Who is my neighbour in a digital world? Many links but few ties.

My neighbours lived next door and generally shared faith, race and Christmas customs. Monday morning in the sixties, they talked about Ed Sullivan and Bonanza.  Thursday night, CHOV radio counted down the top ten hit parade.  That was before top ten became a hundred and lists multiplied.  Before the internet.

That has changed.  We used to be like nested molecules in a crystal, bound with ties of familiarity.  Today we are often like folded proteins, linked but not bound to receptive spots all across the land.  Action-at-a-distance using social media, as spooky as quantum coupling, is making social structures and unprecedented alliances.  This morning I touched dozens of websites, feeding on the opinions and advice of strangers and greeted just one man on the street where I live.

Community and the nature of politics will adopt new forms soon.

Salt crystal, bonded to nearest neighbours, old style community

Haemoglobin molecule, cross-linked to remote neighbours
like those people on your phone contact list.

 

Compulsory schooling came AFTER near universal literacy.

Compulsory schooling came AFTER near universal literacy and drove out thousands of volunteer and for-profit schools.  Almost every girl and boy in England could read before the mandatory Prussian system was imposed in 1870.  Likewise in the USA.  See the charts and decide for yourself.  Was it worth it, all those years you learned to sit in rows and obey bells?

From "The Evolution Of Everything" by Matt Ridley:
  "Prussian schools introduced many of the features we now take for granted.  There was teaching by year group rather than by ability..  There was formal pedagogy, in which children sat at rows of desks in front of standing teachers ...  There was the set school day, punctuated by the ringing of bells.  There was a predetermined syllabus...  There was the habit of doing several subjects in one day, rather than sticking to one subject for more than a day..          The state, once given the chance, quickly took to providing almost all schooling and to deciding not just what should be taught and by whom, but which school a particular child should attend. "          A few pages later, he quotes Albert Shanker,

Shanker

a past president of the American Federation of Teachers:  "It's time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy, a bureaucratic system in which everybody's role is spelled out in advance and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity.  It's no surprise our school system doesn't improve, it resembles the communist economy more than our own market economy."

Thanks to "shall issue" gun permits, Americans almost as safe as in the wild wild west.

Startling chart reposted from Young Conservatives, h/t Powerline.

Homicides per 100,000 Americans

White Hot Fury In Wyoming: Ryan's Omnibus Dumped Napalm On It

Top rated comment at Instapundit's observation that for etablishment Republicans, like Pauline Kael, "No one I know is backing Trump:.

"Look, I live deep in Flyover Country. In Wyoming. The single most Republican state in the nation.  And in coffee shops, bars, breweries, etc, you're going to meet Republicans - all the time. Everywhere. Republicans are not rare here. What few Democrats there are around here tend to keep their mouths shut. When EMT's around here ask patients "Do you know who is president right now?" as a test of mental acuity, the typical response is: "Unfortunately, yes." or an obscenity-laden tirade.  So we're Republican, OK? Really Republican. Democrats don't even bother running for many state offices here, Republicans run unopposed.   And right now, if the GOP leadership showed up in this state, they might not make it out alive. People are furious about the recent budget deal. They were royally PO'ed before, and supporting Trump more than any other candidate, but now, people want blood. Ryan's omnibus BS took what was a smoldering fire and dumped napalm on it. And the GOP leadership is even now claiming that they "didn't like it, but had to do it..." and other BS. Whatever support there was for someone other than Trump and Cruz has collapsed in the last week. What I'm overhearing now in political conversations is white-hot fury. So the GOP leadership has brought this upon themselves. They don't want to know anyone in flyover country because at this point, flyover country wants physical violence done to the GOP leadership."

The path to the presidency

Drudge being bad, juxtaposes Hillary with senility lede

From Drudge, December 22nd:

The picture does not flatter.

Your vote now says more than your faith or race

If you hunt, you're probably conservative or a traditional liberal.  If you're a single adult woman, good chance you cheered for Trudeau jr or voted NDP.  David Frum points to radical change since the '60's.   Class has become an intra-party split.

   "Politics was becoming more central to Americans' identities in the 21st century than it ever was in the 20th. Would you be upset if your child married a supporter of a different party from your own? In 1960, only 5 percent of Americans said yes. In 2010, a third of Democrats and half of Republicans did. Political identity has become so central because it has come to overlap with so many other aspects of identity: race, religion, lifestyle. In 1960, I wouldn't have learned much about your politics if you told me that you hunted. Today, that hobby strongly suggests Republican loyalty. Unmarried? In 1960, that indicated little. Today, it predicts that you’re a Democrat, especially if you’re also a woman. Meanwhile, the dividing line that used to be the most crucial of them all--class--has increasingly become a division within the parties, not between them."

h/t Ace of Spades

A possible explanation:  Government has expanded its reach continuously so that rules about behaviour and money to support non-family choices have expanded dramatically.  The family is competition for the state,  especially for the right to use force.

The Ultimate Backscratcher

Google Search for "backscratcher" comes up with a mess of long-handled forks.  Forget them.

First choice is "Someone who loves you".

Tied for second are loofahs and shower squeegees.  The loofah is the dried out frame of a sponge gourd.  The shower squeegee should be pushed not pulled.    Experience massive relief.





When all else fails and
you're far from home,
there is the door post.

 

Nerve ends are spaced far apart on the back.  A pointy thing isn't much used compared to a broad
scratching tool that gets it all.

Space X recovers launch vehicle. We, the people, have a Plan B.

To watch SpaceX live recover the launch vehicle has been a highlight of my life.  They did it! Watch the replay from about the 30 minute mark. The joy of the SpaceX crowd filled me too and I sobbed in relief.  We are finally going to escape earth.  The cost of launching will drop almost ten fold.  We, the people, will have a Plan B.

How many miracles does it take?

It takes exactly one.  One miraculous cure, perfectly documented, is enough to redefine reality.  If a man can be made whole in a moment, then creation is a top down plan with the idea coming first, the physical reality coming second.   The evidence points the other way, that life forms and consciousness are emergent phenomena. 

"Mein Fuhrer, I can walk"

I read a lot about miracle cures and listened and shared in earnest prayer for healings and have concluded that the one miracle cure is not to be found among the thousands touted.  Yet, it just takes one cure that operates on a different principle to invalidate the architecture of current science.  Current science points to folding proteins to explain most life activity and emergent phenomena as the standard when new order appears. This is a bottom-up explanation. A single top-down cure, validated, changes everything.

Googling last minute gifts for husbands and wives

At Christmas, a lot of husbands are googling gifts at the last minute, some even on Christmas day while the wives are better organized and none are shopping December 25th.   Then look at the stats for people in love but not married.  Women are preoccupied on Valentines day and both single men and women sweat it to the last minute at Christmas. (Rest at The Washington Post).

Unelected Trump Is Acting President of the US

UPDATE December 24th, The Hill: 

"Trump has displaced President Obama as the central player on the political stage, with both parties reacting daily to his insults, tweets and attack lines."

Politicians shift to the breeze of culture because the greater shapes the lesser.   The King of Culture today is Donald Trump. He has begun to steer the state though holding no elected office.   Helmsman, Obama, is below decks beating up on Republicans.   Showman, Trump, harvests the media, 25:1 more coverage than the other GOP candidates but the real story is that he has opened a channel for the culture of all America and it's bubbling over into Canada's immigration plans, the Kremlin's accelerated expansion into Syria, and chatrooms where ISIS warriors are debating their next move.  His power comes from the culture's power and he has no peer today.

What people really care about powers the culture and to heed this is to listen to a messy dialogue, trialogue, polylogue.    Public discussion had shrunk to a PC monologue but Trump is moving the Overton Window or kicking down the doors and pent up voices are heard.   It's going to be messy but effective.     Deflations and depressions are messy too but they correct grave errors.

As to culture being king, rather than the pundits and rules, try this quote from The Evolution of Everything by Matt Ridley: The climate has no control knob, history has no five-star general

"Far more than we like to admit, the world is to a remarkable extent a self-organising, self-changing place.  Patterns emerge, trends evolve.  Skeins of geese form V's in the sky without meaning to, termites build cathedrals without architects, bees make hexagonal honeycombs without instruction, brains take shape without brain-makers, learning can happen without teaching, political events are shaped by history rather than vice versa.  The genome has no master gene, the brain has no command centre, the English language has no director, the economy has no chief executive, society has no president, the common law has no chief justice, the climate has no control knob, history has no five-star general."

Canada is Portugese: "Nothing to see here!"

I thought Canada was an Indian word but what if it's the original Newfie joke, by a Portugese explorer seeking gold?   A government webpage at Foreign Affairs and International Trade  reads:

"There are some (Portugese) historians that contend that the name itself, Canada, came from the Portuguese expression « Cá Nada », which meant « Here, nothing », and is attributed to the first Portuguese sailors who arrived in Newfoundland (Terra Nova), and were disappointed on the weather (very cold), and the lack of obvious resources. "

Wikipedia, with "The Iberian Origin",  adds a more likely version that no gold or silver was found.  The standard high school explanation is that the Huron-Iroquois word for village (Kanata) was part of Cartier's directions to the village of Stadacona where Quebec City now sits.

First map mentioning Canada, 1566.
Near the quarter point, upper right.

Obama just cant figure it out: Wheel of Fortune cartoon.

Trump on No-Go Zones in London

Trump:  ""We have places in London and other places that are so radicalized that the police are afraid for their own lives. We have to be very smart and very vigilant.""


London's Mayor:  "mocked the idea police would stay away from some neighbourhoods as “ill-informed” and “complete and utter nonsense” and said the comments were an insult to London’s “proud history of tolerance and diversity”
Scotland Yard:  "We would not normally dignify such comments with a response. However, we think it's important to state that Trump could not be more wrong,"


Serving officers in London: 'Trump's not wrong. He pointed out something that is plainly obvious'
We "fear being terror targets".   'I'm not allowed to travel in half blues to work anymore IN MY OWN CAR as we're "All at risk of attack"

Saying something is so doesn't make it so.  I'll go with the officers over the mayor and Scotland Yard.
This puts me mind of the Lincoln story:

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

Obama's Legacy is Trump

Thanks to Barack, divides in America increased. "Trump is the perfect personality to exploit these divides, offering the promise of an authoritarian who represents the people in place of an authoritarian who represented the elites".   (At home in Canada, we have Mini-Me walking in Obama's footsteps.)

Domenech at the Federalist:

"President Obama’s America has given rise to Donald Trump. It is an America that is more tribalist, where people feel more racially and religiously divided; more politically correct, where people feel less free to speak their minds; and it is an America where trust in the nation’s elites, whose skills are credentialed but unproven, are at historic lows. These are the wages of progressivism at the end of the day. Big government inevitably leads to government incompetence. That incompetence leads to growing and now dominant distrust – both in government’s basic competence, and in the values of the people who still insist upon it".

And, hat tip to Instapundit:
 
Footnote from the National Review talking about the Overton Window (the range of acceptable political discourse):  "While many of Trump’s actual proposals are misguided, nonsensical, or untenable, by smashing the window, he’s begun the process of freeing the American people from the artificial and destructive constraints of Left-defined discourse. 

We interned Japanese Canadians. Crazy Trump is only asking for a Muslim moratorium.

From Pearl Harbor to 1949, Japanese Canadians were uprooted, forced to sell their goods at grave discounts and interned in BC's Interior. No shots had been fired in Canada and neither the RCMP nor the DND asked Mackenzie King to do it.  Whence the outrage when Trump says halt Muslim immigration until the US government figures out how to defend America?

As individuals, most Japanese were unjustly treated by Canada but was the policy wrong? If homes, cars and goods had been placed in tax-funded escrow instead of sold in distress, would this change your mind?  When the planes appeared out of the sky December 7th over Pearl Harbor and the jets struck the twin towers September 11th, there was no justice for the victims.  A response robust enough to secure the Dominion will deal injustly with some.

Years later, there is more than peace between Japan and Canada. The Japanese-Canadian community is large on the West Coast, the men and women I have met impress me, and if my sons or daughter wanted to wed a member, they'd have my blessing.   The world won't come to an end if Muslim immigration to the US is damped way down for a few years.

CBC archives: Forced evacuation from the coast to the BC Interior.

I since came across a similar but extended article posted at Instapundit.

Ban Guns For Lefty Enclaves

In Canada, cities vote to the left of the countryside and cities with seats of government even more so.  (Edmonton vs Calgary,  Saskatoon vs Regina, Quebec City vs Montreal).   I've been slow to accept that left wing politics and responsible gun ownership are in opposition and that it's safer to live among citizens, some of who are armed as they go about their affairs, than it is to live among shrill gun control advocates.  Who in their right mind thinks the ownership of all violence should pass into the hands of the people who won voting contests and the public service unions?

Source

Obviously there's more to understand.
The source site has some interesting links.
Instead of "Democrat", you can say cities have more shootings than the countryside
but most major cities have been run by Democrats for decades.
"Gun Free Zones" are the preferred slaughter zones.

Press asks Obama tough question

San Bernardino Slaughter: The only balanced reporting I have seen.

When horror hits, few report only what is known, preferring to star in a politicized drama.  This example hits the spot without pandering.

"So what do we know? It appears to be a case of premature detonation".  Everything I've read to date is acknowledged and yet Nicki at The Liberty Zone cuts a new path.

UPDATE: Although a perfect example above of how to write about something while information is missing, more is coming in.  Notable that the couple met Al Qaeda types in Saudi Arabia, that she pledged allegiance to Al Baghadi of ISIS after the attack, that the mother-in-law lived in the apartment where they were making bombs, that the press got into the apartment and filmed stuff including shredded documents, that the on-line presence of the couple was mostly "deleted" just before the event.Also, the FBI is calling this a terrorist investigation.










There is this, however, a new attitude to reporting when Islam is the trigger:

News from Outer Space, November 2015

Spectacular photos arrived from Pluto.

Snakeskin-like surface on Pluto

And from its moon, Ceres which has a dynamic surface that erases meteor impacts. 

Bright spots on Occator crater, Ceres.

Planet wide canyon on Charon

The moon, Charon, has cracking lines and a younger side that has been resurfaced as well as tar? stains at the pole.

Our sun's sunspots are flat-lining with prospects of some cooler climate ahead.  There's increased policy awareness (DARPA) of hardening infrastructure on earth from extreme electromagnetic pulses from the sun's fire.
On Mars, some sedimentary rocks are noted and the Curiosity Rover visited a small dune field.  There's further mention that Phobos can expect to decay and break up against Mars in the near future (30 million years).
The Philae comet lander woke up a bit and communicated with it's mother satellite (Rosetta) as the comet came around the sun.  They know within a couple hundred yards where it ended up on the comet.
Voyager1 has moved further beyond the solar system (beyond the heliopause) but the debate is still on about how far the system's field stretches since the whole darn thing has a bow wave as the earth does in the sun's field.
Planetary exploration now is galaxy-wide and recently inferred a field of cometary debris ( or an alien megastructure) around one sun and the outlines of a weather system on a planet of another sun. Papers like to tout stories about the first earth-like planet but they're getting ahead of themselves.

"The odd nature of the energy pulse is matched by
the odd locations of the start/finish of the pulse".

A mysterious pulse was picked up propagating through our atmosphere and others from outside the galaxy.  Astronomers are having difficulty ruling out artificial origin. It's probably natural.  Our species has advanced to the point of leaking photons and electromagnetic fields into space for a brief moment and may stop leaking such stuff within a hundred years.

Black holes are almost ho-hum these days but it was news to have come across a sun being torn apart at a black hole boundary.  This is being watched in real time.

Closer to home,  Elon Musk almost brought two rockets back to earth for recycling and Bezos brought one back.  (Not quite comparable rockets).  Perfect this and the cost of getting off-planet plunges.
A good spot to go for solar system updates is Astro Bob who specializes in things you can see with a good amateur telescope.