Justin Trudeau and Sandra Fluke - separated at birth?

Two liberal darlings with the beautiful-me look and matching hair.

Divorce most likely between rich men and richer women

From priceonomics.com a chart of Swedish divorce data.
When the wife makes substantially more than the husband, the chance of divorce doubles.
When the husband is rich and the wife even richer, the rate of divorce triples.
Their summary: Money buys you options.

Cheap home-made mobility aid for getting in and out of a car

Make your own set of styrofoam steps to help with disability transfers into an automobile.
Buy a 2 ft x 8 ft. rigid blue styrofoam panel with a thickness of about 2- 3/8".
Cut it into two panels 1' x 8'.
Split one panel into two 4' lengths.

Click to enlarge.

Split the second panel in two lengths at 32" and two lengths at 16".
Using a caulking gun, apply a few beads of panel caulk to bond them in pairs (hiding the printed faces).
Then bond the pair of 16" to one end of the pair of 32".
Then bond that assembly to one end of the pair of 48".
Wrap it up to protect from dirt, oil and water.
I used a roll of the plastic stretch film they sell for wrapping loose things together when you move.

The result is a light-weight three-step pathway for someone to get aboard your car or truck. No step

Six pounds, easy to pick up one-handed, easy to store.

is higher than five inches.  It sits steady on the ground and isn't slippery.  Our 95 year old step mother needs a walker and can barely step up onto a curb.  She says it's slick and climbs in and out of a VW van with it. Best of all, she climbs and seats herself unaided.

I think I paid about $35 for the styrofoam, $6 for wrap from U-Haul, and $6 for the caulking,  We had a caulking gun in the shed.  I used a hand-saw to cut the panel which produced some clingy blue bits to clean up afterwards.

Polite pols still possible in civil society

Look who's sitting at the table en route to Mandela's funeral. Jean Chretien (turned 80 this week), Kim Campbell, Brian Mulroney and Stephen Harper.  Dress is casual with smiles all round.  As the National Post adds,  our PM Harper sent a sincere video statement of appreciation to Jean for his birthday.

Don't be distracted by your surprise that they are about to dine well on a jet.  Remember instead that they can talk to one another civilly, even with friendship.  Much more is needed.   Partisanship works in a bipolar world but most matters are multi-lateral calling for discrimination and judgement, not knee-jerk politics.

The twenty first century will be Canada's

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and two tiny city states (Singapore and Hong Kong) are the easiest places on earth to start a new business.  The once great United States has fallen to 20th place in this World Bank survey, behind such stalwarts as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Malaysia.   Starting a business means getting prodded, delayed and taxed by bureaucrats before you can turn on the lights.  (The same applies at the other end when you have to downsize or shut a business.  It can take years and bankrupt you in some countries.)

The chart means Canada should network with the other top four.  They are tucked by the edge of up-and-coming but badly-run China and Canada is cozied up against the other somewhat badly-run super power. Canada, a former British dominion, has location-location-location.   Network with the city states and Britain's former dominions in the south seas.   A trading empire doesn't have to be a military one.  Remember a few centuries ago when Amsterdam, London , tiny Portugal and Spain were the heartbeat of world commerce?

Telling lies and getting away with it: Wendy Davis

After listening in recent years to liars saying, "I misspoke", I take my hat off to Texan Wendy Davis's inventive circumlocution.    Caught in biographical lies, she says, "My language should be tighter". What a breath of fresh mendacity.  Only Bill Clinton can claim a match to its audacity with, ""It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is".  Here is her invention in full:

"My language should be tighter. I’m learning about using broader, looser language. I need to be more focused on the detail.”

Applying this system, if I say I have a hundred dollars but really have just one, my error s not a lie.  I have cast the net a bit wide and hooked the other 99 by mistake. If challenged, I thank my critics for new insight into the English language. We are all in favour of learning stuff.

Related: She made the news today with a gaffe for the ages.  She said of her wheel-chair-bound opponent for the Governor's position in Texas that he "hasn't walked a day in my shoes".

That's how it has been reported.  The original text is kind of empty, literally saying no one can prove she isn't proud of herself. I will buy that.

("I am proud of where I came from and I am proud of what I've been able to achieve through hard work and perseverance. And I guarantee you that anyone who tries to say otherwise hasn't walked a day in my shoes.”)

What we eat and what we are told to eat: Some surprising differences

This chart linked by barrelstrength compares what Americans actually eat (the blue) with what the USDA says they should be chowing down (the yellow).   We seem to get only potatoes right. Are you surprised we drink more fruit juice and eat more cheese than counselled?  And as barrelstrength points out, most veggies don't make the grade.  Are hundreds of millions of free-choice citizens wrong while some thousands of USDA employees are all in the right?  I doubt it.
  (Original story at Mother Jones.)

Living happily ever after both a bug and a feature

A year from now, your life expectancy will be more than it is today. DNA upgrades to your genome, skin and heart muscle rejuvenated by your own stem cells and medical cleverness will do this.   There will be no birthday congratulations from Canada's monarch until you hit the big 120.  This is a feature and a bug.

It's a feature to live long and well.  Just as 60 is the new 50, we'll be saying 100 is the new 80.   I've a half dozen friends and relations in the 95-100 range already.

It's a bug to pay for those extra 20 or 30 years from savings and pensions which were designed with the idea you'd drop dead long before.   Something has got to give.  Will the cost of living drop? Will high-tech do-it-yourself health care be cheap?  Will our work life stretch for decades more?  Will it be easier to accumulate riches?  Will we fade away in grey and wrinkled poverty?  I'm optimistic and maybe ahead of the curve.  Public policy will begin dealing with this soon.

How will we sort that out?

Image of King George V and centenarian from The Daily Mail.

Small is still beautiful: Richest nations are among the smallest.

Facts aren't with the pessimists who say the world is run by the US, the EU, China, OPEC and giant corporations.  Little Iceland recovered because it broke with the EU and the ten richest nations on earth are some of the smallest as Daniel Hannan points out in the Telegraph:

"The wealthiest states on Earth, measured by per capita GDP, are Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway, Qatar, Switzerland, Macau, Australia, the UAE, Kuwait, Sweden, San Marino and Jersey".

If you use a different set of data for 2013, Canada is at #11 and the US at #7 but there's another half dozen tiny countries in the first twenty.   It's fair to say Canada is among the smallest by population.

Bigger doesn't mean better

Politics should be dirty if if can't be civil.

The market in favours and earmarks is essential to getting policy in place in a contrary world. Without predictable signals based on self-interest, there's no rule book to get obstinate people signing off on legislation. Saints, or even reasonable and civil people, can work things out, but in their absence, a little corruption is the right lubricant.  As the editor of Slate writes:

David Plotz, Slate.

"Excessive hygiene is rampant in Washington. ... If politics is the art of compromise, we have a huge number of elected officials who are not politicians at all but rather zealots animated by ideology".    And referring to the US: "Some political systems, such as the incorruptible and efficient Scandinavian ones, can thrive without “dirty hands.” But ours can’t."

I hate corruption but, David Plotz may be right. "Bullying, retaliation, back-scratching --Chris Christie was on to something".   And again, "Having renounced Satan and all his works, Christie has given up his ability to kneecap and to bribe".

Creative bribery is a little stymied in Canada because the head of the ruling party and the prime minister and the person who can veto your run for parliament are the same person.   There's less negotiation and more party line voting than in the US.  (Think of Michael Chong's bill.).  I'd rather more negotiation.

I've commented before that politicians should be able to get rich and famous for doing the right thing. Instead of a hidden and corrupt rule book, have an open and appealing rule book that advances good policy while making pols rich.  Double pay for MPs every year the budget is balanced.  (Your idea here).

The Singularity is here for Us, but not for You and Me

The New Yorker proposes a Turing test.  Picture a black box with you holding a smartphone inside.  A time traveler from a hundred years ago gets to ask questions to figure who is in the box.  He will conclude you are a new kind  of super human.  You can tell him the square root of pi, supply an Arabic translation of the Declaration of Independence, tell him when to watch for a comet, recite any passage from Shakespeare, and supply the name of the three best restaurants in walking distance of the Tour Eiffel.   In other words, Neumann's singularity will have been reached and breached.

Link to New Yorker story

The New Yorker goes on:  "How you answer the question of whether we are getting smarter depends on how you classify “we.”    As a teaser, they suggest that individually, a human one hundred years ago may have been more intelligent in some ways with better reading skills, a knowledge of Latin, better at doing arithmetic and with a longer attention span.   When you add internet and the smartphone link, collectively we are amazing and new.

The best decision you will make in 2014 is probably one you could have made in 2013

Those global warming publicists who were helicoptered from a tight spot in antarctic ice are still down by the south polar ice shelf on a naval vessel.  Meanwhile, the Akademic Shokalskiy from which they were saved, has reached New Zealand after the ice cleared away again as forecast. It makes me laugh but the lesson isn't about schadenfreude.   Good decisions are rarely rushed decisions.  If the south polar luminaries had taken a little longer view of things, they'd already be home.

As a kid growing up in the Ottawa Valley, I beavered away every March to force free icy slabs that buried our drive.  Two weeks later, the neighbour, who didn't share my compulsion, had a clear drive too.  The sun did a fine job and only my impatience created the work.

Unhurried and profound decisions come up quietly in life.  There is no fanfare or swelling of the fiddles in the background music.  The opportunity to move to a community with better job opportunities can be there for a decade.   The chance to marry well and prosper while also happy can sit under your nose for months and even years.  The gumption to change diet and lose twenty five pounds may save your life and there is no economic barrier to start.  There was no deadline to become a father but I found treasure with my arms about my baby daughter and her brothers before her.

The best decision you will make in 2014 is probably one you could have made in 2013,
but didn't.

The first white man

DNA shows the first white man is a modern individual scarcely dead ten thousand years.  The Out-of-Africa movements that brought Our Kind Of People were basic black.  A single mutation in gene SLC24A5 explains a third of the colour change. A second gene right next to it (A111T) is co-inherited and this one has been tracked back to a single individual from near the Middle East and India.  Modern man expanded into Europe and Asia about 40,000 years ago and it was much later that whiteness showed up, perhaps favouring people who could easily make vitamin D from the reduced sunlight available further north.

Solar Vortex Strikes West Coast

Victoria last night was 10C and Penticton at midnight was 6C.   West Coast bears up under onslaught of  warm weather and prepares for refugees from ROC.

If you'd like more perspective on the Polar Vortex stories of recent days, view this dynamic image showing a circum-polar system of which Canada's polar vortex is but one lobe. Link via Wattsupwiththat.  The original is an animation.

News from Outer Space: January 2014

The age of the universe has been pinned down to 1% accuracy ("baryon acoustic oscillations") says this article at the Daily Mail.  Last year's report of 13.82 billion years with a 2% accuracy is from Planck telescope data which is a slight adjustment for 2010's 13.75 billion years measurement.  When I was a kid, the guesses ranged from 10 to 20 billion years.  The universe, measured from the Big Bang, has only been around three times longer than our planet.  For fun, ask Google Voice or SIRI how old the universe is.


Unexplained hyper velocity stars have been discovered.  Earlier ones at 900 km/sec were spit-out lone survivors of a binary star that was being swallowed by a black hole at the centre of our galaxy.  Their path ignored the arms of our galaxy, fleeing the centre. The new ones are just as fast but no one knows what they are moving away from.

The 3D ghost of a dark matter filament has been detected.  The dark matter is still invisible but careful modelling of gravity-induced light warping in massive galaxy cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 using Hubble data reveals the filament.  There's even a rotating 3D model to watch, The model dates from 2012 .      Calling it "dark matter"is an inference.  Calling it a patterned light warp is observation.




A fireball from outside our solar system struck earth. Although rare they are seen from time to time.  There is a large rock in captivity that came from beyond the most remote comets and asteroids of our solar system.   Related: Last year a survey of meteorite samples came up with one that was probably dislodged from Mercury before landing here.

From Mercury

The fireball map attached for January 11th shows a possible extra-solar track running from 8 o'clock to 2 o'clock.  I can't find the one identified a couple weeks ago on the NASA fireball survey. From Spaceweather.com.

For general interest, a popular site lists 10 mystery objects in outer space.

The sun's magnetic field completed its flip at the midpoint of twenty-two-year sunspot cycle 24 on December 29th.  Nice little write-up at The Independent.

A major solar flare hit earth.  The probability of seeing Northern lights near the 49th parallel and south is posted daily in the left side bar at spaceweather.com.

December 2013 News from outer space here.

Phony US Unemployment Stats Revealed in Two Line Chart. Canadian Puzzle: How do you apply this?

Political stats attract lies like a cow-pie brings flies. Published EI stats (and CPI stats) are always misleading. Their aim is to persuade, not inform. The US chart shows the published unemployment rate has been declining but the whole time the percent of people out of work has stayed flat and high. Canadian numbers say the same on a smaller scale.  The unemployment rate has gone down but fewer able people are working. We are less discouraged since only half as many people have dropped out percentage-wise.

US numbers from thefederalist.com with hat tip to Instapundit.

A reminder, stats are slippery.  The partisans who put a spin on a story know what they don't want you to think about but probably don't understand the economy either.  The participation rate is seasonal.  The size of the potential work-force changes with births, immigration, death and retirement and even rules about pensions.  When couples prosper, dropping out can be win-win for  wife and husband.  It's regional and varies from rural to urban areas too.  Robots may be a better deal than talented willing workers. And so on.  When I see a simple number, I want to see how to drill down for detail.

Canadian participation is seasonal.

Canadian participation quarterly.

Canadian unemployment with both a seasonal and a regional tweak.

Underlying data for US chart above.

For detailed interpreting of employment stats, see Mish Shedlock at Globaleconomicanalysis.

"A couple of centuries ago, every kid was breastfed and ate organic food. Most of ‘em died".

The title is from Instapundit's link to a repentant anti-vaccine lady.  As she herself says, "I had the healthiest childhood imaginable. And yet I was sick all the time".    Despite her tale of pure green lefty locavore living,  common sense prevails.  Her daughter is vaccinated.

Amy Parker

"I want the anti-vaxxers to see that knowingly exposing your child to illness is cruel. ...
If you think your child’s immune system is strong enough to fight off vaccine-preventable diseases, then it’s strong enough to fight off the tiny amounts of dead or weakened pathogens present in any of the vaccines.
And from before:
I understand, to a point, where the anti-vaccine parents are coming from. Back in the ’90s, when I was a concerned, 19-year-old mother, frightened by the world I was bringing my child into, I was studying homeopathy, herbalism, and aromatherapy; I believed in angels, witchcraft, clairvoyants, crop circles, aliens at Nazca, giant ginger mariners spreading their knowledge to the Aztecs, the Incas, and the Egyptians, and that I was somehow personally blessed by the Holy Spirit with healing abilities".   (Link at Slate).

Some Body Cells Form Intranets - Touching Each Other at Great Distance

Ordinary cells, not just nerve cells, link up with each other over great distances and trade information. Tiny filaments reach out fifty to a hundred cells distant and exchange protein signals.  The filaments called cytonemes are so delicate they went unseen for decades.  People, unaware of these communication bridges, assumed chemicals leached out of cells and drifted around until they bumped into receptors.  The truth is some cells target each other at a distance (like friends on Facebook).

Kornberg

Research reported by Thomas B. Kornberg, PhD, a professor of biochemistry with the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute, January 2, 2014 in Science. Story summarized at Science Daily News.

Live-cell fluorescence image of acytoneme emanating from a small clone of cells that express a membrane-tethered form of Green Fluorescence Protein. This cytoneme extends toward cells in the Drosophila wing imaginal disc that express Decapentaplegic, a morphogen signaling protein. (Wikipedia)

SIngle Payer: Democrats will double down, not back down, in 2014.

In 2014, the Elect on the Left are going to double down for "MORE" not "Less" as the train wreck of Affordable Care insurance hits Americans.  Instead of learning from error and saying "Sorry", expect SINGLE PAYER to be the brass balls mantra.   Republicans and Libertarians who look forward in 2014 to delivering a come-uppance at the ballot box underestimate the voters' readiness to fall for the line, "We shouldn't have compromised". Like others who make excuse that true Communism or true Christianity has never been tried, the radical left in ascendancy will claim True Health Care for the Poor and Sick has never been tried.  Gentle Reader, prepare for that sinking chill in your stomach as you read stories you thought no one would have the brass balls to write -- that the Affordable Health Care act didn't go far enough... that all the teething problems of the ACA are caused by recalcitrant Republicans who held up progress.

ACA aka Oobleck

Dr Seuss created the character of King Didymus who called for Oobleck and when it came and proved a disaster, reluctantly said "Sorry" and spared his people.  You should hope Sebelius or Obama have such a heart.

The reality is closer to the oblivious biker in Hunter Thompson's "Hell's Angels" who almost died swallowing a tsunami of unknown drugs. Two weeks later, instead of learning wisdom from his folly, he said:  "The incident had taught him a valuablelesson: he no longer had to worry about what kind of pills he ate, because his body could handle anything he put into it".    That will be the struggle in 2014, to refute the voices in the Democrat party who double down instead of back down.

A little Icing on the Warmist Cake.

I see four under-reported facts about the climate propaganda ship stuck in Antarctic ice. (The Russian vessel, Akademic Shokalskiy)

One:  Plunging temperatures didn't lock up the ship.  It was wind that blew breaking-up shore ice into position combined with delays for sightseeing.   Both the ice and the weather were in the forecast. (Wattsupwiththat).  In depth coverage including a diary at the link.
Two: Almost all mainstream stories about the rescue leave out WHY the ship was there, to document the extent of ice melt.   Reporters won't let got of their climate talking points. (Proverbs 26:11  As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools return to their folly).
Three:  They weren't in danger. Only the paying passengers were given a helicopter ride off the vessel.  The Russian crew stayed behind to wait for the ice to shift in a couple weeks.
Four:  The US Navy is NOT part of this story.  A Chinese vessel was closest followed by an Australian icebreaker that did the helicopter lift from the Russian boat.  The Jade Rabbit lunar rover arrived on the moon's surface just three weeks ago.  There's a pattern here.

UPDATE: US Coast Guard will send Polar Star Icebreaker in response to Australia's request. Jan 4th

Hue Long, China

Aurora Australis, Australia

Toronto losing notoriety: De Blasio bumps Ford from news cycle.

New York's new mayor, when asked what he was wearing to keep warm, offered to strip, "Do you want me to go further?", while a couple dozen reporters looked at each other in disbelief. That's his fourth day in office.  Plus outlawing carriage rides in Central Park, "for the horses".Despite Rob Ford's noble effort to stay on top of the news cycle, four days into a four year term, it looks like New York's mayor will be at the top of the outrage cycle for some time. The tone of the inauguration was mostly "graceless and smug" says the NYT.  "Plantation", "inequality", and ACORN-love got the high five.   Bill is "an unrepentant supporter of ACORN and Occupy Wall Street".  ACORN accepts credit for getting him in office.  "We're baaack" as Bertha Lewis said.

He'll probably help reduce the number of Democrats in the Senate and the White House by being a high-profile failure with hard left branding.  Front Page Mazagine summarizes:

"When they put de Blasio in Gracie Mansion, New Yorkers opted for socialist chaos and decline — and that’s exactly what they’re going to get".

Remember when Mayor Bloomberg was the Nanny State guy who banned Big Gulps?  Those were the good days.  The people have spoken.

A notorious Rob Ford will do more for Toronto than a Wilhelm-De-Blasio on his best behaviour could ever do for New York.

Peace on Earth - Increasing.

Strategy Page does, what the newspapers don't,  the annual round up of all wars on earth and finds again that they are decreasing.  The short version:

The Great Nuclear Truce continues.  Most current wars are basically uprisings against police states or feudal societies...   Many small wars are led by radicals preaching failed dogmas (Islamic conservatism, Maoism and other forms of radical socialism), that still resonate among people who don't know about the dismal track records of these creeds. Iran has replaced some of the lost Soviet terrorist support effort. That keeps Hezbollah, Hamas, and a few smaller groups going, and that's it. Terrorists in general miss the Soviets, who really knew how to treat bad boys right.

Deaths in Mexico justify calling that a war.The intro is followed with a nation by nation summary.

China: Enemy of our Enemy. UPDATE

China was with "the gooks" for the Korean War. The news you haven't read is that North Korea has threatened to turn its nukes towards China.  And China is cutting the ingrates loose.  Their number one trading contact with North Korea was Kim Jong Un's uncle.  Jang Song Thaek, the #2 man in Korea, along with five aides, was fed alive to dogs on December 12th in front of Kim and 300 nervously watching officials.  The gloves have come off, first with an article in China's official organ in Hong Kong revealing the atrocity and a follow-up calling for an end to coddling North Korea.  Also, on December 13th, China got in touch with Russia's foreign minister and sent an ambassador express to Moscow.  These are North Korea's two alien neighbours.  China is giving up on influencing the Kim John Un regime.

From The Straits Times article (h/t barrelstrength):

When the son, Kim Jong Il, took over the helm, he did not hide the fact that his nuclear weapons could be used against China.Dr Xue Litai, a research fellow at Stanford University's Centre for International Security and Cooperation at the time, disclosed that he received further confirmation from an American source who accompanied former US president Bill Clinton in his visit to Pyongyang in 2009. According to the source, a North Korean senior official told Mr Clinton that their nuclear weapons could not reach the US but could be "pointed West" in the direction of the Chinese mainland.

UPDATE: Maybe no atrocity after all. Just a simple tyrannical execution.  Rest of the story stands.

How does Obama find time to golf?

The American president follows at least a dozen  hour-long TV shows and is working his way through all of Breaking Bad.  How does he find time to golf?  The Newsbuster story lists Mad Men, House of Cards, Homeland, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey, The Wire, Real Housewives, Glee, Modern Family, Parks and Recreation and SportsCenter.  Did I mention he follows basketball?

I'm not a busy guy but couldn't find the time to do it.

Jarrett seems to be minding the store but as CEO's say, when they visit the White House, they talk to people they wouldn't hire.

Obama isn't a couch potato

but...

Body map of emotions in color. What do love and pride look like?

Fourteen emotions are mapped in color onto the body.   Each has a distinct pattern showing parts that feel good and parts that feel bad.  Not unexpectedly, Love and Happiness are similar except in the groin but would you predict that Surprise and Shame are almost a match?

The sample size is 700 and the measurements are from self-description, not physical measurement, so there is a heavy subjective factor.  But it rings true.  This confirms to me the idea that dogs can smell our emotions since hormones and temperatures in different parts of the body are changing.

Published on 31 December, 2013 in the scientific journal Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, reported at Science Daily News.

150 years ago today Republicans freed the slaves and rejoiced.

The Emancipation Proclamation came into effect today, one hundred and fifty years ago.  Democrats were outraged, calling it "an outrage of all constitutional law, all human justice, all Christian feeling" and “a proposal for the butchery of women and children.” How did this get turned around to make Republicans the bad guys?  Report at Gateway Pundit.

The proclamation was a wartime executive order from Abraham Lincoln, didn't apply to the five non-rebel slave owner states, didn't make slavery illegal in itself and applied to Confederate held lands, not to Yankee lands!  It did however confirm the freedom of ex-slaves , offered them a chance to join the army, and became a framework for the actual outlawing of slavery three years later.

Amended:  151 years ago.

Grey Lady has Chinese Suitor. "There's nothing that can't be bought for the right price".

In 2009 the New York Times took a quarter billion loan from Mexican investor, Carlos Slim Helu, and made promises. Now "Low Carbon" Chen Guangbiao claims he plans to buy The Grey Lady in a hostile takeover. The story is at China Digital Times.  If he can't get the package, he'll go for a major stake and sees golden renmimbi in re-opening the Chinese Market to the NYT.   “There’s nothing that can’t be bought for the right price,” Chen told Reuters.