Humor, NK-Style...

Here's a series of North Korean jokes, compiled by interviewing North Korean defectors.

Sheesh...

The Little JavaScripter...

Doug Crockford's got a Little JavaScripter!

Protocol Sequence Diagrams...

A handy little reference site for this obscure bit of knowledge that's only interesting or useful to the geekier amongst us...

Floating Point Numbers...

Instruction for programmers who don't understand floating point numbers (and especially their errors), with virtually no math. 

In nearly every company I've ever worked for, the code base contained clear evidence that the company's programmers don't understand floating point numbers.  Just one more piece of evidence supporting my ongoing amazement that any piece of software actually works!

Again...

Once again, the politically-correct, anti-free-speech regime in Britain has resulted in the arrest and jailing of somone – just because what he said offended someone.  This time the offender is a Christian preacher, and what he said was that according to his beliefs, homosexuality is a sin.

In any country that actually has free speech, this man would have been free to say such a thing, and anyone offended would have the freedom to yell back at him.  But in today's U.K., such speech is a crime, and this preacher is guilty.

I sure hope we can avoid this in the U.S. – but I'm not optimistic.

What a bunch of thin-skinned ninnies Europe has developed into!  And the portents are that we're headed that way, too.

Where do the normal people live these days?  Is there somewhere to escape to?

Book Review: With the Old Breed...

With the Old Breed, by E. B. Sledge is remarkable for its focus on the lot of a Marine in the Pacific battles of World War II.  Only the barest high-level view is presented, just enough to give the reader the context in which Sledge and his fellow Marines fought.  This is not an analysis of the battles on Peleliu and Okinawa, but rather a straightforward description of what it was like for an ordinary American frontline soldier to be in those battles.  Sledge was a member of a 60mm mortar team, and spent most of his time in those battles at or immediately behind the front lines.

The prose is neither worshipful nor breathless, and is consequently all the more believeable.  I came away from reading this book with exactly what I'd hoped for in a descriptive history: knowledge of what actually happened.  The brutality of some scenes from this book are quite shocking, even to someone like me who has read extensively about World War II.  At the same time, more recent brutality on display from Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations reminds one that mankind's capacity for such brutality has not disappeared.

Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in learning about the Pacific theater in World War II.

I'm glad my country never needed me to fight in any way that resembles how these men fought – and I'm profoundly grateful that there are men capable of doing so.

This book was made into the recent miniseries Pacific.  I have not seen the miniseries myself (I rarely watch television at all any more), but a friend and fellow history buff assures me that it resembles the book in only the most obscure and irrelevant ways, essentially filtering the entirely apolitical book through a progressive, politically-correct lens.  That assessment is more than enough to ensure that I will never watch the miniseries!

On Free Speech...

Neo-neocon has a thoughtful, don't-miss post on freedom of speech (using the recent Harvard kerfuffle as an example).

I'm often amazed at the apparent inability of lefties to see the huge conflict between freedom of speech on the one hand, and the political correctness and zero tolerance movements currently sweeping our schools on the other hand.  Many times earnest lefties have told me straight out that there is no conflict at all, when it's perfectly obvious that there is (as Neo-neocon points out). 

In Europe especially this has for a decade or so assumed almost farcical dimensions, such as the unfortunately frequent cases where homeowners are prosecuted and imprisoned because they defended their family and property from a burglar – with the punishment doled out to the homeowner being far worse than the punishment (if any!) received by the burglar.

Now we have a generate of kids entering adulthood who were indoctrinated by our school system in the ways of political correctness and zero tolerance.  This is precisely what happened in Europe some 20 years ago, so it doesn't seem too far a leap to predict that we're headed toward an America that's as intolerant of free speech as is most of Europe today.  To this American, that's a frightening thought.

The emergence of the tea party movement, though, is a move in the opposite direction – toward free speech, and away from political correctness.  A small move, to be sure – and arguably unintentional and accidental – but a move nonetheless.  Let's hope that snowballs into a full-throated intolerance of politcal correctness and zero tolerance!

Hydrogen Production Breakthrough?

Department of Energy scientists are reporting what sounds like a breakthrough for inexpensive hydrogen production: an inexpensive and versatile metallic catalyst, far less expensive than the current standard platinum catalyst.  However, before you run out and buy yourself a hydrogen car, remember that there are several other major developments yet to be made. 

The biggest remaining problem is hydrogen storage, especially storage in a car.  Large improvements have been made in this area, but even the best of them doesn't have the right combination of capacity, safety, and economy that's needed in order to make hydrogen powered cars practical (that is, with a range comparable to today's petroleum powered cars).

Nearly as big is the unsolved issue of how to transport and distribute the vast quantities of hydrogen needed to convert our existing fleet of cars and trucks to hydrogen power.  This is an area where the new catalyst might conceivably help, especially if it actually enabled consumer-scale solar-powered hydrogen production – in other words, if it let you make your own commuting hydrogen at home.  Then it would be as if we each had our own oil well and refinery; obviously this would greatly reduce the distribution problem.

But we're a long, long way from solving either of those remaining problems – and of course I've left out the elephant in the room: the cost of replacing all the existing petroleum-powered engines with hydrogen-powered engines...

More Flowers...

These are all common flowers on the Anza Borrego; not much to say about them – just enjoy 'em!  As always, click to enlarge...

      

Black Brant...

As we emerged from the roughest part of Rodriguez Canyon Road into a flat, sandy-bottomed valley, we saw something most unexpected: a goose waddling down this desert road!  It's a Black Brant, a sub-species of the Brent Goose; commonly seen along our ocean shores but certainly not a desert denizen.  According to our San Diego Bird Atlas, the migration route for these geeze parallels S2, and it's not uncommon to see Brants resting along the way, as late as early May.  So our sighting fits the pattern, even though it was a big surprise to us – a goose in the middle of the desert!

Beavertail Cactus...

Beavertail Cactus (Opuntia basilaris, a kind of prickly pear) is very common in the Anza Borrego.  We were a little late to catch it blooming on the desert floor, but in Rodriguez Canyon we saw dozens of plants in bloom (later because of the higher altitude).  This one also had a new pad just getting started...

 

Desert Globemallow...

One year, probably fifteen years ago, we caught the Desert Globemallow in bloom in the lower reaches of Rodriguez and Oriflamme Canyons, with hundreds of specimens within an easy walk of the road.  Ever since then, every time we travel these roads I keep searching for these beautiful flowers.  Debbie spotted one on Thursday – the only one we saw on the entire trip – no more than a foot from Rodriguez Canyon Road.  It was mostly done with blooming; just a few individual blossoms left of what must have been hundreds on this one plant.  Dang it!

Cactus...

I think this is a kind of prickly pear, but I'm not certain of that.  No doubt about the “prickly” part, though!

 

Rodriquez Canyon Greets Us...

Hoping to find some desert bloom remaining, we headed up the rough four-wheel drive road through Rodriguez Canyon.  This road climbs up from the desert floor through the rugged Rodriguez Canyon (still part of the Anza Borrego desert) on the eastern slopes of Cuyamaca Mountain.  As we turned on to the road, we found these flowers in abundance – almost as though placed there to greet us...

 

Lonely Little Lupine...

In one of our favorite little canyons to go wildflowering, there was almost nothing in bloom – a couple of chuparosa with a few blooms hanging on, and this one tiny little lupine poking up between some rocks on the dry stream bed...

Rosette...

Here's two photos of the rosette I posted earlier, with one closeup of the flower stalk.  We found this one just north of Agua Caliente airport, but their range is quite broad – we even have some of these in Lawson Valley (mainly on road cuts)...

 

Mystery Flower...

Here's a desert flower we're not familiar with, and I haven't identified it yet (anyone know?).  It's a late bloomer, in prime well after most of the desert flowers have gone to seed.  The color is striking enough, but what really stands out is the smell – sweet and vaguely reminiscent of coconut or suntan lotion.  We found a lot of these along S2 north of the Cabrizzo Badlands overlook...

 

Century Plant...

The century plant (Agave americana v. americana) is common in the southern Anza Borrego desert areas we visited.  We've never seen as many in bloom as we saw last Thursday, though...

 

Ocotillo...

An ocotillo in glorious bloom, from just north of the well-named town of Ocotillo, barely inside the Anza Borrego park border...

Ants...

Walking around the Anza Borrego desert, I found lots of ant nests – all for some large (roughly 1 cm) shiny black ants that were very busy gather seeds.  You can follow their trails for a hundred feet or more, right to the plant that is their current source of seeds.  At the next, you can see the workers carrying some food item into the nest, and the empty-handed workers scurrying back out for their next load...