| Sunday, September
26, 2010
: Relative Wealth
Dear Jerry, I seem to recall reading recently that
some studies of both Humans and other Primates seem to show an innate
willingness to have less as long as others do not get what is perceived as
an unfair bigger share of what ever on offer, be it money or bananas. This
willingness to have less so long as others do not get more then you have
appears to be hard wired and does go a way in explaining a lot of behavior.
I guess depending on how this is viewed it is either a built in sense of
envy or fair play.
Stay Well,
Jim Hickey
Dogs tend to act that way, too. If I can't have
as much as him then don't give anything to either of us...
But as Herman Kahn observed, the chauffeurs in
Hyde Park do not resent the wealth of their masters. They do get concerned
if the chauffer next door has a higher salary or more perks. Such is life.
It used to be that we all read
Matthew 20 in school. I do not think it was a great idea to
discontinue that.
===========
Subject: I thought this might interest you
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/09/24/
google-earth-leads-to-spectacular-meteor-crater-find/
On the off-chance that you didn't already know about
it.
Be well, Tim Scott
===========
'I offer a final piece of evidence that is perhaps
unanswerable: There is no literacy gap between home-schooled boys and
girls.'
<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424
052748704271804575405511702112290.html>
- Roland Dobbins
===========
The fight goes on?
I don’t know if this site is serious or not:
<http://www.galileowaswrong.com/galileowaswrong/>
--
Bryan
First I have heard of this. I have no idea what
their arguments are, because I don't have any intention of paying money to
buy their documents. I suspect their evidence is the Michelson Morely
experiment, but that is a mere guess.
Obviously under the relativity principle you
could choose the Earth as a rest object, but then the relative motions of
distant objects far exceeds the speed of light, and you have other
problems. Mach worried about such things.
==
About that "Galileo was Wrong" site --
A bit of caution is in order when looking at that
"Galileo was Wrong" site.
The store for the Galileo Was Wrong site
catholicintl.co.cc. The CO.CC site has a service that lets people set up
their own subdomains for free under the CO.CC domain. Apparently many
phishing sites use the free service to set up scam sites, and there are
reports of lots of infected servers running those subdomains.
I use Comodo's personal firewall. When I looked at the
Galileo was Wrong site and then clicked on a link to the PDF products in
their store (to see if they charge for those), Comodo intercepted my request
and warned me that several of their users had reported the CO.CC site as a
possible phishing site. They were blocking on the strength of it being in
the CO.CC domain, not because of the specific subdomain, so these could be
innocents who have fallen into the company of wolves. On the other hand,
making outrageous claims is not a bad form of social engineering, because if
you can get an emotional reaction out of the target, the target shifts from
rational thought to emotional reaction and might be more amenable to
cooperating with some form of malware.
--Gary Pavek
Indeed
I certainly don't intend to buy anything from
them. Thank you.
==========
Dam! A correction...
From a mailing list.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Malcolm
Date: 24 September 2010 19:12:58 GMT+01:00
Subject: Dam! A correction...
These are Italian Ibex, and the dam is at Lago
Baitone in Brescia, Italy.
http://www.fishnhunt.co.nz/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1282001466/5
<http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?p=5307980>
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=stambecco&aq=f
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mJfZ7xdGfQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEeNqoBpRg0&feature=related
-- Harry Erwin
=============
Gold and Silver at New Highs
Jerry,
As the dollar index continues to tank, Gold and Silver
hit new highs this morning:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-24/
gold-rises-to-record-on-dollar-hedge-demand-
silver-gains-to-30-year-high.html
I use this page daily to get a feel for the market
indicators:
http://www.kitco.com/market/
My analysis predicts that most Western FIAT currencies
will continue to tank. Gold and silver will explode. Silver is preferred.
When I was a kid I watched Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. This miner was
looking for "silver and gold" and sang about it. Later in the film, he came
to his senses and was only looking for silver -- forget about the gold. The
Wizard of Oz is about the Federal Reserve Bank. In the book Dorothy wears
silver slippers to travel on the dangerous gold road -- the yellow brick
road -- that leads to New York -- the Emerald City. By changing the main
symbol of the film from silver to ruby, they effectively castrated the
story. In other words they made it completely ineffective, so that it would
not teach anyone anything. It became symbolic of false authority and
nonsense, not of the evils posed by central banks.
I will close with a quotation from Thomas Jefferson
and an observation I share with Robert Steel -- a former Chief Analyst at
CIA.
"If the American People ever allow the banks to
control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and then by
deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will
deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on
the continent their fathers occupied. The issuing power of money should be
taken from the bankers and restored to Congress and the people to whom it
belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing
power of money are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies.
We are completely saddled and bridled, and the bank is
so firmly mounted on us that we must go where they ill guide.
The dominion which the banking institutions have
obtained over the minds of our citizens...must be broken, or it will break
us."
(Thomas Jefferson: Letter to James Monroe, January 1,
1815).
Now for the observation: Abraham Lincoln was about to
abolish the central bank of the day and replace that currency with one truly
made by the people and for the people, and a conspiracy to take his life
manifested and Lincoln died. Kennedy signed Executive Order 11110, which
would have abolished the Federal Reserve -- EO 11110 still stands on the
books, but has not been enforced. Of course, a lone gunman got Kennedy. I
find it interesting that both men were about to do the same thing just
before they got shot. As Robert Steel said, "I cannot connect those two
dots, but I can tell you that they are side to side." I am not advocating a
bankster conspiracy to neutralize U.S. Presidents, I am simply noticing two
strange attractors that seem very similar to me. I am also open to the
possibility of said conspiracy, but my belief in the same would require much
more than circumstantial and/or anecdotal evidence. In 2010, I lack the
evidence to conclusively prove anything and all the film makers who claim
otherwise have yet to deliver the goods on this point. If they had the
goods, I would think they would find a lawyer and get some cases rolling,
don't you?
Of course, Italy seized a lot of the Vatican's money.
http://www.startribune.com/business/103430569.html So matters are
a far cry from the impunity the Vatican enjoyed in the 80's with that
operation in Florida. On the heels of this, it was revealed the Queen of
England attempted to use money from a poverty fund to heat her palace.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/
queen-tried-to-use-state-poverty-fund-to-
heat-buckingham-palace-2088179.html Then, the front page of Drudge
today reads: 6TH AVENUE BLOODBATH: NBC, CNN CHIEFS OUT, AILES, FOXNEWS, THE
MAN LEFT STANDING... So it seems an erosion of antiquated power structures
and social institutions is in order. Maybe some of that will spread to
central banks and Congress will start printing its own money again? It could
the beginning of the comeback of the Old Republic.
--------
BDAB,
Joshua Jordan, KSC Percussa Resurgo
Andy Jackson of Tennessee abolished the Bank of
the United States. In the 19th Century the Gold and the Silver Democrats
battled for control of the party, but mankind was crucified on the cross
of gold according to Bryant, who then joined the Wilson Administration.
I am no expert on monetization. I did advise
readers to buy gold back when it was $400.
=============
Subject: Writers and their work habits
Here is a fascinating story about the work habits of
an number of successful writers:
How to Write a Great Novel
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142
052748703740004574513463106012106.html
CP, Connecticut
============
World's first pedal-powered ornithopter takes flight
in Canada,
Jerry
All in a flap - World's first pedal-powered
ornithopter takes flight in Canada:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/23/pedalo/
I'm waiting for the day someone can take off
unassisted.
Ed
I have never been an ornithopter enthusiast, nor
do I much care about man-powered flight. Long ago one of the first
man-powered ornithopter pilots quit his job on the grounds that he could
be replaced with a small motor and he should be.
===========
Rewriting History 101
Dear Jerry,
In research for a new novel (The Anarchist
Exposition), I delved into the early history of flying machines. This got
into the never-ending controversy over just who first built a true aeroplane.
You probably thought the Wright Brothers.
Me too.
However, there is an increasing popular sentiment,
with Americans as primary holdouts, that it was Alberto Santos-Dumont, the
expatriate Brazilian working in France.
Admittedly, even non-Americans well versed in what the
Wrights did, and Dumont failed to do, give the credit primarily to the
Wrights. However, non-expert popular opinion outside the USA is turning
towards Dumont, and do you know why?
I'll paraphrase- "Santos-Dumont did his early flights
before commissioners of official organizations and government, who were able
to certify his accomplishments. The Wrights were just a bunch of guys on a
beach in North Carolina."
Yep, it ain't real until a bureaucrat SAYS it's real,
and certifies it. Any resemblance to the split between AGW True Believers
and Skeptics is entirely obvious, not to mention probably indicative that we
both are in Dire Need of some expert to better determine Certified Reality
for us.
I note in passing that this is nothing new. It is what
has consistently differentiated Americans from Europeans (and their third
world former colonial cultural clones), the overawed deference to the
inevitable Somebody In Charge who determines Reality for the peasants, while
Americans evince an attitude of "Who died and made YOU King?!" Or more
pithily (and since I am a Missourian, my choice) "Show me!"
Actually, what I ought have written above was "What
has consistently differentiated Europeans et. al. from Americans until
NOW.", as the current project to turn these United States into an aspiring
applicant for membership in the European Union seems determined to first of
all eliminate this rather irritating (to aspirant Determiners of Reality)
trait of Americans, root and branch.
It's what ties together the Creeps and the Nuts, and
largely explains their rather foolishly consistent love for Big Brother;
what I prefer to call (it never fails to irritate both camps "Bubba Gummint".
Petronius
==============
Speaking of worms and viruses
Electronic Bunker
Interesting concept…maybe a little late now that
cheaper communication and cloud computing is on us.
http://www.electronicbunker.com/pls/apex/f?p=192:1:0
Tracy Walters, CISSP
===========
Marijuana and Wickard
Dr. Pournelle,
While it is true that federal power to regulate
interstate commerce was used as a justification in the Gonzales v. Raich
decision, it appears to me to be nonsensical even if you try to apply to
logic from the Wickard decision.
In the (in)famous 1942 case, Roscoe Filburn was
growing more wheat than the federal government wanted to allow at that time.
To make a long and convoluted story short, the government successfully
argued that this affected the interstate trading of wheat, and therefore the
Feds could restrict Filburn.
In the Gonzales case, the government does not
"regulate" interstate trade of marijuana. It explicitly forbids such trade.
How can marijuana grown for personal use by Angel Raich affect legal
interstate trade?
Steve Chu
Shays' Rebellion happened before the Convention
of 1787. One result of this rising by Captain Shays formerly of the
Continental Army and a Revolutionary War veteran, and his veteran
followers some of whom were Revolutionary heroes, was the "impairment of
contracts" clause in the Constitution
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation;
grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit;
make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass
any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation
of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
This part of the Constitution was in effect
thrown out by the Supreme Court after Roosevelt's threat to pack the Court
and his reelection in 1936. "A switch in time saved nine", but the cost
was an important part of the Constitution. Between the negation of the
contracts clause and the expansion of the interstate commerce clause, the
relationship between the States and the Federal government was
fundamentally changed without amendment.
==============
FYI
"One of the most interesting stories in the last few
days, has little to do with finance and economics (at least right now), but
arguably very much to do with geopolitics. A fascinating report <http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/327178>
which cites computer security experts claims that the recent uber-cryptic
malware worm Stuxnet is nothing less than a weapon designed to infiltrate
industrial systems, and based on attack patterns, the ultimate object of
Stuxnet may be none other than Iran's Busher nuclear reactor, which could be
targetted for destruction without absolutely any military intervention. Has
modern warfare just become obsolete courtesy of a computer virus?"
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/deadf007-
stuxnet-secret-weapon-attack-irans-nukes-
virus-about-revolutionize-modern-warfare
Ron
I do not believe that I need a computer to aim a
rifle.
Gold may not get you good soldiers, but good
soldiers will always be able to get you gold. This is often the case for
oil, technology, and all kinds of things.
===========
Life on Earth May Have Had an Icy Start,
Jerry
Here's something you likely never expected - Life on
Earth May Have Had an Icy Start:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/icy-life-beginning/
"I always thought that the idea of an RNA world was
exciting, but that RNA was a perverse choice of primordial material because
it was hard to imagine chemical conditions under which they could survive on
the early earth," said biologist Philipp Holliger of MRC Laboratory of
Molecular Biology in the United Kingdom, who led a study in Nature
Communications Sept. 21.
"What we've found is that RNA would have been much
happier in the ice than in hot hydrothermal vents, where it would have
lasted only a few seconds," Holliger said.
Holliger was inspired to study how RNA replicates in
icy conditions by a 2004 study that found when nucleotides - the building
blocks of genetic code - are frozen in ice, they spontaneously assemble into
random strands of RNA.<snip>
Cool. Literally cool.
Ed
===========
"It might alter the number of comets that come
towards us over millions of years, which would have consequences for life
on Earth. It also raises the question of whether we know enough about the
law of gravity."
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/
1384420/Mysterious-force-holds-back-Nasa-
probe-in-deep-space.html>
- Roland Dobbins
===========
Fragility
You quoted approvingly Peggy Noonan's column where she
pointed out that the institutions that hold us together are fragile, with
the implication that the establishment understands this, while the Tea Party
may not.
If they understand this, they should not be behaving
as they are. They seem to use this fact as a cudgel: While if the
institutions that hold us together are fragile, who made it thus, if not the
elites? And we out here are to tread lightly, lest it all come crashing down
upon us, and let them get on with their work of beavering away at the
foundations of our country. Foundations that were once strong and robust,
but have been eaten away at for generations at their hands, and which, yes,
now are fragile.
You've written about how over time society converts
more and more into "structure," until the whole thing teeters upon itself,
threatening to collapse. Some of these structures need to be cleared away,
so that what is essential can be restored. We already know the current
establishment we happen to be saddled with is not going to do that - the
structures they are aimed most at preserving are precisely the ones that
most threaten to collapse the whole. The "Iron Law" at work, as it were:
they will preserve, for as long as they can, what benefits them the most, at
the expense of the Republic.
After a certain point, rather than letting them
dissolve the people to elect another, it becomes time to dissolve the
establishment, and create another, lest the grip of their dead hand upon the
institutions they have *made* fragile brings it crashing down upon us all.
This is, or so it is said by Strauss & Howe, the
"Fourth Turning," a time cleansing away to make way for the new. Some of
these fragile institutions do need to be broomed away, to clear for new
growth. This establishment isn't holding us together, the broad national
establishment has been ripping things apart at least since
"Multiculturalism" became the fashion, as it is among establishment people
of both the Left and the Republican Establishment (which sometimes allows it
to be questioned for electoral gain, but in practice institutionalizes it
just as resolutely as the other side does. Indeed, often more, because they
can get away with it more easily).
James
-- "The past, while much studied, is little read." -
M.M.
"In the first and in the final analysis, so-called
multiculturalists are simply Western radicals, in the Western radical
tradition, with the most imperial, dogmatic, and absolutist aspirations of
all." - Alan Charles Kors
One should approach the defects of ones country
as one approaches the wounds of a father. Zeal for sweeping away generally
causes more harm than good. Yes the structure needs to be thinned and the
overgrowth pruned, and some fundamental changes need to be made; but
beware lest you relearn the lesson taught to Danton.
"I leave it all in a frightful welter. Not a
man of them has an idea of government. Robespierre will follow me; he is
dragged down by me. Ah, better be a poor fisherman than meddle with the
government of men!" Danton at the guillotine.
=============
f
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