Year: 2005

The site has message boards again, and it is now possible to comment on these journal entries by clicking the comments link in the header of each entry. Feel free to flame me to a crisp for not supporting Michael Moore or for failing to give enough credence to theories of cow flatulence causing global warming.

Be aware that the message board code is still rather buggy. If you find problems please either post something about it or contact me and let me know what’s wrong so that I can fix it. Once the kinks are worked out I’ll release the code on the software page.

Mt. St. Helens had a “minor” eruption this evening.

Here’s an AP article on the latest attempt to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. Two points about this article are worth mentioning: first, it seems that in recent years oil companies have shown “only modest interest” in drilling in the Arctic Refuge, and BP, Chevron/Texaco, and Conoco have pulled out entirely from the lobbying group that is pushing for drilling. Second, Interior Secretary Gail Norton, who is supposed to be protecting the environment and who the White House’s own biography describes as “a lifelong conservationist”, is quoted in this article as saying “You’ve got companies that have facilities 30 or 50 miles from ANWR. It seems like a natural extension”.

Apologies for posting politics again, but this is something that I’ve been writing about since I visited the Arctic Coastal Plain in September 2002. If you would like to contact Congress about this issue you can do so here or here.

This photo is here solely because I thought the page needed something colorful.

One thing about engineer-types is that they almost always harbor some hidden inner desire to be an artist. Whether it’s the geek in math class who wants to draw comic books or the folks like myself playing with photography, it seems to be fairly universal. Sadly, the vast majority of the time it seems that the analytical and creative sides of the brain are doled out disproportionately; anyone who reads this journal can tell I have the writing skills of a medium-sized rock, and I’m pretty sure that if given a camera, a monkey who shot thousands of photos would probably have the same handful of quality photos as I do.

That said, a few engineering-types actually do have some artistic talent. A friend of mine from college graduated near the top of his chemical engineering class, but along the way discovered that he really didn’t want to be an engineer. He went to Paris for a while, and I still have a drawing of the Eiffel Tower that he gave me while visiting (a downside of the art world is that the pay isn’t great, so gifts also become more creative). His girlfriend emailed the other day after discovering this site, and it turns out that he also has an online journal. Not only can the guy draw, but his ability to translate the stories from everyday life into words is pretty impressive. He’s no Steinbeck, but for an engineer it’s about as close to an artist as one could hope to be.

Apologies in advance for posting politics again, but this issue is one that seems like it should be getting a lot more attention and I’m baffled as to why it isn’t. In the past week several membes of Congress announced plans for a Count Every Vote Act whose goal is to improve the electoral process by providing greater transparency and making the voting process more consistent. This issue seems like one that any politician could use to make themselves look good, yet there is an eerie silence surrounding it. I’m stumped as to why there isn’t a ton of media coverage and political support for this bill; if anyone objects to this idea I’d love to hear your reasons for doing so, as I can’t see any reason why it would be a bad thing.

Alaska is my favorite state for a number of reasons, one of which is that the people up there are a little… I guess different would be putting it mildly. Anyhow, the Alaskan Alpine Club decided that ice climbing would be more convenient if there was a large ice tower close to Fairbanks, so they are building their own. At last measurement they were at 136 feet, which is taller than the tallest building in Fairbanks. A red strobe was added to the top to alert aircraft, and still it grows.

Two money quotes (and there are many):

• “If I’d ah knowed it were gonna get this high, I would not have been so impressed back when it was not so high.”
• “We found some bones, feathers, a climber’s helmet and part of an airplane wing at the bottom of the ice. Tell no one.”

The journal is going to remain dull for a bit longer — I’m still planning on a long roadtrip in the near future, but I’ve promised myself that some work I’m doing will get finished before I leave. The golden rule of estimating how long it will take to complete a software project is to make your best estimate and then triple it, something I obviously forgot to do; hopefully soon things will be finished.

In the mean time, check out Notes from the Road for some great travel photography and stories. This guy’s writing is so good that he can describe the stench and decay around the Salton Sea and still make you want to visit.

The Arctic and the Antarctic, two of my favorite places on this planet, have been the hardest hit by global warming thus far (average temperatures near the poles have risen several degrees in the past fifty years), so it’s difficult to listen to arguments about how global warming is a myth or that humans aren’t causing it. In a discussion about global warming on Slashdot, one poster nailed my feelings exactly:

“I do find it amusing to see people argue that a large number of experienced, intelligent, educated people are somehow irrelevant because some pundit shoots off his mouth… Seriously, anyone can have an opinion. Opinions aren’t special, how they’re formed and backed up is. I’m going to give special attention to people with the education and knowledge and listen to them if they seem trustworthy. Same reason I listen to my doctor on my health, my auto mechanic on my car, and why I expect people I work with to listen to me on issues of coding, data flow, and application development.”

With the majority of the scientific community now saying that global warming is real, and that it is almost certainly caused by humans, I’m baffled as to why the discussion hasn’t moved on to what can we do and is instead still focused on how can we be absolutely sure. If scientists are wrong about global warming, reducing pollution will still be a net benefit. If scientists are right, inaction will lead to countless extinctions and a vast disruption to life as we know it.