A very mixed bag, with a trip to the past…

Mail 698 Thursday, October 27, 2011

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Muller an AGW "skeptic"? Not so much.

http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/archives/44855 has a great deal on this topic.

The summary: Muller is only skeptical of the way in which Mann, Hansen, and the rest have approached the topic. He’s never *not* felt that global warming was occurring or that it was at least partially anthropogenic. He has a lot of good ideas, and frankly I wish that *he* were the one arguing the pro-AGW case, because he’s strongly in favor of things like nuclear power and space-based solar power. It’s a lot easier to agree with someone who says “let’s all be rich enough to do things the clean, expensive way” than someone who says “virtue means starving in the cold dirty darkness”.

Mike Powers

Precisely.

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For your amusement, links from Sue and Ed to ads you’ll not be seeing nowadays. Take a trip down memory lane if you’re old enough, or explore the strange world of your parents past for the younger readers…

: http://www.elevateeverything.com/ads-youll-never-see-again-1

And another link with similar types of ads. You’ll love the first one:

http://www.puritanboard.com/f52/ads-youll-never-see-again-64973/

I loved them. Thanks.

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Catholic University lawsuits

Jerry,

Catholic colleges and universities are fighting against new mandates that they provide medical coverage for activities that go against their teachings. But there other attacks going on, too —

This law professor is really going after Catholic University. First it was about the school going back to same sex dorms, and now its about not providing Muslim students a place to pray without all those Catholic symbols around them…

http://www.cuatower.com/news/2011/09/16/breaking-news-sex-discrimination-law-suit-begins-proceedings/

http://www.cuatower.com/news/2011/10/20/university-accused-of-discriminating-against-muslims/

Karl

The demands of liberals to liberate people from being reminded that there are those who don’t agree with them are unlimited. It’s a sort of Iron Law at work.

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Im sure you have already been bombarded already but here goes…

http://www.ehow.com/how_2015266_conference-calls-using-skype.html

David March

I have many references. I will look into it. Thanks, and I am glad to hear it.

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We are the problem

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/10/25/obama_we_have_lost_our_ambition_our_imagination.html

Don’t you get the feeling we are being scolded for making him look bad?

Steve Chu

It’s all the fault of the American people. It always was. Jimmy Carter redux.

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Silly reg of the day

I opened a checking account today at a regional bank where I have done business all my adult life. I was a director many years ago before it grew larger through buying smaller community banks. I gave the standard info for this corporate account, name, tax #, address, cert. of good standing, signed signature authorization, then was asked a question I have never heard before; "Will this account be used for any illegal gambling?" I commented to the branch manager that I had never been asked that question before when opening an account. She said it was a new govt. regulation and she was still waiting for the first "yes" answer. I nominate the genius who thought up that regulation to be laid off at the same time as the bunny inspectors, as he or she is certainly too stupid to make any contribution to society.

Tom Hazlett

We need to have a list of people we would be better off without in government.

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Homeland Security Advisor leaking documents

http://pjmedia.com/blog/breaking-homeland-security-adviser-allegedly-leaked-intel-to-attack-rick-perry/

Another case of letting our enemies inside to help us. I’ve always thought DHS was an awful idea.

Phil

DHS and TSA were stupid responses, and cost more than 9/11 did in money; but then the wars cost us more than the 9/11 lives. We killed perhaps ten for one, but I do not think the Iraqis were the Burmans who who were guilty. But if you are to build a grave of a hundred heads, you must make it a public place and not look ashamed of yourself for having done it. If you are going to torture yourself in guilt, you shouldn’t do it at all. But then I said all this at the time when I proposed monuments.

The tyranny continues to intensify:

<.>

The number of takedown orders received by Google from authorities based in the United States rose dramatically over the past year, with demands to remove information, including videos containing “government criticism,” increasing by 70 per cent.

“In the US, Google received 757 takedown requests across its sites and services, up 70 per cent from the second half of last year,” reports technology website V3.co.uk.

“US authorities also called for the removal of 113 videos from YouTube, including several documenting alleged police brutality which Google refused to take down.”

The figures are revealed in Google’s newly released transparency report, which also details how the number of “user data requests” by US authorities increased by 29 per cent compared to the last reporting period.

The reason listed for the removal of a You Tube video in one instance is “government criticism”. The exact identity or content of the video is not divulged. The report states that the removal requests pertaining to “police brutality” were done on the grounds of “defamation” and are included in that separate category, meaning the takedown order on the grounds of “government criticism” was made by the “executive,” ie the federal government.

<.>

http://www.prisonplanet.com/feds-order-you-tube-to-remove-video-for-containing-government-criticism.html

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Let’s put some nails in this coffin:

<.>

The chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which oversees the TSA, has asserted that the release of a classified report on TSA security failures will renew calls for the replacement of the agency with private airport security personnel.

“The failure rate (for body scanning equipment) is classified but it would absolutely knock your socks off,” Florida Republican, Rep. John L. Mica told reporters during a briefing Monday.

Mica also asserted that recorded instances of pat downs failing to detect contraband are “off the charts.” This information is also currently still classified, but is due to be released within weeks as part of an upcoming committee report on the TSA’s first decade.

Mica suggested that the TSA’s performance report would read “sort of like the record of the Marx Brothers”.

The TSA has withheld results of its official security tests, despite repeated requests to release the information under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Department of Homeland Security has classified the results of the most recent random, covert “red team tests,” where undercover agents try to see what they can get past airport security. The reason they have done so, according to MIca, is because the results have been so shockingly and consistently bad for the past nine years.

</>

http://www.infowars.com/congressman-secret-report-on-tsa-pat-downs-body-scanner-failures-will-knock-your-socks-off/

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

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Overpaid Employees

Well, I would give her some credit.  She worked the system; she deserves the money.  However, is this the system we want?

<.>

Jean Keller earned $269,810 last year working as a nurse at a men’s prison on California’s central coast by tripling her regular pay with overtime hours.

Keller got more overtime in 2010 than any other state employee. In all, California’s public workers collected $1.7 billion of extra pay last year, more than half of it in overtime, state payroll data show. The rest was for unused vacation and union-negotiated benefits such as clothing allowances, physical-fitness incentives and special compensation in recognition of a “complex work load.”

</>

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-26/nurse-making-269-810-demonstrates-california-s-overtime-binge.html

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Is she part of the 99% or the 1%?

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Victor Davis Hanson: ‘Rage On — and on, and on………’

Hello Jerry,

Dr. Hanson’s latest: http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/rage-on-and-on-and-on/?singlepage=true

is worth reading. As is a large number of letters from his readers,

in particular "SG-1", "art chance", and "cfbleachers".

Bob Ludwick

Hanson is generally worth reading. A professor of classics who understands the histories he teaches.

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Chesley Bonestell’s Saturn

Jerry,

Another Bonestell composition from Cassini: the rings, Titan, Dione, Pandora, and Pan.

<http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111026.html>

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

Beautiful

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‘They turn out to be a detailed description of a ritual from a secret society that apparently had a fascination with eye surgery and ophthalmology.’

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/science/25code.html>

<http://www.isi.edu/natural-language/people/copiale-11.pdf>

Roland Dobbins

There appears to be a secret society for nearly anything.

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Newt Gingrich

One thing that I am struck by is your statement about Newt Gingrich, "His major political flaw is a tendency to say things that he doesn’t mean and can’t really defend, but which seemed like a good idea at the time. In many cases they are ideas he hasn’t thought through." I’m currently reading Warlord by Carlo D’Este; the biography of Winston Churchill. D’Este makes the same or quite similar statements about Churchill several times in the course of the book. At least through p 364. And, I’m just to the point of reading about Narvik. So, I suspect that I will be reading it again. Considering the state of things today, that is a good person to be compared to for any politician. OTOH, I hope that after the next administration is out of office, we won’t see the decline of the American Era as rapidly as 1945 – 1946 saw the decline of the British Era.

Pete Wityk

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Today’s dose of internet-inspired guilt

Apparently our home galaxy doesn’t have as many neighbors as it’s supposed to — because it’s a murderer! I feel so guilty….

–Mike Glyer

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111018092155.htm “How the Milky Way killed off nearby galaxies.”

Two researchers from Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg have revealed for the first time the existence of a new signature of the birth of the first stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way. More than 12 billion years ago, the intense ultraviolet light from these stars dispersed the gas of our Galaxy’s nearest companions, virtually putting a halt to their ability to form stars and consigning them to a dim future. Now Pierre Ocvirk and Dominique Aubert, members of the Light in the Dark Ages of the Universe (LIDAU) collaboration, have explained why some galaxies were killed off, while stars continued to form in more distant objects.

How awe inspiringly guilt inducing!

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Looks like it may be a double dip in the UK

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8847034/British-economy-may-already-be-contracting-warns-MPCs-Martin-Weale.html

"Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgement." (SLClemens)

Harry Erwin, PhD

UK universities

Initial figures are a 9% decrease in UK undergraduate entries for next year, but that’s only the early decision applicants. Major crashes in part-time and masters-level programs.

Harry Erwin, PhD

"If you can’t be a good example, then you’ll just have to be a horrible warning." (Catherine Aird)

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Horse Soldiers | Secret Mission | Afghanistan | 9/11 | The Daily Caller

This is quite a story. Special operations in an unusual way.

ONE FLAG, ONE LANGUAGE, ONE NATION UNDER GOD!!!

In a message dated 10/23/2011 3:22:57 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, jyacht@comcast.net writes:

http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/14/secret-mission-the-horse-soldiers-of-911/

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No Child Gets Ahead, hormesis, and a mixed bag of interesting mail

Mail 696 Friday, October 21, 2011

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In tiny rural Kansas district, students out-performing global competition

Jerry

It figures there would be a town – or four towns, actually – where all of the children are above average:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/tiny-rural-kansas-district-students-performing-global-competition-195446967.html

“The students in this sleepy agricultural community are not only out-performing American kids in other, much wealthier schools; they’re also out-performing most students in developed nations around the world, according to a new analysis.

“The average student at the Waconda school district of 385 kids scores better than 90 percent of students in 20 developed countries on math and reading tests, according to The Global Report Card, published in the journal Education Next. In fact, Waconda is the second highest performing school district in math in the country, after Pelham, Massachusetts, an affluent community that is home to Amherst College.”

The details, of course, will not surprise you. Maybe even not this: “65 percent of them qualify for free or reduced federal lunches, an indication that they live in poverty.”

Heh.

Ed

One of your readers posits:

The study raises a troubling but predictable question: Is the U.S. preoccupation with closing achievement gaps and "leaving no child behind" coming at the expense of our "talented tenth"?

The alternate name of "No child too far ahead" for Bush Jr’s education plan didn’t evolve in a vacuum.

Regards,

John Harlow

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So Much for Transparency

Jerry,

Under the direction of the Obama White House – John Holdren in particular – various US Government officials working with the UN’s IPCC have taken to using private email accounts instead of their official email, for the illegal purpose of hiding communications from Freedom of Information Act requests.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/17/breaking-an-ipcc-backchannel-cloud-was-apparently-established-to-hide-ipcc-deliberations-from-foia/

So much for transparency. My own policy opinions have differed pretty sharply with this administration in many instances, so I’m not exactly a fan of theirs. Even seen through that lens, their behavior time after time is both extreme and surprisingly consistent. I’m reminded of the corruption of part of the constitution (or whatever it was called) in Animal Farm, which went something like: "All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others."

Regards,

George

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Hormesis

Jerry,

When I googled this topic today at work, I got a link to your site and the link you posted about this topic. I work in the nuclear power industry and I remember when I was at the Dresden plant, someone asked the instructor in the annual Rad Worker requalification about hormesis. He replied that he was forbidden by NRC regulation to even mention the subject.

Joe Wooten

The evidence for hormesis continues to pile up. I have intended to write an essay on the subject. For now there is the Taiwan accidental experiment http://www.radpro.com/641luckey.pdf and for the subject itself the Wikipedia article is overly cautious but gives a passable introduction to what we’re talking about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis

The dose makes the poison; and we all know of substances vital for life that are poisonous if taken in large doses. The statistical evidence for hormesis seems overwhelming but regulatory agencies have been loathe to adopt the idea. It’s on my list for an essay.

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Flaking

Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as "flaking," on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Henry+Tavarez <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Henry+Tavarez> , whose buy-and-bust activity had been low"

——

I can’t help but wonder what would happen if a citizen caught an officer doing this, then took his head off with a tire iron or something.

What would happen is that the citizen would end up being executed for murder, or, more likely, die in custody from an attack by an unknown assailant.

Abuse of power by police is infuriating, but some of it is inevitable. Even God suffered from fallible minions.

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

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I’ve encountered a style of management called ‘rock management’: Manager: ‘bring me a rock.’ Employee brings him a rock. Manager: ‘not that one’. This survey reminds me of rock management. The UK people want less immigration, but in categories the UK has no control over. The current attempt to control immigration by reducing the numbers of skilled workers and students entering the UK is definitely not what they want. See <http://preview.tinyurl.com/3v74h7a> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15324754> <http://preview.tinyurl.com/6abp7jy>

Lord Giddens comments on university policy: <http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=417796&c=1> I now intend to remain in the UK for the 2012-13 academic year–one rarely gets to observe a train wreck up close and personal.

Beware Outside Context Problems–Harry Erwin, PhD

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“The only really necessary people in the publishing process now are the writer and reader. Everyone who stands between those two has both risk and opportunity.”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/technology/amazon-rewrites-the-rules-of-book-publishing.html?&pagewanted=all>

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Roland Dobbins

I’d think an editor is needed. Most writers are awful at editing their own material.

Jerry Pournelle

I concur; however, editing/curation seems to be taking a back seat in the rush to ebook publishing. This is somewhat analogous to all the awful typography which became so common after the original Mac and LaserWriter brought ‘desktop publishing’ to the masses.

—–

Roland Dobbins

Publishing has certainly been turned upside down recently, and the revolution continues. I would think there are serious careers in editing and reviewing for those good enough at it and clever enough to find out how to exploit those talents.

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“Racial balancing is not transformed from ‘patently unconstitutional’ to a compelling state interest simply by relabeling it ‘racial diversity’.”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/16/sunday-review/college-diversity-nears-its-last-stand.html?&pagewanted=all>

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Roland Dobbins

I have many times said we need a Constitutional Ammendment that says

Neither the Federal Government nor any State may deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws; and this time we really mean it. But then I was considered a hopeless radical when I was a teenager in then-segregated Tennessee who believed and said that the law ought to be color blind. I have had many changes of political view since then, but I never changed that belief – which now, apparently, labels me a hopeless reactionary.

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Subj: A natural deterioration dynamic in Rule by Foxes?

I do not remember seeing quite this analysis in Pareto, but upon reflection it seems to me to be consistent with Pareto’s analysis:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/280266/dynamics-despotism-john-derbyshire

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

It is quite consistent with Pareto, who deserves a great deal more study and attention than he gets. For those who find Pareto too dense, I can recommend Burnham’s summary in The Machiavellians. Alas the book is long out of print, but copies can be found. It is worth searching for. I can’t tell if it is public domain; were I sure it was I would find a way to put up a Kindle version with commentary.

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Why the OWS Movement should support Herman Cain

The Nation is in an uproar, the Tea Party’s Nemesis is blossoming worldwide and the MSM is presenting the victim’s story in 3D (BTW – Credit the Seer of Progress, Michael Moore with predicting the upheaval!). Ebenezer Scrooge is in charge of the economy and He Must Pay, from his riches sooner, else he pay with his life, later.

Comes a Black Man from the nether regions of the Right, spouting simple blasphemy; a Traitor to his Race, regardless the purity of his beginnings. Cain preaches moving to a Tax on consumption that will fall on everyone, without exception or loophole; a Politician’s Nightmare.

Imagine – No favors for Politicians to sell; Armies of Tax lawyers, Government bureaucrats, Wall Street Fixers and the Internal Revenue Service unemployed. Conspicuous consumers would have to pay more for what they consume! The Horror!

Dan Steele

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Good news!

<.>

British billionaire Richard Branson opened the world’s first-ever commercial spaceport in the New Mexico desert, the new home for his company, Virgin Galactic </>

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.a7531fdac8c142d68b402738294123a2.2a1&show_article=1

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

America may yet become a space faring nation.

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Re: Billion-Ton Comet May Have Missed Earth by a Few Hundred Kilometers in 1883

Jerry,

From MIT’s Technology Review yesterday:

"Manterola and pals have used this to place limits on how close the fragments must have been: between 600 km and 8000 km of Earth. That’s just a hair’s breadth.

What’s more, Manterola and co estimate that these objects must have ranged in size from 50 to 800 metres across and that the parent comet must originally have tipped the scales at a billion tons or more, that’s huge, approaching the size of Halley’s comet."

"Each fragment was at least as big as the one thought to have hit Tunguska. Manterola and co end with this: "So if they had collided with Earth we would have had 3275 Tunguska events in two days, probably an extinction event.""

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27264/?ref=rss

While comment is actually unneeded – Holy Cow!

Regards,

George

Indeed.

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APOD: 2011 October 18 – Movie: Approaching Light Speed

Jerry

Your colonists, on their way to Avalon, might have perceived this:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111018.html

Lovely, brought to us by APOD.

Ed

Glory.

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600 Mysteries in the Night Sky

Jerry

Says here the Fermi orbiting telescope has picked up 600 gamma ray sources not connected to anything visible:

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/18oct_600mysteries/

I keep hoping someone will decide these are the exhaust from antimatter rockets . . .

Ed

What with dark matter, dark energy, and all the rest of it, one wonders if we are not due for a new grand theory of everything. There’s just too much unexplained “Gee that’s funny” happening…

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Education. Perry, and a great deal more.

Mail 696 Sunday, October 16, 2011

It is that time of the year: KUSC is having its pledge drive. I time mine to coincide with theirs, so be prepared to be bombarded for a week with exhortations. I operate this place on the Public Radio Model – it is free, but if not enough donate, it will go away. So far it is healthy. It needs subscriptions and renewals to keep it that way. SUBSCRIBE NOW! RENEW NOW! Thanks!

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Letter from Uruguay

Roundup of News Items

Grapes of Wrath Part 2

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Education

neglect of the High Flyers

Jerry,

I found this and it points out what you’ve been saying; that we are hurting the high flyers by focusing on the below average students.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46896

My daughter works as a tutor, and she sees your concern every day where she tries to make the above average get the extra advancement they can handle.

r/Spike

The study raises a troubling but predictable question: Is the U.S. preoccupation with closing achievement gaps and "leaving no child behind" coming at the expense of our "talented tenth"?
Although this study was done at the elementary school level, it has a direct bearing on higher education. So focused are academics on an egalitarian ethos, that distinctions, once critical in the Academy, have virtually disappeared.
With grade-inflation endemic, the honor roll is little more than a roster of enrolled students. Even Phi Beta Kappa status has been diluted by undifferentiated grading.
To suggest that there is a talented tenth that deserves special treatment would be regarded as a form of "elitism," a pejorative, widely used on campus.

In my judgment one of the two major purposes of tax supported education is to make certain that the high flyers reach their potential. The other purpose is to civilize all the pupils and to make skills available to all those who want them and will learn them. Those who don’t want to learn and refuse to be civilized do not deserve any attention. Those who cannot learn should be pointed in a direction that leads to becoming a valuable citizen – but it is no kindness to them to neglect those who will invent the future in order to do that.

I understand the resentment of the Occupy Wall Street group who say, with justice, and there hasn’t been a lot of trickles down from the bailout; but it remains true that rising tides float all boats, and not much else does. Spending a fortune bailing out an old wreck doesn’t bring as many fish into the village as would sprucing up the best boat, to use a very imperfect analogy.

Education resources are scarce, and taxes hurt: to take money from a childless couple and spend it on upping a test score from 38th percentile to 42nd percentile is neither just nor effective.

We need the high flyers as contributors to the society.

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Letter From Uruguay

education, money, culture

I’ve followed with attention your comments about injecting funds into the higher education system, something pretty much like it has happened here, a huge amount of funds has been thrown at the whole education process, most of that has gone into salaries, with no discernible improvement. The catch the whole system is government run and (theoretically) free to every citizen, I say theoretically because in many instances if your family can’t support you the class hours in every college make it all but impossible for a student to be self sustaining before graduating.

The public university here in Uruguay has a budget roughly equal to that of the university of Chicago, however most faculties do not have up to date equipment and facilities are mostly in a rather woeful state, some are better managed than others, but unless the dean of a specific college has a very powerful personality it is unlikely that things work well. Many professors teach because they love to do so, but their salaries are low, not because of lack of funds, simply because of gross mismanagement.

Several high schools have been closed down on account of extreme decay in the buildings, it is not lack of money, it is lack of will, the secondary education council has not seen it fit to name someone to look after the upkeep of the different buildings. Let me say this upfront, building maintenance was always a problem, but it used to be that the parents would get together and raise money to see that most things worked. It would seem that they don’t take that approach any more. Why? Because the left leaning government which has run the country for the last 7 years and the capital for the last 20 has taught most of the population that being poor is meritorious, that they deserve money on account of being poor, not in order to help them get up by their bootstraps, but rather to keep them out of work and creating a culture of poverty and (dare one say it?) entitlement.

The downward spiral is evident to everyone by now, but as was unintentionally admitted by one of the government’s senators, this gives them an inside angle with about a third of the country’s population, it also has created a toxic environment where unions, which do have an important role in protecting workers, have entered politics and also they are promoting class warfare, yes in some many words. The net result is that several factories owned by multinational companies are in the process of pulling out of the country.

Need I go on? What I want to convey is that this country which used to be called "the Switzerland of America" is now one more banana republic, not much different from those which were so called in the early 20th century. And by the way, crime is on the rise, because criminals are actually "victims of society" and those they commit crimes against had it coming by being better off than them, never mind that they worked to get whatever was taken away from them, not to mention risk to life and limb.

So, do try to get rid of most of those decrees and laws, make it mandatory to work, teach policemen to be civil to people on the street (yes I mean it) and civil servants to be civil to servitors of the people and you may yet get out of the current mess. Otherwise look south to see what you may become.

All the best

Ariel Fabius

I am sorry but not astonished to hear it. It appears to be the way of the world: an Iron Law ruling class is locking itself into place here and there and everywhere. See Pareto on the circulation of elites.

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anecdote on reading & education

Your comment the other day about reading and literacy and so forth brought some of my childhood to mind in an interesting way. You said:

Jerry: "If you can read you can read. You may not know the meaning of many words, but you can read them. But we have forgotten that this was ever true."

I was a youngster learning to read in the 1971, or so. And the funny thing is, I had no idea that there was such a thing as grade level reading. My parents, in fact, encouraged me to read whatever I could put my hands on and was interested in reading. There were a few exceptions they made because a 5 year old boy just wasn’t going to grasp the topics of the book. But, those were few and far between.

By the time I was in first grade, I knew who Napoleon was, for example, and had a reasonable grasp of what the French Revolution was about, how Napoleon cam to power, what the Napoleonic Wars were and so forth. One day in first grade, I went in the library and found a very interesting book about Admiral Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar. So, I grabbed it and took it up to the counter to check out. The librarian was almost horrified when she saw that this 6 year old boy wanted to check out a book that was for children much older. She carefully pointed out to me that it had "big words" and didn’t have many pictures (she showed me the only section that had pictures, the rest was all words). I had to insist that I could read the book, that I really wanted to read it and that no, I didn’t want a book that was "easier". She made me promise to bring it back right away if I didn’t like it.

This idea that there is "grade level reading" and appropriate reading material based on your age has been going on for at least forty years, apparently. My son (who is now a student at a very nice private university in Tacoma, Pacific Lutheran) was shocked to discover that Heinlein’s "Tunnel in the Sky" had been considered a juvenile book when published. He was 13 at the time, and made it very clear that no other 13 year old boy he knew was reading anything even close to this in terms of complexity of language or plot. When I was 13, Heinlein’s juveniles were still considered okay for adolescent boys. Apparently we have degraded from there.

Just one more point about where all this leads. When I attended Sac State, as an engineering major, I was 12 – 13 years older than many my classmates since I had spent about 11 years in the Army before going to college. Even though I’d been out of high school that long, my SAT scores were high enough that I could register for calculus and freshman English without having to take a test to see if I was ready for the classes. I was a bit concerned, but decided that taking the bonehead classes was a bad idea since the GI Bill wouldn’t pay for them.

I found myself sitting next to 18 & 19 year old students in calculus and English, many of whom had to take bonehead classes before they could take freshman level classes. And they were, for the most part, in engineering and science majors, rather than some sort of liberal arts or social sciences major. And this 30 year old guy who hadn’t been in school for over a decade was getting better grades and performing better in those classes, fundamental classes if you want to be an engineer, than the kids were. That is the end result of a government run school system that insists on "grade level" reading and age appropriate education and learning. The freshman engineers in the State Universities of the richest state in the richest country on earth are nearly functionally illiterate.

Some days I am very optimistic and some days not so much. Today seems to be in the latter category.

Eric

I understand thoroughly. I discovered Adventures in Time and Space when I was in high school. Fortunately the Brothers encouraged me to read such things. But those were different times. Despair is a sin – and there is good reason for hope.

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Good points on Perry

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/last-nights-debate-means-nothing-perrys-pluses-are-still-undeniable/?singlepage=true

About how I feel about it as well.

Phil

Perry began in politics flying his Piper Cub around in Texas. He’d land in a field. Get out. Wearing a suit. To be met by a farmer/rancher with a shotgun, because who flies around in Texas wearing a suit. Perry would explain. Fifteen minutes later the rancher would be writing him a check. He doesn’t come off well in debate.

He has many strong points. His chief negative in the debates other than his general inability to look like a debate team captain, was the cervical cancer vaccination issue.

I do not dispute the right of the State of Texas to make getting a vaccination the default in a non-contagious malady (that is, making it opt-out rather than opt-in). I would argue against that as a policy, but I also understand the impulses involved in the decision. The States have a residual sovereign power that the Federal government not only does not have, but was explicitly forbidden; and that Perry understands full well. It’s one of his strongest points. He very much understands the concepts of states’ rights and the limited power of the Federal government.

Perry remains strong. Of course I agree with Newt that anyone on that platform is preferable to Mr. Obama. Obama is below the magic 43% approval – and falling.

: Rick Perry energy plan

http://pajamasmedia.com/tatler/2011/10/14/rick-perry-unveils-energy-plan-to-get-government-out-of-the-way-and-get-america-working-again/

Sensible and allows congress to catch. Why can’t he debate?

Phil

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Copyright violation apps?

Dr. Pournelle:

I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet, or something similar.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227542

Tom Brosz

I have passed the information along to our agent, and I understand that measures are being taken. Thanks. Thanks to Harlan for calling attention to this.

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Obama Sends Combat Troops to Central Africa | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier

Jerry,

I suspect that you are aware of the latest war that Obama has gotten us into, but I also wanted to draw your attention to this Blog

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/10/14/obama-sends-combat-troops-central-africa/

I see absolutely no national security interest at stake and it is difficult to justify when it has become open season on Coptic Christians.

Jim Crawford

It is the Great Guilt Trip from the Rwanda massacre: Clinton sent the troops to the Balkans, making enemies of the Slavophilic Russians and aiding and abetting the Albanian atrocities in Kosovo, rather than sending a much smaller force to Africa to stop the machete genocide. Now we must all pay for that.

One might justify not sending Legions to Africa; but then to send them to Europe? As if Europe cannot manage its own territorial disputes? So we become involved in territorial disputes in Europe, but we cannot send a thousand Marines to Africa to avert the massacre of a million Tutsi. The guilt lies heavy.

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NYPD busted for planting drugs

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I apologize for cluttering your email box for a third time in a week, but I thought this story absolutely fascinating and worthy of your attention.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/10/13/2011-10-13_excop_we_fabricated_drug_raps_for_quotas.html

"

A former NYPD http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/New+York+City+Police+Department narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.

The bombshell testimony from Stephen Anderson http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Stephen+Anderson is the first public account of the twisted culture behind the false arrests in the Brooklyn http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Brooklyn+%28New+York+City%29 South and Queens narc squads, which led to the arrests of eight cops and a massive shakeup.

Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as "flaking," on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Henry+Tavarez , whose buy-and-bust activity had been low"

This isn’t the way you were trained to view the police, was it? But that seems to be the new facts on the ground. The police serve the bureaucracy and its quotas, not the citizenry. They are therefore best avoided if at all possible.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

An Iron Law ruling class is an Iron Law ruling class.

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”There were very strong voices calling for democracy and rule of law and bringing the party under supervision.”

<http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-partys-no-fun-for-children-of-the-revolution-20111016-1lrm0.html <http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-partys-no-fun-for-children-of-the-revolution-20111016-1lrm0.html#ixzz1axODoIli>

”The Communist Party is like a surgeon who has cancer,” Ms Ma told this almost unprecedented unofficial gathering of powerful families that took place in a conference room at the China World Trade Centre on October 6. ”It can’t remove the tumour by itself, it needs help from others, but without help it can’t survive for long.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/the-partys-no-fun-for-children-of-the-revolution-20111016-1lrm0.html#ixzz1azWbyeAF

I do not think this will cause much change in Chinese policy. Nor will it be much comfort to the Uighers.

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climbing fithp

Greetings! Every semester, at midterm (just about now, for the Fall) I assign an optional reading project to my intro Physics classes.* This term, it’s _Ringworld_ – ho, Niven! – but I change it up regularly, and I’ve chosen _The Mote in God’s Eye_ and _Footfall_ before. So… will we ever find out what Herdmaster Dawson does next? Are we arboreals going to pay the snouts back – or show them up by interpreting their own podo in ways they never considered, and make them part of *our* fithp? (Nice of them to bring the manual with them….) Your other sequels having come out so well, I’m hopeful that you and Niven might come up with something during one or your hikes. And I promise I’ll buy one – in hardcover, if we still have that option then!

Ryan Droste. TTC Physics

*About two weeks before classes end, I distribute a set of questions; these count as a take-home exam for extra credit. I always include at least one question regarding specific content (e.g., who killed Fathisteh-Tulk?), along with questions requiring calculations from situations in the story (calculate the speed of the Foot on impact with Earth, assuming the Fithp gave it just enough speed to escape from orbit around Saturn). Some of their best efforts now hang on my office walls.

Ryan Droste

Thanks. For those concerned with the story, you can find it here. It’s still a good read. The late publishing giant Judy-Lynne Del Rey wanted us to do a sequel to be called Harpanet for President, but alas she died before she could talk us into a contract. It’s a bit late for a sequel to an alternate history work, isn’t it?

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Oath of Fealty

Jerry

The Arcology – the concept at the center of Larry’s and your book The Oath of Fealty – has arrived:

http://pajamasmedia.com/lifestyle/2011/10/14/san-joses-santana-row-the-future-of-shopping/?singlepage=true

Ed

Oath of Fealty was a best seller, and remains one of my favorite collaborations. It still holds up well. I was on a panel of experts consulted by the California State Legislature on future plans, and found myself having lunch and then dinner with Paolo Soleri, which is where my interest in arcologies became highly activated; he is a very stimulating man. And Niven and I visited a number of places as research. I enjoyed writing that book

 

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Some Hope

Alaska’s lone congressman may be reading your column. I hope so.

www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/64612.html.

Mark Harriger

Thanks! I am given to understand that he may be but I do not have direct communication.

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Re: A Roundup of News Items

Jerry,

If fish can form a school and baboons bring a congress into session, then I can round up these news items that you might find interesting or worthy of note and drive them to Rancho de Chaos Manor for you.

I believe this relates to the concept of hormesis, which you have occasionally mentioned:

"It’s been hidden in the bowels of the Atomic Energy Commission for decades until I found it. They revised it to remove the one sentence suggesting this experiment might provide evidence for the threshold model."

UMass Amherst Researcher Points to Suppression of Evidence on Radiation Effects by 1946 Nobel Laureate <http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/newsreleases/articles/136706.php>

A mother-load of titanium on the moon:

Subtly Shaded Map of Moon Reveals Titanium Treasure Troves <http://www.europlanet-eu.org/outreach/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=360&Itemid=41>

The (predicted) bad news from Egypt:

"In the eight months since Mubarak’s ouster, the military has tried and convicted some 12,000 Egyptian civilians in military tribunals, often after using torture to extract confessions. "

"As for Egypt’s Coptic Christians, their plight has gone from bad to worse. Post-Mubarak Egypt has seen “an explosion of violence against the Coptic Christian community,’’ the international news channel France 24 was reporting as far back as May. “Anger has flared up into deadly riots, and houses, shops, and churches have been set ablaze.’’

With Islamist hardliners growing increasingly influential, hate crimes against Christians routinely go unpunished. Copts, who represent a tenth of Egypt’s population, are subjected to appalling humiliations."

More Evidence of the Repressive Nature of the New Egyptian Government <http://volokh.com/2011/10/13/more-evidence-of-the-repressive-nature-of-the-new-egyptian-government/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+volokh%2Fmainfeed+%28The+Volokh+Conspiracy%29&utm_content=Google+Reader>

Also predictable:

Missing Libya Missiles Find Their Way to Gaza Border <http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/missing-libya-missiles-find-gaza-border/story?id=14729363>

Predictable on the home front:

Coast Guard member spit on near Occupy Boston tents <http://www.myfoxboston.com/dpp/news/local/occupy-boston-protesters-spit-on-coast-guard-member-20111013>

In my own view the legitimate protesters have been left high and dry by the hollow campaign chants "Yes we can! Yes we can!" and the empty campaign promise of "Hope and change! Hope and change!" Learning that people you emotionally buy into are totally willing to lie to you and care nothing about you is painful. Sadly, they are now being used as pawns by all manner of political vermin, both those pushing the occupations for their own party’s gain as well as the many fringe elements (such as those who spat upon the Coast Guardswoman) who would tear down society and remake it in their own flea-ridden image.

How many major institutions failed as a result of being too closely intertwined with Goldman Sachs? Peter Wallison points out "none".

The Myth of Systemically Risky Institutions <http://volokh.com/2011/10/13/the-myth-of-systemically-risky-institutions/>

At least they paid for parking:

Drug Smugglers Tunnel Into Arizona Parking Spaces <http://news.yahoo.com/drug-smugglers-tunnel-arizona-parking-spaces-193126687.html>

Another example of enlightened leaders who should be trusted with all our personal information, whether related to health, a nation’s security, or otherwise:

Government minister dumps documents in park bins <http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/10/14/government-minister-dumps-documents-in-park-bins/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nakedsecurity+%28Naked+Security+-+Sophos%29&utm_content=Google+Reader>

A Technology Review blog post on one physicist’s explanation of the faster than light neutrinos, and why they did not actually travel faster than light. He believes the experimenters did not correct their time calculations to account for the motion of the GPS satellites (used to synchronize the earth-bound clocks) relative to the location of the experiment:

Faster-Than-Light Neutrino Puzzle Claimed Solved by Special Relativity <http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/27260/?ref=rss>

Regards,

George

Thanks! I have dealt with some of those. The CERN Opera experimental data are still in discussion; it is unlikely that the CERN team overlooked anything obvious. They understand general relativity.

 

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The grapes of wrath part 2

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/you-know-your-city-has-become-hellhole-when%E2%80%A6

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/american-hellholes

I thought you might find this article on different issues in American cities interesting.

The 1000+ people living in tunnels in Las Vegas sounds a bit like H.G. Wells’ "Time Machine"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326187/Las-Vegas-tunnel-people-How-1-000-people-live-shimmering-strip.html

There’s also SpiritWood, ND, which is ripping up its paved roads to replace it with gravel.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704913304575370950363737746.html

Despair is a sin, as you say. This was not the America of the 1940s or the 1950s. If we can jettison the remaining 1960s’ "Great Society" garbage and re-discover the meaning of ‘opportunity’ and ‘economic freedom’, these trends can be reversed. We built this society in the first place, after all, so we can do it again.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

November 2012 may be as important as was the hot summer of 1787. We could have a circulation of elites and a reset on the Iron Law Establishment. We could have.

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Foreign Policy Research Institute

Over 50 Years of Ideas in Service to Our Nation www.fpri.org You can now follow FPRI on Facebook and FPRINews on Twitter

E-Notes

Distributed Exclusively via Email

~MIDDLE EAST MEDIA MONITOR~

POST-MUBARAK EGYPTIAN ATTITUDES TOWARD ISRAEL by Michael Sharnoff

October 14, 2011

Middle East Media Monitor is an FPRI E-Note series, designed to review once a month a current topic from the perspective of the foreign language press in such countries as Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Turkey. These articles will focus on providing FPRI’s readership with an inside view on how some of the most important countries in the Middle East are covering issues of importance to the American foreign policy community.

Michael Sharnoff is a Ph.D. candidate in Middle East Studies at King’s College, London. His research focuses on Egyptian perceptions of peace after the 1967 War.

Available on the web and in pdf format at:

http://www.fpri.org/enotes/2011/201110.sharnoff.egyptandisrael.html

A good summary of the situation.

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Rants, FEMA, great pictures, and lots more

Mail 696 Wednesday, October 12, 2011

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Best. Rant. Ever.

Jerry

Below is the best rant ever. A 13-year veteran of Amazon and Google tells his Google colleagues what they “don’t get” in a long, extremely well-written rant. The grammar is even correct:

https://plus.google.com/112678702228711889851/posts/eVeouesvaVX

A central section:

“So one day Jeff Bezos issued a mandate. He’s doing that all the time, of course, and people scramble like ants being pounded with a rubber mallet whenever it happens. But on one occasion — back around 2002 I think, plus or minus a year — he issued a mandate that was so out there, so huge and eye-bulgingly ponderous, that it made all of his other mandates look like unsolicited peer bonuses.

“His Big Mandate went something along these lines:

“1) All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality through service interfaces.

“2) Teams must communicate with each other through these interfaces.

“3) There will be no other form of interprocess communication allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of another team’s data store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors whatsoever. The only communication allowed is via service interface calls over the network.

“4) It doesn’t matter what technology they use. HTTP, Corba, Pubsub, custom protocols — doesn’t matter. Bezos doesn’t care.

“5) All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed from the ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface to developers in the outside world. No exceptions.

“6) Anyone who doesn’t do this will be fired.

“7) Thank you; have a nice day!

“Ha, ha! You 150-odd ex-Amazon folks here will of course realize immediately that #7 was a little joke I threw in, because Bezos most definitely does not give a shit about your day.

“#6, however, was quite real, so people went to work. Bezos assigned a couple of Chief Bulldogs to oversee the effort and ensure forward progress, headed up by Uber-Chief Bear Bulldog Rick Dalzell. Rick is an ex-Army Ranger, West Point Academy graduate, ex-boxer, ex-Chief Torturer slash CIO at Wal*Mart, and is a big genial scary man who used the word "hardened interface" a lot. Rick was a walking, talking hardened interface himself, so needless to say, everyone made LOTS of forward progress and made sure Rick knew about it.

“Over the next couple of years, Amazon transformed internally into a service-oriented architecture. They learned a tremendous amount while effecting this transformation. There was lots of existing documentation and lore about SOAs, but at Amazon’s vast scale it was about as useful as telling Indiana Jones to look both ways before crossing the street. Amazon’s dev staff made a lot of discoveries along the way. A teeny tiny sampling of these discoveries included:”

A very interesting rant indeed. I found it at The Reg, here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/13/google_does_not_get_platforms/

Ed

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Where did it go?

Hello Jerry,

"For a start they want the bailout money back. It didn’t go to them. To whom did it go? There was a lot of money floating out there –"

Interesting question; I’m surprised that NONE of the ‘mainstream media’ have asked it.

Not!

Example: Solyndra (Obama’s friends and supporters) got a half billion dollars to set up a solar power plant, create a bunch of jobs, and save the planet from the dreaded ‘Climate Change’.

A year or so later, Solyndra is bankrupt, there hasn’t been a watt of solar power delivered to the grid, the former Solyndra employees are again unemployed (but their 2 year unemployment clock has been reset), and the climate is, reportedly, still changing. The half billion has evaporated and not only does the collective media not know where it went, they, along with the Obamunists that they front for, are singularly uninterested in finding out.

Solyndra is not unique. In fact, the moral equivalents of Solyndra are downright common, to the cumulative tune of a couple of trillion dollars. And, on the evidence, the term ‘audit’, at least as it applies to tracking and documenting government expenditures, is so rare that it is scarcely worth including in a dictionary. After all, if we are unconcerned with the whereabouts of penny that escapes our pocket in the parking lot, why should we be all atwitter over the fate of 2e14 of them?

Bob Ludwick=

As I have said, were I the right age I might be tempted to join a protest group. Boring from the inside, so to speak. Of course many of those sitting about are useless, but there are some misguided idealists who might yet be saved. They know something is wrong, they thought they’d get a real change, and here we are with the same old ruling class. No open society. All back patting and favor exchanges. This was what they were waiting for? Ah well, we told them so…

From the "Unbiased media" department

The Big Three networks covered the ENRON story heavily. They are ignoring the Solyndra scandal and the cool half a billion dollars tax payers are losing on it. Naw – this can’t be. The media is not biased. They tell me they aren’t.

Reality Check: ABC, CBS and NBC Bury News of Taxpayer Money Squandered on Obama-Linked Solar Energy Company http://newsbusters.org/blogs/rich-noyes/2011/10/11/reality-check-abc-cbs-and-nbc-bury-news-taxpayer-money-squandered-obama-#ixzz1aVQjfGrl

Do YOU believe the media?

{^_^}

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World Depression Two and the Great Revolt

Dear Dr. Pournelle:

First note:

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/320-80/7814-focus-recession-officially-over

The "Great Recession" is officially over – for now at least. By definition, a recession is when certain economic indicators decline for a set period of time. That decline, in those (but not other) indicators is over for now; but recovery has yet to arrive.

By definition, a "depression" is the trough between a recession and a recovery. Since the recession is (officially) over, and the recovery is nowhere in sight, that means that the depression is (officially) on, as of now.

You may recall that, about eight decades ago, there was another depression, called the "Great Depression". It had been preceded by a war, at the time called the "Great War". However that conflict was followed by an even greater war, called "World War Two"; so the "Great War" was retroactively renamed "World War One".

Given this precedent, I propose that we retroactively relabel the "Great Depression" as "World Depression One"; so that we may call our present economic slump "World Depression Two".

World Depression 1 was ended by World War 2; but we cannot end World Depression 2 with a "World War 3", for that would not improve the economy or anything else. But perhaps, instead of a "World War 3", we will see a "Great Revolt". It has already started in the Arab world, and it may be spreading to Wall Street.

I mention this possibility, not as any fan of revolts – too risky – but as an even lesser fan of world wars.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel Hellerstein

Syndicalism. The Myth of the General Strike. Etc.

A Great Revolt will not be likely to solve anything: what usually happens is that there appears someone acceptable to the ruling class who is a friend of the people, and you get a temporary dictatorship to end the disorder. When the mob goes in search of bread it is joined by those who simply want to burn the bakeries. When enough people spend time demonstrating, you get a sea change. As Lara Logan discovered in Cairo. The people, in distress, seldom cast up any person or institution you would much care for. Simon Bolivar’s last observations included “He who seeks to plant democracy in my homeland plows the sea,” and his last words are said to have been “There have been three great fools in history. Jesus Christ, Don Quixote, and me.” It may well be that Julius Caesar would have reformed the dying Roman Republic; there is some evidence that once his debts were paid and his life was secure, he would in fact have restored many of the old institutions, and like his uncle Marius stood down. We’ll never know.

But a Great Revolt will not restore the Republic. And we have no George Washington that I can see.

Liberty, as a principle, has no application to any state of things anterior to the time when mankind have become capable of being improved by free and equal discussion. Until then there is nothing for them but implicit obedience to an Akbar or a Charlemagne, if they are so fortunate as to find one. But as soon as mankind has attained the capacity of being guided to their own improvement by conviction or persuasion (a period long since reached in all nations with whom we need here concern ourselves), compulsion, the direct form or in that of pains and penalties for noncompliance, is no longer admissible as a means to their own good, and justifiable only for the security of others. John Stuart Mill

The ancients understood that good government is a gift from the gods. James Burnham understood this and tried to warn us in Suicide of the West. Perhaps we will learn. Perhaps we will not.

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Fed governor defends CRA as not the seed problem of the housing bubble

http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/duke20090224a.htm

I took the time to carefully read the damn thing. Institutional denial is understandable, but reading someone’s execution of that denial is a little unsettling.

Phil

Horrifying. Educational horror.

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Fugate FEMA

Craig Fugate might be trying to "manage down" the expectations of FEMA, but that’s not the same thing as encouraging meaningful disaster-preparation activity by local organizations.

Like you always say, the thing about the Dark Ages was not that we forgot how to do things, but that we forgot that certain things had ever *been* *done*.

Mike T. Powers

And we are definitely in a dark age. We do not know that once there were no illiterates who had been through more than five grades of school. Essentially none. I once asked my mother, a rural Florida first grade teacher in the 1920’s, how many of her pupils left first grade who had not learned how to read. She said there were one or two every couple of years, “but the didn’t learn anything else, either.” Which describes the situation. The notion that a child of dull normal or above intelligence would leave first grade unable to read was simply unthinkable. Now – well, now we cheer if half the kids in first grade can actually read at “first grade level”; and of course grade level reading is silly to begin with. If you can read you can read. You may not know the meaning of many words, but you can read them. But we have forgotten that this was ever true.

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The Snows of Enceladus.

<http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=20126>

Roland Dobbins

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“I think that these things were captured by the kraken and taken to the midden and the cephalopod would take them apart.”

<http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/11-65.htm>

Roland Dobbins

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Cyclist vs. Hartebeest.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2oymHHyV1M>

Roland Dobbins

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Dead or Alive

What then was the legality for the "Wanted, Dead Or Alive" posters for the gangsters, bank robbers, and murderers fro the 1930’s on back?

Roger Miller

Outside the movies how many official posters have you seen that actually said that? Of course it would true of an escaped prisoner known to be armed.

In general it wasn’t legal and for that matter outside Hollywood didn’t much happen that people were proclaimed outlaw to be killed on sight.

Jerry Pournelle

Chaos Manor

Of course, you are right! And the "experts say" TV and media do not affect us.

What then? Everybody bitches on how things are. and we can only blame ourselves. Is there a way of fixing all this? R’s or D’s won’t or any other flavor you want.

As was said, we are a ‘Constitutional Republic’, we are supposed to be under the rule of law, not an individual or regime.

But then, when we are no longer a moral people, under moral leadership, the law is twisted or outright broken at whim. Are we no longer a moral people?

Roger Miller

We do not even proclaim ourselves moral. We are now a diverse, non-judgmental, politically correct people are we not?

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: Opera and al-Alwaki

Regarding the comment on the synchronization of TTD:

The question was whether the transportation of a synchronized TTD from Switzerland to Italy, passing through a non-uniform gravitational field, might have upset that synchronization by a nanosecond or so. What would happen if two sets of clocks, A and B, were synchronized: one at CERN and the other at Gran Sasso. Then one of each pair is transported to the other site over the same route, but in opposite directions. It is not necessary that the A and B clocks agree with each other, because only the delta between the two sites is needed. Or is the effect not symmetric?

I do note a remarkable difference between the way the hard scientists at CERN are treating their methods, their data, and their reasoning versus the way that climate scientists treat theirs.

Regarding the comparison of the assassination of al Alwaki to the sniper shooting a Confederate soldier:

It was considered poor form, unless carried out in the midst of battle. However, the proper comparison ought to be with a Union sniper taking out a politician agitating for secession of, say, Kentucky or Maryland. (There was a secession movement in New Jersey, too!) Or on the other side: a Confederate agent assassinating the editor of an abolitionist newspaper. As I understand it, the jihadis in question were agitators, not fighters. One ran a web site. The other encouraged others to acts of free enterprise terrorism. Not very nice, but they were not carrying arms, nor themselves engaged in the conspiracies they encouraged. This puts it in a gray area, I think. No tears lost for the dynamic duo, but remember that Boromir thought he could use the One Ring solely for Good.

MikeF

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The biggest evacuation by boat ever

This is a video about the biggest boatlift evacuation ever, larger even than

Dunkirk. It took only 9 hours to evacuate Lower Manhattan by boat. Boats came

out of nowhere to help the people stranded by 911.

http://blogs.reuters.com/katharine-herrup/2011/09/09/boatlifters-the-unknown-story-of-911/

All those heroes just did what needed to be done. God bless each and every

one of them, twice.

{O.O}

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An Important Point You Made Needs Iteration

You made a stupendous point today; I believe we need to take the philosophical approach used in Hagakure to this point. You see, points often make a point beyond the context one makes the point. Yamamoto Tsunetomo made simple, elegant use of one similar situation:

<.>

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to pet wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning,you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all things.

</>

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure

You wrote:

<.>

And when you inject more and more money into the higher education market, then the costs will go up. We keep running that experiment in the hopes that this time it will come out different. And here we are. It costs an increasing amount to go to college, it’s increasingly easier to get loans, and the costs keep going up.

</>

https://jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/?p=2487

Over the years, I spoke with many close to me and I often hear certain phrases e.g. "I am not sure throwing more money at the problem is the answer". Throwing more money at the problem would only increase the problem. We know you to say "stop feeding the beast" when we apply this understanding to government. More money, more problems; this understanding extends to all things. It is well that you pointed this out.

If we can find a way to allow people to apply this to general questions in public policy, we might observe some positive changes. Should we give big banks more money? No, somehow it will make them more expensive and that is bad. It could be that simple.

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

The future of the nation depends on being able to educate the top 10% of the population and to civilize the rest. We are not doing a very good job of either task.

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Stakeholders chart

The stakeholders chart that one of your readers submitted is quite possibly the funniest….and probably most accurate….things I’ve seen about development in a long time.

I’ve sent this to colleagues, clients and associates….I suspect the email lines will be quite busy for a few days due to it.

http://mthruf.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/workplace-subjectivity-chart1.jpg

Thanks!

Tracy Walters CISSP

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crime of the century

I wish all of our "crimes" were only as bad as this one.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/sex/senior-citizen-car-sex-098713

I think the officers could have done them a bigger favor by assisting them to a motel and leaving a note reminding them where their car was.

Sean

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