Nova on "Climate Change"

Watched a three hour rerun of Nova last night, the three shows on human evolution. Actually three one hour shows rebroadcast back to back on Vermont public TV. Not bad stuff, they described some newly discovered human fossils that I had never heard of. They described the rise and 2 million year existence of a human precursor with a chimpanzee size brain, but who walked upright. The famous fossil Lucy was a member of this group.
They glossed over some things. They described the Neanderthal DNA sequencing, including creation of the Neanderthal genotype. Neanderthals are very close to modern man DNA wise. Then they said very few Neanderthal genes exist in modern humans. If Neanderthal and human genotypes are very similar, how can you tell which genes are Neanderthal and which are modern? This was used to support the idea that modern humans "out competed" (wiped out) Neanderthal man, as opposed to the less blood thirsty idea that modern man interbred with Neanderthals and so absorbed them. They made no mention of some fossils that surely look half modern and half Neanderthal. I saw one such fossil on display in the Peabody museum some years ago. I ought to go back and see if it's still on display.
And they seemed obsessed with climate change. Every few minutes they described massive and life threatening climate changes over the last 10 million years. With one exception they didn't connect climate change with human evolutionary progress, but they sure let us know that climate change was out there and to be feared. The one connect that makes sense is walking upright. That seems a perfectly reasonable adaptation for a tree climbing, tree living ape, when the lush tropical jungle dries out to grass lands, where you gotta walk and run to get around, as opposed to Tarzan style swinging thru the treetops on handy vines (brachiation I believe they call it). But other than that one idea, the connection between massive climate changes and human evolution was left unclear. But they sure let you know about all that dreadful climate changing.

Missed Confederate opportunity

Been reading John Keegan's Civil War. Keegan spends a good deal of time discussing strategy, as in what strategy would win the war. Keegan points out that Confederate forces in border state Kentucky could have attacked Cincinnati, and pushed north thru Ohio to Lake Eire, cutting the Union in half. It's only 150 miles from Cincinnati on the Ohio River to Toledo on Lake Eire. As far as Keegen can see, the Confederates never thought of this strategy. The closest they came was Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania, which could have threatened both Washington and Baltimore. It resulted in the battle of Gettysburg, a Union victory. Had Lee prevailed at Gettysburg, he would have been in a position to do the Union great harm.
Keegan is making the point that the successful Civil War strategy involved cutting the opponent into pieces. Grant and Sherman's capture of the Mississippi cut Texas off. Sherman's march to the sea cut the remainder of the Confederacy in half.

Cannot comment on my own blog!!!

I saw, read, and enjoyed several comments posted within the last couple of days. I attempted to reply to all of them. For reasons unknown, blogger refused to post my comments. I'll let you know when I get my commenting privileges back.

The Double Negative

"I ain't got no time." Bugaboo of English teachers every where. If you believe in mathematical logic, then you understand that negating a negative makes it positive. A hard concept from 8th grade math class. If A is a proposition then not A is the opposite. If A is true, not A is false. And not not A is true.
And yet the double negative persists in speech. That's because it seems natural that two negatives make the negation stronger.
"I ain't got time" doesn't sound as emphatic as "I ain't got no time".
But the English teachers of the world are united in condemning the double negative and their view is likely to stick.

Green Crony Capitalism

A green solar panel company, Solyndra, received $500 million in Federal loan guarantees. It declared bankruptcy today, leaving us taxpayers stuck with the bill. Company is laying off 1100 workers. Hmm. $500 million over 1100 workers, that's about $500,000 per worker, no wonder they are dead meat.
They got the loan guarantees 'cause no one in the private sector would loan 'em money without. The private sector guys had it figured just right, Solyndra was a money loser. Why did Obama put up my tax money when experts said Solyndra was a loser? Should Uncle ever guarantee any one's loans?

Dowsing lives

The town water department was out looking for a leak. They walked up and down, located everyone's shutoff valve, and left the street covered with blue graffiti, obscure symbology to locate stuff. Then they pulled out two or three fancy electronic instruments that made funny noises when they detected underground pipes.
After a lot of high tech stuff, one of the workers pulled a pair of dowsing rods off the truck and sure enough, the dowsing rods detected pipe about where the fancy instruments did. These guys clearly believed it worked. And they are not new age hippies, they are just plain middle aged working stiffs.
Told my daughter this story, and she came back with a long tale about how dowsing is a con game, and only the superstitious believe in it. That may be. There is certainly no explanation of how dowsing might work to be found in physics, geology, or chemistry. Be that as it may, the Franconia water department uses dowsing and believes in it. Long as they keep the water running to my place I ain't gonna say anything about their methods.

52% of companies cannot find qualified workers

Fox News ran this piece three times yesterday. Companies belly aching that they just cannot fill job openings for lack of qualified people. The scene shows an ultra modern light manufacturing facility, brand new Butler building, tiled floor, suspended ceiling, rows and rows of sleek modern machines, mostly electronic. And they cannot hire anyone checked out on all this stuff.
Sounds like Fox was talking to someone in HR. The HR droids think they control hiring, but they don't. They know zip about the company business, the manufacturing technology, or any thing else. They ask for qualifications that nobody will have, like 5 years experience on a technology that has only been on the market for 6 months. Or two masters degrees and 20 years experience. When they fail to find candidates with impossible qualifications at entry level wages, they blame the public schools. They sold the Fox newsies on this fairy tale.
In the real world, companies have to train up their employees. Hire guys right of of high school as apprentices, and train them up to be journeymen. Treat them right so that they stay with you rather than joining your competitor after they learn the trade. If the public schools have taught them reading, writing, and rithmetic, plus perhaps algebra, they are doing OK. For extra credit the schools could give them high school physics, chemistry, and biology. The decent public high schools can do this right now. Industry needs to do it's own training in specific technology on the job.