Ubuntu Annoyances!

Posted: 6/26/2015 Updated: 7/11/2015

Update As Of 7/11/2015

Ubuntu became more and more unstable as far as WiFi was concerned. Lost my Wifi almost as soon as I logged in again. Rebooting did not help much. Other attempts like disabling/enabling networking were futile and so on.

Then, I tried to connect to Internet via Ethernet LAN cable. Well, Ubuntu said cable unplugged. Tried different LAN cables, rebooted etc. to no avail.

Moved on to install CentOS 7, but more on that in a separate post.

Original

I have installed the latest version of Ubuntu Linux in early June 2015 or so. Previously, I had Fedora Linux installed on my notebook, but it became so annoying that I had to get rid of it (I blogged here about it).

Serious Memory Management Issues

Now that I have tested two different flavor of Linux (i.e. Fedora, Ubuntu) on two different notebooks, my hunch is that Linux has some serious memory management issues compared to Microsoft Windows!

Very unfortunate!

Annoyances

1. My wireless LAN at home is "out of range" (according to Network settings)? My smartphone tells me otherwise! Grr!
2. Ubuntu desktop randomly blanks out letters in menus etc. This is very annoying!
3. Ubuntu drops my WiFi connection very frequently at least like once every 1-2 hours. So I try to reconnect or disable/enable networking etc. Very annoying!
4. If you have the Chrome Browser installed and you open let's say more than two dozen tabs (e.g. Facebook, Google mail, calendar, docs; various news media like New York Times, National Review etc.), Ubuntu becomes unstable or terribly responsive with long delays! Very annoying!

Another Unconstitutional Decision By The Supreme Court

Posted: 6/25/2015

Trigger

Yesterday the infamous decision on Obamacare, today another infamous decision on gay marriage (Obergefell Et Al. V. Hodges, Director, Ohio Department Of Health, Et Al.).

The events are happening so fast that I did not have any time to read more about it.

I hope to amend this blog post as soon as I have read more about it.

Deeply Unconstitutional

The Supremes usurped again the power to define the law of the land for all Americans what should have left to each state to decide.

The U.S. Supreme Court today went roughshod over state referenda and state constitutional amendments like the one in South Dakota.

This ruling today has all the qualities to become as controversial as Roe v. Wade!

What is celebrated today by NPR and many homosexuals etc. could very well turn out to become a big bone of contention in the years ahead.

Confusing Marriage With Slavery?

The U.S. Supreme Court, to my mistaken knowledge, never outlawed slavery even though it should have done so. Thus, a complete failure of Scotus on this issue. Not only that the Scotus issued several horrible or infamous decisions regarding slaves or former slaves (e.g. Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857) or equal but separate in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)).

Unlike slavery, marriage is a very personal decision!

One-Two-Punch Foul Compromise Among Supremes

Is this pure coincidence that these two decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court were released just one day apart? I sense here that the Supremes were having a struggle here and, unfortunately, something terribly awful came out of it!

This could be another hint that the Chief Justice John Roberts is totally unprincipled, incompetent and inept!

Privatize Marriage!

It is high time to privatize marriage! I intend to blog about this subject in more detail as soon as possible. Government or courts at all levels of government should only legitimately get involved in these personal decisions when there is a dispute of some sorts or when children are involved.

The OPM Hacking Attack Is Fast Becoming A Sputnik Crisis

Posted: 6/26/2015

Trigger

This week (e.g. here, here) we learnt that the hack into the U.S. Office of Personnel Management was far more serious than previously acknowledged by the administration. China is alleged to have perpetrated it.

I use Sputnik Crisis here in a polemic sense.

Hacking Attack On The German Bundestag

Recently, the German parliament was target of a massive hacking attack into their computer systems as reported around June of this year (see e.g. here). The Russians are believed to have perpetrated this one.

China Drove Home Another Lesson

In 2007, China killed a satellite in space.

“Way back in March 2014, OPM knew that Chinese hackers had accessed its system without having downloaded files. So the agency was on notice as a target.” (Source). Incredibly, the Chinese probed their target first a year ahead of their two main attacks and the Obama administration was sleeping at the switch like a leader from behind.

We also learnt this week, what the attackers were really after: Millions of background check documents (e.g. security clearing forms)! An excellent Wall Street Journal Opinion page article (Obama’s Cyber Meltdown The Chinese attack on federal personnel files keeps getting worse.) described in great detail how harmful this breach is to e.g. U.S. spies anywhere in the world. This is a very serious blow to the U.S.!

Salient excerpts from the article above:

1. “These include reports on Americans who work for, did work for, or attempted to work for the Administration, the military and intelligence agencies. They even include Congressional staffers who left government—since their files are also sent to OPM.”
2. “This means the Chinese now possess sensitive information on everyone from current cabinet officials to U.S. spies. Background checks are specifically done to report personal histories that might put federal employees at risk for blackmail.”
3. “These background checks are also a treasure trove of names, containing sensitive information on an applicant’s spouse, children, extended family, friends, neighbors, employers, landlords. Each of those people is also now a target, and in ways they may not contemplate. In many instances the files contain reports on applicants compiled by federal investigators, and thus may contain information that the applicant isn’t aware of.
   Of particular concern are federal contractors and subcontractors,  ...”
4. “The volume of data also allows the Chinese to do what the intell pros call “exclusionary analysis.” [process of elimination] We’re told, for instance, that some highly sensitive agencies don’t send their background checks to OPM. So imagine a scenario in which the Chinese look through the names of 30 State Department employees in a U.S. embassy. Thanks to their hack, they’ve got information on 27 of them. The other three they can now assume are working, undercover, for a sensitive agency. Say, the CIA.”
5. “Or imagine a scenario in which the Chinese cross-match databases, running the names of hacked U.S. officials against, say, hotel logs. They discover that four Americans on whom they have background data all met at a hotel on a certain day in Cairo, along with a fifth American for whom they don’t have data. ”

I am not sure whether this obstinate moron in the White House really understands what happened here, if this is true!

Chief Justice Roberts Massively Failed Again

Posted: 6/25/2015

Trampling On The Constitution And Mocking The Law

Today (6/25/2015), the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6 to 3 decision failed to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the laws of the land. Shame again on Chief Justice Roberts. This will go down as a sad or even infamous day in U.S. history.

I have not yet read a summary or the decision itself, thus I rely on excerpts published in the media. It appears again that the Chief Justice came up with a flimsy, untenable reasoning. Hope to add some remarks later.

I have previously blogged about John Roberts first failure regarding Obamacare here. Since then I have blogged here and here about the Chief Justice.

Hope Springs Eternal

One can only hope, that this miscarriage of justice will ignite a storm like the infamous Kelo v. City Of New London decision of about 10 years ago whereafter many states strengthened their private property protections.

One hopes the voters in November 2016 will vote out those who are responsible for Obamacare and for failing to repeal it and vote in a president who means business.

Lastly, we urgently need strict term limits for all justices including the supremes!

Discovered My Doppelganger In China

Posted: 6/24/2015  Updated: 6/25/2015

Today, a first time Chinese visitor to Phoenix pointed out that I looked like Robert Zollitsch (here is his own website) to whom he referred to by his Chinese name Lao Luo (Old gong). The visitor at that point did not know that I was German.

Mr. Zollitsch is a german “composer and producer of new Chinese music” who lives in Beijing, China and appears to be very popular in China. Like me he appears to wear something like crew cut.

I am a composer of sorts too. I design and code software!

Democratic Party Is In A Shokingly Bad Shape

Posted: 6/24/2015

The Democratic Party of the U.S. has awful leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for way too long in the U.S. Congress and an obstinate moron in the White House (Barack Obama) for two terms.

For the presidential election only Hillary Clinton without any serious competition is their Democratic Party’s ticket for the White House. Bernie Sanders is a loony leftist and the former governor of Maryland and former mayor of Baltimore Martin O’Malley is very much unaccomplished. Is there indeed not any other, able, and centrist democratic politician who has the guts to stand up and contend?

If Hillary is elected there can be no female interns in the White House. Her incredibly scandalous past will hopefully catch up with her by election day so help us God! Honesty and integrity are not Hillary’s forte!

Any two-party only democracy suffers greatly if one of the two parties is so extreme and offers such lousy candidates.

Confederate Flag Symbolism & Tokenism

Posted: 6/24/2015

Trigger

On 6/25/2015, the governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley asked to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol (see e.g. here) in the wake of the horrible shooting of 9 people in a church in Charleston, SC.

Perhaps one reason why Nikki Haley is not presidential material! According to news reports governor Haley reversed her position on this subject in about 6 months.

Typical Red Herring

This is just another politicized red herring like whether this was a domestic terrorist act or a hate crime. Politicians are again quick to abdicate their responsibility.

Even if there were hundreds of pictures of young Dylann Roof holding or waving a Confederate flag it does not explain or cause his rage.

The 150 Years Are Not Enough To Heal The Wounds Of The American Civil War

This is also particularly true for the people of the Confederate states, I believe. I have written elsewhere here on my blog about, what is in my view, the unnecessary enormous devastation and deaths brought about by this total war fought to the bitter end.

How Many Southerners Hated Black Slaves?

More specifically, how many slaveholders in the south hated their slaves? I would venture to say not that many. So to conflate hate crime and slavery etc. is disingenuous at best.

How many white southerners were actually slaveholders?

Was The Shooter Mentally Ill?

First and foremost, mental illness does not justify killing other humans.

This is perhaps the most critical question regarding this heinous crime. Was the shooter in treatment, what kind for how long? Did the parents know about it? What did they know? Why did the father buy him a handgun just months before the shooting?

I have not followed every bit of news out there, but to the best of my knowledge up to this day this question has not really been investigated nor really addressed.

The way this young man executed this mass shooting it suggests the affliction by a mental illness.

What should concern politicians is how many such mass shootings are committed by mentally ill people and why there is not better help available! Mental illness treatment especially in the U.S. and probably in many other Western countries is shamefully inadequate!

Confederate Flag Symbolism & Tokenism

Legalize Ivory Farming

Posted: 6/23/2015  Updated: 8/28/2017, 6/25/2015

Update Of 8/28/2017

Recently read following German language article: Südafrika streitet über den Schutz von Nashörnern Ein Nashorn-Züchter in Südafrika will den Verkauf der Hörner legalisieren. Tierschützer befürchten, dass er dann salonfähig würde – und sich die Mär von der Wunderwirkung noch festigt.

I did not know there are rhinoceros farmers in South Africa. This article is about John Hume, reportedly the world’s largest such farmer with 1,500 rhinos. He and other rhino farmers cut off the ivory anyway to protect their animals from poachers. Why should they not be allowed to sell it off? The ivory is said to grow back quickly at about 100 mm (or 1/10 of a meter) per year. Hume says he spends $170,000 per year to protect his rhinos.

The rhino farmers of South Africa recently won a South African Supreme Court decision to lift the prohibition of ivory sales.

Trigger

Just saw U.S. to Crush a Ton of Poached Ivory in Times Square DNA forensics trace the origins of illegal ivory, helping to focus law enforcement efforts. This will be the second time that a large quantity of poached ivory will be destroyed on Times Square. This time it will be carried out by the U.S Fish And Wildlife Service.

What A Stupid Idea To Destroy Poached Ivory!

This measure is pure political symbolism & tokenism! Our politicians get a chance to beat their chests!

Instead of destroying the seized ivory, this ivory should be sold to save animals! The sale would satisfy some of the demand and it would lower the sales price of ivory making it less lucrative for poachers to accept the risks.

Legalize The Farming Of Ivory

I freely admit that I am not an expert on this matter or know whether this is possible at all to farm ivory. It is definitely worth a try!

If farming of ivory is possible it would certainly have a significant number of benefits not least to protect remaining elephants etc. living in the wild.

However, as long as we still face significant global demand for ivory it is insane and an exercise in futility to pursue prohibition and punishment.

Synthesize Ivory

Why are humans still not capable to synthesize ivory as substitute for natural ivory? What is thwarting progress here?

Education & Persuasion Without Harassment

I would also believe that a comprehensive and sustained campaign to educate and persuade buyers of ivory to give up on it.

This should be done in a reasonable way with respect towards the buyer not by militant or zealous animal rights activists!

Bibliography

I have previously blogged about this subject here and here.

New Synthetic Molecules Created By Humans

Posted: 6/21/15

Trigger

Eureka moment in supramolecular chemistry. This is the second or so article I have recently read about chemists concocting new, complex molecules with extraordinary stereo properties.

On The Cusp

It appears that humans are about to enter a new era where complex molecules or materials are synthesized that have basically no resemblance to those found in nature. What an exciting time we live in!

How Many Tax Savings Accounts Do Americans Need?

Posted: 6/21/2015

Trigger

These are two articles celebrating the recent passing of a law in Nevada establishing education savings accounts:

http://www.pacificresearch.org/article/all-states-should-emulate-nevadas-universal-school-choice-plan

http://fee.org/anythingpeaceful/detail/nevada-passes-universal-school-choice

Besides, I know the Goldwater Institute has been a strong advocate for such accounts for some years.

Too Many Tax Savings Accounts In The Tax Code!

Do you know how many different retirement savings accounts there are already available in the federal income tax code (e.g. Simple IRA, Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, Keogh plan)? Too many!

Besides that we have e.g. health savings and college savings accounts (Section 529).

A Principled View

The current tax code is already complex enough, simplification and tabula rasa are in order not piling on.

1. Savings accounts are complex contraptions serving tax accountants, subsidizing colleges, health providers and so on. They tend to proliferate and become more complex over time once established. Politicians can not resist to tinker with them all the time
2. Savings accounts cloak the reduction of tax revenues and they usually benefit more clever people or those with good tax preparers
3. Foremost, the tax code should serve only to generate tax revenues for government in the most uniform, simple, fair, and transparent way possible. Any welfare programs or government subsidies should be strictly only on the expenditure side of the government budget. This would greatly enhance transparency etc. Politicians would have to explain their largesse etc.

The Perfect Spy

Posted: 6/18/15

Trigger

Has China learned how to build the perfect U.S. spy? This article wants us to believe that China hacked into the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to train the perfect spy or mole.

Why Open And Free Societies Will Always Beat Totalitarian Or Authoritarian Regimes

Yes, perhaps Russia, Iran, North Korea, or China or any other repressive totalitarian or authoritarian regime will be able to train the most perfect spies to penetrate the deepest secrets of the U.S., but they will lose nevertheless. The former Soviet Union is a great example.

A free and open society willing to credibly defend its individual freedom will most always innovate faster and be stronger than any totalitarian/authoritarian regime no matter how much these repressive regimes try to spy.

The Ultimate Strategy

Is it not even perhaps the ultimate strategy of the U.S. to allow spies to report back how much more advanced the U.S. is compared to these totalitarian/authoritarian regimes? This is the ultimate awe and shock strategy, isn’t it?

Identity Ideology

Posted: 6/17/2015

Trigger

The recent, public outcry over a woman (i.e. Rachel Dolezal) who identified herself as black and was the head of the NAACP chapter of Spokane, Washington. She is also reported to have sued predominantly black Howard University for e.g. racial discrimination. Media like CNN reported for hours about her. Here is a just one of the many stormy articles published in the New York Times. Was she just a dishonest person? Was this a case of transracialism in an age of transgenderism? What is wrong with a white person in a leading position of NAACP? How many white people were in the inner circle of Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcolm X?

The other prominent case of recent times is the sex change of past Olympic decathlon winner Bruce Jenner.

Personal Or Group Identity

Personal identity has long morphed into some kind of religion and groupthink. It is supposed to make one feel better after recognizing one’s identity.

It is a convenient political tool to classify voters by their imposed identity like moving pawns on a checkerboard.

Transracialism

Is Rachel Dolezal an outlier? Or does it happen more often than most people are aware of it that people of one race seriously wish to be of another race?

How many black people have seriously wished to be white? Is it a sacrilege to ask?

Have there not been a significant number of European people who expressed very strong affection for or identification with Asian or Persian culture etc.

Transgender

Bruce Jenner ever a showman/woman and it is so lucrative too?

Or how about celebrity convicted spy formerly known as Bradley Edward Manning? Has he not immediately increased his fame or notoriety by intending to change his sex in the wake of his verdict? Is the taxpayer on the hook for his sex change?

In general, is becoming transgender a fad? Is it done for vanity? It’s so cool, right?

In 50 years from now will humans looking back consider today’s humans as hopelessly antiquated? Will gender matter any more in 50 years from now? Probably not!

Homosexuality Or Bisexuality

All these cult rites about homosexuality are curious like coming out etc. And all the cachet associated with being gay or lesbian etc.

Is there a moral issue here or is it up to adults in a free society to decide for themselves what they want to do with their lives?

Feminism

Another example of hyper identification and exaggerated advocacy of victimization and superiority.

Regressive To Civil Society

We are all humans irrespective of origin, skin color etc. Thus the identification with some kind of identity as pointed out here is definitely not progressive, but rather backward. It is a form of modern tribalism.

It is high time to move on and away from this personal or group identity narrow-mindedness!