The Intel Dump Weblog

A few weeks back, I stumbled on the Intel Dump weblog. Intel Dump is frequented by military vets who provide insightful discussion on current events. One poster posted about the recent allegations that the U.S. military used white phosphorous rounds as a weapon. His point was that the BBS article was slanted.

While everyone and their brother is commenting on the military these days, I find Intel Dump valuable because its content and comments are surprisingly balanced, provided by those who seem very knowledgable. It is not filled with fanatical chickenhawks, but with men and women who have been there and done that. It doesn’t veer too far in one direction or another, yet differing opinions are heard and welcomed. Above all, contributors there are not afraid to call a spade a spade, or to call out the government for boneheaded decisions when such calling out is necessary.

If you want to sort out the real issues facing our military, add Intel Dump to your bookmarks.

The Importance Of Getting Your Bearings

Airports provide a wonderful place to people-watch and I took full advantage during my recent trip. One can learn important lessons when “alone in a crowd.”

As I waited to board my flight, I watched a line of passengers walk out of the jetway and into the terminal. Due to the setup of the waiting area, it was not entirely clear what to do once you entered the terminal – do you go left or right? As long as there was someone ahead choosing a direction, those behind would follow – often without even looking up. As soon as that stream of people was interrupted, however, the disembarking travelers were on their own, figuring out for themselves which way to go.

As I watched, my immediate thought was that the people following without looking were doing things right. After all, they weren’t wasting time, right? As I considered it, though, I realized that the people looking up were the real winners.

What I was seeing was a snapshot of society. How many people shuffle through their lives without ever looking up, just following in the footsteps of those before them? Those people may never know what other paths are available to them. Those not blindly following could explore which path they chose to take, their possiblities far exceeding those of the others. Looking up now and then seems like a wise move.

So, put me in the “explorer” camp. I may not be the first to the finish, but who cares? Life isn’t a destination.

I want to make sure I don’t miss anything.

Siriusly Hooked

Rented a car for my recent business trip. The rental car agency didn’t have the compact I requested, so I got saddled with a minivan. It was a Dodge Grand Caravan, and was actually nicer than I expected. Even got impressive gas mileage (24 MPG).

I was on my way to north Jersey when I happened to push a mysterious “mode” button on the radio. It was Sirius satellite radio! I parked the tuner on the First Wave channel and rocked out as I drove.

I’m still trying to convince myself that the $12.99 monthly fee is worth it. I do know that satellite radio may be the best thing to happen to radio in a long, long while.

Kudos to Sirius. It is clever marketing to put your service in rental cars. You may have just picked up another customer!

Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

I’m in Jersey today after getting in late last night. The clock radio in my hotel room was unplugged and needed setting.

Why haven’t clock radio manufacturers figured out a good, consistent way to set these things? For instance, why does the time always start at 12 midnight? Who sets their clocks in the middle of the night? Why not start them at 12 noon, since most of the time they get set in the daytime? Putting them at midnight by default makes you have to move through six hours or more when you set them.

And while we’re on the topic, why are we still setting clock radios? We’re in the third millennium. Why aren’t clocks smart enough to set themselves? With GPS satellites flying overhead, radio stations all over the dial, wireless networking, and mobile phone service everywhere, why can’t clocks use one to set the time?

I think I’ll just go back to using a sundial.

Awakening Creativity

Travis spent close to two hours screaming his lungs out early this morning. We have no clue why. We hope he’ll get over it and learn to sleep again.

I wound up staying up late to watch Black Hawk Down. Then the Boy kicks in an hour later. After Kelly and I trade turns, I finally settle him at 3 AM. Whoa. Kelly was a real sweetie, though, and let me sleep in until 9 today! It was heavenly! I can’t remember when I did that before.

Something about the day, or the late wakeup, or something, got me into a creative mood today. I felt compelled to play music and sing today. As I was cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast, I made up and sang a little song about Travis. Afterward, I strolled around the house playing it for everyone.

It just seemed so natural to do, like I was in a zone. Right then, I seriously considered dropping all of the little side projects I have and making music my only hobby. Yet, there is so much more that I can do.

While I was in this interesting state of mind, I looked out the window and felt that familiar certainty that I can achieve anything in this world that I want to achieve. It was a moment when all the can’ts and won’ts and impossibilities fade away, the excuses for not getting what I want.

Then the window slammed shut again as I once again faced the question, “well, what do I really want to do?”

That one stumps me every time.

Database Fu

I spent this afternoon doing something I’ve been meaning to do for years: I updated the Mighty Hallie website. Since its inception in 2002, it has run on a defunct weblog app called bplog. Needless to say, bplog didn’t cut the mustard. That, and Hallie’s brother Travis now gets equal billing.

I was glad I could import it without losing anything. It turns out the database gyrations I had to perform weren’t that difficult, all things considered. It certainly was fun manipulating things using SQL.

Terrorists Hijack Laws Of Physics

A Brigham Young University physics professor has analyzed the mysterious collapse of the World Trade Center buildings and concluded that the most likely explantion is controlled demolition.

In his paper, professor Stephen E. Jones writes:

A New York Times article entitled “Engineers are baffled over the collapse of 7 WTC; Steel members have been partly evaporated,� provides relevant data.

Experts said no building like it [WTC7], a modern, steel-reinforced high-rise, had ever collapsed because of an uncontrolled fire. (Glanz, 2001; emphasis added.)

That’s correct – no such steel-beam building had ever before (or since) completely collapsed due to fires! However, such complete, symmetrical collapses have indeed occurred many times before — all of them due to pre-positioned explosives in a procedure called “implosionâ€? or controlled demolition. What a surprise, then, for such an occurrence in downtown Manhattan— three skyscrapers completely collapsed on the same day, September 11, 2001.

Engineers have been trying to figure out exactly what happened and whether they should be worried about other buildings like it around the country… Most of the other buildings in the [area] stood despite suffering damage of all kinds, including fire… ‘Fire and the structural damage …would not explain steel members in the debris pile that appear to have been partly evaporated’, Dr. [Jonathan] Barnett said. (Glanz, 2001; emphasis added.)

The observed “partly evaporated� steel members is particularly upsetting to the official theory, since fires involving paper, office materials, even diesel fuel, cannot generate temperatures anywhere near the 5,000+ oF needed to “evaporate� steel. However, thermite, RDX and other commonly-used explosives can readily slice through steel (thus cutting the support columns simultaneously in an explosive demolition) and reach the required temperatures. (It is possible that some other chemical reactions were involved which might proceed at lesser temperatures.) This mystery needs to be explored – but is not mentioned in the “official� 9-11 Commission or NIST reports.

Evaporated steel. Hmm.

Fortunately, the U.S. Government never lies. Now go back to your shopping.

A Sound Idea – Teaching Your PC To Hear

Wouldn’t it be great if your computer had the ability to react to sounds? Sure, speech recognition is out there and it does a decent job. What I’m talking about is teaching a computer to hear.

I’d like my computer to be able to recognize sounds that it hears:a ringing phone, the microwave oven signaling its done cooking, a dog barking, glass breaking, the doorbell ringing. What if my computer could get smart about these things? There are a lot of household tools and appliances which aren’t “smart appliances,” those that share their status electrically. A computer taught to recognize these sounds could log them or even respond to them somehow. Then the everyday beeps of these “disconnected” appliances would be communicating to a computer, allowing for some imaginative possibilties for home automation and the like.

Imagine an iPod-sized box that could be loaded with samples of sounds and spit out a network packet whenever it recognizes one. Does this sound useful to anyone? Any other uses anyone can dream up?

The Hack-A-Day story on bullet trajectories reminded me of this idea. Imagine an iPod-sized box that could be loaded with samples of sounds and spit out a network packet whenever it recognizes one.I don’t know enough about sound processing or I’d start hacking it myself.