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hmmm.... looks like your mistaken.

Government Sponsered Border Crossing Pamphlets

How many millions did we spend on this?

One of the most entertaining ironies about Google is that it's essentially an advertising company that devotes close to 0% of their budget to advertising. No superbowl commercials, almost no billboards, etc.

However, their continued success requires that they stay on the forefront of the minds of their potential users -- and indeed, they manage to do this astoundingly well. Not by flashy magazine ads, but by constantly rolling out new products. While some do have obvious built-in revenue potential (Gmail), some (perhaps Google Base) don't.

It doesn't matter.

Google Talk, Google Wifi, and Google Office^H^H^H^H^H^HReader were scarcely cold on our lips when Google Base came around. And that's all within the last four months!

Add to this the controversy over Google Print, endless speculation about future products, and the ongoing love triangle (quadrilateral?) between Yahoo!, Microsoft, Google, and AOL, and you can't open up a newspaper or visit c|net without reading all about Google, many times over.

Is it any wonder that Google is the first thing that comes to most people's minds when they want to find something online?

And good for them! When a company spends $100 million on airtime, we sometimes get clever commercials. When a company spends $100 million on developing cool new products, we (almost) all benefit. I'll take the latter.

And given Google's success, it seems like a winning strategy.

> > Wrong. I didn't use either term.
> Perhaps not, but you supported
[ ... yada yada ]

Enough. Stop being a fool. You were wrong - deal with it.

> > Wrong. To be against 'discarding' fertilized embryos and is not to
> > be against in-vitro fertilization.
> Do you know of any doctor practicing in-vitro fertilization without
> creating extra embryos

Yes, it's done like this abroad:
From http://www.ivf-infertility.com/ivf/standard/regula tions.php :
Dr Samuel Marcus
11-Jun-2004 12:44 ...
New Italian laws (2004) ban both freezing and destroying embryos, limit to three the number of eggs to be fertilized and state that all the created embryos must be transferred. Furthermore, they restrict the use of assisted conception treatments to infertile couples.

Embryo adoption is a possibility for existing embryos. See: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4931567
A couple mentioned in the story had 9 extra embryos and donated them to another infertile couple, who committed to implanting all 9 extra embryos in separate IVF cycles (only one resulted in a child.)

> Even if they aren't destroyed, they can only legally be used
> by the people who created them.
Included adopted out. See also : http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=10844 7

> If they aren't going to use them, they're essentially in limbo.
> Or they're destroyed. I suppose you could theoretically support some
> hypothetical in-vitro procedure where only one embryo is created at a
> time, and then implanted, but the fact is that that's not how it's
> done.
Wrong again - it's real, not hypothetical, see Italian law above. Also from http://slate.msn.com/id/2120222/#Correction :
Five days ago, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., suggested that the United States should follow countries that "limit the number" of eggs fertilized in vitro to "one or two at a time."

Given that Thompson is from the state that wants you to "Stand your Ground", Penny Arcade should open an office in Miami. When Mr. Thompson shows up in person and starts being thretening, Penny Arcade should "Stand there ground" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4934076.

NPR's coverage of the avian flu spreading in Asia and Europe. Granted, food is only part of the issue (the other being influenza epidemic a la 1918), but pretty massive amounts of rural chickens needed to be killed. Not such an issue for commercial chicken raisers (as they keep a closer eye on their stock), but that's exactly what an RFID tag would be good for - making sure the chicken was born and raised at one of the large, well-controlled centers.

The parent is absolutely right about most current research is done strictly for profit. An area that comes to mind is the effort in recent years to find naturally occuring chemicals that aid in healing. Essentially they are checking various herbs and other plants for these chemicals, often by checking out natural treatments used for generations by oriental apothecaries, midwives and native shamen. Once they think they have isolated a chemical they believe is beneficial and synthesize it, test it and if they can claim any benefit from its use, patent it. This would be a great area for some charitable organization of great wealth to promote research in, not to patent chemicals but to test and promote the use of readily growable, inexpensive and beneficial treatments. The charitable organization could further promote the work by showing some of the potential to corporations who are eyeing the drain on their profits from medical insurance. Universities specializing in the area of medicine known as Osteopathy would probably be easier to convince to research this then the M.D.s who are deeply involved with the drug companies. So, to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations of the world, how about setting up a foundation to promote and finance natural treatments for disease? Or if a honest one does exist already, contributing to it? It could lower medical bills for everyone and would likely be better then constantly adding to the current antibiotics problems etc.

Off topic but interesting on the current/impending SUV boom in Euroville...

Gas prices are not cheaper here, but that doesn't prove that the war wasn't for oil. Who says that the 'war for oil' (if that's really what it is) is for the benefit of the lowly citizens of this country.

Exxon Mobil reaps record profits

Oil industry awash in record levels of cash

Oil Companies Experiencing Record Profits

You said that Bush was an oil man, well... it's the oil men who are raking in the dough right now.

... listen to NPR Podcasts.

I'm still pissed that NPR abandonded Audible.com with no backup plan. I mean, what the hell? Who had the brilliant idea?

"I know, let's turn of this service that is generating a revenue stream and replace it with ... ground seashells and sand! I wonder if anyone will notice."

Feh.

Is it "manga" or not? From a purist standpoint it's not "manga" since it's not drawn or written by anyone who is Japanese. OTOH we did deliberately ask Erik Lervold (our artist from MCAD whom I met at MCAD's Schoolgirls and Mobilesuit anime/manga workshops) to make the artwork manga-like and he came up with something that's halfway between US style and Japanese style. So you can call it "manga," you can call it a "comic book," or you can call it a "graphical introduction for middle school students to the CINDI mission" (which is what we call it in our reports to NASA).

As for the various complaints about why we didn't just give the straight science, remember the target audience is typical sixth through ninth graders. If we just did straight science we'd lose 98% of them on the first page. There is already enough boring and bad science education material out there. Yes, the story is silly, but the idea is to get the reader interested and let the science sneak up on them instead of hitting them over the head with it straight off. "The Magic Schoolbus" (books and TV series) was our ideal role model of how to do that right and make it work.

BTW, we're not the first science comic book. There are all the wonderful comics by Larry Gonick. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-fo rm/ref=s_sf_b_as/103-8242802-9062263 Then there was a comic book done by Zander Cannon (and Kevin Cannon) called "Space Weather" put out by NOAA back in 2001. http://www.kevincannon.org/published/ And there are two manga (real manga in Japanese!) about the aurora and the Earth's magnetic field put out by the Solar-Terrestrial Environmental Laboratory at Nagoya University. NOAA helped create English translations of them here: http://www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ste-www1/doce/out reach.html#anc_booklets STEL has a lot more science manga in Japanese here: http://www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp/ste-www1/doc/outr each_j.html All of these were the inspirations for us to do our own comic book. Also there was a great NPR story last spring about using comic books in science education at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4581832 One of the books mentioned there was "Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards" which is a comic book/graphic novel about the bitter fight between the nineteenth century paleontologists Edward Cope and Othniel Marsh. I just picked up a copy last week at my local comic book store and it's great! Two of the artists are none other than Zander and Kevin Cannon from above.

For SynapseLapse (644398) who suggested watching "PlanetES": Yeah!! I second that. One of the two NASA space junk experts interviewed in the US release (Dr. Mark Matney) is a grad school buddy of mine and didn't tell Bandai he'd already seen some fansubs of the series before they approached him to do the interviews. (I wonder how that happened....) BTW, NOAA has commissioned Zander and Kevin Cannon to do a sequel to their "Space Weather" comic about "Space Junk." http://www.bigtimeattic.com/blog/2005_09_01_archiv e.html

For Peterus7 (607982) who wrote: "Well, you see, a secret pact between Nerv and the State Alchemists used a special alloy called spacedogium to help create a weapon using ancient space energy to fight off Shonen Bat. Eventually it went spacebound, and the process created Space dogs. And now Johan Leibert

Richard Thompson thought it was a fine tune: he covered the tune in his "1,000 Years of Popular Music" live show. You can hear him perform it on NPR's Live in Studio 4A show and sure enough, stripped of all the pop production and processing, there's a nifty song living in there.

Actually, Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa did a heavy version of "Baby One More Time" on the Ready to Rumble soundtrack, and I'll be darned if it doesn't kick quite a bit of butt as well.

Maybe the problem with Britney's music isn't the music but the Britney?

Debian, FireFox, Mplayer-Mozilla Plugin

RM=Perfect http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDat e=05-Oct-2005&segNum=6&mediaPref=RM&getUnderwritin g=1

WM=Not So much, little skippy
http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDat e=05-Oct-2005&segNum=6&mediaPref=WM&getUnderwritin g=1

Debian, FireFox, Mplayer-Mozilla Plugin

RM=Perfect http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDat e=05-Oct-2005&segNum=6&mediaPref=RM&getUnderwritin g=1

WM=Not So much, little skippy
http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDat e=05-Oct-2005&segNum=6&mediaPref=WM&getUnderwritin g=1

And also, from this afternoon's "All Things Considered" broadcast on national public radio:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4946718

I laid out several supporting arguments for why lawyers don't approach the bench with the same perspective or reverence of the institution as judges do. Ignoring those arguments and then being a prick about it is just writing flamebait.

I strongly suggest that anyone who hasn't, listen to Robert's confirmation hearings. You can clearly tell that he has a lot of knowledge about how judges approach cases, and how and why judges do what they do. A non-judge won't have the same longstanding reverent approach for the bench, and won't inspire the same confidence in the populace who needs a trustworthy judiciary.

Heck, ask Roberts if he thinks appointing non-judges to the Supreme Court is a good idea. I'll bet good money that he doesn't think it's a good idea.

Go here to see babble... go here to hear babble.

The struggling games industry?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4172753

I'm sure they cry themselves to sleep on their mattresses made of money every night.

True; but even a stopped clock is right twice per day. =)

Yes, the bashing of Fox News is excessive; Bush and the Republicans get it right sometimes... although perhaps not as often as they don't. I've stopped paying attention to News Hounds because of their excessive stance on Fox. However, Fox's editorial board appears from where I sit to place more emphasis on ratings and/or their political agenda than on journalistic ethics and propriety... or presenting the appearance of either.

Journalistic neutrality is important, and Fox these days doesn't seem to understand that. I believe it was in this segment on NPR where Walter Cronkite mentioned how hard it was for the journalists to maintain that neutral voice during the 1960's civil rights and desegregation coverage. All of them had seen enough of the world to know beyond the shadow of a doubt: "Racism is WRONG". On the other hand, they could not come out and say so. While there may have been questions of ratings and politics in part, mostly, it simply wasn't the proper thing for a journalist to do.

Standards have gone way downhill in the last 30 years....

Randy Adams - Everything Brown SHOULD HAVE BEEN

While you read through the rest of the comments, stream the following news clips and I dare you to NOT be inspired by this man's story.

Maybe his amazing(ly too rare) planning can't be scaled up to a city/state/national level but I sure would've liked to have seen HIM as head of FEMA.

Sidenote (about me the poster) - to be totally honest, even if Adams had been head of FEMA and had been able to do a great job, I'd probably be one of those still second guessing FEMA but please don't let that admission of my own readiness to gripe take away from the INSPIRING way Randy Adams conducted himself)

There are three links: the original story, a follow up, and a much better stated praise of Randy Adams in the form of a letter read out loud.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4831399

Katrina Evacuees Go All the Way to Memphis

Listen to this story...

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 3, 2005 At a Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, general manager Michelle Williams and hotel guest Randy Adams are coordinating efforts to help a weary collection of hurricane evacuees cope. Adams is among those who fled New Orleans ahead of Katrina.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4852058

People & Places
New Orleans Evacuee Sorts Out Life in Memphis

Listen to this story... by Linda Wertheimer and Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 17, 2005 Scott Simon checks back in with Randy Adams, a New Orleans native who has sought refuge at the Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, Tenn. Linda Wertheimer spoke with Adams on Sept. 3, when he was working to coordinate help for fellow evacuees.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4862104

Listeners
Letters: Randy Adams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan

Listen to this story... by Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 24, 2005 Scott Simon reads letters from listeners. Topics include displaced New Orleans resident Randy Adams and his volunteer work in Memphis; an interview with musician Neil Young; and reaction to a satirical look at songsmith Bob Dylan.

Randy Adams - Everything Brown SHOULD HAVE BEEN

While you read through the rest of the comments, stream the following news clips and I dare you to NOT be inspired by this man's story.

Maybe his amazing(ly too rare) planning can't be scaled up to a city/state/national level but I sure would've liked to have seen HIM as head of FEMA.

Sidenote (about me the poster) - to be totally honest, even if Adams had been head of FEMA and had been able to do a great job, I'd probably be one of those still second guessing FEMA but please don't let that admission of my own readiness to gripe take away from the INSPIRING way Randy Adams conducted himself)

There are three links: the original story, a follow up, and a much better stated praise of Randy Adams in the form of a letter read out loud.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4831399

Katrina Evacuees Go All the Way to Memphis

Listen to this story...

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 3, 2005 At a Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, general manager Michelle Williams and hotel guest Randy Adams are coordinating efforts to help a weary collection of hurricane evacuees cope. Adams is among those who fled New Orleans ahead of Katrina.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4852058

People & Places
New Orleans Evacuee Sorts Out Life in Memphis

Listen to this story... by Linda Wertheimer and Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 17, 2005 Scott Simon checks back in with Randy Adams, a New Orleans native who has sought refuge at the Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, Tenn. Linda Wertheimer spoke with Adams on Sept. 3, when he was working to coordinate help for fellow evacuees.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4862104

Listeners
Letters: Randy Adams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan

Listen to this story... by Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 24, 2005 Scott Simon reads letters from listeners. Topics include displaced New Orleans resident Randy Adams and his volunteer work in Memphis; an interview with musician Neil Young; and reaction to a satirical look at songsmith Bob Dylan.

Randy Adams - Everything Brown SHOULD HAVE BEEN

While you read through the rest of the comments, stream the following news clips and I dare you to NOT be inspired by this man's story.

Maybe his amazing(ly too rare) planning can't be scaled up to a city/state/national level but I sure would've liked to have seen HIM as head of FEMA.

Sidenote (about me the poster) - to be totally honest, even if Adams had been head of FEMA and had been able to do a great job, I'd probably be one of those still second guessing FEMA but please don't let that admission of my own readiness to gripe take away from the INSPIRING way Randy Adams conducted himself)

There are three links: the original story, a follow up, and a much better stated praise of Randy Adams in the form of a letter read out loud.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4831399

Katrina Evacuees Go All the Way to Memphis

Listen to this story...

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 3, 2005 At a Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, general manager Michelle Williams and hotel guest Randy Adams are coordinating efforts to help a weary collection of hurricane evacuees cope. Adams is among those who fled New Orleans ahead of Katrina.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4852058

People & Places
New Orleans Evacuee Sorts Out Life in Memphis

Listen to this story... by Linda Wertheimer and Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 17, 2005 Scott Simon checks back in with Randy Adams, a New Orleans native who has sought refuge at the Red Roof Inn in downtown Memphis, Tenn. Linda Wertheimer spoke with Adams on Sept. 3, when he was working to coordinate help for fellow evacuees.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4862104

Listeners
Letters: Randy Adams, Neil Young, Bob Dylan

Listen to this story... by Scott Simon

Weekend Edition - Saturday, September 24, 2005 Scott Simon reads letters from listeners. Topics include displaced New Orleans resident Randy Adams and his volunteer work in Memphis; an interview with musician Neil Young; and reaction to a satirical look at songsmith Bob Dylan.

I listened to a story about this on NPR in the Spring. It was very interesting. The simulator will give a blood flow response, etc. It's not perfect - no blood vessels, rubbery skin, ... but the simulator still feels pretty much like it does in real life when you feel it through surgical gloves. While prepping each simulator for a new trainee is expensive, it's possible to make mistakes (and learn from them) on a dummy without actually killing anyone.

The audio story has Nell Boyce running through a surgical procedure on an actual dummy. Her reaction was that it feels very much like a live person.

Very interesting, I thought.

This reminds me of a topic discussed Wednesday on NPR's Talk of the Nation about the Baby Boomer generation getting ready to retire soon.

Personally, I can't wait for the older folks (the ones typically who don't know much about computers) to get out of the way and let the people who grew up with the technology and are much more comfortable with it to really begin transforming the workplace.

I waste so much time dealing with people who never got over the fact that there aren't secretaries anymore to take their dictation and can't even send a simple email without screwing it up. Supposedly they have these "invaluable skills" that came to them by virtue of being old that we'll all be losing out when they retire in a few years

Mod me as flamebait but I believe if you can no longer properly use the tools of your business, then you need to get out. You don't see too many NFL running backs in their 40's.

http://www.npr.org/templates/common/image_enlargem ent.php?imageResId=4855288


I'd hate for all of my alien friends to see me driving around in this thing. Give me a deathtrap shuttle anytime!

Religion is a pretty silly thing--really, who still believes in stuff like a guy named Atlas holding up the world? Although many religious people know laugh at this notion, all modern religions are filled with similarly stupid and ridiculous stuff, so I see no reason not to make fun of them.
People made fun of the "stupid and ridiculous" ideas that the Wright brothers and Galileo had too. What reason was there not to? Of course in hindsight they were right, but even if they weren't, making fun of them doesn't help increase anyone's knowledge. If people are afraid to think of and test out new ideas, it impedes their learning, and our progress as a species suffers. This applies in a general sense, but more specifically about religious people: making fun of them doesn't increase anyone's knowledge, and just causes a gap in understanding.

Besides that, religion is to blame for a lot of the misery and suffering in the world, so again, I ask, what's wrong with anti-religious sentiments?
Although religion is a vehicle for misery and suffering, it also causes joy and relief. If anything, I would say that people are to blame, rather than religion.

concidentally, as i was reading this comment, my npr station advertised that programs are available at npr.org/podcasting. aside from the link being wrong it seems like they are offering up some, but many of the better shows are missing. all things considered is there, but i actually get to hear that on the drive in.

Cutting-edge food preparation and flavor combinations previously unheard of are being served across the world, but especially in places like Chicago, New York City, and parts of Spain.

I recently trekked out to Chicago to visit on such restaurants, Alinea.

Photos from my experience here.

The Tour at Alinea in Chicago lasts roughly four and a half hours and is made up of twenty-five courses paired with nearly as many wine tastings. The executive chef, Grant Achatz, opened his well-documented restaurant to excited reviews this past May.

Each course consists of either a bite or a few bites that almost always incorporates an experimental technique of preparation such as sous vide, industrial centrifuge, foams, anti-griddle, German vaporizers or flash-freeze dehydrators. Alinea presents each course on specialized serviceware custom made by designers like Crucial Detail.

The New York Times, Frank Bruni, writes about this new type of cooking, the Chicago Tribune rates Alinea and NPR's Jennifer Ludden radio documents Alinea with chef Achatz.

That may be the last headline we read for years if the worst case of public health scares actually occurs. How long will the internet stay running if there is only 1-2 techs per city standing.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4209615

From:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20050701faessay84402 /michael-t-osterholm/preparing-for-the-next-pandem ic.html

"A number of recent events and factors have significantly heightened concern that a specific near-term pandemic may be imminent. It could be caused by H5N1, the avian influenza strain currently circulating in Asia. At this juncture scientists cannot be certain. Nor can they know exactly when a pandemic will hit, or whether it will rival the experience of 1918-19 or be more muted like 1957-58 and 1968-69. The reality of a coming pandemic, however, cannot be avoided."

Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy

The core point is that in 1918 without air travel
the disease covered the entire world, with
modern movement, millions could be dead before
it even registers on the global awareness.

Very scary stuff. No one will care about 9/11 or Iraq when the big one hits...

NPR already offers some podcasts for free.
You may want to check with your local NPR station for more podcasts. I know that KCRW here in L.A. already has a majority of their programs (including the music shows) up for download.

You are not seriously this ignorant. "The public wants Buck Rogers or Star Trek, not another Mars rover. Bleh!" Make science like TV and you get crappy science. By the way, NASA already has plans to go to Mars, whether or not it is the best use of science resources. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4181187 http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2004/mars-quotes-012 8.html We'll see if anything come of this grand plan. It will take years before we can seriously try it though. It is 30 days of travel to reach Mars and the windows to get there and to return to Earth in a reasonable time frame tend not to line up so the trip would have to take longer than 2 months.

The body tell us its tired for a reason [...]

You're absolutely right, but according to this NPR story this morning, this drug reverses the foggy thinking associated with being tired, but you will still feel tired. The drug does not prevent tiredness itself.

Here

In other news today, Microsoft executives report that dipping your balls in sweet cream and squatting in a kitchen full of kittens may be hazardous to your health

A little on the serious side, though, cats can't taste sweetness.

There is also an article on him today on Day to Day and an obituary on All Things Considered. There are about a half dozen or so articles on him on NPR actually for those interested.

There is also an article on him today on Day to Day and an obituary on All Things Considered. There are about a half dozen or so articles on him on NPR actually for those interested.

There is also an article on him today on Day to Day and an obituary on All Things Considered. There are about a half dozen or so articles on him on NPR actually for those interested.

Terry Gross interviewed Robert Moog back in 2000. The interview is available online here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=1113447

My quantum computer should be arriving soon - see you all on the other side of quantum mechanics!

check out this link, someone has finally captured light for use as 'quantum RAM' Link to NPR story

Yeah -- I'm with you on the ultimate boringness of blogs. There are some cool podcasts though. In about 15 minutes, I'll be walking home from work (about 5 miles, greenway half the way). I did this on Wednessday too. I figure it's a good way to lose a bit of the chub I've been building up sitting at a desk all the time.

On Wednessday while walking around downtown during lunch, I listened to a slew of "Quirks and Quarks" segments, a CBC radio show about various science topics. Some interesting things on that -- like using aluminum to release the hydrogen from water to power a fuel cell. Aluminum Oxide can be recycled back to aluminum and the process repeated -- no free energy of course, but the guy was talking about an application for laptops that would be about the size of a power brick but would power the computer for 24 hours. Also, the scientist sounded exactly like the mad scientist (played by Max Von Snydow (sp?)) in "Strange Brew". Definitely left an impression. Scroll down for Aluminum Amperage -- oh comes in ogg too.

On my walk home I listened to skepticality which was OK -- I'm looking forward to listening to the James Randi interview for sure. Although on today's walk, I might listen to NPR's Science Friday.

Anyway, walking is boring, but listening to science shows and walking is quite a lot of fun. You can avoid the blog-like-crap if you want to.

They also put a RFID tag on your vehicle when you drive through the border, although they say they don't do that for American and Canadian citizens.

According to NPR this morning, that is.

I fully agree. Kung Fu Hustle is now one of my top 4 favorite movies of all time. For documentaries, we've also got the Aristocrats to look forward to this year. It just opened up on four screens this past weekend and earned $243,796. I suspect Aristocrats will top this penguin movie in box office reciepts.

Oh, yeah. There was also the American release of "Old Boy" earlier this year. It's definitely the most extreme revenge flick I have ever seen. So, yeah, some people may generalize and say nothing but Hollywood crap is in the theaters, but like you've pointed out, that's not the case.

Seth

I went looking for it but at first all I found was the story from July 7th covering the addition of a leap second to the end of 2005. It is Link .

But what I was remembering came as a listener's response, Link . The story covers a few different subjects. The responses to the leap second story start at about one minute in. In particular:

Joe Palca's story about the leap second that is coming at the end of the year brought this comment:

"I'm writing to congratulate you on a very clear presentation of the principals of atomic time and the need for leap seconds. This is a difficult topic and your report handled it very well."

That's from Judah Levine. He's with the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. He continues:

"It's also very appropriate that you reported on this particular leap second because a number of groups have proposed making significant changes to the leap second system or perhaps abolishing leap seconds altogether.

Because of this it is quite possible that this coming leap second will be the last one for a long, long time."

I wonder if the UN meeting was really secret or just ignored.

Dale

PS: BTW, the T&F Div. of NIST is commendably responsive when you email them to say that time-a.nist.gov is unreachable from the public Internet.

I went looking for it but at first all I found was the story from July 7th covering the addition of a leap second to the end of 2005. It is Link .

But what I was remembering came as a listener's response, Link . The story covers a few different subjects. The responses to the leap second story start at about one minute in. In particular:

Joe Palca's story about the leap second that is coming at the end of the year brought this comment:

"I'm writing to congratulate you on a very clear presentation of the principals of atomic time and the need for leap seconds. This is a difficult topic and your report handled it very well."

That's from Judah Levine. He's with the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado. He continues:

"It's also very appropriate that you reported on this particular leap second because a number of groups have proposed making significant changes to the leap second system or perhaps abolishing leap seconds altogether.

Because of this it is quite possible that this coming leap second will be the last one for a long, long time."

I wonder if the UN meeting was really secret or just ignored.

Dale

PS: BTW, the T&F Div. of NIST is commendably responsive when you email them to say that time-a.nist.gov is unreachable from the public Internet.

The author mentioned a good amount about the complexity of video games, it sounds like he took a lot of that straight out of this guys book. "Everything Bad Is Good for You"

          http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=4762320

The interview is very good, but you need real player, or windows media player to listen to it.

later,
-manno

The Jean Shepherd Archive has hundreds of hours of unrestricted downloadable audio collected by fans over the years:
http://shep-archives.com/

Some other sources of unrestricted material:

Transom public radio workshop/showcase:
http://www.transom.org/

Archive.org has some good audio.
http://www.archive.org/

Benjamin Walker's site:
http://toeradio.org/

Cook'd and Bomb'd - Chris Morris site. Hunt around for mirrors that have archived radio programs. (The Blue Jam series is my personal favorite.)
http://chilled.cream.org/

If you don't mind downloading material that's not supposed to be available for download (most easily done using mplayer, I find), then there are plenty of radio offerings. I'm a public radio junkie, and usually stock up on a few dozen shows before taking a long trip. Among my favorites:

Joe Frank. The greatest radio artist in the history of, well, radio artistry. (Subscription costs $10/mo, but is well worth it.)
http://joefrank.com/

This American Life. (free)
http://thislife.org/

Fresh Air. (free, but a pain in the ass to navigate)
http://freshair.npr.org/

Sounds like some of the effects from the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet!

Interesting comparison. Louis and Bebe Barron were the first to create a completely electronic film score, for Forbidden Planet. According to a piece I heard on NPR (text overview and audio here), the sounds created were truly one-of-a-kind. So much so, that they could only *be* created once -- one way of generating a distinct sound was to build an electronic device that was designed to overload itself, with the eerie sounds generated as a side effect of its self-destruction!

Saturn's "radio sources moving up and down along magnetic field lines" don't actually sound all that far removed from the Barrons' work.

How about some more factual information? NPR has done several stories on this kind of treatment, and how it is (and isn't) used. This is not "rats push the button to feel good". This treatment involves a very precise electrical impulse delivered to the malfunctioning area of the brain; it is to electro-shock therapy what a bonsai knife is to a lawnmower, so the side effects, while not well-characterized, are likely to be orders of magnitude less intrusive.

It's used in cases where the depression is not treatable with current drugs. These are people who are so seriously neurochemically depressed that suicide seems attractive for the relief it would offer. The best we could give them before was a hug and a doctor mumbling that they were "interesting," until eventually they gave up and killed themselves. Now we can offer them this, which has at least one major advantage over suicide.

How about some more factual information? NPR has done several stories on this kind of treatment, and how it is (and isn't) used. This is not "rats push the button to feel good". This treatment involves a very precise electrical impulse delivered to the malfunctioning area of the brain; it is to electro-shock therapy what a bonsai knife is to a lawnmower, so the side effects, while not well-characterized, are likely to be orders of magnitude less intrusive.

It's used in cases where the depression is not treatable with current drugs. These are people who are so seriously neurochemically depressed that suicide seems attractive for the relief it would offer. The best we could give them before was a hug and a doctor mumbling that they were "interesting," until eventually they gave up and killed themselves. Now we can offer them this, which has at least one major advantage over suicide.