Take no prisoners... Afghanistan has ordered its soldiers and police not to take Taliban prisoners – but to kill them outright instead. Why? Because captured Taliban are finding it relatively easy to bribe their way out of prison. That means the only way to stop a Taliban operative is to kill him.
Most Americans have no experience with the kind of pervasive corruption one finds in many other societies, and are constantly surprised (and appalled) at the effects of it. Afghanistan is one of those countries, and reportedly one of the worst – but it is certainly not the only one. I was once responsible for business subsidiaries in Russia, where we routinely paid bribes (for things as mundane as getting an Internet connection) and protection money (it would be a shame if something happened to your nice, modern office).
Locals quickly figured out that American money was being poured into our office in St. Petersburg, and it was obvious that people were angling for every possible means to take a chunk of that for themselves. Not by the means Americans would generally expect, either. One example will give you a flavor for it. Our staff there asked us if we would spring for a bottled water delivery service, so our engineering staff could stop drinking the municipal water – which smelled like gasoline and tasted worse. We said “Of course!”, since we didn't really want to lose staff members to poisoning. The first day's delivery consisted of 20 liter (~5 gallon) bottles filled with distinctly cloudy water. When our staff complained to the water delivery guy, he said: “Oh, you want the clean water! That will be 30 rubles (about $1) extra per bottle, cash only.” This enterprising fellow had found a way to bribe us for our water! Complaining to his boss didn't help, because of course his boss got a cut of it.
Take that story and repeat 100 times, and you'll see why we estimated that about 1/3 of our St. Petersburg operating budget went to bribes and protection money...
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Worried about Curiosity's wheel wear issues?
What the engineer should know about programming...
What the engineer should know about programming... A magazine article from 1957. Things have changed just a tad since then :)
Who needs that damned Constitution, anyway?
Who needs that damned Constitution, anyway? Certainly not King President Obama!
Related thought: do you suppose any foreign politician looks to the U.S. as a political model any more? I read an article the other day talking about a debate amongst German talking heads, wherein the conclusion was that Putin's Russia was a far more viable model for Germany than Obama's America...
Related thought: do you suppose any foreign politician looks to the U.S. as a political model any more? I read an article the other day talking about a debate amongst German talking heads, wherein the conclusion was that Putin's Russia was a far more viable model for Germany than Obama's America...
Barn: pier footing forms...
Barn: pier footing forms... Our builder finished these yesterday afternoon, but the field was too wet and mucky for a concrete truck to get in. We're hoping they can pour today.
The first photo just shows a rough form, sitting in its hole in the backfill. The second shows the two rows of four piers. The last shows the forms finished and ready to pour. These are held up by stakes and are only roughly in the design position. The top of them is several inches below the needed top of the pier foundation. Once the footings have cured a day or two, a round form will be placed on top, and the top of this will be carefully positioned and set to the right height. These will be poured next, after which the pier/footing “assemblies” will be backfilled around and compacted. At that point (hopefully still this week), it will be time to put a layer of fine gravel over all the backfill, and carefully level it...
The first photo just shows a rough form, sitting in its hole in the backfill. The second shows the two rows of four piers. The last shows the forms finished and ready to pour. These are held up by stakes and are only roughly in the design position. The top of them is several inches below the needed top of the pier foundation. Once the footings have cured a day or two, a round form will be placed on top, and the top of this will be carefully positioned and set to the right height. These will be poured next, after which the pier/footing “assemblies” will be backfilled around and compacted. At that point (hopefully still this week), it will be time to put a layer of fine gravel over all the backfill, and carefully level it...
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
The EPA deals in political propaganda, not science...
The EPA deals in political propaganda, not science... Warren Meyer of CoyoteBlog seems to be surprised by this.
I am not. I would expect the EPA to pay attention to the science only when it serves their political interests to do so. That's not very often, actually.
I am not. I would expect the EPA to pay attention to the science only when it serves their political interests to do so. That's not very often, actually.
Lois Lerner had a Blackberry...
Lois Lerner had a Blackberry... That's significant because some of her emails would have been stored on that device. But the IRS destroyed it, too!
They're just laughing in our faces, now. They don't even care if we know they're corrupt, lying sons of bitches. They don't think there's anything that we the people can do about it.
Are they right?
They're just laughing in our faces, now. They don't even care if we know they're corrupt, lying sons of bitches. They don't think there's anything that we the people can do about it.
Are they right?
Airstrikes in Libya...
Airstrikes in Libya ... were conducted by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, acting on their own. They didn't coordinate the strikes with the U.S., or get prior clearance for them.
The U.S. is receding from the forefront of world affairs. There is no effective leadership. Tin pot dictators like Russia's Putin, and posturing closet Islamists like Turkey's Erogodan are competing for the role. I just hope things don't go to hell too fast, so that our next president has a fighting chance to reassert this country's leadership...
The U.S. is receding from the forefront of world affairs. There is no effective leadership. Tin pot dictators like Russia's Putin, and posturing closet Islamists like Turkey's Erogodan are competing for the role. I just hope things don't go to hell too fast, so that our next president has a fighting chance to reassert this country's leadership...
The best of Harry Reid...
Barn: initial backfill is complete!
The next step is to pour footings for the steel piers that will hold up the center of the roof, along with the second story storage area. There are two rows of these piers, with three or four (I've forgotten which) piers in each row. The rows of piers will be topped by a large gluelam beam that in turn will support the interior sections of all the trusses. This combination of steel and engineered wood is very common these days, thanks to technological innovations in the building industry. A few decades ago, the choices would have been far more limited – along with far more expensive, and not as strong...
Philae candidate landing sites!
I recommend RealClearScience...
I recommend RealClearScience... And this manifesto they've just published nicely sums up why. The list at the end is in line with my own thinking on a bunch of “controversial” (or at least, unsettled :) science...
Triton flyby...
California leads the way...
California leads the way ... in drunk state Senator driving. Hueso is from San Diego, not all that far from Jamul...
Once speculation, now admitted...
Once speculation, now admitted... The U.S. government is now admitting that they do, in fact, have all of Lois Lerner's emails on backup tapes. They just don't want to take the trouble to retrieve them.
My, that's very convenient for the (most transparent evah) administration, no?
My, that's very convenient for the (most transparent evah) administration, no?
The Neo-Neocons...
The Neo-Neocons... This editorial by Bret Stephens, in today's Wall Street Journal, caught my eye both because of the author and the title. “Neo-Neocon” is one of my favorite blogs; its author is a woman who's gone through a political transformation in part because of the same issues Bret raises in this piece.
Stephens' piece is focused mainly on a parallel topic: the way that some (many, actually) progressive political figures have changed their attitude toward military intervention against violent fundamentalist Islamic movements. The emergence of ISIS while Obama was president neatly and cleanly exemplifies this, as Stephens documents...
Stephens' piece is focused mainly on a parallel topic: the way that some (many, actually) progressive political figures have changed their attitude toward military intervention against violent fundamentalist Islamic movements. The emergence of ISIS while Obama was president neatly and cleanly exemplifies this, as Stephens documents...
Why do Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria?
Why do Nigerian scammers say they're from Nigeria? The Nigerian email scams are notorious – the butt of jokes, and everyone knows about them. So you'd think it would behoove the scammers to stop telling people that they're from Nigeria, wouldn't you? Au contraire, say researchers at Microsoft: the scammers carefully and intentionally tell you they're from Nigeria. Why? Because then they know that any responses they do get are from the tiny percentage of the population that doesn't know about the Nigerian scams...
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