I had insomnia so around 3-3:30 picked up the my iPhone to read about the earthquake in Japan.
Then I went to Apple.com see about ordering an iPad 2. Shipping in 3-5 days it said.
Four hours later it’s “Ships: 2-3 weeks.”
Idle Thought
13 days until my next vacation.
I’ll never last.
Not Snoop
“Earlier today, The Wire actress Felicia ‘Snoop’ Pearson was arrested as part of a large-scale drug raid in Baltimore and surrounding counties. Slate asked David Simon, creator and executive producer of The Wire (and currently in production on Treme), for comment. He offered this statement, provided to Slate through an HBO spokesperson.”
David Simon, Creator of The Wire, Speaks on Felicia “Snoop” Pearson’s Arrest
Best line of the evening
“Forget the stereotypes emanating from small-minded places like the Phoenix statehouse or any right-wing talk-radio station … ”
Timothy Egan on the growth of ethnoburbs.
Best line of the day you’ll have to click to see the punchline
“The Times reports that Chris Christie, straight talker, makes stuff up. And this will be fatal to his presidential aspirations, right? Nobody who just makes up tall tales that serve his agenda can become president, no matter how smooth a talker he is.”
Today’s Photos
Just fooling around with a software demo, I made this collage (in about 30 seconds) from photos taken the past few years at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The Fiesta this year is October 1-9.
Best legal information you may need to know line of the day
“In 12 states—California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington—all parties involved need to consent before one of them can record the conversation.”
Christopher Beam – Slate Magazine
Up to 3-years in prison in Illinois for a first offense of recording a conversation with a police officer. It’s a crime in Boston, too.
Remember the over-under on gasoline prices?
Sixteen days ago I said I would bet that gasoline would be $5 a gallon by Memorial Day.
Well, I got a message from Karen in the San Francisco area today. She wrote:
“Just to keep track of things….I paid $4.03 at the pump today.
“And then I barfed.”
Just dry heave levels here in ‘Burque: $3.38.
The national average is $3.52.
Best line of the day
“It’s Osama bin Laden’s birthday. Come out of your cave and wave your arms. We want to drop you a present!”
The c**ks**ker is 54.
New Post-bubble low
On the CoreLogic Home Price Index, national housing prices were 100 in January 2000. The index was around 140 in January 2011, down 32.8% from the bubble high of just over 200 in 2007.
Prices nationally have dropped for six months in a row, year-over-year, and are about were they were in 2003.
From January 2010 to January 2011, prices dropped 5.7%.
So, should I wait in line or order online?
On paper, Apple didn’t do much. It just made the iPad one-third thinner, 15 percent lighter and twice as fast. There are no new features except two cameras and a gyroscope. I mean, yawn, right?
And then you start playing with it.
My friends, I’m telling you: just that much improvement in thinness, weight and speed transforms the experience. We’re not talking about a laptop or a TV, where you don’t notice its thickness while in use. This is a tablet. You are almost always holding it. Thin and light are unbelievably important for comfort and the overall delight. So are rounded edges, which the first iPad didn’t have.
Best name ever for an inventor
“Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook entry of 10 March 1876 describes his successful experiment with the telephone. Speaking through the instrument to his assistant, Thomas A. Watson, in the next room, Bell utters these famous first words, ‘Mr. Watson — come here — I want to see you.'”
Take a look at the entry in Bell’s Experimental Notebook
Cape Lookout National Seashore (North Carolina)
… was established on this date in 1966.
The seashore is a 56 mile long section of the Outer Banks of North Carolina running from Ocracoke Inlet on the northeast to Beaufort Inlet on the southeast. The three undeveloped barrier islands which make up the seashore – North Core Banks, South Core Banks and Shackleford Banks – may seem barren and isolated but they offer many natural and historical features that can make a visit very rewarding.
Who needs cable?
I’m not watching a movie tonight. I saw Amadeus: The Director’s Cut last night free via Amazon Prime. It was three hours, so tonight I’m viewing just a slide show of photos — 3 seconds apiece. (Hey, I just looked up and saw the teacher all four of my children had for second grade, Mrs. Radcliffe.)
My experience with director’s cuts by the way is that they are a good demonstration of why films have editors.
The $99 Apple TV got a software update today. Much to my surprise they’ve added Major League Baseball and the NBA. I don’t care about the latter, but I am interested in the baseball package — $99 for the whole season, most games of all 30 teams, except for national and regional blackouts. Alas, that means my favorites the regional Colorado Rockies won’t be included, but the World Champion Giants will. The Apple TV Netflix package is pretty nice, too.
All this streaming, of course, is to one of my TVs — I don’t watch too many movies or ballgames on the computer or iPhone, though I have. There are several ways you can stream, if you’re not already. Roger Ebert gives it a pretty good run down for movies in Stream a little stream with me, posted on his blog 90 minutes ago or so.
Ebert has a nice rant about Facebook too, and they’re always fun.
The slide show continues, Gene Vincent singing “Be Bop a Lula” in the background, and lots and lots of Sweeties in large screen glory.
The Dean
I’ve poked at David Broder here over the years, but he died today at age 81 and, so, here is a little antidote.
That’s what I’d like to know line of the day
… Newt Gingrich explains why he dumped wife #1 while she was in the hospital after cancer surgery, and wife #2 soon after she was diagnosed with MS. It was because of his love of country:
There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
How did people like this end up running America?
Related best line:
“Gingrich planning May presidential announcement, but if nation takes turn for worse he’ll probably lose interest in us.”
Today’s Photo
1936 prices (112 cents)
Pancho Villa
. . . and his forces attacked Columbus, New Mexico, 95 years ago today.
Why Columbus? Why then?
The U.S. had taken sides against Villa and for Venustiano Carranza in the continuing Mexican revolutions. Columbus had a garrison of about 600 U.S. soldiers. Villa had been sold blank ammunition by an arms dealer in the town. And a few days earlier 10 Mexicans had been “accidentally” burned to death while in custody in El Paso during a “routine” delousing with gasoline.
The attack at dawn lasted about three hours before American troops chased Villa’s forces into Mexico. The town was burned and 17 Americans, mostly private citizens, were killed. About 100 of Villa’s troops were reportedly killed. The arms dealer was absent from Columbus that morning. He had a dental appointment in El Paso.
The next day President Wilson ordered General Jack Pershing and 5,000 American troops into Mexico to capture Villa. This “Punitive Expedition” was often mis-directed by Mexican citizens and Villa allegedly hid in the dust thrown up by Pershing’s vehicles. (The American Army used aircraft for reconnaissance for the first time. This is considered the beginning of the Army Air Corps.)
Unsuccessful in the hunt, by February 1917 the United States and Pershing turned their attention to the war in Europe. Minor clashes with Mexican irregulars continued to disturb the border from 1917 to 1919. Engagements took place near Buena Vista, Mexico, on 1 December 1917; in San Bernardino Canyon, Mexico, on 26 December 1917; near La Grulla, Texas, on 8-9 January 1918; at Pilares, Mexico, about 28 March 1918; at Nogales, Arizona, on 27 August 1918; and near El Paso, Texas, on 15-16 June 1919.
NewMexiKen’s very own grandfather served in Columbus during World War I, making him the first NewMexiKen.
Villa, born Doroteo Arango, surrendered to the Mexican Government in 1920 and retired on a general’s pay. He was assassinated in 1923.
Most memorable line of the day
“When forming images, it helps to have a dirty mind. Evolution has programmed our brains to find two things particularly interesting, and therefore memorable: jokes and sex — and especially, it seems, jokes about sex.”
Joshua Foer, author of “Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything,” as quoted by Maureen Dowd.
Perhaps evangelicals are repressed about sex because they don’t believe in evolution. Or vice versa.
Did You Ever Have The Kind Of Day Where…
Gosh Karen, we’ve all had that happen, or something like it. (Well, not for eight years in my case.)
Facebook a top cause of relationship trouble
When Facebook gets involved, relationships can quickly fall apart – as Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi have discovered. But dictatorships are not the only ties being dissolved by social networking sites: now Facebook is increasingly being blamed for undermining American marriages.
Even though the rate of divorce in the US has remained largely stable in recent years, American divorce lawyers and academics have joined Middle East analysts in picking out Facebook as a leading cause of relationship trouble, with American lawyers now demanding to see their clients’ Facebook pages as a matter of course before the start of proceedings.
There’s more.
Best line of the day
“[Ohio State football coach] Jim Tressel gets two game suspension, one for each face of college athletics.”
Best line of the day that works for me, too
“I know we’re supposed to pretend that both sides always have a point; but the truth is that most of the time they [conservative sites] don’t. The parties are not equally irresponsible; Rachel Maddow isn’t Glenn Beck; and a conservative blog, almost by definition, is a blog written by someone who chooses not to notice that asymmetry. And life is short … ”
Calm Man Successfully Buys TV and Denies Walmart Receipt Checkers
Receipt checking is a peeve of mine. I generally avoid it by walking by and not making eye contact. Occasionally I say, “No thank you.” At Costco, of course, I have to submit because it’s part of the membership agreement. But I often go with a friend (who would no doubt prefer I leave her name out of this), and we play games like showing one receipt when we each bought items (and we always get by). The whole thing is probably just supposed to be a deterrent. I find it a nuisance.
Anyway here is a good story from someone of like-mind in Virginia at Wal-Mart. And I find myself almost sympathetic with Wal-Mart in this case.
Wisconsin’s “union bride” tells her story
This is one I expect you all to read.
It will be on the exam.