Doc gets funny
Doc Searls, co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto and an often insightful weblog made me break out in laughter todday with this line:
“Follow plainly unwanted advertising to the limits of wanton self-justification and you arrive at a Fart of Darkness like no other.” (Emphasis mine)
Gotta love this stuff. He was discussing the self-serving, not to mention self-deluding, logic of some folks at advertising research firm Dynamic Logic.
Tonight’s recipe: Chicken Rosalita
A friend was over for dinner tonight and I took the opportunity to experiment with chicken and my cast iron skillet. I made up a dish, kind of like Chicken Parmagianna without the final baking step. The chicken came out really nice, so I thought I’d share the recipe. The indicated ingredients are enough for two+ portions depending on the size of the chicken breasts and how hungry you are!
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Cooking:
1. Heat skillet, then add oil
2. Add garlic
3. Add chicken breasts
4. Once breasts begin to brown, add tomatoes
5. A little salt and pepper
6. After tomatoes begin to soften (about 5 minutes), flip breasts
7. Add mushrooms
8. Top breasts with cheese slices
9. After cheese softens, add oregano and parsley
10. Stir thoroughly and spoon mushrooms, tomato, and liquid over chicken
11. Stir arrow root into a few ounces of water in a glass, then add mixture around skillet and stir
12. Let cook another 2-3 minutes and then serve!
Dershowitz: Be good because it’s the right thing to do
(Via garret) If it wasn’t for the interminable length of this “Letter to a Young Lawyer,” Alan Dershowitz’ essay Why Be a Good Person? could be summarized as a parody of the old Wilfred Brimley Quaker Oats commercials. The “superlawyer” spends hundreds of words explaining why behaving in accordance with one’s religious beliefs is at best simple obedience and at worst calculating hypocracy. Fine, I can’t disagree with that too much. But the title of the article says we are supposed to learn why we should be good and in the end, all he says is that being good is the right thing to do. Wow! That’s impressive, isn’t it? Why is it right, though? The best he can do is a variation on the old definition of pornogrpahy: I know it when I see it. This allows for individuals to differ greatly, Alan, so how does your answer stand in light of current events? Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush see good as very different things, don’t they?
Paying for the Web: Umm, no
(Via garret) Marshall Brain posits the idea of How “Penny Per Page” Might Work on his Howstuffworks website. He suggests that you, me, and the rest of the websters pay a penny per page view to finance the web and particularly the content like Google and ESPN that we all love so much.
Worried about sites that would simply take advantage by popping open huge numbers of new windows? Don’t be: “The billing mechanism should track for and eliminate charges for that, as well as for pages that auto-refresh themselves, error and non-existant pages, pages arrived at by pressing the back button, duplicate pages and so on.”
Just a few other concerns, which the article doesn’t address:
Marshall, we all want to find ways to ensure that interesting, useful, and meaningful content continues to be available to all, so keep those ideas coming. In the meantime, stick to the really cool articles with which HowStuffWorks excels.
Tonight’s movie: Heist
This must be the year for aging stars to make not quite good enough crime flicks. In August we got DeNiro and The Score, with Marlon Brando impersonating a beached whale. Now, in a better movie with really strange dialog, is Gene Hackman in Heist. Writer-director David Mamet makes an interesting but not $9 a ticket interesting no honor among thieves movie that has Danny Devito somehow in a position to take down Hackman and Delroy Lindo, as if that’s believable. Mamet previously gave us gems like Glengarry Glen Ross, Wag the Dog, and The Postman Always Rings Twice but his last few films have been such stinkers as State and Main (although Alec Baldwin was totally believable as a jackass in that) and The Edge (Baldwin again).
Tivo: Bill’s new toy
You’d think that after 20 years of having a VCR, it would be enough. But no, not really, and anyway new toys are so cool, so I got myself a TiVo yesterday. So after some mild but annoying problems setting up the machine–hello! have we heard of usability testing?–I’ve got it working and will never have to miss another episode of Enterprise again! Woohoo!
Update: Alright! I used Tivo to record three shows while I was out seeing Heist and it worked just fine. Although apparently UltimateTV has a very useful button on its remote that mine doesn’t–skip ahead 30 seconds. Oh well.
Cascadia: For real or another web prank?
Surfing around this morning, I came to The Republic of Cascadia website. What? You’ve never heard of this nation? Okay, it isn’t recognized by the United Nations just yet and the governments in Washington, D.C., and Ottawa would be quite upset, one thinks. Apparently, some people believe that the bioregion composed of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and a small piece of Alaska (not the part with all the oil) ought to be a separate and independent country. On the other hand, the same person who publishes this website also believes that black helicopters are living beings.
Reason to love the web, part {next}
Evan points us to Archiving Early America, a website that provides a “unique array of original newspapers, maps and writings come to life on your screen just as they appeared to our forebears more than 200 years ago.” The site, an excellent resource for students, has short historical films, a large number of important documents, discussion forums, and hosts the online version of The Early America Review (a scholarly journal). Although there is no About Us page to give full credits, this nicely designed site appears to be the work of archivist D.E. Vitale; Joshua R. Greenberg wrote a good academic review of the site for the Public History Resource Center.
Rainy, nasty day or opportunity for romance?
It’s been a nasty, ugly rainy day here in Mountain View today and although there was some let up mid-morning this could cause serious flooding problems being that it’s so early in the season I doubt many folks are adequately prepared. According to Weathernews (via Yahoo!), rain should end late tonight, then a couple of days holding at partly cloudy before good prospect of rain again through the weekend. On the other hand if you and your significant other are home from work then it’s a great time to cuddle up and make some of those rainy day fantasies come true!
Using Capitalism to fight the causes of terrorism
One commonly held view is that a good deal of terrorism or at least anti-American feelings which run rampant through Asia and Africa (and even parts of Europe) is that America is rich and abuses its wealth by consuming more than a fair share of resources (this is not to discount other reasons, including cultural differences regarding culture and sexuality). Over the years America, alone or in combination with allies, has launched many programs to combat Third World poverty but few have succeeded due to ineptitude, corruption, and simple bad luck. Erick Schonfeld, writing in Business 2.0, discusses the ideas of C.K. Prahalad to use corporate self-interest to succeed where past efforts have failed. Prahalad points to successful ventures by Citibank and Unilever to develop win-win situations in India that allow “the disenfranchised who want to join the market economy” to do so. The cited programs not only develop the disenfranchised as customers on a consumer level but permit them to develop new businesses (or make significant improvements to existing ones) that bring them squarely into the capitalist camp. Prahalad wrote The Multinational Mission (back in 1987) to explore this concept in depth; he is also chairman of San Diego-based software house Praja.
Yesterday’s movie: Shallow Hal
In the Farrelly Brother’s latest low-class comedy, Jack Black (so great in High Fidelity) plays Shallow Hal. Transformed by self-help guru Tony Robbins (playing himself), lifelong supermodel junkie Hal Larsen is only able to see people by their inner beauty. Accordingly, he sees Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) as a sexy, svelte blonde (Gwyneth Paltrow without much makeup) while others, most significantly best friend Mauricio (Jayson Alexander), see her as the 300 pounder she truly is. Hal is baffled by others’ reactions to her and when he finally is confronted with the truth, we find out if he is a real human being or as shallow as the movie title suggests. While overall I don’t think this film reaches the same level of hilarity as the Farrelly’s There’s Something About Mary, it does have it’s moments. And I have to give screenwriter Sean Moynihan and the brothers credit for making effective use of the supporting characters as mirrors, but then take most of it away for just not giving us a decent third act.
The filmmakers have set up an amusing secondary website, MasterPlayers, to let Mauricio help you out with those young superhotties.
Yesterday’s book: Earthweb
No, it isn’t a tell all about the classic developer website. Cool techie science fiction author Marc Steigler uses 1999’s EarthWeb, The Book to explore ideas about the future of the internet and politics in a world under extreme pressure and largely succeeds. Earth has been attacked four times, once every five years, by a mysterious alien race that never communicates, unless deployment of advanced munitions is considered a form of communication. The alien ships, named Shiva by Humanity, never quite succeed due to the efforts of Morgan McBride although the planet’s national governments have fallen apart in their wake and been replaced by the Earth Defense Agency. The story is pretty basic and comes to the expected conclusion, although it’s well-written and the characters are nicely developed. Steigler is more interested in his ideas, which are fairly nifty and the most significant is a new economy based on an ideas future market. That is, methods for thousands or even millions of individuals globally to provide forecasts and bet on them, to allow the most probable to bubble up to attention and the original poster to be rewarded based on the results. For example, when the actual attack on the fifth Shiva happens, several key parts of the action are suggested by forecasts posted in real time by diverse characters we’ve previously met. I was really disappointed only by one thing; Steigler just leaves us hanging as far as the longterm result of the human-alien conflict.
Veteran’s Day: A great salute
The following was published in today’s The Big Picture by Lennie Peterson; generally I wouldn’t copy the picture but since he’s quoting a great American…
BillSaysThis linked in Yahoo! Internet Life
I noticed that the visit counter was moving pretty quickly the last day so I took a look at the referrer log and saw a bunch of hits from Yahoo! Internet Life’s Forward/Joke of the Day for yesterday. The question was the authenticity of some George Carlin jokes floating around and my site was the first one listed as part of the answer. Thanks Steve. Also traffic coming in from Google and USS Clueless.
J. Lo: Booty or Ego?
Carnak says, Which is bigger? No question that Jennifer Lopez is gorgeous but one has to wonder if her ego isn’t going over the top: Lopez is bringing an entourage of 100 people to an awards show in England. She sings and acts, if you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she sure ain’t no Claudia Schiffer!
E-bombs: the “Oh Shit” weapon
Scoble points us to this Popular Mechanics article on the E-bomb. As the subhead says, “In the blink of an eye, electromagnetic bombs could throw civilization back 200 years. And terrorists can build them for $400.” This is scary shit because we here in America, and especially in Silicon Valley, are far too dependent on electric power, computers and telecommunication to support our lives. A few of these, reasonably well-placed, could destroy us.
Cool TV: 24
A TV series that takes a whole season of 24 episodes to show 24 hours, a single day, in the presidential campaign of Sen. David Palmer. I just watched the first hour of 24 and it looks good, real good. My biggest question was what happens if someone misses one episode, will they lose the entire thread, but Fox is going to debut episodes Tuesdays at 9:00, then repeat them on FX Mondays at 10:00. This week, they also showed the episode tonight at 9:00 and will show it on FX on Sunday night as well. The website looks interesting too and it includes a minute by minute breakdown of each episode (as the episode airs).
Suggested H-1B restriction unconstitutional?
Steven points out that my suggestion could likely run up against section 1 of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which requires equal protection of all people.
Since the people here on H-1B visas are given entry and the ability to work on terms and conditions set by Congress, one would think Congress has the legal ability to make those conditions as I suggest as easily as the conditions that currently exist. Steven’s point may well be valid, IANAL, but I don’t see that conflict quite so clearly. If the law requires such treatment then how come Congress could require that these people leave after six years or within four weeks of being terminated by their employer?
Further, for an example in a completely different venue, many states charge a different tuition to residents and non-residents for attending state-run colleges, thus discriminating against some people. One would think, though, after all the time this has been in effect that any possible constitutional challenges would have come to pass and yet those different tuitions are still with us.
There is a discussion going on at USS Clueless
Warning: extreme usage ahead
I suppose that one gets to be President and COO of a software company by having particularly strong marketing skills. So it shouldn’t be too surprising that John Robb would go overboard in describing the legacy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He calls it “horrific.” This is an excellent example of the impact of extreme marketing on everyday writing.
I say, what is horrific about the legacy of American use of nukes in Japan? And I mean the legacy, not the initial use, which would be a completely different debate. From my vantage point, the legacy has been mostly positive. People really understand the devastating nature of these weapons and accordingly none have been used since. (Yes, there were a sizable number of people who contracted and died from related cancers and their individual suffering should not go unacknowledged. But how many more people, soldiers and civilians, would have died if the Allies chose a land assualt on Japan instead?)
I suppose John has read Gonzo Marketing but still needs to internalize some of the lessons. Leave out the abstract hype and stick to the facts. Note that I have nothing against John personally, never having met or spoken with him, but this kind of language usage really pushes one of my buttons.
Update: John changed the wording to say that the act of dropping nukes itself was horrific. Way to go John!
H-1B visa holders should be first fired
If that sounds rascist, it isn’t; the statement does mean that America and the goodness here should be for Americans first and for foreigners after. In Vanishing visas / Uncertain future for unemployed H-1B holders, Carrie Kirby of the SF Chronicle looks at some of the difficulties impacting these people in the current economic client. Now I would be the first to step up and say the offending companies ought to be prosecuted if the allegations are true. But I do not feel particularly sorry for the many Indian nationals (who were granted the majority of these visas in the last few years) who are having to pack up and return home; they took a gamble coming here and for awhile it paid off spectacularly, but now that bubble has burst along with the stock market.
I’ve worked with many people who came on H-1Bs and as a group they are as intelligent and hardworking as any other large group of people. Some of them have been and are my friends and when I was in a people management position I hired a few. When the U.S. unemployment rate is rising to longtime highs as it is now, however, we need to rethink some of the consequences of our generousity. I have thought about this issue for some time and I truly believe that the visa law ought to be rewritten so that employers are required to terminate any and all H-1B staffers holding the same or similar positions as Americans before any American staffers are terminated. True, this probably would have saved my own job but I felt this way long before August. We have a great country and I truly believe in sharing the bounty but the bounty must first be used to care for ourselves.
Note: Green card (permanent resident) foreigners are a grey area in this discussion. My feeling is that they should be treated the same as American citizens or perhaps be put into a third category (that is, if there are reductions required even after all H-1B holders are terminated, then permanent residents would be terminated before citizens). Also, I have consistently referred to H-1B visas but I would also put holders of the other work visas (such as Ls, issued to Canadians) in the same group.
BillSaysThis 