| Monday
March 26, 2007
Subject: Letter from England
Commentary:
Gordon Brown (the Chancellor) announced next year's
budget. Lots of sleight of hand. He reduced the income tax by 2%, but the
way he funded it was by eliminating the 10% tax band paid by the poorest. He
similarly reduced the corporation tax rate by eliminating tax credits for
R&D. He freed up some funds to deal with the funding crisis in the National
Health Service, but meanwhile the NHS continues to implode in other ways.
The science community here is up in arms about the
£68,000,000 reduction in Government funded research that was clawed back.
(Last year, they did a similar thing by delaying the announcement of the
approved research grants by a quarter, but the funding eventually came
through. You probably remember my complaining at the time. This year, I
would not have been funded at all.) This claw-back was to pay for rescuing
Rover Motorcars, but it managed to P-O nearly every scientist in the UK.
The cash-for-honours scandal continues to unwind.
Blair avoided being questioned under caution by the police by threatening to
resign. One of his supporters (David Miliband) is being encouraged by those
around Blair to challenge Brown.
News:
Iran took some Royal Marines prisoner in Iraq in
retaliation for American capture of Iranian intelligence officers. The UK
Government is not pleased. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6493391.stm>
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2007/03/25/ wiran425.xml>
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/
story/0,,2042289,00.html> <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
world/middle_east/ article1565688.ece> <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.
jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/25/ wiran125.xml>
British political news. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6492417.stm>
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2042290,00.html>
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/
story/0,,2042455,00.html>
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/
columnists/simon_jenkins/ article1563712.ece>
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2007/03/25/ nrbudget25.xml>
Cash-for-honours stories.
<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2390949.ece>
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2007/03/25/ nhons25.xml>
Raid on research funds. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6419261.stm>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6384499.stm>
The coach for the Pakistani national cricket team was
strangled in Jamaica. Later it emerged he was writing a book about the
corruption in the sport. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/6492749.stm>
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6492279.stm>
<http://observer.guardian.co.uk/sport/story/0,,2042512,00.html>
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/
cricket/article1565689.ece>
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?
xml=/news/2007/03/25/ nrwool25.xml>
Belarussian politics <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6493441.stm>
NHS problems. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6484285.stm>
Final showdown in Zimbabwe. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1563672.ece>
Nuclear energy in the UK?
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?
xml=/money/2007/03/25/ cnenergy25.xml>
-- Harry Erwin, PhD, Program Leader, MSc Information
Systems Security, University of Sunderland.
<http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw> Weblog at:
<http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw/blog/index.php>
=============
"What we use here, rightly or wrongly, is a
reasonable-suspicion standard."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400944_pf.html
- Roland Dobbins
==========
"This is like the Holy Grail for a rocket enthusiast
without much money."
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
la-sci-junkyard25mar25,1,776521,full.story
--- Roland Dobbins
========
our foreign trade
Hello Dr. Pournelle:
At the risk of coming across as a xenophobe, I have to
say that, as the old saying goes "they do not live as we live." Now we have
pet deaths, caused by wheat gluten imported from China. This was
contaminated with a type of antibiotic, sometimes used as a rat poison,
which is no longer allowed to be used in this country: but it is apparently
still used in China. When you engage in unlimited trade, you often trade
more than just goods. You sometimes trade your production safeguards, and
standards, for the less stringent regulations, or lack of regulations, of
other countries. This could not have happened with domestic wheat, because
the use of this poison is forbidden here. This also indicates the
unpredictability of the whole One World system of trade. These pet foods
were imported from Canada, and were made by a Canadian company, which used
gluten imported from China.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260862,00.html
So we allow unrestricted immigration across our
southern borders, and get outbreaks of food contamination, and see new
outbreaks of diseases which we had eradicated a century ago, while we allow
a flood of products form China, a country with much different standards than
our own, and get wheat gluten laced with a poison not allowed to be used
here. This is not the first toxic product to come to our shores from China.
A short search brings many examples. The pervasive lead contamination, found
in so many plastic products made in China, is due to the fact that one of
the big sources of plastic used there, comes from recycled lead acid
batteries, primarily from waste management firms in America. Such a thing
would not be allowed here, due to health concerns; but is permitted in
China. Because fo the cost of proper disposal here, many so called recycling
firms skirt the regulations, by sending old batteries to China, where they
are broken up, and melted down for use in industry. Many of the products, so
manufactured, are then sent back here. A similar process is used to
"recycle" discarded compter and electrical gear.
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/lead/topics/index.html
Needless to say, this creates a really toxic
environment in China. Then again, this is the country which runs protesters
over with tanks, and executes prisoners, so that they may be surgically
disassembled, and sold to foreigners for transplants. Under such a
government, it can not be expected that there would be too much concern over
a bit of poison in the environment, or against what the west would consider
to be sub standard working conditions. If we are so anxious to save a few
dollars on light bulbs, and underwear, that we continue to let these jobs go
to other countries, we may soon find ourselves being forced to accept
sustenance level pay, and poor working conditions, in order to compete. The
transformation will than have been complete. We will have imported China
living standards, even as we are seeking to import third world lifestyles
from Mexico, through massive immigration.
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/16/archibald.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5386720.stm
This is not necessarily meant as a criticism of these
competing countries, or as some sort of ethnocentric rant. Rather, it is
meant to illustrate the reason that people band together to form countries
in the first place. One of the reasons that people band together in nations
is, to preserve and protect their way of life. Trade, then, should take this
into consideration. To the people of China, it may, or may not, be worth the
sacrifices, lower standards, and shortcuts being made, in order to develop
their economy, and their country. To those of us here in America, it is not.
A form of trade which allows jobs, and entire industries, to be moved off
shore, does not preserve and protect our way of life. I don't know that it
is doing much for the people of China, though the government and the new
industrialist class are certainly profiting. The way things stand right now,
we are serving ourselves the worst, from each plate. On the one hand, much
of our industrial production is being strangled by regulations which are
often too exacting, and encourage industry to leave. So we lose jobs, or
must accept lower pay, or less amenable working conditions, than might
otherwise be the case. On the other hand, we are not even benefiting from
many of these regulations when substandard, dangerous, or toxic products,
manufactured in places with lax regulations, are allowed in.
In case anyone is thinking that the wheat gluten
incident only occurred because of lower standards in regards to pet foods,
it might be interesting to note that many imported foods from China have
problems. When fruits, and other crops are grown in areas where there is
little oversight or pollution control, you get contaminated food. You also
get contaminated food, when packaging is imprinted with lead based dyes, or
candies are wrapped with lead contaminated plastic wrappers.
http://www.cchealth.org/topics/lead_poison/alerts_plums.php
Welcome to the brave new world. The third world.
Neal Pritchett
We should be looking ahead to see how we can
maintain a First World economy. We now that can be done without Free Trade,
for we have done it. What man has done, man can aspire to. Whether the
current system of free trade, credentialist union dominated bad schools, job
exports, and open borders will sustain a First World economy for very long
is not so clear. However, the CEO's of our big corporations will have
deployed their Golden Parachutes and taken their retirement bonuses and they
will be able to buy whatever the want. The very rich do quite well in Second
World and Third World economies. The rest of us may not fare quite so well.
It's an interesting experiment we are running.
===========
Subject: The pill against global warming.
Hi Jerry, there is news on the belching cows:
Now it seems that scientists in Germany has found a
pill against global warming from belching cows!
The pill reduces methane output from the cows, and
should even increase the milk production and wellbeing of the cows.
News article in The Guardian:
http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2040846,00.html
Report in German:
http://www.innovations-report.de/html/
berichte/umwelt_naturschutz/bericht-80843.html
Regards
Bo Andersen Denmark
Hurrah!
==========
Subject: DOE Policy Update: Polygraphs
Via Bruce Schneier,
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL31988.pdf. DOE continues to use
polygraphs, but moving away from using them for screening and more towards
investigations of specific incidents. Concerns about false positives and
learned countermeasures influence this move.
-Max Wilson
P.S. This paragraph particularly interesting. "In its
1983 report, OTA asserted that the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA)
employ the polygraph as an interrogation technique with the goal of
encouraging admissions rather than as a method to determine deception or
truthfulness, per se. OTA further noted that NSA security adjudicators are
more interested in the pre-test and post-test responses than in any other
examination results produced by the polygraph. OTA concluded that the
Intelligence Community's research measured the polygraph's utility, rather
than its scientific validity."
-Max
==========
If New Mexico Builds It, Will Space Travelers Come?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2007/03/25/AR2007032501385_pf.html
-- Roland Dobbins
But note:
Not everybody feels the love
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=
NGVjOWVkZDY0MDlhNzQzNTQzNmZlMzc4Y2MyNTZlMjQ=
I do note that the Constitution explicitly
authorizes the Federal Government to build post roads, and the Erie Canal
and other such improvements were done largely with government funding. There
are enterprises which have great general benefit but low return to any
individual; Adam Smith discusses such cases as have economists ever since.
Railroads and canals; highways; while there are and have been boondoggles in
plenty, it is hard to argue that the country would have been better off
without the government infrastructure investments.
==========
Study Links Child Care and Bad Behavior
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,261141,00.html
"WASHINGTON - Children who got quality child care
before entering kindergarten had better vocabulary scores in the fifth grade
than did youngsters who received lower quality care."
"Also, the more time that children spent in child
care, the more likely their sixth grade teachers were to report problem
behavior."
In other words, classrooms with slow kids become too
boring for those who had the pre-school head start. Bored kids become
problems. Duh!
Fix the freaking schools, folks!
{^_-}
==
“They knew this would be disturbing news for parents,
but at some point, if that’s what you’re finding, then you have to report
it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/us/
26center.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
-- Roland Dobbins
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