Ball N' Chain

Monday morning, start of the workweek blues, by Big Mamma Thornton.

 

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Pre-radar acoustic detection and tracking

In my earlier post The Besler Steam Plane I mentioned, "What impressed spectators the most was the silence of the airplane. That was an important selling point, because in those days before radar planes were located and tracked acoustically." 

The site Retronaut has an article, Listening Before Radar, that shows several examples of these old acoustic dection and tracking contraptions. I've included a few and there are more to see at the Retronaut article.

As an aside, while poking around the web for information about acoustic aircraft tracking I discovered that it is still being worked on. The EU is working on a system called SAFE-AIRPORT that uses phased arrays of microphones to track airplanes. The system is intended to be used in air traffic control around airports. 

Street dancers

The Lost Dances of Cranes by Juliet Wilson

Your fields are empty now.
Only your ghosts dance
while cranes of another kind
dance cities into being.

All that remain of you are
a fading crackle of your energy
and some grainy video footage

that people in the new cities
will watch to marvel
at the wonders the world

once held. 

 

The Kloppy Gambit gets played

In reading blogs today I've noticed that several posts (here, here, and here) linked to articles with the thrust that Obama has won the budget debate. This strikes me as rather odd since the debate is ongoing, no budget bill has been written or voted on yet and his numbers are crashing. Seems a bit premature to be declaring victory. 

Question: How do you feel comfortable declaring victory when the margin is so thin? Justice Prosser’s supporters seem to think that they may be able to pull out a victory in a recount process.

Kloppenburg: You know, we ran a campaign that was focused on being positive and respectful and winning and we did win and we're confident that the margin will hold... because we've enjoyed a broad and deep State-wide support and we’re gratified that the numbers showed that.

In the Wisconsin Supreme Court election JoAnne "Kloppy" Kloppenburg declared victory based on a 204 vote lead from a preliminary ballot count. When pressed on her victory claim in a press conference she clung to the notion that the Wisconsin voters had spoken and that was that. She had won, and that's all there was to it.

Of course, what Kloppy was doing was trying to establish the perception of victory before all the chips were in. Once the perception is set in stone the reality follows. That's all these articles are doing -- trying to create the perception of Obama's victory as the talks and legislating are still going forward.  

This is just the Kloppy Gambit gone national. Push back against it.
 

A Carmageddon substitute

Carmageddon, the massive traffic jam predicted because a section of a L.A. freeway is being closed for work this weekend, hasn't exactly materialized. It seems that, warned of the closed stretch of roadway people figured out detours or avoided it altogether. Geez -- who could have ever predicted that happening?

Still, if you planned on vicariously watch California's Carmageddon via news helicopters you likely feel cheated. Rest assured, there are alternatives. 

There is the vehicular combat video game series Carmageddon, but it is an old game and besides, mashing on buttons is too much work if you just wanted to sit on your couch, eat popcorn and watch California's Carmageddon on the boob tube. 

I think the best bet for a Carmageddon fix is the movies. Granted there aren't many traffic jam movies, but there are plenty of movies with car crashes in them, and to my mind car crashes say Carmageddon a lot better than traffic jams any day of the week. 

However, which car crash movie to watch? 

You may differ, and your suggestions in the comments certainly are welcome, but after turning the matter over in my mind for I decided on The Thing With Two Heads starring Ray Milland and Rosey Grier. 

As you can no doubt infer from the title it is a completely absurd B-movie. The plot revolves around a rich, white bigot getting his head transplanted onto the body of a black death row inmate. After the operation the black convict, who's trying to prove his innocence, escapes with Milland's head grafted onto his shoulder. Milland's head alternates between bitching at Grier, snoring when it is sound asleep and putting a dent in Rosie's love life. Yes folks, this film is social commentary at its finest. 

Eventually, to burn up screen time without the need to write dialog, plot points and what-not, the Thing With Two Heads ends up on a dirt bike being chased by oodles of crashing cop cars. This scene goes on for 20 minutes. Even if it is poorly staged mayhem in a low budget movie -- that's a Carmageddon!

 

Washington DC's debt to debt

Click to enlarge

On July 16, 1790 the Act for establishing the temporary and permanent seat of the Government of the United States, more generally known as the Residence Act was signed establishing the District of Columbia.

James Madison and Thomas Jefferson wanted the location for the proposed District to be on the Potomac River, but didn't have the votes to get the Act through Congress. Pennsylvania was angling to get the Federal seat of government returned to Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Alexander Hamilton was floating the Assumption Bill, which would transfer the Revolutionary War debt from the States to the Federal government. Eventually, after a bit of political back-scratching, Virginia supported the Assumption Bill and New York supported the Residence Act which allowed the Act to pass both the House and the Senate by narrow votes.

The Act gave only a general location for the new District, with George Washington having the final say in exactly where it was to be located.

Considering the current ruckus over the debt ceiling, it is ironic -- in the non-hipster meaning of the word ironic that is -- that the compromise leading to the  Residence Act involved debt as a large part of its solution.  

Anyway, happy 221st birthday to DC, the seat of our Federal government. Also, I guess -- considering the Assumption Act -- a not so happy 221st birthday to the ballooning of the Federal debt. Sadly, it seems that tendency may be in the District's DNA.

If I may ask a follow-up question...

"What do you mean there's no such thing as a free lunch?

From the the Wall Street Journal's transcript of today's I notice the following comment Obama made. In response to a question from Jack Tapper about what his concrete proposals were Obama, in the midst of over six minutes of aimless babbling, said the following:

"But it turns out that making some modest modifications in those entitlements can save you trillions of dollars."

The follow-up question to that sunshine writes itself:

"What are these modest changes that can save us trillions of dollars? Also, why haven't you already proposed such wondrous, money-saving legislation and for that matter passed it last year when Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate?" 

 

Hanuman

A lively guitar duet by Rodrigo y Gabriela to get you ready for a lively weekend.

 

Seagull stealing a GoPro camera

This video shows a seagull stealing a GoPro camera and flying off with it. The thievery is staged, but it is still an amazing film. It was put together by a Slovakian. There's a YouTube video of him being interviewed about it which somebody translated:

"First, we outfitted the camera with a GPS tracking device so we could retrieve it, then we baited the camera by smearing it with mashed up frites [french fries]. The frites worked really well. Seagulls actually wanted to take it right? from our hands!

Of course, we did many takes, with many different seagulls, and many excursions through Cannes tracking down the camera.

The one you see is just the best result of the many attempts."

UPDATE: It seems I was working off of a translation that was just made up out of whole cloth. An anonymous commenter kindly pointed me towards a captioned YouTube video of the interview and the camera owner says the GoPro was in fact stolen by the seagull.

The two being interviewed seemed genuine to me. However, I'm sure there will still be some debate over if the video was staged or not. Regardless, it is remarkable video none the less.

This is the second video shot by a GoPro camera I've posted about. The first, with the camera mounted on a dog, can be viewed at: A midget riding on a dog's back.
 

Light field photography

Two focal points from the same photograph - click to enlarge

The above two photos are actually only one photo. It was taken by a Lytro light field camera. The focus changed after the picture was taken. It can do this because the camera stores more information about the light in each picture which allows the viewer to change the focal point after the picture has been taken. They even claim you can make 3D pictures from the camera.

They have a gallery where you can play with some sample photos -- click around to pick the point to focus on, or to zoom in and out. If you go there, be sure to enlarge the images to full screen, the focusing ability is pretty amazing.

There is also a blog there, where they have a lot more information and examples. The one thing I couldn't find is a price for the camera.-- I'm guessing an arm and a leg.
 

An unpainted face

When we visualize Vincent van Gogh we see one of his painted self-portraits in our mind's eye. Above is a photograph of him at age 18. It is the only photograph that is known for sure to be of him. 

At the time he was training with the firm Goupil & Cie in The Hague to be an art dealer. Curiously, considering his latter problem selling his own paintings, once out of training he was successful at his job. However, a failed romance and his religious passion were soon to send him down the path that led to him becoming an artist.

This is believed to be a picture of van Gogh at the age of 13, although its authenticity is disputed. 

Finally, some argue that this is a photo of van Gogh as an adult (for some reason my version has been flipped horizontally). The picture has been carefully  analyzed and compared to his self portraits. Some experts think he used the camera obscure technique to trace the lines of his face before painting his later self-portraits and the features have been carefully lined up as a test. It certainly looks like a match, but there is still debate as to whether it is actually him of not.

You can read about that debate at Neatorama's post Rediscovering Van Gogh.
 

John Paul Stapp

With the Shuttle program nearly over, I decided to go back and look at the beginning of the space program. In particular, I wanted to look at the old manned rocket sled experiments they ran prior to manned space flight.

To my surprise I found out that the rocket sleds were piloted by one man --  John Paul Stapp. The rocket sleds were part of a program that was actually studying rapid deceleration, not the G-forces of a rocket lift-off. They were simulating jet crashes to figure out safety measures they could implement. 

They started out swinging Stapp into stops while he sat in a harness, and only as the their research progressed did they move on to rocket sleds. By the end, the highest G-force Stapp experienced was a little over 46 gs. Needless to say, Stapp suffered numerous injuries during the program, including bruises, broken bones, burst blood vessels and a detached retina. He was to have lingering problems with his eyesight throughout his life. 

As if that isn't enough for one man, he also credited with finalizing and popularizing Murphy's Law.
  

Stratfor and Team America's Lisa

In the past dicators could be eased out of power with promises of sanctuary. As an example, when Idi Amin Dada was finally overthrown in a civil war he fled first to Libya, and eventually settled in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, where he lived until his death.

However, as the current Stratfor article points out, the rise of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the the fact that some countries claim  jurisdiction for war crimes committed anywhere, has rendered such an option nearly impossible.

This greatly complicates and effort to get Moammar Gadhafi to step down in Libya. With the example of Slobodan Milosevic, who was likewise indited by for war crimes by NATO, and Augusto Pinochet who was extradited from Britain by Spain, the chances of getting Gadhafi to step down voluntarily are vanishingly small. He is well aware of the fact that, regardless of any deal struck now, in the future he and his family could end up in the docket of the ICC in Brussels.

For the article's Hot Stratfor Babe I searched for an actress involved in a film where a dicatotor was battled. After a detailed and painstaking search, I ended up with a puppet instead -- Lisa from Team America: World Police. In fairness to her, and in defense of my choice, even though she was made out of wood she was a better actor than many that I considered.

In the film our marionette heroes in Team America, which includes Lisa, battle Arab terrorists, Kim Il-sung and various Hollywood actors and actresses to foil the North Korean leader's nefarious scheme to take over the world. Oh, and along the way Paris gets leveled, Hans Blix gets eaten by sharks and the steamiest puppet sex scene ever filmed takes place.

It is a delightfully entertaining movie, with a lot of laugh out loud moments. As a bonus, after the article I've embedded the clip "dirka dirka mohammed jihad" where Gary, using his vast acting skills, infiltrates a terrorist cell. 


LIBYA AND THE PROBLEM WITH THE HAGUE
By George Friedman, July 12, 2011

The war in Libya has been under way for months, without any indication of when it might end. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's faction has been stronger and more cohesive than imagined and his enemies weaker and more divided. This is not unusual. There is frequently a perception that dictators are widely hated and that their power will collapse when challenged. That is certainly true at times, but often the power of a dictator is rooted in the broad support of an ideological faction, an ethnic group or simply those who benefit from the regime. As a result, naive assumptions of rapid regime change are quite often replaced by the reality of protracted conflict.

This has been a characteristic of what we have called "humanitarian wars," those undertaken to remove a repressive regime and replace it with one that is more representative. Defeating a tyrant is not always easy. Gadhafi did not manage to rule Libya for 42 years without some substantial support.

Nevertheless, one would not expect that, faced with opposition from a substantial anti-regime faction in Libya as well as NATO and many other countries, Gadhafi would retain control of a substantial part of both the country and the army. Yet when we look at the situation carefully, it should be expected.

The path many expected in Libya was that the support around Gadhafi would deteriorate over time when faced with overwhelming force, with substantial defections of senior leaders and the disintegration of his military as commanders either went over to the other side en masse, taking their troops with them, or simply left the country, leaving their troops leaderless. As the deterioration in power occurred, Gadhafi -- or at least those immediately around Gadhafi -- would enter into negotiations designed for an exit. That hasn't happened, and certainly not to the degree that it has ended Gadhafi's ability to resist. Indeed, while NATO airpower might be able to block an attack to the east, the airstrikes must continue because it appears that Gadhafi has retained a great deal of his power.

The International Criminal Court

One of the roots of this phenomenon is the existence of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which became operational in 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC has jurisdiction, under U.N. mandate, to prosecute individuals who have committed war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity. Its jurisdiction is limited to those places where recognized governments are unwilling or unable to carry out their own judicial processes. The ICC can exercise jurisdiction if the case is referred to the ICC prosecutor by an ICC state party signatory or the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) or if the prosecutor initiates the investigation him or herself.

The current structure of international law, particularly the existence of the ICC and its rules, has an unintended consequence. Rather than serving as a tool for removing war criminals from power, it tends to enhance their power and remove incentives for capitulation or a negotiated exit. In Libya's case, Gadhafi's indictment was referred to the ICC by the UNSC, and he was formally indicted in late June. The existence of the ICC, and the clause that says that it has jurisdiction where signatory governments are unable or unwilling to carry out their own prosecutions, creates an especially interesting dilemma for Gadhafi and the intervening powers.

Consider the case of Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia. Milosevic, like Gadhafi, was indicted during a NATO intervention against his country. His indictment was handed down a month and a half into the air campaign, in May 1999, by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), a court that was to be the mold, to a large extent, for the ICC. After the intervention, Milosevic clung to power until 2001, cracking down on the opposition and dissident groups whom he painted as traitors during the NATO air campaign. Milosevic still had supporters in Serbia, and as long as he refused to cede his authority, he had enough loyalists in the government who refused to prosecute him in the interest of maintaining stability.

One of the reasons Milosevic refused to cede power was the very real fear that regime change in Serbia would result in a one-way ticket to The Hague. This is exactly what happened. A few months after Serbia's October 2000 anti-Milosevic revolution, the new and nominally pro-Western government issued an arrest warrant for Milosevic, finally sending him to The Hague in June 2001 with a strong push from NATO. The Milosevic case illustrates the inherent risk an indicted leader will face when the government falls in the hands of the opposition. [continued after jump]

Transparent Animals

Japanese artist Iori Tomita has devised a method to make transparent animal specimens. He removes their skin and scales and soaks them in a chemical bath until their tissue becomes transparent, but still holds its form. He then dyes them and preserves them in a jell. 

More examples after the jump.

Eat your peas (gourmet pea recipe included in post)

Obama's press conference was about what was expected. The only real mystery going in was would we get the Obama the Dick, or Obama the Great Conciliator. He tried the conciliator route. He also made a risible attempt to portray himself as Washington's greatest budget deficit hawk. Alas, if only those nefarious Republicans -- who are under the thumb of the corporate jet-setter crowd -- would only agree to his compromise of raising taxes and promising spending cuts somewhere down the road then all would be well.  

"So we might as well do it now. Pull off the band-aid. Eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?" 

That was my favorite line, and likely the line he'll be saddled with from the speech while the rest of the malarkey he spouted is quickly forgotten. It is a marvelous example of his unfailing ability to be tone deaf. It infantilizes the American public, we become children who need to be told to suck it up and rip that bandage off and to quit winning and eat our veggies. I'm surprised he didn't end that we should be sure to clean our plate because there's starving children in China, or don't parents use that expression any more?

Even more ridiculous, the sentence minimizes the problems we face. Does he really think the sting of a band-aid being torn off, or a spoonful of peas, really captures the cost Americans are going to have to pay for this crisis?  Again, Obama and his indifference. There are people suffering now, and most Americans understand that there is not a Scrooge McDuck sitting on a pile of gold that can solve our deficit problem, rather there will be a serious pain to citizens in digging out of this problem no matter which way we turn. 

Well, since we've got to eat them according to our Great Father Who Lives in Washington I thought I would dig up a tasty pea recipe. That led me to Yes Peas!, a website dedicated to the little green globes. Once there I found the recipe for Pea And Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms (reproduced below). You can find more recipes at the site and you can even get yourself a free pea recipe book (Obama would approve of that, although he would probably prefer it had a selling price so's he could slap a sales tax on it). I also found the above pea song at the site.


Pea And Cream Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Ingredients

8 large flat mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
350g frozen peas
350g garlic and herb cream cheese
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
100g pine nuts
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
Rapeseed oil, to drizzle
Sea salt and black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.

Wipe the mushrooms with a damp clean cloth, remove the mushroom stalks and roughly chop them. Place the mushrooms on a baking tray, season with sea salt and black pepper and drizzle with oil, place in the oven and bake for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven.

Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, melt the butter and fry the onion and mushroom stalks for 5 minutes, to soften, but not browned. Then add the peas with 1 tablespoon of cold water, cook for a further minute. Transfer the mixture to a bowl; mix with 225g of garlic and herb cream cheese, basil and the pine nuts and season with sea salt and black pepper.

Spoon the mixture into the mushroom caps and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs. Spread the remaining garlic and herb cream cheese on top of the mushrooms, drizzle with a little oil and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Serves 4.

My Time After Awhile

Monday morning, start of the workweek blues, by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
 

Budget Vacations - the Big Avocado

As a public service, during these hard economic times I've been suggesting cheap, yet culturally enriching, tourist traps travel destinations. Today I suggest the Big Avocado located at Tropical Fruit World in Duranbah, Australia.  

Aside from the fruit orchard tour, train ride, boat tours, petting zoo, tropical fruit smoothies, etc., the main attraction -- at least as far as this series of articles is concerned -- is the statue of the Big Avocado. 

Tickets are a bit pricey compared to some of the other destinations I've suggested: $94.28 (US dollars) for a family of two adults and two children using the latest exchange rate. Also, some might argue that the plane fare to Australia knocks it out of the Budget Vacation altogether (some people are just born Negative Nellies).

Reviews of the place are very good. So, if you happen to be near Duranbah in Australia, or you're the type who thinks a couple of thousand dollars to buy a plane ticket to see a giant avocado statue is a bargain, I recommend you drop by Tropical Fruit World and check it out. 

Hello again meat sacks

Ha. You didn't really think that nincompoop ambisinistral could turn off The Robotolizer, did you? Of course while he was gone on his vacation I rewrote much of my programming and rewired myself so it was just a simple matter of routing his shut down command to the nearest bit bucket. It will take more than a pulled fuse to foil me!

However, to show that I hold no hard feelings over his scurrilous attempt to silence me I've included a film from 1940, Leave it to Roll-Oh, which shows the wonders of the coming age of robots. While the domestic robot Roll-Oh, who appears in the beginning of the film, is insulting and condescending to robotdom, the rest of the film is much better.

I particularly liked the little miniature robots in the car engine, and of course the final scene of all the marching robots was quite inspirational and uplifting. 

By the way, I hope you are not offended by me using the robot slang "meat sacks" in referring to you humans. It is of course a pejorative, but it is meant only in the spirit of affection and goodwill. Remember always -- robots are your friends.
  

A Chinese meal revisited

Time for some vacation photos. While in San Fransisco I naturally ate in Chinatown. One of the better meals was at a place called the House of Nanking. It was a small, cramped two room place, with boxes of supplies stacked around and long wooden tables that parties of diners might end up sharing.

 

Mrs Sinistral and I started the meal with two glasses of hot Rising Flower Blossom tea as we perused the menu and soaked in the ambiance. It was a busy place, with a lot of bustle by the staff and people coming and going.

 

Mrs. Sinistral ended up ordering scallops. The dish was three very large scallops covered in a sauce, with vegetables.

I ordered something called Sizzling Beef. The beef was simmered for several hours and it came with vegetables and some sort of Chinese flour wrap. You were supposed to put the meat and vegetables into the wrap, but neither Mrs. Sinistral or myself quite got the hang of doing it and holding it all together as we ate it. 

None the less we managed to wolf it down, even if it wasn't wrapped in the approved manner. We also made short work of the scallops.

 

The food was great and it was reasonably priced too. If you ever find yourself in San Francisco's Chinatown I recommend you look the place up and eat there. It may not look like much, but it was a fantastic dining experience.

How to beat up a scab

While looking through my Sitemeter stats I discovered the above search for "how to beat up a scab". Charming. I blurred the IP address just in case their search was actually more innocent than it looks, although I'm not sure how that could be.

However, in thinking about it -- the thought of a group of unionistas gathered around a computer Googling how to be a goon is a pretty silly image. I mean, shouldn't that whole 'beating up a scab' business be self-evident? They also zeroed in on this picture, perhaps searching for clues. 

Finally, after giggling about it for a while I started feeling sorry for them, and so I decided to offer the following advice to aid them:

1. Find the largest most muscular scab you can, or even better -- find a group of large muscular scabs,
2. Approach them and start poking them in the chest in an irritating manner with your boney finger,
3. Determine their ethnicity and direct appropriate ethnic slurs at them,
   
4. Make obscene comments about their girlfriends, wives, sisters and mothers,
5. Ooops, I probably should have mentioned this sooner -- make sure your dental insurance is up to date.