Poem, with a twist of surprise...

Poem, with a twist of surprise...  Friend and former colleague Aleck L. sent this along.  A 14 year old boy wrote a poem.  Here's the beginning of it:

Our generation will be known for nothing.
Never will anybody say,
We were the peak of mankind.
That is wrong, the truth is
Our generation was a failure.
Thinking that
We actually succeeded
Is a waste. And we know
Living only for money and power
Is the way to go.

But wait until you see the rest of the story.  Be sure to read the whole article!

Cassiope mertensiana...

Cassiope mertensiana...  Via BPOD, of course...

Onlookers gape...

Onlookers gape...  The Onion, on the subject of ObamaCare.  Via reader and friend Larry E.

Autonomous freighters...

Autonomous freighters...  I'm expecting these to be the first widely-deployed autonomous vehicles, followed by trucks and trains (in that order).  The economics are so compelling that I don't see how it won't happen.  Even including expensive mitigation of safety concerns (e.g., quick-reaction teams pre-positioned worldwide), the economics are still compelling...

Why no one likes mathematicians...

Why no one likes mathematicians...  SMBC...

Shocking mugshots...

Shocking mugshots...  So proclaims this web site (which includes the lovely example at right along with 33 more), and after a perusal, I have to agree.  Also, “appetite-suppressing”, “sphincter-contracting”, and “panic-inducing.”  Yikes!

Cache Valley scene...

Cache Valley scene...  This is the scene this morning from the lot adjacent to my realtor's office.  I took it just after sunrise, looking west from the town of Providence (just south of Logan, Utah).

This afternoon I visited the County Recorder's office to pick up plats and legal property descriptions for the parcels of land we're buying.  If you've ever done something like this in San Diego (I have), you know it's a most painful experience: city traffic, scarce (and expensive) parking, long waits, surly clerical help, expensive and slow (and probably crappy) copies, and absolutely zero chance of meeting anyone with any real authority on a walk-in visit.

Here in Cache County, I drove up to the County Administration building and discovered a vast parking lot behind it, with dozens of empty spaces.  Those spaces were, of course, free.  Then I went to the wrong place to pick up what I needed, and some very friendly folks gently told me where I really needed to go (the Recorder's actual office).  I went there, and asked about getting the documents – and the County Recorder himself (a fellow named Mike Gleed) helped me locate and copy them.  Just like every other County employee I've met (about 10 at this point), he was extremely helpful, took the time to answer all my questions, no matter how crazy or ignorant – and had a smile and a cheerful attitude throughout.  Oh, and those documents cost me a whopping $3.50!

For anyone from southern California, getting quality, cheerful, friendly service from a government employee is a head-exploding experience.  Feels good, though.  Makes me want to go back for more...

What is this?

What is this?  As you drive north on I-15, just before you cross over from California to Nevada you'll see these three towers.  Each of them is surrounded by a small sea of steerable mirrors.  If you click the photo at right (which I took while zooming down the freeway at 75 mph) to embiggen it, you'll see that the second tower from the left is black, while the other two are shining brightly.  In reality, the two that are shining are so bright you can't look directly at them – they appear to be at least as bright as the sun.

The two that are shining here are operating power stations, and the mirrors around them have been aimed so that each of them reflects the sun onto the tower.  These mirrors move all day long, as the sun moves across the sky, to keep the reflected sunlight on target.  Thousands of these mirrors surround each tower, and collectively they focus enough light onto the flat black material of the tower to boil the water circulating under the skin.  That generated steam powers turbines that generate electricity – enough for 70,000 homes.

The black tower is just one that's not operational at the moment I took this photo.  It's mirrors are aimed so that they reflect light anywhere but on the tower.

These power stations have been in the news recently because birds have been flying near the towers.  When they do so, they are killed by the intense heat, and even partially cooked by the time they hit the ground below.  Environmentalists are, of course, trying to shut the power stations down.  Because the power stations are in California, I'd bet that they'll succeed...

Intermittent blogging alert!

Intermittent blogging alert!  I'm back up in Utah (drove all day yesterday), and I'll be up here for a couple of weeks doing the not-so-much-fun part of buying a new home: due diligence.  I get to spend my time with appraisers, inspectors, lawyers, and so forth.  Oh, joy!

Ajanta Caves...

Ajanta Caves...  My mom sent me some photos of this place, located slightly west of the geographic center of India.  I had never heard of the Ajanta Caves before, and I spent an hour or so just “exploring” them online, getting more and more amazed as I went.  The Wikipedia article is a good place to start, and here is a Google map to it...

We live in ridiculously convenient times...

We live in ridiculously convenient times...  That's the first sentence of a Wall Street Journal piece by Dave Barry (actually an excerpt from his latest book).  Go read, but please put down your hot morning beverage first...

Pater: We were manly men before we were ten...

Pater: We were manly men before we were ten...  Another post from my brother Scott, with a story about our dad:

We were manly men before we were ten.

At the tender age of six our father strapped a huge army issue back-pack jammed  full of heavy camping gear onto my short little self. It felt like it weighed a ton. Was wondering if maybe my brother had a lot less weight in his backpack although it looked sort of about the same bulky size. We had a long way to walk before we could park this tortuous load which seemed like cruel and unusual punishment. At the same time though it made me feel more grown up.

Our destination for the day was Chimney Pond. The backpack frame would scrape on the ground every once in a while and I found myself leaning forward more than usual to prevent this from ruining the thing.  Seemed like we almost had to run with all that weight (50-60 pounds?) to keep up with Dad's long strides. Every once in a while Dad let us stop to drink some water and have a small snack – like a few handfuls of gorp or maybe some pemmican.  What a relief it was to take off the backpack for a few minutes. For a teasing brief moment in time it felt like I weighed as much as a feather.

My way of thinking was to sneak as much weight in water and food as possible into my gut so that the backpack would weigh less. Dad taught us some survival skills along the way and spoke to us about the critters that lived around there. He also joked around some.  It seemed like it took forever to get to where we were going but it probably wasn't that many miles. No kid on earth knows what a perfect night of sleep feels like unless they have endured that much slavery and then experience breathing that cool clean mountain air while in la la land tucked in a warm sleeping bag.

Early next morning we were back on a trail heading for the top of Mt. Katahdin. There was a slight difference. The backpacks weighed much less than the day before.  After scrambling over humungous boulders and hiking quickly up steep slopes we did make it to the top. A brass marker on a cairn let us all know that we were a mile high. Off to the south (?) maybe about 100 feet away from the cairn was a cliff that Dad wanted us to sit on top of.  We did as we were told. Problem was our backpacks were now just about empty and they felt like sails on our backs with a 60 m.p.h. wind blowing hard at us. Thought for sure I was going to sail right off the top of that cliff. He instructed us to pick up rocks, throw them over the side and listen carefully for the sound of these rocks hitting bottom.  “Shout when you hear them hit.  I'm going to time you so I can calculate how far down it is to the bottom of that cliff.”  We all decided that this was one heck of a tall cliff because it took a while before we heard those rocks hit anything.

The next cliff experience was phenomenal. The knife edge. A scary long cliff on each side of you as you ran leaping over gaps in this narrow pathway. At times it was not all that narrow, but when it was narrow it gave you thrills and chills – that's for sure.  

After another heavenly night of sleep there was a treat in store for us who knew not what was next. A cool and refreshing swim for 5 minutes and not a second less. Actually this was cooler than your average cool refreshing swim.  35 degrees Fahrenheit I believe was the recorded temperature. We had no choice in the matter.  We were not allowed to leave the water until the 5 minutes were up. We asked several times if the 5 minutes were up and of course they weren't. That was the longest 5 minutes I'll ever experience.  When back at camp ( Long Pond, Lincoln Center, Maine ) my lips were bright blue and purple and I was still shivering from that swim. Caught a pneumonia or something about as bad and Mother Dear was pretty pissed off at Dad for almost killing me which was carrying it a little too far.

My own memories of that trip mostly agree with Scott's.  Those heavy backpacks on the way up to Chimney Pond – oh, those I definitely remember.  I didn't think I'd survive that hike :)  The relief on arriving at our Adirondack shelter was utterly overwhelming.  The swim in Chimney Pond is also an indelible memory, though I'm pretty sure the temperature was actually below freezing, due to dissolved minerals or salts – and there was ice along the edges.  I also remember sitting on the cliffs with our light packs, and throwing rocks over the side.  But most of all I remember the hike along the “Knife Edge” between Baxter Peak and Pamola Peak.  The photo at right (not mine) gives you a feeling for it.  That photo was taken looking south, toward Baxter peak.  That narrow rocky ridge is present for a good part of the length of the trail, and in places there are iron handholds pounded into the rock so that you can safely traverse especially narrow places.  I was thrilled by the feeling of height you get with a near-cliff on both sides of the narrow trail, and that knife edge in front of you as far as you could see.  Before I joined the Navy, I took one last hike on Katahdin, by myself, and I hiked the knife edge three times in a week – my favorite part of that entire gorgeous mountain...

I tow the line...

I tow the line...  A liberal (identified as only as DGCJ) writes something and uses the phrase “I tow the party line” – plainly meaning “I toe the partly line” instead.  Conservative commentator Daniel Greenfield calls him out on it, rather gently correcting him.  What do you suppose the result was?

Naturally, DGCJ asserted his correctness – certified by his political persuasion (liberal), credentials (Ph.D.), and makes several assertions he apparently considers belittling and conclusive, such as:

Thanks.  we both realize you were mentally outclassed from the beginning, but now you know why.  It's because I was born with superior cognitive functions, as a homosexual male.

and

I tow the party line, dummy
I just corrected you.  Nobody toes their car, do they?  They TOW it.  DUH!
And, the last laugh will be on you, my friend.  I don't troll.  I speak the truth and conservatives hate facts.  Science is not your friend.

Daniel uses this as a teaching moment.  Go learn...

The view from Mars...

The view from Mars...  Well, what it would be, if you were riding atop Curiosity!

The shame of That One...

The shame of That One...  Niall Ferguson on America's global retreat.  Very sad, for us old-fashioned Americans.  The progressives are cheering, though...

Fort Caroline found – in the wrong place...

Fort Caroline found – in the wrong place...  Fort Caroline was the first French settlement in the U.S., long believed to have been near present-day Jacksonville, Florida, but never found.  Until now, possibly: researchers recently announced that they've discovered the remains of the fort – in southern Georgia!  This is a controversial discovery, overturning decades of scholarship – but it has the interesting advantage of actual, you know, evidence.  I'll be keeping an eye on this one...

Solar time vs. local time...

Solar time vs. local time...  Here's a wonderful map (full resolution version) of the difference between Solar time and local time zones over the entire Earth.  This difference is what accounts for sunrises and sunsets being later or earlier (by clock time) in different locations around the globe.  This is the kind of data that really needs a good graphical treatment, and the creator of this map (Stefano Maggiolo) has done it brilliantly...

More Mann-ly takedown...

More Mann-ly takedown...  From the irreplaceable Steve McIntyre, of course.  This time he demolishes Mann's characterization of the Muir Russell inquiry...

Ukraine – events happening too fast to keep up with...

Ukraine – events happening too fast to keep up with...  It appears that in the past 24 hours, a peace agreement was signed, a truce immediately violated, Parliament restored the 2004 Constitution and voted to release the former Prime Minister (Yulia Tymoshenko), police and military reportedly “defected” to the protesters, current President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital of Kiev, the Parliament voted to remove Yanokovych, Tymoshenko is released and is heading for Independence Square, and demonstrators took over the entire city of Kiev, including all government offices.  Yanokovych vows to remain in the country and in power, calling the demonstrators “bandits”, as he has for the past three months.

After months of sometimes-bloody conflict, this is quite an amazingly rapid progression.  So far as I can tell, it's all good news, too – but it's certainly not over yet.  Yanokovych could conceivably lean on Putin to supply the muscle needed to restore himself to power.  Internal forces may yet be able to do the same.  I have no idea how it's going to end up, but it looks hopeful right at the moment...

Some relevant reading for you here, here, and here... 

Working 1 to 5...

Working 1 to 5...  Wait, what???  Reason and Remy, together again...

The Mann he loves...

The Mann he loves...  Michael Mann, the posturing, stuffed-hat, litigation-prone “climatologist” from Penn State filed a libel suit against Mark Steyn for articles Steyn wrote poking fun at Mann's work.  Now Steyn has filed a counter-suit (text here) with two multimillion dollar claims against Mann (a fairly standard tactic in the defense of any lawsuit – make it as painful for the other guy as you can).  Between these two lawsuits, a vigorous discovery process is almost certain.  That means all of the emails and documents that Mann has so carefully be refusing to make public ... will become public if introduced in the trial.  From the ClimateGate emails, we already know there's a rich trove of material there that will defend Steyn's statements – and you can bet those will be introduced into evidence.  Read the text of Steyn's complaint – it's far better written, with wit and humor, than any complaint I've ever read.

Stock up on popcorn, folks!

A murmuration of starlings...

A murmuration of starlings...  Beautiful mini-documentary, sent to me by reader Simi L...

Farmer's Almanac: 1, NOAA: 0...

Farmer's Almanac: 1, NOAA: 0...  The Farmer's Almanac predicted an unusually cold winter this year.  The NOAA did not.  Neither did the IPCC, who said global warming would be particularly “visible” this winter.  Yeah, not so much.  Via reader and friend Larry E...

What's the alternative to ObamaCare?

What's the alternative to ObamaCare?  Well, at one point we had BushCare proposed.  I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, as it was obviously dead on arrival at Congress.  Now, looking back on it, it sure sounds good by comparison...

Music of the printer...

Music of the printer...  I'm a big Wallace & Grommit fan, so naturally their theme played on a dot-matrix printer is my favorite – but there are quite a few more to hear, too...

They have free time all week long!

They have free time all week long!  10 tips for Japanese travelers to the U.S.  I've always found it interesting to learn how other cultures view ours...

Okay, now I know that I'm never flying to Bilbao, Spain!

Okay, now I know that I'm never flying to Bilbao, Spain!  Watch the videos of Bilbao landings below to see why:

It hurt my sphincter just to watch these – imagine what it would be like to be on those planes!

“Risk Corridors” being extended?

“Risk Corridors” being extended?  There's lots of chatter about this at the moment.  Extending the ObamaCare risk corridors is such a stupid idea, and will so obviously cost the taxpayers money, that we can pretty much assume That One's administration of bozos will do it.  Megan McArdle has the skinny, and she concludes (after stating the obvious: that extending the risk corridors would be illegal):

Of course, the administration has gotten creative before, so don’t count it out. But if it does extend the program, it is basically confessing two things: It thinks the law is whatever it says it is, and it never really cared how much the program cost.

Yup.

If you've been paying attention, this isn't news...

If you've been paying attention, this isn't news...   But if you don't know much about North Korea, this report may shock and surprise you...

A craftsman at work...

A craftsman at work...  Steve McIntyre absolutely demolishes one of Michael Mann's key assertions in his ridiculous libel suit against Mark Steyn and the National Review.  It's a pleasure to read Steve's meticulous work...

Another Communist state is dying before our very eyes...

Another Communist state is dying before our very eyes...  I'm speaking of Venezuela, of course.  Progressives – the heretofore loud promoters of Hugo's variety of Communism, rebranded as “socialism” to make to more palatable to Americans – are studiously ignoring the ugly collapse.  People suffering?  Move along now, nothing to see here.

I used to buy slide rules (which, as my long-time readers know, I collect) from a fellow in Caracas.  We had a few email conversations about the politics after Hugo took power.  Then one day he stopped responding to my emails.  A little later, I got a reply saying that his email address had been deleted.  I sent snail mail; it was returned.  His ads are no longer on eBay.  I fear the worst for him, and I am afraid that his political openness on email may have contributed to his undoing...

Situation: deteriorating, with people dying...

Situation: deteriorating, with people dying...  That's Ukraine right now, in a nutshell. The police and armed forces are attacking protesters, and over 20 died last night.  Reason has a good roundup.  The Wall Street Journal notes, disapprovingly, the absence of any effective intervention by the EU or US.

Americans have been struggling with how to respond to human rights outrages in foreign countries ever since the U.S. was founded.  There's a continuous spectrum of positions, from complete isolationism (no foreign involvement unless there's a direct threat to the U.S.) to being the world's policeman (intervening militarily every time a foreign government does something we don't like).  I struggle with this myself.  In this case, I don't think we should intervene militarily in Ukraine – but I do think we should be doing everything we can, covertly and overtly, to support the people fighting for their freedom.  I also think we should be doing everything we can to make life difficult for the supporters of the thugocracy there – mainly Vladimir Putin and his Russian thugocracy.  Unfortunately, That One's administration is doing virtually the opposite.

Well, what else would you expect from a would-be thugocrat with Hugo-envy?

Everybody seems to have their own “facts”...

Everybody seems to have their own “facts”...  What effect does raising the minimum wage have on employment?  Here are three answers.  I'll let you judge which one is more credible:

Historical experience: every single time in American history that the minimum wage was raised (including it's initial establishment in 1938), employment has gone down significantly.  Two major factors contribute to the reduction of employment.  First, as the minimum wage rises some jobs cost more than they are worth to the employer.  When I was a kid, sweepers and floor cleaners were a ubiquitous feature of retails stores.  I haven't seen a floor cleaner for years; now that job is done much less often (and usually less skillfully) by other employees as an adjunct responsibility.  Second, as the minimum wage rises some jobs can be economically replaced by automation.  For an object lesson in this phenomenon, visit a modern warehouse (such as Amazon's) or a modern shipyard (like Newark or Los Angeles).  The number of “muscle” jobs is remarkably small compared to what they were like when I was a kid.

The CBO: operating under bizarre and politically biased rules, even the CBO predicts that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs (though less than experience would suggest).

Obama: raising the minimum wage will cost zero jobs.  Their main arguments seem to be that the CBO has no idea what it's talking about, and historical experience is irrelevant – it'll be different this time.

There's something wrong with that...

There's something wrong with that...  Indeed.

Food for thought...

Food for thought...  Peggy Noonan:

We’re at a funny point in our political culture. To have judgment is to be an elitist. To have dignity is to be yesterday. To have standards is to be a hypocrite—you won’t always meet standards even when they’re your own, so why have them?

My first thought: I'm so very tired of this. 

My second thought: Debbie and I just experienced government of a very different – call it old-fashioned – kind, on our recent visit to Utah.  It was refreshing and invigorating, and I want more...

Thermopsis rhombifolia...

Thermopsis rhombifolia...  Via BPOD, of course...

Curiosity looks back after crossing Dingo Gap on Mars...

Curiosity looks back after crossing Dingo Gap on Mars...  Via APOD, of course...

Popping bubble-wrap is a universal therapy...

Popping bubble-wrap is a universal therapy...

Great demonstration of afterimages...

Great demonstration of afterimages... 

The most beautiful formula...

The most beautiful formula...  The MRIs prove it!  For my non-mathematical readers (I'm looking at you, mom): that formula is known as “Euler’s identity”, one of the many discoveries and results of the 18th century Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler.

How North ended up on top...

How North ended up on top...  For most of us, “north up” map orientation seems natural and obvious – but it's actually a purely cultural phenomenon.

It reminds me a bit of early Arctic explorer's astonishment when Eskimos were given photos – they never bothered to turn them right side up.  To them, any viewing angle worked just fine.  Research discovered that our inclination to turn photos right side up was correlated with reading – as soon as Eskimos learned how to read, they turned their photos right side up too!

How wolves change rivers...

How wolves change rivers...  A clear explanation of trophic cascades, with some beautiful cinematography to accompany it – scenery and wildlife from Yellowstone National Park.  You'll want to play this one in full-screen mode...

One inch of snow...

One inch of snow...  Could happen here in California, too...

A sad day here...

A sad day here...  When we came home late Friday night, we noticed that Boots (our oldest cat) had very labored breathing.  That's her at right, in one of her happier times – sitting in the sun, with a dog (Mo'i) as her companion (she especially loved Lea, our female field spaniel).  About four years ago she was diagnosed with pleural effusion, and the prognosis was for a few months of normal life followed by rapid onset of increasingly difficult breathing.  At her age (12 or 13 at the time), there was no realistic treatment option.  Boots was a feral rescue who we captured as an adult, so we don't know exactly how old she was.  We've been very lucky with her – our vet called her the “miracle kitty” because she survived so long with the pleural effusion.  But when we saw the labored breathing, we were immediately afraid that her luck had finally run out.  Then when we couldn't get her to eat at all, we were pretty sure.

Our wonderful vet, Dr. Christine Wilson (aka “Dr. C”), let us come in today (on a Sunday!) to check Boots out.  She confirmed the labored breathing and the bad short-term prognosis, and added that she could go into respiratory distress (in other words, start suffocating) at any time.  We decided it was time to say goodbye, before she started to suffer.  Dr. C gave her some oxygen to make her breathing easier, and Boots shoved her little face into the mask to suck up that air; it clearly made her feel better.  We held her and talked to her as she went, very peacefully.   A little later, I buried her under our pines with some of her former companions.

It will be sad around our house for a while.  Boots was the third kitty we've lost to the complications of old age in just the past six months...

Koch brothers are only the 59th most evil...

Koch brothers are only the 59th most evil...  And most of the really big political cash donations go to Democrats.  No real surprise here, but it does very nicely highlight the outrageous hypocrisy of the left in their complaints about campaign donors.  Stripped of hypocrisy and spin, what the progressives are really saying is that it's evil for people to donate money to conservatives or libertarians, in any amount – and it's laudatory for people to donate to progressives, in any amount...

Debbie and I just finished spending two weeks in a place where conservatives are the overwhelming majority (Cache Valley, Utah).  We also experienced some novelties unseen in California for decades, such as efficient, competent government.  Friendly, readily available, and expert civil servants.  And common sense, pragmatic people as far as the eye can see.  It was refreshing and invigorating.  If there has to be a revolution in this country to rid ourselves of the progressive plague, it's communities like that who will supply the revolutionaries.  And the guns...

Happy cows...

Happy cows...  Just watch...

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  This time, from a young former colleague of mine who is still a good friend.  He has spent his entire short career in small companies – startups – but the company he works for now (the same company I retired from) is growing very quickly, and now has well over 1,000 employees.

Small technology startups are generally fairly pure meritocracies – the people who do well are those who are good at their work.  As companies get bigger, the “political” aspects of organizations start taking effect.  In particular, it (usually) becomes possible to advance and become powerful within the organization without actually being very good at what you do.  Those “political” skills can serve a person just as well – or even better – than actually being good at your job.  Some people thrive in such an environment.  I do not.

My friend is just starting to learn what this means.  He sent me an email yesterday describing a situation that occurred at work, and made some astute observations about exactly what happened – and he's projected the political maneuverings forward and realized he's about to have others take credit for the good work that he's done.  Most people, including him, really hate having other steal the credit for good work they've done.

At the end of his email, my friend said this:

I can only imagine such politics must happen all the time. It is a crafty and despicable art.

It's sad when innocence is lost – but it's a valuable life lesson.  I think my friend will be just fine...

Back home...

Back home...  We got back home late last night, and now we face the giant pile of chores, mail, maintenance, etc. that managed to accumulate while we were gone...

Despondency is a rational reaction...

Despondency is a rational reaction...  Fifty eight percent of American young adults (18 - 24) believe that astrology is either “scientific” or “sort of scientific” (see page 7-26).  In China, it's only eight percent of the entire population, and it's even less in their young adults...

“Trophy kids”...

“Trophy kids”...  The Atlantic is running a piece adapted from Megan McArdle's new book, which I have not yet read.  These paragraphs sound like my own concerns about the young engineers I was hiring in the U.S. a few years ago:

About six years ago, commentators started noticing a strange pattern of behavior among the young millennials who were pouring out of college. Eventually, the writer Ron Alsop would dub them the Trophy Kids. Despite the sound of it, this has nothing to do with “trophy wives.” Rather, it has to do with the way these kids were raised. This new generation was brought up to believe that there should be no winners and no losers, no scrubs or MVPs. Everyone, no matter how ineptly they perform, gets a trophy.

As these kids have moved into the workforce, managers complain that new graduates expect the workplace to replicate the cosy, well-structured environment of school. They demand concrete, well-described tasks and constant feedback, as if they were still trying to figure out what was going to be on the exam. “It’s very hard to give them negative feedback without crushing their egos,” one employer told Bruce Tulgan, the author of Not Everyone Gets a Trophy. “They walk in thinking they know more than they know.”

Time to order that book!

The martyrdom of Mark Steyn...

The martyrdom of Mark Steyn...  Excellent piece by James Delingpole about Mann v. Steyn...

Speechless, I am...

Speechless, I am...  Watch these crazy people wind-surfing in a hurricane off Cornwall's coast.  They make me feel almost normal...

X-rays of everyday things...

X-rays of everyday things...  Lots more here...

Something very American is at risk...

Something very American is at risk...  Mark Steyn's battle with Michael Mann has import far beyond the immediate issue.  Robert Tracinski has a good discussion here...

You won't know it until the end, but this is an ad...

You won't know it until the end, but this is an ad...  A tear-jerker of a story with a most happy ending...

This is one of them!

This is one of them!  Exciting things that I have no interest in doing, that is...

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a giant flying potato!

It's a bird!  It's a plane!  It's a giant flying potato!  Actually, it's the asteroid Itokawa, and it is mysteriously free of craters.  Via APOD, of course...

Squirrel hides nut in dog's fur...

Squirrel hides nut in dog's fur...  More squirreliness here...

Utah today...

Utah today...  At right is what our FJ looked like at 9 am this morning.  Note the snow on the picnic table and footbridge in the background toward the left.  It continued to snow on and off all day long.

The view out of our cabin window looks a bit like a Currier & Ives winter print.  As I write this, the hillside opposite us has a small herd of deer on it, browsing the shrubs for forage.

We've located a home that we like a lot, but it would take a bit of work to make the grounds as we want them.  We're working with a great local realtor now to see if we can put all the pieces together to get ourselves a little homestead – and if we manage it, our future address will be in Paradise, Utah.  If things work out right, we'll have about 15 acres of land, with trees to screen us from our neighbors, a pond, and plenty of irrigation water.

The people here have been wonderful, like most of the rest of our Utah experiences.  We're not surprised by this, but it's comforting to be able to confirm it...

The priest's retirement dinner...

The priest's retirement dinner...  Via my mom...

A priest was being honored at his retirement dinner after 25 years in the parish. A leading local politician and member of the congregation was chosen to make the presentation and to give a little speech at the dinner.

However, the politician was delayed, so the Priest decided to say his own few words while they waited:

'I got my first impression of the parish from the first confession I heard here. I thought I had been assigned to a terrible place. The very first person who entered my confessional told me he had stolen a television set and, when questioned by the police, was able to lie his way out of it. He had stolen money from his parents, embezzled from his employer, had an affair with his boss's wife, taken illegal drugs, and gave VD to his sister. I was appalled. But as the days went on I learned that my people were not all like that and I had, indeed, come to a fine parish full of good and loving people.'

Just as the Priest finished his talk, the politician arrived full of apologies at being late. He immediately began to make the presentation and gave his talk:

'I'll never forget the first day our parish Priest arrived,' said the politician. 'In fact, I had the honor of being the first person to go to him for confession.'

Moral : Never, Never, Never Be Late

Grumpy Cat: 1, Obama: 0...

Grumpy Cat: 1, Obama: 0...  Via my lovely bride...

Jogging with Bill...

Jogging with Bill...  Via my lovely bride.  I suspect this may be a joke :)

Bill Clinton started jogging near his home in Chappaqua, New York.

But on each run he happened to jog past a hooker standing on the same street corner, day after day. With some apprehension he would brace himself as he approached her for what was most certainly to follow.

"Fifty dollars!" she would cry out from the curb.

"No, Five dollars!" fired back Clinton.

This ritual between Bill and the hooker continued for days.

He'd run by and she'd yell, "Fifty dollars!"

And he'd yell back, "Five dollars!"

One day however, Hillary decided that she wanted to accompany her husband on his jog. As the jogging couple neared the problematic street corner, Bill realized the "pro" would bark her $50 offer and Hillary would wonder what he'd really been doing on all his past outings. He realized he should have a darn good explanation for the former Secretary of State. As they jogged into the turn that would take them past the corner, Bill became even more apprehensive than usual.

Sure enough, there was the hooker!

Bill tried to avoid the prostitute's eyes as she watched the pair jog past.

Then, from the sidewalk, the hooker yelled: “See what you get for five bucks!?"

Pervasive corruption...

Pervasive corruption...  This article about the effects of pervasive corruption in Afghanistan is an eye-opener.  Most Americans have no experience at all with corruption this profound, and that makes it very hard to really grasp what it does.  I have some experience, from New Jersey in my childhood, to southeast Asia in the '70s, to Russia in the '90s and '00s.  Russia was particularly bad (and I understand it's considerably worse now, and organized), but it was never as bad as the Afghanistan this article describes...

POV video of Felix Baumgartner's jump...

POV video of Felix Baumgartner's jump...  I loved skydiving, and I especially loved high jumps.  The two I made from 20,000 and 25,000 feet, with oxygen, were the highlights of my skydiving experiences.  But what Felix did was in an entirely different category – I'm not sure I'd have the cojones to do it, though I'll admit that I'd sure like to have the opportunity...

Useful tools for dealing with progressives...

Useful tools for dealing with progressives...  Logical fallacies, listed and explained.  I used this to understand something James Taranto wrote :)

One very lucky skydiver...

One very lucky skydiver...  That is, lucky to have been jumping with experienced and competent buddies...

We're up in Utah...

We're up in Utah...  Smithfield, to be exact.  For an inhabitant of Southern California, the scene outside our cabin (at right) is highly abnormal :)

Yesterday's drive should have taken us about 12 hours, but it ended up being closer to 15 hours.  First, we got caught behind a pileup on the I-215, and blew about an hour and a half scooting around that.  Then when we got all the way up to Nephi, Utah, we ran into a stretch of I-15 that was completely closed – and that involved a 30 mile detour on country roads in a snowstorm while temperatures hovered at the freezing mark.  What fun!  The snowy landscapes were fun for us to see, though...

On the way through St. George, UT, we decided to stop for some ice cream.  Purely by accident, we stumbled onto Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers, where we both had a chocolate malt.  Yum!

Today we're going to relax and rest a bit, get a feel for what winter up here is really like, and start our explorations...

Lea...

Lea...  We're at the veterinary hospital with her right now, waiting until her first treatment is finished and we can take her home.

First, some good news: the two most likely places for canine melanoma (the kind of cancer she has) to metastasize outside the mouth are the lymph nodes and the lungs.  The first order of business here today was some more sophisticated diagnostics to assess that, and ... she's clear on both fronts.  No sign of any movement of the cancer outside her mouth.

After consulting with the oncologist here, we decided to opt for radiation treatment to the areas of her head where there are likely some cancerous cells remaining after the surgery.  The side effects of such localized radiation treatments are minimal, and we don't think they're likely to impact Lea's quality of life in any significant way.  The most likely outcome of this treatment is that we'll have three to six months more with Lea in good shape ... which is probably not much different than we'd have had even if she was disease-free, given her age.

The oncologist (Dr. Burke) was great at giving us straight answers to our questions, and at providing advice and recommendations.  We never felt any pressure to take any particular route, but we felt well-informed to make a good decision.

Debbie had a great idea for this visit: she brought Lea's favorite blanket, the one she spends most nights lying on.  Lea is normally very nervous at the vet, trembling in fear – but not today.  She even fell asleep a few times while we were waiting...

For now, we just wait for her to come out of that first treatment...

Beautiful X-rays...

Beautiful X-rays...  Plant and animal X-rays, partially colorized, as art...

Our economic future...

Our economic future...  There's a big debate amongst economists these days about the long term effects of technology – especially automation – on the economy.  This topic arises often in discussions of income inequality and high unemployment (especially with respect to low employment ratios).  The debate boils down to this: when automation replaces human workers, what happens to those workers?

Many former formerly manual jobs have already been subsumed by automation.  Many, many industrial robots are at work in factories all over the world, though they are mostly invisible to people.  I've been surprised how many people have no idea these robots exist.  But lesser examples abound.  If you'd like to see an example, take a close look inside your local McDonald's restaurant someday.  Those coffee cups are filled automatically, including sugar and cream.  The fries are lifted out of the deep fat automatically, just at the perfect time.  In fact, a typical McDonald's has several dozen automated production machines – all replacing a formerly human job.

What has economists debating this now is that we're on the cusp of a lot more such automation, and it's going to start getting a lot more visible to people.  Jobs that people tend to think of as not possible to automate are, in fact, going to be automated.  Here's one example.  Some others that seem likely: truck drivers, mail delivery, and farming – all of which have simply enormous economic efficiencies to be gained, and all of which are in the development pipeline.  Not research pipeline, mind you – engineers are working on these products right now, to be delivered within a year or two.  Some of them, especially in farming, are actually being delivered right now – there's a good chance that the last apple you ate was picked by machine, for instance.

So what do the apple-pickers do after a machine takes over their job?  One camp argues that they will all be able to find jobs such as maintaining or building the robots, after sufficient training.  Another camp basically says they're screwed; once automation takes all the jobs that don't require creativity, there will be nothing left for them to do – and there either won't be enough creative jobs, or they won't be capable of doing them.

The first position sounds unreasonably optimistic to me.  If 100,000 postal workers are displaced by Googlebots, are they all going to find work oiling and polishing their robot overlords?  The economics of that wouldn't work at all, and experience with modern technology would lead one to conclude that the reliability will more resemble that of a 2014 Toyota than a 1935 Ford.  And would those postal workers get retrained to work in a creative field?  I don't know what your experience with postal workers has been, but on average the ones I've met would have a hard time creating a ham sandwich.  I can't see them building the next great iPhone app.

So I'm a bit pessimistic about this, in the sense that I don't see all these people finding satisfying, productive employment.  And that sounds like a big problem to me – because what's the alternative?  A huge welfare state supported by a creative minority and a robot majority?  That would be a very different kind of society than the one I grew up in.  How could all those people find fulfillment and happiness?  I associate those things with useful work, but clearly not everybody does.  Are we going to build a brave new world where the majority of people are content and happy to be living off the productive work of a creative majority?  How would such a society work?  And in particular, how would a representative democracy work, when the majority are the takers?

I don't have any real answers to these questions.  They're just topics for me to worry about.  Anybody have any good answers?

Pacific Crest Trail...

Pacific Crest Trail ... in just six minutes...

Light blogging alert...

Light blogging alert...  I expect to be on the road for the next two weeks, with uncertain Internet access.  Tweets will be easier than blog posts, so you may see more activity from me there than on the blog...

Photo of the day...

Photo of the day...  It's my blog, I can have two if I want to!  Via TwistedSifter...

What a government shutdown should look like...

What a government shutdown should look like...  Via my lovely bride:

Arizona cowboy whisperer...

Arizona cowboy whisperer...  Via reader Simi L., who says “This is one of my three all-time favorite jokes!!”...

Cowboy: 'That your dog?'Indian: 'Yep.'
Cowboy: 'Mind if I speak to him?'
Indian: 'Dog no talk.'
Cowboy: 'Hey dog, how's it going?'
Dog: 'Doin' all right.'
Indian: (Look of shock!)
Cowboy: 'Is this Indian your owner?' (pointing at the Indian...)
Dog: 'Yep.'
Cowboy: 'How's he treating you?'
Dog: 'Real good. He walks me twice a day, feeds me great food and takes me to the lake once a week to play.'
Indian: (Look of total disbelief)
Cowboy: 'Mind if I talk to your horse?'
Indian: 'Horse no talk.'
Cowboy: 'Hey horse, how's it going?'
Horse: 'Cool.'
Indian: (Extreme look of shock!)
Cowboy: 'Is this your owner?' (Pointing to the Indian...)
Horse: 'Yep.'
Cowboy: 'How's he treating you?'
Horse: 'Pretty good, thanks for asking, he rides me, brushes me down often and keeps me in a lean-to to protect me from the weather.'
Indian: (Look of total amazement)
Cowboy: 'Mind if I talk to your sheep?'
Indian: 'Sheep lie.'

Photo of the day...

Photo of the day...  Via Smithsonian...

Lea...

Lea...  Just got back from another vet visit, and this time all the results are hopeful sounding.  X-rays of her lungs show no visible tumors.  Dr. C. did a fine needle aspiration of one of her lymph nodes, and there's not visible sign of malignancy there (though the slides are now out for cytology).  Next step: appointment with an oncologist on Wednesday morning.

Lea continues to look and behave like a completely well, but slightly ancient dog.  We took off her “cone of shame” this morning, and she's very happy about that...

Earthquakes: not just a California thing...

Earthquakes: not just a California thing...  The redder the area on the map at right, the higher the risk of hazardous earthquakes. 

I knew about the New Madrid (Missouri) area being a risk, and also the Yellowstone hot spot – but South Carolina?  That was a complete surprise to me...

Cats: 1 Toilet Paper: 0...

Cats: 1  Toilet Paper: 0...  Imagine sharing your home with seven of these vicious monsters!  I'm living that dream...

Schumer: use the IRS to stomp on the Tea Party...

Schumer: use the IRS to stomp on the Tea Party...  Progressives really, really don't like the Tea Party – and I'm taking this as a measure of just how frightened those entitled progressives are at the very thought that someone, somewhere, might want a little more of that American dream: freedom.

What a knucklehead!

Cartography has advanced a bit...

Cartography has advanced a bit...  Here's Mercator's original map of the Arctic.  Much of it is simply made up...

Martian dirt...

Martian dirt...  Curiosity is peering intently at this patch of dirt, using its MAHLI (Martian Hand Lens Imager).  No word yet on why scientists are interested in this particular dirt.

The image is a “focus merge” product, using several images merged to create a greater depth of field than is possible by purely optical means...

Surface of the sun...

Surface of the sun ... in ultraviolet light.  Via APOD, of course.

Surreal Ukraine...

Surreal Ukraine...  Catapults, Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and a wide assortment of homemade weapons.  The opposition seems very determined; the government forces overwhelmingly superior – but the opposition isn't fighting conventionally at all.  Yesterday came the first signs of political capitulation, when President Viktor Yanukovych offered the position of Prime Minister to one of the opposition's leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk.  Mr. Yatsenyuk has not accepted the offer, and he says protests will continue.  It seems clear that the opposition is looking for victory, not compromise.

This blog is reporting from the front lines in Kyev (Kiev), and includes many photos.

I visited Kiev about 15 years ago on a business trip; the company I was working for was considering opening a software development branch there.  We ended up deciding against it, mainly because of concern for the political stability.  Looks like that was a good call, though it took a long time to get to this state...

The economy sucks!

The economy sucks!

The economy has been getting worse since That One took office.
Today I received a pre-declined credit card.
Exxon-Mobil had to lay off 25 Congressmen.
Angelina Jolie is now adopting children from America.
Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.
A picture is now only worth about 200 words.
They renamed Wall Street to “Wal-Mart Street.”

Lost dog...

Lost dog...  Reader and fellow Jamulian Steve K. reports seeing a lost dog near the intersection of Lyons Valley Road and Jamul Highlands Road.  Steve reports that he has a collar and tag, but won't let him get close enough to snag him.

If this might be your dog, please get down there and get this poor fellow to a safe place!

Rosetta animation...

Rosetta animation...  The Rosetta team at ESA has put up a gorgeous animation of the entire Rosetta mission.  It's a huge web application that takes a while to download, so be patient.  It's worth it!  You can manipulate a slider to show the incredibly complex orbit they used to reach the comet in a fuel-efficient way, boomeranging around several planets.  Be sure to use the little i icon to get directions, and just below that there's a speaker icon you can click to mute the music...

Pater: Excitement with Jello...

Pater: Excitement with Jello...  My brother Scott wrote today's story about my dad.  This is the first of several such stories he has sent to me.

Excitement with Jello

While I was a teenager, Mother Dear was cooking a special dinner. She pulled a large bowl of red jello out of the fridge and set it on the kitchen table. Pater watched with obvious delight as the stuff wiggled all around in the bowl. He commented out loud to everyone in the kitchen about how it was moving around as if it were alive.

“I wonder what it would look like if I dropped something in it ?” he asked excitedly.

Then he ran to the refrigerator and rummaged around looking for that something.  He found a hard boiled egg and when back at the table pulled out a chair, leaped up on to it and then with an insane grin on his face he hovered over top of the bowl of jello.   With his tongue playing over his lips and showing intent concentration he held the egg up high and then let it go ... splat – right on target into the middle of the jello.  It wobbled like mad.

“Neat!” he shouted. “Let's do it again!”

Not realizing or not caring that some visitors showed up at the door he once more let the egg go with precision aim and once more he shouted with glee as the egg created waves of jiggling shiny color which for some reason was high quality entertainment.  The adults that were just let in stared at Pater with worry, disbelief and shock.  They had a look on their faces that read something like...

“Should we call the men in the white coats ?”
“Are we at the right place?”
“Maybe we better get out of here – this guy might be dangerous!”

I don't remember this specific incident myself, but I remember many others like it.  Dropping an egg onto Jello to watch the interesting visual result was entirely consistent with my dad's character and behavior.  And he certainly wouldn't give a hoot if there was a disapproving or worried observer :)

Notes: “Mother Dear” is a family nickname for my mom.  “Pater” is a nickname the family gave my dad.

Nemophila maculata...

Nemophila maculata...  Via BPOD, of course...

On that Google outage...

On that Google outage...  The interwebs are filled with the rantings of people either raging at Google or poking fun at Google for their 30 to 60 minute outage last night.  Google has explained it in a blog post, and apologized to its users.

Me?  I continue to be astounded at the reliability that Google (and a few others, notably Amazon) have been able to achieve for applications at that scale.  I've worked in that world a bit – my last job was with ServiceNow, a company with a moderate scale cloud application, but certainly not nearly the scale of, say, GMail.  Add to that reliability the fact that Google supplies GMail to personal users for free (that is, no direct charge), and you've got something really quite remarkable.

Could they do better on reliability?  Certainly, though not by much – Google's uptime record isn't all that far from perfect.  Do they deserve rage or mocking?  I don't think so...

Lea...

Lea...  We just heard from our vet with the biopsy results, and it's all bad.  Damn.  She told us it's a “hot” (meaning aggressive) melanoma, the worst case.  We need more diagnostics to figure what our options are, so she goes back on Monday for lung X-rays and biopsy on her lymph nodes.  If the melanoma has already spread out of her mouth, there are no good treatment options.  If it's still contained to her mouth, radiation therapy is a possibility – but even that depends on how much further the melanoma has spread.  There's a good chance that our best option is palliative care, and that only while it still makes sense.

We've got some tough choices ahead for our old girl...

This is one bad-ass beetle!

This is one bad-ass beetle!  I thought I was being put on at first – I'd never heard of a “Bombardier Beetle” before, and it sounded like something Hollywood invented.  But Wikipedia says they're real (and we all know that Wikipedia never lies!), and according to this blog, the animated GIF at right is also for real.

And they're in California!  This paper about their spray mechanism mentions that they captured some of their study subjects in California.

Further googling shows that creationists have fixed on these guys as supposed examples of something that couldn't possibly have evolved.

So...holy smokin' beetle, Batman!

Disney's “Let It Go” in 25 languages...

Disney's “Let It Go” in 25 languages... The world is getting smaller every day...

My readers of a certain age may remember a phenomenon called “pen pals” – surely dead and gone in these days of email, texts, FaceTime, and Skype.  I had several pen pals as a kid, arranged through a service advertising in the back of a magazine.  I remember one in Thailand, and another in France, and I remember well how exotic both of those locales seemed.  Now they're just another place, just a little further away than places in the U.S.

According to Wikipedia, pen pals are still alive and well, though perhaps a little retro.  They also mention the Flat Stanley project, which I've participated in twice.  That's really a lot different than a pen pal, though...

Soft tyranny...

Soft tyranny...  Dan Mitchell has come up with an objective way to measure the “soft tyranny” of individual U.S. states.  It's summarized in the resulting chart at right (click to embiggen).  California is #49.  Yikes!

I loved the first comment, from “Ned”:

Please don’t publish this data again.

I’m from Massachusetts and I don’t want our legislators to know they are not the worst!

Ukraine protests...

Ukraine protests...  Things are getting pretty crazy over there.  Somebody clever has started turning fireworks into weapons.

The nominal cause of this latest outbreak of protests was the Ukrainian president's (Viktor Yanukovych) refusal to sign a cooperation pact with the European Union, couple with signing a cooperation pact with Russia.  I suspect the root cause is actually much deeper: the population grew up under the Soviet Union's thugocracy, and they don't want to move back to that (which is the general direction Putin's Russia is moving).  Much more coverage here...

Supernova in M82...

Supernova in M82...  Via APOD, of course.  Glorious full resolution version.

Geek: is Julia the right girl for the cowboy coder?

Geek: is Julia the right girl for the cowboy coder?  Evan Miller thinks so:

The problem with most programming languages is they're designed by language geeks, who tend to worry about things that I don't much care for. Safety, type systems, homoiconicity, and so forth. I'm sure these things are great, but when I'm messing around with a new project for fun, my two concerns are 1) making it work and 2) making it fast. For me, code is like a car. It's a means to an end. The "expressiveness" of a piece of code is about as important to me as the "expressiveness" of a catalytic converter.

This approach to programming is often (derisively) called cowboy coding. I don't think a cowboy is quite the right image, because a cowboy must take frequent breaks due to the physical limitations of his horse. A better aspirational image is an obsessed scientist who spends weeks in the laboratory and emerges, bleary-eyed, exhausted, and wan, with an ingenious new contraption that possibly causes a fire on first use.

While I have a keen interest in programming languages, I do share Evan's view of languages being primarily a tool to get something done.  I've never looked at Julia, but after reading Evan's post I think I'll add it to my list of retirement projects...

Repeat after me: correlation is not causation...

Repeat after me: correlation is not causation...  Just the other day, researchers from Princeton announced the imminent demise of Facebook, based on metadata gleaned from Google.  Today, Mike Develin (a data scientist from Facebook) used the same technique to “prove” that Princeton University is about to run out of students, and we're all about to run out of air.  Well played, Mike :)

Ok, That One has lost another admirer...

Ok, That One has lost another admirer...  Peggy Noonan comes full circle with her column this week.  Her conclusion:

You know when we will know America is starting to come back? When some day the sergeant at arms bellows: "Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States" and the camera shows a bubble of suits and one person emerges from the pack and walks into the chamber and you're watching at home and you find yourself—against everything you know, against all the accumulated knowledge of the past—interested. It'll take you aback when you realize you're interested in what he'll say! And the members won't just be enacting, they'll be leaning forward to hear.

And the president will speak, and what he says will be pertinent to the problems of the United States of America. And thoughtful. And he'll offer ideas, and you'll think: "Hey, that sounds right."

That is when you'll know America just might come back.

Until then, as John Dickerson just put it: Barack Obama, Inaction Figure.

Zzzzzzz. 

Ouch!

Fore-edge paintings...

Fore-edge paintings...  More here.  Way back in the '60s, I briefly had a job assembling electronic coffee pots for airlines.  One of my co-workers there brought in a paperback erotic novel, and it had one of these paintings on its edge (well, in its case, more likely a print).  You can probably imagine what sort of image it was :)  I'm pretty sure that was a newly-published book, so these things were made at least up to the '60s.  I've never seen one since...