Author: NewMexiKen

Unique photo gift ideas

Lifehacker has a good list of things you can do with all those digital photos — refrigerator magnets, movie posters, trading cards, collage posters, etc.

NewMexiKen’s very own official oldest daughter has her own idea. For the past two years, Jill has photographed Mack with each of his birthday gifts, then uses the photo to decorate the thank you note for that gift.

That’s a long way from the first computer merge we ever did. “Dear [blank], Thank you for the [blank]. I will enjoy [blanking] with it.” Add a list of gifters, gifts, and actions and voila, thank you notes ready to print and mail.

Journalism caveat

First found at Campaign Desk (link no longer valid):

During the Civil War, some northern newspapers, uncertain as to the reliability of dated dispatches sent overland by part-time correspondents at the front, resorted to a standard headline that read:

“Important, If True”

The other Indian scandal

At Daily Kos, writer mbw tells one side of the Indian trust litigation story. This problem has been festering for 119 years, but somehow now it’s the fault of the current Administration. No issue is black and white — and issues in Indian country are particularly nuanced.

This incomplete and one-sided report seems to me to be a particularly good example of what passes for reporting in today’s media, mainstream or blog. But, as DailyKos is a big-time website, NewMexiKen thought mbw’s report should be noted.

Update: “mbw” is MB Williams at Wampum.

It’s the birthday

… of Tom Smothers. He’s 69.

… of Graham Nash. The Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash (or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is 64.

… of Farrah Fawcett. Charlie’s Angel is 59.

… of Christie Brinkley. She’s 52.

James Joyce was born in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin, on this date in 1882. Joyce only wrote four books of fiction in his life, but they’re all considered masterpieces — Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

But, of course, it is on June 16th that we should celebrate Joyce.

Best line of the day, so far

“As summed up by the distinguished social scientist who writes humor columns under the name of Dave Barry, residents of Red states are ‘ignorant racist fascist knuckle-dragging NASCAR-obsessed cousin-marrying road-kill-eating tobacco-juice-dribbling gun-fondling religious fanatic rednecks,’ while Blue-state residents are ‘godless unpatriotic pierced-nose Volvo-driving France-loving leftwing Communist latte-sucking tofu-chomping holistic-wacko neurotic vegan weenie perverts.’

James Q. Wilson in an article entitled How Divided Are We?

‘Burque Men in Burkas Can’t Fill Their Shirts or The Pit

Jon at Albloggerque has a great take on the choreography of basketball and why today’s uniforms are harming the aesthetic of the game.

Read it all but here’s the jist:

But when it comes right down to it, there is more to sport than winning. It has to be enjoyable to watch. And basketball has a special place in sports. For one thing bball is the most like dance. The ball is the melody and the players, like dancers, leap and streak into a multitude of jazz variations of that one theme: the flight of the basketball. It flies from player to player, end to end, riff to rumble, and eventually we watch someone with artistry and deftness stick it just right.

Part of the beauty of it is watching the athletes themselves. Their physiques are totally awesome. At least we think they are…because we really can’t see them for all that loose and shapeless clothing.

NewMexiKen Day

Yours truly took up residence in New Mexico on this date in 1999, thereby becoming NewMexiKen.

New Mexico ranks fifth for longevity among the states where I’ve lived — after Michigan, Virginia, California and Arizona. I’ve also resided in Texas, Nevada and New York, though the latter two just for a few weeks each during the same summer. Long enough to have a job in each, though. (Well, actually, the New York job was in New Jersey, but I resided in Jackson Heights, Queens.)

Ahchoo!

From The Citizen Scientist:

Martin Hocking and Harold Foster of Canada’s University of Victoria have studied the problem of increased colds among airline passengers. In an article for the Journal of Environmental Health Research (“Common cold transmission in commercial aircraft: Industry and passenger implications,” 2004) , they reported that 20 percent of passengers who flew on a 2.5 hour flight developed colds within a week.

Depending on three different flight scenarios, Hocking and Foster found that airline passengers in three different scenarios were 5, 23, or 113 times more likely to catch a cold than if they had not flown at all!

The scientists also found that the threat of catching tuberculosis is substantially higher if an infected passenger is aboard a flight.

The most logical reason for infections would seem to be the limited amount of cabin air shared by the passengers. But Hocking, Foster and other scientists have found this is only one factor. The very low humidity in an airplane seems to be much more important.

There’s more.

The U.S. Mail

While the service has always been good (vacation holds, things like that) the mail doesn’t arrive at Casa NewMexiKen until 4 or 5 or even 6PM. It’s not unusual, in fact, to see the letter carrier with a light on in his truck as he drives down our street from mailbox-to-mailbox well after dark. This is a problem across much of Albuquerque and apparently even extends statewide. There has been a flurry of activity recently to improve service — including some top manager reassignments.

NewMexiKen hasn’t seen any changes yet — the mail still arrives late and the Netflix DVD I put in my mailbox yesterday afternoon couldn’t have been picked up until after 4. Even so, moments ago — a little after 8 AM — I received an email from Netflix that the DVD had been received (in Denver, more than 400 miles away). Something is working.