| Friday,
August 8, 2008 This morning the talk shows are full of the
story about the Senate Gang of Ten and some kind of screwy compromise on
domestic oil drilling.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB12181529
3390922431.html?mod=Election2008_Opinion
I had never heard of this until I heard something on the
radio about it, then I saw the column in today's Wall Street Journal.
The Gang of Ten is headed by Lindsay Graham. I suppose I ought to be
astonished: after all, this is the one issue on which McCain is on both the
right and the winning side. A great majority of the American people want
domestic and offshore drilling. Increased domestic oil supplies will both
reduce oil prices and decrease the amount of money we send overseas to
sovereign investment funds that seek to buy the United States in fee simple.
But then I remembered, this is the party that routinely
snatches defeat from the jaws of victory. This is the party that ran Bob
Dole (Bob Dole wants to be President now. It's my turn!), the only man
Clinton could defeat.
It's a bit early to see what McCain will do about this. The
story is old, but no one paid attention to it -- it's the first I heard of
it -- until now. No doubt we will hear a lot more in future.
The energy crisis is quite real, and the only way out is
more energy. There are many possible sources, some more important than
others, and we really do need to conserve oil -- as I said in A Step Farther
Out thirty years ago, oil is far to valuable to set a match to. It's a good
energy source, but it's also great as a feed stock for industrial processes.
And the US dependence on foreign oil is definitely a national security
issue. We ought to be investing heavily in new energy sources -- as I said
before we invaded Mesopotamia, for a lot less than the cost of the war we
could have, in about ten years, have just about ended US dependence on
foreign oil.
That could still happen.
For a PDF copy of A Step Farther Out:
============
The Republican Gang of Ten senators are defending their
compromise as being a reasonable path to some off-shore drilling. Their
compromise, they say, will allow drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which is
certainly the first place we ought to be drilling.
=================
Roberta will be coming back from the desert where she was
visiting the latest grandchild just in time for us to go to Sky Dayton's
birthday party tonight.
==================
Olympic videos
Jerry:
Rather than the usual news sites, I recommend
http://www.nbcolympics.com/
which is a special NBC site. Some videos require Silverlight. And may
require users to update to latest version linked from the site.
Totally official, clips play on my Mac in Leopard. Not
sure how well streams will scale when it gets hammered when folks find live
content here and very delayed coverage on the 9 various network channels. I
don't see two of the special NBC channels on my guide with TimeWarner cable
for Los Angeles area but maybe its hidden somewhere I missed.
For example, Ch. 4 in Los Angeles will air opening
ceremony on about 15 hour delay at 8pm PDT and it will probably run past its
time slot.
--Jim
I generally don't watch sports, so I have no basis of
comparison. Thanks.
================
Roland sent me a link to this:
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38793/108/
I haven't had enough experience with this to have a valid
opinion, but it does seem a bit paranoid. Does Microsoft do this?
Meanwhile I have this alert:
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/08/08/
vista39s-security-rendered-completely-useless-by-new-exploit
This is potentially a terribly serious thing.
=================
Potentially Important debate ahead:
Bombs, publishers, and
the First Amendment. See Mail
==============
Harry Erwin informs me that Russia and Georgia are
now at War.
My first response is to thank God NATO hasn't admitted Georgia.
==========
And there are new
arguments in the Ivins case. I have no fixed opinion on the matter.
===========
As if all that weren't enough for a day we have:
Neurophone
Dr. Pournelle -
Back in 1962 I read the Life magazine article about
the neurophone and have wondered ever since what happened to that invention.
Today someone sent me this link:
http://lifetechnologynews.blogspot.com/2008/08/
patrick-flanagan-and-amazing-neurophone.html
which appears to quote you about this device.
Are the quotes attributed to you and G. Harry Stine
correct?
Do you have any comments on this device you could
share?
I work in the audio field and a device which could
allow hearing while bypassing the room acoustics and ears would be a
revolution, particularly if it was not a single user device like headphones.
Ray A. Rayburn
I have not thought about this since the 1980's. I did indeed write the
remarks attributed to me: they were in one of my columns for Analog Science
Fiction. Do note that what I said was a general defense of amateur science
contributions, not of the neurophone itself. To the best of my recollection
I never saw a Neurophone, much less allowed myself to be hooked up to one;
not that I would have been reluctant to do so, but I never was offered the
opportunity.
Now that I am somewhat
deaf -- I have had hearing problems since December of 1950, but since the
radiation therapy it's a lot more general and a lot worse -- I would be
interested in the neurophone for obvious reasons; but I don't know any more
about it than you will find in the article.
Regarding G. Harry Stine: Harry was less
skeptical than I am about many things. He firmly believed that
Dean had invented a
spacedrive, and that Colonel William Davis, Ph.D. had come up
with a theory on how
it would work without violating all the principles of physics. You can find
out what I believed on that in my
report available here. Among other things I used a small grant to
assemble several experts including Harry in a conference about the matter.
Harry believed in some other amazing gadgets and theories, and accepted
third party reports on their effects. I tend not to do that. I have
sometimes persuaded people I trust to visit someone who claims extraordinary
results such as thought control of mechanical devises, but that's not quite
the same thing; besides, they never actually were able to see the devices in
action. There were always good reasons that it wasn't available "today" even
though appointments had been made weeks in advance. That's one reason I
generally don't travel long distances to observe some --I won't say
supernatural -- extraordinary or theoretically impossible results.
Indeed, I long to see a result that makes me believe in reactionless
drives, anti-gravity, thought control of mechanical objects, energy beams
from human eyes, or anything else that would usually be considered
paranormal or supernatural or scientifically revolutionary. I would love to
see cold fusion working.
What I don't need is new theories on how these things can work. I am
probably not going to understand these new theories to begin with, and even
if I do my opinion on the subject isn't worth much. Results, repeatable
results, are something else. There is a sense in which science is best
described as something you can put in a letter to a colleague telling him
how to get the same results you did: when that happens you have science,
repeatable results.
Harry more than once offered to demonstrate some of the astounding
results he said he had personally observed, but that never happened: he
lived in Phoenix and owned an airplane (a hole in the sky to be filled with
money) and we were never able to get together on such matters. That never
caused me to lose any respect for Harry. We remained good friends, and he
was part of my Council until he died. I think it's a good thing to have
smart people who are a bit less skeptical than I am; I learn a lot from
them.
Back to the neurophone: I have never seen one. I would very much like to
see one and experience its results. Until I do, I have no sensible comments
to make on the subject.
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