Factoid

There are four times as many people living in New York City as there are people who make their living from agriculture nationwide.

Ups and downs

A cool map that shows the changes in housing prices by state for the 12 months ending August 2007.

Weekend Genius Challenge

More U.S. states fun at the Weekend Genius Challenge: Win a T-shirt!.

What, we won’t be able to put some ‘Tussin on it?

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted Friday to ban popular over-the-counter cold products intended for children under the age of 6.

The panel found there was no proof that the medicines eased cold symptoms in children, while there are rare reports that they have caused serious harm.

The New York Times

NewMexiKen found this sentence particularly revealing: “Still, nine panel members voted against an outright ban in children ages 2 to 5, arguing that doctors and parents need something for ill children, even if it has no proven effect.”

Even if it has no proven effect. I’ll bet it has a proven effect on pharmaceutical company bottom lines.

Best line of the evening, so far

“According to the accepted wisdom, life evolved here because the conditions were right — not too hot, not too cold, plenty of water. Somehow bacteria grew into multicelled organisms, fish crawled out of the sea, and before long, Britney Spears arrived.”

Quote from the article mentioned in the previous post, A little light reading for your weekend. Topic: The end of the world..

A little light reading for your weekend. Topic: The end of the world.

At the age of eighty-eight, after four children and a long and respected career as one of the twentieth century’s most influential scientists, James Lovelock has come to an unsettling conclusion: The human race is doomed. “I wish I could be more hopeful,” he tells me one sunny morning as we walk through a park in Oslo, where he is giving a talk at a university. Lovelock is a small man, unfailingly polite, with white hair and round, owlish glasses. His step is jaunty, his mind lively, his manner anything but gloomy. In fact, the coming of the Four Horsemen — war, famine, pestilence and death — seems to perk him up. “It will be a dark time,” Lovelock admits. “But for those who survive, I suspect it will be rather exciting.”

In Lovelock’s view, the scale of the catastrophe that awaits us will soon become obvious. By 2020, droughts and other extreme weather will be commonplace. By 2040, the Sahara will be moving into Europe, and Berlin will be as hot as Baghdad. Atlanta will end up a kudzu jungle. Phoenix will become uninhabitable, as will parts of Beijing (desert), Miami (rising seas) and London (floods). Food shortages will drive millions of people north, raising political tensions. “The Chinese have nowhere to go but up into Siberia,” Lovelock says. “How will the Russians feel about that? I fear that war between Russia and China is probably inevitable.” With hardship and mass migrations will come epidemics, which are likely to kill millions. By 2100, Lovelock believes, the Earth’s population will be culled from today’s 6.6 billion to as few as 500 million, with most of the survivors living in the far latitudes — Canada, Iceland, Scandinavia, the Arctic Basin.

That’s the first two paragraphs of “The Prophet of Climate Change: James Lovelock” in the new issue of Rolling Stone.

Moral of the story: The planet will recover. Civilization won’t.

But on the good side, Phoenix is already uninhabitable, so no change there.

Water Watch

USGS map of real-time streamflow compared to historical streamflow for the day of the year. More interesting than it sounds — check out the drought in the southeast.

Link via jfleck at inkstain.

Mental Floss

I received my shirt from Mental Floss today — Mt. Rushmore.

Their site continues to have all kinds of good stuff — it’s “Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix.” I urge you to check it out.

Ideas for a New Constitutional Convention

Hunter at Daily Kos has ideas for nine new Constitutional amendments. Most are pretty funny — and some are worth trying too, like this:

If we cannot abolish the House, then there are still other things we can do. We can make it like Survivor, and vote the two most obnoxious House members out of office every week of the session. If it’s good enough a system for television, surely it’s good enough for the government of a country obsessed with television.

Best McCarver line of the day, so far

My favorite one ever was when Tim McCarver said, in the 2003 World Series, “Beckett’s retired 19 batters through Six and a third innings, he’s having a phenomonal night…”
 
Of course, Beckett hadn’t retired 19 straight, nor was “straight” ever said. The very definition of Six and a third innings is that 19 batters have been retired… every pitcher who has ever pitched Six and a third has retired 19 batters, regardless of if they were throwing a perfect game or were losing 20-0. Phenomonal indeed!

ShutupTimMcCarver.com

Surely not our beloved Comcast

Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of Net traffic equally.

The interference, which The Associated Press confirmed through nationwide tests, is the most drastic example yet of data discrimination by a U.S. Internet service provider. It involves company computers masquerading as those of its users.

—AP via Talking Points Memo

Most indicative line of the day, so far

“It’s six in a row retired by Beckett — tailing fastball to Gutierrez. (Pause) I said six in a row — that’s ten in a row. One more time, the third time’s the charm — nine in a row retired by Beckett.”

—Tim McCarver last night

300 million people in this country and Tim McCarver is covering baseball’s premier games.

Happy Holidays to you too, Tom

Functional Ambivalent opens the holiday season with a rant about the annual Christmas culture war.

Best sad but true line of the day, so far

“So in Euro terms, the Dow is not 14,000, up from 11,000 – it’s 8,400, down from 11,000.”

Andrew Tobias reflecting on the devaluation of the dollar.

October 19th

Today is the birthday

… of Bob Strauss, the politico and diplomat. Ambassador Strauss is 89. Once upon a time NewMexiKen’s boss was Bob Strauss Jr.

… of John LeCarre. The author is 76.

… of Peter Max. The artist is 70.

… of John Lithgow. He’s 62. He’s become somewhat a buffoon on TV in the sitcoms and commercials. Makes it hard to remember that he’s twice been nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar — Terms of Endearment and The World According to Garp.

… of Jeannie C. Riley, singer of the hit “Harper Valley P.T.A.” She, too, is 62.

… of Jennifer Holliday. The Tony Award winner is 47.

… of Evander Holyfield, 45.

… of one-time first daughter Amy Carter. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s little girl is 40.

Robert Reed was born on this date in 1932. A fine actor but one who will always be remembered most as the dad on The Brady Bunch. Reed’s best TV role was as Kenneth Preston, son in the excellent early 1960s father-son lawyer drama The Defenders. His father was played by E. G. Marshall. Reed died in 1992.

Winston Hubert McIntosh was born on this date in 1944. A founding member of The Wailers, Peter Tosh also was an international solo star and songwriter. He was shot and killed along with five others by a friend during an argument on September 11, 1987.

226 years ago today the British army surrendered to the Americans and French at Yorktown, Virginia, in effect ending the War for American Independence.

In early October, some 17,000 American and French troops led by Generals George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau surrounded British-occupied Yorktown. Off the coast, French Admiral François de Grasse strategically positioned his naval fleet to control access to the town via the Chesapeake Bay and the York River.

The Franco-American siege exhausted the British army’s supplies of food and ammunition. With no hope for escape, Cornwallis agreed to the terms of Washington’s Articles of Capitulation, signing the document at Moore House on October 19. Hours after the surrender, the general’s defeated troops marched out of Yorktown to the tune “The World Turned Upside Down.”

Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown effectively ended the Revolutionary War. Lacking the financial resources to raise a new army, the British government appealed to the Americans for peace. Almost two years later, on September 3, 1783, the signing of the Treaty of Paris brought the war to an end.

[Source: Library of Congress]

Death of the Machine

A very good Paul Krugman column today on why big business has forsaken the Republican Party.

Clutter

Ask the pilot’s Patrick Smith answers some questions, but first gets off on a little rant. Here’s an excerpt:

There are lots of things to dislike about hotel rooms: temperamental air conditioning, ugly carpeting, toe-breaking doorjambs. Here’s another one: cardboard brochures. Nowadays, every hotel amenity, from room service to Wi-Fi, is hawked through one or more annoying cardboard advertisements displayed throughout the room. …

My favorites are the signs boasting of the hotel’s dedication to the environment.

It just makes me scream

The Indians are playing the Red Sox and the the Fox announcers are talking about the Yankees.

Just shut up!

Good line

Arlen Specter at last night’s “Funniest Celebrity in Washington Contest:

Bob told me Elizabeth [Dole] was very angry with him because he complained about the cost of Viagra.

He said ‘You know, Arlen, they cost $10 a pill. And I said, ‘Bob, how in the hell would I know about that.’

And then Elizabeth said to him in anger, ‘Bob, you can afford $40 a year.’

Imponderables

David Pogue has a long list of good questions. Here’s just three of them:

• Why is Wi-Fi free at cheap hotels, but $14 a night at expensive ones?

• What’s the real reason you have to turn off your laptop for takeoff?

• Why don’t all hotels have check-in kiosks like airlines do?

The answer to the second of these I believe is so laptops won’t go flying around if the plane stops abruptly in an aborted takeoff and to keep passengers from being distracted and encumbered during an emergency evacuation.

More fuel to the argument that Washington celebrities never left fifth grade

Time’s Karen Tumulty reports on the 14th annual Funniest Celebrity in Washington Contest.

I neglected to mention the Honorable Mention won by C-SPAN’s Robb Harlston, who was the only contestant to do the requisite Larry Craig portion of his routine with a piece of toilet paper trailing from the back of his pants. Also, just about everyone’s act got interrupted by a cell phone call from Judith Giuliani.

Such originality.

Not what’ll I do?

Sam Brownback has withdrawn as a candidate for president.

Why is it always my candidate that drops out?

Best line of the day, so far

“Ford Runs Out of Duct Tape”

The Truth About Cars reporting on a Ford recall that has been delayed for lack of parts.

What To Do?

Out in Left Field has a problem with neighborhood kids. What should she do?

October 18th

Keith Jackson is 79 today. Whoa, Nellie.

Football hall-of-famer Mike Ditka is 68.

Pam Dawber, Mork’s Mindy, and Mrs. Mark Harmon for 20 years, is 56.

Martina Navratilova is 51.

Joanie Cunningham is 47. That’s Erin Moran.

Wynton Marsalis is 46.

And, as already noted, roll over Beethoven, Charles Edward Anderson Berry is 81 today.

Young Frankenstein’s monster himself, Peter Boyle, who died last December, would have been 72 today.

In any civilized country

… today would be a holiday.

It’s Chuck Berry’s birthday. He’s 81.

The Pedal-to-the-Metal, Totally Illegal, Cross-Country Sprint for Glory

New York to Santa Monica in 31 hours and 4 minutes — a new record. Wired Magazine has the story (not without errors). The ultimate, high-tech road trip.

High price of oil — here

Oil hit a new price today — $89 a barrel.

On George W. Bush’s inauguration day in January 2001, you could have purchased a barrel of oil for about $30. If you lived in Europe, a barrel would have set you back about 32 Euro. Because the value of the U.S. Dollar has fallen so substantially since then (it took 93 cents to buy a Euro in January 2001, it now takes $1.42), the increase in the cost of oil for a U.S. consumer has far outstripped the increase for a Euro (or Canadian, or Swiss, or just about any other) consumer.

Today, it takes US $89 to buy a barrel of oil, but only 62 Euro.

MotherJones.com

The World Serious

NewMexiKen is hoping — against long odds I’m sure — to get World Series tickets for a game in Denver. They’re being sold strictly online beginning Monday.

I’ve been to one World Series game — 1972 in Oakland vs. the Cincinnati Reds. It cost $10 from a guy unloading tickets — and I hesitated. Five hall-of-famers to be (Bench, Morgan, Perez, Hunter and Fingers), a hall-of-fame manager (Anderson) and Pete Rose played in that game. Reggie Jackson was there, but injured and did not play.

Prices in Denver range from $90 to $250. (Not counting what they call the Rockpile in deep centerfield. It’s only $65.)

Enchanted Skies star party

Angel Station has a great description of an evening I’m very sorry to have missed. I’ve included some here to whet your interest, but you really need to go read it all.

What happens at the Enchanted Skies star party is that you show up and are given a BBQ chuckwagon dinner with all the trimmins. Then you sit on hay bales around the campfire circle, eat your dinner, and watch the sun set over the San Mateo Mountains while cowboy singer Doug Figgs entertains you with western ballads. (”Let me tell you ’bout the horses on my strang.”) This year he brought a fiddler with him.

Next, as the sky darkens and the tiny crescent new moon drops below the horizon, you listen to storyteller Great Bear Cornucopia (he answers to “G.B.”) tell Indian legends about the stars. He’s the “night sky interpreter” at the Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, living among Anasazi ruins and the Navajo Nation, and he knows a lot of Indian legends about the stars. These always include the story of “How Coyote Fucked Up the Stars,” which is told in so many variations that it doesn’t get boring when you hear it year after year.