Tommyjournal

Thursday 23 Mar 2017 comment?

I have no idea how long I'll be able to keep climbing. My shoulders seem less up to the strain with every year and yet somehow they hold together. Also of note is how neither I nor my climbing buddies lose interest in doing it.

I climbed two new routes yesterday. I was trying to find routes I'd climbed a year or so ago but I must have been looking in the wrong place.

To find a new line of bolts, no word on how hard the route is or what someone named it, to just say "that looks fun" and climb it, to be able to say "no animals were harmed" when you're done: that's a good day.

Tuesday 21 Mar 2017 2 comments

I wrote

Amazon Prime Air is registering freight airplanes with prime numbers. Their first Amazon-branded plane (a Boeing 767) has tail number N1997A. Now that they've gotten a mundane choice out of the way (Amazon went public in 1997), I'll be curious to see what other primes they pick.

Well. Planespotters.net lists nineteen planes in Amazon Prime Air's fleet:

  N191AZ  N307AZ  N311AZ  N313AZ  N331AZ
  N337AZ  N347AZ  N353AZ  N359AZ  N1049A
  N1093A  N1217A  N1229A  N1321A  N1327A
  N1361A  N1373A  N1427A  N1997A

and yes, all those numbers are prime.

Every one of those planes is a Boeing 767. 767 is not prime, alas.

Monday 20 Mar 2017 1 comment

tie

Neil Gorsuch, under consideration to serve on the US Supreme Court, wore the tie shown to the left during his confirmation hearing today. In streaming video, moiré patterns as shown to the right wobbled as he shifted around in his seat. Wikipedia: newscasters and other professionals who appear on TV regularly are instructed to avoid clothing which could cause the effect.

Call me a geek, but I cannot imagine being Gorsuch's age and not knowing what moiré patterns are and how distracting they look on video. There are more important things to consider about Gorsuch, but this is the 21st century and it behooves one not to be clueless about technology.

Not that it would be beyond a Republican to feign cluelessness. To be naïve to the ways of broadcast media is a plus in some quarters.

Your guess is as good as mine as to why Gorsuch wore a moiré‑prone tie (and whether he'll wear another one when hearings continue tomorrow).

Friday 10 Mar 2017 comment?

photo by Desert X; click to embiggen somewhat

One of several art installations the Palm Springs area is currently subject to.

Not bad, although where's the sport in having permission to put stuff on a billboard.

Wednesday 08 Mar 2017 comment?

From today's Miami Herald:

A Miami defense lawyer's pants burst into flames Wednesday afternoon as he began his closing arguments in front of a jury — in an arson case.

Stephen Gutierrez, who was arguing that his client's car spontaneously combusted and was not intentionally set on fire, had been fiddling in his pocket as he was about to address jurors when smoke began billowing out his right pocket, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

He rushed out of the Miami courtroom, leaving spectators stunned. After jurors were ushered out, Gutierrez returned unharmed, with a singed pocket, and insisted it wasn't a staged defense demonstration gone wrong, observers said.

Instead, Gutierrez blamed a faulty battery in an e-cigarette, witnesses told the Miami Herald.

...

Gutierrez was representing Claudy Charles, 48, who is accused of intentionally setting his car on fire in South Miami-Dade. He had just started his closing arguments when the fire broke out. Jurors convicted Charles anyway of second-degree arson.

You can't make this stuff up.

Sunday 05 Mar 2017 3 comments

Lepus californicus

jackrabbit, unfazed by snow flurries this afternoon.
29 second video at https://youtu.be/h5EugAtQibg

Wednesday 01 Mar 2017 comment?

My dad, standing in front of what was one of my favorite trees. 1989 or so.

The tree was moved to this location in 1915 when it was already about 70 years old and weighed 28 tons. It started succumbing to fungus and borers by 1997 and was cut down in 2006.

All the links in my 2003 blog posting about the tree have died, so try this article, this pic with description, or even Wikipedia.