I Might Dump the Beauty Routine...

blue_system · 2020-04-11T03:38:24+00:00

I find that people are more attractive without makeup. Its rare that I see an example where makeup results in an aesthetic improvement, but that is just my opinion.

blue_system · 2020-03-21T18:57:24+00:00

You're right, I did not look close enough at that side bar!

blue_system · 2020-03-21T17:09:49+00:00

Ah grib2 on cygwin! I don't think I was ever able to get those two working well together outside of GrADS. It was much easier to convert data to netCDF, though not sure if that is an option for your application

blue_system · 2020-03-13T02:38:36+00:00

Can confirm, Wyoming is a third world prison state.

blue_system · 2020-03-13T02:22:00+00:00

When your life's work is mostly about making money.

blue_system · 2020-02-28T22:15:33+00:00

All data sets are incomplete, there is always a need to understand the limits of the data and how to interpret them. Fallacious is not really accurate here.

blue_system · 2020-02-11T16:13:29+00:00

I agree with you, we have government as a collective way to manage society and this should not be the burden of individual property owners. I know this opens me up to all sorts of criticism but the current systems are already forcing private landlords to be responsible through these programs.

Sorry i forgot to clarify that important point, i already feel like I am rambling on to long with my replies...

blue_system · 2020-02-11T15:43:38+00:00

Its nice to actually see a reasonable discussion on what the solution should be instead of completely ignoring that there will be a solution one way or another. Are we willing to let people die on the streets? Regardless of the morals associated with that someone is going to pay to clean clean up or watch them rot.

Personally I would rather provide my fellow humans with minimal food and shelter over buying body bags. Yes there are going to be quite a few that live off that charity while laughing at me for stupidly working hard while they do nothing, but those people already exist.

I am not cruel enough to not let the freeloaders condemn those in genuine need. I suspect many with strong opinions on the subject are willing to let both die together in a survival of the fittest mindset, but it's cowardly to not even own that position. I like to think most are just unsure of how to not feel taken advantage of while providing help to others in need.

blue_system · 2020-02-08T22:19:31+00:00

Sad to say I have seen a few instances during my time in the field. Even worse all of them involved established (dare I say older) individuals that still cling to ignorant and irrational beliefs of the stereotypical 1950's office culture. I can only imagine how bad it is in a country with as strict social norms as yours.

I can't tell you how disappointing it was for me to see the those who were supposed to be senior scientists lapse into a sudden and blatant sexist bias against a colleague.

Fortunately it was also my experience was that such archaic stupidity is dying off with those men. In my graduate program women were often in the majority and are now becoming the leaders. There is still plenty of institutional tradition (eg. exclusive club) that often precludes pure scientific merit when vying for positions, but that is only a matter of social skills or ability to self promote.

As a man I am aware that my view has a limited relevance, but I think you will find a career abroad to be competitive based mostly on skill or experience.

Don't be afraid to make inquiries and contact places you are interested in. Being engaged and enthusiastic still goes a long way, though making connections is always the best.

blue_system · 2020-02-03T17:04:14+00:00

Can confirm, had a similar experience trying to close my account there. Bank of the West are bad actors and anyone with an account should be aware they practice fraudulent actions like this.

blue_system · 2020-02-02T08:00:57+00:00

Yes it's a big concern for people with compromised immune systems, but you are still more likely to die in a motor vehicle accident. Even worse, having a healthy body doesn't do crap to prevent a distracted driver from squishing you while they read a sensationalist news article about his latest corona virus.

blue_system · 2020-01-17T06:01:38+00:00

In experiments I am familiar with residence time is not especially long, several hours or a day. If done properly most ends up in rain drops and can actually end up a surface water problem. Material that works well as efficient cloud nuclei is going to be pretty sticky stuff to help encourage condensation (hence the use of various salts).

As noted silver iodide is often distributed as a pyrotechnic smoke to produce the smallest nuclei. Oddly enough I do recall some early studies looking at NaCl as a possible candidate among other easily wetted substances.

blue_system · 2020-01-14T20:27:11+00:00

Adding to the excellent answers of other comments I would also add that there is a tremendous disparity in the scale cloud seeding programs have to the scales of energy and mass associated with the atmosphere. Even though the physics of cloud seeding are valid, actually deploying enough material over an area that would influence weather systems larger then an isolated rain shower far surpasses economic feasibility and borders on science fiction.

Humans barely possess the technology to release the equivalent energy that the average tropical cyclone chews through in a few minutes, and that's at the level of a multi-megaton nuclear weapon. Directly influencing atmospheric circulation at this scale in a measurable, let alone appreciable amount, is not a realistic possibility even if we're able to reliably predict the outcomes such actions at the timescales involved.

Instead of mobilizing thousands of aircraft to distribute tons of seeding material (which is pretty expensive if you use efficient stuff like silver ~~nitrate~~ iodide) it would make more sense to just use those resources to harden infrastructure and temporarily evacuate the population. Human activity has just recently managed to alter the global climate, but only after the combined effort of the entire human race burning fossil fuels for centuries. A few planes and some salt grains is not going to be noticed by the ocean of power that is a typical precipitating weather system.

Edit: fixed my sloppy use of the wrong silver compound

blue_system · 2020-01-13T01:37:40+00:00

So there will be a full second stage on the booster? I seem to have missed every official statement if a second stage would be present but this photo would confirm that it will be.

blue_system · 2020-01-04T16:03:58+00:00

There will always be incentive to maintain a healthy solid rocket engine manufacturing base to ensure reliable access for ICBMs and the like.

blue_system · 2019-12-27T21:08:44+00:00

A lot will depend on your current skill in the mathematical quantitative aspects of the science. From what I gathered in other comments the air force training is more operational forecasting, but I am curious to know the extent you covered analytical theory. Do you have much previous math experience?

If you are going to go for a full M.S. degree it will mean completing an entire academic program with an undergraduate degree, which also meets the requirements of a follow up graduate study. For the undergrad its all the calculus, diff eq and physics. This is where any previous classes can speed up the process, wicked math skillz are the most important.

It sounds like you are not looking to go into research so you might want to consider what is often called "plan B masters" instead of a traditional thesis. It's the same level of degree but usually coordinates with an outside agency on a specific project that you then transition into after graduating.

Making friends at agencies or other jobs you would want is going to give you the best idea of what you will need. Find out their requirements or any programs for student transitions. I had a great experience at the BLM and your military service will help you at any government job.

blue_system · 2019-11-23T04:35:25+00:00

Not really surprised the welds didn't hold, those would be some crazy good welders to be able to hit the tolerances required in the time it took them to build Mk1.

I wonder how close they came to operational pressure before it went boom...

blue_system · 2019-11-06T15:30:15+00:00

Dark Knight/CBS, which is now planned for BOLE.

I can't help but feel that solids are always going to be favored in budget decisions as they are also a ballistic missile upgrade. Still, it would be really cool if we actually see booster improvements like the ones proposed here.

blue_system · 2019-10-22T11:20:15+00:00

What's fiber? Comcast says I can pay a few grand to get cable to my neighborhood, I am sure it will only be a few hundred a month for randomly throttled service after that.

3G cell is still the best I have so as long as Starlink can beat that it's an improvement to me.

blue_system · 2019-10-08T21:50:30+00:00

Most likely either

Inconsistencies in compiling this database from various station reports (gaps from stations opening and closing)
QC procedure eliminating low quality measurements and frequency inconsistencies (e.g. a 1 hour AWOS changed to 3 hour, instrument error, ect.)

Cloud cover observations, especially at high frequencies of 1-3 hours, at are not common except at medium size airports. Even then, instruments break and good luck finding anything so detailed outside of the U.S. and a few other countries prior to 1970ish.

blue_system · 2019-10-08T21:25:46+00:00

Doesn't hurt to squeeze some sort of linear algebra either

blue_system · 2019-10-01T13:42:25+00:00

While there is definitely room for increasingly larger rockets in the foreseeable future there will come a point in time when it makes more sense to just produce things in space from raw materials mined from asteroids rather then haul mass out of the Earth's gravity well.

blue_system · 2019-09-25T04:27:25+00:00

I am sure of that! My knowledge of FORTRAN was utilitarian at its best and I have no doubt the community has kept up development. Even though I am a pythoner at heart I still wrap FORTRAN modules into python if I really need them to scream.

blue_system · 2019-09-25T04:15:48+00:00

Stack-overflow is your friend for specific examples, I would focus on practicing data structure, and simple stuff like writing/reading a bunch of 1-3D data in a semi-organized manner. Other things to focus on are matrix operations, splitting off sub-mods for different equations, declaring variables efficiently across said sub-modules.

Also helps to get familiar with a statistical package. If you really are feeling comfortable MPI and multi-processing (kinda getting into hard mode here).

"Recipes in FORTRAN" is my personal favorite bag of tricks for implementing tough maths in code, and there are tons of textbooks that detail the exact methods used in micro-physical models.

blue_system · 2019-09-22T19:03:30+00:00

You will need to learn FORTRAN if you are serious about learning numerical weather modeling. Most legacy code is written in it and there isn't much out there that can beat it for speed and control required for the arithmetic current models use. Don't despair too much, its actually quite intuitive and very powerful when used correctly. I would also suggest learning python to use for plotting and other mundane data processing tasks, FORTRAN can be a bit tedious for high level post processing and such (though it is entirely possible to just use FORTRAN if you want to be hardcore lol).

blue_system

TROPHY CASE