Good evening, welcome to the Wednesday Edition of SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight’s musical selection, from the “corny-but-hard-not-to-laugh” category, sees Jim Stafford on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour performing his song Cow Patti.
The thread is open for your Reader Tips.
Daimnation!
All good things must come to an end, it seems.
Head on over and extend a pioneer of the Canadian blogosphere your thanks for a blog well done.
(Damian – any time you feel the itch return, you’re welcome to drop in here as a guest.)
Y2Kyoto: Franklin Expedition – The Next Generation
Busted – scroll down for the continuing updates….
Today’s good news story comes to us from beyond the Arctic circle. Our friends from the Catlin Expedition haven’t fallen through the ice yet;
When the three (Pen Hadow, Ann Daniels and Martin Hartley) leave messages on the TVM – a machine that records the messages they phone into London HQ – their voices often sound slurred and they occasionally muddle their words.
Sounds like heatstroke.
Update Catlin data hanky-panky? From the comments –
Anthony Watts checks the “live from the ice” data here (thanks for the heads up in the comments).
Something else bothers me: trailing zero deletion. Notice this data sequence:
Martin Core Temp
37.29
37.25
37.24
37.25
37.23
37.21
37.2
37.21
37.22
37.2
37.21
37.2
37.19
37.2
37.21
37.2
37.19
37.2
37.19
37.18
37.19
Notice how the zero is dropped from 37.2? Most data loggers don’t behave that way when logging data, but anyone familiar with a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet knows of this behavior.
More – this appears to be the root data. I’ve loaded the http://dev.indigopapa.tv/clients/arctic/statsXML.php file and it appears to indeed be hard coded.
UPDATE2: “It gets even stranger. Why would anyone strap a “hand warmer” to a device designed to measure temperature?”
Heh. The Catlin site is edited to read – “Please note, we are disabling the biotelemetry data section of the website for several days. The units themselves are still functioning perfectly, but we need to address an issue with the above display. We hope to have resolved this problem in a matter of days.”
Then, edited again – (exerpt) “The first thing to note is that the data above is a representation of what the team have gone through on a particular day; it is not a live feed. As a project team, we explored the option of live transmissions, and this is certainly possible, using a combination of Bluetooth and Iridium technology. However, such a set-up is particularly power hungry, and given the power limitations imposed on the team (they have to carry all power supplies with them in their sledges), we opted instead to prioritise our power supply elsewhere. As such, biotelemetry data is still captured every five seconds, but it is not transmitted back to the UK in real time.”
And that’s not all that isn’t working.. read the whole thing, including the comments.
The Weaker Sex
Every recessionary cloud has its silver lining – University of Guelph campus bulletin;
Following a marathon meeting, the University’s Senate Tuesday night voted to ratify an earlier decision made by its Board of Undergraduate Studies (BUGS) to cancel the women’s studies….
Except that ….
More than 40 courses offered by departments across campus concerning women’s issues, gender, sexuality and diversity will continue to be offered.
Oh, well. It’s a start.
Y2Kyoto: What He’s Done For The Economy, He’ll Do For The Climate
Specifically, blowing billions of US tax borrowed dollars into the wild blue yonder;
[The president’s new science adviser] John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun’s rays.
America Welcomes Restoration Of International Respect
“Three Young Adults”
There once was a time that when someone suggested we “ban knives”, they meant it as sarcasm.
Then again, there once was a time that intelligent, rational policy makers understood that violent acts are perpetrated by violent offenders – not by their instruments of choice. It was also understood that the more deadly the instrument chosen, the more dangerous that offender was, and the greater the imperative to apprehend them.
Sale Of Large Knives Questioned – Still no arrests after attack in Saskatoon
News of a chilling day-light Machete attack on Saskatoon’s Meewasin trail has Mayor Don Atchison calling for action from the justice department.
Meanwhile, local media remain completely uninterested in chasing down and reporting an actual description of the assailants to the public.
Instead, they’re hard at work identifying and confronting lawful retailers who sell decorative swords.
You know, there once was a time when I thought local media might be able to escape the extinction facing their national cousins, as they enjoy a unique opportunity to present current events in a way that’s timely, regionally relevant and agenda free.
Looks like I was wrong.
“Now, I’m Not Naive”
And why shouldn’t he be naive and cynical? Obama has never been responsible for anything his entire life. He was a figurehead at the Harvard Law Review. He somehow managed to graduate from Columbia, apparently, without having to pass its language requirement, which, until proven wrong, I’m going to insist was in place at the time he was there. He wasn’t responsible for the waste of $150 million poured into radical school reform in Chicago with no positive benefit. He wasn’t responsible for the machine politics that he engaged in while an Illinois State Senator and later US Senator. He wasn’t responsible for spending 20 years sitting in the pews of race-baiting conspiracy theorist preacher Reverend Wright’s Church of Blame Whitey. He isn’t responsible for the sweet land deal that he received from Rezko. He wasn’t responsible for claiming he’d accept public financing and then changing his mind. He wasn’t responsible for the verification mechanisms being shut off at his campaign donation site. He isn’t responsible for campaigning on promises not to make lobbyists part of his administration, just as he wasn’t responsible for the hand up he received from radical liars Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. He won’t be responsible for his campaign promises that no one making under $250k per annum would see a dime’s worth of increase in their tax burden. He certainly isn’t responsible for not having read line-by-line the Porkulus Bill, as he’d promised, and excised all of the pork. He was somehow appointed to a lucrative position at the University of Chicago School of Law, despite having no history of publication. He received a very lucrative advance on a book deal that he proceeded to blow deadlines on. He received another on entering the White House.
He has never been responsible for anything but time serving and sinecure.
So, Obama has good reason to be naive. Naive and cynical.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Tuesday night open music show, here are Buck Owens and his Buckaroos, including Don Rich, Tom Brumley, Doyle Holly, and Willie Cantu, performing My Heart Skips a Beat (1966, 4:18).
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
I Blame Bush
Featured Comment
Heh.
You are a very sick man Jonathan Kay who finds comfort and pleasure in a sick cartoon in a foreign government’s web page and gleefully reproduce it in the NP. Like your mother you have no shame and thoroughly disgust me. You are simply put a traitor and indeed belong there and not in this great country of ours.
h/t Bourque
(Some people are having trouble viewing the cartoon, so here’s a copy).
“Industry Canada’s latest corporate welfare program is now taking off.”
Canadian Taxpayers Federation;
Two years after former Industry Minister Bernier announced the new Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI), there have been seven announcements. On the last day of the fiscal year and hours before April Fools Day, Minister Clement announced a $250-million ‘repayable loan’ for Montreal’s CAE to build flight simulators.
It is taking some time for Industry Canada to wind-down its flagship program, Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC). The department hasn’t updated its Repayment Status Report since July 10, 2008, and several companies still don’t want taxpayers to know how much, if anything, they’ve repaid. However, taxpayers should know that CAE had repaid only about $32-million of the $300-million received from TPC. As well, total repayments for the program at $381.7-million amount to just 10.8 percent of the $3.5-billion approved between April 1, 1996 and March 31, 2006.
According to the Repayment Status Report, in fiscal year 2006-2007 – incidentally the eleventh year of a ten-year program – repayments to TPC totaled only $65.7-million. Yet, during the same year, the department paid out another $300-million. Now with the new Strategic Aerospace and Defence Initiative (SADI) expected to spend nearly $900-million over the next five years, the prospect of repayment is about as likely as the Maple Leafs winning the cup next year.
I’ve Looked High And Low
All I have are paint drying pictures.
The Weaker Sex
Machete Attack On Spadina
In broad daylight, in the heart of Saskatoon’s downtown riverfront.
Let’s pray everyone focuses on the root causes.
Thanks To The Efforts[1] Of A Certain Yellow-Volkswagon-Driving[2] Ignatieff Advisor
This event has been forced into a larger venue.
Footnotes:
[1] I initially wrote “hair-tearing”, but changed it to “efforts” because that would be cruel.
[2] Adolph Hitler invented the Volkswagen.
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, for your delectation and pursuant to our Monday night jazz show, here are Lester Young, Harry Edison, Flip Phillips, Bill Harris, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Buddy Rich, and the lovely Miss Ella Fitzgerald performing Blues for Greasy (1950, 4:13)
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
The Floodgates Open
First Pyongyang.
Now, Thunder Bay.
You May As Well Get Used To It
“I think what he did is, in order to gain the adoration of the crowd, he denigrated his country in a way that I think is disgraceful.”
Y2Kyoto: I Was Told There’d Be No Math
The science restoring* continues apace;
[United States, Interior Secretary] Salazar said ocean winds along the East Coast can generate 1 million megawatts of power, roughly the equivalent of 3,000 medium-sized coal-fired power plants, or nearly five times the number of coal plants now operating in the United States, according to the Energy Department.
The average offshore windmill stands over 400 feet tall, and generates “up to” 3.6 megawatts.
When the wind blows.
h/t Maz2