reconsider...: March 2006

reconsider...

Friday, March 31

you know corruption is rampant when

corruption appears institutionalized in nigeria. so much so that the Nigerian Football Association essentially blesses referees taking bribes...as long as it doesn't change their calls... Fanny Amun says, apparently with no hint of iron

"Referees should only pretend to fall for the bait, but make sure the result doesn't favour those offering the bribe"

right...
they're basically trying the same approach in congress [bugmenot login] with not-enough lobby reforms

¶ - nitish @ 11:31 AM | 0 comments

more katrina fallout

the estimated cost of levee repairs for the entire region jumps [bugmenot login] from ~$3.5 billion to ~10 billion (found via lucianne.com)

governor blanco--who has demonstrated a slippery grasp of reality--feigns outrage that a complete rebuild won't occur. i say 'feign' because a complete rebuild would never really occur.

however simple cost-benefit analysis would indicate all those expenditures would not be warranted

To help state and local officials choose which areas might be protected by insurance-certified levees, Powell broke the four-parish New Orleans region into 10 areas and listed the populations and cost of building such levees.
In the analysis, three Plaquemines Parish sections, southeast of the city, look ripe for cost-cutting. Less than 2 percent of the area's population lives there, but it would cost nearly $2.9 billion to build certified levees.
By contrast, protecting Algiers, where 13 percent of the region's population lives, would cost $129 million.

meanwhile evacuees are finding a new home difficult to find, as the 'vibrant population' talk by local officials along with growing wariness of houstonians

¶ - nitish @ 8:29 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, March 30

breaking news: jill carroll released

christian science monitor's reporter jill carroll, who was taken hostage back in january -- CSM's timeline and updates -- has been released.

she remarks on being 'treated well'...unfortunately, her abductors did not treat her translator Allan Enwiya well when they murdered him.

Often their stories, even their names, are not told. But Allan's story is representative of why Iraqis are willing to take such risks by working with foreigners.

remember the name 'allan enwiya'...in all the joy at carroll's release, the blogosphere hasn't instead referring to him only as her translator

¶ - nitish @ 8:59 AM | 0 comments

wired covers apple @ 30

apple's impact remains undeniable--not just computing, but also marketing ('1984' practically invented the super bowl ad as event)

wired's coverage starts a bit self-congratulatory focusing on their own 'insanely great stuff',
but hits its stride focusing on apple products (240 items, 15 pages!), then the evolution of the operating system.
wired continues with the wit and wisdom of steve jobs, the man forever linked with apple.
however, the feature on apple advertising (to be covered march 31st) could be the highlight

¶ - nitish @ 8:15 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, March 29

little known facts

if one were to guess which were the highest rated comedy central shows ever...

could it be the new colbert report which gets positive coverage--but only ~1.1 million viewers

maybe, it's the daily show which earned a post oscars ratings bump--despite the award show's lackluster numbers--to ~1.6 million viewers

surely, its south park which benefited from the scientology brouhaha to the tune of ~3.5 million viewers

however if you follow the supplied link, it's actually the 'blue collar' comedians who dominate the top spots
(scroll down to the second item--it's even buried within the article with the 'hicks' heading)

having stipulated recently to the goofiness of ratings, i still find it strange at the disproportionate coverage

¶ - nitish @ 3:11 PM | 0 comments

struggling to stay afloat

one can't begrudge efforts in new orleans to rebound from hurrican katrina...

but the plan to sell off flooded buses serves as a reminder to some of the missteps

note: before-and-after satellite images of a new orleans bus depot

¶ - nitish @ 8:46 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, March 28

no development

in an unsurprising development--but a rather dragged out process nonetheless--arrested development officially kicks the bucket

it's not much of a shock given the fact that AD averaged only 4.2 million viewers this season.
averaging only slightly more than maury povich's paternity shows and getting bettered by skating with celebrities in the same time slot...
there's no accounting for taste in those numbers, but numbers ultimately run show biz

¶ - nitish @ 4:19 PM | 0 comments

you are/are not the father

the washington post profiles maury povich's predilection--and success--of the paternity test. [bugmenot login]

The paternity show, though, is the program's signature format, its franchise -- as well as its highest rated, helping "Maury" (3.8 million viewers daily) rank fourth this season among daytime talk shows, behind "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "Dr. Phil" and "Live With Regis and Kelly."

ifilm hosts a funny jimmy kimmel compilation of daytime paternity tests
btw, jimmy is great with great music guests...even without a tie

¶ - nitish @ 2:54 PM | 0 comments

movies as marketing vehicles

edward jay epstein, whose slate 'hollywood economist' columns deals with show biz math including
international financing loopholes and the numbers behind the numbers, goes through product placement in movies.

while the bond movies were landmark--with the fancy cars and recent entries garnering $30 million in deals prior to release. current product placement puts it to shame. as one insider notes

"Product placement gigs will become a major source of production financing in the future, in which a movie provides a controlled world of good-looking stars wearing a certain brand of clothing for an hour and a half, in exchange for which the brand manufacturer pays for a large share of the production."

notwithstanding one anecdote about oliver extracting free cowboy boots by grinding the production of natural born killers to a halt, movie product placement proves a win-win for the advertiser and show biz--but not necessarily the audience

¶ - nitish @ 9:00 AM | 0 comments

Monday, March 27

charlie sheen's conspiracy just got bigger

last week, charlie sheen--no master of new fangled communications--goes on radio with 9/11 conspiracy theories. popular mechanics addressed some of these ideas, along with katrina myths like black displacement

during the sentencing phase of his trial, Zacarias Moussaoui admits knowledge and potential participation in terrorist acts against the united states.

the only evidence of 'conspiracy' involves the hijackers

¶ - nitish @ 4:14 PM | 0 comments

stupid or lying

in an article about a memo that the left will get all huffy about, the ny times apparently believes there were only two iraqi resolutions [bugmenot login]

there were alot more, even after discounting 'extend oil-for-palace' resolutions

judgement: the ny times is stupid for not realizing they are obviously lying
it's shoddy work that leads to phony stories, phony photos, phony pundits...
i could go on, but there are too many phonies over at the NYT

¶ - nitish @ 8:30 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, March 25

cassini paying off

after recently finding water on a saturn moon, cassini sends back a spectacular image of saturn moons, rings, all with the sun 'in the background'

images like these along with hubble images cannot be topped

¶ - nitish @ 12:57 PM | 0 comments

Friday, March 24

keep the audience laughing

given the lackluster ratings of comedies--only 2 in the top 20 season-to-date, it would appear the category is in decline. personally, the only primetime sitcoms i watch are 'my name is earl' and 'everybody hates chris'

however, an analysis of viewing trends reveals otherwise. people are watching sitcoms, just not necessarily the new sitcoms.

Not so. The average household is tuning in 4.84 hours worth of sitcoms each week this season, according to a report by ad buyers Magna Global. During the 1993-94 season, it was 3.78 hours.
Twelve seasons ago, more than half of that comedy viewing (56 percent) came in prime-time on the big broadcast networks. Startlingly, this year only 13 percent of this season's sitcom-watching fits that category.
Where are they going? Nick at Nite delivers a prime-time lineup with "Roseanne" and "The Cosby Show." TBS is all comedy, with "Seinfeld," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Friends" and "Sex and the City." Many of those same comedies are sold in syndication, often competing strongly with Jay Leno and David Letterman late at night.

the solution, as always, would be to make better shows

¶ - nitish @ 4:54 PM | 0 comments

same facts, different conclusions

given the current situation in iraq, phrases like 'sectarian violence' and 'civil war' get thrown around alot. even among conservative circles there's dispute:

the nypost's ralph peters--who previously covered military personnel numbers when it wasn't fashionable (when numbers were bad), traced bad journalism to watergate-itis, and national security matters in general--doesn't see civil war (via lucianne.com), going on a factual point-by-point--definition and numbers.

while the washington post's charles krauthammer, going with a broader definition, does (those ldotters strike again), yet takes a swipe at the silly arguments of defeatists

¶ - nitish @ 9:46 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, March 23

tv white noise

a few bits of info courtesy of tv tattle:

- that's alotta balloons: vh-1 will air one full our of nena's 99 luftballons

- some ham with a side of ham: cbs lines-up a deal to be seen in supermarkets

- breaking free from his bonds: espn gets barry bonds to address steroids in his upcoming reality show

¶ - nitish @ 3:10 PM | 0 comments

britannica strikes back

late last year, online community encyclopedia wikipedia suffered some bumps and bruises

nature magazine seemingly came to the rescue with a comparison between wikipedia and the venerable britannica concluding that the wiki reference "comes close to Britannica".

even at that time, the uk reg was skeptical of the analysis. however, encyclopedia britannica comes with a more full-throated response, questioning the methodology of the nature study, to say the least

"Dozens of inaccuracies attributed to the Britannica were not inaccuracies at all, and a number of the articles Nature examined were not even in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The study was so poorly carried out and its findings so error-laden that it was completely without merit."

the register chimes in with continued disbelief

We thought it pretty odd, back in December, to discover a popular science journal recommending readers support less accurate information. It's even stranger to find this institution apparently violating fundamental principles of empiricism.
But these are strange times - and high summer for supporters of junk science.[emphasis altered due to formatting limitations]

[note personal opinion: studies and/or papers can be goofy, but still kinda matter]

¶ - nitish @ 8:28 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, March 22

big time money

given the staggering numbers involved in athletics including nfl tv deals and even college programs, it doesn't always register until they are strung together.

the ny times strings some together--i think even they can't mess this up--in a summation of nfl commish paul tagliabue's career

In television deals made during his time as the National Football League commissioner, ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, TNT and ESPN have signed contracts worth a combined $46.4 billion, while the satellite operator DirecTV will end up paying $6.1 billion by the time its new five-year deal is over.
In that same 16-year span, Major League Baseball's network deals have totaled nearly $11 billion, and those with the National Basketball Association have come to $9.2 billion. Real good, but not Tagliabue money.

additionally, the $3 billion a year and the effective revenue-sharing make the NFL perhaps the best product too

¶ - nitish @ 4:03 PM | 0 comments

par for the M$ course

that sense of humor microsoft demonstrated may come in handy as a bunch of gaffes come in succession...

- 'mea culpa' on lack of browser innovation, but that's not such a big deal as mozilla and opera have more than picked up the slack on that front

- as an attempt at a 'make good', xbox 360 shipments will (finally) increase after an underwhelming launch numbers-wise

- but the slippage of the next operating system vista (check out the timeline of quotes), which will ding the entire industry

simply more of the same for gates and co. microsoft and credibility rarely populate the same sentence

¶ - nitish @ 9:11 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, March 21

getting around the barriers

bug me not is a cool tool which helps get to those sites which require mandatory registration.

cnet's news.com describes a toolbar from congoo which allows access to previously subscription-only sites.
note: while it sounds good my mozilla suite wasn't congoo compatible
(i haven't switched over to seamonkey and/or the firefox-thunderbird combo)

¶ - nitish @ 3:37 PM | 0 comments

future not le bright

france has had it rough over the last bit of time...
with the rejection of the eu constitution and losing the olympics to london

however more disturbing remains the unrest within two key demographics. last year's 'race riots' (that's a bit of a simplification, but i'm only one man) demonstrated trouble within 5% and growing population of muslims in france.

recent student unrest exposes resistance to necessary changes within france's economy

¶ - nitish @ 8:50 AM | 0 comments

Monday, March 20

the most important perspective

while everyone and their brother go with the 3 years in iraq story,
perhaps it's best to go with someone who actually has a personal stake in iraq

We will not be defeated and orphans of the dark past will get what they deserve and our sacrifices and the sacrifices of those who stand with us shall not go in vain, our sacrifices will pave an easier road for those want to follow us when they decide it's time for them to change.
And yes...Iraq will be the model.

iraq the model remains a must read for the iraqi perspective

¶ - nitish @ 4:42 PM | 0 comments

'do nothing' congress

usa today analyzes the not particularly rigorous congressional schedule(found via slate's today's papers). here are some of the low lights:

Members of Congress are taking an entire week off for St. Patrick's Day. It's the latest scheduling innovation to give members more time to meet with constituents.
Through Friday, the House was in session for 19 days, compared with 33 for the Senate. If they stick to their current schedule — including two weeks off in April, a week in May and July, plus all of August — House members will spend 97 days in Washington this year.
The House was in session 108 days in 1948 [prompting president truman to dub them the 'do-nothing' congress], according to the chamber's archives, compared with 141 days last year.
[snip]
During the first two months of the year, House members logged a total of 47 hours in the Capitol. They took off almost the entire month of January , while the Senate confirmed Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court.
For both chambers, workweeks have become short in recent years. Roll call votes are seldom scheduled for Mondays or Fridays. In the House, they are often postponed until late Tuesday.
As a result, it's difficult to schedule committee meetings. Some panels meet when Congress is not in session, but not often. [emphasis and disgust added]

one lame excuse--i mean explanation--time to meet with constituents defies logic since gerrymandering has greatly increased the safe seats for these guys, with less than 10% competitive races.

most disturbingly: "Lawmakers will make $165,200 this year. Leaders earn more."
that would work out to $1700+ a day all while government spending is outta control

¶ - nitish @ 8:57 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, March 18

minority report-ing

considering all the coverage an out-of-work civil servant got for illegal activity, one would think the illegal investigation of a sitting lt governor and prospective senate candidate would garner similar coverage

one would thing wrong... overa 1000 stories compared with less than 50 stories

that's because claude allen is a minority republican who did wrong, while a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee staffer did minority republican michael steele wrong.

but there is no media bias...
in any case, lauren weiner will plead guilty to charges related to the illegal acts

¶ - nitish @ 12:31 PM | 0 comments

Friday, March 17

comedy central cowards

the isaac hayes-south park bit didn't garner much of my attention because i don't care about the show.
either by coincidence or blatant opportunism, comedy central planned to re-air the offending episode wednesday march 15th.

that is until tom cruise stepped in (note: i used newsbusters since pagesix changes its url's often)
much to the consternation of the media, the blogosphere and the south park creators

comedy central's provocative move of airing material offensive to some prompted a question as to the behavior of failed oscar host jon stewart of the outsized accolades with regard to the danish cartoons.

yeah..just as i guessed...jon stewart chickened out
if one plans to air material that may offend, be an equal opportunity offender...
not a chicksh*t one

¶ - nitish @ 3:37 PM | 0 comments

they'll give out credit cards to anyone

inquisitive Rob Cockerham conducts an experiment involving a ripped apart-taped together-mailed in credit card application.

disturbingly, the ripped up application was approved.

the register gets the credit card company line chalking up the bungle to the accept in any condition policy and an automated computer process, ultimately putting the onus of responsibility on the consumer

¶ - nitish @ 9:05 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, March 16

arianna thinks, therefore she blogs

...for other people

the huffington post attempts to defend its george clooney i am a liberal entry which he apparently didn't write

i have a feeling, the HP didn't approve of video news release - wikipedia / sourcewatch - where content was not necessarily attributed to the original source

¶ - nitish @ 3:28 PM | 0 comments

gates: let them eat cake

last year MIT's nicholas negroponte proposed ~$100 computers intended for developing nations. program partners such as Google, AMD, Red Hat and Brightstar (of which i had never heard) plan to chip in to the effort scheduled to really kick in by 2007.

naturally, no M$ products like office or windows could make the cut.
unsurprisingly, bill gates mocks the low cost pc (relayed by the reg)

"If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type."

how else would microsoft increase its stash of money?

¶ - nitish @ 8:51 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, March 15

tv by the numbers

- 5.9 million
viewers for vh1's strangely compelling flava of love, tops on basic cable for the night and the week--and the biggest vh1 show ever

- 4.15 million
the amount of $ cingular made off the 2005 american idol text message voting

- 0
the cost of a aol's previously announced newly launched in2tv which will stream classic tv shows (only a coupla commercial interruptions) including personal faves perfect strangers, wonder woman and brisco county

¶ - nitish @ 3:20 PM | 0 comments

with enemies like these...

not only was i correct that feingold's 'censure bush' grandstanding would go absolutely nowhere, it actually did even worse than i had initially thought.

his fellow democrats are running away from feingold and his move like its the plague"

I haven't read it," demurred Barack Obama (Ill.).
"I just don't have enough information," protested Ben Nelson (Neb.).
"I really can't right now," John Kerry (Mass.) said

Dana Milbank continues with Dem after Dem steering clear of the censure resolution (including humorous instances for the NY senators.

washington times editorial page editor tony blankely sums up the broader political implications, including the 2008 election cycle.

similar to john murtha's redeploy now move of last fall, this misstep allows the republicans and bush 43 to reunify after a rough spot

¶ - nitish @ 9:47 AM | 0 comments

who knew...?

apparently, that hilarious ipod-by-microsoft parody video from a few days ago was created by microsoft for internal chuckles (via lost remote again)

even microsoft has a sense of humor...

¶ - nitish @ 8:57 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, March 14

random showbiz bits

- having never been a fan of sopranos--it's seems like hollywood cliche on top of hollywood cliche (sprinkle a 'godfather'/'goodfellas' knockoff with 'analyze this'), the fact that it's season premiere dropped ~25% despite much hype, glowing reviews and free pub, albeit against tougher competition
btw, i haven't seen many articles about l&o criminal intent lately

- continuing the lack of new showbiz ideas...
this sounds horrible. travolta, j-lo and maclaine...that's alotta ham

...and so does ice cube in welcome back, kotter...the race swapping of the honeymooners didn't work

when will it stop?

¶ - nitish @ 4:38 PM | 0 comments

stop me if you've heard this before

the ny times may have run a phony story...
it's always embarrassing [bugmenot login] when the ny times has to cover a ny times goof

the intensely lefty salon.com investigation of abu ghraib pix led to the questions.

while its self-defeating for liberal institutions go after each other, the nytimes is no stranger to critiquing fellow media on sensitive topics...what's good for the goose...

yet, i'm sure the NYTimes will fall back on the old media reliable 'fake but accurate' bit

update: the wsj's james taranto notes in 'best of the web today' (2nd item)

Yesterday we noted that the New York Times had published a page 1 story on Abu Ghraib on the same day that it published a story on page 8 about the murder of a hostage, who, as the Times reported the next day on page 10, was apparently tortured before being slain. Today the Times reports its Abu Ghraib story may have been fake
[snipped salon article referenced above]
The story raising doubts about the page 1 story appeared on page 17.

the correction rarely trumps the initial story

¶ - nitish @ 2:43 PM | 0 comments

how's your news

wired.com examines the various tools available to gather and sort news from across the web.

google news seemingly invented the algorithm method where computers sort news stories. on the end of the spectrum, digg.com uses a community based system.

personally, a balance of man and machine is the way to go.

btw, the how's your news is a great story itself

update mar15: although google news' rep gets dinged by a kid's fake press release (via tech memeorandum)

¶ - nitish @ 9:26 AM | 0 comments

Monday, March 13

denial as a business model

people on the web, who make their money on the web,
perpetually downplay the prevalence of porn on the web

update [mar14 morning]: while i'm not a big fan of the move...
the US vs google tussle over search records would reveal alot

¶ - nitish @ 3:35 PM | 0 comments

what a surprise

george clooney announces he's a liberal on the liberal huffington post.

he expands the 'we're better than you' tone of his oscar speech. incidentally, clooney was against [search 'touch' reveals cloony 'seriously doubts it'] the idea that 'hollywood is out of touch' before he was for it.

uber-conservative ann coulter sliced and diced this thought in her usual colorful manner

Even on AIDS -- which is something you'd expect people like Clooney to know something about -- Hollywood was about seven years behind. Wait, no -- bad choice of words. Even on AIDS, Hollywood got caught with its pants down. Still no good. On AIDS, Hollywood got it right in the end.

while peggy noonan is a bit more diplomatic [bugmenot login] about clooney's condescension, which is her way

¶ - nitish @ 9:59 AM | 0 comments

mad libs as a sign of the end

in this era of ever-increasing commercials and product placement, it's difficult for ads to stand out.

so icons like the 'time to make the donuts' guy and the long-running mastercard priceless campaign deserve alotta credit.

however seth stevenson, in the latest slate 'ad report card' entry, wonders whether the latest 'blank...priceless' schtick means its near the end for the venerable campaign.

Grade: B+. A fun contest, but this really does signal the end of the Priceless campaign's natural life span. There's nothing left to do. It was great while it lasted, but I hope they'll move on before the conceit gets horribly stale.

stevenson even relates his own not-so-nice entry in the contest

¶ - nitish @ 8:42 AM | 0 comments

Sunday, March 12

err on the side of safety

the blogosphere is buzzing over feingold's appearance on this week with george stephanopoulos, mostly over his lame, too-cowardly-to-go-all-the-way move to censure president bush
reliably lefty raw story has a transcript while think progress (which appears overwhelmed) and crooks and liars have video (although crooks and liars doesn't always know what video means)

however, that didn't interest me much... because that will go absolutely nowhere.

rather this snippet did

You know, I'm not certain it's going to make a difference, but you know, we have to err on the side of safety when it comes to this kind of an issue. We have to make sure that we do everything we can...

talking about the patriot act...no, feingold voted against it twice
talking about surveillance of terrorists...no, that's what this censure is about
this is about dubai ports which even feingold admits "I'm not certain it's going to make a difference" in national security

it's this moronic thought process that led to the sham that is campaign finance reform which bears his name

¶ - nitish @ 5:03 PM | 0 comments

military numbers

last year, the news media began to headline military recruitment problems, continuing the story for several months.
at the same time, the news media largely overlooked-ignored equally important personnel numbers which were still solid (even for units seeing combat), despite open hostility in liberal bastions such as university campuses, san francisco...
and apparantly the news media...

finally, the MSM gets wind of improved numbers [bugmenot login]

The Army Guard said Friday that it signed up more than 26,000 soldiers in the first five months of fiscal 2006, exceeding its target by 7 percent in its best performance in 13 years.

of course, the article alternates between 'good news' and 'bad news' and picks up the trend several months late

¶ - nitish @ 10:08 AM | 0 comments

Friday, March 10

random tv notes

- william shatner certainly has the self-parody thing down pretty well, with the april fool's tinged invasion iowa...
now with the History Channel's "How William Shatner Changed the World" documenting the influence and impact of the venerable star trek series

- project runway finishes strong, but apparently race trumps fashion as fx's black white does better. the most surprising thing being that they aired opposite each other. that's alotta people not watching network tv.

- given its abysmal return, the decision to put joey out out of its misery shocks no one at this point

¶ - nitish @ 4:21 PM | 0 comments

polling outside dnc hq?

note my personal opinion: it's easy to play with polls, surveys, etc

in wake of the recent skewed cbs poll, ap-ipsos chimes in with its own iteration. however, the numbers behind the numbers (39 Total Republican / 51 Total Democrat) appears outta line with party affiliation numbers which give Dems only ~10% edge.

since both polls have samples with 30% more Dems, the methodology of these polls must be questioned

¶ - nitish @ 11:13 AM | 0 comments

imagine the alternative

a video hosted on google video speculates if the ipod were developed by a certain company
(found via lost remote)

of course the launch would be interesting and there would be the requisite bluster

¶ - nitish @ 8:00 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, March 9

reaching for the stars

as more breathtaking images emerge (recent hubble images), and cosmonauts pass the time

wired.com features the nextgen crew exploration vehicle--the simulation vid is a must see--which will take man closer to the stars
update ~6pm: perhaps the CEV could eventually contribute to a 'water run' to saturn's moon

"It appears we have all the ingredients that all the experts have claimed for a long time now, you would need to have environments suitable for living organisms," said Carolyn Porco, a Cassini team leader. "And so, that’s what we think we have here. We have found another environment in our solar system, in a very surprising place, that could host living organisms.
"Now, of course, we’ll never know until we go there, but it’s a very, very, very exciting possibility. It's really broadened the diversity of those environments that we can expect to see conditions suitable for life."

¶ - nitish @ 5:19 PM | 0 comments

win, place, or no show

being no fan of america's favorite karaoke show american idol, i'm constantly surprised by its success. however an mtv.com article reveals the show also generates winners for its winners:

sales of Kelly Clarkson's Breakaway (4,811,000), Clay Aiken's Measure of a Man (2,740,000), Carrie Underwood's Some Hearts (2,184,000), Ruben Studdard's Soulful (1,779,000) and Fantasia's Free Yourself (1,674,000)

but others do not fare so well

To make a significant impact in the music industry, making the final 12 of "American Idol" is not enough. You need to make the final two.
[creative snip, appears after following in text]
Millions of Americans watched or voted for them on "Idol," but of the 12th- through third-place finishers who have gone on to release records, only one has gone gold: second-season country singer Josh Gracin (around 646,500 copies sold), who finished fourth.
Another second-season singer, third-place finisher Kimberley Locke, has sold approximately 209,000 copies of One Love, but after her, the next-best loser is — tellingly — William Hung's Inspiration (194,00). Trailing in the dust of "She Bangs" are Tamyra Gray's The Dreamer (122,000), RJ Helton's Real Life (21,000), John Stevens' Red (18,000), George Huff's Miracles (17,000) and self-titled albums from Jasmine Trias (12,000) and Corey Clark (2,400).

found via reality blurred which notes "Good to know that Corey Clark’s little press junket didn’t really work"

¶ - nitish @ 3:27 PM | 0 comments

the highs and lows of sports

the peppy cheerleeder who kept cheering despite a busted neck...
the too-early death of kirby puckett...
by himself, barry bonds encapsulated the highs and lows of sport (check out the 'evolution' of bonds)...

the return of pro sports to new orleans--the hornets loss being secondary. the hornets and the saints appears set to return on a permanent basis next season

but the strangest involves the stunning upset of team usa in the world baseball classic...
blame canada for making team USA 'not in control of its own destiny' in terms of elimination

and that's note even including the nfl-labor deal roller coaster

¶ - nitish @ 8:34 AM | 0 comments

Wednesday, March 8

examining the 'asian miracle'

conventional wisdom suggests continued ascendance of india and china for the foreseeable future.

China's vast supply of cheap labor and India's army of capable engineers have attracted enormous flows of foreign investment to their countries over the past several years. Analysts have dubbed the result the "Asian miracle."

at least us-india relations are pretty solid, as both emerging powers ramp up defense spending

however Ian Bremmer counters with an thorough analysis of structural issues. china's one-child policy and retirement trends will put a "considerable strain" on the demographics. on the other hand, shortcomings in india's education system may temper prospects

¶ - nitish @ 12:40 PM | 0 comments

want some cheese with that

earlier this week, micro$oft whines about an unfair business environment...

then true to form, m$ promises to better its search engine

now, mr softie says rivals are fomenting a 'standards conflict'

of course, not many of these words have much credibility coming from microsoft

¶ - nitish @ 8:25 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, March 7

pardon my glee, again

but it's not a good time for over-hyped lib media

air america may lose its 'flagship' nyc station.

perhaps the execs could do another shady deal to work something out
or else, al franken will need another fundraising source

¶ - nitish @ 3:17 PM | 0 comments

these stories can't be true

- i thought iraqis were too busy engaged in civil war and sectarian violence, to deal with the real bad guys [bugmenot login] (found via lucianne.com)

- given the inordinate amount of torture apparently perpetrated down in gitmo, it's surprising that some prisoners prefer gitmo to a return trip home (found via lucianne.com)

note: since internet speak can get lost in translation, i'll state there may be some sarcasm in this entry

¶ - nitish @ 9:47 AM | 0 comments

idealogical web search

in these hyper-partisan times, people often look for only those who agree with them. however, considering varying and/or opposing viewpoints proves valuable.

wired.com spotlights kosmix, a search engine which takes into account the 'web searching of politics'. using the google-like approach of page and link analysis, kosmix search results includes subsets of conservative, liberal and libertarian.

while the results can be spotty [remember, internet speak can get lost in translation], kosmix could be an interesting tool in increasingly partisan times...
give kosmix a try

¶ - nitish @ 8:44 AM | 0 comments

Monday, March 6

pardon my glee

but jon stewart kinda stunk during a boring oscar fest

even those supposedly 'witty' remarks by jon stewart were rehearsed

This being the Oscars, of course, those ad-libs were nothing of the sort. They were all on the TelePrompTer, and most had been tested at one or both of the two run-throughs.

there was even a mad libs-esque comment prepared for either a three 6 mafia win or loss

on the numbers basis, the stewart-hosted show checked in with the second lowest ratings in the past 20 years (as i kinda predicted)

Except for the 2003 count of 33 million viewers — when "Chicago" took the best-picture award — the Oscars hadn't dipped below 40 million viewers since 1987, Nielsen said.

speaking of numbers btw, those goodie bags apparently come with a tax bill

although jon stewart isn't to blame for that

¶ - nitish @ 5:41 PM | 0 comments

who's welcome at elite schools

the wall street journal's john fund make a great point [bugmenot login]:

Are there no limits to how arrogant and out-of-touch America's Ivy League schools can get? Last week it emerged that Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former deputy foreign secretary of the Taliban, is now a student at Yale while at the same time the school continues to block ROTC training from its campus and argues for the right of its law school to exclude military recruiters.

apparently, academia prefers the taliban over the us military
update: although the US supreme court smacked down [bugmenot login] some anti-military measures

¶ - nitish @ 9:33 AM | 0 comments

let's call the whole thing off

remember the break-up of at&t ma bell...
which the baby bells have steadily undone...

at&t (a combo of at&t and the previously acquisitive sbc) now plans to buy bell south
(mostly to get full control of cingular wireless)

so now it's down to verizon, at&t and baby bell bastard stepchild qwest (basically us west)

¶ - nitish @ 8:56 AM | 0 comments

Friday, March 3

bad days for intel

though amd filed a lawsuit against intel tactics, amd's recent market success owes to a better product line-up. bearing this out, neo-tech heavyweight google even decides to go with amd server products

cue the intel warning

¶ - nitish @ 4:36 PM | 0 comments

that was quick

attempts to milk more negative sentiment against president bush with newly released katrina video, didn't necessarily go as the MSM may have hoped

in the war of the media watchdogs, conservative newsbusters appears to be 'winning' against lib media matters

the media now scrambles to rehabilitate michael brown's image (found via conservative hub lucianne.com) as it appears he did a 'heckuva job' before katrina hit, not necessarily after.

further, louisiana governor kathleen blanco looks really bad maintaining the levees held, when in fact they had not.

"We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29 - the day the storm hit the Gulf coast.
"We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee," she said on a video of the day's disaster briefing that was obtained Thursday night by The Associated Press. "I think we have not breached the levee at this time."

i think this seals blanco's political fate

¶ - nitish @ 9:18 AM | 0 comments

Thursday, March 2

media spreads more katrina myths

in the wake of hurricane katrina, media heaped some congratulatory self-praise on itself, even though it quickly became apparent that it was not really deserved or warranted.

the AP and NYT [bugmenot login] continue the media's beloved "fake but accurate" policy (root cause) by going big with the release of a video and transcript supposedly damning to bush 43.

liberal blog crooks and liars smugly posts the vid while the reliably lib NYT includes transcripts before and after the levee break. both of the sources don't seem to realize their 'evidence' contradicts their belief of what the 'evidence' includes.

"top" or "overtop" the levies DOES NOT EQUAL "break" or "breach"...
president bush should not bear responsibility for the poor reading and listening comprehension of lazy partisans.

update 1255pm: watchdog of the lib media newsbusters has more--even with the same "comprehension" bit

¶ - nitish @ 9:37 PM | 0 comments

it depends on your definition of 'killed'

a coupla months back, senate minority leader harry reid bragged/crowed/announced:
"we killed the patriot act"

he spoke a bit soon as patriot act renewal appears imminent with a 89-10 vote, including loser reid's vote

sometimes it's difficult to keep track of Dem positions:
a military draft, the iraq war, iraqi cut-and-run, terrorist surveillance, even enviro causes

¶ - nitish @ 4:59 PM | 1 comments

why they don't like a la carte

last month, the fcc formalized a policy shift in support of a la carte cable line-ups: subscribers should be given the right to pick-and-choose their channels.

the cable and media companies have reason to worry as a media study
[note personal opinion: studies and/or papers can be goofy, but still kinda matter]
finds that the typical tv viewer watches only 15 channels. and it really spells doom to those ridiculous digital line-ups

The number of channels viewed does not increase substantially until the number of available channels in the home rises above 110, Nielsen researchers said. Homes receiving more than 40 channels tuned in to 12 to 20 channels, according to the updated annual study released last month. In homes with an average of 158 channels available, 20 of them are actually tuned in.

personally, i probably wouldn't benefit as my voracious tv viewing habits spread out over more than 20 channels

¶ - nitish @ 12:27 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, March 1

even a cosmonaut needs to unwind

a russian cosmonaut aboard the international space station plans to break out the golf clubs during a spacewalk (found via the register). this is another one of those commercial deals with a golf company, but it carries its own risks

In a worst-case scenario, the ball would remain at the same altitude long enough that its orbital plane shifted until it could hit the station side-on, says J C Liou, an orbital debris expert at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, US. "Then you could potentially have something similar to a head-on collision with an impact speed of about 9.4 kilometres per second," Liou told New Scientist.
The force of such a collision would be equivalent to that of a 6.5-tonne truck moving at nearly 100 kilometres per hour. "So the outcome of the worst-case scenario could be quite catastrophic," he says. But he adds that such a dire scenario is "highly unlikely" to occur.

i guess the ISS guys need to pass the time waiting for the US space shuttle program to get back up to speed

¶ - nitish @ 5:36 PM | 0 comments

with the requisite double entendres

follow-up on the story of the playmate and the supreme court...

anna nicole smith racked up major points in her case before the supreme court, with several of the justices busting out on her side

alas, no theatrics from the 'serious' smith herself

¶ - nitish @ 10:04 AM | 0 comments

don't believe the bird flu hype

Sir John Skehel downplays the 'inevitability' of a bird flu pandemic, as any mutations from bird-to-human have actually weakened the bug. little birdies may have long-term problems, but the 'ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure' approach would be the best way to prevent the much hyped pandemic

¶ - nitish @ 8:50 AM | 0 comments