Big Data And The Federal Government 4

freedom, government, politics • Tags: , , , , ,

All my life I have been thankful to be living in the United States of America. From my earliest memories when my mom tried to force me to eat liver by telling me of all the starving children in China and India, to the Patriot Act which collects personal data on potential terrorists. Well, that’s what I thought it did.

This week we learned that the Patriot Act is a bit more invasive than initially indicated. The Federal Government is accumulating macro-data on most American citizens through their telephone call records, their Internet activities, and their credit card records.

Folks, that’s a LOT of private information being snooped in these programs and that is in addition to the IRS exclusively investigating conservative groups in support of the Obama Re-Elect campaign. This is the worst nightmare you can imagine.

Server Racks In Data Warehouse

Server Racks In Data Warehouse

Here’s the way things work. The FBI will go to a FISA Court judge and get a subpoena to collect data on an individual, or set of individuals. After getting the subpoena, they then collect the information from the telephone companies and give it to the NSA. The NSA will dump all this data into their system, and crank-up their data mining programs.

The NSA uses this macro-data, information about the underlying data, to make connections and assumptions about your usage of the telephone networks. This is double jeopardy. First of all, your private communications habits are being reviewed constantly, depriving you of privacy. Secondly, no matter what criteria are used in their pattern searches, there is a chance that you will wind-up being personally investigated. There will be FALSE POSITIVES. Their big dragnet will always come up with candidates as suspects whether they have done anything or not to deserve the attention. There may be no terrorists uncovered by this data, but the Feds will likely investigate every person who bubbles up in their statistical scheme.

The horror story is not over.

Another onerous NSA program has been uncovered called, PRISM. This is a program to accumulate your personal data from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Apple, etc. Since Google is constantly having bots read your email, this means that the government has access to what you have been talking about. If Google can tailor ads to your interests, then the Federal Government can deduce your political views, buying habits, sexual preferences, and other things you think are super-secret because all these big internet companies have privacy policies. Well, that’s what they tell us.

Oh, ignorance is bliss.

Enter Big Data and the 2012 Presidential Election. The Obama campaign used data mining techniques to acquire the votes to put Obama over the top. The campaign knew down to an individual who had to be convinced, and personal phone calls and visits were made to get the job done. This knowledge came from the data mining effort.

Google’s Chairman of The Board, Eric Schmidt, bankrolled a data-mining operation called Civis Analytics, after the campaign. In addition to doing commercial work, Civis will consult with Democrat political candidates in the next election. No Republicans will be helped. He claims that he did not furnish data for the campaign effort, but the Obama campaign knew pretty much how everybody would be voting, and how to deploy their resources to influence votes.

Eric Schmidt is a personal friend to Barack Obama. Does it not make you wonder if you Google searches are unbiased by their algorithms? So, did Eric Schmidt have anything to do with giving data accumulated by Google to the Obama Administration? Inquiring minds want to know.

I am not so sure I want to keep my email account with Google, anymore. Well, maybe I should extend that to Yahoo, also. Oh, my Microsoft email account and Skydrive cloud storage account are under surveillance, too. What can I do? Who can I trust?

That’s the question, isn’t it? Who can you trust?

I don’t trust the Government of The United States. I don’t trust anybody, anymore.

Who do you trust?

Why Do We Blog? 6

blogs, personal

I think there are several reasons why people write articles for their web-log, or blog. First of all, if you have something to say, it is a good place to say it. Plus, you have the added reason that somebody else may read your essays, and be convinced that your opinion, or presentation, is good. On the other hand, with other people reading your essays, there is the overwhelming chance that others will disagree with you.

Another reason people write blogs is because they are narcissistic. They just want to say something, or they want to become known in certain circles as an expert, or knowledgeable person. That works sometimes, and many people will cruise the so-called blogosphere just to make inane comments on others’ blogs. They are called, trolls.

Some people write essays on their blogs because it is their profession. Lots of journalists have their own blogs, or maintain a personal blog on their employer’s website to voice their personal 0pinions. Many times, their blogs are quoted as actual news outlets.

Blogging got it’s reputation from those who operate their blogs as alternative news sources. Many main-stream media stories have been struck-down, or negated by the attention of bloggers who are always on the lookout for bad journalism. Indeed, it has gotten to the point that it is preferable to read blogs instead of main-stream newspapers, or to watch network television news shows. It is sometimes amazing how the public is taken for granted, or as stupid, by the main-stream news media. One of the biggest examples is the Dan Rather/ CBS News hoax with the forged George Bush National Guard papers. The documents were clearly manufactured for Rather’s agenda-directed news casts. Rather later tried to say that even though the documents were false, they were correct. What human being in their right mind would accept this patently false assertion?

Some of us write because we like to write. I am not a professional writer, but I do have an agenda which pretty much anyone can see if they read my articles. I think lots of us are the same way. We are also under the impression that our opinions can make a difference, and occasionally we are disappointed that world events don’t seem to be affected by our constant advice.

It is easy to be a blogger, but it is hard to find something significant to say. Many bloggers just comment on current items in the news. Others comment on things within their field of expertise, and still others talk about personal things, sometimes to their detriment

One thing I know is that now is the time to start a blog if you have anything to say, at all. Somebody, somewhere will read what you have to say whether they agree or not. With enough bloggers out there espousing the same message, anything can happen.

Happy blogging, everybody.

Career Bureaucrats Are Far Worse Than Our Elected Politicians Reply

politics • Tags:

Reblogged from Asylum Watch:

On the 15th of May, I wrote a post titled The Bureaucratic Swamp That Is D.C. (District of Corruption). It that post, I quoted from an article in the Washington Post by George Will who, in turn, used this quote from Christopher DeMuth (a Fellow of the Hudson Institute) at George Mason University:

Government power is increasingly concentrated in Washington, 

Read more… 686 more words

I rarely re-publish someone else's articles. This article is a worthwhile read by an American citizen now living in Venezuela. The link to his blog is in my blog-roll, and is well worth adding to your list of favorites.

In Memorium 4

family, history, Memphis, war • Tags: , , ,

ArmyPicIt was a cold January day when the doorbell rang at our little house on the dead-end of Netherwood Street. My father answered the door, and a lady presented a telegram from the War Department. There was anguish in his voice when he alerted mom, “Mother, Jimmy is dead”. My brother, Jimmy, had been killed on December 24, 1951 in Korea.

I remember these things as if it were yesterday. Everyone in the whole house went into screaming fits of crying, with my mother and father retiring to their bedroom with their grief. It was not their first son to die for his country. Their first-born, Charles, had been declared dead after missing in action in the South Pacific during World War II.

It was what every soldier’s parents fear the most. Their child will come home, no more.

Jimmy was a big guy, standing about six feet, two inches tall. He would come home from school, or delivering newspapers and throw me over his shoulder, rough-housing with me like big brothers do. He was the guy everybody liked, and he sang bass in a gospel quartet. Somewhere in our family keepsakes is a small vinyl record he and a group of soldiers cut while on leave, singing a gospel song titled, “Keep On The Firing Line”.  It was appropriate for a singer of Christian songs, and a soldier.

While in high school, Jimmy talked our parents into signing for him to join the National Guard in Memphis. This was supposed to keep him out of the war in Korea because the Guard was not expected to be called-up for active duty in that war.

The National Guard was federalized, and units from all over the country were used to bolster the fighting units having a hard time in Korea. The Memphis unit was the 196th Field Artillery. It was a battery of 155 millimeter howitzers. Those are the really big guns.

At times he would send home pictures, and one set showed a field littered with the bodies of dozens of Chinese soldiers. I don’t know how Jimmy got these pictures past the censors, but we still have them.

The 196th had been firing their howitzers for over 24 hours when it happened. Jimmy was the crew leader, and they loaded a defective round. It exploded in the gun’s breech, killing the entire gun crew. Years later as I was graduating  from college with my engineering degree, I interviewed with a unit of Sperry-Rand out of Louisiana that had manufactured ammunition for 155 mm howitzers. The interviewer told me that there had been a problem with defective ammunition they had manufactured during the Korean War.

If you remember I spoke of two brothers dying while in service to their country. I never knew the brother killed in World War II. He was also much-loved, and it was years before my father stopped going to the train station in Memphis, looking for a son who never returned from the war. I am writing about Jimmy because he is the one I knew.

Some people don’t understand why we honor our war dead. In my opinion those who don’t understand this just don’t understand honor. Honor is not something automatically given, it has to be earned. Just living a life and dying does not generate honor in and of itself. Honor is given to those who serve others.

It is this service to others we honor, and do so in memory of those who gave their lives in battle for things some people don’t understand.

Little Things Mean A Lot 6

9/11, economics, government • Tags: , , ,

This essay was inspired by a man named Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of a very famous book, “The Black Swan”.  This is not about the Natalie Portman movie, it is a very interesting book on where our financial experts went wrong leading up to the economic disasters in the last few decades. It is a bit mathematical, and certainly covers some philosophical points. It may be boring for some people, but for those who want to know how some things work, it is well worth the effort.

The term Black Swan  comes from the fact that for centuries, nobody knew there was such a thing as a black swan. All swans in the known world were white. One day, people went to Australia and lo-and-behold, what did they find but black swans. No longer were all swans assumed to be white.  The discovery of black swans was a totally unexpected event.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb took that idea, and describes the 9/11 terrorist attacks, hurricane Katrina, the US financial system disasters in the 1980′s, 1990′s, and the 2000′s as black swans. They were all big, life changing events, not predicted, and most people believe they should have been predictable if only we had connected the dots. That’s a black swan.

How do you make yourself ready for an unpredicted, really big, life-changing event? Think like a boxer. These guys work out extensively every day by doing calisthenics, getting punched on the body and the face, and by keeping to a training diet. When the big fight comes, their body is in condition, and they are ready for the big punches their opponent is certain to deal them.

Being able to handle all the little punches, adversities, and problems in everyday life is one way to be ready for the “Big One”. There are obviously many dimensions to this idea, and many are sound. Allergy shots are given everyday to inoculate the body from the really big shock of a heavy, Atlanta Georgia allergy season. Infants and toddlers should be allowed to crawl on floors, go to those pre-schools which are germ incubators, and to generally let their little bodies learn to cope with the little attacks of daily life so they can grow up prepared to handle the tough, and germ infested world.

Is there any connection with the economic world, i.e., government and other institutions?

Socialism, communism, and fascism try to insulate people from the economic travails of life, i.e., joblessness, bankruptcies, natural calamities, fraud, and greed. Instead of letting people learn to deal with joblessness and their own economic problems, the state tries to protect them. Inevitably, the government is going to screw up big time (lowering credit standards for home buyers), and a VERY BIG catastrophe will ensue. It is the big government-caused disaster that hurts people, not the little ones they have accustomed themselves to handle.

It is endemic to big government and big corporations that are “too big to fail” that really bad things will happen, on huge scales. If the government is limiting depositor risk in the banking system by bailing out big banks, all they are doing is transferring the bank’s risk of doing business to taxpayers. This should be considered criminal, it is certainly illogical, and in many cases, stupid.

We have heard all our lives, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” I have extended it to, “Don’t let the little people get you down”. Now, the watchword is changing to, “Watch out for Big Brother”. He is here, he is malicious, and he is unrelenting. Look for more big problems, bank failures. crony-capitalism, and downright corruption in our government.

Corruption goes hand-in-hand with big government.

Extreme Weather Is Horse Feathers! 2

climate, science

I could have said something else, but lest you didn’t get the message, extreme weather events are not getting more numerous do to climate change, or any other change. Most people don’t like technical subjects like this, and that’s why they believe the politicians and news media that we, humans, are causing the weather to get worse. We can change local climates, but the hypothesis that weather is getting more extreme is easily falsifiable.

Here are the facts:

  • There is no discernible trend in the number of strong tornadoes in the continental US over the last half-century.
  • There is no discernible trend in the number of hurricanes in the last century. Yep. Katrina was a big one, but there have been very few hurricanes since.

Here are a couple of graphs drawn with data from NOAA that demonstrate that there is no increase in either of these extreme weather events.

Tornado Activity

Tornado Activity

Hurricane History

Hurricane History

There are no trends no matter what the media says, and there is no scientific consensus for that hypothesis.

 

Downton Abbey And Asheville’s Biltmore Estate 6

culture, entertainment • Tags: , , , , , ,
Highclere Castle - Television's Downton Abbey

Highclere Castle – Television’s Downton Abbey

My wife and I are currently enthralled with the PBS television series, Downtown Abbey. It is a series about an extremely rich English family at the turn of the century. We are currently watching Season 3.

The story is multi-generational, but centers on the Earl of Downton, his wife and mother, and their three daughters. Of course, the entire servant staffs’ stories are intertwined with the upper class, and one daughter even runs away with the chauffeur. The stories about the daughters are not those of a randy bunch of girls, but are told in a realistic and sensitive way.

You get into the whole turn-of-the-century English Lord and Lady thing. It is very entertaining.

The unspoken star of the series is the house, itself. The actual structure used is Highclere Castle, a famous and picturesque castle in its own right.

Picture of Biltmore House

The Biltmore Estate – Ashville, NC

This last week, we made the trip to Asheville, North Carolina and visited the Biltmore House. This is the house built by George Washington Vanderbilt II, grand-son of the fabulously wealthy shipping magnate, Cornelius Vanderbilt. G W received about $2 million after granddad’s death in 1877, equivalent to almost $40 million in today’s dollars.

The Biltmore estate was originally composed of 125,000 acres in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina. It is only about 8,000 acres today. There is the Biltmore House itself, a winery, several gardens, and other attractions on the grounds. Having consumed a couple of bottles of their house brand of wine since the visit, I can say that the wine is generally good. Specifically, the Pinot Grigi0 and Cabernet Blanc are good, and the Cabernet Sauvignon is drinkable. The prices ran about $15 to $20 per bottle, which was a bit high for the quality received.

On the other hand, what do you expect from a tourist operation like the Biltmore House? Certainly, many of the visitors know about wines, but I have a suspicion that many do not. It certainly seems to me that they could profitably operate a whiskey distillery, or at least a brew pub. The laws in North Carolina may prohibit those activities, though.

The Biltmore house contains 175,000 square feet, divided into 250 rooms. Thirty-five are guest rooms and forty-three are bathrooms. When visiting, you must use public restrooms in another structure. So, take care of details before entering the house.

We didn’t allow time to get down to the basement which houses the servants quarters, the swimming pool and the engineering spaces. When the house was constructed, the electric power world had not matured, with Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse fighting for supremacy between Edison’s Direct Current standard, and Westinghouse and Tesla’s Alternating Current. The Biltmore House was therefore wired for AC and DC. The first electric service was a DC generator in the basement. When an AC generating plant was built in Asheville, the Biltmore’s DC generator was changed out for a bank of mercury vapor rectifiers to change the city’s AC to DC for the house.

When you tour the extravagant rooms of the Biltmore House, you cannot but help to compare it to the house in Downton Abbey. George Vanderbilt had provided not only comfortable rooms for guests, but he also provided three kitchens to feed them, libraries for reading and intellectual pursuits, stables to care for polo and carriage horses, an indoor swimming pool, and numerous gardens and walking paths to keep those guests entertained. The house itself is a beautiful structure, and from almost any part of the house you have breathtaking views of the North Carolina mountains.

The designer of the house was Richard Morris Hunt, an architect of note who had designed several of the Vanderbilt houses. The grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted who numbered the landscape design of New York City’s Central Park among his successes.

Similar to the story in Downton Abbey, I could not help but be struck by the sheer extravagance of the two houses, and the wastefulness represented by those estates of the very rich. Indeed, the Vanderbilt houses in America represent what has become known as the guilded age. We may think that the American guilded age and the lavish British Victorian age are long gone, but the very rich are still with us.

Similar to lottery winners, even the Vanderbilts ran the risk of running out of wealth because of their extravagant ways. The estate is still owned by the family, but is operated as a business. Since it is in private hands, I don’t know how well the business performs, but you can see everything for about $50.00, US currency. Or, you can buy a pass good for one year and unlimited visits for $130.00. Equestrian activities cost more.

What Should I Have Said? Reply

drugs, humor • Tags: , ,
Governor McCrory Chats With Constituent

Governor McCrory Chats With Constituent

Everybody remembers when they were the target of an off-color remark, or on the defensive in an argument with a friend or neighbor. It is always five minutes later, or even the next day when we finally think of the reply we should have made, but missed a great opportunity to settle things. Well, I had a similar feeling this weekend after visiting  friends in the North Carolina town of Black Mountain. The governor of the state made a drive-by visit, glad-handing folks and offering himself for photo opportunities.

My host and I were in two of the stores in downtown Black Mountain that the governor visited. It was interesting to watch the process unfold. It was just like what we see on tv, the state executive greeting people, and pausing for pictures. It was tempting to get into one of the lines to chat with the gentleman.

Hardware Store In Downtown Black Mountain, NC

Hardware Store In Downtown Black Mountain, NC

No, I did not moon the governor. I didn’t even approach the good man to introduce myself. Since I am from Georgia, and he is the governor of North Carolina, I felt the best use of his time was schmoozing local voters. I am sorry I did not take the opportunity. He had no way of knowing where I was from, and he would not have questioned me on that score.

Right after the governor left one store, I did introduce myself to some of the local store employees as the Governor of Georgia. I think one lady believed me.

My retrospective intent is not honorable, either. Looking back, I wonder just what statement or question I could have made that would totally surprise His Honor. He is such a nice looking guy, energetic and caring for the populace. What could I have said, or asked, that would have ruined his day?

My first thought was the following contemporary subject: “What is your position on medical marijuana?” Now, this is not as contentious as it used to be, but the follow-up question could bring things into sharp focus, as “So, you are for legalizing all drugs?“

If you are in a liberal town like the one I was visiting, you would think that the governor would be expecting something like the marijuana gambit. You could use the more risky opener, “What is your position on legalizing prostitution?” Some of us guys might think that funny, but one should be careful when asking the governor a question such as this. Television cameras could capture you in the act of being pummeled by the governor’s security detail. Things could get messy.

Of course, there is always the old, “Your fly is open.” line. It works every time.

I would like to hear other off-the-wall questions or comments for politicians. What are your favorites?

Traveling But Not Blogging 2

family, personal

I have not been blogging, but have been tending to personal duties. Plus, we have traveled a bit, also. This past week we drove from Atlanta to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to visit relatives. Up until three years ago, I had not seen those people since our Uncle’s funeral several decades ago.

It was good to have seen them, and catch up on our families. Time has been good to all of us, well, with the exception of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. We heard all the stories, and toured the coast where people are rebuilding, depending on the restrictive, new building codes.

My cousins are brave people, and since they have grown up on the coast, will not let a few hurricanes drive them away. After seven years, they have all rebuilt and refurbished.

Life is good.

Who Pays For Scientific Research? 5

climate, culture, government, money, science • Tags: ,

Every day we read news releases about new scientific developments, and about how the current administration is entranced with protecting the climate, and pushing “green” technology and jobs. The problem is that many of the news releases are just that, news releases meant for publicity and do not herald the great break-through they promise. You can know this by making a note of these extraordinary pieces of scientific news, and by consulting your notes six to twelve months after the news release. If you do a Google search you will learn that a significant portion of those announcements did not mature into their promise.

This is not unusual. Scientists, universities, foundations, and government officials who have approved massive funding for some of these projects are under pressure to produce, so they put the pressure on the institution that got the funding. From there, the scientists are pushed to announce something. Of course, these scientists are basically dishonest in the first place, and would do anything to keep getting government grant money for their nefarious and various projects. They have to make a living, too.

The Federal Government funds the lion’s share of scientific research. The following graph shows the Federal funding for research in fiscal years 1995 – 2011.

File:U.S. research funding.png

As you can see, the spending on research in 2011 was about $60 Billion. That spending includes Defense, NASA, National Science Foundation, and about a dozen other departments and offices of the United States Government. Most of these offices dispense these funds to other institutions like universities and think tanks in addition to funding internal programs.

The Federal Government supports a huge amount of university scientific research in this country. In 2009, that amounted to the Federal Government supporting about $33 billion of universities’ total annual R&D spending of $55 billion. As you can quickly calculate, this is sixty percent of the research done at our universities.  About seventy percent of science and engineering graduate students are funded by these Federal funds. This is an important fact.

President Obama’s proposed 2011 budget included $2.56 Billion for climate research. Since the science of global warming and climate change is settled (according to a large number of people in the research business), why does the Federal Government continue to spend billions of dollars in this field. Could it be that they still don’t know what is going on?

If you are a cynical character such as I, you will consider the facts as outlined. Climate scientists education are paid by the Federal Government. Climate scientists swear that global warming is a threat to society if we don’t do something about it. The Federal Government says it can do something about global warming by establishing carbon taxes and strangling the US economy by implementing inefficient energy sources, i.e., wind power and solar power. The Federal Government pays for climate science PhD’s education, and it gets the research it demands from the academic community. University programs cannot exist without Federal funding, and the Government cannot implement a carbon tax without the questionable climate research being done.

There is a symbiotic relationship between the university system and the Federal Government. This relationship results in an insidious culture with corrupt science, money, and the power.

I would be overjoyed for someone to tell me how government funding of science can have any good result. The fact is that the government simply cannot manage an economy, much less the broad and complex world of science. Do you remember Solyndra?

The citizens and taxpayers of the United States pay for all this research. Some of it is over the top. Some is useless. When the Federal Government funds academics, things are unavoidably political, and science becomes a charade that makes losers of us all.