Flutterby™! From 2013-04-01 to 2013-04-30

I'm in Javascript mode right now for some web interface tweaks. Once I get into it, I actually like playing with Javascript for controlling a web interface. It's kinda fun. As I Google for some clues, I'm noticing a lot of people are showing jQuery techniques as answers to questions asked about simple JavaScript techniques. jQuery is chocolate covered raspberry awesomeness when you want the whole box, but sometimes all you need is a little sugar and I'm concerned that as fragmented and terrible as Javascript's support and documentation is compared to other languages, this is just confusing matters more.

[ related topics: Chocolate ]

Just a reminder that the "April Fools" jokes are starting. It may not be sane to surf the web for a few days.

[ related topics: California Culture ]

Best IRC direct message followed up by "wrong person, sorry" I've ever gotten: http://imgur.com/t6Qm9tD

Being interoperable trumps being correct, but I commend the XML community for continuing to try...

[ related topics: Web development Content Management Community ]

Insult, Aggression, and the Southern Culture of Honor: An "Experimental Ethnography, Dov Cohen, Richard E. Nisbett, Brian F. Bowdle, Norbert Schwarz (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology May 1996 Vol. 70, No. 5, 945-960):

The findings of the present experiments are consistent with survey and archival data showing that the South possesses a version of the culture of honor. Southerners and northerners who were not insulted were indistinguishable on most measures, with the exception that control southerners appeared somewhat more polite and deferential on behavioral measures than did control northerners. However, insult dramatically changed this picture. After the affront, southern participants differed from northern participants in several important cognitive, emotional, physiological, and behavioral respects.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Sociology California Culture Archival ]

That thing where the industry presumably doesn't care about what their spec/standard says, because their data doesn't conform. #soap #xml

[ related topics: Web development Content Management ]

Stumbled on Evgeny Morozov in The Baffler, and suddenly comments on newspaper articles weren't the least informed thing on the web.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

So you've undoubtedly heard about these "Fusion Center"s set up by the U.S. Department of Fatherland Homeland Security and the Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice, to share information between domestic intelligence agencies in their spying on U.S. citizens?

Arkansas State Fusion Center Director Richard Davis confirms our fears:

"There's misconceptions on what fusion centers are," he says. "The misconceptions are that we are conducting spying operations on US citizens, which is of course not the fact. That is absolutely not what we do."

[snip]

"We focus a little more on that, domestic terrorism and certain groups that are anti-government," he says. "We want to kind of take a look at that and receive that information."

The cognitive dissonance, it burrrnsss.

Via RT: Fusion center director: We don’;t spy on Americans, just anti-government Americans. Alt link: Reason is apparently parroting the RT article, and though both mention the NWAHomepage article (and, before anyone else says it, yes I have trouble reading that as anything but "with attitude", but it's the KNWA-TV/Fox-24 TV station), neither actually links to it.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture moron Current Events Law Enforcement Television ]

T.Dot Rob: Spam Origin Experiment. Click through to the image where he lays out some of the who's selling what. Short version? Everyone's selling your email address. Or their security sucks.

[ related topics: Spam Monty Python ]

Should remember to have my camera out at intersections so I can take pictures of the inevitable right turn through the walk signal.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Either this will mean something to you, or not: sshfs lets you mount a remote filesystem via ssh and fuse.

via JC.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

So are the profiteers behind the Stockton stadium and other boondoggles going to get off scot free in this bankruptcy? #looters

From Shadow:

• Bike to Beard ratio, although frankly this can be applied to pretty much anything.
• this picture of an Audi e-bike concept bicycle. This The Verge article on Audi's concept bike makes a few claims that are difficult to believe: "lightweight 3.53-pound carbon fiber construction" must be missing at least the tires, batteries and motors, it claims speeds of up to 51MPH with a combination of pedaling and motor, but 30MPH with motor alone, which seems to be ignoring that pesky squared relationship with wind resistance. I do like the notion of a programmable wheelie mode, with user-adjustable wheelie angles.

[ related topics: Automobiles Machinery Fabrication Pedal Power Bicycling Gambling Model Building ]

Seems like we need more "don't aim unless you intend to kill" education, eh NRA?

[ related topics: Photography Education ]

Linux powered rifle. Acquire the target, press the trigger, device measures distance, scope view changes to account for drop and wind, re-center the target acquisition crosshair with the new view center crosshair, weapon fires.

Article describes first time shooter hitting a dinner plate at a thousand yards.

Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Invention and Design Guns ]

PBR by the case at Sebastopol Whole Foods: if we haven't reached Peak Hipster, I fear for the future.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Law ]

/.: Let Them Eat Teslas, points out that we're subsidizing Tesla luxury automobiles at way more favorable terms than college educations.

[ related topics: Food Automobiles Education ]

trolling #haskell

Applesoft BASIC in JavaScript. It's amazing how much I've forgotten.

A Short Translation from Bullshit to English of Selected Portions of the Google Chrome Blink Developer FAQ.

Federal judge orders the FDA to make the "morning after pill" available to all women without a prescription:

On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman said, "The decisions of the Secretary with respect to Plan B One-Step and that of the FDA with respect to the Citizen Petition, which it had no choice but to deny, were arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable."

[ related topics: Health Law Heinlein ]

Massachussetts McDonald's cashier help-wanted ad requires a bachelor's degree and two years of experience as a cashier.

Let's see: no ambition, able to follow procedures without showing initiative, no need to express creativity, able to put on a happy face and push buttons on a cash register. Yep, that's basically what a 4 year degree drums into ya.

The crushing debt making sure that you've got an employee grateful for every penny over the minimum wage is a bonus.

[ related topics: Music Work, productivity and environment Heinlein Currency McDonald's ]

Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor

I recently got to see some of these insite of a "small" DC to AC inverter turning a solar array into AC power. (50kw worth) The engineer forgot what the official name was and emailed me today with this link and a description.

I'm impressed by his follow-thru, to a casual question during a tour, as well as the device. Now I want to use some somewhere... build my own electric car controlling circuits or lightning creator..

and for some reason, I get different connotations when I see the abbreviation IGBT.

[ related topics: Automobiles Photovoltaics ]

This might make City of Petaluma budget documents usable! CSV tables from PDFs http://source.mozillaopennews....-US/articles/introducing-tabula/

[ related topics: Furniture ]

I love pancakes, but I shouldn't eat too much of them. So I save them for special occaisions like when I've been doing lots of exercise, or there are no eggs or something less carb heavy for breakfast. The last couple of times I've made them, we have not had milk, but we've had yogurt and I have substituted. And now it's my favorite way to mix up some pancake batter. They taste better and have a better texture. My non-scientific testing says they bubble up nicer when cooking. Recipe: Pancake mix (or from scratch), plus a big glob of yogurt. Add a little water while mixing up to desired pancake batter consistency. Todays had a little fig jam on them. Yummy.

[ related topics: Food ]

Cottonwoods and mounrains from Albuquerque open space visitor's center

[ related topics: Photography Space & Astronomy ]

Balloon museum...

[ related topics: Photography Art & Culture ]

National Museum Of Nuclear Science and Technology. Because science should go boom!

[ related topics: Art & Culture ]

This is what medical equipment used to look like. Where did wed go wrong?

[ related topics: Photography ]

Proof that the Spaniards had a sense of humor: Rio Grande?

[ related topics: Humor Photography ]

Via Instapundit is an interesting site called Letters of Note, which offers here a great 1955 letter from Robert Heinlein to Theodore Sturgeon. Sturgeon was passing through a bout of writer's block and asked Heinlein for some advice. Robert rattles off a large number of great ideas, some of them very detailed and others just notions. Its great to see the master at work, and it is instructive to see another good writer at a loss. Heinlein favorably mentions Sturgeon's More Than Human, with is a great book, and it's startling to see the person who could do that suddenly dried up.

In a parenthetical note, Heinlein mentions "JWC and Ron Hubbard" in his letter, referring to the creator of Dianetics before the founding of Scientology, and John Campbell, famous SF editor and Hubbard's original champion. I just finished reading Lawrence Wright's Getting Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, and this era of close friendships between the best Science Fiction writers forms an important part of the story. It's great when the whole story fits together so well. Highly recommended.

[ related topics: Books Scientology Writing Work, productivity and environment Heinlein ]

Take 2: beavers in the Bosque?

[ related topics: Photography ]

Wait? Annette Funicello *and* Margaret Thatcher? Truly the end-times are at hand...

• UCLA Researchers Link Auto Pollution Exposure And Some Childhood Cancers
• Traffic Pollution Can Cause Asthma In Kids

Something to think about next time you're totaling up gas taxes vs what our network of roads and dependence on automobiles costs us...

Both via @JuriSense.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Politics broadband Automobiles Government ]

Former Tenn. Lawmaker Allegedly Drove 90 MPH While Masturbating Out Window - all of that repressed sexuality causes "drive by shootings" in Tennessee.

[ related topics: Chattanooga ]

Shadow forwarded along Wired: Roll Your Own Google Street View-Powered Hyperlapse which is about http://hyperlapse.tllabs.io/ the source for which is available at https://github.com/TeehanLax/Hyperlapse.js

As if you needed more reasons than just usability to switch away from iOS: A Statement on Apple’s Banning of SAGA #12 from Brian K. Vaughan

[ related topics: Apple Computer Interactive Drama ]

10% chance of rain today, but we're relatively near the top of the watershed...

[ related topics: Photography ]

The Longmont City Council is invoking eminent domain over the Dillards store in the Twin Peaks Mall. If you've never been to Longmont (and I assume you've never been to Twin Peaks Mall), you should know that Twin Peaks Mall is not a place that anybody goes to shop. When I moved to Colorado seven years ago, most of the mall was empty. Since then even the Sears anchor closed. There's an Old Country Buffet that seems to be popular with the older folks and a movie theater that gets a lot of traffic from kids (but the cameras are always out of focus, so I've only gone a couple times despite being about 1 mile from my house versus 12 miles for the next closest theater).

Evidently Dillards is unique in that it owns it's building independent of the rest of the mall, which sold to developers last year for an insanely small amount of money. Dillards also has veto rights over just about any reconstruction on the mall. The developer has offered Dillards a couple really sweet deals to either allow the redevelopment or sell out. But Dillards keeps holding to it's guns demanding a price more than half what the developer paid for the entire mall and almost double the most recent appraisal. Crazy...

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Photography Movies Theater & Plays Current Events Civil Liberties Guns Currency Real Estate ]

Old town Albuquerque . Not sold on it yet...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Uh. Yeah. Couple of friendly people in Old Town, but...

Ran screaming from Old Town Albuquerque after encountering this...

[ related topics: Photography ]

After a little excitement landing, we're back on the ground

[ related topics: Photography Aviation ]

Of note: we flew with a pilot who holds 50+ world records, and whose 11 year old son has had a license for 2 years.

[ related topics: Photography ]

That's a lot of hot air. About 10 gallons of propane worth...

Take two: Actually, at this poit it was still cold air.

[ related topics: Photography ]

To be fair, it's a suburb, not Albuquerque, but where we're staying: no sidewalks, the credit union only has a walk drive-up ATM. #carbonemissions

Buncha pictures from today's balloon adventure in one page: http://www.flutterby.net/2013-04-11_Albuquerque

[ related topics: Photography ]

Enjoying the slabs at Sequoia Santa Fe

[ related topics: Photography ]

At the Georgia O'Keeffe museum

[ related topics: Photography Art & Culture ]

I want to adopt a standard deviation

[ related topics: Photography ]

Browsing at Baca Street Pottery

[ related topics: Photography ]

Nice walk at the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, now a much anticipated dinner at Mu Du.

[ related topics: Photography Archival ]

LAX Wifi is making me do the Bing vs Google thing for enhanced access. Amused once again that Bing loses.

Redmine Rocks - I don't like that I'm plugging a very Ruby on Rails web app that is a pain to setup and configure, and is very picky about versions of Gems, Phusion, etc required for it to run. But Redmine works very well and deserves some kudos. You learn to love it when you realize the Microsoft Project heads can't share or edit at the same time and email project files and emails around like mad.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron ]

You know you're a Scabble player when someone posts a "first word you see" letter-grid picture on Facebook, and it's "ut"...

Coping baseboards. Glad our moulding profile is very simple, but that straight line is hard...

[ related topics: Photography ]

A problem with furniture grade trim is fitting baseboards to the floor... Marked for the spokeshave...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Two plaintive calls from the past:

1. Victorian funeral photography, Where the deceased were not only captured on film but posed with their family or their favorite toys. It seems utterly creepy today, but as some commenters suggest, this may be the only picture ever taken of the child. Constant death of children was common in all ages before the mid-20th century, but it took the Victorians with their overheated sentimentality to elevate it to cult status, plus the invention of photography.
2. Missing Persons , courtesy of Lileks.com. These are ads placed in national magazines from the early 20s looking for people who have wandered off. Once thinks their brother ran off with the circus, while another wonders if his relative went crazy and is in a lunatic asylum. One helpful clue is that he was a Mason, and Elk, and an Odd Fellow. The saddest ones are two orphans searching for their parents. Although you can always Google somebody today, it is still possible to disappear if you don't have the FBI after you.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Photography History Sociology Law Enforcement ]

Tee hee hee: Dave Winer suggests that under-employed Google Glass wearing 20-somethings will make a real-time StreetView army.

[ related topics: Dave Winer ]

Microsoft email: "Kevin made $85k on his Windows Store apps." After 5 of these, I'm thinkin' that's pretty much all of Windows Store revenue

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron ]

So the FaceTwitSpacePlus feeds blew up with news of the Boston Marathon bombing, or, rather, a little bit of news and a whole lot of uninformed speculation and rumour mongering, and I turned 'em off and went over to check my email...

From

Volkswagen of America <information@volkswagenautomotive.com> via 26.memberemail.com

Date

Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 3:31 PM

Subject

Join Team VW for the 2013 Bay to Breakers Run!

I think if you're contracting with an emailing service to send out your spam, you might want to think a bit about how and where you can cancel or reschedule that mailing...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Spam Current Events Monty Python California Culture Sports ]

Robotics revolutionize dairy farm:

Some of the cows are milked four times a day and, if you can believe it, they get milked when they decide they want to be milked.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Robotics ]

You've probably already seen this, but Salon's article on Eden Foods' anti-contraception stance seemed like it needed a little more coverage.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Salon magazine ]

Ghost in the Machine: For want of a spreadsheet check...:

As Mike Konczal of Rortybomb explains, the Reinhart-Rogoff paper “Growth in a Time of Debt,” which argued that high debt-to-GDP ratios stymie growth and has been one of the key economic foundations for recent deficit hysteria, turns out to be fundamentally flawed.

[ related topics: Economics ]

• W. Neil Berrett resigns via cake
• Chris Holmes resigns to pursue his new business as Mr. Cake.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design Food - Cake ]

The Penny Arcade Report: Ad-blockers, the games press, and why sexy cosplay galleries lead to better reporting.

[ related topics: Games Currency ]

To those bemoaning the failure of the background check bill: Do you have stats on how many gun deaths that would prevent? #securitytheatre

[ related topics: Guns ]

Click on a few dots and our program will guess your age!

Human motor system changes as we age. Our program will guess your age by analyzing how you click.

Pointer device systems only, doesn't work with touchscreens, presumably because they're tracking mouse motion. Also thinks I'm 30, which I appreciate...

[ related topics: Software Engineering Work, productivity and environment ]

Ahh, good ol' West Virginia: Charleston, WV student [Campbell] seeks injunction against principal [Aulenbacher] who threatened to call college where she'd been accepted after she spoke up against a high school "abstinence-only" assembly. The speaker at the assembly was apparently one Pam Stenzel.

"West Virginia has the ninth highest pregnancy rate in the U.S.," Campbell said. "I should be able to be informed in my school what birth control is and how I can get it. With the policy at GW, under George Aulenbacher, information about birth control and sex education has been suppressed. Our nurse wasn't allowed to talk about where you can get birth control for free in the city of Charleston."

[ related topics: Children and growing up Current Events Education ]

1913: When Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud and Stalin all lived in the same place.

Edit: The MeFi link

[ related topics: Current Events Monty Python Dictators ]

FXGuide: Founders Series: [Computer Graphics] industry legend Jim Blinn

Back in the mumbledy-mumbles I remember sitting in the UTC library reading back issues of the IEEE magazine to absorb all of "Jim Blinn's Corner" notes on computer graphics. As I ducked back out of the CG world I lost track of what he was doing, but apparently ten years ago he published Notation, Notation, Notation, on the language of mathematics and how it changes thinking. I need to read that, especially since I particularly remember a conversation with brilliant mathematician and Pixar-ian Tony DeRose in which we were racing each other to a conclusion about a particular point of representing geometry, but it was clear that I was conceptualizing the issue completely differently from how Tony was. Even though we came to the same conclusion.

And I also think I need to both dig deeper into Jim Blinn's personal site.

[ related topics: Pixar Language Books Animation Graphics Mathematics Sports ]

Enquiring Canadian high school students want to know: What happens when you wring out a washcloth in microgravity? The Canadian Space Agency has the answer! Beyond cool, eh?

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Heinlein ]

Progress!: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><csv>...</csv>

[ related topics: Web development Content Management ]

Multiple redundant parallel single points of failure.

RT Conor Friedersdorf (@conor64)

Today's lesson: terrorism is more scary and riveting than industrial accidents that kill 10 times as many people http://lat.ms/15mwsRo

Possibly because industrial accidents don't happen in "our" sorts of neighborhoods?

LA Times: West, Texas, mayor says 35 to 40 dead in fertilizer plant explosion (with some pictures of the devastation).

I also think it's worth adding this in on the "organic vs conventionally farmed" balance sheet.

[ related topics: Photography Current Events ]

Via Shadow: This is how I explain bikes to my non-cycling friends

Bonus: Yes, this is exactly what cycling is about...

[ related topics: Sports Pedal Power Bicycling ]

IRC of the morning: "hahaha I was like dude can you at least upgrade to 6" / "oops wrong user"

[ related topics: Fashion ]

Awesomest headline evarrrrr!. Picture of a page from the Ulster Gazette which says:

OVER £100M!

Is this the rail price?

Is this just fantasy?

Caught up in land buys

No escape from bureacracy

[ related topics: Erotic Trains Real Estate ]

Boston Herald: Mechanic: Suspect was in rush for car day after bombing

The accused Marathon bombers wore expensive clothes and drove brand-new Porsches, Range Rovers and Mercedes — and were in a rush for their car the day after the bombing, , says a Cambridge auto body shop owner.

I think it's pretty safe to assume that anyone driving one of those vehicles is a dangerous psychopath who should be carefully monitored...

In related journalism notes, RT Amanda Carpenter:

The good thing about getting news from Twitter is that the bad stuff is debunked long before networks admit

RT Colin Dickey:

Reason we don't know more about Chechnya is that Putin normally kills journalists reporting on Chechnya.

And if you absolutely must follow any of the news, here's the best chronology on the Boston bombings and unfolding manhunt I've seen.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama tolkien Invention and Design Bay Area Current Events Journalism and Media Sports Automobiles Clothing ]

Violet Blue at ZDNet: Chris Wysopal, Veracode: U.S. Government worst at data security

[ related topics: moron ]

Today: Dancing on the Wischeman Hall float in the Sebastopol parade, come gome and work on the house, dinner with friends. Ready...? Go!

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Boats Real Estate ]

Back from dancing in the parade, now to baseboards!

[ related topics: Photography ]

When ya can't get the ceiling fan cap to cover the speed controller, fill the gap with Mahogany!

[ related topics: Photography ]

Really? Nobody open on Sunday carries replacement dryer belts any more? Retailers: Amazon is kickin yer asses 'cause y'all just don't care...

[ related topics: Books ]

Hitachi is removing its name from the Magic Wand vibrator/massager. Via ErosBlog.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Clowns ]

Ability to overlay viewport fixed elements in modern HTML: Worst idea ever, or hanging offense? Discuss...

NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science Lewandowsky, Oberauer & Gignac:

... We report a survey of climate-blog visitors to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of climate science. Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of free-market economics predicted rejection of climate science. Endorsement of free markets also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings, such as the facts that HIV causes AIDS and that smoking causes lung cancer. ... [emphasis mine]

Via Raw Story: Study finds belief in free market economics predicts rejection of science.

I have, obviously, been thinking a lot about my movement from radical free market Libertarian to whatever I am now (I explicitly reject the "progressive" label, but if anyone wants to start a "transgressive" movement I may be a suitable candidate), and I'm wondering if that motion from elegant mental models of how the world is supposed to work to the raw pragmatism of "yeah, the core of human condition is interactions involving the threat of violence" is how I got from there to where I am now.

And how that element of turning everything I was taught about moral behavior on its head could help other people learn to accept reality...

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Politics Libertarian Weblogs Ethics Aviation Space & Astronomy Astronomy Work, productivity and environment Gambling Economics Global Warming ]

San Francisco Department of Public Health brings back the "healthy penis" costumed mascot.

That is all.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Weblogs Health Bay Area California Culture ]

Jiggly.js - Vibration by any means possible. Which in this case means javascript, WebVibration, and audio

Jiggly.js is a javascript library all about making things jiggly. However, most times you'd think that'd mean making DOM elements jiggly.

I'm talking about physical vibration. This library has the hopes of being the first javascript library you'll want to rub yourself against (and will also actually be able to. Don't think I don't know how you fantasize about JS libraries.).

The Jiggly.js test website alas doesn't make my phone jiggly. Damn it.

[ related topics: Language Books Music Law ]

TweetMap - twitter tweets searchable geographically:

The tweet database presented here starts on 12/10/2012 and ends 12/31/2012. Currently 95 million tweets are available to be queried by time, space, and keyword. This could increase to billions and we are working on real time streaming from tweet-tweeted to tweet-on-the-map in under a second.

It's a tech demo for an SQL database called "MapD" that I'd like to learn more about.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Work, productivity and environment Maps and Mapping Databases ]

While the rest of Twitter is confusing Chechnya with the Czech Republic, I'm confusing P&G with PG&E in tweets about branding strategies.

Home-made solution to the problem of a broken stop-light sensor that wouldn't pick up a bicycle.

[ related topics: Photography Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Shadow forwarded along this YouTube video of making a foot powered pedal lathe.

(Gotta love that purpleheart diagonal brace...)

[ related topics: Movies Pedal Power Video Woodworking ]

Yet another "suspicious package found to be a backpack" tweet: how long before we have air strikes on homeless camps for public safety?

Using wire ropes for energy transmission is/was more efficent than electricity for short distances. The article has some great steam-punkish (but real) photos of actual installations.

[ related topics: Photography Cool Science ]

Bought new eye from ZenniOptical.com, and today all my comics have Zenni ads on them. #horshasleftthebarn #advertisingfail

[ related topics: Invention and Design Comics ]

Leadership IQ: Job performance not a predictor of employee engagement is the register-to-download whitepaper, their links to various media outlets rewriting their press release page has links to:

• Wall Street Journal: Bad at their jobs and loving it
• CNBC: Want to Be Happier at Work? Try Goofing Off
• Fast Company: Why Your Company's Worst Performers Are Happy As Clams: It seems paradoxical, but the worse performing a worker, the happier they are. Here's how to figure out where they're hiding and give your organization's real star performers a boost.
• ABC 10 News: Study: Low-performing employees happier, more enaged in companies

Via April 6, 2012 Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

[ related topics: Theater & Plays Space & Astronomy Current Events Journalism and Media Work, productivity and environment Heinlein Race Economics Aviation - Helicopters ]

Pew Research Center: Science and Technology Knowledge Quiz. 13 easy science questions, two demographic questions, and then you can be amazed that less than 60% of college grads paid any attention at all in high school chemistry or know what sort of energy lasers emit, and 31% stayed awake during earth science when the teacher was talking about the atmosphere.

Really, people? I'd say that reinforces all of my preconceptions about liberal arts and business studies students, but I'm not sure that accounts for enough graduates to lead to results this abysmal.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Marketing Education ]

LA Times does yet another puff piece on Huy Fong Foods Inc., and its founder David Tran, both known for "Sriracha" hot sauce, but I'm linking it here for this:

"Hot sauce must be hot. If you don't like it hot, use less," he said. "We don't make mayonnaise here."

Hat tip to JJG.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs ]

Down there below the "most recent comments" there's a new section labeled "Most Recent Inbound Links". This is an attempt at running through various RSS feeds and finding links to Flutterby entries. The RSS feeds are maintained manually right now, first pass was derived from my Claws Mail RSSyl OPML file which may have missed all sorts of stuff, and the format is... well...

And those links will show up in an entry above the comments. I hope.

There's a redesign needs to happen here, but... Anyway, that's hopefully a simple step back towards encouraging other blogs.

[ related topics: Content Management Invention and Design Sports ]

Uh, Internet-of-Things buzzword folks: M2M was well-defined before it was a Craigslist category. Hint: not "Machine to Machine".

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory: Three Years of Sun in Three Minutes (YouTube)

Via Ghost In The Machine.

[ related topics: Movies Robotics Space & Astronomy Astronomy Embedded Devices Java Photovoltaics ]

SpaceX Corp. tests a rocket that can hover on its thrusters and return to its Launchpad, the way God and Robert Heinlein intended. A great achievement, but back in 1995 the DC-X team were fairly far along on this track when low funding and NASA snobbery killed the Delta Clipper project.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Heinlein Cool Technology ]

DaedTech: How Developers Stop Learning: Rise of the Expert Beginner:

... On the other hand, the least talented developers are more likely to stay put since they’ll have a hard time convincing other companies to hire them. This serves as important perspective for understanding why it’s common to find people with titles like “super-duper-senior-principal-fellow-architect-awesome-dude,” who make a lot of money and perhaps even wield a lot of authority but aren’t very good at what they do. ...

[ related topics: Currency Education Architecture ]

Business Case Study - Cost Accounting: Implosion at Ecomom. Newly minted CPA gets company controller job at Ecomom.com, discovers that company... well... worth a read, both on how a company can have growing sales and fail spectacularly, and how hard it's going to be to make money in ecommerce going forward.

[ related topics: Law Heinlein Currency ]

I have a question, and as I put words to pixels I realize it may be intractable, but it requires a bit of a preamble:

I was reading a piece yesterday, I think it was NY Times: Wikipedia’s Sexism Toward Female Novelists, which is rehashed in Guardian: Wikipedia bumps women from 'American novelists' category. The issue is that apparently the culture of Wikipedia is moving various authors from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_novelists over to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_women_novelists .

Short version: Wikipedians have decided that "American novelists" is too broad a category, so they're moving the female authors over to "American women novelists". Long-time readers know where I'm gonna come down on that discussion...

But the issue this raised with me is... when I was appointed to the Petaluma Technology Advisory Committee, I ran into a number of places where I didn't see value in something, in fact I saw negative value, but the overall process, and the commitment of the other participants in the process, led to something that wasn't all bad, so I was reluctant to be the sand in the AstroGlide for things that...

...well, for things that could be like this. Things that are entrenched flaws in the culture. Things that we have glossed over a million times before and we've stopped raising a stink over because serious systemic flaws are there, and what are you going to do besides eye roll for the "trivial shit"? Except that it isn't really trivial, not deep down.

So has anyone written about effective ways to go into a culture and educate it? How would one go about having an account with two or three Wikipedia edits over the years, and going in and effectively finding another taxonomy to split "American novelists" along? How does one show fellow committee members that yeah, the non-profit has worthy goals, and was formed by the PUC laying some smack-down on companies we all like to hate, but really ends up being a promotional arm for those same companies?

How does a newcomer most effectively go into an entrenched community and create change? Not change the world, just raise consciousness. How do we do this without threatening the established order?

[ related topics: Books Sociology California Culture Community Personal Lubricant Woodworking ]

A US Senator recently made this statement about privatizing a large government agency, one that has arguably long outlived it's original purpose:

"There is no assurance that selling TVA to a profit-making entity would reduce electric bills in the Tennessee Valley –; which should be the overriding objective –; and it could lead to higher electricity rates."

Isn't this 180 degrees from the standard conservative argument for privatization? This is coming from the guy who was Bush IIs Secretary of Education, Lamar Alexander. I guess the transgression is acceptable to the Grand Old Party because it's actually a good ol' boy from the South taking a swipe at our first African American President:

"Is the Obama administration really going to sell TVA?"

[ related topics: Politics Cool Science moron Chattanooga Education Race ]

Paging Inspector Sands: The Costs of Public Information By Sacha Kapoor and Arvind Magesan (PDF):

Most empirical studies on the role of information in markets analyze policies that reduce asymmetries in the information that market participants possess, often suggesting that the policies improve welfare. We exploit the introduction of pedestrian countdown signals - timers that indicate when traffic lights will change - to evaluate a policy that increases the information that all market participants possess. We find that although countdown signals reduce the number of pedestrians struck by automobiles, they increase the number of collisions between automobiles. We also find that count-down signals caused more collisions overall. The findings imply welfare gains can be attained by revealing the information to pedestrians and hiding it from drivers. We conclude that policies which increase asymmetries in information can improve welfare.

Via Marginal Revolution, via The Transportationist

[ related topics: Weblogs Automobiles Economics ]

Oh. My. Deities: Escher Lizards wood marquetry floor.

[ related topics: Woodworking ]

What should have been totally simple has been a day spent shoveling through excess cognitive load. Argh.

Elon Musk spends $50k to help 405 Freeway widening along:

Transportation officials say the project is now slated to take at least a year longer than first anticipated and cost about $100 million more than the originally budgeted $1 billion.

And if it's easier to get from Bel-Air to Hawthorne, more people will do it, and... helloooo, induced demand.

But it's nice that he can get somewhere between a 2,000x to 22,000x return in tax dollars spent on temporary commute relief for his $50k.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics ]

Disappointed: "House hunting" does not mean discharging a firearm at a building.

[ related topics: Real Estate ]

The Gender Candy Store: Biking While Genderqueer.

Gender isn’t a toy store lined with pink and blue aisles. It’s a candy store, a free for all, a sugar-fueled shopping spree. Anything your heart can desire is free for the taking!

Genderfuckery and bicycles, what's not to like? Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

I saw an odd commercial on Cable TV last night during Tabitha's Takeover, for Casta Diva Corsets. I've never seen something quite like this, until I saw a screen at the end that mentioned the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo starting this weekend, where they exhibit. I wonder at the economics of buying local cable time for such a niche audience, but perhaps the demographic for Tabithas Takeover is more nuanced than I thought.

[ related topics: Television Comics Marketing Fashion Economics ]

Last minute strategizing and inventory lists for the Bodega Bay Wooden Boat Challenge. Go Team Dogslobber!

[ related topics: California Culture Boats Machinery ]

RT @jeamland

OH: “You can’t spell RESTful without STFU.”

[ related topics: Bay Area ]

Jake's little rover from tonight's junk drawer robotics

[ related topics: Photography Robotics ]

Stop Motion Woodworker Erotica Movie Very well done stop motion and actual project.

[ related topics: Erotic Movies Woodworking ]

Video of Jake's little rover from last night https://www.youtube.com/watch?...0X0&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[ related topics: Movies Video ]

We have been threatened with arbitrarily applied handicaps if we do the same thing next year... Won the Wooden Boat Challenge again...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Boats Machinery Handicaps & Disabilities ]

Today's Oglaf is remarkably on-target for yesterday's Bodega Bay Wooden Boat Challenge http://oglaf.com/bilge/ (less NSFW than usual)

[ related topics: California Culture Boats Machinery ]

Pictures from yesterday's exploits at the Wooden Boat Challenge: http://www.flutterby.net/2013-04-27_Wooden_Boat_Challenge

[ related topics: Photography Boats Machinery ]

"Thank us, we didn't leave an even bigger hunk of litter on your porch"

[ related topics: Photography ]

Not a great picture, and we need some more panels, but livingroom curtains are hung

[ related topics: Photography ]

click. Go do something else. Click. Go do... damn, exceeded the login timeout. Start from the beginning. Click. ... #SoftwareAsAService

Wow: A History of San Francisco Place Names, in map form. Street and park names, clickable for the history of their names.

[ related topics: Bay Area California Culture Maps and Mapping ]

Our neighbor demonstrates how we should have had the trusses for the workshop delivered...

[ related topics: Photography ]

US Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) proposes that Congressional funding criteria would replace peer review in funding decisions made by the NSF:

The legislation, being worked up by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), represents the latest—and bluntest—attack on NSF by congressional Republicans seeking to halt what they believe is frivolous and wasteful research being funded in the social sciences. Last month, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) successfully attached language to a 2013 spending bill that prohibits NSF from funding any political science research for the rest of the fiscal year unless its director certifies that it pertains to economic development or national security. Smith's draft bill, called the "High Quality Research Act," would apply similar language to NSF's entire research portfolio across all the disciplines that it supports.

I don't think much of the social sciences. I have some specific research programs that I believe are irrelevant wastes, although none of those examples are NSF funded.

However, I'm pretty sure that letting members of Congress determine research directions is a recipe for PORC/pork that puts science in the military and security industrial complex bin, and we definitely don't need any more of that sort of socialism.

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design moron Current Events Economics ]

World's oldest romantic novelist, who has worked under 10 different pseudonyms, is still writing racy bodice-rippers at 105.

[ related topics: Writing ]

"If everyone who wants to step up and do something to make this city better has to go through this, not many people are going to step up." - Chuck Marohn on civic engagement http://www.strongtowns.org/jou...l/2013/4/29/the-gatekeepers.html

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Friend bought by some prints from his new digital camera: $1800 now buys image quality that cost 5x that back in the film days...

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design ]

A couple from Twitter this morning that I don't have the time to dig deep on right now:

BBC: 'Dutch roundabouts' could be seen in London next year, they've got an extra loop on the outside for bicycles. First blush seems kind of scary to have perpendicular traffic on the exits, but I'd like to see the safety and efficacy studies.

Business Week: The pampered world of congressional air travel. The whole piece is a bit overblown, but one thing leaped out:

At Washington’s Reagan National Airport, they have their own special parking spaces—right up close to the terminal—that they don’t even have to pay for. As Bloomberg Television’s Hans Nichols reports, this perk costs the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority $738,760 in foregone revenue. (The best part of this clip, though, is seeing Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky haul ass to get away from Bloomberg’s cameraman.)

Anyone who's read Shoup understands why free parking has a very very high cost...

[ related topics: Politics Technology and Culture Aviation moron Current Events Monty Python Television Video Bicycling ]

Today's light reading: Jevon's Paradox: the observation that increased energy efficiency leads to more consumption. See also: road widening.

It's the 20th anniversary of the WWW. And at some point back in 1993 1994 [Edit: I just checked the software itself and discovered the first release was May 2^nd, 1994], Meuon and I were building a real estate information BBS, needed a format for unstructured neighborhood data. Robert Wilson had been talking about this "HTML" thing he'd been running across recently, and I decided to use that in the hypertext browser.

So, yes, in 1993 I wrote an HTML browser called "Hyper!" that ran in the TBBS/TDBS online environment, and outputted to RIP or ANSI terminals.

Let nobody tell you that early adoption is an automatic path to success.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Sports Real Estate ]

RT Erika Moen :

You guys, @mudron just had the best exchange with the Twitter accounts for Uline and the Better Business Bureau http://storify.com/erikamoen/customer-service

And wow is she right. Mad props to both ULine and whoever runs their Twitter account, and to whoever's running the @CentralTexasBBB account.

[ related topics: Sports ]

Slate: How Many People Around You Receive Food Stamps? Food stamp recipients by county: An interactive tool showing local SNAP data..

[ related topics: Politics Food Current Events Maps and Mapping ]

Oh sure, the weekend we're off at Stumptown Stomp, American Graffiti Days is going to recreate the drag race... http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130429/ARTICLES/130429552

I'm looking at the XML actually sent to a system using MultiSpeak and the data inside the raw XML from a sniff actually contains: &#xD;&#xA which is CR/LF so the data (raw) looks like his to the humans using tools:

<key>
value
</key>

<key>&#xD;&#xAvalue&#xD;&#xA</key>

[ related topics: Web development Content Management ]

When you're done with your daily tech-related facepalms, consider that we can't reliably detect a 40 ton locomotive near a RR crossing.

[ related topics: Machinery Trains ]

Shadow passed along your daily dose of testicle clenching vertigo: STOOPIDTALL - CICLAVIA 2013 - LA BIKE CULT (Vimeo video), rider's perspective video of a ride on a bicycle that measures 14½' at the seat.

[ related topics: Pedal Power Video Bicycling ]

Wired Enterprise: Like a Good Scotch, Developers Get Better With Age. Quick fluff piece on Is Programming Knowledge Related To Age? (PDF) which seems to answer "yes, and experience matters."

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]