Grasses...

One of the prominent members of the chaparral flora are various grasses, dozens of different species.  Many of these grow briefly in the spring, then go to seed and turn brown.  Entire mountainsides turn from green to brown early each summer, providing a classic California vista.  In large parts of the chaparral, the grasses grow in relatively small meadows, or along road cuts (or natural rocky breaks), etc.  While on our trip yesterday, we spotted several fine examples.  I've not even tried to identify these...

Chamise...

Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) is one of the most common plants in our local chaparral.  Most of the year it's basically an ugly looking pile of fragile dry sticks, and it burns like gasoline in our fires.  But briefly each spring it can actually be quite beautiful, I'll grudgingly admit.  This year the bloom is particularly profuse, presumably because of the normalish rains.  Here's some we saw on our trip yesterday.  I particularly like the dangling branches against the rock wall...

Monkey Flowers...

Yesterday Debbie and I did a little four-wheeling, down Boulder Creek Road and a side road we discovered a couple years ago.  The altitude varies from about 3000' to almost 5000' along these roads.  To our great surprise we found abundant wildflowers at every altitude – very unusual for this late in the year, especially at the lower elevations.  So far this year has been basically at the 100 year average for rainfall, but quite a bit cooler than average.  The combination of normal rainfall (instead of drought) and cooler temperatures must account for the late season.  But whatever the cause, we enjoyed the scenery! 

The photos here are of one of my favorite natives: Mimulus clevelandii, commonly known as monkey flower (supposedly the flower looks like a grinning monkey's head, but I don't see the resemblance).  We have several of these growing in our yard, but the ones we saw today at higher altitudes were much more beautiful.  As usual, click to enlarge...

Palo Verde Tree...

Our Palo Verde tree is exploding with bloom and new growth.  At the rate it's going, it's going to dominate our yard in about 7 weeks (or maybe a bit longer).  Click to enlarge...

Commercial of the Day...

Cheap Glasses...

I haven't tried Zenni Optical (yet) – it was referred to me by a friend-of-a-friend.  Their prices are amazingly low, especially for frames...

Quote of the Day...

Laurence Sunderland, to critics of his decision to allow his 16 year old daughter Abby Sunderland to attempt to sail around the world on her own:

I never questioned my decision in letting her go.  In this day and age we get overprotective with our children. If you want to look at statistics, look at how many teenagers die in cars every year. Should we let teenagers drive cars? I think it'd be silly if we didn't.

Now that's an American showing some some can-do, self-reliant attitude! 

Back Home...

Well, I made it back home (from Phoenix) last night.  At right is me in my rental car (picture taken by my colleague in our customer's parking lot). 

It was hot in Phoenix – at least on Wednesday and Thursday (as high as 108°F!).  On Friday, the weather report called for temperatures to plunge into the mid-90s – and by comparison, that did indeed feel quite cool...

Morning in the Chaparral, Moonless...

The sky was completely dark this morning on our 3:30 am walk; the moon had not yet risen.  The brightest things in the sky were Venus (on the western horizon) and the Milky Way (straight overhead).  Beautiful.

And this morning there was nary a coyote, dog, or turkey to be heard.  The only animal sounds I heard were a few crickets and one lonely-sounding peacock who squawked a few times.  That was it.

Our three field spaniels were nose-down, investigating the previous night's visitors.  At one point in our walk, all three of them wanted to go investigate a nearby pepper tree – a place where I've seen a bobcat lurking before.  They were annoyed that I wouldn't let them check it out.  Our border collie was up to his usual morning shenanigans: picking up pine cones, putting them by my feet, and waiting for me to kick them.  I think he would do that for approximately a year if I was willing to continue the game.

Somehow I suspect that my next two mornings in Phoenix won't be nearly as pleasant...

Cryptography in JavaScript...

Challenging objective: “build a secure, powerful, fast, small, easy-to-use, cross-browser library for cryptography in Javascript” – claimed met.

Light Blogging Alert...

I'm leaving this morning on a three-day business trip to Arizona, with limited access to the Internet and even more limited time.  I'll be back for the weekend, assuming I don't get arrested and deported (I'm not carrying proof of citizenship) ...

Gobar Gas...

Michael Yon has another excellent dispatch, this time not about war.  As usual, his article is well-researched and lavishly illustrated with his photos.  Go read.

Morning in the Chaparral...

Out with the dogs at 3:30 as usual.  The sky was clear and beautiful once again, with the Milky Way bright and straight overhead.  A quarter moon hung just over the mountains to our northwest, slightly orange.  Just to its right and a little higher, Venus shone, so bright and clear that I imagined I could actually see its disk.  The Big Dipper is now rotated at that hour so that the “dipper” almost sits on the horizon, right-side up.  Just a gorgeous evening sky in the high desert...

The dogs were unperturbed by the chorus of howling, yipping coyotes – there was a pack somewhere quite nearby.  I counted at least five individuals, but there were probably more.  I don't think they were more than 100 yards away from us, off to our west on the flanks of our neighbor's hill.  A dog kennel about a quarter mile north of us joined the coyotes, baying and howling.  It was quite a racket!  But all four of our dogs were just doing their thing, acting as if they didn't even hear all this noise...

In the midst of the canine cacophony, there was one discordant sound: a turkey, giving its occasional gobbling.  Worried, probably, as well he should be.  We have quite a few wild turkeys running around our valley, and I bet one of them would make a very nice meal for a pack of coyotes...

Unix Toolbox...

Nice collection of UNIX/Linux/BSD tools, organized and classified...

Spending More to Save More...

Only a liberal administration could publish this memo with a straight face: the Inspector General reports that the Census Bureau says it that it hired and trained more workers than it actually needed as a “cost savings measure” – and they were serious.  One hardly knows what to say, especially after reading all the details.

Oh, the country is in fine hands!

Are you pissed off yet?  Remember that feeling when you vote today.  Throw out the trash!!!

Political Orientation vs. Knowledge of Economics...

Interesting article by Daniel Klein over at the WSJ.  I'm not surprised at the results: libertarians and conservatives, on average, understand a lot more about basic economics than do progressives and liberals (just look at “Spending More to Save More” nearby)...

North Korea: Tourist Destination?

Well, that's what their tourist bureau thinks.  Here's their advertising video to tell you all about it:




My first reaction on viewing this: it reminded me of the grainy black-and-white movies I saw as kid, showing the Soviet's May Day “celebrations” in Moscow...

Best Campaign Pin Evah!

Via my mom:

Bernie Madoff Unleashed...

...and no conscience in sight...

Turkish Hypocrisy...

Victor Davis Hanson on Turkey's hypocrisy...

Could Obama be Hoping for a Republican Takeover in the House?

Fred Barnes outlines why this rumor circulating in Washington just might be true...

Laffer on Taxes...

Arthur Laffer has some grim prognostications on future taxes.  Gulp.  Just what I needed to read on a Monday morning...

Spirit Finds Carbonates...

The Spirit rover has found clear evidence of carbonate rocks on Mars.  Carbonate rocks form only in neutral or alkaline water, in conditions conducive to life-as-we-know-it.  Actually, Spirit recorded the evidence for the carbonate rocks way back in 2005 – but the evidence was recorded on a sensor that was covered in dust, and the dust distorted the readings.  Just recently scientists figured out how to remove the distortion computationally, and thereby found the carbonate rock's “signature”.  The same instrument has collected data for about six years, and the same computational technique means that much of that data can now be “cleaned up”, quite likely leading to other “new” discoveries with old data...

Want to Feel Better Everyday?

It's easy: spend time in nature.  This is one reason I choose to live out in the boonies – it makes me feel better...

Autochromes...

A fascinating online collection of very early (~1910) color photos, using a technique called “autochrome”...

Astrology or Science?

Nicola Scaffetta has posted an interesting paper over at Watts Up With That?  The paper presents a model for climate change that's driven mainly by a number of cyclical phenomena within the solar system.  Some of these phenomena (such as the distance between the sun and the earth) are not controversial; others are considered closer by many scientists to be closer astrology than to astronomy (such as spin-coupling between planets).  I don't fully understand the arguments about the controversial bits, and don't have time to dig into them today – but I'm intrigued by how closely his model backfits to measured data...

Iowahawk on Obama and the Leak...

Don't miss it.

Fun in the Chaparral...

Yesterday a colleague of mine (Aleck L., a software engineer) visited us.  He's a young guy (28) who has spent most of his life in a city environment, so there were lots of surprises for him out here in the country.  We had a great time watching him react to various things, such as the personalities and behaviors of our dogs (he spent a lot of time throwing things for Race) and the cats (he really liked Maka Lea's personality, and Halala Pala's magnificent tail), the birds on our feeders, hummingbirds buzzing him, etc., etc.  Debbie cooked a feast for us – shrimp, salmon, asparagus, green onions, and mushrooms on the grill, and an apple cobbler for dessert.  We were not hungry!

But the best part of all came near the end of the day, when we just casually mentioned to Aleck that we liked to go four-wheeling – something he'd never done.  This surprised him (he's often surprised by the things I like to do), and we asked him if he'd like to go with us sometime.  An emphatic yes.  So then it occurred to us that despite it being 4 pm, we could still make it out to Los Pinos that same day – so we asked if he'd like to go right now, and got another emphatic yes.

So we all piled into the old LandCruiser and took off for Los Pinos.  That trip was a whole series of new experiences for Aleck, and lots of fun for us to share them with him.  We were surprised at the abundant wildflowers at this late date – we saw several beautiful types that we didn't recognize, plus larkspurs, a lupine that was new to us, huge quantities of penstemmon, and some of the nicest Indian Paintbrush we've seen in San Diego County.

At several points along the Corte Madera road, Aleck broke out his iPhone and took short videos of us traversing some parts of the road that looked challenging to him.  That particular road gets more challenging as you go, so we kept running into spots that topped anything he'd seen before – and out came the iPhone again.  We all had a grand time, but we didn't get back home until around 9 pm.  That's late for us, but Aleck said it was plenty of time for him to go to “his next party” – and I do believe that's exactly what he did.  Debbie and I went to bed ...

We Con the World...

Sums it up pretty nicely...

Watts Roundup...

In the space of just 24 hours, Watts Up With That? posts about how the Pacific Islands aren't really sinking, the arctic ice isn't really disappearing, and astronaut Harrison Schmitt bridles at the comparison between Apollo 13 and the BP response.

Who Knew?

Steve McIntyre:

Did any of you know that the US supposedly has a National Contingency Plan for dealing with very large oil spills? And that EPA has legal responsibility for maintaining readiness for such an eventuality? Who knew? I’ve watched hours of coverage and this hasn’t been mentioned anywhere.

Read all about it.

Bayes' Theorum, Visualized...

Here.

How to Plug the Oil Leak in the Gulf...

Via my mom...

Yikes!

In Guatemala City...

Of Course, the Press Is Completely Unbiased!

Via my mom:

A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC when he sees a little girl leaning in too close to the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by her jacket collar and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back, letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter, addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this was the bravest and most gallant act I've seen a man do in my whole life!'

The Harley rider replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really - the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little girl in danger and acted as I felt I should.'

The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page...
So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?'

The biker replies, 'I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.'

The journalist leaves.
The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page as promised:
________________________________________________________________
U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH
________________________________________________________________

That pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these days!!!

Manning Predicts Revolution in America...

I've posted one of this guy's rants before, and I have the same reaction this time that I did then.

Via my mom, Dr. James David Manning ranting preaching about white revolution in America:

Awesome Quadrotors...

Via reader Doug S.:

Hearing for the First Time...

Lawyers Cause Problems...

I can't believe we're even having a discussion about lawyers on the battlefield, much less actually giving them operational control over weaponry.  We're morphing into Euroweenies faster than I thought, I guess. 

But at least someone had the good sense to take the keys to the UAVs away from the lawyers...

Another One Bites the Dust...

Sheik Sa'id al-Masri, Al Qaeda's third in command, has died from the complications of old age, mental illness, and American-supplied high explosives (but mostly from Amercian-supplied high explosives).

Excellent...

What Every Programmer Should Know About Memory...

Excellent article...

Cartoon of the Day...

A New Personal Project...

Because I just don't have enough things going on in my life!  I'm going to learn Scala.  This is what motivated me.  Here are some resources...

Phobos is Hollow?

Apparently there's some data from at least two of the spacecraft orbiting Mars that indicates that about 1/3 of the volume of Phobos is empty.  I haven't been able to locate the original reports of this.  For all I know, this simply means that Phobos is really just a loose collection of boulders with lots of empty space between them – or possibly even the conclusions about the data are misrepresented. 

But whatever the data and conclusions are, the tin-foil hat brigade is already at it...

Extended Solar Minimum...

Even the mainstream scientific press is starting to talk about the very odd, extended solar minimum we're experiencing.  Next thing you know, they'll start wondering about its impact on climate!

Mickey Kaus vs. “The Box”

Mickey Kaus is running his “Long-shot, bare-bones, grassroots, maverick, seat-of-the pants or independent, but not symbolic, or quixotic” campaign against Barbara Boxer.  I like the cardboard box on the podium!

Memorial Day Message...

From Ted Nugent:

Never forget them. Make every day Memorial Day.

What he said.

The Sarah Palin Homunculus that Lives Inside Liberals' Heads...

IowaHawk is at it again.  WARNING: put your drink down before reading...

Arctic Ice News...

It's Arctic Ice week, or at least it seems like it over at Watts Up With That?

Volcanic Smoke Ring...

Steve and Donna O'Meara captured this photo of a smoke ring shooting out of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano on May 1, on Iceland.  Anthony Watts estimates its diameter at 1 to 2 kilometers (about a mile).  Awesome!

Quote of the Day...

From Escort81 (at TigerHawk), upon seeing this bumper sticker on a Prius:

If you've lost the Whole Foods-shopping Prius-driving voter, you've lost liberal America, and you're in trouble with your base.

Don't miss the comments...

Miracle of the Little Ships...

Seventy years ago this week, a ragtag, hastily-organized flotilla of some 850 little ships – mostly civilian – crossed the English Channel to Dunkirk to rescue over 300,000 British and French troops under siege from the Nazis.  Through a combination of excellent adaptive leadership, enthusiastic civilian participation (at great risk to both the sailors and their boats), numerous tactical errors and poor leadership on the part of the Nazis, and pure blind luck, they pulled off one of the most amazing wartime feats ever. 

This week, more than 50 of the remaining “little ships” are making a commemorative crossing from Dover to Dunkirk.  The last such crossing was in 1990, on the 50th anniversary...

Good Bosses Believe...

According to Robert Sutton, good bosses believe twelve things.  Lots of ground truth here, I think...

More Dogs...

Here are the promised videos...

Dogs...

Now comes the important part of our trip: the dogs!  Racer and Miki had the time of their lives yesterday.  After the long drive from home to Mt. San Jacinto, they were visibly surprised to find that when they got out of the truck they were in a doggie wonderland.  Lots of space to run around in!  Lots of new smells!  Lots of things to play with – especially pine cones.  Racer has a thing for pine cones; they are by far his favorite toy.  Then there was the stream – oh what fun to run and splash in it!  After a couple of hours of running around like crazy, they crashed on the drive home, sleeping like logs...

Here are some photos from the day; videos will follow:

Streams...

Mt. San Jacinto is a very dry mountain, especially on the eastern flanks.  We spent the day on the north side, which isn't quite a desert environment but doesn't look so very far from it.  The soil is mainly decomposed granite and sand, with very little organic material – so the drainage is practically perfect.  The result is powder-dry soil, lots of dust, and almost no running water.  Except, that is, while the snow pack is still melting – and it was melting while we were there yesterday.  So we had some running water – little rivulets to small streams.  We found one very near the end of Black Mountain Road that was a delight both for us (visually) and for the dogs (much more viscerally).  Some scenes from that stream:

Snow Plant...

Here's one of the stranger members of the flora in the area: the snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea), a parasitic plant.  My father and I saw lots of these in the Mt. Lassen area a few years ago, and I saw them many times when hiking around Mt. San Jacinto in the 1970s.  I haven't often seen them in the act of emerging, though...

Scenery...

All along Black Mountain Road, one is treated to beautiful vistas.  To the northwest, on a clear day (like yesterday), you can see Mt. Baldy some 65 miles away.  Just 20 miles to the north is San Gorgonio peak.  Both of these were snowcapped, as was the upper elevations of Mt. San Jacinto visible to our south.  We hit just a bit of snow, in shaded areas above about 7,500 feet.  Here are some of the scenes that caught our eye:

Indian Paintbrush...

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja) wasn't very plentiful, but the few specimens we saw were beautiful – a deeper, purer red than we normally see around home...

Flowers...

Some minature wildflowers that occurred in the lower elevations in sandy flats along the road.  The purple patches were visible from a long distance, but the tiny, sparse little white blossoms were almost invisible until you were upon them...

Manzanita...

One of the delights all along Black Mountain Road are the manzanita.  With all the water this year, most of them are loaded with bloom.  Depending on our altitude (this varied quite a bit over the course of the day), we caught them anywhere from just beginning to bud to absolutely bursting with bloom.  The species found on Mt. San Jacinto are different than the ones we have, just 150 miles south (but much lower altitude).  The species I photographed all day long was my favorite, with bright red or pink flowers than any of our four species have.

Grasshopper...

I've no idea what kind of grasshopper this is, but it was abundant all along the lower reaches of Black Mountain Road...

A Mini-Vacation...

Yesterday Debbie and I took two of our dogs (Miki and Racer) on a one-day vacation: a trip to Mt. San Jacinto, about 150 miles north of our home.  We spent most of our time up there on a leisurely drive along Black Mountain Road, with frequent stops for short walks and explorations.  We finished our day with dinner at the Gastrognome in Idyllwild, long one of our favorite restaurants.

The next few posts contain photos from our trip...

Why Can't They See?

My mom sent along the photo at right as one in a collection of absurdities.  It nicely illustrates the paradox that many before me have pointed out: if psychics can predict the future, then why can't they (a) forsee circumstances such as the one at right, (b) get rich by forseeing stock price movements or real estate values, (c) avoid accidental trauma themselves or their loved ones, (d) etc., etc.?

The few times in investigational writings when I've seen such questions raised, the replies of the psychics are such obvious claptrap that one would think nobody would buy their story.  Yet billions of people around the world persist in believing this sort of magical thinking, in the face of such abundant contrary evidence.  Why can't they see the truth in front of their faces?

The Hell You Say...

Via my mom:

George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell. While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.

Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes. When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a check.

Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes. When she is finished the devil informs her that the cost is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a check.

Finally George Bush gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is $5.00.

When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Bush got to call the USA so cheaply.

The devil smiles and replies: "Since Obama took over, the country has gone to hell, so it's a local call."

Depending on your frame of mind when you read this, it can be either comic or tragic...

Lessons Learned from 13 Failed Software Ventures...

Often there's more to learn from failure than from success.  I've learned more than many have ...

Attitude in Programming...

Jonathan Edwards has an interesting post about the importance – the primacy, really – of attitude in programming.  The basic message is that when there's a choice between simple, readily digestible way to do something and a more complex but also more elegant or beautiful (to a sophisticated or accomplished programmer), then choose the simple way every time.  Making those choices for the simple means the overall piece of software will be less complex, more bug-free, more easily modified, etc. 

I couldn't agree more, but I don't the picture is quite as clear as he paints it (and I suspect Edwards would agree).  For example, one of the tensions in making such choices lies with deciding exactly what is simple and clear.  I had an experience a couple of years ago that illustrates this.  I'd written a small piece of code (in Java) that made use of the exclusive-or operator (“^”).  To me, that was obvious, simple, and clear – and obviously simpler than the alternative.  But my colleagues disagreed, because they didn't know that operator.  To them, writing (a && !b) || (!a && b) was simpler and clearer than a ^ b (where a and b are boolean values) which was a huge surprise for me!  I eventually settled on the code a != b, which satisfied both of us.  The point is that it's not always easy to decide exactly what constitutes simple and digestible – but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be your goal...

Quote of the Day...

From an excellent piece by Peggy Noonan, who seems to be seeing clearly once again:

But Mr. Obama was supposed to be competent.

Full Moon, Round Two...

Walking the dogs at 3:30 am again, but this morning the moon is a bit higher in the sky, and much brighter than yesterday.  My walk was in the moon-shadows of the pines along our driveway, but from there I could see the entire eastern end of Lawson Valley all lit up with the moonlight.  It was bright enough to see some colors; the hills were distinctly brown and green, and the native grasses on our hillside that have gone to seed were waving their reddish-beige heads in the gentle morning breeze.  A little desert scent wafted in on that breeze; not much compared with a month ago, but still enough for anyone who knows the chaparral to recognize.

The dogs, as usual, couldn't care less about the beauty around us.  As I got near our gate, all four were nose-down, intent on absorbing the essence of some night-time visitor.  But then a surprise!  A rabbit suddenly bolted from about 4 feet away – and of course all four dogs immediately lunged after it just as hard as they could.  This overwhelmed my ability to hold them back, as the force vectors on the leashes were all pointed the same exact direction  – across the bottom of our yard.  So off we went, four dogs followed by an ancient software engineer, trying my best to stop them, or at least slow down their breakneck pace.

Somehow I managed to stay upright.  The rabbit disappeared under our fence about 150 feet from our driveway, and the dogs stopped.  They seemed surprised that I was still behind them, and I was a bit surprised myself.  They resumed their random walking, the force vectors on my leash hand once again largely canceled out, and I was able to drag the four dogs back toward the house and my morning tea...

AGW Loses at the Premier Formal Debate...

Lord Monckton (a well-known advocate for AGW skepticism) represented the “pro” side in a debate for this motion put before the Oxford Union Society:

That this House would put economic growth before combating climate change.

In that somewhat detached world of formal debate, this provoked a gasp heard 'round the world, as Lord Monckton was supposed to lose. Big.  Instead, he won, 135 to 110.

AGW skepticism (or even better, a more generally skeptic view) seems to be taking root even amongst the young, idealistic, credulous kids at school...

Would Global Warming Really Be All Bad?

Interesting piece over at Watts Up With That?...

There's a Reason Why Farmers are Smarter...

But it just may be a different reason than you imagined...

Full Moon Morning...

Out at 3:30 am to walk the dogs, and there was a nearly full moon hanging just above the horizon to our southwest.  It cast enough light for me to walk easily without a flashligh.  Our local horizon is comprised of mountains, and from our driveway the moon was hanging at the bottom of a deep “notch” in the horizon, with a mountain to either side of it.  Simply beautiful.

The four dogs, of course, couldn't have cared less about the beautiful moon.  As usual, they were noses-down, checking out who visited our yard last night.  I'm sure that if they could only talk they'd be able to give me a detailed list...

Corruption...

My friends hear me say that corruption pervades our politics, and many of them react by giving knowing looks “I knew that guy was crazy!” or by asking me to explain such an irrational comment.  I've tried to explain, but I've never managed to do so quite as well as this.

That, folks, is what I'm talking about when I say that we're all paying for pervasive corruption.  That's what scares me so much about having the government run my healthcare.  And that's what we need to blow up somehow if we really want to change the way politics works...

Desert Morning...

Yesterday morning was a desert morning to remember.  Despite being almost June, the temperature was 34°F when I went out for my 3:30 am walk with our dogs.  There was no moon in the sky, and when I first went outside I could see only the very brightest stars.  Within a few minutes, though, I could see many thousands of them – along with one of the brightest displays of the Milky Way I have ever seen.  I walked a little further than I usually do, down past our gate, just to get a clear view to the southeast, where the Milky Way descended into the horizon.  It was simply stunning – arcing from the southeast straight overhead into the north.  Details of shape and texture that I'd never seen before leapt out at me as my eyes continued accommodating to the darkness.  Beautiful!

The dogs, of course, couldn't possibly care less about the Milky Way.  As I stumbled along with my face toward the sky, they were noses-down, deciphering all the visitors to our yard last night.  All four were on leashes, and as they wandered about me, randomly, they tied their leashes into a very impressive knot.  At one point, a sound off to our right caught their attention, and all four simultaneously lunged off in that direction.  Four dogs pulling in the same direction is right at the limit in terms of my being able to stand upright.  They dragged me off our driveway about 20 feet into our yard, until their attentions were grabbed by something else.  When they're each doing their own thing, the vector sum of the forces they impose on my arm isn't very large (lots of cancelation!), so they're easy to control.  But when they all decide to go the same way, I'm in trouble...

I finally got them back to the driveway, and (carefully) resumed my skygazing.  It made me remember Jim Lovell in Apollo 8, describing how bright and beautiful the Milky Way was as they were halfway between the Earth and the moon.  I'd like to see that...

Sun Drives Climate?

For years now, skeptics of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have been pointing out the abundant evidence for a linkage between solar output and Earth's climate.  For the most part these are observed correllations, not causual observations – but (as many skeptics have pointed out) even an observed correllation is far more interesting evidence than the output of a rather primitive computer model (what the AGW proponents rely on).

So it was with special interest that I read this newspaper article asserting that (a) solar scientists have been skeptical-but-silent about AGW from the beginning, and that (b) ClimateGate or something in the water seems to have released the solar scientists from their vow of silence, and they are increasingly assertive in their claims that solar cycles drive Earth's climate.  Yes, I know it's a Canadian newspaper.  Yes, I know that makes it suspect, on political and moral grounds.  But still...

Advanced Programming Languages...

Matt Might has a nice brief introduction to some of the more popular “advanced” programming languages.  Several of these look quite interesting to me (like Scala) – if I ever get a free week or two, I'd love to check some of them out...

Software Testing...

Interesting piece on the value (or not) of unit testing – from, of all places, MSDN.