Reading longer pieces on the internets

Among the more valuable web assistants I’ve found is Instapaper: A simple tool to save web pages for reading later.

With a free account, you can identify items while browsing, click a bookmarklet on your browser, and save the item — often even those with multiple pages — for reading later, in a better, less cluttered format. Instapaper works on your computers and your mobile devices (with the appropriate app), including the Kindle. You can save one place and read on another, like magic.

Instapaper works inside many applications and websites; for example, Google Reader, Pulse, Twitter, Slate.

With Instapaper, I find I read better and more interesting pieces — by saving for later, I avoid the “well, what’s on this link” pace of the web. And, I always have a trove of good magazine-size articles to read.

And it’s free.

(The basic iPhone app is also free. I decided yesterday the app was so useful I purchased the $4.99 version, which has more functionality, lets you create folders, store more articles, etc.)

Related to this is the Reader function in the computer version of Safari. With click of a button you get an uncluttered, exceptionally readable version of the main content of the page you are viewing (if it is a single item of more than a couple paragraphs).

Instapaper (and Safari’s Reader function) are fantastic for reading Joe Posnanski’s wonderful but oh-so-long posts.

A More Perfect Union

During the opening months of World War II, almost 120,000 Japanese Americans, two-thirds of them citizens of the United States, were forced out of their homes and into detention camps established by the U.S. government. Many would spend the next three years living under armed guard, behind barbed wire. This exhibit explores this period when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen and the power of the state. It tells the story of Japanese Americans who suffered a great injustice at the hands of the government, and who have struggled ever since to insure the rights of all citizens guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

A wonderful online exhibit from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

The Day the Movies Died

An interesting assessment of movie production and marketing — The Day the Movies Died. An excerpt:

. . . As anyone in Hollywood will tell you, the American filmgoing populace is divided two ways: by gender and by age. Gender is self-explanatory (usually); the over-under dividing line for age is 25. Naturally, every studio chief dreams of finding a movie like Avatar that reaches all four “quadrants” of the audience: male and female, young and not. But if it can be made for the right price, a two- or even one-quadrant film can be a viable business proposition.

In Hollywood, though, not all quadrants are created equal. If you, for instance, [are a woman], you’re pretty much out of luck, because women, in studio thinking, are considered a niche audience that, except when Sandra Bullock reads a script or Nicholas Sparks writes a novel, generally isn’t worth taking the time to figure out. And if you were born before 1985… well, it is my sad duty to inform you that in the eyes of Hollywood, you are one of what the kids on the Internet call “the olds.” I know—you thought you were one of the kids on the Internet. Not to the studios, which have realized that the closer you get to (or the farther you get from) your thirtieth birthday, the more likely you are to develop things like taste and discernment, which render you such an exhausting proposition in terms of selling a movie that, well, you might as well [be a woman].

That leaves one quadrant—men under 25—at whom the majority of studio movies are aimed, the thinking being that they’ll eat just about anything that’s put in front of them as long as it’s spiked with the proper set of stimulants. That’s why, when you look at the genres that currently dominate Hollywood—action, raunchy comedy, game/toy/ride/comic-book adaptations, horror, and, to add an extra jolt of Red Bull to all of the preceding categories, 3-D—they’re all aimed at the same ADD-addled, short-term-memory-lacking, easily excitable testosterone junkie. . . .

Executive Order 9066

Ouster of all Japs Near!E.O. 9066, signed 69 years ago today by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. An excerpt:

Now therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action to be necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any persons to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restriction the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.

The Secretary of War is hereby authorized to provide for residents of any such area who are excluded therefrom, such transportation, food, shelter, and other accommodations as may be necessary, in the judgment of the Secretary of War or the said Military Commander, and until other arrangements are made, to accomplish the purpose of this order.

Within two weeks the western portion of California, Oregon and Washington, and part of Arizona were designated an area from which “any and all persons” might be excluded. The designation was made by Lt.Gen. John L. DeWitt, the commander of the western defense command. DeWitt was later quoted as saying, “a Jap’s a Jap” and “it makes no difference whether he is an American citizen or not…the west coast is too vital and too vulnerable to take any chances.”

The newspaper headline is from just eight days after the E.O.

All you need to know about Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s Democratic state senators went into hiding to deprive the Republican majority of the quorum they need to pass Walker’s agenda. The Senate majority leader, Scott Fitzgerald — who happens to be the brother of the Assembly speaker, Jeff Fitzgerald — believes the governor is absolutely right about the need for draconian measures to cut spending in this crisis. So he’s been sending state troopers out to look for the missing Democrats.

The troopers are under the direction of the new chief of the state patrol, Stephen Fitzgerald. He is the 68-year-old father of Jeff and Scott and was appointed to the $105,678 post this month by Governor Walker.

From Gail Collins.

One of his 1,093 patents

133 years ago today Thomas Edison received a patent for the phonograph and ultimately music changed forever.

The phonograph was developed as a result of Thomas Edison’s work on two other inventions, the telegraph and the telephone. In 1877, Edison was working on a machine that would transcribe telegraphic messages through indentations on paper tape…This development led Edison to speculate that a telephone message could also be recorded in a similar fashion. He experimented with a diaphragm which had an embossing point and was held against rapidly-moving paraffin paper. The speaking vibrations made indentations in the paper. Edison later changed the paper to a metal cylinder with tin foil wrapped around it. The machine had two diaphragm-and-needle units, one for recording, and one for playback. When one would speak into a mouthpiece, the sound vibrations would be indented onto the cylinder by the recording needle in a vertical (or hill and dale) groove pattern. Edison gave a sketch of the machine to his mechanic, John Kreusi, to build, which Kreusi supposedly did within 30 hours. Edison immediately tested the machine by speaking the nursery rhyme into the mouthpiece, “Mary had a little lamb.” To his amazement, the machine played his words back to him. . . .
It didn't look much like an iPod

The invention was highly original. The only other recorded evidence of such an invention was in a paper by French scientist Charles Cros, written on April 18, 1877. There were some differences, however, between the two men’s ideas, and Cros’s work remained only a theory, since he did not produce a working model of it.

Source: Library of Congress

Click image for larger version.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial (Indiana)

… was authorized by the signature of President Kennedy on this date in 1962. It was the first unit of the National Park Service in Indiana. Indiana Dunes and George Rogers Clark National Historical Park have been added since.

Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial preserves the site of the farm where Abraham Lincoln spent 14 formative years of his life, from the ages of 7 to 21. He and his family moved to Indiana in 1816 and stayed until 1830 when they moved on to Illinois.

National Park Service

Best lines of the day

NEW YORK … – In what many are calling a milestone in cable news history, Jesus and Satan appeared on CNN today in a brief two-minute segment.

The segment, a debate over Good versus Evil moderated by CNN host Brooke Baldwin, was believed to be the first joint appearance ever by Jesus and his arch-nemesis on a cable news program.

“We were first approached by Jesus’ people who said He would be interested in coming on,” Ms. Baldwin said.  “But then we thought it would be important to put Satan on with Him, for balance.”

Go read the rest — all the way to end — at the Borowitz Report.

Mobile NMK

Those of you using smart phones and other mobile devices to view NewMexiKen should now see a mobile version when you visit this site.

Just another in the many ways we serve our chic clientele.

(You may disable the mobile version by scrolling to the bottom of any mobile page and opting out.)

Alas, it’s not true

. . . but it was funny when we thought it was.

According to a report from The New Yorker, the initial story was that the looters at the Egyptian Museum last month — “stole nothing of value—’they thought the [gift] shop was the museum, thank God!’ ”

As someone who has done my share of musuem gift shop browsing, I can totally say that the gift shop often has the best stuff.

But it seems the looters really did steal a few museum objects and not all have been recovered.

February 18th

Today is the birthday

… of Helen Gurley Brown, 89.

… of Oscar winner George Kennedy. Dragline is 86. Kennedy won the best supporting actor Oscar for that role in Cool Hand Luke.

… of Toni Morrison, “who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.” That’s what they said when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. She’s 80 today.

… of the woman who broke up the Beatles. She’s 78 today. That’s Yoko Ono.

… of Cybill Shepherd. She’s 61.

… of Juice Newton. She’s 59.

… of Vinnie Barbarino. He’s 57 today. So are Vincent Vega, Chili Palmer, Michael, Buford ‘Bud’ Uan Davis, Tod Lubitch, Danny Zuko and Tony Manero. And so is John Travolta.

… of the letter turner. Vanna White is 54 today.

… of one-time Oscar nominee Matt Dillon, 47.

… of Andre Romelle Young. Dr. Dre is 46.

… of Molly Ringwald. She’s 43.

Wallace Stegner was born on this date in 1909.

Enzo Ferrari was born on February 18, 1898. I only mention him so I can post the car porn (above).

Louis Comfort Tiffany was born on February 18, 1848.

Mr. Tiffany’s paintings in oils and water-colors were chiefly of Oriental scenes. He also executed decorative work and is best known for his work in glass. He devised new formulas for decorative designs in this medium know as “Tiffany Favrile glass.” It was produced by the Tiffany Studios, of which he was president and art director.

Mr. Tiffany also was vice president and director of Tiffany & Co., jewelers, and vice president and director of Tiffany & Co. Safe Deposit Company.

From his 1933 New York Times obituary

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published February 18, 1885.

Best column of the day

“There are three things you need to know about the current budget debate. First, it’s essentially fraudulent. Second, most people posing as deficit hawks are faking it. Third, while President Obama hasn’t fully avoided the fraudulence, he’s less bad than his opponents — and he deserves much more credit for fiscal responsibility than he’s getting.”

So Paul Krugman begins Willie Sutton Wept, his 787-word column today.

You should read it, if only to irritate a certain member of this blog’s commentariat.

Are we there yet?

NewMexiKen is taking the day off. Even so, if I see things I think you should read, I’ll list them here.

You can begin with Tanya at Dinner without Crayons.

Karen went Walking On The Moon, a must read. Views like that — and chiles — are why I stay a New Mexican, Karen.

As The King’s Speech moves toward its coronation by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on the 27th, you might want to read The King’s Speech: good movie, very bad history by Christopher Hitchens.

And a best line from Krugman:

“[A]s far as right-wing politicians are concerned: for the most part they know that Obama was born here, that he isn’t a socialist, that there are no death panels, and so on, but feel compelled to pretend to be crazy as a career move.”

Last night after finishing Iris Chang’s important The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, I read Sarah Vowell’s Radio On: A Listener’s Diary. As the subtitle implies, Vowell annotated her radio listening — for a year (1995). It’s dated, and not equal to her more recent work, but it has its moments. Today I am into Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne. I read the free Kindle sample of this book in January and have been eager to read the whole book but wanted a dead tree edition. UPS delivered it last Friday, the day after I ordered it, but to the vacant house across the street. The painter working at the house over the weekend took it inside — go figure — but fortunately the owner dropped by yesterday and had sense enough to walk it across the street.

Best line of the day

“Termites don’t team with Orkin.”

Michael Norris, analyst for Simba Information, in news story about Borders’ bankruptcy. He is referring to Borders decision to contract it’s electronic sales to Amazon in 2001.

Borders is named for Tom and Louis Borders, brothers who started selling used books in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1971. Kmart bought the company in 1992, united it with Waldenbooks, then spun it off as a separate company in 1995.

The Wall Street Journal Online has a sortable list of the stores being closed (including one in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe).

Man, one of my favorite pastimes used to be to browse Borders or Tower Records.

The Rape of Nanking

After finishing Cleopatra, and as UPS delivered the book I ordered last week to the wrong address — or so it seems, because it sure isn’t here — I decided to read a book I’d heard much about over the past dozen years and that a friend had just given me. It’s The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II by Iris Chang, published in 1997. The book is in two parts: the massacre and the coverup. I’ve finished the first.

The Japanese assault on the capital of China late in 1937 is one of history’s most deplorable bloodbaths. In just a few weeks 300,000 or more Chinese non-combatants were killed by Japanese soldiers. Tens of thousands of women, from young girls to the elderly, were raped and mutilated and killed. The atrocities were so extreme that a German national Nazi party leader in Nanking wrote to Hitler to ask the Führer to get the Japanese government to end the massacre.

It’s an important book, horrific but not horrifying, and worthy of your time.

Iris Chang committed suicide in 2004. She was 36.