Quotulatiousness

December 20, 2010

Boris trims his sails

Filed under: Britain, Environment, Politics — Tags: , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 07:56

James Delingpole has a bit of fun at London mayor Boris Johnson’s expense:

. . . what sounds like a fervent declaration of faith in the Warmist creed may on closer examination be a perfectly innocuous statement of the bleeding obvious cunningly calculated to appease all Boris’s rentseeking chums in the City who stand to make a fortune from the Great Carbon Scam and would be most displeased if the Mayor of London were to show signs of wobbling.

Yet wobbling is, of course, exactly what Boris is doing. Or rather — remember, this is the man so ambitious he makes Alexander The Great look like Olive from On The Buses — he is slyly repositioning himself to take advantage of the inevitable collapse of public faith in the Great Anthropogenic Global Warming Ponzi Scheme.

All those thousands of people who’ve had their Christmas ruined as a result of Heathrow airport’s pathetic inability to operate in the snow; all those thousands who have been stranded shivering for eight hours at a stretch on our motorways; all those thousands who can’t use their local municipal sports club because the staff — as is the wont of public sector workers — can’t be bothered to allow themselves to be inconvenienced by the inclement conditions; all those people who are going to look at their electricity and gas bills come the end of next quarter and be appalled beyond measure by how increasingly unaffordable they are; all those businesses big and small whose profits are going to be seriously dented by our political class’s ongoing failure to address our transport infrastructure (and no I don’t mean the irrelevant high-speed rail link to Birmingham; I mean the much bigger problem of our shortage of runways at the airports serving London).

All these thousands of people add up to a lot of disgruntled voters ready to ask hard questions about everything from the size of the state (so patently NOT being shrunk to any significant degree by Cameron’s useless Coalition of the Unwilling) to the three main parties’ position on “Global Warming”.

“The typical budgeting strategy of most Canadians is 1. Get paid 2. Spend it all 3. Borrow more.”

Filed under: Cancon, Economics, Politics — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 07:50

Kelly McParland looks at the efforts of the Canadian and provincial governments to come to some sort of agreement over pension reform:

If you want a hint of the difficulty of winning agreement on an issue like Canada’s creaking pension system, consider this carefully considered statement from Finance Minister Jim Flaherty:

“It’s a multi-jurisdictional challenge to get a consensus on the CPP,” he said.

If you speak politics, you realize that “multi-jurisdictional challenge” means that getting the country’s federal and provincial leaders to agree on anything beyond what time to quit for lunch is beyond the power of mere mortals. It is especially hopeless on an issue as fraught with electoral danger pensions, which, after all, are all about old people and their money. Who votes in far bigger numbers than any other demographic? Old people. What gets them more excited than half-price fares to Florida? Their money.

December 19, 2010

Something else for your Christmas list

Filed under: Humour — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 00:04

H/T to Gerard Vanderleun for the link.

December 18, 2010

The day the American Falls ran dry

Filed under: Environment, History, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 13:07

The day Niagara Falls ran dry:

“In June 1969, U.S. engineers diverted the flow of the Niagara River away from the American side of the falls for several months.

“Their plan was to remove the large amount of loose rock from the base of the waterfall, an idea which they eventually abandoned due to expense in November of that year.

[. . .]

To achieve this the army had to build a 600ft dam across the Niagara River, which meant that 60,000 gallons of water that flowed ever second was diverted over the larger Horseshoe Falls which flow entirely on the Canadian side of the border.

“The dam itself consisted of 27,800 tons of rock, and on June 12, 1969, after flowing continuously for over 12,000 years, the American Falls stopped. Over the course of the next six months thousands of visitors flocked to the falls to witness the historic occasion.

I remember seeing this, although as I was nine at the time, I can’t say with certainty that it was in person . . . I might be mistakenly remembering seeing it on TV, although my family visited Niagara Falls frequently during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Unwelcome discoveries in China’s past

Filed under: China, History, Science — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 12:38

Strategy Page looks at some recent archaeological and DNA study results that are not popular with China’s government:

Chinese scientists, conducting genetic research in western China, recently tested the people in an ancient, and remote, village, and found that the DNA of the villagers was 56 percent Caucasian (Indo-European). The current theory is that these people are descendants of Roman soldiers who were long rumored to have established an outpost on this eastern end of the ancient Silk Road (the caravan route from China to the Middle East.) The Chinese are not happy with findings like this.

The Chinese government has long been uneasy about archeologists and anthropologists finding evidence of European peoples living, and settling, in western China thousands of years ago. The Chinese have a high opinion of themselves (often justified), but because of the European role in humiliating China in the 18th and 19th centuries, they are uncomfortable with the idea that the damn Europeans have been in their neighborhood even earlier. Earlier discoveries included very old (more than 3,000 years ago) burial sites containing tall, blonde, warriors. There was also a village of ancient Jews in western China, where the people had only stopped practicing Jewish religious rituals in the last century.

[. . .]

The Chinese may be unhappy simply because they have to give the “northern barbarians” credit for driving the Indo-Aryan tribes away, rather than letting Chinese soldiers do it. Thus it’s currently a big deal in China anytime Chinese technology, or diplomats, beats the Westerners. In the Chinese universe, it’s the supreme insult for foreigners to best the Chinese, militarily or otherwise. But for the last few centuries, that is what happened. China isn’t really looking for a war with the West, but politicians find it easy to win approval by playing up the might of the motherland, and what China can do (in theory) if anyone messes with us. That process induces some amnesia about what has really happened in the past, but that’s what nationalism and demagoguery are all about.

Man bites dog story, military style

Filed under: Military, Technology, USA — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 11:42

In Afghanistan and Iraq, they are finding uses for manned aircraft to supplement Predator UAV patrols:

The U.S. Air Force MC-12 “manned UAV replacement” has been in Afghanistan for a year, and has proved successful. This despite the fact that it can only stay in action for seven hours per sortie, versus more than twice the hours for a UAV. But the military needs more UAV capabilities (vidcams overhead for hours at a time), and doesn’t care if the pilots are in the air or on the ground.

[. . .]

The MC-12 is basically a militarized version of the Beech King Air. The army began using the Beech aircraft as the RC-12 in the 1970s, and has been seeking a replacement for the last few years. But then it was realized that the RC-12 was suitable for use as a Predator substitute.

The King Air 350 is a 5.6 ton, twin engine aircraft. The MC-12 can stay in the air for up to eight hours per sortie. Not quite what the Predator can do (over 20 hours per sortie), but good enough to help meet the demand. The MC-12 has advantages over UAVs. It can carry over a ton of sensors, several times what a Predator can haul. The MC-12 can fly higher (11 kilometers/35,000 feet) and is faster (over 500 kilometers an hour, versus 215 for the Predator.) The MC-12s cost about $20 million each, more than twice what a Predator goes for. The MC-12’s crew consists of two pilots and two equipment operators. Some of the sensors are operated from the ground.

The fascinating economics of Chinese manufacturing

Filed under: China, Economics, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 11:17

An interesting post at the Bridge City Tools blog about how Americans (and Canadians) are actually willing to pay the outrageous price of $5 for a single 1/8″ drill bit:

About 10 years ago I was in an OEM Chinese factory that made bench grinders. You have seen them, 1/2 HP motor, two 6” grinding wheels, pig tail cord, a small plastic face shield and no nameplate — these would be attached by the American companies that bought them. The total cost per grinder, landed in the US was $7.15. Of course at this price it would be asking too much for a UL tag.

These grinders were, and still are being sold here and the prices range from $49 to $200 — awesome margins by any standard.

Behind the factory floor there was a small mountain of insulated wire that had been pulled from old cars, appliances, televisions and the like and it was replenished daily. Surrounding the wire mountain were a couple of dozen women who were stripping the wire of insulation. These wire remnants were then spliced together and used in the grinder motor windings. Completely illegal, and dangerous. But cheap.

I thought I was shocked until I walked into the factory section that made twist drill bits. Here they were making, for the AMERICAN MARKET, those 59, 89, 119 pc drill sets found at the box stores and other discount joints for $19.95. Again, there were rows of women who were dipping the bits in what looked like Easter egg dye.

I asked the interpreter what they were doing. He replied, “They are making all the bits the same color as these four.” The four bits he pointed out were the 1/8”, 1/4”, 3/8” and the 1/2”.

I asked why.

I learned that those four bits were properly hardened. The remaining 115 bits were made with what I call pot metal. The reason?

“Because those are the only four hole sizes that Americans use.”

I asked, as politely as I could, if there was any guilt or remorse for duping their American customers. The reply was shocking.

“In America, if it cost less than $20, nobody complains about quality — everybody in China knows this.”

It’s an interesting explanation . . . and has the ring of truth to it: I’ve got several sets of drill bits, most of them bought from a reputable source (Lee Valley Tools), but I have one “big” set bought from a big box store (I think it’s branded as DeWalt, but probably made in China).

Most of the sizes of drill I use in woodworking are from the Lee Valley sets, but I think I’ve only used the 1/16″ and 1/8″ bits from the big box set. I wonder what’d happen if I tested all the rest of that set?

I have to admit being guilty of this:

More recently, I found myself at the local paint shop to purchase a Purdy paint brush — I have always liked them. So when I walked into the store I asked the sales rep to show me the most expensive brushes…

“I don’t get asked that very often…” he replied.

I then learned that the cheapest brushes outsell the flagged end bristle brushes by about 20 to one. The reason?

So people can throw them away rather than clean them.

In my defence, I can say that I get several uses from each of the “disposable” brushes because I do clean them after each use, but I do eventually throw them away. Once the quality of the applied stain or finish starts getting worse, it’s time to get rid of the brush.

Interesting hand-powered table saw

Filed under: Technology, Tools, Woodworking — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 11:06

I thought this was a joke . . . but those are some pretty impressive results shown in the video.

H/T to BoingBoing for the link.

December 17, 2010

Gay and lesbian couples’ income levels

Filed under: Economics, Education, Randomness, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:59

As this article asserts, I don’t remember where I heard the “fact” that gay couples had higher incomes than heterosexual couples, but it seemed likely to be true. Apparently not:

The myth of gay money holds that “gays” (really just gay males) are high-income or rich. Why? Mostly because they don’t have kids, especially not when two guys live together. (That would make them DINKs.)

This myth was relentlessly propagated through the 1990s and persists today. Maybe you couldn’t put your finger on where you heard it (perhaps in a newspaper article?), but the stereotype is out there. And it isn’t true.

[. . .]

Why do gay males have generally lower incomes than straight males?

  • Gay males have more education than straight males, but they do not choose male-dominated professions as often as straight males do. In fact, they choose female-dominated and/or service professions much more often. Male-dominated professions (like construction) have generally higher wages than female-dominated professions (like secretarial).
  • Gay males work fewer hours than straight males.

Why do lesbians generally have higher income than straight females? It’s almost the inverse of the gay-male trend.

  • Lesbians also have more education than straight females, but they work longer hours — because, generally speaking, they are less likely to have children to take care of at home.
  • Lesbians are overrepresented in male-dominated professions that pay better than female-dominated professions.

What about discrimination? It’s a ready excuse to explain away the “few” gays who don’t meet the stereotype of being affluent. (That’s what press coverage would tell you – that just a few of us aren’t affluent. In reality, it’s most of us.) But the statistical evidence for discrimination as a cause of lower gay incomes is weak at best, and of course falls down completely in the case of lesbians, who, most studies agree, have higher incomes than straight females. Discrimination is clearly a factor sometimes; it just isn’t a credible explanation for the whole effect, which doesn’t apply to half of the population we’re talking about.

H/T to Freakonomics blog for the link.

Bruce Arthur: “It all falls down”

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 09:37

A lengthy, but pretty accurate, summary of the Vikings 2010 season of futility:

There was no easier metaphor with which to work this year than the collapse of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Well, technically, it’s not called the Metrodome anymore — the naming rights to the field were bought by Mall of America, but naming rights to fields are about the dumbest thing in sports, other than catering endlessly to Brett Favre after the age of 40 and trading a third-round pick for Randy Moss only to cut him after he complains about the buffet.

So when the great white marshmallow Metrodome roof caved in early Sunday morning in epic disaster-movie fashion, caught by the Fox cameras that some enterprising person left rolling all night, the analogies practically wrote themselves. The Vikings were one play from the Super Bowl last season until Brett Favre remembered that interceptions are his business, and business was good. They were that close.

[. . .]

Of course, the weather thing caught up with the Vikings last week, and their game against the Giants had to be moved to Detroit, where fans got in free and did the wave as Favre’s record consecutive games streak came to an end at 297 due to a numb throwing hand. He can still text-message with his left, presumably.

So this week’s game on Monday Night Football will be held at the University of Minnesota’s stadium. Which sounds great, right? Everyone can drink and laugh and wear scarves and toques and have a blast, college-style!

Well, except the seats are general admission, which means there’s going to be a hell of scramble when the doors open, and it’s going to be pretty cold at night in Minnesota, and oh by the way there’s not going to be any booze. So by my watch, the tailgating should begin right about . . . now.

Oh, and the field isn’t built to be used in these kind of conditions — there is no mechanism to heat the field and melt the snow, for example — so expect a skating rink. Plus, Vikings backup quarterback Tarvaris Jackson is also hurt, so a rookie named Joe Webb will don the ice skates Monday, plus maybe Patrick Ramsey, formerly of Washington Redskins, New York Jets, and Miami Dolphins non-fame.

So it’s official: No fan base — not Panthers fans, not Bengals fans, not Broncos fans, not Dallas fans, not Washington fans (never Dallas and Washington fans, never), not even Detroit and Buffalo fans — has had a worse year than the poor boozeless purple suckers who will freeze in the dark on Monday night in Minnesota. Condolences, guys.

QotD: “all players in the game have revealed themselves to be interventionists”

Filed under: Economics, Government, Liberty, Politics, Quotations, USA — Tags: — Nicholas @ 08:21

. . . all players in the game have revealed themselves to be interventionists. (Okay, we knew this already but confirmation is nice.) Regardless of party, they see the economy as something to fix by turning a knob here, pulling a lever there, and stepping on a pedal over yonder in order to get the desired performance: higher consumer spending, lower unemployment, increased investment, and so on. It’s as though the economy were a machine in need of adjustments and a few quarts of oil. But an economy is not a machine. It’s a network of people engaged in myriad exchanges of goods and services — pursuing end-oriented activities informed by subjective values and expectations. Such information is largely unavailable to politicians, bureaucrats, and their economic advisers.

With unemployment officially at 9.8 percent, the economy indeed remains in the doldrums. None of the palliatives that George W. Bush or Obama tried has worked, but instead of realizing that government and its corporate-state policies are the obstacles to a flourishing economy, the ruling elite remains committed to the managed economy. So it’s decided not to raise taxes — for two years — and to reduce the employee payroll tax — for one year. These expiration dates are signs of political management. Understanding the necessity of a freed market would lead one to call for permanent — not temporary — government retrenchment.

Some questions were apparently overlooked. If tax rates may go up in two years, why make tax-sensitive long-term plans? If the payroll tax is to be two points lower in 2011, that implies it will most likely be two points higher in 2012. Will people spend the extra money next year or save it in anticipation of the tax increase to come? At any rate, they will need to make an unpleasant adjustment in their household economies on January 1, 2012. People do think long term, even if politicians don’t.

Something worth noting about the debate is that there was scarcely an acknowledgment that money subject to taxation belongs to someone and not the State. You’d think it magically appears in a common pot and the government’s job is to ladle it out effectively and fairly. I can recall hearing only one member of Congress say, “It’s their money,” during a television interview about why tax rates shouldn’t go up on high-income people.

Sheldon Richman, “A Boost for the Managed Economy: What did you expect?”, The Freeman, 2010-12-17

Like everyone else, the Two Scotts go for Chicago to win

Filed under: Football — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 00:06

They’re both so positive, I don’t think they’d change their minds even if Scarlett Johansson was playing quarterback:

Chicago (minus 3) at Minnesota, Monday night

Reid: After 297 consecutive starts, Brett Favre stood on the sideline last week for the first time since 1992. Tarvaris Jackson, a bit more modestly, will see his most recent streak end at exactly…one game. He’ll be back on the sideline for the first time since December 5th. Who will start? Creaky old Favre? Third string quarterback Joe Webb (of Dragnet fame) would be an interesting choice. He’s played a total of one series in the NFL but, on the upside, he is able to operate his body. Did we mention this game will be played outside at the University of Minnesota? Pick: Chicago.

Feschuk: Quite a debut for Tarvaris Jackson last week. I really admired how he would drop back in the pocket, look left, look right, look terrified and then scamper about the backfield in manic slapstick desperation. Had the Giants been dressed as British bobbies, Jackson would have been immediately sued for copyright infringement by the estate of Benny Hill. Pick: Chicago.

December 16, 2010

Wine pricing: the trade-off between quality and prestige

Filed under: Economics, Randomness, Wine — Tags: — Nicholas @ 13:02

I haven’t actually listened to the Freakonomics podcast on whether expensive wines taste better, but I suspect the answer will be “no”.

I’ve been interested in wines for quite some time now, but I’ve found something that caps the amount of money I’m willing to pay for a bottle of wine to well under $100. Either my palate is insufficiently developed to taste the differences between a $40 wine and a $90 wine, or there really isn’t that much difference.

For most people, most of the time, once you get above the bargain-basement level of wine, you can usually find good, flavourful wine for between $15 and $20. What you may not be able to find is a wine in that price range that will impress your date or your guests. If you’re trying to impress, price will have to be one of the most important part of your decision: fewer people will be as impressed by your really good bargain as will be impressed by the big ticket bottle of “Chateau de Fancy French Name” . . . even if they taste the same.

Believe it or not, the most dominant flavor may be the dollars. Thanks to the work of some intrepid and wine-obsessed economists (yes, there is an American Association of Wine Economists), we are starting to gain a new understanding of the relationship between wine, critics and consumers.

One of these researchers is Robin Goldstein, whose paper detailing more than 6,000 blind tastings reaches the conclusion that “individuals who are unaware of the price do not derive more enjoyment from more expensive wine.”

So why do we pay so much attention to critics and connoisseurs who tell us otherwise?

That’s the question we set out to answer in this podcast.

Bruce Schneier on Security in 2020

Filed under: Economics, Liberty, Technology — Tags: , , , — Nicholas @ 12:48

Aside from all the ugly new terms coined to describe the phenomena, the evolution of security is one of the most under-appreciated stories of the decade. The next decade is going to be even more important to how we live our lives:

There’s really no such thing as security in the abstract. Security can only be defined in relation to something else. You’re secure from something or against something. In the next 10 years, the traditional definition of IT security — ­that it protects you from hackers, criminals, and other bad guys — ­will undergo a radical shift. Instead of protecting you from the bad guys, it will increasingly protect businesses and their business models from you.

Ten years ago, the big conceptual change in IT security was deperimeterization. A wordlike grouping of 18 letters with both a prefix and a suffix, it has to be the ugliest word our industry invented. The concept, though — ­the dissolution of the strict boundaries between the internal and external network — was both real and important.

So, that was then. This is now:

Today, two other conceptual changes matter. The first is consumerization. Another ponderous invented word, it’s the idea that consumers get the cool new gadgets first, and demand to do their work on them. Employees already have their laptops configured just the way they like them, and they don’t want another one just for getting through the corporate VPN. They’re already reading their mail on their BlackBerrys or iPads. They already have a home computer, and it’s cooler than the standard issue IT department machine. Network administrators are increasingly losing control over clients.

This trend will only increase. Consumer devices will become trendier, cheaper, and more integrated; and younger people are already used to using their own stuff on their school networks. It’s a recapitulation of the PC revolution. The centralized computer center concept was shaken by people buying PCs to run VisiCalc; now it’s iPads and Android smart phones.

I’ve certainly noticed this myself: it was forced to my attention a couple of years ago, when a change of employment required me to buy and maintain my own “business” computer and software. Without seriously stressing my wallet, I was able to buy far more capable equipment than my previous employer had provided. Being able to check my email on multiple devices was very important, and once I’d started doing that, I realized the need to do many other things regardless of the machine I happened to be using. There are, of course, trade-offs involved:

The second conceptual change comes from cloud computing: our increasing tendency to store our data elsewhere. Call it decentralization: our email, photos, books, music, and documents are stored somewhere, and accessible to us through our consumer devices. The younger you are, the more you expect to get your digital stuff on the closest screen available. This is an important trend, because it signals the end of the hardware and operating system battles we’ve all lived with. Windows vs. Mac doesn’t matter when all you need is a web browser. Computers become temporary; user backup becomes irrelevant. It’s all out there somewhere — ­and users are increasingly losing control over their data.

Anyway, there’s lots more interesting stuff. Go read the whole thing.

Military FPS games

Filed under: Gaming, Military, USA — Tags: , , — Nicholas @ 12:32

Perhaps all those concerned parent organizations had a germ of truth to feed their panic after all: the US military has been finding their FPS games really have been useful as recruiting tools:

The army began using simulation training game tech for recruiting a decade ago when it rolled out the online game “America’s Army” (www.americasarmy.com/). Britain, Australia and New Zealand eventually went in the same direction as the marines. To the despair of parents everywhere, it appears that video games do serve a useful purpose. “America’s Army” was originally developed as a recruiting and public relations tool. It cost over eight million dollars to create. By late 2002, it had 929,000 registered players, 563,000 of whom stayed around long enough to finish the basic training exercise. The game costs $3.5 million a year to maintain. So far, nearly ten million people have downloaded the front end (player) software. At peak times, over 5,000 players are online with the game simultaneously. Recruiters are satisfied with the number of prospects coming in because of the game. But an unexpected bonus has been the number of other uses the game has been put to.

The game, like many games today, was based on one of the “game engines” that are for sale to those developing commercial games. A “game engine” is the software for an earlier, successful, game, with all the specific graphics and play elements removed. When you buy a game engine, you add your own graphics and specific game and play elements, and have a new game. America’s Army used the Unreal game engine, and that led to clones of the America’s Army software for additional training systems. Using the highly realistic combat operations depicted in the game, special versions are used to create specific games for all sorts of combat situations. The public will never see most of these, especially the classified ones.

The USMC, of course, prefers not to do things the army way:

The marines went with a different engine because, well, even with lots of updates, the America’s Army software is showing its age. More realism is a matter of life and death in these training simulations, as getting the details wrong can teach troops the wrong lesson and get them killed. The marines have long been innovators in the use of tactical training and wargames. Back in the 90s, they adapted one of the first FPS (First Person perspective Shooters), “Doom” to marine use. Now they have a much more realistic game engine to use, and one that can be easily networked. Many marines take their laptop computers to combat zones, and that takes care of a lot of hardware problems.

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