If you hear that I’ve gone out and purchased more than one Theramin, please contact the authorities. I have finally become sonically dangerous.
posted in education, music | Comments Off on Sonifying the world around me… not. | 260 words
At our house, there’s an intonation exam. Simple. Tell the dog to “Go ’round the tree”. Either he does or he doesn’t. Pass/fail. The dog is a born weaver. With enough of a lead, he can find a way to combine three different combinations of shrubbery and linden into something quite beautiful. Painful to undo, but that’s why the exam takes on special importance.
posted in food, history, pets | Comments Off on Go ’round the tree | 254 words
The Nature Of Things is presenting us with the evolving pattern of wildlife incursion in this part of the world. As we learn about the population of coyotes in major cities, I’m struck by one technical aspect: I have everything needed to track them, except for the frequency of the collar transmitter. Forget fox hunts. Let’s go track a coywolf!
posted in economy, food | Comments Off on Two more shovels in the tool pile | 272 words
There is science, and there is science fiction. And when the two paths join, be very afraid. The news out of Chelyabinsk (for those unfamiliar with Russian geography, Google is your travel guide) shows a meteorite on a collision path with the area. It also shows that some things can’t be predicted, no matter how good the mathematics.
posted in science, travel | Comments Off on Bright light in the sky | 274 words
As a radio operator, the needs of the emergency measures community are important. Happily, I’ve not had too much involvement. No emergencies… Anyhow, the provincial government has decided to shelve one of their planning scenarios. No zombies. Not even pretend zombies. In the real world, the government believes that it’s not a realistic possibility. From where I sit (with too much access to bad movie content) I see things differently. That whole “night of the living dead” thing; it’s a risk.
posted in travel | Comments Off on New trends involving late bus arrivals | 261 words
The online course I’ve been following deals with sound synthesis. As the material is presented, I keep discovering that this isn’t new content for me. Some of it, I’ve been playing around with for years, albeit without the vocabulary to describe it to others. This evening, we’ve had an overview of bandwidth filters. Low pass, high pass, band pass, notch; although this is a course about sound, the analogies to radio are constant (and a valuable review of my electronic fundamentals).
posted in computing, media | Comments Off on Reviewing and renewing with synthesis | 262 words
I have isolated one of the memory leaks in my browser. Recently, every time I went into FB, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Turned out that the toolbar which flagged new messages (in FB) has a flaw, and pages climbed to close to a GB of memory in minutes. Now, the problem is solved. Just go to my FB wall to see how…
posted in environment | Comments Off on Slow and sure, but on your own time | 258 words
They die. They get killed. Today, for the first time in my life, one quit. Holy smoke!
Yes, the Pontiff has announced that he wishes to retire. Given his age (allegedly eighty-five), I agree that he has gone beyond the “Freedom Fifty-five” that certain financial institutions have offered to their congregation. The question remains: What do you do when you are the only retired pope in the world? Hard to join a club, or even get a foursome together for a round of golf. You can stamp collect, I guess. The rare Vatican ones are available at a good price, I bet.
posted in politics | Comments Off on Turned down four job offers | 273 words
Trying to get my head around the coverage of the Grammy Awards. For something that is “all about the music”, the attention to dresses and shoes is, shall we say, exaggerated. Akin to praising the clouds during an airshow. Why can’t we have an awards show that is musical (and that doesn’t mean the Bieb).
posted in computing | Comments Off on Doomed to bouts of coughing? | 264 words
for anyone interested by Canadiana, one TV show in particular takes you down to the sheds, cellars and shelves of the land. I’m a fan of Canadian Pickers. They have deep pockets, an eye for the oddball object and an invitation into places where the rest of us may never get to go.
posted in environment, politics | Comments Off on Distracting a dog with a dream | 257 words
