Strangeness on Mercury...

The MESSENGER spacecraft has been orbiting Mercury, returning wonderful science data about this little-understood member of our solar system.  Early on the science team spotted strange little “hollows” in numerous places all over the planet's surface.  These hollows appear to indicate relatively recent geologic activity, something nobody really expected.  Their appearances is certainly odd: brightly colored (often bluish), and associated with structures that look a bit like Swiss cheese.  As you might imagine, the science team is working hard to understand exactly what these things might be.  Meanwhile, we can enjoy them for their visual interest (and oddity)...

Copiale Cipher Cracked...

News story here...

Four Moons...

The image at right shows four moons of Saturn in a single frame.  It was, of course, taken by the Cassini spacecraft, still collecting bucketloads of science data way out there in the frigid Saturnian system.  This image comes to us courtesy of APOD.  As always, click to enlarge...

User Interfaces...

The battle between Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) and Command Line Interfaces (CLIs) rages on.  Usually these verbal battles are more like a religious argument than anything else.  Vivek Haldar (a Google developer) tries a different approach, and makes several interesting observations along the way...

A Technology Moment...

Cute story, and an interesting observation...

Two Things at Once...

Sometimes I just don't know what to say...


This is definitely one of those times...

Oracle, RightNow, and ServiceNow...

Yesterday our industry was abuzz with some interesting news: Oracle (long a cloud/SaaS nay-sayer) purchased RightNow – very much a cloud/SaaS company, and very much in competition with Seibel (owned by Oracle).  Naturally, everybody would like to know what this means.  The people at my company (ServiceNow) want to know, in particular, what it means for them.

One commentator (Bob Warfield) has an interesting take on his blog.  From his post on the subject, this colorful conclusion:

For the rest of you SaaS companies, guys, party like it is the late 90′s again. Oracle just put a floor under your valuation. If your growth slows, you can be bought and added to the Red Hoard, or is that the Red Cloud now? Just be alert if there is more than one of you in the space to what it means if one is bought and it isn’t you. I would draw no other conclusions whatsoever. Whatever RightNow has other than revenues and the possibility of a plan to cut unnecessary expense to wildly expand profitability, that’s all that matters. Whatever conspiracy theory you may have about the underlying tech, execs, or whatever–forget it. You’re over thinking it. The Oracle Machine has to be fed on a regular basis to sustain growth. That’s all that’s happening here. It’s not particular about what it eats other than that revenue and cost cutting part. OTOH, if you really don’t want to be bought, you had better be able to keep growing and running fast. Those sounds of flesh being ripped from bones, that crunching of marrow noise, well, that’s what the Machine sounds like when it’s just around the last corner you turned.

The rest of you SaaS companies?  That would be ServiceNow.  Party time?

Cain Bumper Stickers...

Via my mom.  As she says, “Don't care how you are leaning, but these are good!”  I have a hard time picking a favorite from this bunch:

 

It's gonna be an interesting election...

Laguna...

Yesterday Debbie and I took a nice hike to the Laguna Lakes, just west of the Laguna summit.  Miki and Race – perfect hiking companions – joined us as well.  Here are some photos from along the way.  The first one is acorns in a Ponderosa pine; this time of year the acorn woodpeckers have stuffed their “larders” in preparation for the coming winter.  Race loves his pine cones!  The lakes were full of coots, and we saw a few pairs of mallard ducks...

Great Carved Pumpkins!

Many more on display here.

Cain's Numerology Interest...

Cain seems to have an interest or belief in “special numbers” that verges on flat-out numerology.  Assuming all this stuff is true (I haven't tried to verify it), it's very discomfiting to me.  It's akin to a belief in magic as opposed to causality.

On the other hand, Cain majored in mathematics and computer science, so maybe this is just reflective of a general interest in math and numbers...

The Good Old Days...

Well, maybe not so much...

Steve Jobs, in Cartoons...

Via my mom, a half dozen tributes to Steve Jobs by cartoonists...

Generation Y...

Via reader Simi L.:

People born before 1946 are called – The Silent Generation.

People born between 1946 and 1964 are called – The Baby Boomers.

People born between 1965 and 1979 are called – Generation X.

And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called - Generation Y.

Why do we call the last group “Generation Y”?

Y should I get a job?

Y should I leave home and find my own place?

Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?

Y should I clean my room?

Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?

Y should I buy any food?

But a cartoonist explained it very eloquently at right...

Quote of the Day...

From, of all people, Christine “Mad Dog” O'Donnell:

“Right now a lawn gnome could beat Obama in 2012...”

Sure hope she's right, 'cause the way things are going the Republicans might end up ahead of the game if they fielded a lawn gnome...

Mark Steyn on American Education...

Mr. Steyn, opining on one of my favorite topics: the utter disaster that is American public education.  An excerpt:

Don't worry, it's a book with a happy ending! U.S. government spending is sustainable as long as by 2020 the rest of the planet is willing to sink 19 percent of its GDP into U.S. Treasury debt. And why wouldn't they? After all, if you're a Chinese politburo member or a Saudi prince or a Russian kleptocrat or a Somali pirate, and you switched on CNN International and chanced to catch Joe Biden's Fourth Grade Economics class, why wouldn't you cheerily dump a fifth of your GDP into a business model with such a bright future?

Since 1970, public school employment has increased 10 times faster than public school enrollment. In 2008, the United States spent more per student on K-12 education than any other developed nation except Switzerland – and at least the Swiss have something to show for it. In 2008, York City School District spent $12,691 per pupil – or about a third more than the Swiss. Slovakia's total per student cost is less than York City's current per student deficit – and the Slovak kids beat the United States at mathematics, which may explain why their budget arithmetic still has a passing acquaintanceship with reality. As in so many other areas of American life, the problem is not the lack of money but the fact that so much of the money is utterly wasted.

But that's no reason not to waste even more! So the President spent last week touring around in his weaponized Canadian bus telling Americans that Republicans were blocking plans to "put teachers back in the classroom." Well, where are they now? Not every schoolmarm is down at the Occupy Wall Street drum circle, is she? No, indeed. And, in that respect, York City is a most instructive example: Five years ago (the most recent breakdown I have), the district had 440 teachers but 295 administrative and support staff. If you're thinking that sounds a little out of whack, that just shows what a dummy you are: For every three teachers we "put back in the classroom," we need to hire two bureaucrats to put back in the bureaucracy to fill in the paperwork to access the federal funds to put teachers back in the classroom. One day it will be three educrats for every two teachers, and the system will operate even more effectively.

If you have even a passing interest in this topic, you'll want to read the whole thing...

Seen at the Akron, Ohio Air Show...

Oh, Crap...

Via reader Dave H.:

Easy Corn on the Cob...

I haven't tried this yet, but it sure looks easy!

Al Gore's Science: Fake!

Come on, now, admit it.  You're not really all that surprised by this, are you?

Sibyl...

Remember Sibyl, she of the prototypical Multiple Personality Disorder?  Fraud.

Secret Service Treatment...

I've seen reports like this in writing from various sources, but I've never been able to really nail down an authoritative source. These assertions sound completely plausible to me, but I can't prove them. So, for what it's worth:

No Mercy...

The comedians have dropped their protective shield around Obama.  This can't be good for him :-)

You're Welcome...

The old saying goes “Sir, you're welcome to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.”  The Occupy Wall Street (OWS) crowd would like their own facts.  This survey is quite depressing, but not really all that surprising.  Take a look (graph at right) at how the OWS folks think the federal government allocates money.  Click here to see much more...

Quote of the Day...

Courtesy of Rick Perry, in Tuesday's debates:

I want to make the tax code so simple that even Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time.

Ha!

Word Association...

I'm not entirely sure what to read into these results, but they sure are interesting.  A pollster asked a sample population what single word came to mind when they thought of a particular candidate.  Here are the top 5 words that those polled came up with:

Herman Cain:   9-9-9, Businessman, Interesting, Good, Pizza
Rick Perry:       Texas, No, Idiot, Conservative, Governor
Mitt Romney:   Mormon, Healthcare, Flip-Flop, Good, No

Fascinating...

Very Cool Physics Demo...

Applying for a Job at the FBI...

I just left my parents home a couple hours ago, and I'm sitting in the Richmond, Virginia airport using their free WiFi.  Via my mom:

The FBI had an opening for an assassin.

After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done, there were 3 finalists; two men and a woman.

For the final test, the FBI agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill her!"

The man said, "You can't be serious. I could never kill my wife."

The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for 5 minutes.

The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife." The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions - to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, 15 in all. But then they heard screaming, crashing and banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman, wiping the sweat from her brow.

"This gun was loaded with blanks" she said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."

Women are crazy. Don't mess with them!

No man I've shared this with is even slightly surprised...

Light Blogging Alert...

I'll be on the road for the next few days, visiting with my folks in Virginia.  I will have Internet access, so there may be the occasional post nonetheless...

Dennis Ritchie, RIP...

Any serious programmer, and certainly any programmer who worked in the '80s or before, will know who Dennis Ritchie was.  Amongst his many accomplishments: co-creator of UNIX, co-creator of the programming language “C”, and co-author of widely read and influential books.  I never met Dennis, but I count him as one of the teachers who most impacted me.

Ritchie died this past weekend, after a long illness.  Rob Pike, Ritchie's long-time friend made the announcement last night...

Welfare Dogs...

Via reader Dave H.:

This morning I went to sign my dogs up for welfare. At first the lady said, "Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare." So I explained to her that my dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and have no frigging clue who their Daddys are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify. My dogs get their first checks Friday.

Damn, this is a great country.

Smooth Atacama Boulders...

In the extreme dryness of the Atacama desert in Chile, there are large fields of boulders on the flat desert floor.  The midsections of these boulders are worn smooth.  Such smoothing is normally caused by erosion involving water, but this desert has virtually none.  So why are those boulders smooth?  In a word: earthquakes.

Get Government Out of Space!

Looks like the Obama administration is doing exactly what they said (while campaigning) they would never do: gut the space science program to fund the manned space program.  I'm beginning to think the Glenn Reynolds is right: if you want to know what the Obama administration is going to do, just assume it's the opposite of what they say.

From an article by Lou Friedman (for 30 years the director of the Planetary Society):

We’re in a similar situation today. Behind closed doors, the administration is deciding on NASA budget cuts that may not be in the best interest of either the agency or the American people. Having caved in to Congressional special interests on the Space Launch System (SLS), the administration is now prepared to sacrifice science and exploration programs in order to prematurely start its development, with requirements that will neither be met nor needed for more than a decade.

Imagine a NASA that for ten years (say, 2015 to 2025) ceases to explore the solar system and stops looking deep into the universe. Already, the administration has said that flagship missions to explore the outer planets will cease. Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini will be followed by nothing. Already, the administration has deeply cut the Mars program, reducing American plans to support a 2016 European mission and taking away funds that were to be used for a 2018 follow-on to Mars Science Laboratory, leading to Mars sample return.

Now, news reports and reliable sources are saying that the administration (in the form of OMB) may refuse to allow NASA to proceed with any joint Mars exploration plan with Europe. This decision would destroy the whole NASA/ESA Mars collaboration that has been built in the past several years. The collaborative plan was to have the US provide an Atlas launch of a European Trace Gas Orbiter mission (with several US instruments) in 2016, and then NASA and ESA would jointly develop a sophisticated astrobiology and sample cache rover mission in 2018. OMB seems to be cutting out the American role in the 2016 mission and refusing to let NASA commit to the 2018 collaboration. (ESA has sent a letter to NASA saying that ESA has committed about $1 billion to the joint NASA-ESA mission, but that financial commitment depends on the US formally committing to its role in the mission. We hear that OMB has refused, thus far, to let NASA respond positively).

The administration has also punted the James Webb Space Telescope. The current plan states that they will support JWST, but they do not specify either a budget or where the money will come from. Are they going to leave that to Congressional special interests too?

Moonlit Morning Walk...

I got up a little early this morning, about 2:15 am, and took the dogs out for their morning constitutional.  The moon was high in the southern sky, and nearly perfectly full.  There was virtually no haze, so it was unusually bright outside.  I could clearly see colors around the yard, and could easily make out the mountains on the other side of our valley, about two miles away.  The dogs behaved as if it was daylight, especially Race – he scampered all about, chasing a pine cone. 

I heard the rustling of something largish uphill from us, and after some searching I found a pair of eyes looking at me: a coyote, about 100 feet away, on the other side of our yard's hurricane fence.  My dogs never knew he was there.  The coyote and I watched each other as we finished our walk and went back inside.  I wonder what went through his mind as he watched us?

The Comedians are Merciless...

Some political humor, via reader Simi L:

The liberals are asking us to give Obama time.  We agree...and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
--Jay Leno

America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
--Jay Leno

Q: Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
--Conan O'Brien

Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.
--Jay Leno

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society.  The other is for housing prisoners.
--David Letterman

Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A: America!
--Jimmy Fallon

Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.
--Jimmy Kimmel

Q: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
--David Letterman

People Flows...

Ever wonder how many people immigrate into, or emigrate out of, any particular country?  Here's a cool web site that lets you investigate exactly these questions.  For example, here's emigration from Mexico – and there were some surprises on this for me...

The Phony Consensus...

The media finally seems to be catching up to the news that the so-called “consensus” on antropogenic global warming (AGW) isn't a consensus at all.  The Daily Herald published this piece of commentary recently.  The lead:

The end is near ...

... that is, for the myth that scientists have reached "consensus" on global warming and climate change caused by humans.

The theory (more accurately called a religion for the redistribution of wealth) has taken a number of body blows in recent times -- although the climate-change lobby is still straining to impose its view on the world. For example, Time magazine issued a screed headlined "Who's Bankrolling the Climate-Change Deniers?" The piece wonders why any doubts linger. Time says, "an overwhelming scientific consensus that says it does."

Interesting shift in the media consensus!  The piece refers to the Global Warming Petition Project, which so far has collected over 31,000 signatures from scientists skeptical of AGW.  Some consensus!

Feynman on Curiousity...

Another beautiful video:

Employment Chart Roundup...

The Big Picture has an enormous roundup of charts showing employment data from this recession as compared with past recessions.  It's quite informative, though a bit depressing.  I recommend a ready supply of alcohol before studying these.  Just one example below:

Paid Protesters?

Check out what the Power Line guys found...

121,000 Feet...

Awesome video of an amateur rocket launch.  The payload reached 121,000 feet in altitude, right at the very edge of outer space...

Feynman on Beauty...

One of my heroes, Richard Feynman, talking about beauty – in a monologue that is itself beautiful...

Original Sin...

Forwarded by reader Jim M.:

Stress Busters...

My mom sent along a collection of “stress buster” photos.  This one, for some reason, especially caught my fancy...

Wall Street Protesters...

An annotated photo showing the hypocrisy (or stupidity?) of the Wall Street protesters.  Sent along by reader Simon M.:

A Walk on Cuyamaca...

Yesterday afternoon, Debbie and I had a very pleasant hike up Cuyamaca Mountain, with two of our dogs (Miki and Race).  We walked up the Fire Lookout Road (the paved road), as that's the only trail that our dogs are allowed on.  This area all burned over in the 2007 wildfires, and we haven't been here very much since then – it makes us sad to see all the old-growth forest gone.  The view was very nice, though.  You can see Cuyamaca Lake near the center of the photo, and to the right of the peak in the distance you can even see a piece of the Salton Sea.  Very little haze yesterday.

Well, most of the old trees are gone, but not quite all of them.  You can see in the photo above that there are some survivors, though in the distance you can see thousands upon thousands of tree skeletons, like the one at left.  We passed hundreds like this on the way up the mountain.  As we got closer to the top, we saw more and more survivors of the 2007 wildfires (like the Ponderosa at right), many of which are charred up to 15 or 20 feet from the ground.  We also saw something that was most encouraging: hundreds of young pine trees, and unbelievable numbers of baby cedar trees.  In some places, the baby cedars (all less than 2 feet high) looked like some kind of ground cover, a veritable mat of greenery.  These babies are too young – maybe just a year – to be fire pioneers.  I'm not sure what caused this cedar explosion, but it sure is nice to see.  The peak of Cuyamaca looks like some kind of development – there are several buildings in various stages of construction, some heavy equipment, and building materials in piles all over the place.  I'm not sure what they're doing up there, but the result is that the peak area is almost unrecognizable to someone like us who has been visiting there for thirty years...

The big excitement on the hike was spotting a king snake (Lampropeltis zonata) on the way down. This little fellow was right in the middle of the road! We don't see king snakes very often – it's probably been 10 or 15 years ago that we last saw one in this area. I used to hike a lot in the San Jacinto area, where I saw them quite often. If you're not familiar with king snakes, they're not poisonous (though the look a lot like the deadly poisonous coral snake). In fact, they eat poisonous snakes!

Last but certainly not least, here are my companions on our delightful little walk.  After we finished our hike, we repaired to the Descanso Junction Restaurant, where I had a burger (great, as always) and Debbie made a small dent in the prime rib special.  She brought home a box with enough beef leftover to make a meal for the both of us!

Despite being surrounded by the evidence of the 2007 wildfires, we both enjoyed getting back out in the mountains again – it's been a while since we went hiking in our local mountains...

Military Uniform History...

Via my mom, who finds this history eminently believable:

During the recent royal wedding, the millions around the world saw that Prince William chose to wear a uniform that included the famous British "red coat." Many people have asked, "Why did the British wear red coats in battle?"

Well, a long time ago, when Britain and France were at war, during one battle, the French captured a British Colonel. They took him to their head-quarters, where the French General began to question him. Finally, as an afterthought, the French General asked, "Why do you British officers all wear red coats? Don't you know the red material makes you easier targets for us to shoot at?"  In his casual, matter-of-fact, way, the officer informed the General that the reason British officers wear red coats is so that if they are shot, the blood won't show, and the men they are leading won't panic.

And that is why, from that day forward, all French Army officers have worn brown trousers.

Speaking Truth to Power...

Pat Condell, doing his usual awesomely good job...

Faster Than Light...

Since the recent announcement that an experiment at CERN is measuring the speed of neutrinos as faster than the speed of light, there has been no end of commentary.  But of all that I've read, I think Charles Krauthammer (generally known for his political commentary) has said it best.  His conclusion:

But if quantum mechanics was a challenge to human sensibilities, this pesky Swiss-Italian neutrino is their undoing. It means that Einstein’s relativity — a theory of uncommon beauty upon which all of physics has been built for 100 years — is wrong. Not just inaccurate. Not just flawed. But deeply, fundamentally, indescribably wrong.

It means that the “standard model” of subatomic particles that stands at the center of all modern physics is wrong.

Nor does it stop there. This will not just overthrow physics. Astronomy and cosmology measure time and distance in the universe on the assumption of light speed as the cosmic limit. Their foundations will shake as well.

It cannot be. Yet, this is not a couple of guys in a garage peddling cold fusion. This is no crank wheeling a perpetual motion machine into the patent office. These are the best researchers in the world using the finest measuring instruments, having subjected their data to the highest levels of scrutiny, including six months of cross-checking by 160 scientists from 11 countries.

But there must be some error. Because otherwise everything changes. We shall need a new physics. A new cosmology. New understandings of past and future, of cause and effect. Then shortly and surely, new theologies.
Why? Because we can’t have neutrinos getting kicked out of taverns they have not yet entered.

Remember This When You Vote...

On the evidence of past elections, one must assume that the average American voter's memory is approximately as capacious as that of an earthworm.  Therefore I feel quite safe in assuming that by the November 2012 elections, the average voter will have completely forgotten the promises and projections of then-candidate Obama with respect to unemployment.

So I present the chart at right (courtesy of Innocent Bystanders) to refresh everyone's memory.  According to projections by Obama and his trusty sidekick Tim, at this point we should be at 7.2% unemployment if we hadn't implemented the Obama stimulus program at all.  And with the stimulus program, we should be at a much more comfortable 6.3% unemployment (all of these unemployment numbers are the bogus, “cooked” numbers that leave out the “discouraged” (but still very much unemployed) workers.

So what's the lesson here? That Obama and his cronies are lying sacks of shit?

No, I don't think so.  I think they really believed those projections, and that the real lesson (as if it was actually needed!) is that they have no idea what they're doing.

So please, dear American voters...remember this when you vote next November...

Terrifying Graph...

A few months ago, my company brought in a motivational speaker, who did a fine job of firing us all up.  A refrain heard throughout his talk (and explained in it), was “Glad to be here!”

Anyone with a job should be glad to be there.  Look at the graph at right (click to enlarge) and consider what it implies to those unfortunate enough to be unemployed (currently 1 in 6 Americans of working age).

This graph was part of a fine article by Megan McArdle on a different question: whether the demonstrations on Wall Street could morph into an actual platform for the Democrats...

Trouble with Models...

An excellent article about the dangers of relying on computer models to predict future events.  They had me at the introductory quote, one of my old favorites:

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.”
—Niels Bohr, Danish physicist (1885 – 1962)

Last American Who Knew What the F*$! He Was Doing...

Via reader Simon M., the Onion (ground zero for satire on the web) notes the death of Steve Jobs in their usual irreverant fashion.  Only I'm none too sure that that headline is satire...

Detailed Tectonic Map of Southern California...

A very nicely detailed tectonic map of Southern California, showing where the local plates are, and where the rifts are.  As usual, click to enlarge...

Creationist Poke of the Day...

“Humans are just modified fish.”

Go read.

Chinese Birds...

My mom sent me a Powerpoint slide show filled with Chinese text and photographs of gorgeous and exotic birds.  One example is at right.  If I can figure out how to extract the photos, I'll post more – along with attribution, if I can figure out which characters indicate the photographer's name!

A Year for Strange Weather...

October is generally the absolute peak of our annual wildfire season.  It was in October of 2007 that San Diego County experienced the worst wildfires it's ever seen.  Usually October is hot and dry, with the occasional Santa Ana wind blowing more hot and dry air over us from the desert.  It's those winds, combined with tinder-dry fuel, that are the fearsome enablers for the wildfire season...

This year has been very different.  First, the summer hasn't been nearly as hot and dry as in the most recent 8 years or so.  Second, we've had some rain during the dry season.  Night before last, we had over three quarters of an inch.  That may not sound like much rain to some of you, but for us it's not much short of a miracle – the fuel that we live amidst is now nicely wet down, right at the peak of our wildfire season when it's normally at its driest.  Our risk of wildfire over the next few weeks has been greatly reduced.

I can easily empathize with the peoples of ages ago, who would be outside doing some kind of dance to whatever spirits they thought needed to be thanked...

Scott Adams on Steve Jobs...

Just a short read, and worth your click...