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Pilot Patrick Smith writes an op-ed about flying in the modern age.
If, like me, you have an awe / terror relationship with the experience of being sealed in a pressurized, multi-ton slab of metal suspended miles above the earth while sipping wine and listening to music, you might enjoy reading it,
Horseracing was the country's number one sport back in the twenties and thirties. Now, it's an also-ran.
There's a move on to save the tracks by boosting simulcasting rights and allowing slot machines but there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm behind it. Rightfully so. There are other more important opportunities around town these days to save dying sports. Maybe we should be talking about slot machines in Fenway.
It took me a while to get used to screw-top wine but now I have one or two that I come back to. Carpundit got a bad bottle, which turned him off to the whole idea.
I think the first bottle of even a good screw top wine tastes bad to just about everyone. It's a subconscious thing. Stick with it. There are some good ones out there.
I do draw the line at boxes, though.
In the Andrew Square area, if you are on the Southeast Expressway heading north, there are two ways to get to Roxbury: get off at the old Southampton Street exit or use the new improved Big Dig-engineered overpass to Melnea Cass Boulevard. Needless to say, even with State Police pulling traffic on the new overpass, the old way, through city streets, is faster. Don't expect that to change.
In many ways, we were better off before the Big Dig.
If Willie Sutton were around today, he'd be living in DC and working as a government contractor.
How can we convince millions of Americans to switch to energy efficient light-bulbs? We probably can't, but Wal-Mart can, just by putting them on the shelf and pricing them competitively.
The new version of Windows should be all about security. We'll see. But there are some early signs of trouble.
An outsider running the Fire Department? This should be interesting to watch. From the outside, of course.
It's not what you say, it's how you say it.
Australia is taking on France in the high priced truffles trade. But one thing the French don't have to contend with is those pesky wombats. File under: I had no idea.
These are reposted photos, taken last year a week after the storm in a largely abandoned New Orleans. Here are the rest, if you missed them:
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
Part five
Part six
This is a good account of what was happening on the ground in the wake of Katrina.
in reviewing Jonathan Franzen's new memoir, Michiko Kakutani takes the author to task for his preening self-deprecation.
A memoir? I was thinking Franzen would have written another real book by now. Novelists who write memoirs are generally understood to have run out of ideas? He's a young guy who's only written three big novels, one of which was very good.
I guess that's it.
Chris Gabrieli gets a free campaign ad in the Globe's op-ed page where he writes about accountability. If you didn't think a Democrat had a chance in the Governor's race, you should read it. You might change your mind.
Karr-wreck indeed. For the DA and for the credibility of the cable news industry.
Caleb Weatherbee has spoken and he says we should expect a cold snowy winter here in eastern New England.
The window for writing Pluto articles or op-eds using puns in the title is officially closed. No more please.
The Caribbean festival went off well yesterday. The weather was good and the crowds big. Most importantly, there was no violence.
A dancer takes it easy after coming down from a float.
All the politicians were out. Did anyone else see Gabreli's tricked out ride?
This float was a little too high for traffic light poles and had to be taken down in Grove Hall.
Groups of kids wandering into alien turf have to be vigilant.
Everyone gets into the act.
There are more Festival photos over at Third Decade.
Tom Reilly decided not to take Chris Gabrieli as a running mate because he wouldn't release his tax returns. Or at least that's the story.
Joan Vennochi, with some help from campaign staff emails, puts together a timeline that raises questions about Reilly's rational.
The retail computer market is struggling. PC companies are having trouble defining their advantages. Dell has a laptop battery explosion problem. Microsoft has been working on its new version of Windows for years now, with little chance of delivering before 2007. And then there's the spam, the security breeches, the pop-ups the re-boots, the slow death of otherwise good computers by poorly designed software.
In all of this the end user has been taken for granted. So it's no wonder that people are cautious. Or buying Apples.
WILD has been a Roxbury radio station for as long as I can remember. Now it has been sold and will, unfortunately, go from being a city station to being a booster for suburban rock music fans.
Another obscure street gang gets a PR boost from the Herald.
Frankly, I'm a little surprised that The Globe would run a story that works so hard to humanize the alleged ringleader of a group of allegedly corrupt cops. Why such a sympathetic article, especially since it could have an effect on the jury pool when the case comes to trial?
The authors seem to have gained a surprisingly imitate level of access to the suspect's family. Most people in that situation tend to clam-up. Did the suspect's legal defense team facilitate that access and if so, should the reporters reveal that relationship? Just asking?
By the way, read this for where I'm coming from.
Bill Clinton is turning 60 and he's not happy about it. As a consolation The Rolling Stones are playing at his birthday party.
That's one way to feel young; surround yourself with really old people.
Eastern equine encephalitis doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but at least you can abbreviate it. Not so for the newest potential threat, chikungunya.
A suggestion to privatize the T is up on Blue Mass Group. It's an interesting idea but I don't buy the argument presented.
...by privatizing the T we can ensure that a private company, motivated by a need to make a profit will actually have an incentive to have faster trains come on time, professional and courteous staff, better service AND cheaper fares, increase ridership, and have a more comfortable better quality ride. Yet there are some downsides...
Complacency, government involvement in regulation, monopoly profits over the public good are among the downsides. A proposed solution involves re-bidding the contract every four years. That raises more issues than it addresses. For one, I don't think we'd get high quality employees in an environment where things change that often.
I also agree with the commenter who says:
...It seems very clear to me that "privatizing" functions of the government does *not* lead to better service, but does create a new class of parasitic entities that are every bit as prone to hackery and corruption as anyone else. And the profit motive does not magically lead to better service -- it can lead to crappier service as they pare down "unnecessary" lines, routes, and maintenance. Hrm, sound familiar?
What we really need to do is to make a stink...
Indeed. With the T, a government agency controlled by elected politicians, we get the system that we deserve, just like we got the Turnpike Authority that we deserved. Things don't change until we make a stink, and we usually don't make a stink until things get really bad. But having the discussion is a step in the right direction.
Jay has some thoughts on this as well.
Parking in the city can get contentious. Take for example that stretch of prime Beacon Street parking along the Common reserved for the for-profit media who cover the State House. Do you think anyone of those guys ever use those spots when the legislature isn't in session or for Christmas shopping or for dining at 9 Park? Now there's a great idea for a story. Inquiring minds want to know.
And I wonder how UPS, Federal Express, florists, and others feel, getting all those parking tickets just for trying to conduct business in a crowded city, all while the for-profit TV stations and media trucks pretty much park where they want, on hydrants, up on sidewalks, in the middle of the street, and rarely get a tag. Hey, there's another story idea, this one for the investigative TV guys.
I could go on but I think the point is made.
UPDATE: A reader asks where Globe (corporate cousins of the Red Sox) sportswriters park and if they ever bring their kids with them to the games? I don't have the answer, but perhaps there'll be an investigative piece on this as well.
The Lowell Police blog is up and running. In the comments to a post, Chief Ed Davis gives props to Left in Lowell as the inspiration. I would have thought it was BPDNews, but there's plenty of props to go around.
It's only going to cost us four and a half million dollars to re-re-re-re-re-inspect the safety of the Big Dig. Strangely, the company hired to do the job has been paid to do past Big Dig inspections. There's no conflict there, we're assured.
Meanwhile, The Globe reports that the co-chair of the Transportation Committee took campaign contributions from Big Dig contractors. They also note the $68,000 that Tom Reilly, heading up the criminal investigation, received from Dig interests.
I guess we should hire another outside firm to try to determine how much money was stolen from the taxpayers in the course of the project. That, I'd be willing to re-pay for.
Germany as a model for Japan? An interesting take.
I read Ray Kurzweil's book over the Summer and, despite the charts and graphs, I don't buy the wholesale change in human nature that he insists is coming in the next several decades. Sure, there will be scientific breakthroughs and sure, technology will see exponential surges. But how he gets from there to a global utopian vision I don't get. It's the people part that he misses. People always screw things up.
Not only that, according to Derek Lowe, Kurzweil also misses the mark on biological science.
The Denver Post has the lowdown on the JonBenet Ramsey case arrest.
Tom Reilly is disavowing the actions of staff members who tried to plug-in to the Killer Coke campaign. At the same time he says that he believes that the Killer Coke campaign is valid.
This is a great tactical battle. The Patrick campaign, with a little help from Reilly's staff, managed to make negative coverage of Patrick's past all about Reilly. Reilly is now trying to defend himself while trying to point the issue back at Patrick. It's a weak countermove but when the king is in check there are only so many options on the board.
UPDATE: It wasn't a Christy Mihos DOS attack but BMG did have some technical problems last night that prevented me from seeing that they took the plunge and endorsed a candidate. Guess which one?
Chris Cagle imagines quality local TV news. Here, he zeros in on the teasers:
When weatherfolks can give the whole forecast in the amount of time they pose rhetorical questions, that’s an insult to the viewer.
You know what PT Barnum said. And local TV news is about the closest thing we have to a circus nowadays. (Link via Universal Hub.)
Jay has an interesting post on the "Mission Accomplished" in Lebanon. It could be that the worse is yet to come.
(I was watching CNN last night and in Beirut, in celebration of the ceasefire, people were setting off huge fireworks. You would think that, after the bombing stopped, explosions would be the last thing anyone there would want to see and hear.)
In a couple of days we won't have Matt Amarello to kick around anymore. So what will happen to the ever-fashionable and loyal Mariellen Burns? Somehow I don't see her doing a 180 and becoming a mouthpiece for a Mitt controlled Turnpike. But stranger things have happened.
UPDATE: Asked and answered. Somehow you get the impression that these people were working for Amorello rather than the Turnpike Authority. Loyalty is one thing, but who was paying the check?
Another day, another Microsoft Windows security crisis. You really should get this security update.
Republican strategist Charley Manning rates the candidates. Not surprisingly, he'd like to see it come down to Patrick and Healey.
Gossip blogs are pushing the envelope and making money. Here's a list of some sites, linked and not (The SF Chronicle must have the link policy as The Globe.)
A beautiful day for a race, and for watching from the sidelines.
Everyone gets a round of applause. Is that?... no it couldn't be.
Fourteen billion dollars for a homeless camp but no money to pay for returning war veterans' education. Who do we blame for this? (Hint: it's not John Keaveney.)
John Keaveney is the best thing that could have happened to Modern Continental and Bechtel.
And speaking of supply and demand, I guess it makes sense for Delaware North to hike ticket prices for those red-hot sellout Celtics and Bruins games. Not.
I would have thought they would be giving those tickets away for free by now, hoping to make their money on overpriced concessions. But maybe since basketball is now the official state sport they expect people will start flocking to the games.
Here's Om Malik's coverage of the Sprint/Nextel Wi-Max announcement. More here.
Jay Fitzgerald writes about a study that says that there is no oil shortage. High prices will spur higher production. But here's the caveat:
“This capacity growth would accommodate rising world oil demand so long as there are no major disruptions in the actual flow of oil, for political or other reasons,” said CERA Chairman Dan Yergin in a statement.
The idea that oil will continue to be plentiful is comforting but the bottom line is we don't control the supply; our competitors and enemies do. Price dependency in the US is bad enough but supply dependency "for political or other reasons," could be very bad.
Chevys are made in Japan, not Detroit, and Rolling Rock is no longer made in Latrobe, but now from the fresh mountain streams just outside of Newark.
Who's making decisions on technology policy? Increasingly, technologically clueless lawmakers.
The long hot summer may be a myth. Moderately warm temperatures may bring more crime.
Today is a big day for Apple product release watchers. Steve Jobs is scheduled to give one on his long keynote speeches at the Apple Developers Conference to introduce new products and highlight updates to the Mac operating system, the next version of which is named Leopard. Its always a secret what he'll unveil, but that doesn't stop speculation.
I suppose it's a good thing, but there is no real local news today. The Globe covers a spelling disagreement in the City Council and competitive games at local camps. Most everything else is from the file cabinet. The Herald covers a lifeguard lapse at Houghton's Pond and the closing of Dominic's Pizza downtown.
Back from vacation today. Unfortunately.
I suppose I'm luckier than the many people who don't get a vacation. The CSM looks at the potential for mandated paid vacations in the US and doesn't find much. So much for the French model.
The Singularity is near -- at least for bloodworms.
State Democratic officials are complaining to the Ethics Commission about the use of an official seal in one of Kerry Healey's TV ads. But Democrat Tom Reilly was also found to be using an official seal in one of his commercials (see if you can catch it.)
Forget the seals. What I want to know, after watching the ads, is where Tom Reilly got that tan?
Also, what does Christy Mihos' choice of lunch, a roast beef and blue cheese sandwich, tell us about the candidate? I don't remember seeing that option on the shelf at Christy's Market.
"Transactional lobbying." That's quite the term of art.
My attention was drawn to this six sentence Herald story, first of all, because it took two people to write it. But then I noticed that in those six sentences, the name of the gang was mentioned three times, and again in the headline and, on the web, once more in the title bar. You couldn't get better brand exposure if you hired a publicity agent.
Gangs like to see their name in print, even especially when it's for something negative. It legitimatizes them. So that's what's happening here, intended or not. The story could have been written just as easily in the Herald style, using the words 'thugs' or 'criminals' instead of using the gang-name.
(One more observation, of the six sentences, one is filler, referencing a completely unrelated incident in another part of the city.)
A pretty funny Smirnoff commercial. (via Queen Dee)
Howie Carr pillories The Globe over the memo story. Entertaining, but way over the top. At the same time, The Globe backs down but doesn't, having it both ways by standing by its story while questioning the credibility of its source.
The possibility that the memo is legitimate shouldn't be so quickly dismissed. Sure, this is a great development in the war between local newspapers. And then there's the battle between Modern Continental, Bechtel and the State over culpability. There's no shortage of competing interests here, and everyone is desperately leveraging the memo issue to their own ends.
But there's also the public interest, apparently lost in all the posturing and foaming at the mouth. Maybe the memo is real. Maybe not. It's an important question for how blame and liability will be assigned. Nothing happening in either newspaper now is contributing to getting the answer.
It seems that Bechtel has connections everywhere. Today's revelation that a company attorney is advising Gabrieli is not good news for Gabrieli.
Hotter than hell with the blower on. Actually, it's inching towards 100 in the shade on my back porch.
The usual rational for electing a Republican governor in Massachusetts is to counter-balance the overwhelming Democratic legislature. But this time around the dems have a real chance at the corner office, especially if Gabreli gets past the primary.
So what does this mean for the state GOP? It might mean gains in the legislature. But the opportunity could be blown. Jay Fitzgerald:
...Storming the State House bastille is not a 'short term' adventure. It's a long-term slugfest strategy of winning two or three legislative seats at a time -- and holding them. Mitt's all-out offensive in 2004 didn't work. Republicans need to be realistic -- and constantly aware that Independents now make up the majority in Massachusetts...
He also cites this post at GOP News that started the ball rolling. Dan Kennedy thinks it's a suicide strategy, noting that voters tend not to focus on smaller races. True, but the Big Dig is the wild card here.
Also, check the comments on this topic at Universal Hub. Still waiting for someone at Blue Mass Group to weigh-in.
So is this how it ends? Castro, who's 80, has ceded power to his brother Raul Castro, who's 75. Not exactly a mandate for the future.
An article in last week's New Yorker outlined fears that Cuba, post-Castro, will experience an uprising of the long suffering population. Some say the post-Castro era will be messy, with retribution and revenge against oppressive, tight-fisted government officials and sympathizers. Others, especially those in Miami, expect the transition to be smooth. And they expect to return to help it along. Which brings up another fear of Cubans, that the exiles will want to come back and pick up where they left off, displacing the population that has had to live in deprivation while the others were living well in Miami.
..."The day when Cubans will rise up is when the gentlemen from Miami arrive and try to appropriate peoples homes, and to give orders," one Cuban academic told [the New Yorker]....
Or it could work the other way with a huge wave of emigration from Cuba to Miami.
So there's plenty of potential for things to go good or bad. The US government has set up a transition team that's been working behind the scenes. Hopefully, they've been closely studying the things that didn't work in the Iraq government transition, so the same mistakes won't be repeated in Havana. No, seriously.
Movie critic Ty Burr has stopped expecting art from the major studios. Still, he would like to see a little craft every once in a while. In Miami Vice he did.