The much elusive Giant Squid has finally been photographed in the wild off the coast of Japan’s Ogasawara Islands.
Squid spotted!
Month: September 2005
Rocket Scientists
Five things overheard while watching last week’s DARPA’s Minotaur launch from Vandenberg from Long Beach (all quotes verbatim from actual Long Beach residents):
1. “Look at that contrail, it was totally out of control!”
2. “It looks like a spaceship blew up!”
3. “Yeah, it was something launched from the desert”
4. “Did something crash?”
5. “As soon as it dumped that jet, it hit the rocket and just took off out of there!”
The launch contrail as seen from Mt. Wilson’s Towercam.
Beef chow fun
Over the weekend, I saw an episode of Seinfeld where Elaine moves into a janitor’s closet so she could be within the delivery area of a favored Chinese restaurant.
I’m nowhere near the delivery zone of a Sam Woo, but if there’s one dish of theirs that sums up everything I like about Sam Woo it’s their beef chow fun with black bean sauce. Instead of the typical Asian spicing, the sauce has a dense smoky taste to it – reminding me more of a Caribbean or South American dish. I can’t get enough of it and it’s perfect for rainy weather (and the drive to get there).
Lightning!
File this under “one of those Charles Fort stories where the drought-stricken town prays for rain and gets a flood which destroys the town.”
A couple days ago I was thinking that it had been way too long since I’d been in a decent thunderstorm but it was just one of those idle thoughts. Until… I pulled into a gas station and just got out of the car when my entire field of vision goes WHITE with the sound of all the 12 gauge shotguns in the world going off.
After a couple moments of some serious WTF, I gathered my senses together to notice two things: the odd sizzling sound fluorescent lights make when they’re overloaded and burn out, and a couple of guys standing next to a CalTrans truck in front were laughing and pointing at a smoking telephone pole directly across the street.
“Careful what you wish for” and all that rot…
:(
From Greg’s blog…
Dad’s long fight with cancer has come to an end. He passed away last night in peace. The room was filled with the kind of wonderful quiet he always loved. Dad was surrounded by loved ones who whispered beautiful things to him when all he had could do was listen. I held him and told him what a brave man, beautiful person and wonderful father he has been.
Dad asked me to carry out his final wishes. One of them is that there will be a grand wake. We will all mourn his passing. But Dad wanted us to celebrate all the beauty there is in life.
The Madagascar Syndrome
I remember when I was four or so years old and figuring out how maps worked I was fascinated with great circle routes and globe topology even if I didn’t quite know what topology was. At some point, I attempted to dig a hole to China but I knew that if I dug straight-down I wasn’t going to make it to Shanghai, but somewhere in the Indian Ocean.
Anyway, when I build that unstable backyard nuclear reactor out of lowest-bidder parts I’m happy to have a Google Maps mash-up that shows me where on the Earth it’s going to pop-out.
Things I Like September 2005 (continued ennui edition)
1. The television series Fortier. Gritty police crime dramas are a dime-a-dozen, but this one is superior than most anything else that’s airing right now. Reminds me a lot of Prime Suspect only with grouchy French-Canadians.
2. I’m not a big fan of watermelons, but I might reconsider now that they’ve been repackaged as Godzilla eggs.
3. This essay on the Winchester Mystery House which recontextualizes Sarah Winchester’s mania into a capitalist parable.
Part of what makes the Winchester Mystery House so spooky, I think, is the way it reminds visitors and Silicon Valley neighbors of how fleeting industrial power really is–eventually, the fortunes made in Silicon Valley will pass away and remain only in the form of preserved houses built during the 1980s and 1990s. The death of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, symbolized in Sarah’s house, is a reminder to Silicon Valley professionals and residents that their industry, too, will die, taking fortunes and lives with it.
4. I’m not sure if I’ll see A Good Woman, but it’s goddamn great to see illustrated movie posters making a return.
5. The unbelievably fantastic metallic album covers for Philips’ Prospective 21e Siècle series of avant-garde electronic LPs.
Exactly what somebody wanted to have happen
One last parapolitical thought – this one lifted from David Brin. I’m by no stretch a Brin apologist and his particular brand of militancy gets irritating but the last couple of paragraphs in this blog entry struck home. He’s talking about Iraq, but it basically applies to Katrina too.
Finally… see a couple places where moderates have proposed alternatives to the current “stay the course” vs. “cut and run” dichotomy. Both seem reasonable and are probably compatible — both could be done simultaneously.They are:
“The Way Out of Iraq: Decentralizing the Iraqi Government” and “How to Win in Iraq”
These articles make sense… and they won’t be implemented because the goal of the involvement in Iraq has never been success at nation building. Yes, that is officially our purpose now that there are no WMD and no Saddam. But Cheney and Rumsfeld both famously expressed contempt for “nation building” long ago and their disbelief in it still shows.
No, there are only two possible classes of hypothesis to explain such a disaster. (* Kool-aid alert! Paranoia riff about to resume! * 😉
Hypothesis 1. Incompetence. These are moronic frat boys, using the United States and our military as personal toys. The calamity is not what was intended. It is just what happens when skilled professionals – first diplomats and then military officers – are relentlessly over-ruled by meddling politician imbecilles bent on playing war and stealing everything in sight.
Hypothesis 2. What you see is what was planned. This explanation looks utterly paranoid and I am the only one suggesting it. And that means I must disclaim that it is formally what I BELIEVE to be true. Yes, yes. Brin’s Fantasy. But it IS logically the other side of the coin. My excuse is that I am a completist and must include it.
Still, let me repeat my call for you to step aside and look from another angle. If you were enemies of the United States, and looked across our history for some weakness to exploit, what two disasters nearly ruined us? Dividing us, sapping our strength, wounding the economy, tearing down our alliances, frittering our military strength?
The Civil War and Vietnam.
Now look at last year’s electoral map. And look at Iraq. And wonder… which sworn enemies of our culture have access to every powerful person in this administration?
Paranoid? yes. But reasonable people do not automatically dismiss that which fits all facts and has not been disproved. Always leave a “what-if” possibility open that what you see is exactly what somebody wanted to have happen.