RIP, Guenter Wendt...

In my teens and early 20s, I was a serious fanboy of the first three manned space programs (Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo).  I read everything I could get my hands one, listened to radio programs, and watched the very limited footage available on television back then.  Several personalities loomed large after that immersion, and one of them was Guenter Wendt – the famously authoritarian “owner” of the white room at the top of the gantry.  Guenter was the last person the astronauts saw after they were sealed in their capsule.

Guenter Wendt died on May 3, at age 85.

Mule Raffle...

Reader Simi L. passes along a slightly rewritten oldie-but-goodie:

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the The Oxford Eagle Newspaper in Oxford, Mississippi. and bought a mulefor $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said, "Sorry, fellers, I have some bad news, the mule died last night."

Curtis & Leroy replied, "Well, then just give us our money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."

The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"

Curtis said, "We're gonna raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis & Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked, "What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"

Curtis said, "We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."

Leroy said, "Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."

The farmer said,"My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"

Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won, got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back..."

Curtis and Leroy now work for the government.

They're overseeing the Bailout Program.

For my readers in Europe and on the West Coast: there really is a chain of stores called Piggly Wiggly. Really, there is.

Elena Kagan...

The WSJ has a good summary of Elena Kagan's background and experience.  There's lots more on the intertubes.

My own take: she's far less bad than someone Obama might have appointed if the political situation wasn't so disastrous for the Democrats right now.  I suspect he and his aides have done the political calculus, and are betting that Ms. Kagan has the right combination of relatively mild leftism and absence of rabid anti-conservatism to at least have a chance of making it by the Senate.

It could have been much worse...

Happy Mother's Day!

I've been saving this contribution (from reader and cousin Mike D.) for today:

WHY GOD MADE MUMS

Answers given by 2nd year school children to the following questions:


Why did God make mothers?

1. She's the only one who knows where the selotape is.

2. Mostly to clean the house.

3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.


How did God make mothers?

1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3. God made my mum just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.


Why did God give you your mother and not some other mum?

1. We're related.

2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mum like me.


What kind of a little girl was your mum?

1. My mum has always been my mum and none of that other stuff.

2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3. They say she used to be nice.


What did mum need to know about dad before she married him?

1. His last name.

2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?

3. Does he make at least 8000 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?


Why did your mum marry your dad?

1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mum eats a lot.

2. She got too old to do anything else with him.

3. My grandma says that mum didn't have her thinking cap on.


Who's the boss at your house?

1. Mum doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such an idiot.

2. Mum. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.

3. I guess mum is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.


What's the difference between mums and dads?

1. Mums work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2. Mums know how to talk to teachers without scaring them.

3. Dads are taller and stronger, but mums have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.

4. Mums have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.


What does your mum do in her spare time?

1. Mothers don't do spare time.

2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.


What would it take to make your mum perfect?

1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.


If you could change one thing about your mum, what would it be?

1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.

2. I'd make my mum smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.

3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Blondes and Computers...

Forwarded to me by reader Doug W.:

During a company's recent password audit, it was found
that a blonde employee was using the following password:

       “MickeyMinniePlutoHueyLouieDeweyDonaldGoofyWashington”

When asked why she had such a long password, she said she was told that it had to be …  at least 8 “characters” long and include at least one “capital!”

Har!

Government In Action...

My sister-in-law Gina P. passed along an email containing a letter from the State of Pennsylvania to a landowner in the state, and the landowner's response.  It's very funny, but it turns out that the version she sent was modified (why do people do these things?) from the just-as-funny original.  This really happened, but in Michigan, not Pennsylvania. 

The indispensable Snopes has the real dam thing.

Disappearing Food...

My mom passed along this note from a friend of theirs:

The latest thing in our house is that our 4 year old black Lab has figured out how to open the refrigerator. The first time was when I was in California. Owen and Matilda thought one of them had failed to close the refrigerator door. June, the dog, ate a blueberry cobbler, leftover spaghetti, a bowl of grapefruit and oranges, sausage, rice, and soy beans. Matilda made another cobbler. June ate it too. By that time Matilda and Owen were beginning to think it wasn't them but they couldn't believe a dog could really open a refrigerator. That night they caught her. She puts her nose down at the bottom of the door, right where the gasket is and just pushes. Now we have a child proof lock on the door. The only problem is people who forget to lock the lock. One night this week someone had a late night snack, didn't lock the door, and June ate a whole pineapple i'd peeled and cut up. It hurts to be outsmarted by a dog.

Mo'i (one of our field spaniels) would behave just like this, if only he could figure out how to open our refrigerator.  We have one of those extra-large refrigerators (very handy when you live as far from a grocery store as we do), so we're extra-vulnerable.  Thankfully he hasn't been smart enough yet to figure out how to do it...

A Preacher I Can Find Some Agreement With...

Via reader Dick F.  If you're a regular reader, you know I'm not a religious guy.  But the preacher who delivered the prayer below, to open a new session of the Kansas State Senate – there's a preacher I might find some agreement with.  His name is Joe Wright, and he's the preacher at the Central Christian Church of Wichita, Kansas.  His prayer (from 1996, but even more relevant today):

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen!

You tell 'em, brother Joe – and keep telling 'em, will you?

Top Ten Democratic Slogans for 2010...

Found at a site I'd rather not link to (because there's much on there I don't want to support).  But these are priceless...

The Democrats know they're in trouble for the 2010 mid-term elections this November.  Obviously the cure is a new slogan, or at least that seems to be the progressive theory.  So they came up with candidates for the new slogan, and these are the top 10:

10.  Bitterly clinging to taxes and abortion.

9.  We didn't destroy your freedoms; you can visit them at the Smithsonian.

8.  If you want us to listen to your opinion, move to Europe.

7.  Someday none of this will be yours.

6.  We can't tax terrorism, so who cares?

5.  Please don't vote us out!  None of us can do real jobs!

4.  Why the Founding Fathers limited government: racism.

3.  Reducing America's carbon footprint, one job at a time.

2.  America: we just can't wait to see how it ends!

1.  Making everything in this country free, except you.

Vote this November.  The list above should be all the guidance you need...

Tiny Single-Board Linux Computer for $89...

This brings all sorts of fun little projects to mind.  The board is less than 4 inches square, consumes less than a half watt of power, and has all the basic things you'd expect (Ethernet, video, sound, serial, USB, SATA, and expansion capability).  It's called the Hawkboard, and it's the best thing I've seen yet for hobby projects that need (or would benefit from) a “real” computer in the middle...

Quote of the Year...

By a commenter over at Megan McArdle's place.  The context was Megan's post about SWAT teams shooting homeowners or their dogs for “aggressive behavior” in reaction to the SWAT team's attack on their home.  The commentor said:

Do we really want to live in a country where when someone busts into your house at night you're supposed to assume they might be cops?

Well said, brother!

Armed men entering our home without warning will be met with very aggressive high-velocity lead.  We keep a 7 shot semi-automatic shotgun readily at hand, though we had more need for it in our old home in Chula Vista than we have out here in the far more law-abiding Lawson Valley...

Birdemic...

Birdemic is apparently a recently released movie.  I haven't watched a movie in years, and there is zero probability that I'll ever watch this one, even before reading these reviews on IMDB (at the behest of a friend who thought that this was a movie I might actually want to see). 

But the reviews themselves...now that's a whole 'nother story.  Those make very entertaining reading.  Here's my favorite:

Where does one start? How can you mentally digest something like Birdemic? I am still in shock. I have seen some shitty movies in my time. But Birdemic, friends and neighbors, is the worst movie in the history of film-making, on this planet or in any other dimension for that matter. It is bad, OMG, right off the scale on the shitometer. The acting? Poor Alan Bagh, is he a living, walking wooden plank? Special effects? I swear, the birds are cardboard cutouts dangling from strings. For some reason, they explode when they hit something. Why? Why is that? Can't somebody explain, for freak's sake?

Everything stinks so very gaggingly. A rhesus monkey with a camcorder poking out of its arse would do better. Beware, my friends, beware of this abomination that is Birdemic.

An American Mulim Speaks Out...

We really need to see much more of this.  M. Zuhdi Jasser, an American Muslim and former Navy Lieutenant Commander, wrote a letter to his fellow Muslims.  It concludes:

Whether we declare it or not, the United States is at war with the ideology of militant Islamism. Islamists are not afraid to call for the complete destruction of the principles that built our great country. The United States cannot afford to be timid in our response to their actions. We, Americans, especially American Muslims, must show Islamists that their ideology is beyond being simply ‘dangerous’, or ‘violent’. It is in fact treasonous and punishable as a capital crime against the state as an act of war. Our founding fathers knew how to articulate the values of liberty over theocracy. Where has that American penchant for the defense of religious freedom and liberty gone?

Our elected officials and leaders must show true ideological leadership if we are to ever begin the long process of ridding ourselves of the scourge of Islamist terrorism. We cannot cower to victim-mongering American Islamist organizations that thrive on keeping us on the defensive and from addressing the very real Islamist threats to our security. Platitudes that only condemn violence and ignore ideology are an obstacle to needed reform.

Our leaders must wake up and engage in the global war of ideas and demonstrate that the rule of one law that protects universal religious freedom (Americanism) takes precedence over the Islamic state. America in fact provides the best atmosphere for Muslims to practice our faith and it is long overdue for American Muslims to also wake up and empower honest reformist Muslims to declare the 'Islamic state' dead. We will never slow down the recurrence of Islamist terror against our citizenry until such a movement from Muslims against political Islam is palpable.

Go read the whole thing.

Lesser Goldfinches...

I took this photo (as usual, click to enlarge) last Sunday, of a group of Lesser Goldfinches (Carduelis psaltria) feeding on niger thistle seeds in our feeders.  These are very common birds here; we have dozens that visit our feeders and waterers every day.  This time of year the black-capped males have very bright yellow plumage.  Sometimes when perched in a tree they'll startle observers with their almost neon lemony color.

The angry-looking bright red bird (out of focus) in the upper-right is a common house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), perhaps the single most abundant bird on our property.  This fellow is perched on another feeder that's serving up black oil sunflower seeds...

Starting to Look Like a Very Big Deal...

Memristors, that is.  If you're interested in electronics at all, this is something you'll want to keep an eye on.  I first heard about them in 2007, but didn't get too excited at that time – we've seen too many such claims of new “fundamentals” and seemingly miraculous new capabilities that ended up being just so much hogwash.  But memristors are following the same pattern that any new technology development does: replicable results, multiple people working on it, and increasingly impressive results from labs.

In other words, it's starting to look like the real deal.  And it has the potential to foment much change in electronics – most especially with storage.  Single chips fabricated with conventional semiconductor techniques, with the storage capacity of hundreds of today's disk drives, archival quality storage lifetime, and nanosecond write speeds.  If that ain't miraculous storage, I don't know what is.

The “new fundamental” bit with a memristor is that it represents the fourth fundamental electronic component.  The other three (resistor, capacitor, and inductor) have been known for 200 years or so; the memristor would be the only component ever added to that list.  In the 1960s a theoretical physicist predicted that memristors should exist, based on the symmetry of the mathematics used to describe the other three components.  Looks like they really do exist, and (more importantly) are actually producable...

Black-Headed Grosbeak...

We've got several pairs of black-headed grosbeaks (Pheucticus melanocephalus) at our feeders this year.  I took these photos last weekend (all with 400mm stabilized telephoto, handheld).  THe first two photos are of a female, the last of a male.  As usual, click to enlarge...

  

Apollo 11...

If you're ancient enough, and were at all interested in space exploration, I'm sure you'll remember that day in 1969 when Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins lifted off from the space center in Florida – headed for mankind's first landing on another body in space.  Here's a view you didn't see back then: a slow-motion camera focused on the Saturn V's first stage engines as the vehicle launched.  It's narrated and quite interesting.  Even after all these years, I remain awed by the remarkably advanced technology of Apollo 11...

Humor, NK-Style...

Here's a series of North Korean jokes, compiled by interviewing North Korean defectors.

Sheesh...

The Little JavaScripter...

Doug Crockford's got a Little JavaScripter!

Protocol Sequence Diagrams...

A handy little reference site for this obscure bit of knowledge that's only interesting or useful to the geekier amongst us...

Floating Point Numbers...

Instruction for programmers who don't understand floating point numbers (and especially their errors), with virtually no math. 

In nearly every company I've ever worked for, the code base contained clear evidence that the company's programmers don't understand floating point numbers.  Just one more piece of evidence supporting my ongoing amazement that any piece of software actually works!

Again...

Once again, the politically-correct, anti-free-speech regime in Britain has resulted in the arrest and jailing of somone – just because what he said offended someone.  This time the offender is a Christian preacher, and what he said was that according to his beliefs, homosexuality is a sin.

In any country that actually has free speech, this man would have been free to say such a thing, and anyone offended would have the freedom to yell back at him.  But in today's U.K., such speech is a crime, and this preacher is guilty.

I sure hope we can avoid this in the U.S. – but I'm not optimistic.

What a bunch of thin-skinned ninnies Europe has developed into!  And the portents are that we're headed that way, too.

Where do the normal people live these days?  Is there somewhere to escape to?

Book Review: With the Old Breed...

With the Old Breed, by E. B. Sledge is remarkable for its focus on the lot of a Marine in the Pacific battles of World War II.  Only the barest high-level view is presented, just enough to give the reader the context in which Sledge and his fellow Marines fought.  This is not an analysis of the battles on Peleliu and Okinawa, but rather a straightforward description of what it was like for an ordinary American frontline soldier to be in those battles.  Sledge was a member of a 60mm mortar team, and spent most of his time in those battles at or immediately behind the front lines.

The prose is neither worshipful nor breathless, and is consequently all the more believeable.  I came away from reading this book with exactly what I'd hoped for in a descriptive history: knowledge of what actually happened.  The brutality of some scenes from this book are quite shocking, even to someone like me who has read extensively about World War II.  At the same time, more recent brutality on display from Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations reminds one that mankind's capacity for such brutality has not disappeared.

Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in learning about the Pacific theater in World War II.

I'm glad my country never needed me to fight in any way that resembles how these men fought – and I'm profoundly grateful that there are men capable of doing so.

This book was made into the recent miniseries Pacific.  I have not seen the miniseries myself (I rarely watch television at all any more), but a friend and fellow history buff assures me that it resembles the book in only the most obscure and irrelevant ways, essentially filtering the entirely apolitical book through a progressive, politically-correct lens.  That assessment is more than enough to ensure that I will never watch the miniseries!

On Free Speech...

Neo-neocon has a thoughtful, don't-miss post on freedom of speech (using the recent Harvard kerfuffle as an example).

I'm often amazed at the apparent inability of lefties to see the huge conflict between freedom of speech on the one hand, and the political correctness and zero tolerance movements currently sweeping our schools on the other hand.  Many times earnest lefties have told me straight out that there is no conflict at all, when it's perfectly obvious that there is (as Neo-neocon points out). 

In Europe especially this has for a decade or so assumed almost farcical dimensions, such as the unfortunately frequent cases where homeowners are prosecuted and imprisoned because they defended their family and property from a burglar – with the punishment doled out to the homeowner being far worse than the punishment (if any!) received by the burglar.

Now we have a generate of kids entering adulthood who were indoctrinated by our school system in the ways of political correctness and zero tolerance.  This is precisely what happened in Europe some 20 years ago, so it doesn't seem too far a leap to predict that we're headed toward an America that's as intolerant of free speech as is most of Europe today.  To this American, that's a frightening thought.

The emergence of the tea party movement, though, is a move in the opposite direction – toward free speech, and away from political correctness.  A small move, to be sure – and arguably unintentional and accidental – but a move nonetheless.  Let's hope that snowballs into a full-throated intolerance of politcal correctness and zero tolerance!

Hydrogen Production Breakthrough?

Department of Energy scientists are reporting what sounds like a breakthrough for inexpensive hydrogen production: an inexpensive and versatile metallic catalyst, far less expensive than the current standard platinum catalyst.  However, before you run out and buy yourself a hydrogen car, remember that there are several other major developments yet to be made. 

The biggest remaining problem is hydrogen storage, especially storage in a car.  Large improvements have been made in this area, but even the best of them doesn't have the right combination of capacity, safety, and economy that's needed in order to make hydrogen powered cars practical (that is, with a range comparable to today's petroleum powered cars).

Nearly as big is the unsolved issue of how to transport and distribute the vast quantities of hydrogen needed to convert our existing fleet of cars and trucks to hydrogen power.  This is an area where the new catalyst might conceivably help, especially if it actually enabled consumer-scale solar-powered hydrogen production – in other words, if it let you make your own commuting hydrogen at home.  Then it would be as if we each had our own oil well and refinery; obviously this would greatly reduce the distribution problem.

But we're a long, long way from solving either of those remaining problems – and of course I've left out the elephant in the room: the cost of replacing all the existing petroleum-powered engines with hydrogen-powered engines...

More Flowers...

These are all common flowers on the Anza Borrego; not much to say about them – just enjoy 'em!  As always, click to enlarge...

      

Black Brant...

As we emerged from the roughest part of Rodriguez Canyon Road into a flat, sandy-bottomed valley, we saw something most unexpected: a goose waddling down this desert road!  It's a Black Brant, a sub-species of the Brent Goose; commonly seen along our ocean shores but certainly not a desert denizen.  According to our San Diego Bird Atlas, the migration route for these geeze parallels S2, and it's not uncommon to see Brants resting along the way, as late as early May.  So our sighting fits the pattern, even though it was a big surprise to us – a goose in the middle of the desert!

Beavertail Cactus...

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris, a kind of prickly pear) is very common in the Anza Borrego.  We were a little late to catch it blooming on the desert floor, but in Rodriguez Canyon we saw dozens of plants in bloom (later because of the higher altitude).  This one also had a new pad just getting started...

 

Desert Globemallow...

One year, probably fifteen years ago, we caught the Desert Globemallow in bloom in the lower reaches of Rodriguez and Oriflamme Canyons, with hundreds of specimens within an easy walk of the road.  Ever since then, every time we travel these roads I keep searching for these beautiful flowers.  Debbie spotted one on Thursday – the only one we saw on the entire trip – no more than a foot from Rodriguez Canyon Road.  It was mostly done with blooming; just a few individual blossoms left of what must have been hundreds on this one plant.  Dang it!

Cactus...

I think this is a kind of prickly pear, but I'm not certain of that.  No doubt about the “prickly” part, though!

 

Rodriquez Canyon Greets Us...

Hoping to find some desert bloom remaining, we headed up the rough four-wheel drive road through Rodriguez Canyon.  This road climbs up from the desert floor through the rugged Rodriguez Canyon (still part of the Anza Borrego desert) on the eastern slopes of Cuyamaca Mountain.  As we turned on to the road, we found these flowers in abundance – almost as though placed there to greet us...

 

Lonely Little Lupine...

In one of our favorite little canyons to go wildflowering, there was almost nothing in bloom – a couple of chuparosa with a few blooms hanging on, and this one tiny little lupine poking up between some rocks on the dry stream bed...

Rosette...

Here's two photos of the rosette I posted earlier, with one closeup of the flower stalk.  We found this one just north of Agua Caliente airport, but their range is quite broad – we even have some of these in Lawson Valley (mainly on road cuts)...

 

Mystery Flower...

Here's a desert flower we're not familiar with, and I haven't identified it yet (anyone know?).  It's a late bloomer, in prime well after most of the desert flowers have gone to seed.  The color is striking enough, but what really stands out is the smell – sweet and vaguely reminiscent of coconut or suntan lotion.  We found a lot of these along S2 north of the Cabrizzo Badlands overlook...

 

Century Plant...

The century plant (Agave americana v. americana) is common in the southern Anza Borrego desert areas we visited.  We've never seen as many in bloom as we saw last Thursday, though...

 

Ocotillo...

An ocotillo in glorious bloom, from just north of the well-named town of Ocotillo, barely inside the Anza Borrego park border...

Ants...

Walking around the Anza Borrego desert, I found lots of ant nests – all for some large (roughly 1 cm) shiny black ants that were very busy gather seeds.  You can follow their trails for a hundred feet or more, right to the plant that is their current source of seeds.  At the next, you can see the workers carrying some food item into the nest, and the empty-handed workers scurrying back out for their next load...

 

Western Tanager...

I took about 30 photos of this male Western Tanager, but these are the best two (click to enlarge)...

 

Boycott Arizona-stan!

Mark Steyn at his finest, on the topic of immigration policy – don't miss it!

GM: Paid In Full?

Nick Gillespie of Reason does a great job explaining the craven spinning of GM's Whitacre when he claims that GM paid off their loan “in full and ahead of schedule”:

Uh Oh...

One of the few credible mainstream media sources remaining in the U.S. is making a remarkable claim: Obama had an affair with a campaign aide – and they have evidence to prove it.  The credible source I speak of is the National Enquirer, whose recent track record on political scandals (think John Edwards and Eliot Spitzer) is spotless, while the more traditional media (like the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times) knew of the stories, but studiously ignored them.

Somehow I doubt that even if the story proves true it will “bring down” the Obama government.  It almost certainly would kill his chances in 2012, though...

Learning from Mexico...

Reader Doug S. passes along a discussion of Mexico's immigration policies – which, as many have noted, expose the hypocrisy of those Mexican officials now railing against Arizona's decision to start enforcing the border at the state level, since the feds won't do it.

Why is this hypocritical?  Well, here's the short version: Mexico's immigration policies are far stricter than either the U.S. Federal restrictions in practice, or the Arizona law just passed.  But some Mexican officials are hollering loudly about the “inhumanity” and “unfairness” of our laws...

Peggy Noonan Spanks the Feds...

...over the Arizona immigration law.  Good stuff...

How To Be A Programmer...

Robert Read's famous essay is on the web...

Jon Stewart on Apple's iPhone Prototype...

What he said...

A Trip to the Desert...

I took a day off from work yesterday, and Debbie and I drove out to the Anza-Borrego desert to see the wildflowers.  We were a bit disappointed by the wildflowers – we were way too late to see them in prime – but not at all disappointed by the day, as we had several delightful surprises.

The biggest and best surprise you can see at right: we somehow managed to be in the right place at the right time to catch a group of Western Tanagers in their annual migration north (they normally are found in high-altitude conifer forests, not the desert!).  Altogether we saw 6 or 7 individuals.  The male in the photo at right didn't try very hard to get away from me – I was able to get just 3' (1 meter) away from him to take this photo with my macro lens.  I'm guessing that the poor little fellow was just too tired to bother flying away...

We did see quite a few flowers, some of them gorgeous and interesting, so the day wasn't a flower washout by any means.  But we didn't see things like acres of lupine and verbena; those were long past prime.  The ocotillo were still pretty darned good, Debbie spotted one lonely blooming globe-mallow for me (I've been looking for these since one trip years ago when we found thousands of plants on the lower stretches of Oriflamme Canyon Road), and we saw quite a few other flowering plants that I have not identified yet.  As usual on the desert, some of these had intense and unusual smells.  And also as usual, some were very odd looking, like the little rosette succulent at left that looks as if it were a visitor from a galaxy far, far away.

Some other highlights: feasted on a chicken-fried steak breakfast at Descanso Junction Restaurant, spotted a Brant goose (presumably also migratory) on the high stretches of Rodriguez Canyon, a male wild turkey in full display, found lilacs for sale in Wynola (and brought home three big bunches!), and stocked up on Dudley's bread and fruit bars.  A very nice day...

More photos in later posts...

Product Recommendation...

A few weeks ago, after reading about this product (the iTP A3 EOS Upgraded), I purchased the tiny little LED flashlight.  This thing is just barely larger than the AAA battery it contains.  The LED is amazingly bright – too bright to look directly at – and provides ample light for walking around on a pitch-black night.  The battery life is claimed to be 15 hours; I'm at 5 hours now and there's no sign of dimming.  This thing is so small that I can easily keep it in my pocket at all times, which means that it's available whenever I need it.  Two thumbs up! 

FCC Disclaimer: I purchased this product with my own funds, for my personal use and not for the purpose of review.  Neither the manufacturer or the reseller asked me to review this product, nor was I compensated in any way for the review.

Recommended Books...

I recently finished two books that I highly recommend to anyone interested in 20th century history.

First is Churchill, by Roy Jenkins.  This is a superb biography of Winston Churchill, written by a well-known member of the House of Lords.  Its focus is political, but the other aspects of Churchill's remarkable life are not neglected.  I've read several other biographical works on Churchill, all focused on his World War II leadership; this one filled in many of the blanks for me. 

Second is a much shorter read: The Fall of Fortresses by Elmer Bendiner.  This is a classic work that I had never previously read.  It is by far the best depiction of the life of a bomber crew that I have ever seen.  Bendiner was a B-17 navigator who survived his 25 missions and came home in one piece.  Thirty-five years after the war, and after gaining a much wider perspective, he wrote this work that ranges from how the windows frosted up at high altitude to pondering the strategic wisdom of the bomber strategy.

Tea Party Sign-of-the-Day...

Reward for Information...

Ten days ago, Jonathan “Mikey” Ulmer, 21 years old, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver just across the street from Simpson's Nursery.  The family is now offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and prosecution (click to enlarge the family's flyer at right).

I find it shameful that a reward might prompt someone to come forward with information that they otherwise wouldn't have volunteered.  Nevertheless, I hope the family has success in bringing the hit-and-run driver to justice...

The Ninth Circus...

Those of us who live in the domain of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals have long called it the “Ninth Circus”.  The bozos and leftist idealogues that dominate this circuit have long been the jokes of our Federal judicial system.  Last year they set a record: 88% of all their cases that were appealed to the Supreme Court were reversed by those wiser folks.

Now the Ninth Circus has done it again, by upholding the certification of a ludicrous class action suit against Wal-Mart.  There will be an appeal, and hopefully the Supremes will take the appeal and will spank the Ninth Circus.  Again.

Sigh...

Flying Pig Moment...

It's not often that I discover something that Paul Krugman and I agree on.  Krugman is the Nobel prize-winning economist who has lately changed careers to be a leftist columnist for the New York Times, generally taking political positions that make Obama, Pelosi, and Reid seem like card-carrying conservatives. 

But this column of his is within an area he has actual expertise, and I think he's spot on when he points out that the credit ratings agencies (like Moody's and Standard & Poor's) deserve a healthy dollop of blame for the financial system meltdown of 2008/2009.  He quotes one statistic as evidence that the ratings agencies were deeply corrupt: 93% of all formerly AAA rated mortgage-backed securities are now rated as junk.  The securities haven't changed, only their rating.

Yup, that looks like a problem to me.  One of the few things I've seen that genuinely appear to need some regulatory reform...

Opening the Curtains...

Steve W. sends this along: how an engineer approaches the age-old problem of how to open the curtains...

Dog, Deer, Ball...

Via my mom: go see.

Climbing Diesels...

What's just like an American TV show (gorgeous-but-brainless women, excited-for-no-reason announcers, etc.) but has climbing construction equipment?  Why, a German documentary, of course:





There must be something in the beer over there.  Via my mom (how on earth does she find such things?)...

I'm sure my German friends are wondering at my wonder...

The End of the Post Office?

Via reader Simon M.:

Obama announces FedEx and UPS to take over postal service. New organization will be called FedUp.

Har!

The People's Truck...

Via reader Doug S.:

The “Dump Reid” truck.

Excellent!

More on Yamal...

More excellent analysis from Steve McIntyre...

Those Annoying Obami...

Put your hot morning beverage down. This is P. J. O'Rourke's leadin to A Plague of "A" Students:

Barack Obama is more irritating than the other nuisances on the left. Nancy Pelosi needs a session on the ducking stool, of course. But everyone with an ugly divorce has had a Nancy. She’s vexatious and expensive to get rid of, but it’s not like we give a damn about her. Harry Reid is going house-to-house selling nothing anybody wants. Slam the door on him and the neighbor’s Rottweiler will do the rest. And Barney Frank is self-punishing. Imagine being trapped inside Barney Frank.

Har!  Go read the whole thing.

Larry the Cable Guy...

Via my mom, who says that Larry the Cable Guy is setting the record straight:

Even after the recent Super Bowl victory of the New Orleans Saints, I have noticed a large number of people implying with bad jokes that Cajuns aren't smart. I would like to state for the record that I disagree with that assessment. Anybody that would build a city 5 ft.below sea level in a hurricane zone and fill it with Democrats is a damn genius.

They Folded Like a Bedouin Tent...

The inimitable Mark Steyn on some of the week's events...

Remember November...

Powerful political ad (already!?!) from the Republican Governors' Association:

On the Threats to the South Park Creators...

I'm with Jon Stewart on this one:

Rain...

We got 1.8 inches last Tuesday and Wednesday, and there's more in the long range forecast for next week.  Awesome!

Let Us Help You Pack...

Oh, yeah.  Via my mom...

Childbirth at 65...

Via my mom:

With all the new technology regarding fertility recently, a 65-year-old friend of mine was able to give birth. When she was discharged from the hospital and went home, I went to visit.

"May I see the new baby?" I asked.

"Not yet," she said... "I'll make coffee and we can visit for a while, first."

Thirty minutes had passed, and I asked, "May I see the new baby now?"

"No, not yet," she said.

After another few minutes had elapsed,

I asked again, "May I see the baby now?"

"No, not yet," replied my friend.

Growing very impatient, I asked,
"Well, when can I see the baby?"

"WHEN HE CRIES!" she told me.

"WHEN HE CRIES?" I demanded.
"Why do I have to wait until he CRIES?"

"BECAUSE I FORGOT WHERE I PUT HIM, O.K.?!!"

Psalm 2010...

Reader Richard F. forwarded this:

Obama is the shepherd I did not want.
He leadeth me beside the still factories.
He restoreth my faith in the Republican party.
He guideth me in the path of unemployment for his party's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the bread line,
I shall fear no hunger, for his bailouts are with me.
He has anointed my income with taxes,
My expenses runneth over.

Surely, poverty and hard living will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will live in a mortgaged home forever.
I am glad I am American,
I am glad that I am free.

But I wish I was a dog...
And Obama was a tree.

ClimateGate: Questionable Data...

Steve McIntyre, data detective...

Death by Puppies...

Think the Red Light Scameras Are Bad?

Get a load of this!

The User Conference is Over...

And to all those who wrote to ask about it: it went very well indeed.  Something like 50 people attended the “lab” that one of my colleagues and I put on (Advanced Discovery...).  Afterwards several of the attendees told us that they had gotten good benefit from it, which made us all feel useful.

This year's conference had a new feature: customers could make appointments with individual developers through a web site.  This worked out very well, as it gave us a way to find each other in the chaos of the conference.  Every meeting I had with a customer was useful to both the customer and I.

Great show - but I'm glad it's over!  Such things always tire me out, and so it was this time.  This morning we slept in a little bit (didn't get up until 5 am!), and today we are working outside in the beautiful weather of our California mountains... 

Perfect...

Today's Dilbert cartoon perfectly captures the way a non-technical boss can leave a technical subordinate totally without words...

Just When...

Just when you've accumulated enough experience in life to think that the human race has few surprises left to offer you...they surprise you again.

Offered without comment: Steven Ferrini's recent run-in with the cops.

On ClimateGate...

MIT Professor Richard Lindzen has an excellent piece on ClimateGate, its impact on science, and its message about science, in today's Wall Street Journal.  Go read.

First Light...

This is all over the news, but just in case you somehow missed it – NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has released its “first light” photos and movies.  They are simply spectacular.  A whole lot of excellent science is going to flow from this latest (relatively cheap) robotic explorer.  Unlike, say, the completely useless International Space Station (with the picture window that cost more than SDO)...

ClimateGate: Roundup (mini)...

Keenan finally gets his tree ring data.  I can hardly wait for his analysis...

Good CO2 and bad CO2 – volcano belching good, airplanes bad...

Travel is a “Human Right”?

When I first read about this, I thought it must be a poor attempt at parody.  But this appears to be for real – multiple conventional news sources are all reporting the same thing.  I guess if you've bought into socialism, then it's a logical extension (and probably a foreshadowing of things here in the U.S.).

Personally, I think it's just plain crazy.  I want out of this socialist spiral!

Hide the Decline II...

There's a backstory...

Tea Party Spirit at the Ballot Box...

In New Jersey, of all places.  If even the citizens of New Jersey (with the biggest citizen and business tax burdens in the country) can reject big-spending, big-government budgets ... I can only conclude that it's possible anywhere in America. 

Eyjafjallajökull...

Beautiful photo at Astronomy Picture of the Day (h/t to Clay M.)...

Two Golden Retrievers Found in Jamul...

Do you have two dogs that have gone missing?  Lyndsay from Steele Canyon Veterinary Clinic tells me that someone brought in two golden retrievers that were found running together in Jamul.  Call them at 619/669-7274...

In-A-Hurry Link Dump...

George Will likes the idea of a U.S. VAT, with certain conditions.  Ain't gonna happen...

Words matter, and I'm not the only one who doesn't much like his...

Our healthcare future, I'm afraid...unless we kill the bill!

Mark Steyn wishes you happy Zimbabwe Day...

Ice news...

Global warming, global wetting...

Anthony Watts finds a huge problem with METAR temperature data – most likely you won't be surprised to hear that the problem causes false reports of higher-than-actual temperatures...

18 Bazillion Are On Order...

Via my mom. 

The only problem I have with this idea is that you'd need quite a few urinals to hold the entire rogue's gallery that I'd like to piss on...

Encouraging...

Tech hiring is picking up...

Where Have All the Hackers Gone?

Interesting piece that's related to a plaint I make often: young programmers often (but certainly not always!) know relatively little about how computers actually work.  I keep getting surprised by how possible it is for such engineers to be very creative and productive – but every once in a while, the knowledge that was so essential as I began my career is still essential.  And becoming less and less commonly available, despite the vastly larger number of programmers these days than in the days of yore when I first met hexadecimal...

Light Blogging Warning...

There's likely to be little-to-no blogging here, from tomorrow through next week.  My company is putting on its annual user conference, and I'll be there presenting and meeting our customers.  This year's attendance is much higher than we anticipated, and the event is completely sold out.  Should be exciting!  And busy...

Steyn on Obama's “Nuclear Security Summit”...

Here's his intro:

In years to come – assuming, for the purposes of argument, there are any years to come – scholars will look back at President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit and marvel. For once, the cheap comparisons with 1930s appeasement barely suffice: To be sure, in 1933, the great powers were meeting in Geneva and holding utopian arms-control talks even as Hitler was taking office in Berlin. But it's difficult to imagine Neville Chamberlain in 1938 hosting a conference on the dangers of rearmament, and inviting America, France, Brazil, Liberia and Thailand … but not even mentioning Germany.

As always with the inimitable Mr. Steyn, read the whole thing...

Political Cartoons of the Day...

Obama Popularity Map...

Interesting map via Real Clear Politics in a post I linked to yesterday.  This map got me thinking, so I'm highlighting it here.  The dark blue states are where Obama has a +10% or more approval rating, the light blue a +5% or more, and so on down to the dark red where his rating is -10% or more.

Note first that the blue states are all those with our largest cities, the traditional strongholds of both Democrats and unions.  The dark red states are all completely unsurprising – exactly where you'd expect a (now proven) progressive to be disliked.

But there are a few surprises to me on this map, and I think this bodes very ill for the Democrats in November, barring some kind of miracle (like, say, a spectacular economic recovery).  Consider these states: Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Florida.  These are all states you'd expect to be gung-ho supporters of a progressive President – but they are not.  There are varied reasons for this per state, but overall it looks like Obama has managed to alienate an interesting percentage of even his base.  Great!

Combine this with the high level of energy on the anti-Obama side of the equation, and I'm starting to feel downright optimistic about November.  The past tells me I shouldn't be – there are just too many sheeple running around worrying about weighty matters like pink disco balls – but I just can't help it...

You'd Think They'd Be Saying “Thank You!”

So said Obama on Thursday, referring to Tea Party “tax day” protests.  First he claimed to have reduced taxes, next he mocks the citizens protesting (amongst other things) high taxes.

This really pissed me off.  Two main reasons: (1) his claim to have lowered taxes is a breathtaking lie, and (2) the President of the United States is mocking citizens of the United States for exercising their rights.

I'm not the only one who's upset about this: I'm in excellent company with Darleen, No Sheeples, Allahpundit, Krauthammer, Rush, and Scott Brown.

But Rush is right: November is coming...

Are you pissed off yet?

ClimateGate: Roundup...

The British Royal Statistical Society has come out with strong criticism of the math behind Michael Mann's infamous “hockey stick” graph.  The British press is all over the report; naturally, the American press is not.  The blogs are covering it, of course. 

Steve McIntyre (mentioned positively in the RSS report) proceeds with his usual calm but merciless examination of it.

Jean catches NASA's GISS data in direct conflict with the actual measured data.  Oops.  How's that linear interpolation thing working out for you, James Hansen?

An Optimistic Look at November...

Interesting analysis by a pollster...

Sad and Inspiring...

Many of you will instantly recognize the man at right, but some of my younger readers probably won't even recognize his name: Audie Murphy.  He was a Marine in World War II, and the most decorated American soldier in that conflict – a hero by any measure.

After the war, Audie earned a fortune in the movies – then squandered it all on wine, women, and gambling.  When he died in 1971, his widow inherited only a large debt.

I knew that story, both sad and inspiring, but didn't know the rest of the story – all inspiring – until I read about the death of his wife (at left) this week.  She spent the last 35 years taking care of wounded and sick soldiers at a VA hospital in Sepulveda. 

I'd say Audie married a woman above his rank...

Whether We Like It or Not...

Obama said this yesterday:

"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them."

My emphasis.

I suspect that remark was unintentionally revealing.  The man does not like it that America is a superpower, and especially that we are the only one still standing.

Personally, I think it's absolutely essential that America remain a superpower – and preferably the only one still standing.  I'd much prefer that America be the world's cop rather than, say, Iran, India, Israel, or (shudder) France...