Cover story in Aviation Week. The F-35 A (the Air Force model, no V/STOL) made it to the Paris Air Show this week. Le Bourget outside of Paris. It flew, showed off some really impressive low and slow manuvering close to the ground. With 40,000 pounds of thrust, it's hard to stall this baby, just pull the stick way back, shove the throttle all the way forward, and the engine will make the plane go up, even if the wing isn't doing much in the lift dept. Apparently they have done some work in the engine, the plane is now certified for 7 G. Used to be limited to 5 G (not much) because any more G caused the engine rotor to rub on the engine casing, which caused a fire, resulting in the total loss of one F35. They have done something about the problem, and 9G is promised in the future.
Up beat article. No talk about lack of software, horrible costs, ridiculously long development cycle.
Friday, June 30, 2017
You cannot pay for healthcare by taxing healthcare
Every dollar sucked out of health care by Obamacare taxes, causes the health industry to raise prices to get even. Obamacare had a bunch of taxes on healthcare, there was a medical device tax, a cadillac plan tax, personal tax for being uninsured, and some others that I have forgotten. The healthcare reform bills before Congress would zap all the Obamacare taxes.
The democrats are crying and calling this "a tax cut for the wealthy". Yeah right. Democrats always say that any tax cut is "for the wealthy".
They ought to pass a one page bill that says "Obamacare is completely revoked, repealed, null and void. All Obamacare offices are closed, their personnel must be laid off, their files burned, and the buildings are to be sold. All Obama care regulations are hereby rendered null and void.
Pass that. Then if you have the votes, pass separate laws on pre-existing conditions, children remaining on the parent's policies, make health insurance premiums deductible on income tax, fund opioid treatment, and any other little Obamacare goodie you like. If you have the votes.
The democrats are crying and calling this "a tax cut for the wealthy". Yeah right. Democrats always say that any tax cut is "for the wealthy".
They ought to pass a one page bill that says "Obamacare is completely revoked, repealed, null and void. All Obamacare offices are closed, their personnel must be laid off, their files burned, and the buildings are to be sold. All Obama care regulations are hereby rendered null and void.
Pass that. Then if you have the votes, pass separate laws on pre-existing conditions, children remaining on the parent's policies, make health insurance premiums deductible on income tax, fund opioid treatment, and any other little Obamacare goodie you like. If you have the votes.
Thursday, June 29, 2017
Ivanhoe (1952) Great Costume Drama
The story is set in Merrie Old England, right after the Third Crusade. It's in Technicolor which means the color is bright and solid, none of this modern arty "fade-the-color-out-to-black&white" stuff. I first saw this flick at age nine in the old Cinema at Shoppers World out on Rt 9 in Framingham Mass. Loved it back then. I'm much older now. I popped a DVD of Ivanhoe into the DVD player last night. It's still a fine movie. It has a very young Elizabeth Taylor as Rebecca of York, ultra cute, forceful, with a serious crush on the leading man. That's Ivanhoe, played by Robert Taylor (no relation) who was a solid, competent, decent looking leading man in a bunch of movies back then. Ivanhoe is one of the best roles Robert Taylor ever had. And we have Rowena of Rotherwood, blonde, beautiful, played by Joan Fontaine, an old childhood sweetheart of Ivanhoe's and bound and determined to wed him, and not let that ultra cute Rebecca make off with him.
Costumes are great, they look extremely medieval. Workers and peasants are dressed in drab browns and grays. Nobility dresses in brighter colors, each actor wears a distinctive costume that makes it easy to tell who is who. Rowena and Rebecca have very nicely tailored medieval gowns which show off their figures to great advantage. The cast all speak clearly and distinctly, every line of dialogue is sharp and understandable. Dialogue has a proper medieval sound to it, a bit of Shakespearean flavor, no jarring twentieth century turns of phrase. For instance Locksley (Robin Hood) cries out to his merry men "Away Arrows", no anachronistic cries of "Fire". You never "fire" arrows, that only works on firearms. You shoot or loose arrows.
The camera man does it right, every scene is properly lit, none of this modern turn off the lights and let the audience struggle to figure out what is happening stuff. And no annoying "shake-the-camera" shots. The sound man places the mikes properly so we can hear everything, and avoids mixing the score or the sound effects over the dialogue.
The movie has a great love interest, lots of medieval politicking, and lots of action. Great scenes of jousting on horseback, with lists, and spectators, lances and shields, solid lance hits hurling the bad guys off their horses and into the dirt. We see Locksley and his archers take Front-de-Beouf's castle by escalade and flights of arrows. Single combat on horseback between Ivanhoe and Brian Bois Gilbert.
All in all, a great flick. You can get it from Netflix.
Costumes are great, they look extremely medieval. Workers and peasants are dressed in drab browns and grays. Nobility dresses in brighter colors, each actor wears a distinctive costume that makes it easy to tell who is who. Rowena and Rebecca have very nicely tailored medieval gowns which show off their figures to great advantage. The cast all speak clearly and distinctly, every line of dialogue is sharp and understandable. Dialogue has a proper medieval sound to it, a bit of Shakespearean flavor, no jarring twentieth century turns of phrase. For instance Locksley (Robin Hood) cries out to his merry men "Away Arrows", no anachronistic cries of "Fire". You never "fire" arrows, that only works on firearms. You shoot or loose arrows.
The camera man does it right, every scene is properly lit, none of this modern turn off the lights and let the audience struggle to figure out what is happening stuff. And no annoying "shake-the-camera" shots. The sound man places the mikes properly so we can hear everything, and avoids mixing the score or the sound effects over the dialogue.
The movie has a great love interest, lots of medieval politicking, and lots of action. Great scenes of jousting on horseback, with lists, and spectators, lances and shields, solid lance hits hurling the bad guys off their horses and into the dirt. We see Locksley and his archers take Front-de-Beouf's castle by escalade and flights of arrows. Single combat on horseback between Ivanhoe and Brian Bois Gilbert.
All in all, a great flick. You can get it from Netflix.
$82,000 per year for Nursing Home??
From Wednesday's Wall St Journal. Headline "Nursing Homes Balk at Senate Bill". The nursing home industry is largely paid for from Medicaid and the industry fears the reductions in Medicaid funding will cut into their revenue. Tough.
I can send a child to college for only $40,000 a year. You'd think all those PHD college profs, and all those overpaid and useless administrators would be more expensive than staffing a nursing home. Put another way, that $82,000 a year comes out to $224.65 a day. I can rent a first class Washington DC hotel room for half of that. I means these are nursing homes, not hospital ICU's. They provide a room with a bed, maid service, three squares a day, and somebody on the front desk 24/7 in case of emergency. Somehow I think you could do that for DC hotel room rates.
Note to self. Hope my health holds up so I can die peacefully in my bed at my home. Plead with my children to take me in should I no longer be able to shop and cook for myself.
I can send a child to college for only $40,000 a year. You'd think all those PHD college profs, and all those overpaid and useless administrators would be more expensive than staffing a nursing home. Put another way, that $82,000 a year comes out to $224.65 a day. I can rent a first class Washington DC hotel room for half of that. I means these are nursing homes, not hospital ICU's. They provide a room with a bed, maid service, three squares a day, and somebody on the front desk 24/7 in case of emergency. Somehow I think you could do that for DC hotel room rates.
Note to self. Hope my health holds up so I can die peacefully in my bed at my home. Plead with my children to take me in should I no longer be able to shop and cook for myself.
Wednesday, June 28, 2017
McConnell lacks the votes to pass Healthcare reform
Might have guessed it. As of this morning's TV some ten "Republican" senators won't vote for McConnell's health care bill. These "Republicans" are throwing away Republican chances in the 2018 election. Us voters voted Republicans in to get Obamacare out. We know that Obamacare has doubled the price of insurance and thrown a lot of people out of work. Once we figure out that Republicans cannot do anything, they are gone and the Democrats will be back in charge.
And, to add insult to injury, these ten "Republicans" haven't told anyone (voters, newsies, McConnell) what is wrong with McConnell's bill. Does it cut too much from some pet program? Is it really just a patch on Obamacare to keep it running a while longer? Does it lack something they care about? They ought to have some reasons they can express on TV for scuttling their own party and turning the country back over to the Democrats in 2018. To say nothing of ruining their personal chances of re-election.
And, to add insult to injury, these ten "Republicans" haven't told anyone (voters, newsies, McConnell) what is wrong with McConnell's bill. Does it cut too much from some pet program? Is it really just a patch on Obamacare to keep it running a while longer? Does it lack something they care about? They ought to have some reasons they can express on TV for scuttling their own party and turning the country back over to the Democrats in 2018. To say nothing of ruining their personal chances of re-election.
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
US spends 19% of GNP on healthcare
That's twice as much as any other country in the world spends. And American health, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is not a good as about 10 other countries. In short, for spending twice as much, we don't get any healthier.
So Congressional attempts to cut the expense of Obamacare are the right thing to do. We ought to cut healthcare spending down to 10% of GNP, from 19% today. Every other country in the world offers health as good as in the US, and spends only 10% of GNP doing it. It they can do it, so can we.
So Congressional attempts to cut the expense of Obamacare are the right thing to do. We ought to cut healthcare spending down to 10% of GNP, from 19% today. Every other country in the world offers health as good as in the US, and spends only 10% of GNP doing it. It they can do it, so can we.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Anti Russian voter hacking measures we ought to take
Go to paper ballots. Keep them after the election in case of a recount. Get rid of voting machines which are nothing more than desktop computers running a ballot program. And could be hacked at the factory, at the polls, over the net, every which way, and you could never figure out what happened.
Let's have some security on voter registration lists. If hostile hackers managed to erase say 10% of all Republicans registered, that would throw the election to the Democrats. A voter shows up at the polls, and he isn't on the registration list, he doesn't get to vote. Ten percent of either side is enough to decide most elections.
Since we cannot do any paperwork without putting it on computer these days, we need some security on the machines that hold the voter registration lists at cities and towns. The machine[s] that store and modify the voter registration lists must NOT be connected to the public internet in any way shape or fashion. Keep the machines in a locked room and only allow a minimum of people access to them. Backup the voter registration list[s] every week or so, and store the backups off line and off site. When new voters are registered give them a printed certificate of registration that they can use to prove they registered should the computers mess up some how.
Let's have some security on voter registration lists. If hostile hackers managed to erase say 10% of all Republicans registered, that would throw the election to the Democrats. A voter shows up at the polls, and he isn't on the registration list, he doesn't get to vote. Ten percent of either side is enough to decide most elections.
Since we cannot do any paperwork without putting it on computer these days, we need some security on the machines that hold the voter registration lists at cities and towns. The machine[s] that store and modify the voter registration lists must NOT be connected to the public internet in any way shape or fashion. Keep the machines in a locked room and only allow a minimum of people access to them. Backup the voter registration list[s] every week or so, and store the backups off line and off site. When new voters are registered give them a printed certificate of registration that they can use to prove they registered should the computers mess up some how.
Saturday, June 24, 2017
What is in those two healthcare bills?
We have one bill passed in the House, and second one about to be voted on in the Senate. But I have no real idea what each bill does. For that matter I don't know all the things tucked away in 10000 pages of Obamacare. Nobody does really. Nobody can read and understand 10000 pages of legal gobble-de-gook.
The health care bill I like would repeal the Obamacare requirements that have forced a lot of workers into part time work. It would spell out who gets government subsidies and how much. It would allow the sale of "hospitalization only" insurance which is a quarter the cost of "Obamacare covers everything" insurance. It would require insurance companies to maintain coverage on insured patients who get sick, and allow such "pre existing conditions" patients to even change insurance companies should they need to (say like they took a new job) . Uninsured patients who get sick would have to pay something more to get insurance than ordinary patients. Medicaid should be reserved for mothers, children and the truly disabled. Able bodied grownups should get a job with health insurance or pay for their own. Health insurance premiums should be deductible on federal income tax to even things up between the self employed and the company employee who gets tax free health care thru hisher job.
I have no idea if either of the Congressional health care bills have any of these things. Neither do the newsies.
The health care bill I like would repeal the Obamacare requirements that have forced a lot of workers into part time work. It would spell out who gets government subsidies and how much. It would allow the sale of "hospitalization only" insurance which is a quarter the cost of "Obamacare covers everything" insurance. It would require insurance companies to maintain coverage on insured patients who get sick, and allow such "pre existing conditions" patients to even change insurance companies should they need to (say like they took a new job) . Uninsured patients who get sick would have to pay something more to get insurance than ordinary patients. Medicaid should be reserved for mothers, children and the truly disabled. Able bodied grownups should get a job with health insurance or pay for their own. Health insurance premiums should be deductible on federal income tax to even things up between the self employed and the company employee who gets tax free health care thru hisher job.
I have no idea if either of the Congressional health care bills have any of these things. Neither do the newsies.
Friday, June 23, 2017
"Slants" is derogatory?
An Asian American rock band wanted to call themselves "The Slants". Some well fed bureaucrat refused to let them trademark the name. He claimed "Slants" was derogatory.
Strange. I was in the Air Force, I did a turn in South East Asia during the Viet Nam war. We had a lot of bad names for things we didn't like, the enemy, the locals, the food, the weather, the service, and others. I don't remember "slant" as one of them. "Slope" you heard, and slant-eye ( as opposed to round-eye) you heard, but I don't remember "slant" by itself as a put down.
Any how they took this one to the Supreme Court, and won, The band may trademark "Slants". Owners of the Washington Redskins, and the Cleveland Indians, both facing similar harassment from bureaucrats are relieved. They figure they will win their Supreme Court cases.
Welfare for lawyers.
Strange. I was in the Air Force, I did a turn in South East Asia during the Viet Nam war. We had a lot of bad names for things we didn't like, the enemy, the locals, the food, the weather, the service, and others. I don't remember "slant" as one of them. "Slope" you heard, and slant-eye ( as opposed to round-eye) you heard, but I don't remember "slant" by itself as a put down.
Any how they took this one to the Supreme Court, and won, The band may trademark "Slants". Owners of the Washington Redskins, and the Cleveland Indians, both facing similar harassment from bureaucrats are relieved. They figure they will win their Supreme Court cases.
Welfare for lawyers.
Suppose we assassinate Kim Jong whats-his-face, NORK dictator
That ought to slow 'em down a bit. The NORKs already have nuclear weapons and rockets. It's only a matter of time (a year? two? three?) before they have a nuke mounted on a rocket with the range to reach US soil. We need to prevent that. Nobody wants to start up the Korean War again, that is too awful to bring back. Diplomacy has been tried for twenty years or more to no avail. Getting a nuclear deterrent (strike force) is so important to Kim that no amount of diplomacy will get him to stop.
If we bumped off Kim, it would leave a leadership vacuum. There would be a struggle between the various number 2 men to take his place. Kim has been executing anyone who looks dangerous to him and so the bench of number 2 men is pretty thin. To take over as NORK dictator you have to have some name recognition and some friends to back you up. We don't know if anyone up north has both the name recognition and the friends required.
The NORK regime might just come apart. It's already under strain, what with peasants starving the the villages and shortages of nearly everything. The only thing holding it together is the army and the secret police. With Kim gone, nobody knows if they would stay loyal to the regime. They might not. At which point, there are very strong forces to pull North and South Korea back together. Much stronger forces than any number 2 man struggling to take over could muster. That result would be wonderful for us and for South Korea.
How to off Kim? Simplest is a smart bomb thru his bedroom window. Or a Hellfire on his official limousine (with Kim inside it of course). Or a very gutsy sniper team parachutes in somewhere, gets to within 500 yards of Kim, plugs him and then boogies to a pickup spot and waits for the Jolly Greens to pick them up.
If we bumped off Kim, it would leave a leadership vacuum. There would be a struggle between the various number 2 men to take his place. Kim has been executing anyone who looks dangerous to him and so the bench of number 2 men is pretty thin. To take over as NORK dictator you have to have some name recognition and some friends to back you up. We don't know if anyone up north has both the name recognition and the friends required.
The NORK regime might just come apart. It's already under strain, what with peasants starving the the villages and shortages of nearly everything. The only thing holding it together is the army and the secret police. With Kim gone, nobody knows if they would stay loyal to the regime. They might not. At which point, there are very strong forces to pull North and South Korea back together. Much stronger forces than any number 2 man struggling to take over could muster. That result would be wonderful for us and for South Korea.
How to off Kim? Simplest is a smart bomb thru his bedroom window. Or a Hellfire on his official limousine (with Kim inside it of course). Or a very gutsy sniper team parachutes in somewhere, gets to within 500 yards of Kim, plugs him and then boogies to a pickup spot and waits for the Jolly Greens to pick them up.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Fueling up for Winter
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Predictions are hard, especially about the future.
The Democrats dropped $25 mil into the Georgia special election. The Republicans dropped $30 mil, which is more money than has ever been spent running for a US rep's seat. Looks like both national parties have plenty of cash, which is a little surprising what with an expensive presidential election just last November. You would think they would still be paying off loans taken out for Hillary and the Donald.
The Republican (a chick I'd never heard of before) won, 53 to 47 percent which is decent, better margin than Trump got in that district. Way I look at it, anything better than 1% is decent, anything better than 10% is a landslide. NHPR called the margin of victory "thin" and "close" but they are just democrats with bylines.
Naturally, this win, and the win in North Carolina, delighted Republicans and disheartened Democrats. But I don't think it predicts anything about 2018. In a year anything can happen. If Trump gets health care and tax reform thru Congress the Republicans will be in decent shape. If he fails, Democrats will capture control of one or both houses of Congress.
The msm keep saying that the Republicans control both houses of Congress. But they have a lot of RINO's in both houses, who are OK with tax-and-spend and fear to rock the boat. And who may not vote the party line. Republicans also have a lot of super conservative crazies who don't under stand about compromise and that half a loaf is better than no loaf, and who will vote against anything on the slightest pretext. And there is always a pretext on any bill, no bill ever satisfies every one all the way, there are always things they want and didn't get, or things that they don't like, and are in the bill. Look at the Chinese fire drill in the House over health care. Ryan had to withdraw the Republican bill and rewrite it before he could get enough Republicans on board to vote it thru.
Republicans have a lot of work to do if they want to retain control of Congress in 2018.
The Republican (a chick I'd never heard of before) won, 53 to 47 percent which is decent, better margin than Trump got in that district. Way I look at it, anything better than 1% is decent, anything better than 10% is a landslide. NHPR called the margin of victory "thin" and "close" but they are just democrats with bylines.
Naturally, this win, and the win in North Carolina, delighted Republicans and disheartened Democrats. But I don't think it predicts anything about 2018. In a year anything can happen. If Trump gets health care and tax reform thru Congress the Republicans will be in decent shape. If he fails, Democrats will capture control of one or both houses of Congress.
The msm keep saying that the Republicans control both houses of Congress. But they have a lot of RINO's in both houses, who are OK with tax-and-spend and fear to rock the boat. And who may not vote the party line. Republicans also have a lot of super conservative crazies who don't under stand about compromise and that half a loaf is better than no loaf, and who will vote against anything on the slightest pretext. And there is always a pretext on any bill, no bill ever satisfies every one all the way, there are always things they want and didn't get, or things that they don't like, and are in the bill. Look at the Chinese fire drill in the House over health care. Ryan had to withdraw the Republican bill and rewrite it before he could get enough Republicans on board to vote it thru.
Republicans have a lot of work to do if they want to retain control of Congress in 2018.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Some questions about druggies
With deaths from drug overdoses at a record high we have calls to do something about it. Good idea, but what should we do? Before I can get on board some one's magic cure, there are a few things I need to know about. Such as:
1. Every young person ought to know that anything harder than pot will ruin their lives and/or kill them. Have we gotten this word out to this year's young people? Do they believe it?
2. Are all the institutions and media on board with getting the message out about the dangers of drugs? Schools, churches, parents, radio and TV, Facebook and its competitors, video games, movies, the music business, and others that might come to mind?
3. Why do people get into drugs? Is it just the pleasure of the high? Especially as a lot of drugs need injection, sticking a needle in your arm, an event I have detested ever since injections of penicillin as a small child. For me personally, doesn't matter how great the high is, I won't stick a needle in my arm because it hurts. If it isn't just the pleasure of the high, then what is it that makes the druggie keep doing it? Are there things in the druggie's life that we could change to get him/her off the stuff? If so, what might they be?
4. Does drug rehab really work? How many people have entered drug rehab and how many of them actually get off and stay off drugs?
5. What are the generally accepted medical guidelines for prescribing the stronger opioids like Oxycontin. Do these guidelines make sense? I know that Oxycontin is so dangerous that many pharmacies refuse to stock it. How many current druggies got hooked on prescription opioids?
6. Does methadone work? Working means getting the druggie off the really ruinous drugs and stabilize things enough that the druggie can hold a job.
7. What happens to druggies over time? Do they eventually get off the stuff? Or does it kill them? Or what?
1. Every young person ought to know that anything harder than pot will ruin their lives and/or kill them. Have we gotten this word out to this year's young people? Do they believe it?
2. Are all the institutions and media on board with getting the message out about the dangers of drugs? Schools, churches, parents, radio and TV, Facebook and its competitors, video games, movies, the music business, and others that might come to mind?
3. Why do people get into drugs? Is it just the pleasure of the high? Especially as a lot of drugs need injection, sticking a needle in your arm, an event I have detested ever since injections of penicillin as a small child. For me personally, doesn't matter how great the high is, I won't stick a needle in my arm because it hurts. If it isn't just the pleasure of the high, then what is it that makes the druggie keep doing it? Are there things in the druggie's life that we could change to get him/her off the stuff? If so, what might they be?
4. Does drug rehab really work? How many people have entered drug rehab and how many of them actually get off and stay off drugs?
5. What are the generally accepted medical guidelines for prescribing the stronger opioids like Oxycontin. Do these guidelines make sense? I know that Oxycontin is so dangerous that many pharmacies refuse to stock it. How many current druggies got hooked on prescription opioids?
6. Does methadone work? Working means getting the druggie off the really ruinous drugs and stabilize things enough that the druggie can hold a job.
7. What happens to druggies over time? Do they eventually get off the stuff? Or does it kill them? Or what?
Monday, June 19, 2017
A hero's reward, from the msm
Everyone at that terrible Congressional shooting scene praised the bravery of the two Capitol Police officers on duty. All the Congressmen under fire say they would have been shot dead except for the bravery of the two officers who moved toward the sound of the guns.
As a reward for her bravery, the msm (Fox News no less) outed the female officer as lesbian. I didn't need to know that. It probably hurt the poor officer. A harsh reward for bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
Good work msm.
As a reward for her bravery, the msm (Fox News no less) outed the female officer as lesbian. I didn't need to know that. It probably hurt the poor officer. A harsh reward for bravery above and beyond the call of duty.
Good work msm.
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Kiss your Navy career good bye.
Skipper of USS Fitzgerald, which collided with a container ship off Japan. How that happened is hard to understand. A destroyer is far faster, and much more maneuverable than a big container ship. Destroyers have all kinds of state of the art radar which should have no trouble detecting a big, clunky container ship from 50 miles away. Plus he ignored Admiral Dan Gallery's advice concerning right of way at sea. "Steer well clear of any merchie, lest he decide to liven up your day by ramming you." Gallery is a WWII US Navy skipper, he is the guy that captured a German U-boat and towed it home as a prize. Which shows him as a man of imagination and superb seamanship. U505 has been an exhibit at the Chicago science museum ever since the war.
Saturday, June 17, 2017
A few security measures Congress ought to take
They ought to arrange for Capitol Police security at any event with a number of Congressmen in attendance. For that matter, Congressmen ought to ask local law enforcement to detail a couple of officers to any townhalls the Congressman might be giving. It's routine for law enforcement to detail some officers to cover high school ball games, they ought to be able to handle an occasional town hall.
Congress ought to straighten out the concealed carry situation in DC. They have jurisdiction. They should require DC authorities to issue a conceal carry permit to anyone over 18 who is not a convicted felon or a committed nut case. And require DC to honor conceal carry permits from any state. And provide jail sentences for any official who fails to issue the permit within two weeks of the applicant submitting his paperwork.
We ought to discourage politicians and newsies from calling opponents names, such as racist, feminazi, and the like. The name calling contributes nothing to the political debate and just inflames feelings. Publish objections to the opponents policies, not their persons. We cannot forbid name calling by law, but we could do a lot to mobilize public opinion against it.
And strengthen our mental health system. Nut cases ought to be detected early and committed to mental hospitals, not allowed to run around loose. There are no free beds in the mental hospitals. Cases where the individual volunteers to enter treatment have failed because there are no empty beds to put them in.
Congress ought to straighten out the concealed carry situation in DC. They have jurisdiction. They should require DC authorities to issue a conceal carry permit to anyone over 18 who is not a convicted felon or a committed nut case. And require DC to honor conceal carry permits from any state. And provide jail sentences for any official who fails to issue the permit within two weeks of the applicant submitting his paperwork.
We ought to discourage politicians and newsies from calling opponents names, such as racist, feminazi, and the like. The name calling contributes nothing to the political debate and just inflames feelings. Publish objections to the opponents policies, not their persons. We cannot forbid name calling by law, but we could do a lot to mobilize public opinion against it.
And strengthen our mental health system. Nut cases ought to be detected early and committed to mental hospitals, not allowed to run around loose. There are no free beds in the mental hospitals. Cases where the individual volunteers to enter treatment have failed because there are no empty beds to put them in.
Friday, June 16, 2017
7.62 = 30 caliber
A Fox newsie was talking about the rifle used in the Congressional shooting. He described it as "7.62 big enough to kill an elephant." Let me enlighten a clueless newsie. 7.62 mm is the same as .30 caliber, the standard caliber for rifles since 1898. The US adopted the 30-06 rifle round back in 1906. It remained standard issue to US soldiers for WWI, WWII, and Korea. It is still in production. It was replaced by the 7.62 NATO round (otherwise known as 308 Winchester) in the 1950's. It's not an unusual round for rifles. Serious hunters carry 30-06 rifles today. Not so serious hunters carry the older and less powerful 30-30 rifle or the newer and less powerful 223 rifle.
The newsie was attempting to convince his audience that the Congressional shooter was carrying an unusually powerful rifle. Not true. The Congressional shooter was using an ordinary hunting rifle, chambered for ordinary .30 caliber ammunition.
The newsie was attempting to convince his audience that the Congressional shooter was carrying an unusually powerful rifle. Not true. The Congressional shooter was using an ordinary hunting rifle, chambered for ordinary .30 caliber ammunition.
Thursday, June 15, 2017
5000 Fools (tourists) visit North Korea every year.
Who wants to visit a communist dictatorship where they can arrest you, jail you, and even execute you just because they can? You would think Otto Warmbier's story, which has been in the news for better than a year, would discourage all but the most foolish tourist. They released Warmbier the other day, but he is in bad shape now. The medics didn't seem to know just what happened to him or how to treat him. They talked about loss of brain tissue, which doesn't sound good.
The Journal says that about 5000 fools from the West visit North Korea as tourists every year. Of which 1000 are Americans. And what is there to see in North Korea, other than a population being abused and starved? Creepy, I would pay money to avoid seeing that. I suppose some of the American tourists are of Korean decent, who might be visiting family members stuck in the communist hellhole. That's understandable. Other than that, it's hard to understand visiting North Korea. Especially as you can visit South Korea, a free, modern, decent, and successful country without risking your life.
The Journal says that about 5000 fools from the West visit North Korea as tourists every year. Of which 1000 are Americans. And what is there to see in North Korea, other than a population being abused and starved? Creepy, I would pay money to avoid seeing that. I suppose some of the American tourists are of Korean decent, who might be visiting family members stuck in the communist hellhole. That's understandable. Other than that, it's hard to understand visiting North Korea. Especially as you can visit South Korea, a free, modern, decent, and successful country without risking your life.
What is the worst thing about the Congressman Shooting?
It only kept the newsies off the Comey-Sessions-Mueller-Russians story for a day. Yesterday was 100% coverage of the shooting. Today they are back on the old groove, covering unsubstantiated innuendo and anonymous sources.
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
Schools Rethink Recess
Dawn over Marblehead. Anyone who can remember grade school can remember how hard it was to sit still and no talking. Recess gave relief, you could run around, talk, shout, play ball games. All practicing parents know how hard it is to get young children to sit still. Young children are bubbling over with energy and they have to work it off by running around and shouting.
To run an effective grade school, you have to let the kids outdoors for recess to let off steam. Otherwise the kids are just too bouncy to absorb any kind of learning. Back in the day, we got two 20 minute recesses every day.
Modern "educators" think recess is a waste of time, and they have been advocating no recess schools, keep the kids noses to the grindstone all day.
According to a piece in today's Wall St Journal, some "educators" have wised up and are recommending a whole hour of recess every day.
To run an effective grade school, you have to let the kids outdoors for recess to let off steam. Otherwise the kids are just too bouncy to absorb any kind of learning. Back in the day, we got two 20 minute recesses every day.
Modern "educators" think recess is a waste of time, and they have been advocating no recess schools, keep the kids noses to the grindstone all day.
According to a piece in today's Wall St Journal, some "educators" have wised up and are recommending a whole hour of recess every day.
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
Do I support a flat tax?
Today's mail brought a thick envelope marked "New Federal Tax Reform Information Enclosed". No return address, no indication of the organization doing this mailing. I didn't really believe it was from the IRS, despite the effort to make you think it was an IRS letter. So I opened it, and it was one of those "take a survey, send us a donation" letters that have been popular with the fund raisers.
This outfit, The Conservative Caucus, or perhaps Americans for Constitutional Liberty, I'd never heard of either before. They are advocating for a flat 10% income tax for everyone, no deductions except charitable contributions and mortgage interest. And they denounced the length and legalisms of the humongous Internal Revenue Code and the existence of the IRS
Thinking about it, I cannot go with them. The way I see it, we have three groups of people in the US, the well off, the ordinary working stiffs, and the really poor. And I think we ought to tax the well off somewhat more, and the really poor something less. In other words have three tax brackets. I think everyone ought to be liable for taxes, unlike the current setup where half the population owes NO tax, and the well off pay most of the Federal government's expenses. I think it is important that all citizens, even the very poor, pay something in taxes, just to let them know that the government benefits, of which we have so many, have to be paid for.
I do like the no deductions for anything, except charitable contributions. I'd even go so far as to eliminate tax breaks for dependents (children) and being married. I'd dump the mortgage interest deduction, especially deductions for mortgages on second homes. I'd get rid of capital gains. Income is income, doesn't matter where it comes from. I'd dump the earned income tax credit.
I'd declare all 75,000 pages in the Internal Revenue Code null and void, along with all rulings of the tax courts over the years. I'd abolish the tax courts. If the government has a beef with us taxpayers, let the government go to regular courts, like everyone else.
They advocating getting rid of the IRS. Well, we ought to skin 'em down a bit, but we have to have some government office to mail our tax forms to. Someone has to open the tax return envelopes and cash the checks. So we have to have something. On the other hand, we should remove the IRS's power to garnish your wages and seize your bank account. If the IRS has a beef with us taxpayers, they can take us to court, a real court, not a "tax court" where the judge is getting paid by the IRS. They don't need the power to bankrupt us on just their say-so.
This outfit, The Conservative Caucus, or perhaps Americans for Constitutional Liberty, I'd never heard of either before. They are advocating for a flat 10% income tax for everyone, no deductions except charitable contributions and mortgage interest. And they denounced the length and legalisms of the humongous Internal Revenue Code and the existence of the IRS
Thinking about it, I cannot go with them. The way I see it, we have three groups of people in the US, the well off, the ordinary working stiffs, and the really poor. And I think we ought to tax the well off somewhat more, and the really poor something less. In other words have three tax brackets. I think everyone ought to be liable for taxes, unlike the current setup where half the population owes NO tax, and the well off pay most of the Federal government's expenses. I think it is important that all citizens, even the very poor, pay something in taxes, just to let them know that the government benefits, of which we have so many, have to be paid for.
I do like the no deductions for anything, except charitable contributions. I'd even go so far as to eliminate tax breaks for dependents (children) and being married. I'd dump the mortgage interest deduction, especially deductions for mortgages on second homes. I'd get rid of capital gains. Income is income, doesn't matter where it comes from. I'd dump the earned income tax credit.
I'd declare all 75,000 pages in the Internal Revenue Code null and void, along with all rulings of the tax courts over the years. I'd abolish the tax courts. If the government has a beef with us taxpayers, let the government go to regular courts, like everyone else.
They advocating getting rid of the IRS. Well, we ought to skin 'em down a bit, but we have to have some government office to mail our tax forms to. Someone has to open the tax return envelopes and cash the checks. So we have to have something. On the other hand, we should remove the IRS's power to garnish your wages and seize your bank account. If the IRS has a beef with us taxpayers, they can take us to court, a real court, not a "tax court" where the judge is getting paid by the IRS. They don't need the power to bankrupt us on just their say-so.
Monday, June 12, 2017
Advice for New HS graduates soon to be incoming college freshmen
You want to think about what you want to do after you graduate college. I know that is four years in the future, which seems like forever. But college goes by quick and you will be out in the job market before you know it.
College is expensive, you or your parents, are paying for it. If you are borrowing the money to pay tuition, you have to pay it back after you graduate. You gotta have a job to pay off your student loans. Which means you need to pick your college major to make you employable. For instance a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, and you will have a decent job no problem. A bachelor of arts in gender studies, and you will be waiting tables for a long long time.
The best majors, looking toward making yourself employable, are the STEM majors, Science (physics, chemistry, biology) Technology (computer programming, premed), Engineering (electrical, mechanical, chemical, civil) and Mathematics (calculus, statistics, matrix algebra) Engineering, in addition to being decently paid, is interesting and satisfying. Engineering is a lot of new design work, and being the engineer who designs that new automobile, new handheld electronic best seller, new building, new aircraft, is very satisfying work. Beats the bejesus out of selling used cars.
STEM fields often require math up thru integral calculus and differential equations. In fact you may need that math under your belt in order to even understand the homework in your major. You want to find out what the mathematics requirement are in your chosen field, and sign up for those math courses ASAP, freshman year. Electrical engineering is probably the most math intensive. A simple two component circuit (a resistor and a capacitor) require a first order differential equation to analyze. Things like biology and computer programming are less demanding in the math dept.
If you just cannot warm up to a STEM field, consider the liberal arts. Traditionally there are seven liberal arts, English, History, Foreign Language, Music, Art, Philosophy, Theology. English ought to teach you how to write. Industry offers a lot of jobs to people who can write, specifications, instruction manuals, advertisements, articles about the product, endless written materials. History will also teach you how to write, and offers a broader field, all of human history, every age, every culture, which makes picking a thesis easier. English is limited to the works of a relatively small number of English authors. Picking a thesis in English literature that hasn't been written about a thousand times already is hard. Foreign languages are always useful to any company doing business overseas, which is most of them these days.
If you are a musician or an artist, Music or Art majors are rewarding. If you are not a musician or an artist, they won't do you any good at all. There are next to no jobs for music or art majors who are not themselves practicing musicians or artists.
Philosophy and Theology used to be big, back in medieval times, but they won't get you a job today.
One other major, which isn't STEM or an Art; that is education. If you want to teach in the public schools, you have to take the ed major. The ed major will get you a job, no problem. If you can stand the total boredom of the major, and you like teaching, go for it. The ed departments pretend that education is something that can be taught and will make you a better teacher. In actual fact, the ed major is endless chit chat about trivia. It's easy enough to pass the major, but most students find it REALLY boring. The best teachers I ever encountered didn't even have college degrees, let alone an ed major. They were good Air Force enlisted men pulled right off the flight line to teach in the base Field Training Detachment. They knew their subjects (jet engines, aircraft instruments, radar, nav electronics, hydraulics, what ever) backwards and forwards. And that's all you really need to be a good teacher. If you want to teach in the private schools, then you can major in something useful, the private schools are less hung up about the ed major than the public schools.
Then there are the majors that aren't sciences but want to be sciences, (sociology,political science, anthropology, economics, ecology, psychology) To be a real science you have to conduct experiments to validate your theories. Conducting experiments in sociology or any of them is not possible or totally unethical. The courses usually boil down to political indoctrination. And there are no jobs to be had with these majors.
Then we come underwater basket weaving majors. These won't get you a job (other than waiting tables)
Black Studies, Gender Studies, Men's studies, Any kind of Studies, art appreciation, aroma therapy, and others. Stay away. Total waste of four years and a lot of money.
Final word. Don't trust advice from guidance counselors, ESPECIALLY as to the requirements for your major. You have to get in ALL the required courses in order to win a degree. Find the college catalog, the current catalog, not one from last year. All the major requirements are in the catalog. Look them up, write them down (a spreadsheet is good) and sign up for them as early as possible. Don't trust a guidance counselor to steer you into the right courses, they don't know, and don't really care, not the way you care.
College is expensive, you or your parents, are paying for it. If you are borrowing the money to pay tuition, you have to pay it back after you graduate. You gotta have a job to pay off your student loans. Which means you need to pick your college major to make you employable. For instance a bachelor of science in electrical engineering, and you will have a decent job no problem. A bachelor of arts in gender studies, and you will be waiting tables for a long long time.
The best majors, looking toward making yourself employable, are the STEM majors, Science (physics, chemistry, biology) Technology (computer programming, premed), Engineering (electrical, mechanical, chemical, civil) and Mathematics (calculus, statistics, matrix algebra) Engineering, in addition to being decently paid, is interesting and satisfying. Engineering is a lot of new design work, and being the engineer who designs that new automobile, new handheld electronic best seller, new building, new aircraft, is very satisfying work. Beats the bejesus out of selling used cars.
STEM fields often require math up thru integral calculus and differential equations. In fact you may need that math under your belt in order to even understand the homework in your major. You want to find out what the mathematics requirement are in your chosen field, and sign up for those math courses ASAP, freshman year. Electrical engineering is probably the most math intensive. A simple two component circuit (a resistor and a capacitor) require a first order differential equation to analyze. Things like biology and computer programming are less demanding in the math dept.
If you just cannot warm up to a STEM field, consider the liberal arts. Traditionally there are seven liberal arts, English, History, Foreign Language, Music, Art, Philosophy, Theology. English ought to teach you how to write. Industry offers a lot of jobs to people who can write, specifications, instruction manuals, advertisements, articles about the product, endless written materials. History will also teach you how to write, and offers a broader field, all of human history, every age, every culture, which makes picking a thesis easier. English is limited to the works of a relatively small number of English authors. Picking a thesis in English literature that hasn't been written about a thousand times already is hard. Foreign languages are always useful to any company doing business overseas, which is most of them these days.
If you are a musician or an artist, Music or Art majors are rewarding. If you are not a musician or an artist, they won't do you any good at all. There are next to no jobs for music or art majors who are not themselves practicing musicians or artists.
Philosophy and Theology used to be big, back in medieval times, but they won't get you a job today.
One other major, which isn't STEM or an Art; that is education. If you want to teach in the public schools, you have to take the ed major. The ed major will get you a job, no problem. If you can stand the total boredom of the major, and you like teaching, go for it. The ed departments pretend that education is something that can be taught and will make you a better teacher. In actual fact, the ed major is endless chit chat about trivia. It's easy enough to pass the major, but most students find it REALLY boring. The best teachers I ever encountered didn't even have college degrees, let alone an ed major. They were good Air Force enlisted men pulled right off the flight line to teach in the base Field Training Detachment. They knew their subjects (jet engines, aircraft instruments, radar, nav electronics, hydraulics, what ever) backwards and forwards. And that's all you really need to be a good teacher. If you want to teach in the private schools, then you can major in something useful, the private schools are less hung up about the ed major than the public schools.
Then there are the majors that aren't sciences but want to be sciences, (sociology,political science, anthropology, economics, ecology, psychology) To be a real science you have to conduct experiments to validate your theories. Conducting experiments in sociology or any of them is not possible or totally unethical. The courses usually boil down to political indoctrination. And there are no jobs to be had with these majors.
Then we come underwater basket weaving majors. These won't get you a job (other than waiting tables)
Black Studies, Gender Studies, Men's studies, Any kind of Studies, art appreciation, aroma therapy, and others. Stay away. Total waste of four years and a lot of money.
Final word. Don't trust advice from guidance counselors, ESPECIALLY as to the requirements for your major. You have to get in ALL the required courses in order to win a degree. Find the college catalog, the current catalog, not one from last year. All the major requirements are in the catalog. Look them up, write them down (a spreadsheet is good) and sign up for them as early as possible. Don't trust a guidance counselor to steer you into the right courses, they don't know, and don't really care, not the way you care.
Sunday, June 11, 2017
Who gets blamed when Obamacare crashes and burns?
Fox News was discussing this on Sunday. Obamacare is driving insurance companies out of the health care business. Even with $2500 premium increases and $4000 copays, insurance companies are still loosing wads of money on policies sold thru the Obamacare exchanges. As a result, the companies are pulling out of the Obamacare business, leaving vast tracts of America without ANY Obamacare health insurance.
Who takes the blame was the subject of discussion on Fox. In actual fact, the MSM will write long tear stained stories about how it's all the Republicans fault. They will do their best to blame all bad things on the Trump administration.
The Republicans NEED to get a health care bill thru Congress and to the president's desk. If they don't, then the coming Obamacare crash will sink the Republicans, come 2018 elections. Rule in American politics, when bad things happen, the incumbent president, and his party, take the blame. Especially when the MSM hates them. Bad things are happening to Obamacare. The Republicans must get their act together and pass something, now.
Who takes the blame was the subject of discussion on Fox. In actual fact, the MSM will write long tear stained stories about how it's all the Republicans fault. They will do their best to blame all bad things on the Trump administration.
The Republicans NEED to get a health care bill thru Congress and to the president's desk. If they don't, then the coming Obamacare crash will sink the Republicans, come 2018 elections. Rule in American politics, when bad things happen, the incumbent president, and his party, take the blame. Especially when the MSM hates them. Bad things are happening to Obamacare. The Republicans must get their act together and pass something, now.
Friday, June 9, 2017
Paper Ballots Antidote to hacking, Russian or other contenders
We have a leak, from Reality Winner, that the Russians hacked into a voting machine software company. Apparently they didn't go further and hack the voting machines, but who knows what might be possible next year, or after the next release of Windows.
Vote on paper ballots. Keep the ballots after election day in case you need to do a recount. And we can do a recount by hand, even after all the fancy digital voting machine stuff dies.
Modern digital voting machines are merely desktop computers running a "I-pretend-to-be-a-ballot" program. They mostly run Windows, world's most vulnerable operating system. Hack into the software provider, which the Russians did, and modify the "I-pretend-to-be-a-ballot" program to elect who ever you like. The software company distributes the hacked program to all it's customers, and presto, the Russians favorite candidate wins the election.
This cannot happen with paper ballots, marked with pen or # 2 pencil. And paper ballots a gotta be cheaper for the towns and cities than fancy electronic voting machines.
Vote on paper ballots. Keep the ballots after election day in case you need to do a recount. And we can do a recount by hand, even after all the fancy digital voting machine stuff dies.
Modern digital voting machines are merely desktop computers running a "I-pretend-to-be-a-ballot" program. They mostly run Windows, world's most vulnerable operating system. Hack into the software provider, which the Russians did, and modify the "I-pretend-to-be-a-ballot" program to elect who ever you like. The software company distributes the hacked program to all it's customers, and presto, the Russians favorite candidate wins the election.
This cannot happen with paper ballots, marked with pen or # 2 pencil. And paper ballots a gotta be cheaper for the towns and cities than fancy electronic voting machines.
Saw Wonder Woman in the Jax Jr last night
Pretty good. It's a comic book super hero (super heroine) movie. I haven't paid much attention to Wonder Woman since I stopped reading comic books around age 14 or so. Gal Godot plays a great Wonder Woman. She has the looks, she has the figure. She gets a great part and a lot of good lines. A lot of good costumes too. The flick opens on the Amazon's magic island (I missed the name) inhabited by lots of really hot Amazon women, and ONE really cute Amazon child, Diana. They don't talk about it, but I assume the lack of men on the island accounts for the very low birthrate. We see Diana at age 8 and then at age 14 or so, (younger actors) and as grown up (Gal Godot) The movie opens when handsome American pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) crashlands a WWI monoplane just offshore (would have been cooler if it were a biplane). Diana rescues him from his sinking aircraft. There is a cool fight when WWI German infantry land from boats to capture Steve Trevor. The Amazons show up in surprising numbers and slay the Hun with swords, arrows and spears.
Shortly Steve and Diana set off for Europe to stop WWI. They leave the magic island by sailboat. Actually the prop guys should have done a little more work on that sailboat, its sails never set well, and were always luffing and it's speed thru the water was much too high. After reaching Europe we see a great set of period automobiles, all polished and shiny. Period British trains. Great period costumes. The guys are all wearing hats (fedoras for civilians). We see inside of Whitehall offices (lots of hardwood paneling and Army uniforms). We go clothes shopping in London with Diana which has some very funny bits. We see the inside of a British pub, full of ugly tough Brits who even manage to impress Diana with their toughness. We meet war weary British politicians who are ready to sign a really wimpy armistice with the Germans. And we heard what Diana thinks about wimping out.
They miss a few cool shots. Although bayonets were standard issue in all armies back then, we never see soldiers (allied or enemy) with bayonets on their rifles. We miss an opportunity to watch Diana with a sword duel with a bayonet wielding infantryman. One of Steve's buddies carries a good sniper rifle with a big telescopic sight all thru the latter half of the movie. We never see him draw a bead, center the crosshairs, and blow a bad guy away at 1000 yards.
This flick is over two hours, gets a little tedious toward the end. Really young kids won't have the patience to sit still thru out. Other than that, it's fine for kids, everyone keeps their clothes on and doesn't sleep together on screen. Lots of explosions, acrobatic fighting styles, and exciting stuff, not much blood.
Shortly Steve and Diana set off for Europe to stop WWI. They leave the magic island by sailboat. Actually the prop guys should have done a little more work on that sailboat, its sails never set well, and were always luffing and it's speed thru the water was much too high. After reaching Europe we see a great set of period automobiles, all polished and shiny. Period British trains. Great period costumes. The guys are all wearing hats (fedoras for civilians). We see inside of Whitehall offices (lots of hardwood paneling and Army uniforms). We go clothes shopping in London with Diana which has some very funny bits. We see the inside of a British pub, full of ugly tough Brits who even manage to impress Diana with their toughness. We meet war weary British politicians who are ready to sign a really wimpy armistice with the Germans. And we heard what Diana thinks about wimping out.
They miss a few cool shots. Although bayonets were standard issue in all armies back then, we never see soldiers (allied or enemy) with bayonets on their rifles. We miss an opportunity to watch Diana with a sword duel with a bayonet wielding infantryman. One of Steve's buddies carries a good sniper rifle with a big telescopic sight all thru the latter half of the movie. We never see him draw a bead, center the crosshairs, and blow a bad guy away at 1000 yards.
This flick is over two hours, gets a little tedious toward the end. Really young kids won't have the patience to sit still thru out. Other than that, it's fine for kids, everyone keeps their clothes on and doesn't sleep together on screen. Lots of explosions, acrobatic fighting styles, and exciting stuff, not much blood.
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Islamic terrorist videos on Utube cause big advertisers to pull ads
Wall St Journal had this story today. I don't cruise Utube myself so I don't really know what gets posted there. But the stuff must be pretty bad if advertisers are pulling their ads off Utube. Was I Utube, I'd think real hard about throwing extremist video clips off the site, just to maintain good relations with my advertisers, who put up the money.
Wednesday, June 7, 2017
Nextgen and Privatizing Air Traffic Control
Trump was pushing these two ideas on TV yesterday. Right now air traffic control (ATC) has been run by the FAA and paid for thru appropriations of federal tax money. Trump (and others) want to set up a private or semi private company to run ATC and be funded by levying fees on the airlines who use ATC. The airline industry is in favor, as is the ATC union. The issue really comes down to funding. Right now, every time Congress gets its panties in a twist, the FAA funding bill doesn't get passed, and when it finally does pass, it leaves out funding for capital improvements, new radars, new control towers, new computers, Next Gen and such. With a private company funded from fees, the cash flow is steady and predictable, every one's paycheck comes thru on time, and capital improvements can be made, especially long term multi year projects. The down side is the private company can hire more people, buy more equipment and just raise the fees to pay for it all. They have a monopoly, and they will exploit it to grow.
The capital improvement under consideration is "Next Gen" an expensive plan to force every airplane in the country (and out of the country) to buy an pricey GPS receiver/transponder. This gadget uses the GPS part to find the plane's location, speed and course, and when interrogated by a ground transponder would transmit the plane's ID and location back to the ground to update the ATC displays in control towers. Transponders start at a couple of K for a light plane model, and a lot more for an airliner grade model. The advantage of Next Gen is greater accuracy, say 10 feet of so, as compared to 5 miles or so for today's ground radar. Which is said to allow controllers to fly planes closer together, allowing more air traffic in the same amount of airspace.
Maybe. But it relies on vulnerable technology. The GPS signal from satellites is quite weak and could be jammed in wartime. The NextGen GPS/transponder is complicated and should it fail the aircraft disappears off ATC display screens. And there is plenty of airspace for flying from place to place. The congestion occurs around airports. We only have 50 odd airports in the whole country and each one can only handle one operation (takeoff or landing) a minute. There is plenty of airspace inbetween airports for all the planes now flying and all the planes that will be flying in the future.
We should not do Next Gen. Too expensive, too vulnerable, and we don't get anything for spending all that money.
The capital improvement under consideration is "Next Gen" an expensive plan to force every airplane in the country (and out of the country) to buy an pricey GPS receiver/transponder. This gadget uses the GPS part to find the plane's location, speed and course, and when interrogated by a ground transponder would transmit the plane's ID and location back to the ground to update the ATC displays in control towers. Transponders start at a couple of K for a light plane model, and a lot more for an airliner grade model. The advantage of Next Gen is greater accuracy, say 10 feet of so, as compared to 5 miles or so for today's ground radar. Which is said to allow controllers to fly planes closer together, allowing more air traffic in the same amount of airspace.
Maybe. But it relies on vulnerable technology. The GPS signal from satellites is quite weak and could be jammed in wartime. The NextGen GPS/transponder is complicated and should it fail the aircraft disappears off ATC display screens. And there is plenty of airspace for flying from place to place. The congestion occurs around airports. We only have 50 odd airports in the whole country and each one can only handle one operation (takeoff or landing) a minute. There is plenty of airspace inbetween airports for all the planes now flying and all the planes that will be flying in the future.
We should not do Next Gen. Too expensive, too vulnerable, and we don't get anything for spending all that money.
Tuesday, June 6, 2017
Reality Winner??
Unlikely name. NSA contractor arrested Saturday for leaking classified information. She had a history of flakiness, including a posting about whiteness is racism, or some such malarkey. She was an Air Force veteran. The newsies haven't said what kind of discharge she had.
Question: How did somebody so flaky ever get a security clearance? Did who ever granted her clearance talk to her former Air Force commander? And how did she keep her clearance?
Another Question: Why was a contractor given access to this classified? What was their need to know.
Seems to me, NSA has lost it's grip. Back when I was a NSA contractor they gave us polygraph tests as part of gaining a clearance. NSA was the only place I was ever at where they inspected your briefcase on the way in and out of secured areas. Letting "Reality Winner" (is that really a name?) in and giving her the run of the files makes me think NSA is getting sloppy.
Question: How did somebody so flaky ever get a security clearance? Did who ever granted her clearance talk to her former Air Force commander? And how did she keep her clearance?
Another Question: Why was a contractor given access to this classified? What was their need to know.
Seems to me, NSA has lost it's grip. Back when I was a NSA contractor they gave us polygraph tests as part of gaining a clearance. NSA was the only place I was ever at where they inspected your briefcase on the way in and out of secured areas. Letting "Reality Winner" (is that really a name?) in and giving her the run of the files makes me think NSA is getting sloppy.
Monday, June 5, 2017
Cortana: What can it do and do I care?
According to net rumor, Cortana does some searching and accepts voice commands and gives voice responses and does snooping for Microsoft. It used to suck up better than 100 Mbytes of RAM and a smidgen of CPU time. Since putting in Creator's update big patch the other day it is down to 66.6 Mbytes of RAM and zip for CPU time.
After go rounds with Dragon Dictate and the average robocaller, I am not impressed with voice recognition. I haven't gone thru a training session with Cortana. I don't think I'm using it at all. I think I want to blow it away to save RAM and speed up things.
So far, net searching only say you can use Regedit to add a key to the registry (AllowCortana = 0) that inhibits Cortana from doing something while searching. No directions for blowing Cortana clean off the hard drive. The only searching I ever do is with a web browser and Google, or on my harddrive with Windows Explorer.
Question: Is it worth adding the magic key to the registry? Will it recover that 66.6 Mbytes of RAM, or does it leave Cortana sucking up RAM and doing nothing?
After go rounds with Dragon Dictate and the average robocaller, I am not impressed with voice recognition. I haven't gone thru a training session with Cortana. I don't think I'm using it at all. I think I want to blow it away to save RAM and speed up things.
So far, net searching only say you can use Regedit to add a key to the registry (AllowCortana = 0) that inhibits Cortana from doing something while searching. No directions for blowing Cortana clean off the hard drive. The only searching I ever do is with a web browser and Google, or on my harddrive with Windows Explorer.
Question: Is it worth adding the magic key to the registry? Will it recover that 66.6 Mbytes of RAM, or does it leave Cortana sucking up RAM and doing nothing?
HP Laptop battery recall. Lack of nameplate
While futzing around after the "Creative Update" big patch, I find that HP has a recall out on some laptop batteries. Hmm. I saw that photo for some years ago of a laptop bursting into flames on a conference room table. Could be bad. Could burn your house down.
So, a few clicks and the website asks for the product name of my laptop. I get choices of Pavilion G4, thru Pavilion G16. Top of my laptop just says "Pavilion" I look on the back, on the bottom, sides, top, everywhere. No data plate. PITA. Battery compartment needs tools to open. Rather than going down to the shop for tools, I download an 800KB program to figure out which battery I have. It reports that my battery is NOT on the recall list. Nice.
I wish HP wasn't so cheap and had bothered to put a real dataplate, readable by humans, on their product.
So, a few clicks and the website asks for the product name of my laptop. I get choices of Pavilion G4, thru Pavilion G16. Top of my laptop just says "Pavilion" I look on the back, on the bottom, sides, top, everywhere. No data plate. PITA. Battery compartment needs tools to open. Rather than going down to the shop for tools, I download an 800KB program to figure out which battery I have. It reports that my battery is NOT on the recall list. Nice.
I wish HP wasn't so cheap and had bothered to put a real dataplate, readable by humans, on their product.
Creator's update to Win 10: aka Big Patch 2017
So I let Windows Update do the "Creators Update". It is big and fat. Took hours to download and more hours to install after download. It fixed the power button on my HP laptop. The last big patch, last summer, broke the button. I had to keep my finger on the power button for the count of ten to make the laptop power down AND turn off the LED in the power button. Granted a LED only draws 10 milliamps out of a battery rated for an amp-hour or more, but even 10 milliamps will run the battery down if you put the laptop on the shelf for a week or so. Anyhow Win 10 Creator's update fixed the button that the last big patch broke.
And then Creators update broke HP 3D Driveguard. That's an HP program that does an emergency hard drive head park should the internal accelerometer sense the laptop is taking a fall. Sounds cool IF it is really fast enough to get the heads parked before the laptop hits the floor. Net searching offered advice to uninstall HP 3D Driveguard and then download the latest version and reinstall. Uninstall worked, but download and reinstall not so much. My first reinstall crapped out with an error message about a bad file in the download. I tried a second download from another site and it might have worked. It never bothered to report success or failure. HP 3D Driveguard does not show in Task Manager. Neither do it's aliases, of which it has two. So, either it hides from task manager or it isn't there at all.
A Creators Update puff piece on the 'Net was vague about what all this updating buys you. You get a 3D Paint program (whoopie) and a lot of stuff for gamers. I don't draw with my computers and games are for kids.
Another productive year for the Micro$oft software weenies.
And then Creators update broke HP 3D Driveguard. That's an HP program that does an emergency hard drive head park should the internal accelerometer sense the laptop is taking a fall. Sounds cool IF it is really fast enough to get the heads parked before the laptop hits the floor. Net searching offered advice to uninstall HP 3D Driveguard and then download the latest version and reinstall. Uninstall worked, but download and reinstall not so much. My first reinstall crapped out with an error message about a bad file in the download. I tried a second download from another site and it might have worked. It never bothered to report success or failure. HP 3D Driveguard does not show in Task Manager. Neither do it's aliases, of which it has two. So, either it hides from task manager or it isn't there at all.
A Creators Update puff piece on the 'Net was vague about what all this updating buys you. You get a 3D Paint program (whoopie) and a lot of stuff for gamers. I don't draw with my computers and games are for kids.
Another productive year for the Micro$oft software weenies.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
Wipe Islamic Terrorists off the Internet
We ought to do it. We can do it, the backbone carriers are mostly American. We furnish a list of terrorist URL's to the backbone carriers, and presto, they go into the bit bucket for good. The terrorists will undoubtedly open new ones, but we can make those go into the bit bucket too. And their audiences, who just pop a URL into their browsers will be confused when they get the 404 error message after the site got blackholed. It will take time for the audience to discover the new URLs and by which time we can discover them too and make the new ones go away.
Everyone agrees that a lot of Islamic terrorists get started, get instructed, and get encouraged over the internet. For instance we know that Anwar Al Awlaki set up the shoe bomber, and engaged in emails with Major Hassan, the Ft Hood shooter. Awlaki got so bad that the weak kneed Obama administration summoned up a little resolve and snuffed Awlaki in a drone strike. If we can snuff them from the air, surely we can turn off their internet access.
Every other media, print newspapers, radio, TV, movies, books, music, engage in censorship. There are some things they simply will not show. Examples: death threats, calls to violence, pornography, wardrobe malfunctions, overly raunchy lyrics, and hate speech. Only the internet gets away scot free. With Islamic terrorist racking up more and more kills (149 kills just this Ramadan) we need to shut down their internet access.
We need to do this right, and prevent censorship of other perfectly legitimate internet activities. Probably a small board of respected and impartial people ought to OK each request to blackhole a URL for being an Islamic terror site. We have done a fairly good job at snuffing out spammers, no reason why we should not do the same to Islamic terrorists.
Everyone agrees that a lot of Islamic terrorists get started, get instructed, and get encouraged over the internet. For instance we know that Anwar Al Awlaki set up the shoe bomber, and engaged in emails with Major Hassan, the Ft Hood shooter. Awlaki got so bad that the weak kneed Obama administration summoned up a little resolve and snuffed Awlaki in a drone strike. If we can snuff them from the air, surely we can turn off their internet access.
Every other media, print newspapers, radio, TV, movies, books, music, engage in censorship. There are some things they simply will not show. Examples: death threats, calls to violence, pornography, wardrobe malfunctions, overly raunchy lyrics, and hate speech. Only the internet gets away scot free. With Islamic terrorist racking up more and more kills (149 kills just this Ramadan) we need to shut down their internet access.
We need to do this right, and prevent censorship of other perfectly legitimate internet activities. Probably a small board of respected and impartial people ought to OK each request to blackhole a URL for being an Islamic terror site. We have done a fairly good job at snuffing out spammers, no reason why we should not do the same to Islamic terrorists.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Mandatory Minimum Sentences.
Used to be, back in the 60's and 70's, judges had broad discretion in sentences. Unfortunately a number of judges abused this discretion, letting criminals off with slap-on-the-wrist sentences when the community wanted the throw the book at them.
As a result, in the 70's and 80's, Congress and state legislatures passed laws requiring judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences in all cases, mitigating circumstances be damned. Judges have been whining about this ever since. But the mandatory minimum sentencing laws still mostly stand, the voters have little interest in the whines of judges.
As a result, in the 70's and 80's, Congress and state legislatures passed laws requiring judges to impose mandatory minimum sentences in all cases, mitigating circumstances be damned. Judges have been whining about this ever since. But the mandatory minimum sentencing laws still mostly stand, the voters have little interest in the whines of judges.
Friday, June 2, 2017
Do you believe in Global Warming?
Or, "Does the president believe in global warming," a question fired during one of those interminable daily press conferences. The poor press secretary who was serving as a target rightfully dodged the question.
Believe. That's a word used in religion. Do you believe in God? When the newsies start asking about belief, they become religious fanatics looking for heretics to burn at the stake. The fanatics LIKE global warming, they are using it to scare people into giving them political power.
Global warming ought to be a scientific theory, an idea supported by observations or experiments. About the only observation behind the global warmists is CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. We have good observations that the CO2 concentration has increased from 300 and something parts-per-million to 400 parts-per-million in the last 50 years or so. The earth gets heated on the sunside and cools itself by radiating infrared radiation on the night side. To hold Earth's temperature steady, the heating and the cooling have to balance. CO2 blocks infrared radiation which reduces the nighttime cooling. This is the whole of the greenie global warming religion. Of which they are demanding the president believe.
Counter observation. Plain old water vapor, steam, humidity, clouds, is as strong an infrared blocker as CO2. And there is about 1000 times as much water vapor in the air as the puny rise of CO2. The CO2 rise is like 50 parts-per million, against a water vapor concentration of 50,000 parts-per-million. Most experienced people don't think a change that small means anything in the real world. Especially as all the computer models of global warming produce crazy results when asked to predict today's temperature based upon data from some starting point in the past. Incidentally, on a planet two thirds covered with open water, there is going to be a lot of water vapor in the air, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
And, if the world warms up, then the oceans will warm and more water will vaporize and make the air even moister than it is. Which will increase the amount of cloud cover. Everyone knows that daytime clouds cool the earth. You can feel the chill when you are on a beach in a bathing suit and a cloud covers the sun. Less well known is that night time clouds warm the earth, they block infrared radiation even better than CO2 or water vapor. Clear winter nights are colder than overcast winter nights. Which effect is stronger? No one knows, or at least no one has published on this where I could see it.
Another observation. World temperature has remained steady, no rise at all for the last 19 years.
So, scientifically speaking global warming is a maybe. Might be happening, might not. This isn't a matter of belief. It's a matter of scientific observations and theory.
Believe. That's a word used in religion. Do you believe in God? When the newsies start asking about belief, they become religious fanatics looking for heretics to burn at the stake. The fanatics LIKE global warming, they are using it to scare people into giving them political power.
Global warming ought to be a scientific theory, an idea supported by observations or experiments. About the only observation behind the global warmists is CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. We have good observations that the CO2 concentration has increased from 300 and something parts-per-million to 400 parts-per-million in the last 50 years or so. The earth gets heated on the sunside and cools itself by radiating infrared radiation on the night side. To hold Earth's temperature steady, the heating and the cooling have to balance. CO2 blocks infrared radiation which reduces the nighttime cooling. This is the whole of the greenie global warming religion. Of which they are demanding the president believe.
Counter observation. Plain old water vapor, steam, humidity, clouds, is as strong an infrared blocker as CO2. And there is about 1000 times as much water vapor in the air as the puny rise of CO2. The CO2 rise is like 50 parts-per million, against a water vapor concentration of 50,000 parts-per-million. Most experienced people don't think a change that small means anything in the real world. Especially as all the computer models of global warming produce crazy results when asked to predict today's temperature based upon data from some starting point in the past. Incidentally, on a planet two thirds covered with open water, there is going to be a lot of water vapor in the air, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
And, if the world warms up, then the oceans will warm and more water will vaporize and make the air even moister than it is. Which will increase the amount of cloud cover. Everyone knows that daytime clouds cool the earth. You can feel the chill when you are on a beach in a bathing suit and a cloud covers the sun. Less well known is that night time clouds warm the earth, they block infrared radiation even better than CO2 or water vapor. Clear winter nights are colder than overcast winter nights. Which effect is stronger? No one knows, or at least no one has published on this where I could see it.
Another observation. World temperature has remained steady, no rise at all for the last 19 years.
So, scientifically speaking global warming is a maybe. Might be happening, might not. This isn't a matter of belief. It's a matter of scientific observations and theory.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Bye Bye Paris Climate Deal.
Trump called a special Rose Garden address on the Paris accord for 3 PM Eastern today. It got started 15 minutes late, not bad. Trump said the US was pulling out off the Paris agreement, something he had promised repeated on the campaign trail. He said the Paris agreement was costing us jobs and economic growth, and it wasn't doing much against global warming. And the other members, like China, weren't doing as much as the United States.
The Paris accord was supposed to be an international treaty, which needs a 66% majority in the Senate to pass. Obama, who negotiated the Paris accords, never submitted the final treaty to the Senate, because he knew it would never pass. So, it never was a real treaty, and Trump can denounce it and walk away from it on just his say-so. That's legit.
Funny thing about the Paris accord. I have no idea what the pseudo treaty obligated America to do. And who might be keeping score. The Obama administration claimed that the Clean Power Plan, which called for shutting down every coal fired power plant in the country, was just one step toward meeting the Paris accord. Of course Trump shut down the Clean Power Plan a couple of months ago, so that's kind of moot. Of course the greenies are all upset, but next greenie I hear venting about Paris, I'm gonna ask him what the Paris accord required us to do. And is it fair when the Chinese don't have to do squat until 2030. The greenie won't know, and that ought to quiet him down for a while.
In short, Trump put on a show for his voter base, doing something they approve of. It gives the MSM something new to whine about, which is good, I'm tired of listening to them whine about Russians. I don't think it does anything about global warming, especially as there has been no global warming for the last 19 years.
The Paris accord was supposed to be an international treaty, which needs a 66% majority in the Senate to pass. Obama, who negotiated the Paris accords, never submitted the final treaty to the Senate, because he knew it would never pass. So, it never was a real treaty, and Trump can denounce it and walk away from it on just his say-so. That's legit.
Funny thing about the Paris accord. I have no idea what the pseudo treaty obligated America to do. And who might be keeping score. The Obama administration claimed that the Clean Power Plan, which called for shutting down every coal fired power plant in the country, was just one step toward meeting the Paris accord. Of course Trump shut down the Clean Power Plan a couple of months ago, so that's kind of moot. Of course the greenies are all upset, but next greenie I hear venting about Paris, I'm gonna ask him what the Paris accord required us to do. And is it fair when the Chinese don't have to do squat until 2030. The greenie won't know, and that ought to quiet him down for a while.
In short, Trump put on a show for his voter base, doing something they approve of. It gives the MSM something new to whine about, which is good, I'm tired of listening to them whine about Russians. I don't think it does anything about global warming, especially as there has been no global warming for the last 19 years.
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