Skepticism

A while back I wrote about 4 simple ideas to live by (rules isn’t the right word) and suggested that if you lived your life with these things in mind the world would seem much more predictable.  I was reading the recent email newsletter from John Mauldin and came across this bit he borrowed from George Friedman.  Here he’s talking about the power of the presidency and broken campaign promises. Emphasis mine:


I’ve written before about the world being held together by duct tape… and it seems there are more people lately who have decided to rip off the covers and go looking for some duct tape.  The latest headline comes from the world of SCADA systems.

More news from the front… GLOBAL WARMING IS OVER, SAYS EXPERT

Before I get into this article… I want to rebut something else that’s been part of this story. It’s being reported that Dr Richard Muller is a long time AGW (anthropomorphic global warming) skeptic and so the fact that he appears to have done a 180 adds to the drama of the story. In fact this is not true at all.. he never was a skeptic.

In an interview about his book back in 08 he was asked what the next president needed to know about GW and he said:

One of the reasons I like and support the use of open source software is that you can avoid most of the drama that comes from relying on 3rd party vendors.  By this I mean.. you must pay exorbitant sums for ongoing maintenance, you are locked into their product upgrade treadmill, you have little say in the direction of their products, you have a single source for support, and if your vendor gets acquired there is a very good chance the product you depend on will go away or change in ways that force you to abandon it with even more pain.  I’ve seen this play out from both sides of the table having spent time in both enterprise environments and working for software companies.

With all the fear mongering about radiation exposure in media lately I thought it would good to get a little clarity. I found this great chart that breaks down the normal levels of exposure we all get in everyday life and compares it with what’s going on in Japan.. and what happened with the other two major reactor incidents from history. So far.. it’s really not as bad as everyone in the media is making it out to be.

Two and half years ago I registered the e85sucks.com domain because it was clear to me at that point that the big push for more domestic ethanol production and use was a scam. Now finally the very same people who were pushing it back then have finally come clean that it was a bad idea.  Now there have been plenty of people saying this stuff for years.. but it’s nice to know eventually the truth can be recognized.

 How GM “Lied” About The Electric Car Wow… what were they thinking. In summary… it seems the claims that GM has been making for years about the design and performance of the Volt were just out and out lies. They claimed it was a serial hybrid.. meaning the gas engine was just acting as an electrical generator and that the electric motors drove the wheels. That’s a lie. They claimed it would get 230 mpg in city driving and have an initial electric range of 40 miles to cover the average commute.

CIA used ‘illegal, inaccurate code to target kill drones’

Netezza illegally and hastily reverse-engineered IISi’s code (targeting software) to deliver a version that produced locations inaccurate by up to 13 metres. Despite knowing about the miscalculations, the CIA accepted the software, court submissions indicate.

I have a theory… or perhaps this should be another of those rules to live by.

 For every 1 billion the federal government spends we (90 million who actually pay federal taxes) will get a bill for $11.11. That’s pretty easy math.. so for instance the additional 57 billion of new ‘stimulus’ last week cost us about $633 each. How much did you earn last week? If they were honest about what they were doing they would send out invoices to all taxpayers every month to cover the new ‘stimulus’.

 It was 62 days ago that I ask the city of Charlotte to take back their RFID tagged recycling bin. I’m not going to play their game… which if you didn’t know involves tracking your participation in their money losing recycling program… and eventually fines.. and re-education about how to be eco friendly. No thanks little brother. Back when I first posted about this on May 6th (and scooped Taras army of research interns) I also filled out the form on the city web site to take the bin back.