Guess

Posted on May 9, 2007 by Paul — 5 Comments ↓

So there’s a bit of a fuss about the rescue efforts in Kansas (following the tornadoes there) being hampered because so much National Guard equipment is in Iraq. Can you guess the initial response from Tony Snow?

a. You’re absolutely right, and even as I speak we’re choppering in supplies from Fort somewhere.

b. We’re at war, and sometimes that means that things we normally rely on may not be there. Having said that, we’re working with governors in the area to get Kansas the help it needs.

c. “If you donâ€™t request it, youâ€™re not going to get it. â€¦ As far as we know, the only thing the governor has requested are FM radios. There have been no requests to the National Guard for heavy equipment. â€¦ We are eager to provide what Kansas needs. But again there are also – you also have to go through the process of making the request first.”

I’ll give you a clue – it’s astonishing that every single governmental agency and employee that makes any kind of criticism of the White House is so staggeringly inept, isn’t it? Did the current administration hire every single competent public servant in the entire country?

In case you had doubts, Gov. Sebelius has apparently asked for replacement equipment, but only via the President directly, former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the Secretary of the Army, and the Pentagon. Clearly she should have submitted form 928/4 rev.B to the Office of the Deputy Under-Secretary of Military Procurement (Domestic)

What’s Your Number?

Posted on May 8, 2007 by Paul — No Comments ↓

There’s a bit of a fuss on t’internet at the moment about a 128-bit number that is the key to decrypting hi-def DVDs. The DVD manufacturers aren’t happy to see this going around, and are issuing legal documents to anyone they can find to prevent its dissemination. They’re allowed to do that (probably) because the number is considered a copy protection circumvention device, which makes it illegal to own under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Still with me? Well thanks to Ed Felten, you too can be the proud owner of a 128-bit number. If enough people collect their own number (and we’re talking more people than have ever existed by several orders of magnitude) then there will be no numbers left for stupid encryption schemes like this. Even a decent subset would cause them a headache, as due diligence would call for a full search of all existing numbers.

And before you get any ideas, AC 0F 65 D1 24 AF 00 D3 95 81 E8 45 88 6C 93 8A is already taken.

Solar Energy

Posted on May 7, 2007 by Paul — No Comments ↓

Here’s an interesting map showing the amount of land required to provide all the world’s energy needs from solar power. Two things stand out from the map: First, it’s a heck of a lot of land, and second, it’s not really much land at all. The palindromic total of 910,019 square kilometers (351,360 square miles) is about the size of Venezuela, and all together would be the 34th largest (and, presumably, the sunniest) country on Earth.

At the same time that’s only 0.6% of the surface of the Earth, not including the wet bits. If you add up all the land used by power plants, coal mines, oil refineries, gas stations and the rest O.6% doesn’t look too bad. And while a solar farm isn’t generally somewhere you’d choose to go on vacation, I’d take it over a coal mine.

I Am Your Gebrilz

Posted on May 4, 2007 by Paul — No Comments ↓

Sorry for no post yesterday, but spare time was spent reading up on gerbils. Following pressure from the two short people who live with Claire and I we have caved, and now have alienly sentient beings in our home. We adopted from the RSPCA (another source of pressure, but now we’ve proven that Claire does like animals) and picked up three this morning. We’re currently working on names – I favour Dave, Steve and Jeff, but that’s been quashed already. Given that they all look the same and run around a lot, I think we’ll end up calling them all Bob.

PS. Unexpected stress from working for RSPCA: You have to agonize for ages over whether you’re treating them humanely – the normal gerbil tanks aren’t really big enough, so we had to buy a fish tank. That means I spent last night whittling a shelf for them, and Claire’s already talking about building an attic extension for them. With that it would cease to be a repurposed fish tank, and become a full-blown gerbilarium (my word of the week, btw).

PPS. I’m aware that it’s Friday, but that doesn’t mean that this should be considered Friday gerbil blogging.

Perranzabuloe

Posted on May 2, 2007 by Paul — 2 Comments ↓

I’m doing a little family research, and have discovered that I have an ancestor called Critchlow Brocklehurst (or Brockleyhurst), as well as another ancestor who was married in a place called Perranzabuloe, in Cornwall England. There’s no point to this post really, I just wanted you to be able to savour those names like I am.

Oh Perranzabuloe! Land of my forebears. May the gentle flow of the A3075 never erode thy proud hedgerows.