Libor, Banks, bad decisions

I've got to admit, Scott Adams still has the "stuff"... Don't you find it amazing that 3 panels in a comic strip can totally get to the root of the problem and help you identify, squarely, with Dilbert?

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/stickiopolies/

What is it with companies (not just banks) that continue to do this crap? Do they think that their pursuit of the almighty dollar makes their decision making a process that is not important? Is that the justification for these bad decisions? It's like these people are all 5 or 6 year olds...

... maybe it's something like what I posted back almost 7 years ago, e.g. the difference between the car salesman and the software salesman?

A Plea from George

Please watch George's msg.

 We need to stop the arguing.

No Excuses

Check out this newspaper account ---
Not since I posted (link) about txting and driving last November, have I seen anything that matches this "no excuses" campaign going on in the South of Britain. I had thought it was going to get worse for drivers, because we are being slowing going over to the dark side of talking, txting, makeup, and other nefarious things, like Mike Arrington (thanks Technorama for the link). Personally, I have no sympathy, just fess up, pay the fine, try to do better. This stuff really does have to stop.

Special pleadings are not acceptable in the “No Excuse” initiative being run here in Dorset, a largely rural county on Britain’s south coast. The yearlong, $1.25 million project — a combination of advertising, education and increased police patrols — is an effort to reduce the number of accidents caused by driver inattention, a common problem across the car-driving world. 

My favorite from the newspaper account (I found this in the NYTimes, but the story was originally in the Weymouth Journal) is:

“I was out about a year ago and we stopped a lady who had three children in the back of the car,” he related. “The officer said, ‘Why aren’t these children belted in?’ and she said, ‘They’re not my children.’ ”

#tech101

Posted via email from Wunderphul

Additional Moon Landing Trivia

Back in July, I posted about the upcoming moon landing anniversary.

Well, the 40th for this historic event has come and gone, but I did run across some additional information courtesy of the ABC Science show, from Australia. They were rebroadcasting an interview with the astronauts at the 20th anniversary of the moon landing, and what was really funny was the interchange between John Getter, KHOU in Houston and Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

Buzz Aldrin had answered the reporter's question on what's different between 1969 and 1989 with some kind of bland stuff like in the 60's we were ripe for commitment, that now so much more technology was available, that we could do a lot, things are changing Alvin Toffler style, but it was expensive. He left off and I certainly had the impression that the commitment in the 80's was somewhat lacking but he did say that he had hope that things would continue on (from the original missions).

Michael Collins must have been the straightman for the Space Program, because he replied: "President Kennedy said that we were going to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth, that was his goal. President Bush (George H Bush), whom I consider to be a president as dynamic as Kennedy, I think, in today's climate would have to say, 'I think we ought to dedicate ourselves to the goal of perhaps considering appointing a commission, after due deliberation with the Congress of investigating the feasibility of certain long-range goals for the space program, perhaps even including a mission to Mars.'

I laughed myself silly... Maybe he had lots of time in the Command Module to think up this stuff.

Posted via email from Wunderphul

Great Post by Phil Plait, the Bad Astronomer

Today, Phil revealed this great story at (link, he was reading about it at SFGate) about quantum entanglement

A homeless man is on trial in San Mateo County on charges that he smacked a fellow transient in the face with a skateboard as the victim was engaged in a conversation about quantum physics, authorities said today.

wow, I am thinking, two homeless men

he goes on to say, that the article said that two other people witnessed the attack and observes that

Oh, too bad! There goes the defense; the observers collapsed the wave function. Otherwise, he could’ve pleaded guilty and not guilty.

Hee Hee - I laughed myself silly

Posted via email from Thomas's posterous

More Wildlife at home

Today, I was quite surprised to find a deer in the yard. A poor picture, but it was the best I could do... (she moved away quite quickly when I approached)

Some tomato plants are loosing their leaves. I wonder why?

Adsense

Still after a few posts, the references to RUP from a few months ago are still pulling Adsense into those kinds of links. My post was a joke, but of course, Adsense isn't smart enough to figure this out.

I thought the thread between some former associates was a hoot, but then humor from a machine? Perhaps too much to expect...

Obscure measurements

Recently, I send in a comment on the Technorama podcast listener line about this subject, what I said was that I prefer latency to be measured in nanofortnights. Chuck and Kreg didn't believe it, but this is a "real" measurement, obscure yes, but certainly in the days of the VMS operating system, with the TIMEPROMPTWAIT variable, in units per microfortnight.

A microfortnight is 1.2096 seconds, thus the nanofortnight is 1.2096 milliseconds. Both are plenty obscure, but they generally used to slow users down, allowing them to set the parameter properly only after having given the matter some thought.

Yes, the following week, I voice-mailed Chuck and Kreg with this info, so they wouldn't think that I was just making this up.

Technobabble

Technobabble (a portmanteau of technology and babble) is a form of prose using jargon, buzzwords and highly esoteric language to give an impression of plausibility through mystification, misdirection, and obfuscation. This is not to be confused with jargon itself, but rather technobabble is a conscious attempt to deliver jargon to outsiders, without insight or comprehensive explanation, to make unsound or unprovable arguments appear to have merit. (Wikipedia)

I recently ran across an excellent example of this, but more importantly, the comments are "priceless"...

---

... this new umbrella methodology also includes the Rational Unified Process for our Software Development Lifecycle. However, keep in mind RUP is a software process a, not a methodology, and the other part of the equation that Blueprinting methodology entails is Business Visualization which is a Business Engineering Process. RUP for instance focuses more on the scoping of a project from the perspective of what is the most technology complex business problem or event. Our Business Visualization Engineering Process focuses on cross-boundary value chain workflow of related business activities (components) and includes for instance measurement and simulation. ...

Commenter 1: I've reread this twice and still can't get it.....

Commenter 2: It’s code. Extract every nth character to form the secret message. N depends on a complex lifecycle method of complex unified workflow umbrellas from the perspective of technology visualization of rational business scoping. Get it now?

Commenter 3: Here is a classic message of yesteryear. Whenever I need a smile I always go back to this one. (posted almost 2 years after the original message)

Commenter 2: Cross-boundary value chain workflow? Huh?

Commenter 3: My cross country value pack of workflow volume measurement, regarding relative performance when compared to the business visualization engineering process until unified in measurement and simulation reality…is just fine. And you?

Commenter 1: from the essence of quantum physics the value chain of oxygen interfering with carbon dioxide has now required a new visualization of the underlying semantics required by the earth's warming interior as engineered by the "goriest" warming of the physical exterior related to relativity as bespoke by Einstein.

Interstate 405

I was looking for some other piece of information, but stumbled, instead, upon this gem of a film from 7 years ago.

This film, produced in 2000, was 3 minutes long, took 4 months to make, before the kinds of film making tools that are available today. Still, this work, rivaled what the major motion picture studios could produce.

Link here or here

It is also very funny.

Bees again

Almost a month later, and I'm still working on the bees (that originally showed up in a tree more than a year ago).

As the humane approach, I've avoided any kind of insecticide, after all there are a lot of bee deaths out here in California as humans encroach upon their habitat. And we really need them to pollinate the plants, like all of that fruit that grows in the valleys to the south of us... Got a nation to feed, after all.

What I have done is stuff plastic bags into the holes at the base of the olive tree. A few years ago, I had tried the expanding foam thing, you know, the kind of stuff you can buy at the hardware store to "seal" up the cracks around your door moldings, etc. To keep energy costs in check... Bees just love this stuff, after it drys and hardens, they just eat right through it, sort of like ants and their tunnels.

So this year, I've tried the plastic bag trick, but I have to do this in the early a.m., when I can see by daylight, and the bees are still cold and not moving around. Evening, well... let's just say, I'm too tired to do much after about 8pm...

My results are mixed, in that the bags have a natural sort of expanding mechanism that on their own must be tied to some kind of mechanical property of the plastic itself, you know, sort of like those "memory" metals that remember their shape. I'm not saying that the bag wants to be a "bag" again, only that it doesn't want to be a "hole plugger". Anyway, give the bees an inch, in that the bag expands out a little, and those little industrious bees, they push like heck until they find a little opening, and BAMM! they are Free!

I'll keep you posted.

**** Update: I really jammed the plastic in the hole, it's staying. That's the good news... The bad news- they have found a crack higher in the tree trunk for ingress/egress...

Where do those socks go?

check out this great story at 365tomorrows.com

http://www.365tomorrows.com/05/26/now-we-know/

of course there is always this story

http://www.familydaze.com/sample06.txt

Towel Day is this Friday

Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams.

More information can be found at wikipedia.

The event was first held in 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on May 11, and since then annually. On this day, fans carry a towel with them throughout the day. The towel is a reference to his popular science fiction comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Ophone

You are probably going to laugh at this one...

Comes in 3's

Today when I came home from work

1. The bees in the tree in the far corner of my property took up residence in the base of a tree right next to the garage.
2. I started to flood them out with water, delivered by garden hose, but noticed that the water pump was running start-stop; a clear sign that my new air-volume control is not keeping enough air as a cushion/spring in the water tank. The easy way to resolve this is to turn off the water and allow the tank to drain to about half-way.
3. I told my wife I was "adding air to the water tank" and it would be about 30 minutes... About 10 min later she tells me that she didn't make the connection between my statement and the literal fact that the water would be off, as she was brushing her teeth and couldn't rinse her toothbrush off.

Later, water back on, flooding recommences, bees are mad again; I'm keeping my distance.

Astrophysics is simple

Checkout this video from the Daily Show




and avoid Black Holes

Downtown SF

Google Maps is, of course, putting a mosaic of pictures of the earth together for the final product we use. Sometimes you get an interesting result. (Look Ma! I can jump across Market Street)

---

Happy New Year!

All the best to you and your family

Joke about Jerks

Don't forget to enjoy some humor from time to time, this item I remember from 5 years ago and it still leaves you smiling

LINK

As Barbara says in her post,

Though constantly wronged by those about us, our hands are tied as seeking to get even is frowned upon in our society -- we're supposed to be civilized! Consequently, tales of vengeance appeal to a wide audience. ...

Minnesota

(Somebody wrote that this was too damned long and too damned funny, but its too good to keep under wraps.)

• Minnesota became the 32nd state on May 11th, 1858 and was originally settled by a lost tribe of Norwegians seeking refuge from the searing heat of Wisconsin's winters.
• The state flag of Minnesota consists of a blue background upon which sits a design best described as "how a 7-year-old city girl would draw a picture titled "Life on the Farm".
• Minnesota gets it's name from the Sioux Indian word "Mah-nee-soo-tah", meaning "No, really, they eat fish soaked in lye".
• The state song of Minnesota is "Someday the Vikings Will... Aw, never mind"
• The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota covers 9.5 million square feet and has enough space to hold 185,000 idiot teenagers yapping away on cell phones.
• 
• Madison, Minnesota is known as "The Lutefisk Capital of the World". Avoid this city at all costs. ("Lou T. Fisk" picture to the right)
  
• "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was set in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was Mary's first real acting job since leaving the "Dick Van Dyke Show". The show, about a single woman's struggle to find happiness in the big city, was originally titled "Life Without Dick", but that was changed for some reason.
• The state motto of Minnesota is, "Where even a man who wears a feather boa can grow up to be Governor."
• Downtown Minneapolis has an enclosed skyway system covering 52 blocks, allowing people to live, work, eat, and sleep without ever going outside. The only downside to this is that a Norwegian occasionally turns up missing.
• Cartoonist Charles M. Shultz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was the only artist to accurately depict the perfectly circular heads of Minnesota natives.
• The Hormel Company of Austin, Minnesota produces 6 million cans of Spam a year, even though no one actually eats it.
• Water skis were invented in 1922 in Lake City, Minnesota by Ralph Samuelson. Sadly, he drowned shortly afterwards, as the motorboat hadn't been invented yet.
• St. Paul, Minnesota was originally named "Pig's Eye", after French Canadian whiskey trader Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant . Its "twin city", Minneapolis, was known as "Pig's Colon".
• The stapler was invented in Swingline, Minnesota by a chubby, mumbling man named Milton in 1899. The city was mysteriously destroyed by fire later that year.
• Pelican Rapids is home to a 16-foot-tall concrete pelican, which subsists on a diet of 4-foot-long concrete fish.
• In 1973, Olivia, Minnesota erected a 25-foot tall fiberglass corn cob to celebrate its rich, agricultural heritage. Then in 1974 it was eaten by a 50-foot statue of Babe the Blue Ox.
• Yes, Minnesota has a LOT of problems with statue cannibalism.
• Minnesota license plates are blue & white and contain the phrase "Blizzards on Independence Day - You Get Used To It."
• Frank C. Mars, founder of the Mars Candy Co. was born in Newport, Minnesota. His 3 Musketeers candy bar originally contained three bars in one wrapper, each filled with a different flavor nougat - chocolate, Spam, and lutefisk.
• The first fully automatic pop-up toaster was invented in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1926, Minnesota's stringent bread-control laws currently only allow residents to own semi-automatic toasters.
• Tonka Trucks continue to be manufactured in Minnetonka, Minnesota, despite the thousands of GI Joe dolls killed by them annually in rollover accidents. No airbags, no seat belts. These things are DEATHTRAPS, I tell ya!
• Author Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and was famous for writing the "Little House" series of books, as well as inventing the "Spam Diet" - which consists of looking at a plate of Spam until you lose your appetite. Much like the " Lutefisk Diet".
• The snowmobile was invented in Roseau, Minnesota so as to allow families a means of attending Independence Day picnics.
• Singer Judy Garland was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. All gay men are required by their religion to make a pilgrimage there at least once in their lifetimes.
• Minnesotans are almost indistinguishable from Wisconsinites. The only way to tell them apart is to ask if they voted for Mondale.