My Blog

Goodbye Randy Pausch

darksails — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:04:39 GMT

If you have not seen this guy's lecture go to youTube and watch it right now. He finally passed away. Another very good friend of mine only has a couple months left from the same cancer. What a f***ed up year!

Here is to you Gobo.

darksails — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:44:18 GMT

Goodbye Gobo

darksails — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:42:45 GMT

Passing away on Friday the 13th. How Goth. Smart, funny. Great to be around. A snappy dresser. I already missed you because I moved away, and now I'm just back and you are gone. I sat down hoping to write something meaningful, and I just don't have it in me. I'm kind of numb.

Scary Science

darksails — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:08:54 GMT

I decided not to try this at home. There is a matching video to go with this at http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1460879018/bctid1556691972 ----------------------------------------- How a magnet turned off my speech By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 4:01pm BST 16/05/2008 Words failed me. I stuttered as Prof Vincent Walsh turned off the speech centre of my brain for a few thousandths of a second to demonstrate the power of transcranial magnetic stimulation, a popular way to interfere with the most complex known object in the universe. DIY brain therapy could halt migraines Sitting in the basement of a lab in Queen Square, London, where the nation's greatest concentration of brain surgeons can be found, I am told to recite a nursery rhyme as a way to see if the experiment has worked. Watch as Roger Highfield's speech is turned off For this remarkable demonstration of how to boggle a brain, the professor is wielding what looks like a giant black key against my head. I am reciting a nursery rhyme as he moves the coil about and delivers a high powered pulse, signified by snapping noise, a twitch on my scalp and an unpleasant, though pain free, nervy feeling in my mouth. Prof Walsh is shifting the coil around the left side of my head, hunting for the speech area of my brain, named Broca's area after the 19th century doctor. Disconcertingly for me (Prof Walsh seemed unconcerned), he had difficulty finding my Broca's and only succeeded after he called for a bigger coil to be used, as powerful magnetic pulses were delivered through my skull by his colleague, Dr Neil Muggleton. advertisementI was reciting Humpty Dumpty and hoping that all the Queens Square's neurologists and all the Queens neurosurgeons would not have to put my brain back together again. Finally he located my Broca's and the train of pulses stopped me in my tracks. I wanted to recite the rhyme but stumbled and stuttered as my speech area was disabled. Intriguingly, I could still sing Humpty Dumpty as he buffetted my Broca's: it turns out that singing is controlled by the right side of the brain, the opposite hemisphere to the one he stimulated. "That is why you can sing but not talk." This is also why some people with stroke can sing sentences, even though they cannot speak. The first practical demonstration of TMS was made 23 years ago by Prof Anthony Barker at the University of Sheffield. Since then, it has become a relatively simple, non-invasive, and painless way to interfere with the workings of the brain, though there is a risk of epilepsy. Many scientists now use it for basic research. Some have used it to induce electrical changes in the brain's temporal lobes, which have been linked with religious belief, because some sufferers of temporal lobe epilepsy seem to experience hallucinations that bear a striking resemblance to mystical experiences of holy figures. Many doctors believe it has a role in helping a damaged brain to heal. TMS offers a kinder alternative to electroconvulsive therapy, the treatment of last resort for people with severe depression who do not respond to drugs. Others have used it to treat severe epilepsy, and there are efforts to use it to quieten the voices heard by schizophrenics and to track nerve development in infants. A few even believe that it could actually enhance cognitive skills. Prof Allan Snyder, at the University of Sydney believes TMS can act as "a creativity-amplifying machine". But Prof Walsh is highly sceptical. "Brain stimulation does not release hidden talents and when it is used to improve things in patients, it comes at the cost of blocking some nerve pathways to encourage others."

Kaboom!

darksails — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:59:05 GMT

This is pretty cool! Luck favors the prepared. Kurt Supernova sighting leaves astronomers agog Last Updated: 6:01pm BST 21/05/2008 The death of a star has been witnessed as it occurred for the first time, a remarkable observation that will lead to new insights into this cataclysmic cosmic process, writes Science Editor Roger Highfield. Before and after: The instant the star went supernova. Galaxies typically host a supernova - star death - only once or twice every century, making it nearly impossible to capture the instant it starts to spew energy into space, briefly shining brighter than billions of stars combined. But the lucky glimpse by a satellite of the spectacular outburst from the very beginning has allowed astronomers from around the world to quickly follow up with eight other orbiting and ground-based telescopes and collect a wealth of new information on what happens when a star is blown to smithereens. "We usually only get to see them a good few days after they exploded, usually when they go bright at optical wavelengths," says Dr Kim Page, University of Leicester, one of the team that reports the discovery today in the journal Nature. But this time they could pick up a tell- tale burst of X rays, which occurs at the outset of star death. Thanks to a satellite, "we got on to it in nine seconds," says Dr Page, who led the X-ray analysis. "Now we have a much better idea of the star that exploded." This new supernova, named SN2008D, intrigues scientists because it is closer to Earth - at 90 million light years - than any type of supernova ever observed in the act of exploding, giving them the clearest picture ever of a star at the moment of its explosive death. They can, for example, deduce that a thin outer layer of the star must have been ejected at velocities up to about 70 per cent the speed of light, much higher than ever thought. advertisement Supernovae are explosions of stars more than eight times the mass of the Sun whose cores run out of nuclear fuel and collapse in on themselves to form a neutron star, an ultradense object, or a black hole. During the conflagration one can think of the dying star as a leaky bottle containing light radiation. It turns out it is leakier when it comes to higher energy radiation - X rays - than the reds, greens and blues of optical light. Previous X-ray observations of normal supernovae have been at later stages in the explosion, when stellar material collides with the surrounding envelope of gas and dust shed earlier by the star, generating high-energy radiation. This is the first time a normal supernova has been glimpsed at the moment of "shock breakout," when the shock wave rebounding from the collapsed core breaks though the star's surface to produce a shower of X-rays. Dr Paul O'Brien, also from Leicester, says, "understanding supernovae is important as these nuclear furnaces make the heavy elements from which planets like ours form." Astronomers were fortunate because when the star death occurred, on January 9, Nasa's Swift satellite was already monitoring X-rays from another supernova in the same galaxy when the second one exploded. At the same time, astronomers and their colleagues were monitoring the first supernova from the ground and caught images of the new one only hours after the explosion. "We were in the right place, at the right time, with the right telescope on January 9th and witnessed history," remarks Dr Alicia Soderberg of Princeton University. "We were looking at another, older supernova in the galaxy, when the one now known as SN 2008D went off. We would have missed it if it weren't for Swift's real-time capabilities, wide field of view, and numerous instruments. "This newly born supernova is going to be the Rosetta stone of supernova studies for years to come." Dr Soderberg adds that Swift and other planned X-ray satellites designed to scan the sky for such X-ray flashes should see hundreds more like this in the future, making all-wavelength, cradle-to-grave analyses of supernovae common. "This first instance of catching the X-ray signature of stellar death is going to help us fill in a lot of gaps about the properties of massive stars, the birth of neutron stars and black holes, and the impact of supernovae on their environments," said Dr Neil Gehrels, principal investigator of the Swift satellite. "We also now know what X-ray pattern to look for. Hopefully we will be able to find many more supernovae at this critical moment."

Putting the Ball in Bollywood!

darksails — Sat, 10 May 2008 01:02:07 GMT

Get educated about safe sex, Bollywood style! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pq98sZSBtc http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/weirdwiredweb/may2008/bollywood.htm

2084

darksails — Thu, 08 May 2008 14:54:08 GMT

The Britts are crazy! http://www.art-for-a-change.com/News/eyes.htm (found on SlashDot) I REALLY want a copy of this poster! K --------------------------------------------------------- WATCHFUL EYES A modern British Poster to make Orwell blush - Mark Vallen © Dec. 2002. In October of 2002, Londoners woke up one morning to a startling sight. Posters that looked like props from a movie version of George Orwell's 1984 were plastered all along London bus routes. At first many people thought it was a guerilla art campaign mounted by privacy and civil rights advocates. After all, England now has more security cameras aimed at its population than any other country on earth, with 1.5 million police cameras installed by authorities in urban environs. Unfortunately the posters were not a hoax, but part of an official anti-crime campaign mounted by the Metropolitan Police and London's mass transit provider, the CCTV. The poster's message to the public is that they are under constant surveillance - and so they should feel "secure." While it may be argued that the campaign was designed by the authorities to alleviate public fears of street crime, and that the state only had the public interest at heart (wink, wink)... it's astounding that they'd make their point with an eerie graphic portraying an all seeing authority right out of Orwell's prophetic novel about a negative utopia. If nothing else this poster is strongly reminiscent of a Soviet era Stalinist propaganda image, and if I'm not mistaken - they were supposedly the bad guys. It's interesting to consider the mindset of those who designed and approved the poster for distribution. Did they really not understand the implication of their message or does their work indicate something more insidious? Even more interesting is the public's apparent acceptance of the poster. Has the yearning for freedom been thoroughly smothered by a longing for Big Brother's protection? www.art-for-a-change.com is owned and operated by Mark Vallen ©. All text by Mark Vallen.

A little war related change at the Navy

darksails — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:11:26 GMT

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/us/27astro.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1209240245-jNjaWLPmM9Texb0XKWmyHQ

Bye By LA LA Land

darksails — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:50:27 GMT

Notice a little profile change? That is because we are SO OUT OF HERE! By the way, if you haven't heard about this, it just means you haven't been online the last couple of days. We were moving inside of Topanga Canyon, and when a wonderful opportunity to move back to the bay area came up and our stuff was already in boxes we said "hell yes!". K & V

Moving Time Again

darksails — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 17:33:34 GMT

Stay tuned folks! We'll be moving at the end of the month, though we don't know where yet. We are still looking! The owner of our current rental has had to give us the bad news; he won't have this house anymore! If anyone has a great suggestion for Topanga area temporary or permanent housing, let us know! Kurt, Viv & Ulysses

A personal question....

darksails — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:25:33 GMT

Does anybody in our circle have a breast pump they no longer need? I've been so busy "trying to save the world" with this vegi oil powered cars thing that I am of course completely free of cash. Suddenly Viv needs to take a sick day and I'm realizing that I NEED a pump. Just so I can have a bit of emergency frozen back stock.......... Down sides of my situation are of course that I'm in LA, not home in SC or the bay area, and Dog knows how long it would even take the USPS to get anything to me from there to here. But I've seen the light and like I said, I am obviously going to need one more than just this once. *sigh* Kurt (& Alex)

yet another argument for unmanned space exploration

darksails — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 23:50:49 GMT

I love manned spaceflight. Dog knows I should, because I draw an easy and overly romantic (and unrealistic I'm sure) connection to the people flying the manned missions from my insane adventures I enjoyed in my 20's at the government's expense. But lets be realistic. We get a lot more science for the buck from quality unmanned work. We don't put enough money into the manned stuff to get the full return for our investment. I'm not going to address that issue in this post, but from what I have read the ISS is spending a lot of time seriously under staffed and as a result the people with the coolest job on the planet spend too much their time tending their home's needs, and it has a serious impact on the return on the investment. Robotic probes are (compared to manned flight) freaking cheap! And tend to be really successful for the dollar. A fine example is http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/20/planet-space-probe.html?dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000 Here is a toast: to the men and women who explore the universe with their feet firmly planted on mother earth. It isn't as flashy as going up and taking a look around in person, but their work is a thing of beauty. Kurt

Kurt and Vivian would like to introduce...

darksails — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:51:46 GMT

Ulysses Alexander Louis R Born at 5:15 am December 3rd 2007 8 lbs 1 oz 20 1/4 inches

Close enough, but far enough

darksails — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:38:41 GMT

The fire has gotten close enough we packed everything up and about half the neighbors are gone. The fire is far enough and controlled enough this morning that we're staying put in the canyon unless if flares up again. I have GREAT pictures, and some videos from my cell phone, but I didn't bring the adapter down to the cafe to transfer them, so you will all have to wait until my next visit before I can put them up. Who knows, maybe my internet will come back on today.....

The Hills Are Alive

darksails — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:36:05 GMT

With the sound of FIRE. Will we be homeless? Stay tuned! I'll update with a photo soon. K

Too much stuff!

darksails — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:16:37 GMT

Who needs some stuff? I've got a ton. I've also decided to put ALL of the vehicals, the car and the vans, on Craigs List. The general idea is to replace anything I can sell here when I arrive in LA (we are after all in the vegi-cars biz, and have a few to choose from). As it is I'm looking at two or three trips, so if you want a Mercedes biodiesel, a trashed green Ford cargo van (~$500 obo) or a nice old full size Dodge passenger van with three removable rows of seats ($3000 obo). We actually love the Dodge for our weekly travel, particularly as we can put a full size bed in the back if we remove just one row of seats, which leaves seating for five (five people, one bed?). But hey, there is a vegi van and a bus waiting for me down there, so it is time to say "goodbye dodge", and in fact goodbye to anything that doesn't have something like a closed carbon cycle like the Benz.

It seems I forgot to mention

darksails — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 20:55:45 GMT

It seems that maybe I forgot to mention it (I just haven't gotten into blahging) but for those of you who are hanging on my every word: the baby will be due in early November. The current working title is "Newt".

I rarely blog about work but...

darksails — Tue, 01 May 2007 15:47:26 GMT

I have to say in public, and to nobody in particular: Damn it! There is NO excuse for an operating system in which the owner when acting as the administrator is unable to control the permissions on ANY f***ing object! If I want to change the owner of my windows\system32\drivers folder to a user named FrankTheMonkey and then use that identity to ranadomly delete files till the system stops running as part of a bizarre ARG version of Solitare then I'd damned well better be able to. Its MY money. My Computer. MINE. Maybe I'm horribly mistaken in my first impression. Sure hope so. Somebody want to fill me in, or shall I read the damned documentation? Kurt <-- taking his computer and going home damn it. doesn't like mr bill any more and doesn't want to play. maybe going to STEVE's house instead (yeh, right)

15 Second Update

darksails — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:03:00 GMT

By the pricking of my thumbs, Oakland this way comes! ug. But in other news: 1) Hire Me! I'm between projects, and looking for work that won't get in the way of a) making less money by working fewer hours and b) sailing time. Both of which are intended to keep me sane(er). 2) The Hobie 20 Continentals will be on The Bay this year. Yeh baby! 3) The above mentioned Continentals needs a major sponsor. This means your logo and corp id all over the sails, which not only get used in the main event, but then get shipped to all over the country where they are raced by individual teams for the next three to five years. Super advertising investment! Buy Now darn it! 4) Still working on adding to the family. This month, we PROMISE I'll stay home and we'll sprog..... 5) Emily now has her own boat. Maybe I should start a tribe for kids learning to sail.... Anyway for her 10th she was gifted with a 13 foot centerboard boat known as a Banshee. It has an obscene amount of sail area (88 sq ft) and only a couple of feet between the mast and the front of the board trunk. I can make it hop up and do ballet in a light breeze (until I swamp it on a gybe. self bailer is on order!). Viv is making a "mini sail" for it so the ride is very tame and Em can sail it by herself, and I'm teaching every human < 160 lbs who wants free lessons how to sail. Of course it is kind of a nasty trick on my part. "Ok little girl, now that you have tried this boat, would you like to take a ride on a catamaran? you look like you would be a great crew and you sailed fine here. How much did you say you weigh? ". 6) As you may have gathered from "5" I'm recruiting crew for the "20". I need to have somebody already trained when Vivian drops out for the whole baby thing. My target weight this year will be 125-135 lb crew who can work out at least once a week from Berkeley Marina and travel the full Division 3 schedule of summer weekends (averages about two a month). I train crews from scratch, though experience is a plus. All expenses paid when on tour of course (it is van camping for us in Team Slow). Make the most of global warming. Sail every day and spend more time naked. Kurt

Update, in 30 seconds or less

darksails — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 23:54:37 GMT

Whoever you are, I don't hate you and refuse to see you any more, I moved to Oakland. No more Santa Cruz. Also: I got married Did a couple more games (still at it) Betsy and Lewis have a boy! Lewis VI. Moved up to a 20' catamaran Had 20' boat smashed by a fishing boat, but rebuilt thanks to insurance (theirs) Parted with my 16' boat Had Heartbeat (the monohull team I race on) move up here for the winter - and maybe longer! Murder, breaking and entering. Oakland has it all. Daiv moves in next door. Coffee for everyone! Heartbeat takes 7th in the first GGYC Midwinters Heartbeat moves up to 4th in the second GGYC Midwinters -- oh yeah baby! Now we're figuring it out! Cheers!

Stanislaw Lem Dead

darksails — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:28:57 GMT

1921 - 2006 http://www.lem.pl/

run down

darksails — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 00:47:00 GMT

hopefully the last sore throat or cold before spring! egads i hate being run down.

Finally, X

darksails — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 22:36:44 GMT

Ah yes, and just in case I didn't scream happily enough: Yeeeeeeeeeeeee HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I have tix to see X tonight! It has been more than a few years since I was a young Kurt and got to see X in LA, but from what I'm told this is worth the trouble. What little I heard from the concert album from last year was super too. Not like "we need the money for a better retirement home" (or mental hospital) tour like say.... poor old Adam Ant. I saw him just before he went over the edge, and I can see why. It was SO sad. But I digress. back to the subject... It is sad that I'm feeling so middle aged lately, but hey, Bauhaus on Halloween, Billy C. Wirtz in a tiny room with something like 20 other people. X tonight. Things are not bad so far since I moved to Oakland. Now if Black Flag would do a reunion tour...

Free Buckethead Tickets

darksails — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 22:24:20 GMT

That is right, FREE! I can't go tonight. I scored tickets to see X play in SF. Now for the catch: They have to be picked up in Oakland (unless John Zorko agrees to take them down to Santa Cruz since he has one waiting here too).

X show - No date, no fun, now what?

darksails — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:52:11 GMT

So, I have tickets to see X down in Palm Springs this weekend. I'd have done the sensible thing and purchased tix for the SF show, but the original was sold out and the second hadn't been added. With a friend in Bakersfield providing a staging point half way there and a cheap hotel room at the venu this looked like a _really_ fun weekend road trip - until my date backed out because she had forgotten she had to be at a convention for work!!! Now I have a spare ticket, and 16 hours of driving alone to look forward to. So, I need a date, or an offer of the face value or lower for the tix (free will be considered for good enough origninal essay "why i really really want to see X"). The show is Saturday at 7 at the Key Club at Morango, located 20 minutes from Palm Springs. I've got a reservation for a double room at Days Inn a mile away, so partying like a rock star at the show IS an option (of course I'm _so_ old now that I'd never do that myself!). Suggestions? Offers? Blind Dates? laughing now, but going to be bummed this weekend, Kurt