Type and highway signs

I normally don't like the NY Times much, but this article on a potential redesign of the font used for highway signs was excellent.

And for the record, at work I use Myriad Pro or Univers for all of my email and documents. I hate Times New Roman.

Twin Cities traffic

Is about to get really, really bad. What a mess.


Anyone want to have a chat about fatigue now?

Evidently Russian air shows are crazy! Here's one of their jets (Sukhoi SU-27UB to be exact) making a pass at 4 feet of altitude.

The only time I see articles about planes at this altitude is when they are in pieces or about to be.

Drudge sending people to England

Evidently The Drudge Report is sending a lot of traffic to British news sites. They are not real happy with serving the masses of Americans some electrons. I've seen a lot of these links and stories and can emphatically say that if the British quit publishing useless gossip stories about celebrities then we will stop reading their papers. However, this means they will have to make stories about news again and then there won't be any papers in jolly old England. Bummer.

Sat, 9-12 route

Deviation of the northern route: maplink

Did not eat enough breakfast, almost bonked.

Every once in a while...

...the world does a good thing.

Paris Hilton, the vapid slut, is going to jail.

Better yet, her mom is mad too.

We should have a holiday or something.

Note to self:

Don't ever write anything that gets a review like this.
Goodness.

Well, it is right.

The northern route

Saturday, Apr 28 ride: maplink
Good ride for the winds, which were coming from the NE. You don't want to get hit in the face on the way home.

Idol gives back? What did it take?

Watching that American Idol gives back thing. I have a wild and crazy idea!

How about the movie and music stars give all the cash?

They feel guiltier than I for their wealth. They say it is a good cause.

Really?

Who makes millions for one picture?
Who do I see in the Italian cars in the tabloids?
Who likes to tell me what to do on politics, environmental, and scientific issues?

They do.

Then fork it over Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Hugh Laurie, Simon Fuller....put up or SHUT IT.

4-15 evening bike ride

The Chaska/Victoria speed loop. Yes, it is doubled up for a total of 17 miles. Map link.

Tonight's average speed was a little over 18 mph. Not bad for this time of the year.

4-14 bike ride

route here: maplink

Beginning temp about 34 degrees F. Very slight SE wind. 31 miles total, 1 hr 50 min.

Great ride!

no more mega houses!

So Minneapolis is ticked (or at least some people are) that some are tearing down older houses and replacing them with bigger, nicer houses. There is now a claim that these old neighborhoods have some sort of "retro aura" or something. As if 40 year old ramblers are anything to reminisce about. The story even points out that Minneapolis takes in more taxes from the new houses. You would think that this would make them the most popular people in town sharing the love.

This reminds me of a story a couple of years back about two tall buildings in Minneapolis, the IDS tower and the First Bank building. The IDS was believed to be the tallest in town and there was even some deal about nothing can be taller thanks to some famed architect or crap like that. This is somewhat similar to the deal in St. Louis, where nothing can be taller than the coat hanger.

Anyways, the engineer building the First Bank building decided to raise the flourish on the top of the building while it was being built, making it taller than the IDS. When this was revealed (years later) there was this huge swell of disdain: who did that engineer think he is? A real architect designed the IDS tower? He's just some punk! The ego! The disrespect!

You would think someone pooped on their mom's grave. They screwed with some measurement until the IDS was bigger to make them feel better.

I like the US Bank building better. And you know what, the engineer was RIGHT. Build it big. Don't ask for permission. Shove the establishment's nose in the gall of wanting it your way.

So more power to the McMansion crowd. Rock on! Just be careful walking down the street. Minneapolis is not exactly safe.

scientific consensus? hah!

If you have been following the news much lately, you know that global warming (or some iteration thereof) is making the rounds as the newest threat to life and happiness. Politicians in the US and UN (and even the US Supreme Court) all agree that there is now a consensus that global warming is real, significant, and dire.

Backing off from the last two--the most easily refuted--and let's look at the first one. There is NO scientific consensus on global warming. None. The data itself refutes it, and the numbers we are being shown are very, very selective. And since Americans don't know math anymore, let me summarize: there are lies, damn lies, and statistics that are used to make the damn lies look right. That's what you are getting now.

But wait, there are computer models? They've got to be right! HAH: The models are crap, they can't predict next week and they claim they can predict tens or hundreds of years in the future. Point of interest: I worked on the cutting edge molecular dynamics simulations. You know how many atoms they can take? About 1000, max, at unrealistic temperatures or conditions. And they weren't dynamic--you simulate at a condition, you don't change them mid-calculation. Extrapolate to, say, the global weather system which appears to be dynamic to me.

How many times to we complain that our local weather guy/girl botched it? A bunch. One once said "there is no worse feeling than shoveling snow you didn't predict." We've got a lot more riding on this than a sore back.

More importantly is the trend to only look at the side of the equation that you want to see. Scientists are being paraded out, but you never hear a dissenting opinion. This is unrealistic. Whenever I (I am a scientist) hear a 100% consensus, I tend to question it more strongly. There is always scatter in data, and looking at it 10 ways should give you some reason to think different things. When the Minnesota congress had "hearings" on global warming, they did not have a single dissenting opinion give testimony. This is intellectually despicable.

Scientists may have an incentive not to talk negatively about global warming. The politicians have the pursestrings of their research grants. My advisor had to work over half of his time writing grant applications. His image and reputation were very important in this effort (and don't even get me going on all of the "extra" stuff that wasn't science in those grants: expanding outreach to women/minorities/ethnic groups, etc.) There is a fine line between intellectual integrity and the unemployment line due to lack of funds. There is also the fact that the global warming being considered today is nothing more than the biggest power grab in the history of this society. This opens the door for them to regulate and dictate every facet of our lives, and anyone who doesn't see this is not thinking clearly.

So to stop this rant, I will just say that the consensus being presented today is false. Our leaders and judges are trying to move an agenda of control where they are pulling the strings.

And they are wrong.

new train speed record

So a French train breaks the train speed record...

...it must have been running in reverse or retreating!

a little touch of color

Nothing interesting to say, so how about some images from flickr?

• cool escalator
• seashells going for a swim
• high dynamic range image of Tokyo at night
• space shuttle on rollout
  

all winter for that?

Well, that Cards game last night was not really worth watching. If that is the way the outfield is going to play (yes, I am looking at you Taguchi) and hit (Preston @!#!-ing Wilson, that's your song!) I maybe will be OK not watching a lot.

So Apple will begin selling some music sans DRM limitations. That's good. Higher bitrates too, that's good. But I wonder if it is smoke and mirrors to higher prices in the future. The new songs are $1.29, and you know that the conversation with other music companies will try to push that up for new stuff.

I have always been OK with the 128 kbps protected AAC file. They sound OK (I only have headphones) and the price is convenient. I doubt the extra cash will deter me a lot, but I will miss the old pricing. Simple is good.

Supposed to snow this week. That's what I get for putting on the summer tires on the car. Note to self: one 81 degree day means nothing.

sometimes it is all in the tag

I have been noticing that my "hottest" picture on my flickr site is one of my sister with her new MacBook Pro box. This is presumably because I tagged it as "Macbook Pro."

I have heard of the phenom of "unboxing" but this is nuts.

Nothing like the thrill of watching someone else unbox what you want.

opening day

Finally, baseball season again. After last year's magical run with the Cardinals, we will see what this year holds. My only real prediction is more Joe Mauer-gasms for the Minneapolis press. Good grief for a city are they provincial. "He's one of US!!"

But wait, the Minnesota congress is already swinging for the fences: a $1 billion tax increase. They are using the "it is for the kids, education is our biggest investment, ..." I won't even go into to the real stupidity of this argument, but I will note the following:
- This increase is WAY above the increase we are seeing in salary, meaning a real quality of life decrease for Minnesotans, and
- This will never be enough.

Jesse Ventura (uugh) at least has one good thing: he went to the education people and asked "how much do you want." The idea was to make them give a number that they would be given and then they had to make little Einsteins or shut up. They couldn't do it. Look folks, "more" is not a number. Trust me on that. MN spends almost as much per pupil per year as it cost my wife to go to a top-flight private school. And I guarantee that the brats coming out of MN are not that well off. I have to deal with them on a daily basis in the workplace--and they are causing serious issues (medical device industry, remember?) that I have to fix.

As a state we need to ask again: how much do you need?
After that, no more.

expert? who, me?

Yesterday I was talking to a manager in her office and she referred to me as an "expert." I not sure how someone after really only two years gets this designation, especially with the attrition we are seeing lately. I noted that the process of elimination does not make one an "expert," it only makes them an individual.

Some of the leavings are for family reasons, others for career opportunities. Ironic that their leaving makes my opportunities more fantastic, but realistically will make things harder.

Sometimes younger engineers don't get it, but you really do want a peer group. Just a few, or maybe more than a few, that can question your assumptions and make sure you aren't jumping off a cliff. This will be a challenge for the time being.

It also will make me be more careful in mentoring the younger engineers: making them question the processes, their assumptions, and how to attack problems from all angles. This might be the biggest challenge of them all, but possibly the most gratifying.