Random
catdynamics | March 30, 2008Obama giving a stump speech on the lawn just down from my office.
Good turnout, good weather, good speech.
Had to bail before the end, very intense crowd - Sen Casey, the PSU quarterback and Jay and Sue Paterno in attendance.
Standard speech, but he really does give amazingly good speeches, easily best I have heard, including some very good Euro pols.
catdynamics | March 28, 2008
Did I mention that our undergraduate students are really awesome!
Well, it is raining.
catdynamics | March 28, 2008Rainy friday. Wot? No Snow? Must be spring already.
So we bounce over to the Mighty iPod and ask, most chirpily: WTF was going on down at HQ?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Money - Pink Floyd
The Crossing: Introduction - The Lilac Fairy: Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky
The Crown:Fun, Fun, Fun - Beach Boys
The Root: Benjamin Franklin - Illinois school children
The Past: Love Rescue Me - U2
The Future: Pull The Wires From The Walls - The Delgados
The Questioner: Whiteness Thy Name is Meltonian - Half Man Half Biscuit
The House: I Want Candy - Bow Wow Wow
The Inside: Young Person…
catdynamics | March 25, 2008it has been yonks since I randomly rambled about middle eastern muddles, so why not now...
apparently some interesting things have happened: al-Sadr's Mahdi army has ended its truce and is fighting the Iraqi government and US troops - this could get confusing if the Iranians are backing both Shiite factions, or not.
And the Sunnis are getting peeved at broken promises, hoocoodanode?
At least the Turks seem to be no longer "excursing" into Iraq (how many divisions does it take to change from excursion to intrusion?).
Israelis are claiming that Hizbollah sent fighters (battalion units?) to…
catdynamics | March 25, 2008hm, so there is this country, facing a declining currency, rising inflation, turmoil in the stock market with large fluctuations in key indices on short terms, real estate market bubble that looks like it might be popping, and concern that risk perception is leading to an acute credit crunch
so... the central bank calls an emergency meeting and does what one should, as they have done before (though never quite so drastically)
Iceland raises interest rates to 15%
inflation is driven by increasing commodity costs and devaluing currency, although, unlike the US, Iceland is seeing some wage…
catdynamics | March 24, 2008would the person who left the flowery hula skirt in my office this weekend please come and collect it...
an explanation for how it got there would also be useful.
catdynamics | March 23, 2008Happy Holidays!
May his Noodly Appendages tickle you on this most festive of days.
Pagans often fail to understand the traditions of Pastafarianism.
As with all the other major faiths, the CoFSM has its traditions, its holy days.
Some have, admittedly, been compromised from their pure origin to accommodate the realities of modern life, and scholars make persuasive arguments that the early church parents co-opted the traditions, and pagan rituals of other faiths.
We are now in the holiest of all the Pasta days, the legendary Spaghetti Harvest.
As the docmentary above shows, this is an…
catdynamics | March 21, 2008Curious coincidences in the Obama passport scandal
The contractor involved in the poking into the "passport file" of presidential candidate Barack Obama has now been revealed to be Stanley Inc - they had a $160 million contract with the State Department to help with passport handling.
Files were accessed in Jan, Feb and March of '08. Most recently March 14th.
On March 18th, Stanley got a $570 million extension of their contract
Man, if only the State Department had known they were egregiously screwing up and some of their workers were violating privacy of prominent democrats, why then they…
catdynamics | March 21, 2008Sunny happy friday, and the hordes have descended upon us.
So, oh Mighty iPod... modulo the vagaries of the fickle humans, we ask: will they come?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Atmosphere - Joy Division
The Crossing: Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: Flute, Piccolo (Presto) - Britten
The Crown: Overture: Magic Flute - Mozart
The Root: Sieben Variationen ueber das Lied Willem van Nassau - Mozart
The Past: Hey Mr Yesterday - Jimmy Cliff
The Future: My Perfect Cousin - Undertones
The Questioner: You'll Never Walk Alone - Kop Choir
The House: Carnival of the Animals:…
catdynamics | March 20, 2008happy vernal equinox!
In celebration of the season, and the imminent full moon preceding next sunday...
A classic
Anyone know of a clip of the "goolies" sketch?
I require it for pedagogical purposes... can't find it on YouTube.
PS: never mind, indexed under "soccer", of course.
catdynamics | March 19, 2008that Iran said, that Israel said, that Cheney said to Oman that the US might attack Iran...
unsourced, unsubstantiated, speculative
but do the Iranians believe it?
Press TV (Iran) also has an unscientific "quick poll" on that website
according to it, 2/3 of respondents think Fallon resigned from CENTCOM over issue of attack on Iran
game of perceptions, innit.
Cheney also said he believed Iran may have restarted its nuclear weapons development program.
He also went fishing in the Gulf on the sultan's boat.
I wonder if his personal intelligence estimate is a probability of more or less than 0.…
catdynamics | March 17, 2008Following the market?
Intrigued by the collapse of investment banks?
Huh! You wot?
The words of the month are:
Hoocoodanode?
and "privatize the profit, socialize the risk"
Blog finance nerds anticipation - look at the comments
Athenae's rant at First Draft is a thing of cathartic beauty
Steve at Information Processing has the quant perspective
catdynamics | March 15, 2008it is no longer friday, but we blame the weather, and cheerfully ask the mighty iPod one: will the bears come out to play on monday?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Mathematically Safe - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Crossing: Teenage Kicks - Undertones
The Crown: Melbourne Mambo - Mavericks
The Root: Hey Mr Yesterday - Jimmy Cliff
The Past:Star Light, Star Bright
The Future: Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six - Pogues
The Questioner: Breaking News - Half Man Half Biscuit
The House: M-6-ster - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Inside: The Sun and The Rain - Madness
The Outcome:…
catdynamics | March 11, 2008Admiral Fallon, head of US Central Command - ie Iraq and Afghanistan has resigned.
Why?
news just coming out.
PS: WaPo has some interesting statements by the people involved:
"...I don't believe there have ever been any differences about the objectives of our policy in the Central Command area of responsibility..."Fallon added
- hmm, so can we read this to mean there are difference about the means by which the objectives are to be achieved?
"Gates described as "ridiculous" any notion that Fallon's departure signals the United States is planning to go to war with Iran. And he said "there…
catdynamics | March 5, 2008Press rumour that Bush may fire Admiral Fallon, head of Central Command
specifically the rumour is that Adm Fallon may be relieved of command by this summer, 9-12 months before normal rotation would be considered, and that this is because of Fallon's "no war with Iran on my watch" stance
White House Press officer refused to deny the rumour
h/t dibgy
Very bad, IF true.
Depends on who the replacement is, but it'd provide a window for the administraton's "take out Iran" faction to push for an attack on Iran before the end of this Presidency, possibly as early as autumn.
Any such attack would…
catdynamics | February 29, 2008It is friday, yet it is not snowing, yet.
So, we skip to the Mighty iPod and ask, most sincerely: Oh, Mighty iPod One, is it the case that the high redshift IMF was significantly influenced by CMB flooring and chemothermoinstabilities, as indicated by our poor and feeble efforts?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Sumarkveðja - trad.
The Crossing: What Color Are You Wearing? - trad.
The Crown: Red Angel Dragnet - Clash
The Root: Redemption Song - Bob Marley and the Wailers
The Past: How Many Ducks? - trad.
The Future: Mo - Alpha Blondy
The Questioner: Teenage Kicks -…
catdynamics | February 25, 2008a physicist, an engineer and a lawyer were chatting at a social event, when the Big Question came up
Peter Parker vs Luke Skywalker - who would win?
this is a tricky one, even if I tend to subscribe to the theory that spidey is a major underachiever who rarely lives up to his full potential, as if Luke ever does either...
Clearly webbing vs lightsabre is no contest - give that one to Luke
on the other hand, spidersense vs the Force, I would go with spidersense
now superhuman strength is a winner, but spidey is a loner whereas Luke has all the Jedi supposedly backing him up...
so I give it to…
catdynamics | February 25, 2008remind me, don't the redshirts always die first?
Comedian Lee Camp will never be invited back on Fox television... - click through and wait till the end for the "galactic love"
but I expect he feels it was worth it.
Especially since they promptly prove his point so elegantly.
Especially since he was picked up by Comedy Central.
h/t kos