I'm Just Glad It's Over

Well apparently, UO trounced OSU. Words cannot express the depths of my indifference.

And judging by the crowd around the bar at the other end of the block from my favorite coffee shop, (and the number of people carrying 18-packs and 30-packs, often in duplicate) the statement on a shirt I've seen around holds true: Win or Lose... We all Booze!

Yeah. No Kidding.

Persistence of Vision

If you look at an object fixedly, your eyes and mind will try to blank it out. One of the classic examples is the color-opposites of the US flag. After staring at the yellow, green and black image for 30 seconds or so, then switching to a white field, you'll see the image briefly as Red, White and Blue. Now I'm guessing (and it is only a guess) that this is evolutionarily beneficial in that it draws our attention away from things that are static (unthreatening) and to things that are changing (potentially threatening). Images that move in a repetitive manner can also give rise to this. With color, there might be a chemical basis in the eye; with movement, it seems to me it must be a perceptual (mind) phenomenon, so I'm not sure the two aspects of this are really considered the same.

I first saw this as a cut out from Omni Magazine in the late '70's. You took the image and put it on a turntable, and stared at the spindle for 30 seconds to a minute. Yeah, ancient technology, but it still works even in our electronic era. (When the spirals quit spiraling, look at something that has details, not a blank, uncluttered area) Whooooaaaaa! Far out, Dude!

Sunset Three-Way

Get your mind out of the gutter! I had read yesterday that Jupiter and Venus were in alignment about sunset- I went out and looked, but it was too cloudy. Today however we had some pretty nice weather- light clouds in the morning, burning off in the afternoon, nearly 60 degrees. Despite all the drunken revelry, it was a nice day. A few minutes ago I went outside to smoke and looked west to see if I could spot the planets- no luck. I walked down the street to see if I could get a better view around the buildings and trees- no luck. So a bit of a mental shrug. Turned around and... POW! They're further to the south than I thought, and man are they bright! Spectacular! I wouldn't have seen them if I hadn't walked North, and (from my perspective) got them above the roofline of the buildings across the street.

But wait! There's More! The astronomical deliciousness gets better: over the next couple of days (Nov. 30, Dec. 1- links from spaceweather page at the top), the waxing crescent moon will pass near these two planets- after the sun, these are the three brightest objects in the sky. Should be quite a show- go out after sunset and look SW. Hope our weather holds out for the next couple of days! Hmm... looks like maybe tomorrow, but rain Monday.

Well, That Could've Been Handled Better

A couple of other folks here at my favorite coffee shop have mentioned that I would enjoy FailBlog. Yup. I went to that site a while ago, and found all sorts of stuff that made me laugh. Following is a sample...

see more pwn and owned pictures
That's not so much a "Fail" as a Brilliant Marketing Strategy in a congenitally stupid society educated by such "distinguished" institutions as the one below:

see more pwn and owned pictures
Ahhh... the joys of Microsoft. There was a contest a few years back to submit the best oxymoron (internally contradictory statement or phrase- a minimalist pardox); the winner was "Microsoft Works." One computer magazine I read in the mid '90's had a list of great list of (fake) dialogue-box statements. The one I've always remembered is "press any key to continue, or any other key to quit" Not sure whether the following is real or not, but that in itself says an awful lot about the kind of quality I expect from Microsoft.

see more pwn and owned pictures
And they have videos too! This should be filed under Physics: Inertia: Consequences of.

Oops. Missed This Contest.

Firedoglake, one of the politiblogs that I haven't unsubscribed to, announced a contest, ummm... (looking it up), about two weeks ago to come up with a title for Shrub's autobiography (which incidentally, I hear, publishers are encouraging him to postpone... seems they don't see a market for it [I'm not finding backup info on this, though I thought I saw a number of articles; may be mistaken here]).

I missed the announcement, but I did find the results entertaining:

The winner:
-- argo0 -- You Can Fool Enough of the People Some of the Time
The runners-up:
-- diablesseblu: Mendacity of Dope
-- Hugh: A History of the American Steal Industry
-- JimWhite: Dude, Where’s My Surplus?
-- demi: Strings Attached

And here's some other entries I particularly liked, some more than the above:

-- Badwater: Catapultin’ the Propaganda
-- sdfStu: Heckuva Job, Me
-- barbara: Laws Are for Sissies
-- sdfStu: Curious George Eats A Pretzel
-- druidbros: Bush and Dick: How We All Got Screwed
-- Gnome de Plume: How I Saved Amurica from Itself
-- Hugh: Preventive War: The Coloring Book
-- PursuitofHappiness: None Dare Call It Reason
-- pitchforksandtorches: The Holey Babble - my Foolish Talk from the Old
Testicle through the New Internets
-- bonkers: War and Fleece

These are just a few of many, many listed. Click over for more... which are your favorites? I suppose I should try to come up with a couple... let's see...

Let History be the Judge
How to Strengthen Democracy by Ignoring Votes and Polls
Just Like Ronnie: Dazed, Confused and Indifferent
and of course, this one is just too obvious: The End of an Error

Shoot, that took just a couple of minutes; I do wish I'd caught this before the results came out. Do you have a good one? Leave it in the comments- this is fun!

'Tis the Season to be Noisy

Every year, in late September, the college students return and reclaim Corvallis. I enjoy nearly all of them one-on-one, but in large groups, especially if they've been drinking (and yes, I'm thinking specifically about you, Greek people), they are disruptive, noisy and rude. For example, taking the dumpster from our apartment building, pushing it around in the street at 3:00 in the morning, screaming "Beep, Beep!"for five minutes, then leaving it there, would be considered by most to be unneighborly.

So every year, starting in late September, I start looking forward to Thanksgiving weekend: four days of uninterupted peace and quiet.

But somehow I've managed to live in Corvallis for more than 28 years without realizing that the Civil War Game (UO vs. OSU) is held each Thanksgiving weekend. And every other year, it's held in Corvallis. It's going to be noisy tomorrow. Call it the Mud Bowl, call it the Toilet Bowl- there's a reason Oregonians name their teams after prey animals.

Still, I did get two days of uninterupted peace and quiet.

Sum the Costs...

...of the following (in inflation-adjusted dollars):

• Louisiana Purchase
• The New Deal
• Marshall Plan
• Korean War
• Vietnam War
• Moon Shot
• S&L Crisis
• Iraq War
• All-time NASA Budget

...and compare it to the (current estimate of the) cost of the 2008 Bailout.(Full Size Here, Original Source) Wouldn't the cost of the Moon Shot (by which I'm assuming we mean the Saturn Program) be a part of NASA's all-time budget? Of course, I'm nit-picking, but what the heck, nits are in season and they're tasty. Aside from the obvious- the jaw dropping amount of money we're talking about here- I was also surprised to see how close the Iraq costs were to the Vietnam cost.

And, Washington, if you happen to read this, even though I've lost a lot of weight this past couple of years, you should know that I'm too big to fail too.

Morons International

And here I've been thinking the US had the global monopoly (USA! Nmber One!) Saw this a while back and recovered it as I was going through some old stuff; it's even worse than I'd remembered.

My brother-in-law went through security at Auckland domestic airport and witnessed a passenger having to fish out her nail scissors from her handbag and leave them behind. He went through security and then boarded his plane. After being seated he could smell petrol. He knew you shouldn't be able to smell petrol on a plane, because planes don't use petrol. The smell got worse and eventually he got the attention of one of the flight attendants. They started to look around to see where it was coming from. They found in the overhead compartment a chainsaw in a bag that was leaking petrol into the compartment. His plane was delayed as the owner was identified and the chainsaw removed and put with the main luggage. The owner of the chainsaw said security had stopped him but had let him through because it wasn't one of the things on their list to confiscate.

So gasoline (petrol) is a flammable liquid that you are not, under any circumstance, allowed to bring aboard an airplane. Unless, of course, you're carrying it in a chainsaw. But watch out for those nail scissors. (From Here)

Post-Turkey Exercise

Ur doin it rite:

Ur doin it rong:

Take a walk after dinner, Y'all! Hope it's a Great One!

Why Do You 'Spose the Oceans are Salty?

You've probably heard that one of the items delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) was a machine designed to recycle water... specifically, urine. Now this is a surprisingly complex task, considering that the recovered water needs to meet... ummm... fairly demanding standards of quality. That is, the astronauts will be drinking the machine's output.

On one hand, though we tend not to think about it, we all do this. But we have natural systems that take care of the processes for us: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, uptake of nitrates and other compounds by bacteria, filtration by natural sediments, flocculation by various electrochemical processes, and destruction of potentially pathogenic organisms by phages, to name a few. We also have processing plants that remove most of the undesirable materials in our sewage before we release it into the environment. Finally, we have enough inhabitable volume that we can entertain the illusion of an "open," unlimited system. The earth system is, in fact, for all intents and purposes, closed, and the vast bulk of what we consume- eating, drinking, breathing- has been through countless other organisms over the course of eath's history. But on the ISS, the inhabitable space is very limited; there is no room for illusions, let alone a functioning ecosystem that can cycle materials such that the output of each component matches and meets the needs for input by another component. It's wonderous to consider that we live in a world where this is so- but on the ISS, they need to have a machine that takes care of this.

On the other hand, I guess I wouldn't really have wanted to be involved in the development of such a machine. (Warning: language NSFW; hat tip to ScienceBlog)

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Oh, By the Way, Which One's Pink?

I like funnies. And puns. This works for me.
From this post, and here's the front. And here's another from the same site that I had almost forgotten; this goes nicely with my "Teach the Controversy" Table of Elements on the sidebar. Not a busy place, and I too often don't get the references, but it's funny when I do.

Formican Architecture

I showed this to a friend, and he wants me to post it. You betcha! The good stuff starts about halfway through- the first part is breathless voice-over that I basically won't tolerate any more. The general gist is that researchers filled an ant colony with concrete, let it set, then excavated the cast. The whole thing reminds me of the alien architecture from the Alien series of movies; the architecture itself has an organic aspect.

Many of the comments are about how horrid scientists are for destroying this colony. Sorry, they're ants. If they were in your house or even in your yard, you wouldn't hesitate to wipe them out. In this case, we come to understand them a little better- which we don't with pest extermination.

Stuff We Take for Granted...

...is, more often than not, pretty amazing, if someone helps us think about it. For example, when was the last time you considered the reading head of your hard drive? Yeah, I don't tend to think a whole lot about it either. However, as I said...

The dimensions of the head are impressive. With a width of less than a hundred nanometers and a thickness of about ten, it flies above the platter at a speed of up to 15,000 RPM, at a height that’s the equivalent of 40 atoms. If you start multiplying these infinitesimally small numbers, you begin to get an idea of their significance. Consider this little comparison: if the read/write head were a Boeing 747, and the hard-disk platter were the surface of the Earth:

*The head would fly at Mach 800 [Mach 1 is the speed of sound- 800 times that]
*At less than one centimeter from the ground
*And count every blade of grass
*Making fewer than 10 unrecoverable counting errors in an area equivalent to all of Ireland.

From here. Amazing. Just. Freaking. Amazing.

MOMMYYYY! Mr. Krugman's Scaring Me Again!

Meant to pass this along Saturday, but catching up with unread stuff, new stuff, and so on... it was a productive weekend in terms of input, but little to show for it on the blog. My brother finds Krugman's columns tedious and simplistic. I'll grant that his columns are repetitive (how many times did he warn about the liquidity trap, and how many times has he now told us that we're in that trap), and aimed at those with a basic, but only basic, understanding of economics. As it happens, that's basically where I am. Furthermore, my brother's philosophical leaning is toward Friedman; Krugman is more a disciple of Keynes. He told me last spring that Keynsian economic thought had basically been discredited- though you wouldn't know it to look at the various "stimulus packages," bailouts, and attempts to shore up credit availability that we've seen since then.

While the column I linked up front is a few days old, the issues are going to be with us for a while. One of the things that I find fascinating about economics is just how much it shares with geology. The fundamentally important ideas are actually pretty simple, but recursive feedbacks create a chaotic system that can look very confusing to someone who hasn't developed an intuitive sense of how the whole thing works (with respect to economics, I'm not there; I have to stop and think about things that initiates gloss over with "Now, obviously...). Another parallel is when someone, an expert, says "this seems likely," you pay attention. When someone says "this is what will happen," my inclination is to dismiss the person as a crank who has no idea of the limitations inherent in the discipline. When Krugman says this is what's happening, and this, this, and this are the likely consequences, it's scary.

Also wanted to pass along Krugman's blog, for those inclined to a bit more meat than one finds in his columns.

Oh. Really?

There's a quiz on "Civic Literacy" that's all the rage out there on the innertubez; I've seen it noted in maybe seven or eight blogs. I expected I would probably do better than average (around 50%), maybe in the 75% range if I was lucky. I got every question right! Now there were several where I could only eliminate one or two answers, then guess between the remaining choices, and a couple more where I was able to eliminate all but the correct answer. But still, this was pretty much a surprise to me. I've always felt like a competent learner, though I've never cared much about "grades." But when test time comes around, I consistently seem to know more than I think I do.

Another interesting point that's made in the discussion of the test and its results: test-takers who claimed to have held elected positions scored consistently and substantially lower than those who haven't held such positions. So how many times did shrub take the test before he finally finished?

Geology Equals Politics?

Yesterday, I posted on "The Black Belt: How Soil Types Determined the 2008 Election in the Deep South," a fascinating discussion of how geology led to a distinct demographic and political pattern in the southern states. The author, Christian McNeil, has posted on a similar trend today in "Red States and Red Clay." Joking and snarkiness aside, this really is fascinating. Geologists know "in their gut" how fundamentally rocks shape people and culture, but most often we don't have the background in geography, history, and sociology, nor familarity with the literature, to firmly make the connections that this fellow has.

Must-read stuff.

Mini-meme

I have little to no use for Meyers-Briggs nonsense, but this spontaneous meme has taken root in the geoblogosphere. Guess I'll play along.

Apparently, I'm a "doer."

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things
around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical
outdoor activities. The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves
their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on
starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with
sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

I can't figure out how to copy or embed the "brain activity" image. Oh well.

The analyzer site is here; paste the URL of your blog into the appropriate spot, and click the button. I'll go through and find other participants, and link them eventually. I'd like to do a little reading first.

Followup: Other victims of the hoax... I mean, participants: David, Bryan, Silver Fox, the apparent instigator, Suvrat. That's all I'm finding right now.

One Adam Twelve, One Adam Twelve

I was asked about this character yesterday- I hadn't seen him around. But apparently he's been seen in the neighborhood of my favorite coffee shop. Anyone with information should contact the the number in the following article.

The Oregon State Police are asking for help in finding a person of interest in connection with attempted unlawful entry to Oregon State University residence halls. Jacob Miley Butler, 27, is described as 6 feet 1 and about 320 pounds, with brown hair, blue eyes and numerous tattoos on his arms, said Lt. Jeff Lanz, a state police spokesman. Butler may be posing as a tattoo artist. He carries a cane. The Linn County Sheriff's Office has warrants for his arrest on probation violation and failure to register as a sex offender.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Oregon State University Department of Public Safety at 541-737-3010.

This is not someone I want hanging around, OK? OK. I'm going home now. Really.

One More Last Thought Before Heading Home

There's an old cartoon, which I think I've seen in numerous versions, with a gender-nonspecific kid asking the Mom, "But which one is the opposite sex?" It strikes me that the 21st century version of this should be "But which one is the safe sex?"

How Geology Swayed the Election

The above map, from the NY Times, shows the county by county results from the Nov. 5 elections.

Via Kottke. I seem to remember seeing something about this somewhere, but I don't know if the geoblogosphere has picked it up: the headline to the above-linked post is "Obama elected by "rich loamy soils" of Cretaceous seas." The article linked there has the somewhat less dramatic title, "The Black Belt: How Soil Types Determined the 2008 Election in the Deep South." In the article, the author, Christian McNeil, argues that the original designation "black belt" was in reference to the soil color. But this also corresponded to areas where slavery was most profitable, thus where the most were owned, and thus where the most cotton was produced. So following the Civil War, "the term seems to be used wholly in a political sense - that is, to designate the counties where the black people outnumber the white." (quotation from a linked article by Tullo)

So the soil type determined the distribution of African-Americans, which determined the political direction of county-by-county votes. What determined the soil type? Soil is a complex result of climate, the biosphere... and of course, rocks. Below is a map of the Selma Chalk, a Creataceous rock formation. So for those of you non-geology types who didn't already know it, Geology Rules! Even more striking is the correlation between the Cretaceous shoreline (as reconstructed by Professor of Geology Ron Blakey at the University of Northern Arizona- link within article) and the political map that leads this post. But I'm going to make you link through to see that one. As an aside, and not to toot my own horn, I had mentioned to someone else that the correlation between the pattern of voting in the south and the Appalachian-Ouachita structure was sort of odd- but I didn't take it any further than that. Mr McNeil has, and the result is fascinating.

Followup: after looking over more of the posts in this blog, I have happily subscribed. It's an interesting mix of geography, history, biology and environmental science. I've been trying to drop many of my more voluminous but less interesting subscriptions, and this blogger posts less, but each post is quite interesting. A keeper.

Scary But True

more charts
Much as Prop H8 angered and disappointed me, I do think it's only a matter of time. I do not pretend to understand homosexuality- but I don't pretend to understand what it's like being a woman, or black, or Jewish, or a Muslim either. I think there are many pragmatic arguments in favor of gay marriage, but ultimately it's more of an issue of principle than anything else. And I do think that we have come to understand that separate (civil unions) is not equal. We'll get this right.

One Last Thought Before Heading Home

"An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says “You’re all idiots”, and pours two beers." Hat Tip to Talk Like a Physicist

My New Word For the Day

Monorchic. Generally speaking, consideration of others' genitals is not something I spend a whole lot of time on, but this is oddly amusing. Overcompensation, anyone?

Obama Administration Takes Shape

The NYT has published a story that "Daschle to Be Nominee for Health Post in Obama Cabinet." This was really the post that I was hoping Hillary would get. There's no doubt that she was in part to blame for the health care debacle in '93, but the real blame goes to the rethugs who were not, not, I tell you, not going to allow the Clinton White House anything that might make the American people happier with the prexy. And further blame goes to the insurance companies and HMO's that saw their cash cow being led to the slaughterhouse: Big Gummint's gonna take away your power of CHOICE! Never mind that for a growing number of people (then and still growing) the amount of choice was exactly zero. The estimate is that 22,000 people die every year because they have no available health care. According to a recent study, 54% of patients with chronic health problems skip medication and treatement because of cost concerns. For those with health insurance that number falls to 47%. Some Choice. As the Times said in an Editorial yesterday, the US is "The wrong place to be chronically ill," and "The care they received in this country — or more often did not receive — ought to be a cause for shame."

The point is that HRC had the better health plan during the campaign, and her plan during '93, while cumbersome and complicated-looking, was better still. I think she has learned an awful lot about how to make things happen over the last 15 years, and that Health and Human Services is really more of her "thing" than foreign affairs. Furthermore, I think either Richardson or Kerry (not as strong on the latter) would be better in State.

On the other hand, as one blogger or commenter remarked elsewhere (I'd like to give an attribution, but I'm not sure I could find it- so I'm paraphrasing), the Clintons are very good at drawing Repiglican fury and obstruction- and succeeding despite that. So having Hillary in a high-profile cabinet position could serve much the same purpose as having a high-profile lightning rod.

Seizure

A week ago, I posted on Life in a Geode (the actual title of the work is "Seizure"). The Telegraph UK has published an article about the walk-in artwork today. It really does sound cool, but it's a bit out of my way. But for my visitors from the UK (and I do get a surprising number), here is some info: Seizure can be seen at 157 Harper Road, London SE1 until 30 November 2008, Thursday-Saturday 11am-5pm. Please note Seizure is closed Monday-Wednesday. Admission is free.

In my first post, I pointed out that copper sulfate is somewhat toxic- it should be treated with respect, but not terror. So I was pleased to see in the article that visitors are required to wear rubber boots and gloves. A dampened dust mask wouldn't be a bad idea either, but at least they're taking some precautions. There is also a video in the article, with some great imagery once you get past the talking heads that take up the first half of the 2 1/2 minute clip.

Any Other Questions?

Google has implemented a snarky new service, Let Me Google That For You. Suppose someone e-mails you a question he could have answered for himself in a fraction of the time it took to send the e-mail, such as "What does snarky mean?" I go to LMGTFY, type in "snarky meaning" and get this link, which I can then send back to my questioner. I doubt I'll ever have occasion to use this; first, nearly everyone I know has the sense to use Google when appropriate. Second, I do get less-than-informed questions from time to time, but not over e-mail. And god knows I have asked some dumb questions in my time. If there is a genuine lack of information, I'm happy to offer whatever I know. If it's just a question asked without thought, no need to be a jerk about it. Which brings me to the third reason I'll probably never use it: it really is pretty snarky. I like snark as much as anyone, but I really don't like directing it towards people, just out at the world in general, and to abstractly bitch about the state of things. I don't wish to offend, just to gripe. If you haven't already, click on the second link, and see if you don't agree.

Followup: Received this in the comments, and thought it should be up front with the main part of the post: "Hi. Thanks for blogging about the site. I just wanted to let you know that it is in no way associated with Google. Please see the "About" link at the bottom of the site." I found this at the Google Blogoscoped site, and going back to the original post, it clearly says in the last line, "... and nope, neither site is an official Google site." My bad. And you have to admit, it does look like Google. Which is why it's so funny.

Like I Didn't Already Know This

Took a quiz yesterday, and learned that...

Background information (logic and reasoning behind the questions) here (quiz is linked at the end of the discussion, or just click the pic above). Ozma is actually very friendly and hasn't drawn blood for weeks. We're going to have to have a heart to heart on the porch door soon. Today was beautiful, near 60 and sunny, but it's getting cold.

BRRRRR!

That's cold! (Telegraph UK)

Some time earlier this month, Nasa's Phoenix Lander slipped into a cold-induced
coma in the Arctic wastes of the Red Planet. With the onset of winter, the Sun
dropped low in the sky, and the temperature fell to -1,300C at night.

Apparently the Phoenix Lander's (see here, here and here) greatest contribution to science had nothing to do with Mars; it has totally rewritten everything we thought we knew about thermodynamics. No wonder the poor thing shut down.

Math and Logic

In a recent post, Confusion in the Bible Belt, I posted what I think is the funniest pie chart I've ever seen. Dean Wormer commented that his favorite was one that compared "Pie I have Eaten" to "Pie I have not yet eaten." As it happens, BuzzFeed posted that chart today; other similar examples in comments at the link.Not only is it funny, I think it might provide a good tool to help younger students understand the idea of a pie chart. The same site (which, yes, I have been spending waaay too much time with) also published a proof yesterday that circular reason works:For those who enjoy a good op-ed cartoon, there is an example in the comments using this logic to explain our policy regarding Iraq.

One is Science Fiction...

and one isn't. From Dark Roasted Blend. Full-size here.
It's the one above, right? Nope. That is Anara Tower, apparently planned for construction in Dubai. More pictures and information here and here. The wind turbine at the top is supposed to supply some of the building's electricity, and overall the building is supposed to be almost self-sufficient. Oh and that weird little blimpy-looking thing at the middle of the turbine? At 700 meters off the ground, it's a restaurant. Architecture and design by Atkins Global; skimming over their site, I'm not seeing links to this or other incredible projects, but wow.

No the science fiction is below: detailed picture of various light sabres in the Star Wars Epic. Full-size here.

Followup: I've been meaning to pass this item along for a while, and this is an appropriate post in which to do it. Ridley Scott, Director of Bladerunner, has been tagged to do what looks to be the next epic Fail: Monopoly, The Movie, with an eye toward giving it a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic “Blade Runner.” If you've seen Blade Runner, remember Rutger Hauer's closing speech, then go read this fellow's take. If you haven't, he helpfully included a YouTube clip. I consider Blade Runner to be the greatest SF Movie I've ever seen, but how could Ridley Scott take on a commercialization of a game? Bleah.

Strange Bunkmates

Looks like Christine Todd Whitman came to the same conclusion I have, but beat me to it by a number of years. I actually like smart, honest Republicans. I just wish more of them could be nominated by their party.

How Shub Saved Saakashvili

From The Times Online (UK)

With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia’s Government. According to Mr Levitte, the Russian seemed unconcerned by international reaction. "I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls," Mr Putin declared.

Mr Sarkozy thought he had misheard. "Hang him?" — he asked. "Why not?" Mr Putin replied. "The Americans hanged Saddam Hussein."

Mr Sarkozy, using the familiar tu, tried to reason with him: "Yes but do you want to end up like [President] Bush?" Mr Putin was briefly lost for words, then said: "Ah — you have scored a point there."

I can imagine this being a very persuasive argument for would-be dictators. And for parents. "Eat your broccoli. Or do you want to end up like George Bush?"

Percussive Maintainence:

(n.) 1: The act of slapping or pounding a machine that is not functioning properly.

Dis kitteh haz it down. Hmmm... embedding doesn't seem to be working; here's a link to the host page.

Hat tip to The Angry Ballerina

The Whole of the Moon

Dean Wormer has posted a list of songs he wants played at his funeral. As I commented at that post, I'd never thought about a list, but I've had one song picked out since the mid '80's. This one.

More Water

Oddee has a post on "10 Most Unique Lakes of our World." I was blown away by the first choice, the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, a series of sixteen lakes connected by waterfalls. I don't think I've seen pictures of this before. The multiple outlets are kind of odd, and I'm wondering if this isn't an area of calcite deposition. Erosion would tend to emphasize one outlet, and more flow would tend to positively reinforce that. Deposition would tend to restrict outlets, causing overflow elsewhere. Whatever the cause, it's gorgeous.

Oh, and number nine is a few hours down the road from me, but photos can't capture the surreal sapphire blue of that lake.

The title is due to a realization of how many water-related posts I've had over the last few days. Kind of ironic, now that the rain has stoppped and the sun's out.

Life in a Geode

When I taught the occasional class for youngsters (elementary level), one activity I often did was egg-shell geodes: take a washed eggshell, hopefully half the shell or more, and fill it to the brim with saturated copper sulfate solution. As the solution cools and evaporates, you get beautiful blue crystals filling the shell over a period of days. Copper sulfate is not hugely toxic, but you don't want to breathe the dust or ingest any of it- and with this age group you need to make it very clear what the ground rules are regarding safety concerns. I generally asked parents to send in a note allowing the student to take their geode home, or (for some of the summer camp-type of classes), simply hand it off to the parent at the end.

So the dust created as spectators tramp around in this project is a bit of a concern to me, but still... very cool! Full discussion and video at the linked site.

For you geo-types, does copper sulfate ever crystallize as a mineral in the weathering zone above copper sulfide deposits? I don't think I've ever seen it listed as a mineral, but I would think it might occasionally be left behind in arid environments, such as the southern Arizona copper belt. Also, the name I remember for such weathering zones is "gossan," but in googling that term, it apparently applies specifically to iron oxide/hydroxide weathering remnants. What term would you apply to weathered copper deposits containing the typical suite of malachite, azurite, chrysocolla and so on?

Followup: Bunch more pictures here

Followup Wed. 11/19: Here

He's Older Than He Looks

Baroque Obama, from BuzzFeed

Some Things Just Make You Feel Old

From BuzzFeed
Remember this album? Yeah, that's the same kid whose photo was on the first version.

Confusion in the Bible Belt

Greatest Graph Jam EVAR!

more music charts
I linked to this site a while back ('scuse me while I go find the link), but this is genius and I had to share. Also, there's an old joke you may not have heard...

Q: Did you hear about the agnostic dyslexic insomniac?
A: He used to lay awake at night wondering if there was a dog.

Followup: It occured to me that another concern a dyslexic evangelical might have is "How many angles can dance on the head of a pin?"

World Ground Water Resources

There's a new, very cool map of world groundwater resources (4.4 Mb PDF). I heartily loathe PDF's, but this is an interesting map. In addition to the main map there are four inset maps of mean annual precipitation, population density, mean annual river discharge and annual groundwater recharge per capita. Legend is in the lower right. News release-type of article at New Scientist.

As the article explains, this is a much more serious issue than most people realize. After air, there is no more important resource for sustaining life. Living in the western US, one cannot help but be aware of the role water has played in shaping the history of the area; even though the area I live is pretty well set regarding water, I only have to travel a couple of hours to get to some very dry climates. As I said yesterday, I do like my water.

Geology Haiku

I haven't made a habit of participating in "memes," but there's one going around the geoblogosphere today that I decided to try my hand at: geology haiku.

high on a mountain
dark eocene volcanoes
sleeping in pillows

Well, I like it. I don't have a digital camera, and all my slides were destroyed a few years ago, so I lifted this photo from flickr. It's over on the coast, but I'm pretty sure it's the same Siletz River Volcanics that underlie Marys Peak, just to the west of me.
On a related note, it's funny how what seems mundane and common to one person can seem exciting and exotic to another. Zeolites are pretty abundant around here, but visitors really light up when they find a nice chunk of crystals. And I was pretty excited when this paper came out towards the tail end of my undergrad degree. (3.35 Mb PDF)

This meme was incited by Suvrat, and has been also addressed by MJC Rocks. Here's hoping others chime in.

Followup: Others Chiming In: Kim Bryan JJ A Life-Long Scholar Silver Fox Dave S. Short Geologist

Wow, there's some great ones out there!

And more (11/17): Neat Rox Chris

I Know How Hard it is to Put Food On Your Family

And other remembrances. As an ex-teacher, my favorite has been "If you teach a child to read, he or her can pass a literacy test." Simultaneously proving that he would be unable to pass his much-beloved tests, and that he has entirely missed the point (as well as the benefit) of being literate.

The following has been circulating all over the blogosphere today, from here.

Obama thinks he is a good talker, but he is often undisciplined when he speaks.
He needs to understand that as President, his words will be scrutinized and will
have impact whether he intends it or not. In this regard, President Bush is an
excellent model; Obama should take a lesson from his example. Bush never gets
sloppy when he is speaking publicly. He chooses his words with care and
precision, which is why his style sometimes seems halting. In the eight years he
has been President, it is remarkable how few gaffes or verbal blunders he has
committed. If Obama doesn't raise his standards, he will exceed Bush's total
before he is inaugurated.

See, this is why I'll never be able to vote for a Republican. I'm fascinated by Eisenhower, Lincoln, Garfield (more on the latter some other time). But you can't just ignore the fact that even if you think Iraq is the noblestest thing ever, Bush's eloquence rates somewhere between that of a mollusk and a planarian. Obama will make mistakes, and he's already done several things of which I deeply disapprove (telecom immunity, anyone?). But to say Obama should take lessons on elocution and verbal precision from Shrub? I think the correct spelling is PHBBBBBBBBBT!

Another oft-remarked item that got under my skin was this one, from MSNBC

WASHINGTON - A Republican congressman from Georgia said Monday he fears that President-elect Obama will establish a Gestapo-like security force to impose a
Marxist dictatorship. "It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Whatever. The reason I even bring this up is that I saw the Grrrreatest (in your best Tony the Tiger Voice) response to this at Just an Earthbound Misfit. Nicely said, EB, nicely said.

Phirehose Photo

Consider this a followup to my post earlier today. We get into set-ups like this a two or three times each winter... the satellite pics show this long torrent of water just streaming right at us. Very cool. One not-so-good thing that I forgot to mention earlier is that the first part of the storm will drop a lot of snow in the Cascades (the Coast Range isn't high enough to get any real accumulation at this point). Tomorrow, freezing level will go way up, and a lot of that fresh snow will melt. Flooding may ensue; we'll see. The main worry right now seems to be flooding on the west side of the Coast Range. Rainfall so far is approaching two inches. Bill just got back from spending the day in Newport (on the coast directly west of Corvallis), and said it was windy, but the amount of rainfall wasn't that extreme.

From here:

The system that's moving in this afternoon has tapped into a pool of tropical
moisture and could dump an additional inch or two of rain in the Willamette
Valley, and five to eight inches of rain in the Coast range and Cascade
foothills.

If you don't click over, the title to that article is, "You know the drill: More rain, more wind, possible flooding." Yup, we know the drill.

You know, I was looking at this, and it was taken in the same band at the same time as the third picture in the post linked above; I think it may be just the direction the camera is pointed that changed. Ahh, no, I just double checked; this was taken an hour earlier.

Followup: Oops, this picture was taken yesterday. It's the same as the first picture in the previous post. Duh.

Gotta Love Google

And their wicked sense of advertising. A few weeks ago the spammers found my account- I almost never got any notes in my spam box before then, and most of those were confirmation notices that I wanted. But now, 10-15 spams a day. And Google helpfully sticks a Spam recipe advertisement at the top. Spam veggie pitas- slice before serving. Spam Primavera - Toss with linguini, serve immediately. Mmm, Mmm! I don't know if I ever want to eat again. It was widely said when I was a youngster (and I believed it) that Spam was an acronym for "scientifically processed animal matter." Actually, I'm surprised that Spam allows their product to be associated with spam.

On the plus side, I've been winning millions of Euros and dollars every single day.

Which brings me to this story...

Woman ends up sending $400,000 to 'Nigerian scam' con artists

Apparently some poor sap from Sweet Home (across the valley, in the Cascade foothills) actually fell for that scam... yeah, the one that was well known when I started using the innertubez in '94. The teaser in my reader says,

How did an otherwise lucid, intelligent woman end up sending nearly half a
million dollars to a bunch of con artists running what has to be one of the
best-known Internet scams in the world?

Well, could be, umm, maybe... she's not a lucid, intelligent woman! Duh! Following are some excerpts:

Spears received just such an e-mail, promising her that she’d get $20.5
million if she would only help out a long-lost relative – identified in the
e-mail as J.B. Spears – with a little money up front. "That's what got me to
believe it," Spears said.

(break)

Then the amount she would get jumped up to $26.6 million – if she would
just send $8,300. Spears sent the money. More promises and teases of
multi-millions followed, with each one dependent on her sending yet more money.
Most of the missives were rife with misspellings. When Spears began to
doubt the scam, she got letters from the President of Nigeria, FBI Director
Mueller, and President Bush. Terrorists could get the money if she did not help,
Bush’s letter said. Spears continued to send funds. All the letters were fake,
of course.

(break)

For more than two years, Spears sent tens and hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and
bank officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted.

Well. My brother often laments that people never say "well, it's a free country," any more. Well, It's a free country. But when the well-meaning folks at the society for the Prevention of Taking Advantage of Idiotic Tendencies and Other Eccentric Shortcomings (POTAITOES) starts up a fund to reimburse this poor soul for all her suffering, I will be in line to help out big-time. All they need to do is send me $100 so I can buy and assemble the circuits for the wire transfer.

Rain, Rain, Here to Stay

They say "April showers bring May Flowers." "They" don't live in Oregon. Here we say "November showers bring dead leaves." Our flowers start in early February, but I'll save that for later. We've had an unusually dry fall so far; last year the rain started in early October; at this point we were well into "winter." We just started getting drizzle a week and a half ago (that is, the sun went away and the ground was damp- you could still walk around and not really get wet most of the time). But the Oregonian warned yesterday we had a major storm (or series of storms, it's often not really clear) on the way in for today and Wednesday.

Oddly, because we've had a dry and calm fall, so far, those dead leaves are a real concern: they're mostly still up in the trees. In the next 36 hours or so, there will be an enormous amount of wet organic debris falling... making the roads slick... blocking gutters and drains. There's a reason our sports teams are called Beavers and Ducks. My friend Bob would argue that only in Oregon would we name our teams after prey animals. I would prefer to think we are well-adapted to lacustrine environments, which is what our streets become with a sudden shift from dry, cool and calm weather to wet, cool and blustery weather. From an article today:

The weather service issued a high wind watch for the north and central Oregon
coast through tonight with gusts to near 60 mph expected to rake exposed
headlands and beaches and sustained winds of 40 mph. Urban street flooding also
is a distinct possibility, Collins said, because of storm drains choked with
leaves.

This map suggests we'll get about 2 inches today; The Weather Channel predicts 1 inch today, 1 inch tonight, for a total of 2 inches.
And this map predicts we'll get about 1 1/2 inches tomorrow. The weather channel predicts 1 inch for tomorrow- but they're not including tomorrow night with that. More is predicted (though decreasing) for Thursday.

Today's article refers to this as a "Fire-Hose" storm; this GOES west visible image shows why- this was taken yesterday at 21:30 UTC (1:30 PM local time)

This is an infrared image from the same satellite at 22:30 UTC today (2:30 PM local); you can see the stream from the "fire hose" splashing into the coast.

And this is the visible light image, taken at the same time as the previous IR picture. The IR is lighter where it's cooler, so really what you see in that image is where the cloud tops are higher. Higher elevation means more intense uplift of the air mass, and correlates pretty well to most intense precipitation. It also helps bring out the internal structure of the storm.

So far today, we've had just a steady soaking rain- and when I say "today," the rain started at about 12:30 or 1:00 this morning (passing cars make a very distinct sound on wet pavement, so even if I don't look outside, I'm aware it's wet). Nothing too heavy, just steady. The wind has been pretty gentle so far, as well. But as I look out the window of my favorite coffee shop, the leaves are piling up in the bike lanes...

And if you're feeling smug, "I'm glad I don't have to put up with that rain," it'll get to you. But instead of being gentle, at 55-60 degrees, it'll be a howling blizzard.

Besides, I'm a beaver. I like my dammed lakes. (no, that's not a pun; it's how the lakes are created)

Nice, nice, very nice.

All the presidents' heads. Almost forgot about this one... I found it (here) late last week. (full-sized) Nice. Very nice.

Anyone recognize the song by the same name as the post title?

The Obamas' Puppeh...

will be a Howdy Doodle, which according to the AKC is a "cross between a standard poodle and a buck-toothed marionette."

OK, not really.

In other news, Blooger, I mean Blogger, has for some reason seen fit to re-format my reformatting, with a resulting blue line down the middle-right of my Blog. I'll give it a while and see if it gets better on its own. If not, I'll have to go in and start tinkering with the code. Note to Blooger, I mean Blogger: You do not want me tinkering with code. My first experience with that was during a visit to a serene Pacific Island called Bikini. I crashed the system pretty badly...

Pastoral Spaghetti Harvest

I had heard of this broadcast many times before, in lists of great April Fool's pranks, hoaxes, and so on. It is hard to think anyone took it seriously, but apparently hundreds called the BBC asking for information on how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. Hat Tip to Buzz Feed.

Climbing FAIL!

I really enjoy Bad Astronomy. If I remember correctly, the blog got started in large part criticizing the horrendous "science" in movies, primarily science fiction: hence the name. Its author is Phil Plait, who is now a professional astronomer... but still finds time to put together a fascinating and entertaining blog. I mentioned it to Rawley this morning, regarding an amazing deep sky image he had posted on.

Just a bit ago, he posted a great video of a drunk squirrel. Good giggles.

It's Friday night. Imagine hundreds of these. Now imagine they're boisterous college students looking to get laid. You're imagining the neighborhood I live in.

But college students don't instinctively climb, thank goodness.

Finally

I had heard that David Rheinhard was retiring from The Oregonian, and was not too displeased. I try to keep informed of conservative perspectives and thinking, but have no interest in shrill conservative soundbites. Rheinhard had polished to perfection the right-wing pundits' skills at the latter and demonstrated exactly zero of the former. I'm willing to listen to and consider different perspectives and thought. I have no time for nor interest in regurgitations of Rush Limbaugh's scripts.

So today I was pleased to read, finally, a column of Rheinhard's that I actually enjoyed. His last. Following are a couple of fun excerpts.

I wanted to be a newspaper columnist in the worst way, and no doubt many readers would say I achieved just that goal early in my career here.

I'm sure this is intentionally ironic, but yes, he was a columnist. In the worst possible way.

One story: Some months after I arrived here I was at my desk one morning that
my column ran. The phone rang. I braced myself, but the man on the other end of
the line could not have been more complimentary about my offering that day. I was
new to the trade, insecure as an opinion columnist can be, and ready to listen
to this wise reader.
"You really should be syndicated ..." he said.
Isn't that what every young columnist wants to hear?
"Your writing reminds me of George Will's ..." Oh, merciful heavens, George Will is one of my idols.
"... except that your writing is easier to understand ..." Yes, yes, yes. Exactly. My one criticism of Will's work was his baroque, mannered prose. My head was spinning. A feeling of well-being washed over me. Was this a great gig or what?
"Do you mind if I make one suggestion?" No, no, my good man, suggest away. I've got all day for readers like you. Go right ahead.
"Do you think The Oregonian could devote more space to UFO sightings?"

Sadly, many of Rheinhard's positions were more looney than the recent headlines, Aliens Suspected of Stealing Mt. Hood. UFO sightings were clearly too mundane for him. Goodnight, David.

Looks Like We Got 'er Back in "D"

see Pundit Kitchen
I have a couple more politiposts to get up, but I'm so relieved, and so happy, for so many reasons. But I need to spend more time on what I love most: science generally, geology especially. I look forward to getting back to it, but like I say, I'm not quite done gibbering about poitics yet.

How McCain Pulled It Off

Oh, yeah... that's right. He didn't.

Heh.

Why McCain Lost

• Bush
• Palin
• Rove
• Sound bites over substance

He never separated himself substantively from the idiocy of the first, however often he may have stated that he was a change from Bush. He actively chose and promoted the idiocy of the second, likewise the poisonous tactics of the third. Finally, rather than running as the true "maverick," he bought into the Republican platform hook, line and sinker. This was presumably to solidify the "base," but showed a lack of understanding that this is a period of crisis in our country. We the people want thinking outside the box, away from SOP, because SOP hasn't worked out so well. I'm a little concerned that Barack will bow to convention too easily, but to my mind he was so superior to McCain that there was no consideration of "choice" on my part.

A Few Laughs to Take the Edge Off...

the final 30 hours. I'm going to visit with Bill and Iris tomorrow evening to watch the results come in; whatever happens, it will be an emotional, exhausting night. My ballot is in, so I can ignore the news until next Monday or so, when the 2012 campaign is scheduled to kick off.

Piraro, whose comics I've posted a couple of times, put up a couple today that he invited his readers to share. Who am I to say no to Pirarro?

Michael Palin wasn't (despite my first impression) McCain's VP choice. However, a couple of guys out of LA have been running a Silly Party Campaign to get him elected President... no, seriously. The Silly Party.

During the course of this campaign, they have sent me a number of e-mail updates helping me follow Palin's successes. If you're still undecided, you should absolutely vote a straight silly party ticket. If they're not listed on your ballot, write them in. Following are some excerpts from e-mails, tracking key events in the campaign.

(September 25)

Dear Lockwood,

All hail to the Silly Party!

Due to the current economic crisis, theMichael Palin for President campaign
has been temporarily suspended....

...

...and now it's been un-suspended, so please continue campaigning as normal. More than 492,000 people have now viewed the Michael Palin for President video. We expect to pass half a million views in the next day, before proceeding rapidly to half a million and one. Thanks once again to all of you who've told your friends about the video and helped turn our goofy little idea into a worldwide phenomenon. Because of you, we're this month's #1 MOST VIEWED COMEDY VIDEO in the U.K. and #44 worldwide.

Keep it up!

According to the London Times, the video is "spreading like wildfire on the internet." Apparently the internet is composed mostly of dry grasses, and the fire is blamed on the combination of record heat and "winds of change," whatever those are. Republican firefighters are attempting to quell the blaze with little success.

According to the Daily Telegraph, "Republicans have said they expect Democrat party activists to be behind the video as part of a 'dirty tricks' campaign."

Which is 100% accurate, if you simply replace the words "Democrat party activists" with the words"two middle-aged (though charmingly boyish) Monty Python geeks from L.A. who aren't particularly political but may just possibly have a bit too much time on their hands."

(October 9)

Fellow Prisoners (ooh what a giveaway!)...

The Silly Party continues to dominate in the debates. Our strategy: victory by virtue of not being there.

Through the act of strategic absence, Michael Palin has rendered it completely impossible for the other candidates to refute anything he says.

Genius!

Michael Palin is in fact gaining ground by the moment in both swing states and, more importantly, SWONG states, where our paid "vote tabulator" from Diebold is making sure everything is being done legally and that we will win no matter what.

(October 28)

Dear Lockwood,

Since our last newsletter, we at the Silly Party have been seriously considering changing our name to the Silly But Not Nearly As Silly As The Republicans Party.

Between Not-Joe the Not-Plumber, the $150,000 shopping spree and the brilliantly clever "accidentally say the wrong words to insult your own constituents" campaign, the Republicans are rapidly proving themselves to be very silly indeed.

Which is why we're proposing that in future elections, all debates should be replaced with bouts of Fish Slapping, in which candidates must engage in all-out, to-the-death battle using only herring, bream, mackerel, salmon, poached salmon, poached salmon in a white wine sauce, and pre-packaged sardines.

Here, at long last, are the results of our enormously popular "What Should Michael Palin do to Resolve the Critical Issues of Our Time?" Survey and our even more enormously popular "Who Should be in Michael Palin's Cabinet?" Survey.

Critical Issues/Party Platform Results...

--The Economy: BLACKMAIL! Threaten to expose the truth about Dick Cheney's affair with Sarah Palin unless Halliburton donates all of its profits to Social Security.

--Foreign Policy: Retrain all United States military personnel in the lost arts of "marching up and down the square" and "close order swanning-about."

--The Environment: Hire notorious highwayman Dennis Moore to plant 800 billion Lupins in the American southwest in order to release massive amounts of oxygen into the atmosphere.

Cabinet Posts Results...

--Secretary of Defense: Brigadier Arthur Gormanstrop (Mrs.) (Deceased)

--Secretary of State: Terry Gilliam, in the role of Cardinal Fang

...and finally...

Vice President: John Cleese! (Like there was ever any doubt.)

(November 3)

Dear Lockwood,

The somewhat important 2008 election is upon us.

Silly though we may usually be, we at the Committee to Elect Michael Palin President
would like to take a moment to say, in all seriousness...

VOTE!

Vote like the wind!

Vote like you've never voted before!

Vote like your life depends on it! (It may)

Vote like the ice caps are melting! (They are)

Vote like if you don't then the Spanish Inquisition will fry you up and toss you into a Spanish Omelet!

Vote like a crazed weasel with its head on fire that has to vote in order for someone to dunk its head in a bucket of water, thus dousing the fire and eliciting a collective sigh of relief from every other potentially flammable weasel, stoat or ocelot in the vicinity.

VOTE, YOU MISERABLE BASTARD, AS IF BY DOING SO YOU CAN KEEP AN OIL-DRILLING, WOLF-KILLING, IGNORANT ALASKAN MOOSE-MUNCHER FROM EVER GETTING HER IGNORANT, WELL-MANICURED FINGER ANYWHERE NEAR THE BIG RED ARMAGEDDON BUTTON! (You can)

Ahem.

We believe we've made our point.

Your friends at the Temporarily Serious Though Usually Quite Silly Party

P.S. If you're not a U.S. citizen, please feel free
to close your eyes and vote metaphysically.

You may have heard over the weekend that Sarah Palin got pranked by a couple of Canadian DJ's pretending to be French President Nicholas Sarkozy. The following is the audio of that prank (static picture). If you're not French or Canadian, the transcript may help with some of the language and cultural references.

This dates back to the last election. I hope it's still funny on Wednesday, though some of the reports I've heard on early voting suggest it might be otherwise...



more lol celebs!


see Sarah Palin pictures


see Sarah Palin pictures


see Sarah Palin pictures


see Sarah Palin pictures


see Sarah Palin pictures

From Coyote Crossing.


see Sarah Palin pictures

And finally, this was everywhere a couple of weeks back. On the off chance you haven't seen it yet. (I don't recall where I swiped it from, but I know I saw it a dozen times or more.)

For the Record

That One- President

Jeff Merkley- US Senator

Kurt Schrader- US Representative, OR. Dist. 5

Kate Brown- Sec. State

(and I'll skip the remaining minor and local votes)

Measures

54-57: yes

I have very mixed feelings on 57, but it's set in opposition to a much worse measure in such a way that if both pass, the one with most votes is implemented. This shouldn't have been allowed to happen at all. Thanks once again, Bill Effing Sizemore! BTW, would it be constitutional to sponsor a measure barring BS from EVER submitting a measure again? Srsly!

58-65: No

Commentary: That whole thing, bubbling my ballot, sealing the secrecy envelope (which hides my ballot while my registration and signature are checked) sealing and signing the outer envelope, AND writing up this post, have taken less than half an hour so far. While drinking coffee and listening to music at my favorite coffee shop. After I post this, I'll walk two blocks to the OSU Library and drop my ballot off. Compare that to a guy who called in to CNN this afternoon after spending 3 hours standing in line in freezing weather.

Whatever your politics, most of us here in Oregon simply can't understand why every state in the country isn't implementing Vote-by-Mail.

Finally, my condolences to Barack and his family on the loss of his grandmother. Even though Hawaii is suspiciously foreign, and it was certainly a massive strategic error to visit her when you received word she was failing fast, you must be relieved that you made the right decision. Once again. I hope you apply the same wisdom and compassion to our country. While I think few would be disappointed to live to 86, to fall mere hours short of a grandson's election to President of the US (and I become more confident with each passing hour), is heartbreaking to many of us.

Again, our thoughts and hopes are with you.

For Your Halloween Delectation

Yeah, I know, technically Halloween was last night (and I saw some of the best costumes ever outside my favorite coffee shop), but I think that because it fell on a Friday this year, legally it lasts all weekend.

(Loreena McKennitt's All Souls Night) The best Halloween song you've probably never heard. There's quite a number of versions at YouTube, but the most of the ones I looked at were static pictures. Meh. This one cuts off at the end (ouch), but you get the idea. Using LOTR as the source of video kind of clashed for me at first, but I think it works- certainly the imagery fits, and the timing is great. McKennitt's "thing" is Celtic-themed music, using a large dose of middle-eastern instrumentation. The lyrics to All Souls Night combine both Celtic and Japanese imagery to create a mood and a mental picture that captures Halloween for me in a way nothing else ever has. If you click through to see the lyrics, there's a clip from (I think) the liner notes to The Visitor (the album on which the song first was issued) where McKennit expands on this wonderful fusion of Celtic and Japanese traditions of appeasing the spirits of the departed.

APOD, which I've mentioned and scited at least a couple of times has had a couple of terrific Halloween-oriented nebulae the last two days, but they're a loooong way away, so no worries.
A witch, caught in profile, staring intently at a blue star (From here)When I was young "Space Ghost" was sort of a cheesy super-hero type cartoon. This space ghost is spooky. Incidentally, if you click through, the description of this picture links to a previous post called "the witch's broom." You can also embigger both of these pictures by clicking through on the links, then clicking on the picture.

A few days ago, National Geographic had an article about the evolution of a blood-sucking moth. Apparently, there are some differences in wing coloration from the fruit-eating version, but the moth has learned? adapted? evolved? to use mouthparts designed to pierce fruit skin and consume its juice to pierce mammal skin and consume their ...um... juice. Very interesting. There is a video embedded at the link above, and below is a portrait taken at supper time.
Finally, I don't really associate tigers with Halloween, but they're big and scary, right? And they're cats, even if this one's mostly not black. And I just like the picture and the caption. The group Tangerine Dream (one of the earliest electronica groups) did an album, Tyger, on which they put a bunch of William Blake's poetry to music; Tyger is an old favorite. London is also outstanding on that album. From here.
Happy Halloween!

Followup: OOH! OOH! Looky what I found!