Different Communication Skill Sets

Well, turned out to be a week filled with a lot of , not quite “non-verbal” communication skills, more like non-two-way English conversations.

13 month old grandson was much in our care.
Daughter (his mom) laid up with Vertigo and with much help from our other daughter (many many thanks in order to her) we got a course in “instant grand-parenting.”
Relearning some old skills, feeding, diapers, keeping watchfull eye on wanderings, and “play.”

At this age, there are a few blunt “universal” words, such as “NO.” that seem to be understood.

For the rest, there is much “making noises.”
Both grandparents and grandson.
Most good, some not as good.
Failures by grandparents to understand cues and “established phrases” caused some concerns on both ends of the “conversation.”

Beyond NO, we had “doggie, gentle, ball, lake, water” and a few other words that might have been recognized. Grandparents learned a few intonations and something like googlie-googlie-googlie as happy phrase for fruit (esp. blueberries).
Non verbal ranged from pouts (no more of THAT food) to broad and engaging smiles and giggles.

Grandpa (me) got to revisit many “mouth sounds” from cheek popping to tones from blowing over the mouth of a bottle, to finger-lip-flapping while vocalizing.
Robby picked up on most, other than the bottle blowing (which seemed to catch his ear).

It was fun to watch him explore some of his new toys, experimenting with combinations of objects to be cycled through an airstream contraption, or just playing with plastic utensils and containers … organizing and dis-organizing collections.

He certainly seems to enjoy the lake, and I expect that, in a few years, he’ll “live” on the dock and/or raft when he visits in later years.

Some of us think he is destined to be a chef, what with his near-constant interest in heading for the kitchen then attempting to explore (constant supervision). With fork in hand much of the time, some thought he may just become a food critic…

It's also fun to watch some of his problem solving skills - dry cereal to take out of container, and put back - learning about gravity etc.



BTW, this is Robby enjoying breakfast in his "Antique" Hi-Chair

Breakfast of Champions

From WSJounal:

Tour de France champion Landis said he has naturally high testosterone levels and denied using illegal substances during the race. He did say he drank two beers and at least four shots of whiskey before its strenuous mountain stage.

Dialed Back

Not much this week
Grandson here

Rookie grandparents re-learning babysitting

Think like one year old...
Or enough to interact at that level ...

Near total FAWRK

Well
Many days of file reconstruction ahead

Quicken
Most company files seem OK
But Household Files seem to be farqued ... corrupted
For some reason, Q doesn't seem to have a backup on my machine
All other files backed up
Sooooo
Last solid files April '04
Massive updates

Arrgh

Oh that Smarts ...

(note that this may destroy my goal of improving my spelling)

----
Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,

it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on!!

Moto .... GP

Coming to Laguna Seca (Monterey Peninsula, Calif)
200+ HP
200+ MPH top speed (on longer tracks)
Tight racing



Photo borrowed from Superbikeplanet.com

MotoGP Preview: USGP At Laguna Seca, July 23rd

More Head Swelling

Tom's webmaster picks up earlier post.
Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog: Tom around the web

I'd done simple compare/contrast Tom and John Robb.

Both worth reading

Add in Austin Bay Blog
Discoverd Austin a few months ago.

Israel, Lebanon, Iraq

A few links to stories.
The sands are shifting.

Israel: "The War With Iran"
(strategypage.com)

"July 16, 2006: Iran aside, there hasn't been a really noisy response from the Moslem world about Israel's military operations against Lebanon. Notably subdued is the response from the Arab countries; it's mostly been mumbling about the plight of the Palestinians and such. Could this mean that the principal Arab leaders are not all that unhappy to see Hizbollah get it in the neck? After all, most of the Arabs are Sunni, while Hizbollah and Iran are Shia. The exception that proves the rule is Syria, which has a Shia leadership. But most Arabs fear Iran, not because most Iranians are Shia, but because Iranians are not Arabs. Iran has been the regional superpower for over three thousand years. Iran is building nuclear weapons. Iran is backing Shia Arab factions in Iraq that would support turning Iraq into an Iranian ally. Also scary is the fact that Iran is currently run by a religious dictatorship. Most Arabs have noted how that worked in Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan and want no part of it. Worse, the Iranian religious leadership believes that they would do a better job running the Hejaz (the region of Saudi Arabia containing Mecca and Medina and the most holy places in Islam). For centuries, the Turks kept the Iranians out of the Hejaz."

Blame by Some Arab Leaders for Fighters - New York Times:
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
Published: July 17, 2006

"BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 16 — With the battle between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah raging, key Arab governments have taken the rare step of blaming Hezbollah, underscoring in part their growing fear of influence by the group’s main sponsor, Iran.

Saudi Arabia, with Jordan, Egypt and several Persian Gulf states, chastised Hezbollah for “unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts” at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Cairo on Saturday."

In an About-Face, Sunnis Want U.S. to Remain in Iraq - New York Times

"BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 16 — As sectarian violence soars, many Sunni Arab political and religious leaders once staunchly opposed to the American presence here are now saying they need American troops to protect them from the rampages of Shiite militias and Shiite-run government forces."

Note that Al Zarqawi was in all likelyhood "turned in" by Sunni's

Stratfor: "Saudi Arabia: Al-Hariri Travels to Riyadh for Talks
July 16, 2006 19 47 GMT"

"Saudi Arabia is engaged in significant diplomatic moves regarding the escalating crisis in Lebanon. These maneuvers involve discussions with Iran and dealings with other Arab players such as Egypt, Jordan and Syria, but also entail working with Riyadh's allies in Lebanon -- the Sunni community led by the al-Hariri clan, with whom the Saudis have not only political but business and familial ties. Saad al-Hariri, current leader of Lebanon's Sunni community, is headed to Riyadh on July 16 for talks on the building conflict between Israel and the militant Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah's actions, which have led to the verge of a major war with Israel, threaten the interests of the al-Hariris. Saudi Arabia, as a principal behind the al-Hariri clan, is concerned about Iran's advances deeper into the region.

Meanwhile, Egypt -- despite its own competition with Saudi Arabia -- is on the same page as the kingdom as far as the threat from Iran and the Lebanese situation is concerned. In this regard, Cairo, which has been engaged in heavy diplomacy, has assumed the task of trying to deal with Syria in a bid to counter Iranian moves to pull Damascus in its direction. The Egyptian approach has been a mix of warnings and inducements. The latter came in the form of Egyptian Ambassador to Damascus Hazem Khairat thanking Syrian authorities for facilitating the exit of Egyptian citizens trying to flee Lebanon."

MMF opening concert

Free

Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore
Dune Climb Concert

The Greencards - High Energy Acoustic Music

Very nice.

They toured with Dylan and Willie Nelson last year.
Great Launch for the Manitou Music Festival

Quality ...?

Piece in WSJournal on "Shopping Mall Masters"

Christian Riese Lassen's "Beyond Hana's Gate" sold for $225,000. The painting is one of a romantic series set on a Maui beach.

"To the art world's chagrin, painters once known for $10 posters are selling original works for up to $300,000. Our reporter on Day-Glo sunsets, cruise-ship auctions and photorealistic unicorns.
By KELLY CROW
July 14, 2006; Page W1

Howard Behrens isn't the sort of artist to have his works sold by a top auction house or exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. But that hasn't stopped him from getting paid like one.

When Mr. Behrens got his start in the early 1980s, his brightly colored Italian cafés and sun-dappled French gardens were big sellers as $20 posters or $1,000 limited-edition prints at shops such as the Village Gallery at Brea Mall in Brea, Calif. But thanks to growing demand at midtier galleries and on cruise ships, Mr. Behrens is increasingly focusing on original oil paintings. A couple of canvases showing a garden path and a lily-pad pond -- his tributes to Monet -- just went for $50,000 each, roughly the same price paid three months ago at Christie's for an intricate ink drawing of a cat's eyes by Lucian Freud. "I hit the jackpot," Mr. Behrens says.

Howard Behrens painted "Giverny Lily Pond," one piece of a Monet tribute series, in 2001. Ocean Galleries, in Stone Harbor, N.J., sold the painting for $50,000.

FRAME SHOP TO FINE ART

There's a new group of contemporary artists fetching six figures a pop. Though hardly embraced by the art-world cognoscenti, artists who are known for neon sunsets, frolicking dolphins and photorealistic unicorns are increasingly selling at prices to rival critical art darlings like Rachel Whiteread, Richard Diebenkorn and Franz Kline. Their posters may still adorn the walls of dentists' offices, nursing homes and chain-hotel rooms, but their original canvases can sell for anywhere from $10,000 to $300,000, roughly double from five years ago. Often bypassing art hubs like New York and London, the artists reign over their own product-licensing empires and gallery circuits, making marquee stops in Las Vegas and coastal cities like Coconut Grove, Fla. Most have waiting lists and fan clubs; a few sport taglines like the "Painter of Light," "Picasso of Glass" and "King of the Line."

The piece goes on , but you get the idea.
Led me to think of Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

"In this book, Pirsig explores the meaning of the concept "quality" (a term which he capitalizes). In the sequel (Lila: An Inquiry into Morals), Pirsig expands his exploration of Quality into a complete metaphysics which he calls The Metaphysics of Quality. The Metaphysics of Quality is a philosophy, a theory about reality; it asks questions such as what is real, what is good and what is moral."

Suddenly my hat won't fit

Paul (Boutin) picked up my comments on design ...

Considering that Ray Kurzweil signaled Paul out as a "big thinker"
KurzweilAI.net

Wow

My Photographer

Shirley shootin the driver



Just a different view ...

Moon setting

Sorta hard to spot, just about dead center over the transom.
Hard to work good image of the moon into shot without long lens.
But then we'd miss the boat



About 10:15AM
Not too many other boaters out yet.
We've had a lingering high pressure area
Clear skys, flat waters.
Good combination.

But we need some rain...

Crowdsourcing

Paul posted up about the idea of crowdsourcing ... but I doubt that it works for all products.

Also here in BizWeek Crowdsourcing: Consumers as Creators

Other thoughts:

The quote or comment that comes to mind is "Maximum" Bob Lutz of GM.
Something to the effect that customers have to be shown great cars, cars designed by "car guys"(and girls). Nowdays, with references to prior styling cues and idioms.

This might be pretty close:
Bob Lutz speach at Pratt...
GM FastLane Blog: Lutz Speech on Design:
"You have to come up with the “big idea.” In other words, the big idea has to come from Steven Spielberg, not from the tabulated replies of thousands of moviegoers pouring out of theaters."

Ford gets it (Bob use to be there)
Mustang, GT40
Chrysler seems to have a handle on it, PTCruiser, 300C, Magnum ( later two pre-chopped)

Motorcycles: Ducati's "classic" Paul Smart, and Sport (disclosure, I have a garage full of '70's bikes, most are Ducati's (aka Ducks)
Ducati.com

On to housing
Ask any realtor, and many folks want to buy a house furnished.
They are afraid to decorate (or don't have time/inclination)

Bottom line, it will be interesting if any Crowdsourced design ever makes it into BizWeeks issue of best designs much less on display at the MoMA...

Interesting Posting

Actually an "Error" message
Beats the old 404 Error :

Update
Confirmed outage - Wonk will be offline until at least July 17th.

Thursday July 6, 3pm PST
The Wonk load has been crashing our shared server.
We've been given the boot.
We're going to try to push through a speedy migration, but the truth is we may be facing an extended outage.

The Long Tail comes to Politics

Chris Anderson's The Long Tail

Does the same sort of thinking apply to politics?

George F. Will: Is America Becoming a One-Party Country? - Newsweek :
An Analysis of Roveology
There are not just two Americas—the Red and Blue states.
There are countless constituencies to be courted with niche marketing.

"...from what Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times call history's "most sophisticated presidential campaign," are recounted in their new book, "One Party Country," which argues that Democrats face "tremendous odds" in their quest to avoid "marginalization." Their book represents a burgeoning literary genre—studies of Roveology, which is the art of using what Republicans embrace, marketing information and what they theoretically are wary of, federal power, to elect more Republicans.

Bush's campaign had a database called Voter Vault for microtargeting ostensibly nonpolitical constituencies. Did you know that bourbon drinkers are disproportionately Republican and gin drinkers disproportionately Democratic? Karl Rove knows."

The Beat Goes On

Just such a good line...

Back on the water

To the music of Willi Nelson: "On the Road Again"
Older shot, just haven't had time to do a fresh one.



Still a few "bugs" (always are)
Charging system

Either the weather is perfect or the charge on the battery is
Not both at the same time ... yet.

Maybe some experiments this summer
Found that my handheld GPS is great for checking speed.
Might try different wheels (props) again.

Then again, may just go for show ...

Still damn good for an "older gal" ... 59 this month.

Restoration sequence here: Chip's Ahoy Restoration - a photoset on Flickr

Happy Camper

Got my 12inch Powerbook back
Seems to remember me (all files, settings, bookmarks)

Whew
Now to clean files, transfer updates from the last week of work on backup.

Heavy Hitter at the Plate

Paulson, Taking Treasury Post, Emphasizes Global Issues

"Mr. Bush, who wooed Mr. Paulson from his post as chairman of Goldman Sachs, said on Monday that the former executive would have a central role in setting the agenda and implied that the Treasury Department would regain some of the power it lost to White House advisers during Mr. Bush’s first term.

“Hank Paulson will be my leading policy adviser on a broad range of domestic and international economic issues, and he will be my principal spokesman for my administration’s economic policies,” Mr. Bush said before Mr. Paulson was sworn in."

Likely will be dealing with issues of budget, trade, China (reportedly has made 70 trips there), and managing slowdown in the economy due to interest rate hikes.
Well know manager of risk.

Good.

Work

Trolling through BWeek and here are a couple of interesting pieces

On the "deconstruction" of the workplace, with mobile "neo-bedouin" workers (using technology to untether) working from anywhere/anywhen rather than a formal office.
Square Feet. Oh, How Square!

On morphing of "massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)" into realworld related activities.
Interview with Kevin Werbach
At the Tech-Business Interface
Note that Kevin's "Supernova 2006" was on LindenLab's 2nd Life as well as "meat space"

Put the two together - working in "virtual worlds"
"What we're seeing in these virtual labs are emerging collaborative structures built into the games, new ways to interact and collaborate. Today that's a bunch of twentysomethings trying to kill a dragon. Tomorrow that's going to be a project team at a pharmaceutical company or a social organization of people interacting in different ways."

But But But ...

Despite improving numbers the Times sees failure

Surprising Jump in Tax Revenues Is Curbing Deficit - New York Times: "
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: July 9, 2006

"WASHINGTON, July 8 — An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the projected budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief."

later

"On Friday, the Congressional Budget Office reported that corporate tax receipts for the nine months ending in June hit $250 billion — nearly 26 percent higher than the same time last year — and that overall revenues were $206 billion higher than at this point in 2005.

Congressional analysts say the surprise windfall could shrink the deficit this year to $300 billion, from $318 billion in 2005 and an all-time high of $412 billion in 2004."

but

"Democrats and many independent budget analysts note that overall revenues have barely climbed back to the levels reached in 2000, and that the government has borrowed trillions of dollars against Social Security surpluses just as the first of the nation's baby boomers are nearing retirement.

"The fact is that revenues are way below what the administration said they would be a few years ago," said Thomas S. Kahn, staff director for Democrats on the House Budget Committee. "The long-term prognosis is still very, very bleak, and the administration doesn't have any kind of long-term plan."

One reason the run-up in taxes looks good is because the past five years looked so bad. Revenues are up, but they have lagged well behind economic growth.

Follow on Robuchon

Following our visits to L'Atellier Joel Robuchon in Paris a year ago
Looney Dunes: L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon reviews and comments

From WSJournal, posted in full as it will disappear eventually.
Review of Savoy and Robuchon in Vegas:

The Best Food in America -- Plus Slots

Las Vegas sets a new culinary standard

By RAYMOND SOKOLOV
July 8, 2006; Page P1

"We found Restaurant Guy Savoy Las Vegas a reasonable facsimile of Restaurant Guy Savoy Paris. The same designer, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, has deployed a modern sensibility with plenty of glass and the same signature chocolate and cherry stripes in his graphics. The current menu at Guy Savoy LV contains several signature dishes from the mother shrine, including oysters in ice gelée and the artichoke and black truffle soup.

There is nothing stale about serving whole raw oysters with a cold, opaque white jelly of puréed oyster. The jelly offers the same taste with a completely different texture and an even more intense oysterity. The artichoke soup tries for the same intensity, but the overwhelmingly aromatic assertiveness of the black truffles, in the soup and the toasted mushroom brioche that comes with it, outshines the still-wonderfully-earthy artichoke purée.

Truffles showed up again, in an ancillary role, in both our main courses, poached and roasted squab and rissoles, or croquettes, of veal sweetbread. The waiter said Mr. Savoy bought 60 pounds of black truffles last season and froze them. We don't doubt that.

Nor did we have any complaints about this elegant meal, even after charging the $662.39 bill plus tip to our room. Perhaps the wine list is excessively canted toward very expensive French bottles, but if you've just hit it big at keno, why not splurge on a four-figure Burgundy? Even a non-gaming American gastronome should be very happy to have this very fine Parisian transplant only a domestic flight away.

But we had to agree with the self-described "highly compensated" health-care consultants at the next table that Joël Robuchon at the Mansion is on a dazzlingly higher level than Guy Savoy LV -- or any other restaurant in the U.S. that we know.

Mr. Robuchon reached apogee at a three-star temple in Paris called Jamin. Even his mashed potatoes were world-renowned. Then he closed Jamin in 1996, shunning the gaudy world as perversely as Greta Garbo. The opening of his less formal Paris Atelier three years ago was an event in itself, something like the return of Ted Williams from the Air Force. So his return to high cuisine here at the age of 60 is a stunning rebirth. This place is heaven.

When I tell you I will never forget the unctuous, velvety lettuce soup served over a spring-onion custard with nutmeg, you will think I have gone gaga. Or what about the sea urchin enrobed in mashed potato with a touch of coffee?

Did I mention that each dish was a visual poem? Deep-red tuna, lightly cooked and smoked alongside a couscous whose grains were actually concocted from cauliflower dotted with specks of nori, the black Japanese seaweed familiar from sushi bars?

There are other Asian influences completely assimilated into their Robuchonized dishes. If you have been paying attention to the food of the molecular gastronomy school, those wild acolytes of the Spaniard Ferrán Adriá, you will see that this newest wrinkle hasn't escaped Mr. Robuchon -- or overwhelmed him. Here and there a foam adds a flavor and a playful caprice. One dessert came garlanded with pink cotton candy.

Not a one of the 16 dishes on this menu was a chaos of show-off ingredients. As the chef-in-residence, the Jamin veteran Claude Le Tohic, put it during his regular swing through the dining room, "Mr. Robuchon told us, 'Never more than three flavors in a dish.' "

You could say that about a hot dog on a bun with mustard, but in the hands of the right chef, you hit the jackpot."

Pirates ...

Fundraiser for Inland Seas Education Association & the Great Lakes Schoolship

Following covers it pretty well ..

'Pirates of the Caribbean': Eat My Jetsam, Davy Jones

By A. O. SCOTT

Although there are memorable bits and pieces, the new "Pirates of the Caribbean" is a movie with no particular interest in coherence, economy or feeling.

I'd layer on comments about continuity ...
Lack thereof

Often from shot to shot within the same scene, makeup would change.
Not to mention from scene to scene.

Plot?
What plot?

But will it make $$$
You betcha

Out on the edge of reality we find ...

The conspiracy theories surrounding Ken Lay's death. - Jul. 6, 2006

The death was faked
He was murdered by CIA to protect Bush
Commited suicide ...

Hey, maybe he was just clueless and drank his own Kool-Aid.

More "Metaverse" wierdness

Came across the following in Fortune (catching up with some reading)
See prior posts on WofW, 2nd Life etc.

Plugged in: Dinner with the Masters of the Metaverse - May. 26, 2006:
Shocking stats on dying mass media!
Blas�blather about today's Web wonders!
Here's how plugged-in netsters talk today.
FORTUNE Magazine
By David Kirkpatrick, FORTUNE senior editor
May 26, 2006: 3:33 PM EDT

Excerpt:

All comments guaranteed verbatim. (Btw, the Metaverse is the alternate world of online multiplayer games like Second Life and World of Warcraft. In both those games you can buy and sell virtual property -- for more about the Metaverse marketplace, click here.)

C: "Get into Second Life now if you aren't already. In two months my real estate has doubled in value." (When pressed, he admitted the increase was only from $40 to $80. But he was really excited. )

A: "I know a guy whose 12-year-old son told him 'I will build you a house in Second Life if you will buy me the coins I want in World of Warcraft.'"

A: "Exploring the metaverse is the big deal right now. A guy has been researching gaming for me and looking at Warcraft. He didn't sleep for two nights. He says it's as if I asked him to study heroin or crack."

A (to C): "Will you put your conference on Second Life in 3 years?"

In the meantime, I'll pay more attention to "real world" things like local issues of development, conservancy, water quality, our food company...
Things with real world constraints.

Net-Neutrality Cont

Big piece of the rational for attacks on Net Neutrality:
Online Calling Heralds an Era of Lower Costs - New York Times

Backgrounder on VoIP and the pending free voice service
The old Telco model is broken like Humpty Dumpty and can never be fixed.

Therefore, the Telco's need to establish new protected markets.

Turkie

Ten years ago last May/June, Shirley and Nicole joined me on a cruise aboard a private Gulet from Bodrum down the Turkish Coast.
This piece brings back fond memories.

We were with Orhan (his boat) crew and our friends Willi&Lauri, along with Lauri's niece and a couple of business associates from Germany.

We flew to Istanbul, then on to Izmir, then by van to Bodrum, met up with Orhan and set sail along the Agean Coast.

Yoray Liberman for The New York Times

There are numerous coves to explore along the coast, especially in a smaller boat.

Full NYTimes story here :In Turkey, Sailing Into the Exotic on a Blue Cruise

Toll booth model cont cont

Got some material pasted up over on private blog

This one belongs here
More on the problems with Cablecos/Telcos and Net Neutrality

Older : Vint Cerf on the issue speaking before Congressional Committee last Nov:
Official Google Blog: Vint Cerf speaks out on net neutrality

And Bob Frankston recapped by "Cringely":
PBS | I, Cringely . June 29, 2006 - If we build it they will come

Both are pretty strong comdemations of the idea of "fast toll lanes"

Whew ...

Gonna pass on the parade ...

Shirley a but under the weather - nasty cold.
Catching my breath

"Trusty" 12in Powerbook in for major work (motherboard), but hopefully have saved most of the files. Downside is that long list of bookmarks gone from Firefox (major bummer) as well as passwords, etc.
This will be a slow rebuild I'm guessing
Envoy in shop for new set of legs (brakes, shocks)
Glen Arbor Arts fundraiser Wed. night.
Then off to Leelanau EDC for my first meeting - might develop into something interesting
Break Fri. for picking up Envoy, checking on laptop, watch Blue Angels practice. Art show opening Fri. Evening
Sat was airshow.
Sun for Cove Picnic.

Layer on housekeeping/cleaning etc.
Some experiments with stikipad (wiki tool)

Not much blogging...

Adaptiing to Change

Racine Wis.
"On Lake Michigan, a Global Village"

Clouds and Moon

Got da Blues

Not Eric Clapton, not John Mayall
Not Muddy or BB King
Not Mr. Johnson...

Good show with Da Blue Angels
This is just a sample shot
Digital camera lag doesn't do the show justice




Maybe some manipulated shots later ...

Like this :
Call it "up in the air junior birdmen ... up in the air upside down"
Number's 1 & 4 coming overhead inverted
note: only some cropping and a bit of exposure enhancement since it was overcast day



Visually this was what it looked like with the overhead passes.
Brain processes images as very narrow or focused when things are happening rapidly

Toll booth model cont ...

More on politicans using utilities to collect taxes (aka toll booth model)
Note that we've slashed the number of phone lines and services we use in our household, and cut our costs drastically.

John Stossel:

The cost of a phone call has actually been coming down. Through the miracle of new technology and heated competition, a three-minute cross-country call that once cost two bucks now costs 20 cents. But what's all that other stuff on your bill — surcharges, regulatory fees, state gross receipts tax? A lot of people are upset about these extra charges.

But Steve Largent, president of CTIA — The Wireless Association, says it's not the cell phone companies' fault.

Most of the charges are fees that government, not the phone company, adds to your bill.

It's a way to raise taxes without people seeing it because phone bills are so long and contain so many extra charges. Also, putting more taxes on your phone bill is not as politically painful as, say, raising income or property taxes. In Baltimore, where phone users were already paying heavy state and federal taxes, the city decided it wanted some of the action.

"They were charging every resident who used wireless services in the city of Baltimore $3.50. They said, 'Hey, this is a good thing. Let's double it,' " Largent said.

With the new "Baltimore City Surcharge" of $3.50, the average cell phone user there must now pay about $7 extra in taxes per phone line. Taxes on cell phone service nationwide now average 14.5 percent — more than double an average sales tax.

It would be nice if the wireless providers who advertise a plan for $39.99 a month said you'll really have to pay closer to $50. But the companies are just passing on taxes and surcharges that government mandates. So instead of screaming at the guy behind the counter, maybe you should scream at city hall.

Stossel slams idiots

June 25, 2006 — John Stossel, the co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20," has been crusading for consumers for over 30 years. His trademark "Give me a break" series took him to the top of the New York Times bestseller list two years ago, and now he's at it again. Uncovering "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity," Stossel is out to prove why "everything you know is wrong."

John Stossel: It's a book title. It's an exaggeration. It's not everything, but so much of what I thought was true turned out to be wrong.

I believed it when I heard that we weren't spending enough money, and that's why schools were struggling. I was shocked to find out we're spending $10,000 per student. Do the math. That's $250,000 per classroom. Think what you could do with that money. You could hire three great teachers.

We spent half a trillion dollars on Africa. Africa is poorer than before we spent that money. … I wish Bono, instead of saying, "Ask President Bush to spend more of your money," would say, "Let's spend more of our money on a private charity," because private charities keep their eye on where the money goes.

We need lawyers. We need lawyers like we need nuclear missiles. They keep us safe. But nuclear missiles kill innocent people. Lawyers wreck the lives of innocent people. We should avoid using them the way we avoid using our missiles. But we don't, because in America we have a unique legal system that invites destructive lawsuits.

The media are by and large economically and scientifically clueless. … Imbeciles in our business are saying gas prices are at record highs. Well, it's only a record if you don't adjust for inflation. And then you might as well say the movie "Rush Hour 3" is one of the highest grossing movies of all time. It's absurd not to adjust for inflation, and when you do gas prices today are lower than they were in 1980 and 1920.

You should listen to the media skeptically … Correct me if you find anything I've said that is a myth or a lie or downright stupid, myself … and I'll apologize.

More here: ABC News: John Stossel's "Myths, Lies and Nasty Behavior"

Calif To TC

Found following while trying to check local radio for the commentary when the Blue Angels perform.

Small world
We spent a little time on Monterey last March

This post was from Sept '04
Blues flying again this weekend (they do it every other year).

---
California radio host does show from Traverse City

By TOM CARR
Record-Eagle staff writer

TRAVERSE CITY - Good morning Monterey! By way of Old Mission Peninsula, that is.
Since June, Ed Dickinson has been broadcasting his big-band jazz radio show on the AM station KIDD Magic 63 in Monterey, Calif. from his summer home overlooking treetops and East Bay.
"It's perfect looking out and seeing that instead of talking to a blank wall," he said. "When I'm in the studio, sometimes that bothers me."
Dickinson, 78, has been a fixture of Monterey radio for more than 52 years and hosts "Way Back Now" on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Last summer when he and wife Anne came to spend the summer in Traverse City, he flew back and forth to keep the show going.
"This year they put in the ISDN (integrated services digital network) line and that's when we bought this house in the Bluffs," said Anne.
The house she refers to sits high on a hill on the Old Mission Peninsula. The home is mostly underground with a tower sticking up about 40 feet that provides a view of the treetops and water.
Both Ed and Anne, Dickinson's second wife, lived parts of their childhoods in Michigan. They met through a mutual friend in Monterey when Anne, the former Anne Braden, moved back there after she spent most of the 1980s in Traverse City.
They have been married now for about 10 years. They bought their home here after Anne's daughter, who has adopted five children, moved back to the area.
Dickinson's listeners know he's broadcasting from Michigan, and he begins the show with a recording of someone climbing 35 steps. That's the actual number he takes to get up into the tower.
Dickinson acts as if he's out of breath, then chats with his engineer back in California over that digital line. He spins big band favorites from Glenn Miller to Artie Shaw to Suttons Bay resident Harry Goldson, with other old non-big-band numbers sprinkled in.
He can also chat with listeners calling in to answer trivia contest questions.
Radio station general manager Kathy Baker said the arrangement "works very well." She said he's a "very popular announcer" because of his longevity, the fact that he plays music that older listeners can't find on other stations and his rapport with his audience.
Dickinson started his career after being stationed in Guam and China with the Marines between 1944 and '47, then getting a bachelors degree in radio speech at San Jose State University.
He was first a disc jockey at a station in Elko, Nev. Seven months later, he landed a job at KMBY in Monterey broadcasting minor-league baseball and spinning pop records.
The station was owned by Bing Crosby. It aired his golf tournament known as the "Crosby Clambake."
"It was a lot of fun," Dickinson said. "We worked with one drink in the hand and all the movie stars were there."
Through the years, he's worked at several stations in the Monterey Bay area, building a following for his knowledge of music and his folksy on-air persona. That got him a nomination to the Radio Hall of Fame in 2001.
Every year, he observes the birthday of Doris Day, a local resident there, by focusing on her recordings. He dedicates Memorial Day and Veterans Day shows to veterans.
Dickinson will be returning to California soon. When he broadcasts from the studio there, they play fewer footsteps and he says he's broadcasting from the attic. The pretense is that it's his grandmother's attic and he's finding old records there.
"People actually believe he's up in an attic," Anne said.
He does play some CDs, though he still plays mostly vinyl.
"People say, 'We love hearing the nicks and the pops,'¡" he said.
The Dickinsons often lead cruises and other trips for fans through a travel agency in Monterey. They plan to lead one to Michigan next year that will include the Detroit area and Traverse City.
"They want to see the tower," Ed said.
That's because he's talked it up, having become fond of the scenic perch in the modern home. His listeners have heard some of it themselves, including a Blue Angels jet flying overhead and a woodpecker knocking on the house.
And by now, Ed uses the correct terminology when he tells his listeners where he is, with the help of his wife.
"The first day I was on the air from here, I said, 'I'm here looking at West Bay' and she said, 'No, no, it's East Bay,'!" he said.

Comparisons

Back from Cape Cod

Similarities:
Both have significant National Park ( Seashore and Lakeshore )
Both have similar soils, sandy
Both have similar vegetation, conifers, although Leelanau has more hardwoods
Both surrounded by water
Both are tourist driven economies

I prefer Leelanau County
1) Better Food, at least "in season"
Exception being fresh seafood... lobster and oyster's

2) less crowded ... often much less

3) better roads/traffic/signage (esp. signage)
Here, roads have simple numbers.
There they designate north or south, which don't correspond to the direction you may be traveling.
Heading south on Rt 6 North is still south.
Thankfully, we had my pocket GPS to keep us sane.

Roundabouts - I failed to learn that you simply start lapping them until you find the exit you really want.

Signs missing, faded or hidden.
Should have taken some photos. Example, in Orleans, "Mainstreet" where entire sign, except for the "M" hidden by a telephone pole.

I think that they are still afraid of the redcoats ...

4) less "touristy"

Good to be home.

Pols love the toll booth model

I've often argued that politicans love the idea of alowing, even mandating tighter controls on the internet and supporting the established Telco's and Cableco's, letting them be the operators of the toll booths on the turnpike.

Here's WSJournal on the same re: USF
Note that it isn't just the subsidy to rural phone service providers, it's the principal of having a conduit for funds that the politicans can tap.

Bad Subsidy Call
June 23, 2006; Page A10

On Wednesday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to require Internet telephone companies to contribute to the Universal Service Fund (USF). The move means higher phone bills for Internet telephone service as providers pass this new cost on to customers. But it also means that a Republican-run regulatory agency is expanding a federal subsidy that should have been phased out long ago.

The concept of "universal service" dates back more than 70 years to a time when stringing wires together to bring telephone service to loosely populated areas was expensive. The goal was to keep local phone rates low and increase subscribers. This policy long ago fulfilled its purpose: By the mid-1990s, nearly 95% of U.S. households had a telephone. A competitive telecom marketplace with proliferating wireless technologies and multiple service providers had developed.

Nevertheless, the USF lives on. What's worse, the FCC has now determined that Internet telephony should be roped in to this anachronistic regulatory framework. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin says this levy is necessary for parity purposes. But the best way to produce a level telecom playing field isn't by burdening new technologies with old regulations. It's by phasing out such regulations for everyone.

The USF has become a tool for redistributing wealth from urban phone customers to their rural counterparts, says Randolph May, a former FCC lawyer who now heads the Free State Foundation think tank. The irony, says Mr. May, "is that the subsidies tend to flow from more densely populated areas like New York or Baltimore to less densely populated areas. So, in effect, you've got many places where poor people are subsidizing rich people in Aspen." Given that near-universal service now exists, why not subsidize only those low-income customers who truly need it?

The main beneficiaries of the status quo are rural telephone companies, some of which receive as much as 70% of their revenue from the USF. More than a thousand such entities still exist nationwide, and they have powerful allies in Congress, especially Senate Commerce Chairman Ted Stevens of Alaska. We knew many in Washington were eager to classify the Internet as nothing more than a glorified telephone subject to the usual telecom taxes and rules. But we were hoping a Republican-controlled FCC wouldn't let that happen.

Geneticz

Study of the genetic links to behavior is OK
That Wild Streak? Maybe It Runs in the Family - New York Times

But not IQ
WSJournal :WSJ.com - Scientist's Study Of Brain Genes Sparks a Backlash
Head Examined
Scientist's Study Of Brain Genes Sparks a Backlash
Dr. Lahn Connects Evolution In Some Groups to IQ;
Debate on Race and DNA

'Speculating Is Dangerous'
By ANTONIO REGALADO
June 16, 2006; Page A1

CHICAGO -- Last September, Bruce Lahn, a professor of human genetics at the University of Chicago, stood before a packed lecture hall and reported the results of a new DNA analysis: He had found signs of recent evolution in the brains of some people, but not of others.

It was a triumphant moment for the young scientist. He was up for tenure and his research was being featured in back-to-back articles in the country's most prestigious science journal. Yet today, Dr. Lahn says he is moving away from the research. "It's getting too controversial," he says.

Dr. Lahn had touched a raw nerve in science: race and intelligence.


What Dr. Lahn told his audience was that genetic changes over the past several thousand years might be linked to brain size and intelligence. He flashed maps that showed the changes had taken hold and spread widely in Europe, Asia and the Americas, but weren't common in sub-Saharan Africa.

Web sites and magazines promoting white "racialism" quickly seized on Dr. Lahn's suggestive scientific snapshot. One magazine that blames black and Hispanic people for social ills hailed his discovery as "the moment the antiracists and egalitarians have dreaded."

Dr. Lahn has drawn sharp fire from other leading genetics researchers. They say the genetic differences he found may not signify any recent evolution -- and even if they do, it is too big a leap to suggest any link to intelligence. "This is not the place you want to report a weak association that might or might not stand up," says Francis Collins, director of the genome program at the National Institutes of Health.

Gates Goes

Between the lines, Gates admits defeat.

From WSJ:
"Bill Gates was a terrific player in a world where software was in a box and he made a profit on that product," says George Colony, chief executive of the market-research firm Forrester Research. "I think he's having a very difficult time understanding how to compete in a world where that is free."

Handwriting has been on the wall for a while.

Brilliant at the time, at least in a monoploy business sense, the info-world is passing MuSoft by.

Curmodgen

Well, maybe there is someone with a more bitter view of America and it's people.

NYTimes review of 'Dark Ages America,' by Morris Berman
Grim View of a Nation at the End of Days.

Times slams the book for being a mear critique of critiques or of others writings.

"This is the sort of book that gives the Left a bad name.


Morris Berman
DARK AGES AMERICA
The Final Phase of Empire

By Morris Berman

385 pages. W. W. Norton & Company. $25.95.
Readers’ Opinions
Forum: Book News and Reviews

In "Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire," the cultural historian Morris Berman delivers a vituperative, Spenglerian screed that makes Michael Moore seem like a rah-rah American cheerleader: a screed that describes this country as "a cultural and emotional wasteland," suffering from "spiritual death" and intent on exporting its false values around the world at the point of a gun; a republic-turned-empire that has entered a new Dark Age and that is on the verge of collapsing like Rome."

I'd have to ask : compared to What?

While I agree that our public education system seems to be failing, pop culture is full on "huh?", and that politics stays in full dumbing down mode, I'm not seeing leadership elsewhere in the world.

We still have issues with immigration, people want to come here.

Maybe Mr. Berman can move to ... France.

Yum Yum

As the world turns, we now learn that Fried Chicken may not be "good" for you.
Huh?

This is new?

KFC Is Sued Over the Use of Trans Fats in Its Cooking:

"A nutrition advocacy group sued KFC yesterday to get it to stop using partially hydrogenated oils, a key ingredient of its fried chicken. The oils contain trans fats, which scientists consider the most unhealthful of all fats.

The plaintiff, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which frequently criticizes the food industry and the government, seeks to have the District of Columbia Superior Court either ban use of the oils in KFC's cooking or force the company to post signs telling customers that its food contains trans fat and can cause heart disease."

But ...
Some time ago CSPI supported partially hydrogenated oils.

"About 80 percent of trans fats in the American diet come from partially hydrogenated oil. Trans fats became a part of fast-food meals in the 1980's, after consumer groups demanded that the chains stop frying in beef tallow and palm oils because those products are highly saturated. The hazards of trans fats were not widely realized until years later."

Couldn't find the orginal source in the CSPI archives
Nutrition Action Healthletter Archives

But did find this commentary : The Tragic Legacy of Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)

And from CSPI Press Release : KFC Sued for Fouling Chicken with Partially Hydrogenated Oil ~ Newsroom ~ News from CSPI

"The plaintiff in the case is retired physician Arthur Hoyte, of Rockville, Maryland. He had purchased fried chicken at KFC outlets in Washington, DC, and elsewhere, not knowing that KFC fries in partially hydrogenated oil.

'If I had known that KFC uses an unnatural frying oil, and that their food was so high in trans fat, I would have reconsidered my choices," said Dr. Hoyte. "I am bringing this suit because I want KFC to change the way it does business. And I'm doing it for my son and others' kids-so that they may have a healthier, happier, trans-fat-free future.' "

What planet has this guy been on?

Food Fads

The Way We Eat: Market Value

"When it comes to food, the principles of supply and demand do not always apply. Food is about the senses, and its value is determined by something less rational. Rarity may put a special gloss — and price — on some foods, but so will fashion and the perennial need for new flavors."

Such stuff as "Patagonian toothfish didn't seem toothsome until it became Chilean sea bass. And stocks of dogfish were nearly wiped out not once but twice, though only after the fish became known first as rock salmon and later as Cape shark."

Not quite "we are what we eat"

Oooommmmm

NYTimes on Shin Buddhism.

"In some ways, the story line is familiar. Religious traditions have long adapted to fit changing cultural circumstances. Consider how Hanukkah, a relatively minor holiday on the Jewish religious calendar, has leaped in importance among many Jews in the face of the crush of attention surrounding Christmas in this country. But while Zen and Tibetan Buddhism — the Buddhist forms that have largely driven the religion's surge among Western practitioners — focus on meditative practices as a way to achieve enlightenment, Shin Buddhism, the Pure Land school that the Buddhist Churches of America embraces, teaches that meditation is ultimately useless because of the inherent human limitations."

Following da bouncin ball

Suspect that Rove non-indictment may move the data.
Predict that oil prices will come down this summer, and that will move data as well.

IEM 2006 US Congressional Control Market Price Graph

Strawberry Moon

Just a bit before 6AM (5:48)
Likely the lowest (most southernly) we'll get a shot of the moon this year.



Bit of a blow up of the same shot, doing some cropping



10 Min later (5:49)
Moon settles into the "notch" towards Empire

What's wrong with this picture?
(other than my copy/paste where shot runs under side text)

Since edited - scroll down

Try Dictionary for Devise vs Device ...

Wonder how much to Charge AT&T for troubleshooting their site?

de·vice ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-vs)
n.

1. A contrivance or an invention serving a particular purpose, especially a machine used to perform one or more relatively simple tasks.

de·vise ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-vz)
tr.v. de·vised, de·vis·ing, de·vis·es

1. To form, plan, or arrange in the mind; design or contrive: devised a new system for handling mail orders.

Definitions from Dictionary.com

Organic Organic Organic

Bunch of PR on Organic

BizWeek :
Organic farms scale up to meet demand


Sunday NYTimes Magazine:
Mass Natural

Then 60 Min ran a feature on Whole Foods.
60 Minutes - Video, Reports, Profiles, Interviews - CBSNews.com

Manitou Music Fest

Shameless plug for the Glen Arbor Art Association and it's Manitou Music Festival.

Posters available for purchase here
As well as tickets, sign up for classes, or make donations.

Now this is Interesting - Open Source Politics

Following is copyright Newsweek, but I think it interesting enough to post it in full.

Way beyond MoveOn (aka where to get laid)
What I find most interesting is the attempt to sieze the middle (high) ground.

Wonder if it will tie into the Iowa Election Markets (prior post)

A New Open-Source Politics

Just as Linux lets users design their own operating systems, so 'netroots' politicos may redesign our nominating system.

By Jonathan Alter

Newsweek

June 5, 2006 issue - Bob Schieffer of CBS News made a good point on "The Charlie Rose Show" last week. He said that successful presidents have all skillfully exploited the dominant medium of their times. The Founders were eloquent writers in the age of pamphleteering. Franklin D. Roosevelt restored hope in 1933 by mastering radio. And John F. Kennedy was the first president elected because of his understanding of television.

Will 2008 bring the first Internet president? Last time, Howard Dean and later John Kerry showed that the whole idea of "early money" is now obsolete in presidential politics. The Internet lets candidates who catch fire raise millions in small donations practically overnight. That's why all the talk of Hillary Clinton's "war chest" making her the front runner for 2008 is the most hackneyed punditry around. Money from wealthy donors remains the essential ingredient in most state and local campaigns, but "free media" shapes the outcome of presidential races, and the Internet is the freest media of all.

No one knows exactly where technology is taking politics, but we're beginning to see some clues. For starters, the longtime stranglehold of media consultants may be over. In 2004, Errol Morris, the director of "The Thin Blue Line" and "The Fog of War," on his own initiative made several brilliant anti-Bush ads (they featured lifelong Republicans explaining why they were voting for Kerry). Not only did Kerry not air the ads, he told me recently he never even knew they existed. In 2008, any presidential candidate with half a brain will let a thousand ad ideas bloom (or stream) online and televise only those that are popular downloads. Deferring to "the wisdom of crowds" will be cheaper and more effective.

Open-source politics has its hazards, starting with the fact that most people over 35 will need some help with the concept. But just as Linux lets tech-savvy users avoid Microsoft and design their own operating systems, so "netroots" political organizers may succeed in redesigning our current nominating system. But there probably won't be much that's organized about it. By definition, the Internet strips big shots of their control of the process, which is a good thing. Politics is at its most invigorating when it's cacophonous and chaotic.

To begin busting up the dumb system we have for selecting presidents, a bipartisan group will open shop this week at Unity08.com. This Internet-based third party is spearheaded by three veterans of the antique 1976 campaign: Democrats Hamilton Jordan and Gerald Rafshoon helped get Jimmy Carter elected; Republican Doug Bailey did media for Gerald Ford before launching the political TIP SHEET Hotline. They are joined by the independent former governor of Maine, Angus King, and a collection of idealistic young people who are also tired of a nominating process that pulls the major party candidates to the extremes. Their hope: to get even a fraction of the 50 million who voted for the next American Idol to nominate a third-party candidate for president online and use this new army to get him or her on the ballot in all 50 states. The idea is to go viral—or die. "The worst thing that could happen would be for a bunch of old white guys like us to run this," Jordan says.

The Unity08 plan is for an online third-party convention in mid-2008, following the early primaries. Any registered voter could be a delegate; their identities would be confirmed by cross-referencing with voter registration rolls (which would also prevent people from casting more than one ballot). That would likely include a much larger number than the few thousand primary voters who all but nominate the major party candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire. This virtual process will vote on a centrist platform and nominate a bipartisan ticket. The idea is that even if the third-party nominee didn't win, he would wield serious power in the '08 election, which will likely be close.

There are plenty of ways for this process to prove meaningless, starting with the major parties deciding to nominate independent-minded candidates like John McCain (OK, the old McCain) or Mark Warner. Third-party efforts have usually been candidate-driven, and the centrist names tossed around by way of example (Chuck Hagel, Sam Nunn, Tom Kean) don't have much marquee value in the blogosphere. And the organizers would have to design safeguards to keep the whole thing from being hijacked.

But funny things happen in election years. With an issue as eye-glazing as the deficit, a wacky, jug-eared Texan named Ross Perot received 19 percent of the vote in 1992 and 7 percent in 1996. He did it with "Larry King Live" and an 800 number. In a country where more than 40 percent of voters now self-identify as independents, it's no longer a question of whether the Internet will revolutionize American politics, but when.

For more, go to JonathanAlter.com

And they're off

Iowa Election Market launched yesterday

Iowa Electronic Markets ~ Current Markets: 2006 Congressional Election Markets

It will take time for the market to get up and running, but I've found them to, over time, be more accurate in "predicting" the final result(s) of elections than polls.

With polls, respondents reply with what they want or what they think is the "right" answer (or lie).
With Markets, participants reply with MONEY.

Example: you may want a Republican to win, but if in your heart of hearts, you don't think they have a chance, you "bet" that they will loose.

When the markets are thin, and/or when participants try to "game" them, others will gladly take their money.

Green(faced) Piece

Philadelphia Inquirer | 05/29/2006 | Greenpeace's fill-in-the-blank public relations meltdown

AKA Big Whoops...

"Before President Bush touched down in Pennsylvania Wednesday to promote his nuclear energy policy, the environmental group Greenpeace was mobilizing.

"This volatile and dangerous source of energy" is no answer to the country's energy needs, shouted a Greenpeace fact sheet decrying the "threat" posed by the Limerick reactors Bush visited.

But a factoid or two later, the Greenpeace authors were stumped while searching for the ideal menacing metaphor.

We present it here exactly as it was written, capital letters and all: "In the twenty years since the Chernobyl tragedy, the world's worst nuclear accident, there have been nearly [FILL IN ALARMIST AND ARMAGEDDONIST FACTOID HERE]."

Had Greenpeace been hacked by a nuke-loving Bush fan? Or was this proof of Greenpeace fear-mongering?

The aghast Greenpeace spokesman who issued the memo, Steve Smith, said a colleague was making a joke by inserting the language in a draft that was then mistakenly released.

"Given the seriousness of the issue at hand, I don't even think it's funny," Smith said.

The final version did not mention Armageddon. It just warned of plane crashes and reactor meltdowns."

Contrast this with Patrick Moore (co-founder of Greenpeace)

Washington Post

Going Nuclear
A Green Makes the Case

By Patrick Moore
Sunday, April 16, 2006; B01

"In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my compatriots. That's the conviction that inspired Greenpeace's first voyage up the spectacular rocky northwest coast to protest the testing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the environmental movement needs to update its views, too, because nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change."

Lowest Common Denomator

Excellent piece by Jaron Lanier on the flaws in meta sites/systems such as wikipedia.

Best to read the whole piece.

Unsure of the Concept

Aren't Vonage customers "switchers"?
Willing to leave established telco's for better prices.
How loyal are they?
What is the "Lock In"?

If I'm "Big Telco" wouldn't I want to try to compete on price and keep customers via some other bundling/tie-in's?
Cingular got me with "rollover" and coverage at both houses.

NYTimes:
Vonage Moves to Reassure Nervous Investors

By KEN BELSON and MATT RICHTEL
Published: May 31, 2006

Vonage, tarred by a disastrous initial public offering last week, is scrambling to reassure investors. The company, which provides Internet phone service, said yesterday that it would reimburse the bankers who handled the sale if any Vonage customers refused to pay for shares that were allotted to them.

Vonage gave its customers a chance to buy as much as 15 percent of the 31.25 million shares that were offered last week. About 10,000 of the company's 1.6 million customers ultimately received shares, which were sold at $17 each, according to a person briefed on the deal. Customers had until yesterday to open an account with a specified broker and pay for their shares.

Some customers who participated in the "directed share program" were reluctant to pay for their shares after the stock fell. The shares have lost more than 26 percent of their value since their debut last Wednesday. They fell 52 cents, to $12.50 yesterday.

Update (aka Whoops)
Might sue customers (really smart move ;-p)

Vonage May Seek Payment From Balking Share Buyers

By MATT RICHTEL
Published: June 1, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, May 31 — Vonage, the Internet telephone provider, said on Wednesday that it might seek reimbursement from customers who fail to pay for shares they committed to buy during the company's disappointing initial public offering last week.

Wednesday's statement continues Vonage's public relations and financial struggle since it went public last week. Its shares have dropped almost 29 percent from their $17 opening price, closing on Wednesday at $12.02

Maybe it's just a nefarious plot by "Big Telco's" to discredit net-phones.
"Do you REALLY want somebody like this running your phone service?"

Addendum :
A bit more digging and it all starts to come back to me
Jeffery Citron "banned from securities trading":

Internet telephony | Vonage unwanted | Economist.com

"In 2003 Jeffrey Citron, a former broker, paid $22.5m in penalties to settle allegations of fraud and agreed never to work in the securities industry again. He then turned his attention to his next big thing—making phone calls over the internet. He launched Vonage, a company in New Jersey that has since become almost synonymous in America with the term VOIP (for “voice over internet protocol”). Spending oodles on marketing, Mr Citron has persuaded 1.6m Americans to ditch their land-line telephone company. In the American VOIP industry—which has 5.5m subscribers now, but should have 24m by 2010, according to TeleGeography, a research firm—Vonage is the leader.

That did not count for much on May 24th, when Vonage made the worst stockmarket debut by an American technology firm in two years, offering new shares worth $531m in total, which dropped 13% by day's end. There had been signs of desperation in the preceding weeks—such as a plea to customers to take up 13.5% of the new shares—but a belly flop of these proportions was surprising. Is VOIP over-hyped?"


Economist goes on to note that Skype is software only (headset reccomended).

Link to SEC on settlement: SEC Charges Former Day-Trading Principals with Securities Fraud; Others Charged with Fraud or Violating Recordkeeping and Reporting Rules; Press Release 2003-5

MidEast Headline

WSJournal:
The U.S. offered to hold talks with Iran if it suspends development of nuclear technologies, a major policy shift for Bush.

If this comes to pass, which I think it will, oil prices will fall.
All part of the puzzle.
Slowly developing stablity in Iraq.
Persians (Iran) key players in the region, whole nuke thing may have been stage acting on both sides (Iran and US).

Fingers crossed.
Maybe more comments later.

"Rules" for grocery shopping

BizWeek bit on Marion Nestle and "supermarket IQ" :

"The Rules" For Eating Smarter
Noted author and nutritionist Marion Nestle talks about her latest book -- and how to boost your supermarket IQ

" After tackling weighty issues about food in her previous books -- Food Politics (2002) and Safe Food (2003) -- nutritionist Marion Nestle was surprised that people kept asking her a simple question: What should we eat? That refrain became the topic of her latest work, What To Eat (North Point Press). In it, Nestle, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University, cuts through the marketing claims and maze of offerings in today's supermarkets to provide advice for making healthy choices. She spoke to Contributing Writer Amy Cortese about her findings"


Of note :

How should shoppers navigate the supermarket?
I call them "The Rules." Rule No. 1 is that supermarkets want customers to spend as much time as possible wandering the aisles because the more products they see, the more they buy. So it's best to stay out of the maze of the center aisles, where all the junk foods are, and just shop the perimeter, where the healthier, fresh foods are.

Rule No. 2 is that products in the best locations -- eye level, ends of aisles, cash registers -- sell best. So companies pay the supermarkets to slot their products in prime real estate. These products are mostly junk because they are the most profitable and most heavily advertised.

Net Neutrality cont.

More:

NYTimes :
Why the Democratic Ethic of the World Wide Web May Be About to End
By ADAM COHEN Published: May 28, 2006

"Forces favoring a no-fee Web have been gaining strength. One group, Savetheinternet.com, says it has collected more than 700,000 signatures on a petition. Last week, a bipartisan bill favoring net neutrality, sponsored by James Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, and John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan, won a surprisingly lopsided vote in the House Judiciary Committee.

Sir Tim argues that service providers may be hurting themselves by pushing for tiered pricing. The Internet's extraordinary growth has been fueled by the limitless vistas the Web offers surfers, bloggers and downloaders. Customers who are used to the robust, democratic Web may not pay for one that is restricted to wealthy corporate content providers.

"That's not what we call Internet at all," says Sir Tim. "That's what we call cable TV."

Not exactly Robbie the Robot

Interesting piece in NYTimes Science section on autonomist probes and devices, able to make some decisions on their own :

NASA

THINKING MACHINES Missions that might use artificial intelligence include a blimp on Saturn's moon Titan, top, and a rover that changes shape to navigate rough terrain.

The "Morphing Rover" is among the coolist...

Net Neutrality

Been following this for a while

Mostly via David Isenberg (isen.blog)

Also from Doc:
The Doc Searls Weblog : Tuesday, May 30, 2006:

"If we want to play hardball against the carriers, we need to join these citizen journalists, and expose what they're doing at the state level.
To do that, we should take our campaign to the local and regional newspapers, which don't like the cable and phone companies, either. Or the TV stations. This wouldn't be hard. Just gather your facts, call your local muckracking reporters, and turn them loose.
If we don't want to play hardball, we need a whole 'nuther strategy. One that starts with defining the Net in terms other than carrier-owned pipes. (Which is the default right now -- even for many of us on the pro-Neutrality side of things.)
My vote is to go for complete work-arounds in counties and municipalities, while trying to contain the damage in Congress and the state houses."

So I guess I'll weigh in

1) politicians like the cableco's/telco's because they can be taxed.
Either they can serve as toolbooth revenue raisers (charging tolls on the use of the connection), or as business entities that can be taxed.
Either way, they are the means of taxing the net.

2) Doc's call to rally the troops.
Not via standard TV or print.
Viewership slipping as is readershop.

Besides, to be blunt, viewers and readers tend to be passive
Eloi - (Wikipedia) From H.G.Wells The Time Machine

"...the Eloi live a life of play and toilless abundance, it is revealed that the Morlocks are tending to the Eloi's needs for the same reason a farmer tends to cattle - because the Eloi comprise most (if not all) of the Morlock diet and the Eloi are no longer capable of acting in any other role.

In Neal Stephenson's essay on modern culture vis-a-vis OS development, "In the beginning there was the Command Line", he demonstrates similarities between the future in The Time Traveller and contemporary American culture. He claims that most Americans have been exposed to a "corporate monoculture" which renders them "unwilling to make judgments and incapable of taking stands."
Just give 'em "American Idle" (pun intended even if bad) and USA Today

Instead, what about online communities?

Worlds of Warcraft
Second Life
MySpacers

Maybe something for slow

"SL and WoW respectively represent the state of the art in the narrative and non-narrative, game and non-game metaverse, but their cultures, aims, and the experiences they provide are dramatically different. WoW players often dis on SL users ("Oh, it's just a boring social world"), and vice verse ("You can't *do* anything in WoW"), perhaps based partly on a lack of understanding and shared experience. Some people say WoW is prototyping the future of work and some people say Second Life represents the future of the Internet. Obviously something important is happening with each.

Enter SLoW. A first attempt towards uniting both ends of the virtual world spectrum by providing a temporary bridge (or at least a window) between them."

Wouldn't dealing with Net Neutrality be a perfect task for those with the most at stake?

Ethanol follow up

Some other materials on Ethanol

BizWeek May 22
Fill 'Er Up -- But With What?:
"An alternative to gasoline is inevitable, but it won't come anytime soon. Here's why"

and:

Ethanol: Myths and Realities:

"Ten questions -- and answers -- about the fuel that's supposed to save the economy"

Forbes weighs in with Field of Dreamers - Forbes.com

"With work and luck, ethanol could displace imported petroleum. Will it help break the U.S. addiction to oil?"

"Even studies by ethanol fans concede that achieving energy independence via ethanol requires bullish assumptions. Among them: that refiners will get at least twice as good at making ethanol. That the average efficiency of U.S. vehicles improves to 42 miles per gallon, 68% better than the 25mpg now achieved. And that people will move closer to where they work. If all those fantasies become reality, the U.S. could, in theory, meet all of its transportation fuel needs with ethanol by 2050 without adding to today's current cropland, according to an exhaustive study by the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental group based in New York."

More likely later

Jeremy Siegel on Boomer Demographics

From BizWeek

When Boomers Cash Out
A buy-and-hold legend sees tough times ahead :

" Wharton School professor Jeremy J. Siegel became a superstar back in 1994 when his book, Stocks for the Long Run, showed how stocks beat out every other investment since the 1800s. Coming just as the 1990s stock boom was revving up, the analysis turned the finance professor into a guru of the buy-and-hold approach to investing. But even as he hit the lecture circuit back then, Siegel recalls, he began to be troubled by the outlook for the future over the very long run. People would come up to him after a talk and ask: "What happens when the baby boomers begin selling their stocks and other assets to fund their retirement?"

Despite professor Siegel's dour view, with the idea that we will need to sell assets to Indian and Chinese investors, I'd bet that prospects will remain good.

Jeremy also fails to factor in the fact that China will "hit the demographic wall" in about 15 years.
(echo of the one child rule)

The piece quotes Mike Milken that boomers will remain healthy and work longer.
The models of "work" may change, but I agree.

"What's more, Siegel underestimated the potential of U.S. technology and entrepreneurialism. "With all this wealth, the problem is not who's going to buy assets, it's are there any assets to buy with all the liquidity [there will be] in the world," Milken said."

On the other hand, we have Europe.
While Jack and Suzy Welch may have a point about revival of business in Vive L'Europe -- Just Not Yet
"A new cadre of business leaders and entrepreneurs will help end the Continent's malaise"

I doubt that business leaders can defeat declining populations.

"Consider a few statistics. Over the past 35 years, according to Joel Kotkin of the New America Foundation, the U.S. economy has created 57 million new jobs. In the same period, Europe, with a combined GDP about the size of the U.S., has created just 4 million. Meanwhile, the European unemployment rate hovers around 10%, double that of the U.S. Demographic statistics are similarly bleak. France, Germany, and Italy all have shrinking populations that (naturally) are also aging. And Europe is poorly positioned to reap gains from the growing science and technology sector: R&D spending per capita in France, Germany, and Italy, for instance, is about half that of the U.S."

Eastern Europe may well be more dynamic, but yet further to the East we have the declining Russia, in even worse shape than Europe.

Odd Couple

Reading Jack and "Suzy"'s column in recient BusinessWeek and something kept nagging me about the photo.




Then it occured to me... Suzy, at least in this shot, looks like...



Armand Assante.

Note that I was impressed with "Neutron Jack" many years ago and we have a large position in GE.

Land Use

NYTimes review of a couple of books on Federal Govt. influence on land use.

Far from being a local issue, there have been longstanding national factors.

Of note : From Roger Kennedy, head of National Park Service under Clinton "...postwar patterns of American development to two of the 20th century's most notorious top-down thinkers: Hitler and Stalin. Among other things, he writes, Hitler taught Eisenhower the usefulness of autobahns for the quick movement of troops and materiel, and the difficulty of destroying industrial infrastructure if it is well dispersed. And after Stalin got the bomb, Mr. Kennedy goes on, American leaders concluded that the nation would survive thermonuclear war only if its population moved out of the cities and scattered.

A result, as Mr. Kennedy and others have argued, was federal mortgage incentives, insurance programs and other initiatives that dispersed people into unsettled areas. The biggest incentive of all was the creation of the interstate highway system, built, officials said at the time, not to enhance commuting to the exurbs but for the nation's defense."

With the end of the Cold War, Metroization (did I just invent a word?) may reappear.

What a difference a week makes

Paraphrase the great Dinah Washington tune ... What a difference a day makes

A week ago I looked out at a bit of standing water on the roof, there was a skim of ice .
There were reports of snowflakes in Cedar.

Today, mid 80's
Spent day doing the "summer stuff"
More garage cleaning.
Powerwash screens and swap out the storm windows.
Yesterday was rig the dock with electricity (for lifts) and set raft.

Quite a change.