Top 6 of Top 10 Lists (for Programmers)...

Nice.

Meyer's Good Advice...

Via Maggie's Farm:

A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.

In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:

"Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich. He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew.
If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.

"A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.

Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.

If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew. If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.

Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.

Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.

Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the "Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.

"Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.

They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.

"Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.

Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

"In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio, Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott."

Bullet Trains...

Warren Meyer (of CoyoteBlog) has an excellent piece in Forbes on the stupidity of high speed rail...

Uncle Jack...

Just watch it.  Via reader Dr. Simi L.:

The Wish...

Your morning political humor, via my mom:

I met a fairy today that said she would grant me one wish. "I want to live forever," I said.

"Sorry," said the fairy, "I'm not allowed to grant wishes like that!"

"Fine," I said, "then I want to die after Congress gets their heads out of their asses!"

"You crafty bastard," said the fairy.

Quote of the Day...

Unknown source, via my mom:

If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you weren't a racist, you'll have to vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you're not an idiot.

A Day in the Country...

This morning I'm stiff and sore all over, because yesterday Debbie and I worked in the yard for the first time this season.  We got a lot more done than we thought we would – with burn permit in hand, we burned six brush piles that had accumulated around the yard.  The tractor started right up after being idle for the winter.  Once I filled it's gas tank, the chain saw started on the first pull, and I used it to cut up and burn one pile of branches.  Then finding ourselves with time and some leftover energy, we even sawed a few low, drooping branches from our pines.  We cut those up and burned them as well.  Then we were completely out of anything resembling energy!

Just moments after I doused the fire's embers and put away our tools, Frankie T. and Miss Daisy (her beautiful old dog) showed up for a visit.  We all had a very pleasant visit – Debbie had never met Miss Daisy before, and Miss Daisy had never met our dogs before.  Soon Miss Daisy was stretched out on our carpet, looking very content and happy, the center of the room's attention.  Mo'i watched over her.  Bootie and Maka Lea came over to check out the new dog.  Race ignored her and wanted us to throw his toy.  Debbie handed out treats to Miss Daisy that she eagerly accepted.  Miki was all over Frankie, wiggling with field spaniel joy.  Lea stayed away from Miss Daisy at first, but eventually (and very cautiously) came over to say hello.  The action never stopped, especially while Frankie was trying to drink a cup of coffee and eat (without help!) a piece of chocolate cake.  We were all sad to see Frankie and Miss Daisy head home, but we're hoping they'll wander out this way again some day soon... 

Happy Easter!

My mom sends these Easter greetings:

NGC 6543: the Cat's Eye Nebula...

From APOD, of course:

Don Knuth: All Questions Answered...

If you're a geek, Knuth needs no introduction. If you're not a geek, this will not be of interest.

Friends...

How the World Sees Us...

Musings from Peggy Noonan...

California Dreamin'...

John Fund has an excellent piece up at the WSJ.  Sample:

Hours after the legislators met with Mr. Perry, another business, Fujitsu Frontech, announced that it is abandoning California. "It's the 70th business to leave this year," says California business relocation expert Joe Vranich. "That's an average of 4.7 per week, up from 3.9 a week last year." The Lone Star State was the top destination, with 14 of the 70 moving there.

I don't want to move to Texas.  I don't even want to leave California.  But if the current trend continues, finding employment may be yet another reason (along with high taxes and batshit-crazy politicians) to vote with our feet...

What to Invest In?

Via reader Dr. Simi L.:

I called my stockbroker and asked him what I should be buying.

He said, "If the current administration is in office much longer, canned goods and ammunition is your best bet."

Energy Flows...

Reader Doug S. passes along this very cool chart of energy flows in the U.S. for a recent year (2009), from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories.  He points out that the chart makes it clear how difficult it would be to use wind or solar power to replace our other energy sources.  There are lots of other insights like that to be had by studying this for a bit...

Ceramic Lasers to Replace Spark Plugs?

Solid state lasers have come a long way, baby...

Original Sin...

What could I possibly add to this?  Via my mom:

Beautiful!

Time lapse photography from El Teide (tallest mountain in Spain).  The scenes with clouds below the level of the camera are very reminiscent of things we see in our mountain valleys quite frequently.  Via Frankie T:

On the Air Again...

Thanks to Eric at SDWISP, we're back on the air again.  We're not actually sure exactly what was wrong, but somehow between the work the Eric did on our radio link and associated wiring, and that I did on our network's router, our Internet connection is back.  Woo hoo!

Thanks for the great service, Eric.  While we've come to expect it (because you're so consistent!), it is still greatly appreciated...

Internet-Free Morning, and Quote of the Day...

Our Internet service at home died yesterday morning – I suspect rodents gnawed something important.  Eric from SDWISP returned my trouble call very quickly (on a Sunday – love that service!).  He'll be at our house this afternoon to put things right.

Meanwhile, I drove to work early this morning so I could actually get something done.  I got into the office at 2:25 am – a personal record.  Yes, mom, I know I'm crazy.

Around 2 am I passed the Rancho San Diego shopping center (where Target is), and spotted an older woman sitting by the side of the road.  I thought she might be sick or hurt, so I stopped to see if she was ok.  It was an interesting experience.

Her name is Alicia, and she appears to be about 70 years old.  She's filthy, and her clothes are falling apart.  As best I could tell, she doesn't have a drink or drug problem – she just has no money, and the shelter she was staying in (in La Mesa) had closed.  She told me she was staying near the iron bridge just down the road, but she'd been rousted by the Border Patrol, and was now looking for another place to stay.  She was just resting when I stopped to check on her.

Alicia told me she'd really like to get to Clairemont Mesa, as she'd heard there was another shelter there, still open.  I was headed that way (I work in Del Mar), so I offered her a lift.  For the half hour ride, I asked Alicia a string of questions and she cheerfully answered.

She has two children that she hasn't heard from in ten years or more.  Five years ago her husband died.  She had no income other than Social Security, and that's not even close to enough to live on in San Diego.  She's been in San Diego for 50 years, after moving out here with her Navy dad.  She lost her house, foreclosed for taxes and mortgage payment; she got almost nothing from the sale.  She's been living on the streets in the three years since then.

And yet ... Alicia seems happy.  It's amazing how resilient some people are.  When I mentioned how surprising I found her cheerfulness, she said:

“I'm alive, aren't I?  I still enjoy sunsets and the birds, and I have enough to eat.  That's a lot more than some people have!”

Alicia gets my quote of the day.  I don't think anyone's going to top it.

I let her off at the 24 hour McDonald's off Mira Mesa Blvd, and bought her some breakfast.  I got a hug before she trudged off toward where she believed the shelter was, happily slurping her coffee and munching on her breakfast burrito.

Happy trails, Alicia.  I'll think of you at sunset today...

Historical U.S. Top Marginal Tax Rates...

Over the years I've been surprised many times by the general ignorance U.S. citizens have of how their top marginal tax rates have changed over the years.  In particular, few people seem to know how much higher these rates were between the FDR and Reagan administrations.  The chart below shows this very nicely (as usual, click to enlarge).

There are many interesting observations one can make from this chart.

One that progressives like to make is that we have a lot of experience in economic boom times (say, the late '50s) with very high top marginal rates – therefore such rates are not the destroyer of jobs claimed by the conservatives.  However, it is simultaneously true that the very wealthy back then had relatively easy access to tax shelters, and in fact very little income was actually taxed at that rate.  The real world is messy and complicated.

An observation that conservatives like to make is the strong correllation between the dropping of tax rates and the subsequent ramping up of the economy (this happened both in the late '20s and early '90s).  But progressives can point to other factors that influenced those economic upturns, including other roughly simultaneous changes in the regulatory environment.  The real world is messy and complicated.

So be careful reading too much into the squiggles on this chart.  Nonetheless it's a useful piece of any U.S. citizen's political education – no matter what one's political beliefs, this chart encapsulates the past century's history of one of the most significant consequences of elections: the setting of our tax rates...

IC 410...

From APOD, of course:

Ersatz Budget Politics...

Mark Steyn, as only he can:

The other day the post office apologized for its new stamp honoring Lady Liberty. Due to an unfortunate error, the stamp shows not the 19th-century Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor but the 1990s replica that stands at the New York–New York Casino in Las Vegas.

An ersatz statue of pseudo-liberty standing guard over the world’s biggest gambling operation: What better way to round out a week in which the Republicans pretended to pass the most historically historic budget cut in history while the president pretended to come up with a plan to address the debt? All while pretending to wage a war in Libya whose most likely outcome seems to be that the only Arab dictator to sleep soundly in his bed at night during these turbulent times will be doing so under cover of a NATO no-fly zone for the rest of his 75-year term of office. In such a world, the USPS, bless ’em, has come up with a far more plausible emblem of societal devastation than Hollywood’s space monsters and climate-change fairies.

Ah, Mr. Steyn. How could I despair without you?

The Lady is on Fire...

Complete with the screechy voice.  It's impossible for anyone to reconcile the left's portrayal of her intellectual capacity with the content of that speech.  It's also impossible to miss the fact that she's the only national politician who effectively leveraged the recent events in Wisconsin – which she, alone, recognized as watershed events as they occurred.  Sarah Palin taken as a complete political package is one very impressive politician, whatever one may think of her views.

The 2012 election cycle promises to be even more interesting – and consequential – than the 2010 cycle.

Send In a Marine!

Via reader Simi L., this story of a Marine's solution to a discipline challenge:

A former Sergeant in the Marine Corps took a new job as a high chool teacher. Just before the school year started he injured his back. He was required to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. Fortunately, the cast fit under his shirt and wasn't noticeable. On the first day of class, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in the school.

The smart aleck punks, having already heard the new teacher was a former Marine, were leery of him and he knew they would be testing his discipline in the classroom.

Walking confidently into the rowdy classroom, the new teacher opened the window wide and sat down at his desk. When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he picked up a stapler and stapled the tie to his chest.

Dead silence. He had no trouble with discipline the rest of the year.

Hoo ah!

Aurora Borealis...

Via reader (and colleague) Frankie T., this time-lapse movie that captures the aurora borealis on a flight from San Francisco to Paris...

Obama Likely to Lose in 2012...

So says Peggy Noonan.  Assuming, that is, the Republicans field a serious candidate, and not someone like The Donald...

Wax Bang at Hash Buck Grapes Circumflex and Splat Wane...

Explained...

Timing...

If you catch yourself doing this:

Then it's time to retire with your dignity intact.

My younger readers may not know what the woman in the photo is doing.  She's applying an opaque white fluid (known as “white-out”) to her computer screen.  She's doing this because back in the old days, this is how she learned to correct errors when typing.  People used an antique device called a “typewriter” (a kind of combined printer and keyboard) to print neat text direct onto paper.  With a typewriter, the only way you could correct an error was to paint whiteout onto the mistake and then type over it.  There was no backspace key or erase key.  If you have trouble believing that humans actually used such primitive devices, or that such humans could possibly still be alive, please consult this article for more information on the subject...

Alpha Dog...

You know which dog is the alpha dog:

Eagle Camera, 24 x 7...

From Decorah, Iowa in their nest 80' in the air, the Raptor Research Project is streaming live video of eagles and their just-hatched chicks.  The snap at right I took just a few minutes ago.  It's black-and-white because at night the nest is illuminated with an infrared light (which the eagles can't see).  During the day, the feed is in full color.

Live eagle nest viewing, from the comfort of our homes.  What an amazing world we live in!

Windex vs. the Streaker...

Windex wins:

The Right Words...

Via reader “ole timer”:

Slide Rules...

Amazing!  I'm not the only one who thinks it would be a good idea for today's kids to learn about slide rules...

Mac OS/X Tips and Tricks...

An excellent collection.  I've been using a Mac for almost four years now, and most of these were new to me.  Better yet, a dozen or so are things I want to add to my back of tricks!

Hysterical...

This video is just over 10 minutes long, but trust me – you will not regret the time spent. Put down your morning drink, swallow, and watch. If you have young children, you might want them out of the room. If you work in a very conservative setting, this may not be safe to play there...

Thank You...

A farmer near Offutt Air Force Base (just outside of Omaha, Nebraska) has for several years used his tractor to make a giant signboard (at right, click to enlarge).  The pilots landing at Offutt see this on their final approach.  Via my mom, who's on a roll today!

Below is the same field, seen from a satellite.

Is the Honeymoon Finally Over?

Via my mom:

You know the honeymoon is over when the comedians start in on you...

The liberals are asking us to give Obama time. We agree...and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
-- Jay Leno

America needs Obamacare like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
-- Jay Leno

Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal? Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
-- Conan O'Brien

What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon? A fund raiser.
-- Jay Leno

What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary? One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.
-- David Letterman

If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved? America!
-- Jimmy Fallon

What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo? Bo has papers.
-- Jimmy Kimmel

What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program? It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
-- David Letterman

This Looks Like Fun!

Via my mom:

Modern Microprocessors...

An excellent and accessible quick course on modern microprocessor architecture...

ClimateGate: Some News...

Another in a long string of tour de force by Steve McIntyre.  If you weren't already disgusted with government-teat science, you will be by the time you finish.

And from the always-entertaining James Delingpole, news that he and his team have won an important legal victory against an attempt by the University of East Anglia (UEA) to quash his (to them) uncomfortable observations.  As he puts it: “They lost.  We won.”  His headline reveals his mindset: “UEA: the sweet smell of napalm in the morning.“

Morning Walk and Other Things...

We slept in a little bit this morning, until just before sunrise.  Mo'i, Lea and I went out for our usual walk into a beautiful, clear, cold morning.  We had frost on everything insulated from the ground, so the air temperature must have gotten to below freezing.  Not a cloud in the sky.  The birds were in great evidence, the birds of spring, singing their little hearts out as if celebrating the impending sunrise.  Tendrils of mist swirled around our little valley.  Just beautiful...

The dogs didn't notice, of course.  They were too busy checking out who visited our yard last night.  Judging from their activity, we had a lot of visitors.

Having just Mo'i and Lea makes for a downright sedate morning walk. Debbie's got Miki and Race at an agility competition in Arizona, and those two are the ones who make morning walks challenging – they're just so full of energy and curiousity.  Mo'i and Lea are much calmer.

It's a strange sort of morning for mid-April here.  Colder and wetter than we've seen for a while.  Last year on this same date, we had not had rain for 2 months, and the temperature was in the low 90s.  We had rain yesterday, and a frost last night; forecast for today is the high 60s.  Al Gore must be in town...

Debbie reports from the agility meet that things are going well for her and the dogs.  Race took a first place yesterday on a standard course, beating the course time by some absurd amount.  The little guy is basically a rocket ship on paws!  Miki ran yesterday in Excellent A category for the first time.  He had a fault on both runs, and in that category a single fault disqualifies you.  But Debbie was still very happy with the runs – he was focused and fast, and the mistakes were arguably hers rather than his.  You could hear her smile and excitement over the phone.

Last night my neighbor and friend Jim B. rang me up and offered to deliver some birthday party food for me.  I was invited to the party, but they know and forgive my introversion – I don't enjoy myself with large gatherings (they had over 20 people), especially when they are people I don't know well.  So Jim delivered a feast: a freshly grilled burger, some deviled eggs, a crab & macaroni salad, and a fruit salad.  Delicious, and it provided my breakfast this morning as well.

Now it's back to work for me!

The Ultimate Sandwich?

I just finished what may be the single best sandwich I've ever had in my life.  I haven't the faintest idea how I could improve upon it.  Here's how I made it:

• Bread:  Two slices of Dudley's rosemary-olive oil bread, toasted until it just began to brown.  If you're from the San Diego area and you don't know Dudley's bakery, then you're unnecessarily missing out on a simple pleasure.  If you do know about Dudley's, well, then, you know what I'm talking about!
• Mayonnaise: A freshly opened jar of real mayonnaise (not that “salad dressing” garbage) – not homemade, true, but still very good.
• Avocado: A Californa Haas avocado, perfectly ripe, blemish free, sliced.
• Tomato: An Imperial Valley tomato, ripened in our window until it smelled wonderful, sliced thickly.
• Lettuce: A few leaves of crisp, dark green iceberg lettuce – for the crunch and the burst of moisture as you chew.
• Salami: A half-dozen slices of top-notch genoa salami.  There's a huge variation in quality of Italian cold cuts at our local stores.  Albertson's carries several that are particularly good, and this was one of them.

I ate it with a tall glass of cold milk.  As we like to say: “It was so good that it made my brains fall out.”.

Never thought I'd say this, but I'm going back to work on the taxes with a smile upon my face.  Nothing to do with the taxes, of course...

One Happy Dog...

As I made my lunch a few minutes ago (more on that in the next post), the two dogs who are home with me (Mo'i and Lea) were watching my every move.  They acted as if they hadn't been fed in months, but since I had personally fed them just last night, I knew this wasn't true.  But Lea got to me anyway, because while she's still in great health, she's old enough now that her main joys in life are (a) sleeping, and (b) eating.

So she gets extra “treats” from me frequently.  I've tried to be creative in what I get her, to give her a little extra enjoyment.  I may have hit an all-time high today.  I took a couple of pieces of genoa salami (which she was acting very interested in) and blended them with a few ounces of milk (a well-known favorite).  Then I warmed that slightly in the microwave, and broke up a piece of potato bread crust into it.  I let the bread soak, then gave her the bowl.

When you know a dog as well as we know Lea, it's easy to tell when she's happy.  Lea was happy as she ate that bowl of doggie joy.  Her tail was wagging, and she came over to see me every few laps – just to say “thanks” so far as I could tell.  When she was all done, I was treated to five minutes or so of a very affectionate old dog acting like she was a puppy again.

Glorious.  And an absolutely wonderful antidote for the chore I'm working on today.

Thanks, old girl...

Satellite Temperature Data...

Here's something interesting: satellite temperature data, publicly available.  The graph below has ticks for each year.  The AGW folks sure are reading a lot into these data!  Of course, they're not using the satellite data – they're using surface measurements instead.  I will note that surface temperature data from hundreds of organizations and thousands of instruments is much easier to manipulate than the satellite data...

Good Career Advice...

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) isn't just a cartoonist, he's a first-class observer of modern humanity.  In this article at the Wall Street Journal, he's got some of the best advice I've ever seen for young people preparing for a career.  Much of his advice is applicable during a career as well, so there's something for everyone in the article.  Some elements of his advice one can see in my own career.  For example, I'd say that learning to write reasonably well, and learning how to be unafraid of public speaking, have both done more for my career than any particular piece of techncial learning.

But the strongest resonance for me was his advice that most people should emphasize acquiring multiple skills rather than trying to be world-class in any particular skill.  Oh, yes – for me this advice has the strong ring of truth.  Over the years, I've acquired a strange collection of knowledge and skills – designing concrete mixes, writing software, corporate accounting, back-end stock trading processing, designing electronic hardware, some civil engineering, slide rules, optics (especially as it applies to photography), cryptography, and a bunch more.  I'm no world-class expert in any of these areas, but the fact that I have a smattering of them all has been incredibly useful in my career.  It also has done something else that Scott doesn't mention: by practice and example, it gives me great confidence that I can learn how to do just about anything – and even that is very useful in a career.

So go read it, and pass it along to anyone you know who might be able to use some good career advice.

Quote of the Day...

And as a special added bonus, it's in a Kirk cartoon:

Discovering the government's been shut down is like finding out your Yugo has been stolen … you feel bad, but it's no big loss.

Exactly, Kirk.  Exactly!

It Could Have Been Worse...

This is why I can't get too excited by last night's budget deal.  It's crumbs, folks, and not very tasty crumbs at that.  I'm pleasantly surprised by Boehner's ability to negotiate, and completely unsurprised that the Democratic leadership couldn't get it's intellectually bankrupt people together.  All I'm saying, though, is that this could have been much worse.  That's not at all the same thing as saying it was good...

If You Hear Yelling and Cussing...

...from the general direction of Southern California today, that's probably me.  I'm doing my taxes today, toting up all the money that the federal government is going to steal from me.  As I watch the dollars add up, I'll be thinking about how the likes of Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Schumer, etc. will find wasteful ways to spend it.

If I have a good day, a liter or two of vodka should get my blood pressure under control this evening...

RIP, Kermit...

Geeks of a certain age will remember Kermit – a Columbia University project that became one of the first standard ways to communicate between computers.  Every bulletin board system in the '80s and early '90s supported Kermit.  If your modem software supported Kermit (as virtually all such software did), you'd be able to communicate (and transfer files) with any bulletin board.

Back in the pre-Internet days, I implemented Kermit several times – in Z80 assembly language, 8086 assembly language, and the last time in Turbo Pascal.  Just thinking about Kermit brings back all sorts of memories of the days when personal computers were just getting started.

Columbia University announced yesterday that the Kermit project is finally being terminated, after more than 30 years.  RIP, Kermit...

Taste and Smell: There's an App for That!

3D Lightshow...

Amazing stuff, via my mom: lightshow.

Yon Gigapan...

A “gigapan” is a panoramic photo made by stitching together lots of smaller photos – sometimes hundreds or even thousands of them.  Michael Yon is over in Afghanistan right now, and he's tried his hand at a gigapan.  Take a look at the result – and see one place in Afghanistan in incredible detail...

Thank You...

Via my mom:

Flat Companies...

This resonates with me...

The Cheap Hard Disk...

So you buy a 500GB hard disk for an incredibly low price.  The salesman demonstrated it to you in the store, saving a file to it – so you know it works.  Then you bring it home and discover that you can't save any large files.  What's going on?

The hard disk is a fake.  It's just a 128MB flash disk mounted inside a false hard disk case (click to enlarge photo at right).  That's just 1/40th the size you thought you bought.

This is really happening...

This is Really, Really Stupid...

France has made it illegal for web sites to securely store passwords.  Instead, web site operaters must store passwords “in the clear” – meaning in a form that authorities can use to access customer data.

The bureaucratic mind at its finest.

   Rope
   Tree
   Bureaucrat
   Some assembly required...

A Dog's Prayer...

Via my mom:

Dear God: Let me give you a list of just some of the things I must remember to be a good Dog.

1. I will not eat the cats' food before they eat it or after they throw it up.

2. I will not roll on dead seagulls, fish, crabs, etc., just because I like the way they smell.

3. The Litter Box is not a cookie jar.

4. The sofa is not a 'face towel'.

5. The garbage collector is not stealing our stuff.

6. I will not play tug-of-war with Dad's underwear when he's on the toilet.

7. Sticking my nose into someone's crotch is an unacceptable way of saying 'hello'.

8. I don't need to suddenly stand straight up when I'm under the coffee table

9. I must shake the rainwater out of my fur before entering the house - not after.

10. I will not come in from outside and immediately drag my butt across the carpet.

11. I will not sit in the middle of the living room and lick my crotch.

12. The cat is not a 'squeaky toy' so when I play with him and he makes that noise, it's usually not a good thing.

Baby Talk...

These twins have their own language!  Cute and funny.  Via Frankie T.:

2012 Is Going to be an Interesting Election Year!

Via about half the readers of this blog:

Things Confucious Didn't Say...

Via reader Dr. Simi L.:

Man who wants pretty nurse, must be patient.

Lady who goes camping must beware of evil intent.

Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.

Man who runs in front of car gets tired, man who runs behind car gets exhausted.

Man who eats many prunes get good run for money.

War does not determine who is right, it determines who is left.

Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.

It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it.

Man who drives like hell is bound to get there.

Man who stands on toilet is high on pot.

Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

A lion will not cheat on his wife, but a Tiger Wood!

Osborne I...

I owned one of these back in the early '80s, along with the (not pictured) optional Fresnel lens magnifier for the tiny little CRT.  I also wrote software for it – a little utility that automatically “tuned” the stepper motor head drive on the floppy disk drives. 

Ordinarily the stepper motors were driven at a constant step rate, controlled by a Western Digital floppy controller chip that was a nearly universal standard in computers of the day.  This constant step rate was the simplest approach, but it wasn't the only one possible.  My utility accelerated the head motion for the first half of its travel, and decelerated it for the second half.  The result was considerably improved head positioning performance.  On such a slow system, this was no small matter.  I had no trouble demonstrating significant performance improvement on such common tasks as starting up an application.

However, that performance improvement is not why most people bought my little application.  There was, briefly, a little buzz about my “FastTrak” utility – because it made the Osborne I much quieter.  This was an unintended, but happy, side-effect of the performance improvement.  It turns out that a smoothly-accelerating head positioner doesn't “grind” the way a linearly-stepping head positioner does.

There's a lesson in there somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure what it is...

A New Way to Explore History...

Almost everything I've read of history (that's hundreds of books; history is a passion of mine) is secondhand material.  Historians research the original documents, digest them, apply their own spin, and write a book.  The historians cite and sometimes briefly quote the original source material, but only rarely does someone like me get to see any other than a very short piece of the real thing.

Some very different recently became available, from (of all people) Donald Rumsfeld.  As a companion site to his memoir, he's put up a web site that includes digitized and searchable texts of thousands of original documents related to his life and experience.  Given his career, this means that it's full of fascinating documents.  So far I've just dabbled in it, searching on a few keywords (like “Kandahar”) and just browsing through the results.  The whole experience, though, is entirely new to me – it's as though someone let me into Rumsfeld's private filing system.  What to look for?  I have to learn how to use this tool to satisfy my own thirst for historical knowledge.  It has the feel of something revolutionary and … really, really cool.

If you share my interest in history, you'll want to check this out.

Quote of the Day...

Mark Steyn, reacting to Lindsay Graham's blaming of the Koran-burning pastor for the deaths in Afghanistan:

A mob of deranged ululating blood-lusting head-hackers slaughter Norwegian female aid-workers and Nepalese guards — and we’re the ones with the problem?

Well said. The whole post is well worth reading.

We are reaping the inevitable rewards of multi-culti and other emasculating progressive political initiatives...

Reunited...

It's in Japanese, but really, no words are required...

MESSENGER: Science Mission Begins!

MESSENGER's main science mission has begun.  All systems are now fully up and running, and all systems are operating flawlessly.  Six and half years after launch, everything is still A-OK.  Woo hoo!

The most accessible science data for most people are the photographs, and they're starting to pour in.  Visit the gallery on the MESSENGER site for the latest...

The Psychiatrist & The Proctologist

Via my mom:

The Psychiatrist & The Proctologist

Best friends graduated from medical school at the same time and decided that, in spite of two different specialties, they would open a practice together to share office space and personnel.

Dr. Smith was the psychiatrist and Dr. Jones was the proctologist; they put up a sign reading: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones: Hysterias and Posteriors". The town council was livid and insisted they change it.

So, the docs changed it to read: "Schizoids and Hemorrhoids". This was also not acceptable, so they again changed the sign.

"Catatonics and High Colonics" No go.

Next, they tried "Manic Depressives and Anal Retentives" thumbs down again.

Then came "Minds and Behinds" - still no good.

Another attempt resulted in "Lost Souls and Butt Holes" - unacceptable again!

So they tried "Analysis and Anal Cysts" - not a chance. "Nuts and Butts" - no way.

So "Freaks and Cheeks" - still no good.

"Loons and Moons" - forget it.

Almost at their wit's end, the docs finally came up with: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones - Odds and Ends"

Everyone loved it.

Eriastrum densifolium subsp. sanctorum

From Botany Photo of the Day, of course!

Modern Aircraft Identification...

For some reason this official aircraft silhouette identification chart has upset the UFO believers.  Can't imagine why!

Rescued Dog and Its Owner Reunited...

Saturday I wrote about the dog rescued off the coast of Japan, quite possibly the last survivor of the earthquake and tsunami of three weeks ago.  This morning comes the news that the dog and its owner have been reunited.  I couldn't find pictures or video, but who cares?  What a nice way to start the morning...

Yee Haw!

I'd pay good money for the opportunity to do this.  I think just once, though...

NGC 6872...

This image was captured by a girl's high school astronomy club in Sydney, Australia.  Via APOD, of course.

Japan's Last Quake Survivor?

Three weeks on flotsam, with no food or water – then rescued by men who had given up all hope of finding any survivors.

That's one happy dog (click to enlarge).  I sure hope his owner has survived and can be found.  If not, somehow I'm certain this little fellow will find a loving home.

This story (and these videos) sure put a smile on my face this morning...

Get Your Exercise – While Emailing!

From Google, via reader Simon M.  Looks ... tiring!

Watch the video, and don't forget to click on the "Try Gmail Motion" button...

Moving a Barn...

Via my mom:




Wow!

A Different Take...

...on Professor Muller, whom I wrote about a few days ago.

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade...

This site is interesting on several levels: as a demonstration of accessible data mining, as a tool for quantative history study, and as a means for anybody to informally learn a lot more fact-based history (a commodity in amazingly short supply!).

The screenshot at right (click to enlarge) shows one of my own explorations: I wanted to know where slaves actually went.  Answer: the vast majority went to the Caribbean and to South America – not North America.  Prior to seeing these numerical data, I'd known that many slaves went to the Caribbean – but I did not know that such an overwhelming majority went there, nor did I know that so many went to South America.

There is much else to learn at that site...

Just Plain Cool!

Phong shading (a computer graphics technique) helps to solve (tentatively, for the moment) a long-standing mystery in physics: the Pioneer Anomaly.

Takers, not Makers...

This is a bit exaggerated by a common bias: not including the entire software industry (and, similarly, other makers of “intangible” products).  Nonetheless, the point is one that I agree with, and worry about...

Krauthammer on Obama's Syria Policy...

You can reduce it to one word: rubbish.