Monday, October 13, 2008
We Americans get a lot of guff from certain European countries about the various and sundry evil ways we have, our miserable political system, our non-socialized health care, and so on. So it was with some bemusement that I read this, from the highlights of a Reader's Digest global poll on the U.S. Presidential race:
The majority in India (73%), South Africa (65%), the Netherlands (55%) and France (52%) would be interested in moving to the U.S. while about 70% of respondents in Poland, Russia, Indonesia, and Australia expressed a lack of interest in moving to the U.S.
The longer comment by the Reader's Digest on the topic:
Speaking of which, a majority of the French—the French!—express an interest in relocating to the United States. To some, this number might seem like a typographical error. Philippe Labro, a well-known French writer and filmmaker, told Reader's Digest that to the French, "the reality of the American Dream" is embedded in the life stories of both presidential candidates. "America is still that land of the second chance, of multiple opportunities, where anyone can succeed," he attests.
Well, what do you know about that? A majority of the insufferable French would rather live in the U.S. if they could. After all the grief they give us, this is just mind-bogglingly hypocritical!The rest of the poll is very interesting as well...
The graph at right shows the wind speeds at our home, in MPH (multiply by 1.6 to get KPH). The green line shows the running 5-minute average; the red line the peak gusts. Note that my wind sensor is a conventional rotating-cup anemometer, and is therefore not very responsive to very short gusts – something we seem to have a lot of in a Santa Ana wind condition.
You can see that the average wind today is much higher than normal (as was Saturday, though not quite as high as today). Still, compared to a “normal”, this is very mild. It's also a very cool Santa Ana – instead of temperatures in the 90°F (32°C), our high today was just 74°F (23°C). And that's just fine with me! About the most dangerous part of this Santa Ana is the very low relative humidity (as low as 2.1%RH today).
At right is the view from the Lyons Peak camera looking north (a view that includes our home). Those clear blue skies are what we want to see on a Santa Ana day – no nearby smoke plumes. However, toward the left side of the photo, just above the horizon, you can see an ugly gray smudge – this must be the fires on Camp Pendleton or in Los Angeles, far to the north of us.
As always, click on a photo to get a larger view...
From the news wire:
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced Monday that Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University, is the 2008 winner of The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The academy cited his work in analyzing "trade patterns and location of economic activity" and integrating "the previously disparate research fields of international trade and economic geography."
I am speechless. Google “Paul Krugman” and read some of his prolific ranting (I refuse to link to any of them). This proves the utter bankruptcy of the Nobel selection process. It has become an almost pure act of political correctness...
Here's collection of the work of some of the best and brightest photographers specializing in high-speed photography.
The example at right is by Jasper Nance. She likes to shoot bullets at various targets, in this case an orange.
The work of these photographers is a fascinating blend of art, science, and technology. Some combination of high shutter speeds and ultra-short burst flashes is required to capture these moments. Many of the photographers are (or have become) engineers skilled in the art of building this equipment. Ms. Nance, for example, designed and built her own flash system.
There are many more photos at the link above...
