Monday, January 23, 2012

PUTTING THE BRAKES ON PIPA

The hundreds of thousands of e-mails sent to legislators last week served at least to put the brakes on the Protect the IP Act (PIPA), and attests to the power of protest that still works to the benefit of the populace.

My own communications stressed that the Internet is still in its infancy and it will not help future development of this remarkable asset if legislators are pressured to shackle it. The Internet at its present state of development is still an initial inroad into a world where big improvements in bandwidth will allow anyone in the world, anywhere, to access instantaneously all recorded information. Together with huge advancements in supercomputers and no indication at all that Moore’s Law is coming to an end, the last thing the Internet needs is ability of various parties to mess it up.

Interestingly, there was an immediate reply from Senator Feinstein, who is one of the sponsors of the bill. It follows:

Dear Mr. Hujsak:

I received your letter expressing opposition to the “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act,” commonly known as the “PROTECT IP Act.” I appreciate knowing your views on this matter.

The “PROTECT IP Act” (S. 968) gives both copyright and trademark owners and the U.S. Department of Justice the authority to take action against websites that are “dedicated to infringing activities.” These are websites that have “no significant use other than engaging in, enabling, or facilitating” copyright infringement, the sale of goods with a counterfeit trademark, or the evasion of technological measures designed to protect against copying.

The bill does not violate First Amendment rights to free speech because copyright piracy is not speech.

America’s copyright industry is an important economic engine, and I believe copyright owners should be able to prevent their works from being illegally duplicated and stolen. The protection of intellectual property is particularly vital to California’s thriving film, music, and high-technology industries.

I understand you have concerns about the “PROTECT IP Act.” While I voted in favor of this bill when it was before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I have also been working with California high-technology businesses to improve the bill and to address the concerns of high-tech businesses, public interest groups and others. I recognize the bill needs further changes to prevent it from imposing undue burdens on legitimate businesses and activities, and I will be working to make the improvements, either by working with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) or through amendments on the Senate floor.

On May 26, 2011, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the “PROTECT IP Act” for consideration by the full Senate. Please know I will keep your concerns and thoughts in mind should the Senate proceed to a vote on this legislation. As you may be aware, Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) has introduced similar legislation, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (H.R. 3261), in the House of Representatives.

Once again, thank you for sharing your views. I hope you will continue to keep me informed on issues of importance to you. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841.

Wishing you a happy 2012.

Sincerely yours,


Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

Thursday, January 19, 2012

THE END OF RELIGION

This does not come as recent news. Books have been published on the subject : “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris; “Why Christianity Must Change or Die” by Bishop John Shelby Spong; “God is not Great” by Christopher Hitchens are examples.


The foundations of the hitherto unassailable bastions of faith are crumbling. The gifts of comprehension and reasoning, so highly developed in humans, now have the benefit of mountains of knowledge, as well as rapidly developing information regarding the nature of the universe and how belief dictates human behavior, with tolerance at one extreme and tyranny at the other. Moreover, mechanisms of information dissemination have taken astonishing leaps forward. No longer need humans be heavily dependent on texts developed long ago by male supremacists for whom treatment of women like chattel, the obligation of slaves to obey their masters, high esteem for persons of great wealth, torture, vengeance and wars were acceptable. Claims of conversation and direction from God as the source of their directives notwithstanding, there has never been a verifiable direct conversation with God. Humans have presumptively assumed that the Creator reasons as humans do, although there is no clear idea why this should be so. There is no basis for such an assumption other than human projection. Quite plausibly, a Creator is as likely to deal in absolutes.


Just as the maintenance manual for a Model-T Ford won’t do for a modern automobile, the Bible, Quran and even modern texts whose origin was a time when Earth was the center of the universe are unfulfilling, and are arguably often the source of anguish and pileups on the human scene. The wisdom of the ages pales before the avalanche of information and knowledge that is emerging in contemporary times. Soon the Holy Bible, the Quran, The Book of Mormon and all other religious tomes will take their places on the bookshelves by Chaucer, Beowulf, Paradise Lost, The Iliad, Shakespeare’s Plays....... all stories, entertaining and shaping humanity as only stories can.


Hubble and Spitzer telescopes have revealed a universe that is incredibly vast and beautiful, quite beyond an individual’s ability to grasp.....but it sure is fun to try. Physicists and mathematicians have quite convincingly determined that everything began with the big bang (soundless, as it turns out), and are more or less content to cede that territory to creationists, as for the time being the presence of a creator at the beginning is as satisfactory an explanation as any. Those who live strictly by “The Book” must somehow resolve the conundrum of instantaneous creation as opposed to a leisurely six days. But there are many questions; Did the Creator start with a plan? Or was the beginning simply something like: I wonder what will happen if I push this button.....KABLOOEY!


Most likely, religions will be replaced with community spirit and humility, given the new awareness of humans’ microscopic presence in a universe or universes so vast that comprehension is impossible. The fact that humanoid presence for a seemingly awesome four million years or thereabouts represents only .000003% of the age of the universe is cause enough for humility and wonder. In the grand scheme of things, is it conceivable that the Creator, after 13 billion years’ had in mind that tiny slot as the culmination of all it intended to achieve? It would be quite amazing...... an experiment that could fail, as the reins were clearly loosened when the human species achieved dominance.


What is sound, reasonable, has scientific basis and is verifiable is at play now to an extent that has never occurred before. Astrophysicists are now able to extrapolate from a few discoveries of planets circling other stars that there are likely hundreds of millions of Earth-similar planets “out there.” With this realization the immediate question might be: Where do we fit in?


Suppose we accept that the Creator really is intelligent, does reason and operates somewhere within the scope of what rational humans deem acceptable. Nearly a hundred years ago Albert Einstein, convinced that Earth occupied a unique position in the fabric of the universe, argued convincingly that “God does not play Dice.” Just months ago Stephen Hawking, equipped with vastly more knowledge about the universe than Einstein had, argued convincingly that God indeed does play dice.” In fact, both conclusions may be true for us lesser intellects who still choose to exercise their powers of reason to the limits of our capability. We need not submit to views and pronouncements of superior or authoritative intellects. Anyone can play this game.


A comfortable position is that there was a plan. The Creator did plan and did reason. The universe would be very big. There wouldn’t be one Earth, but many. It would be too risky to “put all eggs in one basket.” The universe is necessarily made enormous in order to separate the millions of planets by distances so great that one cannot communicate effectively with another, contaminate another, or (God forbid) go to war with another.


Finally, it’s now a fair assumption that human populated Earth is of small consequence in the grand scheme of things. Earth will go on, minus a species. The extinction of passenger pigeons, for example, hasn’t changed things perceptibly. Thus far, religions, and conflicts between religions have arguably been one of the impediments to ensuring species longevity. Comprehension and reasoning must eventually put them aside for something better. Failing that, the future for humans on this planet could be bleak indeed.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

PITY THE BILLIONAIRE (A Book Review)

One of the reasons I like blogging is the freedom one has in what gets to be posted. It can be serious or frivolous or anything in between. Posting a book report is a special pleasure for me.

“Before the Recession, people who had been cheated by bankers almost never took that occasion to demand that bankers be freed from “red tape” and the scrutiny of the law. Before 2009 the man in the breadline did not ordinarily weep for the man lounging on his yacht.”

When I read this quote from the introduction of the new book by Thomas Frank, titled “Pity the Billionaire,” my thought was: This I’ve got to read.

It is the story of the almost incredible manner in which people have been thought-herded, drenched in everything from old time religion to the wonders of Ayn Rand Objectivism and anything else that worked, to place them in the position advocating that the nation once more take the path that just recently robbed Americans of 16 trillion dollars, left the architects of the biggest ripoff ever to suffer no consequences and free to continue to do what they were doing before the financial meltdown took place in 2008. Free trade! Deregulate! Shrink the government! Kill the health plan, “Eliminate Medicare! Close down critical agencies! - all part of an adopted mantra that put a wrecking crew into Congress in 2010.

I wrote about this under the heading: “The Magnificent Propaganda Machine,” last year in an article titled “How We Got Here and Where We Are Headed,” (Posted here and Readwithoutinterruption.com). Frank has done a stellar job on the same subject, with the book appended with plenty of notes and references so the reader can look further into this important subject.

Frank gives neither Democrat nor Republican slack in this matter, as both parties contributed in one way or another to this amazing turn of events, in which it is apparent that no one learned anything. The appearance of Democrats giving up the tools of their trade to the far right Republicans working this mischief and watching those tools being used against them is pause for reflection.

Frank treats the Obama administration with scorn for having drawn in as advisers Wall Street people who were participants in and architects of the financial fiasco, and for rescuing financial houses with huge cash infusions. He laments that the model for reparations coming out of the Recession lay at least in part in Franklin Roosevelt’s Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Instead of rescuing the financial houses that brought about the 1929 financial collapse, the money went to a myriad of enterprises around the nation to help restart the economic engine.

Thomas Frank is author of “The Wrecking Crew,” “What’s the Matter with Kansas?,” and “One Market Under God.” He is a former opinion writer for the Wall Street Journal, Founding Editor of the “Baffler,” and a columnist for Harper’s.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

THE VOTER'S DILEMMA

The debates are over, and the best that can be said is that they leave one feeling there is a barren field indeed from which to select someone with promise of evenhandedly leading a nation of three hundred million diverse humans through the next four years.

With the exception of Mr. Huntsman, intelligent but lacking that something called charisma, all blow smoke, are heavy on platitudes, are embarrassingly self inflating, pander to visceral instincts, show bias toward extreme ideals, and in the course of the debates avoided direct, thoughtful answers to questions put to them by the moderators, choosing instead to skirt them with something in their memory portfolios.

From a personal standpoint, nothing satisfactory came of the debates that addressed issues that are of concern to me, which I take this occasion to list. Other voters would likely have different lists. It could be helpful to write them down. I found it interesting that citizens questioned by reporters before the debates regarding their expectations and worries generally missed the opportunity to seize the stage.

My concerns follow, across a span of issues (but limited to a dozen), phrased as questions to anyone moved to reply:

1. You would repeal the health care bill passed by Congress and signed by the President. An improved bill in most minds would provide for universal health care at moderate cost. With this in mind, what would you spearhead as an improvement over the present bill?

2. As Commander-in-Chief, how would you shape the military arm to serve the needs of the nation during your administration and for the administrations following?

3. A consumption based economy must eventually convert to a sustainable economy due to diminishing resources. How will you manage a graceful transition from the one to the other, assuming it is not already too late?

4. There are no statistics that show that the wealthy create jobs out of their take-home pay. Justify continuing to hold their taxes at the levels determined under the Bush administration.

5. As a pro-lifer, you would criminalize abortion. To what extent, if at all justifiable, should the government intrude on the private lives of women, and how would you enforce the law?

6. Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) funding has virtually dried up as compared to the early ‘90’s for example. What would you do to reverse this, as SBIR is demonstrably one way to start up businesses?

7. South Korea is hell bent on providing the most advanced broadband access to its entire population. What is your view on the same for the United States and if positive, how will you implement it?

8. The International Space Station has only a few years left and there is no plan for continued manned presence in low earth orbit. Meantime, China has space stations in planning. How will you manage this clear threat to loss of leadership in this field?

9. The perpetrators of the 2008 financial debacle are still in business. Will you give them a pass, or will you have the Justice Department begin investigations for criminal activity and let the chips fall where they may?

10. As president, will you listen to, and act aggressively on scientific findings and predictions regarding climate change?

11. There are many past decisions that need reversal; for example, not allowing Medicare to negotiate for drug costs, subsidies to pharmaceutical firms under the prescription drug plan,
banning the farming of the cash crop hemp, sugar and ethanol subsidies, subsidies to non-serious farmers, agencies that have outgrown their usefulness, etc. What will you do about them?

12. You will have an opportunity to eliminate the ruinous “No Child Left Behind” situation and put into operation something that restructures and raises education to new levels. What will you do?

Saturday, January 7, 2012

NOT THAT IT MATTERS....

If you multiply the number of humans on Earth (7 billion) by 238 billion you get the number of molecules in a drop of water.

The Big Bang by one measure was a big disappointment. There was no audible sound at all.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY (A short short story)

Prologue


Mark O’Grady and Joe Paskudny were college mates at the Air Force Academy. During summer vacations they joined with others to do crop art on Kansas wheat fields. Mark had taken the technique to a higher level by adapting the software employed by row-crop farmers to operate their tractors robotically under GPS control. A half dozen conspirators with hand held equipment, wearing snowshoes, could stamp out the most intricate of designs in a single moonlit night. To their amazement, they managed to avoid detection for two summers. During the third summer they were caught by a half dozen Future Farmers of America and were chased out of the state. One of the six conspirators was Mark’s sweetheart, whose name was Marijka Wooster. Among friends the pair was frequently labeled M and M.


Mark and Joe graduated from the Academy and entered graduate school, from which they emerged with honors. Mark signed up for the Astronaut Corps. Joe however opted out of the military, deciding instead to take up astronomy. He landed a position on Mt. Palomar and soon was promoted to staff director.


* * *


By mid twenty-first century, rare earths, vital elements for electronics production, had become the major reason for occupying the Moon. Earth sources had largely dried up. The Sir Arthur C. Clarke Lunar Base was the third site put up on the moon’s surface by a consortium of American mineral firms. The base was located in the southwest corner of Mare Vaporum where an exploratory mission in the late 30’s had located an outcropping that was rich in ore. The base complement of Lunarians numbered just over a hundred men and women - geologists, miners, engineers, chemists, mechanics, a pair of physicians, cooks, etc.


By that time the “operate by the book” atmosphere attendant to living in the unforgiving lunar environment had relaxed considerably. NASA no longer ran the show. Science had given way to commercial exploitation. There were days off for the Lunarians, though the mining operation ran around the clock every day of the week. While hiking away from the base was restricted to pairs, a Lunarian could sign up for a rover and take off for an extended tour, solo, to explore the surrounding territory. Rovers were equipped with safety chambers so in the event of trouble an erstwhile explorer could take occupancy until help arrived. Of course, with the high state of development of lunar positioning satellites, LGPS, it was almost impossible to get lost.


Mark signed up as a computer specialist and trouble shooter for the standard twelve month tour. That worked out fine with Marijka, who had just won a Fulbright that took her to Europe for a year.


Early in February of the year 2053 Mark stood outside the huge crew residence chamber, fully suited, observing the arrival of a brand new skip loader from the rocket landing site, its six massive drive wheels churning up the moon dust. It was John Deere’s latest model, fitted with all the bells and whistles, designed and built to specifications sent back to Earth by the moon base’s resident engineers. It was the first of a new line of equipment styled for extra-terrestrial application, powered by a thorium based nukette. It was Mark’s job to inspect the vehicle, take it through its paces and certify it for use by the miners. Mark was intrigued by the big knobby tires and the deep tracks they left in their wake. His mind went back to the days when he was doing crop art. He smiled to himself as an opportunity to do a similar work materialized in his brain.


For the next few evenings, after working on the skip loader all day, Mark retired early to the cell that served as his private quarters, and set to work at his computer. First he prepared the design, which was uncomplicated. Then he updated his old software for loading into LGPS control. It was not at all tedious as he was able to adapt most of his previous work when doing crop art. The main difficulties rested in integration with the skip loader’s control system. He was pleased that the engineers had called for remote control capability in the vehicle’s specifications, though they had seen no immediate need for it. That was followed by review after review to make certain there was no chance of failure. He would have only one opportunity to do this.


On the second Sunday of February Mark signed out the skip loader for a trial run in the open. He suited up, entered the cabin of the vehicle, raised the internal pressure to one atmosphere and then shed his space suit, as he preferred the comfort of a shirtsleeve environment. He travelled about twenty miles on a northeast heading to where he was aware that a vast, smooth sandy terrain existed. He stopped, established his LGPS coordinates, then retrieved a software element from a pocket and inserted it into the control panel receptacle.


Two minutes later the skip loader began to move. There was nothing more for Mark to do. A huge piece of artwork, more than a mile across, was entrusted to the skip loader and its LGPS guiding hand, its wheels making deep impressions that would be visible from afar. The impression time was extended as Mark was aware that several tracks side by side would be necessary for visibility from Earth. From time to time he felt the skip loader making swift turns. His eyes followed the pattern of the artwork on the view screen as it was gradually filled in. By those motions he was quite certain that it was following the design profile as intended. In less than an hour the vehicle stopped. The screen image showed it at its starting point. ARTWORK INSTALLED appeared beneath the image.


Upon returning to the moon base Mark contacted his friend Joe Paskudny. As luck would have it, Joe was at work at the Palomar observatory. The two hundred inch glass mirror had just been resurfaced and the crew was going through the final stages of alignment and checkout.


“Joe, I need a favor.”


“Speak, pal.”


“I need a photo of a spot on the moon, and I need it today.”


“That’s a pretty tall order.” Several seconds elapsed. “But as it happens, you called me at the right time. We’re just coming out of down time. Give me the coordinates.”


Shortly, Joe got the telescope pointed at the site and produced a sharp image. He posted it to Mark immediately, with the message: “Wow! You got something going with the chocolate factory?”


Mark did not reply. He was busy posting the image to his sweetheart.


In Stuttgart, Marijka gazed with delight at Mark’s handiwork, an enormous heart shaped image on the surface of the moon with an arrow running through it. On the face of the heart - the letters M+M. The accompanying message contained only three words. “Happy Valentine’s Day.”


Epilogue


Joe Paskudny was duly amazed at Mark’s enormous stunt. He felt it should not go unnoticed and posted it on the net on the fourteenth of February, where it immediately went globally viral.


At Mars Incorporated, officials were nonplussed at the sudden reversal of M&M’S sales, accompanied by a rash of Environment Party complaints against the corporation for messing up the moon’s surface. It was left to the publicity department to straighten things out but the best they could do, while privately wishing they had thought of the idea, was a disclaimer, stating that if it were their doing, the legend would not have read M+M but rather their registered logo - M&M’S


Crop art was no longer a clandestine affair. By June of the same year three engineers at the Air Force Academy had completed construction and tests on a robotically controlled hybrid power mower/weed whacker. At semester’s end they packed their equipment into a van and headed for the Saskatchewan wheat fields to participate in the annual crop art competitions sponsored by the Regina Museum of Contemporary Art.


Copyright © 2012 - Edward Hujsak

Monday, January 2, 2012

DO'S AND DON'T'S FOR 2012

Avoid anyone who tells you “I’m going to be honest with you.” The unsaid message is that the person is a professional liar.


The best way to defuse a marital argument is to reply: “The trouble with you is you don’t make enough allowances for my shortcomings.”


Avoid people who preach the coming Apocalypse. They are in it for the money. On an observable scale it is demonstrably already here as ten billion people, more or less, will die in the next sixty years. Not sudden, in our view, but a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.


Self-publishing authors: Sign all your books. It costs nothing and makes people happy. And there’s a kick in seeing your ten dollar signed book on e-bay for forty-nine dollars.


Avoid people who think climate change is a joke. People who think Congress is doing a good job. People who think Shariah Law is our biggest threat. People who think we never did go to the moon. People who think 9/11 was a conspiracy. People who are sure Barack Obama is a Muslim (as if that should matter. We let Christians be president).


Don’t stand in long lines for anything. A terrible way to spend the minutes and hours of a precious lifetime.


Recognize cranks for what they are. Bemoan the downside of the Internet, which gave them a bullhorn they didn’t have before (And I mean bull).


Spend some days not watching television. It’s unhealthy, and half the time someone is trying to sell you something - and the span between programs of real interest, and educational, grows ever longer.


Don’t do stuff because it’s the thing to do. Watching Super Bowl fits the category. Go to church only if.... well, I can’t think of a good reason.


Walk. Don’t run. Modern man is not built for running. Running is okay if you live in the Kalahari and have to run down an impala so your family gets to eat dinner.


Think about lower back pain before running to the doctor. They love treating this malady, don’t really know what causes it and invariably prescribe rest and ibuprophen, which usually works.


Never, ever allow anyone to strap you into a therapy machine. The machine doesn’t know poop about you, nor does it care.


Keep a balance between doing things with your mind and doing things with your hands. The palpable joy that comes with creating something solid and beautiful is seldom matched in other pursuits.


Get enough exercise but don’t overdo. Women who live relatively sedentary lives seem to live the longest.