Public enemy:
Last year it was a great white shark that had Martha's Vineyard on edge. This year it's a big rapper.
« May 2005 | Main | July 2005 »
June 30, 2005
Known unknowns:
Science Magazine has compiled a list of the top 25 big questions facing science. These are the questions that are believed to be fully or partially answerable in the next twenty five years.
They contain the profound, like "What is the Universe made of?" and "Do deeper principles underlie quantum uncertainty and nonlocality?" but most are related to the life sciences and genetics.
It's going to be an interesting 25 years. (link via Boing Boing)
Un-clear:
As if there wasn't enough confusion about the causes of global warming, scientists now admit that cleaner air will add to the problem.
Shades of gray:
Jeff Jarvis chews over the wisdom of journalist's privilege in protecting sources. It's a good post; thoughtful but inconclusive. And refreshing in it's acknowledgment that sometimes there are no easy answers.
Too much:
I can just about manage a 1 gig iPod Shuffle - no, strike that, I can't manage a gig worth of music without a display and playlists. Unless you're going for extremely high bitrates, less is more. 512 is plenty.
Don't get me wrong, I love my Shuffle. It's especially great for workouts, light and unobtrusive. But it gets pretty frustrating clicking blindly through over 100 songs.
Now Apple reportedly is looking at producing 4 gig Shuffles. That's a hell of a long workout.
No Mas.
No frills:
XP Starter Edition will only open three windows at a time. I wonder if that includes pop-ups?
Coffee underground:
You can still roam from car to car on New York's subway trains. Soon, that might not be the case, which is fine. It always struck me as unsafe.
But banning coffee on the subway? And after all those improvements in the sipping lids?
Maps and stats:
Google map hacks are now legitimate.
Buy-in:
I''m not sure I buy into Joan Vennochi's PsyOps interpretation of party differences (or lack thereof) on the war, but it is an interesting take. And she's right when she writes, "At some point, Democrats must confront the devil, and it is not Rove."
June 29, 2005
Damage control:
Longhorn update: Microsoft, apparently unhappy at the progress of its next generation OS is shuffling the management deck. Maybe recycling some old Windows ME code will speed things up.
What I did on my summer vacation:
Falmouth Police break up a prostitution ring on Old Cape Cod.
Unwitting masses:
How do 10,000 people spontaneously assemble to mount a violent protest? It seems to me that technology, in this case cellphones, are enabling anti-government protests in China. And as I've noted before, this genie is out of the bottle.
Protests like this are the rumblings of a social revolution in the country as the past meets the future. Can the Chinese government contain it? Maybe. But only if they want to become a giant dysfunctional archaic state like North Korea.
June 28, 2005
Hottest of the cool:
Internet authority Time Magazine has posted its list of the coolest websites. Many blogs are included, but shockingly, I didn't make the cut.
I guess it's some consolation that I did make the miscellaneous section of the list at Boston.com.
Gold mine:
Congressional policy briefings prepared by the Congressional Research Service, a non-partisian, public funded arm of congress, are generally considered a good source of facts, figures and reliable analysis on important issues. But only Congress had general access to the reports.
Until now, that is. You may want to bookmark this site: Open CRS, which has made the CRS reports available to the public over the internet. This site 2 Act also searches available reports.
Which came first?
Michelle McPhee raises one question in this article, but avoids another more obvious one: Is the Catholic Church doing organized grass-roots anti-violence work in those heavily Catholic neighborhoods where some of the worse violence occurs?
June 27, 2005
Drain clog:
Thankfully, my high school yearbook photo isn't available online. Otherwise I'd surely be included here.
Hard boiled:
This local couple sets the bar pretty high.
Controlled creativity:
Mitch Kapor may be on to something with the Chandler project. It likely won't be the end-all solution to everything that's wrong with the internet, but it, along with Firefox, could be the start of the post-Microsoft phase of computer innovation.
By way of analogy, Microsoft's interface and application interoperability standards have become the Bayer aspirin of today's technology. They're accepted as generic. It took monopoly domination to get here, but now innovators working within those standards can begin to offer some interesting alternatives without scaring everyday users away.
And, at the risk of pushing the metaphor envelope, it helps that Microsoft is now the aircraft carrier trying to out-manuever the smaller, faster open-source patrol boats.
June 26, 2005
Heaven and hell:
Time interviews a prospective suicide/homicide bomber. It's a sobering look at the psychology of the young men who are willing to blow themselves up, along with their enemies and innocent civilians.
It's also interesting to note that it was the insurgent strategists who arranged the interview as part of an information campaign, apparently designed to intimidate and demoralize us.
City views:
Big brother comes to Chelsea, thanks to homeland security money.
Stay calm:
What do experts suggest you do if you happen to encounter an extraterrestrial? Number 1, don't panic.
That advice and more can be found in this apparently played-straight mainstream news story. Maybe all the real journalists were away on vacation. Or, maybe the San Francisco Chronicle has been taken over by alien pods.
Number 9 -- what to do if an alien being confronts you -- is my favorite, written as if this is an everyday possibility. Classic stuff. Resistance is, of course, futile.
Decisions, decisions:
It's going to be a big week for the Supreme Court.
What's right with Kansas:
So this is the newspaper of the future.
Watermelon bombs:
26 killed in Iraq today; mostly through suicide/homicide bombings, but in one case explosives were strapped to a dog.
Bombings are picking up, it seems. Could it be that the insurgents sense a imminent change of domestic sentiment? Because I sure do.
As far as a plan goes, here's Rumsfeld on Meet the Press:
“The terrorists have no vision. They have no Ho Chi Minh. They have no Mao [Zedong]. They don't have any cause. Zarqawi [the rebels' leader] is a Jordanian a foreigner. They're killing Iraqi people and they're opposing an elected Iraqi government. That isn't any long-term formula for success.”
That sounds to me like a 'hope for the best' strategy.
UPDATE: Make that 33.
Underground:
Indira Lakshmanan contributes a compelling story on the plight of miners, particularly child miners, in the mountains of Bolivia.
Zoom zoom:
Check out Carpundit's Grand Prix photos. (Is that a blogging press pass?) I had no idea that there were luxury boxes at the speedway, but it makes sense. And, I learned that there are actually Renault fans. Who woulda thought.
Blogging for dollars:
It would be easy for me to be righteous on the topic of product placement in blogs, I have a pretty well paying day job, and I don't need the money. I do this for fun, and not for profit.
But then again if someone offered me big money for the site, like eight figures, as happened to a friend a few years back, I'd be posting whatever I was told to post. So the fact that local bloggers are accepting money for humping products is no big deal to me. Sure there should be disclosure, but really, it's a personal decision, and let the reader beware.
Like Jay, though, the thing that gets me is the pittance they sold their editorial voice for. Five bucks? Come on.
June 25, 2005
Irreversible:
Dawn breaks on Marblehead as the recording industry begins thinking about getting into the file sharing business.
DC always looks better in black and white:
Prime parking:
I was out of town on business all week, and on return, very surprised that Fan Pier had still not been completed.
Actually, the most scenic parking lot in New England has, by now, become part of the background. The original owner of the site, Anthony Athanas, didn't live to see development begin, and Menino, I think, was beginning to wonder if he would.
June 18, 2005
Cruel to be kind:
Ironically, two members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were arrested for animal cruelty in North Carolina. PETA has suspended the pair (one of whom was characterized by the group's leader as "the Mother Theresa of animals") and is investigating.
Thin Red line:
Howard Dean's outbursts are either playing into a Republican strategy or are an effort to make other Democrats look good by comparison according to this ABC News analysis. "By talking crazy, he makes [the rest of the party] seem sane."
In any case, whatever Dean is trying to do, the consensus seems to be that it isn't working.
Union grievances:
The EU appears to be cracking apart at the seams. It's not pretty.
Podcasting killed the video star:
Winamp and especially old versions of Music Match and Real Player were too quirky, slow, and complicated to be used by all but the most determined or technically savvy consumers. Then came iTunes, simple and consistent, and now everyone knows how to burn, catalogue, sync and play computer music files.
Now Apple wants to do for podcasts what it did for music. (What is a podcast? Look here.)
Podcast software already exists, but it isn't for the faint of heart. A few years ago, at a blogger's conference, Adam Curry wished out-loud that he could have Chris Lydon's radio show automatically downloaded to his computer each time it came out, and then be ready for listening on his iPod each morning. The newest version of iTunes, due in July, will reportedly do all that.
Kids these days:
College students today aren't going broke throwing their money away on drugs, booze or cigarettes. Worse; lattes. This WaPost story on the subject even includes a coffee calculator so you can tally up your daily Starbucks expenditures.
Reporting on the boss:
Can the Globe, a diversified corporation, keep the business pages on the straight and narrow when it comes to covering its own interests? The naming of James Kitts as head of the paper's parent company underscores the question. Kitts was behind the still unfolding sale of Gillette to Proctor and Gamble.
Globe business columnist Steve Bailey dives right in with a hilarious piece on his new boss, "I take it all back."
Gloom and doom:
Foreclosures are up - by almost fifty percent - in Suffolk County. Hopefully this is only a correction.
Of course high-end condo prices are too high in the city, but people in the neighborhoods have also been riding the valuation wave. A collapse would be bad news not only for fat-cat developers but for the little guys too. Think economic downturn, layoffs, higher municipal taxes, crime wave, abandoned properties, etc.
Long march:
Ever wonder why some poor pols end up at the back of the parade, while others march up front? You might be shocked to learn that it has to do with money. Or you might not be.
June 16, 2005
Out of work:
The Human Cannonball was fired. And that's just the half of it.
CommonTunes:
Here's another directory of legal free music. This looks like a good one.
Counterfeit:
One in seven drugs sold worldwide is fake according to the FDA and others. I would have guessed more, based on all the bogus emails for online drugs.
Less Rembrandt, more me:
David Brooks looks at what's left after the death of middlebrow culture.
Sending a message:
Here's a jury with a broader vision of their role than the one that heard Michael Jackson's case.
Air-time:
A hundred people all jabbering away within a small confined space is not an attractive prospect. But sometimes it is convenient to make a call while in the air.
How about this: You can only use your cellphone in a designated area in the back of the aircraft. That way if you had to make an important call, you wouldn't force your seat-mates to be part of the conversation.
June 14, 2005
I have to laugh:
Sure, oversight and accountability are critical in insuring that the various levels of government don't all secretly get together and trample on our civil rights. But don't underestimate the potential of interagency rivalry to achieve the same ends.
Censorship:
The profit potential of getting into that market must be very tempting, but it's still disappointing that Microsoft is cooperating with the Chinese government efforts to lock down the internet.
One last lesson:
She lost the school's laptop and unless she pays for it, there'll be no high school diploma. I'm guessing that after reading about it in the paper, someone will bail this kid out.
If so, she'll have a bright future in public relations.
But in the end, the $300 bucks she owes is small potatoes compared to the millions that fall through the cracks on education.
June 13, 2005
Mysterious behavior:
There are some topics that science should just keep it's nose out of and leave to the arts.
Speed bump:
A survey indicates that most highway patrol officers will give a motorist ten miles over the speed limit before pulling them over. Sounds about right. The Governors' Highway Safety Association disapproves.
The Institutional Voice:
LA Times editorial pages are being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the the 21st Century.
June 12, 2005
China travel log:
I promised some folks notes and photos from the China trip. Here they are. Be warned, it's a long post.
China Travel Log
Wednesday (Boston)
The UA flight left Boston at 8 AM. It’s now 3 AM Boston time and we’re over the Sea of Japan in full sunlight. Locally, it’s 3 PM. Just a few more hours of flying time.
The first leg of the flight, from Boston to San Francisco was smooth, at least after coming out of the storm over the Northeast. The weather was nice in San Francisco (some fog over the water, but otherwise clear and warm) and the take-off uneventful. I didn’t get a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, but I did get a glimpse of the downtown area as we passed over.
This is a long flight. I’d expected to have a chance to get up and walk around, but sleeping aisle passengers deterred me in that effort. A small but tasty lunch and a snack. I had a couple of glasses of wine and went down for a few hours. But with all the flying today, I managed to finish George Gilder’s latest book on Foveon. It was only slightly less boring than the flight.
An hour or two out of San Francisco, I caught a brief view of the southernmost Aleutian Islands. Then, nothing but water and clouds. I was hoping to get a look at North Korea or Salaekin Island but too many clouds. My window shade is about the only one up, which I expect is annoying to some. But how many times do you get to fly over Siberia?
Most passengers are Aisian. The pilot got a round of applause upon landing. Our aisle mate woke up and as we were taxiing we talked. She was from Shanghai and was studying in Atlanta. On break, she was visiting her family who she hadn’t seen since the beginning of the semester. We wished her good luck and headed towards the exit.
Friday in Shanghai
We got our of the airport smoothly, meeting our driver Peter outside customs. On the drive to the hotel, he was very curious about American basketball. Two other members of the tour, Larry and Katheleen were from Phoenix and the Suns were the topic of the conversation.
We met our tour guide, April, at the hotel and checked in for a night’s sleep after walking around the neighborhood. I took a few photos and posted them to the internet before turning in.
Saturday in Shanghai.
Breakfast was interesting. Everything from eggs and bacon to salad, cold cuts and noodles. Lots of smoking at the tables.
On the bus we met Irene, our charming and well spoken local guide.
It was raining pretty steadily. We first went to the Temple. On the way I caught a glimpse of the everyday habits of the residents of Shanghai.
Many people were commuting by bicycle and moped.
At the Temple we saw several Buddha statutes and in the courtyard people stood in the rain to make offerings.
The Temple was closed down by the communists when they took power but apparently many of the valuable and historic items were secreted away by monks to prevent them from being destroyed and were now restored to their original positions.
Next, to the old city. We walked through a traditional garden and then went to a restaurant for a Chinese lunch. Some of the tour group, especially the older folks, weren’t very accustomed to the exotic food, but I enjoyed it all.
We wandered around the old city for shopping. Irene tried to find me a cigar store, unsuccessfully. Some people came up to me and looked me over - head to toe, as if I were an oddity. One guy smiled broadly, apparently amused at my appearance, showing a gap in his front teeth. Irene explained that the area was a domestic tourist area and the curious folks were probably from out in the country, not used to seeing westerners. It used to be that way in the city until recently, she explained, but now with tourism growing, it was no longer the case. But we didn’t see many westerners in the city.
Later we took a tour of a silk factory, learning how silk worms are harvested and then had the ‘opportunity’ to buy some goods. We were a captive audience. This was our first experience with the Chinese hard sell. The doors close behind you and salespeople attach to each visitor and point out how “very beautiful” each item is. At one point, a salesman grabbed a tie I was looking at and exclaimed “100% silk” turning it over to show me the English label which said 100% polyester. Very annoying. But Mary bought a silk comforter. At least we think it was silk.
After dinner in the hotel, we were back on the bus for the ride to an acrobatics show. The show was put on downtown in a theater. The performers were very young and completed sets, which included plate spinning, juggling, human pyramids, etc. The finale involved motorbikes inside a giant round cage.
On the way to the hotel we drove along the Bund which was lit up. Great lights and cityscape. Shanghai is bubbling with potential. There’s building everywhere. Electricity is in the air.
Saturday – Leaving Shanghai, arriving in Yichang.
We checked out early and got back on the bus for a ride to the Bund. Lots of photos. Great city views.
Another tour of a factory, this one a silk rug weaving factory. After realizing that I wasn't going to buy anything I had a nice conversation with a salesman about philosophy and China.
Then to the airport, not the International airport, but a domestic airport. Flight was on Shanghai Airlines. I’m not a confident flyer but the plane was brand new and the crew was professional and efficient. I did get a little nervous when I though I smelled something burning in the cabin. Eventually I realized that it was the smell of incense, pleasant when I realized that the plane wasn’t on fire.
A little over an hour to the city of Yichang. Baggage came eventually and we boarded a bus for the city.
Flying in I could see rice paddies and it appeared to be a rural area. On the road from the airport I saw pigs and oxen along the roads.
After a half an hour or so we came to the town of Yichang. The city was urban but somewhat squalid. Very different from Shanghai. We toured a depressing museum of artifacts dug up at the site where the river would flood as part of the three gorges project. Not a great museum.
Then a walk in a park on the banks of the Yangtze. People were friendly but very curious.
