| Tuesday,
July 8, 2008 It
just keeps getting better
DHS insanity!
Jerry:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/
weblogs/aviation-security/2008/
Jul/01/want-some-torture-with-your-peanuts/
Of course they could cut right to Baron Harkkonen's
"heart plugs".
Chris C
==
DHS pushing for mandatory Taser bracelets to be worn
by airline passengers?!
<http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/aviation-security/2008/Jul/01/want-some-torture-with-your-peanuts/
>
-- Roland Dobbins
I think one can dismiss this particular idea.
Surely it will never happen--
Incidentally, I am part of the "far out ideas"
group that advises DHS research, and I never heard of any such idea.
And see below:
============
Joanne Dow comments on the
Trojan warning:
I've been surprised the were clean for so long. They
are incredibly enticing targets for identity theft hacking.
Speaking of which, do NOT EVER order something and pay
by credit card on your cell phone while out shopping or eating in a
restaurant. This came up in a discussion of hands free cell-phone laws. A
couple people had been present and heard enough information to use another
person's credit card illegally. They people nearly yelled the information
out so that everybody around them could hear.
Identity theft is a serious problem and a very serious
inconvenience. There is no sense making it easy for the crooks. I don't
believe in giving crooks an even chance.
Incidentally, re hands free cell-phone usage - it's no
guarantee that accident rates will go down. Do not use them while driving at
speed. I've found that radios in the car are OK if you are in stop and go
traffic. But at speed they acquire a little more attention than is strictly
safe except for the most trivial conversations. Even talking to other
passengers is dangerous if it's more than really light banter. That's nearly
50 years as a ham and over 25 years as a ham with a radio in the car
speaking.
{^_-}
==
SUBJECT: A Chaos Manor Trojan Warning
Hi Jerry, and thanks for your "heads up".
I started reading about evil-doers "harvesting" stuff
from sites like Monster.com for "spear phishing" messages a few months ago.
The exploits are nasty, but they are just another form of "social
engineering".
My take on this is that everyone should look at
anything that arrives in their e-mail in box with a jaundiced eye. Anything
you count on seeing in an e-mail can be spoofed (from, reply to, etc).
Consider things like:
-- (If it's a spoofed "from") Does the message read
like it came from the person you know? We all have unique writing styles
that acute readers learn to recognize. -- If it's not from someone you know,
don't think too hard about hitting "delete". -- If it sounds too good to be
true, it probably is. -- View the message headers and do a "reveal source"
to see the exact URLs any embedded links embedded in HTML e-mail might
invite you to click on. The most popular disguised domain names in my junk
mail seem to point to web servers in .RU, .CN and domains from other faraway
places.
The business you describe is only lucrative if users
are dumb enough to fall for the hook attached to the message (or too busy or
stressed-out to be careful).
Taking a big step back from the issue you alerted your
readers to, there has always been a truth about on line activity. If you
don't want bad people to learn something about you, don't ever post any
personal information anywhere you are not convinced is truly private between
you and the company behind the site you're providing personal info. Read the
site privacy policies. If you don't like those policies, don't post your
info there.
Regards, Karl Strieby
Good advice. I have avoided the disasters so far.
Common sense helps.
===========
On national control of
education
This is a result of an interchange:
Obviously we all agree that there ought to be
standards and the issue is at what level said standards are
derived/implemented. Taking your question to the extreme and applying this
to the licensing of doctors or food handling or anything else that can
affect your community, then it's obvious that there is a point at which it
is very much your business what my community does.
My position is that the level is determined by
qualifications. If we ought to license teachers because we worry about what
children are learning and how they learn it, the same standards that apply
to teachers *certainly* should apply to a body that can determine the
curriculum. Thus if it can be shown that licensing of teachers must occur at
the State level to be effective, the same argument must also apply to school
boards *if* you assume they can dictate curriculae.
Gary Alston
We may agree there ought to be standards, but I do
not agree that the Columbia University College of Education should set them
for all the school districts in the country. Your view is that you know
better -- whether because you are better educated or just plain smarter.
Mine is that I'd rather trust the curriculum to local school boards and that
includes allowing them to set the credential requirements. If some school
district feels that a retied USAF sergeant with no degree who spent 20 years
teaching math to USAF recruits has sufficient credentials and doesn't
require him to go take the Mickey Mouse education courses that are the
essence of modern education credentials, I cheer.
I don't concede your right to set the standards for
my schools. Nor do I expect you to pay for them. And yes, I understand that
this guarantees some bad schools. The remedy is to elect better school
boards. And to have small enough districts that there is some connection
between the taxpayers, parents, and the school board.
==
Algebra, and its Teaching (or Not)
Jerry:
From many years ago, when I was about 22, I Tutored
the 16-year old Sister, of a fellow Analog reader, near Drumheller, Alberta.
He was baffled by her problems with Albebra, because she was already
_Teaching_ her very own Classes in Ballet, Saturday mornings, in Drumheller.
First Tuesday evening, we two sat down, and I got her
to open her Algebra book at the Problems currently assigned.
I took the first one, wrote down the "Givens" that the
Word-description provided, and wrote down a Letter for each variable, and
for each constant. Set up the Equation, with all-letters, moved stuff around
til only the sought-variable was on the left side, and substituted-in the
numbers, and solved. She had answered Yes, to all queries as to her
understanding of what I was doing.
Yes, you guessed it: I turned the page over, and
handed her the pencil, with a request to work the problem thru, herself.
Got a Deer in the Headlights, look.
After a few minutes of explaining, one by one what I
had done, and why, the penny dropped: She had not memorized the definitions
and operations of Theroretical Algebra. You know, the stuff in the First
Chapter of a densely-written Text, or in the first two chapters of even a
loosely written Text.
It took three sessions, Tues, Thurs, Tues, evenings,
before she had all those basics, and how to use them, memorized. We then
branched-out, into Science, and even Language and Literature, because the
Tools for Solving Problems do work across the boundaries of Math, Science,
and Language...
Found out that the Teacher was certified in Social
Studies and in Language. He worked-out the 'canned' examples, on the
Blackboard, and never branched-out into anything that was not already
worked-out in the Textbook!
I wonder how many Students ability and enjoyment, of
Algebra, was ruined by the 'teaching' done,, by that Mathematical
Incompetent.
Some years later, I had an experienced Rodman, who had
3 years working for another Surveyor. The Rodman could not work Survey Notes
with a Scientific Calculator in hand. He could, however, enter the numbers
into a Computer Program, and get the answers printed out. I could not teach
him how to hand-work Survey Notes, if the Computer was not working, because
he not only did not understand Algebra, his regular Math Skills were very
poor.
Yet he had a High School Diploma. I checked, with the
Calgary School Board, and it turned-out that the Grade 12 Math he
graduated-with, was a watered-down version of the Grade 9 Math that he had
not passed! Yes, the Pass-em-On Bunch, had passed that hard-working young
man into the world, without enuf math skills to figure out his paycheque,
and also not enough math skills to work out his own Income Tax Return.
The Arithmetic Problem, to make it more general, is a
result of Teachers escaping from the boredom of the Addition and
Times-Tables Drills, along with their Subtractoion and Division Tables
siblings! Lacking that solid base, Students have Problems with advanced
Math, Problems with Algebra and with Geometry, and with Trigonometry, and
later with the Calculus.
So, how do we rig up Games that will require mastering
the little knows, before advancing past the Medium Knows, to the challenges
of the Calculus, and the dancing Tensors?
Regards,
Neil Frandsen
There are two major issues in teaching algebra:
finding good teachers, and for whom is it necessary? Who should be required
to take algebra? Everyone?
==
Re: Algebra is responsible for most dropouts from high
school
Remember, according to the LAUSD A-G Curriculum
plan--by a board approved measure on a 6-1 vote (with only Board Member
Marguerite LaMotte voting no)--ALL students are now required to be on a
college prep track. That includes not only algebra fundamentals, but
advanced algebra as well. And yet the school administration expresses "shock
and dismay" that drop out rates are on the rise. Just how stupid are these
people (or what is their hidden agenda)? I have my B.S. in Biology, and took
all kinds of math in school, but I've found it of minimal applicability for
any job I've ever had.
Greg Hemsath
I have no objection and indeed I would encourage
algebra as a required high school subject for a college prep curriculum; but
I question whether more than half the population (I would but that at more
like 30%) should be burdened with college prep and symbol manipulation. Some
students need training in useful skills.
==
Algebra & Math
Jerry I had to teach myself algebra because my high
school teacher said I was not capable of learning it so this subject is a
very sore point for me. They pushed me into a practical math class for my
second year in high school and because the teacher there taught algebra type
functions in a different way than the collage prep stream I was able to get
a handle on it. You literally can not perform any job function above the
lowest grade menial labor without true comprehension of algebra. Building
complex SPC spreadsheets to graph quality control data can not be done
without algebra and if I did not know how the math functions work I would
still be a mechanic or maintenance man instead of the companies MIS person
that programs all the software for everyday transactions and SPC charting.
For me the reason so many fail at basic algebra is the
way it is taught. A very large percentage of those who fail would not do so
if the operations and functions were described in a more practical form. It
has to be how it is being taught, not that algebra itself is to difficult
for them to learn because it is really very simple once the basic concepts
are understood. So what we really need is a teacher that can find ways or be
taught ways of learning that are more understandable by the students. Now
the teachers only put out the standard program and if the student does not
get it they put them in the ditch digger category and force them to drop out
one way or another so they do not have to be bothered with them.
Because I was there and lived it I feel for every
potentially bright kid that gets forced out just because he/she encountered
a teacher not mentally flexible enough to find a way to get the child over
or through a comprehension problem point. For me once I encountered a
teacher that understood where I was having a problem I was able to get the
rest of it from my dad and grandfather to the point that those who once were
considered my mental superiors by the teachers now come to me on a regular
basis to get jobs done requiring algebra that they are unable to figure out
in calculus or trig. My big discovery was that algebra and the others are
all very basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is
only how you nest them in the calculation that makes the difference. Even
calculus and trig functions can be stretched out and expressed in algebraic
format to make them easier to understand and in a spreadsheet this is the
most practical way to do the job.
So once again the problem really is not that the
children are incapable of learning, it is that the teachers are not willing
to teach in a manner that enables the children to learn.
-- James Early
Good teachers can teach at least some rudiments of
algebra to IQ 90 students, and bad teachers can muck up teaching it to IQ
120 students, but algebra is symbol manipulation par excellance, and the
left side of the Bell Curve has problems grasping the concepts. Jaime
Escalante managed to teach advance algebra and even calculus to a number of
students, by using a good bit of drill and rote learning; one does wonder if
that much effort had gone into teaching shop mechanics would it have done
more good?
I disagree with your last sentence: some children
just don't learn algebra, and pounding it into their heads by rote does not
seem to be a good use of their time or of the teacher's. Some people don't
need to lean algebra.
This craze for "a world class university prep
education" for all is a form of madness and a direct rejection of common
sense.
======================
valcent biodiesel
From the Valcent products website at
http://www.valcent.net/s/NewsReleases.asp?
ReportID=277235&_Type=News-Releases&_
Title=Initial-Data-From-the-Vertigro-Field-
Test-Bed-Plant-Reports-Average-Product...
"During a 90 day continual production test, algae was
being harvested at an average of one gram (dry weight) per liter. This
equates to algae bio mass production of 276 tons of algae per acre per year.
Achieving the same biomass production rate with an algal species having 50%
lipids (oil) content would therefore deliver approximately 33,000 gallons of
algae oil per acre per year."
"As a comparative, food crop such as soy bean will
typically produce some 48 gallons oil per acre per year and palm will
produce approximately 630 gallons oil per acre per year. In addition, the
Vertigro Bio Reactor System is a closed loop continuous production system
that uses little water and may be built on non arable lands."
Jerry, you may recall that in our discussion regarding
ethanol production, I suggested using non arable land in the sunbelt states
to grow ethanol production crops using hydroponics technology. There are
many elements of my plan in the Valcent process; hydroponics, non arable
lands, sunbelt states. The difference is that he is producing a vegetable
oil suitable for biodiesel production. This is actually superior to ethanol
production; not only is the carbon sequestration rate superior, but the
product can be used in diesel engines today, without modification. This will
be of great interest to commercial truckers paying $5 a gallon for Saudi
Arabian diesel.
It is not yet clear what those 33,000 gallons of algae
oil per acre per year will cost us; but this may represent a workable
solution. Non-arable sunbelt state land is both plentiful and cheap; and
water requirements are minimal. Once the processes are developed, it seems
likely that the plant could be automated. That would result in low manpower
costs. And greenhouses are a mature and relatively simple technology; it's
not anywhere near the same degree of complexity as building an oil refinery,
or a nuclear power plant. There should be no major reason why biodiesel
produced in this manner can't be considerably less expensive than
conventional diesel fuel.
Once again, America demonstrates the ability to do
what America does best: invent the technology that changes the world. We did
it with the assembly line, we did it with the telephone, we did it with food
production, we did it with the computer, we did it with the internet. Now,
we're doing it with energy production.
The future can be bright. All we have to do is
implement it.
Regards, Charlie
I once did the math on biodiesel but that was long
ago. Technologies are better noe. I need to look into this, but it will have
to wait a while.
But yes, Survival With Style is still possible.
Whether the politicians will allow it is another matter.
==========
Brain chemistry doesn't affect
depression...maybe
Dr. Pournelle,
I ran across this article off of Digg.com :
Head fake How Prozac sent the science of depression in
the wrong direction
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe
/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/
The gist of the article is that Prozac doesn't help
depression by altering brain chemistry as has been commonly believed. It
actually appears to be promoting the healing of brain cells, which fixes the
depression. When I read the article I thought about the trauma your
particular brain has recently been through, and maybe there is something
that can be done to help your brain recover faster; excercise, perhaps or a
slight change in diet.
As a fan, I'd like you to recover swiftly.
-- A
-- :q :q! :wq :w :w! :wq! :quit :quit! :help help
helpquit quit quithelp :quitplease :quitnow :leave :shit ^X^C ^C ^D ^Z ^Q
QUITDAMMIT ^[:wq
Interesting. I should look into this. First I
heard.
==========
Following is the end of an exchange of emails:
Re Torture
Jerry,
I'm not arguing about the existence of compulsion. I'm
wondering about what its utility curve looks like. How much incremental
truth do we get for incremental compulsion? I'm not going to "haggle about
the price" without knowing what I'm getting for it.
My guess would be that a small amount of compulsion
pays off big -- enough to ensure the appearance of those witnesses with no
special reason to avoid the courtroom. After this low-hanging fruit is
captured, I'd expect that the effects of increased compulsion are relatively
small, since we start moving into the population of folks who have
compelling reasons to avoid honest testimony.
It ought to be possible to discover the shape of the
curve and the circumstances under which different levels of compulsion are
likely to pay off. Some of these insights can no doubt be capitalized upon
without straining our legal system. No doubt our current practices are far
too lax in some cases and far too strict in others.
-- Robert
Getting that utility curve would be difficult (both
in experimental design and ethically), but it sure would be useful.
===========
US removes uranium from Iraq,
Jerry
"The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear
program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a
Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a
two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" -
<snip>
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080706/D91O8E100.html
Yellowcake? I thought Valerie Plame's husband said
Saddam didn't have any yellowcake! Well, the article explains that, and a
bit more.
Ed
==========
Shocking Bracelet - Urban Legend?
Dr. Pournelle:
In regards to the 'shocking bracelet' for all airline
passengers story, one comment on the blog says it is all false:
By: S&Tspokesman <http://www.washingtontimes.com/users/S&Tspokesman/>
Shocking, but False
Sometimes it just amazes me how these stories evolve.
Let me start off by saying that the Department of Homeland Security's
Science & Technology Directorate nor TSA have been pursuing shock bracelets
for airline passengers as alleged by the Washington Times Blog.
This allegation stemmed from a misleading video posted
on the Lamberd Website which depicts an ID bracelet that would contain
identifying information as well as the ability to stun the wearer. The
company claims to connect use of such a device to DHS and TSA, but no
discussions between these agencies has ever taken place.
This all originated from a meeting held two years ago
with a private company representative (not Lamberd) who proposed bracelet
technology in response to the TSA's desire to find less-than-lethal means to
detain an apprehended suspect.
The bracelet was never intended to replace boarding
passes, contain ID information or be worn by all passengers as asserted in
the Lamberd video and discussed in the Washington Times Blog.
The hypothetical use of the bracelet would have been
for transporting already apprehended prisoners and detainees at prisons and
border patrol facilities, and DHS was looking to see if there were potential
air travel applications for apprehended suspects.
This concept was never funded or supported by the DHS
or TSA and hasn't even been discussed for two years. The letter circulating
throughout the blogosphere from Paul Ruwaldt was not addressed to Lamberd
and merely states the DHS was interested in learning more about the
technology. Neither side followed up.
DHS/TSA does NOT support the asserted use and has not
pursued the development of such technology.
July 8, 2008 at 5:08 p.m.
Regards, Rick Hellewell
============
ID vs Evolution
Dr. Pournelle,
I know that you are growing tired of this discussion,
but I have the answer that all the hundreds of others have missed. :-) When
I read your initial post seemingly in favor of ID, I was shocked and nearly
left the site in disgust. However, I pushed through and realized you
believed pretty much the same thing that I do. If God is real, clearly he
was smart enough to invent evolution, gravity, atomic theory, and all the
other rules that govern this universe. That argument makes perfect sense to
me and I fail to understand my most Christians don't embrace it. I do not
think what you believe is the same thing as Intelligent Design. I have never
heard/read anything remotely close from a true ID adherent. They tend to be
as rabidly anti evolution in any form as the Darwinists are rabidly anti
ID/Creationism. I don't know what you call the camp you and I reside in, but
it is not ID.
I do understand and agree with your argument against
central control of curricula. That is yet another reason we home school.
Regards, Chris Dunbar
I never claimed to be a spokesperson for ID. On the
other hand, Niven's Law states that there is no cause so good or noble that
it will not attract fuggheads; and the fuggheads will get all the press.
I suspect that's the case with Intelligent Design. It has some friends it
could well do without.
I continue to say that I don't find it easy to
believe that the blind workings of chance caused a blob of Big Bang Stuff to
create Carl Sagan, perform Swan Lake and Beethoven's Ninth, and write the
Kama Sutra, but perhaps I have insufficient imagination. Or faith. The one
thing I am sure of is that I am not at all sure of how it all came about.
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