25 Saturday Jan 2020
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Pandemic Math
This virus, which the Chinese is rapidly spreading, is still statistically insignificant. In Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, only .00011% of the people are infected (add more zeros for the national perspective). Only .00029% are severe cases. And only .000003% have died. Math.
Also, a happy first day of the Year of the Rat to the Chinese! At least they get to rotate critters every year. For those who have been to Washington, we know the US has the rat every year.
01 Monday Jul 2019
Posted in Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on A Visual Issue With Tolkien
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This is one of the drafts that has just sat around for years, even surviving the rapid draft purge of last December. The other day, I spoke to a friend and was reminded of the quandary, which is as follows:
Tolkien, among his many and excellent descriptive narrations, loved to describe characters looking off and over vast distances, frequently espying objects at extreme distances. This always struck me as funny. Here’s one example, from The Hobbit:
“But they came to that high point at morning, and looking backward they saw a white sun shining over the outstretched lands. There behind lay Mirkwood, blue in the distance, and darkly green at the nearer edge even in the spring. There far away was the Lonely Mountain on the edge of eyesight. On its highest peak snow yet unmelted was gleaming pale.”
– Bilbo (and Gandalf) at the High Pass over the Misty Mountains, Chapter 18, The Return Journey
A lovely scene. But, was it possible? Could Bilbo, or anyone for that matter, have seen Erebor from roughly 300 miles away? Let’s, right here and now, find out.
Assumptions:
A) “300 miles” is based on my crude calculation and measurement, using the map and scale included in the deluxe boxed edition of the LOTR, from where I think the High Pass is located to where I think the peak of Erebor stands gleaming. The scale ruler is 0 – 300 miles, and it is almost an exact fit.
B) Arda was modeled after the real Earth and was spherical in the late Third Age. I will assume it is also roughly the same size and mass and with the same radius, diameter, etc.
C) I assume that this bright, sunny morning was completely free of any and all atmospheric distortion and there were no physical obstacles in the way.
D) Bilbo had better than average eyes, but I assume The Ring did not augment his visual abilities.
E) If Lonely Mountain was still snow-capped in a “fair” Spring, then it must be at least 10,000 feet tall. For convenience sake, I assume the High Pass was of similar elevation.
F) I assume my use of the simple equation, below, is sufficient. I essentially double it, thus effectively creating the measure of the more complex geometrical “offing” equation. I’m rambling about a book, not sailing a damned ship.
Now, it’s just a matter of math. Looking for distance, “d,” in miles, to the horizon:
d ≅ 1.22 x √h
“h” is the height of the observation point – here, assumed to be at least or about 10,000 ft.
d ≅ 1.22 x √10,000
d ≅ 122 miles
Uh, oh…
But, wait! Tolkien never said Erebor was at or on the actual horizon, he said it was on the edge of eyesight. As mariners know, some taller objects are visible over and beyond the horizon. Keeping Bilbo’s point of observation at about 10,000 ft, let’s measure how far the horizon was would be, from Erebor, looking towards the West.
If Erebor is 10,000 feet high, then we know it’s another 122 miles. Assuming Bilbo saw the very tip of the top of the highest peak over and beyond his already 122-mile distant horizon, and allowing for simple addition (a lot of assumptions and allowances, yes), then it’s still 56 miles too far away to be seen. But, what if Erebor was taller than 10,000 feet?
If Erebor was a 20,000-foot mountain, then it’s own d to the horizon would be 172 miles, for a total line of sight of 294 miles. That is getting there. If the High Pass was really high, say 15,000 feet, then Bilbo’s d to the horizon would be 149 miles. That adds up to a total potential line of sight of 321 miles.
Thus, and I did not really expect this, given all of my assumptions, there is a distinctly plausible range of line of sight which renders Bilbo’s sighting hypothetically possible. He, in fact, could have looked across Wilderland and literally seen the tip-top of the Lonely Mountain.
To think you doubted Professor Tolkien just a little. To cure this shame, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt as to all the other measurements. Astounding detail and accuracy.
And, happy July!
02 Thursday Aug 2018
Posted in News and Notes
The teachers can’t either.
Almost 2,400 North Carolina elementary school teachers have failed the math portion of their licensing exams, which puts their careers in jeopardy, since the state hired Pearson publishing company to give the exam in 2013, according to a report presented to the state Board of Education Wednesday.
Failure rates have spiked as schools around the state struggle to find teachers for the youngest children. Education officials are now echoing what frustrated teachers have been saying: The problem may lie with the exams rather than the educators.
Teachers in Florida and Indiana have also seen mass failures when their states adopted Pearson testing, according to news reports from those states. Concern about the validity of the Pearson licensing exams is so pervasive that it was discussed at this year’s National Education Association conference, said North Carolina Association of Educators President Mark Jewell.
There are such things as bad tests. There are also ways to beat them if they are a problem. However, that doesn’t explain away the low proficiency rates among the students. This looks like the fruit falling near the tree. Except that, in the woods, gravity operates for free. American taxpayers spend a lot of money on failure. I’d drop some numbers here, but: 1) I’ve done that so many times, and; 2) I don’t want to confuse anyone to the point they have to consult with their ninth grade child…
See. It should have said, “Solve for x.” It’s 5 cm, by the way…
12 Tuesday Jun 2018
Posted in Legal/Political Columns, News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Economic Rocket Science
It usually isn’t on display in the economic/business news. For instance, does anyone of any measurable intelligence really believe making every person on the planet a billionaire would change anything?
The world’s first trillionaire won’t come from cryptocurrency or some clever new app – he or she will become rich from asteroid mining.
That’s what bankers Goldman Sachs reckon, anyway – and several companies are now vying to be the first into space.
NASA estimates that the total value of asteroids out there could be up to $700 quintillion – equivalent to £75 billion each for us here on Earth.
That is the equivalent of saying a wolf told you that a fox was hungry and thus every chicken would be happier.
The asteroid mining idea is real and will happen – but not with every single body orbiting the Sun. Someone will likely become extremely wealthy as a result. If The Goldman Sachs has its way, then that someone will be in some way directly related to Goldman Sachs. (And why switch dollars to pounds in the same sentence?)
If the real obtainable value of the celestial rocks really is $700 quintillion, then expect Goldman, the Fed, and Mordor to arrange future loans in the septillion range, with derivatives betting on the order of decillions. Gresham’s Law dictates they would still find a way to kill positive growth with funny money.
The zeros behind the $ or the £ mean nothing. That’s why, even if one distributed the actual cash value of the space debris to each and every person on Earth, turning everyone into billionaires, nothing would change. Zimbabwe is replete with billionaires – who can’t afford lunch.
In his defense, Rob Waugh is an excellent jack-of-all-trades journalist; maybe economics just isn’t one of them. However, that should be (should be) a specialty over at Bloomberg, where they supposedly push business news.
Yet, they seem surprised we have inflation in America and that that cuts into wages.
U.S. inflation accelerated in May to the fastest pace in more than six years, reinforcing the Federal Reserve’s outlook for gradual interest-rate hikes while eroding wage gains that remain relatively tepid despite an 18-year low in unemployment.
The consumer price index rose 0.2 percent from the previous month and 2.8 percent from a year earlier, matching estimates, a Labor Department report showed Tuesday. The annual gain was the biggest since February 2012 and follows a 2.5 percent increase in April. Excluding food and energy, the core gauge was up 0.2 percent from the prior month and 2.2 percent from May 2017, also matching the median estimates of economists.
Fed. Fed. Fed. Fed. Rates. Rates. Rates. In Bloomberg’s defense, they are actually in the business of promoting certain interests, like those of Goldman.
The narrative works something like this: The economy is great, never stronger. Unemployment is low, officially. Wages are rising. Inflation is low. Oops, for completely unforeseen reasons, likely related to gas prices, it reared its ugly head. Time to raise rates on the flood of fiat. Sally School teacher in Iowa sees her recent raise evaporate. But that doesn’t matter; Goldman is mining the Moon or something.
They leave out: That all the money, almost all of it, is fake, based on debts that cannot be repaid. Everything in the economy depends on said fake money (it’s like mixing in helium for a dive – a little boosts depth range, too much kills). Wages are always one of the last things to “catch up” after a correction – only just in time for the next correction. Real wage buying power (how much the pay is really worth) only this year returned to levels last seen in 1973. 45 years of loss, and the new, temporary gains are now squashed by inflation.
It’s almost like we’ve entered into a terminal phase wherein the wages will not, cannot recover. Workers and earners see their purchasing power decline to ancient levels, their standards of living plunge toward serf-like proximity.
When this all hits the fan the next time around, it may hail the curtain call for the banksters. That would be the good news.
Maybe there’s a way to relocate the banksters and their political pets to the heavens? Metro/UK.
01 Tuesday May 2018
Posted in News and Notes, Other Columns
≈ Comments Off on Readin, Ritin, and Rithmetic … Gone With the West
Knowing the colleges today, it wasn’t at all surprising to hear that the Reed College (OR) infestation known as “Reedies Against Racism” are successfully purging the white Western authors out of a Western Civ class. “Readin’ be raciss!” is, I think, their cry.
In another, saner age, tossing the Greeks and Romans out of any intro to humanities class would have amounted to heresy, idiocy, and intolerable intellectual dishonesty. Now it’s trendy.
And it really doesn’t matter much. Or it won’t in a few years. If the patterns in secondary education (here meaning middle junior high and high schools) hold, then none of the very near future “students” will be able to read. Or comprehend basic math.
Hot on the heels of NAEP news about high school seniors being ignoramuses, and the schools being utter frauds, comes more news of a similar sort:
Sixty-five percent of the eighth graders in American public schools in 2017 were not proficient in reading and 67 percent were not proficient in mathematics, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress test results released by the U.S. Department of Education.
The results are far worse for students enrolled in some urban districts.
Among the 27 large urban districts for which the Department of Education published 2017 NAEP test scores, the Detroit public schools had the lowest percentage of students who scored proficient or better in math and the lowest percentage who scored proficient or better in reading.
Only 5 percent of Detroit public-school eighth graders were proficient or better in math. Only 7 percent were proficient or better in reading.
One honestly has to ask, with 5 and 7 percent competency rates, what the hell is the point? Imported from Detroit? No thanks, you can keep it.
In perspective and preemptive answer to the “need more money” malarkey: in 2017 Detroit registered 45,511 “students”. Their 2017 budget totaled $638.4 million. See: 2017 Budget, as Adopted. That means, and I know this would be hard for Detroit eighth graders to grasp, they spent $14,027.38 per student. For the “.38” I rounded up, which means … nevermind.
WaPo said the US average spending per student was $10,700 in 2013. A run through the old CPI calculator gives a 2017 average of $11,283. (A Calculator is this thing invented by white Western racists to … nevermind).
Thus, and I know this is really hard, Detroit spent 124% the national average on each of its “students.” That’s 24% more. “2” and “4” are even numbers. “%” means “percentage,” per-cent-age. That’s a proportional relationship between numbers. Consult Archimedes, Ptolemy, or Newton. No, don’t consult them, the Reedies say not to…
To make this as plain as possible: Detroit spent more on its “students” and still got laughable results.
How many Detroit teachers were fired for this atrocity? My guess is somewhere close to zero. Zero – which, in a year or two, may equal the exact number of Detroit “students” who can read their own names and recite their own ages without resort to digital summation.
*See: I use a little sarcastic humor in an attempt to lighten up what is otherwise complete and utter depressing bullshit. Not working, is it?*
Not much works, nationwide. A chart of State reading readiness:
CNS.
Way to go, Taxachusetts! Just a wee bit more effort and a tiny fractional majority (so sorry for the continued rubbing in of the advanced calculus-speak) of the young mushheads will get the nuances of Sally, Dick, and Jane and their tireless work running Spot.
Mississippi: At Least We Ain’t New Mexico!
New Mexico: You’re a disgrace to Old Mexico. (Seriously, MX had a 94.47% literacy rate in 2017).
Working, toying with the myth that increased funding raises test scores (and, presumably, learning retention), to get Detroit up to Mexican levels of literacy, they would need to spend about $189,000 per student per year. Over 13 years, K – 12, that’s $2,457,000 – without compounding any interest. It might be, if it was affordable, better to just set that sum aside for each “student” in an idiot trust.
Either way, the idiot part seems certain.
Now, this isn’t to condemn all education in America, even the government-sponsored variety. But it sheds light on a dark, disturbing subject.
In contrast, homeschool parents spend around $900 per year for each of their students (not in quotes). I don’t know what level of competency they get for that kind of money but I’ll bet it’s better than 7%. Better than 49%. Probably on par with Mexican standards.
How to fix this?
Abolish the schools. Or defund the fire out of them. Or watch the spiral continue to the point that SJW projectionist racists won’t even know what to be outraged by next. Think of the SJWs “students” children.
22 Thursday Mar 2018
Posted in News and Notes
≈ Comments Off on Waking Up and Walking Out
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Perhaps inspired by the recent student walkouts for gun control, the March for Marx, some California students are trying to organize a similar protest for a far deadlier cause:
This week, Rocklin High School students are using social media to organize a pro-life walkout using the hashtag #life.
“To honor all the lives of aborted babies pretty much. All the millions of aborted babies every year,” said organizer Brandon Gillespie.
He says his history teacher inspired the idea.
As thousands of students across the country walked out of class demanding strict gun laws, in honor of the Parkland shooting victims, Benzel was placed on paid administrative leave when she asked students to consider whether there’s a double standard in the national school walkout.
“I would like a conversation about when is too much? And are we going allow this on the other side?” said Julianne Benzel
The principal at Rocklin High declined to meet with us for an on-camera interview, but a district spokeswoman tells us, he does plan to sit down with the student about the possible abortion walkout, and that’s not going over well with some of his peers.
“Abortions aren’t really anything that has to do with school or students here,” said Naeirika Neev.
Neev is the editor of the school newspaper. In her posts, she’s using the hashtag “enough is enough” to promote peace, and take a stance against anything anti-abortion on campus.
“They have their First Amendment, they can go protest about that anytime anywhere,” she said.
But Brandon says protesting on school grounds is just the point.
“I would like to see if there really is a double standard and what will come of that,” he said.
He doesn’t have a date for the protest, but he does with the principal. Their meeting is set for this Friday.
A teacher suspended for daring to question the narrative;
A budding SJW student-editor: Our First Amendment, here and now, for our causes – your’s somewhere else. What-ev...; and
A few students actually concerned about real mass violence against their class.
Look for major, massive coverage of this protest from the major media. Hold your breath.
In 2014, the last year for which statistics were easily available (from Wikipedia), there were a grand total of … 17 American children (possibly a few adults, we’ll call them all children) murdered (killed, we’ll call them all murders) by shootings in schools. In the same year 652,639 American children were murdered in “legal” abortion clinics.
17 dead is way too many. One is too many. 652,639 is way, way, way too many.*
By recent historic norms both numbers were slightly lower than the average. For example: this year, 2018, there have already been 26 children (again, calling them all children) murdered in school shootings (17 in Parkland, FL). So, expanding that to the whole year, we’re tracking about 104 for 2018. No word on 2018 abortions but they should be around the 600,000-700,000 mark. Both sets have been declining steadily since the 1990’s.
A little math, not magic, tells us that, in 2014, American children were 38,390 times more likely to be killed, murdered by abortion “providers” than by school shooters. (652,639 / 17 = 38,390). They were also more likely to be killed by cars, lightening, water, and foods.
The statistical variance isn’t limited to the young either. During 2014 all Americans were about 80 times more likely to die from abortion murder than firearms murder.
The obvious way to save the most lives is to ban guns?
Young Neev is kind of right. The issue has nothing to do with those students currently at the school – because all of them survived the abortion epidemic. I suspect she might deem aborted children mere lumps of tissue or some such. That is, in a way, an adequate description of all humans, in the womb, in schools, in California, and elsewhere.
The fact that she would shirk all responsibility for safeguarding other, less fortunate members of her cohort and those immediately past and future, speaks to the failings of her education, mathematical and moral. She’s young, impressionable, and probably misdirected. Her lack can easily be forgiven. That of her teachers, administrators, political leaders, etc. cannot. They should know better. Anyone with a calculator should know better.
**Maybe there’s a grant or two in that $1.3 Trillion mess from Congress to buy calculators for the media, politicians, etc.**
Then again, when it comes to these two issues, the truth isn’t popular. Telling the truth about abortions hurts the Sanger-Rudin narrative and system of controlling the “undesirables” – literally Nazi style. Telling the truth about firearms usage hurts the Marxist narrative and system of controlling the rest – literally Soviet style.
I hope these young Californians do walk out. Maybe it will help others wake up.
A real epidemic, regressing to the mean. Bloomberg/CNN.
*The 17, as bad as they are, are offset by the 1 million or so lives saved by firearms that year (each year) in the US. I am unaware of any lives saved by abortion (likely has to be a few, but only a few).
18 Wednesday May 2016
Posted in Legal/Political Columns
Tags
America, anarchy, banksters, Constitution, crime, democracy, election, evil, Facebook, freedom, government, H.L. Mencken, math, murder, politicians, The People, voting, War
This morning I drove between two government welfare operations (a “school” and some sort of dance hall/basketball court). Dozens of merry-looking people lined the street (many of them heavily heavy) waving and holding signs proclaiming the need to vote for one criminal busybody or another. The otherwise pleasant neighborhood was clogged with hideous campaign signs. I waved at a few of the sign holders and laughed to myself.
Ah! Another election. Another chance for the slaves to make suggestions about their overseers. Another chance to remember Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Later at the supermarket I observed some of the overweight and/or disabled and/or EBT-empowered citizenry sporting cute little “I voted!” stickers. I am so happy for them. I’m glad they are proud they think they made a difference. I know they didn’t but it is good for folks to have something to believe in.
I believe in freedom. I have it. I have it because I take it. I do not need to waste time playing political games with people who despise me and who are not fit to shine shoes let alone hold important offices. I know the concept is so simple that it cuts against the grain of what most have been taught. I get it. They vote to feel comfortable. I say let them. I’m happy for that one in a million that finally notices that after election after election after election, after all the lies and broken promises – that nothing changes. It’s a rigged game and the house always wins. I’d love to see people stop playing. If everyone stopped the politicians and their false god would shrivel up and try to slink away by night.
Some people get militant about elections and “their” state. It is usually the militants. They are generally given to a particular faction. They even get militant about militancy – often in conjunction with their partisanship. Facebook provides a lot of examples. Take this one:
One sees the darndest things on Facebook.
This post is an attempted admonishment of people like me, insinuating that by not supporting the criminal regime we insult the memory of dead soldiers (valiant every one of them).
Let’s start with the picture. I said it was about partisanship. “Republicans who stay home elect Democrats.” I suppose this is not targeted specifically at me, the anarchist. Shame on the non-voting Republicans! Shame! But, what happens if they decide to vote and vote Democrat? What it the Democrats do the opposite? What if everyone stays home and nobody votes? Who cares, really? I’ve noticed over the long years that both parties tend to push the same thing – their god of omnipresent government. It never works out for anyone except the politicians, some bureaucrats, the banksters and other corporate criminal hacks. Again, why participate in such a stupid scheme?
For non-voting Republicans the shame goes deeper than just seeing the other team in office. “Keep this in mind when you turn your back on the millions who died to give and keep your right to vote as you choose to stay home and not vote.” Modern Republicans tend to be jingoistic and pro-military – to the point of making the armed forces a demi-god under almighty government. Support the troops!
As with the subject picture, this caption is complete and total bullshit. Millions did not die to give you the right to vote. But, if they did, then they also would have given you the right to not vote. Rights do not have to be used. The freedom thing again – to do or not to do as one chooses.
In fact, “millions” dying is a stretch to begin with. The author of the caption obviously means the millions of American soldiers who died. At the outside maximum only 1.354 Million men have died in all of America’s wars. Out of that number only 664,440 actually died in combat.
Who knew we were in the middle of Operation Inherent Resolve? Resolve what? To vote? Wikipedia.
Wikipedia lists about 80 American wars or conflicts. That’s about one war every three years since we told off King George. We’re a warlike people it seems. Most of those wars had absolutely nothing to do with voting. At best I would say three were somewhat election related and those are very complicated cases. The Revolution set us free from England. That war was over before the current Constitutional (ha!) form of government was created. The statutory right to vote, indeed the existence of the government for and under which to vote was not around when those 25,000 soldiers (maximum estimate) died. Can they really be counted for Facebook shaming purposes?
The English struck back in 1812. Presumably they did not want to deprive Americans of the right to vote; they just wanted to change the voting system. Do we include the 15,000 (maximum estimate again) who died fending them off?
Then there is the strange case of the Civil War. It wasn’t a civil war by definition – more a war to stop a second revolution. It wasn’t a declared war either. The “wisdom” goes that Lincoln couldn’t get a declaration of war against the Confederacy because that would have required a facial acknowledgment of the CSA as a distinct nation. Semantics and legalities aside, Lincoln killed a whole hell of lot of people. The War of Northern Aggression was America’s deadliest conflict to date. 214,938 men were known to have perished in combat and an estimated 750,000 died all toll.
Of course, those numbers have to be divided into two sides. 364,511 died fighting for Lincoln; 299,524 died for Davis and Co. (By government math those numbers add up to 750,000). If by modern geography I identify myself with the Confederate dead, then wouldn’t it stand to reason that the 364,511 Union troops died trying to take away my (my ancestors) right to vote? Oh yeah, all those marauding Union troops came to my family’s home under orders from a Republican. Details…
Going with the above supposition, I’ll count the 299,524 CSA dead along with the maximum estimates of those killed in the other two wars for a grand total of 339,524 dying for the right to vote. If you subtract the Union dead from that number (they did die trying to take away the right, right?), then the total number of dead soldiers deceased for the electorate is 24,987 – terrible, but not in the millions. If the Yankees run a similar scenario, they come up with another number nowhere near one million, let alone millions plural.
The other wars? No voting consequences. WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the Cold War were arguably results of WWI and the awful aftermath. America entered WWI at the behest of bankers and other criminals who stood to make a lot of money. Ask Smedley Butler about that. The Germans did not ever want to take away your “I voted!” stickers. Neither did Ho Chi Minh. Saddam was no threat to the ballot. A huge number of our wars were fought against American Indians for the sole purpose of genocide (wave the flag about that). I cannot believe Wikipedia actually included the 34 killed on board the U.S.S. Liberty but, even so, those men died while minding their business in international waters while monitoring someone else’s war. No votes affected.
As sure as people will keep voting, America will keep on fighting more wars. I challenge the assertion that all those who died and those that surely will die deserve our respect (fighting for the vote or not). Columbia County, Georgia is a hotbed of pro-military, flag-waving, GOP voters. It is also the home of U.S. Army Sergeant Chris Muse. I have no idea if Sgt. Muse is willing to lay down his life in the very real possibility the Apache decide to attack an Evans polling place. I do know the police seem to think him capable of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl. Should said girl’s parents thank Muse for his “service”? Should they go out and vote about it? Were I the girl’s father I would rather hang the criminal upside down and disembowel him with a rusty hacksaw. Then again, I am not a Republican.
This pitiful episode and others were about power, money and killing – not voting, freedom or slavery. Google.
No Republican nor Democrat nor any other fairy-tale believer am I. I am repulsed by the idea of giving my sanction to the government – the government known for wantonly killing at home and abroad for no other reasons than to exterminate Injuns and enrich slimy merchants. If you vote, you do so to honor murder and mayhem, not to honor the right of voting itself.
Keep yours ugly signs, your stickers, your child molesters, and your death merchants to yourself if keep them you must. Or, in the better alternative, join me in happy, unobtrusive freedom.
