Tag Archives: wired

Thursday October 28, 2010

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It’s been a busy few days.

Monday Andrea and I went to Letterman. It turns out that he was taping two shows that day, so we got into the Monday taping. It makes me wonder why he was doing two shows since they had just come off a dark week. Maybe he is going to work three days a week now – he already tapes two shows on Thursday. The show was very good. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood after a week off. Charles Barkley was very funny, Gary Dell’Abate so-so, but the Kings of Leon kicked ass. It got cut, but before they played, Dave said something to effect of “The KOL are coming up and we here in the studio will get to enjoy a second song. You folks at home will only see the first one because, frankly, I don’t like your attitudes”.

Tuesday, we took Rosie for a walk to Prospect Park, then to the vet (about a 10 mile walk) to have them look at her tail which has been bothering her. We had just taken her to the vet last week for a checkup and the vet missed the sore on her tail. They had to shave a portion of it, the vet said it looks like its healing fine, just keep an eye on it. If it gets worse we’ll have to put some antibiotics on it and she’ll have to wear a surgical collar aka a cone. Of course, the shaving made it worse. By evening, she was constantly biting and licking at it.

I called the vet Wednesday morning, he wasn’t in, they said he’d call, he never did. It’s very difficult to get to our vet without a car, and I didn’t feel like spending three hours going there to buy their overpriced products. So, I went to Petland Discount, bought a collar and some antibiotic cream that has lidocaine in it to deaden the tail. Rosie did not like the cone at first, but finally gave up trying to get it off. The cream really made a difference in her agitation level. We had a showing last night, so I had to take her out for a walk while the realtor was here. The act of walking so irritated her tail that it took us 45 minutes to walk two blocks because she had to stop and sit until the pain subsided a bit. The weather yesterday was unbelievable. 72 degrees and about 90% humidity – it felt like August.

Today is a busy day. It’s going to be a sunny, warm day but the humidity has dropped drastically. Andrea and I are going to The Bodies exhibit at the South Street Seaport. I’ve seen it before, but Andrea hasn’t and the nurse in her is very intrigued. Then I have an interview and that will be followed by the King Tut exhibit at the Discovery Center in midtown.

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Get a bike with your name on it. From Geekologie.

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Unreal: Fox News claims Obama invoked racial segregation with his car analogy
After President Obama made the analogy that Republican politicians should have to ride “in the back seat” after driving “this car,” the United States, “into the ditch,” Fox News figures have tried to claim that Obama made an “offensive” and “appalling”  reference to racial segregation and “the back of the bus.” They have yet to explain why Obama would want to compare himself to segregationists and his political opponents to civil rights hero Rosa Parks. Read More at Media Matters.

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From Wired. How to hook your computer to your TV. It should be easier than it is.

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From Greg Palast at Truthout. Anybody who tells you that the money doesn’t influence coverage probably still believes in the Easter Bunny.

“Why am I picking on poor, little PBS? I’ll be the first to tell you they are the best you’re going to get on the US boob tube. And PBS has spared us embarrassing scenes of Anderson Cooper pretending to save an oily pelican while floating in a canoe with Bobby Jindal. But I expected more from a public broadcast system than a repetition of the oil industry’s self-serving propaganda campaign.

Last night, in a deep, serious voice, the PBS narrator told us, If BP had only paid attention to the warnings of experts and regulators, the Deepwater Horizon tragedy could have been prevented.

Damn right. And if PBS had paid attention to the oil story, maybe that too could have prevented the tragedy.”

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Sunday October 17, 2010

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Hatchet job. AP has sunk to a new low. Even the determinedly non-partisan Mike Allen says so in Playbook.

BREAKING FOR MONDAY PAPERS – “Poll: Many Obama 2008 supporters defecting to GOP,” by AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti: “[O]ne-quarter of those who voted for the Democrat are defecting to the GOP or considering voting against the party in power this fall, … according to an Associated Press-Knowledge Networks poll … The … interviews occurred Sept. 17 to Oct. 7.” http://yhoo.it/9iMnlk

–PLAYBOOK FACTS OF LIFE: A week-old poll, taken over THREE weeks? Disgraceful. Will be an item in Pfeiffer’s book. We wouldn’t even flag it except we know from coverage of an earlier shoddy AP poll story (the one where they AVERAGED ancient results and made it look like a new poll!) that TV will pick it up anyway.

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Why solar and other green energy sources face an uphill battle. From Greentech Media via Wired.

The industry needs to outline in clear, sound-bite-like blurbs how solar will become the affordable best option in the future. More importantly, the spokesman needs to dig up dirt on the fossil industry.

Things like:

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Tear down that salad Mr. Gorbachev! Red celery? Must be a commie plot. And celery breeders? What?????

Read the whole expose here.

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Monday October 11, 2010

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It’s Thanksgiving Day in Canada and Columbus Day in the U.S. The days are so much shorter now. The shadows are much longer now on the Long Meadow in Prospect Park as I take my morning walk with Rosie. The highest tips of some of the trees are starting to turn from green to orange, red and yellow. Even though it’s the most visually stunning time of the year, I find myself settling into my yearly funk, knowing the deadness of my least favorite season is approaching. I wish I could be a snowbird and escape the dreaded winter for a few months every year.

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My grandson, Andrew, at the pumpkin patch.

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Here’s one of my favorite parts of the paper from today’s NY Times.

Metropolitan Diary

Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Published: October 11, 2010

DEAR DIARY:

Clinching the pole on the No. 4 train on a July night while reading “Angela’s Ashes,” I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Did you know it’s the one-year anniversary of Frank McCourt’s death?”

The accent was clearly Irish. Something — perhaps the brogue — compelled me to ask, “Did you know him?”

“He was a good friend of mine,” the man responded. “I knew him for 12 years. He was a great man who would have done anything for anybody.” He then asked how I came to read the book. I told him both my parents had recommended it.

“Oh, are they Irish?” he asked hopefully. American, I responded, not feeling the need to mention that my mom is Syrian and Catholic, my dad Jewish.

He then told me he was on his way to have a few drinks with friends to mark McCourt’s death. As we approached Grand Central, my stop, I said to him, “Please give my regards to everyone, and sorry for your loss.”

He then told me McCourt’s widow would be joining them. “I’m going to tell her I saw someone reading his book on the train tonight,” he said, “and I’m sure it will mean a lot to her.”

I hope it did.

Sam Rogers

Dear Diary:

We were young and in love, waiting with our arms around each other in the crowded Astor Place subway station. A train pulled in, and as my boyfriend forged ahead, I grabbed onto what I thought was the back of his trench coat and followed.

Still hanging on to the trench coat, I plopped down next to him. I took his arm and rested my head on his shoulder. Looking up, I was astonished to see my actual boyfriend sitting across the aisle, laughing.

I leapt up. “You can stay here if you want to,” said the trench-coated stranger I was cuddling.

Joanne Dolinar

Dear Diary:

I was attending a group-show gallery opening in Chelsea, when I noticed a small Jack Russell terrier in the middle of several people who were talking, drinks in hand.

I began to see the dog was moving about, situating himself in the middle of different groups of people. Occasionally he barked and scampered around, capturing the other gallery patrons’ attention.

At some point it struck me that the dog was in the gallery by himself. I reached down and looked at the tag around its neck. On it was written, “Don’t Mess With Me, I Know My Way Home.” On the other side of the tag was a Yankees logo.

Later that evening, I saw the dog in another gallery, and I felt that perhaps he was going to various openings and was networking.

Stephanie Brody-Lederman

Dear Diary:

Place: Sidewalk, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Item: Box of used books containing hardcover and paperback copies.

Sign on side of box: “Vintage Kindle.”

Jim Anderson

Dear Diary:

Having moved to New York from the Maine coast last summer, backtracking E. B. White’s course, I occasionally find myself, in weaker moments, overwhelmed by the bustle of the city’s busy sidewalks.

Such was the case on a recent Friday afternoon as I walked down Mercer Street in SoHo on my way to meet a friend for dinner. I’m from the woods. Why did I think I could be a New Yorker? I wondered, as strangers bumped into me and glared.

As I approached two women, apparently tourists, inspecting a map and blocking my path, I slowed, not considering how my contemplative mood might have looked to others. One of the women, noticing me, pulled her friend off to the side and warned her urgently: “Sheila! A New Yorker!”

Maybe I’ll make it here after all.

Andrew Shuttleworth

Observations for this column may be sent to Metropolitan Diary at diary@nytimes.com or to The New York Times, 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018. Please include your name, mailing address and daytime telephone number; upon request, names may be withheld in print. Submissions become the property of The Times and cannot be returned. They may be edited, and may be republished in all media.

A version of this article appeared in print on October 11, 2010, on page A21 of the New York edition.

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This looks interesting. From Wired, 7 Essential Skills You Didn’t Learn In College. Even though this is intriguing, I know myself well enough that I don’t have whatever it takes to complete these courses. I guess I find it interesting, but I’m not THAT interested. But you might be. Click on the link to see course outlines, homework and reading lists.

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Conservatives Push Absurd Lie that Wall Street Hustlers Were Innocent Victims … of Poor People

Deregulation allowed Wall Street to build a house of cards on America’s mortgage industry, but many conservatives live in a parallel universe in which the banks are blameless.
October 10, 2010 |

AlterNet is proud to present this excerpt from senior writer Joshua Holland’s new book, The Fifteen Biggest Lies about the Economy (And Everything Else the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know about Taxes, Jobs, and Corporate America).

Perhaps the most pernicious right-wing lie of late is that the Wall Street hustlers who came close to bringing the global economy to its knees in 2008 were just innocent victims of government-sponsored programs that forced them to lower lending standards in a misguided effort to increase home ownership among the poor (read: dark-skinned).

Read more on AlterNet.

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From the Real News Network.

How Hank Paulson’s inaction helped Goldman Sachs

Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: October 10, 2010 09:08:29 PM

WASHINGTON — Henry Paulson has received widespread acclaim for his bare-knuckled decision-making as the treasury secretary at the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, but former federal regulators say he missed multiple chances to contain the disaster.

Among the prime beneficiaries of Paulson’s inaction in 2006 and 2007 was Goldman Sachs, the investment banking behemoth he ran before he was named to former President George W. Bush’s Cabinet.

Paulson’s failure to take steps to curb risky mortgage lending also enabled top executives of other Wall Street firms to continue cashing big bonus checks, while less privileged Americans lost their jobs, their homes and their retirement savings in the worst economic catastrophe since the Great Depression.

Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke have been widely praised for engineering the Wall Street bailouts, which avoided systemic chaos, and they’ll probably get more plaudits if the government recovers much of the $400 billion in loans it made to financial institutions.

However, while Paulson has been criticized, unfairly or not, because $12.9 billion of the bailout money went to Goldman, he’s drawn little scrutiny for what he did in his first 18 months in office, during the final frenzied stages of the housing bubble.

Read more on The Real News Network.

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Video: Exploding Moss Spores Form Mushroom Clouds

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Spore Explosion Close-Up
Peat moss spores exploding, recorded at 10,000 frames per second.

The air resistance to something as small as dust is so great that even if you threw it at mach speeds it would only go a couple inches. That is, unless you create a vortex ring — like a smoke ring or mushroom cloud from a nuclear explosion.

Peat moss (Sphagnum moss), one of the most primitive living plants, does just that. By releasing its spores at up to 65 miles per hour in less than a thousandth of a second through a cylindrical opening, it can launch them up about half a foot high.

It might not sound like much, but getting spores to that height is critical for a plant that can grow less than half an inch tall. Half a foot is high enough to intersect normal air currents, which can carry the spores for miles and miles — theoretically indefinitely.

“Vortex rings allow the spores to be carried up very efficiently, because they have very little drag in the air and don’t mix with the air around it,” said physicist Dwight Whitaker of Pamona College, co-author of the study published July 22 in Science. ”The air coming out of the spore capsule is like the a core of a tornado, but if you took the top and the bottom of a tornado and glued them together. The tornado holds the spores in because of its very motion.”

Spore Launch
Tiny peat moss shoots its spores into the air with mushroom cloud forming explosion.

Whitaker and his team captured high-resolution video of the moss tops exploding to study the vortex ring formation.

“Whitaker and Edwards have produced beautiful images and analyses of the involvement of turbulent vortex rings in this amazing spore discharge process,” said biologist Karen Renzaglia of Southern Illinois University. “I think it is really cool.”

Biologists have known for over a hundred years about the exploding nature of peat moss reproduction. In 1897, biologist Sergius Nawaschin wrote: “Many times, when bending over a hammock [of peat moss] for closer examination, I felt the explosively discharged capsule lids strike my face.”

But this is the first time anyone has documented a plant creating a vortex ring, Whitaker said. In animals it is not that uncommon. Squid and jellyfish create vortex rings to propel themselves forward, and a healthy human heart creates a vortex ring between the left atrium and ventricle.

“This explains one of the wonders of the botanical world,” said biologist Joan Edwards of Williams College, an author on the paper. “It is amazing that such a simple plant came up with such a sophisticated system for propelling its spores.”

Peat moss is a critical plant for carbon storage on our planet. Peat bogs, formed of layers and layers of peat moss, cover one percent of Earth’s land surface, and account for 30 percent of the world’s soil carbon, Edwards said. Peat bogs are highly acidic and inhospitable to other life, so organic material like dead mosses, or dead bodies, doesn’t decompose.

As new habitat opens up in the Arctic with global warming, we should hope that peat moss disperses there, because it is such an effective carbon sponge, she said.

I found this on Wired.

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From Spy Plane to Monster Truck — a Photo Gallery of Awesome Cockpits

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Ever wonder what it’s like to maneuver a monster truck or pilot a supersonic spy plane? We can’t get you a test ride, but we can put you in the driver’s seat. Click on the link below to see the full sized photos and the rest of the story.

I found this on Wired.

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