Universal Health Care

Here is a study that outlines the $1.5 Billion savings that could occur with Universal Health care.

thoughts

Whoever makes love grow boundless, and sets his mind for seeing the end of birth, his fetters are worn thin. If he loves even a single being, Good will follow. But the Noble One with compassionate heart for all mankind, generates abounding good.

The 60s

Take Me Back To The 60s is a great nostalgia ride for people who lived through the 60s. The problem with most nostalgia is that it forgets the unfairness in the world at the time which is strange because most of us focus on the negative things in our past when thinking back in an effort not to make the same mistakes.

windbelt - video

here is an impressive invention that I wished I'd come up with.

pleonasm

Pleonastic word combinations should be removed from literary works with a search and replace. "true fact","safe haven","tuna fish","hot water heater".

urine fertilizer

Diluting urine to a 20:1 mixture will aid the growth of any number of plants.

Women's Finances

This article has some good points about women and money.

Government Corruption

Sites like http://www.copswritingcops.com/home.html really piss me off. Basically, it verifies that Police Officers don't apply the same laws to themselves as they apply to the rest of us. This is corruption pure and simple. It is against the rule of law and a threat to our society. Its time we stopped letting these individuals bully the rest of us.

Police Brutality

Marshall Jack Tiller should be in jail...he is a threat to society. The Roseland, Indiana Police department should be disbanded.

This is just another example of the wrong kind of people in the police forces in the United States.

Another Link.

How to understand men

a) I want to be understood first and loved second.

other information:
I Only Pretends Not to Listen.

I heard what you said. I'm just not interested in hearing it at the moment. Don’t try to give me instructions or talk about your feelings when I'm watching TV, eating, reading, or have just come home from work. I will only be half listening. My mind is on other things like: my day at work, how hungry I am, etc. I can only pay attention to one thing at a time. If I let you think that I'm giving you my full attention, and then you will want to talk to me at these inappropriate moments all the time. If I give you a detailed response, you’ll just continue to talk. If I completely ignore you, you’ll get mad. If I pretend to listen, you will be content and walk away.

I Look at Other Women.

Not because I want to cheat, but because I'm visually stimulated. Getting mad at me for looking is just going to make me sneak a peek. Hey, it’s just a passing glance. It’s not like you don’t check guys out too!

I Need Time Away From You.

I need time to reflect, socialize and just get away from it all. I like to have time to regroup. It doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be with you, it is just an escape to appreciate what I have at home. So lighten up, while I'm out of the house, go do something you enjoy.

I Don't Feel Like Being Bothered Sometimes

You’ve probably asked me to do something several times, but yet I still don't do it in a timely manner. In frustration, you do it yourself. What am I thinking, “Thank Goodness!” I do things at my own pace. You can ask me to take out the trash and three hours later, it’s still there. Technically, I still have time to take out the trash. In my mind, the trash isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, and if you do it yourself, that just makes it better for me.

Yes, I Was Thinking About Sex

If I have a far away look in my eyes or I seem distant I'm thinking about sex. I can’t help it, I think about it several times a day. Wouldn’t you prefer that I think about it several times a day rather than having sex several times a day?

Nothing is Wrong, So Stop Asking Me

Admit it, you see me sitting quietly and you naturally assume something is wrong or has happened. So you ask, “What’s wrong?” and I reply, “Nothing, I’m just thinking.” Well, this answer doesn’t satisfy you, so you ask again throughout the day, which leads to my frustration. I'm reflecting! I'm was probably thinking about how I want to change careers, if you are satisfied and happy with me, how I can make more money, how I don’t want to grow old and fat, or how I would really like to buy that sports car. Ask me once, and then leave it alone. If you really sense something is wrong, give me some time and talk to me when you both feel like talking.

I'm a Conqueror

You just told me about your horrible experience at work. You want me to comfort and console you; instead I give you logical facts about how to solve the problem. You feel cheated. You wanted to share your feelings about the day and all I wanted to do was fix the problem. I like to offer solutions. I'm not concerned about being in touch with my feelings when there’s a conflict. You want to feel understood; I want to make the problem go away. I can’t relate to how you are feeling, so I do what I knows best, helps you to plan a solution.

I Want to Feel Successful.

I needs to feel I have accomplished something in life, and often times that accomplishment is found in my jobs or careers. I don’t like to feel conflicted between work and quality time with my family. To me, if I am working hard to earn money, this will improve the quality of my family’s life.

additional facts:
Why should I remind you that “I love you?” I already told you once.

I’ll do anything for sex

I hate arguing with you. I’d much rather find a compromise.

I love long hair.

When you speak softly, I can’t help but listen.

Please don’t ask me how you look unless you’re willing to trust my answer.

My eyes notice other women a lot more when you are upset with me.

When you’re happy with me I can’t help but want to please you.

If I don’t feel I can make you happy, it makes me feel less than a man.

I expect you to be ready when I pick you up.

I'm scared if I let a woman inside my heart, she'll take advantage of me.

If you can’t stand up to me when I’m a brat, you’re too weak for me to open up to when I’m upset.

Sitting quietly next to me after you’ve made me a meal is your get-out-of-the-doghouse-free ticket. You’ll be surprised how quickly I can forgive.

I don’t read minds. Remember, I’m not a girl.

You may know fashion, but I wish you’d dress to please me, not other women.

When I talk to you about computers and you act bored, it would be nice for you to remember all the times I listened to you talk about what is important to you.

The woman I love is easy to please. She appreciates the effort I put into making her happy, even if I get the details wrong.

You look hot in a dress.

I hate being told what to do when I don’t ask for help. It makes me feel you’re my mother.

During and after sex my ears are as sensitive to your words as your skin is to my touch.

It makes me feel like you trust me when you ask for my advice and then follow it.

It feels competitive when you insist on being in charge.

Being respected is more important to me that being loved.

I want every guy to envy me when we arrive as a couple. Please don’t let yourself go.

When I’m upset I am very tone sensitive. How you say it is more important that what you say.

I hate it when you minimize/ignore my compliments. It makes me want to stop giving them.

I don’t always know how I feel. That’s why I don’t tell you.

I don’t need you to do things for me. What I crave is being able to please you.

If I do one thing and say something contradictory – Go with my actions, that will always tell you what’s in my heart.

I find myself wanting to please you when you simply smile at me without asking for something. (Like a favor).

I really don’t want to hear about any of your ex-boyfriends, regardless of the point.

If I don’t share what I’m thinking it’s because I don’t think you will listen without interrupting.

I don’t like to argue and I don’t like to guess what’s wrong. Just tell me so I can fix it.

I love it when you put your hair in a pony tail.

Don’t ask me, “Are you going to wear that?” when I’m already dressed.

A gentleman should always be respected by his lady in public, even if she is disagreeing with him.

If you don’t believe you’re pretty, you won’t believe me when I tell you, no matter how many times I say it.

It isn’t how much you weigh; it’s that your body is proportionate which is so attractive.

Sometimes I have weird and strange thoughts. I don’t take them seriously and I don’t want to share them with you (or anyone). Sometimes you really don’t want to know what I’m thinking. See above.

I don’t remember everything about our relationship and that doesn’t mean I don’t love you.

I need some time to myself to calm down when I’m upset so that I don’t say something I will regret.

Gold's universal value

Where does gold come from? This explains the amazing story. Were I to live to see us mining the asteroid belt it would be prudent to invest in gold mining companies for the very long haul.

Crime Analysis

This article made me sad. The cause and effect cycle of politics, media, fear, uncertainty, and doubt described in this article have strengthened my liberal resolve.

Email From God Discovered

This is the latest contact we have from our supreme being.

Acronyms

Acronyms are very useful and are impossible to shake as you become more and more specialized in a given field. Using tooltips to display the meaning of acronyms when you scroll over an acronym can really save a reader a lot of headaches.

Social Ostracizing

Perhaps the only way to affect policy in this administration is through its attempts at socializing within the elite social circles of the first lady. This article explains best an approach at doing this. Get the president's wife on your side by refusing her social connections and her selfishness will force policy decisions. Did I mention that this president has the worst opinion of any in the history of the country? Worse than Nixon is a tough thing to do.

Road Deaths

240,000 Americans dead. No word of it in the press. The Cause? Drivers and their cars on our nations roads.

Romance and Intelligence

This article discusses intellectual pursuits compared to romantic pursuits.

James Watson:
"If I had been married earlier in life, I wouldn't have seen the double helix. I would have been taking care of the kids on Saturday. On the other hand, I was lonely a lot of the time."

Death Statistics

guidance

* Most of it doesn’t matter. So much of what I got excited about, anxious about, or wasted my time and energy on, turned out not to matter. There are only a few things that truly count for a happy life. I wish I had known to concentrate on those and ignore the rest.
* The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts. Look at all the terrorists and militant groups that hark back to some event long gone, or base their justification for killing on claims of some supposed historical right to a bit of land, or redress for a wrong done hundreds of years ago.
* Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever. One of the greatest advantages anyone can have is the willingness to make a fool of themselves publicly and often. There’s no better way to learn and develop. Heck, it’s fun too.
* Following the latest fashion, in work or in life, is spiritual and intellectual suicide. You can be a cheap imitation of the ideal of the moment; or you can be a unique individual. The choice is yours. Religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, fashion is.
* If people complain that you’re too fond of going your own way and aren’t fitting in, you must be on the right track. Who wants to live life as a herd animal? The guys in power don’t want you to fit in for your own sake; they want you to stop causing them problems and follow their orders. You can’t have the freedom to be yourself and meekly fit in at the same time.
* If you make your work your life, you’re making your life into hard work. Like most people, I confused myself by looking at people like artists and musicians whose life’s “work” fills their time. That isn’t work. It’s who they are. Unless you have some overwhelming passion that also happens to allow you to earn a living doing it, always remember that work should be a means to an end: living an enjoyable life. Spend as little time on the means as possible consistent with achieving the end. Only idiots live to work.
* The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip. The worst way to spend your time is spreading more. People who spread gossip are the plague-carriers of our day. Cockroaches are clean, kindly creatures in comparison.
* Trying to please other people is largely a futile activity. Everyone will be mad at you sometime. Most of the people you deal with will dislike, disparage, belittle, or ignore what you say or do most of the time. Besides, you can never really know what others do want, so a good deal of whatever you do in that regard will go to waste. Be comforted. Those who love you will probably love you regardless, and they are the ones whose opinions are worth caring about. The rest aren’t worth five minutes of thought between them.
* Every winner is destined to be a loser in due course. It’s great to be up on the winner’s podium. Just don’t imagine you can stay there for ever. Worst of all is being determined to do so, by any means available.
* You can rarely, if ever, please, placate, change, or mollify an asshole. The best thing you can do is stay away from every one you encounter. Being an asshole is a contagious disease. The more time you spend around one, the more likely you are to catch it and become one too.
* Everything takes twice as long as you plan for and produces results about half as good as you hoped. There’s no reason to be downhearted about this. Just allow for it and move on.
* People are oddly consistent. Liars usually tell lies. Cheaters cheat whenever it suits them. A person who confides in you has usually confided in several others first—but not got the response they wanted. A loyal friend will stay loyal under enormous amounts of thoughtless abuse.
* However hard you try, you can’t avoid being yourself. Who else could you be? You can act and pretend, but the person acting and pretending is still you. And if you won’t accept yourself—and do the best you can with what you have—who then has any obligation to accept you?
* When it comes to blatant lies, there are none more egregious than budget figures. Time spent agonizing over them is time wasted. Even if (miracle of miracles!) yours are honest and accurate, no one else will have been so foolish.
* The loudest noise in the world is the sound of people whining. Don’t add to it.

Norman Borlaug recieves medal

This is the location of the latest medal awards to civilians. One of these men is Norman Borlaug who has spent his life developing ways to feed the poor of our world.

Civic Planning to Avoid slums: Regressive Property Tax Break

So, the goal of a city is to support its people in making their lives better. One way to improve someone's situation is to make their land property more valuable. There exist cities with slums. These places have not been kept up by their owners. So, to solve this issue a computer program could be written to implement the following according to new laws that are passed:

A regressive property tax for the least valuable property of the city. An owner's property tax will be adjusted downward provided that his property that has been identified as a 'least value property' increases in appraised value faster than the city average appreciation. As long as the property is still identified as a least value property the property owner is eligible for this regressive tax break. So, this should encourage owners to improve their properties to be better than those in other parts of the city. When they surpass other areas of the city in value the other areas of the city will be assigned the 'least value property' status and those owners will be given an opportunity to benefit from the "regressive property tax break".

This rising tide of valuation will lift all ships and make the city a beautiful place to be.

Investing

This year has been kind of weird for the stock market. The traditional summer slide didn't happen.

This site explains the 'Sell in May and go away' strategy based on seasonal changes in the market.

"We discovered that those best days on average are October 16 for the entry into the market for its favorable seasonal period, and April 20 for the exit from the market’s favorable season. However, those are just the best days as averaged over a very long time period. Obviously the market does not begin a rally on the same day each year, or begin to decline from a top on the same day each year."

These dates are consistent with other reports that I'm aware of.

nada

Nothing new to report except that I'm going to a birthday celebration today.

My Car

My other new toy: a Bluestone 2007 Saturn Sky Turbo Redline. Its a great car and a lot of fun.

My Phone

This is my new phone toy. It is a smart phone and I just got my GMail working on it. I may have to write some code for a mobile im solution but we'll see.

Terrorism as a crime

This article explains why Terrorism is best dealt with as a crime rather than an act of war.

ugly stupid people

“optimal genotypes differ between male and female red deer, because a genotype that produces a male phenotype with relatively high fitness will, on average, produce a phenotype with lower fitness when expressed in a female.”

Investment Guidelines

1. Your capital must produce income.
2. Your capital must be absolutely safe.
3. Your capital must be in totally liquid investment. you must be able to convert it into cash at a moment's notice, to handles emergencies.
4. Your capital must not be diminished at the time of investment by unnecessary commissions, or other expenses.
5. Your income must be absolutely safe.
6. Your income must not fluctuate. You must know exactly what your income will be next month, next year and 20 years from now.
7. Your income must be payable to you, in cash, at regular intervals.
8. Your income must not be diminished by charges, management fees or redemption fees.
9. The investment must produce this regular, fixed known income without any further involvement or expense on your part. It must not require maintenance, management, geographic presence or attention due to 'acts of God'.

Chinese Pollution

750,000 people die prematurely in China each year according to a world report.

Hortibot

Danish engineers have created an advanced robot that can weed fields.

Cost: 71000 / robot features described in the above article.

Users

It is often difficult to handle a user base when you require time off. I was away for one week and then back for a week and then gone a week. During that time, my most persistent user encountered issues that she felt must be solved. And for the last few weeks I've been trying to pursue my other initiatives rather than address hers. It makes things a lot simpler when you address their issues directly and hope that they learn and don't become even more dependent.

Organization Tips

Reduce before organizing.
Write it down now, always.
Have one inbox & process.
A place for everything.
Put it away now.
Clean as you go.
Develop routines & systems.

Your mother wanted to kill you

this was impressive.

Vatican City getting it right

This link demonstrates that a 'Father Knows Best Dictatorship' can be very effective in governing.

Gays in the Military

"You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight"

Review: Robin Hood the BBC Series

Rating: 2 stars

The Robin Hood series created by the BBC in 2007 contains thirteen episodes in the first season. It contains attractive actors, talented stunt people, and a great range of special effects. I'd love to be less critical of this series except that Robin Hood has been something that I've studied in such minute detail that not pointing out the flaws in this series would do an injustice to the myth and legend. I remember dressing up as robin hood at least one Halloween when I was young.

My formative years were filled with thoughts of sword fighting and archery. I imagined myself performing feats of righteousness and took the sense of right and wrong from the legend into my adult years.

This portrayal of the Robin Hood mythology fails in a number of ways. It presents a feminized fantasy that is historically inaccurate. The series was scripted to present a modernist view of how women would like to see the Robin Hood mythology. The script is filled with modern language and phrases and is wholly unbelievable as a historical reenactment.

Women throughout history did not act like superheroes. It is not in their nature to act. Women lie and manipulate from within the comforts that their victims provide for them. They do not choose physical activity when they could be conniving their way into a better marriage or social circumstance.

While challenging women to be more like men is an interesting experiment in modern times, it totally destroys and devalues the male role in society. I don't begrudge modern women freedoms that they've earned or the opportunities that they take advantage of. However, when a piece is set during a certain time period and culture, being true to the historical aspects of the setting is required for a television endeavor. This series gives non traditional roles and activities to women. It fails to demonstrate the bigotry and stupidity of the people of the time. It gives too much credit to the intelligence of the Sheriff of Nottingham and his men. It introduces inaccurate fighting styles and weapons (The saracen bow was not as powerful as the English longbow). It also fails to demonstrate any strategic thinking on the part of the perpetrators of the crimes or their enemies.

In conclusion, unless you only want a feel good Robin Hood with an English accent, you should take a pass on this series and go watch the Disney version again.

Thoughts

Frank Zappa, Conservative - Everything that Republicans have done since Reagan has been moving us toward a Fascist Theocracy.

Sheriff Lee Baca is a corrupt official and must be removed from office.

Summer Sell-Off

Hopefully today marks the beginning of the summer stock sell-off. It was supposed to happen in May but didn't. It is now June 5th and we're seeing a decline. It should continue to decline until August or September when it'll pick up again. At that time I'll shift money into a total market index fund.

Genetic Sequences

$2 million and two months to sequence a human genome today.

Kinetic Sculptors

Kinetic Sculptors are cool!

Book Review: The Golden Compass

Rating: 4 stars

The Golden Compass is a fantasy book whose main character is a little girl. She goes through many exciting adventures in her attempt to make the world a better place for the people she cares about.

I found it to be very well written with plenty of twists and turns and suspense. The author, Phillip Pullman, leads the reader through a complex world of intrigue and fantasy. He introduces fantastic creatures and a world that is similar to our own. The differences between this world and ours are significant and subtle. They threw me for a pleasant loop of rethinking what I knew about the environment the characters were in any time that I became comfortable with what I knew about the world.

Firefox extensions

StumbleUpon [mozilla.org]

Google Browser Sync [google.com]

Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer [mozilla.org]

IE Tab [mozilla.org]

illegal casualties

Shoulders

Now that you're standing on the shoulders of giants, what are you doing to advance the state of human society?

Me? I'm updating government and business systems with new technologies to improve their processes and enable their capabilities.

website structure

pieces of a potential web site:

• http://IMAGES.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http://BLOG.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http://PROJECTS.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http://WRITINGS.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http://CODE.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http.LAB.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http://DATA.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  


• http://TEMP.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]
  

These could be setup in a different way:

• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/IMAGES/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/BLOG/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/WRITINGS/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/PROJECTS/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/CODE/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/LAB/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/DATA/
  


• http://www.[.*].[com|org|net|biz]/TEMP/
  

Dreams

So, Last night I had two dreams.

In the first one, I was frantic because I didn't bring any food items to a going away party because I had made the mistake of planning to bring them to a barbeque. It turned out that I had planned everything correctly, but that doesn't alleviate the panic in the dream state.

In the second dream, ... I forget.

European Competition

So, given the increase in value of the Euro versus the Dollar, The question becomes: Is the United States still the most profitable place to be employed? Short answer, Yes. Longer answer, because of the higher tax rate in European countries even if your currency is becoming more valuable you're still paying a greater proportion of it in taxes. So, I still think that Working in an American city is the best solution for gaining wealth, provided that you have a high rate of savings.

Home Price Article

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/05/09/200655.php

Reagan

9-11 was Reagan's legacy to the American people.

Fun Numbers

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

image.

Against a Housing Purchase

The argument against buying a home at this time is here.

Sell in May

"Sell in May and Walk Away"

Politics

What is this?

Music

I'm not usually very educated on music.

This site seems to analyze the buzz around the net on various English speaking music producers. All but one of the youTube videos that I watched from here were well done and artistic.

criticalmetrics

comics

My father always thought that political cartoons showed the truth so much better than the news articles around them.

and another:

Political Competition

I wonder if there is a competition between Republican Presidents to determine how many soldiers they can bury in Arlington National Cemetary.

Movie: Casino Royale

rating: 4 stars

This movie would have gotten a 3 star rating but they tricked me into believing that there may be a happy ending....which would have totally sucked. Suffice it to say, that this had the typical Bond stuff. A cool calm and detatched charismatic psychopath who could play cards, drive amazing cars, and use cool gadgets while sweeping the pretty girls off their feet.

Movie: 300

rating: 4 stars

300 is an account of the legendary battle between the Spartans and the Persians thousands of years ago (465 BCE I think). It presented strong honorable men, next to powerful women and traitors. The persian army was impressive with references to the immortals of that ancient land. Said to be unstoppable the persian army was held at the pass for 3 days by a band of 300 Spartans and their King Leonidus. What I liked about this movie was that the cast acted like a team. No one actor stepped up and stole the spotlight.

Movie: Ghost Rider

Rating: 4 stars

I really liked this movie. The producer stayed true to the comic and used special cinematic effects to great effect. The end leaves things open with the hero not getting the girl (finally!) and choosing a life of action and adventure over one of stability and normality. Who wouldn't want to stay kick-ass and immortal for the rest of their lives if it meant sacrificing one cheating ex-lover?

Pens, and Chipotle

I came in to work today to get a jump-start on the week.

I stopped by the stores and picked up two things. Mont Blanc pen refills for 30$/4 and Chipotle Burrito. The Mont Blanc ink really is addictive and I'm becoming a snob about writing with anything else. The Burrito is buy one get one free tomorrow with receipt. So, its tasty.

Vista

So, I've been playing around with Vista a bit. It is visually improved over WinXP with a user interface like Apple OS X. It constantly prompts you to authenticate yourself or authorize an action which gets annoying when you're setting up a system.

Despite this, I've decided to use it as a base for a development environment vmware image that I'm building. Something interesting that I've found is that the defrag utility in Vista has removed all visuals and progress bars. I always liked watching these as they worked on organizing my data correctly on the disks...and now they're gone. There is no way to tell how long the procedure is going to take.

Book Review: A Year of Magical Thinking

Rating: 3 stars

This book was about grief. A woman lost her husband and her daughter. While describing the year she referenced many books on grief and healing. She seemed to go through PTSD.

Justice

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

On the surface I can agree with the quote. But when I think about it and its reflection on the human condition, I'm not so sure I want to champion the spread of justice at any cost.

You shouldn't kill to spread Justice.
You shouldn't hurt to spread Justice.
You shouldn't impoverish to spread Justice.

old works

I've been digging through a lot of the old work I used to do before I got too busy with the various jobs that I've had in the last three years. I've discovered a lot of content that wasn't really tied together very well. There were a number of home pages and personal sites that I had started but not much more.

Graphics Card: GeForce 6800 XTreme

My posts have been largely reactions to general news sites and not focused on Technology as much as I had initially imagined.

I recently upgraded my box to more suitable specs. One of the upgrades was a single GeForce 6800XTreme Graphics card from NVidia. The card comes with a new interface which allows the card to be linked to another card of the same type via a hardware bridge called SLI.

This article describes the performance benchmarks of one or two of these cards.

SLI may motivate me to purchase a second 6800XTreme video card, provided I can find some programming use for the processor on either one or both of them. I'll keep you posted.

Gays in the Military

This article outlines the discrimination that exists in our military.

Sgt. Marcia Ramode should be demoted for the poor way in which they acted and the overt prejudice that they expressed to a candidate for military service. The entire unit that Sgt. Marcia Ramode belongs to should receive sensitivity training and public relations training.

Federal Budget

This article from Taxpayers for Common Sense makes a lot of sense to me.

There is no reason why an emergency spending bill is necessary after the first year of a conflict.

DC Deaths

It looks like the death count in DC is up to forty since the year began, according to the police blotter. My guess is that those numbers are going to go up as the economy continues to slip.

Housing Article

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301733_pf.html

illustrates the mortgage industry very well.

My only comment is:
Steve, where was your article 4 years ago when people needed it?"

best,

Dave

Energy Savings

link 1

link 2

society abuses prisoners or prisoners rewarded for helping society?

boardgames

best,

Dave

Energy Savings

link 1

link 2

society abuses prisoners or prisoners rewarded for helping society?

boardgames

best,

Dave

Dear Abby

http://www.askugg.com/2007/03/15/i-think-my-wife-is-cheating-on-me-why-men-are-never-published-in-dear-abby/

Advice from an Old Man to a Young Man

Advice to Young Men from an Old Man
1. Don’t pick on the weak. It’s immoral. Don’t antagonize the strong without cause, its stupid.
2. Don’t hate women. It’s a waste of time
3. Invest in yourself. Material things come to those that have self actualized.
4. Get in a fistfight, even if you are going to lose.
5. As a former Marine, take it from me. Don’t join the military, unless you want to risk getting your balls blown off to secure other people’s economic or political interests.
6. If something has a direct benefit to an individual or a class of people, and a theoretical, abstract, or amorphous benefit to everybody else, realize that the proponent’s intentions are to benefit the former, not the latter, no matter what bullshit they try to feed you.
7. Don’t be a Republican. They are self-dealing crooks with no sense of honor or patriotism to their fellow citizens. If you must be a Republican, don’t be a “conservative.” They are whining, bitching, complaining, simple-minded self-righteous idiots who think they’re perpetual victims. Listen to talk radio for a while, you’ll see what I mean.
8. Don’t take proffered advice without a critical analysis. 90% of all advice is intended to benefit the proponent, not the recipient. Actually, the number is probably closer to 97%, but I don’t want to come off as cynical.
9. You’ll spend your entire life listening to people tell you how much you owe them. You don’t owe the vast majority of people shit.
10. Don’t undermine your fellow young men. Mentor the young men that come after you. Society recognizes that you have the potential to be the most power force in society. It scares them. Society does not find young men sympathetic. They are afraid of you, both individually and collectively. Law enforcement’s primary purpose is to suppress you.
11. As a young man, you’re on your own. Society divides and conquers. Unlike women who have advocates looking out for them (NOW, Women’s Study Departments, government, non-profit organizations, political advocacy groups) almost no one is looking out for you.
12. Young men provide the genius and muscle by which our society thrives. Look at the Silicone Valley. By in large, it was not old men or women that created the revolution we live. Realize that society steals your contributions, secures it with our intellectual property laws, and then takes credit and the rewards where none is due.
13. Know that few people have your best interests at heart. Your mother does. Your father probably does (if he stuck around). Your siblings are on your side. Everybody else worries about themselves.
14. Don’t be afraid to tell people to “Fuck off” when need be. It is an important skill to acquire. As they say, speak your piece, even if your voice shakes.
15. Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your vocational or technical skills, or you’ll find your wife fucking somebody else.
16. Keep fit.
17. Don’t speak ill of your wife/girlfriend. Back her up against the world, even if she’s wrong. She should know that you have her back. When she needs your help, give it. She should know that you’ll take her part.
18. Don’t cheat on your wife/girlfriend. If you must cheat, don’t humiliate her. Don’t risk having your transgressions come back to her or her friends. Don’t do it where you live. Don’t do it with people in your social circle. Don’t shit in your own back yard.
19. If your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and bring joy to your life, fire her. That’s what girlfriends are for.
20. Don’t bother with “emotional affairs.” They are just a vehicle for women to flirt and have someone make them feel good about themselves. That’s the part of a relationship they want. For you it is a lot of work and investment in time. If they are having an emotional affair with you, they’re probably fucking someone else.
21. Becoming a woman’s friend and confidant is not going to get you into an intimate relationship. If you haven’t gotten the girl within a reasonably short period of time, chances are you won’t ever get her. She’ll end up confiding to you about the sexual adventures she’s having with someone else.
22. Have and nurture friendships with women.
23. Realize that love is a numbers game. Guys fall in love easily. You’re going to see some girl and feel like you’ll die if you don’t get her. If she rejects you, move on to the next one. It’s her loss.
24. Don’t be an internet troll. Got out and live life. There is not a cadre of beautiful women advertising on Craigslist to have NSA sex with you. Beautiful women don’t need to advertise. The websites that advertise with attractive women’s photos and claims of loneliness are baloney. All they want is your money and your personal information so that they can market to you. The posts on Craigslist by young “women” seeking NSA sex, and asking for a picture are just a bunch of gay troll pic collectors. This is especially true if the post uses common gay lexicon like “hole” as in “fuck my hole” or seeks “masculine” men, or uses the word cock (except in the context of “Don’t send a cock shot.”) There are women on Craigslist. They are easily recognizable by their 2-5 paragraph postings. Most are in their 30's or older.
25. When you become a man in full, know that people will get in your way. People who are attracted to you will somehow manage to step in your path. Gay guys will give you “the look.” Old people will somehow stumble in front of you at the worst time. Don’t get frustrated. Just step aside and go about your business. Know that these are passive aggressive methods to get you to acknowledge their existence.
26. Don’t gay bash. Don’t mentally or physically abuse people because of who they are, or how they present themselves. It’s none of your business to try to intimidate people into conformity.
27. If your gay, admit it to yourself, your parents, your friends and society at large. Be prepared to get harassed. See rule 14. If someone threatens you or assaults you, call the cops. Have them arrested. You have no obligation to self sacrifice because of who you are. As a gay person, you’ll have more social freedom than straight men. Use it to protect yourself. Be prepared to get out of Dodge if your orientation makes your life unbearable. Move to San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, or New Orleans. You’ll find a welcoming community there.
28. Don’t be a poser. Avoid being one of those dudes who puts a surfboard on top of their car, but never surfs, or a dude with a powder coated fixed gear bike and a messenger bag, but was never a messenger. Live the life. Earn your bona fides.
29. Don’t believe the crap about the patriarchy. More women are accepted and attend college. More degrees are awarded to women than men. Women outlive men. More men commit suicide. Men are twice as likely to be victims of violence, including murder. If you consider sexual assaults in prisons, twice as many men are raped as women (society thinks prison rape is funny). The streets are littered with homeless men, sprinkled with a few homeless women. Statically, women are happier than men. The myth that girls are being cheated by are educational system is belied by the fact that schools are bastions of femininity, mostly run by and taught by women. Girls outperform boys in school. It is the boys in school getting fucked over, and prescribed ritalin for being boys. Real wages for men are falling, while real wages for women are rising. Just because someone says something enough times, doesn’t make it true. You have nothing to feel guilty about.
30. Remember, 97% of all advice is worthless. Take what you can use, and trash the rest.

MADD

While I support the mission statement of the organization, I do feel that this is one of the most corrupt nonprofit organizations.

http://www.drunkard.com/issues/08_02/08_02_fighting_madd.htm

"alcohol-related traffic deaths since 1982 have been reduced by 37 percent"
37% over 25 years is not a good metric. Either the problem (death by drunk driving) wasn't high incidence or their campaigns have been largely ineffective. Combined with the improvements in vehicle safety, a maturing population, and seatbelt laws their effectiveness is probably closer to 15% over 25 years.

The alcohol penalty metric has moved from 1.2 to .08 over this time period. I feel that this is a good direction.

"If we really want to save lives, let’s go after the most dangerous drivers on the road.” - Candy Lightner, Founder of MADD

"The fact that only 28% of the donations they wrung out of the public was actually going to anti-drinking and driving programs didn’t bother them in the least."

"By 1998, MADD had an annual budget of $42 million. Pension plans were put in place. Salaries and benefits exceeded $9 million per year."

"the money would only continue to roll in if the public perceived there was still a need for war, and a huge part of MADD’s budget is dedicated to keeping that perception in place."

"16,000 Americans each year are killed in alcohol-related accidents."
Drunk drivers are not responsible for 16000 a year.
"Only 500 innocent Americans are killed each year by drunk drivers." -- Stephen Beck, DAMM

3,000 people in jail on drinking and driving charges kill themselves while incarcerated.

Equal rights for Fathers

http://alternet.org/rights/39716/?

"Yet according to a randomized study of 46,000 divorce cases published in the American Law and Economics Review, two-thirds of all divorces involving couples with children are initiated by mothers, not fathers, and in only 6 percent of cases did the women claim to be divorcing cruel or abusive husbands."

33% of pregnancies are out of wedlock:
"Yet these relationships fail for many reasons besides male perfidy. These include: youth, economic pressure and the lack of living wage jobs (how many couples fight over money?), and the mothers' post-partum depression and mood-swings."

It is wrong to force a pregnancy on an unwilling father just as it is wrong to force a pregnancy on an unwilling mother.

Evangelical Christians against Torture

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2032616,00.html

About fucking time. I have been baffled by the Republican Christian support of torture ever since the stories first aired. Torture is definitely very unchristian.

Movie: Night at the Museum

Rating: 3 stars

I started watching this at 10pm last night. I fell asleep at 10:05pm. But Robin Williams always makes me smile.

Ghost Rider

Rating: 3 Stars

Who doesn't like an action movie based on comic books with Nicholas Gage as a guy on fire?

Movie: The Queen

Rating: 2 stars

I sat through this movie and liked the introduction to the royal family and to princess Diana's life and then it ended. It had no plot, no essense, and no point. It had some excellent acting but without a plot or a point what's the use? If they'd taken the movie anywhere it probably would have gotten a much better reception.

Movie: Breach

Rating: 3 stars

I think I watched this. I think it left me with a good impression. I can't remember.

Movie: The Departed

Rating: 4 stars

The departed recently won an Oscar for best picture. After watching the movie, I have to agree that it was a very good movie. Like a similar mafia movie,The Godfather ,it had Latin and literature reference to class it up. It had some amazing acting from the cast including believable boston-irish accents and culture. Best of all, the movie moved in such a way that I wasn't sure how it was going to end. And true to this, the ending was a surprise. This is definitely a movie worth watching.

Highlander: The Source

Rating: 1 star

It pains me to say it but the movie was bad. There is a reason why no one I know had never heard about it...it stunk. I've been a big fan of Adrian Paul and the Highlander Sci Fi Genre for at least 10 years. I think the Series with Adrian Paul was better than any of the original Highlander movies. The first Highlander movie was cutting edge, and introduced us to this world of decapitation and immortality. But the plots between all of the disperate movies never connected. This Highlander movie, continues that trend, and doesn't match up with any of the others. All you get is Adrian Paul, Methos, a love story, and an evil immortal who runs really fast. And that isn't enough to make a good movie.

Coulter && 'Faggot'

I honestly haven't been following this story at all. What has come into my peripheral has been from the business side - businesses are pulling their ads from her, and the intelligencia that maintain blogs on money (who also happen to be gay).

From a conservative man in the audience that day:
"It was an ugly atmosphere, designed to make any gay man or woman in the room feel marginalized and despised. To put it simply, either conservatism is happy to be associated with that atmosphere, or it isn't. I think the response so far suggests that the conservative elites don't want to go there, but the base has already been there for a very long time."

I agree with this sentiment. I have always attributed negativity and hate with the right side of the political spectrum. Democrats are more supportive and accepting of people who are different.

100 Oldest Domains

The 100 Oldest Currently Registered .COM Domains
Create Date Domain Name
03/15/1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
04/24/1985 BBN.COM
05/24/1985 THINK.COM
07/11/1985 MCC.COM
09/30/1985 DEC.COM
11/07/1985 NORTHROP.COM
01/09/1986 XEROX.COM
01/17/1986 SRI.COM
03/03/1986 HP.COM
03/05/1986 BELLCORE.COM
03/19/1986 IBM.COM
03/19/1986 SUN.COM
03/25/1986 INTEL.COM
03/25/1986 TI.COM
04/25/1986 ATT.COM
05/08/1986 GMR.COM
05/08/1986 TEK.COM
07/10/1986 FMC.COM
07/10/1986 UB.COM
08/05/1986 BELL-ATL.COM
08/05/1986 GE.COM
08/05/1986 GREBYN.COM
08/05/1986 ISC.COM
08/05/1986 NSC.COM
08/05/1986 STARGATE.COM
09/02/1986 BOEING.COM
09/18/1986 ITCORP.COM
09/29/1986 SIEMENS.COM
10/18/1986 PYRAMID.COM
10/27/1986 ALPHACDC.COM
10/27/1986 BDM.COM
10/27/1986 FLUKE.COM
10/27/1986 INMET.COM
10/27/1986 KESMAI.COM
10/27/1986 MENTOR.COM
10/27/1986 NEC.COM
10/27/1986 RAY.COM
10/27/1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
10/27/1986 VORTEX.COM
11/05/1986 ALCOA.COM
11/05/1986 GTE.COM
11/17/1986 ADOBE.COM
11/17/1986 AMD.COM
11/17/1986 DAS.COM
11/17/1986 DATA-IO.COM
11/17/1986 OCTOPUS.COM
11/17/1986 PORTAL.COM
11/17/1986 TELTONE.COM
12/11/1986 3COM.COM
12/11/1986 AMDAHL.COM
12/11/1986 CCUR.COM
12/11/1986 CI.COM
12/11/1986 CONVERGENT.COM
12/11/1986 DG.COM
12/11/1986 PEREGRINE.COM
12/11/1986 QUAD.COM
12/11/1986 SQ.COM
12/11/1986 TANDY.COM
12/11/1986 TTI.COM
12/11/1986 UNISYS.COM
01/19/1987 CGI.COM
01/19/1987 CTS.COM
01/19/1987 SPDCC.COM
02/19/1987 APPLE.COM
03/04/1987 NMA.COM
03/04/1987 PRIME.COM
04/04/1987 PHILIPS.COM
04/23/1987 DATACUBE.COM
04/23/1987 KAI.COM
04/23/1987 TIC.COM
04/23/1987 VINE.COM
04/30/1987 NCR.COM
05/14/1987 CISCO.COM
05/14/1987 RDL.COM
05/20/1987 SLB.COM
05/27/1987 PARCPLACE.COM
05/27/1987 UTC.COM
06/26/1987 IDE.COM
07/09/1987 TRW.COM
07/13/1987 UNIPRESS.COM
07/27/1987 DUPONT.COM
07/27/1987 LOCKHEED.COM
07/28/1987 ROSETTA.COM
08/18/1987 TOAD.COM
08/31/1987 QUICK.COM
09/03/1987 ALLIED.COM
09/03/1987 DSC.COM
09/03/1987 SCO.COM
09/22/1987 GENE.COM
09/22/1987 KCCS.COM
09/22/1987 SPECTRA.COM
09/22/1987 WLK.COM
09/30/1987 MENTAT.COM
10/14/1987 WYSE.COM
11/02/1987 CFG.COM
11/09/1987 MARBLE.COM
11/16/1987 CAYMAN.COM
11/16/1987 ENTITY.COM
11/24/1987 KSR.COM
11/30/1987 NYNEXST.COM

Tobias Suggests

GE - wait until august then reevaluate
CBH - wait until august then reevaluate
DD - wait until august then reevaluate
FMD - buy
TXCO - Don't buy

He also suggests some others but not in this post.

best,

Dave

Annotated Feynman

"Cargo Cult Science", by Richard Feynman
"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!"

During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a piece of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas -- which was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could ever have existed, when nothing that they proposed ever really worked -- or very little of it did.

But even today I meet lots of people who sooner or later get me into a conversation about UFO's, or astrology, or some form of mysticism, expanded consciousness, new types of awareness, ESP, and so forth. And I've concluded that it's not a scientific world.

Most people believe so many wonderful things that I decided to investigate why they did. And what has been referred to as my curiosity for investigation has landed me in a difficulty where I found so much junk that I'm overwhelmed. First I started out by investigating various ideas of mysticism and mystic experiences. I went into isolation tanks and got many hours of hallucinations, so I know something about that. Then I went to Esalen, which is a hotbed of this kind of thought (it's a wonderful place; you should go visit there). Then I became overwhelmed. I didn't realize how MUCH there was.

At Esalen there are some large baths fed by hot springs situated on a ledge about thirty feet above the ocean. One of my most pleasurable experiences has been to sit in one of those baths and watch the waves crashing onto the rocky slope below, to gaze into the clear blue sky above, and to study a beautiful nude as she quietly appears and settles into the bath with me.

One time I sat down in a bath where there was a beatiful girl sitting with a guy who didn't seem to know her. Right away I began thinking, "Gee! How am I gonna get started talking to this beautiful nude woman?"

I'm trying to figure out what to say, when the guy says to her, "I'm, uh, studying massage. Could I practice on you?"

"Sure", she says. They get out of the bath and she lies down on a massage table nearby.

I think to myself, "What a nifty line! I can never think of anything like that!" He starts to rub her big toe. "I think I feel it", he says. "I feel a kind of dent -- is that the pituitary?"

I blurt out, "You're a helluva long way from the pituitary, man!"

They looked at me, horrified -- I had blown my cover -- and said, "It's reflexology!"

I quickly closed my eyes and appeared to be meditating.

That's just an example of the kind of things that overwhelm me. I also looked into extrasensory perception, and PSI phenomena, and the latest craze there was Uri Geller, a man who is supposed to be able to bend keys by rubbing them with his finger. So I went to his hotel room, on his invitation, to see a demonstration of both mindreading and bending keys. He didn't do any mindreading that succeeded; nobody can read my mind, I guess. And my boy held a key and Geller rubbed it, and nothing happened. Then he told us it works better under water, and so you can picture all of us standing in the bathroom with the water turned on and the key under it, and him rubbing the key with his finger. Nothing happened. So I was unable to investigate that phenomenon.

But then I began to think, what else is there that we believe? (And I thought then about the witch doctors, and how easy it would have been to check on them by noticing that nothing really worked.) So I found things that even more people believe, such as that we have some knowledge of how to educate. There are big schools of reading methods and mathematics methods, and so forth, but if you notice, you'll see the reading scores keep going down -- or hardly going up -- in spite of the fact that we continually use these same people to improve the methods. There's a witch doctor remedy that doesn't work. It ought to be looked into; how do they know that their method should work? Another example is how to treat criminals. We obviously have made no progress -- lots of theory, but no progress -- in decreasing the amount of crime by the method that we use to handle criminals.

Yet these things are said to be scientific. We study them. And I think ordinary people with commonsense ideas are intimidated by this pseudoscience. A teacher who has some good idea of how to teach her children to read is forced by the school system to do it some other way -- or is even fooled by the school system into thinking that her method is not necessarily a good one. Or a parent of bad boys, after disciplining them in one way or another, feels guilty for the rest of her life because she didn't do "the right thing", according to the experts.

So we really ought to look into theories that don't work, and science that isn't science.

I think the educational and psychological studies I mentioned are examples of what I would like to call cargo cult science. In the South Seas there is a cargo cult of people. During the war they saw airplanes with lots of good materials, and they want the same thing to happen now. So they've arranged to make things like runways, to put fires along the sides of the runways, to make a wooden hut for a man to sit in, with two wooden pieces on his head to headphones and bars of bamboo sticking out like antennas -- he's the controller -- and they wait for the airplanes to land. They're doing everything right. The form is perfect. It looks exactly the way it looked before. But it doesn't work. No airplanes land. So I call these things cargo cult science, because they follow all the apparent precepts and forms of scientific investigation, but they're missing something essential, because the planes don't land.

Now it behooves me, of course, to tell you what they're missing. But it would be just about as difficult to explain to the South Sea islanders how they have to arrange things so that they get some wealth in their system. It is not something simple like telling them how to improve the shapes of the earphones. But there is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. That is the idea that we all hope you have learned in studying science in school -- we never say explicitly what this is, but just hope that you catch on by all the examples of scientific investigation. It is interesting, therefore, to bring it out now and speak of it explicitly. It's a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty -- a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you're doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid -- not only what you think is right about it: other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you've eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked -- to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.

Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can -- if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong -- to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition.

In summary, the idea is to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgement in one particular direction or another.

The easiest way to explain this idea is to contrast it, for example, with advertising. Last night I heard that Wesson oil doesn't soak through food. Well, that's true. It's not dishonest; but the thing I'm talking about is not just a matter of not being dishonest; it's a matter of scientific integrity, which is another level. The fact that should be added to that advertising statement is that no oils soak through food, if operated at a certain temperature. If operated at another temperature, they all will -- including Wesson oil. So it's the implication which has been conveyed, not the fact, which is true, and the difference is what we have to deal with.

We've learned from experience that the truth will come out. Other experimenters will repeat your experiment and find out whether you were wrong or right. Nature's phenomena will agree or they'll disagree with your theory. And, although you may gain some temporary fame and excitement, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist if you haven't tried to be very careful in this kind of work. And it's this type of integrity, this kind of care not to fool yourself, that is missing to a large extent in much of the research in cargo cult science.

A great deal of their difficulty is, of course, the difficulty of the subject and the inapplicability of the scientific method to the subject. Nevertheless, it should be remarked that this is not the only difficulty. That's why the planes don't land -- but they don't land.

We have learned a lot from experience about how to handle some of the ways we fool ourselves. One example: Millikan measured the charge on an electron by an experiment with falling oil drops, and got an answer which we now know not to be quite right. It's a little bit off because he had the incorrect value for the viscosity of air. It's interesting to look at the history of measurements of the charge of an electron, after Millikan. If you plot them as a function of time, you find that one is a little bit bigger than Millikan's, and the next one's a little bit bigger than that, and the next one's a little bit bigger than that, until finally they settle down to a number which is higher.

Why didn't they discover the new number was higher right away? It's a thing that scientists are ashamed of -- this history -- because it's apparent that people did things like this: when they got a number that was too high above Millikan's, they thought something must be wrong -- and they would look for and find a reason why something might be wrong. When they got a number close to Millikan's value they didn't look so hard. And so they eliminated the numbers that were too far off, and did other things like that. We've learned those tricks nowadays, and now we don't have that kind of a disease.

But this long history of learning how to not fool ourselves -- of having utter scientific integrity -- is, I'm sorry to say, something that we haven't specifically included in any particular course that I know of. We just hope you've caught on by osmosis.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself -- and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.

I would like to add something that's not essential to the science, but something I kind of believe, which is that you should not fool the layman when you're talking as a scientist. I am not trying to tell you what to do about cheating on your wife, or fooling your girlfriend, or something like that, when you're not trying to be a scientist, but just trying to be an ordinary human being. We'll leave those problems up to you and your $PRIEST. I'm talking about a specific, extra type of integrity that is not lying, but bending over backwards to show how you're maybe wrong, that you ought to have when acting as a scientist. And this is our responsibility as scientists, certainly to other scientists, and I think to laymen.

For example, I was a little surprised when I was talking to a friend who was going to go on the radio. He does work on cosmology and astronomy, and he wondered how he would explain what the applications of his work were. "Well", I said, "there aren't any". He said, "Yes, but then we won't get support for more research of this kind". I think that's kind of dishonest. If you're representing yourself as a scientist, then you should explain to the layman what you're doing -- and if they don't support you under those circumstances, then that's their decision.

One example of the principle is this: If you've made up your mind to test a theory, or you want to explain some idea, you should always decide to publish it whichever way it comes out. If we only publish results of a certain kind, we can make the argument look good. We must publish BOTH kinds of results.

I say that's also important in giving certain types of government advice. Supposing a senator asked you for advice about whether drilling a hole should be done in his state; and you decide it would be better in some other state. If you don't publish such a result, it seems to me you're not giving scientific advice. You're being used. If your answer happens to come out in the direction the government or the politicians like, they can use it as an argument in their favor; if it comes out the other way, they don't publish at all. That's not giving scientific advice.

Other kinds of errors are more characteristic of poor science. When I was at Cornell, I often talked to the people in the psychology department. One of the students told me she wanted to do an experiment that went something like this -- it had been found by others that under certain circumstances, X, rats did something, A. She was curious as to whether, if she changed the circumstances to Y, they would still do A. So her proposal was to do the experiment under circumstances Y and see if they still did A.

I explained to her that it was necessary first to repeat in her laboratory the experiment of the other person -- to do it under condition X to see if she could also get result A, and then change to Y and see if A changed. Then she would know the the real difference was the thing she thought she had under control.

She was very delighted with this new idea, and went to her professor. And his reply was, no, you cannot do that, because the experiment has already been done and you would be wasting time. This was in about 1947 or so, and it seems to have been the general policy then to not try to repeat psychological experiments, but only to change the conditions and see what happened.

Nowadays, there's a certain danger of the same thing happening, even in the famous field of physics. I was shocked to hear of an experiment being done at the big accelerator at the National Accelerator Laboratory, where a person used deuterium. In order to compare his heavy hydrogen results to what might happen with light hydrogen, he had to use data from someone else's experiment on light hydrogen, which was done on a different apparatus. When asked why, he said it was because he couldn't get time on the program (because there's so little time and it's such expensive apparatus) to do the experiment with light hydrogen on this apparatus because there wouldn't be any new result. And so the men in charge of programs at NAL are so anxious for new results, in order to get more money to keep the thing going for public relations purposes, they are destroying -- possibly -- the value of the experiments themselves, which is the whole purpose of the thing. It is often hard for the experimenters there to complete their work as their scientific integrity demands.

All experiments in psychology are not of this type, however. For example, there have been many experiments running rats through all kinds of mazes, and so on -- with little clear result. But in 1937 a man named Young did a very interesting one. He had a long corridor with doors all along one side where the rats came in, and doors along the other side where the food was. He wanted to see if he could train the rats to go in at the third door down from wherever he started them off. No. The rats went immediately to the door where the food had been the time before.

The question was, how did the rats know, because the corridor was so beautifully built and so uniform, that this was the same door as before? Obviously there was something about the door that was different from the other doors. So he painted the doors very carefully, arranging the textures on the faces of the doors exactly the same. Still the rats could tell. Then he thought maybe the rats were smelling the food, so he used chemicals to change the smell after each run. Still the rats could tell. Then he realized the rats might be able to tell by seeing the lights and the arrangement in the laboratory like any commonsense person. So he covered the corridor, and still the rats could tell.

He finally found that they could tell by the way the floor sounded when they ran over it. And he could only fix that by putting his corridor in sand. So he covered one after another of all possible clues and finally was able to fool the rats so that they had to learn to go in the third door. If he relaxed any of his conditions, the rats could tell.

Now, from a scientific standpoint, that is an A-number-one experiment. That is the experiment that makes rat-running experiments sensible, because it uncovers that clues that the rat is really using -- not what you think it's using. And that is the experiment that tells exactly what conditions you have to use in order to be careful and control everything in an experiment with rat-running.

I looked up the subsequent history of this research. The next experiment, and the one after that, never referred to Mr. Young. They never used any of his criteria of putting the corridor on sand, or being very careful. They just went right on running the rats in the same old way, and paid no attention to the great discoveries of Mr. Young, and his papers are not referred to, because he didn't discover anything about the rats. In fact, he discovered all the things you have to do to discover something about rats. But not paying attention to experiments like that is a characteristic example of cargo cult science.

Another example is the ESP experiments of Mr. Rhine, and other people. As various people have made criticisms -- and they themselves have made criticisms of their own experiments -- they improve the techniques so that the effects are smaller, and smaller, and smaller until they gradually disappear. All the para-psychologists are looking for some experiment that can be repeated -- that you can do again and get the same effect -- statistically, even. They run a million rats -- no, it's people this time -- they do a lot of things are get a certain statistical effect. Next time they try it they don't get it any more. And now you find a man saying that is is an irrelevant demand to expect a repeatable experiment. This is science?

This man also speaks about a new institution, in a talk in which he was resigning as Director of the Institute of Parapsychology. And, in telling people what to do next, he says that one of things they have to do is be sure to only train students who have shown their ability to get PSI results to an acceptable extent -- not to waste their time on those ambitious and interested students who get only chance results. It is very dangerous to have such a policy in teaching -- to teach students only how to get certain results, rather than how to do an experiment with scientific integrity.

So I have just one wish for you -- the good luck to be somewhere where you are free to maintain the kind of integrity I have described, and where you do not feel forced by a need to maintain your position in the organization, or financial support, or so on, to lose your integrity. May you have that freedom.

WBuffet stock buys

2006-12-31 Buy IR
2006-12-31 Buy UNH

Job Security

3 of my skillsets are in the top 10 job growth areas. 5 of my minor are in there as well. So, eight out of ten of the jobs that will be in highest demand in the next fourteen years describe me.

Its a wonderful time to be in computers and health care.

best,

Dave

Dear Senator,

This Citizen's Privacy Law is a law that will benefit myself and all of your other constituents. I feel strongly about having this become law.

best,

Dave

A crumbling empire

A Crumbling Empire

An interesting read.

Boys in public education

Stop Feminizing our Boys

This article has some good points. Its insights are aligned with my own experiences in public USA schools.

Some good points:
Girls want to please.
Boys want to compete.

This may explain why I feel that exercising with my significant other feels gay to me.

Why don't boys want to listen to me?

This morning at breakfast a beautiful woman tried to talk to me. I immediately shut down. I took a breath and relaxed and tried to listen. I responded with some small affirmatives and didn't make eye contact feeling that that would indicate my need for quiet in the morning. I didn't want to say that I didn't want to listen because that would be rude. But, when I continued to feel the physical urge to beat the shit out of the noise offending creature for continuing to engage me when I sent all of the signals indicating my inability to deal with talking this morning, I said, "I'm sorry, I just can't handle this right now." She graciously excused herself and left me to finish my breakfast in silence.

I've spent the morning trying to find an answer to the question:
Why don't boys want to listen to me?

I think the below article is a good start:
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/tannend/sexlies.htm

Lunch

For Lunch Today I had:
Golden Squash Soup
Romaine & Avocado Salad
rating: 4 stars

The squash soup looked like tang water but has a consistency similar to chicken soup. It is also very tangy, which seems to be the word for the week. The salad is as described yesterday. I'm rating the squash soup at four stars because it surprised me and left me with the thought that I couldn't get a soup this good at high priced restaurant.

Breakfast and Ideas

Perfect Oatmeal
rating: 4

Breakfast was oatmeal and walnuts and rasins topped with honey and accompanied by hot tea and a cup of milk. It was tasty though I'd never tried nuts in my oatmeal before and the texture and constant crunching caused alarm in my dreamy morning state. It would have been rated a five because oatmeal is the food of the gods, but despite the title of this recipe; perfect, it wasn't.

I also seem to come up with more impressive ideas on days that I eat oatmeal. On the drive to work this morning I thought of a book of pictures of me entitled: "Story of a Washington DC IT Consultant" containing mostly images of myself throughout DC and the biography of Dave from UMBC to present. Additional funding for the book could come from the companies and institutions that are mentioned in the book or featured in the images: UMBC, JNR, ACN, MyPC, MeetIn, HP, Dell, Pepsi, Coke, Guiness, Yuengling, Toyota, etc. A book like this is down to earth and would sell well in touristy areas and around the country. Now my photographer and I need nom de plumes mine is Dave Something.

Best Morning to you, walnuts and rasins for snack!

Supper

My evening meal was at 7pm.
Salmon with Mustard, Dill Sauce
Great Antipasti Salad
and White Rice
Rating: 4 stars

Overall, the combination was amazing for dinner. It was very filling and the dill sauce with mustard salmon popped. The recipe danced on the tongue moving from sour to sweet to bland as the food rolled around my mouth. It was accompanied by a glass of milk and some chamomile tea.

Lunch

Lunch consisted of another recipe from WHFoods:
Zesty Mexican Soup
rating: 3 stars
This was a very good soup. It has so many ingredients that I found it hard to separate out the different flavors. As a whole, it is true to its name 'zesty'. Not too hot and packed full of variety, this is a pleasant meal.

It is served with:
Romaine and Avacado Salad
rating: 3 stars.
Its a salad. The avacado and red peppers don't really add much to it. Romaine lettuce was switched with a regular lettuce.

Have a great lunch!

Breakfast Review

For breakfast this morning I had this:
Breakfast Bagel
I'd give it 4 stars. You can't do much better. It was tasty, colorful, and easy to prepare. It was the first time that I'd poached an egg and it turned out great.

I also brought another treat with me:
Tropical Energy Smoothie
This is very sweet and tasty. I haven't finished it all but its sitting on my desk at work and is a pleasant thing to enjoy. I'd also give it 4 stars.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Washington DC Area home prices

Home values in the Washington, D.C. region are projected to be down 6.3% in 2007.

Letter to My Representatives

Dear Representative,

I'm writing to let you know what might annoy me in the actions by the new Congress.

1) I don't want the US debt to increase.
2) I don't want to be part of the Iraq conflict.
3) I don't want any American to antagonize Iran. I'm not interested in a conflict with Iran or its people.
4) I don't want to lose my right to Habeus Corpus. Or any other right guaranteed to me by the intent of the founding fathers of America.
5) I don't want to infringe these rights of other people anywhere in the world.
6) I don't want religious people to be treated more favorably than athiests.

Please, do your best to pay attention to these options when doing your job on my behalf.

Dave and Busters

So, a fem friend and I are determined to gather enough Dave and Busters tickets to buy something truly awesome. She and I set out on a mission tonight to see how many we could get. After a few drinks we saw that the trivia game had 4 players (out of 6) so we went over and joined in. out of 6 games I won 3 for (260,160,and 260 points) and she won 2 for (260, 180).

Oil

$50/barrel of crude oil today.

What the hell is a barrel in real measurements?
42 gallons.
Um. Gallons isn't a real measurement.
159 Liters.
Much better.

So, what are the us inventory levels today in real measurements?
crude stocks jumped by 6.8 million barrels == +954000000Liters == 954000KiloLiters == +954MegaLiter.

So, what is the total US Oil Reserve right now?
314.5 Million Barrels == 50005 MegaLiters == 50.005 GigaLiters US Total Reserve.

So, how many weeks could the US survive with no new oil?
50,005 ML/ 954 ML /week == 52 weeks == 1 year

Interesting.

A letter to the president

To the commander in chief (2007),

Here is a response from a certified "war skeptic."

FUCK YOU!

Go to Iraq, get out of the Green Zone, and see what life is like for people in Iraq and for the soldiers you’ve sent there. Stay a few days—no quick photo op and back home. Be sure you drink the water.

Then go to Walter Reed Army Hospital and visit the ortho ward. Not just a quick little photo op, but stay there for a week. You can do it. You stay in Crawford for a week or more and the government keeps going. So go to Walter Reed—or better yet, go to a burn unit at a military hospital.
Don’t do the glad-handing politician bullshit. Go around and empty urine bags. Learn how to check I.V.’s. See if their pain meds are enough.
Hear the moans. See the disgusting sights. Smell the smell.

Then when you’re done, go to a V.A. hospital and ask to visit a "back ward." No photo op, here either, prez. Spend another week. See the guys from Nam and Gulf War I and who knows where else their government sent them. No photos. No talking. Just listen. And tend to them. Turn them in their beds to keep them from getting bed sores. Check their feeding tubes. Empty their colostomy bags.

THEN come back and say this war is worth one more person’s life or health or family.

Come back and tell us that if you can.

If you can’t, get the hell out of here.

Mike Ferner
US Navy Hospital Corpsman 69-73

www.mikeferner.org

Honey

A friend has become an amateur apiarist and sent 180 of his closest friends a jar of his first-ever harvest, along with a charming holiday letter. (“Raising bees, at least on the small scale we did this year, is easier than you might think. The bees do all the really hard work.”)

With the jar came a little note advising that if the honey had begun to crystallize – it hadn’t – we need only remove the metal lid and microwave for 30 seconds.