White Cables...

Along the way home from checking out the fire yesterday, I got thirsty – so I stopped in a Starbucks in El Cajon to grab a cup of iced tea (they have some very good plain old iced tea, and not too expensive).  I got in line behind about four people, and right in front of me two guys in suits were having a discussion about their computers.  Both looked quite prosperous and successful, and appeared to be in their late 30s or early 40s.  I've no idea what their names are, so I'll call them Joe and Larry.  Here's my reconstruction of their conversation when it started to get interesting...

Joe: I love my Macbook!  All the noise I got with my old Thinkpad is gone!

Larry: You mean your old one had noisy fans or something?

Joe: No, the sound was noisy.  The Apple guys said it was because the audio cables were black?

Larry: Black cables? Why would that make a difference to the sound?

Joe: The Apple guys said their white cables reflected noise, while the black cables absorbed it.  All I know is that now when I play my iPod, the sound is great!  They must have been right.  White cables rule!

Larry: I'd never have thought the color would make any difference...

(at this point, I couldn't resist jumping in)

Me: You're right - cable color doesn't make any difference to their performance.  It could be the Apple cables have better shielding internally, or it could just be that the Macbook's speakers are better.

Joe: (very defensive, and immediately angry)  How do you know?  What are you, a digital engineer or something (in a sneering tone)?

Me: (sarcastically) No, but I'm a 17th level centrifugan.

Larry: Whoa! (and looking very impressed)

Joe: (suddenly interested) You guys study these things?

Me: (after a pause in which I despair for mankind's future) What do you guys do?

Joe: I'm a lawyer - corporate law; I work for [a local biotech firm].

Larry: Combustion engineering, over at [local gas turbine manufacturer].

Me: One large iced tea, please.  (and I make my escape)

You just never know what you're going to run into in El Cajon.  My iced tea was very good.  I spent the remaining half hour drive home contemplating white cables, silly corporate lawyers, and credulous combustion engineers.  And wondering if I should start the cult of centrifugans...might be some money to be made there.  Leastways, out toward El Cajon...

Depressing Video of the Day...

Here's a movie showing the unemployment rate (as reported by the government) by county, over the period starting just before the current recession up to today.  I recommend having a good dose of alcohol nearby before viewing...

Scott Adams in the WSJ...

With a very informative (and funny, of course!) piece on green houses.  Here's a teaser:

If your local building code doesn't already require a radiant barrier—a type of insulator for the roof—then look into it. I'm told that should be on the top of your list, at least for warm climates. This would be a good time to point out that nothing you learn about green building materials will be supported by relevant data that is in the proper context for your particular home. But the rest of your life is probably a mess too, so you'll get used to it fast.

But go read the whole thing.

Concatenative Language...

No, I'd never heard of a concatenative language before, either.  But I've used one (Forth) without knowing it.  I used Forth many moons ago, and though I haven't touched it for at least 25 years, I remember it as being fun, unexpectedly powerful (considering the alternative was assembly language), amazingly portable (there were Forth interpreters on every microcomputer I was working with back then, something like a dozen different instruction sets).

I just ran into a little blurb on Factor, a much more modern concatenative language.  I haven't used it, just read about it a bit.  It's stack-oriented, much like Forth is (yes, Forth is still around!).  But it's got all sorts of interesting features that Forth doesn't...

Oh, This is SO Confusing!

Google's unemployment index has done it again.  Confusalated me, that is.  What the hell does the recent jump and fall mean?  I have no idea.  The most recent unemployment numbers from the government roughly correspond with the peak of two weeks ago, but those government numbers are completely bogus, having been rather arbitrarily adjusted.  Something I would really like to see is a simple chart showing (number of people working in the U.S.) / (number of adults in the U.S.) over time – but I have been unable to locate this data.  Instead, the government apparently thinks we're all mushrooms (they keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit)...

Hoag's Object...

Gorgeous, isn't it (click to enlarge)?  Via APOD, of course...

Roof Update: It's All Good...

No photos today, but Friday and yesterday Chris and the boys were here and working hard.  The result: about a third of our roof is now covered with bright red metal!  Five of the twelve dormer vents are installed, and over half the “penetrations” (exhaust vents, antennae, etc.) are done.  They're making great progress!

Saturday afternoon, driving home from the fire scouting trip I blogged about below, I noted that our bright red roof is very visible from a mile or so away as you drive toward our house.  It looks quite nice, constrasting with the green trees around it.  When I fly out of San Diego (as I am in mid-September, on a trip to England), it should be very easy to pick out our house – there are no other red roofs for miles around...

Fire in Lakeside...

We had a bit of a scare yesterday.  First Debbie spotted a plume to our northwest that looked like smoke (sometimes it's hard to distinguish between clouds and smoke; the color can be quite similar).  Shortly after that our Internet connection went down (it works by a radio link to Alpine, 18 miles to our north).  I called our Internet provider, and he wasn't sure what the cause was, but his three valley networks centered on Alpine were all down.  He'd heard that the fire was in the Harbison Canyon or Crest area – and that was very worrying to us, as those communities are actually quite close to us, in precisely the direction that smoke was coming from.  The news outlets (as usual) were useless, so I jumped into my truck to go take a look.

As I drove up Skyline Truck Trail, just before topping the hill that leads down to the town of Jamul, I got a view of Cajon Mountain in the distance. It was clearly burning, with smoke trails originating at various points on its south face (the side toward me).  This was a bit of a relief to me, as Cajon Mountain is much further away from us than Crest and Harbison Canyon.  Also comforting were the first news reports, which started coming in right around the same time.  They placed the fire in the area of El Monte Road, just south of Cajon Mountain.

I drove on through Harbison Canyon (no sign of fire there!) and up to Interstate 8.  Then I drove west on 8, grabbing the two photos with my cell phone and scoping out where the fire was.  I could see aircraft on the fire, and engine companies on the ground (news reports said over 20 companies were on the job), so it looked like the fire response was terrific.  This is so, so good for us to see after the debacle we lived through in 2007.  The map at right (also online) is my rough eyeball estimate of the fire's location.  I could be off by the proverbial country mile, so don't take it as anything other than an estimate, please. 

By this morning's early light we can see no smoke coming from Cajon Mountain.  There are no updates to the news reports from yesterday, which variously claim that between 2,000 and 3,000 acres burned.  Some people (including two climbers) were rescued by helicopter, but so far as I can tell nobody was hurt and no structures were damaged. 

One thing that's a little disconcerting for us chaparralies: Cajon Mountain completely burned over in 2007.  Here we are, just under three years later, and there's already enough fuel there to sustain another wildfire.  Sheesh!

The Roof: It's Going Well!

Chris and his boys were working hard all day yesterday, and there's much progress to report.  The west end of our house (one of the narrow sides) is complete, and they're now working eastward on both the north and the south (long) sides.  By eyeball I'd say they've now “skinned” about 15% of the total roof area.  Included in this are several items that required extra work: two dormer vents, our satellite TV antenna, and the exhaust for our house heater.  Most of the rest of the roof is not so crowded with items like this, so those areas shouldn't take quite so long.

It's been interesting for me to see exactly how this work is done.  A surprising amount of hand-crafting on the spot is required.  The roofers frequently cut and form small pieces of heavy-gauge sheet metal to create custom fasteners, connectors, and adapters for all sorts of things they run into.  In this respect it reminds me of what typically happens when carpenters and framers go to work on a house – they start with standard raw materials (2 x 4s, 2 x 6s, etc.) and cut and form them to make a house.  The roofers start with formed panels and unformed sheets of the Kynar-coated steel roofing, and cut and form them to make a roof.  It's most definitely not like putting Legos together...

There's a Lot of Energy...

...in a bullet:

Some People...

...are very, very serious about their yo-yos:

Everything Old is New Again...

A new computer chip implements Bayesian logic with analog circuits, but still has a conventional digital computer “surrounding” the Bayesian logic components.  In other words, it's a digital computer with an analog computer “accelerator” built right into it.  The claim is that it reduces circuit power and complexity to achieve any given computational performance.

About a million years ago, when I first started learning about computers, I played with some electronic analog computers in the lab.  These were implemented with (primitive) operational amplifiers and simple electronic circuitry.  Later, when I was stationed on a ship, I was called in a few times to help troubleshoot an actual, production analog computer: the guidance computer for the Terrier anti-air missile system.  This beast of a computer was electro-mechanical: it used synchros, gears, cams, etc. to do some very complex computations in real time.

These old analog computers were cantankerous and prone to unobvious calculation errors.  We thought of digital computers as better in every respect.

So it feels kind of weird to see them being proclaimed as the next great thing!

Raising Hell...

Well, raising a WWII Helldiver, actually – today, from Otay Lake.  It was ditched there in 1945, and it's believed to be the only one in existence...

Beautiful, Geeky Video...

This is really cool – a space shuttle launch (complete with audio) from the perspective of one of the solid fuel boosters strapped to the sides of the fuel tank.  The first couple minutes of this there isn't much happening, as the camera is staring at the fuel tank – but the sound tells you what's going on, and you can see changes to the tank's surface (water and ice) as the shuttle rises.  Then the boosters break away and the real show begins.  Enjoy!

The Roof Project: Panels and Roof - Oh My!

Chris and his boys were here bright and early this morning, guiding the delivery of our roofing panels.  The truck they came on was a 45' tractor-trailer, and it couldn't make it around the corners and up the hills to our house.  The driver parked over a quarter mile away, and hauled five bundles of metal panels up, one at a time, with a three-wheeled (and amazingly maneuverable) forklift.  All arrived without incident.  Whew!

Then the roofers went right to work.  By the time they knocked off work tonight, they had finished more than half of one end of our house, including one of the dormer vents and our gas furnace vent.  It looks great!

Today was one of the hottest days we've had this summer – it hit 96°F, with the humidity as high as 28% (it got drier as the day progressed).  Chris and his two boys were just covered in sweat, from working on a hot roof in direct sunlight all day.  I know I wouldn't survive something like that – yikes!

Here are a few more snaps of the work they did during the day today...

Warning Labels...

Oh, yes.  If only the lamestream media really did use these warning labels...

Makes me wonder how hard it would be to do something like this automatically on the web.  For instance, one could imagine a plugin for Firefox that looked on the web to see if there were blog posts related to a news story you were reading, and warn you if the content were disputed.  Or something that tried to find Snopes articles related to what you were reading about.  Hmmm...

When Soldiers Come Home...

Get the kleenex before clicking on “play”...

The Roof Project: We've Got Dormers!

Chris (our roofing contractor) and the boys came by yesterday and started mounting the dormer vents.  They were worried about the rain, and we thought they'd decided not to put them up – but when I came home from work, there were 7 (of 12) dormer vents, installed!

Progress...

The Pope and Nancy Pelosi...

Not what you're thinking.  Put your morning beverage down before reading further.  Via my mom:

The Pope and Nancy Pelosi are on the same stage in Yankee Stadium in front of a huge crowd.

The Pope leans towards Mrs. Pelosi and said, "Do you know that with one little wave of my hand I can make every person in this crowd go wild with joy? This joy will not be a momentary display, but will go deep into their hearts and they'll forever speak of this day and rejoice!"

Pelosi replied, "I seriously doubt that with one little wave of your hand? Show me!"

So the Pope backhanded the bitch...

...and the crowd went wild!

Tell me the truth: wouldn't you pay good money to see this? And wouldn't you forever speak of that day and rejoice?

Uncle Sam, VC...

Why centralized big government is bad, the venture capital edition...

Tea Party Thoughts...

Dick Armey and Matt Kibbe have an interesting piece in today's WSJ.  This caught my eye:

While the tea party is not a formal political party, local networks across the nation have moved beyond protests and turned to more practical matters of political accountability. Already, particularly in Republican primaries, fed-up Americans are turning out at the polls to vote out the big spenders. They are supporting candidates who have signed the Contract From America, a statement of policy principles generated online by hundreds of thousands of grass-roots activists.

Published in April, the Contract amounts to a tea party "seal of approval." It demands fiscal policies that limit government, restrain spending, promote market reforms in health care—and oppose ObamaCare, tax hikes and cap-and-trade restrictions that will kill job creation and stunt economic growth. Candidates who have signed the Contract—including Marco Rubio in Florida, Mike Lee in Utah and Tim Scott in South Carolina—have defeated Republican big spenders in primary elections all across the nation.

I'm not the first to observe this: the Tea Party, taken as a whole, seems to be animated by a mixture of libertarian and conservative philosophy, perhaps leaning toward the latter.  Some things about it remind me strongly of Heinlein's libertarian manifesto The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  It's going to be quite interesting to see how much the Tea Party does (or doesn't) influence November's results...

Wrinkly Moon...

Cassini, the robot explorer that has been orbiting Saturn now since December 2004, is still going strong.  It's most recent accomplishment was a close flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus.  On this flyby it was looking closely at the “tiger stripes” where jets of water are erupting from the surface.  In the raw photo at right, you can see the “wrinkles” on Enceladus' icy surface.

The annual cost of the Cassini mission (which has done real science in orbit around Saturn for nearly six years) is less than the cost of the ammonia pumps on the ISS (which does absolutely nothing for science except suck money into a black hole).

Just sayin'...

Cool Technology Animations...

I want to see more like these...

Is This the Kind of America We Want?

Paul Hsieh asks.

Ground Zero Mosque...

Several readers have written me, wondering why I'm not weighing in on this.  Basically it's because I have little to contribute to the discussion – it seems pretty clear to me.  The WSJ has an editorial today that's very close to my position, which I can sum up like this:

1. The developer (Feisal Abdul Rauf) has every legal right to develop the property that he owns, so long as he obeys all the relevant regulation.  From everything that I've read, Cordoba House would obey all existing regulations.
   
   
2. Developing that mosque right next to 9/11 Ground Zero would be a very insensitive and obnoxious thing to do.  We're still free to do that in America, though in the name of political correctness those rights are eroding every day.  As others have often pointed out, freedom of speech (which placing the mosque at Ground Zero is a form of) implies that you're going to offend someone – otherwise it wouldn't need to be protected at all.

So while I really hate the idea of that mosque going up, even more I hate the idea of the government curtailing our freedoms.

And I think Gret Gutfield has the right idea.  Now that's an American idea for dealing with the issue!

On That Oracle vs. Google Suit...

Lots of information from someone who appears to be unusually well-informed about the subject...

Best Card Trick Evah!

I'm pretty sure it's the best I've ever seen...

If You Can Type, You Can Make a Movie...

That's the promise of this site.  Haven't tried it myself yet...

ClimateGate: New Study on Temperature Proxies...

...and it says, basically, they're BS.  See here and here for analysis; the study itself is here (PDF).

Now if we could only get governments to stop behaving as though the science were settled...

John Cleese on Creativity...

Interesting talk:

Where Does Everybody Live?

This surprised me.  Click to enlarge, and study it for a little while – I'll bet you'll find some surprises too...

Get Paid to Start a Company!

Check it out.

Chaparral Morning...

This morning's dog walk marks the first time this summer that I've been able to see my old friend Orion in the early morning.  Head, shoulders, and belt were all clearly visible above the northeast horizon.

Orion is the first constellation I learned to recognize, and it's still the one I can spot most easily (probably because the belt is so easy to spot).  For the next 4 or 5 months, he will be prominent in our early morning sky...

Update: the New Roof...

Here's a snapshot of the fascia and soffits going up on our house.  The drip edge that sticks out a little isn't quite finished yet – there are gutters going underneath that before it's all done.  I don't have any “before” photos, but trust me – this is far more attractive than the old fascia-and-rafters.

At left is a close-up of one of the grills in the soffits.  These are spaced quite closely together (about three feet), much closer together than the now-hidden vents under the eaves.  They're made by a combination of punching and stamping, exposing small slots along side each punched area – too small for embers to get in, and very strong.  Because there are so many of these grills, we're expecting that there will be no significant restriction in the airflow.  When our roof is hot, the warm air in the attic will rise and flow out of the dormer vents (yet to be installed), and relatively cool air will flow in through these grills (and the pre-existing under-the-eaves vents).  This should produce much more airflow than our old roof, and will hopefully keep the temperatures down below the typical 170°F we've seen in the attic during the summer...

History of the World...

The condensed version, via reader Jim M.:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1 . Liberals
2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to BBQ at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement...

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly BBQ's and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. They became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass for obvious reasons.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher also bat.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud or Miller. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, engineers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America . They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

Here ends today's lesson in world history:

It should be noted that a Liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it.

A Conservative will simply laugh and be so convinced of the absolute truth of this history that it will be forwarded immediately to other true believers and to more liberals just to piss them off.

Scariest Chart Gets Scarier...

I've posted this chart several times before.  Now that the census jobs have all basically disappeared, you can see that (measured by job loss) this recession is muddling along at the bottom with no obvious recovery in progress.

Trillions of dollars stolen from the tax payers of future generations (to pay back the loans), and absolutely nothing to show for it.  That's your government at work, folks.  Somebody is getting rich on our backs, and it ain't me.

Are you pissed off yet?  Remember this in November.  I'm gonna vote for anyone who supports radical reforms, especially radical reductions in government spending...

A Doggy Morning...

For the last couple of nights, I've been a bachelor again – Debbie is 70 miles away, taking care of a friend who's recovering from knee surgery (and doing fine).  So it's been just me, our four dogs, and seven cats...

Last night, one of our dogs (Mo'i) slept in the living room so he'd be close to the door that Debbie would return through.  Another (Lea) is getting old, so she slept in her own little bed at the foot of ours.  The other two (Miki and Race) hopped up on the bed with me, and we all snored together.

The alarm clock was off for this morning – after a long, tiring week I was looking forward to sleeping at least a little later than usual.  My first memory of this morning is of my hand somehow being immersed in water, and someone was washing it with a washcloth.  I opened my eyes.  Race was watching me with a mischievous twinkle in his eye as he slowly licked my hand.  As soon as he figured out I was awake, he instantly went into “play mode” – gently nipping my nose or my hand, and waiting eagerly for my retaliation.  We horsed around for a few minutes, he and I, joined shortly by Miki.  The two dogs were playing with each other just as much as they were playing with me.  To share their morning joy – the simplest joy, of just being alive – felt like a privilege and an honor, and certainly a great pleasure.

Then I got out of bed.  If you've ever had a dog, you know what that means: that's the signal to your dogs that it's time for the morning walk.  With four dogs, that means pandemonium erupts.  Barking, tails wagging, running back and forth between me and the door until I'm directly in front of it, jostling for position as I attach the leashes, the tension building until the great moment arrives: I open the door!  Four dogs rush simultaneously through the opening as soon as it's 6 inches wide – and somehow they all make it.  Lea is playfully nipping at Mo'i, who is grumbling at Miki, who is straining to be the first out into the yard, in the process running right over the top of Race.  Barking, straining at the leashes in four different directions, tangling them and tying them into knots, running around madly until they find the spot. 

Then...ah, the joy of the morning piss.  The looks on their faces as they relieve themselves says it all: this is as good as life gets.  Lea and Mo'i are very businesslike, serious, and fast – in just a few seconds they're done and ready to go.  Miki takes his time, enjoying every moment of the experience.  Race would like to be done quickly, so he could go about his greatest joy (searching for pine cones), but his bladder is large compared to the size of his squirter, so he's the slowest of all – the torment of waiting mixed with pissing pleasure.

Finally they're all done, and we're off for our walk.  This morning there were no interesting smells, so all the dogs did random things all the way down and back our driveway.  The sun was just rising through a notch in the hills to our northeast; no stars (not even bright Jupiter) were visible.  Haze near the ground made everything fuzzy, like one of those romantic countryside photos.  On the way back, I looked at the work that's been done on our roof.  The soffits are now installed nearly all the way around the house, except for a final trim strip.  It's really quite amazing how different the house looks with this new red roof – it's even a little disconcerting, as this place I've called home for over ten years now has disappeared, replaced but a new, alien home.  But I'm sure I'll get used to it, too.

Back at the front door, now the dogs are all jostling to get back in the house.  Leashes off, and four dogs are waiting, facing the door...waiting for the big moment when the door opens.  Again, once it gets to about 6 inches wide they all somehow get through the opening.  Lea heads immediately for a dog bed, to lie down and rest.  Mo'i and Miki head for the watering dish – a dog needs a drink after such exciting morning activity!  And Race...well, he's racing around the house, looking for an appropriate toy to bring back to me so that I'll throw it for him to chase.  He'd do that all day long if I'd oblige...

Update: The New Roof...

I wish I could take some pictures for you, but it's kinda dark right now.  Last night when I got home from work, I could see that Chris (our contractor) had been hard at work.  There is a big pile of fabricated soffits, gutters, and other stuff I can't identify in front of our house.  All across the front of the house, the soffits are installed, minus a trim strip that I suspect will be the last thing to go up.  It really looks good, especially compared with the old, tired paint job that used to be visible. 

The latest word is that the actual roofing panels will be complete next Wednesday.  Because Chris has a vacation coming up, that means the project won't be completed until early September – later than originally planned, but so far as I can tell only due to factors completely outside Chris' control...

Rancho Jamul Auto Care...

I've blogged about Dave and the guys at Rancho Jamul Auto Care before.  We've been taking all our vehicles there now for several years.  They continue to delight us with their straight-talking, hard-working ways.  Nobody else (especially the danged dealer!) touches our three Toyotas.

One thing we didn't expect from Dave was that he'd enter the modern world of the Internet and web.  But we've just learned (via Doug S.) that Dave now has a web site.  What's next?  Free wi-fi while we're waiting for our cars (just kidding, Dave)?

Millar Ranch Road Revolt!

Via Doug S., this story that involves two of my colleagues from work (at Service-now.com).  Millar Ranch Road is a rural road in East San Diego County.  There's a stretch of it that was in notoriously bad condition, and the government hadn't done anything to fix it for years.  So a bunch of local citizens – including Operations guru Aaron B. and wizard developer Bow R., both of whom live off of Millar Ranch Road – got together and took matters into their own hands.

Our company has a culture of “can do”; it's one of the things I love about working there.  These guys are demonstrating that attitude way outside their professional specialties!

Without further ado, the Millar Ranch Road Citizen's Revolution:

What Would Happen If...

...the earth stood still, stopped rotating?  Fascinating, but I'm sure glad it's not going to happen!

The 800 Lb. Elephant in the Room...

Is Oracle.  Through their recent purchase of Sun Microsystems they acquired ownership of the Java programming language.  Google uses a variant of Java (but not from Sun/Oracle) in their Android cell phone operating system – it's the primary development platform there.  Now Oracle is suing Google for patent infringement.  Here's the news and here's James Gosling's reaction (perhaps NSFW)...

Who Doesn't Want to Save Kids' Lives?

If you read this blog, then you already know that I'm no fan of the unions.  The report below covers a recent flap wherein the teachers' and nurses' unions come down squarely against saving kids lives.  Seriously.




The only solution that comes to mind through my anger is high-velocity lead...

One in Eight...

One in eight children born in the U.S. are the progeny of illegal immigrants...

Tiny Sculptures...

The mind boggles.  Artist Dalton Ghetti, in Connecticut, sculpts teensy tiny little things on the tips of pencils.  I'd have to have a magnifying glass to even see these things!

I can see at least one huge advantage he's got over most sculptors, though: his entire sculpture collection would fit in a shoebox, with room left over...

The Point of No Return...

An outstanding long article by Jeffrey Goldberg in Atlantic on the situation in the Middle East, mainly Iran vs. Israel.  There's far too much good stuff there to excerpt meaningfully, but here's a small sample:

Rahm Emanuel suggested that the administration is trying to thread a needle: providing “unshakeable” support for Israel; protecting it from the consequences of an Iranian nuclear bomb; but pushing it toward compromise with the Palestinians. Emanuel, in our meeting, disputed that Israel is incapable of moving forward on the peace process so long as Iran looms as an existential threat. And he drafted the past six Israeli prime ministers—including Netanyahu, who during his first term in the late 1990s, to his father’s chagrin, compromised with the Palestinians—to buttress his case. “Rabin, Peres, Netanyahu, Barak, Sharon, Olmert—every one of them pursued some form of a negotiated settlement, which would have been in Israel’s own strategic interest,” he said. “There have been plenty of other threats while successive Israeli governments have pursued a peace process. There is no doubt that Iran is a major threat, but they didn’t just flip the switch on [the nuclear program] a year ago.”

Emanuel had one more message to deliver: for the most practical of reasons, Israel should consider carefully whether a military strike would be worth the trouble it would unleash. “I’m not sure that given the time line, whatever the time line is, that whatever they did, they wouldn’t stop” the nuclear program, he said. “They would be postponing.”

It was then that I realized that, on some subjects, the Israelis and Americans are still talking past each other. The Americans consider a temporary postponement of Iran’s nuclear program to be of dubious value. The Israelis don’t. “When Menachem Begin bombed Osirak [in Iraq], he had been told that his actions would set back the Iraqis one year,” one cabinet minister told me. “He did it anyway.”

A Perseid Sort of Morning...

My start this morning was a half-hour or so later than usual, so I didn't get outside with the dogs until nearly 4 am.  By that late hour, my old friend Orion was well up in the eastern sky, and the Milky Way was tilted over toward the northwest.  I knew that tonight was the most intense night of this year's Perseid meteor shower, so I kept a sharp eye out – and was amply rewarded.  In the course of a 10 minute walk, I saw six bright meteor trails.  All but one moved from nearly straight up moving down to just north of due west.  The outlier moved from overhead to the southeast, passing right by bright Jupiter.

When the dogs and I got nearly to the end of our driveway, Race (our border collie) suddenly went on full alert: hackles raised, aggressive stance aimed back toward the house, and subterranean rumbles.  Then it was on to the full alarm bark – awesomely loud at 4 am.  I thought at first that some large animal was out and about, and that somehow Race (and not the field spaniels) was the first to notice.  But it turned out to be Debbie, out in the yard with a flashlight.  The field spaniels all seemed to know that it was her and it was ok, but Race was quite alarmed.  Then Debbie, laughing, made some friendly noises so he could recognize her, and then Race practically yanked me off my feet trying to go see her...

Crepuscular Rays...

Via APOD, of course.

Here in Lawson Valley, we occasionally get nice displays of such rays at sunrise.  In our case, they're caused by the shadows of the mountain peaks to our northeast...

Lakes Entertainment Numbers: More of the Same...

Lakes Entertainment has released their 2010 Q2 results.  The Jamul Casino project is mentioned in the same way as the last few reports – they appear to just be slowly writing the thing off.  There's not an optimistic word (from their perspective) in the report.  With each such report, the prospect of an actual, physical Jamul Casino grows more remote...

Woo hoo!

The Wikipedia Song...

If you use Wikipedia, you need to listen to this.  Beautiful!

Giant Methane Bubbles Caused Bermuda Triangle Disasters?

I've no idea whether this is serious or not.

Those Were the Days...

There was a time, not so very long ago, when a boss or owner could speak his mind plainly to his employees.  Shaun Usher at Letters of Note somehow found a collection of memos demonstrating this; they make fascinating reading.  Here's one example from the collection:

Tiger Oil Company
MEMORANDUM
Date: January 11, 1978
To: All Employees
From: Edward Mike Davis (Owner)

Subject: Idle Conversation

Idle conversation and gossip in this office among employees will result in immediate termination.

Don't talk about other people and other things in this office.

DO YOUR JOBS AND KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT!

Awesome.  I'm filled with envy for those earlier, more candid, less politically-correct times...

Now This is How to Quit Your Job...

This sequence of photos was emailed to her boss – and all her colleagues – by a girl announcing that she was quitting her job.  I can only aspire to such a hilarious and effective way to quit an awful job.

It's also a hoax, dang it.  But it's still funny as hell.

How to Cut the Deficit, Painlessly...

Well, painlessly for the taxpayer, anyway.  As Byron York points out, taxpayer savings of $40B to $47B annually could be generated simply by freezing government workers' pay until it comes into line with what non-government workers are paid to do similar work.  This is at least conceivable, politically – particularly if the Democrats are soundly thrashed in November.

What I'd really like to see happen, though, is that government workers' total compensation (pension included) is capped at parity to non-government worker levels – and average less – say 80% or 85%.  For the good of our economy, government jobs should be unattractive.  The only high-paying government jobs should be in the military.

Of course there's no way that any Democrat – or the vast majority of Republicans – would ever go for my proposal.  The thoroughly-entrenched bureaucratic special interests will see to that...

Pollster on the Democrats Position for November...

Depressing Article of the Day...

How California is destroying itself.

And incidentally, why Debbie and I first started considering leaving California a few years ago...

This is Getting Out of Hand!

We need to plant some trees....

Public Conservatism in Northern California...

This sounds dangerous, doesn't it?  Someone spouting non-progressive thoughts in a public way in Northern California?  You'd think the Pelosi Police would be all over it.  But an Iowahawk reader spotted this on a beer label:

In the murky realm of things that make you go Hmmm… 2010 may rank way, way up there. From the curious per curiam decision of 531U.S98 to WTC7, to the Superdome, to the Fall of the House of Lehman, to the Novel President’s Afghan Expedition escalation, to the oxymoronic Jobless Recovery of 2010, we have been confused. So, we did the only thing we could- we made beer-and lots of it. 6,420 cases of it to be exact. As far as we know, you drank all of it. Thank you for that, because if you had not we would have been looking for a bailout of our own, and we haven’t heard of any breweries either needing or receiving any of those Yuan-flavored TARP dollars… although we have read that the Las Vegas adult video industry did. Nobody knows why. So, in a world that is once again the proverbial ‘Ball of Confusion’, craft beer alone seems to carry its own weight. It’s nice to be on the winning team and thank you for your friendship and imbiliciousness. Call us! 707-769-4495 CHEERS!

Read all about it...

I don't drink beer, but if I saw this for sale locally, I'd buy some!

Geek Cookbook...

...that requires exotic (and expensive) lab equipment to follow.  The cookbook ain't cheap, either ($625 list, $422 at Amazon).  It's written by uber-geek Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft.  I'd love to have the time and money to play with this...

Quote of the Day...

Via Simon M., in the Washington Times:

The Obama family has been working hard to show their indifference to the plight of middle America.

I confess to being completely unsurprised by this.  In fact, I'd have been surprised if they had done something that didn't cost an obscene amount of the dollars they've stolen from my pocket.

Throw the bums out.  Starting this November, continuing to November 2012.  Throw the damned bums out.

Healthcare Rationing: It Begins...

Obamacare and Avastin...

P != NP?

If you're of the right geekly sort, you know whereof I speak.  A serious attempt at a formal proof of the above has been (apparently accidentally) released on the web, by an HP scientist named Vinay Deolalikar. Big news, if the proof is confirmed.

For those of you of a slighly less geekly bent, here's the scoop in very general terms: that statement (P != NP) encapsulates something that much of modern computer science is based on, but until now nobody has never been able to prove (in the formal mathematical sense).  In that sense (and in that sense only), it's sort of like Einstein's famous E = MC²...

More McIntyre Revelations...

Steve McIntyre keeps plugging along, shedding more and more light on the otherwise completely opaque calculations (and machinations) of the scientists associated with ClimateGate.  In this lovely bit of reverse-engineering, McIntyre figures out how Mann and his co-conspirators arrived at some of the graphs they used to support their conclusions.  In the process, their highly selective choice of data is revealed.  Of course, they chose the data that supports their conclusions.

Here's an analogy for those of you not familiar with how science is actually done.  It's as if a scientist came across a pile of playing cards randomly lying about on the floor.  After surveying all the cards, the scientist then picks a “sample” of 8 cards, all of which “happen” to be hearts – and then declares “All the playing cards are hearts!”

Wonders...

NASA's Great Observatories observes a pair of tangled galaxies.

I can't help but wonder what it would be like to be an inhabitant on a planet in the neighborhood with a good view of this spectacle...

Decoy Jews...

They're being used by police in Europe to suss out Muslim harassers.  Neo-neocon has some thoughts...

Steve Wynn on Washington...

Via Tom B.:  Steve Wynn is CEO of Wynn Resorts, one of the most successful resort developers in Las Vegas and many other places around the world.  CNBC recently interviewed him, giving us all a view of an articulate businessman making the case for why we should all be terrified of the Obama administration...

The Blind, Pre-Op Transexual Imam...

Iowahawk does it again.  A sample:

Amid the growing crisis, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered a SWAT team of negotiators from the city's Multicultural Affairs Office parachuted to the scene. A brief truce was reached when negotiators pointed out to the Imam Markowicz's status as a pre-op transexual, obviating his religious objections to performing a same-sex marriage. But tensions erupted again after Markowicz - who is legally blind - tried to enter the mosque with a seeing-eye guide dog.

But please do read the whole thing.  After you put your beverage down, though...

November Is Going to be Interesting...

Boy Scouts Greet Obama...

Recently Obama declined to address the Boy Scouts at their 2010 National Jamboree, opting instead to appear on a television show (The View).  Later he addressed the Boy Scouts by remote video.  Here's how the Boy Scouts greeted him:




Popular, ain't he?

The Planet and the Radio Dish...

Via Clay M., this beautiful wide-angle panorama, with the center of the photo looking straight down!  I would love to have the gear and software required to make photos like this!

For some stupid reason, I dropped Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) from my morning reading list some time ago.  That unacceptable situation has now been rectified!

Cold, Cold August...

And it's such a lovely thing!  Last night the temperature dipped to 52°F, and the humidity went all the way to 100% (we were probably fogged in and didn't know it, as we were asleep).  This morning we had gallons of condensation on our roof.  All of this is most unusual for the August or September weather. Even better, the highs during the day have been under 90°F – even more unusual, as generally this time of year we have 100°F+ weather at least a few days each week.

The rest of the country is sweltering, and we're having a cold spell.  Go figure!  But we're enjoying it while we've got it...

Dogs vs. Wives...

Via my mom:

Why Some Men Have Dogs And Not Wives:

1. The later you are, the more excited your dogs are to see you.
   
   
2. Dogs don't notice if you call them by another dog's name.
   
   
3. Dogs like it if you leave a lot of things on the floor.
   
   
4. A dog's parents never visit.
   
   
5. Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across.
   
   
6. You never have to wait for a dog; they're ready to go 24 hours a day.
   
   
7. Dogs find you amusing when you're drunk.
   
   
8. Dogs like to go hunting and fishing.
   
   
9. A dog will not wake you up at night to ask, "If I died, would you get another dog?"
   
   
10. If a dog has babies, you can put an ad in the paper and give them away.
    
    
11. A dog will let you put a studded collar on it without calling you a pervert.
    
    
12. If a dog smells another dog on you, they don't get mad. They just think it's interesting.
    
    
13. Dogs like to ride in the back of a pickup truck.
    
    
14. And last, but certainly not least: If a dog leaves, it won't take half of your stuff.
    
    

Ultimate True Test: Lock your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car for an hour. Then open the trunk and see who's the happiest to see you.

What a Phone!

It's a joke, mom.

I love the look of pure joy on the grandma's face near the end...

Update: the New Roof...

Our roofing contractor sent along the photo at right, showing some of the dormer vents that will be on our new roof.  He's fabricated ten of these fireproof convection vents that will help keep our attic cool after the new roof is installed.  These vents will be installed high up on the roof.  There will also be soffit vents that will draw cool air into the attic from under the eaves.  The white areas are still covered with protective plastic; the entire vent will be bright red once installed.

The current plan is for the fabricated panels to be delivered next Wednesday.

Brains and Culture...

Interesting read about brain differences between cultures...

Quote of the Day...

From Peggy Noonan:

Inner pessimism and powerlessness: That is a dangerous combination.

Read the whole thing.

Housing Insanity...

Megan McCardle calls it:

If you want to know why us libertarian types are skeptical of the government's ability to prevent housing market bubbles, well, I give you Exhibit 9,824:  the government's new $1000 down housing program.

Read the whole thing.

Reporter Takes On Black Tea Party Members...

The backdrop is the accusation by Congressman John Lewis, earlier this year, that the “N word” had been hurled at him by angry Tea Party members.  This quickly became a Progressive meme, echoed by the lapdog lamestream media.  In this video, a reporter all caught up in that meme confronts what must be a very disconcerting reality: a room full of undeniably black members of the allegedly racist Tea Party. 

What ensues is instructive on several levels. Watch...

Iranian Cover of a Pink Floyd Tune...

And it ain't half bad, either.  Very political message...

Sex Tape...

Totally safe for work.  Watch it before you start thinking that my blog is going to the dogs...

Eva Mendes Sex Tape from Eva Mendes

Smart and sassy move, Eva!

Chaparral Musings...

Empty.  Six quarts of “hummer juice” consumed by scads of hummingbirds yesterday.  The two quart-sized oriole feeders were less than one third gone.  The hummers were mad – you could almost hear them yelling “ What's up with the service around this joint?  Where's our food?  BRING US OUR FOOD, NOW!!!”

This morning the dogs were very subdued.  Noses down.  No noise, not even a subliminal growl.  There was a musky scent in the air, which was at 61°F, 35% relative humidity – practically perfect olfactory conditions.  The waning moon was just above the northeastern horizon.  The Pleiades were above and to the right of the moon, but very bright and not washed out at all. Jupiter was very high in the southeast, and due east my old early-morning friend Orion was just starting to appear over the mountains.  The Milky Way was a great splash all across the high sky from the northeast to the southwest. 

The dogs were completely unimpressed by all this celestial glory – but they were very impressed by something they smelled or heard.  All of them stayed very close to me – not one tug on the leash.  They were cautious and worried, even the normally oblivious Race, who usually bounds around looking for pine cones and other fun toys.  Something big and scary must have been nearby; the musky smell would indicate a cat.  A mountain lion, perhaps...

Google Kills Wave...

Google's Wave is an interesting product that I've been following (and using) for more than a year.  It's hard to describe it – it's kind of a blend of email, chat, and blog.  Several of its features I thought were just outstanding, most especially the ease with which you could share almost anything with people.

But the product had many rough edges, and was apparently not easy for many people to use.  The adoption rate was lower than they expected, and now Google has officially pulled the plug on it – no more development.  Some folks are trying to save it with a site asking for your thumbs-up vote (it had 900 when I checked in on it).  Interestingly, there's no thumbs-down button.

Here's Google CEO Eric Schmidt talking about the decision:

Update: Race and the Chocolate Cake...

Yesterday I wrote about Race eating nearly half a chocolate cake.  Several readers wrote with comments and questions:

1. How is Race doing?  He's doing fine.  You'd never know that anything had happened.  He even likes his cottage cheese and rice diet.  But he wants more chocolate cake...
   
   
2. How was the chocolate cake?  The chocolate cake, what little remains, is delicious.  The recipe came from the Walmart web site, which Debbie says is full of very good, easy-to-cook recipes.
   
   
3. My dog ate (almost anything you can imagine)!  Several readers wrote with their own stories of strange things their dog ate.  Jo B., our now-retired former veterinarian, had a St. Bernard that absolutely loved to eat towels or other rags (also gloves).  Her dog often required surgery after such an event.  Franz M., a friend who lives in Munich, wrote to tell us about Paco, a much-loved and much-missed dog that he and his wife Ellen used to have.  Once Ellen made lasagna, and left it on the window sill to cool down.  Half an hour later, nearly the whole lasagna was gone – Paco had eaten it.  Though he felt bad, and belched all day long, he was ok in the end.

Thanks, all who wrote.

We would never dare leave a nice lasagna unguarded in our kitchen, especially if it had meat sauce or sausage in it.  With four dogs and five cats roaming the house, it would be sure to disappear quickly!

Chocolate Cake and the Veterinarian...

Yesterday Debbie baked a beautiful chocolate cake.  She does quite a bit of cooking, but cakes are not something she makes often, so this was a bit of an unusual event.  It was also something I was quite looking forward to, as I really love a good chocolate cake (with a glass of milk!).

I was in a business meeting around 3 pm when my cell phone started buzzing.  It was a text message from Debbie (unusual in and of itself).  It said:

It all started with a chocolate cake - which Race got hold of!  I'm at the vet's...

After Debbie baked the cake, she pushed it way back on our kitchen counter to cool off.  She then ran some errands down in town.  When she came home, she saw that almost half the cake (a big, two-layer affair) had been eaten.  There were four dogs who might have been the culprit, but really only one was likely to have been able to reach it: Race (our young border collie), who could quite easily jump up onto the kitchen cabinets.  Just to be sure, Debbie took a whiff of all four dog's breaths – and sure enough, only Race's breath smelled of chocolate.

Oh, oh.  Dogs can be (and, unfortunately, often are) poisoned by eating chocolate.  Debbie and I both knew this, so she immediately called our vet (the wonderful Dr. Christine Wilson at the Steele Canyon Veterinary Clinic).  The folks there asked about how much chocolate Race had eaten, and after hearing “half a cake” said “Bring him in!”  They induced vomiting to get rid of any undigested cake, put him on a cottage cheese and rice diet for several days, and declared him undamaged.  Whew!

Debbie salvaged almost half the lovely cake, by cutting off the gnawed part.  It was quite good!

Pie Town...

Fascinating collection of early color photos taken in the U.S.   The photo at right is of the home of Jack Whinery, a homesteader in Pie Town, New Mexico, in 1940.

A Candidate I Wish I Could Vote For...

Allen West is running for the U.S. House of Representatives for Florida district 22.  I'm a resident of Taxifornia Mexifornia California, so I can't vote for him.  If his service in Iraq (which I've posted about previously) is any guide, he's exactly the kind of leader I'd like to have representing me – the kind of leader who's looking out for me!  Here's a recent campaign ad:

November Portents...

From RealClearPolitics, this graph nicely shows the so-called generic ballot tracking poll.  The questions asked on this poll gauge voters' perceptions of the Republicans (red) and Democrats (blue) generically, as opposed to any particular candidate.  If you compare the history of this poll's results to the actual election outcomes, what you find is that the poll slightly understates the outcome for Republicans.  That is, the respondents to these polls tend to vote for Republicans a little more than what the poll indicates.

Right now, the Republicans lead the Democrats by 6.5% – a 19.9% gain since Obama's first days in office.  That's a remarkable gain, the largest the poll has ever measured.  In 1994, the last time the Republicans took over Congress, the Republicans had just a 3.5% lead in this poll.

The portents are good for the Republicans...

Ghosts of World War II...

Modern digital technology lets an artist superimpose photos taken during World War II onto modern photos of the same places.  I don't know about you, but I found the images to be very thought-provoking.  Perhaps this is because I'm currently reading about World War II...

Dust Devil...

On Mars, that is.  This image was captured by Opportunity, still hard at work on the surface of Mars, 6.5 years after its 90 day mission “ended”.  This is the first dust devil seen by Opportunity.  It's twin Spirit, halfway around the planet, has seen dozens of them. 

Winter is just ending in Spirit's part of Mars, and NASA has not yet heard from it since it shut down to “hibernate” for the winter.  It may be the end of the line for Spirit; the reports from NASA don't sound very optimistic.  The main problem was that it got stuck in one place of soft soil (probably resting its belly on a rock), and couldn't move to a nice, sunny spot for the winter...

Audobon's First Engraving...

Found by historians on a New Jersey banknote.  The bird, if you're wondering, is the now-extinct (but then still living) kind of grouse called the Heath Hen...

Morning Walk – Now with Fox!

Our four dogs and I took our usual morning saunter today, at around 3:30 am.  The moon is slightly less than half lit, and there was a dim sort of light all about.  A few clouds were in the sky, reflecting the light, so instead of sharp borders between the deep shadow and the lit areas, we had softly changing light all around us. 

As we wandered down the driveway and passed the end of our row of pine trees, all four dogs changed behavior at the same instant.  They switched from random, noses-down tracking and playing to full alert, all straining at the leash trying to head off up the gentle slope to my right (east).  There was no barking, but there was lots of low growling and aggressive interest.  I couldn't see anything in that direction, so I took out my little LED flashlight and pointed it up there. 

Two glowing orange eyes stared back at me from about 30 feet away.  This is what had the dogs so excited!  As I held the light on the (at that point) unknown animal, it suddenly took off running to my left, down toward our gate.  As it did so, it came to within 15 or 20 feet of me, and my little flashlight lit it up brightly enough for me to see clearly what it was: a fox (most likely a Gray Fox).  Beautiful animal.  A second or so later, it had scampered out the gate and out of sight. 

The dogs reverted to their previous behavior, as though nothing had happened...

Dog Humor...

Via my lovely wife. 

We have a dog who might well behave like this if he was able to.  Miki, our youngest male field spaniel, puts on a brave and aggressive front – but when something unexpected happens you can bet he'll be seeking that nice, safe spot right behind you...

Help the Backcountry Kids...

Reader Doug S. pointed out this article, which talks about a back-to-school-stuff collection effort being coordinated by Mountain Health & Community Services and the Mountain Empire Community Center.  They're looking for anything the kids might need in their backpacks (including the backpack!) when they head back to school in September.  The effort is aimed at helping lower income folks out in the backcountry, the numbers of whom have gone up in the recession.

If you'd like to help, call Carol Lewis at (619) 445-6200, ext. 165 or Shannon Reed at (619) 478-2384. Or you can drop off donations at the Mountain Empire Community Center at 976 Sheridan Road in Campo...