Hither and Yon

A few Michael Yon updates.

There’s this radio interview from Kuwait. Money quote:

You can prove you’re a bad guy in about a minute. It takes a long time to prove you’re a good guy.

Listen to the last half especially where he talks about Afghanistan. A key difference he notes between Iraq and Afghanistan is that Iraq is an actual country, whereas Afghanistan is “kind of an area”. Expect Afghanistan to get as bad as Iraq ever was, if not worse, this spring. Speaking of which, Michael (who just arrived there) recommends reading Shakedown.

In related news, there’s the milblog reaction to victory in Iraq.

And be sure to read the story of the happy beginning of Bashar.

Why the surprise?

VDH wonders why people are chattering about the fact that “change” means “Clinton retreads”.

[G]iven Obama’s absence of executive experience and brief tenure in the Senate, Obama never was in a position to assemble an insider team other than the Chicagoan Axlerod. So what was Obama to do when he needed savvy advisors and a brain trust he could count on from the old days to form the nucleus of his advisors and cabinet?

Playing to Stereotype

Suppose I were asked to write a character who was supposed to be callow, violent and irredeemably stupid. Suppose further that the character was to be a flaming, stereotypical homosexual and liberal, governed by his emotions and irrationally enamored of his own words in spite of being incapable of coherent punctuation.

I could scarce write a more scathing version than this.

We as anarchists are opposed to marriage but we see that this blatantly anti-gay act as a threat to all us gay, lesbian, transgendered and queer folk. The Proposition 8 campaign was used as a medium to instill homophobic fear into the population of California so as to squash queer culture, it is dangerous to let these actions go unchecked and not confronted.

The obvious solution is that if the Mormons don’t want more glue in their locks they should disband. Because nothing shakes someone’s faith like glue in the locks. “Oh, look, dear! Glue in the locks! I must reevaluate my value system!”

Riiiiiight.

I hope they bought a lot of glue. What they don’t know about Mormon culture is that those folks take being “persecuted” as a badge of honor.

Brilliant tacticians, these morons. It’s one thing to shoot one’s self in the foot. It’s another to do it with a flame thrower.

And here I thought patent attorneys had no sense of humor

At least one at Halliburton does.

The application covers, quite explicitly, having a company (we’ll say Company A) that does not invent something, find a company (Company B) that did invent something, but chose to use trade secret protection, rather than patents. Then, the Company A files a patent covering Company B’s technology, and then use the issued patent to get money out of Company B.

QOTD

Jonah Goldberg got a really great email yesterday.

The problem with Barack: You and I read a Lincoln biography and conclude that Lincoln was great. Obama reads the same book and concludes that he is Lincoln.

Palin’s New Career

All she needed was the right accompanist.

Hooray for Our Side

The inside story of how a gang of libertarian lawyers made constitutional history.

The Heller case was a prime example of how calm, dedicated, and strategic thinking on the part of crusaders for smaller government can achieve real and (probably) lasting victories. Fighting against even those who should have been their staunchest allies, Levy and his team of libertarian lawyers watched the zeitgeist, crafted a smart (though risky) strategy, and won.

Ayers Was NOT Obama’s Ghost Writer

We can scotch that rumor right here and now. I haven’t read either of Obama’s autobiographies, but they are reported to be well-written. Since he managed to be the editor of the Harvard Law Review without, you know, actully writing anything some folks figured he must have had a ghost writer for the books.

Perhaps he did. But this excerpt of a book review by the President-elect’s little terrorist pal proves that whatever it is Ayers does, it cannot be called “writing”.

How can we liberate the use value of human beings from their subordination to exchange value? How can we convert what is least functional about ourselves as far as the abstract utilitarian logic of capitalist society is concerned—our self-realizing, sensuous, species-being—into our major instrument of self-definition? How can we make what we represent to capital—replaceable commodities—subordinate to who we have also become as critical social agents of history? How can we make critical self-reflexivity a demarcating principle of who we are and critical global citizenship the substance of what we want to become? How can we make the cultivation of a politics of hope and possibility a radical end in itself? How can we de-commodify our subjectivities? How can we materialize our self-activity as a revolutionary force and struggle for the self-determination of free and equal citizens in a just system of appropriation and distribution of social wealth? How can we make and remake our own nature within historically specific conventions of capitalist society such that we can make this self-activity a revolutionary force to dismantle capitalism itself and create the conditions for the development of our full human potential? How can we confront our “producers” (i.e., social relations of production, the corporate media, cultural formations and institutional structures) as an independent power? Capitalists and Conquerors has been written both to provide at least partial answers to these questions and to formulate new ones.

VI Day

Zombie has a good idea. Note that this blog already passed along the good word from Michael Yon, but will also celebrate Victory in Iraq Day on the appropriate, if arbitrary, day of November 22, 2008.

Rightroots

Jon Henke makes the case for a compelling story.

How Inconvenient

Algore’s pal at the GISS, Dr. Hansen, has once again had to “revise” his conclusions because they didn’t quite fit, you know, the actual data.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS’s computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

LOL, as the saying goes. Anybody noticing a pattern?

Sense About Science

Dr. Novella has found another nice resource, a web site in Britain called Sense About Science.

Today they announced the publication of a guide for patients called I’ve got nothing to lose by trying it.  The guide is a response to the increasing number of websites selling dubious treatments to desperate patients. For various reasons, the internet itself being one of them, the flood gates have opened in recent years, and patients facing a terrible illness are now bombarded with recommendations and advertisements for all sorts of worthless, expensive, and at times harmful treatments – at a time when they are most vulnerable.

Don’t Call Them Liars

In a review of Bad Science Val Jones finds a very useful distinction, which I am sure will serve me well the rest of my life.

The liar knows and cares about the truth, but deliberately sets out to mislead; the truth-speaker knows the truth and is trying to give it to us; the bullsh*tter, meanwhile, does not care about the truth, and is simply trying to impress us.

Ben goes on to quote the philosophy professor Harry Frankfurt (from his 1986 essay “On Bullsh*t”):

[The bullsh*tter] is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

Good News, Bad News

Michael Yon has the good news about Iraq: The war is over and we won. And the bad news about Afghanistan: We’re losing. Yon has some good advice for Obama.

To ensure that we have influence on the outcome, we need more soldiers in Afghanistan, and fast.  They need to be U.S. forces, British, Canadian, Aussie; we cannot depend on NATO in general and they don’t know how to fight anyway.  Unless President-elect Obama knows some kind of magic spell, he will not be able to persuade most NATO countries to do the right thing.  Springtime 2009 will likely bring very heavy fighting in Afghanistan.  We will not have credible negotiating positions while we remain outgunned by a bunch of old rifles and dinged up RPGs.

While security in Iraq continues to improve, Afghanistan is drowning in a frothing quicksand.  While most of the 2008 fighting season is over, we can be assured that the Afghan national sport – guerrilla warfare – will become the 2009 Taliban Olympics by April.  They know this is a marathon.

Whatever else, Mr. President-elect, this is no time to go wobbly. It is important to note that some top British and U.S. commanders believe that we can make a “success” out of Afghanistan.  We’ve learned a few things over the past seven years.  We’ve truly got a “dream-team” of military commanders with great in-theater experience, to advise and guide the next phase. They saved Iraq. Use them well, Sir.

Epitaph

If you like this:

You may want to buy one of these.

Whip Conflation Now!

This marvelously clarifying essay by Roderick Long is your must-read item for the week.

So where does this idea come from that advocates of free-market libertarianism must be carrying water for big business interests? Whence the pervasive conflation of corporatist plutocracy with libertarian laissez-faire? Who is responsible for promoting this confusion?

There are three different groups that must shoulder their share of the blame. (Note: in speaking of “blame” I am not necessarily saying that the “culprits” have deliberately promulgated what they knew to be a confusion; in most cases the failing is rather one of negligence, of inadequate attention to inconsistencies in their worldview. And as we’ll see, these three groups have systematically reinforced one another’s confusions.)

Big News in Exoplanets

This is history, folks. We have our first pictures of a planet orbiting a star like our own.

The planet itself is just that small dot, almost lost in the noise from the star and the light from the ring. I’ll be honest; had I been analyzing the image, I might have missed it at first. But it’s there, and it’s real. Images taken almost two years apart show that the planet is moving with the star, and is consistent with it orbiting Fomalhaut at a distance of about 18 billion km (11 billion miles). That’s four times the distance of Neptune from the Sun. It takes 872 years to make one complete orbit. The mass is not easy to determine, and is estimated using its effect on the ring; it’s likely to be about the same size and mass as Jupiter.

There’s more.

Bailing Out GM is a Bad Idea

And here’s why.

The factories, computers, office space, intellectual property and so forth that are now owned by GM would not disappear; they would basically become the property of GM’s creditors. These creditors would sell the assets to the highest bidder. Assuming there is economic value to be created by continuing to operate the company as a business, private equity or strategic investors would buy the assets, shut down some plants, fire some union and exempt workers, and probably use the leverage of bankruptcy court to get a better deal from the unions. The current employees and creditors would be better off if you and I were forced by the federal government to prevent this by paying money to the corporate entity named General Motors, to then be paid to these employees and creditors. Of course, you and I would be worse off in this situation. On balance, if you believe that markets are more efficient allocators of capital than Congress is, the population of the United States would, on the whole, be worse off.

Ditto, of course, for Ford, Chrysler, etc. It’s really the absurd union contracts killing these companies.

Hoax

When the New York Times – The New York Times – has to spank you for falling for a hoax you know that, even for a reporter, you’re pretty dumb.

And the claim of credit for the Africa anecdote is just the latest ruse by Eisenstadt, who turns out to be a very elaborate hoax that has been going on for months. MSNBC, which quickly corrected the mistake, has plenty of company in being taken in by an Eisenstadt hoax, including The New Republic and The Los Angeles Times.

While I did report the reporting of the outrageous Palin claims, I was at least skeptical. Even if this wasn’t really a McCain advisor, the campaign comes off as a bunch of losers for not defending her – or debunking the hoax themselves.

YouTube Challenge

The prize money is likely to remain uncollected for a long time.

Protein with a Pearl Earring

Scientists are now able to guide the growth of complex cellular environments using lasers.
To illustrate the precision of their protein patterning technique, the research team reproduced a masterwork of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer, specifically Girl with a Pearl Earring, in the miniature dimension of 200 microns wide or about the thickness of two hairs. The researchers also used their novel technology to replicate the brain’s complex cellular environment. It’s a major discovery, since the new laser technology can encourage and guide the growth of finicky nerve cells.

The research team reproduced the masterwork Girl with a Pearl Earring in the miniature dimension of 200 microns wide or about the thickness of two hairs.

Veterans Day

Today’s the day to thank a vet if you can find one.

Here’s a fascinating bit of history. As you should know, World War I wasn’t known by that name until WWII. In its day it was “The War to End All Wars”. So, since war was about to vanish from the earth, an intrepid engineer recorded the sounds of battle for posterity.

And can you believe it? Suddenly even Google remembers the holiday.

The Long Tail

A very interesting post at Wired about The Long Tail. You’re better off reading the whole thing to understand what it is, but the executive summary is this: Imagine a sales curve with big “hits” high on the left, and lower-volume “misses” trailing out on the right. It turns out that Amazon, for instance, sells more from that “long tail” than from the hits. But you need both parts.

There is plenty of great entertainment with potentially large, even rapturous, national audiences that cannot clear that bar. For instance, The Triplets of Belleville, a critically acclaimed film that was nominated for the best animated feature Oscar this year, opened on just six screens nationwide. An even more striking example is the plight of Bollywood in America. Each year, India’s film industry puts out more than 800 feature films. There are an estimated 1.7 million Indians in the US. Yet the top-rated (according to Amazon’s Internet Movie Database) Hindi-language film, Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, opened on just two screens, and it was one of only a handful of Indian films to get any US distribution at all. In the tyranny of physical space, an audience too thinly spread is the same as no audience at all.

And now, a movie that actually kills people

I’m beginning to think one should reflexively mistrust any film with “truth” in the title. The latest volley against reality is The Beautiful Truth, a stomach-turning bit of propaganda from the Gerson Institute. These are the CAM quacks who think coffee enemas can cure cancer. For a glimpse at what such dangerous advice can do to people, see here.

Would people who believe in “alternative” medicine get on airplanes built by believers in “alternative” physics?

Just remember: “alternative” medicine kills.

Transitioning off of Oil

using nuclear batteries.

Gee, who saw this coming?

Reid and Pelosi are wasting no time in bringing an early Christmas to their union bosses.

What would you do on a slow Saturday news day a few days after the election when no one was looking? If you’re Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, you’d write to the Treasury Department to ask for some of that $700B — that was really, truly necessary for financial institutions only and for the totally unique extraordinary purpose of staving off an economy-ruining credit freeze — in order to bail out the auto industry without disturbing any of its insane labor arrangements. WSJ story here.

Keep On Sprayin’

A quick memo to the thugs who choose to deface churches. Keep it up!

Nothing builds sympathy and good press for a church like being vandalized. And I’ll tell you what: The Mormon church is not only a long way from running out of money, it can scare up volunteer labor in Biblical proportions at the drop of a hat. So go ahead, morons: support the economy by buying red spray paint and seeing if you can remember how to spell “8”. The Mormons couldn’t pay for that kind of positive press.

That way they’ll be even stronger and more determined the next time you face them in the political arena. And you’ll be seen as the bad guys! Brilliant.

Change!

I think I get the whole “change” thing now. He’s been president elect for a whole three days and already he’s proposed a civilian draft and withdrawn the proposal. Now that’s change you can believe in!

Soviet style.

Sing Along!

Just for fun.

Update:

OK, this guy has me a little miffed. He’s lip synching to a track by the a cappella group, Moosebutter. He could at least have given credit.

Give Moosebutter their due and click on this instead:

Here’s a promo where you can see them.

As a friend of mine, who sings with the Richter Scales says:

This is even more ridiculous than Straight No Chaser getting a record deal out of their performing an arrangement that originated with the Princeton Nasoons in the 60s and posting it on YouTube. 7 million views. At least they’re really singing…

Here’s Straight No Chaser:

And, of course, the Richter Scales:

Child Abuse

This woman should be fired, and never allowed near anybody under 18 years old again.

But she won’t be.

Update:

I would be happy to be proven wrong, and am happy to find a school administrator about whom I can say something good. But I’ll let him speak for himself: