Karl Denninger: "We're all Lootie"

The invaluable Karl Denninger has written a scathing, profane article about the highway robbery being perpetrated by mortgage lending institutions. It's a very important article, in my opinion, and I can't recommend too strongly that you click over to his site and read the whole thing. However, since I know many readers won't do that, I'll reprint a large portion of his article here. (Bold and italic print is Mr. Denninger's emphasis.)

Let's look at a short list folks. This is what you've tolerated just in the last few years.

• Your school's funds, including those in Florida, were "invested" in instruments that the people responsible - and at the highest level of State Government - knew they could not legally buy. This blew up in their face. Nobody has been indicted for this, yet the money is still gone.
• You were sold funds (money) on a predatory basis. State Law prohibited this. Your State Attorney General went to court to stop it. The Bush Administration sued to prevent enforcement of those laws, and got a Federal Judge - who they, of course, control - to block enforcement. You got ripped off, and what's worse, the housing bubble and subsequent collapse was, in part, CAUSED by this predatory lending. Your State Attorneys General and Legislators refuse to protect your rights and enforce the law, despite the 10th Amendment clearly requiring that they do so.
• Banks are illegally attempting to lock people out of their own homes. Yes, their homes - not the Banks'. The bank has no foreclosure judgment in hand when they do this, and do not have a right of possession. When the cops are called they refuse to arrest the perpetrators, claiming there is no "criminal intent." If attempting to seize someone's home without having the legal right to do so isn't criminal intent, can I ask what is?
• Banks were (and are) insolvent. Kanjorski, a Congressman, threatens FASB, the accounting standards board, telling them in open congressional hearing that if they do not change the accounting rules so that black-letter false values for "assets" - that is, fraud - is not made legal Congress will pass a law to make it so. They fold, of course - how do you stop Congress when it intends to legislate you out of existence unless you do what it wants? This results in a huge stock market rally but the rotting fish in these loans is still there and still rotting.
• Banks then try to foreclose on these notes, as the cash flow is starting to get a bit thin. But that's a problem - they never transferred the notes to the trusts when they originated and packaged the loans, and in some states that transfer not only had to be done under black-letter law, it also had to be recorded along with the payment of fees. Black-letter law, again, says that REMICs, the underlying mortgage securities, cannot take in new notes after their closing dates, and without the note there is no standing to foreclose at all. This is a rather uncomfortable situation - so to get around it, they start filing false "lost note" affidavits and "robosigned" notarizations that the people doing the signing didn't even read! (A note you destroyed or failed to transfer on purpose, instead sending them to India in crates, isn't lost!) These are acts of fraud upon the court (no longer an allegation, as courts have ruled it as thus) and perjury (any false swearing in a court is perjury) and yet the judges in these courts have not held the people doing the false swearing in criminal contempt. In short, courts are no longer places where the citizens can come for lawful redress of grievance when they get scammed if the entity doing the scamming is a big Wall Street operation.
  

So what do we have left folks?

Your State and Local Governments will not protect you against being butt-****d by Wall Street Bankers.

Your Federal Government actively conspires with the same Wall Street Bankers, holding you down on your stomach while they take turns from behind.

These offenses have now reached the level of literal physical theft of real property.

. . .

If there is no political solution, and no redress available in the courts, then your options are to either bend over, place a stick in your teeth, and redefine these acts of **** as "sex", or to in some fashion revolt.

Revolt comes in two forms. One that meets the definition of sedition and is thus black-letter unlawful (and that law, you can bet, the government will enforce) and one that is perfectly legal.

The latter act is one that I am now extraordinarily close to being forced to recommend.

I am speaking of refusing to pay.

Everything.

And everyone.

There is no crime in refusing to pay and withdrawing ALL of your money from the banks.

The problem is that The American People won't do it, even though doing it would force an immediate resolution to these problems, as every bank in America would instantaneously collapse due to the people's collective vote of "no confidence", delivered lawfully through refusal to engage in commerce with them.

How do I know America won't do it?

Because 10% of the population is unemployed as a direct and proximate result of these frauds and scams and yet there are no mass-marches on Washington DC.

No sit-ins.

No people driving 5mph on the freeway during rush hour as a pack of three cars, blocking traffic (and accepting a traffic ticket) as a very effective means of disrupting commerce and saying "no more damnit!"

Nothing.

So what you get from me, instead, is a chronology of these frauds and scams. I'll keep writing about them for the time being, but I have no faith in the people in this nation any longer.

The nation we once were - the nation that responded to a stick in our collective eye on December 7th, 1941 - no longer exists.

Instead, we've been reduced to infantile sucklers on a Government Teat.

Instead of wanting to better ourselves through hard work, capital formation and saving, we now are reduced to this as a nation:




That is what's left of America, and we smile while doing it. We're willing to screw everyone else, and so when it's done to us, we just respond with more of it ourselves, instead of well-justified outrage and demands that it stop - backed up with whatever level of insistence is necessary to force it to stop.

On this path all asset prices ultimately collapse.

Productive work ends and everyone looks for a way to rob someone. They find it - after all, robbing people isn't really that complicated, and in fact it's no more complicated than the guy who walks into the "Stop-N-Rob" and sticks a pistol up the cashier's nose. Yeah, we try to make out like it's more complex and to hide it in reams of paper and various obstructions, but what's really going on is nothing more complicated than the old gun up-the-nose trick.

This, of course, produces nothing (you're simply stealing someone else's "stuff") and as the percentage of people who turn to robbery rises, all productive work and betterment of society for all slows down and ultimately ceases.

That day is arriving, and if you're not prepared for what it will mean, and what will come as a consequence, you're going to be very, very sorry.

At the end of 2008 I wrote a Ticker in which I said "We're all Madoff."

I was wrong.

We're all Lootie.

Good luck America.

As I said earlier, there's more at the link. Very worthwhile reading - and very troubling. Mr. Denninger has been classified by many as a pessimist and a doomsayer, but every word he writes about the banks' shenanigans in the report above is absolutely and literally true. He didn't make up a thing. That being the case . . . I have a horrible feeling that he may not be wrong about the consequences.

As commentator Marty Robbins put it recently: "Onward Toward An Entitlement Society".

*Sigh*

Peter

Rowing reporter FAIL!

In the video clip below, I understand the young lady was a reporter who asked to row as a member of the team to find out what it was like. Unfortunately, it seems her skills weren't quite what they needed to be . . .

Oops!



Peter

A tyranny of good intentions?

Writing in the The Globe & Mail of Canada, Neil Reynolds asks if this is what lies in store for us. He quotes Professor Kenneth Minogue on the issue.

“I am of two minds about democracy,” he writes, “and so is everyone else. We all agree that it is the sovereign remedy for corruption, war and poverty in the Third World. We would certainly tolerate no other system in our own country. Yet most people are disenchanted with the way it works. One reason is that our rulers now manage so much of our lives that they cannot help but do it badly. They have overreached. Blunder follows blunder.”

Far worse, traditional democratic theory has been flipped upside down: “Our rulers now make us accountable to them.”

Count the ways.

“Most Western governments hate me smoking, or eating the wrong kind of food, or hunting foxes or drinking too much. Most of these governments think we borrow too much money for our personal pleasures and many of us are very bad parents. Ministers of state have been known to instruct us in elementary matters, such as the importance of reading bedtime stories to our children.

“Many of us have unsound views about people of other races, cultures or religions, and the distribution of our friends does not always correspond to the cultural diversity of our society. We must face up to the grim fact that the rulers we elect are losing patience with us.

“Debt, intemperance and incompetence in rearing our children are no doubt regrettable – but they are vices, and – left alone – they will soon lead to the pain that corrects. Life is a better teacher of virtue than politicians and most sensible governments in the past have left moral faults to the churches.

“The point is that governments have no business telling us how to live. They are tiresome enough in the exercise of authority. They are intolerable when they mount the pulpit. Nor should we be in any doubt that nationalizing the moral life of the people is the first step toward totalitarianism.”

Actions are no longer morally wrong. The state determines what is “acceptable” and what is “unacceptable” – thereby constructing a new “language of authority” that enforces political morality even as it rescinds everyday moral inhibitions. People are encouraged to be “collectively dutiful and individually hedonistic.”

Prof. Minogue writes from Britain, where the Labour government (2007) began seizing “unacceptable” families and holding them, without consent, for extended periods of behaviour-modification training by cadres of civil servants from eight government departments. These families had a record of drug addiction, child violence and poor mental attitudes. Where, he asks, will this cleansing end?

There's more at the link.

All Professor Minogue's fears can be summed up in one word - statism. President Obama's administration epitomizes the statist approach, dictating to individuals what they must do in terms of health care, ramming through vastly expensive 'bail-outs' (which are carefully crafted to benefit certain sectors of society and political interest groups while disadvantaging others), and generally seeing 'big government' and 'big brother' as a Good Thing.

Needless to say, that's the diametric opposite of what I believe in: and, please God, in November the US electorate will deliver a resounding vote of no confidence in statist policies during the mid-term elections. They'd better . . . or all Professor Minogue's fears will come true in this country as well.

Peter

A walk in the park - or a dive???

There's an interesting park in Austria with a unique feature. The Daily Mail reports:

This is the Green Lake in Tragoess, Styria, which sits at the foot of [the] snow-capped Hochschwab mountains.




Throughout the frozen winter months the area is almost completely dry and is used as a county park. It is a particular favourite site for hikers.

But as soon as the temperatures begin to rise in spring, the ice and snow on the mountaintops begins to melt and runs down into the basin of land below.

The park fills up with ice-cold crystal clear water, which gets its distinctive green colouring from the grass and foliage beneath.

The water levels rise from about one or two metres deep in the winter to as much as 10 metres in the late spring and early summer.

The waters are at their highest in June when it becomes a mecca for divers keen to explore the rare phenomenon, before the waters recede at the end of July.

There's more at the link, including some excellent underwater photographs of the park. Interesting and amusing reading.

Peter

Smaller government, lower taxes - but not if it costs us!

One of the drawbacks in working for a smaller government, living within its means (i.e. a balanced budget, with all expenditure adequately funded without excessive borrowing), is that so many people - and so many institutions - have become so reliant on government funding that they oppose any such steps. The latest example comes from New York State, where the Corrections Department would like to shut down several under-utilized prisons, saving tens of millions of dollars for the State. Unfortunately, local towns are fighting tooth and nail (and largely successfully) to prevent the closures, because they don't want to lose the jobs and income that the prisons represent to them.

This dilemma is playing out all across the USA right now. State and regional governments can't afford to fund all the expenditures they've incurred in the past, and so are looking for ways to economize. However, smaller governments have allowed themselves to become dependent on bigger-government largesse, and are raising Cain at the prospect of losing the subsidy represented by such expenditure. That's what it is, realistically: taxpayers are bailing out lower-earning local governments and communities by pouring money into them. Trouble is, it's a bottomless pit: and once you start filling it, you're on a hiding to nowhere.

How are we going to balance our budgets - nationally, State by State, town by town - and deal with our debt overload when smaller governments and other organizations refuse to accept the pain of financial surgery, and demand to be allowed to go on sucking at the Government teat? The answer, of course, is that we won't be able to get anywhere unless and until we deal with this malaise. The surgery is going to be painful, and some communities and organizations may well go to the wall as a result; but we can't go on paying for their support with dollars we simply don't have. There's got to come a time when the gravy train grinds to a halt; and given that, as a nation and as individuals, we're broke, there's no time like the present. Who will have the courage to face the truth, tell it to the people, and challenge them to accept the realities of the situation?

Governor Christie in New Jersey seems to have made a pretty good start on his turf. He's telling his people the truth about the State's economic situation, taking his proposed solutions to them in open discussion forums and inviting feedback, and flattening the vested interests who are demanding that their free ride on the gravy train continue uninterrupted.

Let's look for more people like Governor Christie in other States and communities, and get them into office as quickly as we can. We need them!

Peter

Yoda, we hardly knew you . . .

I'm sure most of us remember Yoda, the Grand Master Jedi and somewhat whimsical trainer of wannabe Jedi from the Star Wars movie franchise.

It seems that a recent expedition has discovered more than 200 previously-unknown species of plants and animals in Papua New Guinea. Among them was a fruit bat which, they claim, bears an uncanny resemblance to Yoda. Judge for yourself:




Could you tell which is which?

Methinks the expedition publicist might be stretching the comparison, just a little bit!



Peter

Now that's dexterity!

I'm amazed at the manual dexterity shown by these workers in a Chinese playing card factory.

I guess many of us might develop that skill, given enough practice . . . but it's still mind-boggling!

Peter

In Memoriam: Sir Norman Wisdom

I was sorry to read that Sir Norman Wisdom, the British comedy actor, died yesterday. I grew up with his movies, and had many a good laugh at his gift for making the sublime into the ridiculous. He was never well-known in the USA, so most of my readers probably won't be familiar with his movies; but there are several clips of his work on YouTube. Here's one, 'Bayonet Practice', to whet your appetite.

I guess you could describe his talent as a mixture of Charlie Chaplin's tramp, Buster Keaton, and a dash of Benny Hill.

Thanks for many happy memories, Mr. Wisdom. Rest in peace.

Peter

Would you like purple fries with that?

Yes, you read it correctly. An English supermarket is set to offer purple potatoes, including all of their related products such as fries, mash and crisps (chips).

It might seem a challenge to make chips even more popular than they are, but Sainsbury’s is having a go.

From today, it is selling purple potatoes which carry their deep hue to the core.

The colour survives the cooking process to provide purple chips, baked potatoes and even roasties and mash - which all taste the same as the familiar creamy white type.

As a bonus, the spectacular potatoes are packed with healthy anthocyanin, which gives blueberries, blackberries and aubergines their distinctive tints.

Anthocyanin is a powerful antioxidant which protects cells from damage and so may prevent cancer. Consumption of it is also thought to have many other beneficial effects.

In nature there are thousands of varieties of potatoes, many having deep red and purple flesh. The new Purple Majesty has been crossed from these original strains by a team of experts at Colorado University.

It is being grown in Scotland by the Albert Bartlett company.

Only 400 tons have been grown this year, which means supplies will be limited, but a bigger crop is planned next year.

There's more at the link.

Visually different, certainly . . . but I hope the color doesn't run. Mothers everywhere have had to clean up their kids after ketchup, mustard and other condiments have dripped from fries onto their clothing (to say nothing of the fries themselves ending up tracked into the carpet!). If they now have to put up with purple fry-splotches on top of everything else, I predict a short and unsuccessful sales career for Purple Majesty!





Peter

Evil incarnate - or sociopaths?

I'm appalled to read of the actions of two teenage girls in England.

Two teenage girls have been charged with snatching a seven-month-old baby boy from his sister’s arms and throwing him under a double-decker bus.

The two 14-year-old girls were arrested in the aftermath of the attack on Tavish Dabedeen, who was allegedly snatched from his 13-year-old sister’s arms and hurled under the oncoming bus in Croydon.

. . .

Baby Tavish miraculously escaped with just minor injuries and bruising after the driver of the bus just managed to avoid him as he landed on the road outside the train station.

It was reported at the time that the two teenagers approached Tavish’s mum and sister - who were not named - before allegedly hurling racial abuse at them.

One of the girls is then alleged to have grabbed little Tavish from his sister’s arm and thrown him into the road in front of the bus.

Bystanders looked on in horror as the terrified family tended to the baby, who sustained injuries to his head and torso but who is believed to have made a full recovery.

There's more at the link.

This would leave me speechless, but for the fact that similar behavior is reported from all over the world on a routine basis. Three white men drag a Black man to death in chains behind their pickup truck in Texas . . . Black South Africans lynch illegal immigrants (also Black) from other African nations . . . Turkish workers in Germany face violence from neo-Nazi groups . . . racist attacks in Russia against non-Russians are said to be endemic . . . the list goes on and on. Anywhere there are those who are 'different' from the norm - racially, linguistically, in their religion, whatever - they seem to be at greater risk of being targeted by those who are pathologically insecure, clinging for their self-esteem to misguided and inaccurate myths about racial or religious or cultural superiority. It's even apparent in everyday discussion in America, where far too many of those who should know better blame the entire Islamic religion and culture for the actions of one pathologically evil man and his followers on 9/11/2001. People who would never dream of labeling someone a 'nigger' or a 'kike' or a 'spic' won't hesitate to speak of 'Mooslims' and denigrate anyone who follows Islam as being at least in principle, if not in practice, an enemy.

What to do with these young women? Is it possible to change their racism at this late stage of their development, or are they irretrievably set in their mindless, stupid, xenophobic ways? If it would help to change them, or those who shaped and formed their attitudes, I'd be happy to lock them away for a decade or two, but it won't help, of course. The damage has already been done.

Thanks be to God that the child is relatively uninjured. That's the only good news in this whole tragedy.

Peter

Low bridge FAIL! - repeatedly!

There's a railway trestle in Durham, North Carolina, with an 11' 8" clearance to the road beneath. So many trucks and goods vehicles have hit the trestle that someone's set up an entire Web site, as well as a dedicated YouTube channel, to do nothing but document the ongoing series of accidents (recorded on a specially erected 'bridgecam'). The railway company has had to erect a crash beam on either side of the trestle itself, so that vehicles running into the bridge don't knock the railway track itself out of true.

Here's just one video from the chronicles, documenting 13 collisions with the bridge that took place in the space of - you guessed it! - 13 months.

There are many more videos of accidents at this bridge on the YouTube channel. Entertaining viewing for all except motor vehicle insurers!





Peter

Doofus Of The Day #397

Today's winners are a pair of youngsters from Yakima, WA.

About 11:30 p.m., a resident in the 800 block of Campbell Road called the sheriff's office to report that occupants of a red Mini Cooper had just placed fireworks in his mailbox, causing it to blow up.

Wanting to make sure that deputies stayed on the smoking-hot case, the resident expressed a strong suspicion that the Mini Cooper involved in the mailbox attack was the same Mini Cooper that was burning to the ground a mile down Campbell Road.

Firefighters said they found the vehicle fully involved in flames, but the two boys were fine. Deputies took that opportunity to interview them.

The boys vehemently denied any responsibility for the deadly assault on the innocent mailbox.

Instead, they explained that they were on the way to Walmart to buy a blender for one of their mothers. Deputies found this hard to believe, given that the boys appeared to be headed away from the Walmart stores in Yakima.

Furthermore, one of the boys explained that it was actually impossible to blow up a mailbox using the artillery shell fireworks that the boys admitted having in the Mini Cooper. He said he knew this because he had unsuccessfully tried -- in the past -- to blow up a mailbox with them.

Beyond that, the boys suggested that red Mini Coopers are more popular in Yakima County than the average deputy might believe, creating the possibility that somebody else driving one of the distinctive vehicles was responsible for the mailbox-related violence.

That brings us to the blazing red Mini Cooper.

The boys said the seat heaters had malfunctioned.

Why would the boys be using seat heaters in the middle of the summer? Graham acknowledged that was a "good question."

There's more at the link.

The two youngsters are now facing charges. Next time - and given the creative streak they've just displayed, I'm assuming there's bound to be a next time! - they might want to think up a better cover story . . .



Peter

The 'War On Drugs' heats up

The Center for a New American Security has just released an 80-page report on the drug-fueled crisis confronting the US and other countries. Ares reports:

The report, 'Crime Wars: Gangs, Cartels and U.S. National Security', says the current threat from drug gangs throughout much of the Americas is nothing short of a “criminal insurgency in the Western Hemisphere.” The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) released the 80-page study in Washington Thursday (Sept. 30).

Written by Robert Killebrew, a retired U.S. Army colonel, and Jennifer Bernal, a CNAS researcher, it says interlocking narcotics cartels operate within 14 sovereign nations in the Americas and pose a threat to civil society in those countries.

But the report says the insurgency should not be viewed as an attempt to take over a government – but rather a drive to destabilize it and destroy its credibility with its citizens – making it easier to do business. The study notes narcotics money fueled -- and corrupted -- the 30-year insurgency in Colombia by the FARC guerrillas. With U.S. assistance and perseverance in Bogota, the Colombian government has started to stabilize the country.

The risk to the U.S. doesn't stop at the Mexican border, the reports says, noting Mexican drug cartels operate “branch offices” in more than 230 U.S. and Canadian cities. The Salvadoran gang, MS-13, operates in 30 U.S. states.

“Whatever national strategy is developed to counter the cartel insurgency, the focus must ultimately include supporting local police departments and the cop on the beat, who confronts the gangs every day,” the report declared.

Unlike Mexico or Colombia, where there has been open warfare between drug gangs and the government, there is no counter insurgency role within U.S. borders for the U.S. Military, says Killebrew, a former Special Forces officer and Airborne commander. However, the U.S. Military can support and train militaries and law enforcement agencies in other countries – although with a light footprint. It's better for the U.S. to train locals in intelligence gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance than to do it for them, he adds.

There's more at the link.

The full report may be read here. It's long, but well worth your time, if this is a subject of interest to you. I'll highlight the reports' conclusions, and leave you to read the authors' reasons for them in the report.

Five conclusions emerge from the study.

First, crime, terrorism and insurgency are interwoven in new and dangerous ways that threaten not just the welfare but also the security of societies in the Western Hemisphere. Scale and the capability to destabilize governments have made the cartels an insurgent threat as well as a criminal one. The United States must lead a hemisphere-wide effort to confront and defeat the cartels’ threat to civil society.

Second, the huge geographic scope of the criminal networks makes this challenge multinational. Cartels operate in at least 14 sovereign countries, each with its own culture, economy, government, law enforcement, justice and military establishment, transportation hubs and routes. Cartel operations also vary widely, so U.S. and other states’ responses must become as adaptable as the criminal insurgencies they confront. Governments must leverage international and regional organizations to bridge gaps and ensure continuity of operations from state to state.

Third, any U.S. strategic effort must include appropriate assistance to Latin American states to strengthen security and law enforcement institutions. The ultimate response to terrorism and insurgency is the rule of law, and justice under the law, for people who may feel they have never had a fair shake from the government in question. Colombia’s war against insurgents and drug cartels teaches us that strong, democratic states operating legally and transparently can secure the backing of their people and ultimately the rejection of criminality. Local military or police forces must defeat the cartel insurgents and break them, by successive police operations, into smaller and smaller groups until they can be either incarcerated or reintegrated into civil life. U.S. aid, discretely [sic] managed and responsive to host country requirements, can be vitally important in providing the training, equipment and support for developing law enforcement capabilities for governments fighting cartels. While the cartels and their allies represent a new kind of transnational threat, the United States has been building its capability to fight such threats since before 9/11, and has increased its capabilities markedly since then. Likewise, countries like Colombia, with discrete [sic] U.S. support, have achieved notable success against narco-guerrillas and cartels.

Fourth, the United States must focus on cleaning its own house. America should support more effective policing operations against cartels, effectively reduce the use of illegal drugs, and fight to reduce the influence of gang culture, particularly in schools and among young people. The United States is fortunate to have generally effective, uncorrupted police forces, but the unique nature of its federal system makes coordination and information-sharing among police agencies a challenge. This must be overcome. A comprehensive national strategy encompassing enforcement, treatment, prison reform and other measures can cut back the flow of cash to the cartels and the gangs, and at the same time reduce their malign impact on civil society. At the same time, the U.S. government must fight to reduce the influence of gangs on U.S. youth cultures, particularly in schools, where gangs are now recruiting at younger and younger ages. Some communities have forged successful strategies against drug gangs; police departments, notably in Los Angeles, Northern Virginia and New York, have shown that counter-gang strategies can work. Public attitudes can be changed by persistent and skillful messaging; a generation that can reduce legal smoking, with a powerful industry lobby, should be able to reduce the use of harmful, illegal drugs and the attraction of gangs.

Fifth, defeating the cartels and their allies will take a long time. Defeating the cartels, and ensuring future security among the countries in the Americas, means dismantling their networks and driving down their impact to levels that can be handled by local law enforcement organizations. Doing so is a long-term proposition and will require continuous effort by a series of American administrations, in a manner similar to U.S. support for Colombia and decades-long interdiction programs. As summarized by one experienced agent, “There’s no abridged time line.” Both interdiction and bilateral cooperation efforts have certainly achieved some success. During past decades U.S. law enforcement agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is operationally engaged in 86 foreign countries and a broad range of law enforcement activities, have learned to operate with police organizations of other states, giving the United States a good start on attacking the cartels directly. Other policies – such as helping friendly governments improve judicial procedures, or assisting with military counterinsurgency and economic policies to address the underlying causes of lawlessness – will take longer. There have been successes in the long struggle against criminal insurgencies. Cartels can be defeated. Thus, there is reason for optimism, provided the United States engages now.

Interesting conclusions - some of them perhaps impracticable, given the realities of politics, social structures and the boundaries between Federal, State and local government in the US. My reactions to them, in order, are as follows:

1. The cartels pose a threat to civil society largely in proportion to the degree of instability and corruption in that society. Where society is stable and (relatively) honest, the cartels won't make much headway. Where society itself is run for the benefit of the few, by enslaving (in economic terms) and controlling the many, the latter will probably lend at least passive, if not active support to any movement (criminal or otherwise) that offers them a better alternative.
2. Yes, it's a multinational challenge, but it's not confined to the Western Hemisphere or the Americas. We know that Iran is actively involved in Venezuela; that Al Qaeda is actively involved in the Tri-Border area of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina; and that Hezbollah is active in the same region (and probably working together with Al Qaeda). With such pro-terrorism and anti-US groups active in South America, what am I bet that their representatives are already in contact with the drug cartels, to discuss operations of mutual interest? Where drugs can be smuggled, so can terrorists. Where drug cartels need their enemies 'dealt with', terrorist movements can provide well-trained and -armed operatives to 'take care of business'. It's a natural alliance, and it extends well into the Middle East and South-East Asia. Just how we're to deal with that, I'm not sure.
3. Latin American security and law enforcement institutions are often corrupt beyond redemption. Mexico is the most blatant example (look up for yourself how many cops in that nation have been arrested and/or fired for betraying their office and working for the drug cartels. The numbers are well into five figures.) Other nations aren't much better. Sure, there are some countries and security agencies that are very good: but they also tend to be those that haven't yet faced a major internal drug problem. Once billions of dollars in drug money become available to fund corruption in new areas, who's to say whether the 'good' agencies will stay that way?
4. It doesn't matter how good the official, co-ordinated response of the US may be to the threat posed by the cartels. So long as the demand for drugs exists in America, others will seek to fulfil that demand, for their own profit. All official efforts can achieve is to slow down the shipments, disrupt distribution arrangements, and inconvenience traffickers. We've been officially fighting the 'War On Drugs' since President Nixon first used the term back in 1971. Thirty-nine years later, drugs are still as freely available as ever, albeit at higher prices in a few markets. If all our efforts (and the billions upon billions of dollars spent on them) have produced such meager fruit, who's to say that a better co-ordinated response will achieve any greater success?
5. To say that defeating the cartels will take a very long time is the understatement oof the year, so far! We can't defeat them at all unless and until we address the problem of domestic demand for illegal narcotics. As long as that demand exists, and addicts can pay for what they want, there will always be those who'll seek to profit at their expense, and do anything and everything necessary to defend their income.
   

What say you, readers? Let's hear from you in Comments.

Peter

'Toasted Skin Syndrome'

I was amused to see a report with this headline today.

Have you ever worked on your laptop computer with it sitting on your lap, heating up your legs? If so, you might want to rethink that habit.

Doing it a lot can lead to “toasted skin syndrome,” an unusual-looking mottled skin condition caused by long-term heat exposure, according to medical reports.

. . .

Major manufacturers including Apple, Hewlett Packard and Dell warn in user manuals against placing laptops on laps or exposed skin for extended periods of time because of the risk for burns.

A medical report several years ago found that men who used laptops on their laps had elevated scrotum temperatures. If prolonged, that kind of heat can decrease sperm production, which can potentially lead to infertility. Whether laptop use itself can cause that kind of harm hasn’t been confirmed.

In the past, “toasted skin syndrome” has occurred in workers whose jobs require being close to a heat source, including bakers and glass blowers, and, before central heating, in people who huddled near potbellied stoves to stay warm.

There's more at the link.

The report notes that the underside of a laptop computer can produce temperatures of up to 125° Fahrenheit (about 51.7° Centigrade). I'm not surprised that this can produce skin and other problems. My mom used to put roasts of meat into the oven overnight, at very low temperatures. We called it 'slow cooking', and it did precisely that - cooked meat slowly, but to a turn. Why, then, are people surprised at the side-effects when they slow-cook their own bodies by prolonged exposure to the heat from their computers? Are people really so dumb that they don't realize this is what they're doing?

Sheesh . . .





Peter

Fire-fighter training FAIL!

I remember my fire-fighting training in the South African armed forces. It was very realistic, including setting buildings and portions of ships and vehicles on fire, then having to extinguish them. More than a few of us collapsed from heat exhaustion and/or smoke inhalation, or suffered superficial burns, during the training. Our instructors were unsympathetic. They always told us, "If you get a little bit hurt now, you'll respect the fire that much more, and be more careful in fighting the real thing". Whether or not that was a wise attitude or approach, I can't say . . . but we sure learned!

Anyway, this video demonstrates that at least one New York State fire department appeared to adopt a similar approach to their training.

I note from the commentary that they've since decided to no longer use accelerants in training. Why am I not surprised?





Peter

Avoid airline charges - wear your baggage!

The Airline Business blog on Flight Global reports that savvy travelers are avoiding the problem of limited space in carry-on baggage by using their clothes as containers.

Debenhams says that budget travellers are "picking the pockets of airline thanks to a loophole in the baggage rules".

The shop has seen sales of its big coats and lots of pockets rise by 350% over the summer, and it thinks passengers are doing it to avoid expensive baggage charges.

"Rather than pay expensive charges for stowing cases in the hold of the plane, canny holidaymakers are using their free hand luggage allowance and 'wearing' the rest of their baggage."

They are putting the new trend down to reports from the shop floor that customers prefer to pack heavier items such as books, towels, electronic net books and cameras, into large pocketed garments, rather than pay fees up to £40 return, charged by some low-cost airlines for cases stowed in the hold.

As a result sales of Debenhams Rocha.John Rocha navy blue parka with six pockets have gone up by 350% and the beige Mantaray five pocket bomber jackets, which even have a discreet pocket in the sleeve, has seen sales jump by 200%. Debenhams Mantaray shower proof coat, with 7 pockets has also seen sales leap by 181%.

Carie Barkhuizen, spokeswoman for Debenhams, said: "Worn strategically, multi-pocket coats and trousers can offer up to 10 pockets to stow everything from spare pants and socks, to bikinis and sarongs. It's traveling light like we have never seen before.

"Our sales assistants have even reported some customers coming in with specific items like net-books and paperbacks, to check if they will fit in the pockets before they buy the coat or jacket."

There's more at the link.

Intrigued, I decided to put this to the test myself. I flew yesterday from Tennessee to Alaska, to visit Miss D. and help with the closing stages of reassembling her aircraft's wings. Instead of taking my normal cabin carry-on bag, I took a smaller unit, and filled the pockets of a military-surplus winter parka that I brought along (with snow already falling in Alaska, I reckoned that my Tennessee attire of T-shirts and shorts might be a bit lacking . . . )

It worked just fine. I was able to carry all I normally take into the cabin - a bit more, as a matter of fact - and it was much easier to handle the smaller cabin bag and coat than it was to muscle a maximum-legal-size, heavy cabin case into and down from the overhead compartments. I can recommend the idea, and I'll be using it in future.

Peter

A glimpse of a simpler world

An album of photographs taken on the historic British Expedition to Tibet in 1903/04 is to be auctioned in England this week. The auctioneers have provided a few of the photographs to whet potential buyers' interest.

The Daily Mail reports:

The rare snaps were taken by an officer during the campaign - the first time the British were given access to the country.

They depict the haunting beauty of the secluded country and brought images of Tibeten landscapes including Mount Everest to the west for the first time.




The 72 stunning pictures show local people, buildings and even a group of nuns gathered to smile for the camera.

Taken by a John Claude White, a political officer and joint leader of the expedition, the snaps passed to a soldier in the campaign, Lieut. William Pyt Bennett.

The photographs were painstakingly pasted into an album and stored carefully, passing down through his family over the years.

They are now being sold at auction by Bonhams of London and are expected to fetch a whopping 15,000 pounds.

White entered the country as part of the British expedition to Tibet in 1903 and 1904, when British Indian forces sought to prevent Russia gaining influence in the country.

Led by Major Francis Younghusband, around 3,000 troops marched into the country, famously killing around 700 lightly armed Tibetan monks in the village of Guru.

They reach the capital Lhasa in August 1904, when the government signed a treaty effectively turning the country into a British protectorate.




. . .

David Park, director of book, maps and manuscripts at Bonhams, said: 'These are extraordinary photos with a rather fabulous provenance.

'They are the first pictures to come out of Tibet, which was a closed country at the time - in general British people could not go there.




. . .

'These photographs were taken by a British political officer, John Claude White. He was not a professional photographer, but he was very good - they are cracking pictures.

'What makes these photographs ever more unusual is their provenance - they belonged to a man who was actually part of the expedition.

'They may have been presented to him or he may have bought them as a souvenir, and they have been in his family ever since.'

There's more at the link, including more of the photographs.

The life of Francis Younghusband is a remarkable illustration of the British Empire at its height, in the fulness of its strength, and as it began to fracture and fail. I've read a couple of biographies about him, and studied his Tibet Expedition in particular - it's a fascinating story. If you're a history buff, I highly recommend following the links I've provided to the relevant Wikipedia articles, and following them up with your own reading.

These photographs add immediacy and a poignant touch to the dry words of historians. I hope they'll be published in their entirety as a major contribution to the field of history.

Peter

A bicycle built for . . . Bond? James Bond?

It is to laugh . . . A British bicycle insurance company (well, they insure other means of transport as well, but they take pride in being 'green' and insuring bicycles) has come up with what it calls the 'B.O.N.D (Built of Notorious Deterrents) Bike'.




It'll be officially unveiled at the Earls Court Motor Show in England this week. According to the developers:

Cycle insurer ilovemybike.co.uk was inspired to build the bicycle after asking 800 cyclists to name their least favourite aspect of life on two wheels.

The B.O.N.D Bike bristles with special features designed to address the most common of these gripes.

• Flame thrower: 52% of cyclists named ‘cars and lorries passing too close’ as their number one complaint, so the bike’s handlebars are fitted with a specially-designed flame thrower to fire towards vehicles that get too close.
• Caterpillar track: 25% cited poor road conditions such as potholes as a problem, so the bike is fitted with an all-terrain caterpillar track in place of its rear wheel.
• Ejector seat: 7% worried most about their bicycle being stolen, so the bike is fitted with an ejector seat to catch out any thief that gets past a conventional lock.
• Ski blade: 2% of respondents felt cold weather conditions were the most irksome aspect of cycling, so the bike carries a ski blade that can be interchanged with the front wheel.
  

A spokesperson at ilovemybike.co.uk said: “Wannabe James Bonds will be disappointed to hear that we have no plans to sell the B.O.N.D. Bike, but it shouldn’t be necessary for cyclists to resort to flame throwers to get a little consideration on the roads. Correct road positioning and an assertive riding style can dramatically reduce cars and lorries passing too close.”

There's more at the link.

Here's a video clip demonstrating the B.O.N.D. bike's features.

I notice they don't actually show it in motion, which may be because the prototype isn't mobile - or it may be to avoid giving conniption fits to poor, unsuspecting British bobbies!



Peter

2010 Wildlife Photography contest draws to a close

I'm looking forward to the announcement of the winner(s) of the 2010 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest. They'll be announced at an exhibition in London later this month.

I've been following this year's contest with interest, because last year saw the first-ever disqualification of the winning photograph for cheating. The rules state clearly that the photograph must not be of a tame animal, but it seems the winner hired a tame wolf from a Spanish wildlife park and 'staged' his photograph. As a result, he was stripped of his title and had to forfeit the £10,000 (about US $15,800) first prize.

Here are three of this year's entries that'll be judged later this month.

Andrew Parkinson - The Drop

Tomasz Racznyski - Fishing Frenzy

Ilia Shalamaev - Little Owls On Top

The link to the museum exhibition will also showcase the winning photographs once the judges' decision has been announced. It's worth bookmarking to see some spectacularly good nature photography.

Peter

Living - and dying - on bread alone!

There's a bakery in Ratchaburi, Thailand that produces some rather . . . er . . . unconventional loaves of bread. Inventorspot reports:

Imagine running up to the bakery around the corner and coming across bread shaped like body parts. Sound yummy? Artist Kittiwat Unarrom creates just that; gruesome works of art out of bread.




Kittiwat Unarrom has a master's degree in fine arts and creates bruised and battered heads, feet and other internal organs at a bread shop in Thailand.

He started using his skills and made sculptures out of bread. This came naturally to him because his family runs a bakery. The bread is made out of dough, raisins, cashews and chocolate. He just adds his own touch to the finished product.




This makes me wonder how long the line wraps around the bakery in order to purchase this finely crafted delicious bread.

I would love to go over to my parent's house with one of these. Carefully setting the concealed bread on the table, I would wait until all of the food was served and innocently ask my mom if she could pass me the bread. Imagine her surprise when she lifts open the cover and comes face to face with one of these gory delights. Okay, so I'd never be invited over to dinner again, but I think the look on her face would be so worth it.




I think this could be an excellent idea for restaurants. They could use one of these heads as a bread bowl and serve spaghetti in it. It would kind of be like eating brains, don't you think?

There's more at the link. Here's a video clip of the bakery and its products.

Not quite the sort of thing for a church social . . . but it might be a lot of fun to introduce it there!



Peter

For hunters and pipers this Christmas?

The Telegraph reports that a Scottish firm is producing something new in the way of hunting clothes.

Tweed, the hard-wearing fabric favoured by the landed gentry, has been adapted into bullet-proof clothing.

A Scottish textiles company has launched a range of jackets and waistcoats, complete with body armour sown into the fabric, in an effort to stop sportsmen being injured.

However, Jack Ellis, the Angus-based firm behind the new garments, is also targeting them at Russian oligarchs keen to protect themselves from assassination attempts.

Stewart Liddell, the company’s sales director, said they will appeal to “an ever-expanding market” despite costing between £600 and £1,000 [between about US $950 and $1,600] each.

“The bullet-proof tweed is ideal for shooting parties on Scotland’s grouse moors. Every season you hear of an accidental shooting,” he said.

“Now nervous gamekeepers can provide clients with extra protection, especially from trigger-happy Italians who get excited on the moors.

“It is also ideal for upper-end security, especially overseas, with the likes of Russia proving a large and expanding market for us.”

He said the waistcoats and jackets are very lightweight, allowing easy movement, but will “easily” stop a shotgun blast thanks to ceramic plates inserted into their linings.

The tweed ‘soft armour’ also includes a weave of aramid, a super-strength synthetic fibre that diverts bullets off at an angle. The exterior is covered by a thin layer of Teflon, which is waterproof and offers extra protection.

Although the waistcoats appear slightly padded, it is virtually impossible to tell the difference between a normal shooting jacket and the armoured version.

. . .

“We have our own firing range in Worcester where we test our products with various weapons, including shotguns, handguns, Uzi sub-machineguns and AK-47s,” he said.

“We currently provide body armour for the media, including Sky TV, with Ross Kemp using our vests on his recent series in Afghanistan.”

There's more at the link.

What interests me most about this new fabric are its possibilities for Highland dress. Kilts are made from a twill fabric, of which tweed is another example. If you can make bulletproof tweed, you can make bulletproof kilts as well. This could revolutionize the Highland regiments, and render Scottish bagpipe bands immune to even ballistic complaints about the noise they generate! Unkillable kilts and shrapnel-proof sporrans might be just what the piper ordered!





Peter

Lessons learned . . . but perhaps not the right ones?

I'm of two minds concerning what some left-wing commentators are saying about the Great Depression and the lessons we should learn from it concerning the growth of right-wing movements. They seem to be 'beating the Nazi drum' in their warnings of what's to come.

Typifying such concerns is an article by Irish Professor Kevin O'Rourke for Euro Intelligence. Here's an extract.

The 1920s had seen a gradual reconstruction of the international economy, and with it signs that Germany was being successfully reintegrated into the international community: the signing of the Locarno Treaties in 1925, Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926, the agreement of the Young Plan in August 1929. Moderates had reasons to be optimistic. The Nazis obtained just 2.6% of the vote in 1928.

Then, in late 1929, the Great Depression hit and everything fell apart. Thanks to Brüning’s deflationary policies, Germany’s national income fell by more than a quarter, and official unemployment rose to almost a third of the labour force. Optimism was replaced by a profound sense of insecurity. Inevitably, the extremist parties benefitted. In 1930 the Nazis increased their share of the vote to 18.3%, while in July 1932 they scored 37.8%. By this stage Brüning was gone, his successor adopted some modestly stimulative policies, and there were signs of a partial recovery. Not coincidentally, in November 1932 the Nazi share dipped to 33.1%; but by then it was too late, and the Weimar Republic was doomed.

The lesson was clear: states needed to provide their citizens with the security which the gold standard and the market system, left to their own devices, had so conspicuously failed to do. The alternative was nationalism in all its guises: economic nationalism at best, but potentially something much uglier and far more dangerous. And so the democracies of the postwar period became social democracies – although British voters in 1945 judged that Churchill was not the man best suited to bringing this about.

For three decades or so after 1945, the three R’s learned during the Depression – regulation (above all of the financial sector), reflation (when needed) and redistribution – were used by social democracies to provide workers with the security they so badly craved. The strategy was so successful that voters eventually took this security for granted.

Over the past thirty years, a backlash has swept away much of this postwar political consensus. The supposed competitive pressures of globalization were used as an excuse to undermine welfare protections, even as globalization increased the need for them by contributing to a widening income distribution. And the financial sector was extensively deregulated, which explains the mess we’re in today.

Thankfully, the third R was not forgotten. The reflationary policies adopted in 2009 are the main reason we avoided a second Great Depression. However, their initial success has bred a dangerous complacency, while the right used the Greek crisis of 2010 far more effectively than the left used the disasters of 2008. The result is a variety of austerity packages which threaten the fragile Western recovery.

At this point, a reader might well object that the original purpose of post-1945 social democracy – to protect democracy from extremism, by protecting capitalism from itself – is no longer relevant. After all, Europe is no longer the cesspool of prejudice and nationalism that it was eighty years ago: the political consequences of recessions are no longer so dangerous.

I am not so sure. Anyone who believes that people are getting better has not been paying sufficiently close attention to the history of the twentieth century – up to and including the 1990s. Have the past fifteen years really made such a difference? The bestseller on Amazon.de is Thilo Sarrazin’s anti-immigrant screed, which Amazon helpfully bundles with a book on young deliquents. In France, the government has been fishing in National Front waters, expelling Roma and linking immigrants with crime. The Nazi vote in 1928 is tiny compared with that of the Dansk Fokeparti in 2007 (13.9%), or Geert Wilders’ anti-Muslim party in 2006 (5.9%).

Our Great Recession has strengthened the political extremes. Wilders’ party received 15.5% of the vote in 2010, while Jobbik got 16.7% in the first round in Hungary. A recent study by Markus Brückner and Hans P Grüne found that a one percentage point decline in economic growth was associated with a one percentage point increase in the share of extremist parties in 16 OECD countries between 1970 and 2002.

There's more at the link.

What worries me about this perspective is that it tends to label all conservative viewpoints as Right-wing, lumping genuine conservative politics (and classic liberalism, for that matter) in with Nazis, Fascists and the like. Already, I've seen an article in the left-leaning online e-zine Salon citing Prof. O'Rourke's article and pointing out ominously:

The two words he most conspicuously does not mention? "Tea Party."

Perhaps it may be too soon to be making National Front/Tea Party connections, although listening to the way leading Republicans are talking about Islam today suggestions that a reluctance to connect such dots betrays a certain over-caution. But the more fundamental point is clear: A government failure to aggressively deal with unemployment, combined with a decades-long trend of increasing income equality, has created fertile ground for extremist, populist rage.

Again, there's more at the link.

To equate the Tea Party with Nazi or Fascist extremism seems to me to be the height of absurdity; but the Left will seize on any opportunity to brand conservative and classic-liberal politics with such labels. I suspect we'll see a great deal more of such comments and perspectives in the days to come, as the mid-term elections draw nearer. Those of us who believe in smaller government, fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget are going to have our work cut out for us to make our points over the clamor from those who think this way, and defend our perspectives from such unfounded and unjust accusations. The noise-to-signal ratio is about to go waaaaay up . . .

Si vis pacem, para bellum - in politics as in anything else.

Peter

A different kind of social network tool

I'm intrigued to learn of a software program called Ushahidi. It was established to collect, visualize and map information from the general public in areas of need, particularly disasters such as floods, earthquakes, etc. The project's Web site describes its genesis as follows:

Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi's roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The website was used to map incidents of violence and peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phone. This initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world.

Since then we have grown from an ad hoc group of volunteers to a focused organization. The team is comprised of individuals with a wide span of experience ranging from human rights work to software development. We have also built a strong team of volunteer developers in primarily in Africa, but also Europe and the U.S.

As early as May of 2008, we shared our code with a group in South Africa that used it to map incidents of xenophobic violence. This rudimentary deployment made us realize the need to rebuild the framework from the ground up. By August seed funding from Humanity United in the amount of $200,000 allowed the team to get started rebuilding the platform. In October the alpha version of Ushahidi was completed and promptly deployed to the DR Congo for testing. In its alpha form, Ushahidi was tested and deployed with 11 different organizations directly, including the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Peace Heroes and the Kenyan National Commission on Human Rights. Externally, there were 4 major alpha deployments, including Al Jazeera during the War on Gaza, Vote Report India (to monitor the recent local elections) and Pak Voices (to map incidents of violence in Pakistan).

Our goal is to create a platform that any person or organization can use to set up their own way to collect and visualize information. The core platform will allow for plug-in and extensions so that it can be customized for different locales and needs. The beta version platform is now available as an open source application that others can download for free, implement and use to bring awareness to crisis situations or other events in their own locales, it is also continually being improved tested with various partners primarily in Kenya. Organizations can also use the tool for internal monitoring or visualization purposes.

We are now focusing on scaling the organization in order to make the tool as widely accessible as possible, to increase the platform’s user-friendliness, and to help support the community that has grown around Ushahidi.

There's an impressive list of projects already using Ushahidi around the world, and the software is being developed to handle more complex operations in future. A blog on the Web site discusses current and prospective projects.

This looks like a really useful kind of social network, one that helps communities survive threats and work together to overcome them. Kudos to those who thought it up. I can see local law enforcement departments, town and city governments, and regional authorities finding this a very valuable tool in their efforts to maintain and restore order in crisis situations.

Peter

The stove of the future?

A designer, Greg Beck, has come up with an intriguing prototype of what the stove of the future might look like. Digital Trends reports:

Though it shares the same flush design as other modern ranges, the William [stove] does away with the old concept of circular burners by replacing them with 1,500 individually heated ceramic tiles across the entire surface.




By sensing where you place a pot or pan, the stove intelligently heats up the areas under it, no matter where you happened to place it. Besides accounting for different shapes and sizes of cookware, the design would allow 85 percent of the stovetop for heating, as opposed to just 25 percent on a conventional stovetop, and could support up to 21 unique signatures, or heated items.

There's more at the link. Here's a video showing how the concept would work in practice.

That looks a whole lot more useful than our present stove tops. I hope we'll see it in appliance stores before long.

Peter

Geeks in uniform???

I'm chuckling (both sympathetically, as a former computer systems engineer, and cynically, as a veteran) at the dilemma facing the US military in trying to recruit and retain the services of computer and network whiz-kids for the new Cyber Command. In an article published in Small Wars Journal, Lt-Cols. Gregory Conti and Jen Easterly outline the problems. (The article link is to an Adobe Acrobat file in .PDF format.) Here are a few extracts.

Key to creating a formidable force in cyberspace is the recruitment, development, and retention of highly skilled individuals. The dynamics in play are significantly different from traditional military recruiting. The nation faces a severe shortage of information security savvy talent. The pool of candidates dwindles even more when considering such constraints as the ability to receive a Top Secret clearance, possession of U.S. citizenship, desire to undergo repeated drug tests, and, in some circumstances, ability to pass a polygraph exam. The combination of a highly competitive job market and a relatively small pool of candidates require the military to actively create a culture that attracts, not repels, talent. So how do potential cyber warriors perceive the military? It isn’t a pretty picture.

Perceptions of the Military by Potential Cyber Warriors

In order to gauge the perception of the military by the technical community we posed the question “How has the military treated you and your technical friends?” on Slashdot.org. Slashdot is arguably the most popular technical news website and is an ideal location to gain a sense of the technical community’s perception of the military. The posting drew 415 responses, some quite detailed. The online discussion focused on a variety of themes:

• Limited creativity – “The very things that make us valuable -- the ability to think critically, take the initiative, and not be weighed down by conventional thinking is exactly the thing the military seems to weed out.”
• Inflexibility – “The military is not setup to advance and reward those with technical ability. It is setup to have standard sized cogs.”
• Recognition – “The military doesn't recognize the existence (or need for) a different type of person to fight their new battles.”
• Unfair pay – “I looked at the 3 stripes on the arm of the guy flipping my burger. I then looked at the 3 stripes on my own arm, realizing we both get paid the same. At that moment my mind was made up and I chose not to reenlist.”
• Limited meritocracy – “There is no mechanism for payment or reward based on technical skill level.”
• Lack of a technical career path – “I think one of the things that the Army did wrong was to completely eliminate that secondary path to advancement. If we're talking about highly technical specialties with little to no relationship to direct combat, then the idea to make everyone a capable sergeant doesn't fit so well.”
• Bias against non-combat personnel - “In USAF's officer corps, if you don't turn and burn for a living, you're somewhat less than a man.”
• Technically ignorant leadership – “[The Colonel’s] eyes glazed over after 3 or so minutes as he could not follow what I had done at all”
• Low pay – “I can walk into any DoD security contractor out there with my DD214 and make 10 times what I did when I was discharged”
• Danger – “I hope those guys tell their wives that they are lawful military targets”
• Distrust – “We are talking about handing the keys to America's entire computer security infrastructure over to military intelligence agencies like the NSA”
• Anti-intellectual bias – “I attended West Point and was in the top 10% of my class. One of my tactical officers once told me that I needed to get my priorities straight. No one wanted someone who was too smart, he said. He'd rather have someone in his unit who could ace the physical fitness test than someone who studied.”
• Lack of career advancement – “Its great if you're just in for the college money, sucks later on if you decide to make a career out of it.”
• Lack of tolerance of alternative lifestyles – “Many of us live alternative lifestyles and conventional military thinking is that we're a security risk.”
• Compulsory management responsibilities – “The system itself isn't designed to handle individuals that have technical ability, but who aren't ready/don't want to command lower level troops.”
• Misutilization – “The government sent me to six months training in 29 palms. Yet, when I finally got the chance to deploy, I was a glorified MP.”
• Hazing (or worse) – “Nerds were treated with a bar of soap wrapped in a towel, routinely beat on, robbed from, cast out, and had their opinions dismissed.”
  

. . .

If you walk around companies like Google, you don’t see beige walls, battleship gray desks, and workers, like lemmings, heading off to irrelevant and redundant meetings. You see white boards, food that doesn’t taste like paste, yoga classes, comfortable small group areas, and bright, creative, and motivated people excitedly collaborating. You see people working long hours, because they believe in what they do and work to accomplish results, a place where talent matters.

. . .

We aren’t saying that Cyber Command should be staffed with soldiers with pink Mohawks, but we argue that the current military culture as echoed by the Slashdot audience cannot attract and retain the bright and creative minds required to fight and win in the dynamic and constantly evolving cyber domain.

The authors go on to outline possible approaches to attract, recruit and retain the skilled personnel the US armed forces will need in an era of cyber-warfare. I'd recommend that those with a stake, or even a passing interest, in the problem read the whole article. The issue is further discussed in an article at Aviation Week's military blog, Ares.

There's a very real problem here, as all veterans of military service will instantly recognize. Your average computer geek is anything but typical of your average serviceman (particularly in a combat zone); but the changing face of modern warfare and security requirements is going to need geeks far more than previously. How to attract and retain them, without expecting or forcing them to be grunts, will be quite a challenge.

I'd say the authors of this study made a very good start by going to Slashdot with questions, and listening to the answers (something for which senior military officers are not renowned). Let's hope their openness and willingness to listen will be the start of something good.

Peter

First Manhattan Island, then . . .

Miss Cellania treats us to a dollop of Native American wit and wisdom. It had me laughing out loud. Go read, and enjoy!



Peter

Assyria and Babylon speak to us anew

I'm fascinated to read about a project to record Babylonian and Assyrian poetry and literature, read aloud by scholars who've figured out how to pronounce the languages concerned. Given that neither language has been spoken for a couple of millennia, that's quite an achievement! The project's Web site informs us:

This website collects recordings of modern Assyriologists reading ancient Babylonian and Assyrian poetry and literature aloud in the original language. It is the first undertaking of its kind, and accordingly some explanation of its aims is called for.

It is intended to serve several purposes, some for Assyriologists, and some for the wider public. First, it aims to foster interest among students of Babylonia and Assyria in how these civilisations’ works of verbal art were read aloud in the past, and how they should be read aloud today.

Second, it provides a forum in which scholars who have theories about Babylonian and Assyrian pronunciation, metre, etc. can present a concrete example of how their theories sound in practice. (In this function the archive does not of course aim to replace scholarly discussion in established channels, but rather to provide a useful complement to written publications).

Third, as a record of the ways in which contemporary scholars read Babylonian and Assyrian, it will some day serve a historical function. Many great Assyriologists, including some who had influential theories of Babylonian metre and phonology, passed into history without leaving a single recording of how they read Babylonian and Assyrian. This archive will provide at least some record of how scholars read Babylonian and Assyrian in the twenty-first century.

Finally, but not least, the questions which students of ancient languages most frequently hear from laymen are: "How did they sound? And how do you know?". This website is meant to serve as an introduction to these issues, providing the public with some idea of how modern Assyriologists think Babylonian and Assyrian were pronounced.

There's more information at the link, particularly in the FAQ section. The archive of recordings is here, with both audio and visual presentations of numerous poems and historical documents.

It's pretty amazing to hear excerpts from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was composed many centuries before Christ (the earliest surviving written copy dates back to the 7th century BC, but it was already ancient at that time - Gilgamesh is believed to have reigned almost two thousand years earlier, or almost five millennia before our time). Somewhere back in our dim and distant past, these are the same sounds that some of our ancestors would have learned as children, and taught to their children and their children's children.

Call me silly if you wish, but it's a humbling concept to think that my great-great-many-times-great-ancestors heard this, listening around the fire at night while the same stars that I see today twinkled over their heads, and passed it on in their turn. I wonder if I'll meet any of them in the hereafter, one day, and be able to tell them that their tales live still?

Peter