And yet another flying pig moment...

And yet another flying pig moment...  Oh, yeah, those aerosols – those danged things really are making our models inaccurate, climate scientists say...

Flying pig moment...

Flying pig moment...  “Stop the war on drugs!” says Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations, and Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil.  Now, I'm not an admirer of either of these men.  But I find it remarkable that such thoroughly conventional leaders are arguing against the war on drugs.  Could this thinking be going mainstream amongst their peers?  If so, what a positive change might be wrought!

Geek: Fourier transforms...

Geek: Fourier transforms...  This is hands-down the best introduction to Fourier transforms I've ever seen – and there's no math in it at all!  And even better, here's a wonderful interactive animation that brings harmonic summation to life in a way I've never seen before.  For some reason I haven't figured out, Fourier transforms are all over slashdot this morning.

I haven't had occasion to use Fourier transforms for years now, but early in my career they were an important part of two engineering projects I undertook.  One was a TTY-on-telephone decoder for the deaf, the other a radio-teletype decoder for ham radio.  These are both “frequency shift keying” (FSK) systems, and both subject to much noise and distortion (though of different kinds in the two cases).  In both the challenge turned out to be primarily one of tricky optimization, trying to compute the Fourier transform well enough to suit the need in near-realtime on the microcomputer hardware of the day.  That hardware typically didn't have multiply or divide (it had to be written in software), and that was the big challenge.  I recall those projects as being chock full of too-clever tricky hacks, things that would be much frowned on these days – but they worked, thanks to the underlying idea of a Fourier transform...

Geek: shell scripting style guide...

Geek: shell scripting style guide...  From Google, the first style guide for shell scripting that I've ever seen, or even heard of...

Continuous learning...

Continuous learning...  Dave Jilk has a great essay on how accelerating technological change necessitates continuous learning, and how that impacts folks as they age.  The essay is generalizing, and I'm sure Jilk would be the first to agree there are plenty of exceptions to what he's describing.  What he calls "continuous learning" is what I'd call "my hobby", and I'm going to declare myself an exception – one of quite a few that I know – to his rule about how older people handle technological change.  But in the more general case, what he writes rings very true...

Smaller asteroids are more dangerous...

Smaller asteroids are more dangerous...  Not because each causes more damage than a big one, but because there are so many of them – probably over a million.  Scientists studying the Chelyabinsk meteor of February 15 this year are discovering that these smaller asteroids can cause more damage (especially from their shock wave) than previously estimated.  Science Daily, Wall Street Journal.

Great balls of fire!

Great balls of fire!  I can't believe I missed this – several sightings of large meteors over Southern California skies last night.  My only consolation is that the peak of the Taurids should occur next week, and be even better than last night...

Sketches of soldiers...

Sketches of soldiers...  Elizabeth Black was a Red Cross volunteer in WWII, and she was also an accomplished artist.  She made over 1,000 sketches of soldiers like the one at right (of Fred Harper, who was killed in action shortly after the sketch was made).  These sketches were sent home to the soldier's loved ones, where many of them became priceless family treasures.  Story and more photos, more details.

In these days of ubiquitous cell phone cameras it may be hard to imagine how precious these sketches must have been to the soldiers' families.  My six years in the Navy during the '70s gave me a taste of it – long months at sea made snapshots of loved ones incredibly valuable to their owners.  Many a salty sailor possessed a prized collection of pictures of their loved ones – invariably worn and wrinkled from long hours of handling.  I'm sure the reverse was true as well. 

I've often reflected on how our modern communications capabilities have eased the burden of separation for our soldiers and sailors.  Nearly all of our troops have access (even if intermittently) to high speed Internet connections – which means they can regularly use email, texting, Skype, FaceTime, and so on to stay in touch with their families...