DCDork

Turkmenistan on the way up?

2008-05-05T22:51:00.003-04:00

So, articles about Turkmenistan always catch my eye. It is such a fascinating place, what with the previous ruler and all. So, I was really pleased to see an article on Turkmenistan hit the front page of the New York Times. I was especially pleased to see that a friend of mine, Prof. Eric McGlinchey, was interviewed for the article! However, contrary to Eric's suggestion, I think I will pop the cork on the champaign. I am ecstatic that the new ruler has been dismantling the vestiges of the Turkmenbashi, and I hope his more moderate reforms (such as allowing internet access and upping the amount of schooling for children) mark a turning point for this nation.

Rising prices pushes people towards genetically modified foods

2008-04-21T07:51:00.005-04:00

There is nothing like cash to help focus the mind.

While in Britain, I saw first hand the public distrust of Frankenfoods, or genetically modified crops. The continent was much more suspicious than Britain about the foods, but there were some outspoken critics (like Prince Charles) in Britain as well. I was doubly mortified when some African countries started to reject genetically modified donations, because they reasonably assumed that what was bad for Europeans is bad for Africans. However, there is no indication that genetically modified foods are harmful, and while Europe is rich enough to reject genetically modified crops, Africa is not, and rejection of the crops yields starvation.

Fast forward to the food crisis of today, and an article in the New York Times shows that with grain prices doubling and tripling, the less expensive genetically modified grains are gaining in popularity, or at least objections to them are declining. I am pleased to see that irrational fears fall away when cash is at stake.

The key word there is irrational. No one has shown popular genetically modified organisms to be harmful, and they can help feed multitudes more. To the people who object because we are "playing god," that ship has sailed. Wheat is the most crossbred organism in existence, not because we've turned our microscopes at it (indeed, it is one of the more difficult crops in a lab), but because we've been manipulating it for the last six thousand years. We've been doing the same with cattle. Ever seen a cow on a hike in the forest? That isn't natural.

I do hope that this allows people to get past their reservations for the "new."

Rocking through Easter

2008-03-24T21:14:00.002-04:00

So, Courtney and I headed down to Arkansas for the Easter weekend, both to see my family and to attend my nephew's baptism. While we were there, we stayed with my brother, who has a wii and a playstation 3. After a Friday night of playing Guitar Hero, he headed to Sam's on Saturday and bought Rock Band. I learned two things over the weekend: 1) this game is incredibly fun, and 2) I am incredibly talented.

For the uninitiated, Rock Band is an extension of the performance games such as Guitar Hero or Karaoke Revolution, where in a person plays on a play guitar or sings into a microphone and is measured on hitting notes or playing combinations. Rock Band takes it one step further and has a guitar, a microphone and a drum set in one game, and all three are played in concert to complete a popular song.

With the entire family there, it was great fun. Trulie singing, Andrea on guitar, Kin on drums; fantastic. I didn't know many of the songs (I am not much of a music person), but I still had a great time. It seems like the game sort of transcends the normal limitations of video games, and so reaches a much larger audience (much like the wii console). It makes me think that maybe we should buy the game, just for parties and such.

Even if we don't, I'll remember singing Black Hole Sun. I think everyone will remember. Even the neighbors. (If you can't sing well, sing loud.)

I love my iPhone.

2008-03-21T11:30:00.002-04:00

So, I was just working on my computer, writing some e-mails, and a notification came up telling me about a meeting I have in 15 minutes. I naturally reached up to my screen and tapped on the button to dismiss the notification, and was momentarily taken aback when my computer did not respond.

I can't wait for a touch sensitive computer. It will be so much more natural in so many instances.

Astronomy away!

2008-03-13T20:50:00.004-04:00

So, last night a bit after 11 I submitted a 15 page revised paper to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It has taken me a while, but this is the research simulating extrasolar planets that I did under Sara Seager for the final chapters of my dissertation. Even though there was only a little bit of work to do, it hung over my head, so now I feel like I have all kinds of free time. Maybe that will mean some more posts.

Actually, I have decided to begin writing some specific astronomy posts at a new blog, called Space The Nation. If you get bored of reading what I think about the presidential candidates, then you can head over there and read what I think about water in extrasolar planet atmospheres. Perhaps soon I will get around to writing the laymen's explanation of my research that Adam Langley asked for so long ago (I haven't forgotten.)

Ohio, Texas, Vermont, Oh my!

2008-03-04T23:01:00.002-05:00

My friends who know me know that I go to bed around 9:30; maybe 10 pm if I am going crazy. I can't remember the last time I saw Dave, though he is the best. However, here I am, at 11 pm, watching the election results.

I had given up on Hillary, but apparently the people of Ohio hadn't. Only half the state has reported, but she is giving Obama a drumming, 15 points ahead. She has won Rhode Island, while Obama took Vermont. They are neck and neck in Texas, though they say Obama might have a lead in the caucuses there.

How exciting! It really is great when a contest is so fluid and dynamic that it isn't predictable. I am thinking back to Sunday, specifically, when the top story of the New York Times were top Democrats basically asking Hillary to step aside, in order to unite the party. It is conceivable that she will be the big winner tonight, and gain significant ground tonight, but more importantly, take the spotlight off Obama.

Hillary is going to lose

2008-03-02T21:25:00.008-05:00

I was wrong. I mentioned earlier that I thought Hillary was going to win the Democratic nomination, and now I am not so sure. Obama supporters are doing a great job keeping the momentum and the spotlight on them. It was a great move today to pull the news coverage towards them by asking Hillary to drop out if she doesn't win some big states on Tuesday. Most people read the headlines to mean that Hillary was basically staying in the same way Huckabee is staying in: without a chance in the world of actually winning. And that means that only two days before the next round of important voting, it looks like Obama has already won.

I don't think Obama should be the democratic nominee. I do like Hillary, but mainly I question giving support to Obama. I question Obama because I think most of the reason he is doing so well is because he is unknown. Though the press has done its perfunctory job of digging into his background, mainly he is a blank slate: one on which people are projecting their own desired candidate traits. Because we don't know how he would react in a specific situation, everyone assumes that he would react with them. He is basically being rewarded because he is an unknown, and I don't think that should be a reason to win.

I should clarify that I don't think that Obama has some skeletons hiding in his closet that are waiting to pop out. In fact I don't think he does, but I don't think he should be ahead simply because Hillary has made bold and public support of certain initiatives such as healthcare for every American.

I remember not so long ago another president promised to reach across the aisle and change politics as usual. He actually even had a pretty good record to show that he would work with the other party (unlike Obama's short record, which basically looks like the Democratic platform, and shows little-to-no work with Republicans.) However, that president has changed his tune, and become one of the most divisive presidents in memory. Oh well.

What is "natural"?

2008-02-25T08:46:00.003-05:00

I was so pleased to read this article on virgin birth in the New York Times. It tells of a single female komodo dragon at the Kansas zoo who just had baby komodos without being in contact with a male komodo for the last decade. The birth is a fantastic occasion which points to the wonderment of nature, but the article uses it as an illustration of how little we know (and assume) about nature.

I am annoyed and frustrated by numerous individuals to justify their beliefs and their morals based on what is "natural." On the left, people are quick to scorn herbicides, pesticides and genetically modified foods because they are "unnatural". On the right I've people decry homosexual marriage, in-vitro fertilization and both therapeutic and whole cloning because it is "unnatural". Specifically in the realm of vegetarianism, I've heard the argument used by both sides: vegans claiming that it isn't "natural" for humans to drink cow milk, and meat-eaters claim that eating meat is healthy and "natural" for humans.

It joys me to find that "natural" is not such an easy concept to triangulate. Nature is better at doing its job than we are to understanding it.

HD DVD Dead, shame on Sony

2008-02-19T12:58:00.004-05:00

It appears that HD DVD has died. I can't say that I had much skin in this game. Though I have a high definition television, I still enjoy plain old vanilla DVDs, and much of the content I watch is television recorded digitally (and in high definition) through my computer. However, I had a strong preference that no company win the format war (er, skirmish, war is a bit grandiose) that pitted Blu-Ray against HD-DVD, and especially not Sony. I had hoped that Sony had learned, through years of heartbreak, that creating a proprietary format and attempting to ram it down people's throats was not the way to go. They have enough experience, with beta and connect, to know that they should embrace partners and work with other companies. I am not sure that Toshiba was a lot more reasonable in their efforts to "reach across the aisle", but I don't think they have such an asinine history of rejecting partnerships or open technology as Sony. Honestly, I wanted both sides to continue their ridiculous positions until digital downloads could trump both of them, so both companies could lose their investments, and hopefully think twice next time about not working together.

Astute readers might mention that I seem to like Apple, and Apple nearly never works with anyone else. Well, that is right. What can I say?

Romney drops out?!

2008-02-07T21:37:00.002-05:00

I did not see this one coming. I sort if wanted it to happen, since Huckabee is my conservative candidate of choice, but I honestly thought Romney would fight it out for a little longer. Maybe his sons convinced him to save some of the inheritance for them.

I am really interested to see how this might change the dynamic between McCain and Huckabee. It would be really difficult for them to continue to be so chummy now that there are only two. If Huckabee wants to maintain the possibility of a vp spot, he ought to bow out soon. However, he is basically in the best position he has ever been to really take the nomination. Romney and Huckabee combined took about as many delegates as McCain, so conceivably he could be in a good position if all of those were value voters. However, probably too many of them are fiscal conservatives who wouldn't touch Huckabee with a ten-foot pole.

I think what is fascinating is how the two final Republican candidates are so distasteful to certain segments of their party. This is a critical election for the future of the Republican party, especially if they win the general election.

Super Tuesday

2008-02-05T22:57:00.001-05:00

Well, I am heading to bed, but what a fantastic day. To have the excitement somewhat like a general election day, but with so many candidates, is pretty great, I think. It looks like Hillary is taking a slight lead over Obama in number of states won, but the proportional system of Democratic delegates will keep him going well past today.

However, I think the Republican contest, with three active candidates, is of course more dynamic. Support is solidifying around John McCain, but it looks like Huckabee is going to be able to pull out enough state wins to keep going. I can only imagine how this must make Mitt Romney's blood boil. He thinks that had Huckabee been out of the race all Huck's support would flow to him, however, I don't know if I support that theory. I think the reverse is a lot closer to the truth. Were Romney to drop out of the race, I think Huckabee would get a big boost, because of the value voters who would go to Huckabee. I think a lot of Huckabee's evangelical voters would have a problem with Romney's religion.

I can only hope it gets to a brokered convention. Isn't it strange, how now that I am 28, I am excited about watching a decisive convention on television, when only three elections ago I was cursing the political coverage because it prevented my favorite television shows from being on? Wow, I've gotten boring.

Why a Democratic scientist is noticing Mike Huckabee (in a good way)

2008-02-02T22:44:00.001-05:00

I am a scientist, and a Democrat, and in general I respect people who value scientific knowledge. So, it was with great surprise that I recently found myself interested in Mike Huckabee's presidential run. I know that at this point he doesn't have much of a shot of actually receiving the nomination, but I think he will do respectably in some contests come super Tuesday. He will probably win Arkansas, I think, and he at least has a small shot at Georgia and Tennessee, and maybe Oklahoma. I was surprised at my interest because Mike is nearly unapologetic about not believing in evolution. I am pretty sure that we would be on opposite sides of the stem cell research debate and abortion, but I feel like I am still rooting for him, nonetheless.

There are a few reasons why I found myself hoping another man from Hope would be nominated for president:
1) My main reason for defending Mike Huckabee is because I feel like I know what guides him, and can appreciate and anticipate how he will make decisions. He is foremost a Christian, and secondly a Republican. So many of his political leanings are rooted in the Bible, and can be anticipated. The Bible is, I think, a generally good guide to life, so why wouldn't I support a candidate who chooses to follow the Bible in his daily life, both personally and politically?

This is a sharp contrast to Mitt Romney, whom I can not anticipate at all. I have a feeling that Mitt Romney uses not the Bible to guide his hand in his day to day decisions, but instead uses political polling. When he was running for the Senate against Ted Kennedy, he sounded like a Democrat, and when he ran for Massachusetts governor, he sounded like a moderate Republican. Now that he is running for the Republican nomination, he sounds like a conservative Republican. I anticipate, if Mitt receives the nomination, that he will tack hard to the center, and start to reclaim those past liberal credentials, in order to win over Democrats and independents. As a Democrat that ought to make me happy, but it just feels like Mitt is slimy enough to say anything to win any election, and I can't stand that. I'd rather vote for a candidate with whom I disagree, but respect, than someone with whom I agree (somewhat more) but don't respect.

2) Secondly, I have found Mike Huckabee to break with his party enough for me to consider him a good leader. This harkens back to my first point a bit, because when "Republican" gets in the way of "Christian", I know Christian will win. In my state of Arkansas, Huckabee proposed and pushed through the biggest creation of child health care through ARKids. Republicans chide him now for expanding the government, but making sure kids have health insurance was more important, as a Christian, than limiting the growth of government. I don't know if he has spoken on the subject, but I feel pretty sure that Huckabee would have stayed his veto pen when considering the expansion of the children's health insurance program that Bush recently vetoed, even though it would have been paid for with tobacco taxes.

I have also beamed with pride as fiscal conservatives have attacked Huckabee six ways to Sunday. I always thought the fiscal conservatives and evangelicals, whose Christian values should direct them to help people, were strange bedfellows. Huckabee basically kicked the Wall Street types out of the bed. He is much more internally consistent than the other candidates, in my opinion.

2) Finally, I would be joking if I didn't mention that the biggest reason I am interested in Huckabee is because he is from Arkansas. I love my state, and I love seeing people from my state succeed. If I were from somewhere else, I think I'd be deriding Huckabee as ignorant and ill-prepared for the White House. However, as it stands, I am excited for him.

Like I said before, I don't think Huckabee has much of a chance on super Tuesday, but I think he will pick up a few states. At this point, I hope he does well, and I hope McCain considers him in choosing a Vice President. With McCain's paucity of religious credentials, Huckabee might just fill out the ticket to secure a certain victory. Just a couple of days and we will see.

Eating meat in the world

2008-02-02T15:53:00.000-05:00

So, I am a little late commenting on this article from the New York Times, Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler, but I'd like to mention it none the less. I want to discuss it because I am a pot-smoking, hippy, vegetarian liberal. Actually, I am not all those things, but I am a vegetarian, so sometimes I get lumped into political movements in which I don't believe.

In general, I really enjoyed this article. The author presents ample evidence about the environmental impact of consuming meat, and for the most part doesn't use the accusatory tone often associated with PETA or their supporters. I am especially pleased that he doesn't start down the path of "animal rights," or cruelty, as it is such a nebulous and contentious notion that it is dismissed (as I think it ought to be) by most people who are generally sympathetic to notion of environmental degradation due to meat production.

I am also very much in favor of two of the solutions he submits, namely reduction of farm subsidies and better food technology. I don't agree with President Bush on many things, but I support very much his attempts (in the past, at least) to curb agricultural subsidies. These subsidies prevent consumers from seeing the true cost of their foods, and because of the massive lobbying groups supporting particular foods (I am talking to you, corn), situations develop where food is used in crazy and inefficient ways simply because the cost is artificially low (corn-based ethanol to reduce greenhouse gases? Ridiculous!) Though I am a democrat, I hope that a republican president has the will to cut these subsidies. Goodness knows the politicians from my state of Arkansas don't have the gumption. Growing food is something that the developing world, including South and Central America, do very well, and we should let them, and bring down trade tariffs to prevent their cheaper foods from being sold in our markets. The argument that in a crisis we need to be able to produce our own food doesn't quite hold water to me. In a crisis, we could stop eating a bit of the meat we eat and basically be flooded with the extra grain. I'm disappointed that Mike Huckabee has taken this stand in the presidential debates.

Secondly, the author mentions advancing food technology as an option, and I am proud that he does:

Longer term, it no longer seems lunacy to believe in the possibility of “meat without feet” — meat produced in vitro, by growing animal cells in a super-rich nutrient environment before being further manipulated into burgers and steaks.

I am proud the author mentioned this because for many of the hippy vegetarians who shop at the farmers market and whole foods, this is an option they find so distasteful as to be repugnant. However, it is a viable option, and we have continually manipulated nature in order to feed the growing population of humans (by domesticating cows, domesticating wheat, breeding chickens, etc.) It would be morally deficient of us to not develop technology that could help feed people because it doesn't sit right with us.

However, speaking specifically about moral decisions in food production and consumption, I am disappointed with the authors final paragraph:

In fact, Americans are already buying more environmentally friendly products, choosing more sustainably produced meat, eggs and dairy. The number of farmers’ markets has more than doubled in the last 10 years or so, and it has escaped no one’s notice that the organic food market is growing fast. These all represent products that are more expensive but of higher quality.

My problem with this paragraph is that there is an assumption that farmers market and organic food is better for the environment, when there is at least compelling evidence that organic food and farmer's markets are actually worse for the environment. There may be benefits of organic and farmers markets, such as less chemicals for sensitive consumers, but to say it is environmentally better is either nebulous or outright false. To the author's credit, though, he mentions that these specialty and more expensive options for meat hopefully will lead to less consumption, which, considering the epidemic of obesity in our country, would be over all a good thing.

Florida makes Rudy cry

2008-01-29T20:56:00.000-05:00

Wow. So it seems like Rudy made the wrong decision. Today Floridians decided that John McCain would be a better nominee for President of the United States, along with Hillary Clinton. I think that will be the way the country also goes.

Rudy is struggling for third place, nearly even with Mike Huckabee. It doesn't seem like his campaign can go much further than tonight. However, how was Rudy to know? He couldn't have made a stronger showing in Iowa, with his liberal tendencies, nor in South Carolina. Michigan was conceivably MItt Romney's to lose, possibly because of the income differences between good ol' Mitt and the multitudes of laid off voters there, but in hindsight, Mitt pulled it out and Rudy did well to not have wasted his resources. However, the one state I don't quite understand is New Hampshire. That is where McCain gathered most of his momentum, and Rudy could have been seen as a local(ish) vote in that state. It was really a poor calculation. It seems obvious to say it now, but I think for the last six years people (republicans) have been asking themselves how things would be different if John McCain had been elected in 2000, and now they get the chance to vote for him. He was Rudy's big opponent, and he was able to grab the momentum in New Hampshire, and he isn't giving it away. He already looks like a national candidate, which was Rudy's only claim to fame.

Now, I think the democratic candidacy is still somewhat up in the air, but I think Hillary will win it. She will take New York, probably California, and Obama will take Illinois and Georgia. They will split some smaller states, but she will look like the winner, and then she is back as the inevitable candidate. I am going to pretend John Edwards isn't in the race, and I am going to say it will be so much more difficult to survive until the convention if their are only two candidates. I can see the republicans getting to a brokered convention, especially with the southern states in the mix and giving Huckabee a possible boost, but with only two viable democratic candidates, it will be easier for that tree to fall one way or the other, and I think it will fall to Hillary.

So, McCain versus Clinton. I am not sure it looks good for the democrats if that is the case.

MacBook Air

2008-01-28T20:28:00.000-05:00

So, I used to work at the fruit stand, and because of that, some people have asked me what I thought about Apple's last big offering, the MacBook Air. I have to admit that I am pretty underwhelmed. So, Apple has released a lot of products that were panned initially, and then turned out to be hugh hits, like the original iMac (only USB!) and the iPod ($400 for a music player!), but I don't see the MacBook Air making any such significant waves. The reason is that the design (to quote an Apple poster) is evolutionary instead of revolutionary. Like the iMac, the machine could mainly be defined by what it is missing (firewire port, PC card slot, and most significantly, an optical drive), but in terms of the basic offering, it is far less bold a statement than the iMac was at the time. It is a slightly thinner and much lighter portable computer, for basically a 50% cost premium over the MacBook. The only reason I let myself get a little excited about the MacBook Air is because of what it portends, namely future iterations of thinner, lighter MacBooks. I think there is a market for this offering, but I am hesitant to say it is going to be a big market. One could say that mobile executives would buy this (and I am sure they will), but I think the lack of an evdo integrated card (along with Apple's typical ease of use) will limit the uptake.

I think the biggest buyers of the MacBook Air may be the least exciting (to me, anyway) of all market segments, which is at least the situation in my family. Of all my family members, only one called me asking about purchasing the MacBook Air: my Mom. She is a baby boomer with excess income, no interest in firewire ports or the fastest processor, and she puts a premium on making everything she carries with her light, so that she can pick up and visit the grand-babies at a moment's notice. For some reason, I am not sure she will make it onto the next Apple ad, however.

Star Trek trailer

2008-01-27T20:07:00.000-05:00

OK, I've never hidden the fact that I am a dork. As an astronomer and a former captain of a Star Trek fan club, I don't think of myself as the coolest kid in the class. So, I'm not embarrassed to say that a big reason I went to see Cloverfield is because of the trailer at the beginning of it. It is the first showing of the trailer for the new Star Trek film being released Christmas 2008, by producer J.J. Abrams of Lost. The movie has recast all of the characters of the original series (Kirk, Spock, etc.), and though the trailer was limited and enigmatic, I am excited. I am hoping that the new movie will be a bit of a re-imagining, like Battlestar Galactica. Star Trek, though I am a huge fan, has become a little stagnant, and having some time off, with no tv series or movies in active production was probably pretty good for it (Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled in 2005). Here's hoping they have shed some of the baggage of the past and come up with a good movie that more than just trekkies can enjoy.

Buying local produce maybe not better

2007-12-11T09:34:00.000-05:00

I wrote previously about an article in the Economist that challenges presumptions about FairTrade, organic, and locally produced food. Now there is an article in the New York Times specifically about locally produced food maybe being worse for the environment. I am probably on the more conservative side of this issue. I am of the opinion, for instance, that pesticides, herbicides, and massive transport of food allowed the green revolution and ensured that everyone in the world could be fed, even if geopolitical and infrastructure problems prevent that. However, the best part of this article is that people are thinking critically for themselves, and challenging the assumptions of the status quo (the status quo in this instance being that buying local is better). Even if someone comes to a different conclusion than me, if they have thought through all the ramifications of their actions, I am generally pretty happy.

Um, Howdy

2007-12-10T21:20:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been a little while since my last post. I have been pretty busy, but I've decided to take a little more time for blogging. Tis the season to ramp back up on blogging, eh? Pretty soon I'll have a little post on Mike Huckabee. Woooo, Pig Sooooie!

Ian and Whitney

2007-07-19T13:41:00.000-04:00

Courtney and I had a nice little time in Arkansas, even if it was a little short. We flew in on Saturday morning and headed straight up to Fort Smith to meet Ian McLellan, my new nephew. He is pretty short still, but has some weight on him. We were only able to stay until Monday afternoon, when we had to fly back up here to DC.

However, while we were down, we were introduced to something other than Ian, and that is Karaoke Revolution. Wow. It seems like every time Courtney and I visit Michael's we come home wanting another video game. I had no idea, but it turns out that I am quite a good singer. It took me a bit to get started (I was booed off the stage for my first attempt), but after I got the hang of it I was basically the best singer in the room. It is fair to say that when I sang "I will always love you," in the style of Whitney Houston, there were quite a few tears from my audience (including Courtney, Michael and Melissa).

A good time was had by all. Definitely.

Biofuels starve the poor?

2007-06-17T13:37:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine sent me an interesting article from Foreign Affairs, asking if biofuels might starve the world's poor, by diverting corn used for eating to corn used to drive your car. I think it is a tremendously interesting argument, but it has been constructed in such a way to be a little sensational. As you read the article--which is somewhat lengthy but worth the time--you find that it is the government subsidies and industrial favoritism of corn that might starve the world's poor, and not specifically biofuels. I was pleased to read in the final sections that the authors recognize the potential benefits of cellulosic (from trees or grasses) ethanol over corn or soybean derived ethanol. I am reminded of the excellent research that I mentioned in an earlier blog post on native grasslands producing a better biofuel. Native grasses can be planted on agriculturally degraded lands, so they aren't displacing crops, and they are carbon-negative, meaning that growing native grasses, converting them to biofuels and burning them actually puts more carbon in the ground (in the growing phase) than in the air (in the burning phase). Using soy and corn to create biofuels is better than fossil fuels, of course, but they are still carbon-positive. It's a great article if you have the time.

New "habitable" planet

2007-04-27T09:51:00.000-04:00

Some astronomers know how to write press releases. Some don't. The European team that announced they had found a small rocky planet knows how to write a press release.

For years the salvation of the transit method of planet discovery (as opposed to the doppler method) was that it could provide the essential information that radial velocity could not: namely, the actual mass of the planet and the radius (essential components for determining if a planet is 5 Earth-masses, small and rocky, or 5 Earth-masses, and big and gassy.)

I know see that we were wasting our time with the transit method, and we should have just stuck with the doppler method and released a press release that says "Habitable planet found!!!1!!" That would have saved some time.

Wow. Apple does it again.

2007-04-02T08:51:00.000-04:00

A lot of people accused Steve Jobs of being disingenuous when he released his "Thoughts on Music", because they said that it was a marketing move that the labels would never allow him to execute (that is, to sell music without the DRM). However, apparently, instead of the music labels calling his bluff, he has brought EMI on board. Now, EMI will release DRM-free, higher quality tracks on the iTunes Store for just $1.29, with a goal of having half the iTunes library DRM-free by the end of the year. Wow. Sometimes I wonder if Apple has any more tricks up its sleeve, and I then realize that it must be a really big sleeve (on a black turtleneck, of course.)

Microsoft Arrogance

2007-03-28T10:00:00.000-04:00

I am no hardcore gamer. Not at all. I play the occasional video games on my Mac, but mostly things like SimCity, not Halo. However, when Courtney and I were in Arkansas over Christmas we played the Wii at Michael's house, and thought it was fantastic. It made me want to buy a console, which I have never thought before (not since 1988, at least).

That is why I was a little offended by a comment by a Microsoft Xbox product manager in a New York Times article covering the new Xbox model:

“We don’t feel like the Wii customer and the Xbox customer are the same thing,” he said. “We think that as soon as the Wii customer turns 14 they want something else.”

Hmm...I am 27, and I like the Wii. Courtney liked the Wii. I feel like Microsoft has just insulted my intelligence a little (or a lot). I know they want to push their consoles, but if they aren't frightened of the Wii, then why insult its users?

Changing default page size for TeXShop

2007-03-23T10:22:00.000-04:00

I realize that this post may have a very limited audience. I have had trouble moving my latex documents between A4 size (which i need in Britain), and Letter size (which I need in the US). After much searching, I have found that the command
sudo texconfig pdftex paper a4
and
sudo texconfig pdftex paper letter
put in at the command line will do the trick. Be sure to re-typeset your paper after these commands.

Frustrated with WD MyBook drives

2007-02-20T21:08:00.000-05:00

I have two MyBook 500GB external drives I have been using for a few months, and they have been great. So, when they were on sale at Costco I thought it would be a great time to pick up a couple more so that I could start mirroring my data for backup. However, when I plugged in the two new ones, they didn't work, together. They would work separately, but when you plugged both in, they would disconnect. After some sluething, I think I have found the problem, but I don't know much about firewire, so I am not certain. The Firewire connection ID (found with Disk Utility) on both drives is identical. As far as I can tell, the connection ID should be unique to all firewire drives, but these are not. I actually returned one drive to Costco thinking that it was just funky, but when I got the new one home, the same exact thing happened. Does anyone who knows more about firewire care to illuminate me if I am on the wrong track completely?

Huckabee for president

2007-01-28T10:31:00.000-05:00

I am watching Mike Huckabee on Meet the Press this morning, and he said that tomorrow he is announcing his run for president. He says that in Iraq, he generally agrees with President Bush. I think that is a killer for his ambitions. However, in terms of Republicans, I think Huckabee might be the kind of Republican I would like. He is pro-life, but he also supports affordable or free health insurance for children, so that those babies born are healthy. He doesn't support gay marriage, but also thinks we should support strengthening heterosexual marriage. He seems internally consistent, much more than some Republicans who seem to support some Christian ideals (in order to get votes) but then cut welfare programs designed to help people. However, I am not sure he is "enough" to be president. I will be watching him closely.

"Doctor." "Doctor."

2007-01-24T13:40:00.000-05:00

It took me four years, but I am finished now with book-learnin'. On the 10th of January I defended (think swords and armor) my thesis to Ian Bonnell of St. Andrews and Phil Lucas of Hertsfordshire. After four hours, they decided the research (and by extension, I) was fit for a Ph.D., and congratulated me. Over the next couple of days, I made the minor corrections they asked of me, and printed out my final copy of my dissertation. Now I need to get it bound and into the library at St. Andrews, but in general I have completed all the requirements of my doctorate. Woo-hoo!
There were quite a few times when I didn't think this would happen, but at the end of it I can honestly say I was enjoying the research. But, all good things…

Heading over

2007-01-08T12:48:00.000-05:00

So, I am headed to Scotland this afternoon. There are many things on which I would like to comment, like the article in the Economist about how ethical food (fairtrade, organic, and locally produced) might do worse for the world. And the response article in Grist about how the Economist is wrong. However, I have other things (warning: large link) to think about right now.

Salt in Central Asia

2006-12-16T12:17:00.000-05:00

There is a good article about getting iodine in salt in Central Asia in the New York Times. I was struck by the lobbyists who sprung up to challenge putting iodine in salt, which reportedly can eliminate iodine deficiencies. Iodine deficiencies in pregnant women, by the way, lower IQ points by 10-15% for their babies, and causes cretinism and dwarfism. The cost of the iodine added to a ton of salt is about $1.15, which in my opinion, is a pretty good deal for a 15 point gain in IQ. The article specifically mentions some work in Kazakhstan to convince people that iodized salt is good for you. It is funny, because the reporter mentioned that in Turkmenistan, the dictator in one fell swoop made non-iodized salt illegal, and gave away 11 pounds of iodized salt to every citizen every year. Sometimes even a dictator can do good.

Alternative Energy

2006-12-12T10:41:00.000-05:00

Like most people (save oil executives, perhaps), I am very interested in alternative energies. It is sometimes disheartening to see renewable energy shunned in favor for petroleum products for energy needs. With the infrastructure already created to use oil and gas, renewable or alternative energies can't simply be as good as oil, but instead must be much better than oil, in order to be adopted. For that reason I am really excited about some scientific research just released that shows that low input high diversity (LIHD) native grassland perennials can produce a much better return than corn or soybeans in creating energy. The article is in Science, so you may not be able to see it, as it is restricted access. However, the gist of the research is that when a broad variety of native grasslands are planted in agriculturally degraded lands, they can produce over three times as much energy than corn or soybean derived energy products. What is even better is that this grassland biofuel cycle puts carbon back in the ground, so that the entire process actually reduces greenhouse gases. I don't know how much is spent on finding oil each year or transporting it to the places that need it, but these scientists have essentially shown that you can take a barren piece of land, plant a bunch of grasses on it, leave it without irrigation or fertilization, and in result reduce greenhouse emissions and get a (big) net positive production of energy. How cool is that?

Getting busy

2006-12-12T09:03:00.000-05:00

Like everyone, things are getting a little bit busy in December. At the first of the month, Courtney and I had our annual cookie party. Now, I am working on astronomy code for Sara, working at the fruit stand about 25 hours a week, and trying to study for my viva. Thus, less updates.
However, I wanted to mention a friend's blog, Its beyond me. Jared is a smart guy. People should listen to him.

Education in the City

2006-11-29T14:35:00.000-05:00

There is a fantastic article in the New York Times Sunday Magazine about educating low-income students, mostly in the inner city. I was very impressed with some of the explanations for student success, and think that parents (or prospective parents) would specifically like to know some of the information. I am also enamored with the charter schools mentioned in the article, and would love to see KIPP in the Arkansas Delta.

Selling Kidneys

2006-11-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

There is an article about selling kidneys on the Economist right now. They are pro. It reminds me of a paper I wrote once about allowing death-row inmates to donate their organs. Give the article a read, if you have a chance.

Thesis away!

2006-11-06T14:52:00.000-05:00

So, my deadline was the 31 October for my thesis. I ended up sending it on the 3rd November, putting it in a FedEx box to send to Scotland. I already know of a couple of errors in it, but by and large I am extremely relieved to have turned it in. If anyone wants to look at it, go ahead. Be warned that it is about 20 MB and might take a little while to download.

I will continue to work on my research, for Sara and to prepare for my viva in January, but I will have a lot more free time than before. It feels good to be back in the world.

100 pages

2006-10-12T16:53:00.000-04:00

So, I am sure all you humanities people will laugh at the brevity of a science thesis. But, remember, a picture (or a plot) is worth a thousand words (I hope). I am still actively working, and it is a jumbled mess right now, but I passed the 100 page mark (sort of). So, if you are having a difficult time getting to sleep tonight, or you have nothing else to do, then feel free to download and take a look at the thesis.

Where am I?

2006-10-03T16:06:00.000-04:00

Well, I am in the thick of an extrasolar planet atmosphere, computing rho, tau, kappa, and other greek symbols. I am going to finish my Ph.D. work by 31 October, so I probably won't write much until then. I hope everyone is enjoying the autumn.

Courtney Passed

2006-09-22T23:44:00.000-04:00

You can now call Courtney Dr. Hood. She has just passed her viva. She and her mother are coming home tomorrow from Scotland, the land of rain. I am so proud of her.

Ron Moore

2006-09-18T17:39:00.000-04:00

Ron Moore is the wildly successful writer and creator of Battlestar Galatica. He writes an excellent op-ed piece in the New York Times about the optimism of science fiction, and specifically, Star Trek. I know science fiction isn't everyone's cup of tea, but the article is a good indication of why so many of us do love it. Also, take a look at Battlestar if you haven't already. It really is great.

Courtney is in Scotland

2006-09-18T10:01:00.000-04:00

So, Courtney and her mother are in Scotland right now. Both her parents flew to DC on Friday, and Courtney and her mom both flew to Scotland on Saturday, and I hung out with Courtney's dad on Saturday and Sunday. It was pretty good fun. We headed out to the movies on Saturday night and watched The Guardian. There were certainly a few well-worn cinematic elements, but overall I thought it was a good movie. I was also pleased that it only cost $6.75, which I think was a special price because it was a prerelease movie (it doesn't open until next week, I think). We also got some Hard Times Chili, of which I am a fan (I miss chili cheese hot dogs, but the vegetarian hamburger I had was pretty tasty).
I hope Courtney gets back soon.

Woo Pig Chewy!

2006-09-09T16:03:00.000-04:00

So, the New York Times thought it a good idea to write a little profile of my governor, Mike Huckabee. I might not consider myself a republican, but I am very proud of what he is doing to change the attitudes in Arkansas about food. I am much less proud of his attempt to turn this fat-busting into a presidential campaign. Maybe there is a lot more depth to him than I know, but you can't turn one issue (and a small one, relatively) into a presidential bid. Of course, I hope the best for him. Maybe we will have another Arkansawyer in the White House.

An excellent bit of learning

2006-09-06T10:32:00.001-04:00

William M. Chace, a former president of Emory University, wrote a nice little Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, entitled, A Little Learning is an Expensive Thing. I thought is was an entertaining and excellent overview of a component of higher education. I thought it was very interesting to hear that more than half the students at selective colleges come from the highest earning quarter of households.

An excellent bit of learning

2006-09-06T10:32:00.000-04:00

Could it have been America?

2006-09-02T08:18:00.000-04:00

A lot of liberal democrats like to say things like "Bush stole the presidency," and that he wasn't really elected to his office, because of the closeness of the Gore/Bush vote. However, it is interesting to watch a close vote occur in Mexico, and the ramifications of that vote. Could America have descended into that kind of anarchy? Would Gore have ever threatened to set up a parallel government? I hope others would agree that even the imperfect solution of having Bush as president is better than the kind of conflict that might occur in Mexico for the next six years.

Wedding Photos!

2006-08-27T08:44:00.000-04:00

We have all our wedding photos, and we have been dutifully culling through them to find the best photos. We have chosen a small selection of best photos, and then a larger collection of photos. Feel free to take a look at them if you have time. We had such a fantastic time at the wedding, and I am glad that it really shows in the photographs.

I ♥ Pluto

2006-08-24T12:52:00.000-04:00

The title is an Op-Ed piece written in the New York Times by cartoonist Tim Kreider. I am much more fond of Kreider's explanations and rationale for keeping Pluto a planet than anything I have heard from any astronomer. He sums up very nicely what I feel as an astronomer: Pluto is a planet because it has been for the last 70 years, but that it is silly to induct more into the exclusive club. I have just read that at the IAU the vote is to demote Pluto to a minor planet. I am disappointed, but this is not the first time astronomy has disappointed me, and it won't be the last.

Woo-Pig Sooie

2006-08-22T16:27:00.000-04:00

Courtney and I just returned from a trip to Arkansas. We went to a Bodenhamer Fellows dinner and were able to speak to Dr. Bodenhamer, Chancellor White, and many of my friends from the University of Arkansas. One nice thing is that we were able to pick up Aperture from the university bookstore, so now I can start organizing the 2000+ photos of the wedding that we just received from our photographer. Hopefully by this weekend I will have some photos online. For now, I am having some more trouble with cosines. Oh well.

Wet or Dry?

2006-08-12T08:08:00.000-04:00

So, some of you probably will think it is crazy, but where I grew up in Arkansas we couldn't buy alcohol. Not at a restaurant or at the supermarket or anywhere else. I lived in a dry county, Saline. When you wanted to buy alcohol, you had to drive to Pulaski county, home of Little Rock. Recently, Saline county has been booming, as expansion from Little Rock pushes more people farther out. This was helped by a major expansion of the interstate between Saline and Pulaski County. Right now, across the interstate from my house, on some former pastures, construction companies are finishing a Super Target and an Old Navy. So for us at least, we are going big time. However, our restaurants continue to languish, with the only options being fast food and the occasional mom and pop establishment on the order of a Denny's. Some have suggested that the liquor laws are preventing us from having any "fine dining," which I mean to include Olive Garden or Red Lobster or any better than fast food options. I haven't quite made up my mind yet, but there is an article in the New York Times about counties deciding to go wet. It covers the issue pretty well, I think. On a toss-up, however, I would prefer to stay dry until I am certain that going wet would significantly help, because I see it has a one-shot deal. If Saline County goes wet, then there will never be an option to go dry again (I don't think).

First few pictures

2006-08-10T12:57:00.000-04:00

So, a few wedding pictures are trickling in, which is probably a good thing, since we will probably be deluged with them when we receive the big package. This is one of my favorites so far. When we get them all, I will put them online, so all you voyeurs can see us in our wedding glory.

Rehearsal Dinner Video

2006-08-08T15:12:00.000-04:00

Courtney and I made a video/slide show for the rehearsal dinner. It is basically a slide show of our pictures, with some of the wedding party included. I uploaded it so that everyone who wasn't at the rehearsal dinner can see it. It will take a little bit of time to download, because it is about 30 megabytes. The entire movie is about 12 minutes long.

Big C Project

2006-08-08T12:58:00.000-04:00

So, I haven't been writing much because I am working on a big C project for a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will be finished by the time Sara comes back from Canada. Courtney and I have also been trying to get the apartment in order (to no avail), and we are possibly going down to Arkansas next week. Anybody have any tips on buying a car? We need one bad, since the AC is broken in Courtney's car. I am hoping to find a nice, used Toyota somewhere.

Honeymoon Pictures!

2006-07-28T13:03:00.000-04:00

So, I put up a new photographs page, where I will be linking all my photographs. One of the first sets is our pictures from our honeymoon. We will have pictures from the wedding soon, and I will link those to the same page!

Winthrop Rockefeller

2006-07-27T17:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess I know how I missed this, because it happened just the day after the wedding, but Winthrop Rockefeller, the Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, has passed away. Wow. He was just about the same age as my parents. He had a blood disorder, and I remember his family asking people to be tested for bone marrow matches. What a shame. His father single-handedly opened Arkansas politics up to two parties, and in effect brought Arkansas government that much closer to a democracy. I suppose Winthrop could have had a huge impact, if his time weren't cut short.

Back from the honeymoon!

2006-07-24T06:57:00.000-04:00

Though there was internet access at the Rusty Parrot, for obvious reasons I resisted the urge to post blogs while on my honeymoon. However, I took loads of pictures (not that kind, William), of us mountain biking and hiking, etc, and I will post them shortly.

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer heat.

Deceiving Headline

2006-07-04T10:39:00.000-04:00

I was excited to notice an article in the NYTimes called "How to Educate Young Scientists." However, it was little more than a mention of a problem that is enormous in scope. I suppose every mention is a step in the right direction, but I was left wanting more.

The Vegas

2006-06-28T11:17:00.000-04:00

Why hasn't Ben written anything? Because he has been in Vegas! (end third person). I won't bore you with all the details, but on Friday morning, Courtney, Richard and I headed out to Vegas, and we caught the red-eye back on Sunday night. Courtney met up with four friends, so I didn't see her all weekend, and Kin, Michael, Michael and Richard and I had a grand time. The best was in the MGM Grand, where we were waiting for Ka to start, and we sat down to a $10 blackjack table. I am usually more of a $3 Sahara table kind of person. We sat down because the table was empty, so all five of us could play. We all were up and down a bit, and I ended up with $75 left of $100 I brought to the table. I decided that I would play just one $25 chip to see if I could get even. I got two sixes against the dealer's four. So, I split the sixes and got another six on the first, so I split those, so I had to put down $75 on the table, a huge hand for me. The dealer gave me a three on the first six, so I doubled down, and got 15 total with a six card, and I stayed. The second hand I got a 10, for 16 total, and I stayed. The third hand she gave me a four, so I doubled down again and got an eight, for 18. So, in the end I had $125 riding on one hand, whereas I usually do $3, and my hands are weak enough that if the dealer gets anything I am screwed. Well, thank goodness the numbers were in my favor, because she busted, and I walked away with $250 from my $125, making me well ahead in Vegas.

Ryan touring

2006-06-19T15:06:00.000-04:00

Ryan Young, my brother in law, is touring through some of the midwest. He will be playing in Little Rock on Tuesday night at the Afterthought at 8 pm, Bryant on Wednesday night at Woodside Coffee at 7 pm, and Fayetteville on Thursday night at The Gypsy at 9 pm. Take a look at some of his music and go out and support him if you are around.

Living the dream

2006-06-19T11:41:00.000-04:00

Star Trek Fans all over the world are making their own episodes and movies, in order to broadcast them on the internet, according to an excellent article in the New York Times. Take a look at the video connected to the article in order to delve a little deeper into the phenomenon. I only have one question: what am I doing with my life?

I consider myself a bigger Star Trek fan than most, but it is all about shades of gray. I have never filmed a Star Trek episode (StarWars, maybe...). However, I did notice that one of the groups is in Northern Virginia/DC, Starship Farragut. Maybe they need some help. Maybe I will wait until after Courtney signs the marriage certificate.

Good for us

2006-06-19T11:24:00.000-04:00

The Episcopal church has elected a woman presiding bishop. That is to say that the Episcopal church of the United States now is represented by a woman, Katharine Jefferts Schori of Nevada. One of the criticisms that conservative churches (ones who do not accept women being ordained even as priests) levy is that the election of a woman emphasizes that the church of the US is out of touch with the rest of the Anglican community in the world. In this instance, I am glad that we are out of touch. How, actually, do you "get in touch" with bigotry and bias?

Next month this time…

2006-06-15T14:56:00.000-04:00

I will be married! Or nearly. I suppose it will be a few hours from now. Courtney and I have been working hard on everything, and she is slowly becoming a little crazy about it. I think I can handle one month of crazy. I think I have been really luck thus far, because I think some guys get about 6 months to a year of crazy. Things I need to do:
1. Work on the program
2. Work on the slideshow
3. Go to Vegas
OK. I think that is it for me. I will go learn how to play blackjack.

New blog!

2006-06-09T11:03:00.000-04:00

My best friend Michael Trieu has just started a new blog. He is one of the funniest people I know, so it is definitely worth reading, if you have a chance. And by all means, if you like it, let him know.

I love Arkansas

2006-06-08T10:25:00.000-04:00

Just a couple of days ago I spoke to a friend of mine from Arkansas. He is down in AR for the summer, but is doing a graduate program at Harvard right now. We spoke about the future of Arkansas and I got really excited about it. We talked a little about the book I am reading now, Arkansas Politics and Government, by Diane Blair and Jay Barth. It is a fantastic account of politics in Arkansas. This second edition is rather topical, with a lot of references to 2002-2005 material, so read it now while it is fresh.

Delinquent Blogger

2006-06-05T14:05:00.000-04:00

Much excitement we have had in the past couple of weeks. So, because of that, I haven't ben as frequent a blogger as I would like. So, for you two readers (I count myself in that), I blog today.
Courtney and I headed down to Arkansas Memorial Day weekend for three wedding showers. A good time was had by all. We started off with a great party thrown by my family (it included boys). Then Courtney attended a ladies shower on Saturday at 2 pm, then we headed over to a church shower on Saturday night at 6 pm. Sunday we played with the kids and headed over to Hot Springs and then to Billy's Library. Monday Courtney had to fly out, of course to make some money for us on Tuesday. I stayed until Tuesday afternoon and spent that morning getting my driver's license renewed. We got some fantastic stuff at the showers, including a new juicer. I am super excited about it, but since fresh fruit is so expensive, I am going to start out by juicing stuff around our apartment, like Courtney's shoes. We also got a really posh wine cabinet from Crate and Barrel from all my siblings, which I put together yesterday. Twice.

I hope everyone's weekend was just as fun as mine.

Courtney called!

2006-05-24T12:31:00.000-04:00

Courtney will be coming home tomorrow night, but today when I got back from work in the morning, Alex had picked up my phone because she was calling! I got there just in time to talk to her. It was great to hear her voice, but I am not sure she was having a great time. (Perhaps the fermented horse milk has something to do with it.) Anyway, she seems really excited about coming back to the states, and told me I should get to the airport a few hours early just in case her flight came in early. I have been frantically trying to do everything on "the list." Anyone know of any good wedding readings?

Alex on his way

2006-05-23T12:51:00.000-04:00

I have a friend who I met in St. Andrews, Alex Yabroff. He is actually from California, and graduated last year but has been wasting his time in St. Andrews being the student association president. Right now he is in the air flying here to Washington, to stay with Courtney and me for a few days, and hopefully to find a job in international relations. Should be good fun. Other than that, not much going on with my bachelor life. Only two more days and then Courtney will be home. Yay!

2003 technology!

2006-05-16T12:42:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I borrowed an EyeTV 500 from my friend Dustin Johnson. I also ordered a 500GB hard drive from Dell. Of course the hard drive was backordered, twice, so I only received it yesterday (the price was awesome, though). Last night, after a little finagling, I was able to record television shows with my computer, ala TiVo! I recorded William F**king Shatner on David Letterman. Even though my underwear is all over the living room, I am living in a pig sty, and Courtney is going to kill me for not taking care of everything before she gets back, I have a working DVR, and everything is right with the world.

Did you get a haircut?

2006-05-12T23:41:00.000-04:00

No, I got many of them cut! (Cue laughter.) Well, Courtney is out of town, and my hair was getting shaggy, so I asked my friend Mike Fowler to cut it for me. Thirty minutes later and about a pound of hair on the floor, the deed is done. I think it turned out pretty good, except the huge gapping hole in the back where I thought Mike was being too timid, so I grabbed the buzzer and took out a patch myself. It will probably take a day for Mike to clean the hair off.

Everybody wants a treehouse

2006-05-11T12:43:00.000-04:00

Ezra Idlet, part of Arkansas folk duo, Trout Fishing in America, built a tree house for himself on his 100 acres in the Boston mountains. Pictures of the abode and the accompanying story are in the NYTimes today. I really enjoy TFiA. I have a couple of their CDs and attended a free concert at Gulley Park in Fayetteville while in college. I am glad to see such a fun house in Arkansas.

Photography class

2006-05-07T16:47:00.000-04:00

I mentioned earlier that Courtney bought me a photography class for my birthday. Well, we just finished up our final field session yesterday. We visited three places, and for Tuesday we are to pick our 10 favorite shots to bring into class for a critique. I picked 11, and put them up on the web. Take a look at them if you have time, and if you really don't like one, let me know, and maybe I will drop that one so I get down to the requisite 10 photos.

Biofuels

2006-05-07T16:24:00.000-04:00

Courtney and I attended the Carnegie Evening lecture on Thursday night at the Carnegie Institution. It was fantastic. Christopher Somerville spoke all night about meeting our energy needs with biofuels. He wasn't so into the biodiesel that is now being marketed, but instead feels that in the next few years advances in the process of converting cellulose into liquid fuel will allow a conversion to biofuels. He suggested that Miscanthus, a tall perrenial grass, could be largely grown to convert into liquid fuel. The benefit of using grasses to make fuel, of course, is that it is carbon neutral. In the case of petroleum, we are taking carbon from the ground and putting it into the air. However, with Miscanthus, to be grown it has to take carbon from the air, so we don't release any more carbon than is already out there.

France should surrender

2006-05-01T17:29:00.000-04:00

I am always a fan of complaining about the French. Moreso of late, because of the inane legislation to breakup the iTunes music delivery model. I suppose many Mac enthusiasts have been following the story, and I thought it was particularly ironic to hear the French trade minister support the legislation while in Silicon Valley trying to drum up technology spending in France! Today there was an excellent piece in the New York Times that explains the situation from an economic point of view. I thought an excellent line in the piece was:

French politicians have abandoned one of the guiding principles of antitrust economics: penalize companies that harm consumers, not the ones that succeed by building better products.

Happiness is free ice cream

2006-04-25T13:05:00.000-04:00

Ben & Jerry's, that bastion of liberal ice cream, has its free cone day today. I will wait until Courtney comes home from work (she gets off early today), and we will head down there. What a great way to mark the start of spring, and ice cream-eating weather. What is your favorite flavor? Mine is "Everything but the...".

New home network

2006-04-18T16:18:00.000-04:00

My best friend is building his house. Actually, his father is building his house, because his father is a builder. I have said that I would like to help out with networking connectivity. I can tell him what to put into the house now, while it is being built, so that he can have good connectivity later. I think a cat-5 connection is pretty important in all the rooms, especially near the television. It seems to me that this is a good idea because physical connections will always be faster than wireless ones, and with all the streaming (music, video) that is likely going to take place in a house, gigabit ethernet will be essential. I am going to spec everything out, so that he can see what it will all cost. I know this is a pretty boring post for most people, but this is the most excited I have been about a project in days.

Real page-turner

2006-04-14T14:21:00.000-04:00

I have made a lot of progress on my astronomy paper. Courtney went through it last night and made a lot of excellent suggestions, so it should flow at least a little better now (how ever well a paper about fractal Monte Carlo-based atmospheric simulations can really flow). If anyone actually reads through it, I will give you a prize. And that prize is knowledge. Knowledge about extrasolar planetary atmospheric simulations. Actually, it would scare me if anyone actually got through it.

How awesome is Google Analytics?

2006-04-11T12:24:00.000-04:00

The other day someone mentioned how easy it was to know the geographic location of visitors to his website. The key is Google Analytics. I am sure there are lots of other analytics programs, but Google, with it's excellent track record with free, well-executed web tools makes me very happy. With their website, I just put a little piece of code into my webpages, and then viola, I can see where everyone is coming from to read my weblog. It is a huge trip, to see people from Germany or Brazil or Nebraska reading DCDork. I am sure it is great for people who want to make money from their website, but for me, it is all ego.

Nuclear power

2006-04-10T12:14:00.000-04:00

I think that the liberal tone of the New York Times is pretty apparent in this article about nuclear power coming to a small town in South Carolina. The author seems to start with the suggestion that nuclear power should be distrusted. He makes the story into "Golly-Gee, these people seem to welcome their nuclear overlords! What is wrong with them?" On this issue, it upsets me. Though I am liberal, I am a staunch advocate of nuclear power, so I resent the author's suggestion that it is unsafe. Within the first three paragraphs he had mentioned Three-mile Island and Chernobyl. What of the horrible consequences of coal-burning or oil refineries? Shame on him.

Yesterday: WOW. Today: CA

2006-04-09T12:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we spent the entire day "working on wedding" (WOW). Wow is right. We lined envelopes, traced vellum, printed card stock, and in general did a bunch of things that were keeping Courtney up at night. She has been pretty calm about things up until now, but in the last few days has been getting more antsy. So, I tried very hard to get everything done that she wanted done. I still need to buy a tuxedo, so I called the Ralph Lauren store yesterday in Georgetown, but I haven't gotten a chance to go, yet.

Today, on the other hand, is cleaning apartment day. We have let things go a little bit, so we are picking up and getting everything in the right place. Yesterday we went to Costco and bought 4 pounds of jelly belly jelly beans, so if we work hard, we will have a little treat in the end.

Creationists take a blow

2006-04-07T16:12:00.000-04:00

Well, creationism took another blow today, when scientists discovered an fossil which shows features of both fish and land animals. The article takes a very nice line from a creationism website:

For example, not a single fossil with part fins, part feet has been found. And this is true between every major plant and animal kind.

Creationists need to be careful to choose their words. If they don't choose carefully, then they will be left with nothing as the march of science fills in all the gaps which they use to defend their creationism doctrine.

A cold day in Hell

2006-04-05T12:50:00.000-04:00

Well, Apple just announced that they will provide software to allow their computers to run windows. The gloves have come off, and Apple is fighting hard for the desktop. I love Phil Schiller's comment:

Many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple’s superior hardware.

Let the games begin.

Welcome to the party, Iran

2006-04-05T12:30:00.000-04:00

Hope you enjoy the view.

Cherry Blossoms

2006-04-04T12:12:00.000-04:00

Courtney and I headed down to the tidal basin on Friday to see the cherry blossoms. It was fantastic. We were there at day break, so there weren't many people (though a lot more than I expected). I put up some of the pictures, if you want to see. This past weekend was much excitement at the fruit stand. We sold a bunch of fruit, and there was much rejoicing. Now, I am hunkering down for some astronomy. I will let you know when the paper is up.

Sorry

2006-03-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

Well, it has been over a week. My sincere apologies. Last weekend, Courtney and I headed down to Atlanta for William Leasure's wedding. We didn't get back until Monday morning, when I started attending AbSciCon 2006, which is a conference that was here in town which covered topics in astrobiology. Astrobiology is sort of what I do, since I am looking for planets around other stars. A bunch of friends of mine, from different institutions, were here for the conference. I didn't have much time, and since there was no (free) internet access at the Reagan Center, I didn't get a chance to update the blog.

Having a problem with Blogger?

2006-03-21T08:11:00.000-05:00

Am I the only one having a problem with blogger? I am submitting this post from the Dashboard widget, but when I try to sign on from the webpage, I get a server problem page. I am pretty sure I have been getting it since yesterday at least. Maybe it is just me?

Amazingly awkward

2006-03-20T22:31:00.000-05:00

That is how I dance. I am a very poor dancer. And at our new dance lessons, I have to be a poor dancer with many partners. We don't get to only dance with our fiancees (because in reality, the only people there were couples getting married in the next six months), but with other people's fiancees. One down, three to go.

Nice

2006-03-16T14:40:00.000-05:00

So, it took about two months. Two months since Apple released their intel-based hardware, for hackers to get Windows running on it. That is excellent. It will only increase the value of buying a Macintosh. It is obviously a hack, so no one can reasonably ask Apple to support it, but it will be a selling point for those people who are techy and want to play with a mac. And, I think it should be a lot easier (especially with Apple's legal department) to run Windows on a mac than to run OS X on a PC.

New Shoes?

2006-03-13T11:20:00.000-05:00

Hopefully Courtney will see this. I have been very unhappy with the Steve Madden shoes I bought a couple of months ago. I much prefer his brother, John's, work. So, I am thinking about buying some new shoes on the "internet." They seem to be an alright price, but I am not sure if they will look alright on me. Take a look, and let me know if I should order them. Also, does anyone else worry about how shoes from the "internet" will fit?

Good luck Rivers!

2006-03-13T10:31:00.000-05:00

So, my friend the rocket scientist is going to launch his rocket tomorrow, at 9:02 am. I don't exactly know how rocket launches work, but I hope he has everything already worked out by now on the launch. I wish him the best of luck.

Paper still

2006-03-10T13:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry it has been a while for an update. I am still working on my clouds paper, so I haven't had a lot of time. Sara was not in this week, so I stayed home and pretty much just worked on my paper the entire time. It got sort of difficult running all my codes on G4s, at 1GHz or less, but it worked out all right. If anyone wants to send me an SSH account to a dual or quad G5 (preferably with g77 installed, but hey, I will take what I can get), then that would help the plight of monte carlo based radiation transfer exoplanet atmospheric simulation astronomers everywhere. Actually, it would only help me, but that would be the same.
I did find a nice cool little movie, Robert Keely and the Misfit Kids by Chase Voorhees, in the (little known) Apple student gallery. It is worth taking a look, if you get a chance. Pretty funny.

Brokeback Mountain

2006-03-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

Courtney and I headed to see Brokeback Mountain at Ballston. We both thought it was really sad. I thought it was really funny when she said that she didn't know it was about gay cowboys. She knew it was about cowboys, but didn't know they were gay. I would think that the sex scene was quite a surprise to her. I thought it was excellently done. I think it is very much an Oscar contender, but I don't know if I thought the technical achievement of the actors was worthy of an Oscar. It is more just the subject matter that is so different, so perhaps the best picture or directing. I think Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of Johnny Cash deserves the acting award. Just stunning.

My paper is my life

2006-03-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

At least for the next few days it is. I was supposed to get a paper finished by the end of February, but here we are in March and it isn't done. So, because of that I will forego bathing, eating, etc. in order to get the paper finished. It will probably be crap anyway. Oh well.

Poker

2006-02-28T10:52:00.000-05:00

I had some guys over the other night to play some poker, and it was excellent. We all put in $10, and I got back $13. Not bad, I think. Also, I excuse about $3 lost to Dustin as a freakish hand. I had a straight, 10-A, but there were two aces showing. I should have backed out anyway, because I was pretty sure he had a full house, but then he threw down the other two aces. Four aces is a difficult hand to beat. Oh well.

Science Friday

2006-02-24T14:11:00.000-05:00

There is a good segment on NPR right now with Maggie Turnbull, who is a Post Doc at Carnegie with me. Tune in.

New Google Widgets

2006-02-24T09:07:00.000-05:00

There are some cool new widgets from Google announced today at Google's official blog. I am actually posting this blog from my dashboard right now, instead of the familiar web interface. It is nice to see Google making something for the Mac crowd, especially since google pages doesn't work with safari. I was beginning to feel left out.

Technical junk

2006-02-23T11:44:00.000-05:00

OK, so this is not so interesting, but I think there is a limit to the number of nested while loops I can put into a C shell script (at least in my OS X implementation of C shell). I am writing a script to run my simulations, and when I put three nested while loops into a fourth, my code would run without incident, but when it got to the end of the largest loop, it would only run once. I double checked everything, and then I wrote a little code that only looped and incremented four variables. Lo and behold, the same thing happened, and the largest loop only happened once. I haven't found any documentation online, so it could be limited to my particular setup, or it could be a general C shell limit. To fix it, I changed the largest loop to a if statement with a goto command to head up to the top of the other loops. If anyone has any information about this, let me know.

Syriana

2006-02-21T08:40:00.000-05:00

Courtney, Tommy and I headed out to watch Syriana on Thursday night. What a terrific movie. Of course, I have no real understanding of the truthfulness of the events or even the premise of the film. It seems to me like it could be plausible enough, but I just don't know. I mean, I know that some of the events in the movie are false, but how close are they to things that have really happened, or could happen? If you haven't seen it, yet, make a point of seeing it.

Grant Cox?

2006-02-17T23:25:00.000-05:00

Hey, I am looking for a guy named Grant Cox. I can't find him on Google. And I don't know where else to look. What happened before we could ask google things? Must have been like the dark ages. Oh well, I think he might be in Law school in Little Rock. I suppose I could call.

Astronomy talk

2006-02-17T13:47:00.000-05:00

I gave a talk this morning to the astronomy group. I had 14 slides, and our group is sort of talkative, so I figured that it would take about 30 minutes. You know, usually one minute a slide but two because of so many questions. Well, I finished after an hour and five minutes. I was running against lunch at noon, and I started at 11. There were some great comments, and I was not certain about some of the questions, but over all it was a good experience. I need to head to IDL now to make some more explanatory plots to put in the paper and any future talk.

Nap time?

2006-02-13T15:50:00.000-05:00

It will be if you want to read my astronomy paper. However, if you have the mind to, then please be my guest. For those on the edge, it describes some software we have developed to simulate an extrasolar planetary atmosphere. I have just started it, so there are only a couple of pages. I will update it continuously, and hopefully it will be in a pretty good state by the end of February.

Awesome Casino Party

2006-02-13T08:19:00.000-05:00

We had quite the party on Saturday night. Only a couple of people couldn't make it because of the snow. Most people were on the metro, and it worked out just fine. We had about 22 people here, I guess. We didn't have much roulette action, but the poker room was always full, as well as the black jack table. Most of the night someone was also at the craps table, especially after Tommy showed up to tell us how to play it. The auction at the end of the night was hella fun, and nearly everyone went home with a prize (except poor Dave). We are already planning on doing it next year.

It's Alive!

2006-02-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

OK, so since I linked to it from my main webpage, I guess my wedding website is now live. For all of you guys who are interested, head over to bourtney.com to see our wedding website. Most of the pages are up, but if you find anything missing, then don't hesitate to send me an e-mail, so that I can fix it.

Crock pot

2006-02-09T13:37:00.000-05:00

Mom bought me a crock pot/fryer/steamer for my birthday. It might not sound cool to you guys, but it does to me. Courtney and I have already made a huge pot of chilli the other day, and only finished it last night. This morning we through all the stuff in for chicken cacciatore. It should be finished when we get home today, ready for our meal with Kelly & Brandon tonight.