They’re comin’ for me

Max, February 8th, 2010 

mountainlion_face

Near a creek, in a clearing at the edge of a densely vegetated area, a mountain lion emerged and walked right up to one of the hikers.

“The hiker shouted aggressively, but the lion did not go away,” Foy said. “So he picked up a big stick and swung at the lion. His brother came to his side and a second lion started closing in.”

Foy said the hiker never struck either cougar but eventually “managed to drive off the lions.”

The hikers then started to return to their car, but looked back and saw the lions were following them. “You could see them the whole time,” one told game wardens. [...]

Although mountain lion attacks are rare, they have become more numerous in the past couple of decades. According to Fish and Game records, all but three of the confirmed attacks on people in California since 1890 have happened in the past 25 years.

This account is from a couple of days ago and about twenty miles south of my house. Yes, I know, you all mock me for my fear, but one of these you’ll be saying in hushed tones “it was as if he knew they were after him.”

Wisdom of the Cat

Max, February 7th, 2010 

cat_in_hat

Just turned 53, dag nabbit.

What They Really Think.

byronius, February 6th, 2010 

Republican Jesus!!

Get into a serious debate about policy with a conservative, and sooner or later, you’ll hear them reveal the awful truth about what’s really in their head. Things like ‘the poor should be left to die, it’s nature’s way’, and ‘I should be able to do whatever I want because I’m in my head’, and ‘after the apocalypse I’m helping to bring about by voting Republican, it’s important to think about how we’re going to divide up the women’.

It would seem like sarcasm if I hadn’t actually heard these things for myself.

Jesus’ General

Three Christmas sheep

Max, February 5th, 2010 

I’ve been holding out on you guys. It turns out video does exist of our reunion mini-gig on 12/26 (shot by Volodya, the guy who played and sang Starry Starry Night and a couple other tunes). Unfortunately, only one song was filmed and it was the one I wasn’t expecting to play so I botched the chorus royally (twice). Also, the video had some strange encoding requiring the use of a third-party player I had to search out and download. Fortunately, it’s free and truly fortunately, video and sound is quite good. Anyway, here are the links:

The Dog

Download M-Player (corrected link)

If anyone can figure out a way to convert it to a more standard format feel free.

Three Sheep, Part II

Cat-eyes, February 5th, 2010 

threesheeplives

Three Sheep, Part 1

Cat-eyes, February 4th, 2010 

Three Sheep do WWB in Half Moon Bay

Google Earth 1966.

byronius, February 4th, 2010 

Cool!!

Google Earth Images From 1966
By Keith Cowing on February 5, 2010 12:19 AM

Technoarcheology and Earth Sciences, the Recovery of Nimbus II High Resolution Infrared Radiometer Data

“In 2008 the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) began a NASA ESMD sponsored project to resurrect 43+ year old Ampex FR-900 instrumentation tape drives for the purpose of recovering, before the capability to do so becomes impossible, the last surviving master tapes from the five Lunar Orbiter spaceraft that orbited the Moon in support of Apollo in 1966-67. Our project is proceeding on our task to do so. During our research on the Ampex tape drives we scoured the NASA Technical Reports Server as well as any other source we could get our hands on.

During this search, we found, through a Cadillac (yes the car) user group, a gentleman from Alaska who had worked on these drives during the 1960’s. We were able to connect and while he had retired and the units were long gone to that great scrap yard in the sky, he told me something interesting. He said that during his time working on the drives that they had sent “miles and miles, thousands of tapes” to NASA during the Nimbus weather satellite program. This is where our new tale begins.

One of the things that the LOIRP team is going to do is to take the Nimbus II HRIR data from August 23rd 1966 and overlay that with the Lunar Orbiter 1 data on the same date for a composite mosaic. There is potential for a significant synergy between Lunar Orbiter, Apollo, and Nimbus II and III data sets. This type of synergy could provide many benefits to the Earth sciences community.”

Nasa Watch

This is going to be so powerful, if it works. Data like this is gold. Solid gold.

Can you guess what these are?

Cat-eyes, February 4th, 2010 

Hell on Earth?

Max, February 3rd, 2010 

adx

If there is such a place it might just lie outside of Florence, CO. A sampling of residents - some have left not of their own choosing - of this little garden plot can be seen here (full chart at Wikipedia):

rogues

Quite a collection of friendly folks, eh? Must be some fascinating social dynamics going on behind those walls.

I just saw Shawshenk Redemption recently and I’m trying to imagine this crew hanging out at the dinner table talking about hope and listening to Mozart. Can’t quite see it. Well, maybe the Enron dude.

I never knew Woody Harrelson’s Dad was a Texas hit man. Boy made good.

Some of the amenities:

About 22% of inmates have killed fellow prisoners in other correctional facilities; 35% have attempted to attack other prisoners or officers. As a result, most individuals are kept for at least 23 hours each day in solitary confinement. They are housed in a 7 ft (2.1 m) by 12 ft (3.7 m) room, built behind a steel door and grate. Their free hour is spent exercising alone in a separate concrete chamber. Prisoners seldom see one another, and the inmates’ only direct human interaction is with correctional officers or other prison staff. Visiting from outside the prison is conducted through glass, with each prisoner in a separate chamber. Religious services are broadcast from a small chapel.

Most cells’ furniture is made almost entirely out of poured concrete, including the desk, stool, and bed. Each chamber contains a toilet that shuts off if plugged, a shower that runs on a timer to prevent flooding, and a sink missing a potentially dangerous trap. Rooms may also be fitted with polished steel mirrors bolted to the wall, an electric light, a radio, and a television set that shows recreational, educational and religious programming.[9] These privileges can be taken away as punishment. The 4 in (10 cm) by 4 ft (1.2 m) windows are designed to prevent the prisoner from knowing his specific location within the complex because he can see only the sky and roof through them. Also inmates exercise in what’s been described as an “empty swimming pool,” so they do not know their location for possible escape.[10] Telecommunication with the outside world is forbidden, and food is hand-delivered by correctional officers. The prison as a whole contains a multitude of motion detectors and cameras, 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, and 12 ft (3.66 m) high razor wire fences. Laser beams, pressure pads, and attack dogs guard the area between the prison walls and razor wire.

What do you mean the freakin’ carpet got stuck under the accelerator?

SkyHarbor, February 3rd, 2010 

Just a brief comment. I have nothing against Toyota per se, but I was immediately suspicious when they announced that the problem with sudden uncontrolled acceleration was due to the floor mat getting stuck under the gas pedal… Now it appears that the real issue is the engine-control computer. This makes a LOT more sense to me… and if it’s true, Toyota has a BIG bug fix on their hands. And I hope that all other car manufacturers are taking careful note… More than we’d like to think, the engine monitor/control systems are a sort of ‘auto-pilot’… and when that computer crashes, so very well might WE!

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