Genders

Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, and mother of three sons, reports:

“It’s funny having a girl here for a playdate with Aidan. All the Super Hero figures are dating, breaking up, and getting married. It’s all very dramatic.”

More on Tipgate

In a follow-up to the follow-up, the Associated Press revealed that the restaurant owner had been left a tip which through some mistake had not been shared out, and it was not a bad one: $100 on a total bill of $157! So no story. And yet … the NPR piece had also followed-up a terribly sad case of a woman whose brother is suffering from cancer and who had turned up at a Barack Obama rally looking for solace. The candidate had addressed her, and held her hand. He kind of promised to write the brother a note as well (“if I have time”) but, you guessed it, the note never came. And yet this woman refused to be even slightly cross. “I do the same thing with friends of mine,” she said.

Now here is the point: the Clinton story has the candidate looking bad even though she actually behaved just fine; the Obama story ends with the candidate genuinely forgiven and honoured though, frankly, he fell down on the job. Does this tell us something bigger and more important about charm and politics? Such as, you either have it or you don’t and money (or even a good tip badly administered) cannot buy it?

Justin Webb

Or just possibly, it tells us something bigger and more important about the news media — at least if you accept The Daily Howler view. The “conventional Washington wisdom” is that Hillary could win the presidency, so the MSM needs to emphasize her negatives. And Obama can’t win the presidency, so the MSM needs to build him up so he’ll take the nomination from Clinton and lose to the Republican a year from now.

Just sayin’. If you don’t believe me, ask Al Gore.

Update: NewMexiKen wrote the above before seeing today’s Daily Howler:

Sadly, the facts are clear: Your ‘press corps’ is full of trivial people, and trivial people love trivia. They don’t give a sh*t about how health care works. Readers, they already have it! Instead, they like to tell stories about people’s character. There’s an older word for this trait. They’re gossips.

November 9th

Cardinals hall-of-fame pitcher Bob Gibson is 72.

Over 17 seasons with the Cardinals, Bob Gibson won 20 games five times and established himself as the very definition of intimidation, competitiveness, and dignity. One of the best athletes to ever play the game, the ex-Harlem Globetrotter posted a 1.12 ERA in 1968, the lowest figure since 1914, and was named the National League Cy Young Award winner and Most Valuable Player. Known as a premier big-game pitcher, Gibson posted World Series records of seven consecutive wins and 17 strikeouts in a game, and was named World Series MVP in 1964 and 1967.

National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Mary Travers, Mary of Peter, Paul & Mary, is 71.

The Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, is 56.

Gail Borden, the inventor of condensed milk, was born on this date in 1801. His timing was perfect. He patented the milk just before the civil war when it’s use as part of the field ration made it a success. Borden was also instrumental in requiring dairy farmers to maintain clean facilities if they wanted to sell their milk to his company — Eagle Brand.

The first of seven African-Americans to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, Dorothy Dandridge was born on this date in 1922. She was nominated for Carmen Jones in 1955.

And 69 years ago the Holocaust began:

Today is the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when Hitler ordered a series of supposedly spontaneous attacks on Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues. The idea was to make the attacks look random, and then accuse the Jews of inciting the violence. In all, more than 1,000 synagogues were burned or destroyed. Rioters looted about 7,500 Jewish businesses and vandalized Jewish hospitals, homes, schools, and cemeteries. The event was used to justify barring Jews from schools and most public places, and forcing them to adhere to new curfews. In the days following, thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps. The event was called Kristallnacht, which means, “Night of Broken Glass.” It’s generally considered the official beginning of the Holocaust. Before that night, the Nazis had killed people secretly and individually. After Kristallnacht, the Nazis felt free to persecute the Jews openly, because they knew no one would stop them.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Yum!

Order early to be sure and get your 2007 Jones Soda Holiday Packs —

Christmas Pack Flavors: Christmas Ham Soda, Christmas Tree Soda, Egg Nog Soda and Sugar Plum Soda

Chanukah Pack Flavors: Latke Soda, Apple Sauce Soda, Chocolate Coins Soda and Jelly Doughnut Soda

And don’t forget the traditional Holiday Pack with: Turkey and Gravy soda, Sweet Potato Soda, Dinner Roll Soda, Pea Soda, Antacid Flavored Soda

Factoid: Niagara Falls

Today only half the water of the Niagara River passes over Niagara Falls. And at night it’s just one-quarter. The water is diverted to produce hydro-electric power.

So, when we go to Niagara Falls we see only half what our ancestors could have seen. Bummer.

Rare Event: Easy-to-See Comet Holmes

You can find Comet Holmes by using the “W” of Cassiopeia as your guide [map].  The five stars in a conspicuous zigzag pattern are high in the northeast sky during the mid-evening hours.

Draw an imaginary line from the star Gamma Cass down to Delta Cass (known also as Ruchbah).  Extend the line downward about five times the distance between these two stars and you’ll come very close to where Comet Holmes is. The comet itself forms a triangle with Alpha Persei (known also as “Mirfak”) and Delta Persei. 

If you have binoculars, you’ll know the comet immediately when you see it: a small, albeit distinct, circular lemon-yellow cloud of light. A small telescope will help bring out the fuzzy details.

The moon, which was full on Oct. 26 and whose brilliant light hindered comet viewing to a degree, is now diminishing in phase and rising later in the night, allowing viewers an increasing window of dark sky before the moon interferes. 

SPACE.com

How the news gets it wrong

“‘I mean, nobody got left a tip that day.’ Clinton may have decided not to tip. She was also never given a bill — her meal was on the house.” — NPR

“They paid their bill, and they left a tip. Everybody was satisfied. No question about it.” — Brad Crawford, manager of the Maid Rite restaurant in Toledo, Iowa.

“The bill was about $157 and the tip was $100.” — Clinton Campaign

NPR has posted a correction — I believe the expression is they have closed the barn door after . . .

Guy talk

Guy #1: I haven’t seen you in a while. What have you been up to?

Guy #2: Well, I’m in the process of switching web hosts, and it’s going to be saving me a few bucks a month. I just need to decide what Linux distribution to use. What about you?

Guy #1: I got married and we had a baby.

Guy #2: That’s cool.

–Office, Midtown

Overheard in New York

Readers Answer Some of Pogue’s Imponderables

You may remember a few weeks back when NewMexiKen posted a link to David Pogue’s Imponderables. Well, he’s posted some of the responses: Readers Answer Some of Pogue’s Imponderables. The replies include my own about laptops at takeoff, but others are more fun, especially this:

* Who are the morons who respond to junk-mail offers, thereby keeping spammers in business?

–”That would be my sister.”

–”My mother, O.K.? Now you know.”

–”Statistically speaking, half of ALL people are below-average intelligence. That fact can explain MANY things.”

–”Naive people, like recent immigrants; old people whose adult children just set them up with a computer for the first time; and the truly desperate who’ve already tried other methods of penis enlargement.”

Best line of the day, so far

All the PCs that had melted or seized up or got infected are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed by their owners when the goddam things didn’t work like they were supposed to—or didn’t auto-save a critical file before they went kablooey—are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of the day we pulled them out of their styrofoam-packed boxes and said, “We really shoulda gotten a Mac this time.”

Cheers and Jeers: Thursday writing about PC heaven.

It’s those damn facts getting in the way again

[Kentucky] Gov. Ernie Fletcher on Monday ordered an exhibit that includes the Ten Commandments, the Magna Carta and the “Star Spangled Banner” be put on display in the Kentucky Capitol Rotunda, surrounding a mammoth statue of Abraham Lincoln.

Fletcher, who lost a bid for re-election the next day, signed an executive order proclaiming the documents have played important roles in developing the current legal system and should remain on display until another governor or legal ruling forces them down.

. . .

One plaque, about the national anthem, reads: “Both the new song and the flag became known as ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ and became a rallying cry for the American patriots during the Revolutionary War.”

But Francis Scott Key didn’t write “The Star-Spangled Banner” until 1814 after a battle at Maryland’s Fort McHenry, and the American Revolution ended in 1781.

Lexington Herald-Leader

And don’t even get me started on the “nine-ten-or-eleven commandments.”

Eisner blames Jobs, and Radiohead cleans up

In an interview former Disney CEO Michael Eisner blamed Apple’s Steve Jobs (and iTunes) for writers’ low pay on digital distribution.

Strange then, that this same day, we also get a story about how Radiohead is doing with their online distribution deal. You’ll remember that they passed on iTunes to distribute their music themselves, and now we’re hearing that, after all is said and done, Radiohead earned an average of $2.26 per album by asking listeners to download the album for free and pay them whatever they thought it was worth. “$2.26 per album?” you say. “They got screwed! iTunes charges $10!”

Ah yes, but apparently Radiohead would have made about $1 per album if they’d gone through traditional channels. So actually, the creators doubled their income per sale. Eisner’s crazy– Jobs isn’t to blame for this strike, it’s content distributors who don’t pay content creators enough for digital distribution. But given that Radiohead is cashing in (and gaining public goodwill to boot), maybe the Writers Guild have a lesson to learn here as well.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

Update: See The WGA strike — what it’s about.

Fun with Flowcharts

According to Wikipedia, a flowchart is a “schematic representation of an algorithm or a process. They are commonly used in business/economic presentations to help the audience visualize the content better, or to find flaws in the process.” I don’t remember where I saw it, but I have reconstructed the first flowchart that I really understood.

435hammer.jpg

There’s a whole bunch more Fun with Flowcharts. I particularly like the RIAA chart.