US Spy Agencies

A story on NPR about the upcoming "National Intelligence Estimate" report mentioned that it represented the best work of all 16 U.S. spy agencies. SIXTEEN!? How many people could even name five? The CIA, FBI, and NSA get most of the press. What else is there? DHS is a new one I guess.

I found this site at www.intelligence.gov which lists all sixteen agencies.

Air Force Intelligence
Army Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Coast Guard Intelligence
Defense Intelligence Agency
Department of Energy
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Department of State
Department of the Treasury
Drug Enforcement Administration
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Marine Corps Intelligence
National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
National Reconnaissance Office
National Security Agency (NSA)
Navy Intelligence

Each branch of the military has its own spy agency, including the Coast Guard(?!) and the Department of Defence. Those and the big 4 mentioned above make 10. Let's take a look at the remaining six.

Drug Enforcement Administration: Yes, those guys have good reasons to be spying around.

State Department: These guys probably don't have their own spies. They (and the DHS) are in more of an oversight capacity, coordinating the other groups. Do we really need two competing oversight agencies?

Department of Energy, Department of the Treasury: These are surprising agencies to find on the list. I would have thought the FBI would handle money laundering, and the CIA would take care of nuclear energy spy-work.

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency: These guys run the spy satellites. And stuff. Cool. But only since 1996.

National Reconnaissance Office: No, wait, these guys run the spy satellites. The NGIA just makes pretty pictures with the data from the satellites. Or something like that. Here's a nice quote: "The NRO established in 1960 ... existence of the NRO was declassified on 18 September 1992."

If that isn't enough, this page lists 38 US Intelligence agencies and web sites. Oh well, I don't think any amount of spying will ever actually amount to "intelligence".

Van de Graaf generator with dangerous wiring

I recently bought a van de Graaf generator from here.

It came with the central column broken at the bottom where the screws attach it to the base. I got them to send me a replacement, but the replacement was broken in the same place. Rather than continue that game I talked them into refunding half the price and kept one of the broken generators. I was able to superglue the plastic tube to repair it, so everything was good.

Then one day I clean the unit, carefully following the directions, plug it back in, flip the switch and ... ZAP! The circuit breaker got tripped. Good thing too, since it turns out that the wiring in this thing is dangerously bad. Instead of using one of the many types of standard connectors for the wires, they are simply twisted together, and an insulating sleeve is slid over the junctions. The insulating sleeve is not adequately secured and the wires can easily pull out of them, and when that happens, since the junction on both wires is at the same place, they short out. The result for me was that the wires welded themselves to the metal strap holding the motor in place, the in-line power switch was melted in the "on" position, and (fortunately) the circuit breaker stopped anything worse from happening.

In my opinion the wiring in this product is dangerously bad, and I would recommend that anyone with one of these generators take it apart (unplugged), slide back the insulating sleeves (before it happens by accident) located under the metal straps next to the motor, and put a couple of twist-on connectors (like they use in home lighting wiring) on the twisted-together wires. You will have much safer experiments afterwards.

Woot!

Got a 6.0 for my GRE essay score!

Thanks to the Institute for Excellence in Writing for their great video writing instruction programs.

Ironic statistics

Generalized test scores by major are interesting statistics. These on the LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) are interesting. The major which does the best is Physics/Math followed by Philosophy. This is backed up by more statistics on several tests. Philosophy is at the top, although Math is not broken out separately. Math and Philosophy emphasize logic and thinking clearly.

And just to prove how messed up our education system is, Education majors are at the bottom of both lists. The only majors doing worse on the Law School test are Prelaw and Criminology, which is extremely ironic, and again proves how messed up our education system is.

A Plea for Minor Parties

It's 2006 and the republicans have lost the majority in both house and senate because of widespread dissatisfaction over the policies of president Bush, and more-or-less blatant corruption.

Remember back in 1994, when the democrats lost the majority in both house and senate because of more-or-less blatant corruption, and to a lesser extent dissatisfaction of the policies (or lack thereof) of president Clinton. That dissatisfaction grew and helped keep the republicans in power, which is a parallel I expect to see again as long as Bush is in office.

The strange thing is that while extravagant spending, socialist welfare programs, and centralization of power are normally seen as democratic tendencies, the republics continued to advance all of those things while in power. Even stranger is that while big military is viewed as a republican tendency, with the democrats in power, we are expecting to see a "surge" (I'll believe "temporary" when it happens) in troops levels in Iraq.

What we are seeing is two parties whose policies are in reality so close together that voters can "throw the bums out" at any time without affecting what really goes on in Washington. There are a few "hot button" issues, such as abortion and death penalty, which politicians love to take sides on because it gives the public the illusion that they are significantly different than their opponents. I am not saying those issues are not important, but that they are largely social issues which have been grossly expanded in their political importance, until presently their main purpose is to serve as distractions from the issues which politicians should be spending their time solving. An example is cutting spending, which every republican supports, but no republican will name a specific significant program he wishes to cut, because being specific is political suicide.

My own conclusion from this is that any vote for a major party is a wasted vote. I consider it wasted because it will not change what goes on in politics. Those in power will never change unless they perceive they are losing power to outsiders. So I encourage everyone else to stop wasting their votes on business-as-usual major parties. Vote libertarian; vote green; vote constitutional party; vote independent. You could even vote for that party with the smiley face logo. If we want change, we will have to accept third party candidates in all their unpolished politically-incorrect sincerity.