Some Education thoughts...

Peter Grant has the following opinion on forgiving Student Loan debt: On the whole I agree with him. If you take on a debt it's your responsibility thats clear.  But he seems to be opposed to taking on debt at all. Frankly even  local universities are expensive. For example a small state college up the road Salem State University) (Nee Salem Normal/ Salem State College) is ~$10K in state $15K out of state . You can study subjects such as Nursing, Chemistry, Biology, Education and the usual liberal arts. If you want engineering you're looking at Umass Lowell  for $26K in state $30-42 K out of state (they seem to have have a deal with the other New England state universities) add 12K for room and board. Compare that to a private school WPI , $48K for Tuition and fees and 14K for room and board. Admittedly if you've got excellent grades (~2100+ SAT) and can keep them (Deans List) WPI will find you $12-16K in  grants/scholarships which puts them on a par with UMASS Lowell out of state.Even if UMass Lowell finds you $10K you're looking at $28K/year. Thats $27 an hour halftime (ignoring taxes, youd need more ). Full time its $13.50 an hour and any major worth having is not going to be compatible with full time work. Frankly I doubt an engineering degree is compatible with half time work unless you are truly exceptional.

So you're kind of stuck with borrowing some. My own opinion is that borrowing of any sort must be used carefully but it can be very useful for long term investments. You have to look at what your likely income is at the completion of the degree. I'd think a payment of no more than 10-15% of your salary ought to be survivable.  However the government pays no attention to this in making the loans. As example my elder daughter graduated with a double major in Math and Education and teaches at a public school for about $45K per year. She has not quite $30K in loans. On top of that she will get forgiveness of ~ 1/2 her loans if she teaches in this disadvantaged school for 5 years.  So if you don't do a <foo> studies major but something with employment potential a proportionate debt is probably fine if you're frugal. It is important that parents make this clear to children. Many will figure it out, but other 20 somethings don't have the best judgment.

In an unrelated issue Instapundit recently had this. What utter nonsense to let someone get a college degree without algebra. It's not that you'll necessarily use it, it's just that without it real science and statistics are incomprehensible. It's too hard? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!?! Neither  of my parents had ever had algebra. My dad had a GED and my mom took only business math (although as a bookeeper she'd beat you cold in any arithmetic ). The High School I went to had it as a self paced course so I learned it on my own no sweat as a freshman. This is just low expectations out of stupid Liberal administrators

I think Robert Heinlein's character Lazarus Long had it right

Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best they're a tolerable sub-human who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now

Dumber than a box of rocks, crazier than a bag of cats

First of all apologies to Cats and Rocks for the unfavorable comparison...

Recently I saw this post on  Ace of Spades about Reality Winner.  I've seen a bunch of questions on a variety of sites. First is how did a moonbat like that get a clearance? In my travels I read two good points:

1. She got the clearance due to language school (Pashtun, Farsi and one other) and  apparently had good skills in translation. Any thing useful she'd be looking at would have been Top Secret (TS) likely because of sources and methods .
2. Political views (conservative vs liberal) are generally NOT of interest in a clearance search unless you clearly have a  leaning for a particular target country (e.g you or your spouse were foreign nationals or you were a card carrying communist in the "good" old days)

And  a TS clearance is expensive. I've heard estimates of $10K to as much as $100K to do the investigation. So if she had a clearance and it had not expired (5 years for TS) she's a real temptation to any contractor, especially a small to medium one like Pluribus Inc .

However her behavior once employed by Pluribus seems odd to say the least. There are several things at play here

• In security there's a concept called adverse information. If you know something that argues against a fellow clearance holder you are supposed to report it. For example if you know that a fellow clearance holder is having an affair or is a heavy drinker or is  spending money they don't have or anything else that seems to argue against they're maintaining their clearance you should report it.  You have a positive duty to report it. To not report it is a potential security breach on your part. Ms. Winner's behavior in social networking seems to fall into that class and it seems likely that some of her (cleared) coworkers would have seen it.
•  The information was printed out from a top secret computer. These are maintained in an "Information System" usually in a closed area (sometimes SCIF, Secure Compartmented Information Facility) with limited access. These systems are CONSTANTLY monitored and everything is supposed to be logged with respect to printing and copying materials. Devices like USB ports and CD/DVD recorders are either removed, disabled or tightly monitored.
• In security there is the concept of need to know. There doesn't seem to be a reason why Ms. Winner would have need to know for the document she accessed. In the Information System information is supposed to be secured so that those without need to know can't access it and if they do it is logged. Those logs are supposed to be checked at least weekly in a Secret IS, I don't know the standard for a Top Secret IS but I'd expect it to be more stringent. Looking at things (let alone printing them) should have set alarm bells screaming.

DOD contractors of any sort are usually incredibly paranoid about this stuff. Their closed areas are inspected by the Defense Security Service (DSS) at least once yearly and that inspection is  dreaded. I heard tell of a case where an employee was told to take the 3-4 days of the inspection off as their behavior was so sloppy the DSS investigators would key on them.  Losing your certification to deal with classified information is a death stroke to a DOD contractor. So how the heck was Pluribus so darned sloppy? Were they NOT a DOD contractor but State or Homeland Security? Are their standards that different from DOD standard? And secondly has Pluribus gotten more than a slap on the wrist for such failure to identify the issue?

Some have speculated that the microdots printed by the color printer was how the document was identified. These we added back in the late 1990's when color printers got really good and the Department of the Treasury began to worry about wholesale counterfeiting. It may be this is how things were tracked back, but it makes me wonder what Pluribus' ISSO and ISSM were doing that this didn't show up in their oversight.

As for Ms. Winner she may have been a stellar translator but she's got NO common sense. She talked to people other than her attorney about this over the jail phone. Unless you're a raving idiot it should be known that those phones are recorded and are NOT protected  How do you end up so deluded, and how do you end up both bright enough to master three complex languages and yet still seem to be dumber than a box of rocks?

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

Ok  I was reading  on the Declination and ran into this post. In it there are two paragraphs about the death of Ebba Akerlund who was this girl

Who was killed in the terror attack on April 10th 2017 in Stockholm. Here are
those paragraphs

I wasn’t originally going to comment on the attack. After all, there are too many Islamic terror attacks these days for one blogger to ever hope to cover them all (and isn’t that a sad state of affairs?). But one thing compelled me to do so. 

You see, like the picture of the Syrian boy who drowned, there is a horrifying picture floating around the Internet right now of an 11 year old girl who was, quite literally torn to pieces by the terror attack. Pieces of her are scattered all over the road, a leg here, a leg there, guts strewn all over the road.

I missed that second paragraph the first time I read that, I went and read the Daily Mail article. It mentioned nothing of the horrific manner of her demise. However, even without that I could feel (as certain folks put it) the RCOB  (Red Curtain Of Blood) descending across my sight. I remember my daughters at that age and I have a niece that is that age. The thought of losing a child at that age to some worthless gutless creature who would so callously kill innocents was unthinkable. Then I came back and read the post in the Declination again and saw that second paragraph and lost it a bit.

As the Declination points out this is almost unknown in the US news stream. Ho Hum another person driving trucks into people for no discernible reason or  ideology (note: that was sarcasm for the sarcasm impaired).  Our news seems to avoid  "inflaming" our passions choosing NOT to cover various things. Ladies and Gentleman of the press I have news for you, This is why no one listens to you any more. When I was a kid the CBS news with Walter Cronkite (Uncle Walter) we believed these people. Even when they shaded the truth or out and out lied (c.f. Tet Offensive) we believed because there was no other source and we thought they were being fair. But now there are hundreds if not thousands of other sources, not just three TV networks and a handful of newspapers. And we can see they lie and see they selectively cover news choosing sides (invariably the SJW/Tranzi side).

The more pressing issue here is that I do not know if the Islamic peoples throughout the world really understand the danger they're in. Their apparent silence (or complicity through inaction) in these cases is building up an undercurrent in western society. As Tom Kratman opined in the afterword to A Desert Called Peace

If I could speak now to our enemies, I would say: Do you kill innocent civilians for shock value? So will we learn to do, in time. Do you torture and murder prisoners? So will we. Are you composed of religious fanatics? Well, since humanistic secularism seems ill-suited to deal with you, don't be surprised if we turn to our churches and temples to find the strength to defeat and destroy you. Do you randomly kill our loved ones to send us a message? Don't be surprised, then, when we begin to target your families, specifically, to send the message that our loved ones are not stationery. 

This seems lost on the current enemy but, then, he's insane. It's very sad. Yes, it's very sad for us, too.

Its like  a couple little boys with a stick poking a Siberian tiger in an old style cage with iron bars and a door. Except the door is not locked or latched. We know what will happen and it won't be the tiger's fault. He's just a dumb brute animal acting according to his instincts. And what happens to the crowd of children watching and cheering on the brave tiger teasing boys? We have a name for that, collateral damage.  It's just that instead of a half dozen mauled kids we're potentially talking several hundred million  people. Put down the stick, or at least walk away from the crowd.. I fear it is too much to hope that the crowd will take the stick away as they do not fear the apparently tame or cowed tiger. That tiger is not as toothless and indolent as you might think and its patience is running thin.  And as Col. Kratman said it is sad for us too. For the tiger has at least some semblance of a conscience unlike the boys.

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now

Two Things

Two things
First this piece is astonishing. (thanks to Instapundit www.instapundit.com)
In this I see:

Under Barack Obama, she was allowed to continue to view highly sensitive intel documents for years - well past her announced run for the presidency in April 2015, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Why? Toward what possible end?

In my return post I  talked briefly about my layoff from a Defense Department Contractor. Once notified I was followed from the moment of my notification to the moment I was walked to my vehicle by my supervisor. This was standard practice. Why? Because the moment  I was not working on that project  I no longer had need to know even though (conceptually) my clearance was active until I closed out my employment. Before leaving I signed a document that said (roughly from memory 6 years ago)

• I had kept NO materials that were classified
• All materials I had that were classified were returned to proper authorities
• I would NEVER disclose anything I had learned in my tenure with clearance

This was backed with US Code citations and the threat of prosecution for perjury.

From the moment  H.R. Clinton stopped being Secretary of State her need to know was gone and she should have had no access to anything classified at any level. Anything else is an insult to the rest of us that have had clearances and strived to follow the convoluted and stringent rules attached to possessing a clearance.  And she most certainly had no need for  "Highly Sensitive Intel Documents" which seems to imply Top Secret Compartmented or Top Secret Special Access Program materials to write a  personal hagiography. Apparently rules are for little people (and contractors) not for heads of executive departments or  Heirs Presumptive to the Presidency. President Trump may be a feckless boob but at least he's not a traitorous, incompetent, entitled feckless boob.

The second is this nonsense (Thanks again to www.instapundit.com) Letting engineers think about their  effect on society is a fine idea. Some schools, for example WPI ,have it built  in as part of the graduation requirements . But this is at Perdue is just idiocy

Breaking the Western hegemony. In order to decenter the male hegemony of the Western civilization, Riley discussed examples of thermodynamic inventions done by non-Western and non-male inventors. Also, some of the assignments required students to make interracial and intercultural connections in thermodynamics.

What the Sam Hill does this matter at all? Who cares who discovered thermodynamics? Its an absolute truth ( basic thermodynamics 1) You can't win, 2 You can't break even 3 ) You can't quit the game) and would be/is the same no matter the race, species or sexual identification of the discoverer(s). This "I can't relate to it because its not my ethnicity(etc)"  nonsense is something I'd expect of a 4 year old NOT an educated engineer. I want my engineers focused on making their results work and be safe. All else is irrelevant.  President Leshin should you ever let this infest my Alma Mater I hope you are ridden out of WPI on a rail.

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now

I'm Back ?

As Noted in my original post this was an unintentional blog and my feelings were a bit like those of Dread Pirate Roberts for Westley  in the Princess Bride "Good Job Westley. I may kill you in the morning, Good night". And Still Westley lives on.

I found I had 2 issues with blogging when I stopped in 2006

• The time to do a decent even vaguely researched post is HUGE, for example there's probably 10-15 hours gathering the data and writing up my last presented post ("Now what do they do with it?")
• It became very clear that my then employment and the topics I found of interest were a little too similar. This could present the issue of potential security violations which I took/take very seriously (unlike certain recent Presidential candidates for the democrats).
• Similarly my views on the operation of the company I then worked for would probably NOT be appreciated.

That problematic work relationship was ended in 2011 just before Thanksgiving with a layoff. They had been ongoing as with the likely second term of a defense opposed democrat there was very little new development, and what contracts there were we weren't winning. There had been  a constant drip drip drip of people just not being around. In a secure environment a layoff is very weird, it feels a bit like being made a "unperson".  When you are laid off you are told by HR and then in general you walk in to your desk clear it out with your supervisor watching. Then you are walked to Security to hand in your badge and any security related items. Then you are walked to your vehicle with your posessions. This is because at the point you are informed of your layoff your need to know is gone and although you still have a clearance you no longer need to know for the work you were doing just 15 minutes ago before you talked to HR.

So now its 6 years later. I did ~2 years of  contracting to a company now defunct and now work doing realtime work in JAVA for video delivery for a small contract house in Boston. With the passage of time I am in my later 50's. I am still married with two daughters and live with  two cats (beware potential cat blogging). The elder daughter is now a middle school teacher in north suburban  Boston having graduated 2 years ago. My younger daughter is a Junior in Mechanical Engineering at a local engineering school (no not that one 😀 ). We are down 1 cat, one leopard gecko and a all the fish, and the two remaining cats we have are elderly (14+). 

My blog will still be somewhat anonymous as who knows if any employer would appreciate my blogging. I will NOT blog on specific work subjects (or my current employer or their contracts), but still one can never be too careful.

I am a Evangelical Christian and currently a member of a Baptist (Converge) church. Its the same church, as before but the ABC went thoroughly around the bend and many new pastors deny (or talk mealy mouth) around the divinity of Christ and the salvific nature of his death on the cross. We left the ABC over this although they will state (like any good SJW) it was over ordaining homosexuals. As far as I can tell ordaining homosexuals is a mere peccadillo compared to ordaining those that deny Christ.

As noted I am of orthodox and Calvinistic tendencies in my beliefs. I am also an  egalitarian in that I believe that it is appropriate for women to teach and be pastors. I believe this to be a secondary issue (i.e. Christians can agree to disagree on it) but others do not.

I am of a Conservative/Libertarian (more precisely minarchist) bent in my politics. In general I'm of the view that the least government is the best. However I am pragmatic and do recognize that there are things the government does tolerably well (just not a lot of them). I grew up in a politically split household. My Dad was a strong Irish Kennedy Democrat, my Mom an old line New England Republican. This is NOT an Olympia Snow RINO but neither is it a Bill Buckley conservative. This species was a fiscally conservative/socially liberal (by the norms of the 70's) person. These Republicans were willing to help the poor/ down trodden but with the expectation that once helped if they could they would stand on their own and help others. These Republicans saw Roosevelt (FDR Not Teddy) as an abomination due to the massive increase of the commerce clause. The names my maternal grandfather used for FDR  would ionize the air about him for several feet. I favor government even less than either of my parents

I have a variety of hobbies. I love to observe the stars and have an  8" schmidt cassegrain that I  have sadly not used in 5 years living by eye and binocular  observations as setup for even a simple 8" scope is time I have not had. I enjoy  computer and video games and spend time playing them with my younger daughter when she's home. My karate participation is gone as as I aged and moved up in rank I had a tendency to injure  (and re-injure) myself constantly making me miss practices and fall behind in advancement.

As for Blogs I read regularly this has radically changed. Of course Mr. DenBeste
had stopped USS Clueless long ago and with his death even Chizumatic has gone silent.
 If you pin me down to my current five favorites they are:

•  Instapundit (https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/)
• Ace of Spades (http://ace.mu.nu/)
• According to Hoyt (https://accordingtohoyt.com/)
• Bayou Renaisance Man (http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/)
• Monster Hunter Nation (http://monsterhunternation.com/)\
• The Z Blog (http://thezman.com/wordpress/)

(Yeah that's 6. Hey I'm a software engineer and recovering C programmer ,
started counting at 0,  think of it as a fence post error...)

I read bunches of others, but these get daily perusal. Well, if you're still here and I haven't  bored you to death yet show up every once and a while. I can't promise I'll rise to the levels  of the  sainted Den Beste or even Sarah Hoyt but the length of the pieces may rival them. You know what they say "If you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance..."

I'm almost certainly not going to be blogging daily, if I manage bimonthly it'll be amazing ("Think he'll make it?", "It'll take a miracle...").


Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now...