Famous words from the moon

Neil Armstrong's death over the weekend brought back memories of the lunar landing as well as the time I met Gene Kranz, Apollo 11's launch director, when I arranged for him to speak at a user group meeting.

Neil is best known for the "... one giant leap for mankind" quote, but after reading Gene's book Failure is Not an Option, some other words spoken by Neil, what many consider to be the best test pilot ever, and his lunar module colleague, Buzz Aldrin, are equally memorable for me.

"Forty feet, picking up some dust, thirty feet, seeing a shadow ... contact light ... engine stop ... ACA out of detent."

What's memorable about these words aren't the words themselves, but the equanimity with which they were spoken by Buzz, at Neil's side in the lunar module, during a nerve-wracking landing, with a descent engine running on fumes, as if they had performed hundreds of lunar landings before, which of course they had, in practice. Buzz transitions to the descent engine shutdown checklist without a trace of emotion, during an event Gene Kranz compares to Columbus wading ashore in the new world. (Checklists would continue in the lunar module as well as at mission control, making tough "stay/no-stay" decisions at two minutes after touchdown, eight minutes, and two hours.)

"Houston, Tranquility Base here.  The Eagle has landed."

There's a little more emotion here. Tranquility is a reference to the area of the Moon where they landed, the Sea of Tranquility. What's remarkable is that in all the preparations for Apollo 11, no one had ever uttered "Tranquility Base," a term conveying a confidence that did not naturally arise from the circumstances. I don't remember where I heard this back story, or whether Neil ever said how he came up with it.

A table saw that cuts wood but can't cut fingers

This is pretty impressive technology: http://www.sawstop.com/.  It detects the electrical characteristics of blood, and stops the sawblade in 3-5 milliseconds.  Making some reasonable assumptions, about 90% of that time is spent in detection, making the stop decision, moving the brake into position, etc.  Once the brake finally comes into contact with the sawblade at the end of that process, it takes roughly 500 microseconds to bring the sawteeth from 120mph down to zero, the equivalent of roughly 12,000G's.  The general contractor who showed me the saw says you hear a loud BANG!, the sawblade has vanished (the effects of angular momentum cause the blade to retract into the table faster than you can see), and all you have is a small nick on your finger that barely warrants a band-aid.  Replacing the blade and the brake will set you back about $100, but that is cheap compared to the alternative.  One flaw I noticed is the brake system requires power, so if there's a power failure, there's no finger protection until the sawblade comes to a stop.

Patients Would Pay More if Romney Restores Medicare Savings, Analysts Say

Current law includes $716 billion in Medicare savings, endorsed by the AARP. This article in the New York times points out that Romney's promise to revoke those savings means seniors would pay more for healthcare:

Marilyn Moon, vice president and director of the health program at the American Institutes for Research, calculated that restoring the $716 billion in Medicare savings would increase premiums and co-payments for beneficiaries by $342 a year on average over the next decade; in 2022, the average increase would be $577.

Beneficiaries, through their premiums and co-payments, share the cost of Medicare with the government. If Medicare’s costs increase — for instance, by raising payments to health care providers — so, too, do beneficiaries’ contributions.

Ryan's budget uses those same savings to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, and only balances by including artificial spending caps that would push even more costs onto the elderly.  By contrast, Obamacare uses those savings to pay for healthcare.

A Tale of 2 Plans

The essay A Tale of 2 Plans in the Journal of the American Medical Association points out a political irony: on the political spectrum, Obamacare is to the right of Ryan's Medicare plan in key (but not all) respects.  Yet Republicans oppose the former and support the latter, while Democrats support the former and oppose the latter.

Update: Over the weekend the New York Times had a great article on Medicare Advantage.

Ryan may be amiable, but his budget plan is full of myths

Peter Orzag covers Five myths about Paul Ryan’s budget in the Washington Post.

Evidence suggests Medicare would be worse under Ryan's plan

In a New York Times column titled Evidence vs. Ideology in the Medicare Debate, Laura D’Andrea Tyson, University of California Professor and Chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton, says there is no evidence that Paul Ryan's plan

would control Medicare spending more effectively than the current Medicare program strengthened by Affordable Care Act reforms. Indeed, the evidence points decisively in the opposite direction.

Update: Also see Jonathan Cohn's Definitive Guide to the Medicare Debate.

The likability problem

Neither presidential candidate exudes warmth, in my opinion. LZ Granderson, a CNN contributor who probably isn't a Republican, had an interesting way of describing Romney's likability deficit:

" ...he comes across like the guy who doesn't wave when you let him into traffic, because in his mind, he was able to merge on his own."

Why Romney’s tax agenda doesn't add up, even if it isn’t a middle-class tax hike

http://taxvox.taxpolicycenter.org/2012/08/02/why-romneys-tax-agenda-doesnt-add-up-even-if-it-isnt-a-middle-class-tax-hike/

Of course, Romney doesn’t have to raise taxes on the middle-class. He could fix this problem with less ambitious rate cuts on ordinary income, or by raising taxes on capital income. He could pay for his initiative outside of the individual income tax system by increasing corporate taxes—though he says he’d cut them. He could cut spending even more deeply than he’s already promised, though that would hurt low- and middle-income households too. Or he could just add to the deficit.

Thus, the right question to ask Romney is not whether he wants to raise taxes on the middle-class. The right question to ask is which of his campaign promises he will abandon.

For your amusement, try out the Obama campaign's tax calculator.

Update #1 - David Firestone writes about A Tax Plan That Defies the Rules of Math in the New York Times.

Romney's role in Marriott's "abusive" tax shelters

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/08/opinion/canellos-kleinbard-romney-taxes/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

279 economists: Obamacare will significantly strengthen our nation’s economy over the long haul

http://waysandmeans.house.gov/UploadedFiles/THOMPSON_Economists_Letter_1-26-11.pdf

We write to convey our strong conclusion that leaving in place the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will significantly strengthen our nation’s economy over the long haul and promote more rapid economic recovery in the immediate years ahead.

An epic hacking caused by Apple and Amazon security flaws

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/apple-amazon-mat-honan-hacking/all/

This story highlights a terrible lesson: those who shouldn't have to - and certainly don't want to - understand computer security must nevertheless understand computer security.

What should you do?  The prominent technology blogger Farhad Manjoo writes about four things you need to do right now to avoid getting hacked.  Frankly I'm not totally clear on all of his recommendations.  But I'll add one more that I did just now, after reading Mat Honan's article: I logged into Amazon.com and deleted every credit card they had on file for me.