Walking the dogs at 3:30 am again, but this morning the moon is a bit higher in the sky, and much brighter than yesterday. My walk was in the moon-shadows of the pines along our driveway, but from there I could see the entire eastern end of Lawson Valley all lit up with the moonlight. It was bright enough to see some colors; the hills were distinctly brown and green, and the native grasses on our hillside that have gone to seed were waving their reddish-beige heads in the gentle morning breeze. A little desert scent wafted in on that breeze; not much compared with a month ago, but still enough for anyone who knows the chaparral to recognize.
The dogs, as usual, couldn't care less about the beauty around us. As I got near our gate, all four were nose-down, intent on absorbing the essence of some night-time visitor. But then a surprise! A rabbit suddenly bolted from about 4 feet away – and of course all four dogs immediately lunged after it just as hard as they could. This overwhelmed my ability to hold them back, as the force vectors on the leashes were all pointed the same exact direction – across the bottom of our yard. So off we went, four dogs followed by an ancient software engineer, trying my best to stop them, or at least slow down their breakneck pace.
Somehow I managed to stay upright. The rabbit disappeared under our fence about 150 feet from our driveway, and the dogs stopped. They seemed surprised that I was still behind them, and I was a bit surprised myself. They resumed their random walking, the force vectors on my leash hand once again largely canceled out, and I was able to drag the four dogs back toward the house and my morning tea...
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
AGW Loses at the Premier Formal Debate...
Lord Monckton (a well-known advocate for AGW skepticism) represented the “pro” side in a debate for this motion put before the Oxford Union Society:
AGW skepticism (or even better, a more generally skeptic view) seems to be taking root even amongst the young, idealistic, credulous kids at school...
That this House would put economic growth before combating climate change.In that somewhat detached world of formal debate, this provoked a gasp heard 'round the world, as Lord Monckton was supposed to lose. Big. Instead, he won, 135 to 110.
AGW skepticism (or even better, a more generally skeptic view) seems to be taking root even amongst the young, idealistic, credulous kids at school...
There's a Reason Why Farmers are Smarter...
But it just may be a different reason than you imagined...
Full Moon Morning...
Out at 3:30 am to walk the dogs, and there was a nearly full moon hanging just above the horizon to our southwest. It cast enough light for me to walk easily without a flashligh. Our local horizon is comprised of mountains, and from our driveway the moon was hanging at the bottom of a deep “notch” in the horizon, with a mountain to either side of it. Simply beautiful.
The four dogs, of course, couldn't have cared less about the beautiful moon. As usual, they were noses-down, checking out who visited our yard last night. I'm sure that if they could only talk they'd be able to give me a detailed list...
The four dogs, of course, couldn't have cared less about the beautiful moon. As usual, they were noses-down, checking out who visited our yard last night. I'm sure that if they could only talk they'd be able to give me a detailed list...
Corruption...
My friends hear me say that corruption pervades our politics, and many of them react by giving knowing looks “I knew that guy was crazy!” or by asking me to explain such an irrational comment. I've tried to explain, but I've never managed to do so quite as well as this.
That, folks, is what I'm talking about when I say that we're all paying for pervasive corruption. That's what scares me so much about having the government run my healthcare. And that's what we need to blow up somehow if we really want to change the way politics works...
That, folks, is what I'm talking about when I say that we're all paying for pervasive corruption. That's what scares me so much about having the government run my healthcare. And that's what we need to blow up somehow if we really want to change the way politics works...
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Desert Morning...
Yesterday morning was a desert morning to remember. Despite being almost June, the temperature was 34°F when I went out for my 3:30 am walk with our dogs. There was no moon in the sky, and when I first went outside I could see only the very brightest stars. Within a few minutes, though, I could see many thousands of them – along with one of the brightest displays of the Milky Way I have ever seen. I walked a little further than I usually do, down past our gate, just to get a clear view to the southeast, where the Milky Way descended into the horizon. It was simply stunning – arcing from the southeast straight overhead into the north. Details of shape and texture that I'd never seen before leapt out at me as my eyes continued accommodating to the darkness. Beautiful!
The dogs, of course, couldn't possibly care less about the Milky Way. As I stumbled along with my face toward the sky, they were noses-down, deciphering all the visitors to our yard last night. All four were on leashes, and as they wandered about me, randomly, they tied their leashes into a very impressive knot. At one point, a sound off to our right caught their attention, and all four simultaneously lunged off in that direction. Four dogs pulling in the same direction is right at the limit in terms of my being able to stand upright. They dragged me off our driveway about 20 feet into our yard, until their attentions were grabbed by something else. When they're each doing their own thing, the vector sum of the forces they impose on my arm isn't very large (lots of cancelation!), so they're easy to control. But when they all decide to go the same way, I'm in trouble...
I finally got them back to the driveway, and (carefully) resumed my skygazing. It made me remember Jim Lovell in Apollo 8, describing how bright and beautiful the Milky Way was as they were halfway between the Earth and the moon. I'd like to see that...
The dogs, of course, couldn't possibly care less about the Milky Way. As I stumbled along with my face toward the sky, they were noses-down, deciphering all the visitors to our yard last night. All four were on leashes, and as they wandered about me, randomly, they tied their leashes into a very impressive knot. At one point, a sound off to our right caught their attention, and all four simultaneously lunged off in that direction. Four dogs pulling in the same direction is right at the limit in terms of my being able to stand upright. They dragged me off our driveway about 20 feet into our yard, until their attentions were grabbed by something else. When they're each doing their own thing, the vector sum of the forces they impose on my arm isn't very large (lots of cancelation!), so they're easy to control. But when they all decide to go the same way, I'm in trouble...
I finally got them back to the driveway, and (carefully) resumed my skygazing. It made me remember Jim Lovell in Apollo 8, describing how bright and beautiful the Milky Way was as they were halfway between the Earth and the moon. I'd like to see that...
Sun Drives Climate?
For years now, skeptics of anthropogenic global warming (AGW) have been pointing out the abundant evidence for a linkage between solar output and Earth's climate. For the most part these are observed correllations, not causual observations – but (as many skeptics have pointed out) even an observed correllation is far more interesting evidence than the output of a rather primitive computer model (what the AGW proponents rely on).
So it was with special interest that I read this newspaper article asserting that (a) solar scientists have been skeptical-but-silent about AGW from the beginning, and that (b) ClimateGate or something in the water seems to have released the solar scientists from their vow of silence, and they are increasingly assertive in their claims that solar cycles drive Earth's climate. Yes, I know it's a Canadian newspaper. Yes, I know that makes it suspect, on political and moral grounds. But still...
So it was with special interest that I read this newspaper article asserting that (a) solar scientists have been skeptical-but-silent about AGW from the beginning, and that (b) ClimateGate or something in the water seems to have released the solar scientists from their vow of silence, and they are increasingly assertive in their claims that solar cycles drive Earth's climate. Yes, I know it's a Canadian newspaper. Yes, I know that makes it suspect, on political and moral grounds. But still...
Advanced Programming Languages...
Matt Might has a nice brief introduction to some of the more popular “advanced” programming languages. Several of these look quite interesting to me (like Scala) – if I ever get a free week or two, I'd love to check some of them out...
Software Testing...
Interesting piece on the value (or not) of unit testing – from, of all places, MSDN.
Monday, May 24, 2010
North Korea...
The situation on the Korean peninsula looks very precarious to me (and to many other observers). There's the classic, oft-repeated political tension caused by the provactive acts of one party – politicians are lining up either in the appeasement camp (though of course they describe it as “caution” or some other positive word) and the stomp 'em into the ground camp (couched of course as “consequences” or some such). But however they word it, the choices are essentially between appeasement and attack.
A middle ground seems impossible on this: if one country is blatantly attacked by another, causing deaths and the destruction of property, there really are only two choices: either one responds or one does not. Both choices have consequences.
Personally, I lean toward “attack”, though not necessarily in the military sense. I can see at least two different responses that might work: either economic sanctions of the effective variety (very difficult to achieve unless China reverses its policies toward North Korea), or an obvious retaliatory military action (say, sinking the entire North Korean fleet, which I think consists of about 12 vessels). Both of these actions carry the possibility (perhaps even the probability) that North Korea will escalate the conflict by attacking South Korea. We know that in the long run North Korea would lose such a conflict, but in the short run the damage to South Korea might be considerable.
This is exactly the sort of threat that every penny-ante dictator uses as his real weapon, with the real objective of short-term benefit from his adversary's appeasement. We're decades down that road with North Korea; none of our appeasing moves have brought tensions down one whit. In fact, quite the opposite. I think it's time for action.
Then there's the political reality of America's current administration. It seems most unlikely that they could ever rouse themselves to effective retaliatory action, or even effective backing of our South Korean ally (other than through words). If I were in the South Korean government, I'd be quite nervous about this...
A middle ground seems impossible on this: if one country is blatantly attacked by another, causing deaths and the destruction of property, there really are only two choices: either one responds or one does not. Both choices have consequences.
Personally, I lean toward “attack”, though not necessarily in the military sense. I can see at least two different responses that might work: either economic sanctions of the effective variety (very difficult to achieve unless China reverses its policies toward North Korea), or an obvious retaliatory military action (say, sinking the entire North Korean fleet, which I think consists of about 12 vessels). Both of these actions carry the possibility (perhaps even the probability) that North Korea will escalate the conflict by attacking South Korea. We know that in the long run North Korea would lose such a conflict, but in the short run the damage to South Korea might be considerable.
This is exactly the sort of threat that every penny-ante dictator uses as his real weapon, with the real objective of short-term benefit from his adversary's appeasement. We're decades down that road with North Korea; none of our appeasing moves have brought tensions down one whit. In fact, quite the opposite. I think it's time for action.
Then there's the political reality of America's current administration. It seems most unlikely that they could ever rouse themselves to effective retaliatory action, or even effective backing of our South Korean ally (other than through words). If I were in the South Korean government, I'd be quite nervous about this...
Avalanche Diagrams of Hash Functions...
Fascinating set of avalanche diagrams for various hash functions. Like many analysis techniques, these take advantage of our perceptual system's ability to digest information rapidly. FNV is much worse than I expected...
Copernicus Reburied...
Copernicus (1473-1543) was the astronomer who challenged the Roman Catholic Church's dogma of Earth-centricity (by demonstrating that the Earth and the other planets revolved around the sun), and was condemned for his excellent work. Yesterday, in a slightly more enlightened times, his remains were exhumed and reburied – now honored by the church that once condemned him...
RIP, Martin Gardner...
If I had to choose one person who was most responsible for my continuing interest in mathematics, it would be Martin Gardner (through his Scientific American column “Mathematical Games”. This was one of the features that I most looked forward to every month, a new adventure, often into some branch of math I'd never even heard of before. His columns made math both fun and relevant to other things I was interested in.
Martin Gardner died Saturday at age 95. Millions around the world will miss him, but his 50 books and hundreds of columns in Scientific American, Skeptical Inquirer and numerous anthologies survive him...
Martin Gardner died Saturday at age 95. Millions around the world will miss him, but his 50 books and hundreds of columns in Scientific American, Skeptical Inquirer and numerous anthologies survive him...
Latest Google Unemployment Index...
Sheesh, that's a lot of hoping, isn't it?
Where to be a Tourist...
Interesting “heat map” color-coding the entire world based on how many photos are taken and posted on Google Maps. There are some big surprises for me in here. Like any other Google map, you can pan and zoom all you want...
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Althouse 1, Birnbaum 0...
Ann Althouse embarrasses Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post – and in the process, nicely demonstrates why so many people distrust the lamestream media.
It's absolutely pathetic.
It's absolutely pathetic.
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