So said the newsies on Meet the Press this morning. They thought it was terrible that Congress only passed 143 laws this year. Gridlock was blamed. None of 'em admitted that neither party has the votes to jam it's program thru.
Actually, I like gridlock. Most laws Congress passes do bad things to me. They raise my taxes, they forbid me to do harmless things, they give handouts to corporations, they throw people out of work, they raise prices, and they waste money on boondoggles. Bridges to nowhere, wind farms, resurfacing I93 again. We citizens are better off when Congress doesn't pass more laws.
And, the Republican controlled House has passed all, or most, of the appropriations bills needed to fund the government next year. The Democrat controlled Senate has passed none. This will cause another one of those "continuing resolutions" to keep the government's doors open. "Continuing resolutions" are bad for tax payers. They read "You, government agency, may keep on spending as much as you did last year." Facing a $5 trillion deficit, we ought to be making some cuts somewhere. There ain't no cut in a "continuing resolution" Democrats love that.
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Saturday, August 2, 2014
The Education Major
Departments of Education exist in the belief that there is some art or science or magic required to teach children, apart from a sound knowledge of the subject being taught. A LOT of students take an Ed major. I still remember registration at U of Delaware years ago. The line to register for Ed courses ran around the gym a couple of times, whereas the lines for everything else (English, history, math, chemistry, physics etc) were only a dozen students or so.
Unfortunately, there is no art or science of teaching. Effective teachers use interpersonal skills, such as leadership, concern for their students, love of their subject, to maintain classroom order and get teaching accomplished. As an example, some of the best teachers I ever had where in the Air Force. We took sergeants right off the flight line and set them down to teach in the Field Training Detachments (FTD). I took a number of FTD courses. Those young sergeants were very good teachers, as good as any I'd ever had. Their classes were all 19 year old airmen, full of energy and short on patience, ready to give the teacher a hard time. No problem, these guys got their student's full attention, they even got them to do their home work, and they came out of the course knowing more than when they entered. No ed courses required.
Should you take an Ed major? It does give you instant access to public school teaching positions. The entire public school hierarchy is composed of Ed majors, they only hand out teacher's certificates to fellow Ed majors. It is possible to break into public school teaching without an Ed major, but it is very hard.
The down side to an Ed major is terminal boredom while in college. The subject matter is zilch, and you have to suffer thru a dozen courses that hash over the same nothingness, over and over. If you can stand the endless drivel, it's easy to ace an Ed course, all you have to do is stay awake in class and take a few notes.
For those who really do want to teach, major in English or history or mathematics. Look for a job in private or parochial schools, they are less infested with Ed majors and are apt to hire you after a successful job interview. After a couple of years teaching you can apply for a public school job (which usually pay better) and they will assume anyone who survived a couple of years of classroom teaching can teach.
Unfortunately, there is no art or science of teaching. Effective teachers use interpersonal skills, such as leadership, concern for their students, love of their subject, to maintain classroom order and get teaching accomplished. As an example, some of the best teachers I ever had where in the Air Force. We took sergeants right off the flight line and set them down to teach in the Field Training Detachments (FTD). I took a number of FTD courses. Those young sergeants were very good teachers, as good as any I'd ever had. Their classes were all 19 year old airmen, full of energy and short on patience, ready to give the teacher a hard time. No problem, these guys got their student's full attention, they even got them to do their home work, and they came out of the course knowing more than when they entered. No ed courses required.
Should you take an Ed major? It does give you instant access to public school teaching positions. The entire public school hierarchy is composed of Ed majors, they only hand out teacher's certificates to fellow Ed majors. It is possible to break into public school teaching without an Ed major, but it is very hard.
The down side to an Ed major is terminal boredom while in college. The subject matter is zilch, and you have to suffer thru a dozen courses that hash over the same nothingness, over and over. If you can stand the endless drivel, it's easy to ace an Ed course, all you have to do is stay awake in class and take a few notes.
For those who really do want to teach, major in English or history or mathematics. Look for a job in private or parochial schools, they are less infested with Ed majors and are apt to hire you after a successful job interview. After a couple of years teaching you can apply for a public school job (which usually pay better) and they will assume anyone who survived a couple of years of classroom teaching can teach.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Slick Willie tells a whopper
And the newsies fall for it, hook, line, and sinker. A bit of elderly video came to light yesterday, where in Bill Clinton says "I could have bagged Osama Bin Laden in Kandahar except it would have caused 300 Afghan casualities."
The "300 casualties" is pure BS. That's might happen if you had USAF carpet bomb the place. Which is the wrong thing to do. You will likely miss him, and you never know if you got him or not. Instead load some infantry into helicopters, fly in, surround the place, and go thru it house by house. The only casualties will be among the locals stupid enough to fire on the Americans. Bring some interpreters, interrogate the locals, and you will get him. In fact that's how we finally did nail him in Pakistan many years later.
The newsies, even Fox, lapped up the "300 casualties" line and never questioned it.
The "300 casualties" is pure BS. That's might happen if you had USAF carpet bomb the place. Which is the wrong thing to do. You will likely miss him, and you never know if you got him or not. Instead load some infantry into helicopters, fly in, surround the place, and go thru it house by house. The only casualties will be among the locals stupid enough to fire on the Americans. Bring some interpreters, interrogate the locals, and you will get him. In fact that's how we finally did nail him in Pakistan many years later.
The newsies, even Fox, lapped up the "300 casualties" line and never questioned it.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Read the Fine Print
The makers of heat 'n eats are beginning to abandon "conventional oven" and make their products microwave only. I now read the fine (frosted) print before I buy a heat 'n eat after I brought home a couple that demanded microwave only. I don't have a microwave, mostly 'cause I lack the counter space for one, so a microwave only heat 'n eat is useless to me.
Then there was the one that ordered me to remove the food from the plastic tray, put it on an oven proof plate of my own for cooking. Which totally destroys one great benefit of heat 'n eats, no dishwashing after dinner. I suppose the maker had been messing the the composition of the plastic tray and feared that his new concoction would not take the heat of the oven. Way back, before microwaves, heat 'n eats came in aluminum trays. After the microwaves came in, they shifted over to plastic trays to avoid blowing up the microwaves.
Then there was the one that ordered me to remove the food from the plastic tray, put it on an oven proof plate of my own for cooking. Which totally destroys one great benefit of heat 'n eats, no dishwashing after dinner. I suppose the maker had been messing the the composition of the plastic tray and feared that his new concoction would not take the heat of the oven. Way back, before microwaves, heat 'n eats came in aluminum trays. After the microwaves came in, they shifted over to plastic trays to avoid blowing up the microwaves.
Chinese Navy invited to join Pacific exercise.
The US Navy invited China to participate in "Rim of Pacific" (RimPac) naval exercise this month. This is an international deal, with every Pacific country and some Atlantic countries to sending ships to play wargames. The Chinese sent a pair of their latest and newest destroyers which impressed everybody with their phased array radars, vertical launch missiles, 100mm gun, good paintwork, and sharp looking crews. The Chinese were clearly showing off, they allowed tourists on board while they were in port, and they allowed an Aviation Week reporter to sail with them. The westerners were duly impressed. The phased array radars suggest that the Chinese have a ship borne SAM system as good as the US Aegis system. Aegis is very good, and the Chinese might have matched it. We cannot tell for sure with out looking at the missile hit rate from live firing trials, information which is top secret in any Navy.
Aviation Week was impressed by the 100 mm (4 inch) cannon carried by the Chinese. The US Navy only carries a 76 mm (3 inch) gun. I am not so impressed, WWII US destroyers carried a battery of six 5 inch guns. Granted that modern warships rely upon their missiles to take out aircraft and surface vessels, there is a need for guns, for use against shore targets and to convince enemy merchantmen to heave to and be boarded. You can't really use missiles against a recalcitrant merchie, a missile hit will sink him. Where as the traditional shot across the bow, possibly followed with a few rounds to the bridge will get their attention every time. Gun rounds are smaller than missiles and a ship can carry more of them.
Aviation Week was impressed by the 100 mm (4 inch) cannon carried by the Chinese. The US Navy only carries a 76 mm (3 inch) gun. I am not so impressed, WWII US destroyers carried a battery of six 5 inch guns. Granted that modern warships rely upon their missiles to take out aircraft and surface vessels, there is a need for guns, for use against shore targets and to convince enemy merchantmen to heave to and be boarded. You can't really use missiles against a recalcitrant merchie, a missile hit will sink him. Where as the traditional shot across the bow, possibly followed with a few rounds to the bridge will get their attention every time. Gun rounds are smaller than missiles and a ship can carry more of them.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr 2009
Somehow I missed this one when it was in theaters. Netflix brought it to me last night. Medium good. Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes was somewhat eccentric. Robert Downey's Sherlock Holmes carries eccentric over into "nutcase". It gets so outrageous as to make even the faithful Watson lose patience with him. Let alone the audience. Sets and costumes are great. We see Victorian London in it's full glory, horse drawn cabs, Thames river craft and London Bridge still under construction. The plot is obscure. I never did understand what was going on. The final "drawing room scene" where Holmes reveals all, has Holmes explaining so many inexplicable happenings that I lost track.
Not a bad movie, but it could have been a lot better.
Not a bad movie, but it could have been a lot better.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Missiling airliners
Aviation Week shows a photograph of a big piece of aircraft skin, well peppered with shrapnel holes, taken at the Ukrainian crash site. Clear evidence of the detonation of a warhead close aboard. The wreckage bears Malaysia Airlines red and blue stripe paint scheme.
Malaysia Air was not alone in the Ukrainian skies. Air India flt 113 and Singapore Airlines Flt 351 were on the same air routes and only a few miles away when Flt 17 was struck by the SAM. Malaysia Air was not the only target in the air that day, it was merely the unlucky one that got hit.
There does not appear to be any international organization to designate dangerous airspace and warn airman away from it. The closest approach to such an organization is the US FAA, which has designated pest holes like North Korea as no fly zones. FAA has a good reputation for competence and non partisan ship and so most airlines around the world follow FAA recommendations, even though the foreign airlines are not bound to do so by law.
The SAM used for the shootdown bears the NATO designation of SA-11 Gadfly. It's Russian makers call it BUK-M1, but the NATO designation is more widely known. Each SA-11 launcher vehicle carries 4 to 6 missiles and the radar to aim them and can launch independently of central control. The launchers do NOT carry Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment, a WWII technology still in use today. IFF equipped aircraft return a coded message to ground radars. All airliners on international routes carry IFF. SA-11 launch vehicles are designed to plug into a central command trailer with the NATO designation of Snow Drift. The Snow Drift does have IFF equipment. It is likely that the SA-11 launcher that hit the airliner was not plugged into a Snow Drift and thus did not have any IFF information available to its crew.
Malaysia Air was not alone in the Ukrainian skies. Air India flt 113 and Singapore Airlines Flt 351 were on the same air routes and only a few miles away when Flt 17 was struck by the SAM. Malaysia Air was not the only target in the air that day, it was merely the unlucky one that got hit.
There does not appear to be any international organization to designate dangerous airspace and warn airman away from it. The closest approach to such an organization is the US FAA, which has designated pest holes like North Korea as no fly zones. FAA has a good reputation for competence and non partisan ship and so most airlines around the world follow FAA recommendations, even though the foreign airlines are not bound to do so by law.
The SAM used for the shootdown bears the NATO designation of SA-11 Gadfly. It's Russian makers call it BUK-M1, but the NATO designation is more widely known. Each SA-11 launcher vehicle carries 4 to 6 missiles and the radar to aim them and can launch independently of central control. The launchers do NOT carry Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment, a WWII technology still in use today. IFF equipped aircraft return a coded message to ground radars. All airliners on international routes carry IFF. SA-11 launch vehicles are designed to plug into a central command trailer with the NATO designation of Snow Drift. The Snow Drift does have IFF equipment. It is likely that the SA-11 launcher that hit the airliner was not plugged into a Snow Drift and thus did not have any IFF information available to its crew.
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