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Bunnies

The bunnies were particularly suicidal this morning. Four ran out in front of me in the dark.

Missed them all, but after three I started to wonder if they were in league with the squirrels.

2012 10 25 Brent Comment Comments Off on Bunnies Permalink

Looper

Deus ex machina.

I like when a movie sets up a set of rules that it's going to play by, and this is especially important in time travel movies. It doesn't have to be logically consistent, but if it's not, you have keep things moving so that there's no time to dwell on it during the movie. If it is logically consistent (and keeps moving!), then you have the makings of a classic. E.g. Primer. Something that rewards repeated viewings.

Looper does a pretty good job of setting up the rules of its time travel universe, and playing by the rules. Building an alternate universe, and a culture that goes with it. But then it throws in the deus ex machina and tosses out the good will it built up by playing by the time travel rules. That's playing dirty.

I'm still thinking about it though, so that's a positive. But mostly I'm thinking about what went wrong, and how it could have been a good movie. Can't recommend it, except maybe as a Netflix. Watch Brick instead. Or Limitless, which I thought was pretty good. Logic holes, or at least character development holes (Would a smart guy do things with consequences that predictable? But he took the drug, so he's not always smart. Etc.), but moved fast enough to get me past them. I had to watch it again to check them out.

2012 10 22 Brent Review Comments Off on Looper Permalink

Picture of the day, 14 October 2012

Twin palms new moon and venus

2012 10 14 Brent Picture of the day Comments Off on Picture of the day, 14 October 2012 Permalink

Everything you need to know about the War on Some Drugs and Some People

Everything you need to know about the War on Some Drugs

(h/t The Agitator. Source.)

I suspect there is a similar graph to be made of the War on Some Terror But Not That Terror Caused By Random Drone Strikes From Above.

Or Cyberwar, But Not The Cyberwar Perpetrated Without Declaration By Us.

More good news: Long Beach, along with the DEA, shuts down legal medical marijuana dispensaries. Yay, states rights!

Guess what’s next?

2012 10 12 Brent Because linking is an intrinsic good
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Good news, everyone!

I just noticed that the red-light camera downtown is gone, and the LAT confirms it.

Mostly I suspect because it wasn’t making the city money, but when things get better for any reason, it’s reason to be happy.

Meantime, the USFS put in a Z-gate at the top of the access road on the way to work, a very bicycle unfriendly act. But for now, the easy-to-bike through gate is still unblocked, so we’ll see what happens.

And LA is putting in “bike lanes” on my normal bike commute, which I suspect means that they’ll stripe the area next to the curb where cars park and call it a bike lane. Which just makes it more dangerous for bikes, not less, as if you really biked there, you would be swerving in and out amongst parked cars, a recipe for death. And stupid drivers will yell at you for not being in the bike lane and be angry because you’re not swerving in and out of traffic. But we’ll see. Maybe’ll they’ll put in a real bike lane.

2012 10 12 Brent Bicycle
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Picture of the day, 11 October 2012

Twin Palms Rainbow 11 October 12

An excellent thunderstorm came down from the San Gabriels. 0.83 inches of rain in six hours or so, and a couple of inches of graupel still in the backyard when I got home (I do not like biking in the rain!). Alex liked eating it.

2012 10 11 Brent Picture of the day Comments Off on Picture of the day, 11 October 2012 Permalink

Awesome inventions of the recent past

  • Cordless impact wrench. How did I ever build anything without one of these? If you haven’t tried one recently, you’ve no idea how good these are. I drilled 200 7/16″ holes through 3/4″ marine grade plywood, and put in 600 wood screws with minimal effort. On one battery! That hasn’t lost its effectiveness sitting in the garage for the last few years. A 3″ stainless steel screw through a knot in a 2x? No problem. My elbows and shoulders thank you.
  • iPhone. I can’t imagine not having one now. I want one implanted in my brain. In addition to the communication capability (aside from not really being a good phone – thanks, ATT and VZW), maps, search, weather, the ability to have emails, contacts, and calendars sync across multiple devices is a life changer.
  • Garmin Forerunner. Workouts just got simpler no matter where I go in the world. I just start running. Or biking. It’s all logged.
  • D700. Digital F100. That can see in the dark!
  • Tek DP oscilloscopes. Sort of a geek invention, but if you work in a lab, you know what I mean. Waiting for someone to reinvent the spectrum analyser in the same way.
  • Color calibrated retina displays. My photography, and my aging eyes, thank the inventors. The MBPR and iPad 3 are amazing. Can’t wait for a 30″ IPS retina monitor. For under $2k.
  • HDTV. These two might be the same thing.
  • Continuous cold therapy devices (Donjoy Iceman, etc.). Basically a pump attached on one end to a cooler and on the other to a pad. Hours of icing without getting wet, or getting warm. Aah. Now if only there were a personal massage machine…
  • Cheap flights. Being able to travel anywhere in the world for a small fraction of your yearly salary is just astounding to me. Produce from Chile, electronics from China, people from Australia, climbing vacations anywhere. I know it’s an aberration of poorly priced externalities based on diminishing resources, but I’d be a fool not to tragedize the commons as much as possible.

Life is pretty good in the early part of the 21st century. What other simple wonders should I be checking out?

2012 10 10 Brent Comment Comments Off on Awesome inventions of the recent past Permalink

Call me cynical

That burning refinery stench? Smells like an Enronning to me.

Retail prices began to skyrocket after Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)’s 150,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Torrance, near Los Angeles, reduced production Oct. 1 after a power failure. That followed a fire that knocked out a crude-processing unit at Chevron Corp. (CVX)’s plant in Richmond, near San Francisco, in August and the shutdown of a Chevron pipeline that delivers crude to Northern California because of contamination.

Phillips 66 (PSX), based in Houston, delayed the maintenance shutdown of a unit known as a hydrocracker at its 139,000- barrel-a-day Los Angeles refinery for at least a week to cash in on record refinery margins in California, two people with knowledge of the schedule said Oct. 5. The six-week upkeep procedure is now scheduled to begin Oct. 16, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

2012 10 08 Brent Rant Comments Off on Call me cynical Permalink

NYer update, 7 October 2012

7.75 issues behind.

2012 10 07 Brent Comment Comments Off on NYer update, 7 October 2012 Permalink

Aphorism of the day, 6 October 2012

Google finds no hits for this except for someone that I know for a fact heard it from me, so I’m claiming credit:

“Never steal anything that eats.”

I’d call it BWare’s Law, but there’s already one of those. BWare’s Rule?

2012 10 06 Brent Comment
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Rise up

Once again, the Onion makes me both laugh and wonder why I'm laughing. The biz starts at 1:35.

 

2012 10 03 Brent Because linking is an intrinsic good
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PotD, 26 September 2012

2012 09 26 Brent Picture of the day Comments Off on PotD, 26 September 2012 Permalink

PotD, 21 September 2012

2012 09 21 Brent Picture of the day Comments Off on PotD, 21 September 2012 Permalink

Reality

Reality is other people.

2012 09 16 Brent Comment Comments Off on Reality Permalink

Direction, lack thereof

No matter where I go, or how lost I look, or how out of place I appear to be, and in spite of a complete inability to speak the native tongue, people ask me for directions.

2012 09 16 Brent Travel Comments Off on Direction, lack thereof Permalink