Current Chaos Manor mail
Thursday,
Subject: 123456 clock oddity
Jerry,
as a european I am not yet doomed: The US is a month early due to the 'middle-endian' date notation. (see: http://www.unb.ca/samples/jargon.cgi?middle-endian )
One more month...
Menno.
==
Dear Jerry,
I was sad to see I’d missed 01-02-03-04-05-06; being nerdy enough to fancy staying up to see it.
Then I realised that over here in Europe we still have a month to go! It will be the 4th of May for us rather than the 5th of April.
So I haven’t missed it after all!
Regards,
Craig Arnold
Yes, I thought of that, but I didn't get around to posting it.
==
Jerry
After reading that the Europeans consider our dating to be "middle-endian" it occurred to me that I havn't used either date format in a long time. Both formats disrupt the date/time cascade. The up-and-coming date/time format is y-m-d-h-m-s.
So, for example, if we consider the current "01-02-03-04-05-06" example, the rendering in the new format would be 2006-04-05 0102 03. Now, this doesn't look too promising, but if we truncate the millennium and century dates, as is common, then we can look forward to 06-05-04 0302 01, or May 4, 2006, one second past 3:02 AM.
Yet another date to anticipate.
Ed
Some people have entirely too much spare time...
==========
Subject: Recognizing McKinney
"Frankly, I find it hard to believe that the officer did not recognize her, although it is certainly possible."
She supposedly had just changed her hairstyle quite radically. She also didn't have her "member's pin" or ID badge on.
In any case, why aren't they searched? If I wanted to get something bad into the House or Senate, the way to to it is to plant it on a member of the appropriate chamber. I don't mind them having separate lines for members and their staff, but to bypass the whole process is too dang Imperial for me.
Edmund Hack
Finding herself utterly without support, she has made a grudging apology, which I suspect will be accepted. As to the perks of a Member, they do search Executive Branch people unless accompanied by a Member or Senator, and have done so for some time. They only grudgingly allow Cabinet members to be accompanied by an entourage and bodyguards. I recall going to Newt's office when he was Speaker and being waved in to sit in his office while I waited for him while a gaggle of young men with short haircuts and lapel pins lounged around in his outer office. The staff were rather icily polite to Secretary Cohen's bodyguards. And of course the President is accompanied by House Ushers and the Sergeant at Arms, not Secret Service, when he comes into the House chambers.
============
Subject: The Gospel of Judas? -- ( TimeSink ! :)
This is an interesting story, I think. What really struck me as odd though, is the story of how the document finally came into the hands of the team that did the translating. I am really ignorant of how such antiquities are handled, but if I had thought about it at all, I doubt I would have expected to hear a story like this one.
Oh yes, what the manuscript itself says is interesting too, though I doubt it will have much impact on current thinking. :)
-Paul
NYTimes Article
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/science/06cnd-judas.html?ex=1144468800&en=651ad24090601020&ei=5087
There is also a National Geographic Special on this which will be shown on April 9. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/06/science/06cnd-judas.html?ex=1144468800&en=651ad24090601020&ei=5087
Timesink indeed. The Gnostics have long believed this and every now and then a modern novel surfaces with this theme. Gnosticism and Manicheanism are extremely attractive heresies (if heresies they be, but of course Roman and Orthodox Catholics pretty well consider that settled).
===========
Subject: Lie detectors and Martha Stewart
Dr. Pournelle:
If this technology is used by law enforcement, what happens to the Fifth Amendment? I can see this type of technology being developed to the point where accurate readings can be made even if the person being interviewed doesn't answer orally.
If the machine indicates deception, why bother with a trial? Just begin the sentencing phase, and have a machine in the courtroom so that the newly convicted don't get any judicial mercy either.
Wal-Mart among others would question employees every shift so as to minimize theft. It could become routine to ask shoppers if they've paid for every item.
This way lies Dystopia.
jomath
Indeed. Although I suppose something like tinfoil hats or Poul Anderson's "mindshields" will be developed. Still, the technology is being developed, and stuffing the genie back in the bottle has never worked.
I know many question the accuracy of the analysis, and indeed it does take interpretation. What stress analysis -- whether voice or through physical instrumentation -- detects is stress. We can with the right physical instruments detect a physiological difference between fear and anger (Al Ax et. al. wrote a paper on that circa 1954). I do not know if such differential analysis is possible with Voice Stress Analysis, but that may be coming.
As to the technology, we have to learn to live with it.
=========
Subject: Hansen & Muzzling
Dear Jerry,
What Hansen and his supporters claim is 'muzzling' is in fact equal treatment along with all other non-elected employees below Senate confirmed cabinet level. This is a prohibition against unilaterally issuing fulsome communiques on their own initiative that appear to be official US Government policy, or could be interpreted that way by recipients. This sort of policy is very sound for the government employees of a nation that claims to formulate its policies on a democratic basis after full public debate.
Hansen has not been prohibited from being interviewed in his own person nor has he been prohibited (to my knowledge) with writing papers that say "Dr. James Hansen, Ph.D. Rocket Scientist" or from giving speeches. The 'problem' is the frustrated desire of Hansen and his friends to shroud their opinions with what appears to be official government auctoritas. Their 'problem' is not in speaking out but rather in accepting the entire concept of representative government secured by, among other things, the First Amendment. Obviously "Dr. James Hansen, Ph.d Rocket Scientist...Director...NASA..." carries far more weight with REALLY UNINFORMED people than a vanilla "Dr. Robert Hansen, Ph.D."
I've noticed this particular 'problem' is very common among Global Warming True Believer fanatics. One of the reasons I call them a 'Priesthood' is because they behave just like any other priesthood delivering Revealed Knowledge and react to non-believers and heretics similarly.
Regards,
Mark
==
Subject: Global Warming - Personal Views Versus Research
Dr. Pournelle,
The Post isn't something that I normally read, but this article has some interesting citations.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/04/05/AR2006040502150_pf.html
Hansen claims censorship, while the NOAA administration says that it is only enforcing previously ignored rules, and asking employees to keep their personal views out of their NOAA work.
'NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr.
responded by sending an agency-wide e-mail that said he is "a strong
believer in open, peer-reviewed science as well as the right and duty of
scientists to seek the truth and to provide the best scientific advice
possible."'
'None of the scientists said political appointees had
influenced their research on climate change or disciplined them for
questioning the administration. Indeed, several researchers have received
bigger budgets in recent years because President Bush has focused on
studying global warming rather than curbing greenhouse gases. NOAA's budget
for climate research and services is now $250 million, up from $241 million
in 2004.'
Studying, rather than pre-acting -- what a great concept!
Regards, Peter Czora
=========
On Hospital Cost and immigration
Subject: Hospital ER Costs
Due to the nature of the volunteer work I do I often spend several hours a weekend in the ER. In my area there are a few illegals, but plenty of people who are using the hospital for routine medical care. While there is some cost for the supplies that I am sure is not trivial, the greater expense is on the people. People who are qualified to work in a trauma center, but are needed to deal with ear infections and babies running a mild fever. People who demand assistance but will never pay a dime of their bill.
Some hospitals have opened "minor emergency" rooms that attempt to deal with these issues. But they require space and the staffing is not that much less money. And of course they have to be careful. If you miss a problem with someone, who for years has neglected their personal health care, and you will face the lawyers.
The result of all of this is trauma centers with gurneys in the hallway and more people arriving. Staff that is overworked, tired and wanting to find another job. Hospitals look at the cash flow, consider the risks from litigation and would rather turn the space over to an orthopedic group to process hip replacements. -- ---
Al Lipscomb
And from De Doc (Dr. Ernoehazy is in charge of a hospital emergency room):
Subject: Cold Equations In Emergency Medicine
Good morning, Jerry.
Some thoughts on emergency departments, indigents, and immigration...
Your correspondent wrote:
Subject: immigration
> .... >For the sake of argument, I'm willing to concede the point that hospitals
are closing due to the costs of treating the illegal immigrants. Fine, I'll
give you that one. Now, YOU tell ME what the real cost is. The hospital was
going to be open anyway. The hospital was going to be staffed anyway. The
lights were going to be on. The surgeons, doctors, nurses, and support staff
were already being paid.
But who pays these people?
Doctors are typically not salaried employees; they get their money directly from billing patients for professional services. Hospitals pay nurses, allied health professionals, support staff... but they pay them from the monies THEY recieve from billing patients for hospital services. (Note that making doctors salaried employees doesn't help; the hospital's revenue still comes from billings.)
So why does that matter when considering the financing of emergency medicine?
Imagine, for a moment, that you own a restaurant.
You stay open because people pay to eat there, right?
Now... imagine that:
-- by Federal law, you *must* seat everyone who shows up to your restaurant, without asking for any proof that they can pay; you MUST serve everyone food; you MUST NOT discriminate in any way as to what food you serve; and you cannot coerce patrons in any manner to pay before they leave the premises, since the same Federal law interprets such action as an attempt to scare people away without seating and serving them.
-- 30 to 40 percent of your patrons leave without paying at all.
-- Another 30 to 40 percent of your patrons use government-funded payment plans, which only reimburse you... 50 cents? on the dollar billed. (Imagine further that many of these plans only pay you a year after you bill them, after challenging every cent of your billing, forcing you to retain extra clerical staff just to recover any money at all... which lops an extra 5 cents off each dollar billed, in such cases.)
-- The rest of your patrons use other payment plans, which also take their own sweet time paying you, but generally pay most of what the bill.
-- Tipping? What tipping?
If you were the owner of such a place, you would pray nightly for paying customers.
That is what the economics of emergency departments are like, everywhere in the United States. The EMTALA Act requires emergency departments to see and treat all comers, without distinctions, without prior payment, and without appearance of coercion. Medicare and Medicaid payments are set arbitrarily, and bear little or no relation to the overhead cost to provide services, much less recompensing the providers. Both government and private insurance plans often delay payment for a year or more; the situation became so egregious in California that the state legislature passed a law making it illegal to delay payments in such wise. (Not that the State Attorney has actually filed charges, mind you; hospitals and doctors have submitted repeated cases, but none have been taken for action. But I digress.)
Now... add illegals to the mix.
They can't pay you, in almost all cases. They don't have addresses to which you can send collections agencies. There are government grants to help offset the cost of indigent medical care... but they're insufficient to cover more than a portion of the cost of indigent care for citizens. Add the extra cost incurred in treating illegals, and the grants become pittances.
That's why hospitals are closing emergency departments in areas with high illegal-resident populations. Hospitals have to pay their people, their utility bills, and their overhead costs. They can manage it when emergency departments are not getting paid for a third of their emergency department work, and underpaid for another third.
They *cannot* manage it when they are not getting paid at all fifty or sixty percent of the time.
THAT is the reason the illegal resident issue is forcing some border state hospitals to close emergency departments, and forcing others into bankruptcy.
Sure, treating patients will cost some money. Bandages. Sharpening the
scalpels. Running the new CT Scan machines. And food for the patients.
Buying more medicine. Frankly, I'd rather have the staff practicing on
illegal immigrants, honing their skills, in anticipation of the time that
I'll need treatment.
Permit me, again, to note...
If the doctor is treating an illegal resident, the odds are they're not getting paid. Neither is the hospital. TANSTAAFL.
In your reply, you wrote:
... There are regulations about how long you can keep patients >waiting, and lawsuits -- Southern California seems to have plenty of lawyers >who like that sort of thing -- result.
I couldn't find any such laws in my research; I suspect that southern California lawyers are using prolonged waiting times as the hook to argue for malpractice, rather than appealing to a statute... but I may not be correct.
In either case, tort liability is a second or third order effect, not the principal issue. It's a matter of income -- if you're not getting enough income to cover the bills, you close. When you have an influx of people who can use a system and not pay for it, you aren't getting enough income...
And the result is bankruptcy and ER closures.
It's as simple as any other example of the Cold Equations.
... As to requiring Mexico to pay for the bankruptcy of San Diego due to
services to illegal immigrants, good luck.
Couldn't agree more.
cordially, Bill Ernoehazy, MD, FACEP
============
Subject: Re: FW: Rootkits Again...
Dr. Pournelle:
Regarding your inquiry about the Microsoft guy that recommended a rebuild from scratch when infected with spyware:
I think that the trend for malware (which encompasses viruses, worms, spyware, adware, etc) is moving towards a for-profit mode. The profit might be in harvesting financial information from the user (from their keystrokes/web access), by redirecting web pages and popups (to gather advertising clicking revenue), using a computer as a mail relay (for spamming), or extortion (encrypting a user's hard drive then demanding a payoff to unencrypt). I think that there will be a lesser risk from data-destroying malware -- why destroy a user's data when you can keep on using that 'ownership' for a long-term financial benefit.
Once infected with malware, there are several ways to try to fix the problem. At a corporate/business level, it may be easier to re-install everything from scratch. Most corporate users have standardized installations, so reinstalling from an 'image' (via Symantec's "Ghost" or other products) is sometimes the easiest for the corporate support staff. The user's "my documents" data will be lost, but most corporations recommend storing data files on a network server (where they are regularly backed up). In fact, this is my recommendation at my place of work (a large metropolitan local government entity) -- all systems are set up with standardized software/settings from an 'image' file. If a problem cannot be easily fixed, then it is more efficient (for the user, who gets their computer back into use; and the support staff, who can move on to the next problem) to re-image a system.
A rebuild-from-scratch is also a good idea for a network server. It needs to be back on-line quickly, so extensive and time-consuming troubleshooting is just not an option.
For the non-corporate user, you can try to fix the problem first, because you may have a bit more time available to try to save the data. I've done this also -- in fact, just last month I spent several hours resolving a problem on my son-in-law's computer with a persistent pop-up blocker. I used several tools to do this: a full updated virus scan, Ad-Aware, Spybot Search and Destroy, Microsoft Defender. Each tool took a bit of time to work through, and I was able to remove most of the problems.
The pop-ups were still there, so I went to get the help of the "Hijack-This!" group at "Spyware Warriors". The best place to start is here http://spywarewarrior.com/sww-help.htm for detailed instructions on how to fix your specific problem. It took several specialized tools and instructions from those fine folks to get rid of the problem. Highly recommended resource for fixing malware problems.
Malware will continue to get smarter and more clever. The decision on whether to fix or rebuild depends on your specific situation. If you have a current backup of all your data files (a good idea) and software installation disks, it might be best to restore from your system image (most newer computers have that capability). Then add your specialized software and data files, and you're ready to go.
If the data on the computer is vital and you can't restore/rebuild, do an immediate data backup (burn it to a CD/DVD/USB drive/etc). Then attempt a fix using the above tools and help.
But, of course, prevention is best. Safe computing practices, which I've mentioned many times, will protect you from malware.
Regards, Rick Hellewell
< http://spywarewarrior.com/sww-help.htm >
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