Misc

Its been very wet this summer, over here, in contrast to over there. A normal Cambridge summer features cracks in the ground and the grass fading; this summer all is a riot of green. I cut back the overenthusiastic hedge halfway down the lawn a week or two back, which has lead to the emergence of some kind of red berry plant looking luscious - better backlit, I think. I also wanted to show you a gorgeous beech leaf but the delicate copper-red colour of the new leaf doesn't really come through in the image; nor can you see the slanting light. The bees are living in a sea of tiny pink-purple…

The Milky Way panorama by European Southern Observatory Steinn Sigurðsson recently spent a weekend considering exoplanets and extraterrestrials at the Second SETI Conference in California.  He writes, "It is important to remember that while science and discovery is important, it is not the ontological basis for space exploration. Space is, ultimately, about existential motivations."  In other words, we wouldn't mind finding a friend, or a new Earth to colonize when this one gets fried by the sun.  As Kepler continues to increase the number of known planets in the galaxy, it may only be a…

* xkcd: All 786 known planets to scale. * I liked Brian's take on the USSC ruling on Obama's healthcare stuff. And also the little-heard-from-anymore RP. * Planet3.0 on Greenland albedo; if you prefer it with added "tipping point" hype then try Climate Central. My initial though was "oh its warmer, so the albedo drops" but Box himself speculates that its soot from wildfires, or coal burning. * The Double Recovery of Arctic Sea Ice * Matthew Parris on everyone's anger at the banks (the actual article is behind the Times's stupid unlinkable paywall, so I point you at that, instead. What he is…

Did you miss me? I've been to the Stubai, again. There will be a travelogue over there. Refs * A short walk in the Stubai: day 2: Aperer Turm

On Earth Day, Greg Laden took the opportunity to thank BP for the “modifications made to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico” by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Surviving specimens of coral “have been provided with hip new color schemes (mainly black and blackish),” while creatures such as shrimp and crabs exhibit physical deformities “which will surely make them easier to catch and, according to BP, does not affect their edibility.” Crude oil is organic, after all, as Kevin Bonham reminds us on We Beasties. He says “it turns out that nearly million barrels of oil naturally seeps out of the…

So I don't have to bother saying them myself. * SpaceX Dragon on its way to the ISS! (and watch more of it - though I'd skip the first ~40 mins of talk if I were you). Note: I'm a bit behind the times here; see the next post. * The Magistrate's blog - more down to earth: pointing out the stupidity of the press complaining about "unelected European judges" when we don't elect our own either. * More about the facebook IPO from Timmy. * Peter Gleick cleared of forging documents in Heartland expose - actually this one doesn't fit my title. Its interesting, but so vague on detail as to be not much…

So, we've transitioned to the new platform. Jolly good. However, the last couple of posts (Facebook, and von S) didn't make it across; I've fixed that up, from backup and cache. I believe that, in theory, comments have come across (except on those two posts). If you think you can see some of yours that haven't, please use this post to note that. Indeed, if you have any comments on the new format, do let me know. A couple of changes. It looks like the new comment system might be more sane. From my point of view nice changes are: * I can now close comments on old posts, and have (argh, that…

Interesting article from The Economist science section about establishing the presence of shy animals in rainforests by examining leech blood. A highlight comes from one of my relatives: They also found genetic material from the... small-toothed ferret-badger, which is (apparently) impossible to distinguish from the related Burmese ferret-badger without getting close enough to handle it.

It has rained quite a bit recently. I did go down from the bridge and give them a hand in, you realise. In other news... * Adventures in Vim! * Pointless resentment - one for all the people who would rather criticise than help * Swan reveals bone-breaking technique - about Mr Asbo if you hadn't realised. He even has a facebook page. * Hitler was a vegetarian etc. etc., you know how it goes. * TCBC - Total Eclipse of the Heart

I've given up calling it "yet yet more misc" as I've forgotten where I've got to. So, in no particular order: In war you will generally find that the enemy has at any time three courses of action open to him. Of those three, he will invariably choose the fourth via Schneier. Which reminds me of We don't even know how many legs he's got. The Policy Lass is sick of arguing with stupid people. Anyone who has been to WUWT and the comment threads there will empathise. It is all a hopeless morass of nonsense; it cannot be fixed, only risen above. And indeed (as I've tried to tell them) the science…

And now for something almost completely different. This all begins at History of the infinite where I said it might be fun to work out why his [Aristotle's] "proof" that the continuum can't be composed of indivisibles is wrong. This lead on to Aristotle against the continuum - reply (wherein you will find Aristotle's proof that the continuum cannot be composed just of points, laid out reasonably comprehensibly). There is also The history of the continuum and Another argument against indivisibles (which is a less viable attempt via addition). Anyway, to summarise: thinking about infinity is…

Nice article in physicstoday. Other stuff * Wiley coverup: The great Wegman and Said "redo" to hide plagiarism and errors - the Wegman stuff keeps rumbling on. Wegman reminds me of the TSA guy here - what he says isn't believeable, but he has powerful organisations propping him up, because having him admit error would be embarrassing. * Hansen Wins - Wabbett sez the US is going to require any new power plant to emit no more than 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity produced. That would be a good result, but the wrong way to do it. The right way is a carbon tax, not an…

Apparently it is early this year. And in memory of my great-aunts.

Various things that I meant to write about, but didn't, until too late. Happily, everyone else has now said most of them. His transgression cannot be condoned, regardless of his motives - JEB, quoting Michael McPhaden being a bit po-faced about Gleick. This almost turned into a discussion on the philosophy of science with SE's comment: Science works not because we trust each other, but precisely because we don't trust each other, and we're continuously finding and addressing the weaknesses in each other's work. I don't know about you, but I think most of my colleagues are deficient in…

We're having a cold snap. About -2 oC, and very still. Possible snow later. Punt touts are still out though. Ducks don't care. I've never known what this means. Refs * Flickr

Well, it has finally happened - I've decided to make a place to keep all the comments I don't publish because they are noise, stupid, or whatever. And I'll take the opportunity to add here all the ones I feel obliged to partially censor, for whatever reason (other than simple gross personal attacks, which will still just get redacted out). Commercial linkspam will still be just junked; I've included an example of that for your entertainment. To add: you're welcome to comment here, if you like. Obviously, comments that are simply stupid will just stay in the comment thread and won't be moved…

And probably my all-time favourite, though this version isn't quite right:

I don't think I've troubled you with a picture of me for a while, so here is one I particularly like, taken with Miriam's Galaxy S2 (rush out and buy one now, its got our GPS in it, which is apparently far better than the competition). If you look closely at my right thigh (and who would not wish to do so?) you'll see the graze I got on today's run at the point where I fell over an electric fence that I hadn't noticed was there. Fortunately the 'lectric itself was off. That was in the middle of the mad wiggly bit where I got totally lost trying to find my way back to the Thames, having got…

Pony - something that the customer wants, and which might even make sense, but isn't going to get done within your timescales. Might get done later. Unicorn - Like a pony, but doesn't actually make sense, so will never be done. Zombiecorn - Like a unicorn, but it won't die, no matter how often you prove that it won't work. But that is a very short post, so in no clear order: Nitpicking others' arguments is not the same thing as "critical thinking." That involves nitpicking your own arguments. from Bickmore's Laws updates. Timmy is amusing on The Great Norwegian Butter Famine. I'm not going…

That is (left to right) Miranda, Daniel and me. Daniel wouldn't let me take him giving Miranda a piggyback. Just up the hill from the Barton rifle range, looking out over Cambridge (not in shot). It has been a long warm autumn. The tomato is still yielding small fruits, the cape gooseberry ditto, and a strawberry too.