Number 9 Again...

Same day, we're number 9 on a different list: top 10 tech predictions of 2012, from CIO Magazine.

Weird...

We're Number 9...

On the Forbes “Most Promising Companies” list.

Wow.  It just keeps getting better and better...

Commercial Humor...

Cool commercial (but it won't make any sense unless you watch it all the way through).  Via my lovely wife:

Death of a Religion...

Bret Stephens has a piece in today's Wall Street Journal talking about the death of a religion: anthropogenic global warming.  The intro:

How do religions die? Generally they don't, which probably explains why there's so little literature on the subject. Zoroastrianism, for instance, lost many of its sacred texts when Alexander sacked Persepolis in 330 B.C., and most Zoroastrians converted to Islam over 1,000 years ago. Yet today old Zoroaster still counts as many as 210,000 followers, including 11,000 in the U.S. Christopher Hitchens might say you can't kill what wasn't there to begin with.

Still, Zeus and Apollo are no longer with us, and neither are Odin and Thor. Among the secular gods, Marx is mostly dead and Freud is totally so. Something did away with them, and it's worth asking what.

Consider the case of global warming, another system of doomsaying prophecy and faith in things unseen.

As with religion, it is presided over by a caste of spectacularly unattractive people pretending to an obscure form of knowledge that promises to make the seas retreat and the winds abate. As with religion, it comes with an elaborate list of virtues, vices and indulgences. As with religion, its claims are often non-falsifiable, hence the convenience of the term "climate change" when thermometers don't oblige the expected trend lines. As with religion, it is harsh toward skeptics, heretics and other "deniers." And as with religion, it is susceptible to the earthly temptations of money, power, politics, arrogance and deceit.

Jet Man...

Awesome!

Georgie is Lost!

Georgie (photo at right, click to enlarge) was lost on Friday, near the intersection of Lyons Valley Road and Peg Leg Mine Road.  If you've seen him, please contact Bill (info below).  Here's all the information I have:

Here's the info on Georgie. Lost on Friday November 25th near Lyons Valley and Peg Leg Mine Road. Georgie is Shih tzu three years old, black and white, weighs approximately 15 pounds. Very friendly. Has a very distinct bark, sounds like a much larger dog. Call Bill with information (619) 922-0527.

Landslide on Vesta...

The Dawn robotic explorer is currently orbiting the asteroid Vesta, returning tons of science data and imagery.  At right (click to enlarge) is a section of Vesta's surface showing a large cliff (20 km/12 miles high) and what appear to be landslides.  Via APOD, of course...

A Three-Fer!

James Delingpole (one of my favorite commentators) has a piece about ClimateGate 2.0 (one of my favorite topics) in today's Wall Street Journal (one of my favorite periodicals).  It's a must read.  The money quote:

This is the real significance of the climategate emails. They show that major scientists who inform the IPCC can't be trusted to stick to the science and avoid political activism. This, in turn, has very worrying implications for the major international policy decisions adopted on the basis of their research.

Plant Photos...

This is new to me: a site with a large collection of plant photographs, many of excellent quality.  Of course it doesn't have all plants, but it does have thousands of them, very conveniently organized by plant species and by source...

Totally Awesome Roller Coaster...

It's in the Alps, dang it – otherwise I'd be on my way there for a ride!

JVM Programmer's Reading List...

A nice reading list for programmers who work with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).  There were several on here new to me...

What Are Those Spots?

Via my mom, this shot of the Diga del Cingino dam in Northern Italy. See the little spots on it? Scroll down to see what they are...

Alpine Ibex!

Adele Vasquez and Her Band of Siblings...

I'd say these kids have a future in music.  Even if this song isn't your cup of tea, listen to this 10 year old belt out the refrain.  Awesome!

Mutually Beneficial Arrangements...

I just ran across an advertisement for this web site, which appears to be soliciting young women willing to have paid “relationships” with older men. The ad was on an otherwise completely respectable web site.  The text of the site isn't explicit, but seems pretty clear that the relationship includes (a) sex, and (b) money being paid to the woman. From the site:

When you date someone, if you find them attractive and have a good time with them, things naturally progress. This might happen in one date or it might take a couple, but the point is that this is what happens. Also, as you’re dating someone, you develop a relationship of sorts with them, so if you’re short on your rent, they help you out. If you’re struggling to pay for school, they help you out.

If the person you’re dating likes you and they have extra money, they buy you gifts. This, folks, is dating. So, then, wouldn’t all dating be mutually beneficial? Now, when you actually plan a mutually beneficial arrangement, you should know that you’re dating, but you’re kind of laying out the terms of dating. You want gifts, you make sure that the person you’re planning your arrangement with will want to give them to you.

I'm no lawyer, but that sure looks dangerously close to solicitation to me!

I'm way past being shocked (or even surprised) by this sort of activity.  Six years in the Navy, visiting practically every port in the Pacific and Indian Oceans (and a few others as well) cured me of any lingering innocence concerning the intersection of money and sex.  But I was surprised to see this ad on an otherwise fairly conservative and straight-laced site...

Quote of the Day...

From Clive Crook at The Atlantic, commenting on the ClimateGate 2.0 emails:

“The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering.”

Cited in this article in the London Daily Mail.

Awesome.  This time, the lamestream media is paying attention...

Curiosity Ready To Go...

The Curiosity Mars Rover is on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, scheduled to lift off about an hour from this post...

Pelican Nebula...

The Pelican Nebula (IC 5070), seen with an amateur 17" telescope in the Sierra Nevada mountains.  From APOD, of course:

Ode to the Welfare State...

Note the date.  Via my mom:

ClimateGate 2.0: the Deluge...

Since the release of more than 5,000 additional “insider” emails two days ago, the blogosphere and (this time) the news media have gotten to work analyzing the trove.  It isn't pretty.  A summary from one news article (Forbes):

Three themes are emerging from the newly released emails: (1) prominent scientists central to the global warming debate are taking measures to conceal rather than disseminate underlying data and discussions; (2) these scientists view global warming as a political “cause” rather than a balanced scientific inquiry and (3) many of these scientists frankly admit to each other that much of the science is weak and dependent on deliberate manipulation of facts and data.

Ouch.  That's gotta hurt!

Some additional goodies:

Les Jones is amused.

A nice search engine to let you research the new trove.

One of the recent studies suggesting that the CO2 multiplier might not be quite as large as early “research” suggested.  

The scare quotes are there because both the older studies and the new studies are still based on computer models, not something quaint like, say, actual observation or repeatable experiments or proven causation.  Those notions are so 1980!

Lost Dog in Lawson Valley...

Neighbors of ours found this very friendly guy along Lawson Valley Road, between Montiel Truck Trail and Hilary Drive.  He's obviously well-taken care of – and he looks like he needs to be back home!

If he's your lost dog, or if you know who he belongs to, please drop me a line at slightlyloony@jamulblog.com.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

ClimateGate 2.0...

It looks like FOIA.org has done it again – releasing another set of emails between the various participants in the anthropogenic global warming crowd.  I've only read through a few that Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre have highlighted.  FOIA.org has the whole thing up in a searchable database.  FOIA.org has many megabytes more that they're not releasing yet (the file is there, but encrypted, so all they have to do is release a password to unleash them).  I'm not sure why FOIA.org is playing coy with them – they've made no demands that I'm aware of, so it doesn't appear to be a shakedown.

One thing I'm noticing already: two years ago when the original ClimateGate emails were released, the blogs jumped all over them right way, but the media studiously ignored them for months.  This time they're in the mainstream media right away.  Interesting...

OWS Solution...

Colleague and friend Doug S. passes along this solution to the Occupy Wall Street movement (non-embeddable video clip)...

Mesmerizing...

Wired has a nice collection of ten “mesmerizing” time-lapse videos, like this one:

Unreal...

Several people wrote to ask why I'm not commenting more on the “Super-Committee” super-flop.  Several answers:

First, I'm torn between delight and disgust by the whole affair.  Delight because a Congress deadlocked into inactivity is the safest kind of Congress I can imagine.  Disgust because so few (I'd say less than 5%) of our Congress-critters seem to behave in a way that's in the best interest of the country.

In today's news, I read another story that at one level simply astounds any thinking person in its complete disconnection from reality.  Obama is pushing to extend the Social Security “tax cuts” another year.  This is from the leader of the same party that is so adamant about including tax increases as part of the deficit reduction.  Last year those tax cuts were paid for by issuing government bonds (borrowing, in other words).  One wonders what he's got in mind this time.  Well, I guess we really don't wonder – Obama's angling for re-election, and what better way than to throw a few bucks at the masses?  He might as well be out on the street with wads of money, handing them to anyone who will vote for him.  Sheesh...

There are days (and this is one of them) when I think the only way we can get our country back is through some form of revolution.  The big, big question: can that revolution happen at the ballot box?  I'm not feeling optimistic this morning...

Billions and Billions...

Forbes talks about ServiceNow, the company where I work...

Blog and Local News...

We had a power outage from 4 am to 7:15 am this morning, which messed up my morning routine rather well.  Last night we got just over a half inch of rain, and the world outside is green and wet – sparkly, like jewels.

And now I have to go to work...

Earliest Photographs...

Youth Turnaround?

The 2012 elections are going to be interesting...

Farm Productivity...

The graph at right (click to enlarge) is a fascinating look at what invalidated the Malthusian prophecies of the early 20th century.  Back then, the conventional wisdom was that because human populations were growing much faster than our food production, we were all going to starve and die before the year 2000.

Well, not so much.  In fact, there is now more food per capita than at any previous point in history.  Better food, too (in every sense!).  How did this happen?  Why were the projections so very wrong?

They had the same problem that every static projection has: they assumed that the rate of change of both food production and of population growth would remain the same.  If that had actually happened, the Malthusians would have been correct.  But it didn't; in fact, both changed.  Our food production started climbing very rapidly during WWII with the near-simulateous development of cheap fertilizers, effective insecticides, and selective herbicides.  A few decades later, genetic engineering kicked farm productivity even faster.  There's no end in sight yet for farm productivity improvement.  At the same time, worldwide population growth rates are slowing.  The rate of change on those rates is low, but the effects are cumulative and large over the long term.  Most experts today think that our world's human population will level off (or close to that) before the end of this century.  My guess is that today's experts are probably just as wrong as the Malthusians were 100 years ago – but I have no idea in which direction they're wrong, much less the magnitude of their error!

Payment Problem...

Via my mom:

A drunk woman, stark naked, jumped into a taxi.

The Indian driver opened his eyes wide and stared at the woman. He made no attempt to start the cab.

"What's wrong with you, haven't you ever seen a naked woman before?"

"I'll not be staring at you lady, I am telling you, that would not be proper, where I am coming from."

"Well if you're not bloody staring at me, what are you doing then?"

"Well, I am looking and looking, and I am thinking to myself, where is this lady keeping the money to be paying me with?"

Reform Congress...

Here's the conclusion of an excellent opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal:

I've learned from local, state and national political experience that the only solution to entrenched corruption is sudden and relentless reform. Sudden because our permanent political class is adept at changing the subject to divert the public's attention—and we can no longer afford to be indifferent to this system of graft when our country is going bankrupt. Reform must be relentless because fighting corruption is like a game of whack-a-mole. You knock it down in one area only to see it pop up in another.

What are the solutions? We need reform that provides real transparency. Congress should be subject to the Freedom of Information Act like everyone else. We need more detailed financial disclosure reports, and members should submit reports much more often than once a year. All stock transactions above $5,000 should be disclosed within five days.

We need equality under the law. From now on, laws that apply to the private sector must apply to Congress, including whistleblower, conflict-of-interest and insider-trading laws. Trading on nonpublic government information should be illegal both for those who pass on the information and those who trade on it. (This should close the loophole of the blind trusts that aren't really blind because they're managed by family members or friends.)

No more sweetheart land deals with campaign contributors. No gifts of IPO shares. No trading of stocks related to committee assignments. No earmarks where the congressman receives a direct benefit. No accepting campaign contributions while Congress is in session. No lobbyists as family members, and no transitioning into a lobbying career after leaving office. No more revolving door, ever.

This call for real reform must transcend political parties. The grass-roots movements of the right and the left should embrace this. The tea party's mission has always been opposition to waste and crony capitalism, and the Occupy protesters must realize that Washington politicians have been "Occupying Wall Street" long before anyone pitched a tent in Zuccotti Park.

The author is Sarah Palin...

FTL Confirmed?

The OPERA team has re-run their experiment that measured time-in-flight of neutrinos as faster than light (FTL).  This time they used shorter pulses (removing one area of uncertainty in the original experiment) and did a better statistical analysis.  Result: FTL time-in-flight confirmed. 

This doesn't mean there's general agreement that physics is broken.  But it is one (unexpected by most) step in that direction.

Wow!

Economics of Solar Power...

Megan McArdle (by far my favorite economics blogger) has a nice piece up about the economics of solar power, answering the question “Should we be bullish on solar?”  She covers something that most discussions miss: the “whole system” costs of solar, especially the battery problem...

Nitobe Memorial Garden...

In Vancouver, British Columia, Canada.  Gorgeous!  Via BPOD...

Jamul Indian Casino...

Lakes Entertainment's latest quarterly report is out, and it looks much like the last few.  They've recognized another $800k in “impairment losses” (definition below) related to the Jamul casino project, and are still using the same “we haven't given up quite yet” language when talking about it...

Impairment Loss: A special, nonrecurring charge taken to write down an asset with an overstated book value. Generally an asset is considered to be value-impaired when its book value exceeds the future net cash flows expected to be received from its use. An impairment write-down reduces an overstated book value to fair value.

Five Sweet Little Old Ladies...

Via my mom:

Sitting on the side of the road waiting to catch speeding drivers, a Massachusetts state trooper sees a car puttering along at 24 mph. He thinks to himself, "This driver is as dangerous as a speeder!" So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.

Approaching the car, he notices that there are five elderly ladies - two in the front seat, and three in the back, wide-eyed and white as ghosts. The driver, obviously confused, says to him, "Officer, I don't understand. I was going the exact speed limit. What seems to be the problem?"

The trooper, trying to contain a chuckle, explains to her that "24" was the Route number, not the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.

"But before you go, Ma'am, I have to ask, "is everyone in this car OK? These women seem awfully shaken."

"Oh, they'll be all right in a minute, officer. We just got off Route 128."

And yes, it's entirely plausible that my mom was one of them...

Banksia grandis...

An Australian native, from BPOD, of course...

Amazing Voyager 2...

Over thirty years old, and a bazillion miles past Pluto – and yet we can still talk to it and control it.  It's an awesome and under-appreciated technological accomplishment...

Maps...

xkcd has an excellent post today on various map projections, and what your preferences say about you...

Hello Faddah, Hello Mama...

IowaHawk strikes again with a theme song for Occupy Wall Street.  Sample stanza:

We are saving
This whole nation
With some squad car
Defecation
We went marching
in Zucotti 
And got applauded by the Nazi Party

WTF, China?

China is building very strange things in its deserts, and nobody seems to know why...

Historical Unemployment...

A very nice graphical “heat map” that the WSJ keeps updated...

Hydrogen alpha Sun...

Our sun, as seen in hydrogen alpha light.  Gorgeous.  Click to enlarge.  From APOD, of course...

Time-Lapse Movie of the Earth, from the ISS...

Awesome.  The aurora borealis and lightning strikes are particularly beautiful and interesting...

Shameful?

This guy – a law professor! – thinks it's shameful that someone solicited in the University for care packages to be sent to our soldiers overseas.

Personally, I think it's shameful that an academic institution (Suffolk University law school, in this case) allows someone with that attitude to indoctrinate our youth.

Morning Walk...

This morning's walk was glorious...  A sharp scent of sage was in the air, a consequence, I think, of our rains a couple days ago.  The ground is damp, and new growth is springing up all around.  The moon was high in the sky, just over Orion's head.  It's brightess washed out all but the brightest stars.  Jupiter hung over the western horizon.  I couldn't make out the Milky Way at all; the sky was just too bright.  The moonlight was more than bright enough to walk confidently by.  It cast sharp shadows; the pine tree shadows I walked through were particualrly lovely, reminding me of the shadows cast by lights on the Christmas tree.

The dogs, of course, know none of this.  The three field spaniels were agog over the smells exposed by the soils dampness.  They ran to and fro, in random directions but with huge energy.  This morning they found nothing to focus on.  They were like canine vacuum cleaners, zooming around sucking in all the joyous odors.  They were clearly very happy dogs.  Race, on the other hand, noticed none of this.  All he had eyes for was his pine cone.  As usual, he repeatedly laid it in my path so that I would walk over it and kick it.  This is how he gets his joy: chasing a kicked pine cone.  He runs it down, snags it in his jaws, then lifts his head high in sheer joy as he scampers about for 30 seconds or so of victory laps that take him all over the yard.  Then he comes back and lays his pine cone down again.

Another morning out in the chaparral...

Cocaine Prices vs. Crime Rates...

An interesting piece by Llewellyn Hinkes-Jones explores the idea that lower cocaine prices on the street are the cause for the declining rate of violent crime in the U.S. over the past 15 years or so.

I have no idea whether that notion has any merit.  However, inadvertently the article makes many points that bolster the case for legalizing drugs like cocaine.  One of the consequences of making such a high-demand item (as evidenced by the price people are willing to pay for it) illegal is that people will finance their desire by committing crimes – property crimes and violent crimes.  This country saw that during Prohibition, and rolled it back.  I, along with many others, believe we should do the same thing with other illegal drugs.  There's nothing special about alcohol, which manifestly has the same sorts of undesirable impacts on people and society that the illegal drugs do...

Free Programming Resources...

A nice list...

He Is A Second Dirac, Only This Time Human...

That's a quote by Dr. Eugene Wigner, taken from J. Robert Oppenheimer's letter of recommendation for Richard Feynmann.  The letter is addressed to Professor Birge at U.C. Berkeley.  The letter is reproduced below, but do click to read the whole story...

Bicycle Wheel, Reinvented...

The noise would make me crazy, but it's an interesting concept.  It reminds me of the old Lunar Rover design.  I'll bet if you put a layer of tire material on the outside of the thing, the noise wouldn't be so bad...

CO2 - Where Does It Come From?

A nice piece that clearly articulates one of the key questions raised by skeptics of anthropogenic global warming: if CO2 produced by human activities is a tiny amount compared to the CO2 produced by Mother Nature, then how can it be the cause of global warming?

Lost Faith...

Thomas L. Day has lost his faith in the leadership of his parents' generation.  An excerpt:

Our parents’ generation has balked at the tough decisions required to preserve our country’s sacred entitlements, leaving us to clean up the mess. They let the infrastructure built with their fathers’ hands crumble like a stale cookie. They downgraded our nation’s credit rating. They seem content to hand us a debt exceeding the size of our entire economy, rather than brave a fight against the fortunate and entrenched interests on K Street and Wall Street.

Read the whole thing.

Superhydrophobic Coatings...

They repel water and heavy oils.  This is going to be big!  I have spoken...

On Heretic Scientists...

An interesting piece on two facts seemingly at odds:

1. About 90% of all scientists who make breakthrough discoveries are heretics, in the sense that they held unorthodox views widely rejected by their contemporaries.
2. About 90% of all scientists who are heretics (in the sense described above) are whacked out loonies – only about 10% of them actually make real breakthrough discoveries.

Bouncy Doggie...

I don't really know what's going on here, but it's cute...

Newt Wipes the Floor...

...with the debate moderator.  He certainly doesn't sound like your average politician – the guy has knowledge and IQ, and can use it even in hostile circumstances...

Paul Ryan Speaks...

...and I sure wish our Congresscritters would listen...

An Inch and a Half...

Yesterday's storm brought us another inch and a half (4 cm) of rain, bringing our calendar year total to 15.43 inches (39 cm) – the highest measurement (by 20%) for this date I've seen in 9 years of collecting weather data here.

The early wetness has some of our plants changing their usual timing.  We have bulbs popping up all over the place, and the grass is growing strongly – we're going to have an unusually long growing season this year, assuming we get our usual rainy season.  Our aleppo pines are normally looking a little sad (dry) this time of year; now they're fully greened up and their sap is flowing.  Take that, bark beetles!  Our eucalyptus trees are putting out new growth.  The ground is soft down to at least three feet, and the gophers are tunneling like crazy (good for some plants, bad for others).  The manzanitas that happen to be full of berries right now have big, juicy berries.  And the moss on the rocks is bright green.

I wouldn't mind a bit more of this.  An inch or so every couple weeks would be quite nice!

Three Years Old...

This video is over three years old, and I just now discovered that it existed.  I have no idea who created it – probably another ServiceNow employee, though it certainly could have been a customer.  In any case, it's a great humorous look at ServiceNow's product vs. its competitors.  I've heard many comments from our customers that reflect the comparisons in this video.  Note that being three years old, the video has our old logo, company name spelling, and artwork...

A Visual Message From Texas...

...to the President, at right.

Via my mom...

Beerology...

I can't stand beer myself (I'm more of a Cabernet kinda guy), but that didn't keep me from enjoying this beer wisdom, forwarded by reader Jim M.:

Sometimes when I reflect on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. I think, "It is better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."

Babe Ruth

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day."

Lyndon B. Johnson

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading."

Paul Horning

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not."

H. L. Mencken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"When we drink, we get drunk.. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let's all get drunk and go to heaven!"

George Bernard Shaw

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Benjamin Franklin

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza."

Dave Barry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beer: Helping ugly people have sex since 3000 B.C.!

W. C. Fields

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Remember "I" before "E," except in Budweiser.

Professor Irwin Corey

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a Support Group - Salvation in a can!

Leo Durocher

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One night at Cheers, Cliff Clavin explained the" Buffalo Theory" to his buddy Norm:

"Well, ya see, Norm, it's like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine!

That's why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Halelujah!

Via reader Simi L., this pure delight:

It's Toast...

The (very ambitious) Russian Fobos-Grunt Mars mission, that is...

NGC 6302 (Butterfly Nebula)...

Via APOD, of course (click to enlarge)...

Airport Fail...

At Dulles in Washington D.C., this past Tuesday morning, on the departures monitors all over the terminal:

Keep An Eye On This One...

...'cause it's going to be big.  I have spoken.

This is What I Need...

...the next time there's a major fire around here.  Having one of these looking around would give us solid information, whereas current reporting systems produce a chaotic blend of stale and erroneous crapola (that's a technical term)...

This Really Is a Still Image...

Click to enlarge:

Discovery...

My company has an animation out about one of the products I work on:

A Veterans Day for Me to Remember...

For years now, basically since 9/11, I've gone out of my way to honor the men and women who serve in our armed forces.  It's become second nature for me, most especially when I'm traveling.  Just this past week, for instance, I connected through Charlotte, North Carolina – and while in the airport I struck up a conversation with a young man in Army uniform.  Turns out he was headed to a school, and then back to the Middle East.  I invited him to join me for a Starbucks coffee and a little food, and found a good opportunity to say “thanks” in a heartfelt way.

One of the reasons I do this is my own experiences while in the Navy in the '70s; I've blogged about these before.  Suffice it to say that while I was in uniform, I never had the experience of a friendly stranger buying me coffee and saying “thanks” in a way I'd believe sincere.  Quite the opposite.  But I've often wished I'd had that experience.

I'm no longer in uniform; I've been out of the Navy for more than 30 years.  But today – for the first time ever – I had an experience something close to this.  A colleague of mine (whose name I don't have permission to use, and therefore won't) sent an email to myself and another mutual colleague, whom I'll call “J.” (since I don't have permission to use his name, either).  With minor edits to maintain anonymity, here's the email:

J. and Tom,

Just a moment to say thanks to the only two Vietnam War vets that I really know (I think).

We are living at a time of war, the first one that I have first hand witness to in a way that I can understand. I see how the vets are revered and how their work and service is honored. I see the concern and care for the invisible wounds warriors come home with.

My memories of the Vietnam War are vague, I was young. What I know, though, is that what I see now is very different than what I remember seeing, however vaguely, back then. The people that cheered for soldiers; the people that welcomed them home; the people that cared about the invisible wounds were very few and far between and didn't have anywhere near the voice that people that opposed the war did.

But they were there. And my dad was (is) one of them. I learned from him the importance of the work of all who served and the depth of their sacrifices. I learned from him to cheer loudly when vets passed by on Veterans Day. I learned from him to look for and reach out to those who served. I learned from him to have respect.

As time has passed, our country has come to rethink and regret the collective attitude towards Vietnam Vets, though I am afraid for many vets, this was too little too late. But I do believe that it is the lessons learned in that attempt to reconcile that has given way to much of the honor our current warriors are extended. And for that, we all owe Vietnam Vets a certain and very sincere debt of gratitude.

If my dad had met either of you back then, he would have shook your hand. He would have cheered loudly as you passed by. He would have honored your service. He would have offered you a cup of coffee. He wasn't with you then, but I am here now. And in honor of today as Veteran's day, in honor of the lessons learned from my dad, and in honor of your service to your country - I would very much like to buy you a cup of coffee!

Some things can't be undone. Some things can't be forgotten. But it's my sincerest hope that it is never too late to say thank you.

Thank you so much, for your service. And thank you for what your collective experiences have brought to my life and my career all these years later.

To say I was stunned would be a significant understatement.  All these years later, someone said “thanks!” to me.  It's some hours later as I write this, and I'm still shaken by the experience.  I guess I never expected anyone to just say “thanks” to me...

Just to be clear: I'm a Vietnam-era vet; I wasn't actually in-country in Nam.  Nor was I directly in combat.  I was a sailor on a ship that supported combat air operations in Nam.  I fixed computers (the mainframes of the day).  I was a warrior only in some metaphorical sense.  But I was a member of our armed forces, and served for six years.  And now someone has said “Thanks, Tom”...

Modern Times...

Via Eric W., this joke – which only some of my readers will “get”.  For the geeks, the thing that makes it so funny is that it sounds so much like what we've all experienced.  Setup: an ISP's subscriber is calling a technician at the ISP's help desk:

Subscriber caller: My Internet is down.

Tech: Why do you say that?

Caller: Because When I try to go to Google, it takes 10 minutes to draw the screen.

Tech: Do you have any XBOXs, TVs, or other Computers?

Caller: Yes.

Tech: Go turn the power off on all of them and try again to access Google.

Caller: I can't... My husband is watching a movie on his new NetFlix power big screen, my kids are having an XBOX live tournament, and my daughter is updating her iPod/iTunes songs.

Tech: So you said your Internet isn't working?

Caller: OK, I turned all those things off. Speed is a little better, but still doesn't work.

Tech: OK try rebooting your router.

CAller : (phone disconnects, and she calls back). That's odd, my phone disconnected when I rebooted the router. Internet is still slow.

Tech: Oh so I see you have VOIP also. Do you have Direct TV boxes?

Caller: Yes, I'll go turn that off. I set my DVR to download movies in the background a few days ago. Do you think that had something to do with it?

Tech: Try again now.

Caller: Wow, my Internet sure is fast now! Google loads in 1/10th of a second. What did you do to fix it? You must have changed something on your end, when I was off turning stuff off. By the way, why did you want me to turn the stuff off?

Political Tees...

Via my mom, a nice collection of T-shirts for the coming 2012 elections.  Here's a couple I particularly enjoyed:

Einstein Weighs In...

Via reader Jim M.:

Remember this when you vote next November...

For my readers who are not up on their science: 185,999 miles/second is the approximate speed of light...

There Are Only So Many Cells...

I'm an engineer.  My mother emailed this to me.  Do you think she sent it for the political humor in it?  I'm not so sure...

All babies start out with the same number of raw cells, which over nine months, develop into a complete female baby.

 

The problem occurs when cells are instructed by the little chromosomes to make a male baby instead.

 

Because there are only so many cells to go around, the cell necessary to develop a male's reproductive organs have to come from cells already assigned elsewhere in the female.

 

Recent tests have shown that these cells are removed from the communications center of the brain, migrate lower in the body and develop into male sexual organs. If you visualize a normal brain to be similar to a full deck of cards, this means that males are born a few cards short, so to speak, and some of their cards are in their shorts.

 

This difference between the male and female brain manifests itself in various ways. Little girls will tend to play things like house or learn to read. Little boys, however, will tend to do things like placing a bucket over their heads and running into walls.

 

This basic cognitive difference continues to grow until puberty, when the hormones kick into action and the trouble really begins. After puberty, not only the size of the male and female brains differ, but the center of thought also differs. Women think with their heads. Male thoughts often originate lower in their bodies where their ex-brain cells reside.

Of course, the size of this problem varies from man to man.

 

In some men only a small number of brain cells migrate and they are left with nearly full mental capacity but they tend to be rather dull, sexually speaking. Such men are known in medical terms as "Engineers."

Other men suffer larger brain cell relocation. These men are medically referred to as "Fighter Pilots."

 

A small number of men suffer massive brain cell migration to their groins. These men are usually referred to as..."Mr. President or Mr. Congressman."