I almost never check my Sitemeter statistics because (a) I blog because I enjoy it and (b) the low numbers are usually depressing. In any event, I clicked to see my traffic levels for the last week and saw an enormous abnormality: I had over 1,400 visitors on Saturday, September 15. Now when I almost never get such large numbers- I don't do porn, although I will post the ocassional naughty picture of some hot women- and, since I don't have the premium Sitemeter account, I have no way of knowing from whence this traffic came. Can anyone out there help me? Is there some way to track down where the boost in traffic came from? Sitemeters only goes back 100 clicks.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 01:46 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Apparently, some of the pagans who don't worship at the altar of Gaia, the godess most likely to bitchslap us because the US didn't sign Kyoto, have managed to bend our great green Earth to their will. How else to explain what's in this post? Extended excerpt:

Global warming alarmists have repeatedly warned us that if we don't act now to stop global warming, we place our lives at increased risk.

Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, for example, wrote: "Many American coastal communities may face more intense storms as the oceans continue to warm in the decades..."

Others, such as Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, claim that global warming is a "major factor in the increasing number of Atlantic hurricanes."

Since the planet has warmed since the end of the Little Ice Age in the mid-19th Century, one might expect, based on Staudt's and Holland's warnings, to have seen a rise in -- I don't know -- maybe the frequency and intensity of storms hitting American communities.

But we haven't.

In fact, right now, the continental United States is in the midst of its fifteenth longest sustained period without a hurricane strike. (For purposes of this post, a "hurricane strike" refers to a hurricane affecting the continental U.S. The eye of the hurricane may not necessarily have made landfall, but there will have been hurricane force winds on land.)

It is not the first such extended hurricane strike-free period in recent years.

In fact, four out of the 15 longest periods without hurricane strikes (that's about 27%) have occurred since 1983 -- when the planet was presumably in full overheat mode. Lengthy strike-free periods extended through 1983 (1105 days, ending with Hurricane Alicia), 1995 (700 days, ending with Hurricane Erin), 2002 (1084 days, ending with Hurricane Lili) and 2007 (688 days and counting).

Nothing to see here, just move along.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 12:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And not just with the everyday stuff, either. More of the "happens once a year" stuff. More specifically, my wedding anniversary, number seven if you're keeping track which, of course, I am. Seven years of being married to a warm-hearted, wonderful woman who smiles and laughs and endures my, err, idiosyncracies as best she can. Seven years of happiness that I could not have imagined before I met her. I hit life's lottery and convinced someone too good for me that I was the one for her. And to this day, she'll tell you that she's the lucky one.

Let me borrow a few words from a John Denver song:

Your kisses that I live for,
your love that lights my way.
The happiness that living with you brings me.

It's the sweetest thing I know of,
just spending time with you.
It's the little things that make a house a home.
Like a fire, softly burning,
Supper's on the stove.
It's the light in your eyes that makes me warm.

So that was my weekend. How was yours?

Posted by: Physics Geek at 03:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Interesting discussion going on over here at Vox Populi about the plusses and minuses of high intelligence. The comment thread is large so I haven't read them all, but I found that this particular comment by Vox really hit home:

It's always interesting to witness the blindness of the 2 SD crowd, who don't seem to understand that 3-4 SD intelligences see them as being every bit as stupid as they view normal people. I'm not a gambling guy, but I would bet $500 that Dawkins has an IQ below 3SD.

I had the benefit of knowing two people in the 5 SD+ range pretty well, which is one reason why I never got overly carried away with my own intelligence.

I've long been used to being the smart nerdy kid, getting flogged for that little bit of social outcastery many times growing up. I always knew that I was brighter than most of the dicks who took delight in pummeling me. Even surrounded by other nerds in college who also majored in physics, I felt that intelligence were a footrace, I could keep them in sight. A couple of them might be way ahead, but none of them would disappear from view. And then I reached graduate school, whereupon I was reminded of just how smart someone really could be, and how stupid I was by comparison: I met Bo.

Let me state for the record that I came to know just how inferior in intelligence that I could be to another person. I was completely outclassed in every way in terms of raw, native intellect. If our brains were in a footrace, I wouldn't have even laced up my shoes before Bo would have accepted the trophy, gone home, taken a nap and then come back to run again. And he would have finished first, second and third against me. With only the two of us running. It was a completely humbling experience. However, everyone should experience such a thing once in while to remind you that no matter how good you are, there's always someone faster, stronger and much much smarter.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 11:47 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Notwithstanding my previous usual geeky post, I'm well aware that today is the sixth anniversary where some evil worshippers of a Cult of Death rained destruction, terror and death on this country. Each year on this day, I feel anger, a deep burning anger which can only be quenched with the blood our enemies. I want this country to wage war against its enemies in such a horrific, disproportional way that when some camel fucker says, "Hey Achmed, let's go kill some Americans", his friends silence him out of fear. I want these would be rulers of the world to wake up crying in sheets soiled with their owned terror excreted urine that the US is coming to get them. I want those medieval death merchants to fear us in such a way that they never, ever again think that attacking us is a good idea.

I still remember that day. I remember my friend popping his head over my cube wall and telling me that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. I remember standing around a television set with another 50 or so people, watching an image made fuzzy by a lack of any cable or antenna. I remember watching a broadcast from the Pentagon when the jet hit that building. I remember watching people jump and fall from the tops of the Twin Towers. I remember watching those towers fall down. And most of all, I remember those ass suckers in the Palestinian settlement cheering and passing out candy, celebrating the deaths caused by their goat fucking friends.

Yeah, I remember. I move on and keep living, but I remember. And I will never forget.

Ace and Misha have their own worthy posts on this topic, as do many others around the Intertubes today. And I wouldn't want to forget Bill's post, as the graphic masthead on his blog serves as a constant reminder to what happened, and should never happen again.

Update: And let's not forget Mike at Cold Fury, who provides us with some great links to go along with his analysis.

Update: More links from Bill.

Update: Be sure to check out this post from Billy Hollis. Follow the link to the video.

Final update: A little excerpt from the Bleat back when it happened:

Gnat is rubbing her eyes; I put her down with Winky. She coos and gurgles and sheÂ’s off to sleep. I think: in the New York of her lifetime, there are no Twin Towers. This sort of landmark subtraction has no parallel.

ThereÂ’s not a single part of this story that doesnÂ’t induce wave after wave of nausea and horror.
...
So when I heard a plane overhead tonight, it was wrong. Turns out they were military jets circling around, securing the airspace. Just heard an unusually loud one, and I flinched; what had been an ordinary sound, an ordinary annoyance, was now a dire portent. Is this the future? Fearing the sound of every jet?

HELL no. I am not going to live in fear. They want my freedom, my peace of mind? Come and get it.

I won't do your work for you.

Update: Okay, I lied about the previous update being the last one. However, I feel so angry and sickened at what Pam links to here that I want to vomit. Via Strategy Page.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 12:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So Weekly World News has gone the way of the dodo. Bummer. It was perfect bathroom reading material. My favorite supermarket checkout headline from WWN? Famous Psychic's Head Explodes! Probably a little less famous than the Bat Boy cover, but still entertaining.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 10:19 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Mike is back posting at Cold Fury after, in his words, "the unimaginable horror of this summer's mutiple personal catastrophes".

I can't begin to imagine what he's been through, but it's good to have him back. And I really like the Chris Muir created image of Christiana at the top of the blog.

Posted by: Physics Geek at 08:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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