UnSpace

Yesterday, this parakeet was throwing ice out of Nancy's glass and taking ice baths. Of course the camera that takes video wouldn't work. So today, I got a cup of ice and the bird barely played with it. After this video, the bird went into the cup to get a piece of ice. Somehow, a feather got stuck on some ice, and the budgie wound up running all over the place, trying to get away from the pursuing ice!

You'll notice I didn't get a video of that. Sigh. We took the ice off, of course, but it took a while to stop laughing!

I saw this miniature African violet yesterday while waiting for the pharmacist to fill the prescriptions the oral surgeon gave me. I put it in the car, not realizing how warm it would get. I thought I cooked it, but when I brought it home and sprayed it with water and soaked the roots, it perked up. Today I re-potted it and decided to photograph it. The flower is actually about 1.4 cm in width (a bit more than a half inch).

I've been waiting for this miniature African violet, Rob's Cool Fruit (no relation, but it does make me wonder if people named "Rob" tend to grow violets) to bloom, and finally it did. The pink is stronger in the flower bud than the actual flower, but it's still a very cool plant. This flower is a bit bigger — about 1.7 cm in width, or about 5/8ths of an inch.

Note: I used Scotts Potting Soil for African Violets to pot the newest African violet, the second "disaster" now that the stem has grown roots, and a couple clones. I love this potting soil, as it's not as hydrophobic and difficult to work with.

I bet a video of the dentist slicing my gums open and scraping tooth and bone with sharp metal objects would be a hit on YouTube.

Between HIPAA and the surgeon's malpractice insurance company, I doubt anyone would have permitted me to video the surgery. Now that it's over with, I'm sort of curious as to what it looked like. I spent a lot of time with my eyes closed so that I couldn't see what he was sticking in my mouth.

I did watch him do the stitches, though. The knots he used are the same knots one uses for tying fishing line. I checked: the oral surgeon doesn't fish.

If you look closely at this picture, you see Kenny, a friend of mine. The photo looks a little odd, but Kenny is clearly recognizable. But if you get far enough away (we might be talking 15 feet or more, unfortunately) , take off your glasses, or squint (or some combination of them) you'll see my parrot, Cirrus.

Note: I changed the size of the photograph to make it easier to see. If you want to see the original 600 by 900 image, clicking on the picture will take you there. 

The effect might be easier to see in the photograph thumbnail. At the very least, you won't have to back off as far.

What I've done is create a hybrid photograph. The image of Kenny has had most of the "low frequency information" stripped out. In other words, I used the high pass filter on it. A second photograph, the image of Cirrus, was blurred — removing all the "high frequency information." The two images were then merged. When you're close up, you see the high frequency image, but the low frequency information is too spread out for you to notice, other than to think the photograph is odd. When you're far away and the high frequency image blurs with distance, the low frequency image becomes much easier to see.

I'm still learning to do this trick. Artists have used this in the past; it may be part of what makes the Mona Lisa smile so mysterious.

I found out about it in the New Scientist article "Hybrid images: Now you see them…", which, unfortunately, you can only read if you have a subscription. But in the article, I found a web site by the scientists studying these images. If you want to learn more, I especially recommend the PDF "Hybrid Images."

I've learned a couple things in playing around. The best images use objects with similar profiles. For example, once I decided to use Cirrus, I had to search for a human with a face oriented in a similar direction. I couldn't get the eyes to match up, since African grey parrots are prey while humans are alpha predators, but Kenny's face was pointed in about the same direction and his goatee matched nicely with the beak. Images where a frown turns into a smile, a son turns into a father, a daughter into a mother, or a homeless person turns into Jesus strike me as likely uses of this technique. The metaphorical associations go with the images, giving the trick a purpose.

I think that's why I'm so impressed with the bicycle that turns into a motorcycle on the scientists web site. The photographic trick brings to mind the childish fantasy that a bike is a motorcycle.

Beyond that, I'm not sure there's much purpose for this trick for the casual photographer or artist. But for Drs.Oliva, Schyns, and Toralba, they are using the high frequency/low frequency images to tell them about how the human eye processes visual information. I'm glad they pointed this out. I've had fun playing with it.

To create the high pass image, I used Adobe Photo Elements high pass filter, which can be found under Filter > Others. I haven't been able to find something that does that in Corel Paint Shop Pro, but that doesn't mean there isn't something. For the low pass, I used the Adobe Photo Elements Filter > Blur > Gaussian blur. I then created a new image and put the two images on different layers, merging the layers after playing with the transparencies. Now you can do it! I haven't decided if color or black and white images work best. If you look through the many images on the scientists' web site, you can decide for yourself what you think does or doesn't work as well.

No wonder I've been cranky. Some part of my brain remembered the right side of my mouth was going to be operated on today. I'm grateful it didn't remind me consciously about the surgery until two days ago. The left side was so much fun that I dreaded the right side being done.

Well, I've got motrin and vicodin in my system. I'm still not sure why House is so all-fired impressed with Vicodin. I'm not sure it's doing anything more than Tylenol, but you'll notice I'm not willing to do the experiment, either.

But today is a "take it easy day" to let my mouth heal up. I got a new african violet while waiting for the prescription, but then almost cooked it in the car. It appears to be recovering. so in a day or two I'll photograph it and show it off!

For years, now, there's been one robin in our yard that follows Nancy around like a puppy dog. Being highly original people, we decided to call it "Puppy Dog."

Puppy Dog is not tame and will not allow humans to come within striking distance. But this robin has learned that when Nancy weeds, she exposes worms and insects. The bird goes to where Nancy has been weeding and eats heartily. Soon, Nancy took to throwing choice worms to the bird. She throws them a bit away from the bird, so the bird does not get used to having things thrown at it.

We identify Puppy Dog by behavior, so we're not absolutely sure that it's the same bird. Robins have a hard life, and their life expectancy is about 1.1 years. But they can live up to 12 years, and given how the bird waits each year for Nancy to throw worms, we have to figure that it's either the same bird or one of the babies raised by a Puppy Dog.
I took this photo through the kitchen window, and despite heavy processing, the image still looks faded. I so have to get that window washed!

Friday's Feast has a new home. Congratulations! Answer the questions and post that you've done it, and you're a Friday's Feast participant.

Appetizer
What are you proud of?

I'm proud of my wife. Nancy is an amazing person, and I love her so much.

Soup
What is the best thing you’ve ever won as a prize?

As a kid, I used to call up Ed and Wendy King's Party Line radio show on KDKA late at night, when I was supposed to be asleep. One night, the question was "How many different snakes are there in Pennsylvania. I knew the answer was about 500, so I called in and won a tin of Schneider's pretzels. Then I had to explain to my parents where it came from… By the way, the pretzels were delicious. I think I won a couple other tins over the years, too!

Salad
Name something you do that is a waste of time.

Being depressed.

Main Course
In what year of your life did you change the most?

That would have been 1973. Perhaps this is strange, but if you happen to read the post I linked to, and if you're so inclined, would you stop and say a brief prayer for that woman (now a good friend), her husband and children? They're good folks. Thanks.

Dessert
Where is a place you consider to be very tranquil?

The north face of the Grand Canyon, at the end of the 60 mile dead end road, off even away from the cabins and lodge. Nancy and I went there for our honeymoon.

The singing toads are back! Biologists know them as Bufo americanus americanus, the Eastern American toad. Of course, that's Nancy holding the toad.

The toad above decided that the algae we cleaned out of the pond was a great place to hide. We'll wait to throw out the algae until after she moves.

The coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara) has started to bloom. The coltsfoot flower is often mistaken for dandelion flowers, and they both go to seed in similar ways.

The hellebores (Helleborus, not sure of the species) are now blooming like mad.

I expected to hear Jerry Falwell claim that Elizabeth Edwards' cancer's return was because of gays, lesbians, and Hollywood. I expected to hear Pat Robertson ask people to pray for her death so that John Edwards could not possibly become President.

Granted, there was some slime spread about, but nothing as bad as I expected, and at least one incredible response to that slime. But none of the garbage I've come to take for granted in our modern world. Maybe I just got lucky and missed the worst of it.

Soon after, the world found out that Tony Snow's cancer had returned. Go read the article at Capitol Hill Blue about the hatred and evil directed at Snow at a time when humans ought to gather together to support the man in a difficult time. Even worse, read the responses to the very article criticizing such disgusting attacks. Some people can't buy a clue.

Maybe I need to keep repeating to myself my favorite of Larry Niven's Laws:

There is no cause so right that one cannot find a fool following it.

The arctic ice melted early this year, causing baby seals to drown before they were old enough to learn to swim. So many baby seals have drowned that the annual clubbing of baby seals will certainly be limited this year, and may even be halted.

The email I got this morning blaming my depression on my belief in God pissed me off. This is a horrible thing to say, but I have grown used to extremist Christians saying that my lack of faith causes my depression. Somehow, I'd assumed the extremist atheists wouldn't be so moronic, but this is the second militant atheist to make this claim. I should remember that extremists are deranged, no matter what their actual beliefs.

The atheist claimed that my belief in God was the cause of my depression. I replied, asking for medical evidence confirming his diagnosis, as well as information about his training in psychiatry or psychology, but the e-mail was returned as undeliverable. The coward didn't have the courage to use a real name or e-mail. Many have been the times when I've regretted associating my real name with UnSpace. Here's an example of why I'm glad I did: I can get all self-righteous about the goofball not having the courage of his convictions to sign his name.

After close to two decades of being depressed (a depressing statistic in its own right), I should be used to garbage like this. Presumably well-meaning people suggest that I should "just cheer up." I keep waiting for them to tell me to simply "pay more attention to the insulin" in my blood, but I've not heard that one yet. On the other hand, I have heard people yell at congestive heart patients for being lazy and stroke patients to "just walk right," so it's not like I haven't seen that approach used to encourage others with medical problems.

Not that I haven't found myself slipping into a similar fallacy. "If I can find out what experience or circumstance in my life is making me depressed, then I can fix the depression." That's part of the delusion that accompanies my form of depression. My brain senses that something is wrong externally. The brain thinks it is normal, so obviously there must be something outside of the brain that causes this miserable feeling. Sure, there might even be something external to blame, like that wet carpet downstairs that feels a bit soggier today. But the real problem isn't external, it's internal. At least I have an excuse for falling into this fallacy: my brain is actively lying to me. Unlike a lot of people, I use — no, more than use, rely on my brain, so knowing that it's betraying me is aggravating. I've used the phrase before that "my brain lies to me." The sensation that there's something wrong external to me is strong. I can't help but wonder if it's similar to an amputee's phantom pain.

The psychiatrist has been very clear. Therapy might be somewhat useful for helping me deal with being depressed, but the cause is biochemical and/or structural. My family wasn't perfect, but it was good enough. I was loved, cared for, and eventually my parents and other relatives grew to accept the occasional damage from my childhood "scientific investigations" as an "anticipated cost."

Metabolic syndrome and concussions are known risk factors for depression. That I've responded temporarily to various medications indicates the general source of the problem is in my wetware. That the medications don't work too long serves as a reminder that current medical therapies aren't all that much better than using a hammer and chipped screwdriver for computer repair.

If you're going to comment on my depression, you should at least have some minimal understanding of the modern science related to the topic before you open your mouth and prove yourself uninformed and ignorant.

Now, if you'll pardon me, I've got more water to vacuum up.

If someone wants to explain to WPXI-TV the difference between methadone and methamphetamine, I'd be grateful. After the short rain today, there's more water in the gameroom, so I've got other things to do:

2:30 PM UDPATE: The scene is being cleared up in Leechburg. The cars involved are being towed away. Police said no methadone was found in the vehicle, simply propane tanks and gas cans. Officials said arrests are possible today in connection with the chase and crash.

12:45 PM UDPATE: Channel 11's Renee Kaminski says three city blocks have been roped off and people are told to stay inside and keep their windows and doors shut.

11:45 AM UDPATE: A Pennsylvania state trooper told Channel 11 a female was driving the Jeep and a male was a passenger. The topper said the female jumped out of the Jeep and ran. She was apprehended. The woman victim in the silver car is listed in critical condition. The initial traffic stop was for speeding. Officials said the chase reached speeds of 100 mph. Police said the unmarked cylinders in truck are of concern and are conducive to methadone production.

11:10 AM UDPATE: Police tell Channel 11 they have found some tanks inside one of the vehicles and are concerned with public safety. At least one local business has been shut down as police continue their investigation. Police need to get a warrant before they can investigate the items inside the Jeep.

From context, it's obvious the responders were concerned about methamphetamine production.

You ever notice those advertisements on Fox News for conservative t-shirts? I found this shirt over there today, and I wonder if that's the best way for conservatives to support the President. The shirt says

"Our Bill of Rights is not negotiable.
Not one single part, not ever.
Now if you'll excuse me,
I'm off to the range."Turning America back into…
A Nation of Riflemen
…one citizen at a time.

Strange, that's not what the Bush administration and it's hangers-on are telling us. They're saying that we have to give up our rights as free Americans so that we can defeat those who would destroy freedom.

Me, I'm not a rifleman. At the range, I test my accuracy with handguns. I value my Second Ammendment rights — right along with my First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Amendment rights.

I will not permit tyrants, neither foreign nor domestic, to take my rights from me.

Did Tyler Hamilton blood dope? Or does he carry within him the remnants of a vanishing twin?

The article itself is fascinating. Hamilton was tested for minor antigens in his blood — similar to the A, B, O, and Rh groups we're all familiar with, but less likely to provoke an immune reaction. The people testing Hamilton's blood found that some of his blood cells didn't match the majority. Hamilton was accused of blood doping: the doped blood matched the general blood types but not the minor types. Hamilton's people claim that, while in the womb, his body absorbed stem cells from a twin that died early in pregnancy. In fact, if the two shared a placenta and bloodstream, it's possible Hamilton drained the very life from the twin. The stem cells absorbed manufacture a small amount of the "strange blood." Alternatively, Hamilton may simply be carrying some stem cells from his mother. The review panel doesn't believe his vanishing twin theory, but it's worth noting that the review panel may not understand cutting-edge science.

Long-time readers of UnSpace may find the following quote from the New York Times article familiar:

Dr. Ann Reed, chairwoman of rheumatology research at the Mayo Clinic, who uses sensitive DNA tests to look for chimerism, finds that about 50 to 70 percent of healthy people are chimeras. The more scientists look for chimerism, the more they find it. It seemed not to exist in the past, she said, because no one was explicitly looking for small amounts of foreign cells in people's bodies.

It's possible that, if studied long enough and with enough detail, every human is a chimera. While there may be diseases caused by such chimerism, like autoimmune diseases, there may also be a genetic advantage.

In an extreme version of chimerism, marmosets may be giving birth to their sibling's children.

What is this: genetic weirdness day?

What happens if you fertilize an egg with two sperm? Ok, so maybe I'm the only person to ever wonder about this.

Numerous sperm are needed to fertilize a egg. They all gang up on the egg and beat on the exterior until one sperm finally gets in. At that point, a number of biochemical changes occur that keep other sperm from entering the egg. Those changes have to take time, and logically, there is a small possibility that such a thing could happen.

That may have happened with a set of near-identical twins in the United States. Unfortunately, the twins are not expected to survive.  Note: A different source, Nature, seems to indicate the twins are healthy. The twins are not identical twins, but they are far more closely related than fraternal twins would be.

There may be an alternative explanation, where the egg started to split before it was fertilized, each portion of the dividing egg was fertilized, and chromosomes from the two sperms were swapped.

While the article states that such cases never survive, it also points out that surviving cases of near-identical twins may simply have passed unnoticed. There are cases of identical twins that exhibit a surprising degree of dissimilarity. Geneticists have attributed this to environmental differences, but there may be other explanations as well, either involving gene regulation asymmetries or multiple fertilizations.

Apparently this weekend is going to suck. Literally.

Despite that whole thing of ripping up the yard with the trencher to put in more drain pipe, the recent rains have caused the gameroom and laundry to flood. So I'm going to be playing in water with the shop vac for a while. At least it's an industrial shop wet-dry shop vac.

The next post to this blog will be when the basement's dry. In the meantime, words of encouragement will be greatly appreciated.

Note: These photos are by Tony.

Both women performed great sets. Congratulations, ladies! My gang and I thoroughly enjoyed the music! Dinner was good, too.

More later.

Today in his speech about the House version of an emergency funding bill for the war in Iraq, the President repeatedly used the phrase "narrow majority." For example, as quoted in MSNBC's article, he said "A narrow majority in the House of Representatives abdicated its responsibility by passing a war spending bill that has no chance of becoming law and brings us no closer to getting the troops the resources they need to do their job."

Repeatedly, the President used the phrase "narrow majority" when he described the House bill. Obviously, the term is designed to minimize the fact that this was a majority vote of the House of Representatives.

I'd like to point out to everyone that President Bush used another term to describe a narrow majority, back when he defeated John Kerry for the presidency in 2004:

Mandate.

Friday Fiction is back, with a short story about a NASA scientist who wonders if he can make a difference for the world — or even for his family.

Jordan Elhaus turned off the television in disgust. The House and Senate hearing on global warming was a farce. No one would listen. He himself had been ordered to not offer to testify. He was the head of climate research for NASA, a position he expected to be shorter-lived than even the Institute for Advanced Concepts department.

The dog looked up at him in puzzlement. "Sorry, Terry, there's no point in watching that farce."

The administration claimed his research was classified because the calculations were done on quantum computers. While not the mystical machines of science fiction, they were still far more powerful than any modern computer. They could not instantly solve "NP Incomplete" problems, but they could grind them fast enough to enable real-time breaking of cryptography. That same power enabled them to give him an incredibly detailed model of Earth's future.

Jordan got up and poured himself another scotch. He added ice, thinking of the contrast. Humanity had a year at most to avoid doom. The tipping point was far nearer than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change hinted. The loss of the ice sheets at the poles were the clue. The permafrost was next, and when it melted, the methane release would push global warming far beyond human control. Thinking this, Jordan gulped the scotch down.

He looked at the glass. He wanted to throw it at the wall, to watch it smash into pieces just as the dreams for the future of the human race would be smashed into pieces. But he didn't. Jordan was too controlled to vent his rage that way.

He heard Laura pull into the garage. He went to the door to help her with the groceries. She came up the stairs empty-handed, with that smile on her face. That was the smile he'd seen when they met as freshmen at MIT, that smile she'd given him as she said "I do." She ran the rest of the way to him and hugged him fiercely.

"Jor…she started to say, but her voice broke. "I love you. We're pregnant!"

Terry jumped up on the two of them, sensing the excitement and trying to join in, wagging his tail with all his power.

At first, Jordan was overwhelmed with joy at the thought of a child. But then a cold chill almost knocked him over. What sort of world would they be bringing their child into? He continued to hold his wife tight, afraid to let her see his face. He barely heard her speak of baby names, Karen if it were a girl, Calvin if it were a boy. No, wait, his brother had chosen Karen for their girl's name; no matter. Laura felt sure that the child was a boy.

In one of those dark jokes that Jordan told himself and no one else ever knew of, he wondered what would happen to that liquid string Brane drive when they closed NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts. But it wasn't a joke, was it? He only knew about the drive because it, too, required time on the quantum computers. Could he get some of that team to help him steal the drive? The IAC scientists were dying to test out the first faster-than-light spaceship drive, but with budget cuts, they didn't think they'd ever get the chance. Maybe he could give them that chance.

Only then did he hug his wife with hope. "Everything will be all right. I promise you everything will be all right for our child." Jordan would save his family.

At the very least, he'd save his child.

Here's another Friday's Feast for you to enjoy! Come on, put up your own version of the Friday's Feast on your blog and then let everyone know at Friday Feast!

Appetizer
Who is your favorite news anchor/reporter? Why?

My favorite news anchor is Walter Cronkite. I grew up watching him broadcast the manned space launches and recoveries, and those are good memories for me!

(Note: Thanks to Gattina for catching the misspelling on Mr. Cronkite's name, which I've corrected. My bad!)

Soup
Name 3 foods that are currently in your freezer.

Lemon pepper chicken, green peas, and that frozen container of stuff that we don't remember what it is and are afraid to ask and so we just leave it in there.

Salad
If you were to have the opportunity to name a new town or city, what would you call it?

Tranquility Base City. One guess where it would be!

Main Course
What will most likely be the next book you read?

Jodi Picoult's The Tenth Circle. I loved her book My Sister's Keeper, so I picked this one up just based on the author's name.

Dessert
What's the first thing you notice about the opposite gender?

Technically, the first thing I notice is how someone walks, since I'll be seeing them from afar. But when I'm close enough to see them, the first thing I notice is the face. I know, no one is going to believe me. It's true, though. Even more bizarre, though, is that despite the importance of the face, I can't remember eye color!