Random
catdynamics | March 30, 2007So the USS Nimitz leaves San Diego on monday with its strike group, destination Arabian Sea
For those of us obsessively tracking these things, that is a bad sign - the Stennis and Eisenhower are already in the region, which makes three, the amateur minimum for a serious naval air campaign against Iran.
Nimitz would get there mid-April, if it scooted, or it could stop in every port...
Now, the official plan is that the Eisenhower will leave when the Nimitz gets there, maintaining two carriers in continuous presence. Which can not be sustained indefinitely, but is plausibe.
The Eisenhower did…
catdynamics | March 30, 2007Apparently an FDA press conference this morning gave some bad news on pet food.
See PetConnection.com
The contamination may include dry food and other types of pet food than that originally reported. Initial reports were that only "savoury cuts" style wet food was at risk.
Almost 10,000 deaths have been anecdotally reported.
Unless someone does an "excess mortality" survey for Dec-Apr for pets, the true number will never be known.
eg our cat died in early feb, she was old, and she had been chronically ill for several months, but we had switched her to high protein food just before christmas,…
catdynamics | March 30, 2007Oy vey, it is friday again.
On this season of passing over, we intrepidly approach the mighty iPod One, and ask humbly:
what about funding, oh Mighty Omnipotent iPod?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whooooooosh.
The Covering: Envy the Love - Various
The Crossing:Scholarship is The Enemy of Romance - Billy Bragg
The Crown: Sigurjón Digri - Stuðmenn
The Root: Heart of Glass - Blondie
The Past: Scenes From Childhood: Foreign Lands and People
The Future: Jeane - Billy Bragg
The Questioner: Love for Sale - Talking Heads
The House: Fandanguillo, Op 36
The Inside: I Hope You Want Me Too - Mavericks…
catdynamics | March 28, 2007USAir flight 1014 - New Orleans-Charlotte held on runway while man tested for smallpox
Update: He was the Director of the Navy Medical Service Corps? (kos diary)
That is weird.
Update: WBTV news story and in Reason Magazine
Admiral Brannman
Director of Naval Medical Center San Diego or he was until recently
Hm, they have an infectious disease clinic (duh, they're ginormous) doing antiviral research.
Naval Health Research Center is working on effects of smallpox vaccine on pregnancy...
Chimerix is working on a smallpox antiviral - they are based in North Carolina, their Chairman of the Board…
catdynamics | March 28, 2007There is a lot of speculation in the non-US press and in blogs about an imminent US strike on Iran,
what with two US carriers in the Persian Gulf (and two Marine amphibious groups), the incident with the UK and the fact that Iran and Russia seem to have made up on the deal for enriched uranium (reactor grade) for the Busher reactor.Except for the bit where the Russians "rotated out" most of their staff for a pause...
I don't think so.
Not as an imminent threat - two carriers (Eisenhower and Stennis) aren't enough, they need three on the Gulf side, I'd think, and at least one in the Med,…
catdynamics | March 22, 2007Oops, friday again already.
So, we ask the omniscient iPod - got any good ideas?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: The Sky
The Crossing: A Rush and A Push and The Land is Ours - Smiths
The Crown: Taktu Til Við að Tvista - Stuðmenn
The Root: Suedehead - Morrissey
The Past: Hevi Metal Maður - Stuðmenn
The Future: Scenes from Childhood: An Important Event
The Questioner: The Big Country - Talking Heads
The House: You Woke Up My Neighbourhood - Billy Bragg
The Inside: Í grænni lautu - Ása Hlín
The Outcome: Vizka Einsteins - Utangarðsmenn
Wise is the iPod!
The Crown is "Go…
catdynamics | March 20, 2007seen in the back of a not-so-expensive model from an expensive car maker: "How to make money from foreclosures"
heard at a a slightly non-random brunch spot, couple of tables to the left: "no, you need to go to fourth order in the modified Lagrangian..."
told over lunch: "I heard Apple is out to hire someone to start that as a project"
over coffee: "well google was excited until they were told the timescale, they think six months is a long time to plan ahead"
catdynamics | March 19, 2007The Department of Justice has released 3000 paper documents in response to the House judiciary committee request investigating the dismissal of federal US attorneys.
The committee staff have started posting the documents in 50 page blocks of scanned PDF files!, but the interesting thing is...
Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is organizing a swarm of volunteers to rapidly read the documents and highlight which are of interest and which are padding
They are amazingly fast.
Glancing across the pages, it looks like about 1/3 of the documents are up, with staffers presumably putting the rest…
catdynamics | March 15, 2007It is friday, sunny friday, so we spontaneously ask the Mighty iPod: do we actually have Free Will?
Woosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Cry for Love - Iggy Pop
The Crossing: The Boy Done Good - Billy Bragg
The Crown: A Lover Sings - Billy Bragg
The Root: Ashes to Ashes - Bowie
The Past: Heil dir Prinz! - Mozart
The Future: Everybody Loves You Babe - Billy Bragg
The Questioner:While My Heart is Still Beating - Roxy Music
The House: Estampe - Soiree dans Grenada
The Inside: Riders on the Storm - Doors
The Outcome: Seamus - Pink Floyd
Love, Fate, Death.
But, for the zodiacly…
catdynamics | March 12, 2007flicking across cnn.com, I see a propane train derailment and an oil well fire in Texas
is it heigtened awareness, broader reporting to fill cable news shows, or is there a higher incidence of petrochemical and industrial chemical accidents this year?
The EPA RMP*Info list of industrial accidents and sites is apparently confidential, although it was originally compiled for public information, but there is a summary of five year incidence in the late 90s in a public report.
Glancing through the data, there seem to be refinery/extraction accidents about once per week and transport/LNG…
catdynamics | March 12, 2007In my previous sunday night ramblings on world non-events I said there was no sign of a surge in submarine deployment
I was wrong.
Status of the Navy this morning shows a sharp increase in the number of attack submarines underway (30 now vs 18 before) and an increase in the number deployed (18 vs 14).
For those keeping count, that means 12 subs left port but are not yet "deployed" ie are in transit to somewhere. Could be a quick swirl around outside the harbour to shake off the barnacles, of course.
More than half the attact subs are underway, by the way.
That is ever so slightly worrying.…
catdynamics | March 11, 2007Curious, the Iranian news agency say the Bushehr nuclear reactor is to be operational (but not fueled) on tuesday and that the fuel is to be delivered within two weeks!, but...
MEN claims Russia is co-ordinating with the US to delay startup of Bushehr (there's been this weird dispute where the Russians claim the Iranians have not paid for construction and the Iranians claim they did - cheque got lost in the post?) and the Moscow Times claims talks over the funding dispute have collapsed and that fueling is now delayed beyond Sept 2007 with no delivery this month.
Weird, something going on…
catdynamics | March 11, 2007I see the Sciblings are reading most significant science fiction and fantasy
I've read 46 of the 50 for what it is worth, never could finish "Little Big"...
I see most people are missing Cordwainer Smith, his work is mostly out of print, but the New England Science Fiction Association has a nice new edition for sale online
It is well worth reading, the short stories include some of the best written.
catdynamics | March 8, 2007It is friday morning, and happy birthday PZ!
So, we approach the mighty iPod and we ask... what does the iPod have to say about PZ?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Wie? Wie? Wie? - Mozart (Magic Flute)
The Crossing: Frosty the Snowman - Cranberry Singers
The Crown: In the Bleak Midwinter - King's Choir
The Root: Englishman in New York - Sting
The Past: Search and Destroy - the Stooges
The Future: Homenaje, Pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy
The Questioner: Skip to My Lou
The House: Apollo 7 - Stravinsky
The Inside: This Guitar Says Sorry (Alt Version) - Billy Bragg
The…
catdynamics | March 8, 2007Nifty, nifty, nifty!
PZ now'll be fifty!
We all a poem must produce
Proper homages as we choose
Sean gets all astro logical on us so to compensate, and in honour of PZ hisself, we go to the true mystery:
what does "PZ" really mean?
And the number of the PZ is 6
And SIX shall be the number of the PZ.
Not five, or four, and absolutely not seven
Perish the thought.
Venus is the ruling planet (duh).
Best suited profession: alchemist
Body Chemistry: Mucus!
Psychic number: ...balanced yet paradoxical...
Destiny number: ...fair minded... vulnerable to criticism...
That's our PZ.
BTW I don't know…
catdynamics | March 5, 2007California, again.
At least it is sunny this time.
Weird and very tiring trip. Tom still has that magic touch with parties though, and sunsets over the Pacific are as beautiful as ever.
catdynamics | March 2, 2007New month, new iPod divinations...
So, oh mighty iPod, what is in store for us this month then?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Woosh.
The Covering: Going to California - Led Zeppelin
The Crossing: Jóla Jólasveinn - Ragga Gísla
The Crown: Now and Then - Arlo Guthrie
The Root: Day of the Lords - Joy Division
The Past: The Firebird: Dance of Kashchey's Retinue
The Future: The Sow Took the Measles - Burl Ives
The Questioner: Wie? Wie? Wie? - Mozart (Magic Flute)
The House: Dust My Blues - Elmore James and His Broom Dusters
The Inside: I don't Need the Pressure Ron - Billy Bragg
The Outcome: Út…
catdynamics | March 1, 2007unconfirmed AsiaTimes article claims "refueling assets" are being relocated to Diego Garcia
big US air base on Diego Garcia (leased from UK)
if one were to make active contingency plans involving large numbers of aircraft dropping stuff, then one step would be to quietly move air refueling squadrons forward a week or two earlier.
Not sure which squadrons those could be, many are ANG or reserve; some were called up for recent Red Flag exercises. No news on them.
In the meantime the 5th Fleet got a new commander, the old one moves back to Pentagon and up in rank after 16 months on the job…
catdynamics | February 27, 2007I see SEED has sold ad space for the new Discovery Channel buzz episode, the purported discovery of the family grave of Yeshua bar Yosef, aka Jesus Christ, complete with his bones, along those of his wife Mary, mother Mary, son Judah and two of his four brothers...
I wonder who Judah was named after... that had to have hurt.
Dan Brown can presumably look forward to another blip upwards in sales (ok, I confess I read the stoopid book, I needed some light reading, I felt I should know what the fuss was about, and a visitor left a hardcover with us... anyway, it had da Vinci in it, right?).
But…
catdynamics | February 22, 2007Wow, friday again... we'll be delocally topical and ask: Oh mighty iPod, is the very space-time metric upon which we calculate our oh so effective theories really an emergent phenomenon of a more dynamic and fundamental planckian structure?
Whoosh goes the randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: Michael Caine - Madness
The Crossing: Little Jack Horner
The Crown: Rat Race - Specials
The Root: Isolation - Joy Division
The Past: I'm So Worried - Monty Python
The Future: Jaded - Green Day
The Questioner: Four Ruffles and Flourishes, General's March
The House: Money Song - Monty Python
The Inside:…