My blogs -- what I read

Bloglines | jfaughnan's Blogs

Aetiology: Discussing causes, origins, evolution, and implications of disease and other phenomena.

Aetiology: An interesting blog for health professionals.

Pre-morning in America? The Dover creationists are dismissed

Randy Kelly (aka Norm Coleman II) is a landslide loser in the St. Paul mayoral race solely because of his decision to ally with Bush against his electorate. Across the nation the forces of reason win a striking victory (even as Kansas slides backwards - again):

Evolution Slate Outpolls Rivals - New York Times

All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.

Yeah, it's too early to look for daylight, but we have to celebrate what little we get. The Dover federal case will still be decided, but if the judge decides against "Creationism as science" then the case will not be appealed.

France is weird -- the lawless areas

America is scary and weird. France, however, is also very peculiar:

French Lessons

... The French equivalents of New Orleans's Lower Ninth Ward lie in 300 or more "zones de non-droit" (lawless areas), which sparked the national rioting. These are areas in the immigrant suburbs of Paris and other large cities where the police do not go as a matter of policy. They have instead for years established checkpoints on the perimeter of these islands of soulless high-rises and then let the inhabitants fend for themselves.

Don't go as a "matter of policy"? Good lord. Is this true?

Saint Paul's revenge: a traitorous mayor expelled

Wow. When I voted in the Democratic Caucuses for Chris Coleman, I didn't think he'd win. I never dreamt he'd win 70% to 30% over Randy Kelly -- the faux-democrat incumbent. It probably helped that John Kerry campaigned for Chris Coleman, including a personal appearance in Saint Paul. It also helped that Norm Coleman (unrelated republican senator) campaigned for Randy Kelly, and Randy received lots of exurban and out of state campaign donations.

Was Kelly a bad mayor? Not awful, but not great. I wasn't impressed with his priorities; his focus was on his donors more than parks, bike trails, schools, etc. He'd have been reelected though -- except he campaigned hard (not merely endorsed) for George Bush. He was elected as a democrat. The last democratic mayor we had became a Republican senator. To put it mildly, this makes a mayor come across as more than a bit untrustworthy. It was obvious Kelly was looking for a sweet job and lots of money down the line.

Lack of trust. Mediocre policies. Campaigning for one of the worst presidents in the history of the republic. More than enough reason to trounce Kelly. I just can't believe we did it. Emphases and comments mine.

Many Incumbent Mayors Easily Win Re-election - New York Times

Incumbent mayors won easily yesterday in Atlanta, Boston and Houston. But in St. Paul, Randy Kelly became the city's first incumbent mayor in more than 30 years to lose a re-election campaign.

Polls suggested that Mr. Kelly's endorsement of President Bush last fall was a factor in his loss to a fellow Democrat, Chris Coleman, by 70 percent to 30 percent.

"I have never seen anything quite like this," Lawrence Jacobs, director of the University of Minnesota Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, said about what he called a firestorm over the endorsement.

A poll conducted by Mr. Jacobs found that more than half of likely voters in the city said Mr. Kelly's endorsement would influence their votes. Most of those respondents said it would lead them to vote for Mr. Coleman, a former City Council member.

Mr. Jacobs said the results were especially surprising , as more than half of the likely voters surveyed said they thought that the city was heading in the right direction.

PS. My wife points out that Kelly outspent Coleman by a very wide margin. Kelly's coffers were well stocked with non-resident donors. Apparently there's a limit to what such donations can do.

Kansas education board unites physics and metaphysics

Kansas, home of American fundamentalism, has again moved to put creationism into the "science" curriculum. Interestingly, to do so they had to redefine science:

Kansas education board downplays evolution - Science - MSNBC.com

In addition, the board rewrote the definition of science, so that it is no longer limited to the search for natural explanations of phenomena.

The Kansas board of education has rolled science back to the days of natural philosophy, when explanations for the world were drawn from the Baconian world of empiricism, but also from alchemy, astrology, and sorcery. An odd thing for Christian fundamentalists to do, but I guess no measure is too extreme for such a just cause. I suppose this means Satanism is now a branch of science. Will Caltech start offering a PhD in post-Satanical studies?

I raise a toast to George Bush and the wonderous state of Kansas; between you and al Qaeda we may delay the Singularity by a year or two ... (a delay which I quite favor by the way).

Kansas will not be the laughingstock of the world -- despite the fears of the minority board members. The world long ago stopped finding anything at all amusing about America. This will cause more chills than laughs.

SONY responds to the revelation they are criminal hackers

SONY digital music covertly installed cracker-class software on the PCs of unsuspecting customers. They probably broke a half-dozen laws around the world and they violated every customer relationship tenet you can imagine.

Fortunately their division president had an informed response.

Did he commit sepuku in the old SONY tradition? No, this is the new SONY:

Good Morning Silicon Valley: Quoted

Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?'
-- Thomas Hesse, President of Sony's Global Digital Business, explains the Sony BMG compromise to us stupid consumers.

The earthquakers you now feel are SONY's founders spinning in their graves.

SONY is an ex-parrot.

Cringely is in great form: How Microsoft will respond to Google

Cringely is old enough to remember Netscape, though he forgets the 'Constellation' word. In his Nov 3 column he's in fine form -- comparing Google's impact on Microsoft to that of Netscape in 1995. Microsoft utterly crushed Netscape, though Mozilla Firefox emerged from the shattered remnants. (Originally it was called Phoenix then Firebird, lastly Firefox.) Now the story begins again. Here's what Cringely thinks will happen next:

PBS | I, Cringely . November 3, 2005 - It's Deja Vu All Over Again

...Now here is what will and won't happen over the next several months. Microsoft WILL claim to open its APIs to promote competition and play nicer with the world. But they WON'T actually do it. They will claim to have an open standard, but there will be proprietary extensions. In announcing Microsoft's Live strategy last week, Gates was essentially describing the worst fears of its competitors while at the same time begging companies not to sue him. But for all the hype this is hardly a new goal for Microsoft. The company has wanted to go this route since 1999, but has been stymied by a simple lack of execution. Microsoft wanted then and still wants today what they used to call "stateless computing" -- something they have always thought of in economic, rather than technical, terms. This is .NET reformulated. But for the moment it is pure vaporware.

The big question for Microsoft is whether they can compete in this new market without having to cheat? I don't think they can. Putting it simpler, since all cheating isn't illegal, can Microsoft really implement Windows Live and Office Live without breaking the law? I think they CAN, but I doubt if they WILL. I think that in Redmond the stakes will ultimately be perceived as too high not to cheat. Or maybe they simply don't know how to pay fair. Either way, expect trouble.

Now back to Google.

Don't forget that Sun is now officially in bed with Google. Sun COO Jonathan Schwartz's latest blog entry basically lays out the strategy (it's in this week's links). Combine his post with Google registering the domain "gdrive.com" and you'll see where they are going -- an Open Office thick client that receives "added value" from integration with Google's network services. Sun and Google are obviously and publicly in bed, but there is another player involved: IBM. In the Massachusetts legislature, where Microsoft is trying to get a law passed to keep the Open Document format from prevailing, the corridors this week were teeming with lobbyists from Big Blue.

Obviously Sun, Google, and IBM are all working together on this on some level. They all believe if they can break Microsoft's grip on Office users, then they have a shot on lessening Redmond's operating system dominance.

And where is Yahoo in this? That's what I am wondering.

All this wheeling and dealing is actually good for consumers. We're about to see two waves of technical change over the next three to four years that will completely change the landscape of computing. Microsoft will spend whatever it takes to retain control, which could mean ANYTHING. Seriously, ANYTHING. Windows for free? Don't be surprised if it happens.

Now THAT'S a prediction -- a 'free' version of Windows Vista, probably suited to XP-class machines. In addition, Cringely predicts: Microsoft will break the law again, Microsoft will try the old 'we're open' fakeout but they'll be lying, Microsoft will spend a fortune ... He doesn't predict they won't prevail however.

One of the tragedies of Netscape was that they and Sun fought tooth and nail. Netscape was all about the web and Constellation and JavaScript, Sun wanted the web to go away and get Java everywhere. By the time they were done killing one-another Microsoft needed just a shove to finish off Netscape. It was ugly.

This time the shattered remnants of Sun are aligned with the orphaned child of Netscape (Firefox), the still strong and vengeful IBM (OS/2 is not forgotten, and Google to bind them. Yahoo is choosing where to align and Apple's schemes are an utter mystery. AOL is all but irrelevant.

Should be a heck of an entertaining brawl.

Google Local for mobile: another very big deal

Google Local for mobile. Yes, it's "beta" -- of course. Maps and local services on a cell display.

Doesn't work on my current phone (Samsung i500 - dated now), but I won't buy another phone that doesn't support it. It may determine my phone, my carrier and my service plan. Not bad for a new product launch.

Go Google.

Venus - the eruptive planet

The BBC has a good summary of the planet Venus. Science has moved on since last I read of Venus. The climate seems to be driven by vulcanism, in a few hundred million years it might cool off a bit and become 'interesting'.

Can we learn anything from the riots in France?

France is plagued with riots. France has had historic problems with rioting of all sorts, but so have we. Our demographics may be different (older population), but I wonder if we'll see something like this hear in a few years. Most administrations would be asking that question and thinking of ways to avert problems. I doubt Bush will do anything.

Update: A BBC editorial provides invaluable context. It's routine to burn 20-30 cars in those suburbs on a weekend?! Huh? France is portrayed as far more troubled than the Economist's routine narratives. Another point against The Economist for not having reported on these issues over the past few years. That journal is a shell of its old self.

Risks of old web pages -- linking to a wife swapping site

I have a lot of old web pages. I'm not quite sure what to do with them. They're still read and still apparently useful -- today's computing world is a much more diverse mixture of old and new than most people realize. There are a lot of Windows 98 machines still running, and web pages written in response to problems of years ago still get read. (I don't track readership, but I get 'thank you' emails on pages I'd have thought were of purely historic interest.)

There's a catch to these old pages however. They contains links to reference materials, and the linked sites change. For example, my old Wireless Home Local Area Network linked to the "HomeRF site". Except as a kind person tells me, the HomeRF site has ummm ... changed ....

Thanks for writing and advising about your experience setting up a complicated home lan.

... I just wanted to advise you your ... to "Home RF Working Group" points to a wife swapping site...

Sorry, the link is gone now.

Why do these old domain names get reused? There are two reasons, one obvious and one a bit more subtle. The obvious one is errant links. Good way to get hits. The subtle one is the Google effect. Many of my old pages have reasonable Google rankings. So the things they point to inherit those rankings. The wife swapping site that inherited the HomeRF link will rank more highly than its competition because I (unwittingly) linked to it. So the site wins two ways: by unintended referral and by increasing its rankings.

At the very least I need to remove most of the links on those old pages that are outside of my own control.

Going down, coming up: The Economist and Newsweek

The Economist describes Libby's perjury as a "technicality". That regurgitation of Bush propaganda wouldn't mean much if it was an isolated incident, but it's part of a four year pattern. The Economist seems to have been invaded and acquired by Wall Street Journal cast-offs.

I've read about 90% of what the Economist has published over the past twenty years. They are in decline now.

On the other hand, I happened to read Newsweek's Libby/Cheney coverage on an airplane. I've not read Newsweek since I was a child, when it had degenerated into a variant of People magazine. This article was different. It put Libby's behavior into a convincingly romantic context of the 'honorable soldier against the apocalypse, making a kind of sense of a claustrophobic world of fear, loyalty and self-delusion.

The Atlantic is another magazine that's come up in the world. It may well be time for me to swap The Economist for Newsweek and The Atlantic.

PS. Newsweek gets extra credit for being the first Cheney/Libby coverage I've read that recalls Cheney's conviction that Sadaam was about to attack the US with smallpox. It was really smallpox Cheney feared more than a nuclear weapon. It was their conspiracy with Judith Miller to sell the Iraq smallpox threat that was Cheney's great crime. It turned out his "evidence" was delusional.

Chemical weapons ring America

We are surrounded by chemical weapons -- which US forces deposited from 1945-1970

KRT Wire | 11/03/2005 | Decades of dumping chemical arms leave a risky legacy

... The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.

These weapons of mass destruction virtually ring the country, concealed off at least 11 states - six on the East Coast, two on the Gulf Coast, California, Hawaii and Alaska. Few, if any, state officials have been informed of their existence.

The chemical agents could pose a hazard for generations. The Army has examined only a few of its 26 dump zones and none in the past 30 years.

The Army can't say exactly where all the weapons were dumped from World War II to 1970. Army records are sketchy, missing or were destroyed.

More dumpsites likely exist. The Army hasn't reviewed World War I-era records, when ocean dumping of chemical weapons was common.

... Overseas, more than 200 fishermen over the years have been burned by mustard gas pulled on deck. A fisherman in Hawaii was burned in 1976, when he brought up an Army-dumped mortar round full of mustard gas.

It seems unlikely that the weapons will begin to wash up on shore, but last year's discovery that a mustard-gas-filled artillery shell was dumped off New Jersey was ominous for several reasons:

It was the first ocean-dumped chemical weapon to somehow make its way to U.S. shores.

It was pulled up with clams in relatively shallow water only 20 miles off Atlantic City. The Army had no idea that chemical weapons were dumped in the area.

Most alarming: It was found intact in a residential driveway in Delaware.

It had survived, intact, after being dredged up and put through a crusher to create cheap clamshell driveway fill sold throughout the Delmarva Peninsula.

The Army's secret ocean-dumping program spanned decades, from 1944 to 1970.

The dumped weapons were deemed to be unneeded surplus. They were hazardous to transport, expensive to store, too dangerous to bury and difficult to destroy.

In the early 1970s, the Army publicly admitted it dumped some chemical weapons off the U.S. coast. Congress banned the practice in 1972. Three years later, the United States signed an international treaty prohibiting ocean disposal of chemical weapons.

Only now have Army reports come to light that show how much was dumped, what kind of chemical weapons they were, when they were thrown overboard and rough nautical coordinates of where some are.

The reports contain bits and pieces of information on the Army's long-running dumping program. The reports were released to the Daily Press - which cross-indexed them to obtain the most comprehensive, detailed picture yet of what was dumped, where and when.

To put the information in context, the newspaper also examined nautical charts, National Archive records, scientific studies and interviewed dozens of experts on unexploded ordnance and chemical warfare in the United States and overseas.

The Army's Brankowitz created the seminal report on ocean dumping. He examined classified Army records and in 1987 wrote a long report on chemical weapons movements over the decades. It included the revelation that more than a dozen shipments ended up in the ocean. The report wasn't widely disseminated.

His follow-up report in 1989 uncovered - through review of other previously classified documents - the rough nautical coordinates of some dumpsites and the existence of more dump zones. In 2001, a computer database was created to include additional dump zones that the Army found and more details on some of the dumping operations.

The database summary and the 1989 report had never been released publicly before.

"I know I didn't find everything," said Brankowitz, who's worked for more than 30 years on chemical weapons issues for the Army. "I'm very much convinced there are records at the National Archives that have been misfiled. Short of a major research effort that would cost a lot of money, we've done the best we can."

The reports reveal that the Army created at least 26 chemical weapons dumpsites off the coast of at least 11 states - but knows the rough nautical coordinates of only half.

At least 64 million pounds of liquid mustard gas and nerve agent in 1-ton steel canisters were dumped into the sea, along with a minimum of 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, grenades, landmines and rockets - as well as radioactive waste, the reports indicate....

A new fllight tracking site to add to my travel/business page

FlightAware - Free IFR Flight Tracker: Status, Tracking, History, Graphs, and Maps

I'll add it to my biz travel page.