Superstorms?

First they tell us to stand by for extended drought caused by global warming.  Then they tell us to stand by for extended drought and desertification caused by “climate change”.  Now they're warning us that we could have a “superstorm” that lasts for over a month and dumps over 100 inches of rain – based on historical records of such storms occuring before, most recently in the early 1860s...

I Have a Dream...

The full speech by Dr. King:


We've made a lot of progress, but we haven't quite yet realized his dream...

To Realize...

Via my mom:

To realize
the value of a sister/brother
ask someone
who doesn't have one.

To realize
the value of ten years:
ask a newly
divorced couple.

To realize
the value of four years:
ask a graduate.

To realize
the value of one year:
ask a student who
has failed a final exam.

To realize
the value of nine months:
ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
the value of one month:
ask a mother
who has given birth to a premature baby..

To realize
the value of one minute:
ask a person
who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
the value of one-second:
ask a person
who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.
treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
you can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:
LOSE ONE.

Planet Sounio...

From APOD, of course.  Awesome on several levels, including the technical photography and digital editing...

Bite Me...

From Don Surber:

I do not want civil discourse

For a decade, from the election of Bush 43 forward, the Left has lied and cheated as it tried to return to power. Al Gore made a mockery out of the American electoral system by being a spoilsport over Florida, which Bush indeed won by 537 votes. Dan Rather forged a document to try to derail Bush’s re-election. Twice Democrats stole U.S. senators from the Republicans. After voting to support the war to get by the 2002 election, many Democrats quickly soured on the war. The profane protests were cheered by liberals who misattributed “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”to Thomas Jefferson; the words belong to the late historian Howard Zinn.

Once in power, liberals were the opposite of gracious.

For two years now, I have been called ignorant, racist, angry and violent by the left. The very foul-mouthed protesters of Bush dare to now label my words as “hate speech.”

Last week, the left quickly blamed the right for the national tragedy of a shooting spree by a madman who never watched Fox News, never listened to Rush Limbaugh and likely did not know who Sarah Palin is.

Fortunately, the American public rejected out of hand that idiotic notion that the right was responsible.

Rather than apologize, the left wants to change the tone of the political debate.

The left suddenly wants civil discourse.

Bite me.

What he said.  Squared.  Read the rest of his excellent post...

Old Computer Ads...

I remember the one at right (click to enlarge), as I had a business manufacturing computer systems at the time, and these folks were selling the same hard disk that I was – but for about half my price!

If you work out the numbers, these folks were selling a hard disk at $350/mb, and I was selling them at $500/mb – and both prices were an order of magnitude less than the cost of disks just a few years prior.  I remember thinking that we had to be approaching some sort of price asymptote; it couldn't possibly go down any lower!  And now, about 30 years later, what do disks cost?  Roughly $0.0001/mb, or about five millionths of what they used to cost.  Is there anything else that has declined as much in cost as computer hardware?  If so, I can't think what it is...

More ads at the link.

Potential Cure for Tinnitus...

Tinnitus is a persistent ringing (or other noise) that one hears when there is no actual noise to be heard.  I've suffered from an irritating, but much less than debilitating, version of it for 10 years or so.  Some people's tinnitus is so bad that they can't work, read, watch TV, or enjoy much of life.

Now some scientists say they may have an actual cure, one that involves “rebooting the brain”.  Hmmm.  Are they telling us that our brains are equipped with Microsoft software?  I sure hope not, 'cause that's a mighty scary thought!

Hey! Peggy Noonan Agrees With Me!

Her lead:

The beginning of the president's speech wasn't good, and was marked by the sonorous banalities on which White House staffs in times of crisis always insist. "We join you in your grief," "We mourn with you for the fallen," "a quintessentially American scene ... shattered by a gunman's bullets." Modern presidents sometimes speak as if their words were crafted by producers for a TV newsmagazine like "Dateline." This is bad because television producers tend to think their audience is composed of people who require the plonkingly obvious to be repeatedly stated in the purplest prose. The trend should be stopped. Presidents are not anchormen of true-crime shows, or were not meant to be.

I begin grouchily to underscore the sincerity of the praise that follows. About a third of the way through, the speech took on real meaning and momentum, and by the end it was very good, maybe great. The speech had a proper height. It was large-spirited and dealt with big things. It was adroit and without rancor. The president didn't mourn, he inspirited.

Read the whole thing...

Morning Walk...

I miss Orion in the sky; at this time of year it has already set in the west before I get up.  And it looks odd to me to see the Big Dipper (Ursa major) “upside down”, almost straight overhead.  But the clear skies I really enjoy.  The half-moon was very high in the southern sky this morning, and bright enough to wash out most of the stars.  There was plenty of light to walk by.

Race chased pine cones, as is his want.  He likes any sort of ball or toy that's kicked or thrown, but for some reason pine cones are his absolute favorite.  You can see his delight when he finds one, and his joy when he chases down one that I've kicked – he runs back to me with it held in his jaws, practically skipping and dancing with happiness, his head whipping back and forth.  Then down it goes on the pavement just in front of me, and he crouches, focused totally on that pine cone and the moment of my kick.

The three field spaniels wandered from smell to smell.  I want to be able to ask them “Who visited there?  How long ago?”  I'm assuming they know, that they can tell from what they're smelling.  Maybe I'm wrong, though; maybe those smells are to them like a nice glass of wine to me – I don't really understand it very well, but I sure enjoy it!

I got to thinking, during our walk this morning, about Debbie, who is away with her friend Marsha Y. in the Los Angeles area.  I miss her, of course.  But I'm very proud of the way she leapt in to support her friend.  She and Dick (Marsha's husband) are so far Marsha's only visitors.  This isn't because Marsha is without friends or family (she has plenty of both).  I don't know why others aren't there to be with Marsha.  But Debbie is there, when Marsha needs friends and family the most.  I'm proud that my wife is the kind of person who responds to a friend's need in the way that she has.

Marsha appears to be making good progress.  Last night she was able to eat on her own, for the first time since the stroke.  In my last call with Debbie, her tone was full of optimism and hope...

A Clear Path to $1B in Revenue...

Now that's the sort of thing I really, really enjoy hearing from my boss...

NGC 3521...

From APOD, of course.  As always, click to enlarge.

Tough Stuff...

Just by happenstance, I know someone working on this stuff.  They think it just might be the next “miracle material”, with the potential to be as revolutionary as the advent of plastics...

Obama's Tuscon Moment...

Long time readers of this blog will know that it's rare for me to agree with a position that President Obama takes.  It's rarer still for me to agree with – much less admire – something that he does.

Last night was an exception.  I thought his speech in Tuscon was an exemplary one, delivered with all the skill and theatre that he's famous for (but has so rarely actually delivered).  Obama surprised me by staying well above the left's rhetoric of the past few days, instead delivering an message of unity I always hope a politician would hit in such situations, but which so few actually do.  He also did a superb job of honoring the dead and injured, without using the occasion directly for his own ends.

Nice job, Mr. President.  Thank you.

More like that, please...

The Collar Bomb Heist...

Amazing true crime story.  I'd heard of this before, but not all these details.

Light Blogging Alert...

There is a nearly perfect storm brewing for me: at work we're in crunch mode to get a release out, Debbie is away (more on that in a moment), and we have a sick dog.  I'm working from home today, and won't be posting much.

Debbie is away to be with Marsha Y., a good friend who suffered a stroke on Monday.  Marsha's doing ok – she's awake, talking, and the only symptom seems to be some problem with movement on her right side.  She was at the gym when the stroke happened, so people were with her and helping immediately; she was at the hospital in very short order...

Tarantula...

...but perhaps not what you were expecting.  This is the Tarantula Nebula, via APOD (of course!).

The Little Book of Semaphores...

A freely downloadable book about concurrent programming.  I've only skimmed it so far, but it looks pretty good...

Ice Extrusions...

Both by happenstance and by design, ice can be extruded from large containers with small exits (as in the photo at right).  James Carter has learned how to do this on purpose.  See his web site for lots of interesting examples and an explanation...

Online Advanced JavaScript Course...

Here.

WTF: IPv6 in the Science journals?

Here's an example.

An entire generation of computer scientists has been born, educated, and gone to work since IPv6 was first invented.  There are very damned few deployments of it outside of the backbone.  The benefits are clear, but so are the implementation challenges.

The linked article refers to a government mandate for IPv6 upgrading.  I'd get excited about that except that I remember the first such mandate (around 1995), the second (around 2000), and the third (around 2005) – none of which had much impact so far as I can tell.  Outside of the squandering of vast amounts of taxpayer dollars, of course.

Sheesh.