“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.” Groucho Marx
George Rebane
It turns out that the Census Bureau faked the 2012 pre-election jobs report. That is reported by zerohedge.com, Armstrong & Getty on AM650, and the National Review. The list of underhanded things that Team Obama did to continue the Big Lie from Pennsylvania Avenue has grown to remarkable proportions, and the end is nowhere in sight. (H/T to several correspondents)
“Misdiagnoses are among the most common, costly and harmful medical errors. But they are also some of the most preventable.” (18nov13 WSJ) Medical mistakes kill way north of 100K people a year in the US. That is like a jumbo jet crashing every day with all aboard killed. Were that to happen, there would be a national outrage with continuing demonstrations in front of the FAA headquarters and major aircraft manufacturers' facilities. Yet we the sheeple are so cowed by the sanctimonious medical industry that we make not a peep. How long will it be until we demand that physicians start using the available cloud-based AI diagnostic tools instead of flying blind with their fingers up their sunless orifices? And with the atrocity of Obamacare looming over the land, the ongoing development of more capable ‘AI docs’ should be a national priority.
Bill Gates is guest editing the Dec2013 issue of Wired on how to fix the world. And Bill Clinton is there to lend a hand. Check out the thoughts of a thoughtful man after having so much that he can’t spend it all. (more here)
Desperation time at The Union? Did you see that its Other Voices column now contains infomercials with product descriptions and contact information included. I was a bit taken aback by today’s piece on life coaching by Chuck Petch in the op-ed section. (paywalled here)
Control and estimation theory join with algorithmics to illustrate the art of the possible with ‘athletic quadrotors’ in this amazing TED video. The presenter’s narrative is accurate, succinct, informative, and entertaining as the miniature helicopters do their stuff in front of a slack-jawed and obviously beguiled audience. I was entranced watching the video demonstration because it took me back to the same kind of work that I did as a DoD contractor, although the platforms that I worked on were designed for a more deadly kind of athleticism against Soviet submarines, surface ships, and aircraft. But take it from me, working in control/estimation algorithmics is one of the most challenging, fulfilling, and enjoyable jobs in engineering (and they even pay you good money!). In my ken, only AI research is its equal. And when you embed AI into such algorithms, well, it doesn’t get better than that. Enjoy the video.
[update] Just got this link to Congressman Tom McClintock's House floor speech – 'The Toll of Obamacare' – delivered today. It summarizes well his remarks delivered last Saturday at the Nevada County Tea Party fundraiser.
Another Obama foreign policy masterpiece? Afghanistan’s Karzai, that staunch tower of ethics and rectitude, has announced that he has gotten agreement for an ‘apology for mistakes made’ from our president. He demanded this as a pre-condition for letting American troops remain in the country after December 2014 – and do what, continue ‘nation building’? All this is reported with a straight face in the 19nov13 WSJ. I sincerely hope that this is nothing but bluster from Kabul. No one has spelled out what are America’s continuing interests in Afghanistan, yet we seem to act as if these remain significant as we field a constant shower of camel crap that is flung at us by the country’s corrupt government and warlords who have grown rich from the “hundreds of billions” we have spent in the country during the last decade. Absent persuasive interests, what say we let the Taliban come back, cut their heads off, publicly whip their over-educated women, and put the country back on a solid footing of pre-medieval sharia law? Since UAVs can now operate from carriers (here), we can then drone their terror-exporting butts as/when necessary, which is what we are doing now anyway.
rebanesruminations.com 
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