A Fourth Branch?

Last night I pondered my frustrations with our government, and I realized that quite a few of them all boiled down to one thing: fiscal irresponsibility.  That's not all my frustrations, mind you...but a good number of them.  For example, the fact that our federal government is now operating without a budget, on continuing financing resolutions – that's completely irresponsible.  Or the accounting gimmicks that Obamacare is rife with – also completely irresponsible.  Or the near-universal underfunding of state and municipal pension funds.  But most of all, it's indefensible that we keep spending money (at all levels of government) that we simply don't have.  All these issues have one thing in common: the legislators and executives being way, way too free with the taxpayer's hard-earned dollar.

The rest of our society doesn't have this problem.  There are safeguards in place that prevent the same kinds of abuses that we see our governments perpetrating on a daily basis.  Which led me to an idea...why don't we have such safeguards in place for governments as well?

This is akin to our legal safeguards, implemented by our system of justice, culminating in the U.S. Supreme Court.  Why not have a similar system of financial safeguards, with the same power as that of our justice system?  A system of auditors, covering all levels of government: municipal, state, and federal.  A U.S. Supreme Auditors, a council of 9 auditors whose word was final.  The whole system set up to prevent the financial shenanigans currently foisted upon us by our criminal politicians (the only reason these things aren't actually crimes is because they're being committed by the same people who make the laws!).

This would require a Constitutional Amendment, and with 100% of all politicians deadset agin it, I don't think it would have a chance in hell of passing.  Dang...

Baumgartner's Technology...

A great article at ExtremeTech explaining all the high-tech stuff that allowed Felix Baumgartner to make his jump yesterday...

Boomer...

Boomer is a six-month old border collie, with the same parents as Race. He's not ours; he belongs to an Australian couple who has left them here with us until February. The intent was to have Debbie do some foundation agility training, but that's not working out quite as expected. A few weeks before he came to our house, Boomer had a freakish accident while playing, and broke his right rear leg badly. When we first got him, he was just a few days past a surgery to repair his leg. Just a few days ago, he had a second surgery, and he's now back here with us, recovering once again (these photos were taken two days after the surgery). And the poor little fellow has yet another surgery to face, roughly a month away. Yikes! But despite it all, he's a typical joyous, bouncing puppy...

Tippy...

We don't know Tippy's exact age, as he was a rescue (from our old neighborhood in Chula Vista) – but we figure he's roughly 16 or 17 years old.  He's still going strong, though he doesn't move quite as fast, nor jump quite as high as he used to.  And he's gotten a little grumpy and intolerant in his dotage.  Like most old cats, he spends most of his day just sleeping, preferably in a puddle of sunlight somewhere.  Here you see him evincing his displeasure at my thrusting a camera into his face (these photos today were all taken with a very wide-angle lens at very close range)...

Race...

Say “Hello!” to Race, the bug-eyed border collie who runs like the wind...

How do you like that nose?  If you touch it, it's all wet and squishy – but don't let that fool you.  Race uses that nose like a battering ram, and he's quite capable of bruising you by ramming it into your arm or leg...

Maka Lea...

Little Maka Lea is probably our sweetest little kitty, despite (or maybe because of) his neurological damage. Just walking across the carpet poses big challenges for him; he's quite likely to fall over in the attempt. He doesn't have any of the balance that normal cats have, so jumping off of high places means he just rolls and flops uncontrollably in the air, then lands on whatever happened to be down at that moment (frequently that's his head!). Despite his rather profound handicap, he's a happy guy, always ready for some attention, always quick to come over and say “hi!” – and the only cat we have who is completely unafraid of strangers...

Jahar...

This is our little Savannah cat, only he's not so little any more.  At just over a year old, he's about the same size and weight as the larger of other cats.  He hasn't lost any of his behaviors; I play with him daily with a toy “bird” that he loves to chase, making spectacular leaps as high as four feet or so...

Some Special Forces “Operators” Really Don't Like Obama...

And they're not afraid to let you know that:

A More Complex Subject Than You Might Think...

Baumgartner Did It!

He's certainly set one record (highest balloon ascent), and probably set another (going supersonic while in freefall).  He landed safe and sound, didn't even fall down though he was wearing the heavy and clumsy flight suit.

The world got to watch the entire thing, thanks to the 30+ cameras plastered all over the capsule and Baumgartner's suit, the amazing visible light and infrared ground cameras, and the equally amazing helicopter-mounted cameras that tracked him while under canopy.  We watched him land under canopy, and fall to his knees – presumably in thanksgiving for a safe adventure.

Wow.  Just wow.

I love it that this whole thing was privately-funded as a marketing venture, something foretold by several science fiction stories I read as a kid in the '60s.  And even more, I love it that Baumgartner insisted on getting Joe Kittinger (the previous record holder for high-altitude jumping) involved.  That was a class act, Mr. Baumgartner, a real class act...

Stratos...

Red Bull Stratos is the name of the mission, a commercially-funded mission to the edge of space (to quote their PR materials).  As I write this, the capsule, with Felix Baumgartner, is ascending through 110,000 feet altitude, and still rising at about 1,000 feet/minute.  The photo at right is from live video taken by cameras on the ground.  Taking full advantage of modern technology, the capsule and Baumgartner himself are plastered with cameras, and we're watching it live, so clear that it's almost as if it were happening in our back yard.

This is in stark contrast to the current record holder's jump, made by Joe Kittinger back in 1960.  For that jump, Joe Kittinger had very little in the way of instrumentation or imagery.  Furthermore, Felix's position is known with a precision that was completely unachievable back in 1960.

Joe Kittinger is still alive and kicking, at age 84, and he's a part of Felix's team.  He's the primary communicator on the ground, talking with Felix.  Nice.

Difference Engine...

Christian Hansen, writing at Hummus and Magnets, has a couple of posts on Charles Babbage's Difference Engine.  Both are excellent, and I look forward to the promised rest of the series...

Tables
Differences

No Global Warming for the Past 16 Years...

So says a report quietly issued by the U.K.'s “Met” – the same agency that initially raised the anthropogenic global warming scare almost 20 years ago.  For some reason, this doesn't make the news headlines...

Iowa Electronic Markets...

At right is this morning's Iowa Electronic Markets graph.  Romney's position continues to improve, but Obama is still favored, 1.58:1...

Baumgartner Has Launched...

...on his way up to a record altitude (in a balloon), and from which he's planning to more records – especially for altitude, and for the first time ever, for a supersonic freefall...

We Wonder...

Chris Christie Has a Story...

Why Pilots Prefer Airplanes Over Women...

Via reader Simi L.:

Why Pilots Prefer Airplanes Over Women

• Airplanes usually kill you quickly; a woman takes her time.
• Airplanes can be turned on by a flick of a switch.
• Airplanes don't get mad if you do a "touch and go."
• Airplanes don't object to a pre-flight inspection.
• Airplanes come with a manual to explain their operation.
• Airplanes have strict weight and balance limitations.
• Airplanes can be flown at any time of the month.
• Airplanes don't come with in-laws.
• Airplanes don't care about how many other airplanes you've flown before.
• Airplanes and pilots both arrive at the same time.
• Airplanes don't mind if you look at other airplanes.
• Airplanes don't mind if you buy airplane magazines.
• Airplanes expect to be tied down.
• Airplanes don't comment on your piloting skills.
• Airplanes don't whine unless something is really wrong.
• However, when airplanes go quiet, just like women, it's usually not good.

Curiosity: A Piece of Fluff...

Here's a close-up photo of the little piece of plastic that fell off the Rover.  The folks at JPL have concluded that it's likely a piece of detritus that fell off the skycrane during landing, and then subsequently fell off the Curiosity rover – most likely while it was waving it's arm around over Rocknest...

The Casual Vacancy...

I've just finished reading The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling (the author of the Harry Potter series).  I enjoyed it, well enough that I'll buy and read whatever she writes next – but it sure was a big surprise!

First, it is most definitely not aimed at kids.  Unusually mature young adults might find it interesting, but clearly the main audience is adults, especially those with children (or at least with an interest in children).  Unlike with the Harry Potter series, in this book the plot isn't the core of the book – instead, it's with the detailed study of different personalities, of personal interactions (and their consequences, intended or not), and most especially of how children are impacted by the behavior of the adults around them.  There are quite a few interesting characters in this novel, and every one of them is painted with great attention to detail.  The entire novel is plausible – even, unusually, the bit of technical wizardry that is part of the plot (some kids hacking into a web site). 

When I finished, I wondered to myself if there was anything about her new novel that was like the Harry Potter series – because at first blush they seem utterly different.  But I did identify one common thread: complexity.  This novel, like the Harry Potter books, is engineered – by which I mean that she absolutely must have started by thinking out all the characters, their inter-relationships, and the timeline of events.  I know for certain that she did exactly this with the Harry Potter series, because I've seen her worksheet (a sort of handwritten spreadsheet) for that published on the web somewhere.  I'd be willing to bet you that she did the same thing for The Casual Vacancy.  It's just too darned complex to have happened by accident.

Bottom line: thumbs up.  It will take you a chapter or two to get immersed in the world she crafts, but after that you'll be completely engrossed...