January 28th, 2006 §
The news that’s been too overlooked to post:
Contra Costa Times: Lawmakers call smoke a pollutant – In California today, state lawmakers have classfied second-hand smoke as a toxic air pollutant that’s a danger to human health that could lead to even stricter regulation on smoking pracitces despite California’s stringent current rules. Amongst the information brought before the panel by the Air Resources Board is informatino on the 31,000 episodes of asthma it causes in Californian children each year.
From Reuters.com:
The designation by California’s Air Resources Board starts a process that could lead to further smoking bans in a state that has often led the nation in health and ecological regulation. “I think there is no question that this puts California way ahead,” said John Froines, chairman of the Air Resources Board Scientific Review Panel.
“To actually have the major air pollution agency in the state of California to list ETS (environmental tobacco smoke) as a toxic air contaminant is going to have immense impact, we think, in terms of public education around other states,” he said. “It will clearly lead to regulatory changes within the state.”
Seattle Times: Punt, pass and plié: Ballet has its Seahawks fans, too – The Seattle Times looks at the worlds of Ballet and NFL Football ahead of Seattles groundbreaking Superbowl game. The Seahawks have never been in the superbowl before so this is a 30 year first for them. At the same time Seattle has an amazing ballet company, the PNB. The two cultures don’t seem to mix, but in a funny way, they sometimes do.
“I wish my art form created the emotional fervor that this thing does,” said [Ballet instructor] Wells, a Tacoma native. “We struggle with our ticket sales for the ballet, and my understanding is that they can’t sell Seahawks T-shirts fast enough.”
The Guardian: ‘I can win this time’ – Having just come out to the party and public through in interview with a UK tabloid paper, Liberal Democrat Party MP Simon Hughes is looking for support from his party to become leader. He gave an interview to the Guardian a couple of days ago saying that he wasn’t gay. Now he’s singing a new show-tune and the paper reviews his position.
The Guardian: Apple Print Ad Top of Tree – An advertisement for the supermarket chain Tesco has won the top prize from the Awards for National Newspaper Advertising. With the simple image of an apple and accompanying text the ad declared:
“What’s the difference between ours and our competitors?”
“Not much really. They’re the same quality as Waitrose. And the same price as Asda.”
The Guardian: ‘Sea power could provide 20% of UK electricity’ – A new report from the Carbon Trust, out prior to a report on the UK’s position with regard to Nuclear energy, says that 20% of the UK’s energy could be produced through the adoption of wave and sea power souces. With investment and greater production of equipment the costs of wave power could be brought down to current levels of carbon-emitting power sources. It’s a challenge the government could meet, but may not like to due to the likelihood of failure.
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January 28th, 2006 §
For a week, the NYTimes’ restaurant critic works at the Massachusetts restuarant ‘The East Coast Bar & Grill’, struggling doing the job he’s so often evaluating just as much as the food he’s tasting.
If this is the only thing you read all week, it’s worth reading because unlike Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed book/essays, this isn’t just focusing on the act of being low waged, but on how being a waiter is a real skill that most people just don’t understand, especially critics.
NYTimes: My Week as a Waiter
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January 28th, 2006 §
Legend has it that it was only when strangers greeted him in the street the next day that he realised it had gone out live – in fact 550 million people had been watching nationwide, and Rowswell had just become the first foreign host of a major event in Chinese television history.
The story of ‘Dansand’, a former foreign student from Canada and his new position as one of the most well-known foreign faces across China due to his luck position as the host of a talent contest while at Beijing University in the late 1980’s.
The Guardian: Western Stars Rising in the East
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January 28th, 2006 §
And worst of all, author James Frey had Oprah lampooning him! The shame!
Pressed by Winfrey on why the company didn’t do independent fact-checking, Talese said, “This whole experience is very sad.”
“It’s not sad for me,” Winfrey replied. “It’s embarrassing and disappointing for me.”
Washington Post: The Oprah Example
Popularity: unranked [?]
January 24th, 2006 §
In a Seattle PI article, analysts and Yahoo CFO say that Google may be so far ahead in the core search business that it’s almost game over in some countries because Google’s dominance is so strong. While Google adds more services and tools to their consumer offering, Yahoo is considering ways to bring in more revenue from individual searches. News that Yahoo is prepared to settle for second place, only maintaining their market share, will be heartening news for rivals like Ask Jeeves who’re desperate to increase market share.
“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.”
Yahoo!’s comments underline the difficulties any Internet company faces in trying to challenge Google’s dominance of the Web search industry. Google has at least double the market share of Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp. in Internet search, the largest and most profitable segment of online advertising.
“In some countries, it’s already game over in search, with Google the clear victor,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan in New York. “Google’s product development pipeline runs at such a fast rate that it’s very difficult for any company, Microsoft or Yahoo! to catch up.”
To boost revenue from each search, Yahoo! plans to make ads more relevant to search terms, meaning people will be more likely to click on them. Advertisers pay Yahoo! a fee when Internet users click on the ads. “We have held our own, and we should gain revenue share in the industry as we roll out these new initiatives,” Decker said in the interview after the company reported earnings last week.
Slashdot: Yahoo! Yields Search Dominance to Google
Seattle PI: Yahoo! Gives Up Quest for Search Dominance
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January 23rd, 2006 §
£300 in parking fines!
A decision has been made to give the body to the Natural History Museum after all the tests are complete and it will clean the bones and preserve them for scientific research. The museum has had the right to examine all whale carcasses that wash ashore in Britain since 1913.
In most cases when it comes to disposing of the flesh, if a carcass contains poisonous substances – from chemicals dumped in the sea – it will be classed as toxic waste and have to be incinerated. If untoxic, it will probably be disposed of in a landfill site.
As for the voluntary organisation that tried to rescue the whale, British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), there is no onus on the government, the city, the Queen or anyone else to cover the cost of the rescue attempt, which reportedly includes more than £300 worth of parking fines.
Source: BBC News
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January 23rd, 2006 §
January 22nd, 2006 §
Well, as it has been recommended by someone who knows more about these things than I do, here I am trying out a new way to publish my life. Sadly, on the day that I decide/remember to have a play, I haven’t really done anything worth writing down. So instead, this part of the blogging world gets one of my rants about the state of the world today.
I was not impressed when picking up a copy of the Independent from earlier in the week, that Bridget Jones, role model for dejected single people everywhere, is discussing marriage. Not only that, but she is apparently expecting a baby as well. What is the world coming to!? Who are single women (and single gays i guess) everywhere going to look up to if Bridget Jones settles down?
The way I see it, the world already has far too many happy disneyesque girls with the boyfriend or husband or prince charming of their dreams, but I really can’t think of another heroine who still gets cheered for when she falls down after chasing her man, and goes home to lie on the sofa eating Häagen-Dazs. Because let’s be honest, how many fairytale princesses do we all know, compared to the number of single people?
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January 21st, 2006 §
Over the course of two sessions, the Seattle Weekly newspaper talked with MIT Professor Noam Chomsky on topics like whether China will become a threat to the US, the trouble with George and the Iraq problem. Chomsky is notorious for not really enjoying interviews and is hesitant to give them because everyone wants to talk to him. Just as prominent scientists like Richard Dawkins and Steven J Gould were hesitant to speak to Evangelicals about Creationism because of the simple desire by some groups to get a reaction, Chomsky’s best discussions are those where he is involved in a real conversation rather than headline grabbing. This interview is one of those few real discussions.
The fact of the matter is that there is no War on Terror. It’s a minor consideration. So invading Iraq and taking control of the world’s energy resources was way more important than the threat of terror. And the same with other things. Take, say, nuclear terror. The American intelligence systems estimate that the likelihood of a “dirty bomb,” a dirty nuclear bomb attack in the United States in the next 10 years, is about 50 percent. Well, that’s pretty high. Are they doing anything about it? Yeah. They’re increasing the threat, by increasing nuclear proliferation, by compelling potential adversaries to take very dangerous measures to try to counter rising American threats.
Seattle Weekly: Transcript of Geov Parrish interview with Noam Chomsky
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