What death penalty?

From CNN: 

A U.S. soldier convicted of murdering an Iraqi family issuing a public apology on Thursday for his crimes. Steven Green, who escaped the death penalty this month, told relatives of the victims that he is "truly sorry for what I did in Iraq." Green was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Kentucky of raping a 14-year-old girl and murdering her, her parents and her 6-year-old sister in the town of Yusufiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad...

So isn't this the same thing as this U.S. District Court of Kentucky issuing the opinion that the death penalty is wrong?

ASP

Look, I like a good case statement as much as the next guy, but that is NO F-ING EXCUSE for your language not having an "else if" construct.

Forging Old Paths

If the first few sentences are impossible for you to understand, stick with it, I think it will be readable after that:

I was a software engineer in my early professional life. I did hard-core real-time programming using vanilla C in Unix for proprietary embedded systems. I primarily used vi (say the letters, it's pronounced "vee-eye". I could let you read that any way at all and it shouldn't matter to me because you are not even near me right now, but I can not let it go.) to write my code--this was before fancy development environments were developed. In vi if you want to save your document you hit the 'esc' key and type ":w". So save and close you hit 'esc' and ":wq". After ten to twelve years of this it was very, very hard to start using a mouse to do things like save documents.

I stopped programming much at all in about 2003 in favor of program management where you do everything in Windows tools. I spent perhaps two years having to delete ":wq" from the bottom of my word documents because when I was ready to close a document, that's what my fingers did. It was a muscle memory that was very hard to shake.

So for maybe the last 5 years I have done no appreciable programming and am quite over my vi training. In my new job I am programming again. For about two months I was doing some VB scripting in Excel and then in asp pages. I am using a new editor: Microsoft Visual Studio and nothing odd has been happening.

This past Friday I realized I should back up and start again in javascript (for reasons that are unimportant). So this morning I came in and wrote my first javascript program. Javascript is entirely new to me, but it uses a syntax just like C, from what I can tell. I have spent the morning trying to run scripts that fail because ":w"s are sprinkled all over the code. The muscle memory is back with a vengence--out of nowhere and it's a total regression.

It's like typing "{}" and ";" has awakened something in my brain. It's very, very cool in a freaky way. I mean it's not like you always type a semicolon before saving your file. In fact mostly you don't, because you see stuff you want to change in the middle of the line, for instance. So it's not like it's a key sequence like ";:w" that is from a long time ago and the semicolons just kick off the sequence. And further strangeness is that being a grammar nerd, I actually use semicolons when I write English (I use them appropriately, of course).

So something about addressing an editor int he C syntaxy way has made this come back from the depths of 5 years ago.

My Fun Guy

Ethan and I went walking in the woods today. These were fabulous, dinner plate-sized fungi extending from the trunk of this tree. We also made it to a Northern League baseball game where he got *two* baseballs.

The Rise of the Machines

I fear the rise of the machines, I just don't fear it like other paranoiacs fear it.  Your average nut buys a roomba and watches it make decisions about vacuuming the floor and then sees Terminator or Alien and figures someday roomba will come with a machine gun and the desire to enslave him.

But that's like worrying that your biggest threat from Ford is that someday they'll make nothing but tanks and inter-suburban warfare will claim you as its victim: it's one direction a thought experiment about cars can take you, but that conclusion is not a result of assessing the arc of greatest probability given what you know about Ford and cars.

No, the real threat from the rise of the machines is not that they will rise up and enslave us, the real threat is that some future robot's internet-connected janitorial thread is going to eat up 85% of the world's CPU capacity so it can clean an airport bathroom.

Idiocy is the world's real problem, and there's no power like a nearly omnipotent, infinitely patient idiot who is also a CPU-hog.

Bienvenido al mundo real, Mexico

The problem with the real world is that proof is impossible.  The swine flu may still get us in a big way in the fall, but for now it looks like it's under control, with almost no damage.  Compared to seasonal flu it was essentially completely harmless.

But we don't know why.  Maybe it is just a toothless virus.  Maybe Mexico just spent 20 billion dollars and saved the planet from total disaster.  We'll never know.  What we do know is that Mexico spent 20 billion dollars and the flu did not spread.  If it's a random correlation the 20 billion was wasted.  If it was causal, then Mexico just took a bullet for the human race, and that's not over-stating the case.

Our response needs to be clear, and President Obama needs to say this the next time he's at a podium:

"The recent swine flu outbreak did not kill 50 million human beings.  It is entirely possible that without Mexico having gone to tremendous expenditure and inconvenience the swine flu might have done just that.  The world owes Mexico a debt of gratitude for that sacrifice, and we will repay them.  We will not repay them in dollars or pesos, we will repay them by not interpreting this episode as an over-reaction, but as an appropriate reaction to a potential threat.  We will repay them by doing the same thing the next time the outbreak is within our borders.  I call on all nations to pledge similar action."

It sends the right message to Mexico, to American citizens, to the world, to WHO, to the CDC and it sets the table for continuing to do the right thing.  To not learn this lesson is to be Jenny McCarthy who is calling for us not to vaccinate our children because we've forgotten what a nightmare smallpox is.

Oprah is about to kill people

She is.  When Jenny McCarthy gets a show edorsing the discontinuation of vaccines, her immunity will drop and people will die.  All for a scare that isn't based in any supported fact at all.  Shirly Wu hits it right on:

You reach millions of people everyday and your words and
endorsements carry an incredible amount of weight. If you say to buy a
certain book, people will buy it. If you do a segment on a certain
charity, people will contribute. And if you say that what Jenny
McCarthy is saying has merit, people will believe you.

Living in the Shadows

Everything on my computer has shadows now.  Well... either shadows or the subtle two-tone 3-d button effect, or semi-transparent window borders.

And my computer is very slow.

I'm not saying vista is definitely slow on my computer because it's constantly rendering graphic effects, but just like a company that's laying people off shouldn't be planting flowers, a computer that is running really slowly shouldn't be producing cutesy graphics effects.  It's bad form.

You can be drawing cutesy graphics all the time or you can be a slow computer, both are excusable at times, but you can't do both. 

And why doesn't Windows offer a "work installation" that does away with all of this cute crap?  I mean I just can't deal with windows drawing crap all the time.  I can see it slowing way down and laboriously laying all of these window effects.  Again, I'm not sure what's making it slow, but it being  slow gives me time to reflect on the fact that I have a computer that can barely squeeze out a reasonable search through 100 source files that spends some amount of time primping for me.  I want a check box on my control panel that says, "I don't need my computer to act like I'm dating it."

Establishment of a religion

In this bill, the House Republicans are proposing that 2010 be designated "The National Year of the Bible".

And I quote:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Is there an argument to be made that this bill is not "respecting an establishment of religion"?

No.

Pushing Up

I'm not saying that push-ups are the most important thing, or even that they are the greatest desert ever, but why on Earth do they make push-ups in a flavor other than orange?

The only reason to anyone would eat a red push-up is because there wasn't an orange push-up available.  So why not make more orange push-ups?

And don't even get me started on purple-flavored push-ups.

I have so much to say

It's hard to fathom how a benevolent creator might have dreamed this up.  This parasite attaches itself to the base of its host's tongue, cutting off the blood supply.  Once the tongue atrophies and dies, the parasite becomes the host's tongue.

Stephen King has nothing on nature.

Alternative Engineering

Engineering, in a broad sense, can be defined as the application of science to solve problems. 

We have all sorts of engineering, mechanical, electrical, software, civil, etc.  Each of these disciplines can be used to solve problems and to keep people safe, to save lives and to perform mission critical applications.  It would be hard to imagine accepting "alternative engineering".  If a company answered a request for quote from a state government by saying that they were using an alternative form of engineering, developed by ancient Chinese engineers, it really couldn't get through the process.  If the company made the claim that all of the engineering firms that normally pitch and win contracts are actually conspiring to keep bridge prices high, and to keep bridges constantly in danger of failing just to perpetuate the need for engineering bridge-building companies, the state government would most likely think of the company as cranks and would throw away their business cards.  But if they believed the company's claims, even a little, they might ask that company for evidence of those claims, and they'd certainly require a pilot study and proof of these better, cheaper bridges before they (the government) would allow their voting constituents to drive their cars on these new bridges.

The same is true for any kind of engineering that is important, like air traffic control software, medical equipment for hospitals, airframe manufacturing, etc, etc, etc.  We demand these engineers, organizations, and companies use the best practices which have been proven by science.  Stepping away from the long-standing traditional, tried-and-true path of building these things happens, but only after the process is thoroughly vetted against the traditional methods with plenty of science and testing behind it. Again, this is for mission critical or life-supporting applications.

Medicine is a kind of engineering in this sense.  It is the application of basic science to solve a life-saving or life-supporting function.  It is certainly more directly critical to those clients who seeks its services.  Why are we so much more willing to accept "alternative medicine" than we are to accept "alternative engineering"?

Strange Consequences

On the problem that it's easier for a resident of Peoria to find the best restaurant in Manhattan than for that resident to find the best restaurant in Peoria:

The problem is the googlization of information. Google taught us that the masses -- en masse have something valuable for us: information on the collective mind. The problem is that when you diverge from the center, the fidelity of that information to your needs is exponentially eroded at the square of the distance

Newish Idea

I think I'll use this blog going forward to do a little something more than just pictures. I think I'll start posting thoughts as well--which will be new. We'll see how it goes.

Derby!

Ethan's car took 5th place in speed and 3rd place in design in the Boy Scouts' pinewood derby!

Mr. Squirrel

Obviously squirrels eat well in our backyard.

When good faeries go bad...

There are some pretty shots, too, but I like this one the best.

Aftrer the Laser

After the laser shot Ethan's chin, this is what he looked like.

ESD Beat Down

And here's my boy after he fought the playground and lost.

the great pop-sci book project

Jennifer Ouellette has proposed a project by which all her readership list the top 100 science books of all time and she will compile a moderated list. I offer my list, and I note that she included science fiction in her list, so I will do so as well.

1. The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin
2. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
3. Phantoms in the Brain, V. S. Ramachandran
4. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks
5. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
6. *Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
7. The Physics of Star Trek, Lawrence Krauss
8. The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg
9. Neuromancer, William Gibson
10. The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan
11. *The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
12. Wonderful Life, Stephen J. Gould
13. The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
14. The Astonishing Hypothesis, Francis Crick
15. The Physics of the Buffyverse, Jennifer Oeullette

New Flower

From the front bushes of a house I will paint on September 5th. I missed the bumble bees, but the flowers stayed nice and still.

Baby Bunnies

What you're looking at is the top-most baby bunny from the nest of baby bunnies we discovered this evening in the kids' sandbox.

They are cute on a scale nearly unimaginable.

The Homestead

My parents-in-law's house, a beauty out in the woods of Northern Illinois.

Go cats!

Forgive the cell-phone shot.

This picture is the top-seeded NU Wildcats women celebrating their 12th goal against 8th seeded Princeton in their quarterfinal game. I got to see the first half, which included several goals by the 'cats including an over-the-shoulder shot near the end of the half.

Into the Woods

Run Away!

My children tear off into the woods, as fun a time as we've had for months.

Lamium?Vinca

I think this is lamium.Turns out it's Vinca It's a pretty little ground-cover flower that my father-in-law is partial to.

Snowy Fields

In the forest preserve near the house. The tracks are all animal tracks.

A Harsh Mistress

Great eclipse experience tonight. The best and most complete eclipse of my life.

This is hand-held with my zoom.

Beautiful Girl

Sometimes Margot takes a picture that takes my breath away.

Back Court Madness

I've been away for far too long, my apologies.

My daughter is in basketball this winter -- the first game was a lot of fun. She's one of the guards this year.

These are her shoes.

Are you ready for some?

The boy began soccer a few weeks ago. He had his first game. Here he is breaking away from the pack. Looks like fun.

Full size here.

Ethan's gallery, which includes this and some other new soccer pictures is here.

Look into my eye

I have been wondering why I can't ever get a really sharp photo of dragon flies' eyes. This extreme closeup (200%) shows why -- they aren't faceted, they are pebbled!

If you don't stop...

... you'll break your neck. I have no idea how Grey Pelicans don't break their necks every time they dive. I'll put up some more later, but this sequence shows a Grey Pelican going in for a kill. It is impressive to watch them skim inches above the water only to rise up and plunge into the water for a catch.

They were pretty far off from the beach, so these aren't as impressively up close as I would have liked.

As always, full size here.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

It's pronounced "Body", which leads to all sorts of cool speculation about the origin. We stayed a few minutes from this lighthouse, which is my favorite of the Carolina lighthouses. I took it from the porch of the lighthouse keeper's cottage.

Full size here.

A Day at the Beach

... or an evening, really. Courtesy of my parents-in-law, we spent the week in a rented house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was an absolutely great vacation.

The two small black spots in the sky on the right and left are not specks on the lens, they are both dragonflies, which filled the skies in the evenings. A look at the full-size of the picture will show that they are indeed insects.

Ready, set, bake!

Fun for a Sunday. This is a white hearth loaf that took me (with the rising cycles) all of Sunday. It starts with a sponge which is always fun because the risen size is always dramatic. The kids enjoyed looking at it, but weren't as blown away by the rising as I expected.

The full gallery, including a few pictures showing the various stages is here.

HereThere Be Dragons

I came home from work to find Beth taking pictures of this guy on the bushes in the yard. I couldn't resist trying one myself. Full-sized here.

Humming Past the Graveyard

So this guy comes and goes from my parents-in-law's feeder. I got two pretty good shots of him here.

Reds

Same feeder, different day. A red-bellied woodpecker talks to a red-winged blackbird. Full-sized here.

Silhouette

Margot looking very solemn from a party this afternoon. Full-size photo here.

Just before

This is just prior to the picture below. Original.

Back at the feeder

The grackle is the one with the iridescent head, the one flying is a red-winged blackbird. The great variety of blackbirds in Northern Illinois is awfully fun. Grackles fly in large packs and are very smart and efficient at emptying feeders. They also attract a lot of brown-headed cowbirds, which lay their eggs in the grackles nests, and the grackles raise the cowbird babies -- opportunism at its best.

If you look closely at the full-sized original, you can see the grackle has a seed in its mouth.

Mourning Meal

From my parents-in-law's feeder. I love my 30 year-old 200mm zoom and the rapid-fire shutter release!

The full-sized image is here.

Time for a quiz

No hints, can you guess what the item above is? Full sized version here.

St. Baldrick's

Most of you already know what St. Baldrick's is.

For those who need an introduction, every year I participate in a charity event which raises money for childhood cancerresearch. The event is called St. Baldrick's. Shavees, as we're called, volunteer to have our heads shaved for donations from nice people like you all.

From now until March 16th I raise money from everyone I can. And then on the event day I go into downtown Chicago to Fado's Irish Pub at a big, fantastically fun event and my donators can see me get my head shaved, can bid on auction items, and can have a few beers, free bar food and just hang out. We've had an enormous amount of fun the last few years.

The standard donation is $50, but I've been pleased to receivedonations as low as $1 and as high as $1,000. My largest donator gets the added benefit of taking the first swipe at my head with the shaver. Last year I exceeded my goal of $5,000! This year I'm increasing my goal to $7,500.

My employer, Motorola, matched contributions last year, so check with your employer for matching contributions.

For a little background, my cousin Nathan was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma on April 1, 2003. He is now 6 years old and still fighting. You can read about his fight at his website:

My page is located here, you can find a "Donate On-line" button which is secure and about as easy as buying a book from Amazon. It's fully tax deductable and instructions are on-line. You can also print a donation form and use the normal U.S. Post.

If you have any questions, please contact me

Go Bears!

Turn your back on your little Bears fan and look what happens!

Defensive Wizardry

Here's Margot boxing this poor kid out under the boards. In fact she really does play pretty tenacious defense. She doesn't ever look up for the ball, but she's a good defender.

By Request

Okay Jim, you ask, I deliver. Blue tongues, complete with matching Christmas-themed pajamas.

Luna

Margot's new telescope is utterly fantastic. We are having a ton of fun with it, having looked at Saturn and Titan a few nights ago. I tried a photograph through the eyepiece (hand held) last night. The result is better than I expected. You can click on the image to see the full-sized image.

Adler

The family went down to the Adler Planetarium today. Lots of fun. Outside, as an intriguing haze hung over the city, I got a good shot of Beth and the kids. We bought a yearly pass, so we plan to go back for the regular shows, the Friday telescope time, and hopefully for the other fun stuff they do.

:%s/Et/Nat/g

So on my last blog, astute readers will have noted that I wrote "Ethan" when I should have written "Nathan". In my defense I submit that they are of similar age, one is my son and one is my cousin, they have similar names and we even wanted to name Ethan "Nathan" at one point. I also submit this composite photograph...

More from MSKCC

I have never seen the HESS vehicles before. Every year the company issues a toy for Christmas, and in the New York City area at least it is very big. Ethan had a few at the hospital from various years (and got *two* more toward the end of his stay) and I'm not exaggerating when I say 90% of the hospital staff had some memory of collecting them, their brothers or sons collecting them or perhaps just remembred neighborhood boys being excited every year as HESS advertised the new vehicle. They are indeed very, very cool. I believe Nathan has the 2001, 2004, and 2006 models now.

Visting Nathan

I spent the week visiting Nathan and Luke in the hospital. It was really super to see Nathan and to spend some time talking with Luke and giving him a break from time to time. One of the things Nathan and I did while Luke was out of the hospital was build a crayon forest. Here is the forest, and you can see Nathan through the trees!

Get out the vote

I voted for the Bad Astronomer; really I did, and you should, too. I mean if you really hate squids.

what a coincidence

pyxl, it's funny, I actually took that photograph from the time when Ethan was starring for The Little Rascals.

Or that?!?

And the boy turned 5 today. Here he is with his own blue tongue.

What on Earth is that?

Margot had soccer goalie-camp today. The boy and I sat and watched it. After a bit he and I wandered over to the snack counter and I bought him some candy. When the camp was done, Margot wanted a Blue Raspberry candy ring. It did this to her tongue -- she was most excited.