The Google software weenies keep breaking things. This time they "fixed" the Google maps print feature so as to print a one page map, it first prints a sheet of pure worthlessness, and then prints your map on a second sheet. PITA.
Good work Google. Keep this sort of thing up and you will conquer the world.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Russians buzzing US destroyer
Back in the cold war, it was hairier. There was the Russian sub that collided with a US destroyer. Damage was limited, the destroyer made it back to base under its own power, but it surely must have scared the bejabbers out of the US captain and crew.
Then there was that Chinese fighter that collided with a US recon aircraft back in the early uh-ohs. The Chinese pilot was buzzing the much slower recon plane, only he wasn't as hot a pilot as he thought he was. He was killed, and the US recon plane had to make an emergency landing in Chinese territory.
Then there was that Chinese fighter that collided with a US recon aircraft back in the early uh-ohs. The Chinese pilot was buzzing the much slower recon plane, only he wasn't as hot a pilot as he thought he was. He was killed, and the US recon plane had to make an emergency landing in Chinese territory.
Place an order for one room worth of smoke
Now that the health Nazis have got us all off tobacco, you cannot have a real smoke filled room today, nobody smokes anymore. Especially not in public. But I am sure there are numerous suppliers who will fill the gap.
Way back when, American party conventions were big get togethers at which the party bosses, office holders, and assorted hangers on, would select the party candidates and just spring them on the voters. It wasn't all that bad a system, it gave us a series of pretty decent presidents, starting with Lincoln. If you read your modern history, the US was governed by a class of politician a couple of grades better than anyone in Europe. This smoke filled room selection process lasted until the Kennedy-Humphrey West Virginia primary in 1960. Then for some reason (probably media love for Kennedy) the single West Virginia primary was deemed totally representative of the national electorate, and JFK became the democratic nominee that year. I'm pretty sure that Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson didn't go along, but the convention did, although Kennedy had to offer the vice presidency to Johnson to press on over the top.
Since then, more states have set up primaries. New Hampshire has done exceptionally well with its first in the nation primary. It brings zillions of dollars into the state from newsies, candidates, and just plain tourists, and we need the business. Up until this year, the primaries decided the nominee on both sides, and the national conventions dwindled in importance to the point that the big TV networks would not carry them live in prime time.
Even though the national conventions were no longer decisive, everyone always wanted to go as a delegate. Even my mother managed to become a delegate to the the Republican convention one year. Each state party set up some elaborate scheme to allocate delegates spots to loyal and deserving party members. The Donald is beating the drums about the Colorado system being unfair to him since Ted Cruz got all the delegates and he got zip. Not surprising. The newsies haven't actually figured out the Colorado system and told us about it, but I can guess it favors loyal and deserving party members, all of whom who detest The Donald.
Anyhow, the newsies are salivating about covering the Republican convention this year because it looks like nobody will have the votes to lock it up going in, and there will be demonstrations, floor fights, slanging matches, and wheeling and dealing, all of which makes good copy.
Way back when, American party conventions were big get togethers at which the party bosses, office holders, and assorted hangers on, would select the party candidates and just spring them on the voters. It wasn't all that bad a system, it gave us a series of pretty decent presidents, starting with Lincoln. If you read your modern history, the US was governed by a class of politician a couple of grades better than anyone in Europe. This smoke filled room selection process lasted until the Kennedy-Humphrey West Virginia primary in 1960. Then for some reason (probably media love for Kennedy) the single West Virginia primary was deemed totally representative of the national electorate, and JFK became the democratic nominee that year. I'm pretty sure that Humphrey and Lyndon Johnson didn't go along, but the convention did, although Kennedy had to offer the vice presidency to Johnson to press on over the top.
Since then, more states have set up primaries. New Hampshire has done exceptionally well with its first in the nation primary. It brings zillions of dollars into the state from newsies, candidates, and just plain tourists, and we need the business. Up until this year, the primaries decided the nominee on both sides, and the national conventions dwindled in importance to the point that the big TV networks would not carry them live in prime time.
Even though the national conventions were no longer decisive, everyone always wanted to go as a delegate. Even my mother managed to become a delegate to the the Republican convention one year. Each state party set up some elaborate scheme to allocate delegates spots to loyal and deserving party members. The Donald is beating the drums about the Colorado system being unfair to him since Ted Cruz got all the delegates and he got zip. Not surprising. The newsies haven't actually figured out the Colorado system and told us about it, but I can guess it favors loyal and deserving party members, all of whom who detest The Donald.
Anyhow, the newsies are salivating about covering the Republican convention this year because it looks like nobody will have the votes to lock it up going in, and there will be demonstrations, floor fights, slanging matches, and wheeling and dealing, all of which makes good copy.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Brits to study reviving sailing ships.
According to the Economist, Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) wants to study auxiliary wind power to cargo vessels. The ship would be equipped with huge vertical rotors to be spun by the wind. Some kind of gear train would drive a propeller off the rotors. Huge, like fifteen feet in diameter and 150 feet tall. The idea isn't all that new. The devices are called Flettner rotors, and they were invented by a German aerodynamics guru in the 1920's. Flettner was able to obtain enough funding back then to outfit a medium sized ship with his rotors and "sail" it. For carrying all this top heavy gear, ETI expects, not a real no-fossil-fuel ship, but merely a 5-10% savings in fuel.
Seems like a helova lotta money sunk into equipment for a pretty chintzy fuel savings. Does not sound worth while to me. I'm sure the greenies are all over this, they love expensive and worthless things.
By 1840 the square rigged sailing ship had been perfected to a level that is competitive with modern steam ships in terms of speed, size, and range. Clipper ships could do 20 knots in 1840, where as 1940's convoys of steamers could only do 6 knots. The only reason steamers replaced sailing vessels was cost. Sailing ships required a big crew to handle all the sails. Enough men to furl sail in a sudden blow, enough men to wear ship. Whereas a steamer only needs a man at the wheel and a few men in the boiler room to keep steam up. The world's merchant fleet was mostly sail powered up until WWI when German U-boats sank most of the sailors. Sailors were easier to catch than steamers.
Should the price of fuel go back up (way way up) the square rigger would become practical again, yielding a true no-fossil-fuel ship. It would probably take something like $200 a barrel oil to do that.
Seems like a helova lotta money sunk into equipment for a pretty chintzy fuel savings. Does not sound worth while to me. I'm sure the greenies are all over this, they love expensive and worthless things.
By 1840 the square rigged sailing ship had been perfected to a level that is competitive with modern steam ships in terms of speed, size, and range. Clipper ships could do 20 knots in 1840, where as 1940's convoys of steamers could only do 6 knots. The only reason steamers replaced sailing vessels was cost. Sailing ships required a big crew to handle all the sails. Enough men to furl sail in a sudden blow, enough men to wear ship. Whereas a steamer only needs a man at the wheel and a few men in the boiler room to keep steam up. The world's merchant fleet was mostly sail powered up until WWI when German U-boats sank most of the sailors. Sailors were easier to catch than steamers.
Should the price of fuel go back up (way way up) the square rigger would become practical again, yielding a true no-fossil-fuel ship. It would probably take something like $200 a barrel oil to do that.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Finished my taxes, Thank God
Doing taxes gets worse and worse, year by year. Our friendly IRS keeps adding tax forms, Turbo Tax cranked out 32 pages of Federal income tax forms this year. You can't just list stock sales on Schedule D anymore, they want half a dozen different forms, with different rules and gobble-de-gook for each form.
I don't understand why some presidential candidate doesn't promise to clean this up. I know there are rabid special interests ready to leap to the defense of every loophole and deduction, but there gotta be a lot of regular taxpayers who dread doing all this scutwork every year.
I used to do my taxes with an Excel spreadsheet of my own construction. But craziness connected with sale of foreign stocks is just to much for me, I can't write the spreadsheet when I don't under stand the rules.
There has gotta be a better way.
The better way is Turbo Tax. It's straight forward to use but you gotta watch it. Accidentally hit a comma, when you meant to hit period for decimal point can drive the program, and you crazy. You want to double check this year vs last year, assuming you used Turbotax last year. Deductions you took last year you ought to be able to take this year.
I don't understand why some presidential candidate doesn't promise to clean this up. I know there are rabid special interests ready to leap to the defense of every loophole and deduction, but there gotta be a lot of regular taxpayers who dread doing all this scutwork every year.
I used to do my taxes with an Excel spreadsheet of my own construction. But craziness connected with sale of foreign stocks is just to much for me, I can't write the spreadsheet when I don't under stand the rules.
There has gotta be a better way.
The better way is Turbo Tax. It's straight forward to use but you gotta watch it. Accidentally hit a comma, when you meant to hit period for decimal point can drive the program, and you crazy. You want to double check this year vs last year, assuming you used Turbotax last year. Deductions you took last year you ought to be able to take this year.
Monday, April 11, 2016
"Hillary Clinton was a fine Secretary of State" said Obama
Weekend interview with Chris Wallace on Fox. Yeah Right. Fine judge of people that Obama. Picks the right person every time.
Hillary was Secretary when the Benghazi consulate was attacked, killing four Americans including the Ambassador to Libya. She had allowed State Dept cookie pushers to short stop appeals for more security from the ambassador. She was there when a US general and a US Admiral were fired that night for daring to send rescue missions. She sent one of her operatives on all the TV Sunday pundit shows to blame the disaster on an obscure bit of internet video.
She was Secretary when the Arab Spring began to undermine Hosni Mubarak in Eygpt. Mubarak had kept the peace that Anwar Sadat had negotiated with Israel. Mubarak had been a useful and loyal ally of the United States. When SHTF, and Mubarak's regime began to totter, she did not do the right and proper thing, namely allow the Egyptians to work out their internal problems. No, she (and Obama) jumped right in and called to Mubarak's overthrow.
She was Secretary when the US pulled the troops out of Iraq, turning the place over to ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Putin invaded Ukraineand annexed the Crimea. She didn't say squat about that.
She was Secretary will Libya came unglued during the Arab Spring. We gave the Europeans a little logistical support while they overthrew Qaddafi and then we all up and left. Libya is now a failed state, controlled by ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Obama announced a "red line" in Syria over the use of poison gas. She was still Secretary while Assad gassed more of his own citizens and we did nothing.
If elected President, Hillary will doubtless find more catastrophes to mismanage.
Hillary was Secretary when the Benghazi consulate was attacked, killing four Americans including the Ambassador to Libya. She had allowed State Dept cookie pushers to short stop appeals for more security from the ambassador. She was there when a US general and a US Admiral were fired that night for daring to send rescue missions. She sent one of her operatives on all the TV Sunday pundit shows to blame the disaster on an obscure bit of internet video.
She was Secretary when the Arab Spring began to undermine Hosni Mubarak in Eygpt. Mubarak had kept the peace that Anwar Sadat had negotiated with Israel. Mubarak had been a useful and loyal ally of the United States. When SHTF, and Mubarak's regime began to totter, she did not do the right and proper thing, namely allow the Egyptians to work out their internal problems. No, she (and Obama) jumped right in and called to Mubarak's overthrow.
She was Secretary when the US pulled the troops out of Iraq, turning the place over to ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Putin invaded Ukraineand annexed the Crimea. She didn't say squat about that.
She was Secretary will Libya came unglued during the Arab Spring. We gave the Europeans a little logistical support while they overthrew Qaddafi and then we all up and left. Libya is now a failed state, controlled by ISIS.
She was Secretary of State when Obama announced a "red line" in Syria over the use of poison gas. She was still Secretary while Assad gassed more of his own citizens and we did nothing.
If elected President, Hillary will doubtless find more catastrophes to mismanage.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Why do we have Wall Street?
In a word, economic development. Economic development means starting up new companies, building new factories, opening mines, building dams, launching ships and 747's, expanding production facilities. All these things need money, often a lot of money, and it takes a long time from startup spending to making money from sales. Might be years between first spending on production facilities, advertisements, research and development, and first accounts receivable from sales.
You gotta raise money to get a startup company up and running. The nicest money raiser for start up companies is to issue stock. They can pay their initial employees largely in stock. They can pay their initial investors in stock. Stock makes the stockholders into part owners of the company. They get to vote on the board of directors, and they are entitled to a share of company earnings, (dividends). A company can use stock, which it can issue for merely the cost of printing stock certificates, to cover a lot of expenses.
The stock market (the heart of Wall Street) exists to give value to stock. Stockholder's know that they can convert their stock into cash, right now, on the stock market. That gives the stock real value, far more value than the promise of future dividends will give it. Lotta startups never pay dividends, they tell the stockholders to just sell the stock for cash. Which works when you have a stock market in New York and other places. buying and selling every company's stock, every day.
In short, Wall Street provides the money that makes economic development happen. The stock market guys are pretty good about picking winners and losers, a helova lot better than any gov'mint snivel servants will ever be. The stock market steers investment money into winners, and shuts off money to losers.
In short, we need Wall Street to keep the US economy growing, and hiring workers, and producing the accustomed flood of low cost, high performance products into the consumer market.
You gotta raise money to get a startup company up and running. The nicest money raiser for start up companies is to issue stock. They can pay their initial employees largely in stock. They can pay their initial investors in stock. Stock makes the stockholders into part owners of the company. They get to vote on the board of directors, and they are entitled to a share of company earnings, (dividends). A company can use stock, which it can issue for merely the cost of printing stock certificates, to cover a lot of expenses.
The stock market (the heart of Wall Street) exists to give value to stock. Stockholder's know that they can convert their stock into cash, right now, on the stock market. That gives the stock real value, far more value than the promise of future dividends will give it. Lotta startups never pay dividends, they tell the stockholders to just sell the stock for cash. Which works when you have a stock market in New York and other places. buying and selling every company's stock, every day.
In short, Wall Street provides the money that makes economic development happen. The stock market guys are pretty good about picking winners and losers, a helova lot better than any gov'mint snivel servants will ever be. The stock market steers investment money into winners, and shuts off money to losers.
In short, we need Wall Street to keep the US economy growing, and hiring workers, and producing the accustomed flood of low cost, high performance products into the consumer market.
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