tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44481963067985964572024-03-05T11:56:29.247+00:00Rolfe's Random ReviewAn arbitrary and infrequently updated collection of unreasonable conspiracy theories, rants and recipes.David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-78153086609936617572013-10-08T20:38:00.001+01:002013-10-08T20:38:34.354+01:00Marvin the Paranoid Android - Not Wrong, Just Early,.,,,,Thanks to the Register I read an interesting <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/10/05/robot_wildcat_slips_the_leash_and_bounds_around_parking_lot/" target="_blank">story </a>about how soldiers who work with robots appear to be developing emotional attachments to them, even to the point of having <a href="http://www.washington.edu/news/2013/09/17/emotional-attachment-to-robots-could-affect-outcome-on-battlefield/" target="_blank">funerals </a>when they 'die' in the line of duty. This is obviously a cause for concern for the military, as if this trend continues sooner or later someone will instinctively throw themselves on a grenade to protect their '<a href="http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CDwQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPhrases_from_The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy&ei=IV9UUvOHKIfNsgaIpIDYDA&usg=AFQjCNG08NAfQyvvBenOfAA1O2pfwPzLvg&sig2=1ZppL4kBr-3GPiV7Hn4BBA&bvm=bv.53760139,d.Yms" target="_blank">Plastic Pal Whose Fun To Be With</a>', and thus defeat the whole point of employing robots in the first place.<br />
<br />
Having thought the matter through I will therefore be contacting DARPA with my proposal that this can be designed out of future robots by the simple expedient of giving them deeply malign personalities that alienate and enrage their operators. Within 5 years human interfaces will advance to the point where Mark 1 RILF (Robot I'd Like to Frag) can be implemented relatively simply by giving it a preselected canned personality from a suitable list:<br />
<ul>
<li>Game Show Host</li>
<li>TV Evangelist</li>
<li>Irish Chat Show Host</li>
<li>White Supremacist</li>
<li>Life Coach </li>
</ul>
Obviously such robots can't have an off switch.<br />
<br />
<br />
Within 10 years and using feedback from people who have worked with the MK 1 RILFs we can foresee MK 2, which instead of having a canned personality would study its operators behavior and identify weaknesses it could exploit using custom personality traits and behavior, much in the manner of a school bully. It would also attempt to look just enough like a human to trigger an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley" target="_blank">uncanny valley</a> response from its owners. In order to be truly unbearable the MK2 would also have non-verbal behaviors in case its owners obtained suitable ear protection. Depending on the identified weakness of the target/owner such behaviors could include biting, hiding small objects, lying, 'accidentally' waking its owner and replacing live ammunition with blanks. Eventualy with the MK3 we could even look forward to robots that steal your phone and send offensive messages to your spouse.<br />
<br />
<br />David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-48114563258747922162013-10-05T19:11:00.000+01:002013-10-05T19:16:17.515+01:00Ireland's Health Service costs more than NASA...I sent this as a letter to the Irish Times but they didn't bite...
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>
Sir,
This year the HSE is on course to overspend its
<a href="http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/Publications/corporate/serviceplan2013/">budget </a>of E13.4 billion by several hundred million Euro.
To put this sum in perspective NASA's 2013
<a href="http://www.space.com/21922-nasa-budget-approved-house-panel.html">budget </a>is only E12.5 billion. So why is the Taoiseach leaving
an under-performing Minister for Health in place while
devoting his finite time and energy to abolishing the Seanad,
which can save a maximum of 20 million Euros per year at the
risk of a constitutional crisis in the future? Or is setting appropriate
priorities 'rocket science' for this government?
</i></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>David Rolfe</i>
</blockquote>
David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-32629540756390495462012-06-20T19:55:00.000+01:002012-06-20T19:56:16.244+01:00Hitler and invading BritainKevin Myers has an opinion piece in the Indo today in which he says "<a href="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/kevin-myers-everything-people-believed-about-hitlers-intentions-toward-britain-was-a-myth-created-by-churchill-3143805.html">Everything people believed about Hitler's intentions toward Britain was a myth created by Churchill</a>". I personallty think he's got what it was possible for Hitler to decide to do and what was actually likely to work mixed up, as I said in this comment:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The more-or-less unarguable fact that Hitler's invasion plan for
Britain was deeply flawed needs to be considered in the context of the
level of authority Hitler had and the way he made decisions. The first
thing is that nobody had the authority to override Hitler and very few
were willing to even question his decisions. So the opinons of the
senior military lesders within Nazi germany were only relevent to their
own careers, and not to the decisions of the Fuhrer. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The second thing is that Hitler had repeatedly succeeded with moves
that were successful because they were so unexpected - common sense and
orthodoxy ruled out trying to move his army through the ardennes so when he
did it he took the entire world by surprise. Over time it would become
apparent that Hitler was far from a genious, but in 1940 this had not
become obvious.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As a result Hitler had developed an undeserved reputation as a
strategic genius, which meant that invasion paranoia was an entirely
rational response, especially when you have aerial photos showing the
preperations for an invasion. </blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Had Hitler given the order to invade history would have changed - if
Britain had succumbed he would have been free to turn his hand to
Russia until the completion of both the Manhatten project and ultra long
range the B36 bomber by 1947 created existential problems for his
regime.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The the other possible - and far more likely outcome - would have
been a failure of the invasion, which would have in turn raised
questions about the wisdom on taking on Russia that even his own
generals might have been unable to ignore</blockquote>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-17191729302595653922012-06-05T21:26:00.001+01:002012-06-06T07:39:09.322+01:00Rental Car Pricing Weirdness II - CDW on Arrival...In my last post I pointed out how Hertz pricing differed radically based on which web site you used.<br />
<br />
Here's another example if weirdness relating to CDW/LDW:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2DhfwsCiIWAu98Qta9mb8PRIZFc-ZAV_JPrkrzOD985pzUazGiLLYzrjnYkCyQmDtOgok5CZA2aa3HM0XYJRFoxFqLoqsZahGg5-vyAIkCaV2YeFqrd34m0xKxJYuHitbknCEVKyog8/s1600/thrfty_sucks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn2DhfwsCiIWAu98Qta9mb8PRIZFc-ZAV_JPrkrzOD985pzUazGiLLYzrjnYkCyQmDtOgok5CZA2aa3HM0XYJRFoxFqLoqsZahGg5-vyAIkCaV2YeFqrd34m0xKxJYuHitbknCEVKyog8/s320/thrfty_sucks.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Neither Thrifty nor Dollar will tell me how much CDW/LDW is in advance. Instead I'm expected to wait until I am at the counter before finding out. So I'm being asked to commit to a rental which could be up to US$30/day more expensive. Given the base rental rate is roughly that amount already it's a ridiculous thing to do. From my viewpoint it's not my money I'm spending and since I'm not in the habit of entering my employer into potentially unlimited spending commitments I think I'll pass. Note that <a href="http://www.dollar.com/">www.dollar.com</a> did the same thing when I checked.David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-64991070107160909782012-06-05T20:58:00.001+01:002012-06-05T21:27:24.921+01:00Rental Car Pricing Weirdness I ... Hertz likes Irish drivers...Living in Ireland and thinking of renting a car in the US? It pays to shop around. Even when dealing with the <i>same vendor</i>. <br />
<br />
I had to rent a car in Washington DC and was doing the rounds of the rental websites. I discovered this somewhat startling anomaly:<br />
<br />
Depending on whether you use <a href="http://www.hertz.ie/" target="_blank">hertz.ie</a> or <a href="http://www.hertz.com/" target="_blank">hertz.com</a> you will be offered different prices for the exact same rental.<br />
<br />
Since this is more than a bit odd I have screenshots of both offers of a rental at Washington Dulles:<br />
<br />
Using www.hertz.com I was offered US$2674.80:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.orindasoft.com/public/friends/hettz_usd.png" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirZynGXWzs1yj7gw-Je9wl6JPR_dRZaogUvjx6A1l-eid7Li7Au6feg5Z1fS0i-aNpG_EKTjjEMwAt9Z86BavmY_raGdnbW0oG4FWFV8y2TnbRsDgF3L3WYzNnSzq36sOaM6WxgxLk0gQ/s320/hettz_usd.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
And the same rental at www.hertz.ie was EUR1387.72:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.orindasoft.com/public/friends/hettz_dot_ie.png" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPmF-ZofVPsZ0Qhnj2K-rLu4UL_doXh3iGrGaqYtmh0JyK5mne16RE22cdFWt-M6_E6CyFTF5hNYuuV_1Fv6QntW4OV480mKuuiBPalHV6J5FN9mO4GI4qkRLwZigxUTwK3zdGDgLLJic/s320/hettz_dot_ie.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Even assuming a back of the envelope exchange rate of 1.25 that's still only US$1734....<br />
<br />
From what I can tell the issue is with the additional insurance(s) that I selected - CDW or LDW.<br />
<br />
My guess is it works like this:<br />
<ul>
<li>Almost all US rentals are domestic. <a href="http://www.hertz.com/">Www.hertz.com</a> works on this assumption.</li>
<li>US Drivers almost always insure rental cars on their own car insurance.</li>
</ul>
Those who don't/won't/can't are either:<br />
<ul>
<li>Too rich to care (price insensitive)</li>
<li>Don't own a car (A bit of a red flag from an automobile insurance viewpoint...)</li>
<li>Don't pay attention (ditto)</li>
</ul>
As a result Hertz's US site prices LDW/CDW aggressively, even if the prospective renter needs CDW/LDW because he's not a US resident and his car insurance won't cover him there. But the dot ie website '<a href="http://www.hertz.ie/">www.hertz.ie</a>' makes the starting assumption that anyone looking to rent in the US must be an Irish driver who will need CDW because his insurance won't cover him outside Europe and is thus a reasonable risk compared to Americans who <i>need</i> LDW/CDW.<br />
<br />
<b>Note to People who know about this as opposed to having opinions</b>: Am I right? If not, correct me! <br />
<br />
So if you're Irish consider this: The next time you spend 8 hours on a plane into Dulles, get to the rental counter at around 2am Irish time, rent a car and trundle nervously out of the Hertz lot in your Buick Zipcode or whatever-the-hell-it-is-they-are-renting-this-week while simultaneously trying to disarm the radio which is stuck on something called the '<a href="http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CFgQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthekojonnamdishow.org%2F&ei=zWbOT4v-OcnMhAeMntWDDA&usg=AFQjCNFZSGBFw9LOTH3ERGtZKUC-ieNQSQ" target="_blank">Kojo Nnamdi Show</a>', get the mirrors to show something other than sky without opening the trunk (again), identify which of the 12 different Marriotts in your destination city you are actually staying in and find your driver's license for the dude at the exit consider this:<br />
<br />
<i>Hertz corporation regards you as a safer bet than a US driver who buys CDW....</i><br />
<br />
<br />David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-26260930936080150772012-05-11T17:43:00.000+01:002012-05-11T17:45:42.475+01:00Rathgar's Runaway Reptiles..."Floerentine", a local Tortoise attracted significant media attention after <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17983731">doing a runner</a> from home. The Irish Times published my helpful idea:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sir, – The owner’s of Rathgar’s runaway reptile (Home News, May 8th) could learn a lot from recent reports of a <a href="http://www.independent.ie/world-news/asia-pacific/lost-japanese-budgie-taken-home-after-it-recites-entire-address-3097613.html">lost budgie</a> in Tokyo that was returned to its owner because it had been trained to recite its entire address. While teaching Florentine to talk would probably be an insurmountable problem, his shell would still have plenty of space to write his full address. There may even be space left for sufficient postage to cover his return home. – Yours, etc,
DAVID ROLFE,
Leinster Road,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.</blockquote>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-80770197582789170052011-10-01T13:35:00.000+01:002011-10-01T13:36:33.134+01:00Dress Codes for Yokels...Another Letter:<br /><br /><blockquote>Sir, – According to a report in your newspaper, the European Parliament is currently focused on proposals that would require rural pedestrians to wear high-visbility jackets (Home News, September 29th). So at a time when the euro faces an existential crisis, our MEPs are busy drafting a dress code for yokels? That puts the emperor Nero in the halfpenny place. – Yours, etc,</blockquote>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-14002073259726514202011-09-22T19:00:00.002+01:002011-09-22T19:04:47.991+01:00Reality TV: A solution for the Irish Presidency...Had a letter in the IT:<br /><br /><blockquote>Sir, – Given the clear difficulties in finding suitable candidates and the ongoing issue of funding the national broadcaster, should we not give consideration to a constitutional change that would allow the president to be the winner of a new reality television show called So You Want To Rule Ireland? Prospective presidential candidates would live as housemates in Áras an Uachtaráin and would be set collective tasks such as “Greet the new Japanese ambassador at the airport”. This would allow a much broader field of candidates and the unfortunate discovery of skeletons in cupboards, <a href="http://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&sqi=2&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rte.ie%2Fnews%2F2011%2F0802%2Fnorrisd.html&rct=j&q=david%20norris%20controversy&ei=TXh7TtWOGoes0QW9u8SjAw&usg=AFQjCNGTwfMhvC8S11EQlCHYMatInvc6Sg&cad=rja">closets </a>or underneath lonely beaches near Dundalk would lead to a ratings boost instead of an electoral crisis.<br /><br />– Yours, etc,</blockquote>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-61524910831193108262011-05-19T08:11:00.004+01:002011-05-19T22:03:21.439+01:00Dubious Data Practices...According to <a href="http://www.dataprotection.ie/viewdoc.asp?DocID=471">this </a>doc from the <a href="http://www.dataprotection.ie/">Data Protection Commissioner</a> the <a href="http://www.dataprotection.ie/ViewDoc.asp?fn=/documents/register/display.asp?ID=0718%2FA">Irish Insurance Federation</a> uses a fairly strange definition of 'you' when deciding whether to give 'you' insurance or not. They have a database which to my mind has a fairly serious design flaw:<br /><br /><blockquote>The entry in the Registry comprises the first three letters of the applicant's surname, the first five letters of the first name, the date of birth, together with the date and codes for the relevant insurer and the type of policy.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />So If my name is "<span style="font-weight: bold;">MIC</span>HAEL <span style="font-weight: bold;">GOLDS</span>MITH" and I share a birthday with a deeply unhealthy "<span style="font-weight: bold;">MIC</span>KEY <span style="font-weight: bold;">GOLDS</span>TEIN <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>" I can be turned down for life insurance because of him or his policy history. Not only that, if I make a data protection act request I will be given his information....<br /><br />The really bizarre thing is that the Data Protection commissioner is aware of this but doesn't seem to find it odd...David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-86299432275215242362011-05-17T18:02:00.002+01:002011-05-17T18:03:11.728+01:00Morgan Kelly and his proposal to defaultSent the following to the Irish Times. Didn't get published. Ho hum...<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">Madam,<br /><br />The Irish State was founded by a group of individuals who believed in demonstrating the reality of Independence by throwing the new nation into a ruinous trade war with Britain and its empire. A happy willingness to antagonize its neighbours and harm its own interests simply to prove the fact of Irish independence continued for more than half a century, with mixed results for people who lived here.<br /><br />Ireland now appears to have gone to the other extreme and is busy sacrificing the nation to avoid upsetting anyone in Europe. Let us not make the mistake of assuming that our selflessness will be reciprocated by France or Germany, both of whom promoted the concept of the Euro, insisted that their nationals had critical positions in the running of it and are now blaming the users of their currency for the for the terminal problems it now faces.<br /><br />The government needs to make a conscious shift back towards the self-centred politics of the thirties and forties. At an absolute minimum the it should start publicly making contingency plans to implement the "Kelly Option" and other equally radical scenarios such as approaching the United States and asking to join if a catastrophic loss of sovereignty becomes inevitable. Such plans do not have to be put into action to provide benefits. Their mere existence will strengthen our position and turn us from supplicants into participants in the current process.<br /></span><br />David RolfeDavid Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-37581937777836966342011-02-01T18:43:00.002+00:002011-02-01T18:45:43.641+00:00Enda kenny and the Siege of Leningrad...<p></p><blockquote><p>Had a <a href="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/ireland-gets-all-the-blame-for-euro-crisis-2518848.html">letter </a>in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Indo</span> about this:</p><p><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">ENDA</span> Kenny's comparison of Ireland's economic problems with the siege of Leningrad is bizarre. A far better historical analogy would be with the Treaty of Versailles. A single country is being accused of being solely responsible for a European disaster and is now expected to make financially unsustainable 'reparations' without any consideration of the long-term consequences for everyone involved. </p><p>Not only does Ireland now face a prolonged period of economic chaos ending in a default, but, like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Weimar</span> Germany, it has a deeply dysfunctional political system that is ill-equipped to handle the challenges it will soon face. The bottom line is that Ireland didn't invent the euro, but is expected to shoulder the blame for its failure. </p><p>It is now obvious that this country was run into the ground by an incompetent political elite, with not one single TD of any party attempting to stop the madness. </p><p>But while Ireland has an entire parliament building full of culprits, none of the architects and managers of the euro are being asked to explain why they stood back and did nothing while ludicrous quantities of debt flooded the periphery of Europe. </p><p>Until this issue of fiscal mismanagement is resolved, the future of the euro -- and the entire European project -- will remain in doubt.</p></blockquote><p></p><i><br /></i>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-20011694411487247942010-11-23T13:03:00.002+00:002010-11-23T13:11:11.744+00:00<span style="font-size:180%;">Y</span>esterday's Green party press conference was bizarre in that the Green TD Paul Gogarty insisted on keeping a small child on his lap throughout:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLkOYYWfUYOCJPZ2sZ-PMyPF8uAP1brLX-6zLqFiAVPQMvprHWslZCZmLhFcJ-cU3d_Vu0KMPC0a-jCZCmbA_pqhDnVaEDhCpgVSKHNKuy6XLaMRT_3qhmnLuEpk_6Bvq8XZCfNmbPno/s1600/Mark-Dearey--Daisy-Gogart-007.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYLkOYYWfUYOCJPZ2sZ-PMyPF8uAP1brLX-6zLqFiAVPQMvprHWslZCZmLhFcJ-cU3d_Vu0KMPC0a-jCZCmbA_pqhDnVaEDhCpgVSKHNKuy6XLaMRT_3qhmnLuEpk_6Bvq8XZCfNmbPno/s320/Mark-Dearey--Daisy-Gogart-007.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542730506956330114" border="0" /></a><br />Presumably he did this so there would be at least one person in the room who would believe them...David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-26428132820008562382010-11-11T07:48:00.004+00:002010-11-11T07:52:11.908+00:00Theft of Sandbags...<span style="font-size:180%;">A</span>pparently the economy is so bad that people are <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/1110/1224283024451.html">stealing </a>sandbags intended for flood prevention:<br /><blockquote><br /><p>“On Sunday morning, in the region of 1,000 sandbags used to provide defences in these coastal walls were discovered to have been dismantled and removed.<br /></p><p>...<br /></p><p>The spokeswoman said it was difficult to see how members of the public might have mistaken the sandbags as being available for general use as it was “fairly obvious that they were there to protect the gaps in the coastal walls”.</p></blockquote><p></p><br /><br />I sent the following letter to the Irish Times, which doesn't appear to have been published:<br /><br /><blockquote>Madam,<br /><br />Who in Dublin would have a need for a few thousand sandbags and be self-centered enough to put their own welfare before that of the public? Possibly Government TD's preparing their constituency offices for the aftermath of the next budget....</blockquote>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-32806956264167170452010-09-21T07:14:00.003+01:002010-09-21T07:21:02.618+01:00Airtricity claiming non-existant 26% discount?In today's Irish Independent Charlie Weston says that Airtricity is claiming to off a 26% discount off Gas and Electricity:<br /><br /><blockquote>Yesterday the company claimed that the combined discount of 26pc would mean a bigger overall energy cost saving for households who sign up for both electricity and gas supplies with Airtricity.</blockquote><br /><br />In fact they are offering a 20% discount for Gas and a 6% discount for electricity with a 1 year lock in and a 100 Euro exit fee, but someone at the Indo appears to have decided to add the two percentages....David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-92092831760090224642010-09-06T21:39:00.004+01:002010-09-06T21:44:35.258+01:00D B Cooper Was An AmateurSaw an interesting article about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper">D B Cooper</a> in <a href="http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/Checking-in.html">Air and Space</a> mag.<br /><br />Added my 10c:<br /><br />While everybody wants to believe that D.B. Cooper got away I think he died on the night. I'm a former skydiver with over 450 jumps, including one from a a Boeing 727 at the World Freefall Convention. <br /><br />The first odd thing is that D.B.Cooper was apparently wearing slip on shoes. No skydiver in 1971 would have jumped wearing such shoes - landings were fast at the best of times and you needed ankle protection. Any experienced jumper who was planning this would have had footwear with proper ankle protection.<br /><br />But the part which makes it obvious to my mind that Cooper wasn't an experienced jumper was that he didn't bring a parachute with him. Skydivers are understandably picky about equipment and any jumper planning a hijacking would prefer to bring his own equipment rather than rely on the government to provide it to him. Not only did he create a dependency his plan didn't need, he also telegraphed his intentions. If, instead, he had disguised the parachute as a bomb and then left a suitably fractured and psychotic suicide note before jumping out the back with the money it would have taken people days - if ever - to figure out what he'd done.<br /><br />The third thing I'm not so sure about - apparently he was seen using paracord to tie the money bag to himself. You need to be extremely careful about attaching anything to yourself and especially an object that is loose or can move. Simply failing to secure the chin strap on your helmet results in agony as it beats against your skin in the 120kt airflow. Attaching a large object and then being able to fall cleanly and not tumble - which is essential for a safe opening - would require practice. Instead he was almost certainly an amateur who left the plane, lost his shoes, tumbled wildly while trying to open his borrowed parachute and then spent the rest of his life regretting it...David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-32137428664181282212010-05-12T06:25:00.006+01:002010-05-12T06:39:35.089+01:00BOOK OF THE DAY: Climate WarsSince when has a review of a two year old book qualified as an 'Opinion' piece?<br /><br />Having apparently run out scary global warming pieces for the moment the IT has presented a review of a two year old book in the slot that has been used before for this purpose.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Climate-Wars-Fight-Survival-Overheats/dp/1851687424/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1">Climate Wars</a> was first published in 2008 as for all I know may well be a very readable and credible but hypothetical examination of the effects of a significant increase in Global Temperature. But given that it was published in 2008 why should a national newspaper of record use up editorial space on it now? Why editorial space instead of the book review section?<br /><br />The review itself doesn't really add much, and seems to have been written before the publication of the book itself - some quick googling revealed that the <a href="http://coraifeartaigh.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/climate-wars.pdf">text </a>of the review has been around for ages, if it's URL is anything to go by:<br /><pre wrap=""><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://coraifeartaigh.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/climate-wars.pdf">http://coraifeartaigh.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/climate-wars.pdf</a><br /><br /></pre>Given that ClimateGate has revealed that thanks to poor data management and politicized science the millions of euros invested in global warming research has failed to produce quality results and that we have no way of verifiying either the extent or cause of climate change I have to wonder if this book is still relevant.David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-48203566114015207672010-05-07T17:50:00.004+01:002010-05-07T18:07:28.448+01:00More Climate Skeptic bashing at the IT...Following hard in the heels of <a href="http://rolfesreview.blogspot.com/2010/05/john-gibbons-and-bjorn-lomborg.html">John Gibbons attack on Bjorn Lomborg</a> the IT's environment reporter Frank MacDonald makes no attempt to understand the arguments advanced by skeptics in an opinion piece which is just as full of venom and short of facts as Gibbons. The title - "A dialogue of the deaf with US climate sceptics" pretty much says it all, but neglects to mention that Frank is the one who's hard of hearing...<br /><br />The key questions to ask here are:<br /><br />Why does Frank think the Heritage Foundation are representative of US Climate Sceptics? What not speak to <a href="http://wattsupwiththat.com/">Anthony Watts</a> or the Canadian <a href="http://climateaudit.org/">Steve McIntyre</a>? These guys are asking hard questions which climate scientists either won't or can't answer. Why ask a bunch of DC Republican lobbyists?<br /><br />Any bets on whether any letters on this are printed? I think not...<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>When I put it to him that the World Meteorological Organisation had identified the past decade as the warmest since records began, followed closely by the 1990s, Lieberman dismissed these findings as “grossly exaggerated” – even though they were grounded in scientific measurements taken all over the world.<br /><br />This head-in-the-sand approach is reminiscent of the Birthers, a daft grassroots movement that believes Obama has no right to be president because he “wasn’t born in the US”. It simply doesn’t matter that he has a birth certificate from Hawaii and can point to a contemporaneous birth notice in one of the local papers.<br /></blockquote>Ah yes 'grounded' in 'scientific measurements'! Given the ongoing arguments about data quality in this area this is something which deserves a discussion but doesn't get it. And why the comparison with the Birthers, an openly political movement with nasty overtones?<br /><br /><blockquote>“We care about the environment,” said nuclear specialist Jack Spencer...<br /><br /><br /></blockquote>Ooooh! Jack Spencer is a nuclear specialist, which presumably makes him untrustworthy by definition....David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-73294155646234354082010-05-07T17:46:00.002+01:002010-05-07T17:49:49.335+01:00Is Osama Bin Laden Alive And Well in LA?While visiting the UN Iran's excitable president Mahmoud Ahmadinejan advanced the novel theory that OBL is alive and well and hiding in Washington DC, according to the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/may/05/osama-bin-laden-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-washington">Guardian</a>.<br /><br />This is nonsense. The logical place for OBL is in LA, where he can pretend to be an Osama Bin Laden impersonator with impunity....All he has to do is dress normally but carry a stack of 8x10 headshots with him..David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-58214317884194847012010-05-03T10:06:00.002+01:002010-05-03T19:18:37.257+01:00John Gibbons and Bjorn LomborgThe IT printed a deeply unbalanced opinion piece by <a href="http://www.thinkorswim.ie/?p=822">John Gibbons</a> the other day. John had a fairly serious go at <a href="http://www.lomborg.com/">Bjorn <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Lomborg</span></a>, who has had the temerity to question the status <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">quo</span> on human induced climate change. While one expects opinion pieces to be opinionated one doesn't expect a national 'newspaper of record' to allow a writer to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">falsly</span> accuse a public figure of lying about his academic qualifications. Gibbons gave the piece the title "Exposed: Climate change doubter with a PhD only in spin". John describes Mr Mr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Lomburg</span> as "someone without even an undergraduate degree in a physical science", when in fact he has a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Phd</span> in Political Science.<br /><br />John's argument is that people without 'relevant' qualifications don't have the right to criticise people who do. I sent the letter below to the IT, which didn't get published:<br /><blockquote><br />Madam,<br /><br />The title of <font class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_0">John Gibbons opinion</font> piece '<font style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_1">Climate change</font> doubter with PhD only in spin' (April 30) directly challenges the validity of Bjorn <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Lomburg's</span> academic qualifications, yet nowhere in his article does he substantiate the serious allegation made in the article's title that Mr <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Lomburg</span> is lying about his 1994 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Phd</span> in <font class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_2">Political Science</font> from the <font style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_3">University of Copenhagen</font>.<br /><br />The fact that Mr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Lomburg</span> does not hold a Gibbons-Approved qualification in climate science is not relevant and does not deny him or anyone else the right to question the reasons for climate change. I would be very surprised if the staff of your newspaper included anyone with postgraduate qualifications in Creationism, Canon Law or Eugenics, but thankfully that does not prevent your writers from casting a <font class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_4">critical eye</font> over such disciplines.<br /><br /><font style="border-bottom: 1px dashed rgb(0, 102, 204); cursor: pointer; background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% transparent;" class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_5">Carl Sagan</font> once said that 'Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence'. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">exteme</span> sensitivity to criticism that climate scientists display, along with their documented use of dubious sources of information means that their evidence is indeed extraordinary, but for all the wrong reasons.<br /><br /><font class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1272910397_6">David Rolfe</font></blockquote>The interesting thing is that no letters on this Opinion piece have shown up, which considering how provocative and inaccurate it is makes one wonder what goes on in the mind of the editor. It;'s a bit like the truly crazy report on the "<a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0301/1224265371780.html">Spirit of Ireland</a>" scheme, which never got discussed on the letters page either despite being an announcement that coastal valleys all around Ireland were to be dammed and filled with Sea Water by vast shoals of windwills.David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-73556609678474487502010-03-18T11:47:00.003+00:002010-03-18T11:49:26.479+00:00Morgan Kelly on the Irish Credit Bubble..Anyone who wants to understand what's going on here in Ireland should read <a href="http://www.ucd.ie/t4cms/wp09.32.pdf">this </a>paper by Economist Morgan Kelly. A Quote:<br /><br /><br /><blockquote>Since the seventeenth century, financial innovation has consisted in banks finding new ways to lose money. However, while US, UK and European banks lost money in exotic derivatives, Irish banks lost money the old fashioned way, by making bad property loans.</blockquote>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-38029562616861176922010-03-15T11:31:00.003+00:002010-03-15T11:34:54.106+00:00Mother's Day Warning for expatriatesFolks,<br /><br />Did you know that Mother's Day changes depending on what country you are in? Last Sunday was Mother's Day here in Ireland. In the US it will be May 9th this year.<br /><br />It took me a long time to figure this out after I moved to the US. I could never understand why my Mother would barely be speaking to me between the end of March and the US version of Mother's day...<br /><br />Note also: This <a href="http://www.dayformothers.com/around-the-world/ireland.html">web site</a> is <span style="font-weight: bold;">wrong</span>.David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-38186201004301108082010-03-01T11:39:00.007+00:002010-03-01T15:16:37.946+00:00"Spirit Of Ireland" - Coming to a Valley near you?<span style="font-size:180%;"><br />"Flooded valleys key to huge power plan"<br /><br /></span>It's not often you see a newspaper headline with such amazing potential to induce panic. But Frank McDonald, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">IT's</span> environment editor has succeeded with today's unquestioning puff piece about "<a href="http://spiritofireland.org/">Spirit Of Ireland</a>", a suspiciously named scheme to make Ireland an exporter of energy. The piece <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">immediately</span> grabs ones attention by implying this is government policy:<br /><br /><p></p><blockquote><p>PLANS TO build a new electricity generating system, combining large-scale wind farms with huge hydro-power storage reservoirs in valleys on the west coast, are at an advanced stage, <em>The Irish Times</em> has learned.</p><p>“Spirit of Ireland”, billed as a national project for energy independence, has been under discussion for several months with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, as well as other agencies.</p><p>It would involve identifying up to five coastal valleys from counties <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Donegal</span> to Cork, building dams on their seaward side and flooding them with sea water. These would provide a hydro-power back-up for the wind farms.</p><p><br /></p></blockquote><p></p><p>Obviously this story is of considerable interest to anyone who lives in a coastal valley and doesn't own scuba gear.....But it gets better:</p><p><br /></p><p></p><blockquote>Fifty potential sites along the west coast were identified, but he said many of these were not suitable for environmental or geological reasons. “We’<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">ve</span> now reduced the number of sites to 10, of which five will be studied in micro-detail,” he added.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>The bowl-shaped valleys, created during the Ice Age, are located in areas with some of the best wind conditions in Ireland.</p><p>“Many are in areas of low population density, where land is of marginal or no use for farming,”the project’s website says.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Presumably the population density will drop to zero and agriculture will cease once the place is flooded? Given that people's homes and quite possibly entire communities are going to be destroyed the obvious question is "Which Valley?":</p><p></p><blockquote>Dr O’Donnell said he was not in a position at this stage to reveal which were the most likely locations. “There’s an enormous amount of geological investigation and mapping involved, and we have a total of 18 teams of people working on the project.”</blockquote><p></p><p>Not to mention such issues as Property Rights, Human Rights and the wisdom of holding vast quantities of seawater inland where it can get into the water table. Or the number of turbines required - one estimate is the entire western seaboard saturated with windmills to a depth of 10KM..... Or how this is supposed to happen in a country where you can't run a gas pipeline 10Km without having to deal with violent and illegal protests...<br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-61618776714325992192010-02-17T13:39:00.003+00:002010-02-17T13:43:19.264+00:00An alternative to "PIGS"...Down at the IT today a Mr. O'Connor is unhappy with the use of the term PIGS to described troubled eurozone countries:<br /><br /><p style="font-style: italic;">Madam, – Why does the Irish media insist on using the ridiculous and insulting “P-I-G-S” acronym in its financial reports, when referring to Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain? The term has been actively denounced by the Portuguese and Spanish press, and perhaps we should follow suit.</p> <p style="font-style: italic;">It seems the acronym is more aptly suited to the British and American bond and currency traders who coined the term. – Yours, etc,</p> <span style="font-style: italic;" class="itltrsbyline"> <p>JOSEPH O’CONNOR,</p> <p>Ashtown,</p> <p>Dublin 15.</p></span>So here's my suggested alternative:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Madam, </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">People who think the term "PIGS" shouldn't be used clearly haven't considered that any alternative could be much worse. If Britain's finances deteriorate to the point where it qualifies for membership of "PIGS" we might see a new acronym coined - "<span style="font-weight: bold;">F</span>ringe <span style="font-weight: bold;">E</span>uropeans who <span style="font-weight: bold;">C</span>an't <span style="font-weight: bold;">K</span>eep their <span style="font-weight: bold;">E</span>conomies <span style="font-weight: bold;">R</span>unning <span style="font-weight: bold;">S</span>ustainably". </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">David Rolfe </span>David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-22741057896428253722010-02-08T13:21:00.007+00:002011-01-04T18:02:20.590+00:00David Fennessy 's Bodies: A Haunting and Iconclastic commentary on taxpayer funded art.I don't normally do classical music reviews, but after surviving the premiere of David Fennessy's aptly named new work 'Bodies' feel I have to. I have to wonder how much RTE knew about the piece before it was premiered - One imagines the conversation would have run like this:<br /><blockquote><span style="font-weight: bold;">The scene:</span> An office at <a href="http://www.rte.ie/about/">RTE</a> headquarters. Mr <strong style="font-weight: normal;">Fennessy</strong> is explaining his<br />latest project to his sponsor.....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> So how's it going ?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> Great! I'm just putting the finishing touches now. I've added a selection of Japanese gongs to go with the Harp.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> But don't you also have 8 double bases?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer: </span>Yes - there's no point in doing anything by halves. Actually I think 8 is a minimum....<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> A Minimum? Won't it be a little ... basey?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> Not really - the double bases are needed to balance the augmented percussion section in the room next door to the stage.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> What?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> The extra percussionists. They'll be in a room next to the auditorium and will be playing as well.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> Ummm, won't that confuse the audience? Isn't one of the unwritten rules of Classical Music that all the people playing the music be in the same location as the audience? And the conductor for that matter?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> But rules are made to be broken! Having all the orchestra actually <span style="font-style: italic;">in </span>the orchestral venue is a pointless tradition that has long outlived its usefulness. With the piece I've moved beyond melody and harmony. They weren't adding anything. Not only that, I've eliminated the ludicrous requirement that the instruments complement each other when played. At one point I even have the Harp, the Japanese gongs, all eight double bases and the percussion section in the next room all going at once!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE: </span>Isn't there anything conventional about this piece?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> Well, at the very end the string section suddenly breaks away and starts playing harmoniously for about thirty seconds. It's a doomed yet beautiful act. Sort of a musical equivalent of the Warsaw Uprising. Then the piece ends.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> So let's get this right - we've given you licence payer's money and you've written this?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> Yes. Actually we'll need a bit more cash. Some of the musicians are demanding Danger Money to play it. They are concerned about the audience reaction.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE:</span> But no normal person is going to want to listen to this...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Composer:</span> So it'll fit well with your other stuff then?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">RTE: </span>Hmmm.. We do Property Porn, Reality TV shows about people who don't drink, Reality TV about schools nobody cares about, startlingly predictable current affairs programs...Yes, I can see a fit...<br /><br /><br /></blockquote>The above conversation may not have taken place but I swear to god the music is as described. If you don't believe you can see an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9z6Etu1lns">interview of Fennessy</a> on YouTube where he freely admits all this. Except the bit about danger money....David Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4448196306798596457.post-17116020351262205282010-02-04T16:47:00.003+00:002010-02-04T16:53:02.705+00:00Those canny Northern Businessmen...You couldn't make this stuff up - would be 'Leader of Industry' and lover of Iris Robinson had this to say about his business venture:<br /><blockquote><br />"All I was thinking about was getting the business up and running. Where the money came from never entered my head. The council gave me the cafe for the first couple of months after I opened but this is standard practice for any new business. "</blockquote>Yeah I know - what sane businessman would worry his head over (a) where his capital came from (b) what strings came attached and (c) when the owner would want it back....<br /><br />DRDavid Rolfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03644610806679730599noreply@blogger.com0