Bad River

Another story showing the hypocrisy of the left.  It's okay, go ahead, feign surprise if you like.  I understand.

Before we get started, I want you to think about your vision of an Indian.  A proud Native American.  Sitting on a horse on the plains, perhaps?  Hunting in the forest?  I'll come back to this later.

Let me get to the main story.  You might not know this but there is a company, Gogebic Taconite, that his proposing to build an iron ore mine in Northern Wisconsin.  There is iron in the ground up there; the county adjacent to the county where I grew up is called Iron County for a reason.  The mines have been closed for a long time, however.  The locals want this mine for the good jobs it would provide.

The left, the Democrats, have been doing everything in their power to stop the mine from being built.  One group caught my eye more than others, though.

From the Huffington Post:
"Wisconsin Iron Mine Project Faces Challenge From Bad River Band Of Lake Superior Chippewa" by Todd Richmond
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/12/wisconsin-iron-mine_n_2672026.html

"The view you get here is the view your ancestors had," tribal chairman Mike Wiggins Jr. said as he scrolled through photos of the reservation's beaches and spectacular sunsets on his laptop. "These things really do matter."

Tribal leaders fear run-off from mine waste will poison the watershed with sulfuric acid and sulfates. Democrats and conservationists agree. A Lawrence University study conducted on behalf of the state's Chippewa tribes concluded that the waste rock could generate acidic run-off, but state officials say there hasn't been an authoritative analysis.

From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
"Bad River Chippewa could have say in Gogebic iron ore mine"  by Lee Bergquist
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/bad-river-chippewa-could-have-say-in-gogebic-iron-ore-mine-ek8pstn-191612841.html

And their statement, on The Water's Edge:
"BAD RIVER BAND OF LAKE SUPERIOR CHIPPEWA INDIANS
POSITION STATEMENT ON PROPOSED GTAC IRON MINE AND PROPOSED IRON MINING LEGISLATION IN WISCONSIN"
http://www.savethewatersedge.com/bad-river-governments-state.html


Now let's take a look a look at reality.  The Bad River Chippewa Indians are HYPOCRITES.  They run a wastewater treatment plant that has violated pollution standards for years.

From Media Trackers:
"EPA Data Points to Clean Water Act Violations by Bad River Chippewa" by Brian Sikma
http://mediatrackers.org/2013/02/25/epa-data-points-to-clean-water-act-violations-by-bad-river-chippewa/

In particular, the reports indicate that the tribe has been releasing excessive amounts of E. coli, phosphorous, and suspended solids into Denomonie Creek, which, according to an issued permit, runs into the Bad River.

A 2009 investigative report by the New York Times found hundreds of facilities around the country that were in violation of Clean Water Act standards. No other facility in Wisconsin, according to that report, had more violations of the Clean Water Act than the Bad River Band’s wastewater treatment facility. The report called the facility a polluter and implied that it was contributing to lower water quality.

Now THAT is saying something.  More violations than any other wastewater plant in the state???  Remember, they're competing with Milwaukee, which dumps vast amounts of raw sewage into Lake Michigan regularly.

Listen to these lies from the Bad River Band of Chippewa:

The Bad River Band and Chairman Wiggins have consistently expressed tremendous concern over water quality in northern Wisconsin as debate over the proposed mine continues to unfold. They argue in part that diminished water quality would negatively impact the wild rice beds of the reservation. In a letter posted to a blog, Wiggins declared, “without our wild rice and Kakagon Sloughs, we won’t live.” State Rep. Nick Milroy (D), declared at one legislative hearing on the mine, “Wild rice is the Eucharist of the Ojibwa people. If we take that away from them, we take away everything that they believe in.”

I don't think we should be listening to a single word the Bad River Chippewa say.  Their words mean nothing.


As promised above, let's go back to our vision of an Indian.  What did you come up with?  Well, let me tell you about what I saw when I was growing up.

Driving through Odanah in the 70's and 80's, seeing the cars lined up at the smoke shop.  Yes, cars.  They had a drive-thru window just to buy cigarettes--by the carton--to avoid the federal cigarette taxes by buying on an Indian reservation.

Later I remember the Casino being built.  There were always cars in that parking lot.  People love to stand in there and put money in the walls.  I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now.

And through it all, one image stays with me.  The image of the Indian walking with a six-pack in his hands from the gas station on the highway back to his trailer.

I'm not sure exactly how building an iron mine interferes with any of these traditional Indian activities.

Google Glass, closer to reality?

Do you like Google Glass?  I do.  I can't wait.  In the meantime, check this information out:

Google Glass web page:

www.google.com/glass/

You can sign up to get Glass ... if you pay $1500.  That's still a bit steep for me.  But if YOU get it, please share!

And a video, showing what Glass is all about.

"How It Feels [through Glass]" from Google

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1uyQZNg2vE

http://www.google.com/glass/start/how-it-feels/

Gun Control or People Control?

Great point.  There is no such thing as gun control.

"Former Secret Service Agent on the 2nd Amendment"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrrsYc0O9N8

"There is no such thing as gun control.  Don't co-opt their language.  There is only people control."

"I don't remember ever having the conversation, during my years in the Secret Service, 'I mean listen, we're taking the President to Baltimore or to Chicago, so let's just disarm because they have really strict gun control laws.'"

"I never, in 15+ years of doing this, have ever arrested or investigated someone on a gun crime who had that gun legally."

Chess? Trendy?

What?  Chess is trendy?  Not so sure about that, but check out this video.  I've played chess in Washington Square, by the way.  Interesting experience.

"Chess: New York City's Trendiest Game" from The Thrash Lab.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdrQ0tVZw1Y

The Future, according to Eric Schmidt

Apparently Google's Eric Schmidt has a book coming out, to be called "The New Digital Age."  Lots of interesting stuff.  First a couple Google searches so you can choose your own source.
https://www.google.com/search?q=eric+schmidt+future+online
https://www.google.com/search?q=eric+schmidt+new+digital+age

Here are some of the articles that caught my eye, with select quotes from each.

From the Wall Street Journal blog:
"The Future According To Google’s Eric Schmidt: 7 Points" by Tom Gara
http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/02/01/the-future-according-to-eric-7-points/

Tech companies: “Thick skin will be a necessity for technology companies in the coming years of the digital age, because they will find themselves beset by public concerns over privacy, security and user protections…They’ll also have to hire more lawyers. Litigation will always outpace genuine legal reform, as any of the technology giants fighting perpetual legal battles over intellectual property, patents, privacy and other issues would attest”

Search engines: “Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”

From The Guardian:
"Google's Eric Schmidt: drone wars, virtual kidnaps and privacy for kids" by Charles Arthur
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/29/google-eric-schmidt-drone-wars-privacy

Google's chairman has sketched out a future world in which cyberterrorists are targeted by government drone strikes, online identities are taken hostage and held for ransom, and parents explain online privacy to their children long before the subject of sex. 

"We could see virtual kidnappings – ransoming your ID for real money," Schmidt said. "Rather than keeping captives in the jungle, groups like Farc [in Colombia] may prefer a virtual hostage. That's how important our online ID is."

The importance of online identities would also mean that parents would have to educate their children much earlier about the importance of making choices over what digital footprints they created than about sex. "I'm absolutely convinced that parents will have to have the 'online privacy' talk with their children before 'the sex talk'," he said. "It might be when they're eight years old, you'll be saying 'don't put that onlline! It'll come back to bite you!' and then have to explain why."

And parents themselves would have to consider the implications even of the name they chose for a child. "If you give your child a unique name, that name will have a high ranking in search results [because it's unusual]. Or you can give them a non-unique name with a low ranking. What kind of parent are you in each case?"

He suggested that "our online identity will become such a powerful element. Laws to protect anonymity – we may even see rise in black market where we can buy pre-made or real identities, with all their shopping and background all completely 'real' – verifiable online, that is. That's the effect of there being no delete button [on the internet] – people will find fake IDs attractive."

Both drug smugglers trying to evade police and political activists looking to hide from repressive regimes would find those useful, he said: "you'll be able to buy an identity with fake friends and a history of purchases. I'm not encouraging this – some are saying it's going to happen."

In each [Chad, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia], he said, the need to be connected, first through a mobile phone and then to the internet, became apparent. "In Chad, only 1% of the population have electricity, and there's a civil war. I wondered what a connected Chad would look like. Somalia, meanwhile, is the classic 'failed state' – but you look at it: there aren't any banks, but there is mobile banking. The telecoms companies are the only ones that are legal and profitable."

He said that the arrival of the internet was always beneficial: "There's no country where the situation has worsened with the arrival of the internet. Citizens can use their mobile phones to raise the cost of corruption. And even in China, the regime can be shamed – when there was a train crash recently the government tried to hush it up, but people began posting pictures on [the Twitter-like chat service] Weibo, and the story got out.

"The strike by journalists at Southern Weekly, over censorship – the fact that they could do that and then go back without trouble shows that the government, even that autocracy, is sensitive to the fact that it can be shamed online."

He admitted that one of his biggest worries is not about children using digital devices for entertainment – "do they have an off button? They all do" – than about the lack of "deep reading" of long books. "I worry a lot that nobody's doing that, that nobody's getting what comes from the deep reading of a book."

Also from the Guardian:
"Google's Eric Schmidt calls China 'most sophisticated hacker' in new book" by Dominic Rushe
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/feb/01/google-eric-schmidt-china-hacker-book

"The disparity between American and Chinese firms and their tactics will put both the government and the companies of the United States at a distinct disadvantage," Schmidt writes, because "the United States will not take the same path of digital corporate espionage, as its laws are much stricter (and better enforced) and because illicit competition violates the American sense of fair play. This is a difference in values as much as a legal one."

Google has clashed repeatedly with the Chinese authorities. Beijing reacted furiously to the company's claims that Chinese authorities were hacking Gmail accounts; last year Google's service was blocked as the Communist Party appointed its first new leader in a decade.

Smith and co-author Jared Cohen call China "the world's most active and enthusiastic filterer of information" as well as "the most sophisticated and prolific" hacker of foreign companies.

But the technology China uses so effectively may well come back to haunt it, the authors believe. "This mix of active citizens armed with technological devices and tight government control is exceptionally volatile," they write, suggesting that that such a situation could lead to "widespread instability". China, they predict, will see "some kind of revolution in the coming decades."

From Search Engine Journal:
"Eric Schmidt Confirms Identity Verification Impacts Google Rankings" by Michelle Stinson Ross

“Within search results, information tied to verified online profiles will be ranked higher than content without such verification, which will result in most users naturally clicking on the top (verified) results. The true cost of remaining anonymous, then, might be irrelevance.”

Song of the Day: Dragonette - Easy

Dragonette: EASY official music video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQtJ4oh2pak

It's been a while since I posted a Dragonette song.  Too long.  And what better day to rectify that than on Valentine's Day?!   :)

The best Google Doodle ever: Zamboni

Okay, I was traveling when this came out.  Apologies for not getting this out sooner.

I love hockey, I love skating.  Therefore, I'm a big fan of Zambonis.  So this Google Doodle absolutely floored me.  I think I wasted more time on this one than an all previous Google Doodles combined (Pac-man, Moog synthesizer, Jules Verne submarine, etc.).  Give it a try--it's not easy.

http://www.google.com/doodles/zamboni

I remember exactly where I was when I first saw this.  I was sitting in a conference room on the second floor of an electrical switchgear manufacturer somewhere in Taiwan.  I only went to the Google home page that day to see if I was successfully able to link to the WiFi in the plant.  I'm not sure that others in the room knew why I was so excited and distracted--apparently hockey is not big in Taiwan!  :)