They say that the first rule of blogging is to blog every day; these next few days will put that to the test. The needle is likely dropping ...
Thursday, July 11, 2013
In which I suck as a blogger
Posting is off lately, and will continue to be off for a while. Last night it was good to see #1 Son after him being away for a month, but that left no time for blogging. Tonight and tomorrow (and all weekend) is the Motorcycle safety class, and that will likely leave no time for blogging, either.
They say that the first rule of blogging is to blog every day; these next few days will put that to the test. The needle is likely dropping ...
They say that the first rule of blogging is to blog every day; these next few days will put that to the test. The needle is likely dropping ...
Security news
Lots of Windowsy goodness in this week's Patch Tuesday, including a fix that covers all versions of Windows. That's right, something that could be exploited in every Windows machine. Cool beans. One of the vulnerabilities is being exploited in the wild. And bonus Internet Explorer fixes. Get yer fixes here (you need to use Internet Explorer for this).
Adobe released security updates for Flash and Shockwave. Restarting your browser likely will do this (Adobe will tell you there's an update and ask you if you want it). Or get it here.
The Commerce Department has an interesting approach to getting rid of malware: grind up the computers in industrial shredders:
Here are a couple of interesting browser plugins to combat nosy web tracking. Ghostery and DoNotTrackMe are worth a look. Note that this only protects you against nosy marketing types, not against the NSA.
Security guru Rich Mogul has a very interesting article about Apple's security strategy: make security both effective and invisible to the user:
Adobe released security updates for Flash and Shockwave. Restarting your browser likely will do this (Adobe will tell you there's an update and ask you if you want it). Or get it here.
The Commerce Department has an interesting approach to getting rid of malware: grind up the computers in industrial shredders:
A US Department of Commerce agency has been chastised for spunking $2.7m chasing down a supposed major malware infection that was actually limited to a handful of PCs.[rolls eyes]
The Economic Development Administration adopted a scorched earth policy - isolating itself from the internet before destroying more than $170,000 worth of equipment including printers, TVs, and even computer mice - in a comically inept attempt to resolve the phantom outbreak.
The physical destruction of equipment only ceased after the department's disposal budget was exhausted. "The destruction of IT components was clearly unnecessary," the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) auditor said in an official report released last month.
Here are a couple of interesting browser plugins to combat nosy web tracking. Ghostery and DoNotTrackMe are worth a look. Note that this only protects you against nosy marketing types, not against the NSA.
Security guru Rich Mogul has a very interesting article about Apple's security strategy: make security both effective and invisible to the user:
Worth a read.
For many years, Apple tended to choose good user experience at the expense of leaving users vulnerable to security risks. That strategy worked for a long time, in part because Apple’s comparatively low market share made its products less attractive targets. But as Apple products began to gain in popularity, many of us in the security business wondered how Apple would adjust its security strategies to its new position in the spotlight.
As it turns out, the company not only handled that change smoothly, it has embraced it. Despite a rocky start, Apple now applies its impressive design sensibilities to security, playing the game its own way and in the process changing our expectations for security and technology.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Don't look up
Waiting for #1 Son's plane to arrive from Yankeeland.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Epic pwnage is epic
TV stations all over the country have spent the last few years replacing the emergency notification system with a new, uber high tech networked emergency response system. A design that's the uberest of uber high tech. Translation: a target rich environment:
All I want to know is where T-Bolt was back in February.
Hardware powering the US Emergency Alert System can be easily tricked into broadcasting bogus apocalyptic warnings from afar, say experts.ZOMG! ZOMBIES!!11!!eleventy!!
Researchers at computer security biz IOActive reckon they found private encryption keys within firmware updates for the devices; miscreants armed with this information could successfully remotely log into the hardware, installed at television and radio stations around the US, as an administrator and broadcast panic-inducing messages to the masses.
And the discovery comes just months after shortcomings in the Emergency Alert System (EAS) were exploited to beam news of a zombie apocalypse to American TVs: Montana Television Network’s regular programming was interrupted by warnings of the end of the world back in February.
Viewers of KRTC in Great Falls, Montana, were confronted by an on-air audio warning that "bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living". A scrolling text warning at the top of the screen naming various Montana counties as targets for the spoof announcement of doom, which sparked calls to the state's cops.
All I want to know is where T-Bolt was back in February.
Quote of the Day
The magnificent Avro Lancaster was actually the second bomber designed by the same team of aeronautical engineers. It was a re-spin of the poorly performing Avro Manchester. And there's the interesting story:
Perhaps this simply describes the shape of a normal distribution curve.
Why do some airplane designs last for so long? It is because a successful replacement for a truly successful airplane is so very hard to contrive. Many airplanes are built. Many fly. Very few succeed remotely as well as just a few of them do. So, once you have your hands on one of these mega-hits, you tend to hang onto it tight. Many new and improved designs are proposed, which will supposedly do even better than your mega-hit airplane, but supposedly is most definitely not definitely, and it is best to stick with the angelic machine you know than bet everything on a replacement that will as likely as not fall diabolically short of its mark.You could say the same about car designs, or firearms. Lots are made, but very few become classics. Even today, with computer modeling and Computer Aided Design you still get a bunch of designs that, while functional, have clear shortcomings. The few designs that all come together stand out.
The people who designed the ugly little duckling, the Manchester, were the exact same people who later turned it into the swan that was the Lancaster. But this was not because a pack of incompetent airplane makers suddenly turned over a new leaf and became brilliant airplane makers. They were brilliant airplane makers all along, this being a big part of the reason why Air Officialdom went ahead with the Manchester. Air Officialdom was, if not confident, then at least entitled to hope that the Manchester’s early problems would in due course be sorted, by the brilliant people at Avro. The Manchester failed for the simplest of all reasons, which is that almost all airplanes do fail, compared to the few which do not, no matter how brilliant are the people designing and building them. And then, when the Manchester did succeed, by being turned into the Lancaster, Air Officialdom was vindicated. Those teething problems were sorted. Very dramatically indeed, and with a design so different and so radical that it involved a name change, but they were sorted.
Perhaps this simply describes the shape of a normal distribution curve.
Hottest year ever!
Well, that's what we keep hearing, every year. Or the equivalent but couched in weasel words: "7 of the last 10 were the hottest ever". So riddle me this: when was the hottest temperature ever recorded?
It was this day, 100 years ago. July 10, 1913 saw a temperature of 134° in Death Valley, California.
And so after a century of "unprecedented" and "accelerating" warming, with repeated "record hot" years in the last two decades, the hottest day ever was an entire century ago. What a strange warming, that raises average temperature without raising record high temperature. It's almost like the computer models fiddle with the data when they calculate the averages or something. Or even change the actual data in the databases. But it seems that nobody - so far, at least - has had the guts to change the all time high.
Likely because someone would ask why, and make them show their work.
It was this day, 100 years ago. July 10, 1913 saw a temperature of 134° in Death Valley, California.
And so after a century of "unprecedented" and "accelerating" warming, with repeated "record hot" years in the last two decades, the hottest day ever was an entire century ago. What a strange warming, that raises average temperature without raising record high temperature. It's almost like the computer models fiddle with the data when they calculate the averages or something. Or even change the actual data in the databases. But it seems that nobody - so far, at least - has had the guts to change the all time high.
Likely because someone would ask why, and make them show their work.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
And then there were none
Concealed Carry is now outlawed in none of the 50 States.
Things sure are different than they were 10 years ago. And better, at least this way.
Things sure are different than they were 10 years ago. And better, at least this way.
Your moment of zen
Buddy and fellow gunnie/biker (although he isn't bald - how'd that happen?) Bert email this moment of zen:
Safety training class starts on Thursday. After that, the Motorcycle permit should convert to a license. Onward!
Safety training class starts on Thursday. After that, the Motorcycle permit should convert to a license. Onward!
PassionTag seems like an interesting new social media app
One of the people I run across at the dog park is married to a guy in a startup. They're making PassionTag, an app that seems pretty cool:
It's free for the iPhone, so all you gunnie fanbois (and girls) can check it out.
you can use PassionTag to create and collect interactive tags that you can share online through your personal photos. PassionTag gives each of your photos a “digital backpack” that you can fill with whatever you think best represents the experience captured by your photo.I immediately thought of gatherings like a blogshoot, where everyone's snapping pix with their phones and cameras and then there's 20 minutes of head scratching about how to share them with each other. It looks like you could set up and share a new tag for the blogshoot, and everyone could use the tag to find the pix. Looks like you could use tags to link to blogs with posts about the blogshoot. Neato.
Flip your photo over and the digital backpack reveals itself, connecting you and those who see your photo with actions that bring the photo to life: connect to a video, an article on Wikipedia, a mobile-web donation form for a favorite charity, or even a review on Yelp. Pretty much anything you can imagine can be placed in your digital backpack, tagged with PassionTag, and shared via your favorite social channels.
It's free for the iPhone, so all you gunnie fanbois (and girls) can check it out.
Monday, July 8, 2013
Me, I like my Enfield
That is, if I ever get treed by 4 sumatran tigers:
And I'd think that .303 Brit would have enough punch to deal with tigers when they came within range. Even if they were all p***ed off about the cub.
The Enfield takes 10 rounds of .303 Brit in the Magazine, plus whatever else you carry in your pockets. The sling lets you strap it on your back when you climb into the Sumatran foliage to your (temporary) escape.Several tigers have trapped five Indonesian men up a tree in a national park on Sumatra island, after mauling a sixth person to death, police say.The group was attacked on Thursday after they accidentally killed a tiger cub. One man died while the others managed to flee up some branches.
The survivors alerted nearby villagers using mobile phones.
It could take rescue crews up to three days before they find the men in the Gunung Leuser jungle, officials said.
...
Villagers had tried to rescue the men on Thursday but retreated when they saw at least four large Sumatran tigers circling around the base of the tree.
And I'd think that .303 Brit would have enough punch to deal with tigers when they came within range. Even if they were all p***ed off about the cub.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
"I joined the ATF because I couldn't get a better job in Law Enforcement"
That was the Quote Of The Day* from the blogmeet, which was way fun. More than a dozen folks showed up, which is maybe an Atlanta blogmeet all time record. The QoTD was my reaction to a lively discussion on the state of Law Enforcement in the Republic. Cynical readers wiil be, well, more cynical than I.
The consensus was (a) a good time was had by all, (b) let's do it again in August, and (c) how about a blogshoot already in September. I mean, we haven't had any yet and that makes Baby Vulcan cry.
And so leave a comment if you're in the Atlanta Area and you have a place you'd like us to congregate at for the next blogmeet. I've been picking Roswell because I live there, but I'm open to suggestions to the next one.
Also, we're thinking about meeting at a shooting range in late September for blogshoot, complete with stuffed children's toys and lots of interesting guns. Leave a comment if you have a range that might accommodate 10 or so shooters. And stuffed Teletubby toys.
Thanks to everyone who showed up, including long tome Atlanta blogger Billy Ockham who is a seriously interesting dude. And the other non-blogger dudes (and dudettes!) who are also seriously interesting. And why aren't you blogging? You know you have an instant blogroll here.
* OK, it was from me, I confess. But everyone thought it was pretty funny,
UPDATE 7 July 2013 21:25: Thanks to Libertyman, I've updated the title. Brain fart from getting up too early, I dare say. Or just from being an idiot.
The consensus was (a) a good time was had by all, (b) let's do it again in August, and (c) how about a blogshoot already in September. I mean, we haven't had any yet and that makes Baby Vulcan cry.
And so leave a comment if you're in the Atlanta Area and you have a place you'd like us to congregate at for the next blogmeet. I've been picking Roswell because I live there, but I'm open to suggestions to the next one.
Also, we're thinking about meeting at a shooting range in late September for blogshoot, complete with stuffed children's toys and lots of interesting guns. Leave a comment if you have a range that might accommodate 10 or so shooters. And stuffed Teletubby toys.
Thanks to everyone who showed up, including long tome Atlanta blogger Billy Ockham who is a seriously interesting dude. And the other non-blogger dudes (and dudettes!) who are also seriously interesting. And why aren't you blogging? You know you have an instant blogroll here.
* OK, it was from me, I confess. But everyone thought it was pretty funny,
UPDATE 7 July 2013 21:25: Thanks to Libertyman, I've updated the title. Brain fart from getting up too early, I dare say. Or just from being an idiot.
Making a Medieval style folding knife
While looking for videos for today's music, I ran across this from a guy who forged a knife patterned off of a medieval folding knife. It's pretty interesting to see how he does it.
This part where he grinds the blade to sharpen it is pretty spectacular. Not sure I'd hold the blade in my hand while grinding it. The tempering bit is very cool.
Almost makes me want to try a bit of blacksmithery.
This part where he grinds the blade to sharpen it is pretty spectacular. Not sure I'd hold the blade in my hand while grinding it. The tempering bit is very cool.
Almost makes me want to try a bit of blacksmithery.
Wulfstan the Cantor (probably) - The Winchester Troper
Most of what people call "Gregorian Chants" aren't. The true Gregorian chant as sung during the years after Pope Gregory were monophonic, meaning that only a single melody was sung in unison by all singers. The older, common name for this was plainchant.
That all ended sometime in the tenth century with the emergence of polyphony - different people singing different parts, just like we have today.. We don't know precisely when, because there is no historical record of that music. We do know that it was widespread, because the first written record contained 160 two-part chants in this new form. It's not known that Wulfstan was the composer or simply the collector, or if in fact he did neither and just got the credit.
What we do know is that this is the oldest music on earth that you will still run into every year (probably around the holidays). It dates to Anglo-Saxon England of around 1000 A.D. Because the songs were liturgical music they were in Latin, not the Old English of Wulfstan's day.
If you go to Winchester (highly recommended), the cathedral there is the "new" one, built by the Normans a century after the Winchester Troper was written. Winchester was the Royal Seat of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, and the William the Conqueror was determined to overawe his new subjects. The Old Minster where Wulfstan was Cantor was torn down and the new one built on (almost) the same site. The foundations of the old Anglo-Saxon Cathedral are marked on the lawn.
Amazon has a CD of this, Christmas in Royal Anglo-Saxon Winchester. Somewhat ironically, Amazon has it categorized as a Gregorian Chant.
That all ended sometime in the tenth century with the emergence of polyphony - different people singing different parts, just like we have today.. We don't know precisely when, because there is no historical record of that music. We do know that it was widespread, because the first written record contained 160 two-part chants in this new form. It's not known that Wulfstan was the composer or simply the collector, or if in fact he did neither and just got the credit.
What we do know is that this is the oldest music on earth that you will still run into every year (probably around the holidays). It dates to Anglo-Saxon England of around 1000 A.D. Because the songs were liturgical music they were in Latin, not the Old English of Wulfstan's day.
If you go to Winchester (highly recommended), the cathedral there is the "new" one, built by the Normans a century after the Winchester Troper was written. Winchester was the Royal Seat of the Anglo-Saxon Kings, and the William the Conqueror was determined to overawe his new subjects. The Old Minster where Wulfstan was Cantor was torn down and the new one built on (almost) the same site. The foundations of the old Anglo-Saxon Cathedral are marked on the lawn.
Amazon has a CD of this, Christmas in Royal Anglo-Saxon Winchester. Somewhat ironically, Amazon has it categorized as a Gregorian Chant.
Atlanta area blogmeet today
If you're in the area, stop by.
Date and Time: Sunday 7 July, 2:00 PM
Location: Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St. in Roswell GA.
Mac McGee's has a great selection of beers and Whiskeys, and the food is outstanding. Prices are right. We always have a good time at these, so stop by if you can.
Date and Time: Sunday 7 July, 2:00 PM
Location: Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St. in Roswell GA.
Mac McGee's has a great selection of beers and Whiskeys, and the food is outstanding. Prices are right. We always have a good time at these, so stop by if you can.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Blogmeet tomorrow
Date and Time: Sunday 7 July, 2:00 PM
Location: Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St. in Roswell GA.
These have always been fun, so if you're in the area, stop by. If you think you will make it, please leave a comment so I can arrange a space large enough. They have a number of different rooms of different sizes.
Location: Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St. in Roswell GA.
These have always been fun, so if you're in the area, stop by. If you think you will make it, please leave a comment so I can arrange a space large enough. They have a number of different rooms of different sizes.
Merle Haggard - Motorcycle Cowboy
That got me thinking: what are the great Country songs about motorcycles? Quite frankly, there's one that stands heads and shoulders above any other country song.
Normally in these posts I try to give some background about the singer, and why it's relevant, and why someone might want to listen to something they're never heard before. But not today.
C'mon - it's Merle. With bikes and blondes and a wailing saxophone. And a dang fine Two Step beat.
Motorcycle Cowboy (songwriter: Merle Haggard)
I married me a hippy ran away with a stringy haired blonde,Damn. If you don't like this, I'm afraid we can't be friends anymore. Just sayin'.
Lord I married me a hippy ran away with a stringy haired blonde.
Now were both gold and happy fishin on our own golden pond.
Hey I love my biker baby she loves her guitar pickin pal,
Lord I love my harley mama she loves her guitar pickin pal.
I'm her motorcycle cowboy she's my long tall gal.
When the party's over it's really over for good,
I said when that party is over it's really over for good.
Honey everything changes wouldn't change back if I could.
Yeah aint got no driveway park my hog out on the lawn,
Aint got no driveway park my big old hog out on the lawn.
Now I aint got much money got a long tall blonde.
I'm her motorcycle cowboy she's my stringy haired blonde,
I married me a hippy ran away with a stringy haired blonde.
Now were both gold and happy fishin on our own golden pond.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Vroom!
I just got my Motorcycle permit. I guess that makes me an official member of the bald-headed-gunblogging-biker club. Someone let me know if there's a secret handshake or something.
Took 2 hours (!) at the DMV (or as they pronounce it here in Georgia, "DDS"). I guess this is what days off are for. Now off to buy a helmet. And look at bikes. Go, me!
UPDATE 5 July 19:10: Success!
It's a full-face model (obviously), even though y'all who have met me can testify that mine is a face made for radio. Still, it's my face, and I don't have another. Plus I fully expect to ride enough to be in the rain, and this will be better than raindrops hitting at 60 MPH. Like they say, you can find out what that feels like by going out in a Category 1 hurricane. No thanks.
And it had a cool feature. Not only does the face shield go up, the whole front of the helmet goes up.
And I signed up for the safety class which starts next Thursday and goes through the test on Sunday. If I pass, I get full Georgia class M endorsement for my driver's license (plus a cut on the insurance). Onwards!
Took 2 hours (!) at the DMV (or as they pronounce it here in Georgia, "DDS"). I guess this is what days off are for. Now off to buy a helmet. And look at bikes. Go, me!
UPDATE 5 July 19:10: Success!
It's a full-face model (obviously), even though y'all who have met me can testify that mine is a face made for radio. Still, it's my face, and I don't have another. Plus I fully expect to ride enough to be in the rain, and this will be better than raindrops hitting at 60 MPH. Like they say, you can find out what that feels like by going out in a Category 1 hurricane. No thanks.
And it had a cool feature. Not only does the face shield go up, the whole front of the helmet goes up.
And I signed up for the safety class which starts next Thursday and goes through the test on Sunday. If I pass, I get full Georgia class M endorsement for my driver's license (plus a cut on the insurance). Onwards!
Reminder: don't ever talk to the Police
L'affair TJIC is but the latest in a lamentably regular string of reminders that the Police are never working on your behalf when they "would like to ask you a few questions". Ever.
It's a crying shame, really. I was raised to think that the Police were there to help. That America no longer exists, and hasn't for a long time.
It's a crying shame, really. I was raised to think that the Police were there to help. That America no longer exists, and hasn't for a long time.
The Climate Science "Napkin Presentation"
Dr. J discusses climate science over cocktails:
So what do you do when you find yourself - as Dr. J did - congregating with intelligent, educated people who spout the usual ignorant climate party line? Having a "Napkin Presentation" that you can draw out on a cocktail napkin as you lead them (logically) through your climate science position would certainly be a plus, no?
As a, err, public service, I humbly offer said climate science Napkin Presentation. It also lets me toss up a boffo post in a trice as I head out the door to get my Motorcycle Operator's Permit. Offered for your consideration (and hopefully future use in Saloons all over the Globe), the Climate Science Napkin Presentation.
(Originally posted 14 May 2010)
So Joe Lieberman and John Kerry have introduced a Cap-and-Trade bill in the Senate, despite the fact that it's been coughing up blood for months, despite the massive fraud in the European Carbon trading markets, despite its unpopularity among environmental groups, and despite the developing world's refusal to participate.
The press, as usual, is nowhere to be found with the hard questions. We'll come to why in a bit, but the lack of fear of the electorate that Congress is displaying demands that we cut through the fog to expose the real motivations at work. The best exposition on this was last November by the Pedant-General at The Devil's Kitchen. It is, alas, lost to the world. I'm recreating it here from memory and from scraps I had saved (the graphics are mostly from his original post).
It's important to understand that this is the Pedant-General's thinking, not mine. I think it's likely the smartest thing written on the politics of climate change, but what follows is my reconstruction, seen through the Glass darkly. My thoughts are on the dodgy science of global warming, not the politics, although I'll go into this a bit at the end.
The discussion of global warming really doesn't end with scientists in white lab coats solemnly pronouncing The Truth; it begins at that point. We would then need discussions of possible solutions, which means engineering analysis. Then we need Economists to perform cost/benefit calculations. Only then should politicians enter the discussion, assuming that it gets that far. The analysis tree looks like this (click to enbiggen):
Rather
a lot, really, but let's take it step by step from the upper left to
the lower right. It starts with a simple, basic question: Have we ever
seen anything like this in the past? If we have, t
hen what's happening now can't be unprecedented, duh; nothing to see here, move along. Of course, the Medieval Warm Period certainly makes this look, err, precedented, which may be while we see so much handwaving trying to make it go away.
But even if we grant for the purposes of argument that the current
situation may be unprecedented, we're still very much at the beginning
of our analysis. It's terribly important at this point to understand
why - scientifically understand, mind. We absolutely have to understand
whether any change is being caused by man. If we don't know, the guys
in the white lab coats need to keep working until we do. Otherwise, we
can't know what to do.
For example, if the hypothetical change is being caused by changes in solar radiation, it would be very likely that our only option is to adapt to the changing climate. I mean, short of getting Chuck Norris to turn the Sun down, it's hard to see that there's very much that we could do to address the root cause.
This is our first exit point from the decision tree. Adapting to the situation may be a perfectly valid strategy, assuming that we ever get to this point in the analysis. Notice that this isn't a scientific question at all, but rather has morphed into an engineering one. If unprecedented warming is being caused by man (a big if, right there), what are the options? What would it take to change things, and what might we do to adapt instead?
Suppose - for the purpose of argument, again - that we really are causing global warming, or that maybe we aren't causing it but it's happening and there's something that we could do about it. What do we do? So far, we're hearing some pretty hair-brained schemes, but given enough time and enough engineers it's certain that we can come up with a set of non-hair-brained mitigations. Should we do anything?
This isn't the realm of scientists or engineers any more, this is a question for Economists. It may be that a warmer climate is overall beneficial. Sure, there would be localized costs - higher sea levels and droughts - but these would be localized in scope. Other areas may benefit - for example, new croplands which were previously marginal might be brought into production. Overall, mankind might be better off than before, in which case we have no business taking any mitigation efforts at all. Rather, we would be best off if we adapted to the warmer climate.
It may be that overall a warmer climate is a net bad thing, but also that all mitigation strategies are so hideously expensive as to make us worse off than if we did nothing. If it costs less to live with the problem than it does to do something about it, then we should live with it - duh. This is in fact the position taken by Bjorn Lomborg who is widely - and unfairly, more on this in a bit - accused of being a nutter. He isn't, he's just asking a reasonable question that some people don't want to deal with.
Notice
that there are a lot of exit points here - ways to end in that bottom
left "Adapt" box. As a matter of fact, you have to pass a lot of exit points before you get to the final, political, question: assuming that the current climate change is unprecedented, and that it's man-made, and that there's something that we can do about it, and we're better off doing something than doing nothing, should we do something about it?
It depends. You don't have to think - as some people have suggested
- that the entire purpose of the Copenhagen Accords was to create a
World Government. It's enough to suspect that the schemes are motivated
by governments (and trans-governments like the UN) to provide large
opportunities to enrich themselves and their apparatchiks via graft, and
to seize tighter control of their populations via environmental
legislation. Offered as Exhibit A is Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the
UN's IPCC, and who has a big financial stake in just this question. Exhibit B is Lord Oxburgh, paid director of multiple renewable energy concerns,
who headed the official UK investigation into ClimateGate. You'll no
doubt be shocked to hear that his committee found nothing wrong.
You have a lot of boxes on the checklist that need to be ticked "yes" before you get to Cap-and-Trade. One misstep and you find yourself in that box labeled "Adapt", for very good reasons. You'll notice that nobody in the press is talking about this, or any of the other questions discussed here. Instead, what we (like Lomborg) get from the press and the scientific establishment is this:
And you Baby-Eating Capitalists should all be in jail.
Replace the box labeled "Copenhagen" with "Senator Lieberman's and
Kerry's Cap-and-Trade" and it makes not one whit of difference. And
here's the key point, and the key to understanding the poisoned nature
of the climate science debate today:
In other words, Hey you Deniers, get off my lawn!
And this is why the ClimateGate revelations are so important, and why the press is working so hard to sweep them under the rug:
So why is the press quiet on what is clearly the science story of the century? The Pedant-General offered what I suspect is exactly the right analysis, which I have verbatim (since I quoted it last November):
Remember that this is from the Pedant-General's post; I've just jotted it down more or less from memory, with a few embellishments and links. Pedant-General, a grateful world humbly offers its thanks.And so to my thoughts on Cap-and-Trade. We know that the government is drunk on power, and never saw a tax it didn't like. We know that the scientific establishment is happy to go along to get along if there are hundreds of billions of dollars in research grants dangled in front of them. And we know that the press is made of up a bunch of not-very-smart leftie tools who are happy to spend the last of their vanishing credibility for the furtherance of what they see as the Greater Good.
And so the real Cap-and-Trade discussion has to take place outside the traditional media, as indeed the entire ClimateGate discussion as been. And the Body Politick needs to realize that environmentalism has now become a vastly regressive tax, and the only way to deal with this is to break Congress to the People's will.
Congress, their lackeys in the press, and the Environmental Lobby/Industry will hate this. Let them hate, so long as they fear.
Regarding global warming, Dr. J. pointed out that they were not integrating all of the data into their model, and given that the jury is still out with regard to causation (as correlation does not equate with causation) and given the fragile nature of our economy, unilateral energy-policy disarmament would equate with economic suicide with dire consequences for the middle class, who already struggle to heat and cool their homes and fill their tanks with gas.And the Czar of Muscovy brings his cold, gimlet eye (do doubt fortified with a Gimlet or two) to the subject.
...
At that point Dr. J.'s colleague brought up the Patriots prospects for the remainder of the football season.
So what do you do when you find yourself - as Dr. J did - congregating with intelligent, educated people who spout the usual ignorant climate party line? Having a "Napkin Presentation" that you can draw out on a cocktail napkin as you lead them (logically) through your climate science position would certainly be a plus, no?
As a, err, public service, I humbly offer said climate science Napkin Presentation. It also lets me toss up a boffo post in a trice as I head out the door to get my Motorcycle Operator's Permit. Offered for your consideration (and hopefully future use in Saloons all over the Globe), the Climate Science Napkin Presentation.
(Originally posted 14 May 2010)
So Joe Lieberman and John Kerry have introduced a Cap-and-Trade bill in the Senate, despite the fact that it's been coughing up blood for months, despite the massive fraud in the European Carbon trading markets, despite its unpopularity among environmental groups, and despite the developing world's refusal to participate.
The press, as usual, is nowhere to be found with the hard questions. We'll come to why in a bit, but the lack of fear of the electorate that Congress is displaying demands that we cut through the fog to expose the real motivations at work. The best exposition on this was last November by the Pedant-General at The Devil's Kitchen. It is, alas, lost to the world. I'm recreating it here from memory and from scraps I had saved (the graphics are mostly from his original post).
It's important to understand that this is the Pedant-General's thinking, not mine. I think it's likely the smartest thing written on the politics of climate change, but what follows is my reconstruction, seen through the Glass darkly. My thoughts are on the dodgy science of global warming, not the politics, although I'll go into this a bit at the end.
The discussion of global warming really doesn't end with scientists in white lab coats solemnly pronouncing The Truth; it begins at that point. We would then need discussions of possible solutions, which means engineering analysis. Then we need Economists to perform cost/benefit calculations. Only then should politicians enter the discussion, assuming that it gets that far. The analysis tree looks like this (click to enbiggen):
Rather
a lot, really, but let's take it step by step from the upper left to
the lower right. It starts with a simple, basic question: Have we ever
seen anything like this in the past? If we have, t
hen what's happening now can't be unprecedented, duh; nothing to see here, move along. Of course, the Medieval Warm Period certainly makes this look, err, precedented, which may be while we see so much handwaving trying to make it go away.
But even if we grant for the purposes of argument that the current
situation may be unprecedented, we're still very much at the beginning
of our analysis. It's terribly important at this point to understand
why - scientifically understand, mind. We absolutely have to understand
whether any change is being caused by man. If we don't know, the guys
in the white lab coats need to keep working until we do. Otherwise, we
can't know what to do.
For example, if the hypothetical change is being caused by changes in solar radiation, it would be very likely that our only option is to adapt to the changing climate. I mean, short of getting Chuck Norris to turn the Sun down, it's hard to see that there's very much that we could do to address the root cause.
This is our first exit point from the decision tree. Adapting to the situation may be a perfectly valid strategy, assuming that we ever get to this point in the analysis. Notice that this isn't a scientific question at all, but rather has morphed into an engineering one. If unprecedented warming is being caused by man (a big if, right there), what are the options? What would it take to change things, and what might we do to adapt instead?
Suppose - for the purpose of argument, again - that we really are causing global warming, or that maybe we aren't causing it but it's happening and there's something that we could do about it. What do we do? So far, we're hearing some pretty hair-brained schemes, but given enough time and enough engineers it's certain that we can come up with a set of non-hair-brained mitigations. Should we do anything?
This isn't the realm of scientists or engineers any more, this is a question for Economists. It may be that a warmer climate is overall beneficial. Sure, there would be localized costs - higher sea levels and droughts - but these would be localized in scope. Other areas may benefit - for example, new croplands which were previously marginal might be brought into production. Overall, mankind might be better off than before, in which case we have no business taking any mitigation efforts at all. Rather, we would be best off if we adapted to the warmer climate.
It may be that overall a warmer climate is a net bad thing, but also that all mitigation strategies are so hideously expensive as to make us worse off than if we did nothing. If it costs less to live with the problem than it does to do something about it, then we should live with it - duh. This is in fact the position taken by Bjorn Lomborg who is widely - and unfairly, more on this in a bit - accused of being a nutter. He isn't, he's just asking a reasonable question that some people don't want to deal with.
Notice
that there are a lot of exit points here - ways to end in that bottom
left "Adapt" box. As a matter of fact, you have to pass a lot of exit points before you get to the final, political, question: assuming that the current climate change is unprecedented, and that it's man-made, and that there's something that we can do about it, and we're better off doing something than doing nothing, should we do something about it?
It depends. You don't have to think - as some people have suggested
- that the entire purpose of the Copenhagen Accords was to create a
World Government. It's enough to suspect that the schemes are motivated
by governments (and trans-governments like the UN) to provide large
opportunities to enrich themselves and their apparatchiks via graft, and
to seize tighter control of their populations via environmental
legislation. Offered as Exhibit A is Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the
UN's IPCC, and who has a big financial stake in just this question. Exhibit B is Lord Oxburgh, paid director of multiple renewable energy concerns,
who headed the official UK investigation into ClimateGate. You'll no
doubt be shocked to hear that his committee found nothing wrong.You have a lot of boxes on the checklist that need to be ticked "yes" before you get to Cap-and-Trade. One misstep and you find yourself in that box labeled "Adapt", for very good reasons. You'll notice that nobody in the press is talking about this, or any of the other questions discussed here. Instead, what we (like Lomborg) get from the press and the scientific establishment is this:
And you Baby-Eating Capitalists should all be in jail.
Replace the box labeled "Copenhagen" with "Senator Lieberman's and
Kerry's Cap-and-Trade" and it makes not one whit of difference. And
here's the key point, and the key to understanding the poisoned nature
of the climate science debate today:Since we're skipping straight to politics, the science is absolutely essential. The situation is being treated as a First Aid triage: it's all about the CO2, it's only about the CO2, and we'd damned well better do something about the CO2 RIGHT NOW. Since the conclusion is foregone, no dissent is tolerated.
In other words, Hey you Deniers, get off my lawn!And this is why the ClimateGate revelations are so important, and why the press is working so hard to sweep them under the rug:
- The CRU data leak suggests that the data has been fiddled.
- The CRU emails (”hide the decline”) suggest that they knew that the proxies don't map to real temperature, but covered it up anyway.
- The computer code shows that it artificially adjusts older warm periods,to make them colder, and newer cold period to make them warmer.
- The IPCC report was justified on what turned out to be a single tree (tree rings)
- Real proxy data (ice cores, etc) are grafted onto garbage temperature data. Your whole analysis then becomes Garbage.
So why is the press quiet on what is clearly the science story of the century? The Pedant-General offered what I suspect is exactly the right analysis, which I have verbatim (since I quoted it last November):
Slice your average environment correspondent through the middle and you're going to find a left-leaning liberal arts graduate who is utterly out of his/her depth. Their world view is being swept from underneath them and they are being shown—in ways that they do not really and have never had to understand—that the guys they thought were the goodies are in fact "at it" and that those they have spent a decade disparaging as deniers were in fact spot on.
Remember that this is from the Pedant-General's post; I've just jotted it down more or less from memory, with a few embellishments and links. Pedant-General, a grateful world humbly offers its thanks.And so to my thoughts on Cap-and-Trade. We know that the government is drunk on power, and never saw a tax it didn't like. We know that the scientific establishment is happy to go along to get along if there are hundreds of billions of dollars in research grants dangled in front of them. And we know that the press is made of up a bunch of not-very-smart leftie tools who are happy to spend the last of their vanishing credibility for the furtherance of what they see as the Greater Good.
And so the real Cap-and-Trade discussion has to take place outside the traditional media, as indeed the entire ClimateGate discussion as been. And the Body Politick needs to realize that environmentalism has now become a vastly regressive tax, and the only way to deal with this is to break Congress to the People's will.
Congress, their lackeys in the press, and the Environmental Lobby/Industry will hate this. Let them hate, so long as they fear.
Quote of the Day
From Roberta, who posted it before The Massachusetts Stasi made a night time visit to knock on TJIC's door. She was, however, musing on the state of freedom in this Republic and how it will be viewed by future historians:
I'm half-convinced we have already passed the point where future historians will draw a line, saying, "Here the Republic ended; here the Empire began."I fear that she is right.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Just give them what they want
That's what we hear from our "betters". Because the Police will take care of everything. Right?
Well, TJIC just got his Massachusetts Firearms ID (FID) restored, and applied for his License To Carry (LTC). And the Police showed right up and took care of him, good and hard:
My experience was nowhere near as bad as his, but there's not a day that goes by that I'm not glad I left the hellhole that is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The laws are oppressive, the laws are enforced at the whim of the public officials, and the police break the laws as they like. In short, it's the Obama Administration compressed into a State. Now consider the links posted here. You clicking on them leaves metadata bread crumbs for the NSA to hoover up. They know what you're reading. Now ask if that information would get shared with the Mass.Gov if they asked whether registered gun owners were reading Double Plus Ungood information.
First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment - check 'em at the Massachusetts border, folks. Oh, and the State can't be bothered to listen to the Russian Government who said that the Boston Marathon Bomber was going to Summer Camp at a Jihadi convention in Chechnya.
Anarcho-tyranny is the refusal of the Government to enforce laws that will protect the population (that's the "anarcho" art) while simultaneously enforcing draconian laws aimed at the law abiding (that's the, well, you get it). About sums up the Commonwealth.
TJIC, come on down to Atlanta - the weather's fine, in-town living is pretty cool, and there's a ton of high tech. And if you have an electric bill with your new Georgia address, you can buy a gun with your Massachusetts Driver's License as the Government-issued photo ID.
Well, TJIC just got his Massachusetts Firearms ID (FID) restored, and applied for his License To Carry (LTC). And the Police showed right up and took care of him, good and hard:
Now the local po-po*** is surrounding his crib, wanting to inspect the premises. Without a warrant. In the suburbs of Boston. On Independence Day.Lots of information in the comments over there. And here.
My experience was nowhere near as bad as his, but there's not a day that goes by that I'm not glad I left the hellhole that is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The laws are oppressive, the laws are enforced at the whim of the public officials, and the police break the laws as they like. In short, it's the Obama Administration compressed into a State. Now consider the links posted here. You clicking on them leaves metadata bread crumbs for the NSA to hoover up. They know what you're reading. Now ask if that information would get shared with the Mass.Gov if they asked whether registered gun owners were reading Double Plus Ungood information.
First Amendment, Second Amendment, Fourth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment - check 'em at the Massachusetts border, folks. Oh, and the State can't be bothered to listen to the Russian Government who said that the Boston Marathon Bomber was going to Summer Camp at a Jihadi convention in Chechnya.
Anarcho-tyranny is the refusal of the Government to enforce laws that will protect the population (that's the "anarcho" art) while simultaneously enforcing draconian laws aimed at the law abiding (that's the, well, you get it). About sums up the Commonwealth.
TJIC, come on down to Atlanta - the weather's fine, in-town living is pretty cool, and there's a ton of high tech. And if you have an electric bill with your new Georgia address, you can buy a gun with your Massachusetts Driver's License as the Government-issued photo ID.
America's Hymn
It's been said that there's a lot of ruin in a country. For the part of this Res Publica that isn't, this song is a prayer.
America The Beautiful (Songwriters: Katharine Lee Bales, Samuel Ward)
I saw those days where this was still true.
America The Beautiful (Songwriters: Katharine Lee Bales, Samuel Ward)
O beautiful for heroes provedRay Charles would often open this with the second verse (rather than here, with the third). It's somewhat melancholy to listen to those lyrics, and think on what's been lost just in my lifetime.
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
I saw those days where this was still true.
We had a kettle; we let it leak:
Our not repairing made it worse.
We haven't had any tea for a week...
The bottom is out of the Universe.
- Rudyard Kipling
Blogmeet - Sunday July 7
It seems that the preference is for a meetup on Sunday July 7. Let's meet up at 14:00 at Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St. in Roswell Georgia.
Sadly, Mac McGee's isn't dog friendly, so I won't bring Wolfgang. But they have a wide selection of beers and ales on tap and whiskeys behind their two bars (hey, it's an Irish pub, right?).
If you're in the Atlanta area, drop by. The previous ones have been a blast.
Sadly, Mac McGee's isn't dog friendly, so I won't bring Wolfgang. But they have a wide selection of beers and ales on tap and whiskeys behind their two bars (hey, it's an Irish pub, right?).
If you're in the Atlanta area, drop by. The previous ones have been a blast.
Are you pondering what I'm pondering, Pinky?
Over the last few days I've reviewed and prioritized something like 2000 (!) bugs. This is something that any reasonably large software project goes through - multiple products will over the course of multiple years build up a rather impressive database of software defects. Lots - maybe most - will be trivial and basically irrelevant; others will be critical.
Thus, the bug scrub. A good time is had by all ...
Well, after two or three days of this does odd things to your mind. To wit:
Suppose, Gentle Reader, that you were to make up a mess of Pig Candy, because Bacon! Bacon Candy, of course, if bacon strips coated with brown sugar and cayenne, and roasted until it's crispy porkiness covered in sweet/spicy glaze. Further suppose that you were to open your Arms Locker, allowing a defensive perimeter to keep all the Pig Candy from being snarfed up in the first 10 minutes.
Why, you'd have a big ol' mess of Pig Candy. Now assume that you were to take your favorite Chef's Knife, and chop it into fine pieces. You'd have a topping that could go on all sorts of things:
Bootnote: for the two readers who don't recognize the reference from the post title, it's from the much loved TV show Animaniacs:
Thus, the bug scrub. A good time is had by all ...
Well, after two or three days of this does odd things to your mind. To wit:
Suppose, Gentle Reader, that you were to make up a mess of Pig Candy, because Bacon! Bacon Candy, of course, if bacon strips coated with brown sugar and cayenne, and roasted until it's crispy porkiness covered in sweet/spicy glaze. Further suppose that you were to open your Arms Locker, allowing a defensive perimeter to keep all the Pig Candy from being snarfed up in the first 10 minutes.
Why, you'd have a big ol' mess of Pig Candy. Now assume that you were to take your favorite Chef's Knife, and chop it into fine pieces. You'd have a topping that could go on all sorts of things:
- Salads: these are the bacon bits di tutti bacon bits.
- Ice Cream
- Waffles
- You get the idea
Bootnote: for the two readers who don't recognize the reference from the post title, it's from the much loved TV show Animaniacs:
Celestial fireworks
On this day in 1054, Chinese astronomers observed a new star in the heavens. Its brightness waxed until it was visible not just at night but in the day as well. They recorded that the new star lingered for some months before fading away.
It was Taurus A, a star 6,500 light years distant, blowing itself to smithereens. What's left is the Crab Nebula, visible if you have a very clear night and a good set of binoculars. Err, or a space telescope:
It was Taurus A, a star 6,500 light years distant, blowing itself to smithereens. What's left is the Crab Nebula, visible if you have a very clear night and a good set of binoculars. Err, or a space telescope:
Thinking about patriotism
Ten years ago we heard shrill challenges from the Left, how dare you question my patriotism?
Now it seems that those of us who grew up in a past age - raised by the "Greatest Generation" - find ourselves increasingly divorced from the philosophies of that can only be calls the Ruling Class. Our belief in individual freedom is sneered at, as an existential threat to the Ruling Class' dreams of ever increasing power and influence.
A class that has lost any core moral philosophy, one where nothing remains but appetite.
This day calls us to reflect, and for me it's the first time that the day has been a sober (and perhaps a bit melancholy) reflection on patriotism. My gut tells me that fragmentation is the only possible solution to the ever expanding Leviathan, and that seems a weak reed to cling to.
I see the Democrats, in their lawless and contemptuous reveling in raw power. I think on what will the Republicans do, when their turn comes. Will they take a deep breath, reflect on the roots of the Republic, and step back from the reins of Power that they so deeply desired? Alas, I think I know the answer to that. Sulla followed Marius, and worse came after.
And so I find myself questioning the patriotism of the very leaders of this nation. Didn't see this coming.
Happy Independence Day.
Now it seems that those of us who grew up in a past age - raised by the "Greatest Generation" - find ourselves increasingly divorced from the philosophies of that can only be calls the Ruling Class. Our belief in individual freedom is sneered at, as an existential threat to the Ruling Class' dreams of ever increasing power and influence.
A class that has lost any core moral philosophy, one where nothing remains but appetite.
This day calls us to reflect, and for me it's the first time that the day has been a sober (and perhaps a bit melancholy) reflection on patriotism. My gut tells me that fragmentation is the only possible solution to the ever expanding Leviathan, and that seems a weak reed to cling to.
I see the Democrats, in their lawless and contemptuous reveling in raw power. I think on what will the Republicans do, when their turn comes. Will they take a deep breath, reflect on the roots of the Republic, and step back from the reins of Power that they so deeply desired? Alas, I think I know the answer to that. Sulla followed Marius, and worse came after.
And so I find myself questioning the patriotism of the very leaders of this nation. Didn't see this coming.
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| (Image source) |
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
The good thing about a holiday ...
... is it gives you some time to catch up on the work you can't get done at work. Uff da.
More on advancing your career by learning networking
Reader and one-time blogger Eseell emails:
Second, look at his point number 2, confirming what I've been saying - you don't need to study this at a University. The certifications that people care about don't come on a sheepskin. There's a huge demand for these skill sets, and you can learn this yourself for very little money. There are even some really good free education sites on the 'net.
A few weeks ago you wrote a bit about breaking into networking and IT security with Cisco certs. Two comments on that:I knew a lot of Cisco SEs, and all of them were smart dudes. So you know about Eseell.
1) Last week I accepted a job offer from Cisco to become a pre-sales systems engineer for service providers and data centers in the Southwest US. At least a small part was due to your voice being one of dozens of current and former Cisco employees I've spoken to about working there, none of whom said that it wasn't a good company to work for.2) Several managers I interviewed with were quite vocal about the fact that my CCIEs and CCDE were more valuable credentials to them than any college degree could be, so you were definitely spot on about that.
Second, look at his point number 2, confirming what I've been saying - you don't need to study this at a University. The certifications that people care about don't come on a sheepskin. There's a huge demand for these skill sets, and you can learn this yourself for very little money. There are even some really good free education sites on the 'net.
OK, this is an interesting bike
1974 Swiss Army Condor. Blue Moon Cycles in Norcross seems to specialize in vintage bikes. They have three of these for short money.
I'm not sure how comfortable it would be, but it looks practical as all get out.
The civilian casualty of Gettysburg
 |
| Via Wikipedia |
Miss Wade was a young woman who by chance seems to have been engaged to a Union soldier, Cpl. Jack Skelly. Wade was kneading bread dough when fighting swept through the town. The house she was in was riddled with 150 bullets.
One of those shot her through the heart. Cpl Skelly had been wounded in a battle two weeks previously, and died a week and a half after Miss Wade. Nobody had the heart to tell him that she had died before him.
If you visit Gettysburg and go to the Evergreen Cemetery you can see her monument, near Cpl. Skelly's grave. Miss Wade is one of only two women to have a monument with a flag that is displayed 24x7 (the other is Betsy Ross in Philadelphia).
It's easy to look at history as nothing but a list of Kings and Battles. History is made op of billions of stories of people who had their own hopes and dreams. Some happily played out leaving little record. Others, like Ginnie Wade, traded that lifetime of hopes and dreams for a spot in the history books. I can't know, but imagine that Miss Wade would have chosen a different outcome, had she been offered a choice.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
OK, this is the motorcycle I need to get
Stretch emails with this bike, made of 100% weapon-grade awesome:
I love the kill decals on the cowling. And the tail gun.
I love the kill decals on the cowling. And the tail gun.
The turning point
On this day in 1863, the boys of the 20th Maine led by a strange University
Professor named Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain were fighting to save what
was the most important scrap of real estate on the Gettysburg battlefield: the hill
called Little Round Top.
It seems like an inconspicuous and unimportant location, way off on the Union's left flank. The main fighting during the night had been on the Union right, and latter in the day in the center. You might have excused the Union brass from being unconcerned when John Bell Hood's Texans swept up the slopes of Little Round Top.
You'd be wrong if you thought that. Little Round Top was the high point of the Union line; if the Confederates took the summit and placed artillery there, the entire line would have been shot to pieces. I believe that if Stonewall Jackson had not died after Chancellorsville, Lee might have had him lead this charge rather than Hood. Hood was no Jackson, and that saved the Union.
Or maybe it was that Chamberlain was no Oliver Howard, flanked and routed by Jackson. Fluent in nine languages, he was from an age where Professors were expected to understand the Western Canon, and in particular the stories of past sacrifice for the advancement of freedom. Chamberlain knew the stories in the original Greek and Latin. Seeing his men shoot off their last ammunition, but understanding the position's importance - and recalling the story of The 300 and of Horatio at the Bridge, he turned to his troops and gave the order that stopped their hearts for a moment.
They all knew that they were out of ammunition, and at that point they knew that they had to screw their courage to the sticking point. The 20th Maine, of course, won the day and the battle. Its center held like Jackson's stone wall while its right wing pivoted in an end run to catch the attacking Texans on the flank, routing them with cold steel alone.
Faulker - the finest of a whole stable of fine Southern authors - is justly famous for the way he captured every Southern boy's regrets over Picket's doomed charge the next day:
And so it played out: the end of the American War of Southern Independence (probably good), the end of the Federal Constitution (certainly bad), the end of slavery (certainly good), the unleashing of Leviathan (a grotesque horror as we learn to our own sorrow*).
Chamberlain went on to command the Union troops at Lee's surrender at Appomattox. On his own initiative as the Confederates approached to lay down their arms he ordered the Union troops to show the respect due their foes with the command "Carry Arms". He wrote afterwards of the moment:
Chamberlain also went on to be Governor of the great State of Maine - for some strange reason the Governor's Mansion is named not after him but after the odious and corrupt James G. Blaine. Then like Cincinnatus, he went back to his plough, taking the position of President of the Bowdoin College where he taught. Perhaps that's why th eGovernor's Mansion is named after a mere politician, rather than a Hero: he sought no honors, believing that he served.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Amen.
* Note to NSA PRISIM operators: you are worse traitors than any Confederates who at least could honorably claim that they were fighting for their State which freely entered the Union under the belief that it could leave if it had need to. They at least had an honorable justification for what they did. In contrast to what you do.
Bootnote: The Gettysburg National Military Park is perhaps the Republic's largest Cathedral. The whole park is a shrine, with numerous monuments to the different units that fought there. The monument to the 20th Maine is particularly interesting: much less grandiose (and in much better artistic taste) than those for the many New York units which had little effect on the outcome, the 20th Maine has but a simple monument on the peak of Little Round Top. But it has something much more impressive: the people who erected the monument planted White Pine trees - the Maine State tree, known by its bundle of five pine needles all together. The Monument is surrounded by a White Pine forest, and other than the heat of a July day you might think that with the rocky terrain you might indeed me in the Pine Tree State.
This is the view from our day, looking back through the glass darkly from the vantage of 150 years later. The incomparable film Gettysburg shows this pine forest:
But it wasn't so. Little Round Top was essentially denuded, either by the battle or by logging before. There were no trees until Maine veterans came to plant them.
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| Image via Civilwar.org |
You'd be wrong if you thought that. Little Round Top was the high point of the Union line; if the Confederates took the summit and placed artillery there, the entire line would have been shot to pieces. I believe that if Stonewall Jackson had not died after Chancellorsville, Lee might have had him lead this charge rather than Hood. Hood was no Jackson, and that saved the Union.
Or maybe it was that Chamberlain was no Oliver Howard, flanked and routed by Jackson. Fluent in nine languages, he was from an age where Professors were expected to understand the Western Canon, and in particular the stories of past sacrifice for the advancement of freedom. Chamberlain knew the stories in the original Greek and Latin. Seeing his men shoot off their last ammunition, but understanding the position's importance - and recalling the story of The 300 and of Horatio at the Bridge, he turned to his troops and gave the order that stopped their hearts for a moment.
Soldiers! Fix. Bayo. Nets!
They all knew that they were out of ammunition, and at that point they knew that they had to screw their courage to the sticking point. The 20th Maine, of course, won the day and the battle. Its center held like Jackson's stone wall while its right wing pivoted in an end run to catch the attacking Texans on the flank, routing them with cold steel alone.
Faulker - the finest of a whole stable of fine Southern authors - is justly famous for the way he captured every Southern boy's regrets over Picket's doomed charge the next day:
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin ...But it had even begun, and had been lost the day before when Hood's Texans ran for their lives from the Maine boy's bayonets. You can't get there from here. It was over the next day, over before it had even begun. Perhaps Jackson could have channeled Lee, if he had still been alive. Lee's "blood was up" and so he wouldn't have backed down, but perhaps Jackson could have proposed an alternative to the folly that was Pickett's Charge.
And so it played out: the end of the American War of Southern Independence (probably good), the end of the Federal Constitution (certainly bad), the end of slavery (certainly good), the unleashing of Leviathan (a grotesque horror as we learn to our own sorrow*).
Chamberlain went on to command the Union troops at Lee's surrender at Appomattox. On his own initiative as the Confederates approached to lay down their arms he ordered the Union troops to show the respect due their foes with the command "Carry Arms". He wrote afterwards of the moment:
Gordon, at the head of the marching column, outdoes us in courtesy. He was riding with downcast eyes and more than pensive look; but at this clatter of arms he raises his eyes and instantly catching the significance, wheels his horse with that superb grace of which he is master, drops the point of his sword to his stirrup, gives a command, at which the great Confederate ensign following him is dipped and his decimated brigades, as they reach our right, respond to the 'carry.' All the while on our part not a sound of trumpet or drum, not a cheer, nor a word nor motion of man, but awful stillness as if it were the passing of the dead.The soldiers knew what the politicians did not, that we were a people united in custom if not in law. The grotesqueries of the Reconstruction would have passed much faster if run by the soldiers of the 20th Maine than by the Radical Republicans.
Chamberlain also went on to be Governor of the great State of Maine - for some strange reason the Governor's Mansion is named not after him but after the odious and corrupt James G. Blaine. Then like Cincinnatus, he went back to his plough, taking the position of President of the Bowdoin College where he taught. Perhaps that's why th eGovernor's Mansion is named after a mere politician, rather than a Hero: he sought no honors, believing that he served.
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Amen.
* Note to NSA PRISIM operators: you are worse traitors than any Confederates who at least could honorably claim that they were fighting for their State which freely entered the Union under the belief that it could leave if it had need to. They at least had an honorable justification for what they did. In contrast to what you do.
Bootnote: The Gettysburg National Military Park is perhaps the Republic's largest Cathedral. The whole park is a shrine, with numerous monuments to the different units that fought there. The monument to the 20th Maine is particularly interesting: much less grandiose (and in much better artistic taste) than those for the many New York units which had little effect on the outcome, the 20th Maine has but a simple monument on the peak of Little Round Top. But it has something much more impressive: the people who erected the monument planted White Pine trees - the Maine State tree, known by its bundle of five pine needles all together. The Monument is surrounded by a White Pine forest, and other than the heat of a July day you might think that with the rocky terrain you might indeed me in the Pine Tree State.
This is the view from our day, looking back through the glass darkly from the vantage of 150 years later. The incomparable film Gettysburg shows this pine forest:
But it wasn't so. Little Round Top was essentially denuded, either by the battle or by logging before. There were no trees until Maine veterans came to plant them.
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| Photograph by Matthew Brady, 1863. |
A uniform "... such as used to be affected by well-to-do gentlemen of the old school about 40 years ago..."
This is the sesquicentennial of the battle of Gettysburg, the turning point the the American War for Southern Independence*. Lots of people are posting about the heroic happenings that day. A forgotten hero is the subject of this post.
John Burns was a veteran of the War of 1812. He tried to enlist in 1861, but was turned down because he was 67 years old. Instead, he was sent to be Constable of the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. And all Hell broke out.
He heard the firing on the first day of fighting. Grabbing his obsolete musket and powder horn, he ran towards the sound of gunfire. Passing a wounded Union soldier, he asked if he could take his modern military rifled musket and cartridges. The soldier agreed, and history was made.
Burns perplexed the Union commander, who sent him to fight in the woods - it was hot that July day, and Maj. Chamberlin thought it best if the old man were in the shade. The Major remarked on the dress of his new "recruit":
Burns was wounded in the hot fighting that drove the Iron Brigade from the town of Gettysburg, and captured by the Confederate infantry. They bandaged his wounds before putting him in the town Jail, and then graciously let him out again before they retreated. Burn's reaction to their chivalry was to arrest them, acting as constable of the town.
Quite a man.
He became quite famous after the battle. President Lincoln personally sought him out when he came to dedicate the national cemetery. Forgotten today in most of the country, you will still hear of his fame in the town where he was constable: his is one of only two graves where the American flag is permitted to fly 24x7. I'll post tomorrow about the other. The inscription on his headstone reads: "Patriot".
Oooh rah, Robert Burns. No matter the cause of that Late Unpleasantness, you were fighting for your home and hearth, and your fellow townsmen. May flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest.
* My favorite term for that Late Unpleasantness. It was not a Civil War, because the Confederate States of America did not seek to capture the northern states. The term "War Between the States" is closer, but still ambiguous, as it might be possible that the South had wanted to conquer the North. The "War of Northern Aggression" is similarly ambiguous; while both sides were spoiling for a fight and it's impossible to dispute that the Confederates fired the first shots. They may or may not have been provoked - like I said, the term is ambiguous. The term "American War of Southern Independence" is not.
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| Image via Wikipedia |
He heard the firing on the first day of fighting. Grabbing his obsolete musket and powder horn, he ran towards the sound of gunfire. Passing a wounded Union soldier, he asked if he could take his modern military rifled musket and cartridges. The soldier agreed, and history was made.
Burns perplexed the Union commander, who sent him to fight in the woods - it was hot that July day, and Maj. Chamberlin thought it best if the old man were in the shade. The Major remarked on the dress of his new "recruit":
His dress "consisted of dark trousers and a waistcoat, a blue 'swallow tail' coat with burnished brass buttons, such as used to be affected by well-to-do gentlemen of the old school about 40 years ago, and a high black silk hat, from which most of the original gloss had long departed, of a shape to be found only in the fashion plates of the remote past."He wore his finest clothes to what might have been his encounter with the Almighty.
Burns was wounded in the hot fighting that drove the Iron Brigade from the town of Gettysburg, and captured by the Confederate infantry. They bandaged his wounds before putting him in the town Jail, and then graciously let him out again before they retreated. Burn's reaction to their chivalry was to arrest them, acting as constable of the town.
Quite a man.
He became quite famous after the battle. President Lincoln personally sought him out when he came to dedicate the national cemetery. Forgotten today in most of the country, you will still hear of his fame in the town where he was constable: his is one of only two graves where the American flag is permitted to fly 24x7. I'll post tomorrow about the other. The inscription on his headstone reads: "Patriot".
Oooh rah, Robert Burns. No matter the cause of that Late Unpleasantness, you were fighting for your home and hearth, and your fellow townsmen. May flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest.
* My favorite term for that Late Unpleasantness. It was not a Civil War, because the Confederate States of America did not seek to capture the northern states. The term "War Between the States" is closer, but still ambiguous, as it might be possible that the South had wanted to conquer the North. The "War of Northern Aggression" is similarly ambiguous; while both sides were spoiling for a fight and it's impossible to dispute that the Confederates fired the first shots. They may or may not have been provoked - like I said, the term is ambiguous. The term "American War of Southern Independence" is not.
Monday, July 1, 2013
Tab clearing
Can your car get hacked? Yes. Next question:
The State's assault on the family:
The definition of Game Over:
If you run your own Wordpress blog, check your plugins:
RFID-like tracking at ranges of a kilometer:While there are no reported cases of cars being maliciously hacked in the real world, in 2010, researchers affiliated with the Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security (CAESS—a partnership between the University of California San Diego and the University of Washington) demonstrated how to take over all of a car’s vital systems by plugging a device into the OBD-II port under the dashboard.It gets worse. In a paper that’s due to be published later this year, those same researchers remotely take control of an unnamed vehicle through its telematics system. They also demonstrate that it’s theoretically possible to hack a car with malware embedded in an MP3 and with code transmitted over a Wi-Fi connection.Such breaches are possible because the dozens of independently operating computers on modern vehicles are all connected through an in-car communications network known as a controller-area-network bus, or CAN bus.
Covert radar tags were descried in a 2004 report by the National materials Advisory Board. Inkode, a company that also provides cheap RFID tags for supermarkets, has developed a means of embedding aluminum fibers in paper and other materials. The fibers are described as 6.5 millimeters long and 1.5 micrometers in diameter.But fear not, Citizen - this tracking would never be automated in, say, traffic cameras and then find its way into NSA's metadata database.
When illuminated with radar, the backscattered fields interact to create a unique interference pattern that enables one tagged object to be identified and differentiated from other tagged objects,” the company says. “For nonmilitary applications, the reader is less than 1 meter from the tag. For military applications, the reader and tag could theoretically be separated by a kilometer or more.”
The fibers can be embedded in “paper, airline baggage tags, book bindings, clothing and other fabrics, and plastic sheet.” Eight thousand fibres can be embedded in a typical 8½ by 11 inch piece of paper, which could be seen by radar at a similar distance to a meter-square target. So even something as small as a cigarette paper could be detected through walls, uniquely identified and precisely located from a tactically-useful distance in order to direct a missile strike.
The State's assault on the family:
From: The Ludwig von Mises InstituteThe only thing I would add is to point out that the Swedish State removed 7 year old Dominic Johansson from his family because they chose to (legally) home school him. Remember your place, prole.
In turning to Sweden, we find a classic case of bureaucratic manipulation to destroy the state's principal rival as a focus of loyalty: the family. Viewing this rivalry between state and family, it is important to understand that a basic level of "dependency" is a constant in all societies. In every human community, there are infants and children, persons who are very old, individuals who have severe handicaps, and others who are seriously ill. These people cannot take care of themselves. Without help from others, they will die. Every society must have a way of giving care to these dependents. Under the domain of liberty, the natural institution of the family (supplemented and supported by local communities and voluntary organizations) provides the protection and care which these "dependent" people need. Indeed, it is in the autonomous family—and only in the family—where the pure socialist principle actually works: from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.
The definition of Game Over:
Short summary: The NSA's activities don't just stand to compromise the privacy of ordinary citizens. They also stand to compromise the privacy, and thus the integrity, of government officials.The only thing I would add is Paula Dean. The Roman Republic foundered when those hungry for power instituted proscription - the publication of a list of names allowing anyone interested to kill the named individuals and take some of their property. Today's enlightened world won't sink to crass bloodletting (well, maybe) but that same power grabbing instinct shows the same appetite to destruction of personal fortune. As long as it advances the political careers of The Right Sort Of People™.
Legislators. Judges.
Generals.
How many prominent government officials who have publicly opposed the administration have had personal scandals thrown into public view in the past few years and been forced out of office?
If you run your own Wordpress blog, check your plugins:
If you have your blog hosted at Wordpress you may or may not have a problem. RTWT.Research from security vendor Checkmarx revealed that 12 of the top 50 plug-ins for the WordPress platform are susceptible to attacks such as SQL injection and cross-site scripting.
A new study has found that roughly 20 percent of the 50 most popular plug-ins for the WordPress platform are vulnerable to common Web attacks.
The Ghosts of the Somme
97 years ago today, nineteen Allied divisions went over the top in an all out assault on the Somme. When the sun set at the end of the day, 20,000 men lay dead. Another nearly 60,000 were wounded, many stranded in no-man's land. Stretcher bearers dared the machine gun fire to bring the fallen back to safety and medical aid, earning two of the nine Victoria Crosses awarded that day. Wounded were recovered for the next seven (!) days from this day's assault, and then found that there were only 10,000 hospital beds for the 60,000 wounded.
The 1st Newfoundland Regiment had to leave the safety of the trenches 200 yards behind their own front lines, because the closer trenches were choked with dead. The German machine guns mowed them down: the Regiment suffered 90% casualties in minutes. Newfoundland may never have recovered from the loss of so many of its sons.
It was said that day that Lions were led by Donkeys. The ghosts of those lions are seen in this astonishing video from the battle. You see one soldier shot just as he goes over the top. His body slides back into the trench.
This was the day that Europe committed suicide. It's been a long, slow motion self-immolation, but that is now fair complete. Sic transit Gloria Mundi.
The 1st Newfoundland Regiment had to leave the safety of the trenches 200 yards behind their own front lines, because the closer trenches were choked with dead. The German machine guns mowed them down: the Regiment suffered 90% casualties in minutes. Newfoundland may never have recovered from the loss of so many of its sons.
It was said that day that Lions were led by Donkeys. The ghosts of those lions are seen in this astonishing video from the battle. You see one soldier shot just as he goes over the top. His body slides back into the trench.
We are the Dead. Short days agoThe Somme was perhaps the most stark example of the futility of the Great War. By the end of the battle, a million men were dead or wounded. For this cost, the Allies pushed the front lines six miles towards Germany, a cost of 31 men per foot gained.
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
This was the day that Europe committed suicide. It's been a long, slow motion self-immolation, but that is now fair complete. Sic transit Gloria Mundi.
I'm in my prime
Quite a lively discussion in the comments to my post about getting a Harley. Old NFO leaves a comment:
The Latin is not widely understood, but has a striking relevance to the discussion of motorcycles. While my Latin skills are quite rusty, here is my transcription of the original Latin and my translation (in italics):
For the two of you who haven't already chimed in on this proposed madness of mine, drop a comment here. Bonus points for identifying yourself as in the Doc Holiday or Johnny Ringo camps.
* I actually think you could use this scene like the Hitler Bunker scene from Downfall, with your own custom (and topical) subtitles for Internet Meme hilarity. And it seems that someone wrecked Hitler's Honda and they replaced it with a BMW:
LOL, what if you're already PAST mid-life???That made me think of the fabulous scene from the film Tombstone, where Doc Holiday protests to Johnny Ringo that he (like me) is not retired, he's in his prime*:
The Latin is not widely understood, but has a striking relevance to the discussion of motorcycles. While my Latin skills are quite rusty, here is my transcription of the original Latin and my translation (in italics):
Doc Holiday: In vino veritas. Best time to think about buying a Harley is when you're drinking.Like I said, my Latin is a bit rusty, but I think this conveys the original message pretty well.
Johnny Ringo: Age quod agis. Careful, an old guy like you will buy too much bike and get tatoos.
Doc Holiday: Credat Judaeus Apella, non ego. Nah, I'm not one of those Rich Urban Bikers. I'll ride every day.
Johnny Ringo: Iuventus stultorum magister. You might do better with a more modern touring bike, like a Yamaha FJR 1300.
Doc Holiday: In pace requiescat. Hey, that's your funeral.
For the two of you who haven't already chimed in on this proposed madness of mine, drop a comment here. Bonus points for identifying yourself as in the Doc Holiday or Johnny Ringo camps.
* I actually think you could use this scene like the Hitler Bunker scene from Downfall, with your own custom (and topical) subtitles for Internet Meme hilarity. And it seems that someone wrecked Hitler's Honda and they replaced it with a BMW:
I'm founding a thousand year Reich here. I need a bike that's going to last. I may as well go buy a Harley-Davidson.Heh.
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Quote of the Day: Motorcycle edition
Gosh, it seems like teh Intarwebz are collectively telling me to stop being a grownup and just get the bike. Dave H speaks my language in a comment here with the QOTD:
One nice thing about a motorcycle: the NSA can't hack its CAN Bus and drive you into a tree.True dat. That's one persuasive fellow.
Blogmeet time!
It's been a while since the last blog meet-up. Leave a comment if you're in the Atlanta area this coming weekend.
I'm thinking that we can meet at Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St in Roswell. They have a couple dozen beers on tap (and others in bottle), including some pretty interesting British ones (Fuller's ESB plus others). And not just Guinness but Murphy's stout on tap. Maybe we can get Differ to join us to talk about flying B-17s!
If you're interested let me know whether Saturday or Sunday works better. Heck, or maybe Thursday or Friday (lots of folks off for the holiday).
I'm thinking that we can meet at Mac McGee's Irish Pub on Canton St in Roswell. They have a couple dozen beers on tap (and others in bottle), including some pretty interesting British ones (Fuller's ESB plus others). And not just Guinness but Murphy's stout on tap. Maybe we can get Differ to join us to talk about flying B-17s!
If you're interested let me know whether Saturday or Sunday works better. Heck, or maybe Thursday or Friday (lots of folks off for the holiday).
Breaking: NSA Internet spying foils NSA plot to attack NSA
Holy cow:
In a stunning development, the National Security Agency (NSA) reports that PRISM, the secret spy program that monitors all internet activity in the US and the world and stores all the data in acres and acres of massive super-cooled buildings somewhere in the desert, has uncovered an active ongoing plot by the NSA to use the PRISM program to monitor, spy on, and collect all the internet activity in the US.They've done gone and pissed off the NSA. Things are fixin' to get ugly now.
The NSA is concerned that the newly discovered NSA PRISM program is to be used to launch an attack against the NSA and potentially undercut the efficiency of its PRISM program.
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Cliché is a deadly danger in the world of Art. Imagine the stereotypical symphonic finale: lyrical, dramatic, swelling to a final triumphant chord - that is the unforgivable sin to modern "classical" music.
That's why modern "classical" music is an arid wasteland, devoid of anything that will emotionally connect the audience. All is technical trickery, food perhaps for the left brain but leaving the right brain hungry for a real meal.
Nobody delivers a seven course meal of emotional connection and lyrical triumph like Gustav Mahler, and none of his works approaches the triumph of that promise like the finale of his Eighth Symphony. Yes, it's a cliché of a finale, but we need to remember that all clichés were once new. This was a sensation when it premiered in 1907 and, to listen to the roar of applause in today's video, it continues to connect to that emotional spring that longs for art - and especially music - to cause an upwelling, to make it bubble over.
Cliché is a deadly danger in the world of Art. The problem with today's musical establishment is that they fear the scorn of a prissy in-group more than they fear the loss of that triumphant emotional release. And who forget that it ain't cliché if you can actually do it.
Man, I love this music. Unusual for a symphony, the main "instrument" is the chorus. I would have loved singing this, back when I was in the Chorus* at State U, even if it was a full hour and a half (!). For those interested, here it is in its magnificent entirety.
Cliché my musical ass.
* Baritone, thanks for asking.
That's why modern "classical" music is an arid wasteland, devoid of anything that will emotionally connect the audience. All is technical trickery, food perhaps for the left brain but leaving the right brain hungry for a real meal.
Nobody delivers a seven course meal of emotional connection and lyrical triumph like Gustav Mahler, and none of his works approaches the triumph of that promise like the finale of his Eighth Symphony. Yes, it's a cliché of a finale, but we need to remember that all clichés were once new. This was a sensation when it premiered in 1907 and, to listen to the roar of applause in today's video, it continues to connect to that emotional spring that longs for art - and especially music - to cause an upwelling, to make it bubble over.
Cliché is a deadly danger in the world of Art. The problem with today's musical establishment is that they fear the scorn of a prissy in-group more than they fear the loss of that triumphant emotional release. And who forget that it ain't cliché if you can actually do it.
Man, I love this music. Unusual for a symphony, the main "instrument" is the chorus. I would have loved singing this, back when I was in the Chorus* at State U, even if it was a full hour and a half (!). For those interested, here it is in its magnificent entirety.
Cliché my musical ass.
* Baritone, thanks for asking.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
I may be losing my mind
Less expensive than I had thought. But there's no rational justification for it.
Want.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
The Hidden Internet
This is a very good introduction to how you can hide yourself - and how much you can hide yourself - from the creepy NSA hooveramatic. Highly recommended.
The point, of course, is not to participate in the unsavory aspects of the 'Net (like The Silk Road). Instead, it's how a group like the Tea Party can communicate with a reduced risk of retaliation from the Fed.Gov. It's a bit annoying that the First Amendment means so little these days that legitimate political groups need to use some of the same tools as Internet scumbags.
The point, of course, is not to participate in the unsavory aspects of the 'Net (like The Silk Road). Instead, it's how a group like the Tea Party can communicate with a reduced risk of retaliation from the Fed.Gov. It's a bit annoying that the First Amendment means so little these days that legitimate political groups need to use some of the same tools as Internet scumbags.
Where on earth is the Left?
Long ago, the Left actually had a unifying philosophy (class). Those days are gone, and all that remains is a mishmash of tactical identity-politics alliance building. And so the Left has nothing to offer regarding this:
Me, I don't have a good feeling about what's happening. Balkinization is rampant and we've seen that government officials and politicians no longer scruple to pay lip service to the rule of law and to the Constitution. The naked use of power is ascendent.
Not sure what to do about it.
It's important to understand the distinction being made here between relative and absolute wealth: if the top 10% own 90% of the wealth, then $90 of every $100 of new wealth flows to them. This is politically acceptable to the status quo as long as the wealth of the bottom 90% expands by the same percentage.I think that this is terribly important, and quite frankly lies at the heart of the Tea Party's support. I suspect that it was Bill Clinton who finally ended the Democrat's support for the Little Guy (in the historical, political sense), but there are so many unsavory changes that he brought about that it's an easy charge to level.
Should the bottom 90%'s share of the new wealth rise at a faster rate than the top 10%'s, that's actually preferable, as over time that shrinks wealth inequality while leaving the wealth already owned by the top 10% untouched.
In other words, the top 10% do not suffer any decline in wealth if they collect $80 of each $100 of new wealth rather than $90. This slight reduction in the rate of growth makes little difference to the top wealth holders but it has a much larger impact on the bottom 90% because they own so little wealth.
Every one of these implicit assumptions has been turned on its head: growth is barely above the rate of inflation; by some measures, it has already fallen below the real rate of inflation.
Debt is increasing much faster than income or wealth.
Virtually all of the recent expansion of wealth/income is flowing to the top 10%.
This is why the status quo is doomed: there is no Plan B or even conceptual alternative to the "more growth forever" agenda.
Me, I don't have a good feeling about what's happening. Balkinization is rampant and we've seen that government officials and politicians no longer scruple to pay lip service to the rule of law and to the Constitution. The naked use of power is ascendent.
Not sure what to do about it.
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