January 19, 2017
The West Wing Version:
Josh, Toby, Leo, and Donna are in Leo's office. They have just gotten word that a major auto manufacturer plans to build a plant in Mexico, and will likely close a corresponding plant in Michigan. Josh is pacing, Leo is behind his desk, Donna is standing near the door, and…
January 19, 2017
I've got this press release that will be of interest to many:
An international team including researchers at the university of Edinburgh and Antoine Wystrach of the Research Centre on Animal Cognition (CNRS/Université Toulouse III—Paul Sabatier) has shown that ants can get their bearings whatever…
January 17, 2017
Yes there are Nixon-Trump similarities. But in the end, probably not many. (A lot of Congresspersons boycotted his second inaugural, by the way). Also, for those who are not familiar with Watergate, I'll tell you this: The medium to worst case scenario of Trump's election, which would include…
January 17, 2017
My current phone, a Google Nexus made by Motorola, is still working fine. I'm much more worried about Amanda's Samsung, which is a nightmare. The storage on that phone is used up by Samsung proprietary gunk that can't be removed, and she can't insert a microSD card because the phone will not…
January 16, 2017
This is a descriptive model of Donald Trump's behavior, which ultimately works out to a prediction that Donald Trump won't last very long. In an evolutionary sense, at least.
I've found that many people use the term "spite" incorrectly. Many assume it has to do with vitriol or nastiness, or…
January 15, 2017
A lot of people are just catching up on who John Lewis is. One way to do that is to read his memoir, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement.
U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) is presented with the 2010 Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
He is a senior African American…
January 14, 2017
Ah yes, I remember it well.
"Hammurabi, Hammurabi, I beg to report to you,
In Year 1, 0 people have starved.
101 people came to the city
The population is now 124
We harvested 4.5 bushels per acre
We planted 998 acres of wheat
But rats at 300 bushels of wheat
You now have a surplus of 1443 bushels…
January 13, 2017
My friend Peter Gleick tosses this question aside and informs us that there are actually better questions. Is California having a wet year? How does the snowpack look? Are the reservoirs filling up? Will the groundwater recharge? Will the forests in the Sierra recover with all this precip? Will…
January 13, 2017
ADDED: It has been suggested that I clarify an important point about this post.
So, dear reader, please understand that the information provided here is my best attempt at analysis of the information that I have available. There is clearly conjecture here. So, of course, read all this with a…
January 12, 2017
Remember that movie? I mainly remember it because I was a kid in Gloucester when it was being filmed. Anyway, here they come again.
This happened today on C-Span.
https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/819632340272054272
LOL
Then, C-Span released this statement (Hat Tip: Sheril Kirshenbaum):…
January 12, 2017
And you too!
January 12, 2017
He's trying, in the hearings, to not let it look this way, but the truth is that he and Exxon Mobile stand to benefit a great deal from a Tillerson SOC. Also, Russia will benefit a great deal.
Putting it a slightly different way, Tillerson's appointment makes the most sense of you replace "Trump…
January 12, 2017
A Fortunate Universe: Life in a Finely Tuned Cosmos
This is a concept that has always fascinated me, ever since reading some stuff about the Periodic Table of Elements. Check it out:
Over the last forty years, scientists have uncovered evidence that if the Universe had been forged with even…
January 12, 2017
The term "Evangelical" is a bit of a moving goal post. But, there is a strong association between Evangelical and getting climate science totally wrong in a way that is actually materially damaging to our planet and to future generations. So, it is not hard to be angry at Evangelicals because…
January 12, 2017
Probably not, but it is worth brief consideration.
Mainstream media is reporting that USMC General James Mad Dog Mattis's Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Defense is stalled because Mattis is a no show for a related hearing in the House. The reason for the cancellation of his…
January 11, 2017
Many bad things happened at the Trump news conference. Many bad things. Many many. Unbelievably bad things, I tell ya.
But one thing that happened, as bad as the rest of the things, and covered by the Washington Post, has not gotten sufficient attention.
President-elect Donald Trump twice…
January 11, 2017
It has been suggested that President Elect Trump has been compromised by Vladimir Putin and/or the Russian Intelligence agency. This allegation suggests that Putin and/or the FSB have information, including video of unsavory sexual activities of some sort (loosely defined) and documentation of…
January 6, 2017
You already know abut the North American Conveyor current. Briefly: The major ocean currents happen because the equatorial ocean is warmer, and since water (unlike land) can move (though not as fast as air) the dissipation of this heat across the surface of the Earth results in warm water moving,…
January 6, 2017
Donald Trump is meeting, this morning, with the editor of Vogue and the owners of Vogue's overarching publishing company.
This can only mean one thing. We will be seeing The Donald on the cover of the famous magazine sooner than later.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817374875962769408…
December 31, 2016
A few days ago I posted this item asking if it was really true that more celebrities have died this year than usual. That post went viral, so of course, the famous Doug McIntyre (who is, by the way, originally from Minnetonka, Minnesota) asked me to join him on KABC, McIntyre in the Morning, an LA…
December 31, 2016
The Makeblock mBot Add-on Pack-Six-legged Robot V1.1 is an add on for the Makeblock DIY mBot 1.1 Kit (Bluetooth Version) - STEM Education - Arduino - Scratch 2.0 - Programmable Robot Kit for Kids to Learn Coding & Robotics - Pink or any of its variants.
The makeblock robot is an arduino…
December 27, 2016
Before we address this question, let us recognize that years do not really kill people. That's just a poetic way of putting it, in common use.
I believe that every year starting around September or October, there is a random spate (spats are generally random, as are small droughts) of celebrity…
December 27, 2016
You have already heard the sad news that Carrie Fisher had died, at a young age, after suffering one or more heart attacks.
To honor her, you are probably going to go watch some old Star Wars movies. But I have a different suggestion. The woman was a prolific and accomplished author (and more) and…
December 21, 2016
California's Amazing Geology by Don Prothero is an amazing book about -- wait for it -- California's geology!
California is one of the most geologically interesting and complex geopolitical units in the world. But so is Minnesota, and Minnesota is boring, geologically, for most people. Why?…
December 20, 2016
What is sex?
Musings at 10,000 Birds:
This is a simple question with a complicated answer. Part of the answer is this: The biological identity of an individual that guides its choice of mate. So, in a simple version of the world of a bird, there are two sexes, male and female, and males chose…
December 16, 2016
Putin probably owns Trump. In the past, Trump has spent enough high profile time traveling in and out of Russia, that any smart intelligence agency would have long ago gotten the goods on such a sloppy self absorbed person. Assume there are movies. Young girls. Whatever. Putin probably owns Trump…
December 13, 2016
There is really no better time to get a Raspberry Pi. The new Raspberry Pi 3 has features that make it much more useful and fun, including more speed, built in bluetooth, and built in wifi.
The Raspberry Pi is a small computer that, out of the box, lacks storage drive or device, a monitor, a…
December 13, 2016
Newsweek's Kurt Eichenwald (author of Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story, Serpent on the Rock, and a few other books) is reporting an interesting story this morning.
Here is the short version, as I understand it.
Turkey had a coup. The Turkish government, in particular, President Erdogan, blames…
December 12, 2016
UPDATE: The Department of Energy has reportedly refused Donald Trump's request for names of DOE employees and contractors who have been engaged in climate change research. That does not mean that Tump will never get those names. Once he is President, he can get the names. But for now, he'll have…
December 11, 2016
The White Rabbit Project is a Netflix project in which former MythBusters cast members Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, and Grant Imahara lead the viewer down various rabbit holes to explore a range of interesting and often strange things.
Before going any further in this review, I need to tell you two…
