You Live and Learn

For much of my life, I have been agin Communism, Marxism, and all associated baggage. I still firmly believe that the Marxist Labour theory of Value is not merely false, but demonstrably and easily shown to be completely bogus (Labour theory of Cost is another matter). There's also no doubt that in the last century, tens of millions of people died as the results of deliberate actions by Communist regimes, mainly under Mao and Stalin, but also under others. Closer to home, I've worked alongside a man with a passion for engineering, a man of great natural ability who just wanted to architect stuff that was the best possible - yet who had been denied a place at University because his parents were Academic Bourgoisie, and the Workers and Peasants (or rather, their self-appointed representatives) didn't want the growth of an Intellectual class. His place likely went to some politically reliable but thick-as-two-short-planks student who could parrot the Party Line, but who didn't care two hoots about the people who were going to use his creations, nor that they were shoddy and unreliable. That was the standard way of doing things in the late-and-unlamented DDR (East Germany).

And yet... consider this from Socialism in an age of Waiting :

Like the SPGB (Socialist Party of Great Britain) , and as indicated in the very name of this blog, we're waiting for the majority of workers to come to the conclusion that socialism is worth building and worth fighting for (and only then actually get on with the task). However, unlike the SPGB, we don't think that there is nothing worthwhile that anyone can do in the meantime to shorten the age of waiting. The obvious fact that the world is - on the whole, and even taking into account all its enduring horrors and injustices and inequalities - a better place, for many more people, than it was in 1904 seems to us to show that some progress is possible even within (some forms of) capitalism. We'd even argue that such progress - albeit it is limited, distorted, corrupt and, often, made for the wrong reasons by the wrong people - itself contributes to the eventual building of socialism, by educating and galvanising those who will build it (yes, comrades, Kautsky is worth re-reading). To be even briefer: we accept the doctrine of the lesser evil, and the definition of politics as the art of the possible; the SPGB don't.
Then again, they're the genuine article, a Marxist party that has not changed its stance or diluted its principles over the years - and that has to make them a whole lot better than all the pseudo-left sects put together.

This is Marxism? Well, yes it is. But nothing remotely like the odious doctrine I loath and detest. It is very... human. It recognises facts, reality, that exists despite what doctrine says. It even gives some credit to people who the author believes are deeply wrong. OK, we differ radically on methods: but I see a kindred spirit when it comes to the results we're aiming for. And I too have a grudging respect for people who have tried to keep their idealism alive, despite tha fall of so many of their dreams.

Now I'm not a Socialist. Except in the late 19th century sense of the word, where I may fit. I worship the Gods of Individual freedom, of opportunity to do either well or badly, and the concept of ownership of property. But not to the exclusion of basic humanity. To the Randites who say 'taxes/charity from those with ability and drive, to those without the ability or who are just bone idle is the path to destruction', I say 'It's my money, I worked damned hard to earn it, those who paid me got a lot more value than they paid for, so how dare you tell me what to do with it!'

Yes, I believe strongly in Capitalism, a Free Market, as a very good means of maximising total wealth generation. But I also recognise that there are Natural Monopolies that inevitably destroy the 'Perfect freedom' of the market, some intervention is required in some sectors. To me, this is self-evident, just look around you. Not all monopolies are bad, but power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and monopoly is a form of power.

I also recognise that there's such a thing as Bad Luck. I want equality of opportunity - anything else is unjust. Equality of outcome is another matter, some people will make stupid or malicious choices, and if they get no punishment, or worse, get rewarded for this behaviour, then obviously they'll continue it. But some people are just victims of circumstances, and what is taxation and a social security net but a form of insurance that spreads the risk? Or at least, that's what it would be in a perfect world.

I've seen people who, through no fault of their own, and despite their best efforts, have been put in parlous states. I've also seen people who, given great opportunities, have pissed it all away and have ended up destitute. Funnily enough, in my personal experience it's the latter who always scream the loudest for handouts from those 'more fortunate', most of whom were a lot less fortunate, but worked harder and played less, sacrificing immediate pleasure for long-term gain.

But the punishment of Poverty should only be confined to those who brought it on themselves, and not to succeeding generations, nor innocent victims of circumstance. Moreover, unless you live in a society which is too poor to afford subsidising a few drones, starvation is a punishment far too severe. On the other hand, I can't help feeling that when charitable organisations refuse to take Black and White TVs because to donate them to the poor would show disrespect, that things have gone too far the other way.

Does this political ramble sound incoherent? Well, that's because the situation isn't cut-and-dried and simple. To continue:

You don't make the poor rich by making the rich poor, and having a class of people with more money than sense turns out to be useful to society as a whole - they get to risk their wealth on chancy propositions that, if they turn out well, can benefit everybody. Wealth doesn't always 'trickle down', but it tends to, especially if given a bit of encouragement.

As an example, Carmel and I sometimes attend a bash called the Black and White Ball. What passes for High Society in Sydney, the Movers and Shakers, the Filthy Rich, and a lot of perfectly ordinary people attend. The Governor-General is usually there, along with a band from the Army. It's in aid of the Royal Blind Society, and some of the donations made during the night exceed my combined salary for a decade.

For some people, once you have more money than you know what to do with, earning it no longer becomes psychologically satisfying, but finding a good and worthwhile cause to spend it on does. There's Competition in seeing how greatly one can contribute to the Common Wealth. Hence the X-prize, and SpaceShip One. Hence the many Libraries and Universities subsidised by the Filthy Rich.

This is not universal : there are still plenty of people who still own the first dollar they ever made, and who are playing the game of "Whoever dies with the most toys, wins". But even they often end up paying for artisans (accent on the Art) who often create buildings and other objects of lasting beauty. Not always, but enough so that the rest of us don't man the barricades and put them up against the wall in Bloody revolution. Those who persist in selfish money-grubbing tend to be pitied and despised by their peers, they have the cash, but can't buy respect. Again, some sociopaths are immune, and in many of the world's poorer countries, this phenomenon is unknown : there, wealth equals respect, or at least power, or at least fear. Only relatively well-off societies can afford to be blase about wealth.

So here I am, a Right-Wing Death Beast, wholly in favour of Thatcherite 'People's Capitalism' (though I prefer to call it 'The Workers Employees owning the means of production'), completely enthralled by capitalism as a good, proven, way of running an economic system (yet wanting a safety net to make sure no-one starves even if they deserve to, and to give not-too-unequal opportunities to all). Certainly no Socialist - except where socialism is neccessary for justice tempered with mercy. From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs, but with the massive surplus after basic needs are satisfied distributed by the people who created it, as they see fit, because it's theirs.

As I've lived and learned, I've moved further to the left, having seen far too many people who have 'slipped through the cracks' of Capitalism. Yet everything I've seen about what passes for the left here has confirmed my view that it's very often populated by people bound up with Doctrine, who loudly proclaim their Love for Humanity while not actually doing anything constructive to aid a single Human being. In fact, they're more often Destructive than not, preferring a facade of caring rather than the far more messy and complicated reaching out and helping people, especially Black or Brown people living in remote countries. The triumph of style over substance, words over deeds. Capitalism meanwhile is too often afraid to admit that the Poor might not actually deserve to be that way, that the increase in total wealth might not help those who need that wealth get any of it, or even that this is not a good state of affairs. Yet the historical record shows that in the more affluent countries anyway, under Capitalism the poor are only poor relatively, not absolutely, and are growing less absolutely poor as time goes by.

One thing I disagree with the author of Socialism in an age of waiting on though :

All due praise, then (and, in a few cases, with all due reservations regarding differences over interpretation) to such blogs as A.E. Brain, Black Triangle, Daily Ablution, Hak Mao, James Hamilton, Mick Hartley, Oliver Kamm, Last Superpower, Lileks, Normblog, Semi-skimmed, Tim Blair, Who Knew? and anyone else who's willing and able to keep on exposing the pseudo-left, and holding them up to the hatred, ridicule and contempt they so richly deserve

Just look at the incoherent ramble that is this article. I may have the will, but compared with James Lileks or Norman Geras, my writing ability is not up to it. Nice of him to say so though. Colour me Chuffed.

The Secret of Box Office Success

First, tell a Big Lie, or better yet, dozens of 'em, with just enough truth to give some verisimilitude. Or just fake that.

Second, Ratings are not legally binding in the USA, so to hell with them. Why not boast about it.


Third, Beat up any critics.

If you have to steal stuff - no matter.

Hey, it worked for Josef Goebbels.

From the Great Man Himself :

The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win.

Note that this is a cached copy - inconvenient statements must be purged from the pages of history as soon as possible.

Personally, I won't be contributing to this particular multimillionaire's coffers. But lots will. He's laughing all the way to the bank.

Run Away!

How fast is a Swarm of Killer Bees? A Killer Whale? A Velociraptor? A Duck (A Duck?)?

Figure out your chances of running away from various threats by reading the article The Reality Of Running Away From Stuff.

Not mentioned is the velocity of an African Swallow (9.5 m/sec). But you knew that.

Hit by the Dreaded Lurgy

Currently taking quantities of Cold & Flu tablets, hot lemon & honey etc. More later.

But in the meantime, here's today's useless factoid (From The Australian):

From the Bantu language of Tshiluba, ilunga means a person ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time.

Not many people know that.

As for the "Dreaded Lurgy"? Any Aussie or UK readers will know what I'm talking about, but those in the USA probably won't. There's an etymology of the phrase over at the ABC.

Mindreading

While wading through Dean's World, I came across an interesting little site - the Virtual Mind Reader.

And here's an interesting paragraph:

On the other hand, Americanism as an ideology is determined by capitalist interests which lead to the resurgence of White Supremacist ideologies. For one thing, a minority of warmongers and apologists brings about the final subjugation of the Middle East, beginning with the $90bn invasion of Iraq. As Norman Mailer pointed out, the unstated purpose of this war represents the repudiation of international law in order to bring about this calamity brought to us by a horrific onslaught, known as Shock and Awe. Nevertheless, the Pax Americana of the future leads our attention to an oil war masquerading as an endless crusade against "terrorism."

It's interesting because it was produced by a mindless machine that just parrots stock phrases and glues them together, the Lefterator. But unlike other mindless machines parroting stock phrases and gluing them together, it doesn't get paid 6-figure sums.

Spot the Genuine Smile

Today's interesting URL : Over at this BBC site, there's an interesting psychology test. Try to pick the genuine smiles from the false ones.

Found via the EMS blog, Things That Go SPLAT!.

Rumsfeld Approval

No, this article is not about how popular or otherwise he is. It's about what interrogation techniques he approved at the infamous Abu Ghraib jail.

Now many commentators, including the highly respected and influential Normblog, have suspected the worst. Given the evidence so far, and America's less-than-untarnished record in the past, that's not surprising. I'm sure my Favourite Marxist is far more familiar with some of the shamefully dirty tricks pulled by fanatical anti-Communists during the Cold War than I am. I certainly haven't had the courage to commit myself 100% to saying he's wrong in his suspicions. I would never have believed the Abu Graib pictures had I not seen them, and once bitten, twice shy.

But now more evidence is in, enough for me to stop fence-sitting, or, if you prefer, waiting till I know enough to make an informed decision.

From CNN :

The memos to and from Rumsfeld show that though the water-boarding technique was on a list of requested aggressive tactics, Rumsfeld did not approve it, officials say.

The list of requested aggressive tactics included:

• Convincing a detainee that death or severe pain could be imminent for him or his family
• Exposure to cold weather or water
• Use of a wet towel or dripping water to induce a perception of suffocating.
• Mild, noninjurious physical contact such as grabbing someone's arm, poking them in the chest or light shoving.

Only the fourth tactic -- mild, noninjurious physical contact -- was approved.

I think that puts things into their proper perspective.

On a different but related matter, one issue is, that it's by no means clear that the strictures of the Geneva Convention apply, or should apply, to the prisoners who were at Abu Ghraib. For example, the victims - and I use that word advisedly - shown on the photos were not 'Illegal Combatants', 'Terrorists' or 'Enemy POWs'', they were common-or-garden Crims. Thieves. At worst, Kidnappers-for-ransom. It's not even clear whether they were convicted, interned pending trial, or just plain interned having been caught-in-the-act. Some may even have been wholly innocent of any wrongdoing, though given the publicity of the event, and that no-one has credibly claimed innocence, this is unlikely. But irrelevant, anyway.

The Geneva Conventions do not apply to normal Criminal prisons. Nor should they, enemy POWs should be treated far better, they've done nothing dishonourable. The norms of simple human decency though most definitely should apply, no matter what. Under the less-than-peaceful and rather chaotic conditions at Abu Ghraib, with MPs who were criminal prison guards in civilian life, the conditions for criminals should have been pretty much like any US penitentiary. And I'm very much afraid that they were.

The problem is that there are four categories of internees, who should be treated quite differently both as a matter of Law and as a matter of Right.

First, there's the enemy POW, who should be accorded the full protection of the Geneva Accords, with no shilly-shallying of moving prisoners around to avoid ICRC inspections. They certainly shouldn't be put in with criminal prisoners.

Then there's the common-or-garden Crim, who should be treated with as much human decency as is practicable under the circumstances (which may not be much, in some cases). Some will be so sociopathic that they can't be treated as anything other than dangerous beasts.

Thirdly, there's the 'militant', the Terrorist or other "illegal combatant" who has forfeited all rights under the Geneva Accords. Customarily, they have been summarily executed. What the Law says is that they should be treated as POWs until a properly constituted tribunal has determined that they are indeed 'Illegal Combatants', in which case pretty much anything goes, consistent with basic humanity. Feeding them into plastic shredders is right out (though until quite recently, this was legally OK too, a horrid thought), but shooting them is fine. The Guantanamo Bay detainees are in this category.

Finally, there's what I'll call the 'Nuremberg' internees, those civilian or military personnel thought to be guilty of 'Crimes Against Humanity', be it waging aggressive war, genocide, or other matter most properly dealt with by an International Court of Justice.

In practice, timely intelligence from POWs and Terrorists can save lives. There's a big temptation to torture such prisoners in order to find out when and where your own troops are to be ambushed. Such a temptation should be discouraged very strongly indeed, and should result in a Court Martial of the people concerned. But.... I'm not saying it's wrong under every circumstance. Consider an actual case, where an officer watched while his men beat a prisoner(a terrorist), took out his pistol, fired it next to him , and threatened him that the next bullet would be in his head. The Terrorist immediately gave information that saved many people's lives, civilians and military. The interrogator was Court-Martialled, and cashiered.

This is how it should be. Any commanding officer not willing to flush his career down the toilet to save his own men is not worth spitting on. He's an unavoidable casualty of war, but at least he gets to go home safe in wind and limb.

Of course, circumstances alter cases. Had the terrorist not confessed, the officer would not have been justified in, say, shooting him in the knee. Had the internee been a genuine POW... then the officer concerned should have gotten a hefty jail sentence, but I for one wouldn't be certain he'd acted dishonourably, even though committing a War Crime. And where does Torture begin? Is a light smack to a toddler's hand when he reaches for a boiling kettle 'Torture'? How about a temporary 'removal of priviledges' in a prison when one crim smashes a window in a fit of rage? What about threatening a suspect with a more serious charge if he doesn't confess to a lesser one? What about imprisonment itself?
How do we stop from sliding down the slippery slope till we reach the oubliette where lurk the rack, the branding-iron, and the thumbscrew?

One touchstone I have when deciding this is, does the act corrode the soul of the actor as well as the victim? But even then, there are graduations, it's not a binary yes/no, there are degrees. Some form of coercion or punishment is neccessary for society to function. The question is, how do we restrict that to the absolute minimum required, and who judges what that minimum is? I wish I knew. Until then, we'll have to cobble along with maximum-security prisons that are hellholes where the vicious and thuggish only get to prey on the other vicious thugs cosily and comfortably away from public attention, and other such circumstances none of us like to think about, but which we rely on for our own safety.

If someone kidnapped my soon-to-be-three-year-old son Andrew for vivisection, and refused to say where he was being held... yes, I'd threaten his kids, but wouldn't actually flay them in front of him, or indeed, harm them in any way. There are limits. I'd have no qualms about introducing the perpetrator to a bouquet of Dendrocnide moroides though as his starter-for-ten, and take it from there. Someone would have to fit his artificial limbs, wipe his eye sockets, change his colostomy bag etc. all services he'd need if he was a bit slow in talking. (Are you nauseated yet? I am.) I'd plead guilty to aggravated GBH afterwards of course, but alas, with no evidence of contrition.

We all have a little bit of Uday in us. And if there is a God, I pray to him that my bit remains deeply, deeply buried. 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from Evil' as they say. So spare a thought for the jailers of some of the people in Iraq and elsewhere. For some, these disturbing moral questions aren't hypothetical.

Between the Lines

Thanks to CNBC (who covered the take-off live, unlike CNN and BBC), CNN (who covered the separation live, unlike CNBC and the BBC), and BBC World (who along with the other two, covered the landing live) I got to see SpaceShip One complete her mission. Took a bit of channel-surfing from 2330 to 0130, but we got there in the end.

Congrats to all concerned.

From The Australian:

Mr Rutan said some "risks" had been taken in the design of SpaceShipOne - a winged, bullet-shaped white rocket-plane that weighs about three tonnes - but that most of it had been the same as he first thought of it in 1999.

"There were three or four times during the flight when everybody (in mission control) ... I saw those people emotional."

Reading between the lines, in addition to the weight of a pilot and several passengers, SpaceShip One carried two extra things. Big Brass Ones.

From CNN :

The spacecraft returned safely, but control problems revealed after the flight forced Melville to cut it short and use a backup system to keep SpaceShipOne under control.

He said trim surfaces on SpaceShipOne -- movable surfaces on the craft's wings -- jammed during supersonic flight. The craft rolled 90 degrees twice during its vertical ascent and veered more than 20 miles off course in a few seconds.

"Right at top, I tried to trim the nose up, that's when I had the anomaly and had to switch to backup," he said. The craft peaked at 328,491 feet (100.12 kilometers), just 408 feet (124 meters) above the international boundary of space, according to Scaled Composites.

The trim surfaces were reconfigured for landing and then remained unused as Melvill guided SpaceShipOne back to a comfortable landing.

"It was a pretty smooth ride after that," he said. "I headed back to Mojave as fast as I could without reasonably hurting anything."

A loud bang Melvill heard during the flight appeared to be a nonessential part of the composite airframe buckling near the rocket nozzle. The slight indention in SpaceShipOne's exterior did not affect the craft's performance.

BIG Brass Ones.

Rutan said he would not speculate about the problems until technical data had been reviewed, something he expected in the next few days.

"The anomaly we had today was the most serious safety system problem we've had in the entire program," he said. "The fact that our backup system worked and we made a beautiful landing ... makes me feel very good."

Melvill, who has tested Rutan's planes extensively, reaffirmed Rutan's engineering skills and commitment to safety.

"That's why we are so good at what we do," Melvill said. "We cover all the bases."

Or as someone once said when talking about spacecraft avionics:

"The question for software developers is not, 'Are you paranoid?', the question is, 'Are you paranoid enough?' "

The last word I leave to Burt Rutan:

"The new private space entrepreneurs have a vision. We do want our children to go to other planets."

SpaceShip One

Is due for it's first sub-orbital mission in three hours time.

If all is Nominal (which is space-talk for 'going well') :

After one hour of flying, at an altitude of 15km, the "Knight" will release SpaceShipOne, which will ignite its rocket engine and begin a vertical rise.

The rocket will burn for approximately 80 seconds, propelling the craft straight up at a speed of about 3,500km an hour, or about three and a half times the speed of sound, to a height of some 50km above the planet.

Once the rocket's fuel has been spent, the craft will continue upward for some three minutes to reach 104km, a height at which it will lose speed like a spent bullet.

During this time, the pilot will feel weightless as do astronauts in space.

The zero-gravity effect, lasting three minutes, will continue until SpaceShipOne returns to about 60km.

The pilot will gradually take control again and from 25km altitude, the craft will glide for about 17 minutes back to a landing at Edwards Air Base.

I'm not superstitious. But I am crossing fingers.

Signs You're Getting Too Cynical

When viewing the pictures of yet another Human Sacrifice by the Al Qaeda cult, your first reaction is : How long will it take for claims to be made that his Orange Jumpsuit indicates it was all an American Plot? Like last time.

How long will it take for Mossad to be blamed? Like last time.

How long will it take for claims to be made that it was all done in Abu Ghraib prison? Like last time.

Food for Thought

From the Washington Post :

John Pistole, the FBI's executive assistant director for counter-terrorism, said the FBI views the war against terrorism as a "generational" one that may not be won until future generations in the Muslim world are weaned away from radical anti-American views.

"It may be tantamount to a hundred-year war," he said.

More like the Thirty Years War, but yes.

Space Patrol

Time for a short trip down Memory Lane...10..20..30..40 years... to 1963.
I grew up with a TV show called ...can you guess... 'Space Patrol'. Now a lot of people did, in the UK, in the USA, in Germany and Japan. Different shows though.

No less than four television series bear the title (though in the case of the German Raumpatrouille and Japanese Hopper Uchu Patrol, these are translations) and a number of totally unrelated items also come under that name.
Space Patrol Merchandise

The one I'm talking about had the following Introduction:

This is Earth - the year 2100. New York is the headquarters of Space Patrol and men from Earth, Mars and Venus live and work there as guardians of peace.

Now even at the age of 5, I wasn't particularly impressed with the quality of the Puppetry. The Robots in particular were totally unconvincing, having the strings visible didn't help. But I was, and for that matter still am, impressed with the sets. The cityscapes in particular.

The Science of 'Space Patrol' was rather better than most of its successors. Remember, it was made in the early 60's, before we had more than the merest inkling what conditions were like on other planets. As the BBC site says :

Eager that 'Space Patrol' should be educational as well as entertaining, Roberta Leigh enlisted the advice of astronomer Colin Ronan to make sure the science in her fiction was as accurate as any television SF could be. So instead of unfeasibly short trips, the crew of Galasphere 347 entered a 'freezer unit' for journeys to Uranus or Neptune that could take months, and Contamination Control ensured germs were not spread from planet to plane.

Like Star Trek, but rather earlier, the World of 'Space Patrol' involved all branches of Humanity, regardless of race, creed, colour (though the series was in Black and White), and planetary origin. The Venusians looked almost Elfin, the Martians... looked and spoke like Babylon 5's Londo Minari, but without the fanlike hairdo. And the amount of Male Chauvinist Piggery was less than average, though still excruciating by today's standards.

Like 2001:A Space Odyssey, but again rather earlier, the scale of the Solar System was brought home. Expeditions to 'Jupiter and Beyond' took months to complete, and the crew were put into suspended animation for much of the voyage.

We could do a lot worse than to produce a children's educational/entertainment show which lived up to these ideals today. But hopefully with better production values. And on that note, may I present.. the cast. From Left to Right : 'Joe' the Jovian, Colonel Raeburn, Marla (his Venusian Secretary who actually ran the place), Larry Dart (Commander of Galasphere 347), LondoHusky(the Martian), Slim(Venusian), Cassie (the daughter of..), Professor Haggarty (Irish predecessor to Hiram Hackenbacker, aka 'Brains'), Gabbler(an annoyingly loquacious Martian Parrot), and an anonymous but ubiquitous Robot.

Breakthrough in Teleportation

This story is a Big Deal. So is this one.

Simply, we're now able to copy an atom, duplicating everything about it except its position and velocity in a new atom somewhere else. The original atom's characteristics get changed in the process, it is no longer the atom that it was.

Some Mini-FAQs:

1. Is it FTL?
   This article says not, but I can think of ways around it. Working from dumbed-down-for-journalists stories rather than the Maths, I can't say. There's reason to think it may be.
2. Is it affected by Distance?
   Again, without looking at the Maths, I don't know, but there's strong evidence to think that it isn't.
3. Is it a Star Trek-like transporter?
   No. But this article shows that such a thing is not impossible due to quantum uncertainty. Of course the engineering involved is non-trivial, it may take a significant time (which is Engineer-speak for saying 'Only when Hell Freezes Over') and could mean Billions of years.
4. So what is it good for?
   In the immediate future -
   • Making quantum computers a LOT faster. Timescale : a decade or two. This is the big area of interest in the publicity at the moment.
   • Absolutely Secure Communication. This hasn't been mentioned, but my bet is that Quantum Entanglement will be used in the very near future (<10 years) for military-grade communications that would be difficult to jam, impossible to intercept without anyone knowing, and guarded by the Laws of Physics rather than the ability to compute really large numbers. (Good job, as Quantum computers will be really good at doing this)
   • The effect is absolutely independant of intervening stuff, such as planets, stars, parsecs-of-lead etc. Without examining the Maths, I'm not sure if it would be affected by one part being inside a Black Hole's event horizon, but an intervening Black Hole would have no effect.

Diagramatically, this is what happens, courtesy of the BBC:




The next few centuries should be interesting. It is looking increasingly likely that before a thousand more years has passed, neither humanity nor civilisation as we know it will exist in any recogniseable form. I'm not talking about the relatively minor differences between, say, Middle Kingdom Egypt of 4000 years ago and today, or even the difference between Homo Erectus and today. Something far more strange and wonderful.

Time to start saving if I don't want to miss it.

The Lessons of History III

From the Herald-Sun :

I know Big Brother hardly represents a cross-section of normal Australians, yet the following conversation between two of the inmates rings a big, booming bell of warning -- not least because one of the two, Wesley, was the captain at his private boys school in Queensland, and the other, Ashalea, is in the education business, even if only as a part-timer in a kindergarten.

Wesley: Ah, 1991, was that the year that the Berlin Wall came down?

Ashalea: What wall?

Wesley: The Berlin Wall.

Ashalea: Where's the Berlin Wall?

Wesley: You don't know about the Berlin Wall?

Ashalea (giggling): No.

Wesley: In Berlin there used to be, like, a communist country and there used to be a big wall between East Berlin and West Berlin, where, like, the people on the West, I suppose, couldn't come to the East, or was it the other way around, because the East was where the rich people lived and the West was where the poor people lived.

I've written before about the decline in the knowledge of history among the young, thanks largely to our schools, so it's perhaps not surprising that even a private school captain or a kindergarten worker don't understand what the Berlin Wall was -- physical proof of the imprisonment of a whole people by a tyrannical communist regime.

Not for nothing did Monash academic Mark Peel, author of A Little History of Australia, warn a national inquiry into teaching history to the young: "Indeed, their sense of the world's history is often based on intense moments and fragments. The 20th century is largely composed of snatches, moments that rarely gel into a longer narrative".
[...]
Nor should it surprise anyone that anti-war activists can be manipulated with historic falsehoods, such as the lie that America was a close ally of Saddam and sold him weapons of mass destruction. It's not surprising that they can be so anti-Israeli, either, not knowing how Israel was born, and the wars it's had to fight for its very existence.

It's not surprising they can be anti-American, not knowing of the tyrannies the United States fought and the debt we owe it from World War II.

Who needs a Ministry of Truth, when so much that's contradictory to a currently fashionable world view can be conveniently forgotten?

A Couple of Guys, a Girl, and an Armadillo named 'Widget'

That's the team at Armadillo Aerospace.

Armadillo Aerospace is a small research and development team working on computer-controlled hydrogen peroxide rocket vehicles, with an eye towards X-Prize class vehicle development in the coming years.

For what they've been able to achieve so far, just have a look at the video (7 Mb) of a rocket vertical take-off and landing. From the accompanying news release :

Analyzing the telemetry told us the following:
[..]
The auto-land worked perfectly. I had tried several algorithms on the simulator before settling on this one, and it behaved exactly the same in reality, which is always a pleasant surprise.

There's still an awfully long way to go: obviously, thesting the larger version, a vehicle capable of more than 15 seconds of flight, to get it to a decent altitude and back. Then there's the problems of re-entry. But one of the major hurdles has already been overcome, one that many teams spending many millions of dollars haven't always been able to clear before. The team may be small, but they're not just Rocket Scientists, they're real Pros.

As for the X-prize itself?

I think Space Ship One has good odds of success in the single-person-to-100km flight. I only see two real issues they may hit: The extended burn above the atmosphere may run into some control issues as the nozzle ablates, which will be hard to correct with only cold gas attitude jets. This would be a fairly benign failure, with the pilot just shutting off the main engine if he can’t hold the trajectory. The dangerous part of the test will be the reentry with a significantly bigger drop than the previous test. At this point, I hope Burt has everything work[ed] out and he is able to make the X-Prize flights soon, because our prospects are pretty dim for getting everything working perfectly in the big vehicle in five months and having permission to fly it. I certainly don’t want the insurance company to keep the prize money. If Space Ship One crashes, we will probably throw ourselves at an attempt, but it will be a long shot. No, I don’t think any of the other teams are close.

Useful Phrases

How to say Oh My God, There's an Axe in my Head in 102 different languages.

For example, in Middle Kingdom Egyptian (shown at right).

Or in Klingon : toH, HIvqa' Qun'a'wIj! nachwIjDaq 'obmaQ tu'lu'!
(pronounced [ TOKh, HiV-KA KROON-A-WiJ! NAch-WiJ-DAK OB-MAKR TOO-LOO])

You never know when it might come in handy.

Heroin for Therapeutic Use

File this one under 'Brain Links'. It's about the human central nervous system, and specifically, the response of it to a certain alkaloid.

Janet Albrechtsen writing in The Australian makes an unimpeachable case for removing the blanket ban on Heroin.

Her father died of cancer, and was in pain throughout his illness. Pain that wasn't always relieved (or in the current phraseology 'managed') successfully using Morphine or other analgesics.

It is true that morphine is a derivative of heroin, otherwise known as diacetyl-morphine. But heroin is more soluble, entering the body faster, absorbed quickly into fatty tissue like the brain. Heroin users talk about feeling a "rush". After that initial euphoria, heroin causes an alternately wakeful and drowsy state.

I don't want junkies determining drug policy but that they favour heroin over morphine suggests that the terminally ill might also prefer it. Euphoria is the wrong word for those dying of cancer, but if heroin can offer any kind of relief, mental or physical, why not offer it?

At one time in my life, the pain centre in my brain was so over-stimulated I was having minor epileptic fits. Fortunately, Pethidine (Demerol, Meperidine) worked sufficiently well for me. One shot of 750 mg would stop the fitting, and after another I'd be able to communicate coherently rather than just gasp, at least for about two hours. Eventually my immune system kicked in and I got better - as happens sometimes. That was over 25 years go, but it's not something you easily forget, or wish to remember.

Right now, the husband of a friend of mine has small-cell lung cancer, which has spread widely, including into his bones and spine. Given enough Morphine to make the pain bearable, he becomes a Zombie. If legal, pure and good-quality Heroin was available, he'd have a far better quality of life in the time he has left - and also be able to look upon Life as something worth living, and hence increase his chance of survival.

But where he's living, it's not available. Had he been in the UK, a doctor could have prescribed it. Now it's too late for any change to legislation to help him, he'll either stage a miraculous recovery in the next few months (miracles happen, even one in a million shots happen to somebody) or he won't. But he won't be the last person to get SCLC, nor to suffer agony because of it.

So in the name of Humanity, the total prohibition of Heroin should be repealed. The arguments against - that it would increase illicit use - are at best hypothetical, and given the availability of illegal, impure and often poisonous stuff on the streets, more than dubious.

Thought Control

Not control ofthoughts, but by them. From the ABC :

Four volunteers have managed to control a video game using thought alone, according to US researchers.

With some electrodes placed on the surface of their brains, the volunteers simply had to think the word "move" to play the simple video game.

Eric Leuthardt, a neurosurgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St Louis who worked on the study, said: "We are using pure imagination. These people are not moving their limbs."

The findings add to work being done at several centres and are aimed at finding ways to help people control computers or machines using brain power alone.

Potentially, people paralysed by disease or accidents could use such devices to work, read, write and even move around.

Dr Leuthardt says the study tested four patients with epilepsy.

"These electrodes are placed on peoples' brains on a routine basis for seizure localization," Dr Leuthardt said.

The patients have their skulls opened and the electrodes placed on the surface of the brain to find out where their seizures are originating, so the connections in that area can be cut in the hope of a cure.

"We piggy-backed our study on that," Dr Leuthardt said.
[...]
Writing in Monday's issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering, Dr Leuthardt and Daniel Moran, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Washington University in St Louis, said the patients learned in minutes how to control a computer cursor.

"It took six minutes of training and they all achieved control in less than 24 minutes," Dr Leuthardt said.

"After a brief training session, the patients could play the game by using signals that come off the surface of the brain," Professor Moran said.

"They achieved between 74 and 100 per cent accuracy, with one patient hitting 33 out of 33 targets correctly in a row."
[...]
"You can't keep wires directly from the brain to the outside world indefinitely because of the increased risk of infection," Dr Leuthardt said. "We have to create a wireless system."

Dr Leuthardt and Professor Moran centred about 32 electrodes over the sensory motor cortex of the brain and a region called Broca's area, which is associated with speech.

The pair did their work on a small amount of money - about $20,000 for the whole study, they said.

"We really built this from matchsticks and paperclips," Professor Moran said.

Al Qaeda In Their Own Words

One question that's commonly asked about Al Qaeda : what exactly do they hope to gain by some of their actions? Things like bombing oil pipelines, schools, trying to disrupt industry in islamic countries, massacring Americans and Jews whenever they can, and in general making the world a nastier, more ignorant and impoverished place.

They're doing it for the good of our souls, bless them.

Here's some words about an Al Qaeda equivalent of Mein Kampf, 'The Future of Iraq and The Arabian Peninsula After The Fall of Baghdad', authored by The Late Yussuf al-Ayyeri, one of Osama bin Laden's closest associates :

"It is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy." ... Al-Ayyeri argues that the history of mankind is the story of "perpetual war between belief and unbelief." Over the millennia, both have appeared in different guises. As far as belief is concerned, the absolutely final version is represented by Islam, which "annuls all other religions and creeds." Thus, Muslims can have only one goal: converting all humanity to Islam and "effacing the final traces of all other religions, creeds and ideologies."
[...]
If established in any Muslim country for a reasonably long time, democracy could lead to economic prosperity, which, in turn, would make Muslims "reluctant to die in martyrdom" in defense of their faith.

Democracy and Prosperity are anathema to their philosophy, which relies upon poor, ignorant and politically powerless masses to die for the Cause.

As for the provenance of the book, as Amir Taheri said in the New York Post:

The book is published by The Centre for Islamic Research and Studies, a company set up by bin Laden in 1995 with branches in New York and London (now closed). Over the past eight years, it has published more than 40 books by al Qaeda "thinkers and researchers" including militants such as Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden's No. 2.

And how is this Caliphate to be established? How is the world's population to be persuaded to follow Islam? From the Frontispiece of another document, an Al Qaeda Training manual :

- * - The confrontation that we are calling for with the apostate regimes does not know Socratic debates..., Platonic ideals..., nor Aristotelian diplomacy. But it knows the dialogue of bullets, the ideals of assassination, bombing, and destruction, and the diplomacy of the cannon and machine-gun.
***...
Islamic governments have never and will never be established through peaceful solutions and cooperative councils. They are established as they [always] have been
by pen and gun
by word and bullet
by tongue and teeth

And by psychopathic megalomaniacs.

Had more people read 'Mein Kampf' and actually believed what was said in it, rather than it being dismissed as obviously exaggerated rhetoric, the world would have been spared tens of millions of dead. It's always revealing when evaluating any group to read not just what their enemies say about them, but what they say about themselves. Just don't make the mistake of thinking it's all talk.

Al Qaeda is a cult. A Death Cult, one that believes in Human Sacrifice. How else to describe the Nick Berg Decapitation, to the shouts of 'Allahu Akbar', 'God is Great' throughout the whole business? It wasn't a political statement, it was a religious service.

In most ways, Al Qaeda is to mainstream Islam what the People's Temple was to mainstream Christianity.

Except the analogy fails in one crucial respect. You don't hear sermons being preached throughout Christendom on the Saintiness of Jim Jones, or the merits of drinking Flavor Aid as a route to Salvation. Islam has a big problem there, one that only Muslims can solve.

Personally, I'd commend Jim Jones' recipe for Grape Flavor-Aid to all members of Al Qaeda - it's Halal, after all. It may not give the drinker much benefit, but it would sure help the rest of us.

Films in 30 Seconds, Re-Enacted by Bunnies

Titanic
The Exorcist
The Shining

How To Tell The Weather (as written by a Cat).

Alien Fonts from Dune etc.

And a variety of movies showing what happens "When Good Rockets Go Bad", from space.com.