Great Pix, Old Weather, Young mensans, and other matters

Mail 721 Thursday, April 19, 2012

If you have not seen this, it’s beautiful.

Spectacular solar eruption caught by NASA cameras

Wow!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2130954/Spectacular-solar-eruption-caught-Nasa-cameras.html

Wow indeed

Amazon updated books

Jerry

My understanding and experience with updated ebooks from Amazon is that you need to contact customer support to get the new version. I have received email from Amazon telling me that a new version was available. Amazon has stated that this is necessary because loading the new edition causes notes and highlighting to be lost.

Randy

Randy Cox

Thanks

Stand Your Ground law and the Zimmerman case

One of your earlier readers wrote (and you quoted):

"Apparently, the Florida law was written not just to protect against conviction for not running away from a threat, but to protect against the damage an unsuccessful prosecution can cause to those of us who are not wealthy. According to the broadcast, a determination of threat by responding LEOs prevents any further action on the subject. Under the law, the police were actually prohibited from further investigation once they concluded (rightly or wrongly) that Zimmerman reasonably felt threatened."

This is not correct, and it is in fact *specifically* contradicted by a plain language reading of the stand your ground law.

The law prohibits arresting or charging the victim in a self-defense case without probable cause that a crime was committed by the victim. The police are specifically allowed to complete a normal investigation to determine if the use of deadly force in self-defense was justified, they just can’t arrest the victim until they have probable cause.

The relevant statute is Fla. Stat. Section 776.032 (2005):

——

(1) A person who uses force as permitted in s. 776.012, s. 776.013, or s. 776.031 is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the person against whom force was used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 943.10(14), who was acting in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person was a law enforcement officer. As used in this subsection, the term “criminal prosecution” includes arresting, detaining in custody, and charging or prosecuting the defendant.

(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard procedures for investigating the use of force as described in subsection (1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful.

——

Clearly, section 2 authorizes the use of standard procedures for an investigation. They just can’t arrest, detain, charge, or prosecute until they develop probable cause from their investigation. This is a separate issue from whether a standard investigation was actually conducted in any specific case, of course; the point is, the law specifically authorizes investigation rather than prohibiting it. Arguably, specifying "standard procedures" means that you can’t suddenly intensify an investigation when your town is invaded by protestors… but I think I would consider that a feature, not a bug.

Matthew

I don’t profess to know. I presume much will come out at trial. I have yet to hear from a lawyer any praise for the prosecutor’s deposition.

If one of their executives is named "Lori Jo Hansen…."

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/18/2957585/planetary-resources-space-exploration-company-james-cameron-google

They should at least give you a courtesy ride into orbit.

Heh. Thanks.

The Geostrategic Return of the Philippines

By Jim Thomas and Harry Foster

As the Obama administration executes its strategic “pivot” to the Western Pacific in the face of China’s military buildup, it is rediscovering the importance of a long-standing ally in the region. Like Gibraltar half a world away, the Philippines lie at a vital maritime crossroads through which passes more than half of the world’s shipping tonnage and 80 percent of crude oil shipments headed to Japan and South Korea.

The strategic importance of this archipelago nation is enduring. Over a century ago, the famed US naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan extolled the importance of the Philippines’ “narrow seas.” For much of the twentieth century, it played a central role in US strategy as a key logistics node for American air and naval forces and the geostrategic linchpin between East and Southeast Asia. <clip>

Entire text:

http://csba.createsend1.com/t/y-e-yukyjlt-pthdhdihl-r/

Worth reading.

"Normal" Holocene Weather

Jerry –

In Re: Craig’s comments about Mr. Tips’ assertion that we’ve returned to "Normal Holocene Weather" (and suggestion that Mr. Tips is the only source for such concept).

Searching on "Holocene Weather" (without the "Normal") reveals several sources that suggest that the notion that Holocene Weather can be typically characterized by extremes dates to at least a 1977 publication by H. H. Lamb (Climatic History and the Future) published by the Princeton Press. I found that reference (along with several others from the 1990s) in a paper at:

www.sscnet.ucla.edu/anthro/faculty/boyd/AgOrigins.pdf

I’ve attached a copy for your convenience.

This, of course, doesn’t prove the notion, but it should absolve Mr. Tips from any suggestion that he created it from whole cloth.

Most glad to hear of your recovered spirits and energy,

David Smith

Thanks. I remember reading that when it first came out, now that your remind me. It has been said by others.

Normal Holocene weather

This is only more anecdotal evidence, not the reliable source you asked for, but my grandmother, growing up in Fredericksburg, Virginia at the turn of the last century, had ice-skates and skated every winter on frozen pools, if not actually on a frozen river. I grew up near there myself in the 1970’s, and I certainly had neither ice-skates nor the opportunity to use them. Obviously, I wasn’t there, to check her recollection, but I have seen her old ice-skates.

Meredith

Well, few of us remember the Holocene, although Niven and I have written about a time 14,000 years ago just after Atlantis sank when the magic was vanishing. (Burning City and Burning Tower). It’s fairly easy to document that it was much colder in 1776 (cannon dragged across the frozen Hudson to General Washington in Haarlem Heights) and the mid 19^th Century (winter markets held on Thames ice, skating on the brackish canals in Holland until late spring, etc.) I don’t think anyone doubts that it is warmer now than it was in the 19^th Century. The question is HOW MUCH warmer.

The Ring of Fire is becoming more active…

http://lewrockwell.com/rep3/ring-of-fire-roaring.html

I don’t know whether to blame George W Bush or climate change…

Charles Brumbelow

More active than when? Tambura went off early in the 19^th Century and produced the Year Without A Summer (eighteen hundred and froze to death). Krakatoa was pretty spectacular. And don’t forget the ‘Frisco Quake…

‘As work in Soviet archives in recent years has shown, Soviet secret policemen also usually meant what they said.’

<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/apr/26/vladimirs-tale/?pagination=false>

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Roland Dobbins

Putin is very much to be taken seriously. He is not a simple power grubber. He is far more serious than that. I have never understood what we gained in the Balkans when we defied the Russian pan-Slavic interests there.

My Boskone Skype interview with you is up on BYTE.com:

BYTE Interviews Jerry Pournelle

http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/science-tech/232800459

(Byte.com, April 16, 2012)

(And here’s a shortened URL:

bit.ly/HKZhrc

In addition to the audio proper, the interview includes my intro, and the short bio and bibliography, and a transcript. (I did the transcribing myself, probably more work on the transcribing end, but much less on the ‘now what were they really saying’ end. I’m glad I spent the $79 for a USB foot-pedal that works with the free transcribing software).

BYTE split the interview up into four parts — fortunately, I was able to identify good-enough break points, so we/they didn’t have to try cutting-and-pasting audio.

Thanks again for being willing to do the Skype interview from your living room while still being under the weather. I know it made the Boskone program folks very happy to have still been able to have you on at least one program item even though you couldn’t attend in person.

(And I’m glad I brought along an inexpensive digital voice recorder — I had requested Boskone tech crew arrange for capture of the Skype session, but in the hurry and fuss, that request didn’t get to the right person.)

Hope you have recovered from your virus. It was fun talking with you again.

Daniel P. Dern

I’d rather have gone to BOSKONE and I hope to make it next year.

Raining Cats and Dogs

Saw this bit in the Washington Post, and thought of your recent slightly related piece:

http://live.washingtonpost.com/gene-weingarten-120417.html

Kit Case

Why Your Highway has Potholes

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577333631864470566.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

I have an even better idea. Eliminate the gas tax and let the states pay for their own roads in whatever manor they choose.

Phil

Why is anyone surprised? The Iron Law guarantees these results.

It occurred to me I have never read any novels about a race that discovers one of our probes which exited the solar system, then did a search to find us based upon the gold record.

Do you know of any (and I mean good ones, not a hack novel).

I recall the First Star Treck Film, but that does not count…

B

I don’t offhand recall any stories other than V’ger with that theme, but in the real world, anyone who finds one of the Pioneers will be fairly close to Earth. It will be centuries before they are any large fraction of a lightyear away from Sol.

Have you read Harrison Bergeron?  I realized today that affirmative action is a move toward the world of Harrison Bergeron!  If you’re White in this country, you have a handicap placed against you in an effort to make everything "fair" and so everyone can "feel good about themselves".  So, if you’re too smart maybe we should make life a little more difficult for you so that dumb people can feel good?  Affirmative action is ridiculous in 2012; it may have served a purpose for old folks who are now dead, but it seem useless today. 

Like my teacher said, when we read this story as a class:   "We are our own Handicapper Generals and there is no escape."

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Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

I have recommended Harrison Bergeron since it was first published, and one can forgive Vonnegut much for having written it.

: Everything old is new again…

http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htlead/articles/20120418.aspx

Cheap energy = prosperity!

Drill here, DRILL NOW!

David Couvillon

Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, Retired.; Former Governor of Wasit Province, Iraq; Righter of Wrongs; Wrong most of the time; Distinguished Expert, TV remote control; Chef de Hot Dog Excellance; Avoider of Yard Work

.

Young Mensan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-17702463

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* * *

"Mad Science" means never asking, "What’s the worst that could happen?"

–Schlock mercenary

That’s pretty young!

“Amazon wants the price of books to be very, very low — lower than the publishing community can support. Making a book is still a craft industry. Books need to be edited, to be publicized . . . ”

<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/business/media/amazons-e-book-pricing-a-constant-thorn-for-publishers.html?&pagewanted=all>

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Roland Dobbins

Neutron soup.

<http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2012/04/neutron-soup-pulsar-creates-new-alien-state-of-matter.html>

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Roland Dobbins