Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Wreck of Columbus' ship Santa Maria may have been found...
Wreck of Columbus' ship Santa Maria may have been found... Off the coast of what is today Haiti...
Curiosity is drilling holes on Mars again...
Low information citizens...
Low information citizens... The Arab nations in general, and the Palestinians in particular, have spent a lot of money over the past few decades on public relations (PR) efforts. These are primarily in Europe and the U.S. The PR paints a far more moderate picture of their views and intentions than the reality on the ground in the Arab countries, and this is deliberate. It's been well-known in Europe and America for over 30 years, and anyone there can find this out for themselves these days through numerous sources on the web (the lamestream media, with only a few exceptions (notably the Wall Street Journal), just republishes the PR, so they're just about useless for discovering the truth).
However, the vast majority of the population of both Europe and America are what I'm calling “low information citizens”. These citizens know only what they hear from the Arab/Palestinian PR, as trumpeted by the lamestream media, and as a direct consequence public opinion has gradually shifted toward pro-Palestinian views and away from pro-Israeli views. One consequence of this has boomeranged on the Palestinians (as noted by the linked article): more Jews are emigrating from Europe to Israel because of the increase in anti-Semitism there.
There's a larger issue, though, that makes me very sad: public policy in many countries, including the U.S., is drifting toward support for the Palestinians at the expense of the Israelis. In different terms, policy is drifting toward support of the utterly corrupt, totally failed Arab societies and away from the sole example of a moral, free, and successful society in the Middle East. That is what makes me sad, because this drift in policy will only promote the needless suffering and deaths of millions of people suffering under the Arab thugocracies. At the heart of the problem is those low information citizens. Were they informed and engaged, I have no doubt the drift would be entirely different...
However, the vast majority of the population of both Europe and America are what I'm calling “low information citizens”. These citizens know only what they hear from the Arab/Palestinian PR, as trumpeted by the lamestream media, and as a direct consequence public opinion has gradually shifted toward pro-Palestinian views and away from pro-Israeli views. One consequence of this has boomeranged on the Palestinians (as noted by the linked article): more Jews are emigrating from Europe to Israel because of the increase in anti-Semitism there.
There's a larger issue, though, that makes me very sad: public policy in many countries, including the U.S., is drifting toward support for the Palestinians at the expense of the Israelis. In different terms, policy is drifting toward support of the utterly corrupt, totally failed Arab societies and away from the sole example of a moral, free, and successful society in the Middle East. That is what makes me sad, because this drift in policy will only promote the needless suffering and deaths of millions of people suffering under the Arab thugocracies. At the heart of the problem is those low information citizens. Were they informed and engaged, I have no doubt the drift would be entirely different...
Geek: Randall Munroe's TED talk...
Geek: Randall Munroe's TED talk... Munroe is the creator of XKCD...
Monday, May 12, 2014
Climate change – is there anything it can't do?
Delingpole also reports that the latest studies of those rapidly disappearing Himalayan glaciers had some unexpected results: the glaciers are not disappearing after all! In fact, if measured by the aggregate ice accumulation in all Himalayan glaciers, they're increasing at a higher rate than the climate models can model. Oops!
Then there's this bit on Watts Up With That?, wherein Nobel-prize winning chump Michael Mann is caught out with his “hide the decline” fakery in a particularly delicious fashion. The graph above right is from that story.
A friend from Estonia wrote me the other day, asking how I would react if Mark Steyn were somehow to lose his lawsuit with Michael Mann. My correspondent is a fervent anthropogenic global warming believer, so he fully expects this outcome. Here's what my reaction would be: I would lose what little faith remains in me about our American system of justice. That reaction has absolutely nothing to do with whether Steyn's position is just, and everything to do with free speech – because in the end, that's what this lawsuit is about: whether Mark Steyn (or anyone else) can stand up and speak his or her mind. Forget the climatology-related merits of each side on this case; they are irrelevant. What's really on trial is good old-fashioned American-style free speech...
She's a mom, too...
Geek: computers really suck at division...
Geek: computers really suck at division... By that, I mean that division is slow compared with other arithmetic operations, and there are no simple ways to make it faster. So programmers will sometimes go to extreme lengths to avoid it...
I've never done anything quite like what the article describes. However, I have used many other “tricks”, including table look-ups, shift-and-add (for fixed integers), and approximations. The programmers working on video games have been particularly inventive in this area, as their code often needs to do many millions of divisions in order to paint a scene...
I've never done anything quite like what the article describes. However, I have used many other “tricks”, including table look-ups, shift-and-add (for fixed integers), and approximations. The programmers working on video games have been particularly inventive in this area, as their code often needs to do many millions of divisions in order to paint a scene...
Free speech is one of America's most precious ideas...
Free speech is one of America's most precious ideas... Our universities are conspiring to kill it, just as it starts to flower in other countries. This does not bode well for America. I feel the doom approaching when I think about the implications.
I'll bet the multi-culti, non-offending metro-sexual types would have an entirely different attitude if they had any experience or knowledge of the the world outside their bubble, or of the past. I suspect this is where historical cycles originate; the pattern is quite visible even in our own country's history. The current madness will likely end when some existential threat appears – and for a little while at least, we'll get back to the core values that the country was founded upon. Then they'll probably fade to blackness yet again...
I'll bet the multi-culti, non-offending metro-sexual types would have an entirely different attitude if they had any experience or knowledge of the the world outside their bubble, or of the past. I suspect this is where historical cycles originate; the pattern is quite visible even in our own country's history. The current madness will likely end when some existential threat appears – and for a little while at least, we'll get back to the core values that the country was founded upon. Then they'll probably fade to blackness yet again...
A beautiful idea...
Room-temperature superconductor breakthrough?
Room-temperature superconductor breakthrough? Maybe.
It's very hard to overstate what an impact on our lives such a breakthrough would have...
It's very hard to overstate what an impact on our lives such a breakthrough would have...
Cognitive biases...
Cognitive biases... This is a good collection of them, with easily understood descriptions.
I've long noted that most people are completely unaware of these biases, though they'll readily recognize them when confronted with descriptions like those at the link above.
One thing that article doesn't mention is that people vary widely in their susceptibility to each of the biases. For instance, in general introverts are much less susceptible to in-group bias. I knew the late Dr. Alan Davidson, an industrial psychologist, quite well. He and I had a fascinating conversation once about efforts to predict people's success by measuring their cognitive biases. He believed that this effort, if made practical, was the only real contender to using IQ as a predictor of success. At the time he and I had that conversation, about 15 years ago, the major finding so far was that successful people had much lower cognitive biases of certain types – and higher for other types. For me, at least, that's a completely counter-intuitive result!
I've long noted that most people are completely unaware of these biases, though they'll readily recognize them when confronted with descriptions like those at the link above.
One thing that article doesn't mention is that people vary widely in their susceptibility to each of the biases. For instance, in general introverts are much less susceptible to in-group bias. I knew the late Dr. Alan Davidson, an industrial psychologist, quite well. He and I had a fascinating conversation once about efforts to predict people's success by measuring their cognitive biases. He believed that this effort, if made practical, was the only real contender to using IQ as a predictor of success. At the time he and I had that conversation, about 15 years ago, the major finding so far was that successful people had much lower cognitive biases of certain types – and higher for other types. For me, at least, that's a completely counter-intuitive result!
Recycling is bullshit!
Many moons ago, when we lived in Chula Vista, I made a discovery that outraged me – but I was very alone in that reaction. My discovery? The city's waste collection system required us to sort aluminum, plastic, and paper trash into a blue recycling bin. We were charged extra for these bins. The contents of those bins went to a facility where the aluminum cans were picked out and sold – for slightly less than it cost to run the facility. The remaining plastic and paper trash was then trucked – at extra cost to the taxpayers – to a separate landfill in Mexico. The rest of the trash went into a landfill in San Diego County. The overall result was that taxpayers were subsidizing a completely ineffective recycling industry that ended up not only costing more, but using more energy and disposing of a large quantity of paper and plastic in an unregulated Mexican landfill.
Before recycling was imposed legislatively, the vast majority of aluminum cans were recycled – by armies of people picking through the trash to make some money. The proportion of aluminum cans that were recycled actually went down after recycling was imposed, simply because some people didn't recycle, but nobody picked through the trash any more. The rest of the trash used to go all into a nice, safe San Diego County landfill, costing the taxpayers much less than trucking a bunch of it to Mexico.
When I shared my discovery with others, I was surprised that basically nobody shared my outrage. It's a peculiar situation, where logic and common sense seem to be inoperative in the face of the “feel-good” aspects of recycling. The entire multi-billion dollar industry seems to be one gigantic scam, a scheme to milk abundant tax dollars. I'm sure you will not be a bit surprised to learn that the recycling companies are huge political campaign contributors...
California leads the way...
California leads the way ... in billion dollar oopsies. And yet the voters keep on electing these knuckleheads. You'd think they'd figure it out eventually, wouldn't you?
Wait. What am I thinking? I've met some of these voters – and I think I should feel lucky they didn't elect Justin Bieber...
Wait. What am I thinking? I've met some of these voters – and I think I should feel lucky they didn't elect Justin Bieber...
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Product and company review: CAI Technologies water softener...
Product and company review: CAI Technologies water softener...
One of the things we needed to fix in our new home in Paradise, Utah
was the water softener. The old softener was leaking brine (ugh!) and
also some of its resin beads were making it into the house water. These
beads clogged up basically every faucet and shower head in the house,
greatly reducing the rate of water flow. I had a plumber come out and
inspect the old softener (a 24,000 grain single tank Aqua-Pure model),
just in case it was something simple and inexpensive to fix. It wasn't.
So ... it was time for me to start researching water softeners. We have never owned a home that had one before, so I've never really had any idea how they worked. The whole “add salt and your water gets better” part was a mystery to me. Fortunately there are numerous excellent web sites that explain all this, and in a short while I actually understood how these things worked. But I still didn't know which one I should get, and there are a bazillion choices. My next tactic was to start reading water conditioning bulletin boards and blogs, and there are quite a few of them. I quickly got to several concrete recommendations, based on the experience of quite a few installers. The big ones:
Three days later, UPS dropped off 7 or 8 boxes containing the parts and pieces of our new water softener. I arranged for a local plumber to come out and install it a week later, and then I unpacked and inspected all the parts. It all looked great – the right stuff and all looked well made – except that they had shipped me the wrong controller. Dang.
Well, anyone can make a mistake. What really matters is how they handled it. I called CAI, and within 30 seconds I was connected to an actual tech – someone intimately familiar with their products and how they're used. He had me do a couple of checks to verify my belief that I had the wrong controller. I did. Then he said the magic words:
That was a week ago. I've now gone through two startup regeneration cycles (manually initiated) and one automatic regeneration cycle (because we used enough water to consume the capacity of one of the tanks). It works flawlessly. I've tested the water before and after softening: before it's 23 grains/gallon (fairly hard), after it's 0 grains/gallon (perfectly soft). There are no brine leaks, and no resin beads are escaping into our water supply.
Good product, good company, great service. Recommended!
So ... it was time for me to start researching water softeners. We have never owned a home that had one before, so I've never really had any idea how they worked. The whole “add salt and your water gets better” part was a mystery to me. Fortunately there are numerous excellent web sites that explain all this, and in a short while I actually understood how these things worked. But I still didn't know which one I should get, and there are a bazillion choices. My next tactic was to start reading water conditioning bulletin boards and blogs, and there are quite a few of them. I quickly got to several concrete recommendations, based on the experience of quite a few installers. The big ones:
- Fleck controller. This is a brand of controller – the usage meter, electronics, and valves that control the operation of the water softener. There are several manufacturers of these, but the Fleck products are the consensus “good stuff”.
- Twin tank. This is a more expensive route to go, as there is an additional resin tank and double the resin beads. However, there are multiple advantages to it. First, your system has double the total capacity (that is, number of gallons of hard water that can be softened before a brine wash is needed). Second, the regeneration job is done with soft water (coming from the tank that's not being regenerated) instead of hard water (which a single tank system must do). This results in a better job of regeneration. But third, and to me most important, is that the system is never off-line for the regeneration – one tank is regenerated while the other continues to supply softened water to the house. This means that we can go to a purely metered system (a tank is only regenerated when it is actually needed, as opposed to being on a schedule). The two hour regeneration process won't affect us at all.
- High capacity. I discovered that “buying up” the total capacity is relatively inexpensive and results in much longer times between regenerations, and less wear-and-tear on the controller. The capacity is measured in “grains” of calcium removed from the hard water. Small units may be 16,000 or 24,000 grains capacity; large residential units are 64,000 grains. With a twin tank system, that doubles – so a large residential unit would be 128,000 grains total capacity.
Three days later, UPS dropped off 7 or 8 boxes containing the parts and pieces of our new water softener. I arranged for a local plumber to come out and install it a week later, and then I unpacked and inspected all the parts. It all looked great – the right stuff and all looked well made – except that they had shipped me the wrong controller. Dang.
Well, anyone can make a mistake. What really matters is how they handled it. I called CAI, and within 30 seconds I was connected to an actual tech – someone intimately familiar with their products and how they're used. He had me do a couple of checks to verify my belief that I had the wrong controller. I did. Then he said the magic words:
“Well, we’re going to fix this right now. We’ll ship you the right one by overnight express today, and we’ll arrange for a pickup of the wrong one. Our apologies for screwing this up. Let us know if there’s anything else we need to do to make this right.”I can't ask for anything better than that. CAI did exactly as promised. The next day I had the right controller in my hands, and the day after that UPS picked up the old (wrong) one to return to them. By the time the plumber arrived, I had all the right stuff. He installed it, we tested it, and all looked good.
That was a week ago. I've now gone through two startup regeneration cycles (manually initiated) and one automatic regeneration cycle (because we used enough water to consume the capacity of one of the tanks). It works flawlessly. I've tested the water before and after softening: before it's 23 grains/gallon (fairly hard), after it's 0 grains/gallon (perfectly soft). There are no brine leaks, and no resin beads are escaping into our water supply.
Good product, good company, great service. Recommended!
Happy dogs (and cat)...
Tattoo files...
Valles Marineris (Mars)...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)