Puzzler...

For the past few weeks, the number of readers daily hitting this site has been slowly and steadily growing.  This is after about 18 months of nearly constant readership, except for brief spikes when my blog gets linked from somewhere else (thank you!) or when there's a hot topic (such as ClimateGate) in the blogosphere.  I have no idea why the hits are increasing, as (so far as I can tell) I'm not doing anything different than I've always done.

But in any case: welcome, new readers.  Drop me a line if you've got something you'd like to say, and of course feel free to comment on the posts.  As you can see, my interests range all over the place, though there's allegedly a focus on things Jamulian around here...

Cute Animation...

Here.  Via my mom.

Origins of Some Sayings...

...and some other things.  Via my mom:

There is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London , which used to have a gallows adjacent to it. Prisoners were taken to the gallows, (after a fair trial of course) to be hung.

The horse drawn dray, carting the prisoner, was accompanied by an armed guard, who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the prisoner if he would like ''ONE LAST DRINK''.

If he said YES, it was referred to as ONE FOR THE ROAD.

If he declined, that prisoner was ON THE WAGON.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were, "Piss Poor", but worse than that, were the really poor folk, who couldn't even afford to buy a pot, they "Didn't have a pot to Piss in" & were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain, because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500's:

Most people got married in June, because they took their yearly bath in May and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers, to hide the body odor.

Hence the custom today, of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water..

The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom, where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top, afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt Poor." The wealthy had slate floors, that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing.

As the winter wore on, they added more thresh, until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.. Hence: a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day, they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight, then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: ''Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, nine days old''.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon, to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "Bring home the Bacon." They would cut off a little, to share with guests and would all sit around talking and ''Chew the fat''.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning & death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided, according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or ''The Upper Crust''.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of ''Holding a Wake''.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So, they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, thread it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.

Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night, (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, ''Saved by the Bell '' or was considered a ''Dead Ringer''

And that's the truth.

Now, whoever said History was boring ! ! !

I was unable to verify any of these with a few minutes of searching, though I did run across an etymology site that dismissed the “threshold” story here as mere “folk etymology”.  True or not, they're all entertaining...

Weather in Lawson Valley...

The NOAA weather forecasts for yesterday were rather intimidating – up to 6 inches of rain, gusty winds to 60 MPH, possible thunderstorms with inch-diameter hail...yikes!  But we had none of that, though the weather has been interesting nonetheless.

First, the rain.  As I write this, we're at 2.4 inches (62mm) for the three-day storm (see the top graph at right, click to enlarge).  More is definitely coming, today and tomorrow.  As you can see from the graph, we had a couple brief periods of heavy rain, and then last night a long, steady, slow accumulation.

The barometric pressure is falling very quickly as I write this, indicating a storm front is passing through (see graph at left, click to enlarge).  You can also see the two downward blips from the earlier waves in this storm.  The pressure at the moment is the second-lowest I've recorded in over 7 years of data collection.  The record-holder occurred just last month, concurrent with the heavy rains we received then.

Finally, here's the NOAA radar from just a few minutes ago (at right, click to enlarge).  The scale at the left of the chart shows intensity of rain vs. color.  We don't often see large areas of “heavy” rainfall on our doppler radars, but in this series of storms these areas have been commonplace.  Yesterday there were some smaller areas trending toward the purple of “extreme” rainfall rates, but I forgot to take a snapshot of them.  Watching these radar images over time one can visualize the path that the storm cells are taking; for this storm, the cells moved from the WNW to the ESE.  Most of the intensity seemed to be knocked out of them by the time they reached Lawson Valley (which is indicated on the radar display by a circled plus sign to the right of the words “San Diego”).

I wonder what we'll see over the next couple of days?

How Hitler Might Have Received the News that Scott Brown Won...

Tax the Rich...

“Tax the rich!” is the frequent rallying cry of the liberal left.  Somehow, in a way I've never fathomed, it seems more fair to them to take a higher percentage of income as tax from people who earn more.  This is styled as a “progressive” tax, because the income tax rate gets progressively higher as your earnings go up. 

The progressive income tax is certainly not unique to America, but we have put our own perverse twists on it.  The twists that have affected me personally include not only the progressively higher tax rates as my income has grown over the years, but (in recent years) the elimination of tax credits.  For example, our tax code has long had a tax credit for the interest paid on home mortgages.  In more recent years, that tax credit is removed for people whose income crosses a certain threshold.  Removing a tax credit is effectively the same thing as paying a higher tax rate.  An inverse example is the so-called “Earned Income Tax Credit”.  With this glorious example of progressive income redistribution, people who make below a certain threshold not only do not pay any income tax at all – we send them a check!   This used to be called welfare.

We have a lot of things like this in our tax code.  The net effect of them is to steepen the progressivity of our tax code.  When you earn more income, you pay a lot higher tax rate to the thieves federal government.

Here's an interesting real-world story that illustrates the ultimate effect of such progressivity...

Air Drop into Haiti...

The U.S. Air Force is on the job.  This was taken yesterday in Haiti...

Recognizing Faces...

Most humans have an amazing ability to recognize faces – more specifically, the ability to see a face – even at a distance – and be able to identify the person who owns that face by name.

I have part of that ability – the faces that I know, I can recognize from a very low resolution image (as in from a distance, or from a photo where the face is just a bit bigger than a dot).  Compared with most people, though, I only recognize a few faces.  I've seen studies that documented the average person's repertoire of recognized faces at well over 1,000.

The People's Seat...

Scott Brown won!  Awesome!

It feels a bit like the coyote caught (and ate) the roadrunner, or the Poe visitor didn't return – something that just wasn't supposed to happen, something you thought couldn't possibly happen.  And yet it did.

Nowhere in these United States is there a more liberal state than Massachusetts – it's justifiably famous for its liberality.  This is the state that gave us not only Ted Kennedy, but Barney Frank, John Kerry, and a long list of other “progressive” celebrities.  This is a state where the Democrats have a 3:1 advantage over the Republicans, who have merely a token place in state politics.  It's basically a one-party state, with a political machine second to none in the country.  In that state, Scott Brown won!

Scott Brown gave an excellent victory speech last night.  This lad has a real future in national politics.  In fact, there are some interesting parallels between him and a certain former young Senator from Illinois.  But back to the speech...  Here are a couple of my favorite moments:

Let me tell you when I first got the feeling something big was happening in this campaign. It was when I was driving along and spotted a handmade, Scott Brown yard sign that I hadn’t actually put there myself.

This little campaign of ours was destined for greater things than any of us knew, and the message went far beyond the name on the sign.

It all started with me, my truck, and a few dedicated volunteers.  It ended with Air Force One making an emergency run to Logan. I didn't mind when President Obama came here and criticized me - that happens in campaigns. But when he criticized my truck, that's where I draw the line.

And his wrap-up:

I go to Washington as the representative of no faction or interest, answering only to my conscience and to the people. I’ve got a lot to learn in the Senate, but I know who I am and I know who I serve.

I’m Scott Brown,

I'm from Wrentham,

I drive a truck, and I am nobody’s senator but yours.

That wrap-up sounds an awful lot like something a Tea Party candidate might say, should they win an election.  More of that, please, Scott – and with your actions, not just your rhetoric...

The distribution of votes within the state's districts is interesting.  Coakley won in the four largest urban centers (Boston, Springfield, Worchester, and New Bedford) and in a few other districts.  Scott Brown took everything else, and he took the rural areas with especially high margins.  If this were a state that had a history of close races (say, New Mexico, or Colorado), then you'd interpret this as a slight shift from former Democratic victories.  But in Massachusetts, where Democratic candidates for statewide office routinely win every district, this is a stunner – and it doesn't look anomalous, as it follows the usual pattern of Republican strength in the hinterlands and Democratic strength in the urban warrens...

The pundits are beside themselves with joy.  Scott Brown's victory gives them oodles of juicy new material to chow down on.

Me, I'm focused on a few near-term effects that are obvious:

• The healthcare reform bill, in anything even remotely resembling its current form, is dead.  This is for two reasons: the direct effect of Scott Brown's 41st filibuster-enabling vote, and the indirect effect of the election on all the incumbent Democrats coming up for election in November.  While Obama may choose to ignore the message from the voters in this election, you can bet your sweet bippy that the Democratic congresscritters will not.
  
  
• We're going to see a sudden and dramatic change in the modus operandi of the Democratic regime – because they now understand that no congressional seat is safe.  If Scott Brown can claim the “liberal lion's” seat in the liberal haven of Taxachussets, then any Democratic seat is at risk, not just the wobbly ones.  This will translate directly into less radical, more moderate behavior on the part of the Democrats – possibly even something recognizable as genuine bipartisanship.  Not because they want to, mind you, but only because the alternative is political death.

A couple of months ago I was feeling very pessimistic about the course of the federal government over The One's first term.  I'm feeling ever so much better about this now...

Exciting Election!

I'm looking forward to watching the returns from Brown vs. Coakley tonight, much more so than last November.  The latest polls have Brown ahead by 9 points, but the track record of the pollsters is so bad that I don't think this actually has much meaning, other than to be pleasant for Brown supporters to gaze at.

Meanwhile, the funniest thing I've read all morning is this, from Neo-Neocon:

Brown is the male Sarah Palin—with a law degree.
Coakley is the female John Kerry—without the charm.

Har!

Torrential Rains?

Not so much.  We did get 0.35" (9mm) of rain last night, and no unusual winds – a far cry from the rather alarming forecast.  As late as 6pm last night, my weather radio's alarm went off, and the NOAA warned me of flash floods, locally heavy downpours, and winds to 60 MPH.

Um, no.

Oh, well...

As many before me have observed, when the weather forecasters can't even tell me what's going to happen over the next few hours because the weather is too complex for their models, how can I have faith that their longer term weather models are correct?

Dementia...

Well, not really.  But here are some tricky brain-teasers.  Try not to read ahead to the answers.  Via my cousin Mike:

Below are four (4) questions and a Bonus question to test your perception, reasoning and the quickness of your logical processing.  They are stated simply so you should try to answer them instantly. To assure the accuracy of the results, you should not take your time, but instead, answer each of them immediately.  OK?

First Question:

You are a participant in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you in?

Answer: If you answered that you are first, then you are absolutely WRONG! If you overtake the second person and you take his place, YOU are in second place!

Try not to screw up next time. Now answer the second question, but don't take as much time as you took for the first question, OK?

Second Question:

If you overtake the last person, then you are...?

Answer: If you answered that you are second to last, then you are...WRONG again.  Tell me Sunshine, how can you overtake the LAST person??

You're not very good at this, are you?

Third Question:

Very tricky arithmetic! Note: This must be done in your head only. Do NOT use paper and pencil or a calculator.   Try it.

Take 1000 and add 40 to it.  Now add another 1000.  Now add 30.  Add another 1000. Now add 20.  Now add another 1000.  Now add 10.  What is the total?

Answer: Did you get 5000?  The correct answer is actually 4100.  If you don't believe it, check it with a calculator!

Today is definitely not your day, is it?  Maybe you'll get the last question right...  Maybe...

Fourth Question:

Mary's father has five daughters: 1. Nana, 2. Nene, 3. Nini, 4. Nono, and ??? What is the name of the fifth daughter?

Answer: Did you Answer Nunu? NO! Of course it isn't.  Her name is Mary you idiot! Read the question again!

Okay, now the Bonus round, i.e., a final chance to redeem yourself:

A mute person goes into a shop and wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing his teeth he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.  Next, a blind man comes into the shop who wants to buy a pair of sunglasses.  How does HE indicate what he wants?

Answer: It's really very simple  He opens his mouth and ask for it...

Does your employer actually pay you to think??  If so, do NOT let them see your answers for this test!

I'm certainly not showing my answers to my boss. I don't think he reads my blog...

American Rescue Operations in Haiti...

There are quite a few Americans on the ground now in Haiti, including several thousand U.S. Marines to provide some much-needed security.  The USS Carl Vinson (at right, click to enlarge) is there as well, and its crew are already offloading supplies (food, water, and medical supplies).

It's unusual, at least in my experience, to see one of these carriers with nothing but helicopters on the flight deck.  For this mission, however, it makes total sense: the helicopters can deliver the supplies to exactly where they're needed, with no need for an airport...

Deadline...

Cute...

Mark Steyn on Brown vs. Coakley...

Need I say more?

Remember the good old days when the glossy magazine covers competed for the most worshipful image of the new global colossus? If you were at the Hopeychange inaugural ball on Jan. 20, 2009, when Barney Frank dived into the mosh pit, and you chanced to be underneath when he landed, and you've spent the past year in a coma, until suddenly coming to in time for the poll showing some unexotically monikered nobody called Scott Brown, whose only glossy magazine appearance was a Cosmopolitan pictorial 30 years ago (true), four points ahead in Kennedy country, you must surely wonder if you've woken up in an alternative universe. The last thing you remember before Barney came flying down is Harry Reid waltzing you round the floor while murmuring sweet nothings about America being ready for a light-skinned brown man with no trace of a Negro dialect. And now you're in some dystopian nightmare where Massachusetts is ready for a nude-skinned Brown man with no trace of a Kennedy dialect.

How can this be happening?

You don't need to have been in an actual coma. Subscribing to The Boston Globe, the unreadable and increasingly unread Massachusetts snooze-sheet, has much the same effect.

Go read the whole thing.  But put down your morning beverage first...

What a Crazy World We Live In...

The socialist paradise known as the People's Republic of North Korea is taking lessons on how to implement capitalism:

Perhaps as part of that plan, South Korea is sponsoring economics training courses in China, for senior North Korean officials. The training brings the North Koreans up to speed on how a market economy, and capitalism, really work. South Korea is used as an example, and most North Koreans now know, or suspect, that the situation is much different (and much better) in the south. It's believed that North Korea wants to get a guarantee, of non-interference, from the United States and South Korea, before it embarks on a program of economic reform. North Korea believes these reforms could cause unrest in the north, and doesn't want the U.S. or South Korea taking advantage of that. Actually, the minor economic reforms (farmers markets and such) over the last seven years has caused growing unrest. China is urging North Korea to get on with the economic reforms, like China did in the 1970s and 80s, and become self-sufficient. China does not want the two Koreas united (since the new Korea would likely be a democracy), but does not want to keep propping up a Stalinist dictatorship in the north.

While here in the (very successful) capitalist U.S., we're very busy trying to implement socialism (healthcare reform, cap-and-trade, enlarging unions, and radically expanding government).

What the hell is wrong with us, people?

USNS Comfort...

To most people's eyes, this is one ugly ship.

But I'll bet it looks absolutely beautiful to the Haitians when it arrives this coming Thursday.  It's on the way right now.

It's the USNS Comfort, a hospital ship with 250 beds and 550 medical personnel.

America is quietly providing real assistance, as it always does.  We already have a substantial presence on the ground there, far larger than all other countries and the U.N. taken together.  This is not to denigrate their efforts, but rather to make a point: the world depends on America's ability to project resources quickly, whether those resources are military, medical, financial, or logistical.  Private American citizens give more to foreign causes, per capita, than the citizens of any other country.  For the past 20 years, America's ability in these areas is more effective than the rest of the world combined, and that shows no signs of changing.  The rest of the world depends on us to provide (and pay for) these things.

As an American, I'm proud of these facts.  I wish we got a little more credit for them from our foriegn critics...

Only in the Politically-Correct, Bizzaro World of Public Schools...

...could a student (and his parents!) be told to get counseling because of a science fair project.

It seems that the student had an idea for how to make a motion detector, and he decided to use that idea for a science fair project.  He came up with a design that involved an empty Gatorade bottle and some electronics.  He brought his project to school to show some friends.

That all sounds great to me: an interested and engaged student, working on a science project.  What could be wrong with that?

Here's what: the school's vice-principal took one look at the kid's science fair project and decided it might be a bomb.  He called the police.  They put the school into lockdown.  They sent in a robot to examine the project – and concluded it was just what the kid said it was, a harmless science fair project.  For some reason, they also decided to search the kid's home – and they found nothing at all. 

At this point, my conclusion would be that we need to publicly horse-whip the stupid SOB vice-principal.  Following that, we should fire all the vice-principals as useless, expensive, and unnecessary bureaucracy that contributes absolutely nothing to the education of our country's youth.

Do you think that's what they did?

Nope.  The vice-principal is still employed, along with all the other vice-principals, and there will be no public flogging.  Nor any private admonition.  In fact, all indications are that the school system entirely supports the vice-principal's actions.

Worse, the school “authorities” have told the kid and his parents to get counseling, and they've stated that the kid violated school policies.

What policies did he violate, one wonders?  The policy forbidding curiousity and interest in science?  The policy forbidding personal initiative?  The policy that forbids one from bringing objects to school that might be viewed by an “authority” with the IQ of a carrot as a bomb?

So now we've got a kid (and his family) who have been taught an important lesson by our public school system: never, ever display the slightest curiousity or enthusiasm for anything that wasn't directly ordered by the “authorities”.  March in lockstep, little ones – both now and in your adult future.

How utterly disgusting. 

I don't have any children, and won't have.  But if I did, I would do anything to avoid placing them in our awful public schools...

And I'm ashamed to say that this event happened on Friday right here in San Diego.

Oh, Jeez...

It seems like every time I have the slightest optimistic twinge for the future of the human race, this person pops back into the news.  I'd call her a moron, but that would be insulting to most morons.  I need a new word...

UFO?

This evening, as every evening, around 6:30 pm I walked outside to take the dogs for the just-before-bedtime walk.  This is something they look forward to with great anticipation, and I find it very relaxing.  This time of year it's dark at evening walk time, and tonight it was very dark; no moon in the sky at all.

As we walked, I glanced over at my old friend Orion, low in the eastern sky.  Just above the horizon (in the direction pointed to by Orion's belt), I spotted Sirius – it's the brightest star in the sky, so spotting it isn't hard to do.

But then I did a double-take, 'cause I could swear I saw Sirius moving around.  Even if you're not an astronomy buff, you probably realize that the distant stars like Sirius simply don't move around in any visible way.  Before you ask, no, I had not had any alcohol (or other mind-altering substance) this evening.  With some careful observation, I could see that Sirius was moving against the background stars – and of course this is simply not possible.

What on earth could be going on?  It would have to be one really weird atmospheric effect if Sirius was moving and neighboring stars weren't!

I ran into the house and grabbed a pair of binoculars.  When I got back outside, Sirius wasn't moving.  On the off chance that position mattered, I ran back down the driveway to the exact spot where I'd seen Sirius moving before.  Still no motion.  Now I was beginning to think hallucinations, or micro-stroke, or something along those lines.

I trudged back up toward the house along the driveway, keeping an eye on Sirius.  About 25 feet further toward the house, it moved again!  I got the binoculars on it, and I saw Sirius moving relative even to its nearest dim neighboring stars.  But then I noticed another star moving – a dim star just to the right and above Sirius from my current perspective.  And it was moving synchronously with Sirius.  I watched closely for about 30 seconds, and noted that there was both motion and blinking, which acted to accent the motion.

Then it dawned on me what was going on.  As I look to the east from my driveway, I see the profile of the hill I live on about 300 feet away.  That profile is a slope, rising into the south; lower to my left and higher to my right.  The Barnicks, my friends and neighbors, live at the top of that hill.  Their power line follows the same path, but higher because it's elevated on power poles.  From my perspective, at that moment, their power lines crossed the point in the sky where Sirius was.  I'm hypothesizing that the power lines were moving in the gentle breeze, and that their motion was causing the effects that I saw.

The proof was easy.  I just waited a couple of minutes, and sure enough, Sirius stopped moving (because it had risen just enough to clear the power lines).  And if I moved a few feet further along my driveway, Sirius started moving again, because once again the power lines were intersecting it.

I can't tell you how much better I feel, now that I can explain why Sirius was dancing around in the sky!