Move a Bush? That'll be 200 Gs, Please...

Reader Larry E. passes along this story about $205,075 of stimulus money being used to transplant a manzanita bush.  He comments:

Well, here is our fine government at work. Hundreds of thousands to move and "nurture" a single plant. Paying people 10s of thousands to monitor it?? REALLY?? There sure are a lot of environmental groups making tons of money off this kind of thing. No wonder they run around trying to "protect" every species of plant and animal. They have a financial interest in seeing things classified as endangered or protected etc.

I've seen references before to this sort of bonanza for environmentalist groups (a key Obama/Democratic Party constituency).  What I haven't seen, though, is a rigorous accounting of such shenanigans.  I'll call it an unproven likelihood for now.

I dug a bit into the subject of the article Larry sent along, mainly because (as my long time readers will already know) I'm quite partial to manzanitas in general.  My yard is chock full of them, with beautiful specimens of all four of our local species.

The manzanita in question is Arctostaphylos hookeri franciscana, a subspecies of Arctostaphylos hookeri.  It is readily available from commercial nurseries in several horticultural varieties, and is a commonly used landscaping plant in California.  It's also a denizen of a long roster of botanical gardens.  It is not “extinct” as most of us understand that word, as many thousands of individual plants are alive and well.  However, it is “extinct in the wild”, meaning that there are no known naturally occurring specimens.

Or at least there weren't until 2009:

Native San Francisco manzanita bush believed to be extinct in the wild for more than 60 years has been discovered in the Presidio surrounded by concrete and highway traffic.

The wild specimen of Franciscan manzanita was found by a San Francisco biologist who noticed the flowering plant as he was driving in his car.

News of the discovery was like a jolt of fertilizer for local botanists, who see it as an important opportunity to reintroduce to the local ecosystem a long lost part of the city's natural history.

"It's like the unicorn of San Francisco," said Daniel Gluesenkamp, who was returning home from a climate change conference in Sonoma on Oct. 16 when he spotted the plant after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

"It's a rare second chance to do it right this time ... to relink the chain of life that we broke," said Gluesenkamp, the director of habitat restoration at Audubon Canyon Ranch.

The ground-hugging shrub, uniquely adapted to San Francisco's natural sand dunes, wind and fog, has not been seen growing in the wild since 1947. That's when the last known patch was bulldozed at the old Laurel Hill Cemetery, which was paved over for homes and businesses.

Just before the bulldozers rumbled through, local botanist James Roof saved two specimens, which have been kept alive at Berkeley's Tilden Botanical Garden.

The plant, Arctostaphylos franciscana, has been reproduced and is sometimes sold as an ornamental plant, but experts consider the nursery variety to be a hybrid genetically unsuitable for reintroduction into the wild, as different from the original species as a German shepherd is to a wolf.

Well, that's a bit different, isn't it?  Maybe.  The assertion is that the commercial varieties are genetic hybrids, and “unsuitable for reintroduction”.  I didn't find any other support for that assertion anywhere, though in general the scientific papers that would support it aren't openly published on the web (dang it!).  So I just don't know if there really is an objective, science-based reason for extreme preservation measures for the individual plant discovered.

But even if there were such reasons, the price tag for transplantation (or “translocation” as the scientists called it) seems rather large.  Were there alternatives?  Well, of course there were.  At the very least, cloning the plant would have been very inexpensive – cloning a woody plant is generally quite easy, and has been a common practice for well over a century, by taking “cuttings” and rooting them.  And taking cuttings is the standard procedure for propagating manzanitas.  For a few hundred dollars, the scientists could have had hundreds of plants that were genetically identical to the individual plant in question (and I'm willing to bet that already they've done this along with moving the mother plant).  So the scientific justification – preserving the genome – could have been satisfied for much less money.  Any remaining reasons are, I think, totally sentimental.  And that's rather a lot of my tax dollars to spend for such sentiment...

The conservative blogosphere seems to have gone a little crazy over this story.  A google search found hundreds of hits, most in that world, and generally reacting much as Larry did.  However, I did find some mentions in the left-leaning blogsphere, and they were all rather negative about it as well.  It seems that the “optics” of this look bad to just about everybody...

Update:

Ah, I just found another reference (PDF) – possibly the original source for this story.  An excerpt:

FREY, M.*¹ and CHASSE, M.^2
1Presidio Trust, 34 Graham Street., San Francisco, CA 94129
²National Park Service, Fort Mason, Building 201, San Francisco, CA 94123

Saving the Franciscan Manzanita – a Plant Extinct in the Wild

In October 2009, the exciting discovery of an individual plant of Arctostaphylos franciscana (Franciscan manzanita) was made in the Doyle Drive corridor of the San Francisco Presidio. This discovery was significant because the Franciscan manzanita has been considered extinct in the wild for over sixty years. This discovery created the opportunity to bring Arctostaphylos franciscana back into the wild as a viable, reproducing, and self-sustaining species. Construction for the highway in the area of discovery was scheduled to begin in January 2010 leaving only twelve weeks to save the plant without delaying construction. Representatives from the Presidio Trust, the National Park Service, CalTrans, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (five government agencies and one non-profit) all met and drafted a plan to save the plant. The plan had three primary objectives; first, to preserve for posterity the individual (mother plant) discovered in October 2009; second, to allow for the establishment of offspring from the mother plant (clones from rooted cuttings and rooted layers, as well as plants raised from seedlings) both in the wild through reintroduction and ecological restoration and through ex situ preservation of the mother plant offspring in botanical gardens and special nursery environments so that it can serve as an on-going source of genetic material for this purpose; and third, to propagate other known genotypes of the Franciscan manzanita so that at least three wild, self-sustaining populations of the Franciscan manzanita can be established utilizing this diversity of genotypes to promote the long term viability of this species in the wild. Generally, biodiversity conservation strives to protect rare species in situ, that is, in historic wild locations whenever possible. Following this principle, the ideal approach would be to preserve the mother plant in its current location. However, because retention at the discovery location was deemed infeasible because of undue risks associated with that location, the mother plant was translocated to an environmentally appropriate location within the Presidio. Between the discovery and construction in the area seeds, cuttings, and the plant itself were all salvaged. On January 23rd the 10-ton mother plant (with root ball) was moved to a new home in the Presidio.

This confirms a couple of things I guessed at earlier.  Note that the authors are from the Presido Trust and the National Park Service – both organizations are tightly aligned with the environmentalist movement (in fact, they're often accused of being “infected” with environmentalists in need of subsidies).  It's safe to assume that both of them are at least empathetic to the environmentalist mindset, and it's quite likely that they both are active environmentalists (in the modern, politicized sense of that word).  This is basically confirmed by what they state is their first objective in saving this specimen: “to preserve for posterity the individual (mother plant)”.  That is precisely the sentimentalist motive I mentioned earlier.  Their second objective is cloning, and their third is reintroduction.  Their first objective I reject as something that should be funded with my tax dollars (but if private individuals wanted to spend their money on it, I'd be glad to see it); the second and third objectives I would gladly see my tax dollars spent on.

Quote of the Day...

It's my blog; I can have two quotes of the day!  This one is from Mark Steyn:

Sometimes societies become too stupid to survive. A nation that takes Barack Obama's current rhetorical flourishes seriously is certainly well advanced along that dismal path. The current federal debt burden works out at about $140,000 per federal taxpayer, and President Obama is proposing to increase both debt and taxes.

Just last night I finished reading a rather awful book.  It's plot had the world making a sequence of incredibly stupid decisions until the hero came along and saved the world through sheer force of personality and intelligence.  After finishing the book (and vowing never again to read anything written by the author), I thought to myself that initially the plot was quite believable.  That is, the part where the world (society) was making a series of incredibly stupid decisions.  It became unbelievable only when the hero happened along.  

Reading Mark Steyn's piece this morning, I realized I was reading essentially the same plot.  Except, of course, Mr. Steyn's prose was ever so much more enjoyable than the book's...

Kip Hawley on Fixing Airport Security...

Kip Hawley was the head of the TSA for over three years, just before Obama took office.  He has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal in which he makes some surprising recommendations.  Among them: no more banned items (including liquids)...

Quote of the Day...

From an interview with Roger Scruton in the Wall Street Journal:

Many of the people who brand themselves as climatologists are not in the first rank of scientific minds, you know? I'm not really entitled to say that. But you do have a sense that these are guys who are not particularly good at mathematical modeling, they're not particularly good at computer science, they're not particularly good at physics, not particularly good at chemistry, but who put all those together . . . [and] become an 'expert.'

The interview is wide-ranging and quite interesting for more reasons than just the quote above.  Read the whole thing...

Doolittle Raid Survivors...

The Washington Times has video of some of the five survivors...

Your Morning Smile...

This is completely cool...

Daily Governor Awesome...

There's a Tax for That...

Remember this when you vote in November:

The Doolittle Raid...

April 18th, just a few days from now, is the 70th anniversary of Jimmy Doolittle's raid on Tokyo, in carrier-launched B-25 bombers.  This raid was a turning point in the war from the American perspective – the first time we hit back at the Japanese after their attack on Pearl Harbor and other Pacific targets.  The story of this raid is an incredible story of derring-do and ingenuity. 

This morning I was very surprised to read that five of the aviators on Doolittle's raid are still alive.  It's amazing that any of them survived the mission at all.  Many of the survivors had harrowing experiences after the raid: crash landings, shoot-downs, being taken prisoner, escaping through Japanese-held territory, grievous injuries.  Somehow I never expected that any of them would live into their 90s, but a few of them have.

The story of this raid was captured in a then-famous book (and subsequent movie) called Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, written by Captain Ted Lawson (one of the participants in the raid).  My parents had a copy of that book, and it happens to be the first first-person historical account I ever read.  It kindled a lifelong interest in reading history, and to this day especially of World War II...

A Little Drama, Please...

Start with a quiet little square in Belgium, a place where nothing really happens.  Then add a little drama...

Greatest Closing Paragraph Evah?

Scientific papers are not generally noted for their literary qualities (or even for their readability!).  So to see a such a science paper end like this is quite unusual:

An 
implication
 from
 this 
work 
is 
that 
elsewhere 
in
 the 
universe
 there 
could 
be 
life
 forms 
based 
on 
D 
amino
 acids 
and 
L
 sugars, 
depending 
on
 the 
chirality 
of 
circular
 polarized
 light 
in 
that 
sector 
of 
the 
universe or 
whatever 
other
 process 
operated 
to
 favor
 the 
L
α‐methyl 
amino acids 
in 
the 
meteorites 
that 
have 
landed 
on Earth.

 Such
 life
 forms
 could
 well
 be
 advanced
 versions
 of
 dinosaurs,
 if
 mammals
 did
 not
 have the
 good 
fortune
 to 
have 
the 
dinosaurs 
wiped
 out 
by 
an 
asteroidal 
collision, 
as 
on
 Earth. 

We 
would 
be 
better 
off 
not 
meeting 
them.

Via io9, where you can read more about it...

Pot Pie Night...

Wednesday night is “pot pie night” at the Descanso Junction Restaurant, and we were there last night.  At right is the chicken pot pie they served up for me: crosshatch puff pastry over a dish of curried chicken with just the right mix of chicken, sauce, and vegetables. 

For close to ten years now, the Descanso Junction Restaurant has been our favorite place to eat out.  We love the food, the generous portions, and the wonderful cast of characters who make us feel right at home there.  And they just keep getting better and better!

A Refreshing “Terms of Service”...

It's not often that your reaction to reading a legal document is “Hey, that was pleasant!”  Check out the right-hand column in the linked terms of service for the site 500px...

Cat's Paw...

Ptilotus spathulatus, aka “cat's paw” or ”pussytails”.  I saw this while in Australia, back in the '70s.  They feel just like they look like they'd feel.  I had no idea what it was, but I sure enjoyed it.  As always, click to enlarge.  Via BPOD...

Race: His First Competition...

This past weekend Debbie ran both Miki and Race in an agility competition.  This was Race's very first such competition.  In the video below you can see Race make some “newbie” errors (like knocking down the bar on a jump, or missing the weave poles).  But you can also see some fantastic speed – he looks like he's roughly twice the speed of Miki.  Several times you can see him leaving Debbie far behind.  The numbers bear this out: this course was rated at 44 seconds, and he did it in about 20 seconds.  Watch out, world!  Race is on the way!

Geostationary Satellites...

Look closely at this time-lapse movie and you'll see a line of “stars” that don't move as the real stars rotate.  Those are geostationary satellites – mostly telecommunications satellites – all orbiting about 25,000 miles high.  Their orbits take 24 hours, so they appear to be motionless in the sky above us.  They're all very close to the Earth's equatorial plane; if they were off this plane, they would appear to make a figure-eight pattern in the sky.  From APOD, of course.

The Demise of the Low-Level Programmer...

Andy Firth talks about a topic I've posted on several times:

It depresses me that so much of what I consider to be essential is simply not being taught anymore. I’m not talking about assembly language per se; even those of us who used to spend hours writing assembly now more often opt to use intrinsics built into compilers to avoid the stress and complication. What I’m talking about is simply the understanding of WHAT is happening when someone does i++ and not ++i, why one might opt to stripe a memory copy/set in certain circumstances.

The gist of my earlier posts: I'm serially astounded just how productive it is possible for programmers to be without a well-rounded understanding of how computers work.   The understanding of floating point vs. fixed point arithmetic that Andy mentions is one of my favorite examples.  Though I work in a team packed with more-than-just-competent programmers, I doubt that one in ten of them actually understands IEEE-754 floating point representation.  Perhaps one in five could do a decent job of explaining two's complement arithmetic – and far less would have even heard of one's complement arithmetic.  I've had the same experience as Andy – many times – with respect to bit shifting (and bit twiddling in general). 

I won't say all this depresses me, as Andy says.  But it certainly worries me, especially with my experience working with Soviet-trained developers in Estonia who understood these things far better than my American colleagues.  Also, as I mentioned above, it surprises me that it is possible for programmers to become very good indeed without having this backdrop of deep understanding...

Mosh, the Mobile Shell...

A replacement for SSH?  Better than SSH?  I haven't tried Mosh yet, but I have to say that it looks interesting.  I wonder about it's security, though...

Programming Language FAIL!

Eevee at Fuzzy Notepad really, really doesn't like PHP – and he details the reasons why is great detail.  I was already convinced of PHP's lameness, so I found it quite amusing to see a masterful analysis leading to the same conclusion I'd already reached.  Here's the analogy Eevee uses to set the stage for his thoughtful takedown:

I can’t even say what’s wrong with PHP, because— okay. Imagine you have uh, a toolbox. A set of tools. Looks okay, standard stuff in there.

You pull out a screwdriver, and you see it’s one of those weird tri-headed things. Okay, well, that’s not very useful to you, but you guess it comes in handy sometimes.

You pull out the hammer, but to your dismay, it has the claw part on both sides. Still serviceable though, I mean, you can hit nails with the middle of the head holding it sideways.

You pull out the pliers, but they don’t have those serrated surfaces; it’s flat and smooth. That’s less useful, but it still turns bolts well enough, so whatever.

And on you go. Everything in the box is kind of weird and quirky, but maybe not enough to make it completely worthless. And there’s no clear problem with the set as a whole; it still has all the tools.

Now imagine you meet millions of carpenters using this toolbox who tell you “well hey what’s the problem with these tools? They’re all I’ve ever used and they work fine!” And the carpenters show you the houses they’ve built, where every room is a pentagon and the roof is upside-down. And you knock on the front door and it just collapses inwards and they all yell at you for breaking their door.

That’s what’s wrong with PHP.

Oh, go read the whole thing. You know you want to!

The Wheel of History...

As I was reading this excellent post (at Sultan Knish by David Greenfield) musing on the patterns in human history, one paragraph caught my attention:

That is the thing about America that most Americans don't realize. For all the hopeful speeches made by American leaders about exporting the Des Moines way of life to Baghdad or Kandahar, what people in those parts of the world see when they look at America isn't democracy and freedom, it's wealth and power. Those are the things they want, and they don't understand why American leaders keep chattering on about democracy and freedom, no more than we understand why Muslims keep going on about the Koran.

Yes. That's exactly right, and exactly what so many Americans get wrong when they try to imagine what the people in other countries envy about America. 

I remember well my first explorations in Estonia, in the early '90s, when I met quite a few Estonians who had never before met an American.  Rarely did any of them evince interest in our freedoms or our government.  What were they interested in?  Hollywood stars (especially when they learned that I hailed from California, upon which they assumed I rubbed elbows with all of them).  Jeans.  Cars.  The first Gulf war.  In other words, the trappings of wealth and the evidence of power.

I've traveled in a lot of countries; had lots of conversations with people interested in America.  The few conversations I've had with people curious about our government and what it's like to live in freedom really stand out – for their rarity, mostly...

Mama!

Via my lovely bride:

Computing Trend...

The graph at right (click to enlarge) shows computations/kilowatt-hour on the vertical axis (logarithmic), and time on the horizontal.  When I got started in computing, one could do about 10 million (10^7) computations with a kilowatt-hour of power.  Today one can do about 1 quadrillion (10^15) computations with that same power.  In other words, one can do 100 million (10^8) times as many computations today for a given amount of power as could be done in 1970.  100 million!

This trend shows no signs of slowing down, much less stopping.  Feynman's calculation of theoretical limits, so many years ago, says that we've just scratched the surface.  The theory and the track record both lend credence to the trend continuing for a long time – and that leads to some interesting things...

Granular Flows...

This is the best video of granular flows I've ever seen:

Swimming Eagle...

A bald eagle does what it takes to get his dinner. Via my mom:

Anger Management Really Does Work...

Via my mom:

Anger Management

When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just need to take it out on someone, don't take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you don't know, but you know deserves it.

I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I'd forgotten to make. I found the number and dialed it.

A man answered, saying 'Hello.'

I politely said, 'This is Chris. Could I please speak with Robyn Carter?'

Suddenly a manic voice yelled out in my ear 'Get the right f***ing number!' And the phone was slammed down on me.

I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude.

When I tracked down Robyn's correct number to call her, I found that I had accidentally transposed the last two digits.

After hanging up with her, I decided to call the 'wrong' number again.

When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled 'You're an asshole!' And hung up.

I wrote his number down with the word 'asshole' next to it, and put it in my desk drawer.

Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up and yell, 'You're an asshole!' It always cheered me up.

When Caller ID was introduced, I thought my therapeutic 'asshole' calling would have to stop.

So, I called his number and said, 'Hi, this is John Smith from the telephone company. I'm calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID Program?' He yelled 'NO!' and slammed down the phone. I quickly called him back and said, 'That's because you're an asshole!' And hung up.

One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot. Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for. I hit the horn and yelled that I'd been waiting for that spot, but the idiot ignored me. I noticed a 'For Sale' sign in his back window, so I wrote down his number.

A couple of days later, right after calling the first asshole (I had his number on speed dial) I thought that I'd better call the BMW asshole, too. I said, 'Is this the man with the black BMW for sale?'

He said, 'Yes, it is.'

I then asked, 'Can you tell me where I can see it?'

He said, 'Yes, I live at 34 Oaktree Blvd., in Fairfax. It's a yellow ranch style house and the car's parked right out in front.'

I asked, 'What's your name?'

He said, 'My name is Don Hansen.'

I asked, 'When's a good time to catch you, Don?'

He said, 'I'm home every evening after five.'

I said, 'Listen, Don, can I tell you something?'

He said, 'Yes?'

I said, 'Don, you're an asshole!'

Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too.

Now, when I had a problem, I had two assholes to call.

Then I came up with an idea...

I called asshole #1.

He said, 'Hello'

I said, 'You're an asshole!' (But I didn't hang up.)

He asked, 'Are you still there?'

I said, 'Yeah!'

He screamed, 'Stop calling me'

I said, 'Make me.'

He asked, 'Who are you?'

I said, 'My name is Don Hansen.'

He said, 'Yeah? Where do you live?'

I said, 'Asshole, I live at 34 Oaktree Blvd., in Fairfax, a yellow ranch style home and I have a black Beamer parked in front.'

He said, 'I'm coming over right now, Don. And you had better start saying your prayers.'

I said, 'Yeah, like I'm really scared, asshole,' and hung up.

Then I called Asshole #2.

He said, 'Hello?'

I said, 'Hello, asshole,'

He yelled, 'If I ever find out who you are...'

I said, 'You'll what?'

He exclaimed, 'I'll kick your ass'

I answered, 'Well, asshole, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now.'

Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I was on my way over to 34 Oaktree Blvd, in Fairfax, to kill my gay lover.

Then I called Channel 7 News about the gang war going down in Oaktree Blvd in Fairfax. I quickly got into my car and headed over to Fairfax. I got there just in time to watch two assholes beating the crap out of each other in front of six cop cars, an overhead news helicopter and surrounded by a news crew.

NOW I feel much better.

Anger management really does work.

Quote of the Day...

Today from Peggy Noonan, the close of her column this week:

One misses that special grace. 

Yes, one does.  Read the whole thing...

Phased Array on a Chip...

Holy silicon wafers, Batman!  A collaboration between UCSD and TowerJazz has produced a working phased-array radar on a single silicon chip.  The chip is roughly a quarter inch on a side, and contains the entire radar: transmitters, amplifiers, phase shifters, and 16 (4 x 4) antenna elements.  It operates at 110 GHz.  Absolutely awesome! 

With just 16 elements, its directional gain won't be spectacular – but this is a lab experiment, a demonstration of concept.  It's not hard to predict that we'll see much larger arrays in short order, with correspondingly higher gains.

Almost 40 years ago, I was floating around on the ocean on an experimental platform for phased array radars.  The platform was the USS Long Beach (CGN-9), a nuclear powered cruiser.  It carried two phased array radars: the AN/SPS-32 and the AN/SPS-33.  These radars were huge, as you can see on the preceding link, which shows the big, flat antenna panels on the USS Enterprise (it had the identical pair of radars).  If I remember correctly, the AN/SPS-33 panels were each 20 feet wide by 25 feet high!  The electronics that drove those antennas filled an entire deck (story) of the superstructure, and took dozens of men to care and feed it.  I'd estimate that on the cruises I participated in, the AN/SPS-33 (which I worked on) was “up” (operational) less than 10% of the time.  Why so unreliable?  Mainly the sheer number of discrete systems, subsystems, parts, wires, etc. that all had to be perfectly functional for it to work.  All this on a ship rolling around in an atmosphere full of corrosive salt.

It's remarkable to read that this system that occupied perhaps 700 cubic yards has been shrunk to something smaller than a postage stamp...

Thought of the Day...

From Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert:

When robots become awesome and economical, no one will want to spend time with a smelly, inconvenient, annoying, overpriced human.

Read the whole thing...

Warmists Confounded: Polar Bears Not In Short Supply!

Oops.  There goes one pillar of The Gore's preaching...

On the Healthcare Mess...

Reader Larry E. weighs in (I quote his email to me in its entirety):

If the congress had created a nationalized healthcare system paid for through taxes, much like they did with medicare and social security etc., the supreme court would likely not be ruling on its constitutionality. When congress tried to pull a fast-one, and straddle the line between a nationalized healthcare system and a private healthcare system and to play games with the funding, they created a mess and put themselves in this position.

I would contend a nationalized healthcare system would be preferable to this mess. The only reason insurance companies can be profitable is because the cost of health insurance exceeds the cost of healthcare when amortized over large population groups. This is also why we have such debate over this "individual mandate". What this means to me is that it would grossly inefficient to attempt to purchase healthcare for every person in the United States vs simply paying for their healthcare. This is the same argument over the former "hillarycare". Why would you buy insurance for people rather than just pay for it directly?

While I'm not a fan of nationalized healthcare, and there were other solutions to the various problems of rising healthcare costs, nationalized healthcare would be cheaper. Or, even cheaper yet, institute proper insurance reforms and open up competition and keep the system largely as is. Those that can afford it, with employer subsidy etc. buy health insurance, those that can't or won't, show up at the hospital and get healthcare paid for by the government. Its still cheaper even though they may not get as good or thorough care.

Having recently been laid off, I was forced to decide whether to use continuation coverage at a cost of over $900/month (unemployment only pays about $1600/mo no matter how much I paid into it for 30 years) or to go without. I chose to pay for the continuation coverage and instead drop Cable TV services, reduce my cell phone bill, and reduce/eliminate as many other expenses as I could. Its a sucky choice to have to make, but it is still a choice.

We like to cry about the poor in this country but you'll find that while I have to pay for my cell phone and cable tv, there are subsidies for the poor. there are school lunch subsidies, food stamp subsidies, housing subsidies, and endless list of ways in which those above a certain income (even slightly) are paying dearly to support those below that rather arbitrary line. For my kids to participate in various school events, I had to pay fees. Band fees, bus fees, athletic fees... in addition to property taxes and the never ending flow of school bonds that are not being paid for by those below this line. That redistribution devalues the worth of my labor and artificially inflates the value of others and this effect magnifies as the subsidies artificially increase demand and cause the prices to rise. If anything, these attempts to "narrow the gap" are really devaluing the middle-class as these effects are a much larger proportion of their income and this does nothing to reduce or eliminate any gap between rich and poor. You can almost plot a exponential curve that you have to get over.

If you want to see the effect of subsidies, look at the cost of solar panels before and after government subsidies started? Green cars? How about your refrigerator? It changes the supply/demand equation and forces prices up to absorb the "free money". This is why it is so hard to get rid of a subsidy once in place. It would take awhile before the economy adjusted again and quite possibly put a lot of people out of business suddenly. How about lets not do the subsidy thing to start with since we know what it leads to?

Piano Stairs...

Via my mom:

Scary Graph... ?

The graph at right shows the ratio of civilian employment to total population, over time.  You can see that in the current recession this ratio fell faster and further than in any other recession since 1948.  Bad, right?

Not so fast.  There are two classic games being played here.

First, why did the author of this graph pick 1948 as the starting point?  This leaves out the Great Depression, which would have looked pretty bad on here.

Second, note the vertical scale: it's not zero-based.  Rather, it shows only numbers between 54 and 65 percent, in effect greatly magnifying the vertical scale. 

I don't have the raw data, so I can't re-graph it for you.  But trust me...this is a very misleading graph.  The current recession is bad, no doubt about it – but it is not quite the calamity implied by this “cleverly” drawn graph...

South Pole Telescope...

Here's something I completely missed when it went operational in 2007, and somehow I've never run into it since: an advanced radio telescope with a 10 meter diameter antenna, located right at the South Pole (at the Amundsen-Scott Pole Station).  It's called, simply, the South Pole Telescope., and it's regularly delivering quality science data.

This is an interesting piece of science kit.  The antenna is cooled to reduce background noise.  At the pole, of course, it's located in one of the quietest (in the radio noise sense) places on Earth.  One little construction detail that amused me: at the poles, an alta-azimuthal mount is basically the same thing as an equatorial mount – making the construction of the South Pole Telescope a bit simpler.

You can read more about it on the telescope's home page, or on its blog...

...an unelected group of people...

That phrase jumped out at me as I read Obama's remarks yesterday:

For years, what we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or the lack of judicial restraint, that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law. And I'm pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step.

That unelected group of people he's referring to is the Supreme Court.  Part of their job, under the Constitution, is to serve as final arbiter of whether the actions of the other two branches of government (the executive branch and the Congress) are “Constitutional” (that is, conforming to the Constitution).  In other words, the Supreme Court's role is to act as a counter-balance to the other two branches, to make sure they don't go too far off the tracks.

Obama, like many progressives, sees that as “meddling” and “undemocratic”.  In their view, if an elected body declares something, that should be the end of it.  Who cares if what they declare isn't allowed under the Constitution?  It's democratic, and that should override everything else.

One wonders what they think the purpose of the Supreme Court is in our government...

Reading things like this, and realizing that it reflects the world-view of a substantial number of my fellow Americans, makes me feel rather hopeless about our future.  Why?  Seriously, folks.  Take a look at our duly-elected Congress.  Tell me that you feel comfortable about the legislation they pass, so democratically.  Do you really want that collection of bozos and perverts telling you how to live your life?

I wonder what's going to happen at the ballot box in November...

Deuterium Oxide...

Deuterium oxide, otherwise known as “heavy water”, is an interesting substance – as demonstrated in this video.



I discovered that you can buy heavy water online, quite easily, from multiple sources.  What a world we live in!

Julia...

Julia is a newish programming language, intended for scientific programming (where general mathematics capabilities are very important, especially statistics).  It's getting some rave reviews, especially when compared to the venerable R.  I'm going to have to check it out...

Tungurahua Erupts!

From APOD, this gorgeous photo of the Tungurahua volcano (in Ecuador).  As always, click to enlarge.  The photographer (Patrick Taschler, a pro) caught a perfect moment filled with glowing molten lava, volcanic ash, lenticular clouds – along with blue sky and sunshine.  Totally awesome!

Escape from Camp 14...

This is one of the most intense non-fiction books I've read in years.  I've read a lot of history, which of course includes much about man's cruelty to man.  Only a few of the books I've read have the sheer emotional impact of this book.  Highly recommended, especially for anyone interested in current affairs.  You'll come away with a much better understanding of the cauldron of evil that is North Korea – and the reasons why it won't be easy to rid ourselves of it...

Blaine Harden's Escape from Camp 14 is the story of a North Korean man (Shin Dong-hyuk) who was born into what was intended to be a short, cruel life in the harshest of North Korea's slave labor/concentration camps.  For most of his life, he knew nothing of the world outside the camp.  He'd been taught to read and do basic arithmetic, but only so that he could perform the work in the camps.  His life was completely dominated by the daily struggle for food.  Though his parents were also in the camp, he knew nothing about familial love – his relatives were, basically, competitors for food.

The litany of what Shin endured in Camp 14 is mind-boggling: starved for years, recovered from injuries with no medical care, brutally punished frequently by guards and teachers for things like eating a few kernels of corn (or nothing at all), turned his mother and brother in for attempting escape – and then watched as both were brutally executed. 

After reading the book, what seemed even worse to me was Shin's making it all the way to adulthood in near-complete ignorance of the evilness of his context.  He had no idea that the world offered anything better, and no hope of ever obtaining better.  His dreams were of roast meat, as he knew nothing else to dream about...

Agile and Introverts...

Fascinating stuff, if you're an introvert working at a company using agile development methodologies with open floor plans...

Welcome Home, Soldier...

A dog greets his soldier as he returns home from an eight month deployment in Afghanistan:

Not Quite...

An awesome Dilbert for today:

I Come from a Family With Unusual Abilities...

But we're all different.  This is my brother Scott:

Taxes...

I'm “doing” my taxes today. 

In other words, I'm spending my own time (valuable at least to me) computing how much money our federal and state governments are going to steal from me.  I do this only because I will be fined or jailed if I do not.  I know that 90%+ of the money they steal will be spent in ways that I do not approve of.  I have no choice in this matter; the bureaucratic thieves are going to win.  It's as if I were forced to allow burglars to come into my home, hold me at gunpoint for a day while I compute how much they're going to steal, and then help them load up their truck.

You can probably guess my mood.

That is all.

More Dog Humor...

Mac Hacks...

Here's a nice collection of little OS/X hacks.  One example, from many: have you ever wanted to change your keyboard's repeat rate?  Now you can!

Graphs in Google Search...

I don't know when this happened, but Google's search bar graphs now.  Who knows what else it does?  To see an example, click on the link...

Nine Peeves...

Looking at things from a dog's perspective...  If your dog could talk, some things he might say. Via my mom:

1. Blaming your farts on me... Not funny. Not funny at all!
2. Yelling at me for barking. I'M A FRIGGIN' DOG!
3. Taking me for a walk, then not letting me check stuff out. Exactly whose walk is this anyway?
4. Any trick that involves balancing food on my nose. Stop it!
5. The sleight of hand, fake fetch throw. You fooled a dog! Woo hoo!  What a proud moment for the top of the food chain!
6. Taking me to the vet for 'the big snip', then acting surprised when I freak out every time we go back!
7. Getting upset when I sniff the crotches of your guests. Sorry, but I haven't quite mastered that handshake thing yet.
8. Dog sweaters. Hello ??? Haven't you noticed the fur?
9. How you act disgusted when I lick myself. Look, we both know the truth. You're just jealous.

Now lay off me on some of these things. We both know who's boss here! You don't see me picking up your poop do you?

Airport Security Debate: Bruce Schneier Kicks Butt!

The Economist has been hosting a debate on airport security for the past 10 days.  The motion:

This house believes that changes made to airport security since 9/11 have done more harm than good.

Defending the motion: Bruce Schneier, who should be well known to readers of this blog.
Opposing the motion: Kip Hawley, former TSA Administrator.

The debate has been lively.  For me, the arguments were familiar; the debate has essentially been held in a much less formal way over the past several years, through the many writings of Schneier, Hawley, and many others.  It's been a real pleasure to see Mr. Schneier make his arguments, though – he's got a real flair for exposition.

The debate is now over, though.  The motion has been carried: 89% of the votes were “aye”.  Mr. Schneier carried the day, rather dramatically.  Adam Barnes was the moderator.  An excerpt from his announcement of the winner:

Voters have roundly declared that the frustrations, the delays, the loss of liberty and the increase in fear that characterise their interactions with airport-security procedures vastly outweigh the good these procedures achieve. For some, indeed, the benefits are essentially non-existent: any sensible terrorist can find a work-around or choose a different point of attack, as Bruce Schneier explains. And so the widely expressed hope is that changes made to security in the (near) future will make the whole regime less reactive, more rational, more flexible and more intelligence-driven. The results of this debate suggest that these changes should be made with some urgency: passengers are angry.

Now if only our (insert your own epithets) Congresscritters would listen up.

The Open Mic...

The always-interesting Martin Peretz on President Obama's recent “open mic” moment with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev:

Additional "give" to Moscow on the nuclear issue was not something he admitted to the relevant senators that he was contemplating when they were weighing and approving the New Start Treaty a bare year ago. Yet it is a matter of deep interest to the Kremlin which, without any moral credit and without much material credit either, seems to be charting the cartography of another Cold War. (Remember, it pursued the last one from an impoverished base.) Mr. Obama's pliancy on the matter will encourage them to think that we are, in this matter, a patsy.

Precisely my own reaction, albeit articulated much more clearly than I could have.

Read the whole thing (in today's WSJ)...

Not That Sad...

Peggy Noonan's column is up in today's WSJ.  She's reflecting on the disappointment he's been to his own supporters.  An excerpt:

If you jumped into a time machine to the day after the election, in November, 2012, and saw a headline saying "Obama Loses," do you imagine that would be followed by widespread sadness, pain and a rending of garments? You do not. Even his own supporters will not be that sad. It's hard to imagine people running around in 2014 saying, "If only Obama were president!"

Go read the whole thing...

Preserving Hope...

I found this satirical take on Obama's performance on, of all places, the Huffington Post.  Four years ago, you could depend on the Huffington Post for completely unadulterated Obama adoration.  These days?  Not so much...

My level of hope is enhanced :-)

ObamaCare's Defense...

Reader Doug S. passed along this gem: a simple recording of Don Verrilli, Jr. defending ObamaCare during the Supreme Court's oral arguments this week.  Mr. Verrilli is a lawyer, and the Solicitor General of the United States (an Obama appointee).



As many commentators have noted (contrary to the current liberal chatter), Mr. Verrilli is a superb and competent lawyer – he's not the problem.  The bad law (ObamaCare) he's being asked to defend is the problem...

Go Version 1 is Officially Released...

The Go programming language has officially released its version 1...

Wind Map of the U.S...

A beautiful animated map rendering of winds in the U.S.  I had to try a few times to successfully load the site; I suspect their servers are being overwhelmed...

Sealand...

The amazing story of Sealand, a WWII relic in the North Sea that claims to be the world's smallest nation.  There's a tie-in with “data havens” (think Neil Stephenson) and other technological developments...

Moral Reasoning...

Cassandra at Villainous Company has an interesting post up on moral reasoning.  She quotes a few scenarios postulated by Steven Landsburg to illustrate just how challenging a moral choice can be.  A good, brain-engaging read...

A First Place!

Debbie and Miki ran in an agility competition this past weekend.  It was a three-day meet, and they ran twice each day.  On one of those six runs (the standard course on Friday, amongst 20 or so 16" jump height dogs), they took first place!  Miki is a Field Spaniel, a breed most agility competitors know for their inability to focus on the job at hand and their easy-going, unhurried approach to life (including agility competition, where speed matters).  They are pretty much the precise opposite of a Border Collie, the canonical agility champion.  For a Field Spaniel to take a first place against a big field of dogs that included all the usual suspects (breeds) for agility competition is a bit like an unmodified Volkswagen setting a new land speed record.  Here's that first place run:




Here are the other five runs over the weekend as well: here, here, here, here, and here...

Advice to the Employer of a Hacker...

Parts of this I found quite funny (and I think it's intended to be a joke).  Other parts resonated to various degrees, in some cases quite uncomfortably...

Religions...

Found this graphic showing the religions of the world's population.  As always, click to enlarge.  More info at the source.  There were some surprises in here for me...

Trayvon Martin

I haven't been commenting about the Trayvon Martin (the black youth shot and killed by George Zimmerman) case mainly because I don't know what all the facts are (and I'm confident the lamestream media is not reporting them straight up in such a charged, sensational case).  I'm not going to comment on it now, for the same reason.

But I will note, with interest, that a growing number of prominent black voices are reacting in a way that I find refreshingly constructive.  They are wondering why the black community (and the news media) aren't outraged by the long-standing scourge of violence against blacks perpetrated by other blacks.

Juan Williams has just such a question in today's WSJ.  In it, he cites an old quote from Jesse Jackson that I remember well:

"There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved... After all we have been through. Just to think we can't walk down our own streets, how humiliating."

Whatever the facts of the Trayvon Martin case are, these black voices are raising a most excellent question. Where is your outrage, Al Sharpton?  Why aren't you tweeting about that, Spike Lee?  And most of all, our first black President: why aren't you siccing Holder on a real problem, Mr. Obama?

Hope and Change...

The news from the Supreme Court's oral arguments on Obamacare sure sound hopeful...

Passwords...

Passwords are really hard to get right.  To be useful, they have to be memorable (so you can remember them without writing them down) and they have to be secure.  It's the second part that's so hard, because most non-technical people have no idea what makes a password secure. 

These days, the most common passwords fall into one of three categories. 

First there are the stupid, easy passwords, such as "password123" or "qwerty".  An amazing number of people (by some accounts, over 20%) use such passwords for things they really care about, like their bank account.  This is like removing the lock from your house.  If you do this, you shouldn't be allowed to touch a computer.  The bad guys have readily-available lists of common stupid passwords, and they will try them all to see if they work.

Then there are the passwords comprised of personal information of some kind: your kid's name and birthday, or the names of your two dogs, etc.  If these are well-chosen, and if (this is a huge if) the attacker has no other information about you, these kinds of passwords can be reasonably secure.  But you need to be very certain that the personal information you disclose isn't available electronically anywhere: not on Facebook, not at your bank, not even on your tax return.  A bad guy who hacks into your Facebook account might well know your kids names and birthdays.  The safest things to use for this kind of password are generally things in your distant (and hopefully pre-Internet) days.  Say, for example, the name of your fourth grade teacher (I'm looking at you, "Mrs.Dalrymple4th").  Good passwords of this type are relatively uncommon, though – most people make poor choices with easily discoverable or guessed information.

Finally, there are the passwords comprised of some memorable sequence of words, like "JamulGeekGeezer".  People, especially non-technical people, are attracted to these passwords.  They look secure, mainly because they're long and they look unlikely.  The problem is that they are usually made up of words from a relatively small list of common words: a few tens of thousands of ordinary words and place names.  That may sound like a lot of words to you, but to a computer this is a small list.  Most web sites don't have protection against an attacker trying thousands of passwords, so the bad guys simply try lots of combinations of these words from their “dictionary” of common words.  These attacks are depressingly effective.  A common variant of this type of password replaces all "o" characters with "0" (zero) characters, "s" with "$", or some such thing.  There are also relatively few variations of these, and the bad guys have dictionaries of them as well.  A more secure variation of this type deliberately misspells one or more words, like "JamulGekkGezzer".  That's far more secure, as the misspelled words are not likely to be in the dictionary.

Years ago, I read about another technique (mentioned in the linked article) that yields passwords that are both memorable and secure.  I've been using it ever since.  The technique is simple.  First, choose a phrase that is easy for you to remember, but is unlikely for anyone else to ever use or guess.  For example, I might choose "Miki is playing outside my red-roofed house."   You must be careful, when choosing a phrase, not to use some famous lines from movies or plays, etc. – those an attacker could certainly guess.  Then apply some simple rule (also easy to remember) to turn that phrase into a password.  For example, I might have the rule "Take the first letter of each word, plus any punctuation".  That would yield the password "Mipomr-rh."  Now that's a pretty secure password.  It's reasonably long (10 characters; a little longer would be better) and it certainly isn't attackable by a dictionary attack.  I've been recommending this to anyone who asks me, and I still recommend it.  For passwords protecing things that are really valuable to me, I use passwords with 12 or more characters, created from phrases like I used above. 

Milky Way...

Out with the dogs a little later than usual this morning.  In the eastern sky, the Milky Way shone bright and clear, stretching from the north to the southeast.  I was staring at this celestial beauty, lost in awe, until the arresting aroma of dog poop brought me back to earth.  Oh, well...

Enigmas in the News...

Enigma machines, that is: WWII-era German cryptographic machines.  I had no idea that so many had survived the war...

Hope and Change, Australian Style...

The state of Queensland, Australia is afflicted with a liberal-dominated government comparable to California's, with predictable consequences.  Make that was afflicted – in yesterday's election, the liberal majority was absolutely demolished.  The results were the largest political swing in Australia's history, and it was away from the liberals.

Let us hope that's infectious...

Comeback of the Week...

Rick Santorum had a bit of a dustup with New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny the other day.  It went like this:

Zeleny: "You said Mitt Romney was the worst Republican in the country. Is that true?"

Santorum (visibly angry): "What speech did you listen to? Stop lying! I said he was the worst Republican to run on the issue of Obamacare. And that’s what I was talking about! Would you guys quit distorting what I’m saying? Quit distorting my words! If I see it, it’s bullshit! Come on, man! What are you doing?"

Zeleny: "You sound upset about something."

Santorum: "I'm upset when the media distorts what I say, yeah, I am, I do get upset. What are you guys in the business of doing, reporting the truth or are you here to try to spin and make news? Stop it! You don’t care about the truth, do you? Asking that question shows me you don’t care at all about the truth."

That's the kind of moment the press loves to pounce on, and that the candidates' handlers wish they could just outlaw.  You can almost see those handler cringing in the background as Santorum lets loose with that one.  How can their candidate take back the high ground?

Here's how.  Later, when asked about his outburst, Santorum said this:

"If you haven't cursed out a New York Times reporter during the presidential campaign, you aren't a real Republican."

Heh! Now that's one hell of a response!  Nice comeback, Rick...

Rachel is Back!

Rachel Lucas, one of my favorite bloggers, is back on the air after a months-long hiatus.  Her rude and irreverant humor is back on display, as in this post discussing the Tex-Mex Ramen noodles she found in an Italian grocery store.

When I visit her blog and see that she's got a new post, I'm careful to put down my cup of tea and swallow before I start reading.  Otherwise, there's a good chance I'm going to spew tea all over my computer!

Rachel, please don't disappear again...

Who's on Government Assistance?

The New York Times has a fascinating map of the U.S. (view of a small section at right), showing county-by-county the percentage of people taking government assistance (of any kind).  There were lots of surprises on here for me...

The Weird Blue “Hollows” on Mercury...

The robotic MESSENGER mission to the planet Mercury has vastly extended our knowledge of that little orb.  One of the oddest things MESSENGER has found are bluish “hollows” dotting the surface, a feature not found so far on any other planet.  The photograph at right (click to enlarge) is on APOD.  You can learn more about the hollows here.

Once again, NASA's little robots are quietly pouring fascinating science data back to Earth – and at a bargain price compared with the relatively useless ISS...

Emmy Noether...

I'd never heard of Emmy Noether before I read this article, and I've read a lot of science history...

and One Drug to Shrink Them All...

I just had to sneak a LOTR reference in there!  But seriously, this looks very promising...

Headline of the Month...

From ScienceDaily:

Slime Mold Mimics Canadian Highway Network

The article involves oatmeal, maps, slime mold, and Canadians. What could go wrong?

Dave Carroll: 1, United Airlines: 0...

Via my lovely bride:

A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines. United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar (worth $3,500) during a flight. Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation. The Manager responded: "Good luck with that one, pal."

So he posted a retaliatory video on YouTube. The video has since received over 11 million hits. United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video. Naturally his response was: "Good luck with that one, pal."

Taylor Guitars sent the musician 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has led to a sharp increase in orders.

The Internet empowers ordinary people in ways that we're all still learning to recognize. As United found out to their chagrin, YouTube gives everybody a potential bully pulpit.

I'll be there have been a few revisions in the way they handle damaged or lost baggage claims!

Here's the (rather delicious) video:

An American Clothing Manufacturer...

...makes a statement on the “care tags” of clothing destined for France.  As always, click to enlarge...

Via reader Simi L.

Putting Smiley Faces on the Zeroes...

The cartoon at right appeared in this weekend's Wall Street Journal.

I think the cartoonist was imagining a business setting when he drew that.  But what came to my mind was our government bureaucracies – not the elected officials, but the hordes of appointed bureaucrats that run our vast government enterprises.  Putting smiley faces on the zeroes is exactly what they do every day as they find ways to put lipstick on the pigs – the many metrics that we use to measure what those bureaucrats are (allegedly) responsible for.

Consider the unemployment rate numbers, for example.  Over the years, the bureaucracy has repeatedly modified the number they feed to the news media to make it look artificially low.  To just about anyone not involved in the bureaucracy, it's rather obvious that a person is still unemployed even if they've completely given up on finding a job.  In fact, you might reasonably say that such a person is especially unemployed.  But our bureaucracy has defined them out of the unemployment rate, and their unemployment is not counted in the number they feed to the press.  That's but one of many, many examples of this stock-in-trade “trick” of the bureaucracy.

They're putting smiley faces on the zeros.

Remember that when you vote in November!

On North Korea...

Yesterday, on his visit to South Korea, Obama said this (part of a larger comment):

North Korea will achieve nothing by threats or provocations. Bad behavior will not be rewarded. There had been a pattern, I think, for decades in which North Korea thought if they had acted provocatively, then somehow they would be bribed into ceasing and desisting acting provocatively. What I've said to them consistently is rewarding bad behavior, turning a blind eye to deliberate provocations, trying to paper over these not just provocative words but extraordinarily provocative acts that violate international norms, that that's not obviously working.

This sounds like the right thing to say to the North Koreans. The trouble is that Obama's predecessors, all the way back to the Eisenhower administration, have said essentially the same thing, but behaved otherwise. The rest of the world, but most especially the U.S. and South Korea, keep telling the North Koreans that we will not reward them for bad behavior – and then we go ahead and reward them.  What passes for an upper class in North Korea has grown to be dependent on the food and other aid from the West.  Worst of all, they've learned (because we've trained them well) that if they do something outrageous (like, say, shelling a South Korean community), we'll respond with ... more aid.

I have no argument with Obama's rhetoric here; it remains to be seen whether he (unlike Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, or G.W. Bush) will break the pattern I just described.  I hope he will...

NGC 1300...

A big, beautiful barred-spiral galaxy, about 70 million light-years away, as seen by the Hubble Telescope.  From APOD, of course...

Morning Dog Walk...

It is cold (40°F) this morning, and there's a thick fog.  Everything outside is wet, and tiny droplets fill the air.  When you breathe in, water condenses on your nostrils.

This is sheer heaven for the three field spaniels.  They were nose down, snuffling at warp speed, for the entire walk.  There was some evidence of turkeys visiting our yard down by the gate; that got very special attention.  About half-way up our driveway, a few feet into the lawn (we have grass!), there was a spot that also got lots of attention, though I couldn't tell why.  Three brown stubs of tails were wagging like mad for our entire walk.

The border collie just couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about.  So far as he is concerned, fog just gets in the way of spotting pine cones that have been kicked.  You could almost hear him say “What is all this yucky stuff, anyway?”  The enhanced ability to smell means nothing to him.  The pine cone is everything.  Everything.

Our walk yesterday afternoon was completely different.  Wall-to-wall blue sky, warm sunshine.  Birds fluttering and chirping all around us, including bluebirds and hooded orioles.  The hummingbirds are not back in force yet; only a few so far.  We also heard ground squirrels (they have a short, high-pitched whistle) all around us.  Their population is way up, presumably due to the rich vegetation we have this year.  We heard quail off to the west, but close – in our yard.  Time to start putting out the corn!

The ceanothus are all in bloom in our yard, as are our two wisterias.  The acacia, walnuts, and liquid amber trees are all starting to leaf.  The eucalyptus all have a very strong, red new growth.  Our pines have “candlesticks” of new growth over a foot long.  Many of our manzanitas have a couple inches of new growth (spectacular for them!), including our largest specimen in the back yard (it's now over 30’ tall).

Spring has sprung!

Spelling Lesson...

Via my lovely bride:

Spelling Lesson

The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats........Rats

End of lesson. Test to follow in November, 2012

Remember, November is to be set aside as rodent extermination month.

Advice from Farmers...

There's some practical wisdom in these (from reader Jim M.):

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight and bull-strong.

Keep skunks and bankers at a distance.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered....not yelled.

Meanness don't just happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies; it messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty and look like an idiot.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about, ain't never gonna happen anyway.

Don't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good and honorable life, then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

Don't interfere with somethin' that ain't bothering you none.

Timin' has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

Live simply, love generously, care deeply,

Speak kindly, and leave the rest to God.

Don't pick a fight with an old man. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

Feynman Lectures...

Seven classic Feynman lectures, online...

An Artist's Commentary...

Artist Jon McNaughton has been in the news a several times over the past few years for his controversial political paintings.  The one at right, showing President Obama holding a burning U.S. Constitution, is his latest.  On his web site, the following text appears below the painting:

One Nation Under Socialism

“I pledge allegiance to the United States of America,
And not to an ideology, which can never stand,
One nation under socialism, divisive,
With no liberty or justice for anyone.”

This November, you will make a choice. Will you choose One Nation Under Socialism?

McNaughton’s Answers to Questions Regarding This Painting:

Why the title “One Nation Under Socialism?”
Our federal government has been moving in the direction of socialism for over one hundred years. Many presidents and politicians have compromised the Constitution as we have given away our freedoms under the guise of entitlements and government intervention. When the people are willing to sacrifice the next generation for their current lifestyles and allow the federal government to have all the power for an illusory mess of pottage—you have chosen One Nation Under Socialism.

What do you mean by an ideology, which can never stand?
I will not support an ideology, which will lead to the destruction of America. In the history of the world, never has there been a recorded example where Socialism has led to the betterment of the human condition or improved the liberty of the people. I know there are varying degrees and definitions of “socialism.” Even the European model of Democratic Socialism has proven to be a dismal failure. Do you want to see our country become like Greece, Italy, Portugal, or even Great Britain?

What do you mean by “divisive, with no liberty or justice for anyone?” Socialism uses the illusion of offering fairness and justice for everyone by redistributing the wealth of the nation; picking and choosing winners and losers. This administration has taken over our health care system, given bailouts to the automotive industry, banking industry and energy industry. They support the “Occupy Wall Street” movement of increased taxing of the rich to pay for the welfare of the “less rich.” The Constitution never guaranteed equal things—only equal rights and justice. In America we should be FREE TO SUCCEED and FREE TO FAIL!

At this very moment our Constitution is literally going up in flames. What will you do to preserve the Constitution and save America?

Why Socialism Failed … http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/why-socialism-failed/

Learn more at: http://www.mcnaughtonart.com

Interesting character. I don't know anything else about him, so I don't know whether he's expressing his genuine beliefs or just exploiting a market opportunity. After reading his web site, though, I'm inclined to the former...

The Oil Crisis, Explained...

Via my mom:

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country. Well, there's a very simple answer. Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn't know we were getting low. The reason for that is purely geographical. Our oil is located in Alaska, California, Coastal Florida, Coastal Louisiana, Coastal Alabama, Coastal Mississippi, Coastal Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Our dipsticks are located in DC.

Any questions? No? Didn't think so...

Civil War Photograph Collection...

The Atlantic has posted a collection of high-resolution Civil War photographs.  It's the best single collection I've seen. 

At right is one example, of a crew building a road...

GOP Race: the “Scores”...

563 Romney
263 Santorum
153 Gingrich
  50 Paul

The “magic number” is 1,144 (51% of the total).  Romney's got a long way to go to wrap that up.  A brokered convention is a real possibility...

Holy Areal Density, Batman!

In the hard disk business, the way to get more data capacity is to increase the number of bits you can store on a given piece of disk surface.  This is called “areal density”, and it's usually measured in bits per square inch.  Areal densities have been improving at a fairly steady rate ever since the '70s, and the density march continues.  Seagate has just demonstrated 1,000,000,000,000 bits per square inch (a terabit/sq. in.), and promises 60 TB (terabyte) disk drives as a result.  Wow!

Einstein Vindicated...

Excerpted from an article in today's WSJ by Michio Kaku:

But the floodgates finally burst open last week when a second group of physicists announced that they redid the entire experiment and found that Einstein was correct all along: Their neutrinos traveled at precisely the speed of light, not faster or slower.

What makes this second announcement so convincing is that they used much of the same apparatus as the previous group. They used the same particle accelerator at CERN, fired a beam of neutrinos over the same path, and used the same destination, a laboratory in Gran Sasso near Rome. The crucial difference between these two groups was the equipment used to measure the speed of the neutrinos. This gives enormous weight to the idea that the first group did not properly calibrate their instruments.

Last week the director for research at CERN, Sergio Bertolucci, issued a diplomatically worded statement that read, "The evidence is beginning to point towards the [earlier] result being an artifact of the measurement." Nobel Laureate Carlo Rubbia, a spokesman for the second group, was more blunt when he said, "We cannot be both right. One of us is wrong. I know who is right. We are right."

Since there is so much at stake, in the coming months more experiments will be done to verify this new result. But in the minds of most physicists the issue is now settled—Einstein's theory remains undefeated.

Do read the whole piece, as Dr. Kaku places this in context rather nicely...

Martian Dust Devil...

Peak.AR...

WIN!  Simon M. passed this little gem along.  I am in awe of this little enhanced-reality app.  All this awesomeness is free, too.

I downloaded the app in a few seconds (from the iTunes store), and fired it up.  There was no configuration required.  When it started up, I aimed my iPhone at the local horizon and got an image (through the iPhone's camera) much like the one at right (click to enlarge).

What you're seeing there is a realtime video display of whatever your smartphone is looking at, but the mountain peaks are overlaid with a little symbol and an annotation giving you the peak's name and altitude. 

I live in a fairly obscure valley (Lawson Valley) in the foothills of the coastal range in San Diego County.  The “peaks” immediately around me are really just the tops of slightly larger-than-average hills; all of them are less than 3,000' high.  Peak.AR knew the names and altitudes of every one of them – even several local peaks whose names I've never been able to find, not even on Geodetic Survey maps.  Peak.AR must have access to an amazingly large database of peaks!

Highly recommended, a 10 on the awesomometer.  Their home page is here.

Balance of Power...

Here's a fascinating chart of historical Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the nine “Great Powers”, back to the year 1 AD, and projected forward to 2050 (using a projection from Price Waterhouse Coopers).  Note that the timescale is non-linear, so be careful interpreting the trends.  The biggest surprise for me was India, pre-1800 – I don't know much about India's history, I guess.  As usual, click to enlarge...

Weep for Our Future...

Game On!

Via Simon M., this musical tribute to Rick Santorum.  So far as I've been able to discover, this video was not sponsored or paid for by the Santorum campaign; it appears to be a genuinely spontaneous expression of support for him.




I haven't commented on the Republican horse-race much, as I'm not finding it very interesting, and certainly not inspiring. It looks like it's coming down to one of three possibilities:

1. Romney (not exciting, not scary)
2. Santorum (slightly more exciting, much scarier)
3. Random candidate from a brokered convention (who knows what to think about that?)

The last time the Republicans had a brokered convention, Reagan emerged the winner.  That sounds great, except for one little niggling detail: there's no Reagan anywhere in sight...

Obama Blew the Grand Bargain...

An exposé in (of all places!) the Washington Post lays it all out quite nicely.  The bottom line: a grand fiscal bargain was within reach last year, but Obama – Obama alone – trashed it.

Now mind you I'm not entirely sure that the grand bargain would have been better than the current mess.  For instance, had we in fact reached a bargain, Obama's prospects for re-election would almost certainly have been better.  Nevertheless, it is dismaying to see the incompetence by our chief executive on display...

Our Political Class is Unserious...

That's not exactly new news, I know.  Alan Blinder has a piece in today's WSJ that nicely outlines the “fiscal cliff” we face in 2013.  That would be the cliff that our national politicians (a) created, and (b) are doing nothing whatsoever about.  His lead:

At some point, the spectacle America is now calling a presidential campaign will turn away from comedy and start focusing on things that really matter—such as the "fiscal cliff" our federal government is rapidly approaching.

The what? A cliff is something from which you don't want to fall. But as I'll explain shortly, a number of decisions to kick the budgetary can down the road have conspired to place a remarkably large fiscal contraction on the calendar for January 2013—unless Congress takes action to avoid it.

Well, that gives Congress plenty of time, right? Yes. But if you're like me, the phrase "unless Congress takes action" sends a chill down your spine—especially since the cliff came about because of Congress's past inability to agree.

Do go read the whole thing. It's quite depressing...

Snow on the Mountain...

At higher elevations in our local mountains, it's still cold enough for snow – and with the current storm, we have plenty of it.  Debbie and I took a drive up and around Cuyamaca Mountain yesterday afternoon.  These photos will give you some idea what we ran into.  We thought the snow-covered flowers (like the blue ceanothus below) were particularly beautiful.  As usual, click to enlarge...

Rainageddon Update...

We're now at 2.7 inches (7 cm) of rain for the storm (click to enlarge the graph at right), and the NEXRAD radar shows more headed our way.  The forecast calls for a 40% chance of rain today, then fair weather the rest of the week.  Man, are we wet!