Random
catdynamics | February 22, 2008It is snowy friday, again! Yay!
So we skip to the Mighty iPod and ask: do you answer?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Mamma Aumingja Mamma - trad.
The Crossing: No Woman No Cry (live) - Bob Marley
The Crown: It's A Shame - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
The Root: How Soon is Now - Smiths
The Past: Golden Brown - Stranglers
The Future: Lust for Life - Bad Livers
The Questioner: One of My Turns - Pink Floyd
The House: Place Your Hand - Melissa Etheridge
The Inside: My Oklahome Home - Bruce Springsteen
The Outcome: All Around the World Or The Myth of Fingerprints -…
catdynamics | February 20, 2008US Navy is claiming successful shootdown of USA 193
Hey, totality of the Lunar eclipse!
Pretty...
CNN just reported that the USS Erie - and Aegis class cruiser - successfully intercepted and destroyed the USA 193 intelligence satellite with a modified SM-3 missile.
Hm. Show offs.
USA 193 was launched about 15 months ago, got to orbit but then lost attitude control and started a rapid decay.
Presumably a) thruster control was lost, and b) satellite went into gravity gradient mode.
It is allegedly a synthetic aperture radar sat, although there are rumblings that it is curiously underweight, so…
catdynamics | February 20, 2008ok, this is weird... in beer prices, cost of living in Boston and State College is comparable
The current median (asking) price for houses in State College is about 60% of that in Boston right now.
But, Yuengling beer six-pack in PA is about 25% cheaper than Sam Adams, typically.
So the median house price in State College is about 42,000 Yuengling six packs, compared to about 48,000 six packs of Sam Adams for a house in Boston.
That is weird.
Hm, rather worryingly, I get Santa Cruz median house price to be closer to 72,000 six packs of Anchor Steam (since Lighthouse seems to be out of…
catdynamics | February 20, 2008Two curious pieces of news: one the change of gift card redemption patterns at big box retailers, the other in the CPI.
Market research show people redeeming christmas gift cards later and for necessities not trinkets - the article is light on data but interesting anecdotally and consistent with local anecdoted
In the meantime the shadowstats website has some interesting inflation and money-supply data
Even the official Consumer Price Index is rising at above 4.3% - the site claims that weighted by pre-1980 baskets, the old style CPI is rising at over 12%.
Certainly price inflation of…
catdynamics | February 20, 2008Amazon has a new electronic bookreader out - the Kindle - it now includes a select blog feed, I gather
I have never seen a Kindle - I expect something like it will eventually find its way into my possession and be utilised for light reading and archiving for travel - I don't know that the technology is there yet. Issues are: weight, contrast and resolution - you need 300+ dpi, contrast of probably > 100:1 and a large lightweight screen to make it worthwhile.
But, in the meantime, apparently the Kindle has an optional autoblog feed by topic, of select blogs. As I discovered while Kibo'ing.…
catdynamics | February 20, 2008PSU Collegian article on Valerie Plame's visit to PSU;
also CDT local news item;
of course blogs got it first...
catdynamics | February 16, 2008Valerie Wilson, née Plame, Penn State alumnae and outed CIA undercover agent just visited
she was on my flight (sorry about the kids singing so loudly) and was met by a very very high ranking university official for a dinner and, I gather, a quick basketball game from the box (wot PSU beat Illinois, in basketball?)
I guess the political landscape really is tilting
I hope Penn State will now go and do the decent thing
least we can do
catdynamics | February 15, 2008Crisp clear snowy friday. It is still friday in my current time zone. Just.
So, we approach the mighty iPod, and we ask: did reionization come early?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Grái Fiðringurinn - Stuðmenn
The Crossing: C.A.M.R.A. Man - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Crown: Don't Worry Baby - Beach Boys
The Root: Winter Wonderland - Cranberry Singers
The Past: Mo - Alpha Blondy
The Future: Lullaby
The Questioner: Stórir Strákar Fá Raflost - Ego
The House:27 Yards of Dental Floss - Andy Kershaw live Half Man Half Biscuit
The Inside: Mr Apollo - Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band
The…
catdynamics | February 13, 2008The US government is shutting down EconomicIndicators.gov effective March 1st
Due to "budget constraints". Natch.
The data comes from the Economics and Statistics Administration at the Department of Commerce. It will still be collected, bundled and analysed, just not made available in a trim, compact and readily accessibly web format for anyone who is interested.
It is a nice little web site, the marginal cost of posting the data must be in the tens of thousands of dollars per year...
h/t Calculated Risk
esiegel | February 9, 2008Starts With A Bang! is off to a great start; each the past three days we have topped the 100 visitor mark, bringing our total number of unique visitors up to 1,413! I'm going to attempt to start a new tradition here of making a weekend post on a topic that I just find neat, and share it with you. This first Weekend Diversion is an optical illusion about color. Take a look at the image below:
Looks like a cube with a bunch of different colors on it. Now do the following:
Look at the top face of the cube, and tell me what color the tile in the middle of that face is.
Look at the near face,…
catdynamics | February 8, 2008snow, we didn't order snow on a friday, did we?
Ok, friday, in a rush... we ask the iPod - anything else interesting going to break this week?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Betri Tíð - Stuðmenn
The Crossing: Fantaisie de Concert: II - Perlman
The Crown: King of the Wild Frontier - Adam and the Ants
The Root: Lullaby of London - Pogues
The Past: Blindfullur - Stuðmenn
The Future: Ontario Quebec and Me - Billy Bragg
The Questioner: Firebird: Four Studied
The House: First of the Gang to Die - Morrissey
The Inside: Lark Descending - Half Man Half Biscuit
The Outcome:…
catdynamics | February 6, 2008film at 11
PS: Gulf cable cut was due to ship anchor, no need to stress.
Med cut maybe due to common geologic incident like subsea slide
see link for details
not wanting to get weird, but another Mid East undersea fiber optic cable break appears to have happened
Daily Tech reports a second break in the Falcon cable in the Persian Gulf
That would make five breaks or interruptions in total. Two in the Med and three in the Gulf, one of which was some sort of power interruption.
also discussion on slashdot
The cables are being repaired by ships, the first break in the Falcon cable has already…
catdynamics | February 6, 2008just the other week me and the Better Half were chatting about the weather, as one does
"I wish" said I "that we had some proper snow"
"oh"
"yeah, I hate this frozen slushy rainy stuff, it either ought to snow properly or not. Big fluffy flakes"
"why didn't you say"
"huh? well, got to go"
...20 minutes pass...
Ring. Ring.
"Hi. That was quick"
"Huh?"
"Look out the window. It is snowing. Big fluffy flakes"
"You're welcome"
We're expecting thunder this afternoon.
Heavy rains.
Flood warning.
I think a sacrifice is in order. Maybe some precious objects.
Or a student. A small one to start with.…
catdynamics | February 5, 2008Don't Try This at Home
Billy's podcast #11 - yay.
With free bonus video co-starring Kirsty MacColl - "sexuality" - guaranteed to 'cause apoplexy in 25% of the US population
Oh, and he's liveblogging the Oz tour. Too much.
catdynamics | February 4, 2008regurgitating yur data
Seawolf class nuclear attack submarine, USS Jimmy Carter
- optimised for surveillance with an "innovative ocean interface module" - ie there is presumably a pressurised chamber outside the hull where they can do dry work on wet things.
Presumably combined with the Remotely Operated Vehicle interface.
And, yes, it will have a robot arm, with a claw!
Personally I like the Star Trek style command center lounge.
Cable tapping pod - Soviet era
From ladlass
referring to the four consecutive coincidental underwater cable breaks over the last week, in the Mid East
I note…
catdynamics | February 4, 2008Fame! At last!
World of Physics is mine, all mine.
Hey, look at this interesting thing I just came across...
Is that really the impression I give? 'cause it is only true for things I come across between morning coffee and lunch, honest.
Anything lengthy is usually written between midnight and 2 am, movable type has a "scheduling" function for delayed publishing for those who like to play audience fishing with the sciblog front page.
Physics World actually gave me heads up about the article some weeks ago.
I knew the skate would get them.
Bonus, is that now I will no exactly how many of me…
catdynamics | February 1, 2008threefour major undersea cables cut in two separate incidents
internet traffic to Middle East affected
UPDATE: Apparently it is now four cables cut, another one in the Persian Gulf just went snap... that is an amazing coincidence
story at phys.org and discussion on slashdot - some strident insistence that putting a tap on the mid-cable is non-optimal. That of course is assuming you have access to the ends...
The Egyptians are now explicitly claiming to have checked and the two Med cables were not cut by ships' anchors - hm.
PPS: there is an Aegis cruiser (USS San Jacinto) in harbour in…
catdynamics | February 1, 2008Ice storm! Who ordered a f&2#&ing ice storm for friday...
So, we stagger through the crunchy pellets to the bode of the Mighty iPod, and ask: how 'bout the voids, should we keep looking in the voids?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: I Fought the Law (live) - Clash
The Crossing: Voiles - Arrau
The Crown: Sofa Urtubörn Á Útskerum
The Root: Torture Me - Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Past: Bewahret euch vor Weibertück - Mozart
The Future: Wednesday Week - Undertones
The Questioner: Frosty the Snowman
The House: Alouette - Sien Diels
The Inside: I Left My Heart in Papworth…
catdynamics | January 30, 2008Cute
and tasty - them's good eatin'!
Lightly boiled breast of Lundi, with sweet mashed potatos, mushy green peas and rhubarb jam. (From Höska Búa - food and poetry).
Yum.
Ok, so you need to boil them a lot to get the fish oil taste down.
Not of course puffin season, it it Þorri, the winter month of starvation.
You should be eating your food pickled in some lactic acid this week...
catdynamics | January 28, 2008bo gi ru sa
af er og um
There are about 250 legal two word combinations in the english language, looking just at the basic vowels - a,e,i,o,u,y and the remaining 20 consonants. I'm allowing y to be a pseudo-consonant for some extra combinations.
There are apparently 101 legal two letters words in Scrabble - though some are interjections, abbreviations or foreign words. Oh, and there is "aa" and "oe"...
This is strange, since two letter words are useful, and english does not use many of the nicer ones, like the ones above.
Now, some of that is because english is a hybrid with heavy latin…