Wednesday, August 16, 2006
ARRANGED MARRIAGE IN SCOTLAND
This post recently appeared in Steve Sailer's blog
It is certainly the case that a lot of immigration is of marriage partners from Pakistan, arranged & sometimes forced. For family reasons it is quite obvious why these are often arranged with relatives.
Perhaps, sexist though it might be, we should not give citizenship to males who marry British citizens. I suspect the problem is not so serious for males if only because browbeating teenage boys is more difficult.
My name is XXX. i'm YYYteen years old and am a muslim girl living in scotland and was wondering if you know of anything that will help me escape marrying an older first cousin from the middle east. I know i sound stupid but i got really freaked when my mum spoke to a relative telling them that she'd still give my hand to my cousin who is years older and tells the relative to wait because i haven't finished school and my other education. Also it is my mum's brother's son i'm supposed to marry and my uncle is really ill and my mum dotes on him. what if my uncle died and that was his dying wish, to have me married to my cousin? how disastrous is that going to be, i mean i don't even like the thought of inbreeding i think it's sick! Please do you know any loopholes in a XXX wedding that will stop me getting married to ZZZ? Please can you help i haven't even finished school or got a job so this has really blown me away!While he cannot guarantee the authenticity it does seem to have an understanding of British Islam which suggest it is at least not a simple forgery. Steve's blog, which is largely about applying statistics to racial & social policies in the US is not one I would have expected a young British teen to go for but he has done a lot of stuff on consanguinity which would explain it.
It is certainly the case that a lot of immigration is of marriage partners from Pakistan, arranged & sometimes forced. For family reasons it is quite obvious why these are often arranged with relatives.
Perhaps, sexist though it might be, we should not give citizenship to males who marry British citizens. I suspect the problem is not so serious for males if only because browbeating teenage boys is more difficult.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
HANDS UP THE TEACHERS WHO CAN READ PROPER
Horrifying stuff from the Daily Mail today
Thousands {of trainee schoolteachers} are repeatedly failing breathtakingly easy literacy and numeracy tests, putting children's education at risk.Sample question
One in five about to embark on teaching careers still have problems spelling and using punctuation as well as doing the most simple multiplication, division and percentages
......Ministers have previously insisted that a nationwide recruitment crisis in teaching is over but figures suggest a hidden problem over the quality of new recruits.
......Statistics from the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) show that of almost 34,000 would-be teachers taking the numeracy tests in 2004-5, almost one in five could not pass on their first attempt.
Just 81.1 per cent (26,964) sailed through first time. Some 10 per cent (3,314) passed after one retake and 8.9 per cent (2,969) needed more than two attempts before finally passing.
Would-be teachers performed better in numeracy in 2003-4 when 87.3 per cent (27,341) passed first time, 9.0 per cent (2,814) after one retake and 3.7 per cent (1,151) after at least two tries.
......'It's very concerning that so many would-be teachers after their 13 years in school education, three years on their degree course and a year's teacher training, can't seem to handle words and numbers properly."
...... This week the Confederation of British Industry claimed that a lack of specialist teachers in science is threatening the economy as thousands of potential scientists are being put off the subject at school.
A teacher plans to show a 35 minute video followed by a 10 minute class discussion. The lesson will finish at 11.30. When is the latest it can start.
Monday, August 14, 2006
CONQUERING THE GALAXY IN 8 EASY STEPS
This is a book, website & Foundation produced from ideas by Marshall Savage about .... well as the title says. I read the book some time years ago & it seems to be perfectly feasible. He has a slight tendency to be a little to environmentalist for me - taking great effort to make each step completely non-polluting & self sufficient - but maybe that's just me. It may also be that a space elevator would, in due course, prove even more economical than using laser launchers.
In any case the important parts now, since we don't have to worry about terraforming Mars for a while, are Aquarius & Bifrost of which I will reprint the synopses here:
AQUARIUS - Space Colony at Sea
The meat of the plan begins with my favorite step - colonization of the Earth's seas. Aquarius solves todays problems in an inexpensive and ecologically sound way, and serves as a testbed for our later colonization efforts.
The first and most important part of each aquarian colony is an OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Converter), a revolutionary form of solar power. Thanks to the sun, surface ocean waters are far warmer than in the depths, especially at the equator. An OTEC is a 3300 foot long pipe that sucks 40 degree (fahrenheit) water to the surface where it's 80 degrees. This temperature differential can then be used to power a steam engine. The lower the air pressure is, the lower the boiling point. At .43 PSI water boils at 80 degrees. The expansion of the water vapor turns a turbine which generates electricity. The vapor then condenses on a pipe that carries 40 degree water, which then lowers the pressure, which causes more water to boil, continuing the process.
A single OTEC will be taken by ship to a spot in equatorial waters, where the water is warm and deep and hurricanes are rare (thanks to the Corriolis force). A magnesium wire mesh will be placed in the water and using the electricity from the OTEC the water will be electrolyzed, creating a "seament". The same minerals used by shellfish to create their shell will be deposited onto the wire from the sea water due to the electricity. After 6 months of electrolysis a 5.5 mile diameter structure capable of housing 100,000 people should be complete.
The OTEC will pay many dividends. Excess energy can be converted and stored, or sold...water can be electrolyzed, separating the oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen can then be transported via large balloons for use in fuel cells in other parts of the world. More importantly, the water dredged from the depths of the sea will be rich in nitrogen which will promote plant and algal growth, making sea farming of fish and mollusks possible.
BIFROST - 21st Century Launch System
Our bridge into space will be a revolutionary new system, far more economical than NASA's shuttles. A kilogram of payload onboard a Space Shuttle costs about $8800 to send into orbit. The reason for this is that for every ton of payload (the stuff you actually intend to put into orbit) you have to use 25 tons of fuel and shuttle to get it there (20 tons of fuel, 5 of shuttle). Much of the fuel is spent, not lifting the payload, but lifting the rest of the fuel.
By contrast, Bifrost will be extremely cheap, perhaps as low as $15 to $20 per kilogram over the long term. The reason for this is that the Bifrost shuttle will carry almost none of its own fuel.
Bifrost begins with a 250 kilometer tunnel drilled out of a mountain and the surrounding countryside. The tunnel will be hyperbolic - beginning with a slight upward slope until it reaches the mountain towards the end, at which point it will be nearly vertical. Ideally the mountain will be one situated on or near the equator such as Kilimanjaro because objects at the equator are already moving faster than objects located at other parts of the world...the Earth has a circumference of about 25,000 miles, and rotates every 24 hours, so an object at the equator has an angular velocity of more than 1,000 miles an hour. By contrast, an object at the north pole has nearly no angular velocity. This extra velocity makes launches a bit cheaper (and explains why American launches have been done from Florida and Texas).
The shuttle is a "wave-rider", a delta wing craft (triangular) that coasts on its own shockwave and makes an excellent glider. The wave-rider will be accelerated through the tunnel using superconducting rings in the walls - magnetism will drag it along until it's attained much of the velocity necessary to launch it into orbit.
The wave-rider carries only about 4 tons of fuel. Ice, to be precise. When the wave-rider bursts free of the tunnel, powerful lasers on the ground will vaporize the ice on the rear of the wave-rider, which will give it the extra boost it needs to get into space.
The only fuel needed is a small chunk of (non-polluting) ice, so the electricity needed is rather low.
-------------------------
In particular the idea of an OTEC seems entirely feasible (OTEC - Everything) since it already exists albeit in a smaller form than suggested here. In fact because of the square cube law I would expect a larger variety to be more cost effective. Scotland has a long shipbuilding tradition & still produces some more hi-tech shipping such as oil rigs & a ship designed as a satellite launch site. We could produce Aquarius if we wanted. The main difficulties seem to me political ones (Marshall proposed locating it in international waters off Africa) & that we have a culture where no big project, whatever the economics, will be built if it is not seen as politically correct (eg new nukes). The cost was put in the region of a £1 billion, which is a lot (1/3rd of a bullet train) & the economics should be gone into first but it would be a magnificent thing for any nation to do.
In any case the important parts now, since we don't have to worry about terraforming Mars for a while, are Aquarius & Bifrost of which I will reprint the synopses here:
AQUARIUS - Space Colony at Sea
The meat of the plan begins with my favorite step - colonization of the Earth's seas. Aquarius solves todays problems in an inexpensive and ecologically sound way, and serves as a testbed for our later colonization efforts.
The first and most important part of each aquarian colony is an OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Converter), a revolutionary form of solar power. Thanks to the sun, surface ocean waters are far warmer than in the depths, especially at the equator. An OTEC is a 3300 foot long pipe that sucks 40 degree (fahrenheit) water to the surface where it's 80 degrees. This temperature differential can then be used to power a steam engine. The lower the air pressure is, the lower the boiling point. At .43 PSI water boils at 80 degrees. The expansion of the water vapor turns a turbine which generates electricity. The vapor then condenses on a pipe that carries 40 degree water, which then lowers the pressure, which causes more water to boil, continuing the process.
A single OTEC will be taken by ship to a spot in equatorial waters, where the water is warm and deep and hurricanes are rare (thanks to the Corriolis force). A magnesium wire mesh will be placed in the water and using the electricity from the OTEC the water will be electrolyzed, creating a "seament". The same minerals used by shellfish to create their shell will be deposited onto the wire from the sea water due to the electricity. After 6 months of electrolysis a 5.5 mile diameter structure capable of housing 100,000 people should be complete.
The OTEC will pay many dividends. Excess energy can be converted and stored, or sold...water can be electrolyzed, separating the oxygen and hydrogen. Hydrogen can then be transported via large balloons for use in fuel cells in other parts of the world. More importantly, the water dredged from the depths of the sea will be rich in nitrogen which will promote plant and algal growth, making sea farming of fish and mollusks possible.
BIFROST - 21st Century Launch System
Our bridge into space will be a revolutionary new system, far more economical than NASA's shuttles. A kilogram of payload onboard a Space Shuttle costs about $8800 to send into orbit. The reason for this is that for every ton of payload (the stuff you actually intend to put into orbit) you have to use 25 tons of fuel and shuttle to get it there (20 tons of fuel, 5 of shuttle). Much of the fuel is spent, not lifting the payload, but lifting the rest of the fuel.
By contrast, Bifrost will be extremely cheap, perhaps as low as $15 to $20 per kilogram over the long term. The reason for this is that the Bifrost shuttle will carry almost none of its own fuel.
Bifrost begins with a 250 kilometer tunnel drilled out of a mountain and the surrounding countryside. The tunnel will be hyperbolic - beginning with a slight upward slope until it reaches the mountain towards the end, at which point it will be nearly vertical. Ideally the mountain will be one situated on or near the equator such as Kilimanjaro because objects at the equator are already moving faster than objects located at other parts of the world...the Earth has a circumference of about 25,000 miles, and rotates every 24 hours, so an object at the equator has an angular velocity of more than 1,000 miles an hour. By contrast, an object at the north pole has nearly no angular velocity. This extra velocity makes launches a bit cheaper (and explains why American launches have been done from Florida and Texas).
The shuttle is a "wave-rider", a delta wing craft (triangular) that coasts on its own shockwave and makes an excellent glider. The wave-rider will be accelerated through the tunnel using superconducting rings in the walls - magnetism will drag it along until it's attained much of the velocity necessary to launch it into orbit.
The wave-rider carries only about 4 tons of fuel. Ice, to be precise. When the wave-rider bursts free of the tunnel, powerful lasers on the ground will vaporize the ice on the rear of the wave-rider, which will give it the extra boost it needs to get into space.
The only fuel needed is a small chunk of (non-polluting) ice, so the electricity needed is rather low.
-------------------------
In particular the idea of an OTEC seems entirely feasible (OTEC - Everything) since it already exists albeit in a smaller form than suggested here. In fact because of the square cube law I would expect a larger variety to be more cost effective. Scotland has a long shipbuilding tradition & still produces some more hi-tech shipping such as oil rigs & a ship designed as a satellite launch site. We could produce Aquarius if we wanted. The main difficulties seem to me political ones (Marshall proposed locating it in international waters off Africa) & that we have a culture where no big project, whatever the economics, will be built if it is not seen as politically correct (eg new nukes). The cost was put in the region of a £1 billion, which is a lot (1/3rd of a bullet train) & the economics should be gone into first but it would be a magnificent thing for any nation to do.
Sunday, August 13, 2006
PICTURES - ONCE A MAN HAS SEEN HE CAN NEVER TURN HIS BACK
Pete North. a regular here, has just started a new blog;
Real Srebrenica Genocide
His first article (which is largely mirrored on his original blog he may have decided that the title of the new blog, while no less factual, is more approachable than the old one.contains a number of photographs of atrocities against Serbs in Bosnia. I warn you that these are not in any way for the squeamish but then seeing what we have been doing they would have to be.
The BBC & other mainstream media (MSM) have, over the last 16 years shown us mant films & photos of alleged Serb atrocities. The most famous being the faked ITN video. I do not know of any one of them, though I am open to evidence, which was not either arguably staged &/or fabricated. Some years ago on a BBC Radio Scotland phone in in which I mentioned the ITN fake & another one of a murder certainly carried out by our Nazi allies to give the Guardian a front page exclusive. The Guardian journalist being interviewed assured me that if they had known of photos showing atrocities against Serbs they would have shown them. I replied mentioning the photos of beheadings* among those Peter has put up, at which point the interviewer immediately decided it was time to go to the next caller.
Let nobody dispute the fact that the BBC, Guardian etc have spent 16 years propagating faked pictures & have censored the true ones. Because of the time period this censorship has been going on & its widespread nature it is statistically impossible that this is anything other than deliberate racist censorship or, again given the time period & the entirely different slant given to Israel, that these Nazi lies represent anything other than the very highest standard of honesty of these journalists.
Damien, the BBC's head of telling people what a fine organisation the BBC is, has yet to reply to my letter to him giving the specific details of BBC censorship of genocide in the Nazi cause he had asked me for.
*My spellcheck was unaware that beheading came with a plural.
Real Srebrenica Genocide
His first article (which is largely mirrored on his original blog he may have decided that the title of the new blog, while no less factual, is more approachable than the old one.contains a number of photographs of atrocities against Serbs in Bosnia. I warn you that these are not in any way for the squeamish but then seeing what we have been doing they would have to be.
The BBC & other mainstream media (MSM) have, over the last 16 years shown us mant films & photos of alleged Serb atrocities. The most famous being the faked ITN video. I do not know of any one of them, though I am open to evidence, which was not either arguably staged &/or fabricated. Some years ago on a BBC Radio Scotland phone in in which I mentioned the ITN fake & another one of a murder certainly carried out by our Nazi allies to give the Guardian a front page exclusive. The Guardian journalist being interviewed assured me that if they had known of photos showing atrocities against Serbs they would have shown them. I replied mentioning the photos of beheadings* among those Peter has put up, at which point the interviewer immediately decided it was time to go to the next caller.
Let nobody dispute the fact that the BBC, Guardian etc have spent 16 years propagating faked pictures & have censored the true ones. Because of the time period this censorship has been going on & its widespread nature it is statistically impossible that this is anything other than deliberate racist censorship or, again given the time period & the entirely different slant given to Israel, that these Nazi lies represent anything other than the very highest standard of honesty of these journalists.
Damien, the BBC's head of telling people what a fine organisation the BBC is, has yet to reply to my letter to him giving the specific details of BBC censorship of genocide in the Nazi cause he had asked me for.
*My spellcheck was unaware that beheading came with a plural.
