per kilowatt of power available and a goal of 2 kilometers/second per day acceleration capability, we’d need 20,000 Newton-seconds per day for our kilowatt of power. At 86,400 seconds in a day, that’s 230 milliNewtons per kilowatt, or a mere 200 times more efficiency than the peer-reviewed test article.

Ships that can accelerate continuously at 2 km/sec per day give us the Solar System. The WHOLE Solar System. 10 weeks to Mars at average distance – and less than a year to Pluto. We’d still need old-fashioned rockets to get into space in the first place, but once there, if real, and if improvable a hundred-fold or more, this thing would change everything.

Improve it 100,000-fold, and we get flying cars – that can reach the Moon in three hours. I’m not greedy though, I’ll take 200-fold.

Here’s hoping. We’ll see.

Henry

Even if it’s limited to millinewtons / kw, it’s a key to the solar system. But as Carl Sagan (quoting Descartes) was fond of saying, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and these are certainly extraordinary claims…

Decisions,

Jerry

From the outside, Trump may seem to be thrashing around. I think most observers don’t get that when you base your decisions on values, you make decisions this way. You try one thing on for size – it doesn’t fit, so you toss it away and try on something else, something different. Eventually you zero in on what you want. This is not ideology-based or strategy-based decision making. This is making decisions based on values.

This is also like markets. And, like markets, you see overshoots. You see people throwing things against a wall and seeing what sticks. You see what products sell, what services are profitable. Expect to see mistakes, and rapid corrections. The problem with ideology-base decision-making is that they make as many mistakes but they don’t correct them. We had many years of not correcting mistakes. I like Trump’s way.

Ed

Inside the project to rebuild the EDSAC, the world’s first general purpose computer

Jerry,

    As a Communications Technician in the Navy, I was trained on tubes (or valves as the Brits refer to them) as well as semiconductors.  I’m all in favor of this reconstruction and I’d love to see it when it’s finished.

http://www.zdnet.com/article/inside-the-project-to-rebuild-the-edsac-one-of-the-worlds-first-general-purpose-computers/

New ultra-thin semiconductor could extend life of Moore’s Law

http://phys.org/news/2016-11-ultra-thin-semiconductor-life-law.html

Tracy

Old and new…

In addition to the reactionless drive, we have another potential physics revolution:

The speed of light is constant? Physicists plan to test a new theory that questions Einstein’s assumptions — Quartz

It will be interesting if they prove to be correct. If the speed of light varies (or varied over time) then a few assumptions have to change.

Magueijo proposed that to solve one of the biggest physics problems, called the “horizon problem,” we might have to challenge the idea that the speed of light is constant. The problem states that the universe reached a uniform temperature long before energy-carrying photons traveling at constant speed could have had the time to reach all corners of the expanding universe.

The most accepted explanation for the horizon problem is something called inflation. It suggests that, after the Big Bang, the temperature evened out before the universe went through a rapid phase of expansion. But the inflation theory doesn’t sit well with many physicists, mainly because nobody can explain why inflation started and why it stopped.

http://qz.com/846498/the-speed-of-light-is-constant-physicists-plan-to-test-a-new-theory-that-questions-einsteins-assumptions/

John Harlow

Special Relativity requires an absolute constant speed of light. Given that gravity propagates at the observed local speed of light, the advance in the perihelion of Mercury, the observation that drove Einstein to formulate the Special Theory, can be accounted for by Newton’s model; he assumed infinite propagation speed. Of course General Relativity assumes that what we think of as gravity is in fact a distortion in the fabric of space, and I’m not sure that propagates at all, but it’s not my subject; I don’t do math above vectors and matrices.

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

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Thanksgiving

If Republicans want to force through massive tax cuts, we will fight them tooth and nail.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide.

James Burnham

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

“Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Immigration without assimilation is invasion.

I am likely to have a busy day, so I’ll put up what I can until my sons come to get me. Yesterday we went to the Holy Cross hospital Thanksgiving Dinner for patients, staff, visitors, and alumni. Roberta looked better than ever, but the room was full of people and we couldn’t talk much, and I did not understand a word; but then I seldom understand anyone in a noisy environment. After the party we went back to her room, only to discover they had taken her to the gym for more therapy, and when we (Alex and I) went to the gym she was hard at it. A good day.

Reactionless drive rough calculations

Hi Jerry:

I ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations on the reactionless drive, and it looks pretty disappointing for interstellar work, but promising for the solar system, at least with current technology.

The GHRS-RTG radioisotope thermoelectric generators used in the Cassini and Galileo missions have the highest power-to-mass ratio of any RTG: 5.2 to 5.4 W/kg. With the thrust of the drive at 1.2 mN/kW, if you neglect the mass of the drive and just count the mass of the power source, this works out to an acceleration of 6E-7 m/s2. Because the thrust force scales with the mass of the power source, mass of the power source falls out of the equation–i.e, building a larger, higher power (more massive) power source does not improve acceleration, assuming power source mass is proportional to output power.

So an RTG powered craft, accelerating at 6E-7 m/s2, would achieve the following velocities and distances over time:

1 year; 18 m/s (about 40 mph); 540,000 km (to the moon and beyond)

10 years; 180 m/s; 54 million km (over half way to Mars at closest approach)

The amount of time it would take to get to relativistic speeds (say c/10) is 1.7 million years. Unfortunately the half-life of the 238Pu in the RTG is 87.7 years, so it would never reach those speeds.

Things are better with solar panels, limited to use in the inner solar system. Solar panels used in space deliver about 300W/kg, so acceleration could be 3.6E-4 m/s2. This would give:

1 year; 11 km/s; 324 million km (taking into account acceleration and deceleration, perhaps one round trip to Mars)

Accelerating to c/10 would now take 2800 years, and would have to be achieved by shining a laser on the craft as it left the vicinity of the sun.

So I think we would need some quantum leaps in power source density and drive efficiency for the system to be useful for interstellar work, but it might be useful for inner solar system missions in the shorter term.

Hoping for you continued health and Roberta’s continuing improvement,

Doug Ely

First we need proof of existence: a reactionless drive requires us to rethink our understanding of the relationship of Newtonian, Einsteinium, and quantum physics in fundamental ways. If reactionless drives exist, they probably can be improved once the principle is known.

Jerry

You know that it’s science when people argue over the results?

http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/11/nasas-em-drive-still-a-wtf-thruster/

Ed

 

A Step Farther Out 

Dear Doctor Pournelle,

It is good to hear of Mrs. Pournelle’s progress in recovery. Stay strong!

In the Galaxy days of “A Step Farther Out”, as well as your early seventies story cycle, whose title at the moment escapes me, you proposed a launch system that was single stage to orbit based on ground based lasers. How much work was ever done on this, and why has it not been developed, or even tested as a concept that I know of? Was there some show stopper technical problem, or just another good idea that never got traction?

Also, the discussion about EmDrive reminds me of your story “Tinker”, wherein the spaceship’s drive was electric. I believe you posited a nuclear generation system for the power needed. It seems that for EmDrive, if it truly is what we hope, nuclear is the way to go. You need power density for such a drive, if I understand the equations correctly.

I remember a painting, an illustration for a magazine article on the Dean Drive bask in those times, showing a US Navy nuclear submarine in orbit, after being equipped with the drive. Unlikely, yes, fanciful even, but something like that would be what is needed here. If you are going to slowly build up speed, even with high power density, you need a big ship for all those consumables you use up in two hundred days getting anywhere. This leads to a world where commerce and travel will be more like the Age of Sail on earth than the Jet Age. Interesting territory for story telling, but more so for the reality it would make possible of opening up the solar system to exploitation.

If launch costs to LEO could be got down to ten dollars a pound, and the EmDrive could get a ton to Mars or anywhere else in the inner system for about another ten dollars a pound, our biggest problem will be figuring out how to spend the wealth efficiently. Imagine if we found one asteroid with a few million tons of high grade copper ore for example?

What if there was one with a few thousand tons of gold, and we could build power grids with gold wires?

We live in interesting times.

Newt Gingrich should be NASA chief, and it should be upgraded to a full department and cabinet status. Newt might well be our own latter day Pepys.

Does a working EmDrive not have implications for our understanding of

mass and inertia? What do the physics boffins say?

Petronius

Obviously this merits further testing. Any thrust without loss of mass is worth studying for proof of existence, then for means.

From the New York Times live interview with President Designate Trump

( http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/23/us/politics/trump-new-york-times-interview-transcript.html?action=click&contentCollection=Podcasts&module=RelatedCoverage&region=EndOfArticle&pgtype=article ):

FRIEDMAN: Will you have a reset with Russia?

TRUMP: I wouldn’t use that term after what happened, you know, previously. I think — I would love to be able to get along with Russia and I think they’d like to be able to get along with us. It’s in our mutual interest. And I don’t go in with any preconceived notion, but I will tell you, I would say — when they used to say, during the campaign, Donald Trump loves Putin, Putin loves Donald Trump, I said, huh, wouldn’t it be nice, I’d say this in front of thousands of people, wouldn’t it be nice to actually report what they said, wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with Russia, wouldn’t it be nice if we went after ISIS together, which is, by the way, aside from being dangerous, it’s very expensive, and ISIS shouldn’t have been even allowed to form, and the people will stand up and give me a massive hand. You know they thought it was bad that I was getting along with Putin or that I believe strongly if we can get along with Russia that’s a positive thing. It is a great thing that we can get along with not only Russia but that we get along with other countries.

I find this comforting; it is pretty close to what I would have said to the NYT were I about to become President; and I think Mr. Putin will find it reassuring. I said before the election that I agreed that Trump makes me nervous, but this interview makes me much less so.

Indeed, I found the entire interview interesting; I do not think Trump was dissembling; he said what he thinks. His views on Climate Change, as an example. He believes it is not settled and that the “consensus” is not as solid as is usually stated; and he is aware that at least part of the “consensus” was based on outright fraudulent interpretation of the data. He is also aware that windmills and other green gewgaw is not going to fix our energy problem. He is apparently open to rational arguments, which is about all I have ever asked.

This also from the transcript:

HABERMAN: And on torture? Where are you — and waterboarding?

TRUMP: So, I met with General Mattis, who is a very respected guy. In fact, I met with a number of other generals, they say he’s the finest there is. He is being seriously, seriously considered for secretary of defense, which is — I think it’s time maybe, it’s time for a general. Look at what’s going on. We don’t win, we can’t beat anybody, we don’t win anymore. At anything. We don’t win on the border, we don’t win with trade, we certainly don’t win with the military. General Mattis is a strong, highly dignified man. I met with him at length and I asked him that question. I said, what do you think of waterboarding? He said — I was surprised — he said, ‘I’ve never found it to be useful.’ He said, ‘I’ve always found, give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and I do better with that than I do with torture.’ And I was very impressed by that answer. I was surprised, because he’s known as being like the toughest guy. And when he said that, I’m not saying it changed my mind. [An earlier version made a mistake in transcription. Mr. Trump said “changed my mind,” not “changed my man.”] Look, we have people that are chopping off heads and drowning people in steel cages and we’re not allowed to waterboard. But I’ll tell you what, I was impressed by that answer. It certainly does not — it’s not going to make the kind of a difference that maybe a lot of people think. If it’s so important to the American people, I would go for it. I would be guided by that. But General Mattis found it to be very less important, much less important than I thought he would say. I thought he would say — you know he’s known as Mad Dog Mattis, right? Mad Dog for a reason. I thought he’d say ‘It’s phenomenal, don’t lose it.’ He actually said, ‘No, give me some cigarettes and some drinks, and we’ll do better.’

Again, I find nothing to disagree with. I cannot say I would never use waterboarding for any purpose – the classic case is the ticking time bomb known to be in an unidentified crowded public place and a captive known to have put it there – would you use torture? It has been asked for centuries, and remained a moral dilemma when torture was physical, very painful, and often left permanent damage. Is that ever justified? There has never been unanimity on this question. Fortunately, I have never been Faced with this decision except in rhetoric. I hope none of you ever are. Mr. Trump speaks as a reasonable man who is faced with this decision.

The full transcript is above; of course some interpret it their way.

http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/11/23/fake-news-update-media-falsely-spins-trumps-climate-comments-read-full-nyt-transcript/

The media spin on President Elect Donald J. Trump’s sit down with the New York Times on November 22, can only be described as dishonest. Trump appears to soften stance on climate change & Donald Trump backflips on climate change & Trump on climate change in major U-turn

The ‘fake news’ that Trump had somehow moderated or changed his “global warming” views was not supported by the full transcript of the meeting.[snip]

[snip] Trump also told resident NYT warmist Tom Friedman: ‘A lot of smart people disagree with you’ on climate change. (Note: Friedman has some wacky views: Flashback 2009: NYT’s Tom Friedman lauds China’s eco-policies: ‘One party can just impose politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward’)

Once again, Trump was 100% accurate as very prominent scientists are bailing out of the so-called climate “consensus.”

Renowned Princeton Physicist Freeman Dyson: ‘I’m 100% Democrat and I like Obama. But he took the wrong side on climate issue, and the Republicans took the right side’

Nobel Prize-Winning Scientist Dr. Ivar Giaever, Who Endorsed Obama Now Says Prez. is ‘Ridiculous’ & ‘Dead Wrong’ on ‘Global Warming’

Green Guru James Lovelock reverses belief in ‘global warming’: Now says ‘I’m not sure the whole thing isn’t crazy’ – Condemns green movement: ‘It’s a religion really, It’s totally unscientific’

Politically Left Scientist Dissents – Calls President Obama ‘delusional’ on global warming [snip]

A consensus that doesn’t include Freeman Dyson is not a consensus.

‘Global warming’ hits Tokyo.  

<https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/11/japan-tokyo-first-november-54-years/>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

Trump’s pro common core pick (deconstructed?)

On her web site, Ms. Devos states that she personally supports strong local standards, but not Common Core, though she has belonged to or worked with organizations that supported Common Core.

You pays your money, you takes your chances.  But I find support both for charter schools and for common core to be unlikely.  We’ll see how it plays out.

http://betsydevos.com/qa/

---

Subj: Fwd: Trump’s pro common core pick

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-taps-betsy-devos-for-education-secretary/

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/11/23/trump-announces-gop-mega-donor-betsy-devos-education-secretary/

When it comes to arrogance, power, and lack of accountability, journalists are probably the only people on the planet who make lawyers look good.  Steven Brill

NPR: No More Live Interviews with Conservatives

NPR has some racialist coverage; I’m a long time listener because I try to sample the major propaganda flavors this country has to offer.

I don’t think “racist” is the correct word, however:

<.>

National Public Radio ombudsman/public editor Elizabeth Jensen has recommended that the taxpayer-funded radio news service bar future live interviews of conservatives who may have controversial views, following an interview Nov. 16 with Breitbart News’ Joel B. Pollak.

Pollak, who serves as Breitbart’s Senior Editor-at-Large and In-house Counsel, defended its Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon from false and defamatory claims of antisemitism and “white nationalism.” He also turned the tables, pointing out that NPR has “racist programming,”

including a story that called the 2016 election results “nostalgia for a whiter America.”

NPR listeners were apparently outraged that anyone from Breitbart News had been given an opportunity to defend the website and its chairman.

In her response, “Listeners: Two Recent Interviews Are ‘Normalizing Hate Speech’,” Jensen concluded that the live format had allowed Pollak to get the better of host Steve Inskeep.

She suggested that future interviews be taped: “In addition, in my opinion, these interviews should not be done live. Inskeep is an excellent live interviewer, but live interviews are difficult, especially when there is limited time. A little contextualizing never hurts.”

</>

http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2016/11/19/npr-pollak-interview-no-live-interviews-right/

I find it disturbing the NPR would prefer taped interviews — presumably so NPR can filter these interviews and release them in an abridged format. If NPR’s hosts cannot stand on their logic and rhetoric then they would do well to hire more talented folks who can better prepare for their interviews and/or maintain a respectable command and grasp of critical thinking and rhetorical skills. After all, NPR is partially tax-payer funded — don’t we deserve better?

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I believe NPR actually has taxpayer money support? Charter schools return local control to parents; Mr. Trump and Ms. Devos seem agreed on that.  From what I know of Trump he may well sponsor – even finance – a “demonstration” school to show how education can be done. Or perhaps Ms. Devos will. We know schools can be better.  I once proposed to the late Rev. Moon when his unification movement bought the University of Bridgeport that they open a demonstration school as part of the University Education department; but despite some enthusiasm from Mr. Moon, nothing came of it. Among other principles it would have featured my wife’s reading education program. That was long ago. My mother was a first grade teacher in rural Florida; when I asked if any pupils left first grade who had not learned to read, she said no, thought for a moment, and said “A few, but they didn’t learn anything else, either.” 

The concept of normal children unable to read after fourth grade was simply incomprehensible – as the Army discover during the World War II draft.  Conscripts unable to read were almost universally those who had not been to school at all (more common in the 30’s and 40’s).  Now we think it splendid if only 20 % of high school grades are illiterate.

 

We could build schools in DC as demonstrations that over 90% of children can learn to read in first grade.

 

Clinton in jail?

I certainly don’t think that Trump should follow through on his “threat” to put Clinton in jail. I would like him to put in his own people at FBI and DOJ, and make it clear to them: I want you to find out what really happened, and if there are really a dozen or whatever FBI investigators who thought there should be an indictment, and if there are other investigations on other Clinton issues/crimes. Do your jobs. I will back you up, and whatever you conclude will be made completely public. The facts will be put out where people can see them. No one is above the law, and no one is trying to do a witch hunt either. Do your jobs.

Best wishes,

mkr

You should be pleased to know that that is pretty close to what Mr. Trump told the New York Times.

President – Elect Trump’s ‘concessions’

Jerry,

    A long time ago, I read (probably on Chaos Manor) that a conservative votes for a candidate based on their belief that the candidate has a similar set of standards as they do, and that the candidate will make good choices when faced with problems. Then they leave them alone (for the most part) and let them govern. On the other hand, a liberal votes for a candidate because they believe the candidate will bend to the electorate’s will and change their mind along with the current emotional state of the electorate.

    I believe that is what we are seeing as Trump selects his cabinet and advisors, and adjusts his position based on new information.  Those who helped him get elected are not screaming and yelling because he isn’t toeing the line, but instead believe he is doing what he believes is right, and will give him the benefit of the doubt (of course there are some that won’t, but in general they will).

I’ve come to agree that is a key difference between liberals and conservatives.

Tracy

The nature of dwarf stars and star formation via Birkeland Current, Herbig/Haro strings, and the most probable prehistory of our system (video)

Much better video than we’d had previously. Troy McLachlan put a lot of work into this item:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RtGal_-KXU&t=187s

Ted

Words of Muslim American

This is worth reading and it’s worth noting this is an American speaking:

<.>

“The Prophet said: ‘There is no god but Allah,’ said Thbait. “Instead the [elites of Mecca] rejected. They offered the Prophet wealth, status, and political representation – a seat on the executive branch within Mecca’s secular order – all to avoid this statement and its implications. Yet he rejected their offers and continued his journey towards radical change, providing us with step-by-step instructions on how to make this religion supreme.”

“The elites of Mecca would use every possible measure to coerce or contain Muhammad’s call for change within specific parameters,” he added. “Those parameters would permit the changing of anything that did not threaten their system and infringe on their power. But this message is not here to integrate. It is here to dominate. Islam is here to dominate! This was an ideological struggle, the sole purpose of which was to organize Man’s affairs in accordance with a system revealed by Allah.”

“There was no room for compromise,” Thbait continued. “Instead Allah revealed to the Prophet, saying: ‘Proclaim openly, as commanded, and turn away from those who associate others with Allah.’ ‘Proclaim openly, as commanded by Allah’ – this is our activism. It is free of polytheism, the polytheism of a secular system. Activism within a flawed infidel system is forbidden.”

</>

http://freedomoutpost.com/muslim-leader-in-us-islam-is-not-here-to-integrate-islam-is-here-to-dominate/

I wanted to make sure this wasn’t “fake news” so I confirmed it by looking at the video on Twitter;

https://twitter.com/OnlineMagazin/status/796794018269118468/video/1

Nothing surprising but worth noting.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Truce and even alliance is permitted between true Muslims and unbelievers (including heretics). Peace is not permitted, although a long enough truce is perhaps indistinguishable from peace as a practical matter.

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

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

If Republicans want to force through massive tax cuts, we will fight them tooth and nail.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide.

James Burnham

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

“Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Immigration without assimilation is invasion.

Windows 10 seems to changed the privilege rules for local internal networks, and while there may be some logic in what they have done I haven’t found any explanations I understand. I see all my other computers and RAID storage devices; I can read some of them, but I can’t copy them. When I try to change sharing, one approach seems to say they are already shared. Another says the folder can’t be shared. This is nuts. It was easy enough under Windows 7, but now they have improved it all to the point of unusability. Thanks, guys. You really make sure Windows Gurus have jobs. Unfortunately I have always been a mere user, and Microsoft never gave a tinker’s curse for mere users.

I can use the cloud as a sort of sneaker net, but that seems absurd; and my network of storage devices has become unusable, or nearly so. Fortunately I still have big multi-terabyte hard disks and easy external connections, and that’s easy to use, but I’m back to sneaker net; which is a protection from ransomware, but great heavens. Why is this an improvement?

The news from Washington depends on who’s telling it. Of course it always did: CNN always did have a picture of Washington that didn’t have much to do with what I saw when I was there, and the other media sure had more of the Ted Kennedy “Star Wars” notion of Strategic Defense and SDI than I saw, even when I was chairman of the group that was inventing SDI, and my view from Newt Gingrich’s office had little resemblance to what the media was reporting. There doesn’t seem to be much improvement since. The media reports what it wants you to believe, which may or may not reflect the real world, and it seems more subject to the belief of the reporters and editors that to what’s happening.

As an example, during the campaign Mr. Trump said that Hillary Clinton ought to be in jail. That’s pretty extreme, but the plain fact is that if I or anyone I knew had abused the security regulations on classified information in the way she did, I’d have certainly been fired, never again entrusted with classified briefings or documents, and I certainly would have violated laws that carried incarceration as a possible penalty. Now Mr. Trump has said he has no intention of prosecuting her. That’s a policy decision that certainly squares with my view of history. Prosecuting elected chiefs of state usually ends badly, and criminalizing political decisions has never been a good idea.

It has been an exhausting two days. Roberta is getting better. We need to do a lot of preparation for her to come home.

Trump Will Not Prosecute Clinton

I can see your response already, “Did you think he was really going to appoint a special prosecutor?”

<.>

President-elect Donald Trump won’t subject Hillary Clinton to a criminal inquiry — instead, he’ll help her heal, his spokeswoman said Tuesday.

<…>

“Look, I think, he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States, and things that sound like the campaign are not among them,” Conway, who is now on the Trump transition team, said in her interview.

</>

https://nypost.com/2016/11/22/trump-wont-pursue-charges-against-clinton/

So, what’s on his mind right now is not what he was saying during the campaign. Business as usual. And he wants to help Clinton heal?

What planet are these people on?

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I will repeat: prosecutions for former chiefs of state for official actions has seldom ended well, No one has asked me for my opinion, but I would be very wary of doing that; and I would certainly not call the last few days business as usual.

The possibility of the existence of a reactionless drive overshadows even the election.

 

Mr. Trump has expressed his intention to re-focus NASA away from LEO navel-gazing and towards deep-space exploration.

He needs to be made aware that we may very well have the keys to the Solar System in our hands; and all NASA efforts, including the shilly-shallying around we’ve been doing with the so-called ‘space station’ should be redirected towards figuring out if this is indeed what we hope and pray it is.

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

 

EmDrive

Jerry

So the EmDrive produces 1.2 mN/kW. If my dimensional analysis is correct, that’s about 120 mg at 1 m/s^2. That’s pretty good return for 1000 Watts. In the Conclusions section, the authors note that a Hall thruster will produce about 60 mN/kW, but that requires a reaction mass.

One thing, though: in illustration 19, without extrapolations it looks like the thrust tops out at about 88 micronewtons/kW, about 0.088 mN/kW – both at 60 watts and 80 watts. I don’t trust made-up curves (I see a lot of them in my business). Curve-fitting depends on your choice of curves. So I’d like to see a machine scaled to deliver 1 kilowatt before I decide what an EmDrive can do at that power.

Other than that, I can only wonder what the US Navy and the Chinese have discovered.

Ed

Reactionless drive rough calculations

Hi Jerry:

I ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations on the reactionless drive, and it looks pretty disappointing for interstellar work, but promising for the solar system, at least with current technology.

The GHRS-RTG radioisotope thermoelectric generators used in the Cassini and Galileo missions have the highest power-to-mass ratio of any RTG: 5.2 to 5.4 W/kg. With the thrust of the drive at 1.2 mN/kW, if you neglect the mass of the drive and just count the mass of the power source, this works out to an acceleration of 6E-7 m/s2. Because the thrust force scales with the mass of the power source, mass of the power source falls out of the equation–i.e, building a larger, higher power (more massive) power source does not improve acceleration, assuming power source mass is proportional to output power.

So an RTG powered craft, accelerating at 6E-7 m/s2, would achieve the following velocities and distances over time:

1 year; 18 m/s (about 40 mph); 540,000 km (to the moon and beyond)

10 years; 180 m/s; 54 million km (over half way to Mars at closest approach)

The amount of time it would take to get to relativistic speeds (say c/10) is 1.7 million years. Unfortunately the half-life of the 238Pu in the RTG is 87.7 years, so it would never reach those speeds.

Things are better with solar panels, limited to use in the inner solar system. Solar panels used in space deliver about 300W/kg, so acceleration could be 3.6E-4 m/s2. This would give:

1 year; 11 km/s; 324 million km (taking into account acceleration and deceleration, perhaps one round trip to Mars)

Accelerating to c/10 would now take 2800 years, and would have to be achieved by shining a laser on the craft as it left the vicinity of the sun.

So I think we would need some quantum leaps in power source density and drive efficiency for the system to be useful for interstellar work, but it might be useful for inner solar system missions in the shorter term.

Hoping for you continued health and Roberta’s continuing improvement,

Doug Ely

 

 

Enlisted

President is Constitutionally responsible for commissioning all officers, and not one person should be commissioned who has not served at least four years as enlisted personnel.

———————

An acquaintance of mine, former navy, gave me this story.

When a new device of some sort was introduced, the contractors would wine and dine the enlisted to solicit their opinions as the the suitability of the product. This lasted only until the officers heard about this practice. From then on it was the officers who were wined and dined.

B-

I’m not sure either officers or non-coms ought to be meeting with lobbyists.

Officers and orders, giving and taking

Dear Doctor Pournelle,

Has Mr. Harrington served? He seems unaware of a basic fact of military

organizations: commissioned officers follow orders much more often than they give them. Also, the vast majority of commissioned officers in the United States armed forces do not come from the service academies, even if you throw in such state operated schools as The Citadel, Texas A&M and VMI. Most of the officers come from ROTC along with a Golden Few from the ranks through Officer Training School. It’s always been easy and a bit “fun” to bash the federal academy grads. Terms like “Ring Knockers” are easily uttered by chairborne commandos. “Throw the brute out, but when the bullets begin to fly, it’s “thin red line of ‘eroes!”

We ask eighteen-year old men and women to give up ten years of their lives (that’s what it takes if you go the full four years at one of those Federal academies), with a fair chance of being killed or maimed on active service, and then some choose to sneer at them for acting a bit like boys and girls now and then while at school?

Petronius

There is a reason for insisting that commissioned officers have more education. It might be worth discussion another time.

on the Chicago shootings

http://heyjackass.com/

A one page summary.

—

Phil

Enlightening. Also frightening.

Liberals who claim history’s on their side got a cold wake-up call

One of the more thought provoking essays:  http://nypost.com/2016/11/17/liberals-who-claim-historys-on-their-side-just-got-a-cold-wake-up-call/

Democrats haven’t been this upset since Republicans took away their slaves.

J

Claiming to be in step with the march of history was one of the communists’ most persuasive arguments.

Suggestions for the new President

Those news organizations (CNN, NYTimes, et al) who were so obviously in the tank for the Clinton campaign should have their press credentials revoked and/or lose their seats in the White House Press Room. Alternatively, if that’s too radical, there should be a news blackout for the Press Room for a week or a month, however long it takes to get the point across. They need access to perform their function but the Administration doesn’t need them. Let them sit in the Press Room endlessly. Maybe once a day a low-level staffer could come out and tell them “We have nothing for you today. Come back tomorrow if you feel like it.” and then walk away. Just let them stew in their own juices.

Tim

I have many other Draconian suggestions; the question is whether it is the best policy; will that produce the best results when you do make drastic changes in law enforcement and regulatory policies? How much strain do we need? There’s going to be a lot.

Regulations and Bunny Inspectors

Jerry,

As has been mentioned, all federal regulations should have sunset clauses. Each new regulation will require 5 regulations to be deleted from the CFR.

Proposed regulations will have a base review period of 30 days, a day of review is defined as a day when both houses of congress are in session. The review period will be extended one day for any day both houses are not in session. For any proposed regulation with more than 1000 words in length the review period will be increased 1 day for each additional 1000 words or less. A word is defined as 5 characters.

So for a proposed regulation of 3,450 words, it will have a base review period of 35 days when each house is in session. As an example of how the review period works, take October and November 2016 and assume the regulation is presented for review on October 21, 2016. So far from 10/21/16, both houses have been in session for 5 days from 10/21/16 to 11/18/16, so the review period will have had 5 days thus far. So there would remain 30 days for the review to be completed. So for this example there will be at least 58 calendar days for review of the regulation as of today.

Lagniappe for you — No new regulation shall be entered into the CFR nor any current regulation in the CFR be modified until regulations for bunny inspectors for magicians are deleted from the CFR, or magicians are exempted from inspecting bunnies. Deletions of regulations from the CFR may be made during this period.

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

We’ll have to see. I’m betting we will still have bunny inspectors and no one will know why.

Secretary of Space

Matthew Joseph Harrington had some interesting ideas in his letter. For first Secretary of Space, I’d like to nominate Mr. Steve Barnes.

Michael D. Houst

It is unlikely, but it’s not a bad idea. NASA could use some common sense and a non-political administrator. Perhaps more likely:

N in NASA stands for Newt

Dr. Pournelle,
Thought you might find this amusing. Newt for head of NASA:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/442308/newt-gingrich-nasa-he-can-fix-it
-d

Yeah, really

https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/2016/11/12/e72b9856-a859-11e6-8042-f4d111c862d1_story.html?wpisrc=nl_draw2&wpmm=1#comments

Notice the juxtaposition of those quoted in the article, and the comments of the readers of WaPo…

Enjoy, 

Couv

David Couvillon
Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired.; 
Former Governor of Wasit Province, Iraq; 
Righter of Wrongs; Wrong most of the time; 
Distinguished Expert, TV remote control; 
Chef de Hot Dog Excellence;  Avoider of Yard Work

Something old, yet something all too new…

Jerry,

I would suggest the incoming administration regularly reaffirm John Quincy Adams’ ides in his address on July 4, 1821.  His warning is all too true L

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

<http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-independence-day/>

Speech on Independence Day, John Quincy Adams, United States House of Representatives, July 4, 1821

An address, delivered at the request of the committee of arrangements  for celebrating the anniversary of Independence,  at the City of Washington on the  Fourth of July 1821  upon the occasion of reading  The Declaration of Independence

“….what has America done for the benefit of mankind? let our answer be this–America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, equal justice, and equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations, while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama, the European World, will be contests between inveterate power, and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself, beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet upon her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world: she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit…..”

I am fairly sure Mr. Trump has read that speech.

 

Working and eating

“This is the old argument which used to be important in considering “entitlements”: government decrees face taxpayers with enforcement. To whom do we nave a binding – not moral – obligation? Are all men to be paid for existing, and that payment to be extracted at the point of a gun?”
Dr Pournelle, this argument has been lost since 1965, when voting became a “right” and we moved to a warm-body (at best; Chicago waived that requirement at least 5 years earlier) democracy. There used to be something called a “pauper’s oath”; it hasn’t been a factor in my lifetime, but it basically said that if you were unable to support yourself you no longer had the privilege of voting how the guns would be employed to threaten the productive.
We are encountering an increasing number of people whose only goods of value are their votes in those warm body elections, or their bodies for riot and insurrection. That population is only being expanded by open borders, and also by the increasing percentage of jobs that can’t be performed by the left side of the bell-curve. I realize that there are lots of people who claim that better technology has only increased job opportunities, but that was on a lower level of technological sophistication.
I’m not sure there IS a good answer; any attempt to restrict voting to the productive will require a second Revolution, since we otherwise won’t be able to pass the changes through the current machinery, but it is something that someone needs to contemplate.

SDN

 

 

Matthew Joseph Harrington

Here are my objections.

————–

Veto any budget that exceeds the previous year’s Treasury revenue, on the grounds that the wording of the Constitution makes it quite clear that the United States can operate on credit only in time of declared war, and only to pay the costs of said war.

————–

Bush Sr tried that, and Congress played the game of political blackmail in that they then submitted a second budget equally objectionable.

Reagan also ran in to that obstacle.

————–

Congressional selectees be damned, sadistic training centers run like British boys’ schools likewise: the President is Constitutionally responsible for commissioning all officers, and not one person should be commissioned who has not served at least four years as enlisted personnel. Before anybody gets the job of giving orders he ought to have some fucking clue of what is involved in carrying the goddamn things out.

————–

Can a distinction be made regarding combat and non combat officers?

—————

The President should propose to the States that all election days be holidays.

—————

In my State they have early voting, on weekends including Sunday, as well as extended hours. Don’t know about other States, but maybe a requirement that an employee get 2 hours off to go vote.

—————-

This loss of privileged status will extend to government mailings.

—————-

And apply Anti-Trust to USPS.

—————-

The President should declare a general amnesty on taxation of income from all forms of creative work, such as art, writing, and music, on the grounds that the First Amendment protects both freedom of religion and freedom of speech, and therefore equal treatment should given to both.

—————-

Why should Creative People not have to pay their share of taxes? And what is a Creative Work? Inventions? Does the New York Times become a Tax Exempt Charity?

B-

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

 

Saturday, November 19, 2016

If Republicans want to force through massive tax cuts, we will fight them tooth and nail.

Senator Elizabeth Warren

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide.

James Burnham

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

“Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Immigration without assimilation is invasion.

Suggestions for Government

1. Foster effective education with a focus on the Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric — in that exact order), critical thought (start with survey, question, read, recite, review), and general semantics (both books by Johnson at least).

2. Develop and maintain the largest possible reserves of reliable energy in the shortest amount of time with minimal cost and maximum abundance.

3. Maintain and expand access of information, data, and opinion.

4. Maintain and expand the individual rights to self defense and rights to protect property.

5. Explore and exploit space and the oceans for resources, travel, commerce, pleasure, and the general business of advancing the human species.

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

The first is worth considering, but I would suggest it should be considered by the states, not the Federal Government, which ought to abandon the notion of telling the states how to educate their children. Wise states would then delegate that responsibility to local schools and locally elected school boards. Most would not adopt your proposed curriculum, but a few might. It would be worthwhile establishing such a school as a voluntary magnet in the District of Columbia (Congress certainly has that power) as example for the states to consider. There is no chance that the Congress would impose such a classic curriculum on all schools everywhere, and such a Federal imposition would rightly be considered an act of tyranny. Of course you know that.

Dictating to everyone because the government knows what’s best is not constitutional even when what is dictated may be wise and certainly better that current practice, and would not have the consent of the governed.

The other points are certainly worth considering and some of them have powerful advocates.

    

I post this now because it’s either a terrible mistake by what seems to be sincere and dedicated people, or the best news I have heard since the Fall of the Soviet Union; it is also a significant development in the integration of Newtonian, Einsteinian, and Quantum models of the universe.  I have read the paper. I understood most of it.  I have not checked the accuracy of their calculations, and clearly I have no way of verifying the observations; the error analysis appeals to me, but others more familiar may be able to show errors. Having said all that, it looks good to me. It appears to be a 1 mN/KW spacedrive.

 

 

 

EmDrive study published.

<http://arc.aiaa.org/doi/full/10.2514/1.B36120>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

 

 

Friday, November 18

I suppose I should call this a “Mail” rather than a View since it will be mostly a presentation and discussion of comments on yesterday’s View, but since the subjects are of present concern, my comments will be about my views, and I expect that’s enough of that fuzziness. Roberta looks better every day, and she’s talking better. She’ll be in Holy Cross hospital at least two more weeks, which is great; their program sure got me back on my feet and the road to recovery.

Free Trade

I concur with David Friedman about free trade. When I am told that a treaty that’s hundreds of pages long is a free trade treaty, I wonder what definition of free trade they’re using. That’s a managed international trade treaty, which may or may not be freer than the current situation.

Fredrik Coulter

 

The debate on Free Trade as opposed to the various complex pacts we have negotiated is a certainty.

Furor over Mr. Trump’s election continues, as does the yammer of criticism. Cabinet posts are not usually announced before December, but much of the main stream press can’t resist reporting confusion and doubt at Trump Towers because he hasn’t named his cabinet yet. Of course if he had, they would pound him for being hasty. I would think this unrelenting criticism would become tiresome; I know it causes me to wonder if they have anything accurate to report on anything in the world. I also wonder why no one asks why the current sitting President, or someone who speaks for him, doesn’t tell those protesting the election to tone it down before either a protester gets hurt, or the protesters work themselves into a frustration fit and hurt someone or loot a store, or, as has happened in the past, both. I’m not sure what they want; the results are certain, a recount would be expensive and would not find enough evidence of fraud to change the results, and Mr. Trump is not going to resign because they’re showing how unhappy they are. Surely they know that?

CNN lists some demands that are popular with protesters. The first is “Dump Trump” in hopes the Electoral College – which never meets, each state electoral group assembles separately – but that is rather unlikely. You may peruse the others here: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/11/politics/trump-protests-key-demands/

I am told that Mr. Trump will reinstitute the National Space Council https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/249501/ with the Vice President as chair. Long time readers may recall that General Graham, Max Hunter, and I had a session with Vice President Quayle, then Chair of the National Space Council, regarding recommendations of the Citizens Council on Space Policy (http://home.earthlink.net/~jerryp/Citizen.html and https://books.google.com/books?id=v6eTVBEDA54C&pg=RA2-PT32&lpg=RA2-PT32&dq=1989+Graham+Pournelle+Quayle&source=bl&ots=CvpGVNNQD1&sig=bwV4wZcZWE7hMmhKXTapO9Zr4_A&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilq7Lkx7PQAhWkqVQKHTSWDjkQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=1989%20Graham%20Pournelle%20Quayle&f=false ), regarding the SSX project we recommended; the result was the DC/X which flew a few years later, as well as other developments for commercial space. The National Space Council was an important institution. Mr. Clinton was no space enthusiast, and abolished it in his first term of office; it should be revised.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Richard and his family arrive in hours, and before that I need to get out to the hospital to see Roberta, so this will be brief. Yesterday was consumed by household activities.

There is much furor and terror, much of that feigned and more stoked by the media, over Mr. Trump’s announcement of Attorney General. I am surprised; I expected Mr. Giuliani. Whoever is Attorney General will find that rounding up and deporting the two million illegals convicted of felonies will be both difficult and expensive, and will pretty well exhaust his available resources. There will be few left for the more controversial task of dealing with law abiding undocumented immigrants, and determining which of those have ever been involved in federal crimes like voting in an election will take resources he may not even have. Once that is done we can come to a decision about the remaining millions. Of course, if they call attention to themselves by rioting (which the vast majority of them do not) that will go a long way toward resolving any moral contradictions we feel; it will also be at least two years, and perhaps progress will have been made in getting the borders under control.

Of the “dream” immigrants – — I  those brought here illegally while of a tender age – I would think there is a simple solution for many: let honorable service in the armed forces be accompanied by a green card upon honorable discharge, and for those who have served multiple enlistments a path to citizenship. I imagine a bill establishing that policy would be adopted by Congress and Mr. Trump would sign it without difficulty.

Of course the first principle of populist government is to obtain the consent of the governed. The best way to obtain that is to leave many critical decisions in more local hands. The immigration laws determine who gets to consent, and who must obey consent or no. We do not ask felons for their consent to be punished, nor should we. And migration without any intent of assimilation remains invasion.

End Of The World As We Know It?

Judging from what I’ve seen and read, we’re around Stage l.5 or 2 right now, maybe 3, election results-wise, for most. A few ‘clairvoyants’ have jumped to the later stages, but it’s mostly for publicity’s sake.
The five stages of grief:
1. Denial: The first reaction is denial. In this stage individuals believe the diagnosis is somehow mistaken, and cling to a false, preferable reality.
2. Anger: When the individual recognizes that denial cannot continue, they become frustrated, especially at proximate individuals. Certain psychological responses of a person undergoing this phase would be: “Why me? It’s not fair!”; “How can this happen to me?”; ‘”Who is to blame?”; “Why would this happen?”.
3. Bargaining: The third stage involves the hope that the individual can avoid a cause of grief. Usually, the negotiation for an extended life is made in exchange for a reformed lifestyle. People facing less serious trauma can bargain or seek compromise.
4. Depression: “I’m so sad, why bother with anything?”; “I’m going to die soon, so what’s the point?”; “I miss my loved one, why go on?” During the fourth stage, the individual despairs at the recognition of their mortality. In this state, the individual may become silent, refuse visitors and spend much of the time mournful and sullen.
5. Acceptance: “It’s going to be okay.”; “I can’t fight it, I may as well prepare for it.” In this last stage, individuals embrace mortality or the inevitable future.
Based entirely on what I’ve seen from the younger members of my family on election night and in the following days, the formula is tracking right along, without deviation. The tragedy the young and empathetic feel when they assume that their particular ox will be gored is palpable. I doubt sincerely that the Donald or the young mourners have a fine appreciation for how the system works and how deeply embedded are the contractors, lobbyists, and ‘civil servants’ involved in making that ‘system’ ‘work’, however poorly the ‘system’s’ performance may be evaluated by many Americans.

D

Interesting observation.

Piers Morgan, of all people, tells millennials to suck it up and learn from Trump.

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3942278/PIERS-MORGAN-Memo-millennials-awful-feeling-ve-got-called-losing-happens-want-know-win-stop-whinging-bit-learn-lessons-Trump.html>

—————————————

Roland Dobbins

In another conversation I said:

“Actually, the problem is we do not lag; we manufacture plenty, more than we used to, with a lot fewer workers.  Our productivity is good for profits, but lousy for labor.  Those employed are paid well, but far fewer are employed.  As Moore’s law continues to raise the productivity of robots, this will cotinine.

“And the schools are so dammed lousy that we aren’t teaching kids to think of things to do that others will pay money for, nor do we teach them the lesson from last Sunday, Paul to the Thessalonians, those who do not work shall not eat.  In this era of amazing productivity things are not that stark, but is it government’s job to feed those who do not feed themselves? Do those who want to eat have any obligation at all other than being born?

‘When all men are paid for existing, and none shall pay for their sins…’ “

Which elicited this reply:

Those who do not work shall not eat.

From an anecdotal standpoint I’ve got plenty of friends (younger than I) who either are working, but struggling to make ends meet or are simply struggling to stay employed at all. I’ve got friends who seem to get stuck in temp position after temp position with one one seemingly willing or able to give them a proper job. 

Then I have other friends who complain about getting lowballed on salaries and the like.

Hell, its only in the last few years that I myself have begun to feel like I have any amount of my own affairs in decent order and I still feel behind the curve on account of not owning my own home or feeling like I have anywhere close to enough socked away for retirement, and I am getting pretty well compensated these days.

Not saying that these two groups are connected, but I think often times when rhetoric gets tossed about regarding govt handouts and what is the responsibility of the govt I get the impression that sometimes folks may think that the people are the ones who are failing the system and I think that this may not necessarily be the case. I realize that it is a complex subject but lets not forget that at the end of the day were talking about fellow citizens and try to not paint things so black and white. Apologies if this is somewhat stream of consciousness.

D

It is well to keep in mind that there are moral obligations for us all; but those are moral obligations. Obligations imposed by the government are enforced by armed men and the threat of prison. Paul is not relieving the Thessalonians of their obligation to look out for the poor amongst them, but he is pointing out that those obligations are not unlimited. This is the old argument which used to be important in considering “entitlements”: government decrees face taxpayers with enforcement. To whom do we nave a binding – not moral – obligation? Are all men to be paid for existing, and that payment to be extracted at the point of a gun? No one suggests that you may not voluntarily help the “undeserving”; we are debating the obligation to do so. Ann Rand would say no one has such an obligation to anyone. The Congress of the United States and the President say there are a great number of such obligations upon everyone.

The Department of Defense needs to lose 25% of the Admirals/Generals/SES. Extend all Permanent Change of Station tours one year. Stop requiring all senior enlisted get college degrees. Quit trying to force women into combat, don’t put them on subs. Curtail the F-35 (they’ll be good comms/control nodes & sensor platforms), upgrade F-22s, F-18s, F-15s, F-16s. Keep working on drones. Death beams require all-electric Cruiser sized platforms & lots of power, so bring back nuclear reactors. Reduce crew size. Recognize & encourage the essential value of Tradition. Reduce the Social/Gender/Race Indoctrination.

Increase standards.

On 11/18/2016 5:15 PM, Dan Steele wrote:

The single thing that would improve America’s fiscal condition more than anything else – abolish COLAs.
(from someone who will be receiving 3 government checks in a few years)

Suggestions for President Trump

Doc, you asked for ideas for President Trump’s agenda.

To paraphrase Tom Lehrer, I have some here.

Veto any budget that exceeds the previous year’s Treasury revenue, on the grounds that the wording of the Constitution makes it quite clear that the United States can operate on credit only in time of declared war, and only to pay the costs of said war. Also veto any budget which does not include payment of annual interest and an equal amount in principal on the debts we already have, since any other course of action violates the Constitutional ban on repudiation of government debt.

Congressional selectees be damned, sadistic training centers run like British boys’ schools likewise: the President is Constitutionally responsible for commissioning all officers, and not one person should be commissioned who has not served at least four years as enlisted personnel. Before anybody gets the job of giving orders he ought to have some fucking clue of what is involved in carrying the goddamn things out.

The nation with the largest petroleum production in the world is the United States of America. The reason oil is imported from other countries is that Federal regulations set an unrealistic limit on the price of domestic oil when sold domestically; consequently most American oil is sold abroad, and much of it is bought back at OPEC prices… and none of this oil moves across our borders, as these transactions are all on paper. The President can sidestep this insanity by having all domestic oil production purchased by the United States Navy, over which he has full command and need not consult Congress until such time as a Constitutional Amendment is passed to the contrary. This oil will be bought at a reasonable profit for domestic producers, and will in turn be sold to the domestic oil processing industry at a markup of ten percent, which is still well below OPEC prices and should do much to support my next step. The United States Navy will of course have in its physical possession just as much of this oil as foreign transshipment dealers do now.

As the President is Constitutionally obliged to decide whether to veto or approve any bill within ten days of receiving it, and therefore has to be able to read the goddamn thing within ten days, I recommend that he automatically veto any bill which has not been read aloud in the presence of everyone who votes on it, on the grounds that it is an attempt to circumvent the Constitution.

The President should restore the Air Force to the status of a Corps within the Army. The fifth side of the Pentagon should then be the domain of the Space Force. This will take over the job of high-altitude intelligence gathering, and will be responsible for maintaining a manned presence in orbit. It will also take over the launch facilities currently being wasted by NASA in its mission to make the Universe safe for robots. Since the Space Force will require the most competent and versatile flyers it is possible to have, spacecraft operators will be recruited from the ranks of Naval aviators. Pilots from other branches of the military who wish to join will be permitted to do so after being trained up to the standard of aviators. Shouldn’t take more than a couple of years for applicants who have the right stuff. (The job description of the Secretary of Space should include a requirement that any appointee must have sold at least one hard-SF story, but trying to explain the concept to Congress would be a nightmare.)

The President should, in the event of a vacancy on the Supreme Court, interrogate all potential candidates for the position on exactly one question: “What powers currently exercised by the Congress are both necessary and proper?”

The DEA should be made into a branch of the FDA, and the FDA should no longer have the authority to prevent the issue of products of any kind. However, the FDA would have Draconian authority over product labeling, and any product not yet found to meet FDA safety standards, or which has not been found to be effective for whatever people have claimed, or both, will have a big red stamp right across the front of the product that says so. Heroin and cocaine and meth and so on had damn well better be inspected and accurately labeled as to weight and content, too. Federal laws against their possession and use will of course not be enforceable, since the precedent of the 18th Amendment establishes that all such laws are unconstitutional; but their manufacture and sale are covered under the Pure Food and Drug Act.

Any bureaucracy which is responsible for disbursing money to people, and spends more money on its employees than is received by the people the money is meant to get to, needs to experience mass firings until this situation no longer obtains.

The President should propose to the States that all election days be holidays. The only people with a rational motive to oppose this will be the ones who don’t want people with jobs to vote. (Though an amazing number evidently took time off from work on the most recent occasion.)

The President should restore the office of Postmaster General to Cabinet status, to wit: Secretary of Communications. This officer will be in charge of the Post Office and FCC, and will be tasked with making certain nothing inhibits the free and ready flow of information. The first step will be to review regulations of the FCC for Constitutionality and revoke all which do not meet black-letter standards of what the government is permitted to do. In particular these regulations will be required to qualify as both necessary and proper. The next will be to remove privileged status from mass mailings, which will henceforth pay the same cost by weight as first class mail. This will ensure that actual information is not lost in the shuffle. This loss of privileged status will extend to government mailings.

The President should also play Flight 93 before each State of the Union Address:

<iframe width=”854″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/OPYMS9a8ELE” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

The President should issue pardons to everyone the EPA has ever gone after without a warrant, and require the return of all fines imposed in those cases.

The President should declare a general amnesty on taxation of income from all forms of creative work, such as art, writing, and music, on the grounds that the First Amendment protects both freedom of religion and freedom of speech, and therefore equal treatment should given to both.

Matthew Joseph Harrington

Clearly you raise some arguments that not all would agree to. The requirement that no officers be commissioned unless they have served years as enlisted personnel is clearly mad: doctors and nurses are commissioned, and to impose four years as ward orderlies in addition to their medical training would insure a shortage of doctors. There are other objections to this proposed rule, and to other rules you propose. I would certainly be in favor of exempting authors from self-employment taxes, but I might be thought prejudiced on that subject. I’m still paying for self-employment.

DEA was once under the FDA. I have long advocated that FDA have labeling authority, but not to restrict sales but not blanket authority trod prevent medical professionals from using product. Periodically that is raised in Congress, usually as an exception for “Last resort” and hopeless cases but so far without success. The urge to mind other people’s business is extremely strong, and the FDA protects its turf.

sc:bubbles]

Space junk – it’s what’s up there…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3950304/One-million-pieces-space-junk-hurtling-planet-spell-disaster-life-Earth.html

“Currently the biggest piece of junk flying 225 km (140 miles) above the Earth is Envisat, an Earth observation satellite the size of a double decker bus launched by the European Space Agency in 2002.

“Other hazards include a swarm of 2,000 pieces of debris left by the collision in 2009 of a defunct Russian satellite, Cosmo, and a US commercial satellite.”

Includes link to video. 

Charles Brumbelow

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