Category: The slush pile

The Late David Rosenbaum on Jack Abramoff:

The late David Rosenbaum, the very well-regarded New York Times reporter who was murdered early this month near his home in Upper Northwest, wrote an excellent page A1 story about Jack Abramoff almost four years ago: back on April 3, 2002.

A ripping read. At the time it may have read like a simple profile of a power-broker, principled but ambitious. Now it tells a story of greed and hubris while it unmasks the lies about who knew and played along with Abramoff.

I’d pick a key graf or two but I can’t: it’s worth reading in full.

Now playing: The Oncoming Day by The Chills from the album “Submarine Bells”

Jobs suggests Dell should eat his words | CNET News.com:

In 1997, shortly after Jobs returned to Apple, the company he helped start in 1976, Dell’s founder and chairman, Michael Dell, was asked at a technology conference what might be done to fix Apple, then deeply troubled financially.

“What would I do?” Dell said to an audience of several thousand information technology managers. “I’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.”

On Friday, apparently savoring the moment, Jobs sent a brief e-mail message to Apple employees, which read: “Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn’t perfect at predicting the future. Based on today’s stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.”

Dell executives did not return calls over the weekend asking for comment on Apple’s rising fortunes.

Interesting that Dell would be worth nothing w/o Bill Gates and Microsoft while Apple seems to be able to make progress on its own merits.

Untitled / Sigur Rós / ( )
Prairie Rose / Roxy Music / Country Life
Warszawa / David Bowie / Low
Starless / King Crimson / Red
Feelin’ / Charlie Pickett and the Eggs / Uncollected Singles
Distant Sun / Crowded House / Recurring Dream
21st Century Schizoid Man / King Crimson / Frame By Frame [1 – 1969-71]
Same Old Scene / Roxy Music / Street Life – Greatest Hits
Ultraviolet (Light My Way) / U2 / Achtung Baby
Flying Under Radar / Jerry Harrison : Casual Gods / Walk on Water
Sulk / Radiohead / The Bends

iTunes update spies on your listening and sends it to Apple?:

A new version of Apple’s iTunes for Mac appears to communicate information about every song you play to Apple, and it’s not clear if there’s any way to turn this off, nor what Apple’s privacy policy is on this information.

read the whole article for the details, but it all has to do with the iTunes mini-store, a new pane in the UI. When a. that’s open (you can turn it off with a button at the bottom right) and b. you start listening by double-clicking on a song, iTunes passes your current selection to a “customer experience company” and it populates the mini-store with contextually relevant choices for further listening.

I suspect you could also shut this down by adding the destination to your hosts file and binding it to the loopback address 😉 But I think shutting down the mini-store makes sense. It’s just clutter anyway.

In response to the revelation that the DoD — the people who feed, clothe, and equip the army we have, not the army we wish we had — skimped on body armor, resulting on hundreds of unnecessary deaths.

Body Armor? But You’re POOR People …:

… to reiterate my position: I don’t criticize this Administration because I’m a progressive, or I hate Bush, or I Want the Terrorists to Win ™. They are objectively bad at their jobs. This is so far past Conservative vs. Progressive that we’re in Wonderland. Never mind the whole “The President gets to break the law as long as we’re at War and we’ll be at War for the foreseeable future” inanity. That aside, these people are Just. Not. Getting. The Job. Done.

Half-Assed, I believe I said, and I stick by it.

You support the troops by making sure they have all the equipment they need, they are executing a well-thought-out strategy with accomplishable goals, and then taking care of them when they get home. This Administration has failed on all three counts. Objectively.

And then we have this: some Freeper wrote to his local paper, details of which are available at the link. But look at his motivating principles: hatred, bloody-minded hatred, for anyone who challenges his simplistic worldview.

I work as a Computer Routing Specialist for Supervalu. A former Army Infantryman, I am a political junkie and passionate George W. Bush Supporter. I have reached the end of my tolerance for the absolutely criminal behavior of the Hysterical Left in this country. What the Left seems unwilling to grasp is this simple fact. No amount of money, peace vigals or encouter groups are going to keep them safe from people who are convinced their god wants all Americans dead. There are no ground for “peaceful coexistence” with the Islamic Terrorists. We have three choices, kill them, convert to Islam or die. Since I have no desire for the last two, the first is my choice.

(His letter claimed that Democratic congressional members also drank at the Abramoff fountain, but the paper rebuts that claim in a later piece — without linking to or from the original!)

Now playing: 2_4. Finale. Allegro moderato by Sir Colin Davis & the Boston Symphony Orchestra from the album “Complete Sibelius Symphonies No 2, 5” | Get it

:: WinterTrails :::

Winter Trails® Day 2006 will did occur on January 7, 2006, at more than 100 locations in the U.S. and Canada.
Winter Trails Day, now entering its 11th year, offers children and adults NEW to snow sports the chance to try snowshoeing and cross country skiing for FREE, and to discover the great fitness and social benefits with these easy-to-learn winter sports.

My Eight-Year-Old and I took a drive out to Snoqualmie Pass to try this today. Loved it. Lots of fun and I don’t think it’s the last time we’ll try it.

The Mountaineers, a local outdoor sports club ending its inaugural century, were our hosts and it looks like they are doing some good work and having fun at the same time. They have rustic lodges in several prime outdoor recreation areas and did a great job getting us started today.

I’m sure I’ll be sore in places I haven’t thought of in a while tomorrow, but I’ll deserve it.

Now playing: Cowboy’s Got To Go by Jerry Harrison : Casual Gods from the album “Walk on Water”

Not sure what happened to these. Completely blurry and there are some weird light/dark areas that make me suspect the film is being fogged by a light leak somewhere. The lack of sharpness might be from the fogginess: there is a dark center to some of the images, surrounded by a much lighter periphery. The grain might be adding to the appearance of unsharpness, since this is 400 speed film (I am regretting that decision now).

I picked up a Nikon body cap on eBay the other night so I may hold off on more experiments til that arrives.

Continue reading “new pinhole pictures: too bad to share”

Sign me up for this. BBC NEWS | Health | New teeth ‘could soon be grown’:

Technology to grow replacement teeth could mean
the end of dentures. Scientists at King’s College London
have been awarded £500,000 to help them develop human teeth
from stem cells. The company Odontis, set up by the college, hopes
to develop its research for tests on humans within two years after
successful research on mice. Stem cells, the so-called master
cells, would be programmed to develop into teeth and then
transplanted into the patient’s jaw where the gap is. It is thought
it would then take two months for the tooth to fully
develop.

At any rate, perhaps my kids will never have to go through what I
have if they have the same problems. They think this is 5 years
away from being available.

BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | 100 things we didn’t know this time last year:

Each week the Magazine picks out snippets from the news, and compiles them into 10 Things We Didn’t Know This Time Last Week. Here’s an end of year almanac.

Josh sez:

You’re inspiring me to get my cameras out and play around now, though, so thanks!

You wanna be inspired? Take a look at some of this. This is way more refined than pinhole work but there are some fine images here.