07/04/09

Permalink 03:01:24 am, Categories: American Holidays

Finally visitors have access to our Statue of Liberty crown—we temporarily lost our head—ignoring some of the cherished principles written into our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.

Statue of Liberty Head
Statue of Liberty Head1

Res: National Park Service, Statue of Liberty

Web: Statue of Liberty gets her view back

-----notes-----

1. On February 18, 1879 French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was granted an American patent for the Statue of Liberty.

The Statue's head was on display in France before being gifted to America.

07/03/09

Permalink 09:35:34 pm, Categories: Iran

Originally Published June 19, 2009; Updated and Republished June 20, 2009; Updated and Republished June 21, 2009; Updated and Republished June 22, 2009; Updated and Republished June 24, 2009; Updated and Republished June 26, 2009; Updated and Republished June 28, 2009; Updated and Republished June 30, 2009; Updated and Republished July 01, 2009; Updated and Republished July 03, 2009:

Ironically (or shrewdly) Ayatollah Khamenei during his Friday (29 Khordad 1388; June 19, 2009) prayer speech asserts the protesters are supporting a dictatorship and rejecting democracy.

Khamenei sees the hand of the Lord in the ballot boxes. Other Iranians aren't sure whose hand is in the ballot box and they're protesting in the streets until they find out.

Wonder if the Lord's hand will be coming out of the ballot boxes to strike those Iranians protesting in the street?

Nice to read governments1 are summoning Iran's ambassadors to express their expectations for the Lord's hand—since the Lord's hand is ubiquitous its behavior cannot possibly be a solely internal matter for one country alone.

Res:

  • UPDATED 06/20/2009 Statement from the President [Obama] on Iran

    "The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching. We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.

    As I said in Cairo, suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.

    Martin Luther King once said - "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." I believe that. The international community believes that. And right now, we are bearing witness to the Iranian peoples’ belief in that truth, and we will continue to bear witness."--United States President Barack Obama

YouTube:

Web:

-----notes-----

1. Our president must feel slighted that Britain has now become the external evil against which Ayatollah Khamenei asserts Iran must fight.

It probably doesn't have anything to do with BBC's switching from the jammed Hot Bird 6 satellite to a more jam resistant W2M satellite for its Persian Farsi broadcast into Iran.

However, proving old habits are hard to break there was still plenty of "Death to America" chanting during Khamenei's speech.

Permalink 03:39:37 pm, Categories: American Submarines

Originally Published March 15, 2009; Updated and Republished May 16, 2009; Updated and Republished May 23, 2009; Updated and Republished June 10, 2009; Updated and Republished July 03, 2009:

Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Gary Roughhead recently (audio) touted the Navy's diversity policy and initiative—so what's the diversity on our 73 or so submarines1.Submarine Cartoon

Easy question to ask—a bit more difficult to answer—fleet data are not available in the Navy's public Quarterly Series, Navy-Wide Demographic Data—a separate document or series could not be found for Navy demographics by fleet (ships, submarines etc.).

So we'll punt until better demographic data can be obtained for our submarine fleet. First, we can eliminate women, because even though they make up 15.22% of the total active duty Navy they are not permitted to serve as submarine line officers2 or fill enlisted submarine billets5.

Active duty submarine warfare and special warfare unrestricted line officers are 89.2% White and 10.8% Non-White3. Non-White males make up 17% of the total active duty Navy officers—to no submariner's surprise Non-Whites are under represented on submarines.

But officers account for only a small portion of those serving on submarines—what to do about the enlisted? For this a "Hell Hail Mary Pass" is required! It turns out that a study4 of submariner's health complaints was conducted over 240 patrols. The study categorized the data by officer/enlisted (enlisted complained more) and White/Non-White—a pretty good proxy for a "Hell Hail Mary Pass".

Over the approximately three year period and 240 patrols the enlisted crews were composed of 88.1% Whites and 10.4% Non-Whites (1.6% unknown). Officer crews were 92.2% White and 5.7% Non-White (2.1% unknown).

The good news is the CNO has a diversity initiative—the bad news is he's around the 50-60 yard line for Non-White submarine diversity and not even on the field for submarine gender diversity.

Hopefully, the Navy Personnel Command will include a cut of their great Navy-Wide Demographics Data by submarine fleet and officer/enlisted, as a minimum.

Blog:

Web:

  • UPDATED 07/03/2009 UPI, Naval Academy admits most diverse class.

    Closing any academic remedial gaps that may exist among the diverse class of cadets is a joint mission of high priority to be accomplished by the cadets, Academy, Navy, and our nation.

    Under no circumstances must these gaps be viewed as a reason or justification for lowering the Academy's commitment to achieve diversity, maintain its high graduating standards, and its tradition of delivering highly competent Naval officers to our fleet in the service of our nation.

  • UPDATED 05/16/2009 CNO testifies before House Armed Services Subcommittee on May 14, 2009.

    "We have had great success in increasing our diversity outreach and improving diversity accessions in our ranks. We are committed to a Navy that reflects the diversity of the nation in all specialties and ranks by 2037. Through our outreach efforts, we have observed an increase in NROTC applications and have increased diverse NROTC scholarship offers by 28 percent. The NROTC class of 2012 is the most diverse class in history and, with your help through nominations, the U.S. Naval Academy class of 2012 is the Academy’s most diverse class in history. Our Navy is engaging diversity affinity groups such as the National Society of Black Engineers, Thurgood Marshall College Fund, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Mexican American Engineering Society, and the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund to increase awareness of the opportunities for service in the Navy. Our engagement includes Flag attendance, junior officer participation, recruiting assets such as the Blue Angels, direct Fleet interaction. We have also established Regional Outreach Coordinators in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami to build Navy awareness in diverse markets.

    As we continue to meet the challenges of a new generation, the Navy is already being recognized for our efforts through receipt of the Work Life Legacy Award (Families and Work Institute), the Work Life Excellence Award (Working Mother Media), Most Admired Employer (U.S. Black Engineer and Hispanic Engineer Magazine), and Best Diversity Company (Diversity/Careers in Engineering and IT)."--CNO Admiral Gary Roughead, May 14, 2009--

    Kudos to the Navy and CNO on their outreach efforts—no easy task to meet recruiting goals while ensuring fleet and command diversity.

  • CNO Releases Diversity Podcast
  • Navy Personnel Command Diversity

-----notes-----

1. United States submarine force structure as of September 2008 is 55 SSN: 28 ComSubLant; 27 ComSubPac; AND 14 SSBN: 6 ComSubLant, 8 ComSubPac AND 4 SSGN: 2 ComSubLant; 2 ComSubPac.

The current SSN ratio of Atlantic to Pacific may change as submarines are moved to the Pacific, Los Angles-class submarines are decommissioned, and Virginia-class submarines are commissioned.

2. Submarine Warfare group designators 112x/117x and submarine special warfare group designators 113x/118x are currently restricted inaccessible to women.

Navy wide active duty flag officer (one to five star admirals) women represent 6.8%—one of the flag officer women is black—well under represented in the Navy leadership hierarchy.

3. An officer may possess a designator of "unrestricted line officer" in submarine warfare or submarine special warfare and not serve on submarines. Stated differently just because an officer is qualified to serve and command submarines does not mean he does.

At the active duty flag officer level (one to five star admirals) Whites are 94.4% and Non-Whites 5.6%. Blacks represent 4.7% at this leadership level while representing 18.8% of the total active Navy.

The first black four star admiral, J Paul Reason (Ret.), was appoint in 1996.

4. Terry L. Thomas et al., "Health of U.S. Navy Submarine Crew During Periods of Isolation". Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Vol. 74, No. 3, March 2003

As an aside on average submariners were 89% non-smokers, probably a higher percentage today?

5. UPDATED 03/16/2009 It is difficult to imagine what job a woman could not do well on our modern submarines. Women are masters of patient strategic thinking and would out perform their male peers in many submarine job classifications.

If a respected woman war attack officer (aka OOD) said come right to course xxx prepare to fire torpedoes the only reply from crew members would be "come right to course xxx, prepare to fire torpedoes, aye"—steering course xxx, prepared to fire torpedoes". If she is not respected she will be immediately transferred from the submarine and perhaps the Navy.

The discussions beginning around 1994 about space, privacy, "hotbunking" etc. are mostly red herrings. If the challenges (and there are many) of submarines appeal to a woman she should be welcomed, mentored, and treated just like any other submariner.

Yes, some submariners periodically "hotbunk" for certain missions or while conducting some testing—the overwhelming number of submariners never "hotbunk". The number of women volunteering for submarine duty will likely be so small this would never be an issue.

Those applying the paternalistic logic of protecting women from some ribald submariners need to update their logic—some women can be and are just as ribald as their counter-part. Yes, some women may implement their personal female sensibilities (e.g. dart or tailor their "poopy suit"), but how does this harm or impact mission readiness or performance. Some women could care less and are just as comfortable crawling around bilges as their male counter-part (on submarines appearance is rarely, if ever confused with respect for capability and talent).

Submarine privacy comes from others focusing on their job and personal hobbies when not performing their job, standing watch, or sleeping. The idea that submariners (officer or enlisted) will uncontrollably seek to join the "mile low club" is ridicules. Submariners are some of the most talented and disciplined (and yes ribald) naval personnel. Yes, their will be on board and off board sexual incidents, but these can be routinely dealt with as any other disciplinary matter.

Permalink 06:01:06 am, Categories: GWOT

The Washington Post dives into the corruption cesspool provoking outrage over the stench—publisher, Katharine Weymouth has since hosed the newspaper off and begun cleanup, sanitation, and disinfectant operations.

Congress Cesspool Cartoon

It's unclear who's responsible for launching the now discredited pay-for-chat idea1 at the once iconic newspaper, but given the swiftness and intensity of public outrage it will likely be "a few bad pressmen on the night shift".

Web: NYT, Pay-for-Chat Plan Falls Flat at Washington Post

-----notes-----

1. The so-called salons would have brought reporters, policymakers, and lobbyists together for an intimate evening of beverages, food, and chat.

Individuals and entities could underwrite a single salon (usually focusing on one topic) for $25K or 11 salons for $250K (a $25K volume discount!).

Washington salons are as numerous and routine as the disguised rationale for lobbyists paying bribes to our policymakers. What hasn’t been routine is our newspapers' participation in the corrupt practice of bribing our policymakers.

It will be interesting to discover the extent of the administration’s participation, if any, in the Washington Post salons idea knowing access was being sold?

Originally Published November 21, 2007; Updated and Republished July 03, 2009:

More lying and lawlessness from our criminal, abusive, dangerous, harmful, lying, rogue, arrogant, ignorant, incompetent, and ineffective president—this time personally directing the cover-up and misleading of the public over White House involvement in the outing of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.

When is Congress going to rid our nation of this criminal, abusive, dangerous, harmful, lying, rogue, arrogant, ignorant, incompetent, and ineffective president and his sidekick Cheney?

Web:

  • UPDATED July 03, 2009 UPI, Court filing lists Cheney conversations.

    The public’s interests are best served when our public officials know that everything they say and do during the performance of their official duties will be 100% transparent.

    Arguments about not getting or giving the best advice or candid analysis or cooperation if our government is open and transparent are nonsense, to say the least.

  • Bush 'involved' in CIA leak case

07/02/09

Originally Published June 02, 2009; Updated and Republished June 15, 2009; Updated and Republished June 27, 2009; Updated and Republished July 02, 2009:

United States Navy joins the search for Air France flight 447—a debris field has been located—estimated maximum water depth is two miles; sea floor topology very rugged.

Web:

Video:

Wikipedia: UPDATED 06/06/2009 Air France Flight 447

-----notes-----

1. Based on the Teledyne Benthos TSO-C121 FAA approved pinger.

2. A submarine sonar operator might compare the difficulty of searching for the "black box" to randomly detecting and characterizing a very noisy (160dB) and stationary submarine using a single relatively fast attenuating high frequency (37.5 kHz) tonal.

Now imagine a submarine sonar operator's job if the "black box" were very quiet (100-110 dB), non-stationary, evasive, emitting multiple tonals within a wider frequency spectrum (1Hz - 20kHz) and maybe using counter-measures like decoy tonals, noise generators etc.).

As correctly operated modern submarines approach the practical limits (technical and cost) of very quiet even the most skilled sonar technician, aided by neural network software, and massive computing power will have an increasingly difficult job.

Thankfully, we can leave the experts to openly debate the nonproliferation implications. A future where nations' undetectable and undeterrable ballistic missile submarines are silently driving into each other gives new meaning to the term "silent service". Perhaps there are better alternatives?

Permalink 09:50:14 am, Categories: Human Rights, Human Trafficking

Originally Published June 16, 2009; Updated and Republished July 02, 2009:

Reports are necessary but cannot substitute for nations deciding among themselves to unambiguously reject governments that have consistently demonstrated an inability to transparently pursue minimum political, economic, and legal reforms necessary to ensure noncoercive sustainable growth for the benefit of its citizens.

Web:

Human Trafficking 2009 Report
2009 Report

-----notes-----

1. The article refers to the forcible taking of a Chinese child as "confiscation"—modern, developed, and internationally acceptable legal systems refer to this as kidnapping for the purpose of trafficking in children and enslavement.

China must credibly and objectively guarantee (as in DNA and verifiable non coercive consent agreements) prospective American adoptive parents that the Chinese children they are adopting have not been kidnapped, trafficked, or enslaved.

Chinese parents, adopted Chinese children, and their adoptive American parents must have standing in American federal courts to sue for damages or adoption reversal of non-guaranteed or fraudulent China adoptions. A “damage bond” must accompany all adoption guarantees by the Chinese government.

Permalink 01:06:14 am, Categories: Nuclear Proliferation

Originally Published December 10, 2008; Updated and Republished February 10, 2009; Updated and Republished February 22, 2009; Updated and Republished February 24, 2009; Updated and Republished March 06, 2009; Updated and Republished April 01, 2009; Updated and Republished April 06, 2009; Updated and Republished May 16, 2009; Updated and Republished May 19, 2009; Updated and Republished May 29, 2009; Updated and Republished July 02, 2009:

An international group meets in Paris to renew efforts toward eliminating all nuclear arms—the group has launched the Global Zero campaign.

The group will offer nuclear nation's leaders and individuals worldwide a step-by-step plan for eliminating all nuclear weapons worldwide through phased and verified reductions.

Mushroom Cloud
Ground Zero Nuclear Explosion1

Web:

Res:

  • UPDATED 02/10/2009 NAP, Future of the Nuclear Security Environment in 2015: Proceedings. The 2009 publication contains the papers from the November 2007 symposium—requires an email address for the no-cost download.

    Papers focus on understanding and enhancing Russia-U.S. cooperation toward furthering their already impressive gains in securing access to fissile material (no easy task) and reducing the nuclear threat.

    "Cooperation between Russia and the United States in material protection, control, and accounting (MPC&A) has often been called a successful example of cooperation between the two countries in the area of international nuclear security and in resolving specific tasks aimed at strengthening the nuclear weapons and nuclear materials non-proliferation regime."--Sergei V. Antipov, et al.--

Blog:

-----notes-----

1. Detonation immediately changes the bomb's core geometry such that neutron collisions are insufficient to sustain nuclear fission.

Physicist Jeremy Bernstein has written a short primer (liberally incorporating Serber's primer), Plutonium: A History of the Worlds Most Dangerous Element, which helps interested non-technical individuals understand some of the proliferation concerns.

Now that the flat earth faithful are leaving office, science, like Lazarus can rise from the dead.

2. There are SLCM cruise missile variants that can carry nuclear payloads (see handy FAS nuclear weapons table).

The boys in blue have their own advanced air launched nuclear cruise missile variant (aka ACM and ALCM) to go with their bombers (B-2 and 52).

3. UPDATED 03/01/2009 Sea Based Strategic Deterrent, which may differ from what has typically been thought of as an SSBN submarine platform. The FY 2009 Defense Appropriation also includes money for a related parallel Undersea Launched Missile Study (ULMS).

07/01/09

Permalink 03:10:15 pm, Categories: Miscellany, News, Pictures

Happy One-Hundred-Forty-Second Birthday Canada

Happy Birthday Canada

Your Cowboy Cousins to the South,
Always Americans

Web:

Permalink 12:47:48 pm, Categories: Books, Poverty, Human Rights, Education

Originally Published November 30, 2006; Updated and Republished on May 14, 2009; Updated and Republished on July 01, 2009:

Kudos To Arizona State University (ASU) for its recent decision to expand its 100% tuition free (tuition, books, room and board) program for low income students (≤ $25K income). Every university in America should follow their lead.

Additionally, as the 110th Congress revisits and revises our broken and dysfunctional education policies they must focus on ensuring every American has continuous access to no cost or low cost education.1

Offsetting our seniors' social security checks for education costs is not a no-cost or low-cost education policy. Saddling our young under-graduates with $80K in student loan debt is not a no-cost or low-cost education policy. Forcing parents to pay $50K annual tuition or risk disadvantaging their children for life is not a no-cost or low-cost education policy.

While life seems to offer few, if any, panaceas or "silver bullets" education is a good approximation and I venture to say a pre-requisite to their discovery, should they exist.

Web:

  • UPDATED 07/01/2009 UPI, New student loan repayment plan outlined.
  • UPDATED 05/14/2009 NYT, Text: Obama’s Commencement Address at Arizona State University.

    The implications of the President's speech are potentially prescient—hopefully our president will continually clarify in the days and months ahead the implications of his commencement speech—operationalize his words, if you will:

    "We too often let the external, the material things, serve as indicators that we're doing well, even though something inside us tells us that we're not doing our best; that we're avoiding that which is hard, but also necessary; that we're shrinking from, rather than rising to, the challenges of the age. And the thing is, in this new, hyper-competitive age, none of us -- none of us -- can afford to be complacent...We've become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn't reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us where we are, but hard work and smart ideas -- quality products and wise investments. We started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings. We saw businesses focus more on rebranding and repackaging than innovating and developing new ideas that improve our lives.

    All the while, the rest of the world has grown hungrier, more restless -- in constant motion to build and to discover -- not content with where they are right now, determined to strive for more. They're coming [AND "THEY" ARE NOT TERRORISTS]...We need young people like you to step up. We need your daring, we need your enthusiasm and your energy, we need your imagination.

    And let me be clear, when I say "young," I'm not just referring to the date of your birth certificate. I'm talking about an approach to life -- a quality of mind and quality of heart; a willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame; a willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink old dogmas; a lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige -- and a commitment instead to doing what's meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world."--President Barack Obama, ASU commencement speech May 13, 2009--

  • UPDATED 02/20/2008 UPI, Stanford waives tuition for middle class. In a move demonstrating just how dysfunctional access to our higher educational system has become Stanford is waiving tuition for those making $100K or less. Additionally, Stanford will waive room and board for those making less than $60K—Kudos to Stanford, but Congress must act.

    Hey, Congress how about fixing the dysfunctional and disappearing access to higher education instead of holding hearings into which professional baseball players gave each others steroid shots in the ass!

  • UPDATED 05/27/2007 Elite Colleges Open New Door to Low-Income Youths

    Kudos to the increasing number of schools like Amherst, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, the University of Virginia, Williams and the University of North Carolina etc. for altering their admission policies to ensure America's, bright, economically disadvantaged youth have access to a world class education!

    These universities must, also, ensure that our disadvantaged youth have access to the remedial resources necessary to ensure completion of their world class educational opportunity.

    Completion, including accessing remedial education, if necessary, is the responsibility of each student, not their professors (unless in the unlikely event their professor is also their remedial tutor) or the university.

  • ASU will offer free tuition to its neediest students

-----notes-----

1. We are learning our economic growth heavily depends on the process of accumulating knowledge. For a seminal technical discussion read Paul M. Romer's, "Endogenous Technological Change", Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 98, No. 5, Oct 1990, pp. S71-S102 (some calculus required to understand the aggregate output and production function equations). For a great literary discussion (no math required) of incorporating knowledge into our economic growth models read David Warsh’s “Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations: A Story of Economic Discovery”, 2006.

However, we should not base our education policy on ROI or economic growth (endogenous or exogenous) equations. Instead our education policy must be based on the single and sole fact that we are human beings and all humans require continual education for optimal operation. Focus on the later and the former will come along for the ride.

I have long lamented our United States Supreme Court's failure to declare education a fundamental right.

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