R's are Strong on Defense

Yep, the Republican presidential candidates are strong on defense.  They all say that.  The problem is they are morons. Their only answer is bomb bomb bomb and when that isn't enough, they'll carpet bomb the bad guys. 

Problem is that killing people tends to piss them off and make more enemies. But subtlety is not their strong point.  The diplomacy that President Obama and Secretary of State, John Kerry used to avert a war with Iran is bad.  The R's think the US showed weakness when we could just bomb the shit out of Iran.

Realize that working with our foes to find common ground doesn't play into the Repub theme that we must all be afraid - be very afraid.  If you're afraid all the time you don't make rational decisions - and that's what they hope for.

Because if you recall, the last Republican President was W and he started not one but two failed wars (Afghanistan and Iraq for those not paying attention). Because fighting is still going on after we pulled out, the Republicans want to re-invade.  They say ISIS in Iraq and Syria is a threat to our very existance and you are supposed to be so fearful you buy their BS and vote for them.

So here is my point:
Republicans will start more wars because they have to act tough.
Democrats will be just as strong but they will try diplomacy too because they act smart.

Windows 10 saga

Spoiler alert - I'll pass on Win 10v

I've watched Amazon Prime's videos on Windows 7 and Ubuntu 14 with no problems. Dping that today, I crashed Win10 four or five times.

I've had an interesting time just getting Windows 10 so bear with me.  I've run Windows since 3.0.  That means Win 3, 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, Win 95, Win 98, Windows ME, and Windows NT 3.0, 3.5, 3.51, 4, 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1.

I like 7, not 8, 8.1 was a little better but my Windows machines were all Win 7. Thought I'd try Windows 10 and see if it was better than 8.1. 

I reserved Win 10 on my machines but then thought I should try it on a test machine first before putting it on one of my production ones.  There were hints to capture the OS image  by starting the install and then stopping it.  That seemed risky on a work machine. 

I set up a Windows 7 machine but had to install all the updates for Win7 before it would consider registering for the download.  Even though this was a Service Pack 1 version it took 2 DAYS (!!!) to download and install the updates.  Sure, I wasn't watching that machine for 48 hours unblinking but it still took a loooooong time. 

Then I had to wait for Win 10 to download.  That took another day or so but I agree with Microsoft's idea of rolling it out over time.  With a big release like Win 10 where it is free, it makes a lot of sense to control the bandwidth.

Then the excitement of installing the new OS.  After what seemed like at least an hour, Windows 10 announced it was not compatible with the processor (which was completely fine with Windows 7).

Then I found a hint that I could just download the ISO and burn it to a disk.  Done. But that way of installing wanted a Windows 10 product key.  Hey, this was supposed to be a free upgrade.

Back to square 1.  Is this Chutes and Ladders or The Game of Life?  I replaced my Ubuntu machine's disk with a Windows 7  disk and waited for Windows 10.  The download rush mush have abated because it happened relatively soon. It installed and, voila!, Windows 10.

My first impression was good.  It seemed like as much improvement over 8.1 as 8.1 was over 8.  Maybe it could be as good as Windows 7.

After my experience with Vista where it could not play a DVD without glitches, my first tests of the OS has been to play a DVD.  Windows 10 offered to install some DVD player for $14.95 or VLC.  I really like VLC and downloaded it from the 'Windows Store'.  I could not get that 'VLC' to work at all and gave up.  I just downloaded VLC from it's home website (videolan.org) and it played a DVD just fine.  Good.

Then I watched some videos from Amazon Prime.  I'd been watching them on other OSes via Mozilla Firefox just fine. I watched most of an episode but had to pause it.  A day later I had to start up Win10 because it had turned the computer off.  I moved the slider back to refresh my memory of the video and let it play. Windows crashed.  I restarted it and tried again, Windows crashed.  then it just hung and had to be powered off and on. Two more times it crashed.  The blue screen of death is a little friendlier now and the crash reason is more prominent.  I forget the first two reasons but the second was IRQL NOT LESS ...

Maybe it is the fault of Firefox but I've run the same scenario with Win 7 and had no problems. 

I'll try the same tests with Chrome and IE, er, Edge and let you know.

Guns Don't Kill People - Bullets Do

I had this idea to put serial numbers in bullets - not cartridges, just the bullet part.

 this is the bullet


the rest is the cartridge or shell

You keep track of who purchases the ammo, find the serial number at a crime scene, and voila' you have the killer.


OK is isn't that simple but it could be. That's what computers are for. If Benetton can track individual sweaters [1], then the cops can track individual bullets. You make the last registered owner of a bullet an accessory to murder and people will keep track.

Who could object to that? Oh, yeah, I forgot the NRA - it will make bullets too expensive.

I've hunted moose in Alaska and I know that the cost of ammo is minimal compared with everything else. Sure, a machine gun will go through a lot of ammo but real hunters don't hunt with machine guns.

There's a comedy bit by Chris Rock? about making bullets cost $1000 so you had to be really mad at someone to spend that much money. My cousin, an Admiral in the Royal Navy, told me that English criminals can get guns for relatively cheap - they have to rent them sort of - but if you fire the weapon, the price goes wayyyy up. So maybe making bullets more expensive isn't a bad way to go - especially if it makes finding murderers cheaper.

 Seattle has proposed a $25 tax on each weapon sold in the city and five cents ($.05) tax per bullet[2]. This has prompted lawsuits [3] as you would expect. So my point is that adding serial numbers to bullets is not the panacea I thought at first. It IS one more way to pin crimes on criminals. I'm not sure how much of a deterrent it will be.

I wasn't the first person to think of bullet serial numbers. I found this site that talks about a bunch of ways to have guns and ammo responsibly[4].

[1] http://www.rfidjournal.com/articles/view?344
[2] www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-to-add-tax-on-gun-ammunition-sales/
[3] www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/gun-rights-groups-sue-to-block-2-new-seattle-gun-laws/
[4]smartgunlaws.org/ammunition-regulation-policy-summary/

Encourage One Another

Yeah, it's right from Paul's first letter to the Christians in Thessaloniaka, Greece: "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up" But I think it applies to us all. Encourage each other, don't cut folks down. We need a society that builds on the positive and does not dwell on the negative. I'm not talking about the tee-ball mentality where everyone gets a participant ribbon and always gets told 'good job!' - bleccch. Look for ways to build people up. Sounds good but how? By actively looking for ways to encourage each other. Recognize when people do good things - and tell them. Be looking for ways to help, empathize with others and look for ways to help. Here's a tiny example: when traffic is backed up and people are merging or changing lanes, make a space behind the car ahead of you so cars can easily get into your lane. Yep, let someone get ahead of you. I do this and 80% of the time the car gets into another lane or doesn't cost me any time. I think it actually speeds traffic up, especially if we all did that. How about saying thank-you to people who otherwise might be invisible to you? Thank the waiter for refilling your water or soda - you'll probably get a little better service too. Say thanks to the receptionist when you leave a meeting or a doctor's office. Try it. A little smiling can go a long way.

Earth - a new wild

I don't usually plug products but this is a PBS TV show:

http://www.pbs.org/earth-a-new-wild/home/

I think this show is worth watching since it isn't about cute pictures of wild animals.  The premise is that humans and wild animals can co-exist and actually do better than you'd think. 

There are a lot of counter-intuitive  examples like the guy who figured out that the over-grazing done by elephants doesn't mean there are too many elephants (which would lead to culling the heard).  Instead he advocated MORE elephants! The trick is to ... aw, just watch the show.

This is the kind of thinking we need to do more of in the 21st century. 

I view this kind of thinking as another small indication of us moving from Civilization 0 to Civilization 1

Old God New God

It hit me that the God of the Old Testament is like Darwin's evolution: you know, survival of the fittest.  Maybe it's not a great fit but go with me here.

I see competition as the common theme.  Evolution is competition among individuals and even species. As humans, we express it in war, victory, riches, success, luxury, winning.  The Old Testament is full of battles and heroes. Sometimes Israel wins, sometimes, Israel loses. It is a zero-sum game - I need, and what I need, I take from you.

Now the New Testament comes along and, changes things. Jesus talks about a kingdom where the weak are strong, the last are first, and people feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and visit the sick and imprisoned.  This is survival of the fittest turned upside-down!

Maybe it is time to take this message seriously.  I think that other faiths also have this truth and are also ways God trys to reach people wherever they are.

Here is the point:  We humans have now arrived.  We have arrived at one of those turning points. We don't need to be competitive with each other. We have arrived at a point where we can feed and care for every human life on our little planet.

Do we feed and nurture every life?  Think how well we have done with 3 billion, well fed, educated brains. Think about our current big problems (climate change, overpopulation, poverty, for example). We can't waste any brainpower!  We must solve these together or we will slip back and evolution will overtake us again.

We now need to shift from competition to cooperation. All the effort and money and death and injury we spend - WASTE - in war, needs to be redirected to helping our brothers and sisters achieve their dreams. Economics will change, and it has started to change with global communication and the Internet - ideas and information flow freely. Where they are restricted, there are problems that will be worked out. These are growing pains but are very real to real people in the situation.

Yeah, I know.  Idealist dreams. But you know what?  In my old age, I've realized that changes don't happen overnight and patience really is a virtue.  But if the ideas don't start being thought of and talked of, then the same old shit just drags on.

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I'm interested in your comments.  I'm going to expand on these ideas, probably with a whole other blog.  Stay tuned.

We are missing the big picture

Watch your kids - and their kids

They don't care about race or religion or party or much else.  They are respecting the individual person.  This is a big step in civilization.  Really.  Don't miss this one.

Why do young folks not care about homosexuality?  Why don't some of em care about earning big incomes?  Why will religions become less forceful in the world but be more important?  We are growing up as a world civilization. 

We are experiencing a shift that will make the industrial revolution look tiny.  We are becoming one world.  This will not be easy and there will  be horrible consequences for many.  I'm not saying this will be pretty.  I am saying this will be a very different world in 100 years - a better world.

I can say this because I see our children.  They take our progress in this world and will fix our mistakes, make their own mistakes, and carry on beautifully.

My son told me about a computer gaming competition between South Korea and China tonight.  The two teams will compete and be watched worldwide on the Internet and some cable channels.  I pray that this will be the only form of aggression and nationalism we see in the future as sports replaces war.  It is interesting that some of the players on the Chinese team are Korean.

Watch for these shifts of civilization as they happen.  People sending aid to other people in far flung parts that have a disaster. Teams of people with common interests - like curing cancer, or ebola, working together for the common good. 

Watch for boundaries being torn down and made less important.  These are signs of advancing our civilization.  Go for it!