View 558 February 16

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View 558 February 16 - 22, 2009

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Highlights this week:

Democracy in action
Cochran and Harpening on recent human evolution
Lamarck returns. Was Lysenko on to something?
Minor comments on current economics
Chuck Crayne, RIP
Escape from Hell (Inferno 2) now available. So is the original Inferno.

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This is a Day Book. Pages are in chronological, not blogological order.

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Monday, February 16, 2009

The financial mess in California continues. One side says there won't be any drastic cuts: the number of government workers and their pay remains no matter what, and the only way to have a budget is to charge everyone with enough taxes to pay. The other side says there's no room for more taxes in what is an overtaxed state to begin with. A continuing drama. People are leaving the state because they can't pay the taxes.

It is essentially the way the classical political philosophers would have predicted that democracy would go. It's not so much that the voters vote themselves largess from the public treasury, although that certainly happens; it is that those with a particular interest, such as civil servant including teachers and prison guards unions will always organize effectively while those who are affected less directly won't, and the result will go in one direction. We're certainly getting an illustration of that in California.

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Richard and my granddaughter are here. Mail later today.

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Review: The 10,000 Year Explosion

ARE humans still evolving? It's a controversial and exciting question. And according to Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending, the answer is a resounding "yes"

http://www.newscientist.com/article/
mg20126952.400-review-the-10000-year-
explosion-by-gregory-cochran-and-henry-harpending.html

An important book. Recommended.

================

http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/
pub/2009/3/a-nuke-on-the-yukon

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And this may be the most important finding in a decade. It may not be: there's a lot of pressure on scientists to find precisely these results.

Jerry: Nature vs. nurture takes a detour? Inheritable learning?

<http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22061/>

Chris C

But it is a matter of great importance to find out. For those getting here through the summary heading, no, I don't think Lysenko was on to something, although his original experiments may have been well intended. For those who don't know, the Chevalier de La Marck postulated that evolution proceeded through inheritance of acquired traits. This was well before Darwin, and LaMarck operated more as a philosopher than as a scientist. His view has largely been considered refuted, is sometimes ridiculed. A number of experiments such as cutting off the tails of generations of mice, were also considered refutations.

Clearly some "acquired" characteristics can be inherited: that is, it is possible to damage one's genetic potential through environmental activities, but that is not quite the same thing.

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Monday TOP Current Mail

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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Apparently the Stimulus Bill repealed the Clinton Welfare Reform.

I had errands this morning, and I have to go work on Mamelukes. John DeChancie tells me that "Mamluk" is a term of insult in the Sicilian dialect of Italian, which is interesting. I can speculate on why, but I never heard that before. Anyway, I have to get to work. I'll have comments later, but for now, there's mail on a variety of topics including Francis Hamit on eBook formats.

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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I am hard at work on Mamelukes. I am trying to follow current events, and if there are matters that I have any special insights on I'll write about them. So far, I don't think anyone knows what is going on. Some believe we are at rock bottom. The question is, given the way Congress has become the Board of Directors for nearly every major industry in the country, it's hard to see just what is going to happen. I doubt a Congressional Committee and its Chairs will do a better job of managing an automobile company than the current GM management -- but it may be able to exempt itself from the regulations and restrictions that have heavily contributed to the ruin of that industry. Note that I said contributed; I know very well that that Big Auto management has been a major contributor to their problems. Trying to keep both Congress and customers happy is not easy, and the US auto companies have not been able to do that.

Given the benefits nut that US auto companies carry, it may be that they can't be saved at all; and there are regulations deliberately put into place in order to make startups very difficult to impossible (and thus limit competition to the auto industry -- classical case of Adam Smith's warning that capitalists will always try to get government to restrict competitive entry into their markets by imposing regulations that beginning companies will have trouble meeting). Yet the United States needs new industries; we desperately need manufacturing jobs.

The economic forecasts are gloomy despite the hastily passed stimulus package; and we haven't seen what new regulations are hidden in the stimulus package. I doubt that anyone has read the entire bill even yet.

The best way out of this mess is the German Economic Miracle way: suspend regulations. All regulations. Make it easy to start new companies. Let ingenuity work to allocate capital. Of course we won't do that.

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Chuck Crayne, RIP

We were good friends when he lived down here, and contributed a book on writing in assembly language to the brief series of computer books that Jim Baen and I tried to start back in CP/M and S-100 small computer days. The series was way before its time. Chuck's wife Dian contributed stories about a ditzy housewife married to a high tech engineer in a high tech society. Given that Chuck was a senior Systems Engineer for IBM she had a good background for those although she's not a ditz.

If you made a list of the five best poker players who went to what used to be the weekly games at Larry Niven's house, Chuck would have been on it; actually he'd have been in the top three.

Chuck moved out of the LA Area a decade ago, and I have seldom heard from or of him since. For a good review of his science fiction fannish activities see Mike Glyer's web site.

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As usual there is interesting mail, including comments on ebooks.

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And Roberta sends this:

Check out this great article:

http://www.NaturalNews.com/025648.html

It's really interesting!

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Escape from Hell

I have yet to get any copies myself, but many have got copies of ESCAPE FROM HELL or INFERNO II as we originally titled it.

Now if everyone who bought the original Inferno (which is available in a new edition if yours has worn out!) will buy a copy of ESCAPE FROM HELL, it will be a best seller. Tell your friends.

Escape from Hell continues the adventures of Allen Carpenter, who finds himself in the Inferno as described by Dante Alighieri. One of my working titles for the book was "Vatican 2 meets Dante." People encountered include Sylvia Plath, Albert Camus, and Carl Sagan. There are many others. Most think it's a pretty good read.

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

First some good news:

Arctic Ice Extent Understated

It turns out that the National Snow and Ice Data Center has been hit with something called "sensor drift". This means that all their doom and gloom about the North Pole being ice free due to global warming is wrong. There is approximately 500,000 sq. kilometers (193,00 sq. miles) more ice than they previously thought. I guess the polar bears may not go extinct after all.

http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/

Tim Boettcher

================

More good news: Sir Terry Pratchett

http://news.bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/entertainment/7896865.stm

===================

The bailout debates continue. Meanwhile California will have about $1500 per taxpayer added to their bill. That means I need more subscribers to stay in business. For the first time I regret not selling out back in the boom and moving to a saner state. I suppose I don't: if I'd done that I might not be here at all. Counting blessings: without Kaiser Sunset and the doctors there I would be dead. So I suppose I shouldn't have any remorse about staying in Los Angeles. I do have to start working harder to pay the new taxes. Astonishing. I wonder how many California tax payers will simply bug out? There is no end to the demand for more tax money.

Taxation without representation is tyranny. Taxation with representation is unendurable as the voters decide to spread the wealth around. Under the new dispensation, the only people who are safe are government employees.

The purpose of government is to hire and pay government workers; and that's a ratchet. Once hired they will be paid, and the raises will continue. Of course the results of the tax raise will be further to depress California's collapsing economy. And I have to get back to work. I need the money.

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The following is a repeat, of course:

Escape from Hell

I have yet to get any copies myself, but many have got copies of ESCAPE FROM HELL or INFERNO II as we originally titled it.

Now if everyone who bought the original Inferno (which is available in a new edition if yours has worn out!) will buy a copy of ESCAPE FROM HELL, it will be a best seller. Tell your friends.

=====================

Vladimir Putin warns against socialism. I am astounded.

We are to live within our means. One wonders when the government will learn to live within its means? But that, I think, will not happen in my lifetime.

Meanwhile, according to the radio, Obama has returned a bust of Winston Churchill as unwanted, and the Brits are somewhere between mystified and angry. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
worldnews/northamerica/usa/
barackobama/4623148/Barack-Obama-
sends-bust-of-Winston-Churchill-on-
its-way-back-to-Britain.html

===============

Niven and I will be at

Mystery & Imagination Bookshop

www.mysteryandimagination.com

238 N Brand Blvd
Glendale, CA 91203
(818) 545-0206

this Saturday to sign books and talk to people. A good time will be had by all.\

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Friday, February 20, 2009

A bit rushed this morning. When I get back from my walk I'll put up a number of letters and my comments on the air superiority fighter and air strategy in general.

Thanks to all who recently subscribed. And thanks to those who bought Escape from Hell. Note we have a book signing in Glendale tomorrow.

============

We are back from our walk. There is considerable mail including a comprehensive discussion of air procurement and grand tactics. There's more, and it's all good. Go see mail while I go work on Mamelukes, which is coming along nicely, and I know the next scene I have to write.

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Dear Dr. Pournelle,

The tinfoil hat brigade is at it again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology
/technology/google/4731313/Google-Ocean-Has-
Atlantis-been-found-off-Africa.html

followed by:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article
-1150846/Hopes-dashed-Google-Ocean-image
-lost-city-Atlantis-proves-sort.html

Where is your article on Atlantis (originally in VERTEX during the summer of '73; my copy is long gone)? If anyone can send it to you or otherwise get it online I think alot of people would appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Frank Luxem

"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."--Mark Twain

Alas. I saw the original but I didn't think it likely. Also, Atlantis was curved, not square, but that's another story. I wish I had my old VERTEX article, but I don't think I have a copy. That was back a long time ago. I suppose I could look through old files.

If anyone has one, please let me know. I'd like to scan in my old article.

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Niven will be over in a few minutes so we can go do a book signing in Glendale. I am still trying to catch up, and it's a mystery to me where the hours go every day. The good news is that I'm getting a good bit of work done on Mamelukes, and I have some notes for another novel to work on when that one is done. It's time for some rousing good stories...

I'm also doing the February Mailbag which I hope to have up next week. And there's a great deal of mail to post; I get more interesting mail than I have time and space to post. From time to time people ask how they can do direct inputs here. I have resisted that: it's not that I'd get a lot of bad or silly mail, but there would be a lot of duplication, and the major advantage here is that I only put up stuff I think is interesting (on the theory that if I am interested, you are likely to be). The downside of that is that I get whelmed by good stuff and can't always keep up. I do try not to overload the system. And I still contend that I have the most interesting mail section on the web.

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

For a picture taken at the book signing see http://file770.com/

I took the day off, because I had to have Firestone look at a low tire. Turned out to be a good thing to do: there was a nail in it. When I bought the tires they came with a road hazard warranty so all it cost me was a bit of time, and it's all fixed again.

Watched the Oscars. No real surprises there.

The February Mailbag is up at Chaos Manor Reviews

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Sunday TOP Current View

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