Liberal arts and education; basic income; impregnating rhinoceri; and other topics.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

DDay

The map is not the territory.

Alfred Korzybski

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

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The Normandy Invasion was the most complex event in the history of mankind; the first landing on the Moon was the second.

https://www.vencoreweather.com/blog/2017/6/5/1030-am-the-most-important-weather-forecast-of-all-time-d-day-june-6-1944

THE MOST IMPORTANT WEATHER FORECAST OF ALL-TIME: D-DAY, JUNE 6, 1944

“Years later, during their ride to the Capitol for his inauguration, President-elect John F. Kennedy asked President Eisenhower why the Normandy invasion had been so successful. Ike’s answer: “Because we had better meteorologists than the Germans!”

 

 

Remembering D-Day

Seventy-three years ago, Americans, British, Canadians, Free French Forces, and their allies launched the most complex operation ever implemented by human beings: The invasion of Normandy.

See Newt Gingrich’s D Day presentation at  http://mailchi.mp/gingrichproductions/remembering-d-day?e=2692b32928

 

bubbles

When I left the Army in 1952, the theory of a liberal arts education (and really, of college education) was that some percentage – not all – of citizens would benefit from it, and thus there was public – taxpayer – support of them. There were also privately owned and run schools like Harvard, but they didn’t get general taxpayer money; presumably those who went to them were rewarded for having done so, but it wasn’t really a matter of public policy.

But the public policy idea was that a college education for those who would benefit from it – which was by no means all, or even a majority of the general population – was a good public investment. Tennessee’s policy was to admit the top 10%, more or less, to tuition free college education. That was the effect: the actual law specified that all those who graduated high school having successfully completed an “academic preparation program” were to be admitted to state colleges tuition free. Academic preparation specified four years of English, algebra, geometry, a foreign language, and some specified science; you didn’t have to take that, but if you hadn’t, the state higher education didn’t have to admit you, and could charge tuition.

Other states had similar programs. I was eligible for the “Korean Bill of Rights”, which essentially paid my tuition wherever I went, and ended up at the State University of Iowa (Iowa City) through a number of chance driven circumstances. Iowa at that time had a “core” program that included a year of Western Civilization under George Mosse and some other compulsory courses designed to make you an “educated person”.

That was in 1952. There was no “Federal aid to education” although the subject was debated. After sputnik, there was demand that the Federal Government aid the state schools, including the colleges, so that we would have an education system we could be proud of.

In 1983 Nobel Prize laureate Glenn T. Seaborg headed a national commission to evaluate our education system; it was mostly dedicated to the primary and secondary schools. The general consensus was that our higher education system was all right (that was explicitly said at a plenary session of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science even as it deplored the primary and secondary schools). Dr. Seaborg’s conclusion was that the schools were awful; this in 1983. He blamed it on the system imposed by the Federal Government (aided by the Courts).

He said, “If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider itch an act of war.” It is generally agreed that the schools have not improved since that time; and that criticism now applies to much of the academic “higher education” system as well.

Exclusive Test Data: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical-Thinking Skills

https://www.wsj.com/articles/exclusive-test-data-many-colleges-fail-to-improve-critical-thinking-skills-1496686662

Results of a standardized measure of reasoning ability show many students fail to improve over four years—even at some flagship schools, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of nonpublic results

Students at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire showed extensive progress in critical thinking over four years, as measured by a test called the CLA+.

By

Douglas Belkin

June 5, 2017 2:17 p.m. ET

548 COMMENTS

Freshmen and seniors at about 200 colleges across the U.S. take a little-known test every year to measure how much better they get at learning to think. The results are discouraging.

At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table, The Wall Street Journal found after reviewing the latest results from dozens of public colleges and universities that gave the exam between 2013 and 2016. (See full results.)

At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.

Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum.

For prospective students and their parents looking to pick a college, it is almost impossible to figure out which schools help students learn critical thinking, because full results of the standardized test, called the College Learning Assessment Plus, or CLA+, are seldom disclosed to the public. This is true, too, of similar tests.

[snip]

 

Exclusive Test Data: Many Colleges Fail to Improve Critical Thinking Skills

The Wall Street Journal.

Douglas Belkin

Freshmen and seniors at about 200 colleges across the U.S. take a little-known test every year to measure how much better they get at learning to think. The results are discouraging.

At more than half of schools, at least a third of seniors were unable to make a cohesive argument, assess the quality of evidence in a document or interpret data in a table, The Wall Street Journal found after reviewing the latest results from dozens of public colleges and universities that gave the exam between 2013 and 2016. (See full results.)

At some of the most prestigious flagship universities, test results indicate the average graduate shows little or no improvement in critical thinking over four years.

Some of the biggest gains occur at smaller colleges where students are less accomplished at arrival but soak up a rigorous, interdisciplinary curriculum.

For prospective students and their parents looking to pick a college, it is almost impossible to figure out which schools help students learn critical thinking, because full results of the standardized test, called the College Learning Assessment Plus, or CLA+, are seldom disclosed to the public. This is true, too, of similar tests.

Some academic experts, education researchers and employers say the Journal’s findings are a sign of the failure of America’s higher-education system to arm graduates with analytical reasoning and problem-solving skills needed to thrive in a fast-changing, increasingly global job market. In addition, rising tuition, student debt and loan defaults are putting colleges and universities under pressure to prove their value.

A survey by PayScale Inc., an online pay and benefits researcher, showed 50% of employers complain that college graduates they hire aren’t ready for the workplace. Their No. 1 complaint? Poor critical-reasoning skills.

“At most schools in this country, students basically spend four years in college, and they don’t necessarily become better thinkers and problem solvers,” said Josipa Roksa, a University of Virginia sociology professor who co-wrote a book in 2011 about the CLA+ test. “Employers are going to hire the best they can get, and if we don’t have that, then what is at stake in the long run is our ability to compete.”[snip]

 

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK

Epic fail: Every student flunks state exam

http://www.wnd.com/2017/05/epic-fail-every-student-flunks-state-exam/

Zero proficiency in math, English in probe of 6 inner-city schools

Published: 19 hours ago

Art Moore About | Email | Archive

Art Moore, co-author of the best-selling book “See Something, Say Nothing,” entered the media world as a PR assistant for the Seattle Mariners and a correspondent covering pro and college sports for Associated Press Radio. He reported for a Chicago-area daily newspaper and was senior news writer for Christianity Today magazine and an editor for Worldwide Newsroom before joining WND shortly after

In an astonishing outcome, an investigation of six Baltimore schools found not a single student passed the state’s proficiency test in the subjects of math and English.

Five high schools and one middle school were surveyed in a probe by Baltimore’s Fox TV affiliate, which spotlighted one school in which 89 percent of the students had the lowest score on a scale of 5.

Scores of 4 or 5 indicate proficiency with the subject, but at Frederick Douglass High School, only one student got as high as a 3 on his state exam.

WBFF-TV profiled one student at the high school who was among the 50 percent of his class that graduated. At the age of 3 months, Navon Warren’s father was shot to death, and before his 18th birthday, two uncles and a classmate were gunned down on the streets of his city.

Education policy is one of the hot-button issues bestselling author and Fox Business host John Stossel puts to the test in his “No, They Can’t: Why Government Fails, but Individuals Succeed.”

Of course we are all aware of the exponentially rising costs of “higher education” and the decreasing economic value of a college degree. The answer of the experts is always the same: give us more money. Next time for sure.

The last time the US had schools admired worldwide, control of the schools was left to the consumers – parents of the students – and to those paying for the schools – the local taxpayers. This of course assured some awful schools:  Although one wonders how bad they were compared to today’s average. The remedy for the awful schools was to centralize control of all schools in the experts of the Department of Education. That produced today’s situation which is indistinguishable from an act of war against the American people. The remedies proposed mostly assume that the experts will continue to run things: look at the arguments against the current Secretary of Education.

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Sunspots and Weather – The Proposed Connection

I had always been puzzled about how sunspots could affect weather here on Earth.  Turns out that the mechanism is extra-solar cosmic rays.   When the Sun is active and the Sunspot numbers high, the solar wind is higher and extends beyond the Earth’s orbit. Cosmic rays are substantially deflected by the solar wind, and effectively sweep away cosmic rays. When the Sun becomes more quiescent, the Solar Wind fades somewhat, and no longer deflects as many cosmic rays.   The cosmic rays that do reach the Earth break up molecules in the atmosphere, and some of these stray atoms (or shattered molecules) are somewhat more effective in forming condensation nuclei high in the atmosphere.  Put simply, cosmic rays cause clouds.   Clouds in the stratosphere increase the Earth’s albedo, and somewhat less sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface. 

And we get a little colder.  The effect isn’t large – but it doesn’t have to be.   Russian scientists claim to have discovered the complex periodicity of patterns of waves within the Sun, and they predict that in the next 30 years, there will be a “grand minimum” of solar activity, perhaps to the level of a Dalton Minimum, and perhaps even another Maunder minimum.  To paraphrase Professor Egon from Ghostbusters; “It would be bad.”  The sunspot cycle goes in an (approximately)  11 year cycle, but recent cycles have been less intense, and have tended to take longer than the 11 years that we’re familiar with.   This present solar cycle may be of 13 years, and the peak of the last solar maximum was below most of the cycles,  since the early 1800s. 

Proof?   No, but it’s a whole lot more circumstantial evidence that SOMETHING weird is happening in the Sun. Note the high-altitude balloon flights (done by spaceweather.com) that are revealing that cosmic ray counts have been increasing as we’ve been heading into a solar minimum.

——————————————————————-

Ken Mitchell     Citrus Heights, CA   

“‘There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren’t enough criminals, one MAKES them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. … Create a nation of law-breakers, and then you cash in on the guilt.'”       

Ayn Rand  “Atlas Shrugged”

Translate “weird” to mean “something we don’t quite understand and have problems modeling.”

bubbles

Re: Basic Income

The various statements I have seen about the undesirability of a basic income (yes, Dr. Pournelle, including yours) all miss a basic point. We are about half way, I would guesstimate, to a situation unprecedented in human history; the situation in which the labour of a large fraction of humanity is worthless. The era in which unskilled labour could make a go of it is drawing to a close. For example, if construction was carried out in a rational manner out of somewhat later than the late 19th century, unskilled construction labour would be out of a job; and the “burger-flipping” jobs are about to be destroyed by robots that are cheaper to keep, more reliable and don’t spit (or worse!) on the food.
So what are the millions of people without a useful purpose in a high-tech society supposed to do?

Ian

I have often pointed out that within less than a decade, over half the jobs in the US can be done by a robot costing no more than 10 times the annual pay (less benefits) of the person doing it. This makes over half the people in the US “useless” in the conventional sense. Most concede the fact, but don’t want to discuss it. Of course there are a number of service jobs that a human can do that would be difficult to program a robot to do.

But when the Republic does not need half its citizens, it is a matter of some concern. I have my ideas about possible measures we can take, but I have no certainty other than that it will happen.

bubbles

I can’t tell from this whether anything significant happened or not. It’s slow reading:

Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/

Matthew Cole, Richard Esposito, Sam Biddle, Ryan Grim

June 5 2017, 12:44 p.m.

Leia em português

Russian military intelligence executed a cyberattack on at least one U.S. voting software supplier and sent spear-phishing emails to more than 100 local election officials just days before last November’s presidential election, according to a highly classified intelligence report obtained by The Intercept.

The top-secret National Security Agency document, which was provided anonymously to The Intercept and independently authenticated, analyzes intelligence very recently acquired by the agency about a months-long Russian intelligence cyber effort against elements of the U.S. election and voting infrastructure. The report, dated May 5, 2017, is the most detailed U.S. government account of Russian interference in the election that has yet come to light.

While the document provides a rare window into the NSA’s understanding of the mechanics of Russian hacking, it does not show the underlying “raw” intelligence on which the analysis is based. A U.S. intelligence officer who declined to be identified cautioned against drawing too big a conclusion from the document because a single analysis is not necessarily definitive. [snip]

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This is probably more interesting to me than it will be to you. My cousin the late Dr. George Pournelle used to be Associate Director and Curator of Mammals at the San Diego Zoo. He was well known for finding ways to let the animals determine their environment, rather than impose his own ideas. As an example, no one knew the right temperature for one exotic species. George simply provided a range of floor temperatures. “The animal knows what’s best for him…”

Rule No. 1 When Making Baby Rhinos: Try Not to Get Squashed

https://www.wsj.com/articles/rule-no-1-when-making-baby-rhinos-try-not-to-get-squashed-1496675147

Zookeepers aim to save an endangered species of the horned beasts by planting embryos in surrogate mothers; ‘she’s getting a little prickly back here’

Researchers at the San Diego Zoo hope to save the endangered northern white rhinoceros by implanting their embryos in more-plentiful southern whites. It’s not an easy task. Photo/Video: Jake Nicol/The Wall Street Journal

By

Jim Carlton

June 5, 2017 11:05 a.m. ET

21 COMMENTS

ESCONDIDO, Calif.—Amani has deep-set eyes and shiny skin. Her name is Swahili for “peace,” and she has a youthful vigor that makes her an ideal candidate for motherhood.

She also weighs 4,400 pounds, has a dagger-shaped horn and sports a tail that lashes like a whip. She can charge at 30 miles an hour.

image

Helene

It’s Barbara Durrant’s job to get the rhinoceros pregnant.

How do you turn a two-ton rhino into a mom? Start with a treat of her favorite grass, perhaps a little cooing and maybe a tummy scratch.

Dr. Durrant, reproductive-sciences director at San Diego Zoo Global, which runs San Diego Zoo and the safari park here, is in a race to prevent extinction of the northern white rhinoceros. For help, she’s turning to Amani and five other southern white rhinoceroses to serve as surrogate mothers.

The last three known northern whites, in Kenya, can’t breed because of age and other factors. That leaves vials of frozen sperm and eggs collected from other northern whites before they died. “It kind of gives me chills,” Dr. Durrant said, holding a vial of rhino sperm, “to even hold this vial in my hand.”

The zoo wants to create northern white rhino embryos and plant them in wombs of southern whites, which are more numerous.

The first trick is getting a creature weighing as much as a Ford F-150 pickup to step into a holding chute.

A trainer assisting Dr. Durrant lured one of the rhinos on a recent day with an irresistible bouquet of goodies including orchardgrass, a tall-growing plant sometimes used in pastures for farm animals and a rhino favorite.

image

Barbara Durrant, right, helps perform an ultrasound on Amani. Photo: Jake Nicol/The Wall Street Journal

Dr. Durrant reached through a metal barrier, and recoiled. “Ouch! She pinched me a little,” she said, after her arm got caught between the rhino and the bar of the enclosure.

These rhinos here don’t mean ill, their handlers say, but they can injure someone accidentally if they make sudden movements. Trainers practice “protected contact,” staying behind steel gates and reaching in to do their work.

That work sometimes is simply warming up Amani and the five other females—Helene, Livia, Nikita, Victoria and Wallis—that arrived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park two years ago from private reserves in South Africa.

The rhinos’ handlers pamper them with a temperature-controlled barn, an outdoor “maternity yard” and 3.5 acres of hills and lagoons. The animals spend their free time browsing, rolling in mud, playing with balls and generally just standing around.

Trainers offer them treats—bananas, celery, cucumbers—and give them caresses to put them in the mood. “Sometimes our training session is ‘Go pet rhinos,’ ” said zookeeper Jill Van Kempen.

Rhinos tend to bond with individual trainers. “We think they know who we are,” said Ms. Van Kempen.

image

Zookeeper Jill Van Kempen and Wallis. Photo: Jake Nicol/The Wall Street Journal

Rhinos are endangered because poachers hunt them for their horns, prized in Asia for supposed medicinal qualities biologists say don’t exist. Rhino horn contains keratin, the protein in fingernails.

The northern white is one of 1,000 species whose cell material the safari park preserves at about minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit in a locked room called the Frozen Zoo.

Along with the rhino genetics are vials from animals such as the California condor, black-footed ferret, Przewalski horse, Somali wild ass and po’ouli, a bird that went extinct in Hawaii about a decade ago.

Dr. Durrant, who oversees the zoo’s artificial-insemination program, over her career has helped impregnate everything from turtles and pheasants to giant pandas at home and abroad.

This will be her first rhino attempt. The zoo hopes to start inseminations this year with southern rhino sperm to test out procedures, Dr. Durrant said. After that, it plans to try in vitro fertilization of northern whites, transferring embryos into the rhinos’ wombs.

On the recent day, Helene ambled into a holding pen for an ultrasound test to check whether she was ready to be a surrogate rhino. Trainer Marco Zeno piled orchardgrass on the ground and cooed “good girl.” Two researchers patted her through the barrier as they approached her reproductive end.

Rhinos are misunderstood, their handlers say. While they sometimes do charge at vehicles in the wild, they do so only when they feel threatened, said Lee Kirchhevel, who leads caravan tours of rhino habitats at the safari park.

Helene grunted contentedly as assistant Parker Pennington nonchalantly reached up to her armpit into the rhino’s rectum, holding an ultrasound probe to examine the animal’s ovaries to gauge the growth of follicles containing eggs.

image

A vial of northern white rhino sperm. Photo: Jake Nicol/The Wall Street Journal

The manual-insertion procedure, Dr. Durrant said, “puts our arms to sleep sometimes.”

Getting the rhino to this point took months. Handlers first prodded her with a ballpoint pen as she ate, to get her used to the handling and poking from behind.

The 20-minute procedure went smoothly, as Helene remained focused on the orchardgrass. “If they stop eating, you know something is wrong,” said Dr. Pennington, a postdoctoral associate in reproductive sciences. “Fight or flight could start to kick in, and you don’t want either.”

The rhinos have different personalities. “Livia is the one more sensitive; Victoria is cautious around strangers,” Dr. Durrant said.

Next up was Amani, the largest. She devoured the treats but started shifting in the chute and wagging her tail—prompting a call for help from Dr. Pennington, who was arm-deep in the rhino.

Tail-wagging can suggest restlessness, indicating the animal may want to move, shift weight or go do something else with its mass that would be wise for a human to avoid.

“She’s getting a little prickly back here. Get her tail,” Dr. Pennington said, as Dr. Durrant reached to hold the potentially hazardous appendage to one side.

Zookeeper Weston Popichak hurried to the rhino’s side, patting and scratching her stomach through the barrier. That seemed to calm her down.

“These are big animals,” he said, “and they may not realize how big they are.”

It’s nice work if you can get it…

bubbles

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

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Trump Wins; The Task Begins. What Regulations need to be repealed? More on A-10 and immigration; and other matters

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Liberalism is a philosophy of consolation for the West as it commits suicide.

James Burnham

If a foreign government had imposed this system of education on the United States, we would rightfully consider it an act of war.

Glenn T. Seaborg, National Commission on Education, 1983

“Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Immigration without assimilation is invasion.

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I went to bed late, waiting for Fox news, who’d rather be right than call things too early,. They called Pennsylvania for Trump, but there remained the suspicion that Mrs. Clinton would dispute the result, and we would have weeks of lawsuits, appeals, discoveries of “lost” boxes of absentee ballots going 80% to Mrs. Clinton, and more horrors. As I was getting to bed, Trump appeared at his victory party: Mrs. Clinton had conceded. Trump was gracious, full of Dignitas, and quite Presidential, complimenting Mrs. Clinton on her years of public service, and refraining from any criticisms. He also accepted Speaker Ryan’s olive branch, beginning down the path to at least a semblance of unity.

crow-a

I woke up to discover that it was all true. Trump was indeed the President Designate, and will become President Elect once the Electoral College has done its work.

If Hillary Clinton had won we would know exactly what was coming: Obama’s third term. With Trump the future is less clear. I do expect him to keep his word on the Supreme Court: he has promised us “original intent” scholars similar to Mr. Justice Scalia, and there is every reason to believe that is what we will get quite early in his term. I expect that he will be able to appoint at least one more Justice and perhaps more. The Constitution is not in danger of being dominated by “living document” advocates who decide as the elite intellectual zeitgeist dictates no matter what the governed may have consented to. The Republic will, I think remain one in which governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

We can also expect nearly immediate repeal of the recent constitutionally questionable Executive Orders. I invite you to submit your favorite candidates for repeal. I have already asked my friend Dr. David Friedman for his candidates.

Changes that will require action by Congress will take a while; we can hope that Mr. Trump does not lose patience. Getting things through Congress takes some skill; fortunately Mr.Trump will have experienced expert advice. He seems determined to make peace with Speaker Ryan, who did yeoman service in delivering Wisconsin.

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I saw Roberta yesterday and helped her fill out her absentee ballot, which was delivered to the polls by a kind hospital volunteer. She has expanded her vocabulary enough that I am sure that over time all her speech will return. She looked much better, if a bit exhausted by the relentless expert therapy. We appreciate your prayers.

bubbles

I found this exposition on the biggest losers last night quite intriguing. I was one of the first subscribers to National Review when it was founded, and while Russell Kirk (my mentor) was a real friend of Buckley while I was more of an acquaintance, we got long well when I was at Pepperdine and Mr. Buckley spoke to one of my prelaw classes. Of course the egregious Frum read me out of the Conservative movement when I opposed the neocon position on Iraq. I remain conservative by inclination, but I no longer claim to be a member of any organized group. I have long held this sentiment:

 

Boswell: So, Sir, you laugh at schemes of social improvement?

Johnson: Why, Sir, most schemes for social improvement are very laughable things.

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/ancient/spacemail.htm

 

http://www.lifezette.com/polizette/four-biggest-winners-losers-2016/

The National Review Editorial Board

In its staunch opposition to Trump, the National Review proved itself to be as out of touch and elitist as the liberals it frequently took to task. The magazine had forgotten its roots. No longer willing to stand athwart history yelling stop, it resigned itself to standing meekly by muttering not so fast.

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The Navy called USS Zumwalt a warship Batman would drive. But at $800,000 per round, its ammo is too pricey to fire. – MSN News

Instead of this boondoggle, the ZUMWALT should indeed be armed with rail guns and lasers, to go along with its unique design and radar cross-section, to make it truly a ship of the Future.

The Navy called USS Zumwalt a warship Batman would drive. But at $800,000 per round, its ammo is too pricey to fire.

Ben Guarino

The Washington Post – The Washington Post – Tue Nov 8 11:25:24 UTC 2016

Fully loaded, the ammunition for one ship would total about $2 billion.

http://a.msn.com/r/2/AAk2EVy?a=1&m=en-us

 

Zumwalt-class AGS round

Jerry, I’d not worry too much about the cancelled LockMart LRLAP round intended for the AGS guns on the DDG-1000 Destroyers.

I’m sure that Raytheon will be happy to adapt their already in-production and combat-tested Excalibur extended range smart shell to the AGS.

I’d be surprised if Raytheon hadn’t anticipated this situation and included planning for AGS support when designing the new 5″ Naval version, the Excalibur N5.

All the best to Roberta and yourself. Speedy recovery especially to Roberta.

Chuck

 

Thanks.

bubbles

Comment on “Quantum news”

Dear Jerry:
Thanks for posting in your View for November 7 the link to the article about Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg questioning the interpretation of quantum mechanics under the heading “Quantum news”.
It is good when famous scientists begin to realize that scientists have very little to say about what the world is really like. Equations are merely equations. It seems obvious that Schrodinger’s equation is not an agent that controls and sustains the universe. It is merely a mathematical contrivance found useful for calculating certain quantities that we derive from our observation of the universe. The equations do not explain why they work, nor do they prove the existence of a wave function for the universe. Nor is quantum mechanics consistent with the mathematical contrivance called general relativity.
As David Berlinski writes in his delightful little book “The Devil’s Delusion”:
“… two influential ideas are at work. The first is that there is something answering to the name of science. The second is that something answering to the name of science offers sophisticated men and women a coherent vision of the universe. The second claim is false if the first claim is.
“And the first claim is false. Nothing answers to the name of science.”

“We have been vouchsafed four powerful and profound scientific theories since the great scientific revolution of the West was set in motion in the seventeenth century–Newtonian mechanics, James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of the electromagnetic field, special and general relativity, and quantum mechanics. … The theories that we possess are ‘magnificent, profound, difficult, sometimes phenomenally accurate,’ as the distinguished mathematician Roger Penrose has observed, but as he at once adds, they also comprise a ‘tantalizingly inconsistent scheme of things.'”

“We do not know how the universe began. We do not know why it is there. Charles Darwin talked speculatively of life emerging from a ‘warm little pond.’ The pond is gone. We have little idea how life emerged, and cannot with assurance say that it did. We cannot reconcile our understanding of the human mind with any trivial theory about the manner in which the brain functions. … We do not know what impels us to right conduct or where the form of the good is found.”
Best regards,
–Harry M.

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https://unitedwithisrael.org/trump-invites-netanyahu-to-washington/?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Netanyahu+Congratulates+Trump%21+Jerusalem+Mayor+Urges+Trump+to+Move+US+Embassy&utm_campaign=20161109_m135425093_%5BNB-WIN%5D+Netanyahu+Congratulates+Trump%21+Jerusalem+Mayor+Urges+Trump+to+Move+US+Embassy&utm_term=Trump+Invites+Netanyahu+to+Meeting+in+Washington_0D_0A_09_09_09_09_09_09_09_09

Sheldon and his wife will be very pleased.

bubbles

From the mainstream media:

https://www.cnet.com/news/twitter-facebook-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-president-republican-democrat/?ftag=CAD1acfa04&bhid=21042754377865639731827326151938

The reality TV star has made it very real.

Republican Donald Trump, a divisive outsider who overcame even his own party’s distrust, took to a New York stage in the early hours of Wednesday to claim the presidency of the United States. His acceptance speech, delivered after he said he had spoken with Democrat rival Hillary Clinton, capped a race that at times seemed out of control and until minutes earlier had been expected to continue well into Wednesday.

“This was tough, this was tough,” Trump told the crowd as he extended an olive branch to Clinton and the Democrats. “This political stuff is nasty and it’s tough.”

He also struck a conciliatory note.

“For those who chose not to support me in the past, of which there are a few people, I’m reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so we can reach out and unify our great country,” he said.

Trump’s acceptance, which came as the final votes were still being counted, followed a chief adviser to Clinton telling her supporters to go home early Wednesday.

Clinton finally gave her concession speech (with accompanying tweets) late Wednesday morning, saying that she hopes he will be successful and offering “to work with him on behalf of the country.”

Mr. Obama has invited Trump to the White House to discuss transition; Trump’s acceptance was dignified and Presidential.

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A-10 depot can’t recover from illegal neglect

Jerry,

Glad to hear the good news on your wife’s recovery, and that you are writing more.

And good news Strategy Page dot com published November 6, 2016: 

Once more the U.S. Air Force had to reverse its plans to get rid of its most popular combat aircraft; the A-10. In September the air force, faced with the reality that the A-10 was its most effective warplane in the current war against ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) in Syria and Iraq, announced it was restoring maintenance funds for the A-10 and indefinitely delaying plans to start retiring all A-10s in 2018. Now the money is allocated to keep the 283 A-10s flying into the late 2020s. Restored maintenance funds will increase availability rates back to 70 percent or more. In 2015 A-10s flew over 87,000 hours and they could have flown more (as ground troops demanded) if maintenance funds had been available.  The A-10 is a special Cold War era design that was optimized for operating close to troops on the ground. A-10s were designed for use against Russian ground forces in Europe. That war never happened and the last American A-10 attack aircraft left Europe (for good, it was thought) in mid-2013. By 2015 it was back. Meanwhile the A-10 proved to be a formidable combat aircraft in post-Cold War conflicts, first in the 1991 liberation of Kuwait and later in Afghanistan and Iraq. During the last decade the most requested ground support aircraft in Afghanistan has been the A-10. There was similar A-10 affection in Iraq. Troops from all nations quickly came to appreciate the unique abilities of this 1970s era aircraft that the U.S. Air Force is constantly trying to get rid of. In 2011 the air force did announce that it was retiring 102 A-10s, leaving 243 in service.  At the same time the air force accelerated the upgrading of the remaining A-10s to the A-10C standard. This was long overdue because the original A-10 was a 1960s design. Most have now been upgraded. An A-10C has new commo gear was added, allowing A-10 pilots to share pix and vids with troops on the ground. The A-10 pilot also has access to the Blue Force Tracker system, so that the nearest friendly ground forces show up on the HUD (Head Up Display) when coming in low to use the 30mm cannon. The A-10C can use smart bombs, making it a do-it-all aircraft for ground support.  The A-10 is a 23 ton, twin engine, single seat aircraft whose primary weapon is a multi-barrel 30mm cannon originally designed to fire armored piercing shells through the thinner top armor of Russian (or any other) tanks. These days the 1,174 30mm rounds are mostly high explosive. The 30mm cannon fires 363 gram (12.7 ounce) rounds at the rate of about 65 a second. The cannon usually fires in one or 2 second bursts. In addition, the A-10 can carry 7 tons of bombs and missiles. These days the A-10 goes out with smart bombs (GPS and laser guided) and Maverick missiles. It can also carry a targeting pod, enabling the pilot to use high magnification day/night cameras to scour the area for enemy activity. Cruising speed is 560 kilometers an hour and the A-10 can slow down to about 230 kilometers an hour. In Afghanistan 2 drop tanks were usually carried to give the aircraft more fuel and maximum time over the battlefield. The A-10, nicknamed “Warthog” or just “hog”, could always fly low and slow and was designed, and armored, to survive a lot of ground fire.  Despite the success and popularity (especially with ground troops) of the A-10 the air force leadership had cut money already allocated to keep existing A-10s flying and abandoned plans to develop an acceptable (to the troops on the ground) replacement. The reasons for the change of mind were familiar to those who remembered similar situations dating back to the early 1990s. This time it was a recent survey of Marine, Army, and Air Force JTACs (Joint Terminal Attack Controllers and JFOs (Joint Fires Observers) which showed an overwhelming preference for the A-10. JTAC and JFO teams are trained to call in air strikes and most of these teams contain a combat pilot. At the same time these teams work directly with ground forces and are well aware of what kind of air support the ground troops find most useful. Ground controllers mostly (48 percent) preferred the A-10. The next most popular aircraft (which 13 percent preferred) was the AC-130 gunships. While the AC-130 is in no danger of elimination (it is an armed C-130 transport) the A-10 is. Yet the air force leaders insist jet fighters (like the F-16, F-15 and F-18) can replace the A-10 but these 3 fighters are preferred by 14 percent. The AV-8B vertical takeoff jet is preferred by only 4 percent. Armed helicopters are preferred by 11 percent and armed UAVs by 9 percent. Air force leaders insist jet fighters can adequately replace the A-10 but ground troops and fighter pilots serving as JTACs say otherwise. As useful as armed helicopters and UAVs are the overwhelming preference is for the A-10, an aircraft explicitly designed to provide the best ground support. The air force refuses even to design a 21st century A-10 and there are no other aircraft in service that even come close.  This hostile attitude by air force leadership to the A-10 is nothing new. It got so bad in 2015 that the general commanding the ACC (Air Combat Command) was fired (because of Congressional pressure) for giving a speech in which he declared that any air force personnel speaking out publicly in favor of the A-10 were guilty of treason. While ACC is in charge of most combat aircraft (fighters, bombers, recon and ground attack) ACC leadership has long believed that the A-10 has outlived its usefulness and that its ground support job could be done just as well by fighters like the F-16 and F-35. Experience in combat has shown that this is not true, but apparently to senior people in the air force backing the truth, at least when it comes to the A-10, is treasonous.  While the air force leadership officially denounced the “supporting the A-10 is treason” remarks it was eventually revealed that while those apologies were being made those same air force generals were trying to sabotage the A-10 by quietly cutting major maintenance programs 40 percent. This meant that a growing number of A-10s would not be available for service because of “maintenance issues.” It is believed that such excuses would not include the fact that the maintenance problems were self-inflicted by the air force leadership and it would instead be implied that the age of the A-10s was a factor.  The air force has been trying to retire its A-10 aircraft since the 1990s and since late 2014 they tried issuing studies and analyses showing that the A-10 was too specialized and too old to justify the cost of keeping it in service. This generated more opposition, and more effective opposition, than the air forces expected. This was helped by the fact that some of the “studies” were more spin than impartial analysis. All this created unwanted publicity about something the air force denies exists but is nevertheless very real; the air force has never really wanted to devote much resources to CAS (Close Air Support) for ground forces. Officially this is not true but in reality it is and the ground forces (army and marines) and historians provided plenty of evidence.  The problem is complicated by the fact that the air force does not want to allow the army to handle CAS, as is the case with some countries and the U.S. Marine Corps (which provides CAS for marines and any ground forces the marines are operating with). Soldiers and marines both insist that marine CAS (provided by Harriers. F-35Bs and F-18s flown by marines) is superior. The army and marines also have their own helicopter gunships for support, but they lack capabilities only the fixed wing aircraft have. Despite all that the air force wants to eliminate the A-10, which soldiers, marines and many allied troops consider the best CAS aircraft ever, and replace it with less effective (for CAS) fighters adapted for CAS. The ground forces don’t want that mainly because the A-10 pilots specialize in CAS while fighter pilots must spend a lot of time training for air combat and different types of bombing, The A-10 pilots are CAS specialists and it shows by the amount of praise they get from their “customers” (the ground troops). To the dismay of just about everyone the air force dismisses all this as much less important than the fact that the A-10 cannot fight other aircraft. That was how the A-10 was designed, on air force orders, but that is somehow irrelevant now. 

Paul

The Air Force has always hated the close support mission, but refuses to allow the Army to have any fixed wing aircraft to carry it out for itself. This is tragic.

General Powers many years ago made it Air Force policy to never give up a mission, even if USAF didn’t want it. Close support of the field army was vital in the closing days of WW II; and close recce/strike missions by P-47, particularly train busting, became nearly decisive in some battles. The P-47 was a good close ground support aircraft, but it was also an air superiority fighter (especially as the Luftwaffe faded in ability) so it did not block a fighter pilot’s career path to be assigned to close support; later, as close support became better defined, that mission was seen as a career impairment and to be avoided. The field army wants close support, particularly in urban environments but also in open country counter battery engagements; hot fighter pilots find that less important to their careers than getting Ace status and the other perks of the air supremacy mission.

It has come to a head several times. The Air Force doctrine is to establish air supremacy in a wide area. The Army believes that close support helps the Army win battles and advance to take the enemy airfields. The argument continues.

Given limited funding the close support aircraft are the first to be neglected by USAF. Given air supremacy, close support is the first demand of the Army. The dilemma continues.

bubbles

Asteroid Leading the Vote

I couldn’t bring myself to vote for SMOD2016, but these are funny:
http://www.duffelblog.com/2016/11/election-day-early-voting-polls-show-asteroid-leading-military-voters/?utm_campaign=coschedule&utm_source=facebook_page&utm_medium=Duffel%20Blog&utm_content=Election%20Day%20early-voting%20polls%20show%20%27Asteroid%27%20leading%20with%20military%20voters
https://twitter.com/smod2016
Raise a toast to deep sea nitrifying bacteria!
Regards,
Don Parker

I’m not familiar with that web site. I gather “asteroid” is a web character, but some choose to make that a real earth striking object.

bubbles

re: automating public service jobs

The first requirement to automate public service jobs is to sort out exactly what the rules are so that they can be applied in a deterministic way.
Just doing that would remove a huge amount of uncertainty and eliminate a lot of jobs (both public sector jobs of those who evaluate how the rules apply and the lawyers who make their living at the margins where there is uncertainty about exactly what the rules require)
actually automating them to eliminate the jobs would just be a bonus
David Lang

I expect there is more interest in this subject than you suspect. If a robot can do a job that doesn’t need doing, it’s easy to fire the robot after the GS-9 has been dismissed as redundant.

sc:bubbles]

Immigration redux

You know all this, of course, but I sometimes wonder about some of your readers.

My great grandfather and grandfather were part of the 4.5 million Irish who immigrated to the US between 1820 and 1930.  The population of the US was, at that point between 60-75 million. 

They were Catholic, as well.  GAD, we know about those people, don’t we? 

They lived in the slums through my father’s childhood although my grandfather was a fireman for the NYFD.   My Grandmother did not much like the British, but managed to live with the Poles, Hungarians, and Slavs in the neighborhood. 

My father left by virtue of the GI Bill.

Disraeli told us:

“[The Irish] hate our order, our civilization, our enterprising industry, our pure religion. This wild, reckless, indolent, uncertain and superstitious race have no sympathy with the English character. Their ideal of human felicity is an alternation of clannish broils and coarse idolatry. Their history describes an unbroken circle of bigotry and blood”.

Edmund Spenser wasn’t fond of them either:

“Marry those be the most barbaric and loathy conditions of any people (I think) under heaven…They [the Irish] do use all the beastly behaviour that may be, they oppress all men, they spoil as well the subject, as the enemy; they steal, they are cruel and bloody, full of revenge, and delighting in deadly execution, licentious, swearers and blasphemers, common ravishers of women, and murderers of children.”

http://app.mediahq.com/files/pr/smr135944_%5B1%5D_Poor%20House%20from%20Galway.jpg

I’m glad Roberta is in Holy Cross and progressing.

My best,

Mark

Well, since my wife is very much of Irish descent, I can hardly be accused of discrimination against the Irish. I have always held the opinion that migration for the purpose of assimilation is precisely the way this country was built. From “hyphen Americans” we developed Americans without the hyphens who eat corned beef and cabbage and wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, and pretend to be furious with those who wear orange on that day; or march in a Columbus Day parade; etc. The Italians who entered the US as prisoners of war in WW II and were paroled out to truck gardeners around Memphis mostly stayed as immigrants, often marrying into the families they were “enslaved” to.

Of course migration without assimilation is invasion.

bubbles

QEII: Make America Great [Britain] Again

It’s nice to see that someone understands how Americans feel right now; that someone is Queen Elizabeth II:

<.>

In an unexpected televised address on Saturday, Queen Elizabeth II offered to restore British rule over the United States of America.

Addressing the American people from her office in Buckingham Palace, the Queen said that she was making the offer “in recognition of the desperate situation you now find yourselves in.”

“This two-hundred-and-forty-year experiment in self-rule began with the best of intentions, but I think we can all agree that it didn’t end well,” she said.

</>

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/queen-offers-to-restore-british-rule-over-united-states

Laughter is the best medicine, eh?

◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I guess the election has ended that offer. Although perhaps, given the obstacles he faces, Mr. Trump may ask her to extend it again…

bubbles

bubbles

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.

bubbles

bubbles