I Do Not Like This Uncle Sam...

Via my mom:

I do not like this Uncle Sam,
I do not like his health care scam.
I do not like these dirty crooks,
or how they lie and cook the books.
I do not like when Congress steals,
I do not like their secret deals.
I do not like this speaker Nan ,
I do not like this 'YES, WE CAN'.
I do not like this spending spree---
I'm smart, I know that nothing's free.
I do not like your smug replies,
when I complain about your lies.
I do not like this kind of hope.
I do not like it. nope, nope, nope!

Go green - recycle Congress in 2010!

Shotgun Tracts...

On the lower Mississippi River, there's a stretch of land where the properties are all long, skinny tracts, with each having a tiny sliver of riverfront.  These are the shotgun tracts of the lower Mississippi...

Chaparral Morning...

Beautifully cool (57°F) and clear, with a half-moon high in the northeastern sky, just alongside the Pleiades.  Jupiter is still bright and high in the south; Orion is well up over the northeastern horizon.  The moon was bright enough for the dogs and I to see well without any light – I could even detect the red of our new roof.

Speaking of which, Chris and the boys are back from their vacation, and they went right to work yesterday.  When I got home from work they'd already left, but the roof is now more than half completed.

The three field spaniels were happily snuffling in the moonlight this morning.  No signs of alarm; they were just enjoying their enthusiastic inhalations of the morning's aromas.  Even I could smell the spicy chaparral aromas this morning – sage, especially, but also many other components.  The crickets were almost silent for some reason (possibly it was too cool for their liking).  Race, the border collie, was completely absorbed by the pine cone he'd found – he has a game he plays repetitively and compulsively.  First he drops the pine cone just in front of him.  Then he slowly backs a foot or so away, all the while staring at it intently.  Then as soon as one of the field spaniels or I makes an inadvertent move toward the pine cone (since none of us care a whit about it), he darts in and grabs it, delighting in his victory over us.  Then he does it all again...

Geek Humor...

Via colleague James C.:

Q.  Why do computer geeks get Halloween confused with Christmas?
A.  Because oct 31 == dec 25!

If you don't get it, just take comfort in the fact that you're demonstrably and provably not a geek. It would be hard to explain to the ungeekly...

Fermat's Last Theorem...

A documentary, roughly 45 minutes and quite good:

Light Blogging Alert...

My mother-in-law (Kate) arrived Friday night for her annual visit, and we've been busy settling her in.  Tonight we're headed out for a fried chicken dinner at our favorite local restaurant: the Descanso Junction Restaurant.  Kate's been there many times before on past visits, and loves it.

We love to have her out here visiting, but it's a long flight (from Cincinnati, Ohio) for someone her age.  She's in her 90s, frail, and each year we fear it may be the last time she's able to make the journey.  But she did it again, without any trouble, and now we've got her with us for three whole weeks.

On almost every visit she makes to see us, something goes wrong.  Typical of these problems happened on a visit perhaps 15 years ago.  After arriving at the San Diego airport, she visited the restroom there on the way down to get her baggage.  When she entered one of the stalls and shut the door, it fell off its hinges and landed on her foot!  The door was a heavy metal door, and it broke several bones in her foot.  For that entire visit, she was on crutches with her foot immobilized.  Now when we look back on it, we all laugh at it, but it wasn't so funny at the time.

This time the now-expected thing-that-goes-wrong happened just before she left her home to go to the airport.  As she was getting ready, she poured her eye medicine into an eye-cup (as she does every morning) and upended the cup over her eye.  But she had accidentally filled the cup with mouthwash instead of her eye medicine!  Her eye was burning, very painful.  Fortunately she had her wits about her, and quickly did exactly the right thing: flushed it thoroughly with plain water.  Her vision wasn't hurt, but her eye was tearing badly for that entire day, including on the flight out here.  Furthermore, the mouthwash had irritated the skin under her eye, so she had a big, angry red patch under her right eye.  Today the tearing is all over, and the red patch is fading, so as best we can tell there was no permanent harm done.  

Hopefully that's the only thing that goes wrong on this visit!

Crazy Weather: Yes, Even More!

The high yesterday was 76°F; the low last night 44°F.  This is summer in San Diego?  I global warming means this kind of summer for us, I say: bring it on!

Crazy Weather: Yes, Even More!

Earlier this week we had temperatures over 105°F, which are normal for us this time of year.  Before that our summer had beed substantially cooler than normal.  Well, look what happened to us in the past day: our temperature dropped from a high yesterday of 92°F to a low last night of just 48°F!  As I write this, it's just before noon and the temperature is only 69°F.

It's very nice to have this cool weather.  But it sure is weird!  And the forecast is calling for even cooler weather tomorrow...

You Want Us to Believe What?

Via my cousin Mike D.:

Wal-Mart vs. The Morons


1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.

2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.

8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.

11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.

You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting that MAYBE we should hire the guys who run Wal-Mart to fix the economy.

This should be read and understood by all Americans Democrats, Republicans, EVERYONE!!

To President Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislature,

It is now official you are ALL corrupt morons:

A. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

B. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

C. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

D. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.

E. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

F. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

G. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

You have FAILED in every "government service" you have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

AND YOU WANT AMERICANS TO BELIEVE YOU CAN BE TRUSTED WITH A GOVERNMENT-RUN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM???

I'd bet every time on Wal-Mart management over government management to get it right, wouldn't you?

Glass Armonica...

I never knew how this part of the Sugar Plum Fairy was created – and this certainly wasn't what I'd have guessed.  The instrument is called a glass armonica, and wouldn't you know it: Benjamin Franklin invented it!

The Great Reneger...

Jeez, this sure is a long way from the rampant Obama adoration two years ago.  Via reader James M.:

Klavan Rips Apart the Lamestream Media...

An easy job, I know, but Andrew Klavan does it very convincingly in his inimitable (and very entertaining) style. Via my sister-in-law Gina P.:

Is There Anything Good About Men?

A very interesting article by Roy Baumeister, and probably not what you're expecting from the title.  Recommended.

Where the Electrons Hit the Silicon...

Via reader Doug S.:  some lucky computer science students in England are getting a chance to learn about how the guts of computers actually work.  Most modern students don't get much opportunity to learn this, as they're generally working with high-level languages on modern operating systems – and all this stuff very effectively hides how computers actually work.  This school, by deliberately putting students on quite old computer hardware (and quite incapable by today's standards), forces them to understand how the elemental bits of the computer work in order to get anything done...

First Light!

The Big Bear Solar Observatory's New Solar Telescope (with a 1.6 meter aperture and adaptive optics) has achieved first light; the image at right is one of its first.  Congratulations to the team, and we're looking forward to much more great solar science!

Banning Traditional Ammunition?

The Obama Administration's EPA is seriously considering it.

It's almost like they want to be thrown out of power...

Weird Weather...

Yesterday brought us some very odd summer weather.  First it was very hot (got up to 108°F).  Then a thunderstorm rolled overhead.  Lightning struck the hills all around us, but especially to the northeast.  The dogs went crazy with all the noise, and the cats all retreated to high perches from where they could safely watch the crazy dogs.  It rained, and for a brief time, it poured.  The temperature dropped by 30° in the space of 15 minutes, and it got seriously muggy (trust me – this is a very unusual thing to feel out here).  It didn't go on long enough to accumulate a measurable (1 mm) amount, but while it lasted we had water sluicing off our roof – which, remember, is only 1/3 covered.  Thankfully we didn't have any leaks, though I'm sure we have a lot of wet wood up there.  The wind was gusty, too, knocking things in the yard all about.

The photo at right shows the rain squall coming through our valley (taken from Lyons Peak, looking north toward Lawson Valley). You can see that this was quite an isolated cell; everything was sunny around it.

Proposed Congressional Reform Act of 2010...

Yeah, I know it will never happen – but we can dream, can't we?  Or is that a taxable event now, too?  Via my cousin Mike D.:

Congressional Reform Act of 2010:

1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below.
     A. Two Six year Senate terms
     B. Six Two year House terms
     C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension: A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security: All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11. The American people did not make this contract with congressmen congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.

Bugs Bearing Bifocals – Awesome!

Read all about it.

Another AGW Trope Bites the Dust!

The anthropogenic global warming crowd has found supposed effects of global warming all over the place (think polar bears and drowning islands).  One of these effects, given much credence over the past decade or so by scientists, was the demise of the cave bear.  For whatever reason, this didn't seem to catch fire in the public imagination – but to biologists and anyone studying historical ecosystems, an explanation for the cave bear's extinction was sorely needed.  And global warming seemed to fit the bill perfectly, with the timing of the cave bear's decline matching the timing of alleged global warming quite nicely.

Oops.  Not so much.  Looks like those danged Homo sapiens were at it again – they wanted the caves (and maybe those herbivorious bears were tasty, too!).

It's also interesting how the mainstream science media (which Science Daily, the linked-to site above, is an example of) treads very gently and carefully on this topic.  The study they're reporting on demolishes one of the examples the AGW folks held up and trumpeted as an obvious negative consequence of global warming – but you'll have to read that article very carefully to see even a hint of that...