The Japanese Tradition

I found the following series called "The Japanese Tradition," a quirky tongue in cheek collection of lessons on Japanese culture. The videos in the series should run one after the other. However there is a part of the series missing: a three part on dating in Japan. There is a version on YouTube with English subtitles. which I cannot find now.

Richard Hitchens, author of god is not Great was recently interviewed at an atheist convention.  He says that Abraham Lincoln & Thomas Jefferson were atheists but I beg to differ as they often quoted God in a manner that accepts His existence.

"In regard to this Great Book, I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Reply to Loyal Colored People of Baltimore upon Presentation of a Bible" (September 7, 1864), p. 542.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. Thomas Jefferson

Once again, like his book, Hitchens' makes too many false generalizations.

Quote of the day: "Life's too interesting to be bored."

Surgery & ObGyn have eaten my time.

Quote of the day: "Your cervix is stone-cold closed."

I am thirsty:

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;
When shall I come and appear before God? -Psalm 42:1-2

Surgery is a vacuum of time, but it is a draw - the challenge of technical prowess, the satisfaction of tangible action; but do I want to constantly feel tired?

That's all secondary. What is life apart from God?

Disney Returns to High School

I admit, I watched High School Musical 2. Despite the oversaturated glare from color editing, abrupt transitions to song & dance, cliched villainess and talent show plot, and a scene with poor juxtaposition of baseball with dancing, I enjoyed it. High school never came in such fake rosy (magenta) packaging and romance; but romance, spectacle, or comedy is what we expect from musicals--an escape. Here the faces are fresh, choreographs are polished, and songs are radio ready. The Village Voice has a review with spoilers.

If you missed the crazy amount of media buzz generated, it's a Disney made-for-TV movie. The last two weeks saw a sudden rush of media outlets featuring HSM. Who is this unknown on the cover of Rolling Stones? I guess he's become somebody...good business. The first movie generated $100mil in merchandise (highest selling CD in 2006) and so Disney tripled the production cost of the sequel and it shows.

OD on Caffeine

17 year old girl consumes seven double espressos, develops palpitations, hyperventilation, fever, diaphoresis.

Step Closer to Precog

Ars Technica reports on the Department on Homeland Security (DHS) exploring automated Hostile Intent detectors. As quoted, "hostile intent indicators are composed of behavioral, speech, and physiological cues that are derived from operational and laboratory experiments" which Ars notes:

these cues can identify not only those who pose immediate risks but also individuals who are likely to pose risks in the indefinite future (italics added).

It's a step closer to the Precogs in Minority Report. I'm interested in seeing where this goes.

New iMac. More svelte than ever.

Night Rain
Aching swollen heaven cries.
There, there...
Gunshots tear white hot twists
And leave slow "Timber!" in the hollows of space,
Shaking houses beneath the strobe of vapor mountains.
Frog, cicada join the applause of struck dirt.
The heavens cried and cooled the earth.

gPhone
In the wake of Apple's iPhone, rumor is Google developing a cell phone to be supported by ads (as recently reported in Wall Street Journal, then other news sources).

Yesterday, the Chicago Sun-Times published an excerpt from the book Blasphemy: How the Religious Right Is Hijacking Our Declaration of Independence, by Alan Dershowitz. The issue: separation of church and state. Mr. Dershowitz shows a surprising lack of understand. Essentially he says the religious right wants to break down the "wall of separation in Church and State" to form a state-run religion. A religion run by the government is exactly what the religious right does not want. Therefore Dershowitz is actually in agreement on this point and in agreement with Thomas Jefferson. When Jefferson coined the phrase in a letter to the Danbury Baptists, he was trying to protect the free practice of religion by not setting a federally sponsored religion. The religious right see a twisting of this original intent. Instead of protecting religion, the past few decades shows rulings and legislation impinging on religious freedom.

David Crowder Band's next album, Remedy, seems set for Sept. 25, 2007. Yeah!

Marijuana: Risk for Schizophrenia

P1010508
Originally uploaded by munghole.

A study published by The Lancet, strongly links marijuana use with the risk of developing schizophrenia. Users have a 41% increase risk of psychosis and higher with heavier use. Of note is, if Britain stopped its marijuana consumption, ~800 cases of schizophrenia would be prevented. (see article at Reuters).

NY Times article on restaurants for people with celiac disease. It is useful to know if you have friends who have the condition. It frees you up to go out to eat and not have to always check in advance if the restaurant offers gluten free food.

Rambling on Tolerance (modified)
It seem unavoidable that we operate by stereotypes. How do people sum or size others up? By pattern recognition. We match from past experiences with people of the similar body habitus, complexion, fashion sense, posture, demeanor, vocal inflections, vocabulary, etc. How do people make a judgment call or determine first impression? At times it is an essential tool in order to screen people in the interview process, auditions, airports... not to say that our ability to match is perfect. Mass data (people) under time constraints demands practicality.

In part I poo-poo the notion of tolerance. What is tolerance? It is the notion of not acting out against something attributed negatively. Our P.C. nation has no tolerance for stereotyping that is matched with negative emotions (hatred, anger, annoyance); though it has spread to avoiding almost any form generalization (which is impractical). This band-aid on a heart issue will not resolve by putting on a front. Yet everyone is required to assume the front and pretend without necessarily addressing the core. Doesn't this just add another layer of deception? Then again we should strive to live at peace with others so it could suffice as a temporary salve.

As for tolerance in terms of "being open to new ideas or change," fine. There should be a willingness to entertain and understand new things, within reasonable limits. After all, experience is not an end-all (unless you're an existentialist), otherwise everyone would try, for example, street drugs. But we don't need experience to necessarily choose wisely.

At the other side of the spectrum there are elements we can not tolerant: injustice, evil and the likes... In conclusion, tolerance is too broad an agenda to set, that could lead to oversight of practicality and core issues.

(There is a distinction between tolerance and patience. Patience is tied closely with contentment and enduring stress, duress, boredom.) Okay, I'll get off my soapbox.

Break & Down

Break in.
Break locks.
Break chains.
Break free.
Breakfast.
Break ties.
Break promises.
Break hearts.
Break spirits.
Breakdown.

Down to the details.
Down to a science.
Down to the bone.

Down to an artform.
Down to the last second.

LOLCats.com. Woot! (in the same lines as dpac)

Saw Ratatouille. Awesome... consummate satisfaction! And the animated short, Lifted, made me laugh out loud. I'm amazed at how Pixar pulls it off that movie magic each time. How do they keep it fresh? Working there is a dream job for many people I'm sure.

Chinese Steam Buns Made from Cardboard.

northern redbelly dace
Originally uploaded by Ardea.

China's Export Woes - Seafood
The Washington Post reports China exports farm-raised seafood contaminated with antibiotics and carcinogens despite repeated warnings and even visits to farms. The FDA now requires inspection of shrimp, eel, catfish, basa and dace from China before they are sold.

The chemicals found in the seafood were "nitrofurans detected in shrimp, malachite green detected in dace, eel and catfish and basa, and gentian violet detected in eel and catfish. In addition, fluoroquinolones were found in catfish and basa."

Again, the levels are just detectable but should not be present in the firs place.

iPhone Strategy
iPhones hit stores at 6 p.m., 1 week from now (June 29). Details about the plan are still vague but news estimates have it at $60/month phone service + $20/month unlimited data = $80/mo. or $960/year. The phone itself will cost ~$600 (8GB model) and there doesn't seem to be any AT&T subsidy to buffer the cost. I want one, but practically I can't afford it.

Just like iPods, part of the initial draw would build on the fact that only a select few--the affluent and trendy have it. If you follow the music player market, as it grew, the white headphones became more widespread, a turn off to some early adopters (no longer elite), but the larger draw shifted to a stage of belonging, being in, an elevated expectation of norm. How else could you answer, "What's on your iPod?" (not that I could answer that)? The iPhone's price point has it's role in maintaining cool. A strategy which Apple will not exercise is making the phone first available only for the Mac, as they did with the iPod.

People believe the iPhone has greater function and customization than a Treo, Blackberry Curve, Blackjack, etc. Sure it has a full operating system (Leopard) and full web browser (Safari); yet the OS's potential may choke at outset. Security restrictions have not opened the phone to third party developers ("Where's the iPhone developer kit?"). The only means of expanding function are via webwares and working at Apple; perhaps that's enough. The interface is great intuitive eye candy but these do not replace the office. In the least, the iPhone would benefit from having document & spreadsheet software. The current absence of these imply that Apple is targeting trend setters and consumers not business-types and industry. Expectations are overblown. Gear lust - it's real and it's hungry.

Update: iPhone Guide video on Apple's website. It looks beautiful and its surface is optical glass. "Nothing compares to holding one in your own hand."
Features: phone, email, SMS text messaging, browser... plus Notes, Stocks, Google Maps, Weather, the ability to read .doc and .pdf, YouTube. Integration is well done, something that 3rd party developers will likely be unable to access.

No games shown. It would be cool if programs were written to take advantage of the proximity sensor (used to detects if the phone is close to your face), accelerometer/gyroscope (detects if phone is in landscape or portrait mode), the touch screen, and microphone. It could be the sleek alternative to Nintendo DS.

Haha :)

The days of Big Solar have come. Yay! I had said we should convert that sun drenched expanse of the Southwest into a solar power generator for the U.S. Two concerns: Can the energy be transported to far off states? Is there an ecological impact on the desert?

Apple Trailers shows a new Pixar movie for June 27, 2008. WALL∙E a robot that draws similarities to Spielberg's ET in voice + body habitus (prominent eyes, thin neck, squat body).

I hope it follows in the Pixar tradition of dynamic heartfelt characters. With Pixar running Disney animations, are all their subsequent animated features falling under Pixar's name? (Banish the duality formed around "Chicken Little," "Meet the Robinsons" & "Incredibles," "Cars.")

In the same vein as Gmail Chat, Yahoo has integrated it's chat into it's Yahoo mail system.

Mr. Wizard passed away from multiple myeloma on Tuesday, June 12, 2007. He was part of a better Nikelodeon.

Several years ago Microsoft's ramped up its recruitment of researchers in the field of voice recognition and other multimodal interactions (touch, vision, voice, position/motion) for the HCI (human-computer interaction). Only now is its efforts becoming commercial and reaching market. Of note is their research in computer vision, which will only trend larger unless limited by privacy issues (Big Brother watching or Minority Report iris/retinal scans). Microsoft's Surface uses cameras to track interaction with the table interface and is an example of how refined vision has become.

It's not a far stretch to see future payoff in Microsoft's investment in robotics. I'd say robotics is essentially computing empowered with motion. The payoff (reaching consumers) comes with applying that vision to hand-eye coordination and then applying AI. This is not to say, robots do not already exist for the consumer (Roomba), but it has yet to hit critical mass.

Not only are our senses interacting with computing more but computing devices are increasingly sensing us. For example xuuk has a camera with infrared eye tracker to detect if you are looking at it. They are marketing it as a way for advertisements (Wired magazine says billboards) to tell if you are looking at them. Not too long ago, a Wired magazine article described military research on computers scanning our brains to monitor which sensory input was overloaded or underutilized. The computer would then select the optimal mode of communication (image, text, or audio) to the user.

Gypsy Cab Project - reality webTV in a VW Rabbit.

Safari to PC
Apple has released a public beta of the latest version of Safari AND it's available for Windows XP or Vista. It claims the current title of fastest major browser--faster than Firefox 2 or Opera 9.

YouTube - New Interface
more Aqua on the bottom.
You can still browse the current video at this point (by adjusting the scroll bar).

Amazonian Tree of Services
I am developing greater respect for Amazon. A9.com and Mechanical Turk are two sub-corporations of Amazon. Yet, there is little media buzz surrounding Amazon's branching reach (besides Bezos' space endeavors).

• A9.com is tempting to be my search portal of choice (or 2nd) because it is a search aggregator allowing simultaneous search with multiple and specialized search sites. You can choose to include Wiki to less common/more specialized portals like German, Japanese, programming, or law. Yes, it is annoying for it's lack of Google searches among all the searches they offer to aggregate. Another feature I have yet to find on A9 is a news aggregator.
  
• Mechanical Turk uses what Jeff Bezos calls Artificial Artificial Intelligence (hmmm... clever name). As Wiki tells us it is computers outsourcing tasks to humans regarding tasks that humans do faster.
  

In other search explorations, Microsoft's Live.com has become oh so similar to Google.com. Consider the minimalistic interface, map search (note Virtual Earth's nice new Bird's Eye view), Academic search (like Google Scholar), and most telling, the caching of web sites.

Poison for Your Pearly Whites
China is really killing it's international reputation. Toothpaste labeled "Excel" & "Mr. Cool" containing the poison diethylene glycol (DEG) was confiscated in Nicaragua. Not surprisingly the toothpaste was smuggled from Panama (note post regarding poisoning in Panama).

The FDA has issued warning and stopped imports of Chinese toothpaste into the U.S. The Associate Press reports that the former head of the China's FDA was sentenced to death four days ago (Tues., May 29, 2007) for taking bribes to allow companies to bypass drug regulations. A senior official of China said the levels of DEG were not harmful. However, the U.S. FDA rightly notes that such a poison does not even belong in toothpaste.

Googlenope by Weingarten

i + You = AppleTube (...no, not quite = Wii)
or
Instant Content Boost
Oh, man. Just look at this. Come June Apple's looking to pop!

Wishing I invested in Apple in 1996.

Hand in hand with that is the fact that music labels are allowing YouTube to broadcast their music videos.

If Apple wants to take on the threat of Microsoft head-on, they should come up with a device that transforms ordinary TV's into multi-touch screens. I don't see that technology anytime soon. What Apple has going for them is price difference, portability and the fact that Microsoft Surface is not slated until later in the year and then only available for businesses.

In other news, Ars Technica reports "New RealPlayer to rip YouTube video streams" and other streams.

Microsoft Surface
Microsoft Surface look promising and will threaten Google and Apple. SciFi is definitely a source of inspiration -- Minority Report, that is. The multi-touch surface will be the interface for Apple iPhone (as you know) and the newly announced Microsoft Surface (a 30 inch monitor). It looks as though the spider web of Microsoft has come together in a product integration akin to Apple, but even tighter. The Surface looks like one of Apple's older monitors (before they went silver) and the music interface is shamelessly copied from iTunes. Have they out-Appled Apple?


Let me list some of the ways of integration and clever promotional tie-ins:

• Microsoft mobile operating system on mobile devices (take that Palm)
  
• Microsoft Live Search, Virtual Earth Maps (take that Google)
  
• Microsoft Zune (take that Apple)
• T Mobile deal (take that Cingular...ummm AT&T)
• Increased multiplayer interactivity (take that Nintendo...maybe?)

A YouTube search of FTIR or Reactable shows that the interface technology has been in development for quite a while not just by Apple or Microsoft, but only now is it becoming more comercialized. However it doesn't seem Mircosoft uses FTIR but instead uses near-infrared cameras.

Sunday night. Perfect weather at the Millennium Park. Uncrowded. Monster Percussion Concert. It was awesome. Percussionists may have the most fun of all instrumentalists... usually don't take themselves too seriously and are not above gimmick if it sounds cool. The xylophone cannot sound unhappy. Will I ever see a marimba orchestra again? Wish I brought a camera...

Something to give you a smile. The Balloon Hat Experience.

Lingo
The need to process more info. and communicate faster promotes more acronym use and likely a bit of elitism for those in the know. Two which I recently came upon via friends:

• Q.E.D. - quod erat demonstrandum - has been around for quite a while but I never knew its meaning. It is used "to indicate that something has been definitively proven" (Wikipedia) usually found at the end of mathematical proofs... and used by cocky math students, so I'm told.
• gosu - a term for one who is highly skilled at martial arts or the boardgame Go, redefined by the online gaming community as the acronym for "god/guardian of Starcraft universe"--an expert gamer. Therefore according to Wikipedia it is a bacronym. It is often used as an adjective as in:
  That is so gosu! or... 7|-|47 15 50 605|_|! (Is gosu used in l337 speak?)
  

Listening to David Crowder Band A Collision... not as readily accessible as Illuminate but it is still so wonderful to share in joy. There is a joy where you're laughing so hard, laughing so hard...maybe not so often while existing in this fallen world.

Washington Post reports diacetyl, an artificial flavoring agent in microwave popcorn, causes the irreversible disease bronchiolitis obliterans in workers at microwave-popcorn factories. The effects of consumption or the fumes after microwaving are uncertain as it has not been studied by the FDA.

Motivating is fleeting when it is unclear what your working towards.

I know it's not the in context meaning of "Where there is no vision, the people perish," but I sometimes feel discouragement along these lines; that is, needing vision to live ambitiously.

Life Ground Up
Ahhh, spring welcomes the awakening of nature.
This week, in the U.S. at least three rare Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum or Corpse Flower) plants have been in bloom. The plant is unique for remaining underground for a few to several years to then form a giant (5-10 ft. or 1.5-3 m high) bloom which smells and generates heat in mimic of rotting flesh. The bloom lasts 3-5 days.
If you are in Ohio visit UConn (Connecticut, OH) and in Minnesota visit Gustavus Adolphus College (Saint Peter, MN). For those in California, you may have missed your chance by now at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, but you can still see the time lapse video.

Brood X
Originally uploaded by Zsaj.

In a similar development, the Periodical or 17-year Cidada (Magicicada genus) in Chicagoland are expected to simultaneously come aboveground once the ground temperature warms up to ~63-64°F after 17 year of living underground. They will densely cover the region's foliage. Their predicted date of arrival is evening May 21 and morning May 22.

Would be awesome to make compelling animations like this by Yoann Lemoine:
Evergreen

An interesting development since 9-11 is the increased and intended visibility of Muslims. They voice it as an effort to normalize Islam in the U.S. public eye. More women wear the hijab, more participate in politics and elections, and in fact some boasts of Islam being the fastest growing religion in America (and Europe). I commend them for further embracing their rightful duties as citizens of this nation where there is still freedom of religion. I am also glad most distinguish themselves from the radicalism outside the U.S. I do wonder what the rest of the world thinks of U.S. Muslims when there are those who call the U.S. the Great Satan. One factor in the moderation of Islam in the U.S. has likely been attributed to demographics: many who come the America are more affluent and educated. I may sound quite optimistic, I want to hope they are making an honest effort to live at peace, but deep inside I remain suspicious of a religion and culture that seems so contrary to what I believe.

I cannot ignore the fact that the greatest geopolitical threat to Christians is Islam (2nd being communism). The top 10 nations persecuting Christians (by imprisonment, torture, murder, destruction of property, attacks, intimidation) are:
North Korea, Iraq, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Iran, Eritrea, China, Vietnam, Pakistan.
3 are communist nations. 7 are Muslim/dominantly Muslim.

So on the surface it appears there is a disconnect between the liberal and radical groups of Muslims. Morocco and Turkey are evidence of this. These are two nations where there is an internal struggle to keep Wahhabism at bay by separating state and religion, in the case of Turkey, or by the state directing religion and education towards moderation, in the case of Morocco.

Watched a few episodes of a fascinating show called America at a Crossroads. This show documents modern day Islam with a perspective sympathetic towards moderate Islam--the most visible form in the U.S. A distinction is drawn between radical versus peaceful interpretation of the Qur'an with radical being fundamentalist, extremist, violent as embodied mainly in the spreading movement of Wahhabism. In Europe the show drew attention to cases of such violence in Madrid, London, Holland, and Morocco. In Holland there was a cell of 20-something-year-old men, notable since they were citizens born and raised in Holland, yet somehow captivated by Wahhabism. One of the cell members threw a grenade into a group of Holland police. He was arrested and so was his younger brother. The younger brother was released as he wasn't at their meeting building at that time. Nonetheless, he holds to the cruel (and evil) ideology as seen by an interview of the younger brother. When asked about his brother, he laughed as if he couldn't contain his excitement in recalling what his brother did. Sick.

One thing that irked me was the note that the U.S. is different from Europe in that there are no terror cells in the U.S. because the Muslims in the U.S. are peaceful. This is blatantly wrong. The terrorist group which led to 9-11 had their cell in Florida. An more recently a group was arrested in New Jersey.

A question that many people in the U.S. are asking is: if Islam is a peaceful religion why haven't the moderates denounced violent acts committed in the name of Islam? At a Muslim Q&A session on a college campus the forceful answer was: "How many times do we have to denounce it?!" So it is often cited that Islam means "peace" and "submission." I think the harder question is if peaceful Muslims believe their holy book, they have to reconcile the following verses:

1. “Fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah” ~Surah 8:39
2. “Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free” ~Surah 9:5
3. “Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah…and follow not the Religion of Truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low” ~Surah 9:29
4. “Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey's end” ~Surah 9:73
5. “Fight those of the disbelievers who are near to you, and let them find harshness in you…” ~Surah 9:123
6. “So when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners…” ~Surah 47:4

Note #3 "those who have been given the Scripture" refers to Christians & Jews. (Source is from International Christian Concern).

And so essentially these commands were carried out recently in Turkey when a group of Turkish Muslims gruesomely tortured three Christian missionaries:

ICC then continued to describe the nature of the torture, which included disembowelment, emasculation, and the slicing open of various orifices.
“Tilman was stabbed 156 times, Necati 99 times and Ugur’s stabs were too numerous to count. Finally, their throats were sliced from ear to ear, heads practically decapitated,” ICC reports.

Come on China!! NY Times investigative journalism reports on a
poison in disguise sold to Chinese citizens and the world. Glycerine, an ingredient used in cough syrup, was replaced with diethylene glycol (DEG, typically used as a coolant and an organic solvent) and sold to pharmaceutical companies. Why the counterfeit? The same stinking reason... to make a larger profit. According to Wikipedia, glycerine costs ~3x more than DEG. There is more to this case than that... unlicensed, unqualified suppliers; forgery; failure to test the material; erasing records; poor labeling; not checking labels; changing labels; changing dates; failure to monitor sources through the supply chain.

Two sources of origin--a Mr. Wang and the Taixing Glycerine Factory--provided glycerine leading to mass poisonings. Given that a person or persons commit crimes in ignorance, ignorance shouldn't necessarily spared them. People died!! Over a hundred. In the Taixing case, the poison was labeled "TD glycerine." No one checked to find out that TD was abbreviation for a Chinese term for "substitute" as in "substitute glycerine." Makes you want to cry over the whole mess.

Via the investigation the path of 40 barrels of diethylene glycol:
Taixing Glycerine Factory manufactured the DEG in Hengxiang, China--> CNSC Fortune Way Company in Beijing, China--> Rasfer International in Barcelona, Spain--> imported by Medicom into Panama--> used to make 260,000 bottles of medication in Panama City--> distributed to the people of Panama

McGraw Hill's Access Medicine reports DEG as:

Highly nephrotoxic. Renal failure, coma, metabolic acidosis, and death have been reported after ingestion... Gastritis, hepatitis, pancreatitis, and delayed neurologic sequelae also reported after ingestion. Metabolic acidosis may be delayed > 12 hours after ingestion.

Treatment: "ethanol and fomepizole may be effective" but Poison Control Center should be contacted immediately.

Speaking of following up on sources I believe the NY Times may have some confusion between ethylene glycol and DEG. Ethylene glycol is used in antifreeze and deicers. Both compounds are described as sweet and highly toxic causes of medical emergencies.

Honeybee 2
Originally uploaded by dragonseye.

Colony Collapse Disorder threatens the U.S. honeybees population nationwide and subsequently threatens the many crops dependent on honeybee pollination. The bees would suddenly abandon the colony, leaving the larvae and queen to die. The disorder has also affected populations in South America and Europe. The cause remains a mystery.

There Is Beauty
Read a bit of Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig. Leafed through a bit of Cold War Kids. They made me wonder at our mistaking what is novel and even creative for what is honestly beautiful.

To draw on Craig's summary of Francis Schaeffer's analysis of the human predicament: Schaeffer rallied against Hegel's influence on Western culture, an influence to destroy our definites and absolutes and leave us in desperate absurdity and meaninglessness.

In that "line of despair" we are gripped by avant garde expression to dwell on chaos, disorder, and emptiness and name it beauty. It's like rejoicing in our oblivion and blindness.

Cold War Kids draw inspiration from David Foster Walker:

"...to back away from ironic watching..."
"...gall actually to endorse and instantiate single-entendre principles..."
"...eschew self-consciousness and hip fatigue..."
"...The old postmodern insurgents risked the gasp and squeal:shock disgust, outrage, censorship, accusations of socialism, anarchism, nihilism. Today's risks are different. The new rebels might be artists willing to risk the yawn, rolled eyes, the cool smile, the nudged ribs, the parody of gifted ironists, the 'Oh how banal.' To risk accusations of sentimentality, melodrama. Of overcredulity. Of softness..."

Ha! Hip fatigue. I can't say the Cold War Kids have escaped it. It's hard to avoid, huh?

This is not to denigrate creativity; it has its place. I too am curious and fascinated by forms of expression. I just don't want to ignore or water down what is truly admirable.

And so I sign off with words that are reassuring and itself beautiful:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. -Philippians 4:8

Chicago Bulls swept the Miami Heat.

AlltheWeb.com has a live web search option. Nice. From my attempts it's a bit faster than the live search ability of Google Desktop and not quite as fast as OS X Sherlock... though the comparison is between web only and predominantly desktop search engines. PCWorld's Search Engine Shootout has both Yahoo-powered AlltheWeb and AltaVista besting Google in text search tests, however noting Google as overall best.

Feed the Sham
There is building evidence that the pets who died from pet food products were a result of melamine scrap–an extracted from coal (yes, the black stuff)–added to pet food & livestock feed by China. Of course the manufacturers there say it's harmless and adding it is a widespread practice.
The most infuriating aspect of this is that melamine is used solely to deceive tests into registering higher protein levels because of melamine's nitrogen content. Buyers in Asia and the U.S. purchase animal feed with this "fake protein" of no nutritional value as the NY Times notes. And why did they start adding melamine scrap? It is cheaper than real protein (Come on, it's scrap!) and they can't get away as easily with adding urea (yes, the stuff in urine) in fooling the tests. Talk about cheap cons.
The Times made note of other China scandals:

China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim

...all for consumption by their citizens and those who buy China's exports.

A drug in trials may help treat a slew of genetic disorders including Duchenne muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, certain hemophilias. The drug, PTC124, targets ribosomes, causing them to ignore nonsense mutations. Such mutations cause the translation of a protein to prematurely stop when a ribosome hits an erroneous stop codon. Will there be any side effect of ignoring all stop codons?

Sweet ending for a Gap commercial.

Search
I was about to promote A9.com (a susidiary of Amazon.com) as an alternative search portal to Google. It is apparent now that it is in large part a mashup with live.com, the search portal of Microsoft's Windows Live. This gives me some pause to promote something extending Microsoft's reach. In addition A9.com no longer has a map search, unique for having street-level-photographic views. This gives me pause in promoting something that may still be in flux. A9.com does deliver in allowing one to "search more at once" though absent from its search options are Google and Flicker.
(Speaking of Microsoft I must say the company has made strides in improving brand image.)

The Worst Form of Negligence
Hundreds of highly classified documents detailing U.S. nuclear secrets were hard copied and electronically copied by Jessica Quintana--an archivist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico--and taken off the premise. Quintana, who had know a background of drug abuse, was arrested after her trailer was found with crystal-meth-making equipment and the nuclear bomb designs.

Energy Secretary Bodman is testifying today (4-20-07) before a congressional sub-committee. He has said:

"Unauthorized removal of the classified material from the Lab marks a significant breach of security protocol and of the public trust. Unfortunately, we cannot correct the errors of the past. But we will learn from this incident and we will do better."

We better hope that the "errors of the past" do not haunt us. Seemingly the information did not yet fall into the wrong hands, but this is a set up for incredible disaster.

It is all the more painful to see, among the VT victims, internationals who came to the U.S. only to meet such a horrific end. Some were the best and brightest. Some suffered and survived before coming to the U.S. That was a violation of what America strives to be: a sanctuary, a refuge, a beacon, a model. It may seems brazen for a young nation to be a model, but shouldn't all countries strive to be models?

Memory HoleJames Fallows of the Atlantic Monthly and Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post pointed out The Chicago Sun Times blundered in incorrectly "identifying" the VT shooter as a Chinese man (a 25-year-old student from Shanghai). Some media ports even went so far as to misdirect people to an innocent student. As another blog noted Google never forgets.

Google cache shows the scrubbing extends to other sites, here shown is NBC-5 Chicago, that took advantage of Sneed's poor journalism. Both versions of the above web post are noted as being [POSTED: 6:10 pm CDT April 16, 2007].

Ugh, I'm repulsed by the disturbingly blunted affect of that mug shown over all the media. I'm thankful that the Korean community was quick to condemn the act because in no way can that man represent them.

My hero: John "Doc" Bradley, one among many heroes given tribute in "Flags of our Fathers."
My hero: Ira Hayes, one among many heroes who deserved so much more.

I am so grateful to be an American, not in hubris or entitlement but in deep thankfulness. (Yet there are reasons to be proud–the dreams allowed, the ideals pursued, the education provided, freedom of religion–why else the draw?) Thanks to God who gives us such grace and the people in uniform who defend us.

In our present day what would it mean to have a scent of victory?

I should see Letters from Iwo Jima.

(image from Washington Post)

West Rises in China's Backyard
An article of the Washington Post describes how China's citizens have been constructing replicas of European and American towns to attract their high-end citizens, burgeoning with new found wealth. Two observations in this article stuck out in their distastefulness.

1. "These so-called theme cities give testament to the great power that has fueled China's economic boom and that the country has become infamous for: making copies." Sadly, there is truth to this. Just look at the U.S. efforts to curb Chinese piracy. But I want to say there was a time when this wasn't their notoriety. Ancient China was know for it's inventiveness (paper, kite, gunpowder, fireworks, compass, porcelain, silk, several martial arts forms, etc). They sell themselves short if they persist in copying. I am sure innovation is surfacing even now, given all the engineering know-how they have aggregated. This is promising but at the same time scary for the economies of other nations. [On a side note Chinese creativity at least is showing itself in the growing international interest in modern Chinese art.]

2. It is a shame to see so many succumb to the idea that Western styles are of somehow better while Eastern styles are inferior and thus expendable. Not only is this the case but shrewd Chinese are capitalizing on this idea to gouge their fellow citizens--consumers with an ignorant concept of the West. "it costs a lot and it's different--so it's good." They want it but they fail to fully appreciate it. It is another example of pearls before swine. But in counterpoint what does this say about the West's fascination/fetish with the East? Each calls the other exotic.

Recommended Reading
Sunday morning welcomed with a fine article Pearls Before Breakfast, a Washington Post social experiment involving violin prodigy Joshua Bell.

Korean Soap Parody
Enjoyable and funny comedy sketches are virtually nonexistent on TV but this had me ROTFL. Can someone translate what is actually being said?

Manchu - A Dying Language in China - at most there are 18 native speakers left, all >80 y/o. Here's the video as reported by New York Times.

Apple unveils online its new Mac Pro featuring a stunning set of eight-core processors consisting of two quad-core Intel Clovertown Xeon processors with speeds up to 3.0 GHz (Is the quad-core Clovertown name a reference to a shamrock?). Talk about high end. Tempting.

Why not throw in 3 terabytes of hard drive space, 16 gigabytes of RAM, two 30 inch cinema displays?

(images from Apple.com)

Via Crave: Nikon Universcale

I listened to This American Life episode "By Proxy." Act II focuses on a former Iraqi translator for the American army. The Iraqi translators need our support because they work under such suspicion by their fellow Iraqi's. I don't know how else to support them except in prayer; because any visible assistance from the Americans just makes them and those around them a target. Over 250 interpreters have been killed. Many Iraqi imams are calling people to kill translators. Even speaking an English word is grounds enough for murder. This particular translator said he does not regret working for the Americans, because Americans are there to show a better way than under Saddam–specifically citing how they treat prisoners with respect and how they deal with crowds without the use of force.

The New York Times article about Japan's wartime sex slaves (euphemistically called comfort women) notes that upon defeat in WWII, Japan destroyed many of its incriminating documents. Yet some had survived as evidence that through the 1930's & 40's it was an officially established operation by the military:
"Between 50,000 and 200,000 women from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia and elsewhere were tricked or coerced into sexual slavery."

Yet Japanese revisionist efforts continue to deny or hide this history from their educational system. Certainly this would not be condoned by modern Japan, but this is a history that should not be ignored.

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That’s funny . . . '" - Isaac Asimov

Let love be without hypocrisy Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. - Romans 12:9 (NASB)

No one is truly obedient to the command to hate evil if he only fears the consequence of evil. A truly good man hates evil because it is evil and he loves God. - John MacArthur

Every stimulus that can be shared or any group behavior is put forth as THE universal language. This goes for sports, music, photography, film, dance, food. If so many things are considered transcendent then are any of them really?

Song to look for: the spiritual "Amen" by Jester Hairston.

Things breaking down:
JBL stereo has stopped playing CD's. At first it was only some CD's and some skipping, but now it just makes that searching whirling sound. It must be song and sermoned out. Oh, those quality speakers not being used... though the radio & cassette player still work. The worst thing is the closest JBL repairer is in New York.

Analog camera spontaneously turns off and has white arc obscuring left side of photos.

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the circumstances of this world that I forget eternity.

So often we don't see our need for God until we have no choice but to turn to God. Not that we don't recognize our need before then, but it doesn't grip us.

JAMA article on vitamin supplements concludes "Treatment with beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase mortality."

A study shows college students are getting more narcissistic.

Yellow Account
Here we go again with media/entertainment sensationalizing threats against Christianity–Gnostics Gospels, Judas Gospel, and now we have the Talpiot ossuaries, which are billed by James Cameron as evidence of Jesus Christ's remains. All these where examined by archaeologists in the past but now wannabes once again adulterate history and vomit out their conjectures as fact. James Cameron even notes his motivation as, "I don't profess to be an archaeologist or a Biblical scholar. I'm a film producer. I found it compelling"– not that he bothered to personally investigate the facts, but still he means to garner the publicity.
Please, at least show some respect.

• If Jesus was still around Jerusalem, how can 500-plus witnesses attest to the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
• If the persecutors of Christians only had to point to this tomb or this ossuary sitting in Jerusalem, the Christian church wouldn't even have started.
• How could the poor carpenter family obtain a grand family tomb and why have it in Jerusalem when they were from Nazareth?
• Relatedness by DNA was only tested between the ossuaries with the name of Jesus and Mariamene (which is not even the name Mary Magdalene). The tests failed to also compare paternal relatedness. And even so, there is absolutely no proof of marriage here nor historically. Even if they are unrelated, this Mariamene could have married into the family via other males in the tomb.
  
• Joseph is not found among the ossuaries.
  
• The name of Jesus was extremely common. Consider that the name Jesus is the Greek form of the name Joshua. There were and are an abounding number of people named Joshua.

For Want of a ...
A friend stopped by and commented, "If you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk." Anyone know that children's story?

If a hungry little traveler shows up at your house, you might want to give him a cookie. If you give him a cookie, he's going to ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim...

I was thinking about this while I went to Bible study and came upon the thought, "For want of a blank, the kingdom was lost. For want of a what?! For want of ....? Was it the kingdom or the war that was lost? I think it has something to do with a horse. For want of a horse the kingdom was lost? That still doesn't sound right." Though almost no one recognized giving a mouse a cookie... more gears started turning for want of a something. Is it Shakespeare?

A friend at Bible study got on Google and first found.

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

which is from Shakespeare's Richard III. That is something but still I felt that was not it.
Then he found the elusive quote:

For want of a nail the kingdom was lost.

It is from a longer nursery rhyme–origin uncertain–likely English.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Saw Amazing Grace the movie about William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery.

"Oh what thanks do I owe the Giver of all good for bringing me in His gracious providence to this great cause!"

It is well done. And I recommend it for all to see. This year is also the 200th anniversary of the abolition. The makers of the film also are pushing for abolition of present day slavery, directing people to International Justice Mission and World Vision.

An interesting character is Olauda Equiano a former slave.

Apple & Cisco have come to an agreement to both use the name iPhone, drop legal actions, work on interoperability (in future projects or with the iPhones?), plus some undisclosed agreements.

Personally it does not bode kindly for Apple's image. From unveiling, Apple appears to have muscled for a name knowingly owned by another. But Cisco wanted interoperability from the outset, so perhaps both parties got what they wanted. Apple could have avoided this by using their famous innovation to generate another name.

Similarly there is the hubub about Martha Stewart using Katonah trademark in her furniture line. Katonah says "No Thank You Martha," for fear of diluting the value of that name. I think Stewart has a better case since Katonah does not have trademark ownership and is already used by a variety businesses. On the flip side I don't know if she could protect the name from use by others.

Worthy Cause
Amazing Grace the movie coming out Friday, February 23, has teamed up with hundreds of churches across the US in a fight and put an end to slavery globally.

The chytrid fungus is eradicating frogs globally leading scientists to create the Amphibian Ark – an effort to preserve species in captivity (zoos). How can we stop this fungus?

Race Relations
Am I late recognize what is racism towards and even persecution of the ethnically Chinese residing in southeast Asian countries? This may not be systematic but more of an understanding of how the cultures just are – accepted as part of living there. Are there any efforts to reverse this process?

This may be why Chinese in Thailand change their names. And why else would people in Indonesia who look "too Chinese" have to hide during certain days?

golden pig
Originally uploaded by maycos60.

Happy Lunar New Year! I recently learned the animal associated with each year is also associated with some material (gold, sand, water, fire, wood) and this is the year of the golden boar, a sign the superstitious regard as lucky.

But today's headlines evince the reality of a world getting crazier.

• 28 Bombs Blast Thailand Muslim extremist may demand a separate state now, but if they're like the Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines who demand a separate state, their actual goal would be eventual Muslim domination of the nation and then the world.
• Pakistan-Bound Train Bombing
• H5N1 Avian Flu Continues Africa/Eurasia Spread
• N. Korea Holds Possible 2-8 Nuclear Bombs... What seems a victory earlier last week may be concessions to a little poker player bullying the disjointed field of countries.
  

And like Rio de Janeiro celebrating Carnival amidst ongoing violence, we at least need some escape and some little victories to keep going.

A Chinese Activist Lost in the System

North Korea has agreed to close down it's nuclear reactor. We all hope for a nuclear free Korea. I just hope it is carried out as well as neutralizing it's plutonium reserves. Let's pray that it is carried completely through and real trust may be built at least akin to the world's relations with China. I hope N. Korea doesn't violate it's agreements again; otherwise trust may never be had.

(image from Daily Herald)

Sad day, my high school world history teacher passed away.

Youtube Meet Hollywood
Noah K. Everyday with Celebs.

It seems as though everyone now presses for pullout of Iraq. Democrats & Republicans who initially pushed for war were not eager to go to war in Iraq then–we already were managing war in Afghanistan–but the majority still voted "yeah." Let's not obscure the fact that both the American & British governments had faulty intelligence, intelligence showing that Iraq was developing WMD's against the UN Security Council recommendations. It was only post hoc that no WMD's were found (though the facilities for developing WMD's were in place); and that the intelligence information was in error. Yet so many are ready to call foul or betrayal with our hindsight. So can we call it a mistake? That's hard to answer or perhaps I'm unwilling to because a preemptive attack by the U.S. is unprecedented.

NPR was in Bagdad before the U.S. announced it's declaration of war. They interviews the people and the response was surprising, "Saddam has thrown down the gauntlet. The U.S. must and will respond. It is inevitable."

What wasn't planned for was the resistance to restructuring, stability, and unity. If there was stability there wouldn't be such an outcry around the world. What effected unity and stability before war? Fear of the Bathist government. In part America saw it's work as liberation. And it was. The tyranny was real and cruel. Even retired military types, photojournalists and eyewitnesses say that the Iraqis suffered brutally under Saddam Hussein and welcomed the overthrow...but not the following instability...no one wanted that.

What can fill the void left by the departure of tyranny? Something an entire nation can hope for and rally behind. That is why there is such an emphasis on creating a viable democracy in the Middle East, but can the Iraqis grasp that? I don't know. There is a war of ideals. We cannot desert them and leave them to self destruct or be overtaken by a new hostile regime.

Sometimes it seems hopeless. I guess that's why people are calling for pull out, they doubt the cost will pay off.

Today I embark on learning to speed read. I hope it works. I should have done it earlier.

Mr. Underbrink
From the grapevine I hear that my high school world history teacher is hospitalized with pancreatic cancer. I need to confirm this. A real Indiana Jones. He's an anthropologist, archaeologist, professional photographer, teacher. His other job is a photojournalist for UNESCO & NATO. He travels the world photographing ancient ruins as part of the UN's preservation efforts. He is well loved for his stories, his camel call, his love of food ("If it comes out of the sea, I'll eat it"), his self-absorbed cat, his loathing of camels, his humor, his energy, his involvement in the local community. Someone needs to record his story.

The most memorable story was his climbing in the Himalayas(?) for a better view, only to fall down the mountains and have a rock pierce through his right forearm because he did what "any photographer would do–protect my camera." He was taken care of by indigenous people who wrapped his arm in a caste and rowed him down a river to civilization. The caste form was thought long gone to the endless fascination of the physicians who examined him. The muscles of his right arm had to be rearranged and attached. He learned to write with his left hand while his right healed (which it did).

It's hard to imagine him not living life grandly and sharing a bit of that with us students, but now he may be stricken with a terminal illness. I've never gotten tired of his stories. Because he's a part of so many of our pasts a bit of our own history is maligned. (But more so I suspect mortality calls each of us and we don't want to be reminded.)

Wow, teachers can impact so many people. They definitely need more respect in this society.

Sad, sad, saaaad Americans. This video makes me want to cry. Julian Morrow Reports. Why?! Ignorant adults. Of course this is not a statistical sample but selected to humiliate Americans. Still shows a definite sample of Americans who seem to care less about the world. In the least it speaks to a void of information and or interest among Americans.