Transterrestrial Musings
June 30, 2006
Go Tigers
Baseball is a game of numbers and stats, and right now, for Detroit, they look pretty damn good:
Every Detroit fan everywhere knows what 35-5 means -- the Tigers' record after 40 games of their 1984 World Series-winning season.
That start was so good Detroit had to play just a little above .500 ball the rest of the season to cruise home in first place. In fact, the Tigers closed 69-53.
Detroit enters its Friday interleague game at Pittsburgh with a 54-25 record. If the Tigers win Friday, they will be dead even with the 1984 team's record after 80 games.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:33 PM
Can't Miss This
A rocket belt convention. Be there, or be...on the ground.
And yes, this was a tough one to categorize.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:31 PM
The Perils Of Public Entertainment
A boy who died on a roller coaster at Disney World turned out to have a congenital heart problem, unrevealed until the ride. This is sad, but statistically inevitable, when you provide entertainment to millions of people. How could Disney possibly be responsible for the death of a kid whose parents didn't even know about his condition?
There's a lesson here for the space tourism industry, but I'm not sure what it is, other than to not operate in the US.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:04 PM
A View From The Astronaut Office
Here's an email from a 'stro (who's a regular reader, and who reports that others are as well, but has to remain anonymous for what I hope are obvious reasons), on my NRO piece:
...great article in the Nat'l Review online. Agreed with most of it, but it was almost too rational -- the public and especially the folks in this Agency have an emotional attachment to the Corps that defies, in my direct experience, all rationality. One of the big advantages the emergents have is that their test pilots will be seen as test pilots, not some sort of symbol for what is great about America. Hence, they are more comfortable taking appropriate risks than this agency can be.
This is actually a very interesting topic -- think some sociology student will get a Ph.D. dissertation out of it someday. It's interesting because it's also frustrating to us astronauts -- we're more comfortable with the risks & the results of the failures than people who don't even know the folks involved.
Yes.
Here's an example of the emotional attachment, from right after Columbia was lost (scroll down to the email from Houston).
I would also note (sadly) how many of my off-the-cuff predictions, including programmatic response, from the initial minutes after hearing about the loss of Columbia have held up.
[Update a little while later]
I'll note also that NASA hasn't learned the lesson from Columbia:
The lesson we must take from the most recent shuttle disaster is that we can no longer rely on a single vehicle for our access to the new frontier, and that we must start to build the needed orbital infrastructure in low earth orbit, and farther out, to the moon, so that, in the words of the late Congressman George Brown, "greater metropolitan earth" is no longer a wilderness in which a technical failure means death or destruction.
NASA's problem hasn't been too much vision, even for near-earth activities, but much too little. But it's a job not just for NASA--to create that infrastructure, we will have to set new policies in place that harness private enterprise, just as we did with the railroads in the 19th Century. That is the policy challenge that will come out of the latest setback--to begin to tame the harsh wilderness only two hundred miles above our heads.
I need to finish (errr.....start) my essay on false lessons learned from Shuttle and station.
[Update at 3 PM EDT]
It just occurs to me that, while I don't know if any sociology students have gotten theses out of it, Tom Wolfe managed to get a best-selling novel, as well as a movie.
[Update at 5 PM EDT]
Popular Mechanics has a blog post on probability of success of Shuttle and other space missions.
One nit (based on a quick read). They're comparing the probability of lunar mission success to Shuttle probability of crew loss. Apples and oranges. Apollo lost no crew in space (which excludes the pad fire).
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:54 AM
Is UPI Becoming The Weekly World News?
Check out this headline:
Huge Asteroid Hurtles Toward Earth
Hint, guys. If it's going to miss it, it's not "hurtling toward" it. But I guess it sells more papers.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:27 AM
Ares
Apparently, that's the name of the new launch vehicles that NASA wants to develop, which will be announced in a couple hours. The Crew Launch Vehicle (heretofore called CLV) will be the Ares 1, and the Cargo Launch Vehicle (previously known as the CaLV) will be the Ares 5. A tribute to the Saturn numbers, I guess, and an indication of the ultimate planned destination (Barsoom).
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:07 AM
Supermensch
Just to note, for those going to see the movie this weekend, he's a good Jewish boy.
What I found fascinating, and hadn't realized, was that in the 1930s, until Hitler came along, Jews (or at least some Jews) were into Nietzsche.
[Update in the mid-afternoon]
Astrosmith has some thoughts on illegal superaliens.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:22 AM
Distraction
Amidst all the talk about the Shuttle launch this weekend (hopefully), the fact that we had a successful Delta 4 launch from Vandenberg seems to have gone largely unnoticed. A few more successes of this vehicle and the Atlas V could at least put a stake through the heart of the "stick," given that the design of it still seems to be in flux, and it's turning out not to be as "safe, simple or soon" as advertised.
[Update a few minutes later]
This is funny. I decided to link to http://www.safesimplesoon.com, but the site is down. Is it just a temporary problem, or did ATK decide it was an embarrassment?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:10 AM
On The Radio
I'll be talking about my NRO piece, NASA, the Shuttle and the future of human spaceflight on the Ron Smith Show this afternoon, a little after 3:30 Eastern.
[Update a few minutes later]
Apparently, just before me, the guest host (Ron Smith is apparently on vacation) is going to be talking to a Matt Towery, who had this "Scuttle the Shuttle" piece at Townhall.com yesterday. It seems a little incoherent to me--it's not clear what he's proposing in its place, and the logic doesn't necessarily hold together:
Experts still refer to the shuttle as an "experimental craft," one in which the odds of a catastrophic failure -- loss of the shuttle or the crew or both -- are somewhere between one in 60 and one in 100 launches. Would you get on a conveyance of any kind that had one chance in 60 of killing you?
Well, in general, no. But if I thought that it were my one and only chance of getting into space, I might spin the cartridges on the revolver--it's ten times better odds than classical Russian roulette, with a heck of a payoff. If not one in sixty, what is the right number?
The Shuttle safety debate often reminds me of the irrationality of the fifty-five-mph speed limit. Or the minimum wage. These people think that there's some rational basis for their arbitrary numerology, but you can never get them to explain it.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:36 AM
Ruminating on Shuttle Safety
Wayne Hale, manager of the space shuttle program, shares some thoughts and emails to the team on NPR this morning. I believe Hale has mismanaged the shuttle program.
Posted by Sam Dinkin at 07:50 AM
Diversity Over Freedom?
A look at the values of academia.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:33 AM
June 29, 2006
Delusioned
Enviroidiots are shocked and disappointed to discover that Europe isn't meeting its Kyoto goals.
Missing CO2 targets makes baby Algore cry. Baby Jesus doesn't give a rip, though...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:42 PM
Another Must Blog
OK, so, I'm procrastinating from my CEV spec review.
But even though it's not the right time of the year, who can pass up a rampaging Easter Bunny.
Not me, apparently.
I really need a "Sick Humor" category...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:36 PM
Pumped
OK, I'm busy, but never too busy to post something like this:
Former Judge Donald D. Thompson, a veteran of 23 years on the bench, is on trial on charges he used a p3nis pump on himself in the courtroom while sitting in judgment of others.
Over the past few days, the jurors have watched a defense attorney and a prosecutor pantomime m@sturbation. A doctor has lectured on the lengths the defendant was willing to go to enhance his s3xual performance.
The white-handled s3xual device sits before the jury box for hours at a time. Occasionally an attorney picks it up and squeezes the handle, demonstrating the "sh-sh" sound of air rushing through the contraption's plastic tubing.
This has to be one of the most pathetic trials in judicial history.
I know you'll be shocked to hear this, but the Freepers are having fun with this story:
"Approach the bench" has never sounded so scary.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:31 PM
Is The Mission Worth It?
That was quick. My NRO piece is up. Almost as good as blogging.
[Update at 5:20 Eastern]
Clark Lindsey has more thoughts on the (futility of) the Scuttle the Shuttle campaign.
And as Bill White points out, for once, the Space Frontier Society and the LA Times are on the same page. Probably for entirely different reasons, though...
[Update a few minutes later]
The press should really give up on trying to get this right:
Each shuttle mission costs about $450 million for a few days in low-Earth orbit.
There is no single, always usable number for the cost of a single Shuttle mission. As I pointed out in my NRO piece, the last mission cost over ten billion, and this one will have cost about five.
Which is a good time to reiterate my point about costs of space access.
It's the flight rate, stupid!
[Update at 9:40 PM Eastern]
Mark Whittington says:
...I take my guidence [sic] from Dr. Hawking in that ultimately the thing to be accomplished is the spreading of humankind across the Solar System and ultimately the stars, to ensure our survival at least until the death of the universe.
Believe me, no one in Washington, with control over the federal pursestrings, is talking about that as a national goal or purpose for the space program, and if they are, ESAS is one of the most cost-ineffective means to achieve that goal.
Fortunately, others, with more foresight, are, and are acting upon it.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:35 PM
Light Posting
I've been writing a column for National Review on the upcoming Shuttle launch, and reviewing CEV system requirements. Busy.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:11 PM
Progress?
Oil is flowing freely in northern Iraq, at least temporarily. Knocking off the Zarkman can't have hurt.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:10 PM
What If The Today's Media Had Reported The Somme
Thoughts from the BBC.
[Via reader John Kavanaugh]
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:32 PM
Blame George Bush
Moscow says that it's not the insurgents' fault, but ours, that their diplomats were killed.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:05 AM
A Blow To The SF World
Jim Baen has died. David Drake has an obit.
[Afternoon update]
Fred Kiesche has more with additional links.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:37 AM
Scuttle The Shuttle
So says the Space Frontier Foundation, two days before the next scheduled launch:
The Space Shuttle program consumes approximately five billion dollars a year whether or not it flies a single mission. Most of these funds go to support the so-called "standing army" of NASA and aerospace employees dependent on the Shuttle for their jobs. If all goes according to plan, twenty billion dollars will be spent between now and the last Shuttle flight. Meanwhile, NASA's much-ballyhooed Commercial Orbital Transportation Systems (COTS) project meant to create a new and varied humans-to-space transportation industry using the space station as a customer is spending only $500 million to spark the development of new low-cost systems with none at all allocated to purchase rides.
"We are spending the same amount of money every six weeks to not fly Space Shuttles as we are investing in the entire NewSpace industry. We are mortgaging our future while starving these incredibly talented and promising new companies and ideas, all to sustain a system that has completely failed," Tumlinson said. "It is time to get the U.S. government out of the ‘Earth to space transportation market’. They may have pioneered it, but they are incapable of operating efficiently there – and it's not their job. Let's give the NewSpace companies, like those who have stepped up to offer their rocket ships in the COTS program, a real shot."
As Chuck Lauer said at Space Access (or was it the ISDC?), "Give us the lead, not the crumbs."
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:15 AM
Puddle's Eleven
Iowahawk features a return of the "rat pack." Or is it a weasel pack?
Also, don't miss the Hoosegow Honey beauty contest.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:21 AM
June 28, 2006
Well, At Least It Will Be Longer Than Saddam's
Mother Sheehan is going on a two-month hunger strike. It would be nice if she could keep her mouth shut for other purposes, too.
And no, before the idiots start commenting--that comment didn't violate her First-Amendment rights. She has a right to say anything she wants, and I have a right to say I wish she wouldn't. Ain't the First Amendment great?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:54 PM
Nowhere To Go But Down
I've heard a number of people warn us that oil prices could double, or triple, in the event of a new disturbance (e.g., Iran) in the Middle East. I think that this is ludicrous. So does Larry Kudlow. He explains.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:16 PM
Same Ol' Same Ol'
Jeff Foust points out that the usual suspects in Congress are trying to defund the president's new space initiative. And as usual, they have the same stale, non-sequitur arguments about the relative cost effectivity of "science" between humans and robots, as though that's the only reason we have a space program (as I point out in comments over there).
Posted by Rand Simberg at 11:57 AM
The New John Birchers
Josh Trevino says that Kos and the Bush-deranged "netroots" are following an old, paranoid model:
Consider the average member of this group. He (or she) remembers the era of leftist dominance of American politics — and he remembers the beginning of its end, on election day 1980. He is around 50 years old. He is professional living in a coastal enclave, mostly on the Pacific coast or the northeast. His political consciousness was formed by the McGovern and Carter campaigns — and of course the American retreat from Vietnam. He may have grown up in Iowa, or Texas, or Missouri, or Utah — but he went to college elsewhere, and fell in love with the people in California, or New York, or Boston, who were so much more progressive and intellectual than the hayseeds back home. His initial concept of conservatives, which he’s never really abandoned, was formed by Nixonian malfeasance: they’re all crooks and corrupt, in his mind. The ascent of Reagan in 1980, and later the 1994 revolution, came as a profound shock — how could America forget so soon? He is well-off: and the bulk of his working career — and hence the font of his personal prosperity — was spent in the boom markets of the 1980s and 1990s, under Republican national governance in one form or another. He doesn’t think about the implications of that much.
But for all his generally good circumstances, he’s been on the political and cultural losing side all his adult life. He’s tired of it. And he’s found a website which, at last, makes him feel empowered. He is, in short, the typical member of the so-called netroots: the left-wing movement, organized around blogs, that seeks to “take back” this country from its usurpers. The netroots is a movement born of desperation and a sense of embattlement at being on the losing side of historical forces. It sees itself as the inheritor and the guarantor of true American tradition and identity, and it seeks to restore those things to their rightful primacy in national life. Critically, it choose to not merely fight its foes, but emulate them. It sees the prime virtue of its enemies as their ability to win, and if they can just crack the code — if it can grasp the very methodology of victory — then they will turn the tables, and victory will be theirs.
The comparison will, of course, have them frothing. Which makes it all the more appropriate and apparent...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:59 AM
Your Next OS?
Here's an extensive tour of Microsoft Vista.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:50 AM
Kaus On Kosola
Here:
Hmm. From "finances" to "astrology" into "politics" in a seemingly easy progression. What is the common element in Armstrong's blogging efforts in these three successive areas? Answer: BS! Armstrong defended bad stocks, then he defended junk theories of the universe, then he conned a generation of Democrats into thinking they were going to win the 2002 midterms! Now he's promoting Mark Warner.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:02 AM
June 27, 2006
One Of The (Many) Reasons...
That I hope that Mitch McConnell is the next Senate majority leader.
I revere the American flag as a symbol of freedom. But behind it is something larger—the Constitution. The First Amendment, which protects our freedom of speech, is the most precious part of the Bill of Rights. As disgusting as the ideas expressed by those who would burn the flag are, they remain protected by the First Amendment.
Our Founding Fathers wrote the First Amendment because they believed that, even with all the excesses and offenses that freedom of speech would undoubtedly allow, truth and reason would triumph in the end. And they believed the answer to offensive speech was not to regulate it, but to counter it with more speech.
No act of speech is so obnoxious that it merits tampering with our First Amendment. Our Constitution, and our country, is stronger than that.
Weakening our First Amendment could also set a dangerous precedent for the rest of the Bill of Rights. If we successfully carve out an exception to one basic freedom, perhaps those who seek to curtail our Second Amendment rights—the right to bear arms—will carve out another. Or the right to own private property, as expressed in the Fifth Amendment, could come under assault.
We also must realize that even a constitutional amendment will not instill proper respect for the flag in any scoundrel who would burn it. On the contrary, by invoking our sacred constitutional amendment process, we would give such a person just what he seeks: attention. Why tamper with the First Amendment to solve a problem that thankfully is not widespread?
Flag burning is an abominable act. We’re lucky to live in a country where the overwhelming majority of people not only reject it, but honor the American flag and the freedoms it stands for. These freedoms are America’s source of strength.
Not to mention, of course, the steadfast opposition to the true anti-First-Amendment types, particularly McCain and Feingold. There are too few members of either house of Congress who actually believe in free speech and the First Amendment.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:14 PM
Fill 'Em With Lead
This sounds like a repeat of the M-16 debacle from Vietnam. The Army weapons procurement bureaucracy never seems to learn.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:50 PM
Too Bad For The Republicans
...that the Democrats won't have a nationally televised convention this year. If they did, this is what the public would see (and here's the whole thing for non-subscribers):
...in bigger-than-life projection was an extended trailer for Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, which played to a nearly instantaneous standing ovation. In addition, the conference screened other documentaries, some innocuous (The Motherhood Manifesto, featuring Rosie the Riveter balancing a baby on her bicep) and others not (Iraq for Sale, whose name is self-explanatory).
Down below, on the concourse level, signs flanking entrances into the Hilton's 45,000-square-foot exhibition hall and its vendor booths read, "We know what to do: Impeach him." On top of NOW, NARAL, ACORN, and the ACLU (which still contends it is nonpartisan), there was the Backbone Campaign, which sold miniature spines to discourage purchasers from engaging in yes-man, convictionless support of their politicians.
Attendees cautious of "establishment politicians" also seemed to be looking for signs of spinelessness at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday in the Hilton's International Ballroom, a classy combination of contemporary architecture bathed in florid adornments. That's when Sen. Hillary Clinton, Sen. John Kerry, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi were to begin their back-to-back-to-back speechmaking.
Before the main event, two graying, hippie-looking men in the third row hoisted a handmade banner that read, in all caps, "IMPEACH BUSH." (This was becoming the unofficial theme of the week.) Wild applause erupted, and several people nearby, energized by their proximity to this agitation, felt compelled to stand in solidarity and raise peace signs. This horrified the conference leaders, who discouraged such displays and constantly reminded attendees, whom they treated like mischievous children, to "be respectful."
Not a pretty picture. That's why I suspect that the Donkeys are going to be disappointed again this fall.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:40 PM
The Cult Of International Law
David Bernstein discusses:
I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've had several correspondences along these lines, none challenging the points I raised (though not necessarily assenting, either), but simply arguing that any such points are completely irrelevant, because all that matters is whether or not Israel violated international law.
It has struck me that debating such people is just as frustrating and unproductive as arguing with a religious believer about some matter within the scope of his religious belief--just substitute "God says so" for "international law says so."
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:23 AM
Turn About Is Fair Play
You know, what I'd like to see is some dirt from whistle-blowers within the New York Times organization.
Of course, what would be most interesting is how Bill Keller or Pinch Sulzberger (who've never been on any ballot in my memory, when it comes to who I want to trust to declassify information) respond.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:24 AM
Backup
Jim Pinkerton agrees with Stephen Hawking, that we need to get some of our earthly eggs into other baskets.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:16 AM
Death In The Blogosphere
Acidman has gone to the big blog in the sky. RIP.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:00 AM
June 26, 2006
Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish
At long last, Ward Churchill is on his way to the unemployment office (I wish--I'm sure that some wacko college is just slavering to pick him up, if he can just burnish his native American creds).
I wish that reporters would call his lawyers on this kind of nonsense, though:
"We're going to a real court because we can trust juries to do the right thing," said Churchill's attorney David Lane. "Churchill says this all completely bogus. Let's see if a jury and a Federal District Court agrees with the committee. Or see if everything that's happened here is retaliation for Ward Churchill's First Amendment free speech relating to 9/11."
...When his essay was brought to light in January 2005, Gov. Bill Owens, state lawmakers and relatives of Sept. 11, 2001 victims in New York immediately denounced it. University officials concluded Churchill could not be fired for the essay, but in March 2005 they launched an investigation into allegations of plagiarism and other research misconduct.
"A committee last year began to look at his writings including his essay on 9/11," said DiStefano. "We determined his writings were protected under the First Amendment. However, during that process there were allegations of research misconduct."
Instead of wrapping himself in a flag, Chuch has wrapped himself in the First Amendment, and thus despoiled it. And unfortunately, the university has aided and abetted this misconception.
There are no First Amendment issues at stake here, at all. Churchill has the right to say whatever he wants, but the First Amendment does not grant him the right to remain a university professor (any more than it protects the New York Times from prosecution for violating the law regarding disclosure of secrets, should Alberto Gonzales grow a pair and decide to prosecute Bill Keller and company).
Contra the findings of the university committee, Churchill has no "First Amendment right" to say whatever he wants and suffer no repercussions. If they wanted to fire him for his "little Eichmanns" statement, they'd be perfectly within their constitutional rights to do so. The only thing preventing it is his contract that goes along with tenure.
Fortunately, while that contract does in fact allow him to say the vile things he chooses to say, it doesn't extend so far as to protect him against his repeated and egregious acts of academic fraud. I hope that this case does go to trial, so that both he and his attorney can waste their time and money in fighting a pointless case, in futile support of a truly disgusting human being.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:19 PM
Well, That Explains It
If only he'd released this version. Iowahawk has a rough draft of Bill Keller's letter explaining his publishing decision:
It's an unusual and powerful thing, this freedom that our founders gave to the press. Who are the editors of The New York Times (or the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Jihadi Accountant and other publications that also ran the banking story) to disregard the wishes of the President and his appointees? I'll tell you who we are, pal. We are journalists - the people whom the inventors of this country specifically appointed to be the protectors of this little experiment we call the "human race" against the privations of out-of-control Texas Oil Nazis. And if you check your Constitution, I don't think you'll see anything in there about the right to clog up the press's inbox with your stupid Rush Limbaugh talking points.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:37 PM
I Never Fail To Be Amazed
At not only how different the state Doppler radar is from the local one, but at how little rain one can get from a "heavy shower' on the local Doppler. I filled the pool this morning in the hopes that one of the many "thunderstorms" predicted for today would actually hit us. We watched all weekend as they approached southeast Palm Beach County, and would either stall, or fizzle out, just before they reached us. We really need the rain here. And thunderstorms are one of the three things that I like about south Florida, relative to south coastal California.
Still, I'm glad that we have much better weather forecasting and sensing than we did as a kid growing up in southeast Michigan, when the best they could do is tell you that they had "tornado watches" and "warnings" and it was based on a WAG as to where they were going to go.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:09 PM
External Hard Drive Question
I've been thinking that a good way to make my laptop dual boot without messing with the current Windows installation would be to install a Linux distro on an external USB drive. Two questions:
Are there any problems with this (assuming that I can boot off a USB port) and are there any external drives that get their power from the USB port (so I don't have to find a power socket to use it)?
[Update a few minutes later]
OK, the search word I was missing was "portable." There do seem to be some available that run off the USB port.
[Update a couple minutes later]
It seems to me that the cool thing about this is that you could boot from anyone's computer into your own system, as long as the machine was bootable from USB.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:37 AM
Where's The ACLU (Part Two)?
...and what are they going to do about these phone tappers?
The Sunday Telegraph newspaper quoted a document sent to soldiers of the Territorial Army's (TA) London Regiment, which has soldiers fighting in Iraq.
The document warned that insurgents in southern Iraq had managed to obtain the home telephone numbers of British soldiers using electronic intercept devices.
It said there had been many instances in the last weeks of relatives and friends of personnel serving abroad on operations getting nuisance phone calls''.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:33 AM
Behold...
...the compassionate left.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:11 AM
Supply Chain Mismanagement
We bought a new telly back in February at Brandsmart USA (I never know whether the name is Brand Smart, or Brands Mart, or if the name is meant to be deliberately ambiguous that way)--our first leap into the HDTV water. It was a Samsung thirty-inch CRT.
When I first turned it on, a loud buzz emitted from it, lasting about a second. It was annoying, but once the picture came up, everything was fine. I should have taken this to be a warning.
A month or so ago, we lost stabilization on the horizontal sweep, resulting in wavy sides. Fortunately, this was one of those rare occasions on which we actually bought an extended warranty (it was past the ninety days from the manufacturer). After several days, we got a service call (about a week and a half ago, before I went to California). The serviceman took one look, and said that it was a bad power supply. He also told me that the noise at startup wasn't normal, and was also a bad supply, or perhaps a flyback transformer. If we'd reported it initially, we would have just gotten a new teevee.
But since it was past the ninety days, he was going to have to repair it. He told me that he'd have to order a new power supply from Samsung.
I called this morning (Monday), and they still didn't have it in, and wouldn't be able to even tell me when they would, unless I call them again on Wednesday (with the usual waits on hold through two different departments), and which time they could tell me.
How is it, in this day and age, that a major Korean electronics manufacturer can not only not have a part delivered to a major metropolitan area within a couple days, but not even know, after a week and a half, when they will?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:07 AM
It's Always 1932
Iowahawk has a brief history of the hot rod:
Even back then Deuces were highly collectible. Car guys started hoarding them, heeding Mark Twain's famous advice to "buy land, they're not making it anymore." Strangely, though, they did start making Deuces anymore: high demand spawned an entire industry devoted to replica and restoration parts. Body repair panels and replica fiberglass Deuce bodies began appearing in the late 1960s, and are now available from dozens of suppliers, as are reproduction 1932 Ford frames. Recently several companies - such as Brookville Roadster and Dearborn Deuce - have introduced complete steel reproduction bodies. With a big enough budget, today you can make a pretty faithful steel recreation of a real 1932 Ford out of nothing but brand new parts. The paradoxical result is that 1932 Fords are more plentiful today than they were new. A scant 275,000 Fords rolled off the assembly line in 1932; today a greater number of "1932 Fords" are currently registered just in the state of California.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:02 AM
Dispatch From Fantasy Land
Kos:
"It was a time that was very stifling for liberal voices in the American landscape," he remembers. "No one could criticize the president because it was considered treasonous to criticize the president in time of war." But as an Army veteran who served in artillery logistics in the first gulf war, he felt he could question the rush to combat with impunity. "I vowed my life for the right to criticize our leaders. Nobody was going to tell me I could or could not criticize anybody."
Yes, I recall well the night all the dissenters were rounded up and sent to the work camps, with just the scraps of clothes on their backs--the wails of anguish, the cries for missing loved ones. Just a few brave souls, veterans like Markos Zuniga, were willing to stand up to the man, and speak truth to power, in defiance of the storm troopers.
--
It's funny, he probably said this with a straight face, and the Newsweek reporter sees no need to align it with reality. Other than Ann Coulter, I recall very few people being accused of "treason" for "criticizing the president" (and even in her case, I think that the charge was a little more involved than that). Hell, I criticized the president--I still do. What he means is that he (and many others) weren't allowed to spout inanities and insanities issued from the depths of their dementia and Bush derangement without being criticized for it.
Sorry, Kos, but the rest of us have free speech rights, too.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:57 AM
Perspective
Whenever you hear someone talk about 2500 deaths in Iraq over three years, recall (or learn about), almost ninety years ago, the Battle of the Somme:
The first day of the battle, codenamed Z-Day, was generally accepted to be the worst of them all, with some battalions suffering losses of more than 90 per cent.
The Battle of the Somme was supposed to be won by the Allies on that first day of July. It was partly thanks to this overconfidence that the generals allowed Malins access to the trenches. Instead, the battle lasted until November - long after the finished film had been screened at home. By the end of the offensive, there were more than one million casualties from both sides. After five months of bitter fighting, the Allies had advanced just five miles.
As horrific as the battle was for the British troops who suffered and died there, it cost hundreds of thousands of French and German lives as well. One German officer famously described the Somme as "the muddy grave of the German field army".
Among those to experience the horrors of the battle from within the trenches were a young JRR Tolkien, later to write the epic Lord of the Rings, the poets Robert Graves and Siegfried Sassoon, future British Prime Minister Anthony Eden - and an Austrian corporal named Adolf Hitler.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:48 AM
June 25, 2006
Only One Shopping Day Left
...until the registration rates at this year's Return to the Moon conference in Las Vegas (which, at least for this year, also coincides with the annual Space Frontier Foundation conference) go up. It's at an auspicious time of the year--it will be the week of the thirty-seventh anniversary of the first steps on earth's moon. If you can't attend the conference, I hope that you'll celebrate it at home.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:26 PM
Age Of Aquarius
Well, actually, the Age of Varuna. The hits just keep coming.
How long is Kos going to drag this anchor? I mean, it's not like he doesn't have enough problems of his own...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:03 PM
June 24, 2006
Woohoo!
About an hour ago, Detroit was tied with Chicago for the division lead. I clicked over to Fox Sports to watch the box score of their current game against St. Louis, refreshed every thirty seconds (it's surprising how well you can actually follow the game this way). When I started, they were down 6-4 in the bottom of the ninth. Through the miracle of the Internet (thanks, Al!) I watched them come back and tie it. Then after another scoreless inning, the Tigers won the game in the bottom of the tenth, 7-6 , with an RBI on a double.
In days of yore, they would have lost this game. But this year, they're playing like a team that could go all the way. I may have to waste much time of my waning life actually following games this season...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:21 PM
Latin Question
Descarte said "Cogito, ergo sum," (I think, therefore I am).
What would the equivalent be for "I think, therefore they are"?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:16 PM
Only Raped?
According to the dictates of the Religion of Peace™, she should be grateful that she wasn't killed:
Sehar Muhammad Shafi, 24, has fled her home city of Karachi with her husband and two young daughters after being attacked and raped for changing her faith.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:18 PM
The Grapes Of Ego
Byron York has some of Markos' modest little speech the other day, but I've found the rest that he decided not to use:
"Yeah, they can take me down, Ma, but I'll still be there, with Armstrong. I'm a part of something bigger--the way I figger it, I'm just a small part of one big netroots movement. I'll be all 'roun' in the dark. Stumblin' 'round in the dark. I'll be ever'where. Ever'where you look.
Whenever there's a brutally murdered American in Iraq to scorn, I'll be there.
Wherever there's a few loons milling around with misspelled protes' signs saying 'Bush Lied! People Died!' and pictures of Che, and paper-mache puppets of Uncle Sam and Bushitlercheney McHalliburton, I'll be there.
Wherever there's a politician panderin' to the tiny anti-American, 'anti-war' constituency, I'll be there.
Wherever there's a politician who los' an election because he decided that he wasn't far enough to the lef', I'll be there.
Wherever there's a moonbat business associate whose political beliefs seem to shuttlecock with the financial winds, and who thinks that Osama attacked us because the Moon is in the Seventh House, and we were oppressing the Oort Cloud with our technoimperialism, I'll be there.
I'll be in the way that mindless minions compassionately tilt their heads in sorrow and regret over the fact that Saddam and the Taliban are no longer in power.
I'll be in the way that leftist blogs spew spittle and obscenities at whoever has the temerity to disagree with them, or acquaint them with facts, and logic, and then delete or modify their commen's.
I'll be in the way that any position other than extreme lef' is branded 'full of hate,' 'racis',' 'right-wing,' 'neocon,' 'fascis',' etc.
And wherever there's a buck to be made, and an ego to be gratified, off the 'progressive' suckers that are seemingly born much more frequently than P. T. Barnum could have ever imagined, I'll be there, too."
[Update on Saturday night]
What, now they're embarrassed to call Amstrong an astrologer? Why?
And doesn't Google cache just suck? Well, at least if you're the type who wants to toss things down the memory hole...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:54 AM
Aaron Spelling
...has died. You know, I can't think of a single show of his that I watched.
Well, I take that back. I watched Charlie's Angels once in a while, but usually with the sound turned down.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:19 AM
June 23, 2006
Five Years Too Late
But still welcome news. "Underperformin' Norman" Mineta is resigning.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:10 AM
The Shallow Roots Of The "Netroots"
It's all about the money. And, errr...the astrology.
And this is one of the guys who's going to lead the delusional Donkeys to the political promised land?
[Saturday morning, back in Florida, update]
But wait! There's more:
Astrologer Jerome Armstrong notes that Ixion and Quaoar are following close in Pluto's wake in early Sagittarius, and connects the rise of the political version of religious fundamentalism with the astronomical exploration of the Kuiper Belt in 1992. He cites incidences as disparate as the rise of Osama bin Laden onto the world stage and the Republican Revolution of 1994, fueled by Christian fundamentalist voters and culminating now with all three branches of government in Republican control. In addition, he cites the ascendance of political Hinduism in India in 1996 with the election of the BJP. One might add to this list the emergence of Conservative majorities in Israel and the UK.
As one commenter notes, this is the gift that just keeps giving. Obviously, Rove must be behind this. All part of the Republican war on science.
And yes, this does bring a whole new meaning to the term "moonbat."
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:46 AM
Fascism Descends On America
Lileks on the foolishness, and lack of perspective, of the intellectual class:
Quote in today’s paper: “The world’s least free place for making movies is the US, because it has a fixed model.”
Ang Lee. Ang Lee. So how’s that Saudi distribution deal for “Brokeback” going, eh?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:55 AM
June 22, 2006
Must Have Been Running Vista Beta
Behold, an exploding Dell laptop. Makes me a little nervous to take mine on a plane, now.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:08 PM
Weird Referral Du Jour
This web site is the number one return for a Google search of Darrin Kagan.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 04:37 PM
Hoist By His Own Petard
Almost literally:
Iraqi security sources said a lieutenant of Al Qaida network chief Abu Ayoub Al Masri was found killed in a car on its way to an insurgency strike. The sources said a bomb inside the car blew up prematurely and killed the lieutenant and three other Al Qaida operatives.
Don't you just hate when that happens? No virgins for them.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:55 PM
Turning The Tables
Tim Carney takes on the ad hominem fallacy of attacking policy papers based on the funding sources of the institute that generated them.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:46 PM
Two Years Ago
SpaceShipOne first flew into space. I was there (posts are here and here--you might want to hit "previous" or "next" for a few other related items). Jeff Foust has some thoughts. And Robin Snelson has a report on goings-on in Mojave now.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:32 AM
Why Now?
A speculative discussion of why we're only now hearing about the finding of chemical shells in Iraq, and what else the administration isn't telling us.
[Update in the afternoon]
"Formerspook" has the back story.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:34 AM
June 21, 2006
I Wouldn't Have Apologized
I thought it was in fact pretty damned funny:
Rep. Steve King (news, bio, voting record), R-Iowa, was discussing the June 7 death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi on Saturday when he mentioned 85-year-old Helen Thomas, who has covered the White House for nearly 50 years and is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.
"There probably are not 72 virgins in the hell he's at," King said about al-Zarqawi, in a recording transcribed by Radio Iowa. "And if there are, they probably all look like Helen Thomas."
But then, I'm not a politician. And would probably be an utter failure as one.
Oh, and here's a shocker:
Thomas did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:48 PM
A Failed Revolution
It's been half a century, and many good people died or were imprisoned in the attempt to liberate themselves from one of the great totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century. But they won, eventually, no thanks to the US State Department. Or perhaps even the CIA, which seems in many ways to be our greatest enemy these days.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:08 PM
Fashionable Criminals
And idiotic ones:
...As she recounts the incident, he snatched the purse and took off.
But then he ran into trouble. As he ran, his loose trousers slipped down below his hips. As he reached down to hold them up, the teen was forced to throw the purse aside.
"That boy, he could run fast but he got caught up by his pants, which were real big and baggy," says Ms. Chandler, whose purse was retrieved by a parking attendant who had heard her cries for help.
It's a problem for perpetrators. Young men and teens wearing low-slung, baggy pants fairly regularly get tripped up in their getaways, a development that has given amused police officers and law-abiding citizens a welcome edge in the fight against crime...
...Mr. Green, 30, rode away on a bicycle, with copies of "Donnie Brasco," "The Bourne Identity" and "Sin City." When a patrol car knocked over the bike, he fled on foot. As he ran, his trousers slipped down past his hips, and he tripped. He hitched up his pants and ran a few more yards before falling again.
Things got worse and worse for Mr. Green. He finally kicked off his pants and shoes and "ran into the yard of 1720 Beaufield," police officer Kenneth Jaklic said in a report of the incident. "I ran after [Mr. Green], yelling at him to stop." Instead, Mr. Green jumped over a fence behind a garage, and Mr. Jaklic immobilized him with two Taser darts in the back...
...Karl Franklin tried to run from police in Tallahassee, Fla., in pants that were on fire. According to a police report, the 30-year-old had stashed a lighted cigarette in his baggy pants and appeared to be preparing to urinate at a traffic intersection.
Seth Stoughton, a police officer at the time, approached Mr. Franklin and noticed the man's pocket was smoldering. Mr. Franklin, who could not be reached, started to run, but his pants dropped and tripped him up.
Sorry, link is for subscribers only, but I thought that this article was a hoot. I guess I'm supposed to be an old coot because I have such a low opinion of young men's fashions, but baggy pants don't just look stupid--you'd have to be stupid to put up with such dysfunctional clothing just to be fashionable.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:06 PM
Wrong Turn
Lileks, on the Dems sloganeering:
...the Dems needed something new to accompany their new vision for Western civilization. The winner was another phrase focus-tested into a thin smear of rhetorical mush: "A New Direction for America." Disaffected Republicans were heartened. You mean less spending, quicker confirmation of conservative judges, permanent tax cuts and increased military outlays? Well, no. Nancy Pelosi announced that should the Democrats retake the House, item No. 1 will be bold and sweeping: They will "give America a raise by increasing the minimum wage."
Apparently Pelosi believes that America makes the minimum wage. The population consists of industrial workers who get a dime each day for the number of fingers they haven't lost to the machinery, a few million skinny Bob Cratchits shivering in underheated counting houses, and six plutocrats whose tight control over Consolidated Spats, Amalgamated Whalebone and other nefarious trusts keeps everyone poor and shoeless.
The minimum wage was indeed a New Direction -- last century, anyway. But when the unofficial GOP slogan is "Fight and win the War on Terror by blowing up more bad guys real good," a call for a wage boost is like running against FDR with a pledge to reduce postal rates.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:02 PM
A Defense Of Ann Coulter
By Mark Steyn:
...it wasn't until Ann Coulter pointed it out that you realize how heavily the Democratic party is invested in irreproachable biography. For example, John Kerry's pretzel-twist of a war straddle in the 2004 campaign relied mainly on former senator Max Cleland, a triple amputee from a Vietnam grenade accident whom the campaign dispatched to stake out Bush's Crawford ranch that summer. Maybe he's still down there. It's gotten kinda crowded on the perimeter since then, what with Cindy Sheehan et al. But the idea is that you can't attack what Max Cleland says about war because, after all, you've got most of your arms and legs and he hasn't. This would normally be regarded as the unworthy tactic of snake-oil-peddling shyster evangelists and, indeed, the Dems eventually scored their perfect Elmer Gantry moment. In 2004, in the gym of Newton High School in Iowa, Senator John Edwards skipped the dreary Kerry-as-foreign-policy-genius pitch and cut straight to the Second Coming. "We will stop juvenile diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and other debilitating diseases . . . When John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve are going to get up out of that wheelchair and walk again." Mr. Reeve had died the previous weekend, but he wouldn't have had Kerry and Edwards been in the White House. Read his lips: no new crutches. The healing balm of the Massachusetts Messiah will bring the crippled and stricken to their feet, which is more than Kerry's speeches ever do for the able-bodied. As the author remarks, "If one wanted to cure the lame, one could reasonably start with John Edwards."
"What crackpot argument can't be immunized by the Left's invocation of infallibility based on personal experience?" wonders Miss Coulter of Cleland, Sheehan, the Jersey Girls and Co. "If these Democrat human shields have a point worth making, how about allowing it to be made by someone we're allowed to respond to?"
Why not, indeed?
I will note that I haven't read Coulter's book, and don't intend to. It's sad that she couldn't make her many legitimate points about the secular religion of the left without dragging science and Darwin into it. Unfortunately, though, it's the inevitable pushback from evangelizing against God by the likes of Dawkins and Dennett.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:59 AM
June 20, 2006
Administration Immigration Policy Under Renewed Fire
BAGHDAD (APUPI) The Bush administration was reeling from renewed criticism of its immigration policy today, as many in Iraq demanded a wall across the Syrian, Jordanian, Iranian and Saudi Arabian borders to keep out a perceived flood of undocumented insurgents.
"The Bush administration seems indifferent to the number of problems being caused by these people, and its unwillingness to control the border," said an angry Iraqi official. "These illegals shoot men wearing shorts and women who show any skin at all, they plant roadside bombs, they send explosive-laden cars into crowded market places, they kidnap us and chop off our heads."
A visit to a random street corner in Ramadi displays the scope of the problem, and the demand for their services. A swarthy Al Qaeda commander drives up in a pickup with a load of bomb belts, and looks over a group of Syrians milling around. He casts an experienced eye over them, sizing them up, judging them for vapid yet maniacal expressions, willingness to abruptly disassemble themselves and their neighbors in the name of Allah. He points out to three of them. "You, you and you. I'm paying forty virgins today." The desperate young men get in the truck, to go off to their day's task.
Most upsetting to many is the unwillingness of the administration to deport the miscreants. "They arrest them, they kill them, but they refuse to return them to their native country," he continued. "They won't even allow us to report them to the INS."
The administration claims that it's not practical to talk of deporting all of these people.
Some people, normally at odds with the administration, defend the administration policy. For instance, film maker Michael Moore made the case for open borders.
"These are desperate people, with few opportunities to kill infidels in their native lands," he explained. "If they're willing to brave many miles of brutal hot desert to seek a new life, and death, it would be cruel to turn them back."
"Besides," he went on, "they are doing the jobs that Iraqis won't do. No Iraqi is willing to brutally murder Iraqis, to chop off their heads, to perforate their bodies with nail bombs. It's hard to find Iraqis willing to murder young women for wearing nail polish, for any amount of money or virgins. Most of all, few Iraqis are nuts enough to strap bombs to their own chests and detonate them. These are the Minutemen of the insurgency. Without these hardworking immigrants, creating mayhem that the media can use to show how we're losing the war, the Iraqi insurgency could completely collapse, and all hopes for ending the occupation evaporate."
Many analysts claim that this is really part of a larger regional problem--a symptom of the failure of the neighboring governments.
"The Saudis, Jordanians and Syrians don't allow sufficient freedom of Islamic extremism in their own countries," explained one expert. "The governments in some of those states cynically look the other way, and even encourage and aid those desperate Jihadis emigrating from their countries, in order to export the problem, and avoid having to deal with the pressure cooker of their own home-grown issues."
Some think that personal relationships between the president and the leaders of the neighboring countries are influencing the policy.
"George Bush is still good buds with Prince Bandar," said one critic. "They go mountain biking when he visits the ranch in Crawford. I think that goes a long way toward explaining this strange attitude. Besides, maybe he and Karl Rove imagine that if they're nice to these people, they'll eventually become Republicans."
In an attempt to assuage the angry Iraqis, the administration is working with the Senate on a bill to grant amnesty to the new immigrants, making them Iraqi citizens.
"We're sure that once they are offered a path to legitimacy, they'll quickly assimilate and restrict their murders to American soldiers," explained an administration spokesman.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:03 PM
Rafts
After a long hiatus, Bill Whittle has a new essay up. Well, actually it's the introduction to a new book. About the American civilization.
I have a mental map of the world. So do you. So did Lenin, and al-Zarqawi, and Winston Churchill, and Attila, and Ronald Reagan. Everyone has an internal map of how the world works.
The problem is that we get rather fond of these maps. Some people get so fond of these maps that they do nothing but sit around in the dark depths of the chart room and compare maps. If they see something on another map that seems to agree, more or less, with what they have sketched out on their own, they feel vindicated. This is human nature. I do it, and you do it too.
People will sit in the chartroom, and argue about their maps, while the ship of history rips out her keel. But as the arguments rage hither and yon down in the chartroom, as maps and cartographers are bandied back and forth like trading cards and people come to blows over mapmakers dead a century or a millennium before, there does remain one small, unassuming little token of hope. Not much really -- just an action so simple and obvious that we overlook it time and time again. What can we do to end this arguing about which way to sail and on what map? How can we tell where the reefs and channels really are? Dear God, is there nothing we can do to get an answer among all these authorities?
Well, there is something we can do. We can get up from the chartroom of theory, this dungeon of pointless debate and argumentation, and go and stand on the bridge. We can look at the world as it really is, and draw new maps as we go on.
When you use your common sense, your personal experience, over any of the so-called “social theories” being sold at fire sale prices, you are looking out the window and seeing whether or not the map matches the coastline. If it does not, then it doesn’t matter how credentialed or tenured or respected the cartographer is or was -– he is wrong. He says river delta; there sits a barrier reef. Wrong!
Next map!
These people, down below, arguing endlessly in the chartroom -– they have a word for themselves that they find flattering. They call themselves intellectuals. A friend of mine referred to me as an intellectual the other day, and I nearly knocked him off the bar stool. What a repellent thing to say to a man who tries on a daily basis to pre-flight his facts to make sure his theories – his map – is as accurate as it can be. Things change. Things that were once true sometimes no longer are. The map has to change or you are in deep yogurt. It is that process, not my map, that I am trying to teach to the best of my ability.
It’s sad but true: there are people who are deathly afraid to go up on deck, face the sunshine, and realize that the maps they have so lovingly and painstakingly crafted over decades are essentially worthless scraps of paper. They are so wrong, in so many places, that they are far worse than no maps at all. They draw all manner of hazards where there are none, and disastrously, they show open seas and smooth sailing in the most treacherous and deadly places. Such maps are not merely worthless; they are dangerous.
There was a time when intellectual meant someone who uses reason and intellect. Today, people who call themselves intellectuals are in a form of mental death spiral: they search for, and find, those index cards that support their world view, and clutch little red books like rosaries in the face of all external evidence. They are ruled by appeals to authority. Their self-image and sense of emotional well-being trumps any and all objective evidence to the contrary.
How many students today believe what they believe because they met someone who knew a guy whose girlfriend turned him on to an article by Noam Chomsky? Noam Chomsky predicted, in his even, intellectual, authoritative, tenured manner, that if the US went to war in Afghanistan after 9/11, the result would be 3 million Afghan casualties. How many of these students who worship St. Noam independently ask themselves why he had come up 2,999,500 bodies short? Noam is not wrong by a factor of one or two; Noam is not wrong by an order of magnitude. Noam is not wrong by a factor of a hundred to one. Noam is wrong by more than three orders of magnitude. Noam is wrong by a factor of 6,000 to one. Noam says the reef is three miles off the port bow, when in fact it is barely ten feet away. That’s six thousand to one. Noam says the ocean is a thousand feet deep when in fact the keel has been ripped out and is sitting on the sandbar back yonder: that’s a 6,000-to-one error. Extrapolating this accuracy rate, if Noam writes 6,000 pages on the evil of the United States, how many pages of truth might there be in such a twenty-volume set?
Does this mean that everything Noam Chomsky writes is nonsense? Not at all. He is a professor of Linguistics. I am not qualified to say how accurate the work in his field of expertise is. I can however make a stab at how accurate he is in the field of US foreign policy, and if you have a handheld calculator at home, you can make the same comparison and achieve the same results.
Listen, I’m all in favor of reading and studying all manner of philosophy and literature. And while social studies evidence cards cut both ways, there are not too many expert physicists out there claiming objects regularly fall up off the table and into the air. People are not pool balls. Their behavior is not as predictable. Both intellectual studies, and expert opinion, have their place. It is only when they are used beyond their limits that problems come thick and heavy.
Don’t take my word for this. Let’s not sit down in the bilge arguing about whether Karl Marx or Adam Smith had the best course to freedom and happiness. Let’s just go up the ladder, open a hatch, go out on deck, get out the telescope and have a look at what actually happened to the lives of the people impacted by one map, and what happened to those subjected to the other.
We are not blind, and we are not crippled, and the world is not a novel or a treatise or a theory or a manifesto. It exists. We can go look for ourselves. And on the way up, when those desperate elitist bastards start clutching at your ankles and implore you to stay below where it’s safe and argue some more…be sure to kick those sons of bitches right in the teeth. Their blind obedience to their Big Ideas have killed more people in history than anything except disease. Boot to the teeth, I say.
But that’s just me. You’ve been around. You’re no sap. What do you think?
Go ahead and read it all. You know you want to.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:13 PM
Redeployment
Are foreign terrorists in Iraq on the run to the border?
Let's hope so.
Maybe they're retreating to Okinawa.
You know, I suspect that Iraqis are probably getting pretty tired of all these illegal immigrants coming into Iraq to do the jobs that Iraqis won't do. You know...chopping off heads, blowing up marketplaces?
Gee, I feel a satire coming on...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:31 PM
Knock It Out Of The Sky
Who would know if we fired at the Nork missile and missed?
If we could knock it out of the sky, it would take a lot of wind out of Kim Jong (mentally) Il's sails. But the down side would be the black eye and seeming impotence if the world knew that we tried to and couldn't.
So does Russia have radar that would see an interceptor launch over, say Alaska? If not, does anyone else? And if not, what would we have to lose in taking a shot? If we take it down, it's a huge coup, and if we miss, we just don't mention that we even attempted it.
I should note that I would think the chances of failure small, since we'd presumably be sending multiple interceptors, rather than the single ones we've used in previous failed tests. The fact that we have had successful single-shot tests would indicate to me that chances of success for a multi-shot attempt should be pretty high.
By the way, here's a good overview of the current missile defense situation.
I recall back in the eighties, when people were poo pooing the concept and saying that even if we could knock down some missiles, we couldn't get them all in a massive Soviet strike. One rejoinder to that (in addition to the fact that even getting half of them would put enough doubt into a Soviet commander's mind to perhaps preclude the attack at all) was that we needed it against rogue states. Like North Korea. This would result in scoffs by the anti-BMD folks.
"Why would they build a missile that we could shoot down when they could just smuggle the bomb into a container ship?"
I guess that Kim didn't listen to them. Fortunately, neither did we. At least ultimately, though it's taken much longer than it should have to deploy, as a result of years of obstruction from the port side of the political spectrum.
[Update on Wednesday at noon]
There's a long discussion in comments to a post by Jonathan Adler over at Volokh's.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:25 PM
So Now What?
One of the reasons that NASA is willing to launch the Shuttle, even though they can't fully resolve the foam issues, is that they're not concerned about losing a crew from it, as they did with Columbia, because they're going to ISS, and can remain on orbit if necessary, at least for a while. I should note that I may have been the first to publicly discuss this option, less than a week after Columbia was lost, in which I advocated that we tame the wilderness into which we had sent the crew of that ill-fated ship:
I've written before about the fragility and brittleness of our space transportation infrastructure. I was referring to the systems that get us into space, and the ground systems that support them.
But we have an even bigger problem, that was highlighted by the loss of the Columbia on Saturday. Our orbital infrastructure isn't just fragile--it's essentially nonexistent, with the exception of a single space station at a high inclination, which was utterly unreachable by the Columbia on that mission.
Imagine the options that Mission Control and the crew would have had if they'd known they had a problem, and there was an emergency rescue hut (or even a Motel 6 for space tourists) in their orbit, with supplies to buy time until a rescue mission could be deployed. Or if we had a responsive launch system that could have gotten cargo up to them quickly.
As it was, even if they'd known that the ship couldn't safely enter, there was nothing they could do. And in fact, the knowledge that there were no solutions may have subtly influenced their assessment that there wasn't a problem.
The lesson we must take from the most recent shuttle disaster is that we can no longer rely on a single vehicle for our access to the new frontier, and that we must start to build the needed orbital infrastructure in low earth orbit, and farther out, to the moon, so that, in the words of the late Congressman George Brown, "greater metropolitan earth" is no longer a wilderness in which a technical failure means death or destruction.
NASA's problem hasn't been too much vision, even for near-earth activities, but much too little. But it's a job not just for NASA--to create that infrastructure, we will have to set new policies in place that harness private enterprise, just as we did with the railroads in the 19th Century. That is the policy challenge that will come out of the latest setback--to begin to tame the harsh wilderness only two hundred miles above our heads.
Note that in its proposed ESAS architecture, NASA has not learned those lessons, though COTS may be a baby step in that direction, if it survives.
In any event, I wonder if they've really thought the scenario through?
OK, they launch, and the cameras reveal that they've taken some foam hits on the way up. They get to ISS, and do an inspection. There are three possibilities:
- The damage is obvious, and will obviously be fatal if a return attempt is made
- The damage is minimal, and it's obvious that a return is safe, or
- The damage is obvious, but less obvious is how dangerous a return attempt would be.
Scenario 2 is easy--just come home.
Scenarios 1 and 3 are more problematic. Scenario 1 is actually two potentials--one in which there is no hope of repair, and the other in which a repair attempt can be made, which converts it to scenario 3, since the degree of confidence in an in-space repair will be unknown, given our lack of real-life experience with it.
But for Scenario 1 in which no repair seems possible, the orbiter is now the largest piece of space junk ever launched. What do we do with it?
Well, if we had ever installed the servos necessary to drop the gear and control the nose wheel and brakes, we could send it down sans crew with fingers crossed, and hope that we could recover it regardless of the damage. There would, after all, be nothing to lose. Presumably this would be an Edwards landing, so the breakup, if/when it occurred, would happen safely over the Pacific (no need for recovery of the pieces, since there will be no doubt of what caused the vehicle to break up).
But wishes aren't horses, and the vehicle is in fact not capable of landing without someone in the cockpit (a state in which it has remained for years as a result of pressure from the astronaut office, or so rumor has it, out of a fear of redundancy). So any return of the crippled orbiter has to be a planned crash landing, should it beat the odds and survive the entry.
So, do we just drop it in the ocean, or do we attempt to belly it in (again, at Edwards). The former is the safest option from the standpoint of third-party hazard, but if we could get it down in (sort of) one piece, then we might learn more about how the damage to the tile seen on orbit correlated to damage that occurred during entry, which would be useful for future TPS design work. We would also have a source for cannibalization of parts should Mike Griffin change his mind and decide to finish out ISS with only two vehicles remaining.
So, those are the options where we are reasonably sure that we have a doomed vehicle. Not easy decisions, but neither are they ones that will keep a NASA administrator up at night.
The really ugly choices come in with the scenario in which the prospects for a safe entry are uncertain.
We still have a three orbiter fleet. It would be highly desirable to keep it at that level. Depending on the perceived level of damage, do we get a volunteer to attempt to bring home a very valuable national asset (one is enough, I believe)? There's a limited pool, of course--it has to be one of the crew at the station, and only a small subset of that crew is qualified for the job. If someone does volunteer, does the agency accept it? It would be irrational to throw away a third of the fleet, and a multibillion dollar asset to avoid risking the life of a willing volunteer whose job it is to take such risks, but I can imagine the agency doing exactly that (with no doubt a lot of kibitzing from the peanut gallery on the Hill).
That's the kind of decision that causes sleepless nights for flight directors and agency heads.
Note that in none of this discussion have I yet addressed how to ultimately get the crew down, and to support them at a crowded ISS until such a time as we can do that. Options for crew return are multiple Soyuz flights, or simply chance another Shuttle flight, with the risk of stranding yet another crew, but only a two-person crew this time. The chances of two incidents in a row (and three out of four in a row, counting Columbia--though that makes it a conditional probability) seem pretty slim to me, but of course the probability of heads on a coin toss is always fifty fifty, regardless of the history. If this option is chosen, likely this will be the last Shuttle mission ever flown, regardless of its success. Unless we become more rational about such things, in which case we may do one more to repair Hubble.
In any event, the administrator may have set himself up for some very interesting decisions in the near future with his decision to launch.
[Update late afternoon Pacific]
I see over at The Flame Trench that NASA plans an August 21st rescue mission with Atlantis (a week earlier than its planned August 28th mission) should it be necessary. That means a seven-week stay at ISS.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:07 PM
Feet Of Clay
It turns out that Coleen Rowley isn't quite the whistle-blowing heroine she's been made out to be.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:02 PM
Second Guessing Sense
Some people are criticizing Mike Griffin's decision to overrule some of his managers, and go ahead with the next Shuttle flight, claiming that "schedule pressure" is driving the agency to make a decision in defiance of launch safety, as occurred with Challenger and Columbia.
I disagree, of course. The only thing wrong with Griffin's decision is that it came almost a year too late--they should have restarted the regular schedule after last summer's return to flight (and in fact, the return to flight should have been much sooner). I'm on record of long standing as believing that the CAIB's recommendations were unrealistic, and if they weren't at the time, they certainly became so when Bush came out with his new policy in early 2004 (which included retirement of the Shuttle fleet in 2010). The Shuttle is as safe as it can practically be made (and despite a lot of confusion among many, including professional "safety" engineers, "safe" is a relative, not absolute state).
I'm doing a lot of work right now with a company that specializes in this sort of risk analysis (though we fine tune it a little more, using a five by five matrix, rather than a four by three). While useful, this kind of analysis is more art than science, with an unavoidable level of subjectivity.
But what it doesn't take into account is the schedule and cost issues. I've noted before that we're in the worst of all possible worlds right now (and will remain so until we start to fly again with regularity). We're spending billions of dollars per year to not fly the system, and the date (admittedly arbitrary) of retirement looms, leaving less and less time to complete the ISS (the only reason that the Shuttle hasn't already been retired). We know as much as we can know about how safe the vehicle is, we don't know how to make it any safer, absent spending many more billions and years (money that would be much better spent on new systems). The crew are ready to fly, and most of the astronaut corps would have been the day after Columbia broke up. Or if not, NASA did a lousy job in choosing them. Even a "catastrophe" (loss of another orbiter and crew) wouldn't be the end of the world (though it might be the end of Mike Griffin's career, since he's decided to do his job and make this decision), because we're planning to retire the fleet anyway. But it's extremely unlikely (and would have been had we done nothing after Columbia, as evidenced by the fact that it happened only once in a hundred flights). The chances of losing another vehicle in the few remaining flights are small.
Mike Griffin is right. It's time, long past time, to fly.
[Update late afternoon]
There's a pretty lively discussion of this over at The Flame Trench, with a post by Todd Halvorson. Some of the comments contain the typical fallacies. I loved this one:
You wrote your comment on a computer that without the NASA program would only fit in a large room, you probably cook on a teflon pan. The astronauts do not take up cargo bays full of cash and shovel it out of the airlock, the money is spent to pay salaries and for goods. This money is then returned to the various communities in the form of; buying houses, buying cars, buying groceries, and also paying taxes. Government employees are the only ones that "pay their employers for working".
Let's see, there are two false spinoff claims, the old "we don't send money into space" strawman, and the "multiplier effect" (containing a version of the broken windows fallacy) all in one graf.
I liked this one, too:
If you think the program is a waste of money, think about this: After the Apollo program ended, the Brevard County Area was a waste land. Homes were worth zero and business folded. The Wedgefield area in Orange county is a prime example. Do away with the space program and you will have a disaster here. The economy of this area will drop to almost zero and your local investments will be worth zero. I realize some think it is a waste of money thats becuase you want that money to go into free government handouts for you. Get a job. If you do away with the program and let China get a foot hold in space, we will be in dier straits. The space program is Brevard, no program, no Brevard.
Yes, the taxpayers are clearly obligated to maintain home values in Brevard County. Well, and to keep the Yellow Horde (whose earliest prediction in their "race" with us to the moon is several years after NASA's plans) from becoming our space overlords.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:29 AM
June 19, 2006
What Was She Thinking (If Indeed She Was)?
I never understood why Connie Chung had any kind of job in the news industry, but this, an apparent adieu to MSNBC (whence she just got canceled, and where does one go from there?) makes me wonder how many bottles of hooch she had to down before she allowed it to be captured digitally, forever.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:44 PM
Dix Chix Blogging
This has to be one of the weirdest blogging stories I've read in a while, if not ever.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:35 PM
Poison Gas And "Torture"
Cliff May has some thoughts.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:08 PM
What A Shocker
Supply-side economics works:
The country was facing the largest projected deficit in history when Bush promised to halve it as a percentage of GDP by 2009. Due to high wartime spending and the residual effects of the 2000–01 recession, the White House expected the 2004 deficit to reach $521 billion, or 4.5 percent of GDP. Bush’s goal was to reduce this to 2.25 percent by 2009.
After all the beans were finally counted, the 2004 deficit came in at $413 billion—roughly 3.5 percent of GDP. The economy had begun expanding, partly in response to Bush’s tax cuts, creating jobs and boosting revenue. This trend continued into the next year, pushing the deficit down to $319 billion in 2005.
This year, the projections look even better. Through the first eight months of this budget year, the deficit is $227 billion—16.7 percent lower than this time last year. That’s largely because government revenues in these eight months have reached $1.545 trillion, up 12.9 percent from last year.
Of course, as the editorial points out, that's no excuse not to get spending under control.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:49 PM
Great PR
If this is true, that's the ultimate product placement--for something that doesn't yet exist. (Not implying that Mark isn't right--just that I didn't follow the link, because I didn't want to see the spoilers.)
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:31 PM
Protecting Us From Ourselves
Thomas James (and Dr. Sanity) says that the media are treating the American public like children. Or irascible excitable red-state rednecks. Or perhaps they don't make a distinction. Of course, the funny thing is that the Canadian press is doing the same to the Canadian people.
[Update on Monday evening]
Alan K. Henderson has further thoughts.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:27 PM
Dems Deride, Truth Dies
John Fund writes about the Democrats' dilemma in their continuing attempts to rewrite history.
Most people, including me, are willing to discuss and debate the wisdom of both past and current policy in Iraq. But it's not possible to debate seriously people who continue to insist that Bush lied, and that it was about oil, or avenging his daddy, or because he's a bloodthirsty warmonger. And people who continue to spout such nonsense are (thankfully) going to continue to lose at the polls, regardless of how unhappy the American people are with the Iraq situation. Which is better news for the Republicans than they deserve.
[Update a few minutes later]
I should add that I actually agree with the Democrats that the administration has been incompetent in the war. The problem is that in this (as on almost all issues), the Dems would be even worse (in many cases, not even being willing to actually wage it). As I've said on numerous occasions, I wish that we'd had better choices in 2004.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:01 PM
Technical Difficulties
I got in all right last night, but my laptop's hard drive is dying (wish I'd known that before I left--I would have brought my other one). I'm posting this from work, but won't be able to do much of that, so posting may be light this week, until I get back to Florida Friday night.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:00 AM
Not Trade Deficit, Capital Surplus
The Economist Friday said:
In a rare instance of economic consensus, almost everyone now agrees that the current-account balance, which was over $800 billion in the red at the end of last year, is unsustainable.
They should know that there is no such thing as a consensus of economists. I am not a macro guy, but if the US economy continues to generate capital (intellectual property, companies with lots of educated workers, houses, etc.) at a tremendous rate, then the capital surplus will result in other countries giving us non-capital goods in exchange for our capital goods. A capital surplus and a trade deficit are the same thing.
For all our regulation, taxes and flaws in our judicial system, most of the rest of the globe has less rule of law, higher taxes and more flaws in their judicial systems. The US is a great place to make safer investments like real estate and blue chip corporate bonds. Do you think the Norweigians and Saudis invest their huge current account surplus in their own respectively not so dynamic and not so productive economies?
As I said before, our human and physical captial stock is growing by a lot. Even though the average house price went down for one quarter, it has been growing at 6.5% in money terms for 43 years or 2.1% accounting for inflation. That leads to $440 billion in appreciation of the existing capital stock. The number of homes has also been growing. I estimate this by looking at the home ownership rate, the number of people per household and the growing population. Together they indicate we add another 1.8% a year to the housing stock in numbers. (This could be offset by less rental housing capital, but I doubt it.) So that is about $800 billion we are adding to the housing capital stock and residential housing construction is just 3-4% of GDP.
We can grow the US owned capital stock forever and have plenty left over to sell to foreigners.
Posted by Sam Dinkin at 02:11 AM
June 18, 2006
Intermission
Back to LA for another week. I may check in tonight.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:22 AM
Strange Comparison
Just listening to Fox News Sunday, and Juan Williams is wondering why William Jefferson (you know, the guy who had ninety grand in his freezer?) lost his committee post when other Democrats weren't treated similarly. He used as an example Gary Condit (remember him?--Just before September 11th?), who was investigated for months but was never punished by the party (though he did lose his primary in the next election, IIRC).
I wish that Brit Hume or Bill Kristol had asked Juan what he thought would have happened had Chandra Levy's body been found in Condit's freezer.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:16 AM
June 17, 2006
Busy
The carpenters are here today with some final cabinet installation issues, and the pool pump died, so I've been pulling the old one, finding a new one, and replacing it, before the summer mustard algae in south Florida crawls over the coping, creeps into our bedroom and smothers us in our slumber.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:19 PM
June 16, 2006
Europe Finally Waking Up?
Someone over there has been noticing the new space industry:
New commercial markets, among them space tourism, have a great potential to become major drivers in space technology development. This study aims at the assessment of the feasibility of European initiatives to address these new markets through the development of crewed space vehicles.
The more the merrier, but given Airbus' problems and the general bureaucratic issues over there (even worse than NASA, if that can be believed), I'm not as encouraged as some might be. In addition, they've even more of a nanny-state mentality than we do here, and they'll have trouble getting the kind of flexible regulatory environment with regard to passenger safety that we just won from the FAA. Not to mention the fact that they don't have any natural flight test sites there--they'll have to go to Africa, Asia or the Middle East to find sufficiently large unpopulated areas.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:34 PM
A Pretty Funny Interview
With Greg Gutfeld:
How do you define your politics? When and why did you become a conservative?
I was a lefty in high school—which is normal because it’s a romantic thing to do—being a crusading lib makes everything in the world about YOU and YOUR FEELINGS. Which coincides nicely with being a teenager. It’s all about speaking truth to power, which translated, means, LOOK AT ME. It’s OK when kids do it—but it’s gross when adults do it, because you really should have grown out of that stage. This is why so many celebs become lefties when they hit their 27th birthday—their growth was stunted. The celebs who are righties tend to have lived a lot more than the others.
Anyway, I was in a debate in high school, on the pros and cons of mutually assured destruction. I took the con side, since I was anti-nuke. This guy Jeff Philliber took the pros. Jeff was kind of a nerd. I wasn’t. Sorry Jeff, but it was true. But anyway, I breezed through my opening remarks. Then Jeff wipes the floor, the windows, the lockers, and the small of his back with me. It’s really weird to be in a debate, and to realize the other person is dead right. So I did something cheap and sleazy. I played to the crowd with wisecracks—and I can’t remember how I did this.
I had a friend of mine send a note to the classroom to say I had an emergency at home. So I was able to leave. I came back in the end, and the class voted on the outcome and I won the debate. This is 23 years ago, and I still remember the whole thing. I bet Jeff Philliber doesn’t! But at that point I realized I was an imposter. And if an imposter can hold liberal beliefs so easily, then they aren’t really beliefs. I prove that at the Huffington Post daily.
That's not the funny part. Read the whole thing.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:08 AM
Has Al Qaeda In Iraq Been Destroyed?
Strategy Page says maybe:
The death of al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi was not as important as the capture of his address book and other planning documents in the wake of the June 7th bombing. U.S. troops are trained to quickly search for names and addresses when they stage a raid, pass that data on to a special intelligence cell, which then quickly sorts out which of the addresses should be raided immediately, before the enemy there can be warned that their identity has been compromised. More information is obtained in those raids, and that generates more raids. So far, the June 7th strike has led to over 500 more raids. There have been so many raids, that there are not enough U.S. troops to handle it, and over 30 percent of the raids have been carried by Iraqi troops or police, with no U.S. involvement. Nearly a thousand terrorist suspects have been killed or captured. The amount of information captured has overwhelmed intelligence organizations in Iraq, and more translators and analysts are assisting, via satellite link, from the United States and other locations.
There is this, too:
The damage done by the post- Zarqawi raids has spurred the Sunni Arab amnesty negotiations. These have been stalled for months over the issue of how many Sunni Arabs, with "blood on their hands", should get amnesty. Letting the killers walk is a very contentious issue. There are thousands of Sunni Arabs involved here. The latest government proposal is to give amnesty to most of the Sunni Arabs who have just killed foreigners (mainly Americans). Of course, this offer was placed on the table without any prior consultations with the Americans. Naturally, such a deal would be impossible to sell back in the United States. But the Iraqis believe they could get away with it if it brought forth a general surrender of the Sunni Arab anti-government forces.
I heard a lot of bloviation from Capitol Hill last night on the news on this subject. Many of our lawmakers are seemingly outraged (or at least feigning outrage) at the notion that soldiers who have been making war on US troops should get amnesty. But isn't this the way of every war? During a war, soldiers try to kill each other. After the war, they go home. At least that's been the tradition with the US.
Regardless of their unorthodox (and some say cowardly) means of killing US soldiers (e.g., IEDs), there's nothing illegitimate about it, per se (though the lack of uniforms and command structure is troubling). We are supposedly in a "War on Terrorism." It seems to me that we should be encouraging the enemy to at least stop waging war on innocent civilians, which this should do. And there are no doubt many who planted IEDs that were sincere in their belief that the US was an occupying power, and its soldiers a legitimate target. Certainly we'd do the same, if we had to.
If the war is over, then the soldiers on both sides put down their arms, and no harm, no foul. If making that offer results in an end to the war, then why do we complain? We didn't, after all, punish the ordinary soldiers of the Wehrmacht after we defeated Germany. It may in the end be difficult to really make the necessary distinctions between attackers of troops and attackers of civilians, but the principle seems sound. All of this outrage on the Hill seems more emotional than reasoned, to me.
[Update a few minutes later]
Great (OK, well, some kind of) minds think alike. Jonah Goldberg has a similar rant, which is even tougher on the posturing, "get out now" Democrats (and Republicans, where it applies).
His point is mine. Amnesty is a consolation prize for losing the war. What many in the bug-out brigade seem to want is for them to win.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:02 AM
It's Been A Rough June
For left-wing nostalgiasts. As Michael Barone says, no matter how fervently they may wish it, Iraq is not Vietnam, "Plamegate" is not Watergate, and Bush is not Nixon redux.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:57 AM
Virus Alert
I've been getting a little flurry of emails, all of which say that they're publishing something about me somewhere (no mention of my name in the body of the email, of course), with a copy of the article and a photo supposedly attached for my approval. I also got one with a similar attachment indicating that it was a crime scene photo and they were looking for potential witnesses. No two alike yet, except for these features. I unzipped the attachment on a Linux machine, and it contains a *.exe file (presumably Windows executable). I've no idea what it does, but if you get one, too, my free advice is to not execute it.
Oh, wait. Now I see that Symantec has scrubbed one of them.
Here's the culprit. Backdoor.Naninf.E
It's a Trojan horse.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 04:48 AM
June 15, 2006
This Was A Really Bad Week
For the Democrats to have this debate...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:05 PM
Tear Jerker
Here's a story about a deer that (supposedly) befriended a dying cat:
Margie Scott was devastated when her 9-year-old cat Sammy was diagnosed with kidney failure, but she never could have predicted what would give her comfort during her pet’s last days...
... A family of deer regularly visits the complex, and one day, Sammy was sitting outside in the grass when two young deer happened by...
... For several minutes, the young deer licked the small cat. Scott grabbed her camera and got a picture of the tender scene.
“It was amazing,” she said. “I truly believe the deer was able to sense that there was something wrong with Sammy and that was why he started licking him, like he was trying to nurture him.”
OK, dry your eyes.
Now for the science. I'll bet that the cat's kidney problems were causing it to excrete excess salt from its pores. It was a walking, dying salt lick.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:38 PM
An Ursine Arctic Donner Party
Polar bears are eating each other:
"During 24 years of research on polar bears in the southern Beaufort Sea region of northern Alaska and 34 years in northwestern Canada, we have not seen other incidents of polar bears stalking, killing, and eating other polar bears," the scientists said.
Environmentalists contend shrinking polar ice due to global warming may lead to the disappearance of polar bears before the end of the century.
It's George Bush's fault of course. If only we'd signed on to Kyoto.
Actually, while it helps emphasize the surprise of the researchers, the fact that they haven't seen it in such a short period of time tells us nothing about how common it is historically. And in any event, the American Geophysical Union says that we can't definitively blame it on SUVs.
Sorry, Al.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:12 PM
Comeback
It's not even to the All-Star break yet, and the Tigers have already won more games this year than they did in all of 2003 (this win today was their forty-third). They have the best record in the majors and are leading their division. I'm not a big baseball fan (or sports fan in general) but I do retain a lot of loyalty to the home-town teams of my youth (Tigers, Lions, Woverines). I may actually sit down and watch a few games this year.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:22 PM
About Time
Dan Rather has finally been fired from SeeBS. One can only think that the long delay was a way to save face, and hope that everyone had forgotten what a fiasco it was.
He's still in denial, of course:
Rather has said several times that "my best work is still ahead of me." He is described by friends as hurt and puzzled by the attitude of CBS management.
Yup, I don't care what anyone says, those Emperor's new duds looked great!
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:47 AM
Ouch
The Onion's take on the recent Kos Konvention. I particularly like the "Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi Memorial Service."
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:46 AM
Shut Up And Sing
Natalie Maines continues to inflict her ignorant political opinions on an indifferent world:
"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."
There can be no rational explanation of how Maines's remark came to drive a red-hot poker into America's divided soul, but it's only now that some of the poison has begun to dissipate.
No, of course not. No rational explanation at all.
And of course, they'll continue to whine about their lack of record and concert sales. They've obviously never heard the old saying about holes, and what to do when in one.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:30 AM
Still On Track
It looks like we may actually have a Shuttle launch in a couple weeks. The best place to stay on top of this will probably be The Flame Trench, the Florida Today blog.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:19 AM
The Deadliness Of Political Correctness
"Fjordman" over at The Gates Of Vienna says that we didn't win the Cold War decisively enough, and it makes it harder to fight the new form of anti-Enlightenment totalitarianism represented by Jihad. We still haven't put the wooden stake through the heart of Marxism.
[Via Mars Blog]
[Update in the afternoon]
Here are some related thoughts on multi-culturalism and how it will kill us as well, if we let it, from the preface of Ayann Hirsi Ali's new book.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:16 AM
What's The Problem?
Keith Cowing seems to think that Stephen Hawking is being inconsistent:
When asked about his thoughts on President Bush's proposal to put a man on Mars within 10 years, Hawking simply replied: "Stupid."
This, in the context of the recent story that Dr. Hawking thinks that we must colonize space for our long-term survival.
I don't see what the problem is. It's possible to both believe that we should colonize space, and that the current policy is a poor way to do so, for the expenditures being proposed. I can attest to this, because I do in fact believe that.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:06 AM
Another Blow To Old Europe
Airbus is spiralling in. Nice to be a Boeing shareholder, these days.
[Afternoon update]
Here's more.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:57 AM
Time Is On The Side Of The Infidels
An interesting find in the Zarkman's (un)safe house:
As an overall picture, time has been an element in affecting negatively the forces of the occupying countries, due to the losses they sustain economically in human lives, which are increasing with time. However, here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance for the following reasons:
I particularly like this problem they seem to be having:
By undertaking a media campaign against the resistance resulting in weakening its influence inside the country and presenting its work as harmful to the population rather than being beneficial to the population.
Those evil propagandists! Only they could fool people into thinking that brutally murdering and blowing up innocent men, women and children, and kidnapping and people and making head-chopping snuff films with them, was harmful to the population.
Anyway, they must be talking about Iraqi media. I haven't seen much of that in the western press. Most of what I read here, based on interviews with Murtha and Kerry, is that we can't win, and must give up. Wonder what they'll have to say about this document? Someone should ask them. But they won't.
And note that the enemy knows who its best friends are, as evidenced by the fact that this is their numero uno strategem:
To improve the image of the resistance in society, increase the number of supporters who are refusing occupation and show the clash of interest between society and the occupation and its collaborators. To use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance.
Yup. They keep playing the western media like a finely-tuned Strad. And the western media love the tune, because they share a common enemy--George Bush.
[Update in the afternoon]
I just noticed in reading more carefully that a key part of Al Qaeda/Iraq's strategy seems to be to foment a war between the US and Iran. We'll have to look out for this. I wonder if the Iranian government is aware of this (and if they've been harboring Al Qaeda types to whom they'll no longer be as friendly).
[Update a couple minutes later]
Here's a story that says the Iraqi government believes that it's broken the back of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The mine of information from Al-Qaeda documents seized during raids spelt "the beginning of the end" for the terror group, said Iraqi national security advisor Muwaffaq al-Rubaie
"We believe Al-Qaeda in Iraq was taken by surprise; they did not anticipate how powerful the Iraqi security forces are and how the government is on the attack now," Rubaie told reporters.
The documents had given Iraq an "edge over Al-Qaeda and will also give us the whereabouts of their network and their leaders and their weapons, and the way they lead the organisation and the whereabouts of their meetings".
I hope they're right, but I'll keep the champagne chilled for now.
[Update at 3:30 PM]
One more interesting point about that letter from the (un)safe house, re: benefits to AQ in Iraq of a US/Iran war:
“The possibility of acquiring new weapons from the Iranian side, either after the fall of Iran or during the battles.”
Emphasis mine. Who do they think (in bin Laden's lexicon) is the "strong horse" now?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:17 AM
Numerology
They couldn't even wait for the next thousand on the odometer. Remember the big deal the press made about the 2000th death in Iraq? Now the magic (and utterly meaningless) number is 2500:
While there were no details on who it was or where the 2,500th death occurred, it underscored the continuing violence in Iraq just after an upbeat Bush returned from a surprise visit to Baghdad determined that the tide was beginning to turn.
In other words, we've now lost, over a period of over three years, almost as many as died in a couple hours on the beaches of Normandy (perhaps even the same number as were lost just in training for that event). Would the media have been so hung up on these kinds of numbers during that war? It seems unlikely, but if they had (or to be more precise, had today's media been reporting then), the story would have been something like this.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:36 AM
Words To Ponder
Jonah Goldberg says that we should have installed liberalism in Iraq, not democracy. There is a confusion between the two, and as he points out, introducing democracy in an illiberal society will not necessarily provide helpful results.
...many on the left see no problem singing the praises of leftwing regimes which put "equality" ahead of democracy. As Derb once put it, "Wherever there is a jackboot stomping on a human face there will be a well-heeled Western liberal to explain that the face does, after all, enjoy free health care and 100 percent literacy." But regimes which put liberty and the rule of law ahead of democracy and the like are always immediately derided as dictatorial "strong-man" regimes. I'm not saying that such criticism isn't sometimes accurate. After all, democracy is good and tends to innoculate against tyranny and without democracy enlightened regimes often go bad. But I would still have preferred to live under Pinochet than Castro or Lee Kuan Yew instead of Hugo Chavez (or, heh, the Hapsburgs than the Soviets).
As someone who still considers himself a classical liberal, that makes a lot of sense to me, given the often ugly choices of the real (as opposed to ivory-tower) world. It's easy to overrate and overemphasize democracy. As Churchill once said, it's the worst possible system, except for all the others.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:07 AM
Dispatch From Planet Clueless
It had to be a slow newsday, with a reporter who hasn't been paying much attention, to generate a thumbsucker like this: "Politics is clouding message of antiwar activist Sheehan."
When Cindy Sheehan burst on the national scene, it was as an aggrieved mother whose son had died in Iraq. Plainspoken and unscripted, Sheehan delivered an easily relatable story that gave her a kind of moral authority.
OK, so what is the "easily relatable story that gave her a kind of moral authority"? Our intrepid reporter can't be bothered to say. Just how does one derive "moral authority" from a dead son, anyway? Can someone explain this to me?
She deserved, and to the degree that she actually mourns her son (questionable, at this point--if there's anyone of whom it could be said, in Ann Coulter's much-criticized words, that they are "enjoying" a death, it is Mother Sheehan--she was obviously having the time of her life when she got arrested at the White House), continues to deserve our pity, but that doesn't give her "moral authority," absolute (to use Maureen Dowd's silly adjective) or otherwise.
Since then, some have questioned whether Sheehan has strayed too far politically.
Gee, do ya think? What cave has this reporter been in?
And in not describing the "easily relatable story" (I guess we're just supposed to infer it--"My son died in Iraq, you have to listen to my opinions about the war, and the war-mongering, lying terroristic Bush administration"), he can avoid telling the other side of the story. That is, she had already met with Bush once and was demanding a revisit with her Crawford histrionics, she couldn't be bothered to put a stone on her son's grave, her husband and son disowned her over her loony antics, etc. None of that can be found in this story. No, it's just a noble woman who suffered a grievous loss, and who (in consorting with dictators and making common cause with the monsters who are actually responsible for killing her son) may have gone "a little too far."
Sickening.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:54 AM
That's Not Funny
Lileks has found some correspondence from the Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq numero uno du jour.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:08 AM
June 14, 2006
Everglades Python Problem
It's bigger than many had hoped:
Scientists from several institutions, including the National Park Service, have joined Mazzotti's team in hopes of controlling, if not eradicating, the python population. But that's pretty hard when it's uncertain how many are out there and where they hang out...
...Most pythons have been seen near roads or other manmade structures, so officials had hoped they had not ventured too deeply into the park. But that turned out not to be the case. They are everywhere.
"Burmese pythons are right in the heart of Everglades National Park," Mazzotti says. And they are wreaking havoc on the system, eating everything from gray squirrels to bobcats and threatening efforts to restore native species to the park.
Unfortunately, it's an ideal home for pythons. They are "habitat generalists," meaning they like to live between wet and dry areas, and they like to climb trees, and they are good swimmers, and there's lots of animals for them to eat. That's also just the kind of environment that appeals to alligators.
"So here they are, hanging out in the same places, doing the same things," Mazzotti says. "And on more than one occasion, several of which were witnessed by the public, they have gotten in fights."
I haven't seen any, but I don't spend that much time there.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:11 PM
Not Good Enough
This anti-pork proposal by Frist is better than nothing, but I'd still like to see a sunset amendment (which would include sunsetting entitlements).
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:25 PM
A Nightmare
A fear of things like this potential Folgers' commercial coming true is what causes me to sleep with a belt-fed weapon and lots of ammo close at hand.
Of course, I'm not a coffee drinker.
[Via emailer Aleta Jackson]
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:43 PM
How Nations Die
Mark Steyn:
Melanie Phillips makes a point that applies to Britain, Canada and beyond: "With few exceptions, politicians, Whitehall officials, senior police and intelligence officers and academic experts have failed to grasp that the problem to be confronted is not just the assembly of bombs and poison factories but what is going on inside people's heads that drives them to such acts." These are not Pushtun yak herders straight off the boat blowing up trains and buses. They're young men, most of whom were born and all of whom were bred in London, Toronto and other Western cities. And offered the nullity of a contemporary multicultural identity they looked elsewhere -- and found the jihad. If we try to fight it as isolated outbreaks -- a suicide attack here, a beheading there -- we will never win. You have to take on the ideology and the networks that sustain it and throttle them. Does [Toronto mayor] David Miller sound like a man who's up to that challenge? A reader in Quebec, John Gross, emailed me to distill the mayor's approach as: "Don't get mad, get even . . . wimpier."
Despite the delusions of many Canadians, being "nice" will not save Canada.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:51 AM
Self Censorship
The intimidation of the Islamists is working:
Bertel Haarder believes that the government of Denmark — the same government of which he is a member — cannot protect him from people who would kill him because of what he says. He believes that the police, the laws, and the courts of the sovereign democratic state of Denmark are of no use, and are unable to defend him from his country’s enemies.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:14 AM
June 13, 2006
"Ward Churchill Should Be Fired"
That's common sense to most people who've been following this case, but it's a shocking statement from an academic committee.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:52 PM
OK, Folks, What's The Consensus?
Was the Kos poster serious, or an amusing troll?
[Update at 5:50 PM EDT]
Here's a credible theory as to who has been pulling the Kossacks' chain. Yeah, it certainly has his fingerprints. At least as far as the hilarity part...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:43 PM
Windmill Tilting
And the windmills aren't even real. Speaking as a supposed skeptic about God (he's actually an atheist--that is, someone who not only doesn't believe in God, but who actually believes that there is no God), Michael Newdow is an idiot:
Michael Newdow, the Sacramento, California lawyer and doctor who had previously launched a court challenge on behalf of his daughter over the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance said in schools, had argued that "In God We Trust" on monetary instruments violates his rights.
Newdow claimed that by using coins and currency bearing the phrase, he is forced to carry religious dogma, proselytise and evangelise for monotheism.
He needs to get a life.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:17 PM
From The Heart Of Darkness
Instapundit has an on-the-spot report of the brutal storm in northwest Florida. From the Piggly Wiggly in Apalachicola.
It's Katrina redux! With profiteering!
Well, not really.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:33 AM
Merry Fitzmas!
And a happy new year to all, except the leftist loons. Patrick Kennedy has pled guilty to DUI. Will miracles never cease?
If Cynthia McKinney is actually charged with assault today, I'll think that we've entered a parallel universe.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:52 AM
Reconsidering
I've always been in favor of cloning, until I read this:
The former vice president, a Democrat, said on Monday that by the end of the summer he would start a bipartisan education campaign to train 1,000 people to give a version of his slide show on global warming featured in the film "An Inconvenient Truth" and book of the same name.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:12 AM
A Buyers' Market?
Has the housing bubble burst?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:09 AM
Those Bastards
That well-known climatologist, Bill Clinton, says that his former VP is right--GOP policies are going to give us more hurricanes. Well, he certainly knows about big blows, anyway.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:58 AM
More On The Coal In The Stocking
Drudge is laughing at these loons, and their failed Fitzmas. He's particularly hard on nutball MSNBCer Keith "Tinfoil" Olbermann.
[Update at 10:45 AM EDT]
The black crepe is out at Kos. Read this, and particularly the second comment:
I don't think I've ever seen such a look of misery and dejection on the face of my daughter as I just did a moment ago. She just couldn't understand why the President would be going to Iraq when so many things are wrong in this country. "Doesn’t Mr. Bush care about us anymore?" she asked pitifully.
I sat down with her on the sofa and (as calmly as I could) tried to explain to her why the President seems to be abandoning his country. "Honey, I think his boss, Mr. Rove, sent Mr. Bush out of the country in order to keep himself out of the newspapers. You see, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be arrested today or not, and so he planned Mr. Bush’s trip ahead of time just in case...”
I tried to keep my voice steady, but it became increasingly difficult - the rage and feelings of helplessness were just too much. I think my daughter could tell something was wrong. I found myself at such a loss for words - nothing made any sense; nothing makes sense anymore. I finally had to admit, "Honey, I just don't know - I don't know what's going on in this country anymore..."
When I finished her lower lip started to tremble and her eyes began to fill with tears, "Daddy" she said, "why are the Republicans doing this to the country?" Well, that was it for me: I finally fell apart. She just fell into my arms and we both began sobbing for several minutes.
For once she had to comfort me and get me back on my feet. Sometimes I just think it's too much, but seeing the strength in my young daughter's voice helped me to get through.
You know, you have to have a heart of stone to be able to read this and not laugh out loud. I'll confess, regretfully, that I wasn't up to the task.
Consider--odds are that this is not a troll parodying the site--it was almost certainly typed with a perfectly straight face. You can't parody these people any more. It really raises the bar for us Internet satirists.
[Via Wizbang]
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:51 AM
More Norwegian Meteorite Discussion
Over at Volokh's place. It may not have been as big a kaboom as originally reported. Certainly (on the evidence, thankfully) not an earth-shattering one. Or even a Norway-shattering one.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:19 AM
Irony
Mark Whittington has a strange complaint about a Russian space program:
However, like a lot of other Russian schemes, it seems to me to depend on getting a hold of a lot of other peoples' money.
In what way does that differentiate it from "NASA schemes"?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:09 AM
Good News From Iraq
It's been a tough week for terrorists. I particularly liked this part:
...an interesting statement made by the speaker of the parliament after the debate:
“We are doing like our uncle America; it is democracy speaking,” he said.
Of course, to our leftist friends, this just proves that the Iraqi government is a puppet of the US. Such a notion couldn't possibly be sincere, or widespread...
[Update a few minutes later]
It's also a tough week for many terrorist sympathizers. Despite all the hyperventilating, Karl Rove will not be indicted. I agree with John Podhoretz that, on the available evidence, Fitzgerald's behavior in this matter has been shameful.
[Update at 10:13 AM EDT]
Tom Maguire has more on the Fitzmas Fizzleout. And getting back to the original post topic, Ralph Peters writes about destroying the symbols of terror.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:44 AM
June 12, 2006
Attack Of The GONGOs
Anne Bayefsky writes about the latest scam that the UN has come up with to institutionalize anti-semitism and support for tyranny.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:36 PM
How Did They Miss That?
Thomas Lifson points out demonstrations in Spain in which the media seem to have no interest. I wonder why? Oh, yeah:
Something between 200,000 and one million people took to the streets of Madrid (see photo) for a demonstration against appeasement of terrorists.
No news value there, I guess.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:27 PM
They Still Don't Get It
Michael Barone says that Dems are winning everywhere except the polls.
To paraphrase Golda Meir, they'll start to win elections again when they learn to love their country and its military more than they hate George Bush. Which probably means that they're due for a long sojourn in the political wilderness.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:12 AM
Unintended Consequences
Remember all of the outcry because Rumsfeld wasn't getting better armored Humvees to the troops? Well, it turns out that the new "up armored" Humvees in Iraq are apparently killing more soldiers in rollovers than they're saving with the new armor:
...serious accidents involving the M1114 have increased as the war has progressed, and the accidents were much more likely to be rollovers than those of other Humvee models, the newspaper reported.
Duhhhhh!
Increasing the vehicle mass, and coincidentally raising the center of mass, is obviously going to decrease its stability in turns. Didn't anyone consider this when they came up with the design? People forget that this vehicle was a replacement for the jeep, not the tank.
This is a classic engineering safety trade, but soldiers killed in auto accidents don't get all the press that the ones killed with IEDs do. That doesn't fit the template that we're losing the war, because they were killed by media outcry, not terrorists.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:34 AM
Nope, No Terrorism Here
One of the enduring myths of the anti-war left is that there were no ties between Saddam and terrorism. No, of course there weren't.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:36 AM
The Magic Of Video Editing
...and Youtube. I give you: Star Trek vs Star Wars.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:08 AM
The Gay Pride Bimbo
I wasn't sure quite how to categorize this--it's not really criticism (though perhaps she could have done a better job of keeping her cool), but Fox News' (hottest non-blonde news anchor) Julie Banderas apparently got into an on-air verbal brawl with one of the Phelps wackos this weekend. Here's the Quicktime video.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:59 AM
I Just Don't Get It
Was the world clamoring for an on-line spread sheet? What need does this serve that one can't get from an office suite? It's free? OK, so is this, and you don't have to worry about net lag, and storing your data on Google's server. Not to mention that it's as powerful as Excel, with (at least somewhat) file compatibility. Why do they think this was a good idea?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:05 AM
God And The Singularity (Results)
Phil Bowermaster has the results of the survey he did a couple weeks ago.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:50 AM
A Gloomy View Of The Future
The return of the Goths. And Barbary pirates.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 04:58 AM
June 11, 2006
Can It Be Done?
Technology Review has some of the initial attempts to knock off Aubrey de Grey's thesis on the feasibility of immortality (actually, indefinite lifespace is a better phrase). I haven't read them yet, but my readers may be interested. They also contain a response to each by de Grey, and a counterresponse.
[Via the newly redesigned Cosmic Log website, which now looks a lot more bloggy, though I suspect that Alan still goes through an editor, or at least an uploader...]
Posted by Rand Simberg at 04:23 PM
Whole Lot Of "Vowing" Going On
Some people talk, others act.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:30 PM
Alberto
We're getting the first bits of wind and thunderstorms from it here. I guess Al Gore's killer hurricane season has begun. I'm sure that he'll be thrilled to have the first storm named after him.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 11:23 AM
June 10, 2006
A Glimpse Of The Future?
Al Zarqawi may have been done in by smart dust. While it's hard to disapprove of this particular application, this is only the beginning of this kind of technology. It will be interesting to see what kind of technological countermeasures appear in the future to allow the retention of privacy. It may be a losing battle.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:18 PM
June 09, 2006
Back To Florida
On a red eye. I'm going out to dinner, then getting on the plane, getting in about six tomorrow morning, east coast time, so probably no posting until tomorrow, if then.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:57 PM
Incoming
A meteorite struck Norway a couple days ago, releasing many kilotons of energy--equivalent to the Hiroshima bomb in explosive power.
Fortunately it was out in the boonies. If it had hit a major city it would have killed many thousands of people, and if it had struck in the ocean it could have generated a nasty tsunami. And we continue to do very little to defend ourselves from them.
We were lucky this time, but we shouldn't continue to count on luck. The sooner we become a truly spacefaring country and planet (and NASA's current plans do little to advance us in that direction), the sooner we'll be able to manage these things.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 04:34 PM
"Paradise Is Overrated"
In his usual, understated way, Iowahawk has an exclusive--Zarqawi's last dispatch. No more guest commentaries from him. Even better, though, no more head chopping. Well, except for his...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 11:16 AM
Hallelujiah
In the joint news conference with the Danish PM, I just heard the president use the words "totalitarian" and "Islamofascism" to describe the enemy. Now if we can just get the administration to stop calling it a "war on terror" and rectify names. It's a War against Jihad. I suspect that we'll hear whining from CAIR any minute, though, for implying that Islam is not a Religion of Peace™.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:37 AM
June 08, 2006
Someone's Thinking Infrastructure
NASA hasn't completely given up on propellant depots. At least, not all of it.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:22 PM
Rays Of Hope?
Donald Sensing is sensing signs that the civil war within Islam is shifting toward the reformists. I hope he's right, because the alternative is almost unthinkable. And even if he's right, a long war remains ahead.
[Update a few minutes later]
Claudia Rossett has additional thoughts on the meaning of yesterday's victory (sorry, no scare quotes--it was a huge victory, particularly combined with the government jelling). She offers some badly needed perspective:
...this is an excellent moment to step back and look at just how far in this war we have come. Five years ago, al-Qaeda's commanders, from their safe haven in Afghanistan, were training thousands of terrorists and planning the Sept. 11 strike on a sleeping America. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein ruled by terror, with a record of exporting brutality and war from Baghdad at any opportunity to wherever he could reach - invading his neighbors, rewarding Palestinian suicide bombers, and openly rejoicing over Sept. 11.
Today, elected governments lead Afghanistan and Iraq, which has just completed its cabinet lineup. Bin Laden is afraid to venture out of hiding; Saddam, pulled from his spider hole, is on trial in Baghdad. And now, Zarqawi is dead, and the circumstances of his death may encourage decent people not only in Iraq but elsewhere to help hunt down his collaborators.
This is the benefit. What she doesn't mention is the cost. And in the context of history, it's trivial. I'll use an adjective that many will find appalling, but it's perfectly valid. We did it with the loss of only two or three thousand soldiers. This would have been a small toll for many single battles of past wars, with much less beneficial results. Think about that leverage again. We have liberated fifty million people with the loss of less than 0.01% of that number in American troop losses. Even if one adds in all of the innocent Iraqis who have died (and they're not to be trivialized, but they also have to be balanced against those who would have continued to die under the brutality and deprivation of Saddam's regime), it remains an amazing feat.
In my little satire, recall that the War Between the States cost many tens of thousands of lives of American troops (just on the Union side--many more when adding in the Confederacy). Get a little perspective, people.
To paraphrase someone else, never before have so few had to give their lives for so many.
[Update on Friday morning]
Christopher Hitchens explains the significance of Zarqawi's death, and the dire consequences that would result if we listened to the continuing misguided calls for immediate withdrawal:
Most fascinating of all is the suggestion that Zarqawi was all along receiving help from the mullahs in Iran. He certainly seems to have been able to transit their territory (Herat is on the Iranian border with Afghanistan) and to replenish his forces by the same route. If this suggestive connection is proved, as Weaver suggests it will be, then we have the Shiite fundamentalists in Iran directly sponsoring the murderer of their co-religionists in Iraq. This in turn would mean that the Iranian mullahs stood convicted of the most brutish and cynical irresponsibility, in front of their own people, even as they try to distract attention from their covert nuclear ambitions. That would be worth knowing. And it would become rather difficult to argue that Bush had made them do it, though no doubt the attempt will be made.
If we had withdrawn from Iraq already, as the "peace" movement has been demanding, then one of the most revolting criminals of all time would have been able to claim that he forced us to do it. That would have catapulted Iraq into Stone Age collapse and instated a psychopathic killer as the greatest Muslim soldier since Saladin. As it is, the man is ignominiously dead and his dirty connections a lot closer to being fully exposed. This seems like a good day's work to me.
Me, too.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:39 PM
Oxymoron
Over at Samizdata, an interesting discussion (including comments) on the nonsensical notion of a libertarian Democrat.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 07:27 PM
Mixed Feelings
This is a useful, if somewhat disgusting advance in medical technology. Another step on the road to disease-fixing nanobots. But it's not ready for prime time, yet, I suspect. I was thinking this as I read, as well:
Gardner says the system would need careful testing. "If something this complicated goes wrong, it could be very hard to get out."
No kidding.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:49 AM
Good Riddance To Vile Jihadist Rubbish
Ding dong, the Zarkman is dead. Dr. Sanity has a roundup of predictable reactions from the "insanreality-based community."
Here are some more, from the Kos Krazies. I particularly like this one:
"Yes the timing of Zarqawi's death does seem too good for Bush to be true. It reeks of distraction politics."
Yes, the old "timing is suspect" comment. There's never a coincidence with this crowd. What would they have said a hundred forty three years ago?
Maybe something like this:
TIMING OF UNION "VICTORIES" VIEWED AS SUSPICIOUS
July 5th, 1863
WASHINGTON (Routers) While many rejoiced at the news of the simultaneous fall of Vicksburg and bloody Union "victory" at Gettysburg, some question the timing of the two events. They accuse the Lincoln administration of orchestrating good news, at the cost of thousands of our children's lives, to coincide with the nation's birthday, in an attempt to prop up its sagging poll ratings.
"Grant could have taken Vicksburg any time over the last few weeks. Why on the Fourth of July?" asked one Democrat staffer. He went on, "...and why didn't Lincoln order Meade to defeat Lee on July 1st? Why let the battle go on for three blood-drenched days?"
There are rumors, in fact, that after the recent indecisive battle of Brandy Station, President Lincoln ordered General Meade to allow General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to forage in Pennsylvania, in order to stir up a martial frenzy among a public whose enthusiasm for this war, that benefits only arms merchants, has been waning.
"This was all trumped up by that war-mongering cabal headed by Lincoln and Stanton, to cover up their incompetence in waging this senseless Republican war," proclaimed one Senator. "I'm very suspicious of the timing."
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:37 AM
June 07, 2006
What Would We Do Without Experts?
Recent groundbreaking research indicates that (are you sitting down?--I don't want to feel responsible for anyone who hurts themselves falling to the floor in shock) many teenage girls feel pressure from boys to have sex.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:33 PM
EU Delenda Est
A long essay from The Gates of Vienna on why the EU must die, or Europe itself will, at least in any recognizable modern western form.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:21 PM
Buyers' Remorse
A lot of Dems aren't happy about the prospects of Hillary running for president. But they have no one but themselves to blame:
“I hope she won’t run, and I don’t know whether I’d support her,” said Jean Lloyd-Jones, a veteran Democrat from Iowa City, Iowa who was the party’s unsuccessful Senate nominee in 1992.
During the 1992 campaign Lloyd-Jones spent a day and half with Bill and Hillary Clinton and Al and Tipper Gore in Iowa on their now-famous bus tour.
“I think she should stay in the Senate a bit longer,” said Lloyd-Jones, who chipped in $1,000 to Clinton’s 2006 Senate re-election fund. “I don’t think this is the time for her to run (for president). I don’t quite understand why she is such a polarizing figure, but she is.”
OK, let's ignore her cluelessness about why Her Highness is such a polarizing figure. Does she not realize that when she gives a thousand dollars to the Senate campaign of someone whose Senate reelection is a cakewalk, that the unneeded money will be transferred to the presidential campaign? Sorry, no sympathy for this particular koolaid drinker.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:17 PM
From The Horse's...Errrr...Mouth
Ayatollah Khomeini didn't seem to believe that Islam is a religion of peace. Will CAIR denounce his words?
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:07 PM
Making A Choice
Michael Belfiore reports that winners of COTS contracts will be ineligible for America's Space Prize.
This makes sense. Bigelow probably wants to encourage as many players as possible, and he wants to encourage commercial space companies, so this spreads the wealth, increasing diversity in space access providers. And COTS winners don't really need the prize money anyway. It's the same philosophy that disqualified people from winning the X-Prize using government-developed hardware.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:04 PM
Fertilizer Bombs
I don't know how Greg Gutfeld perseveres at the HuffPo, but I'm glad he does. It surely stirs up the moonbat belfry over there.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:44 AM
Living With Global Warming
Amidst media hysteria from Al Gore's latest propaganda, Iain Murray has some suggestions for the most sensible approach to the problem if it is a problem--adaptation.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:31 AM
June 06, 2006
Must-See BloggingheadsTV
I'm sorry (though, on reconsideration, there's no obvious reason to be), but I thought that the latest issue of bloggingheads TV was hilarious. It starts out with Bob Wright dissing Ann Coulter's ignorant screed on evolution. But I really like their letters to the editor.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:31 PM
Gonzo
Brian "Rocket Guy" Walker's latest thrill scheme is to launch himself with a giant crossbow.
Hey, it's reusable...
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:03 PM
Bad News In Somalia
Al Qaeda has actually won a battle in the war, something that rarely happens on the actual battlefied. Unfortunately, it happens every day, in the western press...
[Wednesday morning update]
Jonah Goldberg has further thoughts.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:52 PM
Not Too Late
Robin Snelson says that you can still form a team for the Lunar Lander Challenge.
I do think that NASA is being overly restrictive with regard to propellants. I mean, it's not like they're proposing fluorine. It's just acid.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:49 PM
The Turn Of The Tide
Everyone seems to think that the big story of the day is the number of the beast, but I think that it's much more important to remember what happened sixty two years ago. The Donovan does, in pictures. Black Five does as well, with a link roundup.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:58 AM
June 05, 2006
A Cautionary Tale
Over at The Space Review today, Jeff Foust writes that space enthusiasts have to avoid the Segway problem of overhype. On a related note, Bob Clarebrough says that space entrepreneurs need to be both visionary and customer focused.
[Late morning update]
Clark Lindsey has further thoughts.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:13 AM
Incentives
Arnold Kling has an interesting essay on libertarianism and poverty, in which he notes:
If the tendency of government were to expand on its successes and cut back on its failures, then I probably would not remain a libertarian.
Much of his thesis is, of course, applicable to government versus non-government space programs as well.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:02 AM
June 04, 2006
Europe Smelling The Coffee?
Support for the "Palestinian cause" has apparently plummeted across the pond.
Better late than never, I guess.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:46 PM
Two Words: Spamme Blockere
Safely in LA, enconsced in my hotel room, and I have to note that Geoffrey Chaucer has been running his blog for a year or so now, and he's getting spam. Hilarious spam. With equally hilarious advice in comments.
[Via Judith Weiss]
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:38 PM
Off To LaLa Land
I'll be in LA all week, starting this evening. I'm about to leave for the airport, so no more posting until tonight, if then. Be good in the various comments sections.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:48 AM
Don't Wave That Thing At Me
The Germans are afraid of toy airplanes.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:10 AM
June 03, 2006
Inadvertent Humor From BBC/ABC
Yeah, let's take advice on Iran policy from Jimmy Carter. After all:
His comments are significant, given that he was the president when US relations with Iran hit an all-time low.
Some British reporter actually wrote this with a straight face, and some British and Australian editors actually printed it, again with no humor intended.
And while we're on the subject of Iran, read about the sycophantic stenography of a Walter Duranty wannabee at the WaPo.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:35 PM
"Gills With Three Buttocks"
I don't know if this is really the commencement address that Gene Weingarten delivered to the U of Maryland Journalism School grads, but if not, someone should. I'll have some advice for journalism grads, prospective journalism students, and journalism faculty, if I ever get around to finishing the essay (and related book) on which I'm working on that subject.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 02:18 PM
History Repeats?
An interesting explanation (besides the abundant media bias) why the Bush administration doesn't get as much credit for the economy as it should.
And as to media bias, answer this quiz:
Was U.S. economic growth higher during the time John Snow was Treasury Secretary, or during the time Robert Rubin was Treasury Secretary?
Answer is at the link.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:42 PM
So What Else Is New?
Brendan Loy is unhappy about the Reuters coverage of the terror arrests in Toronto.
...for some reason, Reuters didn’t see fit to mention...whether the arrested terrorists are Muslims, or Arabs, or Islamists, or Al Qaeda members/sympathizers, or… anything. From the Reuters article, you wouldn’t know whether these guys are Osama bin Laden’s band of brothers, or a band of angry rednecks from Saskatchewan. Well, actually, maybe we do sorta know, because if they were angry rednecks from Saskatchewan, I’m sure Reuters would have told us that. But the fact that they’re members of the global Islamist terrorist movement? No, that’s not newsworthy.
Actually, to be fair, at this point, perhaps it's not. I think that most people (even al Reuters) have come to reasonably expect that when terror suspects are rounded up, they'll have Islamic connections. Perhaps we should be grateful that it would only be newsworthy if it were a gang of Moosejaw lumberjacks. That, after all, would be a man bites dog story.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 12:34 PM
Good News From South Of The Border
The Washington Post says that there's a growing and effective backlash against Hugo Chavez among his neighbors.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:32 AM
June 02, 2006
The Two-Minute Snark
You need to read this (and, of course, follow the link), to understand this. But if you do (and you've read Orwell), it's funny as hell.
And of course, it will drive them up the wall. I can't wait to see the foam-flecked Kommentary at Kos.
If you look up the phrase "vicious satire," you should see a picture of David Burge.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 04:32 PM
"I Brought You Into This World...
...and I can take you out of it." Remember that old parent's words of...well, if not wisdom, certainly effectiveness? Well, it may turn out that an asteroid brought dinosaurs into being. Guess it just shows that, either way, you shouldn't mess with Ma Nature.
I've observed before how insular paleontology and geology can be, and how hard it was for Alvarez to get his theory accepted, because earth scientists couldn't (or didn't want to) imagine extraterrestrial events having such an impact (literally) on the evolution of the planet and his life. The fact that this theory seems to be taken seriously shows that we've started to get over that.
Oh, and because I'm reading an interesting book on the subject, extra points to anyone who knows who Wilkes Land is named after, without looking it up (and no, "Wilkes" is not a sufficient answer).
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:12 PM
God And The Singularity
Some thoughts, over at The Speculist. Not sure how to categorize this post, but I went with "Technology and Society." The notion of "celebrities as proto-transhumans" is interesting.
And as a complete aside (based on a comment over there mentioning her), am I the only heterosexual American male who doesn't find Jessica Simpson particularly attractive?
[Update a few minutes later]
Just to take the post further off topic, I also have no idea what it is that anyone sees in Drew Barrymore (though I know from experience that Michael Mealing will find this heresy).
Posted by Rand Simberg at 01:44 PM
Why They Hate Jeff Goldstein
Ace Of Spades writes about the fragile egos of leftists.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:32 AM
Customer Feedback
Jesse Londin has a good roundup of comments on the new NPRM from FAA-AST on experimental permits for reusable rockets.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 05:51 AM
June 01, 2006
Betting Against The House
Gerard Baker says that Condi is playing a losing hand on Iran.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:07 PM
Something Long Needed
Not that I'm a conservative, but I think that many of those who are will find it useful. A petition for conservatives against Intelligent Design.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 03:27 PM
Mac's Witnesses
This is pretty funny (given the proselytizing I've had to recently endure in my Fedora upgrade thread). Be sure to take the poll, too:
What would you do if Macintosh's Witnesses came to your door?
- Just hide and hope they go away.
- Welcome them with open arms and an open node.
- Get down on my knees and praise Jobs!
- Join them in their crusade against those Redmond devils!
- Try to convert them to Linux.
- Nitpick about Macs being more expensive and how you think there's no software for them.
- Put them in the Trash.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 10:16 AM
Busted
Radley Balko has Greenpeace dead to rights on their anti-nuke demogoguery.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 09:44 AM
Equal Opportunity Politicizing
And you thought there was a Republican war on science? Check this out. Iain Murray has more thoughts.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:58 AM
Tax Thoughts for the Year
Every year, I do an annual column on taxes. It is a little later this year than last year and all I can say in my defense is that I filed an extension and that Austin is in the hurricane affected areas (at least according to the IRS).
I have a surefire way for taxes to be reduced. Republicans claim to be for low taxes. Democrats should be. Do Democrats really want Republicans to spend more than $2 trillion every year that they are in power on their own things?
Here's the three point plan:
1. Express tax owed as a percent of the dollar you get to keep as opposed to the last dollar of "gross" income. I put gross in quotes because for most people everything beyond net goes straight to the Government in the form of payroll deductions. In my book, if you don't get it, it's not income.
In the top tax bracket (ignoring various phaseouts), if you take home $0.65, you pay $0.35 in income taxes for the privilege. That's a 54% tax rate if you look at it like sales tax. If you add in medicare, it's a 57% tax rate. You and your employer pay $36.45 for you to take home $63.55.
Government expenditure can be reported as 25% of private GDP instead of 20% of the economy.
Living in a city where more than 50% of property taxes leave the jurisdiction, I can say from experience that people get real mad when more than 50% of anything is going away (or more than 100% of what stays in the district). Framing it that way will reduce taxes.
2. Report employer "contributions" toward social security and medicare as a percent of net take home pay and lump it together as a sum. Paying 16.6% of take home pay seems more like a crisis than 6.2% and 1.45% of "your share". I put "contributions" and "your share" in quotes because an employer considers the entire cost of an employee. If that money was not paid as taxes, that could be paid as salary and the employer would still be hiring.
3. Have all people file quarterly tax returns and write a check for their taxes. Dick Thaler has done research showing that the more often people consider their st0ck market portfolio, the more unhappy they become even if the daily fluctuations even out and people make a bundle. They turn out to be extra sensitive to small losses and become more unhappy frequently they consider them.
This can be turned to advantage for tax cutters if people are forced to consider the burden of taxes more than once a year. If instead of direct payroll deductions, taxes were put in a notional federal checking account and taxpayers had to write a big check every quarter instead of be pleasantly surprised by a small refund, we would see a lot of unhappy people.
Posted by Sam Dinkin at 08:52 AM
Ahead Of Schedule?
Bigelow Aerospace seems to be making good progress in developing private orbital facilities (a key component of a spacefaring infrastructure). Alan Boyle has more.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 08:15 AM
Fedora Update Update (Part N)
For those few of you who are fascinated/horrified by my computer travails, here's the current status.
After removing Open Office and a Fortran compiler to resolve some otherwise unresolvable (at least by me) dependency issues, I finished the upgrade from Fedora Core 3 to Core 4 via yum update (at least I think I did--how do I know?). I rebooted, and it rebooted. I haven't attempted to reinstall Open Office yet, so I don't know if that will work, but flush with seeming victory over the machine, I decided to push my luck and go from Core 4 to Core 5.
After installing the Core 5 rpm, here's the output of that exercise (from yum -y update).
Setting up Upgrade Process
Setting up Repo: core
Setting up Repo: updates
Setting up Repo: extras
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package libtool-ltdl.i386 0:1.5.22-2.3 set to be updated
---> Package microcode_ctl.i386 1:1.13-1.30 set to be updated
---> Package nss.i386 0:3.11-4 set to be updated
---> Package libXdamage.i386 0:1.0.2.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libxkbfile-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libxkbui-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package pcmciautils.i386 0:012-0.FC5.2 set to be updated
---> Package rng-utils.i386 1:2.0-1.11 set to be updated
---> Package libFS.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXfontcache.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package giflib.i386 0:4.1.3-6.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libX11-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package libXfont-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXv.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package smartmontools.i386 1:5.33-4.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXScrnSaver.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-75dpi.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package libfontenc-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libgfortran.i386 0:4.1.1-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-xinit.i386 0:1.0.1-2 set to be updated
---> Package mlocate.i386 0:0.14-0.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package libXevie-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libdrm.i386 0:2.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-ISO8859-1-100dpi.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package libXtst.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXcursor-devel.i386 0:1.1.5.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXmu-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package util-linux.i386 0:2.13-0.20.1 set to be updated
---> Package scim-libs.i386 0:1.4.4-9.2.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package libXrandr.i386 0:1.1.0.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXdmcp.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXinerama-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXxf86dga-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package mesa-libGL-devel.i386 0:6.4.2-6 set to be updated
---> Package cryptsetup-luks.i386 0:1.0.3-0.rc2 set to be updated
---> Package libXinerama.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libdrm-devel.i386 0:2.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package irqbalance.i386 1:1.12-1.25 set to be updated
---> Package mesa-libGL.i386 0:6.4.2-6 set to be updated
---> Package libXfixes.i386 0:3.0.1.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXi.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXpm-devel.i386 0:3.5.4.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package pirut.noarch 0:1.0.3-0.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package libXtst-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXcursor.i386 0:1.1.5.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package longrun.i386 1:0.9-1.12 set to be updated
---> Package libFS-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXau-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-apps.i386 0:1.0.1-2 set to be updated
---> Package libxkbui.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package initscripts.i386 0:8.31.1-1 set to be updated
---> Package avahi.i386 0:0.6.9-9.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package libXp.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXaw.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-server-utils.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXxf86vm-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libICE.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXvMC.i386 0:1.0.1-3 set to be updated
---> Package bind-config.i386 30:9.3.2-20.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package libdmx.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-server-Xorg.i386 0:1.0.1-9.fc5.1.1 set to be updated
---> Package libfontenc.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package cpuspeed.i386 1:1.2.1-1.33 set to be updated
---> Package libSM-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXTrap.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXrender-devel.i386 0:0.9.0.2-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package gstreamer.i386 0:0.10.4-1 set to be updated
---> Package libdmx-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXfontcache-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package liblbxutil-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package gstreamer-plugins-base.i386 0:0.10.5-1 set to be updated
---> Package libSM.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXxf86vm.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package perl-XML-DOM.noarch 0:1.44-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package xscreensaver-base.i386 1:4.24-2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-100dpi.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package libX11.i386 0:1.0.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package libXxf86misc-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package nspr.i386 0:4.6.1-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXScrnSaver-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package httpd.i386 0:2.2.0-5.1.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-drivers.i386 0:7.0-2 set to be updated
---> Package libXfont.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package ppracer.i386 0:0.3.1-6 set to be updated
---> Package liboldX.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package mesa-libGLU-devel.i386 0:6.4.2-6 set to be updated
---> Package compat-libf2c-32.i386 0:3.2.3-55.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package libXmu.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package perl.i386 4:5.8.8-4 set to be updated
---> Package openssh-askpass.i386 0:4.3p2-4 set to be updated
---> Package liblbxutil.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXrender.i386 0:0.9.0.2-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package compat-db.i386 0:4.2.52-4 set to be updated
---> Package libXrandr-devel.i386 0:1.1.0.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package compat-libstdc++-33.i386 0:3.2.3-55.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-xdm.i386 1:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXft-devel.i386 0:2.1.8.2-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package scim-devel.i386 0:1.4.4-9.2.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-misc.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package x86info.i386 1:1.17-1.20 set to be updated
---> Package libXext.i386 0:1.0.0-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXfixes-devel.i386 0:3.0.1.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXvMC-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-3 set to be updated
---> Package libICE-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXau.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXres.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXxf86dga.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXext-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXcomposite-devel.i386 0:0.2.2.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXdamage-devel.i386 0:1.0.2.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXft.i386 0:2.1.8.2-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-Type1.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package mesa-libGLU.i386 0:6.4.2-6 set to be updated
---> Package libXxf86misc.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package dmidecode.i386 1:2.7-1.23 set to be updated
---> Package libXevie.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package liboldX-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXv-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package evolution.i386 0:2.6.1-1.fc5.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXdmcp-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package nautilus.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package libXp-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package mesa-libGLw.i386 0:6.4.2-6 set to be updated
---> Package totem.i386 0:1.4.0-2 set to be updated
---> Package libXpm.i386 0:3.5.4.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXaw-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package ekiga.i386 0:2.0.1-1 set to be updated
---> Package giflib-devel.i386 0:4.1.3-6.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package mesa-libGLw-devel.i386 0:6.4.2-6 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-xfwp.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-xsm.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXcomposite.i386 0:0.2.2.2-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-base.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-proto-devel.i386 0:7.0-6 set to be updated
---> Package libXTrap-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-fonts-75dpi.noarch 0:7.0-3 set to be updated
---> Package libXres-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package opal.i386 0:2.2.1-1 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-xkb-utils.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXt-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libxkbfile.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXt.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package hardlink.i386 1:1.0-1.21.2 set to be updated
---> Package memtest86+.i386 0:1.65-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package libXi-devel.i386 0:1.0.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-resutils.i386 0:1.0.1-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package readahead.i386 1:1.2-2 set to be updated
---> Package compat-libstdc++-296.i386 0:2.96-135 set to be updated
---> Package tcp_wrappers.i386 0:7.6-40.2 set to be updated
---> Package symlinks.i386 0:1.2-24.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package perl-XML-Parser.i386 0:2.34-6.1.2.2 set to be updated
---> Package traceroute.i386 2:1.0.4-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package gtk+.i386 1:1.2.10-50 set to be updated
---> Package bind.i386 30:9.3.2-20.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package cyrus-sasl-devel.i386 0:2.1.21-10 set to be updated
---> Package perl-LDAP.noarch 1:0.33-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package emacs.i386 0:21.4-14 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-user-docs.noarch 0:2.14.2-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package xrestop.i386 0:0.2-6.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package evolution-webcal.i386 0:2.4.1-3.2 set to be updated
---> Package coreutils.i386 0:5.93-7.2 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-mag.i386 0:0.12.4-1 set to be updated
---> Package PyXML.i386 0:0.8.4-3.2.2 set to be updated
---> Package control-center.i386 1:2.14.1-1.fc5.2 set to be updated
---> Package unixODBC.i386 0:2.2.11-6.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-icon-theme.noarch 0:2.14.2-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package netpbm-devel.i386 0:10.33-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package patchutils.i386 0:0.2.31-2.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package linuxwacom.i386 0:0.7.2-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package diffutils.i386 0:2.8.1-15.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package iptstate.i386 0:1.4-1.1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libwmf.i386 0:0.2.8.4-4.2 set to be updated
---> Package neon.i386 0:0.25.5-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package redhat-lsb.i386 0:3.0-9.2 set to be updated
---> Package nano.i386 0:1.3.8-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libsoup.i386 0:2.2.92-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package synaptics.i386 0:0.14.4-4.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package xdelta.i386 0:1.1.3-17.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package fontconfig-devel.i386 0:2.3.94-1 set to be updated
---> Package ctags.i386 0:5.5.4-4.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package shared-mime-info.i386 0:0.17-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package bitstream-vera-fonts.noarch 0:1.10-5.1 set to be updated
---> Package mtr.i386 2:0.71-0.FC5.1 set to be updated
---> Package sane-backends.i386 0:1.0.17-5.fc5.9 set to be updated
---> Package gnuplot.i386 0:4.0.0-11 set to be updated
---> Package system-config-date.noarch 0:1.8.3-0.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package gd.i386 0:2.0.33-6.2 set to be updated
---> Package gail-devel.i386 0:1.8.11-1 set to be updated
---> Package linuxdoc-tools.i386 0:0.9.21-6.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package desktop-backgrounds-basic.noarch 0:2.0-31 set to be updated
---> Package sound-juicer.i386 0:2.14.3-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package openssh-clients.i386 0:4.3p2-4 set to be updated
---> Package xhtml1-dtds.noarch 0:1.0-7.1 set to be updated
---> Package pcre.i386 0:6.3-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package udev.i386 0:084-13 set to be updated
---> Package elinks.i386 0:0.11.0-2.2 set to be updated
---> Package vixie-cron.i386 4:4.1-54.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package ypbind.i386 3:1.19-0 set to be updated
---> Package perl-XML-LibXML-Common.i386 0:0.13-8.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package cpp.i386 0:4.1.1-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-desktop-devel.i386 0:2.14.1.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package mysql.i386 0:5.0.21-2.FC5.1 set to be updated
---> Package system-config-printer.i386 0:0.6.151.7-1 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-vfs2.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.2 set to be updated
---> Package libart_lgpl-devel.i386 0:2.3.17-2.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package at.i386 0:3.1.8-81.1 set to be updated
---> Package xterm.i386 0:212-1.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package ethereal.i386 0:0.99.0-fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package glibc-kernheaders.i386 0:3.0-5.2 set to be updated
---> Package libvorbis-devel.i386 1:1.1.2-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package pwlib.i386 0:1.10.0-1 set to be updated
---> Package time.i386 0:1.7-27.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libgnome.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package gawk.i386 0:3.1.5-6.2 set to be updated
---> Package pkgconfig.i386 1:0.20-2.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package openssh.i386 0:4.3p2-4 set to be updated
---> Package netconfig.i386 0:0.8.24-1.2.2 set to be updated
---> Package anacron.i386 0:2.3-38.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package bash.i386 0:3.1-6.2 set to be updated
---> Package rpm-devel.i386 0:4.4.2-15.2 set to be updated
---> Package libtiff-devel.i386 0:3.7.4-7 set to be updated
---> Package docbook-style-dsssl.noarch 0:1.79-4 set to be updated
---> Package system-config-network.noarch 0:1.3.30-2.1 set to be updated
---> Package ghostscript.i386 0:8.15.2-1.1 set to be updated
---> Package libpng10.i386 0:1.0.18-3.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-terminal.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package strace.i386 0:4.5.14-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package gpm.i386 0:1.20.1-73.3 set to be updated
---> Package mod_perl.i386 0:2.0.2-5.1 set to be updated
---> Package xinetd.i386 2:2.3.13-6.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package perl-Convert-ASN1.noarch 0:0.20-1 set to be updated
---> Package SDL_image-devel.i386 0:1.2.4-5.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package libcap-devel.i386 0:1.10-24.2 set to be updated
---> Package at-spi.i386 0:1.7.7-1.fc5.2 set to be updated
---> Package glib.i386 1:1.2.10-18.2.2 set to be updated
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---> Package cdda2wav.i386 8:2.01.01.0.a03-3 set to be updated
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---> Package bind-utils.i386 30:9.3.2-20.FC5 set to be updated
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---> Package gnome-vfs2-smb.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.2 set to be updated
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---> Package libgsf-devel.i386 0:1.13.3-2.2.1 set to be updated
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---> Package xorg-x11-xfs.i386 1:1.0.1-4 set to be updated
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---> Package utempter.i386 0:0.5.5-7.2.1 set to be updated
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---> Package libgail-gnome.i386 0:1.1.3-1.2 set to be updated
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---> Package nautilus-cd-burner.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
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---> Package portmap.i386 0:4.0-65.2.2 set to be updated
---> Package net-snmp.i386 0:5.3-4.2 set to be updated
---> Package basesystem.noarch 0:8.0-5.1 set to be updated
---> Package bc.i386 0:1.06-19.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package elfutils.i386 0:0.119-1.2.1 set to be updated
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---> Package pilot-link.i386 2:0.11.8-12.4.fc5 set to be updated
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---> Package dovecot.i386 0:1.0-0.beta2.7 set to be updated
---> Package dmraid.i386 0:1.0.0.rc9-FC5_5.2 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-python2-gtkhtml2.i386 0:2.14.0-1 set to be updated
---> Package ncurses-devel.i386 0:5.5-19 set to be updated
---> Package dhcpv6_client.i386 0:0.10-16.1 set to be updated
---> Package gtkhtml3.i386 0:3.10.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package SDL_net-devel.i386 0:1.2.5-8.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package yelp.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.2 set to be updated
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---> Package bluez-utils.i386 0:2.25-4 set to be updated
---> Package mdadm.i386 0:2.3.1-3 set to be updated
---> Package dbus-devel.i386 0:0.61-3.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package bind-chroot.i386 30:9.3.2-20.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package hal.i386 0:0.5.7-3.fc5.1 set to be updated
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---> Package webalizer.i386 0:2.01_10-29.2.1 set to be updated
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---> Package libidn-devel.i386 0:0.6.2-1.1 set to be updated
---> Package SDL.i386 0:1.2.9-5.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-python2-bonobo.i386 0:2.12.4-1 set to be updated
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---> Package gd-devel.i386 0:2.0.33-6.2 set to be updated
---> Package gnome-media.i386 0:2.14.0-2 set to be updated
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---> Package lm_sensors.i386 0:2.9.2-1 set to be updated
---> Package filesystem.i386 0:2.3.7-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package system-config-display.noarch 0:1.0.37-2 set to be updated
---> Package sgml-common.noarch 0:0.6.3-17.1 set to be updated
---> Package ImageMagick.i386 0:6.2.5.4-4.2.1.fc5.3 set to be updated
---> Package audit.i386 0:1.1.5-1 set to be updated
---> Package samba-swat.i386 0:3.0.22-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package tmpwatch.i386 0:2.9.6-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package pango.i386 0:1.12.2-1 set to be updated
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---> Package gimp.i386 2:2.2.11-0.fc5.3 set to be updated
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---> Package a2ps.i386 0:4.13b-49 set to be updated
---> Package eel2.i386 0:2.14.1-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package cyrus-sasl-md5.i386 0:2.1.21-10 set to be updated
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---> Package gconf-editor.i386 0:2.14.0-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package libgpg-error.i386 0:1.1-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package vim-common.i386 1:6.4.007-4 set to be updated
---> Package pygtk2-devel.i386 0:2.8.6-0.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package libogg.i386 2:1.1.3-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package gtk-engines.i386 1:0.12-7.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libgnomeprintui22.i386 0:2.12.1-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package perl-XML-NamespaceSupport.noarch 0:1.09-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libxklavier.i386 0:2.2-1 set to be updated
---> Package hesiod-devel.i386 0:3.0.2-31.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package samba-common.i386 0:3.0.22-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package Xaw3d-devel.i386 0:1.5E-6.2.2 set to be updated
---> Package gnopernicus.i386 0:1.0.4-1.fc5.1 set to be updated
---> Package perl-HTML-Parser.i386 0:3.51-1.FC5 set to be updated
---> Package xorg-x11-font-utils.i386 1:1.0.1-3 set to be updated
---> Package libxslt-devel.i386 0:1.1.15-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libstdc++-devel.i386 0:4.1.1-1.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package readline-devel.i386 0:5.0-3.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package SDL_net.i386 0:1.2.5-8.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package wireless-tools.i386 1:28-0.pre13.5.1 set to be updated
---> Package libjpeg.i386 0:6b-36.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package nmap.i386 2:4.03-0.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package glibc-devel.i386 0:2.4-8 set to be updated
---> Package aspell.i386 12:0.60.3-5 set to be updated
---> Package libsilc.i386 0:0.9.12-12.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package speex.i386 0:1.0.5-1.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package MySQL-python.i386 0:1.2.0-3.2.2 set to be updated
---> Package NetworkManager-gnome.i386 0:0.6.2-2.fc5 set to be updated
---> Package sed.i386 0:4.1.5-1.2 set to be updated
---> Package libexif.i386 0:0.6.12-3.2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libusb.i386 0:0.1.11-2.2 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err.so.2 for package: openssl
--> Processing Dependency: libnotify.so.0 for package: evolution
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-joystick for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: gconf-editor
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-filesystem>= 0.99.2-3 for package: xorg-x11-resutils
--> Processing Dependency: libgssapi.so.1 for package: nfs-utils
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-keyboard for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: gstreamer-plugins-good for package: gstreamer
--> Processing Dependency: elfutils-libs= 0.119-1.2.1 for package: elfutils
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: eog
--> Processing Dependency: libnfsidmap.so.0 for package: nfs-utils
--> Processing Dependency: libblkid.so.1 for package: e2fsprogs
--> Processing Dependency: iso-codes for package: totem
--> Processing Dependency: libsqlite3.so.0 for package: rpm-libs
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-filesystem>= 0.99.2-3 for package: xorg-x11-xdm
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: vino
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err.so.2 for package: nfs-utils
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err.so.2 for package: evolution-data-server
--> Processing Dependency: libgssapi for package: nfs-utils
--> Processing Dependency: libgcrypt-devel for package: libxslt-devel
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-nsc for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: libsasl2.so.2 for package: cyrus-sasl-devel
--> Processing Dependency: gnome-python2-gtksourceview>= 2.13.3 for package: gedit
--> Processing Dependency: e2fsprogs-libs= 1.38-12 for package: e2fsprogs-devel
--> Processing Dependency: timidity++ for package: SDL_mixer
--> Processing Dependency: libsasl2.so.2 for package: sendmail
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: totem
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: gtksourceview
--> Processing Dependency: libnl.so.1 for package: NetworkManager
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-filesystem>= 0.99.2-3 for package: libXpm-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: NetworkManager-gnome
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-trident for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: liblcms.so.1 for package: libmng
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: gnome-desktop
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-tseng for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: libsasl2.so.2 for package: cyrus-sasl
--> Processing Dependency: python-numeric for package: pygtk2
--> Processing Dependency: libss.so.2 for package: krb5-workstation
--> Processing Dependency: libsemanage.so.1(LIBSEMANAGE_1.0) for package: policycoreutils
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: xsane-gimp
--> Processing Dependency: cyrus-sasl-lib= 2.1.21-10 for package: cyrus-sasl-plain
--> Processing Dependency: libgpod.so.0 for package: rhythmbox
--> Processing Dependency: libgnome-menu.so.2 for package: control-center
--> Processing Dependency: perl-String-CRC32 for package: lftp
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-filesystem>= 0.99.2-3 for package: libXt-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libuuid.so.1 for package: readahead
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err.so.2 for package: gnome-vfs2
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-filesystem>= 0.99.2-3 for package: libFS-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err.so.2 for package: pam_krb5
--> Processing Dependency: libnotify>= 0.3 for package: NetworkManager-gnome
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-sis for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: mozilla
--> Processing Dependency: libuuid.so.1 for package: apr
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: pygtk2-libglade
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: rhgb
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: gaim
--> Processing Dependency: libnm_glib.so.0 for package: krb5-auth-dialog
--> Processing Dependency: libdb-4.3.so for package: apr-util
--> Processing Dependency: libcairo.so.2 for package: freeciv
--> Processing Dependency: libstdc++-20060428.so.7(GLIBCXX_4.2) for package: scim-libs
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-drv-v4l for package: xorg-x11-drivers
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-filesystem>= 0.99.2-3 for package: libXrender-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libcom_err.so.2 for package: php
--> Processing Conflict: kudzu conflicts kernel< 2.6.13
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 8, in ?
yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 104, in main
(result, resultmsgs) = base.buildTransaction()
File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 174, in buildTransaction
(rescode, restring) = self.resolveDeps()
File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 190, in resolveDeps
(checkdep, missing, conflict, errormsgs) = self._processConflict(dep)
File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 492, in _processConflict
uplist = self.up.getUpdatesList(name=confname)
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'confname' referenced before assignment
[root@linux-station ~]#
So, now what?
[Update]
I'm apparently supposed to uninstall the kernel before I do an upgrade. Here are all the packages that will be removed along with it:
Dependencies Resolved
Transaction Listing:
Remove: kernel.i686 0:2.6.9-1.667
Performing the following to resolve dependencies:
Remove: 4Suite.i386 0:1.0-3
Remove: GConf2.i386 0:2.8.1-1
Remove: GConf2-devel.i386 0:2.8.1-1
Remove: HelixPlayer.i386 1:1.0.1.gold-6
Remove: ImageMagick.i386 0:6.0.7.1-4
Remove: Maelstrom.i386 0:3.0.6-6
Remove: MyODBC.i386 0:2.50.39-19
Remove: MyODBC.i386 0:2.50.39-19.1
Remove: MySQL-python.i386 0:0.9.2-4
Remove: NetworkManager.i386 0:0.3.1-3
Remove: NetworkManager-gnome.i386 0:0.3.1-3
Remove: Omni-foomatic.i386 0:0.9.1-7
Remove: PyXML.i386 0:0.8.3-6
Remove: SDL.i386 0:1.2.7-8
Remove: SDL-devel.i386 0:1.2.7-8
Remove: SDL_image.i386 0:1.2.3-6
Remove: SDL_image-devel.i386 0:1.2.3-6
Remove: SDL_mixer.i386 0:1.2.5-4
Remove: SDL_mixer-devel.i386 0:1.2.5-4
Remove: SDL_net.i386 0:1.2.5-2
Remove: SDL_net-devel.i386 0:1.2.5-2
Remove: SysVinit.i386 0:2.85-34
Remove: VFlib2.i386 0:2.25.6-25
Remove: Xaw3d.i386 0:1.5-23
Remove: Xaw3d-devel.i386 0:1.5-23
Remove: a2ps.i386 0:4.13b-41
Remove: acpid.i386 0:1.0.3-2
Remove: alchemist.i386 0:1.0.34-1
Remove: apr-util.i386 0:0.9.4-17
Remove: arts.i386 8:1.3.0-4
Remove: ash.i386 0:0.3.8-20
Remove: at.i386 0:3.1.8-60
Remove: at.i386 0:3.1.8-70_FC3
Remove: at-spi.i386 0:1.6.0-3
Remove: at-spi-devel.i386 0:1.6.0-3
Remove: aumix.i386 0:2.8-9
Remove: authconfig.i386 0:4.6.5-3.1
Remove: authconfig-gtk.i386 0:4.6.5-3.1
Remove: autoconf.noarch 0:2.59-5
Remove: autofs.i386 1:4.1.3-114
Remove: autofs.i386 1:4.1.3-28
Remove: automake.noarch 0:1.9.2-3
Remove: automake17.noarch 0:1.7.9-5
Remove: bind.i386 20:9.2.4-2
Remove: bind-chroot.i386 20:9.2.4-2
Remove: bind-chroot.i386 24:9.2.5-1
Remove: bind-libs.i386 20:9.2.4-2
Remove: bind-libs.i386 24:9.2.5-1
Remove: bind-utils.i386 20:9.2.4-2
Remove: bind-utils.i386 24:9.2.5-1
Remove: bluez-pin.i386 0:0.23-3
Remove: bluez-utils.i386 0:2.10-2
Remove: bug-buddy.i386 1:2.8.0-3
Remove: bzflag.i386 0:1.10.6-2
Remove: caching-nameserver.noarch 0:7.3-3
Remove: cadaver.i386 0:0.22.1-3
Remove: chkfontpath.i386 0:1.10.0-2
Remove: ckermit.i386 0:8.0.209-9
Remove: comps-extras.noarch 0:10.1-1
Remove: control-center.i386 1:2.8.0-12
Remove: coreutils.i386 0:5.2.1-31
Remove: crypto-utils.i386 0:2.1-4
Remove: cups.i386 1:1.1.22-0.rc1.8
Remove: cups-libs.i386 1:1.1.22-0.rc1.8
Remove: cups-libs.i386 1:1.1.22-0.rc1.8.5
Remove: curl.i386 0:7.12.1-1
Remove: curl.i386 0:7.12.3-3.fc3
Remove: curl-devel.i386 0:7.12.1-1
Remove: curl-devel.i386 0:7.12.3-3.fc3
Remove: cvs.i386 0:1.11.17-3
Remove: cvs.i386 0:1.11.17-6.FC3
Remove: cyrus-sasl.i386 0:2.1.19-3
Remove: cyrus-sasl-devel.i386 0:2.1.19-3
Remove: cyrus-sasl-md5.i386 0:2.1.19-3
Remove: cyrus-sasl-plain.i386 0:2.1.19-3
Remove: dbus-x11.i386 0:0.22-10
Remove: desktop-printing.i386 0:0.17-3
Remove: devhelp.i386 0:0.9.2-2
Remove: dhclient.i386 7:3.0.1-11
Remove: dhcpv6_client.i386 0:0.10-8
Remove: dia.i386 1:0.94-5
Remove: distcache.i386 0:1.4.5-6
Remove: docbook-dtds.noarch 0:1.0-25
Remove: docbook-simple.noarch 0:1.0-2
Remove: docbook-slides.noarch 0:3.3.1-2
Remove: docbook-style-dsssl.noarch 0:1.78-4
Remove: docbook-style-xsl.noarch 0:1.65.1-2
Remove: docbook-utils.noarch 0:0.6.14-4
Remove: docbook-utils-pdf.noarch 0:0.6.14-4
Remove: dovecot.i386 0:0.99.11-1.FC3.4
Remove: dovecot.i386 0:0.99.13-3.FC3
Remove: eel2.i386 0:2.8.1-2
Remove: eel2-devel.i386 0:2.8.1-2
Remove: elinks.i386 0:0.9.2-2
Remove: elinks.i386 0:0.9.2-2.1
Remove: emacs.i386 0:21.3-17
Remove: emacspeak.i386 0:17.0-7
Remove: eog.i386 0:2.8.0-3
Remove: ethereal.i386 0:0.10.6-3
Remove: evolution.i386 0:2.0.2-3
Remove: evolution-data-server.i386 0:1.0.2-3
Remove: evolution-data-server.i386 0:1.0.4-3
Remove: evolution-webcal.i386 0:1.0.10-1
Remove: fetchmail.i386 0:6.2.5-6
Remove: file-roller.i386 0:2.8.1-1
Remove: firefox.i386 0:1.0.7-1.1.fc3
Remove: firstboot.noarch 0:1.3.33-1
Remove: fonts-xorg-100dpi.noarch 0:6.8.1-1
Remove: fonts-xorg-75dpi.noarch 0:6.8.1-1
Remove: fonts-xorg-base.noarch 0:6.8.1-1
Remove: foomatic.i386 0:3.0.2-3
Remove: freeciv.i386 0:1.14.2-1
Remove: freeglut.i386 0:2.2.0-14
Remove: gail.i386 0:1.8.0-2
Remove: gail-devel.i386 0:1.8.0-2
Remove: gaim.i386 1:1.0.1-3
Remove: gcc.i386 0:4.0.2-8.fc4
Remove: gcc-c++.i386 0:4.0.2-8.fc4
Remove: gcc-java.i386 0:4.0.2-8.fc4
Remove: gconf-editor.i386 0:2.8.0-2
Remove: gd.i386 0:2.0.28-1
Remove: gd-devel.i386 0:2.0.28-1
Remove: gdk-pixbuf.i386 1:0.22.0-15.0
Remove: gdm.i386 1:2.6.0.5-6
Remove: gedit.i386 1:2.8.1-1
Remove: gettext.i386 0:0.14.1-12
Remove: ggv.i386 0:2.8.0-1
Remove: ghostscript.i386 0:7.07-33
Remove: ghostscript-fonts.noarch 0:5.50-13
Remove: gimp.i386 1:2.0.5-5
Remove: gimp-data-extras.noarch 0:1.2.0-12
Remove: gimp-gap.i386 0:2.0.2-2
Remove: gimp-help.noarch 0:2-0.1.0.3
Remove: gimp-print.i386 0:4.2.7-2
Remove: gimp-print-plugin.i386 0:4.2.7-2
Remove: gimp-print-utils.i386 0:4.2.7-2
Remove: glade2.i386 0:2.6.0-1
Remove: glibc-devel.i386 0:2.3.3-74
Remove: glibc-devel.i386 0:2.3.5-0.fc3.1
Remove: glibc-headers.i386 0:2.3.3-74
Remove: glibc-headers.i386 0:2.3.5-0.fc3.1
Remove: glibc-kernheaders.i386 0:2.4-9.1.87
Remove: gnome-applets.i386 1:2.8.0-5
Remove: gnome-desktop.i386 0:2.8.0-3
Remove: gnome-desktop-devel.i386 0:2.8.0-3
Remove: gnome-games.i386 1:2.8.0-4
Remove: gnome-kerberos.i386 0:0.3.3-1
Remove: gnome-keyring.i386 0:0.4.0-1
Remove: gnome-keyring-manager.i386 0:0.0.3-1
Remove: gnome-mag.i386 0:0.11.7-1
Remove: gnome-media.i386 0:2.8.0-3
Remove: gnome-netstatus.i386 0:2.8.0-3
Remove: gnome-panel.i386 0:2.8.1-3
Remove: gnome-panel-devel.i386 0:2.8.1-3
Remove: gnome-pilot.i386 0:2.0.12-4
Remove: gnome-pilot-devel.i386 0:2.0.12-4
Remove: gnome-python2.i386 0:2.6.0-3
Remove: gnome-python2-bonobo.i386 0:2.6.0-3
Remove: gnome-python2-canvas.i386 0:2.6.0-3
Remove: gnome-python2-gtkhtml2.i386 0:2.6.0-3
Remove: gnome-session.i386 0:2.8.0-4
Remove: gnome-spell.i386 0:1.0.5-6
Remove: gnome-system-monitor.i386 0:2.7.0-2
Remove: gnome-terminal.i386 0:2.7.3-1
Remove: gnome-themes.i386 0:2.8.0-1
Remove: gnome-user-docs.noarch 0:2.8.0.1-1
Remove: gnome-utils.i386 1:2.8.0-5
Remove: gnome-vfs2.i386 0:2.8.2-8
Remove: gnome-vfs2-devel.i386 0:2.8.2-8
Remove: gnome-vfs2-smb.i386 0:2.8.2-8
Remove: gnome-volume-manager.i386 0:1.1.0-5
Remove: gnomemeeting.i386 0:1.0.2-8
Remove: gnopernicus.i386 0:0.9.12-1
Remove: gnupg.i386 0:1.2.6-1
Remove: gnuplot.i386 0:4.0.0-4
Remove: gok.i386 0:0.11.8-1
Remove: gpdf.i386 0:2.8.0-5
Remove: gphoto2.i386 0:2.1.4-7
Remove: gphoto2.i386 0:2.1.5-1.1
Remove: gstreamer-plugins.i386 0:0.8.5-1
Remove: gthumb.i386 0:2.4.2-5
Remove: gtk+.i3
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:56 AM
Fight! Fight!
Scott Burgess dismantles Johann Hari on the subject of Bjorn Lomborg and global warming. I share Scott's take on both issues. And it's another demonstration of scientific ignorance, innumeracy and illogic, and agendas over reality, on the part of some (too many) members of the press.
Posted by Rand Simberg at 06:48 AM