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 Sunday, December 8, 2002
In the Bush Administration, Loyalty Is a One-Way Street Only. In the Bush Administration, Loyalty Is a One-Way Street Only There is a story I have now heard three times about Larry Lindsey's first day in the White House in January 2001. At one point he met with the now-headless Council of Economic Advisers staff--no CEA council members had yet been named. "Well," he began. "You should all be happy: the people who understand economics are now back in charge." Today such a claim sounds totally ridiculous--mendacious, or simply mad.... [Semi-Daily Journal]
An interesting viewpoint that I had not read in any of the major media. 9:46:58 PM 
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jenett.radio says that an Internet spammer can't take what he dishes out: "Almost 300 anti-Ralsky posts were made on the Slashdot.org Web site, where the plan was hatched after spam haters posted his address, even an aerial view of his neighborhood. 'Several tons of snail mail spam every day might just annoy him as much as his spam annoys me,' wrote one of the anti-spammers." [The Aardvark Speaks < Der Schockwellenreiter] [Universal Rule]
Although it is probably some sort of crime to sign someone up for a list without their knowledge, this is reall funny! 9:32:18 PM
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Tiny transistors lift lid on cell life [Nature Science Update]
This is so cool. DNA arrays give us an idea of how much RNA is present but it is only a surrogate measure of the amount of protein. These arrays have the ability to tell us more about what some proteins are doing inside the cell. 9:31:17 PM
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"Low-income people pay little or nothing in income taxes " [Daypop Top 40]
yeah, those dastardly poor people. How dare they not pay their full taxes? Is this Orwellian or what? But I am glad that all this is explained. The hard right wants to create less government and make it impossible to ever increase it. Looking at things in this view makes so many things understandable and demonstrates that compassionate conservatism is an oxymoron. 8:39:11 PM
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The value is in the links not the nodes.
"The value is in the links, not the nodes."
Thomas said this to me yesterday. I believe it. By which I mean that there is something I intuitively respond to in the statement. Intellectually I am still grokking.
[Curiouser and curiouser!]
In a well connected network, lost nodes do not have a large effect on the total information transfered. The information finds other paths. I saw this at Immunex. Losing good scientists as they moved on did not have a correspondingly huge effect on the network. Lose the top of a heirarchy and you are doomed. Happens all the time. I can not understand how any business based on the creativity of its employees would choose such a business model but they do. 8:35:14 PM
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The internet is so great. Now you can read what the Russians read. They have concerns about the government regulation of vodka. It was also interesting to see their take on some of the Iraq stuff. Now spending 1.9 billion dollars is a lot but check out this quote:The very war campaign and occupation of Iraq (including spending on neutralization of a partisan war) will cost American taxpayers 1.9 trillion dollars. And American taxpayers won[base ']t put up with such a great spending. It is difficult to imagine what geopolitical consequences this failure will entail. No matter whether we wish or not, stability of the whole of the world depends on the stability and prosperity of the USA. If only the giant slightly staggers, the successful national economies of dozens of countries will collapse one by one. They recognize our economic supremecy and are worried of the effect on their economy if ours goes in the tank. Inteeresting. 7:54:03 PM
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Krishnamurti. "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." [Quotes of the Day]
Oscar Wilde. "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal." [Quotes of the Day]
Samuel Goldwyn. "I never put on a pair of shoes until I've worn them at least five years." [Quotes of the Day]
W. Somerset Maugham. "Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit." [Quotes of the Day]
I almost understand the Goldwyn quote since he was famous for speaking in ways that only Yogi Berra could understand. 7:37:03 PM
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Solar cells aiming for full spectrum efficiency [New Scientist]
Scienceagogo has a follow up article on break-through last month that may make inexpensive, super-efficient solar cells possible.
If this is actually possible, then it would open up a clear path to decentralized energy.
Solar cells on the roof would meet the needs of the household during the day and send excess energy back to the grid. At night, your home would suck on the grid for the power it needs. The net impact would be that power companies wouldn't have to invest in expensive systems to generate power at peak usage hours due to the contributions of individual home owners that employ solar arrays. The benefit to the home owner is that they would likely pay nothing to the power company since the day's contributions would net out the usage at night.
If the array was very large, the excess power could also be used to generate hydrogen from electolysis. This would allow you to either use the hydrogen to power your home at night using new low cost home hydrogen fuel cell systems (GM is working on systems like this that will cost less than $2k), or use the hydrogen to refuel your fuel cell powered automobile. Wow. [John Robb's Radio Weblog]
More reasons to spend money on alternative energy sources. The problem will be that energy distribution is centralized now and those companies will not like to disappear with the existence of decentalized energy production. This could be every bit as an important struggle as information transfer and the Content Cartel. Bottom-up approaches to energy generation could have some very important ramifications. Look to see which companies go running to the government to get this stoppped. It probably won't be the auto companies since they want to sell more cars and most of the world will not buy more if the cost of oil keeps going up. decentralized energy production would fit them much better. 7:32:59 PM
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Well, I bought a basketball backboard for my son. I started putting it together and found that two of the parts are wrong. I'll have to call tomorrow and get them to send me the correct ones. What a pain. 7:04:10 PM
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