Author: Payam

Chemist, philosopher, vagrant.
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May 1: Birthday of SPAM

Reaction to the DEC Spam of 1978

You want to believe that greed was never as intense as it is now, and that the lows to which salesmen of reputable companies stoop in order to make a sale were not always as the lows achieved by modern SPAMmers. Then you encounter articles like the one above, about the first incidence of SPAM email. You assume that it happened in the mid 1990s, just when email use was becoming prevalent. But, no. It was in 1978, very soon after email was born. And, the culprit was not some shady internet character trying to pitch something illicit or unsavory. It was a salesman from Digital Equipment Corp (DEC) trying to sell wares to the members of the then internet: mainly defense contractors and academics (who were probably acting as defense contractors).

The link above appeared in this Google history widget. It is amazing that a DEC salesman carried out the deed. After all, DEC was renowned as an engineering powerhouse that made due without any fancy marketing by relying on the strength of its products. (This ultimately led to DEC’s demise in 1998, when it was bought by Compaq, a company too inept to use DEC’s technology to survive.) In this context, it is perhaps sad that this salesman’s efforts were so horribly misplaced temporally. Ten years later, this marketing may have been of some use to DEC. After all, the ultimate irony is that DEC did not have this sort of aggressive marketing when it needed it.

Image from Doug Jones’ Collection of DEC Logos

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The Anthrax Scare Wasn’t

Chemical & Engineering News Brief It is a good time to harken to the postal anthrax scare that besieged the country soon after September 11, 2001. As if the hysteria created by the 9/11 disaster needed to be fueled any further, many FBI experts asserted that the anthrax spores found in the tainted letters were weapons grade, of the highest lethality, and composed of materials that assured maximum dispersal. From this Chemical & Engineering News brief in late 2006:

But FBI scientist Douglas J. Beecher refutes that description (Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 2006, 72, 5304). He writes that “a widely
circulated misconception is that the spores were produced using additives and sophisticated engineering supposedly akin to military
weapon production.” On the contrary, he writes, the anthrax powders in the letters “were comprised simply of spores purified to
different extents.” The FBI would not make Beecher available for interviews.

What are we to make of this? Certainly, this revelation lends credibility to all the conspiracy theorists who have been proselytizing since 9/11. So, why would the FBI refuse to allow its scientist, Beecher, speak?

The conspiracy theorists, of course, have plenty of answers for this question, and it is perhaps in the interest of the FBI and the “powers that be” for conspiracy theorists to push these answers in the absence of any legitimizing response from the government. “Divide and conquer” was the Roman motto, and the American government seems to be evading accountability by dividing up its own constituents into two classes of gullible people–the theorists and the reactionaries to the theorists.

And, this is precisely the sort of recklessness that reduces a government’s legitimacy. Ronald Reagan was wrong. The problem with government is not that it wastes money. The problem is that our government is sowing the seeds of mistrust and, thus, undermining the trust in government that is vital and fundamental to democracy. If people cannot have faith that a government that they elect is going to act on their behalf, they will have no reason to participate in the system. A system with no participants is by definition not a democracy.

Click on the thumbnail above to view the brief as a jpg image, or click here to download this news brief in pdf format.

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New Uptime Record

New uptime record of 28 days Immediately after the first recorded high uptime, came this one. It was recorded just before the next OS upgraded prompted me to restart my trusty, crusty old 867 MHz G4 Powerbook Macintosh (Titanium).

As always, many, many software packages were compiled and installed by fink. The various browsers, Firefox, Omniweb and Safari were opened and closed hundreds of times, the abominable programs Word and Excel (by Micro$soft) were run numerous times, and many photos and graphics were processed via iPhoto and Omnigraffle and imagemagick.

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General “Motors”

Toyota to build $1.3 billion plant in Mississippi | Reuters

The account of the events contained in the above article is the final affirmation that Toyota will overtake General Motors as the largest auto manufacturer in the world. And, this prediction, of course, came to fruition in the last few weeks.

Given the tattered state of GM, one is left to wonder whether the word “Motors” belongs in the name. After all, the company’s most profitable division is its finance division, GMAC, and as of yesterda, May 2, 2007, even GMAC profits are slumping as a result of the bursting of the “sub-prime” mortgage bubble. As soon as GMAC is separated from GM, GM will become a company treading water: losing market share while it attempts to maintain pricing points that at least recoup its costs. It will be General “Motors”, for the motors are hardly high tech and barely selling. GM is a victim of its own arrogance (as documented in Roger & Me nearly 20 years ago), gross mismanagement and lack of foresight ( as documented by Who Killed the Electric Car).

It is a wonder, then, why anybody entertains GM’s or any American car maker’s laments about worker costs. American car companies blame worker costs for declining sales, while foreign automakers ascribe their increasing sales to the low cost of American auto workers.

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Doing Our Part to Warm the Planet

Only a Bush-appointed EPA chief can claim progress in reducing green house gases (GHGs) when the report issued by the agency he heads states pointedly that GHG emission had risen 16% by 2004, relative to emissions in 1990. Here is a direct link to the report at the EPA:

EPA : Global Warming : Resource Center : Publications : GHG Emissions : US Emissions Inventory 2006

Here is a local link to the “Fast Facts” document, which is also accessible through the above link:
US Emissions Inventory 2006
One wonders why GHG generation was down 1.3% in 2001. Could it have anything to do with airplanes not flying for a few days after 9/11? Or the economic slowdown that followed?

After examining the document, one might find it interesting that carbon dioxide emission increases as auto fuel efficiency decreases, and that emissions for electricity generation hold relatively steady. Clearly, regulations have an effect, and when cars–SUVs, specifically–aren’t regulated, the results are unsurprisingly dismal.

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U.S. Cites 91 Percent Rise In Terrorist Acts in Iraq

U.S. Cites 91 Percent Rise In Terrorist Acts in Iraq – washingtonpost.com

It would seem as if the war against terror is yielding as much success as the war against drugs: thus far, the war against terror has had as much effect on terror as the war against drugs has had on drug abuse. One can only pray that this “war against terror” does not last as long as the one against drugs.

Heaven help those who are about to die. They can expect help from no other source.

Read more.

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More Tax Breaks for Oil Companies

Followup: Exxon’s and Chevron’s record profits certainly do support this notion that they are struggling companies that need government subsidies.

The US Interior Department is allowing Chevron to forgo royalties it owes the public for extracting oil and natural gas from public territories. As already cited on Digg, Chevron (or any oil company) needs no help, yet our tax dollars are being wasted, again.

read more | digg story

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The Ultimate Angelides Ad

Epilogue: Angelides never went on the offensive against Ahhnold, and lost handily. Given Angelides’ total lack of backbone, I was all too happy to vote for the Green Party’s Candidate, Peter Camejo. I proudly counted as part of the 2.3% of disenchanted Californians who voted for the only rational candidate on the ballot, according the official election results. One wonders how much traffic, how many potholes, how much air pollution, how little public education and how expensive of a public university system people will tolerate before they vote for somebody who is dedicated to making California livable again.

09.28.2006 – Study highlights UC as tech-transfer powerhouse

It is utterly perplexing that Phil Angelides is losing his campaign to the embodiment of the stereotypical vapid politician. The Governator is also incompetent to boot. I hope the Angelides campaign uses this idea for their final campaign.

Read the above UC Berkeley byte about the Milken Institute report about technology transfer in California. The Milken Institute–hardly a “liberal” tank of any sort–concludes that the UC system is a an economic powerhouse, transferring much knowledge and expertise to the private sector in the form of technologies that have made California an economic powerhouse.

What does Arnold do with this economic engine that is the UC system? He cuts funding.

The Angelides campaign ought to take this report and juxtapose it against Arnold’s campaign ads claiming that Arnold intends to take Kahlifornia forward, and speak power to the truth. Is an economic policy that favors Indian casinos going forward? Does cutting funding to the academic institutions that gave birth to companies like Intel, Apple, Genentech, Amgen and countless others constitute any form of progress?

The Angelides campaign ought to make it very clear. The choice is between minimum wage jobs at Pechanga casino and high-tech jobs at Intel, Apple, Pixar, Genentech, and so on. Angelides ought to hit this point hard. Arnold is eroding the institutions that made California a powerhouse. Arnold does not deserve another chance.

The Ultimate Angelides Ad

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Unembedded: Reality from the Iraqi Theater

Unembedded

http://unumbedded.netIt is always nice to assess the price that one is paying for whatever it is that one is purchasing. Unembedded is a good site with which one may assess part of the toll being paid in Iraq.

Whether the toll being paid is a fair price remains debatable only because few are aware of the price depicted in these photos.

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It’s Unanimous: Bush is Clueless

Book Says Bush Ignored Urgent Warning on Iraq – New York Times

That is the assessment of every single official who has served with the man, and every single official who is still serving the man. The accounts are unanimous in their documentation of ignorance, of the sacrificing of reason and prudence at the altar of ideology and of absolute incompetence in waging war. The accounts are not fabricated by bogeymen, or political enemies. They are delivered by the participants themselves: Powell, O’Neil, Rumsfeld, Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and all the other cast members of this ship of fools.

On the eve of escalation, therefore, it is perhaps a good idea to remember the most definitive documentation of GOP incompetence in waging a useless war.

How can an organization be so hare-brained that its members routinely contradict each other and themselves? That they cannot keep a single secret. That they are undermined by any rational person that good fortune places in their paths?

How is it that anyone agrees to board the ship when the crew advertises its incompetence so proudly?

It is good to live without fear, but it is tragic to live without reason. Titanic was sunk by an iceberg that crossed its path unexpectedly. Heaven help the passengers on the ship whose crew are steering directly toward the iceberg.