Sunday, May 15, 2011
Won't Be Long Now...
The Decorah eagles are close to fledging. All three of the chicks made it this far...
Newspaper Front Pages...
If you've ever been curious what newspapers in some faraway place look like, this site is for you. They have hundreds of newspaper front pages, daily. There's a world map, and you just drag it around until you see the place you want, click, and voila: today's front page shows up. Cool!
Sombrero Galaxy...
AKA M104, and home of a large black hole. When I was a kid, the best photos of M104 came from places like the Palomar telescope, and they were fuzzy, grainy, black-and-white images with a tiny fraction of the detail of this one. I remember poring over those early images, fascinated, and wishing I could see something like that from a backyard telescope. Now look what we can see, from our comfortable chairs! From APOD, of course...
Kissinger, Now and Then...
I just finished reading this adaptation from Henry Kissinger's upcoming book, On China. I have several independent reactions to it, but to understand them, you'll need a bit of context.
Kissinger has had a huge and quite direct impact on my life. I was in the U.S. Navy from '71 through '77, which includes the tail end of the Vietnam War, Nixon's famous visit to China, and Nixon's ignomious resignation. The photo at right is from '76, and that visage is how I remember him. Kissinger played an important role in all three of these events, but to me personally the most important role of his was in the “peace negotiations” with the North Vietnamese.
Probably more than any other event in my youth, this awakened my interest in politics and history. Contemporaneously, very little was publicized about the inner workings of those negotiations; it took decades for it all to leak out. My image of Kissinger is of an extremely bright, motivated, and sincere man – but capable of arrogance and ruthlessness even on large issues that affect millions of people. His advocacy of Realpolitik I found profoundly un-American. He frightened me when he was in power.
One reaction I had to reading the adaptation is that it reads a bit like an insider's historical account, and even if only for that reason I will read the book. I don't know enough about modern China to assess his thoughts about it.
Another reaction I had is a superficial one: to his contemporaneous photograph. I haven't seen a photo of him for quite some time, so I was surprised and shocked by how much he has aged. In the '70s, he was often seen with a beautiful woman on his arm, generally much younger than he. His most famous quote (“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac”) seemed quite consistent with his public persona. He's now nearly 90 years old, so I really shouldn't have been surprised by the photo. But I was.
The last reaction I had was to be a bit surprised at myself, mainly for not having thought about Dr. Henry Kissinger for quite a long time. In the '70s and '80s, he and Zbigniew Brzezinski were frequent targets of my reading and thinking. Other than as historical figures (!), neither has been top-of-mind for many years.
Power and influence are fleeting things, usually...
Probably more than any other event in my youth, this awakened my interest in politics and history. Contemporaneously, very little was publicized about the inner workings of those negotiations; it took decades for it all to leak out. My image of Kissinger is of an extremely bright, motivated, and sincere man – but capable of arrogance and ruthlessness even on large issues that affect millions of people. His advocacy of Realpolitik I found profoundly un-American. He frightened me when he was in power.
One reaction I had to reading the adaptation is that it reads a bit like an insider's historical account, and even if only for that reason I will read the book. I don't know enough about modern China to assess his thoughts about it.
The last reaction I had was to be a bit surprised at myself, mainly for not having thought about Dr. Henry Kissinger for quite a long time. In the '70s and '80s, he and Zbigniew Brzezinski were frequent targets of my reading and thinking. Other than as historical figures (!), neither has been top-of-mind for many years.
Power and influence are fleeting things, usually...
Saturday, May 14, 2011
A Recipe for Happiness...
Start with a stale crust of Dudley's Rosemary & Olive Oil bread. Rip it into small pieces. Warm a few tablespoons of milk in the microwave and soak the bread chunks in it. Sprinkle a little shredded Parmesan cheese on it. Stir in a tablespoon of melted butter. Finely dice a slice of ham and mix it in.
Then put the bowl down on the floor for your old girl dog friend (in my case, Lea, our 15 year old field spaniel). I guarantee you'll be a happier person after you watch your dog's delight and grunts of sheer doggie ecstasy.
It's so easy to make a dog happy...
Then put the bowl down on the floor for your old girl dog friend (in my case, Lea, our 15 year old field spaniel). I guarantee you'll be a happier person after you watch your dog's delight and grunts of sheer doggie ecstasy.
It's so easy to make a dog happy...
Router Blues...
That annoyance has been removed. I've replaced the venerable Cisco 806 with a Buffalo Technology model WZR-HP-G300NH (at right, click to enlarge), flashed with DD-WRT (open source router software). This single $80 router replaces not only my malfunctioning Cisco 806, but also a separate Cisco wireless router.
So what was it like to replace that Cisco 806?
Installing the Cisco in the first place is something I remember well. I was already reasonably familiar with the arcane Cisco IOS configuration files before I started that job. Even so, to set up the 806 I had to learn a few new things. It ended up consuming an entire weekend, and involved many failed attempts before I finally got us up and running on the Intertubes. For months afterwards, I tweaked one thing and another until I finally got it all working.
Now contrast the more recent experience of bringing up the Buffalo Technology router. There were just two steps. First, I downloaded the latest DD-WRT version and flashed the router with it. Elapsed time: about 10 minutes. Then I used the built-in web pages to explore and configure the router. Elapsed time: about 10 minutes. Then I plugged it into power and the network, and … it all worked on the first try. I've not had to do any tweaking at all.
Awesome job, DD-WRT folks. Just awesome. And much appreciated...
Jamul Casino Update...
Lakes Entertainment is out with their latest financial report, and it's more of the same. The Jamul Casino Project is showing no signs of progress (hooray!). The company's stock price seems to be stuck in the doldrums, and their business overall looks much less than exciting. As a Jamul Casino Project opponent, I can say that it looks quite hopeful that both the project and its sponsor are grinding their way, slowly, into oblivion.
Let's hope there's no rescue in the works...
Let's hope there's no rescue in the works...
Coolness...
The weather for the past week, and the forecast for the coming week, are both much cooler than the norms for this time of year. Out here in Lawson Valley, we've been (and are forecast to be) seeing highs in the 60s and 70s (°F, of course). The strange weather of our winter seems to be continuing.
The coolness sure is a nice change from the usual summer blast-furnace. Debbie and I are hoping that this continues through the entire summer, though that seems a bit much to ask for...
The coolness sure is a nice change from the usual summer blast-furnace. Debbie and I are hoping that this continues through the entire summer, though that seems a bit much to ask for...
Back On the Air!
Google's Blogger blogging platform (which this blog runs on) had some kind of disaster a couple days ago. Some of my favorite blogs have been down (such as Althouse, whose blog is back up, but is missing 20,000+ posts!), and I've been unable to post from Thursday morning until this morning. But we're back now!
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
It's Time...
Dave, I think if things reach this point, it may well be too late to hope for any dignity!
Ceding Existential Decisions...
This is the sort of thing that makes me so uncomfortable about the notion of doctors or courts deciding when someone who is sick or injured should die...
A Lovely Story About My Mother...
One day long, long ago, there lived a beautiful woman who did not whine, nag, bitch or drink (that would be me).
But that was a long time ago and it was just that one day.
THE END.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Meaninful Adjacencies...
The New Yorker has an interesting short article on how the names of the dead will be arranged at the 9/11 memorial (due to open on 9/11/11). It's a solution to a problem that I'd not thought of: when you have several places to display names, which names go in which place, and what order do they go in? I'd most likely have opted for a simple alphabetical order, but as the article points out, this is actually less than ideal.
The solution turns out to be mathematically challenging, and computers were used to figure out the final ordering. The guiding principle used is “meaningful adjacencies”, meaning that names found next to one another are connected in some way (organizational affiliation, relationships, families, etc.). Fascinating stuff.
The solution turns out to be mathematically challenging, and computers were used to figure out the final ordering. The guiding principle used is “meaningful adjacencies”, meaning that names found next to one another are connected in some way (organizational affiliation, relationships, families, etc.). Fascinating stuff.
Ideas in the Shower...
For years I've noted something that was to me quite mysterious: I would find solutions to difficult problems (either design or debugging) while taking a shower. Having observed this, I have, on more than a few occasions, taken a shower for the specific purpose of coming up with an idea to solve a problem – and it has worked. I've never had a satisfactory explanation of why this might be so, however.
This morning I read a blog post that purports to explain the phenomenon (which many others have also noted). Some of the links from this post are also interesting. Essentially the notion is that while you're taking a shower, you're not getting a lot of input from other sources, so your subconcious can surface things its thinking about. I'm not sure about the science behind this, but it is the first plausible explanation I've heard yet. The blog post is actually about a product that lets you take notes in the shower, so you won't forget your ideas. That's never been an issue for me – when I come up with an idea in the shower, it's generally for something I've been working on for hours or even days. There's zero chance that I'm going to forget a solution for a problem like that!
This morning I read a blog post that purports to explain the phenomenon (which many others have also noted). Some of the links from this post are also interesting. Essentially the notion is that while you're taking a shower, you're not getting a lot of input from other sources, so your subconcious can surface things its thinking about. I'm not sure about the science behind this, but it is the first plausible explanation I've heard yet. The blog post is actually about a product that lets you take notes in the shower, so you won't forget your ideas. That's never been an issue for me – when I come up with an idea in the shower, it's generally for something I've been working on for hours or even days. There's zero chance that I'm going to forget a solution for a problem like that!
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