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Monday  May 24, 2010

Letter from England

 More impact craters: <http://tinyurl.com/2vgkwap> . Ever think about writing a story about the discovery of extraterrestrial ruins in the solar system dating back to the time of Messel (about 47 Ma) or to the (later) time of these impacts? We do know there were several spikes in CO2 and temperatures in the Eocene (about 55.5 Ma, 53.6 Ma, 53.3 Ma, and 52.8 Ma, thought to be due to methane ice outgassing triggered by a slow global warming). Then after a slow decline in temperatures, at the Eocene/Oligocene boundary--the time, 35 Ma, of these impact craters--things got cold very quickly. Of course, 20 million years is a long time for a civilisation to last.

 Cameron opposes transfer of budget powers to the EU <http://tinyurl.com/3878oyl>  

Market turmoil <http://tinyurl.com/34bmgb5> <http://tinyurl.com/35h27cq>

 Where the savings will be found in UK education <http://tinyurl.com/38t3j28>.

 Leading UK universities may go private <http://tinyurl.com/34tla23>  <http://tinyurl.com/32ftqr2>

 Google turns on SSL encryption <https://www.google.com/>

Causing offence by sharing a peer-reviewed paper on bats sexual practices <http://tinyurl.com/3a65zvv>

 Blunders facilitate art theft in Paris <http://tinyurl.com/38tc8sg>.  There's a suspicion this was an inside job.

 I'm not sure whether this is really a story: <http://tinyurl.com/3559xlt>.  It might just be statistical variation.

 --

"Truth is the intersection of independent lies." (Richard Levins, 1966)

Harry Erwin, PhD

===============

Regarding the election in Murtha's district.

That part of Pennsylvania is gun-toting Democrat country. Johnstown of Flood fame is the heart of the district. I was out there once on a job and there were Murtha signs all over. And an ethnic church on every block. (They cling to their bibles, too, said Obama.) That's where Hillary went during the presidential primaries when she wanted to reposition herself as a good ol' whiskey-and-beer-chaser blue collar gal.

The Pennsylvania Democratic Party is bipolar. One pole is the Main Line of Philadelphia: comfortable, upper middle class, socially liberal. They have the money. The other pole is Pittsburgh: working class, union, socially conservative. Main Line usually controls the nominations, nominates someone the West can't stomach; then Pittsburgh sits on their duffs and the Republicans, with their hold on the T, win. Right now, both senators and the governor are Democrats; but that is not usually the case. Depending on how you count Specter, it was not unusual to find all three state-wide offices in Republican hands even if the Commonwealth went Democratic for president.

Mike

==========

Scientific American

Hello Jerry,

I had occasion today to skim the current issue of 'Scientific American'. I can't provide a link, but there is a feature article about a variety of 'next big natural disasters', volcanos, asteroid strikes, earthquakes, and the like. Right there as one of the most frightening was the specter of imminent global warming and the various catastrophes that were to be expected if we didn't 'Do Something Right Now', along with some suggestions on how to remove millions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere and just POSSIBLY stave off the otherwise inevitable disaster.

Among the observed symptoms mentioned were rapidly rising global temperatures, ice caps/glaciers melting with breakneck speed, sea levels rising at unprecedented rates, the necessity of implementing cap and trade immediately, reducing CO2 emission by 80% by any means necessary, and on and on. All that in the face of actual data that flatly contradicts ALL of the symptoms cited.

If you get a chance, please read it and comment on it. I would be interested and I'm sure that your other readers would be too. Also, my characterization may not be completely accurate but even with that caveat there is no doubt that SA is completely on board with Anthropogenic Global Warming as an existential threat, no matter how much fake/massaged data comes to light.

Bob Ludwick

What comment is needed? Scientific American has always been liberal in outlook and it is dependent on Big Science for its existence.

=============d

 

 

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Tuesday,  May 25, 2010

Have you seen this on fences and neighbors? Something like that happened to me... http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB2000142405274870369180
4575254641867151122.html

J

Yes I read that and wondered what I would do. Probably the same thing the author did.

=============

: Martin Gardner, RIP

Jerry,

Mr. Gardner died this past Saturday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/24/
AR2010052403747.html 

http://www.scientificamerican.com/
report.cfm?id=Martin%20Gardner,%201914-2010 

Sue

I first encountered Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (later editions were entitled simply "In the Name of Science" in I believe the 1950's. I was impressed. Most skeptics are not very interesting people. Gardner was a skillfull and interesting writer, and while his comments were often scathing, he was not quite as contemptuous of his subjects as many debunkers are. He could be very humorous, as when he looks at Lawson and Lawsonomy. There was also an interesting theme to his book. I have to admit that some of my attitudes, toward e.g. Orgone Therapy and Homeopathy were pretty well formed by reading Gardner. I resisted his comments on some schools of psychotherapy -- my professors had other views -- but in general he was right about those, too. I don't recall his views about flying saucers (which was a more popular phenomenon in his time than now when everyone has a camera in their pockets); mine wasn't really formed until I knew the Blue Book people at Norton AFB (it was a George job) and saw what most of the reports looked like. I later knew Hynek and interviewed him for some of my science non-fiction columns, both when he was working as a debunker and later when he began to have different views about some unexplained reports. I do recall that Gardner was very good at imbuing readers with a healthy skepticism, and I suspect I acquired a lot of that from him.

I also faithfully read his mathematical games columns while he was writing them

A good writer who will be missed. RIP indeed.

============

Lil Brother is watching you -

An acquaintance that works at a repossession company tells me that his company has bought a camera system for all their trucks. The system scans all license plates near the truck, either when it drives down the road or through a parking lot. It will signal the operator when it spots a license of a vehicle on their find list. It keeps a master copy from all the trucks, so if a new request comes in, any previous records of that license are listed showing time & place.

Big Brother is watching you -

The City of Seattle has a similar system on both patrol cars and parking enforcement vehicles. The patrol cars alert on stolen vehicles, and parking enforcement alerts on parking ticket scofflaws. There was no mention in the news release if every license being scanned is being recorded for future reference...

tonyb

============

Subject: Cassiopeia monster

Here is a stunning closeup of the eyes of the Cassiopeia monster.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37317947
/ns/technology_and_science-space/ 

RH

 

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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

I have appointments today and this will be very light.

========

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/
magazine/23Race-t.html?src=me&ref=general 

You might possibly be interested in this New York Times Magazine article "The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand." The title oversells the viewpoint of the article (besides, this is the New York Times, are they really going to cross the teachers' unions?)

--Mike

=============

Scientific America

Jerry,

I was a subscriber to Scientific American for many years. About 25 years ago I could no longer stand the liberal bias and lack of real science in many of the articles and did not renew my subscription.

I also did the same thing with Consumer Reports as more and more of their resources were directed toward lobbying for government regulation rather than their original goal of Consumer Education.

Bob Holmes

Sent from my iPad

This is representative of a number of notes I got on this (and a surprising number sent from and iPad, too).

==========

: A Solution to the Current Rating Agency Fiasco

Jerry,

Currently the Rating agencies are paid by the issuers of the Debt Securities that are rated and have no "skin" in the game after the initial rating is issued. The current incentive is to apply a rating that will generate a fee from the issuer. The purchaser who relies on the rating has no recourse.

Now, suppose that the the Rater was required to sell insurance against default to the purchaser. The Rater would be free to price the insurance at any amount that they deemed prudent. The Purchaser no has a way to evaluated the quality of the rating by looking at the cost of insurance.

One new regulation the requirement to offer insurance.

The elimination of the Ratings Oligopoly by allowing any one with appropriate reserves for the Insurance offered to provide ratings.

Bob Holmes

An interesting concept. It might very well work.

===========

'Rear-end collisions more than doubled and accidents increased overall in the first 70 days of red-light cameras in West Palm Beach compared to the same period of 2009, traffic records reviewed by The Palm Beach Post show.'

<http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/
rear-end-collisions-jump-at-red-light-
camera-706186.html?viewAsSinglePage=true>

--- Roland Dobbins

===========

Incompetent Phishing

You write: "It is hard to believe that anyone has ever fallen for this; certainly no one who comes here. But it does make you reflect. Maybe someone has?"

I look at messages like that, and I think of my grandmother, who didn't even change the channel on her TV for the first week she had cable. God love her, she's a great lady and plenty smart, but she looks at anything with buttons and she just won't have it. Anything with options, anything that isn't "sign on the line and write a check for this much", she gets so scared of messing something up that she'll just do whatever she's told and hope for the best.

If she saw a message like that she'd totally fall for it. She'd fall so hard that there'd be a Grandma-shaped crater in the ground afterwards.

This is another reason why something like the iPad is good--as limited as it is, as locked-down, as narrowly-defined--it's why I think that the iPad is a good thing. We forget how much bad stuff we've had to get used to on the Internet; how we've come to assume, as a matter of course, that anyone asking for your username or your credit card or your phone number or even your email address is trying to scam you. I *LIKE* the idea that the iPad can't do multitasking--because if that's the case then you can't run a keylogger as a background process!

-- Mike T. Powers

 

 

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

'Each time she was hired back, it seems, Census was able to report the creation of a new job to the Labor Department.'

<http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/two_more_census_workers_blow_the_OqY80N3DBTvL17VmxKKR0O>

-- Roland Dobbins

==========

"It is Orwellian at best."

<http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/052610/new_644535855.shtml>

--- Roland Dobbins

============

Finance.

Jerry,

In addition to Bob Holmes's suggestion for injecting a little honesty into the rating agencies I suggest that credit default swaps; ie. bets that a company or country will become bankrupt are limited by using the insurable interest rules. Crudely these prevent another insuring your house against, say, fire. It would be too tempting otherwise. If they hold a mortgage, of course, they then have an insurable interest. Short selling of shares should be limited to actual shareholders and the shares they hold. One of the evils of letting the nice man at the broker's office do all the tedious paperwork for you is that he may be renting out your shares and if the broker goes bankrupt you may have difficulty in getting them back from all the other people who also think they own them. At least some exchange traded bullion funds are also flawed. The major institution whose terms and conditions that I studied took no responsibility if your bullion turned out to be cast iron with a coat of gold paint, (yes it happened 200 tons of it), and they reserved the right to store it in their friends garden shed at your risk. If this were not enough they also reserved the right to use your money to back a racehorse that they fancied. Of course the terms were more mellifluous than this but you would be hard put to sue if that is what happened and the horse lost or the shed was burgled. Another racket is the unallocated bullion holding. This is where you own a claim on the general hoard as opposed to specific bars. I had to be downright nasty to a government owned bank when I converted an unallocated bullion holding to an allocated holding of specific bars. The general hoard simply did not exist. This was not mentioned when I paid for my non existent investment. Finally, the investment manager who defended his decision not to do due diligence because it would have involved reading 750,000 documents should be publicly executed. It is very easy to do due diligence when the documents are delivered in a large lorry. You send the driver away. Immediately. You do not make the investment.

Here endeth the rant, John Edwards

 

 

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Friday

The gardener and the $450,000 house

Hi Jerry,

You mentioned the gardener with the $450,000 house recently. I just finished reading "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis and he referenced the same (or a very similar case) in there (if you haven't read it, I highly recommend it).

Why were loans being made to these people with low incomes? Don't blame Fannie Mae and Fannie Mac - they weren't involved in the lion's share of the sub-prime mortgages.. It was the ratings agencies and Wall Street again.

The model that the agencies were using to evaluate the mortgages looked at FICO scores. However, there are differences in FICO scores beyond the number - there are what are called "thin file" and "thick file" FICO scores. A "thin file" FICO score is someone who has very little credit history. However, what history they have may be all good, resulting in a higher FICO score. The Wall Street bond bundlers knew this, and discovered that recent immigrants often had high "thin file" FICO scores. They put out the word to the mortgage originators that these kind of people were good targets and would let them get a good score on the mortgage CDO's that were put together.

The whole disaster is classic separation of risk and reward. Those originating the loans took very little risk and had no incentive to drill down anymore than was absolutely needed to get the rating on the final CDO's. The bond traders took no risk. The ratings agencies took no risk. And those who did take the risk had it promised to them that there was no risk (AAA ratings). According to Lewis, it was nearly impossible to unwind even a first-level CDO to find out the quality of the mortgages backing them.

Perhaps the ratings agencies should be required to sell insurance on the bonds they rate. Unfortunately the modern financial institute has found so many ways to apparently lay off risk that even that may not help. AIG wrote billions of dollars of CDS (Credit Default Swaps) on CDO's which led those buying the insurance to believe they had gotten rid of their risk, so they continued to make more risky deals. Of course, AIG was not really capable of paying off all the insurance in the event of a market crash until the taxpayers funded them. Those buying the insurance, though, wound up not taking any pain (they got paid off 100%) so there is no incentive for them to check the stability of those offering insurance which will just lead to the next disaster.

As you say, despair is a sin, but the only solution seems to be pitchforks and tar and feathers.

Regards, Dave Smith Tokyo

The insurance from ratings agencies sounds interesting, and has been proposed by others. I find it interesting that there are no real proposals for reforming the ratings system.

=================

doctor carlos and friends

Hello Dr. Pournelle:

Once upon a time, there was a young man who came from poor beginnings, and seemed destined for misery. He grew up in stifling poverty in a third world country. Coming to America as a boy, he was settled into a neighborhood that was poor and rough. His childhood was neither easy nor happy. The youngest of ten children, he had few luxuries, and little recreation. His English was non existent, and he needed special classes and special attention. Eventually he was helped to overcome these obstacles and did well in school, getting excellent grades. He was accepted to medical school, and became a citizen. In many ways, it is a typical American immigrant success story told thousands of times about the great grandparents of many of us here today. There is a difference though, by today's standards Carlos Torres was not here legally. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/94671529.html  Its hard to read anything negative into such a story, which is why it was spun the way that it was by its author, who was trying to advance his amnesty/pro-illegal agenda.

Still, I see quite a bit that is wrong here. It would seem to be a wonderful success story except for one thing - it was all stolen. These things did not belong to Carlos or his parents to take and use - even if good use was made of them. They belonged to the American citizens who for generations had built them, paid for them, and who had shaped the institutions by which these benefits are distributed. It belonged to the children of these citizens. I admire the young man's success, and recognize his hard work; but its a bit like hearing that a man robbed a store and then worked hard and used the stolen money to build a successful business.

This all might not be such a big deal, except that the resources of a nation are produced by the work of its people - presumably for their benefit. When these resources are used, they either have to be replaced by those who created them in the first place, or they run short. In the case of the wealth and resources used by Carlos, there are only two possibilities - either a child of an American citizen went without, or the taxpayers had to pay more. For those who are wondering what resources I am talking about, lets take a closer look.

Carlos could not speak English, so he had to be taught. He took ESL classes. These classes used resources in the form of a teacher, a room, books, other materials, and whatever part of the school overhead they required. Did the school deny itself a chem lab, or perhaps stint on the library a bit to pay for these classes, and to cover the costs of educating Carlos and the many other students who should not have been there? It may be that without so many illegals, class sizes might be reduced from 35 to perhaps 25. Budgets might be cut, and more advanced classes added. Instead we use resources to try and catch up students who do not speak the language, and should not be here. When Carlos went to college, it was noted that he was there on scholarship; but no details were given. I have to wonder about the nature of the scholarship, and who lost a scholarship because it was awarded to Carlos.

It was mentioned in the article, that the parents still can not speak English, after having been in this country for decades. Why not? So they settled here, and had ten children. Do you suppose a former dirt farmer who could not speak English got himself a $100,000 a year job to support his family of twelve, or did the money come from somewhere else - or someone else? How much food, medicine, education, and assorted services did the rest of us pay for or deny ourselves, so that this family could stay here? What did we give up by spending the money this way, instead of on something else. <http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/94671529.html>  A happy ending? Probably for Carlos, though no one can see into the future. As for the rest of us, who can say? What were other students denied because of the resources used by Carlos and his family? How many children of American citizens could have gotten extra help in math or reading, had teaching resources not been used on ESL and other classes for someone who should not have been here in the first place? Nothing happens in a vacuum. When your resources are given to someone else, they are not available for you.

So am I being mean and harsh? Well, on a personal level yes; but on a legal and social level no. There is a downside here - yet this was a success story. What about all of the many failures?

The story of Carlos is not typical. Illegals cost billions every year, and who can even estimate the social cost of the drugs, crime, and chaos they bring with them. I hear that about a third of our prison population now consists of illegals who committed felonies after arriving. I do not hear similar stories about a third of our new doctors, scientists, teachers, or engineers being illegals. Then there is the prejudice. Many Anglos who had nothing but good feelings about Hispanics a decade or two ago, are feeling a bit differently these days. I have always believed that the so called health care crises that everyone is moaning about is due to millions of illegals who can not be denied treatment but do not pay.

A big issue today is how many American citizens can not find jobs because they are being done by illegals? Illegals do not care about health coverage (their health plan is the emergency room), nor do they worry too much about other benefits. Illegals can usually undercut American workers, and still end up taking home as much or more money, due to tax advantages. Most do not pay taxes - it is a simple enough matter, as I discovered while working in a couple of restaurants. The trick is to declare at least six dependants, even if you are single with no children. It helps if the employer will also pay you some cash under the table; but this isn't necessary. Six dependants will generally result in little or no deduction from your check. It will also make you eligible for all kinds of social welfare programs. You will never get caught as long as you make up a different social security number every year or so. Even an honest employer will let you do this once or twice, if you say you made a mistake and need to make a correction. It usually takes SS and IRS three years to catch up with you - changing the SS number resets the clock. This is a practice that I am aware of first hand as a former restaurant manager, and it is pretty well known and common in the restaurant business. I assume it is not unheard of in other businesses as well. If the worse happens and you get caught, you just run back home.

Still, while illegals are said to have all kinds of rights and entitlements, American citizens are at the mercy of anyone in government who decides they are worth robbing. I suppose the government needs the extra money to provide all of the services for those who pay no taxes. It also helps to lower our station, and remind us of something that the illegals already know and accept - you are always at the mercy of the government. http://www.oakcreeknow.com/news/94883639.html 

Neal Pritchett

P.S. Sorry about the huge diatribe I wrote last time, but I was really upset about the whole unemployment thing. I have now moved from depression to real anger - always a more useful and constructive emotion. Unemployment has permanently cut my benefits by about $100 a month because I have been finding temp jobs. This is in addition to the two thirds they deduct for every dollar I earn. I frankly am now actively looking for ways to conceal income, and take from those by whom I have been taken. I have been honest and have worked hard all my life, since about fifteen years old (twelve if you count a paper route). I will probably soak them for every dollar I can get and go back to school. Perhaps in a couple of years when I finish, the economy will have reawakened.

============

Financial fraud 

Jerry,

As regards your Mr. Edward's rant posted Thursday, I have been coming to the conclusion that financial fraud resulting in irreparable financial damages on the scale of the median person's lifetime earnings (roughly $5 million in today's value of the dollar) should be treated at best equivalent to negligent homicide and earn 10-20 years of very hard time, and that by the time it reaches ten times that value should be treated as capital murder with all the consequences thereof.

Jim

===============

Scientific American

Jerry,

I find this matter particularly irksome because, like your reader Bob Holmes, until a few years ago I too was a long time subscriber to Scientific American - nearly continuously for about 30 years. After the current editor took over, the magazine took a nose dive into garbage masquerading as science, partisan politics, and screeching editorial. Surprisingly, humans who began farming rice in Southeast Asia caused the end of the last ice age. Who knew?

I had always taken the longest renewal available to save the most on the subscription fee, as I knew I would always read Scientific American. I stuck with it for a couple of years I think, but paying someone to throw dirty toilet paper at me is not my bag. When I canceled my subscription I called for a refund on the then remaining 4 years. The lady who processed the refund and cancellation seemed to indicate that she was hearing the same story a lot.

All publications are imperfect, but once upon a time Scientific American could be counted upon for high standards concerning what they published. Of course, I did read a small reprint in SA of an opinion they had published (as best I recall) sometime in the last third of the 1800's where the editors of the magazine asserted that mankind had already obtained something like >99% of "all knowledge". In reprinting the bit they were making fun of their former hubris. It seems that instead it was prophetic. Scientific American has come full circle. What a pity.

Regards, George

============

The B-Team

Dr. Pournelle --

This isn't exactly what you have suggested, i.e., reserving funding for counter-"consensus" research, but it would be a start.

Scientists decry attacks by skeptics of climate change http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate 

About 2/3 of the way into the article:

[William] "Happer [professor of physics, Princeton univ.] called for the creation of a “B-team” of scientists given steady funding to investigate other possibilities besides human-caused warming for the Earth"s changing climate. He said the approach is intended to establish a group of scientists to play a “devil’s advocate” role.

The Department of Defense, the CIA “and many others routinely establish robust team B"s; that is, groups of experts who work full time, sometimes for several years, to challenge the establishment position,” Happer said. “This has given us much better weapons systems and intelligence.” "

Pieter

And indeed I took part in some of those exercises. Not quite the same as I had in mind, but anything that supports contrarian when the stakes are high is important.

============

Oil spill

Hi Jerry,

Come on, I expect more from you than right-wing talking points. Attempting to shift the blame for this disaster by writing that, “Of course the environmentalists pushed us out to those deep wells” ignores that facts of this situation. First, the battery in the device that would have prevented this mess was dead and should have been replaced by company operating the rig. Second, an emergency shut off valve that costs a half million was not installed (incidentally, this kind of value is required by most other countries, but the Republicans, on the payroll of the oil companies, blocked such legislation in America). Finally, on the day of the accident, the crew was instructed to switch from pumping mud to sea water in order to hit a milestone for company executives schedule to visit the rig. This has been cited as key reason for the explosion. Other countries successfully drill in deep water without accident because they are sufficiently regulated.

My best friend run several rigs in North Dakota. He has been in the oil business for 30 years. He tells me that there is plenty of oil drilling on land. In fact, many well heads have been capped because the oil prices are low. No one is making the oil companies drill in deep water. But nice talking point.

Best wishes,

don

Donald I. Barker

I don't know what you mean by right wing talking points. Do you mean the assertion that Obama has clearly shown incompetence? I hadn't though that in much doubt; consult Carville for details.

Do you mean my claim that there are plenty of oil companies willing to drill in shallower water, and even build refineries, and they have been waiting for permission to do that for year? I had not thought that in much doubt: in any event it's easy enough to find out, isn't it? Clear the areas for bids. Proclaim the separation taxes that will be imposed to pay for disaster preparation. See if someone shows up.  Last I saw, plenty were willing to show up.

As I understand it, the shutoff was said to have been installed, and was installed, but it was not properly inspected. How one inspects at 5000 feet isn't clear to me, but I do know something about the costs of drilling at 5000 feet.

It has been some years since I was asked to consult on proposal teams, but last time I looked there was no shortage of companies who would prefer to pay higher leases to get shallower water sites; drilling under 5000 feet of water isn't easy and never was.

I would have thought it fairly obvious that the only reason there is not more domestic oil production was legislative not economic. I would not say that was a right wing talking point.

============

I'm too stupid not to pass this on.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/05/27/were-too-broke-to-be-this-stupid/ 

David Couvillon Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, 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; Collector of Hot Sauce; Avoider of Yard Work 

I commented on this in View. Thanks.

=============

Ism's

Came across this the other day and thought you might find it interesting. Even though the tone is a little dated it does come across as rather prophetic in my opinion.

http://nationaljuggernaut.blogspot.com/
2009/09/this-cartoon-seemed-far-fetched-in-1948.html 

On a board that I post on it led to this point being made:

“The False Left-Right Paradigm theorizes that opposing political groups use their influence over the establishment media to dramatize party warfare distraction, in grand performances of bureaucratic rivalry meant to propagandize and divide the populace. Psychological deception is coordinated on all levels of politics and fed through controlled media outlets to divert attention away from the ruling class's hidden agendas. By drawing attention to differences between two political systems, ideologies, races, and classes, the political groups obscure and divide unity among the masses. The tactic creates confusion and frustration among the population, enabling the global elite to increase and consolidate their wealth and power through maintaining an illusion of a two-party system of checks and balances.”

Erik

Never ascribe to malice...  The danger of ideologies has been a main point of conservative writing for a long time. Madison warned us to be afraid of factions.

Good government is rare, and most writers through history have thought it a gift of God, not the product of human ingenuity...

 

 

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Saturday, May 29, 2010

I took the day off.

===============

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunday, May 30, 2010      

Subject: Is there really plenty of oil in easy reach?

Jerry,

With regard to the gulf oil spill, you recently said:

"My observation is that there's no need for us to have wells at 5,000 foot depths. There is plenty of off shore oil at a few hundred feet, and for that matter oil fields on land. We ought to be exploiting those, not going out to the vasty deep."

I'm curious about your sources for this information. Much of what I read these days about the oil business, and the impending arrival of peak oil, suggests that most of the large, easily exploited fields have already been identified and developed, and that oil companies are now forced to look in more dangerous and difficult places (environmentally or politically challenging) because that is where the greatest promise lies for major new discoveries.

Obviously, there are some shallow water areas off the US coast that have not been exploited because of environmental restrictions, and those could make a tidy sum for someone if development were to be allowed. But do any of those areas have oil fields that are substantial enough to make a significant dent in US oil imports?

Interest in deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico seems to stem from the potential for exploiting a very large oil field:

"Another major exploration breakthrough has arrived in the shape of Chevron’s successful production test of the Jack 2 oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. The well test is the first time that oil has been successfully extracted from the ancient tertiary trend in the deepest waters of the Gulf and has bolstered hopes that companies will soon be able to tap the giant reserves that lie there."

"It is estimated that the deepwater area of the Gulf of Mexico could yield between three billion and 15 billion barrels of oil, making it potentially the biggest US discovery since that of Prudhoe Bay in Alaska nearly 40 years ago. If production comes in at the upper end of that estimate it will boost US reserves by 50 percent. The Gulf has long been seen as an area with serious promise, but the difficulty of accessing the reserves in such deep water has been a major stumbling block."

(http://www.ngoilgas.com/article/Hard-to-reach/)  

CP, Connecticut

Of course oil is hard to reach, If it were not it would be cheaper and people wouldn't get right out of finding it.

It has been my experience that oil is where you find it, and you find it in places that you look. Few look where you are not allowed to drill. I understand that there are large fields at bery great depths, but I also know that at least in 1969 there were a number of off-shore wells planned in California, all fairly close to shore; the Santa Barbara oil spill stopped thos. That wasn't an economic decision.

I'm no oil expert, but I do know there are plenty of outfits willing to drill and exploit wells in areas other than way the hell off shore in very deep water. Deep water wells are a lot more expensive than those closer to shore.

Of course there is interest in very deep wells. If I were in charge I would require those developing those wells to have clear contingency plans for recovering from spills and torrents and disasters, and also charge a separation tax to be spent on developing resources -- possibly a branch of the Coast Guard in the case of federally owned sites, possible a state disaster service in the case of state owned facilities. If the taxes were too high and caused the companies to come closer to shore, so be it. My point in 1969 when I went through this with Reagan was that during a disaster is not the time to learn how to deal with the disaster if there is any possibility of preparing in advance; and a major oil spill is inevitable. I said this in 1967.

I am not the proper person to design details, such as how much ought to be allocated to create a public service disaster service and how large that ought to be compared to organized civil defense services (when I first made this proposal it was in a Civil Defense context, at a time when we had working Civil Defense organizations0. I can leave that to others. I note, though, that forty years after this was discussed and I had done my briefings we still don't know about the safety of many chemical detergents, we didn't have any civil defense organization in the Gulf, we didn't have any large well capping equipment, and no one really knew what the hell to do when something very predictable happened.

If we don't know how to deal with deep water oil gushers, we probably ought not be drilling in very deep water.

===========

Researcher Infects Himself With Computer Virus - Wired Campus - The Chronicle of Higher Education

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Researcher-Infects-Himself/24352/ 

To quote the late Phil Castora, what can I say after I say what can I say?

Best,

Francis Hamit

============

Subject: Finance.

Jerry,

In addition to Bob Holmes's suggestion for injecting a little honesty into the rating agencies I suggest that credit default swaps; ie. bets that a company or country will become bankrupt are limited by using the insurable interest rules. Crudely these prevent another insuring your house against, say, fire. It would be too tempting otherwise. If they hold a mortgage, of course, they then have an insurable interest. Short selling of shares should be limited to actual shareholders and the shares they hold. One of the evils of letting the nice man at the broker's office do all the tedious paperwork for you is that he may be renting out your shares and if the broker goes bankrupt you may have difficulty in getting them back from all the other people who also think they own them. At least some exchange traded bullion funds are also flawed. The major institution whose terms and conditions that I studied took no responsibility if your bullion turned out to be cast iron with a coat of gold paint, (yes it happened 200 tons of it), and they reserved the right to store it in their friends garden shed at your risk. If this were not enough they also reserved the right to use your money to back a racehorse that they fancied. Of course the terms were more mellifluous than this but you would be hard put to sue if that is what happened and the horse lost or the shed was burgled. Another racket is the unallocated bullion holding. This is where you own a claim on the general hoard as opposed to specific bars. I had to be downright nasty to a government owned bank when I converted an unallocated bullion holding to an allocated holding of specific bars. The general hoard simply did not exist. This was not mentioned when I paid for my non existent investment. Finally, the investment manager who defended his decision not to do due diligence because it would have involved reading 750,000 documents should be publicly executed. It is very easy to do due diligence when the documents are delivered in a large lorry. You send the driver away. Immediately. You do not make the investment.

Here endeth the rant,

 John Edwards

============

The Single Reason

There is but one reason for the vast majority of content in both View and Mail: greed.

Illegal immigration could be solved in a matter of months; stop all hiring of illegal immigrants in any and all occupational categories. They come here for opportunity, period. Remove all opportunity and the flow of illegal immigrants would reverse. They wouldn't have to be deported; they would find their own way home. There would be long lines on this side of the border of folks waiting to get back on the south side.

But the greed of the contractor, etc. to get the job done a few bucks cheaper per worker puts money in the contractor's pocket. It is just that simple. Who is stealing jobs from American workers? It's American employers, illegally hiring illegal workers to line the contractor's (and sub-contractor's) pockets instead of putting money in the pockets of American workers.

If there were no work, no opportunity for illegal immigrants whatsoever, there would be no illegal immigrant problem. Put the blame where it belongs, on the backs of the greedy contractors and sub-contractors. I'm willing to bet that a great many of the same people who are howling about illegal immigration have not checked the papers of their own gardeners, roofers, plumbers helpers, cable layers, trash collectors and so on and so forth. Why wait for the INS? Take away the jobs. Pay only for American labor.

BP (and everyone else) uses a different BOP in European waters than they use in American waters. I dare say that if they used the European version in American waters, there would be no oil spill in the Gulf. There's plenty of greed there to spread throughout the political environment that pre-existed the Obama administration. I've read that the platform management wanted to impress the suits coming for the tour; again, simple greed. (Greed isn't always about cash, it's also about pecking order and choice assignments).

As far as the financial sector, greed is the single driving force.

Bruce

One always assumes greed. The logical trend of unrestrained capitalism is to the sale of human flesh in the market place. One always assumes ambition. One always assumes the Iron Law.

As to "stop all hiring of illegal immigrants in any and all occupational categories" I fear that's a little like Will Rogers' solution to the submarine problem: Boil the Atlantic Ocean. They're sure to surface and then we can sink them." But yes, better enforcement of Social Security and other such would certainly help.

So would a big fence. We don't seem to be doing that.

=================

X-51 ordinary-fuel scramjet to fly on Tuesday 

The Register® <http://www.theregister.co.uk/

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/21/x_51_scramjet_test_confirmed/ 

X-51 ordinary-fuel scramjet to fly on Tuesday

'This will be as big as going from props to jets'

By Lewis Page <http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?
story_url=/2010/05/21/x_51_scramjet_test_confirmed/

Posted in Space <http://www.theregister.co.uk/science/space/>  , 21st May 2010 15:04 GMT

The X-51A "Waverider" scramjet will fly at last next Tuesday, it has been announced. It had been expected that the radical engine - capable of Mach 6 velocities while running on fairly ordinary jet fuel - would fly last December, but budgetary and scheduling difficulties have delayed the project.

The X-51A is being run by the Air Force Research Laboratory and built by Boeing and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. It will be dropped from a modified B-52 bomber operated by NASA next week, and a booster rocket will accelerate it to ignition speed (ramjets can't even fire up until they're going fast enough to cram suitable amounts of air into their front ends).

Unlike well-understood ordinary ramjets, which slow the air passing through them to subsonic speeds, the X-51 is intended to maintain combustion in a supersonic internal airflow - hence the name scramjet, for supersonic combustion ramjet - a feat often likened to "striking a match in a hurricane".

Having ignited, its designers hope that the Waverider will accelerate further to speeds of Mach 6 and fly for as long as five minutes before making its final dive into the Pacific. There are no plans to retrieve the aircraft: all data from the test will be gathered remotely.

"In those 300 seconds, we hope to learn more about hypersonic flight with a practical scramjet engine than all previous flight tests combined," says Charlie Brink, X-51 honcho at the Air Force Lab.

The previous longest scramjet flight, by NASA's X-43 in 2004, lasted only ten seconds. The X-43, too, burned hydrogen, which is not a good feature in aircraft as it requires enormous tanks for storage. Hydrogen scramjets offer higher speeds (Mach 10 has been achieved) but the X-51's ability to run on ordinary hydrocarbons has long been sought. Previous attempts along these lines haven't gone well <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/07/hyfly_scramjet_dcr_darpa_test_failure/>  (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/07/hyfly_scramjet_dcr_darpa_test_failure/), but the X-51 represents a new approach.

Brink said in a statement released yesterday that delays to the project had resulted from budgetary and scheduling problems - in particular the difficulty of getting a time slot on the Pacific range and a booking of NASA's B-52. Rather than an initial shot last December followed by three more this year, there will now be only one test before the new fiscal year.

"This is an experimental X-plane and it's a complicated test," says Brink. "We knew the original schedule was aggressive and we would need to be flexible," said Brink. "It's also expensive to keep a staff of engineers and support staff at the ready and then not be able to fly when supporting assets aren’t available. So we elected to make only one hypersonic try this spring and then pause for a few months to conserve funding."

If successful, the X-51 is expected to lead in the short term to new missiles able to strike faraway targets quickly and hit so fast as to be extremely difficult to defend against.

In the longer run, scramjet tech could be a key factor in access to orbit via reusable runway-takeoff spaceplanes. Rockets struggle to achieve this because they must carry oxidiser as well as fuel, reducing what they can lift, but a spaceplane which could burn air for part of its ascent would have improved performance.

Brink has said before that the X-51 project could allow for tests to see what the minimum ignition speed of the scramjet might be.

“The lower it can go, the lower the stress on a turbine,” he said <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/05/x_51_tests_for_december/>  (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/05/x_51_tests_for_december/) last year, alluding to the possibility of an ordinary jet being used to shove the scramjet up to ignition speed - so opening the door to craft which could take off from a runway standing start without rocket boost. Ordinary turbojets are limited to around Mach 2.5 in normal use, though they can beat Mach 3 if the user doesn't mind replacing them afterwards.

"If the test flight meets even a subset of our expectations, the leap in engine technology will be the equivalent to the post-World War II leap from propellers to jet engines. It will be a historic event," enthused Boeing veep Alex Lopez.

And it flew. For 200 seconds: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100527130438.htm

==============

Subject: Google's WiFi snoop - who knew and who didn't?

Google says they ‘only’ collected 600GB of information via wireless. Well .. let’s see, if we assume 100 bytes of information can hold a person’s name, address, ID (SSN in the US), bank account number and password…. Then we divide 600 GB by 100 … we get 6 Billion individuals. Since there are only 6.8 billion people in the world, their database could have that much info in it.

Now, I’m not claiming Google collected the information I mentioned, or that they did it around the entire world…it’s the point that ‘only’ 600GB of information has the potential to be a lot of damaging info for a lot of people.

 

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/18/google_street_view_wifi_analysis/ 

Google's WiFi snoop - who knew and who didn't?

The meaning of 'mistake'

By Cade Metz in San Francisco <http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/
?story_url=/2010/05/18/google_street_view_wifi_analysis/

Posted in ID <http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/identity/>  , 18th May 2010 00:24 GMT

How do you mistakenly spend three years collecting personal data from the world's open WiFi networks? We're not quite sure. We can only hope that when Google asks an outsider to scrutinize the WiFi-snooping habits of its Street View cars, the results are released to the public.

Google spent three years collecting personal data <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/14/
google_street_view_cars_were_collecting_
payload_data_from_wifi_networks/>  from the world's open WiFi networks, its fleet of Street View cars nabbing wireless network traffic as they sped across the globe snapping all those digital photos, and yes, the company says it did so "mistakenly." When reading Google's blog post <http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/wifi-data-collection-update.html>   on the matter, you're led to believe that it was all just an accident - that even those leading the project didn't quite realize what their own software was gathering.<snip>

=============

The 5000 Year Leap; Great Read

Dear American Friend,

This alert has less to do with your political persuasion and much more to do with how you view your country in its relationship with the World body. It has been said that the United States of America represents the greatest experiment in government ever attempted in modern times. Elements of our forefather's ideas in establishing a constitution had been tried in ancient times. The actual building of our constitution, circa 1784, was the result of much debate among a group of leaders that probably was drawn together by an act of God. How else could they have developed the most important document the World has ever seen that stands at the head of the class in terms of success, 226 years later. ( You should come to your own conclusion on this claim.)

The book I am recommending is titled; The 5000 Year Leap. The title is a reference to 5000 years of attempts to build a just and free society that would enable mankind to live in peace. Written by Professor W. Cleon Skousen, ISBN 10; 0-88080-148-1, 2006 NATIONAL CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL STUDIES, this book is an easy read with well documented references for all of its statistical data. It really deserves to be a required study in every American high school history class. It is totally relative to a 2010 governance.

This 337 page treatise can be purchased through Amazon for around $10.00 used or at Barnes and Noble or Borders for $19.95. It will be the most important book you will read this year outside of the Holy Bible, if you are a regular reader of that "other" very special book. If you do not read this book, just because I have suggested it, read it because you will thank me vigorously when you have completed it. You will also join a growing number of fans who have discovered the book and attempt to get serious Americans to delve into this part of the history of our wonderful country. I'm sorry, I am sure I have not done the book justice with this entreaty. That's OK, just bite the bullet, get it and read it ! If I am wrong, I will rebate your cost promptly.

Like me, you will probably wonder why this information was not given to us somewhere along the line, while we were being educated. What was wrong with those folks who were responsible for our history curriculum? Please take my word for it, you will be pleased with the time spent! You will also formulate some answers for those poor souls that aspire to deviate from the marvelous document that was created to guide America to a truly free society for all its coming generations. The only really free Nation in the world.

Please let me know of your reaction, should you be fortunate enough to obtain and follow my suggestion.

Thank You,

Jack H. Anderson

============

Re: 'Rear-end collisions more than doubled and accidents increased overall in the first 70 days of red-light cameras in West Palm Beach compared to the same period of 2009, traffic records reviewed by The Palm Beach Post show.'

But what about fatal accidents from red-light running motorists?

As a motorcyclist (who sometimes drives a compact car), I am more concerned with red-light running SUVs.

============

Second Danish drug-maker quits Greece over price cut

A second Danish pharmaceutical firm has withdrawn its products from Greece as fallout from the government’s decision to lower the price of medicines continues.

By James Hall Published: 6:43PM BST 30 May 2010

The heavily indebted Greek government has cut the prices of medicines by 25pc. However, Leo Pharma has suspended the sale of two of its drugs because it claims that the price reductions will lead to job losses in Europe.

Kristian Hart Hansen, a senior director of the company, said the 25pc price reduction would encourage similar moves in other countries with large debt problems such as Ireland and Italy, according to the BBC.

Last week another Danish company, Novo Nordisk, withdrew sales of one of its products from Greece for the same reason.

Leo Pharma’s drugs in question are thought to be an anti blood-clotting agent and a remedy for psoriasis.

Leo Pharma claims it is owed millions of euros in unpaid bills by Greece.

However, Greek government officials are counter-claiming that drugs in Greece are too expensive.

According to the BBC, Stefanos Combinos, the director general of Greece’s economy ministry, said that Greece was one of the three most expensive countries in Europe for medicines. He also said that pharmaceutical companies had an obligation to accept price reductions.

Greece is facing financial crisis. At the start of this month, eurozone members and the IMF agreed a €110bn (£95bn) three-year bail-out package to rescue the country’s economy.

In return for the loans, Greece has started to make wide-ranging, deep and painful austerity cuts. Mr Combinos told the BBC that Greece had been under pressure from the IMF to make severe cuts and anticipated that a compromise on a price reduction could be reached soon.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/
pharmaceuticalsandchemicals/7786800/
Second-Danish-drug-maker-quits-
Greece-over-price-cut.html 

Watching the Euro unravel...  Swedes still have kroner and the Brits have the pound...

=============

Could This Be Shown...

...in today's K-12 classrooms? Would it be understood there?

http://nationaljuggernaut.blogspot.com/
2009/09/this-cartoon-seemed-far-fetched-in-1948.html 

Charles Brumbelow

============

Nuke fans, climate agnostics gain ground

Poll shows treehuggers dwindling

By Andrew Orlowski 

Posted in Environment <http://www.theregister.co.uk/science/environment/>  , 24th May 2010 10:48 GMT

Climate agnostics now outnumber true believers who believe radical action is required for the first time, according to a YouGov poll.

The number of people who acknowledge scientific opinions differ has risen from 25 to 33 per cent, while the number who believe global warming is "a serious and urgent problem and radical steps must be taken NOW to prevent terrible damage being done to the planet" has fallen 10 per cent to 28 per cent over a year. The number of respondents who declare that they're "very interested" in global warming has fallen from 31 per cent in 2007 to 18 per cent. <snip>

============

The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23
/magazine/23Race-t.html?src=me&ref=general 

You might possibly be interested in this New York Times Magazine article "The Teachers' Unions' Last Stand." The title oversells the viewpoint of the article (besides, this is the New York Times, are they really going to cross the teachers' unions?)

--Mike

============

Subject: Baen Free Library

Dear Jerry,

A friend sent me this link today:

http://www.baen.com/library/

Since I hadn't seen anything about this on your site for that past couple of months (I checked) I thought I'd let you know. From the site:

"Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached."

Regards,

Steve Erbach Neenah, WI http://www.TheTownCrank.com 

"I object and take exception to everyone saying that Obama and Congress are spending money like a drunken sailor. As a former drunken sailor, I quit when I ran out of money." - Bruce L. Hargraves, USN Retired

It's worth reminding readers about Baen's free library from time to time

=================

re: carriers & submarines (and missiles, too)

Yes, missiles and torpedoes can sink carriers. This isn't new: during WWII the carriers Ark Royal, Courageous, Eagle, Yorktown, Wasp, Shokaku, Chuyo, Shinano, Taiho, Taiyo, Unryu and Unyo - and I may have missed a few - were all sunk by submarines. Mines can do that too, for that matter. The fact is, no ship is unsinkable.

The real question is, are carriers relevant? can their job be done more efficiently by some other kind of ship or even entirely different platforms?

Carriers rendered battlships obsolete because they could detect and sink other ships (including battleships) at far greater range.

To sink a ship you must a) detect it, b) get a firing solution and c) bring weapons into range and fire them.

The range at which you can do all of these is very important, much more than for land warfare. On land, range is good, but at some point you have to put sixteen-year-olds with guns on the ground you want to control. At sea, you only need to be able to sink ships from hundreds of miles away.

Missiles have range, but they're useless without a firing solution.

To get a firing solution, you usually need to have some kind of platform with a permanent line of sight to the target. Sonars can do that too, but they're quite unreliable at anything but very short range - a few dozen nm.

This means that unless you know the ennemy has to pass through a restricted area, submarines need external help to get to a target.

And radar surveillance aircraft are the most efficient way to detect and track ships, because their detection range is about 100-200 nm - compared to about 50nm for ship-based radars. Which is still limited when you consider the size of oceans: again, that's where carriers are really useful and quite irreplaceable.

Drones are no paradigm-shifters for that matter, because while it's true that any ship can conceivably launch a drone, they can't recover them without a flight deck.

So until someone invents a more efficient way than aircraft to provide firing solutions, carriers are here to stay.

Jean-Louis Beaufils

==

Subj: On the Obsolescence ... or not ... of Carrier Battle Groups

I respectfully suggest that it is impossible to understand the question -- much less even begin thinking usefully about what the answer might be -- without understanding the history-based analysis in _FLEET TACTICS AND COASTAL COMBAT, 2ND EDITION_, by Captain Wayne P. Hughes Jr. (US Navy, retired).

http://www.usni.org/store/item.asp?department_id=45&item_id=553 

Rod Montgomery==monty@starfief.com

Certainly required reading for anyone making such decisions. Of course most of those who are will have read it.

=============

Re: natural-language programming

"Why should we have to spend years learning how to tell the computer to do something?"

Because the people who run the CS departments at colleges like their teaching jobs and want to keep them ;)

-- Mike T. Powers

=============w

f

g

 

 

 

 

 read book now

 

 

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