Tuesday: I will always be tired.

I'm also starting to think that my legs will never not hurt, and that I've walked too much with them.  It would probably help if I had brought comfy shoes, as that probably would have stopped a lot of the extra pain.  I guess it's kind of a good thing, since it's all "exercise, I guess".

Today's science stuff was pretty interesting.  I asked at least two questions.  That breaks my long lasting "not asking questions" streak, but I wanted to know stuff.  Mostly scale information, but still.

I toured a data center, too.  It's like ours, but bigger.

Do people think this looks interesting?

It's a board game.




Here's an example of the live-action version it's based on.  I have not checked that this one is good, but they are consistently pretty decent.


Does that look interesting to people whom I am directing this question towards?  If the answer is "sure, with your money, fine," then I think I'd only get the regular edition.  If the answer is a "that actually looks like a fun game, because we tend to like games that end up really weird, Cards Against Humanity style," then I think I'll get the expanded edition with the extra cards.

The nice thing is that the funding level needed was fulfilled in two minutes, so this was guaranteed before I even read the announcement email.

Sunday: Part 2

It's a good thing that I broke out the Sun thing into its own post.  This is already going to be too long and complicated.  I think my suggestion is going to be to read only a little bit at a time, so I can link back here later in the week when I have nothing to post.  Yes, I could save things, or schedule a post, but that seems dumb.

Part 2.1: Burger Time

I decided to get a burger for late-lunch today.  Honolulu Burger Company won out, although I think this was my most disappointing visit.

Truffle fries.

The first issue was that they still don't have a small fry size for fries with toppings.  This basket is just too big for one person.  It's not even really the money, it's more that I feel bad throwing away 60% of my fries.

Mushroom mushroom burger.

 The second issue was that my burger had some issues.  I asked for no-tomato, no-sauce, and the girl at the counter entered that in correctly.  However, my burger arrived with both of those.  In addition, the bun was cold and somewhat stale.  Ick.  This led to me just ignoring the bun and eating the burger "fancy style."

Wow.

Then this couple came in, and decided to again point out that Japan is better at eating lots of food than America.  It's hard to see, but he has a triple burger (I can barely finish the single).  She went lighter, only getting a double.

Part 2.2: Fourier Transforms, Again

This week I re-remembered another important detail about FFTs (this is another in this series of random points about FFTs).  Consider this image:

This is just a sine wave tipped at 45 degrees.  Now, look at the power spectrum:

Ok, the two spots make sense, as those correspond to the point in the (U,V) plane that has that frequency, along with it's reflection (the negative frequency).  But what's up with all that other crap?

FFTs make the assumption that the signal is periodic, and since it only has the image to work with, the default thing to do is to calculate a circular FFT, where the left and right edges wrap around, and the top and bottom do as well (making a video game torus).  However, since the sine signal doesn't nicely match up at the edges (most obvious at the top and bottom), this introduces a lot of extra Fourier components that correspond to those + shapes.

The solution to this problem is to taper the image down so that it is effectively periodic.  The easiest way to do this is to just multiply by a Gaussian so that the edges drop down to zero at the edges, like this:

Ok, what's this look like in (U,V)-space?

The two dots we expect.  There's some lower level noise, but this has the same colormap as the previous spectrum.  The dots aren't perfect points, which I think tells us something about the size of the Gaussian we used.

This is important, because the science stuff I've been playing with has odd edge effects that impose a strong sinc^2 signal onto the power spectrum.  This makes it difficult to isolate bad frequencies.  Remembering this trick solves that problem, and should make cleaning those images much easier.

Part 2.3: Travel Pants

I've been thinking about the various trips I'm likely taking in the second half of the year, and came to the conclusion that I think I want new pants for travelling.  Jeans really aren't very comfortable after eight hour flights, and I think I have ten hour flights coming up.  So, I spent part of the evening yesterday looking at various options.  I'm still not totally happy with the options.

• Julie's simple option.  Cheap, but the downside is that they don't really look very good, especially if you're planning on going through customs.  I don't want to have to say, "No, really, I actually do have a Ph.D." (C9 by Champion® Men's Running Pant)
• These seem like we have different understanding of "travel."  A lot seem to be for hiking, which is something I don't intend to do. (Kuhl Raptr Pants)
• These seem like they'd be hot.  I'm very rarely actually cold while travelling, so I think that's the main issue I have.  Comfy, and not super hot. (Deluth Trading MEN'S MICROFIBER TRAVEL PANTS)
• Similar issue with these.  They do look a bit more comfy than the previous one, though. (Travel Smith Aero Microfleece Pants)
• I found a webpage that suggested these.  However, they're "convertable pants," which means they turn into shorts.  That means that they're automatically a no. (REI Endeavor Convertible Pants)
• Maybe these?  Mostly cotton, but with added materials to make them stretch some.  Explicitly states that they're good for flights. (ExOfficio Men's Roughian™ Pant)
• Another option.  Also look like they'd be comfortable, although "100% nylon" is suspicious. (Royal Robbins' Global Traveler Pant)

Hrm.  I should have added notes of brands and styles before closing all those tabs, since those links all go to retailers, and those aren't the most stable links.  I'll fix it in post.

Part 2.4: Shoes

The pant thing led me to thinking about shoes.  My shoes need to be replaced, as the tread has been largely worn off them.  They're still comfortable, so I'm tempted to just buy another pair.  Here are quick links for this.

• What I have now.  Basically.  Mine has black stitching, which I would prefer. (Dr. Martens 1461)
• Similar style.  These have a bit more stitching, which I'm not a fan of. (Dr. Martens Andre)
• These have more laces.  I don't think I want texture. (Dr. Martens Boston)
• These have fewer. Maybe for travel.  (Dr. Martens Ethan)

This search shomehow led me to shoe lace tie methods.  That led me to finding this one.  I'm thinking of switching my shoes to use it.  I generally prefer to not tie my shoes each time I wear them, as I usually keep them laced fairly loosely.  This works fine for my left shoe, but somehow my knot is always untied on the right one.  Yes, I realize this is a dumb thing to worry about.  Still, a way to have my shoes perma-tied at a decent level, while retaining the ability to adjust the fit somewhat seems like a good idea.

Part 2.5: Links

• Politics and economics.
• Basically this.  Social Security payments were used to finance government spending while the income tax rate was continually cut.  Now, the government is going to need to start paying out from that account, so if we had a sane political system, we would raise income taxes again to continue funding government.  Instead, we're cutting everything, and having people suggest limiting future SS benefits.
• My god, what ever will Japan do, now that their bond yields have jumped to the stratospheric heights of 0.82%?   If they don't immediately revert to austerity, their bonds will soon be at yield levels equal to 75% what Germany pays.
• Man, fuck these guys.
• Totally unrelated: "Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror); are perpetrated for a religious, political or, ideological goal; and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians)."  Basically, the only reason the Republicans can claim to not be terrorists is that they're not personally beating poor people.  Everything else seems to fit.  Creating fear for a political goal, with clear disregard for the well-being of citizens.
• Pokemon.
• Meowth.
• Yes! I hate when people skip Orange League "because it wasn't based on a game."  I would argue that's why the Orange Islands have the best episodes: they could do what they wanted.  I'm with everyone in not liking Tracy, but Brock leaving allowed everyone to enjoy when he returned.
• Alternate description of that episode where Brock comes back.
• Super effective tacos!
• Other stuff.
• I regret missing this.  I am happy that chicken+waffles+mac&cheese is something other people like as well.
• It's hard not to talk to dogs in the elevator.  They're all super excited to see someone new, so it'd just be rude to ignore them.
• Kids are creepy.
• This seems suspicious.  
• And just so you don't have the same confusion I did: the guy who did Mathworld (which was bought by Wolfram, the mathematica people) was Eric Weisstein.  Different guy.

Thursday: That's dumb

They're repaving roads in my neighborhood, so there are a bunch of cones signs up all over the place.  While waiting for a truck to move this morning, I noticed that one of the signs was a "right lane closed ahead" that had a patch over the "right" converting it into the similar "left lane closed ahead" sign.  Which you can buy online.  That's not the point of this though.

It made me think.  Take one of those, and put left on one side, right on the other.  Then, attach an opaque cloth to one side that can cover whichever sign you don't need.  Put some snaps or something so you can hold the opaque cloth in place.  There.  Now you have both signs in one place, and you don't need to patch one into the other.  You always have both.  Surely I can't be the only one who's thought of this, right?

Bunny.

• "Webcomics printed out with the text removed and then given to English students in Japan to fill in" is a sorely underappreciated format.
• Scotty from Star Trek was a good guy.
• That's an impressive number of legos.
• Tim Horton's put a baby doughnut inside a regular doughnut. With jelly. Why is this not a regular thing?
• "A Partial EM Algorithm for Clustering White Breads". I love reading arxiv:stat.
• Signs Bob Woodward probably regrets things now:
• When NPR doesn't find anything sane to what you're claiming.
• When Gawker photoshops clown makeup on you and suggests either you're stupid or a liar.
• When the Onion gets you with probably the best zing in a while.

Monday: So sleepy

Telecons = my sleep nemesis.  I even tried to pre-emptively bribe myself to get up early this morning by having doughnuts in the fridge.  Not great doughnuts, but one was a jelly doughnut.  Safeway makes reasonably decent jelly doughnuts. Raspberry filling.  The Platonic ideal of the jelly doughnut, made flesh.
Well, made into a suitable facsimile of that Ideal Jelly Doughnut.

In any case, today we get to play a fun game. What time is it? Adventure Question Time!

Why doesn't Obama go over the fiscal cliff and then make his own tax cuts?

Short answer:

Yes.  That's exactly what he's going to do.

Long answer:

Assuming Obama doesn't start bidding against himself (see every major policy debate run by Democrats since, like, 1312), he has a nearly unbeatable hand.  All tax cuts expire in January, so by doing nothing, he immediately can propose his own tax cuts, and cast the debate as "Congressional Republicans are holding tax cuts for middle class families unless the rich get their cut."  That's a strong argument, and will probably force enough Republicans to sign on board for a reasonable set of cuts.  

This then leaves the sequestration issue to deal with.  If we lived in a sane world, Congress would note that we can borrow money from people, and in doing so, make them pay us to do so (note that the interest rate on these bonds is negative).  This suggests that there's little market based pressure to "reign in spending."  Then, based on the principle that no law made by Congress can not be equally repealed by a subsequent Congress, they could just turn off that part of the old law.  It's dumb, and isn't actually economically a good idea.  This is basically Krugman's Barney Frank's theory of Weaponized Keynesianism, where all government spending is bad and detrimental to the economy, unless that spending is through the military, in which case it only creates jobs and supports the economy.  Since this is obviously contradictory, the logical solution would be to increase government spending (noting that we're effectively being paid to do this) in a way to support the economy by buying things.  It's like going to war, except instead of blowing shit up, we build a thousand bridges.

The final issue that needs to be resolved at this point is the counter-point to the "God/boulder too heavy" analogy above.  All appropriations must be done by Congress in a finance bill that the president signs.  However, some jackass came up with the idea that we should have a debt-ceiling, under the assumption that government borrowing is somehow always bad (see above re: inflation adjusted treasuries illustrating that this is a lie).  The debt-ceiling is a way for the current Congress to inhibit the appropriations already decided by Congress.  This is so fundamentally stupid, I can't come up with an analogy.  Abandoning this would solve lots of issues, and would probably restore the credit ratings that we had four years ago.  Credit ratings are largely based not on how much you owe, but on the likelihood you'll pay the money back.  The debt-ceiling makes this repayment unclear, as if Congress prevents the issuance of debt to fund some current operations, it may be forced to not may a scheduled repayment.  Since like the entire world economy is based on the fundamental concept that US Treasury bonds are safer than any other investment vehicle, disrupting this fact once would basically fuck everything up.

However, this again assumes that we haven't elected lunatics and morons to vote on issues they simply don't (and actively won't in some cases) understand.

Cute red pandas to clear your head.

Calm path: four seasons.

I don't even know what this was supposed to be.

And no stromboli tonight either. I was too tired to spend an hour or two making one.  And then I spent an hour and a half writing a post on economics that is likely to not be read.  Go me.

• This is what I miss most at Christmas.
• Everyone misses Team Rocket. And Misty. She's better than all Alternate Mistys.
• I am less excited about the Hobbit than I was for LotR.  Three movies is really long, and the book isn't really that long at all.  It just didn't sit right with me.
• Natasha posted a pile of awesome this evening, and I'm linking to my favorite of the set.
• Did you not get enough economics today? This one is about robots (in a fashion).
• Finally, HuffPo fundamentally misunderstands how to show a recipe.  When the text describing the step vanishes randomly, and the slideshow pictures are at the lowest resolution available for 1994, you should stop trying. Or start.  Whatever. Your recipe presentation is bad, and you should feel bad.