Monday, March 21, 2011

Sometimes I Wonder About My English Ancestry

Summer is Icumen In
(anon., circa 1500)

Summer is icumen in,
    Lhude sing cuccu;
Groweht sed and bloweth med
    And springth the wude nu.
       sing cuccu!
Awe bleteth after lomb,
    Lhouth after calve cu;
Bulluc sterteth, bucke verteth;
    Murie sing cuccu.
      Cuccu, cuccu,
    Wel singes thu, cucu,
   Ne swik thu naver nu.
Sing cuccu nu! Sing cuccu!
Sing cuccu! Sing cuccu nu!

 Spring, the Sweet Spring
(Thomas Naish, circa 1600) 

Spring, the sweet Spring is the year's pleasant King;
Then blooms each thing, then maids dance in a ring,
Cold doth not sting, the pretty birds do sing,
Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.

The palm and and may country houdes gay,
Lambs frisk and play, the shepherds pipe all day,
And we hear aye birds tune the merry lay,
Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.

The fields breathe sweet, daisies kiss our feet,
Young lovers meet, old wives a-sunning sit,
In every street these tunes do greet,
Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.
spring, the sweet spring!

Must be the English inbreeding. It seems they hit the jug,jug too often making them cuckoo!
 
Lhude sing cuccu;
sing cuccu! 
Murie sing cuccu.
Cuccu, cuccu,
    Wel singes thu, cucu,
sing cuccu nu! Sing cuccu!
Sing cuccu! Sing cuccu nu!
Cuckoo, jug, jug, pu we, to witta woo.

cuckoo-cajoo!
 

À tout à l'heure.
“Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
(Bright)

The word "news" is an Oxymoron

Shouldn't the word "news" be "olds"? The Media generally reports what has happened, not what is happening.  Invariably, the verb is in the past tense.

  • The Allies bombed Libya - not the allies are bombing Libya
  • Obama was elected president - not Obama is being elected president
  • In the obits, Joe Blow died yesterday - not Joe Blow is dying right now
  • There is a traffic jam properly is "there was a traffic jam when we last looked"
  • Kansas is reporting a such and such a vote for John Smith. What they really mean is that Kansas recently reported such and such a vote.
On some occasions they breathlessly report what is happening
  • The president is getting on Air Force one (o.k. how is that immediately interesting?)
  • Congress is meeting as we speak to discuss such and such (so? what we really want to know is the results.
  • The cars are making a left turn for hours in the Indianapolis 500. Its really only interesting at the moment the first car passes over the finish line.
  • The crowd awaits in anticipation of the next celebrity to walk down the red carpet (smirk)
 On some occasions, they report what will happen providing that God is willing and the Creeks don't rise.
  • In Dallas, "JFK is going to the airport" (if other events don't intervene)
  • The Vikings and Giants will play in Minneapolis (providing the roof doesn't collapse on the stadium)
  • We will suppress Al-Qeada and the invasion of Afghanistan will be over quickly the seers predicted since 10 years is quick compared to the eons of time.
  • There will be a super perigee on the ides of March making the moon look 25% bigger. While technically correct, it was mostly overcast because of winter storms over cast and it just did not appear at all!
  • There will be an earthquake in California in the next week predicts that scientific bastion, The Christian Broadcast Network.
  • My favorite is that there is a 20% chance that there will an earthquake in the next 20 years. Doesn't that mean that meaning that there is an 80% chance there won't be? That may be of interest if earthquakes were not random occurrences that can occur at any time and scientists cannot really predict them.

"Latest News! Read all about..." in the past. "News" is almost always "old" before they report it.

À tout à l'heure.
“Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
(Bright)

How Many Countries are Attacking Libya?

Is someone actually using a thesaurus to try and make each new dispatch sound differently? Or merely to obfuscate the fact that there only 3 nations attacking Libya. We are up to 8 phrases, now. It seems to change hour to hour, even minute to minute!



Get out the hip boots and head for high ground. Its piling higher by the hour!


1) World Community intervenes in Libya
  • World community = the three self-appointed policemen of the world, the Us, Britain and  France
2) US and Europe intervenes in Libya (NATO?)
  •  US and Europe = the US, Britain, and France
3) Allies intervene in Libya (The worldwide allies of WWII?)
  •  Allies = the US, Britain, and France
4) the Coalition intervenes in Libya
  •  Coalition = the US, Britain, and France
5) International Forces intervene in Libya
  •  International Forces = the US, Britain, and France
6) Allied Forces intervene in Libya

  •  Allied Forces = the US, Britain, and France
7) Western Powers intervene in Libya

  •  Western Powers = the US, Britain, and France 
8) International Alliance intervenes in Libya
  •  International Alliance = the US, Britain, and France
    What's next?

    The Intergalactic Council intervenes in Libya
    •  Intergalactic Council = the US, Britain, and France
    Mickey Mouse Club intervenes in Libya
    • The Mickey Mouse Club = the US, Britain, and France
    To paraphrase the Bard of Avon,

    "An obfuscation by any other name is still a smokescreen!"

    À tout à l'heure.
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    Government Wasting Money in Libya Bombing

    "A military official said Air Force B-2 stealth bombers flew 25 hours in a round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and dropped 45 2,000-pound bombs [... on Libya...]"

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/af_libya (this link seems to be a moving target; the url is the same but the content changes)

    At a cruise speed of 560 mph, that's on the order of 14,000 miles per plane round-trip or about 42,000 miles for the whole mission!!!

    "The bomber ... carries 16 x 2,400 lb (1,100 kg). The B-2 is the only aircraft that can carry large weapons in a stealth configuration."  45/16 = 3 bombers

    Drop the stealth requirement and a b-52 could have dropped 35 2000 lbs or 105 bombs for 3 planes, or 2.3 times as many bombs as the B-2. Does it matter if Libya can "see" a stealth bomber that flies at 50,000 feet. The airspace would have been cleared by fighter jets before the B-2 could be used, I should hope, so the stealth feature is probably irrelevant.
    B-2 Specifications
    B-52 Specifications 


    At a cruise speed of 560 mph, the trip is on the order of 14,000 miles per plane round-trip or about 42,000 miles for the whole mission!! The range of a B-2 is only 6,000 miles, so they would have had to been refueled 3 times.

    I wonder what the cost/lb of explosive was figuring in the fuel cost, operation cost, and maintenance cost? Plus the cost of Ipads for the crew to amuse themselves with during the flight. Guaranteed that either one of the other pilot would be on downtime during the flight.

    Why couldn't they ferry the planes to bases in Spain or Germany or England to reduce overall future costs?

    I wonder what the cost justification is for using a $1.01 billion stealth bomber to drop 16 bombs? Wouldn't it be more cost effective to fly a $53.4 million b-52 to drop 35 bombs.

    Also take into the account the loss of a single airplane. You could lose 18 B-52's for the cost of one B-2. With a B-52, the loss of life would be 2.5 times higher. But what the hey, give them medals and send them home heroes.

    How about using the A-10 Thunderbolt II  Warthog? It was very effective in the Iraq invasion against vehicles (and other targets) and could carry the equivalent of 8 2,000 lbs. (6 sorties for 45 bombs instead of 3). If a plane were lost, it would only be $11.8 million vs. $53.4 million vs. $1.01 billion. They might have a small combat radius, but there's already a squadron in Germany and they could be based further south quickly. They work very well in the harsh conditions of the middle eastern deserts.Warthog Specifications

    But then, isn't 3 sorties of 14,000 miles using a billion dollar plane more cost effective that using 6 sorties of 1000 miles using a $12 million plane. Well, according to our Defense Department it is.


    Maybe they don't use the Warthog because its too ugly and ruins their image!

    À tout à l'heure.
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    Sunday, March 20, 2011

    Absurdities of the Day, 2011-03-20

    I need to clear my mind before I start my taxes today.

    - Yesterday was the rare coincidence of the Ides of March and a super perigee of the moon, causing the moon to appear 25% larger. Most of the US didn't witness it because of the cloud overcast of spring storms.

    - We were also informed (informed as fact, not as a possibility)  by that bastion of scientific inquiry,  the Christian Broadcast Network, that there will be "the big one"  ( a major earthquake)  in California this week. They did not mention where in the 163,696 sq mi (423,970 km2) it would occur. The last major quake, the Northridge quake, was not predicted nor was it on a fault line that anyone knew about. But I do have my aluminum hat and glow sticks at the ready because Earthquakes are essentially a random occurrence. Who knew about the earthquakes in Indonesian, Haiti, or Japan? Seismologists have been warning us that there is a 20% chance that the "big one" will strike in the next 20 years. Doesn't that mean that there is an 80% chance there won't be??? 

    - Yesterday, I was ratified by a US government agency that I to had become an official senior citizen with the right to ride the Metro at a reduced price, emplacement dans les sièges pour des retraités, l'antique, et droit à côté des femmes enceintes and eat at a discount at the local salad bar.

    - I will now receive a retirement pittance for a lifetime from a fortune 500 company as I slowly wane into my dotage. I rather wax into my dotage. (I'm told that it starts on April Fools Day, so I'll see if it actually arrives)

     - I have been told that I have a certain je ne sais pas. My psychiatric team can define it exactly: recalcitrant mixed state rapid cycling bipolar affective disorder, i.e. I'm crazy. I asked there will be a "cure" soon. They laughed and said, "Not in your lifetime!"

    - I've found a new online toy that translates

    If a woodchuck could chuck wood, how much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

    into utter nonsense in 12 different languages using the correct alphabet for each.

    - I came to the epiphany that if you turn off the sound on the TV and take your glasses off its a kaleidoscope of color and movement that enhances your enjoyment of life (it saves a lot of money by not buying recreational mind enhancements)


    - My heart's desire has been fulfilled when I was invited to pray with a devotional purpose online by the Christian Broadcast Network

    - The news yesterday blared "The world is taking unusually quick Intervention in Libya". Today it has been softened to "The US and European Nations have bombed Libya". What that really means is that the US, England, and France, the three self-appointed policemen of the world, have struck Libya. The rest of Europe has not the least bit interest in becoming mired in another draining, protracted engagement such as Afghanistan and Iraq. The Arab world is using the policemen as puppets to do its dirty work clean up their house for them, luring the policemen with oil. Asian, Non-US America, and the rest of the world could care less and the other martinets of the world are tightening their grips lest they be next.

    - Collateral Damage is the most obscene phrase in the English language. The military uses it to obscure their wanton massive murder, maiming, and destruction of the property of innocent noncombatants. Just what exactly is an acceptable level of Collateral Damage? Who determines it? The self-righteous marauders or their victims, blown off the face of the Earth?

    - Today's media (Cinema, TV,) has robbed most people of their imagination. It has reduced its presentation to mere visceral voyeurism, blurring the line between cinema and video game: a movie can morph into a video game; a video game morph into a movie. Lost is their ability to imagine the world evoked by such works as "War of the Worlds" as originally written by H.G. Wells or the brilliant adaption by Orson Welles (no relation) the allows the reader/listener to build his own images of the events. These are only a tiny bit of the enormous amount of imagination evoking literature in the world. What do you imagine Shangri La or Xanadu or Eden look like? (Spell Check wants to spell it as "Oxnard)"? Any image current Cinema or TV gives us pales in comparison to what our imagine can see.


    - Along the same lines, what media immediately engages your attention and leads into the depths of the human soul as effectively as the written word or well constructed play. "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times", "Call me Ismael", or "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble"

    - Cinema and TV, for the most part, is shallow and superficial. They give short snippets of morality tales, not even as thoughtful as Aesop, or mindless pap with such paragons of intelligence as Seinfeld or Rosanne or Charlie Sheen (I'm sure the Estevez family forced him to change his name!)

    - Don't you wish that the gays, celebs, sports stars, smut peddlers, bible thumpers and others who flaunt or debase their sexuality go back into the closet? Their is nothing wrong with it; its just none of my business. I am confident in mine and its none of your business. They must have such a tiny self image, or ego, or exclusive, biased Weltanschauung. How sad for them.

    - New computer "scientists" should be required to choose their fonts looking through the wrong end of a telescope so that they can see how the rest of the world squints to read their nonsense.

    - Have you been fargling with your best friend, lover, spouse, or children today.

    - This friggin editor sucks the big green ...!!!!

    (Spell check regularly fails miserably in argot of any kind, English 101, Foreign Languages 101,The Arts 101, Science 101, and other liberal and scientific subjects , invents it own collection of nonsense words, and has absolutely no sense of context nor sense of humor)


    Ce qui, je souci? À tout à l'heure.
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    Friday, March 18, 2011

    Tom o' Bedlam

    The Madhouse - the 8th panel from William Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress" 
    Per this article, Tom o' Bedlam, the term "Tom O' Bedlam" (a Bedlamite) was used in Early Modern Britain and later to describe beggars and vagrants who had or feigned mental illness.They claimed, or were assumed, to have been former inmates at the Bethlem Royal Hospital, (Bedlam) in London, recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in the mentally ill. Apparently, some of the inmates were sent out into the streets to beg for food to keep its costs down, a practice that Ebenezer Scrooge would hardily approve.

    You can see in the Hogarth's painting the poor treatment of the wretched souls.

    Even more amazing in the painting are the fine ladies, fans in hand, because "in the 18th century people used to go to Bedlam to stare at the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the "show of Bethlehem" and laugh at their antics. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month.In 1814 alone, there were 96,000 such visits." That was 400 British pounds a year, a pretty in the 18th Century! (Inflation programs go off the chart trying to calculate the income at present day prices!)
    Bedlam Boys
    circa 1600, anon.   
    For to see Mad Tom of Bedlam,
    Ten thousand miles I've traveled.
    Mad Maudlin goes on dirty toes,
    For to save her shoes from gravel
    (chorus)
    "Still I sing bonny boys, bonny mad boys
    Bedlam boys are bonny
    For they all go bare and they live by the air 
    And they want no drink or money."  

    Tom o' Bedlam
    circa 1600, anon.
    From the hagg and hungrie goblin
    That into raggs would rend ye,
    And the spirit that stands by the naked man
    In the Book of Moones - defend ye!
    That of your five sound senses
    You never be forsaken,
    Nor wander from your selves with Tom
    Abroad to beg your bacon.
    (Chorus; sung after every verse)
    While I doe sing "any foode, any feeding,
    Feedinge, drinke or clothing,"
    Come dame or maid, be not afraid,
    Poor Tom will injure nothing.
    Of thirty bare years have I
    Twice twenty been enraged,
    And of forty been three times fifteen
    In durance soundly caged.
    On the lordly lofts of Bedlam,
    With stubble soft and dainty,
    Brave bracelets strong, sweet whips ding-dong,
    With wholesome hunger plenty.
    With a thought I took for Maudlin
    And a cruse of cockle pottage,
    With a thing thus tall, skie blesse you all,
    I befell into this dotage.
    I slept not since the Conquest
    Till then I never waked,
    Till the roguish boy of love where I lay
    Me found and stript me naked.
    When I short have shorne my sowre face
    And swigged my horny barrel,
    In an oaken inn I pound my skin
    As a suit of gilt apparel.
    The moon's my constant Mistrisse,
    And the lowly owl my morrowe,
    The flaming Drake and the Nightcrow make
    Me music to my sorrow.
    The palsie plagues my pulses
    When I prigg your pigs or pullen,
    Your culvers take, or matchless make
    Your Chanticleers, or sullen.
    When I want provant, with Humfrie
    I sup, and when benighted,
    I repose in Powles with waking souls
    Yet never am affrighted.
    I know more than Apollo, 
    For oft, when he lies sleeping
    I see the stars at bloody wars
    In the wounded welkin weeping,  
    The  moone embrace her sheperd
    And the queen of Love her warrior,
    While the first doth horne the star of morne,
    And the next the heavenly Farrier.
    The Gipsie Snap and Pedro
    Are none of Tom's companions.
    The punk I skorne and the cut purse sworne
    And the roaring boyes bravadoe.
    The meek, the white, the gentle,
    Me handle touch and spare not
    But those that crosse Tom Rynosseros
    Do what the panther dare not.
    With a host of furious fancies
    Whereof I am commander,
    With a burning spear and a horse of air,
    To the wilderness I wander.
    By a knight of ghostes and shadowes
    I summon'd am to tourney
    Ten leagues beyond the wild world's end.
    Methinks it is no journey.


    (Alas and lackaday, Spell Check still miserably fails English 101)

    Ce qui, je souci? À tout à l'heure.

    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    Rubin Navarette on the Change of Hispanic Demographics in the U.S.

    Ruben Navarette makes the assertion that "The United States is becoming an Hispanic country. And it's happening much faster than anyone expected." His OP-ED piece is very interesting reading.

    Is America becoming becoming a Hispanic Country?

    He may be overstating it a bit, but the basis of his thesis seems to be sound. 

    "The real story isn't what's happening in Texas, California, Florida or New York, which have long been home to significant numbers of Hispanics. It's about the demographic changes in states such as Alabama, Louisiana, Kansas and Maryland, where Hispanics are a relatively new commodity -- and the accommodations that have to be made between new arrivals and longtime residents." (and Utah!. They are indeed ready for a refreshing of their cloistered bloodlines.)
    "... maybe you [...have already...] figured out that the Hispanic population in the United States was exploding when you saw the quixotic efforts of some to stop the trend by cracking down on illegal immigration and -- for an encore -- trying to limit legal immigration as well."

    I find this one of the most telling points that he makes,
    "But in states such as [... California, Florida, ...], Arizona, Texas, Colorado and New Mexico, you also have Hispanic families that can trace their American roots back hundreds of years"   
    In fact, many Amierican mestizos can trace their ancestry to our indigenous people.  

    In fact, St. Augustine Florida, was founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers and is the oldest continuously occupied European established city or port the the continental U.S. The southwest U.S. was Spanish controlled a hundred years or more before it was ceded to the U.S. at the end of the Mexican-American war. California was settled by the Spanish 80 years before the Mexican American war. Many Americans of Spanish ancestry trace their ancestors to 18th century or much earlier.
     "[... Americans ...] should acknowledge the positive impact to their communities ... of people who are, by nature, conservative, hardworking, optimistic, patriotic and entrepreneurial. Hispanics aren't a threat to the United States; they're an essential component. Visit any military cemetery in the United States and count the Spanish surnames. You'll see that Hispanics have already contributed so much to this country"
    Americans like the Cisco Kid's sidekick Pancho, Leo Carillo , who's ancestors go back to the founding of California, have made major contributions to the fabric of American culture.  In Leo's honor, there is the Leo Carrillo State Park, schools named after him, and the Leo Carillo Ranch Historic Park. "Hey Cisco! Hey Pancho!"

    Lest we forget, 3 of the largest and oldest cities in the U.S. are in California and have Spanish names - Los Angeles(1), San Diego, and San Jose.

    Here, in San Jose, California, the 10th largest city in the U.S., there is no ethnic majority. The "Hispanic" community is almost as large as the other European ethnic groups combined, loosely defined as "white"(2); the people of Asian ancestry and others split the difference.  Yet we have the lowest crime rate of any large city in the country. (United States cities by crime_rate). So much for the negative influence of the Mexicans!

    I was lunching with a colleague from back east and he was grousing about why the Mexicans didn't learn to speak English. After all, this was America! I pointed out that we worked at the Santa Teresa Labs and were in a diner on Santa Teresa Blvd., in the City of San Jose, in the County of Santa Clara, in the State of California. 'Nuff said. 

    Yes, America is a country of immigrants and the Spanish settled in the U.S. in the 16th century at the same time as other European immigrants. They're here for the long haul.

    à tout à l'heure
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    (1) El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula has the honor of the shortest abbreviation of any city in the world, L.A.

    (2) I detest the racial sobriquet of "white". We respect other ethnic backgrounds such as African Americans. I insist that I am an English-American, not "white". After all, my ancestors are immigrants from England, going back to 1729 and as late as 1914,  and all of them are proud Americans.

    Thursday, March 17, 2011

    Weather Forcasting, Macro Studies, and the Butterfly Effect


     The butterfly effect is a classic example in chaos theory that if you change the initial conditions slightly, the result can vary widely, i.e., since our weather patterns start in Siberia, supposedly a butterfly flapping its wings there changes the weather in the US, or how medical macro study results can vary widely based on how they choose their basis studies.

    "The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely, a small change at one place in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere."

    "[... it has...] the practical consequence of making complex systems [...predidictions...], such as the weather, difficult to predict past a certain time range (approximately a week in the case of weather), since it is impossible to measure the starting atmospheric conditions completely accurately." No matter how big the computer you use to try and forecast it!!!

     
    The Farmer's Almanac is probably just as accurate at forecasting the weather because its based on historical not hysterical data (the weather seers on TV are anchor wannabees; for an example of their chances, see how far Fannie Flagg rose in the profession). An entomologist has about as much chance at predicting the weather longer than 5 days ahead as does the weather seer. And any seaman tries to predict the weather for the next day with marginal success, “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning”. (Black skies at noon, sailor's swoon).

    The butterfly effect has a lot of bearing on the results of a medical macro studies. The researchers "carefully" choose the studies on which they want to base their results. A different basis and the results will be give a different result, yet they are reported as the latest "fact" in the medical journals and media. How contradictory studies are there about the efficacy of vitamins in general or low dosage aspirin to prevent heart attacks?


    "Theres a sucker born every minute", attributed to P.T. Barnum


    à tout à l'heure
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    The inanity of "The Mistake of the Machine" by G.K. Chesterton

    "The Wisdom of Father Brown"

    Excerpts from "The Mistake of the Machine"

    By G. K. Chesterton


    "The [...psychometric...] has been guaranteed by some of the best American men of science."


    (A precursor to the "modern" lie detector machine. His remarks speak to why they are inadmissible as court evidence and only verify the "facts" of a witch hunt.)

    "What sentimentalists men of science are! ... and such more sentimental must American men of science be! Who but a Yankee would think of proving anything from heart throbs? Why, they must be as sentimental as a man who thinks a woman is in love with him if she blushes. That's a test of the the blood, discovered by the immortal Harvey; and a jolly rotten one, too"

    (His remark about Yankees applies to ALL scientists.  His is the usual parochial arrogant British dismissal of people of the "foreign countries" - Hrrmph! Bah, Hum-bug! (see the remarks about sticks, below). Only a very few British scientists are in their Academy of Science and fewer still have won the Nobel Prize (if there were one for arrogance, the British and Americans would be neck and neck)

    Who, but an Englishman "would think of proving anything from heart throbs"? Chesterton must really have had his head in the sand. He seems to overlooked the work of Alexander Muirhead (1848–1920), Chesterton's contemporary ( (1874 – 1936), who he is credited with recording the first human electrocardiogram.

    Scientists are often sentimentalists, rummaging around with all sorts of theories that get left by the wayside or discarded by newer theories. For example, the raging debate on why the dinosaurs disappeared, each as likely as another. Personally, I think the dinosaurs were bored to death listening to the scientists quarrel.)




     "There's disadvantage in a stick pointing straight. What is it? Why, the other end points the opposite way. It depends whether you get hold of the stick by te right end."

    ( Where the stick is pointed is only as good as the person who points it, i.e., a tool is as useful as the person who uses it and interprets the results. Chesterton should take his own advice about sticks - he points, but the stick points back to him)



    "No machine can lie", said Father Brown, "nor can it tell the truth

    ( Machines are disinterested and insensitive. There is a reason why they are called Automatons. Artificial intelligence is that, artificial. Garbage in/garbage out (GIGO) does not take into account the errors introduced by the limitations for the interpreter (inventor)).









    In another story, G.K. dismisses adherents of protestant sects as non-Christians.

    (Typical Catholic arrogance. Ecumenicism, as long as recognize the primacy of the Pontiff and you do it the Catholic way.)

    In yet another story in the same book, G.K. mentions that Atheists cannot succeed because they have no center

    (What utter rubbish. Brights have a perfectly good center - the wondrous natural universe around us. People who have their "center" in the supernatural and mystical are, as Dawkins puts it, delusional.  "God moves in mysterious ways" is only a cop out for someone who does not want to take responsibility for themselves.)


    Hrrmph! Bah, Hum-bug! Chesterton is so one sided and biased that I threw the book in the trash.  Reason, as it is for all Christian apologists, is not his forte. False premises can be used to prove anything.

    à tout à l'heure
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    Random observations about power outages in sunny California

    Required reading. THEY WILL not BE A QUIZ ON THIS MATERIAL.

    We rarely have power outages here in the flatlands barring a major earthquake. At most, the outages are very localized. At worst, they take a couple of hours to fix.

    Apartment complexes

    • The electric gates keep the riff-raff out. They keep the tenants IN. They also keep emergency vehicles out (except huge battering rams like fire engines)
    • The noise level in an apartment complex does not abate. All the gardeners' tools are gasoline powered!
    • When they manually open the gates, the dance of the tutu'd trash trucks begins (1).
    Traffic
    • With the signal lights out, there can be traffic jams as bad as freeway jams, probably worse. I was trying to get to my diner for breakfast and couldn't get onto the 6 lane "surface" street going north (El Camino Real). I went south instead. I measured a two mile back-up and it probably was much longer.
    • You might not hear the sirens on emergency vehicles. I almost t-boned an ambulance with siren blaring and lights ablaze if it weren't for ABS brakes and good treads.(2) I suppose I heard the siren at some level, but I did not HEAR the siren. I live at the confluence of 3 major major routes for emergency vehicles. We hear them 24 hours a day. But the only way you can keep your sanity is to learn to ignore the sirens. So, in a real sense, I did not hear the ambulance coming because it was only background noise to me.
    Communications
    • Unless its really catastrophic, like an earthquake(3), your cell phone can be a life saver - if you keep it charged (you can't recharge it).
    • Portable radios are only one way, you can hear, but you can't send
    • Your computer won't work because it needs a powered modem. Your WI-FI won't work because it needs the modem.
    • If your phone line goes through an answering machine, your phone is dead. You need a line directly to the phone (phone power is separate)
    • If you don't have batteries in all your digital clocks, you will be greeted by flashing displays.
    • Your TV telecasts are improved - you can't turn it on (smirk). It has replaced religion as the
    TV is useless in an emergency
    • TV reports that you have a power outage. Duh, if I can't turn the TV or lights on, don't you think that I already know about it!
    • If I can't turn it on, what good is the report to me anyway?
    • "Scientific" TV weather forecasting depends on butterflies in Siberia. You get better odds on Blackjack in Vegas than you do on weather reports. (51% for the house, 49% for the punter)
    • The TV reports power outages of 100 people on a square block, out of 6,000,000 people in 4,000 square miles just as breathlessly and with the same level of controlled panic as they do the tsunami in Japan (and, as with all news, after the fact)
    • TV NEVER,NEVER, NEVER gives an estimate when power will be restored. Kinda of irrelevant anyway (see above). They report, as if it were news, the usual "not my fault" and whine about why they can't report because they couldn't talk to anybody. How about this for a thought? Maybe people are too busy to talk to reporters. In my book, fixing the problem is more important than reporting it to Great Aunt Sue in Kalamazoo.
    • TV never reports major backups on "surface" streets. The TV reports all about slow traffic on the freeways. I've never understood this. Since accidents are random occurrences and you could be in a jam within minutes, what good is the report? If you're in your car, hopefully you are not watching TV (or is it your accident that is causing the jam?). Every day, at 7:00 a.m., they report a traffic jam on the Waldo grade. Why is that news? . Every day, at 7:00 a.m., there is the same traffic jam on the Waldo grade.(As the editor said, I get a zillion "dog bites man" stories a day, get me a "man-bites dog" story).
    • Or do you really miss losing 1/3 of your life watching commercials.
    Have you ever noticed the sardonic confusion between the meanings of "laconic" and "loquacious" or that "blither" is just a variation of "blather".

    P.S. If you haven't guessed it, the power is back on
    P.P.S. The quiz has been postponed to St. Swithin's day next.

    TTFN
    “Fall Down Seven Times, Get Up Eight"
    (Bright)

    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    (1) in an apartment complex, the dance is almost continual because of the large number of people that need to be serviced; the noise level is not at trash can level, but huge trash bins
    (2) good tires are still the most important safety feature on your car. ABS breaks mean diddly if the tires don't grip
    (3) the idiotic news reports every earthquake 2.0 we get the bay area. The quakes don't even have a rating on the Fujitsu scale. On the Richter scale, under 4.0, they are "Often felt, but rarely cause damage". There are over 1,100 2.0 worldwide a day. There is only about 1 8.0 Great earthquake yearly worldwide (Indonesia, Japan). The one in Haiti was only about 7.0, but the damage was wide spread because of the extremely poor infrastructure).

    Thursday, February 24, 2011

    The Homer Simpson approach to computer Technical Support

    Recently, I have had a series of encounters with "technical support" from several computer companies. In a nutshell, their support has been useless, inane, and even insulting. Homer Simpson could have done a better job.






    My career over the last 42 years has been the technical side of computers. I can safely say that I've been around the block more than once. (1) 



    What I resent is this:
    1. They do not try and open a dialogue. They just assume. 
    2. They assume that I am a "newbie" and assume that I know nothing about computers. 
    3. They assume that I am idiot who does not know how to read or write. If they're so smart, why don't they have a real computer job instead of reading rote answers someone else gives them? 
    4. They have no experience with the product they support. I had a online chat with one such techie and he had to go offline for 5 minutes at a time to get help.
    5. They do not ask me about the environment I'm using. They ALWAYS assume that its windoze and internet "explorer" (2)

    Here are some of the encounters with "technical" support that I have had recently:


    1 - A Canadian ISP. My daughter used a small ISP in Victoria, BC. Several of the family in various parts of the US, who use Yahoo, have had our email rejected by their daemon for one of two reasons. "Too many addressee for this hour" or "Too much time in the queue".  So I contacted their tech support:
    • I got the usual baffle them with BS. "The error message indicates that the Yahoo.com  server has been behaving in a manner which our server considers threatening. This has caused our server to respond automatically by blocking that outgoing mail server in order to protect our customers from the apparent threat. Often, this is the result of a dramatic increase in the volume or type of mail that we have received from that server. This is either caused by spammers (3) in the yahoo system or that their servers have been compromised.
      Some of our customers have reported that the Yahoo mail administrators have been made aware and are investigating the causes of the issue on their end. Please note that this is not something that [… we …] can resolve directly since the problems are occurring at the Yahoo mail servers. There's a reason why Yahoo is being blocked and this is the something that the Yahoo administrators must work on in order that their servers are no longer triggering [… our …] spam filters to block them
      If the problem persists, it will be necessary for the sender's mail admins to fill out a form online as a request to be removed from the block"
    • Yahoo's problem? I send email to at least a dozen different ISP's from Yahoo (such as Gmail, hotmail, earthlink, etc., including two different ones in England). The only time I've had them rejected is with "Addressee Unknown" when I've given a bad email address. Otherwise, I have NEVER gotten email rejected from any of these ISP's for any other reason. Hm. I can send email all over half the world and it does not get rejected except by some little company in Canada. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
    • "If the problem persists, it will be necessary for the sender's mail admins to fill out a form online as a request to be removed from the block" What what?Why does this little Podunk company require me to fill out an exception request. No other ISP in the Western world requires it and I can communicate with them without any problem.
    • I then tried sending email at various times of the day including before 5 a.m. Surprise, Surprise. The 5 a.m. email got through, the latter ones were rejected. Hm. "Too many addressees this hour", "too much time in the queue", it works off peak but not during peak hours. It sounds like a capacity problem, it acts like a capacity problem. Maybe they ought to look at their capacity issues.
    • Bottom line: My daughter switched to GMail and the problem went away.
    • It sounds like somebody in Canada has their toque's on too tight and are wearing snow blinders.
    2. A recognized "leader" in financial software.  I wanted to start my budgeting fresh for 2011 without any reference to 2010 because last year was disastrous for me and I need  a strong budget approach. Their financial software regularly queries my various accounts, and gives a monthly accounting for my budget. All well and good, except it kept confusing things with 2010 data. I asked their tech support as to how I could start afresh. Their replies were:
    • "It doesn't work like the others". What others? My toaster? The phases of the moon? Please give a hint!
    • "Read the manual and search the forum". Duh, why didn't I think of that. Rule one in life: RTFM. I read the manual - it has no technical information, it is only a long sales document. Rule two: Ask other people. The forum dialogues are about as useful as Facebook, a lot of "I have the same problem" and "have you tried?".
    • I asked if I could delete the 2010 transactions and their reply is that I have to wait 3 months for it to rollover. Based on their other uninformed answers, I deleted 2010 transactions and it almost worked correctly. 
    • Bottom line, I was so disgusted with their support, I got my money back.
    • (I should have known the trouble I was getting into when they introduced themselves as Rajit, Pathi, and the like)

    I was having trouble logging in a new service. 
    • Dear Member, If you are not able to log in into your account, please ensure that you are using the correct username and password.  If you have forgotten your username/password, please go to ... Duh, am I stupid or what. Why didn't I think of that!!!  
    • We have provided your log in information.  Please verify that you are typing in your username exactly how it appears. Uh, yep, I tried that - several times. Why did I call your help desk first?
    • Please make sure you try the following before you log in:
    Obviously, these exact instructions are for Internet Explorer. Though similar, FireFox and Safari have the same stuff hidden in other places.
    1. Open a New (Internet Explorer) Browser
    2. Choose "Tools" (in other browsers, the information they wanted me to change is under "preferences")
    3. Click on "Internet Options" 
    4. Click on "Delete Cookies" (SAY WHAT?)
    5. Click on "Delete Temp Internet Files" (AGAIN, SAY WHAT? How ham handed can you get?)
    6. Then click "Settings" and choose "Every Visit to the Page" (AHA, inadvertently, a real clue)
    7. LASTLY, RESTART YOUR COMPUTER !! Are we still in the dark ages !! - to change a few cookies in a browser!
    Well, while awaiting their reply, I switched from FireFox to Safari (I have been having recurring problems using FireFox to log in to various sites)(4) et voila, the problem disappeared. A quick search of FireFox forums (5) told me why I was having the problem and what to do to fix it. I checked a box in preferences about cookies and it worked.
    • I did not have to start a new browser
    • I did not have to delete all or any cookies, 
    • I did not have to restart the browser. The changes were made on the fly. 
    • most of all I DID NOT HAVE TO RESTART MY COMPUTER
    • ticking the box in preferences has fixed all my FireFox log in problems
    • I did, however, cancel the "service".
    To summarize, the score is consumer 3, service providers 0. Why? Because they gave such poor support we switched services and got our money back.


    ----------------------------------------------------


    (1) A little background. I'm a graduate in Math and English at a university respected worldwide with a fair amount of Nobel prize winners. My career has been working with computers since the early 70's with fortune 500 companies, including IBM and at Amdahl. I have been an applications programmer adept at least a dozen different computer languages including FORTRAN, PL/I C, Java, and machine language for three different computer architectures.  I am an expert in the internals of IBM mainframe operating systems. I have used pc's since the early DOS days and have pretty much used every level of windoze up until Vista. I have exclusively used Apple equipment and software since OS X, because my experience says that windoze is a piece of junk, witness VISTA. I have been both an beta and an ALPHA tester of various operating system software and hardware, including LINUX and IBM's SHARK. I have traveled all over the US as on site technical support and had accounts that I visited in New Zealand and Austria.


    (2) If "I.E." is so good, then why do other companies have to come out with things like Safari FireFox, Opera, Chrome, and a whole lot of others.  68% of market uses something else besides I.E.. FireFox owns 28%- it is quite likely that the browser is FireFox. 


    If windoze is so good, why do sophisticated users knowingly spend more money for Apple OS X and hardware??? Answer: windoze caters to the inexperienced user who does not know that they are being duped. 


    (3) My pet peeve is that spell checkers need a college education in English. I have to dumb down my emails and blogs just to find typing errors. It knows about "spam", but not "spammer" or "spammers". Try typing in the plural of millennium, millennia.


    (4) Every browser has it faults.  My preference is FireFox because it has a richer variety of extensions, add-ons, and themes than Safari. it has a wider variety of add-ons and custom "skins". Besides, I had to switch from Safari because its java looped while trying to send an email from Yahoo. But I have to use Safari when using this blogger because FireFox jumps the screen every time this blogger saves this blog. I don't use I.E. because I don't want to have to restart my computer to make minuscule changes.


    (5) The FireFox forums are vastly superior to the mere application forums like the one I mentioned above. It is inhabited by sophisticated computer user and its developers. Apples forums are pretty good, but they have been dumbed down and you sometimes have to contact them directly. 


    IBM can have the "over whelm the enemy" approach. But IBM has an excellent support line used by expert computer callers. You call in to Level 1, who tries to answer with pre-canned answers. If the customer is not satisfied with the answer, they have Level 2 call the customer. Level 2 only deals with that one product, has all the reams of IBM documentation for it and the source code. After a good bit of research, if they cannot answer the question, it is moved to Level 3, who are experts on the product and how it works. They have all the info that Level 2, plus field experience with the product, plus direct access to the developers (a cranky lot, to say the least). If there still is no answer, it opened as a bug, and IBM hates bug - the Problem gets the attention of the developers. (I was level 3 on storage software and hardware for awhile but I moved on to more interesting things.)
    TTFN
    (Bright)

    Monday, February 14, 2011

    "Man Killed After Hitting Sound Barrier in Concord, CA"

    The news crawler on the local TV station had the headline,

    "Man Killed After Hitting Sound Barrier in Concord"

    No further explanation was given.

    We could only speculate:
    • Was he blown up, the pieces of him exceeding the sound barrier as they flew apart?
    • Did his jet plane go into a dive, increasing its speed until it fell apart as it hit the sound barrier?
    • Was he driving a rocket car which disentegrated when it hit the sound barrier? Was he evading the police to avoid a ticket?
    • Was he wearing a jet pack that exceeded its limits?
    • Was he an alien who's UFO failed? 
    (The UFO issue brings up a whole lot of questions: if it landed, would it be an ILO - identified landing object; if an alien came from outer space, would he be an illegal alien, subject to INS scrutiny? After it landed, would he need a visa?)

    Unfortunately, what happened was much more mundane. The reporter asked the CHP officer what had happened and the reply he got was "the vehicle sustained major damage after striking a brick sound barrier running along the eastbound highway"

    "According to the CHP, a sound barrier is a large wall built to shield neighboring homes from the noise generated by traffic."

    TTFN
    (Bright)

    Sunday, February 6, 2011

    Roller Derby Reemerges as a Recognized Sport

    We have a burgeoning women's flat track roller derby team at one of the last local roller rinks here in the Santa Clara Valley, in the San Franciso Bay area. They're the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (SVRG), sanctioned by a national organization, the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) with teams all over the US (See the movie "Whip It "). Roller derby has now gained international recognition, as a member of the USA Roller Sports (USARS) and the USA Olympic Committee.

    The derbies have gotten so popular that the games are sold out at least a week in advance.

    Its a family affair, noted with signs at the door, an announcement over the PA, carding at the beer stand and 3 burly, fit, Police Sergeants (i.e., experienced field supervisors; in San Jose, they can have 1/2 dozen officers there in minutes if the need arose). Attendees range from infants in arms to senior citizens (like me) Although beer is on sale, the place does not get rowdy, even given the small venue and the noise level. Its just plain fun for everyone.

    The preteen girls emulate their favorite skater, not some rock star. The skaters use such names as Beth Sentence, Cyn Tax,  Cole Cocked, Booty Vicious, Bozo Disposo, Catherine Beata Bones, Death by Dollface, Rot Wheels, Belle Winger, Retox Fox, Lindsay Lowhanded and the like. Some of coaches and refs are Left Turn Only (skating the other way is a no-no), Texas Tea Bag, Frida Khill*ya, the Seven Year Bitch, Weavin Kohl Bear, and Jonny Demonic.  LOL.

    Even though its a fast, rough, knock down sport, the women, in "real life" are school teachers, office workers and managers, high tech specialists (after all, it is Silicon Valley), retail sales clerks, waitresses, and many other backgrounds of every differnet marital status. They use roller derby to work out their aggressions!.  In civvies, you would never guess that they play such a rough sport (though the bumps and bruises might show in a bikini). Except for a few, none of them are alternative or have tattoos.

    Also, there are more and more lesbian couples, from mid twenties to mid forties. Its a sport that they can embrace. The Bulls were easily distinguishable from their femmes. For most, Saturday night was their first time at the derby, though its been going on for over two years.

    And the BDSM crowd with leather bustiers are coming out (pardon the pun on closets and bustiers)

    I just hope that they can find a better venue as the one they are in might be torn down and turned into yet another apartment complex (greed over quality of life everytime, except for the rich man's golf courses!).


    TTFN
    (Bright)

    Noted in Passing 2011/02/06

    1 - Headline: "Bar fight Escalates into Melee"
    1.  "bar fight" - most everyone knows what that means. Many have actually been participants.
    2. "escalates" - this a bit harder, maybe advanced 12th grade or maybe some college English required.
    3. "melee" - rarely used, college English major or History major. melee: a confused hand-to-hand fight amount several people (a brawl)
    Judging from the videos, "melee" was the correct choice, with at least a dozen or more involved with no visible organization! How did this slip through the wallahs at the local TV station? Back in the days, when news had to pass by an editor, it would have been dumbed down to "Bar fight turns into drunken brawl". Have we actually got an intelligent reporter out there?

    2 - To fill the enormous amount of air time before the Super Bowl, they were having the usual inane celebrity interviews, one of which was with Jennifer Anniston and Adam Sandler.  It drifted into a comparison between her hair (it was windy) and his bad movies. The comparison ended up undecided!

    3 - Of course, my mind drifted into musing about where Jennifer fits into the scheme of things. She seems to be in the tradition of silly, adorable, lovable, one note personnas ala Carole Lombard, Zazu Pitts, Lucy, Suzanne Summers, Farrah Fawcet, Meg Ryan, Reese Witherspoon and so on who seems to fit a need for light comic, romantic relief in each generation (though Lucy, Farrah, and Reese can also do serious drama). Catherine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, and some others were/are capable of switching between this persona and many others (I deliberately discount Sandra Bullock, who, IMHO, is not credible in any genre). Heaven forbid that Jennifer could do anything but look cute, smile, and whimper. 

    Reading between the lines, she seems to be a shallow, boring person, though very, very rich. Brad Pitt mentioned that she always had to go to the same Mexican Restaurant every Thursday night and have the same order. She seems incapable of making any long term romantic liaison. She seems to take almost all of her vacations with Courtney Cox. She is most famous for her one note character, Rachel, from "Friends", and most of her awards have been from the Teen Choice Awards or People's choice awards, mostly also as an also ran. Have you noticed how television has slid from such cutting edge programs like the various anthologies featuring top rate actors (so and so presents), Cid Caesar, Ernie Kovacs, Phil Slivers, Lucy, All In The Family, to such mindless pap as "The Seinfeld" and "Friends". (shame on you, Capt. - resorting to gossip)

    (when are they going to get a college educated Spell Check!)

    TTFN

    Tuesday, January 25, 2011

    The TSA has criminalized the US citizen









    The TSA has criminalized the average US citizen. In their eyes, everyone is a guilty criminal until proven innocent! Under US common law and international law, one is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The TSA has got it backwards.


    "...somehow [... the TSA has to provide security ...] without treating everyone from frequent business travelers to the family heading home to visit grandma as a potential terrorist.
     "

    "Over time, TSA has settled into a pattern of issuing directives with little explanation and expecting they be followed. But increasingly fed-up travelers don't understand the agency's sense of urgency and aren't buying it."

    ""They're very expensive and what they (TSA officials) should be able to do is answer if it does reduce the risk, how much does it reduce the risk and is it worth it?"

    "The TSA has spent roughly $40 billion dollars. The ability of TSA screeners to stop prohibited items being carried through sterile areas of airports fared no better than the performance of the screeners prior to September 11, 2001"


    The TSA has become paranoid and has overstepped its authority and all bounds of decency.

    The TSA is flaunting the fourth amendment that guarantees American citizens against unreasonable search and seizure. Other law enforcement agencies need a warrant to invade a person's privacy. Body searches, thus far, have been by the police with reason to believe a person has committed a crime. Yet the TSA sidesteps the fourth amendment whenever a person refuses to submit to intimate body scans. These searches are offensive, touching the most intimate parts of a citizen's body. This is sexual harassment. By what right does the TSA have to do this?

    What justifies this intrusion of privacy? What justifies this illegal search? What incidents were there with the metal detectors? A precious few, none leading to any serious incident. The paranoid TSA has perpetrated an enormous boondoggle,  spending hundreds of millions of dollars to allow them to exceed the limits of the bill of rights.

    They have not shown than the abrogation of a citizens rights and the expense they have incurred is justified by the facts at hand.

    They have become an uncontrollable bureaucracy, unaccountable to anyone, least of all the US citizen.

    TTFN 

    (Bright)