My blogging will be light for a few days still.

I have started a new job and my system is a bit out of wack. I am also trying to reconstruct my RSS feeds into Bloglines after Yahoo trashed them (I used MyYahoo for that - the new version sucks).

…in case you are interested (you most likely are not).

- Econtalk - Lively discussions of economics

- On Point With Tom Ashbrook - news/policy,some pop culture and histiory

- This American Life - Indescribably fun and witty

- Money Talk with Bob Landaas - No frills Economic News and Investing

- Pritzker Military Library Podcast - Military History related

- Covert Radio - National Security Current Events

- The Glenn And Helen Show - From Instapundit

- Cato Institute Event Podcast

- Chivalry Today - Nobility of action and everyday life

…and the music ones…

- The Acapodcast

- Bach Podcast from Magnatune.com

- Jazzarific: Jazz Vinyl Podcasts

I do also listen to Information Security-ish podcasts.

I liked it. Watch it while its still free,

I can’t find where I heard this, but it was a neat application of incentives (economic thinking) to energy policy.

The suggestion was something like:

1) States That don’t allow drilling for oil and natural gas off-shore shall have their federal gasoline tax increased $1 (or $2 or $X) per gallon.

2) The collected money shall be redistributed on a per capita basis to people living within 50 miles (or 100 miles or X miles) of working coal mines.

If I can find the reference I will post that.

Here’s a fun clip from my favorite late-night show:

…are being used here and here.

Here are the originals:

Buh Bye.

My cable modem was down Friday while I was home, so this is a day late.

And yes I said Americans - not USAers or United Statesmen.

Also, here are some old thoughts of my on upgrading the US National Anthem.

]]> http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2008/07/05/happy-birthday-america-and-americans/feed/ purpleslog American Flag in Forground, Downtown Milwaukee and Art Museum in Background. Dont Tread On Me Flag Charisma Carpenter - God Bless America! http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/firefox-30-quick-notes/ http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/firefox-30-quick-notes/#comments Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:23:26 +0000 purpleslog http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/firefox-30-quick-notes/

I just upgraded to Firefox 3.0.

- Most of my extensions had FF3 versions. I substituted “Extended Copy Menus” for “Copy Plain Text”.

- Faster page loads!

- Faster startup!

- Faster scrolling!

- Not slowing down for 50+ open tabs.

I like it so far.

Atlas Shrugs notes:

In a 5-4 vote, the court said the Louisiana law allowing the death penalty to be imposed in such cases violates the Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

“The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a child,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion.

Let me be on the record so there is no doubt: I am okay with executing Child Rapist. I am also okay with roughing them up.

Since the Supreme Court has ruled that it is not ok, congress should start the process of amending the US Constitution to allow (but not require) states to choose to enact laws for the execution of Child Rapist.

I think this is #37.

He was the last candidate I felt good about voting for.

What is http://perotcharts.com/home/ about?

Why this web site now? Because we are running out of time.

The American people must wake up and face the reality that promises made in the past will soon bankrupt this nation. These problems are explained in an easy-to-understand chart presentation discussed further at the bottom of this page. Comments to the charts and other material described to the right are encouraged.

At the Guardian:

James Hansen, one of the world’s leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer.

This guy get quoted all the time in the media. He is also the guy who miscalculated the “hottest years”. He is a fucking watermelon.

And he lives off the taxpayers as a federal employee.

Having been tagged by Subadei allow me to present the rules:

The Rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. [Subadei also added this one] Present an image of martial discord from whatever period or situation you’d like

Here are my “7″:

1) I start my new job in less then 48 hours.

2) My dislike of clown surfaced when I was in College. I threaten to beat into bloody pulps two clowns on an elevator with me. They were talking loud. They tried to engage me in conversation. They tapped my shoulder. I almost exploded on them. I am a pretty big guy…so the clown shut the @^$&*^@ up for the rest of the ride.

3) About five years ago I noticed that when I am tired or stressed I leave out negative words when I type in casual conversation (email, IM, blogs). For example: “You shouldn’t do that…” becomes “you should do that” and “no” and “nots” are dropped/skipped. I am a lousy typer to begin with, this makes it worse.

4) I have two giant bookshelves in my bedroom filled up with unread, “on-deck” books. I’ll get to them eventually. I love having books all around me. I have unread books in every room of mine but my my bathrooms.

5) German anti-terrorism police have pointed MP5s at me in unfriendly way while using impolite tones (”yelling”) of voice. I have had more run ins with German police then with American police. I was born and raised in the US (I still reside here). I have spent less then two weeks in Germany.

6) I have never fired a handgun. I’d like to though. Any suggestions?

7) I named my first computer with a Girls name for no apparent reason. Years later it occurred to me that my kindergarten crush had the same name. I always wondered what happened to her. Alas, she missed out on future PurpleLoving. I just did a quick google search. She is not to be found.

Since I took so long in reply, I will not tag anybody else.

Modern Combat Sports - Mixed Martial Arts for Fun and Profit

From Cringley:

The challenge of the Day Cycle is profound: to solve at once the problems of how to power our society and what to do with all of our garbage, all without making the world worse for the effort, which is to say without increasing the problems of greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.
[...]
Eric and Andrew Day propose going back to burning our trash, but instead of using open-air incinerators or even high-temperature Basic Oxygen furnaces, they like the idea of burning our crap in electric plasma furnaces at temperatures in excess of 15,000 degrees Celsius. Take everything that would have gone to the landfill, add to it, if you like, everything that would have been recycled, and even leave in the really bad stuff like medical waste, toxic waste, heavy metals, and radioactive waste. Grind it all up into little chunks, some of which could be in a chemical or water slurry, and pump it into the plasma furnace.
[...]
Dividing 251 million tons of municipal trash by 365 days by 100 tons per furnace says we’ll need 7,000 such furnaces to burn all of America’s trash. That doesn’t really sound like a lot of furnaces to me, when you consider that’s about how many landfills we have today and about how many municipal trash incinerators we used to have. Moving to this method of waste disposal and energy generation is a no-brainer… if it works.
[...]
Their claimed net production from each ton of municipal solid waste:

112 pounds of hydrogen
55 gallons of biodiesel
a little electricity
926 pounds of oxygen
[...]
Multiply all these numbers by 251 million tons of solid waste and convert them, where possible, into equivalent barrels of oil and it comes down to about 2.6 billion barrels per year if all waste treatment facilities were so converted. That’s half of our current oil import volume — enough to substantially destabilize the international oil market if that’s the goal.

If I where a policy maker I would…

1) Very the feasibility of this.
2) Create a Plasma Furnace Finance Corp to help facilitate financing of this for municipalities.
3) Set aside matching funds along the lines of 50% of infrastructure cost to match municipalities investment.
4) Have a special joint Deputy SecEnergy / Deputy SecTreas position to facilitate this through the federal government with a dedicated White Deputy Chief of Staff to keep the President in the loop.

Hmm…perhaps naming the new plasma furnaces after sitting US congressmen would speed the rollout and funding.

These are links I have been noting recently. They may or may not be of interest to you.

“Is the Universe Actually Made of Math? Unconventional cosmologist Max Tegmark says mathematical formulas create reality.“

Heh.

Org charts from 1915

25 Precious Photographs from the Web

Urban Prankster

http://ddanchev.blogspot.com/2008/06/using-market-forces-to-disrupt-botnets.html :

How could market forces be used to disrupt botnets anyway, and how relevant would this approach be in a real-life situation? As every other underground market propostion, buying botnets is no different than buying stolen credit cards, as long as your have multiple propositions to take into consideration, where the price ranges often vary over 100% between the offers. With the increasing supply of botnets for sale, and degree of price differentiation, a certain country can easily buy direct access to request a botnet on demand with infected hosts within the country only and do whatever they want with them - in this case perhaps fortify and patch the host, upon forwarding it to the several online malware scanners to ensure they won’t have to rebuy access to it again. Security radicalization like in this case, is an often misinterpreted term which when applied in a free market economy can ruin a lot of, perhaps, broken business models, but will also contribute to the development of new market segments.

–

ISC: “How do you monitor your website?”

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080516_004925.html :

The truth is that there is no IT “profession.” Most of what IT managers know about IT they learn from vendors, consultants, and folks like Gartner. Because they feel isolated, and because the IT vendor/consultant/media system encourages them to worry about such things, IT managers tend to feel they must have their important decisions validated and Gartner is the most popular place to find validation. Yes they wield a lot of power, but it is often the power of discovering the obvious.
[...]
Outsourcing, while a very popular recommendation to improve IT, is treating the symptom and not the problem. The problem is IT applications require lots of ongoing maintenance and that costs labor, meaning REAL MONEY. Rather than make applications more reliable and reduce problems, IT managers seem to prefer shopping for cheaper labor. The problems are still there. It is cheaper to fix them with offshoring and outsourcing, true, but it often takes longer.
[...]
Much of this comes down to the decided lack of professionalism in IT, which is after all a very new job classification. There is a huge difference, for example, between someone with an engineering degree and someone in IT who calls himself an engineer. Real engineers are often valued employees. Their opinions matter and they have real responsibilities. Good companies know engineers are important to their business and treat them accordingly. But IT workers are a commodity and are treated as such. Many IT workers are clueless about the technologies they are working with. They aspire to be project managers and are often not very good at that either.

–

What Shall We Do With the Moon Once We Get There?

ID Theft In US Continues Apace Despite Data Breach Laws

http://shrinkwrapped.blogs.com/blog/2008/06/liberalism-and.html :

Since we spend a great deal of time and energy trying to ensure that life is fair, a truly noble imperative, capitalism is counter-intuitive. It requires unlearning much of what we learn in our earliest years and gaining a much deeper and more nuanced view of the economy and fairness. In the end, those of us who evolve in our economic/political thinking recognize that capitalism is ultimately more moral and more fair to the greatest number of people. Unfortunately, far too many Americans are economically illiterate and well into adulthood operate as if the world should be designed the way a typical kindergarten works, where adult authorities make sure everyone plays nice and that all the toys are equally shared.

–

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/business/08view.html?ex=1370577600&en=cb2502f9a4cb69be&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink :

Despite these enormous advances, however, there is a backlash against globalization and a widespread belief that it requires moderation. Ordinary people often question the benefits of international trade, and now many intellectuals are turning more skeptical, too. Yet the facts on the ground show that the current climate of economic doom and gloom simply isn’t warranted. The classic economic recipes of trade, investment and good incentives have never been more successful in generating huge gains in human welfare.
[...]
Trade advocates focus on the benefits of goods arriving from abroad, like luxury shoes from Italy or computer chips from Taiwan. But new ideas are the real prize. By 2010, China will have more Ph.D. scientists and engineers than the United States. These professionals are not fundamentally a threat. To the contrary, they are creators, whose ideas are likely to improve the lives of ordinary Americans, not just the business elites. The more access the Chinese have to American and other markets, the more they can afford higher education and the greater their incentive to innovate.

Conservative and liberal economists agree that new ideas are the fundamental source of higher living standards. We urgently need new biotechnologies, a cure for AIDS and a cleaner energy infrastructure, to name just a few. Trade is part of the path toward achieving those ends. A wealthier China and India also mean higher potential rewards for Americans and others who invest in innovation. A product or idea that might have been marketed just to the United States and to Europe 20 years ago could be sold to billions more in the future.

–

“The report describes direct links between Saddam Hussein officials and Al-Qaeda leader Al-Zarqawi before the war began.”

Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MzI3OGI0ZGI0NzFkZTY0ZDRhZDQzMjYyN2VjOGQ2MzE= :

In Indonesia, which sport’s the world’s largest Muslim population, the Associated Press reports that the government (in yet another of these Islamic “democracies” that “guarantees freedom of religion”) has ordered a “moderate” Muslim sect to return to the “mainstream” of Islam or risk imprisonment for debasing Islam. The Ahmadi — whose persecution I have detailed previously — do not accept Mohammed as the final prophet or jihad as a divine injunction. Not withstanding the above, the AP blithely reports as fact its opinion that “the vast majority of Indonesia’s Muslims are moderate” — as if the term “moderate” actually has a settled meaning and as if, even if it retained its commonly understood meaning, it would be possible for such a thing to happen if “the vast majority of Indonesia’s Muslims” were actually “moderate.”

–

The World of the World of Warcraft

http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives2/020197.php :

“I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism.”

–

http://kotare.typepad.com/thestrategist/2008/06/fancy-flying-to-london-or-new-york-in-an-airship-old-boy–in-this-post-british-environmental-thinker-george-monbiot-arg.html :

I have to say, though, that I’m really taken by this idea. Call me a hopeless romantic, but airships appeal to something deep in my psyche. When I was a boy I read a sci-fi novel about an alternative 20th century in which the Romans still ruled the world, and senators used airships to get between “Londinium” and Rome. Airships have an otherworldly quality, hinting at parallel universes (like that in Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights) and alternative futures that might have been if fortune had taken different turns.

–

http://hiddenunities.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/a-new-buddhist-narrative/ :

A new narrative may be forming about Buddhism among both Buddhists and non-believers. Long considered a religion of peace and reflection, Buddhists are flexing political and social muscles from India to Burma to Thailand. Its likely most of Asia will have substantial and influential Buddhist populations within the next decade, creating a new constituency for change, patronage and leadership. This is, especially in the case of the middle class adapting Buddhism from China to India, promising news for stability and a development of a social responsibility ethos that can help bridge the divide between the haves and have nots until development more balance.

–

“Help me, God. The designated interpreters of that which I have sworn to support and defend are looking a lot like domestic enemies to me.“

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30243_Obama_Campaign_Throws_Antisemitic_Blog_Down_the_Memory_Hole :

After it was exposed, the Obama campaign has now pulled down that shockingly antisemitic blog post that was on their site for more than two months.

And guess what? They’re also now blocking Google’s cache from saving their pages. And they’ve also removed their pages from the Internet Archive and the Coral archives.

They’re running scared, and they’re trying to make sure that when they throw a post down the memory hole, it stays there.

–

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/rubin/11871 :

At times Barack Obama seems to engage in a childlike model of international affairs: we should all sit down and chat and respect one another. If you have kids in grade school it will sound awfully familiar. Maybe the reason he sounds this way is because his advisors given him an infantile analysis of the world. Take a look at this from a likely Obama National Security Advisor Richard Danzig: “Winnie the Pooh seems to me to be a fundamental text on national security…

–

7 Ways McCain Can Use Energy to Beat Obama

http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/30253_Obamas_Plan_for_Iraq-_Prosecute_War_Criminals :

Discovered in the directory left wide open by the Obama site designers: a PDF file containing Obama’s plan to “hold accountable any perpetrators of war crimes” in Iraq. And something tells me they don’t mean Al Qaeda.

–

http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/06/international-littoral-strike-group-to.html :

Note the desired forces being advocated for: Reconnaissance aviation, deck helicopters, radars, Marines and Special Forces trained in boarding and releasing hostages, armed motor-boats, five to six warships, and a flagship to support aviation capabilities. This force structure sounds a lot like an international version of what we have previously called the Littoral Strike Group centered around a mothership. The tactics advocated for include regional maritime domain awareness, maritime presence, and the establishment of convoy’s. Ilya Kramnik is describing exactly what this blog has been advocating for in regards to how to think about developing peacetime naval force structures for dealing with peacetime system disruptions: Motherships and small combatants.

Our definition of a mothership is a logistical supply and repair, command and control, and reconnaissance enabler for naval forces to forward deploy smaller platforms in forward theaters to address irregular warfare environments. The desired purpose of a mothership is to establish a mobile forward operating base in contested seas that coordinates regional maritime domain awareness through unmanned systems, and persistent maritime presence for manned platforms. The mothership represents the networked command core at sea supporting maritime manned networks for peacetime presence and engagement, and unmanned networks for maritime information dominance.

–

http://cominganarchy.com/2008/06/16/why-states-are-important-in-the-wot/ :

While both rogue states and terror groups would surely like to acquire both a nuclear capability and weapons, each actor has a different set of advantages and disadvantages. States enjoy legitimacy (to varying extents) and international recognition, have sovereign territory and have a variety of reason and fear based national interests. Critically, states are also subject to deterrence through retaliation by sometims deterrence by denial (more here). Terror groups, on the other hand, have less power, resources and people than states do. Yet, terrorists are more difficult to deter by retaliation often lacking any clear target to retaliate against. In addition, some follow radical ideologies unrestrained by reason or straight up political goals.

–

That’s all for now.

My Friend C, mentioned this to me:

I have been meaning to write this for awhile. Zenpundit’s mention of “Unrestricted Warfare” and 4GW/5GW got me to type it:

The ideas from URW haven’t quite made there way into 4GW/5GW…there is a lot of richness in the its ideas. There is more in URW then is in Lind’s 4GW. So, does that make URW a better source for 4GW, or just for how states might fight 4GW? There is a lot of 5GW-ish stuff in there to. Maybe URW concept should be distilled and and treat as a separate category in XGW.

I leaning toward the 4GW category being shorthanded as “Full Spectrum Conflict” with the ‘Weaponization of things not thought to be weapons” being key.

Maybe it is best in XGW to treat URW as an additional generation between 4GW and 5GW though.

What do you all think?

[Cross-Posted to Dreaming 5GW]

I will blog on these later, but I thought I would point them out to others for now.

John Fonte (who authored the article on Transnational Progressivism) has a four-part article at familysecuritymatters.org entitled: “Global Governance vs. the Liberal Democratic Nation State: What Is the Best Regime?”

1) Who Governs

2) The Response of the American Governing Center-Left to the Transnational Challenge

3) The Response of the American Governing Center-Right to the Transnational Challenge

4) Conclusion

The online quiz is here - http://games.toast.net/independence/ .

I got 28 out of 30.

This is the link.