Military to Ban removable media from many computers

In response the release of thousands of embarrassing documents on Wikileaks, the Pentagon has decided to ban removable media from computers.  According to Wired:

Maj. Gen. Richard Webber, commander of Air Force Network Operations, issued the Dec. 3 “Cyber Control Order” — obtained by Danger Room — which directs airmen to “immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and stand alone machines residing on SIPRNET,” the Defense Department’s secret network. Similar directives have gone out to the military’s other branches.

“Unauthorized data transfers routinely occur on classified networks using removable media and are a method the insider threat uses to exploit classified information. To mitigate the activity, all Air Force organizations must immediately suspend all SIPRNET data transfer activities on removable media,” the order adds.

It’s one of a number of moves the Defense Department is making to prevent further disclosures of secret information in the wake of the WikiLeaks document dumps. Pfc. Bradley Manning says he downloaded hundreds of thousands of files from SIPRNET to a CD marked “Lady Gaga” before giving the files to WikiLeaks.

...More

This raises a few questions.  Let me preface this by saying I have no direct experience with military IT policies and procedures.  There may be very good reasons for why things were set up the way they were.  I'd like to think the military considered these questions at some point prior to this.

Why weren't these devices already heavily restricted or permitted only with additional approvals in advance? For years, it's been possible to configure a corporate PC in such a way that these devices won't work.

It seems like a the main suspect in the leak was a relatively low-ranking service member.  Should he have had access to such a large volume of disparate information?  I can see someone having a job requiring them to have access to classified information, but the breadth of it is rather astonishing.

Finally, it seem that this exposure is the result of someone intentionally downloading information to removable media, in a way not relevant to his job.  It seems like that would already be at the very least a policy violation.  He then likely committed an illegal act in turning the data over to another organization.  Would the threat of Court Martial for using removable media really have made any difference?

It's not like someone copied the data to an insecure thumb drive to work on it and then lost that drive accidentally.  This appears to be a deliberate and intentional act.  Would these policy changes have made any difference in this case?  It seems doubtful.

High Corporate Taxes can Spur Innovation

One solution often suggested to start growing the economy is to slash corporate taxes.  When business taxes are too high, the argument goes, businesses lay people off and scale back on their research expenses and everything stagnates.


But what if the opposite is true?


In an early October, the Pacific Northwest Magazine (part of the Sunday Seattle Times) published a story about how Boeing came to dominate the commercial jet market following the Korean War.  High taxes were one reason Boeing succeeded.  Essentially, taxes were so high, that it made a significant research and development risks much less risky.  Had taxes been lower, the risk would have been much greater, and Boeing might not have chosen to invest in jet aircraft in the way they did.

Actually, Allen, the lawyer, had discovered something very interesting about the question of whose money the company would be spending. During the Korean War, Congress had put an "excess profits tax" in effect, intended to prevent military companies from making out too well because of increased demand during a war. As it happened, the law essentially defined "excess profits" as anything above what a company had made during the peacetime period of 1946-1949. For Boeing, of course, peace had been a sock to the pocketbook; it had hardly made anything in that time. Therefore, as orders ramped up for the war, Boeing stood to face the "excess profits" tax on virtually every dollar of its profit, while a company such as Douglas, which had had its hands full rolling out propeller-driven airliners after the war, wouldn't face the higher trigger until its military sales equaled the bonanza it had made on commercial sales.

What Allen clearly saw was that now was the perfect time to plow a huge amount of company money into an audacious new development project. All of it would be a legitimate business expense, reducing the "profits" for the coming years, but so what? That was all money that would have basically gone to the government. As long as he could persuade the board that he was putting the company in a long-term position of leading the field with a jetliner, its members were unlikely to object. Yes, it was a huge gamble, but for every dollar of the dice roll, only 18 cents of it would have been Boeing's money to keep anyway.

...More

I'm not sure that this taxes this high are the answer to all our problems; I go back and forth on the appropriate level of business taxes. 

But this is a scenario I hadn't considered before.  High tax rates may not be a way to generate revenue for the government.  They may be a away to encourage other spending, however on innovation, research, and other risky projects.

Book Review 51: The Traveler

In the eighteenth century the British philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed the Panopticon: a model prison where one observer could monitor hundreds of prisoners while remaining unseen. The Brethren used the Panopticon prison design as a theoretical basis for their ideas. They believed that it would be possible to control the entire world as soon as the Travelers were exterminated.

Page 92

Remember the Panopticon? The model works perfectly if all humanity lives inside the building. It doesn't work if one individual can open a door and stand outside the system.

Page 236

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks is a compelling book that I couldn't put down. I constantly wanted to know what was going to happen next. It succeeds based on powerful story telling, if not fantastic writing.

By that I mean the writing style is not the strongest. The author's style comes across as immature at times and too heavy handed with his message. At the same time, for every moment I rolled my eyes, thinking, "He did not just write that, did he?" there were 5 or more moments when I was excited to keep reading.

An impressive website also supports the book. Fans of The Traveler will who want to explore the world of the book and the issues it raises can spend time at th website and dive into the six different realms.

Characters in The Traveler fall into several groups -- Travelers, Harlequins, Pathfinders, Brethren (or Tabula), Citizens, and Drones, among others.

Travelers are people a that can let their spirit (or "Light") break free from their bodies and this world, and travel to other realms (based on Tibethian Buddhist mythology). All great prophets, or agents of change, have been Travelers. Their passion and alternate world views are inspired by their experiences in other realms.

Harlequins are an ancient order of warriors who are sworn to protect the Travelers and keep them safe from the Brethren. They are raised as fighters from the time they are small children. While they have tremendous discipline, they thrive in an atmosphere of chaos. In goal, philosophy, and tactics, they are the opposite of the Brethren.

At the bus stop, Maya was presented with more choices. She could walk to her hotel or wave down a cruising taxi. The legendary Japanese Harlequin, Sparrow, once wrote that true warriors should cultivate randomness." In a few words, he had suggested an entire philosophy. A Harlequin rejected mindless routines and comfortable habits. You lived a life of discipline, but you weren't afraid of disorder.

Page 10


"She accepts the possibility of death and it doesn't seem to frighten her. That's a big advantage for a warrior."

Page 202

When offered two options, Harlequins may often to a coin flip, or use a random number generator, to make the decisions for them.

Pathfinders teach Travelers how to travel.

The Brethren are "the man." They seek order and control of the populace above all else. They are the established order -- the vast machine we all live in. They aim to stamp out the unexpected.

It annoyed Boone that people still refused to recognize the truth. There was no need to worry about religion or philosophy; the truth was determined by whoever was in power.

Page 180

Citizens and Drones are the general populace.

"Drones are people who are so overwhelmed by the challenge of surviving that they're unaware of anything outside of their day-to-day lives."

''You mean poor people?"

"They can be poor or trapped in the Third World, but they're still capable of transforming themselves. Father used to say, 'Citizens ignore the truth. Drones are just too tired.' "

Page 9

The book is about the choices people make. Do they choose to go on auto-pilot and become mindless consumers of culture and products? Or do they choose to question the rules of civilization and make deliberate choices about what they want to do and to choose their own destinies?

Vicki sat in the front seat of the van and looked out at the parking lot while Maya searched for another Harlequin. Citizens came out of the warehouse store with extra-large shopping baskets piled high with food, clothing, and electronic equipment. The baskets were heavy with all these things, and the citizens had to lean forward to push them to their cars. Vicki remembered reading in high school about Sisyphus, the Greek king doomed forever to push a stone up a mountain.

Page 164

Hollis paused and stared at the students sitting in front of him. He seemed to be evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. "In New Babylon, many of the people you know think they're being deliberate when they're just on automatic. Like a bunch of robots, they drive their car down the freeway, go to work, get a paycheck in exchange for sweat and pain and humiliation, then drive back home to listen to fake laughter coming from the television set. They're already dead. Or dying. But they don't know it.

"Then there's another group of people—the party boys and girls. Smoke some weed. Drink some malt liquor. Try to hook up for a little quick sex. They think they're connecting with their instincts, their natural power, but you know what? They're on automatic, too.

"The warrior is different. The warrior uses the power of the brain to be deliberate and the power of the heart to be instinctive. Warriors are never automatic except when they're brushing their teeth."

Hoilis paused and spread his hands. "Try to think. Feel. Be real." He clapped his hands together "That's all for today."

page 167 - 168

This all happens against the back drop of our own modern culture, and the author uses the story as a cautionary tale about the increasing surveilance we are already under in real life. From data mining to credit card transactions to security cameras popping up all over the place, the world the author writes about really is our world.

Panopticon is the Brethren's approach to controlling the world. It's based on a prison design by Jeremy Bentham. The prison was designed in such a way that inmates could not see one another, the inmates could not see the guard, and that from one place, a single guard could watch hundreds of inmates.

It's a concept Matt Ruff also used in his book, "Bad Monkees."

Since the inmates could not see they guards, they could never be sure exactly when they were being watched. Essentially, the guards did not even have to be there the whole time, since the inmates would never know when the were unguarded. It was a model of efficiency.

The Brethren embrace panopticon to monitor the citizenry. They can use electronics, police, guards, airport security, and suspicious neighbors to monitor people. The all-seeing system gives them power.

Even in Las Vegas.

For most people Las Vegas was a happy destination, where you could drink too much and gamble and watch strange women take off their clothes. But this city of pleasure was a three-dimensional illusion. Surveillance cameras watched constantly, computers monitored the gambling, and a legion of security guards with American flags sewn on the sleeves of their uniforms made sure nothing truly unusual would ever occur. This was the goal of the Tabula: the appearance of freedom with the reality of control.

Page 356-357

The author himself lives of the grid. John Twelve Hawks is a name he adopted for himself, and he does his best to live in relative anonymity.

The "Realty of Control" the Brethren wants is really only possible with the consent, or, rather, lack of dissent from those being controlled. Like the prisoners in Benthem's design, once people reject the "appearance" of being guarded, and choose to look at things differently,then they can begin reclaiming their freedom.

"Everything got worse after that. There were hundreds of police officers at the Washington airport because of some kind of special alert. I got searched twice passing through security and then I saw a man have a heart attack in the waiting lounge. My plane was delayed six hours. I spent my time drinking and staring at a television in the airport bar. More death and destruction. Crime. Pollution. All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things that I didn't need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.

Page 306

The story itself follows the path of two brothers -- potential Travelers as they choose their paths in this world. Maya, the Harlequin, is dispatched to LA to protect them, if they are, indeed, able to Travel to the different realms. She is there to protect them from the Brethren, which wants the potential Travelers for their own purposes.

Each side elicits allies and fights for its cause. We hear about the current battles, and we hear about the battles that played out over the decades.

At time the book is brutally violent.

Interestingly enough, the orderly, controlled group -- the Brethren -- is the most chaotically violent. They use all sorts of tools to fight viciously -- from private armies to gangsters to rape to genetically engineered animals, bred to eat defenseless or defeated victims alive.

The Harlequins -- the force of randomness -- fight with strict discipline. They aren't afraid to kill their enemies, but they are not killing them gleefully. It's about efficiently protecting themselves and their charges.

The aspects of life that the Harlequins and the Brethren are most afraid of, are embodied in their own fighting styles.

After all this, the book is really about choice. It's about people finally having the opportunity to make a deliberate decision about what they want to do with their lives. And when presented with question -- that fundamental decision that defines who they are as a person, what decisions do they make?

"Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings. Now come along and shut the door behind you."

Page 34

"I've organized sweat lodge weekends for divorced men and women. After two days of sweating and pounding a drum, people decide they don't hate their ex-spouse anymore." Thomas smiled and gestured with his hands. "It's not a big thing, but it helps the world. All of us fight a battle every day, but we just don't know it. Love tries to defeat hatred. Bravery destroys fear.

Page 151


Vicki stood between her mother and the Harlequin. So much of her life had seemed hazy and vague until that moment, like an out-of-focus photograph in which blurry figures ran away from the camera. But now, right now, she had a real choice in her life. Walking is easy, said the Prophet. But it requires faith to find the right path.

Page 162

The Traveler is definitely one I suggest reading. It raises important questions that it might not be too late to answer. Besides the subtext, the story itself is fantastic. And, while the writing appears juvenile at time, the author's story telling skills make this an excellent read.

You can find more of my Book Reviews here.

Healthcare Reform 04: EMR

Electronic medical records are becoming increasingly possible.  And it makes sense.  So much medical history and documentation is scattered about the country on paper getting lost and damaged n decades old filefolders in non-descript medical facilities.  Significant cost reductions and the potentila for better, faster, and cheper healthcare are possible by replacing much of that paper with standardized, electronic documentation.

This article from the Seattle PI is brief discussion about this field.  The VA is the medical organization making the most progress on this front.

The electronic medical records system at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Kansas City Medical Center gives Sanders and his staff almost immediate access to medical histories, allowing them to seamlessly treat veterans from other states. But when patients aren't in the VA's system, it could mean hours or days before doctors have crucial information to properly care for patients.

"It's increasingly frustrating for us and other providers that it's difficult to find a workable interface," said Sanders, chief of staff for the Kansas City veterans hospital. "Our systems don't talk to each other."

Interoperability, or allowing providers to share records and view them from anywhere, is a requirement for facilities to receive some of the more than $17 billion in stimulus funding that the government is offering to encourage the adoption of electronic medical records. Congress will likely penalize providers who aren't doing so by 2014, cutting their Medicaid and Medicare payments, the Obama administration said.

...More

Micro Grid versus large utility

In the current issue of Fast Company, they have a fascinating article about the Micro Grid.

It's focused on small, local power generation technologies -- things life roof top solar, home based wind power, smart meters and related technologies. Increased use of the local, small scale power generation means there is less need for large, cross country power transmission lines and less reliance on on more carbon hungry large scale power plants.

It seems like a great idea in theory, but we have heard plenty of stories arguing it's not a viable solution because of cost, scale, home owners associations, etc.

But one thing I hadn't heard about before was the active opposition of traditional utilities worried about losing business.

Ed Legge of the Edison Electric Institute, the lobbying organization for the utility industry (and leader of the national effort to oppose federal renewables targets), is surprisingly frank on this point: "We're probably not going to be in favor of anything that shrinks our business. All investor-owned utilities are built on the central-generation model that Thomas Edison came up with: You have a big power plant and you move it and then distribute it. Distributed generation is taking that out of the picture -- it's local." This attitude is understandable. After all, if utilities don't own it, they can't bill for it. And with close relationships between power companies and state regulators, they can and do throw up a variety of roadblocks to see that rooftop-solar programs and the like remain tiny.

...

The tactics utilities deploy to protect their profits can make a reasonable person's head spin. "In Arizona a couple of years ago, we got a renewables incentive passed," says Adam Browning, executive director of Vote Solar, a national advocacy group. "A local utility proposed that it collect money for all the electricity that you didn't buy from it. The argument was: We've got fixed costs associated with maintaining the transmission and distribution grid. So if you don't buy from us, we want to charge you for your 'fair share' anyway," which it reckoned as everything but the avoided fuel costs -- the oil that you don't burn by choosing renewables. So regular customers would pay 11 cents a kilowatt-hour, but customers with solar panels on their roofs -- not even using the utility -- would still have to pay 6.8 cents an hour. "We hired a lawyer contesting this, and eventually we won," says Browning. Today, Arizona has decent, though not finalized, net-metering rules.

...
Jim Rogers, Duke Energy's CEO, told Fast Company he's a fan of putting solar panels on his customers' homes and businesses -- he just thinks Duke should own them. "I believe at the end of the day, we'll be able to do it cheaper and better than everybody else." But Urlaub says, "We know that's not true," pointing out that Duke recently submitted a public bid for a utility-owned 20-megawatt rooftop-solar program and came in higher than several independent, nonutility solar companies.

...More

There are more stories in the article.

Utilities are trying to prohibit private generation and local energy project that threaten their business. Or they are trying to use the law and Public Utility Commission to make it cost prohibitive. Instead of encouraging entrepreneurship, innovation, new business, and job creations, they are putting up road blocks to progress.

Now, I don't expect the private ones to aid local power generation (though incentives for them to buy power from private generators might be a could idea).

But to actually use the law to prevent these types of projects is disgusting.

We need a new approach to the grid -- one that blends local, micro generation with large plants and utilities. One that uses a combination or resources -- some clean coal, some nuclear, some hydro, some wind, some geo-thermal, etc. New innovations in battery technology and power storage should round out our electrical plan.

It's a fascinating article and well worth the read.

Measure twice, dig once

The Port of Seattle completed renovations on a terminal to accommodate container ships. Container terminals need cranes. Cranes need power. And because a contractor screwed up, the power cables don't fit.

From the Seattle Times:

A small mistake at the Port of Seattle is going to cost a lot, perhaps about $1 million.

The problem is 2/100ths of an inch, and it delayed the opening of a celebrated project by two months.

The Port constructed a new cargo terminal on the Seattle waterfront and dug a trench to hold the electrical cable for cranes that lift containers from ships.

The new trench, built by contractor BergerABAM, is narrower than it should be, so the cable doesn't fit.

"Clearly the contractor should've built the trench at 2.52 inches and it's 2.5," said Port Commission President Bill Bryant.

...More

What I don't get is why this is going to cost the Port of Seattle anything. It seems that the contractor screwed up, and the contractor should therefore pay for its mistake. While the article goes on to say the Port will be discussing the issue at a meeting, it seems they should take the initial position at least, that the contractor should be on the hook.

Unless the Port screwed up a the specs (a detail absent from the article).

The whole things just seems kind of silly to me.

New IRS Scam Email

I got this email today. I imagine others have too. It allegedly comes from "refunds@irs.gov."But beware. THIS IS A SCAM!

Tax Refund Notification

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity, we have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of 1527.29 USD. Please submit the tax refund request and allow 6-9 days in order to process it.

Click Here to submit you tax refund request

Note : A refund can be delayed a variety of reasons, for example submitting invalid records or applying after deadline.

Yours Sincerely
Internal Revenue Service.

The was a hyperlink that would go to at eecu.net.

Again, if you get one of these, it is a scam.

How can I tell it's a scam?

First of all, the IRS will never contact you by email to offer you a refund. They will use regular mail.

Second, while the mail is mostly grammatically correct, The lack of a dollar sign on the amount is suspicious.

Third, the link goes someplace other than Irs.Gov

If you would like more information about phishing attempts and scam emails pretending to be from the IRS, please visit this page on the IRS web site.

Or if I've scared you away from clicking links, go directly to the IRS websites at IRS.gov. You'll see a link called "Report Phishing" in the upper right hand corner. There's some great information there.

If you receive a scam email purporting to be from the IRS, forward it to phishing@irs.gov

Healthcare Reform 01: Government sponsored health care

A key initiative of the Obama administration is to bring health insurance to the uninsured in one form or another. Whether this is the US finally coming out of the dark ages or the beginning of an apocalyptic slide into communism is a more complicated discussion than I have the energy to get into tonight.

But that won't stop me from opining on the topic.

Here are some assumptions I am starting with, and I think many people are likely to agree.

We already have socialized medicine.

Between Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, workers compensation, the VA, Federal employment benefits, and assorted other programs, the Federal, State, and local governments already provide millions of people with health care.

A person in need of immediate medical attention won't be denied care at an emergency room. Millions of people already use hospital emergency rooms for primary health care because they can't/won't pay to see a regular physician.

Socialized medicine is here today -- it's just delivered with terrible inefficiency.

We have some of the best medical technology in the world.

The medical schools and technology we have in the US create some of the best procedures, medical instruments, and medication. We have fantastic physicians and they are typically well compensated after years in their profession. Many other health care providers (RN's for example) are not as well compensated as we would like, but are still extremely talented.

The US pharmaceutical industry is a technological leader.

The US drug companies come under fire for their prices and for their defense of patents around the world. But the reason they are so often attacked for not sharing their products with the poor of the world is because they make such fantastic and innovative products.

Employers in the US have an extra burden they don't share with the rest of the world.

The primary provider of health care coverage in the US is the employer. Large companies provide coverage for employees. This cost, which is measured in the thousands of dollars, either depresses cash wages, or it reduces profits. Companies in other countries do not have to pay for health care for their employees.

Any health care plan we implement in the US must meet the following standards:

1. Preserve the health care technology leadership the US has
2. Keep and fairly compensate the skilled people in the industry
3. Make the system more efficient and less wasteful than the current system
4. Make health care affordable for those who currently can't afford it
5. Reduce the burden on employers

We don't have to get there in one step. And I've always doubted that health care reform will come from the Democrats. Not because I question their commitment, but because there are too many industries opposing it, and too many varied constituencies within the party to reach consensus on one plan.

The true impetus for health care reform in the US will not come from the left. It will come from the corporate interests on the right. Health care reform in the US will come when big and medium business decides it is time to shift the burden of paying f0r health insurance to someone else.

In the meantime, the tragic stories of individuals will provide headlines, but are not likely to result in a significant changes to the system.

A small proposal

In the interim, here's a way to tweak the system that may help lower individual costs and increase coverage. I am making up the numbers out of thin air, so bear that in mind.

Everyone should have a government provided health insurance program that features a $50,000 annual deductible. Above that amount, the Feds (taxpayers) would cover the costs.

This will mean the private health insurance providers can lower their rates to make health insurance more affordable since their losses will be capped.

This will also lower the costs for employers.

Most people don't spend more than $50K per year on health care, so there is still an incentive for individuals to look for ways to minimize their costs.

The pharmaceutical and hospital industry can continue to operate as they currently do. Doctors and pharmacists don't suddenly become government employees, so the local hospitals don't become the local DMV.

This plan addresses some of the concerns above, but it's not comprehensive. It's a simple plan that provides a step forward. And maybe it will break the current political log jam.

New times

Today the European Union standards agency announced a new initiative, as part of the ongoing G20 summit. Building on the nearly world-wide success of the metric system for weights and measures, they are ready to take the metric system to the next level.

The system will be phased in over the next several years. By 2016-04-01, all member states will need to complete the switch over to metric time. “The current calendar is a relic of Pope Gregory and the medieval Catholic Church. It builds on the Roman calendar developed by Julius Caesar. And just as we no longer use Roman Numerals to count, and we no longer use Feet and Hogsheads to measure distance, it’s time to get away from the chaotic math of the current clock,” said the chairman of the Greenwich Mean Time committee.

The new system will make it easier to tell and calculate time.

The base unit of the system will still be the day. The new day will be 10 hours long. During the transition, the metric day will be called an “mDay” in English. Once the transition is complete, the “m” prefix and archaic name will be replaced permanently with the new metric name. To make the conversion, 1 hour will equal .416667 mHours.

The term “hour” will be replaced with the “deciday.” There will be 100 minutes in an hour (or 100 Millidays).

The new week, the mWeek (after 2016, the Decaday) will equal 10 mDays. Each mMonth (or Hectoday) will equal 10m weeks (or 10 Decadays), or 100 mDays.

The mYear (or Kiloyear) will equal 10 mMonths (or 100 Decidays), or 1,000 mDays.

This chart may help:

New Term	Definition	Obsolete Term
1 Milliday	.001 Days	Minute
I Deciday	.1 Days	Hour
1 Day	1 Day	Day
1 Decaday	10 Days	Week
1 Hectoday	100 Days	Month
1 Kiloday	1,000 Days	Year

The problem here is obvious, and was discussed extensively in committee. The current year is 365.25 days. The new Kiloyear is equal to almost 3 current years (which total 1,095.75 current days). Naturally age restrictions in laws, licensing, retirement, and other documents will need to be adjusted.

It also means each year will have three summers and three winters. We will need more Holidays to adjust for the annual events.

The dates for each season and equinox will have to float. Protesters argued this is unnatural. “Comment peuvent-ils indiquer la Terre quand incliner?” shouted protesters in Paris. The committee chairman shrugged it off. “The dates on the calendar have always been arbitrary. Some years we adjust the year by as much as 15 seconds because of the inconvenient nature of the Earth’s slightly irregular orbit. This is the same thing.”

“We can’t let the arbitrary holidays interfere with the science of measurement,” he continued.

Nineteen of the 20 member of the G20 issued a joint statement praising the shift:

Not only will this change simplify time, it will provide a significant aid to the world economy. Manufacturing and scientific organizations will have a cleaner and more efficient measurement system. And it will be a significant boon to the watch and clock makers around the world during these troubled times.

President Obama declined to join in the statement. The President released his own statement later.

While we are pleased to see our European partners working so closely together to come up with new solutions to old problems, we don’t plan to impose this change on the American people. The American people have no trouble with the 60s and 7s that make up our calendar. Further, we don’t need to mandate this program.

The American people have always worked with partners around the world to build a world class economy and to help people from all walks of life achieve their true potential. The American people are thrilled to buy their soda in 2 liter bottles and their milk by the gallon. The power of American business is that it works with and respects the traditional culture of America, while still working with the rest of the world in the different measures they use. The people will use the units they prefer as we move into the next global age of economic revitalization.

Some European editorialist scoffed at Obama’s suggestion that this won’t be a problem for the US. “Didn’t the Americans lose a space ship because they don’t understand metric?” suggested the editor of the London Financial Times.

The Director of the US Bureau of Weights and Measures stated the US would work with others on the new calendar, but beyond providing conversion tables, would take few initiatives. “We still plan to keep our speed limit signs at 65 MPH. We don’t plan to change them to 249.6 KMpdD (kilometers per deciday).”

After the press conference, was overheard talking to a colleague about the issue. Apparently he didn’t realize his microphone was still open. “Not this crap again. What is this? 1977? I’m getting too old for this.”

The second will remain at 9,192,631,770 Cesium atom vibrations for now. The seconds in a Milliday will be defined by conversion tables. The standards body will discuss alternative definitions for the “second” over the next year.

There is still a great deal of debate over what to do with the yet to be implemented Decimilliday.

Tax cuts are a bad idea

A stimulus package should encourage spending. In that respect, it's ironic to rely on this tool, since an orgy of debt heavy consumer spending on credit cards and silly mortgages is what got us here in the first place. A mild, several year long recession would likely be good for the economy in the long-term.

What it needs is a controlled burn in the forest to clear out the dead wood. That's what a mild recession would do for us, and we probably should have had one a couple years ago. But we didn't, and that controlled burn has now turned into a massive conflagration set to level a major metropolis. It's too severe to just let it burn. Thus, I am resigned to a massive stimulus package.

That package should focus on infrastructure -- transit systems, roads, new power transmission lines, enhanced nationwide broadband access, new energy technology, new materials, bridges, space exploration, and other items of that ilk. Some of these projects may be pork, but that's okay. The point is to put people to work -- get those private construction companies moving again. Make sure their employees spend money in their communities and employ even more people.

At the end of the stimulus period, either the economy will be moving again, or it won't. If it is, that's great. If not, well, at least we will have all this new infrastructure which we desperately need. And people had work. The money will not be wasted.

An additional benefit of the massive infrastructure spending is that not only will we get this cool new stuff, we'll get it cheap. People will work for less money. Steel, oil, and other raw materials are cheaper than they have been for years.

Plus, if we make these investments only when "we can afford it" in a strong economy we are also stealing labor and resources from the private sector's own growth initiatives. Let's get the infrastructure done now when we don't have to compete with the private sector. The country will be stronger for it and already have the key blocks in place when the next boom begins.

Of course this is all money the government is borrowing and we have to pay back, but that is also cheaper than it has been for years.

If you have the capacity to borrow and spend money this is now the best, cheapest possible time to do it.

There was a lot of stuff like that in the House version of the bill.

My concern is the tax cuts. The $800 billion package include more than $200 billion in tax cuts and rebates. The latest details are a bit challenging to nail down.

The problem with tax cuts and government stimulus checks in a bad economy is that they don't encourage spending. Responsible people will not spend that money on new stuff. Instead, it will go to pay down bills. Or it will go into savings for the hard times ahead.

And that's exactly what people should do with those savings. That demonstrates great personal responsibility.

But it won't stimulate the economy. It won't get other people employed. It won't bring more manufacturing on line. It won't drive increased investment by technology companies.

In short, it won't move things forward.

But I don't see anyone opposing middle class tax cuts anytime soon. As much as I hate to say it, the best compromise will be to leave the tax rates alone. Don't send out a "stimulus" check. Instead, provide tax credits for purchases.

I normally don't like tax credits and deductions. They make completing tax forms more complicated than they should be and are one of the reasons our tax code is such a mess.

But the point of the tax reductions in the bill isn't to save people money. It's to stimulate the economy.

So let's replace those tax cuts with rebates for buying things. For education. Or for buying a new, energy efficient car. Or for making substantial home improvements (spend $10K on your kitchen? Get a $5K tax credit). Or for paying for child care. Or for moving to a part of the country that needs a specific set of skills.

By putting those tax reductions in the form of tax credits, we take the money out of the savings accounts and put it to working creating jobs for people. The people in those jobs can now, in turn, make their own purchase.

Saving money doesn't move the economy forward. Spending does. Whether that spending is private or tax payer funded doesn't matter. Nothing happens until someone buys something. And that's what a stimulus package needs to encourage.

Tax credits for buying stuff will do that. Tax rate cuts and generic stimulus checks will not.

Whitehouse.gov

Just after noon today, the new Whitehouse.Gov website went online. The Obama administration wasted no time in getting the site up. There were no days of that silly picture of a construction dude doing road work on a yellow diamond with a caption reading, "Site under construction. Please check back in few days."

Of course, I should expect nothing less from a President who placed so much emphasis on using technology to promote his election during the campaign.

The site is clean and well organized. There's a mix of historic information and next generation communication tools. It's easy to navigate and seems like the kind of tool I'm likely to use more than once every four years.

There's even a blog on Whitehouse.Gov. I wonder when they're adding the Entrecard widget...