New Zealand climate

Thanks to NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research), C and I were able to dig through their wonderful climate data to figure out where we'd like to end up. We love all of New Zealand, and we're not really picky about location. Climate is a pretty big factor. We are starting to love the Wellington area more and more - Cook Strait is a bit on the windy side, but Masterton/Wairapapa looks more appealing every time we look. Close to Welly, but remote enough to be away from everyone :)

From NIWA: (http://www.niwa.co.nz/education-and-training/schools/resources/climate/overview)
The area we're looking at has about 1000-1500mm annually, 1800-2200 hours of sunshine annually, and a mean temperature between 8 and 18 degrees Centigrade.

Nice.

Politics explained (author unknown)

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.

LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

Math humour!

I guess this makes me officially a nerd, but I've been getting a real kick out of math humour just lately.
From this page: http://www.math.utah.edu/~cherk/mathjokes.html, we get such gems as:

'Noah's Ark lands after The Flood and Noah releases all the animals, saying, "Go forth and multiply." Several months pass and Noah decides to check up on the animals. All are doing fine except a pair of snakes. "What's the problem?" asks Noah. "Cut down some trees and let us live there," say the snakes. Noah follows their advice. Several more weeks pass and Noah checks up on the snakes again. He sees lots of little snakes; everybody is happy. Noah says, "So tell me how the trees helped." "Certainly," reply the snakes. "We're adders, and we need logs to multiply.'

"Life is complex. It has real and imaginary components. "

"A math professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep."

"This is a one line proof...if we start sufficiently far to the left."

"Do you love your math more than me?"
"Of course not, dear - I love you much more."
"Then prove it!"
"OK... Let R be the set of all lovable objects..."

"A topologist is a person who doesn't know the difference between a coffee cup and a doughnut."

"Statisticians probably do it."

'A mathematician, a physicist, and an engineer were traveling through Scotland when they saw a black sheep through the window of the train.
"Aha," says the engineer, "I see that Scottish sheep are black."
"Hmm," says the physicist, "You mean that some Scottish sheep are black."
"No," says the mathematician, "All we know is that there is at least one sheep in Scotland, and that at least one side of that one sheep is black!" '

'A team of engineers were required to measure the height of a flag pole. They only had a measuring tape, and were getting quite frustrated trying to keep the tape along the pole. It kept falling down, etc. A mathematician comes along, finds out their problem, and proceeds to remove the pole from the ground and measure it easily. When he leaves, one engineer says to the other: "Just like a mathematician! We need to know the height, and he gives us the length!"'

"It has been said that physicists stand on one another's shoulders. If this is the case, then programmers stand on one another's toes, and software engineers dig each other's graves."

"Cat Theorem: A cat has nine tails.
Proof: No cat has eight tails. A cat has one tail more than no cat. Therefore, a cat has nine tails."

"Q: Why did the chicken cross the Moebius strip?
A: To get to the other ... er, um ... "

"Math problems? Call 1-800-[(10x)(13i)2]-[sin(xy)/2.362x]."

"Q: How many mathematicians does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. It's left to the reader as an exercise."

"Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things, you just get used to them."

what kind of a programmer are you?

I'm ENFP... according to this site... "Actors, journalists, writers, musicians, painters, consultants, psychologists, psychiatrists, entrepeneurs, teachers, counselers, politicans, diplomats, television reporters, marketers, scientists, sales representatives, artists, clergy, public relations, social scientists, social workers.. Very creative and fun-loving, they excel at careers which allow them to express their ideas and spontaneity."

Woot!

banff day 4

During the morning it was more volunteer duty, but the afternoon was time for the poster session! For our 'one-minute madness' (a quick one-minute ad for your poster) we decided to do some Taiko, which quickly got the attention of everyone in the room. We then stood by our poster to explain our research.

We all went for a down home bowl of Miso Ramen in the evening at this place called Chaya. It was awesome!

banff day 3

This morning was more running around, and I stopped to take a picture of the beautiful sunrise... the alpine glow on Cascade and Rundle was just incredible.

banff day 2

I hooked up with my roomie for the conference, and as we drove into the hotel, there's that statue of a portley man pointing. Her comment was, "What is this, North Korea?!" I couldn't help but giggle. :P

I found myself as the shift lead, as the person originally assigned was stuck somewhere between Banff and Vancouver. Pretty uneventful, but lots of fun in talking with academics from all over the world, watching videos and such on laptops and just finding out about everyone's impressions of Banff (touristy but very cool).

This evening I was feeling pretty tired so I went to this delightful restaurant called Pad Thai. I just had a simple coconut soup and a bowl of rice, and it was very authentic. And then, I just went to sleep at the hotel. Yes. My life is so very exciting.