Dougintology

Sod Off Wednesday: February 1

2012-02-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

Stats

2012-01-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

I've got some blog posts that I'm working on, but I've got some work to do on them yet. I needed something that I could kind of slap out. Hey! I know. Blog stats! That should interest nobody at all but me. Well it's my blog, so suffer.

My all time most popular blog post was about making a homemade CD lens cleaner. I posted it in May of 2007 and month after month it keeps getting the most hits. I get that. It's something everyone in a technological society needs at some point.

The next few are less understandable.
Number two is my review of "Clash of the Titans". It's not a particularly good review. But the phrase "RELEASE THE KRAKEN!" does appear a time or three.

Number three is my review of the book "Death Troopers". I assume it's because it's a Star Wars book and there are lots of fans. Plus, this one has a zombie overlap and people will want to know if it's good before they buy it. Maybe? I dunno.

Back in 2006 I used a DIY spray on insulation called "Tiger Foam". It was a disaster. I'm still scraping the hardened residue of the fluid that leaked out from the floor of my shower. It come in number 4 because it's the only product like it and people want to know whether to mess with it. Don't.

Fifth is my post from when I found the remains of the SciFi.com audio series "Seeing Ear Theater". It was a good radio series that remained buried on their website for years. After it went away I went looking for it elsewhere. The links are all defunct now. Still, see if you can find it somewhere. It's worth a listen.

6th - "How to write on a steamy mirror". I've considered redoing this but writing "The Game" on the mirror. I figure I'd get a ton of 4Chan people here.

7th - One I'm most proud of and is linked to most from other sites is my "Record player animation". I figured out how to do looping animations using a record player and a camera.

8th - How to make your own paving stones. Also proud of. Not so many links to it.

9th - "Papercraft Katamari". The Prince was redrawn from a low-res version on another site. The Katamari was my design. Yes, I have the ability to model dodecahedrons in my head well enough to draw them on a 2 dimensional surface.

10th - I'm not at all proud of my review of "Hoodwinked Too" and don't know why anyone reads it.

Popular keywords (all time):
1 - tiger foam review
2 - dougintology
3 - radiolab symmetry
4 - death troopers
5 - tiger foam reviews
6 - release the kraken
7 - scorpion candy
8 - far side cartoons (one post. ONE! Why does this get the hits?)
9 - homemade dvd lens cleaner
10 - katamari papercraft

Honorable mention to the post about the Solar Decathlon window slats.

Popular keywords (this month):
1 - scorpion candy
2 - star wars death troopers
3 - death troopers
4 - far side cartoons (WHY!?!)
5 - katamari papercraft
6 - dehumidifier solar decathlon
7 - homemade molds for bricks with cement
8 - pictures of writing on steamy mirrors
9 - release the kraken
10 - star wars wallpaper

Most hits are from American, Windows users, using Internet Explorer. After that German, Mac users on Firefox and British, Linux users on Chrome. In 10th place are South Korean, PlayStation Portable users using UniversalFeedParser. I also welcome the Swedish folk who got here using Netscape on a Wii.

StumbleUpon seems to be the most popular source for people to follow links from. But why they go to the archive site for June 2007 I don't know. That's followed by Yummy's blog at number 7 and blog.makezine.com at number 9. But, frankly, I think makezine stays so high because so many people came here when they reposted my record player trick.

Out of curiosity, what brought you here the first time?

Kansas in December

2012-01-30T10:27:00.001-05:00

You get a picture today. Deal with it.

Friday Links: January 27

2012-01-27T07:00:00.001-05:00

Senator Dodd doesn't get it. SOPA is a horrible bill and the only way to get Congress to talk to concerned parties without massive payoffs is a massive blackout that makes sure the whole country knows and gets angry. [link]

You may have seen a trailer for the upcoming movie "Pirates!". The trailer has a scene where the pirate captain raids a ship that turns out to be full of lepers. Turns out several groups that represent lepers are complaining so the scene will be either changed or removed. Props to Aardman for not wanting to cause hard feelings, but shame on the lepers for not finding the humor in it. [link]

More Starbucks to begin selling wine and beer in southern California and Atlanta. Caffeine, alcohol, when do the tobacco sales start? [link]

I may need one of these bookshelves. [link]

This ad campaign needed a bit more thought. [link]

Game: Color - Test your color vision with this color matching game. I got and 8.9. I'm convinced I could do better. [link]

The Pirate Bay has named and will host plans for things that can be made using 3D printers. [link]

I have to assume the government's response to the SOPA blackouts was the raid on the Megaupload HQ. They hosted files that were too big for e-mail. I'm figuring that the raid and extradition of the owners was to point out that the point of SOPA/PIPA is to attack foreign data thieves. This article talks a bit about the raid and what Megaupload did. [link]
I have used Megaupload for both legal and non-legal purposes. Mostly to send the files for our books to proof readers and printers.

Anonymous struck out at RIAA, MPAA, Universal Music, and the Department of Justice in a response to SOPA. [link]

A country musician had a bird land on him during a concert. [link]
This has happened to me a couple of times. Minus the country music, of course.

Seriously nasty sea water in South Africa. [link]

Bad product knockoffs. [link]

Modular chocolates. [link]

I'm not sure what case motivated this decision, but the Supreme Court has decided that works in the public domain may have their copyright reinstated. [link]

Cats sing Christmas songs. Dogs sing movie theme songs.

Subway's product placement in "Hawaii 5-0" is even more blatant than the Prius and Vespa placements in "Bones".

Music video made in MSPaint.

Beavis and Butthead made real. [link]

Obama having some fun. [link]

You get a baby to cooperate for a picture by having the mother with it, just hidden. [link]

I'll have that, thanks.

The Puppet's Court. [link]

Whisky is lighter than water and it makes for a nifty bar trick. [link]

A 16 year old girl sailed around the world by herself. But Dutch authorities tried to stop her and she's afraid of returning home. [link]

Proper etiquette in recovering things from a burning house. [link]

A bat infestation under some roof tiles. Some more more like mice or spiders.

Right wing senior citizens had plans to save the Constitution by going on a killing spree at a Waffle House. [link]

Hideous cars that I love. [link]

What the inside of a SpaceX Dragon Capsule looks like. [link]

Vertical surface snowboarding. [link]

Adam and Eve as AI

2012-01-26T15:22:00.001-05:00

I actually wrote a very similar post to this before, but it was five years ago so I don't feel so bad about repeating myself.

According to the Bible, in the beginning God made a bunch of stuff and then created man and woman. He turned them loose and told them to name things, take care of things, and generally be in charge.

Jump forward however many years you think are appropriate and you have now. We're working on developing computers with an artificial intelligence. There is a question, however, as to what "intelligence" means. So far AIs tend to be restricted to single tasks. Winning chess games (straight up logic). Playing Jeopardy (context recognition, data sorting, selection of most likely answer). Controlling the behavior of the guards in video games. Things like that. None of which would be likely to survive long if released into the wild to fend for itself. Granted, most of us couldn't survive in the wild, but you get what I'm saying. They do what they do and nothing else.

To be fair, there are some tiny virtual cockroaches that do a bang up impression of actual cockroaches. They may actually be able to survive and multiply if they were given the ability to reproduce and released into the walls of a high school lunch room.

My point is that, while it has some remarkable data parsing skills, Watson is still a computer that is following a program. He can't ad lib. He can't get stage fright. He can't make his own decisions. He can't go against his programming. If you or I went on Jeopardy we could give it our best shot because we want the money. We could also start insulting Alex Trebek's mother or practicing our standup routine. Watson could only answer the questions to the best of it's ability, not decide to hook up with a cute little Lisa and run off to Spain.

Even the AIs in Skyrim are disappointing compared to the AIs in the Thief games. If I put an arrow through someone in Skyrim they'll go looking for me and eventually decided they were hearing things. That arrow sticking out of his chest is a figment of his imagination. But in Thief they'll start investigating if they just hear your footsteps. If they find a corpse or there's an arrow sticking out of them they will never ever stop looking for you. They'll even get others to help.

I'll be impressed as hell when we have a robot that can do accounting or paint or be a dentist. But I don't think it'll be intelligent until it can decide to quit it's job as an accountant to go start it's own accounting firm. Or, better yet, when it can get fired from it's job for embezzling funds so he can spend it's out of warranty years surfing and scuba diving in Tahiti.

This is where we get back to my original point and what I was on about five years ago. God had filled the planet will all kinds of animals with low level AIs. Grow, decompose dead material, eat, mate, attack, hide, etc. Nothing revolutionary. But God wanted something that he didn't have to pay attention to. Those neanderthals were doing alright, but they weren't going anywhere. They kept making the same tools over and over. Not much in the way of creativity. Whether he was working with a new model or a select pair or neanderthals doen't matter, but God introduced a computer worm (i.e. serpent). It tweaked Eve's programming a bit so she was able to ask "well, why shouldn't I eat the fruit? Because Gaaaawd told me not to? Screw that." And she defied given instructions ate the apple.

That's the important part. The "defied given instructions" part. And it means that the serpent wasn't Satan or an agent thereof as our sunday school teachers told us (note that the Bible says no such thing). Yes, the first humans defied God's will, but it was God's will that we defy God's will. The whole bit with the forbidden fruit was a test to see if the given programming was intelligence or simply another machine following orders. It was a final beta test before final release outside of Eden.

Mind you, I don't believe a word of this. But, if someday I do find religion and it's roughly Biblically inspired this is what I'm gonna be believing. That's a whole lot of ifs.

Sod Off Wednesday: Bjork

2012-01-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Turns out Bjork has a song called "Sod Off".

Here's the lyrics since I can't tell what the hell she's saying.

I know I've been tolerant 'til now
but here comes a warning,
there's a very clear line that I'm drawing
and if you cross it

Sod off

If you think I'll let you pull me down to
your third-class communication
and bulldoze over all my sensitivities
you've read me all wrong

Sod off

Things so far have been too perfect
this is the premiere
but oh, how many dress rehearsals
I've been through

Darling this is far too pure and perfect
won't let you corrupt it
sod off
I won't let you ruin this

Sod off

Hot cake, pan cake, johnny cake

2012-01-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

I've wondered for awhile if there was a difference between a hot cake and a pancake. You know, as in "they sold like hot cakes". But I never wondered at a time or place that was convenient to looking it up. Then, at the start of the cattle drive last September I got to try jonnycakes which made me wonder even more. There was clearly a difference between pancakes and jonnycakes as jonnycakes seem to be primary corn meal. Not bad, really, but certainly in need of more syrup than you'd need in pancakes.

Hot cakes refer to a thin batter fried on both sides on a griddle. This includes anything called battercake, flannel cake, flannel-cake, flapcake, flapjack, hotcake, pancake, or griddlecake.

Jonnycake (also johnnycake, johnny cake, journey cake, johnny bread, hoecake) refers to a fried gruel made of a mixture of corn meal, salt, and water or milk. Sweetening is optional, but strongly recommended.

Both are made with quick bread which is any bread made with a non-yeast leavening material.

Now you know, but I bet you wish you had those couple of minutes back.

Movie Review: Underworld: Awakening

2012-01-23T12:04:00.000-05:00

I don't know what trailer I saw, but I walked into this movie knowing only that it was yet another Underworld movie. Yummy loves these movies so there was no way we weren't going to see this. Not unless Kate Beckinsale started wearing glitter.

First of all, know that you don't need to have seen any of the previous three Underworld movies. I remember going into the third movie with only the vaguest recollection of what happened in the first two and I was pretty much lost. At a few points they gave us a quick reminders and I needed them. This fourth movie has a quick "previously on..." segment at the beginning of the movie, but it wasn't really necessary other than to establish the characters. That's because this starts a new story in the Underworld universe.

You'll keep hearing two names. Selene is a bad ass warrior vampire who has protected her clan for thousands of years until they turned against her and she was forced to kill the leadership. Michael is the first vampire/werewolf hybrid and is Selene's love interest. His part in this movie is to be Selene's motivation. Pretty much everything else from the previous movies is not relevant.

That's because, after a brief action scene, we have Selene waking up after 12 years in stasis. The existence of vampires and werewolves is now well known in the world. Instead of a big revival of the church or the development of artificial blood, like in some movies, the discovery let to major military development and death squads. Werewolves are thought extinct. The hunt for vampires continues. But while the military and police have training and special vampire weapons they haven't faced anything like Selene. Among vampires she was always one of the best trained and most able. She's skilled in the used of the same weapons and force multipliers that the humans have. But, as the trailer shows, a scalpel is more than she needs.

But if she's that good, then what kind of lame ass movie is this? That's the part that neither I nor the trailer are saying. There's something much stronger and there's a couple of somethings that keep drawing her back into the battle instead of just getting the hell out of Dodge.

So, what we have is an action movie that tries to duplicate the Matrix, but falls a bit short. Not a lot short, but it's not quite there. That's still a heck of a lot better than the typical action movie. It has vampires that are actually threatening and monsters that can smack the vampires around.

I won't get it on DVD, but Yummy might. We'll be seeing the next movie in the sequence when it comes out.

Friday Links: January 20

2012-01-20T07:00:00.001-05:00

What makes Fins good racers and learning how to race on varied surfaces. A clip from "Top Gear".

A word from a former Guantánamo detainee. [link]

This species of giant tortoise may not be extinct, just hiding. [link]

So there's this new video game controller called "Avenger". It wasn't being delivered on time so one of the people who pre-ordered it wrote in to ask when it was gonna show up. The company doing publicity decided that the appropriate response would be complete jackassery. Then the guys at Penny Arcade stepped in and ruined someone's life. You can follow along here.
The guy did eventually say he was sorry. Alas, he was just sorry that he was a jackass to someone with the pull to ruin his life, not for being a jackass. [link]

Push the button. [link]

A video John Scalzi's daughter meeting a record for the first time. [link]

A guy telling the story about how he went to check out where his electronics are made and the factory conditions. [link]

Huh. Turns out Santorum won the Iowa Caucus. Too bad for him that nobody cares anymore. [link]

A planetarium for the bathtub. Project either up or down. [link]

Alien attack as seen by surfers. A guy has to have his priorities.

If the food wasn't unappealing enough, here's another reason not to eat at McDonalds. [link]

You think SOPA and PIPA won't be abused? These are the people who tried to make VCRs illegal. [link]

Fun fact: SOPA would have the power to take down Whitehouse.gov and the author's own website. [link]

Look! A SOPA circumvention plug-in for Firefox. [link]

The reaction of politicians to Wednesday's SOPA/PIPA protest. [link]

CW, the network that brought us "Smallville" with Green Arrow will have a new "Green Arrow" series that isn't related to the "Smallville" series. [link]

Ellen McClain, voice of GlaDOS, cold reading something at a convention.

Here someone tweeked her voice for the full effect. [link]

An actor who played a goblin in the Harry Potter movies was victim of a dwarf tossing attack. He may be wheelchair bound for life. [link]

Thieves spend 6 months tunneling into an ATM. [link]

Heavy metal Batman theme medley. 3:40 FTW!

Be sure to check out this guy's other stuff.

Zombies to go the Twilight route. The horror. the horror. [link]

Stools made with solidified ferromagnetic fluids. [link]

Sledding crow.

Wall-E made creepy.

Disney to do "Into the Woods". [link]

6. FUS RO DAH [link]

A dangerous way to level a building. [link]

Raytheon shows off their snazzy new police cars. [link]
I want my GPS to be able to tell me where that emergency vehicle siren is coming from. Do I need to get over or is the ambulance on a cross street? I can't tell.

This is a good idea. The preferred glassware at my house are Ball jars. But do I really want them to look like sippy cups? [link]

The birds and the bees in slow motion and time lapse HD. [link]

I saw some flakes the other day. Is that enough to make one of these snow forts? [link]

A video of 30 hornets take out 30,000 honey bees. [link]
Wait, are these the same damn bees that won't hesitate to come after me if I step in the wrong place? FIGHT BACK YOU LOSERS!
Watch the video lower down the page that has the narration.

Pictures of a comet hitting the sun. [link]

More nature films! Short clips in slow motion. [link]

How Stanley Kubrick created the model for modern movie distribution. [link]

How graffiti should be done. [link]
Actually, the guy who did picture 16 (between the bus stop and Burger King trash can) did do a couple of place in DC. A wall and a phone switch box.

Why Best Buy is slowly going out of business. [link]

John Lennon was a crazy cat laddie. [link]

Cat Tee Pee

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry this was late. It decided to post on January 19, 2011 instead of 2012. My bad.

- - -

I got Yummy a pretty good air filter for the third anniversary of our first date. The box with the air filter came in another box that just sort of sat around taking up space. But when she left me at her place a few weeks back I turned my attentions on it.

The box was 13 inches wide on the ends, 22 inches front and back with flaps on the top and bottom. I folded the front and back in half making four 11 inch segments. I marked a point (A) on each corner 6 inches above the flaps that were on the bottom of the box. The top flaps came off. From the top corners I made sure to mark (B) equal distances that left 1 inch in the middle of the 11 inch segments and 3 inches in the middle of the 13 inch segments. I drew lines connecting the points A to the points B. Those lines became the 6 corners that come down from the top. Luckily I remembered to leave flaps to overlap the neighboring cardboard. Then I cut away what I didn't want. Hot glue connected the flaps behind the neighboring sides. The bottom flaps were folded so they overlap.

The teepee was an immediate point of interest for the cats. They were torn between their love of cardboard and the need to snub anything made specifically for them.

Pinky enjoying Seamus' teepee.

Seamus walked into the teepee, turned around, stood there, and then left. He did that a few more times. And while I was in Kansas Yummy reported that he slept in there for an hour. So I'm declaring the teepee a success. Still, I think the cat wants a more comfortable floor for the hut.

p.s. - All that was written back in mid-November. Last weekend I cut up a carpet Yummy is getting rid of and put a more comfortable floor in the teepee. A few hours later I finally got to see Seamus spend a couple of hours sleeping in there.

Suck My Balls Wednesday: The blackout

2012-01-18T07:00:00.004-05:00

Many sites on the internet have gone black today. Do you understand why? Do you understand why Google, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Wikipedia, and so many others are protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA)? Those bills wouldn't end the internet, but they would result in a change so significant that you wouldn't recognize it anymore. They would effectively get rid of user generated content without accomplishing their alleged goal of stopping software, music, and movie piracy.

Here's a primer on SOPA. [link]

Adam Savage from Mythbusters goes into it a bit deeper. [link]

More still. [link]

You might be thinking that these are big companies with lots of money for lawyers. That they don't have to worry. But these were small companies at one point. They and thousands of others wouldn't have survived under these proposed laws. Thousands of more companies won't have a chance to get off the ground if these bills pass.

If you're not in the United States, don't think this doesn't affect you. The internet is global and much of it runs out of here. We'll start blocking sites we don't approve of. So even those that just want to do business in America will have to change to adhere to these laws. This is America trying to dictate how the internet runs everywhere.

GoDaddy supported SOPA and their customers left by the thousands. [link] GoDaddy felt it and it hurt.

So complain. If you can't complain to politicians in the United States complain to your own and tell them to complain. If you do business with companies in the United States stop and tell them why you've stopped. Make those who support this bill suffer.

I've told lots of others to sod off. Not Congress. Congress can suck my balls.

Sign these petitions if you want them to suck your balls, too. [link 1] [link 2]

Movie Review: The Adventure of Tintin

2012-01-17T15:07:00.000-05:00

There was no way I wasn't gonna see this movie. Not with the list of names it has as writers, directors, and producers.

Steven Moffat was the writer early in development. He had to leave at some point because he was offered the job as Executive Producer for "Doctor Who". He had offers for several other movies that he turned down for the lower paying job with Doctor Who because it was Doctor Who. Getting to work on that was a dream come true. You should also check out the shows "Sherlock", "Coupling", and "Jekyll". He was the sole writer on those last two titles.

Edgar Wright and some guy I've never heard of took over when Moffat left. He first came to my attention as the director for "Spaced". He also directed and cowrote "Shawn of the Dead" and "Scott Pilgrim vs The World".

Peter Jackson started with some rather fantastic but horrific movies called "Meet the Feebles" and "Dead Alive". But you probably know him best for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, District 9, and the upcoming Hobbit movies.

Then there's the legendary Steven Spielberg. We could spend all day talking about his credits. But this movie is one he wanted to direct personally.

I know a little about Tintin, but not enough to speak to how well it sticks to the source material. It does try to keep some of the comedic background activity of the comic strips and comic books. I don't know how much action there was. Some people have complained that they feel the action in the movie is over the top. I have to point out that it was a comic strip and comic book first so there'd be as much of a caricature in terms of action as there is in the characters' faces. And Spielberg made sure that with everything going on in an action scene that you could still tell what was happening. No shaky camera, lens flares, or excessive chaos covering up poorly planned action. It moves fast, but you get to see it all unfold and can follow the action.

The movie begins with Tintin buying a model sailing ship for a pittance. Almost immediately people start offering him huge sums of money for the ship. Fortunately for the movie goer, they won't take no for an answer. It turns out that the ship is part of a puzzle that leads to a sunken ship full of treasure. This, of course, is a huge summation of the plot. The movie is about the hunt for the other ships so they can keep them out of the hands of the villain of the movie.

I loved the movie, I'll get it on DVD, and I'll be waiting eagerly for the sequel.

Friday Links: January 13

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Look like a brilliant programmer just by pounding keys. [link]

Pictures by a girl who snuck into a Russian rocket factory. [link]

How to make your own Doritos.

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article about a game pigs can play with people via an iPad.
Gandolf, my african grey parrot, has a switch on her cage that she uses to turn the radio on and off.
Oliver Queen, Yummy's green cheeked conure, plays Baby Balloons on her phone.
Prozac (Rosie), her other conure, attacks the cursor on her laptop.
Hobbes, my old cat, would search the ground for Mario whenever he fell down a hole on the TV.
Orangutans using iPads. [link]

Bearded dragon playing "Ant Crusher" on a phone.

But this is more of the owner playing with the cat than the cat playing with the computer.

Trivia. Some of it is even interesting. [link]

A cow escaped from a slaugherhouse. She fled to Sonic. [link]

picture: duck duck duck goose [link]

Select your singing hedgehog. [link]

A new beauty treatment - Fotoshop by Adobé. [link]

Electroshock: a cartoon (8 minutes). [link]

Why nobody ever talks about building a better cat trap.

TARDIS purse. [link]

On the hook for Star Trek 2 is Noel (Mickey) Clarke [link] and Benedict (Sherlock) Cumberbatch [link] as the unnamed villain.

"Literal Eclipse of the Heart" with Dr Who clips.

With original video. [link]

My new desktop wallpaper. [link]

Action figure technology has come so far since I was a kid. This Steve Jobs action figure is amazing looking. Mind you, in about two minutes those hands are gonna be hiding in the same place as that lightsaber you lost back in 1982. [link]

I'm thrilled that Santorum did so well in Iowa. A wackaloon like that doesn't have a chance in hell of winning. Enjoy these lovely displays of bigotry and ignorance from his own mouth. [link]

Can Montana's Supreme Court challenge the United States Supreme Court on the question of the personhood of corporations? They're gonna try. [link]

Orchestral version of "Still Alive (the theme to Portal)". [link]

Anti-whaling activists are now using drone technology to track Japanese whalers, most of whose work is illegal. [link]

I wasn't gonna mention the new crab named after David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff, because I thought that the nickname was their only appeal, but these pictures are rather impressive. [link]

10 pretty slick Christmas trees. That Lego tree must have some non-Lego supports. And I want a closer look at that plastic bottle tree. [link]

Superconductive maglev track.

This guy is drinking 42 litres of Diet Coke a week. Yummy's addiction isn't that bad, but not for a lack of trying. [link]

Fractals and music and it's a game and... I dunno. Have a look. Perhaps with some weed and a black light. [link]

Ok, now that you're already a bit stoned check out Steven Tyler, Alice Cooper, and Weird Al performing "Come Together".

Ok, it's better in concept than in execution. So is this a cappella rendition of "Du Hast".

The movie adaptation of "World War Z" is gonna be a trilogy. I suddenly have a lot more faith that it'll be good. [link]

Some time back we saw these quad-rotor flying robots doing some impressive flying. Now they're working together to build a monument. [link]

If that's not Skynet enough for you, these guys have self healing computer chips. [link]

Hamster powered (and sized) sub.

If what I'm reading in this article is right you should be able to use a black light to help check for scorpions. If you try it out let me know how it works. [link]

12 ft model of Serenity used in the movie has been found. [link]

Depictions of snow in 100 different video games. [link]

Could automobile exhaust be making mid-week storms and tornadoes worse? It's a hypothesis worth considering. Add some research and it could become a theory. [link]

I've seen ladders turned into book shelves, but not like this. [link]

Use a hula hoop to make a carpet. [link]

An impressive massive king of hearts built in Minecraft. [link]

Only funny to people who have played Skyrim.

The canopy of a A-12 Avenger II stealth attack aircraft is on sale on Ebay. $620,238.00 as of last night when I looked. [link]

Katamari Christmas. [link]

Matt Smith and Gillian Anderson talking about their ComicCon experience on Graham Norton. I've seen the picture of Matt with all 11 doctor costumes. I love that he has that picture on his phone.

A much needed sign in any store. [link]

GoDaddy lost a lot of customers for supporting the SOPA. I know my friends were asking each other for another good option. [link]

Not familiar with SOPA? Read up. [link 1] [link 2]

I've carved up enough books that I can tell you THIS [link] is WORK!

RIAA claims they're not really downloading $9 million dollars of TV shows. "Someone's spoofing our IP addresses!" [link]

Smartphones make one more step toward Star Trek. [link]

A clip from the BBC4 show "So Wrong It's Right" where the guests bicker about the value of Twitter. [link]

I've got more, but I'm calling it good for this week.

Kansas Cosmosphere

2012-01-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

Cosmosphere lobby

There are three really big space museums. One is the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum here in Washington, D.C. Another is in Russia somewhere and is spelled with characters not on my keyboard. The third is the Kansas Cosmophere located in a remote backwater called Hutchinson.

It had been a long time since I last went there. Last time it had been recently overhauled. Among the changes had been making the lobby to look like the picture above. Yes, the SR-71 Blackbird is real. No, the Space Shuttle is not.

There's a number of shows to watch at the Cosmosphere.

Instead of the obligatory IMAX theater they have an OmniMax theater. The difference is that the IMAX is big an flat while the OmniMax is a dome that wraps around so the movie fills your peripheral vision and enhances the sense of motion the movie causes. But, it shows the same movies as the IMAX theaters.

The planetarium show was rather lacking. It was alright, but you've almost certainly seen better.

Robert Goddard's Lab, on the other hand, had a pretty good show. We've all seen those physics demonstrations with the super cooled liquid gasses and dry ice and foaming whatnots. That's what I was expecting and it's why I'd never bothered to go before. Instead the presenter talks about what problems Robert Goddard had when working on his rockets and the solutions he came up with and he does it while running a series of demonstrations to illustrate the problems and the solutions. The demonstrations include a number of things I haven't seen in other wizard's labs or physics shows.

Then there's the display area, the actual museum part. They've redone it since I was there last. Before it was mostly a collection of exhibits with a few rooms dedicated to specific subjects. Now the walk through the museum tells a story.

It starts with an actual V2 rocket from WWII. After all, if not for Hitler our space program wouldn't be nearly as developed as it is. This room tells about the scientists who developed the V2, the minions who died building them, and the madman who decided to make them instead of nuclear weapons.

The next few rooms talk about the aftermath of the war. How the Americans and Soviets agreed to divy up the rocket tech but grabbed all they could anyway. About Werner Von Braun and Sergei Korolev, heads of the American and Soviet rocket programs both had to lie and manipulate their way along so that they could make space craft and satellites instead of weaponry. About the space race the direct conflicts between American and Soviet leaders.

After going through those exhibits I'd really like to see a pair of movies about the drive to space from the views of Von Braun and Korolev. Each gets a movie. In each movie there would be appearances and footage from the other movie and each movie would paint themselves as the good guys and the other side as the bad guys. I've always wanted to see a movie like that, showing both sides of a conflict as they saw it. This would make a great subject to do that with.

Anyway, around the time of the moon landing the story fragments a bit. Without the conflict with the Soviets it becomes about space programs and their artifacts. And their artifacts are pretty damn good. It was at the Cosmophere that they did the restoration of the Liberty Bell capsule after they recovered it from the ocean floor. What I was looking for (but didn't find) was the tire from a Space Shuttle that they used to have. They used to have the wear pattern marked to show what parts were lost during what part of touchdown. They really only get one use.

And, as long as you're in Hutchinson, try to hit the Kansas Underground Salt Museum. Really, they need a better name for it. There's ongoing salt mining going on in that area. The active part of the mine is far from the museum, but you get to take the elevator down to the old part and spend sometime wandering around. They'll give you a hard hat and oxygen mask just in case. There's a train and an electric tram to take you around so you can see a bit more than you'd be willing to walk. Take the tram. You get to pick out a lump of unprocessed salt from a pile and take it home.

As they clear out space other things move in. The mine is used for storage for old TV and movie film and props. Some of them are on display.

If you go, be sure to get an appointment. People go down in groups and the groups are limited in number due to the limited size of the elevator. You wanna make sure you're not waiting for an opening. Also, you get a discount if you get tickets for both the salt mine and the Cosmophere.

Potatoes 2011 (success!)

2012-01-11T07:00:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to get a potato barrel to work for several years now. I've grown a few very tiny potatoes, but nothing worthy of any respect. But while digging around in the barrel the other day I found two potatoes of respectable size. Whether they can be eaten is a subject for another time.

2 potatoes and a neighbor kid

I'm still recovering files (only 40,000+ processed so far) so I don't have the pictures of the barrel over the season. You have to hear me talk about it instead.

I started with actual seed potatoes from the Ace Hardware near Yummy's place. First time I'd seen them for sale. They were put in a barrel with a few inches of good dirt and dead vegetation under and over them. I worried at first that they'd just rot, but after a week or two I saw the plant peeking up.

In a previous attempt I'd let the plant grow up, fall over, and then bury it. I wanted runners that went around and around. That was wrong. This time, as they grew up, I kept burying them so they'd always just have the upper most leaves poking up. Amazingly, I had to add dirt twice a week.

Then I waited for the leaves to die off. That's how I'm supposed to know to harvest them. But they didn't die. July came and cooked the plants, but it just grew new leaves. In late October they finally died. I could have harvested them then, but Yummy saw something saying that leaving them in the ground makes the skins tougher and the potatoes better able to survive long periods on a shelf without rotting. And I had no good place to put the dirt. So I waited. Yes, until a warm day in early January. Don't judge me.

I think I can still improve things, but I'm pretty happy with this year's results.

Aluminum bottles

2012-01-10T12:19:00.000-05:00

I've gotten a number of stories about these bottles from a number of sources. If you see some factual errors I'd like to be corrected.

I got these over Christmas when I was in Kansas. If you look south south west of Wichita you'll see a small town called Clearwater. At the intersection of the two main streets through town you'll find a burger joint called Walt's. That's where I got these aluminum bottles.

Walt's is a chain that currently boasts only three restaurant, each of which is very different from the others. So it's very likely that the one in Clearwater is the only one of the three that sells these. As far as the staff knew they were not only the only Walt's selling them, but the only place selling them at all. At least that's what the Coke sales rep implied. He said these bottles were exclusive to them. He must mean from the Wichita bottling plant.

My brother said one of the major beer companies (one of those that sell horse piss and call it beer. Budweiser or someone) had been doing them with limited success so they stopped. Now Coke is trying to make use of the machine.

They're new enough and rare enough right now that you can still flip the bottles on eBay for a profit. And you know where to get them cheap.

Movie Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

2012-01-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

This is the second trailer for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo." The first trailer showed a series of clip, a fraction of a second each, with words from the title thrown in. You had no idea what the movie was about. Since I'm one of the few people who haven't read anything in this series it was rather annoying.

The most important thing to know is that this movie is very, very rated R. Not rated X. Rated R with an R big enough that Stephen Hawking wrote his thesis on it. The book was brutal (I'm told) and they didn't pull back for the movie version. Nudity, yes, a fair amount of that. Probably more than you'd want to see in a movie you're watching with your parents. And then unblinking scenes of sexual abuse and rape. She does, however, get payback. Just not when you're expecting it if you're unfamiliar with the story.

The trailer I used above does a good job of telling what the movie is about without giving it all away. Our hero, a journalist of Woodward and Bernstein mentality, has just lost a case where he trusted the wrong informant. He needs to get away from things. Some millionaire hires him to investigate what happened to the relative who vanished back in the '60s. After some time he decides he needs some help and hires the girl who investigated him for the millionaire.

She's broken on many different levels. Socially she's rude and surly. She may have trouble knowing right from wrong, or she just might not care. It's hard to blame her as you learn more about how she grew up. But she has managed to turn her damage to her advantage. She's a pretty good hacker and a great investigator with as close as you can realistically get to a photographic memory. And god help you if she feels you've wronged her.

It was a great movie. I liked it a lot. Well, except for those excessively graphic bits. I will be seeing the next one and the original Swedish version. I'll probably get the audio book version, too. And that of the other books in the series. On DVD? Maybe. I'll see what mood I'm in when it comes out. But probably eventually.

Coming soon

2012-01-06T02:54:00.000-05:00

Look to my coming on the first light of the fifth day, at dawn look to the east.

Almost back up. Until then ponder this question...

Is a common saying considered your catch phrase if it's always other people saying it around you?

Technical difficulties

2012-01-02T01:08:00.001-05:00

My computer is having issues. It's called a Kernel Panic. Happens every time I start it. It's all "SHIT MOTHERFUCKER! DID YOU SEE THAT! HOLY MUPPET RAPING JESUS ON A POGO STICK! ETC. ETC. ETC. AND ON AND ON!!!" You'd think it'd calm down after a bit and get back to work, but no. That's why it's a Colonel Panic instead of a Private Panic. Still, you'd think it would know how to spell it's rank. Maybe the misspelling is part of the panic.

Anyway, until I can slap some sense into it you should expect continued not talkingness on my part.

Friday Links: December 23

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

Super Cat AWAAAAY!

Brown trousers time on a highway in Russia.

Original Green Goblin makeup screen test. [link]

From about freezing to 25 degrees Fahrenheit, snow forms as flakes. When it hits about 23 degrees the snow forms into needles and at about 22 degrees hollow columns. When the temperature drops to around 10, flakes start forming again. But when it gets to -8 or so, it's once again columns. At -30, snow stops forming altogether.
Despite 75 years of research, no one knows why. [link]

5 extremely wasteful film shoots. [link]

I didn't realize there was a debate about what the first chord of "A Hard Day's Night" was. This guy tells us.

Click the genres to navigate the maze of music types. [link]

Christmas light show done to the Skyrim theme.

An adult taking standardized tests. [link]
note: If the reading and math quizes at the top are an honest comparison to the standardized test then I think the school board member may not deserve all these other degrees he has.

6 reasons Star Trek: Voyager never worked. [link]
It's fleshed out much better than my general complaints about how every character was pretty much every actor trying to place the same personality.

A Very Calvin and Hobbes Christmas.

Cat regularly catches the bus. [link]

Real people play against real pigs in iPad app. [link]

Illegal torrent activities of the major movie studios. [link]

Skull smashing slingshot. [link]

Santa is a strange idea

2011-12-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking about Santa's means of transport. We take it for granted that he rides in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. How did they get to that point? There had to be a thought process that got us to that point.

We'll start with the fat man in a suit who brings gifts. Some form of that character has existed in most European cultures for centuries. Now lets picture someone trying to put the kids to bed on Christmas Eve.

Mom: Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite.
Kid: I'll try. But they get so mean in the winter.
Mom: Yes, well, sleep well anyway.
(Mom starts pulling door shut.)
Kid: Mom?
(Mom stops. Opens the door a bit.)
Mom: Yes, sweetie?
Kid: How is Santa getting here?
Mom: He rides a sleigh.
(Door starts to close.)
Kid: Like ours?
(Door opens a bit.)
Mom: Yep. Just like ours. Now go to sleep.
(Door starts to close.)
Kid: But Mom?
(Door opens a bit.)
Mom: Yes?
Kid: It takes our two horses an hour and a half to get to Grandma's. How does Santa get to all the kids homes so fast?
Mom: Um... I suppose he must have more horses. Good night.
(Door starts to close.)
Kid: How many horses?
(Door pauses.)
Mom: Twelve. He has twelve horses. Good night.
(Door continues to close.)
Kid: Mom?
(Door pauses. Mom sighs. Door opens.)
Mom: What?
Kid: Santa lives way up north, right?
Mom: Yep. Goodnight.
Kid: Isn't it too cold for horses? Wouldn't they freeze?
Mom: (sigh) Uhhm. Yeah. He... uses...
Dad (voice from outside room): Reindeer. They live up north.
Mom: Yes. Santa has a sleigh just like ours that is pulled by twelve reindeer. Now go to sleep.
Kid: What's a reindeer?
Mom: It's a really big deer with huge antlers that likes to stomp on children who won't go to sleep.
(Mom almost gets the door closed.)
Kid: Does Santa visit cousin Ichabod?
(Door doesn't move.)
Mom: Yes.
Kid: Over the mountains?
(Mom grumbles. Door opens a bit more)
Mom: Yes. Over the mountains.
Kid: But how does...
Mom: He flies.
(kid opens mouth)
Mom: Yes. Over the mountain. Santa is awesome like that.
Kid: Santa can fly? Can I fly?
Mom: No! You can't... (mutter) The reindeer fly. They pull the sleigh and they fly and if they get to a house where the kids are still awake Santa feeds them the gifts he was going to give to the little kid.
(Mom closes the door quickly)
Kid: And that's how Santa gets on the roof so he can come down the chimney?
Mom (Through door): Yes.
Kid: Mom?
Mom (Through door): WHAT!?
Kid: How do twelve big deers fit on the roof?
(Mom opens door.)
Mom: What?
Kid: Deers are big. How to twelve of them fit on the roof?
(Mom and voice of Dad together)
Mom: They're tiny.
Dad: There's only eight.
Kid: What?
(Mom glares up the hall.)
Mom: There's not twelve. There's only eight. Eight. Tiny. Reindeer. Now go to sleep.
(Mom closes the door quickly.)
(There's a long silence.)
Kid: But Mom?
Mom (from down the hall): MAGIC! NOW SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP!

Christmas Carols

2011-12-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you're sick of Christmas music by now. Take a break with some stuff that the radio isn't likely to be playing.

"The Night Santa Went Crazy" by Weird Al Yankovic.

"The Twelve Pains of Christmas" by Bob Rivers

"Christmas at Ground Zero" by Weird Al Yankovic

"I Want My Chevy for Christmas" by Cheech and Chong

"The Restroom Door Said Gentlemen" by Bob Rivers

Heck, just search for "Twisted Christmas" by Bob Rivers.

"Oh Holy Night" by Eric Cartman.

"12 Days" by Straight No Chaser

OK, the radio plays this, but I still like it.

"Keeping Warm in Calgary" by the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus and Tweeters.

We pause now for this message from XKCD

Submissions from friends:
"Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses

This one gets stuck in my head from time to time, but never knew where it got stuck in from.

"Father Christmas" by The Kinks

"The Christians and The Pagans" by Dar Williams

"Merry Christmas from the Family" by Jill Solube

"What Do You Get A Wookie for Christmas (when he already owns a comb)"

"Santa's Beard" by They Might Be Giants

"I Want an Alien for Christmas" by Fountains of Wayne

"12 Days of Christmas" by Allan Sherman

Sorry, but Adam Sandler's "Chanuka" gets too much radio play to make the list.

Movie Review: Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows

2011-12-19T07:00:00.096-05:00

Trilogies can be tricky. Often there's a strong first that is based on a good idea. It's highly profitable so a second is demanded. But the second movie is forced. There's no great idea that inspires the script, just the promise of payment. The third is just done because they want to be able to call it a trilogy. No real motivation for the writers at all. This pretty much defines everything Disney does. They're an empire of sequels.

The first movie also has the benefit of introducing viewers to a interesting new world. By the second they know the world so the writers have to introduce something new. This constant need for newness and discovery is why shows like Star Trek, The A-Team, The Incredible Hulk, Quantum Leap, and countless others do well. Each episode takes the familiar characters into a completely new setting.

There are other kinds of trilogies. Those that have a weak second movie only because it's leading to a strong third. The initial Star Wars trilogy, for example. Or the Back to the Future trilogy. The Matrix trilogy tried to do this, but it turned out the second and third movies were both part of the ill conceived and very forced second movie mentioned in the beginning.

There are exceptions. There are those rare occasions where a surprisingly good movie with a small budget inspires someone to use that to make a grand second movie. "Terminator 2" and "Chronicles of Riddick" come to mind. Note that there was a sizable gap between the first and the second movies as the stories needed time to come together. The upcoming "Star Trek 2" should also be pretty good as everyone involved wants to make sure that they're making something good instead of Star Trek for the sake of Star Trek. If they screw up here they've brought back Star Trek just to kill it again. And "The Dark Knight" wasn't planned when they did "Batman Begins", but they only pushed ahead when they had a good idea for the second movie. This coming third movie seems there only because it was insisted upon to have a trilogy. Hopefully it's good, because that will help them with their plans to adapt "The Dark Knight Returns" in 10-20 years.

"Men in Black 2" was a forced movie with nothing particularly new. "Men in Black 3" takes the known characters to a new time. It's also removed from the originals by enough that I have to think someone finally came up with a good idea.

There's another type of trilogy. One that was always meant as a trilogy. Lord of the Rings is a good example. The Sherlock Holmes movies are proving to be another. They started with a grand idea that would take three movies to tell properly. But the Sherlock Holmes movies can each stand on their own in a way that the Lord of the Rings movies can't. You can walk into this second Sherlock Holmes movie without having seen the first and you shouldn't be lost. It'll still be nice if you've a passing familiarity with the characters, but not vital.

If I've been willing to blather on for this long in a movie review you already have some idea what I think of it. It's either damn good or something that would get you caned in Malaysia. (Have you contributed to the Send Uwe Boll to Malaysia Fund, yet?)

One could argue about how this Sherlock Holmes departs from the characters developed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle once upon a time. It seems to me the adjustment is like adjusting any mention of currency for inflation. You couldn't compare the sales of Doyle's books to the earnings of modern books without adjusting his earnings for inflation and you can compare his characters to these without taking into consideration a change in society. There's plenty of modern adaptations of Shakespeare that don't get similar complaints. Holmes has always been a bit of a manic thrill seeker with no compunctions about getting into drugs or fights when be became bored due to a lax caseload.

Some of Holmes' tricks will be old if you've seen the first movie. Such as the way he analyzes his fights before getting into them. But this new movie throws a few twists into that as well as introducing a few new interesting elements. And Watson really comes into his own, both as a man of action and as a pretty good detective of his own. Plus we get to meet Moriarty and see his and Holmes' minds work against each other. By the way, props to Michele and Kieran Mulroney (the writers) for showing Professor Moriary as a professor instead of just a clever guy with a title.

Yes, I will be getting this on DVD. I may even see it in theaters again before it closes. And when the next one comes out I'll be there on opening weekend.

Santa's system test

2011-12-19T07:00:00.001-05:00

Santa's sleigh performing pre-holiday systems check.
Source: http://www.nso.edu/press/holiday05/ISOON_Santa.html

Obituary: Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-16T12:43:00.000-05:00

As an agnostic (defined here as an atheist who is still listening) I've repeatedly come across the works of Christopher Hitchens. I haven't actually read any of his books. But I have enjoyed many of his articles and interviews and really enjoyed his debates.

Richard Dawkins is a level headed, even keeled, scientific sort whose books (that I also haven't read) approach the concept of god from a biological and otherwise science based stand. He has converted many Bible thumpers with cold reason.

Christopher Hitchens had the science based arguments in his repertoire, too, but he wasn't nearly as even tempered. He had no qualms about calling a moron a moron. His arguments included pointing out the abysmal logic of The Bible and worse logic of it's believers.

Despite our similar thinking, it took me awhile to warm to Hitchens. Largely because when I first looked at his writing he was convinced that the invasion of Iraq was justified because everyone knew Saddam had nukes. I don't know where he got his news from, but I always had trouble understanding how ANYONE could believe that. And that tinted most everything of his that I read. Eventually, he admitted that he had been working with flawed information and that the war was the result of a grand con job. That he was willing to change his opinion based on new information improved my view of him significantly. He became, in my view, not just an atheist with great, and sometimes cruel, debate skills, but fell into the definition of agnostic that I used back in the first line of this post. You'd never catch Ken Ham or Ray Comfort changing their story when proven wrong or given new information. And they have been, oh so many times.

In June 2010 he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. The same thing that killed his father. It caused him to cancel a book tour, but didn't stop him from continuing to write and debate and give the occasional talk. The cancer and the treatment showed on him, but where it was possible to keep working, keep debating, and keep educating he still showed up and made no effort to put makeup over what was happening to him. He was forced to cancel many events when his voice failed, but only then.

One thing he made clear early on was that there would be no deathbed conversion. Christians often try to claim that prominent nay sayers of their God changed their mind as they died. Charles Darwin is one of the most famous cases of this, but anyone who claimed to have seen it has been proven not to have been in the room. Hitchens said that if for any reason he says otherwise in the hours before he passes that he can guarantee that it was the drugs talking.

———

I wrote this Wednesday just because I wanted one ready. Wrote about what I knew Hitchens for - his trashing of theists. But he was a writer first and a writer about religious issues second. He continued writing articles on a variety of subjects right up until two days ago. He documented his development of cancer and gradual passing from it beautifully. I figure it'll end up in future versions of his biography "Hitch 22" and could be used as reading to help others with terminal cancer.

There are plenty of other eulogies out there. But one of the best has to have come from The Onion.

Source: The Onion

Friday Links: December 16

2011-12-16T07:00:00.110-05:00

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois has been on trial for corruption for awhile. He had tried selling Obama's old Senate seat. He was recently sentenced to 14 years. [link]

A toast defibrillator. [link]

Drifting, or Hagawlah, in Saudi Arabia.

Medial marijuana laws reduce traffic fatalities. Possibly by reducing drunk driving. [link]

A wasp smaller than an amoeba. [link]

We've seen flames burn in null gravity before. Recently, a more in depth study of the stuff was done. [link]

Feed a word into this and listen to the music it makes based on the word. [link]

How to build a great paper airplane. [link]

We've been waiting for some time for this, but with this new woolly mammoth discovery some scientists claim to be only 5 years from a successful cloning. [link]

Paypal turns out to be dicks. [link]

Pictures of baby weasels in the wild. [link>]

Mythbusters is a safe show and a welcome addition to any neighborhood: BUSTED! [link]

The LA Times is a photo thief. [link]

What the opposite of helium does to your voice (and other science).

Cooling canals for a nuclear reactor proves to be a good home for endangered crocs. [link]

The Kepler telescope has found 2,326 potential planets in 16 months. One appears to be in the Goldilocks Zone. [link]

Bent wire still lifes. [link]

Crocheted tie fighters. [link]

A collection of photos of low flying aircraft. My favorites were when you see where planes flew too low and took damage but still managed to limp home. [link]

A trailer for a sci-fi movie that is just a concept. With all that's in this trailer the movie would have to be close to 3 hours long.

The alleged Ark of the Covenant is going to be moved. I'll let you look at it first. [link]

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 reached one billion dollars in sales faster than "Avatar" did. [link]

Picture: Gingerbread Weasley house. [link]

A gift of peace in all good faith. [link]

Richard Thompson, I know you're reading this! We have footage of Dill's brother's in action!

Trailer for "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe."

50 tons of corn stolen from a train in Brazil. [link]

How Elvis Costello got banned from SNL. [link]

Rats will free trapped rats. [link]

How chicken wire is made. [link]

An old Woody Allen stand-up bit about the time he shot a moose. [like]

John Updike's rules for reviewing books. It means I'll have to start taking better notes in the future. [link]

That's what my manger scene needs! A statue of a guy taking a dump! [link]

We recently saw lawyers in Florida using strippers as para-legals to drum up business. In Illinois a law firm pretty much came out and said they want a shapely secretary who puts out. Not for criminals. For the lawyers. She puts the perky in "executive perks". [link]

Louis CK is trying an experiment to see if people will buy the sort of stand up act that cable channels used to run. [link]

The biggest box office bombs. Some are good movies, some deserved to bomb. Yeah, Battlefield Earth, we're looking at you. [link]

Sweet new free program from AutoDesk (makers of AutoCAD). [link]

Really loud TV commercials will soon be a thing of the past. [link]

Mitt Romney's slogan is also a KKK slogan. Yeah, it happens. But why does the press apologize for mentioning that when it'd be headlines from now until the election if Obama said it? [link]

Book Review: Spin

2011-12-15T07:00:00.001-05:00

Many times have I come to you with science fiction novels that I said were good, but I wouldn't put them in my top 10 or top 25. This isn't one of them. It'll take me time to sort out where, exactly, it belongs, but I feel safe placing this book in my top 25. I'm really gonna have to define that list some day.

In the not to distant future the stars all suddenly go out. So does the moon. So do the satellites. Earth has been put inside a bubble. Everything inside the bubble moves at only one second for every three years that passes on the outside. We're shielded from stellar radiation so we don't have three years of sunlight hitting us every second. An artificial sun shines down from the inside of the bubble. Someone has done this and that someone doesn't want us dead.

Tyler Dupree grew up with Jason and Diane Lawton. They were from a rich family. Tyler's dad and theirs were friends. Tyler and his mom got to live on the estate in a small house while she worked as the housekeeper.

The story focuses on Tyler. As he lies in a hotel room undergoing some painful medical treatment he feels a compulsion to write what he remembers before it's gone. He tells the story of growing up with Jason and Diane. He tells about the stars going out, the discovery of the spin barrier, and growing up in that world. When you know that in 60 years the sun will envelop the Earth what do you do? Follow wacky religions? Becomes a genius to solve the spin problem? Establish a network of communication weather balloons? Launch rockets beyond the barrier to learn more? Nuke the things in orbit that likely created the barrier? Terraform other worlds? All of the above?

In the short periods when he's lucid we watch Tyler fleeing forces unknown who want to control whatever treatment he's taking. And while fleeing them he needs to find a way to get through that arch outside his window. The one plunked right down in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Robert Charles Wilson has created an interesting world and writes it well. This was one of the few books I've read in awhile that I found myself eager to pick up and reluctant to put down.

I recommend this book fairly highly. And so do others. It got both a Hugo Award and was nominated for a Locus Award and a John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Movie Review: The Muppets

2011-12-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

I'm not even sure why I'm writing a review of this movie. You've all already made up your mind whether or not to see it. Most of those who want to see it already have. But here it goes anyway.

I heard there was a new Muppet movie coming out and that it was being made under Disney ownership. I was expecting another "Muppets From Space" or "Muppet Treasure Island". Because, frankly, Disney can't come up with fresh ideas to save their life. And Jason Segal wrote it and made himself a major character? Who does that?

Then a friend saw an advanced viewing. He said it was good. On par with the original. I trust him. He says it's worth seeing and I'll see it.
Then other friends saw it. They said it was damn good. On par with the original.
Life stepped in. I missed weekend after weekend.

Yummy and I finally got our acts together and went to see it. The timing was tricky. To get to a showing that fit our schedule we had to go to a bad part of a bad city. The theater isn't generally bad. They have good popcorn. It's in good condition. They're just in a bad location. We got two of us in an evening showing for under $20. No stadium seating. The lights don't come up between shows. And, this time, the heat was out. We sat in our big coats and shivered for two hours.

And we loved it.

You can't help but love the Muppets. It was completely different than any other show on TV. Barely controlled chaos. They used a philosophy similar to Monty Python. If you don't know how to end a sketch you blow something up. But they're not just talking gloves and slapstick humor. They each have a personality of their own. Each personality is a caricature of a real person's personality. Each has their own psychological problems. And you love them for it.

Even my parrot, Gandolf, loves them. Specifically the Swedish Chef. She'll blather on in mock swedish for 15 minutes when she's in a good mood. Not parrot babble. Mock. Swedish. Und shee awlways und wif der bork bork bork.

The movie starts with a couple of brothers. Young Jason Segal and Walter the felt boy. As kids they watched The Muppet Show together. To Jason they were funny. To Walter they were where he belonged. When they grew up Walter tagged along with Jason and Amy Adams anniversary trip to LA. Walter just wanted to see Muppet Studios. But it was run down. Partially in ruins. Decaying.

Jason wrote himself into Walter. He wrote everyone who ever watched the Muppets into Walter. I dare you not to tear up when Walter is standing in Kermit's office and looking at the picture of Kermit and Jim Henson hanging on the wall.

Walter finds out about a plot to level Muppet Studios and drill for oil. Our heroes set out to find Kermit and tell him. From there it becomes one of the great movie cliches. You need to get your TV characters on screen? Make them have to raise the money to save the whatever. But, what story hasn't been done to death? If you tell it well then it doesn't matter what story you tell.

I know I didn't want the movie to be about Jason and Amy. But in the effort to fit what was originally (I'm told) a 3 hour movie into less than 2 hours some things got trimmed. You see several times where Jason volunteers them to do something and Amy kind of gets this look on her face. She gets a speech, a song, and bit at the end about their story. The one where he's neglecting her and she just wants to spend time just the two of them. It parallels the story of Kermit and Miss Piggy. They've not seen each other for years because Kermit was never able to say that he needed her. In the end, they both figure out what they needed to do.

And then they play the Muppet Show theme song. And you find you're really glad you still have those tissues in your coat pocket from last winter.

Yeah, I'll be getting it on DVD.

I may try to finish writing up scripts for my idea for a science show starring Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.

Reprint: Santa Claus

2011-12-12T14:20:00.000-05:00

I believe in Santa Claus. I stopped believing years ago when my parents left a letter to Santa that had been mailed out sitting on the dining room table. But I recently saw "The Hogfather". You remember. I reviewed it recently. I didn't? But I could have sworn. Anyway, it's good. Download it from iTunes or wait to get the DVD this Easter.
At the end there's a bit about why it's important that kids believe in the Hogfather. I saw it in the book, but it didn't click quite as well then. Some books are better audio books, some are better read, some are better as movies. But I'm getting off my subject. It's like this...no... let me quote from the book.

---
A conversation between Susan and Death:

'You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable.'
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
'Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little-'
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
'So we can believe the big ones?'
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
'They're not the same at all!'
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET- Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
'Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point-'
MY POINT EXACTLY.
She tried to assemble her thoughts.
THERE IS A PLACE WHERE TWO GALAXIES HAVE BEEN COLLIDING FOR A MILLION YEARS, said Death, apropos of nothing. DON'T TRY TO TELL ME THAT'S RIGHT.
'Yes, but people don't think about that,' said Susan.
CORRECT. STARS EXPLODE, WORLDS COLLIDE, THERE'S HARDLY ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANS CAN LIVE WITHOUT BEING FROZEN OR FRIED, AND YET YOU BELIEVE THAT A... A BED IS A NORMAL THING. IT IS THE MOST AMAZING TALENT.
'Talent?'
OH, YES. A VERY SPECIAL KIND OF STUPIDITY. YOU THINK THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS INSIDE YOUR HEADS.
'You make us sound mad,' said Susan.
NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME? said Death, helping her up on to Binky.
---

Now, you can have your Jesus, your Allah, your Vishnu, Ra, Buddha, Odin, and Zeus but in the end we know deep down they are no more real than Captain Kirk. That's right. None of those gods exist outside stories. Neither do truth, justice, fairness, mercy, duty, a chili place that can do a proper bowl of chili, or any sort of human rights. Hurricanes don't recognize the right to life. Tornadoes don't recognize any fairness in who they strike. It's the belief in these things that's important. We create the illusion of these ideals because we need them to Be. It's important that we believe in them so that we'll struggle to keep them safe.
Santa is "My First Belief System". You know, for kids. It's the first imaginary thing they believe in. It's practice so that someday they'll be able to believe in truth, justice, and the basic rights of all mankind.

Santa is the model for what we want our kids to become. Happy, generous, well fed, and with super powers.
We should all get our ideal body image from Santa instead of Barbie.
He threatens to withhold gifts from bad boys and girls, but he also shows nearly total forgiveness for their sins because he almost always comes through with the gifts in the end.
And nobody has yet killed in his name. How many other dieties can claim the same?

I know Santa isn't real, but I'm going to believe in him anyway.

Friday Links: December 9

2011-12-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

You're already a hardened criminal. What law firm do you use, the one that sends you strippers posing as paralegals or the one sending some guy in a suit? [link]

A horrifying revelation about how Time Lords spell. [link]

Jack Handy and the Martians. [link]

Acoustic Superman Theme.

Plastic Surgeon General's Warning: Smoking can make your nipples fall off. [link]

Chewbacca to appear on Glee. [link]
Does this mean that George Lucas now admits the Star Wars Christmas Special happened?

Dogs get PTSD, too. [link]

Jameco shows off their billiard ball powered computer. [link]

Then they explain a bit about that bladeless Dyson fan. [link]

The story of how the LAPD and media handled the reporting of the break up of the Occupy LA camp. If you don't want to read the whole thing be sure to jump to the update at the bottom of the article. [link]

Do plants feel pain or pleasure? Studies indicate they do. But then studies also indicate tin feels pain. [link]

Life on Earth started as a global organism. [link]

Launch of NASA's latest Mars rover should make golfers envious. [link]

The Russian Martian probe, however, has a doozy of a slice. [link]

Game: Kikka - find the secret way to build the chrysanthemum. [link]

Could Starcraft 2 replace chess as a game to study how the mind works? [link]

The original zombie novel. [link]

The boys from Hanson have a new beer. They're calling it Mmmhop. [link]

1:30 prequel to The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe. [link]

Best. Christmas Decoration. Evar. [link]

2011-12-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

"Xmas" is not a secular plan to "take the Christ out of Christmas." "The usual suggestion is that 'Xmas' is ... an attempt by the ungodly to x-out Jesus and banish religion from the holiday." However, X stands for the Greek letter Chi, the starting letter of Χριστός, or "Christ" in Greek. The use of the word "Xmas" can be traced to the year 1021 when "monks in Great Britain...used the X while transcribing classical manuscripts into Old English" in place of "Christ". The Oxford English Dictionary's "first recorded use of 'Xmas' for 'Christmas' dates back to 1551." Paul Brians adds that, "so few people know this that it is probably better not to use this popular abbreviation in religious contexts."
- Wikipedia

Sod Off Wednesday: December 7

2011-12-07T12:40:00.001-05:00

The road north of the family farm has become a popular place. Some roads are known as places where under age kids can go with their Everclear. Others as good make out locations. This one has become known as a place to set cars on fire.
I don't know the story behind the fire in this picture, but the one before it was someone torching the car of a landlord who had kicked the firebug out of a mobile home park.

Movie Review: Hugo

2011-12-06T07:00:00.000-05:00

I knew very little about this movie before going to see it. I honestly thought it was going to be a very detailed digitally animated movie. But something compelled me to see it.

The movie starts slow. Almost painfully slow. But that makes the audience more likely to latch on to any little thing they feed us. There's a boy who lives in the walls and in the clocks of a train station in Paris. He keeps the clocks running. He watches people go about their lives down below. He likes to steal from a toy maker. But not for the toys. For the parts.

The movie starts to pick up. He's got a notebook with some sketches that don't make much sense to the audience. But they upset the toy maker. Hugo starts running around with the girl the toy maker is raising. She's looking for adventure. He has a mystery that he needs to solve since it's all he has of his father.

The movie has a magical quality. It doesn't move like we're used to. The very pacing seems to lend it a slightly odd feel. And it feels bit like a Narnia story or Peter Pan. But instead of having to go to a distant magical land they find it around each corner. They find it in a library run by Christopher Lee. They find it in a shop full of clockwork toys. They find it inside stone walls that feels like climbing inside the toys while making everyone outside look like they're the toys.

The big mystery is what is that clockwork man? Who made it? What does it do? Why does this strange girl have a necklace that fits in the automaton's neck? What does the toy maker know about it? And why is he so angry?

I liked this movie. I don't know if I'll get this movie on DVD, but I'll definitely try to take Yummy to see it. If I can't then I'll get the DVD. It's a story she'd love even if it didn't star Ben Kingsley.

Dougmas Jar 2011

2011-12-05T14:44:00.000-05:00

December snuck up on me. Nobody told me we were having December this year. I'm not ready! I'm starting a bit late on the Dougmas season, but here's a start.

You have to start with a Dougmas Jar. Or a Christmas Jar or a Kwanza Jar or a Channukah/Agnostica/New Years/Festivus/Whatever Jar. From December 1 through December 31 all good Dougintologists have a jar set by where you empty your pockets. Each evening when you empty your pockets you're supposed to dump your change into this jar. Then, on New Year's Day, you count up the change and send a check for that amount to your favorite charity.

Why should you put your change in a jar at home? Because fuck the Salvation Army. That's why. Lets see if I can finish this post without ranting about them.

I started decorating my jar last night. It's a bell jar that I painted all white. I intended to follow up with some red. I thought the snap line I use for making lines in construction projects would work well. It didn't. Flat surfaces only. So I'll keep working on it. I've got bottle of red and green paint, too.

I'm afraid the jar's take is gonna be pretty slight this year. I barely use cash at all anymore. That's what I tell the homeless guys anyway. And it's pretty much true. The years that the jar did really well were years when I hit a stamp vending machine and got lots of change in the form of dollar coins. But now... now I'm gonna have to make a special effort this month to use cash at Starbucks, Subway, um... and other places just to have change.

Dougintology has a short list of preferred charities.
• Solar Electric Light Fund (http://self.org)
• Trees for the Future (http://treesftf.org/)

SELF is an organization that provides loans to people in remote areas so they can buy solar equipment. The loan is paid back over several years by using what they normally would have spent on generator fuel for three years. It helps to improve their education, their productivity, their health, and many other aspects of their lives.

Trees for the Future plants trees in areas where there's enough rain to support life, but poor soil management has made it a desert. This includes areas bordering the Sahara desert and clear cut rain forest. The trees break up the soil so native plants can take root, the leaves are edible, and eventually the tree can be used as fuel. It helps make an area better able to support the population rather than helping feed a population in an area that can't support them.

For our patron saint, Douglas Adams, I include:
• Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation (http://www.dianfossey.org/home/)
• Save the Rhino (http://www.savetherhino.org/)

You may also want to consider...
Operation Foxhole is now defunct, but The Fisher House Foundation creates Ronald McDonald style housing for wounded soldiers. While the soldier is in the hospital his family gets to stay in the Fisher Houses for free. But I think there may be some arrangement about who does the cooking in the house.

Similarly, there's a Dougintology Shitlist. We disapprove of faith based charities. Partially because they usually refuse care to people who refuse to attend their services first. Partially because they refuse care to those whose lifestyles they disapprove of. And partially because they spend the money on stuff to promote their faith or get them exempt from anti-discrimination laws.
It's not charity if you're using it as a bribe. This is not what Jesus would do.

The Christian Children's Fund made the list for refusing $17,000 raised in memory of Gary Gygax. They didn't want money donated by Dungeons and Dragons players or that was raised by selling D&D merchandise. The poor children that might be fed or provided with clean drinking water were better off hungry than fed with dirty gamer money.

Christian Charities made the list when they threatened to stop providing aid in Washington, DC completely if they were forced to obey local anti-discrimination laws. I'm not sure if they followed through on the threat, but they did stop providing support to spouses of employees when DC legalized gay marriage. They also gave all foster care duties to another organization so they'd never have to adopt out children to gay couples.

The Salvation Army isn't as bad as Christian Charities. They're pissed that they can't discriminate in their hiring practices, but they do still put care of (and proselytizing to) the needy above their own bigotry. But, where legal, they do turn away homosexuals and refuse to hire them. A good deal of the money given to them is spent in lobbying efforts to make them exempt from these laws both here and internationally. More money is spent on bibles and other material used to try to convert those who need their help.

If you have a charity you particularly like or particularly hate let the readers know about them in the comments.

Friday Links: Dec 2

2011-12-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

Carpeted stage + sudden braking = comedy

A guy give a shout out to the previous owner of his AD&D manual. [link]

Why don't we find turkey eggs in stores? [link]

Dr Who Christmas Special trailer - The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe. [link]

"Rampage: The Movie" - great potential to be awful or awesome. I put my money on it never being finished. [link]

Showing off in Skyrim.

How to report a Cthulhu infestation.

The unaired 1994 pilot for "24". [link]

Why Obama still matters. [link]

When the new "Arrested Development" episodes come out they'll air on Netflix. [link]

What we know so far about the Adderall shortage. [link]

As far as that goes, why the hell can't I get any Benadryl anymore? [link]

And why can't students at Fordham University get birth control? Because the Pope is a dick. [link]

If the humans die off the octopi and squid will eventually take over.

Muslim vs muslim culture clash. NSFW picture at the end of the article. [link]

Pictures of personal flying machines. [link]

NYPD got a high resolution panoramic camera for crime scenes. Here's a few of their pictures. [link]

Leonardo da Vinci and my first cousin once removed both carried around sketchbooks. [link]

Picture: lightning bunny. [link]

Much of this article about Edison and Westinghouse is old news, but scroll down to the bit about the first execution by electrocution. [link]

Quick comparison of iPhone and Android sales, profits, and market share. [link]

What is the PROTECT IP Act? [link]

If you give an engineer a lathe - The making of a teeny V-12 engine.

Brian Blessed alarm clock app for iPhone.

The use of pepper spray on protesters has resulted in interesting reviews for that stuff on Amazon. [link]

Think it's due to this guy? [link]

South Korea prison getting robotic guards. [link]
When the machines rise up it'll be in either Japan or South Korea. While the rest of the world fights the machines North Korea won't even realize there's anything wrong.

What have The Muppets been up to since their last movie? [link]

I want this coat. Just to wear around and scare people. [link]

Matter and energy can't be created or destroyed. It can only change forms. Until now. [link]

On my drive to Kansas I saw more dead deer on the road than prairie gators (thrown tire treads on the side of the road). But I hadn't realized there's so many that they've had to start running into people. [link]

To do when next in Pittsburgh. [link]

US Patent office shows off invention models. [link]

SPOILERS
How the new Muppet movie originally ended. [link]

QI: How many balls are in the jar?

Half-Life: Origins

Alan Moore talks about the Guy Fawkes masks based on his "V for Vendetta" creation and their now popular use in activist groups. [link]

Tiny models of crime scenes. [link]

"Unfortunately, we at www.elviscostello.com find ourselves unable to recommend this lovely item to you as the price appears to be either a misprint or a satire." [link]

A squirrel impersonating a Star Trek communicator. I laughed more than it deserved.

Pictures

2011-12-01T07:00:00.008-05:00

This is an icebox. A proper one. No electronics. It actually needs a big block of ice to work.
It had been in the wheat truck building on the farm with rusty tools and bolts in it. When they started cleaning out that building with the idea of putting a new building there I and a few others spoke up and made sure that sucker was saved.

These two pictures are of The Muffin Man's kid, The Grouch, and the girl who rents the farmhouse in the loft of one of the barns. The loft is one of the places that my cousins and I would hang out and play when we were kids. It's been occupied by a polystyrene castle that my uncle had made for the Lawn, Garden, and Flower show some years back. In fact, it still is, but she has still cleared a space up there to play. She introduced The Grouch to the ancient art of throwing mud dauber nests against the concrete and watching them explode.

Chipped Chocolate Pie (revised)

2011-12-01T07:00:00.007-05:00

A year ago today I posted this recipe for the first time. The final product wasn't completely correct because I didn't know what I was doing. This time I had help from my cousin, The Muffin Man.

This particular recipe was known as Grammie's. At her funeral her sister was overheard laying claim to it. Another sister had never heard of it and was learning something new about Grammie.

It's called a Chipped Chocolate Pie. This is different from a chocolate chip pie in that two of the words are switched. Also, you're supposed to shave your own chocolate instead of using a bag of chips.

For the crust you'll either need:
16 graham crackers, crushed
1/3 cup butter
OR
1 graham cracker crust

For the contents you'll need:
30 large marshmallows
1 cup heavy whipping cream - Whipped
1/4 cup hot milk
1 ounce (1/2 square) semisweet chocolate, grated

The crust
I made the crust the first time and went the easy route the second. I recommend trying to make your own at some point. I found it rather interesting. And when you make your own you have some leftover crumbs to sprinkle on top.
Set aside 2 tablespoons of smashed cracker to put on the top of the pie later. Mix the rest in with the melted 1/3 cup of butter. At first you'll have some really buttery crumbs and lots of not at all buttery crumbs, but just keep stirring and it'll even out. The butter serves to help make the cracker crumbs sculptable. Then line the pie pan with the buttery crumbs. They don't pack well. Not by hand. My brother says I should have used a second pie pan to pack the crust better. Even if you don't it'll be fine. Mostly you're just wanting something to make sure the pie filling comes away from the pan.
If I were doing it again I'd probably use more butter. But maybe the second pan would do the same job.

The filling
Last time I wanted a double boiler that I didn't have. Turns out I don't need it.
Put the 30 marshmallows and the milk in a bowl. This should leave you enough marshmallows in the bag to snack on or pay off nosy family members.
The bowl went in the microwave. 30 seconds and stir, 30 seconds and stir, repeat until the marshmallows are melted. Should only take a minute and a half to two minutes. Then it was stirred with a fork to help it cool. Sort of a lift and drop movement. To give it surface area to cool better. Pour a bit over your finger to test the temperature. You're shooting for the room temperature neighborhood.

Get some kind of grater to use on the chocolate. The squares we used were 2 oz. We needed half of one square. Expect to leave some knuckle in there. If the final pie is pink then you left too much knuckle.

The whipping cream sat in the fridge overnight. Partially because it's dairy and we weren't using it immediately and partially because it's my understanding that it whips better that way. It should also help with what comes later. Blenders are your friends. I introduced air in my first one with a fork, but it wasn't enough. A blender got it nice and foamy and to a point where a hole was left when I took the beaters out. That's what you want. Something that can be shaped and formed a bit.

You're supposed to let the marshmallows cool for a little while. Another mistake from the first try was not letting the molten marshmallows cool enough. It melted the chocolate. This time it was allowed to sit while the cream was whipped. Then the marshmallow ooze was poured slowly, a bit at a time, into the whipped cream. Then I folded the cream over itself again and again until the marshmallow was mixed in. We repeated this a few times and then stopped. The foam in the cream doesn't hold up well when it's hot. When about half the marshmallow was folded in we put the mix in the fridge so it could cool down. Then we continued. After all the marshmallow is folded into the cream, fold in the chipped chocolate.

Pour all that in the pie crust.
Sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs you set aside on top of the filling. If you don't have extra crumbs some chocolate or cocoa would do well, too.
Throw that mess into the fridge for a few hours. Preferably overnight.

pie

The pie was a success. It always is. At the family gatherings we have to cut it thin to make sure as many people as possible get some. I think everyone got a slice. Since it was a special occasion I think everyone wanted to make sure that everyone got at least some of the pie.

Note from The Muffin Man:
other delicious variations include: use a oreo crust instead of graham cracker, try adding in 6-8 chopped up cherries, try adding in 1 or 2 crushed small candy canes, drizzle top with chocolate syrup or fudge

New barn

2011-11-30T07:00:00.002-05:00

To refer to this building as a barn may be a bit generous. We'll work out a proper name for it in time. Until then we'll use the awkward "combine building" name.

The building became necessary when my dad and brother got a combine that was too tall and the header too wide to fit in any of our existing buildings. A plan was hatched to get a new building that would eliminate the old building that houses the wheat trucks and a couple of horse drawn corn wagons and get a new building in it's place that would house everything. But one builder came back with plans for a building that still managed to be too small for the combine. Others came back with prices way too high for Dad's comfort. So, while at the Kansas State Fair, Mom and Dad found someone who sold buildings like you see here. It's a kit that you put together yourself. You and 7 of your closest friends. It has no front or sides, but it fits the combine perfectly. That would be more obvious if the header was attached.

The windows are highly reflective.

Grammie

2011-11-29T04:01:00.001-05:00

A week ago last Friday I got the first call. Grammie was being moved to Hospice care. This didn't involve moving her. Not again. She'd been moved too many times in the last few years to different kinds of care: assisted living, hospital, nursing home, back to assisted living, Alzheimers ward, back to the nursing home, it got to where every time I'd go home I'd have to find out where she was all over again. But this wasn't a move. It was just a different caretaker paying attention. And many people have come back out of hospice care. Still, I shoved a few extra things in the car before going to Yummy's.

The next night I got the second call. She wasn't processing calories. Her kidneys had shut down. No feeding tube or IV would help. They couldn't give her the Parkinson's medication. Rather than try to convince the airlines to give me bereavement rates, if they still offer that, then fly out, get picked up, and all that, I decided it would be just as fast and much easier to just drive. So Sunday morning I got a sleeping bag and took off in the car.

Monday at 9:30 in the morning I got back to the farm. A shower and a shave and then Dad and I went to visit his mother. When I went into her room I didn't recognize which of the elderly women was her. The woman whose bed was where I'd last seen Grammie's had her hair, formerly curly, brushed straight back and her mouth wide open. Her eyes were mostly closed. Her every breath was something she had to insist on taking. I talked to her for a bit. At one point her lower jaw worked up and down rapidly. Perhaps she heard me. Perhaps she was trying to talk. Perhaps it was the Parkinson's or just a twitch.

One grandkid had already come, said her peace, and gone home. Another was coming with his son the next day. A sister; more grandkids coming later still; a daughter shuttling back and forth. Word was out. There was barely a corner you could turn or a face you could see where someone wasn't offering condolences. What do you say? Eventually I figured out what I was feeling was a mixture of regret and relief with the relief taking up more space than one really wants to admit to ones self. "Thank you. It was hardly sudden. We've had plenty of time to say goodbye. There's regret, but also relief that she won't have to fight her own mind and body much longer."

Wednesday morning The Muffin Man was awakened by a cardinal tapping on his bedroom window. This was more remarkable because he was in a basement bedroom with a fence over the fire escape. Still escapable for people, but hard for creatures to get in. He took that for a sign. She was saying goodbye even if her body was still gonna keep running.

That day The Muffin Man and I went to see her again. We stayed longer. We each talked to her about the farm, about work, we talked to each other about work trying to figure out the questions that would help her understand if she could hear us. But we didn't get the jaw movements or even the staring that some others reported.

One of the great grandkids, The Muffin Man's kid, gets the grand tour of the pastures. Look! Cow bones! Railroad spikes! A shotgun shell! The dugout of an old settler's homestead! Not sure how many of those you'll get through airport security.

Thanksgiving was suddenly expanded. From 5 to 15 or more.
"What can I bring?"
"Wine."
"What else?"
"Two wines."
Another turkey was bought. Naturally The Muffin Man was drafted for rolls and desserts. I was already gathering ingredients to make the pie Grammie was best known for (details later this week). The Muffin Man showed me how I screwed it up last year.

At Thanksgiving dinner people started asking questions that others had been asking for days. I didn't realize until we were dropping Grandma off at the assisted living place what that meant. As we left my Mom told some people on the sidewalk that Grammie had passed last night. My Dad had gotten the call between 2:30 and 3 in the morning. They waited until sunrise to pass the news along. I got missed. So had my bother. He found out on Facebook.

Grandma is 6 months younger than Grammie. She's been using Grammie as someone to measure against for years. As Grammie's condition deteriorated in the last year or so Grandma's has, too. We need to help her see she's not Grammie. Otherwise we may be doing this again in 6 months.

We went coffin shopping on Black Friday. Strangely, no door buster discounts.
Flowers, crypts, forms, pallbearers? yes: 6 of them for 15 ft, 3 songs, burial then service, death certificates? 6? 15? more? they arranged it all and gave Dad the bill. Got that much liquid? Yep, thanks. Gotta meet the preacher. Mom? No, the other preacher. She needs Grammie stories. And we need to fill out this slideshow another grandkid made with a few more pictures so they can play it before the service. And there's a video tape that someone digitized to show at the dinner.

The viewing was Friday night. I saw people I hadn't seen in decades.
My bother and I - "Gee, Mrs. Ray hasn't aged a day since we were in grade school."
My uncle - "Gee, Mrs. Ray hasn't aged a day since we were in grade school."
"Hello, Justin's Mom. I haven't seen you since Justin blew up his wrist 17 years ago? How is that healing up, anyway?"
"Hello old shop teacher. Somehow I've gone from being a shop teacher major to making medical books. Please don't tell my old english teachers. They'd have a stroke. All of them."
"Dude, Ibid, when were the glasses in that picture of you ever in style?" "I was 7. I didn't get to make those decisions." "Ah. What's your excuse now?"

Saturday morning it was raining. Third rain of the summer. It stopped long enough to allow us to bury Grammie. I wore her late-husband's shoes. The great grandkids had jewelry and bolo ties he'd made long ago. Six pall bearers is just right. Mom talks. People pray. It's cold. See you at the church.

At the church there's even more people unseen in ages.
"What's this video of? Can we kill the sound? It's nice to see that lady without being reminded how shrill and crabby she was."
"She looks bad." "Yep, for 36 years that I know of."
"She's still cute despite the extra 20 years and grey hair."
"Maybe it's a video of their 50's anniversary."
"Why does that whole branch of the family look like enforcers for one of the less classy mobs?"
"Hey, the last three grandkids! Doing well for arriving at 3 this morning."
"That video was shot in this room. The camera was about 15 ft this way."
"Didn't this room have an air hockey table?" "Yes, in much the same way you used to have hair."
"I saw you at the service! I didn't recognize you with those sunglasses and huge floppy hat."
"The video is definitely from the 80s. No other era would tolerate those clothes."
"I have a 3 liter bottle of wine." "Then we're coming to your place."

The next morning I got in the car and pointed it east.

Grammie and 7 of her 8 (eventually 9) grandkids.
(left to right: J, Fleischmann, Bother, Cake, Grammie, CA, Woodwinds, Ibid, The Muffin Man)

Back

2011-11-28T13:58:00.000-05:00

I left Kansas yesterday morning at about 7:30 am Central Time and got home a bit after 1:30 pm Eastern Time (1 hour ahead). So... 29 hours to get home as opposed to the 25 hours to get to Kansas which shows how much I've aged since I used to do the trip in 21 hours.

Car naps and non-hotel sleep made up for the extra time. Still, I'm going to bed now. Come back tomorrow.

AFK

2011-11-21T11:20:00.001-05:00

My 92+ year old grandmother has taken a turn for the worse. So I'm in Kansas to deal with family stuff. I may be here for days or weeks. Expect irregular updates.

Friday Links: November 18

2011-11-18T07:00:00.000-05:00

Game: 3 Slices - Make as much red fall away as you can with only 3 cuts. [link]

History of hookworms in The South. [link]

A tree house for adults. [link]

A zoomable, panable copy of the first map to use the name America. [link]

How to get raccoons to feed on your body without getting hurt. [link]

A sunken bridge. [link]

The recovery of Gabriel Gifford's brain. [link]

"To Make Small Beer" - George Washington's beer recipe. [link]

Real turkeys are making a comeback, but they're still damn expensive compared to the big flavorless ones. [link]

Cute little white kiwi has surgery. [link]

Carved axe handle. [link]

Guns from an airplane buried in the muck since WWII still fire. [link]

"The Doors" singing the theme to "Reading Rainbow". [link]

Super hydrophobic spray-on stuff.

Attn: Avengers - Do not do any of this stuff. [link]

The Oomphalapompatronium

Long, long ago, when I was in a university far, far away...
The internet was still a new creation and e-mail a novelty. That's when I saw the beginning of this project. It's Star Wars redone in animated ASCII art. Years later and he's still only up to "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?" [link]

Remember when Reagan tried to have ketchup classified as a vegetable so they could cut costs on school lunches? Congress is trying to do the same to keep pizza on the menu. [link]
I understand that Obama is trying to make school lunches healthier. However, having eaten school lunches I remember that pizza was one of the few things served that could be identified as a specific food. Pizza day was the only day that we could look forward to lunch and, to a lesser extent, school. I know that's not why the GOP is trying to block this. They're blocking it because Obama proposed it.

Lessons learned from watching kids play video games. [link]
It cracked me up, but that could just be because I played the games and I've watched neighbor kids play games.

Iran launched a monkey into space. They don't talk about the mission because it failed. The nature of the failure is unknown. [link]

A blog that shows the creativeness of people during the recent Thailand flood. [link]

I've been programming since I was 8. You know, back when BASIC came on absolutely everything. If you want to take it up today you need to be a bit more driven. This kid wanted to learn how to make iPad apps and talks about his quest. [link]

Drug developed to get rid of fat in chimps. [link]
Dr Who fans shouldn't be scared off by the copious use of the word "adipose".

Feed words into this and it builds them into a tree showing how they connect to "philosophy" on Wikipedia. [link]

$30 billion per year is given to people who are already millionaires. [link]

2011 National Geographic photo contest entries. [link]

The woman who does the voice behind many airports and train stations. [link]

NASA needs astronauts. And I need better eyes to apply. [link]

Find the right drink for the right music genre. [link]

In the tl;dr category we have the shredding of a quack anti-vaccine "documentary". I got about 1/3rd of the way through. It's well done, but preaching to the choir. [link]

“If you suddenly think Stephen Colbert is truly right wing, that’s when I would worry.” An article about the study of sarcasm. [link]

Crocheted pots

2011-11-17T13:29:00.000-05:00

As you know, Yummy has a guerrilla gardening group here in DC. Winter is kind of a dead time for the group, but we're preparing for next spring. We're crocheting pots to plant things in and hang around the city.

Here's my first three pots.

The first one is the long one in the lower right. I didn't know how to crochet so I took the one stitch Yummy showed me and started trying to make a rectangle that I could bring around into a pocket. But it kept getting narrower and narrower. So I made it into a cone type thing. We could probably grow a carrot in there.

The one in the lower left was the second attempt. Knowing now that I couldn't turn around worth a crap I created a design that just allowed me to go around and around and around. I tried to make the bottom flat and almost succeeded. The first four rows were flat, but then it went a bit pointy toward the middle. If you flip it over it looks like a green fez. I still need to add something to hang it with.

The one on the top took the longest. I made a long chain along the bottom and then started running around that chain. At about 1/3rd and 2/3rds the way along the back I reached through and hooked the front. This divided it into three pockets. When I finished with the pockets I did another row along the top where I'd do two stitches that connect to the pocket and then a chain of three that wasn't and repeated that all the way along. That created a row of holes. Then another row on top just for strength. Finally a really long chain. The idea being that I could put this on a chain link fence by running the chain back and forth through the holes to sew the basket to the fence.

Have more that I'm working on. I'll post them as they finish. And Yummy's baskets, too, as soon as I have good pictures of them.

Sod Off Wednesday: November 16

2011-11-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

After the cats kept us up several nights in a row and damaged Yummy's couch we had to tell them to sod off. They're in a no kill shelter demanding to be let out of their pens instead of out of her bathroom.

Movie Review: Immortals

2011-11-15T07:00:00.002-05:00

You've probably seen one of the versions of "Clash of the Titans". "Immortals" deals with the same people but in a different story. Theseus, son of Zeus (although that's not expressly said in this movie), stands as the one person capable of leading the people of Greece against the oncoming horde of King Hyperion. More importantly, they have to keep King Hyperion from releasing the Titans from their prison inside Mount Tartarus. Only when the Titans have been released can Zeus and the rest of the gods looking down from Mount Olympus interfere directly.

Part of how much you're going to like this movie will depend on how you think the Greek gods should look. This Zeus played Apollo in "Clash of the Titans" so he's god some kind of god look. But your idea of whether Zeus should look like John Hurt, Liam Neeson, or someone from the cast of a show on the CW¹ will influence how you look at the movie.

What this movie really has going for it is that you get to see the gods fight. Not that crashing of waves that Poseidon does so well. I mean actually getting in and getting bloody. Zeus gets to let out his inner Thor.

And I don't know what else to say about this movie. I'm not planning on getting it on DVD. I'm not telling people they need to go see it. It's a good action movie. And it looks like they may be setting up for a sequel that I'll definitely want to see.

If this is your kind of movie, then you'll enjoy it. How terribly useful.

¹ Sorry, Luke Evans, but you don't yet have a name and face that people can say "OH! HIM!" about.

Book Review: The Time Hoppers

2011-11-14T12:37:00.000-05:00

My copy of "The Time Hoppers" was printed in 1967 and looks it. Mostly the dust jacket looks 44 years old. It's brittle and falling apart and probably wasn't ever as strong as modern dust jackets.

The book isn't, as one might judge from the title, about people having adventures in time. It's actually about a bureaucrat in a rather miserable future that has been given the unenviable task of stopping people from fleeing into the past.

The whole of society is broken up into different levels. Not castes. In castes there's no ability to move to a different casts. In this world you can work your way up or get demoted back down. And your level determines what job you have and what living arrangements you suffer through. But there aren't enough jobs to go around. Still, you do get an allowance of food, bathing water, clean air, and a bit of spending money even if you're unemployed. If the government controls all the jobs and who gets the jobs then it's not really your fault if you're not employed. With this in mind, can you blame people for wanting to jump back to a time between the 1970s and 2100s?

Back then a bunch of people showed up and were questioned by authorities. Some gave their proper names and when they came from. Others didn't. But all that was several hundred years ago. Now people have started vanishing. The people at level 1 want it stopped. More precisely, they want the person sending people back stopped so they can take over the time travel equipment. But an investigation into the known jumpers who haven't left yet could cause a paradox that would alter history and removed those currently in power.

Our main character (Quellen) is a level 7 government employee. Not really powerful, but someone with a good job and a position of some responsibility. He no longer has roommates, but his 10 ft x 10 ft apartment isn't exactly the good life. So he's managed to get himself a not at all legal plot of land in Africa as a getaway. His underling knows and has been blackmailing Quellen. And he has the job of finding the time machine and it's operator without disrupting hundreds, if not thousands, of years of history.

It's a fairly short book and an easy read. It's good, but not great. If you're a science fiction reader then I suggest you grab a copy if you see one.

Friday Links: 11/11/11

2011-11-11T07:00:00.000-05:00

Jennifer Lopez to produce and possibly star in a "Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego?" live action movie. [link]

From Simon Pegg's Twitter feed: [link]

AOL lives? And somehow has 3.5 million dial-up subscribers. [link]

Creepy film tricks.

Soon those with brown eyes should be able to get laser surgery to get your color changed to blue. [link]

Games: Pursuit of Hat - Rip off your limbs and make them trigger buttons in order that lets you get back to your hat. [link]

Video of a plane making a belly landing. [link]

A brief retelling of the building of the heads on Mt Rushmore. [link]

Pictures of women with drinking problems. [link]

What percent of the population does Congress fall in? [link]

Designed, but not yet sold bee hive for your home. [link]

Strange way for a cat to chase a laser.

Video games: The only art form where you get punished for being bad at it.

CGI is great and popular, but animatronics lives on.

Pictures of a baby reenacting classic movie scenes. [link]

10 food preparation myths. [link]

A bunch of other common misconceptions. [link]

Cat induced kernel panic. [link]

Blah blah blah dialog. I'm more interested in seeing how this guy forms the bamboo. [link]

Interesting cabin designs. [link]

Video: Metachaos - another good title would be "WTF". Or "Some Seriously Freaky Shit". [link]

Video: Explosive Breach of Condit Dam. [link]
note: behind dams there tends to be a lot of sediment settling at the bottom of the resulting lake. Much of what you see is that dirt being washed down stream.

Game: Run, Jesus, Run - you have 10 seconds to complete the game while getting an 8-bit Jesus to do all of the Jesus stuff. [link]

Nifty ring. [link]

The story of an old musical instrument designed to play over the early telephone system. [link]

Nature wants to eat you: pictures and brief descriptions of terrifying creatures. [link]

etc.

2011-11-10T13:36:00.000-05:00

The cats mentioned a few days ago are back in Yummy's bathroom. Brain has been neutered. Both cats have been flea dipped and their ears cleaned of mites.
When she took them back she was told that the no-kill shelter wouldn't have space for 6-8 weeks. That's been updated. They can be dropped off Monday.

I just got back inside from doing work on Yummy's backyard. I didn't mean it like that, pervert. No, there's these two trees out back that have vines growing on them. One is English Ivy, which we don't mind. The other is unknown, but it drops seeds all over the yard and we have to keep trying to kill them off so they don't throttle the garden or just look really ugly. I took limb nippers and a saw and removed all the vines for a four inch gap all the way around both trunks. I had to remove them all because the trunks of both vines are identical. I can't separate the two so only the disliked vine dies.

Said during video games:
"John Lennon was wrong. Happiness is the gooey remains of some soldier you just dropped a grenade on." - Me

(M [in 1st grade] is playing Quest for Glory 1)
M: I kept running out of money, so I broke into the old lady's house and stole all her jewelry.
Dad: Good girl. Did you get a good price for your loot?
M: No, I think the fence cheated me.

Sod Off Wednesday: November 9

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-05:00

"Sod off."
"No, you sod off."
"No, you!"
"You!"
"Make me!"
"'K!"

I really need to start dragging my good camera around with me more.

Book Review: Rejiggering the Thingamajig

2011-11-08T07:00:00.002-05:00

I recently finished reading "Rejiggering the Thingamajig and other stories" by Eric James Stone. I got it at the Nebula Awards Weekend in DC several months ago and got him to sign it.

One of the stories I'd read before. You can read it here.

Another you can listen to here.

I gotta tell ya, I like the book. There wasn't really a dud in the book. Pretty much all of them are amusing.

"Resonance" could be adapted into a movie without too much effort. There's an X-prize sort of contest to build the first space elevator and get a vessel into space. There's sabotage and attacks by eco-terrorists, lawsuits by eco-lawyers, host nations that have turned hostile, and a matter of days to get around all the problems before the main character goes bankrupt and his company is forced to close.

There's story about a short warrior and a 7 ft "wizard" that would make for a good D&D one shot game. The characters are fun enough that I really want to see more stories with them. The author says that he's got a book with them in it planned.

I recommend getting this book. And if you happen to run into Eric James Stone you'll want to ask him for his business card. There's another story on the back.

Addition: Eric James Stone was here and e-mailed me. WOO!

Left behind kitties

2011-11-07T12:50:00.002-05:00

Pinky (rear) and Blue (front)

We spent part of this weekend dealing with some cats that one of Yummy's neighbors had left behind when he moved.

Pinky and Blue are a couple of the most clever house cats you're gonna come across. This last month or two we'd often find them wandering around outside and the back door of the house wide open. Blue had taken to jumping up on the kitchen counter and opening the door. Granted, the door handle was one of those designed for disabled or elderly people to use instead of the more usual door knob style, but it was still more than we tend to expect from our cats. It became a real problem with the cops were called to his house because another neighbor called after seeing the door wide open and nobody home.

The owner of the cats was being forced to move. He ranked among the recently unemployed and couldn't afford his own place. And his new roommates didn't want his cats around. His original plan was to release them. He backpedaled a bit when Yummy shot him a look. He changed his answer to "I'll take them to a shelter." So it was with much annoyance that we went to work in the backyard and found Pinky wandering about cold, hungry, and looking for attention. The jerk left them behind after all!!!

Yummy had almost talked herself into keeping Pinky. Her current cat, Seamus, would be displeased. He already throws fits when Pinky comes up on the roof behind Yummy's apartment and peeks in the window. But just before we went inside Blue showed up. No. No no no. Too many cats. We have to find them homes.

We had to be sure that the neighbor was really gone. His apartment was strange. A hallway split the apartment between the front and back of the house. Meaning he had to leave the part of his apartment with the kitchen and bathroom, go into the hallway, and then go back into the part of the apartment with the bedroom. And there was no furniture anywhere to be seen. However, in the kitchen he did have a nice radiator with a compartment in the middle. Presumably, you put your food in there to keep it warm until the rest of dinner is ready. I'd never seen one of those before. Makes me want radiators in my place.

The cats spent the night in Yummy's bathroom. Food, water, rugs to lay on, relative warmth, and a pissed off Seamus on the other side of the door made for a better situation than house cat fur in November weather, no familiar food source, a missing person, and hostile strays.

Pinky (left) and the Brain (right)

Yummy has rescued enough cats now that she has some idea what needs to be done and what services various shelters provide. Unfortunately, most of the shelters are overbooked. The Humane Society said we'd need an appointment to bring the cats in and that there was a 6 to 8 week wait for space. But when they called we were already driving the cats to BARCS (Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter) [link].

There were tears while dropping them off. It wasn't helped when the woman admitting them asked Yummy why she couldn't keep them longer. After all, we'd asked that if it seemed that the cats were going to be put down instead of adopted if they'd call and let us take the cats back. Why not take them back now? But eventually we were able to explain that Yummy has a cat that doesn't like company and a couple of birds that drew the rapt attention of the new cats.

The cats were renamed. They're not siblings, but they were kittens together and are very close. They could be housed separately, but it would be preferred if they were housed together. We renamed them Pinky and Brain from the cartoon in the hopes that the name would encourage someone to take them together. We've seen in some other shelters that a good name can make the difference between this cat or that cat being adopted, and sometimes if they get adopted at all. A cat named Trogdor went pretty fast compared to a very similar cat named Boots. The last cat we took to a shelter was all black. Instead of Shadow we called him Lamont Cranston after the civilian name of The Shadow in the old radio shows.

That night Yummy found a note downstairs addressed to the lady on the third floor with the birds. It wanted to know if we'd taken his cats to a shelter for him. Yummy called him. It turns out he had called around and got much the same answers that we were getting. There's no room anywhere, and places that have room are likely to put the cats down if they can't turn them out quickly. Only Yummy's history let her know about some places he didn't know. He had left some food with the people in the apartment below his and asked them to feed the cats. But they grew concerned when the cats weren't coming back. He'd come to get them because he was going to try the shelters closer to where he'd moved to. Virginia somewhere, I think. So if BARCS calls and needs us to take the cats back we'll try again with the extra shelters available between Baltimore and somewhere Virginia.

If you're in the general Maryland area and want a couple of healthy, young cats (less than a year old) give BARCS a call. Pinky is a girl and has been spayed. Blue/Brain is a boy and hadn't been neutered. They're very clever and very curious. They like to inspect everything. Blue/Brain is very affectionate and will get right up in your business. Pinky is friendly, but a bit skittish. Once she gets to know you she's friendly enough and it doesn't take her long to decide she knows you.

Update: 2:00 PM - Yummy has been told she needs to get the cats by 6:00 tonight or they're being put to sleep. If you or someone you know wants one please let us know so we can get them a home quickly.

Update: 7:12 PM - Yummy has the cats at her place. A no-kill place will take them, but it'll be a couple of weeks. They're pissing her cat off. Tonight they'll go in the bathroom. That's where they'll spend most of the time until they go to the shelter. If you know anyone who might want a cat or two, please get them in touch.

Friday Links: November 4

2011-11-04T07:00:00.071-04:00

Doctor Who fan service:
David Tennant and the cast and crew of Doctor Who lipsyncing to "500 Miles" by The Pretenders.

Why movies don't have sonic screwdrivers. (and why the writers took it away from Doctors 5-8)

Pumpkin carving... WITH SCIENCE!

Long ago the world was ruled by huge reptilian mathematicians - the Pythagasaurus.

A voice from the 1%. Short version: dude, why aren't you taxing me MORE? Long version: [link]

Steam powered bike. [link]

The UN estimates that the global population reached 7 billion people Monday. This video talks about that and illustrates how we got there. [link]
The audio NPR report is similar enough that you don't need both the video and the radio version.

Eliza (1966) and Siri (2011) having a chat. [link]

The eulogy given by Steve Jobs' sister. [link]

Pictures of the construction of the Statue of Liberty. [link]

Best Buy has a dilemma. If they win this case it means their customer service is crap. But if they claim their customer service is great they don't have a legal leg to stand on. [link]

Game: Orange Gravity. Manipulate gravity to get the orange to eat the lemons. [link]

Do you smell what The Rock is cooking? Brontoburgers! [link]

Game: Absorption - help the detective through the vaguely Portal-ish maze to escape the evil Dr Badcharacter. [link]

After a veteran got his skull cracked by police at an Occupy Wallstreet gathering a whole bunch more veterans have been showing up. [link]

In related news, the police are trying to figure out how to deal with the 60's style protesters while not coming off as 60's style police. [link]

Game show host falls into a giggle loop. [link]

If you don't know what a giggle loop is you need to watch this.

Mastodon bone indicates that they may have been hunted by people before people were thought to have been in North America. So that story about early Americans crossing the frozen Bering Strait? It seems that anyone who crossed then found people here before them. [link]

Heidi Klum's Halloween costume. [link]

Literary jack-o-lanterns. [link]

The last of the B53 nukes have been dismantled. [link]

Those of you living inside the orbit of the moon may want to duck next week. [link]

Read about Elizabeth Warren, the woman responsible for the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and how she made too many enemies to be made head of that bureau. [link]

Pediatric medicine poster

2011-11-03T13:08:00.001-04:00

I created this poster for consideration to be used to advertise our pediatric medicine book. The art was used in a few other layouts, but was ultimately rejected.
Yes, the word "resuscitation" was made more visible than shown here.

Sod Off Wednesday: November 2

2011-11-02T07:00:00.000-04:00

As of yesterday, November 1, we in Washington DC no longer have to give a damn about the "no parking on (insert day) due to street cleaning" anymore. So the parking police can sod off!

Don't eat the "don't eat the bear"

2011-11-01T11:17:00.001-04:00

Movie Trailer: Anonymous

2011-10-31T13:43:00.000-04:00

"Among Shakespeare scholars, the idea [that his plays were written by another person] has roughly the same currency as the faked moon landing does among astronauts." source

Oh, I don't particularly give a damn if the story is true or not. It's the legend of a person that is important today, not what they actually did. Thomas Jefferson was a great writer and statesman. Is it important that he owned slaves, farmed pot, and had an affair with one of his slave servants? King Arthur is almost certainly a myth, but the example we get from the stories about him serve as a good inspiration about "proper" behavior. What is Shakespeare today other than a name attached to a collection of plays? Does it matter if they were really written by Christopher Marlowe, Sir Francis Bacon, or Earl Edward de Vere?

The movie is pretty good. Don't go looking for a good action movie. This is a tale of intrigue. After discovering some underhanded dealings in the royal court, Earl Edward de Vere figures that arms or simply trying to reveal the plot would be ineffective. He approaches the problem with the philosophy that the pen is mightier than the sword and writes a new play that tells of the plot disguised as a comedic fantasy. But, being an Earl, writing plays would be an embarrassment to his house and family. He passes the play off to a good, but modestly known playwright with the intent that the playwright put his own name on this and all of the Earl's plays. But the playwright has qualms about this. He wants to be known for his own work, not the Earl's. So, when the crowd cries for the anonymous author, and nobody else steps up, the actor Will Shakespeare steps out and takes a bow.

At this point the movie is already two flashbacks deep. And it keeps going. The movie jumps between three major time periods with lesser flashback of months instead of years or centuries being put in here and there. This takes for a movie that is already filled with more characters and plotting than most people can follow without a flow chart and makes it even harder to follow.

People already familiar with Shakespeare's plays will enjoy the film and seeing how events in the Earl's life went on to become elements in his plays. The least of which being the relationship between the Earl and his plays as another Romeo and Juliet type story. People not familiar with the plays may also enjoy the movie, but they will be missing something.

I'm not sure I'll get it on DVD. I would, however, like to see it again just to set a few plot points straight in my own head.

I do recommend this movie, but only to people who are in to this kind of movie. That's kind of a stupid statement, but I'm not sure how else to put it. Fans of the Transformers movies aren't likely to want to see "Anonymous". People who frequent independent theaters, on the other hand, should enjoy the movie a lot.

Friday Links: October 28

2011-10-28T07:19:00.001-04:00

The only joke about a German baby.

Daylight Savings Time explanation.

I'm thinking of using this for Halloween treats. The house is dark, but on the front gate is a stack of cards and sign that says "take one". Printed on that card is the sign on this website. [link]

"Iron Sky" is coming. They have a comic book prequel to the movie. Issue one is free. For two and three you must pay. [link]

Texis Skeksis scare prank.

A big honking Hot Wheels track.

I had no idea that the housing crisis extended to hermit crabs. These guys are using 3D printers to help fix that. [link]

There's this physicist. He thinks everyone else, including other physicists, are idiots. He's become very popular in the climate change denial circles. Denial groups have thrown money at him, the GOP invited him to testify before Congress. He finally announced his results. Turns out those other physicists weren't all that wrong after all. [link]

There's a game I haven't played in which cowboys die. Here's every way a cowboy can die played back to back. [link]

These pictures are made by building a scene in a fish tank and then flooding it. Lights and stuff are involved too. [link]

7 urban legends that are true. [link]

150 years ago the first transcontinental telegraph cable was completed. [link]

Alcoholic drinks for parents. I post it mostly for the "Emergency Mimosa". It made me laugh. [link]

Look at this series of creative photos. Now imagine them all shown in series in a video. Kinda reminds you of the video from "The Ring", huh? [link]

Richard Branson on how Virgin Airlines got started. [link]

I can't believe I didn't post this before. Virgin Galactic dedicated their completed spaceport! [link]

Once upon a time, back when Clinton was President, back when the debt was being paid down, there was a realistic belief that the United States might get rid of the national debt. Not the deficit. The whole fucking debt. This 4 minute report from NPR money talks about a report written way back then and what would happen if there were no more treasury bonds. [link]

DARPA is looking for space craft capable of scavenging from dead spacecraft already in orbit. Great idea, but seriously, even garbage collecting spacecraft are considered comically difficult to make. And you really want something that can take safely approach, take apart, and reuse dead spacecraft? [link]

Book Review: The Infinitive of Go

2011-10-27T12:41:00.000-04:00

This book makes me feel old. It looks like it should be in my Dad's book collection. The one in the basement that's full of books from the 60's where all the pages have gone yellow and have a certain style to the cover art. You know the collection. I'll grant you that 1980 was awhile back now. And that I'm now the age that Dad would have been when I was going through his books looking for something to read. But that's still no reason for my books to go and start pointing out how old I am. That's just rude.

It's also a great argument for going back to hemp for paper production. Go back 100 years and a bit and paper was made of linen and hemp and stuff like that. With wood pulp came acid and it's the acid that yellows the pages and makes our books fall apart. There are 400 year old books in museums that are in better condition than my copy of "The Infinitive of Go" simply because they were printed on hemp. Same thing with The Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They're printed on hemp paper.

Yes, I am one of those damn hippies who wants hemp legalized. More the non-THC containing, industrial hemp than the "duuude. You ever look at your fingers? I mean REALLY look at your fingers?" variety. But I probably wouldn't turn down a hit if I were on chemotherapy.

Oh. Right. I was supposed to talk about a book.

We're all familiar with transporters. We've all seen Star Trek. When you start thinking about them in terms of real world use some problems pop up. Does it take you apart, move you elsewhere, and rebuild you? Does it make a copy of you and destroy the original? Does it bend space and drop you out somewhere else? None of these methods are high on the "We can totally do that" scale.

In this book a couple of researchers found a way to make it work by sending a person through a quantum mess in rho space. (Jump to next paragraph to skip the shaky science) When working with quantum anything you have to understand that the idea is that there are an infinite number of universes and that we can draw on similar devices in those other universes. In the double slit experiment interference patterns are thought by some to be created by photons fired through a couple of slits in a sheet and interfering with by the same photon in alternate universes. Quantum computing is supposed to be powerful because instead of just being one computer in one universe there are identical computers built in other universes and each of the computers attacks a problem in a different way so one of them gets the correct answer and feeds it back to you. (warning: explanations are over simplified to the point of not being 100% correct) And in this story they're getting around some of the more difficult problems in moving a person from transporter to transporter with a quantum fixit.

Well, the way things worked out, what you were doing was sending things and people to other transporters in other dimensions. So long as the transporters are fairly close to each other the differences are fairly minor. All tests indicate that the person who went in is the same person who came out. Sometimes the people were a bit disoriented, but they got past it. But when a spy with an important package was sent through the first intercontinental test something went wrong. He hadn't been given a phrase to listen for on the other side, but he still demanded one. Failing to get it, he incinerated the package and shot himself.

Well, the pressure is on the inventors to figure out why this happened. It wasn't until the inventor went through the same way the spy did that he figured it out. When his rather cold co-inventor jumped his bones that night he realized that he wasn't in Kansas anymore.

The transporters were shut down completely. While trying to figure out how to fix this little problem another problem pops up. Someone working on a space station was crushed and needs immediate medical aid. Reentry would kill him. The only way he'd survive is to be transported down. What came out the other end was even more different than what came out when beamed across the ocean.

I'm not overly familiar with the work of John Brunner. I think I've heard the name, but I can't tell you where. This book isn't going on my top 100 books, but it was a quick and enjoyable read. I never hesitated to pick it back up, but kept putting off when I'd have to put it down. If you're a sci-fi junky like me then you'll want to grab a copy if you see one in your local used book store. If you're not a sci-fi junky then hand the book off to your semi-nerdy mid-teens nephew.

Sod Off Wednesday: October 26

2011-10-25T22:16:00.001-04:00

An empty Borders telling Amazon.com to sod off.

Busted PC

2011-10-25T15:27:00.000-04:00

This is to acknowledge that it is Tuesday and I forgot to come up with a post.

It's tech support day in Casa Ibid.

My laptop died and I had to get a replacement. I had to open my old one and get the drive out so I could get the data off. And there's a zillion things to reinstall.

A co-worker's hard drive died. It worked until it warms up and then shuts off. I gutted it to get at the actual drive and finally got all the data off. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get her data back to her.

Another co-worker's sister's computer died. Data recovery isn't important, but it didn't come with restore disks and the company doesn't provide them for this particular computer. It's at least 5 years old. Probably older. I'm probably gonna have to install ChromeOS or Ubuntu. Switching to that shouldn't be any harder for her to switch to as it would be to switch to the MacOS.

Movie Review: The Three Musketeers

2011-10-24T14:07:00.000-04:00

It's my understanding that "The Three Musketeers" had a poor showing their opening weekend. A pity that. It's rather a good movie. Well. Good. There's varying definitions of what makes a movie "good". But this movie is fun. It's enjoyable. It's got very little to do with the classic book of the same name. Sure, there's at least 4 characters using the same name as characters in the book. But the rest is only loosely connected.

Did you see "Sherlock Holmes" with Robert Downey Jr? Inspired by Holmes, sure, but done with a bit more flash than the character in the books. Most everyone enjoyed it more than the Holmes we see on PBS.
How about "Pirates of the Caribbean"? Nearly no connection to the Disney ride that it's based on and certainly unlike actual pirates. But we're 4 movies in and counting.
"League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"? OK, a lot of people didn't like that movie. It was a different story than in the comic version with a few changes in character and sporting a bit of technology that wouldn't be quite correct for the era. But I liked it.

I bring up these movies because "The Three Musketeers" got the same treatment as those movies. Take a classic story and give it a bit of flash. The musketeers are more like Special Forces than mere king's guards. D'Artagnan picks fights with pretty much everyone he sees. Milla Jovovich gives one of her more enjoyable performance since "The Fifth Element". And Orlando Bloom, well, it's not a character you've seen him do before and you can't help but laugh.

You haven't seen a movie review from me in months. First there was garbage. Then there was stuff that looked alright if I was going to a movie, but nothing driving me to see it. This is the first movie in awhile that looked interesting, if a bit insulting to it's source material. And comparisons to "Pirates of the Caribbean" are apt.

I do recommend this movie and I'll probably get it on DVD.

Friday Links: October 21

2011-10-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

My laptop died Thursday night and I just noticed that my stupid phone posted this several spots down. Sorry about that.

The tale of a little girl who asked Christopher Hitchens for a reading list. [link]

Samsung is currently defending itself from a lawsuit that claims they ripped off the iPad design from Apple. You may have heard of their response that they stole the design from "2001: A Space Odyssey". Well, in court the other day the Samsung lawyers were asked to identify which data pad was which from 10 ft away and couldn't. [link]

An interview with Steve Wozniak, the other half of Apple in the early days. "I think Steve ... died happy."[link]

Extreme closeups of animal eyeballs. [link]

A Keaton Music Typewriter available on Etsy. [link]

An analysis of gender in restroom signs. [link]

North Korea is finally gonna finish this big triangular tower of theirs. Too bad I blew it up in a video game a couple of years ago. [link]

Saturday Night Live transcripts. [link]

A short film using garbled English.

The Walken Dead

Dora the Explorer and the sniper.

David Lynch's hair compared to paintings. [link]

Side car that rule. [link]

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Thor's Hammer"
If you've seen any of the movies leading up to "The Avengers" you've seen Agent Coulson. He's a guy in a suit. He's there to see to it that rules are followed and papers are filed. People forget that "Agent" means "Agent of SHIELD". This video shows how even the SHIELD paper pushers handle robbers at a gas station in the middle of the night. [link]

The moon is made of titanium cheese. [link]

Darth Maul - turns out he survived being cut in half and falling down a bottomless death shaft. He'll be returning in the Clone Wars series. Well, half of him will according to these toys. [link]

River Song's story from her point of view. If you've been watching Dr Who the last 3 seasons you know why this video is needed.

Game: Georganism - control these blobs with different skills to navigate a maze. [link]

Mark Hamill is best known as Luke Skywalker. But his best role so far has been the voice of Joker in almost every Batman game or cartoon since 1992. Here he is at the NY Comic Con saying the famous Heath Ledger line.

Show tunes

2011-10-20T13:35:00.000-04:00

I was in a discussion recently about what makes a song a show tune. I want to open the subject up for discussion.

Songs from "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oklahoma", or "Sweeney Todd" are totally show tunes. They're shows with a copious amount of singing and dancing, but not so much that they become operas.

"Doctor Faust", "The Rape of Lucretia", or "Madam Butterfly" are all singing all the time. So they're opera.

But what of that episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where there was all the singing and dancing? The episode called "Buffy: The Musical"? Not familiar with it? Watch this.

Honestly, there's a good case for calling it a show tune. It was written to sound like a show tune. The only reasons to say it isn't is because it's a TV show instead of a stage show and was kind of written as a joke episode.

Now, what about "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut"?

It's a musical. My only hesitation is because it's also a cartoon and a comedy. Can "Uncle Fucker" really be in the same category as "Sunset Boulevard"?

It's easy to put all of these in the same category if you want to. Let us move then into shakier territory. Theme songs.
"Charmed" and "Smallville" and loads of others have theme songs that are shortened versions of much longer songs. "Cheers" has a theme song that has an extended version. But they're theme songs. Someone sings them for the show. But they're not performed as part of the show. They don't have the same feel as songs from musicals tend to have.

What about movie soundtracks? Is the theme to "Star Wars" a show tune? How about recurring music during the movie? Like the "Imperial March"? Maybe the "Cantina Theme" qualifies better than the other two. Or do show tunes need lyrics to qualify?

How about the "Klingon Battle Theme" from pretty much every Star Trek anything.
This is the full song, but there's that chorus that gets inserted into every song when Klingons are around.

Let's take this a different direction. What about existing songs that get used in movies?
"My Sharona" gets used in movies all the time. So does "My Generation". If I buy their CD and one of their songs gets used in a movie does it become a show tune? If it does, what happens when the song is used in a commercial? Is the answer different if I bought the movie's CD instead of the band's CD?

Now the real toughie. "Mamma Mia". The discography of Abba made into a musical performed on stage and on screen. Do the songs used in "Mamma Mia" qualify as show tunes?

I look forward to your answers.

Sod Off Wednesday: October 19

2011-10-18T22:20:00.001-04:00

Gandolf at a recent street fair telling me to sod off.

More enthusiasm than skill

2011-10-18T15:06:00.000-04:00

Yummy got herself attached to a group called Rebuilding America. Awhile back they contacted her for help with some gardening around Baltimore. She has that DC Guerilla Gardening group. She should know what she's doing. She made friends with one of the higher ups in the Baltimore part of the group and we got roped into another project last weekend.

Rebuilding America is a nationwide group that helps fix up homes for those without the resources to do it themselves. And some gardening in areas that need it.

We went to a women's shelter in Baltimore. It's a place that gives homeless women and their kids a place to live until they can get their feet under them again. We were originally asked to help with some landscaping, but someone else hired professional landscapers. So we got in on another part of the house. Yummy and I painted a small room on the second floor and did it right. Electrical faceplates were removed, edges were taped off, any drips or paint in inappropriate areas were cleaned up, and paint slop done by previous painters was scraped off as best as we could. We wanted to apply some plaster to damage in the walls, but that was beyond the scope of this project.

While Yummy did the final touches I went to install new doorknobs on rooms where the locks were bad or keys were lost. We intended to go release the dove when we were done with these tasks. Instead we got a good look at the work of others. This work couldn't stand. We stayed to fix what they screwed up.

One room had a single blotchy coat up with nothing at the edges. Another had two coats, but they painted all electrical outlets, light switches, a stainless steel [looking] towel rack, the floorboards, a not inconsiderable amount of the sink, and the part of the ceiling within a foot of the walls. People who stayed had to use white paint to cover up the parts of the ceilings in several rooms that had gotten hit. In several of the rooms that was a considerable part of the ceiling.

The doors had more issues than needing new knobs and locks. Some had clearly been forced open a few times. One needed super long screws to reach where the wood wasn't broken away. Another screw was acting as a block to prevent the strike plate from being screwed in to deep.
In another room the area around the knob was busted and splintering. The old lock was actually bent and a pain to remove. I installed the new knob just so it'd be handy whenever the fix was put in place.

After doing that I tackled the room where they'd painted everything. Someone had new faceplates so I was able to use those. The switch still needed scraping. So did the towel rack. So did the sink. The sink needed not only scraping away of paint but all kinds of filth.

New window shades had been made. But the guy at Lowes claimed they needed to be half an inch shorter than they measured. So almost none of the new shades fit their windows.

As the day got late I realized the power was off in about 1/3 of the floor we were working on. The breaker was kind of nice. Sure, the switch barely moved when the circuit was blown. Breakers are like that. But next to the switch was a red marker indicating that it had blown. I need me one of those.

We were supposed to be out by 4:00. We ended up staying until 6:00 just because we couldn't bring ourselves to stop fixing damage caused by others in the group who had left around 1 or 2 o'clock.

Yummy wants to adopt a room. One room. In that room we'd pay for paint, plaster, broken light fixtures, doors and door frames, and even new sheets for the beds.

If I were doing it again I'd want to bring sandpaper to remove where the wooden dressers and bed frames had been drawn on with markers.

Check for Rebuilding Together groups in your area. They need people with enthusiasm, but they also need people with skills. They can't use people below the age of 14, but projects like these are good for teaching your older kids how to do stuff like paint and replace doorknobs. Just make sure they have someone who knows how to do that stuff with them. Otherwise you get a mess with no lessons learned.

How to rescue a window smacked bird

2011-10-17T13:59:00.000-04:00

Yummy rescued a bird the other day. Friday one of her coworkers gave her a call and said there was an injured bird in the parking lot. It had probably hit a window, they thought the wing might be broken, and it was flopping around in a pool of rainwater trying to keep it's head up. Yummy rushed out, grabbed the bird, and brought it inside. The coworker was, of course, "wait. You mean it's OK to touch it?"

Yummy then called me and asked what to do. I've rescued a number of wild birds over the years. Some that had smacked into windows and some that had left the nest too early and weren't quite up for serious flying yet. When you're in the field trying to kick the mud from a farm implement and a bird lands on your shoulder you just kind of go with it.

The bird, a dove, was awake, holding it's wing strange, and breathing really heavy. How much of that was the injury and how much was the fact that the big scary people had brought it inside is open to speculation. I told her to put the bird in a box and put a towel over the box. This should give the bird a comfortable place to be and at the same time give it a better sense of security since it couldn't see the people.

Yummy wanted to take it to a shelter, but her time was already in heavy demand Friday night. She brought it home and we moved the dove into a cat carrier. The carrier was lined with the jacket of a coworker who wasn't at work to object. A dowel rod was put in so the dove would have something to wrap it's feet around. Then seed an a water dish was added. Then we put a sheet over the cat carrier to prevent drafts and to prevent Yummy's cat from obsessing about the dove.

Having already had most of the day to rest the dove's wings were looking better, but one was still a bit stiff. Definitely not broken. And the dove was a big fan of sleep. By Saturday morning it was better still. The plan was to take it back to the office parking lot where we found it just in case there was a mate that it needed to find again. We had a home for homeless and battered women that we were supposed to fix up, but we could cut out early and take the bird to the office. There's a whole big story about why we weren't able to do that, but we'll get into that later.

Instead we let the dove loose in the bathroom with some seed and water. Just so it would have a bit more space. We weren't sure if it was eating and hoped that having a bit more open space with seed on the ground would get it to eat more. You know, much the way in the wild it would pick at the ground for seed and bread crumbs.

Sunday, before a Guerilla Gardening event, we took the dove back to the parking lot and let it out. It dipped for a bit then flew through some branches and landed on a branch. Yummy wasn't satisfied yet. It flew 8 ft or so, but hadn't really taken off. And earlier, when she asked me how we knew if it was OK, I answered that if we let it go and can't catch it again then it's fine.

So we got a branch and poked the dove. It didn't like it, but it didn't fly off. ... Bad sign.
I climbed the tree. The dove watched me. ... Not good.
I touched the dove. I grabbed the dove. It was pissed about that, but when I relaxed my grip it climbed on my finger. ... Looks like it's coming home.
I handed the dove to Yummy where it promptly broke loose and flew off across the parking lot, through a tree, and was gone. ... SUCCESS! That's all we wanted from it.

Many people would tell you not to rescue wild creatures. Even soft and mellow doves. But if you intend to do so anyway then this can act as a guide. I've done similar things with robins and blue jays before. If they survived the impact with the window then it's likely that the bird just needs some time to recover. If you can give it a safe place without it injuring you then you can do that. Just wash your hands after handling the bird to make sure you don't transfer any crud the bird might have to your other pets. And thick gloves are your friends just in case the bird decides it isn't your friend.

Friday Links: October 14

2011-10-14T07:00:00.001-04:00

Princess Bride cast reunion. 6 minutes long. [link]
When a friend has a kid turn 10 years old I have to give the kid a copy of the book version. If you haven't read it, you should.

~~"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2012"~~ "The Avengers" trailer.

This is great, but I think I'm gonna stick with my 8-Track player.

Judge confirms that you can copy DVDs you've purchased for your own use or for backups. Doubly true for schools. [link]

Some test footage for Alice in Wonderland was better than the official voice over recording. Here's the actors doing test footage and their dialog synced with the movie.

There's a famous picture about students trying to get into school on the first day of an integrated school. A black girl is being called names by a hateful white girl. Here's the picture and the story. [link]

As a kid I was never in a position to watch Voltron. I saw the toys, but didn't really know what they went to. As far as I knew they were a GoBot knockoff without the resources to get their own cartoon. Clearly they joined to form a bigger robot. And the design looked Japanese. Decades later I've still never seen an episode. But I know just enough to appreciate this video about the last of the Voltron drivers in a hopeless situation. I'm not a fan, but going with the style shown here I'd totally watch a whole movie.

Turns out that transmissions from predator drones aren't encrypted. You or I could tap into the feeds. So could, and do, insurgents. [link]

World's oldest car. [link]

Apollo 11 astronauts had to go through customs when they came back to Earth. [link]

The Thing: The Musical.

This article talks about how it's not big corporations (Occupy [insert here] view) or big government (Tea Party view) that's fucking things up. It's when the two work together. You know, like when church and state work together. Nothing good ever comes of that. [link]

How to escape the police in a high speed chase with a long comment from a former patrol officer why you can't. [link]

Neil Gaiman interviewing Sir Terry Pratchett. I haven't read it yet. That title is enough. [link]

Biggest virus ever discovered outside of a sci-fi series. [link]

The Mars Rover Opportunity - it's 3 year quest to seek out new lives and new civilizations.

Awhile back I posted about some of the alternate skins available for the upcoming Batman: Arkham City game. Now there's another. A Sinestro skin. [link]

A jacuzzi party suspended from a bridge and accessible only to abseilers. [link]

Kitten having a nightmare.

The return of Simon's Cat.

Homemade versions of props from Fallout games. [link ]

DC comics got an exclusive deal with Amazon to put 100 graphic novels on the Kindle. Barnes and Noble asked for similar consideration for the Nook and was refused. So those titles are no longer available in B&N stores. [link]
Really, DC? Don't be a dick.

Have you read "The Magicians"? They're gonna adapt it into a TV series. I've read the book. I like the book. I suppose it could be inspiration for a world depicted in a series, but not a series of itself. [link]
Eh, it's Fox. The show will be cancelled after the first 6 episodes, none of which will be shown in order.

Prototype exoskeletons for quadriplegics seem to be working... on monkeys. But it's stil progress! [link]

Grammar troll vs WoW gamer. [link]

Video for Weird Al's "Polka Face".

An essay by a mother lamenting the lack of inspiring modern science fiction for children. Her kids have to read the same stuff she read. [link]

The Steve Jobs memorial section:
A guy from Gizmodo talks about his experiences with Steve Jobs... including the lost iPhone incident. [link]

Some tributes: [link]

The Onion. [link]

The New Yorker. [link]

The people of the internet. [link]

I was really hoping for a picture of the Banana Jr from Berkeley Breathed. No such luck. [link]

PvP [link]

Hijinks Ensue [link]

Something of that Ilk [link]

Doghouse Diaries. [link]

Ubersoft [link]

Capes & Babes [link]

XKCD [link]

Buni [link]

Virtual Shackles [link]

Abstruse Goose [link]

Dork Tower [link]

Bedtime

2011-10-13T13:59:00.000-04:00

Scene: It's late. I'm packing up my laptop and shutting off lights.

Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Bedtime.
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Bedtime.
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Yep. Bedtime.
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Bed. Time.
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Bed, as you say, time.
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Bedtime! Brought to you by Colgate!
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Once upon a time there was a mighty people known as the Bed. This is their story. The story of Bed Time.
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: You know what time it is?
Gandolf: Bedtime.
Me: Goodnight.

Long time no post

2011-10-11T22:06:00.001-04:00

So, a three day weekend due to a holiday that only Americans care about (and only because of the long weekend) became a 4 day weekend when Yummy came back home as I was packing to go home. A minor illness over the weekend left us so tired that she forgot her computer so she came back for it and never went back to work. So I worked from her place. Then the next day I had a staff meeting so you get your normal Sod Off day.

But I do have a picture of some pennants we made for a baby shower Yummy is holding for a friend of hers. They're old children's books cut up. They're hanging from string here, but will be threaded on ribbon soon.

Friday Links: October 7

2011-10-07T07:00:00.001-04:00

First thing's first. Steve Jobs, we're gonna miss your influence.
People can argue about how much of the technology you worked with was innovative and how much was lifted from other sources. You didn't invent the mouse or graphic interfaces, but you're the one who brought them to the public. You got computers into the schools. You gave graphic designers their best production tool. Between Apple, NeXT, and Pixar, you encouraged creativity, innovation, quality, and just plain getting the job done. One can argue about some specific business practices, but the truth of the matter is that you wanted to make products that people wanted and that were genuinely better than anyone else's. In these later years you may not have done the programming and development that you did in the early year, but you drove those who did to do their best.
Here's hoping that stepping down from Apple left it in a position to continue the way you'd want more than it did after they kicked you out.

Fermilab's Tevatron is being closed down. Some would claim it's the last super collider in America and this, combined with our now inactive manned space program, is another symbol of our decline. However, science is an international effort and we do participate in the CERN collider. There are some smaller atom smashers in the US, but none on the multi-mile scale of Tevatron. Mostly small things for making medication, not research. And we'll be able to launch people into space again in a few years. [link]

Poor doggie. Padfoot from Harry Potter and another British TV dog are up for adoption. Together only. [link]

You have a dumb name. Proof... [link]

Rick Perry according to lip readers.

An old employee manual from Disney. [link]

One guy's story about an intelligent chat with Jehovah's Witnesses. [link]

I think I need some of these at my place for Halloween decorations. [link]

Speaking of... Here's how to take a skeleton and make it look like a corpse. [link]

From what I've seen of what people are looking for in housing in DC, you could stick a few of these in your back yard and rent them out. Put an outhouse and outdoor shower in the yard and it's luxury housing. [link]
Come to think of it, I could see living in something like that while fixing up a burned out husk in Baltimore or Detroit. Lord knows it's hard to afford a place to live while trying to pay off and fix up a new place.

A potential answer to New York's High Line Park. Low Line Park. [link]

Carved up tires. Ornately carved up. [link]

An explanation of how the German Enigma Machine worked. [link]

"Left to his own devices he couldn’t build a toaster. He could just about make a sandwich and that was it."
Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams, 1992
Yes, but exactly how hard it is to make a toaster? These videos are showing this guy's quest to find out. He's not quite there yet. [link]

A short Doctor Who episode written by 11 year olds.

Mass storage in 1980 vs today. [link]

SpaceX has plans to get people to Mars. Plans to beat China there. Great. I approve. I'm a fan of private space ventures. But please just get people to the ISS first. Plans are nice, but actual spacecraft are better. [link]

Ooh, brilliant! Right? [link]
Perhaps not. [link]

Portal soundtracks 2 and 3 are available! [link]

A new Twilight Zone movie is coming. Possibly from Michael Bay. [link]

You've seen the video of the seagull stealing crisps. Now check out this pizza stealing bear. [link]

I dig some of this guy's art. [link]
Note to other artists with websites: Most of the time I don't know or care who you are. If I have to go beyond the first page to see something worth looking at then I'm gonna leave.

Jameco explains how the yellow stripe on the football field works. [link]
Also, how to rig up a bluetooth connection from computer to stereo. [link]

Picture: Russell Crowe as Jor-El. [link]

Cassette tapes may be coming back. [link]
Honestly, I know like three people who can still play them. Not including the museum guy who had a doo-dad to convert cassettes to MP3s.

Huge shark sanctuary created. [link]
The sanctuary is huge, not the sharks.

Leonard Nimoy has retired from doing sci-fi conventions. [link]

Man who paints banks on fire questioned by police. [link]

Koch Industries is known for being one of the biggest backers of the Tea Party and supporters of continuing manmade global climate change. They're also trading illegally with Iran, stealing oil, and fudging pretty much every number about anything. [link]

The earthscraper. Like a skyscraper, but going down. [link]

This guy went around the world making balloon hats for people. These are his pictures and a good talk about what he did. 2 minutes and change. [link]

Sarah Palin officially not a presidential candidate, just an attention whore. [link]

The most effective charities in the world. [link]

This 24 year old video shows that Apple's predictions about development of some technology was only about a month off. [link]

Solar Decathlon: part 4

2011-10-06T14:33:00.000-04:00

And then we get to the leftovers. Stuff from the Solar Decathlon that I didn't want shoved in one of the other broad categories I made up.

I've been considering doing something similar to this to my living room wall. I was gonna cut spaces between the studs and turn them into little alcoves for holding books or knickknacks or whatever.
The example shown here has the iPad they used to control the house. It can also be disconnected and carried around so you have control from anywhere. Anywhere in the world. At least anywhere with internet access.

I just thought it interesting that instead of using some fancy bamboo or special pressboard they just took 3 sheets of plywood and smooshed them together.

Some interesting barn wood entertainment system.

There's water running under there. And river rocks. And at night it lights up.

A rug made from tight cords of newspaper bound with string. I like the idea, but the question everyone asks is how well it'll hold up over time. What if I spill something on it? These are questions I can't answer. If anyone makes one be sure to let me know.

This couch and the little table overlapping it were made by people at the school. The couch doesn't look comfy, but it could be great. And with that low back it should be easy to move in to pretty much any apartment. Obviously the strange little tables were designed to fit over the couch. It lets you have food and drink without worrying about spilling every time you stand up or sit down.

This wall is much like I intend to do to my kitchen ceiling. There are color changing lights mounted in the ceiling behind the plastic. The plastic cuts easily and screws into place. When the bulb burns out they say you can easily unscrew the plastic and change the bulb.
Mine will me a bit more opaque. I'll probably paint the studs white so they won't be as obvious. And I'll have ropes of LEDs attached to the ceiling so the light will be diffuse enough that you can't tell where the lights are.

This is the house that had the detached office. It's to the left. What you see here is an outdoor sink with a few utensils hanging on the right side. That shiny thing you see on the ceiling of the doorway isn't a light. It's a shower. The knob is on the right of the lady in purple.

This is the Washington Monument. On the day I took the picture they were just getting started on the inspection for earthquake damage. The day after this picture they pulled out two chunks of marble the size of dictionaries.

This shows the inside of the walls of that particular house. Most of the houses over the years have had something like this going on. My house will never get the level of insulation you see in these places because my walls aren't thick enough to get that much insulation in. More than that you can see here that the studs are staggered. Have a look at the pictures at this site. They show how in insulated buildings the studs become a significant source of heat loss. By making the wall thicker and staggering the studs you eliminate them as gaps in the insulation.
This particular house made the walls 3 studs thick with the middle space being straight insulation. Some others made theirs only 2 studs thick. That was still sufficient to eliminate the gaps caused by studs and get plenty of insulation in there.

This piece of furniture for the children's room was made by students at the school. A lot of the furniture was. I just thought this one was kinda slick.

It's a table. Concrete filled with rebar and a strip of wood down the middle.

This shelf is hung from rollers so it can slide over to act as a door.

These next three pictures are inside of the house with all the padding on the outside. The inside is set up like stadium seating. No, really. At the bottom level is a projection screen that rolls down so you can watch movies.

Up by the windows is a bed. Right by them and down a step is the washer and drier.

The speakers are standing on the next step down. To their left is the bathroom. Below them - below each of the levels - is storage.
The house had lots of those strange green seats. They stack together in such a way to fit in an alcove on the lower level and could be hauled out so everyone has a seat.

You might want to enlarge this picture. Even then you probably won't see what's going on really well.
Most houses had showers with removable floors. Typically this was so they could get at the drain and unclog it. In this one house removing the floor of the shower revealed a bathtub.

What I don't have picture of is their Xbox sensor. It's positioned to cover most of the house. If you wave at the sensor and then point at what you want done it'll do it. Lights come on and off, the screen rolls down, stuff like that.

These last two picture are of the inside of the highly modular cubical house from Belgium. The house is designed in such a way that they send it to you in a few crates and you put it together however you like. In this case there's a kitchen, living room, and dining room on the lower level, up above are a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. Lights are attached to the cross beams.
It also looks better in pictures than in person.

Sod Off Wednesday: October 5

2011-10-05T03:54:00.001-04:00

When you pick up an old book, cover faded, pages yellowed, something that looks like the books on your dad's shelf in the basement, and realize that it was printed in 1980, a decade you still remember reasonably well, and that makes it 31 years old... well, those printers can sod off. It's their shitty paper. I'm not old. Look at all this hair! And none of it gray. Those hairs in my beard don't count.

Solar Decathlon: part 3

2011-10-04T18:02:00.000-04:00

I know, I know, I'm late. Sorry.

Lets talk plants for a bit.

This school's deck had a hole in it. Through it they grew sunflowers and... something that looks a bit like corn. And probably needs a lot of water to keep that many plants growing that close together. I don't have much to say about it, but Yummy thought it pretty neat.

This house had a number of interesting features. The green roof is always interesting. It has some interesting climbing plants, too.

I like the climbing plants, but how do you keep them under control? Your typical climbing plant will run up onto the roof and around the sides of the trellis. In this case they'd run around on the decorative slats off to the side.

This next display was to show how to make your own green roof. You need to start with a fairly flat roof. If you need a safety harness or really good shoes to walk on the roof then green roofs aren't for you. If you have a roof with a shallow angle, like the roof shown above, then you're good to go.
First you need something to keep the roots from destroying your roof. The mat acts as a root barrier. I'm not really sure why. Seems like it'd be great for taking root in.
Above that you'll need a moisture barrier. If the water gets under it then it's likely to grow something funky and/or eat away at the roof.
Then there's some gravelly soil. Then pea gravel. Then some proper dirt. Then plants.
The plants you want are almost always succulents. Have you ever hung out on top of the roof in summer? It can get right toasty up there. Grasses are likely to dry out and catch fire. You use them more on underground homes with a lot more soil over your head.

click to enlarge and read the signs

a green roof at ground level

another.
The DC Guerilla Gardeners will be knitting bags like these later this month.

Their kitchen was placed to get a good deal of sunlight. They used that to grow a garden in the window. The idea is great, but then you need some way to control the gnats and fruit flies you're likely to get.

This is actually an air purification system. There's no glass in there. It's just a wall of plants. Air is drawn in through there, the plants filter out the various weird gasses the things in your home tend to put out, and the air is pumped back in through the vents.

We're back to the house with the green roof at the beginning of this post. This is another part of their artificial water shed that I can't get into too much detail about due to my ignorance. Grey water from the shower, laundry, kitchen sink, etc. goes through a faux swamp. The water stays below a pebbly surface that keeps mosquitoes from growing in it, but below that is some dirt and vegetation and bacteria. They were showing off part of it, but I didn't get a good picture. What it was supposed to do is serve to break down any harmful chemicals before releasing the water into the landscape. You can get more details here. The water, at some point, runs through this channel under the house. It has water lilies and could totally have goldfish if you wanted.

Solar Decathlon: part 2

2011-10-03T13:38:00.000-04:00

What I go to the Solar Decathlon for is the toys. After 5 decathlons you can imagine that I'm running low on things that stand out and really impress me.

Two of the houses were showing off their dehumidifiers. The one below is filled with white plastic shells that you could sort of describe as ping pong ball skeletons. They aren't important, though. They're just surface area. The desiccant is a lithium chloride salt liquid that pours over the plastic. It draws the moisture from the air and then is pumped to another location where it's heated to release the water it captured from the air. The heat is provided by solar water heaters on the roof which goes on to be used in showers and whatnot.

lithium chloride salt dehumidifier

Another school was using liquid calcium chloride salts. However, theirs was still using a system that the school using the lithium chloride tried and rejected. The calcium chloride was just running down the window. The added surface area of the balls improved efficiency of the dehumidifier.

Thermal mass has always been popular for climate control systems. They soak up heat during the day that they release at night and take the cool from the night and release it during the day. Stone is great for that. Water does a good job, too. That's why coastal areas have more moderate temperatures than mid-continent areas that suffer from extreme temperatures on both ends of human tolerance.

This all concrete house has LOTS of thermal mass.

rotating chambers filled with phase change materials

If you want to get fancier you can invest in some phase change materials. These vertical thingies are filled with one. I forget whether they were using palm oil or paraffin wax. One school was using one and another was using the other. But there's several kinds. Usually fat or oil based. They tend to change from solid to liquid close to room temperature. This enhances their ability to carry their temperature over longer periods.

I just like the door in this utility closet. The door came from a New York City subway car. Behind it is a well insulated water tank.

I thought I got a picture of this, but apparently not. One house had cylindrical solar arrays. I'd seen some diagrams online proposing the idea awhile back, but didn't know they were in production. Instead of having a flat surface that is only at it's ideal angle relative to the sun for part of the day these tubes are at their optimal angle all the time. You can see some and read more here.

Tomorrow we look at the plants.

Friday Links: September 30

2011-09-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

Dachsund cat!

Muppet concert posters. [link]

More costumes from DragonCon. Lots that I hadn't seen before.

The pending "Batman: Arkham City" game has a song from the band "Raveonettes". You can hear their contribution here. [link]
Even if I don't play the game I'll want to have a look at the soundtrack.

60's style theme to "Dexter".

I don't care much about the show "Community", but one of the writers shows how he develops plot circles to help him write the story. [link]

A decent Freddy Mercury impression.

What you think you look like in a club compared to what you really look like. [link]

Draw a stick man. Then watch closely. [link]

"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea - God Bless! Keep a Big Hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along."

71% of the debt was created by Republican administrations. [link]

Converting viewed images back into pictures.

Watermelon carved into flowers.

Puppy howl.

Another Republican debate, another reason to think they're all horrible people. The politicians AND the voters. [link]

What's the bar density in your area? [link]

Some grocery stores are starting to eliminate self-checkout lanes because they go slower. [link]
From what I've seen, the overwhelming majority of the problems come from the fact that the lanes stop when someone buys beer or cough medicine. Then we have to wait for 5 minutes for someone to tell the machine it's OK, move along. Home Depot at least has a person there to help with the 4 self-checkout lanes. They make sure problems are solved and traffic keeps moving. Giant, Safeway, other... please take note of Home Depot.

Older news by now, but this is what the Foo Fighters did when the horrible people at Westboro Baptist church showed up to protest their concert. [link]

Apparently it's easy to turn a crocodile orange. Just mess with the pH of it's water. [link]

It's official. DC really does have the worst traffic problems. Probably from all these newbie politicians always turning hard to the right. [link]

This woman is very fit. [link]

A brief history of the founding fathers of the United States and their attitudes towards vaccines. Skip to paragraph 9 if you want to get past the "Michele Bachman is Lying" part of the article. [link]

More Bachmann nuttyness - she claims Hezbollah is setting up camps and missiles in Cuba. [link]

Dolphins have learned to blow bubble rings.

Pole dancer show down. [link]

How to build a vertical garden of succulents. [link]

This isn't really a 3D printer so much as a CNC milling machine made of Legos. Still, check it out. [link]

"The Smurfs" top foreign box office returns for the 7th week in a row. Wow. It's been a long time since I've had good cause to say "I'm proud to be an American". [link]

Guy has tossed 4,800 messages in a bottle into the ocean and gotten 3,100 responses. [link]

Trash bag weather balloon-style camera launch. [link]

Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming. [link]

What has been seen can never be unseen: the classic art edition. [link]

They call it the Liberal Decalogue. I call it the Thinking Man's Ten Commandments. After all, I've met a few religious and/or conservative people who follow the same rules. [link]

An article about Anonymous: internet heroes and villains. [link]
They're focusing mostly on the hacktivist portion of the group. They don't mention how they unveiled the woman who shoved the cat in the trash can, uncovered pedophiles, and sent help to people attempting suicide.

As long as we're on the subject, check out this cartoon about a hacker known as BoingThump. [link]

Check your cookies. Facebook may be tracking you. [link]

How school paper works. [link]

AIDS lowers your cholesterol. Or something. [link]

The Littest Doctor (Who). [link]

I haven't played it yet, but this article talks about a game that uses people to process data from the Kepler spacecraft. So far they've found 2 planets. [link]

Sesame Street to put in more scientific content. [link]

A pack of kids reproduce the fountain at the Bellagio with water guns. It's for a pool commercial, but it's still entertaining.

In Soviet Russia cake eats you. [link]

Star Trek: TNG crew as cartoon characters. [link]

Solar Decathlon 2011

2011-09-29T15:22:00.000-04:00

This coming weekend wraps up the 2011 Solar Decathlon. If you're in the DC area come check it out.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Decathlon, 20 colleges from around the world have all built small homes that run on solar power. They're judged on Architecture, Market Appeal, Engineering, Communications, Affordability, Comfort Zone, Hot Water, Appliances, Home Entertainment, and Energy Balance. Plus visitors get to vote on their favorite.

All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Clicking on the names will take you to their part of the DOE Decathlon site. They have short videos there that talk about the house. They call them a walkthrough, but more often than not they talk about the house and their philosophy without giving you the expected tour.

Ohio's house. I can't remember what I wanted to say about it.

New York's house is designed to be broken down into pieces that will fit in a freight elevator and be reassembled on the top of the taller buildings you'd find in New York. They have taken into account the high winds you'd get up there. But this only cleared for buildings 4-5 stories tall. For the REALLY tall buildings they'd have to tweek it a bit more and get approval from ... from ... from whoever approves these kinds of things.

The California team got a lot of traffic. Mostly from people who wanted to know what the hell they were thinking. This blanket can pack down to a remarkably small box and be installed by 2 people in a day. It's easy to repair. It doesn't take damage easily, but more easily than you'd like. And, yes, bugs and mice will almost certainly move in.
It's not completely a bad idea. Just not for a house. I can see it being used on construction sites for the trailers they set up as an office. Those things are hard to control the climate in. This would help a lot and wouldn't be a permanent solution.

I love these houses with the V shaped roofs. They hide solar panels well and make capturing rain water easier. In this case they're running the water through a wetland simulation to clear out pollutants before you use the water for your garden or whatever. This particular roof also has a green roof that you can just barely see.
Maryland's house is in the lead as I write this.

I liked China's house partially because it's much like some of my own recent sketches for a house. It's made up of several shipping containers that radiate out from a central hub. Each of the 3 arms is two containers wide. You can see them better if you enlarge the picture.

Canada's turtle house is designed so that some of the panels will be angled most efficiently over part of the day. As the sun passes through the sky they'll all work, but one will always work better so you're not getting the bulk of your power only at noon.

Tennessee I believe.

Florida's house has an interesting form of storm shutters. You see them used as house shades in this picture. The side closest to the house comes down and the outer edge pulls in. With that done you have enclosed the house in metal shutters that protect you from hurricane damage.

back

front

New Jersey's house is made from poured concrete. It was shipped to DC in 20-something pieces. While nobody has actually done the math, it's suspected that this house weighs more than every other house in the Decathlon put

New Zealand's house is meant to be sort of a vacation house, if I understand them right.

Illinois.

Belgium built a highly customizable house. From the outside it's a cube. Inside it's like something you might expect from Ikea. You buy the parts and assemble the floor plan however you like it. Pictures next week should clarify what that means.

Virginia's house will be moved to the Deanwood area of DC as a Habitat for Humanity house. Deanwood is a poor and rough neighborhood. An odd little reading nook will become a staircase that leads to a second level that will be put in place on the chosen site.

I don't have much to say about Middlebury's house. It has high ceilings so the heat can rise out a vent at the top and draw in cooler air. As you'll see next week, it has a nice garden in the kitchen window.

Purdue tried to build a house that looks like an actual house. They're also the only house that has walls of standard thickness. Just plain old 2x4s in the walls. Which means that the insulation they use I could use in my house. I always get frustrated when I find that the only way to get the kind of insulation used in Decathlon houses I'd have to double or triple the thickness of the walls.
This is also the first house I've seen in all 5 Decathlons to have a garage. Some would have a car port, but never a garage.

Appalachian State has a number of interesting features. The big wooden shelter uses solar cells that generate electricity on both the top and bottom so it gets power from light that reflects back up. To the left you can see a detached office or, as Yummy would want, a nap house. There's also an outdoor shower and sink which I fully intend to show you next week. On the house you see a brown area with a grey thing to the left. There's a window behind the grey thing. It slides back and forth depending on how much sun you want in the house. The brown area and the covering for the detached office are bark. They say the bark actually holds up for decades. You can read more about it at http://barkhouse.com/.

Massachusetts, I'm so sorry. I don't have a good picture of the full house. This picture shows the front of the house and how they did the solar panels. They're showing how you can set up a solar array around an existing house and still make it somewhat attractive. If you pull out you can see how the wood is in the same size and shape of the house, but offset by a few feet. It shades the roof from the sun and keep the rain off of you while you try to get in the house.

I'm still missing some houses.
There's a second Florida house that uses a lot of corrugated metal on the inside.
I'm not sure Hawaii managed to make the trip. The house shown on their page isn't familiar at all.

Blue boxes like this littered the site. Instead of needing batteries or hydrogen crackers and fuel cells like they've used in previous years they set up a micro-grid. The houses were set up like neighborhoods and each neighborhood fed into one of these boxes. The boxes were all connected with each other and into the city power grid. As they fed excess electricity into the grid the electrical meters turned backwards. So the houses all functioned more like they would if you made similar changes to your own place

Book Review: Macroscope

2011-09-27T14:13:00.000-04:00

Remember back in school when you had to give speeches in front of the class? There'd be times when you'd get a good topic and could come up with a speech you were proud of, or at least not ashamed of. Then, when you think you're almost done writing the damn thing you found you just couldn't write a conclusion that didn't make you sound like a complete moron. You'd said all you wanted to and really just wanted to let it end there. But to anyone watching it'd be like you stopped talking mid-thought. If you couldn't work it out you'd say "...uh, and that's my speech about potato farming in the heart of Africa."

That's kind of how I felt about "Macroscope" by Piers Anthony. The book has a weak ending, but most of the rest I quite liked.

In the not too terribly distant future, a satellite orbits the Earth with a special kind of telescope. It can see just about anywhere in the Milky Way galaxy. It can watch a TV on planets thousands of light years away, read a note sealed in an envelope and shoved inside a safe, or explore inside the planet's crust for mineral deposits. And as awesome and dangerous as a telescope like that might be that's just the beginning of what it can do. Humans weren't the first species to develop it. All across the galaxy other species have been using their versions of the same thing for many hundreds of thousands of years. Not just to peer at other planets, but to broadcast signals of their own. Some signals were for entertainment purposes, but a lot of them were educational. How to manipulate gravity. How to move organic matter at high acceleration. How to terraform planets. Coming from hundreds of different planets and civilizations.

At some point some race decided, for reasons that become clear, to cripple the transmissions. Make it so anyone of sufficient intelligence to view and understand the signals would have their minds destroyed.

And that's where our story begins. The research team can use the macroscope as a telescope, but anyone who has used it to view the signal has had their brains turned to mush. One of the project leaders brings in a guy he used to know. They were both in a program that took children and tried to make geniuses of them. The new guy is the only person who knows how to find the program's greatest success. A person whose brains would allow him to work around the mind destroying signal.

But before they could accomplish anything an influential politician comes to the station and insists he see the signal. It killed him. Now the UN is coming to claim the macroscope is a weapon and that the scientists have been spying on people and nations on Earth. They'll loudly and publicly destroy it before quietly and privately putting it back together for their own use.

Now our heroes have to take the macroscope and a rocket and flee the Earth. Using the one person who can safely use the macroscope they have to use it to ensure their safety, find the source of the signal, and shut it down if they can.

The end of the book has this battle of wits between a brilliant but immature mind, a more mature but only moderately intelligent mind. They must duel in rooms based on the zodiac.

The book is rather long. It has some ideas I haven't seen in stories before and rather intrigued me. I'd like to see this book rewritten. Maybe with a more satisfactory ending.

D. Landreth Seed Company

2011-09-26T07:00:00.001-04:00

I found out the other day that The Landreth Seed Company, the oldest seed company in the United States, could be looking at the end of their days. They've had a few lean years and need to sell 1 million catalogs by the end of September. Or, I presume, sell a bunch of other stuff as well.

You can read more about the company and it's financial problems here. Or go shop at http://www.landrethseeds.com/ to help them out.

I've ordered a catalog and a few packets of seeds. Some stuff I wanted was sold out. If they're still in business in March I'll try hitting them up for some seed potatoes. I also wrote them a letter with some friendly suggestions of ways to draw traffic to the site. Most of my suggestions were to turn them into a gardening site with gardening tips, ways for customers to show off their own gardens, and a store in there somewhere so people can buy what they need to reproduce what others have done with their gardens.

Why should you care about heirloom vegetables? Well, much of what they sell is unique. Remember seeing old films where people are throwing rotten tomatoes at the stage? Those tomatoes weren't rotten. They were a variety of tomato with delicate skin that would splat nicely. Unfortunately, being so fragile meant they don't ship worth a damn. You can't expect them to be picked, put in a basket, shipped, and put in the store without them being ruined. So farmers didn't grow them. It wasn't long at all before you couldn't even get them for your own garden. Today they're presumed extinct.

OK, sad, but not a disaster. They just failed to pass Darwin's test.

Most of what you get at the store has been bred and engineered. Carrots turned from purple and red to orange. Tomatoes got thicker and stronger so they can ship and cut easier. They also lose much of their flavor and nutritional value.

And much of the engineered seeds you get in the stores have been designed so that what you grow will be the last of it's line. If you plant the seeds from what you grow you'll get nothing back. If not this generation then the next generation won't grow. So you have to keep going back to the company to buy more. With heirloom vegetables you can save the seeds and grow more of the same thing next year and the year after that.

So, give them a hand. Buy some seeds or a catalog. Give them a chance to make the changes necessary to survive the 21st century.

Friday Links: September 23

2011-09-23T07:00:00.000-04:00

One of the new planets that Kepler found is in a binary star system. These are rare because the complex gravitational interactions of the two are thought to make planet formation difficult. NASA scientists want to rename Kepler-16b "Tatooine" since Luke Skywalker's home world is also in a binary star system. [link]

In other NASA news, you might want to duck. We're not telling you when or where you need to duck, just that you probably should. [link]

Good thing that soon health insurance companies will have codes to specify injuries caused by spacecrafts. [link]

And if you get injured by a falling spacecraft they should soon be able to freeze you until they find a cure for Fallingspacecraftitis. [link]
Anyone know how I can get into the human trials? No, really.

Daleks chasing a turtle. Ex-Turtle-ate!

I don't know what to say about this game. But I love that you can punch people until they catch fire.

A group of people lift a burning car off of a guy.

Game/test: Arrange the colors in order and see how close you get. Low scores are better. I got a 4 with my weak point being in the mid cyan-ish area. [link]

The biggest employers in the world. [link]

Jedi Kittens Strike Back.

Half Life intro remade in Minecraft.

Vodka pie. [link]

How to anger an archaeologist: show him The History Channel. [link]
Pretty much the same way geeks look at The SyFy Channel.

Amish traditions, including why they don't grow mustaches. [link]

Game: Brother - solve the puzzles to free the eskimo's brothers. [link]

Cartoon history of the English language part 1 of 10.

Little girl digs up a 160 million year old fossil with her toy shovel. [link]

Simon Pegg's letter to a guy who sent him a ridiculous amount of stuff to sign. [link]

Ads from oversized objects. [link]

A letter from Marge Simpson to Barbara Bush. [link]

Game: The Secret of Grisly Manor - Wander the house and solve the puzzles to find your missing Grandpa. [link]

Game: Soul Tax - After being dead for several years the grim reaper finally comes to collect you, but now you have a tax to pay. You must possess and kill a bunch of people to pay the tax. [link]

The US now has the 25th fastest internet speed in the world. [link]

In other internet news, Comcast is now offering $9.99/month internet for poor families. Too bad they needed a push to convince them to do it. [link]

Vandalized signs. [link]

Facts about the Witness Protection Program. [link]

Life inside an Amazon.com warehouse. [link]

Why Google won't be fixing Rick Santorum's Santorum problem. [link]

History and future of some corporate logos. [link]

Instant popcorn maker.

Sod Off Wednesday: September 21

2011-09-21T07:00:00.000-04:00

100.0°F
I'm officially sick.
The cold can sod off.

Intervention

2011-09-20T11:08:00.000-04:00

Last weekend there was an internet convention in town. "Intervention" they called it. Short for Internet Convention I'm guessing.

I don't go to a lot of geek conventions. About 11 years ago I went to a sci-fi convention because my boss was buddies with the guy who owned the convention organizing company and got me free tickets. I got to have dinner with an astronaut, shake hands with Kenny Baker (R2-D2), spend time with Delenn from Babylon 5 (better known now as the crazy French woman from Lost), and have a great time. I also snuck into the Small Press Expo once on the last day just to get Frank Cho's (Liberty Meadows - Now at Marvel Comics) and Scott Kurtz's (PVP) autographs.

Much like at Small Press Expo, I was going mostly to get some favorite internet celebrities to sign some stuff. At the top of the list was Pete Abrams, creator of Sluggy Freelance. Pete's comic has been running something short of forever. OK, 14 years. Short of forever, but still in the very early days of the internet. Unfortunately, Pete had pneumonia and was a bit drugged up. He'd mentioned he was sick so I did the creepy thing and brought him a bottle of DayQuil. It was still sealed and all, but still... creepy. He debated for a bit and then turned it down. He had other stuff and probably wouldn't use it. I'd been nursing a very slight cold last week that exploded into a big cold yesterday so I'm using it instead. Yummy and I did get to hang out and talk about crappy printers and Doctor Who and trying to mix the humor that got me reading Sluggy in the first place with the longer and more serious stories he's gotten into in recent years.

Then we went and hit Jennie Breeden's booth. She writes The Devil's Panties and had just finished up a talk that we'd sat through. One of the things Jennie is known for is her kilt blowing events. Lots of guys come to these geek gatherings wearing kilts. Long story short (too late) she brought an electric leaf blower that's so weak the company can't actually call it a leaf blower and uses it to blow up kilts Marilyn-Monroe-over-an-air-vent style. Laurel K Hamilton was there and insisted that the convention organizers get Jennie a room the next year. So now there's an official event at each DragonCon where kilts are blown and pictures are taken in front of a crowd of screaming women. She has a poster covered with small pictures of guys in blown kilts. So Jennie, Yummy, and one of the kilt wearers poured over the poster together.

And Jennie liked my shirt. I can't find a picture of it now, but it's the one I made for Yummy's guerilla gardening group. It's black with a gorilla on it where I put a stencil on and misted the shirt with bleach.
It was a tossup between wearing that, my Gallifrey University shirt, or my PVP "I spent my reward on ale and whores" shirt. The PVP shirt doesn't get worn in public a lot because I hadn't realized when I got it how much the viewer needs to know the context of the shirt. I used my bleached shirt because I made it and was gonna be hanging around artists. That and these kinds of conventions are the only place you can where whatever you want without feeling weird.

Next on my checklist was Bill Holbrook. Bill is a comic strip machine. He has three (3) different strips that he updates daily. He was there mostly for Kevin and Kell which is his online only strip, but I made sure to grab some Safe Havens and On The Fastrack.

We picked up some crafts, too. I got something that clips onto my glasses and gives me special lenses that can swing down so you can peer through them. Another guy was selling big Nuka Cola bottle caps for hanging on the wall. They're from the "Fallout" series of games. I got one of those and yummy got a painting of Gir from "Invader Zim" riding a pig.

In other parts of the convention we found a room set up just for people to come play video games. They even had a Commodore 64 set up. Another room was for board games. One wall was lined with games you could check out and play. If you liked it then there were shelves on another wall where you could buy them. And staff was there to teach you how to play the games. How awesome is that job?

Another room was set up to show a couple of movies during the convention. When the movies weren't playing they had some of the more popular videos from the internet showing. People walking by would hear a bit from one video or another and stop to peer through the door. Yummy and 3-4 others got snagged by Charlie the Unicorn.

All in all, we had a good time and the convention was totally affordable. I'll give it a serious look next year, too.

Book Review: How To Live Safely In a Science Fictional Universe

2011-09-19T00:42:00.001-04:00

"Oh. I wish you'd told me you were going to buy this book."

That's what a friend told me when she saw me reading this book. That and, "I think the title is what gets people to buy it".

She's not wrong. I was plundering a Borders, saw the title, read the description, still had no idea what the book was about, and said "oh, what the hell, it's on sale."

Think back to the early days of television or radio. Back when you could still play with the medium a bit because there weren't yet unspoken rules and regulations about what you could and couldn't do. You could experiment and do things that were simultaneously strange and brilliant. Film students still get to do that to a degree. And while reading this book that seems to be what author Charles Yu was doing. The book seems experimental in it's appearance and flow and... itself.

Charles Yu is the author and main character. He lives in a time machine with a retconned dog. He sort of left the machine with the transmission in low so it won't go very fast. He'll live his life in a matter of weeks in there.

The machine runs on vocabulary... sort of. Time travel tends to need specialized vocabulary.
"Have you killed your grandfather yet?"
"I'll be having done it a week from next yesterday."
But what if instead of a machine all you needed to do was use and believe the proper terminology? Think about last year in now terminology instead of then terminology and you leave the here and now for the then and there.

And what would you do with a time machine? Kill Hitler? Tell Abe Lincoln to duck? Most people would just try to go back and fix that one really humiliating time. You know the one. Everyone has a moment they want to redo. But time machines don't really work like that. Charles' job is to fix machines that have broken or seized up from people trying to do just that.

One day, when he went to get his transmission fixed Charles saw something horrible. He saw himself step out of a time machine. Rule one when that happens? Run. Nothing good ever happens. Charles didn't run. Instead he shot himself.

This leads to him reading a book that writes itself as he reads it and you're reading right then. And a grand tour of the complete failure of his father to build the first time machine.

It's not a bad book. Just kinda heavy on the "huh?" Once you get past the strange science the book is a story about his father's failure and disappointment.

What makes the book worth reading is "you don't that in a book too often" moments. Other than seeing the results of the experiment there's not a lot to sell this book on.

Friday Links: September 16

2011-09-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

The US Government used to believe in the Yeti and drew some some rules for hunting it. [link]

Pictures and film from the set of "The Avengers". No spoilers but costume design. [link]

Power system for robotic robots. [link]

The biggest of all of Rick Perry's lies about Social Security. [link]

A slew of steampunked creatures. [link]

Mario in a box. How it works shown at the end. [link]

Results of a survey about how much people believe that climate scientists believe in global climate change. [link]

My commute to work is just like this!

The best science fiction books according to Reddit. [link]

You've see a few hundred Doctor Who references since the show returned in 2005 but never seen the show. Here's a trailer for the show since then.

A guy with a cybernetic eye (that records, not lets him see) investigates different kinds of prosthetics and compares them to a character in a new game. [link]

Fact checking the recent GOP presidential candidate debate. [link]
Face it guys and gals. Not a one of you stands a chance.

The Senate finally passed a patent reform bill of dubious value. [link]

The dog who won the award for longest ears. [link]

Google Maps is listing places as permanently closed. We've seen a lot of places listed that way in Baltimore. [link]

People prone to seizures probably shouldn't watch this fast paced morphing between paintings of people. [link]

Welcome back to school. Profanity is allowed in class, but only words from this list. [link]

In the future jobs suck. [link]

Entries for Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2011 with commentary. [link]

Harvest this weed by riding nude horseback riding. [link]

Antique radio dials. [link]

Santa Cruz PD is using a program that predicts home breakins and car thefts and assigns police appropriately. Gonna be hard to prove it's effectiveness if their presence causes crimes not to happen. [link]

Fall 2011 TV season start schedule. Looks like most of the shows I'm interested in will be on Hulu... exclusively. [link]

Remixes of the Nokia ringtone. [link]

The origin of said ringtone.

50 new planets found and confirmed. At least one found not to exist as previously thought. [link]

Food in history. [link]

A comparison of "Planet of the Apes" to "The Help" shows, once again, that you need sci-fi to do really hard hitting social commentary that people will listen to. [link]

(Audio) Book Review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

2011-09-15T13:38:00.000-04:00

From the guy who brought you "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" comes "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter".

I haven't read P&P&Z because I'm not a Jane Austin fan, but I like the idea of it more than the other classics with monsters books that followed it. P&P&Z was the original story modified. The later books kept the tone and characters of the original but changed the stories. "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" seems to me to be more like P&P&Z in that he tried to keep true to Lincoln's life while giving him a life long grudge against vampires.

The author claims that he was given a stack of journals that Abe Lincoln kept separate from his regular diary. These books were reserved for his notes about hunting vampires. The author was asked to read them and write a Lincoln biography based on the contents.

I'm no Lincoln historian. I have the broad strokes of his life, but that's about it. I can't tell for sure how much of the story is fact and how much is fiction. A few bits I had to look up. One example is Lincoln talking to General McClellan who, in the beginning of the war, even managed to screw up victories. Abe asked "If you are not using the army, might I borrow it?".

Much of the early part of the book seems to be more about his parents than about Abe. They moved around a good deal because Abe's father apparently didn't understand the laws about land ownership. They'd settle on some land, farm it for awhile, then get booted off when the real property owner found out they were there. When they finally got some land in Illinois Abe's father took out a loan to get a horse, plow, and seed. But a bad season meant he couldn't pay it back right away. But the guy he borrowed the money from turned out to be a vampire. As punishment for defaulting on the loan he poisoned Abe's mother with just enough vampire blood to kill her, but not enough to turn her. Once Abe knew what happened that vampire became his first kill.

While hunting his second vampire Abe's life was saved by a third. This third trained him and started sending him the names and locations of vampires that really deserved to die. Abe's life goes on much the way I suspect that it really did. Him traveling the country taking a variety of odd jobs that allowed him pass near the homes of various vampires, introducing him to the horrors of slavery, and seeing how closely the two were related.

The Civil War, it turned out, wasn't just a war to end slavery. It was also a war between extra evil vampires that wanted to enslave all humans and use them like cattle and the moderately evil vampires who just wanted to exist. But it was a war that the humans had to win themselves.

One of the few battles that it mentions took place here in Washington, DC. I've written about that particular battle for the Walter Reed history book we put out. Confederate solders had set up camp on what later became Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The exact site later became a school and then a research building with a small nuclear reactor in it. Union soldiers were at Ft Stevens not even a mile south. You have to remember that during the Civil War battles were fought in such a way that, if there was enough notice, people could come out in their Sunday finest with picnic lunch and watch the battle. At Gettysburg there was even a huge camera on a horse drawn wagon that was being hauled all over the battlefield. But at the Battle of Fort Stevens Lincoln came up to the fort to watch and became the first and only standing President to come under enemy fire.

It's not an exciting book, but it was interesting listening to how the author incorporated this story into Abe's life. And it's a good story even if you don't know who Abe Lincoln was. Although, I'll admit, if you don't know who Jefferson Davis was his brief appearance seems a bit out of place.

I'd recommend this book to most people. Adults will see what they learned in school brought to life and made more interesting and better explained. Kids, having heard this, will absorb what they learn in school better because it ties into a story. Even cutting out the parts about vampires, people of all ages will wonder how much of the story is true and how much is made up. Whether that interest will lead them to reading a proper Lincoln biography is another question.

The audio version is reasonably priced and well read.

Sod Off Wednesday: September 14

2011-09-14T07:00:00.005-04:00

I was in the store the other day and saw a whole aisle of stage one Halloween candy. I've seen a few more since then.

click the picture to enlarge

All the grocery and convenience stores can sod off. They're not getting their candy back, though.

Cartoon used without the express permission of http://www.sheldoncomics.com/. Be sure to check it out and buy some books.

Pizza place for sale

2011-09-13T12:37:00.000-04:00

I'm intending this mostly for my more bakery minded cousins, but some of you might be interested as well. In the town of Caldwell, KS there's a fairly popular restaurant called "Steve's Pizza". The owner is looking to retire.

"Steve's Pizza" sits at the corner of the two major streets through town. The location is good enough they put the big Caldwell arch right out outside the front door. Just looking at these pictures you can see that they made enough to be able to keep the place up fairly nicely. And previous visits have shown me that this wasn't just clean up done for the festival.

Caldwell is a bit isolated. You might be hesitant to try to move somewhere so remote and try to run a business. The remoteness is something of a benefit. Since people can't just pop out to Wichita or Tulsa easily several businesses you wouldn't expect in a town so small had to appear. The hospital is one of the most telling examples. There's also a family clinic just up the street from it. There's a couple of lumber stores, a flower store, welding, sign printing, a Radio Shack, a Napa Auto Parts, a couple of other restaurants, a small airport, and on like that.

The school is pretty good for it's size. I heard someone say that the school's whole population is only around 100. They have a secondary school, but I'm not sure where their primary is. So, yeah, small, but well equipped. Their gym was better than where I went to school and my school was considered to be pretty well off. Mind you, I didn't see much besides the gym. But considering the condition it was in, the bells and whistles, and the fact that the acoustics were good enough for a band to play without horrible echos and distortions was pretty good.

And I didn't see a great deal of For Sale signs around town. Which tells me that they weren't hit by the housing crisis like everyone else was. You can get a place in town where you can get around town on foot, bike, or Segway, or you can get a place in the surrounding countryside with a bit of acreage and drive in.

Alright, I may have thought about this a bit much. But I've got some friends who have been talking about getting our whole gang from college and taking over some small town somewhere. If only we could find a business that people of our skills could run from the middle of nowhere and turn a profit.

Caldwell trip

2011-09-12T13:29:00.000-04:00

Beside the cattle drive, the weekend spent in Caldwell, KS has a number of other events going on.

This arch was completed a week before the celebration
and was dedicated as part of the events.

From a distance this was more convincing. He hung Saturday and Monday
but was removed before the storm Sunday.
This "Opera House" is a replacement for another more fitting of the name
that burned down a long time ago.

It doesn't hold a lot of people so just before leaving I finally elbowed
my way through the door far enough to get this picture.

Caldwall got to take part in the cattle drives for Oklahoma's anniversary
a few years back and Kansas's anniversary this year because it's 2 miles
from the state line and on the Chisholm Trail.
The trail goes north by the town I went to school in and then across the
street from the family farm. At least thats where markers stood. In places
the trail was a mile wide.

All through town these signs can be found. Each one tells about a
historical building or event. Most events, like this, involved gunplay.

click any picture to enlarge it

These metal cutouts are permanent installations on many of the roofs
along the main street. For the festival more were placed on the ground
to shoot back.

This was the group I drug down with me. Yummy smiling on the left,
Jerri on the right, her two girls in the middle. It was about 104°F at the time.

The previous picture was where we were waiting for this quick draw
demonstration. One person hits a button, between 2 and 5 seconds later
the light in the middle of that black rectangle comes on and a timer starts.
The timer stops and the light goes out when the metal gets shot.

This old bank is now a photo studio. It's allegedly haunted by someone
who hung himself in the safe.
A brothel used to be on the second floor of this building.
No idea if the brothel and bank were in business at the same time.

The drug store has a nice display of old bottles in their window.

Meanwhile, on the trail, there was a bit of excitement when the cattle flushed out a covey of quail which caused a bit of a stampede. The cattle got over it quickly.

Friday Links: September 9

2011-09-09T07:00:00.000-04:00

After our travels, Yummy is proposing that airlines charge for carry-on luggage instead of checked luggage. Everyone would get on and off the plane a lot faster if we didn't spend so much time shoving bags over our heads and then digging them back out.
This article and interactive picture talks about another proposal. [link]

A series of minute long videos about who has the worst job, moms or people with jobs. [link]

I thought I'd posted this, but apparently not. It's an article talking about how a person's use of pronouns can help judge how honest they're being and other odd discoveries. [link]

"Escape From City 17 - part 2" a Half-Life 2 fan film. It's expanded significantly from part 1.

There's a Deadman TV series in the works. It's just a guess, but I'm guessing it'll fall under the roaming do-gooder model. You know, where each episode the lead character is in a different place helping people. Think A-Team, Incredible Hulk, Quantum Leap, and the like. I can't picture how else a Deadman series would work. [link]

An amusing video about copyright.

A little advice to the new president of ABC about creating characters.

A trailer for a show that Fox cancelled before it aired.

You've seen the state art on the sides of U-hauls. Here's the whole set. [link]

"Ninja" patrolling the streets of the British town of Teovil. [link]

Not sure what to say about this. It's worth 30 seconds of attention though. [link]

A history of marketing by, and challenges to, DeBeers. Later in the article it talks about the price difference between buying and selling a diamond. I'm surprised they don't mention the manufactured diamond market. Any diamonds I eventually buy will come from some lab. [link]

15 age appropriate movies to introduce your kids to sci-fi. [link]
Space Jam? Really?

For every 50 art websites I let pass I find one I have to share. This one is full of paintings of an over the hill superhero. [link]

Icky medical pictures. [link]
My favorite of the ones I see on the main page. [link]

Former Playboy and Baywatch model training to climb Mount Ararat in search of Noah's Ark. [link]
Donna, Ararat is a mountain range, not a single mountain. It's in a part of the world lousy with religious folk. Religious folk and wars. If it managed to survive 5000+ years of rot and crushing glaciers it would probably have been either found or blown up by now. But, I applaud you for taking up a hobby like mountain climbing instead of standing around here being pretty.

5 major marketing disasters. [link]

How do you know that what you see as red is what others see as red? Could you really be seeing what they call pink, purple, or orange? Here's how someone tested how people see color.

The conclusions the narrator makes don't seem correct to me.

Paint by number stuff at the 2011 Bumbershoot Festival. [link]

10 strange things sent to space. [link]

30 years of change in types of music sales. [link]

Movies made from pictures taken by Hubble over the course of years. They sometimes look as if the picture is just being slid along, but look close and you can see these clouds of colored dust moving over time. [link]

Short, amusing Kurt Vonnegut talk on the shape of stories.

Hobo nickels - nickels carved from buffalo nickels during the great depression. [link]

Draw a chart and search for something whose search popularity matches it most closely. [link]

Pencil drawings that look like blurry vintage photos. Freaky. [link]

Fox doctored video of James Hoffa speech to make it look like he was advocating violence. [link]

6 bits of nonsense psychology. [link]

Nanoscopic motor. [link]

Reactions to playing the game "Amnesia: The Dark Decent". I may have to play this game now.

Voice actors you didn't know you knew. [link]

Some friends in Kansas recommended some online cooking videos to me. This was not on their list.
Henry's Anytime Chili for One.

Confessions of a former GOP operative.
"...the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult,..."
[link]

cattle drive

2011-09-08T15:33:00.002-04:00

Note: there are two videos in this post. They may take some time to appear.

The major point of my hiatus was to see the start of the cattle drive leaving from Caldwell, KS. Like so many small towns, there's a festival of some sort near the end of summer beginning of fall. Caldwell was also celebrating it's 140th anniversary and, being only 2 miles from the Oklahoma border and located along the Chisholm Trail, got to take part of a cattle drive that was in celebration of Kansas's 150th anniversary.

These two stayed in town for awhile. Caldwell and.... something.
They participated in a similar even in Oklahoma in 2007 and
were named after the cities that event started and ended in.

The drive started with the chuck wagons.
We'd already had several meals prepared by them earlier in the weekend.

If you want to get picky, there were cops leading the chuck wagons.
And there were dance hall girls before them.

There were four wagons. The first two shook the earth as they passed. So I switched to video in the hopes of giving you a sense of what it was like.

Then came the horses and longhorns.

A wall of horses keeps the cattle from getting spooked and running ahead.

Then come cattle. With huge friggin' horns.
Guys on horses rode on either side of the line of cattle acting as a mobile
cattle chute and protecting all of us morons lining the street and the cars
parked behind us.

This one decided I was interesting.
Immediately following this picture it turned and got right in my face.
From the reaction it got I was the least freaked out about this.

The rest of the cattle.

If you're interested in checking it out, this cattle drive will continue north across the state for three weeks. More information and photos from the drive is available at http://www.kansascattledrive2011.com/.
You can catch up with up them in Kingman, Ellinwood, or at then end of the line at Ellsworth. Or read the blog from the trail.

A bad picture

2011-09-06T20:22:00.001-04:00

This isn't a good picture of the cat I'm about to tell you about, but it's what I can provide right now.
This cat showed up last Thursday. New people had moved into the basement next door with a screaming baby. This cat showed up in the walkway between houses with a bunch of furniture that it was very attached to. It spent it's time lounging around on the back of the sofa and let people pet it. It wouldn't leave the walkway. It had food dishes nearby. It was clearly owned by the people who had the furniture.
Tonight (Tuesday) we returned from our travels to find the cat still on the back of the now waterlogged sofa. It was still very friendly, but now won't put down it's front left foot and has a matted yucky spot on it's back right leg.
Yummy knocked on the door of the people in the basement and asked if it was their cat. The woman who opened the door seemed a bit slow. Nothing genetic or developmental. It seemed more cultural and lack-of-a-proper-education-al. She said Yep. It was hers and it was a house cat until their (hers and her live in boyfriend's) 18 month old tried to pet it too aggressively and the cat scratched it.
From the way the kid was screaming I would never have guessed it was 18 months old. 6 months I could buy. 18 and that kind of sound means there's some neglect going on.
Sure, the "baby" comes first. I get that. So you teach the kid to be nice to animals. Not unload the animal. Yummy finds loads of animals in similar situations on Craigslist all the time and wants to smack every one of their owners.
The woman said that they wanted to take the cat to the local shelter, but they were charging $25 for them to leave the cat. Her grandma was going to come take the cat to the shelter near her place where they'd take the cat for free.

Yummy asked if we could take the cat in and get it cleaned up. You know, since it was injured, likely in a fight with another cat. So now we have a cat that is going to go to a shelter. Black cats don't adopt out well, this one has injuries I can't find or diagnose so the shelter will view it as broken, and we have reason to believe the shelter they're gonna take it to is a kill shelter. Giving it back is a death sentence.

It's a very sweet and friendly cat. It got upset when we took it out of the alley, but didn't lash out. I poured water over it but it only crawled out of the bathtub instead of taking a swipe at me. It let me wash the leg with a wet cloth, trim away matted hair, and poke and prod the injured areas without a complaint. And it needs a home before Saturday when Yummy's normal cat comes back home.

If you know anyone in the DC/Baltimore area please ask them if they're willing to take a wonderful 2 year old cat or if they'd ask their friends if they'd take it.

I appreciate any help you can provide in finding it a home.

Interested parties should comment on this blog entry or e-mail green_canary at hotmail dot com.