I have always had a had a difficult time with the use of "Icthyosaur."

I mean, come on.."icthys" is Greek for fish! Of course when you are a big bad-ass marine reptile some taxonomist just had to steal the prefix for reptilian use. Enough word games.

Icthypod? Amphisaur?. Nope. The fossil's existence was already known and named well nigh.

I am sure that this transitional form between terrestrial and marine reptiles will do for reptilia what Tiktaalik did to bridge the divide between fishes and tetrapods.

Well, Tiktaalik did nothing to convince the irrational mind to accept naturalistic evolution. C lenticarpus will surely have the same fate.

Certain religious belief systems are not only demonstrably in error, but are injurious to the rest of us that would like to be good stewards of the earth.

The fact that we have even the diversity in the fossil record that we have yet seen astonishes me. This needn't have been so.

Every time evolutionary science offers up an arrow that points toward greater understanding, certain segments of society clutch their feeble shields and hide behind them.

In Nature today...

No, not the esteemed science journal, but in my very backyard.

Okay, this is about natural beauty. Way back on 11.05 I tossed in a sentence about planting some bulbs. Here is a quick rundown..I had 660 bulbs at the beginning of my autumn planting, and with today's modest output, I now have but 250 left to plant. Planting bulbs is a great way to get started in gardening.

I think that I have spent perhaps ten hours of aerobic intensity gardening in getting the plots ready, depressing the bulbs, and covering them over. I tamped things a bit as well. All looks good.

Once all bulbs are in ground, I will add mulch here and there as some of the plants are just zone hardy for this area.

All the varieties I planted are not hot house hybrids, but flowers as found in the wild from my native New Hampshire USA, to the mountainous regions of Turkey. Barring any really crazy weather events, the planting looks well done. I have been gardening since before I can remember--my great grandfather had me planting vegetable garden seeds at no later than 2 years of age.

I fell out of it as school and work intervened, but have now spent seven years back in the garden. Of all the types of therapy that one could choose, gardening and exercise are especially rewarding.

I am not really a 'personal anecdote' kind of guy, but I do have my passions.

Back off Seinfeld, or solve this tensor equation!

Jerome seems to believe that he is somewhere on the autism spectrum.What is this, some sort of coming out fortnight? Tim Cook, now Seinfeld.

Jerry, don't fuck with the turf of geeks. You dig?

Tim, your sexual preferences are fine as long as you stick to acceptable social mores. However, if you, Tim Cook come out again and claim that you too are somewhere on the continuum of spectral autism disorders, while you have the geek cred, coming out as gay points to you being socially boring ;)

In all seriousness, it is difficult to know just what Jerry has been pondering. Seinfeld claims that he is very literal. That's what makes for good comedy, not necessarily social blind spots. He further claims he never pays attention to the "right things" whatever that might mean. Maybe it is simply that Jerry is not getting any younger, and now lacks the mental nimbleness he may have once had. Is this a mid-life epiphany? An all too close look inside? If everyone analyzed themselves in fine detail, they would likely find all sorts of things in the DSM-5 that they believed applied to themselves. Self-analysis is certainly not for everyone. Put the DSM down, Jerry. You're okay.

I am watching you, Tim Cook.

Claims by Google, Apple, and Microsoft may be prepping an el-cheapo smartphone. Then the post gets all weird.

I am going to start with Microsoft. ComputerWorld is betting that the first Microsoft branded phone will be a cheapy. This is not likely to win converts from other platforms. Still, it is the only well-reasoned route Microsoft can take. Way back before Amazon released pricing data for the Firephone, I had set the price then at 150USD fully unlocked. The market has changed quite dramatically since then, and with the Android One platform already launched, there is little reason to opt over to a Windows device..at nearly any price. Microsoft is likely to do Hail Mary pricing in order to get any traction in the phone market.

I really wish them well. Nadella seems to understand today's ever shifting markets, but in order for a Microsoft phone to get traction, it is going to have to be a full version of Windows. That would certainly help. Cortana is pretty interesting, but that is not going to do it.

Moving in reverse order, Apple's iOS 8 suffers from battery drain issues. Apple pay = good, battery drain = bad. Of course there are legions of Android sites reporting on this, but The Faithful are bemoaning the issue, so it is likely to be true.

Speaking of battery issues, Google, you're up.

Google confirms battery issue as reason for Android 5, but says: "This issue has been fixed in the latest builds, and this issue is now considered resolved. Thanks everyone."Sure. I will wait until the fine folks over at XDA to confirm things before I install the OTA on my Nexus 7, and side load it onto my hacked up little L34C. I have done lots of damage to that phone as I learn--or try to learn--to write good compact code in Java. Is there such a thing? Nah. I learned how to write machine and yes, mostly Assembler as it is easier to figure out where one has screwed up than by parsing binaries. Of course, PLC programming is where most hardware engineers earn the software portion of their income, so we had to learn everything from machine to high level languages, such a C, Basic, etc.

Since Java syntax is largely derived from C/C++ syntax, if you can learn one proficiently, you can learn the other. I think one can go quite a bit further and state that coders either are, or they are not. Certain types of minds do not do so well in hard logic, and these people generally make crappy coders. People like me--in true propeller hat nerd wearing fashion--do not do so well where the logical rules are fuzzy, or altogether missing. I freely admit to not getting high marks in social cuing. Here is a telling example.

My mother asked me where my "wood chopping thing was?" I asked her if she was inquiring about a hatchet or an ax. I told her that those are the only two things I possess for chopping wood. She accused me of lying. I was not. I was blinded by the lack of rigor in her query.

She was actually asking me about the whereabouts of my chipper-shredder. This was a really unusual circumstance as I have to make sense out of a great many things that are not unambiguous and do so without error. But then..

I am still looking for a blog focus.

Oh, I am most displeased with Wall Street's reaction to nVidia's quarterly report. In after-hours trading last night, the stock was up errrrm..approx. 2.5%. Today, the stock is off 2.5%. nVidia's guidance looked pretty good, so I guess this is the "buy on the rumor, sell on the news" adage that often plays out on Wall Street. Whatever. Time should favor my nVidia bet.

Is Microsoft is now the most trouble free consumer mobile OS provider? Mebbe. This offer is sure to be time limited.

iOS 8 has manifold issues*, and the Android team has major battery issues. Hey, I would say go to a flavor of Linux, but that bird needs more time in the oven. Firefox--unless it is the FF browser running atop Android--is too new on which to comment. I will say that Firefox even on my pure Android tablet opens more sites than Chrome. Chrome's rather loose implementation of many HTML5 standards hangs on certain non-Flash sites. I have always disliked Flash/Shockwave(I almost typed 'hated'), but at an earlier time on the internets, it served easy animation purposes. Let us all go to SVG, and/or the JScript libraries for our neato stuff. M'kay?

At the moment, Microsoft is doing quite a few things correctly. Giving away Office for free on iOS and Android as well as almost assuredly making it free on Windows Phone is a great move.

In the phone space, Windows suffers from lots of lack of development. It works--and has GREAT battery life..are you listening over in Mountain View?--but it is clunky and even technology buffs do not seem to give it much love. In the tablet segment, where you can get a full Windows OS, it is unarguably the most utilized platform in the known universe. I have a Dell Venue 11 Pro, and it's really smooth and has a swappable battery. I use a keyboard with mine, but not one of those way overpriced accessory units.

I picked up a Logitech Bluetooth KB that was on a flash sale form Dell(imagine that) with an SD card reader on board for under 20USD.

Why people adopt consumer technology early never ceases to remand me that I am not like everyone else. I enjoy reader comments that take one side in a battle of non-wits. Just yesterday, I was reading a well balanced article about the advantages of this mobile(phone) platform versus another. One of the commenters stated(and I can add quotation marks as statements like the following burn themselves into my memory: "This is why I never bash anyone for what phone they use." I know that I live in a bubble, but really? That this statement even need be made is some kind of parallel universe thing. I can almost never be found via my cell. I only tote it when out of town.

It is abundantly clear that large swaths of American society have a pathological attachment to their mobile gadgets. Since there is no term in common use for this phenomenon, I am coining one now.

Mobiphilia n. a strongly negative, self-absorptive bond for cell phone technologies, that cause interpersonal strife, and/or other maladaptations, i.e. motor vehicle crashes.

There, now I feel accomplished..well, no, but it was fun.

*I know that much of the iOS 8 woes are linked to the iPhone 6, and just wanted my reader to understand that yes, I am aware of some things. Just not a great deal of them :)

Thanks Asus, and other useless junk. Politics. Really high-dome achivers. People DO vote against their own interests..or not understand them, or something.

Okay, I have mt rwo Nexus 7 tablets. One of them is absolutely trouble-free. The other one has--I would bet--a power button connection issue. What a crime. I got it for a friend and after much fruitless troubleshooting, have an RMA and new refurb. on the way. My thinking about buying refurbisehed technology devices is that the manufacturer actually goes through and checks things out which does not necessarily happen on an assembly line. This level of frugality has failed me only one other time, and that was when I spent 10USD on a fairly decent mp3 player. Again, I bought two, and one failed within hours of use. I did get a refund on the device, and I was told to keep, donate, destroy, or perform anything alse as I saw fit. I ended up taking it apart and desoldering the Ni-Cad AAA battery and replacing it with a NiMH AAA battery and a micro spade and blade connection. I have now had that little Sandisk player for well over five years.

I would have cracked the Nexus open but the RMA seemed the obvious route. I can solder SMDs to a small degree, but why when a replacement is but two days away. The company--an Amazon affiliate--did all the right things by pre-shipping me a new one while the other one is enroute back to them.

I do not know how Asus handles(mis-handles?) their refurb. program, but if the replacement unit is good, then we will all be friends again.

Once the warranty period is up on these things, I will have a go at the PCB if need be.

The mid-term elections...

What can one say? I know what can almost certainly be said and that is this: science and reason are the big losers here.

Here in NH, things went much better than nationally, but when you vote against something rather than for something, the seeds you sow aren't likely to grow into the plants you expect.

I voted for incumbents because once you deflate all the hyperbole, you may buy Tide or Downy, they are still owned by Proctor & Gamble. Why don't really brilliant people ever run for office? Surely since Jefferson we have had presidential polymaths, but there is precious little evidence to support such a notion.

No, I am not thinking that obvious geniuses like Stephen Wolfram run for office. Feynman, on the other hand, would have made a terrific candidate to watch, but he was too busy having fun NOT at other people's expense to have fun at other people's expense. It is pretty widely acknowledged the S. Wolfram has among the highest tested IQs of any living person..if not the highest. Because intelligence is very widely scattered throughout humanity, it is not uncertain that there are people that have never had a chance to even enter school at all that may have more raw brainpower than guys like Wolfram. I have a huge fascination with people of this intellectual power. Newton always fascinated me as he would perform thought experiments, physically carry the experiments out, devise new maths to quantify his results, and move on to something else that no one had ever thought of as even being an issue to be unlocked by the human mind.

This blog needs a focus. I need to construct better sentences. I am still achy and whiny from yesterday's soil toiling. I am going to drop in perhaps as 300 more bulbs tomorrow. Then I will something to whinge on about.

I voted..three times...now leave me alone!

Of course since politics really is not about differing agenda(I like not having to have figure out which archaic Latin plural to try and get by mt gentle reader) one should still vote. I would consider it my civic duty, but now that I have been cast out of the jury duty pool for being a witness for the state--yes, I know how unlikely that sounds, but there is a good reason--voting still applies.

Okay, so I voted once this election. In a representative republic like the US, one would hope that a majority of people would vote out of a positive vision for the future.

That shit ain't gonna fly.

It is money and fear that drive people's decisions. The candidates with the biggest war chests have more of an opportunity to keep pressing the fear button.

In New Hampshire--my fair state--the only race likely to be close if for the Senate seat. Neither candidate thrills me, but one of them seems to understand that continuing to despoil the planet is not a good long--or short--term thing. So, I have to make my own habitats for living things--that are not people.

At least I am operating in radio silence today. Cell is off, and home phone is unplugged.

There are others here that can field the nonsense. My ultra-secret NSA proof comm. device(Surrrrre)..nevermind.

3 November, 2014..The day when nothing happened.

Well, the Android team officially released Lollipop or 5.0, or..today. I have had my Nexus 7 in standerd snooze mode since 6 AM. I messed with the table a bit today, but haven't charged it since Saturday afternoon. I watched a little video on the tablet, and used it for email, and a bit of web browsing. Maybe three hours total of really casual use. In regular snooze mode now for ~10 hours, the battery level is at(checking now) 56% with 11h 55m and 44s. of estimated remaining time. That seems way better than reports I have read ion the web. Perhaps the Asus refurb. gods gave me a fancy new and better battery.

Of course, wi-fi is--and has been--active as I was hopeful of getting the OTA upgrade today.

The crazy weekend weather missed us there was snow to the south, snow to the east, and snow to the north of us, but other than bone chilling winds and cold temperatures, this locale got off relatively unscathed.

I am certain that news was made today, but I was out of all loops.

The weather has turned..it is the reason for the hat. Other Sunday tech. device messing.

As of posting time it is 38F or 3C. The wind has been howling up to 45MPH/72KPH. It feels much colder due to the relatively fierce winds. Needless to say, it has been primarily an indoor day as yet.

I rooted my sub-30USD LG L34C a while back. The big limiter does not seem to be the 512MB of RAM, but the amount of eMMC storage..a whole 2GB. I made a couple of new partitions on my microSD card. Using a couple of programs--along with root access--I am able to move stuff around with some difficulty. It works just fine, but it is hardly drag and drop in all cases. I am just starting to learn about proper file associations. I have an app that automates much of this, but you learn nothing of value using a software shortcut. The phone is still quite fluid and acceptably fast given the hardware.

I was going to root my Nexus 7, but since the device should be getting the push update to Lollipop tomorrow, it might be prudent to wait a bit. I have Gigs of apps to install on the Nexus, but I will wait until after the update and install one at a time. I did grab an "On The Go" cable, installed "Nexus Media Importer" with a 128GB USB drive, and I will use that and 'the cloud' to keep things running smoothly. We will see how that goes.

I can see me hacking the file system, as it is not as simple to use as it should be. This is a matter of easily moving and having access to things across non-volatile storage solutions. I can see spending some time on XDA(Android developers site and forums) picking some brains and adding my own tiny bit of knowledge if I gain some ;) I have already learned more about the Android OS than I ever thought I would.

There needs to be a better solution for across storage media moving without breaking links.

I still have no idea as to what direction I want the blog to take. My whole idea sets are as rudderless as my mind is. The only issue with that is while being able to work on several things simultaneously is an asset in the real world, it is a giant liability in trying to find a primary focus for the blog.

While I was out in the backyard, I fed a woodpecker suet right out of my hand. That was only a hour or so ago. That was kind of cool.

I am going to find something to read, eat some food, and hit the rack early. I have a huge personal/professional bit of news that is almost inked, but I will remain mum until it goes through, or goes kaput.

Nov. 4 cannot arrive quickly enough..What is going to kill you?

Yes, that is election day here in the dis-United States of America. There is so much crazy talk on what is, let us face it, a two-party system that is really more of of a one party system with slightly different shades of color.

I have made no secret of the fact that I am represented by no political party, but small differences in initial conditions can result in large differences over time.

No. You are not going to have to suffer through the relevant points in chaos theory from me.

People--at large--are so poor at statistics that they believe the garbage about ISIS/ISOL being a huge threat. On this blog we do statistics. This is a fear free blog. Since YOU and me too, are 8x as likely to be killed with a cop's gun than you are to die via a terrorist attack on US soil, we should be clamoring 8x as much to disarm cops than to worry about terrorism. Are we? Not that that I can tell.

there's a fun breakdown about causes of death here.

A little perspective shows us that taking better care of our personal health is THOUSANDS of times more important than terrorism. You are 1,048x more likely to die in an auto wreck than via a terrorist attack.

This is why people vote against their best interests. By and large, people in the US are lead much more by fear, than by reason.

Even without a hard statistical analysis, one can see that some kind of universal health care is a most important concern IF large swaths of people can be lead to a more healthy lifestyle. Terrorism, on the other hand, should be a non-starter.

No number fudging here, just a much less fear ridden perspective

Oh, and lest anyone think I will not be voting, that notion is errant as I will be at the polls by 8 AM on Tuesday.