: : d u r a : m a t e r : :

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40709952008-04-18T00:22:29.834-04:00: : d u r a : m a t e r : :Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comBlogger376125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-88923010604332287472008-04-17T23:56:00.007-04:002008-04-18T00:22:29.873-04:00Colibri:

We saw our first hummingbird of the year today. The male scouts are here, looking for likely sites to nest and for feeding spots. Our feeders have been out for several weeks now, but the hummers are pretty consistently here around the date of last frost, April 15. It will be interesting to watch this date change as the climate shifts: 2003: April 21 2004: April 19 2005: April 19 2006: no

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-75774462321938986072008-04-08T22:46:00.001-04:002008-04-08T22:50:06.183-04:00Who's on first?

These are the types of thoughts that strike a scientist as he showers in the morning: "Hmm. I wonder which properties of numbers are base-independent?" It actually made me drop my soap. Some things, like whether a number is prime, irrational, or whether it is Pi or e or some other property or constant are most likely independent of the base one is working in. We are familiar with, and tend to

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-21086534208424848562008-04-06T14:11:00.005-04:002008-04-06T15:03:06.802-04:00SC or CA, SC or CA? Hmm...

A friend of mine from Charleston South Carolina asked me recently whether she should buy some farm property in California. She was worried about living in an earthquake zone. I spoke to her for a bit about simply being prepared for hazards, etc. but what I should have recalled is that Charleston itself is an earthquake zone. In fact, the August 31, 1886 Charleston earthquake is the largest

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-36820439361279896042008-04-03T16:01:00.004-04:002008-04-03T16:15:15.412-04:00Zip... ...zoom!

A clever fellow in Germany, Till Kredner, who co-authors the great website All the Sky, has a a great clip of the Jules Verne transport vehicle and the space station passing over Hohenzollern Castle. It's greatly sped up, and the smaller, dimmer Jules Verne ATV is in front of the International Space Station (ISS). You can just catch an airplane as it passes 'near' the departing and much brighter

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-7817950702297235312008-03-26T13:09:00.006-04:002008-03-26T13:13:58.523-04:00MS Word Misery:

Here's the latest puzzling message from the engineers in Redmond: My question is simple: "Isn't that what templates are for?" Sheesh. Yet another mis-categorized document in my files. Thanks guys, it's not as if I need any help in making messy filing systems.

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-14979883320023490802008-03-11T09:50:00.005-04:002008-03-11T12:22:18.596-04:00Legitimacy in Exchange for Mistreated Hostages:

My translation of an article from Madrid's El País newspaper. The Author is Joaquín Villalobos, who was a leader of El Salvadorean guerillas during the 1980's and 90's. January 16, 2008 When I began to learn about the Colombian conflict, I found it hard to believe that the FARC commanders travelled around in air-conditioned cars, and that their camps had many comforts. I was also surprised

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-63578895178035052242008-03-10T15:58:00.003-04:002008-03-10T16:12:57.083-04:00A Story of Dogged Dedication:

An amusing story of determination by a software engineer unofficially at Apple.

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-36360170610379819462008-02-15T16:27:00.005-05:002008-03-10T16:36:02.475-04:00Colombia's Misery:

This is a stunningly long list of people currently held hostage by Colombia's FARC guerrillas. It does not count those already kidnapped and released, or those murdered while in captivity. A few childhood friends of mine would figure on the latter. The FARC is a military wing of Colombia's communist movement, and is classified by most of the West as a terrorist group. Predictably, Cuba and

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-54154060300926508732008-02-06T15:44:00.000-05:002008-02-06T16:12:43.352-05:00Depth of Field:

In my daily scan of BBC News, I spotted a story about a holographic display device. It is noteworthy because it is reusable, and apparently can be driven by input from a control device to show multiple images in fast succession. There is some buzz about this as potential for another try at 3-D TV, but given that it is currently only monochromatic, and has a slow refresh rate for TV images, it has

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-69006185597813938462008-01-22T21:56:00.000-05:002008-01-22T22:19:09.692-05:00HUD? That's so old-fashioned...

There's a group at the University of Washington that is working out how to make contact lenses with video displays inside them. No, really. They have the circuits, the display, the antennae (power and signal) all integrated into the lens itself. Here's a picture of one: You know how the robots in Terminator scan objects and get data on what is in their field of vision? You could have that too:

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-25975715642681929532007-12-19T14:00:00.000-05:002008-01-18T09:49:40.026-05:00It's not the symptoms, doc, it's the side effects..

You might not think that something called "Restless Leg Syndrome" (RLS) is all that serious, but for those of us that suffer from it, it is a major pain in the... well, the leg. If I don't get to sleep early enough, I risk lying awake with RLS, wanting to rip my leg off and beat it against the wall. This basically means a night with really, really crappy sleep, which everyone can agree is

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-1142861288686764892007-12-16T08:27:00.000-05:002007-12-16T09:04:45.547-05:00Summoning Angels

While I was at college, I lived in a dorm where most of the beds were elevated on A-frames to within a couple of feet of the ceiling. This was done to allow more space within rooms, since they were quite small to start with. One night, during my freshman year, I fell asleep in my bed while my room-mate worked at his desk, tucked below his bed at his desk on the opposite side of the room. I

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-41330171972005976902007-12-13T10:36:00.000-05:002007-12-13T14:31:49.263-05:0030 years ago today

Bill Gates could still smile, despite a rough day: The reason for this third run-in with the law in New Mexico are not clear, as all records of this particular arrest have been lost. The world could have been very different, very different.

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-56360007265766207082007-12-08T12:09:00.000-05:002007-12-13T16:19:11.348-05:00Metrology

Earlier this year I went to a meeting at the OAS about metrology. Metrology? Yaaaawn. Isn't the definition of units settled? Isn't that something you do in grade school? Well, yes, and no. The study of units (metrology) mostly has to do with commerce - just as it did over two millennia ago when rulers wanted to ensure that merchants were measuring properly (and probably the motivation was not

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-16586373625979905202007-11-14T19:36:00.000-05:002007-11-14T22:55:26.926-05:00The Cactus Ball:

My wife and I walked into the grand ballroom: parquet floors gleamed under candle-laden chandeliers, white panelled walls reached high up to the ceiling. There were a few guests, but the floor was mostly occupied by... cacti. Some of these succulents were quite tall, reaching up to our shoulders. Most were shorter, about waist high, and there were some about knee high. Most were of the columnar

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-42890649653532543412007-11-07T16:38:00.000-05:002007-11-07T17:21:41.454-05:00La Cucaracha

Factoid for the day: cockroaches seem to have been morphologically stable since the Carboniferous, i.e. over the last 290 to 354 million years. Modern cockroaches are more similar to their ancient fossil ancestors than any other extant insect - except they are a lot smaller. Some cockroaches from the Permian (about 250 million years ago) were over a foot long. Wouldn't want to step on that at

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-83823233434991019732007-10-30T13:35:00.000-04:002007-10-30T15:30:19.593-04:00Leopard Applenaut

Here is an in-depth review of Apple's latest Operating System release, 10.5, or "Leopard" on Ars Technica, by John Siracusa. Bottom line: I agree with Siracusa that the upgrade is well worth it, for the backup features of Time Machine alone. Screen Sharing for remote troubleshooting is also a great bonus. As Siracusa puts it: If you are your family's "Mac Guy," the newfound ubiquitousness on

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-49913081550832148132007-10-22T16:12:00.000-04:002007-10-22T16:26:36.283-04:00Snap it!

A friend of mine writes a weekly column for the San Antonio Express-News. This week he posted a good, brief article about how digital photography has revolutionized the ability of the general public to take professional quality photos. Not that a digital camera will make you an instant Ansel Adams, but that digital tools bring this type of quality within your reach without the monumental effort

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-12453571510313802522007-10-04T17:34:00.000-04:002007-10-05T11:46:36.653-04:00Sputnik 1 +50

The Space Age began fifty years ago today, but those involved at the time had little idea of how significant the event was to be. Both the Russian and American teams involved in rocketry at the time were consumed by one overarching goal: to develop an ICBM capable of delivering an atomic bomb to enemy territory. The idea of orbiting a satellite was completely secondary, and the public reaction

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-41959897486318286772007-08-21T13:34:00.000-04:002007-10-05T11:55:04.571-04:00Nicks and Dings:

Here's what all the fuss was about - the ding in Endeavour's belly from the ET foam strike: The inspection of Endeavour on the KSC runway has just started. You might ask: "How could a piece of foam do this much damage? Aren't those tiles tough?" I answered that (with a little help from a Nobel laureate) for the Columbia disaster.

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-55603215127452286812007-08-21T13:08:00.000-04:002007-08-21T13:23:44.777-04:00Shuttle HUD views

The recent NASA TV coverage of Endeavour's landing at KSC included some live views through the heads-up display system that I had not seen before. Here are four frame grabs from the footage that provide a nice sample of the coverage. Pay close attention to the hair raising (at least for a VFR pilot) angle of descent... Last turn of the shuttle aligning with runway centerline. Runway in

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-4460272707311406982007-07-20T15:14:00.000-04:002007-07-20T15:19:18.214-04:00Mail from "Wyatt Herb"

Another sample from my daily e-mails. I think this one's serious: "WYATT HERB" Hi! My name is Manu Costa, specialist in products of information on data set from tropical rainforests, skilled with wide range of expertise. I can assure you I am capable of climb up all dominat vegetables canopy, reaching over the reflective tree foliage, installing and enabling GPS software devices to supply

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-19798447335550811802007-07-19T16:03:00.000-04:002007-07-19T16:31:25.115-04:00Bored? Got a few moments?

Head over to the Galaxy Zoo and do some classifying! Learn the difference between elliptical and spiral galaxies in a few minutes with an easy tutorial, take a test, and if you qualify you can start classifying galaxies in no time at all. You will likely be looking at images seen by no other human, and contributing to a massive effort led by English researchers at Oxford University to classify

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-5751029098385112162007-07-16T12:22:00.000-04:002007-07-16T12:27:16.570-04:00Tumbleweed

...I did not know this until today, but that bouncing symbol of the West, the tumbleweed, is actually an invasive species, brought over to North America from its native Ukraine by European immigrants in the 1800's. I didn't know it was edible when young, either. I just know it's prickly, and really a pain to remove after someone fills up your car and your dorm room with it (a Caltech prank). I

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070995.post-75984188461197972632007-06-30T09:49:00.000-04:002007-06-30T10:00:02.706-04:00But where's Vanna?

For those of you who are Wheel of Fortune fans, here is a little toy from fd's flickr toys, which picks out random flickr photos, and has you guess the title. The faster you guess, the more points you get. And, it's played against any others who are online at the time. It helps to know your geography, be observant, be a quick and accurate typist, and to guess a lot. Have fun with it: Guess

Paulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18327472206860555013noreply@blogger.com