tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post5220076473332320296..comments2024-03-18T17:09:55.964-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Science fictional stalkers, urgent transparency & science!David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger145125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74894580430932482342010-08-27T09:04:47.463-07:002010-08-27T09:04:47.463-07:00@Larryhart
We can make a principled distinction b...@Larryhart<br /><br />We can make a principled distinction between vampires and corporations:<br /><br />Vampires are:<br /><br />* Fictional<br />* Amoral<br />* Immortal<br />* Stronger than any single human <br />* Smarter (perhaps due to long experience) than any single human<br />* Fed by consuming the life energy of humans<br />* Good servants, terrifying masters.<br /><br />Corporations are:<br /><br />* Not Fictional.rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69378787192521436582010-08-27T08:00:41.041-07:002010-08-27T08:00:41.041-07:00Tacitus2:
Larry
I think we can do a bit better th...Tacitus2:<br /><i><br />Larry<br />I think we can do a bit better than that. I know honest, sincere people of both conservative and proressive inclinations, and we get along famously.<br /></i><br /><br />I do too. My daughter's best friend has firmly-Republican parents (with a "Defeat ObamaCare!" sticker in their window), which reminds me on a daily basis that the sincere individual voter is not the problem.<br /><br />What I was getting at with the "domestic enemies" thing, though was that it seems to me that congressmen who refer to their opposition-party colleagues AS "domestic enemies" are the ones who (in my opinion) should tend to the beam in their own eye. I think it's obvious that one party engages in that sort of talk more than the other does. Perhaps you can cite examples that prove me wrong on that. My point is that whichever party we're talking about, the equating of political opposition with treason IS in itself an anti-American ideal.<br /><br />To go off on another tangent here, I once read a fanfic short story about sexual politics, wherein an elderly gentleman with a beautiful young wife realizes that the wife is in fact a vampire, literally living off of him. There's a very ironic scene where she professes quite honestly that she "loves" him, and in horror, he replies that she loves him the way he loves a steak dinner!<br /><br />I think that certain corporatist politicians who profess love for America in fact only "love" America the way a man loves a steak dinner, or a vampire loves her host. And we voters allow this sort of "love" for the country to be equated with patriotism at our peril.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-8066475695692549642010-08-27T07:35:22.899-07:002010-08-27T07:35:22.899-07:00"Ian said "China's economy is not ex..."Ian said "China's economy is not export based"<br />And that's probably true, in a sense, but it misses the question, which is will China tolerate that big a dent in their rice bowl. Maybe to reacquire Taiwan, probably not for their problem child, North Korea."<br /><br />There's a couple of factors you need to understand here.<br /><br />The first is the blow to China's prestige from the collapse of one of its few remaining Communist allies.<br /><br />The second is the likely exodus of several million refugees from North Korea into china.<br /><br />The third, closely related to that is that there's a significant Korean minority in north East china in areas which have historically been Korean territory, raising the prospect of irredentism by any future united Korean state.<br /><br />Fourth, you have the prospect of American forces parked on the Yalu river.<br /><br />Fifth and related to the fourth, you have the Chinese folk memory of successive invasions from the north.<br /><br />The Chinese have continued to support the North Koreans despite the horrendous shit they pull and at enormous political and political cost.<br /><br />I wouldn't assume they'd be willing to stop doing so by the nebulous (and quite possibly illegal under WTO rules) threats of economic sanctions.Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739671401151990700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18762749715177433342010-08-27T07:18:10.489-07:002010-08-27T07:18:10.489-07:00Ian said "China's economy is not export b...Ian said "China's economy is not export based"<br />And that's probably true, in a sense, but it misses the question, which is will China tolerate that big a dent in their rice bowl. Maybe to reacquire Taiwan, probably not for their problem child, North Korea.Tim H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25928261165228703902010-08-27T07:00:06.223-07:002010-08-27T07:00:06.223-07:00"Rob H., who looked at the 9/11 assaults and ..."Rob H., who looked at the 9/11 assaults and saw it could have been far worse if they had just withheld twelve men, armed them with semi-automatic guns, and attacked NYC's public school system while the police and emergency personnel were busy with the planes smashing into the WTC... so yeah, I tend to look at worse-case scenarios"<br /><br />Or set off a couple of truck bombs on the Brooklyn and George Washington Bridges.<br /><br />Or stationed a couple of snipers in buildings near the WTC to attack the first responders.<br /><br />Or used the other two aircraft to attack targets in New York.Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739671401151990700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23475229830272074242010-08-27T06:45:45.656-07:002010-08-27T06:45:45.656-07:00"And China too faces apocalypse. Ya think Chi..."And China too faces apocalypse. Ya think Chinese troops crossing the Yalu would be tolerated today? It would be the entire collapse of their export based economy, with domestic unrest set to blow in a few months."<br />China's economy is not based on ex[ports.<br /><br />the belief that it is, is a sadly persistent delusion.Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739671401151990700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-69136335034921861492010-08-27T06:41:35.114-07:002010-08-27T06:41:35.114-07:00On the extremely hypothetical question of the afte...On the extremely hypothetical question of the aftermath of a US-backed invasion of North Korea, I tend to suspect that the best guide is the post-WWII occupation of Japan.<br /><br />Korea, like Japan, is what anthropologists refer to as a consensus society, meaning people place an extremely high value on social cohesion and harmony.<br /><br />Like the Japanese nationalists, I suspect most North Koreans would adjust to the new reality with an alacrity that would surprise most westerners.Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739671401151990700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73533658834006948032010-08-27T06:19:05.330-07:002010-08-27T06:19:05.330-07:00Button wrote:"Ilithi: with South Korean, Amer...Button wrote:"Ilithi: with South Korean, American and Japanese troops steamrolling the N.Korean troops<br /><br />Japanese troops? Do they actually have any deployed there or plans for doing so?<br /><br />Sounds implausible, given history."<br /><br />Nevertheless, current plans call for exactly that although Japanese support would probably initially be limited to aerial and naval units.Ianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01739671401151990700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-11633108950362169472010-08-27T05:20:24.283-07:002010-08-27T05:20:24.283-07:00Awesome science news:
NASA and European Stargazer...Awesome science news:<br /><br /><a href="http://dvice.com/archives/2010/08/nasa-boasts-fir.php" rel="nofollow">NASA</a> and <a href="http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/science_technology/Stargazers_discover_seven-planet_system.html?cid=26777980" rel="nofollow">European Stargazers</a> are both claiming to have discovered the first star system with multiple planets. NASA's discovery comes from the Kepler satellite, and they have spotted two planets in the same system, both gas giants a bit smaller than Saturn. The Geneva University team claims to have discovered a system that has at least five, and possibly seven planets (including what may be the smallest exoplanet discovered, at ~1.4 Earths), using a "High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) spectrograph attached to a 3.6-metre telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla, Chile." Both of these discoveries, plus the string of planetary discoveries the Kepler sat has been spitting out since it's launch, suggest that planets are very, very common in our galaxy. <br /><br />Also, stand by for the controversy of who made the discovery of the first multi-planet star system first.Ilithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81737746625975482692010-08-27T00:58:58.436-07:002010-08-27T00:58:58.436-07:00Geez... ONE day after I wrote: "BTW... well o...Geez... ONE day after I wrote: "BTW... well over 60% of the congressional sex scandals -- and ALL of the kinky homosexual ones -- are GOPpers."<br /><br />...just look at today's news.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74104818081878313592010-08-27T00:58:56.172-07:002010-08-27T00:58:56.172-07:00@tacitus
Progressives do not "control both ho...@tacitus<br />Progressives do not "control both houses of Congress".<br /><br />You don't control the Senate without 60 votes, and that requires Joe Liebermann and Ben Nelson who are both much less "progressive" than Nixon; on health care, the GOP was more progressive than they in 1994.<br /><br />I don't mind political rhetoric so long as I get to point out that that's all it is.rewinnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14008105385364113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-90242527949168993182010-08-26T23:24:22.099-07:002010-08-26T23:24:22.099-07:00Tacitus please. I missed your statistics. So how ...Tacitus please. I missed your statistics. So how could I dismiss them? I don't recall any. What were they?David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55730373601427891792010-08-26T21:39:47.957-07:002010-08-26T21:39:47.957-07:00Rob,
EMP effects from nuclear weapons are caused ...Rob,<br /><br />EMP effects from nuclear weapons are caused when photons, usually in the form of x-rays, from the blast strike atoms and kick off electrons inducing electric currents. Because a nuclear explosion emits a large fraction of its energy in the form of photons, these currents are significant enough to damage electronics. This is independent of whether they are ground or air blasts. <br /><br />Air blasts are more damaging because the shockwaves propagate over a wider range. Ground blasts produce more radioactivity from neutron activation of ground material stirred up during the explosion.BCRionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04955960949670858365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-34749995232964304242010-08-26T17:55:28.954-07:002010-08-26T17:55:28.954-07:00The one thing to remember about North Korea is tha...The one thing to remember about North Korea is that it is a nuclear power. If war is imminent, then we will see two things happen.<br /><br />First, we will see a nuclear device detonated in or over a North Korean city. My bet would be on the capital. Any and every member of the government of importance would naturally be out of the city when it was detonated, by "luck." And then, claiming that the U.S. nuked them, North Korea would try to send its nukes into South Korea, targeting the Demilitarized Zone and also with a couple attempts on Seoul itself. After all, the vile Americans started a nuclear war, and North Korea would be determined to punish the U.S. for its audacity. <br /><br />Several South American nations would immediately denounce the United States, as would Iran. There would be an outcry from these smaller nations to punish the demonic Americans for using nuclear weapons on a defenseless nation like North Korea. And when reports came back showing that the weapon was in fact of North Korean origin and that they nuked themselves to try and frame the U.S.? Well, it's obviously an American Conspiracy.<br /><br />There would probably even be some Americans stupid enough to believe it. After all, there are some individuals who still believe the U.S. government used thermite on the World Trade Center, and that airplane fuel does not burn hot enough to melt the steel that was reported "pouring off of the World Trade Center" according to the conspiracy advocates.<br /><br />If North Korea managed to use its nukes effectively against the Demilitarized zone, they probably would catch a number of American and South Korean troops in the blast; it would likely be a ground blast, which would lessen the total damage the nukes would cause, but it would still cause burns, radiation poisoning, and massive destruction. If there are any EMP effects from ground-effect nuclear explosions (I'm fuzzy on this bit here as I believe EMP was caused by upper-atmosphere nuclear detonations, not ground-level bursts) then U.S. military hardware might be knocked out as well, giving North Korea a temporary advantage. At least, until our air force arrived to start bombing the North into the stone age.<br /><br />Rob H., who looked at the 9/11 assaults and saw it could have been far worse if they had just withheld twelve men, armed them with semi-automatic guns, and attacked NYC's public school system while the police and emergency personnel were busy with the planes smashing into the WTC... so yeah, I tend to look at worse-case scenariosAcacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16812002695736853622010-08-26T16:50:56.143-07:002010-08-26T16:50:56.143-07:00From here, it seems the GOP assimilated unwholesom...From here, it seems the GOP assimilated unwholesome things in pursuit of electoral advantage, with little thought of the nature of what they were taking in, after all, wasn't victory the only consideration? The conservative coalition is beginning to resemble the gang called together for the destruction of Rock Ridge in Blazing Saddles. For now, the Democrats are the closest thing we have to a conservative party.Tim H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50544684385131813412010-08-26T15:33:13.335-07:002010-08-26T15:33:13.335-07:00David, David, thou art inimitable!
I offer you in...David, David, thou art inimitable!<br /><br />I offer you insights into how an allegedly sane conservative thinks and you want statistics.<br /><br />I offer you statistics (see above on campaign finance and my previous take on the whole Metrics of National Well Being) and you dismiss them as irrelevent!<br /><br />btw, as a physician you need to know the numbers, which can be taught, and also understand people, which is so much harder!<br /><br />If there is any writhing going on these days it would appear to be on the part of Progressives---control of both sides of Congress, the WH, approval ratings of 70%, and we get.....this?<br /><br />The nation is simply more conservative than you imagine it to be. Or by your lights, dumber and more prone to Rovian mind control tricks.<br /><br />Whatever. While I enjoy your pangyrics I worry a bit about how your psyche will handle a possible rightward shift in the national mood. <br /><br />In the end, we each get one vote.<br /><br />Of course, living in a swing state mine is probably worth a bit more!<br /><br />Tacitus2Tacitus2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80407234714740669362010-08-26T14:02:22.285-07:002010-08-26T14:02:22.285-07:00While Firestrike sounds promising, I very much dou...While Firestrike sounds promising, I very much doubt it is ready for mass deployment sufficient to protect Seoul. In any event, let us not forget that N Korea has at least a couple of nukes, as well. I'll never understand why the S Koreans hadn't diversified to other cities by now.<br /><br />Tacitus, old pal, you do keep trying for equivalence. But please note, statements like "The Democrats have about them....a whiff of the corrupt ward heeler." are general, arm-waved assertions.<br /><br />THAT is the currency on Fox. Statistics are anathema! And as a doctor, you know that frenetic avoidance of statistics is a sure sign of outright liars.<br /><br />Here's a statistic. After 8 years of being told that old ward heeler Bill Clinton ran the "most corrupt, crony-filled, back-room dealin gang-administration in US history..." the statistical FACT was that not a single Clintonite was ever convicted or even indicted for malfeasance of office. The ONLY administration for which that was true, ever. (And despite strenuous efforts by the Bushites to misuse the FBI to find that "smoking gun.") <br /><br />That is the kind of statistic that should set off alarm bells. "My gut impressions were clearly biased and wrong. I need to adjust them."<br /><br />You and millions of other decent conservatives are thinking with your guts. And dig it -- anecdotal anomalies like Blagoyovich aside - <i>your gut is wrong!</i> Hey it happens. People are people and we do this.<br /><br />Fact: every statistical measure of national health plummeted under GOP rule, while the middle class suffered and the conspiratorial crony-oligarchy thrived, destroying genuine capitalist competition in america. Small business ALWAYS does better under democrats. So exactly where is this equivalence between them?<br /><br /> (Oh, BTW... well over 60% of the congressional sex scandals -- and ALL of the kinky homosexual ones -- are GOPpers. ANd that's leaving out S. Carolina. Yeesh.)<br /><br />"ur current system does not reward moderation, and the blame is sufficient for much sharing."<br /><br />Tacitus, this is an assertion. Assering it does NOT make it so.<br /><br />In fact, the Democratic party is UTTERLY ruled by its moderates, to a degree that has the left fuming. Obamacare enraged the lefties so much there was talk of bolting. In fact, even though I despise the left, I find Obama WAY too tepid and eager to please. After his hand was bitten nearly clear off, every time he reached out, I think it's time to use it to grab a stick!<br /><br />Look I appreciate the position you are in. But I lived through it before. All my GOP friends writhed and twisted during Watergate, before FINALLY admitting Nixon was a horrific crook. It is ten times harder now, since admitting it this time would mean there is a PATTERN.<br /><br />Hey, I hated the USSR and called it an evil empire and you know how pro-(real) capitalism I am. I am an utter American future-oriented problem solving, mixed economy Pax Americana (in the Marshallian mode) patriot. My natural instinct is to fret over undue accumulations of power in ALL directions. <br /><br />My rant at the libertarians was in hope of persuading them to go-sane and become a useful force in American political life, a government-skeptical party to replace the whore-GOP.<br /><br />I hate having only one genuine political party! But that is the situation. One political party and one nest of vipers. The solution is to punish the vipers, NOT to try to feel better by dismissing them all as snakes.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41142524605301127572010-08-26T13:41:13.689-07:002010-08-26T13:41:13.689-07:00D'oh, went and hit send and I had more I wante...D'oh, went and hit send and I had more I wanted to add.<br /><br />Yes, NK definitely uses food as a weapon. Their troops are the best-fed of the lot, and their diet is only around 900-some calories a day (I think that's the average soldier's diet, iirc, though that might be the officer/"special" soldier diet). Most of the civilians get less.<br /><br />Give them three square meals a day and any needed medical care, for free, and the NK population is going to be very appreciative, I think (after they get over the diarrhea induced by actually getting a decent amount of food and nutrition after being malnourished for so long, anyway).Ilithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-54242789613791845992010-08-26T12:47:43.667-07:002010-08-26T12:47:43.667-07:00@ell: That is Fleet Admiral Dragon, thankyouverymu...@ell: That is <i>Fleet Admiral</i> Dragon, thankyouverymuch. Starfleet does not have any generals.<br /><br />} ; = 8 PIlithi Dragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10300247936272572280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-78630767738556986852010-08-26T12:35:16.090-07:002010-08-26T12:35:16.090-07:00Larry
I think we can do a bit better than that. I...Larry<br />I think we can do a bit better than that. I know honest, sincere people of both conservative and proressive inclinations, and we get along famously.<br />I've been musing on David's assertion that I am try to create parity between the behavior of the D and R parties. <br />I guess there is a little truth there, I see both as being made up of, and led by, not traitors or monsters, but by fallible humans trying to live up to worthy but difficult ideals. As I have mentioned before, one of my great fears is that the world has changed in ways that render neither party effective leaders. <br />But I am not going to say that they are the same, or that one is better or worse.<br />The Democrats have about them....a whiff of the corrupt ward heeler. Blago may well walk free, but he, and Rahm Immanual, and Charley Rangle all come from the tradition of political patronage and low level corruption. There is a transition point between looking after the underadvantaged and looking after your pals and pols. There is also another branch of the party, the Privileged. Not being a Kennedy or a Pelosi, I have a hard time relating, and some of their carbon burnin', tax dodgin', droit de seignior antics rub me the wrong way.<br /><br />Of course the Republicans have some political b.o. also, a sniff of intolerance, an occasional lingering whiff of Country Club exclusiveness.<br /><br />Our current system does not reward moderation, and the blame is sufficient for much sharing. Both parties contain careerists who would sell their mother to hang onto power. The press has abrogated their traditional duties almost completely. And, to some extent we the people share the blame. We too often put our own selfish interests first.<br /><br />More on that another day.<br /><br />Tacitus2Tacitus2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40814744794560379952010-08-26T12:16:03.329-07:002010-08-26T12:16:03.329-07:00Tacitus2:
Enough politics for now.
Well, in for...Tacitus2:<br /><i><br />Enough politics for now.<br /></i><br /><br />Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.<br /><br />Y'know I've said before that the correct response to the current crop of Republicans' criticism of liberals is "I know you are, but what am I"? Nowhere is this more evident than in the contention by Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle that the congress is rife with "domestic enemies".<br /><br />It most certainly is, but not the ones she means.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47967580247280946092010-08-26T11:42:50.165-07:002010-08-26T11:42:50.165-07:00General Dragon's most important point: "...General Dragon's most important point: "From these fortified positions, I would distribute food to the population. Lots of food, and other aid." From what I've heard about North Korea, the government is already using food as a weapon against its own people, starving civilians and feeding the military.<br /><br />Rewinn: I've worked in publishing all my life and I well understand the need for editing, given the dreck manuscripts I've seen. However, I've also seen really bizarre censorship. I know what the item said before it was published.<br /><br />T-shirt at a local bus stop: "When I want your opinion, I'll remove the duct tape from your mouth."ellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-89637985587190792482010-08-26T09:47:29.540-07:002010-08-26T09:47:29.540-07:00An amusing movie trailer here-
http://trailers.app...An amusing movie trailer here-<br />http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony/insidejob/<br />Either there's still some independence in Hollywood, or the powers that be have found Wall $treet to be politically dispensable.Tim H.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-7290311447982351062010-08-26T09:06:59.679-07:002010-08-26T09:06:59.679-07:00I have a friend who is the director of a good size...I have a friend who is the director of a good sized international aid agency. He has been to all the bad places...Darfur, Myanmar, etc. He says his visit to N.Korea was the creepiest ever. It is as advertised.<br /><br />I will say this for the N.K.s, they have the most consistent foreign policy of any nation on earth:<br /><br />Vigorous Simultaneous Rattling of the Saber and the Tin Cup.<br /><br />The current uptick in same is predictable....US elections= Notice Us! Also, Jimmy Carter is visiting, gosh, wonder if that has any relevance. Really, for all the worthy things James Earl C. has done (more post pres. than during his term) he is becoming a liability. I think he is showing his age.<br /><br />Best thing the US can do is say nothing. I am pretty sure that the thousands of guns pointed across the DMZ are unloaded. Heck, would you want some malnourished corporal in Peoples Red Artillery Brigade 55 to fall asleep and lean on the button that ends it all?<br /><br />Now, what we should do, and have done for years, is tell China to be quietly severe with their unwanted pauper sidekick.* Without Chinese support NK collapses. Slowly without war, rapidly with.<br /><br />And China too faces apocalypse. Ya think Chinese troops crossing the Yalu would be tolerated today? It would be the entire collapse of their export based economy, with domestic unrest set to blow in a few months.<br /><br />The key is to not have anybody telling NK that they are gonna profit by pushing things too far. IIRC the French were a little to reassuring to Sadam Hussein, and that ended very badly. And our President should either say nothing, or say something once. Short and and none too Sweet.<br /><br />Tacitus2<br /><br />*the notation once apocraphylly put on the chart of disruptive ER patients was AMFYOYO. The polite part is You're On Your Own.Tacitus2noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-45096433782265052792010-08-26T06:46:11.077-07:002010-08-26T06:46:11.077-07:00The Idea of North...The Idea of North...Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.com