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| Friday, December 25th, 2009 |
evwhore
|
8:45p |
Like finding a something in a something
Late last Saturday night, while most of Baltimore and the mid-Atlantic were hunkered down under ~20 inches of snow, my dad decided he was going to go get the mail. I expressed doubt that they'd even delivered the mail, but my dad was not to be deterred (I suspect I get most of my obsessive-compulsive tendencies from him). 5 minutes later, he rang the doorbell with two surprising pieces of news: (1) they had in fact delivered the mail; probably they came by earlier on Saturday before things got really bad, but even still, that's damned impressive; (2) of more interest, he'd lost his keys in the snow. No, I don't know why he took his keys with him, nor why he locked the door behind him. We spent about 15 futile minutes tromping around in the snow retracing his steps, including the two places where he'd slipped, knowing it was basically impossible we'd find them, and were proved correct. At least he still had a backup keychain with everything important on it. Sunday morning while shoveling the driveway ( Facebook status: Spencer Sun is having a great time at Snow Shoveling Fantasy Camp), we made a few more half-hearted attempts to excavate the keys from likely resting places, to no avail. All's well that ends well, however -- today while shoveling the rest of the driveway to make more room for dinner guests' cars, I found the keys purely by accident, buried in the snow well away from anywhere we thought they could have been, no doubt having been flung away from his person when he fell, although he was pretty sure he'd had them in his coat pocket. Shrug. |
evwhore
|
8:32p |
The best movie I've seen this Christmas
My parents had Joyeux Noel in their Netflix queue, and we watched it tonight. Based on true events that occurred on the front lines during Christmas 1914. Mild spoilers below (you'll get the plot from any summary or the DVD cover anyway): ( Read more... )Anyway it's a very appropriate Christmas movie. Add it to the top of your queue, or remember this for next year :-) |
wisemonkey
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4:32p |
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evwhore
|
10:13a |
Christmas link dump
Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings etc. to everyone! via boingboing: learning from its experiences last year, a UK aquarium has lowered the water level in the turtle tank after feeding the turtles their annual Christmas treat of Brussels sprouts. Because Brussels sprouts make you gassy, and last year bubbles from the farting triggered overflow sensors in the tanks. slashdot: examples of misleading ISP ads trying to FUD people into buying mega-fat pipes they probably don't need. Apparently you need 3Mb/s to use social networking, 7Mb/s to download music and 15Mb/s if you want more than 2 people online at the same time, or "Super Fast Shopping Concert Tickets & Online Auctions". Funny, we have 14 people at work happily sharing a T1. Some fun with lamebook. The London 2010 logo comment is spot-on :-) And the one at the bottom with Russell and Shanelle... wow. ( Previous entry about the London logo) Bruce Schneier makes a case for NOT encrypting drone video. Essentially he says key management concerns outweigh the security risks, which he considers minimal: "A soldier in the field doesn't have access to the real-time video because of a key management failure; a UAV can't be quickly deployed to a new area because the keys aren't in place; we can't share the video information with our allies because we can't give them the keys; most soldiers can't use this technology because they don't have the right clearances. Given this risk analysis, not encrypting the video is almost certainly the right decision." |
evwhore
|
9:53a |
The science of Avatar
via slashdot: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43440Copernicus' Law of Science Fiction: Bending the laws of physics out of service to the story is fine, doing it out of ignorance is unconscionable.
I don't mind if the ships in Star Trek can go faster than the speed of light -- otherwise the story would be pretty boring. And I know there's no sound in space, but I want Star Destroyers to
rumble, and the Millennium Falcon to have that iconic whine. But if a director casually gets science wrong for no real reason other than that he is stupid or lazy (see ARMAGEDDON, THE CORE, and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, to name a few), then to hell with him. If the filmmakers don't respect the intelligence of the audience, I'm not going to respect the movie.
Fortunately, James Cameron has a knack for science that rivals his moviemaking skills. It's a really long article, but interesting in a science/geekiness sort of way. |
| Thursday, December 24th, 2009 |
olaugh
|
5:34p |
nines
RESERPINE = an alkaloid obtained from the roots of RAUWOLFIA (the initial R comes from rauwolfia) MAVOURNIN = "my darling" (also MAVOURNEEN) EMUNCTORY = a cleansing organ or canal (this and EMUNGE# v come from the Latin word for nose-blowin') PREBENDAL = pertaining to a PREBEND (a clergyman's stipend or pension, not pre-bend as I had always assumed, also PREBENDARY n) BIRTHWORT = a shrub believed to aid in childbirth DOLABRATE = pickaxe-shaped (also DOLABRIFORM#) SAPONATED = combined or treated with soap SUBCHASER = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_chaserUPSADAISY interj (also UPADAISY#) nice blanagram of PADUASOYS PASODOBLE = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasodoble (literally "double-step") REDIVIVUS = come back to life; revived. (always used after the noun, e.g. Plato redivivus) |
| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 |
evwhore
|
11:05p |
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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 |
evwhore
|
9:33p |
Link Dump
Security fail: some on-the-ground military robots may have the same unencrypted video security hole problem as the Predator drones ( previously linked). Speaking of which, "Wikileaks has published what is identified as detail and a demonstration of "how to read out video and mission control data from US Predator drones." ( boingboing) Paging ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rcfox: is the Mayon volcano in the Phillipines ready to blow? More fun with Google suggestions: Is Fox News a...Apparently if you have a Blackberry, Bing is now your only Internet search provider option. "The move is part of the five-year search and advertising deal Verizon signed with Microsoft in January for a rumored $500m." The EFF has published an buyer's guide for e-books charting the privacy features/exposures of each. Finally, change we can believe in from the Obama administration: airlines can now only hold you prisoner on the runway for a maximum of 3 hours. A Texas A&M scientist thinks terahertz-frequency waves or T-rays can replace X-rays for most applications without the attendant health effects on humans. Popular Science reports that more than 2/3 of cocaine shipments seized on their way into the U.S. are "laced with another drug that's commonly used to deworm opossums." boingboing: "In other news, wait: people commonly deworm opossums?" (It's also a cancer treatment drug, and can cause weakness in the human immune system.) A Slashdot-linked item takes some traffic/server/data center type numbers from Facebook and estimates that if it were written in C++ instead of PHP, the amount of computing power saved could eliminate over 22,000 of their 30,000 servers leading to a 49,000-ton reduction in carbon output. "Of course, it is a bit unfair to isolate Facebook here. Their servers are only a tiny fraction of computers deployed world-wide that are interpreting PHP code." |
evwhore
|
8:40p |
|
evwhore
|
8:21p |
Avatar (spoilers behind lj-cut)
First, some trailers we saw: - They're making another Robin Hood? Ok, this one is Ridley Scott with Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, William Hurt, and Max von Sydow. Still, I'm going to have a hard time picturing anyone but Alan Rickmann as the Sheriff of Nottingham. - They're making another Shrek movie? "The Final Chapter" - Mmm, Salt. IMDB lists 12 other movies with a title of "Salt" -- although one of them says "Salt" in a foreign language. Somewhat surprisingly, all but 2 of them are from the 2000s. I liked Avatar. Not enough that I'll run out and buy it on DVD when it comes out, but the effects were very well-done, and the plot/message didn't bother me so much, unsurprisingly. I'm also unsurprised that certain people found a lot to dislike about it. ( Here there be spoilers ) |
| Monday, December 21st, 2009 |
evwhore
|
12:26a |
I didn't realize someone had imploded the Golden Nugget
Someone on vpFREE mentioned driving by the El Cortez recently and seeing a sign "VOTED THE BEST DOWNTOWN HOTEL FOR 2009." This is according to the LVRJ's Best of Las Vegas 2009 edition. Reader pick: Golden Nugget Staff pick: El Cortez Yeah, I'll have some of whatever they're smoking at the LVRJ. "This pick didn't seem possible a couple of years ago, [...]" Um, it still doesn't seem possible now. I know the E has recently undergone a renovation (friends of mine stayed there recently and reported it being decent) but NFW does it beat out the GN. |
| Sunday, December 20th, 2009 |
drbing
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10:03p |
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evwhore
|
11:09a |
Scrabble prizes redux
Since I can't help myself, and there are some things I wanted to respond to/echo/comment on, I'm collecting them all in a new entry. Previous entry here. There are also some general rambling philosophical thoughts about the state of the game at the bottom. ( cut for length ) |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 |
drbing
|
11:24p |
|
evwhore
|
10:01p |
Prize distribution at Scrabble tournaments
I'm probably going to regret opening this can of worms, because people tend to feel strongly about this issue, which mostly makes for people arguing past each other about points the other person didn't make, but after reading sophonax's recent post on the subject, here are my thoughts: Prize money at tournaments should never be moved from one division into another. Note, I am making a very specific assertion here. If there are any additional funds ADDED to the general prize pool by an outside sponsor, for example, I have zero problem allocating all such additional monies solely to the top division. Say you have two divisions of equal size, $50 to enter, and everyone mails in their registration forms and checks to the director, and since this is a hypothetical, all the entries are mailed in on time too! Then when tournament weekend rolls around, everyone shows up, and the director says "OK, before we all start playing, everyone in D2 take another $50 out of your wallets and hand it to a D1 player." Is this ok? However you want to define ok. Because this is exactly what happens when you move money from D2 into D1. It doesn't matter whether the D1 players use this extra $50 to turn around and convert their previously $50 tournament into a $100 tournament, or go out and blow it on (very cheap) hookers and coke, either way, $50 that the D1 player did not previously have has made its way into his or her hands out of the pockets of a D2 player. The issue here isn't whether people know about it in advance on the tournament flyer or whether they willingly fork over the extra $50, it's whether this is "right." People willingly go along with things that screw themselves over all the time, often because they don't realize they're getting screwed over, or maybe because they don't care. In fact, you can often find me in the "don't care" category. Despite my feeling that moving prize money from one division to another is not equitable, I'm willing to accept the equity loss in the name of recreation and entertainment. An oft-cited reason for moving money is that D1 players are better and deserve to be rewarded for their hard work and long hours of studying. (1) What about people who have a natural talent for the game and don't study as much? (2) If you wanted me to employ you to become better at Scrabble, you should have secured a contract from me first. As many of you know, I play rec league ice hockey, which is often divided into A/B/C divisions by ability. I've never heard of C league players paying higher league fees to subsidize the fees for A players because the A players are better/worked harder at their game/are more gifted/were born in Canada. Various other analogies could be (re-)made and ignored, but I've already typed a ridiculous amount for not wanting to get drawn into this conversation again :-) In fact, I'm not going to reply to any replies. I've thought about this a lot, read a lot of opposing opinions and reasons, and don't find any of them persuasive (likewise for people on the other side I'm sure). Talk amongst yourselves. |
evwhore
|
9:22p |
The U.S. Civil Rights Movement as an Insurgency
via Schneier: Why the Civil Rights Movement Was an Insurgency, and Why It MattersMost Americans fail to appreciate that the Civil Rights movement was about the overthrow of an entrenched political order in each of the Southern states [...] That the Civil Rights movement employed nonviolent tactics should fool us no more than it did the segregationists, who correctly saw themselves as being at war. Significant change was never going to occur within the political system: it had to be forced. [...]
As to why it matters: a major reason we were slow to grasp the emergence and extent of the insurgency in Iraq is that it didn't -- and doesn't -- look like a classic insurgency. In fact, the official Department of Defense definition of insurgency still reflects a Vietnam era understanding of the term. Looking at the Civil Rights movement as an insurgency is useful because it assists in thinking more comprehensively about the phenomenon of insurgency and assists in a more complete -- and therefore more useful -- definition of the term. |
evwhore
|
9:19p |
Link dump, climate change edition
sciencedaily reports a study claiming that acting on climate change need not be incompatible with long-term economic growth, which is one of schmengie's bugaboos. Unfortunately one of the study's conclusions is "use of emissions offsets is an essential ingredient in containing costs" which I know won't sit well with him.
Speaking of incompatible, you might not associate "luxury ski resort" with environmentalism but the CEO has an interesting perspective. There's a long blockquote where he justifies why bother having ski resorts at all, what they've done to make theirs greener, and his overall views on addressing climate change: I always get in the same arguments with the hard core enviro community. They want me to do rinky dink stuff like bamboo f[l]oors and recycling, and I tell them it doesn't matter, that their personal actions don't matter because the problem's too big. That pisses people off -- they get mad at me and say every little bit helps. But every little bit doesn't help because the problem's too big. If everyone who was so inclined did every little thing from the Prius to the bulb, we still wouldn't solve this problem. It's gotta be a global mandate, not a voluntary thing. My day is full of people getting furious at me. Last week I had to send the FBI some death threats I was getting about calling the governor of Utah willfully ignorant on climate. This is war. This is a combat situation. and it's gonna hurt people the way wars hurt people. I like to say, we're gonna have to break things and hurt people to make this happen. Just being straightorward and truthful about these things instead of glossing and deluding people is incredibly valuable.
The Limits To Skepticism: jamie found a long and painstaking piece up at The Economist asking and provisionally answering the question: "Does the spirit of scientific scepticism really require that I remain forever open-minded to denialist humbug until it's shown to be wrong?" The author, who is not named, spent several hours picking apart the arguments of one Willis Eschenbach, AGW denialist, who on Dec. 8 published what he called the "smoking gun" — it was supposed to prove that the adjustments climate scientists make to historical temperature records are arbitrary to the point of intentional manipulation. The basis of TFA is that people jizzing themselves over Climate Gate should consider things like: [H]omogenising historical temperature data records is extremely complicated. People who maintained weather stations starting in 1880 didn't think to themselves, "Maybe someday people will need to measure climate change, so I better put down a really accurate thermometer and then ensure nothing about the instrument or the surrounding area changes for the next 130 years." Varied and inconsistent measurements over hundreds of years require adjustment and normalization if they are to be interpreted correctly. That being said, scientists should be up front about the adjustment and say what's being adjusted and why so people can decide for themselves. From the conclusion: [H]ere's my solution to this problem: this is why we have peer review. Average guys with websites can do a lot of amazing things. One thing they cannot do is reveal statistical manipulation in climate-change studies that require a PhD in a related field to understand. So for the time being, my response to any and all further 'smoking gun' claims begins with: show me the peer-reviewed journal article demonstrating the error here. Otherwise, you're a crank and this is not a story." |
evwhore
|
9:05p |
The mother of all link dumps
Various shit collected over the last week or two, mostly from boingboing, with a few slashdot/sciencedaily/etc. thrown in. Hops Compound May Prevent Prostate Cancer. Holy fascinating connection, Batman! I would LOVE to see a followup study examining if there is a relationship between the taster/supertaster thing about how sensitive people are to bitter tastes vs. cancer predisposition. Another cool optical illusion. Which flights on which airlines have wifi? A comprehensive chart. A Congresswoman has introduced a bill that would require TV commercials to be at the same volume as the program. 5-year fugitive plastic surgeon from Chicago found in the Italian Alps. Another application of the Law of Unintended Consequences: environmentally-friendly LED traffic lights don't melt the snow that falls on them. Reddit: " A single sperm has 37.5MB of DNA information in it. That means that a normal ejaculation represents a data transfer of 1,587.5TB". Hilarious geek humor in the comments. Peek at the Tetris God at work might've been funnier if the player hadn't played so godawfully. The next time you think you have a bad beat story consider the man who dove into the ocean off the coast of Australia while wearing full-body "stinger suit" and bought a peanut-sized jellyfish in the face of a species that "can kill a person in minutes." IRS audits the H&R Block-prepared return of a $10/hour mother who works at Supercuts. She sought help from her dad's accountant, who filed a response suggesting the IRS was misinterpreting the tax laws. The IRS is responding by auditing her parents too. NEJM, via Schneier: The epidemiology of fear responses: "When the inoculum of dramatic illness is first introduced into society, the public psyche rapidly becomes infected. Almost like an IgE-mediated histamine release, there is an immediate flooding of fear, even if the illness -- like Ebola -- is infinitely less likely to cause death than, say, a run-in with the Second Avenue bus. This immediate fear of the unknown was what had all my patients demanding the as-yet-unproduced H1N1 vaccine last spring." You can make a reasonable living mining discarded betting slips for overlooked winners. Another awesome creative image retrofitting: this elevator button has the Creation of Adam painted around it, so that when you press the button you touch God's finger. Apparently the programmers for the Predator drone didn't think the video downfeed needed to be encrypted. "Militants in Iraq have used $26 off-the-shelf software to intercept live video feeds from U.S. Predator drones, potentially providing them with information they need to evade or monitor U.S. military operations." Based on jwz's experiences, good luck getting SFPD to get off their asses and do anything about car-on-bike assaults. Food and Eating section: An awesome periodic table made out of cookies. via boingboing, which do you think has higher meat-quality standards, fast food restaurants or school lunch programs? Which has the greater environmental impact fresh or frozen salmon? Scene from a James Bond movie? Ukrainian student killed by exploding chewing gum. "Are you ready for the TSA to ban chewing gum?" HFCS can damage the metabolism and "is fuelling the obesity crisis" according to a study. I'm going to assume that by now everyone has seen the mobius bagel. |
getofftheoven
|
10:03a |
50 opening racks, international style
This was a pleasant little exercise. Might do one in OWL2 later, I guess. Results: Total equity loss: 74 (charging the full -26 for one phony) Word knowledge: 39 Best-simming play not sufficiently considered: 18 Saw candidates, chose worse-simming one: 17 Missed bingos: none Chose top-simming play or less than 0.5 from it: 37/50 Equity lost on CSW-only words either not known or not considered: 17 ( ah, the name is Bootsy, baby ) |
| Friday, December 18th, 2009 |
drbing
|
11:27p |
|
evwhore
|
9:41p |
Thank you, Officer McClane
Landed safely at Dulles. Cut and paste from my FB update and comment: "wow, that is the 2nd hairiest descent I've experienced. it was smooth, but the heavy snow + plane speed made it look like it was snowing hard *sideways*. reverse thrusters also created an enveloping cloud of snow when they activated. totally smooth perfect landing though." Parents have called and are in the vicinity so they made it here; now just have to hope 495-(2)95-695 is clear. |
evwhore
|
3:49p |
Someone please send Bruce Willis to IAD
I was scheduled to fly east tomorrow to visit my parents for Christmas this week, but received several phone calls from various people this morning warning me about the metric ass-ton of snow that is forecast to fall upon the east coast overnight. Good news: I'm on a frequent flyer ticket Bad news: No frequent flyer seats to BWI today Worse news: Going to BWI today would be $400 one-way Good news: available flight to Dulles (leaving one hour later than the BWI flight) Better news: frequent flyer seat too! Bad news: not sure parents driving ~2 hours to pick me up in increasing snow is actually an improvement on the situation. So anyway, it just occurred to me that there is a significant probability that my Christmas flight will be landing in Dulles in the snow! Hopefully life won't imitate art. (Whether Die Hard 2 can be considered art is left as an exercise for the reader.) Breaking update: in "even worse news" they're holding our plane here for a delayed connecting flight inbound from Los Angeles. I wonder what the line on landing at IAD vs. diverted would be. It will be interesting to see when the snow stops and how soon things get plowed, to see whether I would have been better off just keeping my original flight and landing tomorrow night. |
| Saturday, December 19th, 2009 | |
jasonkb
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1:55a |
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jasonkb
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1:17a |
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| Thursday, December 17th, 2009 |
drbing
|
10:40p |
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