I am not colorblind, but in some places about one in ten males is and about one in fifty females.
Today, I was looking at the Reuters Market numbers, and I noticed that market gains were in green and market losses were in red. Given how common colorblindness is, I think this is really inconsiderate.
In other situations, it is downright dangerous.
I have never understood why traffic control signals, the red, yellow, and green lights, are the same shape. Why not make the red light a square, the yellow light a circle, and the green light an upwardly pointing triangle or something? I have never been able to find an estimate of how often a colorblind person mistakes one signal for another, but I am sure it has happened.
Why are emergency signs in red if many people cannot see red? Almost all humans can see blue, so such signs should be in red outlined in blue or some such combination.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Telescoped endings
The first half of Les Miserables takes 20 years; a Greek tragedy that rolls on and on due to carelessness. The second half takes place on a single day when fate rains down on all.
Friday, October 24, 2008
If you want to know why some people think the stupidest people on the planet live in Hawaii...
The juvenile, hysterical, and confused arguments here are simply astounding.
For some reason, they think they know more than all the Japan Railways engineers who have been building steel-on-rail trains for a century now.
The consideration that trumps all others: If people in Japan drove instead of riding trains, there would have been 250,000 more dead people over the last 25 years. Every year we go without good public transportation on Oahu, the more dead people we have due to traffic accidents. If you want to argue about this, leave your number and I will call you.
Of course everything depends on execution...
http://www.stoprailnow.com/
But why do they assert that there will be more traffic congestion? I just rode home on a steel-on-rail train with 1,000 other people. I read the newspaper and listened to my iPod. We did not try to drive 1,000 cars down a highway.
Bus rapid transit toll lanes may be cheaper, but each bus requires a driver, and the cost of that is enormous. The train I rode on had two drivers, one in the front and one in the back, for 1,000 people.
Energy use with new Japan Railways regenerative braking trains is 1/20th the energy use of a car per passenger, so the assertion that trains use more energy is just plain wrong. This section also asserts that trains are noisy and ugly. What does that have to do with the assertion about the energy inefficiency of trains? This is so confused that I don't know what to say. Kobayashi asserts that trains are noisy. Yes, the Oedo Line is noisy. I hate it. None of the other lines I ride make a lot of noise, and the newest lines, such as the airport line in Beijing and the Fukutoshin Line are nearly silent... They certainly make less noise than a thousand cars going by. Do they think the freeway is silent? Have they ever stood next to the freeway? The light rail would be ugly? Did they think it would be invisible? Have they looked at the freeways, or many of the unbelievably ugly buildings in Honolulu for that matter? Do they think they are invisible? And looks matter more than people's lives?
The budget. Who knows if we can get the funding during the current economic implosion. We could have constructed this a decade ago when the economy was booming, but nooooo...
Money? How much do you think people in the state spend on cars and roads now? Six billion dollars for the train is about 6,000 dollars for each person in the State one time. AAA says it costs more than 8,000 dollars to own and operate a car every year, year after year, and that is not including the costs of the roads. Whether the funding can be arranged properly I have no idea... I bet the Stop Rail Now people have no idea either. I would be glad to spend, oh, say 50 hours discussing this with them. Please leave your number.
The cheap oil is gone. We might be saved by photovoltaics and electric cars, but that does not solve the problem of automobile injuries and fatalities.
Finally, the laundry list of all the reasons rail fails everywhere and will fail in Honolulu. Maybe it will. Execution matters. But why has rail worked in Japan, and not only in the high density parts of Japan, for the last century? What would happen when we have another oil crisis? At least the rail would run on electricity, hopefully by that time partly supplied by wind and photovoltaics. If a train line were built, feeder lines and urban planning would change. In Japan, train stations are ringed by stores, so you walk by one on the way home. To expect the train and urban planning to work the instant the train is built is just plain silly. We would be building the train for a century, not for next year.
Clearly, they did not want to get this on the ballot so that everyone could vote on it. They wanted this on the ballot so that it might be stopped. Hint: see their name.
This kind of behavior is simply not helpful in making rational decisions. The age of cheap oil, when we can do whatever we like, came to an end 30 years ago, but we have been in denial. The train would be built for a century (the one near my apartment is about to celebrate its centennial). Does everyone really think that we will not have an energy crisis at any time in the next hundred years?
If most transit is not by public transportation, there will be many more dead people on Oahu over the next century. That is a fact. Choose. If we make the wrong choice, take responsibility for that and try to improve the system in the future. The alternative is chaos the likes of which this paradise of spoiled children has never seen.
For some reason, they think they know more than all the Japan Railways engineers who have been building steel-on-rail trains for a century now.
The consideration that trumps all others: If people in Japan drove instead of riding trains, there would have been 250,000 more dead people over the last 25 years. Every year we go without good public transportation on Oahu, the more dead people we have due to traffic accidents. If you want to argue about this, leave your number and I will call you.
Of course everything depends on execution...
http://www.stoprailnow.com/
But why do they assert that there will be more traffic congestion? I just rode home on a steel-on-rail train with 1,000 other people. I read the newspaper and listened to my iPod. We did not try to drive 1,000 cars down a highway.
Bus rapid transit toll lanes may be cheaper, but each bus requires a driver, and the cost of that is enormous. The train I rode on had two drivers, one in the front and one in the back, for 1,000 people.
Energy use with new Japan Railways regenerative braking trains is 1/20th the energy use of a car per passenger, so the assertion that trains use more energy is just plain wrong. This section also asserts that trains are noisy and ugly. What does that have to do with the assertion about the energy inefficiency of trains? This is so confused that I don't know what to say. Kobayashi asserts that trains are noisy. Yes, the Oedo Line is noisy. I hate it. None of the other lines I ride make a lot of noise, and the newest lines, such as the airport line in Beijing and the Fukutoshin Line are nearly silent... They certainly make less noise than a thousand cars going by. Do they think the freeway is silent? Have they ever stood next to the freeway? The light rail would be ugly? Did they think it would be invisible? Have they looked at the freeways, or many of the unbelievably ugly buildings in Honolulu for that matter? Do they think they are invisible? And looks matter more than people's lives?
The budget. Who knows if we can get the funding during the current economic implosion. We could have constructed this a decade ago when the economy was booming, but nooooo...
Money? How much do you think people in the state spend on cars and roads now? Six billion dollars for the train is about 6,000 dollars for each person in the State one time. AAA says it costs more than 8,000 dollars to own and operate a car every year, year after year, and that is not including the costs of the roads. Whether the funding can be arranged properly I have no idea... I bet the Stop Rail Now people have no idea either. I would be glad to spend, oh, say 50 hours discussing this with them. Please leave your number.
The cheap oil is gone. We might be saved by photovoltaics and electric cars, but that does not solve the problem of automobile injuries and fatalities.
Finally, the laundry list of all the reasons rail fails everywhere and will fail in Honolulu. Maybe it will. Execution matters. But why has rail worked in Japan, and not only in the high density parts of Japan, for the last century? What would happen when we have another oil crisis? At least the rail would run on electricity, hopefully by that time partly supplied by wind and photovoltaics. If a train line were built, feeder lines and urban planning would change. In Japan, train stations are ringed by stores, so you walk by one on the way home. To expect the train and urban planning to work the instant the train is built is just plain silly. We would be building the train for a century, not for next year.
Clearly, they did not want to get this on the ballot so that everyone could vote on it. They wanted this on the ballot so that it might be stopped. Hint: see their name.
This kind of behavior is simply not helpful in making rational decisions. The age of cheap oil, when we can do whatever we like, came to an end 30 years ago, but we have been in denial. The train would be built for a century (the one near my apartment is about to celebrate its centennial). Does everyone really think that we will not have an energy crisis at any time in the next hundred years?
If most transit is not by public transportation, there will be many more dead people on Oahu over the next century. That is a fact. Choose. If we make the wrong choice, take responsibility for that and try to improve the system in the future. The alternative is chaos the likes of which this paradise of spoiled children has never seen.
What happens when you base economic policy on an Ayn Rand novel
Greenspan "shocked" at credit system breakdown
Thu Oct 23, 2008
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress on Thursday he is "shocked" at the breakdown in U.S. credit markets and that he expects the unemployment rate to jump.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief," he said.
Shocked.... just shocked... to find that there was gambling going on at Mr. Rick's...
Roubini is warning that so many hedge funds might implode that markets may be closed for weeks...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayHUWEWFBGoM
Thu Oct 23, 2008
Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan told Congress on Thursday he is "shocked" at the breakdown in U.S. credit markets and that he expects the unemployment rate to jump.
"Those of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholder's equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief," he said.
Shocked.... just shocked... to find that there was gambling going on at Mr. Rick's...
Roubini is warning that so many hedge funds might implode that markets may be closed for weeks...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ayHUWEWFBGoM
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Hiawatha and The True Ship of Dreams
Our teacher, Mr. Share, said to us a long time ago that if we did not read, we would never stand beside Hiawatha on the shores of Gitche Gumee and see the shining Big-Sea-Water...
And so it is with The True Ship of Dreams...
And so it is with The True Ship of Dreams...
I think a certain brokerage I used padded my client information
Imagine my surprise recently when I got a client information update sheet from one of the now dead brokerage houses (what a bunch of Bull)... my annual income was 10 times greater than I was aware of! I wonder who is siphoning all the money out of my bank account... or maybe that is me in a parallel universe... I wonder if the suckers... I mean partners who bought them realize that their client info might have been padded just prior to the sale...
Here is something really shocking
Calculate your wealth compared to everyone else in the world. It is really shocking. We are richer by far than almost everyone on Earth now and almost everyone who has ever lived.
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
http://www.globalrichlist.com/
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
It is almost certain life is everywhere in this Universe
Candidatus Desulforudis audaxviator, seems to be very happy deep underground, really hot, with no light and no oxygen... and alone... it gets the energy it needs to live from radioactive decay of uranium!
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn14906-goldmine-bug-dna-may-be-key-to-alien-life.html
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn14906-goldmine-bug-dna-may-be-key-to-alien-life.html
In the face of a Depression, why the greatest song of the 20th century has something to say in the 21st
Arguably the greatest song of the 20th century... the first time many people had seen a movie in color... an allegory about the economy...
You will never hear it in the same way after you hear this explanation of what exactly it was you were hearing all these years.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94281015
Music makes you feel a feeling... words make you think thoughts... but a song makes you feel a thought...
The moment when Dorothy passes out in monochrome Kansas and awakes in Technicolor Oz may have been more significant than you'd ever imagined. A new study reveals that children exposed to black-and-white film and TV are more likely to dream in greyscale throughout their life.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14959-its-black-and-white-tv-influences-your-dreams.html
You will never hear it in the same way after you hear this explanation of what exactly it was you were hearing all these years.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94281015
Music makes you feel a feeling... words make you think thoughts... but a song makes you feel a thought...
The moment when Dorothy passes out in monochrome Kansas and awakes in Technicolor Oz may have been more significant than you'd ever imagined. A new study reveals that children exposed to black-and-white film and TV are more likely to dream in greyscale throughout their life.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14959-its-black-and-white-tv-influences-your-dreams.html
Sunday, October 19, 2008
This Halloween...
Forget all the Monsters you have ever seen or imagined...
Nothing compares to LAPD Captain J. J. Jones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(2008_film)
Nothing compares to LAPD Captain J. J. Jones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Changeling_(2008_film)
I have been missing out for years!
Why didn't anyone tell me this financial stuff was so funny! Asthma-attack-inducing.
A vast caravan of mathematical models, wandering across the landscape, in search of an idea...
A vast caravan of mathematical models, wandering across the landscape, in search of an idea...
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Why the banks won't lend
Liars think everyone lies; thieves think everyone steals; those who are the worst believe the worst in others.
This is why the banks won't lend to each other.
Honest people have difficulty thinking like that and are perceived as naive...
This is why the banks won't lend to each other.
Honest people have difficulty thinking like that and are perceived as naive...
Ian Blair sacked...
but doesn't have the decency to you know what...
Ah ha ha ha ... they are going to give him a Peerage! And 300,000 dollars a year! Just like they gave the de Menezes family... not...
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/64577/-600k-and-a-peerage-for-ousted-Met-chief
The cops who shot Jean Charles de Menezes were literally covered with blood. Neither have they had the decency to you know what. They just wanted to kill one of them... but they were so stupid that all brown people looked alike... so they shot a Brazilian in the head... seven times... because he looked like one of Osama's friends.... Then they went to Brazil and tried to get the family to sign papers saying they would not sue... You get the idea of what kind of people these are... the kind that make you feel ashamed to be a human...
Even after being the biggest drug dealers in the history of the world, and the worst slave traders, the UK fake economy is crashing. The Olympics will be totally great during a depression.
Why would anyone want to go there, especially if you look like Mr. de Menezes... or anyone else.
I visited for 3 days, 30 years ago... everywhere I went, people asked me why we fucking foreigners didn't leave... the cab driver complained for the whole ride about the fucking Arabs... charming... Another on the list of psycho places to avoid.
Ah ha ha ha ... they are going to give him a Peerage! And 300,000 dollars a year! Just like they gave the de Menezes family... not...
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/64577/-600k-and-a-peerage-for-ousted-Met-chief
The cops who shot Jean Charles de Menezes were literally covered with blood. Neither have they had the decency to you know what. They just wanted to kill one of them... but they were so stupid that all brown people looked alike... so they shot a Brazilian in the head... seven times... because he looked like one of Osama's friends.... Then they went to Brazil and tried to get the family to sign papers saying they would not sue... You get the idea of what kind of people these are... the kind that make you feel ashamed to be a human...
Even after being the biggest drug dealers in the history of the world, and the worst slave traders, the UK fake economy is crashing. The Olympics will be totally great during a depression.
Why would anyone want to go there, especially if you look like Mr. de Menezes... or anyone else.
I visited for 3 days, 30 years ago... everywhere I went, people asked me why we fucking foreigners didn't leave... the cab driver complained for the whole ride about the fucking Arabs... charming... Another on the list of psycho places to avoid.
Why Citi wanted Wachovia
They wanted to be too big to fail.
Ha ha ha...
They should also note this picture of a python that tried to swallow an alligator... and exploded...
These crises have exposed the inherent weakness in mainstream media
Five years ago, many people said that what was on the Web was just "Internet blather".
Now writers on such sites are starting to win Nobels.
After the crises in energy, finance, etc., it is clear that the major newspapers, magazines, and news sites are basically collections of World Book Encyclopedia articles for high school students.
Oh, sure, their articles are "curated", the information is checked, and the English is mostly correct, but in addition to the out and out distortions, they are simply too limited by space and time. (And the curators of such perfect information accurately foretold what is happening, now, didn't they?)
Specialized websites can take readers through literally thousands of pages and can make arguments about a topic over the course of years. A lot of the reader comments are silly, but about one in twenty says something interesting.
You will have to distinguish what is probably right from what is probably wrong for yourself, but it is the difference between reading an article in a newspaper and then reading the research paper itself.
A particularly clueless proponent of the delusion that "curators" and "experts" somehow ensure that information is correct can be heard at http://radio.seti.org/past-shows.php
in the story "TXT MSG: Behavior", third guest.
Keen's (oh, the irony) ideas seem to be:
1. People are stupid.
2. People gossip and spread stupid, incorrect information.
3. Experts alone get it right.
Wow! 1 and 2 are revelations! That never dawned on me!
3 is just plain wrong... he obviously has never met stupid doctors, professors, economists... I can introduce him to many.
I invite Keen to not waste any more of everyone's time and to go to a library and spend the rest of his life reading curated articles written by experts in the World Book Encyclopedia. It seems high school is about his level. I wonder how fragile must be the self image to be so terrified of error as to confine oneself to mastering the game of tic-tac-toe so that no mistakes are ever made... and to spend existence like that.
The rest of us will stumble forward in the 21st century, toward financial booms and busts, war, First Contact, life extension, genetic engineering, The Singularity, and all the rest of the wonderful mess of life, fully aware that information is provisional, that research papers are full of errors, and that the world is run by idiots who have proven that they don't know what the hell they are doing.
We will use the major news sources in the way we would use any brief summary written for ninth graders: as the starting point for real reading.
No one says it better than Henry Rollins.
Now writers on such sites are starting to win Nobels.
After the crises in energy, finance, etc., it is clear that the major newspapers, magazines, and news sites are basically collections of World Book Encyclopedia articles for high school students.
Oh, sure, their articles are "curated", the information is checked, and the English is mostly correct, but in addition to the out and out distortions, they are simply too limited by space and time. (And the curators of such perfect information accurately foretold what is happening, now, didn't they?)
Specialized websites can take readers through literally thousands of pages and can make arguments about a topic over the course of years. A lot of the reader comments are silly, but about one in twenty says something interesting.
You will have to distinguish what is probably right from what is probably wrong for yourself, but it is the difference between reading an article in a newspaper and then reading the research paper itself.
A particularly clueless proponent of the delusion that "curators" and "experts" somehow ensure that information is correct can be heard at http://radio.seti.org/past-shows.php
in the story "TXT MSG: Behavior", third guest.
Keen's (oh, the irony) ideas seem to be:
1. People are stupid.
2. People gossip and spread stupid, incorrect information.
3. Experts alone get it right.
Wow! 1 and 2 are revelations! That never dawned on me!
3 is just plain wrong... he obviously has never met stupid doctors, professors, economists... I can introduce him to many.
I invite Keen to not waste any more of everyone's time and to go to a library and spend the rest of his life reading curated articles written by experts in the World Book Encyclopedia. It seems high school is about his level. I wonder how fragile must be the self image to be so terrified of error as to confine oneself to mastering the game of tic-tac-toe so that no mistakes are ever made... and to spend existence like that.
The rest of us will stumble forward in the 21st century, toward financial booms and busts, war, First Contact, life extension, genetic engineering, The Singularity, and all the rest of the wonderful mess of life, fully aware that information is provisional, that research papers are full of errors, and that the world is run by idiots who have proven that they don't know what the hell they are doing.
We will use the major news sources in the way we would use any brief summary written for ninth graders: as the starting point for real reading.
No one says it better than Henry Rollins.
Pump half a TRILLION dollars PER DAY into the banks... that will fix the problems
Nearly half a trillion dollars pumped into banks per day... even into the ones without problems (so as not to stigmatize the ones who really need the money)... That is what the Japanese did after their bubble burst... Then, the US financial geniuses went to Japan telling them to let banks fail... Now, the US is inviting Japanese bank managers to come to the US and tell them how they handled their problems... and the US is doing exactly the same thing... Hilarious...
Why would anyone want to buy a house there or even go there?
Another place run by nutjobs.
How much money have they spent on this?
City building and safety director Tom Hartung said that an illegally converted garage poses health and safety risks...
What are they? Surely if they had been that bad for 30 years everyone would be dead by now?
Her troubles began when a code enforcement officer spotted a light shining from her garage into the street, a code violation. He noticed her trash cans in front of the house (another violation) and weeds poking through the concrete (yet another one).
OMG! Light shining! Trash cans! Weeds in the cracks in the concrete!
Jarrod Head, Camargo's 29-year-old grandson, who lives with her, was sleeping in the disputed bedroom when they arrived.
"They pushed right in," he said. "I said, 'What's this about?' but they were busy taking pictures. When I asked why they were taking pictures, the police asked me for my ID. I asked why they needed my ID, and they put me in handcuffs."
The judge ordered her to pay a $3,000 fine, which she said she couldn't afford. She asked for the other option -- 30 days in jail.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-garage18-2008oct18,0,5133746,full.story
There are lots of places to steer clear of.
Just wait until this gets on their Wiki page. It will be on the Net for eternity.
There are nearly 600 foreclosures there currently...
http://realestate.yahoo.com/California/La_Quinta/Homes_for_sale/result.html?p=La%20Quinta%2C%20CA&type=foreclosure
How much money have they spent on this?
City building and safety director Tom Hartung said that an illegally converted garage poses health and safety risks...
What are they? Surely if they had been that bad for 30 years everyone would be dead by now?
Her troubles began when a code enforcement officer spotted a light shining from her garage into the street, a code violation. He noticed her trash cans in front of the house (another violation) and weeds poking through the concrete (yet another one).
OMG! Light shining! Trash cans! Weeds in the cracks in the concrete!
Jarrod Head, Camargo's 29-year-old grandson, who lives with her, was sleeping in the disputed bedroom when they arrived.
"They pushed right in," he said. "I said, 'What's this about?' but they were busy taking pictures. When I asked why they were taking pictures, the police asked me for my ID. I asked why they needed my ID, and they put me in handcuffs."
The judge ordered her to pay a $3,000 fine, which she said she couldn't afford. She asked for the other option -- 30 days in jail.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-garage18-2008oct18,0,5133746,full.story
There are lots of places to steer clear of.
Just wait until this gets on their Wiki page. It will be on the Net for eternity.
There are nearly 600 foreclosures there currently...
http://realestate.yahoo.com/California/La_Quinta/Homes_for_sale/result.html?p=La%20Quinta%2C%20CA&type=foreclosure
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