Cartoon of the Day...

Essence of Cat, Part II...

Via my mom, who implores us not to miss the fish:

Lumber Car...

An email is circulating these days:

My friends, I give you . .
THE DUMBEST GUY ON EARTH!?

This picture is real and was taken by a Transportation Supervisor for a company that delivers building materials for 84 Lumber. When he saw it in the parking lot of IHOP,
he went to buy a camera to take pictures.

The car is still running, as can be witnessed by the exhaust.

The driver finally came back after the police were called, and was found crouched behind the rear of the car, attempting to cut the twine around the load! Luckily, the police stopped him and had the load removed.

The materials were loaded at Home Depot. Their store manager said they made the customer sign a waiver.

While the plywood and 2X4s are fairly obvious, what you can't see is the back seat, which contains -- are you ready for this? -- 10 bags of concrete @ 80 lbs. each!

They estimated the load weight at 3000 lbs. Both back tires exploded, the wheels bent and the rear shocks were driven through the floorboard. And to top it off, He had an Obama/ Biden bumper sticker.

And these people VOTE & REPRODUCE!

The materials were probably for a "shovel ready project."

As is very common with such things, this is very misleading. The photo was actually taken in 2000, long before Barack Obama was running for president – no Obama/Biden bumper stickers.  However, the actual event is true, and Snopes has done their usual great job getting at the truth.

I am mystified by what motivates people to fabricate things like this.  It would be more understandable if there were a shortage of real reasons to detest Obama – but of course there is no such shortage.  Rather the opposite.  I sure wish these folks would put the same energy into publicizing the real reasons!

Synchronized Swimming as You've Never Seen It Before...

Via my mom:

People Are Awesome...

Curiosity: Video of Its Heat Shield Impacting Mars...

For some reason, I can't make the embedded video work.  Here's a low resolution (fast) video, and here's an HD version...

Special Operations for America...

More on Special Operations for America, the new Super PAC founded by ex-SEAL Ryan Zinke.  It's going to be an interesting election season...

It Wasn't in the Forecast...

...but we got it anyway.  Rain.  Six tenths of an inch of lovely, wet rain.  The soil around our house is now wet down to 4 or 5 inches, the mosses have all turned green, the summer's obscuring dust has all been washed off the chaparral.  For the past couple of days, especially right after a shower, it's actually been muggy outside – something rarely felt out here in the high desert.

Three times yesterday we had storm cells move from east to west right over us.  In addition to a downpour, each of them brought lightning and thunder as well (though mostly this happened before the storm actually reached us).

Of course, not only does this rain leave our chaparral clean and green – it also leaves it damp, and that means a greatly reduced fire danger.  How long this protection lasts is very dependent on the future weather, but probably at least a few weeks.  I'll take whatever damper I can get on the fire danger...

FalconCam!

Not a camera watching a falcon, but a camera on a flying, hunting falcon.  Via friend, colleague, and reader (triply crazy!) Doug S.:

Organic Airframes...

Airbus is working on incorporating lessons learned from the skeletons of bird into airframe design.  The concept at right is one such effort.  Manufacturing methods currently in use couldn't build such an airframe with any reasonable amount of money – but new techniques, based on 3D printing, could do so. 

This technology (3D printing) is developing very fast, with many different materials and on many different scales.  I've blogged before about large-scale printers using concrete as their media being used to construct buildings and bridges.  The Airbus concept would use composite materials (fiberglass, possibly with carbon fibers).  The most common 3D printers today work in plastic on relatively small scales (a cubic foot or less), but I've read about 3D printers using various metals (both molten and sintered powders), composites, engineered wood products, and glass. 

It can't be too long now before these printers are widely used in manufacturing – and that's going to change a lot of our long-held perceptions about buying things.  Here's one example: tools like screwdrivers, pliers, and hammers could be made to fit your hand, and yet cost no more than they do today.  Another: if you want a lamp for your den, you could order one in the exact size and style you want – and the manufacturer will build it to your specification for the same cost as a mass-manufactured model.  I'm sure there are many more uses I can't even imagine!

Organic Data Storage...

Researchers at Harvard University have stored an entire book (more than 5 megabits of data) in artificial DNA – and read the book back out.  This storage technique has very high density, and (at least theoretically) archival storage time measured in centuries or even millenia.  There is one small drawback at the moment: read/write times are on the order of days.  They'll need to speed that up by a few orders of magnitude before we can write off rotating magnetic storage and flash memory storage...

You Can Win Prisoner's Dilemma?

More from the world of game theory: a newly-discovered strategy for one player in Prisoner's Dilemma to get an advantage over the other.  That's not supposed to be possible.  Bonus: it involves one of my favorite characters in science: Freeman Dyson...

Parrando's Paradox...

Parrando's Paradox comes out of game theory, an area of math that's always fascinated me even though I really know very little about it.  I've run across Parrando's Paradox before, always together with dense math that I didn't understand.  The idea of Parrando's Paradox is simple enough: in certain circumstances two games that are individually losing games can become a winning game if played together.  Not all losing games, mind you, and certainly not all losing games played together – just under certain circumstances.

For example, playing the slots is a losing game: if you play the slots long enough, you'll have less money than you started with.  Similarly, roulette is a losing game.  If it were true that you could make money by playing one round of slots, followed by one round of roulette, and continuing in that pattern, that would be an example of Parrando's Paradox.  In the example I gave, even the two games in combination are a losing game, so it's not an example.

There's a post on Data Genetics that explains Parrando's Paradox, complete with an actual example, in terms I could wrap my addled brain around (even some of the math!).  It leads off with “How two ugly parents can make a beautiful baby”...

Obama: Liar or Bozo?

You've seen this chart before, and perhaps you think this schtick is getting old. I think we all need reminding of this sleight-of-hand the chosen one pulled on us.  So here's your reminder: Obama sold his ginormous “recovery plan” with the promise that it would result in the unemployment rates shown in the dark blue (bottom-most) line below.  If that had actually been acheived, we'd have 5.6% unemployment right now.  Oh, if only that were true!  Note that the Obama team's own prediction was that without the stimulus plan, we'd be at 6.0% unemployment right now.  Wouldn't that be nice?  What actually happened is shown in the red dotted line.  Our unemployment rate (even after the weasely adjustments) is higher than their prediction of unemployment without the stimulus.  Substantially higher: 8.3% right now, or 48% higher than predicted.

What does that tell you?  It tells me that one of two things must be true.  Either the Obama team knew the truth and lied to us, or they're so hopelessly incompetent that they missed by almost 50%.  Either way, I certainly don't want them around for another try!

Remember this when you vote in November, please...

Depressed, Hopeless Caveats of Despair...

My blog girl Rachel echos my fears, and cracks me up:

Like I said, I personally know enough voters who are so thoroughly uninterested in knowing anything more than what Jon Stewart tells them, and only even interested in that because it makes them go hahahaha (otherwise they wouldn’t actually know anything about politics), that it’s hard for me to stay optimistic.

But it’s not impossible because last week, days before the Ryan announcement was made, I was optimistic enough (with depressed, hopeless caveats of despair) to predict in public that he’d be the guy. I even stuck with it the next day. And for once, my unfounded hopes were realized.

So I’m sticking with that coping technique for now; it’s the only way to get through this. Join me. Let’s all spend the next 82 days pretending we believe that an electorally-significant number of voters understand and care about the math-induced armageddon that’s coming, okay? Maybe our wishful thinking will not be finally annihilated in crushing disappointment.

That's exactly right. I'm hoping not to have my wishful thinking annihilated in crushing disappointment.  Go read the whole thing, and while you're at it, add her blog to your reading list.  When she can be bothered to post, it's guaranteed to be worth your time to read...

Bureaucrats...

Via my mom, this letter to the U.S. Passport Office:

Dear Mrs. Ms. Or Sir:

I'm in the process of renewing my passport and still cannot believe this.

How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a cable TV from them in 1987 (23 years ago), and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date.

For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand? Ever heard of computers?

My birth date you have in my social security file. It's on EVERY income tax form I've filed for the past 30 years. It's on my Medicare health insurance card and my driver's license, it's on the last eight damn passports I've had, it's on every stupid customs declaration form I've had to fill out before being allowed off the plane for the last 30 years. And it's on all those census forms that we have to do at election times.

Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother's name is Maryanne, my father's name is Robert and I'm reasonably confident that neither name is likely to change between now and when I die.

Between you an' me, I've had enough of this bureaucratic bulls…!

You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my #*&#%*& address.

What is going on? You must have a gang of bureaucratic Neanderthal morons working there!

Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? And "No," I don't want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for s… sakes. I just want to go and park my a.. on a sandy beach. And would someone please tell me, why you would give a damn whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days?

If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone!

Well, I have to go now because I have to go to the other end of the city and get another #*@&#^@*@ & copy of my birth certificate to the tune of $100.

Would it be so difficult to have all the services in the same area so I could get a new passport the same day? Nooooo, that would require planning and organization. And it would be too logical for the @&^*^%@% government.

You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off. Then, we have to find some a..hole to confirm that it's really me in the damn picture - you know, the one where we're not allowed to smile... Hey, you know why we can't smile?

We're totally pissed off!

Signed

- An Irate Citizen.

P.S. Remember what I wrote about getting someone to confirm that the picture is me? Well, my family has been in the United States of America since 1776. I have served in the military for something over 35 years and have had security clearances up the ying yang. However, I have to get someone important to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor....... WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN INDIA !

And you assholes want to run our health care system?????

Yes, they do want to run our health care system...

The Country Has Gone to Hell, So...

Via my mom:

George Bush, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell. While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The devil tells them it is for calling back to Earth.

Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes. When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a cheque.

Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes. When she is finished the devil informs her that the cost is 6 million dollars, so she writes him a cheque.

Finally George Bush gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he is finished the devil informs him that the cost is $5.00.

When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Bush got to call the USA so cheaply.

The devil smiles and replies, "Since Obama took over, the country has gone to hell, so it's a local call."

Yes, Please...

Via reader Jim M.:

Obama Administration's Intelligence Leaks...

No, I'm not talking about Joe Biden.  I'm talking about the numerous leaks of operational intelligence, the pattern of which strongly suggests that the leaks are intentional and have the objective of enhancing the Obama administration's prestige with the U.S. public.

Some of our retired U.S. Navy SEALs, other special forces, and CIA folks are unhappy enough about this that they're doing some thing quite uncharacteristic of that crowd: they're complaining, publicly and loudly:

Essence of Cat...

Anyone who owns a cat will instantly recognize this behavior.  Anyone who doesn't own a cat will add one more item to their list of reasons to continue not owning a cat :-)