Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Posters seen in Los Angeles...
Monday, November 3, 2014
“Buy our snake oil or the world gets it!”
“Buy our snake oil or the world gets it!” James Delingpole summarizes the IPCC's latest report on world climate...
Strong knots, weak knots...
By the way ... the single most important thing I learned from that marlinspike seamanship course was this: figure-eight knots are good.
The Internet – is there anything it can't do?
Tiny bubbles and big ships...
This is what happens when you challenge engineers with tough problems: they come up with answers, and not necessarily what you'd expect. This team was challenged to make ships more efficient. They didn't take any of the obvious traditional approaches (change the hull shape, change the propulsion system, etc.). I'd love to know what piece of insight led to the idea of making the ship ride on a blanket of compressed air bubbles!
Sunday, November 2, 2014
“But would not any program that helps to reduce the shame of sending innocent people to prison be worth trying?”
“But would not any program that helps to reduce the shame of sending innocent people to prison be worth trying?” That's the final sentence of an essay by Jed Rakoff, a U.S. District Judge. He's talking about a proposal for reforming one of the most shameful aspects of the U.S. system of justice, one that no other country uses so pervasively: plea bargains. A sample:
...the prosecutor-dictated plea bargain system, by creating such inordinate pressures to enter into plea bargains, appears to have led a significant number of defendants to plead guilty to crimes they never actually committed. For example, of the approximately three hundred people that the Innocence Project and its affiliated lawyers have proven were wrongfully convicted of crimes of rape or murder that they did not in fact commit, at least thirty, or about 10 percent, pleaded guilty to those crimes. Presumably they did so because, even though they were innocent, they faced the likelihood of being convicted of capital offenses and sought to avoid the death penalty, even at the price of life imprisonment. But other publicized cases, arising with disturbing frequency, suggest that this self-protective psychology operates in non-capital cases as well, and recent studies suggest that this is a widespread problem. For example, the National Registry of Exonerations (a joint project of Michigan Law School and Northwestern Law School) records that of 1,428 legally acknowledged exonerations that have occurred since 1989 involving the full range of felony charges, 151 (or, again, about 10 percent) involved false guilty pleas.Do go read the whole thing...
The Obama Doctrine...
The Obama Doctrine... As tweeted by Gary Kasparov:
Do as little as necessary to appear to be doing something without actually committing to a cause or course of action.You know, that's completely plausible...
Surprising graphics...
Vintage ads...
“One thing is for sure: politics is in for a major overhaul.”
“One thing is for sure: politics is in for a major overhaul.” Gary Shapiro is president of the Consumer Electronics Association. He notes that software for smartphones is becoming available that can analyze emotions from images of faces, and can determine from the sound of a voice whether someone is telling the truth or is lying. Then he ponders the implications of such technologies, particularly if they get better than they are today.
To anyone who reads science fiction, this will seem like old territory. Sci-fi authors have been pondering questions like this for about 80 years now. I'm going to guess that Gary Shapiro does not read science fiction, or this wouldn't all seem like new territory to him :)
Something he doesn't mention at all, though, is much more concerning to me. That is the fact that this software will be wrong very often – maybe even most of the time. Imagine an app that listens to someone you're talking to on the phone, and tells you whether they're telling the truth. If your caller says “I’d love to go to dinner with you!” and the app says they're lying – but they're actually telling the truth – that's going to be a problem. Or, if your caller says “That’s too expensive for me!” and the app says they're telling the truth – but they're actually lying – that's also going to be a problem. And those apps will make these sorts of errors, because assessing emotional state or verity is not an exact science. Like “lie detectors”, there's not really solid evidence that these things work outside of carefully controlled (and possibly carefully constructed) test scenarios. The current state of the art here isn't much different than a Ouija board – which means that about half of Americans will believe they're infallible.
This I find very worrisome...
To anyone who reads science fiction, this will seem like old territory. Sci-fi authors have been pondering questions like this for about 80 years now. I'm going to guess that Gary Shapiro does not read science fiction, or this wouldn't all seem like new territory to him :)
Something he doesn't mention at all, though, is much more concerning to me. That is the fact that this software will be wrong very often – maybe even most of the time. Imagine an app that listens to someone you're talking to on the phone, and tells you whether they're telling the truth. If your caller says “I’d love to go to dinner with you!” and the app says they're lying – but they're actually telling the truth – that's going to be a problem. Or, if your caller says “That’s too expensive for me!” and the app says they're telling the truth – but they're actually lying – that's also going to be a problem. And those apps will make these sorts of errors, because assessing emotional state or verity is not an exact science. Like “lie detectors”, there's not really solid evidence that these things work outside of carefully controlled (and possibly carefully constructed) test scenarios. The current state of the art here isn't much different than a Ouija board – which means that about half of Americans will believe they're infallible.
This I find very worrisome...
“Their little heads are exploding.”
“Their little heads are exploding.” A sixth grade class (with an unusually gifted teacher!) attacks a simple, but interesting numerical problem. The results were different than my intuited result, but the blow-by-blow description of the class' result is fascinating...
Trap a cat in a circle...
Some non-deterministic software makes me uncomfortable...
Some non-deterministic software makes me uncomfortable... Reading this article about flaws in neural networks got me thinking about some of my own experiences with non-deterministic software.
There are two big areas of software I'm aware of whose outputs are not (necessarily) determined by its inputs: many kinds of AI, and genetic programming.
Some kinds of (so called) artificial intelligence (or AI) use non-deterministic “learning” mechanisms that result in a system that produces outputs from its inputs in a way that no human understands. I'm not saying that these systems aren't useful, because they demonstrably are useful. I first ran into such a system when interviewing with a company that made software to evaluate the risk in credit applications. In the interviewing process I was left alone for a few hours with a computer running a development version of their software. This let me play around with various inputs and see how they changed the output – and I very quickly spotted some things that looked like big problems to me. For instance, I noted that if I varied the applicant's annual income up in $100 increments, the output would vary from “recommend approval” to “recommend disapproval” in an apparently random way. It's hard to imagine any real world justification for that! When I inquired about that response, I was told that nobody knew why that happened, exactly; they just knew that the “network” had learned that somehow. As a software developer, this makes me uncomfortable, and distrustful of the results. This is the kind of software application that (it seems to me) should be deterministic – but it's not.
Genetic programming attempts to find solutions for problems through the same sort of mechanisms through which life has evolved. The basic method is to try various approaches, randomly selected, and let the winners survive through some sort of Darwinian filtering. This is a concept I find fascinating, as it has the potential to solve problems that no human software engineer has ever found a solution for. Implementing genetic programming is a tricky thing to do, and I've only played around with it a little bit. Only twice did I manage to “evolve” a program that actually accomplished something (that is, produced the desired results) – and in one of these cases, the result was better (meaning faster, in this case) than what I did by hand. This better result was for a sorting program written in Java. The test that controlled the evolution of my genetic program took 10 sets of data as inputs, and sorted them all correctly. I ran the evolution part of the program for about a month on a Linux server, where it consumed one core for that entire time – that's a lot of computing! The result was three times faster than my hand implementation of Quicksort, and four times faster than the standard Java library's sort method. The code itself was complete gobbledegook, a couple thousand lines of incomprehensible lunacy that I spent a week trying to reverse-engineer but totally failed. Somewhere during that week it occurred to me to try other datasets on the genetic algorithm, and here I found some fascinating results. On some datasets, the algorithm never terminated – bad. On some datasets it sorted correctly, but slower than Quicksort – moderately bad. On most datasets, it sorted very quickly – but incorrectly. Very bad! How could one ever trust the result of a genetically derived sort algorithm? I don't think you could. My conclusion to that is that genetic programming is really only useful when the entire set of possible inputs can be tested – and that's a very limited set of problems, indeed.
I'm much more comfortable with deterministic software. Some would argue, though, that all software is non-deterministic – because of the bugs lurking within. They may be right :)
There are two big areas of software I'm aware of whose outputs are not (necessarily) determined by its inputs: many kinds of AI, and genetic programming.
Some kinds of (so called) artificial intelligence (or AI) use non-deterministic “learning” mechanisms that result in a system that produces outputs from its inputs in a way that no human understands. I'm not saying that these systems aren't useful, because they demonstrably are useful. I first ran into such a system when interviewing with a company that made software to evaluate the risk in credit applications. In the interviewing process I was left alone for a few hours with a computer running a development version of their software. This let me play around with various inputs and see how they changed the output – and I very quickly spotted some things that looked like big problems to me. For instance, I noted that if I varied the applicant's annual income up in $100 increments, the output would vary from “recommend approval” to “recommend disapproval” in an apparently random way. It's hard to imagine any real world justification for that! When I inquired about that response, I was told that nobody knew why that happened, exactly; they just knew that the “network” had learned that somehow. As a software developer, this makes me uncomfortable, and distrustful of the results. This is the kind of software application that (it seems to me) should be deterministic – but it's not.
Genetic programming attempts to find solutions for problems through the same sort of mechanisms through which life has evolved. The basic method is to try various approaches, randomly selected, and let the winners survive through some sort of Darwinian filtering. This is a concept I find fascinating, as it has the potential to solve problems that no human software engineer has ever found a solution for. Implementing genetic programming is a tricky thing to do, and I've only played around with it a little bit. Only twice did I manage to “evolve” a program that actually accomplished something (that is, produced the desired results) – and in one of these cases, the result was better (meaning faster, in this case) than what I did by hand. This better result was for a sorting program written in Java. The test that controlled the evolution of my genetic program took 10 sets of data as inputs, and sorted them all correctly. I ran the evolution part of the program for about a month on a Linux server, where it consumed one core for that entire time – that's a lot of computing! The result was three times faster than my hand implementation of Quicksort, and four times faster than the standard Java library's sort method. The code itself was complete gobbledegook, a couple thousand lines of incomprehensible lunacy that I spent a week trying to reverse-engineer but totally failed. Somewhere during that week it occurred to me to try other datasets on the genetic algorithm, and here I found some fascinating results. On some datasets, the algorithm never terminated – bad. On some datasets it sorted correctly, but slower than Quicksort – moderately bad. On most datasets, it sorted very quickly – but incorrectly. Very bad! How could one ever trust the result of a genetically derived sort algorithm? I don't think you could. My conclusion to that is that genetic programming is really only useful when the entire set of possible inputs can be tested – and that's a very limited set of problems, indeed.
I'm much more comfortable with deterministic software. Some would argue, though, that all software is non-deterministic – because of the bugs lurking within. They may be right :)
Scott Adams is a fascinating person...
Scott Adams is a fascinating person... I first ran across his work through his Dilbert cartoon. Reading the day's strip is still a morning ritual for me, and more often than not results in a hearty laugh-out-loud for this geek. He captures the office dynamics so perfectly, and finds a way to make them funny.
Then I started reading his blog, and later a couple of books. Both of these are full of meaty, interesting ideas and concepts – somehow not something I ever expected from a cartoonist. I don't know where or how I acquired the notion that a cartoonist wouldn't be that interesting a person, but clearly I did – because reading Adams' prose surprised me. A lot.
This morning I read another great example, on his blog. A key paragraph:
If you enjoy reading someone with a unique and refreshing perspective on the world, I recommend Scott Adams' blog and books. His cartoons aren't bad, either :)
Then I started reading his blog, and later a couple of books. Both of these are full of meaty, interesting ideas and concepts – somehow not something I ever expected from a cartoonist. I don't know where or how I acquired the notion that a cartoonist wouldn't be that interesting a person, but clearly I did – because reading Adams' prose surprised me. A lot.
This morning I read another great example, on his blog. A key paragraph:
The winner worldview is that you have responsibility for your own life and it is irrelevant who is at fault if the people at fault can't or won't fix the problem. I've noticed over the course of my life that winners ignore questions of blame and fault and look for solutions they can personally influence. Losers blame others for their problems and expect that to produce results.This resonates very strongly with me, as I had a similar revelation early in my adult life. In my case, it happened while I was in the Navy. The trigger was a very clear one: my bosses told me that I was doing such a great job that I couldn't go on vacation (the Navy calls this “leave”). It was clear they weren't going to change their minds – so I went on a sort of intellectual strike: I stopped knowing how to fix computers (my job). They got the message, and we made an explicit agreement: I'd get my vacation, and I would start knowing how to fix computers again. That was a formative experience – after that, there are many occasions when I reached some objective by finding my own way to get it done.
If you enjoy reading someone with a unique and refreshing perspective on the world, I recommend Scott Adams' blog and books. His cartoons aren't bad, either :)
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
But I'd be ok with banning lawyers from public office, including (especially) Congress and the Presidency. There was a time when Supreme Court justices were often not lawyers, as well – and I'm not at all sure that was a bad idea.
So I absolutely loved the ad at right!
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Oh, it burns!
And then what were those other questions about, the ones they (apparently) all got right, instantly? I'm guessing that they were Hollywood celebrities, or maybe sports.
I hear the drums of doom getting closer, as America works hard on becoming the most unserious nation evah...
Friday, October 31, 2014
RIP, Halala Pala...
RIP, Halala Pala... Debbie took Halala into see the cancer specialist today, after he had rather a bad week. Halala didn't want to eat, and didn't want to be out with Debbie or the other cats – definitely not a good sign for him. Longtime readers will know that we've been helping him fight cancer for close to three years now, and most of that time he was in remission. Just the last couple of months he's had a relapse, and the chemo wasn't working. When his oncologist (the wonderful Dr. Geist at VCA in Kearney Mesa) examined him today, he told Debbie there really wasn't anything left to be done. He was clearly suffering and there was no realistic chance of recovery, so poor Debbie made the call by herself (as I'm up in Utah) to put him to sleep. She held him as he went down.
Halala Pala has been a special cat in our household for almost ten years. We're pretty certain he was a Maine Coon, either purebred or close to it. He had all the classic Maine Coon attributes: fat, fuzzy, affectionate, and tiny voice more suited to a mouse than to a cat of his portly magnificence. He loved to chase a laser pointer or feather on a string. Oh, and he loved to eat :)
He was one of the cutest kittens I've ever seen (first picture below). Not just his appearance, but his behavior as well. You'd never guess that such a cute little kitten would, two years later, attain the level of magnificence you see in the second photo – but he did. The rest of the photos were taken recently, when he was still in remission. I've written about him several times before.
We'll miss you, Halala Pala. We rescued you, and we're grateful for the the years of affection and companionship you gave us...
Halala Pala has been a special cat in our household for almost ten years. We're pretty certain he was a Maine Coon, either purebred or close to it. He had all the classic Maine Coon attributes: fat, fuzzy, affectionate, and tiny voice more suited to a mouse than to a cat of his portly magnificence. He loved to chase a laser pointer or feather on a string. Oh, and he loved to eat :)
He was one of the cutest kittens I've ever seen (first picture below). Not just his appearance, but his behavior as well. You'd never guess that such a cute little kitten would, two years later, attain the level of magnificence you see in the second photo – but he did. The rest of the photos were taken recently, when he was still in remission. I've written about him several times before.
We'll miss you, Halala Pala. We rescued you, and we're grateful for the the years of affection and companionship you gave us...
Allen wrench...
I threw this under the microscope because I could feel the deformation, but not really see it with my naked eye. It surprised me that I apparently had more “resolution” with my fingertips than with my eyeball...
Portugal's experience with decriminalizing drugs...
Portugal's experience with decriminalizing drugs... Interesting material.
I've read several more formal studies that primarily concentrate on two things: the impact on crime, and the impact on society more generally. In both areas Portugal has shown rather large improvements since 2002, when the country decriminalized drug possession. Most interesting to me is that the improvements track quite closely the major claims of American libertarians (including me!) who advocate decriminalization here: large decreases in property crimes, and large decreases in the number of young men in jail. One big surprise to me: Portugal is seeing much lower rates of domestic violence. Of course, with any studies such as these, there is no proof of causation. All we have is the lagging correlation, which is suggestive, but not proof...
I've read several more formal studies that primarily concentrate on two things: the impact on crime, and the impact on society more generally. In both areas Portugal has shown rather large improvements since 2002, when the country decriminalized drug possession. Most interesting to me is that the improvements track quite closely the major claims of American libertarians (including me!) who advocate decriminalization here: large decreases in property crimes, and large decreases in the number of young men in jail. One big surprise to me: Portugal is seeing much lower rates of domestic violence. Of course, with any studies such as these, there is no proof of causation. All we have is the lagging correlation, which is suggestive, but not proof...
Animal sculptures in stainless steel...
Shades of 1984...
Shades of 1984... Except these always-watching, always-listening screens are things you buy voluntarily, and the data is being used commercially. For now.
Is this a different kind of impact than other technology advances have made upon us? I think it's only different in its details, really. As with most other advances, there are benefits and there are drawbacks. Loss of privacy, whether actual or perceived, is definitely a drawback. Convenience and ease of use are definitely benefits - if I can say "Show C-SPAN" rather than picking up the remote, scrolling through the directory to find C-SPAN, and then clicking to show the channel, I'd much prefer the simple voice command.
One thing you can depend on about technology advances: if there's competition, the manufacturers will be falling all over themselves to provide what consumers actually want. If the majority of consumers say they want privacy protection (in particular, if they're willing to pay for that), the manufacturers will be providing it. Unfortunately, it seems that we can also depend on our own government to exploit technology to snoop on us – this I find far more worrisome than the commercial use. Apple's recent cloud encryption decision may point a way for manufacturers to shield their consumers from the possibility of government snooping – and I, for one, would absolutely pay for that!
Is this a different kind of impact than other technology advances have made upon us? I think it's only different in its details, really. As with most other advances, there are benefits and there are drawbacks. Loss of privacy, whether actual or perceived, is definitely a drawback. Convenience and ease of use are definitely benefits - if I can say "Show C-SPAN" rather than picking up the remote, scrolling through the directory to find C-SPAN, and then clicking to show the channel, I'd much prefer the simple voice command.
One thing you can depend on about technology advances: if there's competition, the manufacturers will be falling all over themselves to provide what consumers actually want. If the majority of consumers say they want privacy protection (in particular, if they're willing to pay for that), the manufacturers will be providing it. Unfortunately, it seems that we can also depend on our own government to exploit technology to snoop on us – this I find far more worrisome than the commercial use. Apple's recent cloud encryption decision may point a way for manufacturers to shield their consumers from the possibility of government snooping – and I, for one, would absolutely pay for that!
180 million years old...
Rockets are hard...
Rockets are hard... Astronaut Don Pettit on the tyranny of the rocket equation. It's an easy read, no math, and a good introduction to the reasons why rocket engineering is so hard – which is why rockets blow up more than cars do...
Beautiful symmetry...
44 places to visit...
The methane lakes of Titan...
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Data: it's what's for breakfast...
Humans have never been this safe before. Ever.
When you show this to someone who believes, deep in their low information heart, that the Iraq war killed more Americans than all other wars combined ... you can tell from their face that their brain is frying right in front of you.
Source. More...
Amelia Earhart: mystery solved?
Comet 67P, close up and personal...
Antares explosion...
Orbital Sciences (the builders of Antares) chose to use refurbished Russian engines for Antares because at the time of their choice it looked like the best combination of cost, speed, and reliability. Years of NASA mismanagement (which continues unabated) had practically destroyed anything resembling innovation or advancement in American rocket technology. The Russians had a solid, reliable – even though old – rocket engine technology, and it was available cheaply because of the fall of the Soviet Union and the Russian desperation for hard dollars. American companies – especially those in bed with NASA – were forecasting decades and multiple tens of billions of dollars in development costs. Did Orbital Sciences make a bad choice? I don't know any reason at all to believe that.
A rocket blowing up is not exactly a new phenomenon. We've had our own share of that with American rockets, and so have the Russians, Europeans, and Chinese. Rockets, especially the larger ones, are marvels of complex technology straining at the very edge of what's possible. It's amazing to me that any of those rockets don't explode! Someday we might advance rocket technology to the point where launches can be thought of as routine and safe, but today is clearly not that day.
Here's some additional coverage, some of it a bit more objective than the Fox News report: here, here, and especially here...
If you find maggot infestations extremely disgusting...
If you find maggot infestations extremely disgusting ... then your political inclinations are most likely conservative. Or so says this study. It also makes the claim that a tendency toward progressivism or conservatism is closely correlated with how strongly you react to something disgusting – and that both of these are primarily heritable traits. That last bit – that political tendencies are heritable – is particularly scary, as that means demographics favor the progressives (mainly because minorities vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, and they have more children than any other voting group).
This reminds me, though, of an odd factoid I read years ago: a ranking of voting preference by profession. Sanitation workers and septic tank cleaners were top of the list for progressives. Hmmmm...
This reminds me, though, of an odd factoid I read years ago: a ranking of voting preference by profession. Sanitation workers and septic tank cleaners were top of the list for progressives. Hmmmm...
Obama says: “Please don’t vote Democrat...”
Obama says: “Please don’t vote Democrat...” ScrappleFace...
Earth-moon system...
When I was a young lad in the early '60s, I remember eagerly watching the news as it showed the grainy black-and-white photos returned by early NASA robotic missions to the moon. We've come a long way since then, but the Chinese have progressed even more. In the early '60s, while we were shooting for the moon, Mao was firmly in control and his crazy policies were killing millions and had the country retreating rapidly toward the Stone Age. Now China is successfully developing and launching robotic explorers on their own, and seem on pace to rival NASA's capabilities...
Election fraud?
Now there's video (from Moline, Illinois) of this “calibration error” in action. You decide: fraud or calibration error?
Wow...
The speakers in the video at right are leaders in the black community, well-known and well-respected. I speculate that the scales have (finally!) fallen from their eyes because of Obama's overt failure to deliver – despite his being black himself. Whether I'm right about that is irrelevant, though. I'm hoping that their disillusionment is the beginning of a trend – not to have minority voters vote Republican, but rather to have them think about who they're voting for, rather than voting reflexively for any one party...
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
On diamond drill bits...
On diamond drill bits... Well, technically they're hole saws, but I'm using them as if they're drill bits. One of the characteristics of these diamond bits is that they wear out pretty quickly on hard substances (like the porcelain tiles in our bathroom). I've been getting 8 - 10 holes from each drill bit, and they're about $15 each – so it's costing me over 50 cents in tooling for each hole. That's not something a homeowner generally has to worry about with drill bits :)
I got to wondering exactly how these bits were made, and what they look like close up, so I stuck a used one under the microscope. This one still has some life in it. In the left hand photo (about 15x) you can see the composite of metal and diamond chips that make up the working surface. The white “frosting” is dried porcelain tile powder from the last time I used it. When drilling, I keep the bit wet, so the ground off porcelain forms a kind of slurry or mud that sticks to the drill bit, then dries very hard. The diamond chips are transparent, and pale yellow or green in color. I have no idea what kind of metal they're embedded in. The right hand photo is centered at the same spot, but I zoomed it to 60x; in it you have a clearer view of just those chips.
I couldn't see any of this with just my eyeball. With my fingernail I can readily feel that the surface is rough, but to my eye it just looks like a matte-finished metal surface. It's very different when magnified!
I got to wondering exactly how these bits were made, and what they look like close up, so I stuck a used one under the microscope. This one still has some life in it. In the left hand photo (about 15x) you can see the composite of metal and diamond chips that make up the working surface. The white “frosting” is dried porcelain tile powder from the last time I used it. When drilling, I keep the bit wet, so the ground off porcelain forms a kind of slurry or mud that sticks to the drill bit, then dries very hard. The diamond chips are transparent, and pale yellow or green in color. I have no idea what kind of metal they're embedded in. The right hand photo is centered at the same spot, but I zoomed it to 60x; in it you have a clearer view of just those chips.
I couldn't see any of this with just my eyeball. With my fingernail I can readily feel that the surface is rough, but to my eye it just looks like a matte-finished metal surface. It's very different when magnified!
Progress report...
Progress report... The barn builders haven't been here this week, darn it. They're off on another job down in Ogden. I'm not sure when they're coming back, but hopefully tomorrow. Sheathing the interior and putting siding on the exterior are the next steps. Also installing the electrical service and the heating boiler, along with toilet, sinks, etc.
The roofers skipped a couple days because the head demolisher was sick. They were back today and demolished another quarter or so of our home's old roof; they're just over half done with that now.
I've been busy as heck, installing ceiling fans, fixing electrical problems, and (most recently) installing blinds. Prior to this morning, the only privacy in our bedroom was provided by the thick foliage on the trees and shrubs outside. In the past week, basically all the leaves of deciduous trees fell off. Not wanting to frighten all the local young women, I thought it would be a good idea to get those blinds up. As of this afternoon, we've got blinds on all the bedroom windows, plus the bathroom window. The latter was a real pain to put up, as I had to drill four holes through the porcelain tiles lining the window casing, and I had to drill them up, as the blinds mounted on the top. My arms hurt :) But I got it done...
The last ceiling fan I just finished yesterday morning. It was far more challenging than I had expected, mainly because someone (presumably the previous owner) had seriously botched the installation of the one I was replacing. The old ceiling fan was mounted to a blue plastic junction box, which in turn was held in place by two nails into a joist – not even close to being strong enough to hold up the fan. The previous owner “solved” this problem by putting six large sheet metal screws into the sheet rock on the ceiling. Ack! That fan was right over their bed, too – totally unacceptable. So I had to get rid of all the old bad installation, patch the screw holes, repaint that part of the ceiling, install a new metal junction box (working in a 5" diameter hole!), and only then could I install the new fan. I was very glad to finish that one, I don't mind saying!
One nice thing about the old ceiling fans: all four of them have new homes. One of our neighbors lives in an older house, and they're always looking for ways to upgrade. They took the three nicest fans to replace two not-so-nice ones they have now, plus add one to their workshop. The fourth old fan has a much more interesting future ahead of it: one of this blog's readers (“eg”) inquired about getting just the motor from it – to make it into a potter's wheel! That particular fan had a kind of cheesy looking fake brass exterior, and I was just going to toss it. How great that someone can use the one part that looks good on it!
The roofers skipped a couple days because the head demolisher was sick. They were back today and demolished another quarter or so of our home's old roof; they're just over half done with that now.
I've been busy as heck, installing ceiling fans, fixing electrical problems, and (most recently) installing blinds. Prior to this morning, the only privacy in our bedroom was provided by the thick foliage on the trees and shrubs outside. In the past week, basically all the leaves of deciduous trees fell off. Not wanting to frighten all the local young women, I thought it would be a good idea to get those blinds up. As of this afternoon, we've got blinds on all the bedroom windows, plus the bathroom window. The latter was a real pain to put up, as I had to drill four holes through the porcelain tiles lining the window casing, and I had to drill them up, as the blinds mounted on the top. My arms hurt :) But I got it done...
The last ceiling fan I just finished yesterday morning. It was far more challenging than I had expected, mainly because someone (presumably the previous owner) had seriously botched the installation of the one I was replacing. The old ceiling fan was mounted to a blue plastic junction box, which in turn was held in place by two nails into a joist – not even close to being strong enough to hold up the fan. The previous owner “solved” this problem by putting six large sheet metal screws into the sheet rock on the ceiling. Ack! That fan was right over their bed, too – totally unacceptable. So I had to get rid of all the old bad installation, patch the screw holes, repaint that part of the ceiling, install a new metal junction box (working in a 5" diameter hole!), and only then could I install the new fan. I was very glad to finish that one, I don't mind saying!
One nice thing about the old ceiling fans: all four of them have new homes. One of our neighbors lives in an older house, and they're always looking for ways to upgrade. They took the three nicest fans to replace two not-so-nice ones they have now, plus add one to their workshop. The fourth old fan has a much more interesting future ahead of it: one of this blog's readers (“eg”) inquired about getting just the motor from it – to make it into a potter's wheel! That particular fan had a kind of cheesy looking fake brass exterior, and I was just going to toss it. How great that someone can use the one part that looks good on it!
Why dogs kick when you scratch their belly...
A great intro to calculus...
A great intro to calculus ... by someone who taught himself through online materials. It's a perspective I appreciate :)
24 things they should have taught me in school...
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Scientists and floating point math...
Scientists and floating point math... An article I read this morning makes a valiant attempt to demystify floating point math for scientists. I'm not sure it succeeds :) Reading it reminded me of an experience I had back in the early '80s.
A San Diego company had themselves a real problem. They'd contracted with an independent consulting engineer (very common back then for anything involving microcomputers) to develop a TTY modem that ran on a single chip microcomputer. This was to be part of a device to allow deaf people to use telephones. Telephone companies had recently been mandated to provide such devices for deaf customers, and this company was trying to win the bid to supply the local telephone company with thousands of them.
The problem was that the engineer they hired had quit in a huff, and claimed to have accidentally destroyed the source code for the firmware on the chip. All the company had was a single mostly-working chip, from which the object code could be read. They wanted someone to reverse-engineer the code, deliver the reconstructed source code, and (ideally) to fix the problems.
I took that contract, but only on an hourly rate basis, as I had no idea what I was going to find. The company didn't like that much, but they also had no alternatives.
The firmware had originally been written in assembly language, as most performant things were back then. That was a mixed blessing. It was easy to get the source code back without useful symbol names – but quite challenging to actually understand the code and assign useful symbol names. I spent several weeks totally immersed in that code.
A big part of the code turned out to be a floating point package, one that the previous engineer had apparently written himself. I had just written one of these a few years prior (as part of Tarbell Basic), and I'd also written one while in the Navy, so I had some familiarity with how to do this. This particular package had some trigonometric functions in it that were used by the modem software – and those trig functions were written in a way that caused cumulative errors of exactly the kind described in the linked article.
So I went back to the company who hired me and told them that I'd found a significant problem, and it was one that could be fixed. Naturally, they wanted to know what the problem was. While explaining it to the engineering team, I discovered that the source of the trig function algorithm was a scientist who worked for the company: he had handed that algorithm to the former programmer, who implemented it as asked. So the source of the problem wasn't the programmer, but rather this scientist (a physics guy who knew about digital signal processing). Next thing I know, I'm lecturing this scientist on the details of how floating point worked, and he really, really didn't want to hear it :) In the end, the only way I could convince him was by constructing simple test cases and showing him the results.
There was a happy ending to all this, though. Once I convinced the scientist of the errors consequent to his algorithm, he was willing to listen to some alternatives. One of them was a well-known approach that avoided the cumulative error problem and also was many, many times faster than his algorithm: a simple polynomial approximation. I didn't invent this; I got it from a book written in the '50s by someone with the appropriate degree. Even the scientist was happy with this one!
A San Diego company had themselves a real problem. They'd contracted with an independent consulting engineer (very common back then for anything involving microcomputers) to develop a TTY modem that ran on a single chip microcomputer. This was to be part of a device to allow deaf people to use telephones. Telephone companies had recently been mandated to provide such devices for deaf customers, and this company was trying to win the bid to supply the local telephone company with thousands of them.
The problem was that the engineer they hired had quit in a huff, and claimed to have accidentally destroyed the source code for the firmware on the chip. All the company had was a single mostly-working chip, from which the object code could be read. They wanted someone to reverse-engineer the code, deliver the reconstructed source code, and (ideally) to fix the problems.
I took that contract, but only on an hourly rate basis, as I had no idea what I was going to find. The company didn't like that much, but they also had no alternatives.
The firmware had originally been written in assembly language, as most performant things were back then. That was a mixed blessing. It was easy to get the source code back without useful symbol names – but quite challenging to actually understand the code and assign useful symbol names. I spent several weeks totally immersed in that code.
A big part of the code turned out to be a floating point package, one that the previous engineer had apparently written himself. I had just written one of these a few years prior (as part of Tarbell Basic), and I'd also written one while in the Navy, so I had some familiarity with how to do this. This particular package had some trigonometric functions in it that were used by the modem software – and those trig functions were written in a way that caused cumulative errors of exactly the kind described in the linked article.
So I went back to the company who hired me and told them that I'd found a significant problem, and it was one that could be fixed. Naturally, they wanted to know what the problem was. While explaining it to the engineering team, I discovered that the source of the trig function algorithm was a scientist who worked for the company: he had handed that algorithm to the former programmer, who implemented it as asked. So the source of the problem wasn't the programmer, but rather this scientist (a physics guy who knew about digital signal processing). Next thing I know, I'm lecturing this scientist on the details of how floating point worked, and he really, really didn't want to hear it :) In the end, the only way I could convince him was by constructing simple test cases and showing him the results.
There was a happy ending to all this, though. Once I convinced the scientist of the errors consequent to his algorithm, he was willing to listen to some alternatives. One of them was a well-known approach that avoided the cumulative error problem and also was many, many times faster than his algorithm: a simple polynomial approximation. I didn't invent this; I got it from a book written in the '50s by someone with the appropriate degree. Even the scientist was happy with this one!
Geek: fast inverse square root hack...
Geek: fast inverse square root hack... This has long been one of my all-time favorite hacks, mainly because it looks so incredibly unlikely at first blush (a magic constant of 0x5f3759df? really?), but then turns out to have a solid reason why it works. I've read explanations before, but none so clear as this one – and I love the generalization of it to other powers besides 0.5...
A habit of ignorance...
A habit of ignorance... Way back in 1972, I had recently enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was attending a series of schools at the Mare Island Naval Base near Vallejo, California. The first training I underwent was for basic computer repair, and that training started with a dose of digital logic. One of the first things we were told was that if we flunked out of this school – as about a third of the attendees would – we would be reassigned to another school on the same base: the PBR (river patrol boat) school. These were plywood boats, lightly armed, that patrolled Vietnamese rivers – and their crews had the highest casualty rates of all the armed forces fighting in Vietnam. That concentrated my mind wonderfully, to steal a turn of phrase from Mark Twain.
One consequence is that I paid serious attention to the classroom work, even when it didn't appeal to me – something I had never done before. I also started observing the students that did well and those who did not, the better to guide myself. There was an “Aha!” moment for me one day that I can still remember vividly. The instructor posed a problem on a blackboard (with chalk!) and asked who had an idea how to attack it. The couple of high-performing students I was observing looked puzzled and kept their hands down. Nearly everyone else raised their hand – and not a one of them had any clue how to tackle the problem posed. The “Aha!” was that the best students were the ones most comfortable with being ignorant. How interesting!
That started me on what became a lifelong (and by now, pretty much reflexive) habit: to frankly acknowledge my own ignorance, both to myself and to others. I don't always succeed at this, as my friends will attest :) I'm better at doing so on technical subjects than on others. I've learned that recognizing my own ignorance is a prerequisite to motivating myself to address that ignorance. In other words, a key step in acquiring new technical knowledge is to recognize that I need that knowledge. That might seem like a little thing, but it's played a very large role in my career. There are an infinite number of interesting technical subjects that I'm ignorant of, and therefore no end of things for me learn. I've never been comfortable when not learning; in fact, any situation that doesn't require me to learn something new is one that I find boring. I've also learned that admitting ignorance does not lower the degree of respect that others have for my technical ability – in fact, it may do the opposite. Because people know that I will readily admit to not knowing something, they tend to believe (not necessarily with justification :) that if I am not claiming ignorance, I must have some idea what I'm talking about.
Because of this context, I found this article quite interesting...
One consequence is that I paid serious attention to the classroom work, even when it didn't appeal to me – something I had never done before. I also started observing the students that did well and those who did not, the better to guide myself. There was an “Aha!” moment for me one day that I can still remember vividly. The instructor posed a problem on a blackboard (with chalk!) and asked who had an idea how to attack it. The couple of high-performing students I was observing looked puzzled and kept their hands down. Nearly everyone else raised their hand – and not a one of them had any clue how to tackle the problem posed. The “Aha!” was that the best students were the ones most comfortable with being ignorant. How interesting!
That started me on what became a lifelong (and by now, pretty much reflexive) habit: to frankly acknowledge my own ignorance, both to myself and to others. I don't always succeed at this, as my friends will attest :) I'm better at doing so on technical subjects than on others. I've learned that recognizing my own ignorance is a prerequisite to motivating myself to address that ignorance. In other words, a key step in acquiring new technical knowledge is to recognize that I need that knowledge. That might seem like a little thing, but it's played a very large role in my career. There are an infinite number of interesting technical subjects that I'm ignorant of, and therefore no end of things for me learn. I've never been comfortable when not learning; in fact, any situation that doesn't require me to learn something new is one that I find boring. I've also learned that admitting ignorance does not lower the degree of respect that others have for my technical ability – in fact, it may do the opposite. Because people know that I will readily admit to not knowing something, they tend to believe (not necessarily with justification :) that if I am not claiming ignorance, I must have some idea what I'm talking about.
Because of this context, I found this article quite interesting...
“Maybe the Vietnamese should send us some advisers.”
“Maybe the Vietnamese should send us some advisers.” That line, from a column by Glenn Reynolds (aka “Instapundit”) certainly caught my eye. I'm old enough to remember when Kennedy sent American military advisers to Vietnam, and I was in the U.S. Navy, taking South Vietnamese refugees on board our ship after the fall of Saigon. That line has an emotional context for me.
So what's Mr. Reynolds talking about? He's riffing on a study showing that just 70% of Americans believe people are generally better off under capitalism, with its attendant inequalities – but 95% of Vietnamese believe that. Maybe we should take on some Vietnamese advisers!
The column makes some interesting points, and is well worth the read...
So what's Mr. Reynolds talking about? He's riffing on a study showing that just 70% of Americans believe people are generally better off under capitalism, with its attendant inequalities – but 95% of Vietnamese believe that. Maybe we should take on some Vietnamese advisers!
The column makes some interesting points, and is well worth the read...
Monday, October 27, 2014
Screwdriver wear...
This particular screwdriver is a high-quality (German) Wiha, made with very hard, tough steel – one of the best you can buy. I got it about 18 months ago, and it's been used a lot – first with my FJ Cruiser modification project, and now for the past six months during remodeling our new home. I suspect this sort of wear is inevitable when you are frequently applying great force onto a small metal face...
UPS brought me a present today!
The construction of this particular flag is impressive. First, it's actually two flags stitched together back-to-back, so that the flag looks correct from both sides. Second, each blob of black or white for the serpent, and the green grass the serpent sits on, is actually a piece of cloth cut out in the right shape, then stitched into place with an embroidered border – it looks practically indestructible. Finally, the letters are entirely embroidered. For the price ($25 including shipping) it's an amazing bargain. I'd be willing to bet that the entire construction of the flag is automated: a computer-controlled laser to cut the cloth pieces, an industrial robot to place them on the yellow background, and a computer-controlled sewing machine to do the rest. I can't imagine how else they could sell a product this nicely made for that price...
“...a government with vast and arbitrary power to punish people who have done no wrong.”
“...a government with vast and arbitrary power to punish people who have done no wrong.” The last part of the last sentence of Megan McArdle's excellent piece on some of the many the ways our government is abusing us. You shouldn't miss it.
Really, you shouldn't miss anything Ms. McArdle writes, because the worst of it is better than almost anything else you'll read on economics, politics, policy, and cooking...
Really, you shouldn't miss anything Ms. McArdle writes, because the worst of it is better than almost anything else you'll read on economics, politics, policy, and cooking...
Alleged letter to columnist Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune...
Alleged letter to columnist Clarence Page of the Chicago Tribune... I've no idea if this is authentic, but I don't care :)
Dear Mr. Page...
I always love your articles and I generally agree with them. I would suggest, as in an email I received, they change the name to the "Foreskins" to better represent their community, paying tribute to the dick heads in Congress.
I agree with our Native American population. I am highly insulted by the racially charged name of the Washington Redskins. One might argue that to name a professional football team after Native Americans would exalt them as fine warriors, but nay, nay. We must be careful not to offend, and in the spirit of political correctness and courtesy, we must move forward.
Let's ditch the Kansas City Chiefs, the Atlanta Braves and the Cleveland Indians. If your shorts are in a wad because of the reference the name Redskins makes to skin color, then we need to get rid of the Cleveland Browns.
The Carolina Panthers obviously were named to keep the memory of militant Blacks from the 60's alive. Gone. It's offensive to us white folk.
The New York Yankees offend the Southern population. Do you see a team named for the Confederacy? No! There is no room for any reference to that tragic war that cost this country so many young men's lives.
I am also offended by the blatant references to the Catholic religion among our sports team names. Totally inappropriate to have the New Orleans Saints, the Los Angeles Angels or the San Diego Padres.
Then there are the team names that glorify criminals who raped and pillaged. We are talking about the horrible Oakland Raiders, the Minnesota Vikings, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Pittsburgh Pirates!
Now, let us address those teams that clearly send the wrong message to our children. The San Diego Chargers promote irresponsible fighting or even spending habits. Wrong message to our children.
The New York Giants and the San Francisco Giants promote obesity, a growing childhood epidemic. Wrong message to our children.
The Cincinnati Reds promote downers/barbiturates. Wrong message to our children.
The Milwaukee Brewers. Well that goes without saying. Wrong message to our children.
So, there you go. We need to support any legislation that comes out to rectify this travesty, because the government will likely become involved with this issue, as they should. Just the kind of thing the do-nothing Congress loves.
As a diehard Oregon State fan, my wife and I, with all of this in mind, suggest it might also make some sense to change the name of the Oregon State women's athletic teams to something other than "the Beavers."
Dyson's answer to Roomba...
ER doc: what scares me even more than Ebola...
ER doc: what scares me even more than Ebola... Good piece, in LinkedIn, of all places...
The American Iron Dome?
Hypothetical American vs. actual Canadian...
Hypothetical American vs. actual Canadian... Try to imagine this scenario: the U.S. Congress is left unguarded by any armed men (unthinkable, actually, because pissed off Americans would almost certainly eliminate some Congress-critters in short order). A lone and heavily armed Islamic terrorist attacks, shooting wildly. The Senators and Representatives lock themselves into chambers. What would happen next?
In my imagination, Pelosi would start up a non-stop screeching, demanding help in the form of a helicopter ride out. Harry Reid would hide under a chair. McConnell would be a puddle of protoplasm in a corner, wobbling like Jello. Boehner would be crying in another corner. A few – Cruz and Ryan come to mind – might actually try to put up some kind of defense as the terrorist approaches. Overall, though, the security cameras would show us a pathetic scene. Any other outcome seems ... not credible.
Contrast that with what actually happened in Ottawa last week, when a heavily armed Islamic terrorist actually attacked their Parliament. With no other weapons at hand, MPs (the rough equivalent of our Senators and Representatives) fashioned spears from flagstaffs, and positioned themselves at the doorway to the chambers, ready to impale the terrorist if he tried to enter. They had no need, though, because their Sergeant-at-Arms shot him dead with his sidearm.
Canadians: showing more American spirit than Americans...
In my imagination, Pelosi would start up a non-stop screeching, demanding help in the form of a helicopter ride out. Harry Reid would hide under a chair. McConnell would be a puddle of protoplasm in a corner, wobbling like Jello. Boehner would be crying in another corner. A few – Cruz and Ryan come to mind – might actually try to put up some kind of defense as the terrorist approaches. Overall, though, the security cameras would show us a pathetic scene. Any other outcome seems ... not credible.
Contrast that with what actually happened in Ottawa last week, when a heavily armed Islamic terrorist actually attacked their Parliament. With no other weapons at hand, MPs (the rough equivalent of our Senators and Representatives) fashioned spears from flagstaffs, and positioned themselves at the doorway to the chambers, ready to impale the terrorist if he tried to enter. They had no need, though, because their Sergeant-at-Arms shot him dead with his sidearm.
Canadians: showing more American spirit than Americans...
“This is delusional thinking.”
Sunday, October 26, 2014
Blustery crosswinds...
Holy crap!
A serious RC enthusiast could afford to buy an actual turbine jet engine, delivering crazy levels of performance, as you can see in that video. Some nutcase with technical ability (or access to it) could make a formidable drone with one of these.
We live in amazing times...
Open source stenography!
The company's products were automation tools for court stenographers, and at the time they were revolutionary. Most stenographers still worked with old-fashioned mechanical machines and did their editing and typing of transcripts by hand, on a typewriter or primitive dedicated word processor. With Xscribe's products, their familiar stenographic machine was connected directly to a computer, they could create codes on the fly (an enormous time-saver), they edited on a CRT, and the printed the final transcript directly to a computer printer – near-magical levels of automation by the day's standards.
Xscribe made the classic mistake of insisting on closed, proprietary, and grossly non-standard hardware. They were killed off by the advent of PC-based competition. I lost track of the industry after that. But this morning I came across the video above, by one of the founders of a free, open source stenographic software package called Plover – and references to open source stenographic input hardware as well. The stenographers were tired of being plundered by overpriced vendors, and they're fighting back. I've no idea what their success will be, but I'm fascinated that open source solutions are attacking niche markets like this. It makes sense, though, because the market is too small for large economies of scale, too small to attract lots of competitors (which would drive the prices down), yet big enough that a collaborative effort might just work. I suspect there are quite a few markets like that...
Oh, Canada...
Wisconsin's shame...
Wisconsin's shame... George Will on the scandal of Wisconsin's weird “John Doe” process being used against Scott Walker. It's the best thing I've read on the subject...
A source of satisfaction...
A source of satisfaction... A good part of yesterday I spent replacing two old ceiling fans in our house. The house contained four ceiling fans all together, all different. Like many things in the house when we bought it, we suspect the former owner (who owns a residential construction company) took leftovers from various jobs for his home. There's nothing wrong, really, with the four fans all being different – but not one of them was of a style that we liked. So we determined to replace them, and decided to get four identical ones in a style we liked.
So where's the satisfaction in that? It's this: we have the great good fortune to possess the financial wherewithal, in our retirement, to be able get the best quality ceiling fan we can find. I did the research, and found a make and model that had great reviews online, was documented as being made with top-notch materials and parts, and matched our taste in its style. The price was roughly double what the old fans likely cost.
The quality difference was driven home to me as I disassembled the old ceiling fans – perfectly serviceable, but visibly not as well made, presumably not as durable, and observably noisier and less stable (they vibrated and had some motor whine, especially at high fan speeds). The new ceiling fans are made of heavier materials, have rubber noise and vibration dampening throughout, and were perfectly balanced without any adjustment at all. The fit and finish are perfect. Even at the highest speed setting, there's no vibration and no motor noise with the new fans – just the quiet rush of the air being moved.
It's such a little thing, really ... but I have lived most of my life in financial circumstances that did not allow me to make such choices. Virtually every purchase we ever made was compromised by the price we could afford to pay, and usually it was quality that was compromised. It's very satisfying to me that now we need not make any such compromise for most of the ordinary things we need, because we can afford to buy the quality we really want. There's another factor at work here, too: the more experience one has, the more one appreciates fine quality...
So where's the satisfaction in that? It's this: we have the great good fortune to possess the financial wherewithal, in our retirement, to be able get the best quality ceiling fan we can find. I did the research, and found a make and model that had great reviews online, was documented as being made with top-notch materials and parts, and matched our taste in its style. The price was roughly double what the old fans likely cost.
The quality difference was driven home to me as I disassembled the old ceiling fans – perfectly serviceable, but visibly not as well made, presumably not as durable, and observably noisier and less stable (they vibrated and had some motor whine, especially at high fan speeds). The new ceiling fans are made of heavier materials, have rubber noise and vibration dampening throughout, and were perfectly balanced without any adjustment at all. The fit and finish are perfect. Even at the highest speed setting, there's no vibration and no motor noise with the new fans – just the quiet rush of the air being moved.
It's such a little thing, really ... but I have lived most of my life in financial circumstances that did not allow me to make such choices. Virtually every purchase we ever made was compromised by the price we could afford to pay, and usually it was quality that was compromised. It's very satisfying to me that now we need not make any such compromise for most of the ordinary things we need, because we can afford to buy the quality we really want. There's another factor at work here, too: the more experience one has, the more one appreciates fine quality...
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Nano-pad...
So that got me curious, of course. Just what is this “gecko-like nano-suction”, anyway? I envisioned a perfect array of thousands upon thousands of little tiny suction cups, but that's not how it works at all. Instead, the surface is pocked by thousands of randomly shaped and placed little microscopic pockets, as you can see below. The silver arc is the edge of a dime, to give you some scale. The photo is at 60x magnification. You can see dozens of oddly shaped little squiggles here; those are the little pockets that act like suction cups. Some of them, if you look closely, are filled with dirt – which will wash right out, making it good as new.
I had a heck of a time getting that dime off there when I finished taking this photo :)
Castro helped us get the Hubble Space Telescope...
Castro helped us get the Hubble Space Telescope... I knew this general story, but this article has lots of details new to me...
It never ceases to amaze me...
It never ceases to amaze me ... how many things that feel intrinsic are actually cultural. I've traveled quite a bit around the world, and have encountered numerous examples before – but they're still hard to absorb. Sex (long necks, anyone?) and food (locust stew - yum!) are the two most common sources for these, followed closely by aesthetics (check out that purple and green house!). It's one of the big challenges for me in understanding other cultures – those things that make my head explode...
The more we learn about genetics...
The more we learn about genetics ... the closer we'll get to something akin to eugenics. Lots of interesting ponders on this subject!
If we lived for 1,000 years...
If we lived for 1,000 years ... our notions of economics would be upended. A political science student takes a whack at the implications. Science fiction authors have been thinking about this for decades, and have come up with many, many more possibilities. The compound interest scenario is a favorite of stories about both long lifespans and time travel...
I share her pain...
World's most beautiful cemeteries...
World's most beautiful cemeteries... A collection from Smithsonian. I've visited several of these, and they are all beautiful places. But there's one I've visited that I thought was more beautiful than any in this collection: a tiny cemetery near the little town of Kasti, on the island of Saaremaa, in Estonia.
I don't have any photos of it, unfortunately. What made it so beautiful to me was the way that the locals had so carefully maintained this cemetery over several hundred years. The oldest gravestones I found dated to the 1600s; the newest ones were very recent. All were simple and plain – and all, even the oldest, had fresh flowers on them. The lawn and plants were immaculately maintained, and the surrounding and overhanging forest had irrigation ditches to keep the trees watered and healthy. The atmosphere was somber, dignified, and peaceful.
I have fond memories of something that happened there, as well. As I was walking around, a local family – husband, wife, two young kids – came in bearing flowers. The kids were happy and full of energy; they immediately went bounding off to play amongst the tombstones. The couple went over to a grave near one corner, cleared the older flowers away and set a new bouquet down. The husband took out some hand shears and started clipping the grass around the grave, and pulling a few weeds. The wife stood silently, crying a little. I felt like an intruder on this scene, and quietly walked out.
I started to get into my rental car when I saw the husband walking toward me with a friendly expression. He waved and greeted me, in Estonian, which I don't know a word of. I asked if he spoke English, and he replied that he did – but just a little. He said that he and his wife were afraid that they had intruded on my solitude, and that they didn't want me to think I had to leave because they had come in. We laughed together when I told him that I'd had the same feeling about them. He assumed I had a relative buried here, but I told him I was just sightseeing, and had been struck by the beauty of this little cemetery as I drove by. He dragged me back in to meet his wife, whom he said spoke perfect English.
Well, it wasn't so perfect :) But it was, truly, much better than his. Both of them were very warm and friendly to this strange American tourist (this was back in 1993 or 1994, and foreign tourists were very unusual at that time). She told me that the grave they were visiting was for her father, who had died about 15 years earlier. What made her sad today was that he had not lived to see the end of the Soviet occupation (1991). That would have filled him with joy, she said, and that's easy to believe. The three of us talked for about an hour – me with lots of questions about what it was like to live on Saaremaa, them with lots of questions about America. Like so many other Estonians back then, when they heard I lived in California, they assumed I was on a first name basis with every Hollywood star :)
Our conversation was intermittently in English, and intermittently in Estonian as the husband and wife came up with things they wanted to ask, or talked about something I'd said. After one of these Estonian interludes, the woman asked me if I'd join them for dinner, at their home, just a couple of miles away. I jumped on that opportunity!
The conversation continued before, during, and after the dinner. The kids about 12 or 13 years old) joined in, too, with lots of questions of their own. The dinner itself was simple fare: a little pea-and-carrot salad, something I'd call roast pork, with a savory sauce, and boiled potatoes with (the inevitable) dill. There was a slightly sweet cold soup, tomato-based, again with dill. There was beer to drink (including for the kids), a local brew. I'm not a beer fan, and I didn't particularly like theirs, but I drank it anyway :). It was well after dark when I finally took my leave, with lots of smiles, good cheer, and waves goodbye. I had a standing invitation to visit the next time I came to Saaremaa.
A couple of years later, I did just that – but when I drove up to the house and knocked on the door, an unfamiliar face greeted me. When we found someone who spoke English, I found out that the family I knew had moved away – the husband had found good work in Poland, and they all moved there. I think of them, now and then, and hope that they're doing well. The Smithsonian cemetery story brought them to mind once again...
I don't have any photos of it, unfortunately. What made it so beautiful to me was the way that the locals had so carefully maintained this cemetery over several hundred years. The oldest gravestones I found dated to the 1600s; the newest ones were very recent. All were simple and plain – and all, even the oldest, had fresh flowers on them. The lawn and plants were immaculately maintained, and the surrounding and overhanging forest had irrigation ditches to keep the trees watered and healthy. The atmosphere was somber, dignified, and peaceful.
I have fond memories of something that happened there, as well. As I was walking around, a local family – husband, wife, two young kids – came in bearing flowers. The kids were happy and full of energy; they immediately went bounding off to play amongst the tombstones. The couple went over to a grave near one corner, cleared the older flowers away and set a new bouquet down. The husband took out some hand shears and started clipping the grass around the grave, and pulling a few weeds. The wife stood silently, crying a little. I felt like an intruder on this scene, and quietly walked out.
I started to get into my rental car when I saw the husband walking toward me with a friendly expression. He waved and greeted me, in Estonian, which I don't know a word of. I asked if he spoke English, and he replied that he did – but just a little. He said that he and his wife were afraid that they had intruded on my solitude, and that they didn't want me to think I had to leave because they had come in. We laughed together when I told him that I'd had the same feeling about them. He assumed I had a relative buried here, but I told him I was just sightseeing, and had been struck by the beauty of this little cemetery as I drove by. He dragged me back in to meet his wife, whom he said spoke perfect English.
Well, it wasn't so perfect :) But it was, truly, much better than his. Both of them were very warm and friendly to this strange American tourist (this was back in 1993 or 1994, and foreign tourists were very unusual at that time). She told me that the grave they were visiting was for her father, who had died about 15 years earlier. What made her sad today was that he had not lived to see the end of the Soviet occupation (1991). That would have filled him with joy, she said, and that's easy to believe. The three of us talked for about an hour – me with lots of questions about what it was like to live on Saaremaa, them with lots of questions about America. Like so many other Estonians back then, when they heard I lived in California, they assumed I was on a first name basis with every Hollywood star :)
Our conversation was intermittently in English, and intermittently in Estonian as the husband and wife came up with things they wanted to ask, or talked about something I'd said. After one of these Estonian interludes, the woman asked me if I'd join them for dinner, at their home, just a couple of miles away. I jumped on that opportunity!
The conversation continued before, during, and after the dinner. The kids about 12 or 13 years old) joined in, too, with lots of questions of their own. The dinner itself was simple fare: a little pea-and-carrot salad, something I'd call roast pork, with a savory sauce, and boiled potatoes with (the inevitable) dill. There was a slightly sweet cold soup, tomato-based, again with dill. There was beer to drink (including for the kids), a local brew. I'm not a beer fan, and I didn't particularly like theirs, but I drank it anyway :). It was well after dark when I finally took my leave, with lots of smiles, good cheer, and waves goodbye. I had a standing invitation to visit the next time I came to Saaremaa.
A couple of years later, I did just that – but when I drove up to the house and knocked on the door, an unfamiliar face greeted me. When we found someone who spoke English, I found out that the family I knew had moved away – the husband had found good work in Poland, and they all moved there. I think of them, now and then, and hope that they're doing well. The Smithsonian cemetery story brought them to mind once again...
Looks like old sol needs a little Clearasil...
Abe's whiskers...
Where does one even start with this?
There are several things in this clip that should raise the hackles of anyone who isn't avowedly socialist. One of them stands out. Says Hillary:
“Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs.”That's the language of socialism, in all its many guises, pure and straightforward. Governments create jobs, not private industry, say those true believers. And, to my great distress, a plurality of Americans today agree with that.
This is the candidate who – according to virtually every poll – currently would beat any conceivable candidate that the Republicans could field against her, including Mitt Romney version 3.
This is your cup of morning doom. You're welcome...
Comet farts, with dunes...
Well, that didn't take long!
Well, that didn't take long! Alan Eustace has broken Felix Baumgartner's recent record for high-altitude skydiving. Eustace is a Google executive, and funded his jump himself...
“...you grandiloquent twonk.”
“...you grandiloquent twonk.” I have no idea who Katy Perry or Russell Brand is, but I gather they're some sort of celebrities. One thing I am very clear on, though: James Delingpole really, really doesn't like Russell Brand! The intro to the linked article:
Russell Brand - soap-dodger, lech, former husband of the infinitely more talented Katy Perry - is the most irritating person on earth. This much we knew. But I don't think any of us realised just HOW irritating till his most recent appearance on BBC Newsnight last night in which, besides revealing himself to be a 9/11 Truther, he also emerged as a preening, ignorant, manipulative bully with disturbing communist and Islamist tendencies.“soap-dodger” :) I love James Delingpole's rants...
Russell Brand - soap-dodger, lech, former husband of the infinitely more talented Katy Perry - is the most irritating person on earth. This much we knew. But I don't think any of us realised just HOW irritating till his most recent appearance on BBC Newsnight last night in which, besides revealing himself to be a 9/11 Truther, he also emerged as a preening, ignorant, manipulative bully with disturbing communist and Islamist tendencies.
Adventures in electricity...
Adventures in electricity... A few months ago the painters removed all the switch and outlet covers in the house, and I took advantage of that to do some random inspection of the electrical work. After seeing some obvious problems and some shoddy work, along with some not-so-good components, I decided to replace all the switches and outlets in the house with quality new components – and to fix all the problems I found along the way.
Yesterday I inventoried all the parts I'd need, and made an epic purchase at Lowe's. My entire shopping cart was filled to the brim with large quantities of parts. The checkout clerk thought I was an electrician stocking up for the month. Just to give you a flavor: I bought 84 switches. This sort of thing comes along with a 4,800 sq. ft. house, I suppose. That pile of components is intimidating :)
When I got home, I broke out my tools and went to work in the living room. My first effort was to figure out why one switch, placed as if it were a light switch, didn't work. After some effort, I determined that it was supposed to control the top outlets on three separate dual outlets scattered around the room. The reason it didn't work? Somebody who didn't understand these things had replaced two of the dual outlets, and had not removed the “shorting bar” that allowed the upper and lower outlet to be controlled separately. I fixed that. Then I discovered one outlet with a missing ground wire – that's actually dangerous. I fixed that. The next outlet had the “hot” and neutral wires reversed – also potentially dangerous. I fixed that. I've only redone half of one room, and I've already found three errors, two of them potentially dangerous. I'm a little surprised the former owners survived!
Yesterday I inventoried all the parts I'd need, and made an epic purchase at Lowe's. My entire shopping cart was filled to the brim with large quantities of parts. The checkout clerk thought I was an electrician stocking up for the month. Just to give you a flavor: I bought 84 switches. This sort of thing comes along with a 4,800 sq. ft. house, I suppose. That pile of components is intimidating :)
When I got home, I broke out my tools and went to work in the living room. My first effort was to figure out why one switch, placed as if it were a light switch, didn't work. After some effort, I determined that it was supposed to control the top outlets on three separate dual outlets scattered around the room. The reason it didn't work? Somebody who didn't understand these things had replaced two of the dual outlets, and had not removed the “shorting bar” that allowed the upper and lower outlet to be controlled separately. I fixed that. Then I discovered one outlet with a missing ground wire – that's actually dangerous. I fixed that. The next outlet had the “hot” and neutral wires reversed – also potentially dangerous. I fixed that. I've only redone half of one room, and I've already found three errors, two of them potentially dangerous. I'm a little surprised the former owners survived!
Amazon vs. Hachette...
Amazon vs. Hachette... I've commented on this briefly before. To me, the whole kerfuffle seems grossly overblown. Amazon's efforts are entirely consistent with the disintermediation that the web brought to many industries. Hachette is acting like the buggy whip manufacturers when cars first came out. Hachette will lose in the end – it's just a matter of when – and consumers and authors will win, along with Amazon.
I've felt a little lonely in this opinion. The lamestream media absolutely delighted in the “feud”, and coverage has been overwhelmingly pro-Hachette. Yesterday, though, I ran across a couple of articles by people who share my perspective, and have some interesting points to make: CoyoteBlog and Megan McArdle. Reason has been taking the same position since the news broke. You might note a pattern there: all three sources lean libertarian (Reason rather overtly so). The dominant ideologies (progressive and conservative) tend to support Hachette's position, for different reasons, with a few exceptions on the conservative side. There really aren't all that many issues where the libertarians stick out quite so much (drug legalization is another), so it's interesting to see that this is one. Probably it just boils down to the libertarian notion that it's best to keep government out of things, whereas both progressives and conservatives (these days) seem to agree that BIG BAD GOVERNMENT is a good thing...
I've felt a little lonely in this opinion. The lamestream media absolutely delighted in the “feud”, and coverage has been overwhelmingly pro-Hachette. Yesterday, though, I ran across a couple of articles by people who share my perspective, and have some interesting points to make: CoyoteBlog and Megan McArdle. Reason has been taking the same position since the news broke. You might note a pattern there: all three sources lean libertarian (Reason rather overtly so). The dominant ideologies (progressive and conservative) tend to support Hachette's position, for different reasons, with a few exceptions on the conservative side. There really aren't all that many issues where the libertarians stick out quite so much (drug legalization is another), so it's interesting to see that this is one. Probably it just boils down to the libertarian notion that it's best to keep government out of things, whereas both progressives and conservatives (these days) seem to agree that BIG BAD GOVERNMENT is a good thing...
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