Month: December 2009

Thought for the day

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

The point which is so important is the basic fact that it is impossible for any man to survey more than a limited field, to be aware of the urgency of more than a limited number of needs. Whether his interests center round his own physical needs, or whether he takes a warm interest in the welfare of every human being he knows, the ends about which he can be concerned will always be only an infinitesimal fraction of the needs of all men. This is the fundamental fact on which the whole philosophy of individualism is based.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

The “Bollywood to South Beach” Voyage, part 20

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Twenty

November 19 (Thursday, Day 22, Cruising the Coast of South Africa) –

Boobies in formation

We woke up around 10 AM. We think we slept so long from the Dramamine. Filbert went to the 10:30 Cape Town port lecture and Snookums stayed in the cabin. Our stick-on thermometer said it was 65° and it looked kind of cool and dreary. We were surprised to find out that it was gorgeous outside by the pool. Although the ship was still rocking and rolling a little bit and there were whitecaps on the water, there was no breeze or wind whatsoever by the pool. We enjoyed our lunch and then Filbert went to the Observation Lounge to watch for dolphins and whales while using his PC. Snookums read her book outside for awhile before returning to the cabin and updating the journal.

More after the jump . . . While Snookums was outside, the widow and her daughter spoke to a man at Snookums’s table. The widow (her husband passed away on the Seychelles snorkel trip) decided to stay on the ship and finish her cruise in Ft. Lauderdale as planned. Her daughter was to join her in Richard’s Bay and her sons are joining her later. Anyway, her daughter managed to get to Richard’s Bay, South Africa. Her children convinced the widow that there was really no point in interrupting her cruise to come home. After all, she was going to come home to an empty house. Staying on board does make sense when you think of it that way. Also, her husband was told prior to getting on the ship that he should stay home due to his congestive heart failure. And, he was actually hospitalized in Dubai while the ship docked there for two nights. At least he passed away while doing what he wanted to do – travel.

For those of you wondering what there is to do during a day at sea, the following activities happened between 11:00 and 3:00 today:
11:00 – Slot Tournament, Casino
11:00 – Computer Class, Prime 7
11:15 – Ping Pong, Deck 11
11:45 – Bingo, Horizon Lounge
12:00-1:30 – Fish Al Fresco, Poolside
1:45 – Bridge, Card Room
1:45 – Ballroom Dance Review, Horizon Lounge
2:00 – 6 Hole Crazy Golf, Atrium
2:30 – Baseball Enrichment Lecture, Constellation Theatre
2:45 – Shuffleboard Tournament Final, Sports Deck
3:00 – Blackjack Tournament, Casino
3:00 – Anyone for Chess?, Library
3:00 – Arts & Crafts Exhibit, Horizon Lounge

Tonight was a formal night (the farewell dinner) but we decided to stay in our casual clothes and went to upstairs to La Veranda for dinner. It was a South African Wine Dinner and featured springbok carpaccio, ostrich consommé and African rock lobster for the appetizers and we each chose the wild boar for our entrée. Filbert enjoyed all of it (and corresponding wines) but Snookums didn’t care for the springbok carpaccio or wild boar that much.

November 20 (Friday, Day 23, Cruising Cape of Good Hope and docking in Cape Town, South Africa) –

Cape Town, with Table Mountain overlooking

We were scheduled to dock in Cape Town at 4 PM so we got to the Observation Lounge around noon to watch our progress around the Cape of Good Hope and the land between it and Cape Town. Along the way Filbert saw a sunfish in its horizontal basking position and was able to get a great photo of it. These fish can grow to 2,200 pounds!

Sunfish

Snookums saw three sharks that had white snouts for the front half of their snouts but didn’t have a camera. We both saw a whale.

Whale flukes off Cape Town

The captain maneuvered the ship between the very narrow opening in the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront and we docked. We got the good side to look at: Table Mountain in the background with the beautiful V&A Waterfront (and its Cape seals) in the foreground. Most cruise ships are too big to dock at the V&A Waterfront and have to dock at the ugly industrial port a few miles away. We were fortunate that there was space for our ship since it’s a stunning location.

Tug, with line attached
It’s going to be close
Really, really close

As soon as we docked, we got off the ship to continue our quest for a sport jacket. This commercial and tourism area was developed in the late 1980s and is the most profitable (or busiest – I’m not sure what the guide said) area in all of South Africa. A huge fancy mall was right next to the ship. We had a couple of hours before our tour so we went in all the men’s stores we could find. We found several sport coats that were too ugly or too expensive or both (mustard yellow plaid for $1,200) and ended up only buying some postcards.

We hurried back to the ship in time to board a bus to take us to Signal Hill to watch the sunset while enjoying canapés and sparkling wine (Snookums brought a Diet Coke). We got to the top of the high hill and got out of the bus and were stunned not only by the views, but by the wonderful catering job. Several tables were spread about this public area and we were given glass plates to fill, as well as real champagne glasses. Several of the “public” were told that the goodies weren’t for them. We ate the yummy canapés and enjoyed the beautiful sunset as well as the guinea fowl wandering around our feet. We got back on the bus and returned to the ship and enjoyed a final dinner with Carl. It was his last night since this segment of the cruise would end tomorrow for many passengers.

Guinea fowl at Signal Hill
Food
Drink
Trees catching the waning sun
Your happy correspondents

Next: The actual Signal Hill sunset, then we go to to prison. And high tea.

Thought for the day

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

To direct all of our activities according to a single plan presupposes that every one of our needs is given its rank in an order of values which must be complete enough to make it possible to decide among all the different courses the (central) planner has to choose. It presupposes, in short, the existence of a complete ethical code in which all the different human values are allotted their due place.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

The “Bollywood to South Beach” Voyage, part 19

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Nineteen

November 18 (Wednesday, Day 21, Richard’s Bay, South Africa) (continued) –

Our Hluhluwe game drive continued, and we were immediately faced with one very real and somewhat intimidating question:

Why did the rhino cross the road?

More after the jump . . .

Because it damn well wanted to, that’s why.
Just a sec, I’ve got an itch . . .
Are you talkin’ to me?
Giraffe really like roads, part 3
Baboon in a tree
Really long horn
Two day old impala
Back to the ship

The ship took off around 2 PM and the harbor pilot was picked up by a helicopter hovering over the bow of the ship and the pilot getting in a sling. Our port lecturer said that it’s because so much coal carrier traffic comes in and out of Richards Bay that the pilots can’t waste time boating to and from the ships entering and leaving the port. As soon as we hit the open water, the rocking and rolling started. The captain warned everyone that due to the high winds and the 4-meter swells it would be rough, and it was. We took our Dramamine and hunkered in our cabin and ultimately took naps. (Dramamine causes drowsiness.)

Whitecaps ahead. Smooth water in the harbor, rough seas outside.
The ship’s pilot enters the helicopter

We had previously arranged to have dinner with Carl and Lynn and Matt so we met them in Compass Rose. After dinner we went to Lynn and Matt’s 320 sq. ft. penthouse suite to see what it looked like compared to our 306 sq. ft suite (plus they have butler service that they don’t really use). The three of them are getting off in Cape Town, along with A LOT of other cruisers, and we’ll miss them. The seas were still rough and we took another dose of Dramamine before going to bed.

Next: Cape Town bound . . .

Thought for the day

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

The “social goal” or “common purpose,” for which society is to be organized is usually vaguely described as the “common good,” the “general welfare,” or the “general interest.” It does not need much reflection to see that these terms have no sufficiently definite meaning to determine a particular course of action. The welfare and the happiness of millions cannot be measured on the single scale of less and more. The welfare of a people, like the happiness of a man, depends on a great many things that can be provided in an infinite number of combinations. It cannot be adequately expressed as a single end, but only as a hierarchy of ends, a comprehensive scale of values in which every need of every person is given its place.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

The “Bollywood to South Beach” Voyage, part 18

The Bollywood to South Beach Voyage – Regent Seven Seas Voyager, October 29-December 18, 2009

Text by Snookums, Pictures by Filbert

Part Eighteen

November 17 (Tuesday, Day 20, Richard’s Bay, South Africa) (continued) –

Beached hippos

More after the jump . . .

A stork goodbye
A hippo goodbye
Sunset over Lake St. Lucia

We saw several different kinds of birds, too. It was a great trip. According to the people that went on the tour this morning they didn’t see the activity that we saw. When we were there, the hippos were very active. We even saw one bull male “mark” his territory by pooping and wagging his tail simultaneously to fling his poop all over the place. It wasn’t that pleasant, but it’s what male hippos do! Luckily we were far enough away so that none of the poop came our way, but we were close enough to see it fly around. We also saw lots of examples of hippos “yawning” to show their strength to the other hippos. We got back to the ship and decided to immediately go to dinner to beat the rush without even going back to our cabin. It was a great day and South Africa is much, much, much wealthier than Kenya or Tanzania.

November 18 (Wednesday, Day 21, Richard’s Bay, South Africa) –

Old 718

We woke up at 5:30 AM to go on our game drive to Hluhluwe Game Reserve. We drove 1.5 hours in the bus and our guide told us all about South Africa while driving there. Apartheid ended in 1994 and there is now 40% unemployment among blacks. AIDS (or maybe just HIV?) has infected 30% of all South Africans but the guide thinks that official number is way too low. He says that people are dying every day from it but autopsies aren’t performed so no one really knows. It sounds like there are still huge discrepancies between blacks and whites in South Africa but I guess it will take longer than 15 years to correct that wrong.

Zulu home
Hluhluwe (pronounced “Schloo-schlooie”) Game Reserve

When we arrived at the game reserve we got into our jeeps. Filbert called “shot gun” and got the seat right next to the driver and Snookums sat behind him. We immediately saw a herd of cape buffalo and some warthogs. The topography was very different from what we saw on our Kenya game drive. Hluhluwe Game Reserve is very green and lush with undulating hills. It was so “overgrown” that it was harder to see the animals, but we managed to see them nonetheless. We were lucky to have a rhinoceros cross the road right in front of us and we also had the same thing happen with a couple of giraffes. We saw zebra, baboons and impala, too, including an impala with her 2-day old baby impala. It was a great game drive and we enjoyed the drive back to Richard’s Bay with more commentary from the guide.

Cape Buffalo
Zebra rolling
Impala and zebra
Giraffe really like roads
Giraffe really like roads, part 2

Next: RHINOS!!!

Thought for the day

From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

Quote from Adam Smith: “The statesman who should attempt to direct private people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted to no council and senate whatever, and which would nowhere be as dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.”

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.

On integrity and the scientific method

Climategate[*1] is not going to go away soon[*2] .

Here’s the problem: science isn’t based on trust. It is based on proof, on argumentation, on testing. On refutation or confirmation. On repetition of results, and validation of results by independent, adversarial colleagues around the world.

Science is fundamentally adversarial. One scientist tries his damndest to disprove another scientist’s hypothesis. And scientist #1, by calling himself a scientist, accepts the adversarial interest of scientist #2, provides scientist #2 with his data and methods, and stands back with his chest puffed out, saying “prove me wrong, if you can.”

That’s not what the University of East Anglia climate change advocates did. That’s not what they’re doing, even now. The most damning thing about the leaked e-mails is that these advocates (they are self-evidently not scientists) are completely uninterested in having independent third parties look at their data and their methods.

In fact, they don’t have their data any more. It’s gone. Lost. Deleted.

Their data is gone.

Let me repeat that: their data is gone.

What that means for the scientific community is that all–ALL of the work of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit, and ALL of the papers and studies which have been based on the work of the CRU MUST BE DISCARDED. To be credible, all of that work must be re-done, without any input from the CRU’s now-tainted and now utterly unrepeatable work.

Thus the entire edifice of the current “scientific” argument for anthropogenic global warming comes crashing down.

Does this mean that human-induced climate change doesn’t exist? No, not necessarly. But it is the obligation of those who assert that it does exist to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it does exist. The result of the CRU e-mail leak and subsequent revelations of data loss and apparent corruption by the climate change advocates at CRU is to provide a heaping dose of doubt on their results.

The job of climate change advocates just got harder. They now–all of them, must be required to show all of their data, and show all of their work, and allow truly independent third parties–adversarial third partys to tear their data and their work apart. If they do not do this, and do this with alacrity, then reasonable people can conclude that they do not have the confidence of their conclusions, and so we lay-people should not have confidence in those conclusions, either.

The “climate change” movement isn’t dead. But it’s taken a serious blow in the past week or so.

Only total, complete transparency and openness can save the climate change movement now.