View 762 Wednesday, February 13, 2013

I am in Boston for Boskone. It has been a very long day and I admit to being tired.

Of course my computer still thinks I am in Los Angeles and on Los Angeles time…

I was reading about pre-Columbian history in North America, and one theory is that the North American tribes used fire to thin the forests and clear land for orchards and maize fields. Lewis and Clarke wrote about deliberate burnings of prairie grasses. There are a number of references to Indians carrying bags of flints which they used to start fires.

One author assumes this had gone on a long time, hundreds to thousands of years. This seems impossible: when you start a fire with flint and steel, the actual spark comes from the steel. Flints don’t start fires, it’s what you strike the flint with, which so far as I know has to be steel although I presume softer iron would do – but surely North Americans did not have even a scrap of iron to put in that bag of flints? So how did they start the fires? Of course it can be done with a bow and wood friction, but having done it, I assure you it takes time, energy, and determination to get that first flame. Much easier with flint and steel.

Obviously if  intentional burning of selected forest areas is an important part of one’s strategy of land management, ways o start fires will be found.  It’s possible that in pre-Columbian days fires were preserved as slow burning frames for travel. We know that in the Greek Bronze Age one Spartan was shamed and no on would give him fire, so fire preservation was probably important until the flint and steel ignition method was developed in both Old and New Worlds, but it could not be discovered in the New World until iron was available. We know that iron axes were bought by most tribal traders. Flint and steel would come not long after the first time someone say a European use it. And prior to the Europeans they didn’t carry the bags of flints that Lewis and Clarke noticed,

Hardly a burning question, but it got me thinking on the airplane. My flight was supposed to be non-stop but it went through Houston, possibly rerouted because of the snow storms last weekend. Weather here is fine, bit cold, but no problems and I am in my hotel room and about to go to bed. First Boskone event is tomorrow evening.

I remind you that the pledge drive continues all week. This is the week I get to bug you about subscribing. You know you want to subscribe. You’ve been meaning to subscribe.  Now it’s time to do it. We have great response from our subscribers and a high renewal rate – there are some of you who can make it higher, you know who you are – but we need new subscribers, too. You won’t find something yuu like or think important here every day, but you pay a lot more for less elsewhere. We get to lots of topics others don’t address and some that no one has thought of. Subscribe today if you haven’t already, and if you wonder when the last time you renewed was, it’s time to renew again!  And good night.

View 762 Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Ultimate in breaking news. Someone believed to be Christopher Dormer had a shootout with police in the High Sierra. Two officers wounded. He may be in a cabin. There may or may not be hostages. The radio shows here know less than the TV. Schools shut down. Took two hostages but tied them up and drove off with their car. And St. George was seen descending from the sky with unknown intentions. Or that may be an alien. Or a lot of Scotch whiskey.

Tomorrow at dawn I catch a United flight which was supposed to be non-stop but now stops in Houston. Or maybe it always did and they didn’t tell me. In any event my life membership President’s Club for Continental gives me access to the United club rooms if I need it. But I will be all doggone day on an airplane. I’ll take my Kindle Fire and other reading material.

It is now being rumored that Dormer has stolen a police car and may be long gone off the mountains. St. George and the aliens have vanished. Rumors of drug lords heading up to Big Bear to recruit Dormer have not been verified. Radio reports that some of the emergency vehicles are now coming down off the mountains at high speed with red lights and sirens. Coming down the mountain.

1640: shootouts, and now black smoke coming from the vacation house that Dormer is said to be hiding in, but no one knows if there is anyone inside the cabin. Not much wind. Reporters frustrated because they aren’t allowed to get in there and the news helicopters have been forbidden, but they still have to be on the aid with no dead air so it’s astonishing how large a dinner they can make from a tiny scrap of news.  Still no one knows, but perhaps this all ends tonight. And another policeman dead. It’s a serious story even if some of the reporting is – a bit odd.

1952 (7:52 PM PST): The cabin Dormer was supposedly in has burned to the ground. They (San Bernardino Sheriff’s people) watched it burn not allowing the SB County Fire people in to put it out. LAPD is saying SB found Dormer’s body in there, but SB SD is not confirming this. Most are acting as if this is now all over. I doubt I’ll know before I catch an airplane.

2110 No, no one has entered the building, and they can’t because it’s too hot.  And they do not know if there is a body. Welcome to breaking news.

I’ll deal with a couple of mail items, and later this evening I’ll try to do a full mail bag. It’s not likely that I’ll be able to do much for the rest of the week.

Remember that this is pledge week. This site is free to all but it is kept open by subscribers. My thanks to all those who have subscribed or renewed during the current pledge drive. If you have never subscribed to this place, this would be a great time to do so. If you have subscribed but haven’t ever renewed, now’s the time. If you can’t remember if you have recently renewed, this would be good time to do it just to be sure. After all — Sorry. I hear KUSC’s pledge talks, but I am not really able to say that sort of thing here. I’ll keep trying. But subscribe now.

Underpaid?

You write, "There are three million teachers in America. Most all of them are hard working and many are underpaid."

Being an "underpaid" employee is an emotional reaction to being in a state of illogical expectations.

Other than a law defining "minimum wage" I know of no other rationale to support being underpaid.

I submit that anyone who "freely" takes a job is paid what the job is worth to the employer in light of competition for workers.

Teachers who feel "undervalued" are at liberty to do something else for different compensation.

So, how do you "feel" about being "overpaid?"

steven.

That’s one attitude. Another is that for a century the main supply of teachers was women who could not earn much in industry or commerce, and thus could be paid rather less than men of similar education. Another is that there are vast differences in the quality of teacher training and the investment that has to be put into earning credentials. Given the idiocy of most of the credentials and the long boring times it takes to gain them, you’d have to pay me a lot to get me to take a teaching job. Indeed, I was one offered the job of President of a local community college, but I did not have an Administrative Credential; and on discovering just what I would have to do to get that I didn’t even consider taking the post. That was long ago. I doubt that the administrative credential has become more interesting or less boringly difficult to obtain.

I am all in favor of giving local elected school boards the full authority to hire anyone they want including a board member’s sister in law at any salary the taxpayers will pay and the teacher will accept; but I doubt that will ever happen. Under that scenario there would be underpaid teachers, but that would be a judgment, and some would almost certainly be overpaid. I’m willing to leave it to local taxpayers even so.

I do think that teachers should be as well educated as those in some other professions so that the job attracts people of a certain potential. Lower salaries will attract the very best teachers because they enter the profession because of a love of teaching. They will not attract the next level, who would prefer to teach but can be wooed away by higher salaries.

Many teachers are overpaid in that they are terrible at the job. Others are underpaid in that they are constantly attracted to other professions for more money.

“But one does wonder why the three million teachers allow themselves to be represented by someone who says that you can’t fire teachers because that would have a negative effect on the quality of that teacher’s life.”

—-

That is not hard to answer. It is because firing teachers won’t be based upon how good at teaching they are. It will be based upon how obsessivly they follow the (idiot) rules.

I can tell you from my experience, if someone personally saved a department from catastrophe, but broke a rule in doing so, they would be in more trouble than if they did something incredibly stupid, but did it within the rules.

You have already posted examples of this. Remember the student who was suspended for maybe saving his girlfriends life by sharing asthma medication? There are other examples you are well aware of.

I think the really good teachers get beaten down and become mindless drones, or leave the system to pursue other careers.

B

Francis Hamit remarks

Coming Home From "Nam was cancelled.

Dear Jerry:

I suppose I should have sent you something about "Coming Home From "Nam" being cancelled. The reason was simply. No contributions. None on the IndieGoGo appeal to finance it and only one editorial contribution when we wanted a hundred and would have settled for fifty or so. I guess my peers still don’t want to talk about it — and who can blame them? The one contribution, from a retired Marine Colonel who made a career there after the war, mirrored an experience of my own. He was thrown out of his local VFW by one of the "Greatest Generation" for losing the war. The same thing happened to me in Iowa City in 1971, on the same day that the Managing Editor of the Iowa City Press-Citizen (A Gannet newspaper) called me a "baby-burning sonofabitch" as he terminated my interview for a reporting job. I will write about that. In my memoir, "Out Of Step" which I plan to start soon.

Sincerely,

Francis Hamit

I have never met anyone who had that attitude toward the Viet Nam war. I was never part of that war other than as an analyst of air power tactics, but my experience with Viet Nam vets among my colleagues in aerospace was positive, my nephew who became a master sergeant in Viet Nam does not have that memory, nor does my career sergeant brother in law. The View Nam vet LASFS members do not make it seem that anything of the sort happened to them, and they are currently being well treated by the VA. You know some of the people I mean here. I haven’t been to Iowa City since about 1954 when I left my undergraduate studies at what was then known as SUI.

I haven’t had much to do with American Legion or VFW for forty years, but it would be my guess that at some point Viet Nam veterans were a majority of the members.

if you have not seen the Triangulation interview I did with Leo on TWIT, it’s http://twit.tv/show/triangulation/90 and apparently is getting good reviews.

HEAR AND BELIEVE

Router Security Issues

Dr. Pournelle:

In regards to the ‘router security issue’ warning that you issued this week: I’ve looked into this, and the reports that I have read indicate the following.

1) A ‘router’ is a device that sits betwen your Internet connection and your computers, whether they are wired or wireless connections. You could also connect other network devices, like a networkable printer.

2) The issue only affects LinkSys routers model WTR54. It’s in a blue case, resting horizontally (usually). It is a common router used mostly in homes, and perhaps in small businesses. (Cisco owns the LinkSys brand.)

3) Most reports indicate that only the WRT54GL model are affected.

4) It appears that the vulnerability only exists in two cases:

– if the exploit comes from a device physically or wirelessly connected to the router. In most cases, this would be a desktop or laptop computer.

– only the Linux-based version (the "GL") is affected.

5) Of those two conditions, the first is a concern. It appears that *if* the malware was somehow installed on a computer (via a link in a browser, or a link in an email), then the malware could use that exploit for some sort of harm.

So, the recommendation to use the "ShieldsUp" program is a good one.

It is probable, however, that the exploit risk is a bit over-hyped/ That said, it is important for your readers to practice "safe computing":

– always install all updates (MS and applications).

– use the Secunia Personal Software Inspector to ensure your non-MS programs are kept current (like Java and Adobe and Flash) (www.secunia.com ).

– have a current anti-virus program, and do full scans monthly (use Microsoft Security Essentials – which is free) .(www.microsoft.com/protect )

– be careful of clicking on links, especially when they ask you to ‘install this helper program’ (just don’t’ do that!).

Regards, Rick Hellewell, Security Guy

Thanks. And now I’m off for Boston, so I’ll be even more wary of the various nets I’ll have to attach to.

View 762 Monday, February 11, 2013

THIS IS A REPEAT Warning

ALERT ALERT

All right, maybe a bit over dramatic, but it is important.

There is a deadly new vulnerability that relies on features of some routers. The router is your first line of defense, the firewall, and if a hacker gets past that it’s a lot easier. I won’t explain the vulnerability, but I will recommend that you immediately go to GRC https://www.grc.com , go to the Shields Up page, and do the test he indicates. If your router is vulnerable it will tell you, and you should immediately take action. If you have never done the Shields Up vulnerability test, it’s always worth doing once in a while, but just now there is a new vulnerability out there, and bad guys are just exploiting it. This is a time sensitive alert.

Joe Zeff suggests that this link https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2 leads directly to Gibson’s Shields UP and may be more stable. For those who might be a bit concerned about letting an outsider test your defenses, I can say that I have known Steve Gibson for decades and so have a great number of people I know including many you have heard of, and I know of no one who has ever questioned Gibson’s competence or integrity.

We Do Not Hate Teachers

John Stossel recently aired a video column (column? Report?) called Stupid in America. You can see it all on U-tube, unless someone has taken it down. Stossel looks into a number of case histories on what’s wrong with the American system of education. He doesn’t quote Seaborg on the American system of education being indistinguishable from an act of war against us, but he might as well.

One segment of his broadcast shows the head of the Washington DC teacher’s union giving his reasoned defense of the teachers union position that no teacher should ever be fired. His main reason is that being fired would have a negative effect on the fired teacher’s quality of life, and no, I am not making that up; watch the video and you can see him yourself.

His remedy is to keep the bad teachers and make good teachers of them with retraining and more practice and correction and — again, no I am not making this up.

The union official does not address the negative effects on the lives of the students who are required to endure the bad teacher during this transformation. He was not asked whether he would allow his children to be in that teacher’s classroom, but like many teachers’ union officials he did not attend public schools, so it is possible that his own are not in the DC public school system. Ms. Rhee, the DC Chancellor who went in to reform the system and was pretty good at it until the DC Teachers Union got a change through political action against the mayor, using intellectual arguments such as “One Two Three Four, Show Michelle Rhee the door” and other profundities chanted in unison. At least those doing the chanting were carrying teacher union signs and represented the teachers although from their appearance some in those marchers were probably not teachers.

No one has asked the teachers who demanded that Ms. Rhee be fired for her anti-bad-teacher (and pro-student) activities whether they would be willing to let their children be taught by the teachers Ms. Rhee fired. I have heard much discussion of the entitlement of teachers to their job, but little on the obligation of students to endure bad teachers. It does not seem to be a subject that attracts human rights lawyers. In California a teacher who had – as seen on videos – given students cookies frosted with his own semen was not fired, but allowed to retire with full benefits before being terminated. He faces criminal charges, but not administrative charges. There are other bizarre cases in California and in some the teachers in question remain in classrooms; others occupy ‘rubber rooms’ where they sit out the day doing no productive work, but are not allowed to return to classrooms. They can’t be fired, and their pensions accumulate. I gather this happens in other states. The position of the teachers unions is that no one should be fired, presumably because it would lower their quality of life.

    http://laist.com/2012/11/28/lausds_rubber_room_population_has_d.php

There are three million teachers in America. Most all of them are hard working and many are underpaid. Unfortunately hard working does not guarantee competence because some of what they learned – were required to learn – in colleges of education is dead wrong, and some is ludicrous. Go to any college campus and ask the first fifty people you see to tell you which is the easiest major on campus. Certainly a majority and possibly 90% of them will tell you education. Of course easy doesn’t mean that good people won’t become teachers. Educating the young is a rewarding experience and many bright and competent people want to do it.

But one does wonder why the three million teachers allow themselves to be represented by someone who says that you can’t fire teachers because that would have a negative effect on the quality of that teacher’s life. I understand that education is subject to Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy. But at some point the competent and conscientious teachers need to take a hand in the governing of their profession. They cannot continue to leave it in the hands of those who don’t want to teach but do want to be teachers’ representatives. At some point self government requires that people who don’t want the leadership jobs take their turn in the barrel – even if it requires choosing them by lot, which would almost certainly work better than the present system.

There is good news in the education sector. We’ve talked about this before. Bill Gates is supporting Salman Khan. If you don’t know about Khan and the Khan Institute use Google to find out, and go visit Khan’s site. It is almost certain that there will be a lecture on a subject you want to know more about, and the probability is very high that it will be the most instructive lecture you have ever experienced. The only lecturer I have ever experienced who is as good as Khan was Phillip Morrison who gave the best single lecture I have ever heard in my life one early morning at a Boston AAAS meeting. If you’re rusty on calculus, look up Khan. If you have kids in school make sure they’re aware of Khan. It is possible to get a pretty good education without bothering with the schools just from the Internet; once good teachers learn more on this, the combination of a good teacher – who can learn much about the subject matter from the Khan Academy, then let the students go through the lecture and have conversations about it – education will change. It already has in many places. We’ll have more on that another time.

But most states spend much of their huge state budgets on education, and the results are awful. It is possible to do much better for a lot less money, and the means are developing at Moore’s Law rates. At some point all the parents who care will find this out. Meanwhile, a great number of our children are subjected to bad teachers who are inflicted on them by the solidarity of the rest of the teachers – and no one ever discusses what those kids did to deserve that.

Mad Scientist Projects: Bring Back the Neanderthals

Every now and then someone comes up with a piece about using DNA and clone technology to re-create the Neanderthal species of humanity. Leaving the inevitable religious questions to some Jesuit – I wouldn’t doubt that several are studying the matter now – the best commentary I have seen on this comes from my old friend Greg Cochran, who has been upsetting the evolutionary history applecart for some time now.

You can find that at Thawing Out the Neanderthals, and it’s worth your while. He also points out that since we can do it – or will be able to rather soon – it’s probably inevitable, and while his suggestions are mostly made in ironic mode, there will arise quite real questions that someone will have to answer.

Pluto has two tiny moons which have not yet been named. There is now a contest for names. See Help Astronomers Name Pluto’s Tiniest Moons. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/02/name-plutos-tiniest-moons/

A final note for the day on education. There are several purposes to education but one of the most important is to prepare the bright kids to learn how to function in a high tech society. For a great number of those kids the existence of great lectures like those of Khan (and for the brightest Richard Feynman) will be enough once the equipment for watching them is widespread and those who need to know about them find out. Yes, someone needs to find the bright kids and make them understand that just getting through isn’t enough. Assume the rest of the motivational argument. The point is that those who want to learn can even if that requires that they play hooky so they can watch Dick Feynman on physics. Over time ambitious parents will realize just what’s out there.

The other requirement for education is to teach those who aren’t able to learn high science and technology how to be useful. After all, half the population is below average, which pretty well by definition means they ought not waste their time in college – they ought to learn how to be useful without all the high cost of ‘higher education.’ We used to understand this. And a Republic which has nothing important for half its citizens to do will not endure. It can’t.

Now this doesn’t mean neglecting to teach everyone what they can learn, which for well over 90% of the population means reading, and for a large number means being able to read for enjoyment as well as enlightenment, (Clearly I have a vested interest in equipping as many as possible with the ability and desire to read my books…)

This second half of education, making good citizens of those who aren’t going on to University, is sadly neglected in our colleges of education, yet it consumes enormous amounts of money and resources. And until that part of our education system is reformed, we will be in big trouble.

Thanks to all those who have responded to the pledge drive. The response has been large and generous. The drive continues all week. This place operates on the Public Radio model. It is free to anyone who wants it, but it exists because of the support of readers like you. If you have not subscribed this would be a good time to do it. And if you have not renewed your subscription in a while, this would be a great time to do that. Paying for this place.

Wednesday at dawn I board a United flight to Boston. The airport seem to be working. I’ll be at Boskone for the weekend, so there won’t be much more this week.  I will try to do a couple of updates while I am there, but we’ll see about time. The pledge drive continues, so I’ll see if I can’t at least bug you about subscribing, which means I have to say something other than send me money. I expect there will be snow, snow, snow…

If you haven’t subscribed, this would be a great time to do it. And if you subscribed but haven’t renewed in a while, this is a good time to renew…