| Wednesday,
January 2, 2008
We just spent three days in Edinburgh. That's one of the
nice things about the UK--it's easy to get away for quick break.
If you think the US Census Long Form is intrusive,
take a look at
this: < http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/
0,,2233296,00.html> < http://tinyurl.com/yssw9r>
Gordon Brown warns about the coming year--reminds me
of those bad news/ worse news jokes: < http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2233303,00.html
> < http://tinyurl.com/ytqhaa>
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article3108141.ece
> < http://tinyurl.com/2enckm>
Is there hope? < http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3293982.ece
> < http://tinyurl.com/2dwcdl>
Police mad: < http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2233305,00.html
> < http://tinyurl.com/29g9k5>
University funding: < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/
7164699.stm>. The Labour Government doesn't believe
people should change their minds after the age of 16 about their chosen
career.
Since most clergy enter the ministry after a
life-changing event, this has the Church concerned. (Having changed my
career several times and grown through each change, the Government belief
looks rather wrong- headed to me, too,)
Why am I not surprised? < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7163741.stm
>
Blow-back: < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7161071.stm>
Something about chickens and a roost: < http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/27/uk_public_sector_outsourcing_cost_overruns/
> < http://tinyurl.com/yqmy38>
A Christmas gift for you, Jerry: < http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/27/anton_wylie_climate_models/
> < http://tinyurl.com/2aqbtf>
--
"Truth is the intersection of independent lies."
(Richard Levins, 1966) Harry Erwin, PhD
===============
Piper Memorial Web Site
Hi Jerry,
Happy New Years! Please post this where you think it
will do the most good. All the footwork is done and we're hoping to raise
enough money to put up the new Piper Memorial Gravestone this year. I was
also able to list the new website in my Piper biography which will be out
March 30th, which will help.
Best Wishes,
John
PIPER MEMORIAL WEBSITE UP AND RUNNING
The new Piper website is on the Internet at
www.h-beampiper.com <http://www.h-beampiper.com/>
The H. Beam Memorial Fund was founded by Dennis Frank
and John F. Carr to collect contributions from Piper fans and readers to
purchase a proper granite memorial headstone for Piper’s grave in Fairview
Cemetery, Altoona, Pennsylvania and to pay tribute to the memory of H. Beam
Piper.
It is our plan to raise enough money through
contributions so that we, as a group of Piper fans and admirers, can replace
the existing grass covered marker at Altoona's Fairview Cemetery with a
solid granite memorial stone, which will include an etching of Beam and his
epithet, provided by his ex-wife, Betty Piper in a 1975 letter: "One line in
our French divorce pleased him very much—it was: ‘He always maintained his
independence,’ he said he wanted that on his tombstone.”
H. Beam Piper was born in Altoona. Pennsylvania and
lived most of his life there until 1957 when he moved to Williamsport. He
was fascinated by Pennsylvania history and wrote a number of articles on
local history for the local papers. He was also a Civil War buff and knew
the intimate details of almost every battle. He is considered by many to
have been Pennsylvania’s finest science fiction author.
Piper was a fascinating character with a wry wit, and
an irreverent view of science fiction, his own foibles and those of the
human species. His foremost novels, "Little Fuzzy," "Cosmic Computer,"
"Space Viking," and "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" are science fiction classics.
Piper’s humanity and informed intelligence grace every page of his writings.
Beam was an original, even for his own time.
It is only fitting that we who love his work want to
memorialize his burial site. The new headstone will be composed of gray
granite (Rock of Ages) and will cost approximately $5,115.00, which is the
Altoona Memorial Studio estimate. We plan to raise the money through
contributions to the new Memorial Website.
SEND YOUR DONATIONS TO:
Donations can be made via PayPal at H-BeamPiper.com,
or by sending a check or money order to:
H. Beam Piper Memorial Fund P.O. Box 96 Boalsburg, PA
16827.
John F. Carr
www.hostigos.com
As most of you know, John Carr worked for me
as editor of my anthologies for many years, and Beam Piper and I were
friends when he was alive.
========
Francis Hamit has
written an essay on Print on Demand publishing, reflecting his experiences
to date. Readers will recall his previous reports on electronic publishing.
I have opened a Reports page for
this latest POD essay.
============
Inching towards Velikovsky.
Velikovsky believed the Earth was moonless within the
era of humans or proto-humans, though he thought it was likely captured,
rather than ejected from the Earth itself due to extreme vulcanism or
impact.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/
2007/12/071219-moon-collision.html
- Roland Dobbins
Inching indeed...
========
"Whatever comes
to pass in Pakistan, it won't look like Chicago."
But, it *might* end up looking like the Bronx. :(
(How sad it was to see the transition from a place
where a kid could safely go for walks in the woods (alone!) -- *real* woods
-- picking berries, taking landscape photos with his father's Kodak Retina
on glorious Kodachrome II, to a place where even the police fear to tread
alone. When last I visited, it seemed like Beirut after its fall.)
Ron "Former Bronxite" Schwarz
-- Photos:
http://www.michi-kogaku.com/picsdir
Modern "Privacy": "If you have nothing to hide, you
have nothing to fear."
Suggestion: Watch "Cabaret!" (It's a documentary, not
a musical; a portrait of the end-game of a decadent culture.)
==========
Subject: your response to Mr. Crawford
Dr. Pournelle,
On your response to Mr. Crawford's remarks I can only
say hear, hear and I hope he had his wife's permission to send that email.
This sort of thing is why I subscribe.
My wife and I enjoyed briefly meeting you and Mrs.
Pournelle and Mr. Niven last spring in Baltimore. Hope you're on the East
Coast again soon or we're in CA.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Productive New Year!
Infrequently yours,
Ron Booker
==========
WALKING THE PLANKTOS
<http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/12/walking-the-pla.html>
What do you get when Cold Fusion fraudsters spy money
being made elsewhere?
http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/12/walking-the-pla.html
<http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/12/walking-the-pla.html>
Admiralty Lawyers Avast ! Here be a new Tort : Carbon
Offset Piracy
-- Russell Seitz
===========
Subj: ARTILLERY: M109 Replacement Enters Production
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htart/articles/20071221.aspx
>>The current self-propelled system, the M-109, is a
fifty year old design. Although the M-109 has been frequently updated, the
NLOS-C incorporates many new technologies. This includes an auto-loader
(from the Crusader) and a more modern 155mm gun (the M-777, a towed, British
designed system) and an APC chassis with a hybrid-electric engine (to reduce
fuel consumption.) This all weighs 23 tons, about the same as the M-109. But
the NLOS only has a two man crew, compared to five in the M-109.<<
>>Meanwhile, the new Excalibur GPS guided shell, which
entered service in the past year, could change everything. Excalibur appears
to work in combat, and this is radically changing the way artillery
operates. Excalibur means 80-90 percent less ammo has to be fired, resulting
in less wear and tear on NLOS-C (and less time needed for maintenance), and
less time replenishing ammo supplies, and more time being ready for
action.<<
Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com
=========
Creg Cochran - "There isn't much piracy."
Dr Pournelle
Greg Cochran wrote "There isn't much piracy."
I call 'Bullshit'.
"According to the International Marine Bureau (IMB),
an organization that compiles information on world piracy, more than 290
pirate attacks occurred across the globe from January to September of this
year, up from 180 in the same period last year--marking a ten-year-high in
maritime attacks."
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_12_100/ai_67830927
The International Marine Bureau's 2007 piracy map
http://www.icc-ccs.org/extra/display.php Look at the map and tell me with a
straight face that there isn't much piracy.
The monthly Piracy Report section of the January 2008
issue of Lattitudes and Attitudes magazine occupies two pages (10 reports
spanning 26 September 2007 to 01 November 2007). The free on-line issue of
Latts&Atts is availlable at
http://viewer.zmags.com/showmag.php?mid=pwqwt
The Piracty Report spans pages 28 and 29.
When I got full of myself and posted 'Pray there be
law', you called 'Bullshit' on me and roasted me. I deserved it. I swallowed
my ego (damn near choked to death doing it) and came back better for the
spanking.
I have reason to believe that Greg Cochran is a friend
of yours. But he speaks from ignorance.
Piracy is a growing problem.
This is tied to the decline of the American Navy. Am I
the only one who visits Chaos Manor who sees in the rise of piracy the
parallels in the decline of Pax Romana and Pax Americana? Surely not.
For my part, I want to hear more from Brendan Kelly
('Republics and Empires'; Chaos Manor Mail; Thursday, December 20, 2007). I
don't see the parallel to the Carolingian Empire or the Byzantine, but I
found his references to Odoacer and his Ostrogoths to be spot on.
Respectfully to you, but I call 'Bullshit' on Greg
Cochran
h lynn keith
==
Subject: Getting the facts right
Dr. P,
I hope Earl's facts about the severity of modern
piracy are more accurate than his historical claims. Getting the facts
behind his ending throw-away line so wrong says nothing good regarding the
credibility of his other claims.
Just to set the record straight for your readers who
have only heard the abridged version, there really was an attack on the U.S.
Navy in the Tonkin Gulf, albeit a rather one-sided affair reminiscent of a
cartoon where the kid tries to beat up a giant. In broad daylight, the U.S.S.
Maddox did indeed exchange fire with real, live patrol boats operated by the
navy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, with the Navy demonstrating how
much better it was at giving. The fact that reports of a second, night-time
attack 2 days later were wrong does not change the fact that there was an
initial attack.
More blatantly, the "Cambodian rescue effort" was
undertaken by the Navy and Marines under CinC Ford, not Reagan.
Regards,
Bill Clardy
==
Dear Doctor Pournelle,
Earl, whose letter you posted on on 12/20/07, seems a
bit confused:
"except when we want to go to war (i.e. the non attack
in Tonkin Gulf or when Reagan wanted to regain a bit of our lost honor in
the Cambodian rescue effort)."
I'll leave aside the politically correct lie that
there was no attack at all in the soi disant "Tonkin Gulf Incidents" of
1964. But Ronald Reagan was still the former governor of California in May
of 1975 when the "Cambodian rescue effort" occurred (presuming that is what
Earl calls the attack to rescue the crew of the container ship USS Mayaguez,
hijacked in an act of piracy by the Khmer Rouge in May of 1975) . It may
have been an act in part intended to rescue some honor (precious little
after abandoning our Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian allies a month
earlier), but it was done by President Gerald R. Ford, not Ronald Reagan.
Thanks for all you do, and keep up the good work.
We do appreciate it out here.
Petronius
==========
Subj: Expanding the Republic is still possible
Contrary to Brendan Kelly's contention, all we have to
do is turn ninety degrees -- straight up, into the High Frontier.
Even if our Destiny is still to repeat the British
Imperial pattern, this would let us repeat the part where they planted,
before they slid off into their downward spiral, a fresh, free
sapling-nation in the frontier -- in their case, the US.
One might also observe that the British colonies in
America, that became the US, were planted by private commercial ventures
rather than by government-financed expeditions. And one might infer from
that a special importance of the private space-launch industry, and infer as
well that withdrawing from the execrable "Treaty on Principles Governing the
Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including
the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" might be even more important than not
ratifying the execrable "United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea".
One might almost think Someone should have written a
science fiction story, or two or ten, along those lines.
Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com
=========
Subject: Netscape So Long
Jerry,
Netscape will soon be no more...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,318874,00.html
Netscape Navigator, the world's first commercial Web
browser and the launch pad of the Internet boom, will be pulled off life
support Feb. 1 after a 13-year run.
<snip>
"While internal groups within AOL have
invested a great deal of time and energy in attempting to revive
Netscape Navigator, these efforts have not been successful in gaining
market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer," Netscape Director Tom
Drapeau wrote in a blog entry Friday.
Jim
I remember Alex and I drove up to San
Francisco for the grand opening announcement of Internet Explorer. It was a
big party, and Gates said, "Well, the price is right..."
I also recall that Netscape was saying
they would develop an operating system and put Microsoft out of business.
Serious about it, they were, too.
===========
We live in interesting
times.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/
16/AR2007121602056_pf.html
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/
2007-12-27-voa1.cfm
http://news.independent.co.uk/
world/asia/article3298364.ece
-- Roland Dobbins
We do indeed. All three articles are worth
attention.
===========
More benefits of immigration.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/01/
family.dead.ap/index.html
-- Roland Dobbins
TOP
CURRENT
VIEW Wednesday
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