The Hyperfacet

About the Debt Ceiling

2011-07-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

What they are NOT telling us about the Borrowing Limit (aka Debt Ceiling);

The Debt ceiling is getting Lower every day because of inflation.

Today the Debt ceiling is 14.3 Trillion US$ or 303.4 thousand tons of Gold.

Last year, 2010, in June the Debt ceiling was 12.4 trillion US$ or 336.1 thousand tons of Gold.

So when measured in Gold the debt ceiling has fallen since last year by 32 thousand tons of Gold.

Why do I get the impression I'm hitting the upper atmosphere on a de-orbit without a heat shield?

US Borrowing Limit POSTULATE

2011-07-28T10:56:00.001-07:00

Postulate;

The DEBT Ceiling OR Borrowing limit is irrelevant.

REASONING;

The USA CAN NOT Borrow any more money.

Witness the following observation (AND MATH);

Last Years Calculation

Last year, that's right One Year Ago, the national debt was equivalent to 352,242.3 tons of GOLD. More gold than the entire production of the world since we first started digging the little gold flecks out of the sand.

TODAY, the National Debt is only worth 303,378.91 tons of GOLD. A drop of 48.9 thousand tons and now in range of total worldwide estimated gold ever mined.

The Postulate is that; "WE CAN NEVER BORROW MORE MONEY THAN THERE ACTUALLY IS". The laws of physics prevent it and there is an actual physical limit beyond witch we can't go.

Lets talk about this on the golf course with speaker Boehner and president Obama.

Notes;

National Debt per GoldPrice
GoldPrice = US$ 1615.30 / troyounce = 51933.101 US$ / kg
NationalDebt = 14293065510000 US$

14293065510000 US$ / 51933.101 US$ / kg
= 275220.72 thousand kg
‎= 303378.91 ton of gold

Plane Taking Off

2010-07-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

Whats in a gram (part II Gold)

2010-07-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

I just did a quick back of the envelope calculation I was curious about;

Washington State Debt

6 Billion US$
325,240 lbs gold
162.6 tons gold

Or an 8 ft diameter sphere of solid gold

Federal Debt

13 Trillion (+/- a few Billion) US$
352,242.3 tons of gold

Or a 103.6 ft diameter sphere of gold

And an interesting observation;

In the entire history of humanity it is estimated that the total amount of gold ever mined is 343,000 tons of gold. That's 20 million years of mining the stuff AND ITS 10,000 tons less than the amount of DEBT we have.

I'll email you numbers if you want to check my figures. I used the recent record high for the price of gold of $1,260/troy ounce.

Jill England 36th District Legislature

2010-06-18T01:26:00.000-07:00

Professional Experience

Software Designer/Engineer; Creating software for private industry and State of Washington DOAG, DSHS, Seattle DOJ, Federal Public Health Service

Education

Bachelor of Science Computer Information Systems University of Puget Sound 1984

Statement

$6.2 Billion dollars in the red and Olympia can’t cut spending. That’s $931 for every person. Next year will be higher with pensions still unfunded. It’s time to bring common sense back to our state.

I believe in improving our education system by giving teachers more autonomy.

I'll cut wasteful spending.

I’ll not ignore the people’s tax initiatives.

I’ll reduce business manufacturing bureaucracy that is driving jobs from our state.

I'm against the income tax initiative because it does not eliminate other taxes such as sales tax and we know it will eventually be applied to all state citizens.

Help me restore fiscal responsibility to our state!

VFR not recommended ...

2010-06-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Preflght, on arrival do not fly over the cylindrical building at the end of runway eight. Contact Portland Approach for Mandatory Advisory 119.0 before PDX airspace. VFR not recommended due to low ceilings en-route.

Walls within walls and the brick in this wall is round.
Walls soft and hard,
My destination surrounded, controlled,
The sky gray, covered.
Before me this cover touched the hills, impenetrable.
Over the hills my destination lay.
Decisively, ninety degrees right I turned
So I would go West instead of South,
And dodge,
And weave,
Below and then above,
Looking for the door I knew was there,
Rechecking, always feeling something was left undone,
Around the storm and hills I flew
To the valley of the great western river called Columbia,
Through the valley I approached the Metropolis,
Listening as Pearson weather crackled to life through the static,
I contacted the controller,
Who instructed, ordered, requested,
I stay below her airspace,
And I ducked below the limit,
And was then too low to easily see my destination,
Then I saw the round brick,
The cylindrical tower of apartments
I had been told to avoid,
Marking the end of the runway and my destination.
I turned, I flared and landed with the wind.

Inspired by flight from Harvey to Pearson Field June 2010

A Civil Life

2009-04-21T19:56:00.000-07:00

The current crisis of conservatism in America is of dire concern for all of us. Bottomless debt, the end of the ideals, end of freedom, and end of the promise of a better life looms above our necks as the proverbial sword of Damocles, while we squirm on the block struggling against all hope for a reprieve.

Many have feared these days were coming. Back in 1970's the incredible debt and inflation of the era put fear into many. But the problem never got better. Except for a brief respite in the 1980's government has grown more powerful, more intrusive, and more irresponsible at a logarithmically increasing rate.

Today many of our own neighbors will tell us, yes the end of America as we knew it is at hand and yes the totalitarianists are at our very gates but, let it come, it's not so different than what we have now, and we will find a way to live under their rule.

Shame on them! Shame on Americans who would not support freedom and Shame on us for not speaking out against this among our own friends. For these phony Americans will not find some benign dictator in the wave of oppression that is to come. They will find the most brutal despots, those without a true religion, without a true civil government and who destroy all hope of families to succeed on even the most basic of levels. They will be but slaves in their masters empire.

For these despots do not believe in individuals striving to make themselves better people, they seek absolute control through the application of violence against the governed, and they despise the notion of the basic union of one man and one woman to form a functional family unit and as the basis of an individually rewarding and enduring society.

A True Religion,
A True Civil Government,
A True Domestic Life

These are the foundations of America. These are the principles our founding fathers attempted to protect when they codified the Federal Government. These are the principles we have not lived up to in the last 100 years, and the punishment for not living up to these ideals is coming down upon our heads and we must admit that we justly deserve it.

Before we can win our fight against the Marxists we must recognize our own personal failings in these areas and we must not suffer that lies spoken against these ideals be uttered unchallenged.

In the arena of a True Religion, we must allow that a true religion requires that every individual admit their faults, and recognize that they can and must strive to personally improve, not by their own judgment but in the eyes of their creator. This is and underpinning assumption of our society, that the individual can better himself not just financially but also spiritually.

In the arena of a True Civil Government, we must never rule by the sword, that is never rule by murder. The Turks ruled by murder in the 15 through 17 hundreds. This was paralleled by the papacy and Spain ruling by murder during the Spanish inquisition. In the Americas of this time the colonists terrorized their populations and burned “witches” at the stake. Criminal gangs employ rule by the sword, murdering their rivals and civil authorities. Immediately you should think that these incidents are not on the same scale, but they are on the same scale in the heart. Once you choose that path you are a murderer and it’s only a matter of your price which will get larger every day as you attempt to maintain and extend your power. It can start small with simple trials and over year’s blossom into a full fledged murdering witch-hunt-inquisition; McCarthy trials, sex predator or child abuse accusations on false evidence, drug busts by swat teams in the middle of the night on false warrants. We must never as individuals allow ourselves to participate in or abide such atrocities and methods of governing. Rule by the sword in all of its manifestations is evil and must be resisted with every ounce of our humanity.

In the arena of a True Domestic Life, we must all recognize that the ideal and in fact only self sufficient renewable unit of society is a family formed by the union of one man and one woman with their own children. Other societies despise the idea of monogamous marriage. These societies do not respect the woman in society and treat her as though she were one of many slaves. Our own society both Europe and America seeks to establish homosexual marriage as an equal or even superior union to monogamous marriage. A homosexual marriage is not self sustaining and can never be a building block for any culture that wishes to grow and be prosperous for the long term. In fact these 'marriages' do just the opposite, they cause a culture to diminish in its values, and it's people to diminish in their numbers, over time. Because this is such an emotional topic let me add that members of the same sex can form mutually supportive agreements or unions for them to live to together and support each other. This will never be the same as a family unit which creates and educates their own children and I believe that every person can see this perspective if they stop for a moment and are self reflective. 'Gay Marriage' however is a diversion from other very real perversions that have been instilled upon domestic life in America in the last 100 years. The government has increasingly subverted the family by supporting unlimited abortions, extortive child support permitting 'mothers' to raise children without fathers, omnipotent state imposed ‘Child Support Services’ bureaucracies that operate by inflexible rules and arbitrarily destroy families in their children’s name. Worst of all is welfare which undermines the families’ right to raise their own children. The Federal Governments intrusion into religion, family values, and subsequent destruction of a true social life defies an adjective.

In all three areas we have failed miserably both individually and as a society. The root of the failing of the others is our failure in the first. We must have a belief that our creator wishes that we be a better people and we daily strive each individually to improve ourselves in his eyes. To work in concert with natural laws, each love and protect our fellow man, and each of us recognize our individual faults that we may be better people tomorrow. This is the fundamental principle of a 'True Religion'. This is the fundamental foundation of a free people. If we can once again find this in ourselves we may also find that the will and strength to resist tyranny has again been restored within us

We can hardly hope to prevail against false religions, governments, and domestic living when we refuse to recognize, admit, and correct our own failings, our own sins. This is as true today as it was five hundred, or a thousand years ago.

I draw inspiration for this post from Martin Luther in 1528.

See http://www.crossings.org/thursday/2002/thur1010.shtml for a sumation or "LUTHER'S WORKS, vol. 46: 157-205 Revised translation by Robert C. Schultz.", also http://www.puritanboard.com/f24/martin-luther-war-against-turk-40430/

Socialism is ...

2009-03-02T19:32:00.000-08:00

Slavery is ownership and control of one person by another.

Socialism is ownership and control of all persons by the State.

Song For The Times;

Revolution 1, The Beatles [White Album] Disk 2

You gota wake up people ...

2009-02-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

It is so surrealistic, it's like everyone's dropped acid and they are letting the 'chosen one' get away with everything he promised to do during the election. Raping and pillaging the American Constitution, tromping on the bill of rights, and stealing untold trillions from future generations and giving them to his 'friends'.

And everyone is just walking around in dream; "Like it's ok man, he's the choosen one, he knows what he is doing, the media would tell us if something was wrong."

Everyone is so blind to it all. They are going to wake up in 30 days and ask themselves, what just happened?

Hybrid SUV

2009-02-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

O'bama won't you buy me a Hybrid SUV,
My friends all drive smart cars they're greener than me,
I long for the day when I live carbon free,
O'bama won't you buy me a Hybrid SUV.

O'bama won't you buy me a flat-screen TV,
Government bailouts are trying to find me,
I wait for my subsidy each day until three,
O'bama won't you buy me a flat-screen TV.

O'bama can't you finance my night on the town,
My house speculation has really brought me down,
I'm counting on congress to buy the next round,
O'bama won't you finance my night on the town.

Everybody now,

O'bama won't you send me my next welfare check,
I could get a Job but, Lord what the heck,
My 12 kids need health care and I need that too you bet,
O'bama won't you send me my next welfare check.

Amen.

With apologies to Janis Joplin

And Now There Is No One Left

2009-02-28T19:33:00.000-08:00

THEY CAME FIRST FOR those who were independent and lived in rural America,
and I said nothing because I lived in the city,

THEN THEY CAME for those who spoke out against the theft of property and rights,
and I said nothing because it did not agree with the mainstream broadcasts,

THEN THEY CAME for those who clung to their right to their weapons,
and I said nothing because I did not carry my gun,

THEN THEY CAME for those who clung to their religious beliefs,
and I said noting because I was not religious,

NOW THEY have come for me,
and no one is left who can hear my screams.

What's in a gram?

2008-04-01T18:29:00.000-07:00

One gm can be converted into .025 Terra watt hours, or 25,000 Mega watt hours, or 33.5 million horse power hours, or 2.23 million gallons of gas ... or one Nagasaki, depending on which measurement you think you understand.

Using light units!

2008-04-01T17:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite programs is the Unix 'units' program. This program can convert from cm to miles for example. The really cool thing about it is that all of the definitions are in a special 'language' and stored in a file called units.dat.

Many years ago I taught units a very cool trick by substituting the value for the speed of light with 1 and changing the length of a second to meters. This creates the awesome ability to quickly change mass to energy and vice-versa.

Currently I use the version of units that comes with CGWIN.

To create a light_units.dat file apply the following changes to a new /usr/share/light_units.dat file.

$ diff -dtw --unified=1 units.dat light_units.dat
--- units.dat 2001-12-13 07:22:13.001000000 -0800
+++ light_units.dat 2004-08-21 18:25:18.965594600 -0700
@@ -291,3 +291,4 @@

-s ! # Duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation
+#s ! # Duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation
+s 2.9979246e+08 m
second s # corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine
@@ -574,2 +575,29 @@
#
+# Information to compare energy usage and generation to energy released
+# from nuclear devices. For giving a rough idea.
+#
+
+ton_e 1e+9 calorie
+ # kilotons as a metric mass measurement
+ # (kilotonnes) of TNT gives a value of
+ # 1000 c/g, well within the reported range,
+ # while treating it as "kilo short tons of
+ # TNT" gives 1102 c/g, at the extreme
+ # upper end of the reported range. Thus a
+ # kiloton can be called a "kilo metric ton
+ # of TNT" and a "kilo short ton of TNT"
+ # with about equal validity.
+ # Should this be Thermochemical Calorie? or IT Calorie?
+#
+# http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/g_l/levine/bombing.htm
+#
+hiroshima 12.5 kton_e # 08-06-45, 3600 kg, 9ft 9in, littleboy, u235, 118,661 killed
+nagasaki 22.0 kton_e # 08-09-45, 4050 kg, 11ft 4in, fatman, pu239, 73,884 killed
+littleboy hiroshima
+fatman nagasaki
+
+nova 10^44 J
+#
+
+#
# Dimensions. These are here to help with dimensional analysis and
@@ -691,3 +719,2 @@
#
-
sec s
@@ -885,3 +912,4 @@
pi 3.14159265358979323846
-c 2.99792458e8 m/s # speed of light in vacuum (exact)
+#c 2.99792458e8 m/s # speed of light in vacuum (exact)
+c 1 # The distance of a second is 2.997 meters ergo
light c
@@ -889,3 +917,3 @@
epsilon0 1/mu0 c^2 # permittivity of vacuum (exact)
-energy c^2 # convert mass to energy
+#energy c^2 # convert mass to energy
e 1.602176462e-19 C # electron charge
@@ -1089,2 +1117,3 @@
# NIST publication 811
+ly lightyear
lightsecond c s
@@ -1534,3 +1563,4 @@
earthradius_polar 6356912.0 m
-earthradius_equatorial 6378388.0 m # Could be wrong? 6378136.3 m better?
+#earthradius_equatorial 6378388.0 m # Could be wrong? 6378136.3 m better?
+earthradius_equatorial 6378136.3 m
landarea 148.847e6 km^2
@@ -1557,3 +1587,4 @@
venusradius 6.3 Mm
-marsradius 3.43 Mm
+#marsradius 3.43 Mm
+marsradius 3397.2 km
jupiterradius 72 Mm
@@ -1664,3 +1695,3 @@
# extended.
-nauticalmile 1852 m # Supposed to be one minute of latitude at
+#nauticalmile 1852 m # Supposed to be one minute of latitude at
# the equator. That value is about 1855 m.
@@ -1671,2 +1702,3 @@
# 1954. The UK switched in 1970.
+nauticalmile 2 earthradius_equatorial pi / 21600

3D Color Anaglyph of Cascades, Mt. Phelps

2007-12-30T13:59:00.000-08:00

This is the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle. The rock standing up in the mid foreground left is Mt. Phelps and the peak in the background on the right is Mount Hinman on the north side of Snoqualmie pass. I believe that the peak in the center of the picture is Cashmere Mountain just west up the valley from Leavenworth. Cashmere Mt. is the furthest point visible in this picture and is the center of this anaglyph.

This picture taken from about 6000 ft on the south side of Tolt Reservoir looking south east.

Global Warming Is Mass Hysteria

2007-12-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_hysteria

Mass hysteria, also called collective hysteria, mass psychogenic illness, or collective obsessional behavior, is the sociopsychological phenomenon of the manifestation of the same or similar hysterical symptoms by more than one person.

A common manifestation of mass hysteria occurs when people believe they are suffering from a similar disease or ailment.[1]

---

The above definition of mass hysteria describes our collective frenzy of 'Global Warming'. We need to recognize Global Warming as the collective western psychosis it has become and think about what we are doing reasonably.

One of the symptoms of this psychosis is that collectively we don't recognize it as such.

Fortunately this hysteria has only infected the western world and most of the worlds population are insulated from it.

--

The picture is the partially flooded Snohomish river valley, near Duvall, after our recent annual flood last week .

Bellevue, Seattle, Olympics from the Cascades

2007-12-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

On the way back from the mountains we saw Bellevue, Seattle, Bremerton (can't really make out anything of Bremerton) and the Olympic mountains. Both lake Sammamish and Lake Washington are visible in the picture. The tallest building in Seattle is the Bank of America building (formerly the Columbia tower on the left of the city. On the right of the city, the tall tower (with the ship behind it) is the Seattle Space Needle.

This shot makes the city seem awfully small.

Cascades McClain Peaks

2007-12-08T23:08:00.000-08:00

McClain Peaks are on the left, Mt. Phelps is on the right. We just had a major snow storm in the Cascades, followed by a heavy warm rain. Its frozen again today in these pictures with more snow expected tomorrow.
Here we are coming around the north side of McClain. Very steep terrain, cliffs, snow chutes etc.
Swinging around to the west side of the peaks.
Closest approach. This shot is very clear and quite a bit of detail can be seen. It would be a pretty serious technical climb to get up here with feet on the ground.

Sun Shines on Seattle

2007-12-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Sun shines on Seattle today. The flood I was concerned about on the Snohomish will not happen. The flood level not only will not be as bad as last year, it won't even be in the top ten.

I'm happy about that. Doesn't mean we won't get another storm. We typically have up to two a year.

Storm 'Emergency' in Seattle ... Not!

2007-12-03T19:22:00.000-08:00

Today our Gov. declared 'A State of Emergency' because of 'massive flooding, heavy rain, and high winds. Granted the wind was bad in some places but, it wasn't as bad as last year when parts of Seattle lost power for almost 4 days. The 'flooding' was bad with some local flash floods but, it wasn't as bad as last year when the Snohomish reached the tops of the levee's in, well the town of Snohomish though it may reach as high as last year again tomorrow, it's been much worse the recent past.

Frankly, if flooding and high winds happen every year in November and December its no longer an emergency its just another monsoon season in Seattle. By the way, we invite everyone to come visit us during monsoon season. We have great coffee and our favorite tour buses are recycled WWII amphibious trucks.

Come to Seattle during the monsoon and "Ride the Duck". We will leave the water fountains running for you. :)

It's not an 'Emergency'. Yes it is a bad storm but it happens every year. Relax already.

Eagle Sclupture

2007-11-30T00:26:00.000-08:00

This is a beautiful and thought provoking sclupture on the stairs next to the Federal building in Seattle. It is an eagle in a cage. Symbolically it is quite thought provoking and I stop to look at it a couple of times a year.

One of my Favorite Things

2007-11-29T23:53:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite things. I'm currently approaching Mount Pilchuck from the south a little east (2 miles) of the peak closing on Bathtub Lakes.

On the panel, clockwise from the top we first have the clock, which I did not set so ignore it. Next is the airspeed indicator which is showing about 115 mph. The attitude indicator shows a slightly nose high attitude. The altimeter reads 6,700 ft. Rate of climb (below the altimeter) shows 400 ft/min. DG shows we are heading magnetic 10 deg (roughly north). Turn coordinator shows no turn.

The Garmin GPS bolted to the yoke shows 97 knots ground speed and 12 deg bearing, there is no way point selected. Can not see the tachometer as it's behind the yoke, it was about 2500 rpm.

Throttle Quadrant, throttle is open, mixture (red leaver) slightly leaned, forward is full rich. Master switch (the red one) is on, axillary fuel pump off, split strobe rocker has tail beacon on with wingtip strobes off, pitotheat (airspeed probe de-ice) is off. To the right of the mixture the carburetor heat is off and the exhaust gas temperature meter 'EGT' (for helping to set mixture) is inoperative.

The engine gages across the middle just behind the yoke indicate, oil pressure green, oil temp green, amps looks like 6 or 7 which, since almost everything is off is ok, left fuel tank obscured by the yoke, fuel pressure good, right fuel tank full.

Starting at the top of the radio stack the com is set to radio one, the top one which is set to 120.20 or Paine Field east runway, Com 1 VOR/ILS radio is off. Comm 2 below is off as is it's VOR. The transponder is squawking VFR or 1200, mode C (alt) activated ('altitude encoding' displays aircraft altitude on aircraft controller's radar screens.)

The last thing is the magnetic compass, on top of the dashboard in the window, which shows a north heading. There is also a temperature gage through the window that is not visible in the picture but was reading zero Celsius at 7,000 ft.

The next three things after clearing the mountain were, setting the GPS course to KPAE, trim for decent and 150 mph cruise, check the PAE Atis and verify tango was still current. Interestingly the decent profile calculation from the GPS (500 ft / min) indicated the decent from 7,000 should start just west of Pilchuck at 145 mph to reach pattern altitude 2 miles from the airport. That calculation was very close to the actual result.

2007-11-29T20:32:00.000-08:00

In this panorama are the two Washington Mutual Towers. A new condo project is going up in front of them. You can see why developers would rather not have the Aurora Viaduct along the water front. We could probably replace it with a floating bridge across Elliot bay someday. Building a tunnel would be tough since its on in either Glacial till or land fill along the waterfront. Someday though we will get our rictor 8 and knock the thing down.

Stitched together like this the resulting image above is 4,138 by 3,486 or 14.4 million pixels. It is not saved to that resolution in this blog.

The building on the right is featured in another image in this blog. I still think it is the prettiest building in Seattle.

Mt. Pilchuck

2007-11-27T07:54:00.000-08:00

Click on any of these for a larger image version.

I realized last night that I took several image 'series' on Sunday that could be strung together for a wider angle view of Mt. Pilchuck. Even though individually most of the images have motion blur, when combined they make some impressive panoramas.

The image above is a wide angle (with fair distortion) of Mt. Pilchuck with the peek on the left and Bathtub Lakes on the right.

This second image is the back/east side of Pilchuck. Bathtub lakes are directly below the plane, the sadle is in the center and the north side of the mountain is visible on the right of the image

This is a good two image combination of 'Bathtub lakes' with low distortion. The dark smudge through the right half of the image is the pilot side vent window.

Mt. Pilchuck on a Late November Sunday Afternoon

2007-11-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday, when the fog lifted, and I'd preflighted everything I could get to, cleaned the oleo gear struts with WD40, washed off the bird dirt, and added 40 gallons of 100LL av-gas.
I soloed her out to Mt. Pilchuck. These are the now frozen 'Bathtub Lakes'.
Two valleys north of Pilchuck is 'Three Fingers'.
This is the saddle area of Pilchuck to the right and below are Bathtub
Lakes, to the top and left is the peak.

The flight to Philchuck took about 20 miniutes, climbing to 7000 ft. Returning to Everett took only eight miniutes using the descent and smooth air to cruise at 150mph.

A Winter Day on Elliot Bay

2007-11-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

We don't even need black and white film (or digital settings) to take monochrome pictures at noon in Seattle. Temperature 38 F, overcast with a snow storm coming in. (Rain in Seattle and snow at higher elevations and north of Everett)

Bicycle On Burke Gilman Trail

2007-11-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

Five combined images of a bicycle in a trail tunnel on the Burke Gilman Trail in Bothell.

Photoshop is my friend :)

Waxing Gibbous Moon

2007-11-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

Playing around with my first moon shot. This image taken tonight.

Bicycle At NIght

2007-11-21T00:20:00.000-08:00

Commuting at night on a Bicycle. Image on 8th Ave yesterday night. I was trying to catch the motion, and the danger of commuting on a bicycle at night. This shot came out better than I expected.

No photoshop corrections, this is the raw image. Hand held pan, 138mm (135 equiv), .5s exposure, f/5.6, ISO 1600.

Stereo Seagull

2007-11-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

Today I took this stereo pair of a seagull out on the Seattle waterfront. The above image is a Red-Blue 'color' anaglyph. Wear standard Red-Blue stereo glasses to see the 3D. The next image is the right left image pair. Some people (including me) can temporarily cross their eyes and merge them into a 3D view. The lenses refraction artifacts are real and are not post processing renders. The two images were takes about 1/3 second apart.

The Zune, 0.92 years and a Major Software Update Later ...

2007-11-19T18:24:00.000-08:00

Well honestly I was secretly hoping for a major software update for the Zune that matched the features of the new models but I didn't expect them to follow through with it. I'm pleased. The device has a better look & feel with the new software. The old features are still there and a few new ones are available. I've not tried out yet the wireless update and wireless song 'relay' between multiple Zunes but intend to use them.

New features I have tried and really like are the better 'video' indexing and the Podcasts index. WooHoo! Much better and I'm not sifting through all my video content for video Podcasts.

Something not mentioned in any of the press releases on this topic is that consecutive song playback seems to be more continious without the brief blank spot between songs on the same album.

I will note here that this Zune has not caused me a bit of problem this entire year. It has locked up occasionally for a miniute and then re-booted but that has been very infrequent and usually happend only after I dropped the darn thing.

Still kinda like it, not to complicated, my mother could still operate it. :)

PS. The user interface highlight 'click-flash' is very cool. I know it's just UI flash but I like it anyway. Thank you!

Mt. St. Helens, Nov 11th, 2007

2007-11-17T12:36:00.000-08:00

Approaching Mt. St Helens from the north west. The mountain in the background is Oregons Mt. Hood. The debrie's field below the Mt. has taken on a dark greenish cast because of new growth and Northwest algae growing on everything. Freezing level was about 7500 ft on this day. The temperature at 9500 ft ws -10C/12F.

Mt. St. Helens, Nov 11th, 2007

2007-11-17T12:25:00.000-08:00

Mt. St. Helens, November 11th, 2007. The top of the mountain with the lava dome and glacier clearly visible. Temperature at 9500ft was -10C/-12F. The previously all grey vally floor had a distinct dark 'algae-green/dark gray' color to it. As you can see the mountain is starting to get it's winter snow cap.

St. Helens Glacier

2007-11-17T11:38:00.000-08:00

The St. Helens Glacier. This is the glacier that has been growing on St. Helens since the eruption. It is in shadow most of the year. The temperature at 9500 feet this day was -10 C. about 12 F. If you compare this image with the image in Google Earth you can the the glaciers progressive growth. This picture is taken over the west crater rim looking east. The east crater wall is at the top of the image. The Glacier runs diagonally through the image from top right to lower left with the lava dome in the center right.

Interesting this glacier will be turned into a Lahar and sweep away the I5 bridges (likely) over the Toutle/Cowlitz river when the dome collapses. Every year more water is stored in this glacier and the future lahar gains more force.

Saint Helens Lava Dome

2007-11-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

St. Helen Lava Dome. Nov. 11th, 2007. Saturday afternnon. This is looking across the top of the dome from the west. The begining of the crater glacier is on the left side of this image 1/3 from the top. The south wall of the crater is to the right/top in this image.

This is the same area as in the next composit photo taken at an angle from 2 miles to the west.

St. Helens Lava Dome Nov 11, 2007

2007-11-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

This is a composit of Saint Helens lava dome taken on Saturday November 11th, 2007. The distortion is reasonably low. If you are interested in these for a science study I can make the complete set of images available.

In this image the north crater wall is to the top. (click on image for a larger version)

The Green Ring of Life!

2007-11-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

Got the XBox 360 back yesterday (see previous RRoD post, this blog). I'm kinda shocked since It went out UPS a week ago Monday Nov 6th and returned on Thursday November 15th. The shocking part is it has the same serial number on the case. Granted they could have just exchanged cases and sent me a new internal box but at least it gives the warm fuzzy that you got the same machine back.

This one seems better though ... like it has more cooling air flow than the last one, also included was a month of free XBox Live.

Works great! I'm pretty impressed with the service. Way better than I expected.

A little vertigo for you?

2007-11-13T22:25:00.000-08:00

Heres a picture north of Rainer in a left turn to give you a bit of vertigo.

Out and About ...

2007-11-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

... on a November Saturday afternoon. Went to St. Helens, Mt. Rainer, Snoqualmie Falls, it was fun. I'd not seen St. Helens up close for quite a few years. The dome has climbed up the south crater wall and the glacier is growing rapidily filling the east and north crater floor.

Thats Mt. Rainer in the background of this picture taken from the North East looking South.

Red Ring'O Death!

2007-11-01T19:49:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh ... looks like my 360's got the dreaded RRoD. The support people were pretty efficient though. I couldn't understand the first guy ... he mumbled and I told him so then got mysteriously disconnected. The second time I called they went right through the check list and the box failed with flying colors.

MS is sending me a 360 coffin any day now. I'm feeling withdrawal, plus the dang thing was acting as my DVD player ...

The Boat

2007-07-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

The boat sits.
It's white fiberglass hull,
bright in the sunlight,
like a whale,
dead and bleached opon the shore.

A single red stripe,
wraps around,
like a faded ribbon,
on a forgotten present.

Inside open to the sky,
Carpet once blue now faded grey,
Upholstry once crisp now faded,
eaten by time and critters.

A new chrome wrench lies there,
the deck ports open.
Parts and nuts, wires and grease.
The battery charged yet the cable connectors corroded.
An impotent key left with intent in the ignition.

But the hull is clean and white,
shining in the sun,
glowing with promise,
of what will be.

The Zune, Six Months Later ...

2007-06-16T12:30:00.000-07:00

My desk typically has this sitting on it. The Russian doll is a software design aid, the cactus is named 'Thorn' and the Buddha/cactus combo reminds me of the Zen required in software engineering.

The Zune, Six Months Later

2007-05-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

So I've had this Zune gadget for six months as of a few days ago. I use it almost every day, don't keep it in it's or any case, normally I keep it in the breast pocket of my jacket.

The only accessory purchased for it is a set of BOSE noise canceling headphones (the smaller ones). I would swear that the combination of the Zune and the Bose lets me hear new things in music that I've never noticed before.

It's been a pretty durrable machine. I've dropped it a few times, never on concrete or hard enough to chip it but did bang in hard on the thin carpet over the concrete floor in the office at least twice. Had to reboot it once because of the drop. It seems pretty durrable. No chips or scratchs on the case or the clear screen. Though the battery life seems to be getting shorter a bit I can still get a full day (8 hours) of music play before I need to plug it in.

I have shared music with a college at work and my son. It's nice for a few miniutes but in the end fairly pointless because the music often evaporates before I ever get a chance to listen to it. Much better to exchange CD's with mp3's or loan them the original CD.

Getting podcasts from iTunes makes me happy :) I can get videos and podcast financial radio shows and have a steady stream of new material without having to download something by hand, just subscribe to the free mp3s and new material shows up.

The Zune store stopped working for me. I can still log in but it stopped transfering content up to my Zune, even though I was paying the $16 per month. So I cancelled it. Don't need it.

Thats it in a nutshell, third party accessories are non-existant, one of the reasons I don't use a case is becase I can't get a compact one that is useable. I'm a little concerned about long term battery life but we will see how it holds up at one year.

Bottom line the Zune is fine, it's been updated once which fixed a periodic music pause that would happen infrequently I'd buy it again and am not interested in paying for any music online.

Zune, I think I'll keep it.

2006-12-27T15:24:00.000-08:00

The Zune ... I think I'll keep it.

Why? Well ...

I really like the interface. True there is not a spin click wheel like the ipod, the button in buttons gizmo works pretty well, and the menu velocity logarithmically increases when you hold the up or down for a second.
I like the minimalistic configuration options. Hell my grandmother could have operated the darn thing. Somehow the team managed to avoid the 'control-option' bloat that so many devices suffer from.
The screen is BIG, or at least bigger than the iPod. The larger the screen the easier it is to look at, Videos look better, controls are clearer, the Zune really takes advantage of it with the zooming background.
The background is customizeable with your own image. It's a little thing that I really apperciate.
I can still use iTunes for Podcasts, even video podcasts (a neat feature since MS isn't ready with that one yet.)
Believe it or not the MS Zune feels like the underdog vs. the Apple iPod juggernaut. I enjoy rooting for the underdog, there always seems to be more opportunity for something interesting. I went to a cheap Fred-Meyer near my house yesterday and their iPod display, with all the options was neatly stacked and there were loads of accessories on the entire row. The little Zune display took up two shelves in a display case that inculded other stuff including portable DVD players. Yep the Zune is definatly the underdog. I think they should combine the XBox and Zune displays since the products work together.
And hey, the thing has a decent FM tuner it it. It actually seems to be the best FM radio I've ever had.

Anyway I can always get an iPod if the Zune ever fails. Not much chance I'd ever own a Zune again, so I'll just keep this one and look forward to all the new stuff that MS will eventually release for it. The future is bright!

Zune Sites!

2006-12-26T19:47:00.000-08:00

www.zune.net - MS home

www.zuneinsider.com - Zune employees site, Cesar Menendeze with Zune marketing.
www.zuneguy.com - Bill W, Zune Accessories Department
www.zunester.com - Dave Caulton, Zune software team

Fan Sites

www.zuneluv.com
www.zunerama.com
www.zuneboards.com
www.thezunebox.com

And finally

www.zunemax.com - Not sure ...

Zune!

2006-12-25T14:21:00.000-08:00

Zune this!

To Zune or not to Zune, what is the question ... exactly?

2006-12-25T12:55:00.000-08:00

Zune under your tree?

I got an MS Zune for Xmas, debating if I should return it for an iPod. I opened the box anyway since I'd very little first hand knowledge of the product it would give me a chance to do some first hand research. I'd been putting off getting a Zune or iPod for a while. I play my music mp3 collection on my Rio, PocketPC phone, or iTunes/Windows media player/Mp3 cd player.

My music collection has no music purchased from an encrypted music retailer. I've converted it all directly to mp3 from my rather large CD collection with Audiograbber over several years. It turns out this is still the 'correct' thing to do. If I'd been buying any music online it would not play in the zune, likewise any music bought from the MS store would not play in an Pod. Life is much simpler if you just buy a CD, new or used, and convert it to mp3's yourself.

The Zune installs and works flawlessly and except for a hic-up when the zune PC software locked once while I was doing multiple things with it (probably a threading loop someplace). After killing and restaring it then had to rescan my entire library. The safe thing to do is to stop the zune PC software immediately after entering your initial information and after at least a partial scan of your library. This will save the config and your scan so if it does crash you won't have to start over.

The Zune sound is great, the video screen is large, the interface I like (with the background image zoom and the large letters that appear when scrolling through your music fast. It's got some tricky button combinations that are not listed in the manual that can power it off and erase all content if you want, I'd like a concise and complete list of all those sometime.

The Zune Web

The web property space has been saturated with 'ZUNE' sites, probably MS targeting that and trying to work up a buzz, www.zuneluv.com, zunerama.com, www.zuneboards.com are a few. I actually liked the hack your Zune hardware articles the best since it shows that you can change your own battery and hard drive if you want to.

Now lets focus on two things, broadcast file sharing and free news/video downloads, i.e. Podcasts.

Real World Network Test

I went to the Chargers vs. Seattle game yesterday, disappointing game result but that's another story. While I was there in Quest stadium, Microsoft central, even Paul Allen was there somewhere since it was the last regular season home game, I pulled out my Zune and had it search for another Zune. The results, in that crowd of thousands, was zilch, I was the only Zune there, not even a whisper of another zune anywhere. I imagine it will make contact with one eventually but I don't think they can find each other without some help from their owners.

Getting Podcasts on your Zune!

I don't have an iPod but have been using iTunes for a year or so to listen to free radio podcasts and video's. I like the news business stories you can't get anywhere else. Since 'free' content, or even videos, aren't available from the MS zune storefront. I can continue to use iTunes to subscribe to Podcasts and when these are downloaded they cross over into the Zune just fine without extra steps. The video isn't visible in the pc-zune program but the Zune will show the Video just fine(it converts during upload). If you want to view/pre-view the Podcasts on your computer you'll have to continue using Quicktime/iTunes for that.

Finally my Gripes in order:

iPod/Zune market: Purchased music is locked to one player type and can't be used on another player, even though you paid money for the music you have fewer rights to it. Buying a CD and converting it to MP3 is the only thing that really works. iPod music does not play on a Zune and zune music will not play on an iPod. Free mp3's and mpeg videos work on both so why can't the music you pay money for?
Zune: The file sharing network 'social' feature doesn't work, for several reasons; limited range, few other Zunes, slow xfer, limited retention, no RELAY, i.e. can't give to someone else what someone gave to you.
Zune: Free content, i.e. Podcasts, can not be shared freely or for indefinite periods suposedly the content you received allways evaporates after you look and it three times or in three days, even when the content is not copyrighted.
Zune: Files can not be copied back off of the Zune when you put them up there.
Zune market: Podcasts are not available, or any free video content.
Zune Market: It makes you log on every time you use it. iTunes doesn't make you log in and I never have. (Nevermind, this is incorrect, the market does NOT require you to log in to view the contents.)
Zune-computer: Doesn't have a clear 'jukebox' feature.

Short Time ...

2006-08-20T11:18:00.000-07:00

Is a Planck measured in Boehr'ed feet?

Blogging

2006-06-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

I've not posted much recently. Just the odd poem or or thought. I did get season Seahawks tickets though, the next game (first game) is a pre-season in August. They play the Raiders in their second August pre-season on a Thursday night.

Though technically I'm not a die-hard foot ball fan, I'm very interested in seeing the games. I think they will do very well this year, going by their incredible performance last year.

Goodness Gracious!

2006-06-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

ball of fire
rising high
sheets of flame
upon the sky

wall of fire
crosses ground
ball of fire
has come around.

Logos, Pathos, Ethos

2006-03-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

This is my Ethos. while there are many like it, this one is mine. Without it I am nothing. Without me, it is nothing.

Jills Dictum

2006-03-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

In regards to being patient when shopping for electronics;

"Hurry up and buy it now, before the price goes down and the quality goes up."

The Game is Over ...

2006-02-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

Yup, the big game is over. The Seahawks lost and I like so many others in Seattle really enjoyed watching the game, except for those parts where I wanted to run outside and throw up ...

Other than that it was a great game. Hope to watch it again next year.

The Mohamed 'bomb turban' political cartoons.

2006-02-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

The west values free speech. I 'believe' that the bomb throwing violent Muslims who would kill, arson, threaten, and commit other violent crimes are just that extreme radicals and NOT the average peace loving Muslim.

I want to point out that Muslims have been putting Mohamed's image on things for centuries, primarily images of Mohamed sitting backwards on a donkey preaching to his followers. It is therefor hypocritical to go into violent sociopathic hysterics over a couple of cheesy political cartoons. By going bananas like this they have only 'proved' the cartoonists political/satirical, point by acting exactly like the comedic caricatures they claim to despise.

YaaaaHoo Superbowl today!

2006-02-05T11:19:00.000-08:00

Our office building in Seattle Friday was "Crrrazy" for SeaHawks!

Here are a couple of images;

Goalposts made from Fedex boxes

Here is a pan of the office as seen through the goal posts. (Talk about team spirit!)

Steelers were not forgotten!

Steelers fans were under represented but a few brave souls showed off their colors!

The Office building owners supported by giving free cookies!

Check out the cookie spread provided by the office building managers in the lobby for the whole building.

Cookie Closeup!

What is the speed of Dark?

2006-01-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

I always thought this was a cute physics joke and never really thought about it very deeply. Upon a small amount of consideration though you would think that the speed of 'dark' i.e. the lack of light would be equal to light's speed at vacating or illuminating a scene i.e. equal to c. In observation this is not 'totally' true. Due to quantum mechanics it could be calculated that the presence of light on a scene actually slightly precedes an illumination event and correspondingly the absence of light on a scene will succeed the illumination stop event.

Where does this go? It seems to go to the root of the time travel problem in that the speed of dark is not c but actually -c ... an interesting conjecture indeed in that it implies that dark would be an inverse time phenomena ...

Whether or not this is actually true it leads to some interesting ideas and thought experiments. Which came first, the light or the dark, depends entirely on your time vector.

Have fun and dust off those QM textbooks!

Something Interesting For Google Earth fans

2005-09-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

If you take a look at at the Google images of Wright-Patterson AFB where the Air Musuem is you can find a seeing eye chart for satalite photographs, vertical and horizontal bars for resolution and a gray scale chart. Specifically at N38 deg 36.3", West 84 deg 07.3" I'm guessing that the little arrows on the chart mark 1 meter resolution, also a guess that the Google Earth image is about 6 or 8 meter res. Interesting that the chart seems to go all the up to centimeter resolution levels. I ca'nt really tell if it goes beyond that.

Stargate SG1

2005-09-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

There once was Cornel O'Neil,
Who would step through the Stargate with zeal,
Goa'ould he would find,
and then kick their behinds,
Till a General's stars did he wield.

(Stargate Limerick)

Theres a little black spot on the Sun today ...

2005-09-11T19:37:00.000-07:00

The little Sun spot that's been generating the X-class flares is much quieter today. It might stay that way and the current solar storm will drift quietly away. Wouldn't want my cable TV to go out :)

It only has to be quiet for a couple of days and we will have dodged a big satellite killing bullet.

Theres a little black spot on the Sun today ...

2005-09-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yes there is. I set up a binocular projector (one lense covered) to see it for myself. Very interesting. If the sun seems a bit brighter and harsher today that's because it is.

Possible cable TV and power grid outages next week. This spots been throwing X class flares for at least a week. See

Space Weather
http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient-ff&ie=UTF-8&q=Space%20weather

Flood Enhancement Over City Image

2005-08-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

This image is the below color flood enhancements superimposed on a Google-Earth image of New Orleans. The color shows some of the flooding as of 8/30. The flooding is probally more extensive by this time.

2005-08-31T22:29:00.000-07:00

I've strung all three together if anyone wants the full res version let me know.

Image Enhancement of New Orleans Flood Areas

2005-08-31T22:08:00.000-07:00

I took the before / after images of New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain blanked the clouds, and enhanced the difference which gives a good estimate of the flooded land around the lake, including New Orleans.

The satellite images originated on;
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Difference Blue and Red are flooded areas, including New Orleans at the point of the arrow.

Before ...
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

After ...

Mer-A Spirit, July color view from the hill ...

2005-08-17T00:06:00.000-07:00

This is a recent six image pan I just stitched together from the side of the hill overlooking the crater plain. Spirit has a good view. The original is about 2900 pixels across. Colors are shifted to the red a bit because the red filter was in the near infra-red. To human eyes the whole scene would appear a bit more tan and the rocks a flatter grey, the pinkish tinge would be gone from the sky replaced with the color of sand. Desolate and dusty.

Sunset from Gusev Crater

2005-08-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

The spirit rover (mer-a) recently took this color sunset shot from the hill it's been climbing looking out across the crater floor. This image was processed to merge the sun into a single image from the red green blue images.

2005-08-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Same number 4 just south of I90.

2005-08-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

2005 Seafair, number 4 in a tight left wing over pulling multiple Gs just south of the I90 bridge. Shot with a Cannon SD400. I almost loaded up my full 1Gb card with F18 pictures.

Five F18s go head to head over Lake Washington

2005-08-13T19:14:00.000-07:00

Just about as many head to head F18s in one image I've ever seen. This is the 2005 Seattle Sea-fair Blue Angles last Sunday.

2005-08-02T19:57:00.000-07:00

Took this picture of Seattles' Columbia center last week. I guess its got a different name now though, Bank of America building or something like that.

2005-07-31T20:11:00.000-07:00

close up

2005-07-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

On final, angle down

2005-07-31T20:05:00.000-07:00

Getting her tied down.

2005-07-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

On final approach.

2005-07-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

Today, Sunday 7-31-05, we were out at Pain Field again and saw the blimp once again. This is the Ameriquest blimp siloeted against the Olympic Mountains from Pain Field. This pic was taken at 3.5 x with a Cannon SD 400 using a pair of Cannon Binoculars as a long lense.

2005-07-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

Just after the airship passed overhead ...

2005-07-31T11:56:00.000-07:00

And then there was this shot of the new Pain Field tower witht he sun above it.

2005-07-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I ended up right next to the Ameriquest Airship again. It seems that no matter where I go ... there it is :) It's probally related to my hanging out at airstrips though.

2005-07-31T11:48:00.000-07:00

Nabbed this head on shot from the Jet Deck at Pain field where the Ameriquest airship is staying while in Seattle ( Pain field not the Jet Deck ;) )

Psychedelic Blimp In Seattle

2005-07-28T21:50:00.000-07:00

Spotted the "psychedelic blimp" this past week. Saturday afternoon it was dropping in to Pain field (Everett), Sunday afternoon, we saw it over Pacific raceways (7-24) - I guess moonraker was in the air earlier in the day and got closer to it, and yesterday, 7-27 it made at least six passes over out house while it circled the Greenwood parade (A prelude to Seattles Seafair). This is the first picture I took of about 50.

Here is a bit of a close up, notice she is towing old glory.

And this is the paint scheme on the other side.

Just a crop of the gondola.

Car Fire in Seattle (Tuesday, 7/19/2005)

2005-07-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

Came upon a car fire directly in the way of getting home today on about 80th and Linden.

2005-07-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

The cars driver calling for a ride to pick him up, said it was his moms car and that he had just borrowed it for a short time while his was in the shop.&

2005-07-19T20:13:00.000-07:00

Front angle. If Id been there a couple of miniutes sooner I would have had a chance to use that fire extinguisher I've been keeping on my bike for years.

This is a closeup of the car fire mop up.

2005-07-19T20:04:00.000-07:00

A shot of the fire engine.

Washington State Gas Tax Revolt!

2005-07-16T22:30:00.000-07:00

More than double! That's right, the gas tax repeal pulled more than double the required signatures in less time than EVER!! for a grass roots initiative. AND THEY didn't even use paid signature gatherers like most other petitions to get on the ballot.

Of course the one thing I noticed when I was much younger, those with the power will let almost anything slide UNLESS it interferes with their money flow. This most certainly does interfere with the money and tax revenues and the state will not let it go. They will just put the tax on again and they will hound the perceived "ring leaders" of this tax repeal to the ends of the earth. It's cost the big players in Washington a TON of dough and they wont stand for it.

And that's a fact. Don't get between a power broker and his money source or expect to get crushed when you do. Kirby Wilbur and company are going to get slapped down hard by the big machine ... its already started with a judge practically outlawing freedom of speech if its political in nature. ( Good thing I'm so passive ;) )

If time travel were possible ...

2005-07-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

I was doing some general thought last week on quantum mechanics and realized that if time travel were possible, not if it had ever been done or ever will be done, if it were merely possible then our entire current universe could be the result of temporal causation violations.

What we think of in stories and sci-fi as time travel causation violations, i.e. going back and killing your parents, is simple and trivial in the grand scheme of the universe. If reverse time travel is simply possible then at the quantum level, causation violations can happen instant to instant between particals, and literally everything. We would live in a soup of intertwined universes, constantly merging and wiping out futures, and pasts, micro-second to micro-second.

Over billions of years this continuous "fiz" of very small causation violations could add up to very significant deviations and improbable realities.

Not that I think that your reading this is an improbable reality ... but there it is. Perhaps even more improbable that I was able to write it.

Remember Carl Sagan's recipe on how to make an able pie? "Step one, first create a universe ..."

2005-07-02T22:41:00.000-07:00

Caught this Sea Gull down at Ivars fish bar last week. This is feeding him a french fry. He was pretty active. Ive spread this pic accross my two computer screens at work. My 5 Mpixel camera provides a full pixel resolution for every pixel accross the two screens, the only limitation is to reduce it to 1024 vertical.

More BSE (mad cows)

2005-06-25T17:32:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty angry about more MAD cows in the US. The FDA says don't worry it doesn't hurt anyone. The truth is that the cow was at a rendering plan where they were going to turn it into animal food and feed it back to our pets and more cows.

I don't want more cows to get BSE, I don't want more cats or dogs to get xSE and we don't need more humans around the prions either.

STOP ANIMAL CANIBALISM!! Don't feed Cows to Cows that's what causes BSE we will never be rid of it and the only way to minimize it to to feed Cows grass and grain and not meat.

PS> I thought they were herbivores anyway.

2005-06-24T22:34:00.000-07:00

I walk through this room every day but never really noticed it until today. It's kind of surreal like a movie set. The white door at the end of the hall opens to my security card.

Flower pictures.

2005-05-29T20:39:00.000-07:00

About three cm from the butter cups.

I think I'm going to try and shoot some insects next.

2005-05-29T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is the center of a butter cup I shot last week from about 0.5 cm.

2005-05-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

Sunshine this afternoon on the garage door watching us do bike maintentance.

Met Erik Buell today at DTH

2005-05-22T00:19:00.000-07:00

I met Erik Buell last in front of the Buell plant in East Troy Wisconson (South of Milwaukee in August 2003.

Here is a picture of me with Erik if you don't know him already.
Erik Buell, 2003

I met him again today at downtown Harley. He was in LA yesterday and thought it was really cold up here. I guess it is relative to LA.

The day went great! We started off by getting on the express lanes south just as the white DOT pickup was closing the on ramp. We had the freeway, all five lanes of it, all to ourselves. It was sooo cool!

Erik was at Downtown Harley as promised and left the following message for all of you that missed it. (I spent the last four hours mixing it.)

Erik Buell Movie (~8Mb)

This isn't Rocket Science ...

2005-05-21T11:27:00.000-07:00

I was hacking some designs and software yesterday at work and it occurred to me that this isn't Rocket Science, it's Accounting!

Accounting is wayyy more complex, intricate and dangerous than Rocket Science.

2005-05-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is Sunshine again. He looks a bit predatory :) The background in this shot is taken from the center of the green reflection in the eyes, blown way up and then thinned about 70%. It's a pretty neat effect.

2005-05-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

This is a center image composed of 6 images which cropped down to about 18 million pixels. It's final size is bigger because I didn't crop the edges as much to make a square final image. We need to fix this fence this weekend. Should be a fun project.

2005-05-20T20:42:00.000-07:00

And this is the whole wide angle pan, the original is 8 images which cropped down to about 17.3 million pixels.

2005-05-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

Wide angle of the whole fence line.

2005-05-18T23:39:00.000-07:00

Today about noon (Wed 5-18) some older guy in a pickup truck going south on 8th fell asleep at the wheel and plowed over our fence and the wood shed that was behind it. Kerpow! He's ok but, we have a mess and a broken fence.

2005-05-18T23:37:00.000-07:00

This is a close up of the hole in the fence. It was dark out so this image is pushed a bit.

2005-05-18T23:29:00.000-07:00

The center of a daisy this afternoon.

2005-05-15T23:55:00.000-07:00

A pan of the inside of the new Ballard Library. Expansive, open, with a few study rooms, interesting electronic 'artwork' a bunch of books, and best of all lots of people.