picture of me

Chaos Manor Home Page > View Home Page > Current Mail Page > Chaos Manor Reviews Home Page

THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 565 April 6 - 12, 2009

 

read book now

HOME

VIEW

MAIL

Columns

BOOK Reviews

Chaos Manor Reviews

Platinum Subscription:

  CHAOS MANOR REVIEWS

FOR BOOKS OF THE MONTH 1994-Present Click HERE

Last Week's View           Next Week's View

emailblimp.gif (23130 bytes)

For Current Mail click here.

Atom FEED from Chaos Manor

This site looks better if you set your default font to Georgia.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Highlights this week:

  •  
  • The rise and fall of Thinking Machines
    • Feynman and Thinking Machine
  •  
  • Piracy ended
  •  

  For boiler plate, search engine, and notes on what in the world this place is, see below.

For CHAOS MANOR REVIEWS click here

For Previous Weeks of the View, SEE VIEW HOME PAGE

read book now

If you intend to send MAIL to me, see the INSTRUCTIONS.

 

 

 read book now

 

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

line6.gif (917 bytes)

This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Monday, April 6, 2009

Yesterday we drove up to the high desert for our granddaughter's first birthday. I'll have a picture of her first cake shortly, but just now I am catching up. We drove back this morning. It's a long trip, and a bit tiring. And I have the column to get polished and ready to go up tomorrow.

I continue to follow President Obama's continuing campaign with some amazement. I presume he has an objective in mind, but I don't understand what it is, Then again I don't really understand the new administration's foreign policy objectives. I do think that, given how little the other nations contribute to US goals in Iraq and Afghanistan, it may be time to reconsider that particular entangling alliance. NATO was created during the Seventy Years War AKA The Cold War for a specific purpose, keeping the Red Army from driving to the Rhine and beyond. When the Soviet Union came apart some of us wondered why NATO should continue. It seems even less relevant to US goals today. This is an "alliance" in which most of the "allies" contribute very little, while it commits the US to a very great deal.

George Washington advised the US to avoid entangling alliances, and to stay out of the territorial disputes of Europe. That advice suited us well in the early days of the Republic, and seems relevant now. Perhaps I haven't studied the matter sufficiently, but I really don't see what it is that we get from NATO. Or even what NATO is for. It's pretty clear what the NATO Allies get: they can afford a socialist government since their defense costs are tiny. The return to the American taxpayers isn't so clear.

Our new defense budget may reflect some coming changes in that.

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

Larry Summers may be the smartest guy in the Obama Administration. I know little about him except that he managed to lose the confidence of the Harvard Faculty. A friend sent these:

First, a short article on Summers and his recent speaking fees. http://www.tinyrevolution.com
/mt/archives/002917.html

Then:

This link provides a pretty nice article on the situation:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/04/summers/index.html 

I have no direct data. Summers has a very important position and great influence over US economic policy.

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

For platinum subscription:

Platinum subscribers enable me to work on what I think is important without worrying about economics. My thanks to all of you.

Patron Subscription:

Monday   TOP   Current Mail

 
This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Tuesday, April 7, 2009   

The columns is done. Haruna Williams, please send me a valid address.

It's time for our morning walk, return later.

I couldn't resist this one: my grand daughter's first birthday and her first experience of cake...

 

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

I found myself reading all of this:

The Rise and Fall of Thinking Machines.

<http://www.inc.com/magazine/19950915/2622_Printer_Friendly.html>

-- Roland Dobbins

It all happened some time ago. I remember most of the story, except that this one doesn't have Dick Feynman in it, and is a little skimpy on software problems encountered in massively parallel computing systems. (And see below)

I probably should have spent the time thinking about current news, but in fact I find myself unable to understand what President Obama is campaigning for. Surely he doesn't believe in universal nuclear disarmament as a practical policy? I thought we went through most of that a long time ago; I was director of a whole bunch of studies analyzing the conditions required for both nuclear disarmament and General and Complete Disarmament. Many of the problems of those times are gone along with the Soviet Union and the end of chiliastic communism in China, but they've been replaced with other general chaos. Fortunately, I doubt the Congress will allow actual unilateral disarmament.

It is very much time for the US to decide what the Legions are for. What are our foreign policy objectives? Which ones require military power? What kind of military power? There has been no real national debate on this matter, and it's time we had one. Where is the USA going? Are we a Republic guarding our own interests, or something else?

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

 

 

 

 

 read book now

 

Tuesday   TOP  Current Mail

 
 

This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Wednesday,  April 8, 2009

The April column is posted at http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/
oa/2009/20090407_col.php .

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

Four trillion dollars to be spent, but 10% unemployment projected. The Congressional Black Caucus has visited Cuba and is impressed with the sincerity and good will of Fidel Castro. Fidel wants Obama to succeed, and asks how he can help.

Now if anything has ever been clear, it's that the US embargo on Cuba hasn't worked very well. Its origins are from the Cold War when Cuba was a Soviet ally 90 miles off shore, Now that there is no Soviet Union -- indeed, Cuba is one of the last of the old Soviet style dictatorships -- it is past time for a new look at US Caribbean policy. Just what does the embargo do for US national interests?

We have a new letter from England regarding multi-culturalism. See mail.

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

Dick Feynman

Is this, perhaps, the article on Thinking Machines and Dick Feynman that you recalled?

  <http://www.longnow.org/views/
essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php

I just read it, and liked it a lot. Mind you, I'm a sucker for any good Feynman story…

Cheers, Don Wilkes

It is a good story, and completes part of the Thinking Machines picture.

 

 

 

 

 read book now

 

Wednesday  TOP  Current Mail

 

 
 

This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Thursday,  April 9, 2009

It is now over one month since we had an official sunspot. http://www.solarcycle24.com/ Has the Sun gone out? We think we understand where the missing solar neutrinos went -- the theory was wrong so there we shouldn't expect them -- but I've seen nothing that convinces me that the current solar neutrino theory is any better than the old one. (I hasten to add that I am hardly an expert on the subject; I just worry when a major problem is solved by announcing that there wasn't a problem in the first place.)

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

Information wants to be free, and the newspaper industry found out the hard way that this was a formula for suicide. First banner ads, then classifieds went dry. There's talk of charging for information now.
http://www.nytimes.com/
2009/04/08/business/media/
08pay.html?bl&ex=12393360
00&en=75a8bd1abce1493a&ei=5087%0A

This place continues on the Public Radio model: it's free but it exists on subscriptions. My thanks to all who subscribe and renew their subscriptions. Special thanks to the Platinum subscribers who let me choose projects to work on (although this week the IRS has pretty well determined what I'll spend my time doing...)

For platinum subscription:

We take a brief look at threats over in mail. And the April column is posted. http://www.chaosmanorreviews.com/
oa/2009/20090407_col.php

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 read book now

 

Thursday   TOP  Current Mail

 

 
 

This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Friday,  April 10, 2009

Having fun with taxes yet?  It's Good Friday, and I took the day off. I did post some mail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 read book now

Friday   TOP  Current Mail

 

 
This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Saturday,  April 11, 2009

I have taken the day off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday   TOP  Current Mail

 
This week:

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

read book now

TOP

Sunday,  April 12, 2009

Easter Sunday

Happy Easter. Our church was packed this morning. I have never seen such a large crowd.

========

The piracy has ended, with credit to the US Navy. President Obama comes off well, having given command authority to those on the scene. The message is that hijacking a US flag ship is probably not a good way to make a living.

The long term solution to the Somalia piracy problem would be to have NATO enforce the Somali fishing rights so that Somali fishermen would have something legal to do for a living: the Somali waters are pretty well fished out by hi-tech fleets from other countries, and there is no Somali navy or coast guard to either prevent that or collect some fees for what is caught. Confiscating some of the foreign fishing ships that over-fish Somali waters would make a big difference. Unfortunately, much -- perhaps most --  of the fishing on Somali waters is done by Chinese ships. China would veto any UN action, and NATO isn't likely to get into a war with China over Somali fishing rights. I understand that Italian fishing boats also operate in Somali waters; so Italy isn't eager to be involved, either.

========

There is a mixed bag of mail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 read book now

 Sunday   TOP        Current View  

 Current Mail

This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the weekly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 8,000 - 12,000 words, depending.  (Older columns here.) For more on what this page is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE. If you have never read the explanatory material on that page, please do so. If  you got here through a link that didn't take you to the front page of this site, click here for a better explanation of what we're trying to do here. This site is run on the "public radio" model; see below.

If you have no idea what you are doing here, see  the What is this place?, which tries to make order of chaos. 

Boiler Plate:

If you want to PAY FOR THIS, the site is run like public radio: you don't have to pay, but if no one does, it will go away. On how to pay, I keep the latest HERE.  MY THANKS to all of you who have sent money.  Some of you went to a lot of trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods.

If you subscribed:

atom.gif (1053 bytes) CLICK HERE for a Special Request.

If you didn't and haven't, why not?

If this seems a lot about paying think of it as the Subscription Drive Nag. You'll see more.

If you are not paying for this place, click here...

 

For information on COURSE materials, click here

===========

 

===========

Strategy of Technology in pdf format:

For platinum subscription:

For a PDF copy of A Step Farther Out:

 

For the BYTE story, click here.

 

Search: type in string and press return.

For Current Mail click here.

 The freefind search remains:

 

   Search this site or the web        powered by FreeFind
 
  Site search Web search

Here is where to order the nose pump I recommend:

 

 

Entire Site Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 by Jerry E. Pournelle. All rights reserved.

 

birdline.gif (1428 bytes)