Chinese Hackers Infiltrate New York Times Computers

Chinese Hackers Infiltrate New York Times Computers "After surreptitiously tracking the intruders to study their movements and help erect better defenses to block them, The Times and computer security experts have expelled the attackers and kept them from breaking back in."

Here Are the Patterns the Feds Found for U.S. Mass Killings

Danger Room reports Here Are the Patterns the Feds Found for U.S. Mass Killings

"The basic pattern found by the New Jersey DHS fusion center, and obtained by Public Intelligence (.PDF), is one of a killer who lashes out at his co-workers. Thirteen out of the 29 observed cases ‘occurred at the workplace and were conducted by either a former employee or relative of an employee,’ the November report finds. His ‘weapon of choice’ is a semiautomatic handgun, rather than the rifles that garnered so much attention after Newtown. The infamous Columbine school slaying of 1999 is the only case in which killers worked in teams: they’re almost always solo acts — and one-off affairs. In every single one of them, the killer was male, between the age of 17 and 49.

They also don’t have military training. Veterans are justifiably angered by the Hollywood-driven meme of the unhinged vet who takes out his battlefield stress on his fellow Americans. (Thanks, Rambo.) In only four of the 29 cases did the shooter have any affiliation with the U.S. military, either active or prior at the time of the slaying, and the fusion center doesn’t mention any wartime experience of the killers. "

"One of the most striking patterns about U.S. mass killings is visible only through its absence. Terrorists aren’t committing these crimes. Ordinary, unhinged American men are. That’s despite an inability for federal law enforcement to track stockpiled firearms and literally years of al-Qaida sympathizers and propagandists urging disaffected U.S. Muslims to rise up against their neighbors."

Moonrise in Real Time

Full Moon Silhouettes is a real time video of the moon rising over the Mount Victoria Lookout in Wellington, New Zealand.

Full Moon Silhouettes from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

102 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories from 2012

102 Spectacular Nonfiction Stories from 2012 "Each year, I track the most exceptional stories I encounter while assembling my twice-weekly newsletter, The Best of Journalism, as well as acting as an editor-at-large for Byliner. These projects afford me the opportunity to read as much impressive nonfiction journalism as any single person possibly can. The result is my annual Best of Journalism List, now in its fifth year. If you’re feeling nostalgic, here’s the 2011 edition.

There are, of course, worthy pieces of writing and reporting that escaped my attention in 2012, but I can assure you that all of the 102 stories listed below deserve wider attention—as do the authors of these stories. The featured bylines are linked to the authors’ Byliner writer pages, which makes it easy to discover and read more of their excellent work. The stories are listed alphabetically by writer."

Paperman

This Disney short is nominated as Best Animated Short this year.

Introducing Courier Prime

Introducing Courier Prime "Today, we’re introducing a new typeface designed for screenwriters. It’s called Courier Prime. It’s Courier, just better."

The Shakespeare Programming Language

The Shakespeare Programming Language "A few weeks earlier we had discovered a number of truly fascinating programming languages, such as Java2k, Sorted!, Brainfuck and Malbolge, and we wanted to make our own. We have no idea why, but that night we were also thinking about Shakespeare in general, and Shakespearian insults in particular and three hours later we had come up with this amazing idea: the Shakespeare Programming Language, SPL."

The Reward

This is a nicely done wordless short adventure film. Great visual story telling.

The Reward from The Animation Workshop on Vimeo.

Republicans Might Be Outsmarting Themselves on the Electoral College

Kevin Drum explains Republicans Might Be Outsmarting Themselves on the Electoral College

"Republicans, apparently convinced that they really are facing demographic doom, have been taking increasingly desperate measures to ensure their continued existence. Does this include an effort to moderate their views in order to win more votes? Don't be silly. Instead, they're trying to game the mechanics of the voting system itself."

"The plan is simple: There are half a dozen states that are controlled by Republicans but that often vote for Democratic presidents. Since most states (Nebraska and Maine are the only exceptions) use winner-take-all rules, this means that when Democrats win these states they get 100 percent of their electoral votes. So what would happen if these states instead divvied up their EVs by congressional district?"

"If this system of divvying up electoral votes were adopted nationwide, you could make a case for it. But the unfairness of adopting this system only in states that Democrats usually win is palpable. States in the deep South, for example, have no intention of adopting a similar system, and will continue awarding 100 percent of their electoral votes to Republican candidates. Republicans are picking and choosing different systems in different states, with not even a pretense that they're doing it for any reason aside from choosing whichever system benefits Republicans the most in each state. This is so obviously outrageous that it's likely to prompt a backlash."

He then points people at an alternative that I only recently found out about, the National Popular Vote.

Why Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget

Rachel Weiner explains Why Senate Democrats haven’t passed a budget. Three things: a budget isn't necessary, Democrats didn't want the blame, and they couldn't decide on one with their deficit hawk budget chair.

Sometimes, the Final Vote Hides the Real Vote

Jonathan Bernstein explains something important about Congressional votes, Sometimes, the Final Vote Hides the Real Vote.

"It was a five minute vote, and Republicans voted rapidly, and at first voted solidly for the measure. Democrats held back their votes, with those who voted against it mostly voting no. It thereby reached…aw, I didn’t take really good notes, but when it reached a winning number Republicans supported it at 199/9 while Democrats opposed it by something like 19/49. After that point, Democrats split fairly evenly but with somewhat more of them voting yes, while Republicans went from 199/9 to…199/33."

"And the thing is: no one says (at least not on the record) that their vote was available if needed, but they were happy not to have to vote for that necessary measure that they just voted against. Not only would that ruin the gain of being on record the other way, but no one wants to be seen as the Speaker’s lackey. Nor can we believe the leadership when they claim vote counts. So, really, we have no certain way of knowing whether Republicans had the votes on this one if they had to do it alone. But I’d bet they had more than the 199 they got."

Room for Improvement

I had preordered several books from Amazon. Three were released this week and all arrived on Thursday. Each shipped separately and was delivered via a different carrier. Since I have Amazon Prime, I didn't really pay for this shipping. I think there's some room for Amazon to optimize its operations.

Distance Traveled, Extraterrestrial Vehicles

Distance Traveled, Extraterrestrial Vehicles "If you thought driving on Earth is a chore, you haven't tried off-roading on another planet. So far, robotic rovers have reached out to the moon and Mars, with astronauts actually driving a lunar car on the moon during NASA's Apollo program. Those missions amount to what could be the first interplanetary road race."

Can you name these famous authors?

Kas posted Can you name these famous authors?. No I can't.

Malaria

Cute short film using some new animation techniques

Malaria from Edson Oda on Vimeo.

Lost Ending To Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' Revealed

Lost Ending To Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' Revealed. "Well, it was a scene set inside a hospital after the events at Overlook, in which Mr. Ullman tells Wendy that Jack Torrance's body was never found. He then gives Danny a tennis ball, which is of course what lured the child to the infamous Room 237 earlier in the film.  

This much is known to anyone who is fan of the movie, but Unkrich got his hands on the actual script so you can now read the full scene right here, and it is pretty remarkable stuff. But additionally there's an epilogue in there that audiences have never seen, which is also eerie, if perhaps over the top:"

I can't say I find it at all compelling.

Conservatives Have Their Worst Week Ever

Matt Taibbi, entertaining as always, explains why Conservatives Have Their Worst Week Ever.

"So to recap: The gun lobby's response to Obama's inauguration was to organize a "Gun Appreciation Day" on Martin Luther King Day that left five of their own gun-loving members accidentally shot. Then they responded to Obama's inaugural speech by doubling down on the "elitist hypocrite" ad that earned them near-universal condemnation previously. So how could things get worse?

Well, you could have a spokesman for Political Media, which organized "Gun Appreciation Day," tell the Hollywood Reporter that Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained is the perfect argument in support of gun rights. Political Media's Larry Ward said he's considering a "What Would Django Do?" campaign as part of this new rhetorical line they're thinking of trying to sell, particularly to the black community. The idea is, get this, that there wouldn't have been slavery if slaves had had gun rights."

Chicago's Freezing Fire

In Focus posted Chicago's Freezing Fire "On Tuesday night, a huge vacant warehouse on Chicago's South Side went up in flames. Fire department officials said it was the biggest blaze the department has had to battle in years and one-third of all Chicago firefighters were on the scene at one point or another trying to put out the flames. Complicating the scene was the weather -- temperatures were well below freezing and the spray from the fire hoses encased everything below in ice, including buildings, vehicles, and some firefighting gear. The warehouse was gutted, but the fire was contained. Fire crews remain on the scene as some smaller flare-ups continue to need attention. [16 photos]"

These firefighters deserve hazard pay.

What happened when Ezra Klein asked Paul Ryan why he hates taxes

Ezra Klein describes What happened when I asked Paul Ryan why he hates taxes

"The key to understanding the House Republicans’ mindset, Ryan said, was that ‘our value-add  to the political system on all things is to help prevent a debt crisis.’ But it quickly became clear that the Republican Party’s fear of a debt crisis lags far behind their fear of further tax revenue. For House Republicans, it’s spending cuts or nothing. Actually, I shouldn’t say nothing. It’s spending cuts or House Republicans force another kind of crisis."

"“They already got their revenues,” Ryan said. “So what, we’ll roll over and they get more revenues? That’s not how it works. In the spirit of bipartisan compromise, they’ve gotten revenue increases already. We’ve yet to get anything as a result of it. It used to be 3-1. Isn’t that what Erskine says? $3 of spending cuts to every dollar of tax increase. The president in his own budget last year claimed 2.5 to 1. We’d argue with whether they actually achieved that, but where’s the 3? Where’s the two-and-a-half? Where’s the $1.8 trillion in cuts?”

As Montgomery reminded Ryan, though, Republicans got more than $1.8 trillion in spending cuts during the last session of Congress. “You got — what is it? — $2.2 trillion, $2.4 trillion between the [Budget Control Act] and the
sequester?”

“That was last session,” Ryan said. “We’re going forward now.”

Ryan’s wrong on that. Both the $630 billion in revenue that Democrats got as part of the fiscal cliff deal and the $2.2 trillion (or so) that Republicans got as part of the Budget Control Act both passed as part of the 112th Congress. The House approved the fiscal cliff deal Jan. 1, and President Obama signed the bill into law Jan. 2. The 113th Congress didn’t begin until Jan. 3. So neither side has gotten anything in this session of Congress."

This is why Paul Krugman doesn't take Paul Ryan seriously.

Government Spending is Down in the Obama Era

Kevin Drum: Government Spending is Down in the Obama Era. "Republicans like to say we have a spending problem, not a taxing problem, but the evidence doesn't back that up. Total government spending didn't go up much during the Clinton era, and it's actually declined during the Obama era. In the last two decades, it's only gone up significantly during the Bush era, the same era in which taxes were cut dramatically. What we have isn't a spending problem. That's under control. What we have is a problem with Republicans not wanting to pay the bills they themselves were largely responsible for running up."



Paul Krugman explains it with a bit more rigor, The Non-Surge in Government Spending. "So how can we get a better picture? First, express spending as a share of potential rather than actual GDP; we can use the CBO estimates of potential for that purpose. Second, keep your eye on the business cycle — and, in particular, on how spending is evolving now that a gradual recovery is underway. So, let’s look first at a longish time series of total government spending as a share of potential GDP:"



Mark Thoma points to a few articles expressing America’s Fiscal Policy is Not in Crisis. The long term problems are rising health care costs and the immediate problem isn't the deficit or debt but jobs.

Update: Nate Sliver a few days ago on What Is Driving Growth in Government Spending?

Everyone hates TARP and the stimulus. Alan Blinder thinks everyone’s wrong.

Everyone hates TARP and the stimulus. Alan Blinder thinks everyone’s wrong. "Alan Blinder is the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at the Princeton Department of Economics, and served both on President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors (1993-94) and as vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (1994-96). His new book, a history of the financial crisis called After the Music Stopped, is out tomorrow. We talked on the phone Friday; a lightly edited transcript follows."

Contemplating Obama's Place in History, Statistically

Nate Silver is Contemplating Obama's Place in History, Statistically "As common sense might dictate — and as the statistics will also reveal — it is far too soon to conclude very much about this. Second-term presidents may be derided as lame ducks, but it is often in the second term when reputations are won or lost.

Still, we can say this much: Mr. Obama ran for and won a second term, something only about half of the men to serve as president have done (the tally is 20 or 21 out of 43, depending on how you count Grover Cleveland). We can also note, however, that Mr. Obama’s re-election margin was relatively narrow. Do these simple facts provide any insight at all into how he might be regarded 20, 50 or 100 years from now?"

MP3 files written as DNA with storage density of 2.2 petabytes per gram

Ars Technica writes MP3 files written as DNA with storage density of 2.2 petabytes per gram "It's only within the past few decades, however, that humans have learned to speak DNA. Even then, it took a while to develop the technology needed to synthesize and determine the sequence of large populations of molecules. But we're there now, and people have started experimenting with putting binary data in biological form. Now, a new study has confirmed the flexibility of the approach by encoding everything from an MP3 to the decoding algorithm into fragments of DNA. The cost analysis done by the authors suggest that the technology may soon be suitable for decade-scale storage, provided current trends continue."

Here are all the budget deadlines we’re facing in the next 3 months

Here are all the budget deadlines we’re facing in the next 3 months

The European Southern Observatory

In Focus on The European Southern Observatory "High in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has built several collections of telescopes and observatories on remote, arid mountaintops. The locations are ideal for ground-based astronomy -- far from city lights, high above sea level, with more than 350 cloudless days a year. The ESO is an intergovernmental research organization with 15 member states, founded in 1962. It has been making observations from the southern hemisphere since 1966, and continues to expand its facilities to this day. The sites are La Silla, which hosts the New Technology Telescope (NTT); Paranal, home to the Very Large Telescope (VLT); and Llano de Chajnantor, which hosts the APEX submillimeter telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Construction on the newest project in Chile's desert -- the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), a 40-meter-class telescope -- is due to start later this year in Cerro Armazones. I've collected below some amazing images of the ESO's observatories, and a few of the astronomical images they've been able to make over the years. [34 photos total]"

moon hoax not

The Climate Change Endgame

It's a good thing Obama mentioned climate change on Monday, but it's practically too late. The Climate Change Endgame "It is abundantly clear that the target of a 2-degree Celsius limit to climate change was mostly derived from what seemed convenient and doable without any reference to what it really means environmentally. Two degrees is actually too much for ecosystems. Tropical coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to even brief periods of warming. The elevated atmospheric CO2 also has raised the acidity of the oceans, which affects the ability of coral and mollusks such as oysters to build shells and skeletons. A 2-degree world will be one without coral reefs (on which millions of human beings depend for their well-being).

At current global warming of 0.8-0.9 degrees, the fingerprints of climate change can be seen virtually everywhere in nature. The coniferous forests of western North America are currently experiencing massive tree mortality because climate change has tipped the balance in favor of native bark beetles. The Amazon seems to be edging close to dieback in the southern and southeastern portions of the great forest.

At essentially double that current temperature increase, there undoubtedly will be massive extinctions and widespread ecosystem collapse. The difficulty of trying to buffer and manage change will increase exponentially with only small increments of warming.

In addition, the last time the planet was 2 degrees warmer, the oceans were four to six (perhaps eight) meters higher. We may not know how fast that will happen (although it is already occurring more rapidly than initially estimated), but the end point in sea-level rise is not in question. A major portion of humanity lives in coastal areas and small island states that will go under water. The site of the Earth Summit and Rio+20 will disappear under water fairly early on.

More than a 2-degree increase should be unimaginable. Yet to stop at 2 degrees, global emissions have to peak in 2016. The Carbon Tracker organization has examined fossil-fuel investments around the world (including 1,200 new coal plants) and determined that they would lead to a 6-degree world. A recent World Bank report indicates the bank cannot fulfill its development mission in a 4-degree world. Given what we know about planetary biology, 2 degrees seems nightmarish as it is."

For less hope here's These 14 fossil-fuel projects could make our climate goals impossible. "The International Energy Agency estimates that the world can only burn about a third of its proven oil, gas, and coal reserves to have a good chance of keeping global warming below the 2°C threshold. And according to Ecofys, these 14 projects alone have the potential to burn through 30 percent of those reserves by 2030 — making those climate goals extremely difficult to reach."

Inauguration Tidbits

US presidential inauguration speeches: how does Obama's second compare? "Barack Obama has made his second presidential inauguration speech. But how does it compare to previous presidents? Santiago Ortiz has create this guide to every inauguration speech since Richard Nixon became president in 1969. Roll over a word to see which are closely connected to it, search in the box on the right an filter the most common words below."

The alliteration of Seneca Falls, Selma, Stonewall got some coverage. A Map of Human Dignity is a good primer if you don't know all the places (I didn't). Krugman has a little more.

But of course the really important question is Why Antonin Scalia Is Wearing That Hat to Inauguration which The Atlantic Wire covers in detail.

Virginia Republicans Give Blacks the Finger on MLK Day

Kevin Drum writes Virginia Republicans Give Blacks the Finger on MLK Day "The Virginia state senate is evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, 20-20. Republicans really hate this, but what can they do? Answer: wait for a Democratic state senator to be absent and jam through a mid-decade redistricting plan that switches one seat from D to R by creating a new pack-and-crack majority black district just south of Richmond. The vote was 20-19."

Seriously? Do Democrats do this kind of crap? He goes on to point out the missing senator was a civil rights lawyer who was in DC for the inauguration of the first black president on MLK Day and at the end of the day "the Senate adjourned in memory or [sic] [Confederate] General Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson"

President Obama takes the oath ...

The White House tweeted this, President Obama takes the oath of office during the Inaugural swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol and included this picture. Notice his mother-in-law on the right...



They also posted The Second Inauguration of Barack Obama with a transcript and video.

Democrats Are Not Responsible for Republican Dysfunction

A few days ago David Brooks wrote The Next Four Years. He laments it but thinks in Obama's second term Democrats will think: “We live at a unique moment. Our opponents, the Republicans, are divided, confused and bleeding. This is not the time to allow them to rebuild their reputation with a series of modest accomplishments. This is the time to kick them when they are down, to win back the House and end the current version of the Republican Party."

Not surprisingly, some of the regular columnists I read took umbrage to this.

Kevin Drum, Let's Get One Thing Straight: It's Republicans Who Are Picking Fights, Not President Obama. "Politics is everywhere, and I don't doubt that Democrats would like to take advantage of Republican divisions. What party wouldn't? But look: if one party is dominated by a bunch of loons who make every political skirmish into a sign of the apocalypse, you really can't blame the other side for exposing this. What choice do they have?"

He gives the recent example of cabinet appointment fights for Susan Rice, Chuck Hagel and Jack Lew. "So what's he supposed to do? After winning reelection handily, is he supposed to agree that he won't nominate anyone to serve in his cabinet who isn't pre-approved by the most hardcore members of the opposition party? Of course not. That's crazy. Hagel and Lew are perfectly ordinary nominees, and Obama wasn't picking a fight with anyone by selecting them. He was just nominating people who agree with his policy positions. It was Republicans who insisted on turning this into a mortal insult."

"The same is true for Brooks's examples. It's Republicans who picked a fight over the debt ceiling that makes them look like wackos. It's Republicans who picked a fight over hurricane relief, earning the ire of Chris Christie and other members of their own party. (What was Obama supposed to do? Not propose any hurricane relief?) Ditto for gun regulations, where it's the NRA taking an absolutist position, not the president. Obama is plainly willing to compromise here, just as he's plainly willing to compromise over the budget. It's Republicans who aren't."

Ezra Klein, Is the Republican Party Obama’s fault?. First his own opinion, "The logic here is weirdly impeccable. The Republican Party’s dilemma is that House Republicans keeps taking all kinds of unreasonable and unpopular positions. If Obama weren’t president, the House Republicans wouldn’t be taking so many unreasonable and unpopular positions. But since Obama is president, and since he does need to work with House Republicans, he is highlighting their unreasonable and unpopular opinions in a bid to make them change their minds, which is making House Republicans look even worse. And so it’s ultimately Obama’s fault that House Republicans are, say, threatening to breach the debt ceiling if they don’t get their way on spending cuts. After all, if Mitt Romney had won the election, the debt ceiling wouldn’t even be a question!"

Then he comments on Brook's column, "So White House officials’ devious plan to destroy the Republican Party, in Brooks’s view, is that they will propose more moderate, popular policies than they did in their first term, thus making Republicans look terrible when they vote against everything."

Jonathan Chait did the best takedown, David Brooks Now Totally Pathological. He begins:

"Brooks begins by noting that the Grand Bargain on the deficit, which he has spent the last two years relentlessly touting, is not actually possible. Why is it impossible? Because, he writes, “A political class that botched the fiscal cliff so badly are not going to be capable of a gigantic deal on complex issues." Oh, the political class? That’s funny. In 2011, Obama offered an astonishingly generous budget deal to House Republicans, and Brooks argued at the time that if the GOP turned the deal down, it would prove their “fanaticism.” Naturally, they turned it down. Obama continues to offer a bargain including higher revenue through tax reform in return for lower spending on retirement programs, but Republicans refuse to consider higher taxes. So, in summary, this proves “the political class” is to blame."

He then goes through Brooks own examples of simple measures Dems could do that Republicans would like and shows why they're wrong. Education Reform? Obama passed some in 2009 and Brooks praised it. More Visas? Democrates tried last months and Republicans killed it. More natural gas drilling? It's already booming! An infrastructure bank? Republicans have called it DOA. He goes on…

"Right – Obama is the one inviting confrontations over the debt ceiling. Never mind that, before 2011, the debt ceiling was just an occasion for routine posturing, and Republicans insisted on turning it into a showdown with real, dangerous stakes. Also never mind that Obama offered to sign the plan — proposed by Mitch McConnell! — to permanently defuse the debt ceiling and let Republicans use it to posture against him rather than actually threatening a global meltdown. And never mind as well that, by refusing to cave in to extortion, Obama seems to actually be defusing the real danger to the world economy.

This is all Obama’s fault because it makes Republicans “look like whackos willing to endanger the entire global economy.” Brooks displays an almost surreal lack of interest in the underlying reality that Republicans actually are whackos willing to endanger the entire global economy. It is his responsibility to conceal this reality from America."

In These 22 States, Every House Republican Voted Against Sandy Aid

Mother Jones made a map, In These 22 States, Every House Republican Voted Against Sandy Aid "In 22 states, every last Republican representative voted against HR 152 or abstained on the bill, which includes $17 billion for immediate repair and an amendment introduced by a Republican, New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, that tacks on another $33.7 billion for long-term recovery and prevention. These included Maryland and the Carolinas (remember Hugo and Floyd?), states that are vulnerable to seasonal hurricanes but were largely spared by Sandy."



Of course they'll claim that they would have voted for the bill if it were paid for. If there were cuts someplace else to find the funds. They would of course reject raising any taxes to cover the money. They also ignore that historically disaster funding has usually been unfunded. Pay now, because it's needed now and find the money later. They also ignore that it works this way because Congress has been too stupid to include an emergency fund in the budget.

They also ignore that both sides play this game. If you disagree with a bill you say it's because it's unfunded and if you agree with it you accuse your opponents of being against it. Kerry's "I voted for it before voting against it" was about exactly this. It was for funding the troops. The first bill payed for it and Republicans voted against it. The second bill was unfunded, yes deficit spending, and the GOP was for it and accused Kerry of being against the troops.

It's just seems so ridiculously stupid and inefficient.

Jon Stewart on Gun Control Efforts

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Air Quality Suffering in China

NASA posts Air Quality Suffering in China "Residents of Beijing and many other cities in China were warned to stay inside in mid-January 2013 as the nation faced one of the worst periods of air quality in recent history. The Chinese government ordered factories to scale back emissions, while hospitals saw spikes of more than 20 to 30 percent in patients complaining of respiratory issues, according to news reports."

The Great Molasses Flood of 1919

The Boston Globe has pictures of The Great Molasses Flood of 1919 which happened 94 years ago today.

"The infamous molasses flood in Boston was a tragedy like no other. On January 15, 1919, a giant tank in the North End collapsed, sending a wave of an estimated 2.3 million gallons of molasses through the streets of Boston. The devastation the sticky liquid left was shocking. Twenty-one people were killed and 150 injured in its path of destruction."

The Best of Kickstarter 2012

The Best of Kickstarter 2012 "From groundbreaking projects to inspiring stories, 2012 was a year of many memorable moments on Kickstarter. To celebrate the year that was, our team put together this look back at some of our favorite projects and moments. We hope you enjoy!"

Mapping The Entertainment Ecosystems: A Brief Revisit

Mapping The Entertainment Ecosystems: A Brief Revisit "I’ve decided to briefly revisit the topic today because the original post garnered quite a lot of discussion and feedback and because of two ‘events’ that have since happened. Firstly, Apple yesterday announced an expansion of the iTunes Music Store into dozens of new countries (and Movie store in a few additional countries). Secondly, I have since found two pieces of data on which countries Xbox Music is available in (for some odd reason I cannot find any official Microsoft document detailing the countries it is available in). So below is an update to the Music and Movie diagrams and graphs."

There are more interesting graphs on the page but here's the summary one:

Qualcomm's insane CES 2013 keynote in pictures and tweets

The Verge describes Qualcomm's insane CES 2013 keynote in pictures and tweets "2013 was the first time in many years that Microsoft didn't host the opening keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas. Instead, the show went to Qualcomm and its CEO, Dr. Paul Jacobs. We weren't quite sure what to expect beyond a new series of processors, but what we got was weirder than anything we've seen in all of our collective years attending CES. While Chris Ziegler translated the surreal experiences into a liveblog and I took photos of the craziest moments, the rest of the Verge staff took to Twitter to react to the event. You can relive the insanity right here."

Wintry Weather

Wintry Weather "The chill of mid-winter has set in around the northern hemisphere, bringing freezing temperatures to much of Asia, and an unusual snowstorm to the Mideast this week. People are coping where they must and playing where they can, from China to Maine, from Minnesota to Austria. Gathered here are a few recent images of the chilly weather across the north. [34 photos]"

Wintry Weather: Middle East Edition "Following up on yesterday's essay Wintry Weather, I was struck by photographs of the unusually heavy winter storm that just blanketed many Middle Eastern countries in snow. I discovered a wide range of unique images, from Saudis tossing snowballs to Israelis on sleds to the newly white roofs of Istanbul. Gathered here are a handful of those images, showing that, despite the harshness of the storm, some were able to find a moment of joy in the rare snowfall. [32 photos]"

Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival 2013 "The opening ceremonies for this year's Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China were held earlier this week. The event, held since 1963, can last more than a month, depending on the weather, and attracts visitors from around the world who come to see the elaborate ice and snow sculptures. -- Lloyd Young (20 photos total)"

Daily Show on Complaints about Current TV Sale

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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25 Handy Words That Simply Don’t Exist In English

25 Handy Words That Simply Don’t Exist In English. Here's an example:

"2 Arigata-meiwaku (Japanese): An act someone does for you that you didn’t want to have them do and tried to avoid having them do, but they went ahead anyway, determined to do you a favor, and then things went wrong and caused you a lot of trouble, yet in the end social conventions required you to express gratitude"

Oscar Nominations

I did pretty well in my predictions this year.

I don't know why I only picked 9 nominees for Best Picture, but the Academy did to so that worked out. I got 8 of 9 right. They picked Amour over Moonrise Kingdom. I've seen all of the 8 and Moonrise but not Amour yet.

Director seems to be the big shocker of a category. I got only two picks right, Lincoln and Life of PI which seemed pretty easy. I got three wrong, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo and Django and people seemed quite surprised that Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow didn't get nominated. I'm thrilled that Benh Zeitlin did for Beasts of the Southern Wild. I'm not so sure about David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook or Michael Haneke for Amour. Again, I haven't seen Amour yet (and it's not playing anywhere around me) but I'm still kinda pissed about Cache.

I got three right in Actor. I'm pissed that John Hawkes didn't get picked for The Sessions and think he deserved it over Joaquin Phoenix. I have heard good things about Jean-Louis Trintignant in Amour and wasn't as thrilled with Jackman as everyone else seems to be.

I nailed all five picks for Best Actress.

In each of the Supporting categories I went 4/5. I think Leonardo was better than DeNiro and Maggie Smith was better than Jacki Weaver (well, more entertaining at least).

I went 4/5 in each of the writing categories. I really liked Looper and haven't seen Flight yet. I also liked Perks of Being a Wallflower and while Argo was very good, I thought for a 2 hour movie there was very little character development.

Here's the list of feature films (not shorts) by nominations. Aside from Amour, Anna Karenina and Flight, I've seen all the films with more than one nomination. Of the 23 films with just one nomination I've only seen six. I've seen none of the Foreign Language, Animated or Documentary features. I've seen one of the Documentary Shorts, Monday's at Racine at IFF Boston and it was wonderful. And I just watched the nominated Simpsons short on YouTube (a bad illegal copy).

12 Lincoln
11 Life of Pi
8 Silver Linings Playbook
8 Les Misérables
7 Argo
5 Zero Dark Thirty
5 Skyfall
5 Django Unchained
5 Amour
4 Beasts of the Southern Wild
4 Anna Karenina
3 The Master
3 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
2 Snow White and the Huntsman
2 Flight
1 Wreck-It Ralph
1 War Witch
1 The Sessions
1 The Pirates! Band of Misfits
1 The Invisible War
1 The Impossible
1 The Gatekeepers
1 The Avengers
1 Ted
1 Searching for Sugar Man
1 Prometheus
1 ParaNorman
1 No
1 Moonrise Kingdom
1 Mirror Mirror
1 Kon-Tiki
1 How to Survive a Plague
1 Hitchcock
1 Frankenweenie
1 Chasing Ice
1 Brave
1 A Royal Affair
1 5 Broken Cameras

I am surprised at how many categories I've already completed. I've seen all the nominees in 7 categories (both supporting, adapted screenplay, editing, makeup, and both sound categories). In another 8 categories I only need to see one film to complete them, and once I see just two films (Amour and Anna Karenina) I'll have completed five of these 8 categories.

Oscar Nomination Predictions

Oscar nominations are tomorrow morning, here are some last minute predictions for the big categories:

Picture: Lincoln, Les Miserables, Zero Dark Thirty, Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, Moonrise Kingdom, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained

Director: Steven Spielberg, Lincoln; Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty; Ben Affleck, Argo; Ang Lee, Life of Pi; Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained

Actor: Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln; John Hawkes, The Sessions; Denzel Washington, Flight; Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook; Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour

Actress: Jessica Chastin, Zero Dark Thirty; Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook; Naomi Watts, The Impossible; Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild; Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln; Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master; Alan Arkin, Argo; Leonardo diCaprio, Django Unchained

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables; Sally Field, Lincoln; Helen Hunt, The Sessions; Amy Adams, The Master; Maggie Smith, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Perks of Being a Wallflower Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi

Original Screenplay: Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, Moonrise Kingdom, Amour, Looper

Monopoly to Replace One Classic Playing Token

Which piece will get the boot? Monopoly to scrap one classic playing token - Telegraph "One of eight classic Monopoly tokens will go straight to jail without a get out of jail free card after makers of the board game decided to scrap one playing piece and replace it with a modern-day alternative."

Jon Stewart on Gun Control

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

2012 Was Hottest Year Ever in U.S.

2012 Was Hottest Year Ever in U.S.

"The numbers are in: 2012, the year of a surreal March heat wave, a severe drought in the corn belt and a massive storm that caused broad devastation in the mid-Atlantic states, turns out to have been the hottest year ever recorded in the contiguous United States.

How hot was it? The temperature differences between years are usually measured in fractions of a degree, but last year blew away the previous record, set in 1998, by a full degree Fahrenheit."

Movies Seen in 2012

In 2011 I saw 366 feature length films. I didn't do that in 2012. I saw a respectable 197 features and 44 shorts. Of those 197 features, 4 were TV original movies.

I used the Academy's definition of short, that is under 40 minutes long. 46% I watched on cable, and 44% were in a theater (this is the first question people usually ask). The rest were online or via netflix or DVD. 11% I had seen before, the rest were first times. (This is the second question people ask and yes reruns count. Seeing Casablanca a second or third time is still seeing a movie).



My year was definitely front loaded with lots of movies. That's mostly Oscar season and IFFBoston (which is awesome).



The bulk of the films I saw were from 2011 and 2012. I rated all the films on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the best. I use what's mostly a Netflix scale. 3 is ok, 4 I really liked and 5 is great. 2 I didn't like and 1 I hated. I didn't see many fives this year and I was pretty good about only seeing reruns that I liked. It's not quite a balanced bell curve of quality.



These don't include shorts, I think I saw too few foreign films.



I'm mostly happy with how I break down genres but it's still hard to get one and only one sub-genre for a film and I didn't always do that (particularly for dramas). These charts include shorts.



I kept track of which theaters and TV channels I saw movies. These get a little rainbow in the long tail, but there are a few surprises. These don't include shorts (some of which I saw at IFF Boston) and still the Somerville Theatre was got 26% of all my theaters. I'm also surprised the Kendell got almost that much (no shorts there). I'm not surprised that TCM and HBO came in first in cable channels, but I'm a little surprised that EPIX came in third (I think I got that channel just a year or so ago).



Here's the list of everything:

When	Type	Title	Year	Country	Rating
Jan 1	Feature	Rango	2011	US	4
Jan 2	Feature	Sophie’s Choice	1983	US	4
Jan 3	Feature	Angels Crest	2011	US	2
Jan 4	Feature	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	2011	US	4
Jan 5	Feature	The Adventures of Tintin	2011	US	3
Jan 6	Feature	Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol	2011	US	4
Jan 7	Feature	Stardust Memories	1980	US	2
Jan 8	Feature	The Gold Rush	1925	US	4
Jan 8	Feature	Wages of Fear	1953	France	5
Jan 9	Feature	The Kid	1921	US	4
Jan 12	Feature	Inception	2010	US	5
Jan 14	Feature	Airplane	1980	US	4
Jan 15	Feature	Monty Python and the Holy Grail	1974	Britain	5
Jan 24	Feature	Paradise Lost	1996	US	4
Jan 24	Short	Small Fry	2011	US	3
Jan 24	Feature	The Muppets	2011	US	3
Jan 25	Feature	Paradise Lost 3	2011	US	4
Jan 25	Feature	Paradise Lost 2	2000	US	3
Jan 25	Feature	Pina	2011	Germany	4
Jan 26	Feature	Celeste and Jesse Forever	2012	US	3
Jan 27	Feature	The Grand Illusion	1937	France	4
Jan 28	Feature	Hell and Back Again	2011	US	4
Jan 29	Feature	The Train	1964	US	5
Jan 29	Feature	Haywire	2012	US	4
Jan 31	Feature	Arthur	2011	US	2
Feb 1	Feature	Albert Nobbs	2011	US	3
Feb 1	Feature	The Iron Lady	2011	US	1
Feb 2	Feature	A Better Life	2011	US	4
Feb 3	Feature	Jane Eyre	2011	Britain	4
Feb 4	Feature	Carnage	2011	France	3
Feb 7	Feature	Bridesmaids	2011	US	2
Feb 9	Feature	War Horse	2011	US	2
Feb 11	Feature	Brigadoon	1954	US	4
Feb 11	Feature	Warrior	2011	US	4
Feb 12	Feature	Kevin Smith: Burn in Hell	2012	US	3
Feb 12	Short	Pentecost	2011	Ireland	4
Feb 12	Short	Time Freak	2011	US	4
Feb 12	Short	Dimanche/Sunday	2011	Canada	4
Feb 12	Short	La Luna	2011	US	4
Feb 12	Short	A Morning Stroll	2011	Britain	4
Feb 12	Short	Tuba Atlantic	2011	Norway	3
Feb 12	Short	Nullarbor	2011	Australia	3
Feb 12	Short	Skylight	2011	Canada	3
Feb 12	Short	Hybrid Union	2011	US	3
Feb 12	Short	Raju	2011	Germany	2
Feb 12	Short	The Shore	2011	Ireland	2
Feb 12	Short	The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore	2011	US	2
Feb 12	Short	Amazonia	2011	US	2
Feb 12	Short	Wild Life	2011	Canada	1
Feb 13	Feature	A Separation	2011	Iran	4
Feb 14	Feature	Rio	2011	US	3
Feb 14	Feature	Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close	2011	US	2
Feb 15	Feature	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	2011	US	1
Feb 15	Short	Saving Face	2011	US	5
Feb 15	Short	Incident in New Baghdad	2011	US	4
Feb 15	Short	The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom	2011	US	4
Feb 15	Short	The Barber of Birmingham	2011	US	3
Feb 19	Feature	The Big Fix	2011	US	4
Feb 19	Feature	The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch	2011	France	4
Feb 19	Short	Therapy	2011	US	3
Feb 19	Short	Ruby and the Wolf	2011	US	2
Feb 19	Feature	Cracks	2011	Britain	2
Feb 23	Feature	Real Steel	2011	US	3
Feb 24	Feature	Bullhead	2011	Belgium	2
Mar 1	Feature	Casino Jack	2010	US	2
Mar 1	Feature	Hobo with a Shotgun	2011	US	2
Mar 1	Feature	Attack the Block	2011	Britain	4
Mar 2	Feature	Louis C. K.: Hilarious	2010	US	4
Mar 2	Feature	The Long Hot Summer	1958	US	2
Mar 4	Feature	Hanna	2011	US	4
Mar 4	Feature	Louis C. K.: Live at the Beacon Theater	2011	US	4
Mar 4	Feature	Kill List	2012	Britain	2
Mar 5	Feature	Exporting Raymond	2012	US	3
Mar 5	Feature	The Temptress	1926	US	2
Mar 6	Feature	Shadows and Fog	1991	US	3
Mar 6	Feature	Cedar Rapids	2011	US	3
Mar 6	Feature	Rubberneck	2012	US	4
Mar 8	Feature	Freakonomics	2010	US	4
Mar 9	Feature	The Curious Case of Curt Flood	2011	US	4
Mar 9	Feature	Shaft	1971	US	2
Mar 10	TV	Game Change	2012	US	3
Mar 11	Feature	In Darkness	2011	Poland	4
Mar 12	Feature	Fat Man and Little Boy	1989	US	3
Mar 12	Feature	Win Win	2011	US	4
Mar 12	Feature	X-Men: First Class	2011	US	4
Mar 13	Feature	Five Fingers	2006	US	3
Mar 13	Feature	The Loving Story	2011	US	3
Mar 14	Feature	The Speed of Thought	2011	US	1
Mar 15	Feature	Thor	2011	US	3
Mar 18	Feature	Green Lantern	2011	US	2
Mar 18	Feature	21 Jump Street	2012	US	3
Mar 18	Feature	Being Flynn	2012	US	3
Mar 19	Feature	Bad Teacher	2011	US	3
Mar 23	Feature	John Carter	2012	US	3
Mar 25	Feature	The Hunger Games	2012	US	4
Mar 31	Feature	Moonrise Kingdom	2012	US	2
Apr 1	Feature	The Raid: Redemption	2012	Indonesia	2
Apr 6	Feature	The Hunter	2012	Australia	3
Apr 6	Feature	Goon	2012	US	2
Apr 7	Feature	Monogamy	2011	US	2
Apr 8	Feature	Daybreakers	2010	Australia	3
Apr 8	Feature	Indiscreet	1958	US	3
Apr 8	Feature	The Adjustment Bureau	2011	US	3
Apr 8	Feature	Jiro Dreams of Sushi	2012	US	3
Apr 10	Feature	Friends With Benefits	2011	US	3
Apr 11	Short	God is the Bigger Elvis	2011	US	3
Apr 11	Short	Caine’s Arcade	2012	US	4
Apr 15	Feature	The Cabin in the Woods	2012	US	5
Apr 19	Feature	The Thin Blue Line	1988	US	4
Apr 19	Feature	Indie Games	2012	US	4
Apr 22	Feature	Conan the Barbarian	2011	US	2
Apr 22	Feature	Monsieur Lazhar	2011	Canada	3
Apr 23	Feature	Revenge of the Electric Car	2011	US	3
Apr 23	Short	You’re Darn Tootin’	1928	US	3
Apr 23	Short	Two Tars	1928	US	3
Apr 23	Short	Putting Pants on Philip	1927	US	3
Apr 23	Short	Do Detectives Think?	1927	US	3
Apr 25	Feature	Sleepwalk With Me	2012	US	4
Apr 26	Feature	The Imposter	2012	US	4
Apr 26	Feature	Polisse	2012	France	3
Apr 27	Feature	Burn	2012	US	5
Apr 27	Feature	Headhunters	2012	Norway	5
Apr 28	Short	CatCam	2012	US	5
Apr 28	Feature	We’re Not Broke	2012	US	4
Apr 28	Short	Neve & Sons	2012	US	4
Apr 28	Feature	Kunckleball!	2012	US	4
Apr 28	Feature	We Are Legion	2012	US	4
Apr 28	Feature	God Bless America	2012	US	4
Apr 28	Short	The Lookout	2012	US	3
Apr 28	Short	Extraordinary Harvest	2012	US	2
Apr 29	Short	Aglow	2012	US	5
Apr 29	Short	Mondays at Racine	2012	US	5
Apr 29	Short	The Love Competition	2012	US	4
Apr 29	Feature	From Nothing, Something	2012	US
Apr 29	Feature	Downeast	2012	US	2
Apr 29	Feature	Trishna	2012	Britain	2
Apr 30	Feature	Beware of Mr. Baker	2012	US	5
Apr 30	Feature	Beauty is Embarrassing	2012	US	4
May 1	Feature	Paul Williams Still Alive	2012	US	4
May 1	Feature	Rubberneck	2012	US	3
May 2	Feature	The Queen of Versailles	2012	US	4
May 6	Feature	The Avengers	2012	US	5
May 13	Feature	Alien	1979	US	5
May 13	Feature	Dark Shadows	2012	US	1
May 15	Feature	Meeting Evil	2012	US	2
May 24	Feature	Everything Must Go	2011	US	4
May 24	Feature	The Men	1950	US	3
May 24	Feature	Larry Crowne	2011	US	2
May 26	Feature	Rififi	1955	France	4
May 27	Feature	The Avengers	2012	US	5
May 28	Feature	Super 8	2011	US	1
May 28	Feature	Alien 3	1992	US	3
May 28	Feature	30 Minutes or Less	2011	US	2
Jun 2	Feature	Alien Resurrection	1997	US	2
Jun 3	Feature	Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	2012	Britain	4
Jun 5	Short	Lucky Day Forever	2012	Poland	3
Jun 6	Feature	Beasts of the Southern Wild	2012	US	5
Jun 10	Feature	Prometheus	2012	US	3
Jun 12	Feature	Centurion	2010	Britain	3
Jun 16	Feature	Captain America	2011	US	4
Jun 16	Feature	The Beaver	2011	US	3
Jun 17	Feature	Face/Off	1997	US	1
Jun 22	Feature	Street Scene	1921	US	3
Jun 24	Feature	Cure For Pain: The Mark Sandman Story	2011	US	3
Jun 30	Short	Multiple Sidosis	1970	US	3
Jul 1	Feature	Your Sister’s Sister	2012	US	3
Jul 13	Feature	Hesher	2010	US	3
Jul 13	TV	Page Eight	2011	Britain	3
Jul 14	Feature	With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story	2010	US	3
Jul 14	Feature	Days of Heaven	1978	US	4
Jul 14	Feature	In Time	2011	US	2
Jul 14	Feature	Kissing Jessica Stein	2001	US	3
Jul 15	Feature	Safety Not Guaranteed	2012	US	4
Jul 17	TV	Roadracers	1994	US	3
Jul 17	Feature	Take This Waltz	2012	US	4
Jul 17	Feature	Meek’s Cutoff	2011	US	2
Jul 22	Feature	Nixon	1995	US	4
Jul 22	Feature	The Dark Knight Rises	2012	US	4
Jul 23	Feature	Batman Begins	2005	US	5
Jul 24	Feature	The Dark Knight	2008	US	5
Jul 24	Feature	The Dark Knight Rises	2012	US	5
Aug 2	Short	Sight	2012	Israel	4
Aug 5	Feature	Easy Money	2012	Sweden	3
Aug 12	Feature	The Bourne Legacy	2012	US	2
Aug 19	Feature	Killer Joe	2012	US	4
Sep 3	Feature	Barefoot in the Park	1967	US	4
Sep 3	Short	The Guilt	2012	Spain	4
Sep 4	Feature	From the Terrace	1960	US	2
Sep 4	Feature	In a Better World	2011	Denmark	5
Sep 6	Feature	Martha Marcie May Marlene	2011	US	3
Sep 9	Feature	Oslo, August 31	2012	Norway
Sep 11	Short	Time Piece	1965	US	4
Sep 14	Feature	Once Upon a Time in the West	1969	Italy	4
Sep 14	Feature	Man on Fire	2004	US	2
Sep 18	Feature	The Merry Widow	1925	US	1
Sep 21	Short	The Daredevil	1923	US	3
Sep 21	Feature	The Extra Girl	1923	US	2
Sep 23	Feature	The Master	2012	US	2
Sep 25	Feature	Tower Heist	2011	US	2
Sep 26	Feature	Wild Target	2010	Britain	3
Sep 27	Feature	Winchester ’73	1950	US	4
Sep 27	Short	Peace on Earth	1939	US	4
Sep 27	Short	Good Will to Men	1955	US	4
Sep 30	Feature	Looper	2012	US	4
Oct 7	Feature	Taken 2	2012	US	3
Oct 13	Short	Partysaurus Rex	2012	US	3
Oct 14	Feature	Argo	2012	US	4
Oct 20	TV	The Girl	2012	US	2
Oct 21	Feature	Seven Psychopaths	2012	US	4
Oct 24	Feature	Perks of Being a Wallflower	2012	US	4
Oct 30	Feature	The Last Hurrah	1958	US	3
Nov 3	Feature	Contraband	2012	US	3
Nov 5	Feature	The Sessions	2012	US	4
Nov 10	Feature	Chronicle	2012	US	3
Nov 10	Feature	Cloud Atlas	2012	US	4
Nov 11	Feature	Red State	2011	US	2
Nov 11	Feature	Skyfall	2012	UK	3
Nov 21	Feature	Silver Linings Playbook	2012	US	3
Nov 23	Feature	Ides of March	2011	US	3
Nov 23	Feature	Dial M For Murder	1954	US	5
Nov 23	Feature	Kiss The Girls	1997	US	3
Nov 24	Feature	Red Tails	2012	US	3
Nov 25	Feature	Aliens of the Deep	2005	US	3
Dec 2	Feature	We Bought a Zoo	2011	US	3
Dec 2	Feature	The Greatest Movie Ever Sold	2011	US	3
Dec 4	Feature	The Recruit	2003	US	3
Dec 4	Feature	360	2012	Britain	3
Dec 10	Feature	The Rainmaker	1997	US	4
Dec 10	Feature	Hitchcock	2012	US	3
Dec 11	Feature	Lincoln	2012	US	4
Dec 14	Feature	Life of Pi	2012	US	3
Dec 16	Feature	The Hobbit 1	2012	US	3
Dec 18	Feature	Deadfall	2012	US	2
Dec 20	Short	Notes on Liberty	2009	US	2
Dec 20	Feature	Chasing Ice	2012	US	3
Dec 23	Feature	The Big Year	2011	US	3
Dec 23	Feature	The Distinguished Gentleman	1992	US	4
Dec 24	Feature	Hope Springs	2012	US	3
Dec 25	Feature	The Odd Life of TImothy Green	2012	US	3
Dec 26	Feature	The Visitor	2011	US	4
Dec 31	Feature	Les Miserables	1934	France	4

Winners of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2012

Winners of the National Geographic Photo Contest 2012 - In Focus - The Atlantic "The winners have just been announced of this year's National Geographic photo contest. The Society received more than 22,000 entries from over 150 countries. Presented here are the winners from the three categories of People, Places, and Nature, captions provided by the photographers. The Grand Prize Winner receives $10,000 and a trip to National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C., to participate in the annual National Geographic Photography Seminar in January 2013. Be sure to also see earlier In Focus collections of entries: Part I and Part II. [14 photos]"

We Don't Have a Spending Problem. We Have an Aging Problem

Kevin Drum explains We Don't Have a Spending Problem. We Have an Aging Problem.

"But even with the 2008 recession, federal spending is still on track to be lower a decade from now than it was when Reagan took office…tax revenue was 19.6 percent of GDP when Reagan took office, and it's projected to be 19.2 percent of GDP in 2017."

"The facts are pretty clear. Spending isn't our big problem. The recession spike of 2008 aside, it's about the same as it was 30 years ago. But instead of paying for that spending, we've repeatedly cut taxes, which are now at their lowest level in half a century. Tax revenue will go up as the economy improves, but even five years from now it will still be lower than it was when Reagan took office.

So what's our real problem? That's simple: America is getting older and healthcare costs are rising. That means we'll need to spend more money in the future on Social Security and Medicare. There's simply no way around that unless we're willing to immiserate our elderly, and that's not going to happen. Not only is it politically inconceivable, but the truth is that even Republicans don't want to do it, no matter how tough a game they talk. Like it or not, this means that over the next 20 or 30 years, spending on the elderly is going to go up by three or four percent of GDP."

"Add in the increased spending on the elderly, and federal outlays are going to be in the neighborhood of 23-24 percent of GDP by around 2030. Those are simply the facts. Even under a scenario where we control spending pretty tightly, spending is going to go up to about 24 percent of GDP."

He showed some graphs and they were simple enough I tried to recreate them in FRED. It's always a little tricky as FRED has lots of different versions of economic statistics and I don't understand the subtle (or maybe not so subtle differences) but I got basically what he showed for Current Federal Expenses (red) and Current Federal Receipts (green) and divided by GDP, I also ran it back to 1947 (note his include estimates out to 2017 that I couldn't do in FRED).

Yes, House Republicans supported the fiscal cliff deal

Yes, House Republicans supported the fiscal cliff deal "What we saw, in other words, wasn’t Boehner betraying the will of most House Republicans. It’s that what most House Republicans wanted was for the fiscal cliff deal to pass without them having to provide the votes to pass it. A majority of the majority favored passage of the fiscal cliff deal, even if they didn’t favor voting ‘yes’ themselves, and that’s why the bill was sent to the floor without being amended."

Why the fights over disaster relief in Congress keep getting worse

Why the fights over disaster relief in Congress keep getting worse

"Since the 1980s, Congress has been picking up a bigger portion of the tab for damage caused by tornadoes, hurricanes, snowstorms and all manner of disasters.

Now, there are arguments for and against the federal government getting more involved in disaster relief. On the plus side: It’s easier for Congress to borrow money for emergencies than it is for state and local governments. On the minus side: Many federal aid programs encourage development in disaster-prone areas. That makes future hurricanes and floods even more expensive.

But whatever the merits, the authors point out that Congress has never planned for this rapid growth in federal disaster aid. A huge portion of relief spending isn’t budgeted ahead of time — it’s just approved on an emergency, ad hoc basis. That’s not very transparent, and it’s not a great way to make policy. 

How big a deal is this? Quite big: ‘Given the current approach to disaster relief funding,’ the NBER authors write, ‘we project an ‘unfunded’ liability for disaster assistance over the next seventy-five years comparable to that of Social Security.’ And the problem could get worse still as climate change and sea-level rise make floods and other natural disasters more frequent and more destructive."

Does Lead Paint Produce More Crime Too?

Kevin Drum followed up on his lead/crime idea, Does Lead Paint Produce More Crime Too? ""

The jobs report in six charts

The jobs report in six charts "December’s jobs report showed a holding pattern. A gain of 155,000 jobs is a decent but hardly spectacular figure, while unemployment stayed constant at 7.8 percent. As we do every month, let’s break down the Bureau of Labor Statistics report’s main findings, in six charts."

The December jobs report proves the fiscal cliff deal a farce

I agree with Ezra Klein, The December jobs report proves the fiscal cliff deal a farce

"Let’s say I gave you three pieces of information about the U.S. economy. First, we have a terrible unemployment problem that’s not solving itself anytime soon. Second, we’re running big deficits that we expect will become unsustainable in the coming years, though there’s no evidence that the market is even mildly concerned about them right now. Third, we can borrow for next to nothing because the world sees us as a rare safe harbor during a time of global economic turmoil. What sort of economic policy would you design?

It’s not a particularly hard question. First, you’d want policies to create jobs, like a big tax credit for businesses that hire new workers and a large investment in rebuilding infrastructure. Then, you’d want a plan that brought both deficits and debt-to-GDP down in the coming years.

Typically, this is where you’d run into trouble: The policies to create jobs cost money, making it harder to reduce the deficit. The policies to reduce the deficit require you to cut spending and raise taxes, which tend to destroy jobs.

But, happily, America’s lucky situation means you don’t have to choose. We can borrow for nearly nothing right now — actually, less than nothing after accounting for inflation — and so the obvious answer to your dilemma is to borrow now to create jobs while putting in place a significant deficit-reduction plan that would begin once unemployment fell below, say, seven percent. If you didn’t want to work very hard at coming up with all these plans yourself, you could just pass the White House’s American Jobs Act now and then the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan after that."

This all makes so much sense to me and liberals have been saying it for years (and I've been linking to them). I know that politics is polarized and I know that in negotiations if the two sides both say "I want this" and "I want that" you don't get very far. But I always got around that by saying "I want this because…" and explaining what the problem is and why I think the thing I want will help that. Usually that means the other side will offer solutions they think will help the problem and we can figure out which is better. But with polarized sides each getting information from their own sources I don't expect that much in the media.

That's sad and wrong but shouldn't be destroying our country's ability to function. But I don't see the elected officials having talks like this (see this from yesterday). I keep wondering, if Boehner can't rally the tea partiers, when does Obama meet with them (or have Biden or Geithner meet with them) to explain the above and explain why they have their positions? I don't expect Eric Cantor to be convinced while on TV but in a closed meeting with the president? As Paul Krugman says, the facts have a liberal bias, it should be easy to use them to convince someone (anyone) to change their position. But no, as Ezra points out, Washington continues to have the wrong debate.

Now This is a Cast

I caught a bit of Shame on TV last night and looked up director Steve McQueen's next film. It's called Twelve Years a Slave and has an interesting premise, "A man living in New York during the mid-1800s is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the deep south." But what really impressed me was the cast, it's amazing:

Sherlock Holmes, Tyler Durden, Magneto/David,Carl Jung, Paul/Eli Sunday, Miss Isringhausen, John Adams/Harvey Pekar, Omar/Chalky White, The Operative, John Henry/Francis Wolcott/Jack McCall, Hushpuppy, Jonathan Cavanaugh-san and Lafayette's mother.

Mark Lynas, environmentalist who opposed GMOs, admits he was wrong.

Mark Lynas, environmentalist who opposed GMOs, admits he was wrong.

"If you fear genetically modified food, you may have Mark Lynas to thank. By his own reckoning, British environmentalist helped spur the anti-GMO movement in the mid-‘90s, arguing as recently at 2008 that big corporations’ selfish greed would threaten the health of both people and the Earth. Thanks to the efforts of Lynas and people like him, governments around the world—especially in Western Europe, Asia, and Africa—have hobbled GM research, and NGOs like Greenpeace have spurned donations of genetically modified foods. But Lynas has changed his mind—and he’s not being quiet about it. On Thursday at the Oxford Farming Conference, Lynas delivered a blunt address: He got GMOs wrong."

I've never really looked at the issue in detail. My understanding has always been that farmers have crossed plants to make new hybrids and GMOs are just another way of doing that. GMOs can be more controlled in what they change, though it's really hard to know the effects on humans, particularly over the long term, without studies that probably don't happen to the extent we'd like (particularly over the long term). Still I'm for trying to improve things using best current practices. I'm not sure how it all pans out with patent issues and monopolies and while labeling is fine, there's no way to provide the public with information that would be at all useful in a decision. Still, given all that, I'm happy to see that someone discovered science, looked into the issue, and came to a conclusion, particularly one that was different from their original position. That's the way it's supposed to work.

The date for filibuster reform: Jan. 22. Probably.

The date for filibuster reform: Jan. 22. Probably.

"But Thursday was the first day of the 113th Congress. And it came and went without filibuster reform. So is filibuster reform dead? Nope. Majority Leader Harry Reid is just making the first day of the session last far longer than the typical 24 hours: 

The way this technically works is that Reid is ‘recessing’ rather than ‘adjourning’ for the day. The Senate is a weird place. But the filibuster reform debate is still on the way. Reformers tell me that the expected deadline is Jan. 22, or thereabouts."

Politicians Should Learn Bigger Lessons From Their Pet Causes

Kevin Drum writes Politicians Should Learn Bigger Lessons From Their Pet Causes.

"But too many politicians, and this especially includes self-described fiscal conservatives, simply can't draw the obvious conclusion from all this: namely that you shouldn't support help for the poor and the sick and elderly only if you personally happen to know someone who's poor or sick or elderly. All of these people exist whether or not they happen to be family members.

So I'd suggest to Kirk that he broaden his horizons. Making sure that Medicaid helps stroke victims is a great idea. But an even better idea is making sure that Medicaid also helps victims of diseases that Mark Kirk hasn't personally confronted. "

I totally agree.

10 Reasons Why We Know the Earth is Round

This is from Minute Physics, is short and fun and has some non-obvious points (at least to me).

The 10 juiciest tidbits from the ‘fiscal cliff’ talks

Ezra Klein collects The 10 juiciest tidbits from the ‘fiscal cliff’ talks "Three excellent reconstructions of the fiscal cliff talks have been released by the Washington Post, the National Journal, and Politico. Here are the juiciest and most important parts:"

How Obama Decides Your Fate If He Thinks You're a Terrorist

The Atlantic shows How Obama Decides Your Fate If He Thinks You're a Terrorist.

"Over the years, U.S. authorities have responded with astonishing variety to American nationals suspected of terrorism, from ignoring their activities to conducting lethal drone strikes. All U.S. terrorists are not created equal. And the U.S. response depends heavily on the role of allies, the degree of threat the suspect poses, and the imminence of that threat -- along with other factors. What follows is a flow chart that takes us through the criteria and decision points that can lead to a suspect terrorist’s being ignored as a minor nuisance, being prosecuted in federal court, being held in a Pakistani prison, or being met with the business end of a Hellfire missile."

It's a flow chart, and clicking on each box shows some interesting details.