Clarity of Important Writing

H/T to Matt Ridley, the following is Francis Crick writing in 1953 to is son about their discovery of DNA:

Jim Watson and I have probably made a most important discovery…Now we believe that the DNA is a code. That is, the order of the bases (the letters) makes one gene different from another gene (just as one page pf print is different from another). You can see how Nature makes copies of the genes. Because if the two chains unwind into two separate chains, and if each chain makes another chain come together on it, then because A always goes with T, and G with C, we shall get two copies where we had one before. In other words, we think we have found the basic copying mechanism by which life comes from life…You can understand we are excited.”

Smart Meters on Electrical Power Supply

Secret Scotland has a great posting “Smart Meters — Maybe Not So Smart”.

The US and UK–government and industry–are pushing hard to install so-called “smart metering technology” everywhere.

Smart metering allows two-way information exchange between energy users and suppliers, providing real-time (almost) information about supply and demand at the individual user level, allowing the level of that supply and demand to be accurately determined on a moment-to-moment basis. According to the Government, smart metering will slash unnecessary energy use, reduce emissions, and cut consumers’ energy bills.

However, as mentioned in the above posting and based on my understanding:

: I still haven’t seen the “proof” that the best interests of customers are retained. Where are the experiments showing before and after? While described as something to manage supply and demand, it is more likely a tool to manage “supply”, e.g. they will give you electricity when they feel like it and if they feel you are not justified getting it, they will cut you off.

: Security is a risk. Our society cannot protect our credit card transactions “on the net”. How will our newly-networked electrical supply system be protected and will it work? Surely there now new risks which are insufficiently mitigated. And what about “unitentended consequences”? See the paper by Anderson and Fuloria linked to by Secret Scotland.

: In today’s news I read that Which? Magazine warns of energy smart meter “fiasco”. Which? is reported to be concerned about the project execution risk–which surely is large as projects like this have a very poor track record–but they don’t appear to be commenting on the purpose/benefits. Yet the project sponsors are enthusiastically reporting on the purpose/benefits which seem to be appear to be unsubstantiated.

Remind me again why we are doing this?

Right, now explain again how we can model the climate for years and years?

See this montage of weather photos (via satellite) over 9 weeks in 3 minutes:

VPN on Mac doesn’t work correctly

I’m getting frustrated and if anyone has suggestions, let me know. I want to connect to a VPN (PPTD) server. Works fine on iPhone. Using exact same settings on Mac (current version), it will not connect. The console logs, even with verbose logging on says “connection to server”. And that’s it. It eventually gives up.

I’ve tried other VPN protocols with no luck. I’ve tried repairing disk permissions. I’ve tried resetting the VPN connections. I’ve removed the keychain entries. I’ve tried Googling for ideas.

Sigh.

Don’t let anyone tell you that Macs are perfect.

Iowa

From Boing Boing, I saw this. I like it. I often have conversations with people who live outside the USA and are quick to make sure that I know that they know more than me about “America”. This will over their heads.

ps. I grew up in a state not unlike Iowa, and appears from the news articles I read to be just as important in the upcoming Presidential election.

Movie Theatre Pricing

Roger Ebert at discusses how the drop in movie revenue is dropping due the high cost of tickets.

I don’t know about the revenue drop issue, but I’m not surprised. We recently went to a local theatre, three of us, to see the new Mission Impossible film. The total cost:

: 3 tickets, £37, which is about US$60
: 2 small popcorns and 1 large Coca Cola, £14, which is about £20.

A total of US$80.

I think I prefer the comfort of my own home with my smallish large-screen LCD TV, DVD, connected to a 35 year old Advent stereo receiver playing on 25 year old speakers for “surround sound”.

Intriguing Theory on Climate Gate

AJStrata at http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/17820 proposes and explains an intriguing theory on who might have released the University of East Anglia emails, known as Climate Gate 1 and Climate Gate 2.

… my suspicion is the document releases may be another CRU attempt to try and slip past the public scrutiny they so fear.

Sort of makes sense as it’s described. So far, it’s the only theory I’ve heard that makes sense.

“Visual Proof of Global Cooling”

Written by Stephen Wilde.

From http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=8890.

Conclusion:

There would appear to have been a clear cooling trend in the northern hemisphere around the pole since at least 2007 and most likely for longer.

The polar air masses are getting colder and expanding, contrary to expectations. That is likely to be the reason why there have been a number of notable incursions of cold air into middle latitudes in recent years. Such events have been occurring in both hemispheres so it is likely that the observed cooling trend is occurring at both poles.

It is a fundamental tenet of anthropogenic global warming theory that the poles warm more than other latitudes. Instead, what we can see here is the poles cooling and exporting cold air and colder ocean water towards the equator.

It may well be that the practice of interpolating estimated temperatures in the uninhabited polar regions is inappropriate and has been delaying our realisation that in fact global cooling is now in progress.

Dropbox vs. SugarSync

I have the need to post files on internet-based sites for use on collaboration with various other people for various reasons. I’ve been using Dropbox and SugarSync; the latter because it appears now to be ubiquitous and the latter because it was recommended by a person who provides reliable recommendations. Prior to getting started I read numerous reviews.

My bottom line is that SugarSync is the preferred tool. I come to this conclusion due to two features in SugarSync which are not in Dropbox (far as I can tell):

1. With SugarSync, I can post files for others to use in READ-ONLY mode. With Dropbox all files are changeable by anyone with access to the folder. Further, I’m informed but have not confirmed this, DropBox users can “re-share” with others without my permission. That opens up the possibility that pretty much anyone can edit the files without me knowing. This is disconcerting and a big reason to be careful of using DropBox’s sharing features.

2. With SugarSync, I can share specific folders in the PC’s file system without having to move them into the DropBox file folder (or subfolders). Yes, with the Mac version of DropBox it is possible to setup a symbolic link in the DropBox folder pointing to a folder in another location, so this point No. 2 is probably moot.

On thing that Dropbox does do is provide software for using on a Linux machine. SugarSync does not. That would be useful in doing more automation.

The Art of the Possible… And the Impossible

Wow. Read this.

The Art of the Possible… And the Impossible:

(Via Climate Resistance)