2/4/05 Boxer Max Schmeling died last week. In 1936, when he won the Heavy Weight boxing crown from Joe Louis, the liberal-minded Schmeling - whose manager Max Jacobs was Jewish - was turned into a symbol of racial inequality by Germany's then Nazi government. In March of 1938 Joe Louis came back to regain the title in a fight in New York City. But history will remember Schmeling for what he achieved outside the ring. During the Kristallnacht pogrom of November 1938 he saved the lives of two young Jewish brothers named Lewin. Over the years, Schmeling and Joe Louis became very good friends. Max paid for Joe's funeral when the latter died bankrupt in 1981. I've just touched on a few major events here, but in addition to the Historical aspects, the story is indeed very touching. These men had almost no choice but to become larger than life in the eyes of others, to be cast as racial opposites during the build up to the Second World War - 10 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier to play Major League baseball. We can see the characters of these men painted in huge strokes across the last century. Max Schmeling was 99.

Actor and Civil Rights activist Ossie Davis died today at the age of 87. I remember him best for telling Spike Lee's character to "Do The Right Thing".

Reaction from film maker Spike Lee.

Arthur C. Clarke on tsunamis, technology, & science fiction

2/3/05 World Wide Web & cellular biochemistry have common architecture with snowflakes & trees. Life is thriving at the Ocean's deepest point. Dark Matter found. Mermaid Baby picture. Famous Unsolved Codes and Ciphers. Inkjet Sushi.

2/2/05 Jon Stewart on Wal-Mart PR effort: mov{6MB}/mp3{3MB}. [Via]

Re-inventing the computer at the molecular scale [QSR]. "Just as transistors replaced vacuum tubes and vacuum tubes replaced electromagnetic relays before them, nanoscale crossbar latches may someday replace transistors."

Middle East Peace summit next week in Egypt. Palestinian President Abbas, Israel's Sharon, Egypt's Mubarak, and Jordan's King Abdullah are expected.

Good News for TV Journalism: Bob Schieffer set to take Dan Rather's seat.

Johnny Carson [1925-2005] "was like a public utility". Back in the day, everyone watching TV at midnight was tuned into The Tonight Show.

David Letterman's monologue last Monday was composed entirely of jokes Carson sent him in his final months - something Dave didn't reveal until afterward.

Odd Museums online.

2/1/05 Apple overtakes Google as world's top brand. [Meanwhile] Microsoft, which is known as much for buying products as developing them, has launched a new search engine built from scratch. Don't worry Google, I got your back.

Medical Bills caused half of US bankruptcies in 2001 - though most of those who filed had Health Insurance - with a 30-fold increase in medical expense-related bankruptcies since 1981. [Harvard Study]

 * US Judge: tribunals illegal, prisoners need day in court.
 * The EFF filed FOIA on how Big Brother watches Net.
 * Skype telephony freeware available for OSX and Linux.
 * Archive.org's oldest available copy of it's own homepage.

1/31/05 Blind Painter: "how a man who has never seen can paint pictures that the sighted easily recognise - and even admire." [This story will make for interesting conversation amongst blind people i work with. ~ross]

Jukebox/Music History: "Paul Simon wrote The Sound of Silence as an acoustic ballad. While Simon was in England, Tom Wilson, who was producing Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone," asked members of Dylan's studio band to add electric guitar and drums to the song. Columbia released the amplified "Silence," which became a hit before Simon and Garfunkel had even heard it." Also in the Jukebox, one of the most haunting and lovely ballads I've ever heard is David Bowie's Wild is the Wind.

 * History of Information & Computing. [via]
 * Industry Buzzword: grid computing.

1/30/05 Flying Gas Tank: a new Global Flyer effort is sponsored by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. Adventure pilot Steve Fossett hopes to circle the Earth at 50,000 suborbital feet on a jet stream and a single tank of fuel. The craft will use a brand new 12,300 ft. runway in Salina, Kansas for takeoff - scheduled February 6th.

 * Iraqi election coverage.
 * Craigs List: traffic stats. {Via}
 * MythTV & BT: report at the NY Times.
 * Music History: Dylan goes Country.
 * Science blog.

Personal: Stem Cells were coaxed into becoming motor neuron nerve cells in recent experiments that might one day help doctors repair damaged nervous systems. [Story reprint.] A member of my immediate family has "Lou Gehrig's" disease - aka ALS - which is specifically addressed in the findings. While currently there is only one therapy for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - at a cost of $900/month - odds of seeing any benefits are said to be 50/50. I'm reminded of the story of my Grandfather's death. When my Mother was barely a teenager he died of a condition that today would be treated with a shot in the arm and a bandaid. I hope a successful therapy is soon developed for ALS!

1/29/05 Science: computer simulating the universe in Zurich.

Intriguing Pics: spray from Lake Geneva covering things in ice.

Jukebox: named after a narcoleptic former drummer, musical group The Sleepy Jackson is headed by a young Australian named Luke Steele. A review of the album "Lovers" [2003] at uber online pop-music critic site Pitchfork all but called Mr. Steele a poser, but let me instead suggest that this is a precocious record. Alot of the songs are pop flovoured without being too sweet - and I think "Lovers" shows a mastery of pop music sensibility beyond Luke Steele's then 23 years - with a variety of styles wrapped into one coherent whole. Reminds some listeners of George Harrison. I listened to this album hundreds of times in 2003-4. Sample lyrics, "If I was a gal I'd wear a miniskirt into town..."

1/28/05 P2P: adware free ExeemLite public beta now available.

 * Johnny Carson tribute by Steve Martin. [reprint]
 * Political Satire: Social Security Crisis FAQ.
 * Google's search for meaning. {via}
 * Better Espresso: new method.

1/27/05 Jukebox: The Verve's landmark 1997 release Urban Hymns [cover art]. Richard Ashcroft is the genius behind The Verve's sound. The final track on the album - "Come On" - includes a long silence but the beautiful ending is worth the wait. This is one of the best records I've ever heard.

 * Fun: Man Dances His Way Around The World. [36MB WMV file]
 * Anonymous Confessions, funny & terrible: postsecret nsfw.
 * U.S. Politics/Seymour Hersh: "we've been taken over by a cult"
 * National Geographic reports scientists creating Chimeras.

1/26/05 Protest Songs: sometime last year I noticed that my favorite songs had some serious themes. Two of my alltime favorites are What's Going On? {mp3} by Marvin Gaye, and Machine Gun {mp3} by Jimi Hendrix. They are perhaps the greatest protest songs from the Rhythm & Blues and the Rock & Roll genres - respectively. In the Folk genre one might select a song by Utah Phillips or Peter, Paul & Mary. The way I judge a protest song is in how well it communicates with me. For example I wouldn't choose A Day In The Life by John Lennon, but I would choose Imagine. The 1960's and early 1970's in America were marked by protests - against discrimination, poverty and war. And that's where a survey of protest songs starts for me.

Upcoming: Utah Phillips 2005 tour schedule shows a whistle stop near me.

Commuter Train Derailment this morning in L.A. [blogging.la]

Mac Mini Media Center: Cringely recently speculated "the new Mac Mini is all about movies". Now Engadget has a how-to for a Mac Mini Media Center.

1/25/05 Blog: I like Bradley's Almanac [Thx Brian]

 * Wikipedia: Unusual Articles. [Scroll down]
 * Apple: Thorough Review of the new Mac Mini.
 * Wired Magazine cover story on Firefox Browser.
 * Google hires lead Firefox engineer, Ben Goodger.
 * Firefox passes 20,000,000 downloads in first 76 days.
 * Scientific American seeks better search engines. [via]
 * Bittorrent capability for Hurricane Electric customers.
 * Hand Crank Cell Phone Charger (weighs just 3 oz).
 * SSL Certs available at Godaddy for $30.
 * Surrational Photomontage gallery.

America's First Road Trip: 1903 was the year of the first World Series. The new Marconi Wireless Telegraph was used "to transmit a 54-word greeting from President Theodore Roosevelt (across the Atlantic) to England's King Edward VII. And the monarch promptly acknowledged receipt of the message via land line and cable" - starting a new era of global communication. The first cable was laid across the Pacific in 1903, and the first message was sent around the world. It took 12 minutes. Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the first airplane that year, and the first automobile trip across the U.S. was completed by Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson in 63 days. Within a few years, the record for fastest cross country automobile trip was down to about two weeks. Roads were still unpaved, but by 1915 New York socialite and "Etiquette" maven Emily Post had made the trip to California by automobile in 4 weeks. By 1916, the fastest trip was 5 days. [Via KQED].

Personal: in 1993 I drove my car 22,000 miles around the U.S. over a period of about three months - just to see it for myself. Americans, I think, have an affinity with the open road, and Westerners in general are attracted to frontiers of different kinds. There are always a few westerners who want to overcome the latest limitations of space and time. Restlessness and ambition. Travel is the Westerner's tragic flaw - whether it is a restless desire to overcome space, or on vacation, for the purpose of trade, by invasion... or by reaching across the world via radio, telephone, television or internet.

Word of the day: Here. "To someone living in New York City, Athens is typically not here. In a discussion involving Mars, however..."

1/24/05 Boxer for President 2008: First the "Ohio Challenge", then the Rice Hearings. "Battling Boxer doing what comes naturally."

A Pew Internet Study of search engine use found that "two-thirds of search-engine users say they could stop using the service without upsetting their lives very much, and only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or 'sponsored' results and unpaid results".

*  Google Video Beta launched.
*  HiFi Online Radio: tuner2.com
*  Humor: Mcsweeney's Lists. [via]
*  Amusement: error message generator.
*  Dark Humor: bunny suicides.
*  Second Life: no killing or stealing.

Supreme Court rules against Florida Governor Jeb Bush in Euthanasia case. [Reuters] [The Scotsman] [KWTX Texas]

Opinion: There is not enough dialogue about this issue. Life is an opportunity. At it's best it can be a grand adventure. Life is also very hard, and it should be everyone's right to exert control in the manner of their death in case they are unable to speak (because they are in a coma, for example). Terry Schiavo of Florida is no doubt very close to her parents, and they no doubt love her very much. But she is married, and her husband is in a position to know more about such last wishes than her parents - unless a case can be made that he is derelict with regard to such responsibility. All this apparently in the absence of documentation of what our local hospital calls a "Health Directive". I know a little about this becasue I am currently the person named on such a directive for a close family member with a terminal illness. In the Florida case it is obvious to me that unless the Husband can be shown to be negligent, irresponsible, or himself incapacitated, the default position for a court to take is that he will know more about his wife's wishes than her parents.

The current Supreme Court (apparently) isn't as "Pro-Life" as Jeb Bush, though most of the Justices leaned to the right before being appointed to the Court. The Republican moral compass is twitching a bit. What is right ? Recall that Governor Bush played a central role in this case by sheparding the writing and passage of a special bill in the Florida Legislature aimed directly at honouring the lady's Parents in their wish to keep their daughter attached to life-support systems. The husband claimed his wife would want to be allowed to die. I am heartened that this lady is one step closer to peace, and that the Supreme Court ruled against the high-profile position taken by the Governor of Florida.

Euthanasia and Film: Clint Eastwood's new film involves euthanasia.

1/23/05 Philosophy: works of great philosophers, condensed. [via]

The LSAT is a test that helps students determine whether they're prepared for Law School. I enjoyed taking this sample LSAT Critical Reasoning section - and didn't mind failing it. But I'd love to be able to answer these kinds of questions.

Jukebox: The Black Keys song "All Hands..." is rockin Blues, and might be reminiscent of Cream or Jimi Hendrix. While "The Lengths" is a gentle ballad. Rachel's, on the other hand, is Classical Alternative. The piece "First Self Portrait Series" is piano accompanied by strings. And the album Music for Egon Schiele [1996] is the soundtrack to a piece of dance and theater that was based on the life of the Viennese Expressionist painter who lived just 28 years - until the influenza epidemic of 1918.

1/22/05 Jon Stewart's coverage of Bush Inauguration (Aud/Vid).

Video of a Fox News anchor losing her composure when a guest dares to question the circumstances of Bush's elaborate inauguration.

Torrent Site Owner running circles around MPAA.

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