Friday, August 14, 2009

Lockheed Fire

UPDATE: latest fire info here:
http://cdfdata.fire.ca.gov/incidents/incidents_details_info?incident_id=361

I think my sister-in-law's house is just behind the trees on the far side of this meadow.



I found this photo in a slideshow that was on a Google map showing the Lockheed Fire - started Aug. 12, 2009. My sister-in-law's house is near the word "Swanton" on the lower left edge of the fire boundaries (the tan area on the map).

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Five Dangerous Things for Kids

I have mentioned this TED talk to so many people that it is finally time to post it here.

Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, spells out 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do.




This 4 minute follow up was just posted (June 2009) by TED...

Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering demonstrates that kids can do practically anything!


The Perfect Loss


This is the perfect loss!

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Digital Lloyd

Lloyd Chambers and I have never met but we have some of the same interests: photography, macs, computers, software, Sun, Yosemite, hiking, blogging, etc... The difference between my photos and his photos of Stanford or Half Dome or Fireworks or a Sunset inspire me to try to be a better photographer.

His Mac Performance Guide has helped me optimize my MacBook Pro and presented Storage and Backup options for our family's network of iMacs, MacBooks, iPhones, and iPods.

But his focus is on photography and his blog, a mix of tips for advanced photography and computers, is very interesting and beautiful.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

We saw a midnight opening showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince this morning. It was a good movie, but there were a lot of differences from the book. Some new events were added, and some critical events from the book were left out of the movie.

Seeing the movie in a theater after midnight with hundreds of fans was fun. There were a lot of people in costumes, lots of laughter and applause.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Free Coldplay CD

Gina, Donna, Jay, and I went to see Coldplay in their Viva la Vida Tour show at the Shoreline Amphitheater (across the street from the Googleplex). It was a great show and they gave away a free CD entitled LeftRightLeftRightLeft which is also available as a free download from their website. Enjoy!




The Scientist is one of our favorite songs, and the music video is quite a trip!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU

Saturday, May 09, 2009

How Bacteria Talk

I agree with Kevin, the TED talk Bonnie Bassler: Discovering bacteria's amazing communication system is a great talk.

She said "You think of yourselves as human beings, but I think of you as 90 to 95 percent bacteria".

Bonnie Bassler discovered that bacteria "talk" to each other, using a chemical language that lets them coordinate defense and mount attacks. The find has stunning implications for medicine, industry -- and our understanding of ourselves.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

65 MPH Ukulele

We saw this on the way to work this morning!



The 65 MPH Ukulele!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

TED: Tim Berners-Lee: The next Web of open, linked data

20 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web. For his next project, he's building a web for open, linked data that could do for numbers what the Web did for words, pictures, video: unlock our data and reframe the way we use it together.

This talk refers to another great TED Talk (Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen) which is an excellent example of what can be done with linked data. It would be useful to watch Hans before watching Tim.



As my friend Richard pointed out, Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee, OM, KBE, FRS, FREng, FRSA is English.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

World Water Day

Today, March 22, is World Water Day, when the world is asked to focus on the issues that a lack of clean water poses to our society. Nearly 1 billion people worldwide don’t have access to clean water, and that lack of water is a serious cause of disease and economic hardship.

So today we were discussing: How Much Water Is Required to Make Beer?

We thought that we may use 50 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of beer. Most of the water is used for cleaning and sterilizing all the equipment. But this does not count the water used to make the ingredients.

According to this graph from the Economist article "Thirsty work" 300 liters of water are required to make 1 liter of beer (or 1,500 gallons of water to make 5 gallons of beer). But that pales (pun intended) in comparison to the the water requirements of wine (3X) or coffee (4X).



Another interesting graphic from the GOOD blog article "Transparency: How Much Water Do You Use?" shows direct and indirect use of water for common daily activities.

The most disturbing part of the image above is the suggestion to save 35 gallons of water by not taking a bath. ick.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Keyboard Viewer

I want my daughter to read my blog, and she wants to know what symbols you can make with the option or option-shift key (on her Mac), so,...

This 67 second Keyboard Viewer video (from the Apple Quick Tip video podcast) shows you how to use the Keyboard Viewer to access characters and symbols available using the option or option-shift keys.

Angee (Lead Genius from the video) shows you how to enable the Keyboard Viewer:
* System Preferences -> International
+ check the "Keyboard Viewer" checkbox and
+ check the "Show input menu in menu bar" checkbox, then,
* click the (American?) flag in the menu bar, and,
+ select "Show Keyboard Viewer"

Now hold down the option key, to see this:


Or hold down both the option and shift keys, to see this:



Love, Dad

Talking to SKYNET

Today I sent an IM to SKYNET...and SKYNET IM'ed me back!

Today the BetterExplained.com blog entry was A Simple Introduction To Computer Networking which started off:

Most networking discussions are a jumble of acronyms. Forget the configuration details -- what are the insights?

* Networking is about communication
* Text is the simplest way to communicate
* Protocols are standards for reading and writing text

Beneath the details, networking is an IM conversation.


My IM (Instant Message), human to computer, was a simple text communication using TCP via telnet. All I did was type:

% telnet google.com 80
hello?

and google.com replied "Bad Request"!
Then I tried:

% telnet google.com 80
GET / HTTP/1.0

and google.com replied "HTTP/1.0 200 OK" and sent me the google home page html!
And when I IM'ed "GET /news HTTP/1.0" then google.com sent me the news!

It was kinda cool talking directly to The Google.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Happy Pi Day!

Happy "National Pi Day"!

Whereas the US "House of Representatives supports the designation of a `Pi Day' and its celebration around the world": Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That I will--
(1) throw a party on Pi Day in 2015;
(2) throw another party around Pi Day in 2016; and
(3) invite you if you feel those dates are significant.


Here is the full text of HR 224 from THOMAS (Library of Congress):

H. Res. 224

In the House of Representatives, U. S.,

March 12, 2009.

Whereas the Greek letter (Pi) is the symbol for the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter;

Whereas the ratio Pi is an irrational number, which will continue infinitely without repeating, and has been calculated to over one trillion digits;

Whereas Pi is a recurring constant that has been studied throughout history and is central in mathematics as well as science and engineering;

Whereas mathematics and science are a critical part of our children's education, and children who perform better in math and science have higher graduation and college attendance rates;

Whereas aptitude in mathematics, science, and engineering is essential for a knowledge-based society;

Whereas, according to the 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) survey done by the National Center for Education Statistics, American children in the 4th and 8th grade were outperformed by students in other countries including Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, England, South Korea, Latvia, and Japan;

Whereas since 1995 the United States has shown only minimal improvement in math and science test scores;

Whereas by the 8th grade, American males outperform females on the science portion of the TIMSS survey, especially in Biology, Physics, and Earth Science, and the lowest American scores in math and science are found in minority and impoverished school districts;

Whereas America needs to reinforce mathematics and science education for all students in order to better prepare our children for the future and in order to compete in a 21st Century economy;

Whereas the National Science Foundation has been driving innovation in math and science education at all levels from elementary through graduate education since its creation 59 years ago;

Whereas mathematics and science can be a fun and interesting part of a child's education, and learning about Pi can be an engaging way to teach children about geometry and attract them to study science and mathematics; and

Whereas Pi can be approximated as 3.14, and thus March 14, 2009, is an appropriate day for `National Pi Day': Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--

(1) supports the designation of a `Pi Day' and its celebration around the world;

(2) recognizes the continuing importance of National Science Foundation's math and science education programs; and

(3) encourages schools and educators to observe the day with appropriate activities that teach students about Pi and engage them about the study of mathematics.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

405 and World Builder

"405" and "World Builder" are two short films by Bruce Branit with amazing special effects.

405 is a 3 min film about a guy in the wrong place at the wrong time.

World Builder is a 9 min film about a man who uses holographic tools to build a world for the woman he loves. The "holographic tools" are like the MIT Sixth Sense technology on steroids!!!

ENJOY! World Builder:




405:





Bruce Branit has done special effects on many movies and TV shows that I enjoy. For example: "Pushing Daisies", "Lost", "Brothers & Sisters", "Ghost Rider (2007)", "King Kong (2005)", "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl 3-D (2005)", "Sin City (2005)", "Star Trek: Enterprise", "Star Trek: Voyager", "The Devil's Advocate (1997)", "Spawn (1997)", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and more, ... wow ...

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pattie Maes unveiling the "Sixth Sense"

Last month I watched this TED Talk live (from Sun) and then ran down to lunch and tried to describe what I had seen to my lunch crowd. Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry from MIT have created the "Sixth Sense", a really cool wearable computer device that has a camera and projector so it can see what you see and project information to you.

Watch the TED Talk yourself, and/or, read what I found exciting below the video!



The "Sixth Sense" can project images and then watch your hands, so:

* it can show you a keyboard (on a desk), and you can type,
* it can show you a cell phone keypad (on your palm?), and you can dial,
* it can show you some photos (on a wall perhaps) and you can use your hands to move them around on the wall, make them bigger, smaller, trash them, email them,...

The "Sixth Sense" also sees what you see, so:

* it can see WHAT you are looking at in a store, and then project information about the product
* it can see WHO you are looking at, and project information about that person (on that person!?)

What do you think?! Cool?!

Sunday, March 08, 2009

A Lost Generation

A Lost Generation

I hear the voices of my nieces in this video...Emily, Alica, Erica, Nicky, Roana, Raquel, Gina, and Monica...



and someday Katie, Jessica, Arial, and Michelle will add their voices as well.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Plug computer

Plug computer

Last week Marvell announced a Plug Computer "small enough to plug directly into a wall socket and designed to draw so little power that it can be left on all of the time. Unlike other embedded devices in the home, it contains a gigahertz class processor to offer PC class performance. This makes it a viable alternative to a PC for any software service."





From Wikipedia:

A Plug Computer is a small form factor network attached server for use in the home. It is a lower cost and lower power alternative to a PC based home server. In effect, a plug computer is a network appliance that is fully enclosed in an AC power plug or AC adapter.

Suitable for running a media server, back-up services, file sharing and remote access functions such devices can be used as a bridge between in home protocols such as Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) & Server Message Block (SMB or Samba) and cloud based services.


I think I would like to buy one!

Monday, March 02, 2009

Rent-A-Person

After watching the short movie Validation my carpool buddy pointed out a related short movie Rent-A-Person (Thanks Seongbae).



After watching the movie I told my wife "I think my carpool buddy wants a raise" and she replied "He deserves it!".

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Validation

Validation is a GREAT little film...watch it...you deserve it!!!


Thursday, February 12, 2009

Did you know?

Did you know?


A Google search for "Did you know?" found about 21,900 video clips. The original version of this presentation was created for a Colorado (USA) high school staff of 150 in August of 2006 to start a conversation about what our students need to be successful in the 21st century. I saw another version at a local high school event. Today my uncle sent me a more lively and exciting version.

Here is the "latest official" version:



This presentation is also known as "Shift Happens!".

Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin

Happy 200th Birthday Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) wrote On the Origin of the Species which introduced the theory that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors through the process he called natural selection. Darwin’s scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, providing logical explanation for the diversity of life.

Happy 200th Birthday President Lincoln

Happy 200th Birthday President Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) led the United States through the American Civil War and ended slavery (in part with his Emancipation Proclamation).

Some of the most recognizable quotes from US History:
Four score and seven years ago...
...all men are created equal...
...government of the people, by the people, for the people,...
are from Lincon's Gettysburg Address which summarized the Civil War in just 10 sentences and less than 3 minutes.


Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

TED: Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play

We talked about this a lunch today.

Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play

Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play.

Tim Brown is the CEO of Ideo, a design firm founded by David E. Kelley in 1991. Brown carries forward Ideo's mission of fusing design, business, and social studies to come up with deeply researched, deeply understood designs and ideas. Ideo is the kind of firm that companies turn to when they want a top-down rethink of a business or product -- from fast food conglomerates to high tech startups, hospitals to universities. Ideo has designed and prototyped everything from a life-saving portable defibrillator to the defining details at the groundbreaking Prada shop in Manhattan (IDEO designed those famous see-through dressing rooms).

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

My uncle reminded me of this great TED talk...

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for brain recovery.

Monday, February 09, 2009

TED: Dan Barber: A surprising parable of foie gras

TED: Dan Barber: A surprising parable of foie gras

At the Taste3 conference, chef Dan Barber tells the story of a small farm in Spain that has found a humane way to produce foie gras. Raising his geese in a natural environment, farmer Eduardo Sousa embodies the kind of food production Barber believes in.





What if we raised our children this way?

Monday, January 12, 2009

Steve Tirado won an Emmy

Silicon Image(TM) Wins Emmy Award for HDMI(TM) Technology

"We are honored to receive this prestigious award together with our fellow HDMI technology founders and partners," said Steve Tirado, president and chief executive officer at Silicon Image, Inc.



Way to go Steve and Silicon Image!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Philip Zimbardo: How ordinary people become monsters ... or heroes

TED Talk: Philip Zimbardo: How ordinary people become monsters ... or heroes

The Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment explore why "normal" people may do "horrible" things. The Milgram experiment put a person in the role of a "teacher" who would shock a "learner" with an electric shock that increased to supposedly lethal amounts. The Stanford prison experiment randomly split volunteers into two groups, guards and prisoners, which degenerated into "dangerous and psychologically damaging situations."

Philip Zimbardo, well-known for his controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, knows what evil looks like. After serving as an expert witness during the Abu Ghraib trials, he wrote The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. From Nazi comic books to the tactics of used-car salesmen, he explores a wealth of sources in trying to explain the psychology of evil.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

MacBook Wheel

The MacBook Wheel was announced today at MacWorld in San Francisco!


Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

I am saving my money to replace my MacBook Pro with this unbelievable device.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Will It Blend? - iPhone

Will It Blend? - iPhone

Two of our favorite products, together!



Blendtec has a vlog with lots "Will it blend?" videos.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Mac vs PC

Mac vs PC



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLbJ8YPHwXM

Monday, December 15, 2008

Commuter Rainbow

Commuter Rainbow

Is there a hint of a second rainbow there?



Taken with my iPhone.

And here is Seongbae's picture of driving to the end of the rainbow...
You can see that I was driving today. :)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

OpenSolaris 2008.11 on OS X via VMware Fusion

Today I got OpenSolaris 2008.11 running on OS X with VMware Fusion. (again...simple)



In the picture is my blog about using VirtualBox to host a different version of OpenSolaris and Ubuntu/Linux, so there are 4 operating systems represented here!


jack@opensolaris:~$ uname -a
SunOS opensolaris 5.11 snv_101b i86pc i386 i86pc Solaris

Saturday, December 13, 2008

OpenSolaris & Ubuntu/Linux on OS X with VirtualBox

Today I ran 3 Operating Systems on my MacBook Pro at the same time.

I downloaded Sun xVM VirtualBox for OS X and the iso images for OpenSolaris and Ubuntu. After installing VirtualBox I created a virtual machine and installed OpenSolaris. Later I created another virtual machine and installed Ubuntu.

Here is my desktop with all 3 Operating Systems running:


Click the image to enlarge.

You might be able to see the three "uname -a" commands, that look like this:


jack@opensolaris:~$ uname -a
SunOS opensolaris 5.11 snv_86 i86pc Solaris


tom@tom-desktop:~$ uname -a
Linux tom-desktop 3.6.27-7-generic #1 SMP Fri Oct 24 06:42:44 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux


Toms-MacBook-Pro:~ tom$ uname -a
Darwin Toms-MacBook-Pro.local 9.5.0 Darwin Kernel Version 9.5.0: Wed Sep 3 11:29:43
PDT 2008; root:xnu-1228.7.58~1/RELEASE_I386 i386


["Darwin" is the kernel in OS-X]

Simple. Fun. Cool.

Thursday, December 04, 2008

The Mother of All Demos

My father worked at SRI with Doug Engelbart...

The Mother of All Demos is a name given to Douglas Engelbart's December 9, 1968 demonstration at the Convention Center in San Francisco, which included the first public demonstration of the mouse!



On December 9, 2008 at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium, SRI International will present a commemorative 40th anniversary of this historic event.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Charles R. Kirkley

My sister sent this to the Palo Alto Weekly:

Charles R. Kirkley

Charles R. Kirkley, 70, passed away on November 7, 2008, of cancer. An early researcher in computer science and longtime resident of Palo Alto, Kirkley was born in Staten Island, New York on June 23, 1938. After a stint in the Army, he graduated from Colgate University with a B.S. in mathematics, earned an M.S.E.E. from the University of Washington and an M.S. in computer science from Stanford University. While enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Stanford in the late 1960s, Kirkley worked at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in artificial intelligence. Later he worked as an instructor at Foothill College. Remembered for his quick wit and sense of humor, Kirkley is survived by his son Tom Kirkley, daughter Sondra Glider, three grandchildren (Michael and Michelle Kirkley, and Emily Glider), his brother John Kirkley, and his companion Susan Edwards.




Today the Palo Alto Weekly printed the following:

Charles R. Kirkley

Charles R. Kirkley, 70, a resident of the Palo Alto and Mountain View area for 45 years, died of cancer Nov. 7.

He was born in Staten Island, N.Y. After a stint in the army, he went on to graduate from Colgate University with a bachelor's degree in mathematics, an master's degree from the University of Washington and an master's degree in computer science from Stanford University.

While enrolled in a doctoral program at Stanford in the late 1960s, he worked at the Stanford Research Institute in artificial intelligence. Later he worked as an instructor at Foothill College.

Loved ones recall his quick wit and sense of humor.

He is survived by his children, Tom Kirkley of San Jose, daughter Sondra Glider of Palo Alto; brother, John Kirkley of Oregon; his companion, Susan Edwards of San Jose; and three grandchildren.

Friday, November 07, 2008

Charles Richard Kirkley

My father, Charles Richard Kirkley, passed away, gently in his sleep, on Friday, November 7, 2008.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

SNL MEGA-MAP

At lunch today we were talking about the Saturday Night Live MEGA-MAP which is 1.5 minutes into this 7 minute clip:



I like the line "Check out Michigan,..." :)

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Happy 3rd Birthday Gina!!!


Happy 3rd Birthday Gina!!!

Today is Gina's 3rd birthday ("anniversary") of her kidney pancreas transplant! (It is actually the 3rd birthday of her 3rd kidney, because, in spite of what you see on Grey's Anatomy, Gina still has her original kidneys and pancreas.)

Gina's transplant saved her life, and changed ours forever. I can't imagine what life would be like without Gina. Every day I can wake up and say "I love you". Every day she brings joy into all of our lives...



Gina and I would like to take this occasion to remind everyone: Please register to be an organ donor at:

http://www.donatelifecalifornia.org/

This site allows you to sign up online to be an organ and tissue donor in California. Your organ donation could save the lives of eight people, and your tissue donation enhance the lives of another 50 people. Right now nearly 20,000 Californians wait for an organ transplant. That's 21 percent of the 94,000 people waiting across our country. Tragically, one third of them will die - waiting.

Some people do not wish to be donors because of incorrect or misleading information they have seen, heard or read. [Here are the] facts behind some of the more common misconceptions about donation.

http://www.donatelifecalifornia.org/about/facts/myths/

Register today and encourage others to register.

Thank you,
Love,

Tom and Gina

Friday, October 24, 2008

Carmen Agra Deedy: Spinning a story of Mama

I had lunch with my mom today, and she was talking about her mom, which reminded me of this TED TALK: Carmen Agra Deedy: Spinning a story of Mama

Kidney in a jar?! Glowing?!

Gina and I like watching Grey's Anatomy but our enjoyment was marred last night by another offensive break with reality.

Wikipedia, ("the fountain of all knowledge", ha!), is WRONG (again) when it labels Grey's Anatomy as a "television medical drama" because the show is really just a prime time soap opera that happens to be set in a hospital. A real medical drama would try to make the "medical" portions of the show have some basis in reality.

This episode revolved around a "domino surgery," -- 12 kidney transplants in six O.R.s at the same time. And a significant plot device was the "kidney in a jar"; supposedly one of the kidneys removed during the transplant...except...most kidney transplantation do NOT remove a kidney! The recipient usually ends up with three kidneys. (Really, really lucky recipients also get an extra pancreas as well!)

Many shows unwittingly perpetuate medical myths, some harmful, which Red Cross First Aid Teachers have to deal with later (no, please, don't slam you fist down on someone's chest like you saw on MacGyver or MacGruber) but most "medical" dramas get the basic "medical" facts right. Fortunately, Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera and is not constrained by fact...they can even make dead tissue glow! :)

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Bloodhound SSC 1000+mph car!

Bloodhound SSC 1000+mph car!

The fastest way to work?



Bloodhound SSC is a pencil-shaped car powered by a jet engine and a rocket that will be capable of approximately 1,000 miles per hour (1,609 km/h).[1] If all goes to plan, Bloodhound SSC will break the land speed record by the largest ever margin.

The project was announced on 23 October 2008 at the Science Museum in London by Lord Drayson, the Minister of Science in the UK's Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, who in 2006 first proposed the project to Richard Noble and Andy Green; the two men who between them have held the land speed record for 25 years.

Monday, October 20, 2008

John McCain and Barack Obama roast each other

John McCain and Barack Obama roast themselves and each other!

...update...The Barack YouTube video was pulled for some reason...so...

Here is the YouTube video of Al Smith Dinner 2008 (Full Video).
McCain starts around 7 minutes into the video.
Obama starts around the 23 minute mark.




The Wikipedia article about the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner starts:

The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner is an annual charity fund raiser for Catholic Charities. It is organized by the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation in honor of former New York Governor Al Smith, the first Catholic presidential candidate. The first dinner was in 1945, the year after Al Smith's death. The 2008 dinner raised $3.9 million.[1]

Since 1960 (when Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy were speakers), it has been a stop for the two main presidential candidates during several U.S. election years. In 1976, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter spoke; in 1980, Carter and Ronald Reagan; in 1988, Michael Dukakis and George H.W. Bush; in 2000, Al Gore and George W. Bush; and in 2008, John McCain and Barack Obama. Since 1945 only two presidents have not spoken at the dinner: Harry Truman and Bill Clinton.[2] In recent years the candidates have traditionally given humorous speeches.


...and here is my orig post with the broken video...


John McCain at the Alfred E Smith Memorial Dinner 1




John McCain at the Alfred E Smith Memorial Dinner 2




Obama Roasts McCain at Al Smith Dinner

Monday, October 06, 2008

Shout-out to Malta

Shout-out to Malta

The Votemaster gave a shout-out to Malta on Electoral-vote.com today when he was comparing voter turnout in different countries:

As you can see, voter turnout in the U.S. [54%] is far less than such beacons of democracy as Malta [94%] and Austria [92%].


But other countries do not have the quality of candidates that we have here in the U.S.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Supreme Court Vacancies Likely in Next Four Years

Supreme Court Vacancies Likely in Next Four Years

One issue that has been totally absent from the campaign is the Supreme Court. Five of the justices are 70 or more. Justice Stevens is 88 and unlikely to want to serve 4 more years. Justice Ginsberg had cancer and was operated on for it. Justice Souter is known to want to retire and return to New Hampshire. These are three of the most liberal justices on the court. If all three retire and are replaced by Obama, the court will retain its even split between liberals and conservatives for many years to come. If all three are replaced by McCain, the conservatives will have a clear majority and surely reverse Roe v. Wade and many other decisions that conservatives think are wrong. It is amazing that the court has gotten so little attention.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

SUN and the LHC

Data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is being stored on Sun products.

Sun Fire X4500 servers with a 400 terabytes storage capacity and Sun tape technology


The Sun System News article has this quote from the LHC Rap by Kate McAlpine:

Twenty-seven kilometers of tunnel under ground;
Designed with mind to send protons around;
A circle that crosses through Switzerland and France;
Sixty nations contribute to scientific advance.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

TierneyLab: Obama’s Science Quiz

Chris sent me this link to New York Times TierneyLab blog article Obama’s Science Quiz where Obama responded (but McCain did not respond) to questions about science.

While I was there I took the Astronomy Quiz and got 9/10 right (I should have been perfect! rats!).

Monday, September 22, 2008

http://www.electoral-vote.com/

http://www.electoral-vote.com/ is the best Election website around!

The home page has the famous Red State/Blue State map (shown below) and a quick glance tells you who is leading the races for president, the house, and the senate.



One link off the home page leads to this cartogram where the size of each state represents the number of electoral votes:



And another link shows a graph of how Obama and McCain have done since April:

Sunday, September 21, 2008

liberals and conservatives

This blog entry contains two TED talks that discuss how we learn and the difference between conservatives and liberals...

How can two of my friends, one Republican and one Democrat, both be intelligent, informed, helpful, caring people, and hold completely opposite views on the problems and solutions facing our country and planet?

Do both sides think the other is just dumb?



Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we're left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.



Jonathan Drori looks at the gaps in our knowledge -- and specifically, what we don't know as much about science that we might think we do.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

gPhone available 9/23/2008

from http://www.androidmobilephone.com/

The "T-Mobile G1" (aka: "gPhone") will be available on September 23rd.

Service: T-Mobile
Real name: T-Mobile G1
Hardware: manufactured by HTC Corp. in Taiwan
Code name: HTC "Dream"
Software: Google "Android"
Pet name: "gPhone"

Price: $199
Available: 9/23/2008

A long demo video is available at http://www.androidmobilephone.com/
A short demo video shows the slide out keyboard.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

How to survive a nuclear attack

TEDTalks : How to survive a nuclear attack - Irwin Redlener (2008)

A nuclear war is not survivable, but a nuclear terrorist attack is survivable and requires planning.




We should have a plan so that if there was a terrorist attack in our area we would know how to take all the actions that he suggests, and we could add to our plans things like having everyone in our our area check in with a relative in North Dakota.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Large Hadron Rap

After you check the Large Hadron Rap then don't forget to check out the web cams (from my post last night)!





Large Hadron Rap
Alpinekat
aka: Katherine MacAlpine
https://www.msu.edu/~mcalpin9/

Thursday, September 11, 2008

David Gallo: The deep oceans: a ribbon of life

This TED talk "David Gallo: The deep oceans: a ribbon of life" is real life Spore.

LHC web cams

Are you worried about LHC (Large Hadron Collider) bringing the end of the world ? Then rejoice - now you can keep an eye on LHC at: http://www.cyriak.co.uk/lhc/lhc-webcams.html

Enjoy!

PS. Seongbae, thanks for the link :)

Friday, September 05, 2008

Shoe Circus - Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates

Two of my favorite people: Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates

This video shows Microsoft's commitment to quality products.




..not...

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Scott McClellan on The Daily Show

Scott McClellan was on The Daily Show last night.

One of the best moments was when Jon was talking about the Bush Administration hiding the truth and misleading the public, and then Scott mumbled something about "...criminal..." and Jon Stewart replied "That's what I'm saying! That is my point!". [This was about 6 mins into Part 1].

Here are the links for Part 1 and Part 2 or you can watch them right here!



Thursday, May 29, 2008

Lunch Time Group


Here you can see some of our Lunch Time Group (except Prashanth and Chandra ducked!).

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Saturday Night Live had John McCain on this week!



And Barack and Hillery too...right?



That makes the Democratic candidates seem kinda...creepy.

Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address

Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address

"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.


I can still sing "570 Rengstorff, Apartment 52" which I learned when I was 5!

We lived there for just a few months before moving onto the Stanford Campus.

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Doug Feith on The Daily Show

Douglas Feith (Under Secretary of Defense who led the Office of Special Plans (OSP) which has been accused of manipulating intelligence to bolster support for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq) was interviewed on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart last night.

Douglas Feith Uncut Pt. 1

Doug Feith explains that the Bush administration's strategy in Iraq was better than it sounded.



Douglas Feith Uncut Pt. 2

Doug Feith admits the Bush administration grossly mishandled the public explanation of the Iraq war.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Cats at Work

My sister called and described a cartoon from the Funny Times titled "The First and Last Bring Your Cat to Work Day". It was a funny cartoon even when it was shouted through my cell phone's noisy bluetooth headset while driving home from work.

When I got home I checked out the Dilbert Blog and read today's entry My Cat Sarah that starts out:
I have an office cat, Sarah. She's a scrawny little tuxedo cat, about 18-years old. Sarah hates it when I try to work. I mean she really, really hates it. As soon as I enter the office she starts screaming at me. It's not a polite meow. It's more like a baby banshee being attacked by a porcupine. The noise penetrates my entire body. I'm almost certain it causes internal bleeding. This screaming lasts from the time I come to work until I leave.

...and just gets better from there! :)

Friday, April 25, 2008

How many desserts can you eat?


At Geetha's lunch William ate...umm...lots of desserts in little bowls!

Do as I do, not as I say

My son came with me to work yesterday (on "Bring you son and daughter to work day"). On the way over he said he was going to play games on his laptop the whole day. After about 15 minutes of paying attention in my Staff Meeting he did start play games, but then we took off for an Eco Responsibility presentation. After lunch I started working and he watched me (for about one second) and then he was back on his laptop.

An hour later when I looked over his shoulder I saw he was writing a paper for school.

Often my son says things that frustrate me...but he is a very good person. Sometimes I describe his behavior as "Do as I do, not as I say".

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Weather Gadget

My iGoogle page has this Weather Gadget so I can see what is happening where my family and friends are. Right now I just am looking at North Dakota and Oregon. This morning at 10:00 was typical of what I see...

Friday, April 18, 2008

Rent in the Bay Area

The best line at lunch today was "They keep raising my rent again and again, but my apartment is not getting any bigger!" :)

"In Sacramento a house payment can be $1500 to $2000 but here our two bedroom apartment costs us $2300 a month!"

Yikes!

John Edwards on The Colbert Report



Last night Hillery Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards were guests on The Colbert Report, but John Edwards stole the show with his EdWords: "Valued Voter".

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

The Democrats are back!

There were many more Republicans at our lunch table yesterday (April 15, Tax Day). The searing pain in the check writing hand drove most people to the right. But today, as the pain has subsided, the Democrats are back! :)

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

'Six-way' kidney transplant first

'Six-way' kidney transplant first


US doctors have carried out what is believed to be the world's first simultaneous six-way kidney transplant.

Six recipients received organs from six donors in operations at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland.

You ask "What?!" or "Why?!"

Well, suppose Adam wants to donate one of his kidneys to Alysia but they are not a match. And suppose Bob wants to donate a kidney to Beth but they are not a match either. But if Bob matches Alysia and Adam matches Beth then they can do a 'two way' transplant.

New Segway wheels

I tried to describe these wheels at lunch, but, as you can see,...


The coolest thing about this Segway is the wheels!

" Looking nothing like typical wheels, these Mecanum devices can roll in virtually any direction."

Friday, April 04, 2008

High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas


Thank you Seongbae, for pointing out this article in yesterdays Wired about High Tech Cowboys of the Deep Seas: the Race to Save the Cougar Ace. The 3 min video is a nice little introduction, but the full article by Joshua Davis is a well written article that seems like a cross between episodes of Mission Impossible and the Wild Wild West.