Realise Minas Tirith

Realise Minas Tirith is a $3 Billion Indiegogo project to build, for real, at full scale, the city of Minas Tirith from Lord of the Rings in southern England. They realize this is "a light-hearted venture with virtually no chance of succeeding" but they've put some thought into it.

• In order to realise this amazing dream, we have calculcated our required budget to be in the region of £1.85bn. The vast majority of this expense will cover building costs - £15m for land, £188m for labour and £1.4bn for material. The remainder of the money will be invested in maintenance and public services until the year 2053.
• We aim to commence work on Minas Tirith by the end of 2016, and complete the project by the end of 2023.

Perseid Meteor Shower

The Big Picture has lots of shots of the Perseid meteor shower.

‘Sesame Street’ to Air First on HBO for Next 5 Seasons

The NY Times reports ‘Sesame Street’ to Air First on HBO for Next 5 Seasons

The next five seasons of Sesame Street will air on HBO first and then after 9 months on PBS. They'll up their season from 18 to 35 episodes.

"Sesame’s partnership with HBO comes at a critical time for the children’s television group. Historically, less than 10 percent of the funding for ‘Sesame Street’ episodes came from PBS, with the rest financed through licensing revenue, such as DVD sales. Sesame’s business has struggled in recent years because of the rapid rise of streaming and on-demand viewing and the sharp decline in licensing income. About two-thirds of children now watch ‘Sesame Street’ on demand and do not tune in to PBS to watch the show."

When Republicans wanted to kill funding for PBS the cry was to "save Sesame Street". As a few suggested then, Sesame Street wasn't really in danger, someone would come to their rescue. Other programs will have a much harder time. But between this and the Deadwood announcement I can't think of two more distant kinds of programs to be on the same network.

Deadwood movie: HBO confirms preliminary talks about the project

EW reports Deadwood movie: HBO confirms preliminary talks about the project .This is great news. If you're a Deadwood fan, the comments on this article are pretty fun to read.

A Eulogy for Objective-C

A Eulogy for Objective-C

With the birth of Swift, we face the passing of Objective-C. To mark this historic moment, long-time Objective-C developer and trainer Aaron Hillegass delivers an impassioned eulogy for a language he knew well.

Deploying the standard tropes of the genre, we learn about the life of the deceased, we celebrate their finer qualities, and we reflect on how their influence continues to live on, in the minds and work of those who knew them. From Simula, Smalltalk, and Xerox PARC, to NeXTSTEP, OpenStep, and Objective-C 2.0, it’s a narrative rich in anecdotes and achievement. But as we ready our farewells, a twist. Could it be that the reports of a passing have been, perhaps, a little exaggerated?

There's a half hour video and a complete transcript. It's a nice history of the language.

The hidden editing power of Photos for OS X

MacWorld has some nice tips on The hidden editing power of Photos for OS X.

Do You Trust Larry Page?

I've seen a bunch of thoughts on Google's new parent company Alphabet, but I've seen very little that I've found interesting. The best so far has been Ben Thompson's Do You Trust Larry Page?.

I also tend to agree with Kara Swisher. It's basically the same thing, with more CEO titles and it could have been done in other ways but what the hell, this is Google.

This map shows how red states increase inequality and blue states cut it

Vox says This map shows how red states increase inequality and blue states cut it "State and local taxes don't get covered as much as federal ones, but they're still very, very important. Indeed, a new study finds that they can have significant effects on income inequality. Fed researchers Daniel Cooper, Byron Lutz, and Michael Palumbo estimate how major state taxes — sales taxes, income taxes, and motor fuel taxes — have affected inequality from 1984 to 2011. The differences are striking: While in some states, like Oregon, state taxes cut inequality significantly, in many Southern states like Tennessee, they actually exacerbated it."

War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

Scientific American says War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

"For Krepon, the debate over the definitions of space weapons and the saber-rattling between Russia, China and the U.S. is unhelpfully eclipsing the more pressing issue of debris. ‘Everyone is talking about purposeful, man-made objects dedicated to warfighting in space, and it’s like we are back in the Cold War,’ Krepon says. ‘Meanwhile, there are about 20,000 weapons already up there in the form of debris. They’re not purposeful—they’re unguided. They’re not seeking out enemy satellites. They’re just whizzing around, doing what they do.’

The space environment, he says, must be protected as a global commons, similar to the Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. Space junk is very easy to make and very hard to clean up, so international efforts should focus on preventing its creation. Beyond the threat of deliberate destruction, the risk of accidental collisions and debris strikes will continue to grow as more nations launch and operate more satellites without rigorous international accountability and oversight. And as the chance of accidents increases, so too does the possibility of their being misinterpreted as deliberate, hostile actions in the high-tension cloak-and-dagger military struggle in space."

Lessig Exploring Presidential Run

Lawrence Lessig announced on his blog:

So I've launched the exploratory committee for a run to be a "referendum president." I'd serve only as long as it took to pass fundamental reform -- the Citizen Equality Act of 2017 -- and then I'd resign. Here's the video explaining the launch (5:55m) and the video explaining the idea (2:51m).

The Huffington Post wrote about this:

Lessig, a Harvard law professor, will be a distinctly unconventional White House aspirant. In an interview, he said he will run on a singular platform: the Citizen Equality Act, which includes campaign finance reform, an end to partisan gerrymandering, and a vast expansion of voting access that would make Election Day a national holiday. Should he win and lead the passage of that agenda, Lessig said he'll promptly quit, handing the office to his vice president, whoever that may be.

Evidently, to get some air time he should insult Mexicans and women, particularly Megan Kelly (and Rosie O'Donnell).

The 2015 Perseids: Weather Prospects, Prognostications and More

UniverseToday on The 2015 Perseids: Weather Prospects, Prognostications and More. Looks like US viewer should look Wednesday night.

Donald Trump had the best policy idea of anyone in last night's debate

Matthew Yglesias claims Donald Trump had the best policy idea of anyone in last night's debate. He makes a reasonable case and teaches me a term I didn't know (in this context at least) "path dependency".

Single-payer health-care systems are ones in which the government acts as the insurance company for everyone. That's how Medicare works in the United States, and it's how the Canadian health-care system (conveniently also called Medicare) works for everyone, not just senior citizens.

'It works in Canada,' said Trump, and 'it works incredibly well in Scotland.' He even went so far as to say that 'it could have worked in a different age' in the United States but is not currently suited to our problems.

What Trump is talking about here is path dependency, and it's a reasonable point. It's one thing to set up a National Health Service in the wake of World War II. It's another thing entirely to come 75 years later and completely upend a system that is working pretty well for most people and that enormous institutions have made deep investments in. It's easy to dismiss this message when coming from Trump, but Atul Gawande has written brilliantly about path dependency in health-care reform and my colleague Sarah Kliff's masterful profile of Vermont's failed effort to build a single-payer system further underscores the concerns about path dependency.

It did sound reasonable to me during the debate that health insurance companies should be able to sell nation-wide and not just state-wide. (I think McCain proposed something similar in one of his runs for president). I was thinking about just the size of the market (or pool as insurers like to say) and Trump brought it up from his position as an interstate company trying to simplify bids. If there had been more time and if others could question him, it would lead to an interesting debate. Here he's saying that insurance should be nation-wide or federal. The standard GOP line is that virtually everything should move from the federal level to state level. An interesting question would be "What kinds of policies are better at the federal than state level and why?" Then if I were really dreaming they could argue about what the General Welfare clause means.

Yglesias' list of the other policies candidates mentioned last night is pretty hilarious.

GOP Debate

I watched some of the early debate and all of the evening debate last night. I mostly agree with Matthew Yglesias at Vox, The first Republican presidential debate of the 2016 election, explained. I think Christie did a really good job at looking reasonable. Instead of Hulk Christie we got Puny Banner Christie. Kasich did impress me the most, but I guess (according to Ygelisias) that's because I'm a liberal. I've seen remarkably little about Huckabee, Carson, and Cruz. I wasn't impressed by any of them so maybe it's just as well.

There wasn't a lot of content and what there was I thought was weak and often wrong. People talked about needing a stronger economy but the renamed flat tax proposals didn't do anything for me. Huckabee thinks we can solve the national debt with a consumption tax. Fine, but he ignored the regressive aspects of it and even said it will be "paid by everybody, including illegals, prostitutes, pimps, drug dealers, all the people that are freeloading off the system now.” Christie wants to raise the retirement age (but slowly) and cap benefits (though the idea of not getting social security if you're earning $200,000 in retirement doesn't sound so bad to me, I don't think there are many people earning that much in retirement).

Overall, I found the experience tiring. The few entertaining zingers didn't make up for listening to these people for two hours. The fact that there were so many of them stage meant there was little back-and-forth and only a few questions that went to more than one person and none to all of them after the opening one which was obviously a setup to go after Trump. Trump got the most time and it was just 10.5 minutes. Paul got the least at under 5. Newsweek has the tally and it seems the candidates spoke for just 68 total minutes. If that's all you can get then having more than 3 or 4 candidates is a real waste.

Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 9 Essential Moments

The New York Times wrote Jon Stewart and ‘The Daily Show’: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at 9 Essential Moments "‘The Daily Show’ began in 1996 as a snarky chat show parody hosted by Craig Kilborn. But after Jon Stewart took the chair in 1999, the show began to transform into something more substantial: a nightly comic dissection of current events, politics and the media. As Mr. Stewart’s tenure comes to a close, ‘Daily Show’ writers, producers and guests look back on key moments from the host’s 16-year run, and reflect upon his legacy."

Police Kill Suspect in Theater Attack in Nashville

Yesterday was another movie theater attack, Police Kill Suspect in Theater Attack in Nashville.

A man armed with a hatchet and a pellet gun unleashed a volley of pepper spray at audience members in a movie theater on Wednesday before being fired at by a police officer and shot dead by a SWAT team as he tried to escape out a back door, the police said.

I've seen some snarky calls for "hatchet control". But those miss the point. "One of the [three] people hit with the pepper spray also had a cut that evidently was caused by a hatchet, Mr. Aaron said. No one was taken to a hospital." I'm pretty sure that if this guy had a gun, there would have been more injuries and probably deaths. Why do I think this? Because of the other recent attacks where the assailant had a gun and there were more injuries. It's not unrelated.

John Hersey's Hiroshima

Kottke wrote about John Hersey's Hiroshima.

In August of 1946, the New Yorker dedicated an entire issue to a piece called Hiroshima by John Hersey.

For the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, the New Yorker has digitized Hersey's piece. The piece is quite long (30,000 words) so it can also be found in book form if that's easier to read.

The piece made quite an impression upon its release, which you can read about on Wikipedia.

Thrown into my Instapaper queue.

From a Million Miles: The Moon Crossing the Face of Earth

From a Million Miles: The Moon Crossing the Face of Earth

"A NASA camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured a unique view of the moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth last month. The series of test images shows the fully illuminated ‘dark side’ of the moon that is never visible from Earth.

The images were captured by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope on the DSCOVR satellite orbiting 1 million miles from Earth. From its position between the sun and Earth, DSCOVR conducts its primary mission of real-time solar wind monitoring for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)."

The Official GOP Debate Drinking Game Rules

In time for tomorrow's GOP debate, Matt Taibbi has posted The Official GOP Debate Drinking Game Rules. I have some additions.

Take a drink if:

1. Another candidate mentions Trump's hair.
2. Trump calls another candidate (or their idea or statement) "dumb" or "stupid".
3. Another candidate makes fun of Christie's weight.
4. Trump mentions a (secret) plan to defeat ISIL but won't say what it is.
5. Another candidate mentions one of Trump's bankruptcies.
6. Any candidate mentions runaway inflation.
7. Any candidate talks about anyone's birth certificate (including their own).
8. Any candidate mentions activist judges.
9. Any candidate thanks someone "for their service".
10. Any candidate mentions one of the other GOP candidates not at this debate.
11. Any candidate mentions a "mushroom cloud"
12. Trump tells anyone "You're fired!"

Have some chocolate (or something sweet) if:

1. Any candidate says they believe in evolution
2. Any candidate says they believe in climate change
3. Any candidate says the world is more than 6000 years old
4. Any candidate supports abortion in any particular circumstance (e.g., to protect the life of the woman)
5. Any candidate supports any additional form of gun control
6. Any candidate is for any form of campaign finance reform
7. Any candidate supports alternative fuels (with tax incentives or anything)
8. Any candidate supports any financial regulation
9. Any candidate supports anything that would raise some tax on the wealthy

Got any others?

A Trip to Antarctica

In Focus has amazing pics of A Trip to Antarctica "It is late winter in Antarctica now, and the months of darkness will soon be brightening. Research teams from around the world are preparing to head south soon, taking advantage of the (relatively) warm season to come. Gathered below are images of the Antarctic landscape and research facilities, and some of the scientific work taking place there."

Why CG Sucks (Except It Doesn't)

There's a lot of good stuff in this 7 min video essay on computer effects in movies. "We believe that the reason we think all CG looks bad, is because we only see "bad” CG. Fantastic, beautiful, and wonderfully executed CG is everywhere - you just don't know it." Lots of great examples here.

GravityLight

GravityLight is a pretty neat idea. "GravityLight is unique - it doesn't need batteries or sunlight and costs nothing to run. It takes seconds to lift the weight that powers GravityLight creating 20 minutes of light on its descent."

0-day bug in fully patched OS X comes under active exploit to hijack Macs

Ars Technica reports 0-day bug in fully patched OS X comes under active exploit to hijack Macs.

I'm not sure how your system gets infected but the bug is that it changes /etc/sudoers to allow something new to run with higher privileges. There isn't a fix from Apple yet, but I'm sure there will be one soon. So be on the look out for a system update it and install it quickly.

Winners of the 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest

In Focus shows the Winners of the 2015 National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest "The winners of the 27th annual National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest have just been announced. Winning first prize, Anuar Patjane Floriuk of Tehuacán, Mexico, will receive an eight-day photo expedition for two to Costa Rica and the Panama Canal for a photograph of divers swimming near a humpback whale off the western coast of Mexico. Here, National Geographic has shared all of this year’s winners, gathered from four categories: Travel Portraits, Outdoor Scenes, Sense of Place, and Spontaneous Moments. Captions by the photographers."

California Wildfires

The Big Picture shows the California wildfires "Drought and extreme weather have fueled numerous wildfires in California, destroying property and forcing evacuations. More than 8,000 firefighters are battling the Rocky Fire in northern California that has already scorched over 60,000 acres."

What’s across the ocean from you when you’re at the beach, in 7 fascinating maps

WonkBlog shows What’s across the ocean from you when you’re at the beach, in 7 fascinating maps

"The following maps, inspired by a map by Eric Odenheimer, show the cities and countries that are at the same latitude across the ocean, for anywhere in the world. The map below shows the Western hemisphere. The colored bands on the right side show European countries in blue and African countries in red. You can see that Africa is huge, and Europe is a lot farther north than you might think. On the left, Asian countries are shown in yellow, while the countries in Oceania are below them in blue. The northern tip of Australia ends up about on par with Buenos Aires."

Click on the map above to go to the page with several more views. I think these are great. It never occurred to me that Miami was as the same latitude as the Sahara.