Tech is killing us all (or not)

Lifehacker's Gina Trapani goes all op-ed on us:

Over the few years this site's been in existence, studies have shown that email kills concentration more than smoking pot does, that you've got 11 minutes before the next interruption, that dual monitors increase productivity, that no one understands the intended tone of your email, that email overload costs the American economy more than $700 billion a year, and that multitasking kills your ability to focus and get things done.

Ok, fine. Most of these findings seem to be sensible (except for the pot versus email one, which got way too sensationalized).

[snip]

...the constant reappearance of these studies in mainstream media over the last few years do make one question what's going on. It's the information and email overload studies that trip my BS detector the most. While I agree that an overstuffed inbox and constant email monitoring can kill your day, this $700 billion a year cost to the American economy makes me raise one eyebrow high in doubt.

Me, too. It's fair to say that people have lots of opportunities to slag off or get distracted - but  I do work for people via email that would take exponentially more time if I had to call or visit.

Text and visuals - instantly. Yeah, you can get overloaded. But you can also get sh!t done.

Oh, and your cell phone? - totally killing you

(via Crave)

A prominent cancer researcher's warning to limit cell phone use has rekindled anew the longstanding question over mobile-phone health risks.

The media is abuzz with news of the memo from Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. He sent it to faculty and staff Wednesday, saying, among other things, that children should use cell phones only for emergencies, since their developing organs are the most likely to be sensitive to possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields. 

 Just FYI.

Gotta die of something, right? Might as well be from updating twitter.

Move along.

What do you know about things?

Digby posts a Could you be president? quiz.

Yet another humbling foray into relevant information.

It ain't who you know...

...it's who knows you.
(Via CJR' Ryan Chittum)

The Friends of Angelo scandal just keeps getting more interesting. Chittum's delving into a piece from Portfolio and just his summary is pretty riveting.

Beyond providing evidence of favor-peddling at all levels of government, the emails also helpfully reveal how top Countrywide officials, including Mozilo, describe the various loan-origination and other fees they charged millions of customers: “junk” and “garbage.” 

This would be the “junk” and “garbage”—Countrywide’s terms—piled up on account balances across the country, including the ones burdening non-V.I.P.s now in foreclosure. Gretchen Morgenson reported in The New York Times this weekend that the average mortgage loan has $700 of this “junk,” up half in the last few years. In December she reported those totaled $17 billion a year. What a waste. 

For the elite, however, life is good. A California appeals judge, for instance, asks country-club buddy Mozilo for $1.9 million in loans. Mozilo personally approves it, telling Robert Feinberg—the loan officer for the VIP program and Portfolio’s key source here— that it’s “golden” and the judge gets thousands of dollars in loan discounts from Countrywide. The judge just happened to have a class-action lawsuit against Countrywide before him at the time, and he and his two fellow judges ruled in favor of the lender.

  And that's just the intro. Read on, but don your hip waders. It's gettin' pretty deep.

After that, dive into the Portfolio piece.

Moonstruck

(via BadAstronomy)

Footage of the moon passing in front of the earth.

Yes, you've seen it in movies - but this would be actual footage taken from a spacecraft.

Since no human being in all of our history has ever been past the moon - to say this is a rare visual is a bit of an understatement.

BadAstronomy's Phil Plait gushes out some perspective:

I think their real impact is the visceral one from simply seeing them. As Carl Sagan once said: everyone you have ever met, every human who has lived and died, lived out their lives on that blue ball. And yet here we are, in the 21st century, plains apes allowed to evolve and satiate their curiosity, now with the ability to lob metal proxies into deep space, look back, and see ourselves.


Science. I love this stuff.

Yeah. Me, too.

Are you up on current events?

Nukes and Spooks has posted 20 questions that are embarrassingly difficult.

Give it your best shot.

Late edit:
The slackers over at Nukes and Spooks have at last posted their answers.

History shall judge him

...and it shall wonder why his name is on a sewage plant.

San Franciscans lobby to name their waste water treatment plant after the President.

(H/t to Neatorama)

The best designs are simple

(via Neatorama)

It's amazing how the effects of a good design can ripple out into a culture.

Imagine having this problem:

You have a steady supply of produce, but no refrigeration. You have clay pots, dirt and no electricity.

Your mission: Keep your fresh produce cool so it lasts longer.

I'm betting I'd wimp out and try drying the produce to preserve it.

Enter Mohammed Bah Abba. He opted to make a refrigerator:

You take a smaller pot and put it inside a larger pot. Fill the space in between them with wet sand, and cover the top with a wet cloth. When the water evaporates, it pulls the heat out with it, making the inside cold.

Check it out.

It gets better. People wanting the pots will boost the pottery business. People who can chill their foods have more time to do things like go to school.

How cool clever is that?

AP: Radovan Karadzic arrested

(via CNN)

Wow, and only fifteen years late.

Michael Savage thinks autistic kids are faking it

(H/t to Russ)

Seriously.

This is America, he's free to say it- but listeners should be free to vent their righteous fury at his employers until they fire his dumb ass.

Of course, if things follow recent history, Savage will offer some kind of "expression of regret" - something intended to placate the news cycle until America moves on to the next unbelievably ignorant and offensive thing he says.

Here's hoping his employers are human - and show Savage the door.

Late edit: When called out. Mr. Savage admits to using hyperbole, but insists "My main point remains true".

Nice.

Later edit: Incredibly, its even worse than that: WCBS TV quotes Savage defending his remarks with this winner (emphasis mine):

What if people who wore glasses were put on the blindness spectrum, or people with moles on their face were put on the cancer spectrum? The problem here is that there is no definitive diagnosis for autism and that is why so many children are being thrown into this category, and they're being falsely diagnosed and stigmatized

Oh.

I see.

Sure Michael, the same person who said:

I'll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it's a brat who hasn't been told to cut the act out. That's what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they're silent? They don't have a father around to tell them, 'Don't act like a moron. You'll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don't sit there crying and screaming, idiot.

-is trying to protect children from being stigmatized.

How could people fail to understand that?

You can take our show, but you'll never take - our thumbs!

(Via Reuters)

Here's proof that intellectual property rights in this country are seriously whacked:

Film critics Ebert, Roeper leaving their TV show

Influential film critics Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper are departing the movie-review show that bears their names, the two announced separately, leaving the program's future unclear.

...

Ebert said he and Siskel's widow, Marlene Iglitzen, will retain the show's trademarked catch-phrase "two thumbs up" for some future use.

Had a dream today

Ordinarily, this would rank slightly above I woke up or I got take out. Since I have sleep apnea – having a dream enjoys a special significance.

It means I slept. For real, with R.E.M. and everything.

No R.E.M.? No dream.

After dad died, I didn't dream for about a year. Didn't think much of it, other than Christ, I'm tired.

I get the diagnosis, get the treatment – and I'm dreaming again. Hooray for modern medicine.

It's just that with sleep disorders, the feedback is subtle. If things start to go wrong, it might be weeks or months before you realize all is not well.

Months ago, I asked for an airflow monitoring machine so I could find out whether I was tired from apnea – or just tired. It took weeks and weeks, but the verdict finally came back. My dosage got upped from 10 to 11.

Airflow wise, I'm not entirely certain this isn't a "pat him on the head" dosage (i.e. nothing has changed you silly man, but we're making an insignificant change so you'll feel better. Honestly, the machine looks and acts the same. I doubt I could tell either way).

Saturday, I was pretty much useless. Laid around the house like a zombie, wondering if I'd had any R.E.M. sleep lately. Outside of a dream – how would I know the difference?

So I had a dream. R.E.M. Proof positive.

And now I'm going to bitch about that.

I read somewhere that dreams are short term memories shifting into long term memories.

Some minimal state of consciousness allows you to experience the images as they reorganize themselves. The stuff you don't need fades away, the stuff you need is stored for the long haul.

For only the second time since he died, I had a dream about dad. And I’m wondering what kind of short term memory just went down in ink.

In the dream, dad actually spoke. We interacted (although I couldn’t really say about what), which was new. Last time, he was in the room, never said a thing.

This time he died.

Following an all too familiar theme of my dreams - I was shown a dangerous cliff. It was far off and it had safety netting along the edge. Despite this, I knew (in a manner peculiar to dreams) that the cliff was an unavoidable, mortal threat.

Dad and I needed to get past this cliff. I wanted to give it a wide berth, dad wanted to save time and pass right next to it.

The part of my brain that controls dreams is very good at dialing up the misery to just under the level where I begin to disbelieve.

Dad goes first, gets caught in the netting. He's pissed off. I'm unable to do anything but watch him struggle closer and closer to the edge. And then he falls.

In slow-motion Technicolor.

And then it's morning.

So, by way of the ether - I ask whoever came up with that theory of dreams:

What short term thought was saved from oblivion so that I could watch dad die in my head?

If it were possible to know - I would have forgotten it deliberately. Then I wouldn’t thinking about this crap on a workday.

America has no truer friend than Great Britain

...and friends are honest with each other on the big stuff:

The Human Rights Annual Report 2007 released Sunday by the UK House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee states that "the UK can no longer rely on US assurances that it does not use torture, and we recommend that the Government does not rely on such assurances in the future."

An end in sight?

(via TPM and Spiegel online )

Wow.

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Barack Obama's 16 timeframe for a withdrawal from Iraq is the right one.

Just take a knee McCain - you look like a total fool now.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who read it that way

So, I'm on the Google - annnnnnd one of the Reuters headlines is this:

McCain says Obama trip to Iraq may be soon

Wondering why this might be news, I click and read this:

DETROIT (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain commented on Friday on the unannounced timing of a high-security trip by Barack Obama to Iraq, saying he believed his Democratic rival was going this weekend.

First reaction: No.

McCain did not just tell Iraq and Afghanistan to expect Barack this weekend, right? No one would do that.

Iraq: where the President of the most powerful nation of the world needs to sneak in.

McCain's throwing a best guess to the world. Gun up, bad guys - you might get a shot at Barack!

But then, I'm crazy right - just reading in my own little--

What? What's that you say Josh Marshall?

The Reuters piece hints at it. But if Obama is going to be in Iraq this weekend, this is a major breach on McCain's part. As a knowledgeable insider notes ...

If it is true that Obama is going to Iraq this weekend, it is a very serious mistake for McCain to have disclosed it publicly. Even for run-of-the-mill CODELs the military gives guidance like, "Please strongly discourage Congressional offices from issuing press releases prior to their trips which mention their intent to travel to the AOR and/or the dates of that travel or their scheduled meetings. Such releases are a serious compromise to OPSEC." If Obama is going to Iraq this weekend, I can not begin to imagine how much this is complicating the security planning for the trip.

McCain - he's got all the discretion of somebody's drunk grandfather.

Oh, he's the experienced candidate? I think experience would teach you to keep you yap shut about such things - but hey that's just me.

Questions of basic competence

Nieman Watchdog's, Pete Davis on the mess the next president is going to inherit:

You don't have to be a Washington policy wonk to notice that our government has ceased to function on many levels. Ronald Reagan ran against the government, but it still worked under him, even after firing the air traffic controllers. Newt Gingrich led the radical conservative charge that literally shut the government down in the fall of 1996. That's when the real damage started. Worse was to come.


President George W. Bush and his appointees have attacked the heart and soul of agency after agency and have soured relations with both parties in Congress, almost like Lou Gehrig’s disease, an autoimmune response gone awry.

He's got a list of questions for the next president. Some are snark - but others are pretty good questions for any candidate. Not all of their answers can be laid at the feet of the current administration, either.

I'd argue they should all be laid at the feet of whoever is taking over next year - because it's for damn sure the current occupant of the White House will continue to sidestep these issues.

Best quote I've heard about Confederate Civil War re-enactors

From Mom:


How many times do you guys need to lose?

Ha!

I wish I have the magical stick.

Inside Iraq is a blog where Iraqi journalists can post their observations to an English speaking audience.

They frequently post in fractured English, but its hard to fault them for their observations. Like today:

Today, we received an e-mail (press release) inviting us to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of A FIVE STAR HOTEL INSIDE THE INTERNATIONAL ZONE KNOWN AS THE GREEN ZONE 

Instead of building power plants, our government approves building a five star hotel. 

Instead of building water plants, our government approves building a five star hotel. 

Instead of building new hospitals for the poor Iraqis who fill the old, dirty stink hospitals, our government approves building a five star hotel.

I'm sure this Iraqi isn't the only person scratching their head over this one.

Give me your honest opinion

(via Balkinization)

WaPo is reporting that the White House had a streamlined vetting procedure for Justice's Office of Legal Counsel.

Namely, "will this candidate do exactly as they are told?"

Then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft offered the White House a list of five candidates to lead the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel in early 2003, but top administration officials summarily rejected them in favor of installing a loyalist who would provide the legal footing needed to continue coercive interrogation techniques and broadly interpret executive power, according to two former administration officials.

WaPo goes on to say:

But two sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Card called to reject the names shortly after the list arrived at the White House.

"The message was that there was only one candidate they wanted, and that was John Yoo," one source said.

[snip]

Card and Gonzales "were absolutely determined to have a guy who was going to tell them what they wanted to hear," said the other source.

Balkinization's analysis is a good supplement to the WaPo piece.

Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins...

...for they are subtle, quick to anger, and can crush your digital nads on a whim.

Filed under certainly not news, but news to me:

(via IHT)

Liechtenstein bank says records passed to Germany have 1,400 client names

LGT Group, the Liechtenstein bank owned by the principality's ruling family, said Monday that records stolen and passed to German tax authorities contained data from 1,400 clients.


The documents, including bank information from 600 Germans, were stolen in 2002 and no later data were given to authorities, the bank said in a statement. The foundations listed in the stolen records had 4,527 beneficiaries, the bank said.

Apparently a disgruntled sysadmin nabbed the records on the way out the door and then shopped them to the Germans.

The kicker is that the Germans paid this guy 4.2 million Euros for his data - and now the Germans are shopping the data to all interested parties. Apparently, the Germans are using it to:

...spearhead a campaign against tax havens across Europe. Next in line is Prince Albert of Monaco, who is due in Berlin this week. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is set to read him the riot act. Soon, German officials say, the Chancellor will be on her way to Switzerland to make her case there.
(via timesonline)

and it just gets better from there.

On the one hand - huzzah! patrons of tax havens are getting the shaft!

On the other- a government paid a thief for stolen data, and let him go. He's apparently in a witness protection program now and is going to give videotaped testimony before the US Senate.

And there's this gem (via the NYT) :

In the videotape, Mr. Kieber is disguised and his voice is altered. The royal family of Liechtenstein has hired private detectives to track him down.

 Bizzarro land!

Who writes this stuff?