Saturday 16 January 2016

The Great Canadian Threat

Cruz is the "Manitoban Candidate", Goldberg observes, "hiding in plain sight until he can impose the metric system on our children and make us all passive-aggressively polite".
Source

He makes two memorable points:

"The issue (natural born citizen) remains unsettled because it matters so little",

and 
"Even less plausible than Cruz’s not being a natural-born citizen: that Donald Trump actually cares about this."

Dolts to the left of us, Dummies to the right. Which party has the smart voters?

Two studies show it depends on the topic.  One study found complex and nuanced language for topics that differ by party.
"Conservatives exhibited more complex thinking on ... open-door immigration, smoking, castration, and easy access to birth control. Liberals were complex when discussing organized religion, abortion on demand, making racial discrimination illegal, and being assertive".
A second study found dogmatism common to both left and right but the topics differed. 
The researchers report, "Conservatives are indeed more dogmatic on the religious domain; but liberals are more dogmatic on the environmental domain." 

Where are the populist candidates? Canada's behind the curve

The digital revolution means Jane and John Doe voters will publish more opinion than party poobahs.  The unintended consequence is more democracy.  The insiders' table is getting crowded by the "wrong sort" of people, but not in Canada.   "Feel The Bern" Sanders and "Build the Wall" Trump are crowding the top of the charts to our south.  Farage, Wilders, Le Pen, and various "evil right wing fringe groups" get traction elsewhere.

Pre-approved
The common element is populism, saying what a lot of voters really think.    The closest we come in Canada is Elizabeth May who is a narrowly-targeted populist, speaking to the vegetarian tin-hat brigade.  How come "This Man Is Approved By The Party" describes the leaders of the only three Canadian parties that count?  I envy the ferment across the line in the US of A.

LOL:   Don Cherry for PC lead?  
Change is on its way.   Remember, to "reform" something is simply to change its shape or form
and doesn't mean "improve".

There's more where this came from




Friday 15 January 2016

Canadian example that Trump will win big

Four months ago, my colleague at work was choosing to vote Liberal or NDP.  Yesterday he tells me, "Trump makes a lot sense, he's the only one who tells it the way it is".  If the Canadian centre left is this easily wooed, be sure that the crossover vote from Democrats will be YUGE.  Left-to-right is not the only voting dimension.   Straight talk-vs (doublespeak and dissimulation) is a voting dimension.  What's true and workable is a third dimension but no one appears to be offering it and I probably wouldn't know it if I tripped over it.

Tuesday 12 January 2016

Monday 11 January 2016

Your Grandkids Won't Have Relatives

Big Government is baked into our future, thanks to cute babies, one per couple.
The math isn't hard.  After two generations of one-baby families, the kids of your kids will have no sisters or brothers, and no cousins, either.  And no uncles and no aunts either.

Big Government and Big Data are the new ties that bind.  They will grow and not shrink and so will the dependency on support from strangers who don't love you.  Politics is grooving to the left, fueled by demographics.

I don't see "The Waltons" or "Cheaper By The Dozen" making a comeback, but with  pink-tinted glasses, I see networks forming through social media, networks that meet needs kin groups used to meet, networks that leapfrog right over Big Government and make such top down governance a teentsy bit obsolete.

Saturday 9 January 2016

Anti Theft Device For Car

This device targets Millenials, since most active thieves are younger types.

Software counts emotions

EMOTIENT  guesses and counts the emotions of the people being recorded in real time.  Think "angry crowds"  "shoppers"  "students"  "focus group"  "negotiators".  APPLE bought this startup recently and the demo is impressive.
 
Emotient Analytics in Action from Emotient on Vimeo.

Friday 8 January 2016

If we were out of the hole, CPP or education funding could be doubled

Don't pooh pooh interest payments on the national debt.  The Fraser Institute puts the spending together for both levels of government in Canada and the debt burden is horrifying. 

One infographic:


Better yet, let the people
who earned those billions blown on borrowed bucks, keep those billions.

Insane crowding on earth.

People are insanely crowded into small patches of earth.  See map.  The north fringe of India, the environs of Beijing, southern Indonesia and a little patch at the mouth of the Nile account for most of world population.    If labour is wealth, China and India are top of the heap.

Breaking: Hillary disguised email to remove security classification

Smoking gun at Hot Air.
Hillary e-mail instructs aide to transmit classified data without markings
Email conversation chain reproduced at link.

“If they can’t, turn into nonpaper w no identifying heading and send nonsecure.” That’s an order to violate the laws handling classified material. There is no other way to read that demand.

Gun deaths: Black murder and White suicide. Men first and Women last.

Culture channels violence inwards for whites and outwards for blacks.

AND
Culture channels violence from men towards men.

















This story was picked up by the Washington Post but left out the sex chart.  I'm guessing that deaths by gender make women look favoured and men look like victims, not the flavour du jour.

Men don't like men who don't like sports.

There's an awkward hush when they learn I don't know who's playing in the Stanley or Grey Cup this year.  The Power Line comment hits it:
"Here’s a fact of life, men don’t like men who don’t like sports. If you want to have influence on other men you have to be able to talk about sports knowledgeably.  .. Treat it like homework."     (more at the link)

Thursday 7 January 2016

Tale of Two Stacked Townhalls. UPDATE

Compare and contrast:  When there's not enough seating, stack the room with supporters.
Obama is doing a town hall tonight with CNN.  Admission by invitation only.
Trump is doing a Vermont town hall tonight but only lets supporters in.

Re Obama:  "Staged propaganda session" with enough seating for a soiree.
Re Trump: Seating in Vermont for 1400 but over 10,000 tickets given out in Bernie Sanders home town. Pick your headline:  "Donald Trump Bars Undecided Voters At Vermont Rally" or  "Donald Trump says he's "taking care of my people".





UPDATE:   Obama said nothing but cleverly.  Trump supplied red meat that addresses a problem and doesn't create more government:

From Obama's townhall, Thomas' Sowell's review:
 It was beautifully choreographed, like a great ballet, and performed with consummate skill and understated eloquence.    As for the substance of what Obama said, there was very little substance, and much of it false.

“I will get rid of gun-free zones in schools — you have to — and on military bases on my first day. It gets signed. My first day – there’s no more gun free zones,” Trump told supporters as they cheered wildly.   Trump pointed out that gun-free zones were dangerous because they attracted people considering a mass shooting.

PS. A commenter at HotAir explains the 20,000 tickets:  "When the rally was announced, protesters said they would round up all the tickets in advance and then not show up…..their goal was to make
trump look bad speaking to an empty venue. Trump responded by making 20,000 tickets available"
 



Moving money from poor to rich: Your Government at Work.

"The government monopoly of money leads not just to the suppression of innovation ...inflation .. but to inequality too.    Opportunities in finance ripple outwards from the Treasury.  The state spends the money before it even exists;  the privileged banks then get first access to newly minted money and can invest it before assets have increased in cost.  By the time it reaches ordinary people, the money is worth less. 
Image result for the evolution of everything  This outward percolation is known as the Cantillon Effect - after Richard Cantillon who noticed that the creation of paper money in the4 South Sea Bubble benefited those closest to the source first.   

Money creation by an expansionary government effectively redistributes money from the poor to the rich. "


Excerpt from The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley.  A good read.

Tuesday 5 January 2016

Sin Taxes Are Just Taxes.

When booze tax goes up,  problem drinkers switch to cheaper brands and keep getting drunk.  Funds continue to flow to the Receiver General and the IRS.  The link is to Washington Times: Targeting problem drinkers, not moderate sippers".
Problem drinkers or
ten glasses of wine in a week?

China Needs To Steal Those Islands

Imperial China is protected by Himalayas, jungle, desert and Siberia but the US has a lock on the ocean supply chain.  There's no way in or out by sea that cannot be blockaded by the USA and allies. China must steal and fortify rocky outcrops in the China Seas for national security.  George Friedman expands this radical view.

To summarize Friedman's article:  Three points of China's compass are protected by inhospitable lands with subject peoples.   East of the 15 inch annual rainfall line where crops grow well, the Han people dwell in tolerable third world conditions except for a strip of wealthy coastal Han oriented to the world, not the hinterlands.   Apart from sea access, China is fairly secure from without but at risk from rich-poor tensions within.  For the sea, they plan a great navy but it will take a generation to build the culture and the ships.   Self-interest means China must protect the sea lane choke points.

Does this mean war or is there a deal at the right price?     

Smokes and dope will persist in society until being bored or depressed is illegal

Phillips Morris in a confidential 1970 memo:  "We are in the business of relaxing people who are tense and providing a pick up for people who are bored or depressed,” the tobacco memo added. “The human needs that our product fills will not go away. Thus, the only real threat to our business is that society will find other means of satisfying these needs."

The Daily Caller story sounds right. 
Wouldn't you like something that takes away fidgets,  aches
and anxiety and make you feel good too?
Wouldn't you like to be taxing such a miracle product?

“It would be a very, very very small step for (the tobacco industry) to dive into the marijuana with both feet if they wanted to.”   and      “On marijuana, who knows better how to grow a plant that you dry up, wrap up in paper and smoke,” ... “They’re the masters of that worldwide and have wide brand recognition.”

If you think the government doesn't expect to end up banking tax money for Mary Jane, I have unicorns on special for you today.

Sunday 3 January 2016

Missing User Information For Perfect Soft boiled Eggs: Review of Big Boss Egg Genie Egg Cooker. UPDATE

Big Boss is one of several cookers, probably the cheapest, and reviewed by many at Amazon and Walmart.  True soft-boiled eggs for breakfast are wonderful but user user info is missing.  Key points are DON"T USE THE PIN  and use a spoon for shelling.
New model has "auto off"



1.   Put a mark on the water cup so your usual amount is easy to spot.  The gradations on the cup are too fine to read while filling. Better yet, choose a measuring spoon of the right size.
2.  There's a pin for punching a hole in one end of the egg. DON'T USE IT. Everything that goes wrong is caused by drips of egg white coming out that hole, getting down into the water and causing the alarm to sound while the egg is still raw. The egg won't explode because the steam never gets much above 100C/212F.  Microwaves are different and can explode an egg easily because the top temperature is limited by how long the heat is on, not by the heat itself.
3.   Pointy end up:   Whichever end you put the hole in, that end must point up for cooking.  Otherwise, a small leak will trigger the problem in number 9.  This only matters if you use the pin.
4.  Less water cooks more eggs?  How can that be?  The Big Boss has seven holes and the steam rises through the holes to bathe the eggs.  Each egg blocks a hole so the water takes longer to escape.  Adding water makes the boiling longer but, adding eggs, makes the boiling longer too. So, you add water to get harder eggs and you subtract water to cook more eggs.  When done, there is an annoying  buzz and you have to physically unplug the cooker. (Newer model has an auto switch).
5.   If your fingers are dry, you can pick the egg right out of the steamer and drop it quickly in cool water.
6.  The tea spoon:  Use it to slip the shell off the softest egg, after cracking a starter point open. The little spoon follows the contour perfectly and pulls shell off in large sheets.   The other things you know about shelling eggs (don't use fresh ones, dip them in cold water, wait a while) are less important.  If you like really soft-boiled eggs, the egg will be like jelly in your hand but still will peel.  UPDATE: I've had success with two sorts of brown store eggs but had trouble peeling some white ones. So, the spoon is big, but it's not everything.
7.  Since you've never had soft boiled eggs out of the shell before, try sprinkling salt and pepper in a row on a piece of paper towel and roll the egg in it.
8.  Stain after the water has evaporated:  Reviewers seem to think the cooker makes the stain.  It just reveals dirt in the water you used and will appear in every cooker.  Use a bit of bottled water instead of tap water.  A wipe after it cools may be enough, or brush once with a green Grillo pad. You may need vinegar for tap water residue.

9.  You use the pin and you decide the cooker is no good  because the buzzer goes off before the eggs are cooked:  This happens when a little egg white dribbles down from the hole while cooking.  It looks like nothing but it matters.  A drop or two leaks or dangles into the water and persistent white-skinned bubbles foam up.  The bubble heats up faster than the water and the thermostat underneath thinks all the water must have boiled away to explain the temperature rise.  The cure is to take the eggs back out.  Wash the plastic support.  Clean every speck of egg off the metal pan where the water goes.  Every speck. Or try it next time without the pin hole.
10.   Useless bric-a-brac:  Throw away the poacher device and the veggie steamer plastic.  They are next to useless.  You can hacksaw the nearly useless upper knob from the dome.  The plastic dome can be handled even when eggs are steaming, as long as you keep your hand off the vent hole.

Seems like a lot of user info?  I like the device so much that it all comes in handy.