Random
catdynamics | November 22, 2006Winter will be here soon, I hear rumours it has already come to parts of the south and west, and it definitely arrived in Iceland.
Iceland in winter requires some effort, but we have come up with some useful things to get through the winter, and I don't mean just the pickled whale blubber, rotten shark and broiled seal flippers.
The traditional winter clothing is "lopi", which is coarse water resistant wool from the Icelandic sheep, renowned for its ability to survive bad weather, and for being stupid enough to be out in such weather in the first place.
handknit lopi - expensive, but…
catdynamics | November 20, 2006State College is a small town, it is also a university town.
Not exactly your high crime area.
So, statistically, the scum who took the Munchkins' slide from our front yard after the game on saturday night were probably a multiplet of cheerfully inebriated male students.
Well, congratulations, you made a two year old very sad.
Interesting thing is: we called it in to the police, mainly so if it were found we would get it returned.
Officer on duty has young kids, as it turns out, very empathetic and intense man.
Also not very busy, with thanksgiving week coming town is half empty.
So he is…
catdynamics | November 15, 2006Dedicated to those doing their NSF proposals today
Helsinki complaints choir
catdynamics | November 15, 2006Cohen of the Washington Post find it refreshing that Stephanopoulos was shocked by Bush's direct lie about Rumsfeld before the election.
It is shocking how rarelyoften, and how selectively, the Washington political establishment and leading media figures casually accept blatant lies as part of business as usual.
If only, a widely read, often influential commentator had picked up this issue back when, and hammered on it repeatedly, highlighting each lie, and been supported, not shushed or mocked, by his or her colleagues.
catdynamics | November 14, 2006Making Light incisively dissects the link between homegrown terrorists and bad science fiction
Read it.
For fair and balanced coverage, remember that aQ allegedly can be translated as "foundation"...
catdynamics | November 14, 2006Fresh, local grown sweet organic apples from the Farmer's Market: $2.75
Grabbing one this morning for lunch, to find the Munchkin has taken exactly one small bite from every single apple: Priceless
catdynamics | November 14, 2006According to a Grauniad headline, of all papers, al Qaeda is determined to nuke Britain.
They just need a bomb, and a way to get it there, and someone who actually knows how to set it off.
And a pony.
But there is a lot of "chatter" out there. So that's ok. Journamalism (read to the end about amplifying noise).
And inside, Max Hastings, of all peope, has a sensible steady on, chaps sort of opinion column.
Weird shit.
In the mean time, back in the real world.
A 20 car convoy of thugs, in interior ministry police uniforms, in Iraq kidnapped all the male staff and visitors of an entire research…
catdynamics | November 10, 2006Things you learn at 37,000 feet.
Muse has a song titled "Supermassive Black Hole".
Hm from the best selling Black Holes and Revelations
Who knew?
Supermassive Black Hole(You set my soul alight)
Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the supermassive
(You set my soul alight)
Glaciers melting in the dead of night
And the superstars sucked into the 'supermassive'
Supermassive black hole
Supermassive black hole
Supermassive black hole
You just gotta admire any band that will deal with Extreme Mass Ratio Inspirals and tidal disruption.
Hey, I wonder if they worked…
catdynamics | November 10, 2006Oh boy, a jet lagged friday. So we ask the migthy one an easy one.
Wazzup? Tell us, oh Great iPod - whence now, scientifically and generally?
Whoosh goes the randomizer. Whoosh.
The Covering: Another Man's Done Gone - Billy Bragg
The Crossing: Avalon - Roxy Music
The Crown: Old Brass Wagon - Twin Sisters
The Root: Foli Foli Fólipri - Svanhildur
The Past: Andante - Julian Bream
The Future: Too Experienced - The Bodysnatchers
The Questioner: Young Lust - Pink Floyd
The House: Decomposing Composers
The Inside: The Space Between - Roxy Music
The Outcome: America is Not the World - Morrissey
Oh…
catdynamics | November 7, 2006So, today is election day, in the USA. In case you hadn't noticed.
Unusually enough, polls predict some actual incumbents may be voted out, which I must say is rather unusual, if not outright undemocratic.
Question is: if this comes true, what should The Nation do with such Talent?
For example: Mr Blackwell, Secretary of State in Ohio may be unemployed.
One might think such an experienced administrator would be best placed on the Federal Election Commission, but there is also a vacancy for an ambassador to Iraq...
Maybe Ms Harris of Florida would be available for the FEC?
You might argue that…
catdynamics | November 6, 2006Study says seat belts would make buses safer
Well, no shit!
Whenever this issue is raised locally (in the US), we are patiently told that it is just not possible.
So, here I am in Scandinavia, and every bus in the last three countries had lap seat belts on every seat.
I guess I'm just imagining things, since that is clearly not possible.
catdynamics | November 5, 2006the 5th of November
The Gunpowder, Treason and Plot
Guy Fawkes day is not my favourite holiday, even if I do like bonfires and fireworks.
Many years ago I went to bonfire night in Lewes, Sussex, where some of the protestant martyrs were burned. They seem to still take it personally after all these years. And that is in a quiet peaceful country.
One of the very few times I have been scared of a mob, and none of it was directed at me.
catdynamics | November 5, 2006Andy Kessler is a techie.
Engineer, financial analyst and fund manager.
He is rich, successful and semi-retired, by the looks of it.
He also ran into the US health care system, a fairly gentle bump I must say, and now he wants to see the current system ended, while preferably making another billion in the process.
The End of Medicine, is an easy read, anecdotal, bit choppy, reading almost like a printout of a blog.
Names are dropped, jargon flung (and to be fair, explained), and pharmaceutical companies and medical doctors are savaged.
It is in some ways a satisfying read, Kessler identifies…
catdynamics | November 4, 2006On tuesday Hvalur HF announced that the whaling ship Hvalur 9 was back in harbour and that the fin whaling season is over for the year.
Seven fin whales were struck and landed, out of a quota of nine total.
I want to provide my perspective on the whaling issue in Iceland and a possible political resolution:
to cut a long story short, the whaling quota should be open for bids, and the whale watching companies should buy it and not use it.
Whaling in Iceland has an extensive history. In Konungsskuggsjá (Speculum Regale), a 13th century "advice to kings", the expected yield of whale…
catdynamics | November 2, 2006Just in case, we do our weekly iPod iChing early with a schedule friday publication...
a sort of prescient omniscience.
We will also see how we do with a sharply restricted library selection, this might stretch the iPod's powers to the utmost.
So... oh mighty one. What is in store for us over the next week?
Whoosh goes the Randomizer.
Whoosh.
The Covering: (Waiting For The) Ghost Train - Madness
The Crossing: Hiroshima - Utangarðsmenn
The Crown: Over in the Meadow... - traditional
The Root: Afgan (live) - Stríð og Friður
The Past: Viska Einsteins - Utangarðsmenn
The Future: Grettir og…
catdynamics | November 2, 2006Wah.
My poor li'l ol' laptop has a 15 degree bend in it.
Right between the battery slot and the DVD drive.
We were setting up for a talk, of course, and to connect the speakers I moved the laptop case over to a different table, but the Euro/US connector bit on the power supply got tangled in the strap and pulled the laptop off the table. Landed on the battery corner. Quite spectacular.
Still works, amazingly, obviously. But I don't give the hard disk long and strongly suspect the DVD is toast (I'll have to find a sacrificial disk to try it). Also fear that if I pop the battery out it will…
catdynamics | October 30, 2006good old days...
If you were in this picture, or know the people who were, then e-mail me...
catdynamics | October 30, 2006DeLong explains why hexapodia is the key insight
In a perfect world it'd be TeX on an Alpha, but a Mac will do.
Fortunately Google Does No Evil.