Now I see

Bensblurb #580 11/2810

Beginning to see the light?

A macular hole is a small break in the eye’s macula, located in the center of light-sensitive tissue called the retina. I got one in my left eye closed, via ingenious microsurgery, with zero pain, followed by a prolonged two-week chore of keeping my head down constantly. The left eye now seems to be seeing better.

This is my way of introducing a fascinating, related topic:

“Scientists in Germany have developed a retina implant to restore vision to the blind that hints at the augmentation cyborgs may receive in the future. The device, developed by Retina Implant AG, is an array of 1500+ photodiodes (roughly 38×40 pixels) that is surgically placed under the retina. Light that enters the eye stimulates the photodiodes which send electric currents through the underlying neurons. In a recent article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers describe how blind patients (mostly suffering from retinitis pigmentosa) were able to see light and dark areas and discern basic shapes only a week after their surgeries. One man was even able to see the difference between objects, and read large letters! That would be remarkable enough, but implanted patients also reported a sensitivity to infrared light. That’s right, the retina implant could only provide very basic vision, but it did so in an extended spectrum. Cybernetic implants like these may not only be able to restore sight to the blind, they could let them see things that no normal persons have ever seen before with their own eyes.”--Singularity Hub blog

...But would that set off an airport screening device?

Speaking of which, as everyone else is...Here’s a neat new way to catch terrorists in airports. “The Israelis are developing an airport security device that eliminates the privacy concerns that come with full-body scanners at the airports. It’s an armored booth you step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on your person. Israel sees this as a win-win situation for everyone, with none of this crap about racial profiling. It will also eliminate the costs of a long and expensive trial.” So you're in the airport terminal and you hear a muffled explosion. Shortly thereafter, an announcement: "Attention standby passengers — we now have a seat available on flight 6709. Shalom!"----contributed by friend Larry Black.Seriously, as was demonstrated recently with two airfreight bombs coming out of Yemen, air freight in general is very vulnerable, especially since a lot of it ends up in the cargo holds of passenger aircraft. Thus for determined and well-organized terrorists, there are more vulnerable areas to get a bomb onto an aircraft than via a passenger. These more vulnerable areas are given less attention partly because they are less visible, and thus provide less visibility for politicians seeking to demonstrate they are "doing something" about airline security. --Murphy’s Law blog

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Ben Blankenship

No sweat no more

Bensblurb #578 11/12/10

All the air has blown out of my formerly bulging anger balloon. Obama is licking his wounds, Virginia is again a red state (except for two truly endangered U.S. senators), and my Texas Aggies have cleaned Oklahoma U’s plow.

Incidentally, my area is enjoying another marvelous fall color season. I don’t fret over all the leaves cluttering my yard anyway. I just crunch them with my old riding mower until winter’s winds drill them into the ground, my neighbors’ yards, or both. It’s also good to hear that a Forest Service study has found less crime in neighborhoods with big trees in the yards and on the streets, and more crime at homes with smaller trees. Besides which, in my neighborhood live many FBI, secret service and Marine Corps folks. They even scare me sometimes.

But not to worry that I’ve gone soft in my dotage. Two pieces below have tickled my fancy. You might have a similar reaction. Regardless, enjoy:

High Speed Rail? Another Washington Boondoggle.

As Robert Samuelson writes (in Washington Post): “It's become fashionable to think that high-speed trains connecting major cities will help ‘save the planet.’ They won't. They're a perfect example of wasteful spending masquerading as a respectable social cause. They would further burden already overburdened governments and drain dollars from worthier programs -- schools, defense, research.
Let's suppose that the Obama administration gets its wish to build high-speed rail systems in 13 urban corridors. The administration has already committed $10.5 billion, and that's just a token down payment. California wants about $19 billion for an 800-mile track from Anaheim to San Francisco. Constructing all 13 corridors could easily approach $200 billion. Most (or all) of that would have to come from government at some level. What would we get for this huge investment?
Not much. Here's what we wouldn't get: any meaningful reduction in traffic congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, air travel, oil consumption or imports...Congressional Research Service examined the 12 corridors of 500 miles or fewer with the most daily air traffic in 2007. Los Angeles to San Francisco led the list with 13,838 passengers; altogether, daily air passengers in these 12 corridors totaled 52,934. If all of them hypothetically switched to trains, the total number of daily airline passengers, about 2 million, would drop only 2.5 percent. Any fuel savings would be less than that; even trains need energy.
Indeed, inter-city trains -- at whatever speed -- target such a small part of total travel that the changes in oil use, congestion or greenhouse gases must be microscopic...Even assuming 250,000 high-speed rail passengers, there would be no visible effect on routine commuting, let alone personal driving. In the Northeast Corridor, with about 45 million people, Amtrak's daily ridership is 28,500. If its trains shut down tomorrow, no one except the affected passengers would notice...
President Obama calls high-speed rail essential ‘infrastructure’ when it's actually old-fashioned ‘pork barrel.’ The interesting question is why it retains its intellectual respectability. The answer, it seems, is willful ignorance. People prefer fashionable make-believe to distasteful realities. They imagine public benefits that don't exist and ignore costs that do...”

Only two more years???

As Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen wrote shortly before the election:
“...Obama suggested that if Republicans gain control of the House and/or Senate as forecast, he expects not reconciliation and unity but "hand-to-hand combat" on Capitol Hill.
What a change two years can bring.
We can think of only one other recent president who would display such indifference to the majesty of his office: Richard Nixon.
We write in sadness as traditional liberal Democrats who believe in inclusion. Like many Americans, we had hoped that Obama would maintain the spirit in which he campaigned. Instead...he has pitted group against group for short-term political gain that is exacerbating the divisions in our country and weakening our national identity. The culture of attack politics and demonization risks compromising our ability to address our most important issues - and the stature of our nation's highest office....No president has been so persistently personal in his attacks as Obama...He has regularly attacked his predecessor, the House minority leader and - directly from the stump - candidates running for offices below his own. He has criticized the American people suggesting that they are ‘reacting just to fear’ and faulted his own base for ‘sitting on their hands complaining.’...Obama is walking a knife's edge...”

But not to worry. No one gives him enough credit. “Barack Obama took something that was in terrible shape ands brought it back from the brink of disaster, and that something was the Republican Party.”--comedian Argus Hamilton

--Ben Blankenship

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Prejudiced?

Bensblurb # 577 11/04/10 (Re: election returns: Yes!)

Prejudiced or just grouchy?

Know what irks me? As you might guess and hopefully someday find out for yourself, given my age and generally crusty perspective on anything novel or new, the answer is: Lots of things.

For example, the other day I watched a TV ad for farm tractors, extolling a “Mahindra.” Huh? Was that a joke? No. Come to find out, it claims to be the world's leading farm tractor producer.

Well, tractors don’t leap to mind in farm country unless you’re talking about a Farmall or John Deere or even Allis Chalmers, for goodness sake. After all, my dad used to be the Farmall dealer back home. Ran the town’s International truck business too, until the company decided to split the trucks off.

So my dad sold out to his partner, shortly before WWII, and invested totally in farmland, where he did quite well, thanks very much to International Harvester or whatever they call it nowadays

Another and much bigger irk: The White House proposal to give us seniors another kiss-up $250 bonus check. Why? So we would vote Democrat in Tuesday’s election. Simple. Costly.

Then, dadgumit, here came the President’s smearing of the Chamber of Commerce. Whoa! My dad once headed the Chamber in my home town, and cousin Winnie Lu served as secretary for years. But, as writer Michelle Malkin recently noted, “The White House attack on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce... [is] to intimidate conservative donors, chill political free speech, and drain Republican coffers.” But reportedly the Democrats have raised over $1 million from political action committees affiliated with (ahem) foreign companies. The outcome? Check Tuesday’s election returns.

And by the way, another columnist here recently favored a Virginian on the ticket named Crystal Ball. She’s the Democrat who ran to replace our present congressman, Rob Wittman. Here’s the rub. A newly elected person hardly ever gets his feet on the ground in Washington before it’s time to run again. That’s the way the system works. I’d rather let the new guy get settled in and start doing more important things and not ditch him for a neophyte. I doubt that we did. But I guess that’s politics.

“Prejudice” has come to have an awful connotation, something really bad and ugly in today’s social climate. But it’s a
perfectly good word to describe something you don’t happen to like for any reason, good or bad. One thing I am prejudiced against, besides Juan Williams’ firing by NPR, is...wait for it... rap music. Its words are impossible for me to understand, perhaps just as well and for the best.

Likewise, my great grandchildren--although they probably won’t say it out loud--are very likely prejudiced against the kind of music I enjoy: Those old harmonies like Goodbye My Coney Island Baby and Sweet Adeline.

I really don’t care that they don’t like what I do or like what I don’t. It’s gonna be their world, after all. Pretty soon, I’ll be able to say happy trails and good riddance. But not just yet. I really want to see who’ll be the next President. Don’t you?