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| A banner on a lightpole at the University of California, Santa Barbara, commemorating Walter Kohn being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1998. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
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| English: Walter Kohn after receiving his honorary doctorate at The University of Oxford (during the 2001 Encaenia). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Dashboard is acting blank of feeds. Google Reader is not.
James Kitfield, “Outsourcing the Fight Against Terrorism,” National Journal, March 7, 2013.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. officers honed the tactics they teach here (Baker did several combat tours in Iraq), Americans led the fight against terrorists and insurgents. But in Washington, policymakers are now focused on shaving budgets and bringing home troops. And, Baker says, “there are not a lot of governments who want a big U.S. military footprint in their countries.” So Pentagon strategists need a cheaper way to fight militant Islamists—many of them operating, unmolested, in Africa—who would unseat our allies or attack our homeland.
read more
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
Senator Rand Paul walks to a waiting vehicle as he leaves the Capitol after his filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director.
read more
Reblogged from Here and Now:
Reblogged from Kauilapele's Blog:
My latest novel Existence shows
humanity confronting many challenges forty years in the future -- some
expected and some unforeseen. Indeed, finding, revealing and exploring
unexpected threats... this might be considered one of the most valuable
services of good, thoughtful science fiction.
6. The
consequences of a universal lie detector machine. Politics and
virtually every other field of human endeavor will be changed by
everyone having to tell the truth. The rules that will evolve to deal
with social and
New in your subscriptions
Concert of the Day
You Am I, live at The Annandale Hotel,Sydney, November 10 2011:
Filed under: music, video
6:02 AM (16 hours ago)
You Might Have Missed: Threat Inflation, Transparency, and Drone Strikes
James Kitfield, “Outsourcing the Fight Against Terrorism,” National Journal, March 7, 2013.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. officers honed the tactics they teach here (Baker did several combat tours in Iraq), Americans led the fight against terrorists and insurgents. But in Washington, policymakers are now focused on shaving budgets and bringing home troops. And, Baker says, “there are not a lot of governments who want a big U.S. military footprint in their countries.” So Pentagon strategists need a cheaper way to fight militant Islamists—many of them operating, unmolested, in Africa—who would unseat our allies or attack our homeland.
read more
Mar 8, 2013 (yesterday)
Rand Paul's Lonely Stand
AP Photo/Charles Dharapak
Senator Rand Paul walks to a waiting vehicle as he leaves the Capitol after his filibuster of the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director.
read more
Is the Weakness of the Liberal Order Overblown?
Last week, Naazneen Barma, Ely Ratner, and Steven Weber offered “The Mythical Liberal Order,” a provocative update to their earlier article on the world without the West.
They sought to puncture certain mythologies about the strength of the
liberal order, that it never was a strong as defenders thought: its
decline is much exaggerated since there was not much to begin
with. Moreover, they seek to offer more convincing and significant
evidence that non-Western countries are “routing around” the West
through currency swaps and discussion of a new multilateral bank and
other actions.
Both that article and their earlier one are part of a liberal order pessimism that captures the current zeitgeist but may look dated in a few years. I’d put in that category Charlie Kupchan’s book No One’s World, Ian Bremmer’s G-Zero world in Every Nation for Itself, and perhaps Kishore Mahbubani’s new book The Great Convergence, if his past writings are any indication [though the first chapter is surprisingly supportive of making the current global order better].
read more
Reblogged from 2012: What's the 'real' truth?:
Both that article and their earlier one are part of a liberal order pessimism that captures the current zeitgeist but may look dated in a few years. I’d put in that category Charlie Kupchan’s book No One’s World, Ian Bremmer’s G-Zero world in Every Nation for Itself, and perhaps Kishore Mahbubani’s new book The Great Convergence, if his past writings are any indication [though the first chapter is surprisingly supportive of making the current global order better].
read more
Nov 17, 2012 12:42 AM
Ventura Busts Tesla Ray “Death Ray” Secret - by Gordon Duff
Reblogged from 2012: What's the 'real' truth?:
Popout
Read more… 489 more words
Add your thoughts here... (optional)
Nov 15, 2012 4:12 AM
Tolec Video…”December 21, 2012 – What will happen”
Add your thoughts here... (optional)
Nov 15, 2012 4:11 AM
WHAT PRINCESS DIANA KNEW - THE OFFICIAL RESISTANCE
Reblogged from Here and Now:
Nov 15, 2012 4:11 AM
WHAT PRINCESS DIANA KNEW - THE OFFICIAL RESISTANCE
Reblogged from Here and Now:
This is only a fractional part of a very long document about
the parasitic murdering reptiles know as the Royal Family of England and
what princess Diana discovered about them. Some people may find this
totally unbelievable and shocking!
There have also been questions about whether Diana is even buried on the
island.
Read more… 7,544 more words
Add your thoughts here... (optional)
Oct 30, 2012 2:51 AM
Evidence of Weather Anomalies & Modification-Manipulation-Directing-Possibly-Trying-to-Create-Havoc with Hurricanes, Anyone?
Reblogged from Kauilapele's Blog:
Popout
Read more… 535 more words
Feb 14, 2013 12:09 AM
A Permaculture Love Story — Paradise Lot featured in the New York Times
New
York Times garden columnist Anne Raver recently visited Eric Toensmeier
and Jonathan Bates’s Paradise Lot in Holyoke, Massachussetts.
Enchanted by the garden full of delicious perennials, and the charming
love story that brought two plant geeks the “Eves” they dreamed of, she
penned this piece.
Not only does Raver celebrate Eric’s new memoir, Paradise Lot, which
[...]
Feb 12, 2013 12:20 PM
The Magic of Seed-Saving
“Seed
is the vital link to our agricultural past,” writes John Navazio,
author of our latest book, The Organic Seed Grower. Seeds are at the
heart of local food and agriculture, and there is burgeoning interest in
how to grow your own seeds.
Navazio’s foundational book will help skilled gardeners, who are
already saving [...]
Mar 5, 2013 (4 days ago)
Rockin' science. A comet aimed at Mars? Telepathic rats. And more….
Quick announcement: Join me at the Tucson Festival of Books
this Saturday and Sunday. My panels include: “Gender Roles in Sci Fi
and Fantasy” on Sat at 2:30 pm. “Where’s my hoverboard? Pop Culture in
the Sci Fi Lanscape” on Sat 4-5 pm. “Worldbuilding in fiction” on Sunday
11:30 am.
Science and the Great Delusion: Watch a video of my interview on Mendelspod.com -
a regular podcast about biological sciences and the future. But you
know me… I soon veer into society, history, anthropology, the scientific
process and so on!
The Mars panoramas just
get better and better. Curiosity's self portrait amid the walls and
plains and central mountain of Gale Crater is simply wonderful.
Speaking of eclipsing transits... see awesome first view of the Moon as a smaller thing passing in front of the Earth. And a spectacular view of Venus glimpsed through the rings of Saturn -- as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
Black
holes can apparently pulsate bubbles of inaudible sound through the
surrounding galactic cloud, "57 octaves below B flat above middle C,"
notes astrobiologist Caleb Scharf in Gravity's Engines: How Bubble-blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars and Life in the Cosmos -- a new look at how black holes may profoundly influence the evolution of the cosmos... and ultimately the appearance of life.
A fascinating new book by Marlene Zuk, Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live,
dissects the romantic-nostalgic notion that infests both the left and
the right… that humans were and remain better suited and adapted to the
ways of life experienced by our ancestors, than we are for the crowded,
stressful, and complex requirements of modern existence. "Recognizing
the continuity of evolution also makes clear the futility of selecting
any particular time for human harmony," when we were perfectly adapted
to our environment, writes Zuk. Certainly the nostalgists have a point;
there are challenges that we must rise up to meet, and some of us are
better at coping and thriving in a modern world than others. But there
is very strong evidence that we are not the same, genetically and in
many other ways, as our forbears who hunted across the savannah. We have
changed. Are changing. And will change more in the future.
Looking toward the next big thing in physics: Seven experiments that could rock the paradigm in physics:
The LHC, the Planck probe, LIGO, LISA Pathfinder, Dark matter searches
via DAMA/LIBRA, nuSTORM Neutrino factories, and quantum transmissions.
The Brain is Not Computable: One
of the researchers who created the infrared-detecting mice has also
taken on the whole notion that Moore's Law will soon empower us to mimic
human brains (and then better) in silicon - a core tenet of belief
among "singularity-transhumanists." Miguel Nicolelis,
a top neuroscientist at Duke University, says computers will never
replicate the human brain and that the technological Singularity is “a
bunch of hot air.” The neuroscientist instead thinks that humans will
increasingly subsume machines (an idea, incidentally, that’s also part
of Ray Kurzweil’s transhumanist predictions).
And finally...Scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute reconstructed these models of nearly-alien faces of our hominid ancestors based upon skulls, bone and teeth fragments gathered from around the globe.
Then, on Monday March 11 see me in Chicago at Bucket o' Blood Books: 7 pm at 2307 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago 60647. BYO Books to be signed.
== NEW Sciences ==
Science and the Great Delusion: Watch a video of my interview on Mendelspod.com -
a regular podcast about biological sciences and the future. But you
know me… I soon veer into society, history, anthropology, the scientific
process and so on!
"Quantum Biology?" "Neuroparasitology?" "Recombinant memetics?" Read about Eleven New Sciences (beat that Galileo!) in a survey by George Dvorsky. Heh. I have used them all in stories, some going back thirty years. Where were you guys!
== Heavens above ==
2013's first naked eye comet: This month, March 9-15 have a look just above the horizon where the sun has set for Comet PANSTARRS.
A great show isn't guaranteed… many comets fizzle! (I studied em for
my doctorate.) But we're overdue for a gaudy one. Another possibility… Comet ISON… will blaze this November through December.
The Mars panoramas just
get better and better. Curiosity's self portrait amid the walls and
plains and central mountain of Gale Crater is simply wonderful.
Now let's combine topics: Comets and Mars! It looks like Mars may actually get hit by a comet in 2014. As it stands right now, the chance of a direct impact
are small, but it’s likely Mars will get pelted by the debris
associated with the comet. Phil Plait calculates that if (not too
likely) an impact actually happens, it would have an explosive yield of
roughly one billion megatons: That’s a million billion tons of TNT exploding. Or, if you prefer, an explosion about 25 million times larger than the largest nuclear weapon ever tested on Earth. There is an immature part of me that soooooo wants to see that! It could even re-awaken the red planet, a bit.
Speaking
of re-awakenings... White Dwarf stars are elderly, having burnt out
their early, gaudy phases (like our own sun) and shrunk to little larger
than the Earth. They were never thought likely places to find
candidates for life, having probably cindered any former solar system
during a red giant phase. Only now… Infrared observations have revealed disks of dust surrounding some white dwarfs,
which could be the birthplace of a new generation of planets. Moreover,
such planets could orbit VERY close in and be within a very very close
"goldilocks zone." Moreover, one that transits-eclipses the White Dwarf
star would not be swamped out (since the WD is so dim). Rather, the
planet's atmosphere would be subject to transmission spectroscopy by the
new James Webb Telescope. Cool! (Sorta.)
Speaking of eclipsing transits... see awesome first view of the Moon as a smaller thing passing in front of the Earth. And a spectacular view of Venus glimpsed through the rings of Saturn -- as seen by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
New Dimension: Nebulas are even more amazing in 3-D! Finnish astrophotographer J-P Metsavainio has animated these space images in 3-D for a stunning effect.
And getting cosmic. Astronomers have directly measured the spin of a black hole for the first time by
detecting the mind-bending relativistic effects that warp space-time at
the very edge of its event horizon -- the point of no return, beyond
which even light cannot escape.
Black
holes can apparently pulsate bubbles of inaudible sound through the
surrounding galactic cloud, "57 octaves below B flat above middle C,"
notes astrobiologist Caleb Scharf in Gravity's Engines: How Bubble-blowing Black Holes Rule Galaxies, Stars and Life in the Cosmos -- a new look at how black holes may profoundly influence the evolution of the cosmos... and ultimately the appearance of life.
== And let's include time! ==
Scientists have discovered a 200-kilometre-wide (125-mile-wide) impact zone in the Australian outback they
believe was caused by a massive asteroid smashing into Earth more than
300 million years ago. That's about the same size as the crater remnant
found in the Yucatan, from the rock that killed the dinosaurs 65
million years ago.
A fascinating new book by Marlene Zuk, Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us About Sex, Diet and How We Live,
dissects the romantic-nostalgic notion that infests both the left and
the right… that humans were and remain better suited and adapted to the
ways of life experienced by our ancestors, than we are for the crowded,
stressful, and complex requirements of modern existence. "Recognizing
the continuity of evolution also makes clear the futility of selecting
any particular time for human harmony," when we were perfectly adapted
to our environment, writes Zuk. Certainly the nostalgists have a point;
there are challenges that we must rise up to meet, and some of us are
better at coping and thriving in a modern world than others. But there
is very strong evidence that we are not the same, genetically and in
many other ways, as our forbears who hunted across the savannah. We have
changed. Are changing. And will change more in the future.
Turning to the future… I've received many messages from folks intrigued by my mention (in Existence) of a "phosphorus crisis"
in the 2040s. For many, the novel was the first they'd heard of this,
but the problem has been visible on the distant horizon for some time.
Phosphorus is the rarest element in chemical life and ready reserves are
being mined-out. A time will come when we all use PhosUrinals (or PUs)
to reclaim as much as we can. Here's one more article you might find
interesting: Should you be worried about your meat's phosphorous footprint?
== Bold endeavors ==
Looking toward the next big thing in physics: Seven experiments that could rock the paradigm in physics:
The LHC, the Planck probe, LIGO, LISA Pathfinder, Dark matter searches
via DAMA/LIBRA, nuSTORM Neutrino factories, and quantum transmissions.
The next Genome style project? "The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity,
seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for
genetics." BHO mentioned sci & tech in his SOTU more times than any
other president, even Clinton.
India is testing out an idea that marries solar panels with irrigation canals.
A 1 MW project has been built over nearly half a mile of the Narmada
Canal in the state of Gujarat in India, and it will not only produce
electricity but also conserve land and water by putting solar panels
over a waterway rather than over fertile ground. It also should reduce
evaporation of the canal water by an estimated 237,750 gallons of water
each year. And why aren't we doing this in California?
One
of the technologies we are looking at in NASA's NIAC program is robotic
construction of lunar habitats. Both candidate methods envision a site
in Shackleton Crater at the moon's south pole… a little harder to get
to but there may be water ice below the surface and a solar power
station erected on the crater rim would get sunlight all month long
instead of only 2 weeks at a stretch. One technology (see a cool
video) would sinter lunar dust into rigid walls,
one of the few methods that would need no binding agent carried up from
Earth and no (or little) use of the precious water that may be needed
for other purposes.
== Making Porfirio - more leaps for rat-kind ==
Duke University researchers imbed an implant that gives Lab rats a sixth sense --
to detect infrared light -- by sending a sensor's signals to a part of
the brain assigned to touch. "It could be magnetic fields, radio waves,
or ultrasound. We chose infrared initially because it didn't interfere
with our electrophysiological recordings." One key finding was that
enlisting the touch cortex to detect infrared light did not reduce its
ability to process touch signals.
The Brain is Not Computable: One
of the researchers who created the infrared-detecting mice has also
taken on the whole notion that Moore's Law will soon empower us to mimic
human brains (and then better) in silicon - a core tenet of belief
among "singularity-transhumanists." Miguel Nicolelis,
a top neuroscientist at Duke University, says computers will never
replicate the human brain and that the technological Singularity is “a
bunch of hot air.” The neuroscientist instead thinks that humans will
increasingly subsume machines (an idea, incidentally, that’s also part
of Ray Kurzweil’s transhumanist predictions).
It had to happen. A Duke neuroscientist was able to link two rats' brains—using electrode implants—so that they could communicate through their minds, even solve puzzles. See how far this might be pushed, with parrots in a scene in Existence.
Will my rat-forecast from Existence come true sooner than expected?
== Cool Tech ==
Clay tablets infused with copper or silver molded into cheap filters can purify water for six months.
Made with clay and sawdust… firing burns off the sawdust, leaving a
ceramic with very fine pores. The filter is then painted with a thin
solution of silver or copper nanoparticles that serve as a highly
effective disinfectant for waterborne pathogens.
Graphene supercapacitors could make batteries obsolete.
The coming of "drone journalism"… now in real life, though portrayed down the road a bit, and controlled by Smart Mobs in Existence.
An oddly hypnotic wave pendulum. Watch the video.
Making music with gloves… quite interesting & “futuristic”….. Skip the 1st 7 minutes.
== Our friends in sea and time ==
A Megapod: Thousands of dolphins spanning across seven miles of ocean were sighted off the coast of San Diego.
Have
you seen this about a 19th-century human-whale "treaty"? Australian
whalers had an agreement with a local pod of Orcas known as “The Law of the Tongue.”
The Orcas would herd baleen whales close to the shore of the Port of
Eden, blocking their escape routes, at which point harpoon boats would
set upon – and kill – the whales. The tongues of the baleen whales would
be cut off by the whalers and delivered to the orcas as a food tribute.
The humans and orcas would cooperate in other ways as well.
And finally...Scientists from the Senckenberg Research Institute reconstructed these models of nearly-alien faces of our hominid ancestors based upon skulls, bone and teeth fragments gathered from around the globe.
==See more of my articles about Space: Where are we headed?
.
.
...a collaborative contrarian product of David Brin, Enlightenment
Civilization, obstinate human nature... and
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL:
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
Mar 4, 2013 (5 days ago)
What big-unexpected problem we will face in coming decades? (Contest winners)
My latest novel Existence shows
humanity confronting many challenges forty years in the future -- some
expected and some unforeseen. Indeed, finding, revealing and exploring
unexpected threats... this might be considered one of the most valuable
services of good, thoughtful science fiction.
I recently crowd-sourced a question to my Facebook followers: What do you view as the biggest unexpected problem we will face in the next few decades? Many
insightful and thought-provoking responses poured in, from profound to
comedic, ranging from political instability to economic collapse, civil
unrest to over-reliance on machines, social disruption to psychological
plagues. Others dealt with problems of over-population and life
extension, shortages of water and biodiversity, severe climate change,
collapse of our information systems, growth of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, even meteor impacts.
Here I'm posting the most intriguing responses that got the most fan votes (the top two won fee copies of the brand new paperback edition of EXISTENCE! Note
that I do not necessarily agree with all of the cited entries and will
respond to a few of them in comments. But all of them show verve and a
willingness to peer ahead:
1. What
form of government will replace capitalism? This system is devolving at
FTL speed, and the world is still unaware of a viable solution to it,
while world situation is becoming more erratic and explosive daily. We
will find ourselves in need of new ethno-national definitions very soon.
Also, what will replace religion, for the same reasons. However, I feel
that space exploration and the focus towards space will, at least
partially, contribute to the latter. --Margie Lazou
2. Political
and economic pressures from spacefaring nations to keep others from
having the ability to access the almost infinite resources off-planet;
extremely low cost for resources - material and energy - for the
space-capable, and artificially high prices for everyone else. --David Christensen
3. Longevity
due to augmentation and medical advances will create a need to migrate
off planet for resources but those left behind must deal with massive
social strain and change along with the burdensome question of what it
means to be human. --John Berry Gosnell
4. A plastic-eating bacterium with resistance to all known antibiotics. --Martha Dunham
5. The
unexpected loss of a sense of humor in people of European extraction,
leading to mass suicide and the end of sit com laugh tracks. --Rhonda Palmer
(
I was given such a novel as a Christmas present years ago. A hoot of a
read was self published and is likely out of print : The Lidek
Revolution )
Mar 1, 2013 1:44 PM
"Primer" Technologies For Enhancing 21st Century Citizenship
What new technologies could make the most difference?
Across
the 20th Century, a growing array of problems were solved through the
application of professional skill. We came to rely increasingly upon
professions ranging from medical doctors to law enforcement, from
teachers to farmers for countless tasks that an average family used to
do largely for itself. No other trend so perfectly represents the last
century as this one, spanning all boundaries of politics, ideology or
geography.
Elsewhere I speak of the 21st Century as a looming "Age of Amateurs,"
wherein a highly educated citizenry will be able to adeptly bring to
bear countless capabilities and individual pools of knowledge, some of
which may not be up to professional standards, but that can find synergy
together, perhaps augmenting society's skill set, at a time of need. We
saw this very thing happen at the century's dawn, on 9/11. Most
important, helpful and successful actions that occurred on an awful day
were taken by self-mobilized citizens and amateurs. At a moment when
professionalism failed at many levels.
In
sharp contrast, the events of Hurricane Katrina (and the 2011
earthquake-tsunami in Japan) showed the dark side of this transition -- a
professional protector caste (crossing party and jurisdiction lines:
including republicans and democrats, state, local and federal officials)
whose sole ambition appeared to be to limit citizen-organized activity.
Moreover, the very same technology that empowered New Yorkers and
Bostonians betrayed citizens in New Orleans. Thousands who had
fully-charged and operational radios in their pockets were unable to use
them for communication -- either with each other or the outside world
-- thanks to collapse of the cellular phone networks.
When
someone actually pays attention to this "real digital divide" - between
the lobotomized/childish synchronous chat/avatar/facebook world and the
slow-but-cogent asynchronous web/blog/download world -- we may progress
toward useful online communities like rapid "smart mobs."
For example, crowd-sourcing and citizen engagement are increasingly playing a role in science -- both in terms of funding and direct participation in research.
Oh,
it is a brave new world... We will have to be agile. Some things will
be lost and others diminished. We will have to re-define "privacy" much
closer to home, or even just within it.
NSW Saturday 23rd February: (7:00 pm) Presentation Wagga Wagga Commercial Club, Nathan Room Saturday, 23rd February (12:00 noon) George and Paul interview, 954 2UE Monday, 25th February: (7:10am) Alan Jones interview, 873 2GB … Click more for booking details of the other dates this week in Sydney & Newcastle, next week in Perth, and the week after that in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. … Tuesday 26th February: Evening (7.30 pm) South Newcastle Leagues club, 46 Llewellyn St Merewether NSW Thursday 28th February: Evening (7:30 pm) North Sydney Leagues Club, Abbott St Cammeray NSW 2062
Friday 1st March: Afternoon (1:00 pm) Sydney Mechanics School – Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
Friday 1st March: Evening (7:00 pm) Sydney Mechanics School – Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
WA Wednesday 6th March: Evening (7:30 pm) Dalkieth Hall,Perth. 97 Waratah Avenue Dalkeith Friday 8th March: Evening social event in Subiaco Perth, with Monckton, organized by Perth skeptics. Email Elisha Ladhams (ladhamsej AT gmail.com) for details. Saturday 9th March: Evening Presentation at UWA. Details to be advised. Email Elisha Ladhams (ladhamsej AT gmail.com). QLD Tuesday 12th March: Evening (7:00 pm) THE IRISH CLUB, Brisbane.175 Elizabeth [...]
We
have yet another potential mess concerning elections in New York City
on the new optical-scan computer tabulation systems which recently
replaced the mechanical lever machines used by the city for decades.
This time, the problem relates to the upcoming citywide elections in September which, if no candidate wins more than 40% in any of the primary races, a runoff will be required by state law, just two weeks later.
This is now a huge problem for the city, since there is concern that it could be all but impossible to re-prepare and fully re-test the computer optical-scan systems in the short time after the primary and before the runoff elections. It has left some, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as the NYC Board of Elections, seemingly regretting the move away from lever machines and considering bringing them out of mothballs for this year's runoffs.
"The computers just can't be programmed and readied in time for a runoff," ABC7's Dave Evans notes in his video report on Monday (posted below). "The old machines can be."
Further adding to the problems, says State Board of Elections Commissioner Doug Kellner "If there is a very close primary election, it may not be possible to determine the candidates in the runoff election in the time frame available."
Since New York state was the last in the nation to "upgrade" their voting systems from the old lever systems to new proprietary computer optical-scan systems over the last several years, the move has caused nothing but headaches in New York City and across the state...
New systems cause new problems for New York...
For example, back in 2008, as the new systems began to arrive, just 15% of the new, $11,000/piece electronic Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) for disabled voters actually arrived in working order in Nassau County. All the others were "unusable or...require[d] major repairs," according to the County Attorney at the time.
During the 2009 Special Election to fill the NY-23 U.S. House seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand after she was named to fill the U.S. Senate seat of then newly appointed Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, unsubstantiated rumors of a "virus" in the new optical-scan systems, used for the very first time in the district during that race, sullied confidence in the computer-reported results. [We covered the story extensively at the time for the right-leaning Gouverneur Times which is now, unfortunately, out or business.]
In late 2010, the state court ordered that a manual "recount" of paper ballots had to be stopped and that unverified computer tallies were to be used as "official" in a New York state Senate race where just 451 votes, out of some 84,000 ballots cast, separated the two top candidates. The election would result in Republicans gaining the majority in that body that year.
Last year, after a public records request, the New York Daily News discovered that during the 2010 statewide September primary elections, some op-scan systems in the South Bronx experienced a failure rate of 70%. In the November general election that year, the failure rate was found to be 54%. Thousands of valid votes went uncounted entirely.
When the new op-scan systems rolled out in New York City itself in 2010, long lines, "reports of broken and missing scanners," and computer "system errors" resulted in what Mayor Bloomberg at the time described as a "royal mess."
All of those royal messes might have been avoided, had the state simply listened to the Election Integrity advocates at the time who were attempting to persuade the state to stick with their old tried and true mechanical lever voting machines, rather than move to secret vote counts by computer tabulators. The advocates had tried to warn the state to ignore a wholly inaccurate "legal advisory" issued in 2005 by the woefully compromised U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) which had incorrectly advised that mechanical lever voting machines did not meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.
Even today, some elections official in New York refuse to certify races tabulated on the new, unreliable electronic systems, insisting on a hand-count before they will sign off on official results.
Back to the future...
Which brings us to the latest royal mess in New York City surrounding their upcoming September elections which has lead Bloomberg to pine for the old lever machines. In fact, using those systems has been presented as one of the possibilities examined by the NYC Board of Elections as a solution to the latest woes, as explained in ABC7's Monday night report below...
"We used to be able to get, within a couple of hours, a count. Now
you can't get it within a couple of months," Bloomberg complains in the
report above. "This is ridiculous."
The old lever machines, still stored in a Brooklyn warehouse, "could easily be called up for a runoff this fall because they're uncomplicated, easy to use," reports ABC7's Evans. "The new computers aren't."
In response, Dick Dadey, Executive Director of NY good-government group Citizens Union calls the lever machines "unreliable." He goes on to argue that they "haven't been used in three or four years, do not count votes correctly [and] would cause more problems than they would solve."
While there are various problems that can crop up with the old lever machines, they are very rare, and limited in scope only to the single precinct where the problem occurred. Unlike the secret-vote counting computer systems that Dadey seems to be arguing for, the suggestion that they "do not count votes correctly," is simply wrong.
In ABC7's report, Frederic Umane, chief of the NYC Board of Elections, calls for simply "getting rid of the runoff" entirely.
As usual, here we have a case of technological driving the democracy, rather than the other way around.
Other proposed solutions for the problem have included calls for the state legislature to move the September primary up to an earlier date (Republicans would like it in August, Democrats prefer June before folks go out of town for the summer), to allow time to reprogram the systems between the two elections if a runoff becomes necessary.
Still others have called for the horrible and incredibly confusing idea of an Instant Runoff, using a process known as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) which requires voters to select first and second choices, with the votes of losing first choice candidates being shifted to others until one candidate finally reaches the required percentage to be declared the winner. Schemes like that --- in a country where we have enough trouble adding 1 + 1 + 1 in a way that the citizenry can know votes have been tabulated correctly --- have been tried and failed all over the country. They can also be gamed and lead to candidates "winning" even though they've received less than a majority --- even less than a plurality --- of the vote. (Here is an excellent YouTube video channel with a bunch of great videos explaining the many problems with Instant Runoff Voting and RCV.) Think NYC has problems with their elections now? Try adding RCV to the mix.
All of those "solutions", however, would call for legislative action by the state, which is believed to be unlikely.
So, yesterday, here's how the NYC Board of Elections decided to handle the problem for now, according to WNYC...
And, as if all of that wasn't dumb enough, there was this closing note from WYNC: "A primary generally costs the city around $20 million dollars, according to Board officials. Using the scanner option, the runoff will cost that much, plus an additional $8.5 million."
Brilliant. The September elections in NYC should be fun. What could possibly go wrong?
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As the Dow hit its all-time record high yesterday (continuing same today) and while corporate profits continue to hit record highs along with it --- underscoring, yet again, that Barack Obama is the worst socialist ever --- there are a couple more charts worth reminding you about today, courtesy of Rachel Maddow's show last night...
And while corporate profits sky-rocket, unemployment slowly (really
slowly) improves, and Republicans hold the nation hostage with the
"Sequester" by refusing to close any tax loopholes for the rich which
might serve to increase revenues by even the tiniest amount, there is
this chart to ponder...
So, remember, when you hear Republicans claim they are concerned
about "the deficit", they are not. They are flat out lying. They are
concerned only about maintaining low taxes and sky-high profits for
corporations and the rich people who need those tax-payer funded
giveaways the least.
And
yet - just as clearly - this trend cannot continue much longer. If only
for demographic reasons, the as the rate of professionalization and
specialization must start to fall off, exactly as we are about to face a
bewildering array of new -- and rapid-onrushing -- problems.
How will we cope?
Elsewhere I speak of the 21st Century as a looming "Age of Amateurs,"
wherein a highly educated citizenry will be able to adeptly bring to
bear countless capabilities and individual pools of knowledge, some of
which may not be up to professional standards, but that can find synergy
together, perhaps augmenting society's skill set, at a time of need. We
saw this very thing happen at the century's dawn, on 9/11. Most
important, helpful and successful actions that occurred on an awful day
were taken by self-mobilized citizens and amateurs. At a moment when
professionalism failed at many levels.
It is important to note what a strong role technology played in fostering citizen action on 9/11.
People equipped with video cameras documented the day and provided our
best post-mortem footage. People with cell phones organized the
evacuation of the twin towers. Similar phone-stirred gumption stirred
and empowered the heroes who fought back and made the Legend of Flight
UA 93. A phenomenon that noted author Rebecca Solnit later documented
in A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster.
In
sharp contrast, the events of Hurricane Katrina (and the 2011
earthquake-tsunami in Japan) showed the dark side of this transition -- a
professional protector caste (crossing party and jurisdiction lines:
including republicans and democrats, state, local and federal officials)
whose sole ambition appeared to be to limit citizen-organized activity.
Moreover, the very same technology that empowered New Yorkers and
Bostonians betrayed citizens in New Orleans. Thousands who had
fully-charged and operational radios in their pockets were unable to use
them for communication -- either with each other or the outside world
-- thanks to collapse of the cellular phone networks.
This
was a travesty. But the aftermath was worse! Because, amid all the
finger-pointing and blame-casting that followed Katrina, almost no attention has been paid to improving the reliability and utility of our cell networks,
to assist citizen action during times of emergency. To the best of my
knowledge. no high level demand has gone out - from FEMA or any other
agency - for industry to address problems revealed in the devastation of
America's Gulf Coast. A correction that should be both simple/cheap and
useful to implement.
What
do we need? We must have new ways for citizens to self-organize, both
in normal life and (especially) during crises, when normal channels may
collapse, or else get taken over by the authorities for their own use.
All this might require is a slight change -- or set of additions -- in
the programming of the sophisticated little radio communications devices
that we all carry in our pockets, nowadays.
How
about a simple back-up mode for text messaging? One that could use
packet-switching to bypass the cell towers when they are down, and pass
messages from phone to phone -- or peer-to-peer -- at least among phones
that are of the same type? (GSM, TDMA, CDMA etc.) All of the needed
packet-switching algorithms already exist. Moreover, this would allow a
drowning city (or other catastrophe zone) to fill with tens of thousands
of little spots of light, supplying information to helpers and
reassurance to loved ones, anywhere in the world.
Are
the cell companies afraid their towers will be bypassed when there's no
emergency? What foolishness. This mode could be suppressed when a good
tower is in range and become useful automatically when one is not... a
notion that also happens to help solve the infamous "last mile
connectivity problem." Anyway, there are dozens of ways that p2p calls
could be billed. Can we at least talk about it?
(Late
note: as of 2012, it seems that at long last some efforts are being
made in this area, by Qualcomm and some other companies. Stay tuned --
so to speak.)
The
same dismal intransigence foils progress on the internet, where
millions of adults use "asynchronous" communications methods, like web
sites, blogs and email, but shun "synchronous" zones like chat and
avatar worlds, where the interface (filled with sexy cartoon figures)
seem designed to ruin any chance of useful discourse. For example, by
limiting self-expression to about a sentence at a time and ignoring
several dozen ways that human beings actually organize and allocate
scarce attention in real life. To answer your next question: Facebook is
quasi synchronous for those folks who haunt it almost incessantly. It
thus acquires most of the worst traits of both worlds.
When
someone actually pays attention to this "real digital divide" - between
the lobotomized/childish synchronous chat/avatar/facebook world and the
slow-but-cogent asynchronous web/blog/download world -- we may progress
toward useful online communities like rapid "smart mobs." For example, crowd-sourcing and citizen engagement are increasingly playing a role in science -- both in terms of funding and direct participation in research.
Only first, we are going to have to learn to look at how human beings allocate attention in real life! (For more on this: see EpoceneChat)
Another tool involves Disputation Arenas, using conflict and competition to help resolve issues and achieve mediation, consensus or synthesis.
Oh,
there are dozens of other technologies that will add together, like
pieces in a puzzle, synergizing to help empower the magnificent citizen
of tomorrow. Facial recognition systems and automatic lookups will turn
every pedestrian on any street into someone who you vaguely know... a
prospect that cynical pundits will decry, but that was EXACTLY how our
ancestors lived, nearly all of them, throughout human history. The thing
to be afraid of is asymmetries of power, not universal knowledge. The thing to protect is not 
your secrecy, but your ability to deter others from doing you harm.
your secrecy, but your ability to deter others from doing you harm.
Likewise,
I assure you that we are on the verge of getting both lie detectors and
reliable personality profiling. And yes, if these new machines frighten
you, they should! Because they may wind up being clutched and
monopolized by elites, and then used against us. I am glad you're frightened. If that happens, we will surely see an era that makes Big Brother look tame.
And yet, the solution to this danger is not to
"ban" such technologies! That is exactly what elites want us to do (so
they can monopolize the methods in secret out of our skeptical eye). No,
that reflex sees only half the story. Come on, open your mind a little
farther.
What
if those very same -- inevitable -- technologies wind up being used by
all sovereign citizens of an open democracy, say, fiercely applied to
politicians and others who now smile and croon and insist that they
deserve our trust? In other words, what if we could separate the men and
women who have told little lies and admit it (and we forgive them) from
those who tell the really dangerous and destructive whoppers? Those who
are corrupt and/or blackmailed and/or lying through their teeth?
In that case, won't we have a better chance of making sure that Big Brother doesn't happen... ever?
Oh,
it is a brave new world... We will have to be agile. Some things will
be lost and others diminished. We will have to re-define "privacy" much
closer to home, or even just within it.
On
the other hand, if we don't panic, we may see the beginnings of the era
of the sovereign and empowered citizen. An Age of Amateurs in which no
talent is suppressed or wasted, and no problem escapes the attention of a
myriad talented eyes.
===== ===== =====
See more on Citizen Involvement in Emergency Preparedness
.
.
...a collaborative contrarian product of David Brin, Enlightenment
Civilization, obstinate human nature... and
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ (site feed URL:
http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
Feb 23, 2013 5:05 AM
ABC, Dr Helen Caldicott sinks to mocking the unwell, Monckton calls for her to be deregistered
Helen
Caldicott and the ABC have excelled themselves in the Art of Ad
Hominem. So much so, that Christopher Monckton is not only writing to
the ABC, but also to medical registration boards as well, calling for
Caldicotts’s de-registration.
On ABC
Radio National (about 25% into the program). Reader Steve, writes that
“Helen Caldicott declares that climate change sceptic Christopher
Monckton has “got thyrotoxicosis and bilateral exophthalmos”. She gives
the impression that such conditions should prevent Monckton from
engaging in the public debate. Waleed Aly said nothing to stop Dr
Caldicott’s ad hominem attack on Monckton’s alleged medical condition.”
Is she not aware Monckton had Graves?
Caldicott
is a doctor and also the co-founder of Physicians for Social
Responsibility, “an organization of 23,000 doctors”. [See her Bio].
Perhaps she thinks it would be “socially responsible” to start a show
where panels of doctors speculated on the medical conditions of
celebrities they had never met? They could make fun of fat politicians
and disabled sports stars? What fun. How about the laughs of picking on
Stephen Hawking?
Stephan Lewandowsky could be a regular guest, pronouncing that non-Labor-Green fans were paranoid conspiracy [...]
Rating: 9.4/10 (181 votes cast)
Feb 22, 2013 8:15 PM
Monckton Tour Dates updated – Wagga Wagga, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle
…NSW Saturday 23rd February: (7:00 pm) Presentation Wagga Wagga Commercial Club, Nathan Room Saturday, 23rd February (12:00 noon) George and Paul interview, 954 2UE Monday, 25th February: (7:10am) Alan Jones interview, 873 2GB … Click more for booking details of the other dates this week in Sydney & Newcastle, next week in Perth, and the week after that in Brisbane and the Gold Coast. … Tuesday 26th February: Evening (7.30 pm) South Newcastle Leagues club, 46 Llewellyn St Merewether NSW Thursday 28th February: Evening (7:30 pm) North Sydney Leagues Club, Abbott St Cammeray NSW 2062
Friday 1st March: Afternoon (1:00 pm) Sydney Mechanics School – Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
Friday 1st March: Evening (7:00 pm) Sydney Mechanics School – Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, 280 Pitt St, Sydney
WA Wednesday 6th March: Evening (7:30 pm) Dalkieth Hall,Perth. 97 Waratah Avenue Dalkeith Friday 8th March: Evening social event in Subiaco Perth, with Monckton, organized by Perth skeptics. Email Elisha Ladhams (ladhamsej AT gmail.com) for details. Saturday 9th March: Evening Presentation at UWA. Details to be advised. Email Elisha Ladhams (ladhamsej AT gmail.com). QLD Tuesday 12th March: Evening (7:00 pm) THE IRISH CLUB, Brisbane.175 Elizabeth [...]
Rating: 8.7/10 (43 votes cast)
Mar 6, 2013 (3 days ago)
New York City Considers Move Back to Lever Voting Machines For September Elections
We
have yet another potential mess concerning elections in New York City
on the new optical-scan computer tabulation systems which recently
replaced the mechanical lever machines used by the city for decades.This time, the problem relates to the upcoming citywide elections in September which, if no candidate wins more than 40% in any of the primary races, a runoff will be required by state law, just two weeks later.
This is now a huge problem for the city, since there is concern that it could be all but impossible to re-prepare and fully re-test the computer optical-scan systems in the short time after the primary and before the runoff elections. It has left some, including Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as well as the NYC Board of Elections, seemingly regretting the move away from lever machines and considering bringing them out of mothballs for this year's runoffs.
"The computers just can't be programmed and readied in time for a runoff," ABC7's Dave Evans notes in his video report on Monday (posted below). "The old machines can be."
Further adding to the problems, says State Board of Elections Commissioner Doug Kellner "If there is a very close primary election, it may not be possible to determine the candidates in the runoff election in the time frame available."
Since New York state was the last in the nation to "upgrade" their voting systems from the old lever systems to new proprietary computer optical-scan systems over the last several years, the move has caused nothing but headaches in New York City and across the state...
New systems cause new problems for New York...
For example, back in 2008, as the new systems began to arrive, just 15% of the new, $11,000/piece electronic Ballot Marking Devices (BMDs) for disabled voters actually arrived in working order in Nassau County. All the others were "unusable or...require[d] major repairs," according to the County Attorney at the time.
During the 2009 Special Election to fill the NY-23 U.S. House seat vacated by Kirsten Gillibrand after she was named to fill the U.S. Senate seat of then newly appointed Sec. of State Hillary Clinton, unsubstantiated rumors of a "virus" in the new optical-scan systems, used for the very first time in the district during that race, sullied confidence in the computer-reported results. [We covered the story extensively at the time for the right-leaning Gouverneur Times which is now, unfortunately, out or business.]
In late 2010, the state court ordered that a manual "recount" of paper ballots had to be stopped and that unverified computer tallies were to be used as "official" in a New York state Senate race where just 451 votes, out of some 84,000 ballots cast, separated the two top candidates. The election would result in Republicans gaining the majority in that body that year.
Last year, after a public records request, the New York Daily News discovered that during the 2010 statewide September primary elections, some op-scan systems in the South Bronx experienced a failure rate of 70%. In the November general election that year, the failure rate was found to be 54%. Thousands of valid votes went uncounted entirely.
When the new op-scan systems rolled out in New York City itself in 2010, long lines, "reports of broken and missing scanners," and computer "system errors" resulted in what Mayor Bloomberg at the time described as a "royal mess."
All of those royal messes might have been avoided, had the state simply listened to the Election Integrity advocates at the time who were attempting to persuade the state to stick with their old tried and true mechanical lever voting machines, rather than move to secret vote counts by computer tabulators. The advocates had tried to warn the state to ignore a wholly inaccurate "legal advisory" issued in 2005 by the woefully compromised U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) which had incorrectly advised that mechanical lever voting machines did not meet the requirements of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.
Even today, some elections official in New York refuse to certify races tabulated on the new, unreliable electronic systems, insisting on a hand-count before they will sign off on official results.
Back to the future...
Which brings us to the latest royal mess in New York City surrounding their upcoming September elections which has lead Bloomberg to pine for the old lever machines. In fact, using those systems has been presented as one of the possibilities examined by the NYC Board of Elections as a solution to the latest woes, as explained in ABC7's Monday night report below...
The old lever machines, still stored in a Brooklyn warehouse, "could easily be called up for a runoff this fall because they're uncomplicated, easy to use," reports ABC7's Evans. "The new computers aren't."
In response, Dick Dadey, Executive Director of NY good-government group Citizens Union calls the lever machines "unreliable." He goes on to argue that they "haven't been used in three or four years, do not count votes correctly [and] would cause more problems than they would solve."
While there are various problems that can crop up with the old lever machines, they are very rare, and limited in scope only to the single precinct where the problem occurred. Unlike the secret-vote counting computer systems that Dadey seems to be arguing for, the suggestion that they "do not count votes correctly," is simply wrong.
In ABC7's report, Frederic Umane, chief of the NYC Board of Elections, calls for simply "getting rid of the runoff" entirely.
As usual, here we have a case of technological driving the democracy, rather than the other way around.
Other proposed solutions for the problem have included calls for the state legislature to move the September primary up to an earlier date (Republicans would like it in August, Democrats prefer June before folks go out of town for the summer), to allow time to reprogram the systems between the two elections if a runoff becomes necessary.
Still others have called for the horrible and incredibly confusing idea of an Instant Runoff, using a process known as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) which requires voters to select first and second choices, with the votes of losing first choice candidates being shifted to others until one candidate finally reaches the required percentage to be declared the winner. Schemes like that --- in a country where we have enough trouble adding 1 + 1 + 1 in a way that the citizenry can know votes have been tabulated correctly --- have been tried and failed all over the country. They can also be gamed and lead to candidates "winning" even though they've received less than a majority --- even less than a plurality --- of the vote. (Here is an excellent YouTube video channel with a bunch of great videos explaining the many problems with Instant Runoff Voting and RCV.) Think NYC has problems with their elections now? Try adding RCV to the mix.
All of those "solutions", however, would call for legislative action by the state, which is believed to be unlikely.
So, yesterday, here's how the NYC Board of Elections decided to handle the problem for now, according to WNYC...
The city BOE had narrowed their choice down to four options. One
involved using the old lever machines, two of the others relied on all
paper ballots and differing types of manual counts. Each of these
scenarios required some change to state law. Since the BOE's ideal
solution was for state lawmakers to move the primary date entirely, and
Albany remained resistant, commissioners raised concerns around any
scenario that relied on legislative action.
Ultimately the board opted to forge ahead with optical scanners,
through a vote of 8 to 1, because that option only required the State
BOE to approve the city's plan for reduced testing between the primary
and runoff.
Yes, that's right. The "solution" settled on, for now, by the BOE, is to do less testing
of the oft-failed, easily-hacked, computer tabulation systems they are
already using, rather than move to a simpler, cheaper, overseeable
option like the tried and true lever machines, or, better yet, simply
hand-counting results, as per "Democracy's Gold Standard".And, as if all of that wasn't dumb enough, there was this closing note from WYNC: "A primary generally costs the city around $20 million dollars, according to Board officials. Using the scanner option, the runoff will cost that much, plus an additional $8.5 million."
Brilliant. The September elections in NYC should be fun. What could possibly go wrong?
Mar 6, 2013 (3 days ago)
Charts of the Moment: GOP Protecting Record Corporate Profits and the Rich Getting Richer
On Monday, we offered a single chart as a reminder of who is really to blame for America's "DEBT CRISIS!!!" (which, as we noted prior to that, isn't really a crisis at all.)As the Dow hit its all-time record high yesterday (continuing same today) and while corporate profits continue to hit record highs along with it --- underscoring, yet again, that Barack Obama is the worst socialist ever --- there are a couple more charts worth reminding you about today, courtesy of Rachel Maddow's show last night...
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