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End November 19 Column
Technobriefs

New Wolfe Book, Lasusa Links, Finnie Promotion, Weird Picture, Military Wisdom, Dan Grobstein File

November 18, 2007

Regular contributor and expert on all things Yiddish, Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe, has a new book out: Yiddish for Dog and Cat Lovers. $16.50, including mailing costs. You'll find order information at her site, even if her new book isn't there yet. Looks like fun.

Tom Lasusa surfs the web so you don't have to: Idiots of the Week: UK Cops tazer "Terrorist" who was really guy in Diabetic coma… Shifting sands reveal World War Two fighter plane lost for 65 years… A History of Photo Tampering… Daily Show writer explains writers' strike -- if digital content isn't worth anything, how come Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion?… Assholes of the Week: Qantas Airline passengers boo staff as they helped dying woman … Religious scholars mull Flying Spaghetti Monster…
And Remember, Technoviking does not dance to the music, the music dances to Technoviking! For some backstory)

My old friend and colleague Scot Finnie is now editor in chief of Computerworld. Congratulations!

Weirdest newspaper picture of the year, from the San Francisco Chronicle: click on the first picture, of the young man holding his shirt up, Magnets tested as alternative to major surgery for sunken chest.

Got these from Jim Forbes who got them from his brother. The first one is true according to Snopes; I can't confirm the other two.

When in England at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush. He answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return. It became very quiet in the room. [Snopes says this is true, and offers details]

***

Then there was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?" A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?"

Once again, dead silence.

***

A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks. A French admiral suddenly complained that, "Whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. Why is it we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?' Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Perhaps it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."

You could have heard a pin drop!

Dan Grobstein File
  • He's quoting a commenter on crooks & liars:
    quote:
    The Democrats should run on the platform of Our gays are better than their gays. Ours are the out, fun, happy, Will and Grace gays. Theirs are the angry, closeted, creepy, preying, priest/gym teacher gays.Which do you prefer, America?
    unquote.
  • The President prefers nice soft questions from Fox/GOP-TV
  • Advertisers: Fox not as good as CNN
    quote:

    I have been told by several people in the advertising biz that despite Fox News utterly kicking CNN's ass in the ratings, CNN charges much higher ad rates. Their ad sales, despite having lower total number of viewers, is more lucrative.

    Why?

    The simple answer is demographics. I have not personally seen the data, but according to these "Ad men," the CNN viewer has much better education and income numbers amongst; Fox news badly trails CNN in this department. The issue of disposable incomes of viewers surely concersn advertisers. One said to me "We can sell basic necessities on Fox and cheap trinkets; We can sell more upscale brands on CNN, and we can sell a lot more upscale goods on CNBC."

    unquote.
  • Diamonds or Pearls: A setup
    quote:
    Maria Luisa, the UNLV student who asked Hillary Clinton whether she preferred "diamonds or pearls" at last night's debate wrote on her MySpace page this morning that CNN forced her to ask the frilly question instead of a pre-approved query about the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
    "Every single question asked during the debate by the audience had to be approved by CNN," Luisa writes. "I was asked to submit questions including "lighthearted/fun" questions. I submitted more than five questions on issues important to me. I did a policy memo on Yucca Mountain a year ago and was the finalist for the Truman Scholarship. For sure, I thought I would get to ask the Yucca question that was APPROVED by CNN days in advance."
    unquote.
  • TRAVEL / ESCAPES | November 16, 2007
    In the Valley of the Literate
    By ROGER MUMMERT
    Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts is arguably the most author-saturated, book-cherishing, literature-celebrating place in the nation.

Posted at 10:55 PM in Letters |