The Post American World Fareed Zakaria

Geopolitics and the future of America. Copyright 2008, or just before Great Depression II started. It's well written, reads smoothly, and contains this newsie's advice to US citizens. He speaks of "the rise of the rest", by which lots of countries that were either bombed flat or still medieval at the end of WWII have rebuilt or modernized and now offer real competition to the US. He speaks fondly of his native India's economic growth since abandoning Nehru's quasi socialism in the late 1980's. He assesses the strengths and competitive advantages of America and finds them strong. The US economy is still the largest in the world, US popular culture is compelling. Unfortunately he doesn't talk about the strength of the US economy after the onset of Great Depression II, because the book went to press before the crash. He doesn't see the crash coming or even talk much about weaknesses that were obvious to more real world oriented papers like the Wall St Journal.
He talks about a dysfunctional US political process, by which I think he means that democrats didn't have the votes to push thru their pet projects. Now that they do have all the votes they need, will the country improve or will the democrats drive the country off a cliff? He also describes the US federal government as "weak", a surprising description now with Uncle owning banks and car companies, and running up a $1.5 trillion deficit in the first half of 2009.
Zacharia's prescriptions for US revival are pretty general and could have served as Obama speeches, heavy on motherhood and apple pie, short on specifics. His hindsight is fairly good but his foresight is no better than mine.
Worth a read, but it's a read once kind of book.

Cyber Security Czar

So we get yet another Obama staffer in the White House, drawing his pay out of our taxes. He is supposed to "strengthen computer security" otherwise known as keeping hackers out of government and corporate computers.
Actually, security does need to be tightened. But I doubt that another Obama staffer will do much about it. What's needed is good stiff penalties for sloppy security. About once a month some company or agency admits that hackers stole lists of names and social security numbers. That would stop if each case was treated as criminal negligence and prosecuted. A few heads mounted on pikes would tighten that up. Follow up with class action suits demanding treble damages.
Then Microsoft needs a clue by four laid up along the side of the head. Windows is totally vulnerable, with gaping security holes in the front, the back, the bottom and the top. A pack of personal injury lawyers ought to be sicced on Microsoft. Better that than more asbestos claims.
Finally we need to get serious about passwords. System managers need to insist on strong passwords, changed quarterly.

There oughta be a Law Pt 2

Against TV commercials overlaying the program. Bad enough we have to suffer thru the unending commercial breaks. But, now the commercials never stop. While the program is running we have network logos, speeding race cars, palm trees and whatever overlaying the program material. It's getting so bad you can't see the program for all the little commercials racing across the bottom of the screen.

Music Labels Zap DVD releases

Who a thunk it. The labels have things so tight in the copyright department that the studios cannot release old TV shows to DVD 'cause the labels want too much money for the rights to the musical score. Apparently the studios neglected to sign air tight agreements with the musicians back when the shows were produced. Some are quite old, say The Fugitive from the '60s, back when VHS and DVD rights hadn't been imagined.
It's so bad that some of the old shows are released with a new score, just to sidestep the copyright tangle on the original score. Which is incredible, redoing the score on a 40 year old TV show has got to be expensive. You would think in a real world it would be cheaper to buy off the labels than redo the score on a TV show.
The labels probably use the same lawyers they sic on file sharers to gouge the studios.
And the studios really really need to get better lawyers and make sure they own ALL the rights to the scores of their productions.

Citizens Against Government Waste & John McCain

A letter came in today, the usual please send money letter, from these guys. As examples of "waste, fraud and abuse" they cited buying 262 C-130's over 21 years, when the Defense Dept only wanted five. That's $13 billion, used to be real money back before the porkulus. On the other hand, the C-130 is one heluva useful airplane. It moves stuff up to the front lines at 300 knots. It can get 20 tons into a 1000 foot dirt runway. This means it can bring rations, ammunition, fuel, spare parts, combat troops, vehicles, artillery, SAM's, radar sets, hot coffee and clean laundry anywhere in the world. After WWII a US general ranked the DC-3 transport plane as one of the great war winning weapons. The C-130 is a DC-3 writ large. In short, it's a very useful thing to have, and it doesn't go obsolete. We might not need all 262 of them, but it's a real weapons system, useful in any kind of war, anytime in the future.
After trashing the C-130 buy, they whined about some nitnoy (small) stuff, dubious sounding program names with tiny price tags in the $1 to $5 million area. They did not mention big ticket programs, F35 fighters, Future Combat System (what ever that turns out to be), littoral combat ships, presidential helicopters, ballistic missile defense, C-27 cargo planes, GPS satellites, C-5 transport rebuilding, and Air Force tankers. Each of those programs is billions of dollars. Compared to that, a million dollars for "atmospheric water harvesting" is nothing.
I decided to put the letter in the fireplace with the rest of the morning's junk mail. If they cannot see the forest for the trees, heck, see the forest for the saplings, they don't need my money. Too bad John McCain let his good name be used by such an ineffectual bunch.

Breakthru in strawberry breeding

Bought a box of California strawberries at Wal Mart yesterday, 'cause they were on sale and bright red. It was the usual batch of gigantic berries, each on the size of a lemon. But, surprise, for the first time, the monster berries were actually sweet, and had a bit of real strawberry taste to them. Usually the mega berries are flat and tasteless. Some one must have come up with a strain of monster sized berries that actually taste good, as well as being easier to pick.

Ham and Potato Chowder

New recipe. Very Tasty. Easy too.

2-3 potatoes
2 carrots
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon tarragon
3 oz (or more) cooked ham
1 can corn
3 cups milk
2 strips bacon
1 onion
jigger of white wine.

Peel veggies. Cut potatoes into cubes, slice carrots, chop onions. Cut bacon into short pieces and cook until crisp on the bottom of a large soup pot. Saute the chopped onion in the bacon grease. When tender, drain off the bacon grease into that grease can everyone has near the stove. Add cubed potatoes and carrots. Add just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and then back off the heat to gently cook the veggies. Add the bouillon cubes, wine, thyme, and tarragon. Cook on modest heat until the carrots begin to be tender. About 20 minutes. Add ham, corn, and milk. Continue heating until piping hot. Say another ten minutes. Try not the boil the milk, boiling will make it taste funny.
Recipe is flexible and can be expanded as required. Makes enough to feed one grown up and one hungry college age son. Would feed three or four grown ups. To make more for cheap, increase the potatoes. One potato per person is a good starting point.