Science Link Post

From the world of combustion chemistry, I bring you grilling with liquid oxygen. Do not try this at home. At least without me. Not that it would be safer, but I want to see it. (Some of you have probably seen it before; I couldn't find it on the net for quite a while.)

From the social sciences: computer simulations of societies, with very simple rules for the individual units, have surprising and disturbing results.

From the lines of the science-religion discourse, a physicist addresses how to talk to the general public about the "conflict." Probably of more interest to the scientists among the handful of readers; as a suggestion on how to approach the topic.

I am a Patriot

I will not wrap myself in the flag; I will declare this to be the greatest country that ever was. I will not allow that to blind me to calls to make it better. Rectifying an injustice is not unpatriotic; nay, it is the height of patriotism. It's certainly how we got started.

You could argue that the current administration, and their enablers assembled in Congress (on both sides of the aisle), even hit these listed "Injuries and Usurpations," albeit only passively on the final:

HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:

HE has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.

Fortunately, we are not forced yet to pledge our Lives, our Fortunes and our Sacred Honor. (Yes, I spelled it as we do today. Sue me.) It's a critical campaign season coming up; do what you can, give what you can. OK, so maybe that is pledging your Fortune. As cynical as many of us have become, including me, it's not going to get better unless we work at it.

They say that the top athletes are those who are never satisfied, and constantly work to make themselves just a little better. That's how I feel about patriotism. Just because we have a lot of which to be proud, doesn't mean it's wrong to focus on being even better.

Rain Wrap-up

Washington evaluates its repsonse; I can't really say it was too bad, although as they point out in the article there are obvious traffic flow issues to work on. Of course, they're going to treat the mass of people trying to leave the Mall area after the Independence Day fireworks as an evacuation drill. Mostly in terms of reconfiguring the roads to be outbound-heavy, I would hope. Fake emergency announcements would be bad.

The opening 9/10 tourney game at CSLL on Thursday was rained out...by a brief thundershower. At that, you would have needed water wings to go from 2nd to 3rd. The fields were mostly alright on Friday night, but one of the bullpens (in foul ground) was a soggy mess. Fortunately no ball in play ever found that area.

In unrelated news, DC is experimenting with rubber sidewalks. If you could only chalk them up, that would be a hell of a hopscotch court.

The Competitive Eating Diet

How to eat like this crazy chick from Alexandria, or, how you too can lose weight on the competitive eating circuit.

I'm doubtful that any of us in high school could have drank 126 ounces of liquid in one sitting. I mean, that's two of the giant Wesco* mugs, and I never even got one of those.



*For you non Michiganders, that's just a local gas station chain.

How High's The Water, Mama?

Five feet high and risin'.

Pull out a $20 bill; look at the back. That tree on the right of the White House isn't there anymore. All of the wet-dry vacuums are already gone. Here's a summary for the graphically inclined. The Capital Weather blog will probably have the most up-to-the-minute info, if you care.

Another 2-4 in. overnight (Tuesday) We're going to get brushed, although not too badly, with that tropical system that didn't organize off of North Carolina.

I have ice cream, scotch, and a "Rain" playlist on iTunes. I'm good to go.

Just Another Manic Monday

I've bitched before that no one here can drive if a single molecule of water falls from the sky in any way, shape, or form. But this time it's legitimate; we've suffered a deluge. (WaPost; registration/bugmenot). Roads have been closed, people endangered on the roads. On the traffic website I check, I've seen reports that my road to the Beltway is flooded; the Beltway is closed at alternate route on; and when that opened that their was a mudslide onto the Beltway in between me and work. The mudslide is I'm sure from the construction--last Monday, when trying to escape a downpour that washed out our softball game in Maryland, it was clear all the runoff from the Wilson bridge & related construction project was focused on to the Beltway--stupid whether or not it was on purpose. See, where I grew up, the roads drain to the side.

The feds are actually on unscheduled leave, wherein you can burn a vacation day unplanned--I've only seen that happen for snow, so far. And I was even going to get moving early today--since I woke up an hour before my alarm because my blood sugar was low, I figured I'd get moving...but it doesn't seem like a good idea to gas up the car and go right now. Since the sound on ESPN isn't coming through my cable right now, so I can't even catch the highlights I missed....this is a rough day, and I'm not even dressed yet.

I singled to right. No, seriously.

Those of you who played softball with me in Chicago will struggle to believe me, but I singled to right today. Right over a leaping firstbaseman, driving in two runs.

Famously--or maybe the opposite of that, wherein no one gives a crap--I went through a stretch in slow-pitch softball in grad school of being unable to hit a fair ball, on account of always swinging way to early. My solution was not to learn patience, but to start with my bat in front of the plate, and yank it back to the elbows-out position only after the ball was released. This cockamamie system worked, but I could still only rip balls down the line, in the hole, or just to the left of second base. Even if I was trying to aim to right. I defined dead-pull hitter.

Well, in this modified fast pitch league I'm playing in, I don't have that luxury. There's no windup, so the delivery is sort of like a bowling motion--it's not that fast, but too fast for my loopy swing. Mostly I'm looking for a pitch inner-half to pull inside the 3rd base bag. Except for with two strikes on me, when I'm actually choking up and slapping at the ball a bit. It's worked pretty well.

The exact pitch sequence, for posterity:

1. Taken, strike on the inside corner. Not a good pitch to swing at for the first strike.
2. Taken, ball high.
3. Taken, strike about 4 inches outside. Ok, if that's the way we're going to be...
4. Taken, ball low. Almost got me to swing.
5. Pitch about 2 inches outside. Sorta had to swing there. Stepped into it and drove it to the right side.

Surprisingly, I did not hear trumpets or see horsemen.