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The Case Against James Comey
An interesting article about the man we love to hate, although this article focuses on his decision to hold a press conference about the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
We are probably stuck with Comey for another 6-7 years. Encrypt and patch.
A good day at Yellowstone
Geysers are notoriously finicky and some at Yellowstone take years or decades to erupt. Fan and Mortar Geysers are typical of the breed. They have a dormant and active phase and tend to stay in a phase for at most a few years before transitioning. Currently, they're in the midst of their active phase, trending to more frequent eruptions. The current frequency this year has averaged around 5-6 days with periods between major eruptions of between 4 to 9 days. This phase may continue to next year, but who knows?
Anyway, I had heard from one of my coworkers that the geysers had last erupted around 2pm on August 28. The beginning of September 3 was day 5 since the last eruption. I had the day off, so I thought I'd give it a try, assuming that they hadn't already gone off yet. I slowly worked my way over, first checking the times on some of the more predictable geysers of the area (there are around 50 active geysers in this particular area, the "Upper Geyser Basin" including Old Faithful, the most famous geyser in the world and a uniquely consistent performer for a large geyser). It was a bit overcast and cool, a bit too warm for the thin parka I wore, but not quite warm enough for T shirts.
I arrived at Fan and Mortar around 7:30am (MDT). There were already three people watching who informed me that the geysers hadn't gone off yet (it leaves puddles when it does go off). Two had radios going. The area has an avid fan community, the "geyser gazers" that keeps track of the geyser eruptions via radio. The US National Park Service also monitors the channel and records significant geyser eruptions. It's quite active. During the 3+ hours that I stood watching the geyser build up, there were three other eruptions reported, including one of the nearby Riverside geyser, another predictable geyser that goes off just shy of two times a day.
I soon started speaking with the neighbors and getting myself acquainted with this peculiar system. There are a number of things that make Fan and Mortar very unusual. First, they have a complex dynamics between the two geysers even over the course of a few seconds as energy is transferred between geysers. I could see this in how the various vents (there are around a dozen between the two) would come to life (either steaming or sometimes spurting scalding water a foot or two). The two most important vents of the group were the Upper Mortar Vent and the Main Fan Vent. Heavy splashing in either of those two is a usual indicator of an incipient eruption of the pair. The geysers are closely connected and you won't get a major eruption from one without something from the other.
About halfway down this page is a labeled photograph of the two geysers. The river behind them is the Firehole River which runs through the most extensive and vigorous geyser fields in the world. Upper Geyser Basin is further upstream than the other major geyser basins and close to one of the three known magma bulges of the Yellowstone hotspot. There is also this discussion of the dynamics of the two geysers:
Let me walk you through the basics of Frustration and Mortification, ehem, I mean Fan and Mortar Geysers. These two erupt together and when active, the intervals typically fall every 3-7 days. Here's a labeled photo for reference.
Normally, Fan goes through cycles in which its vents turn on in a certain order. After a quiet period (during which Mortar may splash lightly from Bottom or Lower), River Vent turns on. River actually erupts horizontally, away from your perspective in the photo above - so figuring out when River is on either involves using heavy steam as a proxy or walking 100 meters up the path to the bridge where you can get a clear view of it. High and Gold begin to splash and are considered on when the splashing becomes nearly constant. Finally, Angle turns on with a swishing sound. The cycle ends when River turns off again - a single cycle can be anywhere from 20 to 70 minutes, typically.
Every once and a while, an event cycle occurs, simply meaning something different happens. Here's where things get complicated. Main Vent is not a friend to Fan's other vents, and splashing in Main Vent often leads to pauses in activity from the other event. Here's a timeline for what we might consider an "ideal" event cycle:
Main Vent splashing.....River Vent on.....River Vent pause.....River Vent on.....River Vent pause.....River Vent on.....no more Main Vent splashing.....High/Gold Vents on.....Angle Vent on
The final component needed for an eruption is called lock. In lock, High Vent erupts steadily to a height of 1.5-2 meters (5-6 feet), and Gold/Angle Vents splash continuously. An eruption may be initiated from East or Main Vent, or in Upper Mortar. Soon all the vents take off. Upper Mortar reaches 23 meters (80 feet), Main Vent hits over 30 meters (100 feet), and East Vent shows off an impressive horizontal throw that will absolutely get you wet. The following photos are from a particularly strong eruption on August 12th, 2014. Note the drenched people and the beautiful jets from Upper Mortar.
Anyway, back to my story. I came as an event cycle petered out and say on a bench. About 9am after watching nearby Riverside go off, we noticed a pause with almost all activity, particularly that of the River Vent on Fan Geyser, going quiet. One of my cowatchers stated that the pause was rather long, meaning it might just lead to an eruption later that day. He advised I stick around. Despite getting hungry, I decided to heed his advice. Just before 10am, one of the observers saw a bit of water splash in the Main Vent. I was thinking, dude, it was just a little splash. About 15 minutes later it did it again.
Now, you might ask yourself, what's the draw in watching a pile of rock emit steam and water for three hours? Even when the geysers aren't doing the real thing, there's a lot of interplay and activity. It's always doing something. Fan is the main performer here with six major vents running in a line across its mound. River Vent faces the Firehole River, of course, and provides the main indicator of the "event cycle" described above. The three vents across the top, Top, Gold, and Angle Vent all spurt steaming water and often rob power from one another. Then opposite the river are Main and finally East Vent which are the main soakers of the audience when a major eruption happens.
Meanwhile Mortar Geyser groans and hisses ominously. You could always tell when the Upper Mortar Vent was steaming because of the deep growl it emitted while nearby Bottom Mortar Vent would near continuously hiss even during the quiet periods.
So there was always something going on. After 10am, the Fan Geyser vents on the top (Top, Gold, and Angle) resumed activity and soon, we spotted the second singular splash in Fan's Main. That was faithfully radioed in at 10:15am. By this time, I noticed that we were building up a small crowd. Soon after, Top started erupting continually indicating considerable activity. But the other two by it, Gold and Angle would only erupt fitfully with Angle having very little activity. As noted above, we were now looking for "lock" all three vents going simultaneously and continually. The crowd kept building up to I'd guess around 100 people.
Some point after 10:30am, we got a key escalation with water splashing out of the Upper Mortar cone. Shortly after that, lock happened. That's about when the build up of the video above started. You can see Mortar Geyser on the left side with sporadic splashing and the mound of Fan Geyser behind and to the right with steam shooting into the river from the River Vent and the three vents on top steadily erupting to a few feet (the "lock" of course). Then there are larger spurts from the Upper Mortar Vent which shortly cascade into a full-blown eruption from every vent in the video (at 10:48). I was between the spot of the video and the main brunt of the East Fan Vent so I got wet, but didn't get a face full of water. People cleared out of that space quickly.
In addition to my parka, I also wore a hat. That turned out to be a great idea since I would have gotten completely soaked otherwise. The eruptions are hard to video because they generate a huge cloud of steam (and silica rich spray too, hard on lens!) quickly, hiding the details. But moving around, I could see the vents and where the water eventually fell.
Just as with the build up, there was some weird dynamics with power shifting between the two geysers. One geyser would surge with its vents and the other fade a little, back and forth.
I think the build up and eruptive dynamics make this one of the most spectacular geysers in the world though you have to be very lucky to see it erupt, if you don't have the time to sit around to wait on it. The local Old Faithful Visitors Center would have information on recent Fan and Mortar activity and they would be good to consult, if you're just traveling through.
After about ten minutes, the eruption stopped and the geysers entered a heavy steam phase. At that point, I headed off to bed.
Related: check out this awesome video.
My Other Journals
I was most active at Kuro5hin but its server's entire data center was decommissioned. Lawrence Calvin Foster III promised to put up a read-only archive of the site but it's been long enough that we are all convinced that he had no off-site backups.
https://dontsuemebro.com/section/Diary
dontsuemebro is intended to replace kuro5hin but so far it's just a few of us diehards.
http://advogato.org/person/MichaelCrawford/
I journal only rarely at Advogato these days but I was quite active during the zeroes.
http://www.warplife.com/mdc/books/vancouver-diaries/
I was intending to publish a dead-tree book of these when Bonita finished school and moved out West to join me. What I actually got was informed that she was divorcing me on my second visit home.
That refers to the Canadian Vancouver but it includes some of my time in Sunnyvale and San Jose, California.
Jill Stein Expected to Face Trespassing/Vandalism Charges
Bitcoin the TV Show
New streaming show 'StartUp' rides bitcoin, fintech crazes
Call it a case of art imitating life.
The shadowy world of computer hackers, long an object of fascination in movies and popular culture, may be about to take a new leap as an entertainment vehicle. As hackers, anonymous data leaks and cyber intrigue fill real-world headlines, a new television show called "StartUp," featuring similar themes, launches on Tuesday — but with an added twist.
The 10-episode drama will debut on Sony Pictures' streaming platform Crackle, and centers around three strangers who find themselves enmeshed in a digital currency scheme (hello, bitcoin!) while fighting the FBI. "StartUp," which includes actors Martin Freeman and Adam Brody, has already released its first episode for viewers to watch on Reddit.
GenCoin, the fictional digital currency used in the show, loosely represents bitcoin, currently world's largest digital currency. Given that it's difficult to regulate and trace, some say it's an ideal vehicle for criminal activity such as money laundering.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cordcutters/comments/4zeuo6/startup_episode_1_exclusive_reddit_premiere/
Charlie Hebdo vs. Italy
Charlie Hebdo slammed for 'lasagna' cartoon on Italy earthquake victims
Controversial French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has provoked fresh outrage with its response to last week's devastating earthquake in central Italy.
The latest edition of the edgy French publication features a cartoon entitled "Earthquake, Italian-style," which depicts victims of the 6.2-magnitude quake with varying degrees of injury, each likened to an Italian recipe. A severely bleeding man is labelled "penne with tomato sauce." A woman with a badly bruised or burned face is "penne au gratin." And a pile of victims pancaked beneath a collapsed building, their legs sticking out from the bloodied rubble, is "lasagna." The cartoon prompted a swift response in Italy and online.
Oh nooooo! We can't pretend to support free speech any more! They've gone too far this time!
Top Comedians 16.09
By request, these are our top resident wiseasses, clowns, and wit smiths:
By count: Nick Funny Mods %Funny wonkey_monkey60635% aristarchus59625% c0lo58522% Ethanol-fueled43113% VLM3809% bob_super35624% maxwell demon35520% Tork29720% frojack2574% Bot25337%
By percent: Nick Funny Mods %Funny Anne Nonymous16960% Buck Feta19755% Bot25337% DECbot12137% skullz10137% Gaaark21536% wonkey_monkey60635% JeanCroix9232% jimshatt9530% davester66624129%
A tip of the hat to @wonkey_monkey: and @Bot: for being the only ones to make both lists. Their asses are indeed wise.
Looks like I'm going to have to up my game if I want to make the list next time.
DUPE is my trigger warning
This submission was already run one year ago, with an extra link to the Diane Rehm show.
The Coddling of the American Mind
The Atlantic has some new coverage of the University of Chicago's rejection of trigger warnings and safe spaces that has hit the news this week.
Trump To Meet With Mexican President Ahead Of Speech
Trump To Meet With Mexican President Ahead Of Immigration Speech
Now that's interesting.
Q about math writing on SN
I've been kicking around a few mathematical ideas for a number of years and think I'd like to throw them out there similar to how NCommander is planning his development of a keylogger. Unfortunately, my current writing is very symbol heavy, though it mostly relies on normal calculus and algebra symbols. I suppose I could dump it on arxiv.org, though that has visibility to the entire math world, and their expectations are probably going to be higher than the relatively informal mess I'm planning with this project.
Anyway, to outline, way back when (back in the late 90s), I had this hare-brained idea that since I was studying some graduate level algebra at the time, adding a differential to the polynomial-style algebras I was studying would be neat. I soon realized in a naive way that I had a collection of differential equations of a complexity between what are termed "special functions", solutions of very special equations with unusual or even unique characteristics and general functions which are claims made about fairly arbitrary systems with modest restrictions on the equations and/or solutions. I thought at the time, that an intermediate system might have some of the interesting math of the special functions but with a much broader application.
I have off and on over the years read and explored this idea, slowly expanding my understanding of this subject and a number of related topics.
It has turned out to be a huge rabbit hole with all sorts of weird influences from a variety of fields of mathematics such as complex analysis, dynamical systems, algebra, geometry, number theory, and even analog computing. While I would make an attempt to make this material understandable, it would be going to some really esoteric destinations, I think. But I would try to write so that the ideas could be accessible to a knowledgeable layman who has kept up with the series.
Also, if you'd be interested in this, then please speak up.
