Technology marches on.

My nice Panasonic DVD player croaked the other day.  It had been getting fussy, and rejecting certain disks as unplayble, but it would play some.  Finally died by announcing that all my disks were unplayable.  It ran well for seven years, longer than a big Samsung TV (which died after four years) and a Mitsubishi VHS player (5 years).  They don't make consumer electronics the way the used to.  I remember a couple of Sony TVs that ran for 20 years, Radio Shack stereo receivers running for 30.
   And you cannot fix consumer electronics anymore.  The chips are all surface mount which requires an artist to change, with pins spaced so close you cannot get a scope probe on them.  When the TV, and later the Mitsubishi VHS died, I did some calling around, looking for anyone who might try fixing them.  No luck.  I didn't even bother looking for someone to fix the DVD player.  
  So down to Walmart.  They had Sony, Magnevox, Lucky Goldstar and Samsung.  The DVD versions were all cheap ($35) , about a third of what I paid for the dear departed Panasonic.  They all had Blue Ray versions for double that, but since I don't own any Blue Ray discs, I didn't care.
   Bought the Magnevox.  It was much smaller than the old Panasonic, and it has digital output, HDMI they call it.  One thick cable with funny 8 pin connecters (not included with the player) and bingo, the digital bits coming off the disc get shipped right to the digital TV, skipping the analog-to-digital conversion in the DVD player and the inverse analog-to-digital conversion in the TV.  My day job used to be care and feeding, design and sales of  AtoD and DtoA converter, and believe me, there are a zillion ways a converter can mess up the signal. 
   Anyhow, the direct digital connection gives even nicer video.  DVD video has always been good, but the HDMI connection made it even better,  crisp, clean, fine textures visible. 

1500 hours = $150,000

FAA is going to demand pilots have 1500 flying hours in order to fly airliners, even as a co pilot.  That's a lot of time.  That's 38 weeks of flying 40 hours every week.  Operating or renting a light plane costs better than $100 an hour.   So 1500 hours will cost $150,000.  Few people have that kind of money.
   Used to be, guys would get a job flying co pilot and build up their hours without having to pay for the plane and fuel.  FAA is shutting that off.
   The airlines are wondering where pilots are gonna come from.

Email is a public record, open to anyone

If the CIA director cannot keep his email secure from FBI snoopers, no one else can either.   Your life will have fewer nasty surprises if you never ever write anything in emails or online that you wouldn't post on the bulletin board down at the supermarket. Because the world is full of snoops who will post anything juicy they find on line.  And if it's online, they can find it.
   I would have thought an old hand like Petraeus would have known this.  And if he didn't know, CIA should have told him. 

The War for Women, Part 2

In theWall St Journal Op  page, we have Andy Kohut, old liner pollster, commenting upon the Republican loss last week.  He gives some figures, 59% of voters believe abortion ought to be legal.    So, on the wedgiest of wedge issues, it's now 59% pro abortion (pro choice) , 41%  anti abortion (pro life).  That's a big change.  Not so long ago the numbers were 50-50. 
   Right now, the Republican party is pro-life.  And, each time the issue comes up,  it costs the party two votes for every vote it gains.  This is a surefire path to defeat. 
   And there isn't all that much the party can do about it.  The 41% anti abortion are probably 100% Republicans.  That makes the Republican party vastly inhabited by anti abortion voters, and to win a Republican primary, and become a Republican candidate,  you have to be anti abortion.  And, it's a democracy, those 41% are free to vote the way they please in primary elections.  So there ain't much a Republican candidate can do, if he wants to be a Republican candidate. 
   So either the Democrats win next time, and the next, and the next.  Or candidates who care about jobs and the economy will run as third party or independents.  Or some miraculous change of heart sweeps over the 41% and they decide abortion is a private matter, and not a matter for government interference.
   Things don't look good for the future.  The Democrats will take us down the drain with Greece.

Tax and Spend, or Spend and Tax

Fiscal Cliff.  Let's cut spending first.  Go for a big cut, a real cut, not fake cuts like last time.  After getting some spending cuts on the books, then, maybe, we could think about a tax hike.  But unless the cuts are nailed down first, the tax hike will just be spent, and the deficit will be just as bad.  There is a farm bill, a highway bill, an energy bill, the entire Dept of Education, the TSA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, SEC and the federal flood insurance program, all of which could be zeroed out and the budget would be balanced.  And nobody except bureaucrats would miss any of them.
Hint.  Every time Obama says "balanced" he really means "Tax Hike".

What goes around, comes around

In 1937  German Field Marshall von Blomberg, Chief of Staff of the Wehrmacht, entered into a second marriage with his secretary, Erna Gruhn.  Shortly afterward a police report surfaced that showed Frau Gruhn was an ex prostitute.  Hitler fired him.
   Colonel General Freiherr Werner von Fritsch was second in command and the logical officer to succeed him.  Himmler's SS furnished paperwork showing that General Fritsch had entered a homosexual relationship with a man named Schmidt.  A subsequent German Army courtmartial ruled that the SS paperwork was a pure frameup.  Never the less, von Fritsch, and 16 other senior generals were retired.  Forty five other German generals were transferred to less important posts.
   This all comes from The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, William Shirer.
In 2012 two top American generals were re leaved of duty following mysterious and suspicious charges. 

Stone Age Genesis

Both the Economist and the Wall St Journal carried the story of really old stone tools.  Archaeologists excavating at Pinnacle Point in South Africa found "microlith"  (we used to call them "flake") tools.  Flake tools are harder to make than the older "core" tools.  The oldest stone tools found are merely pebbles that have been bashed hard enough to fracture them, yielding a sharp cutting edge.  They are so crude that some argue that they are merely random stones.  Next step in stone tools was the "core".  Start with a fist sized chunk of flint.  Whack at it to form two sharp edges, and you have the "hand axe".  It was probably used to butcher killed game, to slice off roasts and chops for grilling over the fire. 
  Next step was to work with "flakes"(now called "microliths").  Start with a chunk of flint,  Strike it just so and a "blade" a thin piece of flint with two razor sharp edges flakes off.  Just as is, a flake is as useful as a modern straight razor blade.  And it's a great starting place to make arrow heads, or the famous folsom points that tipped throwing spears. 
   The South African site that is getting all the press coverage yielded flakes about 1 and a quarter inches long.  A little big for arrow heads, and no where as neatly chipped as American Indian arrow heads.  They lack any sign of a retaining groove to lash them to a shaft.  They look about right for points to a throwing spear. 
   So what makes this find so exciting?  The date.  The archaeologists are claiming they are 71,000 years old, making them the oldest flake tools ever discovered.   Too bad the archaeologists don't tell us how they dated their find.  Surely no one counted 71,000 layers in the dirt wall of the excavation.  Radio carbon dating only works back maybe 15,000 years.  So how did they estimate 71,000 years?  As the oldest flake tools ever discovered, they are interesting.  Other wise they are just crude chipped stone. 
   Then the "journalists" at both publications segued off to speculating upon the birth of modern minds, capable of art and music, poetry and the finer thoughts.  Sounds great.  Me, I think flake tools come from superior small motor skills.  I could make a "core" hand axe, no problem.  But to strike a chunk of flint and get a 4 inch long sliver with razor edges to pop off, in one piece,  I could never do that.  The flint would shatter, fail to flake, and after days of flint knapping, I'd wind up with nothing useful.  But there are guys who can do it, and do it well.