I suspect that some of my younger colleagues have never even heard of the Hindenburg. Having grown up in New Jersey (site of the disaster), and having learned about it just 25 years or so after it happened, it's something I've long been interested in.
Here's an article about a still-living member of the ground crew on that fateful day, and his recollections of the event. One thing that caught my eye: he lives very close to my parents, in Charlottesville, Virginia...
Monday, May 7, 2012
Bram Cohen is Whining...
...but I think he's got some reason to be pissed off, and you can read why in his post TCP Sucks. If you don't know of Bram, he's the inventor of BitTorrent, and he knows a thing or two about moving data over a wire. But he's most definitely not part of the academic and industry “good old boys” network that controls digital communications standards...
Paycheck Fairness Act...
Being against something named the .“Paycheck Fairness Act” sounds like being against motherhood and apple pie, doesn't it? Of course, that's the entire reason for the name in the first place.
This is such an obvious recipe for disaster that one hardly knows where to start. It's really a way of imposing the sorts of controls over compensation normally associated with unions on the rest of society – the productive part of society. The assumption underlying this act is that women are being paid less than men today for the same work. I don't doubt that there's some of this going on, but I also don't doubt that in certain workplaces and in certain professions, men are being paid less than women. The part of this that's very difficult to measure is the “same work” bit. In my own profession (software engineering), women are quite rare still. I don't know the exact numbers, but by my firsthand experience it's well under 10%. My profession's male skew is exactly the sort of thing that laws like this deal with stupidly. The assumption will be that the skew is prima facie evidence of underlying bias – and that pay differentials are the underlying reason.
Bottom line: if this law passes, eventually I will most likely be asked to take a pay cut. Because I am a male. Not because I'm incompetent, not because I've done something wrong. Just because of my genes.
We are roaring headlong down the road to cultural self-destruction. Remember that when you vote this November...
This is such an obvious recipe for disaster that one hardly knows where to start. It's really a way of imposing the sorts of controls over compensation normally associated with unions on the rest of society – the productive part of society. The assumption underlying this act is that women are being paid less than men today for the same work. I don't doubt that there's some of this going on, but I also don't doubt that in certain workplaces and in certain professions, men are being paid less than women. The part of this that's very difficult to measure is the “same work” bit. In my own profession (software engineering), women are quite rare still. I don't know the exact numbers, but by my firsthand experience it's well under 10%. My profession's male skew is exactly the sort of thing that laws like this deal with stupidly. The assumption will be that the skew is prima facie evidence of underlying bias – and that pay differentials are the underlying reason.
Bottom line: if this law passes, eventually I will most likely be asked to take a pay cut. Because I am a male. Not because I'm incompetent, not because I've done something wrong. Just because of my genes.
We are roaring headlong down the road to cultural self-destruction. Remember that when you vote this November...
Taxmageddon...
If the current tax laws aren't changed before this coming January 1, we face “Taxmageddon”, including the likely loss of 30% or so of the stock market's value. Such a thing is not in the interest of either major political party, so my bet is that the laws will be changed in time to avoid this. Given the current state of political polarization, the most likely scenario is a “kick the can down the road” sort of fix – one that lasts a year or so, well past the upcoming election. That's exactly how we ended up in the current position, thanks to our incredibly disfunctional government and its perverse political incentives...
You Can Stick a Fork in France, Greece...and Maybe Everywhere Else, Too...
Oh, this does not bode well. France and Greece both elected people with strong socialist leanings, who (quite explicitly) advocate solving their fiscal problems by taxing the rich. That isn't going to work, as any rational analysis will show. But that didn't stop the entitlement-sotted voters of either country.
That's bad for France and Greece. Unfortunately, the effects of their low voter IQ won't stay within their borders – our markets are poised to open lower on the news, the trade impacts will be keenly felt, and – worst of all – the probability of sovereign debt default just jumped dramatically higher...
These are the sorts of things that happened in the runup to past European wars. Let us hope that's not the case this time...
That's bad for France and Greece. Unfortunately, the effects of their low voter IQ won't stay within their borders – our markets are poised to open lower on the news, the trade impacts will be keenly felt, and – worst of all – the probability of sovereign debt default just jumped dramatically higher...
These are the sorts of things that happened in the runup to past European wars. Let us hope that's not the case this time...
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Inspirational Moment...
This video appears to be a promotional for an outfit called DDP Yoga, and that outfit is the subject of some criticism on the intertubes. Whether this man's results were due to DDP Yoga, however, is irrelevant to the inspiring story:
McIntyre Got Some of His FOI Information...
...and it's obvious that East Anglia and its cabal of warmists were diddling the data to get the notorious “hockey stick”. Mr. McIntyre was right all along. When the rest of his FOI data is forthcoming, I suspect we'll see this in even more detail. Steve McIntyre's detailed analysis is online, of course, 'cause that's how the dude rolls. Unlike the “professional scientists” who treat him with such contempt...
Bertrand Russell's Ten Commandments...
Bertrand Russell is probably best known as a philospher and mathematician, but he was many other things as well. In his autobiography, he has a section he calls A Liberal Decalogue – essentially, a set of ten commandments for teachers. As I read them, it occurred to me that they were an equally valuable guide for scientists (who are, after all, teachers of a rather special kind). Then it further occurred to me that they were a concise illustration of what's wrong with climate science today. Cherish them:
A little googling around the intertubes shows that I am far from the first person to make this connection. Late to the party, as usual!
- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
Excellent XML and PERL Rants...
I've not run across Erik Naggum's web site before, but in searching for a coherent argument about the evils of XML I ran across his excellent rant on the topic (political components aside). Then poking around, I found another excellent rant about the execrable programming language PERL. A most satisfying find, I must say...
On C++
I try very hard to never be in a position that requires me to program in the C++ language again – I've had far more than my share of struggles with that blight upon the programming world. So you can imagine my amusement in running across these quotes:
When your hammer is C++, everything begins to look like a thumb.
Steve Haflich in alt.lang.design, December 1994
Being really good at C++ is like being really good at using rocks to sharpen sticks.
Thant Tessman in comp.lang.scheme, December 1996
Of course SML does have its weaknesses, but by comparison, a discussion of C++'s strengths and flaws always sounds like an argument about whether one should face north or east when one is sacrificing one's goat to the rain god.
Thant Tessman in comp.lang.scheme, April 1997
As for C++ – well, it reminds me of the Soviet-era labor joke: “They pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work.” C++ pretends to provide an object-oriented data model, C++ programmers pretend to respect it, and everyone pretends that the code will work. The actual data model of C++ is exactly that of C, a single two-dimensional array of bits, eight by four billion, and all the syntactic sugar of C++ fundamentally cannot mask the gaping holes in its object model left by the cast operator and unconstrained address arithmetic.
Guy L. Steele: Objects have not failed. OOPSLA 2002
Water Wings Won the Cold War...
Well, not directly. But apparently the wily Mao used water wings (amongst other things) to humiliate Khrushchev during his state visit to China in 1958. The fallout from this meeting changed the course of the Cold War by making the Sino-Soviet split permanent:
The results of the talks were felt almost immediately. Khrushchev ordered the removal of the USSR’s advisers, overruling aghast colleagues who suggested that they at least be allowed to see out their contracts. In retaliation, on Khrushchev’s next visit to Beijing, in 1959, Taubman relates, there was “no honor guard, no Chinese speeches, not even a microphone for the speech that Khrushchev insisted on giving, complete with accolades for Eisenhower that were sure to rile Mao.”Suppose, just suppose, Mao had been welcoming to Khushchev in 1958. How would our world be different today?
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Life of Julia: Some Other Perspectives...
Fauxahontas...
That's Mark Steyn's styling in his take-down of Elizabeth Warren and Harvard University over the former's claiming to be Indian (as in “native American”) while employed at the latter. Here's an excerpt:
So did the University of Texas, and the University of Pennsylvania. With the impertinent jackanapes of the press querying the bona fides of Harvard Lore School's first Native American female professor, the Warren campaign got to work and eventually turned up a great-great-great-grandmother designated as Cherokee in the online transcription of a marriage application of 1894.Do go read the whole thing...
Hallelujah! In the old racist America, we had quadroons and octoroons. But in the new post-racial America, we have – hang on, let me get out my calculator – duoettrigintaroons! Martin Luther King dreamed of a day when men would be judged not on the color of their skin but on the content of their great-great-great-grandmother's wedding license application. And now it's here! You can read all about it in Elizabeth Warren's memoir of her struggles to come to terms with her racial identity, Dreams From My Great-Great-Great-Grandmother.
Alas, the actual original marriage license does not list Great-Great-Great-Gran'ma as Cherokee, but let's cut Elizabeth Fauxcahontas Crockagawea Warren some slack here. She couldn't be black. She would if she could, but she couldn't. But she could be 1/32nd Cherokee, and maybe get invited to a luncheon with others of her kind – "people who are like I am," 31/32nds white – and they can all sit around celebrating their diversity together. She is a testament to America's melting pot, composite pot, composting pot, whatever.
Just in case you're having difficulty keeping up with all these Composite-Americans, George Zimmerman, the son of a Peruvian mestiza, is the embodiment of endemic white racism and the reincarnation of Bull Connor, but Elizabeth Warren, the great-great-great-granddaughter of someone who might possibly have been listed as Cherokee on an application for a marriage license, is a heartwarming testimony to how minorities are shattering the glass ceiling in Harvard Yard. George Zimmerman, redneck; Elizabeth Warren, redskin. Under the Third Reich's Nuremberg Laws, Ms. Warren would have been classified as Aryan and Mr. Zimmerman as non-Aryan. Now it's the other way round. Progress!
Obama's Escape Clause...
Michael Mukasey was the U.S. Attorney General in the last George W. Bush term. In Monday's WSJ he had a column (which I just read this morning) laying into Obama for his unseemly grabbing of credit for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. But he also revealed something else, even more despicable: Obama had prepared a way to blame the military if there was any failure in this incredibly high-risk mission. Mukasey:
Shame and embarrassment. That's what I feel right now...
A recently disclosed memorandum from then-CIA Director Leon Panetta shows that the president's celebrated derring-do in authorizing the operation included a responsibility-escape clause: "The timing, operational decision making and control are in Admiral McRaven's hands. The approval is provided on the risk profile presented to the President. Any additional risks are to be brought back to the President for his consideration. The direction is to go in and get bin Laden and if he is not there, to get out."The contrasts here with the famously different leadership style of Eisenhower and Lincoln are obvious, and (I hope!) familiar to most.
Shame and embarrassment. That's what I feel right now...
Unemployment Down and Up...
I've and others been railing about the government's extremely misleading “unemployment rate” numbers, which the lamestream media generally parrots without comment. For April, this published number dropped slightly to 8.1%. However, the actual number of people who are unemployed climbed substantially. How can this be? Why, through the magic of blatant statistics manipulation, of course. Bruce McQuain has a nice explanation, and also raises a related point about older workers.
But a funny thing seems to be happening on the way to the November elections. The lamestream media is belatedly paying attention to this manipulation. A few newspapers and reporting organizations talking about this may not seem like a big deal, but...they haven't been doing so heretofore, and we're in the runup to the 2012 Presidential election. Somehow I don't think this is a good omen for Obama.
Which is just fine with me, of course...
But a funny thing seems to be happening on the way to the November elections. The lamestream media is belatedly paying attention to this manipulation. A few newspapers and reporting organizations talking about this may not seem like a big deal, but...they haven't been doing so heretofore, and we're in the runup to the 2012 Presidential election. Somehow I don't think this is a good omen for Obama.
Which is just fine with me, of course...
Friday, May 4, 2012
A Suggestion for the Obama Campaign...
The Obama campaign recently selected their official 2012 slogan: “Forward”. We respectfully suggest this graphic to go along with their lovely new slogan:
GIMP 2.8 is Released!
GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program, the free open source image editing software) 2.8 is the long-awaited next major upgrade. It (finally!) includes “single window” mode, which many people (including me) prefer over the current user interface. It also includes many improvements to the underlying image manipulation algorithms, including some support for higher color depths (24/32 bits).
Unfortunately for me, the Mac OS ports aren't yet released, so I haven't been able to actually try it...
Unfortunately for me, the Mac OS ports aren't yet released, so I haven't been able to actually try it...
Cats and Dolphins, Playing Together...
Via my mom: a cat and some dolphins, playing together (not embeddable, sorry)...
Manure Spreader for Sale...
Via reader Jim M.:
FIFTY YEAR OLD MANURE SPREADER - $1 (WASHINGTON, D.C.)
Fifty-year old manure spreader. Not sure of brand. Said to have been produced in Kenya. Used for a few years in Indonesia before being smuggled into the US via Hawaii. Of questionable origin. Does not appear to have ever been worked very hard. Apparently it was pampered by various owners over the years. It doesn't work very often, but when it does it can really spread the manure and sling it for amazing distances. I am hoping to retire this manure spreader this November.
But I really don't want it hanging around getting in the way. I would prefer a foreign buyer that is willing to relocate this manure spreader out of the country. I would be willing to trade this manure spreader for a nicely framed copy of the United States Constitution.
Location: White House, Washington, D.C.
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