Social Security Reform Bill...

The Onion is a national treasure...

How to Live to be 450...

Via my mom:

As I was lying in bed pondering the problems of the world, I rapidly realized that I don't really give a rat's hiney. It's the tortoise life for me!

1 If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.

2. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, and is fat.

3. A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years.

4. A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing, yet it lives for 450 years.

And you tell me to exercise?? I don't think so.

I'm retired. Go around me.

In Case of Fire...

Senior humor, via my mom:

I failed the mandatory Health and Safety course at the Senior Center today.

One of the questions was: "In the event of a fire, what steps would you take?"

Big ones" was apparently the wrong answer.

Gender Differences in Brains, Explained...

Have you ever wondered how a woman's brain works? Well, it's finally explained here in one, easy-to-understand illustration:

Everyone of those little balls are a thought about something that needs to be done, a decision to make, or a problem that needs to be solved.

A man has only 2 balls. They consume all his thoughts, and he sleeps like a baby.

Sound Familiar?

Continental Drift...

The geology texts used in my primary schools ('50s and '60s) either never mentioned plate tectonics or continental drift, or devoted a single derisive paragraph to it.  My first real exposure to plate tectonics was in the popular press, in the early '60s – during the period when the plate tectonics theories were being fleshed out and convincing evidence to support them was just being found.  It was still, back then, a revolutionary theory – becoming mainstream, but not quite there yet.  A little earlier than my own experience, the notion of continental drift was considered pseudoscience.  Nowadays, of course, it is as close to “settled science” as anything else is.

The emergence and acceptance of plate tectonics was the first time I personally witnessed science (in any field) evolving.  I was fascinated by the way the heroes of plate tectonics metaphorically fought their way through platoons of doubters to win out in the end.  Years later, after much more reading on the topic, I realized just how heroic some of those folks actually were – having your career dashed on the altar of truth can't be very much fun...

Fractal Gears...

I had to examine this animated image closely to figure out how the artist did it – quite clever!  Note that the image is a gigantic (3.9mb) animated GIF; you have to give it a bit of time to download...

Flickers on the Wall...

I got up this morning at my usual 3 am, and wandered, bleary-eyed, into the bathroom for my morning shower (I'm only truly awake after this).  Just as I was reaching for the light switch, I noticed a distinct flicker in the shadows on the wall near the switch.  My slightly paranoid chaparral-trained mind immediately translated “flicker” into “fire” – but the color (a lovely blueish-white) was all wrong for that.  There are no artificial lights of any kind in our bathroom other than the main incandescent lights, so I had no ready explanation for the flickering.  As I watched, the flickering repeated.  Where was it coming from?

With a little investigation, I figured it out.  Looking out our small, high bathroom window, I could see a clear, moonless sky with a high horizon defined by the surrounding hills and our pine trees.  Then I noticed that one particularly bright star (I couldn't see enough of the sky to tell which star it was) was placed right at the edge of the pine silhouette – and the pines were moving about because of a light wind.  The star provided a nice point source of light, which made the pine tree shadows on my bathroom wall reasonably well-defined even though the pines were over 100 feet from my window.  And my eyes were sufficiently dark-adapted to let me see those shadows produced by the light of a single star.  Amazing imaging instruments we have in our head!

Home...

After a marathon day of travel from Newark, New Jersey (involving getting up at midnight to taxi to the airport, 6 hours in Newark airport, oversleeping pilots, broken airplanes, and missed standbys), I finally made it home to San Diego.  From that point on, things were just wonderful: a smiling Debbie picking me up from the airport, four ecstatic dogs bowling me over when I walked in the door, and innumerable cats saying “Yeah, I remember you.  I'll let you live.  For now...”  Then early this morning, the dog walk – under a spectacularly clear, moonless desert sky, the Milky Way a splash from north to south, directly overhead, in cool, crisp, dry desert air with all the wonderful aromas of the desert wafting about.  Beautiful.  Just beautiful.

And now, dang it, I'm on my way into work at the office.  What I'd really like to do right now is take about a month off :-)

Memorial Day Roundup...

Some links for you on this day that we honor our veterans:

My blog-girl Rachel Lucas on her visit to Normandy.  Her experience echoes my own nearly exactly – the folks from Normandy treat Americans so differently than other French people that they seem like another country...

A nice collection of Memorial Day videos...

My all-time favorite quote for Memorial Day, from General George S. Patton:

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

And finally, Tim McGraw's classic song for Memorial Day:

Palate Cleanser of the Day...

Sit down in a nice, comfortable chair with a box of Kleenex at hand.  If your smile wrinkles are underused, grease 'em up with a little ointment.  Then just watch...

Religion and Population Growth...

Here's an excellent TED talk about the influence of religions on population growth.  It's an excellent counterpoint to the theories of Mark Steyn et al, and also a great example of the intellectual dangers of trying to establish causation by correlation.  By that last comment, I don't mean that I think either this talk or Mark Steyn's theories are either right or wrong – I'm just observing that starting with essentially the same data, both parties have arrived at very different conclusions.  This is true even though both of them are inferring causes by observing correlations in basically the same data set.  This stuff is complicated and hard.  But even if one ignores their stated conclusions, their observations are very interesting indeed...

Hide the Decline...

Steve McIntyre, despite his earlier claims that he'd be slowing down his blogging, is back in force.  This post of his is a classic takedown of the hypocritical defenders of the “consensus science”.  You'd think they'd have figured out by now that it's a bad idea to keep digging their intellectual hole when Steve is on their track...

Quote of the Day...

Rachel Lucas cracks me up:

...and she already knew I was an overachiever in social awkwardness.

Haunting Memorial Day Images...

And an excellent essay to go along with them (in the New York Times, of all places).  Also, see this piece by Tom Manion: Why They Serve.

I think of our fallen soldiers often; it's an occupational hazard of anyone with a keen interest in history.  This weekend I will remember them in order to honor them; I hope you'll join me...

Back in the USA...

Your blogger is back in the USA, and even had a day of rest (at my parents' home in Virginia).  I'm not sure what time zone my body is occupying; I'm still a little fuzzy even after my morning cup of tea.

As always, it's very good to be back home...

Checking In...

Well, we had a fantastic event at Knowledge12 earlier this week.  As always, I had a chance to meet and talk with many customers, partners, and colleagues – learned a lot, and hopefully helped a few people.  I presented at one lab (on “field normalization”) and helped with four others.  These were all really great labs – we got lots of positive feedback and enthusiasm from the attendees.  I was overwhelmed with the size and polish of the event – it no longer feels like amateur hour; instead, it looks like something put on by Microsoft or Oracle.  Totally awesome!

Right after the event, I hopped on an airplane for the U.K., where I'll be meeting with a bunch of our customers this coming week to talk about our Discovery and Runbook products.  I arrived early Saturday morning, which means I had the weekend to decompress a little after Knowledge12.  If you know me at all, you know that my idea of decompression normally involves walking and nature.  I'm staying in Twickenham, which is just a few minutes by train from Kew Gardens, and that's where I've spent the bulk of the past two days.  I brought my Fujifilm X100 over with me, and I took over 600 photos in the gardens.  The rock gardens, alpine house, rhododendrons, azaleas, bluebells, and Paulownia collections were my favorite parts – though the entire gardens are so beautiful that it's hard to choose.  Just a few of my favorites below...

Rock garden

Note the peacock!

Geese are everywhere!

Jade vine

Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

Well, actually, just about everyone.  A few months ago, when our very own Governor Moonbeam (aka Jerry Brown) introduced his budget, every analyst with an above room temperature IQ (on both sides of the aisle!) immediately denounced it as a complete fiction.  Well, to be fair, a few did praise it – as a piece of performance art.

So this latest news about the deficit “rising” to $16 billion isn't really much of a surprise.

But, Governor Moonbeam, it does call for a public facepalm...

Not Quite Out of Oil Yet...

The GAO reports that recoverable oil reserves in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming are “about equal to the entire world's proven reserves”.

Too bad we can't go after it.

Oh, well.  November is less than six months away...

WWII P-40 Found in Egyptian Desert...

Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk

This Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk was lost during 1942, and the pilot was never seen again.  The crashed craft is in surprisingly good shape.  There's no sign of the pilot; the best theory is that he tried to walk out and died somewhere in the rather forbidding desert surrounding the site – which is over 200 miles from the nearest town...