19 October 2005
Walnut Hills Recognized for Educating Black Youth
Congratulations to Walnut Hills High School for being among the first to receive the Award for Excellence from the Caroline and Sigmund Schott Foundation of Massachusetts. The award recognizes excellence in educating young African-American males. The award is national, but all three schools were in Ohio. The other two are in Toledo and Cleveland. [Post]
17 October 2005
Insight Into a Republican Mind
An interesting post on Spacetropic this past Saturday. To be brief, the post is simultaneously anti-Wal-Mart and anti-anti-Wal-Mart. That is, it expresses opposition to Wal-Mart but also to those who oppose Wal-Mart.
It starts out first by putting forth the same, tired old beaten-worse-than-a-dead-horse stereotype of the left:
I picture the typical beardo-the-weirdo professorial types and tofurkey Leftists standing outside the Wal-Mart entryway, waving signs and handing pamphlets to low-income families who might be there to buy baby formula or a coat for Junior.
...the ironies are too insufferable when career university types, 19-year old students and Greens think they've got all the answers about job creation and helping the poor.
What about all lefties being wiccan homosexual abortionists?
But then Spacetropic reveals that he, too, is not exactly a Wal-Mart fan: I'm not enamored with Wal-Mart, as longtime readers know already, because of it's ability to distort markets and destroy tightly-knit communities.
According to Spacetropic (i.e. Republican) logic, only his opposition is legitimate, and any leftists who share the same opposition must be against capitalism, not Wal-Mart. They must be young fools, not wise, street-tough Republicans who've grown up and know how the world really works.
I was disappointed to read this post, but it's typical of the Republican mindset. Here is an issue which can pull together Dems and Repubs, but this Repub not only wants no part of it, he feels the need to construct a vilification based on caricatured stereotypes.
I think this post reveals an important aspect of Republican psychology: die-hard Repubs have a psychological need to define an external threat group. They need to make someone "the enemy" so they can define themselves as being the good guys.
As far as I can tell, Spacetropic is less a blog about issues & politics than it is a part of the dominant party echo chamber. Republicans are great, Democrats are evil. How enlightening.
It starts out first by putting forth the same, tired old beaten-worse-than-a-dead-horse stereotype of the left:
I picture the typical beardo-the-weirdo professorial types and tofurkey Leftists standing outside the Wal-Mart entryway, waving signs and handing pamphlets to low-income families who might be there to buy baby formula or a coat for Junior.
...the ironies are too insufferable when career university types, 19-year old students and Greens think they've got all the answers about job creation and helping the poor.
What about all lefties being wiccan homosexual abortionists?
But then Spacetropic reveals that he, too, is not exactly a Wal-Mart fan: I'm not enamored with Wal-Mart, as longtime readers know already, because of it's ability to distort markets and destroy tightly-knit communities.
According to Spacetropic (i.e. Republican) logic, only his opposition is legitimate, and any leftists who share the same opposition must be against capitalism, not Wal-Mart. They must be young fools, not wise, street-tough Republicans who've grown up and know how the world really works.
I was disappointed to read this post, but it's typical of the Republican mindset. Here is an issue which can pull together Dems and Repubs, but this Repub not only wants no part of it, he feels the need to construct a vilification based on caricatured stereotypes.
I think this post reveals an important aspect of Republican psychology: die-hard Repubs have a psychological need to define an external threat group. They need to make someone "the enemy" so they can define themselves as being the good guys.
As far as I can tell, Spacetropic is less a blog about issues & politics than it is a part of the dominant party echo chamber. Republicans are great, Democrats are evil. How enlightening.
Scotty to Be Beamed Up One Last Time
Timothy Leary did it. Gene Roddenberry did it. And now James Doohan, aka "Scotty", will also have his ashes rocketed into space.
I don't think I'll care one way or another, but this does strike me as a rather cool way to go when you're gone. And with "memorial" spaceflight packages from $995 to $12,500, there's something for everybody at Space Services, Inc.!
I don't think I'll care one way or another, but this does strike me as a rather cool way to go when you're gone. And with "memorial" spaceflight packages from $995 to $12,500, there's something for everybody at Space Services, Inc.!
15 October 2005
Will Council Go Bananas Over Chiquita Incentives?
The Post reports that Chiquita may relocate its headquarters to another city. Its lease of the Chiquita Center expires next August, so it is considering other options before re-leasing.
As the article explains, there are solid, practical reasons for relocating to Atlanta or South Florida so it's entirely reasonable that Chiquita would relocate.
The article doesn't say how many area jobs that affects but it does say Chiquita has 25,000 employees worldwide, 17,000 of them in the centroamerican bananalands (Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala). So somewhere between a few and several thousand jobs would be affected.
One of the things that will factor into Chiquita's decision is the tax incentive package they get from Council. It's unlikely (but not impossible) to be a big one, because of the backlash against corporate tax incentives, particularly the Convergys deal.
Chiquita's spokesman said tax packages were a factor, but not the primary consideration. That's good, because the other cities can probably come up with something better. So what will the decision depend on?
According to the spokesman, "[t]he main criteria are cost, access to transportation networks, quality of life for employees, flexibility for growth and access to prospective employees."
As the article explains, there are solid, practical reasons for relocating to Atlanta or South Florida so it's entirely reasonable that Chiquita would relocate.
The article doesn't say how many area jobs that affects but it does say Chiquita has 25,000 employees worldwide, 17,000 of them in the centroamerican bananalands (Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Guatemala). So somewhere between a few and several thousand jobs would be affected.
One of the things that will factor into Chiquita's decision is the tax incentive package they get from Council. It's unlikely (but not impossible) to be a big one, because of the backlash against corporate tax incentives, particularly the Convergys deal.
Chiquita's spokesman said tax packages were a factor, but not the primary consideration. That's good, because the other cities can probably come up with something better. So what will the decision depend on?
According to the spokesman, "[t]he main criteria are cost, access to transportation networks, quality of life for employees, flexibility for growth and access to prospective employees."
12 October 2005
Counting the Tickets on Microsoft's Windshield
Here's the tally of Microsoft's antitrust fines so far [Dan Gillmor]:
Unfortunately, the fines are not enough of a deterrent to Microsoft. The company has enough size and market share that it still gains more than it loses by pushing the antitrust envelope.
It seems the only real solution is to add resources to the Justice Dept. and FBI (which also investigates corruption). Right now both agencies are struggling with a plate full of antiterrorism initiatives, and those resources should not be diverted. So adding more resources appears to be the best option.
But there must also be the political will to go after antitrust cases. The Bush administration is about as antitrust friendly as can be, and that has to change if the legal system is going to preserve fair markets and level playing fields.
$1.95 billion to Sun Microsystems
$850 million to IBM
$750 million to AOL Time Warner
$536 million to Novell
$460 million to RealNetworks
$440 million to InterTrust Technologies
$150 million to Gateway
$23 million to Be
Unfortunately, the fines are not enough of a deterrent to Microsoft. The company has enough size and market share that it still gains more than it loses by pushing the antitrust envelope.
It seems the only real solution is to add resources to the Justice Dept. and FBI (which also investigates corruption). Right now both agencies are struggling with a plate full of antiterrorism initiatives, and those resources should not be diverted. So adding more resources appears to be the best option.
But there must also be the political will to go after antitrust cases. The Bush administration is about as antitrust friendly as can be, and that has to change if the legal system is going to preserve fair markets and level playing fields.
11 October 2005
Journalism's Changing Ethics
Over the past several decades the number of media companies has shrunk from over 50 to 5. The excessive media consolidation has worsened all media, and the news media is certainly no exception. The deference and timidity shown by the mainsteam media ("MSM" in the blogosphere) during the Bush administration has been so absurd that the MSM cannot be regarded as an objective, trustworthy news source and has lost its credibility.
A few years ago I read a quote that the purpose of newspapers isn't so much to tell the news as it is to bring advertisers and consumers together. That's true of mainstream media in general; it's primary purpose is to make advertising profit, not to make quality product.
Is there a code of ethics for journalists? Apparently so. And apparently ethics changed 10 years ago, because they changed the ethics code:
The ethics code in place at least since 1974 declared, “The newspaper should background, with the facts, public statements that it knows to be inaccurate or misleading.” The passage was dropped when APME rewrote the code in 1994 to make it, as David Hawpe, editorial director of the Louisville Courier-Journal who was then ethics committee chairman, “vaguely” recalls, “more operational, and less a statement of principle.”
Well, that explains a few things...
Props to MediaCitizen.
A few years ago I read a quote that the purpose of newspapers isn't so much to tell the news as it is to bring advertisers and consumers together. That's true of mainstream media in general; it's primary purpose is to make advertising profit, not to make quality product.
Is there a code of ethics for journalists? Apparently so. And apparently ethics changed 10 years ago, because they changed the ethics code:
The ethics code in place at least since 1974 declared, “The newspaper should background, with the facts, public statements that it knows to be inaccurate or misleading.” The passage was dropped when APME rewrote the code in 1994 to make it, as David Hawpe, editorial director of the Louisville Courier-Journal who was then ethics committee chairman, “vaguely” recalls, “more operational, and less a statement of principle.”
Well, that explains a few things...
Props to MediaCitizen.
Tuesday Morning Monday Night Football Report
Great Steelers-Chargers game. Competitive right up until the end. But when Roethlisberger got hurt and they showed the replay, it looked to me like he might be a victim of the dreaded posterior cruciate ligament tear. At the very least he hyperextended his knee. A ligament tear is a worst-case scenario.
But if it is the case, then he'll be out for the season and so will the Steelers, probably. That would be very bad news indeed.
This game also showed that the Bengals aren't the only team with a penchant for penalties.
UPDATE: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
But if it is the case, then he'll be out for the season and so will the Steelers, probably. That would be very bad news indeed.
This game also showed that the Bengals aren't the only team with a penchant for penalties.
UPDATE: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports:
The early prognosis on Roethlisberger is this: His knee was hypextended when he threw a 9-yard pass to Antwaan Randle El and Chargers defensive end Luis Castillo rolled into his left leg as it was planted on the turf.If you need any more information you can always stop in at Martino's on Vine, the local Steelers fan hangout.Roethlisberger was scheduled to have a magnetic resonance imaging exam this morning, shortly after the team's chartered plane arrived in Pittsburgh. The Steelers did not make any official comment on Roethlisberger.
09 October 2005
Why Miers?
Publius tells us what he thinks is the motivation behind the Miers nomination, and why specifically Bush had to go outside the Federalist Society "farm team" on this one:
Miers is getting slammed from liberals as well as conservatives, including ol' timer Robert Bork, who said her nomination was "a disaster on every level" because she has "no experience with constitutional law whatever." Read the complete interview here.
Of all the scandals and junkets and leaks and what have you, the one that history will consider the most serious is the authorization of torture and the flagrant violations of the Geneva Convention. As Marty Lederman and Andrew Sullivan (to his credit) have made clear again and again, this administration is guilty of war crimes. And they know it.
...And one day, when all the facts are finally known (as they inevitably will), the legal reckoning will come. And I suspect that the Supreme Court will ultimately have the final say on a lot of these issues...
Picking a high-powered intellect from the Federalist Society farm team wouldn’t have helped Bush on the issue he’s most worried about... most Federalist Society stars would not tolerate the “unlimited executive authority” argument.
Miers is getting slammed from liberals as well as conservatives, including ol' timer Robert Bork, who said her nomination was "a disaster on every level" because she has "no experience with constitutional law whatever." Read the complete interview here.
08 October 2005
Public Testing OK'd for Face-Recognition Technology
The two-company team of IRIS International and Advanced Digital Imaging Research have been granted the necessary federal authorization to test their face-recognition technology on public populations.
The initial tests will be done on contractors, air travelers, and employees of IRIS.
The initial tests will be done on contractors, air travelers, and employees of IRIS.
"Screw You, Einstein!" Say Scientists
In my family, we gather together once a month, have some food, play some games, and read the latest issue of Optics Express, the international electronic journal of optics. This month, the article "Tunable ultraslow light in vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser amplifier" enamored us in particular.
Scientists describe how they slowed down the speed of light to 6 miles per second. Normally it is 186,ooo miles per second. As far as I can tell, they did it by applying an electric current to a laser.
In addition to being an amazing thing, this may have important applications to technology. The field of optoelectronics explores the use of photons instead of electrons. The potential increases in computing speed and storage capacity are enormous. The Library of Congress could fit on a flash card. But first photons must move at a manageable speed at room temperature, and this experiment shows that it's possible.
Is it also possible to increase the speed of light? Physicists have proposed the existence of faster-than-light tachyons, but whether ordinary light can be made artificially faster is another "matter," so to speak.
Scientists describe how they slowed down the speed of light to 6 miles per second. Normally it is 186,ooo miles per second. As far as I can tell, they did it by applying an electric current to a laser.
In addition to being an amazing thing, this may have important applications to technology. The field of optoelectronics explores the use of photons instead of electrons. The potential increases in computing speed and storage capacity are enormous. The Library of Congress could fit on a flash card. But first photons must move at a manageable speed at room temperature, and this experiment shows that it's possible.
Is it also possible to increase the speed of light? Physicists have proposed the existence of faster-than-light tachyons, but whether ordinary light can be made artificially faster is another "matter," so to speak.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)