Author: NewMexiKen

Your photos get home before you do

The $100 Eye-Fi Card by Eye-Fi Inc. (www.eye.fi) is a two-gigabyte SecureDigital memory card with a built-in wireless chip. It slips into any camera with an SD-card slot, and whenever the camera is turned on, looks for a familiar Wi-Fi network and uploads your photos to your Mac or PC and one of 17 photo-sharing sites. After a quick, one-time setup, the user does nothing more than turning on the digital camera.

Read more at The Mossberg Solution.

Guys

Dave Barry posted this story on his blog in 2005. It’s a good — and all too typical — one.

So I took my daughter to soccer practice this evening, and another dad and I were talking to one of the moms, whom we both know and whom we have both seen roughly once a week for the past six months. After we talked for about 10 minutes, a second mom showed up, and immediately said to the mom we’d been talking to: “YOU HAD YOUR BABY!” And then they hugged, and the new mom got out baby pictures. And the other dad and I looked at each other and realized that not only had we failed to notice that she’d had a baby, but we had been at most only dimly aware that she had been pregnant. We apologized, and she assured us that it was no big deal. Women are accustomed to the cluelessness of guys in these matters.

The thing is, if she had shown up carrying a cool new cell phone, we would have noticed that.

A big big big box store

Jill reports that the Super Target that opened near her Sunday — it being such a hassle to go to the Super Target 5 miles in other direction — is so big they had to go home for snacks, then return to finish the tour.

I’ve encouraged her to write more about it — she was so funny on the phone.

I wonder if Lileks and Gnat were there.

Stay in School to Outsmart Death?

Researchers from Harvard Medical School looked at data from the National Health Interview Study from 1966 to 2003. From the 1980s to 2000, the findings show that those who lived the longest were the most highly educated.

The “highly educated” were defined as anyone who had had at least one year of college. The researchers defined “low level” of education as having at most graduated from high school.

WebMD

It isn’t the education itself but rather that educated folk are less likely to smoke and less likely to be obese.

Seriously, Everybody Is Somebody in New Mexico

This excerpted from a slightly longer item at Digital Daily:

According to data released today by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the National Venture Capital Association and Thomson Financial, [Venture Capital] investment in New Mexico is up an astonishing 375% from a decade ago, the number of start-ups up 600%. Equally as impressive is Pittsburgh, where VC investment is up 513% and the number of start-ups is up 267%.

Whoa.

As Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA, notes, New Mexico and Pittsburgh are clearly becoming hotbeds of innovation. “For regions that don’t have a large, indigenous venture investor base, it is important to give outside VCs a reason to visit,” he said in a statement. “These unexpected regions are making venture capitalists stand up and take notice.”

They sure are. New Mexico had three start-ups a decade ago. Now it has 21. 21!

Of course, once upon a time one of the startups in New Mexico was Microsoft.

Better dental news than a visit from the tooth fairy

At the Freakonomics blog, a report on a study that suggests that having your teeth cleaned at a dental office is less important than we’ve been led to believe. An excerpt:

My dad always told me that dealership rust-proofing was a scam to give dealerships some extra cash without providing your car with any extra protection. Could getting your teeth cleaned be the economic equivalent to having a car dealership rust-proof your car?

Like I said before, this post is probably just working out some wounded inner child issue. (And let me be clear that I’m not calling into question the value of brushing and flossing your teeth, or visiting your dentist regularly to check for cavities, as well as other potential problems). But it’s food for thought. The next time your dentist asks you to make an appointment to have your teeth cleaned, you might reasonably ask, “Why?”

I don’t usually believe in hell

… but there are times when it seems to fit the crime.

U.S. soldiers at a military base in Iraq were provided with treated but untested wastewater for nearly two years by KBR, the giant government contractor, and may have suffered health problems as a result, according to a report released yesterday by the Pentagon’s inspector general.

Washington Post

I’m thinking these KBR bastards probably are running around with flag lapel pins too.

I Got Nothin’

Blah blah blah.

There is this from Conan:

“Past couple of days — you’ve all heard about this — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John McCain have all claimed that they are the person who should answer the phone at the White House if it rings at 3 a.m., but most Americans think the White House should just get a receptionist.”

And this from Letterman:

“I like that John McCain. He looks like a guy who waits all day for the mail to come.”

And —

Bottom line, I’m thinking Elliot isn’t on Hillary’s or Obama’s short list for VP or attorney general anymore.

Oh, and I saw The Other Boleyn Girl. Pretty good, but Natalie Portman was better off as Queen Amidala of Naboo than Queen Anne of England.

Oh Parody Woman

It was on this day in 1994 that the Supreme Court ruled that parody can be protected by the fair use clause of the Copyright Act of 1976. The case arose from a song by the rap group 2 Live Crew, which used elements of the Roy Orbison song from 1964: “Oh Pretty Woman.”

The Roy Orbison version of the song is about a man watching a pretty woman walking down the street. The 2 Live Crew version is about the subsequent relationship with that woman, who becomes a hairy woman, a bald-headed woman, and a two-timing woman. The music publishing company Acuff-Rose, which holds the copyright for the Roy Orbison song, sued 2 Live Crew for copyright violation.

Among those who sent “friend of the court” briefs in support of 2 Live Crew were Mad magazine, The Harvard Lampoon, and the Comedy Central TV channel. Among those who argued against 2 Live Crew were Dolly Parton and Michael Jackson. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of 2 Live Crew.

Justice David H. Souter wrote, “Like less ostensibly humorous forms of criticism, [parody] can provide social benefit by shedding light on an earlier work and, in the process, creating a new one.”

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

March 7th

Today is the birthday

… of Willard Scott, 75.

… of Steelers greats Franco Harris, 58, and Lynn Swann, 56.

… of Oscar-winner Rachel Weisz. She’s 37 or 38.

… of The Office’s Pam. Jenna Fischer is 34.

Oscar winner Anna Magnani was born on this date in 1908. She won best actress in 1956 for The Rose Tattoo and was nominated again in 1958 for Wild Is the Wind. Magnani died in 1973.

Maurice Ravel was born on this date in 1875. Bolero premiered in 1928. It was originally written as a ballet..

On the road again

Seemed like a good time to get out of town, so here you see what I saw as I came down I-25 into Colorado from Raton Pass. (Click image for larger version.)

Snow on I-25

Again, I’m no Ansel Adams. On the other hand Adams didn’t take too many photos that I know of while driving on an interstate. (And to think they consider cell phones a distraction!)

Las Vegas, New Mexico Las Vegas, New Mexico

Earlier, on a cool but clear late winter’s morning I drove through Las Vegas, New Mexico. From I-25 Las Vegas appears to be just another dusty little town, but it has some historical treasures. Here’s the Palace Hotel on the plaza and the Plaza itself. I stopped and got out of the car for these. Click images for larger versions.

The Boston Massacre

On this date in 1770 —

It began when a young barber’s apprentice by the name of Edward Garrick shouted an insult at Hugh White, a soldier of the 29th Regiment on sentry duty in front of the Customs House (a symbol of royal authority). White gave the apprentice a knock on the ear with the butt of his rifle. The boy howled for help, and returned with a sizable and unruly crowd, cheifly boys and youths, and, pointing at White, said, “There’s the son of a bitch that knocked me down!” Someone rang the bells in a nearby church. This action drew more people into the street. The sentry found himself confronting an angry mob. He stood his ground and called for the main guard. Six men, led by a corporal, responded. They were soon joined by the officer on duty, Captain John Preston of the “29th,” with guns unloaded but with fixed bayonets, to White’s relief.

The crowd soon swelled to almost 400 men. They began pelting the soldiers with snowballs and chunks of ice. Led by a huge mulatto, Crispus Attucks, they surged to within inches of the fixed bayonets and dared the soldiers to fire. The soldiers loaded their guns, but the crowd, far from drawing back, came close, calling out, “Come on you rascals, you bloody backs, you lobster scoundrels, fire if you dare, God damn you, fire and be damned, we know you dare not,” and striking at the soldiers with clubs and a cutlass.

Whereupon the soldiers fired, killing three men outright and mortally wounding two others. The mob fled. As the gunsmoke cleared, Crispus Attucks (left) and four others lay dead or dying. Six more men were wounded but survived.

Excerpt from the Boston Massacre Historical Society, which has a wonderful web site with everything about the “Massacre.”

March 4th ought to be a national holiday

The Constitution went into effect on this date in 1789.

Birthdays today:

Patricia Heaton of ”Everybody Loves Raymond” is 50.

Sonny and Cher’s daughter Chastity is 39.

Famed bridge expert Charles Goren was born on March 4th in 1901.

Legendary Notre Dame player and football coach Knute Rockne was born on this date in 1888. He died in a plane crash at age 43 in 1931.

143 years ago today

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865.

At The Edge of the American West, ari discusses America’s greatest speech.

Stupid is as stupid does

Charlotte Allen wrote an absolutely absurd article that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post. The title of her article: “We Scream, We Swoon. How Dumb Can We Get?” Her question: “What is it about us women? Why do we always fall for the hysterical, the superficial and the gooily sentimental?” Her answer: Because women are stupid.

As you might imagine, Ms. Allen has been rightfully ridiculed throughout blogland. Bob Somerby, for example, had this:

For what it’s worth, Allen isn’t content to argue that women are stupid—she seems determined to prove the foolish claim herself. At one point, she says that she herself “can’t add 2 and 2.” After reading this passage, we believed her:

ALLEN: Depressing as it is, several of the supposed misogynist myths about female inferiority have been proven true. Women really are worse drivers than men, for example. A study published in 1998 by the Johns Hopkins schools of medicine and public health revealed that women clocked 5.7 auto accidents per million miles driven, in contrast to men’s 5.1, though men drive about 74 percent more miles a year than women. The only good news was that women tended to take fewer driving risks than men, so their crashes were only a third as likely to be fatal.

You probably noted what Allen (and her editor) did not; the statistic about driving “more miles per year” is (essentially) irrelevant to the finding that women get in more (slightly) more accidents per mile driven. Meanwhile, if women get in slightly more accidents, but men get in many more fatal accidents, is it clear that men are better drivers?

We’re screwed

Q: How many members of the Bush administration does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Ten

  1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed.
  2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed.
  3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb.
  4. One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs.
  5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb.
  6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light Bulb Change Accomplished.
  7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark.
  8. One to viciously smear #7.
  9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along.
  10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

First posted here two years ago.