A Funny Comic (Rage Meme)

I found this online. I wish I could find the original poster to give proper credit.

Interview: Darger family

Radio West:
This is the family that inspired HBO's Big Love: 1 husband, 3 wives, 24 children.

Download mp3

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Interview: Brad Pitt in Michael Lewis' Moneyball

Terry Gross interviewed Brad Pitt today about a new movie, Moneyball.

I want to listen to this sometime soon: (mp3). Let me know if you'd like the audio cached.

Paint Your Wagon...really

Radio West: So rugged and mountainous, this interview by Doug Fabrizio was interesting.

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One tidbit fact: it really was a good idea to paint your wagon. Linseed oil helped to waterproof the canvas.

main title from the 1969 movie

Electric Guitar Tech

I heard part of Bob Edwards Weekend yesterday. The discussion was about developments and improvements to the electric guitar that made it possible to define new genres of music (rock and roll, bakersfield country, etc) They discuss the instruments played by the legends (Les Paul, Chet Atkins, Jimmy Page, George Harrison, etc.) Manufacturers discussed: Fender, Gibson, and Gretsch.

Update (2011-08-24): I guess the only option was to listen to this live. For whatever reason, the podcast has gone away.

Rosanne Cash interviewed on Fresh Air (rebroadcast)

This interview was very interesting. The interview centered on Cash's interpretation of songs on Johnny Cash's list of 100 essential American songs. Her interpretation of Patsy Cline's She's Got You does it justice. A lot of singers are afraid to touch Cline's music for fear of not measuring up.

Download audio (mp3)

This sparked the question in my mind of what songs would be on my list of 100 essential songs. Don't Fear the Reaper is going to be on that list. More cowbell! Going back to my childhood: Garry Lewis and the Playboys' This Diamond Ring, Bobby Vinton's Blue on Blue, Marty Robbins' El Paso, the Beatles' Hard Days Night are probably the first songs I remember.

All About Area 51

Terry Gross interviewed Annie Jacobsen on yesterday's Fresh Air about the secret Nevada test site, Area 51. Area 51 was used for the Plumbbob tests. The most scary thing for me was the nuclear test that involved scattering plutonium around the desert via a conventional explosion. I think this test was to simulate possible accident scenarios, such as, a B-52 crash, an accidental bomb drop of an unarmed weapon, etc. I think that the accident scenarios assume that the conventional explosive detonates, but does not cause a nuclear explosion- a dirty bomb scenario. The explosion scatters the core of the weapon, contaminating a wide area with plutonium particles. People were beyond crazy in this era. For whatever reason, after the army got their test results (which showed, I guess, the extent of the contamination), they did minimal cleanup at the test site. That sets up a scenario for desert dust storms containing very nasty radioactive particles. The author notes that this was a missed opportunity to learn how to deal with possible methods of cleanup. I am guessing that they army realized that it was very difficult to deal with the magnitude of the contaminated area- many square miles. Jacobsen notes that whatever they might have learned would've been useful in some accidents that have occurred since that test. Some accidents were actually very similar to the initial test parameters; the author cites a B-52 crash in Spain. The latest similar accident is the explosion of the spent fuel pool at reactor 3 at the Fukushima nuclear plant. The Fairewinds report stated that nuclear material (spent fuel pellets) have been found a mile or more from the site after one of the large explosions.

On to the UFO claims of Area 51. Those involve Mengele designing bodies which would look alien for the Soviet military. Area 51 houses a crashed flying object, but it's not from outer space; it's a Soviet jet-powered hover craft that was piloted by surgically modified dwarfs. Pause, and let that sink in... This strange idea has some value (I guess) for some world war three attack scenarios. Jacobsen cites cases where both Hitler and Stalin expressed interest in this idea because they wanted to repeat the scenario created during Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast, and use it to their advantage. Stalin was especially interested in using the idea to mask a nuclear first strike. The idea is to induce confusion and mass panic preceding or during the attack. If the enemy doesn't know for sure where an attack is coming from, they might delay retaliation. It might make more sense to wait and see, especially when the "end of the world" is at stake, and especially when an attack is perceived as coming from outer space, and not the cold war rival. Actually, George C. Scott's General Turgidsen did the best job explaining this strategy for winning a nuclear war using the first strike strategy. The idea is to severely disable the enemy from the outset. Von Neumann's game theory is at play, too. (Some people also claim that the Dr. Stranglove character is modeled on Von Neumann.) Coincidentally, Von Neumann actually advocated the first strike strategy, especially when the enemy cannot be trusted to not defect and use a first strike strategy. It's a classic 4-square game theory payoff matrix, a slight variant of the classic prisoner's dilemma puzzle.

That Mengele based claim is pretty far out there. I guess when all of the layers are stripped back, then what is left has to be the truth. Still, whoah!

Note: This post required some edits.

First Update:
The author made the rounds on the media circuit, culminating with a visit to Jon Stewart.

Obama's mother and his childhood

This was an interesting background piece about Barack Obama's mother, and various places that Barack lived while growing up.

The author, Janny Scott, is interviewed on Fresh Air here.

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Video blogging is taking off

You don't need a film contract or have your band signed to a record label to be famous anymore. You can DIY (do it for yourself) and upload your video/audio to the internet. Right now, the barriers to entry for producing your own content are so low that all that is necessary is having a digital camera with video capability. Oh, and having some ideas to put out there helps a lot, too. The problem of how to stand out from the crowd remains tricky, though. Here are some I've stumbled upon, and they seem to have growing fan bases to support them:

• Daily Grace
  Judas is just a girl-to-girl talk about boyfriends. And other things, ew.
  Grace's toast to Bridesmaids
  Another video parody, Rhianna's S&M


• Meekakitty
  Here is her music video with more than 1M views. It would've been much better if they'd looked for a better venue; it looks like an exit hallway or stairwell for the convention center. There's only so much you can do when you're confined to a four foot width restriction.
  She could also do standup.
  Her "Bacon Song" was used as the rolloff segue for Kevin Bacon's appearance on Wait, Wait


• Amy Walker, 5.9M views

Update: 2011-05-01
All Things Considered recently reported that in some cases Youtube shares the wealth with real cash to popular channels. Here is a link to the story, (mp3).

Update: 2011-05-16
Added Daily Grace's conversation with Lady Gaga.

Update: 2011-05-20
Link another DG video.

Update: 2011-05-23
Add Amy Walker accent video.

Update: 2011-06-05
Add note about meekakitty on Wait, Wait.

Update: 2011-06-10
Link another DG video.

Critical thinking is still alive!

This video was posted to reddit recently. It should be required viewing for anyone involved in education.

p.s. I am sticking with this blog title, even though the speaker questions if "uncritical" thinking is a non-sequitur.

Update: 2011-05-01
Terry Gross interviewed Diane Ravitch this week on Fresh Air (mp3). She spoke against rating teachers' performance using their students' test scores.

She also interviewed Andrew Rotherman (mp3), who defended the charter school model.

Definitive Seymour Cray quote

My last post (about Artificial Intelligence) reminded me of this quote from Watson's namesake:

Last week Control Data announced the 6600 system. I understand that in the laboratory developing the system there are only 34 people including the janitor. Of these, 14 are engineers and 4 are programmers. Contrasting this modest effort with our vast development activities, I fail to understand why we have lost our industry leadership position by letting someone else offer the world's most powerful computer.

--Thomas Watson, Jr., IBM CEO, August 28, 1963

Cray's response:

It seems Mr. Watson has answered his own question.

--Seymour Cray

This retort is right up there with the best from Franklin, Twain, or Churchill.

Update: 2011-04-25
I like the above quote best because it shows that small teams can have major successes, and that bloat/creep/unrealistic design parameters set by management sink projects. A good example is MS Vista. That project finally did see the light of day as a shipping product, but not without much consumer consternation.

Another good example of how small teams can do more with less is aircraft designer, Kelly Johnson's skunkworks operation. Whenever corporations get involved, costs go up and likely success rate goes down. A project can fall into the abyss at the heart of the military industrial complex. At least, Lockheed saw the wisdom in keeping some "back of the envelope" design guys on staff.

I'll end with one more Cray quote:

Parity is for farmers.

This was in response to a question why the CDC 6600 computer's memory systems didn't originally include memory parity (verification). Later, when the feature was added back in on later designs, he said the following:

Farmers buy a lot of computers.

New Arch for Chernobyl

This video was posted to reddit recently. A new structure is being planned to totally encompass the existing Chernobyl power plant site. The new arch will allow dismantling the existing sarcophagus containment building. The sarcophagus was built as quickly as possible, and was expected to last for a 20 year lifetime. The 25th anniversary of the accident is next Tuesday.

The Chernobyl and Fukishima nuclear accidents show that all of the costs must be included when deciding if nuclear power is worth the risk. The analysis must account for possible long term losses created by new "exclusion zones" necessitated by future nuclear accidents. Somehow, I don't think that has been properly factored into the current cost/benefit analysis. We only have one earth.

p.s. This Chernobyl documentary is worth watching.

Robert Redford on NPR

This morning, Robert Redford was interviewed on Morning Edition about his new movie, The Conspirator. This is a movie about whether Mary Surratt was involved in the Lincoln assassination. Listen to the interview
here.


p.s. PBS' History Detectives explored a similar story in 2003.

Who owns Facebook?

Maybe a better question is, who cares? This Slashdot headline says a new lawsuit will ask to assign 50% ownership to Paul Ceglia
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Ok, that story is not very interesting. The interesting story is that neither Zuckerberg nor Ceglia invented the concepts at the heart of Facebook. Check this story (mp3) about a group of Stanford computer science students who designed and implemented a Facebook prototype, prior art in 1999. The irony is that the Stanford faculty thought it was an invasion of privacy and forced the site off of the web.

This blog post is a good cross reference to this post because it also discusses the marketing strategies at the heart of social networks, such as Facebook.

Julia Sweeney on SexEd

This video was posted to reddit recently.

"I know! It's weird."

Update: 2011-04-13
Of course, you probably remember that Sweeney bared her private life wide open during appearances at the LA improv un-Caberet in the early 1990's. Ira Glass compiled the on-stage monologues and presented them on This American Life. Totally compelling!

Update: 2011-04-29
I think you may be focusing a little too much on the legs. They figure out the legs, okay?

Werner Herzog and Cormac McCarthy on NPR

This week's Science Friday included the segment, Connecting Science and Art. The guests (Werner Herzog, Cormac McCarthy) showed more than casual knowledge in subjects one might consider outside of their normal domains. It was an interesting show, and worth a listen, but Herzog is definitely a fatalist.

p.s. I haven't read or seen McCarthy's work, but Herzog's film work is among the best. He was there on Science Friday to talk mostly about his new documentary:
Cave of Forgotten Dreams.
His other films that should be checked out include:

• Fitzcarraldo, don't miss it!


• Rescue Dawn

Documentaries:

• Encounters at the End of the World, Herzog is not very nice/polite when interviewing scientists. Still, the subject matter is interesting and overcomes Herzog's overtly injected point of view. The film would have won best documentary if he had let the material speak for itself a bit more.


• God's Angry Man, about Gene Scott. The video is online.
  
• Grizzly Man, about Timothy Treadwell.

Update: 2011-04-20
Terry Gross interviewed Werner Herzog today about the movie, Cave of Forgotten Dreams. The audio is cached here:
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Update: 2011-05-01
In the above interview, Terry Gross kept mentioning Aguirre: The Wrath of God. I didn't read anything more about it before getting a copy on Netflix. In the back of my mind, I was supposing it to be another "God's Angry Man." Needless to say, it is Herzog's Heart of Darkness. I have a new blog entry about it here.

Update: 2011-05-09
Film critic Kenneth Turan reviewed Cave of Forgotten Dreams here. (mp3)

A new Rick Roll?

If they say, there's no more room at the bottom, then tell them to look again. When plumbing the depths, Rick Astley is still miles above Rebecca Black.

The parodies were amusing...

• Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert


• Daily Grace

This video shut up a lot of the critics, though...

p.s. I'm still stuck on OT7.

Cut costs with online education?

The New York Times has an interesting article about moving K-12 education online to save money. The article discusses both the pros and cons, an interesting read.

The current economy has given local school districts a big incentive to cut costs. Giving kids computers to attend online classes is a lot cheaper than local flesh and blood teachers, but the article cites cases where it's not just a win-win for everyone. Specifically, the students can short circuit learning by cutting and pasting answers from wikipedia, and teachers can be overwhelmed with very large virtual class sizes. The net effect is an online school can become a diploma mill, a for-profit diploma mill. In my opinion, the basics of learning still need personal attention, especially in the primary grades. It's not clear that online education is suitable to do that job. That's the downside. On the positive side, students can enroll in courses where there would be too little interest. The online environment seems ideal for that- i.e. allows students to choose advanced or special interest courses. Another good use is when students are living widely dispersed from the school. Online courses would allow studends to "phone" into their classes via broadband links. That would save both the time and the energy costs of busing students. It's a balancing act, for sure.

I last mentioned online education on my blog last October. I had just seen a video presentation about the Open High School of Utah

...24 little hours

It's that time of year, just like Dinah Washington sang, only in reverse. Yesterday, we were outside enjoying ourselves, and within 24 hours the plants in the yard got yet another winter hammering. The desert willow doesn't look like its going to make it.
cell phone pic

Update: 2011-04-30
This is becoming a real weather pattern this year. This has to be adding a lot to the mountain snowpack if we get 6" (15 cm) in the valley:
cell phone pic

TAL: Crime and (excessive) punishment

This week's epsisode of This American Life, Very Tough Love, (430.mp3) is worth listening to. Ira Glass investigates a drug court in Glynn county Georgia where you definitely don't want to piss off the judge, lest you get an "indefinite" sentence to "think things over" in solitary. Drug courts exist in various forms across the United States, and are usually setup with procedures for beating the root causes of addiction. Glass shows several examples of excessive sentences in the Glynn county court which are out of the "norm" for other drug courts across the country. He paints the picture that this is a court with a "hanging judge" setup mostly to meet her sadistic needs. The irony presented here is that defendants voluntarily enter the court because they think they'll get out of jail sooner. They think the system will treat them fairly for minor possession cases. Careful there, in this age of privatized prisons and kickback schemes, this is just another example of when the system gets their hooks into you, they're likely to keep you, maybe for a long time.

Glass's story is from Georgia- that's all the way across the country. However, a story in yesterday's Salt Lake Tribune shows the same excessive punishment goes on here, too. And the whole thing is reminiscent of the John Sinclair imprisonment for 2 joints.