Leakage from a Cluttered Mind » Uncategorized

Unique dates: 11/11/11

Phil — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 18:11:13 +0000

This post is scheduled to go live on 11/11/11 at 11:11. The next opportunity for a date with the same six digits is 100 years from now in 2111. For the day, month, and year to be the same, that will occur in a little more than a year on 12/12/12 at 12:12. But then… the next one like that is a long time away and is left as an exercise for the reader.

Civil War reenactment in Graeagle

Phil — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 03:13:13 +0000

Civil war reenactors performed in Graeagle a few times during the weekend. We took in their first demonstration in the middle of the day. Here are a few photos in black and white.

The battle began with the Union cavalry scouting out the location of the enemy.

Union cavalry advance

When the two cavalries discovered each other, the Confederates charged. Much rifle and pistol firing, as well as sword fighting ensued. No men or animals fell.

Confederate cavalry

There were two cannons on each side producing impressive booms and lots of smoke.

Union cannon fire

As the infantry forces engaged each other, a Union formation fired volley after volley at the scattered Confederate lines.

Union volley

A Confederate charge is cut down by one of those Union volleys.

Confederate forces fall

Enjoying a smoke after the battle is over.

The battle is over

“General Lee” surveys the field. He was handing out money (Confederate) to the kids afterwards.

The General

[View slideshow]

Here’s some photos of the reenactment in color.

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Monterey Bay bike trail

Phil — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 05:08:25 +0000

We started our ride from the Marina REI parking lot—the trail is just a block away. As usual, it was an enjoyable ride, although the pedestrian traffic clogged the trail a bit between Fisherman’s Wharf and Cannery Row. We continued on to Pacific Grove, although we didn’t go as far as Asilomar. Of course, we headed to one of our favorite lunch spots—the Red House Café. We had an uneventful ride back to Marina, logging 25 miles for the ride.

Here is the pièce de résistance of lunch: crab cakes

[View slideshow]

Firefly mistake

Phil — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:03:44 +0000

Speaking of Firefly, as I did a few days ago, I rewatched the pilot episode (Serenity) last night and was amused by Wash (the pilot) flying the ship (Serenity) with a pretend control yoke.

Alright, which one of you jokers swiped my steering wheel?

Lance Armstrong retires from racing

Phil — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 16:04:34 +0000

Armstrong announced his retirement from pro bike racing yesterday. I regret I won’t get an opportunity to get a photo of Lance in the upcoming Amgen Tour of California. I captured a couple shots of him in the 2009 tour, but in the 2010 tour he was always buried in the pack when he passed by me.

Santa Rosa, 2009

Livermore 2009, Lance leading Levi Leipheimer

Firefly returns

Phil — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:43:43 +0000

The cast of Firefly

I just discovered that Joss Whedon’s short-lived sci-fi/western adventure series Firefly is returning for a run on the Discovery Network Science Channel beginning March 6. I liked it when it first ran a few years ago.

Imagine the western genre set 500 years in the future. Following a universal civil war in which our protaganists end up on the losing side, they eke out a living with their spaceship Serenity by trading/smuggling in the more or less lawless frontier areas of space.

Actors Nathan, Gina, Alan, Jewel, Adam, Morena, Sean, Summer, and Ron put a fun but different spin on a common genre. I don’t subscribe to the Discovery Channel, but it just may be time to break out the DVD’s for another viewing of this show.

Mal (the captain): “Just get us on the ground!”
Wash (the pilot): “That part will happen pretty definitely!”

101010101010

Phil — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:10:40 +0000

No, not a large binary number. Just a representation of a unique date and time. Published as close to that time as the system will allow.

Retribution: The Battle for Japan

Phil — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 15:00:38 +0000

I just finished reading Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 by Max Hastings, a history of WWII in the Pacific. It took some time to slog my way through it. Hastings recounts many personal stories he gathered from letters and verbal histories, and I found it difficult to follow the flow of the overall history with all the jumping from one small story to another. Yet, I think these short, personal histories add to the understanding of impact of the war on the individual soldier.

One thought that struck me: why are generals often such egotistical leaders? Hastings makes the point that General MacArthur was so self-centered that his military usefulness was extremely compromised. I suppose it takes a certain personality type to lead a war effort that requires the death of men you are responsible for. Could it be that the quest for personal glory is a common attribute among such leaders?

I was also struck by the extreme nationalism and racist attitudes of the miscarried bushido culture in Japan. It’s almost impossible to imagine, and yet, it’s apparent that even today there are fanatical, warrior cultures willing to use suicide to accomplish their purposes.

Finally, I was interested to read Hastings’ account of the use of weapons of mass destruction. He clearly traces the change from precision (a non sequitur in WWII) bombing to area bombing to incendiary bombing. Single bombing raids that caused more than 100,000 casualties (like the Tokyo raid on March 9-10, 1945) were being used long before the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, so whatever military, political, and moral dilemma there may have been about huge numbers of civilian casualties had already been decided before use of the atom bomb.

St. George dinosaur tracks

Phil — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 06:08:40 +0000

So this was our first morning of our vacation to experience how long it takes to get the three kids organized and fed at a motel. Clearly there won’t be any early morning departures on this trip. After leaving Barstow we motored right on through downtown Las Vegas, stopping for lunch at a Chipotle Grill in North Las Vegas. Despite it being a bit breezy, we ate outside and watched the military fighter jets fly over after taking off from Nellis AFB.

Large dinosaur track

A couple of hours later we arrived in St. George and headed for the Dinotrax museum. This museum is built right over the discovery site of hundreds (thousands?) of tracks preserved in sandstone. The site is still being excavated, and new discoveries are being made. We stayed until nearly closing time (we’d forgotten about the different time zone and lost an hour).

After picking up some lunch making foodstuff, we had dinner at the Cracker Barrel and then checked in to the Comfort Inn Zion in Hurricane, a few miles outside of St. George. It was windy—the motel room window was just a little leaky and it howled.

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Blue Moon

Phil — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:00:43 +0000

Blue Moon
Now I’m no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own.¹

Tonight is as rare as a blue moon, since, well… tonight’s full moon is a blue moon. That is, if you accept the recent definition of a blue moon being the second full moon in a month. The last time that happened was June, 2007.

A blue moon was not always defined this way, but apparently caught on after an article in the March 1946 Sky and Telescope magazine mistakenly interpreted the definition this way. Wikipedia has the details.

Interesting questions are: using this definition, when was the last blue moon on December 31 and when will the next one fall on a December 31? Thanks to a Google search, the last blue moon on News Year’s eve was in 1990, and the next blue moon to fall on New Year’s eve will be 2028.

¹ Rodgers and Hart