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Posting here may be light for the next couple of weeks, as co-blogger Russell and I are both headed to Asia for a tour of the Japan, Russia, South Korea, and China. I have no idea what sort of connectivity there will be, if any, or how often we'll be able to post. On the other hand, we should have something out of the ordinary to post about when we can connect.
Reports of its non-demise were greatly exaggerated:
Air America Radio, a liberal talk and news “radio network” that features comedian Al Franken, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, a network official told The Associated Press.
The network had denied rumors just a month ago that it would file for bankruptcy. On Friday, Air America spokeswoman Jaime Horn told The Associated Press that the filing became necessary only recently, after negotiations with a creditor from the company's early days broke down.
Of course they were.
As the article notes, this is not an immediate liquidation bankruptcy; “the network will stay on the air while it resolves issues with its creditors.” "Nobody likes filing for bankruptcy," said the network’s new CEO. "However, this move will enable us to concentrate on informing and entertaining our audience during the coming months." That would certainly be a refreshing change of pace. After a certain point, though, I think one has to ask what difference it makes. If the network hasn’t found an audience after… how long has it been? A couple of years?… Is there any reason to think it can change its trajectory at this late date?
I added the scare quotes around ‘radio network,” by the way, since I’m assuming their absence was an oversight by the AP. I considered adding them around “comedian” as well, but that would be piling on. Besides, the Air America saga has been a source of genuine amusement for conservatives from the beginning. Not that all is fun and games, of course. Several successful radio hosts (by which I mean conservative radio hosts) have expressed concern that the Democrats, having failed in the free market, might revert to type and seek government intervention through a reenactment of the “fairness” doctrine.
If you travel often enough that you care about airline configurations—which seats have power outlets, or have extra legroom, or don't recline—but not so much that you have all the configurations memorized, you should check out Seat Guru:
The ultimate source for airplane seating, in-flight amenities and airline information.
* Detailed seat map graphics.
* In-depth seat specific comments denoting seats with limited recline, reduced legroom, mis-aligned windows.
* Color-coding to help identify superior and substandard seats.
* In-seat power port locations.
* Galley, lavatory, Exit Row and closet locations
Once I've been on a project for a while, I find I really do become familiar with how my preferred flights are laid out. But this site is great for new projects, or when I'm going somewhere out of the normal routine, like with my flight to D.C. last week.
There’s some discussion as to whether Zune, the name taken by Microsoft’s media player, is a curse word in Hebrew (the language of Jews and Israel). There’s even a cartoon about the subject. However, Microsoft doesn’t need to worry, as the translation is mostly off the mark. Zune, spelled exactly as it is pronounced (and you can bet Microsoft will be careful about this), is in Hebrew זון, in which the first letter is a Z sound, the middle is an “ooh” vowel, and the last letter in an N.
This is similar to two different “dirty” words. זיון, or Z-Ay-U-N, is Hebrew for “penis”. The word for “whore” is זונה, or Z-O-N-Ah. In addition, לזיין, or L-Z-Ay-I-N, can mean “fuck”. While these words are very similar to זון/Zune, I don’t think any native Hebrew speaker is going to mistake the two, and say, “I’m not paying for a Microsoft Prostitute”. It is possible, if you accent enough on the U in Zune, to wind up with the first one, זיון, but there are worse things. After all, it’ll get people talking about the Zune’s large, um, screen.
(via Digg)
You know, some observers have observed that the Zune is larger than the iPod. Perhaps that wasn't a coincidence.
I've been riding Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line trains lately, and have found them to be a pretty reliable way to travel, for the most part. Happily, I wasn't riding them yesterday:
Legions of commuters sat in idled trains Tuesday morning because Amtrak decided to trim trees at the height of rush hour, according to state Transportation Commissioner Kris Kolluri.
“I had people stuck in trains. It’s frustrating. It is analogous to shutting down three lanes of a highway in rush hour,” said Kolluri.
NJ Transit said the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Line faced delays of up to an hour, though Kolluri said he had heard some passengers were delayed by two hours.
Those rail lines are the main rail connection between New York City and Newark Liberty airport, so it's a good bet that some people missed their planes.
"State lawmakers from both parties" took the occasion to suggest that Amtrak should be given access to still more federal funding. After all, nothing says, "give us more money" like a public demonstraton of the value you already provide.
I have nothing but the most heartfelt wishes for the families of the girls who were attacked in that schoolhouse in Pennsylvania....
But, is this really news? It's a terrible tragedy, but why is it getting so much time in the media? It's just about the least preventable crime there is, isn't it? Guy goes nuts and kills children. I'm not sure how society is rewarded by delving into his methods, his motives, the symbolism of how he lined them up, etc, etc, etc.
I guess it's a small blessing that it's unlikely that the coverage is bothering the community, since they don't have TVs or radios. But it's starting to get on my nerves, anyway.
It sounds like something out of a comic book, or Lord of the Rings, I know. But there's a chance that invisibility – real-life, honest-to-God invisibility – may actually be possible, some day. The technology doesn’t come from some dubious unknown inventor, but from Professor Sir John Pendry, the legendary theoretical physicist,
...it should be possible, in theory, to create what Pendry calls an invisibility cloak -- although invisibility shell might be more accurate as it will need to be rigid. Such a cloak would divert any incident light around its surface and release it on the same path on the other side: to any observer the wearer is invisible.
Pretty much the way it worked in the last James Bond movie, in other words.
What makes this story either more astonishing or more ridiculous (time will tell) is the time-frame in which we could start to see working applications in the lab: within five years
Popular Science has more.
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