A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Tag Archives: news

Apr 16 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Why was only one controller in the Reno tower?

Why was only one controller in the Reno tower?

Remember how in March there was this big foofaraw because a few airplanes making late-night landings at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had to do so unassisted because the sole air traffic controller manning the tower had fallen asleep? And how the FAA bumped up those shifts to have two controllers so that one could cover the other?

It turns out that a few days later, the FAA instituted new “landing protocols” and then removed the two-person requirement. The new protocols involve keeping in contact with another control tower in case one can’t be contacted. Problem solved!

The new protocols were quickly put to the test early Wednesday when a Sierra Lifeflight plane with a patient onboard had to land on its own at the Reno airport. The traffic controller was out of contact for about 16 minutes.

See, nothing to worry abo–whoa wait just a minute

The FAA immediately launched an investigation and suspended the air traffic controller. Asked about who’s responsible for the incident, Gregor said “the controller fell asleep.”

Oh for the love of

U.S. Rep. John Mica, D-Fla., chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, objected to adding more controllers at airports where nighttime traffic is light.

“Only in the federal government would you double up on workers, averaging $161,000 per year in salary and benefits, that aren’t doing their job,” Mica said in a statement. “This staffing increase misdirects our resources and focus away from congested air traffic control facilities,” he said.

THE WHOLE REASON FOR DOING THIS IS THAT THEY’RE NOT DOING THEIR JOB

THAT IS ESSENTIALLY THE POINT OF REDUNDANCY

MR. MICA WHY DO YOU WANT US TO DIE

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Apr 13 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Why hasn’t Obama gotten results liberals like?

Why hasn’t Obama gotten results liberals like?

Glenn Greenwald:

When has Obama ever done any of that? When does he offer stirring, impassioned defenses of the Democrats’ vision on anything, or attempt to transform (rather than dutifully follow) how Americans think about anything? It’s not that he lacks the ability to do that. Americans responded to him as an inspirational figure and his skills of oratory are as effective as any politician in our lifetime. It’s that he evinces no interest in it. He doesn’t try because those aren’t his goals. It’s not that he or the office of the Presidency are powerless to engender other outcomes; it’s that he doesn’t use the power he has to achieve them because, quite obviously, achieving them is not his priority or even desire.

Interesting theory. I’m not sure I’m completely sold — at this point I think it’s more a little of column “GOP obstructionism”, a little of column “not much motivation for / interest in implementing liberal/progressive policies”.

I do definitely buy into the idea that there’s little political motive for implementing such policies. The Obama halo effect is pretty strong, just as it was with Clinton, and as a politician focused on re-election, Obama’s going to do his best to court folks not already in his camp.

However, the idea that Obama simply has no or little interest in implementing programs and policies that were effectively campaign promises is a little too cynical for my tastes. What seems like a more reasonable conclusion to me is the following: while Obama would certainly like to implement these programs and have defense cuts and spend badly needed billions on infrastructure, STEM education and the like, his political calculus is (quite a bit) more complicated. In this exercise, I imagine he views his first term as a mixed bag, but something he’s ultimately proud of.

Unfortunately, my rating of Obama’s first term is a bit more negative. However, while I’m not sold on supporting Obama in the Democratic primary coming in 2012 in principle, I don’t really think there’s a reasonable chance of anyone better emerging. But we shall see, as the election machine slowly grinds into motion yet again (groan).

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Apr 13 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Jerry Lawson, A Designer of the First Cartridge-Based Game Console, Dies at 70

Jerry Lawson, A Designer of the First Cartridge-Based Game Console, Dies at 70

Jerry Lawson, an engineer who worked at Fairchild Semiconductor during the ’70s, died on Saturday at age 70. He was part of the development team of the Fairchild Video Entertainment System (later renamed the Fairchild Channel F), which when released in 1976 was the first cartridge-based game console.

Although similar machines were in development at Atari and RCA at the time, the console Lawson’s team built for Fairchild was the first cartridge-based gaming system that came to market. Although it seems simple now, making the technology work wasn’t easy.

“There was a mechanism that allowed you to put the cartridges in without destroying the semiconductors…. We were afraid — we didn’t have statistics on multiple insertion and what it would do, and how we would do it, because it wasn’t done. I mean, think about it: Nobody had the capability of plugging in memory devices in mass quantity like in a consumer product. Nobody.”

Vintage Computer and Gaming published a long interview with Lawson in 2009, packed with a ton of great info about early tech development at Fairchild and elsewhere.

BE: It’s really interesting that you were there at the birth of arcade games.

JL: I was also there when two gentlemen showed up — we used to have a computer club [The Homebrew Computer Club –ed.] that was in the Stanford Linear Accelerator auditorium once a month. And the two guys that used to come there all the time with their little toys — one guy was named Steve Jobs, and the other guy was named Steve Wozniak. There during the beginning.

…

BE: Did you talk to Steve Jobs and Wozniak back then?

JL: I was not impressed with them — either one, in fact. What happened was that when I had the video game division [at Fairchild], and I was the chief engineer, I interviewed Steve Wozniak for a job to work for us. Well, my guys were kind of impressed with him at first, and I said I wasn’t. Never had been.

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Apr 13 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Hungry for Justice: Judges Less Likely to Grant Parole on Empty Stomach?

Hungry for Justice: Judges Less Likely to Grant Parole on Empty Stomach?

A study was published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on a judge’s leniency in relation to the time since his last meal. Katie Moisse of ABC News reported on the findings:

A judge’s willingness to grant a prisoner parole wanes with time after a lunch or snack break, according to an observational study.

Researchers from Columbia University in New York City and Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beer Sheva, Israel, analyzed more than 1,000 parole decisions made during 50 days by eight experienced judges in Israel. The proportion of favorable rulings fell from about 65 percent to nearly zero during each session separated by the two food breaks, leaping back to 65 percent immediately after the breaks.

It’s potentially troubling if this trend is accurate, since it kind of undermines the whole legal system and all. This isn’t really the kind of thing you can do a controlled experiment for, though, so the researchers acknowledge that their approach is a bit flawed:

But because the study by Levav and colleagues was observational, meaning not all variables could be controlled, the researchers can’t directly link hunger to trends in judgment.

“When you don’t run an experiment, it’s hard to make a causal association,” Levav said. “Ideally, we’d have an experiment where one judge takes a break and eats, and another doesn’t eat.”

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Apr 12 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Peruvian Presidental Election Heading for a Runoff

Peruvian Presidental Election Heading for a Runoff

Peru held its presidential election on Sunday. The leader only received 30.5% of the vote, so a runoff between the top two candidates will be held in June. The leader, Ollanta Humala, was a lieutenant colonel in the Peruvian army and was endorsed by the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez.

Humala, 48, made promises similar to those of Keiko Fujimori: free nursery school and public education, state-funded school breakfasts and lunches, a big boost in the minimum wage, and pensions for all beginning at age 65.

He says he would respect international treaties and contracts, but many Peruvians don’t believe him.

Humala, who launched a bloodless, short-lived revolt against Alberto Fujimori just before the latter fled into exile in 2000, advocates rewriting the constitution, as Chavez and his leftist allies in Bolivia and Ecuador have done

His challenger will be the second-place candidate, Keiko Fujimori, who received 23.1% of the vote. Keiko Fujimori is the daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, who is currently serving twenty-five years in prison in Peru for corruption and human rights abuses.

Keiko Fujimori constantly invoked her father during the campaign, running on his legacy of delivering essential services to Peru’s forgotten backwater and of being tough on crime. It’s a potent message in a nation of 30 million where one in three live on less than $3 a day and lack running water.

This election is not viewed particularly favorably by political observers.

Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa has called the Humala-Fujimori runoff option “a choice between AIDS and terminal cancer,” given perceptions of their anti-democratic tendencies.

Yikes.

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Apr 09 2011
Mark Twain, probably

The Colbert Report – 4/6/11 – My Fair Colbert (pt. 1)

The Colbert Report – 4/6/11 – My Fair Colbert (pt. 1)

This is the funniest segment I’ve seen on The Colbert Report in a long time. The rapid-fire jokes during the etiquette part at the end was like something out of an old comedy routine or cartoon. I was crying laughing by the time it finished.

Definitely worth sitting through Comedy Central’s web video cruft to watch.

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Apr 09 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Team Fortress 2 Players Raise over $400K for Japan

Team Fortress 2 Players Raise over $400K for Japan

On March 23, Valve added three limited-edition hats to the Team Fortress 2 in-game store for $7.99, $19.99, and $99.99. All proceeds from hat purchases were planned to go to the Red Cross’ disaster relief fund for the recent Japanese earthquake and tsunami.

The sale wrapped up on April 6, and the total amount of money raised was $430,543.65. That’s a magnificent sum of money which will help a lot of people. Great job, folks.

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Apr 06 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Moviefone offers freelancers the chance to work for free

Moviefone offers freelancers the chance to work for free

Kara Swisher, quoting then Moviefone Editor-in-Chief Patricia Chui:

“We will, indeed, be moving away from a freelancer model and toward one relying on full-time staffers. Sometime soon-–this week, I believe–-many of you will be receiving an email informing you that your services as a freelancer will no longer be required. You will be invited to contribute as part of our non-paid blogger system; and though I know that for many of you this will not be an option financially, I strongly encourage you to consider it if you’d like to keep writing for us, because we value all of your voices and input.”

You may remember Chui from the whole Moviefone / TechCrunch boondoggle over Source Code last month. This time, though, AOL fired Chui. I don’t want to applaud someone’s firing but I can’t say I’m surprised or upset — both incidents are totally unprofessional moves on Chui’s part.

It’s a simple formula, really: pay people for their time and hard work. When has that not worked?

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Apr 05 2011
Mark Twain, probably

British spy files shed light on Nazi saboteurs

British spy files shed light on Nazi saboteurs

Today, the British National Archives released 180 previously classified MI5 files on a variety of topics: World War II, the spread of Communism, etc. Professor Christopher Andrew of the University of Cambridge recorded a podcast about the files published in this current release.

One of the files, catalog number KV3/413, is a report on a failed German mission of sabotage in the United States during World War II. The story of the “Franz Daniel Pastorious Undertaking,” summarized by Jill Lawless of the Associated Press, is an amazing tale of incompetence:

They went to Paris, where one of the team got drunk at the hotel bar and “told everyone that he was a secret agent” — something, the MI5 report notes, that may “have contributed to the failure of the undertaking.”

The submarine dropping half the group on Long Island ran aground, and MI5 noted that “it was only owing to the laziness or stupidity of the American coast guards that this submarine was not attacked by U.S. forces.”

The Germans were stopped by a coast guard, who — to the evident astonishment of the British — did not detain them. He told his superiors, who were slow to contact the FBI.

The others in Florida also made it ashore, despite their attention-grabbing attire of “bathing trunks and army forage caps.”

The full 93-page report will be available for free through the Archives’ DocumentsOnline service for one month, if you have a hankering to dive into historical material. Here’s one of my favorite tidbits:

… he was taken first to see Captain Spies, who was believed to be responsible for [Abwehr] II work in Central America.

Captain Spies is the greatest military intelligence name ever.

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Apr 04 2011
Mark Twain, probably

Pandora and Other App Makers Subpoenaed

Pandora and Other App Makers Subpoenaed

Scott Thurm, writing for the WSJ, elaborates:

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing related to its planned initial public offering, Pandora said it had been informed it is “not a specific target of the investigation.” Pandora also said it believed similar subpoenas had been issued “on an industry-wide basis to the publishers of numerous other smartphone applications.”

Whoa. The investigation is reportedly related to “information-sharing practices by smartphone applications”.

(Via Luis de la Rosa.)

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