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Mail 477 July 30 - August 5, 2007

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Monday  July 30, 2007

Harry Erwin's Letter from England

Gordon Brown got a big jump from replacing Tony Blair. It currently has the Opposition on the ropes, and Labour is thinking about calling a snap election. On the other hand, the chickens are coming home to the roost, and I think Brown's reality-distortion field is time- limited. A few of the stories:

Snap election <http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/

article2811657.ece> <http://tinyurl.com/2emhfw>

More rain <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6920251.stm> <http:// www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/28/

nwater128.xml> <http://tinyurl.com/2dbp5e>

Teachers cheating to raise exam grades in the UK <http:// news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6918805.stm>

Costs of private education <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/

education/article2155271.ece> <http://tinyurl.com/3d9lea> <http:// tinyurl.com/2naxzh>

Baden-Powell's advice today <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/

6918066.stm>

Weekend news stories <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6920285.stm>

<http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2811663.ece>

<http://tinyurl.com/2hplzj>

We may be doing work on the new RN carriers <http:// www.sunderlandecho.com/news?articleid=3068320>

US concerns with Saudi financing of Sunni groups <http:// www.guardian.co.uk/saudi/story/0,,2136687,00.html> <http:// tinyurl.com/2nvnk3>

Libyan health workers story <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/

6920134.stm>

Bin Laden story <http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2136651,00.html>

--

Harry Erwin, PhD, Program Leader, MSc Information Systems Security, University of Sunderland.

<http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw>

Weblog at: <http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw/blog/index.php>

==

Continued from England: From the Sunday Papers:

MI5 role in extraordinary rendition of a developed source <http:// observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2137144,00.html> <http:// tinyurl.com/ysxhbd>

Civil liberties stories <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/

0,,2137066,00.html> <http://tinyurl.com/2fq7xk> <http:// www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/

article2159270.ece> <http://tinyurl.com/2eozjp> <http:// observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2137085,00.html> <http:// tinyurl.com/2g2aua> <http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/

0,,2137184,00.html> <http://tinyurl.com/26bc7w> <http:// observer.guardian.co.uk/leaders/story/0,,2137078,00.html> <http:// tinyurl.com/yqvsuz> <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/

columnists/michael_portillo/article2159219.ece> <http://tinyurl.com/

2f65y9>

Beds crisis in the NHS <http://news.independent.co.uk/health/

article2814751.ece>

In my experience, this is how Gordon Brown manages his budgets <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/29/

nbrown129.xml> <http://tinyurl.com/2e6aqc>

--

Harry Erwin, PhD, Program Leader, MSc Information Systems Security,

University of Sunderland.

<http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw>

Weblog at: <http://scat-he-g4.sunderland.ac.uk/~harryerw/blog/index.php>

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

On Sea Level Changes and other important matters

- Predicted sea level changes disputed

Hi Jerry,

I don't know enough about this field to comment, but if true, this is one of the most telling discussions about the motivations behind the current "propaganda" re changes in coastal sea levels. It also points out the difficulties in using computers to model things ( e.g. our atmosphere) that we don't understand. <G>

http://newsbusters.org/node/13698 

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2007/2007_20-29/2007-25/pdf/33-37_725.pdf 

Cheers

Jack Jacobson

I have little confidence in LaRouche -- his Executive Intelligence Report once gave out the news that General Daniel Graham and I were Comintern agents, and Carol Rosen was our handler-- but the first article is interesting. This is a matter of importance. Those interested in climate change and the inquisitorial climate of today -- and the mendacity of the UN reports -- would do well to Google < Morner Sealevel > and <Morner Sea Level >. You will get different results for each, and many of the first page results are worth following up.

A very long time ago we ran several articles and letters on the difficulties of determining sea level from tidal gauges. On of the tide markers is on rocks off Tasmania put there by a Governor in the 19th Century; there was considerable controversy over interpreting what that data meant. Note that some Global Warming Greens are now actually going out and destroying various historical tide markers.

People who destroy data, and fabricate data in the name of Science, belong in the lowest Bolgia of the 9th Circle of Hell, and you will find them there when Inferno II comes out, along with some appropriate comments from Carl (who is not in that circle; how Carpenter and Sylvia meet Carl and what happens with him is an important sub theme). In any event, fraudulent data in the name of science is an abomination and one of the worst of the sins of mankind.

And see below

========

From another conference:

R.W. Hamming: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences http://www.dartmouth.edu/~matc/MathDrama/reading/Hamming.html

Reprinted From: The American Mathematical Monthly Volume 87 Number 2 February 1980

Prologue. It is evident from the title that this is a philosophical discussion. I shall not apologize for the philosophy, though I am well aware that most scientists, engineers, and mathematicians have little regard for it; instead, I shall give this short prologue to justify the approach.

Man, so far as we know, has always wondered about himself, the world around him, and what life is all about. We have many myths from the past that tell how and why God, or the gods, made man and the universe. These I shall call theological explanations. They have one principal characteristic in common-there is little point in asking why things are the way they are, since we are given mainly a description of the creation as the gods chose to do it.

Philosophy started when man began to wonder about the world outside of this theological framework. An early example is the description by the philosophers that the world is made of earth, fire, water, and air. No doubt they were told at the time that the gods made things that way and to stop worrying about it.

>From these early attempts to explain things slowly came philosophy as well as our present science. Not that science explains "why" things are as they are-gravitation does not explain why things fall-but science gives so many details of "how" that we have the feeling we understand "why." Let us be clear about this point; it is by the sea of interrelated details that science seems to say "why" the universe is as it is.

Our main tool for carrying out the long chains of tight reasoning required by science is mathematics. Indeed, mathematics might be defined as being the mental tool designed for this purpose. Many people through the ages have asked the question I am effectively asking in the title, "Why is mathematics so unreasonably effective?" In asking this we are merely looking more at the logical side and less at the material side of what the universe is and how it works.

Mathematicians working in the foundations of mathematics are concerned mainly with the self-consistency and limitations of the system. They seem not to concern themselves with why the world apparently admits of a logical explanation. In a sense I am in the position of the early Greek philosophers who wondered about the material side, and my answers on the logical side are probably not much better than theirs were in their time. But we must begin somewhere and sometime to explain the phenomenon that the world seems to be organized in a logical pattern that parallels much of mathematics, that mathematics is the language of science and engineering.

Once I had organized the main outline, I had then to consider how best to communicate my ideas and opinions to others. Experience shows that I am not always successful in this matter. It finally occurred to me that the following preliminary remarks would help.

In some respects this discussion is highly theoretical. I have to mention, at least slightly, various theories of the general activity called mathematics, as well as touch on selected parts of it. Furthermore, there are various theories of applications. Thus, to some extent, this leads to a theory of theories. What may surprise you is that I shall take the experimentalist's approach in discussing things. Never mind what the theories are supposed to be, or what you think they should be, or even what the experts in the field assert they are; let us take the scientific attitude and look at what they are. I am well aware that much of what I say, especially about the nature of mathematics, will annoy many mathematicians. My experimental approach is quite foreign to their mentality and preconceived beliefs. So be it!

The inspiration for this article came from the similarly entitled article, "The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences" [1. E. P. Wigner, The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences, Comm. Pure Appl. Math., 13 (Feb. 1960).], by E. P. Wigner. It will be noticed that I have left out part of the title, and by those who have already read it that I do not duplicate much of his material (I do not feel I can improve on his presentation). On the other hand, I shall spend relatively more time trying to explain the implied question of the title. But when all my explanations are over, the residue is still so large as to leave the question essentially unanswered. <snip>

Frank

For those interested in the philosophy of science the rest of this is worth your time despite its age.

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

Two Views on IRAQ

We haven't  "lost"

Dr. Pournelle,

You commented that you wonder what the legions think… Although my previous time in Iraq was limited to Operation Southern Watch deployments where I never went below 15,000 ft and probably wasn’t shot at, I very well may serve a tour on the ground later in my career since my specific qualifications are currently in demand in Baghdad. So here’s my opinion on much of the middle east situation.

I made the observation several months ago that our policy in the middle east was for a long time a combination of containment and trying to maintain a balance of power so the world could utilize the region’s exports (oil, nice rugs, etc) without interruption. I would therefore argue that we may have already re-balanced and contained that region for decades to come and have achieved our strategic objectives in spades. Oil continues to flow, nobody is going to invade anyone else tomorrow, and the only attacks against US citizens within the US appear to be the ones carried out by overzealous federal employees and our own re-election obsessed government.

We have attracted a radical element from around the world to Iraq, where they have busied themselves killing civilians and each other in an attempt to prove how much they hate us. This is arguably a better situation than giving them time to hatch plots to come to the US to kill the civilians they so earnestly feel need to be exploded. If we left now, they will happily slaughter each other for years without bothering their neighbors very much because there is still enough left there to fight over once we’re gone. Iran as a nuclear power (even if it’s just power plants) will not be directly balanced, however the Saudis will claim religious parity which should still mean something. Between the average Iranian’s apparent desire to westernize and Iran’s likely pre-occupation with gaining influence in the region formerly known as Iraq, we can probably count on Iran not causing too much real global trouble for a while. The rest of the regional players are powerful enough shift their borders a bit (Turkey and Pakistan come to mind) but are not powerful or secure enough for a wholesale invasion anywhere. Plus a full invasion or use of nukes would likely be the only thing that gets the US involved again, and then we might just cause enough damage to halt the major invasion and proclaim victory again.

So I propose that we have already achieved a significant strategic victory, and ought to state that things pretty much ended up how we figured they would even if the details are messier than we’d hoped and the Iraqi civilian population got a worse deal than we expected. That way we can get on with the process of backing away from the Saudis in favor of the Iranians, who we may have a lot more in common with.

Whoever ends up with control of the Iraqi oil fields will continue to accept dollars as well as the euro and we don’t seem to be suffering much from the current loss of Iraqi oil production, so we can afford to be a little patient. Think of the un-pumped Iraqi oil as a banked resource and it’ll make more sense.

If we wanted to do real damage to the Iranian govt, all we need to do is develop and freely distribute a satellite tv receiver that is smaller and easier to hide than the dishes the Iranian govt has been confiscating recently (one that works indoors would suffice), and ensure freely accessible satellite tv coverage over the region. Using our Weapons of Mass Disney is our best option over there, and it’s the one truly asymmetric attack we have at our disposal that the religious radicals truly fear. Info warfare doesn’t need to be limited to beeps and squeaks… All it needs is a Presidential policy directive.

I don’t know if I’m allowed to make this sort of comment on national policy outside of the squadron pub, so please don’t publish my name.

See comment below

========

More on Paul and the Legions

Jerry,

Let me clarify at least one misunderstanding: The US military is such a force today that it is a hyperforce - there is not a single military power or country that can stand against it in battle.

But as you yourself have pointed out, the US military is NOT a constabulary, although it is being used as such. In Iraq, as it was in Viet Nam, there is no standing enemy and no clearly defined battlefield where the battles may be fought. This being the case, the US military in Iraq is trying to fight a war - if we may dignify it as such - that it cannot win because it is not allowed to pacify the region using those tactics of total conquest that would work.

What the US military has already done has been to win the war against Saddam. He's gone now - and not even his seed exists to bring back the old days.

The question before us now is simple, although the answer is not so. What would constitute victory for the US military, such that you would agree to bring the troops home? Would it be enough to end the millennium-long sectarian violence of Sunni vs. Shiia vs. Kurd vs. Christian vs. Al Qaeda vs. who knows what?

Remember - this war is no longer against an identifiable enemy army, but against those who believe that their personal God requires their sacrifice. Such partisans may take their weapons and hide them in a pile of animal dung a kilometer away from their homes and retrieve them only when they are ready to attack. So how then will the armored, uniformed, techno-savvy US military even find these partisans?

What will be victory against such as these?

As to the fury of the Legions. How many Americans died in Viet Nam, a conflict where I personally had experience both as enlisted and commissioned? Why then did the Legions not exercise the ultimate duty of the Praetorian Guard - that of removing the "emperor", back when the public was literally rioting in the streets to end the war? When the US Congress had forced the South Vietnamese into losing that war, did those Legions protest? And those were the citizen-soldiers of the Republic, and not the mercenaries of today's new "action" army.

You obviously don't agree with Congressman Paul's idea, but I've yet to hear of a better plan. Leaving the army in situ, to be collateral targets in ever-growing sectarian civil wars, just isn't going to win the Legion's approval.

And then there's this: http://www.sinodefence.com/airforce/fighter/j10.asp http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn12204-chinas-new-submarine-spotted-on-google-earth.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012300114.html http://www.comw.org/cmp/

Oh, how Hu Jintao must be laughing at us, as we once laughed at the Soviets in Afghanistan.

最好祝願, Brian Claypool

===============d

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Tuesday,  July 31, 2007

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

Dr. Pournelle,

Here’s an interesting mainstream article floating the idea that if you toss out the emotional arguments, even our worst nuclear power accidents are less risky in terms of human deaths than accidents involving other power generation methods such as hydroelectric dams.

http://money.cnn.com/2007/07/24/magazines/fortune/leg_one/index.htm?cnn=yes 

The cynic in me wonders if it’s a trial balloon from Someone Important.

Sean

Those who pay attention have long known that nuclear power is the safest per kilowatt of all power sources -- including rooftop solar! -- but you can count on the media including many members of the science press corps never to mention this.

===========

Subject: Common sense completely gone  at NASA

Dr. Pournelle,

Hopefully someone can stop this madness before we lose a huge chunk of our heritage. Maybe you or someone you know has a line to a congressman who can put a halt to this nonsense immediately.

http://www.nasawatch.com/archives/2007/07/nasa_ksc_itar_r.html 

The info has been “in the wild” for decades so even if shredding poster-size “blueprints” of the Saturn V system (what a joke!) was a legit ITAR concern, you’re not going to stuff that particular genie back into the bottle by threatening/harassing people and shredding some PR drawings. I for one will not ransack my house to find the nifty Saturn V poster I got from NASA as a child, and in fact the ITAR paragraph quoted in the article I linked appears to make it clear that the harassment and shredded drawings were not in violation of ITAR rules.

I expect next month some genius at NASA will declare the wright flyer blueprints restricted under ITAR and burn down the Smithsonian to ensure every last copy is destroyed. What I do not expect is that whoever is responsible for shredding any personally owned Saturn V memorabilia will be required to compensate the victims for their destroyed property.

Sean

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

Free security tool ferrets out unpatched software

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?
command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9027840&source=rss_news10    

July 24, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- A Danish security vendor is offering a free tool designed to inform users when their applications need patching.

Bill Shields

All my systems are on automatic update. I think. I'll try this on the more obscure machines when I get home. Thanks.

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

DOD interest in Space Solar Power

Jerry - There is a development regarding space solar power that I know the subject is near to your heart. I wonder if Colonel Smith is aware of your writings on the subject?

Pentagon Looks to the Internet Community for Space Solar Power Study By Jeremy Singer Space News Staff Writer posted: 25 July 2007 7:00 p.m. ET

BOSTON - A Pentagon office is taking advantage of the collaborative nature of the Internet as it studies potential applications for space-based solar power, according to one of the officials leading the effort.

The effort marks the first time the National Security Space Office (NSSO) has conducted a study that relies heavily on Internet collaboration, according to Air Force Col. (select) M.V. "Coyote" Smith, chief of the NSSO's future concepts division. Smith is the director of the study, which began in late April....

The article is here: http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/070725_techwed_pentagon_spacepower.html 

I found this article because it was mentioned on Slashdot -- not a venue I would normally refer you to, but a surprisingly large percentage of this topic's posts are cogent and coherent, and some even informative. One of those linked to a YouTube of the Goldstone power transmission test back in 1974.

Slashdot article: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/07/25/1738239&from=rss 

Goldstone power transmission test http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkVlkSnoGNM 

Colonel Smith's virtual conference is here: http://spacesolarpower.wordpress.com 

--Gary Pavek

Space Solar Power was a main theme of my 1980 book A Step Farther Out (available in the subscriber area on Chaos Manor Reviews). We have all the necessary technology. We need X programs to develop designs for a fleet of heavy lifters to reduce the costs of taking mass to orbit; and we need better space suits so that we can do massive on orbit assembly. Incidentally, as Hugh Davis who worked space solar power in the 1980's observed, once we have a space solar power satellite effort going, we can go to the Moon on third shifts and weekends.

==========

Who's a Nerd?

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2007/07/nerd-patrol.html 

"She has gone to high schools and colleges, mainly in California, and asked students from different crowds to think about the idea of nerdiness and who among their peers should be considered a nerd; students have also "reported" themselves. Nerdiness, she has concluded, is largely a matter of racially tinged behavior. People who are considered nerds tend to act in ways that are, as she puts it, "hyperwhite.""

If this site correctly reports her views, this has to be either satire or the silliest excuse for research I've ever seen. Speaking as a stereotypical nerd, she appears to be batting .000 for over a decade.

Graves

==================f

QGE=A

Hi Jerry,

Sue here.

Several years ago I did some research on education for businessman Win Straube. Straube is an interesting man who has amass a fortune and now lives part-time in NJ and winters in Hawaii.

He has finished his treatise on education and titled it: QGE=A (Quality Generic Education is the Answer)

You can read about Win and the book here:

http://www.straubecenter.com/win_straube.htm 

S.

I am not familiar with any of this. I'll have to have a look.

========

Subject: Sound familiar?

Came across this and it sounded a tad familiar from reading your site... don't suppose Hawley might have caught a glimpse too?

"In an interesting turn of phrase, Hawley referred to such misguided but politically popular mandates as “security theater.” He noted that such theater trivializes security operations while doing little to protect Americans."

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OTA0NWI2YWQzZ
Tk1NjViOTkxMDk1ZjhiZTdjZTgxNmI= 

Once in a while, maybe even those subject to the "Iron Law" get a clue...

Regards.

(I don't blame you for not wanting to be named. It's all too easy to get on the no fly list as some kind of enemy of the people.)

==========

OK Jerry, the newest thing:

Vegansexuals.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/AAMB4/aamsz=300x44_MULTILINK/4147483a6009.html 

Based on my four-month stay in Kiwi-Land, I do not find it surprising.

Ed

==========

Regarding the Legions:

Hi!

This is the first time I've emailed you. I've been a fan for quite some time; I'm 28 now but I remember reading things you've wrote back when I was 12.

Anyway, regarding your words:

"Before I would adopt an Iraq policy, I would want to know a great deal more about what the Legions believe we must do. We sent them; we required them to bleed and die in Mesopotamia, to see their comrades killed and maimed, and to assume the burden of knowing they have brought more death and destruction to Iraq than Saddam ever did. Surely we owe them a loud voice in our future policies."

If you hadn't heard, during the second quarter of 2007, they measured donations by career on OpenSecrets.org -- and it turns out Ron Paul led in donations from the military. Obama was second. I know this doesn't mean that all or even most of them want to leave immediately, but I think it's pretty telling that the most anti-war candidates do the best among active military personnel.

Shine,
Paul Eres

An interesting data point.

========

Subject: Asking the Legions

Paul Eres' submission indicated that opensecrets.org had "measured donations by career on OpenSecrets.org -- and it turns out Ron Paul led in donations from the military. Obama was second." I'm always suspicious when a link is not provided to support claims, so I went to opensecrets.org to verify the claim. OpenSecrets.org is somewhat difficult to navigate, and I was unable to find the article or data to support Mr. Eres' claim. I then ran several different google searches and found an article (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070730/engelhardt)  which also indicates that Ron Paul received the most money from people in the military. The Nation article contains a link to the Federal Elections Commission for Ron Paul and McCain (http://query.nictusa.com/pres/2007/Q2/)  and claims that McCain received the second largest contribution from military personnel. My quick eyeballing of Sen. Obama's contributions indicates that he received a substantial amount from military personnel, fairly close to Sen. McCain's contributions. This largely corroborates Mr. Eres' observation.

The Nation article also indicates that military.com ran a poll (http://www.military.com/pollresults?poll_id=2541&poll_frame_src=/votingpoll/results.do)  to determine whether its readers advocated staying in Iraq or withdrawing, and approximately 60% advocated withdrawal by no later than the end of 2008 (42% said immediately, 41% said stay until insurgency is defeated, 17% said leave by the end of 2008). As The Nation article is quick to point out, the military.com poll is unreliable since the participants were self-selected and not necessarily members of the military. However, the readers of military.com are not pot smoking, hippies.

Finally, The Nation article contains a link to an International Herald Tribune article (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/15/news/army.php)  that claims that membership is growing in anti-war groups comprised of family members of military personnel. I tend to discount this anecdotal evidence, since it is the most subjective. For all I know, membership is growing in similar pro-war groups.

Given the truth of Mr. Eres' remarkable observation that Ron Paul received the largest amount of money from military contributors, and the results of the military.com poll, I think it is safe to say that our soldiers are not wholly behind an indefinite deployment in Iraq. If this information is accurate, the Democrats should conduct a poll of active military personnel. This way, they could deflect some of the inevitable criticism the next President of the U.S. will receive when s/he withdraws troops from Iraq. Yes, this means that I believe the next President will be a Democrat -- look at the money. Democrats are excited by Clinton (married once), Obama (married once) and to a lesser degree Edwards (married once). Republicans are decidedly more apathetic about Romney (one marriage), McCain (married twice), and Giuliani (married three times). The Democtrats' blame deflection goal also is being furthered by the "benchmarks" that Iraq is failing to satisfy (our military largely is meeting its benchmarks).

Rene Daley

But then we have

Shenanigans

Dr Pournelle, the poll that said Ron Paul has extreme strength in the Armed Forces on the basis of money donated is what led me to begin asking soldiers in the headquarters where I work about Ron Paul. Other than myself, I've not found one who claims to know the name. I've found none who like his views on 9/11 and the war other than a lone sergeant who intends to vote for Ralph Nader. I simply can't find professional soldiers, SGT to LTC, who have noticed his campaign, much less any sign of great strength amongst the Legions for his candidacy. I thus continue to view this with skepticism.

The Democrats seem determined to leave Iraq instantly, then continue the slide toward wherever we have been going since the New Deal. Ron Paul apparently will do the same, but would reverse that trend and attempt to take us toward the Old Republic. Of those I know which I prefer. But it is early days yet.

==

Actually some good news. And this from a strong anti-Bush friend and a liberal main stream media newspaper, interestingly enough. :-)

General Petraeus is refreshingly competent at 4th Generation Warfare and is getting excellent results, especially given the monumentally bungled mess he inherited. Is it too late for Iraq? Maybe.

It depends on the politicians, unfortunately, and neither Baghdad nor our own Congress (~16% approval rating) inspires confidence. One thing is for sure though: We'll be dealing with Islamic Fascism (aka fanatical religious terrorists seeking glorious suicide for Allah) for the rest of our generation, and possibly longer.

Sincerely,

John D. Trudel

Op-Ed Contributor: A War We Just Might Win
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/opinion/30pollack.html
?ex=1186459200&en=612b6e87664c687c&ei=5070&emc=eta1

By MICHAEL E. O’HANLON and KENNETH M. POLLACK

We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms.

And see below

===========

Tasmanian Sea level Mark

Jerry,

For those interested, the URL's for the relevant websites describing the 166 year old sea level marker in Tasmania that's the object of some controversy are:

http://www.john-daly.com/deadisle/hobart-msl.htm
 http://www.john-daly.com/deadisle/index.htm
 http://www.john-daly.com/deadisle/part2.htm 

-- Cecil Rose

========

Lebensunwertes Leben.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transplant31jul
31,1,4163604,full.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

- Roland Dobbins

 

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Wednesday, August 1, 2007

We have two messages from Colonel Couvillon

"we can probably count on Iran not causing too much real global trouble for a while. "

Well, first I have a distinct problem with the pilot using the word 'probably'. Quick question to the officer - would you fly in an aircraft that you can probably count on not to have any problems?

Apparently his military education is also lacking in the knowledge of countries where internal strife is increasing - have traditionally sought external enemies to provide for a common 'good' of the country, or at least to justify 'internal security.'

My advice is not to trust the Persians... and never let this guy anywhere near diplomatic or political power.

s/f Couv

==

I requested Colonel Couvillon's (USMCR) assessment of the situation in Iraq. He was at one time governor of a province there.

Gen Petreaus' strategy (of which the 'surge' is only a part) is having positive effects. Bad guys are being driven (even 'herded') out of Baghdad & Ramadi and Iraqis (with strong US backup) are maintaining that space - expect to see major military push in the provinces of Karbala, Salah ah-Din & Ninawah in the near future. (Note that as the military situation in Iraq is improving, the major media in the US is switching to carping about the Iraqi government [with some justifiction] corruption and infrastructure deterioration).

Recruiting for the Iraqi Army and Police is still in high gear and have no lack of bodies, but training desertions still hover around 20%. US involvement of Tribal leaders is increasing and this is bringing a calming effect over many areas.

The political climate (nationally) continues to ebb and flow, mostly ebb, without a STRONG leader and weak incentives for cooperation among the various groups. The trick is to find an Iraqi 'George Washington' who is strong enough to force the way forward, but who is also altruistic enough to do it for the country rather than himself/sect/tribe. I don't know that that person exists in Iraq - at least in the group of people that has any reasonable chance of being in a position of power. Still, the government has not folded, nor has there been a coup or revolt, and that's a significant positive sign.

Incompetence certainly isn't unique to the Iraqi government. Furthermore, it is imperative to inhibit, as much as possible, and by any means possible, the interference in Iraq affairs by the Persians, Saudis, and Syrians (don't forget the mufsidoon Hirabist's). As long as they keep 'stirring the pot' we (Or the Iraqi's) will make little headway in stability, much less prosperity. It should be heartening to everyone, though to note the amount of pride in IRAQ by all of the country in the form of the Iraqi National Football team win of the Asian Cup - there can be an national Iraqi identity. Alas, I feel we do very little to build upon that.

s/f Couv

=========

And on this subject:

Subject: A war we just might win - if Maliki allows it

Jerry,

Supposing that Petraeus has got himself a winning strategy, I have to wonder if our Iraqi allies will let him win: http://wtop.com/?nid=105&sid=1203151

"July 28, 2007 - 2:05pm

By STEVEN R. HURST and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA Associated Press Writers

BAGHDAD (AP) - A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post."

Those who still strongly support the war seem to love Petraeus and his strategy, so it would be quite a slap in their faces if the democratically elected government in Iraq were to ask for his removal. Stories like this have me wondering if we should be so concerned about "betraying the trust" of this crowd.....

CP, Connecticut

==

This isn't to attack it or say it is inaccurate, but I would note in passing that the "liberal main stream media newspaper" article was coauthored by Kenneth M. Pollack, author of the 2002 book titled "The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq."
http://www.amazon.com/Threatening-Storm-Case-Invading-Iraq/dp/0375509283 

Thanks,

Ian Perry

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

Meme 101: H.L. Mencken: The Educational Process sent 7.8.1

From Education, Prejudices: Third Series, 1922, pp. 238-65. First printed in the New York Evening Mail, Jan. 23, 1918. Revised, perhaps, for A Mencken Chrestomathy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949), pp. 301-6, and taken from there.

Next to the clerk in holy orders, the fellow with the foulest job in the world is the schoolmaster. Both are underpaid, both fall steadily in authority and dignity, and both wear out their hearts trying to perform the impossible. How much the world asks of them, and how little they can actually deliver! The clergyman's business is to save the human race from Hell. It he saves one-eighth of one per cent, even within the limits of his narrow flock, he does magnificently. The schoolmasters is to spread the enlightenment, to make the great masses of the plain people think--and thinking is precisely the thing that the great masses of the plain people are congenitally and eternally incapable of. , Is it any wonder that the poor birchman, facing this labor that would have staggered Sisyphus, seeks refuge from its essential impossibility in a Chinese maze of empty technic? The ghost of Pestalozzi, once bearing a torch and beckoning toward the heights, now leads down dark stairways into the black and forbidding dungeons of Teachers College, Columbia. The art of pedagogics becomes a sort of puerile magic, a thing of preposterous secrets, a grotesque compound of false premisses and illogical conclusions. Every year sees a craze for some new solution of the teaching enigma, an endless series of flamboyant arcana. The worst extravagances of *privat dozent* experimental psychology are gravely seized upon; the uplift pours in its ineffable principles and discoveries; mathematical formulae are marked out for every emergency; there is no sure-cure so idiotic that some superintendent of schools will not swallow it. The aim seems to be to reduce the whole teaching process to a sort of automatic reaction, to discover some master formula that will not only take the place of competence and resourcefulness in the teacher but that will also create an artificial receptivity in the child. Teaching becomes a thing in itself, separable from and superior to the thing taught. Its mastery is a special business, a sort of transcendental high jumping. A teacher well grounded in it can teach anything to any child, just as a sound dentist can pull any tooth out of any jaw.

All this, I need not point out, is in sharp contrast to the old theory of teaching. By that theory mere technic was simplified and subordinated. All that it demanded of the teacher told off to teach, say, geography, was that he master the facts in the geography book and provide himself with a stout rattan. Thus equipped, he was ready for a test of his natural pedagogical genius. First he exposed the facts in the book, then he gilded them with whatever appearance of interest and importance he could conjure up, and then he tested the extent of their transference to the minds of his pupils. Those pupils who had ingested them got apples; those who had failed got fanned. Followed the second round, and the same test again, with a second noting of results. And then the third, and fourth, and the fifth, and so on until the last and least pupil had been stuffed to his subnormal and perhaps moronic brim.

I was myself grounded in the underlying delusions of what is called knowledge by this austere process, and despite the eloquence of those who support newer ideas, I lean heavily in favor of it, and regret to hear that it is no more. It was crude, it was rough, and it was often not a little cruel, but it at least had two capital advantages over all the systems that have succeeded it. In the first place, its machinery was simple; even the stupidest child could understand it; it hooked up cause and effect with the utmost clarity. And in the second place, it tested the teacher as and how he ought to be tested--that is, for his actual capacity to teach, not for his mere technical virtuosity. There was, in fact, no technic for him to master, and hence none for him to hide behind. He could not conceal a hopeless inability to impart knowledge beneath a correct professional method.

That ability to impart knowledge, it seems to me, has very little to do with technical method. It may operate at full function without any technical method at all, and contrariwise, the most elaborate of technical methods cannot make it operate when it is not actually present. And what does it consist of? It consists, first, of a natural talent for dealing with children, for getting into their minds, for putting things in a way that they can comprehend. And it consists, secondly, of a deep belief in the interest and importance of the thing taught, a concern about it amounting to a kind of passion. A man who knows a subject thoroughly, a man so soaked in it that he eats it, sleeps it and dreams it--this man can almost always teach it with success, no matter how little he knows of technical pedagogy. That is because there is enthusiasm in him, and because enthusiasm is as contagious as fear or the barber's itch. An enthusiast is willing to go to any trouble to impart the glad news bubbling within. He thinks that it is important and valuable for to know; given the slightest glow of interest in a pupil to start with, he will fan that glow to a flame. No hollow hocus-pocus cripples him and slows him down. He drags his best pupils along as fast as they can go, and he is so full of the thing that he never tires of expounding its elements to the dullest.

This passion, so unordered and yet so potent, explains the capacity for teaching that one frequently observes in scientific men of high attainments in their specialties--for example, Huxley, Ostwald, Karl Ludwig, Jowett, William G. Sumner, Halsted and Osier--men who knew nothing whatever about the so-called science of pedagogy, and would have derided its alleged principles if they had heard them stated. It explains, too, the failure of the general run of high-school and college teachers--men who are competent, by the professional standards of pedagogy, but who nevertheless contrive only to make intolerable bores of the things they presume to teach. No intelligent student ever learns much from the average drover of undergraduates; what he actually carries away has come out of his textbooks, or is the fruit of his own reading and inquiry. But when he passes to the graduate school, and comes among men (if he is lucky) who really understand the subjects they teach, and, what is more, who really love them, his store of knowledge increases rapidly, and in a very short while, if he has any intelligence at all, he learns to think in terms of the thing he is studying.

So far, so good. But an objection still remains, the which may be couched in the following terms: that in the average college or high school, and especially in the elementary school, most of the subjects taught are so bald and uninspiring that it is difficult to imagine them arousing the passion I have been describing--in brief, that only a donkey could be enthusiastic about them. In witness, think of the four elementals: reading, penmanship, arithmetic and spelling. This objection, at first blush, seems dismaying, but only a brief inspection is needed to show that it is really of very small validity. It is made up of a false assumption and a false inference. The false assumption is that there are no donkeys in our schools and colleges today. The false inference is that there is any sound reason for prohibiting teaching by donkeys, if only the donkeys know how to do it, and to do it well. The facts stand iii almost complete antithesis to these notions. The truth is that the average schoolmaster, on all the lower levels, is and always must be essentially and next door to an idiot, for how can one imagine an intelligent man engaging in so puerile an avocation? And the truth is that it is precisely his inherent idiocy, and not his technical equipment as a pedagogue, that is responsible for whatever modest success he now shows.

I here attempt no heavy jocosity, but mean exactly what I say. Consider, for example, penmanship. A legible handwriting, it must be obvious, is useful to all men, and particularly to the lower orders of men, It is one of the few things capable of acquirement in school that actually helps them to make a living. Well, how is it taught today? It is taught, in the main, by schoolmarms so enmeshed in a complex and unintelligible technic that, even supposing them able to write clearly themselves, they find it quite impossible to teach their pupils. Every few years sees a radical overhauling of the whole business. First the vertical hand is to make it easy; then certain curves are the favorite magic; then there is a return to slants and shadings. No department of pedagogy sees a more hideous cavorting of quacks. In none is the natural talent and enthusiasm of the teacher more depressingly crippled. And the result? The result is that our American school children write abominably--that a clerk or stenographer with a simple, legible hand becomes almost as scarce as one with Greek.

Go back, now, to the old days. Penmanship was then taught, not mechanically and ineffectively, by unsound and shifting formulas, but by passionate penmen with curly patent-leather hair and far-away eyes--in brief, by the unforgettable professors of our youth, with their flourishes, their heavy down-strokes and their lovely birds-with-letters-in-their-bills. You remember them, of course. Asses all! Preposterous popinjays and numskulls! Pathetic imbeciles! But they loved penmanship, they believed in the glory and beauty of penmanship, they were fanatics, devotees, almost martyrs of penmanship--and so they got some touch of that passion into their pupils. Not enough, perhaps, to make more flourishers and bird-blazoners, but enough to make sound penmen. Look at your old writing book; observe the excellent legibility, the clear strokes of your "Time is money." Then look at your child's.

Such idiots, despite the rise of "scientific" pedagogy, have not died out in the world. I believe that our schools are full of them, both in pantaloons and in skirts. There are fanatics who love and venerate spelling as a tom-cat loves and venerates catnip. There are grammatomaniacs; schoolmarms who would rather parse than eat; specialists in an objective case that doesn't exist in English; strange beings, otherwise sane and even intelligent and comely, who suffer under a split infinitive as you or I would suffer under gastro-enteritis. There are geography cranks, able to bound Mesopotamia and Be-Inohistan. There are zealots for long division, experts in the multiplication table, lunatic worshipers of the binomial theorem. But the system has them in its grip. It combats their natural enthusiasm diligently and mercilessly. It tries to convert them into mere technicians, clumsy machines. It orders them to teach, not by the process of emotional osmosis which worked in the days gone by, but by formulas that are as baffling to the pupil as they are paralyzing to the teacher. Imagine what would happen to one of them who stepped to the blackboard, seized a piece of chalk, and engrossed a bird that held the class spell-bound, a bird with a thousand flowing feathers, wings bursting with parabolas and epicycloids, and long ribbons streaming from its bill. Imagine the fate of one who began "Honesty is the best policy" with an H as florid and--to a child--as beautiful as the initial of a medieval manuscript. Such a teacher would be cashiered and handed over to the secular arm; the very enchantment of the assembled infantry would be held as damning proof against him. And yet it is just such teachers that we should try to discover and develop. Pedagogy needs their enthusiasm, their naive belief in their own grotesque talents, their capacity for communicating their childish passion to the childish.

But this would mean exposing the children of the Republic to contact with monomaniacs, half-wits? Well, what of it? The vast majority of them are already exposed to contact with half-wits in their own homes; they are taught the word of God by half-wits on Sundays; they will grow up into Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows, Red Men and other such half-wits in the day's to come. Moreover, as I have hinted, they are already fact to face with half-wits in the actual schools, at least in three cases out of four. The problem before us is not to dispose of this fact, but to utilize it. We cannot hope to fill the schools with persons of high intelligence, for persons of high intelligence simply refuse to spend their lives teaching such banal things as spelling and arithmetic. Among the teachers male we may safely assume that 95% are of low mentality, else they would depart for more appetizing pastures. And even among the teachers female the best are inevitably weeded out by marriage, and only the worst (with a few romantic exceptions) survive.

The task before us, as I say, is not to make a vain denial of this cerebral inferiority of the pedagogue, nor to try to combat and disguise it by concocting a mass of technical balderdash, but to search out and put to use the value lying concealed in it. For even stupidity, it must be plain, has its uses in the world, and some of them are uses that intelligence cannot meet. One would not tell off a Galileo to drive an ash-cart or an Ignatius Loyola to be a stock-broker, or a Mozart to lead the orchestra in a night-club. By the same token, one would not ask a Duns Scotus to instruct sucklings. Such men would not only be wasted at the job; they would also be incompetent. The business of dealing with' children, in fact, demands a certain jejunity of mind. The best teacher, until one comes to adult pupils, is not the one who knows most, but the one who is most capable of reducing knowledge to that simple compound of the obvious and the wonderful which slips into the infantile comprehension. A man of high intelligence, perhaps, may accomplish the thing by a conscious intellectual feat. But it is vastly easier to the man (or woman) whose habits of mind are naturally on the plane of a child's. The best teacher of children, in brief, is one who is essentially childlike.

If I had my way I should expose all candidates for berths in the grade-schools to the Binet-Simon test, and reject all those who revealed a mentality of more than fifteen years. Plenty would still pass. Moreover, they would be secure against contamination by the new technic of pedagogy. Its vast wave of pseudo-psychology would curl and break against the hard barrier of their innocent and passionate intellects--as it probably does, in fact, even now. They would know nothing of learning situations, integration, challenges, emphases, orthogenics, mind-sets, differentia, and all the other fabulous fowl of the Teachers College aviary. But they would see in reading, writing and arithmetic the gaudy charms of profound knowledge, and they would teach these ancient branches, now so abominably in decay, with passionate gusto, and irresistible effectiveness, and a gigantic success.

[I am sending forth these memes, not because I agree wholeheartedly with all of them, but to impregnate females of both sexes. Ponder them and spread them.]

Frank

I am not sure what it means to impregnate females of both exes, but then I have never entirely bought the meme meme.

==========

Two from Russell Seitz

NEVER JUDGE AN AFGHAN BY HIS HAT

Bad Mistake if he turns out to be a Baloch

--The ethnic minority straddling southeast Iran, southwest Pakistan and south Afghanistan. In February, a Baloch attack on the Iranian city of Zahedan killed 11 Revolutionary Guards, and mover the Baloch to the top of Tehran's hit list.

Do these attacks signal the beginning of a covert war on Iran ?

http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/08/never-judge-an-.html
<http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?&id=9743>

<http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?&id=9743

Russell Seitz

==

Will California Be Blown Into The Gulf Of Mexico?

Cow_collegees <http://adamant.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/07/31/cow_collegees.jpg>
 The DOE's bureaucratic death-wish has morphed into an Aggie Joke: Awarding the security contract for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to Texas A&M

I was kind of rooting for Waco, but earmarks are earmarks.

<http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/07/time-to-evacuat.html>
 http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/07/will-texas-fall.html
 <http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/07/will-texas-fall.html

Russell Seitz

For reply from Texas A&M see below

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

And we hear from Jim Ransom

Physicists Organized to Prevent Outsourcing

Dear Jerry,

At least some people in the scientific community are beginning to notice the decline in opportunities for American-grown physicists.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/
Theoretical_Physicists_Organize_To_Stem_Outsourcing_999.html 

Jim Ransom

Perhaps they should join the CIO? Don't join that cloak maker union it's a tradecraft union, it's a White Guard  union for the boss. Join that CIO union it's an industrial union, it's a Red Guard union just for us!

(Alas, Google does not know everything: it can't find that old song. Oh. Well.)

===========

The Death of Sweden.

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2278

-- Roland Dobbins

My family came from Skane, which is now part of Sweden but was then Denmark, but I have always had relatives from Sweden. It is sad to see national suicide. Apparently it is all right to have Egypt for the Egyptians but never shall Swedes or Danes have a land of their own.

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

From another conference:

Copied without commentary:

*** begin quotation ***

U.S. Copyright Office NewsNet

July 30, 2007 Issue 320

** For additional information, visit the Copyright Office website at http://www.copyright.gov 

***** * NEWS *

 -------Copyright Office------

IMPROVED COPYRIGHT SEARCH SYSTEM TO REPLACE CURRENT SEARCH SYSTEMS IN MID AUGUST

In mid August, the Copyright Office will launch a powerful new records search system that accesses more than 20 million digital records of registrations and recorded documents from 1978 to the present. The new system allows searching by title, name, keyword, and registration or document number. Through a command keyword search, elements of any or all fields can be combined to search the records.

Users can also search by type of work, such as sound recordings, dramas, motion pictures, visual materials, or preregistrations. The search method combines three separate databases that previously permitted only limited searching. The search tool uses Voyager software, the same system used by the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

For a tutorial on searching with the new system, go to:

http://www.copyright.gov/records 

-- ---Federal Register--- ---

COPYRIGHT OFFICE PUBLISHES TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS (72 FR 40745)

The Copyright Office is making technical corrections to its interim regulation implementing an online copyright registration. The interim regulation amends regulations governing the procedures by which the public submits, and the Office processes, copyright registrations and recordations. The interim regulation was published in the Federal Register on July 6, 2007 (72 FR 36883). For further information, go to http://www.copyright.gov/fedreg/2007/72fr40745.html 

********* * CALENDAR *

July 31: Register of Copyrights testifies before the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property in hearing on Ensuring Artists Fair Compensation: Updating the Performance Right and Platform Parity for the 21st Century

Mid August: Launch of new search system for copyright registrations and recordations

September 4: Due date for written comments on the interim regulation on rules for online registration (72 FR 36883)

September 13: Due date for reply comments on formal written comments, oral and written testimony, and any other filings associated with the July 23-July 26 hearings (72 FR 28998)

October 1: Due date for reply comments on issues related to Sections 111, 119, and 122 of the Copyright Act (72 FR 33776)

****** * TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE TO NEWSNET *

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*** end quotation ***

 C.E. Petit, Esq. http://www.authorslawyer.com

=======

 

 

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This week:

Monday
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Thursday, August 2, 2007

Hummmm...

The Russians supposedly planted their flag beneath the North Pole to improve their claim on Artic resources.

http://www.comcast.net/news/science/index.jsp?cat=SCIENCE&fn=/2007/08/02/729759.html   

Does that give the United States a claim on the resources of the moon because we planted our flag there?

Charles Brumbelow

When I was Secretary of the late and lamented L-5 Society ("We're going if we have to walk!") one of our notable achievements was securing the rejection of Jimmy Carter's Moon treaty which would have given away the Moon and most of the resources of the Solar System to the UN. The treaty was signed by Carter, and submitted to the Senate; L-5, and this in the days before the Internet, with the assistance of Mrs. BJO Trimble who had organized the Star Trek fan clubs, caused that treaty to be withdrawn because it was clear that it would have been rejected. One of our finest hours.

(For those who don't know, Mrs. Trimble served as the recording secretary of the Council meetings in 1980 that developed the Transition Team papers on space and defense for the incoming Reagan Administration. We met at Larry Niven's house. Lary and Marilyn were host and hostess; I was Chairman for reasons that seemed sufficient at the time.

Space will never be developed until there is some kind of sovereignty and ownership, just as sea resources are not developed because no one can get title to the improvements from investing in them. See my stories in the collection "HIGH JUSTICE" and if you can't find it, bombard Baen Books with missives insisting that it be put back into print or an electronic edition developed...

========

Jerry

Look at the 2007-Jul-24 item - Communists Seek Safety By Protecting Microsoft:

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/china/articles/20070731.aspx 

Who would have thought?

(It also is a third-party judgment on Microsoft's security.)

Ed

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

On Hope:

Read the July 23d entry…

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/ 

s/f

Couv

David W. Couvillon

==

Ron Paul Contributors

Jerry,

Rene Daley must have missed the page on Ron Paul contributors.

Opensecrets.org provides the list of contributors to Ron Paul at page:
http://opensecrets.org/pres08/contrib.asp?id=N00005906&cycle=2008 

As Paul Eres noted, the US Navy and US Army were second and third on the list.

More interesting, Microsoft was fourth

Of course, the institutions themselves didn’t contribute.

Larry May

==

Subj: FreedomWorks.org straw poll

www.FreedomWorks.org   is Dick Armey's and Steve Forbes' 501(c)(4) organization; it used to be called "Citizens for a Sound Economy". They're having a Republican Presidential Candidate strawpoll at http://www.freedomworks.org/strawpoll/  -- in which, as of this writing, Ron Paul is leading, with Fred Thompson second. So it looks like the flat-taxers are on board for Ron Paul, for whatever good that does him.

They'll have a Democratic strawpoll a little later.

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

=======

Fair Play:

Dr. Pournelle:

While I must admit that Texas A&M University (officially "TAMU" or "Texas A&M" for some time now with the "Agricultural and Mechanical" dropped from the title) is not a perfect institution, and has made some mistakes in the past, I felt that I must reply to Mr. Seitz' posting.

1. I perceive the possibility of some bias on the part of the reporter -- Three of the links prominently display the Texas University Longhorn logo. Anyone from Texas knows that there is a long-seated (usually good humored) rivalry between Texas University and TAMU (The oldest state university in the state - 1876 vs. 1883).

2. TAMU has graduated more military officers from its Corp of Cadets than any other source outside of the service academies.

3. While being the object of much derision in the form of Aggie Jokes, one of those jokes goes as follows: "What do you call an Aggie 10 years after graduation? Boss."

Just wanting to set the record straight. 8-)

Lee Keller King
 Attorney at Law
 University of Houston-Downtown 1991

=========

Subj: Rats, Cats and Landmines

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htcbtsp/articles/20070802.aspx 

>>Colombian de-mining experts have found the key to using rats, rather than dogs, for detecting mines. It involves locking up the rats in the same cage with a cat. ...<<

I wonder whether there's an undergraduate psych-student thesis topic here, to wit: experimentally test the hypothesis that infecting the rats with that parasite that desensitizes them to the smell of cat urine would speed the process of training them as mine-detectors?

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

=========

Subject: Falkenberg

Is Falkenberg's Legion <http://www.baen.com/series_list.asp>  finished or is there 1 more book in there ?( I hope:-))).

Donald F Richardson

I have notes for two more books: One, Falkenberg on Kennicott tells the story of his marriage with Grace and what happened there, and the second is Spartan Hegemony. There are also some tentative plans for First Empire books. None of these is at the top of the queue because with the collapse of the USSR, the CoDominium became alternate history, and that's a form I don't usually do. Of course there are signs that it could all come about again after all...

=========

Dr. Pournelle,

On a lighter note, here’s an idea for a bird feeder that defeats squirrels without injury.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLiasdJeoo&NR=1 

Sean

I found this hilarious. My wife says "poor squirrels." I like squirrels, but face it, they're rats with bushy tails and good public relations...

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

g

TOP

 

CURRENT VIEW    Thursday

 

This week:

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Friday, August 3, 2007

Happy Birthday Alex

Your Papers Please!

Absolutely unbelievable, but the TSA began screening passengers on Indianapolis city busses today.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/LOCAL/70802006

--Chuck

I have no idea what they are doing, but do note that anyone who told them to go to hell was free to do do.

I do note that if we are going to begin enforcement of the immigration laws, there will have to be something in the way of ID and checking ID; not anything I like much, but how else is there to be any enforcement?

At some point there needs to be a national debate on this issue. At the moment this was a training exercise and involved volunteers. ==

Subject: Indy bus screening

This took place at the two main hub bus stops right outside my office building.

I found the note in the article concerning refusal to permit a search amusing. The manner in which they set up the checkpoints gave no indication whatsoever that the process was voluntary, and one would have needed the proverbial Big Brass Ones to stand up to the gauntlet and assert one's rights.

Most of the folks who use these hub stops simply melted away about ten minutes after the exercise got started, and ridership through downtown tended towards zero until they went away.

The morning office chat over coffee and smokes on our building porch involved a lot of engineering types wondering how we'd stumbled into Germany circa 1939.

-dean

Which does lead to the obvious question, whatever were they thinking?

===========

Subject: Ethanol from Watermelon Wine

This is one of those things that's obvious after it's pointed out. Culled watermelons that are usually turned under in the field can be converted to ethanol. So can peaches. This is something that came out of the 2nd Southeast Bioenergy Conference held in Tifton, Georgia this past week.

http://www.macon.com/198/story/103297.html 

Note: This story will probably be shifted into the Macon Telegraph's archives in the next few days.

The article also mentions the potential for ethanol from cellulose. A cellulose ethanol plant's being built in Soperton, Georgia, so at least it's moved to the application stage. Everything from cotton stalks to timber waste could - in theory - be converted to ethanol.

The significant thing is that this doesn't take land out of food production. The waste is already there, it's just not being utilized. Depending on who you ask there's between 3 billion to 12 billion tons of agricultural waste produced in the U.S. each year, so there's a huge potential here.

It's something that bears watching.

- Kevin J. Cheek

========

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/02/wzim102.xml 

Zimbabwe's hospital system 'beyond help'

By Sebastien Berger Last Updated: 2:15am BST 02/08/2007

A young girl had to have her leg amputated because no antibiotics were available to treat her wounds

The public hospitals of Zimbabwe, once a model for Africa, have become waiting rooms for death.

A doctor at one of the country's five central hospitals - the biggest and supposedly best equipped health care centres in the country - laid bare the desperate state of the system.

"Patients are dying of things like dehydration - in a hospital," he said.

Neither the doctor nor his institution can be identified for fear of reprisals. During the interview, held in the back seat of a car, he looked around to check for observers at least a dozen times.

advertisement "We no longer have a system. Now it's beyond any form of help," he said, citing the example of a young girl admitted after a falling rock crushed her thigh and broke her shin.

"I couldn't clean the wound except with tap water. She needed surgery but there were no anaesthetic drugs.

"After three days we could operate but by that time gangrene had set in. We had no antibiotics and ended up amputating her leg. She is a 10-year-old girl." He shook his head sadly.

He listed some of the items his hospital has run out of: penicillin, insulin, painkillers, bandages, hydrogen peroxide, gauze, plaster, X-ray film, sterile gloves, surgical blades and intravenous fluids.

"Most of the staff have left. Some emergencies like appendicitis are no longer emergencies. We have got to the stage where with any condition not deemed life threatening, we are not operating," he said.

Patients have to wait for hours to see a doctor and must buy all their own medical supplies. If they cannot pay they cannot be treated, he said, pointing out that the first litre of intravenous fluids and a set of equipment to administer it costs Z$1.5million - half a civil servant's monthly salary.

"Every ward round you do you record 'patient is severely dehydrated, patient needs fluids, patient can't afford fluids'. You are literally watching patients die in your hands of correctable illnesses."

With President Robert Mugabe's government unable to import supplies because of the collapsing Zimbabwean dollar, the doctor has learned not to respond to the desperate pleas of the sick and their relatives. "I tell them, 'My hands are tied, I can't do anything for you'.<snip>

==========

Into The Air, Junior Birdmen

Volantor7 <http://adamant.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/08/03/volantor7.jpg>  After only a half century of flying car development, a non-life threatening prototype has come along .

Although the Moller company's personal flying saucer sales are presently limited to polo shirts and baseball caps depicting same, its latest gizmo has actually gotten off the ground. The price of the Volantor 7 is supposed to fall to earth in the vicinity of $90,000 in mass production, but nobody is saying much about its cost per mile- it has eight engines burning ethanol . Lots of ethanol .

http://adamant.typepad.com/seitz/2007/08/into-the-air-ju.html 

Russell Seitz

==========

Queen star hands in science PhD

Jerry,

I don't know why, but there's just something very cool about this.

  <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6929290.stm

Steve

 "The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' - but 'That's funny...'"

Issac Asimov

==========

Jerry:

Perhaps the courts have some usefulness, after all.

  <http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_go_ot/
raid_on_congress;_ylt=ApiedZjyCtoHTwXyF0Gu5Oms0NUE>

Steve

 It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.

---Lord Kenneth Clarke

Perhaps not. I think the entire raid on a Congressional Office was wrong. They should have gone to the Speaker and got the Sergeant at Arms to conduct the raid. It is a matter of legislative independence. The FBI, US Marshals, Secret Service, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, State Department Security, and God knows what other national military and police are executive agencies and report to the President. They have no business in the Capitol. And yes, that means that if the Speaker conspires with others to do corruption there is no remedy other than at the polls. The President's minions had no business in the Capitol, just as the President is escorted by Members of Congress and by Congressional ushers when he goes to the Capitol to present the State of the Union.

I seem to be the only one in the country who believes this way; which in my judgment is a sign of the corruption of the educational process and ignorance of the history of the Civil War in England that led to Cromwell.

==========

It's for the children, you see.

http://www.reuters.com/article/
industryNews/idUSN0223366920070803?sp=true

-- Roland Dobbins

==========

More on global climate change

Giant toxic cloud absorbing Sun's energy? Hmmmm?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2189190.ece

Regards,

Paul D. Perry

This is worth considerable thought. Of course the global warming people will not really think about it

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

THIS CAME IN LAST FRIDAY, and was set aside to lead this week. And promptly lost. Lest that happen again:

Unintended Consequences of Lead Solder restrictions- Tin Whiskers

Dear Jerry,

Unintended consequences of restrictions on lead-containing solder...

"JUST AS A TINY blood clot can fell a seemingly hale human, a tin "whisker" can bring an electronic device to its knees. Electrical shorts caused by growth of these needlelike metal crystals have knocked out guided missiles and communication satellites, shut down a nuclear power plant, and caused heart pacemakers to fail..."

"...Whiskers have been studied for more than 60 years, but environmental regulations instituted in the European Union a year ago, and under development in China, are lending added urgency to the work. That's because these regulations severely restrict the use of lead, which electronics manufacturers have relied on for decades to reduce the growth of tin whiskers..."

"...While tin whiskers are a serious threat, they aren't the only concern raised by the transition away from lead. Without lead, tin-based solder joints are much more likely to break when exposed to vibration or shocks, Handwerker notes. That's critical in, say, an airplane, which is exposed to repeated takeoffs and landings. A Boeing study predicts that "the vibration resistance of lead-free solder joints in the field is 20 times worse" than that of tin-lead, she says. That performance deficit puts military, aerospace, and some electronics companies in a bind as tin-lead components become unavailable. In some cases, these users are now removing lead-free solder from purchased components and replacing it with leaded solder to produce "tried-and-true leaded solder joints," Handwerker says..."

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/85/8529sci1.html 

It looks like those extended warranties on electronics might be not be a bad idea after all.

Cheers, Rod Schaffter

-- "The principle is this: good government is rare. It is to be cherished. When grubbing for political power takes precedence over that principle--when lust for political power takes top priority--then it threatens good government." --Dr J.E. Pournelle

Considering how many people are poisoned from eating electronic circuit boards -- I have no numbers, but it must be colossal to make us do this -- I suppose this is worthwhile?

Or is it just another case of Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy?

 

 

 

 

 

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Saturday, August 4, 2007

Subj: Dying newspapers: base commanders find the Web is enough

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20070804.aspx 

>>Last year the U.S. Air Force urged base commanders to consider scrapping a century old tradition; the base newspaper. If this were done throughout the air force, some $16 million a year could be saved. Apparently, most base commanders took the advice, and found that just depending on the base website works. ...<<

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

 

On Friday, 3 Aug, you said:

"I seem to be the only one in the country who believes this way; which in my judgment is a sign of the corruption of the educational process and ignorance of the history of the Civil War in England that led to Cromwell."

I would dispute this since I too believe the Chief Executive has overstepped his authority in this area - and in most others. Had I been sitting in the Oval Office, those responsible for going into the Capitol would have been publicly humiliated and drummed out of government service without pension to set an example to the rest of them that ALL branches of government are sacrosanct to one another. I cannot imagine anyone in the U.S. not understanding why that would have been necessary. Even though this guy might have been guilty as heck, allowing the Executive to intimidate the Legislative by openly going into their chambers and confiscating any documents deemed 'evidence of unlawful conduct' is just one step away from arresting Members of Congress for not supporting the Emperor.

There should also have been a Presidential Request followed by a Declaration of War in Iraq, with conditions for ending the war, before troops invaded another country. This has not been done for a very long time, so maybe Junior is not totally to blame. I read somewhere that we are all innocent until proven guilty and that there would be no blanket search and seizures by officials of our Federal Government. Oh yeah, that's a little document called the Constitution. I guess Congress, the Courts, the President, and especially TSA are not bound by this document any longer. Eavesdropping on phone conversations of private citizens is also forbidden without Court approval for each case; read all private citizens not just those the Executive branch thinks are loyal citizens. Congress is supposed to try and spend all of my money to give me all the things I ask from them. The President is supposed to tell them that they (and I) only need a little of it.

All of that said, Pournelle's Iron Rule of Bureaucracy (PIRB) would tell me that the Courts would, over the long term, make decisions that increased their authority. Ruling that the Executive had complete authority to do what it did would not have done this, nor would ruling that they should not have done it at all. Only by ruling that parts of what was seized had to be excluded and returned could the Court ensure that any subsequent actions would require their Royal Approval. It's amazing how easy it is to predict a Court ruling with over 80% certainty using PIRB. For that matter, using PIRB works for predicting the actions of Congress and the Executive as well as most large businesses.

I still insist we need to elect you to the White House. As I said during the last election and no one listened, "we at least need to dump both the Democrat and Republican Parties in the next election." Throwing them all out might be the only way of telling them that neither party rules without our consent - and that does not mean paying lip service to what we want while campaigning and then doing what they want while in office.

Braxton S. Cook

(Eagerly anticipating Inferno II)

I won't run. There's only one office I'd accept and then only if I were certain the Republic is dead (and before this happens it sure would be).

========

 

 

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Sunday, August 5, 2007      

Work today. Mail tomorrow.

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