Mail 753 Tuesday, December 11, 2012

I will try to get a new View up quickly, but here is interesting mail with comments.

Dr. Pournelle

A brief on US copyright law reformation. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/113633834/Republican-Study-Committee-Intellectual-Property-Brief>

The story behind this brief and why it was withdrawn tells volumes about why US copyright law is horrid and why it will not be righted. In short, the big money interests want to keep it a mess and congresscritters follow the money. http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/11/18/republicans-rethinking-copyright-reform/

Live long and prosper

h lynn keith

The first paper gives a very good case for a thorough revision of copyright law. It points out that the law as it stands it probably unconstitutional; indeed, you can make a pretty good case that the Berne Convention, of which the US is a party, is itself unconstitutional. It depends on your view of how treaties, signed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, can give Congress powers that it did not have under the original Constitution. Those old enough to remember the debates over the (never adopted) Bricker Amendment may recall that this is not a new debate.

Authors of course have a different idea. Authors believe they have a moral right to control their works, and some – Ursula Le Guin is an exemplar – have very strong views on this. Author associations also have strong views on the subject, and the Berne Convention, which was essentially dictated by Victor Hugo in the late 19^th Century, was pretty well built on that premise.

My own view is that we have gone far too far with the current Copyright Acts. I do not believe that the Constitution ever granted, or that anyone who ratified it ever wanted, intellectual property to be protected for periods of fifty years, and certainly not for the life of the author plus fifty years, which is the minimum set in the Berne Convention which we ratified in 1976 or so; and then we modified that to life plus seventy years – and then added that if the author has no rights to the work because all rights were sold to a corporation, the corporation can have 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation. You may guess the origin of this provision for intellectual property protection. Of course you may also question just how this helps ”to promote the progress of science and useful arts,” which is the constitutional basis for the granting of a monopoly to the author “for a limited time”. This is well discussed in the first draft paper.

I wrote my first works under the old law which gave a copyright for 28 years, with the option of renewal in the 28^th year. My first work was copyrighted in 1968. That would have worked for me, and I doubt that anyone ever produced more or worked harder because the copyright was extended to live plus fifty years, then seventy.

I suspect that no matter how badly the law needs reform, it won’t happen.

Surviving Obamacare

A doctor’s advice on how to cope with Obamacare: Briefly, live healthy, and get used to paying cash for routine medical services (possibly via a Health Savings Account) with high-deductible catastrophic coverage as a backup. (This advice is pretty much where I’ve already arrived at myself, FWIW.)

http://www.aapsonline.org/index.php/site/article/defensive_medicine_how_to_survive_obamacare/

He also advises moving to a Red state that has opted out of creating its own Obamacare "Exchange". "States that opt out effectively defend their citizens from some of the more objectionable aspects of Obamacare."

He ends by predicting that a mass conservative migration to Red states will eventually tip back the electoral balance, and also hasten the day when the left-behind Blue states either collapse or reform. I think he’s an optimist; I expect that when California or Illinois implode they’ll figure out a way to make the rest of us pay. Depends on whether that electoral balance has been tipped yet, I guess. We can hope.

Porkypine

Understand that if you have 49 employees you dare not expand your business. Think on that when looking at employment opportunities. And you might contemplate getting into a government health care program. Smart people can game the system as well as dullards. There are opportunities in these games. We can discuss the ethics another time: but if the government is determined to transfer money from one person to another, it may be better to receive.

Hyperinflation

Jerry, you gave the monetarian explanation of inflation as "Inflation is too much money chasing too few goods."

What’s different now is Asian factories. In a race between the Fed printing money and Asian factories making goods, who do you think will win the race?

I’m watching the velocity of money. While the Fed has injected trillions of dollars, a lot of that money is idly held in corporate accounts or banks’ "excess reserves" stored at the Fed. I don’t seem much inflation until the velocity starts to climb.

Bob Devine

Automation and higher productivity have a way of making certain people useless. They are then paid to stay out of the way. But that is not without cost, since they continue to consume food and energy as well as manufactured goods. Entitlements can force deficits that can be covered only by running the printing presses. Even with greater productivity there is a limit.

Of course free contraception and abortions does tend to cut into future demand.

Probability of Carter-style inflation

Dr. Pournelle,

Carter-style inflation is unlikely, because the demand for savings by soon-to-be retirees is so high. That’s why the Fed’s current money-printing has not already caused inflation; by depressing interest rates, they have depressed the return on guaranteed-return investments like savings accounts, CDs, and high-quality bonds. So, retirement savings have to increase.

There has been market-specific inflation as producers have struggled to meet demand as a result of policy changes. Ethanol mandates, water-rights changes, and immigration policies have caused food inflation; Environmental regulation has caused fuel refinery capacity to be insufficient; Oil’s money-like qualities have caused repeated boom and bust cycles in that commodity along with precious metals.

I’m wiling to be proven wrong, but I don’t see how wages can rise in this environment. The only way broad-based inflation can get started in the next several years is if people lose faith in the dollar as a store of value and begin to use an alternative. At that point you have hyperinflation.

Neil

If you raise the value of entitlements – that is, pay more to people for not working – then do you not immediately raise the wage you must pay to get someone to work at all? And it goes up the scale that way. Some people work because they cannot imagine being idle. Others because it gives them a purpose in life. Some because they like their work. But some work for simple economic reasons.

And as commodities rise in price – and they certainly are rising – does that not put pressure on those who eat to find new sources of income? Or more income?

Subj: Is it 1937?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-18/2013-looks-a-lot-like-1937-in-four-fearsome-ways.html

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

Miss Amity Schlaes understands US economics better than the President. And her The Forgotten Man is well worth reading for anyone who wants to see how we got into the Depression and stayed there. And yes, it does look a lot like 1937.

They won. We lost. Learn to live with it. Which is to say, learn some economic survival skills.

Subject: Federal Waste on Rural Broadband Program

This is where the taxpayers’ dollars are going in the great rural broadband program. They are being wasted on $22,000 routers and half a million dollars a year consultants.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/west-va-internet-consultant-paid-512k-in-federal-stimulus-funds/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+arstechnica%2Findex+%28Ars+Technica+-+All+content%29

—

Dwayne Phillips

Being a government consultant is great work if you can get it, and you can get it if you just know the right people. And sing the right songs.

Caltrans survey

Jerry,

Just got a call trying to persuade our household to participate in a Caltrans travel survey. Got to the point where after verifying the address they had they said I would receive a diary where all members of the household would record their travel for ONE DAY! It was at this point that I decided that I didn’t want to participate in a boondoggle that would provide no information with any statistical significance.

We’re from the Government and we’re here to help. ARRRRRGHHHH!u,

Bob Holmes

About as useful as bunny inspectors. And of course they all got raises in California’s budget. Then they went out and told us they needed new taxes to save the schools. It’s for the children! I’d be glad to consult with the state on finding useless jobs they can eliminate. Not likely to happen…

Geostationary shadows–

Dear Jerry:

Wouldn’t orbital mechanics be easy if the sun did not move in the sky ?

Having failed to consult Arthur Clarke by Ouija board , the UN actually paid this guy to pitch this proposal at the Doha climate talks!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=384030258329026

Unless you like mummy music, best dive in halfway through it

Russell Seitz

So now we have national, state, and international consultants and employees on projects that a high school junior could tell you were not useful…

On the topic of makers/takers, I would like to commend to you the following: http://cantrip.org/stupidity.html?seeniepage=1&seenIEPage=1, via American Digest (americandigest.org).

The author, Carlo M. Cipolla, seems to be onto something, and fits with makers/takers dichotomy, which you certainly recognize is more complex. His idea is there are four types of folks, and any individual can slide around from one to other, or combine aspects of more than one: Helpless; intelligent; stupid, and bandit.

You may also be familiar with Scott Adams "Dilbert Principle", which is that incompetence is promoted directly to management, as contrasted to Peter Principle, where individuals are competent at one level, and are then eventually promoted to a level of incompetency. He felt this theory of human behavior was incomplete, so followed up with his book, "The Way of the Weasel" which puts forward a more simplistic, yet comprehensive theory: "People are Weasels".

Cheers, Stephen Barron

Of course the subject is far more complex than is usually reflected in political speeches or for that matter in social “science”. Increased productivity, automation, robots (or the equivalent of increased productivity – offshoring work such as service jobs to Bombay) all change the equation. But you can’t just drown the surplus population even if they can no longer do useful work at an economic rate. Now what?

"Takers"

Dear Mr. Pournelle:

I do think there’s a significant gap in your recent definition of "takers" as "people who have no choice but to rely on the government for subsistence." While conceding that this represents a significant category, I don’t see why you exclude from the "taker" category such groups as "people who use wealth and political influence in order to gain government favors or engineer redistribution of wealth toward themselves." As the old song goes, "some rob you with a six-gun, some with a fountain pen." I continue to suspect that wealthy "takers" are likely to do the Republic a great deal more lasting harm than people who "have no choice." Or, to rephrase it, at what point might economic and political oligarchy become kleptocracy?

Thank you again for your thoughtful discussions.

Allan E. Johnson

Apologies: I meant that those who have no choice are in fact a significant part of the universe of “takers.” There are also those who believe they are rendering value for what they get – bunny inspectors come to mind as an extreme case, but there are others who “do a good job”. Unfortunately a job not worth doing is not worth doing well.

And crony capitalists are a severe threat. Adam Smith pointed out that never did two capitalists confer but that they try to think of ways to get the government to limit newcomer access to their profession. Gate keepers, credentialism, these are always demanded by capitalists. Keep the competition down by raising the price of entry into the profession. And so it goes.

And yes, you can see how kleptocrary grows. Democracy is messy. The Constitution was intended for a nation of relatively ‘good’ people. It cannot make a moral or ethical republic out of those who want neither.

Jerry

What’s going on here?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyk1HXvCNks

It’s a husky-baby duet, but the dog doesn’t look too happy with the kid.

Ed

Whoever has the camera also has some treats and is teasing the Husky. That’s a typical statement of entitlement as opposed to straight begging — you’ve got something you promised me. I thought at first they’d promised the dog a walk and then got into this, but clearly it’s staged.

Huskies talk a lot. If people are talking they think they can join the conversation. But when they are that persistent it’s an entitlement argument. Sable will come in and demand that we fill her water bowl if it’s empty and that’s a different performance from ‘it’s time to walk’ or ‘do you not know that you have been ignoring the dog?"

The kid is fascinated of course, and clearly trusts the dog with almost anything — and has also learned not to pull tails or grab fur. Interesting but it was staged. Dog isn’t unhappy, just a bit confused because he thinks he’s entitled to something and this human keeps fiddling with that strange device.

While I do not at present advocate secession, and while I take the quotations offered by Bud Pritchard to heart, there is another valid viewpoint on the issue.

First, George Washington and Thomas Paine were secessionist. Indeed, the first, very familiar passage from Thomas Paine was specifically directed at those who were, at that very moment, engaged in a secessionist struggle. Notably absent from the list offered is the first sentence of the Declaration of Independence: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them . . .”

This was directed at a chief executive who was distant – not only physically but conceptually, intellectually and, dare I say, spiritually – and at a legislature that manifestly cared not a whit for the interests of the colonists but viewed them mainly as a handy source of revenue. How different is our situation today?

The sentiments expressed by Washington were directed at a different people, at a different time and under different circumstances. Who today would not enthusiastically subscribe to them under similar conditions? But if California goes toes up (not ‘if’ really, but ‘when’) and begs the Congress for relief, it would require the people of other states that are managed by grownups to bail them out. We are witnessing exactly that situation in Europe right now.

If the people of, say, Texas, decide that it is in their best interests to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, by what natural principle does any of the ‘other’ people – be it one or many – have the legitimate authority to deny them? Bending another to one’s will by force is tyranny.

Just askin’.

Richard ‘Rebel Rick’ White

Austin, Texas

It is not likely but also not impossible that the United States will come apart. And the “right” of it will be decided by force of arms. Artillery is the last resort of kings said Victor Hugo. We no longer have kings. At least not under that title. But artillery is still the last argument.

Our Irrational Approach To Space Safety

Jerry–

I’ve just finished up a book on that topic, currently titled: "Safe Is Not An Option: How Our Futile Obsession With Getting Everyone Back Alive Is Killing Human Spaceflight." I’ve got a Kickstarter project going to get it published: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1960236542/safe-is-not-an-option-our-futile-obsession-in-spac

Clark Lindsey has a pre-publication review of it at New Space Watch: http://www.newspacewatch.com/articles/a-few-more-kicks-needed-for-quotsafe-is-not-an-optionquot.html

I hope your readers may find the topic of interest, and take the opportunity to both see that the project happens (if I can raise enough money, I’ll do a symposium on the subject in conjunction with the Space Transportation Conference in DC in February) and to get a signed first edition. If you’d like to read a draft yourself, drop me an email, and I’ll send you a Word version.

Hope you’re doing well,

Rand Simberg

The pilots and astronauts were always willing to take chances that the civilian administrators would not allow.

Sometimes, even North Korea says something even more ludicrous than anything it has ever said before.  Today is one of those days:

<.>

Pyongyang, November 29 (KCNA) — Archaeologists of the History Institute of the DPRK Academy of Social Sciences have recently reconfirmed a lair of the unicorn rode by King Tongmyong, founder of the Koguryo Kingdom (B.C. 277-A.D. 668).

…

The discovery of the unicorn lair, associated with legend about King Tongmyong, proves that Pyongyang was a capital city of Ancient Korea as well as Koguryo Kingdom."

</>

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2012/201211/news29/20121129-20ee.html

Everyone knows that unicorns don’t like to live near major population centers!  According to the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monstrous Manual:  "Unicorns dwell only in temperate woodlands, away from human habitation".  As far as this unicorn having anything to do with a legendary king:  "These fierce but good creatures shun contact with all but sylvan creatures (dryads, pixies, sprites, and the like); however, they will show themselves to defend their woodland home. 

So you see, this must be an incorrect statement as that capital city would not have been a temperate woodland, unicorns do not like humans, and this legendary king was not a sylvan creature.  =)  I don’t suppose the whole thing about unicorns not existing outside role playing games, fantasy novels, children’s cartoons, and the cartoonish regime of North Korea would have anything to bear on these points. 

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

Defense spending

Dr. Pournelle,

My first, although not my only, concern in defense spending is overseas military bases. They’re a burden on all of these United States, even those states that benefit from federal spending on defense. Most of the comments I’ve been reading involve closing overseas bases and bringing back the military personnel and equipment to United States soil. This would save money, at least in the short term, but how do we then project force, if it turns out we must? Much though I would prefer to let other parts of the world defend themselves without our involvement, I remember Mr. Heinlein’s comments in Starship Troopers that wars are not won by defense.

If some idiot or ideology wants to attack us, I would hope to fight the battle on their soil, not ours. There’s a verse, seldom printed, from "My Country, ‘Tis of thee" that’s pertinent: "No more shall tyrants here, with haughty tread appear, and soldier bands. No more shall tyrants tread above the patriot dead; no more our blood be shed by alien hands." I really want to keep it that way.

President Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex remains relevant. I suggest, though, that we also have to fear the entitlement-industry complex. At some point, the productive will no longer support, or even have the means to support, the parasites. Kipling once wrote, "Who stands, if freedom fall?" If, between military and entitlement spending, we fall, the world may never recover. China and other countries may continue, but will freedom? As Lincoln put it, we are the last, best, hope. If we fall, then, for the whole world, does Night come?

It’s a quandary that as far as I know has never been faced in the history of the world, where one nation is of such paramount importance. Between wars and entitlements and global whatever it is that the climate’s doing, do we have a solvable problem? And even if it’s solvable, can we solve it?

jomath

The proper question in determining a military budget is, just what is it you are trying to accomplish? If your purpose is to be a world superpower and go forth slaying dragons all over the world you need a superpower military. Given enough money you can always do that. The Anglo Saxon people have always been more war like than we like to admit. American seem to have learned that well from the mother country.

Who stands if freedom fall is not quite the same as asking who stands if we do not have the most powerful army the world has ever known. One reason the conservatives have lost the recent election is that the American people have tired of perpetual war. It has not been the American way.

If we wish to build an overseas expendable professional army of Legionnaires that is one kind of expense. If we wish the world’s most powerful Navy that is another. If we wish a non-expeditionary army, one looks to the National Guard. But you need to know what it is you want to accomplish before choosing your tools.

Another temperature data point

Here’s a report about a giant sequoia that makes you wonder what was happening in 1580.

http://news.yahoo.com/upon-further-review-giant-sequoia-tops-neighbor-185737665.html

In addition to painstaking measurements of every branch and twig, the team took 15 half-centimeter-wide core samples of The President to determine its growth rate, which they learned was stunted in the abnormally cold year of 1580 when temperatures in the Sierra hovered near freezing even in the summer and the trees remained dormant.

Interesting. The Viking Warm period ended early in the 14^th Century with a year of rain and more rain followed by snow, after which things got colder and colder.

Russell Seitz keeps reminding me that volcanic ash can go airborne and increase the reflectivity of the Earth thus reducing the amout of sunlight that gets through: But it can also deposit itself as dark objects on ice and snow, increasing the amount of sunlight absorbed and melting the ice and glaciers. Sorting out which happened after centuries have passed is very difficult.

Mail 745 Monday, October 08, 2012

SAVABLE

Now THIS is how to do it right: SpaceX confirms Falcon rocket suffered engine flame-out

Jerry

SpaceX confirms Falcon rocket suffered engine flame-out:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/08/spacex_falco_flameout/print.html

And still made it to orbit. THIS is how to do it right.

Ed

The objectives of the SSX (a scale model of which became the DC/X) were: Savable. Reusable. Then fly higher and faster. Savable was the first criterion. Clearly SpaceX took such matters seriously. As you say, do it right.

I recall this discussion in about 1988 when the Citizens Advisory Council discussed what the next major X Project in space should be. Max Hunter was a big advocate of SAVABILITY. Plan for something going wrong and be able to continue.

Mohs

Dear Jerry,

Best of luck with the Mohs procedure. I have had it done twice: once on my right ear about 30 years ago (I was considered rather young to have a basil cell carcinoma at that time), and once on my right upper lip back in 2003.

Both times were followed by reconstructive surgery; so, if they haven’t scheduled you for that, you’re probably going to be OK. No problem with any recurrence; they cut until they get it all! I had some difficulty getting the surgeon back in the ’80s to tell me on average how many times he had to cut during the procedure. He was suspicious that I was asking for a guarantee of the number. I had to prove to him that I understood what an average was before he answered "twice". When he came back to cut for the fourth time, I knew I was in trouble!

My right ear is flattened as a result, but not unlike Steven Colbert’s, so I can’t blame my lack of media fame on that aspect of my looks. But, even in the worst case, you could adopt a noble lineage by emulating Tycho Brahe!

Gordon Sollars

Let’s hope mine is average… Thanks. I have to say that knowing they’re going to chop cancer out of your nose is distracting, and makes it hard to concentrate. I think I got more work done back when they were using xrays on my head to get the Lump out than I have in the last week. Of course I had less reason to believe that the brain cancer would end with a good outcome; I have every reason to believe that the Mohs Job will be successful and I’ll still have a nose when it’s done. Thanks.

Our schools in action

I am certainly relieved public education is focusing on how much candy and energy drinks the students consume instead of trying to actually teach them stuff.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/mint-suspended-school-161637649.html

B

The best thing that could happen to American education would be the abolition of the Department of Education and repeal of all Federal Aid to Education grants and laws and the rest of it; with the single exception that the Congress can do as it will with the District of Columbia school system. But it cannot order, bribe, or compel the states. Let the states compete. It worked for a long time: the Russians destroyed the American school system with Sputnik. They didn’t even mean to do it…

Steyn: Sesame Street Nation

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/329585/sesame-nation-mark-steyn

Or as J. Scott Gration, the president’s special envoy to Sudan, said in 2009, in the most explicit Sesamization of American foreign policy: “We’ve got to think about giving out cookies. Kids, countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes . . . ” The butchers of Darfur aren’t blood-drenched machete-wielding genocidal killers but just Cookie Monsters whom we haven’t given enough cookies. I’m not saying there’s a direct line between Bert & Ernie and Barack & Hillary . . . well, actually I am.

And Big Bird?

A New Kind of Novel.

This is precisely the sort of thing you’ve been talking about with regards to the new possibilities e-books open up:

<http://www.wired.com/design/2012/07/russell-quinn-the-worlds-most-wired-storyteller>

<http://www.kqed.org/arts/literature/article.jsp?essid=108660>

<http://www.thesilenthistory.com/>

<http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-silent-history/id527403914?ls=1&mt=8>

—

Roland Dobbins

Luck is the residue of opportunity and design.

— John Milton

I expect that ‘enhanced’ digital works, a term I used thirty years ago, will be common one day. That doesn’t mean that the old words on screen or paper won’t continue to be popular, but at some point most eBooks will include a lot more maps, charts, virtual walkthroughs… It all seems inevitable to me.

Humans in space

Dear Dr. Pournelle,

I thought you would appreciate this little short story.

http://365tomorrows.com/10/02/humans-dont-belong-in-space/

I don’t see much SF like that any more. Hard science, sweet, to the point, a zinger at the end. I’ll have to see if there isn’t more of it around.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Not ‘The Cold Equations’ but logical…

Thank you for your service, jerk:

<.>

Johnny Ramsey, the 79-year-old Korean War veteran who collected and sold junk to pay for medications for his ailing wife, said just minutes before court Thursday evening: “If I have to go to jail, I guess I am ready.”

An hour later, Ramsey left a Clover courtroom in shackles – sentenced to 30 days in the York County jail for not cleaning up his yard eight months after a judge ordered him to get rid of the junk.

Clover Town Judge Melvin Howell ruled after a contempt of court hearing Thursday that Ramsey had refused to comply with court orders to both clean up his property and pay a fine for contempt.

The sentence will be served on weekends, but it started immediately after court was finished Thursday night.

Clover Police officers handcuffed Ramsey – whose nephew is a sheriff’s deputy, whose son is in Afghanistan on his fourth deployment to war – and walked him outside the court building and put him in a police car.

</>

http://www.heraldonline.com/2012/10/04/4315205/clover-korean-war-vet-gets-30.html

I’m sick of seeing veterans get treated like crap by a system that would not exist without our service. Takes that whole "god and country" nonsense out of serving, doesn’t it? My recruiter told me "god and country" are the wrong reasons to serve and if you sign up for those reasons you will be severely disappointed. He had a more pragmatic approach to national service; I will pass that approach on to my son.

—–

Most Respectfully,

Joshua Jordan, KSC

Percussa Resurgo

No comment required. Or rather a great deal more than I have time or room for. Machiavelli has appropriate commentary.

: Entitlements

The whole thing about the entitlement discussion that bothers me is that if you look at it in the “big” picture, the amount of money spent on pure entitlements is fairly small compared to the amount of money spent elsewhere. I know you know this, but I’d suggest that the focus on bunny inspectors diffuses your message. I’ve been reading you for 20+ years now (I think its been 20+ years…I think we first corresponded pre-Compuserve).

Compare military budget and Medicare/Medicaid vs the various “entitlement” programs. When the US is spending more than the next 20 nations spend on the military there is something amiss. We refuse to do something meaningful about Medicare/Medicaid spending and I watch Romney and Obama “debate” and I say “This is the best we can do?”, holy shit.

I do understand that one gets spending creep with bunny inspectors leading to and then leading to and then leading to….and I get that you’d like to make this a “state” responsibility (I shudder at California, btw).

But why not push to have 12% cut from military spending and 9% from health programs and so on down the line.

Did you see this clip making the rounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16K6m3Ua2nw&feature=player_embedded

Apparently, it is from some TV show or another. Some truth there….my God, we are better than this….

Mark.

Actually the focus on bunny inspectors is intended to point out the futility of trying to do a piecemeal job on entitlements. They need to be returned entirely to the states and taken out of the Federal pork picture. If we can’t eliminate bunny inspectors, we can’t eliminate anything – and we can’t eliminate the bunny inspectors.

The size of the military budget is entirely dependent on the missions we expect the military to accomplish. If the job is to assure energy at a reasonable price is available to the people of the United States, then we need only protect our energy sources – and it’s often cheaper to develop them here and defend them here rather than become involved in territorial disputes in the Arabian peninsula or Southeast Asia. Or Europe.

If we limit the Federal government to Federal matters, the States can compete on entitlements, and we may have a chance to limit government.

Declassified at Last — Air Force’s Supersonic Flying Saucer Schematics:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/10/the-airforce/?pid=1498&viewall=true

One wonders about the prototypes.

Ed

Actually I saw something like that – perhaps those very pictures – when I was editing Project 75. They were included in the Project Forecast report on the future of air systems. Like flying wings, saucers do not seem to have a predictable future in aerospace technology without real breakthroughs in propulsion technology…

First it was the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, not it’s the Hubble eXtreme Deep Field!

Jerry,

Another picture to relieve us of the silly season.

The Hubble team that did the Ultra Deep Field has added another 2 million seconds to the field picture and they have imaged an additional 5,500 galaxies.

Pictures: <http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/pr2012037a/>

Press Release: <http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2012/37/image/a/>

"….The youngest galaxy found in the XDF existed just 450 million years after the universe’s birth in the big bang.

Before Hubble was launched in 1990, astronomers could barely see normal galaxies to 7 billion light-years away, about halfway across the universe…."

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

‘As I’m fond of saying, Edwin Land was both Steve Jobs *and* Steve Wozniak.’

<http://www.wired.com/design/2012/10/instant-the-story-of-polaroid/>

Roland Dobbins

Ancient Rome on Google Maps.

<http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2012/10/ancient-rome-on-google-maps.html>

Roland Dobbins

Tell me again…why are K-12 teachers no longer respected?

http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-04/news/34240191_1_t-shirt-republican-shirt-teacher

"[During an approved uniform free dress-down day] Samantha Pawlucy, a sophomore at Carroll High, said her geometry teacher publicly humiliated her by asking why she was wearing a Romney/Ryan T-shirt and going into the hallway to urge other teachers and students to mock her."

"During the incident, Samantha Pawlucy said the teacher told her that Carroll High is a “Democratic school” and wearing a Republican shirt is akin to the teacher, who is black, wearing a KKK shirt."

"The teacher then allegedly called a non-teaching assistant into the room who tried to write on the t-shirt with a marker. She allegedly told to remove her shirt and she would be given another one."

Directing a non-teacher (or anyone for that matter) to write on a person’s shirt sounds remarkably like assault to me.

Charles Brumbelow

Yet one suspects that there will be no real consequences.

Roman Han

Your link:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-climate-romansbre892120-20121003,0,1510687.story

Ice cores in Greenland indicate an increase in greenhouse gases (methane) corresponding with the heyday of the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty.

Of course, one also thinks of the social conditions which resulted in a return to normal…

I have not seen enough evidence to quantify the human contributions here: what is cause and what is effect? Warming is generally economically desirable, or at least that’s an acceptable argument. Perhaps not, but perhaps a warmer Earth is more productive, meaning surplus food, disposable income, investments…

‘Despite that, Congress is unlikely to pull the plug. That’s because, whether or not it stops terrorists, the program means politically important money for state and local governments.’

<http://apnews.myway.com/article/20121003/DA1LTPN80.html>

Roland Dobbins