Good news from an unusual source and a soldier's noteworthy comments

Salon.com News | The Shiite earthquake

Juan Cole is a fairly severe critic of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. In Slate he wrote: "The Sunni Arab populace continues largely to support the guerrillas. Over half in a recent poll said that attacks on the U.S. military in Iraq are legitimate."

Wow. Only "over half"? That suggests it's not even 60% among the most resentful of the Iraqi population. That's much better than I'd have guessed.

Like most of the world, I am very much hoping Sistani was right about this election. I am a strong critic of Bush/Rumsfeld, but I thought they were right to stick with the deal they made with Sistani (not, of course, that they had a choice!). We'll see how it goes.

On more of the good news front, a BBC quote from Lt Bryan Suits:

It was slow to start, but it finished like a carnival everywhere I looked. I was proud to stand between Iraqis and the men who would deny them freedom. It was an exhausting four-day event for me and my men, but they slowly understood how monumental these days would be in the future.

Two brothers, both in their late 70s, drove to the polls to cast the first vote in their lives. Civilian vehicles weren't allowed on the road for 24 hours, but the polls were six kilometres away. If they couldn't drive they couldn't vote. As an American, it was an easy choice for me to make. They voted.

An hour later they stopped us as we patrolled, and they thanked us profusely. Their sons and grandsons also joined in with an impromptu circle dance called a "dabka". One of the men said: "God sent you to give us freedom." My Iraqi translator, who's a practised cynic, became silent and looked away. The man put his hand on my American flag patch and then kissed his hand. I pulled the flag from its Velcro and handed it to him. My translator took a picture as I started to choke up. My translator pulled his hat down to his eyes and turned around. He wanted to appear unmoved, but was failing badly.

The Iraqi police and army seemed to grow more confident as the day went on. This was definitely their show and they received the thanks and congratulations from their people. That was great to see. The collection of the ballot boxes was a celebration and the atmosphere continued on Monday morning. The police and Iraqi Army have won their first battle and they have new credibility.

I'm leaving Iraq in three weeks and I'll start the rest of my life as a newly married man. My wife is a police officer and an unapologetic American idealist as well. Luckily, I never have to worry whether this year was worth it. My men and I are grateful to the Iraqi people for their bravery. It's our ticket home.

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

What Is Conservatism and What Is Wrong with It?

Phil Agre has an extended discussion which has had further play and commentary on Body and Soul. I agree with quite a bit of it, though I think he mixes conservatism, fascism, and a fundamental opposition to reason and rationalism that is common to many mass movements.

He doesn't seem to get to what I consider one of the core issues: "the problem of the weak". This is the great moral challenge for human societies.

Yeah, it's a politically incorrect term. Someone might be cognitively weak and pull down a $50 million/year sports contract. Another person might be brilliant but almost completely paralyzed (but make bundles from his popular physics books). I use the term to mean those for whom there isn't a path to independent unassisted living in modern society; that includes a lot of people with cognitive and behavioral disabilities, including addiction, dementia (really a complex of behavioral and cognitive impairments), low IQ, memory disorders, schizophrenia, etc. This is not a small number of people. This is perhaps 5-10% of America. Some are young, some are old, some are middle-aged. In the modern world they are disabled.

There's a smaller group of people who are blind, deaf, missing limbs, have debilitating diseases etc. They all have significant challenges -- depending on their personal and family resources they may join the the "world of the weak" -- despite the good work the ADA brought us.

Most of us, at some point in our lives, will join the "world of the weak". If we were deer, the wolves would take us. Too many Republican policies translate to "let the wolves take the weak".

Weakness happens. Have enough children, one of them will be weak -- your genes aren't that good. Live long enough, you will be weak.

The battle my side is losing is the battle for the weak. Make strong those who can be healed, care for those who cannot.

Search: MSN vs. Yahoo vs. Google

MSN Search: faughnan lexia

MSN Search is supposedly out of beta today, but the url is still beta.search ... No matter. I did a quick test.

I searched on my name and word I know is only in a reasonably recent posting to my special needs/special education blog.

This is how MSN, Yahoo and Google did:

1. MSN: Pointers to Bloglines (but only to the view of recent postings) and Meblogs (aggregator). Better than nothing, but transient.
2. Yahoo: Pointer to Medlogs (aggregator) and a generic pointing to main page of my blog.
3. Google: zip, nada, nothing. Note Google owns blogspot/blogger where the blog I'm testing resides.

My overall estimation:

1. Google: complete failure
2. Yahoo and MSN: roughly comparable but different

So for this particular use case, Google isn't even in the running.

Google, Yahoo and MSN are different enough in an interesting way that I'm going to be looking for aggregators that combine and integrate the results. Google has been very disappointing over the last 6 months for many of my searches. I can only hope they have a major upgrade in the works. Of course there's another explanation as to why Google searches of Blogger may be less complete than the competition's (beyond a feature/bug of their algorithms).

America - Darwin's nemesis

The New York Times > Science > Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes

... in a 2001 survey, the National Science Foundation found that only 53 percent of Americans agreed with the statement "human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals."

And this was good news to the foundation. It was the first time one of its regular surveys showed a majority of Americans had accepted the idea. According to the foundation report, polls consistently show that a plurality of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago, and about two-thirds believe that this belief should be taught along with evolution in public schools.

These findings set the United States apart from all other industrialized nations, said Dr. Jon Miller, director of the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern University, who has studied public attitudes toward science. Americans, he said, have been evenly divided for years on the question of evolution, with about 45 percent accepting it, 45 percent rejecting it and the rest undecided.

In other industrialized countries, Dr. Miller said, 80 percent or more typically accept evolution, most of the others say they are not sure and very few people reject the idea outright.

"In Japan, something like 96 percent accept evolution," he said. Even in socially conservative, predominantly Catholic countries like Poland, perhaps 75 percent of people surveyed accept evolution, he said. "It has not been a Catholic issue or an Asian issue," he said.

I wonder what the numbers are like in Iran? America must be the most anti-intellectual, and anti-science, of the wealthy nations. The Dark Ages are closer than you might think ...

Boycott CRC Information Holdings

Eric's Commentary on the Shutdown of MathWorld

Once upon a time CRC, the Chemical Rubber Company, published books of tables and reference material for chemists and scientists. Alas, that company is gone. It's name has been taken by a foul and parasitic entity; a form of demonic possession that attacks publicly traded companies. This web page explains why we need to stop buying anything from CRC's ownership:

I have had to conclude, to my sorrow, that CRC--perhaps like many other publishers in our era of wild corporate acquisitions and conglomerations--is no longer managed by people who understand and love books, authors, and readers.

The parent company of CRC, Information Holdings Inc., appears unashamed to treat information as a commodity to be exploited for short-term, bottom-line cash with no concern for long-term, strategic planning. The goal of the CRC representatives seemed to be monomaniacal: to squeeze from Wolfram Research and from me as much instant and short-term cash as possible, using the lawsuit as a lever.

How self-defeating in an era of rapid technological change! Apparently uninterested in looking forward and building good future business strategies, here are publishers focusing instead on how to squeeze greater quantities of immediate cash from old 'properties.'

I have come to realize how unusual it is to be working for a company that is run by people who still enjoy the core activities for which the company was founded. Very early in the lawsuit, a Wolfram Research response to the lawsuit mentioned that Wolfram Research has chosen to remain privately held in order to be free from the obligation to outside stockholders, who appear so often to focus corporations inordinately on short-term financial results. Wolfram Research's principals believe that they can take the long and broad view of the corporation's mission, as they could not if they had to satisfy stock analysts and uninvolved stockholders.

The behavior of CRC's representatives this last year has been, for me, convincing evidence of the wisdom of Wolfram Research's strategy. The people at my company believe in what they do, make money doing it, and have fun along the way. I didn't see much fun among the CRC people we dealt with.

Update: This affair first gained attention five years ago. But that was before blogs became popular ...

Adopted doesn't count?

Passports, but no pass

A couple traveling with their daughter is denied admission to their airplane by an agent working for a Northwest Airlines affiliate. The agent's manager also denies admission

Their crime? Their adopted daughter does not resemble them. Her passport, which proves both identity and nationality, is not considered sufficient proof of family affiliation.

The family misses their flight. Later the airline is apparently rather contrite. My suspicion is that the agent didn't much like the idea of adoption, much less inter-ethnic adoption. The rules are sufficiently ambiguous that the agent was able to exercise his/her prejudices. Astoundingly, however, the manager didn't catch the problem.

Northwest needs an aggressive re-education program, preferably administered by a senior executive and his adopted children.

If this were to happen to my family, they'd need a heck of a lot more than an apology to avoid litigation.

Glacier Good-bye

SF Gate: Multimedia (image)

When I was young, foolish and fortunate, in 1977, I hitchiked to Banff. I visited again in 1994. Even over those 17 years the picturesque glaciers had receded from the tourist spots built nearby them. Soon they will be gone.

Update: The original title for this post had "Glacier" spelled "Galcier". I fixed the typo, but since Blogger chose to implement persistent URLs based on the article title, this will break any links from RSS feeds to the article. Sigh. Semantic identifiers are rarely a good idea.

Problem of the weak: faces of meth

OregonLive.com: Photo Galleries

When I see these images I imagine what my children will face between 2011 and 2023. What hellish product of evil minds will make methamphetamine seem one day as "benign" as mere Heroin?

To save them from that future I would of course give my life, but I'd also give up some of my and your freedom. That is why I am a liberal, but not a libertarian.

The problem of the weak. Again.

Markets as moral entitites?

Crooked Timber: Just deserts and the market

Crooked Timber notes a persistent theme among their commentators: "...if markets are working correctly, people end up more or less where they deserve to be...". The author digresses into an academic refutation that apparently involves Hayek (generally a sign that it is to heavy a discussion for my aged brain).

Analysis aside, this is a persistent theme in right wing discourse. It seems to have two separate roots that converge on a single conclusion.

Root One: The Deists

• God rewards the good and punishes the bad.
• Poverty is a sign of God's punishment, hence of badness.
• Wealth is a sign of God's reward, hence goodness.

As Mike P. reminded me, this is the thesis of the pre-Job Bible. It's characteristic of many religions and it's the natural regression point for many fundamentalists.

Root Two: The Libertarians

• Markets are God-like.
• Markets are Good.
• Poverty is a sign of Market punishment, hence of badness.
• Wealth is a sign of Market reward, hence goodness.
  

We need to expose the roots of this reasoning wherever it manifests itself.

Dying, not defeated

BBC NEWS | Health | Tumour diary: The time has come

I've read occasional instances of Ivan Noble's diaries over the years. I think the last time I caught site of one he was doing well in remission. This is his last diary. He wrote when he was diagnosed in September of 2002 at age 35:

I am determined to beat the tumour and to see my little girl grow up.

In this, his last column, he writes

What I wanted to do with this column was try to prove that it was possible to survive and beat cancer and not to be crushed by it.

Even though I have to take my leave now, I feel like I managed it.

I have not been defeated.

Ivan lived with his cancer for almost 3 and a half years -- a long time for a high grade glioma. During that time he married his girlfriend and they had a son.

Our friend Tom Antonetti died years ago of the same cancer. I had the fortune to see Tom when he was in remission, he died less than a year later. He was about 40 then.

Time for the US to pass the baton ...

2020 Vision - A CIA report predicts that American global dominance could end in 15 years. By Fred Kaplan

Who will be the first politician brave enough to declare publicly that the United States is a declining power and that America's leaders must urgently discuss what to do about it?

This isn't really news. There's nothing except supernatural intervention that would make the US the dominant world power forever. Bush hasn't caused the relative decline of the US, he's only accelerated it by 20 or 40 years or so (twice the rate of decline). Since Bush was elected by a majority of US voters with a well established track record, it's really the Bush voter that should take historical responsibility.

Stories of my father: umbrella combat

Boing Boing: HOWTO kick someone's ass with an umbrella

As a child in the 1930s my father was a fan of "howto" pamphlets on the use of a concealed walking stick dagger in combat. He probably came across some version of this 1901 article. I'll have to ask him if it looks familiar.

Bush is good for journalism: even Maureen Dowd can write now

The New York Times > Opinion > Maureen Down: Love for Sale

Maureen wants to prostitute herself to the Bush administration. This is a great column, funny with tears, biting with despair. Maureen used to be a crummy writer, but the longer Bush is in power the better she's doing.

The same powerful tonic has come to The Atlantic, Harpers and the New Yorker. I just read Richard Clarke's article in the January Atlantic -- American as a 2011 military state (but why did he call the Mall of America the Mall of the States? -- was he being polite?). It was a great article, but excellence is now routine in The Atlantic. That wasn't true four years ago. They must be making money -- the mag is getting thicker every month.

Harpers is consistently interesting. The New Yorker, fueled by Seymour Hersh, deserves a few Pullitzers.

True, the New York Times is pretty feeble, but maybe this bracing influence will finally resuscitate them.

Of course I'd rather have Kerry as President. If I have to live with King George however, it's good to have something to read in my hideaway.

A9.com local search -- take that Google!

A9.com Search: thai

Ahh, I love to see Amazon and Google slug it out. Each solid blow means more neat stuff for me.

Google has done a pretty good job with local search. Now A9 does much the same thing -- but they've added images too!

Of course my local MSP favorites don't have pictures yet ... but there's the clever part. Amazon is leveraging their power tool -- an infrastructure for commentary. The link for a nearby Thai restaturant goes to an Amazon page that allows commentary -- and posting of pictures!

If I had a decent camera phone it would be fun to help build the Amazon image library this way.

Does an earthlike planet require a neighboring supernova?

USATODAY.com - A different 'Big Bang' may have saved Earth

I only see the USA Today when traveling. This morning I caught sight of this article. I expected to see some f/u in the New York Times, but USA Today seems to be ahead of the pack. On review I note that this is still a "controversial hypothesis", but a more technical article states some supporting evidence (atypical isotopes) will be published shortly.

This is tremendously interesting, though the journalist missed the key point of interest. The hypothesis is that earthlike planets, the only kind known to support sentience (one example), can only form when a supernova detonates very close (1 light year -- or closer than the current closest star) to a star with an early, very shortlived (few million years), planetary disk (disc). The supernova blows away parts of the disk and seeds the early solar system with heavy metals. Without the supernova effect any earth like planets get expelled or destroyed by careening gas giants early in solar system development -- or whacked by comets a bit later on.

Not to stretch an analogy, but the solar system is like an egg, and the supernova is like exploding ... ummmm ..... errrrr .... you know. If the supernova doesn't blow at precisely the right time and right distance -- the egg is sterile.

So what did Dan Vergano miss? This data should allow astronomers to estimate how common earth like planets are. One of the mysteries of our galaxy is that it's not swarming with little green men. There are several explanations of this; one explanation is that planets that support life, much less sentience, are very rare.

Supernovae are not all that common in our galaxy, though they were probably more common 4 billion years ago. If very proximal supernovae are required to produce "fertile" solar systems, then earth like planets may be quite rare. Since the galaxy is known to be a very violent place, many of those planets would be sterilized or destroyed before life could develop.

I'd be particularly interested to know if any "tweaks" to the fundamental parameters of physics (C, G, Planck's constant, etc) would change the equation to increase the number of "fertile" solar systems. It would be particulary interesting if small tweaks would change the frequency of "fertile" planets to either zero or many. If it turned out that the universe is "tuned" to produce an average of one sentience per spiral galaxy ... well ... that's interesting.

All fun stuff. I guess not everyone shares my hobby however!

Astronomers studying the planet-forming disks of dust that orbit young, distant stars are hoping to solve the mystery of our own solar system's youth. Why is our system so different in form and function from others they can see?

It's a difference that may have saved Earth, because the scientists suspect that Jupiter and Saturn would have collided with the planet — or slung it out of the solar system like a slingshot — if the disk surrounding our young sun hadn't been so damaged.

These "protoplanetary" disks were a hot topic at a recent meeting of the American Astronomical Society. "Something very bad happened to our solar system's disk in its early years," says Steve Desch of Arizona State University in Tempe.

An exploding star, or supernova, likely occurred within a light-year — about 5.9 trillion miles — of our sun in its infancy, he argues. (The closest star to our solar system now, Proxima Centauri, is about 4 light-years away)...

... A presentation at the meeting about a Hubble Space Telescope survey of 25 nearby stars, all youngsters less than 10 million years old, provides evidence that dust disks congeal into more compact bodies over only a few million years.

.... Only the eruption of a star 25 to 40 times bigger than our sun could have littered our solar system with the radioactive elements seen in meteorite surveys reported by Desch's team at the meeting.

Astronomers have seen just such explosions blasting protoplanetary disks in the Orion Nebula, a star-forming factory 1,500 light-years away. Rather than blowing away the disks, the supernova blasts appear to seed them with metals rocketed out of the heart of the exploding star.

The supernova that blasted our solar system may explain some of its other peculiarities:

•Planets in our solar system follow nearly circular orbits far from the sun. Most planets detected orbiting other, nearby stars follow either highly elongated orbits or circle incredibly close to their stars. Scientists suspect that a stellar explosion could have stopped these developments in our solar system.

•Dust disks seen orbiting nearby stars typically contain much more material, sometimes 100 times more, than our solar system. A Spitzer Space Telescope survey of 26 nearby sun-like stars known to have planets found evidence that six of them have comet belts. But all appear filled with about 100 times more comets than our own. [jf: comets can be very dangerous ...]

"There's good evidence the solar system had a stunted formation when the (supernova) injection happened," Desch says. And that may have been very good for Earth.

Many astronomers believe that Jupiter and Saturn formed deep in space, far beyond Pluto's orbit, and spiraled into the solar system. Why they stopped a safe distance from the sun and left Earth undisturbed — unlike the history of many other solar systems seen nearby — is the final mystery that disk studies may help answer..