while true

The Easy (braindead) solution to Social Security

2004-11-18T13:06:00.000-05:00

The solution, as proposed by a member of the Clinton administration's Social Security Advisory Council: 1) Raise the cap on income, effectively raising taxes on those earning over $87K. 2) Cancel a rollback on the estate tax, taxing homes upon death. This usually means taxing the homes so much they must be sold to pay for the additional taxes. 3) Mandate that state and local workers join Social

Flat Tax

2004-11-17T15:20:00.000-05:00

Andrew Sullivan descibes why a flat tax works, both from a fiscal policy and political point of view. This is related to what Arnold Kling wrote recently about taking into account both economic and political incentives into drafts of fiscal policy. From a political perspective, however, having four broad-based taxes with low rates would help to discourage lobbying. The incentive to lobby for an

Bush on Social Security

2004-11-04T13:29:00.000-05:00

I haven't made any comments here on Bush's victory. I am happy about it. First because people like this are happy, for a good reason. Second because of this plan to immediately start work on personal retirement accounts replacing Social Security. [more on Social Security privatization]. There are other reasons, but I'd rather you follow those links than stay here.

Mental Steroids

2004-10-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Should We Fear 'Cosmetic Neurology'? No. Unfair competition in sports hurts the meaning of the game. Given a distributed system of competitive advantage, mental steroids would increase overall productivity, and standard of living, significantly. If there were a pill with few side effects (unlike anything today) which could raise my IQ by 20 points, I would immediately get it. This should be

Marginal Tax Rates

2004-10-27T20:04:00.000-04:00

Punishing the wealthy. If earning $200K gets you a 30% tax rate, and earning $250K gets you a 35% tax rate, what does that mean for your incentives to work harder? You pay $60K & $87.5K in taxes respectively. This means that the last $50K was taxed $27.5K, or 55%*. This is called a "marginal tax rate". Studies show that increasing the marginal tax rate has very negative effects on an economy.

Musing The Best Political News of 2004

2004-10-27T01:03:00.000-04:00

"What's that?", you ask, "Good news?" Yes: peaceful, fair Afghan elections, as William Safire points out. I've thought for some time that it is difficult to defend our system of government and tolerate interactions with corrupt regimes such as China & most countries in the Middle East. Little is done when we need to maintain a stable status quo. We supported reform in the former Soviet block

The fixed quantity of wealth fallacy

2004-10-26T13:08:00.000-04:00

Interesting. More people should read this.

Vote Bush

2004-10-20T14:46:00.000-04:00

WHY I AM VOTING FOR BUSH -- War on Terror -- Bush understands the stakes, Kerry doesn't. Vision: Bush sees a future where the War on Terror is over because the governments that spawn Islamic Fascists are reformed or smashed. This is the only way to bring an end to the threat. To achieve this goal, Bush is consistent in his efforts to keep on the offensive, work with foreign governments for

The great (well, ok) space debate

2004-10-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

Discussion on Kerry-Bush space policies. It has already been said that a Bush re-election would be very, very good for space robotics.

It's hard work

2004-10-18T19:49:00.000-04:00

BUT, you reap the rewards in America. Read why Americans work more than Europeans. Hint: it isn't some vague excuse about "quality of life". I never trusted that assertion, if only because immigration to America is always strong, even from European nations. Why else would they come, if not for the quality of life?

"How Tax Bill Gave Business More and More"

2004-10-13T01:02:00.000-04:00

A 'giveaway', according to the New York Times, is when a company is allowed to not give the government more money. The recently passed bill will "shower $137 billion in tax breaks" on numerous corporations. It was their money to begin with and now will continue to be, and they will choose to allocate it in a far more efficient manner than the government. It most certainly isn't 'given' by the

What's next for Iraq...

2004-10-10T13:21:00.000-04:00

Victor Davis Hanson writes for the Nation Review Online in an honest and prudent assessment of the situation in Iraq. An interesting comment on the worst-case scenario of a government hostile to the US being elected in January:If an aggregate $50 billion in aid to Egypt; billions more to the Palestinians and Jordanians; the removal of the bloodthirsty Saddam Hussein and the Taliban; $87 billion

Social Security election fantasy

2004-10-09T19:54:00.000-04:00

Fees to manage personal social security accounts are grossly overestimated by the Kerry campaign.

Just deserts

2004-10-09T14:45:00.000-04:00

The New York Times: "In Canada, an Exile Pleads a Tangled Case for Refuge". A desserter during a time of war can be put to death. He says:"I just didn't want to shoot anybody." Maybe he should have read the bloody job description. The profile is ficticiously balanced, with a clear message that people like this should get more than one iota of respect which they deserve, as he has "become

Croatia

2004-10-08T11:11:00.000-04:00

My dad emails a reminder of Croatia's Independence Day, Oct. 8th. Fighting for autonomy and democracy is a great thing. I only really remember the power outages and shortages on my summer trips to Croatia during the war. That, and the fact that I had relatives fighting, wasn't very comforting. With tourism increasing at a rapid pace, an economy still struggling to transfer to more market based

SpaceShipOne wins X-Prize

2004-10-04T12:01:00.000-04:00

SpaceShipOne soars into history":: MSNBC has a good video of the event. This officially marks the point where private space flight begins to accomplish more than NASA, with 4 orders of magnitude less funding. As space tourism leads to space mining leads to colonization, and the private investment in space grows, you can expect the output to increase accordingly.

SpaceShipOne

2004-09-29T16:27:00.000-04:00

FOXNews.com - SpaceShipOne Reaches Space Again, Lands:: This is a great story. Private enterprise racing past beached whales at NASA, new markets & frontiers, and so much good technology democratized for the general, paying public. Look for Virgin space tourism, but also for Virgin satellite launch services I guess I should plan now if I want to buy a house or go to space for 5 minutes in 2007.

UK's Branson to Launch Space Tourism in 2007

2004-09-27T13:12:00.000-04:00

100M investment. Crazy? Or just so sane that it blows your mind. I can't wait. Anything below $200K would be a great deal.

The Escalation of Income

2004-09-24T12:10:00.000-04:00

TCS: Tech Central Station - Arnold Kling describes how things are getting better, faster all the time. Anytime you hear about the "middle class squeeze", you should remember that statistics show that, if anything, the middle class is being squeezed upward into the upper class. He responds to a story about the disappearing middle class:The proportion of families earning $35,000 to $50,000 has

Kerry staff attacks Allawi

2004-09-24T10:17:00.000-04:00

"Allawi Effectiveness Hinges on Credibility":: Kerry's staff has made completely inappropriate comments about Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Terrorists are inspired by talk of oppressive occupation and emboldened when a Democratic candidate co-opts their position that being allied with America costs foreign nations’ civilian lives. This is ridiculous."While Kerry was relatively

IEM bump

2004-09-22T12:39:00.000-04:00

IEM 2004 US Presidential Election Winner Takes All Market Price Graph:: quite a bump for Bush. 68-32. Remarkable.

Budget Deficits: Old Theories v. New Facts

2004-09-22T12:37:00.000-04:00

Cato's Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow, surprisingly argues that budget deficits do not cause interest rate increases. Either way, the most powerful attack on Bush is his lack of fiscal restraint. it will be trumped by terrorism as a voting issue, but I would like to see something done about it.

2004-09-22T11:23:00.000-04:00

I,K-bot Check out my new blog. I focused so much on politics here, that I think a dedicated blog on robotics is in order. For those here for the first time, and easily offended or wrongly opinionated, I would check out the non-partisan I,K-bot.

2004-09-22T11:02:00.000-04:00

American RealPolitik: Report From Iraq:: Read it all.

2004-09-17T00:23:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Washington > Weapons Inspectors: Iraq Study Finds Desire for Arms, but Not Capacity A new report on Iraq's illicit weapons program is expected to conclude that Saddam Hussein's government had a clear intent to produce nuclear, chemical and biological weapons if United Nations sanctions were lifted, government officials said Thursday. But, like earlier reports, it finds no

2004-09-02T14:02:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Reuters > International > South Korea Admits Enriching Uranium to Near Bomb Grade:: This is news. The Cato Institute believes that the solution for N.Korean nukes is to have America tell China, "China, if you can't control N. Korean nukes, we can't stop S.Korea and Japan from getting nukes". I'm not sure what the solution is. We probably should have acted earlier, before it

2004-08-31T10:27:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > AP > Business > W.T.O. Authorizes Anti-Dumping Sanctions on U.S.:: A convoluted title, but the WTO is threatening to impose sanctions if the US doesn't change a law which restricts free trade. This is a good sign to me. No matter who is elected as the next president, we might be entangled in foreign treaties enough to restrict significant action against free trade.

2004-08-26T10:06:00.000-04:00

OpinionJournal - Featured Article::"A Rumsfeld Vindication" Since Operation Enduring Freedom began in October 2001, the U.S. has handled about 50,000 detainees in Afghanistan, Iraq and other venues of the war on terror. Among those, about 300 allegations of abuse have arisen. And as of this month 155 investigations have resulted in 66 substantiated cases of mistreatment. Only about a third of

2004-08-03T21:14:00.000-04:00

IEM 2004 US Presidential Election Winner Takes All Market Price Graph:: Look to this graph often to see a better predictor of the elections than any poll. Markets work better than pollsters at predicting elections.

2004-08-01T16:44:00.000-04:00

-- USATODAY.com - Poll: No boost for Kerry after conventionand -- Nader more resolute than ever to keep presidential candidacy alive... imply Kerry is toast. Most people decided before the convention, but those golden swing voters seem to be turned off to Kerry the more they see him.

2004-07-31T21:44:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > International > Trade Group to Cut Farm Subsidies for Rich NationsThe World Trade Organization agreed Saturday that it would eventually eliminate billions of dollars of farm subsidies for rich nations in a new framework for revising global trade rules aimed at helping the world's poorest people. The framework agreement approved Saturday night amounts to the halfway point in

2004-07-29T01:31:00.000-04:00

Dems Extreme Makeover:: Wow. I have a respectful disagreement with a number of people about the war in Iraq. I think they are very wrong, but I respect their somewhat intelligent ideas, which seem to keep consistent over time. This 11 minute video very clearly shows that Kerry is a different sort. He believes something only so far as his convoluted speech allows for multiple loop-holes, and the

2004-07-29T00:11:00.000-04:00

Obama's rousing speech:: Contrasting the idea os "two Americas" and giving a wonderful speech with his inspiring origins story, Barack Obama is very good. I disagree wish some policy issues (anyone can make it in America, but we need the government to intervene in a number of cases?), but he is clearly a positive force in the Democratic party. We need more people like him. Too bad we have a

2004-07-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Editorial Observer: The Democratic Convention: Feed, but Do Not Annoy, the Swing Voters:: Interesting article. One of the great ironies of a modern political convention is that there's nobody more superfluous than the delegates from the states where the party is the strongest. When Al Gore made his speech on Monday about how every vote had to count in November, people from

2004-07-27T15:47:00.000-04:00

Cassini-Huygens-Multimedia-Images:: Looks like it's been redirected from its course to Dantooine.

2004-07-22T21:36:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Washington > Details Emerge on Flight 93:: Details of this story return some of the rage I felt as an initial reaction to 9/11.

2004-07-22T01:08:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Opinion > Shrimp and Mischief:: Shrimp from Vietnam and China has been slapped with tariffs. Don't they realize the effect this will have on my shrimp-cocktail consumption rate?! The Bastards!!! I really wish policy makers would get the notion through their heads: trade is not zero-sum. We "protect domestic industry" with tariffs (i.e. corporate welfare), but fail to realize

2004-07-21T23:54:00.000-04:00

Hawking concedes black hole bet:: In related news, millions of workers in office buildings across America made and instantly lost bets that they understood what Hawking's bet was about.

2004-07-21T11:15:00.000-04:00

JohnKerryIsADoucheBagButImVotingForHimAnyway.com:: I don't know if I agree with the second part of that message. (Hat Tip: The Bastard)

2004-07-21T00:15:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Inside a Republican Brain:: "What holds the five Republican factions together? To find out, I depth-polled my own brain." Saffire scores again.

2004-07-20T19:30:00.000-04:00

The New Yorker: Shouts and Murmurs"As a quick-thinking senatorial aide switched on the Senate’s public-address system and cued up the infamous “Seven Minutes of Funk” break, Mr. Leahy and Mr. Cheney went head-to-head in what can only be described as a “take no prisoners” freestyle rap battle.":: Gold. Read it all.

2004-07-20T16:59:00.000-04:00

What Are We Teaching Our Kids?:: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” -George Orwell. So now it's teachers, and their lesson plans vs. facts everyone should know. This is a very interesting read. I just wish that people would see a connection to the point brought up earlier, about state controlled media, and the negative effects of state

2004-07-20T11:14:00.000-04:00

Samizdata.net | Forcing the issue :: ...of private property in space.

2004-07-20T10:31:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Movies > Movie Review | 'Outfoxed': Spin Zones, Flag Waving and Shouting to Catch a Fox:: Only the New York Times would give a review and claim the following:The partisan nature of "Outfoxed," a series of expository and analytical talking-head segments interspersed with the high-octane flag-draped shouting-head segments that have become Fox's trademark, is obvious. It is also

2004-07-20T01:00:00.000-04:00

The Hudson Review | Bruce Bawer. "Hating America" :: This is a really good essay. Read all of it if you can. You'll learn interesting things like McDonalds has a larger market share in many European nations than it does in America, and that the media in these nations is state controlled because the public dispersal of information [free press] is "too important to be left to the [free] market." It

2004-07-20T00:54:00.000-04:00

Economic Freedom Is on the Rise:: Nations are continuing to become more free economically. This is great. How much does it cost to not push for even faster progress? Probably trillions...

2004-07-20T00:47:00.000-04:00

One nation under God:: Read the whole thing. Teaser: Anti-Americanism makes strange bedfellows. The Arab Islamists despise America because it’s all lap-dancing and gay-phone sex; Europe’s radical secularists despise America because it’s all born-again Christians hung up on abortion. They’re both right. The free market enables Hustler to thrive. And the free market in churches enables religion to

2004-07-19T22:07:00.000-04:00

Online NewsHour: The Analysis of Mark Shields and William Saffire -- July 16, 2004:: An excellent debate. I love Saffire. Cool under file, keeping view of the big picture, and very eloquent and deliberate as a wordsmith. Shields could learn some good lessons.

2004-07-15T10:57:00.000-04:00

Reason::"Ten Reasons to Fire George W. Bush. And nine reasons why Kerry won't be much better." Interesting reading. I'll refute them point by point shortly.

2004-07-15T10:54:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Opinion > Conventioneering.com:: The official NY Times opinion on bloggers, especially those "wanna-be pundits" who will blog the convention. Maybe they should look here, and here, at individual blogs who get more readers than your average newspaper. Either way, the opinion piece fails to grasp the threat to established media that is distributed journalism, as I like to call

2004-07-13T22:51:00.000-04:00

USNews.com: John Leo: Blogging the watchdogs (7/19/04):: Blogs are pretty empowering. Before, a newspaper had the power to publish a letter of complaint or not. Now they have no choice but to yield to the news-making on blogs, which anyone can write. Read John Leo as he describes this in detail for the particularly poor publishing practices performed by the LA Times. heh...

2004-07-11T12:21:00.000-04:00

Saturn Hailstorm:: Go here and listen to the quitcktime file of the sound generated from the following: July 9, 2004: When the Cassini spacecraft reached Saturn on June 30th, it dashed through a gap in Saturn's rings ... and then did it again. The double ring crossing was part of a maneuver required to put Cassini in orbit. Although the ring gaps appeared empty, they weren't. Innumerable bits

2004-07-08T23:44:00.000-04:00

Robotic Nation Evidence blog links this page selling a Korean humanoid robot from WOW Robot. It is only a few thousand dollars, and has extremely fluid movement. I would complain that there aren't many sensors, the computation is probably pretty limited on board, and the movements are all scripted. Also, I’m not sure about the balancing, given the very big feet. That said, it would be

2004-07-08T13:05:00.000-04:00

The Good News About Productivity:: Arnold Kling, one of my favorite economists to read, gives the good news: productivity is BOOMING.

2004-07-07T13:56:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - Restaurant offers DNA test for link to Genghis Khan - Jul 7, 2004:: "'He was an all-conquering tribal leader,' said David Ashworth, a geneticist who is Oxford Ancestors' chief executive. 'He took their cities, he took their land, he took their women.'" "KHHAAAAAAAN!"

2004-07-07T10:48:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > World Business > Europe Reluctantly Deciding It Has Less Time for Time Off:: "Many Europeans now believe that shorter hours, once seen as a way of spreading work among more people, have done little to ease unemployment." This is an interesting article and a good development. Go here and here to learn about the amazing benefits of productivity from Virginia Postrel, where it

2004-07-06T23:01:00.000-04:00

www.blogoram.com:: The Iraq "Weather Map" By UML Guy. Very Cool.So we keep hearing stories of "hot spots" in Iraq, where trouble is happening. (And somethimes, we hear "stories" from "reporters" who are just trying to fan the flames and keep the spots hot.) And when I heard this drumbeat of stories (or the same story repeated long past its news value) in the same locales, I would think: "Well,

2004-07-06T12:20:00.000-04:00

Class Action? Third Aisle to the Left.:: Trial lawyers who benefit the more government imposes broad rules on business are joining forces with groups who see Wal-Mart a negative force in society. Wal-Mart is being sued by people claiming discriminatory promotion habits. Read the article linked to get one view showing how ridiculous the claim is. It is the scapegoat for many anti-capitalists.

2004-07-06T09:54:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - Kerry announces Edwards as his running mate:: Edwards is probably a better leader than Kerry, even if younger, because he can stir a crowd to passions, and is clearly skilled with his successes as a trial lawyer (I'm still trying to decide what skills a legislator has. He or she uses a laymen’s knowledge on most issues to decide what is best for others. Compromise is their biggest

2004-07-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

Shell Game So it took a number of editorials and Op-Eds (which of course bled into the hard news sections) to show that 2 shells with sarin STILL don't qualify as a threat. How about 12? U.S. Says Poles Find Old Sarin Shells in Iraq. 1 gallon in 1 shell can kill 60,000 people. Of course the point is that Saddam was a non-contained persistent threat in his efforts to acquire these types of

2004-07-01T10:33:00.000-04:00

From the newspaper that brought you a celebration of James Joyce's work on Bloom's Day, and the indelible mark it has left on our collective psyche.... ... I bring you the news that there are no Elite on the left (they are on the right). This is name-calling at its worst. Like Ann Coulter, sadly, she is attacking name-calling with more name-calling. Who does she think take up the majority of

2004-06-29T23:14:00.000-04:00

>bt: The Clinton Legacy << Video:: I love Evan Coyne Maloney's "Brain Terminal" videos. Here are more clueless foot soldiers, this time flocking to see Clinton, few able to say why he was good. I liked some things Clinton did: - Supported free trade (but didn't hold China accountable for human rights violations, i.e. use trade as a soft method of coercion, knowing they will capitulate) - Few

2004-06-29T11:00:00.000-04:00

Liberty, Government, Gary US, Barry, Covalent:: James Lileks is a great blogger and an excellent writer. He is also a midwesterner who believes in hard work to make it. The following is from his blog, and is a great story.A minor political note, if you’re interested in such things. The other day a young girl came to the door to solicit my support for her presidential candidate. I asked her why I

2004-06-24T10:02:00.000-04:00

The New York Times: Schwarzenegger, Confident and Ready for Prime Time:: As mentioned here, if California is up for grabs, Kerry is in for a world of hurt. Schwarzenegger will wisely stay a bit of a distance away from Bush. He will rally independents, conservatives, and undecided voters without inflaming the left in his state. This should have a fairly large effect on the swing voters and voter

2004-06-21T13:17:00.000-04:00

Redefining the Front Lines in Reversing War's Toll:: We need this to become more common. It helps good people become more active, could help millions of people wheel-chairs, and could also be used like this to turn an average person into this. With sensors attached to his body and with eight high-speed, infrared cameras recording his movements, Sgt. Luke Wilson walked back and forth inside the

2004-06-21T11:16:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - Private craft heads for space - Jun 21, 2004:: NASA might not have enough funds to continue to go to space the way Bush envisions. This is great news for those who think NASA has had too much money and too few accomplishments for their own good in the past 30 years. All manned flights should be outsourced to firms like Scaled Composites, who will certainly have the cheapest boosting

2004-06-16T23:23:00.000-04:00

Building a "Droid" for the ISS:: 'Droid' is right this thing looks EXACTLY like the 'remote' from Star Wars (the ball Luke uses to test his light saber).

2004-06-15T14:16:00.000-04:00

Centennial Challenges Program:: Welcome to Centennial Challenges, NASA's program of prize contests to stimulate innovation and competition in solar system exploration and ongoing NASA mission areas. By making awards based on actual achievements, instead of proposals, Centennial Challenges seeks novel solutions to NASA's mission challenges from non-traditional sources of innovation in academia,

2004-06-10T23:19:00.000-04:00

CEO Interview: Glenn Henry, founder of VIA processor subsidiary Centaur:: Here is an interview for those interested in the types of robots that are most likely to be seen in your home within the next few years. Making a cheap x86 processor, with low power and a small footprint, is ideal for mobile robots. Also, combined with Linux, you can easily make some very cheap off-the-shelf robots. Too

2004-06-10T23:07:00.000-04:00

Ronald Reagan: My hero, and an eternal light for the worldWhen I heard President Reagan tell that story, I said to myself, ''Arnold, you Austrian immigrant, he is talking to you. He is saying that you will fit in here. You will be a real American, able to follow your dreams.''Indeed some would say that Arnold is the ideological heir to Reagan, at least more than Bush. Either way, focus on liberty

2004-06-10T22:50:00.000-04:00

MSNBC - Brigitte Bardot fined for inciting racial hatred:: I'm always surprised when I read about other countries and their laws which are very far from America's 1st amendment. She wrote a book, and was convicted of a crime. France is indeed a technocrat's heaven. "Control, control. You must learn control." - Yoda

2004-06-07T19:29:00.000-04:00

why-war.com?: "War is the very crudest of responses and reflects the utter failure of imagination and intelligence in foreign policy. The cycle of poverty, inequality, and hatred will grow worse. Terrorist recruiting will flourish in the aftermath." --Prof. Thompson Bradley, Swarthmore College "The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all

2004-06-05T19:48:00.000-04:00

Third Party votes are never wasted:: I really think that the 2 party system in America does little more than make the majority of people disappointed in the result. The link above is to an interesting post & discussion in the comments about the effect of votes for 3rd party candidates in different systems focusing on USA & UK. I think that a vote ALWAYS sends a message, and you should vote for

2004-06-05T14:42:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Science > NASA Weighs Robot Mission to Telescope:: I don't think CMU is in the running anymore, but a robot, even if controlled from the ground, should save the Hubble. It certainly would do a lot to improve the image of robotics in America, where The Terminator & The Matrix have simply assumed that AI will deem human kind dangerous and obsolete. This says something about the

2004-06-03T16:53:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - CIA chief Tenet resigns:: I'm glad about this. I think he should have been tossed out after 911 and after the WMD debacle. But it was for personal reasons. There is NO evidence to suggest otherwise, but CNN certainly manages to imply quite a bit in the cnn.com description:CIA Director George Tenet, dogged by criticism over the CIA's claim of Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction

2004-05-25T19:16:00.000-04:00

I just got my tax return, and I must say that I enjoy getting back some taxes far more than I enjoy paying them. I can’t imagine how militant I will be against coercive governmental action when I actually make a sizeable income, given my present response to the relatively small taxes taken from my graduate student stipend. For those of you who haven’t read Capitalism and Freedom or Free To

2004-05-24T22:52:00.000-04:00

Transcript From Bush Speech on American Strategy in Iraq:: You can read it there or listen to it here. At least listen to the last few minutes (skip ahead to 29:45) to hear an excellent conclusion and a synopsis for our effors in Iraq. Here it is below: In the last 32 months history has placed great demands on our country and events have come quickly. Americans have seen the flames of Sept. 11,

2004-05-20T20:58:00.000-04:00

A network called 'Internet' - Computer Invasion: A History of Automation in Canada - CBC Archives: Old school news report about the amazing powers of Internet.

2004-05-20T20:23:00.000-04:00

U.S. Troops, Iraqi Police Raid Chalabi's Home and HQ :: The candidate that tells America to leave on schedule most convincingly will be the ideal leader for the future of Iraq. He will be stressing what Americans, Iraqis, but not terrorists, want: America to pull out right when everyone is ready -- no sooner or later. I can easily imagine planners in Iraq want to distance themselves from Chalabi

2004-05-20T10:55:00.000-04:00

TCS: Tech Central Station - The Top One Percent Includes You:: While I don't think Kerry means to include all humans ever in his bashing the “top one percent”, it is very true that the vast majority of people in America live at a higher standard than the rest of the human race throughout time.Count yourself as one of the luckiest and most successful humans ever. Celebrate your wealth and ignore

2004-05-19T20:20:00.000-04:00

BBC NEWS | Amateur rocket fired into space::Talk of space is common in my office at the Robotics Institute, part of Carnegie Mellon. The environment is so hostile that “use robots” is our answer to almost any question. My office mate and I agree step 1 (before Mars, before the Moon, before the Hubble) is more research on cheaper methods to get something into space. The plausibility of any

2004-05-17T12:10:00.000-04:00

TCS: Tech Central Station -Arnold Kling- A Proposal to Fight Cultural Segregation:: Interesting article. Here is my response: I find his views rather surprising. Isn't it rather elitist, if not patronizing, to claim a problem with the social make-up of society, and propose a mandated solution, without presenting the negative effects such a social make up create? “We have lost sight of this

2004-05-17T11:38:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - U.S. Army Says It Finds Shell with Sarin Agent in Iraq:: This isn't that big news. Who knows if the people who used the shell even knew it had the nerve toxin in it. What I would like to comment on is in the last paragraph:The United States launched its invasion of Iraq last year, accusing then-president Saddam Hussein of developing chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons

2004-05-04T15:15:00.000-04:00

Amazon.com: Kitchen & Housewares: Electrolux EL520A Trilobite Robotic Vacuum:: This costs $1800 vs. Roomba's $200. How do they expect to compete? People that can afford this can afford the $100/mo. cost of a maid, who will do a much better job for now. If it were a robotics platform upon which I can expect other services to be built, it would start to get interesting. For instance, a

2004-05-04T09:28:00.000-04:00

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2004:: "French TV to show images of US helicopter killing Iraqis". Ohh, the French, first the government, and now the media, actively working to make America look evil in Iraq. They opportunistically release this potentially infuriating video right in the middle of the controversy about 20 or so (of 200000!) soldiers and criminal activities by them. Hopefully people will note

2004-05-03T18:51:00.000-04:00

Kerry rolls out biographical ad campaign: "Democrat John Kerry on Monday rolled out a pair of new television ads as part of a $25 million, 19-state advertising buy that campaign officials say is unprecedented in size and scope for a presidential challenger." But the best part: "wholly positive ad campaign based upon his record -- something President Bush cannot do," Kerry campaign manager Mary

2004-05-03T14:05:00.000-04:00

The New York Times: U.S. Is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences:: This is a problem. We need to import engineers and scientists to be teachers for the next generation. We need to reform schools to be more efficient with progress based funding, vouchers to induce competition, and free firing of wasteful administrators and even tenured teachers. Most of all, we need to somehow change the values in

2004-05-02T00:01:00.000-04:00

CNN.com - Arabs repulsed, furious over prison photos - May 1, 2004:: Indeed this is horrible for our efforts, and those responsible should be immediately punished with extreme prejudice. BUT, how often are Arabs furious over their own government's failings and crimes. Why don't I hear about folks in Iran complaining about Arafat's corrupt tactics. How about some Syrians complaining about

2004-04-29T20:52:00.000-04:00

Poll:More Iraqis optimistic, dislike U.S.:: Quirky public opinion in Iraq. A few questions: If you are better off now after the war, why was the war not worth it? If you aren't basing your opinions on direct negative contact with soldiers, what are you basing them on? Al Jazeera? I wonder why they repeatedly show American’s attacking Iraqi insurgent targets, but not things like building hospitals

2004-04-28T20:49:00.000-04:00

Yahoo! News - Highway Deaths Hit 13-Year High in 2003:: Robocars beckon. So do smaller, more efficient and covered motorcycles, but that is another story. Too bad design/production pipelines are around 5 years.

2004-04-28T20:47:00.000-04:00

USATODAY.com - Florida town to use blanket of surveillance cameras:: Privacy is an important concern, but people need to understand the power of computers. Specifically, data-mining bots are not the same as snot-nosed FBI interns. Having a judging human look at your private information, from an inevitably biased view, is unnerving to most -- understandably. Not wanting some program to scan your

2004-04-27T11:04:00.000-04:00

BBC NEWS | 'Laser vision' offers new insights:: I can't wait until photon based displays are more common. The idea is simple: rather than blasting electrons onto a florescent surface to produce different colored light, you blast photons directly onto the retina to layer over what you normally see. I would love to have a heads-up-display in almost everything I do. There are a few obvious

2004-04-25T17:51:00.000-04:00

Kerry's incredible budget promises - The Washington Times: Editorials/OP-ED:: One dilemma I've been having with democracy lately is that people have the right to create an insolvent government. We can vote for lower taxes and higher benefits, and somewhere in between reality is lost in the confusion. Kerry's promises always seemed a bit inappropriate to me. Firstly, I simply don't think the

2004-04-23T23:15:00.000-04:00

Military news about Iraq:: Excellent run down of the major myths about our current war.

2004-04-23T01:00:00.000-04:00

Unlocking the Secrets of Animal Locomotion - Robots::Robert Full's Berkeley site on how to build machines intelligently, putting much more thought into the mechanical engineering than the details control required for using dozens of motors. My research is related to perception for such a system, which is something you gave up when going down the path of "fast, cheap, and out of control". Indeed

2004-04-23T00:36:00.000-04:00

Koolio::Awesome.

2004-04-22T22:52:00.000-04:00

I, Robot:: New longer preview for the upcoming movie. I still can't imagine how they will stay true to the book and not have the robots break any of the 3 laws. Special effects look good though...

2004-04-22T10:10:00.000-04:00

The New York Times > Op-Ed Columnist Thomas L. Friedman : Losing Our Edge?:: Again, Friedman is right. There is a major problem in America if we can't attract to best and brightest tech folks to work here, or if they aren't allowed to. Free trade and open markets rely heavily on the ability to emigrate freely. People complain about the flood of immigrants that would result from opening our

2004-04-21T15:28:00.000-04:00

Wired News: Teaching Robots to Herd Cats"To translate the human concept of teamwork into electronics, three teams of university researchers are working together to develop technology that would turn a pack of robots into a single machine. " Stupid title, interesting article. Urban search and rescue is big at CMU. [I guess I say that about everything related to robotics, but there is a good reason

2004-04-21T11:48:00.000-04:00

Robot Race Suffers Quick, Ignoble End:: I went to a talk yesterday by Chris Urmson, the technical lead at RI for the red team. He is an advanced PhD student, which gives you an idea of the make-up of the team, i.e. most people were students or volunteers. There was a lot of talk about how much money CMU had for this event, but looking at the details, there really wasn't that much cash around.