P.S. A Column On Things

Technobriefs

by Craig Reynolds

Jobs on DRM: Steve Jobs latest PR masterstroke Thoughts on Music seeks to grab some moral high ground (or at least give that appearance) while setting an agenda for upcoming talks with music publishers, and making a preemptive defense for mounting EU pressure against iTunes. For a contrarian, eMusic-oriented view: Is Steve Jobs lying about his proposal to drop DRM? (iTunes DRM "protects Apple's vertical business model more than it protects the music industry's copyrights"). Cory offers snarkiness and a song: Will Steve Jobs drop iTunes DRM in a heartbeat? and Imagine no DRM ("I'm also waiting to hear whether Steve will take the DRM off the Disney/Pixar material sold through iTunes."). In any case, blog posts do not sway legal proceedings: Jobs' comments not good enough for Norwegian group. (More on this: Jobs: Apple would drop DRM if record labels agree, Imagining a world without DRM and Partners, rivals react to Jobs' anti-DRM comments.) Other DRM news: Despite lawsuits, digital music downloads grow and The slow death of DRM. This TechDirt post is really nicely written: Now The RIAA Wants You To Believe That You Should Be Paying Much, Much More For CDs.

Warming warning: in the aftermath of the UN report on climate change, a lot of related news, such as Congressional inquiries into Bush administration's suppression of scientific evidence: Bush Ripped on Global Warming. Some support a carbon tax to attach a financial cost to emitting greenhouse gases: Global Warming Is a Real Problem, The Kyoto accords aren't the solution, while Robert Reich says a better approach is A Windfall Profits Tax on Oil Companies to Finance R&D in Non-Fossil Based Energy. Another approach is sequestration, actually recapturing the carbon in the atmosphere: Branson offers a $25 million prize for reducing global warming (also Scientists to Vie for $25M Climate Prize). Other approaches are also being considered: Far-out schemes to stop climate change.

This is your brain watching your brain: recently it seems functional MRI studies of the brain in action are spreading beyond medical uses into some novel applications. For example this year's Superbowl ads were tested using FMRI. Daniel Levitin's delightful book This Is Your Brain on Music (featured last August in Wired and this week on the Newshour) is based in part of FMRI studies of people listening to music. I am looking forward to the MRI study into which portions of your brain are active while looking at MRI scans of your own brain activity (recall the chameleon on the mirror?).

Good-for-you games: if this trend continues, soon insurance companies will make game play mandatory for everyone! The topic of "gray games" has been covered here before, and the trend seems to be accelerating: New genre of video games target mental health. Now comes news that video game can be used to improve vision: Study says video games are good for eyes and Action Video Games May Boost Vision (Study Findings Could Inspire New Software to Retrain Brain, Rehabilitate Vision).

Technobits: Web 2.0... the Machine is Us/ing Us great video intro to the topic (via) --- a Zune phone? --- Fighting to protect copyright 'orphans' a setback for crusader Brewster Kahle --- GOP revives ISP-tracking legislation data retention means less privacy --- Non-Terrorist Embarrassment in Boston a bit late, a sane reaction to the overreaction to ATHF marketing --- CDC: Prevalence of Autism Now 1 in 150 up from 1 in 166, while in Denmark: Study finds more autism, other childhood disorders --- New study yields instructive results on how mindset affects learning think of the mind as a muscle --- Brain 'cannabis' Parkinson's hope don't bogart that endocannabinoid --- Wizardry at Harvard: Physicists Move Light able to stop, store, and release light --- Flow of tiny bubbles mimics computer circuitry (Work could boost capabilities of 'labs on a chip') --- Design News: PS3: Fast and Cool (combines the speed of a low-end supercomputer with the cooling techniques of a network server) --- High Security for $100 Laptop --- Google and cable firms warn of risks from Web TV --- Create better passwords with Pwdhash --- More megapixels, better photos: Fact or fiction? (The trouble is megapixels stopped mattering once we passed 6 of them) --- Disney in uncharted waters with "Pirates" game another kid MMOG to add to the list mentioned here last week --- amazing accordion chair/sofa (via).

Neal Vitale Reviews: Because I Said So, Pan's Labyrinth, Letters from Iwo Jima, Children of Men

Because I Said So
1 star out of 5

"Ridiculous" is a good word for Because I Said So, a dismal film that would fare poorly even as television sitcom fodder. Other than a few mildly amusing - and totally unoriginal - moments, there is nothing to recommend this effort. Everything about the film is amateurish and awkward - a hackneyed story of an overbearing mother and her daughters, cartoonish and stereotypical characterizations, and a stilted script. I'm not sure that the genre of "chick flicks' is worth discrediting, but Because I Said So does a fine job of it.

Pan's Labyrinth
2.5 stars out 5

I agree with Paul's appraisal (January 28) completely, only wanting to underscore the surprise of seeing this film after it is has been lavished with critical praise. I give Pan's Labyrinth perhaps a little more credit than Paul, for its imagination and stylish cinematography. But I didn't find a terribly compelling nor coherent storyline, and the healthy dose of gruesome brutality was tough to take. Quite a disappointment.

Letters From Iwo Jima
3.5 stars out of 5

For me, Letters From Iwo Jima is another film that fails to deliver relative to its recognition during the awards season. Letters is very well-made, with a quiet elegance -almost serenity - that is remarkable for a war movie. Every aspect of the film is beautifully rendered - I particularly liked the muted color palette with which it was shot, making every wartime explosion all the more intense and shocking. And the storyline has some lovely moments, as it juxtaposes extreme of emotions, experiences, and situations to great effect. But, with all that said, I was more admiring than engaged. Worth seeing, but not the first on the list.

Children Of Men
3.5 stars out of 5

Children Of Men is another intense and bleak film portraying the apocalyptic world of the not-too-distant future, joining the likes of, among others, Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, Twelve Monkeys, and Soylent Green. Made from the P.D. James book, by director Alfonso Cuaron (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban), this film - like many current releases - was very well-executed. The cinematography is excellent (see Rae Schindler's comments in her earlier review, January 12), and Clive Owen (The Closer, Sin City) is notable as the wry protagonist, Theo Faron. But as with a number of the films I've written about of late - such as Letters From Iwo Jima, Babel, and even Pan's Labyrinth - I found myself more quietly applauding the achievement than celebrating an emotional connection.

--Neal Vitale

The return of Lasusa Links, Caroll on Pachelbel, Nilsson on Cheney, Gray on NPR, Lessons Unlearned, Dan Grobstein File

Tom Lasusa surfs the web so you don't have to: The accordian Sofa -- pretty amazing; Soviet Propaganda animations released on video Cartoons made from the 1930s to the 1980s depict the evils of capitalist America; Be Aware of Visa/Mastercard's "Foreign transaction fee"; Anti-Valentines Day Cards Becoming Just as Popular; Prehistoric Romeo and Juliet?; Private Airplane traffic after this year's Superbowl -- and you wonder why no one can afford tix anymore.; No corn for oil: the politics of tortillas and ethanol; "THE HOOHAA MONOLOGUES???"; New York Considers Banning iPodding Pedestrians;

From Chuck Carroll.

This is a clip of a professional comedian beating up Pachelbel. I decided a tuba response was needed.

Robert Nilsson checks in:

The pregnancy of Mary Cheney presents almost too perfect an irony, bringing to the fore Cheney's party's policy on gays. If it had happened to Bush's own daughters, it would not be as good, since Bush even as president seems almost irrelevant. The Cheney interview with Wolf Blitzer was hysterical. This shows a good bit of the Cheney interview. Of course, the Daily Show had fun with the Cheney Interview as well.

My friend Katherine Gray thinks we should join moveon.org and protest cuts to public broadcasting.

Did journalists learn anything from the runup to the Iraq War? At least one did.

Dan Grobstein File

• Why does the right treat 24 like it was real? Also, One of the comments mentions this book which sounds interesting.
• Self-explanatory
• An instructor at the University of Northern Iowa developed the sport of ice-climbing in 2000 - involving harnessed climbers slipping and sliding their way to the tops of silos, which can sometimes be as high as 110 feet-tall.

End Feb. 12 Column

Death Chooses Us, Not Vice Versa

Last week I mused on the differences between a slow death and a rapid one, and opted for a slow one--not that we are offered a choice in the matter, in most cases. Richard Dalton sent this thoughtful response, based on his personal experience:

I was belatedly reading your thoughts on death and was struck by your statement, "Instant death by accident or heart attack is particularly pernicious...." There are, as always, two sides to that well-worn coin.

I was with my mother when she died. We had spent the previous five years of her life not communicating because of unresolved bitterness. She was taken to a nursing home in what was pretty obviously a terminal state--we didn't need the hospice folks to tell us she was on the way out.

I came out to California to see her. She was, at that point, still reactive to people, though she couldn't talk or otherwise communicate. My brother and sister-in-law and I spent hours talking at her (no way to tell if she heard or understood any of it). She seemed in a state of anxiety and her fearful eyes would dart around the room seeking something we could not know. After a couple of days, the hospice representative said she might linger for a long, unpredictable period, so I flew back to the east coast.

A month later, my brother called and said that she was near death. I flew back to California and met him at the nursing home.. My mother had become an apparition. She lay on her bed with her chest thrust upward, breathing with obvious difficulty. Her unfocused eyes were fixed on the ceiling and her mouth gaped as she gasped for breath. The hospice folks said she was dying and, though they couldn't say how long it might take, they expected her death within 24 hours. We had agreed that no extraordinary means would be used to prolong life.

As we sat in the room, we all noticed, about the same time, that she didn't seem to be breathing. A nurse came in and confirmed she was dead.

My memories of my mother, already clouded by a lifetime of mutual disappointments, are of that barely recognizable person unable to communicate, this time because of physical constraints, as she literally gasped her last.

In this case at least, I saw no advantage in a death that was prolonged. There are no doubt, thousands of different scenarios about the death of someone close to you and how it affects those left behind. It's a journey that's too complicated to assess by the means or the velocity of death.

Richard's story reminds me of the sad fact that all of my older daughter's happy memories of her great-grandmother were wiped out by the fact that, the last time she saw Grams, Grams didn't recognize her. What a shame. A definite down side of slow death, particularly if it involves dementia.

Of course, we can choose death, but I understand it is very bad karma.

War Plans, Pay Attention To The Libby Trial, Some Thoughts On Impeachment

House Republican Minority Leader John Boehner (R. - Ohio 8th) recently issued a statement about George W. Bush's early January proposal for Iraq. Boehner alleged that Bush's "new strategy deserves a chance to succeed and it should receive fair and full consideration by this Congress."

Let's consider how this would have looked in World War II which lasted from about December 9, 1941, to September 2, 1945 (given a start date of March 19, 2003, the end date this time would have been about December 14, 2006 which hereafter will be referred to by PSACOT as VI Day (akin to VE and VP Days in WWII).

We have been fighting for almost four years, the enemies against whom we went to war have been defeated and Harry Truman decides he wants to send more troops and another $100B. Harry would have been removed from the kitchen. The Congress would not have waited around to see whether he could stand the heat.

The success of the "new" strategy depends upon, among other things, the willingness of Prime Minister Maliki to disarm the Mahdi militia which was organized by and which supports the leader of the largest block of votes (30) in Parliament. Maliki owes his office to this group. While it may be difficult to understand the intricacies of Iraqi politics, let's put this in American terms.

Q: How likely is it that George W. Bush would disarm every member of the National Rifle Association (most of whom voted for him in 2000 and 2004)?
A: Just as likely as it is that Maliki will disarm the Mahdi militia.

***

Pay attention to the Libby trial. Remember July 2003? Joe Wilson's column was published by the New York Times and Howard Dean was leading the Democratic field. His campaign was devoted to questioning/reversing Bush's position on the unnecessary, unconstitutional, and illegal invasion of Iraq. The one the CIA Director had warned the Congress about in writing a few days before the October, 2002 vote to authorize the use of force.

Dean was not burdened with a vote in favor of the invasion. There has been testimony/documents to the effect that Rove, Libby and others decided at a senior staff meeting to attack Joe Wilson by attacking his wife for implied nepotism. Within a day or two both Rove and Libby had revealed classified information to reporters as part of their attack on Wilson which was designed to protect Bush's chances in the 2004 election. The attack on Wilson's wife is a classic Nixon-era dirty trick. (The reader may remember that the publisher of the Manchester Union Leader was induced in early 1972 to attack Sen. Ed Muskie's wife. That, in turn led to a Muskie appearance in falling snow outside the Union Leader offices and pictures (which may have been snow melting on Muskie's face) which were interpreted as Muskie crying and therefore not manly enough to be elected President. All of which occurred just prior to the New Hampshire 1972 primary. The publisher of the Union Leader at the time was an ardent supporter of Richard Nixon.)

Rove is the next generation of Republicans turning dirty tricks to try to elect a corrupt federal official. The testimony/documents also indicate that Bush assigned/approved the Cheney/Rove/Libby attack using classified information on Joe and Valerie Wilson for the sole purpose of advancing Bush's political career and keeping Bush out of jail.
***

A Few Thoughts On Impeachment
Bipartisanship favors defining "other high crimes and misdemeanors" as whatever Congress thinks it means when they vote on an impeachment. This is the position taken by the bipartisanly respected and well-known Yale Law grad Rep. Gerald R. Ford (R. - Mich.) during his efforts to impeach U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Douglas in the 1970s.

To those who ask whether Congressional investigations would take too long, the Constitution does not require an investigation (only one vote in the House and one in the Senate. Because impeachment does not operate to deprive anyone of life, liberty, or property, the Constitution does not appear to require Fifth Amendment due process (for the federal official involved) during the impeachment and conviction process. (Given sufficient support, the whole process need take no more than a few calendar days and a very few legislative hours.) Full Fifth Amendment protections would of course apply to any witness called at an impeachment hearing or trial and at any subsequent criminal prosecution of a federal official removed from office by impeachment. There are some who may think a vote without a months long investigation in the House and lengthy trial in the Senate might decrease the stability of the American system. In a situation where the federal official involved has admitted conduct violative of the Fourth and Fifth Amendments on videotape (and/or national television broadcast), the need for an investigation is sharply reduced if not eliminated. No (lengthy) investigation into whether the federal official knew what had happened or had authorized it is needed. The federal official has admitted to the essential facts on national television (and indicated that the Constitutional violations are continuing and will continue with his authorization and at his explicit written direction). What we have is not a third rate burglary that is disavowed, but an admitted continuing program of, at a minimum, deliberate intentional knowing massive and blatant Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations.

Technobriefs

by Craig Reynolds

The revolution is televised: in 1974 when Gil Scott-Heron famously predicted that The Revolution Will Not be Televised he was talking about a different kind of revolution, and an almost unimaginably different television industry. Back then television was three networks, their local affiliates and a handful of local indies. Beyond social and cultural influences, TV evolved due to technological factors like the introduction of cable television, the rise of the global Internet, cheap digital video hardware, cheap video editing software and free distribution via the likes of YouTube and Google Video. To paraphrase another revolutionary, the net-workers control the means of video production. The near ubiquity of these tools was the subject of On-line editing tools nurture new video makers about web-based services like Jumpcut.com and Eyespot.com. Now there is talk of revenue sharing for all that user-generated content: YouTubers to get ad money share. And then there was this: Viacom demands YouTube remove videos (aka "Viacom cuts off nose to spite face. Face rolls eyes, mutters 'idiot!'"). After all its not like broadcasters want more people to watch their programming, oh wait... Its really just a transparent negotiating ploy, in truth Viacom desperately wants its programs on YouTube and is playing hard to get.

Oh ship: sittin' here (a few blocks from) the dock of the bay, I gotta love this real time map of ship traffic on San Francisco Bay. You can see the live view slowly change. Or like a weather map, you can watch a time lapse loop of the last hour. While I was watching I saw a tug boat heading toward the golden Gate, pull a U-turn and come alongside a ship arriving from the Pacific. Here is another page providing a view of the global shipping situation. (Both via Metafilter.) Also spotted on the bay: 'Spider' boat spins through the waves the unique design allows the craft to traverse choppy water with improved stability.

Massively multi-kid: last week brought announcements of two new entries in the field of massively multiplayer online games for kids: BBC's CBBC World and Nickelodeon's Nicktropolis (BBC plans online children's world and Nickelodeon Begins a Web Site Focusing on Interactive Play). These free services join Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom ("experience the awesome magic of Disney Theme Parks from home") and subscription services like ToonTown ("live the life of a Toon") and Club Penguin ("waddle around meet new friends!"). The general theme is to allow kids to interact/play virtually with other kids in s safe environment. In all cases these worlds try to protect kids from predators by a combination of active monitoring and the fact that typed communication between users is "spell checked" using a dictionary of pre-approved words, or communication is limited to a menu of pre-approved phrases.

Technobits: I noticed a few years ago that I had stopped typing domain names into browsers, it was more effective to use Google, apparently the practice has become widespread: Why "Yahoo" Is The #1 Search Term On Google (via) --- Paul alluded recently to computer animated water (once a holy grail of CGI, now an everyday effects tool), a recent advance in that area: Making Animated Fluids Look More Realistic --- like a similar study with honey bees described here in 2005: Radio tags track wasp behaviour ("Wasps fitted with minuscule radio tags have helped scientists shed light on the insects' behaviour") --- Courts Turn to Wikipedia, but Selectively --- Novell could be banned from selling Linux --- New wide-angle lens produces pictures without distortion --- wireless HDMI --- Zink's teeny tiny printers --- Almost 30 percent of Internet users tag online (New study shows tagging is increasingly being embraced as a way to sort and categorize online content) --- Bubble Wrap Young Inventors Competition --- Bike Lift 'Trampe' Stimulates Cycling --- Dancing video game helps kids avoid weight gain using Dance Dance Revolution like that other guy with the Wii-eght loss program.

Organ Joke

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties. She was admired for her sweetness and kindness to all. One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea.
As he sat facing her old Hammond organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top it. The bowl was filled with water, and in the water floated, of all things, a condom!
When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat. The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist.
"Miss Beatrice", he said, "I wonder if you would tell about this?" pointing to the bowl.
"Oh yes," she replied, "Isn't it wonderful? I was walking through the Park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease. Do you know I haven't had the flu all winter!"

GHD Followup, Peterman on Seasoned Shot, LiteBrite Bomb, Lasusa Links, Dan Grobstein File

I gave an interview to the Philadelphia Inquirer, of which exactly one quote made the paper on Feb. 1, 2007 (I teach in California, not Oregon, by the way):

The enlightened 'Groundhog'
Tomorrow is a big day for Buddhists who find spiritual meaning in the 1993 Bill Murray film about a man reliving the same day over and over.
By Jeff Gammage
Inquirer Staff Writer

Kent Peterman checks in: They've now invented ammunition that seasons your prey.

Am I the only one who saw a picture of the "bombs" in Boston (promos for a cartoon series) and thought it was painfully obvious there were litebrite boards?

Tom Lasusa returns with his links. This week -- it's movie mashup time again: When Harry Met Sally: The Thriller, Sleepless in Seattle: A New Horror Film, Star Wars/Pulp Fiction, Ten Things I Hate About Commandments, Star Wars as a Silent Movie, Neo Vs. Robocop (with a few others thrown in), The ever Classic "Shining", The Mother of All Trailers, Star Trek Meets Monty Python's Camelot.

Dan Grobstein File

Dan Grobstein File

• An interesting observation:

The Libby trial has been fascinating and disturbing on many levels. Ari Fleischer and Cathie Martin have re-confirmed that practically the entire Washington press corps had been leaked the name of an undercover CIA operative for partisan political reasons. This was back in 2003. Yet, that entire Washington press corps dutifully reported the repeated denials from the White House -- including those from Bush -- about the leak. And, this same press corps helped push the 2004 campaign spin that Bush and Cheney would keep us safe and were stronger on national security. And, they also reported on the White House outrage over other leaks that would hurt national security. No wonder the White House had such disdain for the media. They were playing the press all the time -- and the press let it happen.

The press corps should be ashamed. They enabled the Bush war machine, too. They were almost as bad as the Republicans on the Hill -- never asking questions, just doing what they were told. Pathetic.

• Paul Krugman wrote a wonderful appreciation of Molly Ivins, put you have to pay for it. Here's a free appreciation of Molly Ivins from Rudepundit that's almost as good:

…She was goddamned smart, so smart she didn't have to flaunt it. So smart that she could use the down to earth side to say what she meant so all of us could understand it. She didn't suffer bullies. She loved Texas like a parent loves her child even after that child has gone on a three-state killing spree. She was unfailingly polite. And she could eviscerate anyone who was failing all of us with just an image or two. Those guttings will be desperately missed. That sense and celebration of the decency of the average American will be missed even more. We've lost one of our defenders.

• Why more helicopters are being shot down in Iraq--maybe.

• Fool Me Once by digby
  
  May 24, 2002
  Rumsfeld: No Plans to Invade Iraq
  The United States has no plans to invade Iraq or any other country, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Friday, but he refused to discuss the Bush administration's thinking about how to deal with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
  
  February 2, 2007
  Gates: We're "Not Planning" To Attack Iran
  With respect to Iran, first of all, the president has made clear; the secretary of State has made clear; I've made clear -- nobody is planning -- we are not planning for a war with Iran.

End Feb. 5 Column