harmonicminer

Japan is dying by inches. It is simply not reproducing itself into the next generation. And, because it is one of the most closed societies on Earth to immigration, it is going to have a very hard time getting anyone to take care of its aging population.  For that reason, robotics research of all kinds is hugely funded — they hope that robots will be cooking, cleaning, even providing basic medical care — as well as research into ways to increase the mobility of the elderly.

Toyota Motor Corp. says it has developed a way of steering a wheelchair by just detecting brain waves, without the person having to move a muscle or shout a command.

Toyota’s system, developed in a collaboration with researchers in Japan, is among the fastest in the world in analyzing brain waves, it said in a release Monday.

Past systems required several seconds to read brain waves, but the new technology requires only 125 milliseconds _ or 125 thousandths of a second.

The person in the wheelchair wears a cap that can read brain signals, which are relayed to a brain scan electroencephalograph, or EEG, on the electrically powered wheelchair, and then analyzed in a computer program.

Research into mobility is part of Toyota’s larger strategy to go beyond automobiles in helping people get around in new ways.

We all stand to benefit from Japan’s probably hopeless attempt to plan for its, uh, permanent retirement.  Rather than taking the European approach of allowing high levels of immigration to provide the workforce that isn’t being born natively, Japan is going to bequeath some amazing new technologies, which are likely to have applications far beyond replacing the missing younger generation in eldercare.

If Europe was spending its money this way, we might have seen a “robotics and remote control” race between Europe and Japan.  Sadly, Europe is so mired in its ways that it is dying another way, and, in the dying, is bequeathing nothing but huge problems to the world.

Does anyone think a US car company has been doing basic research of this nature?  Nah…  too busy trying to figure out how to meet ridiculous CAFE standards for fuel economy, while paying cushy retirement packages to retirees with probable life spans of 30+ years after retirement.  The only robots in the US auto industry (outside the factories that used to be busy making cars) are the ones marching to the tune of the federal bureaucrats who have taken over.

Obama’s EPA Quashes Climate Change Science

Read it all.

Read the following, and understand that it was written SEVEN YEARS AGO by Reuel Marc Gerecht. This was before the Iraq insurgency, before Iraqi elections, before the the surge, before any of it.

Much interesting analysis at the link above, all worth reading:

If the United States stays in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime, and ushers in some type of a federal, democratic system, the repercussions throughout the region could be transformative. Popular discontent in Iran tends to heat up when U.S. soldiers get close to the Islamic Republic. An American invasion could possibly provoke riots in Iran–simultaneous uprisings in major cities that would simply be beyond the scope of regime-loyal specialized riot-control units. The army or the Revolutionary Guard Corps would have to be pulled into service in large numbers, and that’s when things could get interesting. The clerical regime fears big street confrontations, afraid that it cannot rely on the loyalty of either the army or the Guard Corps.

And if an American invasion doesn’t provoke urban unrest, the creation of a democratic Iraq probably will. Iraq’s majority Shiite population, who will inevitably lead their country in a democratic state, will start to talk to their Shiite brethren over the Iran-Iraq border. The collective Iranian conversation about American-aided democracy in Iraq will be brutal for the mullahs (which is why the Bush administration should prepare itself for Iranian mischief in Iraq’s politics once Tehran determines that the Bush administration is indeed serious about ensuring a democratic triumph in Baghdad). The Bush administration should, of course, quickly and loudly support any demonstrators who hit the streets in Iran. America’s approval will not be the kiss of death for the brave dissidents who challenge the regime’s armed defenders. On the contrary, such psychological support could prove critical to those trying to show to the people that the die is now decisively cast against the regime.

Justices Rule for White Firefighters in Bias Case

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.

This disastrous drag on the US economy has passed the House, narrowly.

The last chance to block it is in the Senate.  Don’t just assume that your senator can’t be moved.  Write them, evey day, to express your disapproval of a bill that even its proponents admit will make no significant difference to the climate, but which will weigh down an already struggling US economy.   This is purely a “feel good” bill for the eco-pagan elites, yet it is a bill which will hurt the poor more than anyone, because they are always the first hurt by a struggling economy.  The notion that only “the polluters” will pay more is risible.  Prices will be higher, and costs and fees will simply be passed on to the consumers, doing the most harm to those on the tightest budgets.  More subtle effects, but even more damaging to the poor, will be the jobs that will continue to move offshore, as the US becomes less competitive against other large economies that will never make such restrictions on their own producers.

Imagine a public pool that isn’t quite as perfectly clean as you’d like it to be.  Now imagine about 100 people in it, splashing around, many barely staying above water, but all required to be in the water, because there is simply nowhere else to be.  And now imagine throwing a 25 pound cleaning filter around the neck of one swimmer who is already struggling, a swimmer whose history is one of rescuing other swimmers, giving other swimmers short breathers while they hang on for a minute, even though you know that only an insignificant difference will be made by the 25 pound filter.

Now imagine being proud of your commitment to clean water, because you hung the filter around the neck of one swimmer.  Now imagine having friends in the press who are willing to repeat your line that “it won’t really hurt the swimmer who is carrying the extra weight” as if it’s true.  And imagine pretending that you’ve done a great service for the world, and being allowed to get away with it.

That’s about where we are today.

Call your senators.  Then write to them, or send email at least.  Then call them again.  You owe it to yourself, and anyone you care about.

Flotation devices are going to be in very short supply, and very expensive.

This massive tax increase under the guise of “global warming” has far-reaching implications for our future.  If you are reading this on Friday, June 26 please call and urge your congressperson to vote NO.   The House is planning to vote in just a few hours so call right away if you can. There is, at least, a fair chance this bill can be defeated – I for one believe it should be.

Thousands of uncatalogued pathogens found at US lab

With three days left in spring cleaning season, a US army lab that works on the world’s deadliest pathogens has turned up uncatalogued vials of Ebola, anthrax, plague and other pathogens – 9220 of them to be precise.

The laboratory is the same one where anthrax researcher Bruce Ivins worked before he committed suicide last year. The US government suspects Ivins was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people, and studies showed that the anthrax used in the attack was “directly related” to the batch stored at the lab.

The discovery of the uncatalogued vials raises questions about whether anyone would notice if some of the lab’s pathogens went missing.

“A small number would be a concern; 9200 … at an institution that has been the focus of intense scrutiny on this issue, that’s deeply worrisome. Unacceptable,” Richard Ebright, a microbiologist at Rutgers University, told the Washington Post.

If you see some guys in white lab coats selling vials of “special fragrance” at the swap meet, I suggest you find someplace else to shop.  I’m not sure if this is scarier than missing Russian suitcase nukes, but it’s at least competitive on the scare-o-meter.  Does anybody think that the anthrax-spreading misanthrope is the only geek with a big brain and a tiny moral center? 

There are days when I wonder if the human race is just too stupid to live.  Then I’ll buck up a bit, and start feeling less pessimistic.  But not long after that, I’ll hear a bunch of people, who should know better, waxing rhapsodic about the wonderfulness of government mananged healthcare for the future.  It reminds me, as if I needed reminding, that the innumerate and the illiterate have no defenses against technocrats, their natural predators.

If the missing Russian nukes, the Iranian nukes, the North Korean nukes, or the pathogenic terrorists don’t get us, then it’ll be the nanotech that does it, when the first self-replicating machine (originally designed to “eat waste at toxic waste-dumps”) turns the entire Earth into a gigantic orbiting pile of staples — covered, incidentally, with Ebola spores.

I’m sure they’ll be very useful to someone (the staples, that is).  I expect that the Intragalactic Council on Emerging Technology (ICE-T) will have a LOT of reports to fill out.

America walks the road of collectivism

Dear reader, let us first and foremost establish a known fact as our guiding principle: the Principle of American Extremes.

Simply put, in the American culture and government, any law passed and program enacted will be taken to the absolute extreme. Note, I do not say logical extremes but absolute extreme, beyond any measure of logic or hint of common sense or wisdom.

So begins an article in Pravda observing the collectivist tendencies of the American Left, and actually instructing the USA on the dangers of collectivism.

What’s next? A USA newspaper running an editorial accusing the Chinese of “wild west capitalism” a la 19th-century America?  Maybe warning the Chinese about “robber barons” (who pretty much never existed as commonly described)?

The world has become very strange.

The Democrats want to take over US healthcare, and intend to nationalize essentially all of it, all the while protesting they don’t plan to do that, even though that is the logical result of the policies they now pursue.  They want to institute a huge carbon tax (again claiming it will only affect “polluters”) which will affect the prices paid by everyone for everything, and cost the poor the most, because they live on smaller margins.  (The Left is for the “little guy” alright.  That’s why they want him to STAY little.)  The Democrats want union organizers to be able to pressure individuals to sign up for the union (card check legislation pending), and want to put an end to the secret ballot formerly required for unionization.  Would you turn down two huge guys name Guido and Alfonzo standing at your front door, with a few of their friends in the pickup truck on the curb, “just asking for your signature”?  Just about every new policy contemplated by Obama and Democrats is one of decreasing freedom for Americans, and more power for the government.

It is not a given that the USA will be the focal point of freedom in the world forever.  If we continue to abdicate that role by inches, and then by feet, that honor may fall to liberalizing societies to which we now feel superior, but which may be instructing our descendants on the finer points of freedom….  or even the major ones.

Watch this ad, and call your congressional representatives and senators.

Obama condemns violence against Iran protesters

Dramatically hardening the U.S. reaction to Iran’s disputed elections and bloody aftermath, President Barack Obama condemned the violence against protesters Tuesday and lent his strongest support yet to their accusations the hardline victory was a fraud.

AT LAST!

Obama, who has been accused by some Republicans of being too timid in his response to events in Iran, declared himself “appalled and outraged” by the deaths and intimidation in Tehran’s streets — and scoffed at suggestions he was toughening his rhetoric in response to the criticism.

I’m sure it was just his spontaneous response to the murders of a week ago.  He was just busy watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island.

He suggested Iran’s leaders will face consequences if they continue “the threats, the beatings and imprisonments” against protesters. But he repeatedly declined to say what actions the U.S. might take, retaining — for now — the option of pursuing diplomatic engagement with Iran’s leaders over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

SUSPECTED?!?!?

“We don’t know yet how this thing is going to play out,” the president said. “It is not too late for the Iranian government to recognize that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and legitimacy and prosperity for the Iranian people. We hope they take it.”

Sure. And we hope that the national health care system that the Democrats are pushing won’t result in everyone having their health care rationed like in the UK or Canada.

Same chance of both.

The previous post in this series is here.

Long odds on space viruses seeding life

LIFE on Earth is unlikely to have come from space, says a new study on viruses. If life is ever found on another planet, however, the findings could help us judge whether it arrived from space or not.

What’s funny here is that scientists have come so close to giving up on the “spontaneous origin of life on Earth” theory that anyone who challenges the notion of “panspermia” is actually seen as being adventurous and contrary to an emerging scientific orthodoxy.

meta-message: Scientists have no fuzzy clue where life came from, or WHEN life came from… except that it appears on earth in a geologic eye-blink after the “late heavy bombardment”, and there was no era of “billions and billions of years” in the primordial soup — which never existed, anyway — for some lucky amino acids to form a little DNA, or RNA, or protein, or much of anything except simple acids and bases.

What we know is that life on Earth appeared at least 3.8 billion years ago, maybe 3.9 or even sooner…. and the Earth had barely cooled enough not to kill anything that was alive.

“Aunt Matilda, I think you accidentally dropped some living proto-cells on Earth on that last fly-by. Do you want to go back and get them? Or just leave them there?  Won’t they rot?”

And atheists accuse theists of “god of the gaps” theories. As if “somehow life began, somewhere, somewhen” is any kind of explanation.

Personally, I think life was seeded on Earth, and maybe only on Earth, by an extra-dimensional, super-intelligent being, one not bound by local laws of time and space, one who knew just what amino acids to jiggle and juggle just so, for the purpose of spending 3.8 billion years creating a biosphere and resources for some relatively weak, big-brained primates.   I think this creative super-intelligent being continued to “stir the pot” now and then, and every now and then invented a new recipe just for the joy of it.  Why would this super-being do such a thing?   Maybe for the same reason the amino acids were made in the first place, as well as the conditions in which they stayed amino acids, instead of breaking down to simpler things.  Time doesn’t seem to mean much to this being, who was perfectly fine with waiting around for 9 billion years or so after starting the whole thing off, until it was time to start cooking up some life in the first place.  A brand new kitchen (solar powered) was designed for this particular production.

Does it make sense that after starting a recipe like this, the creative super-being would stop watching the pot and walk away and just let it happen?  Seems more likely to me that this is one of those recipes where ingredients have to be added at just the right times, temperature adjusted, some of the ingredients moved from the broiler, to the oven, to the stove top, and back, maybe even refrigerated over night and then mixed with something else and baked again…  sort of like twice baked potatotes, if you’ve tried those.  Instead of running down to the corner supermarket, this particular super-intelligent being just creates what’s necessary, either out of stuff that was already there, or completely out of “whole cloth,” or out of nothing…. as necessary.  We’re talking cooking from scratch.

It would have been possible, I suppose, to just open a can, or pull something out of the freezer and nuke it, but the joy of cooking is very, very old.  And for those of you who like simple answers, it might be wise not to insult the chef by comparing the outcome to fast food, after all this loving care was taken in preparation.

The piece de resistance seems to be….  us.

Perhaps some clues have been left here and there, clues which only people who look in the right way will see.

You can ask, if you ever meet (not that hard to do, surprisingly).  I have heard that this particular extra-dimensional, super-intelligent, super-powerful being is interested in being known, once visited here on an extended missions trip, still hangs out here a lot, and likes to talk, if you’re interested in listening.

That’s my experience, for what it’s worth.

The next post in this series is here.

Michael Yon has a really unique perspective on the US military and the war on Islamic terror in the Philippines. Here are several articles, with LOTS of photos, in the order he posted them. This is a war where US forces rarely fight, yet play a crucial role in helping and training local forces, and building bonds with the local citizenry. This, too, is the war on terrorism.  As usual, I’m very proud of our military.

If you want to have more background on this type of mission for our military, check out the book “Imperial Grunts” by Robert Kaplan.  In the meantime, hot off the presses from Michael Yon, with LOTS of fascinating photos at the links below:

Continue reading “Michael Yon on the war in the Philippines”

Part and parcel of a living in a free society is the ability to make choices. For example, at election time our citizenry is allowed to choose between various political candidates running for public office. In countries where there is no freedom, so called “elections” are a sham because there is no choice, the ballots have but one candidate.

Here in the United States there is an ongoing battle over choice in education. On the one side there are those who seek greater freedom of choice for parents. Among the choices currently offered to a greater or lesser degree in various parts of our country are home schooling, school vouchers, and charter schools. On the other side there are those who seek to reduce or eliminate a parents right to choose the way they want their children educated. These seek to make public school attendance mandatory for ALL children.

Each of the alternatives I have mentioned are different. Each has been promoted or discouraged to greater or lesser degree at various times and places but to a parent, taken as a whole they represent choice in education. Each time one of those options is eliminated somewhere it can be said that a parent’s right to make choices concerning the education of their children has been negatively affected.

I believe our current president is no friend of school choice for parents. I have several points to mention in support of this statement. First is the Washington DC. school voucher plan the Obama Administration ended. In case you are unfamiliar with the story read this article.

This is a direct assault on freedom of choice in education. It is an action taken by Arne Duncan, President Obama’s selection for Secretary of Education. It can and should be cited as a concrete example that our current president does not favor choice in education.

Which leads me to my second point, and one which was mentioned in the article I quoted above. I think one of the reasons Obama has and will continue to demonstrate resistance to choice in education is that both he and the Democratic party are financially beholden to teacher unions in a big way and will not oppose the wishes of those unions in the area of educational choice. From the above-cited article:

It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions. Congressional Democrats who receive ample campaign contributions from the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers laid the trap with budget language that placed the program on the block. And now comes Mr. Duncan with the sword. (emphasis mine)

It has been rightly said to get a true sense of what an organization supports one need only to follow the money. Just a cursory glance at the political contributions made by the NEA shows the virtual political alignment of that teacher’s union and the Democratic party. (read this article) And given the money spent by this union in support of an almost entirely Democratic slate is it unreasonable to assume our current president and Democrat-controlled congress will seek to do their bidding?

From the article cited in the previous paragraph let me point out the following quote:

There’s been a lot in the news recently about published opinion that parallels donor politics. Well, last year the NEA gave $45,000 to the Economic Policy Institute, which regularly issues reports that claim education is underfunded and teachers are underpaid. The partisans at People for the American Way got a $51,000 NEA contribution; PFAW happens to be vehemently anti-voucher.

The extent to which the NEA sends money to states for political agitation is also revealing. For example, Protect Our Public Schools, an anti-charter-school group backed by the NEA’s Washington state affiliate, received $500,000 toward its efforts to block school choice for underprivileged children.

So the NEA has contributed money to groups that are both anti-voucher and anti-charter schools. Given the Obama administrations stated support of charter schools elsewhere this can at best be considered a mixed message though I doubt anyone would think of it as a ringing endorsement of parental choice in education. ( I acknowledge the WSJ article is more than 3 years old, but does anyone want to make the claim that the NEA zebra has recently changed its stripes?)

Point three and potentially most pernicious is President Obama’s support of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. (See harmonicminers earlier blog on this subject) While not yet adopted by the US, the potential for elimination of parent choice in education is there if this is embraced by the current administration. (If you have any doubt about Obama’s willingness to accede to the demands of the United Nations, even at the cost of our sovereignty, read this article about his sponsorship of Senate bill 2433). Of note too is the author cited by harmonicminer. He is co-founder, chairman and general counsel of the Home School Legal Defense Association. This organization did not come about because our government has a track record of embracing homeschooling (as an educational choice), and this current president has shown time and time again he favors greater governmental intrusion and control over almost everything. One might say it has the potential of a perfect storm, brewing on the horizon for parents who wish to exercise freedom of choice in the education of their children.

Neutrality Isn’t an Option by Mark Steyn

You always have a dog in the fight, whether you know it or not.

I refuse to summarize this, because every paragraph is worth your time to read. But here’s the money line (don’t use this an excuse not to read it all). Regarding Obama’s attempt to cut the Islamist government some multi-cultural slack, by making presidential comments of “concern” without any tinge of real criticism of the treatment of peaceful protesters, Steyn characterizes the response of the “Supreme Leader” of Iran this way:

Offered the world’s biggest carrot, Khamenei took it and used it as a stick.

Now go read it all.

Today, as she was turning into our church parking lot, my mother-in-law was rear-ended by a 16 yr old girl (in her 2nd crash, already…  probably on her cell phone). My 11 yr old daughter was in the car with her, sitting in the front seat for the very first time…. just as well, it may have protected her a bit. I think my mother-in-law’s car is totalled, but no obvious injuries today, although I’m expecting she will have some stiff muscles and aches tomorrow.  This happened on Father’s Day, of course, and so I spent most of the day so far dealing with the crash, getting the car towed, etc. 

It is a happy day.  No one was seriously hurt. 

For some reason, this all reminded me of a post I wrote last year about this time, and because I have nothing really better to say, I’ve linked to it here.

Today I sat in church with my 10 yr old daughter. Her mom is usually playing the piano, and so my daughter often sits between her grandmother and me. That way, we can both hear her sing. I don’t think the small vocalist knows that we sometimes just listen to her. She probably just thinks we’re tired by the second verse, if she thinks about it at all. Sometimes grandma and I make eye contact. We both know what we’re doing. We don’t talk about it.

Now, not to knock the sermon today; it was great, on Psalm 42. But attention can drift. I expect somebody dozed off during the Gettysburg address, or while Paul was waxing eloquent about unknown Gods. Especially while Paul was going on about unidentified deities. So my mind can wander now and then.

But partway through, I noticed an odd looking purple pen in my daughter’s hand. I don’t know where she got it.

She took my arm, and prepared to write something on it. I thought, oh great, now I’m going to have ink on my arm… But Dads will do anything for love of a child, pretty much, so I let her write. She seemed to write a short word, but apparently the pen wasn’t working… No ink, I supposed, or it was dried up or something.

I shrugged to her, and returned my attention to the sermon. She was doing something beside me, but I wasn’t paying lots of attention… Kids get squirmy in church sometimes, and she wasn’t making noise. Then she tapped my arm, until I looked down. She had turned on a small light on the end of the funny looking pen, and was shining it on my arm, the miracle of “black light”. In kid-scrawl letters, my forearm said, all in lowercase, “dad”.

Well.

I know this is probably silly, but the moment took on a luminescent meaning for me. There we were, father and daughter, bonded in many different ways, each partly defining ourselves in terms of the other. She was naming me for what I was to her, and applying the label… But only she could read it. And she wanted me to see the label, too. It was our secretly acknowledged non-secret.

Being metaphorically minded, I could not help but reflect on the invisible bonds in our lives. These chains bind us as surely as titanium steel twisted cable, as unexpectedly powerful as light-weight carbon fiber-reinforced Kevlar. We can stretch our bindings. But they’re still there, drawing us together.

As a father, I have tremendous freedom of action, befitting the responsibility that is mine. There are a thousand ways to be a good father, and about a million ways to be a bad one. It may be odd to say, and it is not usually expressed this way, but I am also her servant, working for her and for the One who put her in my charge, for a little while. Perhaps it is good for servants to wear invisible identification.

Her yoke is easy.