June 30, 2007
A list of quotes from two sources
A verbal case of pin the tail on one of two donkeys.
Check it out here:
Did Al Gore say it? Or was it the Unabomber?
Each quote below is either from Al Gore's Book Earth in the Balance or from the Unabomber's Manifesto.
Here are two samples — one is Gore, one is Kaczynski:
“Again, we must not forget the lessons of World War II. The Resistance slowed the advance of fascism and scored important victories, but fascism continued its relentless march to domination until the rest of the world finally awoke and made the difference and made the defeat of fascism its central organizing principle from 1941 through 1945.”
“It is not necessary for the sake of nature to set up some chimerical utopia or any new kind of social order. Nature takes care of itself: It was a spontaneous creation that existed long before any human society, and for countless centuries, many different kinds of human societies coexisted with nature without doing it an excessive amount of damage. Only with the Industrial Revolution did the effect of human society on nature become really devastating.”
So close it's an interesting insight — 12 quotes and I defy anyone to get them all identified correctly on the first go…
Diabetic Man Found
This story is unbelievable and will probably result in a huge and justifyable lawsuit. I ran into it the first time around and didn't blog it (too busy) but am very happy that the guy has been found.
From CBS News in Atlanta:
Deputies Find Diabetic Man Kicked Off Train
Passenger Barefoot, Dehydrated, Disoriented, Deputies Say
A 65-year-old St. Louis man who went missing Sunday night after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, has been found two miles from where he was dropped off, according to police in Williams.
Police said Roosevelt Sims, a factory worker who had just retired last week, was discovered Thursday night walking along the railroad tracks barefoot by Coconino County sheriff's deputies.
Deputies said he was dehydrated and disoriented.
He was rushed to a Flagstaff hospital for emergency treatment, deputies said.
Sims headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams.
Amtrak personnel told police dispatchers that Sims was drunk and unruly.
The Sims family said Sims is diabetic and was going into shock.
“He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees,” Lt. Mike Graham said.
Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet.
Amtrak, in a statement released late Thursday, said it followed company policy. “The conductor and the passenger waited on the platform with the passenger's luggage,” the statement said. “Upon arrival of authorities, the passenger fled into nearby woods.”
When officers arrived at the crossing, police said, they found Sims had left his luggage and medication behind.
Sims' brother, Brian Mason, said his family tried to call Sims on his cell phone that night, but he was incoherent.
Cell phone records show that Sims' phone was last used in Litchfield Park, Ariz., 180 miles from Williams.
Williams police told Phoenix television station KPHO that Amtrak has used the abandoned crossing as a drop-off site in the past. Graham said that whether drunk or not, no one should be dropped off there.
“You don't put anyone off in an area like that,” Graham said.
Words Fail…
How not to shoplift - guns and more guns department
From the Calgary Sun:
Guns seized after shoplifting arrest
Thwarting a shoplifter ultimately led to police seizing a huge cache of firearms, including three loaded guns from a vehicle.
About 9 p.m. Monday, cops took a man into custody for shoplifting at a store in the 1800 block of 16 Ave. N.W.
The suspect directed them to a vehicle in the adjacent parking lot for his personal documentation, where police found a man and a woman with open liquor and a loaded handgun.
A further search of the vehicle unearthed another loaded handgun in the glove compartment, a loaded shotgun in the trunk and several boxes of ammunition.
The owner of the vehicle, 33-year-old David Silliker, has been charged with several weapons offences.
And because Canada is a bit of a nanny state:
Cops also seized a collection of more than 50 firearms from his Deer Run home in the city's southeast.
Staff Sgt. Kathy Grant said the latter cache was taken in the interest of public safety.
“Because he had the loaded handguns and the loaded shotguns in his vehicle, that raises suspicion, so that's why we took the extra step to seize the other ones,” she said.
“The firearms that were seized from the residence were registered, so there were no charges laid from the seizure of those.”
Fifty Firearms is not a cheap collection even if these were Saturday night specials. The cops should have known about the registered firearms as soon as they busted the guy for shoplifting, they probably went on a fishing expedition when they found out the number — “the extra step to seize the other ones” my ass…
Busy day today
Spent the day working for the store (I did sleep in a bit after the late night). Did a cement threshold for the front door — we got some new coolers from a store nearby and the 3-door cooler was a bit under 2” too tall for the entry so I had to take the doors off and remove the casing and some framing.
Spent yesterday finishing up the framing and today doing the threshold — the original one was pretty trashed with all the delivery hand-trucks over the years and broke when I removed it. The new one is cement with rebar and should hold up just fine.
Also ran into town for some things and moved a 2-door freezer into place.
Had dinner out at a nice Italian restaurant about seven miles away.
Like I said — busy day!
Willie Nelson blogging
Just got back from the show and it was an incredible four hours of music.
It started at 7:30 with a couple youngsters that started off with some funky folk music (acoustic except for a subdued electric bass) and box drums for percussion. The name of the band was 40 Points They played three songs and then switched to an electric format and the guitar player proceeded to shred the heavens — amazing. When he sang, the tone of his voice wasn't all that good but it did sound very reminiscent of Willies voice — same reedy Texas twang. Amazing electric guitar player though.
They announce who they are and the guitar player is Lukas Nelson. The drummer (also good) is Micah Nelson. Yup — his kids. I googled a bit when I started to write and it turns out that Lucas is all of 14 years old which explains the lack of depth in his voice…
A three-woman Canadian band then took the stage - shaye (see here and here)
The first link is to their official website where they have streaming complete tracks of their two albums — think the Dixie Chicks but not Country — sort of indie folk. Think Indigo Girls with a lot more vocal power and quality. Not to disparage Indigo Girls but the three women in shaye are classically trained and fantastic vocalists both solo and ensemble.
Finally, the stage was prepped and the lights went dark. About five minutes passed and a small electric cart with blinking lights drove over to the back of the stage and Willie and company took over for the remaining three hours.
OMFG — they were in top form. Lucas was back on stage as the electric counterbalance to Willies acoustic. I can't find a list of who was on stage with him although it was his kid sister playing piano and the harmonica was Mickey Raphael.
All in all, a wonderful evening (except for the concession food at the venue but then again, why do they call it a concession…)
Off to bed…
June 29, 2007
On the road again...
Heading up to Canada for a Willie Nelson concert this evening.
Posting will be light if non-existent.
June 28, 2007
A dress-code gone awry
It seems that the Federal Aviation Administration tried to instill a fairly rigid dress code for their air traffic controllers and said controllers fought back in an interesting manner…
From the Cleveland NewsNet 5:
Miffed By Dress Code, Male Air Controllers Wear Dresses
Air Controllers, FAA Joust Over Dress Code
Air-traffic controllers locked in a labor dispute with the Federal Aviation Administration are upset over a dress code and have shown their displeasure in colorful fashion.
Their union said there have a been a few occasions where male controllers complied with the letter of the guidelines by wearing dresses to work.
At the Cleveland-area air-traffic control center in Oberlin, a controller was told his aquamarine pants were, quoting now, “not gender appropriate” for a man.
The FAA said the dress code is meant to create a professional atmosphere.
When reading this article, I thought of an interesting parallel. These people's jobs are a lot like high-end software developers… Multi-variant problem solving, high stress, high precision needed.
At Microsoft, people were encouraged to outfit their office in whatever style they wanted, to dress however they wanted, to act however they wanted, just so they kept their code output to standards in quality and quantity. It works — people are happiest working in an environment of their own making and happy people are productive and accurate people.
I bet that giving controllers a bit more autonomy over their workplace decorations and dress would go a long long way to relieve some of their stress and would result in a much happier workforce. A few nerf-ball fights after a particularly bad rush would be a great tension reliever.
A modest solution for the immigration issue
Denny at grouchy Old Cripple found a wonderful solution to the immigration problem — Mexinol
Click for full-size Image
Heh…
Warning: email from Microsoft
From The Register:
Don't touch that Microsoft Security Bulletin email
Do not be tempted into opening an email with the subject line: “Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-0065” because it is no such thing.
The email is not from Microsoft and contains a link to a webpage containing a trojan (disguised malware). The emails contain real people's names and the company they work for and looks like a genuine Microsoft email.
The mail looks pretty convincing and includes Microsoft and Windows logos. It claims that a zero-day vulnerability has been found that would allow hackers to get into machines running Outlook. The mail claims 100,000 machines have already fallen foul of the vulnerability.
There's more from Sophos here.
Nasty stuff…
June 27, 2007
Light posting tonight
Narked out with hay fever medicine and a bit tired.
Tomorrow should be a fun day — we are visiting one of our milk producers in the afternoon and taking photos. I'll be posting them on the Crossroads Grocery website. I am planning to do a series of these on 'where our food comes from'.
June 26, 2007
Explanation of the Recent "Strange Craft" Sightings
Someone has spent a lot of time on this web page.
Check out: Explanation of the Recent “Strange Craft” Sightings
My Experience with the CARET Program and Extra-terrestrial Technology
Isaac, June 2007
This letter is part of a package I've assembled for Coast to Coast AM to distribute to its audience. It is a companion to numerous document and photo scans and should not be separated from them.
You can call me Isaac, an alias I've chosen as a simple measure of protection while I release what would be called tremendously sensitive information even by todays standards. “Sensitive” is not necessarily synonymous with “dangerous”, though, which is why my conscience is clear as I offer this material up for the public. My government has its reasons for its continual secrecy, and I sympathize with many of them, but the truth is that I'm getting old and I'm not interested in meeting my maker one day with any more baggage than necessary!
Furthermore, I put a little more faith in humanity than my former bosses do, and I think that a release of at least some of this info could help a lot more than it could hurt, especially in today's world.
I should be clear before I begin, as a final note: I am not interested in making myself vulnerable to the consequences of betraying the trust of my superiors and will not divulge any personal information that could determine my identity. However my intent is not to deceive, so information that I think is too risky to share will be simply left out rather than obfuscated in some way (aside from my alias, which I freely admit is not my real name). I would estimate that with the information contained in this letter, I could be narrowed down to one of maybe 30-50 people at best, so I feel reasonably secure.
Some Explanation for the Recent Sightings
For many years I've occasionally considered the release of at least some of the material I possess, but the recent wave of photos and sightings has prompted me to cut to the chase and do so now.
I should first be clear that I'm not directly familiar with any of the crafts seen in the photos in their entirety. I've never seen them in a hangar or worked on them myself or seen aliens zipping around in them. However, I have worked with and seen many of the parts visible in these crafts, some of which can be seen in the Q3-85 Inventory Review scan found at the top of this page. More importantly though, I'm very familiar with the “language” on their undersides seen clearly in photos by Chad and Rajman, and in another form in the Big Basin photos.
One question I can answer for sure is why they're suddenly here. These crafts have probably existed in their current form for decades, and I can say for sure that the technology behind them has existed for decades before that. The “language”, in fact, (I'll explain shortly why I keep putting that in quotes) was the subject of my work in years past. I'll cover that as well.
The reason they're suddenly visible, however, is another matter entirely. These crafts, assuming they're anything like the hardware I worked with in the 80's (assuming they're better, in fact), are equipped with technology that enables invisibility. That ability can be controlled both on board the craft, and remotely. However, what's important in this case is that this invisibility can also be disrupted by other technology. Think of it like radar jamming. I would bet my life savings (since I know this has happened before) that these craft are becoming visible and then returning to invisibility arbitrarily, probably unintentionally, and undoubtedly for only short periods, due to the activity of a kind of disrupting technology being set off elsewhere, but nearby. I'm especially sure of this in the case of the Big Basin sightings, were the witnesses themselves reported seeing the craft just appear and disappear. This is especially likely because of the way the witness described one of the appearances being only a momentary flicker, which is consistent with the unintentional, intermittent triggering of such a device.
Check out the rest of the back-story and the “reports”
The level of detail on the models and the reports is wonderful.
One year ago today - RIP Rob 'Acidman' Smith
The Blogging world lost one of its luminaries a year ago today.
Check out Gutrumbles
Nice people - University of Washington and the RIAA
From the Tacoma,WA News-Tribune:
UW will abet file-sharing lawsuits, it says
The University of Washington announced Monday a new policy about illegal music file-sharing on campus: Not only will the school not shield students from lawsuits from the recording industry, it will track them down and serve them the legal papers.
UW said it will forward notices of pending lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America to students who engage in illegal downloading on the university’s computer network.
The notices say offending students have 20 days to settle with the association by paying it about $3,000 to $5,000 or be taken to court without possibility of a settlement.
Eric Godfrey, vice provost for student life at the UW Seattle campus, informed students of the policy Monday through a campuswide e-mail. It said some students have letters on the way, but he was unable in a later phone interview to say how many.
The university will not pass the students’ names to the association, but it will use its server to identify them and inform them of their settlement options before they get stuck with a lawsuit, Godfrey said.
How about showing a little backbone and standing up to these thugs…
Sheesh — talk about lame
An American Psychopath and an American Hero
Meet Curtis Allgier and an unnamed Hero. From CNN News/AP:
Arby's patron wrestles slain officer's gun from prisoner
orities said a prison inmate out for a medical appointment wrested a gun from a corrections officer and killed him Monday, then led police on a high-speed chase in a stolen sport utility vehicle before his capture at a fast-food restaurant.
Curtis Allgier, who wears a swastika and the words “skin head” on his heavily tattooed face, fired a shot in the Arby's that hit no one before a customer at the restaurant grabbed the gun, Salt Lake City police Sgt. Rich Brede said.
“It sounds like he was heroic, even though he's being humble about it,” he said of the 59-year-old customer.
Allgier, 27, was captured in an office and taken to jail to await charges.
The hero in question:
Police did not identify the customer who wrested the gun from Allgier, saying he did not want to be identified.
“Everybody's calling me a hero. I'm not a hero,” he told the TV station. “I just did what I had to do.”
And the Cop murderer:
Piece of scum…
Big iron - logging equipment and the machines to maintain them
Ran into a wonderful website yesterday while looking for info on large machine tools. The VanNatta family has been practicing forestry for five generations and has a very broad and deep website here: VanNatta Forestry
To get some idea of their shop, check these pages out.
Serious machine-tool lust — I'm drooling…
Interesting list of nations from Samsung
Check out the home page for finding Samsung Worldwide Service
Check out the list of countries where service is available.
Note the absense of one Nation.
Note the presence of a Nation that actually does not exist.
Click for full-size image
What you are looking for but not finding is Israel.
What you are finding but diesn't exist is Palestine.
Hat tip to Charles at LGF
June 25, 2007
Einstein was right
A science test of perfect simplicity and amazing precision has shown that Einstein was 100% correct about the relativistic effets of Gravity on a physical object.
From Discover Magazine:
Relativity Passes Absolute Test
Exacting research finds Einstein was exactly right.
According to Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, a massive body like Earth should bend the space-time fabric of the universe, causing it to curve and flex like a trampoline supporting a bowling ball.
Nearly three years ago, NASA’s oft-canceled $750 million Gravity Probe B Relativity Mission finally shot into space with one goal—to quantify Einstein’s predictions from Earth’s orbit. Earlier this year, at the meeting of the American Physics Society, principal investigator Francis Everitt delivered the first results: Gravity Probe B has verified Einstein’s theory to within 1 percent.
Four gyroscopes, each the size of a Ping-Pong ball, form the heart of the experiment. The gyroscopes are the most perfectly spherical man-made objects in existence; if inflated to the size of Earth, they would have mountains no more than eight feet high. (Their near-faultless roundness has landed the spheres in the Guinness World Records.) At the beginning of the experiment, the gyroscopes’ axes pointed to a distant star; as the spacecraft moved around Earth for nearly a year, the researchers carefully monitored the position of the axes.
Einstein’s theory predicts that the axes should shift by a tiny amount—0.0018 degree—under the influence of Earth’s pull on space-time. After 18 months of data analysis, Everitt and his team measured the axial shift to within 1 percent of Einstein’s prediction. Everitt, a Stanford physicist who has spent more than 40 years on the project, says the results are sweet indeed. “It’s really extraordinary to look at the output and see Einstein looking back, without any calculations or corrections,” he says. “This measurement is unprecedented in any test of general relativity.”
Emphasis mine. I had originally written about this back in April 2004
The website for the project can be found here: Gravity Probe B
A small garden in New York -- meet Harri Ramlakhan
Great profile of a fascinating person at the New York Times:
(use Bug-Me-Not to bypass registration if needed)
The Greenest Thumb
It is late April, and the days are slow for Harri Ramlakhan. He rises early, around 5 or 6 in the morning, and starts to pace around the living room of the apartment in Stapleton, Staten Island, where he lives with one of his five sons. For most of the day, Mr. Ramlakhan wears sweat pants and rubber sandals. Sometimes he wanders into the kitchen to chomp on handfuls of dried chilies and fenugreek seeds.
In the afternoon, maybe earlier if the sun is shining especially bright, he ducks out into the front yard to check on his plants. There, in rows of white plastic pots, are small green buds of vegetables in every variety: hot peppers, long beans, string beans, two kinds of squash.
If, as its practitioners are fond of claiming, gardening is the slowest-moving fine art, Mr. Ramlakhan is its Jackson Pollock, grumbly and cocksure, producing brilliant work while alienating many of those who could appreciate it. At age 68, he is perhaps New York’s most talented urban gardener, consistently dominating annual city-sponsored competitions in categories like longest squash and best-tasting tomato.
He joined his first community garden in New York four years ago and quickly developed a reputation as something of a gruff and self-aggrandizing character, the kind of gardener who is liable to chase you out of his plot with a machete if he sees you nosing around.
Mr. Ramlakhan dismisses much of this talk as merely the signs of jealousy.
He has bounced from garden to garden in recent years — he lasted two seasons at his first garden, in Far Rockaway not far from Kennedy Airport, and he spent last year at a small plot in a garden on Lakeview Boulevard in South Jamaica, Queens. But during these slow days of April, as he awaits word from the city’s community garden officials on his request to plant in a larger space than he had last year, he is a gardener without a home.
A bit more:
On a September afternoon three years ago, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Harvest Fair, an urban homage to the county fair held at the end of every summer, was in full swing. It was Mr. Ramlakhan’s first year with a plot in a Green Thumb garden, and he brought so much produce that one of his sons had to give him a ride. By the end of the day, he had amassed 12 first-prize ribbons, and in doing so, he established his reputation within New York’s close-knit world of community gardening.
“There’s something sort of mystical about him,” says Cara Monaco, the outreach coordinator for Green Thumb. “It’s like he’s a vegetable guru.”
The following year, 2005, Mr. Ramlakhan had nine first-place winners. Last year, he entered six vegetables in the contest and took home six first prizes: longest squash, longest bean, largest okra, largest eggplant, heaviest tomato and best-tasting tomato.
Looks to be quite the character:
It's a three page story worth reading for a fascinating character study.
A bit of cool discovery near the house...
You may know that I am having a lot of fun learning blacksmithing. Being able to make something nice from just a chunk of raw metal is pure magic to me still and looking at photos of some of the masters, I realize that as much as I am “getting there” I still have a long long long way to go…
I use a propane forge that I built myself (the other cool thing is that you start with an anvil and a few tools and you then proceed to make any other tool you need — customized to fit you and your work habits.) but I want to build a coal forge as there are things that coal can do that propane cannot.
The only problem is the source of good coal. There is a farrier's shop in Everett about an hour or so drive to my south (a very fun place to visit) but they only have the very soft eastern Washington Bituminous — OK but not optimal. I knew that there was coal mining near where we live as well as the huge mine in Bellingham and a friend of mine turned me on to the fact that there was a large tailings pile accessible to my 4X4 truck. I revisited it today and spent some time wandering around — there is more coal than I will ever use in several lifetimes and it is a very nice hard shiny Anthracite!!!
Some interesting development has been going on at the site too:
Some people have been grading it, bringing in a few traffic barriers and building quite the nice skate park! Cool! The coal tailings extend for quite a ways into the brush so I can continue to harvest without disturbing their space.
Driving through a cornfield
Crop circle done by a drunken alien?
No — from the UK Metro:
Driver comes a cropper in police chase
May look like the latest aliens to land on our planet have been drinking and driving, but these bizarre patterns, discovered in a corn field in Holland, have a much more mundane explanation.
They were made by a drug user who was attempting to escape from police in his father's car. The man had been using cocaine.
Four police cars were damaged in a desperate attempt to prevent the crazed driver from reaching public roads, but they could not save the crop from irrepairable damage.
In the end, the man was captured when he crashed the car into a ditch.
Some nasty fines for that — corn is quite the pricey crop these days…
Hat tip to BoingBoing for the link.
June 24, 2007
Minimal posting last few days
Reality has intruded — in a very pleasant manner…
Yesterday, we had about ten people over for our annual Solstice party. Fed them a couple tri-tip roasts and some sweet corn and some of the guests brought the side dishes so the food was really good.
Had a large bonfire after that so everyone sat around the fire drinking cider and shooting the shit.
I got up this morning and set up our booth at the Farmer's Market, Jen came by for lunch and I got home around 3:30. It was sprinkling lightly at the market and then the heavens opened up around 4:30 with hail and then thunder and lightning. A great show! Snow level is around 4,000 so the tips of our valley have a nice dusting of white stuff…
I am needing to work on some web design for a local non-profit and answer several days worth of emails (been ignoring that as well).
June 23, 2007
Now it's Chinese Cars
China is not having a very good year — first it's contaminated food, then it's toy recalls. Now it's their cars. From the AutoBlog:
In German crash test, China's Brilliance BS6 sedan fails miserably
China's Brilliance BS6 is a recent entry into the European market, positioned as a premium-style import sedan at a budget price. Well, after seeing the videos of the car undergoing crash testing using Euro NCAP guidelines at the ADAC (Germany's AAA, essentially) test center, one thing's certain: buyers get what they pay for. The BS6, as currently constructed, appears to a complete piece of crap. The horrifying 40 mph offset frontal crash test video shows damage that can be described as catastrophic at best. The A-pillar collapses and folds up like a cheap suitcase, forcing the driver's door to pop largely out of its frame, while the lower portion of the car buckles like it's made of recycled pop cans. We wouldn't want to be the driver's legs…or any other part of him for that matter. To open the mangled door afterwards, the ADAC techs needed to use a huge crowbar to get it to budge. ADAC notes that the pedals intruded a foot and a half (32 cm) into the driver's space, while the IP moved in almost 8 inches (20 cm). Needless to say, the BS6 failed the test, garnering just 1 star.
And it's not just this brand:
Jiangling Motors' Landwind SUV failed the same test in even more spectacular fashion
The above two links are to YouTube videos of the crash test. Pretty amazingly bad…
June 22, 2007
Dumb Criminal -- cellphone answering
If you steal a car that has a cell phone in it, don't answer it if it rings.
Even more, don't think that it's a buddy of yours and talk about what you are doing…
From icLiverpool comes the sad story of Christopher Croston — a moke with a little brain:
Exposed: Merseyside's stupidest criminal
A quick-thinking policeman caught a stupid robber – by calling him on the mobile he had just stolen.
Detective Sergeant Dave Keegan pretended to be a friend of dozy Christopher Croston and talked him into the arms of waiting officers with a series of calls.
Det Sgt Keegan knew he had got his man when Croston started their final conversation: “Hiya mate. I can’t talk right now. I’m with the bizzies.”
The 24-year-old had smashed his way into the security booth at Bootle’s Rolls- Royce complex in January, attacked a guard and stole his phone and car.
It was the second time Croston, of Chester Avenue, Netherton, had raided the site that month.
He is now serving six-and-a-half years in jail for robbery, while Det Sgt Keegan has been given a commendation by his chief constable.
When the detective of 26 years’ experience arrived at the robbery scene he tried the guard’s mobile and it was answered.
He said: “I knew who it was and pretended to be the victim and said I was from the same estate as him.
Estate is neighborhood.
“I threw in a few local landmarks and soon he was telling me he knew me under my false name and he was sorry because he would never rob from one of his own.
“He and his accomplice were so drunk they crashed the guard’s car and decided to get a train to Liverpool. They got the wrong train and ended up heading to Southport.”
Det Sgt Keegan kept up with the progress of his new “friend” in more conversations before directing colleagues to arrest him at Hillside station in the town.
“Using what he told me, I directed the officers to him and when they had him I was asked to ring the phone one last time.
“Croston picked up and said ‘Hiya mate. I can’t talk right now. I’m with the bizzies.’ We knew then we had the right man.”
Bizzies are the police.
Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe said: “This was a fantastic piece of work.”
Absolutely! And one less bit of genetic pond-scum on the streets — for a few years anyway…
Light posting tonight as well
Friday is when I go into town for the “big” buying run for Crossroads Grocery (there is a smaller Tuesday run that our manager does.) Got back to the store, unloaded, dropped some folding tables off for a local garage sale tomorrow and then went to dinner. It's 10:18PM and I can finally kick back and surf a bit. Long day but a fun one — I love shopping and love food; running the grocery store is a real treat.
The upshot is that I am going to surf a bit, post anything interesting I find and then toddle off to bed — tomorrow is just as full if not fuller — Solstice party (expecting 20-30 people), bonfire and campout at our farm.
June 21, 2007
An incredible driving record
Meet Australian Luke Dodd — holder of one of the more auspicious driving records. NOT
From the AU Herald-Sun:
Is he our worst P-plate driver?
P-PLATER Luke Dodd has one of the worst driving records in Victoria's history.
But that did not stop the 24-year-old, who has 61 convictions for driving while disqualified and 71 for stealing cars, getting behind the wheel after drinking and smashing head-on into a car driven by a mother with four children.
A court heard Dodd had a blood-alcohol reading of .066 when he lost control of his Ford ute and crashed into an oncoming Mazda MPV, which was a write-off.
The mother and her children, who were on their way to Salvation Army band practice, escaped unhurt.
Despite his shocking history — committed before he had a licence — Dodd was fined just $500 yesterday and his licence was cancelled for a minimum of six months.
A P plate is a license plate with a large red letter P which is issued to new drivers over 18 years (under 18 you get an L plate for Learner). It is also issued to people who have been convicted of certain traffic violations. More at The Daily Telegraph.
I am amazed that this moke is still on the road, let alone not doing some hard prison time. Talk about psychopath.
Minimal posting tonight
Was in town today and working on some other stuff this evening.
I'll post a bit, just not as much…
June 20, 2007
Reading the mud
An interesting thought regarding Global Warming
Maybe we should move back to that Global Cooling trope of the 1970's
From the Canadian Financial Post:
Read the sunspots
The mud at the bottom of B.C. fjords reveals that solar output drives climate change - and that we should prepare now for dangerous global cooling
Politicians and environmentalists these days convey the impression that climate-change research is an exceptionally dull field with little left to discover. We are assured by everyone from David Suzuki to Al Gore to Prime Minister Stephen Harper that “the science is settled.” At the recent G8 summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel even attempted to convince world leaders to play God by restricting carbon-dioxide emissions to a level that would magically limit the rise in world temperatures to 2C.
The fact that science is many years away from properly understanding global climate doesn't seem to bother our leaders at all. Inviting testimony only from those who don't question political orthodoxy on the issue, parliamentarians are charging ahead with the impossible and expensive goal of “stopping global climate change.” Liberal MP Ralph Goodale's June 11 House of Commons assertion that Parliament should have “a real good discussion about the potential for carbon capture and sequestration in dealing with carbon dioxide, which has tremendous potential for improving the climate, not only here in Canada but around the world,” would be humorous were he, and even the current government, not deadly serious about devoting vast resources to this hopeless crusade.
Climate stability has never been a feature of planet Earth. The only constant about climate is change; it changes continually and, at times, quite rapidly. Many times in the past, temperatures were far higher than today, and occasionally, temperatures were colder. As recently as 6,000 years ago, it was about 3C warmer than now. Ten thousand years ago, while the world was coming out of the thousand year long “Younger Dryas” cold episode, temperatures rose as much as 6C in a decade — 100 times faster than the past century's 0.6C warming that has so upset environmentalists.
Now that this has been set up, here is the scientific technique:
My research team began to collect and analyze core samples from the bottom of deep Western Canadian fjords. The regions in which we chose to conduct our research, Effingham Inlet on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, and in 2001, sounds in the Belize-Seymour Inlet complex on the mainland coast of British Columbia, were perfect for this sort of work. The topography of these fjords is such that they contain deep basins that are subject to little water transfer from the open ocean and so water near the bottom is relatively stagnant and very low in oxygen content. As a consequence, the floors of these basins are mostly lifeless and sediment layers build up year after year, undisturbed over millennia.
Using various coring technologies, we have been able to collect more than 5,000 years' worth of mud in these basins, with the oldest layers coming from a depth of about 11 metres below the fjord floor. Clearly visible in our mud cores are annual changes that record the different seasons: corresponding to the cool, rainy winter seasons, we see dark layers composed mostly of dirt washed into the fjord from the land; in the warm summer months we see abundant fossilized fish scales and diatoms (the most common form of phytoplankton, or single-celled ocean plants) that have fallen to the fjord floor from nutrient-rich surface waters. In years when warm summers dominated climate in the region, we clearly see far thicker layers of diatoms and fish scales than we do in cooler years. Ours is one of the highest-quality climate records available anywhere today and in it we see obvious confirmation that natural climate change can be dramatic. For example, in the middle of a 62-year slice of the record at about 4,400 years ago, there was a shift in climate in only a couple of seasons from warm, dry and sunny conditions to one that was mostly cold and rainy for several decades.
Using computers to conduct what is referred to as a “time series analysis” on the colouration and thickness of the annual layers, we have discovered repeated cycles in marine productivity in this, a region larger than Europe. Specifically, we find a very strong and consistent 11-year cycle throughout the whole record in the sediments and diatom remains. This correlates closely to the well-known 11-year “Schwabe” sunspot cycle, during which the output of the sun varies by about 0.1%. Sunspots, violent storms on the surface of the sun, have the effect of increasing solar output, so, by counting the spots visible on the surface of our star, we have an indirect measure of its varying brightness. Such records have been kept for many centuries and match very well with the changes in marine productivity we are observing.
And a bit more — proxy corroboration:
Our finding of a direct correlation between variations in the brightness of the sun and earthly climate indicators (called “proxies”) is not unique. Hundreds of other studies, using proxies from tree rings in Russia's Kola Peninsula to water levels of the Nile, show exactly the same thing: The sun appears to drive climate change.
However, there was a problem. Despite this clear and repeated correlation, the measured variations in incoming solar energy were, on their own, not sufficient to cause the climate changes we have observed in our proxies. In addition, even though the sun is brighter now than at any time in the past 8,000 years, the increase in direct solar input is not calculated to be sufficient to cause the past century's modest warming on its own. There had to be an amplifier of some sort for the sun to be a primary driver of climate change.
Indeed, that is precisely what has been discovered. In a series of groundbreaking scientific papers starting in 2002, Veizer, Shaviv, Carslaw, and most recently Svensmark et al., have collectively demonstrated that as the output of the sun varies, and with it, our star's protective solar wind, varying amounts of galactic cosmic rays from deep space are able to enter our solar system and penetrate the Earth's atmosphere. These cosmic rays enhance cloud formation which, overall, has a cooling effect on the planet. When the sun's energy output is greater, not only does the Earth warm slightly due to direct solar heating, but the stronger solar wind generated during these “high sun” periods blocks many of the cosmic rays from entering our atmosphere. Cloud cover decreases and the Earth warms still more.
The opposite occurs when the sun is less bright. More cosmic rays are able to get through to Earth's atmosphere, more clouds form, and the planet cools more than would otherwise be the case due to direct solar effects alone. This is precisely what happened from the middle of the 17th century into the early 18th century, when the solar energy input to our atmosphere, as indicated by the number of sunspots, was at a minimum and the planet was stuck in the Little Ice Age. These new findings suggest that changes in the output of the sun caused the most recent climate change. By comparison, CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet's climate on long, medium and even short time scales.
And one last excerpt:
Solar scientists predict that, by 2020, the sun will be starting into its weakest Schwabe solar cycle of the past two centuries, likely leading to unusually cool conditions on Earth. Beginning to plan for adaptation to such a cool period, one which may continue well beyond one 11-year cycle, as did the Little Ice Age, should be a priority for governments. It is global cooling, not warming, that is the major climate threat to the world, especially Canada. As a country at the northern limit to agriculture in the world, it would take very little cooling to destroy much of our food crops, while a warming would only require that we adopt farming techniques practiced to the south of us.
Meantime, we need to continue research into this, the most complex field of science ever tackled, and immediately halt wasted expenditures on the King Canute-like task of “stopping climate change.”
Hey — remember Dr. Chad Dick? He was the guy I wrote about in this post in March 09, 2005
His thoughts are in this article in The Scotsman basically:
Polar history shows melting ice-cap may be a natural cycle
The melting of sea ice at the North Pole may be the result of a centuries-old natural cycle and not an indicator of man-made global warming, Scottish scientists have found.
After researching the log-books of Arctic explorers spanning the past 300 years, scientists believe that the outer edge of sea ice may expand and contract over regular periods of 60 to 80 years. This change corresponds roughly with known cyclical changes in atmospheric temperature.
The finding opens the possibility that the recent worrying changes in Arctic sea ice are simply the result of standard cyclical movements, and not a harbinger of major climate change.
The amount of sea ice is currently near its lowest point in the cycle and should begin to increase within about five years.
As a result, Dr Chad Dick, a Scottish scientist working at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso, believes the next five to ten years will be a critical period in our understanding of sea ice and the impact, if any, of long-term global warming.
The next few years should be really interesting — I just hope that the USA and Canada don't paint themselves into too much of a legislative and taxation corner over something that is a matter of opinion but not of quantitative scientific proof.
An SR-72 in the works?
Jen and I both love the SR-71 Blackbird. It is a perfect airplane for the job. I remember seeing an interview of one of it's engineers after the plane was retired from service and he said that 30 years later, if they had to design an airplane to match the SR-71, it would look exactly like the SR-71; even with the 30 years advancement in technology.
Well, it looks like Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works may be tooling up for it's replacement — the SR-72. From AirForce Times:
An SR-72 in the works?
years after the Air Force retired the SR-71 spy plane, Lockheed Martin’s legendary Skunk Works appears to be back at work developing a new Mach-6 reconnaissance plane, sources said.
The Air Force has awarded Lockheed’s Advanced Development Projects arm a top-secret contract to develop a stealthy 4,000-mph plane capable of flying to altitudes of about 100,000 feet, with transcontinental range. The plan is to debut the craft around 2020.
The new jet — being referred to by some as the SR-72 — is likely to be unmanned and, while intended for reconnaissance, could eventually trade its sensors for weapons.
The new aircraft would offer a combination of speed, altitude and stealth that could make it virtually impervious to ground-based missiles, sources said. Even the SR-71 is said to have evaded hundreds of missiles fired at it during its long career, although some aircraft sustained minor damage.
But experts say enormous challenges remain. First, the SR-71’s top speed was about 2,200 mph. Pushing a plane at twice that speed in the thin air of the upper stratosphere would require exceptionally powerful engines. Second, friction at high speeds could reduce stealth.
“An aircraft with these characteristics could prove a potent response to anti-satellite weapons,” said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute. “If U.S. reconnaissance satellites were lost, an SR-72 could get to areas of interest quickly and provide persistent surveillance in place of the satellite.”
And don’t bother asking the Air Force or Skunk Works executives about their work. None is commenting.
“As a matter of policy, we don’t talk about classified programs — whether or not they exist,” Lockheed’s Tom Jurkowsky said.
Nope — nuttin' to see here folks, just keep movin' along…
I love it! Can't wait for the first 'leaked' pictures.
I love that they are considering unmanned — it would be incredible to be a pilot on something this hot but the trade-offs are much better. You can fly closer to a point of interest without worrying about protecting the pilot. If the plane gets hit, it can self-destruct, pilots can be captured and held for political gain.
The Grail?
It was a known artifact (although not known if it actually was Christ's cup) and it disappeared 258AD. An archaeologist has traced it to a Church in Rome built in the 6th Century.
From The Telegraph:
Archaeologist sparks hunt for Holy Grail
An archaeologist has sparked a Da Vinci Code-style hunt for the Holy Grail after claiming ancient records show it is buried under a 6th century church in Rome.
The cup - said to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper - is the focus of countless legends and has been sought for centuries.
Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist, claims that it is buried in a chapel-like room underneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches which Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome.
Mr Barbagallo based his claim on two years spent studying mediaeval iconography inside the basilica and a description of a particular chamber, in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra.
The friar describes a room of about 20 square metres with a vaulted roof ceiling. “In the corner of a wall-seat there can be seen a terracotta funnel whose lower part opens out over the face of a skeleton,” he wrote.
Da Bra then explains that giving liquid refreshment (refrigerium) to the dead was part of ancient funeral rites.
According to Mr Barbagallo, who heads an association called Arte e Mistero [Art and Mystery], this funnel is the Grail.
He also points out to several beautiful mosaics and frescos in the basilica which feature images of the sacred cup.
The article also has a 'graph about the last known history:
In 258 AD, during a phase of Christian persecution, Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted the treasures of the early Church to a deacon called Lawrence, Lorenzo in Italian. This deacon was martyred four days later and since then no one has ever seen the Grail.
Opening the catacombs should be a fairly simple task with today's technologies — autonomous robots, ground penetrating radar, etc…
Chinese progress
Guess who is the #1 CO2 emitter.
From The Guardian:
China overtakes US as world's biggest CO2 emitter
China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, figures released today show.
The surprising announcement will increase anxiety about China's growing role in driving man-made global warming and will pile pressure onto world politicians to agree a new global agreement on climate change that includes the booming Chinese economy. China's emissions had not been expected to overtake those from the US, formerly the world's biggest polluter, for several years, although some reports predicted it could happen as early as next year.
But according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, soaring demand for coal to generate electricity and a surge in cement production have helped to push China's recorded emissions for 2006 beyond those from the US already. It says China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. Britain produced about 600m tonnes.
And I bet this number is even higher. They are tracking commercial power plants and large factories — many people still heat and cook with coal and there are a lot of small “cottage industries” that have high energy consumption — foundries and forges, etc…
Congressional ratings sink to the bottom.
On May 11th, 2007 I posted that the Congress and the President shared the same level of voter approval - 35%
Today, a Gallup Poll came out that has Congress at a 14% Voter Approval. From USA Today:
New Gallup data show confidence in Congress at all time low
Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress.
This 14% Congressional confidence rating is the all-time low for this measure, which Gallup initiated in 1973. The previous low point for Congress was 18% at several points in the period of time 1991 to 1994.
Congress is now nestled at the bottom of the list of Gallup's annual Confidence in Institutions rankings, along with HMOs. Just 15% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in HMOs. (By way of contrast, 69% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military, which tops the list. More on this at galluppoll.com on Thursday).
Where is that transparency and non-partisanship that we were promised…
What a way to go - Jörg Immendorff
My sinuses bleed just thinking about it.
From the UK Telegraph:
Jörg Immendorff
Jörg Immendorff, who died on Monday aged 61, was Germany's best-known and most provocative artist, a close friend of the former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and, in 2003, the central figure in a sex scandal involving prostitutes and cocaine-fuelled orgies at a luxury hotel.
In what became known as the Orgy of the Year, Immendorff was discovered naked having his nipples licked by a retinue of seven young filles de joie, while 11 grams of cocaine lay ready for consumption on a Versace ashtray nearby.
June 19, 2007
Fucking Brilliant!
My geek-o-meter just pegged and bent the needle.
Do you want to derive a 3D model of an object?
Do you want to do this cheaply?
If yes — check this out — take one webcam, an open source software plugin for a cheap gaming engine, a pan and some milk and a teaspoon.
Here is the video from YouTube: milkscanner-3d
Here is the website: Hack A Day
Here is the software used: Movie Sand Box
The Game Engine: Unreal Technology
Couple of nits — it can't do undercuts, surface tension, Z Axis linearity but still, what I said — Fucking Brilliant!
Dad of the year - 9/11 edition
An amazing story — from the NY Daily News:
Get yer hands off 9/11 victim cash, she tells deadbeat ex
The mother of a Sept. 11 victim is trying to prevent her son's absentee father from trying to collect half of the $2.9 million awarded by the Victim Compensation Fund, the Daily News has learned.
Elsie Goss-Caldwell will be petitioning a Brooklyn Surrogate's Court judge tomorrow to keep her ex-husband from financially benefiting from the death of a son that she said he had little contact with for 28 years.
“This is not about money, this is about respect for my son,” said Goss-Caldwell. “How dare you try to profit from this? How dare you disrespect him?”
Kenneth Caldwell, 30, had been living in Brooklyn and worked as a technology representative for Alliance Consulting, whose offices were on the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center's north tower.
After the first plane struck his building, he managed a quick call to his mother before the phone line went dead.
“He said, 'Mom, I just want to let you know that I love you, but I've got to get of here,'” said Goss-Caldwell, who owns a small notary business in Philadelphia. “He was such a nice young man, very funny, and very well-loved.”
Kenneth Caldwell's remains were never found. He was single at the time of his death and left no will, so his mother was appointed the administrator of his estate, according to her lawyer, Paul Bschorr.
But Kenneth's death prompted his father, Leon Caldwell, to try to reenter the life of his ex-wife, whom he had divorced in 1979 and not seen since 1984.
“This is a craven and disgraceful attempt to profit from the death of his son whom he abandoned at age 2,” said Bschorr. “This woman raised her sons by herself and she deserves the full award.”
Leon Caldwell received half of his son's $50,000 workers' compensation payment but immediately had to use $12,000 of it for child support because he had not been sending $30-a-week payments to his former spouse, Bschorr said.
“He was never there for my boys, physically, emotionally or financially,” said Goss-Caldwell. “And it's so hurtful that he's trying to come back now just for the money.”
Leon Campbell did not return calls for comment.
Hey Leon — there is a special place in hell waiting for you.
Fun and games - carjacking edition
What a maroon… Couple mokes try to carjack but find they cannot drive a stickshift.
From WXIA-TV Atlanta:
Carjackers Unable To Swipe Stick Shift
Remember the movie “The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight?” Now, meet “The Carjacking Crew That Couldn't Drive.” A couple of teens jumped a person leaving work at an east Cobb pizzeria. They tried to steal his car, but couldn't.
Bellacino's Pizzeria closes at 9 p.m. That's when one of the employees left work out a back door, where his car was parked. He was approached by two teens armed with a gun, who demanded his wallet and his car keys.
The employee wisely gave both up.
The suspect jumped into the victim's car, but he couldn't get it started, because it didn't have an automatic transmission. It was a standard shift with a clutch pedal.
The victim ran back into the pizzeria and called police. After a few minutes, other employees opened the back door expecting the criminals to be gone.
“And I look out, and the guy's still in his car, trying to start the car, but all he has is the radio on, 'cause you have to keep the clutch down to start the engine,” said pizzeria employee J.J. Williamson.
Frustration turned to resignation, and the suspects left the scene in a more conventional way — they ran. But not fast enough before Cobb police arrested Joshua Johnson, 18, and a juvenile.
Such nice people…
Dispatches from the front
Michael Yon is an embedded journalist working independently and he is providing some of the best feet-on-the-ground reporting on events in Iraq.
Things are building up to one of the major attacks in iraq since the conflict began. Michael is there.
Read: Be not afraid
Be Not Afraid
Thoughts flow on the eve of a great battle. By the time these words are released, we will be in combat. Few ears have heard even rumors of this battle, and fewer still are the eyes that will see its full scope. Even now—the battle has already begun for some—practically no news about it is flowing home. I’ve known of the secret plans for about a month, but have remained silent.
This campaign is actually a series of carefully orchestrated battalion and brigade sized battles. Collectively, it is probably the largest battle since “major hostilities” ended more than four years ago. Even the media here on the ground do not seem to have sensed its scale.
Al Qaeda and associates had little or no presence in Iraq before the current war. But we made huge mistakes early on and are pumping blood and gold into the region to pay for those blunders. When we failed to secure the streets and to restore the stability needed to get Iraq on its feet, we sowed doubt and mistrust. When we disbanded the government and the army, and tolerated corruption and ineptitude in reconstruction, we created a vacuum and filled the ranks of an insurgency-hydra with mostly local talent. But when we flattened parts of Fallujah not once, but twice, primarily in response to the murders of four of our people, we helped create a spectacle of injustice and chaos, the very conditions in which Al Qaeda thrives.
There is no particular spark, no single bolt of lightning, errant campfire or careless cigarette flicked out a window that caused this conflagration. We walked into a dry, cracked land, where the two arteries of Mesopotamia have long pulsed water and blood through scorched lands into the sea. In a place where everything that is not already desert is tinder, sparks tend to catch fire.
When we eviscerated Fallujah, Al Qaeda, who had not been here before, swarmed in and grew like a tumor. There were many insurgent groups already infecting Iraq with many conflicting ideologies and goals, and just as many opportunistic thugs, and some that only needed the band aids and aspirin of open markets and electricity and a feeling of normality. But Al Qaeda has been trying to start a civil war here for several years; chaos speeds the decay they feed on.
During about the first three months of 2005, when I was in Diyala Province (whose capital is Baquba) I first wrote that Iraq was in Civil War. I felt the backlash from that throughout 2005-2006, and worse, we all watched the sad unfolding of greater and greater lies until now, in 2007, when the civil war is systemically toxic.
Today Al Qaeda (AQ) is strong, but their welcome is tenuous in some regions as many Iraqis grow weary enough of the violence that trails them to forcibly evict AQ from some areas they’d begun to feel at home in. Meanwhile, our military, having adapted from eager fire-starting to more measured firefighting, after coming in so ham-fisted early on, has found agility in the new face of this war. Not lost on the locals was the fact that the Coalition wasn’t alone in failing to keep the faith of its promises to Iraqis.
Whereas we failed with the restoration of services and government, AQ has raped too many women and boys in Anbar Province, and cut-off too many heads everywhere else for anyone here to believe their claims of moral superiority. And they don’t even try to get the power going or keep the markets open or build schools, playgrounds and clinics for the children. In addition to destroying all of these resources, and murdering the Iraqis who work at or patronize them, AQ attacks people in mosques and churches, too. Thus, to those listening into the wind, an otherwise imperceptible tang in the atmosphere signals the time for change is at hand.
We can dissect our Civil War, or World War II or Vietnam, but there is no way to dissect the current war. Only the residue of those prior wars remains with us today—the scars and headstones, memorial statues, history books, and national boundaries. We only dissect that which is dead. Pathologists who autopsy those wars can no longer affect the outcomes. There is little left to the corpse of a war, but the sculptors of history take the clay and give it shape and substance. But even the most masterful among the artisans—Michelangelo himself—chipping and slicing at marble from Carrara, could not breathe life into the statue of David. Twice I stood in Florence, staring up at David, clad only in his slingshot, the rock with which he would change history cupped in his hand.
This is only a fraction of the article — excellent excellent writing…
Hat tip to Maggie's Farm for the link.
Now, *that's* a margarita maker...
Definitely high high geekdom on this project.
From BoingBoing comes this Magnificent Margarita Maker:
Now, that's a margarita maker…
sarapooh's uncle Don is a bit of a tinkerer.
So, when you've got a small-block 400, a trailer, assorted parts and the ability to custom fabricate a 6-inch tall replica of a blender blade out of stainless steel, what do you do with your spare time?
Make the world's fastest margarita machine.
Add: 6 bags of ice, and 18 bottles of ready-to-drink margarita mix. Turn ignition, and rev engine for 10 to 20 seconds. Open valve and enjoy.
A true thing of beauty…