TIF 1- Djurgården 5

August 20, 2015

TIFOur local football team, Torstorps IF plays in one of the two sections of Division 4 in the county of Östergotland. In their own league table they are running second. They had the good fortune this year to have have been allotted a match, at home, in the 2nd round of the Swedish Football cup, against mighty Djurgården. (That’s like a village team being drawn against Man U in the FA Cup). Local crowd records were broken easily and when I arrived I only got a seat  among the Djurgården crowd for the first half. The discussion around me was whether they were going to win by 6 or by 12.

TIF is just a little club by most standards but has been going for 80 years. The Finspång municipality only has a population of some 25,000 but Torstorp still manages to run 15 teams, of which 10 are children’s teams (including two girls teams), one junior team, one youth team and the A team. It was a lovely day in bright sunshine and virtually all Finspång children were there. There were many more matches going on off the pitch than on it. Hot dogs and burgers ran out.

IMG_1744

20150820 Atlaslunden

In the event the team did us proud.

Djurgården did not even manage to get 6.

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Chastity belts to protect the Missouri legislature?

August 20, 2015

c. 1405 wikipedia

This little article conjured up a vision of all interns at the Missouri legislature being required to wear chastity belts.

TPM:

The Missouri legislature would like to continue its internship program despite the program being marred by the recent sexual harassment of interns.

The idea the lawmakers have come up with? Imposing a dress code for the interns to “help everyone keep their focus on legislative matters.”

Missouri state Rep. Kevin Engler (R) sent a memo to his colleagues Monday night with suggestions, including minimum number of credit hours for participation and mandatory sexual harassment training for both interns and lawmakers, according to the Kansas City Star on Tuesday.

The move came after two legislators, including former Missouri House Speaker John Diehl (R), resigned amid allegations of sexual harassment of interns. State Rep. Bill Kidd (R) responded to Engler with a suggestion of his own: “Intern dress code,” he wrote, according to the newspaper. Rep. Nick King (R) agreed, the newspaper reported.

Jessica Tigra – Denver Fashion Week – Ira Sherman Chastity belt Couture 2014: Couture 2014

I suppose it makes sense to the legislators to put the onus on their victims. A case of locking up the temptations that arouse the base instincts of the predators?

Of course all this led to further visions of compulsory chastity belts being used as fashion statements. Some changes to materials would be required. Metal would have to be replaced by some new fabric though chain-mail could still work. Kevlar and diamonds perhaps for casual Fridays and more formal wear for regular use? Of course it would all have to be unisex. Moulded, kevlar jeans could work quite well.

 

 

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Trump has more support on immigration than political correctness allows

August 19, 2015

Good clowns – in amongst their antics – have the ability to hit the right nerve, to trigger something primal in our emotions.

Donald Trump is no doubt a “clown”. The politically correct media and politicians are pouring scorn on his immigration positions. But he may be tapping in to something felt strongly by many but which they have been unable to express for fear of being politically incorrect. He may be reflecting the mood in the country – and not just among Republicans – far better than anybody dares to give him credit for:

Rasmussen Reports:

As far as voters are concerned – and not just Republicans –  Donald Trump has a winning formula for fighting illegal immigration.

My take aways from the report:

  1. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% of Likely Republican Voters agree with the GOP presidential hopeful that the United States should build a wall along the Mexican border to help stop illegal immigration.
  2. Ninety-two percent (92%) of Republicans agree that the United States should deport all illegal immigrants who have been convicted of a felony in this country.
  3. Among all likely voters, 51% favor building a wall on the border.
  4. Fifty-four percent (54%) of voters disagree with the current federal policy that says a child born to an illegal immigrant here is automatically a U.S. citizen.
  5. Just 34% favor President Obama’s plan to protect up to five million illegal immigrants from deportation.
  6. … most voters want the border with Mexico secured to prevent further illegal immigration before there is any talk of amnesty. In May, 63% said gaining control of the border is more important than legalizing the status of undocumented workers already living in the United States, the highest level of support for border control since December 2011. 
  7. Sizable majorities in nearly all demographic categories favor deporting illegal immigrants convicted here of felony crimes. But Democrats are less enthusiastic about such a policy than Republicans and voters not affiliated with either major party are. Only 30% of Democrats favor building a wall, compared to 57% of unaffiliated voters.
  8. Trump took a lot of criticism last month from Democrats and other Republican presidential hopefuls over his candid remarks about the criminality of many illegal immigrants, but most voters agree with Trump that illegal immigration increases serious crime in this country.

Trump’s Republican rivals are gradually realising that the agenda is being set by Trump.

I wonder how long it will be before the main stream media jump on the band-wagon. If they do start covering him more seriously and then perhaps even backing him, then my reading is that Trump could “go viral”  and walk away with the nomination.

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Physics came first and then came chemistry and later biology

August 19, 2015

I generally take it that there are only 3 basic sciences, physics, chemistry and biology. I take logic to be the philosophical framework and the background for the observation of the universe. Mathematics is then not a science but a language by which the observations of the universe can be addressed. All other sciences are combinations or derivatives of the three basic sciences. Geology, astronomy, cosmology, psychology, sociology, archaeology, and all the rest derive from the basic three.

I was listening to a report today about some Japanese researchers  who generated protein building blocks by recreating impacts by comets containing water, amino acids and silicate. Some of the amino acids linked together to form peptides (chained molecules). Recurring lengths of peptide chains form proteins and that leads to life. What interested me though was the element of time.

Clearly “chemistry” had to exist before “biology” came into existence. Chemistry therefore not only comes first and “higher” in the hierarchy of the existence of things but is also a necessary, but insufficient, requirement for “biology” to exist. Chemistry plus some “spark” led to biology. In that case the basic sciences are reduced to two since biology derives from chemistry. I cannot conceive of biology preceding chemistry. The elements and atoms and molecules of chemistry had to exist before the “spark” of something brough biology into existence.

chemical reactions (chemistry) + “spark of life”(physics?) = biology

By the same token, does physics precede chemistry? I think it must. Without the universe existing (physics) and all the elements existing within it (which is also physics) and without all the forces acting upon the elements (still physics), there would be no chemistry to exist. Or perhaps the Big Bang was physics and the creation of the elements itself was chemistry? But considering that nuclear reactions (fusion or fission) and the creation of new elements are usually considered physics, it would seem that the existence of physics preceded the existence of chemistry. The mere existence of elements would be insufficient to set in motion reactions between the elements. Some other forces are necessary for that (though some of these forces are even necessary for the existence of the elements). Perhaps physics gives the fundamental particles (whatever they are) and then chemistry begins with the formation of elements? Whether chemistry starts with elements or with the fundamental particles, physics not only must rank higher as a science, it must have come first. Particles must first exist before they can react with each other.

Particles (physics) + forces (physics) = chemistry.

In any event, and by whatever route I follow, physics preceded chemistry, and physics must exist first for chemistry to come into being. That makes chemistry a derivative of physics as biology is a derivative of chemistry.

We are left with just one fundamental science – physics.

by elfbrazil wikipedia

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Oil down to $12/barrel? Unthinkable? Maybe not

August 18, 2015

When oil reached well over $100/barrel, the “peak oil”, Malthusian scenarios were dusted off and regurgitated ad nauseum.

Then came the drop in demand after the financial crisis and prices came back under $100 as reality set in. The disturbances of reduced production from Iraq, Libya and sanctions-hit Iran could not bring the price back up with demand as low as it was. Then came fracking and flooded the market with oil. Price came down to c. $60. Saudi Arabia did not decrease production but instead started a price war to kill of the nasty frackers and to maintain their market share. Prices should have dropped to less than $30 but stayed up above $50 on hopes of increased demand eventually coming through and hopes that China would get going again. Inventories have grown to record levels.

Oil inventory August 2015

Oil inventory August 2015

But now the hopes of a Chinese recovery anytime soon are beginning to dissipate. Prices have dropped below the psychologically important $50/barrel.

Business Insider: ….. WTI crude oil futures are trading near $42 a barrel while Brent futures are just above $48 a barrel.

And now the talk of oil prices below $20/ barrel, perhaps even as low as $12 are no longer looking ridiculous. David Kotok was talking to Bloomberg.

Oil prices have hit six-year lows, and Cumberland Advisors’ David Kotok thinks the worst may be yet to come.

“We could go back to $15 or $20, this is a downward slope, we don’t know a bottom,” Kotok said in a Monday morning interview on Bloomberg TV. …….. 

Kotok said that despite the oil industries apparent belief that things will get better, there is little reason for anything to change.

“Hope is not a strategy, it’s a myth,” he said. “The fact is, we don’t have the drivers.”

The good news is that there’s good news. When asked about the lack of an increase in consumer spending despite the more favorable oil and gas prices, he said it will come.

“When the oil price goes down that means you get the first kick, but the you have to wait for the consumer to wake up and say ‘Gee, I’m going to have more money for longer, I’m going to spend it’,” Kotok said. “I think that there is a huge boost in consumer spending coming when people begin to accept the fact that this is a permanent shift not a temporary shift.”

Some net oil consuming countries will get a “windfall” to help them kick-start their economies. But prices could stay down for a long time yet until a sustained, global consumer boom truly develops.

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Isn’t it rich …..

August 18, 2015

The clowns have it so far.

Donald Trump is being taken as a “serious clown” and so is Jeremy Corbyn in the UK Labour party. Even the Democrats are beginning to realise that they need to lighten the staid, boring and almost too earnest bill of fare they have to offer. They need a clown.

In the US, Donald Trump is setting the agenda from the front and his act is beginning to attract even his rivals. Scott Walker and other Republicans are jumping on Trump’s immigration train (children of illegals born in the US should not have automatic citizenship and The Wall). Former senator Rick Santorum (Pa.) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal have also hopped onto this train. Even the Washington Post is beginning to analyse Trump’s positions – as they gather flesh – a little more seriously.

In the UK Labour party leadership fight, Corbyn the clown is so far ahead that his nearest rival (also union supported), Andy Burnham, is now finding that he actually does not disagree with Corbyn all that much. It looks like the Unions will win and that the Labour party is starting down the road to oblivion.

But the Democrats are looking more jaded each day. Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden and Al Gore are all coming off as “has-beens and past-its”. Sanders has tried to take on the mantle of a clown but does not quite make it. They desperately need someone to capture the Democratic imagination. Where are the clowns?

The Trump phenomenon continues and the latest Fox poll puts him at 25% and his nearest rival 13 points behind.

WaPo:

The ideas once languished at the edge of Republican politics, confined to think tanks and no-hope bills on Capitol Hill. To solve the problem of illegal immigration, truly drastic measures were necessary: Deport the undocumented en masse. Seize the money they try to send home. Deny citizenship to their U.S.-born children.

Now, all of those ideas have been embraced by Donald Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race, who has followed up weeks of doomsaying about illegal immigrants with a call for an unprecedented crackdown.

On Monday, Trump’s hard turn was already influencing the rest of the GOP field. In Iowa, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker also began to call for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, echoing a longtime Trump demand. Walker said the separation barrier between Israel and the Palestinian territories is proof that the concept could work here.

Walker also seemed to echo Trump by questioning “birthright citizenship,” the constitutional provision that grants citizenship to anyone born in this country. After a reporter asked if birthright citizenship should be ended, Walker said: “I think that’s something we should — yeah, absolutely, going forward.”

The Hilary Clinton momentum is dissipating away with her e-mails. Even the rabidly supportive Huffington Post is getting concerned:

Things are getting weird when even Al Gore is thinking of getting into the Democratic presidential race, which is turning into a last hurrah for the Baby Boomers and their tad-older camp counselors.

Hillary Clinton, permanently punctilious, has done everything right: She put her HQ in Brooklyn, hired savvy digital/social/big data nerds, raised a ton of dough, gave substantive, well-thought-out speeches and flooded early primary and caucus states with organizers. She’s still the default bet for the Democratic nomination: national polls show her with a fat 36 percent lead.

And yet all is not well in Hillaryland. Polls also indicate that voters now view her as untrustworthy. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), whose DeLorean time machine is in overdrive, is drawing colossal crowds and, according to one poll, now leads the former secretary of state in New Hampshire. Vice President Joe Biden, who had previously said “no way,” is now sounding serious about jumping in. So, we are told, is Gore, who was warning of environmental doom as far back as the ‘60s.

Meanwhile the Guardian reports:

Andy Burnham has made an explicit plea to anyone thinking of voting for Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader to pick him instead for what he described as “the worst job in politics”, saying there was “a good deal of common ground” between him and the veteran leftwinger.

Sondheim again –

 Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair?
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air.
Send in the clowns.

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Windows 10 arrived – some good, some pretty bad

August 17, 2015

So my Windows 10 arrived. It took a couple of hours and certainly the Start Menu is a happy return.

windows 10

I have disabled most of the MS intrusions I can on Settings. But not everything is working. And there is still too much rubbish with their “tiles”.

  • Too many logins and verification of accounts – and they are intrusive enough.
  • My back-up drive (external) is totally confused and all backup attempts by Windows have failed so far.
  • All Apps that I try to get at the Store are stuck in some “pending” limbo.
  • Microsoft keeps trying – unsuccessfully – to download additional features to my pc.
  • The card games available are pathetic.
  • I had some difficulty in finding some of my old programs (now called Apps) but they were all there. Some needed to get updates. Theyb are still programs to me.
  • This “file explorer” seems to be inferior.
  • Calendar does not work
  • Maps are pretty inferior – I’m back to Google Maps and Google Earth.

On the plus side the upgrade was relatively painless – just a little time consuming. After some of the scare stories about the difficulties of avoiding Edge, I found it was no great difficulty to stay with Google Chrome. I have looked at Edge, but only very superficially and don’t immediately see any advantages for me. I have no idea what Cortana does or could do for me and I am not going to miss it very much. It seems to boot a little faster – but not by much. But a very pleasant surprise is that my mobile broadband connection is – for some unknown reason – is some 50% or more faster than it was. However the download has absorbed – directly or indirectly – some 7 GB of additional data transfer (judging from my normal usage compared to the last 8 days).

I shall give Microsoft some time to get their Windows 10 bugs sorted out and the fixes downloaded before making any “final” judgement.

But nothing so far has changed my mind that when this pc eventually dies I shall replace it with an iMac.

 

imac 27

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The revenge of the bulls

August 17, 2015

Over 7,000 bulls and steers are killed every year by bullfighters in Spain to maintain their cultural heritage. But lately the bulls have turned – not in the bull-rings but in the streets during various summer festivals. Seven people have been killed by bulls this summer (and 4 over the last weekend) during bull running festivals.

The BBC reports:

Bulls have gored seven people to death during festivals across Spain since the beginning of July – four of them over the past weekend.

The deaths occurred during bull-running in the streets, not in bullrings. It is an unusually high number of fatalities for such a short period.

Among them was a 36-year-old town councillor gored in Penafiel, a town near Valladolid, north of Madrid. Further north an 18-year-old man gored in the stomach died in Lerin, Navarra. The other deaths occurred during bull festivals in the regions of Valencia, Murcia, Toledo, Castellon and Alicante.

Last year more than 7,200 bulls and steers (castrated bull calves) were killed by bullfighters across Spain, the news website El Diario reports. ……….

……. A Spanish law passed in 2013 defends bullfighting as part of the nation’s cultural heritage, saying it is the state’s duty to “preserve it and promote it”, El Pais website reports.

According to Spanish economics lecturer Juan Medina at the University of Extremadura, bullfighting generated €282.4m (£200m; $313m) in 2013, of which €59m was income from sales tax (VAT).

A thousand bulls per human is one way to look at it or in simple money terms, the death of each bull generates some €40,000 of economic activity including about €8,000 of VAT.

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Fifteenth, convex, tiling pentagon found

August 16, 2015

You cannot tile a floor only with regular, identical, convex pentagons.

PlusMaths: 

In 1918 the German mathematician Karl Reinhardt discovered five types of convex pentagon that can tile the plane. (The pentagons that belong to a particular type all share a common feature — see this paper for a description of the types.) Then there was a slow trickle of discoveries through the century, with Rolf Stein eventually bringing the number of types up to fourteen in 1985. (You can read more about the discoveries in Alex Bellos’ Guardian article.) And now, thirty years later, Casey Mann, Jennifer McLoud and David Von Derau of the University of Washington Bothell have announced that they have found another convex pentagon that can tile the plane:

New tiling pentagon

All the fifteen known, convex, tiling pentagons are shown below with the new one at the bottom right.

fifteen known tiling pentagons

fifteen known tiling pentagons

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Good Grief! Scientists uncover a difference between the sexes

August 16, 2015

Perhaps somebody could tell the politically correct that “different” is not an issue of “better” or “worse”. It is about not being the same. Vive la différence.

From the “science is wonderful” category.

Scientists have discovered there are fundamental differences between the brains of men and women. You cannot blame the scientists for the headlines of course, otherwise I would not know whether to be worried or relieved. In any case we could always pass a law saying this is not so.

N. Tabatadze, G. Huang, R. M. May, A. Jain, C. S. Woolley. Sex Differences in Molecular Signaling at Inhibitory Synapses in the Hippocampus. Journal of Neuroscience, 2015; 35 (32): 11252 DOI:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1067-15.2015

Press Release from Northwestern University:

Scientists Uncover a Difference Between the Sexes

Male and female brains operate differently at a molecular level, a Northwestern University research team reports in a new study of a brain region involved in learning and memory, responses to stress and epilepsy.

Many brain disorders vary between the sexes, but how biology and culture contribute to these differences has been unclear. Now Northwestern neuroscientists have found an intrinsic biological difference between males and females in the molecular regulation of synapses in the hippocampus. This provides a scientific reason to believe that female and male brains may respond differently to drugs targeting certain synaptic pathways. 

“The importance of studying sex differences in the brain is about making biology and medicine relevant to everyone, to both men and women,” said Catherine S. Woolley, senior author of the study. “It is not about things such as who is better at reading a map or why more men than women choose to enter certain professions.”

Among their findings, the scientists found that a drug called URB-597, which regulates a molecule important in neurotransmitter release, had an effect in females that it did not have in males. While the study was done in rats, it has broad implications for humans because this drug and others like it are currently being tested in clinical trials in humans.

“Our study starts to put some specifics on what types of molecular differences there are in male and female brains,” Woolley said. 

 

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