McFreedom
Politics, Guns, Law and TechFriday, February 28, 2003
Too Busy
Thankfully, I'm not trying to blog and program at the same time, however.
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
Turks Want More
First of all, this is the same Turkey that we've supported for EU membership while almost no one else has. The same Turkey who has been a part of the (increasingly useless) NATO for some time now. And now the time comes, and they want even more money?
But, beyond all this, why do we want troops in Turkey?. We could do the invasion from the south if we had to. Sure, it's nice to split the Iraqi forces, but I don't think there's really going to be that much resistance, anyhow. One reason is that we want to stop Mr. Hussein's troops from torching the northing Iraqi oilfied, to insure Turkey's supply of cheap oil.. The other is to prevent the Kurds in Iraq from getting any ideas, to save Turkey from an independent Kurdistan. For which they want us to pay them more money. Uh, OK, how about this counter-offer: We stop supporting you for EU membership, let Saddam Hussein torch the northern oil fields, and let the Kurds form an independent Kurdistan, seriously running the risk of a Kurdish rebellion in your south.
Or would you rather have the $25 billion and give us a hand, here?
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 17
"Wot kind of voices — Brooklyn or guttural?"
Sunday, February 16, 2003
Effectiveness of Inspections
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 16
"I'm depending on you old men to be a steadying influence for the replacements."
Friday, February 14, 2003
Valentine's Day Cards
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 15
"I need a couple guys what don't owe me no money for a little routine patrol."
Thursday, February 13, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 14
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
I Was a Teenage Shill for The Man
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 13
"I feel like a fugitive from th' law of averages."
Monday, February 10, 2003
Music Industry Online UPCs
It went smoothly, at first. A UPC is a six-digit manufacturer identification number, followed by a "class" digit, followed by a four-digit item number, followed by a a single checksum digit. This gave us 9,999 UPCs from our initial signup.
Since we assigned one UPC to the album and one UPC to each song on the album, each album used, on average, 13 UPCs. After only 769 albums, we ran out.
As a temporary solution, we overflowed our manufacturer's ID number, and called the Uniform Commercial Council, the folks who dole these numbers out. We'd figured that you could get all the music market that mattered with about 400,000 songs, so we said, "We'd really like to have about 400,000 UPCs." They replied, "You understand, right, that if you have a bin of screws, you put one UPC on the bin, not one UPC on every screw?" We explained that we got that, but that we really, actually were going to need 400,000 unique identifiers someday (by the time I departed, we needed about 125,000). UCC's answer? "We don't think UPC is a solution for you." We ended up just using our own, internal SKUs.
Looks like they told the RIAA the same thing. And, believe it or not, the RIAA's solution is cheaper. 400,000 numbers from the UCC would cost about $10,000, but the RIAA solution apparently will handle "millions" of songs for $250.
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 12
"So I told Company K they'd just have to work out their replacement problem for themselves."
The American replacements system in World War II was notorious for its problems. It is questionable whether, if you set out to design as bad a system as possible, you could come up with something worse. The effectiveness of a fighting force depends on morale, and the cornerstone of morale is the bond between the troops. The original soldiers trained together for years before entering the fray, so on the battlefield, they knew the men beside them were trustworthy. They had shared experiences, shared jokes, they knew each other as well as men can.The modern system of replacing battlefield casualties is to keep units together. As a unit on the battlefield gets depleted from casualties (or merely exhausted), it will be rotated back from the front for a little rest. A completely new unit - all of whom have trained together - will replace it in the line. Men stay with men they know. If the resting company needs significant replacements, those replacements will be added to the ranks away from the front, and the unit can then spend some time training together and assimilating the green troops.
Unfortunately, in World War II, the American practice was essentially the opposite of this. Units were kept in the field indefinitely. New troops, fresh out of basic training, were deployed to the front in ones and twos as they were needed. From the point of view of the new troops, it is hellish - you're thrown into combat with a bunch of men you've never met, before. Worse, they all know that, as a replacement, you're very likely to end up a casualty almost immediately, so no on invests any emotional time in you. Make it through the first weeks alive, and the seasoned vetrans will eventually open up, as you become one of them.
They had a saying in World War II - "There's three ways of doing anything: The right way, the wrong way, and the Army way." Clearly the system above was the wrong way. The Army way was to not actually have those replacements when you needed them...
Sunday, February 09, 2003
Sunday Mornings
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 11
Saturday, February 08, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 10
"... I'll never splash mud on a dogface again (999) ... I'll never splash mud on a dogface again (1000) ... Now will ya help us push?"
Friday, February 07, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 8
"Why ya lookin' so sad? I got out of it okay."
In case it's not clear, this is a mail jeep that hit a landmine. The driver's OK, but the soldiers are probably more broken up than if he had died, as their precious letters from home turn to ashes and smoke.Thursday, February 06, 2003
Chinese Influences
Now, it is entirely unsurprising to me that the ambassadors to the UNSC did not significantly change their positions. They are not policy-makers; they are agents of their respective governments. Each had prepared remarks long before hearing Mr. Powell's speech, and it would in any case take several days for Mr. Powell's evidence to sink in back at home and new directives to be issued. So I believe all those who took the remarks of the ambassadors to mean the end of the UN are being premature - we'll see over the next few days who is actually swayed.
Mr. Powell's presentation had been billed as dramatic reenactment of Adlai Stevenson's famous performance in the Security Council of so many years ago. The U.S. had accused Russia of moving nuclear weapons into Cuba, an unacceptable threat. The U.S.S.R. denied the charge. On October 25, 1962, Ambassador Stevenson dramatically confronted Ambassador Zorin. "All right, sir, let me ask you one simple question: Do you, Ambassador Zorin, deny that the U.S.S.R. has placed and is placing medium- and intermediate-range missiles and sites in Cuba? Yes or no—don’t wait for the translation—yes or no?" When Ambassador Zorin gave no reply, Ambassador Stevenson, famously continued, "...I am prepared to wait for my answer until hell freezes over, if that’s your decision. And I am also prepared to present the evidence in this room." He then proceeded to unveil satellite pictures of the weapons the Soviets had been claiming did not exist.
Even this dramatic moment, however, was not in and of itself, decisive. The Soviets insisted the evidence was fabricated. There was no sudden change in the Security Council. In this context, it was not surprising to me that no positions were changed, yesterday. Mr. Powell's evidence was overwhelming in aggregate, but there was no sudden, convincing piece.
The Chinese Ambassador's remark about political solutions did remind me of another famous quote, however, from her own Chairman Mao: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." If the U.N. is unwilling to deploy force when mocked for twelve years, then it has no political power. We'll see in the next few weeks if the U.N. will become a powerful force to hold despotic regimes accountable, or will remain a playground for governments that oppress their own people.
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 8
"Awright, awright — it's a general! Ya wanna pass in review?"
Wednesday, February 05, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 7
"Nonsense. S-2 reported that machine gun silenced hours ago. Stop wiggling your fingers at me."
I'd hoped to say enlightening things about the frailty of battlefield intelligence, here, but I worked too late and have an early plane on the morrow. Perhaps later...Tuesday, February 04, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 6
"Run it up th' mountain agin, Joe. It ain't hot enough."
Nothing like a warm shower to raise morale...Monday, February 03, 2003
Still Around
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 5
"Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."
This is one of my favorites - it doesn't say anything deep, but I think it's really funny.I'll be out of town on a business trip today, so don't expect much from me. Not that I deliver much on the average day, anyhow. :)
Sunday, February 02, 2003
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Numbers 3 and 4
"Tell th' old man I'm sittin' up wit' two sick friends."
"Joe, yestiddy ya saved my life an' I swore I'd pay ya back. Here's my last pair of dry socks."
Of course, infrantrymen live on their feet. Keeping their feet warm and dry is a recurring theme from infrantymen of all wars, and it was no less true in World War II. Hard statistics are difficult to come by, but trenchfoot was certainly one of the leading causes of casualties on both sides. Men would sit immobile in foxholes for forty-eight hours (or more), cold and wet. When it finally came time to move, they couldn't. Previous Willie and Joe
Saturday, February 01, 2003
"Lawmakers vow to investigate shuttle disaster"
Columbia's Last Flight
Transterrestrial Musings has some good speculation on the possible causes, and what happens from here.
I was actually more aware that the shuttle would be landing this morning than normal. A friend of mine sent an email detailing the landing plan; when Columbia first entered the atmosphere, it was still dark, here, in the Bay Area, and the fireball should've been visible to the naked eye. I'd considered getting up early to watch it (in retrospect, it would've passed over my house intact), but the weather was so cloudy and foggy I decided not to.
This morning, my son Blake woke up late (8 AM PST), and I got up without listening to the news, which I usually do. The shuttle landing was on my mind, because if they had aborted the landing, today (because of weather in Florida), they'd postpone it 'till tomorrow, when the weather here might be better. When he and I got upstairs, the first thing I did was turn on the news to see if I could get an update on the shuttle.
Beyond the current tragedy, all I can say is that I certainly hope this doesn't mean we're out of the business of sending people into space.
Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe Number 2
"Th' hell this ain't th' most important hole in th' world. I'm in it."
This is dated May 29. It's presumably from 1944, since the Invasion in France was nearly a year old (and the war in Europe almost over) in 1945. Since D-Day was still a little more than a week away, the article must be speculating that an invasion of France is imminent.Archives
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