“I think you're looking pretty good right now.”
Just heard that from the CDF fire crews. Just before that, they said that they were down to just hot spots left; the fire was basically out.
Three cheers for the fire crews! A bunch of people in Lawson Vally, Lyons Valley, and Deerhorn Valley are breathing a little easier...
Monday, September 9, 2013
Lyons Valley Fire Update...
Current view from Lyons Peak:
From all I can see and hear, it looks like the firefighters (both in the air and on the ground) are making great progress. On the scanner I heard concerns from fire crews about the fire burning toward Carveacre Ranch, but the latest photo looks like they've largely knocked it down. These things can flare up in a hurry, especially if the wind kicks up, so we're not out of the woods until they've doused every hotspot...
I just heard the fire crews order 500 lunches. Hard to believe there are that many in the fire crew!
From all I can see and hear, it looks like the firefighters (both in the air and on the ground) are making great progress. On the scanner I heard concerns from fire crews about the fire burning toward Carveacre Ranch, but the latest photo looks like they've largely knocked it down. These things can flare up in a hurry, especially if the wind kicks up, so we're not out of the woods until they've doused every hotspot...
I just heard the fire crews order 500 lunches. Hard to believe there are that many in the fire crew!
Fire in Lyons Valley...
The fire is being actively worked as I write this (2:35 pm). Debbie and I saw an observation plane orbiting, three tankers attacking the fire directly. We also heard ground fire crews talking on the scanner.
The wind is light, out of the north. The fire appears to be burning both to the south (presumably driven by wind) and to the north (which is uphill from the fire's perspective). We're guessing that the fire crews will be able to contain it at the ridge west of Lawson Peak, if not before. We certainly hope so, as our home is only a mile or so from that ridge.
Below are a couple of shots from the east-pointing HPWREN camera on Lyons Peak. As always, this is our best information, as it's nearly real time (the photos are updated every 2 minutes, 24 x 7).
The top shot was taken at 1:44 pm today, the bottom at 2:28 pm. As you can see, the fire teams have already made a lot of progress. Go, firefighters!
Links of the Day...
Wait – they needed someone to tell them? Little Rock, Arkansas has a new teacher dress code: they must wear underwear. Teacher's union objects strenuously...
Well, she should know... A Russian immigrant to the U.S. worries that we're becoming what she fled from over 30 years ago. She has a handy checklist of the characteristics of socialist countries:
Gulp.
- Controlling people by making them dependent on government for basics such as medical care, property rights and income.
- Applying separate standards in medical and other services for government employees and acolytes vs. the rest of society.
- Brainwashing the population starting as early as possible with propaganda that is pro-central government and anti-free market capitalism.
- Polarizing society by dividing people into groups by ethnicity.
- Controlling speech, enforcing political correctness and attempting to suppress opposition media.
- Collecting citizens' personal information using all resources available, including NSA programs.
- Intimidating opposition through Justice Department investigations of journalists, IRS intimidation of groups and individuals who oppose government policies, and information collected on citizens that becomes quite handy.
- Demonizing and destroying the livelihood of anyone — from members of the Tea Party to rodeo clowns — who dares to criticize the president.
- Controlling economic resources via EPA and other regulations despite negative economic consequences.
- Conducting show trials of freethinkers, such as the 13 felony counts brought against Internet prodigy Aaron Swartz, potentially leading to 30 years imprisonment.
- Calling for sacrifices in the name of the collective good, promises of a bright future and endless lies about disastrous government failures here and now.
This is what the Internet is for, right? Team drumming, the DrumCat way...
How's that climate change working out for ya, eh? Arctic ice cover this year is 60% greater than last year. Right on cue, the warmists are bleating that this is not evidence against global warming – even though they hooted and hollered last year about the decrease being solid evidence to the contrary. Hypocrites and shoddy scientists, they are..
Knave or fool? Is Obama's foreign policy the product of his incompetence, or his belief that America is a force for evil in the world? Norman Podhoretz, no dummy he, argues knavery in a very scary piece...
So this is what a super-power sounds like! John Kerry, on the planned American attacks on Syria: they will be “Unbelievably small.” Ooooh, I bet Assad is really scared now!
Oh, please, no. Just no. Please! Elections have consequences, and the 2012 elections might have some particularly bad ones...
Interchangeable, they are. Dave Carter, writing at Ricochet: “What we are witnessing is a disturbing and seemingly unstoppable coalescence of both major parties into an amalgamation of autocrats, ambitious to maintain their own power and anxious to relieve us of our property and liberty.” Makes me want to stock up on guns and ammunition...
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Data Compression: Curiosity's “Focus-Merge” Images...
The Curiosity rover currently exploring Mars has an interesting image manipulation capability on board that is effectively a form of data compression, albeit a very unconventional one.
Since early in the days of digital cameras, photographers have realized that there are ways to combine multiple digital images of the same scene to provide a better composite image. One of the first uses of this technique was to increase the camera's effective depth-of-field with a technique called focus stacking or focus bracketing. The idea is simple enough: you take several images of precisely the same scene, but each with different focus settings. Then you combine the parts of each image that are in focus, so that the entire resulting image is in focus.
Focus stacking is particularly useful in macro (close-up) photography, because the lenses used have very shallow depth of field. Digital photographers routinely use focus stacking today, generally with software such as Photoshop. You might start with images taken at 4 or 5 focus settings, then combine them carefully to get one image as a result. This is especially useful with studio or product photography, where your subject is stationary.
From the perspective of data size, this is a very inefficient process. To get a single final image, you have to move several full size images from the camera to your focus stacking software. For an earthbound digital photographer, that's a few seconds of time as the memory card gets read. For Curiosity, millions of miles away on Mars, it's an entirely different story – it has to send all those images over a very slow communications link.
Now Curiosity has a macro camera (the MAHLI imager), and it has a major depth-of-field challenge. It's designed to capture images of rocks for geologists to study, and those rocks generally have surfaces that are far from flat. But sending multiple images for focus stacking over that slow data link is a more bandwidth than they'd like to use. The solution: implement focus stacking right on the Curiosity rover, so that only the final, all-in-focus image has to be transmitted. The MAHLI team calls this technique “focus-merge”
How do they accomplish this feat, normally done with human manipulation?
First, the MAHLI team built an in-focus sensing capability into the camera that extends across the entire image. On every image, the camera knows which pixels are in focus and which are not. This is similar to (but more extensive than) the multiple-areas autofocus capability of most high-end digital SLRs today. This in-focus data is stored with each image taken.
Then for any given rock that MAHLI is imaging, they'll take several photos (2 to 8, depending on the rock's depth variation) at different focus settings. Software on board Curiosity then scans all the images pixel-by-pixel, choosing the image with the best focus for each pixel. It also creates a visualization map showing the image selected at each pixel (using 2 to 8 gray levels, with blacker being more distant).
To anyone who has done much macro photography (as I have, with wildflowers), the result approximates magic: extreme close-up photos with essentially infinite depth-of-field. I really can't use this technique with wildflowers, because the darned things are highly unlikely to be still at microscopic scales. But I can envy the result nonetheless.
Here's a recent Curiosity focus-merge image of a rock's surface (on top) and it's matching focus map (at bottom):
Since early in the days of digital cameras, photographers have realized that there are ways to combine multiple digital images of the same scene to provide a better composite image. One of the first uses of this technique was to increase the camera's effective depth-of-field with a technique called focus stacking or focus bracketing. The idea is simple enough: you take several images of precisely the same scene, but each with different focus settings. Then you combine the parts of each image that are in focus, so that the entire resulting image is in focus.
Focus stacking is particularly useful in macro (close-up) photography, because the lenses used have very shallow depth of field. Digital photographers routinely use focus stacking today, generally with software such as Photoshop. You might start with images taken at 4 or 5 focus settings, then combine them carefully to get one image as a result. This is especially useful with studio or product photography, where your subject is stationary.
From the perspective of data size, this is a very inefficient process. To get a single final image, you have to move several full size images from the camera to your focus stacking software. For an earthbound digital photographer, that's a few seconds of time as the memory card gets read. For Curiosity, millions of miles away on Mars, it's an entirely different story – it has to send all those images over a very slow communications link.
Now Curiosity has a macro camera (the MAHLI imager), and it has a major depth-of-field challenge. It's designed to capture images of rocks for geologists to study, and those rocks generally have surfaces that are far from flat. But sending multiple images for focus stacking over that slow data link is a more bandwidth than they'd like to use. The solution: implement focus stacking right on the Curiosity rover, so that only the final, all-in-focus image has to be transmitted. The MAHLI team calls this technique “focus-merge”
How do they accomplish this feat, normally done with human manipulation?
First, the MAHLI team built an in-focus sensing capability into the camera that extends across the entire image. On every image, the camera knows which pixels are in focus and which are not. This is similar to (but more extensive than) the multiple-areas autofocus capability of most high-end digital SLRs today. This in-focus data is stored with each image taken.
Then for any given rock that MAHLI is imaging, they'll take several photos (2 to 8, depending on the rock's depth variation) at different focus settings. Software on board Curiosity then scans all the images pixel-by-pixel, choosing the image with the best focus for each pixel. It also creates a visualization map showing the image selected at each pixel (using 2 to 8 gray levels, with blacker being more distant).
To anyone who has done much macro photography (as I have, with wildflowers), the result approximates magic: extreme close-up photos with essentially infinite depth-of-field. I really can't use this technique with wildflowers, because the darned things are highly unlikely to be still at microscopic scales. But I can envy the result nonetheless.
Here's a recent Curiosity focus-merge image of a rock's surface (on top) and it's matching focus map (at bottom):
Links of the Day...
Armchair parkour. The helmet camera really brings it home...
I don't think there's a practical cure. You don't have to know much history to understand that the safest time in human history is right now. It never ceases to amaze me how few people seem to understand this rather basic (and quite verifiable) fact. This ignorance, unfortunately, drives a lot of public policy (both directly and indirectly, via elections)...
I'm a big supporter of gun rights, but... Iowa is granting concealed carry permits for blind people. Their laws require it.
A majority of low information voters can't be good. I'm glad to see leaders taking note of this problem. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: “Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name.”
Sad cat diary. If you own a cat, this will resonate :)
Tyrants rule us. What else can you call a government that won't even let you know how many security-related inquiries it makes? Yahoo! reports that it supplied customer content (presumably email and/or chat) to the government for 4,604 requests (each of which may encompass information on multiple individuals). Yahoo! states: “The U.S. Government does not permit us to disclose additional details regarding the number of requests, if any, under national security authorities at this time, or even to separate them in aggregate from other requests.” We're not allowed to know how our own government works. That's tyranny.
At this point, color me completely unsurprised. The Obama administration secretly removed Bush-era restrictions on NSA spying on American citizens. We can't believe anything these bozos tell us!
Speed riding on Mont Blanc. Via reader Simi L. Be sure to go full screen...
Jury to decide whether science data is accurate? A judge has ruled that Michael Mann's defamation suit against the National Review (prompted by this Mark Steyn post) can proceed. To prove defamation, Mann will have to prove that the allegations in Steyn's post are false – which means we may end up having a jury decide on the “truth” of the science. In my opinion, that's a very bad idea...
I wondered about these... I once saw a giant concrete arrow, in a remote area of the Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada, and I could not figure out what the heck it was for. It's all the Post Office's fault!
Ouch. Conrad Black, writing in the New York Sun:
Wow! Now this is some juggling. A team of jugglers!
Embarrassed, repelled, and outraged. How does our military leadership feel about the Obama administration's preparations for intervention in Syria? Robert Scales, retired U.S. Army Major General and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, writing in the Washington Post:
How much does a bullet cost? Between the time Nidal Hasan (the Fort Hood Shooter) killed 13 and wounded 30, and his sentencing next week, U.S. taxpayers will have paid him over $300,000. We've also paid over $650,000 just to house him. A bullet certainly would be less expensive. Seems like a win for process over common sense. Just sayin'...
I don't think there's a practical cure. You don't have to know much history to understand that the safest time in human history is right now. It never ceases to amaze me how few people seem to understand this rather basic (and quite verifiable) fact. This ignorance, unfortunately, drives a lot of public policy (both directly and indirectly, via elections)...
I'm a big supporter of gun rights, but... Iowa is granting concealed carry permits for blind people. Their laws require it.
A majority of low information voters can't be good. I'm glad to see leaders taking note of this problem. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: “Less than one-third of eighth-graders can identify the historical purpose of the Declaration of Independence, and it's right there in the name.”
Sad cat diary. If you own a cat, this will resonate :)
Tyrants rule us. What else can you call a government that won't even let you know how many security-related inquiries it makes? Yahoo! reports that it supplied customer content (presumably email and/or chat) to the government for 4,604 requests (each of which may encompass information on multiple individuals). Yahoo! states: “The U.S. Government does not permit us to disclose additional details regarding the number of requests, if any, under national security authorities at this time, or even to separate them in aggregate from other requests.” We're not allowed to know how our own government works. That's tyranny.
At this point, color me completely unsurprised. The Obama administration secretly removed Bush-era restrictions on NSA spying on American citizens. We can't believe anything these bozos tell us!
Speed riding on Mont Blanc. Via reader Simi L. Be sure to go full screen...
Jury to decide whether science data is accurate? A judge has ruled that Michael Mann's defamation suit against the National Review (prompted by this Mark Steyn post) can proceed. To prove defamation, Mann will have to prove that the allegations in Steyn's post are false – which means we may end up having a jury decide on the “truth” of the science. In my opinion, that's a very bad idea...
I wondered about these... I once saw a giant concrete arrow, in a remote area of the Ruby Mountains in northern Nevada, and I could not figure out what the heck it was for. It's all the Post Office's fault!
Ouch. Conrad Black, writing in the New York Sun:
“But for this administration to redeem its credibility now would require a change of direction and method so radical it would be the national equivalent of the comeback of Lazarus: a miraculous revolution in the condition of an individual (President Obama), and a comparable metamorphosis (or a comprehensive replacement) of the astonishingly implausible claque around him.”I think the first chance for Lazarus to return is after the next election – and I'm not too optimistic about that, either. Especially after the 2012 elections...
Wow! Now this is some juggling. A team of jugglers!
Embarrassed, repelled, and outraged. How does our military leadership feel about the Obama administration's preparations for intervention in Syria? Robert Scales, retired U.S. Army Major General and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, writing in the Washington Post:
They are embarrassed to be associated with the amateurism of the Obama administration’s attempts to craft a plan that makes strategic sense. None of the White House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war violates every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly defined and obtainable objective.I find it very plausible that Scales is well plugged into our military leadership's thinking, and what he reports is even more plausible...
They are repelled by the hypocrisy of a media blitz that warns against the return of Hitlerism but privately acknowledges that the motive for risking American lives is our “responsibility to protect” the world’s innocents. Prospective U.S. action in Syria is not about threats to American security. The U.S. military’s civilian masters privately are proud that they are motivated by guilt over slaughters in Rwanda, Sudan and Kosovo and not by any systemic threat to our country.
They are outraged by the fact that what may happen is an act of war and a willingness to risk American lives to make up for a slip of the tongue about “red lines.” These acts would be for retribution and to restore the reputation of a president. Our serving professionals make the point that killing more Syrians won’t deter Iranian resolve to confront us. The Iranians have already gotten the message.
How much does a bullet cost? Between the time Nidal Hasan (the Fort Hood Shooter) killed 13 and wounded 30, and his sentencing next week, U.S. taxpayers will have paid him over $300,000. We've also paid over $650,000 just to house him. A bullet certainly would be less expensive. Seems like a win for process over common sense. Just sayin'...
Why Old Men Don't Get Hired...
Via reader Jim M.:
An old man went to a job interview, given by the human resources manager. The conversation went like this:
Manager: “What is your greatest weakness?”
Old Man: “Honesty.”
Manager: “I don't think honesty is a weakness!”
Old Man: “I really don't give a shit what you think.”
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Links of the Day...
It ended well, thanks to them: young oglers rescue a kidnapped girl. They also helped your curmudgeonly, doomy blogger feel a little hope for our country. Well, for Texas, at least...
Despite the Obamanoids best efforts to spin it: The Friday jobs report was more of the same: the announced unemployment number was notionally lower, the real number much higher, and the workplace participation ratio is as bad as it was when Carter was president. Even worse, the last two months were revised downward. There seems to be a pattern here...
Australians are celebrating: in yesterday's elections, the Labor party (roughly like our Democrats) has been overthrown, and the conservatives (still fairly progressive by our standards) are taking the reins. There's hope down under. James Delingpole is a bit more cautious: “...it will require a huge pair of balls (possibly a pair even bigger than a man can reasonably fit into a pair of Speedo budgie smugglers) and a will of iron to resist those siren voices that trouble all conservative incumbents: the voices that urge caution in doing anything too radical because conservatism, being essentially nasty and selfish, should never be deployed except in moderation.”.
Not that I really want to hear from them: But, say, where have all those anti-war celebrities gone?
Why do these things always seem to come from Japan? It took 11 years, but the 17 ton steel beetle lives!
“A complete stud.” A sheepherder in the La Sal Mountains (where Debbie and I were in late July) was gored by a bull elk, and rescued by wildlife workers releasing Rocky Mountain goats. The sheepherder is fine...
Naturally, California is first in line: The California legislature passed (and Governor “Moonbeam” Brown has indicated he'll sign) a bill that would start a transition to electronic license plates. These plates would show advertisements on stationary cars, would give indications if stolen or expired, and would transmit your position to government computers. This raises large security concerns, and somehow you just know that progressive political ads will run non-stop, for free. And of course we are unsurprised to discover that a California company is promoting this. Follow the money...
Some comfort... I use 1Password to generate and store my passwords, and I've had some concerns about that in light of recent revelations about the NSA's crypto capabilities. AgileBits, he people who make 1Password, respond in style.
Sounds like a strange weapon: Penitentes – thin blades of hardened snow – in the Chilean mountains. APOD.
The next big thing? A woman drops out of college 10 years ago and starts a company (Theranos) making miniaturized blood testing gizmos that are a lot faster, better, and cheaper than today's lab tests. Awesome! Where do I go?
Word. James Taranto, in Reductio ad Obama. The man has an enviable way with words, and he's been on a roll recently...
Looking back... Captured by the tail camera on the second flight of the Virgin Galactic's second-rocket powered flight. If I had the kind of money needed for the ticket, I'd be signing up for a ride...
Obama's quagmire. The Iranians will punish us if we attack, and Russia will help Syria. The world's tallest economics blogger weighs in with some clear thinking...
Sweet. The husband of a pregnant woman makes a touching composite video from one second of each of her pregnant days.
Solar eclipse on Mars: captured by the Curiosity rover.
Armchair exploration: of Mercury. Fully interactive map, with science data overlays, all driving by the ongoing MESSENGER robotic exploration of Mercury. New data is added periodically...
Despite the Obamanoids best efforts to spin it: The Friday jobs report was more of the same: the announced unemployment number was notionally lower, the real number much higher, and the workplace participation ratio is as bad as it was when Carter was president. Even worse, the last two months were revised downward. There seems to be a pattern here...
Australians are celebrating: in yesterday's elections, the Labor party (roughly like our Democrats) has been overthrown, and the conservatives (still fairly progressive by our standards) are taking the reins. There's hope down under. James Delingpole is a bit more cautious: “...it will require a huge pair of balls (possibly a pair even bigger than a man can reasonably fit into a pair of Speedo budgie smugglers) and a will of iron to resist those siren voices that trouble all conservative incumbents: the voices that urge caution in doing anything too radical because conservatism, being essentially nasty and selfish, should never be deployed except in moderation.”.
Not that I really want to hear from them: But, say, where have all those anti-war celebrities gone?
Why do these things always seem to come from Japan? It took 11 years, but the 17 ton steel beetle lives!
“A complete stud.” A sheepherder in the La Sal Mountains (where Debbie and I were in late July) was gored by a bull elk, and rescued by wildlife workers releasing Rocky Mountain goats. The sheepherder is fine...
Naturally, California is first in line: The California legislature passed (and Governor “Moonbeam” Brown has indicated he'll sign) a bill that would start a transition to electronic license plates. These plates would show advertisements on stationary cars, would give indications if stolen or expired, and would transmit your position to government computers. This raises large security concerns, and somehow you just know that progressive political ads will run non-stop, for free. And of course we are unsurprised to discover that a California company is promoting this. Follow the money...
Some comfort... I use 1Password to generate and store my passwords, and I've had some concerns about that in light of recent revelations about the NSA's crypto capabilities. AgileBits, he people who make 1Password, respond in style.
The next big thing? A woman drops out of college 10 years ago and starts a company (Theranos) making miniaturized blood testing gizmos that are a lot faster, better, and cheaper than today's lab tests. Awesome! Where do I go?
Word. James Taranto, in Reductio ad Obama. The man has an enviable way with words, and he's been on a roll recently...
Looking back... Captured by the tail camera on the second flight of the Virgin Galactic's second-rocket powered flight. If I had the kind of money needed for the ticket, I'd be signing up for a ride...
Obama's quagmire. The Iranians will punish us if we attack, and Russia will help Syria. The world's tallest economics blogger weighs in with some clear thinking...
Sweet. The husband of a pregnant woman makes a touching composite video from one second of each of her pregnant days.
Solar eclipse on Mars: captured by the Curiosity rover.
Armchair exploration: of Mercury. Fully interactive map, with science data overlays, all driving by the ongoing MESSENGER robotic exploration of Mercury. New data is added periodically...
 |
| Sample image from interactive science data map of Mercury... |
Friday, September 6, 2013
Musical Musings, Memories...
I think almost everyone has had the experience of listening to a piece of music that transports you back to some other time, place, and experience. There are several such pieces that zap my brain like that, and I occasionally discover a new one. Here are three that get me every time:
Tommy (The Who): Takes me back to 1969, when I was consumed in learning about electronics. I spent many hours in a disused chicken shack that I'd converted into an electronics workshop, building lots of home-designed projects that occasionally worked. I couldn't afford to buy parts, so I scavenged them from old vacuum tube radios and televisions that local repair shops (remember them?) gave me. I played this album repeatedly, on an old Motorola stereo (vacuum tubes and electrodynamic speakers!) that I'd scavenged and repaired...
Kodachrome (Paul Simon): Takes me back to 1973, when I was attending U.S. Navy technical schools in Mare Island (Vallejo), California. On the weekends I jumped into my old beater of a car and cruised north to Yolo County, between Davis and Dixon, to go skydiving. I drove through miles and miles of fragrant fields, windows open and hot, humid air pouring in, and this song playing loud on my cassette deck. Happy times, and this song takes me right back there...
Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple) Takes me back to 1975, when I was a few short miles off the coast of South Vietnam, in the South China Sea, as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces. The USS Long Beach (which I was stationed on) was part of a task force that was picking up refugees. We had many ARVN helicopters land on our aft deck, just barely big enough to hold one of the CH-47 Chinooks they were mainly coming out in. Each time one landed, a large working party (including me!) would push it over the side to make room for the next one. While we worked, someone had this song playing in a loop, very loud. It was an eerie scene – frantic refugees (men, women, and children), laden with valuables, running around terrified; multimillion dollar helicopters being tossed over the side like garbage; even more helicopters running out of fuel and landing close alongside (sometimes very close!); and a motley assortment of overloaded boats heading for us. Every ship in the large task force was experiencing similar things; together we took back over 25,000 refugees to the Phillipines. A few notes of that song and I'm right back there in that maelstrom...
Tommy (The Who): Takes me back to 1969, when I was consumed in learning about electronics. I spent many hours in a disused chicken shack that I'd converted into an electronics workshop, building lots of home-designed projects that occasionally worked. I couldn't afford to buy parts, so I scavenged them from old vacuum tube radios and televisions that local repair shops (remember them?) gave me. I played this album repeatedly, on an old Motorola stereo (vacuum tubes and electrodynamic speakers!) that I'd scavenged and repaired...
Kodachrome (Paul Simon): Takes me back to 1973, when I was attending U.S. Navy technical schools in Mare Island (Vallejo), California. On the weekends I jumped into my old beater of a car and cruised north to Yolo County, between Davis and Dixon, to go skydiving. I drove through miles and miles of fragrant fields, windows open and hot, humid air pouring in, and this song playing loud on my cassette deck. Happy times, and this song takes me right back there...
Smoke on the Water (Deep Purple) Takes me back to 1975, when I was a few short miles off the coast of South Vietnam, in the South China Sea, as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces. The USS Long Beach (which I was stationed on) was part of a task force that was picking up refugees. We had many ARVN helicopters land on our aft deck, just barely big enough to hold one of the CH-47 Chinooks they were mainly coming out in. Each time one landed, a large working party (including me!) would push it over the side to make room for the next one. While we worked, someone had this song playing in a loop, very loud. It was an eerie scene – frantic refugees (men, women, and children), laden with valuables, running around terrified; multimillion dollar helicopters being tossed over the side like garbage; even more helicopters running out of fuel and landing close alongside (sometimes very close!); and a motley assortment of overloaded boats heading for us. Every ship in the large task force was experiencing similar things; together we took back over 25,000 refugees to the Phillipines. A few notes of that song and I'm right back there in that maelstrom...
Links of the Day...
There and back again... Nick Berry has another nice brain-teaser, with a little easy algebra in the proof. His additional examples neglect the non-linearity of speed vs. drag, but no matter – the results are the same anyway...
The more I hear about Snowden's NSA leaks, the more I think the man is a hero – and the more worried I am about what the hell is happening to my country...
Awesomely detailed drawings of animals, like the example at right...
Peggy Noonan has a good piece in today's WSJ on the Syrian issue, but the best part is the addendum at the end:
Political commentary in the days of yore: Napoleon Bonaparte in a chamber pot (at right). Awesome. Let's bring it back!
Through reader, friend, and former colleague Aleck L.., I've discovered that one of my favorite books (Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary) is out of copyright and available on a web site and in free eBook form. Hooray!
Another great, short TED talk, this time on the beauty (and primal sexuality) of prime numbers. Mathophobes, do not fear – the talk is almost entirely free of weird symbols and head-exploders. Via reader and friend Simon M. I've lost track of how many times I've spent an entertaining and informative few minutes watching one of the TED talks – it's a great web resource.
The more I hear about Snowden's NSA leaks, the more I think the man is a hero – and the more worried I am about what the hell is happening to my country...
Peggy Noonan has a good piece in today's WSJ on the Syrian issue, but the best part is the addendum at the end:
A point on how quickly public opinion has jelled. There is something going on here, a new distance between Washington and America that the Syria debate has forced into focus. The Syria debate isn't, really, a struggle between libertarians and neoconservatives, or left and right, or Democrats and Republicans. That's not its shape. It looks more like a fight between the country and Washington, between the broad American public and Washington's central governing assumptions.On Yahoo's new logo... General reaction from the serious business community is about like this, which could be summarized as “WTF, Marissa?” But Megan McArdle wins the pithy comment contest (and her piece reflects my own reaction):
I've been thinking of the "wise men," the foreign policy mandarins of the 1950s and '60s, who so often and frustratingly counseled moderation, while a more passionate public, on right and left, was looking for action. "Ban the Bomb!" "Get Castro Out of Cuba."
In the Syria argument, the moderating influence is the public, which doesn't seem to have even basic confidence in Washington's higher wisdom.
That would be a comment on more than Iraq. That would be a comment on the past five years, too.
“Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic” has some new competition for phrase meaning pointless business activity at failing firm: “rearranging the fonts in your logo.”
Through reader, friend, and former colleague Aleck L.., I've discovered that one of my favorite books (Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary) is out of copyright and available on a web site and in free eBook form. Hooray!
Another great, short TED talk, this time on the beauty (and primal sexuality) of prime numbers. Mathophobes, do not fear – the talk is almost entirely free of weird symbols and head-exploders. Via reader and friend Simon M. I've lost track of how many times I've spent an entertaining and informative few minutes watching one of the TED talks – it's a great web resource.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Links of the Day...
N.J. “Weedman” on his acquittal via jury nullification. I haven't made up my mind on the use of jury nullification, but this is a great example of how it can be a positive force in America...
Thomas Sowell, on Obama's foriegn policy team: “They're all bozos on that bus!” Well, that's not exactly what he said, but that's what he meant...
Ace notes: an actual culprit in the Benghazi disaster is named – by Al Jazeera America. The Obama-worshipping lamestream lapdog media continues to ignore the entire incident, as it most inconveniently shows The One and his minions to be bumbling fools...
Just what we need for Washington politicians: “Rats spent hours in a state of chilly suspended animation after researchers injected a compound into the animals in a cold room. The animals’ heart rates slowed, brain activity became sluggish and body temperature plummeted.”
Mark Steyn, The Blasphemy Police: “It's creepy and unnerving how swiftly the West's chattering classes have accepted that the peculiar sensitivities of Islam require a deference extended to no other identity group.” Indeed it is. Equally unnerving to me: the manner in which the multi-culti crowd manages to cheerfully ignore all the manifest conflicts between the Islamic world and their cherished ideals of tolerance and moral equivalence...
Snapshots from space history, an online collection of space images. At right is an image of the surface of Venus, returned by the Soviet's Venera 14 in 1982...
Yesterday I posted about my experience with Acxiom's About The Data site, showing the data collected about me on the web. Looks like Megan McArdle (Big Brother Apparently Needs Glasses) and Ron Miller (Marketers may think they know all about me, but they don't) had basically the same experience...
The EPA raids a gold-mining town in Alaska, looking for dirty water – with a force of nearly a dozen heavily-armed, body-armored on an EPA SWAT team. What the hell is happening to my country?
Math test: 3 times 4 equals what? Anything you want it to, so long as you can explain how you got it. After you get out of school, though, those completely unreasonable employers are going to insist that 3 times 4 equals 12...
Siskiyou County votes to secede from California. My household did, too. Unlike Siskiyou County, we can actually act on our vote – we're headed for much-less-wacky Utah one of these fine days...
Scientists surprised when a chemical reverses the effects of Down syndrome in mice. They're surprised because the chemical normalized the growth of the cerebellum, and reversed the Down syndrome symptoms of learning and memory deficits – which nobody knew the cerebellum had anything to do with. It's amazing to me how little we know, even today, about how the brain actually works...
James Taranto, in the excellent The Buck Stops Here:
In the WSJ's editorial today, The Beltway Choom Gang: “Not since Nixon have we seen a Presidency so disdainful of the law, but at least Nixon had enough respect for legal appearances to break the law on the sly. This Administration simply declares it won't enforce the laws it doesn't like and calls it virtue. The media then give this a pass because Mr. Obama's decisions mesh with their own policy preferences. ” Just another manifestation of The One's assumption of royalty...
Heathkit: the news of my death has been greatly exaggerated. Really? I'd love to see “real” Heathkits come back. I'd buy at least one just for the nostalgic rush it would provide...
A crack in the wall of NSA's secrecy. Good...
School is a prison, and damaging our kids. I have a lot of sympathy for this position. My memories of school are dominated by boredom and bullying. I learned almost nothing useful in the classroom – I attended school, but mainly taught myself – and dreamed of being elsewhere. My professional career (hardware and software engineering) was entirely based on self-taught math, science, and technology – and my school experiences were more of an impediment than an enabler...
The weird, wacky world of x86 processors...
Thomas Sowell, on Obama's foriegn policy team: “They're all bozos on that bus!” Well, that's not exactly what he said, but that's what he meant...
Ace notes: an actual culprit in the Benghazi disaster is named – by Al Jazeera America. The Obama-worshipping lamestream lapdog media continues to ignore the entire incident, as it most inconveniently shows The One and his minions to be bumbling fools...
Just what we need for Washington politicians: “Rats spent hours in a state of chilly suspended animation after researchers injected a compound into the animals in a cold room. The animals’ heart rates slowed, brain activity became sluggish and body temperature plummeted.”
Mark Steyn, The Blasphemy Police: “It's creepy and unnerving how swiftly the West's chattering classes have accepted that the peculiar sensitivities of Islam require a deference extended to no other identity group.” Indeed it is. Equally unnerving to me: the manner in which the multi-culti crowd manages to cheerfully ignore all the manifest conflicts between the Islamic world and their cherished ideals of tolerance and moral equivalence...
Yesterday I posted about my experience with Acxiom's About The Data site, showing the data collected about me on the web. Looks like Megan McArdle (Big Brother Apparently Needs Glasses) and Ron Miller (Marketers may think they know all about me, but they don't) had basically the same experience...
The EPA raids a gold-mining town in Alaska, looking for dirty water – with a force of nearly a dozen heavily-armed, body-armored on an EPA SWAT team. What the hell is happening to my country?
Math test: 3 times 4 equals what? Anything you want it to, so long as you can explain how you got it. After you get out of school, though, those completely unreasonable employers are going to insist that 3 times 4 equals 12...
Siskiyou County votes to secede from California. My household did, too. Unlike Siskiyou County, we can actually act on our vote – we're headed for much-less-wacky Utah one of these fine days...
Scientists surprised when a chemical reverses the effects of Down syndrome in mice. They're surprised because the chemical normalized the growth of the cerebellum, and reversed the Down syndrome symptoms of learning and memory deficits – which nobody knew the cerebellum had anything to do with. It's amazing to me how little we know, even today, about how the brain actually works...
James Taranto, in the excellent The Buck Stops Here:
Of course we could be wrong. Maybe Obama really didn't set a red line. It could have been a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps on Aug. 20, 2012, the world sneaked into the White House, donned an Obama mask, strode into the press room and took questions.Stephen Hayes' lead in The Hawk's Case Against Obama on Syria: “Perhaps historians will provide a clear understanding of Barack Obama's head-snapping decision to pause his administration's urgent case for military strikes in Syria to seek the formal authorization he says he doesn't need from a Congress he disdains.” Perhaps. More likely, I think, is that history will settle on the story of Obama the Fool...
If so, the world did a bad thing and will need to be punished. But we hope that whoever has authority over such matters will have a little compassion for the world's predicament. It isn't easy carrying the weight of Barack Obama on your shoulders.
In the WSJ's editorial today, The Beltway Choom Gang: “Not since Nixon have we seen a Presidency so disdainful of the law, but at least Nixon had enough respect for legal appearances to break the law on the sly. This Administration simply declares it won't enforce the laws it doesn't like and calls it virtue. The media then give this a pass because Mr. Obama's decisions mesh with their own policy preferences. ” Just another manifestation of The One's assumption of royalty...
Heathkit: the news of my death has been greatly exaggerated. Really? I'd love to see “real” Heathkits come back. I'd buy at least one just for the nostalgic rush it would provide...
A crack in the wall of NSA's secrecy. Good...
School is a prison, and damaging our kids. I have a lot of sympathy for this position. My memories of school are dominated by boredom and bullying. I learned almost nothing useful in the classroom – I attended school, but mainly taught myself – and dreamed of being elsewhere. My professional career (hardware and software engineering) was entirely based on self-taught math, science, and technology – and my school experiences were more of an impediment than an enabler...
The weird, wacky world of x86 processors...
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Far Worse than Carbon Dioxide...
At a news conference in Washington today, President Obama announced that he is directing the Environmental Protection Agency to act immediately to enforce a new set of regulations to limit emissions of dihydrogen oxide gas, or water vapor, one of the primary causes of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change.That dihydrogen oxide is nasty stuff!
“The world faces a crisis,” the president intoned, “and America must lead. We have taken the first step by limiting carbon emissions, but that cannot be effective unless we deal with the larger menace posed by dihydrogen oxide pollution as well. Since Congress has failed in its duty to pass the required laws, I, as president, am directing the EPA to move unilaterally to issue and enforce appropriate regulations.”
The importance of dealing quickly with the dihydrogen oxide crisis was dramatically made clear by EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, who showed charts comparing current atmospheric CO2 levels, at 400 parts per million, with those of water vapor, which are now greater than 10,000 parts per million. “And not only do dihydrogen oxide levels exceed CO2 more than twenty times over,” Ms. McCarthy said, “but each molecule of DHO has greater greenhousing effect. So we need to get control of this without delay.”
Read the whole thing...
A Novel Concept...
Acxiom is one of the largest companies that specialize in collecting data about Internet users. Their main customers are marketeers looking for new prospective buyers of their products. The data they have comes from many sources, including cookies, web site tracking technologies, and partnerships with web stores that share purchase and browsing information.
None of that is new. What is new, though, is that Acxiom is making your data available to you. Once they confirm your identity, you can view what they know about you – and if you find errors, you can even correct it. You can also opt out, meaning that Acxiom will stop selling your data to marketeers. That is a novel concept: openness.
You can do this yourself by visiting About The Data. Scroll to the bottom and click the orange button to start the process. It took me about five minutes (and three tries!) to successfully identify myself – but once I did that, the rest was easy.
They've broken down the information they hold on you into several categories. It was fascinating to look at. In my case, at least, I was surprised by how much they didn't know, or had wrong. They have my name, address, and email all perfectly. They didn't have any of my phone numbers, their income and economic data was wildly off, and the shopping information they have is heavily skewed to Debbie's purchases. Since she does much more shopping off Amazon than I do, I suspect this means Amazon doesn't report our purchases – thank you, Amazon. After absorbing my profile there, I realized that I kind of like what they're presenting to marketeers – it's so far off that it will keep the predators at bay :)
None of that is new. What is new, though, is that Acxiom is making your data available to you. Once they confirm your identity, you can view what they know about you – and if you find errors, you can even correct it. You can also opt out, meaning that Acxiom will stop selling your data to marketeers. That is a novel concept: openness.
You can do this yourself by visiting About The Data. Scroll to the bottom and click the orange button to start the process. It took me about five minutes (and three tries!) to successfully identify myself – but once I did that, the rest was easy.
They've broken down the information they hold on you into several categories. It was fascinating to look at. In my case, at least, I was surprised by how much they didn't know, or had wrong. They have my name, address, and email all perfectly. They didn't have any of my phone numbers, their income and economic data was wildly off, and the shopping information they have is heavily skewed to Debbie's purchases. Since she does much more shopping off Amazon than I do, I suspect this means Amazon doesn't report our purchases – thank you, Amazon. After absorbing my profile there, I realized that I kind of like what they're presenting to marketeers – it's so far off that it will keep the predators at bay :)
Sixty Eight Years Ago...
The surrender of Japan to the Allied Forces in World War II, ending the war that killed many millions of soldiers and citizens. U.S. Admiral Nimitz is shown signing the surrender document, on September 2, 1945. Folks in my parents' generation all know exactly what they were doing when they first heard the news of Japan's surrender.
I've read hundreds of books about World War II and its participants, from both an Allied perspective and an Axis perspective, giving me a context that most people don't have. Despite that, I still am amazed that such a thing could happen just a few years before I was born.
And I fear it could happen again...
I've read hundreds of books about World War II and its participants, from both an Allied perspective and an Axis perspective, giving me a context that most people don't have. Despite that, I still am amazed that such a thing could happen just a few years before I was born.
And I fear it could happen again...
That's One Way to Do It!
Your tractor-trailer truck is involved in a traffic accident and catches fire. How do you put it out? You get some help:
Links of the Day...
New password cracking software can test 8 million passwords per second...
Here's a service whose inflation-adjusted price appears to be constant over millennia...
New interferometric radio telescope delivers high resolution (< 0.1 arcsecond) images...
A very strange insect cocoon (at right):
The NSA prefers hacking network routers and switches. Me, too...
The West's Libyan intervention was a disaster. Foreshadowing for Obama's Syrian intervention?
DNC Chairman claims there are “dozens” of allies that will join our intervention in Syria – but then says she can't name them. The Obama gang sure look lame when you compare this with Bush's stunning success corralling a coalition to invade Iraq...
Wacko Birds vs. Angry Birds: Matt Welch weighs in on the Syria intervention. I sure wish Matt would run for national office...
Are you pregnant? Here's an easy way to earn some pocket change. One hardly knows what to say...
An English professor – progressive, of course – denies that Stalin ever killed any Soviet citizens. I used to think this sort of thing was really dangerous, but then I discovered that many college-educated young people have no idea who Stalin was, when he lived, or what he did. That's an even bigger problem!
An oasis in a volcano, in the middle of a desert, in the middle of nowhere (at right). Known locally as the “Oasis of Mosquitoes”!
I knew they were skimping on the fuel! Things airline pilots don't want you to know...
Don't mess with Mother Nature! She's got a bite to match her bark...
Celebrities patent the darnest things...
Here's a service whose inflation-adjusted price appears to be constant over millennia...
New interferometric radio telescope delivers high resolution (< 0.1 arcsecond) images...
The NSA prefers hacking network routers and switches. Me, too...
The West's Libyan intervention was a disaster. Foreshadowing for Obama's Syrian intervention?
DNC Chairman claims there are “dozens” of allies that will join our intervention in Syria – but then says she can't name them. The Obama gang sure look lame when you compare this with Bush's stunning success corralling a coalition to invade Iraq...
Wacko Birds vs. Angry Birds: Matt Welch weighs in on the Syria intervention. I sure wish Matt would run for national office...
Are you pregnant? Here's an easy way to earn some pocket change. One hardly knows what to say...
An English professor – progressive, of course – denies that Stalin ever killed any Soviet citizens. I used to think this sort of thing was really dangerous, but then I discovered that many college-educated young people have no idea who Stalin was, when he lived, or what he did. That's an even bigger problem!
I knew they were skimping on the fuel! Things airline pilots don't want you to know...
Don't mess with Mother Nature! She's got a bite to match her bark...
Celebrities patent the darnest things...
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
The One Pisses Me Off, Part 827,395...
A few days ago, President Obama made some remarks on Syria that included these:
I think that choice of words reveals an essential truth about Obama: his presumption of the status of a monarch. This is no surprise, certainly – his behavior fairly screams that presumption. But to have him actually say it in a public context is somehow especially infuriating. He's openly flaunting his belief that he possesses the unlimited powers of a monarch.
And at the same time, he (lamely) punts the Syrian intervention decision to Congress.
William F. Buckley, Jr. famously said “I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” I'll paraphrase that slightly and say I'd rather have a President randomly chosen from the Boston phone book than have Obama.
Hell, I'd rather have Biden than Obama...
Now, I have not made a final decision about various actions that might be taken to help enforce that norm. But as I've already said, I have had my military and our team look at a wide range of options. We have consulted with allies. We've consulted with Congress. We've been in conversations with all the interested parties, and in no event are we considering any kind of military action that would involve boots on the ground, that would involve a long-term campaign. But we are looking at the possibility of a limited, narrow act that would help make sure that not only Syria, but others around the world, understand that the international community cares about maintaining this chemical weapons ban and norm.There's one part of the remarks above that really pisses me off. It's this part:
...my military...Last time I checked, that military belonged to the United States of America, not this president (or any other president).
I think that choice of words reveals an essential truth about Obama: his presumption of the status of a monarch. This is no surprise, certainly – his behavior fairly screams that presumption. But to have him actually say it in a public context is somehow especially infuriating. He's openly flaunting his belief that he possesses the unlimited powers of a monarch.
And at the same time, he (lamely) punts the Syrian intervention decision to Congress.
William F. Buckley, Jr. famously said “I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.” I'll paraphrase that slightly and say I'd rather have a President randomly chosen from the Boston phone book than have Obama.
Hell, I'd rather have Biden than Obama...
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