Flutterby™! From 2006-09-01 to 2006-09-29

Hundreds of years ago, Greenland was so named because it was... well... green. But then the colder climate came, and it hasn't been. Now Greenland's farmers are welcoming global warming.

[ related topics: Politics Nature and environment ]

ICE arrests 15 aliens in Roswell working for U.S. military contractor

[ related topics: Humor Current Events ]

A couple of food entries:

A visit to Hot Dougs:

There are those who would say that a meal at Charlie Trotter's is a hard act to follow. Then there are those (among whose number I count myself) who would say that a meal at Hot Doug's is a hard act to precede.

And although the duck fat fries there are apparently something to savor, a commenter points out horse fat fries.

Calling All Bloggers: Things to Eat Before You Die? gives a whole bunch of people's top 5s, but as I went down the list and looked at what of that I've had, I was reminded once again of how subjective an experience food is, and how much food is tied into the other rituals of our lives. Yes, Zachary's Pizza is awesome the first time, but now it's just another pizza option.

However, it is a fun exercise, so: 5 things?

[ related topics: Food ]

What if a sports star wasn't getting paid up-front for endorsing a pair of shoes? What if he was actually going to wear those shoes while playing basketball? What if those shoes cost $15?

We're going to find out. Stephon Marbury, a basketball player, is endorsing Starbury shoes, to be sold through a chain called Steve and Barry's University Sportswear, and allegedly he's just getting royalties.

[ related topics: Current Events Consumerism and advertising Sports Shoes ]

Wow! Even SFGate is acknowledging that the real estate crash is here:

He recalls one recent client who pulled their Union Square pied a terre from the market when it didn't fetch the price she wanted. "She found it hard to accept that the unit was not as valuable as she thought," he says. "Now she wants to rent it."

[ related topics: Economics Real Estate ]

Tired of hearing the same old stuff on how the World Trade Center was deliberatly blown up to avoid asbestos fines, or how Bush and the Mossad caused the 2004 tsunami? Maybe it's time for a truly titanic accusations: Author Stephen King murdered John Lennon!!! Remember, you heard it here first. Trust no one.

[ related topics: Politics ]

Flash Graphs/Charts are a very good use of Flash and XML. maani.us gets kudos for a well done, affordably licensed implementation.

[ related topics: Web development Content Management ]

I watched Good Night, and Good Luck last night, and recommend it.

But that left me thinking about this flap over Rumsfeld comparing the anti-Iraq war crowd to Neville Chamberlain, and Keith Olbermann's response (transcript), and I was trying to fit the analogy, and then I realized...

Donald Rumsfeld is Neville Chamberlain had Chamberlain decided that Britain really needed to invade Poland, but without enough troops to secure it from the Germans.

[ related topics: Movies History ]

Meuon posted a video of a woman doing some amazing artistic bike riding, but until a recent thread on Tandem@Hobbes I had no idea that indoor artistic cycling was such an established activity. Here's some information on the bicycles they use, and Some pictures of Ines Brunn performing.

[ related topics: Art & Culture Sports Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Today's ride was a tour of Sonoma hills with Rich and Christian. Starting from the Sonoma Barracks, in downtown Sonoma, we went up Arnold Drive to Glen Ellen, up over Sonoma Mountain (with a carry over the huge washout) to Cotati, north up that valley to Santa Rosa, through Annadel State Park, and up-and-back to the ridge of Sugarloaf State Park.

58 miles, average 15.4 MPH, a little slow, but understandable given the climbing and the road conditions, which gave a max of 36.5 MPH.

And afterwards I went and got myself a Topeak Road Morph G, because it's got a tube to the valve clamp so you don't accidentally shear the valve pin off a Presta valve when you wiggle the pump, and because it's got a gauge so you're actually likely to pump up your tire to full pressure rather than finish out the ride on a soft tire. A few extra grams, but I'm willing to carry them for destroying less tubes and the added safety of having full traction.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Bay Area Bicycling ]

So much for that conspiracy theory: 911 Case Study: Pentagon Flight 77.

[ related topics: Aviation WTC/Pentagon attacks Conspiracy ]

Happy Grover Cleveland throwing a bone to the unions to try to undo the political damage caused by sending in the National Guard to break up the Pullman strike day!

I'll be working.

[ related topics: Politics Work, productivity and environment ]

Hey, you know all of those pump-and-dump spams you've been getting about a huge Colorado oil field: Here's an article on the large kerogen shale deposits in Colorado:

"If society wanted, it could wait 100 million years for this kerogen to mature into oil, then drill down and pump it out normally," said Terry O'Connor, Shell's vice president of external affairs. "We're just speeding up the process."

[ related topics: Politics ]

Thanks to Daze Reader for bringing my attention to the headline of the week: Participant of Sex Dolls Rafting Tournament Disqualified For Sexual Abuse of Apparatus. Ahhh, those wacky Russians. Photos and text in Russian at Bubble Baba Challenge.

I'm thinkin' that perhaps this is something that needs to be instituted on the Ocoee?

[ related topics: Humor Sexual Culture Current Events Whitewater ]

Got a big load of marinated beef whirring away in the dehydrator, and the kitchen is filled with the wonderful aromas of garlic, onion, and assorted glutamates. Yum! Another load of apples to go this evening, and Charlene and I need to get down to our neighbor's place to raid her apple and pear trees that she hasn't been able to pick because of a recent surgery.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Food ]

Okay, perhaps not getting quite as much done as I should... You must go check out xkcd, "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math and language", if only because it takes a certain sort of mind to get jokes like this. Sometimes uneven, but boy the times it hits, it hits good.

[ related topics: Language Humor Mathematics ]

Leo went to SIGGRAPH so that you don't have to: Here's his report of notable stuff from SIGGRAPH 2006.

[ related topics: Graphics ]

Wisconsin Medical Society - Savant Profile, Stephen Wiltshire has an interesting video about autistic artist Stephen Wiltshire and his ability to do detailed architectural drawings from memory.

[ related topics: Art & Culture Video ]

Something took down my server this morning. I've been through the logs and don't find any obvious suspects (although someone was trying to brute force passwords a few days ago), but I see that a lot of other people seem to have been having issues this morning. Was there some monster spam assault or something?

[ related topics: Spam Monty Python ]

"July 13, at 8:57 pm, 2006 the first wheelchair backflip is landed!" Aaron Fotheringham gets extreme on a wheelchair. Google Video of just the flip. The wheelchair is built by Colours in Motion, but except for being a little rugged doesn't look all that exceptional. This is all about the rider. And an interview with Aaron at NewDisability.com.

[ related topics: Sports Skating Video Handicaps & Disabilities ]

Argh. So I want to check out some software on this Mac. It's written in Python. It requires some libraries.

Reasons I hate the Mac #2243151: Various packages have seen to install at least 4 different Python interpreters in different places. Each gets installed at different times. The library installer came with cool Mac binaries. It appears to have installed for a version which I can't figure out how to execute from the command line.

Mac sucks less than Windows, but as I've used this machine for the year and a half or so that I have, the gap is closing. I yearn for the day when my work's on a Linux machine...

[ related topics: Microsoft Open Source Software Engineering Macintosh Python ]

I find the brouhaha over who won Mexico's presidency fascinating in light of Obrador's promise to create a secondary government.

If Obrador can keep his support base (a big "if", given that government is all about mythologies and belief, and the notion that "a court" has sanctioned Calderon's win will do much to reinforce aspects of that structure), then what we're about to see is a graphic demonstration that governments are predicated on force, and that taxes for unequal services can only be collected under the threat of violence.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics moron ]

I have skipped over this link a number of times, seen it in all sorts of places, and this morning I finally figured I had to watch it: Ursula Martinez does a progressively more difficult "disappearing handkerchief" routine as she keeps removing the clothing that could be used to hide it. Not safe for work.

[ related topics: Erotic Clothing Video ]

Neil Gaiman points out that the TSA permitted items list allows you to fly with lube! In the list of permitted items is "Up to 4 oz. of essential non-prescription liquid medications including saline solution, eye care products and KY jelly".

[ related topics: Neil Gaiman Personal Lubricant ]

Okay, if y'all are feeling homesick, Viv's got some pictures from Burning Man 2006. And here's a thread to hang other trip reports on as you find 'em.

[ related topics: Burning Man Photography Weblogs Travel ]

Peter Merholz has pointed out that you can download the complete set of NPS map symbols and maps of all of the national parks. Should I get time to play with my own stuff again, this'll be useful.

[ related topics: Maps and Mapping ]

Holy crap! Did I not mention Rian Johnson's awesome film Brick here? I was reminded by stumbling across Andrew Pilsch's review of it, which I wanted to link to from the comments of my review of it, but I don't find any mention on Flutterby. And, surprisingly, I see no mention of the movie over at Jette's Celluloid Eyes.

Brick is a film noir set in a high school. Yes, this could easily be a satire. The noir elements could be used for irony. High school kids with dark angst, deep senses of duty, and cavalier crimes could easily come off as cheesey. It's none of these things, and somehow it grabbed the essence of high school.

The film opens with a shot of a dead woman in a culvert, a guy, we shortly learn is named Brendan, in the background. Flash back two days and we're in the thick of Brendan trying to figure out what's going on.

The film is wonderfully written and directed. Short snappy dialog in metaphor you have to listen closely to translate. When adults, even authority figures, show up in the film, they're largely ineffective and out of touch, tools to be manipulated by the players, and it plays perfectly.

Next time you're up for an intense thriller or a little reminder of what the end of adolescence was like, I recommend it.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Movies ]

Is Warren Buffett poly?

Mr Buffett's Latvian-born bride, Astrid Menks, is 60 to her husband's 76. The pair have been living together since the late 1970s. Nothing unusual about that, except that Mr Buffett had an apparently close and loving marriage to another woman, Susan, until her death in 2004. The trio even sent out Christmas cards signed "Warren, Susie and Astrid".

(Via Slog)

[ related topics: Sociology Current Events Marriage ]

Dan Savage takes on the Seattle mayor's latest attempt to make everyone a criminal.

[ related topics: Drugs Humor Seattle ]

What Valerie Plame really did at the CIA. She apparently ran the 50 person or so Joint Task Force on Iraq, the group charged with finding weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist. She wasn't outed to punish Joseph Wilson, she was outed to punish her.

[ related topics: Politics War ]

Volunteers at Bletchley Park Museum, site of the Brit's historic program for breaking Hitler's ENIGMA code, have rebuilt one of the Bombes. These were the electromechanical computers that quickly translated German messages into clear language, once codebreakers delivered the algorithim of that day's code machine settings. In particular, their rapid determination of U-boat deployment in the Atlantic saved thousands of lives in the convoys, and may have shortened the war by 2 years. The finished machine is 6 feet high, 7 feet long, and weighs more than a ton.

[ related topics: History Boats Machinery Cryptography Dictators ]

Wow. You can buy an old schoolbus in the United States, ship it to the Congo, and sell it for $2k and make a profit. Because of my years hanging out around whitewater folks and with hippies, I know you can buy old schoolbuses fairly cheap, but I didn't know that shipping that direction was that inexpensive.

[ related topics: Economics Public Transportation ]

Kidnapping foreign nationals off the streets of their country and flying them in unmarked planes to secret prisons? Preposterous! What sort of conspiracy theory wacko are you?

What... oh, you mean those secret prisons.

[ related topics: Politics Aviation Conspiracy ]

There's been a log of fuss of Jigsaw.com lately, and I just gotta say: Brilliant. Simply Brilliant. 18 Mil in funding.. Hmm..

Marketplace finds lesbians an attractive, but elusive, niche. Leaving all of the potential plays off the words in that headline alone, the article is interesting for the comparisons of gay male consumer culture to... well... trying to find a lesbian culture. Or at least one that's sustainable. And I think they nail it with:

Another factor in business decline is that bookstores and cafes that catered to lesbians often had strong ties to feminism, which has been less visible since the 1970s and '80s.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Sociology Consumerism and advertising California Culture ]

Is a U.S. Defense Contractor hosting the Hezbollah website?

Okay, everyone else has been pointing to it, so should I: California HR 36 Assembly House Resolution: Relative to Pluto's planetary status. Among other things:

WHEREAS, The deletion of Pluto as a planet is a hasty, ill-considered scientific heresy similar to questioning the Copernican theory, drawing maps of a round world, and proving the existence of the time and space continuum; and

WHEREAS, The downgrading of Pluto reduces the number of planets available for legislative leaders to hide redistricting legislation and other inconvenient political reform measures; and

Worth reading. Thanks to Brainwagon (entry here) and More Like This (entry here).

[ related topics: Politics Humor Space & Astronomy California Culture ]

Two totally not safe for work bondage hotnesses: Over at her desires, Vikki describes being tied up and teased, and Violet Blue visits a rope factory in seattle with some video of getting tied up.

[ related topics: Erotic Technology and Culture Video Seattle ]

So speaking of "...I remember this party at...", I think I'm looking forward to Shortbus. Not monstrously excited, 'cause John Cameron Mitchell's other film Hedwig and the Angry Inch fell kinda flat for me, but interested.

[ related topics: Archival ]

Do you feel safer now? An ally (Pakistan) has signed a peace treaty with and ceded territory to an enemy (the Taliban). C'mon, Mr. Bush, if this is indeed a fight against a Hitler class enemy (and I could be convinced that it is), then let's get it in gear and win: instead of screwing about with ways to transfer the United States's GDP to defense contractors figure out how to change attitudes so that this sort of appeasement isn't acceptable to the citizens of our allies!

Or, more to the point, let's get some people who aren't total bumbling fucking idiots into the Executive branch, and we can start by changing the Legislative branch, 'cause they're up for election sooner.

[ related topics: Politics moron ]

Anyone have a clue why 208.53.147.137 would be trying to load the various highest database resource and bandwidth using pages from my server with assorted different client specs (ie: quite a few claims of different versions of Mozilla with varous different plug-ins, although always "Windows NT 5.1"), several claims of Opera), and no referrer?

[ related topics: Microsoft Open Source Databases ]

An intriguing free-speech conundrum: A small local free newspaper with a conservative bent is distributed by leaving it in public places, like the vestibule of a store or the doorway of coffee-shops. However, the local KKK is collecting the papers, inserting their own anti-semitic and rascist flyers, and leaving them on people's doorsteps, without the knowlege or approval of the paper's publisher. He is now suing the Klan for misrepresenting his company's policies. So here's the question: If I make something available for free, can I control what use they may make of it afterwards?

[ related topics: Business Free Speech Journalism and Media ]

Views of the Earth: "artificial images of our real planet". Thanks to Leo.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Maps and Mapping ]

Yosemite's new breed of 'rock rats' is about the cultural changes in rock climbing. I'm linking to it primarily because it quotes Lynn Hill, who once gave me some beta while I was top-roping out at Sunset Rock on some a killer overhang whose name I forget right now. It involved working out an underlying flake, but the hard part was making the transition out around back on to the face. Her advice went something like "Reach out with your right hand, find that vertical crack. Good, now put your left pinky and ringfinger in and haul up, then go dynamic and get your left hand in the horizontal about two feet up."

Yeah. Right. But it was fun to try and I think I got that left hand in once before I was totally blown. This was compounded by the fact that because it was a long overhang, each attempt involved getting lowered down quite a ways and re-climbing.

But back to the article, it's about how, as the sport has grown dramatically in popularity, safety has been replaced by daredevil attitudes as people vie for spectacular stunts for sponsors. It's also worth noting that the guy in the video that they link to autodarwinated in '98.

[ related topics: Sociology Sports Video Yosemite ]

Detroit News Story - they cancel school indefinately.

But then, the other side is, these teachers should do it the capitalistic way: get better jobs elsewhere or doing something else rather than strike (if they were capable). But the whole system and concept is a failure, and that is a shameful thing. [putting asbestos suit on]

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Current Events ]

Commodification run amok: Designer Ice . (courtesy of Gizmodo)

I considered writing something yesterday about it being 5 years after September 11^th, 2001, but I spent the day in a compatibility lab down at Apple and didn't get to it. So y'all were mercifull spared.

However, on the way home I heard a snippet of Dubya's speech for the occasion:

Whatever mistakes have been made in Iraq, the worst mistake would be to think that if we pulled out, the terrorists would leave us alone.

And I thought "nice fucking strawman, asshole". Normally I'd tone that thought down a bit when I transcribed it for here, but... Five years ago the nation pulled together in a way that hadn't happened in my lifetime. Five years ago we had a purpose, and we had the national will to solve some real international problems. Five years ago we, even out here on the left coast, suddenly gained some national pride.

All of that got pissed away by a bunch of incompetent lying morons who have their own agenda that apparently involves fucking up the Middle East badly enough that their "rapture" will come and end the world.

Yeah, if we pulled our troops out of Germany the terrorists wouldn't leave us alone, either. Our troops in Iraq, or Germany or most other places we've got 'em, are completely orthogonal to the issues that enraged those who attacked the United States 5 years ago, and the continuing struggles in Iraq are orthogonal to solving those problems. Although through the magic of some really boneheaded politics and diplomacy, the Executive Branch has set it up so that if we "win" in Iraq we get nothing, but if we lose, we lose big.

But any ranting I can do on that topic is stuff you've already heard. But Columbine's "Twin Tragedies" points out that the attacks on the U.S. were the first tragedy, the second happened because of the national response to the first.

[ related topics: Politics moron Current Events ]

Drivers give helmeted cyclists less room. Guy puts ultrasonic distance sensor on bike, rides around, discoveres interesting things:

"We know helmets are useful in low-speed falls, and so definitely good for children, but whether they offer any real protection to somebody struck by a car is very controversial," said Walker. "Either way, this study suggests wearing a helmet might make a collision more likely in the first place."

[ related topics: Automobiles Bicycling ]

Our neighbor Diana, a few doors down, makes chocolate truffles, cookies and the like. She's got her wares in a number of local specialty shops and is getting something of a reputation. For quite a while I've been wanting to see how she works to improve my own chocolate skills.

Recently she had surgerey, and in the ensuing "how can we help?" discussions she mentioned that she had to make five hundred some truffles for the Marin Organic "Taste of Marin" event. So last night we made 13 double batches of ganache, tonight we form the centers, tomorrow night we'll dip them.

It's different working with her, when I'm doing chocolate I have a bunch of thermometers out and I'm constantly checking temperatures of water baths and confections to the degree. She's very much of a "that feels right" bent. But we worked well together.

Because of some issues in his housing situation, Alan, Charlene's developmentally disabled brother, has been staying with us for a week or so. He doesn't get up here often, and even though his birthday is a month and a half off he wanted to celebrate with Charlene and Athena. So Charlene made him a fire engine cake, for which I made up a ladder. The first one got broken, so last night I broke out the instructions for making workable sugar and tried again.

The first time I tried that recipe I left out the cream of tartar and went to about 305°F, and while it was somewhat workable, not everything came together right. Last night I think I got it right with the ingredients, pulled it to just 300°F, and had something that was fairly workable. I even tried blowing it a bit, and while I got some interesting balls I kept getting thin spots and blowing out the sides. There are clearly technique issues I need to work out, but I'm making progress.

[ related topics: Bay Area Chocolate Food - Cake ]

Riding the Hotter than Hell Hundred with a six and a nine year old in under 6:30 wall time. Okay, they were on a quad, but still.

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

Avi Rubin worked the polls in the Maryland Primary and has a report of his day. Well worth reading his report of the process. Via Genehack.

Eric brought up fixed gear bicycles, and a few days later SFGate has a long article about the current trendiness of fixies.

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

The creators of the YouTube videoblog mystery of Bree (lonelygirl15 and Danielbeast), have supposedly "come clean" about their creative project. It's been a lot of fun to follow along recently; although I don't watch Lost I'm told it's a lot like that, with hints and such thrown in from odd angles. I won't rehash the whole story here, but it's a mysterious yet light-hearted coming-of-age story, with pretty much nothing as simple as it seems.



Bree is quite nice to look at and fun to listen to. And I'm enjoying the videoblog method of telling a story: I could imagine a NaNoWriMo for v-blogs. And it's probably given Thelema a major PR boost... if in fact that turns out to be relevant to the story after all. (In Lost fashion, it might be a red herring or misinterpretation.)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Business Movies New Economy Current Events Fashion ]

Doublethink is alive and well, as seen in this wonderful headline from ThinkProgress.com: "Air America To Declare Bankruptcy, But Progressive Radio Remains Strong"

[ related topics: Journalism and Media David Hasselhoff ]

Fanny Violeau does some things on skates around cones that are pretty amazing.

[ related topics: Skating ]

Pete Beeman's walker, a bicycle with no wheels.

[ related topics: Pedal Power ]

Welcome aboard Veritas Airlines:

At Veritas Airways, your safety is our first priority. Actually, that is not quite true: if it were, our seats would be rear-facing, like those in military aircraft, since they are safer in the event of an emergency landing. But then hardly anybody would buy our tickets and we would go bust.

[ related topics: Humor Aviation ]

One of the things I love about the Tandem@Hobbes mailing list is that ya can't make any assumptions about the other participants. It's one of the places where I've seen practical discussions about web site accessibility (a number of blind stokers), and in a recent discussion about the usefulness of mirrors on bicycles, and whether or not they'd let you see approaching traffic before you could hear it, Sanjay Gulati said:

Research indicates that deaf people actually have a lower rate of car accidents than hearing people, presumably due to being more careful and being more visually aware. (Particularly surprising given how hard it is to sign and drive at the same time!)

And I thought "when video camera phones become widespread, we are so screwed."

[ related topics: Automobiles Handicaps & Disabilities Bicycling - Tandem ]

Madrid's regional government bans skinny models from fashion show:

Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.

(The regional government is the primary sponsor of the show)

[ related topics: Health Fashion ]

70.34 miles, average 17.3 MPH, max 46.3 MPH (drafting a cement truck north down Nicasio Valley Road). Was going to bike to the start in Fairfax, I forgot my sunglasses, went back, drove to Fairfax, and a guy from out of town, Chuck, who was waiting for the ride said "I forgot my helmet. I know you guys have rules, so can you suggest an alternate ride?" Instead, we drove back to my place so I could loan him a spare, and the two of us rode from home and met the ride in Nicasio.

Up past the cheese factory, out to Tomales, a brisk paceline down the coast to Point Reyes Station, then back through Nicasio Valley.

Ego killer of the day: Ralph, on his mountain bike, complete with knobby (albeit worn down) tires, just wiping the floor with all of us road bikers. From leading the paceline to doing that scoot your butt back and put your stomach on the seat to get a low profile thing on the downhills, and passing, just some amazing cycling.

[ related topics: Bay Area History Sports Machinery Pedal Power Bicycling ]

I think it's time I find another bank. www.SunTrust.com is down. 100%, I can get to a different login screen, but can't login. This is after a strange week of issues with their online interface, can't do things, one of my account balances has been offline for a few days. e-mails are unanswered, and my local branch is willing to be helpful, but can't do anything.

As they handle a couple of CC merchant accounts, and I have my household bills finally all reset to bill directly against this account, I'm reluctant to change.. and it will cost me some serious time and money to do so, I'm still considering it.

Banking has become little more than an abstraction of an ability to do data processing well, with a good online interface, timely and good reporting, and the ability to move money around. I'm just not getting a warm fuzzy feeling from their online capabilities. At this point in the world, that's about all they are dispite the nice people behind the local counters, and their allowing the "North Shore Community" and CBC to abuse their much needed parking lot space on Frazier.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable for expecting it to be accessable at Midnight Saturday.. and I'd forgive them if it were a 'undergoing scheduled maintenance' screen.. but I've seen what banks spend on hosting and connectivity, they should be up no matter what, right?

Oh.. They just popped up with:

"Online Banking is currently not in service. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later."

Faith inspiring. Eh?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Space & Astronomy Community Currency ]

So does anyone else find it ironic that this current e-coli in packaged spinach outbreak is associated with products from "Natural Selection Foods"?

I woke up yesterday morning with a killer headache, feeling pretty lousy, but Diana had 500 truffles to dip for the Marin Organic "Taste of Marin" event, so I went over there and we melted a boatload of chocolate and dipped for four and a half hours (well, okay, probably dipped for four and cleaned up for half an hour). Charlene was out of town dealing with her developmentally disabled brother, so on her way back in she met us at the event.

It was a fun evening. We were reminded again about the value of a diverse food supply, there were several dishes with spinach and nobody thought twice abut it, everything was quite tasty, but we also got a chance to talk with various farmers from west Marin, which makes the Farmer's Market out at Point Reyes Station more attractive.

Alas, Charlene was tired and I was feeling under the weather, so we didn't stay all that late. But we enjoyed it.

[ related topics: Food Bay Area Chocolate ]

Ages ago I read a fascinating book called The Newtonian Casino, about a group of people who, in the '70s, built computers in their shoes to give them an edge in roulette. Various dependability issues meant that they never made any real money from the process, but I didn't know that Edward O. Thorp built an analog wearable computer to solve roulette, and used it in 1961.

[ related topics: Books Cool Technology Gambling ]

The under the weatherness continues. Yesterday and last night were constant diarrhea and gas bloating, headaches, and because I've been trying to sleep (actually just staring at the insides of my eyelids, except for maybe 3 hours last night), the rest of my body aches.

The nurse at my doctor's office said "symptoms sound like a virus, not an infection, so as long as you stay hydrated there's not much we can do". Which is roughly what I expected to hear. So sucking down water and various electrolytes, checking my weight on the scale regularly, and trying to stay sane.

This sucks.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Health virus ]

Philip Greenspun's notes on preparing a helicopter landing zone had an interesting picture of a Kaman K-Max heavy lift helicopter. I hadn't seen one before, so I went on a search.

It's got two contra-rotating main rotors, intermeshed, and angled out so that the blade of each passes over the hub of the other. No anti-torque rotor. Single pilot, some sources make reference to optional side passenger pod. Burning eighty some-odd gallons of fuel per hour it can lift 5,000 lbs at 10k feet.

Philip's picture is of one of Superior Helicopter's beasties. Here are some pictures of Mountain West Helicopter's K-Max at Colorado's Snaking Fire. And the obligatory airliners.net page and, of course, the Kaman Aerospace K-Max overview.

And the abstract for Analyses of Parameters Affecting Helicopter Timber Extraction says of tests using a K-Max:

The inexperienced helicopter pilot had timber extraction experience but just 30 flight hours on the K-Max while the experienced pilot had 22,000 K-Max flight hours. The experienced pilot yielded a 0.37 m3/min increase in productivity, which is a 63% increase at an average piece size of 1.5 m3.

Unfortunately, there are too many variables in 30 versus 22,000 hours on a given aircraft, and too much range in the sample, to derive anything too useful from that, but I wonder what the economics are of pilots flying a twelve hundred dollar per hour machine, and of 63% differences in extraction rates...

And while I don't mean to give it short shrift down here at the end, I notice through one of Larry's random pictures that he's got a gallery of a visit to a helicopter museum that looks pretty darned cool.

[ related topics: Photography Aviation Work, productivity and environment Aviation - Helicopters ]

Mary Hodder experienced further issues in TSA incompetence and security theater. Going through airport security post 9/11 scares the heck out of me because I'm always afraid something like this is going to happen.

[ related topics: Politics Aviation moron ]

Keith Olbermann is definitely setting himself up to be this generation's Edward R. Murrow (YouTube video version).

[ related topics: Politics Political Correctness Video Propaganda ]

Video of a USA vs Japan competition about opening beer bottles using an opener attached to the strut of the helicopter. Something's weird about how the bottles are attached, there are some glancing blows that work remarkably well, and they seem to be sprung in one axis and rigid in the other, but still some remarkable flying (from Philip Greenspun's Weblog).

[ related topics: Beer Video Aviation - Helicopters ]

Every year I go to a trade show in Chicago that includes marketing and motivation tools, stuff like pencils with "your name here", advertising coffee mugs and beach towles, and even sales incentive plans where the first prize is a new shotgun. Every show also includes a lot of slightly ridiculous ideas. One year a guy was selling day-glo colored cards with Your Name on one side and the word TAXI on the other; you were supposed to wave this at the street when you wanted a cab. Too late, he discovered that anybody with a printer could duplicate the product. However, I just got an e-mail for the 2006 Stupid Marketing Idea of the Year: Laptop Billboards. I expect to see this at Starbucks in the coming months.

[ related topics: Spam Invention and Design Consumerism and advertising Marketing ]

Next time I'm snickering at some owner of an exotic sportscar for putting his physiological detriments on display like that, I need to remember the performance equivalent alternative I always want to suggest: the Ariel Atom. 0-60 in 2.9. Performance that puts it right up against the half-million dollar cars. It sure looks exotic, but it also looks like it'd be perfect form factor for tooling up Route 1 on a warm fall day if your tastes in that direction fall towards a gasoline engine. I don't see any specific American prices around, but it should be about $60k US. The Top Gear segment on the Ariel Atom.

I still think that if I'm going to be tooling up Route 1 in something involving that much carbon fiber it should be with two wheels and probably made by Calfee Design, but I wanted this in a place where I could find it again.

And speaking of Top Gear, I'm generally not much on TV hosts, they're usually vacuously ignorant and reading off of scripts, but I have enjoyed the occasional Top Gear segment on YouTube when it's been recommended to me, and anyone who does their own stunts to the tune of 300MPH gets a bit of respect: Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond in hospital after crash at somewhere between 200 and 300 MPH.

[ related topics: Current Events Television Automobiles ]

In my current quest to maintain a liquid diet, one of the doctor's suggestions for alternatives was "Jello". So I was in United on the way home, looking for same, and was... well... since I knew I was going to be doing various juices anyway, and wanted to cut down on the fructose I was sucking down (my liver's already working hard...), I figured I'd try something with slightly more usable sugar molecules. So I bought a few packets of Knox unflavored gelatine (also a Kraft product, ain't branding cool?), and in my stop at Good Earth picked up some Eden Malt Syrup.

Made up a batch with some sliced ginger, magrood (or kaffir lime) leaves ('cause I'd forgotten to get any smarter citrus flavor while I was out) and that malt syrup and... Yow. I wouldn't make a stout with that stuff. The blackstrap molasses of malt syrup. Damn I wish we had a good brewing store near by, 'cause this is way pricier and way less good tasting than any number of the malt syrups Eric and I used to buy to brew beer with. Even the pre-hopped stuff. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if it were a lighter roast but... well... I'm sucking my concoction down 'cause it's a reasonable way to get decent calories, but I'm not particularly happy about it. Maybe it'll work better in baking when I'm back on solids.

Anyone know what the sugars in rice syrup are? Or another way to get maltose or maybe something with a slightly longer chain?

[ related topics: Dan's Life Health Food Beer ]

Jerry Pournelle always spoke of the computer eventually becoming just a bump in the cable between the keyboard and the monitor. It's been a while since the limiting factor in designing laptops has been the size of the display, keyboard and batteries. But now I think the general-purpose computer is getting down there: GumStix has a new linux-based 200Mhz computer with 64MB of RAM, a Compact Flash slot and 10/100 ethernet that's quite a bit smaller than most network printer servers I've seen. I know 200Mhz and 64MB of RAM seems kind of paltry but when you consider that a scant 12 years ago, a web server for a medium-sized ISPs was quite a bit smaller. (BTW: Here's a fun list to feed your war-dialer!)

[ related topics: Free Software broadband Open Source Invention and Design History Current Events Archival ]

There was a time where any interview which asked of a game designer:

What was the inspiration for using the sexuality of prepubescent girls as a theme in the game?

Would have gotten an instant link from me on Flutterby. And I guess it still does, but not in the "Now I have to know what Rule of Rose is all about!" sort of way, because, frankly, every time I've expected to see something truly literary, something that makes me think about culture, from a game, it hasn't happened.

This game is an interesting cultural phenomenon in that it's been released everywhere but the U.S., and Sony, it's publisher elsewhere, doesn't want it released in the U.S., but Atlus, the developers, have found a way to do that anyway, but as I dug a bit further I was left with an "oh, it's a video game. with cut scenes. I wonder when they'll do the comic version so I'd actually enjoy it?" reaction.

Via Disobey. I realized that Morbus Iff had dropped off my sidebar, and I can't remember why, but he's got some good stuff there.

[ related topics: Games Sexual Culture Sociology ]

Shoot. Ya know, I ran across a "decline of newspapers" thing that I was going to link to to start this little bit, but I don't know where it was, so insert your own whining about the decline of the old media here.

You want proof that the decline of newspapers is mostly a matter of audience and delivery mechanism? SFGate is billing Violet Blue's sex columnist role for them as "Putting the S.F. in N.S.F.W.". SFGate is the online arm of the San Francisco Chronicle, they even share the domain, but Violet Blue ends up only in the online edition.

Since most of the content is mirrored, it's clearly just a matter of which medium the demographic uses. Paper is the medium of old people stuck in their ways who'd be shocked and offended by the notion that "people are having sex!" Smart newspapers will make the transition, stupid ones will die.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Bay Area Journalism and Media Marketing ]

One of the pioneers in the bagged greens business speaks out (alt link):

I think the F.D.A. employee that I heard on the radio yesterday urging people to play it safe and not eat fresh spinach is ignorant. Although the victims got sick by eating spinach from a sealed bag it’s wrong to seize on spinach as the culprit in the controversy; it makes more sense to look at the processing and handling of pre-packaged greens in general. Put another way, it’s the harvest procedures that were followed, the pre-washed claim made for the greens, and the bagged environment the greens are in that are the relevant issues, not the specific variety of leafy greens that were actually contaminated at some point during the harvest and post harvest handling.

And

It is true that the open piles of washed baby greens that were once the norm in supermarkets and farmers markets were vulnerable to post harvest/ post wash contamination. Those sneeze guards over the pizza parlor salad bar aren’t there for nothing. But I’ll tell you that every sealed bag of pre-washed greens is like a little green house.

But really, it's worth going and reading the whole thing. (via Rebecca Blood)

[ related topics: Nature and environment Food Bay Area Work, productivity and environment Economics ]

OK on a totally off-topic topic, I want to recommend Weird Al's new music video parody, "White & Nerdy". As someone who adores Weird Al Yankovic's parodies (the good ones anyway), is the mother of two certified white nerds, and has many of those same tendencies herself (witness the fact that I understood most of the references the first time through), I have to say that the video for this ranks right up there with his audio tribute to Zappa, "Genius in France". (I don't think there's a video to go with that one, but if you're a Zappa afficionado, you'll greatly appreciate "Genius..", it's brilliant.) If you want to review the references, the Wikipedia page goes through many of them, including the fact that Donny Osmond is dancing wildly in front of Schrodinger's equations.

JavaScript and Klingon, indeed.

The part about the bubblewrap is true, though.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music Movies Invention and Design Race Video ]

New Scientist Article is worth a read, a working prototype is capable of 300 millinewtons of thrust (not much) from 1kw of electricity. Still, that's measurable. In the original goal of positioning thrusters for solar powered orbital satellites, it is useful thrust, without the weigh (and short life) of fuel.

If we can get him, and the perpetual motion/energy guys at Steorn (mentioned earlier) together, we could have hovering vehicles that require no fuel....

Scotty, when can you beam me up?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Cool Science Star Trek Robotics Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Archival ]

Huge new cave discovered in Sequoia National Park. No news of anything vertical yet, though.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Invention and Design Current Events ]

Further components for physiology hackery and the ultimate bike computer: Bluetooth enabled heart monitor, looks like it also has some orientation or accelerometer information inside it.

[ related topics: Wireless Physiology Bicycling ]

Harrison Hot Springs World Championships of Sand Sculpture, start here for the photos.

[ related topics: Art & Culture ]

And this one's for Meuon, crasch, and anyone else who's road-tripped out of a pickup truck. The QuickUp camper is a stock size camper shell that folds up for more space when you're parked.

[ related topics: Cool Technology ]

Dieter Mueller builds his own CPUs, including a 6502 from TTL parts and something of his own design from discrete surface mount transistors. (via Brainwagon)

[ related topics: Hardware Hackery Cool Technology ]

Yes, I know language is changing and dynamic and all of that, but there's one construct that drives me nuts: people who use "jibe" as "agree with":

In these final stages of writing a cookbook, both the editor and a copy editor goes over the book with a fine-toothed comb, looking for errors and making sure things jibe.

The word you're looking for is "jive", although I can tell from your usage that you've never been on a sailboat.

It's right up there with "cut the mustard".

[ related topics: Language ]

I get the Snopes RSS feed on my Google home page and usually keep up with the trends in un-understanding... Today's gem was about a song from a band called Diamond Rio. One particular lyric had me laughing my feminist ass off:

There's no separation, we're one nation under Him

A feminist would argue that even if we had true separation of church and state, we'd still be "one nation under him". And here's another interesting thought: If we were living in a matriarchy, might we actually have less separation of church and state?!?

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Politics Content Management Bay Area Art & Culture ]

Bruce Schneier excerpts the bits from this post and comments that proposes a solution to checked baggage and expensive and critical gear: Fly with a weapon, in this case a starter's pistol, which is a weapon by TSA rules, but is legal without registration in all 50 states:

I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare...I'm given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

[ related topics: Aviation Guns ]

When I worked in a hospital's AV department, we did some work with Hasselblads. They were not pretty, or even very easy to use (I never got the hang of the waist-level viewfinder), but they were the best built cameras I've ever seen. They were, after all, the cameras used on the Moon. Now the 'Blad has gone digital, with a 39 megapixel model that looks remarkably like the old silver iodide models. Each shot generates 117 megabytes of data! Don't bother with an SD card, you must be "tethered" to a MAC or PC. Probably not the one for your vacation snaps.(tip o'the hat to Gizmodo)

[ related topics: Photography Work, productivity and environment Cool Technology David Hasselhoff ]

Newsweek has different covers for different regions this week. In a week when Dubya wants to cherry-pick further declassification from the national intelligence assessment:

Portions of the document that have been leaked suggest that the threat of terrorism has grown worse since the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the war in Afghanistan, due in part to the war in Iraq.

Democrats have used the report to bolster their criticism of Bush's Iraq policy. The administration has claimed only part of the report was leaked and does not tell the full story.

"...so rather than come clean and declassify the whole thing, the administration has chosen to declassify other out of context sections.", the article did not continue.

[ related topics: Politics Weblogs History moron Mark Morford ]

I've said before that I'm for the death penalty in theory, against it in practice. Here's why I'm not only against it in practice, but why I'm convinced that the penal system in this country is fucked up and rotten to the core. Michael Buerk interviews Nick Yarris about his 8,057 days (22 years) on death row for a crime he didn't commit (via Sensible Erection).

Yarris wasn't someone with his life together, and in many ways was downright stupid, but the way in which the system (and a populace bent on revenge, not justice) abused him is pretty sick. And well worth listening to all the way through.

And Nick Yarris's own website.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Ya know, if someone wanted to throw an obscene amount of money behind a "personal transportation system", forget the Segway, how about a few million in development behind the Skywalker Jetpack?

[ related topics: Cool Technology Segway/Ginger/IT ]

Kip Hawley is an idiot.

[ related topics: moron ]

Giant bug invades Germany (via Google Maps). And a Keyhole thread on the topic.

[ related topics: Maps and Mapping ]

Pennsylvania woman indicted on obscenity charges for running a website with text stories on it.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Law ]

Aahh, good old James Dobson, taking Holocaust survivors to task for teaching their children about that genocide, dismissing such teaching as "...tales of horrific violence that lacked the redemptive power of Christ’s atonement..." (via Elf).

[ related topics: Religion Children and growing up moron ]

In case that garage band of yours never quite got off the ground, you can still produce visuals for that VH1 nostalgia special. Just use the Cassette Generator to fill in the gaps in your discography.

[ related topics: Nostalgia Music Pop Culture ]

There is a certain wonderful warm feeling you get when the project you have been working on for 6+ months gets put into production.. and then over a week of very rapid feature creep, then a couple of days of "BigAssCorp, Inc." client test teams, in-house, client and 3rd party security and "information protection" audits, and then.. poof. In one afternoon, everyone checks off on Everything. Wow. What a feeling.

In some ways, I feel I learned about the web/internet/html/css/javascript/flash/php/mysql all over again during the past 6 months. While pseudo-related, I learned a lot about Java, (under Tomcat, Yech), JavaScript (Thanks a lot to the kick start from Tom and Dori's books), and ActionScript (Flash). and expanded what I know about HTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL a lot.

Next month: re-write it again.. just to clean it up. All of those "shoulda/coulda/woulda's" are on this list. Usually I just get something working and go on to the next project, being enabled ($$ snd time) to rebuild it again just to make it better is a luxury seldom seen and I intend to enjoy it.

[ related topics: Books Open Source Software Engineering History Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Net Culture Databases Real Estate ]