Category Archives: Technology

Update III: On Boobs And Balloons ('Hyper Inflation')

Democrats, Family, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Pop-Culture, Pseudoscience, Science, Technology, The Zeitgeist

The excerpt is from my new WND.COM column, “On Boobs And Balloons”:

“If you needed incontrovertible proof that homegrown retardation is far more pressing a problem than homegrown terrorism in modern-day America – 6-year-old Falcon Heene’s flight of fancy provided it.

The contagion that gripped the nation began on Oct. 15. Anyone turning on the boob tube was treated to a live broadcast of a levitating dome-shaped ‘homemade flying saucer.’

MSNBC’s David ‘Shyster’ informed his unfortunate viewers, matter-of-fact, that the small son of Richard and Mayumi Heene of Fossil Ridge Road in Fort Collins, Colo., had climbed into a carriage attached to the helium-filled contraption, which had become untethered. Boy and balloon were now scaling heights of 10,000 feet. …

Other TV entertainment outlets masquerading as news media hawked the Falcon pie-in-the-sky as fact. If anything, both the authorities and the media proceeded from the premise that Falcon was in fact flying two miles above them, rather than hiding somewhere on terra firma.

When you’re slothful, stout and stupid, it’s easier to look to the heavens than search high-and-low below. …”

The complete column is “On Boobs And Balloons.” If you miss it on WND.COM, be sure to catch it on Taki’s Magazine on the weekend.

Update I (Oct. 23): A NOTE FROM NASA. Edifying too:

Ilana,

It amazes me how the media are constantly duped by attention seekers such as these. I was at work when this was occurring and just like the rest of the fools out there, had to find out more what was going on.

Having launched hundreds of weather balloons, my initial reaction was “no way could a 6 year old boy be lifted by that balloon.”

If you use some math to deduce how much weight a 15 foot high and 5 foot wide balloon could lift at that altitude using helium gas, you come up with about 30 pounds. Not too may 6 year old boys weigh 30 lbs.

We were switching the channels at work to watch the coverage and noticed even the Weather Channel was carrying this. Now, did they use some basic buoyancy equations to figure out the impossibility of a boy being lifted by this balloon? Of course not! But then again the Weather Channel is now owned by NBC, so what do you expect.

Enjoy your articles!

Mark
Johnson Space Center

Update II (Oct. 24): I feel sorry for the Heene woman; she looks so sad. There are times when its obvious a brassy woman pretending to be abused is anything but. In this case, it’s plain to me that Mayumi Heene, while perhaps not abused, is certainly subservient to her husband. Via Drudge:

The mother of the 6-year-old boy once feared missing inside a runaway helium balloon admitted the whole saga was a hoax, according to court documents released Friday.

Mayumi Heene told sheriff’s deputies that she and her husband Richard “knew all along that Falcon was hiding in the residence” in Fort Collins, according to an affidavit used to get a search warrant for the home.

She allegedly told investigators the incident was a hoax meant to make them more marketable to the media.

Update III (Oct. 24): The column has been titled deliciously “Hyper Inflation” on Taki’s and appended with appropriately odious images. Added are some must-read links.

Cooperation, Not Communism

Capitalism, Communism, Free Markets, Intellectual Property Rights, Liberty, Political Economy, Political Philosophy, Socialism, Technology

On my mind is another of Glenn Beck’s frequently made errors. Whenever Beck sends out a free copy of his newsletter, he declares “provocatively” that “Glenn has succumbed to socialism.” Avail yourself of the product of Glenn’s momentary insanity, he will exhort (referring to himself in the third person), and sign up for this free, socialistic service. This is a good opportunity to clarify what socialism really is, for unless you understand that there can be no socialism without state coercion, why, then, you comprehend very little about the dread socialism—as little as conservatives and Republicans do.

Indeed too many people conflate the voluntary provision of a free service with socialism. Voluntary cooperation, even absent remuneration, is never socialism. Glenn Beck seems to think that anything free is socialism. Not so. A Kibbutz—Israeli communal living—is a voluntary socialistic arrangement, which, if you prize freedom, is as good as any arrangement people want to enter that is coercion free. Kibbutzim are often economically viable arrangements. Perhaps this is because people are there by choice and by belief.

Thus, an open source software project, worked on voluntarily by scores of developers across the globe, is not socialism. Although volumes have been written on the pros and cons of open source versus proprietary software, the proof is in the pudding: Although free, open source is often as good as software that costs serious money.

I do not want to veer into the copyright debate. However, I still stand by my writing on the topic. “KAZAA,” for example, was engaged in voluntary exchange; “THE COPYRIGHT CARTEL” was the fascistic attempt to infringe on this voluntary exchange—and on tangible property not its own. But let’s leave this debate right now.

Guinness World Record For Fuel Economy Set By Non-Hybrid

Energy, Environmentalism & Animal Rights, Media, Technology

You don’t need a commie car to conserve (your private) resources. “A 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI powered with Shell ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel” will do just fine. (My Turbocharged GTI is pretty thrifty and never gutless, as the Jetta tends to be.) Tire Business has the goods:

“Australian drivers Helen and John Taylor recently broke the ’48 Contiguous U.S. States Fuel Economy’ Guinness World Record, driving a car fitted with Goodyear’s Assurance Fuel Max tires.

The couple previously set the record in 2008 at 58.82 miles per gallon, driving 9,419 miles in a 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI powered with Shell ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel. Their new record, which was set using the same car, fuel and driving route, stands at an average of 67.9 mpg.

According to Goodyear, the pair began their trip July 28 in Sterling, Va., and traveled in a counter-clockwise route that included 14 official check-in and refueling stops across the country. They crossed the finish line at a Virginia Tire & Auto retail outlet in Ashburn, Va.”

Mrs. Taylor attempted to explain to Contessa Brewer—MSNBC’s large-faced, childish, lip-smacking anchor—that driving in high gear (and not necessarily slowly) conserves fuel. In other words, driving well. But Tess had only ever driven an automatic really really slowly, and so lost interest. Her focus further waned when she discovered (by stepping right into the trap and asking) that the fuel-efficient vehicle was not a commie car. A research assistant or producer will be in hot water.

Still, and as a I’ve written, “Perhaps the biggest obfuscation in the gimmick-car racket—which President Bush had fallen for too—has to do with the source of the energy. Whether a vehicle is propelled by hydrogen-powered fuel cells or electricity, both electricity and hydrogen don’t magically materialize in the vehicle. They must first be generated. Be it coal, natural gas, nuclear or a hydroelectric dam, these cars are only as clean as the original source of energy that generated the vim that powers them.

Other than to increase the consumption of gas, because people drive more in them, mandating so-called fuel-efficient cars is a grand exercise in compulsory misallocation and waste of capital. It proves that the development of technologies is best left to the market, not to environmental bureaucracies.”

Updated: Israel Is Doing Just Fine Financially (& On Illegal Immigration)

Business, Israel, Technology

“The Med’s Best Kept Secret”: “Israel today has become a vibrant, functioning jewel of a nation tucked into the eastern flank of the Mediterranean. Tel Aviv looks more like San Diego or Barcelona than Baghdad or Kabul.” … it maintains “a stable macroeconomic structure and a strong high-tech sector.” …

“What’s the secret? Ayelet Nir, chief economist at IBI, an Israeli investment firm, lists six major reasons Israel’s economy has done well of late:

A very conservative banking system–without most of the complex and problematic financial instruments found in the United States.

No mortgage crisis in a country where putting 50 percent down isn’t unusual, and banks often ask for guarantors.

A current account surplus since 2003.

Negligible inflation.

Prudent governmental fiscal policy.

Healthy integration into the world economy.

“Israeli technology has certainly been a big part of the Internet age. The cell phone? Developed in Israel. Ditto for most of the Windows NT operating system and for voice mail technology. Pentium MMX Chip technology? Designed in Israel. AOL Instant Messenger? Developed in Israel. The list goes on. Firewall security software originated in Israel. The latest breakthrough is the “PillCam,” a video camera that can be swallowed and aids physicians in diagnosing intestinal cancer.”…

How has Israel managed to do so well in high-tech? Every Israeli high-tech player can recite the national data like a bleacher bum spitting out baseball statistics:

Israel produces more science papers per capita than any other country.

Israel lags behind only the United States in number of companies listed on NASDAQ.

Twenty-four percent of Israel’s workforce has a university degree; only the United States and Holland have a higher number.

Israel leads the world in scientists and technicians per capita.”

Read the complete article.

Update: Israel is doing something else right: deporting illegal immigrants without much fuss.