NPR the morning announced that Obama wanted to negotiate a nuclear weapons reduction treaty with the Russians. Cool, but so 1970's. I mean nuclear deals with the Soviets were all the rage back in the 60's and 70's. But the Cold War is over, neither we nor the Russians have made an Dr. Strangelove noises for 20 years or more.
Did Obama decide to resurrect this bit of Cold War nostalgia 'cause he cannot think of anything better to do, what with scandals nipping at his heels?
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Congressional Testimony on NSA snooping
They had the head of NSA and his top assistants up in front of a Congressional investigating committee today. The NSA guys looked and sounded professional and honest, unlike some the the witnesses in recent days. They pretty much confirmed that NSA gathers all the telephone billing information in the entire world and keeps it plenty long enough. The NSA guys explained that they just gather the info up and store it on their computers and don't actually look at it except after jumping thru a lot of administrative hoops, largely NSA hoops, no FISA court. They went on to explain that they only keep overseas calls, not inside the US calls.
It all sounds good, and these individuals looked trustworthy. I wonder if they will look so trustworthy after some Obama appointments. Once the data is in NSA computers, they will look at it if they care enough.
And this is legal. The Supremes held some years ago that looking at telephone company business records is not a search or a seizure. Fourth Amendment does not apply, thus saith the Supremes.
Bottom line, if you make a phone call, NSA knows about it. They claimed they don't tap the calls, they just record the fact that the call was made. That's probably true, for now.
This effort costs plenty. I wonder if we wouldn't score more good intel by taking terrorists alive and grilling them, rather than killing them to avoid putting more terrorists into Guantanamo? And not shooting people dead after the phone number monitoring. fingers them.
It all sounds good, and these individuals looked trustworthy. I wonder if they will look so trustworthy after some Obama appointments. Once the data is in NSA computers, they will look at it if they care enough.
And this is legal. The Supremes held some years ago that looking at telephone company business records is not a search or a seizure. Fourth Amendment does not apply, thus saith the Supremes.
Bottom line, if you make a phone call, NSA knows about it. They claimed they don't tap the calls, they just record the fact that the call was made. That's probably true, for now.
This effort costs plenty. I wonder if we wouldn't score more good intel by taking terrorists alive and grilling them, rather than killing them to avoid putting more terrorists into Guantanamo? And not shooting people dead after the phone number monitoring. fingers them.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Aviation Week flies the A400M
After a long and troubled development history, reaching back to 1982, the A400M has received a European type certificate, which makes it legal to sell it and fly it. They program manager feels good enough about the aircraft to let journalists fly it. Aviation Week liked it. Easy to fly, quieter than existing transports even at takeoff power, big, fast as a jet liner, decent short field landings. It's bigger than the C-130 (which makes it a BIG airplane) but not as big as a C-17.
Thing that caught my eye was the high propeller RPM's. The old C-133 kept prop revs down to 100-200 RPM even at takeoff power. A400M has odd looking props (lots of short scimitar shaped blades) that rev up to 850 RPM. This probably eases the load on the gearboxes. The engines rev up to 10,000 RPM and the gear boxes have to stand up to 11,000 horsepower without breaking. The A400M gearboxes only need a 10:1 gear ratio. The old C-133 gearboxes, which gave a lot trouble, had to have a 100:1 gear reduction which is harder to do.
The Europeans are committed to buying A400Ms. The maker, Airbus, is naturally hoping for more export sales to cover the staggering development costs. According to Aviation Week, if you divide total program costs by the number of firm orders, it comes out to $170 million per aircraft, twice the cost of a C130.
Thing that caught my eye was the high propeller RPM's. The old C-133 kept prop revs down to 100-200 RPM even at takeoff power. A400M has odd looking props (lots of short scimitar shaped blades) that rev up to 850 RPM. This probably eases the load on the gearboxes. The engines rev up to 10,000 RPM and the gear boxes have to stand up to 11,000 horsepower without breaking. The A400M gearboxes only need a 10:1 gear ratio. The old C-133 gearboxes, which gave a lot trouble, had to have a 100:1 gear reduction which is harder to do.
The Europeans are committed to buying A400Ms. The maker, Airbus, is naturally hoping for more export sales to cover the staggering development costs. According to Aviation Week, if you divide total program costs by the number of firm orders, it comes out to $170 million per aircraft, twice the cost of a C130.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
What do we know about NSA snooping?
Well, listening to the TV we don't know much. Here is what they could do, especially after spending $1 billion on a fancy data center in Utah.
They can capture and save the billing records of every phone call on the planet. They call it "metadata", but it's the stuff of your phone bill, what numbers you called, how long you talked. This allows the feds or other snoopers to go into the system with your phone number and learn all the other phone numbers you have called, going back a long time. They claim it's just phone numbers, but that doesn't matter. Put your own phone number into Google and Google will return your name and address. You might have to pay a little money, but heh, the Feds have lots of money. If the Feds have a phone number, they can get the name without much trouble. I believe they used the system on the Boston bombers. It fingered an old associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI interviewed the associate and shot him dead during the interview. The FBI claimed self defense, the associate pulled a knife on them, they say.
Speaking of the Boston Bombers, the FBI had a solid tip from the Russians that the older brother was a terrorist. FBI claims to have interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but they didn't bother to pass the tip on to the local police, who usually have better local connections than Washington based FBI guys. Nor did they bother to put Tamerlan on a no-fly list, and they let him fly to Russia and back, and hobnob with Chechen terrorists without tipping off the Russians.
The Feds can read all your email, see what websites you visit, how often and how long, and see all your Facebook, Myspace and where ever postings. If you post anything on suspicious websites, that makes you suspicious too.
I don't think they can tap (listen to conversations) on every phone on the planet, yet.
NSA must have direct electronic connections into the phone system computers, as well as all the internet backbone companies. I heard the back bone companies on TV deny this, but I don't believe them.
This "FISA" court which is supposed to be "overseeing" NSA, approved all but 10 of 1824 snooping requests. That isn't a court, that's a rubber stamp.
I don't know where I stand on the NSA thing. One on hand, being able to drop Osama bin Laden's phone number into the system and see every one he phoned is clearly useful. On the other hand, dropping the phone numbers of anyone the administration dislikes, or conservative bloggers like me, into the system is scary. Plus Osama Bin Ladin gave up using phones after the ever patriotic New York Times revealed that NSA was tapping his satellite phone.
They can capture and save the billing records of every phone call on the planet. They call it "metadata", but it's the stuff of your phone bill, what numbers you called, how long you talked. This allows the feds or other snoopers to go into the system with your phone number and learn all the other phone numbers you have called, going back a long time. They claim it's just phone numbers, but that doesn't matter. Put your own phone number into Google and Google will return your name and address. You might have to pay a little money, but heh, the Feds have lots of money. If the Feds have a phone number, they can get the name without much trouble. I believe they used the system on the Boston bombers. It fingered an old associate of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The FBI interviewed the associate and shot him dead during the interview. The FBI claimed self defense, the associate pulled a knife on them, they say.
Speaking of the Boston Bombers, the FBI had a solid tip from the Russians that the older brother was a terrorist. FBI claims to have interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but they didn't bother to pass the tip on to the local police, who usually have better local connections than Washington based FBI guys. Nor did they bother to put Tamerlan on a no-fly list, and they let him fly to Russia and back, and hobnob with Chechen terrorists without tipping off the Russians.
The Feds can read all your email, see what websites you visit, how often and how long, and see all your Facebook, Myspace and where ever postings. If you post anything on suspicious websites, that makes you suspicious too.
I don't think they can tap (listen to conversations) on every phone on the planet, yet.
NSA must have direct electronic connections into the phone system computers, as well as all the internet backbone companies. I heard the back bone companies on TV deny this, but I don't believe them.
This "FISA" court which is supposed to be "overseeing" NSA, approved all but 10 of 1824 snooping requests. That isn't a court, that's a rubber stamp.
I don't know where I stand on the NSA thing. One on hand, being able to drop Osama bin Laden's phone number into the system and see every one he phoned is clearly useful. On the other hand, dropping the phone numbers of anyone the administration dislikes, or conservative bloggers like me, into the system is scary. Plus Osama Bin Ladin gave up using phones after the ever patriotic New York Times revealed that NSA was tapping his satellite phone.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Sequestering the STEM
Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics (STEM). Due to the sequester, Obama wants to consolidate 226 separate federal STEM programs into a mere 110. These programs are scattered out between DoD, DHS, and NASA. Obama claims that overall funding would be hiked 6% after culling out half the programs.
Wow. All these cuts and we spend more money. And on such a worthy idea. Oh yes, the new program will increase participation by women and minorities in the STEM programs. How uplifting.
Too bad it won't do much to increase the number of US students taking STEM courses. Students decide which educational track they are going to take way down in middle school. Most of 'em decide to avoid STEM courses after being subject to a terrible one, taught by an ed major with no understanding or love for the subject. The ed major reduces the science course to memorization of fancy scientific vocabulary and the math course to tedious solving of equations. It doesn't take much of this kind of abuse to convince middle schoolers that math and science are hard and should be avoided.
No amount of federal STEM programs are going to repair the damage done to students by horrible middle school math and science teaching.
Wow. All these cuts and we spend more money. And on such a worthy idea. Oh yes, the new program will increase participation by women and minorities in the STEM programs. How uplifting.
Too bad it won't do much to increase the number of US students taking STEM courses. Students decide which educational track they are going to take way down in middle school. Most of 'em decide to avoid STEM courses after being subject to a terrible one, taught by an ed major with no understanding or love for the subject. The ed major reduces the science course to memorization of fancy scientific vocabulary and the math course to tedious solving of equations. It doesn't take much of this kind of abuse to convince middle schoolers that math and science are hard and should be avoided.
No amount of federal STEM programs are going to repair the damage done to students by horrible middle school math and science teaching.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Lease or Buy?
In a slow moment, I read thru the car ads delivered to my mailbox. The Chrysler dealer wasn't mentioning price in his ads, just monthly lease payments. Then in the fine print it said "Current Chrysler lease holders and other major makers lease holders only". Translation, no deal unless you already lease a car. Which lets out most people. But, the dealer must think people like to lease cars, otherwise why advertise lease terms that most people won't be eligible for? He could have advertised monthly payments, or even (shudder) the scary asking price.
In fact, why do dealers want to lease instead of sell? On a lease deal the dealer has to find the loan to pay the car company for the car. That's trouble and money. Why not just sell the car outright? Then the customer is on the hook for financing the deal.
One reason might be the lease terms are better for the dealer. I looked at one deal, a 39 month lease with 25 cents a mile for all miles over 25,000. Figure most people rack up 20,000 miles a year, 60,000 over three years. Between the lease payments and the extra mileage charges, that lease deal would pay off the asking price of the car (pickup truck in this case) in 39 months and the dealer still owns the truck. Nice dealer markup on that deal.
My car buyers advice. 1. Buy a late model used car. 2. Buy it outright, run it til it drops.
In fact, why do dealers want to lease instead of sell? On a lease deal the dealer has to find the loan to pay the car company for the car. That's trouble and money. Why not just sell the car outright? Then the customer is on the hook for financing the deal.
One reason might be the lease terms are better for the dealer. I looked at one deal, a 39 month lease with 25 cents a mile for all miles over 25,000. Figure most people rack up 20,000 miles a year, 60,000 over three years. Between the lease payments and the extra mileage charges, that lease deal would pay off the asking price of the car (pickup truck in this case) in 39 months and the dealer still owns the truck. Nice dealer markup on that deal.
My car buyers advice. 1. Buy a late model used car. 2. Buy it outright, run it til it drops.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Grass Attack. Adventures in Lawncare
The rain finally let up today after four solid days. The grass was on the warpath. Once it gets too tall, the mower won't cut it, and then, Katie bar the door. So I took advantage of the break in the weather to get in a quick mow. The grass wasn't really dry enough, but my nice new mostly plastic Husqvarna reel mower was up to the challenge. When wet, the grass bends over and mats down instead of standing proud and getting cut off at the neck. And it sticks the the mower, everywhere. But I made it to the end, it doesn't look too raggedy, and we can survive more rain, which is forecast, starting this afternoon.
Dandelion control is still holding up. I only found two to pluck this morning. Getting 'em early did the trick this season.
Then we gotta keep mowing back the Wild Wood. Weeds, saplings, briars, raspberries and who knows what else, keep trying to invade the lawn, grow up tall, shade out the grass, and bring the woods up to the house. Mow those infiltrators right down to the ground.
Dandelion control is still holding up. I only found two to pluck this morning. Getting 'em early did the trick this season.
Then we gotta keep mowing back the Wild Wood. Weeds, saplings, briars, raspberries and who knows what else, keep trying to invade the lawn, grow up tall, shade out the grass, and bring the woods up to the house. Mow those infiltrators right down to the ground.
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