Entrepaunerial News: Using YouTube to get the word out…

…was covered in last Sunday’s New York Times:

The video showed how, in a few easy steps, the Nintendo Wii remote controller — or “Wiimote” — could transform a normal video screen into a virtual reality display, with graphics that seemed to pop through the screen and into the living room. So far, the video has been seen more than six million times.

That video, together with others that Mr. Lee, now 28, posted on YouTube, have drawn people to the innovator as well as his innovations. Video game companies have contacted him and, in September, M.I.T.’s Technology Review named him as one of its top innovators under 35.

There is a related SlashDot discussion.

The is a great idea. It is another venue for entrepreneurs/inventors/innovators to connect with each other, potential customers, and potential inventors.

Here are to of the video:

Future Milwaukee entrepaunerial activity seeds: “MSOE to open biomolecular engineering program”

This sounds cool!

The Milwaukee School of Engineering next fall will launch a degree program in biomolecular engineering – the first bachelor’s program of its kind in Wisconsin – thanks to a $6 million gift from philanthropists Robert and Patricia Kern and their daughters.

“We’re very excited about the program,” MSOE President Hermann Viets said. “Our aim is to produce people that are eminently employable within their first four years or can choose to go to graduate school. Clearly, there’s a demand (for graduates) already and there’s no production.”

Biomolecular engineers develop new products, processes and techniques and provide solutions for medical, food, environmental and technical problems. They can find jobs in clinical settings, hospitals, government, research, industry, agriculture, engineering and management.

As part of the new program, MSOE is hiring six faculty members in the next five years and creating several new laboratories and a cell culture facility to be constructed by the 2009-’10 academic year. The 2,600-student private school expects to enroll 30 students in the program.

Biomolecular engineering is related to both biomedical and chemical engineering. While biomedical engineers work on a human scale – with such devices as defibrillators, prosthetics or pacemakers – biomolecular engineers work on a molecular scale, perhaps using an injection to transfer molecules into a cell structure to treat human illnesses, Viets said.

Several schools in Wisconsin, including MSOE, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Marquette University, have bachelor’s programs in biomedical engineering. But MSOE appears to be the first in the state to offer a biomolecular engineering bachelor’s degree.

The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is a nifty specialty engineering schools with Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in downtown Milwaukee. I have worked with many graduates of the schools and used to get my Interns from there almost exclusively.

I hope the seeds sprout into small business start-ups and increased medical technology business activity.

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan – Fake Conservative

So first  Ryan compromised his “principles” and supported the Bailout.

Now, according to JS Online, he is coming out against free trade (I support free trade):

So forgive the people of the state’s 1st Congressional District if they are a little confused by Ryan’s latest ad.

“People are hurting because American companies benefit by shipping jobs overseas,” the 38-year-old pol says into the camera.

Ryan then complains that it is “unfair” for American companies to get a tax break by producing goods elsewhere and then importing them to the U.S.

“Instead of exporting jobs,” he concludes, “we should be exporting American products.”

That’s a lot of fair-trade rhetoric from someone known as a free-trade champion.

He is not really a conservative. He is just another jack-off politician that will say or vote whatever to get elected, get favors, and get personal benefits. He has shown he has no real principles (they are not “real” if you don’t stand by them when its inconvenient).

Right-wing radio talk show host Mark Belling sounded the alarm for the young GOP star in a recent column.

“Ryan, the reformer who represents the party’s future, is very worried he could be taken out in a Democratic tidal wave,” Belling wrote this week. “The loss to the conservative movement should Ryan lose is almost incalculable.”

He is already gone. Forget about him. He no longer matters.

Others have suggested that Ryan’s big ad buy has more to do with his interest in Herb Kohl’s seat when the Democrat retires from the U.S. Senate.

I will certainly remember if Ryan run for the US Senate of for Wisconsin Governor. He will never get my vote.

Happy Halloween!

David Brin was talking about Star Wars (criticism) on a recent Chivalry Today Podcast

It was episode #23.

I just started listening to it on my iPod over lunch.

It seems David Brin has edited a new book on the subject (as well as these great articles).

My own view is that Lucas screwed up Star Wars when he came to Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker)  as the Hero of his saga instead of the villain:

To those of us who went to the original movies when they first came out, Star Wars was the story of Luke Skywalker and his companions – especially rogue Han Solo – as they rebelled against the evil empire which was personified by the great villain Darth Vader.

Darth Vader aka Anakin Skywalker is the bad guy. George Lucas thinks he is the star or hero. That is why the episodes 1 thru 3 suck pretty much.

Heh…the Darth Vader-as-Hero thing got me ranting on a younger co-worker this week who said it the plan along to have the saga revolve around Vader. It wasn’t. Vader-as-hero-journey is how Lucas “improved or upgraded” from his original idea of “The Adventures of Luke Skywalker”.

This is the Bad Guy. He is not the Hero.
I don’t care what George Lucas thinks.

Though he is now a convicted felon, get ready for former Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee Jr. scammer 2.0

So, McGee Jr. has been convicted and now sentenced:

After the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said in a statement: “The evidence at the trial showed that Michael McGee Jr. was one of the most corrupt elected officials in Milwaukee’s history. Although his sentence was below that recommended by the government, his case should serve as a deterrent for other elected officials who may prey on their constituents.”

I hope so. We’ll see. Milwaukee politician had a squeaky clean image when I was a kid, that is no longer true. Others think the incentive won’t be that much:

ViAnna Jordan, who unsuccessfully challenged McGee in a recall election in 2007 and in the general election this year, called the sentence light.

“Wow, every politician-crook in Milwaukee should be elated because that means they can do whatever they want, victimize the community, victimize the city, take from the lowest of people, just rip off the whole community and all you get is merely 6 ½ years,” she said.

Since he won’t be able to make it as a politician anymore, McGee jr. seems to already be planning the next version of his low-life career:

While behind bars, McGee said, he has reconnected with God and has enrolled in a minister-training program through the Holy Redeemer Institutional Church of God in Christ, though he doesn’t plan to become a full-time minister. McGee also said he is creating a curriculum for a young people’s program at the request of Holy Redeemer’s Bishop Sedgwick Daniels.

Sigh. He’ll be back causing causing trouble and being a parasite on his community this time as a religious leader of some sort.

Just like his father.

This is part of “Fixing Milwaukee”.

Ymarsakar: “One of the classic differences between villains and heroes…”

Ymarsakar has a pretty smart observation in the comments of this post that desrves a bit more notice:

One of the classic differences between villains and heroes are that the heroes’ methods are perfectly acceptable when applied against the hero or his enemies. The villains’ methods, however, are only acceptable to the villain when applied against the villain’s enemies. Applied against the villain and suddenly things are no good, purple. Suddenly the villains must be protected from their own methods even though those methods were justified when used against people like Joe or Sarah.

That’s how you can detect the difference ethics and lack of ethics.

This is one of those Rule of Thumb (RoT) things, that seems so obvious when you finally read, that you wish you had thought of it yourself (as I do) as it help crystalize thinking on ethics.

Update: Minor correction.

Link Spasm

I haven’t done one of these in awhile. Each link interesting, but I don’t want to make a separate post about each.

The Futurist – “A Future Timeline for Economics“

“NASA Turns 50 — Now What?“

“Sound Bites of the 1908 Presidential Candidates“

Music: “Funeral March by Beruit” via Stephen Pampinella

Information Security-ish – “Why Risk Management Doesn’t Work“

“New Killer Drones Could be Piloted by Teenagers“

Techdirt: The Grand Unified Theory On The Economics Of Free

TechDirt: Books Are The Souvenir Edition For Your Idea

Market-place gods had it right

Quicken Online Drops Subscription Fee, Now Free

The Apex Fallacy: An Interview with Dr. Helen Smith

HotAir: Video: French archive releases footage of McCain POW interview

Election 2008 Blowback on wasted Uranium/Iraq related Influence Warfare opportunity

It occurs to me, that wasted (not-taken) Influence Warfare Opportunity that I just blogged about greatly improved the chances of Senator Obama being elected.

With the facts ignored/hidden, Obama can continue to make his claims on the Iraq war. So, he was wrong on the Surge, and he was wrong about the WMDs-as-fake-justification for the Iraq war.

So not only has USGOV freedom-of-action been reduced, not only has trust among current and potential partners been harmed, this wasted Influence Warfare opportunity may lead a Leftist US President (and all the harm that will come to the US with that).

What a clusterflop.

Influence Warfare (not) “It appears that American troops found the 550 metric tons of uranium in 2003 after invading Iraq”

At Destinys Choice:

Secret U.S. Mission Hauls Uranium From Iraq On July 5, 2008, the Associated Press (AP) released a story titled: Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq .

The opening paragraph is as follows: The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program – a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium – reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
[…]
We have been hearing from the far-left for more than five years how, “Bush lied.” Somehow, that slogan loses its credibility now that 550 metric tons of Saddam’s yellowcake, used for nuclear weapon enrichment, has been discovered and shipped to Canada for its new use as nuclear energy. It appears that American troops found the 550 metric tons of uranium in 2003 after invading Iraq .

They had to sit on this information and the uranium itself, for fear of terrorists attempting to steal it. It was guarded and kept safe by our military in a 23,000-acre site with large sand beams surrounding the site
[…]
Once the AP released the story, the mainstream media should have picked it up and broadcast it worldwide. This never happened, due in large part I believe, to the fact that the mainstream media would have to admit they were wrong about Bush’s war motives all along. Thankfully, the AP got it right when it said, “The removal of 550 metric tons of ‘yellowcake'” – the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment – was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy.” Closing the book on Saddam’s nuclear legacy? Did Saddam have a nuclear legacy after all? I thought Bush lied?
[…]
This story was verified, if you want to check it for yourself, click on the link below. Read this link, the article and its substance: http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/u/uraniumyellowcake.htm http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25546334

I too missed this story when it came out.

I understand the MSM keeping it on the down low, they have invested too much into the ChimpyBusHitlerLiedPeopleDied meme, to go “Oops sorry, got that one wrong” at this point. The MSM is corrupt and acting against US interest. This does not surprise me.

I still consider this to be an example of  great failure for the Bush War Presidency.

USAGOV in general, and the Bush presidency specifically, have been hit since the run-up to the Iraq war that the WMD was false, was a lie, was a made-up excuse to snooker the US Citizen, the West and the UN so USGOV could do/be evil.

But now it turns out that at the close of the big fighting in 2003, the facts proved otherwise…and that the Bush administration was quiet. They let the enemies of the USGOV (external and the 5GW Fifth Column among us) gain traction, win over the fence sitters and give weight to the anti-USA movement.

This loss of Influence has greatly reduced USGOV freedom of action in the conduct of global affairs especially National Security related activities.

The Bush administration should have brought in the press (to write, videotape and photograph), and friendly nuclear weapons experts testify as experts, an put the whole damn thing on YouTube.

If security was a concern they could have activated another division of reserves or National Guard and plunk them down at the site or do something else given the overwhelming military force advantage of the US and NATO.

This was a massive wasted opportunity in Influence Warfare.

The loss in freedom of action and trust among partners and potential partners will take years to regain.

The best kind of YellowCake

“He is a unifying force between Democrats, Greens, Socialists and Communists”

The press should be doing this, but since they seem to be in the tank for Obama or more concerned with taking down Joe the Plumber, it has fallen on bloggers to research his past.

Obama claims he has no connection of any substance.

Things like this are red flags: “Ayers, Obama, and Klonsky, the former head of the American Communist Party, all maintained offices on the same floor of the same building in Chicago for three years“

Iraq Now writes:

I have become convinced: Obama’s roots and sympathies are with the far, far left. He’s not a uniter. He’s a manchurian candidate for the radicals. There is no other explanation for his long and close association with the vilest jackals in American politics. He’s not a unifying force between Democrats and Republicans, and is intellectually incapable of being one. He is a unifying force between Democrats, Greens, Socialists and Communists.

I am leaning that way myself:

Ayres and his ilk haven’t given up on a Communist takeover of the USA. They have just switched from a Guerrilla/4GW approach to an Institutional/Infiltration (5GW) approach.

For the election 2008, the questions are: Is Obama an active 5GWer, just a 5GW Prawn, or its this all coincidental?

There are to many connection, to many links. Instead of be forthcoming (something like “I was young and ambitious and I needed to use them in Chicago Politics”). Instead it is deny it. Cover it up (deleting web evidence). Use the leftist tactic of calling those pointing this out Racists.

Robot News (and Entrepreneurial Opportunities): “Packs of Robots Will Hunt Down Uncooperative Humans “

You might think this is something about a fictional robot uprising, but no it is from Slash Dot:

They are looking for contractors to ‘develop a software/hardware suite that would enable a multi-robot team, together with a human operator, to search for and detect a non-cooperative human subject. The main research task will involve determining the movements of the robot team through the environment to maximize the opportunity to find the subject … Typical robots for this type of activity are expected to weigh less than 100 Kg and the team would have three to five robots.

There will be commercial uses as well:

They note that the robots would “have potential commercialization within search and rescue, fire fighting, reconnaissance, and  automated biological, chemical and radiation sensing with mobile platforms”.

I am thinking there are uses in crowd control (permanent and special events), school security, mall security, truant control, critical infrastructure security. How about trash removal, street maintenance (crack filling, pothle filling). How about electrical wiring and cabling management inside walls of buildings?

There are business opportunities here. Not just in making the robots, but in created business to provide managed services – call them Robot Service Providers (RSP).

Entrepreneurs will (and are) noting this. Robot Service Providers will be a common business in the future. I would like to be part of it.

Fixing Milwaukee: Milwaukee School District Leadership and Taxes

From the FraudFiles:

Tonight the Milwaukee Public Schools board is going to vote in favor [Purpleslog note: They did] of increasing city property taxes 14.6% for the school portion. That is the largest portion of the property tax bill, so overall taxpayers will see a sharp increase in their bills.

Student enrollment has been steadily declining, while spending has been increasing. The MPS administration wants people to believe that the problem is the state funding formula. The district has been receiving less state funding because the enrollment is declining. But instead of decreasing staffing and building usage in line with the decreases in students, the district just keeps on spending.(After all, taxpayers have deep, deep pockets, right?)

The truth: The problem is the spending, not the funding formula. MPS spending is out of control.

Spending in MPS is out out of wack. By my own rough (much understated) calculation, there is a missing $70k per classroom.

The leadership and skills of those running MPS (school board and superintendent are clearly lacking. While the school board is elected, they don’t act accountable and honestly, they are the brightest folks (just listen to school board meetings on WYMS radio).

I didn’t used to be in favour of the Mayor taking over MPS. Somehting different must be tried. MPS must be saved from its leaders.

Bonobos news

At Corrupt.org “Make Love, Make War”:

Bonobos are apes famous mainly for their sex lives. Because females are dominant in bonobo society and everyone engages in plenty of very casual sex, bonobos are much admired by feminists, hippies and pacifists as “the peaceful apes”. For years we’ve heard that unlike their chimpanzee cousins, they do not hunt and kill other primates. However, bonobos have now been observed hunting and killing monkeys. Science kills another stupid myth.

The entire web site is interesting and worth checking out.

“William Ayers’ forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire”

Here is the link.

You can buy it on Amazon.com.

25 Years Ago…

…the US was attacked by Iranian proxy Hezbollah.

Don’t forget it.

I don’t.

Flickr Photos from CharlieGP

Capturing My Thoughts: Mortgage interest tax deductions, and a better personal income tax syste,

Made at TDAXP.

On Mortgage interest tax deductions…

Why subsidize homeowners at all over renters? Why subsidize them even more? There is no reason to have any federal mortgage credit. Once again, this is the government distorting economic decisions made by regular people.

Related: Many of the forms I have seen over the years invoke “tax deductability” as a reason to but over renting (or to buy even bigger). Most of those worksheets had the math/tax ramification wrong and therefore nudged people to owning who should not have, or nudged people to buy a bigger house (take a bigger mortgage) then they should have bought.

On a better income tax system…

I think “real change” would be a simple flat tax or perhaps a 2 rate tax on all income. One rate for income up to the Poverty line (or 1.5X Poverty Line), and a second rate for all income above that. No deductions.

I am okay with a Consumption Tax version of the above.

I used to think that such a plan shouldn’t tax income until the poverty level (or something close to it) was reached. I have read info recently showing how people below the poverty line hold/vote overwhelming socialist views/candidates. So, I thin having them pay taxes would be a good education.

I should flesh this income tax thing out.

Also note this interesting idea at the same post by commenter Brent Grace:

Putting aside the recent crash in the real estate prices, I wonder if the encouragement of homeownership places constraints on labor mobility that harms overall GDP growth. Would we be better off as a society of nomadic renters whose primary wealth was largely in IRAs or 401ks? I don’t know, but I’m not longer quite so sure that widespread homeownership is a net positive.

Great thinking! The homeowner constraint does effect the economy negatively in that mobility of deployment/redeployment of Human Capital is slowed and reduced as individuals economic choices are reduced. That has to effect growth.

There are lots of positive reasons to own a house. There are negatives (e.g. maint cost, reduced mobility). The positives and negatives may wash out.

My bottom line: USGOV should not be distorting individual economic choices with regard to renting vs buying (and vs buying how much).

Update – Another comment by me at TDAXP:

If there is going to be a tax on C Corporation type businesses, I would do it as a flat rate against cash flow, not based off earnings.

Earnings can be manipulated all sorts of ways…cash flow reporting not so much. Investors know that cash flow is a better signal then earnings anyway.

The cost of tax compliance would go way down because businesses would not need to keep separate books for different types of earnings reporting (Sec, IRS, States, Investors). Businesses already keep track of cash flow.

A positive side effect of taxing the cash flow is that businesses can get immediate tax benefits from capital spending (capital spending reduces earnings over time – as depreciation – but hits cash flow right away).

A Single Rate Cash Flow tax on businesses could be revenue neutral to USGOV and still be a positive in reduced expenses for businesses and for USGOV.

Of course, most US Businesses pay no income taxes so they would pay no cash flow tax. This harping point by anti-capitalism politicians depends upon most people not noting that most businesses are not C-type corporations – which are the only ones that pay a corporate tax.

Most businesses are S-type corps, LLCs, LLPs, partnerships, or sole proprietorship. For those, earnings flow to the owners where it is then taxed as personal income. So for these, as cash is passed thru to the owners, it could be taxed as income.

As far as personal income taxes, I would also be okay if the income tax was replaced completely with a partial flat tax and partial national sales tax.

Almost any of the reforms you here bandied about are better then the current system.

—

The Weatherman: “they estimated that they’d have to eliminate 25 million people in these re‑education centers…”

Read about it here at Dr. Sanity.

Some “fun” parts:

Most of the people that had no prior experience, let’s say the average Weatherman, if there is such a thing, they were sent to Cuba for training in Cuba.
[…]
Grathwohl: I brought up the subject of what’s going to happen after we take over the government. You know, we become responsible for administrating, you know, 250 million people. And there was no answer. No one had given any thought to economics. How are you going to clothe and feed these people? The only thing that I could get was that they expected that the Cubans, the North Vietnamese, the Chinese and the Russians would all want to occupy different portions of the United States. They also believed that their immediate responsibility would be to protect against what they called the counter-revolution. And they felt that this counter-revolution could best be guarded against by creating and establishing re-education in the Southwest where we would take all of the people who needed to be re‑educated into the new way of thinking and teach them how things were going to be. I asked, “Well, what is going to happen to those people that we can’t re‑educate, that are die-hard capitalists?” And the reply was that they’d have to be eliminated and when I pursued this further, they estimated that they’d have to eliminate 25 million people in these re‑education centers. And when I say eliminate, I mean kill 25 million people. I want you to imagine sitting in a room with 25 people, most of whom have graduate degrees from Columbia and other well-known educational centers and hear them figuring out the logistics for the elimination of 25 million people and they were dead serious.

Ayres and his ilk haven’t given up on a Communist takeover of the USA. They have just switched from a Guerrilla/4GW approach to an Institutional/Infiltration (5GW) approach.

For the election 2008, the questions are: Is Obama an active 5GWer, just a 5GW Prawn, or its this all coincidental?

Robot News: “Robotic Surgery On a Beating Heart “

The exciting news is at SlashDot!

Interesting Policing Idea (with COIN implications): “The interesting twist is that the authorities are asking the courts to seize the IP of the biker club — specifically, their trademarked name “Mongols”

Found on SlashDot:

…a Federal raid on a California-based motorcycle club, the Mongols, on charges “ranging from murder and robbery to extortion, money laundering, gun trafficking and drug dealing.” The interesting twist is that the authorities are asking the courts to seize the IP of the biker club — specifically, their trademarked name “Mongols.” “Federal agents and police in seven states arrested more than 60 members of the Mongols motorcycle gang on Tuesday in a sweep that also targeted for the first time an outlaw group’s ‘intellectual property,’ prosecutors said. The arrests cap a three-year undercover investigation in which US agents posed as gang members and their girlfriends to infiltrate the group, even submitting to polygraph tests administered by the bikers … [T]he name ‘Mongols,’ which appears on the gang’s arm patch insignia, was trademarked by the group. The indictment seeks a court order outlawing further use of the name, which would allow any police officer ‘who sees a Mongol wearing this patch … to stop that gang member and literally take the jacket right off his back‘ …”

This is an interesting twist on getting Lawfare-y for Domestic COIN/4GW.

On The Bailout aka The Panic of 08, Part 21: Transparency (not)

I am sadly not surprised by this at NPR:

BailoutSleuth tracks one of the first Treasury contracts in its $700 rescue plan.

Guess which part got redacted. “The Financial Agent shall receive a monthly fee” of . . .

Sigh.

Update: I got the link from TechDirt.

OpenYale Link: “Financial Markets with Professor Robert Shiller”

I found this at OpenYale (thanks Zenpundit): “Financial Markets with Professor Robert Shiller“. The class sessions look interesting – and timely (and free).

Ah the good old days…

Some stray 5GW thought

I know I said I wasn’t going to do any 5GW blogging for awhile, but some thoughts came whispering from within, and  I want to write them down.

5GW will be (can be) War disguised as Politics.

5GW will be (can be) War disguised as Social Work (Social Development).

5GW will be (can be) War disguised as Entrepreneurship.

What might be a major difference between politics and 5GW-War-disguised as politics? The intent and the true goal.

Opposite thought: Did I just water down 5GW into a tangent of non-usefulness?

Update: I attempted to define war/conflict here:

Making War in the 21st century:

The non-trivial action(s) of a global actor(s) to purposefully attempt to coerce another global actor(s) to take some action(s), cease some action(s), or maintain a state of inactivity that the second actor(s) would not otherwise do or not otherwise consider beneficial to itself.

Here is a shorter version of Making War:

War is the attempted non-trivial coercion of one global actor(s) by another global actor(s).

Notes: Last Week’s Debate

I never got around to posting my notes, but I ended putting them in a comment at ZenPundit:

I didn’t learn anything new about the candidates.

I thought asking the question about their own VP’s was a waste of time?

Questions I would like to have seen:

1) What would be, for your X administration, the US Global Policy Grand Strategy Policy?

2) What would be your process of carrying out national security decision making and operations?

3) Explain what you see as the American dream?

4) What is your immigration policy?

5) Mexico is falling into a Narco-Civil War. What will you administration do?

6) What do see as the role of Government in markets?

7) What will your administration do to increase entrepreneurial activity?

8 ) Should Cartman fight Wendy (I switched channels to South Park for a moment)?

I liked the Al Smith thing from a few nights later better.

7 Things I hate on TV Shows

1) Car Chases

2) Birthing scenes / rushing to the hospital for birthings

3) Weddings

4) Richard Lewis

5) The villain is once again a profit seeking corporation

6) Bush or Republican bashing just thrown into stories or dialogue for no apparent story reason.

7) “The fact of the matter is…”