Archives: May 2004
Fri May 28, 2004
Yellowstone Wolves and the Growth of Trout
SciAm published a feature article (meaning, an article that a non-science can read and understand every word of) about how the introduction of wolves to Yellowstone is quickly changing its ecology. More wolves mean fewer elk. Fewer elk mean more willows. More willows, more beaver. More beaver dams, more succulents, more succulents, more grizzly bears. More wolves, fewer coyotes. Fewer coyotes, more rodents, so more foxes and raptors.
More beaver, cooler water. Cooler water, bigger fish. It's an amazing story.
[2] comments (646 views) | link
Thu May 27, 2004
Modern Bike Repair Etiquette
I'm not sure, but would this happen in other places? Here is a photo of a stripped down bike frame I saw downtown, and the note taped to it. More...
[2] comments (944 views) | link
Signage
I work at UC Santa Cruz. Like all large institutions, UCSC has developed 40 years of procedures and policies. Policies and Procedures tend to expand, and never contract. They tend to be applied to more and more situations, toward the goal for homogeneity and standardization. Sometimes, this makes sense, although it may appear silly out of context. Take, for example, the signage on the Bee Shed at the UCSC Farm. More...
[2] comments (679 views) | link
Neighborhood Gossip
I heard last week that the reason why the 76 Station at the corner of Soquel and Ocean closed is because the police were tipped off that drugs were being sold there. More...
[2] comments (610 views) | link
Mon May 24, 2004
600d Pa$$\/\/ordz are L33t! w00t!
I've tried to help users choose strong passwords: non-alpha characters, seemingly random, based on a phrase, stuff like that. But you do you really teach people to do this ? A recent paper by JianxinYan found that 10% of users will never change to a strong password. This is bad. How can we make creating strong passwords more fun? More...
[2] comments (602 views) | link
Sat May 22, 2004
Rosie Is Dead
Our cat Rosie died Thursday night. She has been sick for a while, and is old, and we decided not to take heroic measures. She would have hated it. She is an innocent creature, babyish, and she never grew up to be the sophisitiCat who sits on top of the refrigerator doing mathematical equations. In the last few years, she adopted me. More...
[2] comments (712 views) | link
Wed May 19, 2004
Rubber Revolver
Last weekend we were able to see a new concert from "The White Album Ensemble." This is the group that we saw last fall, the group that played The Beatles White Album from start to finish. This concert was another treasure. More...
[0] comments (665 views) | link
Tue May 18, 2004
Sun May 16, 2004
More Is Better than One or Two
I read this list of overused science-fiction cliches and think, "If a sci-fi novel used 80% of these, I think it would be pretty funny.
[2] comments (588 views) | link
Translogotite
In a recent post by Geoff Pullum to the Language Log, he writes that the "Gender Genie" calculates his writing as female. I decided to put in some of my writing and see what came up. More...
[4] comments (872 views) | link
Juxtaposition
I don't know if you heard "Fresh Air" last Friday, but I listened to the archived version today while I did the housework. "Life of Brian" is not only available in a 25-year anniversary edition, it is being re-released in theatres as an "alternative" to that snuff-film, "The Passion." Too great.
[1] comments (562 views) | link
Sat May 15, 2004
In My Day...
I received an email from an editor at City on a Hill today. For those of you recently tuning in, I wrote for City on a Hill, the student newspaper at UC Santa Cruz, from 1983 to 1986, off and on. My service at City on a Hill was the defining experience of my college years. The friends I made, and the things I learned changed me into my true self-- as, I suppose, one's defining experience of young adulthood is supposed to do. More...
[2] comments (676 views) | link
Thu May 13, 2004
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
"Fingersmith" is one reason why I haven't been writing in this blog much. We're reading it out loud to each other. One of the best novels I've read in years.
[1] comments (573 views) | link
Digital Cameras are Changing Everything
People love their iPods. More...
[1] comments (621 views) | link
Tue May 11, 2004
Platform Wars
We're having a discussion at work on the question of Macintoshes being cheaper to use at the University than Windows. This came up because we're spending all our time defending against unpatched Windows computers. I have two observations: More...
[2] comments (643 views) | link
Sat May 08, 2004
Finali
I watched the finale of "Friends." Not before I read all the spoilers. Thank God for TiVo. I don't want to have any anxiety over *Friends.*
[1] comments (597 views) | link
Sun May 02, 2004
On Beltane
This weekend is the festival of Beltane, which survives in mass culture as "May Day." When I was in elementary school, the older kids celebrated May Day with a May pole dance, but by the time I was their age, around 1972, the custom had been either abolished, cut from the budget, or replaced with kickball. Or maybe it was because all the old traditions of the school were tossed out when the old building was torn down, and replaced with the "Pod." More...
[5] comments (692 views) | link
Farscape Returns
I can't believe it, but Farscape is returning for a mini-series that will resolve the cliffhanger we were left at the end of the forth season. I can't believe it. When SciFi channel cancelled the show in the forth season, they hadn't given the producers enough notice. The producers had thought they had another year to go. So we were left with our heroes at a happy moment of their lives, then surprisingly turned into something that looked like dirtclods by an aggressive security guard.
How cool is this? And if the mini-series is popular enough, who knows? Perhaps the show could return. They had to rebuild the sets!
[2] comments (626 views) | link
Sat May 01, 2004
Not Just a Manufactured Home
Who would want to build a house when you could build a Log Castle for the same or less money?
[1] comments (590 views) | link