Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Earthquake!
Obamacare debacle update...
Obamacare debacle update... Because your morning needs a little schadenfreude...
7 takeaways from the new Obamacare sign-up data... Peter Suderman, writing at Reason, does the dissection for us...
Obamacare kills... Don't think so? Read this, then this ... and then think hard about this. Were the first two stories the consequence of glitches and mistakes – or were they deliberate strategies suggested by the progressive attitudes in the third story? I don't have any way to know, but I'm certainly not going to dismiss the possibility of the latter...
Does Massachusetts hold hope for ObamaCare? We've seen several stories in the past few days that claim ObamaCare will all work out in the end, just like RomneyCare did in Massachusetts. Megan McArdle looks at that notion...
ObamaCare's sex problem... James Taranto is on it... At the end of the linked edition of “Best of the Web Today” (under “Chicken Hawks?”), Taranto gave me my laugh for the day:
7 takeaways from the new Obamacare sign-up data... Peter Suderman, writing at Reason, does the dissection for us...
Obamacare kills... Don't think so? Read this, then this ... and then think hard about this. Were the first two stories the consequence of glitches and mistakes – or were they deliberate strategies suggested by the progressive attitudes in the third story? I don't have any way to know, but I'm certainly not going to dismiss the possibility of the latter...
Does Massachusetts hold hope for ObamaCare? We've seen several stories in the past few days that claim ObamaCare will all work out in the end, just like RomneyCare did in Massachusetts. Megan McArdle looks at that notion...
ObamaCare's sex problem... James Taranto is on it... At the end of the linked edition of “Best of the Web Today” (under “Chicken Hawks?”), Taranto gave me my laugh for the day:
Among other reasons, Seahawks management apparently is scared of 49ers fans, who "made their presence known in several opposing stadiums."Yup, that certainly is a scary person from San Francisco!
One reader who sent us this tip mocked the Hawks, writing: "How big of a bunch of [cowards] are you if you're afraid of people from San Francisco?" We chuckled, but we realized he was wrong when we thought of Nancy Pelosi.
Exciting event!
I have two extra tickets for an exciting event in Tennessee next weekend. Robbie Knievel (son of Evel) is going to attempt a death defying jump over 1000 Obama supporters and 30 IRS agents with a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer. It should be an exciting event to watch.Oh, man, I can hardly wait!
Geek: the ampere, redefined...
Geek: the ampere, redefined... Most of the fundamental units involved in electronics have long since been defined in terms of an observable physical phenomenon that's readily repeatable. This is actually quite a crucial need for metrology – the science of measurement that is a crucial underpinning for the entire electronics industry, mainly through applied metrology in the form of the calibration of electronic instruments.
But one of the most fundamental of electrical units – the ampere (the unit of electrical current) – has always been defined in much more ambiguous terms. It looks like that may be about to change, though.
My last assignment in the US Navy was to our shipboard metrology lab, where I first ran into the whole idea of calibration – far more interesting than I had imagined. We had a few requirements on the ship for very high precision measurements, mainly related to the nuclear reactors and some of the weapons systems on board. The two most challenging things for us to calibrate were precision ammeters (current-measuring devices) and precision calorimeters (you could think of them as fancy, very precise thermometers). In both cases we needed references whose calibration was traceable to NIST by no more than two steps. I don't know how hard that is today, but back then (mid-'70s) getting those references generally involved a shipment from NIST labs in Maryland or Colorado, and the references had to be used within a few days – otherwise their values might drift. The reason we had to go to those extremes was the lack of a definition in terms of observable physical phenomena – that forced the entire calibration chain to be dependent on standards held at the NIST labs...
But one of the most fundamental of electrical units – the ampere (the unit of electrical current) – has always been defined in much more ambiguous terms. It looks like that may be about to change, though.
My last assignment in the US Navy was to our shipboard metrology lab, where I first ran into the whole idea of calibration – far more interesting than I had imagined. We had a few requirements on the ship for very high precision measurements, mainly related to the nuclear reactors and some of the weapons systems on board. The two most challenging things for us to calibrate were precision ammeters (current-measuring devices) and precision calorimeters (you could think of them as fancy, very precise thermometers). In both cases we needed references whose calibration was traceable to NIST by no more than two steps. I don't know how hard that is today, but back then (mid-'70s) getting those references generally involved a shipment from NIST labs in Maryland or Colorado, and the references had to be used within a few days – otherwise their values might drift. The reason we had to go to those extremes was the lack of a definition in terms of observable physical phenomena – that forced the entire calibration chain to be dependent on standards held at the NIST labs...
This is quite an interesting team!
This is quite an interesting team! The new Blackphone is put together by a team with several members that I'm familiar with: Phil Zimmerman, Jon Callas, Mike Janke, and Mike Kershaw. There are some strong personalities in that group, and a lot of technical expertise.
I don't know a thing about the product itself (a mobile phone oriented toward privacy and security). I like the idea in a very general sense, but I wonder how many people and companies have to be trusted to keep it secure – and, post-Snowden, I have to wonder how long it will take the NSA to weasel their way in. Or do they have a collaborator on the team?
Here's some paranoid thinking for you: if you were the NSA, and you were getting annoyed by the security features on commercial cellphones, wouldn't starting a company to make supposedly secure cellphones that you've built a backdoor into be the perfect ploy? Mind you, I'm not suggesting that the NSA has done this with the Blackphone. I'm just pointing out the kind of scenarios that you must consider when you know what the NSA has already done.
Another example: I read a completely unsubstantiated rumor in the comments of a post on a security-related blog, to the effect that John Chambers (long time CEO of Cisco) was an ex-NSA employee who had built Cisco as, effectively, a captive subsidiary of the NSA. And I didn't completely dismiss it immediately. Paranoia is becoming a frame of mind whenever I think of computer security...
I don't know a thing about the product itself (a mobile phone oriented toward privacy and security). I like the idea in a very general sense, but I wonder how many people and companies have to be trusted to keep it secure – and, post-Snowden, I have to wonder how long it will take the NSA to weasel their way in. Or do they have a collaborator on the team?
Here's some paranoid thinking for you: if you were the NSA, and you were getting annoyed by the security features on commercial cellphones, wouldn't starting a company to make supposedly secure cellphones that you've built a backdoor into be the perfect ploy? Mind you, I'm not suggesting that the NSA has done this with the Blackphone. I'm just pointing out the kind of scenarios that you must consider when you know what the NSA has already done.
Another example: I read a completely unsubstantiated rumor in the comments of a post on a security-related blog, to the effect that John Chambers (long time CEO of Cisco) was an ex-NSA employee who had built Cisco as, effectively, a captive subsidiary of the NSA. And I didn't completely dismiss it immediately. Paranoia is becoming a frame of mind whenever I think of computer security...
Net neutrality is dead...
Net neutrality is dead... Well, not quite. But all the progressives and rent-seekers are squealing nicely, so I'm happy about it. This is one of those complicated issues that can be analyzed quite simply by just listening to see who's not happy...
Coincidence? You decide...
Coincidence? You decide... A Facebook post by Chuck Heath, who happens to be Sarah Palin's brother:
Paul Caron, writing at the TaxProf Blog, has been posting about this scandal every day since it first broke, 251 days ago today. If you want to know what the status of the scandal is (and especially what facts have been discovered), his place is the place to go...
Coincidence? You decide.I don't understand why so few people seem to be upset by the politicization of the IRS.
My father, who worked multiple jobs and faithfully and honestly paid his taxes for fifty years, had never heard a word from the IRS. In 2008, his daughter was tapped to run for vice president of the United States. Since that time, he has been, in his words "horribly harassed" six times by the agency. They've tried to dig up something on him but he's always operated above board.
Government and politics are ugly. Kudos to the few that are trying to clean it up.
Paul Caron, writing at the TaxProf Blog, has been posting about this scandal every day since it first broke, 251 days ago today. If you want to know what the status of the scandal is (and especially what facts have been discovered), his place is the place to go...
Oops...
Oops... The Israelis let slip what they really think of Kerry's efforts to broker a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. Though I have to wonder whether that slip was really accidental or not...
Incandescent bulbs are back!
Incandescent bulbs are back! This caught me completely by surprise, as I thought the issue was politically kaput. The budget deal just agreed by the bipartisan negotiations (and which That One has already said he'd sign) includes some side-agreements (that's business as usual for our crazy legislature). One of those side-agreements defunds all enforcement of the Bush-era energy standards that effectively banned incandescent bulbs. It's not complete victory, as the standards are still on the books – but at least they won't be enforced.
The lamestream media is covering this story, but in a low-key manner – and is mindlessly mouthing the support of the environmentalist wackos and bemoaning the loss of the rules. Not a single story mentioned the fact that the major support for this bill comes from the rent-seeking lobbying of Philips and General Electric, who were after a government mandate to replace every light bulb with newer, less reliable, higher margin replacements. And of course there wasn't a single story about the fact that the quality of the light from incandescent bulbs is different (and, for most people, markedly better) than the alternative technologies available today. Nope, they just want to tell me what to do, because they know how to spend my money much better than I do!
The lamestream media is covering this story, but in a low-key manner – and is mindlessly mouthing the support of the environmentalist wackos and bemoaning the loss of the rules. Not a single story mentioned the fact that the major support for this bill comes from the rent-seeking lobbying of Philips and General Electric, who were after a government mandate to replace every light bulb with newer, less reliable, higher margin replacements. And of course there wasn't a single story about the fact that the quality of the light from incandescent bulbs is different (and, for most people, markedly better) than the alternative technologies available today. Nope, they just want to tell me what to do, because they know how to spend my money much better than I do!
Delivering 5mb of storage, circa 1956...
The caption on that photo says it's “memory”, but I recognize the internals that are exposed in the photo through the open side panel – they are very much like the IBM disk drives that I worked on when I was in the US Navy, in the early '70s. Those hoses you see toward the left really are hoses – for the high-pressure hydraulic system that positioned the read/write heads on that beast. A couple of times I worked on disks that had developed a hydraulic system leak. What a mess! Large quantities of sticky, purplish fluid were all over everything – and in one case, when a pinhole leak had developed in a hose, the skinny stream of fluid had cut right through wires and printed circuit boards! The failure modes for electronic systems were a little different back then :)
Judith Curry, meet Friedrich von Hayek...
Judith Curry, meet Friedrich von Hayek... What happens when an honest and open-minded climatologist discovers the economist who faced down the uncertainties and complexities of modern economies? I can't summarize it in any useful way, but it's darned interesting!
If That One had any honor at all, he'd resign...
If That One had any honor at all, he'd resign... I'm not holding my breath for that event, though. What's provoked me this morning is the news that in Obama's very first briefing on the Benghazi attack of 9/11/2012, he was told that it was an attack, not some overblown reaction to a video. What that means, of course, is that Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Susan Rice all lied to the American public, repeatedly, and long after they knew the truth about who killed our ambassador and his bodyguards, and what provoked it.
They lied for political purpose, plain and simple, and apparently without any shame at all. The narrative is more important to them than the truth. They are without honor, and unworthy of our respect...
They lied for political purpose, plain and simple, and apparently without any shame at all. The narrative is more important to them than the truth. They are without honor, and unworthy of our respect...
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon...
Le Chambon-sur-Lignon... Yesterday, I happened across the story of the French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon during WWII; despite all my reading about WWII, I had never heard the story before, and it's an inspiring one. The people of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon saved about 5,000 Jews from the Nazis, at great personal cost and at considerable risk to themselves. There are many stories like this from WWII, but this particular one was new to me, and notable for the number of people they saved.
But what really caught my eye was the mention that the residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon were mainly Huguenot – a French Protestant sect that had itself been much persecuted (by the French government). Their memory of that persecution was part of their motivation to save the Jews.
My ancestors, on my father's side, were Huguenot refugees from the town of La Touche, not very far from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. They fled for their lives (quite literally), first to the Netherlands, then to England, and finally to America...
But what really caught my eye was the mention that the residents of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon were mainly Huguenot – a French Protestant sect that had itself been much persecuted (by the French government). Their memory of that persecution was part of their motivation to save the Jews.
My ancestors, on my father's side, were Huguenot refugees from the town of La Touche, not very far from Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. They fled for their lives (quite literally), first to the Netherlands, then to England, and finally to America...
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