Misc
stoat | November 7, 2011I could (possibly) work this out myself, but I'll try you lot instead: anyone know how to combine two GPS tracks onto one map? I mean tracks as stored on Garmin's website, and displayed like http://connect.garmin.com/activity/127111491. Specifically, I'd like to combine that track with this one. The tracks are both public, so you don't have to assume any authentication is needed.
Update: thanks for the advice. In the end I didn't bother with any of the fancy software and just used vim which did a perfectly good job of sticking two GPS files together.
It would be nice to colour the tracks…
stoat | October 26, 2011
Nice pic, eh? Click for more; ht to Bad Astronomy. I don't have any as good as that, but I do have:
stoat | September 28, 2011 The comments over at More Misc are trailing off, but I am (as ever) astonished by peoples' desire to have the last word. Let it never be said that KK is uncontroversial. Still, what more could he ask? So, time for something else.
I didn't comment on Al Gore's latest (did I?) or even watch it, but David Hone has what look like some perceptive comments.
I'm beginning to get google circle spam in unmanagable amounts: too many X's are adding me to their circles, and I can no long bother check them all out, let alone reciprocate. Still, I did find Climate Deniers Campaign Against the BBC…
stoat | September 15, 2011 Just some random jottings, none of which amount to much. I'm making quince jelly. Last Sunday was the first anniversary of my half-marathon running career, which I celebrated at Grunty Fen. Next Sunday will see me sculling the Boston marathon for the first time, after being in the ladies VIII last year. We've been painting the club blades recently; Amy has some nice pix.
Arctic sea ice may have hit its minimum this year and be on the way up. Neven certainly thinks so. I think it is likely; a few more days will make it clear. Its quite early, though, for a minimum, but probably not…
stoat | August 29, 2011Steve [*] Schneier (security expert and tee-shirt provider to the cognoscenti) has a post in which he pokes at the massive costs of counter-terrorism, apparently out of all proportion to the threat. However, he has a bizarrely wrong calculation: I quote:
The death toll of all these is... sixteen deaths in the U.S. to terrorism in the past ten years. Given the credible estimate that we've spent $1 trillion on anti-terrorism security (this does not include our many foreign wars), that's $62.5 billion per life saved. Is there any other risk that we are even remotely as crazy about?
I'm happy…
stoat | August 24, 2011
Where are we? There is an interesting story to it. Note that you can trivially find the answer by clicking on the pic for its name, so don't do that if you want to play the game.
[Update: your questions answered at Holiday in Spain: Chemin de la Mature]
Refs
* Where am I now?
stoat | June 30, 2011Every now and again I'm surprised by the contrast between the sanity that you'll find on good blogs, and the madness that reigns in our useless press. In this case, its dead children again which is very sad, but should not be used as entertainment schlock-horror fodder as our gutter press does.
Mind you, I'm less impressed by Timmy on the Greeks. For all I know the conclusion is correct, but the reasoning - small fraction of bonus - is faulty. By putting it that way Timmy is trying to minimise the numbers, which might work, until you realise that a large fraction of profits are paid out as…
stoat | February 27, 2011
Scenes from a ski-ing holiday to Les Deux alpes a few years back. This is La Roche de la Muzelle, which I think is gorgeous. Maybe I'll get to climb it one day. Summitpost says it is PD / II (though not in winter) and the route to it goes over that beautiful roman bridge.
These are the reasons I was digging around in old pix: at the after rowing curry Andy said he could find a pic of me with pony tail on my wiki page, but it has gone. And I said, aha, but I have far better than that. Note that the beret is a Pyrennean one.
And in a token bit of climate don't miss The good…
stoat | January 22, 2011 Actually, its just another pile of links thinly disguised.
We thought that mandating python-style indents with pre-processing back into C might be nice. Alternatively some scheme whereby indent levels reflect coder status, so you can see immeadiately what not to fiddle with. And of course, what font should the code be in?
Watching the Deniers says There will be no US Congressional investigation into "Climategate": or how global warming sceptics got duped. And may be correct. Even the wackos aren't really wacko enough to take on the science, it seems: the froth is just for the voters, who are…
stoat | January 8, 2011 Via TW (who says Inflation's a tricky thing you know) this interesting inflation calculator.
From the Torygraph, the Jetlev flyer. A ridiculous boys-toy, but it did cause my daughter to say "I must have one". Did I mention that reading the Torygraph in the Waitrose cafe is one of my guilty pleasures? Its not quite as good as it looks, because not only do you have a huge hosepipe trailing after you, there is also the jetski-like boat you're tied to (that's the Jetlev, not reading the TG).
Also from the TG a delightful story about Empty wine bottles sell for £300 in China because, of course,…
stoat | January 6, 2011Jules James has a lovely pic, which I've shamelessly ripped off here. But go over there too. The paper seems to be at pubpages.unh.edu/~lch/Hamilton climate interaction.pdf; fig 1 is perhaps even more entertaining: not a single Republican thinks they don't understand GW at all.
While I'm doing pix, this one from Spam Volume Drop on Christmas Day is also entertaining. BP's share price is quite cheering too, but I won't trouble you with that.
Refs
* Everyone's spam is unique from Light Blue Touchpaper.
stoat | January 5, 2011Of Gerry Rafferty. Clowns to the left of me will serve: the same problems exist: remaining sane and balanced between we're-all-going-to-die and there-is-no-problem.
Oh, the song.
stoat | December 31, 2010 A post a month, chosen not quite at random, and I couldn't always restrict myself to one post. Somehow, I feel that not a great deal happened scientifically during the year. But I still enjoy writing this stuff, and people still read it, so on I go.
* Himalayan glaciers to disappear by... when? an obligatory reference to the CRU nonsense, but its a spin-off, so that's OK.
* Death at UAH (and Wolf Hall)
* Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi - its not all chance folks (and Hobbes again, and 400 ppm CO2)
* Currygate, part 3: the key papers exposed - no round-up of the year could be complete without at…
stoat | December 19, 2010 Time for a few linky type things. The first couple point to the New Blog in case you've missed it.
* Snowy again by me, about the recent weather.
* Christmas Head
* xkcd Christmas Tree (thanks Mayank) and on wikileaks :-)
* Lamest edit wars on wikipedia. The Bot wars section is good. Of course, wikipedia is soft nowadays, with the block-fingers too poised. We had real edit wars in the old days.
* Beautiful supernova fragments via Bad Astronomy. As a species we are frequently rubbish but occaisionally sublime.
* J+J go to AGU but don't find much except Macs. A nice dig at Curry's incoherence…
stoat | December 7, 2010
and yet more photo spam:
Last week it was cold. It was warmer at the weekend. But this week it is cold again. Though as RC points out, its not going to be the coldest winter for a millenium.
We went rowing tonight. Oddly enough we were the only crew out. We had to stop past the Elizabeth way bridge due to ice on the river - not solid sheets at that point, but enough floating bits to warn us that worse was coming. Very cold, I rowed with a glove on my inner hand and only survived by sticking my outer hand down my trousers when we span. Still it was a good warm-up for a pint in the Fort.…
stoat | November 14, 2010I was reading Butterfield (not the palaeontologist) on Antient Science and he refered to Descartes, and so it occurred to me that perhaps I should just read it for myself. Discourse on the method of rightly conducting the reason, and seeking truth in the sciences I mean, by "Doubty" Descartes.
Like so many famous things (or at least, like the ones I've ever looked at) it contains a small core of interest, wrapped up in elegantly expressed ravings that would get you (correctly) dismissed as a wild-eyed wacko were you to post them to usenet nowadays. But he is Well Famous, so you can't say that…
stoat | November 7, 2010
Strictly the title has precious little to do with this post; but it is one that I've always liked. Seen here is one of our pumpkins, carved according to D's design by your humble author. They are grown by Nicholas, whose allotment each year is a marvel of productivity, especially his pumpkin patch. But then, he grew up on a Canadian farm. After halloween they sit on our front step growing slowly more and more soggy until they finally collapse into a heap of yuk.
Yesterday was a glorious day for an outing and also for a 5 km run. But happily today was also lovely, so after the important…
stoat | October 8, 2010visual6502.org. For all those who used to play with it in their bedrooms.
B-52's: Roam. Beautiful song, though they wouldn't last 5 minutes outside the coccoon.
RMG shreds someone who thinks Lake Superior is cold because of the last ice age. But he doess so politely and informatively, so it is well worth reading.
Things you find on wikipedia: [[Fuck for forest]], or FFF, is a non-profit environmental organisation founded in Norway by Leona Johansson and Tommy Hol Ellingsen, which raises money for rescuing the world's rainforests by producing pornographic material or having sex in public. Or…
stoat | September 26, 2010 I liked it, anyway, enough to clean it up. Perhaps better in context: Echo Park Time Travel Mart (via TS's feed). And the Victorian iPods are good, too.
Via CIP, who feels for the suffering rich, a good piece from Krugman (which is itself really from Brad DeLong) Rat Race America. On why those who are really quite comfortably off no longer feel as comfortable as they would have 30 years ago.
Godel in Engine Summer?. You decide. But if you haven't read it, you should. And The Deep. And Beasts. But don't read Little, Big. Or at least, not all of it.
If we had to sum up the political view of…
stoat | September 9, 2010 The latest crop of links-n-stuff. First up is this superb photo - ht TS's google reader feed. It won second prize but for my money is far and away better than any of the others (higher-res version - thanks BD). Its tagged as a "condensation rainbow" but it isn't, I think (wrong shape). It is probably diffraction not refraction - see [[Iridescent cloud]]. Tom said I saw this elsewhere (can't remember where) and I think the explanation given was that the plane was making a sharp turn and adiabatic expansion resulting low pressure one side of the wing lowered the temperature enough for an ice…