Random
catdynamics | December 12, 2008just heard on the radio this morning: it was a live riff on "12 days of christmas" by what sounded like a classically trained male choir.
They started mixing up the lines around the 4th verse, and then working in lyrics from other songs (eg "... two turtle doves/and a Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer");
at the end they broke into "I have a dreidle" on the 12th verse, and then worked in a very good "Christmas down in Africa" to finish it off.
Audience was enjoying themselves and it was very well done.
Must know who did it.
Found it!
Slowpokes.
Straight No Chaser
A Capella Men's Choir
And,…
catdynamics | December 12, 2008Klaatu barada nikto.
"The Day the Earth Stood Still" is one of the great classics of '50s science fiction, and one of my favourite old movies.
It has, I gather, been remade, starring Keanu Reeves, and is coming out today.
Now, I don't usually do a lot of these third party press releases, but it is one of my favourite movies, the trailer suggests it may not totally suck, and the press people came up with a hook that totally sold me...
The DSCN dish.
They are broadcasting the movie into space.
The publicity company leased a Deep Space Communication Network dish (a li'l 5m dishes down in…
catdynamics | December 11, 2008The Yorkshire Ranter poses an interesting take on the Mumbai attack
A couple of you who are reading this need to go read that, think and understand, if you haven't already.
You know who you are.
The starting point is a spoofed phone call made earlier to Pakistan, purporting to be from the Indian foreign ministry, threatening war.
The conjecture is that the Mumbai attack was a step in a privilege-escalation attack to try, presumably, to trigger a war through a man-in-the-middle spoof corrupting the flow of information.
Each escalation lowers barriers to war, and shortens time scales to react…
rallain | December 11, 2008I was going to go to school and give a final. I guess that is not going to happen now. My daughter measured 7 inches of snow - in Hammond, Louisiana (50 miles from New Orleans). Here are some pictures - more to come (plus video).
From Winter Storm 2008
From Winter Storm 2008
From Winter Storm 2008
catdynamics | December 9, 2008US Treasury Bonds sold at -0.005% interest
h/t CR
Yes, to lend the US Treasury $1000 for three months, you would have to pay them.
About $0.01 for the term.
They sold $27 billion of these, which means financial institutions are paying the US government.
They are paying the US about a quarter of a million dollars if they would, please, not actually lose the money by march.
Cheaper than any other option. I infer.
Solves a lot of problems if they can convince people to keep it up for a few more quarters.
Since Treasury Rates never go up, just as Housing Prices never go down, the very large…
rallain | December 9, 2008VPython 5.0 is mostly out (in release candidate). To tell you the truth, I have been holding off on some vpython programs because I wanted to do them in the NEW vpython, not the OLD vpython. So, if you want to get the new vpython, go to http://vpython.org/index5.html. What is so great about VPython 5.0? Here a couple of things:
Runs in Mac OS X without X11. Maybe this isn't that big of a deal, but it makes me happy. If you don't use OS X, I guess this doesn't matter.
Textures. You can map textures and images onto objects. This won't really help with the calculations, but it will…
catdynamics | December 8, 2008Tribune Co files bankruptcy
They are the parent company of the LA Times and Chicago Tribune.
They need to get out from under the debt they took on after a spree of mergers and acquisitions, apparently after being unable to sell the Chicago Cubs baseball team...
Maybe they can also cut their science reporting sub-departments.
h/t CR
catdynamics | December 8, 2008That someone is blogging the Nobel ceremony from the spot is cool, that it is one of the laureates is cooler.
Krugman needs a twitter now though, methinks.
One day a physicist will get there first.
catdynamics | December 5, 2008An Icelandic Norn Curses the Head of the Central Bank.
With pictures.
From "Surviving Iceland" blog.
Yes, she is spanking the Head of the Central Bank, in effigy.
You worried yet Ben?
Click for full size at "Surviving Iceland"
Here is the back story:
"....So what was happening was that there was a witch inside the central bank, putting a spell on our central bank governor..."
It must have worked, the exchange rate of the króna surged in early trading this week...
catdynamics | December 4, 2008You think things are bad in California or Boston?
Hos plots his misery index - there are parts of the country that are really hurting.
I guess we have to infer that some things are not normally distributed.
Krugman also worries about stuff, arguably of comparable importance.
catdynamics | December 2, 2008700,000,000,000
6,850,000,000
The lower number is the requested NSF budget for 2009, which represents an inconceivably bold 14% increase over 2008, in an attempt to get the budget back on the widely agreed upon track called for by the American Competitiveness Initiative.
The actual 2009 budget will likely be a continuing resolution, with same dollar amount as 2008 and no increase for science. Which is of course a net cut after inflation.
The $800 million increase would pay for about 16,000 new graduate student years, or say 2-3,000 new PhDs in the sciences. In practise maybe only half…
rallain | December 2, 2008For many people, it is the time of the year to put the bikes away. I live in Louisiana, so now is the time to get the bikes out (too hot in the summer). Learning to ride a bike is a curious thing. Most parents use training wheels to get kids started. I do not think this is the best strategy. In this post, I will focus on teaching bike riding skillz. If you are looking for the physics of bike riding, there are some good links:
David Jones - "The stability of the bicycle" (pdf)This is a great article. The key aspect is that this guy modified a bike in unique ways to see if it was still "…
catdynamics | December 1, 2008At my advanced and cynical age, I have concluded some level of corruption in the political process is necessary.
And I say that despite the very nice "thank you" note that Mr and Mrs Obama sent my wife last month for the challenge donation.
They must have had to write a lot of thank you notes.
Anyway, when I was young and idealistic I was outraged, outraged I tell you, at the corruption I was dimly aware of in the political process. Particularly within Iceland, where everyone really did know everyone else, and the corruption was particularly local and petty.
But, while it was infuriating and…
catdynamics | December 1, 2008I had a really nice roast leg of lamb for dinner tonight, Icelandic free range, grazed on mountain grasses. Roasted pink, with a bit of garlic and light brushing of home made marinade.
Only $7.99 per pound at Whole Foods, picked it up on my last trip. We'll be eating lamb sandwiches all week.
Also picked up a bit more than a case of Skyr - mostly the proper plain stuff, but also a few pre-sweetened vanilla for the kids. They ate three the night I brought them back, now stretching the remainder to last a bit.
My skyr purchase is strictly limited by refrigerator space now, I get at least a…
catdynamics | December 1, 2008For posterity, a link to The Compleat ÜberNerd - Tanta's magnum opus on the mortgage industry.
It is a great example of how blogs can be used for outreach, and were of tremendous utility to the readers at the time they were written.
catdynamics | November 30, 2008Tanta, one of the co-bloggers on the extraordinarily good blog Calculated Risk has passed away.
She was infamous for her übernerd series of technical posts and analysis of micro and macro issues in the mortgage and finance industry.
She'll be missed.
catdynamics | November 29, 2008The Yorkshire Ranter suggests that the Dog's[sic] Dogs of War by Forsyth as the world's deadliest novel.
The plot of Dog's[at least I am consistent...] Dogs of War is a coup in an African country, and it seems likely the book has been used as a "how to" manual several times, possibly most recently in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
But, is it really the world's deadliest novel? And if not, what is?
For example, a major plot element in Debt of Honor has a lot in common with the 9/11 attacks.
There is of course also the Satanic Verses, and the Turner Diaries.
But, is there a novel which started…
catdynamics | November 29, 2008'couple of good ones from the Yorkshire Ranter
Pakistan paranoia
and World's Deadliest Novel