Wednesday December 29
Tsunami Devastation
The tragedy in Sri Lanka, India and southeast Asia from Monday's tsunami is just overwhelming. A death count that started at 10,0000 is now seven times as large, and photos of the destruction left in the massive wave's wake are astounding. Disaster's Toll Soars to More Than 76,000 [washingtonpost.com]. Relief officials say that what is needed most from Americans is money. So please give generously to UNICEF, especially because 1/3 of the dead are children.
Update: This thing is expanding before our eyes. In less than 10 minutes, the death toll is now up to 100,000 people. And victims are starting to scavenge beaches for scraps of food while scores of corpses rot in the tropical sun.
Posted by glenn at Thursday December 23
Look at His Face!
Ukraine's security service has denied any involvement in the dioxin poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, the country's top opposition leader and leading candidate in Sunday's rerun for the presidency. Meanwhile, Russia's Putin says that Ukraine will remain an "eternal" Russian ally. Of course, someone poisoned this democratic candidate, since he's the one threatening the cozy, repressive relationship between Ukraine and Russia. The whole affair is a sorry spectacle of reform gone bad, as the power oligarchs position themselves to return to dictatorship.
Tuesday December 21
10 Worst Films
Michael Ventre, movie critic for MSNBC, has compiled his list of the 10 worst films of 2004. Let me say that I saw "Christmas With the Kranks," which Ventre lists as #10. It's very hard to believe that there were nine movies worse than that clunker!
Monday December 20
Women and iPods
Betsy Shifman writes in Forbes, in an article titled Music Machine For iPod Resisters, that
Well, Betsy, if you can say that it proves you've never tried an iPod and know nothing about them. iPods work perfectly, never crash, synch instantly and stand head-and-shoulders above the pale imitations that Creative and Sony are peddling. Shit, those devices don't even have FireWire connections and still can't synchronize to your music collection. The Creative "Nomad" 5GB player in 2001 was so bad -- running on Linux -- that for me it lasted just 5 days before dying and never got more than three hours of battery life.
The lesson obviously is simple: never believe advice from a woman on high-tech gadget issues!
Monday December 13
This Guy's Amazing
If you haven't followed the exploits of Bode Miller on this year's ski racing World Cup tour, you should. Miller is only completely re-writing the record books with six wins in the first 10 world cup races and in all four disciplines -- something only two other skiers (and no Americans) have ever accomplished. As veteran Swiss racer Didier Cuche told Sports Illustrated, "Bode will dominate now. He's making everything look so easy, no trouble at all. . . . In world skiing, for sure it's Miller time."
Friday December 10
Every Sp*erm Is Sacred
A professor of urology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook has completed a study indicating that laptop use may interfere with male fertility. The findings are that "scrotal hyperthermia is produced by both special body posture and the local heating effect of laptop computers." Meaning that if you put it over your cohones, a notebook computer will fry your seed. Wearing boxers is not enough anymore, young man!
Wednesday December 8
Death of the IBM PC
Tom Krazit notes in Computerworld that "perhaps it isn't quite as surprising as if Ford suddenly decided to sell its Mustang sports car brand to Hyundai." Well, it is. IBM has sold its personal computer business to a Chinese company. This is the same IBM that launched the PC revolution -- and cemented Bill Gates' monopoly -- by creating the "IBM-compatible" computer based on Intel microprocessors in the early 1980s. So the death of the IBM PC, which has been long in coming, is nothing to mourn about. But it marks the end of an era nonetheless.
Sunday December 5
All Good Things Must End
Alas. I spent today geared up to watch the Green Bay Packers take on the high-flying Eagles, having won six straight, and my Giants with their rookie QB Eli Manning. And all that happened was that the Pack was hammered and the Giants got blown away by the lowly Redskins. A good day to be a football fan, but just not for these teams!