If you know us...

If you know us ... then you know that Debbie and I are basically Amazon groupies.  We've been Amazon Prime members since (literally) the first day it was offered, and a significant percentage of our total purchases are made from Amazon.  While it started with just books, Amazon now dominates many kinds of our purchases – only a few categories do we buy mostly elsewhere (food, cars, furniture, and art, mainly).

Why are we such Amazon devotees?  Broad selection, the buyer reviews, good prices, an overall convenient and pleasant experience, and great customer service are the main reasons.

This morning I had another example of Amazon's great customer service.  About a week ago, I ordered a 4 pack of vacuum cleaner backs for our monster “shop” vacuum.  A couple days later the box showed up – but only had a 2 pack inside.  So I returned the box and asked for a replacement – a very simple process, because the UPS man picked up the return.  A couple days later, the replacement showed up – and it was another 2 pack!  As I'd paid for 4, I wasn't terribly pleased about this.  So I went online and started a chat session with a customer service representative.  This took just a couple minutes.  Here's a transcript of our chat:

Amazon: Good Morning, I am Chris.  How may I help you today?

me: I ordered this item, received the wrong one, returned it, got the replacement, and it was the wrong one AGAIN.  I'm wondering how I can get the right one :)

Amazon: I'm sorry to hear you have received the same wrong item twice but I'll be glad to help you on this.  Tom to be honest, if you are telling me that the replacement is wrong again, that means that our whole inventory probably is wrong. I will file a ticket, the item will be removed from the webpage until this is fixed.  So I can offer you a full refund of the original order.

me: What I ordered was a 4 pack (2 packs of 2).  What I got was 1 pack of 2.  Could you send me the second pack of 2?  I'd rather have the bags than the refund :)

Amazon: Sure Tom I understand that, and I want to help you. :) but if I create a replacement I am afraid you will get the same problem again.  So it does not make any sense.

me: Ok, then I guess the return/refund is the only way to go.  Dang.  I can do that from the web site directly.

Amazon: Well, lets do this Tom. Keep that replacement, I will create a returnless refund as an exception for this inconvenience. And then when the item is corrected and available back in the web page, you can order them with the refund money.

me: Well, that's very nice of you - thanks!

Amazon: Not a problem at all. I mean this is completely our fault, so I want to at least compensate you, you already had to go through the hassle of returning the original order. So, no worries, this time feel free to keep them. An email confirmation of the returnless refund will be sent.

me: Thanks, Chris!

Now a couple of free vacuum cleaner bags isn't exactly a big thing – but the attitude and pleasant handling of the issue sure is.  There are a lot of companies that really ought to study what Amazon does, and apply some of what they observe to their own business.

Meanwhile, we'll continue our happy shopping experiences at Amazon!

Magnolia sprengeri...

Magnolia sprengeri...  Via BPOD, of course.  The text of today's entry contains this, which surprised me:

I chose today's image for its illustration of how cameras capture colours, and why it isn't always useful to rely on photographs if one wants to know the "true" colour of an object. It's a contemporaneous subject, as there seems to have been much debate about a dress the past couple days: "The Science of Why No One Agrees on the Color of This Dress" (via Wired).

In today's photograph, those parts of the unfurling flower in shadow have a bluish-cast, including not only the tepals but also the fuzzy hairs on the distant perules (or bud scales). Those parts exposed directly to the rays of the sun have a daytime "white" light to them, which is most noticeable on the forefront line of those fuzzy hairs, though some tepals have a bit of daytime light on them as well. To make matters more confusing, some of the tepals are side-lit so that they are glowing with the light that has diffused through the tepal. For another photograph of a flower from this particular plant, this time in late-evening golden light, see this previous entry on 'Eric Savill' magnolia. Different lighting conditions, different colours.

For scientific photographs and scans, colour calibration charts or cards are often inserted into the images to permit later correction to standard colours under standard conditions. For example, see this specimen of Corydalis aurea from the UBC Herbarium, but do note that while the colour calibration chart is present, the image is not yet calibrated--e.g., the black in the chart is not a true black.

Most botanists I've met wouldn't know an Internet meme if it smacked them upside the head :)

Comet 67P, up close and personal...

Comet 67P, up close and personal...  A recent photo returned by Rosetta, from its Valentine's Day low pass.  As I was perusing it this morning, it occurred to me (for about the 10,000th time) just how monochromatic most things in the solar system are.  The few bodies that have significant color variation (Io, Jupiter, Earth) really stand out.  Even red Mars is mostly, well, red...

So my mother sent me...

So my mother sent me ... a collection of the most horrible illustrated puns I have ever seen.  It included some that even my father would have rejected as cringe-worthy (and believe me, his pun standards were extremely low).  For the sanity of my tiny band of readers, I refuse to publish them.  But ... buried in the midst of that collection was the photo at right (click to embiggen).  When I got to the line about politicians, I laughed until I hurt...

Soviet space photos...

Soviet space photos...  These are hard to find, but now hundreds of them have been collected in one place.  The one at right was taken on October 20, 1975 by the Venera 9 spacecraft, shortly after landing on the surface of Venus.  This was in the days before CCD camera photosensors, so the picture was made with a mechanical scanner moving the image over a single photocell...

Rice paddies...

Rice paddies...  Really!  This is a photo of terraced rice paddies in Yunnan, China.  As usual, click to embiggen...

Street art...

Street art...  A delightful collection, passed along by my sister Holly.  One of these (the one dependent on shadows, from Lithuania) reminded me strongly of several similar works I've seen in Estonia.  The two countries are quite close together, and this makes me wonder if there's something cultural going on there.  I saw quite a few pieces of sculpture in public places of Estonia that depended on some sort of optical illusion – usually either shadow effects, or requiring you to stand in a particular spot to see it...

A red iguana and iPhone kind of afternoon...

A red iguana and iPhone kind of afternoon...  Debbie and I drove down to Salt Lake City yesterday, to enjoy another fine meal at the Red Iguana.  Once again, I forgot to take photos.  Apparently I lose my mind in the presence of such great food!

We got the mole sampler plate again, to help us choose what we wanted.  We both settled on the same thing: Lomo de puerco en mole de almendras.  What's that?  Here's the description, from their menu:

Almonds, chile guajillo, chile guero, yellow zucchini, milk, peanut butter and onions, served with a roasted pork loin stuffed with dried fruit, sun-dried tomatoes, Swiss chard and pine nuts.

It was brains-fall-out-on-the-table good.  I also had their flan for dessert (superb!), and Debbie had their hot rice pudding.  We have about 5 pounds of leftovers we'll force ourselves to eat later today :)
On the way down to the restaurant, we stopped in at the Apple store in Farmington.  We wanted to take a look at the iPhone 6 – our current contract runs out next month, and we're wondering if we want to upgrade.  The two sizes available had us wondering which one we would prefer.  We both liked the iPhone 6+ – the screen is very easy to read (mainly because of the increased size), the keyboard is easier to use (for the same reason), and the camera is optically stabilized (Debbie wants that for videos of dog runs; I want that for long exposures).  The thing is so big that it won't fit in a normal pocket, though.  I'm likely to opt for a belt clip.  I'm not sure what Debbie will do...

Megan McArdle is a serial clear thinker...

Megan McArdle is a serial clear thinker...  Which means, of course, that you should pay attention to her musings.  From a recent post:

Most of the people who "believe" in evolution don't have much more scientific foundation for their beliefs than a young-earth creationist does for theirs. I would be slightly surprised to learn that the reporters asking the questions -- or, for that matter, President Obama -- could deliver more than a few vague sentences about how evolution works, desperately dredged up from the Life Sciences module of their seventh-grade science class. And many such "believers" will conveniently discard their support for evolutionary models if their own closely held moral beliefs are threatened -- witness the outrage when Larry Summers suggested that biology might have produced different distributions of mathematical ability between men and women. We're talking about a process that determined that male black widow spiders should be eaten after they mate. Of course it could have.

Read the whole thing...

And then everybody died of pneumonia...

And then everybody died of pneumonia...  Just go read it.

A morning ponder...

A morning ponder...  Ran across this story:

Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute tells a story about Julian Simon, the late and great economist.He was at some environmental forum, and he said, “How many people here believe that the earth is increasingly polluted and that our natural resources are being exhausted?” Naturally, every hand shot up. He said, “Is there any evidence that could dissuade you?” Nothing. Again: “Is there any evidence I could give you — anything at all — that would lead you to reconsider these assumptions?” Not a stir. Simon then said, “Well, excuse me, I’m not dressed for church.”

I love that story, for what it says about the fixity of these beliefs, immune to evidence, reason, or anything else.

Think about how pervasive these fixed beliefs are in today's society.  Think anthropogenic global warming, the welfare state, affirmative action, progressivism, conservatism, etc.  How many people holding such beliefs couldn't be persuaded to change their views by any evidence whatsoever?

And what beliefs do I hold that I couldn't be persuaded to change?

Laugh line of the day...

Laugh line of the day...  By Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, in The Week, in an article titled “The terrifying vulnerability of the U.S. military”:

What are the signs that an organization has become a bureaucracy? The first is excessive PowerPoint.

Hah!

And he has an excellent point...

Posted without comment...

Posted without comment ... as my wife reads this blog.  My mom sent this to me.  You may infer what you wish about my family.  Trust me, it won't be anything we haven't already thought of...

A group of women were at a seminar on how to live in a loving relationship with their husband.

The women were asked, "How many of you love your husband?"

All the women raised their hands.

Then they were asked, "When was the last time you told your husband you loved him?"

Some women answered today, a few yesterday, and some couldn't remember.

The women were then told to take out their cell phones and text to their husband: "I love you, sweetheart."

The women were then instructed to exchange phones with another person, and to read aloud the text message they received, in response.

Below are 11 replies; some are hilarious.  If you have been married for quite a while ... a sign of true love ... who else would reply in such a succinct and honest way?

1. Who the hell is this?

2. Eh, mother of my children, are you sick or what?

3. Yeah, and I love you too. What's up with you?

4. What now? Did you crash the car again?

5. I don't understand what you mean?

6. What the heck did you do now?

7. Don't beat about the bush, just tell me how much you need?

8. Am I dreaming?

9. If you don't tell me who this message is actually for, someone will die.

10. I thought we agreed you wouldn't drink during the day.

11. Your mother is coming to stay with us, isn't she?

Wandering minds perform better?

Wandering minds perform better?  If that's true, then I'm in great shape – my mind wanders all over the damned place!

Only in the U.S...

Only in the U.S. ... are male babies routinely circumcised for non-religious reasons.  Why?  What are the pros and cons?  Jessica Wapner has a good piece on the subject.  There are a few more angles to this than I was aware of...

Curiosity is looking closely...

Curiosity is looking closely ... at those rippled rocks I pointed out recently.  It's using MAHLI, the MArs Hand Lens Imager.

Bright spots on Ceres...

Bright spots on Ceres...  The Dawn robotic explorer is approaching the asteroid Ceres, and as it draws closer the images it's returning get better and better.  One recent image (at right) shows two bright spots at the bottom of a basin (or crater).

NASA scientists don't know what the bright spots are.  Two speculative explanations: some kind of volcanic activity (possibly involving water), or some sort of shiny surface that reflects more sunlight.  The UFO crazies are of course all over this, with some claiming this is clearly an alien spaceship. 

Personally, I think it's most likely some litter left behind by some alien tourist who took one look at Earth and ran away screaming after seeing a political TV ad...

Bad customer service is not a new thing...

Bad customer service is not a new thing...  Some Babylonians were complaining about it (on a clay tablet, seen at right) nearly 4,000 years ago!  Here's the conclusion of the tablet's translation:

Take cognizance that (from now on) I will not accept here any copper from you that is not of fine quality. I shall (from now on) select and take the ingots individually in my own yard, and I shall exercise against you my right of rejection because you have treated me with contempt.

That's not much different from the conclusion of some complaint letters I've written :)

Geek: Oopsie. Major oopsie!

Geek:  Oopsie.  Major oopsie!  The basic sort library functions in Java (including Android) and Python are broken.  Broken as in they can sometimes crash, given the right inputs.  Java's sort implementation is over ten years old, and (to the best of my knowledge) this bug hasn't been reported before.  One particularly interesting aspect is that the bug was found during an attempt to formally prove the algorithm's correctness.  If you're not a computer science geek, you might not realize just how difficult proving correctness is.  In fact it is so difficult that almost exactly zero of the software you use everyday is proven to be correct...

The consequences of affirmative action, part 72,663...

The consequences of affirmative action, part 72,663...  This isn't really a new story, but more a recent example of an old and familiar one.  The so-called “affirmative action” programs are really about dictating college admission and graduation outcomes in a race-neutral way.  I'm over-simplifying here, but the general idea is that if 15% of the population is black, then 15% of the admissions to a university should be black, and 15% of the graduates should be black.

If, in fact, the qualifications of applicants were race-neutral, then this would make perfect sense.  However, the reality is that blacks on average are less prepared for university than whites.  There are a variety of reasons researchers have put forward to explain this, and many of them aren't based on genetics at all.  For example, some postulate that black culture de-emphasizes the importance of education, and even stigmatizes it.  Whatever the reasons actually are, the reality is that blacks of college-admission age are less prepared than whites.

Both blacks and whites are less prepared than Asian students (or Jewish students, from a religious perspective).  Once again, most researchers postulate non-genetic, usually cultural, explanations for this.  But whatever the reasons, Asians of college-admission age are, on average, more prepared than either blacks or whites.

To implement an affirmative action program that dictates admission and graduation outcomes when preparedness isn't race-neutral, obviously the standards for admission (and graduation) also cannot possibly be race-neutral.  There is no other way to get equal outcomes when the “inputs” are unequal.  Therefore admission standards under affirmative action programs are most difficult for Asians, and least difficult for blacks.  That's pretty simple and straightforward – but it leads to outrage amongst the students held to a tougher standard, and amusing denials from the affirmative action crowd (who don't like to admit that they're fighting racial discrimination with more racial discrimination).

The solution seems obvious to me, and it's the same solution propounded by both Martin Luther King and Clarence Thomas: end discrimination of all kinds.  As Thomas famously said:

...there is a 'moral and constitutional equivalence' between laws designed to subjugate a race and those that distribute benefits on the basis of race in order to foster some current notion of equality. Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law. That affirmative action programs may have been motivated, in part, by good intentions cannot provide refuge from the principle that under our Constitution, the government may not make distinctions on the basis of race.

Extortion trumps cooperation?

Extortion trumps cooperation?  This article talks about a new solution to the classic game theory problem usually dubbed “Prisoner’s Dilemma”.  This new solution says that in some cases a strategy they dub “extortion” can beat the traditional cooperative solutions.  This is an interesting result, and the piece is fun to read – but that's not what caught my eye.

One of the authors of the new solution is Freeman Dyson, the famous physicist with a fascinating career.  He also happens to be 91 years old, and it still (obviously) a productive scientist.  In the last decade or so he's been a vocal skeptic of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis, and his skepticism was one of the factors driving my own.

Now here he is publishing a paper that's rather far afield from his usual haunts.  I'll take that as evidence of a curious mind, a health skeptical outlook, and of those little gray cells still working just fine despite his advancing years...

We took the day off today...

We took the day off today ... and drove (with our three dogs) down to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, which is about 40 minutes from our house.  There's a 12 mile long loop road through the marshy refuge, and we spent almost three hours exploring it.  The temperature was just above freezing (37°F), and many of the shallower areas were iced over.  We saw thousands upon thousands of tundra swans, innumerable ducks (some of the quite beautiful) that we couldn't identify (our bird book is still in a box somewhere!), four great blue herons, many cormorants,  a bazillion Canadian geese, one cheeky marsh wren, several dozen hawks, a bald eagle, grebes, and lots of coots.  In other words, we saw a lot of birds!

I took some photos to try to give a flavor of the place, and in one of them you just might be able to pick out the hundreds of white dots – tundra swans, as photographed without a telephoto lens :)

Comet 67P is outgassing...

Comet 67P is outgassing ... and Rosetta captured this beautiful photo of it...

Food models...

Food models...  When I visited Japan in the early '70s, one of the more delightful things I ran into was the display of food models that could be found in a glass cabinet in the entrance of every restaurant, like the ramen models at right.  Without speaking a word of Japanese, I could learn a great deal about the food served by that restaurant.  I had quite a few meals that were obtained simply by pointing to what I wanted.

At the time I was in Japan, these models were made of wax.  In one of the shopping districts, I ran into a shop that made and sold them, so I got to see a bit of the process, which was fascinating.  These days the models are made of plastic, and the process of making them is a bit different...

On the relative dangers of recreational drugs...

On the relative dangers of recreational drugs...  I find these results completely unsurprising, but I don't know if that's how most people would react.  Over a lifetime of managing hundreds of employees, I've dealt with far more human problems caused by alcohol than with any other drug.  I have, quite literally, never had a problem I had to deal with that was caused by marijuana – even though amongst the young people I managed the use of marijuana was very widespread (nearly as widespread as alcohol use, I believe).  I've had to deal with a few problems caused by meth, cocaine, or heroin use – but I will also observe that these were all behavioral problems, not problems with the ability to perform at work.  Alcohol use, on the other hand, has caused numerous issues that affected both performance and behavior in the workplace.  I would think it is obvious to any manager that alcohol is a vastly more impactful and dangerous drug than marijuana.

Funny how the law treats alcohol use so much more benignly than marijuana use...

If it gets cold enough...

If it gets cold enough ... you can always use a local lake as musical instruments for your band.  Really!

Led Zeppelin, on xylophones...

Led Zeppelin, by kids on xylophones...  Awesome!

Canadian Gothic...

Canadian Gothic...  My laugh-out-loud photo of the morning :)

Hillary 5.0...

Hillary 5.0...  I found this article to be quite depressing, for two main reasons.  First, it reinforced the idea that Hillary is a serious candidate for president in 2016, and might even win.  Second, for the implications about the American electorate.  An excerpt:

Mark McKinnon, a friend and competitor of Spence and a media strategist with George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns, said: “Spence and Clark have a lot of experience refreshing established, well-known brands like AT&T, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart. Should come in handy.”

Spence and Clark have been credited with creating three-dimensional personalities around otherwise dull consumer brands. At Coca-Cola, Clark spearheaded the “Share a Coke” campaign to put names such as Brittany and Zach on soda cans, a marketing move that boosted sales among millennials. Spence helped ­DoubleTree Hotels make the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies the chain serves guests upon check-in an icon for its sales pitch of warm comfort for beleaguered travelers.

Hillary is a mass-marketed product with a vast amount of money behind her campaign.  I wish I believed that a product marketing campaign wouldn't work for presidential politics, and that instead voters would rely on actual information about ideology, policy, etc.  But when I say it straight like that, I know – the marketing campaign will work.  And that's quite depressing...

Curiosity is looking closely...

Curiosity is looking closely ... at the layered rocks I posted about a few days ago...

Near Antares...

Near Antares...  Via APOD, of course.  Full resolution version...

Geek: what does this regular expression do?

Geek: what does this regular expression do?

(?:[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+(?:\.[a-z0-9!#$%&'*+/=?^_`{|}~-]+)*|"(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21\x23-\x5b\x5d-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])*")@(?:(?:[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?\.)+[a-z0-9](?:[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9])?|\[(?:(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?)\.){3}(?:25[0-5]|2[0-4][0-9]|[01]?[0-9][0-9]?|[a-z0-9-]*[a-z0-9]:(?:[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f\x21-\x5a\x53-\x7f]|\\[\x01-\x09\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x7f])+)\])

It validates email addresses, of course!  But only 99.9% of the time :)

10 Signs You're and Old Geek...

10 Signs You're an Old Geek...  I spotted this article on Fox News, and clicked over to read it.  It was so depressing.  The 10 alleged signs:

• You still say “dial” the phone.  Check.  Yup, I do that.
• You remember when state-of-the-art chips had dozens of transistors.  Well, yes, I do remember that.  But I also remember when there were no chips at all – and when transistors were rare and expensive beasties.  We relied on exotic devices called “vacuum tubes” – and I laugh out loud at the audio tweekies who are paying premium prices today for the awful distorted sound those primitive things produced.
• You still consider “geek” to be an insult.  Well, no, I don't.  But I do remember when the word referred to sleazy performers in a carnival acts, like the one who bit the head off a chicken.  It's a mystery to me how it came to refer to technology buffs,
• You know a third meaning for the word “brick.”  Check.  I owned one of those bricks.
• You had a slide rule.  Yup, I owned a slide rule.  Several.  And today I have about 2,200 of them (I collect them).  But I didn't have a slide rule because calculators were too expensive – I had one because there were no calculators.  They hadn't been invented yet!
• You owned a $5 digital watch.  Check.  What's your point?
• You reveled in the epic Steve Jobs – Bill Gates interview from the 2007 D5 conference.  I only vaguely recall this interview.  It seems like recent history to me, not something I'd have to be old to note.  What is this author calling “old”, anyway?  30?
• You were so sure we’d have a domed city on Mars by now.  Uh, no.  I was pretty darned sure there would be no such thing – the challenges are far from our ability to overcome them, even today.  A real geek would know this, I think.
• You used punch cards.  Check.  But – I also remember when punch cards seemed like the bleeding edge of technology, replacing that old clunker punched paper tape.  I'll call your geek and raise you one.
• You remember when: bubble memories, home computers, superconductivity, pen computing, PDAs, Betamax, heads-up displays and Gallium Arsenide were all going to be the next big thing. And you probably played with Tinker Toys, Erector Sets and wooden blocks growing up and you still spin vinyl in your basement when nobody’s around.  Well, yes to all that.  But I also remember wire recorders, portable vacuum-tube record players, lacquer 78 RPM records, and 7 transistor radios.

I guess all this makes me an ancient geek!

Lost and Found Beagle, part 2...

Lost and Found Beagle, part 2...  My brother Scott passed this along – a second video about the beagle in Schiphol Airport, in Amsterdam. I posted the first one last year sometime, and I had the same reaction then as now: if I ever fly to Amsterdam again, I want to lose something on purpose so this guy can find me!

Headline of the day...

Headline of the day...

Debbie Does Denial on Doobie Deal

From Scott Shackford, writing at Reason...

This is going to revolutionize optics...

This is going to revolutionize optics...  The first applications mentioned are for cameras, but there's much, much more potential.  Any optical device that uses lenses today will be lighter and cheaper using these meta-materials.  Because they're made using silicon, the manufacturing techniques developed for integrated circuits apply – and that means they can be cheaply mass-manufactured.  There are obvious applications not only in cameras, but in telescopes, binoculars, microscopes, and so on.  Furthermore, the light weight enables some further applications, including (especially) in stabilization: light-weight lenses are much easier to move quickly, which is at the core of how image stabilization systems work.

I'd be willing to bet that this development transforms the world of optics as fundamentally as digital cameras have transformed photography...

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  From Conor Friedersdorf, writing at The Atlantic:

The power to require permits is the power to prevent something from ever existing.

That short, simple sentence beautifully sums up the prosperity-sapping friction of one kind of government regulation: building permits.  Once the form is defined, one can easily coin the equivalent for any regulatory process.  For instance, my take on professional licensing:

The power to require professional licenses is the power to prevent someone from ever pursuing their chosen career.

Do go read Mr. Friedersdorf's entire piece – it's a peach...

One of the few things I do miss about California...

One of the few things I do miss about California ... is the manzanitas.  This particular one is Arctostphylos pallida, via BPOD, of course...

Dogs...

Dogs...  Reader Simi L. passed along this collection of dogly wisdom...

Jeep grill ice mold...

Jeep grill ice mold ... in North Carolina.  Click to embiggen...

Obama's characterization of Islamic terrorists...

Obama's characterization of Islamic terrorists...  This has been a big flap over the past few days, and several readers have asked what I think about it.  The answer is complicated, and I struggled to put it into words even for myself.  Fortunately for me, Ann Althouse has done a great job of it – I find very little in there to disagree with.  And it is complicated :)

Ten years ago today...

Ten years ago today ... I wrote the very first post on JamulBlog.  This post is the 11,327th post I've written since then – an average of over three posts per day.

I can scarcely believe I did that!

To the 12 or so people who regularly read this little blog: thanks for sticking with me!

Mumbling = phonetic reduction...

Mumbling = phonetic reduction...  And that's a form of data compression...

Recognize the objects at right?

Recognize the objects at right?  No?  They're maps...

If you're old enough...

If you're old enough ... then you'll remember that not so very long ago the biggest problems facing humanity in most of the world were starvation and disease.  Now a big problem everywhere is ... obesity.  I'm 62, and almost every day I read or see something that reminds me just how much the world has changed within my lifetime...

Five years of Solar Dynamics Observatory data...

Five years of Solar Dynamics Observatory data...  Happy birthday, SDO!  You will most definitely want to play this video back on full screen. 

When I first got interested in astronomy, back in the '60s, the Kitt Peak solar observatory was the pinnacle of solar astronomical tools.  It was hampered by all the usual problems of having an instrument under a blanket of obstructing atmosphere, plus it was completely dependent of silver halide photographic film, drastically limiting the wavelengths it could observe.  Now, 50 years later, the great solar observatories are all in space.  They have a completely unobstructed view of the sun, 24 hours a day.  They use electronic imaging sensors to observe at wavelengths stretching from HF radio all they way up to X-rays.  The difference in the quality (and quantity!) of the scientific data is almost unimaginably large.  The closest equivalent to this video that could be had in the '60s were a few grainy, noise-filled, low resolution sequences of filtered visible-light images taken a few seconds apart.  It's like the difference between daguerreotypes and a modern 4K TV image, only even more so!

Meet the new Bush, same as the old Bush...

Meet the new Bush, same as the old Bush...  Well, on foreign policy, anyway...

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  This time from Rudy Giuliani:

I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America.

I hadn't quite voiced it to myself like that, but I do believe Rudy is right...

Interesting Martian rocks...

Interesting Martian rocks...  Curiosity has spied some layered rocks (click to embiggen photo at right).  I'm no geologist, but the only way I know of for rocks to develop layers like that involves water, repeatedly flooding and evaporating.  I haven't seen any analysis from the team scientists (aka the folks who actually have some idea what they're talking about) yet...

We live in a very quiet part of the country...

We live in a very quiet part of the country...  According to a recent paper from scientists at the National Park Service, the noise levels in various parts of the country vary widely.  The eastern part of the country is generally much noisier than the the western part.  Cache Valley isn't far from the geographic center of the quietest region.  Yet another reason to be happy in Paradise :)

Another wingsuit flyer...

Another wingsuit flyer...  But this one took some beautiful video.  This is the first time I've watched one of these and not assumed the flyer was criminally insane...

Sunrise in Cache Valley...

Sunrise in Cache Valley...  Looking from our yard to the northwest...

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  This is from the middle of an excellent post by the always-wonderful Megan McArdle on the justification of Obamacare by economic externalities.  She demolishes that argument most convincingly, and in the process says this:

The answer is that we don't simply say "OMG, negative externality! Quick, government, kill it with fire!"

I sure hope Megan never stops being Megan...

Religions in general have some friction with science...

Religions in general have some friction with science...  That is, most religions have some beliefs that conflict with science, or at the very least are challenging to reconcile.  Evolution and cosmology are perhaps the most familiar such sources of friction.  However, most religions accept unhesitatingly an ancient scientific discovery that has been rather convincingly proven: that the Earth rotates around the sun, and revolves on its axis.  Most religions, I said – but not all of them.

Oh, my...

Unless you've been sleeping in a cave somewhere...

Unless you've been sleeping in a cave somewhere ... you know about the progressive press and punditry whipping up a storm of outrage over the candidacy of Scott Walker.  One of the outrage-whippers is the screamer Howard Dean.  The source of the outrage is Walker's lack of a college education.  Someone asked Mike Rowe what he thought about that, and his response is a must-read.  Here's one part that jumped out at me:

I don’t agree with Howard Dean - not at all.

Here’s what I didn’t understand 25 years ago. QVC had a serious recruiting problem. Qualified candidates were applying in droves, but failing miserably on the air. Polished salespeople with proven track records were awkward on TV. Professional actors with extensive credits couldn’t be themselves on camera. And seasoned hosts who understood live television had no experience hawking products. So eventually, QVC hit the reset button. They stopped looking for “qualified” people, and started looking for anyone who could talk about a pencil for eight minutes.

QVC had confused qualifications with competency.

Perhaps America has done something similar? 

Go read the whole thing...

Assessing scientific knowledge in the American public...

Assessing scientific knowledge in the American public...  That's the objective of this survey, which I just took.  Mid-way through the 13-question survey I started wondering where the tough questions were.  There weren't any – these were all trivially easy questions that I'd expect any adult American to know.  At the end of the survey, there's a graph showing the distribution of the number of correct answers (below) in the original survey.  There's also a chart showing cross-tabulations by question against age, education, and gender. 

I find these sorts of data to be very disheartening...

What's the strongest known biological material?

What's the strongest known biological material?  Limpet teeth (at right).

Who knew that limpets even had teeth?  I'd never thought about it before, though I've seen limpets at work on shoreline rocks many times.  I always assumed that they used digestive acids to perform their rock-cleaning magic – I had no idea they did it mechanically, with teeth and muscles.

I have a new-found respect for limpets :)

Just when you think ISIS can go no lower...

Just when you think ISIS can go no lower...  Beheadings, immolations, massacres – ISIS has been at the pinnacle of mass depravity for a while now.  But if this is true, they've raised it to another level: massacre for profit...

I wonder...

I wonder ... how the Obama administration will spin this?  An angry Muslim man walks up to two strangers, determines (by asking them) that they are not Muslim, and ... attacks them with a knife.  This doesn't fit the Obama administration's narrative, and it's right here in America (well, that's assuming you consider Detroit to be part of America).  What say ye, Obamanoids?  Is it time to acknowledge the obvious yet?

The greatest sushi in Utah?

The greatest sushi in Utah?  It just might be!  Debbie and I drove down to Ogden today to try a meal at Tona Sushi.  It's a 52 minute drive for us, about the same as the drive from our old home in Jamul to our favorite sushi there (Hana Sushi in El Cajon).  How was it?  Awesome!

The fish was by far the best we've had in Utah.  In fact, it was better than most of the fish we got at Hana Sushi, our previous “gold standard”.  Even better: the quality was consistent across every selection we made.  I ordered the sashimi combination, with six different fishes that the chef selected.  I also got two orders of nigiri sushi selected by the chef.  All eight kinds of fish were simply superb.  Debbie got two different kinds of rolls, and reports that both of them were top-notch.  We had “bacon bubblegum” as an appetizer: bacon-wrapped fried mochi.  Delicious, but a bit heavy for my tastes as an appetizer to a repast of raw fish.

Tona has a selection of delicious-sounding desserts (unusual for a sushi restaurant), so we decided to try them.  Debbie got the chocolate mousse, and I got the semifreddo: semi-frozen mascarpone, Oreo “soil”, Myer lemon citrus preserves, and berries.  Debbie made happy noises the entire time she was eating her mousse, and for most of the trip home.  My semifreddo?  Let me put it like this: I will never visit Tona without ordering it.  Never!  It's a dessert perfectly suited to my tastes: creamy, not overly sweet, with tart fruit and delicious dribbled sauces.

We didn't think to ask whether they had fresh wasabi until we were ready to leave.  The answer?  Certainly – just ask when ordering.  That makes Tona only the second sushi restaurant we've run into with fresh wasabi.

You can probably guess that we'll be coming back here whenever we need a sushi fix...

Wind-carved sandstone...

Wind-carved sandstone ... in Michigan (more photos here)...

Mukbang...

Mukbang...  This is really weird.  I know several Koreans; I need to ask them what on earth the appeal is here...

Thundersnow...

Thundersnow...  And this weatherman (Jim Cantore) is very excited about it :)

Acoustic jamming...

Acoustic jamming...  Scientists have shown that the long tails of some moth species confuse the echo-location senses of predating bats.  Basically, they're an acoustic jamming system.  The bats end up targeting the moths' tails instead of their bodies, thus saving the moth from becoming a meal for the bat.

I remember first reading about a completely separate defensive mechanism in some moths: they've evolved the ability to hear the bat's “sonar” squeaks, allowing them to take evasive action before the bat can eat them.  This new jamming mechanism with the long tails is a separately evolved defensive mechanism, in different species.  From what I've read, it appears that no single moth species has both defensive mechanisms...

Kings of the mountain...

Kings of the mountain...  Last fall, our friend and neighbor Tim D. piled all the soil excavated for our barn's foundation up on the west side of our garden area.  Another neighbor's boys (and their friends) are enjoying the small hills Tim created.  They use them for building forts, riding their bikes on, and just generally running around.  In bare feet.  In February.  It's a gorgeous day out, 48°F and wall-to-wall sunshine.

Before the boys started playing on our “mountains”, they knocked on our door to ask if it was ok for them to do so.  They did the same thing before playing in our pine “forest” (visible behind the mountains), and before riding their bikes on our pavement.  They're endearingly polite, these boys – something 30+ years of exposure to California boys had me thinking that good manners had gone the same way as floppy disks, typewriters, and vinyl records...

Flags on President's day...

Flags on President's day...  The local Boy Scout troop provides a service to local homeowners on patriotic holidays: they post flags along the road.  The photo at right shows our flag this morning, and if you embiggen it you'll see several of our neighbors' flags to the south.  The Boy Scouts do this for 7 or 8 holidays during the year, for a donation of $35.  I've noted that several families in town who likely can ill afford such an expense also have the flags up – either the Boy Scouts are helping out, or they're sacrificing something meaningful to pay for them.  Either way, another interesting statement about the local culture...

Paperless, updated...

Paperless, updated...  About six weeks ago, I posted about our adventure in switching to paperless records storage.  We've just gone over 100 documents filed this way, with about 250 pages total.  As I gain familiarity with the system, it just gets easier and easier to use.  I've started using folders in DevonThink to organize the information, but only in a very high-level way (for instance, all of our financial records are in a single folder).  I've started to routine scan manuals and instruction sheets (it's so easy!), not because they take up so much room, but because by being scanned they're so easy to search.  Very, very convenient.

So just in case you were wondering whether we still thought going paperless (as Helen W. asked by email yesterday) was a win ... the answer is “Hell, yes!”

A switching mystery, resolved...

A switching mystery, resolved...  Yesterday I replaced a few more electrical switches.  I've been chipping away at this project, working my way through the house replacing all the switches and outlets, and cleaning up the (all too numerous) wiring problems I've found in the process.

One of the switches I replaced is located near our front door.  It controls four outdoor floodlights, which we use every evening and morning to light up the yard when we walk the dogs.  We only know of that one switch for controlling those lights, so I was surprised to discover – when I removed the existing switch – that it was wired as a “three-way” switch.  The fact that it was wired as a three-way switch implies (rather strongly) that there is another switch somewhere that also controls these same lights.  That was a big surprise to us – we have no idea where that switch might be, and we don't know of a logical place for it to be located.  In this house, though, it could be located in some completely nonsensical place.  We joked that maybe it was in the basement, where there are several switches whose purpose we haven't yet deciphered.

That's not the mystery that the title of this post refers to, though, as we haven't yet resolved it.  The resolved mystery was a different one: I replaced the switch and then tested it.  I test these rewiring jobs every time, even when (as in this case) the rewiring is trivial.  It's pretty difficult to miswire a three-way switch, and there is no way to dangerously miswire one.  I was confident this one was wired correctly, as the “hot” wire was easy to identify visually.

So I was very surprised when it didn't work.

I took the new switch out, and connected the wires directly.  I saw a spark, but no lights came on.  I checked the circuit breakers; no breakers were tripped.  WTF?  There's so little that can go wrong with a circuit like this!  With the power verified (the spark and no breakers tripped), what's left to go wrong?  All four bulbs coincidentally burn out?  Just in case that was somehow the problem, I replaced one.  No joy.  I went round-and-round on this for about an hour, and finally just gave up.  I decided to reinstall the switch, button things back up, and troubleshoot it later.  I had other things to do.

A couple hours later, while moving some boxes around, I was thinking about the switch problem.   It was bugging me, because it was such a simple electrical wiring problem and yet it had me buffaloed.  Then I remembered something I'd observed that surprised me: the spark made when I connected the wires manually was quite small – smaller than I'd expect for a circuit with 600 watts of lights being switched.  Why would that be?  Then a few seconds later, I had it – I knew why the lights weren't working.

Did you figure it out?

I hypothesized that somewhere in that circuit there must be a photoelectric control that turned those outdoor floodlights on at night, and off in the day.  That control would draw a small amount of current even in the day, when the lights would be off – hence the small spark, and no lights.  At night the photoelectric control would allow the lights to come on.

So at dusk I walked Mo'i, and turned on the light switch.  The lights all came on.  All that time I spent troubleshooting the switch earlier in the day was for naught – it was wired correctly in the first place, and was working all along.  The lights simply aren't allowed to come on during daylight hours!

I still have no idea where that photoelectric control is located.  Nor do I know where the other switch is.  Yesterday I also replaced another “mystery switch” located near our front door.  This one is a simple on/off switch (not a three-way), located in our entranceway.   The circuit is live, and it draws current when turned on (about an amp, so around 100 watts).  We haven't detected anything that it's turning on and off.  My working theory is that the former owner installed a light bulb inside a wall somewhere, and that's what's being controlled :)

The humor of Ronald Reagan...

The humor of Ronald Reagan...  Reader Simi L. sends along this delightful compilation.

Just seeing his face made me feel better about my country.  Odd, how effective that is.  I'm proud to call him an American, and proud to have him represent our country to the world.  It's been a while since I've felt that way, dammit...

Too cool for school?

Too cool for school?  That's what friend and former colleague Aleck L. says about this collection of math-explaining graphics, like the one at right...

Pleasant, configurable background noise in your browser...

Pleasant, configurable background noise in your browser...  It's free, and it's pretty darned good: Noisli.  It's been running on my system for about a week now.  If I'm writing code, or writing prose, it's a better background sound than even instrumental music.

Right now I'm listening to a mix of forest sounds, a gently burbling stream, and a distant thunderstorm.  Lovely.  One of the options for background noise is the sounds of a busy cafe.  I can't imagine anything worse for me.  I'd be willing to bet you that there is a strong correlation between extroversion and the selection of that sound as a background :)

M106: strange and beautiful...

M106: strange and beautiful...  Via APOD, of course.  Hi-res version here.

Oh, the 2016 presidential election is going to be so much fun!

Oh, the 2016 presidential election is going to be so much fun!  Maureen Dowd, a faithful progressive columnist, published a column yesterday that – how should I put this? – isn't very nice to the presumptive progressive Democratic candidate (Hilary Clinton).  The conclusion is quote-worthy:

But, for now, what Republicans say about government is true of the Clintons: They really do believe that your money belongs to them.

Someday, they should give their tin cup to the Smithsonian. It’s one of the wonders of the world.

That's gonna leave a mark...

Peripatetic mindscapes...

Peripatetic mindscapes...  Long ago I observed that most of the engineers I worked with approached problems in a similar manner.  It's difficult to describe this similarity, especially in a non-technical way, but the general pattern is to approach an engineering problem with a large set of assumptions about how that problem might be attacked.  These assumptions might be about “best practices”, the “appropriate” tools, or many other things.  In all cases, though, the assumptions limit the creativity of the approach taken.

Another observation I made long ago is that there were exceptional engineers (I mean exceptional in both its senses: unusual and much better than average) who didn't seem to be encumbered by these assumptions.  I also noticed that many (though certainly not all) of these exceptional engineers were self-educated, as I am.  Could it be that the process of educating engineers somehow attaches this set of assumptions to them?  Well, today, of course, I'd say that was an obviously true conclusion, though when I was younger it wasn't nearly as obvious.

One characteristic of the workings of a mind unencumbered by a large set of engineering assumptions is a wide-ranging internal debate about what approach to take.  That internal debate is precisely what the aforementioned assumptions constrain – and it's why the absence of the assumptions results in a more productive creative process, as that enables the debate to include approaches that the assumptions would implicitly reject.

I just ran across an essay defining a term that describes this phenomenon: peripatetic mindscapes.  If you're interested in such things, it's a fascinating piece...

A lazy day...

A lazy day...  We accomplished absolutely nothing yesterday.  We spent the entire day curled up together on our love seat, binge-watching episodes of Inspector Lewis.  Oh, and eating steak.  And chocolate.  And playing with our dogs.  And drinking too much wine.

A very nice day :)

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day...  From Bruce Schneier, in a post on Lawfare Blog:

There’s a principle here worth discussing at length. I’m not talking about the legal principle, as in what kind of court should oversee US intelligence collection. I’m not even talking about the constitutional principle, as in what are the US president’s inherent powers. I am talking about the philosophical principle: what sorts of secret unaccountable actions do we want individuals to be able to take on behalf of their country?

Put that way, I think the answer is obvious: as little as possible.

It's an excellent piece, and worth your time to read the whole thing...

Well, this is an alternative, I suppose...

Well, this is an alternative, I suppose...  To:

   Rope.
   Tree.
   Congresscritters.
   Some assembly required.

Via my mom...

Olsynium douglasii...

Olsynium douglasii...  Via BPOD, of course...

Oh, we had a lovely afternoon...

Oh, we had a lovely afternoon...  Our friends and neighbors Tim and Jeannie D. surprised us yesterday morning – they called and asked if we'd like to go on an afternoon's drive with them, up to Bear Lake and the surrounding country.  We said “Hell, yes!” and at 1:30 they picked us up and we took off. 

Our route took us up Logan Canyon, then over Logan pass to Garden City along the west short of Bear Lake.  There we stopped for a late lunch at Cafe Sabor, where I had an excellent arroz con pollo, and Debbie had a sweet pork quesadilla with jalapeno jelly.  Tim and Jeannie looked at our food with great interest – they've been to the restaurant often, but have never tried dishes they're unfamiliar with.  I think they're going to be trying the ones we had next time :)

With our bellies full we set off counter-clockwise around Bear Lake.  The eastern shore is relatively undeveloped, with steep slopes and lots of sage and pinon-juniper scrub.  The views are spectacular from here, as I tried to capture in the photo at right.  Our route took us to the west along the skinny spit of land between Bear Lake and Mud Lake, and from there we headed north, toward Montpelier.  We turned west onto Idaho State 36, and headed up Strawberry Canyon, over the 7,400' pass, and then down into Preston, Idaho.  That whole trip, from Bear Lake to Preston, is full of beautiful scenery – farms, forests, streams, and ponds.  We saw lots of wildlife, most especially deer, turkeys, and Canadian geese.  Tim and Jeannie pointed out scenic side roads we could take in fine weather, all of them heading for spots they know and enjoy.  Tim told us these mountains are full of elk, good hunting for him and his children (hunters one and all, sons and daughters alike). 

Nearing dusk we were headed south on U.S. 91, toward home.  Even that drive was scenic because of the gorgeous sunset we were treated to.  On our right (west) we had the dramatically lit and colored clouds, along with some contrails.  On our left (east) we had the Wasatch Mountains, snow-capped and lit with the orange-red light of sunset.  When we finally pulled into our driveway, there was just barely enough light to see.

A just plain lovely day, we had – scenery, wildlife, good food, and even better company...

Wine run...

Wine run...  One of the few less-wonderful things about living in Northern Utah is the dearth of interesting places to buy wine (and, worse, the illegality of having wine shipped here – so we can't even buy it online).  There are state liquor stores that have a very conventional selection of wine, and that's it.  However, we live close to the border of the slightly more liberated state of Idaho, where there are actual wine shops.  So yesterday we made a run up to Pocatello, where we visited a couple of small-but-nice wine shops and stocked up.  Our little wine refrigerator is now full of a nice selection of interesting-looking wines.  Yay!

The scenery both ways (we went by US 91) was lovely.  We saw an eagle's nest, lots of geese, some swans, and eighteen bazillion magpies.  The dogs were all treated to a day in the car (they all love riding in the car), and all three of them fit cozily in the back seat of Debbie's truck (above right).  We also stopped at the MacKenzie River Pizza Company, where we had some delicious flat-bread (mine, at left, was chicken, apple, smoked bacon, and caramelized onions, drizzled with bourbon BBQ sauce – yum!

When we got home in the early evening, our front porch was covered in parcels from UPS.  One of them contained three lamp shades we'd ordered online to go with our new lamps (which haven't arrived yet).  The shades are made of handmade paper with leaf outlines in them, stitched with rawhide to an iron frame.  I don't normally think of lamp shades as something that you'd really even notice, but I was just stunned when I opened the box and saw them – they're the most attractive lamp shades I've ever seen.  When the lamps come in and I can light them up from the inside, I'll post a photo of them.

The giant middle finger...

The giant middle finger...  Megan McArdle, in a recent post about the irrelevance of Scott Walker's dropping out of college, said this:

The fact that we seem so fixated on events decades past is its own dire signal -- of the way that America's Mandarin class is starting to think about college education not merely as the basic credential required for many of the best-paying jobs, but also the basic credential required for being a worthy, capable person. This is not merely untrue, but also a giant middle finger raised to the majority of upstanding American citizens who also didn't graduate from college.

I'm one of those citizens, and I've experienced far too much dismissal simply because I didn't have that credential.  Thank you, Megan.

Heliotropium angiospermum...

Heliotropium angiospermum...  Via BPOD, of course...

Geek: regular expression insanity...

Geek: regular expression insanity...  Those readers who know me as a programmer know that I have an unnatural affinity for regular expressions.  I love the darned things!  I have happily spent several days carefully crafting a regular expression that can be written on a single line of text, to do something clever and challenging in the way of analyzing text.  But even I think this is over the line: a regular expression to test whether an integer is prime:

^1?$|^(11+?)\1+$

I don't know who to credit (?) for this monstrosity, but it's been floating around for quite a while. I first ran into it about 15 years ago. To test an integer for primality, you first convert the integer to a string of 1s (e.g., 5 becomes 11111, 7 becomes 1111111, etc.).  Then you see if the regular expression matches.  If it does, the number is not prime.  If the match fails, the number is prime.  I read a decent explanation of how it works this morning.

So why do I call this a monstrosity?  Well, it's a bit like a carpenter using repeated hammer blows to cut a piece off a 2x4, instead of using a saw.  It's the wrong tool.  The hammer is very useful – for driving nails or punishing regular expression abusers – but it's not good for cutting a piece of wood...

The third law of regulatory bureaucracies...

The third law of regulatory bureaucracies...  I wish I could claim credit for this, but I cannot.  I've long since forgotten where I first saw the “third law”.  It was first coined by an observant person, and was something like “Cochran’s third law of regulatory bureaucracies” (but with the correct person's name).  Here's the gist:

Any bureaucracy established to regulate an industry will become, instead, the protector of that industry and its incumbents.

Ever since I first read that, I keep coming across more and more examples of it – and zero exceptions.  It's like a natural law controlling how government screws up.  This morning I read above yet another example: the FDA, instituted to regulate safety and efficacy in the pharmaceuticals industry, has instead become a protector of the industry.

If the protection of the incumbents clause doesn't immediately make sense, here's what that means: these bureaucracies help the large existing (i.e., incumbent) companies they regulate by making it more difficult and expensive for new competitors to enter the business.  The incumbent companies most definitely understand this, leverage it, and encourage it.  We saw this recently with the support of “net neutrality” by large ISPs: they know that the regulatory morass engendered by the 332 page FCC proposal will ensnare new competition in a bureaucratic mess that they simply cannot afford to deal with – while to them, with their large and established business, see it as a small annoyance (even though it requires an army of accountants and lawyers).

So far as I can tell, the growth of bureaucracies are an absolutely inevitable result of the age of any given government – let enough decades go by, and the bureaucracies grow, like mold on old cheese, toenail fungus, or age-related infirmities.  The only cure validated by the historical record seems to be revolution and the formation of a new, bureaucracy-free (for a while!) government.  I've often wondered if the Internet enables a new way to disrupt bureaucracies, but I haven't thought of any realistic ways to do that.

Time for a tea party, I think...

I don't even have my flying car yet ...

I don't even have my flying car yet... and yet some folks are pondering robot spirituality.  Really!

I'm frequently startled by things like Elon Musk's fears about the possible dangers of artificial intelligence (AI).  Startled because they apparently imagine far greater successes in the field than I do (and for those readers who don't know me, my entire career was in computer hardware and software).  I cannot account for the disjoint, unless those folks have access to much more information than I do. 

I look at things like the utter failure of autonomous driving systems (very advanced AI) to handle bad weather, and I see enormous gaps between current AI and the ability to emulate one tiny aspect of human capability.  Just getting autonomous driving “right” looks like decades of hard work to me, and I'm not at all sure it can be accomplished without technological assists (for instance, by having buried road edge wires along every highway and street).  Getting to the point where robots are autonomously designing new things, and contemplating the presence of a deity?  I can't even imagine it...

Patterns in the frost...

Patterns in the frost...  I snapped this photo a few minutes ago, out in our garden.  Last night the temperature dropped to just barely below freezing, and it was quite humid.  The result was a heavy layer of frost this morning.  But ... within a couple minutes of the sunshine hitting the ground, the temperature went above freezing and the frost melted.  On the right side of the photo, the sun has been shining for five minutes or so, and the frost is all melted.  The left side is shaded by a vine-covered arbor, and the frost has not yet melted.  The fairly sharp, straight frost line between the two areas caught my eye.

The photo was harder to take than you might think.  I was walking Mo'i on a leash, and he badly wanted to go hunting voles.  He was jerking me all over the place while I was trying to take this :)

Beautiful birds...

Beautiful birds...

Shake it off cop...

Shake it off cop ... as it would be, if filmed in Russia :)

A really nice evening...

A really nice evening ... was ours last night.  We drove down to Salt Lake City to meet up with some friends: Doug and Dee W. (who flew up here from San Diego to attend a conference), and Kevin and Casey P. (who live near Ogden).  We descended on the Red Iguana for dinner – some outstanding Mexican food.  Their mole sauces were especially enjoyable.  About three bites into our meals, Debbie and I looked at each other and said: “We’re coming back here!” It's the first time since we left Jamul that we've had Mexican food that wasn't Americanized junk, or just a step or two above.  Based on our small sample last night, the Red Iguana could easily hold its own with the best Mexican restaurants in San Diego.

It's been months since we've seen any of these folks (and in the case of Dee, decades!).  Our dinner conversation was full of stories and laughter and smiles, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  Our drive home was filled with recollections of bits and pieces of our conversation that we particularly enjoyed.  We'd love a few more evenings like that :)

Arrested motion: waves...

Arrested motion: waves...  Beautiful collection of photos of waves taken with very short exposures...

Now this is clever!

Now this is clever!  Here's the puzzle:

...you are condemned to die unless you can prove your intelligence to a devious jailer. You, and your friend, are incarcerated. Your jailer offers a challenge. If you complete the challenge you are both free to go.   Here are the rules: 

• The jailer will take you into a private cell. In the cell will be a chessboard and a jar containing 64 coins.
• The jailer will take the coins, one-by-one, and place a coin on each square on the board. He will place the coins randomly on the board. Some coins will be heads, and some tails (or maybe they will be all heads, or all tails; you have no idea. It's all at the jailers whim. He may elect to look and choose to make a pattern himself, he may toss them placing them the way they land, he might look at them as he places them, he might not …). If you attempt to interfere with the placing of the coins, it is instant death for you. If you attempt to coerce, suggest, or persuade the jailer in any way, instant death. All you can do it watch.
• Once all the coins have been laid out, the jailer will point to one of the squares on the board and say: “This one!” He is indicating the magic square. This square is the key to your freedom.
• The jailer will then allow you to turn over one coin on the board. Just one. A single coin, but it can be any coin, you have full choice. If the coin you select is a head, it will flip to a tail. If it is a tail it will flip to a head. This is the only change you are allowed to make to the jailers initial layout.
• You will then be lead out of the room. If you attempt to leave other messages behind, or clues for your friend … yes, you guessed it, instant death!
• The jailer will then bring your friend into the room.
• Your friend will look at the board (no touching allowed), then examine the board of coins and decide which location he thinks is the magic square.
• He gets one chance only (no feedback). Based on the configuration of the coins he will point to one square and say: “This one!”
• If he guesses correctly, you are both pardoned, and instantly set free. If he guesses incorrectly, you are both executed.
• The jailer explains all these rules, to both you and your friend, beforehand and then gives you time to confer with each other to devise a strategy for which coin to flip.

The solution is on this page.  I was surprised to see that a solution was not only possible, but quite straightforward (well, if you understand binary numbers, anyway).