Stop! Mistaken Person!

An interesting and instructive story: A young man reported to his boss that he had been arrested for shoplifting. It was clear and well documented with video surveillance cameras and the young employee admitted the act. He was arrested and went through several hours of arrest processing. He explained the procedures were quite simple and banal; he described them as "routine" and he seemed unfazed by them. The process was close to an algorithm, automatic and noncritical. Just another pathway. When he finished the story he said to his boss that he regretted his "mistake." His boss said a mistake was a faux pas, an error on a bill or poor tie and shirt combination. A mistake was something that did not judge you. This was a crime and he was thief and a criminal.

The young man was shocked at this judgment which seemed to transcend apology, forgiveness and restitution.

Liking Ike

Eisenhower was a man from old America. Rural and unsophisticated, he had never been to Europe until he attacked it. He was always seen as a caretaker as President, never a politician or ideologue. Yet he had some real visionary substance as evidenced in his farewell address to the nation in January 1961. In it he spoke about "... threats, new in kind or degree, ..[which]..constantly arise." He then said, "Of these, I mention two only." He then warned about "the acquisition of unwarranted influence" of the "military-industrial complex," a phrase and concern that everyone remembers. But what was the second "threat?"

He described it as "the technological revolution during recent decades." But it is not the technology. "In this revolution, research has become central, it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government." He explains further: "..a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded. "

A government contract a substitute for intellectual curiosity. Domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money. These are profound worries from a straightforward man, a man on the inside who could see it clearly.

"The military-industrial complex." And the "science-government complex." Complex: A whole made up of interconnecting parts, that is, something different from its constituents.

 

A science-government complex is something new.

Cab Thoughts 10/9/13

The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge. -Daniel J. Boorstin, historian, professor, attorney, and writer (1914-2004)

Annie Murphy has an article on Peruvian "Lucha Libro." Mexico's version of pro wrestling is called "Lucha Libre" where competitors put on masks and pseudonyms to fight in a ring." She says: "Peru's Lucha Libro is kind of like that, without the violence. It's literary 'wrestling.' New writers don masks, and head onto a stage where they're given three random words, a laptop hooked up to a gigantic screen, and five minutes to write a short story. At the end of a match, the losing writer has to take off his or her mask. The winner goes on to the next round, a week later. And the grand prize? It's a book contract."

Skamania County in Washington outlawed killing Sasquatches in 1969. Revised in 1984, it states that killing it would be a misdemeanor unless it was shown to be humanoid; then it would be homicide.

Two similar sounding but unrelated terms, both of Latin origin: The term Mendicant ( from Latin mendīcāre to beg, from mendīcus beggar, from "mendus" flaw) refers to begging, usually as a part of religious alms. The term Mendacity means lying. (Latin mendācitās falsehood, equivalent to Latin mendāci- (stem of mendāx) given to lying.)

Conservation groups are in an uproar over Montana's decision to issue over 6000 permits to hunt the last 625 remaining wolves in the state.

For two days' work in "Animal House," Donald Sutherland initially declined $35,000. Universal then offered him $35,000 and 15% of the film's gross, assuming that the movie would be quickly forgotten. Sutherland wanted guaranteed money and settled for $50,000; although this made him the highest-paid member of the cast, the decision cost Sutherland what is estimated as at least $20 million.

200 former exchange students were surveyed, in cooperation with an international exchange organization called AFS, and 90% of foreign students who had lived in the U.S. said that kids here cared more about sports than their peers back home did. A majority of Americans who'd studied abroad agreed. In eighth grade, American kids spend more than twice the time Korean kids spend playing sports, according to a 2010 study published in the Journal of Advanced Academics. This information is always bandied about, as if it suggested a conclusion.

Who was....Baudelaire?

Cinnamon originally came from groves in Sri Lanka but Arab merchants, eager to keep their source a secret from the Europeans, concocted the story that cinnamon was collected from nests of gigantic birds who, in turn, had collected the cinnamon from far away and mysterious sites.

Kate Losse, author of The Boy Kings (a memoir about working at Facebook), has accused Dave Eggers of stealing her story in his new novel The Circle, which is also set in the tech world. She clarifies further by admitting she hasn't read the book.

A new study from researchers at ETH Zurich (Federal Institute of Technology) has revealed that niacin (vitamin B3) could help you live longer. The niacin-rich food menu includes Marmite, sun-dried tomatoes, paprika, and peanuts. And bacon. Bacon!

Rich Synchef has collected books from the '50's and '60's with political and social ephemera because, as he says, "These are my idols." There are hundreds of important works, all signed. And his collection is deep; a copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" was autographed by the poet as well as his longtime publisher, Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Bookstore. The two most impressive books in Synchef's collection are Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" (a first-edition paperback from 1958) and Tom Wolfe's "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" (a first-edition hardcover from 1968). On October 10, 2013, these books, along with several hundred other publications and objects, are up for auction at PBA Galleries in San Francisco.

Golden oldie:

http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2010/04/read-your-own-stats.html

Breath mint company Mentos launched an ad campaign in Singapore that encouraged everyone to do their civic duty by making a baby on August 9th. Russia, which has seen a steady population decline since the early 1990s, began a program in which moms who give birth on June 12 - the country's National Day holiday -- are entered into a drawing to win money and prizes from the government, including refrigerators and SUVs.

Samantha Dempsey, a design student, a set of temporary tattoos to commemorate the extinction of the oblong rocksnail, St. Helena giant earwig, and the Pasadena freshwater shrimp. And next?

Of the twenty-seven U.S. airliners hijacked to Cuba between the beginning of 1981 and the end of 1983, twenty-four were seized by Cuban 'refugees' so eager to escape the United States they didn't care if returning home meant going to prison.

"Why shouldn't our old people... likewise suck the blood of a youth? - a youth, I say who is willing, healthy, happy and temperate, whose blood is of the best but perhaps too abundant. They will suck, therefore, like leeches, an ounce or two from a scarcely-opened vein of the left arm; they will immediately take an equal amount of sugar and wine; they will do this when hungry and thirsty and when the moon is waxing. If they have difficulty digesting raw blood, let it first be cooked together with sugar; or let it be mixed with sugar and moderately distilled over hot water and then drunk."--Marsillo Ficino (1433-1499), Italian philosopher, from his work entitled Three Books on Life. An entirely new--or old--take on the young supporting the old.

A fire that destroyed a Tesla electric car near Seattle began in the vehicle's battery pack, officials said Wednesday.

Mary Shelley, the author of "Frankenstein," kept the withered heart of her husband, the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrapped in silk and pressed in her leather bound copy of Adonis (his poem) for over 30 years.

Gravity" opened as the greatest earning movie in the first week in history. It has drawn flack from Tyson, the astrophysicist, who objected to a medical doctor as a general scientist in space, Bullock's hair not being at zero gravity and satellite debris orbiting east to west. Nearly all satellites orbit Earth west to east .

Marcellus Shale wells are less than 7 years old, but 78% of those wells have already paid off all their costs.

AAAAannnnnnnddddd.....a picture of a plane being hit by lightning:

Taking the Ire out of Ireland

A metaphor for the world lurks in Ireland. People refuse to forget. From Cyprus to Lebanon, The Balkans to Greece, people refuse to forget.

The year is 1688. Mary, daughter of James ll, King of England, was next in line to rule England on the death of her father. Her husband was William of Orange, a Dutch noble. But suddenly James had a new child, a son, and the heir presumptive was replaced by the heir apparent.

In June, 1688, a letter was sent by English noblemen known as the "Immortal Seven" to William of Orange. It was carried to William by Rear Admiral Arthur Herbert disguised as a common sailor and identified by a secret code. The problem? James was a Catholic, Mary was raised a Protestant as was William. James had already shown an interest in religious tolerance and was also aligned with Catholic France. If James' new son became king there was risk he might be a Catholic. Soooooo.... the letter informed William that if he were to land in England with a small army, the signatories and their allies would rise up and support him. William would then force the ruling king, James--his father-in-law--to make William's Protestant wife Mary, James' eldest daughter, heir, on the grounds that newborn baby was allegedly an impostor.

Succession. Impostor newborns. Disguises. Heir presumptive. Immortal Sevens. Depose your father-in-law. Secret codes. And more: France at the time was trying to dominate Europe in defiance of the Pope and Catholic James was an ally of......France! Crazily the Pope, in his opposition to French expansionism, opposed the Catholic James and supported the Protestant William. English speakers didn't have this much fun again until The Housewives of Orange County.

But the losers had no fun. This was the beginning of the Glorious Revolution or the Revolution of 1688. William was successful and ascended the English throne as William III of England jointly with his wife Mary II of England. Catholicism in England was destroyed.

It was worse in Ireland where the Catholics had already suffered a crushing defeat by Cromwell. Catholics lost their lands, their right to hold public office--even in Parliament--and the right to practice their religion. Resistance to William had local religious and ethnic motives: The war was fought for Irish sovereignty, religious tolerance for Catholicism, and land ownership. Led by Richard Talbot, the Irish raised an army to restore James and, by 1690, controlled all Ireland except the province of Ulster. Fearing retaliation for years of oppression, Protestants fought enthusiastically for William of Orange.

The Battle of the Boyne was joined on July 11, 1690 and took place over a wide area west of the town of Drogheda on the Irish east coast. The two armies were led by William and James. Both were experienced in battle but neither distinguished. Most feel that at some point in the even contest James panicked and ordered a retreat. This surprised and discouraged his supporters and the lines broke up. A fine cavalry effort prevented a disaster. Of the 50,000 combatants only 2,000 were killed, mostly Catholics.

This battle would never be forgotten by either side and is commemorated every year with demonstration, challenge and violence. 323 years later they still fight in the street over this conflict but, as only makes sense in Ireland, the conflict is celebrated on the twelfth. Known as "The Troubles," it became institutionalized by the IRA, a broad collection of killers ranging from abstract idealists to unreflective, vicious psychopaths.

But there is reason for hope. Sometimes people can rise above bitterness, revolution and idealism. At the Northern Bank, across from Belfast's City Hall, the novelist Stuart Neville, in an interview with NPR's Noah Adams, recalled the details of a robbery in which approximately 26 million pounds were stolen. Residents still talk about it today. "They drove a lorry up the side, opened the door, money was loaded into the lorry and away they went," Neville says. "Of course it turned out within a few days it was the IRA who'd done it. They had kidnapped somebody who worked for the bank, forced them to come and load the money up. I remember jokes at the time, you know: This was a retirement fund for the boys." 

("The boys" means the leadership of the Irish Republican Army, and jokers called the heist a "retirement fund" because the robbery happened in 2004, while "The Troubles" officially ended in 1998 — at least, on paper.)

Bonfires light up the Belfast skyline on July 12, 1997. Remembering 1688.

In Science, All Things Are Possible

In a report published online in the Journal for Healthcare Quality, a Johns Hopkins investigative group found that of the 1 million or so robotic surgeries performed since 2000, only 245 complications -- including 71 deaths -- were reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Such a report of complications is mandatory when a medical complication occurs. The researchers were surprised at what they felt was a low complication number for a new and complex procedure. They cross-referenced the reports with public records and found several lawsuits involving the procedure that had not been reported to the database.

In one way this is an extremely curious scientific reasoning: The absence of something confirms it.

Sunday Sermon 10/6/13

In the Gospel today the apostles ask Christ to increase their faith. It is unsettling to hear that; after all, Christ is there with them. If they are having trouble, what are we poor slugs 2000 years later supposed to think?

It is reminiscent of Joan of Arc. After years of visions, after following those visions to lead French armies to victory over the English, she denies them while a captive. Why? "I was afraid of the flames," she said simply. She knew they were going to burn her and she was afraid of the flames.

Even those with the best reasons to have faith, waver, so great is the separation between the material and the spiritual.

cab Thoughts 10/5/13

'I have always felt a certain horror of political economists since I heard one of them say that he feared the famine of 1848 in Ireland would not kill more than a million people, and that would scarcely be enough to do much good."--Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol. The economist was Nassau Senior, an adviser to the British government.

The U.S. Federal Reserve needs to speak more clearly and tell the world it will do "whatever it takes" to boost employment Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota told Reuters. The Fed has spoken about interest rates and economic growth but employment is a new item.

I wish they could fix my refrigerator.

"Nothing's been done about that story, it's one big lie, not one word of it is true," says Seymour Hersh, talking about the bin Ladin murder. He has a new book to hype but still it is a lot for him to say. He is the author of "The Dark Side of Camelot" which revealed the very seamy qualities in JFK's White House.

You can always trust people to rise above their political and religious confines when presented with science questions: Prominent Saudi cleric Sheikh Saleh Al-Loheidan claimed that medical studies showed how driving automobiles damaged women’s ovaries and pelvises and, if performed often enough, could result in their children being born with “clinical problems.”

The Norwegians are taking the Dreamliner out of long-haul service until its mechanical problems are fixed.

IKEA has begun selling 3.36 kilowatt solar systems for $9,200 in Britain, with plans to expand this program to other nations.

William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, crossed the English Channel from France in 1066 and brought a fighting force considered the fiercest in Europe. People forget these people were Vikings. He had viciously depopulated Normandy of all opposition and would do the same in England. Interestingly, his was a mounted army, armored cavalry, and England's King Harold, the last crowned Anglo Saxon King, fought on foot. No cavalry. No chance.

Over the last several years, the airline industry has averaged $2.10 profit per passenger before taxes.

China consumes about 20% of the world's food yet has (thanks to rapid industrialization) only 9% of its farmland. Interestingly they are starting to rent large farmlands in other countries.

Who is....Tristan and Iseult?

Britain's National Health Service serves a population less than a fifth the size of America's and is the third-largest employer on the planet after the Indian National Railways and the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

Over a century the age of menarche, when menstruation begins, has dropped in the Western world from about seventeen to twelve.

Iran sanctions go both ways. And it appears that our esteemed allies are a bit less committed than the U.S. is. Chris Harmer of the unlikely named The Institute for the Study of War estimates that the Boeing Company alone forfeits a minimum of $25 billion in business every year because of U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iran. That market that is filled by the Russians. Overall, Harmer puts the value to U.S. business of trade lost due to the economic embargo on Iran at approximately $50 billion a year. Iran imports $1.5 billion worth of cars a year from companies like Nissan, Toyota and Peugeot (when they might have been General Motors and Chrysler). Peugeot does an additional half a billion dollars’ worth of commerce with Iran just in car parts.

Golden Oldie:

http://steeleydock.blogspot.com/2009/09/fundamentalist.html

Emile Zola was an accomplished writer who became the prototype for the intellectual intervening in and influencing social policy. He famously wrote an editorial "J'accuse", published on the front page of the Paris daily "L'Aurora" accusing the high level of the French Army of falsifying evidence to implicate Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery officer, of spying for the Germans despite the fact there was clear evidence that he did not do it, an officer named Esterhazy did, and the reason for Dreyfus' conviction was little more than he was Jewish. He died of carbon monoxide poisoning from interference with a furnace flue and, later, a Parisian roofer claimed on his deathbed to have closed the chimney for political reasons.

A neutron star is about 20 km in diameter and has the mass of about 1.4 times that of our Sun. This means that a neutron star is so dense that on Earth, one teaspoonful would weigh a billion tons, with a similar increase in gravitation and magnetic field.

The strange "shutdown:" the U.S. government shutdown will reduce the National Science Foundation's workforce from 2,000 to about 30. The work of scientists who are not federal employees but are supported by by the NSF will continue, but they won't receive any payments while the shutdown is in effect.

velleity \veh-LEE-uh-tee; vuh-\, noun: The lowest degree of desire; imperfect or incomplete volition; A slight wish or inclination. Velleity is derived from Latin velle, "to will, to be willing, to wish."

"Hybrid Icing":The hybrid-icing system allows the linesman to blow the play dead and call an automatic icing if he determines that the puck will cross the goal line and the defending player is not behind in the race to the end-zone faceoff dots in his defensive zone. The faceoff would go to the far end of the ice as it did with icings called in the previous system the NHL used.

AAAAAANNNNNNNnnnndddddddd......inexplicable stuff from the Middle Ages. Knights in combat with snails:

The Snails Attack (from the Queen Mary Psalter, England, 1310-1320 )