Quote of the day - Education

"To succeed, students must become thinkers, not just test-takers."
– "The secret to fixing bad schools", David L. Kirp, New York Times, 2013-02-09

I posted a comment to the article with the above quote and

"That sentence should be engraved in the head of anyone who wants successful students."

As of 8:30 this morning it had received 45 recommendations!  Gosh, if I could only have that readership here!

A former teacher replied to my post that I had beat him or her to a similar post and added

"As a teacher for 27 years, I know for a fact, that exam scores are the least important indicator of how well a student is learning."

147 comments have been posted to the article.  Three included that pre–school education may be expensive, but not as expensive as prisons.

I didn't post it, but many have written elsewhere that you pay something now or pay a lot more later.  It is often considered investing, but too many people don't think of government spending as investment, as they cruise down the interstate built with government money, as they enjoy a game in a tax-supported stadium, or as they have no concern about food-safety because of government inspections.

Across-the-board cuts are always a bad idea

To avoid making decisions, politicians and executives often talk about across-the-board cuts.  Not only are the cuts a bad idea because they rarely include politicians' and executives' salaries and perks, but because the cuts often include both the essential and the frivolous.

Let's take a family example.  Dad gets a wage cut because the execs decide there should be across-the-board cuts.  Now should Dad decide his family should have across-the-board cuts?  Is he going to cut the mortgage payment?  Is he going to take the bus instead of driving?  Probably neither.  Is he going to cut the kids' milk budget and his beer budget by the same percentage?  If he wants to invest in his kids' futures, he better cut his beer budget a lot and leave their milk budget the same.

Looks can be deceiving

When I see a picture in the newspaper of Christopher Jordan Dorner, I think of someone who one could swap lots of funny stories with.  It's hard to believe that he is a former LAPD officer who has gone on a rampage, killing at least three people and wounding others.

Apple's stock may go up

A few days ago I attributed the drop in the price of Apple stock to a problem that many iPhone and iPad users are having.  See "Why Apple's stock price went down".

Thanks to Candy in Apple Support I have the solution.

Candy listened patiently to my tale of woe about not being able to access some feature because of password problems.  She then walked me through the steps to resolve it.  What she pointed out was not in any of the published Apple solutions and was not even visible on my screen without scrolling down.  In 15 minutes or so, I had the problem fixed on my iPad and iPhone.

I thought I could fix the problem the same way on my Mac, but the applications and screens were not anywhere near the same as on the iPad and iPhone screens.  Fortunately, there was another discussion on the Apple forum that had the solution for the Mac.

If you need these solutions, see https://discussions.apple.com/message/21108977#21108977.

Support people like Candy are probably worth twice as much they are paid.  Too many companies have support people who use flowery language ("my pleasure to serve you") and too often have no real solution other than pointing you to a document that doesn't have the solution either.  People like Candy make a customer very glad they chose a particular company's product, and it is very difficult to measure their value.  I know her value to me was saving me more hours of frustration.

So if you are an Apple shareholder, I hope the news of Candy's help and the resolution of many people's problem makes the value of your stock go up.

Lobbyists trump common cents

The Star Tribune had an interesting article on Canada phasing out its one-cent coin: "Canada phasing out its penny; deems it a costly nuisance", Bob Gillies, Associated Press.  The U.S. has tried twice to do the same, but it never gets far in the House of Representatives.  "The U.S. zinc lobby has been a major opponent to suggestions that the penny be eliminated."

See also "Immigration and High-Tech Integration" for what Adam Smith has to say about special interests.

Just who is "The Media"?

I was in a University for Senior class on Social Justice this morning.  In one discussion, several people complained about "the media" not reporting many aspects of the news, for example, the number of civilian deaths in Iraq.

From my iPad, I searched the New York Times for "iraq civilian death" and received a list of over 31,000 articles.  I told the class this number and read the five headlines that appeared on my screen:

"A Grim Portrait of Civilian Deaths in Iraq", 2010-10-22
"W.H.O. Says Iraq Civilian Death Toll Higher Than Cited", 2008-01-10
"Civilian Death Toll Reaches New High in Iraq, U.N. Says", 2008-11-23
"Civilian toll in Iraq increased in November"
"Civilian deaths in Iraq decrease significantly in one month"

The text shown for the last gives the lower figure as 922!

I did the same search for the Duluth News Tribune; nothing was shown from its entire archive.  If I searched for "Iraq death" I received 17 items.  One of these from 2006-11-10 gave an Iraqi Health Ministry estimate of 150,000 civilian war deaths.

But we shouldn't fault the DNT too much for this lack; it is not a national paper like the NYT and focuses more of its news on local and state events.

Many of these critics probably watch TV news a lot.  TV news has the burden of limited time; the news given on a half-hour broadcast (oops!  22 minutes excluding commercials) is about as much as you can read in a newspaper in five minutes or less.  If your "the media" is TV; is it any wonder that you miss a lot of in-depth coverage?

My nationality is American

A favorite conversational item of many Americans is "What nationality are you?"  This happens often because we are a nation of immigrants from elsewhere or the descendants of immigrants.  But how is it that the nationality of someone from Canada is Canadian and from Australia is Australian?

One of my favorite comebacks is "What nationality is the King of Sweden?"  Following the male line back, he's French; he's descended from Marechal Bernadotte, one of Napoleon's marshals.

As for me, my paternal grandmother is the only immigrant among my grandparents; she was born in Silesia, at that time part of Germany.  The other three were all born in the United States.  As I hardly knew my grandmother, I didn't have much German influence.

Of my great-grandparents, four were born in Germany, three were born in England, and one supposedly was born in Brooklyn.  More about him later.  I never knew my German great-grandparents, and we never had any German traditions in our house.  I only knew my mother's paternal grandmother, and the only thing English I experienced from her was tea, with Carnation milk!

As for the supposedly Brooklyn-born great-grandfather, I've found some indications that he probably was born in Liverpool, England.  Most of the records for him give his name as John J.R. Magree, but Brooklyn has no birth certificate for him.  I did find two Liverpool records for the child John James Robert Magree.  His mother may have been Irish or English, but his father was John Cornelius Magree, probably the John C. Magree who was the master of the Ship Ivanhoe bringing immigrants from Liverpool to New York in Jan 1851.  There was no John J.R. Magree in the passenger list.  Interestingly, on his marriage record, John C.'s father was Vinsent Magree [sic], Vincent Magree was in Baltimore in the 1830 Census.

Other than possibly John C.s marriage in Liverpool, I have found no ancestor that I can link to Ireland.

My only Irish link to the name Magree is from Magree's I contacted in Australia.  They can trace their Magree ancestors to Kilkenny, Ireland, and even to some specific pieces of land.

Interestingly, on one St. Patrick's Day, my mother said "We are Orange Irish".  Other than her in-laws, she knew nothing of my father's grandparents.

Having lived in Italy for two years and in Sweden for four years, I like to kid that I am more Italian than many Americans that call themselves Italian and likewise for "Swedes".

Why Apple's stock price went down

Many attribute the big drop in the price of Apple's stock to iPhone 5 sales not being higher.  Could it be that it really is that Apple is not paying attention to the problems of its existing customers.  With the introduction of iOS 6 for the iPad and iPhone, many people are having trouble using passwords that had been working fine.  This has been going on since at least September, 2012, and nobody from Apple seems to respond to the problems addressed in the "Apple Community" forums.

As I said in "Why Facebook's stock price went down", "it's software is too buggy."

I posted the following today at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4316010?start=30&tstart=0.

I think that this Apple ID/password mess is just too much bother.  I don't know how many hours I've spent researching the problem and trying some of the solutions.

Like many of you, I've wound up with multiple Apple IDs; let's call them A, B, and C.  If I remember correctly, I got into this because I forgot a password.  At the time, I remember that the only solution seemed to be to create another Apple ID.  So now I can get into iTunes with ID A, but almost everything on my iPhone, iPod, and iCloud are for ID B.  I know that a month ago ID B had a password in a short list.

With the upgrade to iOS 6.1 and maybe before, none of the recent passwords for ID B are acceptable.  If I ask to change the password for ID B, it will not accept my birthdate as the first security question and it will not always send me email.

Even though ID B is in the list of email addresses for ID A, there is no way I can use the ID A change page to change the password for ID B.

I think this whole situation violates the Human Interface Principles for iOS of consistency and user control.  See http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/Principles/Principles.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40006556-CH5-SW1.

I've resigned myself to living without access to iCloud, with consistently clicking "ignore" or whatever when iCal and others ask for my ID B password, and a host of other annoyances.  I've already sent feedback to Apple.  I suggest you do the same at http://www.apple.com/feedback/, selecting iPad, iPhone, or iPod.  Maybe if a few hundred of us do this, Apple will come up with a better solution than the varied advice here that works in some situations and not others.

UPDATE: See "Apple's stock may go up" for the resolution of this problem.

"Makers" are takers and "takers" are makers

The "masters", in Adam Smith's parlance, claim they are the makers, the one's who get things done.  Or are they the "takers" who depend upon other people's work but take credit for it?

Adam Smith did write, "It is the stock that is employed for the sake of profit, which puts into motion the greater part of the useful labour of every society. The plans and projects of the employers of stock regulate and direct all the most important operation of labour, and profit is the end proposed by all those plans and projects."

In other words, if someone doesn't invest the capital, lots of things won't be done.  Would you be reading this on your computer if there hadn't been the capital to start a company that made a lot of computers?

Smith also wrote, "The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniences [sic] of life…" and "The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the necessary effect, so it is the natural symptom of increasing national wealth. The scanty maintenance of the labouring poor, on the other hand, is the natural symptom that things are at a stand, and their starving condition, that they are going fast backwards."

If there are no laborers, then there is no one to carry out the "plans and projects of the employers of stock".  Michael Dell may have been able to assemble computers in his dorm room, but he needed others to make the parts.  As his business grew, he needed others to assemble and ship the computers.

But how many CEOs started the companies that they head?  Very few. Most either came up through the ranks of management or were hired from outside.  They weren't the ones who put "into motion the greater part of the useful labour".  Thus, they are not the ones who make, but are the ones who take the work of others.  In fact, they often consider the actual makers as taking from the company and as such are disposable.

How many restaurant chain CEOs are cooking the hamburgers?  Where would the CEOs be if there were no hamburger cooks, no cashiers, and no clean-up crew?  If their companies have a good year, how much of their bonus are they willing to pass on to the people who made those profits possible?

We have at least one good example of the effects of treating well-paid employees as expenses rather than assets.  I saw Circuit City's demise coming when they fired all the high-paid experienced clerks.  These clerks made the sales; the executives took the profits of those sales.  See "Labor is not a commodity".

Immigration and High-Tech Innovation

Webform to Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Immigration Bill to Boost High-Tech Innovation

In the larger picture, I'm all for people moving wherever they want in the world, but when it comes to immigration to increase "high-tech innovation" there are several caveats to consider:

Companies have narrowed their "skill sets" to be check lists rather than overall considerations, thus limiting the number of Americans available for the jobs offered.

Companies seek to pay the lowest wages possible; increasing the number of immigrants allows them to select from a larger pool of workers who will be satisfied with smaller wages.  See "Norm Matloff's H-1B page: cheap labor, age discrimination, offshoring", updated in 2011 or later.  Rep. Zoe Lofgren found that the H-1B wages were $40,000 less than the average wage for computer systems analysts in her district.

Companies are unwilling to pay the taxes to provide the education needed to create a large pool of knowledge workers.  They would rather that other countries pay to educate a significant number of their workers.



[I didn't include this in my webform to Sen. Klobuchar, but see also "Is There a Tech Staff Shortage?"  I wrote it for the Northland Reader in October 1999.]

Adam Smith warned of special interests like this in "Wealth of Nations":

"The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order [capitalists], ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men, whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."

Quote of the day: Law as a game

I am cleaning my desk of many miscellaneous scraps of papers, some over ten years old.  One intriguing one is a photocopy of two pages from "The True Game" by Sheri S. Tepper.  I don't think it is buried in our bookshelves, and it is not in the Duluth Public Library.  It is at the Hennepin County Library, and so I must have borrowed it between 1996 when it was published and 1999 when we moved to Duluth.

The paragraph that I bracketed is:

"We are going to try to do what Windlow would have wanted," he said. "He told us that nations of men fell into disorder, so nations of law were set up instead.  He told us that nations of law then forgot justice and let the law become a Game, a Game in which the moves and the winning were more important than truth.  He told us to seek justice rather than the Game.  It was the laws, the rules which made Gaming.  It was Gaming that made injustice.  We can only try something new and hope that it is better."

How true!  One only need read the novels of John Lescroart or look at the work of the sausage factory called Congress to see how people game the system and ignore justice.

Muslims do speak out

Some people, I hope they are few, complain that Muslims don't speak out about terrorists claiming to act in the name of Islam.  Did we have a lot of Christians in the South who spoke out against the Ku Klux Klan?  How many southerners were as strong defending the rights of blacks as Atticus Finch of Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird"  How many of us speak out against anybody who unfairly speaks ill of another person or group?

Like any very large group, Muslims have a diverse set of views.  Too often, like in other groups, the rigid dominate any discourse.  Iran under the Shah was a rigid dictatorship that allowed quite a range of freedom in non-political behavior.  Iran under the Ayatollahs is a rigid sort-of democracy that constricts freedoms in many non-political behaviors.  Unfortunately, it has become even more rigid and even less democratic since the election fraud of 2009.

As seen in the riots in Egypt, Muslims have a wide range of opinions of what government should be about, not all think that Shari'a law is a legitimate source of government.  Remember also that more people showed up to mourn the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi than took part in the attack or justified it.

See also "Exploiting the Prophet", Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, 2012-09-22

One group of Muslims has set out to be a more open religious group that allows for more diversity and less gender or other sexual divisions.  It is Muslims for Progressive Values.  Among other practices prayer meetings are not segregated by gender and women do lead prayers.  They were supposedly changing their website on January 25th, but as of this posting it hasn't happened.  If the "Keep It Halal" video is not on the site when you visit, you might find it on YouTube at http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=44UsNBJE2ho&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D44UsNBJE2ho.

Efficiency vs. effectiveness - a pair of similes

Too often we see "efficiency" required of government, meaning government spends more money than the writer thinks appropriate.  We rarely see "effective" applied, meaning that the government did something with the desired results.

This morning's Duluth News Tribune's "Our View" used "efficiency" and "effective" in the same sentence with regard to a study to be commissioned to compare a few cities' expenses and services.  It can be a difficult task because of several variables, like hilly and narrow vs. flat and compact.  See "Our View: Collect data but get proper perspective, too".

While thinking about the article, I came up with a pair of simile's regarding automobiles.  A car sitting in the garage is efficient but not effective.  It doesn't use any fuel at all, but it is not taking anyone anywhere.  A four-wheel drive vehicle plowing through snow is effective but it is very inefficient.  It gets people to their destination but it uses a lot more fuel than it would normally.

Slippery trope, slippery hope

As I was eating a slippery pear wedge after dinner, the phrase "slippery trope" popped into my head.  Did I come up with an original phrase?  Using Google there slipped hope.  Entering "slippery slope" without quotes, gave "Book of the Times: Language Evolution's Slippery Tropes", William Grimes, New York Times, 2007-08-01.

The article is a review of "The First Word" by Christine Kenneally, an overview of the investigation of the origins of language.  Some of the interesting items mentioned are having laboratory subjects create their own language from a few seeds and apes who have learned to sign don't respond to each other's signs but get into a "shouting" match.

This article reminded me of my own thoughts about the Tower of Babel.  I see this story as a fable to explain why people speak different languages.  However, we create different languages all on our own.  Think of how the Romance languages diverged from Latin and how German diverged into several languages.  Think how the English of the Eighteenth century has changed into modern English; styles, words, and pronunciations are quite different today.  Even grammar that was considered improper in the 1950s is used by teachers of today.

From my slippery pear to the slippery trope, I have hope that I can find time in the next year or two to read "The First Word".  I hope the opportunity doesn't slip away.

Pronunciation inconsistencies in other languages

English isn't alone in different pronunciations for the same spelling.  Put the following phrase in the left box at translate.google.com/#sv/en/

Kerstin kör till kören övning

and click the speaker icon.

If you don't know Swedish, you'll be surprised at what you hear.

BTW, the first "kör" should be translated "drives" instead of "runs".

Where's the "W" in choir?

In English we pronounce "choir" to rhyme with "inquire", but there is neither a "w" in "choir" nor a "qu".

The answer is that English spelling never keeps up with English pronunciation.  See "Two, too, and to are pronounced the same, right?" and "How do you pronounce two, too, and to?"  And sometimes the spelling changes even if the pronunciation stays the same.

"Choir" was once spelled "quer" and an archaic form is "quire".  The "quer" (kwer) was from the then French word for "chorus".

You might think that the spelling and pronunciation of "choir" was also French, but "choir" (kwahr) is a variant of "fall".  The French use "chorale".  Apparently "choir" was somebody's idea of making English spelling conform more to Latin or French.  See "Linguists: why is 'choir' pronounced 'quire'?" for an amusing discussion.  For a more serious discussion of English spelling see "Why not Spelling Reform?"  It is a bit long and I have yet to finish it.

Quip of the day - Mormons and Pythons

You've probably heard about the Burmese pythons are overrunning parts of Florida and maybe about the state government sponsoring a contest for the largest python caught and for the most pythons caught.  One group featured is three Mormon friends from different parts of the country teamed up to catch pythons.  The New York Times story stated:

"Theirs was truly a chance encounter, considering that pythons far outnumber snake-savvy Mormons in South Florida."

"Florida Holds High-Profile Hunt for Low-Profile Creatures", Lizette Alvarez, New York Times, 2013-01-23

Quote of the Day: Republicans, Hagel, and Iraq

"Strip away all the demagoguery and there seems to be one reason and one reason only the neocons loathe Chuck Hagel. He was right about Iraq, and they were wrong."

- "Readers View, GOP has no reason to reject Obama Cabinet picks", James J. Amato, Duluth News Tribune, 2013-01-20

Cartoon of the Day: Political News

Read what the fortune teller in "Wizard of ID" has to say about a future ruler and the media.  Look for the January 22, 2013 strip at http://www.creators.com/comics/wizard-of-id.html.

Great speech but erroneous mathematics

President Obama gave an inspiring inaugural speech, but he stated a mathematical impossibility.  He used an incorrect advertising pitch in his statement that "America's possibilities are limitless".

We may never attain all of our possibilities but they are mathematically limited.  We have only a limited amount of people, a limited amount of land, a limited amount of resources, and a limited amount of time.

Let us hope that many good things come about for our country, but, whether we live another ten years or another hundred, we won't see many possible benefits that should happen in our lifetimes.

Quote of the day: Negotiate with who?

"As another defense minister, Moshe Dayan, once observed: 'If you want to make peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.'”
- Bill Keller, "Chuck Hagel's War", New York times, 2013-01-20

Moving days - web site articles to this blog

I'll be slowly moving my Reader Weekly articles from my web site at http://www.cpinternet.com/~mdmagree to this blog.  I've heard rumbles that CenturyLink wants to be the ISP for all of its DSL customers.  Rather than do any moving in a rush, I'll just start slowly, and hope for the best.

Just what are conservatives conserving?

Just what are conservatives conserving?
Melvyn D. Magree
Originally published in
Reader Weekly
August 8, 2004

Conservative – another sweeping term that is used as a pejorative by some and as a badge of honor by others.  In many ways both views are wrong, conservatism is not necessarily a bad idea and is not necessarily the best idea.  The problem is that the term conservative is used to describe a grab bag of conflicting ideas and to pretend that all who call themselves conservatives will adhere to all these conflicting ideas.

Both George Will and William Safire have catalogued the factions contained in the Republican party – economic, social, libertarian, idealistic, and cultural (1).  Safire wrote that the economic conservative is against “enforced redistribution of wealth” and for reduced taxes; the social conservative doesn’t like the violence in entertainment and opposes partial-birth abortion; the libertarian “is pro-choice and anti-compulsion”, the idealistic conservative believes it is America’s role to extend freedom, and the cultural conservative prefers traditional to avant-garde and the thoughtful to the emotional.  He offered more complex descriptions but space and copyrights limit my explaining more.  He also offered some stands that “liberals” would agree with – consumer protection from monopolies, right of counsel, and keeping “fundamentalists out of schoolrooms.”

I would make a slightly different catalog: pro-business, religious right, libertarian, and militaristic.  Pro-business is more pro-CEO of larger companies; religious right is enforcing one’s religious views on others; libertarian is as Safire described, and militaristic is projecting power more than defense.  They are all mixed up in a weird dance of support and conflict.  Some very large businesses provide the violent entertainment that the religious right opposes; businesses like military contracts but they don’t want to pay the taxes to pay for the contracts; the religious right supports the militaristic because they believe it is bringing on Armageddon, the battle to end all battles; the libertarians resent actions of the religious right; and the militaristic play on the desires of all to promote “freedom and democracy” even as they run roughshod over “freedom and democracy” here and elsewhere.  Please note: I did not write “military” but “militaristic”.  The members of the military may be behaving honorably  but the “militaristic” have designs beyond “defense”.

The classical definition of conservatism is holding on to what is traditional and making change gradually.  It is hard to find fault with this view, we all have a bit of conservatism in ourselves.  The business owner who doesn’t alter his plans until he has looked thoroughly at what change will bring about.  The religious person who prefers the King James Bible rather than reading the newer translations.  The person who prefers older music or art to the latest trend.  Or the person who eats the same thing for breakfast every day.

However, much of what passes for conservatism is more radicalism – the abrupt change of how things were.  Large businesses destroy smaller competitors or businesses that are in the way of their expansion.  The religious right takes small parts of the bible literally and ignores the larger truths accepted by more traditional churches.  The militaristic ignore traditional international relations in order to act on their own worldview.  It seems to me that what these conservatives are attempting to conserve is their power over others.

One way they attempt to conserve power is to wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim that they are promoters of freedom and democracy.  Freedom is not promoted by telling people how to conduct their private affairs, what they must believe, and what rituals they must perform.  Democracy is not promoted by hiding information in the name of security or by taking checks and balances from voting to promote sales of technology.

One of the characteristics of current conservatism is unquestioning promotion of “approved” beliefs.  Have you noticed that no matter how many news quotes from “conservative” sources, no matter how many letters from “conservatives”, and no matter how many opinion pieces by “conservatives”, if a newspaper or broadcaster has any news or opinions outside of this set of views, it is “liberal”?  Very interesting because many newspapers and broadcasters are owned by “conservative” businesses.

A slogan that captures this mind set is RINO – Republican in name only.  One of the supposed attributes of having only two political parties is that they each will cover a wide range of views – the so-called “big tent” parties.  However, conservatives are increasingly demanding orthodoxy – a strict adherence to a set of beliefs.  You can see this is the writings or hear it on radio shows of conservatives.

Rush Limbaugh is supposedly the master of not allowing anyone to contradict him with a different interpretation of facts.  Ann Coulter hammers away with a repetitious call for orthodoxy.  I’m having a tough time making it through her book Slander because of all the generalizations and selective quotes she makes to show how bad “liberals” are.

This orthodoxy carries over to support for President George W. Bush.  About the only conservative commentators who might question Bush’s actions are William Safire and George Will.  They may point out an inconsistency in something Bush said or did.  Otherwise the President can do no wrong, unless it is not going to the right far enough.

Maybe George Bush doesn’t see himself as the Roman Emperor that Garry Trudeau depicts him as in “Doonesbury” (the empty helmet), but many of Bush’s supporters treat him as if his actions should no more be challenged than those of early Roman Emperors.

Remember, the Roman Republic fell when a general overstepped the limits the Senate set for him.  Could the American Republic fall when a Commander-in-Chief reinterprets the Constitution and oversteps its limits?  If so, conservatives will not have conserved freedom and democracy.

(1) William Safire, “Inside a Republican Brain”, New York Times, July 21, 2004 (Page may be available online only to subscribers)


©2004, 2007, 2013 Melvyn D. Magree

Low taxes can mean low profits

The Boeing 737 Dreamliner has been grounded by the FAA until several of the recent problems can be fixed.

First question: if private business can do so much right, why is there so much wrong with the 737?
At least, nobody's been seriously injured or killed yet.

The answer is that it is a complex endeavor.  Thousands must work together to get everything just right.  What was missed because certain tests or calculations weren't checked one more time?  One commentator wrote that the FAA inspectors were overwhelmed by the innovations.

This last gets me to taxes and profits.

To have skilled up-to-date inspectors, we need to train them continuously.  If we don't budget for continuous training, the inspectors won't be able to keep up with changes.  If the inspectors can't keep up with changes, then the inspected companies might miss something.  If the inspected companies miss something, then the new products might fail in some way that reduces those companies' profits.  Sort of "for want of a nail…"

Also think of government inspectors as independent auditors.  They are a second set of eyes that sees things that the people directly involved might miss.  Large companies don't blink at paying millions for audits but they seem to balk at paying taxes for government "auditors"; auditors that might save them millions.

But to have skilled designers and skilled inspectors, we have to have a robust education system, going all the way back to pre-school.  If we don't pay enough taxes to have such a robust education system that produces a very large number of skilled adults, then we can't create the innovations that lead to larger profits.

All things are connected - "Home", movie script by Ted Perry.  See "All Things Are Connected".

A clever but off-the-mark sign

"Politicians are like diapers, they need changing often".

This sign has been on a signboard for a business on Woodland Avenue in Duluth for sometime.  I'm not sure if the sign belongs to the auto repair business or to a small office that seems to be attached to the auto repair building.  Google street view is a bit blurry on the details.

I didn't double check, but many references attribute it to Mark Twain with the added phrase "and for the same reason."

We could also apply this slogan to CEOs.  They get entrenched and get the board they selected to give them larger and larger compensation.  Boy, talk about a stinky deal!

The problem with this slogan is that it assumes that a frequent turnover of politicians will ensure new ideas.  It might on occasion, but like all serious jobs, being a politician requires a lot of effort and learning.  If we had the turnover as the sign implies, then the politicians would be at the mercy of their staffs or lobbyists.  The degree that they do depend on these two groups is bad enough, but a greater number of new politicians would make the situation even worse.

Besides, we do get to vote against politicians.  We have a hard time voting against CEOs.  And we want neither our politicians or CEOs to be like diapers.

An afterthought!  A complaint about politicians is a bit of elitism.  The people get to choose the politicians; the plutocrats get to choose the CEOs.  This phrase then implies that the people are ignorant and not to be trusted with governance.

Private vs. Public, No Clear Answer

Many people are calling for the privatization of almost everything: schools, utilities, prisons, armies, and more.  They claim that a private corporation will be more efficient than a government operated entity.  The skeptic should ask what is meant by efficiency and what other values would be lost with privatization.

For example, if a private company operates a prison will a lower cost per prisoner come with a lower cost for security?

If a private company operates something, will it be calling for less regulation, regulations that could be protecting public safety and public health.  For example, BP was state-operated for a long time, and then Margaret Thatcher privatized it.  Apparently the deadly accident rate has gone way up because costs were cut to keep profits way up.

If private schools take away selected students from public schools, will the students left have fewer role models for success?  Many "failing" schools do graduate successful students.

Regardless of the form of an organization, three ingredients are needed for success: clear goals, management that understands those goals, and sufficient resources to meet those goals.

For more, see "When Public Outperforms Private in Services", Eduardo Porter, New York Times, 2013-01-15.  See also the book that he mentions, "The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office" by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan.

Cut spending? Whose responsibility?

I can't find a direct quote, but many Republicans seem to be blaming President Obama for "runaway spending".  But is he spending money that Congress did not authorize him to spend?  I haven't seen any such criticism.

"The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the
Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all
Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

"To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;" - U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8

"No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by
Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money
shall be published from time to time." - U.S. Constitustion, Article I, Section 9

So, if President Obama is spending money or borrowing money for which he had no authorization, I haven't seen any such specific complaint.

Republicans in the House are stating that the people sent them to "cut spending".  But one could also say that the people gave the President another term and elected a predominantly Democratic Senate to "increase spending".  Either case overs implies the myriad of reasons people have for voting for particular candidates.  In fact, I would call any claim of "mandate" or a specific mission hubris.

If the Republicans are really serious about cutting spending they would simply pass a budget to their liking.  One would hope they would also cut Federal spending in their own district, but fat chance of that.  Now the next trick would be to get the Senate to go along.  If they could do that, then there would be a budget bill to send to the President.  If he vetoes it, then the House and Senate will need enough votes to override the veto.  These probably don't exist.

So, adults would determine what they can agree on and get that in the budget.  But many in Congress grandstand to please their "base" rather than do some real work for all of the people.

But we shouldn't complain too much.  The government was designed this way over two hundred years ago.

Nuclear weapons: Mything in action

I've long felt an unease about the justification of nuclear weapons, including the nuclear umbrella over Europe and that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks saved lives.

As for the nuclear umbrella, Britain and France had their own nuclear weapons, and so why would they need U.S. nuclear weapons to prevent attack by the Soviet Union?  As far as the invasion of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union, was it not by the same rationale that the U.S. has attacked Iraq and Afghanistan?  After the horrors of the siege of Leningrad, wouldn't any sane leader be sure to provide a big buffer between his country and the attacker?  How many times before was Russia invaded from Europe?

That is not to say the Soviet Union was a benign keeper of the peace; it wasn't.

As for saving lives, whose lives did the deaths of thousands of women and children in Hiroshima and Nagasaki save?  Invading troops?  Would not a naval blockade of a country that had a defeated navy been just as effective?  Were the bombs to bring a quick end to the war before the Soviets got involved?  The Japanese were just as aware of the possibility and ready to surrender.  It really pays to know your enemy, and too many warring countries have no clear understanding of their enemies.

For a more detailed discussion of the futility of nuclear weapons, see "The Myth of Nuclear Necessity", Ward Wilson, New York Times, 2013-01-13.

I'm still here!

To my loyal readers, I apologize for not posting any entries for the last few days.

My computer-use energy has been sapped by two problems and I've spent hours trying to resolve them.

One is confusion over my Apple ID, that which I need to access iTunes to download apps and podcasts.  Some apps are linked to one Apple ID and some are linked to another.  I won't bore you with the details, partly because I'm not sure of the details myself.  I do know that the Apple message boards have many messages about similar problems.

Two is trying to use the Duluth News Tribune Digital Edition.  The link descriptions are not clear, you need a special browser to use it, and some of the buttons are not very responsive.  I've spent hours trying to make it work.  Ironically, the Star Tribune uses the same software and I have no problem with it.

My wife's gonna kick me out!

My wife does most of the cooking, laundry, and cleaning.  I do most of the finances, long-distance driving, lawn mowing, and snow shoveling.  Given that we haven't had much snow this winter, I don't do much snow shoveling, just a bit of pushing now and then.  So, she figures that if I'm not going to do my fair share…

If the United States were a Christian nation…

…it would follow the "second greatest commandment", "do unto others as you would have them do to you."

We do not want other countries invading us.
We do not want other countries assassinating our leaders.
We do not want other countries stationing troops in our country.
We do not want other countries dictating our choice of leaders.
We do not want other countries to have nuclear weapons.
We do not want other countries having bigger or more powerful militaries than we do.

And then there is, "for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword".

We can only be considered a peace-loving nation when the State Department has a bigger budget than the War Department.

Daffynition - Vertigo

After I retrieved the paper yesterday morning and shut the door, I bent over to push the rug up against the door for insulation.  As I straightened up I was a bit light-headed.  I told my wife that I had a bit of vertigo – the vertical goes!

Unsafe safety features

Sometimes in the name of safety, designers can create unsafe conditions.

I was reminded of this again in dealing with one of my pet peeves, gas cans that are not easy to use. 

I've written about this issue before in "Misguided safety measures" and "Tired of pouring gas on your shoes?"

I thought that I had found a better solution with No-Spill gas cans from Denny's Lawn and Garden.  Instead of a stopper within the cap, they had a push-button to control the flow out the spout.

In general, the No-Spill cans work as advertised.  Apparently earlier models still dripped through the seal between the spout and the can.  I don't recall having that problem.

However, like all the "safety" cans, they can be very frustrating when filling them.

First, it is a real pain to get the spout off, especially in cold weather while wearing gloves.  The ratchet lock is very difficult to release and can take both thumbs to release.  Last weekend I used a tack puller to get enough leverage to push the lock in.

Second, once the can is full, it takes many efforts to get the spout back on.  It goes on crooked more easily than it goes on straight.  I find this disconcerting and curious.  The threads are rather coarse and one would think the spout should go on with the first attempt.

Frustrations like this lead to carelessness.  Carelessness can lead to improper use.  Improper use can lead to unsafe conditions, creating conditions that "safety" designs were supposed to eliminate.

I still haven't found a gas can design that is better than the 5-liter steel "Jerry can" I bought in Sweden over thirty years ago.  I only stopped using it because I couldn't replace the cork seal.  I still have it in a shed at our cabin.  I can't remember all the details of the design, but the spout was held on with a lever that locked on each side.  Pull up and you could take the spout off.  Push down and you locked the spout in place.

God, civility, and the Golden Rule

Some letter writers to the Duluth News Tribune have recently been calling for God in our lives to solve many of our problems.  Torquemada, the Spanish Inquisitor, believed in God, and he had thousands murdered because they didn’t believe as he did.  The Puritans believed in God, and they had dozens murdered because the innocent victims would not admit to being witches.  Plantation owners believed in God, and they kept slaves who they would whip for whatever cause.

The problem with a belief in God is that too many “believers” are very selective in what they believe.  Too many ignore a central tenet of monotheistic and other religions.

“Do not unto your neighbor what you would not have him do unto you; this is the whole Law; the rest is commentary.” – Hillel, a Jewish teacher in the first century, B.C.E.

“Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.” – Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 7:12

“...and you should forgive and overlook: Do you not like God to forgive you? And Allah is The Merciful Forgiving.” _ Qur’an (Surah 24, “The Light”, v. 22)

"What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others." – Confucius

“One should never do wrong in return, nor mistreat any man, no matter how one has been mistreated by him." – Plato’s Socrates (Crito, 49c)

You can find many more variations and sources of the “Golden Rule” at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Rule.

What these religious and ethical variations call for is for us to be part of communities.  These communities are at neighborhood, city, national, and world levels.  They are as informal as holding a door for a stranger at a public building or as formal as churches and civic associations.

Unfortunately, many of us don’t act as if we are in some of these communities.  We walk out of our houses to our car on the street or in the garage and drive somewhere else without even seeing a neighbor.  We don’t bother to shovel our sidewalks because we don’t use them, completely ignoring all the footprints in the snow.  As we drive we are focused on thoughts elsewhere, whether in our heads, on our radios, or even on our cell phones.  We drive over crosswalks without even looking for pedestrians.  We drive through red lights ignoring any traffic or pedestrians waiting at the cross streets.  We race through parking garages without headlights and without watching for vehicles backing out.

Our first try at building communities should be to consider doing unto others what we appreciate others doing unto us.  Do we want to walk on clear sidewalks?  Do we want other drivers to be attentive to vehicles around them?  Do we want drivers to be attentive to us as we cross a street?  Do we want other drivers to wait for us to back out of a blind spot?

If we start with these small changes, maybe we can look at how we treat others in a larger context.  Do we talk about public employees as “they” or do we consider them our neighbors.  Did “they” make a patch on our street, or did a city crew make the patch?  Did “they” plow our street, or did an overworked city plow driver make our street more drivable?

Remember that the Good Samaritan of the Book of Luke was an “other”.  To build communities, we need to be open to including the “other” as our neighbors.

Immigration - an unattributed good thought

"You Say That Immigrants Threaten Your Way of Life, Man, That Must Be Tough." - a poster with a photo of an older Native American.

A relative posted on Facebook the poster "You Say That Immigrants Threaten Your Way Of Life, Man, That Must Be Tough".  She shared it from "Americans Against The Republican Party" and it supposedly came from "Being Liberal".

Before I posted it on my blog, I wanted to check authorship.  Neither Facebook site gave any such information.  I found http://www.freakyts.com/Pages/NativeAmerican.aspx with Google, and I had many chuckles with not only the Native American section but some of the others.  Are these designs original with freakyts, are they copyrighted by someone else, or are they in the public domain?

Whatever the case, I'll be back before Christmas.  Our family gives T-shirts, sweatshirts, or books.  I've already picked out two T-shirts.

I sent something similar to the above three paragraphs to freakyts's comments.

In response to my relative's posting, I added:

I always thought the Indians had a lousy immigration policy. Just think how they could have protected themselves if they had more guns.

On a more mundane note, I would like to post this on my blog, but I can find no attribution other than a facebook site. Somebody must have the rights to this.

Finally, Pete Seeger has on one album the following:

Two Indians are standing on the beach when a small boat pulls ashore. A man steps out and says, "Buenos Dias, Señores!"  One Indian looks at the other and says, "Well, there goes the neighborhood!"

We are corporate guinea pigs!

"Let's stop allowing them to conduct the largest genetics experiment in the history of mankind." "Gun violence and good food", Blake Donley, Star Tribune, 2012-12-37

This opinion piece is a good rant about how so many people are ranting about this and that, but few are offering any real solutions.  Donley's point in this paragraph is that large corporations are poisoning our water and food with "toxic compounds, toxic chemicals, and toxic organisms".

As I wrote elsewhere, all this is done without any real research into how people and the environment will be affected.  See "GMO producers don't want free markets".

How we got "Mother Goose and Grimm"

Since my two most popular blog entries have been about Mike Peter's last two Mother Goose and Grimm "Twelve days of Christmas", I thought that some of you would like to know more about him.  From www.grimmy.com I found a link to an interesting article in the St. Louis Dispatch:

"Mike Peters: The Man Behind Mother Goose and Grimm: Mike Peters extracts humor from catastrophe, political angst, private fears, and a goose's pet dog…", by Jeannette Cooperman.

English speakers should be the best linguists

Read the following out loud:

With one statement he charred Charlene's character.

Anybody who has learned to deal with three different pronunciations of "cha" really should have the mental tools to learn bits and pieces of many languages.

Corporate Entitlements

For a neat interactive map of state-by-state corporate subsidies, see "Explore Government Subsidies" by Louise Story, Tiff Fehr, and Derek Watkins, New York Times.

It also has data by corporation.

How I nearly spoiled our Christmas

We sang in the early Christmas Eve service last night and had the soup and bread dinner between the services.  The dinner almost didn't happen because nobody had been appointed to take charge of it.  My wife did a lot of calling around and found many volunteers to bring food, serve it, and clean up afterward.  She told me that she would help set up and then let others clean up.

Well, it didn't work out that way.  After I ate and chatted with a few people, I put on my coat.  The second service started and my wife was still in the kitchen.  We also wound up bringing home the tablecloths to wash.

I was irritated; I still had presents to wrap and a few other things I wanted to do at home.

When we arrived home I made a few trips between the garage and house with things we wouldn't have had if we had left right after we ate.  The last thing I brought in was the big bundle of tablecloths.  My wife said I should just drop them down the laundry chute, but I said I would rather just take them downstairs.

This shouldn't be a problem.  I frequently take heavy boxes of firewood to the basement.  A box of tablecloths should be easy.  This despite that my vision is blocked with either the firewood or the tablecloths.

I got to the last step and caught the heel of my boot.  Forward I pitched.  I think I dropped the tablecloths.  My right knee slammed into the concrete floor and I rolled onto my back.  Oh, great!

My knee was sore, but otherwise seemed OK.  My pants weren't ripped, but there was a sheen that wasn't there before.

I picked myself up, put the tablecloths by the washing machine, and went back upstairs on my own power.  But I was even more irritated for having to stay later at church than I had planned.

Well, I did get the presents wrapped, and I did get some of the other tasks done that I had planned.  I also slept rather well, even if sugar plums weren't dancing in my head.

When I woke up this morning, my knee was not the color of a plum and I could walk OK.  Whew!  I won't be in the hospital with a broken knee cap or anything else.  Bring on the presents!  Raise our voices on high in song!  Serve the punch!  Merry Christmas!

Quote of the day - Health care costs

Well, not quite of today.  I'm just trying to make a dent in my backlog of notes.

"How does Medicaid achieve these lower costs? Partly by having much lower administrative costs than private insurers. It’s always worth remembering that when it comes to health care, it’s the private sector, not government programs, that suffers from stifling, costly bureaucracy."
- "Medicaid on the ballot", Paul Krugman, New York Times, 2012-10-29.

For some counter arguments, see "Krugman Flunks Health Econ 101", John Goodman, National Center for Policy Analysis, 2012-11-05 http://healthblog.ncpa.org/krugman-flunks-health-econ-101/

One thing critics ignore about private sector versus government programs is that government doesn't have CEOs taking home eight-figure salaries and other perks.

Energy – picking winners and losers

"In addition to legislative aid, Excelsior also has received a large share of financial assistance from the public sector. The company received about $22 million in development funds from the U.S. Department of Energy before the federal agency decided to cut off its support for the morphing project this summer. Initially, Excelsior had been slated to receive $36 million in support of the “clean coal” technology it aimed to develop, but the federal agency chose to stop its funding $14 million shy of that original earmark when Excelsior’s focus shifted to natural gas."

– "Key land auction for Excelsior Energy slated for today", Peter Passi, Duluth News Tribune, 2012-12-19

See also "Report: Excelsior Energy project could run out of gas", Minnesota Public Radio, 2011-08-23.

Rather than decry all these subsidies, the Minnesota State Legislature passed a law in 2008 that made the financial records reported to state agencies secret.

It is interesting that many hold alternative energy companies to a different standard than fossil fuel companies.  In the one case it is crony capitalism on the part of government, and in the other case it is creating jobs. "'At the end of the day, this is a project that has not hired one full-time worker on the Iron Range. Only lawyers, lobbyists and professional meeting attenders have gotten jobs,' said Rep. Tom Anzelc, D-Balsam Township, the only Iron Range legislator who opposes the project."  See MPR article.

NRA wants to raise your taxes

The NRA proclaims that having police officers in all schools will prevent more shootings.  Is the NRA willing to pay the taxes for tens of thousands of police officers?

There are about 99,000 public K-12 schools in the U.S. and the average police officer is paid about $50,000.  That's nearly five billion dollars.  If there are an average of two school shootings per year, that's over two billion dollars to prevent a single school shooting.  Would the NRA agree to a sales tax on guns to pay for these police officers?

Over ten million guns were sold in the U.S in 2011.  To fund the NRA's protection plan would require a $500 tax on each gun sale.  I doubt the NRA would accept that tax.

There were 93 million children enrolled in public schools in 2010.  If we taxed the parents for police officers in their children's schools, that would be about $54 per child.  So, all parents would be required to pay $54 per child so that the NRA can keep gun regulations to a minimum.  Sounds fair, not!

However, what would be assurance that said police officers would reduce school shooting deaths to zero?  The NRA is watching too many westerns where the good guys can shoot an apple out a tree, even from the hip!  The reality is that many police officers themselves are victims of mass murderers.

Sgt. Kimberly Munley, the first police officer on the scene at the Ft. Hood mass shooting, is a member of a SWAT team and an advanced firearms instructor.  Maj. Hassan, the shooter, wounded her at least twice, and supposedly he was able to kick her gun out of her reach.  Whether she wounded him sufficiently to subdue him or her partner did so is not clear from what I read.

In another case, New York Police wounded nine bystanders trying to take down a gunman on a city street.

The NRA also claims that more armed citizens will prevent mass murders.  In the Arizona shooting in which Rep. Gabby Giffords was wounded, one armed citizen almost shot the wrong person in the melee.

Several commentators are pointing out that the NRA is not so much about the right to bear arms but the right of gun makers to sell arms.

Mike Peters' "Twelve Days of Christmas" puns for 2012

Mike Peters, creator of "Mother Goose and Grimm" is at again with his puns on "The Twelve Days of Christmas".  As I write this, he is on the Eighth day of Christmas.  If your newspaper doesn't carry "Mother Goose and Grimm", you can find his comics at his web site.

I was led to write this for a couple of reasons.

First, my blog entry "For word nerds only" from last December has been getting several hits a week and a common set of keywords used is "mother goose" "grimm" "twelve days" "Christmas".  This particular set puts this blog entry first of over 25,000!!!

Second, we stopped buying paper copies of the newspaper.  The online versions of the Duluth News Tribune and Star Tribune don't carry the same comics as the print edition, and even then, you have to click on the individual listing of a comic to see the current panel.  It's almost enough to get me back to the print edition.  Oh, yes, with the Star Tribune eEdition I can get a copy of the comic section.  It does take a bit more effort than scanning the paper copy, but I do have all the comics in one place.  Shall I call the Star Tribune eEdition my Christmas present to myself: two chortle doves?  Or "my blue glove waved to me"!

And another interesting tidbit!  When you pass the cursor over today's Google logo, it shows "200th Anniversary of Grimm's Fairy Tales".

Quote of the day: Gun Control

"Why is voting & adjusting my Facebook settings harder than buying a semi-automatic?"
"The K Chronicles" by Keith Knight, 2012-12-19, http://www.gocomics.com/thekchronicles/2012/12/19

For many of your favorite comics, see http://www.gocomics.com/feature for alphabetic listing of many popular comics.

Climate change - can you catch the typo?

"The annual rise of 17 billion tons [of atmospheric carbon] translates into a rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Each additional 7.8 billion tons is equivalent to one part per million in the atmosphere, so that an extra 17 tons each year is equivalent to a rise of roughly two parts per million."
- Common Wealth, p. 92, Jeffrey D. Sachs

Hint: The word "billion" is missing in one place.

Hint: If the amount of carbon dioxide needed to add 2ppm is what he wrote, then the earth would have become a desert already.

The moral: Once you proofread something you wrote, proofread it again.  I caught at least one in what I typed above!

Helping the sick and injured is age-old

Many hunter-gatherer cultures helped those who could not contribute fully.  Many of us have read stories about hunter-gatherer cultures caring for the elderly and healing the sick, but do we know how much they cared for those younger who could never contribute a great deal to the group?

As it is, archeologists have found cases of primitive societies caring for people that couldn't even feed themselves or could not keep up as the group traveled.  See "Ancient Bones that Tell a Story of Compassion", James Gorman, New York Times, 2012-12-17.

The archeologists, Lorna Tilley and Mark Oxenham, ask "what care for the sick and injured says about the culture that provided it."

These pre-historic cultures were close-knit communities that knew all of their members.  It is hard not to care for those in a small community.  But what happens as the community becomes larger, more diverse, and more dispersed?  Children move to another city or even another country.  People associate more with those at the factory or office than they do with people on their own block.  Driving out the garage and down the street we may not even meet many of our neighbors.  We don't know who is sick and disabled.  Even when we know our own neighbors, we aren't aware of all of their problems.  It took a mail carrier asking a neighbor about my step-father before anybody realized that he had died.

Even when we know a neighbor is ill, do we have the skills needed to care for the neighbor?  Our expectations of health-care are much higher than in pre-historic times.  In the last few centuries, charitable groups established hospitals to take care of people who couldn't be cared for at home.  But our expectations became even higher and many of those groups could not raise sufficient funds to give care to all who needed it.  Hospitals needed to charge all comers in order to have the funds; those without enough money often did without needed care.

If we are to replicate in today's dispersed societies the attention given to the sick and injured in primitive societies, wouldn't we need to have universal health care?  We still must ask "what care for the sick and injured says about the culture that provided it."  We certainly have many politicians who are more concerned with guaranteeing people access to guns than guaranteeing people access to health care.

The opportunity cost of freeways

"Opportunity cost" is an economic term to describe the cost of spending money one way instead of another.  Consider the penchant for "across the board cuts" in government spending.  If a family were to do that say with "across the board cuts" in its grocery spending, the kids would suffer.  That is, if Dad cut his beer spending by 25% and the spending on milk by 25%, then the opportunity cost of Dad's beer would be less healthy children.

Every time I drive through the mammoth interchange of I-35 and I-694 in the Twin Cities, I think of all the houses or farms that could be in that space.  I think of all the property tax that has been lost so people ever farther out can get between here and there in a "minimum" amount of time.  Could the lost tax revenue have gone into more public transportation, moving more people with less space?  If public transportation was more widely used, would more people spend less time in traffic when weather conditions make driving difficult?  I'm sure you can think of many more costs associated with complex highways that could be better spent elsewhere.

Disconnect on subsidies

Why is it bad to subsidize an industry such as wind or solar but it is all right to subsidize a company for locating in a particular spot?

There are many who call for an end to subsidies for alternative energy, but do they complain about subsidies for fossil fuel companies?  For example, Sasol is getting a $2 billion subsidy from Louisiana to build a gas-to-liquid plant.  See "Sasol Betting Big on Gas-to-Liquid Technology",  John M. Broder and Clifford Krauss, New York Times, 2012-12-17.

I wonder if any economist has ever done a long-term study on the value of subsidies.  I know there have been subsidies to get companies to locate in a particular city or state, and many companies abandon that city or state before the locality has even recouped its investment.  I also know that government subsidies have transformed the economy mostly for the benefit of many.  Lincoln called for subsidies to the transcontinental railroad which greatly improved the U.S. economy.  Would we have computers and the Internet without many other government subsidies?

What we really need are some metrics that show whether a government subsidy will provide a huge social benefit or will only be a drain that lines the pockets of a few.

Pistol-packing principals?

"Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, was the sole representative of gun rights' activists on the various Sunday talk shows. In an interview on 'Fox News Sunday,' Gohmert defended the sale of assault weapons and said that the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who authorities say died trying to overtake the shooter, should herself have been armed.

"'I wish to God she had had an M-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out and she didn't have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands. But she takes him (the shooter) out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids, Gohmert said.'"

- "Senators call for ban on assault weapons, want commission to examine gun laws, mental health", Anne Flaherty , Associated Press  Updated: December 16, 2012 - 2:52 PM

Do we really want to live in a country where every citizen is armed?  Do we have to add weapons training to the curricula of our schools of education?  When I went to high school in the 1950s, we didn't even have cops in the schools.  What has changed in our country?  Maybe it was too many westerns in which the hero was always the fastest draw and the most accurate shot.  For a couple of more realistic views, see "Myth of the Hero Gunslinger" and "How the Gunfighter Killed Bourgeois America".

As for the proposed year-and-a-half waiting period "to discuss this volatile matter" the U.S. has been averaging two mass murders per year for the last thirty years.  "And in most cases, the killers had obtained their weapons legally."

- "11 facts about U.S. gun massacres", Ezra Klein, Washington Post  Updated: December 15, 2012 - 7:10 PM, retrieved from Star Tribune

Strange remarks on gun control

On the Connecticut shooting, a letter to the Star Tribune included:

"To discuss this very volatile matter, we need to wait until we have a period of, say, a year and a half with no mass killings that come about as a result of gun sales and ownership."
- http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/183584251.html

I wonder if the writer considered that "a year and a half with no mass killings" is about the same as never.  First, unfortunately there will be some copycat killings.  Second, what does he define as "mass killings", more than two dozen victims, more than a dozen, more than six?  This writer also thought that the killer could have killed as many with a club and feet!

We really should have been having intelligent conversations how to reduce the number of killings, no matter how many are killed by no matter how many.  But, no, we have the National Rifle Association (NRA) raising political hell on any restrictions of unlimited availability of guns and a few less politically powerful calling for complete restrictions.

I wish some Constitutional scholars would really take on the meaning of the Second Amendment:

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to bear Arms shall not be infringed."

Many argue that the single-shot "Arms" of the time were nowhere near as lethal as the large-magazine automatic pistols of today.  Unfortunately, few argue about the choice of words for who has the right to bear arms or for what purpose.

First, the purpose in the Second Amendment is "the security of a free State", not the "defense of home or self".  Many claim that the Constitution gives them the right to have arms to defend their home.  That is common law, the so-called "castle doctrine", not constitutional law.  Given the times, I venture that this was meant for communities on the frontier to defend themselves against Indian attack or foreign invasions.

Second, please note the choice of words to describe who has the "right to bear arms" - "the people", not persons or citizens.  The writers used "the people" only twice in the original Constitution: "We, the People" in the preamble and "The House of Representative shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People..." in Article I, Section 2.  That is, "people" is a collective noun.  Otherwise, when writing about individuals, the writers used "person" or "citizen" in the singular or plural form as appropriate.

I do find it ironic that the party that wants a strict interpretation of the Constitution gives such a loose interpretation to the Second Amendment.  This same party completely ignores the parts of the Constitution that state office holders need only give an oath (or affirmation) to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." - Article II, Section 1, and Article VI.  Article VI also includes "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."  It would seem the political pressure to attend prayer breakfasts or to end speeches with "God Bless America" are certainly violations of the Constitution.

The strange workings of our minds

My wife has read many Janet Evanovich novels.  She mentioned that the story line used to be clever and tight but has become just raunchy.  She said the main character, Stephanie Plum, was a bounty hunter, but at the moment she had the wrong idea of a bounty hunter, thinking mostly about animals.  In bits and pieces I pulled out of my own mind that a bounty hunter was a person who tracked down those who jump bail.  They are hired by bondsmen but have to get a receipt of the capture from the police.

I said I had seen a movie about this, I remember the bondsman kept his money in his socks and the bounty hunter was played by Robert DeNiro.  Then it came to me that the movie was "Midnight Run".  I checked Google and one of the top entries was the Wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Run.

The movie was produced in 1988 and I probably watched it on VHS in the early '90s.  I didn't remember all the details given in the Wikipedia synopsis, but I did remember that the bail jumper got away (or was let go) and that DeNiro's competitor had gotten DeNiro's credit card cancelled.

I don't claim any particular genius in remembering these long-ago details; most of us have these same capabilities.  They are just so hit and miss.  We can't remember the name of somebody we met yesterday, but we remember the name of somebody we haven't seen in decades.

I think David Eagleman got it right with "Incognito: The Hidden Lives of the Brain".  There are so many processes going on in our brains of which we are not aware.  See "Memory and coincidence".

Quote of the Day - Entitlements

"Social Security and Medicare aren't entitlements. They're subsidies to companies that do not sufficiently cover the health care and retirement needs of their employees."
- Gary Peterson, Letter, Star Tribune, 2012-11-24

But companies often more than sufficiently cover the health care and retirement needs of their executives.  See "Let's Look at Entitlements".

A different idea for capital gains tax

Many don't want capital gains to be taxed any amount, even if a stock was bought and sold in seconds.  But how does such a short term profit make any real contribution to the economy compared to an hourly worker producing a tangible product such as vegetables or automobiles?

We really should tax capital gains on a sliding scale.  Securities held for less than a year should be taxed at the same rate as earnings.  Securities held for more than a year should be taxed at a progressively lower rate until securities held for, say, ten years should be taxed at zero percent.

Of course, we are still rewarding people for luck at throwing darts more than people who show up for work everyday.

I'm probably preaching to the choir on this.  I've been writing for some time on this and you can see how much it's caught on.

See "Let's do away with capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and estate taxes by…" or do a search for "Irregular Blog" and "Capital Gains".

Remember Tom Lehrer?

He's still around and has a web site http://www.tomlehrer.org.  I'm not sure how much is his doing and how much is a tribute to him.  I do know it includes a clip of Daniel Radcliffe singing the elements song.  Puff!  Puff!

For more on Tom Lehrer see Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer.

Garrison Keillor and the Prairie Home Companion are keeping some of his songs going.  This past Saturday the Digiallonardo Sisters did Tom Lehrer's "Hanukkah in Santa Monica".

Thanks to my really loyal reader

Often when I post more than one entry, Blogger will show that the entry I posted a few minutes ago has already been read by one person.  This evening I've posted four in a row, and all but the last have already been read.

If you are a real person, thank you very much for your interest.  Please tell your friends about the Irregular Blog.

If you are one of the Russian reverse spammers, I just wish you would go away.  I would like to have my writings read by real people.  Also, you are wasting your resources.  I don't click on the referring links shown by Blogger.

If you are one of the less immediate readers from around the world, thank you also for your interest.

For those interested in where my readership is, for the following week I've had page views from Russia, United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Canada, India, Phillipines, Brazil, and Kazakhstan.  I hope most of these are real people and not 'bots.  If you are a person, thank your for your interest.  I hope I can keep you coming back.

Penny stock ready to soar?

Really?  If a penny stock is ready to soar, why tell anybody else?  Just keep buying as much as you can afford.

You have probably seen these ads dozens or hundreds of times.  I think the thinking behind these ads is of one of two types.

First, the advertisers have bought lots of the unnamed stock and want you to buy some so the price will go up.  When the price goes up and seems to plateau, they sell out at a huge profit.

Second, and more likely, the advertisers want you to buy a "special report".  Once you do, you are on their mailing list and they will try to sell you more reports or their newsletter.  The newsletters may have dubious advice, more so if the writers have a political stance.  They will probably never own many shares of the stocks they promote, if any.

Simple reason for global warming

For millennia humans burned wood for cooking and heat.  As long as there were a large number of trees, trees absorbed the CO2 from the fires and created new trees.

Then humans pulled coal and oil from beneath the ground and burned it.  The rate of CO2 being put into the atmosphere increased dramatically.  Furthermore, because trees all over the world were being cut down faster than they could be replaced, the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere decreased.  The increase in atmospheric CO2 traps more heat and thus warms the Earth overall.

Those who deny the human effect on global warming must believe that 1+1-1 equals 3!

Quote of the day: democracy or wealth

"We must make our choice.  We may have democracy, Or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few but we can't have both."
- Louis Brandeis quoted by Forrest Johnson in the Reader Weekly, 2012-12-06

For the quote in context see http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Louis_Brandeis.

Christmas is coming?

It can't be there is no snow!  And this is Minnesnowta!

Oh, maybe it is because there's lots of snow predicted for tomorrow. We shall see.

Books, advertising, and independent vs. large corporation

My books-to-read list keeps getting longer and longer, possibly because I wander the internet so much and find interesting titles.  My next problem is that when I choose a book to read, how shall I obtain it?  As a hard copy from a library, an independent bookstore, or a large corporation like Amazon?  Or shall I get an eBook from another large corporation, Apple?

Getting a book from a library is free and my borrowing a book helps it stay in circulation for others to read.  Getting my own hard copy is either calling ahead to an independent bookseller or ordering it online.  Getting it from a local bookseller helps the local economy.  Ordering it online may get the copy to me faster.  Most would opt for Amazon or Barnes and Noble.  I opt for ABE Books which is a consortium of independent booksellers.  An advantage to ABE Books is that I can find foreign titles and maybe even have them shipped free.

But then I already own so many books, where can I put new books without throwing out older ones.  And which ones?

If I get an eBook, I can have a bigger choice of reading when I'm away, I can easily add comments, and I can easily copy excerpts for a blog entry.

Life is so full of choices!

So, what does all this have to do with advertising?  I've noticed that many sites that mention a book have links to that book at Amazon.  From reading about Maria Popova's "Brain Pickings" and seeing some of her links, I know that web authors can get a small fee if readers click on the book reference, probably only if someone buys the book.

Now I always like to earn a few bucks more if I can, but do I want to earn those bucks by supporting a large corporation?  If I go that route, I'll probably have to drop the Google Ads, which aren't providing many bucks anyway.  The easiest thing is for me to do nothing; given the underwhelming readership of this blog, the revenue from either source would be about the same, not much.  Maybe I should make this blog a "cleaner" reading experience by having no ads at all.

So, dear reader, if you see me around, please let me know what you think.  I think I have five or six regular readers in Duluth.

Free markets and governments

"Alex Marshall, a journalist and senior fellow at the Regional Plan Association, has written two books on the topic of cities: "How Cities Work: Suburbs, Sprawl and The Roads Not Taken" and "Beneath the Metropolis: The Secret Lives of Cities." He also lectures on urbanism and teaches courses on infrastructure.

"His newest book, released this fall, is a departure—but not as radical of one as it might first appear. "The Surprising Design of Market Economies" debunks the notion that free markets are 'natural.'"

From "What Jane Jacobs Got Wrong About Urban Economies", Allison Arieff, TheAtlanticCities, 2012-12-05.

Marshall's final comment is "We are a democracy and we ought to act like it."

Can Gov. Chris Christie change the Republican Party?

I had my Jon Stewart dose of the day.  In http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-december-6-2012/exclusive---chris-christie-extended-interview-pt--2, Stewart tries to pin down Christie on why Republicans thinks it's alright for the Federal Government to pay for the aftermath of natural disasters but its wrong for any government to pay for health insurance.  For example, Stewart asks if having cancer and no health insurance is a natural disaster.

Christie spoke about how he tries to work with those with different philosophical ideas to come to some agreement.  I understood his meaning to be that one cannot take a rigid stand.

Will other Republicans follow his lead or will they consider him a RINO (Republican in Name Only)?

A more thoughtful blog than this blog

Maria Popova is the "curator" of the blog "Brain Pickings".  If you are interested in books, this is a go-to-site for thoughtful commentary on books of many genres.  See "She's Got Some Big Ideas", , Bruce Feiler, New York Times, 2012-11-30.

From the article I added Albert Einstein's "Ideas and opinion" to my reading list.  Popova is quoted in the article with:

“In times of turmoil, I often turn to one of my existential pillars of comfort: Albert Einstein’s ‘Ideas and Opinion.’ ” She ended with this thought: “There is a way to critique intelligently and respectfully, without eroding the validity of your disagreement. It boils down to manners.”

Her latest entry as of 2012-12-06 is "The 10 Best Psychology and Philosophy Books of 2012"
By: Maria Popova 2012-12-04, "From Buddhism to the relationship between creativity and dishonesty, by way of storytelling and habit".

From the sidebar, I went to "Isaac Asimov on Science and Creativity in Education"
by Maria Popova, 2011-01-28 "What vintage science fiction has to do with the future of self-directed learning."

It includes some snippets of Bill Moyers' interview with Isaac Asimov.  From this article, I added Asimov's "The Roving Mind" to my reading list.

My booklist from suggestions on the web is getting so long, maybe I should turn my computer off, sit in an easy chair, and start reading the books on my list (plus a few I would like to reread).  Maybe I'll be halfway through my list be next Christmas?  Maybe by the time you make your way through all of Popova's blog entry you'll visit my blog again next Christmas.

Happy reading.  May you always find something not only interesting but something you find is more interesting than anything else for the moment.

A strong antidote to political posturing

"The antidote to Political Fatigue. Click Here for Immediate Relief. [Video]"

This is a BBC Mundo interview with Jose Mujica, President of Uruguay, "The Poorest President in the World".

The strange behavior of Google search

The statistics for this blog include search words used to find an entry.  Every so often I follow up on these search words to see where Google had ranked my entries.

"why read is irregular"  had nearly 19 million hits and "Why read?" is at the top!

"toast anachronism" had about of 3.5 million hits and "French toast – an anachronism in a classic of French literature" is also at the top!

Has Google changed its algorithms to be give more personal results?  That is, do these show at the top because my name is in them?  Or did I really have blog entries that were more appropriate to the query?  I could believe this with a find of a couple of dozen, but not millions.

Follow-up on Steve Jobs blog entry

Well, at least one journalist doesn't credit Steve Jobs with everything Apple created.  See "Apple's Forstall Got What He Deserved: iPod Inventor", Cadie Thompson, CNBC, 2012-11-29.

Of course, did Tony Fadell "invent" the iPod, or did he lead a team that came up with all the basic ideas?  And which iPod are we talking about?  The music player or the all-but-smart phone of today.

My original entry is "What do Steve Jobs, Adam Smith, and Xenophon have in common?"

If all else fails, read directions

Last spring I replaced an old, hard-to-start chain saw with a new "easy-start" chain saw.  But I had difficulty starting it.  I thought I was following directions, but it still took a long time to start, if at all.  I felt embarrassed about it and was reluctant to try again.

So I used a nice-sharp curved draw saw to cut trees up to four inches in diameter.  In one sense, it was nice because it was quiet and good exercise.  And I could change hands when using my right hand caused too much irritation in my bum shoulder.  The only problem is that I didn't get much cut, especially of the bigger stuff.  And we have lots of downed trees to take out as firewood before they rot.

We went to our cabin yesterday only for the day and did a variety of chores and a bit of walking.  I had a few minutes to spare before returning to Duluth, and so I gave the chain saw another try.

I tried to get the trigger to lock in position for starting, but it wouldn't stay.  I looked at the symbols along the lock and figured out that maybe I was using the right position.  I think the needed position was one stop short of the full lock.

Push the primer a few times.  Put the handle between my legs and hold the cross handle.  Pull gently on the starter rope.  It had the appropriate feel for the easy-start.  I find it hard to describe the change in tension as I pull it out.

One pull.  Two pulls, sounds and feels even better.  Three pulls, roar from the saw and yay from me!

I ran the chain saw for a few minutes, and I felt great pride that I finally persevered.  Unfortunately, I didn't think there was time to do any cutting and I shut the saw off.  But at least I know that the next time we go to our cabin, I can start a more productive cutting of firewood.  I have two nice size birches in mind whose absence will let some smaller birches grow.

Spring skiing in December in Minnesota?

As I walk around Duluth and our cabin in Brimson, I'm amazed at the wet snow on the ground.  Hey, this is December; we're supposed to have white fluffy stuff at least six inches deep.  This snow is like March snow.

This is bad for the tourism industry because fewer people will come to Duluth to ski.  In fact, Spirit Mt. will not be open for a full daily schedule until Dec. 8.  It used to be that ski hills in Minnesota began full-time operation at Thanksgiving, even south of Minneapolis.  Forget "over the hill and through the woods to Grandmother's house…"

It's also bad for all the snowplow operators, public and private.  They will be called out less often.

Almost any change has winners and losers.  The big winners are those who get to spew lots of CO2 and other pollution in the air.  The losers are all those who depend on seasonal shifts, but they're little folk and I guess they don't count.

Am I getting to the age where the disappointment of fewer opportunities to ski are offset by the joy of shoveling less?

What do Steve Jobs, Adam Smith, and Xenophon have in common?

They all understood that the whole requires many parts.

I thought of this while contemplating all the commentators who seemingly give full credit to Steve Jobs for all of Apple's innovative products, from the original Apple computer to the iPad.  Sorry, but he needed the help of thousands of people to bring these products to market.

Let's start over two thousand years ago in Persia.

Many Greek mercenaries were in the service of Cyrus, brother of the Persian Emperor.  Cyrus used the Greeks in a battle to overthrow his brother, but Cyrus was killed in battle.  The Emperors forces invited the Greek generals to peace conference and slaughtered them all.  The Persians thought this would demoralize the Greek mercenaries.

As usual, tyrants never understand democrats.  The Greeks, having a democratic tradition, elected new generals and fought their way against much opposition back to Greece.

For more about Xenophon, see Wikipedia - http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophon

Adam Smith opens "The Wealth of Nations" with

"The annual labour of every nation is the fund which originally supplies it with all the necessaries and conveniencies of life which it annually consumes, and which consist always either in the immediate produce of that labour, or in what is purchased with that produce from other nations."

In other words, the masters, the capitalists, the CEOs, or whatever name you give to those at the top of an economic hierarchy would not be able to do anything without a few dozen or thousands of people doing all the "labour" needed to bring an idea to market.

Many reporters are giving full credit to Steve Jobs for the iPhone and the iPad.  Really?  Could Steve Jobs conceived of every detail of these products all by himself?  Could Steve Jobs have designed all the circuits or all the programs that make these products so useful.

Sure, he may have had a vision for these products.  But don't you think that he had lots of discussions with others on how to design, manufacture, and market these products?

Let's go back to 1983 and before when the first Macintosh was being designed.  I think about two dozen people were involved, some of them responsible for a single software project, like MacWrite and MacPaint.  But these designers weren't cloistered in their cubicles, noses to the coding sheet until they finished.  They collaborated with each other and Steve Jobs.

In short, success does not come about by the "hard work" of somebody at the top.  It comes about by the hard work of people at all levels.  If a worker doesn't set a switch properly at a certain time, the whole enterprise could come tumbling down.  If a manager doesn't ensure the proper training,  if a director doesn't ensure proper design, if a treasurer doesn't provide adequate funding for that design...

"For want of a nail..."
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_Want_of_a_Nail_(proverb)#section_2