Desert Musings

Redirecting a GeoCities (Yahoo!) web-page

2010-03-06T17:59:00.007-07:00

Like many folks, I created a personal web-page many years ago using Yahoo's GeoCities service. They finally closed down around about the end of 2009. I had already saved my web pages and started converting them for use on my ISP - cox.com. I reserved my own domain name for this site a few years ago and pre-paid for it through 2014. Now that name pointed to a generic Yahoo! business site.

My domain name is paid for through Network Solutions, so I logged onto the account and tried changing the DNS to point to cox - rookie mistake - now that domain name pointed nowhere. In frustration, I typed redirect in their search box and at the bottom was an entry for Domain Name Forwarding. They charge $12 per year and it works perfectly. You even get the option to mask the site name, so it looks like my own domain rather than a members.cox.net site.

Network Solutions offers many more services for the professional web developer than I'll ever need, but I'm glad they also support casual users with simple vanity pages.
I'm sure a simple Google search can find many other solutions for redirecting a domain or web-page. Very helpful if you dread retraining family members to find your site.

Has the Industrial Age just been a long economic bubble?

2010-02-17T09:37:00.006-07:00

Interesting thoughts from a guy who made some very serious money betting on technology . . .

Utopian Pessimist Calls on Radical Tech to Save Economy | Magazine
. . .
Wired: You say that we have big problems in the US economy and that investors have unrealistic expectations. We’ve certainly been through a major crisis, but over the long term the stock market seems to grow fairly reliably.

Thiel: People take it for granted that their retirement funds can earn 8.5 percent a year. That’s what their financial planners tell them. And sure, you look back over the past 100 years, the stock market has generally gone up 6 to 8 percent a year. But in a larger historical perspective, that kind of growth is exceptional. If you had done the equivalent of investing in the stock market from, say, 1000 to 1100 AD, you would not have made 8 percent a year. During the fall of the Roman Empire, you’d have been lucky to get zero. We’ve been living in a unique period of accelerating technological progress. We’ve gone from horses to cars to planes to rockets to computers to the Internet in a very short time. It’s not automatic that that continues.

Wired: What happens if we don’t get the growth everyone expects?

Thiel: If it doesn’t happen, people will go bankrupt in retirement. There are systemic consequences, too. If we don’t have enough growth, we will see a powerful shift away from capitalism. There are good things and bad things about capitalism, but inequality becomes completely intolerable to society when everything’s static.
Wired: You’re worried about economic stagnation, but you’re optimistic about artificial intelligence and space?

Thiel: I think we have to make those things happen. We should be looking at technologies that might lead to really big breakthroughs. As a starting point, let’s just go back to the science fiction novels of the 1950s and ’60s and try to run the past 40 years again.

Wired: We need underwater cities and flying cars, otherwise we’re going bankrupt?

Thiel: We go bankrupt if radical progress doesn’t happen and we don’t realize it’s not happening. That’s a dangerous combination.

Wired: We’ve had tremendous growth in the Internet, which is how you made your fortune. Why not look there?

Thiel: Obviously we’ve done well online. But how much more progress is there going to be? How many big new Internet companies are there? In the ’90s we had Netscape, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon. In the past eight years there have been only two: Google and Facebook.

Wired: Twitter?

Thiel: Possibly. Still, the numbers suggest a maturing industry. The Internet may be culturally important, just as the automobile was culturally more important in the ’50s than the ’20s, as we got suburbia and built the Interstate Highway System. But the last successful car company started in the US was Jeep in 1941.

Emphasis added

Teleportation of Energy Is Possible

2010-02-08T19:07:00.001-07:00

This is the kind of discovery that takes a while to percolate before useful technologies come from it. The implications of teleporting information and/or energy are enormous. Imagine living on Mars with all the connectivity we enjoy in one of Earth's major cities.

Physicists Prove Teleportation of Energy Is Possible | Popular Science
"Over five years ago, scientists succeeded in teleporting information. Unfortunately, the advance failed to bring us any closer to the Star Trek future we all dream of. Now, researchers in Japan have used the same principles to prove that energy can be teleported in the same fashion as information. Rather than just hastening the dawn of quantum computing, this development could lead to practical, significant changes in energy distribution."

2009 - A Bad Year For Biofuel

2010-01-01T14:20:00.002-07:00

This article says a lot about the viability of the natural gas & petroleum industries. Every time our government invests in alternative fuels (do you remember oil-shale during the Carter administration?) they fail to create an industry that can survive without subsidies. At least we're adding to our knowledge and should be able to produce commercial quantities of alternative fuels if they're ever needed.

I think government efforts produce better results when they concentrate on the demand side of energy consumption. Today's cars, home, and industries use less energy and produce less pollution than they did a generation ago. We don't celebrate these victories much, but they've dramatically improved life in the US and other developed countries.

Bad Year For Biofuel Ends On Dour Note - Money News Story - KPHO Phoenix
"An alternative fuel for diesel engines is off to a shaky start this year though it emits fewer pollutants and cuts down on petroleum use because it's made from environmentally friendly waste and vegetable oil.

A federal tax credit that provided makers of biodiesel $1 for every gallon expired Friday. As a result, some U.S. producers say they will shut down without the government subsidy.

Biodiesel's woes come on top of a year of problems for the fledgling biofuel industry -- an irony given the push to cut down on greenhouse gases and ease the nation's need for foreign oil. A key driver for the alternative fuel -- the high cost of oil -- disappeared as diesel prices dropped 18 percent since the beginning of the recession. Then in March the European Union placed import-killing tariffs on biodiesel and other biofuels.

It was a huge hit for U.S. biofuel makers, with Europe taking 95 percent of all global exports.

Biodiesel, which is usually blended with traditional fuel, had over the past few years been the fastest growing fuel among fleet vehicles like buses, snow plows and garbage trucks.

Those fleets, however, can shift to traditional fuel, as some have, when the prices of diesel drops.
. . .

"By the time you buy the feedstock and the chemicals to produce the fuel, you have more money in it than you get for the fuel without the tax credit," Francis said. "We won't be producing any without the tax credit."

Color-Changing Contact Lenses for Diabetics

2009-12-29T16:11:00.001-07:00

As technology marches on, we get innovations like this that reduce medical waste, reduce user discomfort, and increase the control diabetics can exercise over their blood sugar.

Color-Changing Contact Lenses Help Diabetics Keep Tabs on Glucose Levels | Ecouterre
"A biochemical engineer at the University of Western Ontario has developed contact lenses that change color in response to spikes and dips in the wearer’s glucose levels.
. . .
The nanocomposite hydrogel lenses, which could render those pesky e-waste-generating blood-glucose meters obsolete, will allow diabetics to monitor potentially life-threatening variations in their sugar levels without missing a thing. (Another upside: They’re ouch-free.)"

You don't need criminal intent to be persecuted (er prosecuted)

2009-11-30T11:15:00.001-07:00

Two quotes:
"Under the English common law we inherited, a crime requires intent. This protection is disappearing in the U.S."
"being emotionally distressed is just part of living in a free society."
Congress would serve us well by spending one year out of four removing old, redundant and ineffective laws. Of course, that won't be happening.

L. Gordon Crovitz: You Commit Three Felonies a Day - WSJ.com:
"Boston civil-liberties lawyer Harvey Silverglate calls his new book 'Three Felonies a Day,' referring to the number of crimes he estimates the average American now unwittingly commits because of vague laws. New technology adds its own complexity, making innocent activity potentially criminal.

Mr. Silverglate describes several cases in which prosecutors didn't understand or didn't want to understand technology. This problem is compounded by a trend that has accelerated since the 1980s for prosecutors to abandon the principle that there can't be a crime without criminal intent."

In England - Mandatory Jail for Handing in a Gun

2009-11-23T14:14:00.002-07:00

Poor judgment has been exercised by everyone Mr Clarke came in contact with after he found a shotgun dumped in his back yard. He should never have been charged, tried, or convicted. It is tragic that the home of the Magna Carta has reduced itself to this pitiful state.

Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun:
"A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for 'doing his duty'.

Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.

The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon.

In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: 'I didn't think for one moment I would be arrested.

'I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets.'"

Sensible people have been fleeing Britain for years - this decision may increase the trend. How can a jury damn someone to prison when that person was merely trying to protect the public at large? Their hysteria regarding guns ought to encourage such behavior, not condemn it.

College Student Invents Lightweight Personal Insulation

2009-11-23T10:35:00.002-07:00

BYU student Nate Alder brought together a team that designed Argon insulated clothing for a college competition and the idea is now being used in a new line of lightweight commercial products.

Not Just Hot Air | Popular Science:
"During one of the scuba seminars, he learned about how divers in cold climates pump argon gas into their dry suits for insulation. As a former snowboard instructor, he wondered if argon could be used to warm skiers and snowboarders too.

He returned to college, still with no declared major and no knowledge of chemistry but intent on exploring the possibilities of using the gas as an insulator. “I didn’t even know if argon was flammable or toxic,” jokes Alder, now 28. When his research revealed that argon is actually inert and used to extinguish fires in computer labs, he knew he was onto something. He began recruiting BYU business and engineering students and quickly assembled a crack team to flesh out argon-based outerwear that would enable wearers to adjust warmth by simply inflating or deflating a vest.

The group wrote a business plan and entered a BYU competition. “Our first prototype was basically a plastic pillow filled up with the gas,” Alder recalls. Although their idea was unprecedented—no one had ever tried trapping argon for use in cold-weather gear—they finished a somewhat disappointing fifth place and decided to disband."

Their discoveries are now commercial products:

Klymit NobleTek Gas Insulation | Popular Science:
"Cold-weather apparel made with Klymit NobleTek is simultaneously ultralight and hyper-efficient, thanks to chambers that keep the body warm in the same way double-paned windows insulate a building. A layer of argon has the same thermal conductivity as a layer of down or synthetic fiber insulation three times as thick, and unlike those materials, it’s unaffected by wetness or compression. The wearer can adjust the warmth level on the go by connecting a thumb-sized argon canister to a valve in the pocket ..."

30 Basic Human Rights

2009-11-17T11:12:00.005-07:00

According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations in 1948, we have 30 basic human rights.

While some of us may dispute specifics, like who is to provide (pay for) "the right to affordable housing, medicine, education, and child care, enough money to live on" (#22), this document gives us a starting point for discussions.

FYI - protecting Copyrights (#27) is a hot topic in this electronic age, and it certainly seems that some of our enemies are opposed to "A free and fair world" (#28) if that means allowing us to enjoy our other rights.

This link discusses the same list of rights in more accessible language.

Another ebook reader for your PC

2009-11-10T11:06:00.006-07:00

Amazon's Kindle is probably the most popular ebook reader. This PC application helps them stay on top. One of the best features is synchronization between devices, so the reader is always on the correct page when you go from your Kindle to reading on your PC and then to your iPhone. I've been using the excellent MobiPocket reader for both my PC and my Palm Centro, but the Kindle may be a better choice for many.

Kindle for PC Ships, Hints At Future Color Kindle | Gadget Lab | Wired.com:
"Kindle fans now have one more place they can read their e-books: A PC. Kindle for PC joins the equally well-named Kindle for iPhone and, er, Kindle for Kindle in the list of ways to read Amazon’s DRM’ed content. A Mac version is “coming soon”.

The application does pretty much what the iPhone version does: your place is synced with other devices by Whispersync, and there is support for your bookmarks and annotations. You can browse and buy from the Kindle Store, but you can’t access blogs, newspapers or magazines. This isn’t a problem, we guess, as you’re sat at a computer with a web browser anyway."

FYI - DRM = Digital Rights Management

What is an FN Five-Seven?

2009-11-09T14:02:00.002-07:00

The FN Herstal Five-Seven is a fairly ordinary pistol chambered for a quite unique cartridge. The 5.7X28mm round is reminiscent of the AR15/M16 5.56X45mm cartridge (also known as the .223 Remington) adopted by the US military during the Vietnam War era. Like this rifle round, it uses a smaller than normal projectile fired at high velocity. The projectiles are very similar in size, with the 5.7X28 bullet weighing about the same as light .223 bullets intended for varmint (small game) hunting.

What, Exactly, Is a ‘Cop-Killer’ Gun? (Updated) | Danger Room | Wired.com:
"News reports on the Fort Hood rampage say that the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Hasan, used an FN Herstal Five-Seven pistol — described in some reports as a “cop killer” gun.
. . .

The Five-Seven is chambered for the 5.7 x 28mm cartridge, ammunition originally developed by FN Herstal for the FN P90 Personal Defense Weapon. The P90 was conceived as a compact, powerful weapon that could be carried by aircraft crews, vehicle drivers and other troops who needed a weapon that was smaller than a carbine but larger than a pistol.
. . .
Gun control group The Brady Campaign says it bought and test-fired a Five-Seven, and that it successfully penetrated a police vest. That said, it doesn’t seem quite accurate to call the Five-Seven a pocket-sized assault rifle. Its barrel would give it a lower muzzle velocity than a PN90; likewise, it strikes me as unlikely that it would give a shooter much more accuracy and effective range than a standard pistol. And plain-vanilla pistol round can be devastating enough: Think of the Virginia Tech shooter, who used a Glock 9mm and Walther .22.

We don’t know at this point a lot of the details: Exactly what kind of ammunition the shooter used; how many shots in total were fired; and at what range. That will take a lot of police work, and a lot of patience.

Still, the tragedy at Fort Hood seems likely to renew debate: Both on gun control, and on the kinds of measures to protect troops while they are on base, and unarmed.

UPDATE: Hasan bought the gun on August 1st — less than a month after he was transferred to Ft. Hood, a law enforcement official tells Newsweek’s phenomenal new Declassified blog. “At the same time, Hasan also bought several high capacity 20 round magazines that allowed him to rapidly fire off multiple rounds during the attack without reloading, the official said."

The Future of Air Power?

2009-11-05T12:13:00.005-07:00

Military technology is driven quite a bit by the "last war" and tradition, particularly when we aren't fighting a "hot war". Actual combat has a tendency to make the military face brutal realities.

For many decades, we've had the luxury of being able to control the air - a significant strategic advantage. Today's reality is that unmanned aircraft are cheaper in both dollars and political consequences (no downed pilots to recover).

The use of UAVs or RPVs is unrewarding & emotionally difficult for the pilots, but if we're to maintain our advantage, we'll be doing much more of it. Manned aircraft won't be phased out for a long time, but unmanned aircraft are going to become much more common - we better get used to it.

Fighter Pilots Face A Dismal Future
"Many people, including some generals in the air force, believe that its next generation fighter will not have a pilot on board. Many air force generals admit that the F-35 is probably the last manned fighter. But some believe that the F-35 will be facing stiff competition from pilotless fighters before F-35 production is scheduled to end in 2034.

UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles) are not particularly popular with many U.S. Air Force leaders, but that is not the case in many other countries. Air force generals around the world see the unpiloted jet fighter as a way to break the monopoly the U.S. Air Force has had on air supremacy for the last sixty years.

Most Americans don't even think of this long domination of the air, but potential enemies of the United States are well aware of it, and that domination has a profound effect on how those nations do their military planning. In effect, if you think about going to war with the United States in the immediate future, you take for granted that American aircraft will control the skies above. Robotic jet fighters could change that. And this is forcing American air force generals to confront a very unsavory prospect; a sixth generation fighter that is flown by software, not a pilot.

It's not just that most of the those American air force generals began their careers as fighter pilots. No, the reason is more practical. American air superiority has largely been the result of superior pilots. The U.S. didn't always have the best aircraft, but they always had the most talented and resourceful pilots. And that's what gave the U.S. its edge. Will that translate to software piloted fighters? Research to date seems to indicate it will."

Hidden Solar Cells Could be an Option for Homeowners

2009-11-05T10:18:00.011-07:00

The bigger problem with solar is the need for energy storage, or an energy substitute when the sun isn't shining. Energy can be stored in batteries or more elaborate systems. For most homeowners, the best substitute is the electricity grid - sell excess solar energy to the grid during the day and buy cheap electricity from it at night.

Once you've made these decisions, then aesthetics of the solar array can be considered and the article below may have a solution for some folks.

Our home faces south, so photovoltaic cells would need to be mounted on the street facing surface of our roof, or we would have the increased expense of building frames to hold them at the correct angle on the back side of the roof. Our neighbors might not mind a bunch of solar panels, but they would also need to be approved by the dreaded HOA.

Hidden Solar Cells: 3-D System Based On Optical Fiber Could Provide New Options For Photovoltaics:
"Converting sunlight to electricity might no longer mean large panels of photovoltaic cells atop flat surfaces like roofs.

Using zinc oxide nanostructures grown on optical fibers and coated with dye-sensitized solar cell materials, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new type of three-dimensional photovoltaic system. The approach could allow PV systems to be hidden from view and located away from traditional locations such as rooftops.

"Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. "Optical fiber could conduct sunlight into a building's walls where the nanostructures would convert it to electricity. This is truly a three dimensional solar cell."

. . .

Dye-sensitized solar cells use a photochemical system to generate electricity. They are inexpensive to manufacture, flexible and mechanically robust, but their tradeoff for lower cost is conversion efficiency lower than that of silicon-based cells. But using nanostructure arrays to increase the surface area available to convert light could help reduce the efficiency disadvantage, while giving architects and designers new options for incorporating PV into buildings, vehicles and even military equipment.

. . .

Wang and his research team, which includes Benjamin Weintraub and Yaguang Wei, have produced generators on optical fiber up to 20 centimeters in length. "The longer the better," said Wang, "because longer the light can travel along the fiber, the more bounces it will make and more it will be absorbed."

Traditional quartz optical fiber has been used so far, but Wang would like to use less expensive polymer fiber to reduce the cost. He is also considering other improvements, such as a better method for collecting the charges and a titanium oxide surface coating that could further boost efficiency.

Though it could be used for large PV systems, Wang doesn't expect his solar cells to replace silicon devices any time soon. But he does believe they will broaden the potential applications for photovoltaic energy."

More success in private space ventures

2009-11-04T11:37:00.002-07:00

With NASA's current problems, our leadership in space technology is in the hands of industry - private & public firms. Fortunately, quite a bit of activity is occurring in this area . . .

Xoie Claims $1 Million Lunar Lander Prize | Autopia | Wired.com:
"Leaving it to the last minute, the team from Masten Space Systems has made a come-from-behind effort to win the $1 million prize after successfully flying its lunar lander last week. The team flew a new ship, called Xoie, to qualify for level 2 of the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

After looking at the qualifying teams, Masten Space Systems and Armadillo Aerospace, the competition came down to inches.

In order to qualify for the level 2 of challenge, each participating team’s rocket had to autonomously make a round trip between two separate launch pads, flying to an altitude of at least 164 feet and remain aloft for at least 180 seconds. Armadillo Aerospace successfully met the requirements back in September. Their lander, Scorpius, had an average landing accuracy of about 35 inches.

When the team from Masten flew Friday, one day before the end of the competition, they managed to make the round trip with an average landing accuracy of about 7.5 inches. John Carmack’s Armadillo Aerospace team lost the million dollar prize by a little more than two feet."

Twitter Lists

2009-10-29T15:01:00.001-07:00

Well I'm not if anyone should follow all of these, but some may be useful if you use Twitter.

Twitter Lists You Should Follow:
"Twitter is officially launching Lists, its new feature to organize the massive group of users obsessively sending out 140 character messages.

An independent web development company wasted no time setting up Listorious, a directory much like Kevin Rose's WeFollow, tracking all the most popular and influential Twitter Lists."

Google's New Free GPS Service

2009-10-28T14:05:00.001-07:00

Hikers, 4-wheelers, & boaters will still want a GPS that has an internal database, but the far larger market that is always near a cell-tower will probably be quite satisfied with the new, free service.

Cell phones (like classic Palm's) that can't use this service will also be at a competitive disadvantage.

Google's Free GPS Service Crushes Garmin, TomTom Shares (GOOG, GRMN, NOK, AAPL):
"Investors fled GPS-makers' shares today after Google announced it would offer free turn-by-turn GPS directions in its Android phones and as a service for other mobile phones, like Apple's iPhone."

Augustine Commission has harsh conclussions for NASA

2009-10-27T10:38:00.001-07:00

The entire article is worth reading, but this quote summarizes many of the issues for me:

Full Augustine Commission Report - Surprises from the Full Review of Human Spaceflight - Popular Mechanics:
"6) NASA is handicapped by rules that limit the way it does business.
Unlike other federal departments, NASA's relationship with the industrial world is antiquated, discourages innovation and suffers from inflexible bureaucracy."

A good looking Wind Turbine

2009-10-26T14:50:00.003-07:00

There are a lot of new ideas in wind-power that make home use more palatable. Here is an idea that should look good and work well in many locations. It won't generate enough power to take most people off the grid, but it could easily reduce your monthly power bill.

Inhabitat » Ridgeblade Wind Turbine Silences NIMBYs:
"Rooftop solar panels are unlikely to elicit complaints from neighbors–they’re silent and relatively unobtrusive. But loud rooftop wind turbines? That’s where the virtually NIMBY-proof Ridgeblade turbine comes in. The turbine, designed by a former Rolls Royce turbine engineer at UK-based The Power Collective, boasts a sleek profile that is both powerful and visually pleasing."

Privacy threat - Medical Records for sale

2009-10-23T11:29:00.004-07:00

Outsourcing is a fact of life in many industries. If this kind of thing worries you then you should consider lobbying your government for regulation on such activity.

Outsourcing data is probably a far greater risk to your privacy than the outsourcing of labor is a risk to your job. These days even your doctor or other service provider may not know if your data is being sent overseas for some processing.

Medical records sent for computerisation to India up for sale- Politics/Nation-News-The Economic Times:
"NEW DELHI: In a development that is certain to lead to a hardening of stance on the outsourcing industry by the western world, investigations conducted by a British TV channel have come up with the stunning revelation that confidential medical records sent to India for computerisation are being offered for sale, triggering heightened concerns about breach of data security here.

The revelation has forced police of the two countries to join hands to launch an official investigation into the data pilferage of the records stored by the Indian BPOs.

. . .

The files procured were of patients of London Clinic, one of Britain’s top private hospitals. Several hospitals in the National Health Service have also outsourced their transcription to India, sparking concern over data safety following the latest investigation. "

NASA unveils rocket for shuttle's replacement

2009-10-20T10:25:00.002-07:00

Things seem to happen slowly at NASA, but at least some things are still happening . . .

Ares1X rollout - NASA unveils shuttle's replacement:
"NASA's pristine white Ares I-X rocket rolled out of the enormous Vehicle Assembly Building just after 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. Reporters and space center employees joined program engineers and executives for the grand unveiling which took place under bright white spotlights.
>> Photos of the rollout

“This is really the first chance we've had to see it in all its glory,” offered John Cowart, deputy manager for the Ares test flight. “Not since about 1975 has something this large come out of the VAB.”
The Ares I-X is 327 feet tall – much taller than the space shuttles that usually make the slow roll to the launch pads. But it's primarily built from a space shuttle solid rocket booster, and is meant to test the flight characteristics of NASA's planned shuttle replacements.

“It's a different shape than what people are used to. It's that tallest rocket in the world, it's very thin for its height. But we're very confident it's going to work and we've done all that we can possibly do,” Cowart continued.

The two-minute flight, planned for next week, should give engineers plenty of data about rotation, vibration, and even parachute deployment before the rocket splashes down in the Atlantic. It's taking place early enough in the design process that lessons learned from this flight can be applied to the final design."

Little drama, but lots of data from NASA's LCROSS mission

2009-10-09T15:16:00.001-07:00

Listening to mission control, it was evident that the NASA folks were engaged & excited by this mission. We're developing the information required to support a permanent station on the Moon. There's no law that says the language spoken in space will be American English - this data will be in the public domain for whichever nation has the nerve to become explorers again. The benefits of living & working in space may be unimaginable, but based on past performance, they'll far exceed the invest made to get there.

No plume, but a firehose of data from NASA moon bombing - Ars Technica:
"Regardless of the public expectations, LCROSS clearly performed as planned. It recently separated from the Centaur stage that helped bring it to lunar orbit, and both of the spacecraft were directed towards the Cabeus crater at the Moon's south pole. The Centaur vehicle went first, creating an impact that could be observed from instruments on LCROSS, which followed it in. Less than four minutes later, LCROSS itself struck the lunar surface. The impacts were observed with a variety of telescopes on Earth and in Earth orbit, although the actual site of the impact was obscured by the Cabeus crater walls.

Clearly, a lot of people were hoping that dropping hardware onto the lunar surface would create a spray of debris that would rise above the crater walls, and be visible to the Earth-based observatories. Unfortunately, from the perspective of the Earth, LCROSS struck not with a bang, but a whimper, as if it had landed on a comfy pillow."

Belkin Surge Protector with Timer

2009-09-29T12:20:00.003-07:00

This new surge protector has 2 always-on outlets, and six that are on an 11-hour timer. For many folks, it could turn off all those parasite power supplies for printers, cordless phones, hubs, etc. daily after you're done working. They're promoting it for corporate office environments, but I think it is prefect for a work at home office also.

Products & Solutions - Belkin - Conserve Surge with Timer:
"Imagine an office where electronics turn themselves off at the end of the day. The Belkin Conserve Surge with Timer is a cost- and energy-saving solution for businesses that want to save money and invest in technology that reduces their carbon footprint. It helps eliminate wasted power right at the workstation—where nearly half of all IT energy costs originate.

Because it limits power consumption right at the workstation, the Conserve Surge Protector empowers IT managers to control cost and employees to contribute to a greener office environment. Businesses can save money without compromising employee productivity."

Available for $34.99 at Newegg.com and similar prices at many other stores.

Mainframe work still a safe career

2009-09-28T10:39:00.001-07:00

"Mainframe" computers are often described as dinosaurs that will soon be extinct. Most detractors say they'll be replaced by servers closer to where the work is being done. Companies that have tried both almost never get rid of the mainframes, because they turn out to be cost-justified.

Often a building full of servers can barely do the same volume of work being done by the mainframes in a single room. For the equivalent results, the mainframe can do the job with fewer salaries to pay, lower energy costs, and more reliability. Often a corporation will end up splitting their processing, with the user interface on servers located near the users, and the data & business rules on mainframes in a secure central location.

With modern telecommunications capabilities & costs, location is not significant. I know of one corporation that saved money by bringing data centers from Europe & Asia to a single centralized facility in the US. Users in the other countries still see their familiar applications operating in the same time zones, with the same reliability. This same corporation has developers world-wide creating and maintaining business applications on those US based mainframes.

Bank of America touts mainframe work as a safe career:
"IBM said this week that 600 colleges, universities and high schools around the world are participating in the mainframe training program, which began in 2004.

The training initiative provides interns and new hires to Bank of America, while some members of its IT staff audit the initiative's courses and provide feedback to help tune the training to business needs.
IBM says it's mainframe revenue has grown in eight of the last 13 quarters. It did note that mainframe revenue plunged by 39% in the second quarter, mirroring server revenue declines for most vendors.

Competing vendors have been arguing that distributed systems have become a strong alternative to mainframes.

However, IT researcher IDC says that MIPS (Million Instructions per Second), a measure of processing power capacity used by mainframes, is on the rise. The mainframe is continuing to grow in terms of the amount of work that processed on the mainframe, which reflects improvements to the platform, said Tim Grieser, an analyst at IDC."

Water on the Moon

2009-09-24T09:39:00.002-07:00

Water is essential to life. So far, we've had to carry adequate water with us during space travel. This discovery means we can probably provide enough water for workers on the Moon without having to lift it our of Earth's huge gravity well. This makes settlements on the Moon more likely in our foreseeable future.

SPACE.com -- It's Official: Water Found on the Moon:
"Since man first touched the moon and brought pieces of it back to Earth, scientists have thought that the lunar surface was bone dry. But new observations from three different spacecraft have put this notion to rest with what has been called 'unambiguous evidence' of water across the surface of the moon.

The new findings, detailed in the Sept. 25 issue of the journal Science, come in the wake of further evidence of lunar polar water ice by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and just weeks before the planned lunar impact of NASA's LCROSS satellite, which will hit one of the permanently shadowed craters at the moon's south pole in hope of churning up evidence of water ice deposits in the debris field.

. . .

Finding water on the moon would be a boon to possible future lunar bases, acting as a potential source of drinking water and fuel.

. . .

The moon rocks were analyzed for signs of water bound to minerals present in the rocks; while trace amounts of water were detected, these were assumed to be contamination from Earth, because the containers the rocks came back in had leaked.

"The isotopes of oxygen that exist on the moon are the same as those that exist on Earth, so it was difficult if not impossible to tell the difference between water from the moon and water from Earth, . . . "
. . .

The rocks and regolith that make up the lunar surface are about 45 percent oxygen (combined with other elements as mostly silicate minerals). The solar wind — the constant stream of charged particles emitted by the sun — are mostly protons, or positively charged hydrogen atoms.

If the charged hydrogens, which are traveling at one-third the speed of light, hit the lunar surface with enough force, they break apart oxygen bonds in soil materials, Taylor, the M3 team member suspects. Where free oxygen and hydrogen exist, there is a high chance that trace amounts of water will form.

The various study researchers also suggest that the daily dehydration and rehydration of the trace water across the surface could lead to the migration of hydroxyl and hydrogen towards the poles where it can accumulate in the cold traps of the permanently shadowed regions."

Drive on Solar Panels?

2009-09-23T11:18:00.001-07:00

Questions of durability and cost effectiveness still need to be answered, but this is certainly innovative thinking. The public already owns the roads, so they can be paved with whatever we're prepared to pay for. Roads usually go places where energy is used, so there is a certain synergy here.

On the other hand, the public owns an awful lot of rooftops, and they could be covered with solar panels that don't need to be as durable as these.

Crushed glass has proven to be a pretty good aggregate substitute in asphalt roads, so the concern hinted at below has probably already been addressed.

Solar Roadways certainly deserves a chance to make their case.

Solar Panels Built Into Roads Could Be the Future of Energy | Popular Science:
"The Department of Energy just gave $100,000 to upstart company Solar Roadways, to develop 12-by-12-foot solar panels, dubbed 'Solar Roads,' that can be embedded into roads, pumping power into the grid. The panels may also feature LED road warnings and built-in heating elements that could prevent roads from freezing.

. . .
In addition, every Solar Road panel has its own microprocessor and energy management system, so if one gives out, the rest are not borked. Materials-wise, the top layer is described as translucent and high-strength. Inhabitat says it's glass, which seems odd, especially since Solar Roadways claims the surface provides excellent traction. The base layer under the solar panel routes the power, as well as data utilities (TV, phone, Internet) to homes and power companies."

"Net Neutrality" May End Unlimited Internet Access

2009-09-23T10:29:00.001-07:00

". . . the demand for a 'free' or unlimited good is infinite. Networks don't have infinite capacity." Jerry Pournelle

FCC Position May Spell the End of Unlimited Internet | Epicenter | Wired.com:
"Net neutrality sounds like a good idea. After all, it’s the internet’s openness to any and all users, applications and content that gave it such a resounding victory over closed networks like AOL, CompuServe and Prodigy. And there’s no question that as a general business and networking principle, “anything goes” is both desirable and beneficial, to users and network operators alike. Over the long run, the most open networks attract the most customers and will be the most successful — and the most profitable.
But somewhere along the way, this principle of good network architecture turned into a political tenet that, according to some true believers, is almost equivalent to the Bill of Rights in importance.
. . .

For net neutrality’s true believers, Comcast and Verizon no longer get to decide how best to configure the networks they spent billions building: Their networks are so ubiquitous, and so critical to the common good, that the government has a responsibility to ensure they are managed fairly.

. . .
Unfortunately, there are at least three big problems with making net neutrality a federal mandate.
First is that bandwidth is not, in fact, unlimited, especially in the wireless world. One reason ISPs are averse to neutrality regulation, they say, is that they need the flexibility to ban or mitigate high-bandwidth uses of their network, like BitTorrent and Hulu.com, which would otherwise run amok.

. . .

Take away ISPs’ ability to shape or restrict traffic, and you’ll see many carriers running into AT&T-like capacity problems. Their response will almost certainly be to make consumers pay for what they’re actually using.

. . .
Second, enforcement of neutrality regulations is going to be difficult. Comcast may not be able to block Skype traffic altogether, but what’s to prevent the company from slowing it down relative to other traffic it carries? Such preferential “packet shaping” is easy to turn off and on, as network demands ebb and flow. By contrast, proving such infractions of neutrality will be complex, slow and difficult. It sets up a classic “nimble, resourceful criminal versus slow-footed, underequipped cop” scenario.

Third, the new regulations create an additional layer of government bureaucracy where the free market has already proven its effectiveness. The reason you’re not using AOL to read this right now isn’t because the government mandated AOL’s closed network out of existence: It’s because free and open networks triumphed, and that’s because they were good business.
. . ."

Space Debris Removal coming

2009-09-18T09:24:00.002-07:00

Here we go - if this ends up being a commercial project, access to space might just become affordable. I'm thinking of robots that can sling nets over the debris and then toss the net down into the atmosphere to burn up. I would love to return the junk and sell it as souvenirs, but that approach is probably still too costly.

Pentagon Wants ‘Space Junk’ Cleaner | Danger Room | Wired.com:
"The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency put out a notice yesterday requesting information on possible solutions to the infamous space debris problem.

“Since the advent of the space-age over five decades ago, more than thirty-five thousand man-made objects have been cataloged by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network,” the agency notes. “Nearly twenty-thousand of those objects remain in orbit today, ninety-four percent of which are non-functioning orbital debris.”

These figures do not even include the objects too small to count. There are estimated to be hundreds of thousands of these smaller objects, and as debris hits other debris, it creates even more small pieces, exponentially increasing the amount of objects that could threaten satellites and spacecraft."

Refurbished Hubble - Stunning Images

2009-09-14T11:03:00.002-07:00

Pretty amazing pictures. I'm sure the scientists are learning a lot also.

Newly Refurbished Hubble Sends Back Stunning First Images | Popular Science:
"We always like to look forward to bigger and better tech, but NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, though it's been around the block, still holds a special place in every geek's heart. Now the freshly repaired and upgraded telescope has resumed churning out enough images of cosmic glory to turn anyone's head."

Armadillo wins $1M Lunar Lander Challenge

2009-09-14T09:43:00.002-07:00

A prize this size isn't enough to pay for their engineering effort, but obviously it is enough to keep engineers enthused and their financiers involved. There won't be a profit this quarter or this year, but fortunatley some people are looking further into the future. People like these are a big reason that life in general keeps getting better, generation after generation.

Armadillo Aerospace's Scorpius Craft Finally Bags $1 Million Lunar Lander Challenge | Popular Science:
"A future trip to the moon could use a commercial vehicle, if Armadillo Aerospace has anything to say about it. The company's rocket-powered craft pulled off a mock lunar landing on Saturday to qualify for a $1 million purse from NASA's Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge.

The vehicle rose 164 feet into the air and flew 164 feet away to land on a rocky surface, before returning to the starting spot for a round trip flight time of 180 seconds. That accomplishment made Armadillo the first team to complete Level 2 requirements of the Lunar Lander Challenge, where the minimum flight time simulates a trip from lunar orbit down to the moon."

Laser Propulsion Finally Maturing?

2009-09-02T10:44:00.001-07:00

At some point (soon?) we'll find a way to access space from Earth without setting small packages on top of huge piles of explosives (rockets). This article discuses one potential solution:

SPACE.com -- Laser Propulsion: Wild Idea May Finally Shine:
"New laser propulsion experiments are throwing light on how to build future hypersonic aircraft and beam spacecraft into Earth orbit.
Indeed, a "Lightcraft revolution" could replace today's commercial jet travel. Passengers would be whisked from one side of the planet to the other in less than an hour - just enough time to get those impenetrable bags of peanuts open. Furthermore, beamed energy propulsion can make flight to orbit easy, instead of tenuous and dangerous.

That's the belief of Leik Myrabo an aerospace engineering professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. He's an expert in directed energy applications, aerospace systems, space prime power, and advanced propulsion.

For the past three decades, Myrabo's burning desire has been to create and demonstrate viable concepts for non-chemical propulsion of future flight vehicles through his research and company Lightcraft Technologies, Inc., of Bennington, Vt.

"Typically, a new propulsion technology takes 25 years to mature...to the point where you can actually field it. Well, that time is now," Myrabo told SPACE.com.
. . .
"In the lab we're doing full-size engine segment tests for vehicles that will revolutionize access to space," Myrabo emphasized. "It's real hardware. It's real physics. We're getting real data...and it's not paper studies."

"Right now, we're chasing the data," Myrabo said. "When you fire into the engine, it's a real wallop. It sounds like a shotgun going off inside the lab. It's really loud."

The laser propulsion experiments, Myrabo added, are also relevant to launching nanosatellites (weighing 1 to 10 kilograms) and microsatellites (10 to 100 kilograms) into low Earth orbit."

Next stop before Mars? Perhaps L2?

2009-09-01T16:07:00.003-07:00

Astronauts and technicians working and living at Lagrange points will develop the technologies needed to change the Mars mission from a visit into a colony. There is immediate, profitable work to be done at L2. Industry and people will always follow profits, and in this case civilization benefits enormously.

Why future astronauts may be sent to 'gravity holes' - space - 29 August 2009 - New Scientist:
". . .
Lagrange, or Lagrangian, points are great swathes of space where the gravitational acceleration from the Earth and the sun are exactly equal, letting objects stick there with very little effort.

Because they're far from warm stars and planets, they make useful havens for ultra-cold telescopes that measure fluctuations in the temperature of deep space.

The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which measures radiation from the big bang, lives at a Lagrange point called L2 more than 1 million kilometres away. The successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the massive James Webb Space Telescope, will also be sent to the spot, which lies in line with the sun and Earth . . .
. . .
But what would humans do there? One useful task is repairing and upgrading the new telescopes, like astronauts have done five times with Hubble.

"Hubble is probably the most productive scientific facility ever developed in the history of science, and it's largely because every four or five years, we take out the old instruments ... and go up with brand-new instruments that address different questions and embrace the latest technology," Lester says. "If we want to have humans having anything to do with these new telescopes, we really have to think about Lagrange points."
. . .
It takes surprisingly little energy to travel between these points. That's because massive bodies like the sun and planets have gravitational fields that resemble mountains and hills, but Lagrange points are all at gravitational lowlands. Once set on the right path, spacecraft can coast along the gravitational contours of space between these lowlands, as if travelling on an interplanetary superhighway.

"Going back and forth between Earth-sun Lagrange points and Earth-moon Lagrange points is pretty much a matter of giving the thing a swift kick," Lester told New Scientist.
Future astronauts could repair telescopes at a staging area at the nearest Earth-moon Lagrange point and send them sailing back to L2 when they're done. They could also assemble large telescopes or spaceships at the staging area and then send them out to farther-flung destinations.
. . .
Others see Lagrange points as stepping stones on the way to places like Mars.

"It's a convenient crossroads on the way to a place you really want to visit," says Lou Friedman, founder and executive director of the Planetary Society, a space advocacy group that supports sending astronauts to Mars.

"The place we all want to go is Mars. Stepping out into interplanetary space, Lagrange points present the nearest milestone to Earth that's still beyond the moon," Friedman told New Scientist.

Going to L2 would take about a month and communications from Earth would take about four seconds to arrive at L2, while a trip to Mars would take at least six months and would involve communications delays of about 20 minutes."

L5 Society - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"The name comes from the L4 and L5 Lagrangian points in the Earth-Moon system proposed as locations for the huge rotating space habitats that Dr. O'Neill envisioned. L4 and L5 are points of stable gravitational equilibrium located along the path of the moon's orbit, 60 degrees ahead or behind it.

An object placed in orbit around L5 (or L4) will remain there indefinitely without having to expend fuel to keep its position, whereas an object placed at L1, L2 or L3 (all points of unstable equilibrium) may have to expend fuel if it drifts off the point."

Rare Earth Metals Becoming Political Tools

2009-08-27T09:20:00.003-07:00

International trade & commerce are good for us all - it is less likely that countries doing business with each other will go to war. There are however some potential risks as illustrated by this article.

China: All Your Rare Earth Metals Belong to Us | Danger Room | Wired.com:
"Rare earth metals are the key to 21st Century technology: Without them, we wouldn’t have smart phones, hybrid cars or precision weapons. And China, which mines most of the world’s rare earth metals, may be starting to catch on to their strategic value.

According to this alarming story in U.K. Telegraph, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is weighing a total ban on exports of terbium, dysprosium, yttrium, thulium, and lutetium — and may restrict foreign sales of other rare earth metals. But don’t panic yet: U.S.-based Molycorp Minerals is preparing to resume mining of rare earth ore deposits at a California facility . . ."

Private Spaceflight a boon to Scientists

2009-08-25T15:07:00.001-07:00

History is happening around us.. Despite the problems in our world, we can see great progress in the frontiers that will eventually free humanity from this lonely single rock.

Scientists go suborbital - Cosmic Log - msnbc.com:
"The killer app for private spaceflight, at least once the millionaires and celebrities have had their turn, may well be scientific research.

'You spark this industry with tourists, but I predict in the next decade the research market is going to be bigger than the tourist market,' says Alan Stern, a planetary scientist at the Colorado-based Southwest Research Institute who is heading up a committee to link up researchers with future suborbital spaceflights.

Until recently, suborbital space trips were marketed primarily as the penultimate high for well-heeled thrill-seekers.
. . .
Virtually all the major players in the still-gestating suborbital industry now realize that research flights could make the difference in their drive to profitability.
One of the clearest signs of that came last month, when an Arab investment group bought a $280 million stake in British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic venture, putting special emphasis on the capability to fly scientific experiments and deploy small satellites.
. . .
There are other options for space research, of course, ranging from zero-G airplane flights to suborbital sounding rockets to unmanned orbital and deep-space flights to space station experiments. So why would researchers, and even NASA, opt for rides on private spaceships that have yet to be built?
Cost is just one reason, Stern told me. A $200,000 ticket for a space ride may sound expensive for a tourist, but it's peanuts compared to the $2 million or more charged for the launch of a NASA sounding rocket, he said.

. . .

"If you could go at [an experiment] every day of the year and see the atmosphere changing, how powerful would that be?" Stern said. "This becomes a laboratory-like experience."
Piloted spaceships are also likely to provide a more robust environment for research. Scientists would be more likely to get their experiment back and less likely to lose it in a hard landing.

. . .

Experimenters could also fly along with their experiments - not just once, but multiple times. "Graduate students will be doing their own Ph.D.s in these vehicles," Stern predicted.

. . .

"This is so cheap, and the applications are so good, that I expect NIH, NSF, DOD, DOE, a whole slew of federal agencies will have space efforts, just like federal agencies have boats and airplanes that they use," he said. "Literally, Aruba could afford to have a spaceflight program. ... Every country that wants to have their own space program with astronauts can go.""

"The Angry White Liberal"

2009-08-23T23:22:00.004-07:00

For quite a while, we've had this extreme political tension where one side seems incapable of seeing that another side might have a point - or at least might not be insanely evil. This author captures some of the problem very well:

The Angry White Liberal:
"We've spent the month of August talking about alleged right-wing rage, but it's really time we started discussing the Angry White Liberal. When things aren't going his way, the Angry White Liberal wails and gnashes his teeth, rends his garments, and hurls invective at the opposition. His rhetoric and prose is so heated, it's gotten to the point where you need to put on oven mitts before opening the paper. He is so convinced of the righteousness of his positions that he lashes out uncontrollably at anybody who disagrees with him. For the Angry White Liberal, dissent is anathema. Antagonism is illegitimate. Only conformity to prevailing liberal opinion is enough to still his rage.

. . . even though "health care" is not the top voter priority, even though the budget deficit stands at more than a trillion dollars, President Obama decided that this was the moment to remake one-sixth of the American economy.
The more Obama talked about health care reform, the further his numbers dropped. The country seemed caught in a time-warp. We'd been catapulted back to 2005, when another president attempted a major overhaul of the American welfare state. Then, too, the president deferred to Congress to come up with a plan. Then, too, as the president crisscrossed the nation, warning of the dangers of out-of-control entitlement spending, the public increasingly tuned him out. The innate conservatism of the American people--an instinctual resistance to sudden changes in existing social arrangements--came to the fore.

. . . Protest, which a few years ago was the highest form of patriotism, is now considered artificial, dishonest, misinformed, cynical, and mean-spirited. "An ugly campaign is underway," Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer wrote in USA Today on August 10, "not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. . . . Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American."
Meanwhile, Harry Reid referred to the town hall protestors as "evil-mongers." Senate finance committee chairman Max Baucus preferred "agitators." Congressman Eric Massa, Democrat of New York, accused Iowa Republican senator Charles Grassley of "treason" for criticizing the health care plan.
. . .
Times columnist Frank Rich warned that the current debates surrounding health care resemble the "walk up to the Kennedy assassination."
. . .
The Angry White Liberal finds it simply incomprehensible that somebody might honestly and in good faith disagree with the Democrats' efforts. On August 14, blogger Steve Benen wrote on the Huffington Post that the "far-tight apoplexy is counter-intuitive." After all, "Why would people who stand to benefit from health care reform literally take to the streets and threaten violence in opposition to legislation that would help them and their families?"
Forget Benen's exaggerated claim of threatened violence. Note, instead, that Benen cannot conceive that someone might actually think the costs to the Democrats' program outweigh the unrealized and perhaps unachievable benefits. Hence he divides Obama's critics into five camps: the "partisans," the "tin-foil hats," the "greedy," the "dupes," and the "wonks." The "wonks," we are told, compose the "smallest of the groups." In Benen's view, then, millions of opponents of health care reform have no reasonable grounds for their opinion."

Making Social Media work for you.

2009-08-23T11:17:00.001-07:00

No big surprises except the prejudice against smiley faces :-)
An oft-repeated rule of thumb is to assume that anything you type on your computer today could be on the front page tomorrow.

Social Media News, Insights and Tips:
"The top examples on why employers didn't hire a candidate after seeing them on sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn were not surprising. According to the survey, the posting no-no's were inappropriate photos or information (53 percent), content about the candidate drinking or using drugs (44 percent) and badmouthing previous employers, co-workers or clients (35 percent).

Something that did surprise me was the number of employers who disregarded a candidate because they sent a message using an emoticon such as a smiley face (14 percent).

. . .

When it comes to posts online, here are some tips from CareerBuilder:

- Before starting a job search, remove digital stuff you wouldn't want a potential employer to see, including photos, content and links.

- Consider establishing a professional group on sites like Facebook to establish relationships with business leaders.

- Keep gripes offline, especially about former employers.

- Keep in mind that others can see your friends, so be selective about who you accept. Also consider using the "block comments" feature or setting the profile to private so only designated friends can view it.

- Don't mention being on a job search online if you're still employed. "

Studying Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

2009-08-21T10:10:00.002-07:00

This is of particular interest to my family, having lost at least one to this condition.

Woodruff Health Sciences Center | Emory University | Atlanta, GA | NIH Bioengineering Grant Links Emory, Georgia Tech in Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Research:
"Abdominal aortic aneurysms are a major cause of illness and death in the United States. A widening and bulging of the large artery that runs through the body from the heart into the abdomen, these aneurysms - which can go undetected until they suddenly rupture -- are the 10th leading cause of death in men over age 55. Approximately nine percent of men over age 65 have an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Through a Bioengineering Research Partnership (BRP), a team of scientists at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology will conduct in-depth studies of abdominal aortic aneurysms to discover exactly why and how they form and how they can be prevented. The partnership is supported by a new five-year, $6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

. . .

Abdominal aortic aneurysms often have no symptoms, but if the aneurysm ruptures, the patient often dies within minutes. Previous studies have documented the risk factors associated with the condition, but researchers do not understand exactly why and how it develops. The risk increases with age, so as people live longer the magnitude of the problem continues to increase.

. . .

Predicting the likelihood of aneurysm rupture is extremely difficult and patients often don't notice them until they already are leaking or ruptured, Taylor points out. Even small aneurysms often expand rapidly and progress to rupture. And although traditional cardiovascular risk factors are related to the formation of abdominal aortic aneurysms, the risk factors are different from those for coronary artery disease or peripheral vascular disease."

New Telephone Services Available

2009-08-17T17:09:00.002-07:00

It's funny how some folks assume you'll always answer your cell phone even if you're at home (my cell is usually in another room being charged), and some assume you'll always hear and respond to a voice-mail right away. Services that allow you to be reached regardless of whether you're near your home, work, or mobile phones are becoming cheap enough for "regular" folks to consider. I'm not currently using either of these, but I think Google Voice might be just what I need.

Services That Eliminate Telephone Tag - BusinessWeek:
"The primary appeal of Google Voice, which is still in a testing phase, is that all of your phone lines—up to six in total—are consolidated into a single phone number. This may not be ideal if your spouse or kids use your home phone, because the call is routed to whichever line answers first. But on the Google Voice Web site you can set rules that allow the home phone to ring only if no other location picks up. I chose to have calls ring through to my cell, home, and office phones at once, and I sometimes adjust the rules to ring phones I use temporarily while traveling.

Few important calls ever fall through the cracks, and when they do, Google Voice provides ingenious voice mail options. All messages go to a single Web-based account, eliminating the need to juggle different greetings and PIN numbers. Messages are stored as audio files, which you can grab off the Web from any computer and forward in e-mails or download as MP3 files. Messages can also be transcribed as text (with mixed results) and sent to you as e-mail. You can then delete the voice mails without listening if you want."

Hacker Steals 130 Million Credit Card #s

2009-08-17T14:49:00.001-07:00

This kind of theft will only get worse for the next several years - there's lots of money to be made and that is strong motivation for these criminals.

I advise keeping your funds in multiple institutions, being careful when you shop both online and in stores, and signing up with a credit reporting service so you can learn of breaches ASAP.

Hacker Indicted For Stealing 130 Million Credit Cards -- InformationWeek:
"A federal grand jury has indicted Albert Gonzales, 28, of Miami, Fla., for allegedly hacking into computers belonging to retail and financial companies and stealing more than 130 million credit and debit cards.

Gonzales, . . . and two unidentified co-conspirators located in or near Russia, are charged with conducting SQL injection attacks on corporate computer networks.

The U.S. Department of Justice says the indictment represents the largest data breach indictment ever brought in the United States.
. . .
The companies compromised by the alleged hackers are known for being compromised in some of the biggest data breaches in recent years have been reported. They include: Heartland Payment Systems, 7-Eleven, and Hannaford Brothers.
Two other major U.S. retail companies are mentioned in the indictment but they are identified only has "Company A" and "Company B," presumably because they are not under an obligation to publicly report the breaches attributed to the alleged hackers.
Gonzales was indicted in New York in May, 2008, and in Massachusetts in August, 2008, for alleged involvement in the theft of over 40 million credit and debit cards from other companies including TJX Companies, BJ's Wholesale Club,OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX), Boston Market, Barnes & Noble, Sports Authority, Forever 21, DSW and the Dave & Buster's restaurant chain.
The indictment claims Gonzales and alleged co-conspirators relied on sophisticated techniques to avoid detection, like connecting to corporate computers through proxy servers, testing approximately 20 different antivirus programs to determine whether their malware might be detected, and using malware that attempted to erase signs of its presence.
. . . "

The Diverse Uses of d3o

2009-08-17T11:52:00.001-07:00

The 3 Ms - measurable, meaningful, & marketable. This is the kind of common sense evaluation often missing in some organizations.

The Incredibly Wide World of Smart Material d3o | Popular Science:
. . .
"What we aim for is what I call the ‘three m’s’ of a technology adoption. First, whatever you’re saying should be measurable. If it’s not measurable than how can you say it exists? Secondly, that measurement should be meaningful. It should make a difference that the consumer actually wants. Third, it has to be marketable. So somehow we have to be able to communicate effectively the benefit that exists on the product. And once you have those three, then you have a story."

The main topic of the article is also very interesting - a thin, soft product that becomes a rigid shield when impacted. Click on the link for more.

Bigelow Proposes "Orion Lite" Spaceship

2009-08-17T11:42:00.002-07:00

We can purchase over 300 discrete models of cars, trucks, and SUVs, so maybe at least 2 different space vehicles isn't a bad idea . . .

Space Hotel Visionary Proposes Modified "Orion Lite" Spaceship for NASA | Popular Science:
"Future space hotel moguls can get nervous when NASA's next-generation spaceship plans begin to founder. So one company has come up with a modified 'Lite' design of the planned Orion vehicle to carry astronauts and paying passengers into orbit.

Bigelow Aerospace has long envisioned launching inflatable space station called Sundancer, and so improving passenger access to low Earth-orbit has remained a priority."

Lots of interesting links in this article . . .

NASA Finally Tests a New Rocket

2009-08-17T11:16:00.002-07:00

Wow - talk about Jimmie Carter's "malaise" - a quarter of a century has slipped by since NASA last tested a new rocket design!

NASA Builds First New Test Rocket in 25 Years - Gearlog:
"The new Ares I rockets will eventually take humans back to the moon; this first one will launch on October 31st in a maiden test flight designed to show that the rocket is capable of carrying astronauts inside an Orion spacecraft into orbit. Ares I is a two-stage rocket that consists of a solid-fueled first stage and a larger, liquid-fueled upper stage,"

We had developed the technology to establish a small colony on the Moon by the late 1970's. How much wealth could we have created for Earth by mining our solar system since then? Working & living in space isn't just about scientific research - it has real benefits to everyone living here.

More Sensors Mean Better Forecasts

2009-08-17T10:50:00.002-07:00

It's a simple premise - if their models are equivalent, the service taking the most readings will usually deliver the most accurate forecasts.

Many projects over the years have shown that massive quantities of cheap sensors can produce a better aggregate result (better information) than a few very high quality sensors.

I wonder if home weather stations connected to the Internet could be useful, perhaps for tornado if not hurricane prediction.

Sensors Mounted On Commercial Airliners Networked For Most Accurate Weather Forecasts Ever | Popular Science:
"Since 2004, AirDat has honed an entirely different method for gathering more-accurate daily atmospheric data and delivers it to airlines, energy companies with mid-ocean drilling rigs and wind-turbine platforms and, on occasion, to NOAA. The key to AirDat’s success is its wallet-size, airplane-mounted Tropospheric Airborne Meteorological Data Reporting (Tamdar) sensors. The sensors, which test the same variables as weather balloons, provide data from the ground up to 25,000 feet, the key atmospheric segment for short-range forecasting because it’s where most severe weather forms. AirDat now collects info from 160 sensor-equipped planes making daily flights out of 225 airports from Alaska to Florida, and it is in the process of adding another 320. The fleet produces some 6,000 “soundings”—reports created from millions of Tamdar measurements—per day. AirDat scientists run these high-resolution data packages through computer weather models to make up-to-the minute forecasts."

On another tangent, this can also work with audio drivers (lots of "cheap" speakers can produce better sound than a few very good speakers) . . .

Ubuntu revisited

2009-07-29T17:17:00.004-07:00

I've mentioned my tribulations getting Ubuntu working on PC with the BioStar P4M900-M4 motherboard before. Recently Ubuntu v 9.0.4 downloaded an update (or I installed new software) that corrupted a bunch of files - to the point where the system wouldn't work well enough to repair itself.

With a nuke & pave of the hard drive, it is working again today - I tried 5 different ISO CDs burned on at least 2 different drives, and I tried both the CD & the DVD on the host PC - I could never get a clean install. Sometimes GRUB would fail during the boot-up process, and sometimes I would get the GUI installed, but FireFox wouldn't run (preventing downloads of of updates etc.).

In the end, I got a system working well enough to get a command line (terminal mode) and used that to download some updates. They repaired the install well enough to boot into the Ubuntu desktop (GUI) with a working FireFox, and from there it has been busily downloading and installing fixes and software that should have installed from the CD.

Next, I get to go through 10 pages documenting installation of the required BioStar video drivers, and then I need to figure out a backup strategy - I don't want to be without this PC for multiple weeks the next time I download an update...

PS: this motherboard now boots from the SATA drive as long as it is the only hard drive installed. Probably time to start looking for another PC or motherboard before it flakes out again.

BTW - this update was created using FireFox 3.0.12 within Ubuntu 9.0.4 :-)

Blue Dye Treats Spinal Injuries

2009-07-28T13:02:00.001-07:00

This is why pure research needs to be funded. Using a food additive to treat medical conditions isn't something that is likely to turn up in a for-profit laboratory.

The Blue Dye in M&Ms Cures Spinal Injuries | Popular Science:
"The candy gets its color from a compound called Brilliant Blue G (BBG), a food dye that's used in Gatorade and other products -- and turns out to also be medically useful. Building on earlier research, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that injections of BBG can relieve mice of secondary spinal cord injuries. In September, they will start conducting human clinical trials."

The funding doesn't need to be from the Federal government, but some corporations, institutions, or charities need to be funding research in a variety of arenas without the intent to produce marketable products (just knowledge). From such research, great things frequently come.

Dealing with hazardous space debris

2009-07-27T16:18:00.001-07:00

As I've written before, trash collection is space has the potential to be a profitable business for some bright entrepreneurs.

Building an Electronic Fence to Track Space Junk | Popular Science:
"Thousands of manmade pieces of space junk orbit the Earth, threatening astronauts and unmanned missions alike. Now the U.S. Air Force Space Command wants an electronic 'space fence' that could track any orbital object larger than two inches in width.

Such a surveillance system would require a global network of sensitive S-band radar stations that operate in the gigahertz range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The U.S. Air Force currently relies on a system dating back to 1961, which only covers the continental United States, and can only track objects 20 inches in width or larger.

The growing cloud of space debris in Earth orbit includes more than 16,000 pieces of debris larger than four inches in width. And that only seems likely to grow . . . "

Beyond tracking the debris, some folks are coming up with a variety of methods to destroy or collect it. I'm in favor of collecting the debris to sell as souvenirs, but that technology may be too pricey.

Taking Out the Space Trash | Popular Science:
"Scientists at NASA and private companies have devised several ways for clearing the sky. Although some methods are admittedly outlandish, says Nicholas Johnson, the chief scientist for orbital debris at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, a few are possible with today’s technology.

One early idea was to have robotic trash collectors shove large pieces of junk through the atmosphere so that they mostly burn up before hitting the ground. But the fuel costs for destroying a significant amount of debris with such craft has quashed this approach.

A more feasible plan is to attach miles-long “electrodynamic tethers,” wound on a spool, to all new satellites. Once a satellite ends its mission, it would deploy the cable and Earth’s magnetic field would induce an electric current in it. This interaction imparts a force on the craft that pushes it through the atmosphere until most of it burns up harmlessly,"

Real time recreation - trip to the Moon

2009-07-17T11:01:00.003-07:00

Celebrating this month - the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's trip to the Moon.

On my monitor, some of this site's text is a bit hard to read - gray on black, but lots of interesting Apollo things here & there. As I type this, it is mostly spacecraft based white noise - still pretty different than what I would be playing on a normal day :-)

I imagine this site is best enjoyed on a separate monitor - as my home system only has 1 monitor attached right now, I put it up on full screen when I'm not using the system for other things.

Things to Do on the Way to the Moon | GeekDad | Wired.com:
"If you’re following the 40th anniversary recreation of the Apollo 11 mission on We Choose the Moon (a you-are-there, moment-by-moment immersion in the first lunar mission) you know that the mighty Saturn V rocket lifted off its pad at the Kennedy Space Center on July 16th. Twelve minutes later, the astronauts were in orbit around the earth, docked the command module with the lunar lander, and are now on their way to the moon.

You can follow the progress of the mission at the website, or on Twitter:
Capcom transmissions
Spacecraft transmissions
(and eventually the landing craft -) Eagle transmissions"

The Smithsonian is also following the mission on Twitter.

Reaching Energy Limits to Computing Power

2009-07-07T14:43:00.000-07:00

We've reached a technological point where essentially any amount of computing power can be purchased (in comparison to decades past), and other considerations (such as the cost of energy) limit what can be done.

This means that any problem that can be understood and solved by computational means can now be attacked (assuming some organization is willing to fund this). It will be interesting to see what problems don't fit that category.

NSA plans massive, 65MW, $2bn data center in Utah • The Register:
"The ultra-secretive National Security Agency plans to build a 1-million-square-foot data center in Utah as it seeks to decentralize its computing resources and tap regions with ample supplies of lower-cost electricity.

When completed, the facility will require at least 65 megawatts of power and cost $1.93bn, according to news reports. The 120-acre data center will be located in Utah's Camp Williams, which borders Salt Lake and Tooele counties. Two major power corridors already run through the spot, a major reason the NSA chose it.

The plans help demonstrate how power is emerging as one of the biggest costs in building and running today's data centers.
. . .
In 2006, the Baltimore Sun reported the agency's Fort Meade location maxed out the capacity of the Baltimore area power grid, preventing the installation of new supercomputers that had been planned."

Among others, Goggle has recently located new data centers based on the availability of energy. Here's an even more interesting idea:

Google makes waves and may have solved the data center conundrum | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com:
"Google is pondering a floating data center that could be powered and cooled by the ocean. These offshore data centers could sit 3 to 7 miles offshore and reside in about 50 to 70 meters of water.

The search giant filed for a patent in February. The patent outlines a concept that would not only be savvy engineering, but deliver great returns.
. . .
Google points out the painfully obvious for anyone in the data center business: “It can be expensive to build and locate data centers, and it is not always easy to find access to necessary (and inexpensive) electrical power, high-bandwidth data connections, and cooling water for such data centers.”
. . .
Google is talking about a self-contained unit (excluding bandwidth connections) that would sit offshore much like an oil rig.
. . .
As Miller points out Google’s idea uses the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter units to create a wave farm Google reckons that it can cobble together enough units to create about 40 megawatts of power. Seawater would cool these data centers."

Pre-Order Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade: $49.99

2009-07-01T16:39:00.003-07:00

The most reliable PCs in our house run Windows XP SP-3. We skipped Vista, but at this price, I think I'll upgrade a couple of them to Windows 7.
Update - the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor ran for hours before I canceled it - maybe I'll pass on Win-7 until I get a new system after all.

Note that this price is only good until 11 July, 2009.

Windows 7 Home Premium Pre-Order, $49.99 Upgrade, $199.99 Full | PCMech:
" . . . if you pre-order Windows 7 as an upgrade, the Home Premium Edition (which is what most people would go for) is just a tick under $50."

Nuclear vs. Coal waste by the numbers

2009-06-30T13:10:00.002-07:00

This blog has lots of good information about Nuclear Power. One clear advantage of nuclear power is that it doesn't produce much waste. The waste that is produced can mostly be reprocessed into more fuel. Storing nuclear waste until we can learn how to better use it or dispose of it takes far less of our land than disposing of the waste from a typical coal power plant.

An Upchurch Chrestomathy: 6/7/09 - 6/14/09:
"Nuclear power produces about 1 ounce of nuclear waste per person per year with no fuel reprocessing. The bottom line here is that for each pound of nuclear waste we produce, we could be preventing the release of 322,000 pounds of carbon dioxide! The United States doesn’t do any recycling of spent nuclear fuel. 95% of the spent fuel is Uranium or Plutonium that can be recycled and used for more fuel. France uses partial fuel reprocessing and only produces about 3/10ths of an ounce of waste per person.
. . .
What do you think is the real waste disposal problem: 1 oz of nuclear waste or 11 tons of carbon dioxide?"

Tab Mix Plus FireFox plugin - Chaos Manor

2009-06-30T11:32:00.002-07:00

Used and recommended :-)

Chaos Manor Reviews - Mailbag for June, 2009:
". . .
I just installed the Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7.3 plugin because I remembered your mentioning that you use it to display multiple rows of tabs in Firefox. It took me a while to find it by searching www.jerrypournelle.com, but I really appreciate that you archive your 'columns' and make then searchable.

This is exactly what I need when I have a lot of tabs open - thanks!

There are so many Firefox plugins available now that it really helps to have recommendations from a trusted source."

Truck diesels clean up greatly in last 5 years

2009-06-29T10:42:00.002-07:00

Obviously, this engineering work started some years ago - in an era of 45 minute news cycles, we tend to forget that progress comes incrementally over periods of years, but it does come.

Anyone considering an alternative fueled vehicle should include diesel in their calculations. If your regular gas a station has a diesel pump (many do), then it may be a better alternative than a hybrid. If you have a bio-diesel station near your regular route, then it is almost a no-brainer.

Truck diesels clean up even more than those in cars | Green Blog & Discussion at Automobile Magazine:
"Heavy trucks and buses could lose their image as stinky, soot-spewing monsters as the current fleet is replaced with today’s cleaner models. According to recently released data from the Advanced Collaborative Emissions Study, overseen by the Health Effect Institute, shows that the engines (from Caterpillar, Detroit Diesel, Volvo, and Cummins) had an overall average 90 percent reduction in exhaust pollutants from 2004 to 2007. Particulate matter—soot—was cut by 99 percent. Even smog-forming nitrous oxides, typically the most difficult to control of diesel exhaust emissions, were 70 percent lower."

Proposed help for Iranian citizens

2009-06-25T10:42:00.001-07:00

This seems well intentioned and a useful way of supporting the freedom movement in Iran. I wonder what the unintended consequences might be if passed and signed into law. Certainly it won't improve diplomatic relations with Iran's current government, but what would?
To be useful in the current crisis, the money & authority to spend it would have been needed months ago, so this is aimed at tomorrow's Iran, whatever it may be.

The Weekly Standard:
"Lieberman, McCain, and Graham held a presser announcing new Iran legislation they intend to introduce. It will increase funding for Radio Farda and Voice of America, both of which have been critical at keeping Iranians informed of what's happening in their own country and reporting those events to the outside world as well. They also talk of funding a new Farsi-language website with live news coverage, and 'funding to foster the spread of technologies that would make it harder for the Iranian regime to crackdown' on the transmission of information over cellphones.

Lieberman sums it up: “We’ve seen that the Iranian regime has tried to deploy new technologies to restrict its people from getting access to information, prevent its people from exercising their freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, particularly online. The Iranian government has jammed satellites and radio broadcasts, disrupted cell phone service, monitored Internet use, and blocked particular Web sites. It’s now trying to slam shut the door that a vibrant election had begun to open. The legislation we intend to introduce is inspired by a clear and simple purpose. We want the Iranian people to be able to stay one step ahead of the Iranian regime, getting access to information and safely exercising freedom of speech and freedom of assembly online.”
. . .
A great McCain line: “During the Cold War, we provided the Polish people and dissidents with printing presses. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are the modern-day printing presses. They are the way. They are the way to spread information and keep the hope of freedom alive amongst the Iranian people.”"

Government Cash-for-Clunkers Website

2009-06-23T11:28:00.005-07:00

It looks like this won't be used to get classic cars off the road (trade-ins must be less than 25 years old), but it also looks like it won't be very successful.

Government Launches ‘Cash-for-Clunkers’ Website – Automotive News & Car Rumors at Automobile Magazine:
"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched the website for its ‘cash-for-clunkers’ incentive program yesterday, despite the continued uncertainty regarding how the program will be implemented.
. . .
The website for the program, located at www.cars.gov, has been dubbed the “Car Allowance Rebate System.”
. . .
The site also contains a link to the government’s fuel economy rating site, and a copy of the actual legislation that created the program.
. . .
Analysts have been skeptical about how effective the program will be. Funding for the program was dramatically reduced, from an envisioned $4 billion (enough for about 1 million rebates) to one-fourth of that, and the current delay in finalizing the program’s details means it won’t take advantage of the typical summer buying rush. In addition, many believe the owners of cars that qualify for the program won’t be able to afford to buy new cars – even with the available $4500 rebate."

Made in America costs less!

2009-06-23T11:21:00.001-07:00

It is good to hear a story about manufacturing moving TO the US.

Elon Musk Reports Tesla Roadster Now Cheaper to Make – Automotive News & Car Rumors at Automobile Magazine:
"Tesla CEO Elon Musk reported yesterday that after moving production of its batteries from Asia to California in late 2007, the cost to build the roadster has been cut almost in half, from $140,000 to $80,000.

Musk says in his blog that the move eliminated the high cost of shipping heavy batteries overseas, while simultaneously improving the quality of the batteries because of the use of a more automated process and the ability for engineers to tweak the batteries quickly for new efficiencies. In addition to eliminated shipping costs, the move also reduced the time it took parts to move through the supply chain, removing the cost of inventory waiting for weeks in transit."

Spaceport America construction starts in New Mexico

2009-06-22T16:32:00.001-07:00

We start slowly - currently only the wealthy can consider vacationing in space. This will change over time - start saving now.

Eventually life on Earth will be improved as we tap the wealth of our solar system. Privatization of space travel is an essential component of this transition. We're seeing privatization happen now.

Construction Begins on Spaceport America | Popular Science:
". . .
For everyone looking to hop the next commercial flight to space, your departure gate has finally been announced. Almost two years after the first plans were announced, construction has finally begun on Spaceport America. The spaceport, which will serve as the launch and landing pad for Virgin Galactic flights, is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, and represents the first serious commitment of infrastructure to manned commercial spaceflight.
. . .

Currently, Virgin Galactic only has two space ships, so it will probably be sometime before the facility experiences O'Hare and LaGuardia level traffic."

Cash for Clunkers critiqued by John McCain

2009-06-19T14:42:00.002-07:00

These programs have been tried before and generally have been regarded as failures and rip-offs.
If it is such a great program, why is it scheduled to last just a four months?
And why is this buried in a war-appropriations bill?!

.: United States Senator John McCain :: Press Office :.:
"Mr. McCain. Mr. President, I wanted to go into a bit more detail about the “Cash for Clunkers” provision the Senate passed yesterday as part of the $105 Billion war supplemental. I continue to believe that the American people would be appalled to learn the specifics of this “Lemon” legislation. Here is a quick summary:

* Any person that trades-in a car he or she has owned and insured for at least one year that has a combined fuel economy value of 18 miles or less per gallon is eligible for:

o $3,500 toward the purchase of a new car if it has a fuel economy value at least 4 miles per gallon higher than the trade-in, or a new truck if it has a fuel economy value at least 2 miles per gallon higher than the trade-in;

or

o $4,500 toward the purchase of a new car if it has a fuel economy value at least 10 miles per gallon higher than the trade-in, or a new truck if it has a fuel economy value at least 5 miles per gallon higher than the trade-in.

* The auto dealer that sells the new car, must accept the trade-in and crush it, then submit paperwork to the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the money is directly wired to the auto dealer. This is ripe for fraud and abuse and the bill provides a penalty of a mere $15,000 fine for each abuse.

* Only cars costing less than $45,000 and purchased between July 1, 2009 and November 1, 2009 are eligible.

. . . "

Iran needs Twitter - #IranElection #gr88

2009-06-17T11:03:00.003-07:00

The odds are stacked heavily in favor of Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs - they control the military, the power, the food supply, etc. If it comes, revolution will carry a terrible price regardless of who wins. If the government compromises and backs down a little, some incremental progress towards freedom might result.

It is frustrating to just watch - we can share our thoughts with our representatives, but I doubt they have much influence right now.

With Iran Protests in Mind, State Department Blocks Twitter's Maintenance Outage | Popular Science:
"So all that importance-of-social-media business you keep hearing about Iran? This should tell you something about the underlying truth, no matter how numbing the barrage from the media can be: When the U.S. State Department heard of Twitter's plans for an hour-long regularly-scheduled maintenance outage that would have denied daytime Twitter service to Iran, they stepped in and 'urged' them to reschedule.

The outage was supposed to happen late last night--downtime for most of North America, but prime daytime in Iran, where it has continued to be used as an important communication and organization tool for the protests there."

Chrysler Resumes Viper Production

2009-06-16T10:26:00.002-07:00

Good news for Chrysler employees - unfortunately, there are now a lot fewer dealerships to sell these vehicles. It makes sense to start with a low volume product that is also highly profitable.

Chrysler's Plants Resume Production, Starting with Viper Operations – Automotive News & Car Rumors at Automobile Magazine:
"After a month-long bankruptcy during which all its plants were on standby, Chrysler is starting to switch the lights back on at its plants - starting with the Conner Avenue plant in Detroit that makes the Dodge Viper.

'At this time, we cannot give exact timing in regards to the start of production at our other manufacturing facilities,' the automaker said in a statement. It shut down all its plants after filing for bankruptcy on April 30th. Executives have said most plants will be back up and running by the end of June.

Chrysler will initially start manufacturing more 2009 model year vehicles, before switching to 2010 production during a normal shutdown in July."

Hybrid Power Plant

2009-06-12T13:59:00.001-07:00

Practical thinking - reduces fuel costs without making them totally dependent on another power source. Using internal combustion instead of batteries may be the most cost effective solution for a lot of places, even if the eventual goal is to add batteries for night-time use.

First Hybrid Solar/Natural Gas Power Station Goes Online in Israel | Popular Science:
"A small kibbutz in Israel has installed the world’s first solar-hybrid power plant to fulfill all their energy needs. Composed of 30 solar reflectors and one kooky-looking “flower” tower, the plant can switch to gas-powered turbines after dark to keep the system producing power 24-hours a day. The best part is that the plant takes up a relatively small amount of space for its output and can power remote areas that are not connected to larger grids.
. . .
The 30 efficient heliostats track the sun throughout the day and bounce the sun’s rays directly at the tower. Inside the tower a solar receiver converts the focused rays into solar thermal energy that powers a mini-turbine. Whenever there is cloud cover or the sun sets, the turbine can be run off biodiesel, natural gas, or bio gas, making the hybrid side of the turbine still quite green."

Six Sigma being overtaken by LEAN

2009-06-08T10:49:00.002-07:00

Over the past couple of decades, the TQM, Six Sigma, and now LEAN (among others) methodologies have swept through corporations in wave after wave. Used sensibly, they help corporations reduce costs while improving quality, resulting in higher profits and/or more competitiveness in their markets. Unfortunately, they're sometimes used instead of training & empowering qualified managers. Running corporations is WORK, and no panacea is going to make it easy.

IndustryWeek : Six Sigma's Growing Pains:
"During the late 1990s, Six Sigma -- a quality improvement process based on producing fewer than 3.4 defects per million -- was credited for astounding results in improving quality and reducing costs.
. . .
In a recent study, executive recruiting firm The Avery Point Group found that calls for managers with lean knowledge exceeded that for Six Sigma talent by almost 11%, reflecting what Tim Noble, the company's managing principal, called 'an indication that they see lean as a better and more practical hedge against today's tough economic challenges.'

Some observers say the seeds of Six Sigma's perceived shortcomings come not from problems with the methodology itself, but how it is applied and the high expectations it has engendered in the manufacturing world.

'To an extent, Six Sigma is kind of a religion,' notes George Haley, a business professor at the University of New Haven and director of the Center for International Industry Competitiveness. 'When it focuses on the manufacturing process, it is very good. If you want to improve efficiency, cut down on failure rate and errors, that is Six Sigma's strength.'

But Six Sigma is often applied too late, Haley observes, so that products are designed in a way that invites problems on the production floor. Product design engineers have "360-degree access" to a product in the R&D lab, but workers on the line who have to attach components and perform other tasks don't have that same access and sometimes can't see what is going on. The problem may be exacerbated by robotics, he notes.

Haley also criticizes the application of Six Sigma to services such as health care. For example, a nurse may be given a specific amount of time to perform a patient service. But Haley notes that patients differ and that nurses may need to perform a different service than initially expected. "If the nurse doesn't have time to figure out what they need, patients can get a lot of wrong treatment," he warns. "Six Sigma should stay out of hospitals and stay out of any business where you have human-to-human interaction. Humans just aren't programmable; they aren't machines.""

American capitalism gone with a whimper - Pravda.Ru

2009-06-05T15:12:00.002-07:00

Fascinating to see how our country is viewed by others in the world. This blog was reprinted in Pravda, once the official newspaper of the Soviet Union.

American capitalism gone with a whimper - Pravda.Ru:
". . . the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed,
. . .
First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics. Americans know more about their favorite TV dramas then the drama in DC that directly affects their lives.
. . .
Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then Sunday circuses
. . .
The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.
. . .
it should be no surprise, that the American president has followed this up with a "bold" move of declaring that he and another group of unelected, chosen stooges will now redesign the entire automotive industry and will even be the guarantee of automobile policies.
. . .
The Russian owners of American companies and industries should look thoughtfully at this and the option of closing their facilities down and fleeing the land of the Red as fast as possible. In other words, divest while there is still value left."

It would be interesting to see what this author says after the 2010 elections.

Three Visual Illusions Selected as the Best

2009-06-05T14:56:00.003-07:00

Follow the instructions and these illusions are easily seen.

WORLD'S BEST VISUAL ILLUSIONS CHOSEN:
"The three best visual illusions in the world were chosen at a gathering last weekend of neuroscientists and psychologists at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Florida.

The winning entry, from a Bucknell University professor, may help explain why curve balls in baseball are so tricky to hit."

Penske to buy Saturn from GM

2009-06-05T12:17:00.003-07:00

Roger Penske has been a very smart businessman over the last few decades - I hope he does well with his newest venture. He's not getting any factories, but he is getting some good dealerships and the parts operation. He'll also have the right to buy models from manufacturers around the world and sell them as Saturns. A lot of companies make good products but don't have the financial muscle to create a US dealership network - they're going to be lining up to provide products for Saturn.

GM to sell Saturn brand to Penske dealership chain - Forbes.com:
"General Motors Corp. has a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to auto racing magnate Roger Penske's dealership group, both companies said Friday.

Penske has signed a memorandum of understanding that would give his dealership chain, Penske Automotive Group ( PAG - news - people ), Saturn's 350 dealerships, the companies said. Penske said that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for now.
. . .
Initially, GM will continue to produce on a contract basis the Saturn Aura sedan as well as the Vue and Outlook SUVs. But Penske said he is in talks with global car manufacturers about building Saturn cars in the future.
. . .
Despite a cult-like following that drew thousands to annual reunions in Spring Hill, the brand never made money for GM.
. . .
"Saturn was kind of an unpolished gem at GM," said Brad Coulter, director at the Bloomfield Hills, Mich., turnaround firm O'Keefe and Associates. "They had never really fully exploited what they developed. Saturn is known for having some of the best-run dealerships. The brand is highly rated. It's a top-notch sales organization."

Today, Saturn production is scattered at plants across the U.S. The Aura is built at GM's factory at Kansas City, Kansas. The Outlook is built in Lansing, Mich., while the Vue is built in Ramos Arizpe, Mexico.

The Saturn Sky roadster is built in Wilmington, Del., but that plant is scheduled to close in July and the model will be discontinued. The Saturn Astra compact hatchback was imported from GM's plant in Antwerp, Belgium, and was discontinued last year.

Penske Automotive will take over the separate Saturn parts warehouse and distribution center in Spring Hill.

Penske in an interview said foreign automakers would be key to his making Saturn succeed, but they will have to match GM's quality standards before Saturn's dealer network will distribute their products.

"As people around the world look at that, they have the opportunity to tap us on the shoulder and say we have product that we'd like to bring into the U.S." he said.
. . .
Detroit-based GM, which filed for bankruptcy court protection Monday, has said it plans to shed its Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac and Saab brands. Earlier this week, GM said it found a buyer for Hummer in China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co."

Malware attacks U.S. Marshals & FBI

2009-05-26T09:39:00.002-07:00

The solutions were bought and paid for, but installations of them are months & years behind. PC security has to be a priority even when it seems like a waste of time. This is one reason why turning on automated updates is important for personal and business systems.

Malware knocks out U.S. Marshals Service network - Network World:
"Malware Wednesday crippled Windows-based computer systems at the U.S. Marshals Service, which hunts federal fugitives and operates the country's witness protection program, knocking the agency’s network offline.

The agency's press office confirmed it was having network problems and that its e-mail system was down this morning, but it was unclear if the outage extended across the entire network.
. . .
The agency's Web site was up and running this morning, but a receptionist in the press office said "the agency's whole e-mail system is down, and the agency is unable to receive e-mail."

Later, another press office staffer confirmed that there were network problems.

Members of the agency's IT staff were communicating with vendors via Gmail accounts as they attempted to work through the issue.
. . .
The U.S. Marshals Service runs Trend Micro’s OfficeScan, an anti-malware software that installs on desktops, laptops and mobile devices.

The agency, however, runs the 5.0 version, which is more than three years old. Trend Micro says protection against Neeris has been in OfficeScan since version 8. The current version is 10.

'[Their version] is a vastly out-of-date, end-of-life product,' said Sweeny.

In addition, Sweeny said the U.S. Marshals Service maintenance contract was up-to-date, meaning the agency had paid for upgrades to the software but had failed to install them.
. . .
23 of 24 major federal agencies had weaknesses in their agency-wide information security programs. Those agencies included the DOJ.

While the Neeris worm has been around since 2005, a new version was discovered just last month that used the same vulnerability targeted by Conficker. The new version spreads via the Windows "autorun" command.

A patch to close the critically-rated vulnerability that Neeris and Conficker exploit was issued in October by Microsoft."

The FBI was also affected but is saying less.

Computer virus strikes US Marshals, FBI affected:
"Law enforcement computers were struck by a mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution.

The U.S. Marshals confirmed it disconnected from the Justice Department's computers as a protective measure after being hit by the virus; an FBI official said only that that agency was experiencing similar issues and was working on the problem.
. . .
Marshals spokeswoman Nikki Credic said the agency's computer problem began Thursday morning. The FBI began experiencing similar problems earlier.
. . .
In addition to their external networks, most federal law enforcement agencies have an internal-only network to prevent cyber-snoopers from sensitive data.

In Thursday's incident, the Marshals Service shut down its Internet access and some e-mail while staff worked on the problem. The FBI made similar moves to protect its system."

Hubble serviced for last time

2009-05-19T13:36:00.001-07:00

One of NASA's successes (eventually) - the Hubble Telescope has changed humanity's understanding of the universe.

Gearlog - Gadget Guide by Geeks for Geeks: "And that's a wrap: Space shuttle Atlantis crew member Megan McArthur used the shuttle's robotic arm to release the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit at 8:57 a.m. EST Tuesday, CNN reports. The mission marks the last time humans will touch the 19-year old telescope. Hubble has taken hundreds of thousands of high-resolution images--all free of the earth's murky atmosphere.

'With soft separation burn, Atlantis now is slowly backing away from the telescope,' NASA said in a statement. '"

Ubuntu up & running (again)

2009-05-14T11:26:00.002-07:00

I had Ubuntu (version 7.04) running 18 months ago, but when I upgraded that desktop PC with a new BioStar motherboard (P4M900-M4 - socket 478) Ubuntu seemed to have incurable problems with the on-board video. I tried version 8.04 without success and gave up on it for a while. (It runs fine with Windows & IDE drives. . .)

I recently installed Ubuntu version 9.04 and it seems to be running very well. I guess they finally incorporated workable video drivers for this chip set. I still need to install video drivers that take full advantage of this chip set (S3 Chrome 9HC IGP), but at least now I can use the system to connect to the Internet, use Open Office, and learn about Linux.

On the other hand, I have a Seagate SATA drive that won't boot with this or another BioStar motherboard (P4M890-M7 TE - socket 775) - perhaps the drive itself has a problem - more testing required. Oddly, the drive was only recognized on one of the 2 SATA ports (now that one doesn't recognize it either), leading me to wonder about the board itself.

If you're building your own PC, take care to read the motherboard reviews before selecting one.

IBM ThinkPad R31 laptop hard drive upgrade

2009-05-09T14:09:00.005-07:00

Our ThinkPad has been acting really cranky lately, and I discovered it had only 3% of the (20 GB) disk space available. Deleting and zipping some files gained very little space – easily swallowed up by the next WinXP update. It was time for a new hard drive. Checking online, I found that “4 All Memory” had 160 GB drives available for the R31.

Like most, our laptop only accepts one hard drive at a time, so the common desktop method of installing the new drive and copying the old one won’t work. I downloaded the DriveImage XML software (free for home use) and started learning how to make a drive image. The plan was to copy the 20GB drive to an external, USB drive, and then copy that image back to new drive (after it was installed). Because there is no space left on the old drive, and because it wouldn’t be available to restore the image anyway, I decide to load the software on a bootable CD-R disk.

DriveImage XML recommends the Bart PE – PE Builder software because it creates a bootable WinXP disc that runs a graphical environment. The very first CD I burned was bootable, but I had forgotten to download and install the DriveImage XML plug-in. The 2nd disc booted, loaded DriveImage XML, and successfully created the drive image on the external drive – this took about 5 hours. After installing the new drive, I tried to restore the image – the software, quite reasonably, expected the new drive to be partitioned before proceeding. DriveImage recommended a couple of methods to partition the drive, but none worked for me.

I finally swapped the laptop's CD drive for a floppy drive and broke out the old Partition Magic diskettes. After a couple of false starts it began the partitioning process – this was about 10% complete after an hour, so I went to bed.

In the morning with the Primary partition created & set to active, I swapped the CD drive back in and rebooted to run DriveImage XML again. This time everything appeared to be working. The status screen didn’t show much, but about 5 hours later (about the same time as it took to create the image – probably limited by the USB 1 port speed) . . . It copied correctly, but wouldn’t boot. Fortunately, after googling a while, I learned I could boot from a WinXP CD and in the Repair mode, enter the "fixmbr" command. It now appears to be running as before, but with a much larger disk drive (and no cranky behavior).

Montana takes a stand for States Rights

2009-05-06T14:25:00.008-07:00

States rights encompasses far more than this firearms legislation. In a time when our federal government is looking like a WW-II fascist dictatorship it is about time some states started pushing back. Kudos to Montana.

Wisconsin Gun Rights Examiner: Montana draws a deep line for states rights :

"This bill has just been signed into law in Montana. I understand Texas is considering enacting a similar law.

Let’s hope more states will find the courage to tell the over reaching federal government to shove it.

HOUSE BILL NO. 246

INTRODUCED BY J. BONIEK, BENNETT, BUTCHER, CURTISS, RANDALL, WARBURTON

AN ACT EXEMPTING FROM FEDERAL REGULATION UNDER THE COMMERCE CLAUSE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES A FIREARM, A FIREARM ACCESSORY, OR AMMUNITION MANUFACTURED AND RETAINED IN MONTANA; AND PROVIDING AN APPLICABILITY DATE.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:
Section 1. Short title. [Sections 1 through 6] may be cited as the “Montana Firearms Freedom Act”.

Section 2. Legislative declarations of authority. The legislature declares that the authority for [sections 1 through 6] is the following:

(1) The 10th amendment to the United States constitution guarantees to the states and their people all powers not granted to the federal government elsewhere in the constitution and reserves to the state and people of Montana certain powers as they were understood at the time that Montana was admitted to statehood in 1889. The guaranty of those powers is a matter of contract between the state and people of Montana and the United States as of the time that the compact with the United States was agreed upon and adopted by Montana and the United States in 1889.
. . ."

Emphasis added

Energy Regulatory Chief Jon Wellinghoff speaks

2009-05-06T12:39:00.002-07:00

Chairman Wellinghof clearly doesn't understand the computing power used to make (for example) airline reservations or credit card processing (only mainframes can do big jobs like this cost effectively), so how can we accept his word on energy production? The point of growing our baseline power is to ensure that needed energy is available on a continuous basis. Brownouts & rolling blackouts are bad for people and expensive to industries and eventually their customers.

Solar and wind energy can't be used as baseline power without resorting to costly storage systems (like a big pile of batteries). Nuclear power can be provided at a price that competes very well with both solar and wind power (particularly for the 2nd - nth plants of the same design), and nuclear takes far less space than a solar or wind farm. Coal has plenty of issues, but it currently provides about half of all electricity produced here, and we can produce that electricity much more cleanly if we build modern facilities. This experience would also enable us to compete in supplying other countries that are building their energy infrastructures.

This blindness to our reality of a growing population and a (hopefully) growing economy is a terrible attribute for a policy maker in this position.

Energy Regulatory Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary - NYTimes.com:
"No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today.

'We may not need any, ever,' Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.

The FERC chairman's comments go beyond those of other Obama administration officials, who have strongly endorsed greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role.
. . .
Jay Apt, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Electricity Industry Center, expressed skepticism about the feasibility of relying so heavily on renewable energy. "I don't think we're where Chairman Wellinghoff would like us to be," Apt said. "You need firm power to fill in when the wind doesn't blow. There is just no getting around that."

Some combination of more gas- or coal-fired generation, or nuclear power, will be needed, he said. "Demand response can provide a significant buffering of the power fluctuations coming from wind. Interacting widely scattered wind farms cannot provide smooth power."

Wellinghoff said renewables like wind, solar and biomass will provide enough energy to meet baseload capacity and future energy demands. Nuclear and coal plants are too expensive, he added.

"I think baseload capacity is going to become an anachronism," he said. "Baseload capacity really used to only mean in an economic dispatch, which you dispatch first, what would be the cheapest thing to do. Well, ultimately wind's going to be the cheapest thing to do, so you'll dispatch that first."

He added, "People talk about, 'Oh, we need baseload.' It's like people saying we need more computing power, we need mainframes. We don't need mainframes, we have distributed computing."

The technology for renewable energies has come far enough to allow his vision to move forward, he said. For instance, there are systems now available for concentrated solar plants that can provide 15 hours of storage.
. . .
"I think it's being settled by the digital grid moving forward," he said. "We are going to have to go to a smart grid to get to this point I'm talking about. But if we don't go to that digital grid, we're not going to be able to move these renewables, anyway. So it's all going to be an integral part of operating that grid efficiently."
. . .
Congress created significant financial incentives to encourage the construction of perhaps a half-dozen nuclear plants with innovative designs, and Energy Secretary Steven Chu has promised Congress to accelerate awards of federal loan guarantees for some of these proposals.

But a major expansion in U.S. nuclear energy would require a high effective tax on carbon emissions from coal plants, or an extended loan guarantee and tax incentive policy, according to the Congressional Research Service and outside consultants. The leading energy bills before Congress do not provide more loan guarantees.

"If expansion of nuclear plants is the nation's policy, then Congress has to recognize that the U.S. energy companies cannot afford to do this alone," said Paul Genoa, policy director for the Nuclear Energy Institute, in a recent interview.

"The president needs to show his cards on nuclear energy," said energy consultant Joseph Stanislaw, a Duke University professor. "He cannot keep this industry, which must make investments with a 50-year or longer horizon, in limbo for much longer."
. . .
Unlike coal and nuclear, natural gas will continue to play a role in generating electricity, he said.

"Natural gas is going to be there for a while, because it's going to be there to get us through this transition that's going to take 30 or more years."

Chu reiterated before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today that he supports loan guarantees for new nuclear power plants and is working with the White House on the issue.

"I believe nuclear power has to be part of the energy mix in this century," Chu said.

Chu also noted today that nuclear technology, along with renewables, is an area where the United States has lost its lead. "We are trying to start the American nuclear industry again," he said.

Coal currently provides half of U.S. power, while nuclear energy accounts for about 20 percent."

Harnessing Power From the Sea

2009-05-06T09:28:00.001-07:00

Science Fiction slowly becoming reality - this is one component amongst the many we need to keep bringing the benefits of technology to the world with a reduced environmental cost.

Renewing Efforts to Harness Power From the Sea - NYTimes.com:
"LOCKHEED MARTIN is best known for building stealth fighters, satellites and other military equipment. But since late 2006 the company has taken on a different kind of enterprise — generating renewable power from the ocean.
. . .
Lockheed and a few other companies are pursuing ocean thermal energy conversion, which uses the difference in temperature between the ocean’s warm surface and its chilly depths to generate electricity.

Experts say that the balmy waters off Hawaii and Puerto Rico, as well as near United States military bases on islands like Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean or Guam in the Pacific, would be good sites for developing this type of energy.
. . .
In the approach that Lockheed is pursuing (with another company, Makai Ocean Engineering), the water on the ocean’s surface is used to heat a pressurized liquid, usually ammonia, which boils at a temperature slightly below that of warm seawater. That liquid becomes gas, which powers a turbine generator. Cold water is then pumped from the ocean’s depths through a giant pipe to condense the gas back into a liquid, and the cycle is repeated.

An important advantage of this method of producing energy is that it could run all the time, unlike solar plants, which cannot work at night, or wind turbines, which stop in calm conditions.

But the technology is expensive and can work in only a limited number of places, like the tropics, where there is a large difference in temperature between the ocean’s layers. This excludes many major population centers, although proponents hope that Florida and the Gulf Coast could also be markets. (Other types of ocean energy being explored would harness the tides and waves.)
. . .
Lockheed and the federal government have worked on this type of energy before, after the 1970s oil crises. In 1979, a 50-kilowatt test project was briefly run off the coast of Hawaii’s Big Island. Financing for ocean-energy projects was slashed significantly by the Reagan administration, and Lockheed abandoned its pursuit of the technology in the mid-1980s.

Proponents say that since the last attempt to develop it, the technology has improved enormously. Offshore oil platforms similar to the platforms needed for the ocean energy system have become more sophisticated, for example in their ability to withstand hurricanes and to moor in deeper water.
. . .
Robert Varley, who is helping to lead Lockheed’s efforts, estimated that just 3.5 percent of the potential energy from the warm water pumped might actually be used. “In reality that doesn’t matter — the fuel is free,” he said.

But building and operating the platform will be costly. Harry Jackson, the president of Ocees International, an engineering firm based in Honolulu also working on the technology, estimated that a test plant of the size Hawaii is planning — which is still far smaller than commercial scale — would cost $150 million to $250 million.

Some environmental groups are cautiously embracing the technology as one of many approaches that could help reduce fossil fuel consumption and thus combat climate change."

UAW will sell Chrysler stock

2009-05-05T11:17:00.001-07:00

While probably a reasonable strategy, this isn't the headline the union needs now - it makes some folks think that the union leadership doesn't expect Chrysler to survive.

UAW Says Won't Control Chrysler - WSJ.com:
"The United Auto Workers president is seeking to distance his union from direct responsibility for the future of Chrysler LLC, noting 55% of the auto maker will be owned by a retiree health care trust fund and not the union itself.
. . .
The trust--known as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA--is supposed to take ownership of 55% of Chrysler as part of a government-brokered cost-cutting plan that union workers ratified earlier this week. Chrysler filed for federal bankruptcy protection Thursday.
. . .
As part of a restructuring worked out before the bankruptcy filing Thursday, the UAW agreed to take half of its debt obligation to its retiree health care trust in equity.
. . .
"This creates additional risk for the retirees' health care; however, with the company being successful, we'll need to turn that stock around, and we have provisions worked in the agreement that even though it won't be a public company until later on, we'll be able to sell those shares under certain circumstances," Mr. Gettelfinger said in his television interview.

Here is another take on the same story.

Health Care Marketplace UAW Planning To Sell Chrysler Stock Obtained From Bankruptcy Deal To Fund VEBA - Kaisernetwork.org:
"United Auto Workers will sell its 55% stake in the reorganized Chrysler as soon as possible to fund a trust that will cover retirees' health care costs, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Monday, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. Chrysler owes about $10.9 billion to the UAW-operated voluntary employees' beneficiary association, which will cover health benefits for about 82,000 retirees and their spouses, as well as future retirees. The trust will start paying out in 2010.

Gettelfinger expressed confidence in the fund but said that it 'will be on life support initially.' Dental and vision benefits for retirees already have been cut from the VEBA, and further cuts are possible, he said (Johnson, AP/Houston Chronicle, 5/4). The fund will start with $1.5 billion from an existing health care trust, and will receive about $300 million from Chrysler next year. Gettelfinger added that all money from the sale of the Chrysler stock will go to the VEBA (Bennett, Wall Street Journal, 5/5)."

Chrysler Bankruptcy Plan

2009-05-01T08:58:00.001-07:00

Where are the lawyers? This seems like WW-II era Italy

Chrysler Bankruptcy Plan Is Announced - NYTimes.com:
"WASHINGTON — President Obama forced Chrysler into federal bankruptcy protection on Thursday so it could pursue a lifesaving alliance with the Italian automaker Fiat, in yet another extraordinary intervention into private industry by the federal government.
. . .
The arrangement came after an intensive round of White House-sponsored negotiations among the Treasury Department, the union and Chrysler’s executives and creditors. After working through the night, a small group of debtholders balked at Mr. Obama’s final terms, leading the president to decide that bankruptcy could not be averted.

It was a stark moment, and one unseen in modern times, as the fledgling president deepened his involvement in a struggling but iconic American company. Chrysler, which Mr. Obama called “a pillar” of the industrial economy, invented the minivan and owns the Jeep brand.

With Thursday’s filing, Chrysler became the first major American automaker to seek bankruptcy protection since Studebaker did so in 1933."

Making gasoline from waste

2009-04-24T14:04:00.002-07:00

Technology can solve many of our problems - especially if we don't let government take the profit incentive out of it.

TG Daily - Scientists make gasoline from garbage:
"Scientists at a synthetic biology lab at the University of California have used a bacterium found living on a French dump in the early 1980s which can be used to turn plant waste into gasoline that is chemically indistinguishable from fossil-fuel based petroleum.

Their method allows for the use of agricultural waste products like corn stover and sugar cane bagasse. This sidesteps criticism of biomass projects for helping drive up food prices and damage the environment.

With improvements in the rate of production from genetic engineering, the researchers estimate that production costs could be as low as $1.65 per gallon from sugar cane bagasse."

AT&T eliminates VoIP home service

2009-04-23T11:14:00.001-07:00

Simple market forces at work, but frustrating to those of us who're impacted.

AT&T cuts cord on VoIP service - Wireless - CNET News:
"AT&T has pulled the plug on its CallVantage voice over IP phone service, according to letters from subscribers this week.

The service competed with other VoIP services like Vonage. VoIP services use broadband networks to place phone calls. These services are much less expensive than traditional landline phone services and cost between $20 and $30 per month. But even this price is proving too high for consumers who are cutting their traditional phones to use their cell phones or are signing up for voice services with their cable providers, which are bundling the phone service in with broadband and TV service.
. . .
It is not a huge shock that AT&T is getting rid of the service. Last summer, the company stopped signing up new subscribers. Also AT&T has been pushing a new flavor of the VoIP service that it sells to its U-verse customers. U-verse is a new fiber network that AT&T is building to deliver high-speed broadband, TV, and phone service to consumers. Like the cable companies, AT&T is bundling the voice service with TV and broadband.

Verizon Communications also recently shut down its VoIP service called VoiceWing. It also sells an IP-based telephony service to its Fios fiber-to-the home customers as part of a triple play package."

NSA Doesn't Want to Do Cyber Security Alone

2009-04-21T16:45:00.001-07:00

Putting an intelligence (spy) agency in sole charge of all government computer and network security would be a lousy idea. Each agency head needs to run their own program and be held accountable to it by outside audits.

NSA Chief Doesn't Want to Do Cyber Security Solo - PC World | Technology News and Updates
"The National Security Agency doesn't want sole responsibility for running U.S. cyber security, the agency's director said Tuesday.

Speaking at the RSA security conference in San Francisco, NSA Director Lieutenant General Keith Alexander said that any effort to keep U.S. and government networks safe would be a group effort, rather than a centrally managed operation.
. . .
The NSA director said that security guru Bruce Schneier was right, when just minutes earlier he had told the audience that "nobody" should be in charge of cyber security. "A top-down somebody's-in-charge model is not the right model," Schneier said.

In an interview Tuesday, Beckstrom said that he was happy to hear the NSA saying it didn't want to run U.S. cyber security, and was encouraged to see a discussion of the question of how much power the NSA actually wields. He said that agencies like the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security, even the U.S. Department of Commerce, need to get more funds in order to take an active role in cyber security. "There needs to be a balance of power," he said. "I think the budgets are lopsided.""

Computer and network security needs to become part of the fabric of public and private business, just like proper accounting and personnel are. Policy should be set at the top levels, but it needs to be executed from the bottom up.

Eliminate the Air Force? I think not

2009-04-21T14:56:00.002-07:00

I know I should ignore editorials in Big City newspapers, but this one gets under my skin:

Op-Ed Contributor - Up, Up and Out - NYTimes.com:
". . . there are three major changes Mr. Gates should add to his agenda, and they deserve President Obama’s support.

First, the Air Force should be eliminated, and its personnel and equipment integrated into the Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Second, the archaic “up or out” military promotion system should be scrapped in favor of a plan that treats service members as real assets. Third, the United States needs a national service program for all young men and women, without any deferments, to increase the quality and size of the pool from which troops are drawn."

Our current volunteer service is the best performing military we've ever had. Conscription may be needed if we face another world war situation, but we're better off without it now. If the federal government wants to create a new volunteer service and force our young people into government service, they can do that without disrupting our military. Young people performing charitable or other benevolent service under government guidance would learn a great deal about the waste, fraud, abuse, and inefficiency of government programs - knowledge that will serve them well as voters.

"At the moment, the Army, Navy and Marine Corps are at war, but the Air Force is not. This is not the fault of the Air Force: it is simply not structured to be in the fights in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Ridiculous - the Air Force is involved via flying UAV missions, ferrying troops and cargo, and involved in direct combat in both theaters. If the Air Force can manage it's workload without stressing it's staff, they should be congratulated for that. We certainly don't need to dismantle a strategic asset at a time when Russia among others is rebuilding strategic assets that only missiles and bombers can attack if needed.

"The result is an “up or out” system that demands service members move up the ladder simply to stay in the military. Any soldier passed over for promotion twice must leave or retire.

Treating service members like so many widgets — in particular, the enlisted men and women who make up 85 percent of the ranks — is arbitrary and bad management. I have seen many fit, experienced officers and enlisted Marines arbitrarily forced out because there were only so many slots into which they could be promoted."

This is one of the reasons our military is doing so well - the tendency to create intractable bureaucracies is damped by this promotion policy. In a society where we celebrate companies that fire the bottom 10% of their performers, we certainly shouldn't complain about a military that seeks excellence within it's ranks.

". . . would New Orleans reconstruction have lagged so long if we had had a national service program in natural-disaster recovery?"

Once again the excellent response by our Coast Guard gets overlooked. In the New Orleans tragedy, the entire US government reacted more quickly, with more supplies and more people than at any time in US history. Within just the last few decades, such a disaster was primarily the responsibility of those on the scene, the city and state leaders. The tragedy in News Orleans is that the city & state leaders felt no obligation to do their jobs and just sat back waiting for the federal government to save them.

Global Warming Alarmism

2009-04-20T09:40:00.011-07:00

Before we destroy our economy by sending all our industry to China (where they will pollute far more than we do to produce the same goods) we need to examine the Global Warming paranoia. Turning America into a 3rd world nation will do nothing to improve life for others on the globe, and it will make life far worse for us.

Global Warming: A Classic Case of Alarmism - JoNova:

The big temperature picture. Graph and insight from Dr Syun Akasofu (2009 International Conference on Climate Change, New York, March 2009).

"The global temperature has been rising at a steady trend rate of 0.5°C per century since the end of the little ice age in the 1700s (when the Thames River would freeze over every winter). On top of the trend are oscillations that last about thirty years in each direction:
1882 – 1910 Cooling
1910 – 1944 Warming
1944 – 1975 Cooling
1975 – 2001 Warming

In 2009 we are where the green arrow points, with temperature leveling off. The pattern suggests that the world has entered a period of slight cooling until about 2030.

There was a cooling scare in the early 1970s at the end of the last cooling phase. The current global warming alarm is based on the last warming oscillation, from 1975 to 2001. The IPCC predictions simply extrapolated the last warming as if it would last forever, a textbook case of alarmism. However the last warming period ended after the usual thirty years or so, and the global temperature is now definitely tracking below the IPCC predictions."

Homeland Security warns of radicals on right

2009-04-14T15:56:00.004-07:00

So now if we have a differing opinion regarding how our country should be run, we may be labelled as a threat and persecuted by the government. If successful, this may mean the end of peaceful and civil political debate - it will not mean the end of opposition to the government.

As noted elsewhere, the reference to immigration most likely means opponents of illegal immigration. See also this link.

"The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." ~ Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988)

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin, 1755

“Politics gets pretty messy, but it’s a better alternative than violence.” Dick Gephardt, 2009

Ecclesiastes 3: 1-15

Federal agency warns of radicals on right - Washington Times:
". . .
A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines 'rightwing extremism in the United States' as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority.

'It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single-issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration,' the warning says.
. . .
The nine-page document was sent to police and sheriff's departments across the United States on April 7 under the headline, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

It says the federal government "will be working with its state and local partners over the next several months" to gather information on "rightwing extremist activity in the United States."

The joint federal-state activities will have "a particular emphasis" on the causes of "rightwing extremist radicalization.""

Our government has an obligation to try to prevent domestic terror attacks (like Oklahoma City), but their agents need to remember that a bumper sticker is not the equivalent of a bomb. When we can no longer have open debate on things like abortion, gun control, gay marriage, unions, and illegal immigration, then we are no longer free.

UPDATE: - of course Homeland Security might have been more careful in their wording (or publishing policy) if they kept up with the news:

State drops warnings over 'militia' members:
"The chief of the Missouri highway patrol is blasting a report issued by the Missouri Information Analysis Center that linked conservative groups to domestic terrorism, assuring that such reports no longer will be issued.

The report warned law enforcement agencies to watch for suspicious individuals who may have bumper stickers for third-party political candidates such as Ron Paul, Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin.

It further warned law enforcement to watch out for individuals with 'radical' ideologies based on Christian views, such as opposing illegal immigration, abortion and federal taxes."

AT&T offers $100K reward in fiber optic vandalism

2009-04-10T08:42:00.006-07:00

This is an example of why some people keep their land-line and their cell phones with different carriers. You don't want to be digging our that 30 year old CB radio when there's a problem and you can't reach 911.

AT&T offers $100K reward in fiber optic vandalism; notes second incident Between the Lines ZDNet.com:

"At some point around 2 a.m. PDT, a fiber optic line owned by AT&T but leased to Verizon became damaged. It was located in a manhole about 10 feet below the roadway. San Jose Police told KCBS-radio that they suspect vandalism and are treating the area as a crime scene.
. . .
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, AT&T’s networks were declared National Critical Infrastructures. Anyone who tampers with them is in violation of federal and state laws.

The damage cut off access to 911 emergency systems for people in the area.

There were actually two incidents - one in San Jose and another in San Carlos, which is about halfway between San Jose and San Francisco."

Our fancy Internet infrastructure operates on a wire and a prayer | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com:
"Barrett Lyon asks whether it’s possible to destroy the network with a hacksaw. In a word: Yup. It happened yesterday. AT&T used Twitter—home of the Fail Whale—to communicate with customers. Anyone see the irony in that one?

What’s truly scary is that we’re not just talking about the Internet here. The electric grid is vulnerable. Our transportation grid is vulnerable. Our infrastructure in the U.S. is a big sitting duck. The grid and the Internet are top of mind today, but I’m reminded of the overall infrastructure vulnerability every trip into Penn Station. Every once in a while you’ll see heavily armed police with their K-9 dogs in Penn Station’s lobby. It’s a common sight. However, if you really wanted to bring down the train station and subway it’s nothing a stray backpack couldn’t take care of.

Simply put, it’s impossible to completely secure all of the infrastructure out there. And everyone knows it. In 2003, a student dissertation raised national security concerns. It’s not rocket science to map infrastructure and cook up scenarios."

Obama's Global Op-Ed: "A Time For Global Action"

2009-03-24T14:53:00.000-07:00

Our President writes an op-ed on the economy and only 3 US newspapers print it. This seems odd to me.

More than 30 papers around the world ran an op-ed today by President Obama arguing for "the urgent need for global economic cooperation."

According to the White House, the op-ed ran in the following papers:

1. Al Watan (Gulf States)
2. Arab Times (Gulf States)
3. Asharq Al Awsat (Arab-wide paper in Arabic)
4. The Australian (Australia)
5. Baltimore Sun (United States)
6. Bangkok Post (Thailand)
7. Chicago Tribune (United States)
8. Clarin (Argentina)
9. Corriere della Sera (Italy)
10. Die Welt (Germany)
11. El Pais (Madrid)
12. El Mercurio (Chile)
13. Eleftyropiea (Greece)
14. Estado de Sao Paulo (Brazil)
15. Gulf News (Gulf States)
16. The Hindustan Times/ The Hindu (India)
17. International Herald Tribune (London)
18. Kristeligt Dagblad (Denmark)
19. Le Monde (Paris)
20. Lidove Noviny (Czech)
21. Los Angeles Times (United States)
22. The News (Pakistan)
23. NRC Handelsblad (Netherlands)
24. Saudi Gazette (Saudi Arabia)
25. South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
26. Straits Times (Singapore)
27. Sunday Times (South Africa)
28. Svenska Dagbladet (Sweden)
29. Syndey Morning Herald (Australia)
30. WProst (Poland)
31. Yomiuri Shimbun (Japan)

Obama's Global Op-Ed: "A Time For Global Action":

"A time for global action

By Barack Obama
Monday, March 23, 2009

WASHINGTON: We are living through a time of global economic challenges that cannot be met by half measures or the isolated efforts of any nation. Now, the leaders of the Group of 20 have a responsibility to take bold, comprehensive and coordinated action that not only jump-starts recovery, but also launches a new era of economic engagement to prevent a crisis like this from ever happening again.

No one can deny the urgency of action. A crisis in credit and confidence has swept across borders, with consequences for every corner of the world. For the first time in a generation, the global economy is contracting and trade is shrinking.

Trillions of dollars have been lost, banks have stopped lending, and tens of millions will lose their jobs across the globe. The prosperity of every nation has been endangered, along with the stability of governments and the survival of people in the most vulnerable parts of the world.

Once and for all, we have learned that the success of the American economy is inextricably linked to the global economy. There is no line between action that restores growth within our borders and action that supports it beyond.

If people in other countries cannot spend, markets dry up -- already we've seen the biggest drop in American exports in nearly four decades, which has led directly to American job losses. And if we continue to let financial institutions around the world act recklessly and irresponsibly, we will remain trapped in a cycle of bubble and bust. That is why the upcoming London Summit is directly relevant to our recovery at home.

My message is clear: The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners to join us with a sense of urgency and common purpose. Much good work has been done, but much more remains.

Our leadership is grounded in a simple premise: We will act boldly to lift the American economy out of crisis and reform our regulatory structure, and these actions will be strengthened by complementary action abroad. Through our example, the United States can promote a global recovery and build confidence around the world; and if the London Summit helps galvanize collective action, we can forge a secure recovery, and future crises can be averted.

Our efforts must begin with swift action to stimulate growth. Already, the United States has passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- the most dramatic effort to jump-start job creation and lay a foundation for growth in a generation.

Other members of the G-20 have pursued fiscal stimulus as well, and these efforts should be robust and sustained until demand is restored. As we go forward, we should embrace a collective commitment to encourage open trade and investment, while resisting the protectionism that would deepen this crisis.

Second, we must restore the credit that businesses and consumers depend upon. At home, we are working aggressively to stabilize our financial system. This includes an honest assessment of the balance sheets of our major banks, and will lead directly to lending that can help Americans purchase goods, stay in their homes and grow their businesses.

This must continue to be amplified by the actions of our G-20 partners. Together, we can embrace a common framework that insists upon transparency, accountability and a focus on restoring the flow of credit that is the lifeblood of a growing global economy. And the G-20, together with multilateral institutions, can provide trade finance to help lift up exports and create jobs.

Third, we have an economic, security and moral obligation to extend a hand to countries and people who face the greatest risk. If we turn our backs on them, the suffering caused by this crisis will be enlarged, and our own recovery will be delayed because markets for our goods will shrink further and more American jobs will be lost.

The G-20 should quickly deploy resources to stabilize emerging markets, substantially boost the emergency capacity of the International Monetary Fund and help regional development banks accelerate lending. Meanwhile, America will support new and meaningful investments in food security that can help the poorest weather the difficult days that will come.

While these actions can help get us out of crisis, we cannot settle for a return to the status quo. We must put an end to the reckless speculation and spending beyond our means; to the bad credit, over-leveraged banks and absence of oversight that condemns us to bubbles that inevitably bust.

Only coordinated international action can prevent the irresponsible risk-taking that caused this crisis. That is why I am committed to seizing this opportunity to advance comprehensive reforms of our regulatory and supervisory framework.

All of our financial institutions -- on Wall Street and around the globe -- need strong oversight and common sense rules of the road. All markets should have standards for stability and a mechanism for disclosure. A strong framework of capital requirements should protect against future crises. We must crack down on offshore tax havens and money laundering.

Rigorous transparency and accountability must check abuse, and the days of out-of-control compensation must end. Instead of patchwork efforts that enable a race to the bottom, we must provide the clear incentives for good behavior that foster a race to the top.

I know that America bears our share of responsibility for the mess that we all face. But I also know that we need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy. That is a false choice that will not serve our people or any people.

This G-20 meeting provides a forum for a new kind of global economic cooperation. Now is the time to work together to restore the sustained growth that can only come from open and stable markets that harness innovation, support entrepreneurship and advance opportunity.

The nations of the world have a stake in one another. The United States is ready to join a global effort on behalf of new jobs and sustainable growth. Together, we can learn the lessons of this crisis, and forge a prosperity that is enduring and secure for the 21st century."

the Stimulus Plan Viewed With Suspicion

2009-02-16T15:44:00.001-07:00

There are lots of criticisms of the Stimulus Bill floating around - this suggestion that it is intended to destroy our political & economic systems goes further than most. What do you think?

American Thinker: The Cloward/Piven Strategy of Economic Recovery:
"The assumption that Obama will need the nation to prosper in order to protect the 2010 mid-term election incorrectly assumes that he esteems free market capitalism. He does not. Rather than win through superior ideas and policies, the Democrat plan for success in the mid-term elections is to win by destroying political opposition.

Obama adheres to the Saul Alinksy Rules for Radicals method of politics, which teaches the dark art of destroying political adversaries. However, that text reveals only one front in the radical left's war against America. The Cloward/Piven Strategy is another method employed by the radical Left to create and manage crisis. This strategy explains Rahm Emanuel's ominous statement, 'You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.'

The Cloward/Piven Strategy is named after Columbia University sociologists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. Their goal is to overthrow capitalism by overwhelming the government bureaucracy with entitlement demands. The created crisis provides the impetus to bring about radical political change.

. . .
Making an already weak economy even worse is the intent of the Cloward/Piven Strategy. It is imperative that we view the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan's spending on items like food stamps, jobless benefits, and health care through this end goal. This strategy explains why the Democrat plan to "stimulate" the economy involves massive deficit spending projects. It includes billions for ACORN and its subgroups such as SHOP and the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. Expanding the S-Chip Program through deficit spending in a supposed effort to "save the children" only makes a faltering economy worse.

If Congress were to allow a robust economy, parents would be able to provide for their children themselves by earning and keeping more of their own money. Democrats, quick to not waste a crisis, would consider that a lost opportunity.

. . . .
Because these programs are financed with deficit spending, the effect of the Cloward/Piven Strategy becomes doubly destructive. Talk about a perfect storm! The Democrat stimulus plan is a mechanism whose goal is the destruction of the traditional American way of life. It is bitter irony that the American taxpayer will actually fund the destruction of his own ability to live according to the values of our Founding Documents. It is not alarmist to identify this situation as a coup d'etat."

In these discussions, we need to be thankful that Congressional Representatives get re-elected every two years. I think the Democrats will overreach, and end up getting replaced by conservatives in 2010 who will begin to withdraw us from this socialist experiment.

Satellites Collide Scattering Debris In Space

2009-02-13T10:20:00.001-07:00

The clutter in near-Earth orbit is becoming a business liability. I expect the next decade will see attempts at garbage collection in space for a fee, probably paid by communications companies or their insurers. Unmanned remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) would likely be used to de-orbit big chunks so they burn up on reentry. As the technology evolves, we'll probably see large collections of smaller bits in nets or bags. If some company can inexpensivly return this debris to Earth, there will be a big market for it as souvenirs.

U.S.-Russian Satellite Collision Sends Debris Flying - NYTimes.com:
"For decades, space experts have warned of orbits around the planet growing so crowded that two satellites might one day slam into one another, producing swarms of treacherous debris.

It happened Tuesday. And the whirling fragments could pose a threat to the International Space Station, orbiting 215 miles up with three astronauts on board, though officials said the risk was now small.

“This is a first, unfortunately,” Nicholas L. Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said of the collision.

It happened some 490 miles above northern Siberia, at around noon Eastern time. Two communications satellites — one Russian, one American — cracked up in silent destruction. In the aftermath, military radars on the ground tracked large amounts of debris going into higher and lower orbits.

. . .
The American satellite was an Iridium, one of a constellation of 66 spacecraft. Liz DeCastro, corporate communications director of Iridium Satellite, based in Bethesda, Md., said that the satellite weighed about 1,200 pounds and that its body was more than 12 feet long, not including large solar arrays.

. . .
“There are actually debris from this event which we believe are going through space station altitude already,” he said. The risk to the station, Mr. Johnson added, “is going to be very, very small.” In the worst case, he said, “We’ll just dodge them if we have to. It’s the small things you can’t see that are the ones that can do you harm.”

In Houston, International Space Station controllers have often adjusted its orbit to get out of the way of speeding space debris, which can move so incredibly fast that even small pieces pack a destructive wallop."

Our Problems Can't be Fixed by the Congress That Caused Them

2009-02-12T16:41:00.004-07:00

This article by Harvey Golub is on Senator John Kyl's recommended reading list - I'm glad I found it.
Click the link to read the entire article.

I Vote No Confidence in Congress - WSJ.com:
"In recent months, Congress has displayed a fundamental lack of understanding of how our economy and our financial markets actually work. Members believe they can say a bank is likely to become insolvent and that will not lead to a run on the bank, or say a major insurance company is in trouble and not have insurance stocks tank. They believe they can extend a $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) beyond its charter and not have every institution under the sun try to get what they believe is cheap capital.

Most significantly, although Congress is a large cause of the collapse of the home-mortgage market (witness the folly of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), members believe the markets are too stupid to recognize Congress's culpability and will maintain confidence in Congress's ability to resolve the financial crisis."

A Civilian National Security Force?

2009-02-09T11:02:00.005-07:00

I have friend who is worried that Barack Obama will succeed in one of his campaign promises - the creation of a Civilian National Security Force. Here is my response to his concerns:

"There's been a buzz on what the President had said on 2 Jul 08 about a "civilian security force" which would be "as large and well funded as the military."

I've seen clips of Mr. Obama actually saying this in his speech."

Right now I think the Democrat's plans to politicize the Census may be a bigger threat - the Census is used to determine how voting districts are laid out, and can have a big effect on which party gets control of a district.

Regarding the topic of a Civilian National Security Force:

My initial thoughts were -
1. Is was just campaign rhetoric & he won't try to implement it

2. Fortunately we didn't elect an emperor, so he can't implement it on his own

3. The Democrats are so busy spending our great-grandchildren's money that they won't have time to implement this

4. If they try to implement this, the public will boo them out of office (remember the amnesty for illegals bill a couple of years ago?)

5. The longer Democrats are in charge, the more likely it is that they'll implement this new force in tiny incremental steps (like the cigarette bans)

A national force like this, used internally, would inevitably be used to make the government stronger - at the expense of citizens rights & liberties. At some point government overreaches so far that we can't cure it with the ballot box, but I don't think we're there yet - in fact I think the Democrats will lose a lot of seats in the next congressional election. I do wish we had an alternative to big-government-Republicans that was actually electable.

On further discussion & reflection, I responded to my friend's points -

"Obama was addressing, among others, veterans. I think Obama is smart enough to try to keep the veterans in his back pocket in case there is an "emergency".

Let us suppose he intends to somehow invoke the law that makes veterans under 65 subject to recall.

Suppose he requires veteans to register with local law enforcement as potential recruits and /or police auxilaries.

Suppose he require civilian employees of law enforcement to become auxilaries.

Suppose he requires younger gunowners to join the National Guard and the others to become police auxilaries. Suppose he requires the younger vets to be in the Guard?

These developments would enforce and uphold the Second Amendment under the well regulated militia clause."

* Veterans are as politically diverse as the rest of the country - trying to keep them in Obama's back pocket is probably futile. Our life experiences let us know when we're being taken advantage of and/or being lied to by politicians.

* Invoking a law that makes veterans under 65 subject to recall would result in a blizzard of law-suits and in massive non-compliance, unless there is really serious problems like a world war (possibly another Crusade).

* Requiring veterans to register with local law enforcement for any purpose would likewise result in law-suits and massive non-compliance, along with people filing false paperwork - registering Bugs Bunny etc.

* A lot of veterans might agree to be police auxiliaries - however this cooperation is more likely if it is a local program (like we have in Phoenix) than a Federal one. Veterans have seen the Federal government up close - in service we learned lifetime lessons about "waste, fraud, & abuse" in government bureaucracies.

* Requiring civilian employees of law enforcement to become auxiliaries might be more successful, especially if they feared for their jobs if they didn't comply. Still, such a program couldn't be kept quiet, and lawsuits & voter protests would follow. We've shown in the last few years that voter protests can move Congress (although offensive legislation usually comes back after several months in stealthier forms).

* I know of no mechanism that could be used require younger gun owners to join the National Guard or anyone to become police auxiliaries. We don't currently have a Draft, but if we did, using it selectively to draft gun owners would almost certainly be tossed out by the Supreme Court, and an administration that tried it would be hard pressed to win the next election. "Rule of Law" may be inconvenient, but it usually works to our benefit.

* It might be possible to encourage or force younger veterans to join the National Guard, but if so, they still couldn't plan to act against the public without those plans becoming coming common knowledge, once again causing lawsuits, protests to Congress, and political difficulty for those seeking reelection.

* The Congress is always on a two-year leash - remember the huge political reversal in 1994 - this has the unfortunate effect that our congress-critters are always campaigning and always indebted to contributors, but it also means that the Federal Government can't turn us into a Soviet state - there isn't enough time to get it done before the next election. (For another view, see We're All Socialists Now)

* Creating a totalitarian society (my view of the threat caused by a Civilian National Security Force) without cooperation of Congress requires that the military take over. While this is easy in some countries, I don't think it can be accomplished in ours. Our military leaders (at all levels) have some lines they won't cross, and remaking their home in the image of what they've fought for generations is certainly one of them.

I know young people who thought some citizens would revolt before Obama was sworn in. In responding to such comments, I realized my life experience shows me that whatever our troubles, this too shall pass. Liberal or conservative, Presidential desires get blunted by the realities of getting legislation passed into law, and bad laws tend to be mellowed by court actions and subsequent legislative modifications.

I personally wish our government was smaller an less intrusive, but I'm comforted by the knowledge that flawed as it is, this is still best country on Earth to live in. (We survived Jimmie Carter, & we'll survive this administration too.)

We Are All Socialists Now?

2009-02-09T10:56:00.001-07:00

Through buying vast blocks of stock in the nation's largest banks, our government has come close to nationalizing this industry. If we don't sell this stock when these troubles are through, then we will have taken a significant steps towards socialism.

It has taken us generations to get to this European Style nanny-state, and it may take generations to reverse this trend. Reversal is important because as a (European) socialist country; the inevitable poor economy will cost us our leadership of the free world, and force us to become a client state of a more successful country like China or India.

In addition if we continue to educate citizens to be dependent on government for every need, we will lose the pioneering spirit and the inventiveness that has carried us through the last few decades.

We Are All Socialists Now | Newsweek Business | Newsweek.com: "The interview was nearly over. on the Fox News Channel last Wednesday evening, Sean Hannity was coming to the end of a segment with Indiana Congressman Mike Pence, the chair of the House Republican Conference and a vociferous foe of President Obama's nearly $1 trillion stimulus bill. How, Pence had asked rhetorically, was $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts going to put people back to work in Indiana? How would $20 million for 'fish passage barriers' (a provision to pay for the removal of barriers in rivers and streams so that fish could migrate freely) help create jobs? Hannity could not have agreed more. 'It is … the European Socialist Act of 2009,' the host said, signing off. 'We're counting on you to stop it. Thank you, congressman.'

. . . Whether we want to admit it or not—and many, especially Congressman Pence and Hannity, do not—the America of 2009 is moving toward a modern European state.

We remain a center-right nation in many ways—particularly culturally, and our instinct, once the crisis passes, will be to try to revert to a more free-market style of capitalism—but it was, again, under a conservative GOP administration that we enacted the largest expansion of the welfare state in 30 years: prescription drugs for the elderly. People on the right and the left want government to invest in alternative energies in order to break our addiction to foreign oil. And it is unlikely that even the reddest of states will decline federal money for infrastructural improvements.

. . .
Bush brought the Age of Reagan to a close; now Obama has gone further, reversing Bill Clinton's end of big government. The story, as always, is complicated. Polls show that Americans don't trust government and still don't want big government. They do, however, want what government delivers, like health care and national defense and, now, protections from banking and housing failure. During the roughly three decades since Reagan made big government the enemy and "liberal" an epithet, government did not shrink. It grew. But the economy grew just as fast, so government as a percentage of GDP remained about the same."

Baby boomers need to consider whether retiring in the soft lap of the Nanny-State is worth the cost to future generations. The current economic stimulus legislation effectively borrows tax dollars from our grand-children (and their children) - a cost they may find difficult to bear.

Why I bought a Palm Centro

2009-01-22T12:00:00.013-07:00

Our family just replaced our cell phones while switching to a new carrier. With all the exciting new phones available, I bought a Palm Centro smart-phone – not exactly the latest technology available. This was based partly on price, partly on my familiarity with the Palm PDAs, and partly on the limited availability of devices at our local Verizon store.

We went to Verizon originally seeking the BlackBerry Storm, but it proved disappointingly slow and prone to freezing in actual use. Matt & Lisa decided on the Samsung Omnia - a nice touch-phone. Although the Omnia runs the much maligned Windows Mobile operating system they seem to be doing well with it.

To replace my PDA & cell, I didn’t want a large smart-phone – the Treo & Blackjack are about the largest I was willing to consider, and the Centro is significantly smaller than them. With a case, the Centro isn’t really smaller than my old Sanyo Vi-2300 flip-phone, but it certainly is smaller than two devices. I like the fact that there are no major moving parts like slide-out keyboards or moving screens – hopefully, that translates into a longer & more reliable service life.

The primary reason I chose a Palm Smart-Phone is the ability to synchronize contacts, calendars, memos, etc. with IBM’s Lotus Notes. IBM’s Lotus EasySync Pro software didn’t work out of the box (even though it worked well with my Clie), so I tried finding solutions on their web-site. The main suggestion seemed to be uninstalling the Palm software and EasySync, and then reinstalling them in sequence. This initially appeared to fail (the Lotus software always hung shortly after starting), but after a couple of days, it magically worked perfectly upon powering up for the day. I guess adding reboots to the instructions would be helpful. EasySync works with Windows Mobile also, which is why the Palm Treo and a couple of HTC phones were on my list. The BlackBerrys look very useful, but this kind of synchronization isn’t supported by my local office, and I don’t need the frustration of setting that up on my own.

One nice thing I didn't expect is that my Centro's alarms sound off at about the same time as those from Lotus Notes. The Clie's alarms always go off at a different time, sometimes making me wonder if it isn't synchronized with Notes correctly. This is probably because the Centro gets the correct time from from Verizon when the phone is on.

The “tactile” QWERTY keyboard is just barely big enough, but the individually shaped keys really help with accuracy. For me, it is a huge improvement over using a regular telephone keyboard to enter text (I never got comfortable with T9 data entry). The sticky Alt & Shift keys help a lot now that I’m used to them. Searching text is vital to getting info from a Palm quickly - instead of a dedicated Search key, the Centro combines this function in the Shift key and requires the Option key be pressed before pressing the Shift/Find key. This was not intuitively obvious to me, but after finding it in the user guide, it is easy enough to use.

The screen is small but bright for a Palm, very nice for a phone – I prefer my old Sony Clie PDA screen (and it’s Jog-Dial button), but not enough to keep carrying it in addition to a phone. I can read text easily without adjusting my glasses when using it as a phone, but I have difficulty using the small screen with games like Solitaire unless I switch or take off my glasses. My biggest problem with the small screen is the need to use a stylus for some of the smaller icons. I can select most fields with a fingernail, but pulling out the Centro’s plastic stylus can be frustrating when it is needed. I usually grab a multi-function pen that includes a stylus instead.

The Palm Software is the latest version (Garnet - 5.4.9), so it has more features, takes advantage of a faster processor, and seems as stable as my prior Palm PDAs. If you like Palm, then this is more of the same. I also like the Palm Treo running Windows Mobile 6.1, but that wasn’t available from Verizon.

I got a BodyGlove case at the Verizon store, and like their other products I’ve used, it fits well and works well (especially the belt clip). Although my cased Centro has passed a parking lot drop-test, I’m worried about the exposure of the open screen and keyboard when clipped to my belt, so I’ll try a leather pouch also. With the Bluetooth headset, I can leave it on my waist much of the time.

The Centro has a 1.3 Mega Pixel camera – definitely the low end these days, but it performs well enough. The software integrates the Palm memory and the tiny Micro-SD memory card seamlessly. You can see where an album is located, but all albums on the Centro (including the card) are visible all the time. This is good enough for the “camera you have with you” events like recording accident scenes, etc. The Omnia has a 5 Mega Pixel camera with a flash – I expect to see great pictures from Matt & Lisa as they get used to using this.

Because the Centro has been available for quite a while, and is nearing the end of it’s marketing life (the price point where I seem to buy many gadgets), most accessories are heavily discounted, including cases, batteries, chargers, headsets, etc. I’m getting a few accessories now before availability becomes a concern.

The Palm manual states that a screen saver (plastic film overlay) isn’t needed on the Centro, but after a few days of worrying about the exposed screen I installed one anyway. The brightness isn’t affected, and it isn’t too slick for comfortable use with a stylus. I also cut out a small circle of the film to protect the camera lens on the back – not an easy task, but it contributes to a little peace of mind.

The Centro is probably the least expensive Smart-Phone available now – I paid $49.99 for this one. Monthly cost is comparable to our previous Sprint plan, and I can add a data-plan for another $30 or so. I’m going to monitor the bill for a couple of months before deciding if I need a data-plan. I have lots of the information I need loaded in the Palm already as memos & documents, so I may not use the Internet a lot. I long ago decided not to have work e-mail on my personal PDA, but I may decide to have my personal e-mail copied to the Centro.

One feature I wanted in my new smart-phone was a music-player. The Centro includes this software, but it uses a 2.5mm headset jack, so I'll have to wait a few days before learning how good it is - a stereo headset with the correct plug is "in the mail".

The provided music player pTunes isn't integrated with the Palm Desktop - it needs to be installed on the PC separately, and this isn't documented well by Palm. I needed to download the pTunes Windows application (and I'm still not sure if I have a trial version or if it is licensed because I own a Centro). Once installed, the pTunes integration with the newly downloaded Windows Media Player 11 seems excellent. It is easy to create & download massive playlists to the memory card from within Media Player while music is playing on the PC. The download process takes a while, but doesn't interfere with doing other work on the PC. The first time I synchronized the media player screen was new & busy - I finally noticed the spinning synchronization logo after it was about 60% complete. Finding specific albums & songs on the Centro seems a little awkward now, but I'll probably uncover shortcuts that make it easier after using pTunes more.

Windows Mobile application managers

2009-01-22T11:59:00.001-07:00

There are a couple of WinMo Smart-Phones in my immediate family. This software may make them easier to maintain & update.

Windows Mobile gets app manager:
"While Microsoft reportedly prepares an OTA (over the air) applications marketplace for Windows Mobile, it has been beaten to the punch by a Canadian high school student. Nicolas Bouliane's freely downloadable 'Gecko' utility allows online downloading, installation, and updating of Windows Mobile apps, says the author.

. . . "for Windows Mobile users, installing an application has never been an easy process. There are .CAB files, .EXE files, .MSI installers, and compressed files, and each of them install differently. Most of the time, you will need to synchronize your device with your computer in order to install applications."

. . .
Ironically, while Windows Mobile users have waited years for an OTA application installer, they'll soon have more than one to play with. Widespread rumors, originally sparked by online job postings, suggest that Microsoft will soon launch SkyMarket, constituting both an online applications store and a device-based installer.

. . . Our best guess is that an unofficial, open-source applications manager could continue to be useful to developers who, for the sake of speed or whatever other reason, do not want to submit their applications for approval and hosting via Microsoft. This is not without precedent: While most Apple iPhone apps are provided via the company's App Store, a substantial minority are written for "jail broken" devices, to which they get downloaded via the open-source Cydia installer."

Where's the Buzz? Does a lack of high-tech hype hurt our economy?

2009-01-20T13:13:00.002-07:00

John Dvorak has an interesting column online this month. Starting with the current sad economic state, he discusses the role technologies companies may have had in causing our recent problems.

Summarizing the Death Throes of 2008 - Columns by PC Magazine:
"Tech is the tail that wags the economic dog, in case you haven't noticed. When something big is going on in tech—such as dotcom mania in the late 1990s—then everything heats up. Right now there's virtually nothing going on in tech except minutiae. Let's examine the problem.

First of all, the newest technologies have not been well promoted. Promotion has always been the key to tech. For example, name the top ten new technologies that were developed last year. Better yet, just name five. Nothing?
. . .

What's missing is the buzz that used to be generated, mainly utilizing a complex mechanism that no longer exists due to neglect—the computer magazine.

. . . while everyone claims that "you can get information online nowadays," the fact is that the online experience is totally different. The writing is different, and the kind of information that can be displayed effectively is different. Both can easily exist side by side. But magazines cannot survive when advertisers have decided en masse that online is a better place to advertise, completely abandoning print.

When you combine this with the push to take what was a unique American industry and pretty much hand it over to Asia, because it's cheaper to do things over there, then pretty soon everything is done there. While this in itself isn't a bad thing, Asians as a whole have no interest in print magazine advertising.

. . . once the advertising support for computer magazines dried up, the fortunes of AMD, Intel, Seagate, even Dell and Microsoft began to wane—as did their stock prices. The horrible reputation of Vista can be directly attributed to this phenomenon. Once magazines lost their realistic and calming influence, reputations were at the mercy of the online mob, much of which, egged on by Apple, hated Microsoft.

In many ways things are just as exciting as they ever were, but you'd never know it, would you? Information is scattered every which way."

Excitement over technologies still drives some of our purchases (Ex: touch screen cell-phones), but many folks are now accepting good-enough over seeking the newest or the best. Perhaps Dvorak is correct that this attitude has affected our economy. I think we can get through this current bad spot and emerge in an era where gadgets serve us, but we don't measure how cool others are by the gadgets they use. The time we spent reading about technology may be better used, but the lack of computer magazines certainly makes it difficult to feel in-touch with the high-tech industries - even if you work in them.

Another Missile Defense Success

2008-12-09T14:21:00.004-07:00

Hopefully this research will continue over the next 4 years and systems will be implemented when possible. Our enemies don't care about the philosophies of the political parties in charge, other than how they can use them to defeat us. We need many different arrows in our quivers - missile (and/or warhead) defense systems are one of them.

Boeing-led Missile Defense Team Intercepts Target in Most Complex Test to Date - MarketWatch:
"VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif., Dec 05, 2008 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- The Boeing Company (BA:Boeing Co.) , working with industry teammates and the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, today completed the successful intercept of a target warhead in the most challenging test to date of the United States' only long-range ballistic missile defense system.

'This test demonstrated that the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system can defeat a long-range ballistic missile target,' said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems. 'This intercept is further proof that GMD can provide our nation with an effective defense against the threat of long-range ballistic missiles.'
. . .
'Data gathered from multiple sensors gave us a clearer picture of the incoming threat, enabling GMD to achieve the shootdown of a complex target,' said Greg Hyslop, Boeing vice president and GMD program director. 'Integrating sensors separated by thousands of miles is a major engineering challenge, but we overcame this challenge by working together as a team.'"

UPS Low-Emission Hybrid Vehicles

2008-12-09T12:23:00.003-07:00

One of these hybrid delivery vans just delivered a package - it looked and sounded pretty much like any other UPS truck (except for the UPS Low-Emission Hybrid Vehicle logo). This is a great way to evolve technology - get it in use daily and see what squeaks - then fix the problems, and do it again. UPS seems to do a good job of incorporating appropriate new technologies more quickly than other large companies - kudos to them!

UPS: Press Release:
"ATLANTA, May 22, 2007 - UPS (NYSE:UPS) today announced its fleet of alternative-fuel vehicles - already the industry's largest - had expanded with the deployment of 50 next-generation hybrid electric delivery trucks.

The 50 hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) will operate in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Phoenix. These new trucks join roughly 20,000 low-emission and alternative-fuel vehicles already in use.
. . .
The new hybrid power system allows UPS to use a smaller diesel engine than would be required in a conventional delivery truck, thus saving on fuel and pollution-causing emissions. A battery pack, motor/generator and power control system are added, which allows electric power to be fed into the powertrain when conditions demand it, providing further savings.

The hybrid electric vehicles also use what is known as regenerative braking, meaning the energy generated when stopping the moving vehicle is captured and returned to the battery system as electrical energy. The efficient, computer-controlled combination of clean diesel power, electric power and regenerative braking allows dramatic improvements in fuel savings and emissions reductions."

Obama Project: Space Solar Power (SSP)?

2008-12-08T15:26:00.008-07:00

Space Solar Power (SSP) suffers from a chicken and egg problem. It is too expensive for NASA to divert research funding (although they will conduct experiments from the space station soon), and it isn't conventional enough to qualify for traditional investment & funding. Hopefully, as we ramp up to build more Nuclear Reactors some entity will try spending the equivalent amount on an SSP demonstration. (Bill Gates maybe?)

An interesting idea in comments following this article is the use of a beanstalk that can be built with conventional materials IF it ends 1 Diameter of Earth from the surface. We could use conventional (but reusable) chemical rockets to get materials to this low orbit, and then use beanstalks to lift them into the high orbits - saving a large part of the transportation cost, and do-able with today's technology. Another benefit is that such a beanstalk would be much less vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

Political transitions are a time to reflect and change policies - now is the time for the new administration to consider kick-starting the SSP industry. It would cost us less than many of the bailouts currently in the news, and provide enormous on-going benefits. The jobs created for such a program would be high-tech, and the product (energy) would be exportable.

Obama-Biden Transition Project: Space Solar Power (SSP) -- A Solution for Energy Independence & Climate Change | SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens:
"A National Security Space Office (NSSO) study concluded in October of 2007 that 'The magnitude of the looming energy and environmental problems is significant enough to warrant consideration of all options, to include ... space-based solar power.' This NSSO report also concluded that SSP has 'enormous potential for energy security, economic development, improved environmental stewardship, advancement of general space faring, and overall national security for those nations who construct and possess a (SSP) capability.'

We urge the next President of the United States to include SSP as a new start in a balanced federal strategy for energy independence and environmental stewardship, and to assign lead responsibility to a U.S. federal agency.

SSP Falls through the Cracks as Nobody is Responsible: No U.S. federal agency has a specific mandate or clear responsibility to pursue SSP. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) says SSP is a space project, and thus NASA's job. NASA says SSP is an energy project, and thus DOE's job. The NSSO-report found that SSP ''falls through the cracks' of federal bureaucracies, and has lacked an organizational advocate within the US Government.'

SSP has Significant Long-Term Advantages: SSP is unusual among renewable energy options as it satisfies all of the following criteria:

Immensely Scalable -- SSP can scale to provide the energy needs of the entire human civilization at America's standard of living. Most other near-term renewable options are strictly limited in scalability. As the NSSO report states "A single kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit experiences enough solar flux in one year to nearly equal the amount of energy contained within all known recoverable conventional oil reserves on Earth today."

Safe Global Availability -- Nuclear power technology cannot be safely shared with most of the countries on this planet because of proliferation concerns.

Steady & Assured -- SSP is a continuous, rather than intermittent, power source. It is not subject to the weather, the seasons, or the day-night cycle.

No Fundamental Breakthroughs -- SSP does not require a fundamental breakthrough in either physics or engineering, such as those required by fusion.

Highly Flexible and Optimal for Export -- SSP could enable America to become a net energy exporter. We could be the world's largest exporter of energy for the 21st and 22nd Centuries, and beyond."

Our Military Bans USB ThumbDrives, etc.

2008-11-20T15:56:00.004-07:00

If you remember "Don't Copy That Floppy!", then you've been through this before. The Viruses, Trojans, and other crud collectively called Malware will get onto computers via any path available. USB Thumbdrives are now very cheap and easy to use as part of a sneaker-net. Unfortunately, they're just as convenient for personal use and this is how malware usually finds it's way into corporate / work / military systems. Scan a computer used by a young adult, and you'll likely find a variety of malware waiting for a chance to spread itself around. In theory, we should all scan our systems before writing files to an external device, but in practice most of us don't even scan our systems on a regular schedule.

In the near future I expect the technology to scan and secure thumb drives will be miniaturized and built into the devices themselves. A few years later, the prices will have come down to the level that we mere mortals consider reasonable, and the hackers will have to find another delivery mechanism. History shows that they will succeed.

Practice Safe Computing!

Under Worm
Assault, Military Bans Disks, USB Drives Danger Room from Wired.com:
"The Defense Department's geeks are spooked by a rapidly spreading worm crawling across their networks. So they've suspended the use of so-called thumb drives, CDs, flash media cards, and all other removable data storage devices from their nets, to try to keep the worm from multiplying any further.

It applies to both the secret SIPR and unclassified NIPR nets. The suspension, which includes everything from external hard drives to "floppy disks," is supposed to take effect "immediately." Similar notices went out to the other military services.

In some organizations, the ban would be only a minor inconvenience. But the military relies heavily on such drives to store information. Bandwidth is often scarce out in the field. Networks are often considered unreliable. Takeaway storage is used constantly as a substitute."

New honeycomb tire is 'bulletproof'

2008-11-19T16:27:00.001-07:00

The Humvee was never designed to carry the weight of any armor to protect troops. Fortunately, industry has been working on improvements to make them tougher. Simply replacing all the Hummers is cost prohibitive, and they're very useful vehicles when not under attack.
I wonder how well these tires resist chemicals and fire, but the military needs an SUV in this role, not a tank.

New honeycomb tire is 'bulletproof' Military Tech - CNET News:
"The University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Wausau, Wis., company have come up with a 37-inch, bullet and bomb-proof Humvee tire based on a polymeric web so cool looking there's no need for hub caps.

Resilient Technologies and Wisconsin-Madison's Polymer Engineering Center are creating a 'non-pneumatic tire' (no air required) that will support the weight of add-on armor, survive an IED attack, and still make a 50 mph getaway. It's basically a round honeycomb wrapped with a thick, black tread.

The military wants an alternative to the current Humvee 'run flat' tires, which despite the name, still need a minimal amount of air pressure to roll and can leave troops stranded after being shot or blown out."

Note the comments after the article - several readers were concerned with spaces in the honeycomb loading up with mud and throwing the tire off-balance. I'm sure this was planned for, or revealed in testing, and that the production tires will be skinned with a sidewall making them look like ordinary tires.

The US Leads the World Despite Our Internal Critics

2008-11-11T14:31:00.004-07:00

Weekly, sometimes daily, I hear how awful we are in the US in our treatment of people unlike ourselves. Having lived and worked a little in other countries, I'm quite certain that the US is the best place in the world to live. Even in Britain, an ally and the homeland for many Americans, society affords some people fewer opportunities than they would have as immigrants in the US.

Perhaps instead of always trying to push social frontiers further in the US, we should consider working to bring other countries up to our standards. It would give some people a rest, and enable many people to see how unique and valuable our country is.

BBC NEWS | Could Britain have a black PM?:
"When Barack Obama claimed that his story could only have happened in America, he might have been looking across the Atlantic for evidence.

The odds of a black or Asian person taking the keys to 10 Downing Street any time soon are slim.

Tony Blair acknowledged as much in 2001, when he suggested the US was ahead of the UK in having people from ethnic minorities occupying some of the top political posts.

Mr Blair was mindful of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice at the heart of the White House, but probably hadn't even heard of Obama.

. . . the UK can learn from the way Americans responded to their racist history.

"Since the civil rights movement of the Sixties they have had to put in laws and rules in place because racism was more overt. It's more subtle in this country but there is a sense there's a glass ceiling across most industries.

"In America it's more acknowledged and they've put in positive discrimination. There was much resistance at the beginning but they have the fruits of that, which is people being forced into certain positions."

Consequently the US has a large and powerful black middle class, he says. While the UK is arguably more integrated, he says, a black prime minister will only be closer when there are more black business leaders and commissioning editors, operating the levers of power and educating society about black and Asian experiences.

. . . "In the US they dare to dream the American dream, talking about hope. Using that kind of language is something Americans do naturally. Here, we are I think culturally much more understated. We tend to be more cynical generally.

"And while I don't think we are anti-aspirational, the aspiration of what we are and who we are comes without the language of America. Americans are proud that they have brought about change no-one thought possible in the time they have.

"The language of Barack Obama and Martin Luther King is very singular to America but we're not able to use that kind of language. So we need to find a way to get out of that cynicism." "

Hot Air Ballooning on Titan?

2008-11-07T14:05:00.003-07:00

Petrochemicals from Titan may be vital to sustaining a large population on Mars. Research is important, but eventually we also need "boots on the ground" of Luna, Mars, Titan, the asteroid Belt, and many other sites in our solar system. There is enormous wealth out there if we're willing to go get it.

Plan to Send Hot Air Balloon to Saturn's Moon Titan - Yahoo! News:
"A hot air balloon drifts gently in the breeze, gliding over mountain ranges and vast lakes. Thick clouds extend over the entire horizon, threatening rain. The meager light that filters through illuminates one side of the balloon, making it look like a giant question mark in the sky.

This is a vision that floats in the minds of scientists who study Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The Cassini spacecraft currently traveling around the Saturn system has provided us with our best glimpse yet of Titan, but there is still much to be explored.

Athena Coustenis, an astrophysicist and planetologist with the Paris Observatory, is helping draft a plan to send a hot air balloon to Titan, as well as an orbiting spacecraft and a surface probe. Called TSSM – the Titan and Saturn System Mission – this three-tiered approach to exploration could shed more light on the still-mysterious moon.
. . .
The moon's resemblance to Earth was eerily brought to mind when the Huygens probe descended to the surface of Titan in 2005. The photos showed a mountain with river channels carving their way down to a lake shoreline; a geography reminiscent of Earth today, except that on Titan the mountains are made of ice, and the rivers are liquid methane.

The Huygens probe eventually landed in a sandy river bed dotted with pebbles. This soft terrain would prove hazardous for a wheeled rover – the Mars Rover Opportunity got stuck for weeks in a sand dune and was nearly stranded forever. "The ground on Titan may be gooey, and you don't want to get stuck somewhere," says Coustenis.

She says that to move around, the TSSM probe could be outfitted with a helicopter rotor that would allow it to fly from place to place. The probe design also may include floaters that would prevent it from sinking if it landed on one of Titan's hydrocarbon lakes.
. . .
Our knowledge of Titan's geography has improved thanks to Huygens and Cassini. Long before the probe landed, scientists thought Titan was completely covered by a hydrocarbon ocean. This ocean was thought to be the source of methane in Titan's atmosphere. The Huygens probe proved the theory of a global ocean was incorrect, and from what the Cassini spacecraft has seen so far, the lakes of liquid hydrocarbon on Titan are mostly confined to the moon's north polar region. Still, it's hard to speak of Titan's geography with much certainty. While Cassini's radar has allowed it to peer through Titan's thick atmospheric haze, in the end Cassini won't be able to map even half of the moon's surface. The third part of TSSM – an orbiting spacecraft – will give scientists a more complete view of the enigmatic moon.

"We need a Titan-dedicated orbiter because after four years of Cassini, we still haven't mapped more than 25 percent of Titan's surface," says Coustenis. "When you see the diversity the moon has, you realize it needs full-coverage mapping. And we can have a polar orbiter, whereas Cassini only passes by Titan on the ecliptic."

The orbiter also could be used to study Enceledus, a tiny moon that previously had not garnered much attention. Cassini discovered that Enceladus has geysers of liquid water at its south pole, and this spray generates one of the rings around Saturn. Scientists are puzzled how this icy snowball could generate enough heat to keep water liquid. Because liquid water is believed to be a prerequisite for life, some scientists now think Enceladus could be a potential location for alien organisms in our solar system."

Fear of Democrats Drives Gun Sales

2008-11-07T13:50:00.001-07:00

Gun laws affect the law-abiding almost exclusively - criminals, by definition, don't obey laws, and many of them get their weapons by stealing them.

This has happened before - the gun industry will do well financially for several months, but will eventually go through hard times when the demand has been sated.

Gun owners need to remember that legislators have a history of making ammunition, magazines, reloading components, and even some accessories more expensive or even banned, when liberals are in power. A gun with no ammunition is merely an elaborate club.

Everywhere that concealed carry becomes legal, crimes decreases - criminals prefer unarmed victims.

Fears of a Dem crackdown lead to boom in gun sales - Yahoo! News:
". . .
Last month, as an Obama win looked increasingly inevitable, there were 62,000 more background checks for gun purchases than in October 2007, a 25 percent increase. And they were up about 8 percent for the year as of Oct. 26, according to the FBI.

No data was available for gun purchases this week, but gun shops from suburban Virginia to the Rockies report record sales since Tuesday's election.

'They're scared to death of losing their rights,' said David Hancock, manager of Bob Moates, where sales have nearly doubled in the past week and are up 15 percent for the year. On Election Day, salespeople were called in on their day off because of the crowd.

Obama has said he respects Americans' Second Amendment right to bear arms, but that he favors 'common sense' gun laws. Gun rights advocates interpret that as meaning he'll at least enact curbs on ownership of assault and concealed weapons.

As a U.S. Senator, Obama voted to leave gun-makers and dealers open to lawsuits; and as an Illinois state legislator, he supported a ban on semiautomatic weapons and tighter restrictions on all firearms."

Orson Scott Card on Media Bias

2008-10-22T17:34:00.001-07:00

We should be glad that a bad decision during the Clinton administration took this long to spiral completely out of control. Of course we might feel even better if the Democrats in Congress had allowed the Republicans to fix it before the crash (or even helped them).

Meridian Magazine:: Ideas and Society: Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights?:
"This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration.

It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor people. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were authorized to approve risky loans.

What is a risky loan? It's a loan that the recipient is likely not to be able to repay.
The goal of this rule change was to help the poor — which especially would help members of minority groups. But how does it help these people to give them a loan that they can't repay? They get into a house, yes, but when they can't make the payments, they lose the house — along with their credit rating.

They end up worse off than before.

This was completely foreseeable and in fact many people did foresee it. One political party, in Congress and in the executive branch, tried repeatedly to tighten up the rules. The other party blocked every such attempt and tried to loosen them.

Furthermore, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were making political contributions to the very members of Congress who were allowing them to make irresponsible loans. (Though why quasi-federal agencies were allowed to do so baffles me. It's as if the Pentagon were allowed to contribute to the political campaigns of Congressmen who support increasing their budget.)
. . .
This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?
. . .
after Freddie Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae who made $90 million while running it into the ground, was fired for his incompetence, one presidential candidate's campaign actually consulted him for advice on housing.

If that presidential candidate had been John McCain, you would have called it a major scandal and we would be getting stories in your paper every day about how incompetent and corrupt he was.

But instead, that candidate was Barack Obama, and so you have buried this story, and when the McCain campaign dared to call Raines an "adviser" to the Obama campaign — because that campaign had sought his advice — you actually let Obama's people get away with accusing McCain of lying, merely because Raines wasn't listed as an official adviser to the Obama campaign.

You would never tolerate such weasely nit-picking from a Republican.
. . .
Your job, as journalists, is to tell the truth. That's what you claim you do, when you accept people's money to buy or subscribe to your paper.

But right now, you are consenting to or actively promoting a big fat lie — that the housing crisis should somehow be blamed on Bush, McCain, and the Republicans. You have trained the American people to blame everything bad — even bad weather — on Bush, and they are responding as you have taught them to.

If you had any personal honor, each reporter and editor would be insisting on telling the truth — even if it hurts the election chances of your favorite candidate.

Because that's what honorable people do. Honest people tell the truth even when they don't like the probable consequences. That's what honesty means . That's how trust is earned.
. . .
Meanwhile, you have participated in the borking of Sarah Palin, reporting savage attacks on her for the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter — while you ignored the story of John Edwards's own adultery for many months.

So I ask you now: Do you have any standards at all? Do you even know what honesty means?

Is getting people to vote for Barack Obama so important that you will throw away everything that journalism is supposed to stand for?
. . .
This was a Congress-caused crisis, beginning during the Clinton administration, with Democrats leading the way into the crisis and blocking every effort to get out of it in a timely fashion.

If you at our local daily newspaper continue to let Americans believe — and vote as if — President Bush and the Republicans caused the crisis, then you are joining in that lie."

The election is in less than 2 weeks

2008-10-22T16:23:00.004-07:00

In my experience, government is the worst possible provider of any service people need (charities & religious organizations are much more efficient), so choosing between two big government candidates isn't my idea of fun. It is stunning how much more we expect from government than we did 30 years ago, and how much less we get than we expect.

I suppose we get the government we deserve . . . I could do without a tax increase at this time in my life, but with Congress spending like drunken sailors for the last couple of decades that seems inevitable anyway.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." (Benjamin Franklin, 1755)

I keep reminding folks that we elect a president, not an emperor.

It has often been observed that government by a president from one party and a congressional majority from the other party is the best possible situation for us the Citizens & Taxpayers. Having the majorities differ between the Senate and the House is nearly as good. W had a congressional majority on his side for a while, but squandered it by never using his veto pen while they spent like drunken sailors (apologies to real sailors).

If you hope for a more conservative government, then study up and vote your entire ballot. Those people running for state and local offices are the pool from which we'll get our next round of national leaders. Pick some with the guts to oppose special interests and rescue our country from the bureaucrats.

Obama Would Unleash EPA's Radical Environmentalism

2008-10-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

We in the US frequently lead the world by example. We didn't sign the Kyoto Accords because they were disproportionately harsh on first world industrial nations, and didn't address the enormous pollution problems from emerging industrial powers like China and India. Now it looks like Candidate Obama wants the US to lead the world into economic ruin before energy alternatives are feasible - I think the world may just sit back & watch instead of following us.

Obama's Carbon Ultimatum - WSJ.com:
"Liberals pretend that only President Bush is preventing the U.S. from adopting some global warming 'solution.' But occasionally their mask slips. As Barack Obama's energy adviser has now made clear, the would-be President intends to blackmail -- or rather, greenmail -- Congress into falling in line with his climate agenda.

Jason Grumet is currently executive director of an outfit called the National Commission on Energy Policy and one of Mr. Obama's key policy aides. In an interview last week with Bloomberg, Mr. Grumet said that come January the Environmental Protection Agency 'would initiate those rulemakings' that classify carbon as a dangerous pollutant under current clean air laws. That move would impose new regulation and taxes across the entire economy, something that is usually the purview of Congress. Mr. Grumet warned that 'in the absence of Congressional action' 18 months after Mr. Obama's inauguration, the EPA would move ahead with its own unilateral carbon crackdown anyway.

Well, well. For years, Democrats -- including Senator Obama -- have been howling about the "politicization" of the EPA, which has nominally been part of the Bush Administration. The complaint has been that the White House blocked EPA bureaucrats from making the so-called "endangerment finding" on carbon. Now it turns out that a President Obama would himself wield such a finding as a political bludgeon. He plans to issue an ultimatum to Congress: Either impose new taxes and limits on carbon that he finds amenable, or the EPA carbon police will be let loose to ravage the countryside.

The EPA hasn't made a secret of how it would like to centrally plan the U.S. economy under the 1970 Clean Air Act. In a blueprint released in July, the agency didn't exactly say it'd collectivize the farms -- but pretty close, down to the "grass clippings." The EPA would monitor and regulate the carbon emissions of "lawn and garden equipment" as well as everything with an engine, like cars, planes and boats. Eco-bureaucrats envision thousands of other emissions limits on all types of energy. Coal-fired power and other fossil fuels would be ruled out of existence, while all other prices would rise as the huge economic costs of the new regime were passed down the energy chain to consumers.
. . .
Climate-change politics don't break cleanly along partisan lines. The burden of a carbon clampdown will fall disproportionately on some states over others, especially the 25 interior states that get more than 50% of their electricity from coal. Rustbelt manufacturing states like Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania will get hit hard too. Once President Bush leaves office, the coastal Democrats pushing hardest for a climate change program might find their colleagues splitting off, especially after they vote for a huge tax increase on incomes."

Ben Bova to the new President: Energy From Stars

2008-10-14T22:56:00.004-07:00

Ben Bova explains far better than I can why Solar Power Satellites may be the most cost effective solution to our current energy problems. Clean energy that isn't affected by weather, available in quantities that enable us to wean society from petrochemicals at a slow enough rate to prevent further injury to our economy.

An Energy Fix Written in the Stars - washingtonpost.com:
"You're heading into some rough times as you move into the White House, Mr. Future President, what with the economy in recession, financial markets in turmoil, global warming, terrorism, war and soaring energy prices. But I can offer you a tip for dealing with that last issue, at least: Look to the stars.

That's right. You can use the powerful technology we've forged over a half-century of space exploration to solve one major down-to-Earth problem -- and become the most popular president since John F. Kennedy in the process.
. . .
Solar energy is a favorite of environmentalists, but it works only when the sun is shining. But that's the trick. There is a place where the sun never sets, and a way to use solar energy for power generation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: Put the solar cells in space, in high orbits where they'd be in sunshine all the time.

You do it with the solar power satellite (SPS), a concept invented by Peter Glaser in 1968. The idea is simple: You build large assemblages of solar cells in space, where they convert sunlight into electricity and beam it to receiving stations on the ground.

The solar power satellite is the ultimate clean energy source. It doesn't burn an ounce of fuel. And a single SPS could deliver five to 10 gigawatts of energy to the ground continually. Consider that the total electrical-generation capacity of the entire state of California is 4.4 gigawatts.

Conservative estimates have shown that an SPS could deliver electricity at a cost to the consumer of eight to 10 cents per kilowatt hour. That's about the same as costs associated with conventional power generation stations. And operating costs would drop as more orbital platforms are constructed and the price of components, such as solar voltaic cells, is reduced. Solar power satellites could lower the average taxpayer's electric bills while providing vastly more electricity.
. . .
Some people worry about beaming gigawatts of microwave energy to the ground. But the microwave beams would be spread over a wide area, so they wouldn't be intense enough to harm anyone. Birds could fly through the thinly spread beams without harm. Nevertheless, it would be best for the receiving stations to be set up in unpopulated areas. The deserts of the American Southwest would be an ideal location. You could gain votes in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and California!

It's ironic, but when solar power satellites become commonplace, the desert wastes of the Sahara and the Middle East could become important energy centers even after the last drop of oil has been pumped out of them. SPS receiving stations could also be built on platforms at sea; Japan has already looked into that possibility.

I admit, solar power satellites won't be cheap. Constructing one would cost about as much as building a nuclear power plant: on the order of $1 billion. That money, though, needn't come from the taxpayers; it could be raised by the private capital market. Oil companies invest that kind of money every year in exploring for new oil fields. But the risk involved in building an SPS, as with any space operation, is considerable, and it could be many years or even decades before an investment begins to pay off. So how can we get private investors to put their money into solar power satellites?

This nation tackled a similar situation about a century ago, when faced with building big hydroelectric dams. Those dams were on the cutting edge of technology at the time, and they were risky endeavors that required hefty funding. The Hoover Dam, the Grand Coulee Dam and others were built with private investment -- backed by long-term, low-interest loans guaranteed by the U.S. government. They changed the face of the American West, providing irrigation water and electrical power that stimulated enormous economic growth. Phoenix and Las Vegas wouldn't be on the map except for those dams.

Solar power satellites could be funded through the same sort of government-backed loans.
. . .
It will take foresight and leadership to start a solar power satellite program. That's why, Mr. Future President, I believe that you should make it NASA's primary goal to build and operate a demonstration model SPS, sized to deliver a reasonably impressive amount of electrical power -- say, 10 to 100 megawatts -- before the end of your second term. Such a demonstration would prove that full-scale solar power satellites are achievable. With federal loan guarantees, private financing could then take over and build satellites that would deliver the gigawatts we need to lower our imports of foreign oil and begin to move away from fossil fuels.

I know that scientists and academics will howl in protest. They want to explore the universe and don't care about oil prices or building new industries. But remember, they howled against the Apollo program, too. They wanted the money for their projects, not to send a handful of fighter jocks to the moon. What they failed to see was that Apollo produced the technology and the trained teams of people that have allowed us to reach every planet in the solar system."