| Wednesday,
July 11, 2007
http://www.peeniewallie.com/2007/03/saturnalia.html (for video,
which is over 1 MB, so I'm not attaching it)
A hexagon-shaped feature at Saturn's north-pole, first
observed by Voyager 1 and 2 over 25 years ago, was filmed by the Cassini
space probe on November 10, 2006. The hexagon is 25,000 kilometers (15,000
miles) across, and about 100 kilometers (60 miles) deep. It is large enough
to fit four Earths inside.
This nighttime movie of the depths of the north pole
of Saturn taken by the visual infrared mapping spectrometer onboard NASA's
Cassini Orbiter reveals a dynamic, active planet lurking underneath the
ubiquitous cover of upper-level hazes. The defining feature of Saturn's
north polar regions--the six-sided hexagon feature--is clearly visible in
the image. This nighttime movie was acquired over a one-hour period on Nov.
10, 2006, from an average distance of 1.03 million kilometers (621,000
miles) above Saturn's clouds.
Robert
==
Hi Robert,
First, my thanks for your thoughtfulness in not
dumping the movie on me. We are still on dialup in this part of rural
western Ireland, and those people who insist on sending me unsolicited
collections of pictures of their offspring, cats, and vacations can be a
real pain when I'm on limited time and need to get to the rest of my e-mail.
Much appreciated.
The hexagon is interesting. Personally I find the
interpretation offered by the Electric Universe people the most persuasive.
They've been saying for a long time that the Saturnian system is highly
active electrically, and suggested that the "cracks" on Enceladus are in
fact channels carved by planetary-scale discharges. They contend that a
hexagonal or other form of symmetric pattern is the kind of thing to be
expected from powerful spatial Birkeland currents converging on the polar
regions. Hexagon and stripe patterns are observed in dielectric barrier
streamer discharge demonstrations in terrestrial labs. But the conventional
indoctrination process only permits one to talk about gravity.
Bests as always,
Jim Hogan
=========
Looks like you are right about Iran
Jerry,
WSJ article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118411687625762824.
html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
Their survey agrees with you on Iran.
Phil
What Iranians Really Think By KEN BALLEN
July 11, 2007; Page A14
Keen observers of Iran have insisted for
years that the Iranian people are pro-Western, indeed pro-American,
while opposed to the largely unelected clerical regime that rules them.
For the first time, Terror Free Tomorrow's unprecedented nationwide poll
of Iran offers indisputable empirical proof that these commentators are
dead-on in their assessment of the "Iranian street."
Discontent with the current system of
government, the economy and isolation from the West is widespread
throughout Iran. In this context, nuclear weapons are the lowest
priority for the Iranian people. The overwhelming popular will to live
in a country open to the West and the U.S., with greater economic
opportunity, is a powerful plea from every region and segment of
society. Iranians also speak with one voice in rejecting the current
autocratic rule of their supreme leader and in courageously asking for
democracy instead.
==========
Laws, Sausages and Journalism
http://confederateyankee.mu.nu/archives/233176.php
"Michael Yon's solid documentation—the units involved,
their commander's names, the exact GPS coordinates of the site, video, and
still photographs of the bodies, and a face-to-face meeting between Yon and
AP reporter Robert Reid—and we get al Qaeda "reportedly" left mass graves.
In the second graph, through the magic of the AP's
Baghdad Bureau, a nameless medic and fearful anonymous doctor are now,
"Iraqi officials."
Otto von Bismark was once credited with stating, "To
retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the
making."
As we gain a greater understanding of how one vague,
phoned-in account after another is squeezed into an Associated Press casing
and squirted across the wires, we're forced to face the reality that like
sausages, many of the "facts" in an Associated Press story are those we'd
never swallow for a second if we knew what went into them."
And people wonder why I say not to believe the news
unless you can confirm it through other sources.
Graves
============
Global Warming:
I thought you might get a kick out of this evidence of global warming: a
photo of snow in Amman, Jordan, last March. My daughter took it from the
roof of the house where she was living. Snow in March is not unusual -- in
New England. But it had never been seen in Jordan within anyone's memory.
Mike
-----Original Message-----
Subject: My Neighborhood in Snow
I took this last Thursday when we had a surprise freak snowstorm. It was
only 1 1/2 inches, and most of it turned to slush as soon as it hit the
street or the ground, but it still had a lot of people freaking out. The
streets were very slippery. The house that is sitting in a diamond shape is
one of the last "old houses" left in this neighborhood. This isn't a
fashionable neighborhood, but a lot of 'Iraqis are coming here... I keep
wondering how much they will be able to sell their land for, and if they
will decide to sell, b/c they're running out of space to build new
buildings, but a lot of people are selling their old houses and land to
knock down.
I took this from the roof.
Indeed
========
Who will POLICE Iraq?
Dr. Pournelle:
In today's Current View, you said, "The problem
remains: good soldiers don't make good constables. Armies break things and
kill people."
Quite true. If not our soldiers, and not the woefully
lacking Iraqis (who SHOULD be training a much broader constabulary), who
will act as police? There were (in 2005, the latest source I could find)
20,000 private security personnel in Iraq. Some are company security to
companies doing business in Iraq, and others are mercs. I'm interested in
your opinion about hiring private security to fill in some of the major gaps
needed to police Iraq. The problem I've seen with Baghdad is that their
police do more of the support roles than actual cop-on-the-beat patrolling.
Ditto with their National Police. They aren't chasing after insurgents, they
are supporting those who ARE chasing the insurgents, the US Army.
Here's my source on the private security, the best I
could get from the Ask.com algorithm:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/articles/A10547-2005Apr22.html
I think that private security, without having any kind
of Sunni/Shia/Kurd affiliation, paid for by the Iraqi government, could take
care of a lot of the day-to-day patrolling done by our military forces. Any
thoughts?
Best regards,
Bill Kelly
Houston, TX
I don't disagree, and given my history I
hardly could, but I do point out that the people you recommend here are
generally known as "mercenaries."
A nation can hire its security done:
Athens employed slave archers, as an example, to sweep people into the agora
for votes, and generally to keep the peace. The Vatican hires Swiss Guards.
========
Subject: Gurkha Harry
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007310509,00.html
"SOLDIER Prince Harry has joined one of the
most fearsome units in the British Army — the Gurkhas.
Harry, an officer with posh cavalry
regiment the Blues and Royals, is doing a spell with the legendary
fighters to learn their killer expertise.
Yesterday he was driven to the Brecon
Beacons in Wales with men of the 3rd Battalion, Royal Gurkha Rifles for
a four-day exercise.
He will take part in every aspect of the
operation and an insider said: "To all intents and purposes he will be a
Gurkha."
He joined the tough men from Nepal — who
have struck terror into Britain's enemies for 200 years — looking ready
for action kitted out in full camouflage gear.
At the end of the exercise Harry, a
22-year-old 2nd lieutenant whose own unit has gone to Iraq without him
because of fears for his safety, will be presented with an honorary
kukri — the curved knife of the Gurkhas.
An insider said: "Harry will be told that
when the kukri leaves its sheath it can never be returned without blood
being drawn."
It appears Prince Harry has more guts than the MoD.
I have Gurkhas in Mamelukes, but not led
by a prince of the house of the Electress Sophia of Hanover...
=========
CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY IN THEATER
Dr. Pournelle,
Just dropping a note with a link to how some of us
celebrated Independence Day in Baghdad. Please don't publish my name or
email address.
http://wonkodsane.livejournal.com/15192.html
War has definitely changed.
Thanks for your good work!
=========
If Public Libraries Didn't Exist, Could You Start One
Today?
Interesting read
I need to think this over
http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/2007/
07/10/if-public-libraries-didnt-exist-
could-you-start-one-today/
Mike
I point out that at one time, the 21,000
libraries were a prime market for hard bound books. Authors used to speak at
libraries free, and we all sought reviews in library journals.
=========
brutal repression
"I politely put it
that even the most brutal possible repression won't stop people from
resisting a foreign occupation. Unless you actually DO kill them all."
That is obviously not true. Otherwise European
colonialism wouldn't have succeeded for 450 years. What brings down empires
is not the resistance of subject peoples to foreign occupation, but internal
rot or attacks from other empires.
James Perry
Well, I would disagree. There was damned
little "brutal repression" in the British Empire (see the account of Miss
mTombe's toe in Rhodesia as an example; even in the Boer Republic of South
Africa the repression was pretty mild compared to, say, Stalin). European
colonialism had many faults, but I suspect that many in Rhodesia wish the
British Raj and the Queen's African Rifles were back. I suspect you could
find some sentiments for the return of the Brits in Nigeria as well. The
slogan 'good government is no substitute for self government" is taking a
hollow ring in many parts of the world.
Most regimes fall for lack of defenders.
When nations no longer believe in what they are doing, the bureaucracy will
continue for a while, using paid soldiers and police; but rule with
mercenaries who are really mercenaries -- that it who don't believe in any
cause and would change sides for more money -- seldom works. After a while
there are no more defenders.
I also point out that Islamist extremists
definitely do believe in what they are doing, witness the recent executions
by stoning for adultery in Iran.
Ferdinand of Austria famously said he
would rather rule a desert than a Protestant nation, but when Wallenstein
took him at his word he found he didn't believe that after all. Apparently
some of the Wahhabi do believe it.
Internal rot doesn't usually destroy
empires from within; see Wittfogel's Oriental Despotism.
=========
Rape and Murder in Tennessee & The Whore at Duke
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Diversity.shtml
FWIW, I saw one article buried in the local paper
about the rape and murder during the time the front page was routinely
covering the Duke situation. I don't pretend to read all the paper every
day, so maybe I missed some additional articles...
I had rather my name not be included if you use this
item.
============
And Mike Flynn:
The Sphericity of the Earth
"Sciences are differentiated according to
the various means through which knowledge is obtained. For the
astronomer and the physicist both may prove the same conclusion—that the
earth, for instance, is round: the astronomer by means of mathematics
(i.e., abstracting from matter), but the physicist by means of matter
itself." Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Question 1, Article I, Reply
to Obj. 2
The Ol' Dumb Ox was confident enough in the sphericity
of the earth to use it here in passing in an argument about theology, in
this case "Whether any knowledge beside philosophical science is needed."
One comment: astronomy was considered mathematics, not physics, because no
one supposed that the Ptolemaic epicycles and deferents used to "save the
appearances" represented anything physically real. Astronomy did not become
a physical science until the Copernicans began to insist on it. We're so
used to math and physics being intertwined that we forget that someone had
to do it first - Nicole d'Oresme in the century after Aquinas. He was a
bishop, too; and enunciated the relativity principle:
"One cannot demonstrate by any [sense]
experience whatever that the heavens are moved with daily movement,
because … if an observer is in the heavens and sees the earth clearly,
the earth would seem to be moved; and if the observer were on the earth,
the heavens would seem to be moved. The sight is not deceived in this,
because it senses nothing except movement. But if it is relative to any
such body, this judgment is made by the senses from inside that body, as
Witelo stated in his Perspectiva; and such senses are often deceived…"
Nicole d'Oresme, Traité du ciel et du monde
+ + +
Since I can't resist it.... My favorite medieval
quotes, however, deal with two other matters:
Possem enit dici quod quando deus creavit
sphaeras coelestes, ipse incepit movere unamquamque earum sicut voluit;
et tunc ab impetus quam dedit eis, moventur adhuc, quia ille impetus non
corrumpitur nec diminuitur, cum non habent resistentiam.
Jean Buridan de Bethune, Quaestiones super
caelo et mundo
Roughly translated: A body set in motion will continue
in that motion if it meets no resistance.
And Haec namque pars Perspectivae perfecte
cognita ostendit nobis modum, quo res longissime distantes faciamus
apparere propinquissime positas et quo res magnas propinquas faciamus
apparere brevissimas et quo res longe positas parvas faciamus apparere
quantum volumus magnas, ita ut possibile sit nobis ex incredibili
distantia litteras minimas legere, aut arenam, aut granum, aut gramina,
aut quaevis minuta numerare.
Robert Grosseteste, De iride.
Roughly translated: This part of Perspectiva ... shows
how we may make things at very long distances appear as if nearby and nearby
large things appear very small... thus, it may be possible for us to read
the smallest letters at incredible distance, or count sand or seeds or
anything minute.
Grosseteste also claimed that the Milky Way was
composed of numerous small stars. Did he actually build a telescope or not?
And if he did, what happened to it? He would not have feared his local
bishop. He =was= the local bishop, and a trained theologian. Maybe the
answer is only that concave lenses were much more difficult to produce in
those days than were convex.
Michael
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