| Tuesday, INDEPENDENCE
DAY 2000
Happy Birthday America
Jerry, Like the column, read regularly, yada, yada,
yada. A suggestion: you often include references to other sites on your
pages, printing the URL. Would you consider making them actual links? I'm
sure you know how, as you often include links to other portions of your
own site.
There are good reasons for doing this, principally
that we can click on it and *go*. Quite often these links are too long for
one line, and are cut onto the next line, breaking the URL, and meaning a
couple of cut and pastes to get it working.
I can understand that there might be reasons for
doing it this way, but I think we can overcome these. Possibilities: - you
worry that people will leave your site and not come back (I suppose its
possible) solution: include a target="windowname" attribute in
the tag. eg: <a href= "http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=000143789351982&;rtmo=lnPoHHHt&;atmo=rrrrrrrq&;pg=/et/00/7/2/wisr02.html
" target="other">a frightening item </a>
- you feel people like to see the URL solution: they
still can - it appears in the bottom line of most browsers when the mouse
is placed over the URL.
I think this is a useful idea and would make your
pages much more navigable.
Thanks for the time Lea
You are mostly talking about mail,
and I pretty well post that as I get it. I don't generally have time to
chop and paste the mail. Also, FrontPage doesn't make links if there is
anything fore or aft: (www.byte.com) won't be a link, but ( www.byte.com
) will be, as an example. I can go up to the non-link and put spaces fore
and aft, but if I'm low on time that won't happen. So
I does the best I can... Thanks for the kind words. And I don't know how
to deal with enormous URL's, although I suppose I can cut and paste myself
if I have time. I've used Notepad (well, NoteTab) to do that.
Re:
Head Start Charts
Jerry-
That's all well and good I guess, then we could have
even more dunderheads with money than we do now. The point of the program
is to make it possible for at least some of those kids to participate
successfully in the educational system (however flawed some portion of it
may seem to be). Kids with uneducated and/or uncaring parents do not come
out of the same starting gate as those with caring educated, or even
determined uneducated parents. If something isn't done to fill that gap we
all pay a lot more dealing with the results. Not everything can be reduced
to the bottom line returns in next quarters report. Respectfully,
R. Paul Hampson
I think Woodhill's point is that the
program isn't working, and we could save ourselves a lot of money and help
the target group more in other ways. The
shocking thing about Head Start is that it does not teach the Head Start
kids to read. One would think that would a meaningful head start given
the miserable state of reading instruction in the US, but the Teachers
Union, which is at war with the People of the United States (From the
National Commission on Education Report in 1983: "If a foreign nation
had imposed this system of education on the United States we would
rightfully consider it an act of war.") has managed to forbid Head
Start from teaching the kids to read. The
mechanism is the phrase "developmentally appropriate" which is
in the Head Start enabling act. The Department of Education, which is to
say the creature of the Teacher's Unions, has interpreted that to mean
that it is illegal for Head Start to teach the kids to read. These kids
then get to the public schools where no more than 70% learn to read in 12
years (and the number of functional illiterates is higher). They are
then suitable candidates to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, and
one supposes this is the intended result since it is certainly the
predictable result. Most
Classroom teachers break their hearts trying to do their job while their
organizations work to protect the least competent and most lazy members of
their "profession" from the consequences of incompetence and
laziness; with this kind of result. The intelligent members of society
home school or send their kids to anything but public schools (that
includes at last survey more than half the public school teachers and
virtually ALL Washington public officials in both Congress and the White
House). We all know this, no one cares, and the money for Head Start
doesn't go to the kids but to people whose efforts do not seem to
accomplish much; and that was what Woodhill was trying to show, I think. Excuse
the rant, but it rankles.
Hello Jerry, I've enjoyed reading your column
regularly for more than 15 years, first in print, and more recently in
byte.com. I also drop in to browse Chaos Manor occasionally, and was
surprised to see a link to an article on the arson at the Ya'ar Ramot
Synagogue. I'm very disturbed at the thought that a casual visitor to your
site might base his impression of Israel on that article. If I recall
correctly, you visited here not long ago. When I have visitors from
abroad, the first thing I try to impress upon them is how complex almost
every facet of Israeli life is; I hope your hosts did likewise. In the
last 52 years Israel has fought 6 wars, absorbed immigrants from all over
the world, and built the only democracy in the Middle East. There is too
much verbal and physical violence in Israeli civil society; there are also
many amazing examples of people from diverse backgrounds living together
and building communities together. The article you linked doesn't contain
any untruth, as far as I know. I don't have time to deconstruct the entire
article, but I would strongly urge any of your readers who want to know
what is going on in Israel not to base their impression on this one
article.
Aharon Manne Eshchar M.P. Misgav Israel e-mail:
manne@harvard.post.com
Good grief. Is there anyone here who
got that impression? What are we supposed to be guarding against? Then
there is this:
Hi Jerry
I read the article by Tom Gross. All I can say is
don't believe everything you read in the papers.
Not that it didn't happen. The arson attack did
happen. And let me start by condemning the attack. But this journalistic
expectation of civil war is all to much "hot air."
I think I've heard the expression "civil
war" many times over the years I lived here in Israel. It's not
realistic at all.
Many items are not made clear in this article.
1. The "secular" in Israel are not
interested in the Reform and Conservative movements as such. They see the
Reform and Conservative movements as a means to get at the establishment
Ultra-orthodox and Orthodox. These movements (Reform and Conservative),
significant in the US, are numerically insignificant in Israel.
2. There is no apparent "deterioration" at
the Western (Wailing) Wall. In fact the local reports say that the
"Reform Jews from Florida" were mostly ignored. An improvement
on other occasions.
3. International attention on an attack of a
Conservative synagogue is in marked comparison with similar attacks on
Orthodox synagogues or establishments, which are ignored internationally.
4. The paragraph linking the "29-year-old
secular Jewish woman" with the "recent decrees by the
ultra-Orthodox" is misleading. She would be unaffected by any such
"decree." (In addition, would an attack on the Hamish in the US
for rejecting an element of modern society be acceptable in the US?)
5. Yes, "the name of God was deliberately
excluded from its declaration of independence." However the phrase
"Rock of Israel" was used, which everyone knew referred to God.
6. Most of the Ultra-orthodox political parties are
actually in decline, and their influence has also declined. The only
exception is the Shas party, whose rise in influence has little to do with
birth rates and a lot to do with attracting a large proportion of
"average" voters from one of the more established parties.
There are many other parts of the report, which are
misleading and incomplete. There are many other points that I could bring
to show how far this article is from reality.
Israel is a modern nation, with many of the problems
of all modern nations. Like everywhere, we have our share of lunatics, but
most people are sane. Articles like the one in the Telegraph are just
journalists making money, they do not deal with the real issues that
confront most Israelis.
Regards Richard Dahl
Once again, good grief.
"If you are not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent
responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are
hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this
communication is strictly prohibited."
Dr Pournelle,
My contention is that this is just another kind of
bait-and-hook message. Even the DOD doesn't blame someone for reading
their secrets if they screw up and give them to you.
Jim Snover
Given the litigiousness of the US
legal profession, one wonders.
Jerry, Regarding your spam about
earning money in Mail June 27 2000. I have used spamcop.net for these
kinds of messages with great success. I very seldom get a second message
after using this service. Regards, Steve I
spend about 10 minutes a day reporting Spam to Spamcop (they don't make it
all that easy what with all the cut and paste I have to do). That's all
the time I have. I often wonder if it does any good.
From Ed Hume; source not known to
me.
OK, I'm the only female in a house full of guys.
Four sons and a hubby. Toilet seat is never down...etc.
So I'm the only one who would be using Female
products. . . correct?
A STRANGE thing was happening at my house. Tampons
were disappearing.
* insert Twilight Zone theme*
A few months ago I went to my cupboard to get out a
Tampon and there was ONLY one left. I could have sworn I had just bought a
box the month before. So, I go back to the store, buy a new box and forget
about it.
The next month (T.O.M.) I go back to the cupboard .
. . and voila . . . there is only ONE tampon left again. What's going on
here? Gremlins??? I go to the store and buy another box, and forget about
it.
WELL . . . I decided to clean out my two youngest
sons closet and LOW and BEHOLD. . .at the bottom of their closet are the
wrappers, applicators and the tampons themselves.
I am starting to FREAK!!! Dear God, what are they
doing with them?
I get hold of myself . . . and tell myself that
"I am an adult" and can handle this, despite the bizarre
thoughts running through my mind. I'm thinking . . . . "Do I have
enough money saved up in the bank for MAJOR THERAPY?"
I go to the top of the stairs and yell for my two
youngest sons to, "COME HERE"!!!!
They march up the stairs and find me in their room
staring into the bottom of their closet.
I said, "What are you doing with Those, Those
are MINE?"
My 12-year old looks like a deer caught in the
headlights and is silent.
My 10-year old looks at me all innocent and says,
"Well, Mom, We were playing with our G. I. Joes and figurines and
those make Really good S.C.U.D. missiles!! What do YOU use them for?"
NEVER MIND
Go play
(And yes, I know that SCUD isn't an
acronym.)
Dear Dr. Pournelle The following paragraph is an
extract from an editorial in the "Hindu" (a major Indian
national newspaper) dated June 21 2000 (Page 12).
The Revelations of a study carried out by the
Environmental Assessment Division of the Bhabba Atomic Research Center (BARC)
on the exposure of a group of villages in Karunagapally taluk of Kerala to
much higher dose of natural radiation from a monazite belt than the global
level is shocking. Surprisingly, there has, however, been as yet no
indications of any deleterious impact on the health of the people exposed
to the radiation This is probably the first time that there is a
disclosure of our having to reckon with natural radiation as a
hazard.....It is also a little unnerving to know that the area is one of
the few High Background Radiation Areas in the world. Since the study has
said very little about the impact of the exposure on the health of the
people living in the taluk, it is presumed that the doses of inhalation
have so far not done much harm......
The editorial goes of on a political tangent about
radiation proof housing and government blame and the ills of the nuclear
industry in general. The writer does not seem to have heard of the Radon
scare in the U.S.A. and the "much higher" is typical. No
numbers. Numbers are bad they might bore people or worse give them a basis
for making intelligent judgements.
Sorry for the rant.
Why I brought this to your attention was the comment
you made or said J.P.Hogan made that there is a possibility of there being
a threshold below which radiation is harmless. Would surveys of people in
such areas provide evidence? Of course long term - tens or hundred's of
generations - populations might have evolved immunity. Genetic methods
might however be able to identify such changes.
However demographic surveys should be able to
identify groups from first generation new comers to people who have lived
in the locality for generations. A full general health cum family history
survey (medical and demographic) along with contour maps of background
count in several such localities might go a long way to proving or
disproving the hypothesis. Since the population of a taluk is about that
of a U.S. rural couty - smaller area but higher density - sample size
shouldn't be a problem.
There are several advantages to using Kerala. The
population density is high. The literary rate is almost 100% and everyone
speaks English. Most people would accept answering a survey for getting a
free check up. A possible drawback might be the left wing nature of the
government in power at the state level. They might resent
"outsiders" and even if positive minded I doubt if they would be
interested to the extent of providing funding. A way around their attitude
might be to enlist central government organizations like the Council for
Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) or the Indian Medical Council -
in name at least.
However the financing would have to come from
elsewhere. A source might be the private nuclear industry in the U.S.A.
They might have an interest in financing a study that at best would do a
lot to de-demonise nuclear power and at the worst would only echo the
current "perceived wisdom".
Of course the actual work would have to be done by a
third party to avoid charges of bias and cooked data. From that point also
Kerala is ideal. The state has a strong Christian minority and the Church
(both Roman and Protestants of various denominations) runs missions which
include hospitals and health care.
Given equipment and/or finance they could certainly
provide the primary data, and I would be very surprised if the Jesuits at
least do not have men who could design, conduct and analyse the survey.
Of course the Church is just one option. The Red
Cross or WHO would probably have the manpower and probably so do several
organisations like "Doctors Without Borders". However the anti
nuclear lobby does have strong representation in some of these groups and
they do lack the infrastructure the Church already has in Kerala.
Whoever does the actual work "consultants"
from USA and organisations like the CSIR could smooth things with the
state government.
Considering that Fission Power is essential for the
medium / long term survival of human civilisation I feel that pushing
private industry to fund such an investigation would be a worthwhile
effort
yours sincerely Ramesh Nayar
The Swedish Army has done studies of
background radiation levels and effects on Laplanders and conscripts, and
I believe they have concluded that the hormesis effect is real: there is a
level at which radiation is actually beneficial (it's a pretty low
level). I should look up some of those but it won't be today.
Here is an interesting spam:
Dear Jerry,
The other day, when you downloaded the new Shockwave Player, you were
automatically registered as a member at shockwave.com -- the premiere web
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about new and exciting Shockwave Entertainment.
We can't force you to have a good time, though. So, if you want to miss
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Unsubscribe Instructions
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#27420
You see I did not download shockwave
the other day. It has been months. unless something did a download without
my knowledge or permission and I am not aware of it. And for the past week
or so the spam levels have become greater, whether by coincidence with
this or not.
Dr. Pournelle,
Stand by for static! You've broken an unwritten rule
- it is essential to act as if all things Linux are flawless, and your
having aired your recent difficulties with Netwinder will draw down the
ire of the truly committed. Your character and intelligence will be
impugned and your motives questioned. The psychodynamics are predictable,
and inescapable.
By the way, I shield my internal network from my
cable modem with a dual-homed Win98SE box with no ports or services
available, LanBridge software doing NAT duties, and BlackICE Defender for
firewall services. I reboot the gateway once a week after running disk
defrag. I never have any problems with it. Of course, that's because I I
understand it.
Don McArthur http://www.mcarthurweb.com
Well, possibly. UNIX was
intentionally made difficult to understand, at first by simple brevity but
then for the sheer fun of confusing people who didn't want to become
experts. That had the added merit of assuring employment for gurus and
wizards. Apparently Linux is doing much the same. I
assume S10 is the S10 register of a modem, but I cannot be abolutely
certain of it. I do know there ought to be some command that will tell the
Netwinder "Look, I don't care what you thought you saw or the trouble
you had, forget all that and try dialing again." But if there
is I cannot find it, and resetting the system is a drastic way to
accomplish it. But necessary.
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