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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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First Commercial Quantum Computer

· Aerospace & Astronautics

All that I know so far is here. There are a lot of possible different problems one can imagine a large defense contractor attacking with a quantum computer but any thing I say will be a wild guess.

What matters is…. they are here and we have begun computing across parallel universes if one believes that particular interpretation of quantum strangeness.

May 29th, 2011 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)

Arthur C. Clarke and I have something in common

· Personal views

Clarke never got round to patenting the idea of a geostationary communications satellite.

Years and years and years ago when it was first reported to me that there were many lascivious moving images on the internet I thought, personally I would prefer to spend hours and hours watching cute furry animals. Maybe, I thought, I could set up a “web site” containing short video excerpts of animals, particularly juveniles, behaving in an appealing manner.

It seems someone else has already done this.

What did you never get round to patenting?

May 28th, 2011 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)

An accurate appraisal of “Vince” Cable

· UK affairs

The Business Secretary, and member of the Liberal Democrat Party, Vincent Cable, likes to let us know he supposedly predicted the recent credit crunch (I am not sure he did, actually), and still manages to be presented as a sage voice on current affairs. Never mind that many of his views are nonsense.

Anyway, the Daily Mash satirical website has nailed him.

May 27th, 2011 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · Slogans & Quotations

The Internet threatens their power and perks. That’s far more important than problems that merely threaten the world’s wellbeing.

– Instapundit comments on a piece called As world burns, G8 leaders fiddle … with the Internet. Seriously?

Indeed. Ignore the messages. Silence the messenger.

Besides which, it’s asking a lot to expect the people who caused the problems, and whose first attempts to solve the problems multiplied the problems, to solve the problems.

May 26th, 2011 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)

Martin Kettle, ever-helpful to those in power

· Internet · UK affairs

To argue for controls over the internet may not be cool, but it’s right

Investigating Chris Huhne is disproportionate

May 26th, 2011 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata mistranslation of the day

· How very odd! · Slogans & Quotations

“Robbers perform surgery on God inside this domain (or stately home).”

– Antoine Clarke’s translation (see the comments) of the French bit of a multilingual sign warning against thieves, that I recently photoed in the Brick Lane part of London.

Usually we like to joke about how the foreigners get English wrong. So, it’s good to notice when we get one of their languages wrong.

May 26th, 2011 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)

Down Mexico way

· International affairs

This item about Mexico, via the ChicagoBoyz group weblog, is shocking. The scale of violence in Mexico – largely centred on the drugs trade – is rising rapidly. It ought, really, to be the top security issue for the United States. It is hard to justify actions in the MidEast with this sort of crap happening just across the border.

The war on drugs is proving an even bigger disaster than libertarians typically state.

May 26th, 2011 | 23 comments - (Comments are closed)

Apres les batteries

· Science & Technology

Ultracapacitors are my bet for the way to replace gasoline fueled vehicles. Hydrogen is just not dense enough even in hydrides and there is no infrastructure for it. Batteries are too heavy, too short lived, have complex temperature and charging requirements to maximize life, take too long to charge and are not improving quickly enough. Synfuels are possible but require a lot of new plants and the fuel is going to be expensive.

Electricity, on the other hand, is available everywhere. Once you have the ability to connect a plug and ‘fuel’ your vehicle at least as quickly as you currently do and have a range equal or greater than you now have with gasoline or diesel, there is simply no contest.

The electric car, with a motor on each wheel, gives neck-snapping acceleration, handling and braking that are awesome and all in a much simpler package. No differential, no coolant system, no transmission, no high temperature combustion, no crankshaft, piston rings or rockers, no oiling system… in the ultimate electric car there is little more than batteries, power distribution, four motors and a bunch of computers to control them. As much as I loved my old MGB, the internal combustion engine is unlikely to outlast the middle of the century. It simply will not be able to compete.

A Tesla in every garage… I can deal with that.

May 26th, 2011 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)

Allister Heath on how spending is still going up

· Economics, Business & Globalization · UK affairs

Here is one of those quotes where you add “read the whole thing”:

But next time you are told that Osborne is imposing savage, reckless cuts on the UK, remember that the figures tell a different story. So far, spending is still going up. The plan is for total spending to go up in cash terms overall this financial year and to fall by 0.6 per cent in real terms (the measure that really matters). This will hurt, especially given that debt interest payments are soaring, reducing the funds available for public services by a lot more than the 0.6 per cent overall cut. But this should also be put into context. Barack Obama, who was in London yesterday, wants to cut public spending by 3.8 per cent next year, more than the 3.7 per cent pencilled in over four years by Osborne. In other words, Obama’s cuts – which many in the US want to make even larger – are four times larger than the average annual cuts proposed by slowcoach Osborne.

So it is no wonder really that the UK’s credit rating was downgraded yesterday by (wait for it) Chinese rating agency Dagong, which cut the UK by one notch to A+, from AA-, and placed it on a negative outlook. You may snigger – but unless the UK is able to deliver on its fiscal austerity not just this year but for the next four, our creditors will soon start panicking again, with good reason.

That’s Allister Heath, writing in the London giveaway newspaper, City A.M., which he edits. His point being that the journey in question has only just begun.

Read the whole thing. The above quote comes at the end. Before that come a few of the facts and the figures.

I suppose the optimistic take on all this is that you can’t wrench a graph that is going up onto a downward path, just like that. But how much wrenching is actually going on?

May 25th, 2011 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)

Smitebot’s meatbits…

· Administrative

…have been rather unwell lately, hence it has taken rather longer than usual to get comments approved if they have aggro’ed smitebot. Do not be concerned if you have no idea what this means

May 25th, 2011 | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)

Samizdata quote of the day

· Slogans & Quotations

“You heard it here first – we were not born in the Garden of Eden.”

– Tara Smith, talking at the Adam Smith Institute last week, with reference to the idea that we get to inherit something called Original Sin.

May 24th, 2011 | 96 comments - (Comments are closed)

The race for the Republican ticket

· US & North American affairs

Here is an interesting take on the two mainly libertarian-leaning candidates for the Republican presidential ticket: Gary Johnson and Ron Paul. Our own Brian Micklethwait has thoughts on Johnson (he’s a fan); I certainly would be more inclined, if I were a US voter, to go for GJ rather than Ron Paul. Mr Paul is sound on issues like the Federal Reserve but on a lot of stuff, his classical liberal credentials strike me as a bit suspect, although people whom I respect, like Brian Doherty of Reason magazine, say nice things about him.

Of course, the fact that such persons can have a crack at a presidential nomination is in itself a fact that separates the US from the UK. I cannot at the moment think of a single major UK Conservative politician who comes close. And as for continental Europe…….oh dear…..Silvio Berlusconi? (That was a joke).

May 23rd, 2011 | 60 comments - (Comments are closed)
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