Friday, November 17, 2006
McCain Says NOAA Breaking Law on Global Warming Report
NOAA was supposed to produce a report on global climate change in November of 2004 and they haven't done so yet (that's 2 years late). Admiral Conrad Lautenbacher, the head of NOAA, was testifying at the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation and McCain (R-AZ) was flabbergasted, ""You know, you are really one of the more astonishing witnesses that I have [faced] -- in the 19 years I've been a member of this Committee."
iPod Support Docs
The Unofficial Apple Weblog writes about the new iPod Support Documents Apple posted.
Evening of Giving
Last night I went to the oddly named Evening of Giving in Marlborough, MA. It's a charity fundraiser to raise money for a homeless shelter; this was the 17th year. At a local hotel a lot of restaurants brought food. Donors gave $30 and got in for all you can eat or sample. The hotel did all the drinks, which weren't free, so that's how they got their money.
The food was very good and had everything from BBQ, to raw bars, carving stations, pastas, etc. I really liked the mini BBQ pork sandwiches and sweet potato pie from Firefly's and the giant shrimp cocktail. There were of course many desserts but the big hit were the giant chocolate covered strawberries (I watched someone have 21!). Friends who live in Marlborough and told me about the event have been several times before. They have this down to a science. We arrived early which helped to avoid the crowds. The brought plastic one-handed plate holders with space for the plate, a drink and even holders for silverware. They also weighed themselves before and after the event but I'll spare you those details. It's way too much food, but it's fun running into a friend you have seen in a few minutes just muttering, "mmmm, bacon wrapped scallops".
If you're looking for a charity event to run this was successful. I understand they raise $30-40,000 annually. The hotel has a big event mid-week and gets money from drinks (even water was $2). Restaurants get some publicity. People get a great deal for $30. The charity gets lots of money. There were (I think 84) tables set up in ballroom space, if you signed up 10 people early enough you got a table. There was a DJ and some dancing and a raffle. The food tables were setup around the lobby and down one hallway, it was very crowded when in full swing.
Now it's off to the gym.
The food was very good and had everything from BBQ, to raw bars, carving stations, pastas, etc. I really liked the mini BBQ pork sandwiches and sweet potato pie from Firefly's and the giant shrimp cocktail. There were of course many desserts but the big hit were the giant chocolate covered strawberries (I watched someone have 21!). Friends who live in Marlborough and told me about the event have been several times before. They have this down to a science. We arrived early which helped to avoid the crowds. The brought plastic one-handed plate holders with space for the plate, a drink and even holders for silverware. They also weighed themselves before and after the event but I'll spare you those details. It's way too much food, but it's fun running into a friend you have seen in a few minutes just muttering, "mmmm, bacon wrapped scallops".
If you're looking for a charity event to run this was successful. I understand they raise $30-40,000 annually. The hotel has a big event mid-week and gets money from drinks (even water was $2). Restaurants get some publicity. People get a great deal for $30. The charity gets lots of money. There were (I think 84) tables set up in ballroom space, if you signed up 10 people early enough you got a table. There was a DJ and some dancing and a raffle. The food tables were setup around the lobby and down one hallway, it was very crowded when in full swing.
Now it's off to the gym.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
More Art Lessons
Another great post by John Kricfalusi, the creator of Ren & Stimpy on his blog where's he's been giving free advise on how to draw cartoons.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Patriot Act Misused in Mile High Case
Concurring Options (a law blog) has a summary of various articles about a couple arrested for overt sexual activity on a plane. On what would otherwise be an amusing random news story (perhaps not to them), I see this in the story: "A couple's ill-concealed sexual play aboard a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles got them charged with violating the Patriot Act, intended for terrorist acts, and could land them in jail for 20 years." Yep, we need these powers to help fight terrorists and we wouldn't dream of using them against anyone else. And we don't listen to your phone calls or look at your bank accounts, riiiight. This is why we don't give the government more powers than they need.
Proof of Fox News Bias
Cenk Uygur talks about Fox News and how the new internal memos really do prove they aren't news but are opinions. Now if only other news sources (and viewers) would treat them that way.
Post Election Analysis
Kevin Drum has interesting data about the ideological makeup of the House Republicans that lost their seats.
Supernova Pictures
The image below is from the Chandra observatory, think of it as the Hubble for X-rays. It's of Cassiopeia A which is the youngest remnant of a supernova in our galaxy (in the constellation Cassiopeia). Supernovas are explosions of large stars and as you might imagine there's a lot of energy produced. In fact, it's believed all the elements in the universe heavier than iron were produced in supernova explosions. This is why elements like gold are so rare.
In this case astronomers were looking at more esoteric stuff, particularly electrons given off in the explosion. Looking at how they are accelerated (which should be similar to how protons and ions are accelerated) offers an explanation for where cosmic rays come from. Cosmic rays are these particles with lots of energy, so basically going very fast. The question is what gives them this energy? The theory is supernovas do. By looking at the dispersal patterns in x-rays this observation seems to back up the theory of accelerating particles. For me, it's a pretty picture :)
Here are some more pics of the same thing in different wavelengths, including what it looks like in visible light (that is through a telescope).
In this case astronomers were looking at more esoteric stuff, particularly electrons given off in the explosion. Looking at how they are accelerated (which should be similar to how protons and ions are accelerated) offers an explanation for where cosmic rays come from. Cosmic rays are these particles with lots of energy, so basically going very fast. The question is what gives them this energy? The theory is supernovas do. By looking at the dispersal patterns in x-rays this observation seems to back up the theory of accelerating particles. For me, it's a pretty picture :)
Here are some more pics of the same thing in different wavelengths, including what it looks like in visible light (that is through a telescope).
Bush and Vietnam's Flag
Think Progress reports on the lastest Bush faux pas, As Bush Goes To Vietnam, White House Website Displays The Wrong Flag. They displayed the flag of South Vietnam, which as not be used since the war ended in 1975. How hard is it in this day and age of the Internet to find the right flag of a country?
The CIA World Factbook has the right flag. wikipedia does too. The economist country briefing and the UN's cyber school bus both have the right flag, but they are very small. And yes Flags of the World got it right. And no surprise, Vietnam Tourism has the right flag.
If you google vietnam flag you get three flags, the first is wrong, the second two are right. Would you take the first or the most popular? If you google Vietnam you don't get images.
I suspect this is the problem. If you google South Vietnam you get some images, including the wrong flag. If you lookup South Vietnam in wikipedia you get a nice article on the old country, including the old (now wrong) flag. Maybe this is a problem of too much information being available? It's now easy to find out and out of date information. Then again, I think this is probably just a problem of not knowing what to look for and being careless in what you find.
The CIA World Factbook has the right flag. wikipedia does too. The economist country briefing and the UN's cyber school bus both have the right flag, but they are very small. And yes Flags of the World got it right. And no surprise, Vietnam Tourism has the right flag.
If you google vietnam flag you get three flags, the first is wrong, the second two are right. Would you take the first or the most popular? If you google Vietnam you don't get images.
I suspect this is the problem. If you google South Vietnam you get some images, including the wrong flag. If you lookup South Vietnam in wikipedia you get a nice article on the old country, including the old (now wrong) flag. Maybe this is a problem of too much information being available? It's now easy to find out and out of date information. Then again, I think this is probably just a problem of not knowing what to look for and being careless in what you find.
Cute Animation
This is very cute. A Master's Thesis Animation, from a student at The School of Visual Arts in NYC.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Last Fish Class
Since people seemed interested, tonight was the last class of my Cooking With Fish class. We made Sole with Crab and Spinach Stuffing and a Lazy Man’s Bouillabaisse. Both were tasty and pretty easy.
John Roberts, Media Master
Slate has an article on Chief Justice John Roberts following this Nightline interview he gave yesterday.
Yes Virginia There Is Global Warming
George Monblot debunks the debunking of global warming. It seems the Sunday Telegraph ran a two part story by Christopher Monckton that claimed that global warming was exagerated. " In keeping with most of the articles about climate change in that publication, it is a mixture of cherry-picking, downright misrepresentation and pseudo-scientific gibberish. But it has the virtue of being incomprehensible to anyone who is not an atmospheric physicist."
Democrats Have Problems Too
David Sirota in the Huffington Post in For the Love of God, Please Stop. It's Embarrassing. Like, Really Embarrassing. points out that Democrats have problems too. Some pro-war Democrats are now trying to rewrite history to better fit into the post-election the Iraq War is bad outcome, in particular Rep Steny Hoyer (D-MD) who "led the charge against Democrats taking a strong position [against] Iraq." Hoyer is running against Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) for House Majority Leader. And lets not forget while Murtha did do well taking a stand against Iraq, he's not beyond corruption charges.
John Hodgman Interview
Boing Boing has a podcast interview with John Hodgman that's very good. Unlike the others I've heard, he's actually himself and not in character.
Movie Review: The Queen
I walked into The Queen expecting a biography of Queen Elizabeth II with a wonderful performance by Helen Mirren. I kinda got that. Mirren's performance is outstanding but The Queen only covers the one week period following Princess Diana's death. If you remember, the Royal family was at their summer home at the time and stayed there with no public statement while it seemed all of England was flocking to London to drop off flowers at Buckingham Palace and mourn as a group.
The Guardian's review spends most of it's time explaining how The Queen is "the first ever critical depiction of the monarch in mainstream British drama". That's certainly significant and obviously the royal family didn't participate in the creation of the film. The films official site says the sceeenplay is "drawn from extensive interviews, devoted research, discreet sources and informed imagination".
It came across to me as exactly what you think you know about the family. Elizabeth is cold and aloof, Charles is inept, Philip is an ass, and the Queen Mother drinks. Charles is redeemed a little as he sheds a tear for Diana, comforts the children, and seems frightened of his mother. The Queen points out that Diana was no longer a part of the royal family and deserved no special notice from them. The flag wasn't at half mast because it's not a flag but a standard which is only flown when the Queen is in residence. Yeah whatever.
When the Queen wonders if she's supposed to drop everything and go to London or points out that she's thinking of the grandchildren that's all well and good until you notice she doesn't do anything but drink tea and is never shown with the grandchildren. We're shown Charles telling them the bad news and then Philip takes them hunting every day as a distraction. Elizabeth shows more sympathy for the killed stag than she does for Diana. I guess this is supposed to mean something but of course it's all complete conjecture.
One surprise was that I think the person with the most screen time was Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. He became Prime Minister shortly before Diana's death and had a better understanding of the mood of the people than their queen did. He talks with Elizabeth about the need for modernization. The movie shows her progression via telephones. At first we see her using rotary phones, while Blair uses modern cordless ones. But by the end, Elizabeth even uses a cell phone, wow.
The production values are all good. Good sets, costumes, makeup (all but Charles looked very much like their real live counterparts), etc. The cinematography was good with mostly eye level static shots giving a you-are-there effect. There's one helecopter shot over the countryside that just feels very out of place. Also some the Diana story is told with interspersed news clips and reenactments. Also towards the end there are a several cutaways to shots of Diana which seemed odd to me.
There's a point where Blair makes an abrupt turn-around and defends the queen's actions to his staff. It's fine for seeing the other side, but I don't buy it. At the end the Queen and Blair have a conversation about how quickly the public mood can change. While that's relevant to Blair now, it's nothing new.
The Queen is an exercise in restraint. There isn't much that happens with the main characters but that's used as effect. The characterizations while notable in sense of the film history also are not anything new. The acting is superb, Mirren is guaranteed a nomination, but the film (obviously) didn't do much for me. I have some sympathy for the Queen's point of view that people made too much of Diana's tragic death but I don't have any sympathy for the Queen.
The Guardian's review spends most of it's time explaining how The Queen is "the first ever critical depiction of the monarch in mainstream British drama". That's certainly significant and obviously the royal family didn't participate in the creation of the film. The films official site says the sceeenplay is "drawn from extensive interviews, devoted research, discreet sources and informed imagination".
It came across to me as exactly what you think you know about the family. Elizabeth is cold and aloof, Charles is inept, Philip is an ass, and the Queen Mother drinks. Charles is redeemed a little as he sheds a tear for Diana, comforts the children, and seems frightened of his mother. The Queen points out that Diana was no longer a part of the royal family and deserved no special notice from them. The flag wasn't at half mast because it's not a flag but a standard which is only flown when the Queen is in residence. Yeah whatever.
When the Queen wonders if she's supposed to drop everything and go to London or points out that she's thinking of the grandchildren that's all well and good until you notice she doesn't do anything but drink tea and is never shown with the grandchildren. We're shown Charles telling them the bad news and then Philip takes them hunting every day as a distraction. Elizabeth shows more sympathy for the killed stag than she does for Diana. I guess this is supposed to mean something but of course it's all complete conjecture.
One surprise was that I think the person with the most screen time was Michael Sheen as Tony Blair. He became Prime Minister shortly before Diana's death and had a better understanding of the mood of the people than their queen did. He talks with Elizabeth about the need for modernization. The movie shows her progression via telephones. At first we see her using rotary phones, while Blair uses modern cordless ones. But by the end, Elizabeth even uses a cell phone, wow.
The production values are all good. Good sets, costumes, makeup (all but Charles looked very much like their real live counterparts), etc. The cinematography was good with mostly eye level static shots giving a you-are-there effect. There's one helecopter shot over the countryside that just feels very out of place. Also some the Diana story is told with interspersed news clips and reenactments. Also towards the end there are a several cutaways to shots of Diana which seemed odd to me.
There's a point where Blair makes an abrupt turn-around and defends the queen's actions to his staff. It's fine for seeing the other side, but I don't buy it. At the end the Queen and Blair have a conversation about how quickly the public mood can change. While that's relevant to Blair now, it's nothing new.
The Queen is an exercise in restraint. There isn't much that happens with the main characters but that's used as effect. The characterizations while notable in sense of the film history also are not anything new. The acting is superb, Mirren is guaranteed a nomination, but the film (obviously) didn't do much for me. I have some sympathy for the Queen's point of view that people made too much of Diana's tragic death but I don't have any sympathy for the Queen.
Monday, November 13, 2006
Padilla Update
Next in the ongoing Padilla story we have federal prosecutors denying that he was tortured. I guess a trial will have to find out the truth. They don't however contest that he was held without charges for 3.5 years.
Movie Review: Gigot
Gigot is a 1962 film you've probably never heard of, I hadn't. It's not on DVD or video but it showed up on cable (FMC) and I TiVo'ed it. It stars Jackie Gleason and is directed by Gene Kelly (yes that Gene Kelly). Gleason plays a mute working as a janitor in post-war Paris. He's known around the town as a simpleton and make fun of and have fun with him. He befriends a street walker and her young daughter. As he tries to entertain her they build a friendship. Stuff happens.
The word that comes to mind is charming. You probably won't laugh out loud or cry but you will have a smile on your face. I don't think that by today's standards everything is wrapped up nicely (with every bad act made up for and every relationship mended), but let it go and just enjoy. Gleason's performance is marvelous, expressing so much without making a single sound. The music keeps things moving along (it got an Oscar nomination). The closest thing to it I can think of is the first half of Life is Beautiful.
I'm sure Gleason would have been nominated in any other year, but 1962 had perhaps the greatest competition for Best Actor of any year ever:
So if you manage to come across Gigot on cable, watch it, you won't be disappointed.
The word that comes to mind is charming. You probably won't laugh out loud or cry but you will have a smile on your face. I don't think that by today's standards everything is wrapped up nicely (with every bad act made up for and every relationship mended), but let it go and just enjoy. Gleason's performance is marvelous, expressing so much without making a single sound. The music keeps things moving along (it got an Oscar nomination). The closest thing to it I can think of is the first half of Life is Beautiful.
I'm sure Gleason would have been nominated in any other year, but 1962 had perhaps the greatest competition for Best Actor of any year ever:
- Gregory Peck won for To Kill a Mockingbird
- Burt Lancaster for Birdman of Alcatraz
- Jack Lemmon for Days of Wine and Roses
- Peter O'Toole for Lawrence of Arabia
- Marcello Mastroianni for Divorce - Italian Style
So if you manage to come across Gigot on cable, watch it, you won't be disappointed.
A Good Day
So a few things came together today and I'm pretty happy. I took my new iPod Shuffle to the gym and worked out for the first time in a while. All went well and I'll be back there tomorrow. Also my Cooking with Fish class is tomorrow, so tonight I did my homework and cooked fish. I made for myself a pan seared Red Snapper over a braised fennel with a side of steamed broccoli. I basically started with this recipe but substituted chicken stock for white wine and cilantro for parsley. It came out pretty well though the snapper's skin could have been a little crisper. We'd made this in class, and if I'd hadn't done that I never would have made this at home. Exercise and a healthy meal, not bad, now if only Heroes and Studio 60 are good tonight...
Java GPL'ed
Sun has open sourced Java. Finally. This is good news, but is it too late? I wonder what changed Sun's mind on this? Has their Java source licensing revenue dropped so much that it didn't matter anymore? Does that mean people have already moved beyond Java? Sun seems to have done good things with the license. There's a GPL exception for classpaths so you can load proprietary libraries, that's good (well rms probably doesn't think so). They still own and license the brand which seems to be based on compatibility tests, so for as good as the tests are, things called Java should remain interoperable.
The open source community has for the most part avoid Java, will they be willing to switch now? Certainly Linux distributions will now come with Java. Will applications start depending on it? How many runtime environments do we want to support? 10 years from now will there be different distributions that seek to optimize the system by choosing packages that use the same language environment to avoid instantiating too many? Another aspect of this, will alternate byte-compiled languages that run on the JVM become more popular? The JVM is pretty high quality, with Python/Jython or Ruby benefit from it?
The open source community has for the most part avoid Java, will they be willing to switch now? Certainly Linux distributions will now come with Java. Will applications start depending on it? How many runtime environments do we want to support? 10 years from now will there be different distributions that seek to optimize the system by choosing packages that use the same language environment to avoid instantiating too many? Another aspect of this, will alternate byte-compiled languages that run on the JVM become more popular? The JVM is pretty high quality, with Python/Jython or Ruby benefit from it?
How myth gets built into conventional wisdom
Glenn Greenwald has a good posting about how in today's media a single person expressing an opinion can become "the conventional wisdom" in a matter of hours.
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