Edith Shain, pictured above, has died at the age of 92.
I like the picture as a great picture, but it sort of bugged me at the same time. What’s with these pushy sailors going around kissing woman they didn’t know?? I didn’t like the idea of VJ day being like Halloween or a Lakers win – just an excuse to misbehave. I was pleased to read that she slapped the guy after.
This fraulein seems to know the score:
Merkel Tells Obama Spending Cuts to Boost Economy, Not Put Brake on Growth
She may not know that he doesn’t care about the economy, just about Obama.
Obama sure likes to threaten business. Anybody wonder why the economy isn’t thriving, and why business isn’t investing?
It is popular to say that the President is temporary and that the US can survive a bad one. But what about a REALLY bad one?
Via NASA
Here is a picture of the whole gulf:
BP sure screwed up but is trying to fix it. The Feds screwed up and are trying to use it.
Learn the inside story of the making of this iconic poster:
Talent congregated in just the right place to create some cool stuff in the mid-70’s.
We are a big nation – geographically and economically. But there are limits and even a giant must pay the piper for bad investments that do not provide good returns.
Take public schooling… please. Check this chart out:
Spending explodes, achievement declines.
Or this chart:
Enrollment up slightly, spending up immensely.
We, the nation, states, and citizens are getting a REALLY bad return on trillions of dollars in wasteful spending. Spending taken from taxpayers, and the future economy, that will not return enough to recoup the investment.
You can buy babysitters cheaper than this people. Get smart, governmental bad investments are killing our economy, our future, and even our future’s future.
Full details at Big Government. Read it and weep.
Scary pictures from the top failed states around the world:
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/06/21/postcards_from_hell?page=full
Leading indicator… be in Africa or have a mostly Muslim population.
This should be on your reading list.
One of the things I’ve seen over the years is that work experience does not correlate to high quality and efficient software engineering.
So how can programmers get better? Todd Hoff, a programmer known for his C++ coding standard (among other things), says they can get better like pretty much anybody else – with practice.
Deliberate Practice, or Experience, to be precise:
Rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally solitary exertion, repeatedly practicing the most difficult physical tasks for an athlete, repeatedly performing new and highly intricate computations for a mathematician, that leads to first-rate performance. And it should never get easier; if it does, you are coasting, not improving.
This is true, whether in programming, or in skating or shooting. Deliberate practice to build unconscious skills (aim/shoot, make ever more difficult figure skating jumps) leads to excellent performance. Repeat at higher and higher levels to raise the performance bar.
Yet most programmers go home and forget about work. They don’t read about software engineering. They don’t expand or hone their skills. They really aren’t interested in software engineering beyond paying the bills. And while most managers would like software people to get better, sending them to training and giving them time to practice and expand their skills can be really hard to fund.
Some say we need to require certification and continuing education, like doctors or lawyers, but I don’t think that really necessary or helpful. It would just drive up costs of an already very costly and inefficient occupation.
Frankly, I don’t think there is an answer that is satisfying. Other than for software engineers to step up and take an interest and pride in their profession and want and try to get better at it.
For now, as I hire, I try to bring in those that are interested in computer science and software engineering. They read about it, and have memberships in professional organizations, and at a basic level have a self-motivated desire to improve.
I think I’ve just discovered my next topic for the software engineering class I present to each year.
This is a bread cutting box I made for my Uncle Ray. At this point it wasn’t done yet, I still had to sand it and stain it. You cut bread on it and the crumbs fall in the box and you can dump them easily. It sits on a bread boarded cherry table I made for his RV. His RV was old and tired but had the nicest table around!
The bread cutting box, btw, was made entirely with hand tools. No electricity used. The wood came off our farm in Vermont, again hand cut, ripped with a hand rip saw, hand planed to size with a 100 year old jointer hand plane. I then joined it using dove tails cut with a chisel and Japanese pull saw. I made enough wood for two boxes this size, and then went back to power tools. The entire project took months (mainly for drying the wood).
Today is primary day in Utah. I just voted for:
Senate: Mike Lee – This was a “plug my nose” vote. Lee says the right things, but he is too young (making this a possible “Senator for Life” opportunity), a lawyer, and has been in political activities most of his adult life. Alas, Tim Bridgewater strikes me as a man willing to compromise principal to get ahead. He supported No Child Left Behind and his company specialized in wasting government money. If this is the best Utah can offer, well, it says more about Utah than maybe should be said. Anyway, vote for Lee, he sucks less than Bridgewater.
Sheriff: Cory Pulsipher - Here we have the opposite of the Senate race. Two fine candidates that have served with honor and distinction. Friends I like and trust support both of them. In the end I picked Pulsipher because friends of mine who are current and retired Deputies picked him.
School board… no vote. I foolishly didn’t study for these positions. I had no idea about any of them, so I didn’t cast a vote.
If an officer cannot figure out Rolling Stone, how can he understand the Taliban?
Victor Davis Hanson
in this post at the Corner
I’d add that if a President is not competent enough to appoint competent officers to execute our wars, how can we win them?
McChrystal screwed up, but I’m sure having to deal with ninnies like Obama and his crew would drive any patriot insane. Why he had to blow hard to the Rolling Stone is what mystifies me.
Update: Don’t blame the general…
And the academy award goes to….
I’ve not been impressed with the refereeing at the World Cup. But don’t bother with what I say, soccer matters not a bit to me.
Subsequent trials have repeated these results, showing again and again that patients who undergo aerobic exercise regimens see comparable improvement in their depression as those treated with medication, and that both groups do better than patients given only a placebo.
This makes sense. I wish doctors would prescribe exercise more instead of offering up the latest pill.
Alas, few studies on it because it doesn’t sell drugs. Maybe Nike should fund a study.
The inventor of T9 texting has come up with “Swype”; a faster way to type on a virtual keyboard.
