They arrested a kid for posting 3 chapters of Harry Potter that he translated into French.
The French release of the book is not for two months, and they sent in the police to arrest a fan?
Month: August 2007
Hero Tells Bush: No Photo Op.
Jeremy Hernandez saved the 50 children on the school bus during the Minneapolis bridge collapse.
As a result, Dunwoody College of Technology had offered him a full scholarship toward a degree in applied science. (Sounds like an associates degree.)
What’s more, he’s turned down a photo op with George Bush:
Mr. Hernandez was not available to comment on the offer; Ms. Schwartz said he left town for northern Minnesota late on Friday, overwhelmed by the attention and concerned that his co-workers were being overlooked. He spent the weekend fishing. When President Bush’s staff contacted him to request a photo opportunity, “He was just, like, ‘Nope,’ ” she said.
Props to him if he just doesn’t want to make too much out of this, humility is far too rare these days.
Double props if he decided that he did not want to shake hands with Bush.
Gordon Brown is Already Showing More Guts Than Tony Blair
Unlike Bush’s Poodle, Gordon Brown is asking for 5 detained British citizens to be released from our Gitmo Gulag.
I don’t think that this is the UK turning away from the (largely one way) special relationship that it has with the US, but rather an acknowledgment of the realities of UK politics, and the fact that the policies of GW Bush will not outlast his term.
Russia to export Worlds Most Capable Surface to Air Missile
The S-400 is entering service with the Russian military, and they expect to begin exports in 2009.
It’s clear that they are looking at this to be a big seller. It should have some decent capabilities against stealthy aircraft, and it has good anti-cruise missile and anti-tactical ballistic missile capabilities.
Considering the range of the system (over 400km), it would be expected that it would be capable of engaging low radar cross section targets at a much shorter range.
Given that a conventional bomber would have a radar cross section in the 10m2 range, and detection range a function of 4th route of the RCS (i.e. a reduction of 32x in RCS will cut range by 1/2), you get potential detection ranges as follows, assuming 400km for the bomber.
|
Range
|
RCS
|
Type
|
|
400 km
|
10m2
|
B-1, F-15
|
|
336 km
|
5m2
|
F-16
|
|
225 km
|
1m2
|
F-18E, Rafale
|
|
189 km
|
0.5 m2
|
Typhoon
|
|
48 km
|
0.00200m2
|
F-117 (WAG)
|
|
40 km
|
0.00100 m2
|
F-35
|
|
23 km
|
0.00010 m2
|
F-22, B2
|
So you are looking at something like a 15 mile detection range against the stealthiest targets.
Update: This range is for high frequency radars. The S-400 also has a VHF radar, which would diminish the effectiveness of stealth, to some (I don’t know what) degree.
Musharraf’s Days are Numbered
There are now reports that Musharraf will declare a state of emergency.
This is about his attempt to delay elections, as his only remaining constituency is the army.
His negotiations with Benazir Bhutto have fallen through, the Supreme Court has reinstalled its chief justice and is reviewing the request of his ousted predecessor Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan.
Considering Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, and its descent into failing state status, this is of concern.
There is a 175 Foot 6 Year Old Who is Looking for His Toys
These numbers are preliminary off the cuff calculations based on the size of the Giant Lego man found floating in the ocean off the Dutch coast.
When lifetime rolls around, there will be a critical shortage of both peanut butter and jelly throughout Holland.
The question is whether this was somehow a lost promotional display, or a wickedly funny practical joke.
My guess is the first, but I’m wishing for the 2nd.
The Vultures Have Arrived Looking for Dead Meat Investments.
It appears that noted vulture investor Wilbur Ross is looking at the mortgage meltdown.
He’s made a fortune picking through the bones of failed steelmakers, textile mills and coal miners. Now billionaire investor Wilbur Ross is taking aim at another beleaguered industry: subprime mortgage lenders.
He took his first step on Monday by providing $50 million in debtor-in-possession financing for American Home Mortgage Corp (AHMIQ.PK: Quote, Profile, Research), which filed for bankruptcy earlier in the day.
He buys things like coal mines and steel companies on the cheap, and resells them to people who kill coal miners and default on retirement and health insurance guarantees.
Lovely fellow, and he’ll have a lot of work in the immediate future.
Anyone See A Pattern?
Got the graphics from the Group News Blog. The list you can get to by clicking the picture.
756*
Whatever Bonds has or has not done, he was and is a great player, as was Pete Rose.
Rose, however, crossed a line when he bet on baseball that Bonds has not, and so should not be in the hall of fame until after his death.
Still a Few Bugs in Consumer GPS Systems
The directions they give may be no better than those of Cletus B. Hounddog, so take their advice with a grain of salt. Case in point, a woman, and her £96,000 Mercedes River Sence in Sheepy Magna*, Leicestershire.
Of course, someone who is willing to pay £96K ($US 195K) for a car, probably has more money than brains.
*Sheepy Magna????? Now that is a screwy name. A quick Google finds this:
Sheepy, (from the old english sceap + eg meaning ‘island or dry ground in the marsh where the sheep graze’), straddles the River Sence from Fieldon Bridge, the boundary with Atherstone and also the county boundary with Warwickshire. Sheepy is divided into two parts Great Sheepy or Sheepy Magna and Little Sheepy or Sheepy Parva, each with it’s own ancient manor. Sheepy Magna also includes the Hamlets of The Mythe and Pinwall, The Mythe may well have had it’s own manor but Pinwall was a Grange of Merevale Abbey. Newhouse Grange was also part of the Merevale estate and remained annexed to the parish of Merevale until 1885.
…..
Judge Says that Qualcomm Acted in Bad Faith, Loses Patent Rights
The concealing of existing or likely future patents seems to be all to common in standards setting, and now a Judge has slapped down Qualcomm for engaging in “an organized program of litigation misconduct” in a patent suit against Broadcom.
This is big, and this is good. One of the more sophisticated methods of patent trolling out there is to concealed patented, or patent pending, product when one sits on standards making bodies, and when the standard is widely accepted, it’s time send out demand letters.
Then again, the ruling may be more narrow:
… in a patent case in San Diego, U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster ruled that two Qualcomm patents related to video-compression technology can’t be enforced because the company deliberately concealed the patents from a standards-setting group. Qualcomm compounded its misconduct by withholding evidence and making false statements before, during and after a trial in the case that ended in January, the judge concluded.
Another possibility is that this is more an artifact of telling blatantly transparent lies to a judge, which tends to piss them off.
Then again, this is getting interesting:
But after the surprise discovery during the trial of an initial set of relevant emails, Qualcomm found and later shared more than 200,000 emails and other documents with the court. After reviewing the documents, Judge Brewster concluded that Qualcomm engineers had participated in the group well before May 2003. He also rejected Qualcomm’s suggestion that its failure to share evidence with Broadcom was an accident.
“The eventual collapse of Qualcomm’s concealment efforts exposes the carefully orchestrated plan and the deadly determination of Qualcomm to achieve its goal of holding hostage the entire industry desiring to practice the H.264 standard,” he concluded.
Broadcom, meanwhile, is pushing to find out more about whether senior Qualcomm executives knew of evidence that should have been disclosed sooner. It contends Qualcomm withheld information from other standard-setting bodies, too, a charge Qualcomm rejects.
“I think this is just a snapshot of their corporate behavior,” said David J. Rosmann, Broadcom’s vice president of intellectual-property litigation.
Pass the popcorn.
Of Course Fox is Screaming “Terrorism”
I was exercising (stationary bicycle), and watching TV at the Gym. CNN was focusing the bridge collapse and the trapped miners, and on the next TV over, Fox News was screaming “run for your lives, and put your trust in Bush”, about the Foot and Mouth* outbreak in the UK.
Fox News is really into creating terror as a way to hold onto viewers.
Let’s be clear. This is not terrorism. The subvariant of the virus is not one commonly found, but it is very close to the one in the 1967 outbreak, which is used for vaccine manufacture at a laboratory in Pirbright, which is is within the 3- kilometer protection zone.
If someone wanted to do bio-terrorism with hoof and mouth, it would be easier to go to areas of Asia or Africa where the disease is endemic (the 2001 outbreak was the “Type O pan Asia” strain), collect samples, and cover most of the country in a car for multiple outbreaks in multiple locations.
I once priced it out, and you could probably do this for less than 50 grand.
*Foot and Mouth and Hoof and Mouth are the same thing. The Brits call it the former, and we call it the latter.
Adventures in Thievery: Bear Stearns Caymans Bankruptcy Filing
When people call for the unfettered free market, they are really calling for these sorts of larcenous behaviors.
One of the little observed parts of the 2005 bankruptcy law allows American firms to go venue shopping for places with phony tax laws, phony regulation and phony courts to avoid any consequences of their actions.
Creditors may argue that the main case should proceed in the U.S. To do so they must show the U.S. bankruptcy judge that the hedge funds had their “center of main interests” in the U.S, said Robin Phelan, of Haynes & Boone, who represented hedge fund InverWorld Inc. in its 1999 liquidation in the Caymans.
Because the two hedge funds were incorporated in the Cayman Islands, that’s presumed to be the center of main interests, according to Phelan.
Of course, the plaintiffs are not angels either, investing in predatory lending as a way to make money.
If there were only a way for both sides to lose.
If There Was Any Doubt that Christian Dominionists Were Settting the Stage for an Eventual Coup
While the news that senior Pentagon officers seems like a stupid infraction of the rules, I see it as part of a larger, and more troubling picture.
Specifically, if one follows what is going on in the Christian Dominionist Movement, this is clearly a part of the pattern, along with things like the bigotry and harassment at the Air Force Academy, of the Religious Right create a military amenable to a Religious coup that would create a theocracy in the US.
They have been calling for this for years.
Four military generals, two in the Air Force, violated ethical standards by appearing or participating in a Christian fundraising video filmed inside Pentagon hallways, according to the Defense Department’s Inspector General’s office.
Maj. Gens. Peter Sutton and Jack Catton Jr. did not secure approval to promote the evangelical group Christian Embassy while they were in uniform, according to the inspector general. Two Army brigadier generals, Vincent Brooks and Robert Caslen Jr., are accused of the same.
Glenn Greenwald is 100% Correct
He says America is plagued by a self-anointed, highly influential, and insular so-called Foreign Policy Community which spans both political parties, and this assesment is absolutely correct.
I’m not sold on Obama. I’m leaning towards Edwards in fact, but his statement that using a nuclear weapon to take out one individual, and in the process taking out a whole city, is counterproductive and ….well …. insane…is spot on.
Glenn Greenwald’s point about the general uselessness of the Washington foreign policy establishment is correct.
My only quibble is that it should not be limited to the foreign policy establishment.
Signs of the Apocalypse: The WaPo Editorial Page Gets it Right
They cut the Democrats a new one for rolling over on warrantless surveillance.
Truth, the WaPo editorial page being what it is, which is to say only marginally more sane and truthful than the Wall Street Journal and New York Sun editorial pages, one wonders if this is more an attempt to cut the Dems a new one, like the rest of the beltway kool kidz krowd, and less of a real statement of values.
Evil Incompetent Executives Failing Up
I see this as a classic market failure. Bob Nardelli being named head of Chrysler is an indication of how corrupt and self serving our “manager” class has become. (Full disclosure, I worked for this guy when I was at GE Transportation Systems working on locomotives, but I never met him).
Here is a guy who engineered massive stock losses at Home Depot, and walked away with bonuses as a result….Great steward of shareholder value there…huh?
He’s gotten the job because it’s a way for other managers to guarantee that they fail upward too.
This is corrupt, plain and simple.
He said he hoped his own compensation would not become an issue in Chrysler’s ongoing contract talks with the United Auto Workers union.
Yes, I sure you don’t want that to be an issue, you contemptible greedhead.
Nardelli said Chrysler’s established restructuring plan is adequate but added that as a private company the automaker will look to move quickly to monetize some assets, with a focus on cash flow rather than reported earnings.
That one’s pretty easy to read: Cerberus bought Chrysler for what amounts to a few magic beans, and they are going to treat it like a chop shop treats a Lexus.
Our system of values in the US is more f%$#ed up than Osama bin Ladens.
A Very Good Insight Into the Group Mind of Economists
Dan Rodrik has a very good post on a fundamental difference in the economist community.
Essentially, it comes down to those who believe that theory as it now exists explains how the economy behaves, and any divergence from the theory as noise, and those who who see the noise as significant to a degree that textbook theory cannot be realistically applied.
Speaking as a non economist, I would see Milton Friedman (he got a Nobel for monetary free market theory) falling in the first category, and Joseph Stiglitz (he got his for his descriptions of how information asymmetry distorts free markets) in the second category.
There is a third category I think that he missed between the “first-best economists” and “second-best economists”, those who will revisit their theory on the basis of real world observations, where I would put Keynes, who I admire far more than Friedman.
Guys Night Out
My daughter had a concert this evening at her very frum1 summer camp.
It’s a girls only camp, and a female only concert, because it’s not tznius2 for women to sing for men not their relatives3.
This meant that it was guys night out for Charlie and me. So we got Pizza, and since the local Kosher place (there are at least 2 Kosher pizzerias in Ballmur4.
As luck would have it, they have introduced a Sicilian5 pizza, so Charlie and I shared one, half extra cheese, and half had mushroom and felafel6. It was his first exposture to deep dish pizza. I had to explain to him that its shape was because it was baked in a (square) pan.
We hung out, and chatted about this and that…The sort of things that an 8 year olds mind turns to…like microbiology7.
After gorging ourselves, we went to the bookstore and he looked at the fiction (didn’t find anything), and I looked at the aircraft magazines (I didn’t find anything either).
2 Meaning modest
4 Baltimore Maryland, hon.
5 Deep Dish pizza to the uniniated.
6 A poor substitute for sausage, but it’s what is available at a Kosher place, and corrupting my son would upset my beloved.
7Really…He’s discovered Giant Microbes dot com, so we were talking about things like the difference between Salmonella and Typhoid fever, the origins of Mitochondria, Organelles in the cells, the role of Adenosine-triphosphate and RNA in cellular function, etc. He’s scary smart. He used the word metaphor in proper context when he was 5.
7Really…He’s discovered Giant Microbes dot com, so we were talking about things like the difference between Salmonella and Typhoid fever, the origins of Mitochondria, Organelles in the cells, the role of Adenosine-triphosphate and RNA in cellular function, etc. He’s scary smart. He used the word metaphor in proper context when he was 5.
Dr. Doom is an Inconsistent Wimp
So say we all.