My favorite interface for reading RSS feeds is feedly which uses Google reader to aggregate the feeds but wraps it up in a nice magazine style presentation. It’s an extension for Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
Here’s a nice tutorial on getting it setup.
Author: peteware
US Military Budget
I was arguing about military spending with some friends and wanted to verify numbers. My basic point was that US military spending almost matches what the rest of the world spends. We are at 43% of worldwide expenditures. The US and NATO account for 2/3 of the world’s military spending. China spends 1/8 what the US does and 1/12 what the US+NATO spend.
Iran’s annual budget is less then the US spends in 3 weeks in just Iraq and Afghanistan. China’s military budget would only finance 6 months of Iraq and Afghanistan.
This graph is the comparison between the US 2008 budget and the rest of the world from Center for Arms Control:
From Laicie Olson at the Center for Arms Control is this graph showing US military spending over the past 10 years. These are expressed in constant 2010 dollars. The budget has increased since 2001 to 2011 by 67%. US GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has increased 18% in that time period $13.2T vs $11.3T from forcasts.or
The Seashore image editor
I tried Seashore to do some very simple image. It was perfect for my simple usage and looks to be able to handle more:
Seashore is a free, open-source image editor for built entirely in Cocoa. It features advanced tools like multiple layers and alpha channel editing, alongside basic tools like gradients, textures, text (with subpixel rendering) and brushes
C++ test for within
I found myself having to write a bunch of range checking code like this:
if (val < 0.0 || val > 1.0)
val = 1.0;
so I wrote this simple function.
Continue reading “C++ test for within”
Way funny way to quit!
This woman used a dry erase board and sent email to everyone to quit. I especially like how she reports on her boss.
Edited Aug 10.
Sadly, it’s a hoax:
“Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)” is indeed a hoax, say its creators John and Leo Resig.
Federal budget overview
Here’s a great overview from Barry Ritholz showing how the Federal budget is proportioned.
Unemployment won’t recover for 157 months (2021)
If we look at employment prior to the Great Recession compared to now there is a difference of 11.3 million jobs (from Bookings institute). Now how long is it going to take to return to that level? If you take the best job growth of the 2000’s it’ll be 157 months or 11years. That’s not until 2021!
If you take the best rate from the 1990’s it’s down to about 8 years! Here’s the chart with how many months it’ll take based on the rate with a couple note worthy rates highlighted.
iPhone4 and FaceTime
I’d been surprised about Apple emphasizing FaceTime in advertising. I don’t think it’s very compelling — I don’t know enough people with an iPhone4, I rarely have a Wi-Fi connection when I want to talk to them, and I don’t find video chats very compelling anyway. After all, how often do you video iChat or Skype?
Anyway, TechCrunch had an interesting perspective about it when they compared it to a scene from Mad Men (official site. They are getting people to make an emotional connection with the iPhone rather then the analytical one of feature X vs. feature Y.
More exonerations for Climategate researchers
Yet another report says Michael E Mann is cleared of any wrongdoing related to his climate research.
An investigative panel at Pennsylvania State University, weighing the question of whether the scientist, Michael E. Mann, had “seriously deviated from accepted practices within the academic community for proposing, conducting or reporting research or other scholarly activities,” declared that he had not.
This is the second report from Penn St. clearing him and joins two others in Britain clearing related researchers.
Senator Robert Byrd
From Frank Rich’s column about Senator Robert Byrd.
These senators were in the tradition of Thurmond, not Byrd — indeed, they are Thurmond’s direct heirs. Like Byrd, Thurmond had been an ardent Democratic foe of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Unlike Byrd, he left his party in disgust that year and endorsed Goldwater, jump-starting the migration of the Democrats’ racist cadre and their political toxins to the G.O.P. and setting the stage for the Republican “Southern strategy.” That strategy isn’t dead.
The NY Times had an interesting obituary about Senator Byrd including his Ku Klux Klan membership, title as “King of Pork”
Mr. Byrd’s perspective on the world changed over the years. A former member of the Ku Klux Klan, he filibustered against the 1964 Civil Rights Act only to come to back civil rights measures and Mr. Obama. A supporter of the Vietnam War, he became a fierce critic, decades later, of the war in Iraq. In 1964, the Americans for Democratic Action, the liberal lobbying group, found that his views and the group’s aligned only 16 percent of the time. In 2005, he got an A.D.A. rating of 95.
Pete Ware 