reconsider...: August 2005

reconsider...

Tuesday, August 30

blaming hurricanes on global warming

national review editor rich lowry disputes by use of historical fact the silly notion that global warming (and thus indirectly president bush) are to blame for hurricane katrina.

at least that disputable assertion is better than that wacky theory that US military action caused the indian ocean tsunami (at least that poster realized it was a "dumb question")

¶ - nitish @ 6:23 PM | 0 comments

research paper questions research papers

a study of studies finds "problems with experimental and statistical methods" mean findings may be somewhat questionable. issues contributing to this include small sample sizes, biases and selective reporting.

after a study is released, the subsequent replication, comments and analysis ultimately determine its validity.

so the next time the results of a study are touted, maintain a healthy dose of skepticism.

¶ - nitish @ 9:49 AM | 0 comments

Monday, August 29

protest mom representin'

Asked about the military families who say she does not represent them, [Cindy] Sheehan replied: "I never said I did."

i find that difficult to square with the fact that the crosses bearing the names of fallen soldiers remain one of the centerpieces of camp casey.

unless specific permission were requested and granted by families of those soldiers, those at camp casey indeed presume to speak for them by including their names at an anti-war protest.

¶ - nitish @ 6:26 PM | 0 comments

random tv news

- as the wacky-premised prison break opens tonight on fox, the NYDaily News takes the opportunity to document the Kickoff Curse which tends to befall the first show to premiere each year

- the dutch reality tv guys have come up with another whopper. the dutch big brother cast a woman who is 7 months pregnant, with the possibility of a live reality tv birth.

¶ - nitish @ 4:53 PM | 0 comments

now that's alternative energy

a brilliant (that's so british) 16 year old developed a novel way to charge his cell phone. Peter Ash hooked his pet hamster's wheel to a charger to get 30 minutes of talk talk for 2 minutes of hamster wheel time. the most interesting thing

Surprisingly - and considering all the current moaning about falling exam standards, etc, etc - Ash only got a "C" for this contribution to his GSCE science course and, undoubtedly, a clean-energy future for all our children.

what does someone have to do to get an "A"?

¶ - nitish @ 11:00 AM | 0 comments

Friday, August 26

rich people getting stuff for free

presenters of the upcoming MTV video music awards will walk away with 'gift bags' worth $26,000. while that's alot of goodies, its chump change compared to last year's grammy $34k goody bag and the whopping $150k oscar goodies.
not bad for a coupla minutes of reading bad jokes off a teleprompter.

radar online examined the relative charitable value from the recent MTV movie awards goody bag.

for point of reference, the median household income is about $43,000.

¶ - nitish @ 10:17 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 25

but there is no media bia...oh forget it

jack kelly checks in with the source for a 'bush administration does no right' ny times story from about a week ago.

it turns out--surprise, surprise--the director of materiel for the Army staff Colonel Thomas Spoehr believes that reporter Michael Moss of the ny times twisted the story.

Spoehr told Moss all the things he told me, but there is not a single positive quote in his story.
"You would get the impression that our soldiers were in harm's way or at risk," Spoehr said. "That is not true."
Americans are becoming increasingly pessimistic about the war in Iraq, because all news about Iraq is presented as bad news, even when it isn't.

apparently positive quotes weren't part of the "all the news that's fit to print"

¶ - nitish @ 1:11 PM | 0 comments

alternative school rankings

the ever-increasing prominence of those (ridiculous) USNWR university rankings spurred some grumbling and some alternatives.

washington monthly developed an interesting alternative based on the jfk-like premise: "While other guides ask what colleges can do for students, we ask what colleges are doing for the country." since the methodology incorporates service, research and 'social mobility', the results are vastly different than USNWR:

"Only three schools in the 2006 U.S. News top 10 are among our highest-ranked....In addition, while the private colleges of the Ivy League dominate most rankings of the nation's best colleges, they didn't dominate ours....Our list was also more heavily populated with first-rate state schools...than that of U.S. News, which has no public universities within its top ten."

¶ - nitish @ 9:48 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 24

tv tidbits

i'm still not sure if sites like RTVStar are necessary if there enough applicants for a show called "I want your child...and nothing else!":

The show is a one-off competing with four other reality TV programs, one of which follows five former prostitutes starting a cafe. The program receiving most votes from viewers Saturday, after all the shows have aired, will be turned into a series.
De Telegraaf also published an email address for men wanting to donate sperm to Yessica.

this makes that fox show look above board

the death of the sitcom has been greatly exaggerated.

Reruns of “Raymond,” “Seinfeld” and “Friends” ranked among the 20 highest-rated programs on TV in July. And sitcoms in syndication averaged a 1.6 adult 18-49 rating, compared to a 1.4 for network sitcoms.

it appears the viewing public simply wants good sitcoms.

¶ - nitish @ 12:12 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, August 23

with a track record like this

several "governement experts" and "international scientists", according to a WaPo article [bugmenot login] "met in secret during the past nine months to pore over data collected by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency" [i'm sure judicial watch will be all over this one too] to say iran is just misuderstood.

hopefully these experts are more on top of the situation than prior nuclear proliferation

¶ - nitish @ 10:14 PM | 0 comments

special forces

earlier this year, headlines about recruiting troubles peppered the news media...
ralph peters updates the military personnel situation in the NY Post

Now, as the fiscal year nears an end, the Army's numbers look great. Especially in combat units and Iraq, soldiers are re-enlisting at record levels. And you don't hear a whisper about it from the "mainstream media."
Let's look at the numbers, which offer a different picture of patriotism than the editorial pages do.

several facts and figures describe the state of enlistment, re-enlistment, etc.

Every one of the Army's 10 divisions — its key combat organizations — has exceeded its re-enlistment goal for the year to date. Those with the most intense experience in Iraq have the best rates
The Army is running at 108 percent of its needs
The Army Reserve is a tougher sell, given that it takes men and women away from their families and careers on short notice. Well, Reserve recruitment stands at 102 percent of requirements.
And then there's the Army National Guard. We've been told for two years that the Guard was in free-fall. Really? Guard recruitment and retention comes out to 106 percent of its requirements as of June 30.

while it must be noted that "need" and "goal" are two different things, the situation is not nearly as dire as previously reported.

Guess we have to face it: Patriotism is alive and well. Soldiers believe in the Army, and they believe in their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. They love their comrades, too. And yes, the word is "love." They would die for the man or woman serving beside them. They're risking their lives to save a broken state, to give tens of millions of human beings a chance at decent lives, to do the grim work that no one else in the world is willing to do.

¶ - nitish @ 1:08 PM | 0 comments

Monday, August 22

a stranger among us

award winning screenwriter robert j avrech relates his life and times as a conservative jewish republican in hollywood.

I’m a Republican. A heretofore secret Hollywood Republican. I know men and women who are heavy drug addicts and they have no problem finding employment in Hollywood. I know men and women who are gambling addicts and they work pretty regularly. There’s even a director who was arrested for child molestation and yet was hired by Disney — yes, Disney — to helm a picture, and people defended this decision by saying even child molesters have a right to work. I would bet my bottom dollar that all these people are on the correct side of the political spectrum. They are liberal democrats.

avrech opens with his own reticence to publicize his religous beliefs, but the meaty part of the account deals with his experience as a republican. the high points include efforts to write screenplays for two projects met with utter disregard since they don't tow the company line:

When I confront these people with the truth they look at me as if I am some visitor from some foreign planet.
Which I guess I am.

avrech continues with disappointment/anger regarding hollywood's silence and politicaly correct based temerity:

Last year the Dutch film director Theo Van Gogh was murdered in Holland at the hands of Islamic extremists. It was a gruesome murder. There was not one word of protest from the Hollywood community. Because of liberal political correctness, the 2002 version of Tom Clancy’s “The Sum of All Fears” transformed Palestinian terrorists into European neo-Nazis.

it will be interesting to follow-up on this story

¶ - nitish @ 4:32 PM | 0 comments

does it need to get easier?

a website has popped up to connect reality tv hopefuls with casting agents.
RTVStar, with such rousing slogans as "so you want to be on tv?", "what's your reality" and "making reality tv dreams come true", looks to fill a demand for the ever increasing genre.

¶ - nitish @ 12:05 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 20

alternative energy is for the little people

environmentalist and liberal types in general tout the promise of renewable or alternative energy while lamenting the lack of movement towards it.

the nationral review online's jonah goldberg describes the drama surrounding a proposed cape cod wind farm which could be filed in the "actions not words" category. massachusetts senator ted kennedy leads the opposition to the project despite the fact that it may provide a significant part of the area's energy needs.

at best it's the old nimby problem, but smacks more of the old "do as i say not as i do"

[L]et's not hear fossilizing liberals like him, Kennedy, and Huffington talk about the need for the wealthy to make sacrifices anymore. And they better not get caught with one of those "Think globally, act locally" bumper stickers on their SUVs, either.

¶ - nitish @ 12:38 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 19

where do child actors go

young ben seaver from growing pains has found gainful employemnt

check out a decidedly snarky take with great then-and-now pix.

¶ - nitish @ 4:26 PM | 0 comments

more on california redistricting

movement in the california redistricting initiative supported by governor schwarzenegger

last week, the california supreme court restored proposition 77 to the november special election. previously, lower courts ruled discrepancies in the filing process made it invalid. however the state supreme court maintained the public will overrides some technical errors.

complicating matters, the federal election commission ruled [bugmenot login] yesterday to remove any limits on spending on the ballot initiatives. predictably, a bipartisan group of incumbents plan to raise funds to fight the initiative which would make some of their legislative races less cushy.

¶ - nitish @ 9:50 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 18

reeling newspaper industry

given circulation declines and a growing public distrust, the newspaper industry can't stand much more bad news.

unfortunately, given the recent box office slump, movie studios may review their mega-advertising budgets (entertainment in general comprises ~14% of newspaper revenue). it's the same old story of demographics and bang-for-the-buck. kids don't check the newspaper for movie info.

¶ - nitish @ 12:41 PM | 0 comments

how much for that video game console in the window

for the record, the last video game console i bought was the sega genesis in the early to mid-90s. once they went beyond the A-B-C buttons, it was too much for me to handle.
however, given the magnitude of the market (and investing implications), i try to stay on top of the business.

in a bid to actually make the xbox division profitable, microsoft plans to step up the pricing of the nextgen xbox 360 with 'core' version for $300 and a bells-and-whistles version for $400.

in an intersting twist, a company planning a potential competitor to the xbox 360 raided the microsoft-xbox executive offices. infinium, which has promised the "phantom" game console for several years, hiring an executive from a company notorious for vaporware smacks of irony.

¶ - nitish @ 11:11 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 17

the physics between us

physics postgrad student Richard Ecob developed a computer model to demonstrate interactions within social networks. it reveals similarities between the manner in which atoms decay and interpersonal relationships.

i'm sure there's some sort of reality show premise there.

¶ - nitish @ 4:28 PM | 0 comments

drinking while schooling

while not falling for the warning label trick, the beverage industry goes more with the self-regulation route with regards to availability of drinks in schools.
essentially the older kids get the better--i mean less healthy--options become more available

¶ - nitish @ 12:17 PM | 0 comments

forget what i just said

the print is barely dry on that new york metro article in which clinton laments lack of opportunities with regard to bin laden.

it turns out he was amply warned [bugmenot login] about bin laden settling in afghanistan and its information sharing policies could be

"very dangerous" and could have "deadly results"

¶ - nitish @ 11:32 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, August 16

mr clinton meet reality, reality meet mr clinton

if only...
newsmax relates a portion of a lengthy new york magazine article [pages 4-5 for relevant passages] in which the former president laments the lost opportunity to go after osama bin laden by linking him to the USS cole bombing of october 2000. that new york metro article notes both sympathetically and skeptically:

The sentiment sounds both sincere and self-justifying—both a regret and a preemptive exercise in legacy protection.

no mention as to the lack of follow through despite bin laden's infamous fatwah or the african embassy bombings which led to the august 1998 action which destroyed some random targets including a pharmaceutical plant

According to a well-researched article written by Richard Becker, Sara Flounders and John Parker in CAQ, the El Shifa pharmaceutical plant was responsible for over 50% of Sudan’s medicine. This included 90% of the most critically needed drugs. In their words:
“...the bombing will inexorably cause the suffering and death of tens of thousands of innocent people all over Africa, many of them children, by depriving them of basic medicines against malaria, tuberculosis, and other easily curable diseases.”

update [256pm]: the captain further nails down the 'unreality' of the statement by referring to the 9/11 Commission maintaining a link between the cole and bin laden in november 2004, a few months before clinton exited office.

¶ - nitish @ 12:56 PM | 0 comments

airline security

the Transportation Security Administration is considering changes in its airline passenger screening protocol.
would legos be part of that change

Unfortunately, all that math didn't help get one of his sculptures through the Transportation Security Administration's gauntlet at the airport.
"I had one piece that the TSA took apart and then put back together randomly," [Microsoft software engineer and lego enthusiast David Winkler] said.

¶ - nitish @ 10:57 AM | 0 comments

periodic microsoft coverage

this may surprise some, but microsoft sometimes makes mistakes...

despite promises to improve performance, the first beta of the next release of windows vista (formerly longhorn) underwhelms according to a wired review

¶ - nitish @ 8:55 AM | 0 comments

Monday, August 15

PETA PR pratfalls

the person/people behind PETA's public relations should perhaps follow the example of David Seldin.
when an organizations tactics cause more backlash than positive feedback, a change in strategy ought to be in the works.

PETA's latest campaign attempts to equate the plight of animals to blacks, native americans, essentially any 'oppressed' group. similar to some gay marriage advocates, PETA appears to seek a sense of shared victimhood to advance its cause.

However, officials with the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People aren't buying it.
"PETA operates by getting publicity any way they can," said John White, an NAACP spokesman. "They're comparing chickens to black people?"
PETA officials apologized this year for a campaign that compared the suffering of Jews during the Holocaust with that of factory animals.

the lameness of PETA knows few bounds

¶ - nitish @ 5:38 PM | 0 comments

bush's meeting with military families

given the inordinate cindy sheehan media coverage, i'm surprised there haven't been media recounts of bush's meeting with families of fallen soldiers.

newsweek includes accounts of these meetings. the article even mentions one possible reason for lack of media coverage

The conversations are closed to the press, and Bush does not like to talk about what goes on in these grieving sessions, though there have been hints.

the article includes a picture, it does not mention cindy sheehan or the fact that she already attended one such meeting with president bush.

¶ - nitish @ 11:21 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, August 14

able danger, part iii

as stated before, the 911 commission's changing story on the inability/resistance to integrating able danger info into its final report demonstrates the difficulty of intelligence gathering and law enforcement in the current environment.
the always compelling mark steyn gets it right:

Sept. 11 was a total government fiasco: CIA, FBI, INS, FAA, all the hot shot acronyms failed spectacularly. But appoint an official commission and let them issue an official report and suddenly everyone says, oh, well, this is the official version of 9/11; if they say something didn't happen, it can't possibly have happened.
[snip]
Maybe we need a 9/11 Commission Commission to investigate the 9/11 Commission. A body intended to reassure Americans that the lessons of that terrible day had been learned instead engaged in what at best was transparent politicking and collusion in posterior-covering and at worst was something a whole lot darker and more disturbing.

this incident undermines the belief that the necessary changes can be made in a sufficient manner

¶ - nitish @ 9:42 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 13

cnn is a mess

the whiny losers at cnn have alotta stuff on their plate.
but apparently little of it has to do with improving the product, but rather inconsequential behind-the-scenes junk like daryn kagan's lovelife

An anonymous tipster asks: "If Kagan was dating Al Franken, would anyone be talking about this? It's reprehensible that we're even talking about this."

or glass house complaints about other people's news

"This excerpt is exactly why CNN is in 3rd place," an e-mailer says: "Until something else happens, until there really are developments, we'll leave the rest to the other guys."

...mediabistro's tvnewser is great...

¶ - nitish @ 4:10 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 12

able danger-911 commission

following up on yesterday's able danger post...
the 911 commission should have at least mentioned the incident in its definitive report [bugmenot login]. congressman curt weldon "upset by suggestions earlier Wednesday by 9/11 panel members that it had been not been given critical information on Able Danger's capabilities and findings" refutes any such suggestion by citing able danger staff briefings.

but yet again, this only further crystallizes the difficulty in intelligence gathering and/or criminal investigations as information may remain difficult to cull through even with the benefit of hindsight.

¶ - nitish @ 11:18 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 11

able danger

as troubling as the revelation [bugmenot login] that several of the hijackers including mohammed atta may have been identified as possible terrorists a year before 9/11 may be, it merely confirms that the system was flawed.

the incident crystallizes the pre-9/11 "sense of discomfort...about sharing intelligence information with a law enforcement agency." hopefully, the changes made since will prevent any such "discomfort"

¶ - nitish @ 11:04 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 10

cult of southwest

southwest airlines consistently scores well in customer satisfaction surveys.
i don't get it...
i dislike the lack of seat reservations, essentially forcing an early arrival to the airport, waiting around to get in line to get a seat that i should have gotten when i paid for the ticket.
i suppose this system helps southwest's marginally better on-time departure and/or arrival record [check the aug05 report], but the quick turnarounds also led to some less than clean cabins.
this is before addressing the lack of amenities like in flight entertainment, food and legroom

¶ - nitish @ 10:16 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 6

vegas baby

an extended weekend

¶ - nitish @ 2:18 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 5

slap an ad on anything

after one person auctioned off her forehead as permanant tattoo ad space ($15k by the way) and another auctioned off her cleavage on a temp basis (only 422 british pounds), a guy is willing to auction off his own cold dead body as ad space

the only question is how high goldenpalace.com will bid as they seem to have cornered the market in these wacky actions as a profile-raising business marketing tactic

¶ - nitish @ 3:28 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 4

signs of a bubble

a NYSE seat sells for a record amount of $3million. the last time it approached that level was in the late 90s.

update friday the 6th
chinese internet ipo baidu recalls previous crazy IPOs like globe.com

The ten biggest first-day percentage increases are: the Va Linux 12/09/99 697.50%, Globe.com 11/13/98 606%, Foundry Networks 9/28/99 525%, Webmethods 2/11/00 507.50%, Free Markets 12/10/99 483.33%, Cobalt Networks 11/05/99 482%, MarketWatch.com 1/15/99 474%, Akamai Technologies 10/29/99 458%, Cacheflow 11/19/99 426.56% and Sycamore Networks 10/22/99 386%.

i don't think any of those really panned out

¶ - nitish @ 7:05 PM | 0 comments

first sign of a fake critic

anyone movie critic who says goods things about "A Knight's Tale", "Vertical Limit" and Rob Schneider's "The Animal" [with the immortal words "The producing team of Big Daddy has delivered another winner!"] would draw some attention.

but sony has set aside $1.5 million to settle with moviegoers duped by their fake Ridgefield Press movie critic david manning

¶ - nitish @ 11:14 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 3

it's not whether you win or lose

Democratic party leaders and strategistsare "delighted" with the results of an ohio special election.

the problem is the democratic candidate lost. essentially, the democrats securing 14% of the electorate (48% of the very low 29% voter turnout) made them happy.

speaking of alotta hype with little positive results, liberal activist group America Coming Together winds down operations [bugmenot login] after burning through money like a late 90s bubble era dotcom.

¶ - nitish @ 10:23 AM | 0 comments

Monday, August 1

crash diet for atkins

i don't know why i have a sense of giddiness from the news that the company behind the annoying fad diet atkins nutritional filed chapter 11 bankruptcy.

on a technical note, i don't know why lenders would accept equity...
but i guess something is better than nothing

¶ - nitish @ 10:28 AM | 0 comments