Concept of the week for 2013 52 -- Hormesis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormesis

Nuclear Proliferation

The US never had a monopoly on the knowledge of how to make nuclear bombs. At least two of the people who worked on the Manhattan project thought that it was too important for not only one nation to have this knowledge. They found ways to communicate it to Russia, which was an ally at the time. When FDR told Stalin that we had nuclear bombs Stalin did not ask any questions. I think that was because he was afraid he reveal that he already knew as much as FDR. Non-proliferation efforts were doomed even before the first test. Then with Ike's"Atoms for Peace" program and France's entry into the nuclear "club" the race was on. FDR's decision to not share the results from the Manhattan project with Russia or even England was a mistake that undermined the trust we could have had internationally. I agree that nuclear weapons, themselves, are not the problem. The attitudes of regimes are the problem. We need to face the fact that we are part of the problem. Now, how to fix this?

Richard Feynman on the 2-slit experiment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUJfjRoxCbk

Defund the EPA

 Tax code as social engineering.
"Off-budget expenditure" would better describe the granting of tax-exempt status. The honest way to achieve the honest objectives of the granting of tax-exempt status would be to appropriate it like any other expenditure.

Rajan Loknathan

The spread of languages is complex, of course. Although it is not a specific example discussed in this book, "Games of Life: Explorations in Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour" by Karl Sigmund, You will see the parallels.

The Zeroth Amendment

What has been tried before did not prevent recurrence of tragic events like the one in Sandy Hook yesterday, December 15, 2012. The police response was very fast and effective. The shooting ended when the shooter heard the police coming and shot himself to prevent being captured alive to face the consequences of his cowardly act. They and the school had practiced and prepared for such an event. No doubt that prevented the death of many more. At least two adults died trying to subdue the shooter even though they apparently had no weapons more powerful than a blunt nose pair of scissors, not even a knife. They were denied the right to defend themselves, which is what I am calling the "Zeroth Amendment" to the USA Constitution.

The right to defend one's self was so obvious and natural that the founders saw no need to state it in the constitution. Perhaps they thought it was implicit in "The Bill of Rights". I certainly think it is. Don't you?

What could have prevented this tragedy?
The police response could not have been better.  But it was not enough.
Profiling and locking up all potential attackers would probably still miss some and wrongfully violate the rights of many who never would have hurt anyone. It would not be enough.
How about banning the sale of all guns and ammunition and collecting all of the registered guns in the entire country? It would not be enough.
Collect all of the guns and all of the ammunition in the entire country. Welcome to the police state, it still would not be enough.
Encouraging responsible adults to have the training and tools to defend themselves might not have prevented it either but probably could have stopped it sooner.