[Publish Date updated to restore to front page]
Okay as an experiment here it is. Discuss your favourite generals here!
Well perhaps… Really this is simply the place to post news-items, fun-items or whatever takes your fancy. In short just post what you want here.
It’s just another wee experiment – comments welcome.
Squonk.
[Image: General Sir Anthony Cecil Hogmanay Melchett (Stephen Fry)]
Going off my 12:32..
Is it possible the jealous defense of quantum mechanics is motivated by a human desire to have free-will validated versus Determinism? I suggest neither can be separated except via perception; like ‘waves or particles’. They are not mutually exclusive ideas, IMO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_variable_theory
“Under the orthodox Copenhagen interpretation, quantum mechanics is nondeterministic, meaning that it generally does not predict the outcome of any measurement with certainty. Instead, it indicates what the probabilities of the outcomes are, with the indeterminism of observable quantities constrained by the uncertainty principle. The question arises whether there might be some deeper reality hidden beneath quantum mechanics, to be described by a more fundamental theory that can always predict the outcome of each measurement with certainty: if the exact properties of every subatomic particle were known the entire system could be modeled exactly using deterministic physics similar to classical physics, a la Laplace’s demon.
In other words, it is conceivable that the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics is an incomplete description of nature. The designation of variables as underlying “hidden” variables depends on the level of physical description (so, for example, “if a gas is described in terms of temperature, pressure, and volume, then the velocities of the individual atoms in the gas would be hidden variables”.[5]). Physicists supporting de Broglie-Bohm theory maintain that underlying the observed probabilistic nature of the universe is a deterministic objective foundation/property — the hidden variable. Others, however, believe that there is no deeper deterministic reality in quantum mechanics — experiments have shown a vast class of hidden variable theories to be incompatible with observations. Kirchmair and colleagues have shown that, in a system of trapped ions, quantum mechanics conflicts with hidden variable theories regardless of the quantum state of the system.[6]
Phil: He does devote a fair bit of the book to tricks they use to make people buy things, but it’s not a sales manual. Rather, it’s quite good proof against being hoodwinked by sales tricks. It mentions false choices that are assumed – for instance, pitch one product higher, another lower, and you’ll likely go for the middle one – thinking it’s a good compromise – whereas in fact, you didn’t actually need it at all. How effective someone pretending to be an enthusiastic bystander is in a marketplace. How easily one is rushed into a deal, because they feel they’d be missing out (even on something they never knew they wanted).
The anti-social aspects of rioting were the stealing of things one did not need, and setting fire to institutions that had not offended you, until the mob mentality had arose. I don’t think he was placing value judgements on rioting per se. At least, I didn’t read it that way.
It did seem to complement the points being made here, that your mind has already determined what to do, and most of our internal discussion about the decision is purely rationalising the action.
Personally, I’m not so sure. I’ve been inclined to get things before now, but then done some calculations of finance based on a optimistic Vs pessimistic scenario over the next few months, drawn up pro/con lists, and made the decision then. That sort of calculation has often stopped me doing or buying something that I’d felt very inclined to go for. (Even to the point that I’d half convinced myself it was do-able, affordable or whatever, before properly looking into it.)
Clark; “It’s a crazy world where nearly everything ever said is to some extent a deception”
Even worse, self-deception, and very dangerous, especially in Western politics;
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/the-infantile-diplomacy-behind-demonising-russia/14824#.UzmiTXf7zP0.twitter
Thanks. I cannot get the comments to appear. There should be 52.
I also liked this piece. If Cameron really thinks this, then he is completely deluded.
Why Libya should haunt Cameron’s nightmares
David Cameron thinks of Libya as his ‘happy place’, but it is far from happy today.
http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/why-libya-should-haunt-camerons-nightmares/14841
Tired of scrolling past an unwanted contributor? Then try Habbabreak v1. The all friendly sanity helper for Craig Murray’s blog.
100% safe. 100% effective. Habbabreak.
Some sites I will never link to no matter the content. These include:
Nazis On Amphetamines sites
Alex Jones sites
Spiked Online
It’s probably just me.
@Mary, I actually got it from via the Moon of Alabama site, which I’ve started to frequent more & more since CM’s has now turned into little more than a trolls playground; still looking for a decent UK political bog though.
Here’s the link for the comments iro the article on the Moon of Alabama site, worth reading, and following up some of the contained links to other articles;
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/03/how-foreign-affairs-demean-democracy-at-home.html#comments
@Mary,
In those comments I found this Karl Marx quote, which answers that oxymoronic “Greed is Good” corporate driven mentality, whose message is that the most important thing in life is making money;
“The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theater, go dancing, go drinking, think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc., the more you save and the greater will become that treasure which neither moths nor maggots can consume — your capital. The less you are, the less you give expression to your life, the more you have, the greater is your alienated life … So all passions and all activity are submerged in greed” – Karl Marx, Notebooks, 1844
afrend; “Then try Habbabreak v1”
Thanks, and thanks for the laugh; but really what an damning indictment that a once popular blog has now been reduced to being the Habbu-Troll Show !
http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/04/02/russian-gps-alternative-satellites-went-illegalfailure-solar-storm-damage-or-cyberwar-in-space/
Look over here, not over there. Has MH 370 been a sufficient distraction?
“GLONASS is the equivalent of GPS, an alternative global navigation satellite system (GNSS) launched and operated by Russian Aerospace Defense Forces (RADF). Apart from GPS, it is the only other GNSS with global capability.
It’s possible that the outage is related to either a new M-class solar storm — the start of which was reported about 48 hours ago — or recent X-class solar flare on March 29 at approximately 1700 UTC. The latter event caused a short-term radio blackout about one hour after the flare erupted.
But there is conjecture that GLONASS’ outage is human in origin and possibly deliberate. The absence of any reported outage news regarding GPS and other active satellite systems suggests this is quite possible, given the unlikelihood that technology used in GLONASS differs dramatically from that used in other satellite systems.
At least one observer mentioned that a monitoring system tripped at 21:00 UTC — 00:00 GLONASS system time. The odds of a natural event like a solar storm tripping at exactly top of the hour are ridiculously slim, especially since radiation ejected from the new M-class storm may not reach its peak effect on earth for another 24-48 hours.”
Jaysus H. The mods are so busy with their duties that now they’re screwing with avatars.
‘decorating the warts..because of the image value @ CM’
Sock puppeting at CM is ended. A coloured gravatar has been allocated to each poster and Anon is out of it.
Ben,
No comment from the Russians officially yet but looks like a cock-up rather than a cyber-attack. So far anyway.
http://gpsworld.com/glonass-gone-then-back/
Full story at http://gpsworld.com/glonass-gone-then-back/
Hmm. An interesting set of tweets from https://twitter.com/Ukrainolution
Apparently they have degraded GPS (US system) in Ukraine at the moment.
Okay this is interesting,
I have a GPS test/diagnostic app on my phone. I just went out into clear ground where the phone had unobstructed view of multiple GPS satellites. The very best accuracy reading I could get was +/- 10 metres. Normally my phone gets better than 5 metre accuracy and more expensive recent models should do a bit better.
With the phone on the window ledge at home I am getting no better than 20 metres accuracy at best and +/- 100 metres at worse and I can see that it appears to be rejecting multiple satellites from the calculation as their time signal is too far off. Now the phone has a limited view of the sky from the window and there are trees that will get in the way but it certainly seems to me as if GPS accuracy is about half what I would normally see.
So in both test cases I am seeing a lack of accuracy in GPS below what I normally expect. If anyone knows anyone with a specialised GPS receiver in Europe right now could you get them to turn it on and see what computed accuracy it reports.
Nobody else other than Ukraine source seems to be tweeting about the problem but you can’t localise degraded GPS to a country. A satellite either transmits a slightly less accurate time/position signal or it doesn’t. The satellites don’t know what country you are in.
Latest tweet from Ukraine says about 10 metres accuracy right now which seems to match what I am seeing in UK. Hey but maybe my phone is just having a bad day.
Android users can download GPS Test at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chartcross.gpstest
Mary; “Sock puppeting at CM is ended. A coloured gravatar has been allocated to each poster and Anon is out of it”
A step in the right direction, but as long as Craig’s favourite troll is allowed to continue to post his inane drivel, it’s rather pointless.
WordPress will assign a different generated avatar if the user supplies a different email address from the same IP address so the mods will still have to manually check for sock-puppets. Then they have to be sure that the IP address isn’t a widely used proxy or TOR exit node or similar. in which case multiple genuinely distinct users can have the same IP address.
I’ve just turned on WordPress “Retro” generated avatars for a laugh and to see what they look like. Craig’s blog appears to be using “Identicon” avatars.
How wrong was that. Shows I know b all about computing matters!
AlcAnon April 2, 2014 at 8:53 pm
“…you can’t localise degraded GPS to a country. ”
Couldn’t the satellites transmit a signal of a one accuracy in one region and another accuracy in another region? i.e. different accuracies according to location.
Yes, I assume you can but the satellite footprint covers a lot of surface. The region of degraded signal would have to be large I think. Unless you use active broadcasting of a more powerful signal spoofing the satellites. Then you can spoof/degrade GPS over a small area.
“I’ve just turned on WordPress “Retro” generated avatars for a laugh”
Space Invaders! Takes me back years …
Hope we can keep them! 🙂
“I’ve just turned on WordPress “Retro” generated avatars for a laugh”
LSD! Takes me back years …
Any DU laden dust being borne in from North Africa? Did Cameron and his fellow warmongers use DU tipped weaponry in Libya as their predecessors did in Iraq?
How about this uselessness on the DEFRA website a little earlier?
V slow to load. Air pollution levels for the SE.
About 14 monitoring sites are listed and the entries against each placename in five columns for Ozone, Nitrogen and Sulphur Dioxide and two different types of particles say n/a or n/m.
http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/latest/currentlevels?period=current®ion=8
Still no change an hour later. I have just checked again.
Yes they did indeed Mary… in many Places….
On Monday (28th March) the US Admiral William Gortney told the press that: “We have employed A-10s and AC-130s over the weekend” [note 4]. It is believed that six A-10s from 81st Fighter Squadron, which are typically armed with DU rounds, have been deployed [note 5].
As for the total amount of oxidized DU in the environment, we start from the data for this assessment by the international press: in the first day of the war, about 112 cruise missiles impacted on Libyan soil[14]. How many missiles will be fired before the end of the war? That is unknown, however we will do an assessment considering about 1,000 missiles fired, and in any case the values are linearly variable with the actual amount of fired missiles, by means of a simple proportion.
Given the length of the military operations, the wide variety of suspect DU-bearing weapons, we consider this statement to be on the safe side.
If all the missiles were “without” DU, it would still have a quantity of:
1000 * 3 = 3000 kilos = 3 tons of DU (best case)
If all the missiles were using DU we have an amount up to:
400,000 kilos = 400 tons of DU.
By Massimo Zucchetti – Professor at the Department of Energy at the Torino Polytechnic
http://www.globalresearch.ca/cruise-missiles-with-depleted-uranium-on-libya/24212
The words of the 23rd psalm came into mind this morning! I restored my soul by visiting Winkworth Arboretum. The sun shone and the air was clear unlike that in the town where I live. It was created by a nice Dr Fox (a real doctor and unlike Liam, not a warmonger) who saw beauty in the world.
It is bowl shaped and there is a large lake at the bottom. It is full of specimen trees and is beautiful at this time of year – camellias, rhododendrons, magnolias, cherries, etc. The Magnolia stellatas were especially lovely. The white star shaped blossoms move slightly with the breeze.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_stellata
Dr Fox bequeathed his creation to the National Trust. He also founded the Roads Beautifying Association! Can you see that happening nowadays?
http://www.essence-magazine.co.uk/page4/winkworth.html
Recommend a visit. Also spectacular Autumn colours.
This is getting out of hand. I didn’t setup this blog for people to learn to hate each other a bit more and to hurl insults back and forwards.
If it doesn’t stop I’ll switch all comments to be pre-moderated and stop it that way. If that drives people away then I’ll shutdown the blog as a natural consequence.
I have deleted a large number of posts from multiple posters since last night. I am not showing favouritism – I hate you all equally 🙂 🙂
Further comments are likely to be deleted without warning at my discretion. I don’t mind disagreement but things have gone beyond that. This is my blog and I’ve had enough.
okey dokey.
Good on you Squonk. It was getting as bad as Craig’s site.
“I was in a class without a dunce and every litter does not have a runt. It’s not a law of nature. It’s something else.”
That explains a lot. i think my class got your one as well.
Seriously it is a law of nature, human nature. The solution is in each of ourselves. People are what they are and you either accept them as what they are or you ignore them. You aint gonna change them.
Where is US tech on this?
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-04/03/content_17401458.htm
“Over the last 30 years, various studies have suggested a link between seismic activity and the precipitation of energetic electrons trapped in the Van Allen Belts, Battiston said.
Studies suggest that strong seismic activity often causes electromagnetic anomalies in the Earth’s atmosphere, ionosphere and magnetosphere, aiding the monitoring and prediction of earthquakes.
Battiston said the collaboration between Italy and China is “extremely effective” and he looks forward to the first data from China’s electromagnetic satellite.”
Squonk; “If it doesn’t stop I’ll switch all comments to be pre-moderated and stop it that way”
No objection if it comes to that, anthing to make people post constructive well meaning comments.
Ben,
Dimitar Ouzounov quoted in your linked article also works for NASA.
Previous paper on the subject at http://www.gwu.edu/~spi/assets/docs/Ouzounov%20-%20Recent%20Research%20in%20Monitoring%20Earthquakes%20by%20using%20multisenssor%20satellite%20and%20ground%20data%20-%20a%20preliminary%20report.pdf
Also Google search https://www.google.co.uk/?q=Dimitar+Ouzounov++site%3Anasa.gov will find related research on nasa.gov
“I have deleted a large number of posts from multiple posters since last night. I am not showing favouritism – I hate you all equally”
No problem. 🙂
Thx, AA. I’m especially interested in ionospheric sprecursors.
http://tao.cgu.org.tw/pdf/v153p413.pdf
sprecursors?
Phil, I’m more positive about Internet activism than you seem to be. I think there have been occasions when our efforts at Craig’s really did make a difference. Here are a few that come to mind:
* Craig appealed to readers to lobby for his evidence to be heard before the Joint Committee on Human Rights. I was one of many who did so; we were successful, Craig was called to testify and had many supporters at the hearing.
* On more than one occasion Craig has appealed to readers to write to their MPs to oppose deportations to Uzbekistan. I think I remember one success and one failure.
* Craig appeared on BBC News 24 to speak about the Iranian arrest of some British Royal Navy personnel deployed into (possibly disputed) Iranian waters. He also blogged intensively on the matter. Craig’s was a lonely voice of sanity amid the drum-beat for war with Iran, and without the popularity of his blog I expect he would have been completely ignored.
* Craig’s efforts involving FOI requests exposed the Werritty matter, but it was the collaborative efforts of contributors at Craig’s that helped to expose the connections with the fake charity Atlantic Bridge.
* Collaboration between Craig and his contributors exposed the connection between Anders Breivik and Pamela Geller and her blog Atlas Shrugs, various contributors retrieving evidence from Internet caches before expiry, and re-posting on-line.
Precursor to blizzards? Wow.
http://iigm.res.in/index.php/research/antarctica/global-electric-circuit
“Our recent observations of the electric field and current density at Maitri indicate that they turn to zero or negative a few hours before the onset of a Blizzard. Can these observations be the precursor for the onset of blizzard? We are looking into more such cases before coming to a conclusion.
This seems counter-intuitive. I always thought a ‘person’ was smart, but ‘people’, or the masses (mobs especially) were dumb.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/04/02/297839429/-so-you-think-youre-smarter-than-a-cia-agent
“First, if you want people to get better at making predictions, you need to keep score of how accurate their predictions turn out to be, so they have concrete feedback.
But also, if you take a large crowd of different people with access to different information and pool their predictions, you will be in much better shape than if you rely on a single very smart person, or even a small group of very smart people.
“The wisdom of crowds is a very important part of this project, and it’s an important driver of accuracy,” Tetlock said.”
This is a link from CM ‘Disappear..’ thread wherein is found text from an Abel Danger youtube. Very interesting….a retired pilot on MH 370.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/03/disappearing-aircraft/comment-page-7/#comment-450736
Here’s a hat-trick of links Ben, that may interest you; the first is a report of how the Ukraine situation is affecting co-operation between NASA & the Russians, the other links are a debate and an interview iro the missing plane;
http://arstechnica.com/science/2014/04/nasa-must-immediately-cease-all-contact-with-russia/
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/04/01/356776/cia-knows-fate-of-malaysia-plane/
http://www.msnbc.com/ronan-farrow/watch/plane-passengers-partner-still-skeptical-209483331906
Interesting Ben…. They have been keeping that Quiet eh… keep up zee digging ….
i’m about to put up another kind Flight in the X Class Solar Flare – room… a near miss methinks… 😉 c heck it oot
Huh?
http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fpraag.co.za%2F%3Fp%3D23549&edit-text=
“The ANC government has received a request from the U.S. was rejected to be part of a U.S. disaster management plan which South Africa $ 10 billion a year (about R100 billion) for ten years would receive. According to the plan would be temporary housing for millions of Americans in South Africa built if the Yellowstone super volcano in the country sooner or later would come to a head.”
Ben, April 3, 8:46 pm; interesting article. That whole Good Judgement Project is public:
http://www.goodjudgmentproject.com/
First there was ARPA, then DARPA; this is IARPA; you can even join in with some of the projects:
http://www.iarpa.gov/whatis.html
Yes, I had the impression that physical crowds tend to do stupid things. Maybe they all just block each other’s view.
Ben, 9:26 pm; hmmm, looks as though not even a hundred billion bucks is enough to persuade the South Africans to risk having to host a few million desperate Americans. I know it’s not much help but I have a spare bedroom…
Clark; I wish you would weigh-in on the ‘disappear..’ thread.
Much to analyze. Start with Boeing’s patented uninterruptible auto pilot.
Ben, April 4, 11:03 pm; I’ve been avoiding flight 370 discussions due to the paucity of the evidence that’s related directly to the case. It certainly looks as though BUAP could have been involved, but…
Has any new hard evidence actually emerged? All I’ve seen so far looks pretty speculative to me. I did add one speculation of my own, which will only muddy matters further, I expect.
Ben, April 3, 8:46 pm; regarding “crowds” and the intelligence thereof, I think that “crowd” is too vague, and probably what matters is the structure. Consider Wikipedia, which has been described as “crowd sourced”. Yes, billions of people can potentially add to or subtract from Wikipedia, but it’s the structure, which strongly encourages convergence towards the verifiable, which is Wikipedia’s great strength. It’s effectively a feedback system. If someone adds unverifiable material to Wikipedia, or removes well-supported material, those edits get undone by other editors, rendering edits that fails to build consensus a waste of time and effort, thereby depriving that editor of the “reward” of publication.
The Good Judgement Project article mentions feedback too. I’m not familiar with its structure, but the article claims that the project does indeed make good predictions.
I think the crux of your original discrepancy, that “a ‘person’ was smart, but ‘people’, or the masses (mobs especially) were dumb”, lies in the definition of “crowd” or “mob”. Traditionally it means something like “a lot of people all in close proximity”. The “lots of people” bit is true of the Good Judgement Project, but their perspectives aren’t limited by the proximity of all the others as is the case in a physical crowd, and their various directions of thought don’t impinge upon each other the way the physical movements in a physical crowd do.
Here they go again……….
http://news.sky.com/story/1237620/missing-plane-ship-detects-signal-in-ocean
Clark; BUAP, imo, is the smoking gun, as it were. Yes the discussion borders the ethereal, but that’s why the matter requires brain-storming; disparate facts conjoined to make a plausible picture.