Perhaps skywave propagation? (See also E-skip.)

CB radio operators sometimes experience the right weather conditions for this to occur; using ionosphere propagation to communicate over long distances is known as "shooting skip"!

Kuraine - Singularity

Thanks insomniasexx!

[Trump's election shows that] it doesn’t matter if your leader is a liar, a philanderer and a narcissist. It doesn’t matter if he is cruel to the weak and bigoted toward the outsider.

[Clinton self-righteously portrays the election as] us enlightened few against those racist many; us modern citizens against those backward gun-toting troglodytes.

WHICH IS IT, MR. BROOKS? WHICH IS IT?

You can't in one breath say "Trump destroyed the morals of (my favorite) party" and in the next breath say "criticizing the morals of people who voted for Trump is 'triablism'"!

Grace passed away last night. Bye, little friend.

Describing people protesting racism as a "lynch mob" is really something special.

Our chickens do fly. They definitely prefer to just run around but if one ends up far away from the flock they'll fly over to hang with their buddies. When our rooster gets away he'll fly when chased -- once I was chasing him through the woods and upon reaching a clearing he flew up about 15 feet high for...maybe 50 feet or so? Definitely far more than a 1 foot tall animal can jump.

I think they figured this out around 16 weeks old; Pig (aptly named) attempted to fly from their brooder box to the kitchen table because we were eating pork chops and she wanted more.

I don't think she's arguing that you should be friends with weev -- you're right, neither of you are in the same tribe and neither of you want to be in a tribe with each other. She's arguing that since she's already in a tribe with weev that she's better off maintaining a relationship with him rather than trying to kick him out of their common tribe or, more likely, removing herself from the tribe, as that seems to be how that sort of thing typically ends up.

Nowhere in this paean to St. Augustine is there argument or evidence that all this lovey-dovey changed anyone's opinions one iota.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/23/conversion-via-twitter-westboro-baptist-church-megan-phelps-roper

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-white-flight-of-derek-black/2016/10/15/ed5f906a-8f3b-11e6-a6a3-d50061aa9fae_story.html

Outliers? Maybe so. From a personal perspective, though, my views on most political and social things have changed completely over the past 10 years, and I'm disgusted by some of the positions I used to argue pretty strongly for. I can definitely say that I would not have been able to make that change if I wasn't around people who took other viewpoints and, often unintentionally, educated me on a lot of stuff.

I dunno. I don't think I'd be friends with weev, but I do think that long-lasting social change has to include changing peoples' minds.

Buffalo Trace is what I typically recommend to people who want to try bourbon. Elijah Craig and Bulleit are also good (albeit a bit pricier). Four Roses is a blend of whiskeys and has some really complex flavors, if that's what you're after. I don't drink a lot of Irish whiskey but I have a bottle of Bushmills that is quite nice. (Don't ask me about scotch; it's incompatible with a grad student salary.)

Birds

Annie re-joined the flock on Sunday and moved back inside Monday. We thought it was just one bird (Pig, an apt name) pecking her, but it seems that at least a couple others are also guilty. (We brought Pig in when we took Annie out.)

She was supposed to go back out again tomorrow with some Vick's on her head to keep the other birds from pecking her, but today when we got home she'd made an absolute mess of her cage and banged her head up again, poor thing. I think a mouse made its way into our basement/walls and the sound of its claws spooked her.

So now she's sitting on the arm of the couch and eating bits of dorito out of my hand. (We spoil her when she's inside...) I know she misses her feathered friends, but I don't know if I want to risk her getting pecked up again before her new injuries heal completely...

Life

Things have felt off for whatever reason lately (probably a combination of stress, too much work, and trying to take care of the people and animals in my life). Today I finally regained my motivation for technical writing, so I'm trying to finish up Yet Another Floating Point Explainer for my students to read.

Recently cracked open my Pictures for Sad Children archive and wow, that has just gotten better with age. I hope the author is doing well, wherever they are now...

Edit Been thinking about my two project cars out in the barn (well, one project, one accident repair) and wondering when I'll have time to get them moved to the basement and fixed. I especially feel bad for the project car, as its body is in great shape but the previous owner made an absolute mess of the engine. Shame to see it sit and gather dust.

Research

I have an undergrad student assistant! I have no idea what I'm going to have them work on!

I desperately need to take some time to do actual thinking about my work, but I doubt I'll be able to do that this week. It's frustrating to know exactly what I need to do next and to just not have time to do it.

I spoke with my advisor about publishing on Arxiv.org and she liked the idea! Hopefully I'll be able to get my paper up there soon so people can finally read it.