Visual Proofs

Mahalanobis has some neat Visual Proofs of math theorems.

24 Warning Signs You Cannot Afford To Ignore

24 Warning Signs You Cannot Afford To Ignore was pretty interesting.

Ricky Jay and his Amazing Cards

I know Ricky Jay from his appearance in David Mamet movies and most recently on the TV show The Unit ( which has been really quite spectacular this season). I've known that he's a magician and known for his ability to throw playing cards, but I've never seen him do any of those things. Now Your Daily Awesome links to YouTube vidoes of Ricky Jay and his Amazing Cards. Wow.

Daily Show in Fine Form

The Daily Show tonight was very good tonight. It began with Jon Stewart pointing out that Bush often describes what he should be doing rather than actually doing it. Summing it up as "Mission Described" and "our first meta-president".

Lewis Black was better than he's been in a while, complaining about the Senate spending time to decry the moveon.org ad and then the Rush Limbaugh comment and then (and I didn't know this had a name), Lapelgate when Obama didn't wear an American flag pin. "If it takes more than two cufflinks to say it, you lost me." While it took Fox to somehow relate this to the Lewinsky scandal, it took Lewis Black to make that comparison graphic.

Unusually, the interview was the weakest segment. Former NY Giants running back and now Today show correspondent Tiki Barber was the guest. He was hawking his new book which Stewart said "offers advice for other unbelievably physically gifted valedictorians out there; that you too can make something of yourself." We also learned that Stewart is a Giants fan. I like him even more now.

Coverage of Obama's Energy Plan

Maybe someone listened to me, almost. On Monday Barack Obama announced an very green energy policy. It got some coverage but not enough. This AP article was the best I saw.

The New York Times has an article on it but it's not at all in depth and mostly pitted him against Hilary. The Washington Post blogged about it, but not much more. The Boston Globe offered this which I count as no more than an announcement. The Washington Times of course focused on the costs of the plan but at least they have some coverage.

The best coverage I saw was in the Huffington Post, but real details of his plan can be found on his website.

Record Industry Goes Insane, Sues For Playing a Radio

This is in Britain and not the US but it still shows how crazy the music industry has gotten over copyrights. The Performing Right Society has sued the Kwik-Fit auto service chain because employees play their radios so that other employees and customers can hear it. Seriously, this is true.

"The PRS claimed that Kwik-Fit mechanics routinely use personal radios while working at service centres across the UK and that music, protected by copyright, could be heard by colleagues and customers. It is maintained that amounts to the 'playing' or 'performance' of the music in public and renders the firm guilty of infringing copyright."

Um, what was permission for radio to BROADCAST before there were headphones? And isn't the point of radio play so that people will hear the music, like it, and buy it?

Interview with Dexter Producer

Interesting interview with the producer of Dexter one of my favorite shows.

Already Annoyed at Election Coverage

I'm sure it is the case, but is anyone already annoyed at stories like this one from ABC: Iowa Poll Shows Clinton/Romney on Top. It's a year before the election (3 months before the primaries) and all I see are articles on polls and fund raising. In the Sunday morning news show, I saw Richardson and Edwards interviewed and that's just about all the questions were about (a little about Iraq).

I want to see articles about the issues and the candidates positions on them. I want to see analysis of which plans are most likely to succeed. I don't want meta-analysis on uninformed people's premature decisions. I'd be willing to accept some of the latter but not at the exclusion of the former.

Yeah I know, it's not gonna happen. Maybe if Jon Stewart would do a segment on it...

Nobel Week

The Nobel Prizes will be announced this week. I know this should be more significant than the Oscars to me, but it's not. Probably because it's hard to understand what the winners win for and there's no way to run a pool. Still I expect there will be some interesting winners announced.

War-Crimes Prosecutor Quits in Pentagon Clash

The New York Times reports War-Crimes Prosecutor Quits in Pentagon Clash "In the latest disruption of the Bush administration’s plan to try detainees at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for war crimes, the chief military prosecutor on the project stepped down yesterday after a dispute with a Pentagon official." All we really know is the prosecutor, Col. Morris D. Davis of the Air Force is resigning and is ordered not to discuss the reasons why.

"Colonel Davis filed a complaint against General Hartmann with Pentagon officials this fall saying that the general had exceeded his authority and created a conflict of interest by asserting control over the prosecutor’s office. Colonel Davis said it would be improper for General Hartmann to assess the adequacy of cases filed by prosecutors if the general had been involved in the decision to file those cases. In a statement last week, Colonel Davis said the issue posed a threat to the integrity of the war-crimes process. “For the greater good, Brigadier General Hartmann and I should both resign and walk away or higher authority should relieve us of our duties,” the statement said."

This Week in Torture

On Wednesday the New York Times reported Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations. Shortly after Alberto R. Gonzales Became Attorney General (in February 2005), the Justice Department issued a secret opinion that "for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures." It was "an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency."

"The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil."

The Times also has a good graphic on this history of this story.

After the story broke, Dana Perino's press conference was an exercise in ridiculous circular logic. And Bush's comments were all but called lies. "They can't say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program," Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) said.

Daily Kos says it well, "So there you have it. We don't torture. The administration won't say what "enhanced techniques" they use, they won't confirm or deny using blows to the head, extremes in temperature or waterboarding, and in fact, they won't even say how they themselves define torture, but we must trust that they are doing only what is necessary to protect us. And if they have to do it from secret prisons in undisclosed countries, well, we don't need to know about that either lest we, "trigger an attack," and then blame the administration for not keeping us safe."

Can we start impeachment proceedings yet? If not, what the hell is holding us back?

Venter Creates Artificial Life

The Guardian report "Craig Venter, the controversial DNA researcher involved in the race to decipher the human genetic code, has built a synthetic chromosome out of laboratory chemicals and is poised to announce the creation of the first new artificial life form on Earth."

"Mr Venter said he had carried out an ethical review before completing the experiment. "We feel that this is good science," he said. He has further heightened the controversy surrounding his potential breakthrough by applying for a patent for the synthetic bacterium."

How Did Israel Pull Off the Air Strikes?

It's been a month since Israel bombed alledged nuclear sites in Syria. I guess that's long enough to start asking Why Syria's Air Defenses Failed to Detect Israelis "The big mystery of the strike is how did the non-stealthy F-15s and F-16s get through the Syrian air defense radars without being detected?" The current theory seems to be they hacked into Syria's state-of-the-art Russian-built air defense network and feed it wrong data.

Movie Review: Into the Wild

Into the Wild is Sean Penn's adaptation of the book by Jon Krakauer. Apparently the movie is quite faithful and filmed in all the actual locations. It tells the true story of Christopher McCandless who after graduating college shed himself of material possessions and travelled around the country for two years until he realized his dream of going to the wilds of Alaska.

Penn obviously loved the material. The story is told intertwining the Alaska portion of the trip with previous times. A voice over of his sister tells of his family life before, including the troubled marriage of his parents. There's much more narrative than a Terrance Malick film but there are long passages that inspired by his meditational style.

McCandless actions are extreme and deliberate. He vanishes from his family and doesn't communicate with them. After abandoning his car and literally burning his money, he wanders with a backpack and meets people. In spite of the fact that he never stays too long he does form strong friendships. A well-read person, he's able to offer insights on life by quoting from the likes of Jack London, Leo Tolstoy, and Henry David Thoreau; to the extent that one hippie asks if he's Jesus.

Emile Hirsch plays McCandless. For most of the film he goes by the name of Alexander Supertramp. Following in DeNiro's, Brody's and Bale's footsteps he undergoes significant physical changes as he prepares for his trip and struggles through some difficult months on his own trying to feed himself. It's a wonderful performance. He's believable in his adventures and friendships and he walks the nuanced line well of is he doing something wonderful or crazy. Sure Penn romanticizes it a bit but plenty of people will leave the theater scratching their heads.

There' are two quotes at the end of the film I particularly liked. I'm not sure they're spoilers but I think they both work better with the film behind them so I won't include them here. Instead see the movie and enjoy them. I don't think it will change your life, certainly not as much as McCandless', but it might de-stress you, just for a few hours.

Rudy vs Hilary, Round 1

The New York Times reports about a ballot initiative in California to apportion electoral votes by Congressional district. This is significant because CA usually gives 55 electoral votes to democrats and this would give perhaps 20 to Republicans which is about the size of IL or PA.

What's also notable about this is it's a battle between Hilary and Guiliani. "Started by a Republican lawyer in California, the measure has been driven almost entirely by people who are associated with or have given money to Mr. Giuliani’s presidential campaign. The effort to kill the initiative — executed with a swift fierceness almost unheard of against an initiative in such an early stage — has been led by a bevy of Clinton supporters, including a former Clinton White House official, prominent elected Democratic supporters and one of Mrs. Clinton’s most prolific fund-raisers."

Blackwater To Guard FBI Team Probing It

When the FBI goes to Iraq to investigate Blackwater, who will be assigned to protect them? Why Blackwater of course.

New Plastic Is Strong As Steel, Transparent

New plastic is strong as steel, transparent "By mimicking a brick-and-mortar molecular structure found in seashells, University of Michigan researchers created a composite plastic that's as strong as steel but lighter and transparent." I think they missed the opportunity to call it transparent aluminum.

Headlines and an old Iran Story

I sometimes save drafts of articles that I'm not sure about posting. I went through those recently and came across this one. Now I have a completely different view on it.

The front page of the Boston Globe on July 25, 2007 had this story, US, Iran will cooperate on Iraq security. Somehow the headline didn't catch my eye. Maybe because the longer words "cooperate" and "security" dominated the space over the shorter country names. The story continued on page A8 with the headline "US, Iran to work together on Iraq". That did catch my eye and I went back to the front page to start from the beginning.

Now I want to know know what happened to this cooperation?

"During a tense seven-hour meeting in Baghdad yesterday, the United States accepted an Iranian proposal to set up a joint committee on security in Iraq, marking a major shift in US policy toward engagement with the Iranian regime. The committee will provide the first direct, sustained forum for dialogue between the United States and Iran in 27 years. The group, which will include Iraqi officials, is expected to focus on fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, securing Iraq's borders, and controlling violent militias, according to Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq."

Did either side give it a chance?

Universal Considering Serenity Sequel

Today's rumor is Serenity Sequel on the Horizon Realistically?! It Can't Be!. Apparently Alan Tudyk (Wash) has been quoted as saying: "They had to put [the new DVD] out because they've been selling out of the other one and so Universal's like 'So, let's do another one’. And now… there's now a chance there's going to be another movie.'" This would be great.

GOP Is Losing Grip On Core Business Vote

The Wall Street Journal reports the GOP Is Losing Grip On Core Business Vote.

"Some business leaders are drifting away from the party because of the war in Iraq, the growing federal debt and a conservative social agenda they don't share. In manufacturing sectors such as the auto industry, some Republicans want direct government help with soaring health-care costs, which Republicans in Washington have been reluctant to provide. And some business people want more government action on global warming, arguing that a bolder plan is not only inevitable, but could spur new industries.

Already, economic conservatives who favor balanced federal budgets have become a much smaller part of the party's base. That's partly because other groups, especially social conservatives, have grown more dominant. But it's also the result of defections by other fiscal conservatives angered by the growth of government spending during the six years that Republicans controlled both the White House and Congress."

I guess some Republicans remember their conservative roots that tell them that deficits are bad. Seems obvious to me. There's a lot to the article and it's worth a read.

Scalia as Bauer

This is a cute cartoon written by Dahlia Lithwick, asking, what if Justice Antonin Scalia acted like Jack Bauer of 24.

The XO Laptop

David Pogue in the New York Times writes about the XO Laptop aka One-Laptop-Per-Child, aka the $100 laptop. Laptop With a Mission Widens Its Audience. "The truth is, the XO laptop, now in final testing, is absolutely amazing, and in my limited tests, a total kid magnet. Both the hardware and the software exhibit breakthrough after breakthrough — some of them not available on any other laptop, for $400 or $4,000."

The power usage is low, the screen is great, even in sunlight, and the zero-setup mesh networks are a wonder. Startup is slow, as is switching between apps, but using them is fine. "Incredibly, one keystroke reveals the underlying code of almost any XO program or any Web page. Students can not only study how their favorite programs have been written, but even experiment by making changes. (If they make a mess of things, they can restore the original.)"

This is Going to Look Silly in 20 Years

Daily Show Update

Tonight Ted Koppel was on the Daily Show talking about his new program this Sunday on California prisons (on the Discovery Channel). When he came out they joked about Chris Matthews the night before but I think he missed a really good opportunity. At one point in the conversation, Koppel stops talking, looks at Jon and says "Are you ok?"

Jon replied "No I'm just stunned, these are terrible figures. You're not used to people listening to you."

"No I'm not."

"This isn't your Passover Seder where everybody's like shut up so we can eat. I'm listening to you. These sound appalling."

At this point I think Koppel should have said, "So, you're taking Chris Matthews advice and listening."

More on SCHIP

Here's a response by Brookings economist Jason Furman to the White House's view of SCHIP. I don't follow most of it. I'm interested to find out that while the White House objects to adults gaining benefits under the program, this administration has approved this many times since 2001. Ah politics.