Rondam Ramblings

Something is wrong!

2012-01-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

[Guest post by Don Geddis. Fifth in a series (0, 1, 2, 3, 4).] Coby asked a number of excellent questions. In my last post, I replied with an abstract explanation about morality and fairness. But it occurred to me that it might help to attempt to answer concretely as well. Coby said: Let us know if you think life in a Chinese factory may be hard and sound miserable to us, but it is not a

Labor IS different

2012-01-28T12:31:00.001-08:00

[Nth in a series]Don,My, this is turning into quite the lively exchange. I have another obligation right now (a Lisp meetup -- say, why aren't you here ;-) but I wanted to get this in before I fell too far behind.Sometimes the hardest things to explain are the ones that seem obvious to the person doing the explaining. I have found that at root these kinds of disconnects are usually caused by a

What is "fair"?

2012-01-28T11:53:00.000-08:00

[Guest post by Don Geddis. Fourth in a series (0, 1, 2, 3).] In my last post on exploitation, Coby asked an excellent question: What is fair? I'll address that in this post, but first let me respond to more of his questions: My impression so far is that you might say any transaction is, as a manner of definition, fair if it is entered into willingly. There might be some difficult corner

Exploitation (?)

2012-01-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

[Guest post by Don Geddis. Third in a series (0, 1, 2).] Ron, You said: it's a lot easier to make money if you do exploit the poor, so in the absence of some countervailing force, those who choose to exploit the poor will win, at least in the short term. I asked what you mean by "exploit" the poor. The example I gave was: But at the end of the day, what you have is people who are living in

Macroeconomics and the Great Recession

2012-01-27T21:42:00.000-08:00

[Guest post by Don Geddis. Second in a series.] Ron, I enjoyed your original post, but thought it made a number of assumptions that were worth drawing out, and conclusions that were worth questioning. As the length was getting a bit much for the comment section, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to explore this in a top-level post. There seem to be three topics: taxes, the financial

What does it mean to "exploit the poor"?

2012-01-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

[First (or maybe second depending on how you count) in a (short) series co-authored with guest blogger Don Geddis]Don,Before our discussion outgrows the comment thread it started in I'd like to move it out here to the main page. Privately you expressed some reservations about participating in this exchange because you're not a macroeconomist. Well, neither am I, and IMHO neither are most

SkyNet has arrived

2012-01-26T09:23:00.000-08:00

Skynet has arrived. Or at least one of its peripheraks has:The X-47B marks a paradigm shift in warfare, one that is likely to have far-reaching consequences. With the drone's ability to be flown autonomously by onboard computers, it could usher in an era when death and destruction can be dealt by machines operating semi-independently.Although humans would program an autonomous drone's flight

Yes, you can make money without exploiting the poor, but...

2012-01-25T12:10:00.000-08:00

I was (briefly) a guest on a BBC World Service radio program this morning discussing Obama's state of the union speech and income inequality in general. To my mind, this has always been a no-brainer. My argument is: we've done this experiment (of lowering taxes on the rich) twice now, once in the 1920's and again in the 1980's (and doubled-down in 2000). We have also done the control

I am about to be silenced

2012-01-17T23:52:00.000-08:00

We got the settlement offer from an organization about which I have written before but which it would be unwise for me to call by name in this post. It includes confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses. So after I sign it I will be legally prohibited from talking about it. The confidentiality clause even prohibits me from disclosing the existence of the settlement. I will also be legally

A very peculiar thing just happened on hacker news

2012-01-16T01:32:00.000-08:00

I submitted this story to Hacker News about an hour ago. It collected 13 points before it dropped off the bottom of the New page never to be heard from again. But at the same time there was another story on the front page that was an hour older and had fewer points (9 at the time, 12 just now). So my submission should have appeared on the front page. But it didn't. I wonder why.In case

The absurdity of online "piracy"

2012-01-16T00:09:00.000-08:00

Nothing demonstrates the absurdity of the concept of online "piracy" better than the situation I find myself in: a new episode of The Simpsons aired this evening, one which I really wanted to see. I was out of the house when the episode aired. If I had remembered to set my DVR before I left, I would be able to legally watch that episode now (and skip the commercials). But I didn't, so now if I

What everyone in the SOPA debate is missing

2012-01-13T13:59:00.000-08:00

Underlying the debate about the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is the unstated assumption that intellectual property rights have the same legal standing as other property rights. They don't, and the tacit concession of this point by opponents of SOPA is significantly weakening their position. The foundation of intellectual property (patents and copyrights) in the United States is this

How nations shoot themselves in the foot

2012-01-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Raspberry Pi is a very small (credit-card sized) very inexpensive (<$50) computer capable of running Linux. The organization that is building it is located in the U.K. They write:[T]he Raspberry Pi Foundation had intended to get all its manufacture done in the UK; after all, we’re a UK charity, we want to help bootstrap the UK electronics industry, and doing our manufacturing in the UK seemed

It's alive!

2012-01-09T00:24:00.000-08:00

My movie is now available on iTunes! Please tell your friends, like me on Facebook, upvote me on Reddit, subscribe to the movie blog, watch the trailer. And if you really want to send some love my way, rent the movie and write a review! Thanks!

What is your quality metric?

2012-01-05T23:21:00.000-08:00

Imagine you're a political leader faced with the the decision of whether or not to institute a particular economic policy. You are told by your advisors, who are honorable, trustworthy, and 100% accurate economists, that instituting this policy will increase the real average income in your country by 25%. Would you do it? Of course you would. It's a no-brainer, isn't it?Well, no, not

So much to do, so little time...

2012-01-05T11:01:00.001-08:00

I was really hoping to get some writing done this week but circumstances have intervened. Between the movie, the company I'm trying to get off the ground, a hacking project that has me obsessed (elliptic curve cryptography if you really want to know), and a ton of miscellanea (end of year donations, family health issues, a piece of registered mail that the post office seems to have misplaced,

Happy holidays!

2011-12-24T18:32:00.001-08:00

Happy Christmas/Solstice/Festivus/Saturnalia/Hannuka/Kwanzaa/New Year!Image snarfed from http://reallycutestuff.com/

The Cosmo and Me, Part 3 - How Wall Street screwed me

2011-12-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

I last wrote about our experience with the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas last January and before that almost exactly one year ago to the day. To recap briefly, in 2005, back when buying real estate still seemed like a good idea, we bought a condo at the Cosmo. Then the recession hit, the developer went bankrupt, and the project was acquired by Deutsche Bank. Astonishingly, despite an almost

ANNONCEMENT: "But for the Grace of God?" available on iTunes Jan 9

2011-12-05T09:31:00.000-08:00

I'm thrilled to announce that my movie But for the Grace of God? is going to be released at long last! It will be available on iTunes on January 9, and should be on Netflix shortly after that.I've started a new blog for the film where I am going to be posting announcements, deleted scenes, and anecdotes in the runup to the release. Posting over here at the Ramblings will probably be light for

The ants shall inherit the earth

2011-12-02T12:04:00.000-08:00

Humans are not the dominant species on this planet. Neither is the domestic house cat, though one might be forgiven for drawing that conclusion. No, that honor belongs to the Argentine ants. We were invaded by the very ironically named Linepithema humile last night, and the ensuing battle lasted well over an hour as we vacuumed, sprayed, swept and wiped the little critters from nooks, crannies

Newt Gingrich wants to fix poverty by making poor kids scrub toilets

2011-12-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

I gotta give Newt Gingrich credit for one thing. He's certainly not afraid to stand up for a controversial position:"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and nobody around them who works," Gingrich replied. "So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of 'I do this and you give me cash,'

It gets better (geek version)

2011-11-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

I recently learned of the tragic passing of Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the cofounders of Diaspora, apparently by his own hand. The news really hit me hard for three reasons. First, I was really rooting for Diaspora to succeed. Facebook is evil (there, I said it) and something needs to come along and replace it. Second, it's just generally tragic when someone dies in their prime, and when it's

Welcome new subscribers

2011-11-29T12:14:00.000-08:00

My recent post on the Zynga Google chef kerfuffle got a lot of attention, and attracted a lot of new subscribers. Welcome! You'll find this blog is a little messy and disorganized. I've been writing Rondam Ramblings for over eight years now. I try very hard to post things that my readers will find worthwhile. And therein lies a problem, because I have no idea who most of you are, and unlike

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

2011-11-23T22:36:00.000-08:00

Among other things, I am thankful for all of you who subscribe to or otherwise follow this blog. I've said it before, but it bears repeating: there is no greater reward for a writer than to be read. I hope I can continue to make it worth your while. To all of you, I say thanks, and happy Thanksgiving!

Coming apart at the seams

2011-11-19T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here are two excerpts from today's news:A police action intended to roust a few hundred protesters ... instead drew thousands of people into the streets on Saturday, where they battled riot police officers for hours......Police used batons to try to push [the protestors] apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they

Travelogue: Free Egypt

2011-11-15T01:19:00.001-08:00

If you've ever wanted to visit Egypt but don't like to deal with throngs of tourists, now is your moment. The political uncertainty here scared most of the tourists away back in February, and they still have not returned. We've spent the last three days on a whirlwind tour of Luxor and Cairo with a few hundred of our closest friends, and as far as I could tell our group constituted 90% of the

In defense of the Google chef

2011-11-10T21:53:00.000-08:00

I'm on the road with very limited internet connectivity so I can't do the homework I normally would before posting this, so it's possible that what I'm about to say is based on unreliable reporting. There is a lot of grumbling in the blogosphere in the last day or two about reports that Zynga is using strong-arm tactics to claw back employee stock options. Zynga's argument is that they don't

Google ate my email address

2011-11-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Just now I did a routine Google search whose top result ended up being a thread on Google Groups. To my shock, when I tried to click on this link, Groups would not let me view the thread. Instead, I saw this message:Update Email AddressYou've changed the email addresses associated with your Google Account since the last time you visited Google Groups.You need you to decide what to do with your

Travelogue: The Grand Canyon of Jerusalem

2011-11-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but there are some pictures that can't be fully appreciated without a few words of explanation. This is one of them:What you are looking at is an aqueduct carved into granite bedrock by Herod the Great around 20 BC. But that is not the impressive part. The Mediterranean is lousy with aqueducts. To understand the significance of this one we have to

Travelogue: The Roma in Rhodes

2011-11-03T13:52:00.001-07:00

Met this kid on the island of Rhodes:He is a Roma, commonly known as gypsies. He posed for me for a euro.The picture I didn't get (and I'm still kicking myself) was of his younger sister, who I'm guessing was about three. We found her in a similar circumstance: on the street, cradling a tiny accordion in her lap, playing with the coins in the bowl in front of her as if they were toys (which to

A conversation with God

2011-10-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

I have long advocated the creation of an atheistic theology. Yes, I know it sounds like a contradiction in terms, but it's not. It is simply an expression of rational scientific thought using the language of myth. The reason for doing it is that, like it or not, myths are a very effective marketing tool, and it's high time that we rationalists availed ourselves of it. Our failure to create

RIP John McCarthy

2011-10-24T22:54:00.000-07:00

John McCarthy, one of the most influential pioneers of computer science, has died. His main claim to fame was the invention (some would say discovery) of the Lisp programming language. It is hard to overstate the impact that Lisp has had on the programming world and on me personally. I discovered Lisp while I was still in high school (via P-Lisp running on an Apple ][ ) and it is one of the

Travelogue: What's up with the splatty toys?

2011-10-23T04:18:00.000-07:00

We've been seeing street vendors selling these things everywhere:It's a toy that consists of a sphere of jello-like material. You throw it against a flat surface where it lands with a splat! and spreads out into a thin film. Then over the course of the next 10-20 seconds it slowly creeps back to its original spheroid shape. Some of them have little appendages like eyes and a nose so that they

Woman arrested for reading the Constitution in an airport

2011-10-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Daily Kos has the first-person account in gory detail. The part that struck me most is near the end:[My husband] has for years tried to cure me of my delusion that there is some democracy left in the United States.I am beginning to be cured of that delusion myself. :-(

KC Fed President: Big banks are a threat to capitalism

2011-10-22T09:36:00.000-07:00

Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, says that big banks are a threat to capitalism.The U.S. economy is the most successful in the history of the world. It achieved this success because it is based on the rules of capitalism, in which private ownership dominates markets and individuals reap the rewards of their success. However, for capitalism to work, businesses,

Politics: catching up on Glenn Greenwald

2011-10-22T09:22:00.000-07:00

I'm using a rare bit of down-time to catch up on the news. I cannot recommend Glenn Greenwald highly enough. It sometimes seems that he is the only voice of sanity left in the whole of the news media. Time is tight, and internet connectivity is flaky, so I can't write much well-considered commentary. Instead, I'll just point to two particularly noteworthy recent items and encourage you to

Travelogue: I'm surrounded by Cretans!

2011-10-22T09:07:00.000-07:00

Not to be confused with cretins :-) Yes, we're in Crete. Heraklion to be precise. Not much to say about this place. It's perfectly pleasant, but unremarkable compared to other places we've been. Its main claim to fame is the proximity of the ruins of a 3500 year old palace, which is, I must confess, amazingly old, but we're starting to get a little burned out on archaeology. Europe is lousy

Travelogue: More from the hidden-gems department

2011-10-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Today's hidden gem is Monemvasia, Greece, a tiny Byzantine fortress on the Mediterranean that is being lovingly restored to maintain its original look-and-feel. It's like stepping into a time machine. Motorized vehicles are not allowed. In fact, they are not physically possible. All the building materials (except the local stone) are carried in on horseback or by hand, as are all other

Travelogue: All quiet on the eastern front

2011-10-19T01:13:00.000-07:00

The country of Greece has been more or less shut down by a general strike as the country's economy teeters on a precipice that could plunge the Eurozone, and potentially the whole world, into a major economic depression. But you'd never know if from reading American news sources. The NYT front page, which includes a story about how Mitt Romney cared for his lawn (and no, I'm not kidding), makes

Travelogue: the fine line between irony and serendipity

2011-10-16T04:30:00.000-07:00

We had been having a stupendous run of luck with the weather. For two weeks we had nothing but clear blue skies. In fact, one day I got a sunburn. In Europe. In October.Then two days ago our luck ran out. We arrived in Amalfi to some ominous looking clouds and a pretty good-sized swell. Some time later the captain announced that it was too rough to be able to operate the tenders to shore,

Travelogue: A 500 year old practical joke?

2011-10-06T13:18:00.000-07:00

We did the whirlwind tour of Rome today, which included a tour of the Vatican museum and the famous Sistine Chapel. As I was looking at the famous Michelangelo frescos on the ceiling it suddenly occurred to me: that dude is mooning God!I did a little research afterwards and it turns out that's not quite right. That dude is God, and He's mooning us. (You can tell because he's wearing (or not)

What would you have done instead?

2011-10-04T10:27:00.000-07:00

Christopher Hitchens, who is normally a rational and reasoned man, somehow manages to consistently lose his rudder when it comes to the war on terror. Not exactly his words, but the headline of his most recent piece in Slate is: Those who protest the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki have to say what they would have done instead.Very well, I will tell you Mr. Hitchens.I would have filed formal charges

Travelogue: more from the hidden gems department

2011-10-03T10:14:00.000-07:00

Today's well kept Adriatic secret is the Croatian island of Korčula (pronounced KOR-chew-la).If you want to get away from the touristic hordes, this is a good place to do it.

We interrupt this travelogue...

2011-09-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

... to bring you the sad news of the death of the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution had been ailing for some time, with the extrajudicial arrest, imprisonment, and torture of people deemed by the President to be "enemy combatants." But never before has the U.S. actually executed one of its own citizens without even the pretense of due process. Until now.Time to revisit one of

Travelogue: the best kept secret in Venice

2011-09-30T23:17:00.000-07:00

... isn't in Venice. It's the nearby island of Burano.It's about a quarter of a mile wide, has a population of under 3,000, and is accessible only by boat, which tends to keep out the much of the tourist riffraff. Burano is the very definition of charming. If you're ever in Venice I highly recommend hopping on the vaporetto and heading on over, especially if you get tired of the crowds in the

Faster than light? Probably not. But you never know.

2011-09-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

The scientific community is abuzz with news that neutrinos have been measured moving (very slightly) faster than the speed of light. Here's a quick explanation of why, if this discovery holds up under scrutiny, it would be Really Big News, and why my money is still on Einstein.The speed of light has been dubbed the "cosmic speed limit" by the popular press, but this is not quite right. It is

Blood on our hands

2011-09-21T21:29:00.000-07:00

If you are a citizen of the United States there is blood on your hands tonight. When seven of nine eye-witnesses recant, when some of them allege being coerced by the police, when three of the jurors recant, when there is no physical evidence, what you are left with is not reasonable doubt, it is in fact no evidence whatsoever that Troy Davis killed anyone.But none of that matters. What matters

Reinventing the training wheel

2011-09-19T00:54:00.000-07:00

From the wish-they'd-had-these-when-I-was-a-kid department, i nominate this gyroscopic training wheel for the cool-hack-of-the-week award.

California sales tax fail

2011-09-15T10:26:00.000-07:00

In July of this year I made a purchase from an on-line vendor. Yesterday I got this letter from them:The legalities of the situation are this: although the company is headquartered in Minnesota, they have a presence in California and so technically I should have been charged sales tax by the vendor. Since they didn't, it is now technically my responsibility to pay the equivalent amount in use

History repeats: the infographic

2011-09-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

Robert Reich in the NYT has a really good graphical summary of the historical trends in the U.S. economy. If there's any doubt in your mind that the U.S. is a stronger country when top marginal tax rates are higher, this should dispel it. This is about as close to a controlled experiment as you can get in macroeconomics.Be sure to scroll all the way down, and pay particular attention to the

Invasion of the killer crabs

2011-09-07T23:10:00.000-07:00

It's a result of global warming:Huge crabs more than a metre across have invaded the Antarctic abyss, wiped out the local wildlife and now threaten to ruin ecosystems that have evolved over 14 million years.Three years ago, researchers predicted that as the deep waters of the Southern Ocean warmed, king crabs would invade Antarctica within 100 years.But video taken by a remotely operated

Terry Gilliam: Loki's prophet

2011-09-07T23:05:00.000-07:00

A woman in Las Cruces. New Mexico with no criminal record was subjected by police to a forcible body cavity search. The search turned up nothing, and the woman was not arrested. But she was charged. $1122 to be precise.Terry Gilliam saw this coming twenty five years ago.

A unified theory of idiocy

2011-09-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Following up on Don's post about religion-as-standard, it turns out that on a purely Darwinian analysis, group idiocy has survival value, and if there's enough of it around it can become an evolutionarily stable strategy. If idiocy exceeds a critical threshold, it can actually become irrational to act rationally. This should strike fear in the heart of Bayesians everywhere.If ever there was

Religion as a (hard to change) standard

2011-09-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

[Guest post by Don Geddis] Ron occasionally writes about religion (vs. atheism) on this blog. He's had at least two excellent insights: First, that "deconverting" a religious believer has much more in common with drug rehab for an addict than it does with a rational, scientific debate. And second, promoting the idea that perhaps there is an all-powerful supernatural being controlling

Why Amazon Can't Make A Kindle In the USA

2011-08-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

I was going to make this a longer post but I've been swamped with other things and have had no time to write. But this article in Forbes is too important go unmentioned. As long as I'm posting naked links, I will also note without further comment that Act 2 of this re-enactment of the Great Depression seems to be proceeding right on schedule.

Stock market reporting is broken

2011-08-18T10:01:00.000-07:00

Actually, it's not just the reporting. Recommendations are broken too. Deeply. Fundamentally. It is a structural failure of the highest order. In ninth grade civics class we we did a unit on the stock market. They taught us how to read the daily stock quotes in the newspaper (this was before the internet. Yes, I'm that old.) And our homework assignment was to take $10,000 in pretend money

How about them Dodgers?

2011-08-17T17:55:00.000-07:00

Really cute song about raising taxes on the rich.

It's getting crowded in here

2011-08-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

The club of people noticing eerie parallels between 2011 and the 1930s welcomes its newest member, Paul B Ferrell from MarketWatch: Listen to that hissing: The fuse is rapidly burning, warning us. Wake up before the rage explodes in your face. This firestorm is endangering America’s future. From forces outside, yes. But far more deadly, from deep within our collective psyche. We have lost our

Karl Marx was right

2011-08-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

So says Nuriel Roubini, the guy who called the 2008 crash. [Businesses are] not adding workers because there’s not enough final demand, but there’s a paradox, a Catch-22. If you’re not hiring workers, there’s not enough labor income, enough consumer confidence, enough consumption, not enough final demand. In the last two or three years, we’ve actually had a worsening because we’ve had a

Amateurs

2011-08-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

The Lottery Economy

2011-08-14T01:43:00.001-07:00

Here's how to solve all of the world's economic problems: invent a super-virulent strain of the ebola virus that will kill everyone on earth within a month or two. Voila! No more economic problems. You can't have economic problems without an economy. What? Not the answer you were looking for? Not surprising. I put forth that extreme position to make this point: underlying any discussion of

Three geopolitical oddities

2011-08-13T14:43:00.000-07:00

Did you know that there is a part of the continental United States that it not actually connected to the rest of the continental United States? It's called Point Roberts and it consists of the southern part of a peninsula that sticks down off of southern Vancouver just below the 45th parallel, which marks the border between the U.S. and Canada. I've been there. There is an actual border

Is history repeating itself?

2011-08-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

The NYT thinks so: The events of the last few weeks — gridlock in Washington, brinksmanship over raising the debt ceiling, Standard & Poor’s downgrade of long-term Treasuries, renewed fears about European debt and a dizzying plunge in the stock market — bear an intriguing resemblance to some of the events of 1937-38, the so-called recession within the Depression, with a major caveat: it was a

Yes, software patents are evil (and what to do about it)

2011-08-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

There's been a flurry of discussion on HN recently about patents. In particular, Paul Graham's 2006 essay on the topic is making the rounds again. As always, I have a lot of respect for Paul, and he usually gets things right, but not this time. He writes: One thing I do feel pretty certain of is that if you're against software patents, you're against patents in general. Gradually our

Now I'm really worried

2011-08-11T01:55:00.000-07:00

This made me laugh: The heads of JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citigroup avow that a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis is not looming. The Dow falls 520 points.

How to fix the economic mess

2011-08-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

One of my personal rules is that if you complain about a problem it's incumbent on you to propose a solution. So here goes: 1. Re-regulate investment banking. Investment banks should go back to being what they once were, small partnerships of high net worth individuals. They should not be public companies, and they should not be allowed to invest other people's money. Un-repeal

Deja vu all over again

2011-08-11T01:23:00.000-07:00

The NYT wonders: It feels eerily familiar: Stocks are plummeting. The economy is slowing. Politicians are scrambling to find solutions but are mired in disagreement. Many Americans are wondering whether they are in for a repeat of the financial crisis of 2008. No, this is not a repeat of 2008. This time will be worse. Why? Because: 1. All of the problems we had in 2008 are still with us

The right to privacy redux

2011-08-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

I have been prompted by circumstance (don't ask, it's complicated) to read parts of the Constitution of India. It is, according to Wikipedia, the longest constitution of any of the world's democracies, and at 417 pages (including an index) I believe it.The part that has become of particular interest to me of late is Part III - Fundamental Rights. It's the Indian counterpart to the first ten

Why the Debt Crisis Is Even Worse Than You Think

2011-07-31T00:09:00.000-07:00

BusinessWeek:An honest assessment of the country’s projected revenue and expenses over the next generation would show a reality different from the apocalyptic visions conjured by both Democrats and Republicans during the debt-ceiling debate. It would be much worse.There is some hope:The good news is that this speeding vehicle does have brakes—if Washington would only use them. Eliminating

And that's the way it is...

2011-07-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

With apologies to Walter Cronkite. From The Economist:The Cronkite link has this telling excerpt:"The first night up, he ended the show by saying, I'm paraphrasing, 'That's the news. Be sure to check your local newspapers tomorrow to get all the details on the headlines we are delivering to you.'"That didn't fly."The suits -- as we used to call them -- went crazy," Socolow told CNN, referring to

I'm in good company

2011-07-26T21:54:00.000-07:00

JP Morgan's CEO agrees with me:"No one … could possibly say that there is no chance of a catastrophic outcome" JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told analysts last week.The more likely scenario that investors are preparing for is that a temporary deal is struck to lift the debt ceiling. But such a makeshift plan is unlikely to allow the U.S. to maintain its AAA grade with bond rating companies.

A one-week reprieve?

2011-07-26T18:19:00.000-07:00

The NYT reports that the U.S. apparently has some cash hidden in a mattress.

Why I'm worried

2011-07-26T17:30:00.000-07:00

I want to be very clear about exactly what kind of alarm I'm raising. We are not headed inexorably towards global economic catastrophe. We are heading for a global catastrophe if Congress does not raise the debt ceiling before August 2 (or thereabouts -- there is some disagreement over the exact timing, but it doesn't matter. We actually will reach the point of no return earlier than that.)

Maybe you don't realize how serious this is

2011-07-26T16:14:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that maybe most people don't actually realize just how serious the fiscal situation in the U.S. is. They have some idea that August 2 is not really a hard deadline, that there are some games that can be played with the books and delaying social security payments and whatnot. If you think this, if you are not seriously worried, you need to listen up because you do not

This might have some relevance...

2011-07-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

The other day I wondered out loud why the federal government was taking such a keen interest in Aaron Swartz and going out of its way to prosecute him for a "crime" despite having no one willing to step up and claim to be the victim. Well, here's a clue:... [Swartz] worked with Shireen Barday at Stanford Law School to assess “problems with remunerated research” in law review articles (i.e.,

Are we bankrupt yet?

2011-07-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah, pretty much:Here's one way to express how catastrophically screwed the U.S. government's finances are: If the entire U.S budget were cut to zero, effective immediately—the military, all entitlements, the electricity bill for the Capitol—there still wouldn't be enough money to cover the payments on old debt that come due every day.[UPDATE:] Some people have disputed Wilson's results. It's

Glenn Greenwald to the rescue

2011-07-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write something about the Norwegian terrorist attacks but couldn't come up with anything that didn't sound hackneyed. Good thing I have Glenn Grenwald to fall back on.That Terrorism means nothing more than violence committed by Muslims whom the West dislikes has been proven repeatedly. When an airplane was flown into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, it was immediately proclaimed to

The government is out of control, part N

2011-07-24T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to lose count of the number of "government spinning wildly out of control" stories I've linked to here. It's shit like this that makes me sympathize with the Tea Party's desire to shrink the federal government:In 2009, [Eddie Leroy Anderson of Craigmont, Idaho] loaned his son some tools to dig for arrowheads near a favorite campground of theirs. Unfortunately, they were on federal

"Shoot the nigger!" is Constitutionally protected speech

2011-07-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

So says the 9th Circuit court of appeals (at least if the LA Times is to be believed):A ... man who posted racial epithets and a call to 'shoot' Barack Obama on an Internet chat site was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in overturning his criminal conviction.Walter Bagdasarian was found guilty two years ago of making threats against a major

Geek corner: A C puzzle

2011-07-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

A bucket full o' bits to the first person who can correctly answer this question without actually running the program: what is the output of the following C program:#include main() { unsigned int i = 0; unsigned short s = 0; int x = -1; printf("%d %d\n", x>i, x>s);}Hint: It's not "0 0".More info, particularly in the comments. Sometimes it's a wonder that anyone manages to write working code

Obama endorses DOMA repeal!

2011-07-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

I've said on a number of occasions that I'm disappointed in the extent to which the policies of the Obama administration have tracked those of the Bush administration. So I have to give credit where it's due: Obama, despite previous waffling, has endorsed the Feinstein-sponsored repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act. That is clearly not something George Bush ever would have done. Kudos!

The government really is wildly out of control

2011-07-19T12:04:00.000-07:00

They have indicted Aaron Swartz, one of the co-founders of Reddit, for downloading scholarly articles form the internet:Shocking news: Moments ago former Demand Progress Executive Director Aaron Swartz was indicted by the US government. As best as we can tell, he is being charged with allegedly downloading too many journal articles from the Web. The government contends that downloading so many

The Republican plan

2011-07-19T09:53:00.000-07:00

Politico nails it.

This is why I'm worried

2011-07-19T00:13:00.000-07:00

I still believe that Congress will figure out a way to increase the debt ceiling, but it's hard to see how it's going to get done in light of facts like these:[M]any Republican House members are absolutely genuine in their adamant belief that stopping an increase in the debt ceiling -- an archaic relic from World War I -- that has been raised dozens and dozens of times without incident -- is a

The Tea Partiers are extortionists

2011-07-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

If there is any lingering doubt in your mind that a U.S. default would be Bad with a capital B read this. The entire economy of the planet since WWII has been based on the assumption that a U.S. default would not happen. If that assumption is discharged -- and it's looking more likely every day -- then the rules of the game will have to be rewritten from scratch. What the net result will be is

The Republican party's number one goal...

2011-07-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

According to Kentucky senator Mitch McConnell is (still) to stop Obama from being re-elected. It's not to create jobs, or win the war on terror, or make progress towards energy independence. The single most important thing is to get Obama out of the white house by any means necessary.Including bringing the country to the brink of default (and maybe even go over the edge -- who knows how batshit

I feel so much better now

2011-07-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ben Bernanke says the economy will get better Real Soon Now (tm). This is the same Ben Bernanke who just a few weeks ago said the economy was getting worse and he didn't have a clue as to why.Well, here's a theory: Rupert Murdoch paid negative $4.8 billion in taxes on profits of $10.4 billion. That's right, the U.S. government gave Murdoch $4.8 billion. [UPDATE: Reuters has retracted this

You're all wrong!

2011-07-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

I've been quite remiss in tending to the Ramblings of late, so thanks to Don for picking up some of the slack. Time constraints have kept me from writing as much as I would like, and the result has been a piecemeal and somewhat incoherent set of posts on my part. But the scope of the issues raised by the current economic situation is so vast that it's hard sometimes not to feel overwhelmed and

What caused the recent Great Recession?

2011-07-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

[A guest post from Don Geddis]Ron recently complained about Ben Bernanke. In particular, he shared his own theory of who is to blame for the recent bad US (and world) economy (high unemployment, fall in GDP):The housing crisis was not an unexpected aberration, it was the completely predictable result of the systematic dismantling of the tax and regulatory regime that was in place in this

Tough call

2011-07-03T22:42:00.000-07:00

For $100,000 you can get either one of the last Tesla Roadsters or one of 99 Zafirro Iridium razors. Yes, that's "razor", like the thing you use to shave with.If the existence of this product isn't proof that some people have waaaaay too much money I don't know what is.

Doin' what comes natchurly

2011-06-28T10:05:00.000-07:00

The Second City Network has made a wonderfully irreverent video answer to people who say that gay marriage is not "natural". WARNING! Highly NSFW. If you are easily offended, do not watch this video.

Five down...

2011-06-25T22:35:00.000-07:00

I've not been blogging much because I'm working on a new startup which is taking up most of my time, but I could not let the legalization of gay marriage in New York pass without mention. So... kudos to the New York legislature, and all the hardworking folks working behind the scenes. Well done. And a special honorable mention to Mark Grisanti who stood up to his party to do the right thing.

Wouldn't it be easier to just pick the lock?

2011-06-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

UCSD scientists have demonstrated that you can create duplicate keys from photos of the keys taken up to 200 feet away.

As long as I am on a tear about the economy...

2011-06-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to see this movie.

Can Ben Bernanke really be this stupid?

2011-06-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

Ben Bernanke is surprised that the economy is not recovering faster:Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told reporters Wednesday that the central bank had been caught off guard by recent signs of deterioration in the economy. And he said the troubles could continue into next year."We don't have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting," Bernanke said. He said the weak housing market

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think

2011-06-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

I've been a proponent of nuclear power. I'm still a proponent of nuclear power. But because I endorsed the view that there was nothing to worry about at Fukushima and that nuclear power is the safest way to generate electricity (which it actually still is) I feel duty bound to point out this article from Al Jazeera (which nowadays seems to be a fairly reliable source) that says that the

Wouldn't it be ironic...

2011-06-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

... if CO2 emissions ended up saving the environment instead of destroying it?

Py-bcrypt discrepancies explained

2011-06-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

Earlier today I raised an alarm over some discrepancies that I discovered between the behavior of the py-bcrypt library and the published description of the bcrypt algorithm. Today I got a response from the author of py-bcrypt, which I quote here in its entirety:No, they are not bugs. As usual in the real world, there are differences between academic work and practical implementation. There is

The darker side of bitcoin

2011-06-14T13:38:00.000-07:00

Isn't it funny how sometimes life seems to follow a theme? Here I am being all paranoid about security and not five minutes later I stumble across this:Hi everyone. I am totally devastated today. I just woke up to see a very large chunk of my bitcoin balance [has been stolen].I feel like killing myself now. This get me so f'ing pissed off. If only the wallet file was encrypted on the HD. I do

A possible flaw in open-source bcrypt implementations

2011-06-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

[NOTE: See updates below and here.]I'm working on an application that requires a secure password hash. The state of the art is Colin Percival's scrypt but the available code base is not very developer-friendly. Scrypt is published as a self-contained file-encryption utility, and to extract the key-derivation function is not trivial. It's not a lot of work, but it does require a fairly deep