tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-192610252012-01-29T11:11:33.326-06:00Communication Against My Better JudgementChris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.comBlogger2881100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-67625072254643252082012-01-29T11:11:00.000-06:002012-01-29T11:11:33.337-06:00

My friend David Bamberger—who has been working since 1969 to restore the worst piece of land in Blanco County, Texas (and maybe the rest of the Texas Hill Country) in order to prove that what's good for the environment is good for the rancher, and vice versa—will appear on “60 Minutes” tonight as part a of piece on “hunting ranches in the U.S. that offer exotic big game species.” David’s ranch

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-69694650795101093952011-12-20T12:25:00.000-06:002011-12-20T12:36:57.652-06:00

As an equinox or a solstice (in this case) approaches, my year clock starts indicating the time of the event with increasing precision, using indicator arrows like the one shown below (each equinox and solstice has a unique arrow; this one is for the winter solstice). While such arrows are visible year-round in the clock’s year ring, as the month of the event is entered an arrow appears at the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-14583622944648552552011-11-19T16:09:00.001-06:002011-11-20T11:30:07.438-06:00

I recently found myself in a situation in which an over-the-counter pain medication prescribed by one of my doctors began to poison me, and, given enough time, probably would have done permanent damage to some major organs I've come to depend on over the years. I didn't realize what was happening at the time, I just lost feeling in a section of one hand, as the pains that were supposed to be

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-18365204691026142092011-11-11T22:17:00.001-06:002011-11-12T16:05:32.625-06:00

I’ve been sending this link to people for a year or more. I think I’m overdue to make it available to everyone:Making the World’s Data ComputablePersonally, I found it fascinating and illuminating after being left clueless about what Alpha was by the industry press.Need some specific examples to understand how to use Alpha? See their examples page.And if you try Alpha and it doesn’t meet your

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-83761759476545471522011-10-17T22:34:00.003-05:002011-10-17T22:38:37.540-05:00

From Project Apollo: The Tough Decisions by Robert C. Seamans, Jr., pg. 84:When conducting advanced technical efforts, it’s imperative to maintain in-house technical skills of a high order. But high-grade technical personnel cannot be stockpiled. They must be given real rabbits to chase or they will lose their cutting edge and eventually seek other employment.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-23476821559668690842011-09-27T10:17:00.001-05:002011-10-17T22:38:48.528-05:00

From TOG on Interface by Bruce “TOG” Tognazzini, pg. 131:Early computers used printers as their sole output. When programmers at various large traditional computer companies were first given monitors, they immediately duplicated the printer interface on their green, glowing screens, giving rise to the term “glass Teletype.” With this lavish investment of more than 20 minutes of design time behind

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-54797830587959600792011-09-20T19:34:00.003-05:002011-10-17T22:39:01.824-05:00

From TOG on Interface by Bruce “TOG” Tognazzini, pg. 103:Western education is heavily biased toward intellect over intuition: Intuition is endowed with a perverse habit of delivering results most slowly when the need for speed is greatest. [....] Telling a bunch of kids to “think about it for a couple of hours, a day, a week—whatever it takes—then get back to me” just doesn't fit into our

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-47015835462648894312011-09-16T19:29:00.000-05:002011-10-17T22:39:10.594-05:00

From TOG on Interface by Bruce “TOG” Tognazzini, pg. 91:For those not well-versed in English folk story tradition, “The Three Bears” is the story of a young juvenile delinquent who breaks into a neighbor’s house, vandalizes it, and manages to kill herself while trying to escape. Good parents read it to their children, instead of letting them watch all that violence on television.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-36274412995983832052011-07-19T15:56:00.032-05:002011-07-20T00:08:24.730-05:00

From War Is A Lie by David Swanson, pp. 284-285: We are [...] proud, however, of shoveling huge piles of cash through the government and into the military industrial complex. And that is the most glaring difference between us and Europe. But this reflects more of a difference between our governments than between our peoples. Americans, in polls and surveys, would prefer to move much of our money

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-7988848375575015072011-07-10T12:39:00.018-05:002011-10-17T22:39:26.159-05:00

From The Keepers of Light by William Crawford, pp. 6-7.[....] Are there "syntactical" rules of structure for the way we turn objects into photographs, rules that compel the infinite possibilities to fall along a finite line, just as there are rules for the way we turn concepts into statements? How you answer this question tends to determine how you approach the study of the history of

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-64690410101981866802011-07-06T06:37:00.006-05:002011-07-06T21:18:22.764-05:00

What’s great about hiring consultants is supposed to be that your organization has no committment to them. What isn’t much mentioned is that, by the same token, consultants have no committment to your organization.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-71939140678718329282011-07-02T03:30:00.014-05:002011-07-10T14:50:28.872-05:00

A few days after posting Mark Twain and the Measurement of Misfortunes, I realized something obvious that I’d overlooked for years: The bad habit of seeking an external yardstick by which to measure, compare and disregard human pain and suffering—well examined by Twain in that quoted material—is the basis for a reductio ad absurdum. The reduction is straightforward: If the pain or suffering of

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-81364113815119431702011-06-17T05:14:00.007-05:002011-10-17T22:39:47.395-05:00

Ever since reading Mark Twain’s autobiography years ago, I have, with some regularity, found myself presented with situations that brought the following passage to mind. Another such situation arose recently, and caused me to search out the passage, as my memory had stored the lesson well enough, but had come up lacking in the matter of retaining the story sufficiently to pass it along properly

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-68341734863187902902011-05-12T06:59:00.000-05:002011-05-13T15:49:44.880-05:00

All three branchers were sighted at the same time in the same tree (the tree in which I deposited owlet/brancher no. 5 after it left the nest on the 8th). The brancher that appeared largest had its own perch, while the other two (presumably owlets 1 and 2, who left the nest together on the 10th) were perched together on another limb. Those two had to cross perhaps 75 feet of "open" space (the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-75938774815971198032011-05-08T23:52:00.025-05:002011-05-09T02:34:42.809-05:00

I brought down the nest box late this afternoon to install the owlet rail. Fortunately, as I was in the process of assessing what pieces of its mount I'd have to replace, I discovered that (once again) I'd made a spare. So, the only part I actually had to replace was the branch that forms the rail. The old one would probably have been fine, but I tripped over it while owlet herding, and the rest,

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-9505894485158360112011-04-23T20:02:00.010-05:002011-04-24T13:45:51.085-05:00

Since acquiring owlet no. 4 for medical treatment, Sallie, my raptor rehabber friend, has acquired two more young screech owls, which she refers to as “screechlets” to distinguish them from the three great horned owlets, and four barn owlets she was also caring for on the night of the 21st when these photos were taken. One of the screechlets, now designated owlet no. 5, is young enough to fit in

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-6371443390783940152011-04-20T19:48:00.023-05:002011-04-20T21:55:42.370-05:00

As people following my notes on the screech owl cam’ page will be aware, on the 17th I brought down the nest box mid-afternoon in order to remove a worrisome build-up of what appeared to be fire ants (the small, vicious, invasive species we have here in central Texas; not the big, relatively relaxed natives that live further north in Texas). Needless to say, I took the opportunity to photograph

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-50897575630891833352011-03-20T23:59:00.002-05:002011-03-21T01:22:49.603-05:00

Observed on my street today: A pair of chickens browsing someone’s front lawn. Not the sort of thing I see everyday. Or ever. However, there was a Christmas day around ten years ago when I looked out of my front window and saw someone leading a herd of goats down the street. I’ve checked on subsequent Christmas days and not seen a single goat, which has been disappointing. I wouldn’t like to

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-29249430469888551772011-03-19T20:24:00.005-05:002011-03-20T02:03:21.731-05:00

The fourth egg has been laid, but, due to the exceptionally poor reliability of the video capture system lately, I wasn’t able to get a picture of it. With luck, the video capture system will stay up for a while, and Mme. Owl will reveal the eggs again soon.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-15020371297886078932011-03-18T12:09:00.003-05:002011-03-18T12:14:46.596-05:00

With Mme. Owl out for a bit of hunting, a good look at all three eggs was available this morning. Next step: Reviewing the image archives to try to determine more specifically when they were laid.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-18460450975790816522011-03-17T13:07:00.007-05:002011-03-18T00:18:23.557-05:00

Noticed just now: Egg no. 3 has arrived. Unless my memory is going, the interval between the laying of each egg in a clutch is supposed to increase over time, but I don’t think that has happened in this case. I’ll have to review frames from the nest box this weekend to try to narrow-down the time at which each egg appeared, but I think the delay between eggs no. 2 and 3 was either the same, or a

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-14705793302950209902011-03-14T17:55:00.006-05:002011-03-15T13:30:31.630-05:00

Egg no. 2 was laid sometime this afternoon, probably between 1 and 5:50 PM. Right now, I can’t narrow down the time better than that. The time between eggs will increase with each egg, so some patience will be required before we know the size of this clutch. As always, stay tuned.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-69839267408218217492011-03-11T06:57:00.012-06:002011-03-14T18:15:08.376-05:00

Well, I’m going to have to start updating the nest box cam’ site properly, now; Mme. Owl has laid her first egg. And the viewers get the credit for this find. I thought that I was watching the owl cam’ as I worked frantically into the wee hours on a major project at work, but I failed to notice in between all of the work that my web browser had stopped updating the page hours before. There was

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-34055453725818813032011-03-10T06:54:00.006-06:002011-03-10T07:12:33.947-06:00

Mme. Owl spent all of yesterday in the nest box, which suggests that the appearance of the first egg is very near. She’s now begun spending her second consecutive day in the nest box, which suggests that that bit in the first sentence about “the first egg is very near” is correct. You can see for yourselves on the owl cam’, assuming it isn’t de-railed by one of the technical issues I’m trying to

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-79493149310594982032011-03-09T07:02:00.005-06:002011-03-09T12:19:50.904-06:00

Mme. Owl may be spending her first day in the nest box this year. If so, things are moving along a bit faster than I expected. The first egg, if memory serves, may appear within two days. Mme. Owl in the nest box this morning, amid debris deposited there by a pair of starlings. So far this year, she hasn’t remained in the nest box for more than about 10 minutes at a time (although the number and

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-39710042284585030012011-03-04T08:13:00.006-06:002011-03-18T12:04:35.247-05:00

I haven’t brought-up my eastern screech owl nest box cam’ for the year, because nesting isn’t underway, but I’ve been running the image capture software anyway, trying to confirm my suspicion that my local owls are actually preparing to nest in my box. And, as you can see, I now have confirmation. That’s the female owl shoving around the bedding material to create a depression to hold her eggs at

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-67371897369210894572011-03-01T07:37:00.009-06:002011-03-01T08:36:52.310-06:00

My ability to sleep and my sleep patterns are in ruins, my local medical community notwithstanding. As an example, I just got back from 16 hours at the office. Why a sleep-deprived person can even do that, I don’t know. But for some reason I did, and there went my opportunity to keep an eye on owl TV last night in hopes of seeing a visitor. Sigh. Nonetheless, I tuned in as soon as I got home. The

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-13049580973253398242011-02-28T05:46:00.034-06:002011-08-20T00:07:54.257-05:00

It took about eleven contiguous hours of work, but my screech owl nest box is back in business, and not as a bee hive. The nest box had to be disassembled to properly clean all of the bee grunge out of it. That meant breaking it down into its major components: (1) the frame, which includes the back wall visible in the photos, (2) the fold-down front with integrated infrared entryway sensor

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-67834553181086708552011-02-27T21:01:00.037-06:002011-03-01T09:13:54.280-06:00

Yesterday (Saturday), it was misting heavily when I would like to have begun the nest box cleanup, and, under those circumstances, just handling the plastic covered steel cable that runs through a block and tackle to raise and lower the box would have been a challenge. Also, I’d’ve either had to stifle in a rain suit, or be soaked during the time it would take to get the box down and begin the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-19688993238382118612011-02-25T07:02:00.009-06:002011-02-26T07:38:41.839-06:00

I've just pulled the No-Pest Strip from the entry hole of the screech owl nest box. It was full of dead bees, and there were no signs of live ones, so I think that a little more than two days of exposure to the fumes from the Strip has ensured that the hive is dead. There's no time to begin cleaning-out the box now. That’ll have to start (and, I hope, finish) this weekend. Perhaps, in the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-18481251844370284762011-02-23T03:15:00.008-06:002011-02-23T13:34:44.416-06:00

Well, I couldn’t have put it off any longer without absolutely guaranteeing failure, but I’ve finally begun the process of removing the bees from my screech owl nest box. It’s a very simple, but ugly process: stuff a Hot Shot No-Pest Strip in the entry hole and get away fast. Of course, you have to find a safe way to do that. If you do it in freezing weather, the bees are incapacitated by the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-74778223593042881562011-02-21T03:57:00.008-06:002011-02-21T04:20:02.282-06:00

White-tailed deer, Odocoileus virginianus, amid blooming Zexmenia,Wedelia hispida. Bamberger Ranch Preserve, June 9, 2007.Photo ©2007-2011 by Chris W. Johnson. I keep telling David Bamberger that he should share random photos of interest from around the ranch with his blog readers, even if he has nothing to say about the photos, both because it gives the readers a chance to see something of the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-91334025721332336042011-02-17T03:43:00.003-06:002011-02-21T04:23:31.176-06:00

Radio Paradise, an Internet radio station, that also happens to have been my favorite radio station since a friend (thanks Brendan) introduced me to it many years ago, is now offering a high definition video feed to accompany their music. They’re accepting photos from anyone, provided that the photos meet their admittedly subjective criteria. I’d been meaning to submit some of my own photos for a

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-83616749038009153132011-02-15T04:12:00.004-06:002011-02-15T05:26:55.473-06:00

The Austin Forum, on the evening of January 4, 2011, hosted an interesting presentation by Dr. Shalini Gupta entitled “Digital Human Face Recognition,” which I attended because I find digital face recognition a fascinating technical challenge, an increasingly important social issue, and because I have an interest in a lesser, related problem: automatic face isolation (without regard to identity)

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-25366110457454586932011-02-11T00:54:00.013-06:002011-02-11T00:54:00.665-06:00

My family passed along very few stories to me, or, at least, very few that proved memorable. One of them was Grandpa Johnson’s bacon, to which I was not a witness, though I choose to believe it. There’s another story I choose to believe, one to which I must have been a witness, though, to my sorrow, I’ll never, ever remember it. And I kind of hate to share it (it’s my story, and, in that special

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-58507729408854649792011-02-09T00:29:00.007-06:002011-02-09T00:50:15.326-06:00

I was sure I’d included this story here at some point in the past, but I went looking for it yesterday and couldn’t find it. Therefore, I now pass along the following story from Mark Twain’s autobiography, as edited by Charles Neider, pg. 256: Doctor John [Brown] was very fond of animals, and particularly of dogs. No one needs to be told this who has read that pathetic and beautiful masterpiece,

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-22500446999272426642011-01-16T15:25:00.010-06:002011-02-15T05:18:25.136-06:00

Alan Grayson, Democratic congressman from Florida’s 8th district, who urged his colleagues to vote against war funding in order to shut down those wars and bring the troops home, was accused by one of his opponents, Kurt Kelly, of putting “our soldiers, and our men and women in the military in harm’s way, and maybe he wants them to die.” Naturally, the accusation was made on Fox News. Here’s the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-70827898161548680442010-12-30T09:02:00.011-06:002010-12-30T09:23:22.811-06:00

I’ve taken my 686 photos of the 2010 Geminid meteor shower on December 13/14 and transformed them into the following high-definition (1080p), time-lapse movie, which I hope you will enjoy. It spans 6¼ hours of time in two minutes, contains approximately 34 meteors, several airplanes, and a couple of satellites. Also, you get to watch the sky as it appears to rotate around the polestar, Polaris.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-35279587468796543042010-12-27T12:42:00.003-06:002010-12-27T12:44:23.554-06:00

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-54525638291358107692010-12-15T04:02:00.012-06:002010-12-15T14:16:20.947-06:00

I spent the night of December 13/14 in my favorite meteor watching field on the Bamberger Ranch Preserve (thanks to David and Lois, respectively, for making that possible). I was counting, and, most of all, trying to photograph, Geminid meteors. Watching commenced in earnest only after I’d finished setting-up my camera and started it clicking away at 11:56 PM. It was freezing up there, and when

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-73985355583039893822010-12-15T00:00:00.004-06:002010-12-15T00:00:03.334-06:00

I forgot to post this last year, which was when I discovered it during my effort to locate and preserve the rapidly disappearing history of The University of Texas at Austin Computation Center, but this year I shall not forget. So, without further ado, for the computational old-timers amongst us, I offer “Twas the Night Before Christmas — In the Computation Center” by Kathy Atkins, from the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-9562969311111323932010-12-10T23:58:00.002-06:002010-12-10T23:58:00.473-06:00

The decimation of the bison herds and the extinction of the passenger pigeon were epic environmental events. The ongoing decimation of bat populations by White Nose Syndrome (WNS) may be much more serious. Wired magazine has a good article on the subject.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-83536968269235247782010-11-12T19:20:00.003-06:002010-11-12T19:22:17.395-06:00

A moment of shining clarity, thanks to Jay Lake.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-39158513737585899012010-11-03T05:21:00.006-05:002010-11-03T05:36:40.927-05:00

My thanks to R.C.H. who has pointed-out to me two bugs in my implementation of Bob Altemeyer’s RWA Scale. As always, I find bugs in my code embarrassing, and I’m grateful to R.C.H. for not only finding the bugs, but reporting them. Consequently, the code has now been fixed. So, for those who’ve answered “strongly disagree” (-3) to questions 7 or 8 in the past, if you retake the test, your answers

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-2663952583187827182010-10-25T04:04:00.012-05:002010-10-25T05:41:33.904-05:00

From Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary by Stewart Brand, pp. 81-82: As to footprint, Gwymeth Cravens points out that “A nuclear plant producing 1,000 megawatts takes up a third of a square mile. A wind farm would have to cover over 200 square miles to obtain the same result, and a solar array over 50

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-32123380975370801412010-10-07T04:17:00.002-05:002010-10-07T04:21:18.299-05:00

From Whole Earth Discipline: Why Dense Cities, Nuclear Power, Transgenic Crops, Restored Wildlands, and Geoengineering Are Necessary by Stewart Brand, pg. 9: Climate is so full of surprises, it might even surprise us with a hidden stability. Counting on that, though, would be like playing Russian roulette with all the chambers loaded but one.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-27953170461176300062010-09-24T14:08:00.036-05:002010-09-24T18:27:28.825-05:00

David Bamberger recently posted an item on the Bamberger Ranch Journal showing photos of the water flows created by the rains brought by tropical storm Hermine on September 7th and 8th. I have at least two images in my files of areas pictured in David’s blog entry during the ranch’s last “wet year,” 2007. Bamberger Ranch Journal followers might find the contrast adds some perspective to David’s

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-14013281811212716342010-09-20T08:54:00.003-05:002010-09-20T10:04:30.404-05:00

Most photos of the U.T. Austin Tower neglect the Main Building, which is its base. While shooting some test panoramas the other night, I thought I’d take a different approach and emphasize the Main Building. To get all of the Main Building and Tower into the photo, I shot this as two rows of three photos. Every photo was shot at three different exposures, 3 stops apart, so that a high dynamic

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-48286022401267441422010-09-05T16:21:00.007-05:002010-10-07T04:21:50.293-05:00

From Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley, 1968 edition, pg. 376: The very first shot in the Mercury program was named Little Joe-1, ready for firing August 21, 1959, on Wallops Island. Half an hour before the planned take-off time there was suddenly the noise of a rocket roaring and smoke enveloped the launch pad. When the smoke cleared, literally speaking, Little Joe was still

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-41322748257779018522010-08-31T16:24:00.008-05:002010-10-07T04:22:02.407-05:00

From Footprints in the Dust, chapter 11, by Colin Burgess, pg. 336: Apollo 18’s Lunar module was scheduled to land in Schroter’s Valley, the site of intriguing transient lunar phenomena and possibly even volcanic activity. The two-man landing crew of Apollo 19 would then have explored the collapsed lava tubes of Hyginus Rille. The most hazardous but ultimately benficial mission of all would have

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-3070887429238372812010-08-31T00:53:00.028-05:002010-10-07T04:22:20.239-05:00

“If Project Orbiter had gone ahead as planned, the United States would have placed a satellite in orbit during the summer of 1956.” From Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley, 1968 edition, pp. 304-323: In the spring of 1954 the Space-Flight Committee of the American Rocket Society had worked out a satellite proposal which had been submitted through various channels. The time was

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-59679912142594278182010-08-25T10:29:00.004-05:002010-10-07T04:22:31.094-05:00

From Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley, 1968 edition, pg. 361: In 1959 the newly appointed Astronomer Royal of England, Australian-born Richard van de Riet Wooley, told the British press that space travel was “utter bilge.” Ever since, the British Interplanetary Society has had a fine time giving him reports such as “An American named Carpenter has penetrated utter bilge for the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-27730923884999989162010-08-24T10:06:00.009-05:002010-10-07T04:22:44.110-05:00

The Atlas missile was a highly capable launch vehicle due to its very low structural mass. The place where the greatest mass saving was realized was in the fuel tanks which were, in effect, giant, load-bearing, stainless steel balloons whose strength came not from their dime-thin walls, but from their internal pressure. Without that pressure, the Atlas would have collapsed under its own weight,

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-19040984975633512642010-08-23T09:14:00.006-05:002010-10-07T04:22:56.046-05:00

From Walter Cunningham’s forward to In the Shadow of the Moon, page xii: [....] When I went to work as an astronaut, in 1963, I earned a little over $13,000 a year. I once calculated that, during my Apollo 7 mission, I had earned the great sum of $660. But we weren’t doing it for the money—nobody does a job like that for the money. Any one of us would have paid NASA to have the job! [....]

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-66833162237508659652010-08-21T18:55:00.008-05:002010-08-21T21:11:52.951-05:00

I had the opportunity last week to watch the bats return to the Bamberger Ranch Preserve’s chiroptorium. The morning return isn’t as dramatic as the evening emergence, but it’s still something to see. Realizing that, for the first time, I had a device that could capture high definition (720p) video, I propped up my iPhone 4 on the fence at the mouth of the chiroptorium and let it record for about

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-61407206824131282712010-08-19T05:06:00.043-05:002010-08-19T17:02:37.243-05:00

Because the failings of the native Java text renderer have had such an adverse impact on my recent work, I think additional examination of the issue is merited. So, to further illustrate the difference between text rendered by Java 6 on Mac OS X and Linux, I’ve taken two paragraphs of text and written a program that fits them on-the-fly into an image of a specified size. Text fitting is vital to

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-91617323108607669582010-08-18T07:31:00.026-05:002010-08-19T02:11:46.535-05:00

I‘ve recently been working on a Java web application that does server-side rendering of complex graphics that include text. Having sweated all the details to maximize the quality of the application’s output; having finally made the application sufficiently stable and feature-complete to enter beta testing; and having jumped through some unrelated hoops to make the production host usable, I

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-12734254321132833432010-07-15T00:30:00.004-05:002010-07-15T00:30:01.152-05:00

As found on the Wolfram Blog, Stephen Wolfram provides a transcript of his talk “Computation and the Future of the Human Condition” delivered at the H+ Summit @ Harvard on June 12, 2010. I found it interesting. Unfortunately for me, just as when I read his book A New Kind of Science (NKS), I think I can grasp the general ideas, but I can’t make the intellectual leap necessary to understand how to

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-44069630422552409572010-07-14T17:15:00.009-05:002010-07-15T13:00:59.098-05:00

My combination of Javascript and SVG that produces a rotating spiral graphic (“you are getting sleepy... very sleepy”) has been accepted by Google as an official “Chrome Experiment.” You can find the Chrome Experiments main page at http://www.chromeexperiments.com/, and my spiral experiment at http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/rotating-spiral/. I’ve also submitted several other of my

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-3804558557933852072010-07-08T03:32:00.007-05:002010-10-07T04:23:13.711-05:00

From Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley, 1968 edition, pg. 390: Except for GT-III the Gemini spacecraft were not given names as the Mercury capsules had been. GT-III did have a name; it was called the Molly Brown. The name was chosen by the command pilot of the flight, Virgil Ivan Grissom. Grissom (generally known as “Gus”) had had to swim to safety when his Mercury capsule Liberty

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-23430169719885098662010-07-04T06:05:00.012-05:002010-10-07T04:23:27.171-05:00

Here’s a dose of perspective on government secrecy for this July 4th. I don’t mean to suggest that today our government can be as open as it was in Andrew Jackson’s (or Lincoln’s) time, but the following provides some perspective on how much the openness of our American government has decreased over the course of the past 150 years. To be sure, we’ve added some improvements, like the Freedom of

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-18192076750141950932010-06-21T17:34:00.005-05:002010-06-21T17:39:54.059-05:00

I’m about eleven hours late (allergies, or something like them, knocked me for six), but “happy longest day of the year” to everyone. According to my calculations, the June solstice occurred today at 6:28:16 AM CDT.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-33065723276057140862010-06-20T16:24:00.032-05:002010-06-21T17:29:39.271-05:00

As others have pointed-out (thanks to Jay Lake for that link), Apple’s ebooks have abandoned good typographic practices, and instead embraced problematic practices like full justification for all text. Apple has now carried these failings over to the generally wonderful “Reader” mode of version 5 of their Safari browser. I’ll confine myself to the issue of full-justification here, and leave the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-46504703240372522832010-06-19T17:33:00.007-05:002010-10-07T04:23:48.174-05:00

From Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willey Ley, 1968 edition, pp. 80-81: Guncotton [...] had been discovered [in 1845] by German chemist Christian Friedrich Schönbein, who had tried to dissolve cotton in a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids. Of course, the cotton had refused to dissolve and Schönbein, writing off the experiment as a failure, had gone home for supper, after putting the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-42934882177307014112010-05-31T17:15:00.019-05:002010-10-07T04:24:04.723-05:00

…and allies itself with the virus, rather than politically unpalatable science. From Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC, by J.B. McCormick, M.D., S.F. Fisher-Hoch, M.D., with Leslie Ann Horvitz, pp. 174-177; McCormick is writing: Two very important discoveries began to emerge from our investigation. For one thing, we were recording far more cases of AIDS in women than we were used to seeing in

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-67195323722212588212010-05-31T15:45:00.018-05:002010-05-31T16:57:37.201-05:00

Like last year, bees have moved into the screech owl nest box. One more problem to deal with. Or maybe not – for some reason they abandoned the box at some point last year. (During the worst of the drought? Probably, but I can’t remember.) Then, one or more fox squirrels cleaned out the nest box, initially, I presume, as a means to harvest the honey. A rare treat for a squirrel, I’d guess. They

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-86305096728647910462010-05-23T14:23:00.011-05:002010-11-30T19:50:25.497-06:00

Owlet no. 3 (the last of the two owlets that successfully hatched from the four eggs that were laid), left the nest box around 9 PM last night, and successfully climbed its way to safety in the high, outer branches of the nest box tree. The picture above shows owlet no. 3 beginning that climb. So, that’s pretty much that for the 2010 nesting season. There may be a few more updates if I catch

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-61849962424700081122010-05-20T03:02:00.019-05:002010-11-30T19:50:58.428-06:00

I brought the owls’ nest box down early this morning and attached the owlet rail outside the entry/exit hole (see the final photo). This was done in anticipation of the eldest owlet leaving the nest soon, and in the expectation that having a perch outside the hole must make that critical leap from nest to tree easier. This also gave me an opportunity to open the nest box and take some family

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-41954282218398858632010-05-20T01:21:00.001-05:002010-11-30T19:51:21.180-06:00

Here’re the promised photos of the adults. Don’t ask me which is the male and which is the female – unless I was lucky enough to observe sexually distinctive behavior (like tearing up prey and feeding it to the owlets, which only the female will do), there’s no way for me to know. Alternately, if both owls suddenly took leave of their senses and let me get hold of them, I might be able to

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-88164313201051314552010-05-20T00:40:00.001-05:002010-05-20T01:52:07.105-05:00

The owlets fooled me. Earlier tonight it looked like there was only one owlet left in the nest. That sent me out on a search (and, if necessary, rescue) mission. I looked everywhere I could think of for that owlet (three or four times), wanting to make sure it had found its way to a safe perch, or, if it hadn’t, to find it and put it on a safe perch. I had no luck finding the owlet, but I found

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-62941537458440327892010-05-13T01:58:00.007-05:002010-05-13T02:13:55.715-05:00

Good friend Jay Lake has been dreaming again. This one has been haunting me for a week. Imagery to conjure with, but also imagery that strikes deep and hurts. Jay and I have very different minds and personalities, yet somewhere in all that there’re more common chords than I’d ever realized. Ouch.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-47717489987603748092010-04-22T19:49:00.019-05:002010-04-22T22:00:50.911-05:00

My old friend Jay Lake discusses a dream in a recent blog post and refers to a series of real-life incidents, specifically: “...a baby puke yellow Ford LTD wagon was in my life for a while back in the 1990s — that’s the car I flooded with raw sewage while driving it, if you’ve ever heard me tell that story; also the car I took over the river in Mexico on a canoe ferry. Also the car I was driving

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-24698431615975601332010-04-21T06:17:00.006-05:002010-04-21T06:33:29.145-05:00

Owlet no. 1 hatched sometime between midnight and 3:30 AM. So, the activity in the nest box is going to steadily increase from this point on. This is when the viewing really starts to become interesting. The first look at the owlet came a bit before 6 AM. Those curious, and those who have QuickTime installed, can view two, short time-lapse movies of the owlet moving around; one seen from the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-11239127415297417872010-04-14T00:50:00.001-05:002010-04-22T22:04:10.923-05:00

From Level 4: Virus Hunters of the CDC, pg. 38, by J.B. McCormick, M.D., S. Fisher-Hoch, M.D., and L.A. Horvitz. Here McCormick relates a story from a trip to Sierra Leone in March, 1976, as part of an effort to deal with the Lassa Fever virus. [....] When we were introduced to the secretary of health for Sierra Leone, his first question was: “What is the CDC? Does that stand for the Colonial

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-81176227024379693042010-04-12T01:56:00.009-05:002010-10-07T04:25:01.466-05:00

Ever since I finished reading it a few weeks ago, I've been meaning to recommend the book The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba. So, consider it recommended. It’s available online for free at the page linked-to above. The book’s been out since 2006, so it’ll already be familiar to a lot of people, but it was news to me when I learned of it a few months back, and I know

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-70304866343540226992010-04-11T23:33:00.019-05:002010-04-22T21:43:15.271-05:00

In a time when intellectual standards have dropped so low that any involvement of government in the lives of its citizens can be labelled “socialism,” it seem only appropriate to warn the U.S. populace against using its socialist roadways. Here’s how the Carfree Times (always worth a read) March, 2010, issue lays out the facts, as supplied by that well known band of socialist agitators that is

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-60308620288883101022010-04-01T16:43:00.004-05:002010-04-01T16:56:25.865-05:00

From an old favorite: "Exploiting?" asked Dirk. "Well, I suppose it would be if anybody ever paid me, but I do assure you, my dear Richard, that there never seems to be the remotest danger of that. I live in what are known as hopes. I hope for fascinating remunerative cases, my secretary hopes that I will pay her, her landlord hopes that she will produce some rent, the Electricity Board hopes

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-22435509386968735452010-03-29T18:14:00.016-05:002010-03-29T19:00:52.720-05:00

I've just learned that I'm putting in an appearance on the Bamberger Ranch Journal this week. Thanks, David, for the kind words, and for plugging the owl cam’. (BTW, that blog post was delayed not by David, but by me, because I haven't been checking my email often enough while I've been out of the office letting my knee heal.) Anyone viewing that blog entry should be warned that there’s no such

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-40017300721925044012010-03-27T20:58:00.005-05:002010-03-27T21:06:39.493-05:00

My guess yesterday was that the third egg had been laid, and that that was what had shifted Mme. Owl into serious brooding mode. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture an overhead view yesterday to confirm that guess. This evening, however, I was able to capture such a view, and, as you’ve undoubtedly already noticed, there is a third egg. Whether it was laid yesterday or today will likely

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-58927160202894395322010-03-24T20:45:00.010-05:002010-03-24T21:22:34.928-05:00

Here’s this evening’s shot from the nest box attic cam’. (You can see this morning’s image, too.) As expected, egg no. 2 was laid today. Gehlbach’s research says an eastern screech owl, Megascops asio, clutch will average 3.75 eggs, if memory serves, so I’m expecting two more eggs, although clutches of up to six eggs are possible. Note that the eggs are almost spherical, unlike the eggs of (

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-45139803269874223572010-03-24T19:57:00.016-05:002010-10-07T04:25:41.331-05:00

I’ve automated another one of the surveys from Bob Altemeyer’s book The Authoritarians. (My first effort, the “RWA Scale” is discussed in a previous entry on this blog.) This time, it's the “RF Scale.” What it’s measuring will be pretty obvious, pretty quickly. Just in case there’s any doubt, I’ve included Altemeyer’s description of the purpose of the survey at the end of the page. Because this

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-151993473302232522010-03-24T15:09:00.005-05:002010-03-24T15:21:09.055-05:00

Pat asked if I’d ever share the overhead views from the attic camera that I use for egg counting. Here’s just such a view that was captured early this morning. It shows the egg that was laid on the 22nd. (I expect to see that another egg was laid today, but won’t be able to confirm that expectation until Mme. Owl exits the nest box this evening.) In previous years, I’d’ve included images like

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-64251968814119186102010-03-18T17:24:00.004-05:002010-03-18T17:29:36.347-05:00

Some video capture hardware turned-out to have stopped working in the two years since the last nesting, but after some pulling of hair, swapping of hardware, and editing of web pages, Chris’ Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box Cam’ is live again. What with surgery and an unknown recovery period starting tomorrow, I can’t say there’ll be regular status reports, or daily image round-ups, but the video

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-19199286495058578442010-03-18T11:55:00.003-05:002010-03-18T12:05:54.068-05:00

Mme. Owl is currently sitting on the floor of the nest box in a brooding posture. If nesting hasn't strictly begun yet, it looks as though it will do so in next the day or two at the most. I'm not sure when I'll have the Owl Cam' up and running again. If I can get it running tonight, I will. But, if that doesn't work out, things immediately become very unpredictable, as I'll be undergoing

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-30175598834901945182010-03-17T03:58:00.002-05:002010-03-17T04:04:14.579-05:00

A female eastern screech owl visited my nest box this morning. I noticed the visit entirely by chance around 3:15 AM, and she stayed another 20 minutes, while I watched her performing actions characteristic of a female preparing to nest – namely pushing around the bedding material on the floor of the box to create a depression in which eggs could be laid. My screech owls may be running later

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-23060637680693964072010-03-15T06:07:00.017-05:002010-03-15T08:55:42.079-05:00

I brought the owl box down around 6 PM on Sunday to remove a fox squirrel. This squirrel seemed familiar with the routine; with box open on the ground, I just stepped to one side, explained the situation, and the squirrel obligingly bolted out the other side. Simple enough. It was a short time later that I made the terrible mistake. As followers of my screech owl cam' may remember, the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-79013727695402907162010-03-06T18:47:00.012-06:002010-03-06T20:24:25.417-06:00

A friend (thanks D.C.) brought an interesting book to my attention the other day, the cornerstone of which is a survey known as the “RWA Scale” developed by Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba. The survey describes itself as “an investigation of general public opinion concerning a variety of social issues,” and saying anything more would probably be a mistake. Anyway, because the book and

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-51921712216805996492010-02-28T23:51:00.010-06:002010-03-27T20:58:01.557-05:00

A recent visitor to my bird feeder, identified by Sallie, my raptor rehabber friend: “This is a 2nd year Cooper's Hawk. Just the species I’d expect to go for your sparrows. (Hatched in 2009.)” … Just one of several ways that my bird feeder feeds birds. This hawk is welcome back anytime. Unfortunately for it, but fortunately for the sparrows, she/he may not want to come back. The pile of

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-73305308012279829642010-02-25T03:49:00.003-06:002010-02-25T03:55:35.448-06:00

There was a screech owl in a brooding posture on the floor of my box a few hours ago. A male would be unlikely to adopt that posture, in my experience, so I assume the owl was a female whose mate must have recently claimed the nest box, and talked her into trying it on for size. (I heard a male in my back yard calling quite persistently one night last week.) She's gone now, but this is an

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-76800095595437600402010-02-20T16:44:00.005-06:002010-02-20T17:37:15.664-06:00

It can hardly be a coincindence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression "as beautiful as an airport."Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk (Murmansk

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-11987120341867394852010-02-17T03:12:00.012-06:002010-02-17T03:54:44.019-06:00

The following is the slightly corrected text of a comment I submitted to whichever part of the government was studying network neutrality, and requesting comments from the public, back in mid-January. I submitted this comment as a private citizen, but, of historical necessity, it references my employer. Let me be perfectly clear about this: I in no way speak for, or represent, my employer.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-41997115784394042432010-02-16T00:10:00.004-06:002010-02-20T17:38:26.073-06:00

He phoned the BBC and asked to be put through to his department head.“Oh, hello, Arthur Dent here. Look, sorry I haven’t been in [the office] for six months but I’ve gone mad.”“Oh, not to worry. Thought it was probably something like that. Happens here all the time. How soon can we expect you?”“When do hedgehogs start hibernating?”“Sometime in Spring, I think.”“I’ll be in shortly after that.”— So

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-16543198226859294032010-02-13T20:19:00.023-06:002010-11-30T19:52:39.573-06:00

Our Moon, Third Quarter, February 5, 2010.©2010 Chris W. Johnson While I’ve had my back turned in recent weeks, the Obama administration announced the scrapping of NASA’s Constellation program to return astronauts to the moon, explore asteroids, service distant space telescopes, and lay the groundwork for human exploration of Mars. I’ve since read several articles about this, and still have no

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-10258625026774009952010-02-13T19:15:00.012-06:002010-02-15T19:56:29.929-06:00

NASA is offering the book X-15: Extending the Frontiers of Flight by Dennis R. Jenkins as one of their small library of free e-books for most popular viewers. (Thanks to NASA Watch for pointing it out.) Personally, while e-books may indeed be the future (at least until civilization next stumbles, and they – trapped in their unusable viewers – all become inaccessible for a few centuries, if not

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-26127420681379978462010-02-03T15:19:00.019-06:002011-02-04T14:33:10.146-06:00

NPR’s All Things Considered ran their story on my friend David Bamberger yesterday. They've provided a nice page to go along with it containing what I presume is the text of the story, photos, and a link to the audio. I haven't had a chance to listen, yet (I’m operating on a weird schedule), but I encourage anyone so much as curious to have a look/listen. It's a shame that it can be considered “

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-76317012087094101462010-01-28T16:29:00.004-06:002010-01-28T16:33:34.827-06:00

I'm happy to see my friends at the Preserve getting some more well deserved publicity, and to pass along advance word of it. This time, the publicity is from National Public Radio. Thank you, NPR.

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-35491631480069237462010-01-26T00:38:00.008-06:002010-01-26T00:59:45.905-06:00

Moonlight refracted in a passing cloud at about half-past midnight. The moon is too overexposed to be distinguished, and the cloud is blurred by its own motion during the moderately long exposure required to capture its subtle colors, but the rainbow of colors in the cloud is clearly visible. (A little saturation enhancement helped, too.) I can’t recall having seen this phenomenon before. Maybe

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-72968997482018669042010-01-17T21:52:00.018-06:002010-01-18T04:11:27.653-06:00

Maze Wars SVG, version 1.0b3, has been released. This version began as a minor revision to eliminate an asymmetry between the rules applied to the bots and to the human players. Specifically, for lack of a check to prevent it, bots were able to move and turn at the same time, which human players could not do. Making the bots separate their move and turn operations seemed like it would be a

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-51090046231574051052010-01-16T20:50:00.036-06:002010-01-16T23:44:11.947-06:00

The conversion of my old bird roosting box to a squirrel box is finally completely complete. It’s one thing to finish the box itself; it’s quite another to iron-out all of the miscellaneous, but critical details, like how to mount the thing at a particular place in a specific tree, especially when the tree doesn’t have even one purely vertical limb. Also important, and thoroughly interrelated:

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19261025.post-969974802159290922010-01-10T20:21:00.019-06:002010-01-16T22:49:38.430-06:00

As usual, I'm doing this later than I should have, but fans of Chris' Eastern Screech Owl Nest Box Cam' will be interested to know that—better late than never—I am in the process of preparing the box for owl occupation. At the moment, the major work is on fox squirrel eviction. As always, I hate kicking out the little mammals, especially when the weather has been so bad, and pups may be on the

Chris W. Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17874730776766584329noreply@blogger.com7