Misleading statistics...

Misleading statistics...  James Pethokoukis, writing at Ricochet, has a good takedown of the statistical analysis summarized by the graph at right.  This analysis (and the graph) was produced by Oxfam.  Among the many doozies one could infer from the graph is this one: that the U.S. has some of the poorest people in the world.  Really?

Yes, I am aware...

Yes, I am aware...  This is in reply to the (male!) reader who shall remain anonymous: yes, I am aware that the Day-by-Day cartoon I feature on the right occasionally has some depictions of nude women.  I happen to like naked women!  I wish they were featured more often :)  No, I will not remove it from my blog to protect your delicate (and, dare I say, somewhat warped) sensibilities.  If you don't like it, then don't visit here.

Physical therapy...

Physical therapy ... kicked Debbie out this morning!  It's all good, though: they said she no longer needs to go.  She can do all she needs at home.  We go back in two weeks for a checkup, but basically ... she's done!

With that, we will declare her surgery (just two weeks ago today!) a complete success...

Scharrkreise...

Scharrkreise...  Beautiful image at right of a perfect circle made by a plant, some wind, and some sand.  I've seen many similar circles made by desert lilies in the desert east of San Diego, but I never managed to capture it quite so perfectly as this photographer did...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  I made a run to the grocery store yesterday, to pick up the ingredients for Debbie's chicken-mushroom soup (which I will be enjoying later this morning!).  On the way back from the grocery store, in a light drizzle, I was on a stretch of the highway with two lanes in each direction.  Passing through an area where the speed limit was 45 MPH, a pickup and I were traveling side-by-side, with me in the left lane.  Behind me a little car zoomed up to within a few feet of my rear bumper, and next thing I know it's honking at me, flashing its lights, and the driver (a middle-aged woman) was waving at me angrily.

Now that's the sort of thing one routinely sees on the highways of southern California, but not up here in northern Utah!  I was quite shocked, actually, as that sort of behavior is just not seen here.  Maybe 10 seconds after she approached my bumper, the truck on my right turned off the highway, and right away the lady behind me jerked to the right lane, zipped up right next to me, and rolled down her window – in the drizzle, mind you!  I looked over to see a foaming-at-the-mouth angry woman, flipping me the bird, and yelling something that I couldn't (thankfully!) hear.  Then she took off.

I was pondering the outrageousness of this behavior when I saw a police car behind me light off his flashy lights.  He zoomed by me on the right, and pulled over Ms. Outraged.  I pulled over right behind him, thinking I might be able to help somehow.  The cop got out of his car, waved at me in a friendly way, and walked up to her car.  After speaking with her for a minute, he came back to my truck and we had a nice conversation.  It turns out that Ms. Outraged is named Marsha, and she's well-known to the local cops.  She's had two previous incidents of aggressive driving and distracted driving; this would make the third – and the one that would cost her her license.  The cop asked me if I'd be willing to testify if she asked for a jury trial, and of course I said yes.  He took my contact info and a brief statement, then sent me on my way.  With a smile.  I can't imagine that ever happening in southern California!

Yesterday evening, Debbie and I watched The Martian on DVD.  I'd already read the book (which I loved!), but Debbie had not.  The movie did quite a good job of following the book, right up until the very last scene in space where the filmmaker took some liberties with the plot line.  Compared with most movies made from books, this was a small divergence.  As always, though, the book had far more detail than the movie could possibly cram in.  I enjoyed the movie, probably most especially the scenery.  I'm assuming that's all computer-generated, but it's still quite beautiful – even though it doesn't really match the photos I've seen of the Martian surface :)

Space flowers...

Space flowers...  The first flowers grown in space, some orange zinnias.  This was part of an experiment on the ISS designed to learn how to grow things in space.  I like the flower, but I hate the waste taxpayer dollars being spent on the ISS – most especially on the purposeless pursuit of manned space missions (which this experiment is part of)...

Still beautiful after all these months...

Still beautiful after all these months...  Comet 67P, imaged by the Rosetta robotic explorer...

I'm not surprised by this:

I'm not surprised by this: a new study casts doubt on the notion that smoking marijuana reduces cognitive function.  My lack of surprise isn't from personal experience, but rather from observation: a significant percentage (probably over half of those under 40) of the talented programmers I've worked with were regular marijuana users.  I saw no observable impact on their performance...

Curiosity and the dark dune of Mars...

Curiosity and the dark dune of Mars...  Curiosity has been studying some dark dunes on Mars for several weeks now.  The photo at right shows the main object of its study.  Go, Curiosity!  Via APOD, of course.   Full resolution photo here.

And speaking of Curiosity ... check out the recent photo it took (with the mast camera) at left.  The photo shows a soil analysis system mounted on Curiosity's deck.  The interesting thing to me here is all the accumulated dust.  Curiosity needs a good windstorm to blow all that crap off!

Synchronization and syntonization...

Synchronization and syntonization...  It's amazingly difficult for a computer to keep very precise time.  Anything more accurate than within a second or two of accepted standards is a major challenge. 

I first ran into this when working for an electronic trading company, where we were required (by regulatory agencies) to keep our logs accurate to sub-second levels.  When I was given responsibility for the IT organization, one of the first things the team hit me with was that we were out of compliance with the regulations.  In fact, our servers weren't even able to stay with 10 seconds of the “correct” time!  Fixing that problem took months of very hard work by several people on the team, mainly to make sure we had no delays (from network gear, mostly) between our logging servers and their time source. We also had to buy $20,000 worth of special “Stratum 1” NTP servers that were synced to atomic clocks on GPS satellites. 

It's gotten a little cheaper these days, but not really any easier...

A winner like ME!

A winner like ME!  My pistol-packing mama passed along this appearance by Donald Trump on the Jimmy Kimmel show.  It includes a segment (starting at around the 3:00 mark) that's pretty funny at first blush ... but then I got to thinking what it would be like to have a President Trump who would embody what's being spoofed here.  That's not a particularly pleasant or humorless thought.

Estonia looks better all the time, if only it didn't have Pesky Putin with a gun at its side...

No trouble...

No trouble...  Debbie's friend never has any trouble when she goes to the ATM, as she brings along her Smith and Wesson.  Smith is on the left, Wesson on the right!

Several scientific papers suggesting that GMO crops might be harmful...

Several scientific papers suggesting that GMO crops might be harmful ... may have been fraudulent.  Sadly, I'm not surprised.  Disappointed, yes.  Surprised?  Not so much.  This is of a piece with the typical “the ends justify the means” approach that the greenies and progressives routinely take...

So close!

So close!  Yesterday SpaceX attempted to land a Falcon 9 on a barge off the coast of California (after a launch from Vandenburg Air Force Base).  This was challenging for several reasons, not least of which was weather that had the barge heaving and rolling.  Nevertheless, as you can see in the video at right, the landing itself went perfectly.  After the rocket successfully touched down, one of the landing legs collapsed and the rocket fell over and exploded.

On the one hand, this must be very disappointing for the SpaceX team.  Of course they want the landing to be completely successful.  On the other hand, this was crazy-close to being that complete success.  So much went well that I have utterly no doubt that they will not only succeed one of these fine days, but they'll make it routine – and in the process, drastically reduce the cost of putting satellites into orbit.

From one perspective this is a fine story about the power of capitalism.  With a budget that is minuscule by NASA standards, SpaceX has (almost) done what NASA proclaimed impossible with any budget: made a reusable vertical-launch orbital-capable rocket.  One can quibble about the “subsidies” SpaceX is getting (in the form of launch contracts), but no matter how you look at it, those capitalists are giving us far more bang for the buck than the NASA technocrats ever did...

Making the primary mirror...

Making the primary mirror ... for gigantic astronomical telescopes.  This article has a nice description of the process; no jargon or math.

When I think about the artifacts that mankind produces, a few jump out as particularly amazing.  These mirrors are one.  Others that immediately come to mind include modern integrated circuits (especially CPUs and analog circuits), hard disk drives, and photo-realistic drawings...

Paradise ponders...

Paradise ponders...  We had a nice, slow day yesterday.  That's just what both Debbie and I needed, as we're both on the tail ends of a nasty sort of cold.  We're down to residual sniffles, the occasional hacking cough, and a bit of puniness; otherwise we're doing just fine.  It will feel great when this is gone!

We took a drive up to Hardware Ranch yesterday, despite this being “elk ride” season.  The elk are in enclosed pastures for the winter, and are as tame as cows.  The Hardware Ranch staff gives rides on rubber-wheeled wagons pulled by horses, right through the herd.  As you might imagine, there are unbelievable quantities of kids there.  Anyway, we were too early to see many deer (though we did see a few) – but there was plenty of beautiful winter scenery to see through the ongoing snowstorm.

Debbie made a new dish yesterday afternoon – a sort of Mexican lasagna.  Though it was a bit spicier than I prefer, it was very tasty.  The predominant flavors were chicken, chilies, cheese, and Mexican sour cream.  There were lasagna noodles, of course.  Overall it had the texture and flavor you'd expect from a great comfort food.  Next time she makes it, she's going to see if there's a way to tone down that spiciness.

We're looking forward to another easy, relaxing day today.  We got about three more inches of snow last night, which means there is now about 8" on the driveway.  I briefly considered plowing today, but talked myself out of it considering that there are four more inches in the forecast for Monday and Tuesday :)

Martian sand...

Martian sand ... close up.  Via Curiosity, of course...

Gaming the system...

Gaming the system...  Megan McArdle has a useful post up, explaining how it appears that Obamacare customers (victims?) are gaming the system, and how that's undermining the entire financial underpinnings of Obamacare.

As I look around at news reports and our own experiences with Obamacare, it looks to me like the unraveling is (a) already well underway, and (b) damned close to inevitable.  I've been surprised by how many people I've met who have no comprehensive understanding of how Obamacare works – but who know at expert level exactly how they can get around the rules to their personal advantage.  That's the very essence of “gaming the system”. 

This particular game is tilted in favor of two groups: the young and healthy, and people making less than roughly $100k a year.  Those two groups are, of course, not mutually exclusive – quite the opposite.  We're in neither group, so our best bet (at the moment, anyway) seems to be to survive until Medicare eligibility.  Until then, we get to help pay for everyone else's healthcare.  And I won't be a bit surprised to discover that when I reach 65, the rules have been changed in a way that steals even more of our money.  If Bernie Sanders gets elected, burying money is going to look quite attractive...

Data tampering...

Data tampering...  Tony Heller has a great (and typically detailed) post up that shows rather convincingly how NASA has tampered with their weather data to bolster the case for anthropogenic global warming (AGW). 

This tampering is accomplished in a manner that's familiar to anyone who watches what the government does: they didn't lie about the actual data – they just “adjusted” it.  They adjusted the hell out of it. 

If you're a regular reader of this blog, then you know another blatant example of this data tampering: the way the Bureau of Labor Statistics presents unemployment.  The number that gets the publicity is not the actual number of unemployed people (though that's what most people believe), but rather an “adjusted” number.  That adjusted number shows a far lower unemployment percentage than the actual reality.

This tampering is just as blatant.  The graph at upper right is one of the “tells”: it shows how much the actual measured temperature has been adjusted for various years.  The numbers that NASA presents are the measured temperatures plus this adjustment.  If the measured temperatures stayed perfectly flat (and in fact they're not far off that), then after adjustment they'd show – what a surprise! – the infamous “hockey stick” increase.

Corruption takes many forms.  This is one of them...

“We’ve just legalized mortgage fraud.”

“We’ve just legalized mortgage fraud.” That's Kevin Williamson, writing at the National Review, and I can't think of a better way to summarize it.  More:

But Fannie Mae, the organized-crime syndicate masquerading as a quasi-governmental entity, has other ideas. Under its new and cynically misnamed “HomeReady” program, borrowers with subprime credit don’t need to show that they have enough income to qualify for the mortgage they’re after — they simply have to show that all the people residing in their household put together have enough income to qualify for that mortgage. We’re not talking just about husbands and wives here, but any group of people who happen to share a roof and a mailing address. And some non-residents can be added, too, such as your parents.

That would be one thing if all these people were applying for a mortgage together, and were jointly on the hook for the mortgage payments. But that isn’t the case. HomeReady will permit borrowers to claim other people’s income for the purpose for qualifying for a mortgage, but will not give mortgage lenders any actual claim against that additional income.

This is madness.

Madness, indeed.  But it seems of a piece with our government's careening toward socialism and fantasy-based reckoning...