Incredible, Resourceful, Affluent President-Elect Donald Trump

Are you as unhappy with the results of yesterday's Presidential election as I am? Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have favorability ratings below 50%, so, no matter who won, most Americans would have been unhappy. I opposed Trump in the Republican primaries and did not support either candidate in the general election.

Thank goodness this awful election is finally over and the result is decisive in the Electoral College. I find it gratifying that, starting today in the wee hours of the day after the election, both sides have been saying cordial things to each other, in our tradition of peaceful transition of power. I remained awake till 1 AM, when it appeared all but certain Trump would prevail (but not by how much), then awoke at 3 AM in time to watch the victory speeches of VP-elect Mike Pence and Trump.

I was relieved to hear Trump thank Clinton for her gracious phone call conceding the election, and for the fact his victory celebration was definitely in the no-gloat zone. Prior to noon, Democrat VP-candidate Tim Kaine and Clinton addressed their followers in emotionally heartfelt, yet positive, speeches. President Obama followed a bit after noon, with cordial congratulations and an invitation for Trump to visit the White House the following day, which he has accepted.

SO, WHO TO BLAME ?

Though protests were to be expected, I was sorry to see this evening's street demonstrations against the election results in several cities. On the positive side, the marchers have not been excessively violent, at least so far. Let us hope reason continues to prevail.

Political partisans on both sides will soon begin the blame game. Why did Clinton lose and who is the designated bogeyman?

1. Blame FBI Director James Comey? Was he wrong to put his fat FBI thumb on the scales during the early voting period less than two weeks before election day? Well, due to an unrelated FBI investigation, he was informed that hundreds of thousands of emails, some related to Clinton's stint as Secretary of State, had been found. Soon after he informed Congressional leaders of the find, a flood of leaks revealed the emails were on a computer shared by top Clinton aide Huma Abedin and her now-estranged husband Anthony Wiener (what an appropriate name :^). IMHO, had Comey not provided official notice to Congress when he did, others at the FBI would have leaked the information, having at least as much negative effect on Clinton's campaign.

2. Blame Huma Abedin? As a State Department employee, Abedin had a legal duty to turn over all computers and phones with work-related data on them. She failed to turn in the computer shared with Wiener. Had she done so in a timely manner, the FBI would have included those emails in their initial analysis completed in July. The FBI would have found (as they did shortly before election day) that these emails did not change Comey's July recommendation that Clinton and her staff had been "extremely careless" in their handling of information that was classified at the time, but that their actions did not rise to a criminal level.  IMHO, had Abedin turned that computer over earlier in the year, it would not have come up so close to the election, and Clinton might have won.

3. Blame Anthony Wiener? Had Wiener not repeatedly posted sexually-loaded photos of himself on social media, culminating in a lewd message to a teenager, the FBI would not have been investigating him, and his shared computer would never have come to light. IMHO, has Wiener kept his sexual absurdities in his pants, Clinton might have won.

4. Blame Bill Clinton and Attorney-General Loretta Lynch? Normally, prosecutors in the Justice Department would have decided whether or not the data from the FBI investigation of Clinton's email server justified criminal charges. However, shortly before that decision was to be made, former-President Bill Clinton had what was apparently supposed to be a secret meeting with the Attorney-General on the Phoenix airport tarmac. When an enterprising reporter revealed that Bill had spoken to the head of the Justice Department, who had the final authority to charge his wife Hillary with a crime, they claimed all they talked about was their grandchildren, golf, and travel. Of course, no one believed that, so Lynch was forced to turn the final decision over to Comey, and he was required to announce it to the public and testify to Congress. IMHO, had Bill Clinton not met with Lynch, Comey's role would have been behind the scenes and Lynch would have made the decision not to prosecute, and Clinton might have won.

5. Blame Hillary Clinton? Of course not! It would be blatantly sexist to blame the first woman who had a chance to be elected President of the US. She admits it was a mistake to use a private email server for State Department business, why not leave it at that? [Sarcasm off] IMHO, Clinton endangered National Security by using a system that the FBI concluded was "less secure than Gmail" to transmit and receive over 100 emails with information that was classified at the time, some at the highest Top Secret level. It would have been better for Lynch to have a US Attorney convene a Grand Jury instead of short-circuiting the process and having Comey make the decision himself.

BLAME DONALD TRUMP

Yes, of course! He is an "evil genius" who has played the American public and the mostly leftist media by pretending to be an uncouth, lewd, bumbling, blowhard, political novice, while taking over the Republican Party apparatus and getting elected to the most powerful office on Earth. He also fooled me.

Here are some of the bad things I've written about him on this Blog:

from http://tvpclub.blogspot.com/2016/10/why-i-can-no-longer-mark-my-ballot-for.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Compared to Hillary Clinton] less is known about Donald's views prior to becoming a politician, it appears he has been far more centrist on social policy and less hawkish than the Tea Party, Religious Right, and Conservative Establishment far-right wings of  the Republican Party. He registered for the Reform Party from 1999-2001, Democrat from 2001-2009, and Independent from 2011-2012. (He registered as a Republican from 1987-1999, 2009-2011, and 2012-present.)  Last year I wrote the following, quoting from my Blog (2015/04/10):

Donald Trump, [is] a Crony Capitalist Democrat pretending to be a Republican. As recently as 2004, he told CNN's Wolf Blitizer "In many cases, I probably identify more as Democrat" and in 2007, also with Blitzer, he praised Hillary Clinton's ability to negotiate with Iran. Trump gave more to Democrats than Republicans between 1989 and 2009 according to NPR. ... Until recently, his views on military action in the mid-east, abortion, drug legalization, and health care have been more in line with leftist Democrats than with independents and Republicans.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Donald has said some stupid things that got him into unnecessary battles. He refused to back off, which only increased the damage to his campaign

• Early in his Presidential Primary campaign, Donald said that Senator John McCain is "not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured." That dumb remark did not hurt McCain, because everyone knows he was a hero the moment he put on a US Naval Aviator uniform and flew dangerous missions over enemy territory. The fact he was shot down and served honorably as a POW is only icing on the cake of his heroic status.


• Trump also went way overboard criticizing undocumented Mexican immigrants. He even questioned the fairness of a judge of Mexican ancestry who was born in the US.


• Donald made an idiotic pledge to ban all Muslim immigration. Then he criticized Muslim Gold Star parents, a lawyer and his wife, who appeared at the Democratic convention to point out that a flat religious ban would be unconstitutional. Trump suggested the wife remained silent because Muslims do not value women.


• Trump, not a professional politician, has been making extreme, sexist, and otherwise intolerable "politically incorrect" comments all his life. Instead of admitting that fact, he continues to fight decades-old battles, such as the one about a Miss Universe who gained some weight after she won the competition.


• The most recent Access Hollywood video and tape is a particularly lewd example of Donald's taste for beautiful women. His comments are absolutely unforgivable.


• Summary: Donald Trump is an amazingly athletic speaker. He can verbally kick himself in the head and step on his own dong without missing a beat. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[On October 12, 2016 I wrote] Up till about 24 hours ago, I thought I would "hold my nose" and vote against Hillary Clinton by darkening the oval next to Donald Trump's name.

What changed my intention?

• Well, it was Trump's appearance on the O'Reilly Factor,on October 11th. I record and watch Bill O'Reilly almost every evening. Trump trashed Senator John McCain and House Majority Leader Paul Ryan and said he would go it alone! That was what put me over the top!


• I've seen both McCain and Ryan in person when they came to The Villages (in Central Florida) for their 2008 and 2012 campaigns. In 2008, I stood for almost an hour, twenty feet from McCain as he (and Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman) spoke and answered questions. In 2012 I watched Ryan's VP campaign appearance at an outdoor rally, where he introduced his mother, who happened to be a Florida resident. They are politicians, but also honorable men (as is Mitt Romney, whose hand I shook when he came here during the Republican primary).


• So, for the first time in my life, in 2016 at the age of 77, I will not vote for the Republican nominee for President of the US. Of course, I will vote for down-ballot Republicans and hope we can retain control of the Congress. Perhaps I will write-in the name of Paul Ryan or some other Republican I admire. It is a long-shot, but, perhaps Donald Trump will withdraw his name and allow the Republican National Committee to substitute someone else, Who knows?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

from http://tvpclub.blogspot.com/2015/10/do-republicans-hate-immigrants-women.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In case you are wondering who I am and where I'm coming from:

I'm an old Goldwater Republican and a techie engineer. In 1964 when my wife and I were married, there was a sign with the chemical formula for "Gold Water" (AuH₂O) in the rear window of my car! Despite political differences, I'm still married to my super-smart and highly accomplished first wife. We have three highly-intelligent daughters (also still married to their very smart first husbands) and five wonderful grandchildren. We were both born in Brooklyn, lived most our working lives in Tioga County in upstate New York, and now reside in The Villages, FL, "America's Happiest and Healthiest Home Town".

I earned a Bachelors in Electrical Engineering, and a Masters and PhD in System Science and am proud of my long, successful career as a System Engineer at IBM and Lockheed-Martin, with my name on five US Patents. As an adjunct professor, I taught undergrad and graduate courses in System Engineering at Binghamton University and the University of Maryland University College.

As a Guest Contributor to the world's most popular Climate website, my postings on the reality of the "Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect" and how human activities that have boosted CO2 levels and reduced the Earth's albedo are therefore responsible for some fraction of recent warming, have attracted hundreds of thousands of page views and thousands of comments. Although I favor moderate worldwide action to save energy, encourage alternatives to the unprecedented burning of fossil-fuels (including a flat carbon-tax -- but not cap and trade), I am convinced that politically-motivated hysteria over possible human-caused catastrophic climate change is overblown. My wife and I have tried to do our part by recycling, super-insulating our house, and, for the past 11 years, we have shared an energy-efficient Prius hybrid.

MY BLOGS AND OTHER RESOURCES

• The Virtual Philosophy Club - Courteous Discussion of Serious Topics


• Visual Ira - Visualize Science and Technology With Ira


• "2052 - The Hawking Plan" (Free online Novel) Amore, amorality and Stephanie Goldenrod's mission to save civilization for an infinite future.


• Life, Liberty, and Technology - My predictions for the next several decades (companion site to my novel)


• Curb Your Enthusiasm - Fantasy Episode


• MyYouTube Videos


• My "What is Time?" Video

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ira Glickstein

Blog MILESTONE - Over a Quarter Million Page Views!

The Virtual Philosophy Club, my main Blog, has just passed the 200,000 page view mark! Including my three other Blogs (Curb Your Enthusiasm (2,034 views), Life, Liberty, and Technology (10,402 views),  and The Hawking Plan (my free online novel) 42,289 views) the total sum stands at nearly 255,000 page views.

Add to that my postings as a Guest Contributor to Watts Up With That, the world's most viewed Climate Blog,  that earned 290,629 page views, and my online writings have garnered over a half-million page views. (In addition, an unknown number of my Watts Up With That postings have been republished on other Blogs, most likely adding at least 100,000 additional page views.

The point of this is that I, an ordinary person, with a PC and web access, have reached hundreds of thousands of people with my views as a "Citizen Journalist", see: Guardians at the Gate are GONE - Freedom of the Press !!!,  and The Blogosphere - Millions of Citizen Journalists.

I've also posted videos on Vimeo and You Tube that have garnered thousands of views.

Other than the cost of Internet access, and electricity for my PC, all this activity has not cost me a single dime. (On the other hand, it has not earned me a penny either).

Ira Glickstein

I am Charlie - Je Suis Charlie

The most recent issue of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo has sold over 5,000,000 copies, amid great controversy, yet, as far as I know, an image of the cover has NOT yet been published by many major US TV news organizations! The cover image has been shown on TV by Fox News and CBS, but not yet by CNN, MSNBC, NBC, or ABC as far as I have been able to confirm.

The graphic shows the original French edition (left) and my English translation (right), with Voltaire's famous quotation superimposed.


By its own admission, Charlie Hebdo (Charlie Weekly) is a "Journal Irresponsable" ("Irresponsible Journal") and its stock in trade is satire of various religions and other deeply held beliefs. I certainly do not wish to encourage publication of such divisive material, yet, along with Voltaire, I have to defend the right of publication of such material in a free society.


What do you think?

Ira Glickstein

The Blogosphere - Millions of Citizen Journalists

[Based on a presentation by Ira Glickstein to the Philosophy Club, The Villages, FL, 08 April 2011. Powerpoint slides are available HERE]
UNSEAT THE ELITE!
What if everybody had a printing press with worldwide reach at essentially zero cost? Well we do!
The Blogosphere
is a growing, multi-million person army of citizen journalists. Anyone can create a blog that can be read by anyone else, instantaneously and worldwide, at essentially no cost.
Technological developments in the past decades have diluted the ownership of the press from a monopoly of the professional, connected, monied elite to a more balanced playing field where ordinary people can reach extraordinary audiences. The elite no longer choose what is "the news of the day".
As the left-hand panel of the graphic indicates, the traditional model has professional authors and reporters, who are assigned by and work for media conglomerates, gathering and reporting the news of the day. Their work is funnelled through the editorial and publications processes of the media conglomerates and is then flushed down upon the people, who the media elite regard as "The Great Unwashed Public". We poor souls at the bottom have no choice but to lap it up. (Yes, there are "Letters to the Editor" and call-ins on Talk Radio, but these are screened and selected by the same media elite who published and broadcast the original stories, so effective views that happen to be contrary may not see the light of day.)
We, now do have a choice. The new model, shown in the right-hand panel, consists of literally hundreds of millions of non-professionals who run blogs out of their homes, and billions of blog readers who may become commenters at the flip of the switch on their PCs and laptops. Bloggers interact with each other on a peer-to-peer basis. Of course there are some blogs with greater readership and influence than others, but it is an almost pure meritocracy. My blog -and yours- is just as convenient to bring up on any computer as the most influential blog in the world!
THE MOMENT OF TRUTH
We are fortunate enough to know the exact moment of truth when the media elite decline began. It was late one Saturday night back in January 1998, when, at precisely 11:32:47 PM, Pacific Standard Time, in the kitchen of his apartment in Hollywood, CA, a strange looking fellow named Matt Drudge posted an item to his news aggregation blog. His scoop was the fact that Newsweek Magazine had just spiked a story by veteran reporter Michael Isikoff, apparently for political reasons, because the story was about the then President of the United States and his sexual affair with a young intern named Monica Lewinsky.
Quoting This Day in Tech History: "Almost overnight it seems, traditional news media, especially newspapers, began to lose ground to Internet news sources."
The Drudge Report continues to be one of the most popular websites in the world. I visit it a couple times a day to check on the latest news. Unlike other popular websites, the Drudge Report continues its "plain Jane" style (or lack thereof), linking major media reoports of the news stories I most want to read and sometimes breaking new stories of its own.
MY BLOGOSPHERE PORTFOLIO
I've had a blog since the mid-1900's. The first one I had to code in raw HTML because there were no editors available to me at the time. It is still online at http://pages.prodigy.net/ira/home.htm, frozen in time because I have not had access to it for about seven years.
I currently have four Google Blogs, the one you are reading now, The Vitual Philosophy Club, plus Curb Your Enthusiasm - Fantasy Episodes, 2052 - Life, Liberty and Technology - predictions for the second half of the 21st Century, and 2052-The Hawking Plan, my free online novel.
I also have a dozen Google Knols to my credit, and here is the list. Knols (bits of knowledge) are Google's answer to Wikipedia. Ironically, I started writing Knols after Wikipedia rejected a scholarly item I wrote about Optimal Span. I made the mistake of mentioning that it was based on my PhD Dissertation and one of the Wikipedia volunteer reviewers thought that was inappropriate. It turns out that Wikipedia has a formal review process. My item was challenged, I made changes and appealed the challenge, and some comittee voted and excised my item.
Even though I think their process misfired in my case, overall this experience enhanced my respect for the integrity of Wikipedia items on important topics. Yes, anyone can post misinformation to Wikipedia on unimportant topic areas, but they do have dedicated volunteer reviewers for domains of importance. So, rejected by Wikipedia, I went to Google Knols and posted my Optimal Span item there. (A great example of the efffectiveness of competition in increasing the freedom of choice of writers and audiences!)
Over the past few years, I have posted a dozen Knols on many topics, and they have garnered over 20,000 page views.
Back in December of last year, I became a Guest Contributor at the world's most viewed climate website, Watts Up With That?, which this year was voted Best Science Blog. Since December, I have posted 16 topics, garnering over 90,000 page views, and a few thousand comments. It is quite thrilling, and a bit humbling, to post an item and, within 24 hours, have a few thousand page views and a one- or two-hundred comments!
I'm doing my share promoting the citizen's army of journalists. And by reading (and commenting) on this, you are too!

Ira Glickstein

Elite Opposition to Online Information

Elite academia has their underwear in a bunch about use of online citations by college students. A few years ago, the History Department at Middlebury College went so far as to bar students from citing Wikipedia as a source in papers or other academic work, a story picked up by the NY Times (of course) and immitated by UC Santa Cruz and others.

Online sources, they say, have made it easier for students to copy material and submit it as their own writing (plagiarism). Much of that material, opponents claim, may be false because it has not gone through the editing and review process traditional for books and magazines.

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

In a recent talk on Freedom of the Press in the Digital Age at our local Philosophy Club, I used these examples to illustrate how "the authorities" always try to shut down alternative sources and technologies that undermine their monopoly control on information. The academic elite that controls the publishing industry and the main-stream press hates it when they lose control because they simply do not trust ordinary people.

THE AUTHORITIES ALWAYS FAVOR CENSORSHIP

Back around 1200 AD Pope Innocent III banned the common language (vulgate) Bible because, he said “… The mysteries of the faith … cannot be understood by everyone but only by those who are qualified to understand them with informed intelligence.” In other words, if you don't understand Latin you have to listen to the interpretations of "qualified" experts, i.e., the Pope and priests. In the 1450's when moveable type printing came into use, drastically reducing the cost of reproducing books which up til then had been a virtual monopoly of the Church and the Crown, no one could own a printing press without a license.

The English Parliament, in 1643, noting "Abuses, and frequent Disorders, in printing many false, forged, scandalous, seditious, libelous, and unlicensed Papers, Pamphlets, and Books" by people who "set up sundry private Printing Presses in Corners" ordered that no "Book, Pamphlet, or Paper, shall from henceforth be printed, … unless … first approved of, and licensed …” John Milton (yes the famous poet) responded the following year by publishing an UNLICENSED speech opposed to any kind of prior restraint on the freedom to publish. In general, the English-speaking world and our Western-oriented allies have the greatest degree of press freedom that has ever existed in the history of the world.

THE INTERNET (AND WIKIPEDIA) OFFERS ULTIMATE FREEDOM

The advent of the Internet is the ultimate in freedom to publish without approval from "the authorities". Every day, millions of ordinary people post to Blogs like this one that nearly everyone in the world can read if they choose to. No licensing, no prior restraint by the government! Of course, if the information is libelous, injured parties can sue. If it is a matter of diffference of opinion, opponents are free to publish their own rebuttal on the Internet.

So, back to the ban on academic citations of Wikipedia and other online sources. Why does the academic elite think that books and magazines and newspapers published by established organizations are more reliable than Wikipedia? Well, they say, these organizations have editors and research staffs that act as "gatekeepers" to protect the truth. That is true, but it is also true that most of these gatekeepers have similar opinions on controversial topics. Would you make the Pope and priests the sole gatekeepers for religious information as Pope Innocent III wanted? If not, why would you put elite academics in charge of information about history and politics and similar topics where opinion and fact are not easy to separate?

I think Wikipedia, pound for pound, has a greater truth content than The New York Times. Yes, anyone can edit items into Wikipedia, but, if false information is edited into an item about an important topic, there are far many more people who are prepared to edit it out and make sure it is correct. Wikipedia has a system of voluntary reviewers. If an item is challenged, the author is given an opportunity to correct it and, if he or she fails to do so, there is a review and voting process that can delete the material. Corrections thus appear in hours or days. How long does it take to correct something in a book or magazine?

Wikipedia has Google-backed competition in the form of Google Knols (where a Knol is a bit of knowledge). Again, anyone may post Knol topics, but, unlike Wikipedia, authors must identify themselves. I have published 11 Knols that, in total, garnered nearly 17,000 page views as of a month ago.

As many of you know, I teach an online graduate course in System Engineering. I encourage my students to use online sources as wll as traditional published materials. I actually prefer online sources because it makes it easier for me to detect and prove plagiarism. When I see a phrase or sentence I do not think a particular student has written, and if it is not in quote marks with a proper citation, I do a Google on the phrase, using quote marks at either end. If I get a direct hit, I look to see if the rest of the sentence or paragraph is also copied, and, if so, I have positive proof of violation of the Academic Integrity policy of the university.

Ira Glickstein

Fond Memories of Popular Science Magazine

Thanks to Google, the Popular Science magazine archives are available free! (Hat tip to WattsUpWithThat for the alert.)

The cover of the July 1977 issue is shown because it includes a wonderful piece. Click here to see it!

What makes this item so great? Well, I wrote it and it shows our three daughters, Rena, Lisa, and Sara, with their stuffed animals, on a bed/bench I designed and built for our van when we did some camping.

It also includes a photo of me when I was about half my current age and a nice do-it-yourself construction diagram. (The piece includes some other photos, not shown here.)

[For larger images, either hold CTRL and press + or click on image.]









You can page through any issue and see not only the stories but also the adverts, which are often more interesting.

Ira Glickstein

Toyota Runaway = "Creative Destruction"

[Update 13 Mar 2010. In my original posting I wrote: "...I believe some of the reports are 'copy cats' looking for publicity." Well, the incident pictured above may be one such Copy Cat.] As those who follow this Blog may know, my wife and I have been driving a 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid -our only car- and have been very happy with it. So, quite naturally, we have been following the controversy about runaway Toyotas very closely.

The photo above shows a runaway Prius. On 8 March, this car raced up to 90 mph on a California freeway when the accelerator pedal apparently stuck. The terrified driver tried to slow the car using the brakes but they were ineffective.

He called 911 and a CHP trooper came alongside. Using his bullhorn, he told the driver to stand on the brake pedal and also apply the emergency brakes. Finally, with both brakes on and a steep uphill section of roadway, the car slowed sufficiently for the driver to turn off the ignition and coast to a safe stop.

TOYOTA'S INEFECTIVE RESPONSE

When runaway incidents began being reported by the press and TV, Toyota claimed that the runaway incidents were due to improperly installed floor mats that jammed the pedal in the full-on position. They fixed that by asking users to secure floor mats properly and not to use double mats.

Then, they admitted that the innards of some accelerator pedals could corrode and stick in the full-on position. They fixed that by installing a metal shim.

Nevertheless, the incidents keep occurring. I believe some of the reports are "copy cats" looking for publicity. Some are from people who mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brakes and are falsely trying to shift the blame to a hardware defect. However, many, if not most, are genuine failures and not in any way the fault of the drivers.

WHY DIDN'T TOYOTA APPLY A SOFTWARE FIX?

When the news first came out a month or so ago, my first reaction was that -whatever the actual cause- Toyota should immediately install a software over-ride that would disconnect or limit the accelerator signal, or shift the car into neutral, if the brakes were applied while the accelerator was on.

Here is the technical detail for the CTS pedal used by Toyota. The accelerator pedal sends an analog voltage to the onboard computer. The brakes also send a signal to the computer. Toyota has the ability to update the computer software. Therefore, a software fix could limit the accelerator signal to some minimal value whenever the brake is on, perhaps by shifting to neutral. (The engine should not be shut down because that would disable the power brakes and power steering.)

Even if, as Toyota still claims, the problem is strictly mechanical, a software over-ride, to prevent acceleration when the brakes are applied, would prevent most of the accidents we have read about.

AUTOMOTIVE SOFTWARE HAS A LONG WAY TO GO

Before we retired, my wife and I worked on aircraft electronics systems and software. We currently teach online graduate courses on those subjects for the University of Maryland University College. Aircraft systems and software are developed, tested, verified and validated in a very controlled environment. Our methodology is based on "lessons learned" over the past few decades. Automotive engineers have only been in the software game for about a decade. They could learn alot from us.

It is clear to me that either the Toyota engineers and software developers are incompetent, or -more likely in my opinion- their management has restricted their efforts either due to cost concerns or legal liability, or both.

While I have no inside knowledge, I cannot believe that no engineer at Toyota ever suggested a software over-ride when brakes are applied. I can imagine some Toyota engineers, when the runaway acceleration incidents were first reported to Toyota several years ago, suggesting a software patch to over-ride whatever mechanical failures were the actual cause. "No," I can hear some anal manager say, "If we fix the software that will be costly and will imply that we are legally liable for not having the brake over-ride in the original design." I can imagine a room full of managers and lawyers nodding their heads like so many bobble-dolls!

HASN'T ANYONE HEARD OF BASIC ERROR CHECKING?

I think the press has been pretty responsible, although they have been taken in both by Toyota appologists and some publicity-seeking "experts". Brian Ross (ABC News) has done a good job but I believe he was a bit off when he rode along with a college prof who shorted the accelerator pedal wires. That made the car accelerate out of control, as Brian Ross stood on the brakes. The prof then showed that the computer in the car did not display any error codes.

A week later, Toyota engineers did the same wire-shorting experiment on several cars from different manufacturers, and they too did not display any error codes. Toyota did the demo to show they were blameless. But, all it indicates to me is that the other automobile manufacturers are also incompetent!

I know exactly what the prof did. There are three wires to the pedal: 1) Ground, 2) Vin, (voltage input, probably 12 volts DC) and 3) Vout (voltage output that varies from zero volts to 92% (+/- 3%) of Vin as the accellerator pedal is pushed all the way down). If, due to loose insulation (or the actions of the prof), Vin (wire 2) happens to short to Vout wire (wire 3), the computer will get a Vout equal to 100% of Vin and will interpret it as a signal that the accelerator is pushed all the way down.

If the pedal and software had been designed the way aircraft electronics is designed, the computer software would recognize that Vout was 100% of Vin, exceeding the limit of 95%, and would have set an error code. Beyond setting an error code, had the system been designed to aircraft electronics standards, exceeding 95% of Vin would have been recognized as shorted wiring and should have initiated speed limiting.

Apparently, the automotive system and software engineers have not implemented even the most basic error checking! This applies not only to Toyota but also the other manufacturers whose cars were part of the Toyota wire-shorting demo!

WHERE WERE THE REGULATORS? THE COURTS?

Toyota, the world's leading auto company, has turned out defective products that killed some customers and endangered others. Until a week ago, they did not even let the National Highway Transportation Administration (NHTSA) have access to their internal "black box" codes. NHTSA seems to have gone along with Toyota's arrogance. The regulators were either "asleep at the switch", or incompetent, or in the pocket of the industry they were regulating, or all three!

Based on the Toyota wire shorting demo, the other auto companies are nearly as incompetent. (To their credit, however, the other companies do make their "blackbox" error code translator units available to regulators and dealerships.)

According to press reports, a former Toyota liability defense lawyer, who said he alerted the company to systemic problems several years ago, and who has the emails to prove it, has recently come forward. According to him, Toyota had a "book of knowledge" that detailed known design defects. Company lawyers used that information as part of the decision process of whether to fight a lawsuit or settle. Where were the courts?

Of course, now that the facts are coming out, NHTSA and the courts will take action. Liability lawyers on both sides will get rich and some victims will be compensated.

"CREATIVE DESTRUCTION"

The term "Creative Destruction" applies here. In its normal meaning, it signifies the way, under capitalism, new technology, products, and services push out the old. As an inevitable part of the process, some backward industries and companies go bankrupt, stockholders lose their investments, employees lose their jobs, and entire communities may fall into poverty. That is the "destructive" part. At the same time, some pioneering industries and forward-looking companies rise and create newer and often better jobs, investors make money, and entire communities enjoy prosperity. That is the "creative" part.

I'd like to apply the term to the "Creative Destruction" of the now tarnished Toyota brand. It is a once valued brand that has been devalued by their coverup of known defective designs and failure to fix them promptly. They would rather stonewall and fight in court than do the right thing. I believe this will sour most consumers on the Toyota brand.

My wife and I had planned to replace our 2004 Prius with a newer plug-in Prius in a couple years. No more! I doubt we will ever buy a Prius again.

That is a pity because we have been very happy with our Prius and love their dealership in Ocala, FL. That dealership may be forced out of business and some Toyota employees will lose their jobs and stockholders will lose their investments. That is the "destructive" part.

I only wish the regulators at NHTSA and the lawyers and the court system that failed in this case would also go out of business. But no, perversely they will be rewarded with more power and more court cases.

The "creative" part is the business that will flow to Ford and other auto manufacturers who have behaved better. I am following the Ford Fusion and we may purchase their plug-in electric-only version that is expected to come out in a couple of years. (Besides, we have owned Ford stock for many years.)

MEANWHILE WE ARE DRIVING OUR TOYOTA PRIUS GINGERLY

Today, for the first time, I got up the courage to practice stopping the car by shifting to neutral. With my foot on the accelerator, I pushed the gear shift to the left. I had to hold it for about a second, but then I could feel the accelerator disconnect and the car coasted to a lower speed.

From reading news stories, I now know that the ON/OFF button must be held for three seconds to take effect. In case shift to neutral does not work, that is how I will stop my Prius if it happens to run away.

[Update 13 Mar 2010. The person involved in the runaway incident reported above seems to have some baggage. He apparently owes lots of money. Parts of his story do not ring true. The Prius he was driving supposedly has the brake over-ride software I described above. This raises two quesions: 1) If brake over-ride has been available on Prius cars for so long, why isn't it on all Toyotas? 2) If the car involved in this incident had brake over-ride, did it fail or did the driver purposely work around it? Assuming the car actially had brake over-ride and it was working, the driver would have had to alternately press the accelerator to speed up, then release it and press the brakes to get them to heat up and smoke as reported, and so on. According to the 911 tape, the 911 agent told him to put the car into neutral but he refused, saying he feared it would cause the car to flip.

According to Toyota from FAQ issued 3 Feb 2010: "the Prius, and all hybrids for that matter, already have a version of the override system. The override system will be standard by the end of 2010." Thus, the runaway problem does not exist for our Prius nor any other hybrid. The brake override will be standard on all newly-manufactured Toyota automobiles after 2010. According to this, the brake override will be added to previous model years of some non-hybrid Toyotas back to 2005 .]

Ira Glickstein

Is Revolutionary Technology Disruptive in a Positive Sense?

The photo depicts Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as being frightened by a (computer) mouse - a metaphor for the computer and internet technology currently being used to protest the sham election.

We usually speak of "revolutionary" technology in a purely technological sense - a new hardware or software device that radically changes how we work or entertain ourselves. We call unexpected innovations that improve a product or service and disturb markets "disruptive technology".

Technological advances have changed history, mostly in a positive direction, at least since the invention of moveable type printing in 1439 by Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith. That invention, some 600 years ago, led to an unprecedented era of political change that has greatly increased standards of living, freedom, and liberty we residents of the Earth enjoy. Each of us owes his or her freedom to Gutenberg and others who have invented and used revolutionary technology to enhance the power of the people.

Martin Luther used the printing press to further the Protestant Reformation. People with revolutionary ideas have managed to get the word out despite attempts by the Pope and others to license the printing press.

Censorship in the Soviet bloc was evaded by "Samizdat", a Russian pun for "self, by oneself publishing", where free thinking individuals used typewriten carbon copies, xerox copies, and audio tapes to pass along forbidden materials. Fax technology allowed written materials to be transmitted by ordinary telephones and that has been used to organize revolutionary activities.

Personal computers and printers made it easier for individuals to create revolutionary writings and distribute them via floppy discs or telephone modems.

Of course, the invention of the internet and the World Wide Web has eclipsed all the previous revolutionary technology! Despite attempts by oppressive governments to stiffle dissent and filter internet content, ingenious individuals have found ways to get around these limitations of freedom.

Today, in Iran, the free-thinking dissidents are using the latest communications media, blogs, Flickr, Twitter and cell phone photos and videos to bypass official limitations on communications. Good luck to them!

Ira Glickstein

PS: See Guardians at the Gates are Gone - Freedom of the Press !!! and the links in the right-hand column under the "Freedom" image. Today in the US and most of the rich world, anyone can publish a blog or a "print on demand" book that anyone in the world can access - with no need for official approval or even an agent.

Our Three Minutes of FAME

Vi and I are the "stars" of a three-minute Associated Press video and a number of AP still photos. Please click on this video link and hold tight for the unavoidable commercial that comes before our grand debut on national TV. The photo above is one of those taken by the AP photographer. IN THE LIMELIGHT We spent part of Monday and most of Tuesday morning with an AP videographer and a photographer. The story line was that we were on opposite sides in the recent Presidential election. How did the press find us? Well, about a month ago, Vi's name was given to a Miami AP reporter (by a friend at The Villages Democratic Party) as a former Republican now supporting Sen. Obama. Vi was interviewed by phone and her name appeared in one paragraph of a story that ran in the Miami Herald and many other newspapers (To get links please Google: "Violet Glickstein" Obama). About a week and a half ago we were asked if we'd like to be interviewed prior to the election for a more detailed version of her story. We agreed enthusiastically. Lynne, from AP Miami, came to our home Monday afternoon. She wired us up and video-interviewed us in a very professional manner. The last scene of the AP video shows us behind our house, arm-in-arm, gazing at the pond, as I wonder where I'll sleep if the McCain-Palin ticket wins :^) Lynne came back early Tuesday morning, along with John, an AP Orlando photographer. We had our morning coffee and some discussions as he and she took some more video and photos. We then headed, by golf cart, to vote at the Mulberry Recreation Center. Lynne took more video at Mulberry and then departed because she had to compose her video report by a 2PM deadline. John stayed with us and composed captions and uploaded his photos from his laptop to the AP from our living room. Both Lynne and John were delightful to have in our home and very professional. We are very pleased with the results of our experience with a national press organization. THIS ELECTION AS CULMINATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS STRUGGLE Of course, Vi is more pleased with our new President-Elect Obama than I am :^) In the photo above she is wearing a button with "Barack Obama" in Hebrew letters. She remembers the civil rights struggle with great emotion, as do I. It was a heroic effort by many people, black and white - not a few Jewish - to achieve racial equality. In Martin Luther King's stirring words from 1963, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." As a young child I had an aunt who lived in Washington DC. I remember taking the Greyhound bus from New York City to DC with my parents to visit her. When the bus was about to cross the state border into Maryland it pulled over and the driver announced that "negroes" had to move to the rear because the State Troopers would stop the bus otherwise. They all complied without any fuss. I remember being angry but powerless to do anything about it. In DC we took public transportation and observed as blacks moved obediently to the rear. At that time, blacks could buy food at the snack bar at Peoples Drug Stores and most other restaurants in our Nation's Capitol, but they were not allowed to sit at the tables to eat it. How far we've come in our lifetimes! Although I was on the other political side in this election - hoping to elect our first female VP - I am very happy we have finally elected a black man to the highest office in the land. It is an historic event to have witnessed. President-Elect Obama is a wonderful speaker and writer and clearly a very smart guy who ran a brilliant campaign. I wish him the best and hope he has a very successful Presidency. On the other hand, if you look closely at the photo above, I am wearing a "Sarah Palin 2012" button! I can hardly wait for the elections four years from now. We saw the appointment of a Republican as the first female Supreme Court Justice and as the first black Secretay of State. How historic it will be to see a female President, and I hope she will be a Republican!

Ira Glickstein PS: In a previous posting to this Blog, I complained that the major media often show their bias by doing extreme close-ups of conservatives, making them look bald and more angry than necessary, while they generally show liberals full-face. Well, if you look at the AP video, sure enough, Vi is always shown full-face while the close-ups of me are extreme.

Here is part of what I wrote: "... have you noticed how conservatives are often shown on TV with tight focus on their eyes, mouths, and chins, making them look mean and even bald? Liberals seem to get a much kinder camera." [Guardians at the Gates are Gone See my Comment posted 14 Aug 2008]

Guardians at the Gates are GONE - Freedom of the Press!!!

There have always been "guardians at the gates" preventing free access to the "press" - until now!

Prior to the invention of printing, books were manually copied by scribes and only the established church or kings or writers with rich patrons could afford to publish their books in multiple copies.

The first printed books had their letters manually carved into blocks of wood, a very labor-intensive and therefore expensive process. That effectively blocked most writers from publishing in multiple copies.

Even after the invention of movable type around 1450 by Gutenberg books were still quite expensive and limited in quantity. For example, fewer than 200 copies of the famous Gutenberg Bible were ever printed.

Since then, printing has become less and less expensive and the quantity of books published has greatly expanded.


THE BAD NEWS

However, Freedom of the Press was more a goal than a reality. Many governments own and control all newspapers and other media or impose various restrictions and censorship on privately-owned media. Most of these repressive governments restrict the distribution of publications from abroad.

Even in countries where the media is free, there are economic and ideological barriers to publication of unpopular viewpoints and/or new, unproven authors.

Until recently, the cost of setting a book in type was prohibitive. Publishers would not invest the tens- or hundreds of thousands of dollars required to set up, print, distribute, and publicize a new book unless they were sure they could sell thousands or tens of thousands of copies. To get a book published via the normal route you must first find an established agent, which is not an easy task. Then, the agent must find a publisher who is willing to invest the cash required up front.

Even self-publishing has been expensive until recently. For example, my brother self-published a book about public speaking about ten years ago and he had to front nearly ten-thousand dollars for his first run of a few thousand books. Fortunately for him, his book was eventually picked up by Random House and is now available on Amazon and other major bookseller websites. But, that is not the norm at all. Most self-published books go nowhere and the authors are left with boxes of unsold books.

Indeed even the yet-to-be famous Henry David Thoreau had this experience in 1853. In his journal he "brags" that he has "a library of nearly nine hundred volumes, over seven hundred of which I wrote myself." Those 700 were copies of his "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" that he published at his own expense. Fewer than 300 of the original 1000 printed had been sold or given away and he was stuck with the remainder.

Ideological bias by the journalistic and publishing industry is also a factor preventing "freedom of the press" from being actualized. People who go into these professions tend to have leftist biases and may therefore not recognize, or not want to popularize, views that may differ from their own. Most media are concentrated in a few large cities and many who work there are totally unaware of how the rest of us think.

BUT THERE IS GOOD NEWS !!!

The advent of the Internet has leveled the playing field to a large extent. Certainly fewer people will read this TVPClub Blog than will read the Drudge Report or the New York Times, but, at least, anyone in the free world can easily click and read either.

And, remember the Drudge Report started in the kitchen of a strange guy Keith Olbermann called "an idiot with a modem". It is now viewed by three MILLION visitors a month and earns massive advertizing bucks for Matt Drudge! (I look at it almost every day, sometimes multiple times per day.)

DRASTIC CHANGES TO ECONOMICS OF BOOK PUBLISHING - HOORAY !!!

Modern technology has only recently allowed a drastic change in the economics of book publishing.

The first change occurred about a decade ago and I call it "the Kinko' Book". I wanted to have copies of my PhD Dissertation to give to family members and friends and students. So, since it was already a word-processor document on my PC, I printed it out and took it to Kinkos where they copied and spiral-bound it into a nice booklet for about $20 a copy for a couple-dozen copies. A few years later, after my dad passsed away, I also made Kinko Books of two sets of his writings to give to our children and his friends and relatives.

Kinko Books make sense if you are only going to need a few dozen copies. The books I made were letter-size and had color front and back covers with black and white insides. Although a Kinko Book cannot be confused with a professionally-published book, they cost about the same or more.

The second change is more exciting. With modern digital technology it is now almost as inexpensive to print a single copy of a professionally-bound book as it is per copy for a larger run. The new technology is called "print on demand" and there are several companies competing in this marketplace.

As many of you know, I published a free online novel a few months ago. Several of my friends and relatives expressed a desire for a printed version. I looked into it and found Lulu "Print on Demand" and have recently published my novel 2052-The Hawking Plan there. (The printed version is a much more tightly edited version of the online book.)

The economics are amazing! There is absolutely no set-up or up-front charge for the Author, no monthy charge for the Lulu "storefront" and no cost at all except for a per-copy charge, and, of course, shipping and handling (less than $4 for a single copy via USPS Media mail).

Right now, printed copies are available at 2052-The Hawking Plan. Within a couple of months, Lulu may be able to get Amazon and other major online sellers to list the book as well. (If you live in The Villages, FL area and would like to buy a copy, you can get one from me for the list price. $18 - "chai", and you won't have to pay the shipping and handling.)

If you have written anything, such as a family history, your personal journal, poetry, fiction or what-have-you, this is a great way to get a couple dozen professional-looking copies for your friends and family for a very reasonable price.

The "guardians at the gate" are gone! You do not need an agent. You do not need to find a publisher to put up the money for up-front costs. You do not need to pay those expenses yourself. You do not need to get the approval of the literary profession. You can DO IT YOURSELF and only pay for the copies you need.

Ira Glickstein