A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

8 March 2015

Spring forward, super pi, and Carville lights up Helena

Daylight saving time. My computers automatically reset their clocks. That left me setting five wall and two stove clocks, four watches, and five cameras. So I “lost” an hour with the spring ahead, and used a good part of another hour setting various devices to the second using my GPS receiver as a reference. The U.S. Naval Observatory has an online readout of Universal Coordinated Time. Subtract six hours for Mountain Daylight Time.

Update. All of the clocks in my cameras gained two to three minutes over the course of a year. That’s not good enough if the time a photograph was made must be known to the minute or second. The solution: photograph your wristwatch or better yet, your GPS receiver. That will allow you to apply a correction to the time recorded by the camera. The wristwatch’s time can be compared to a reference standard such as the GPS receiver.

Super Pi Day. Saturday, 14 March, is pi to four decimal places if written 3/14/15. Next year it will be 3/14/16 which is closer to 3.14159. To celebrate, the National Academies Press is offering a 31.415 percent discount on its Teaching Math Collection. “Use code PIDAY now through March 21st to lock in these irrational savings.” The PDFs can be downloaded for free.

Democrats’ Mansfield-Metcalf dinner. Never shy or subtle James Carville delivered a ragin’ Cajun speech to a thousand Montana Democrats in Helena last night. Carville is always entertaining, and probably was worth enduring the eight speakers who preceded him. Most political activists enjoy these hours long sit down ordeals. I don’t and therefore never attend them. This event was called the Jefferson-Jackson Dinner until not that many years ago. Will it be called the Schweitzer-Baucus Dinner 50 years from now? Probably not.

Update. Intelligent Discontent reports:

There was a table set up at the entrance with Hillary stickers, signs and pins. One insider told me that the state party was already strongly backing Ms. Clinton. There was one young man going from table-to-table passing out Elizabeth Warren stickers. Good for him.

Democrats backing Clinton have a political death wish. It’s possible that with Sherrod Brown or Martin O’Malley she might beat a Jeb Bush-Scott Walker ticket. Bush v. Clinton would turn the dynasty factor into a choice of Dubya for First Brudda or The Big Dawg for First Hubby (and de facto Vice President). But if her competition is Scott Walker-Marco Rubio, she becomes the past, reminds voters of Lady MacBeth, and loses and brings down the reforms and legacy of the New Deal with her. Democrats who fail to see that are suffering from identity politics poisoning. I favor Brown-O’Malley or O’Malley-Brown. Elizabeth Warren should stay in the Senate.