October 2009
WatchI heard recently there are now more medical marijuana places in LA than Starbucks. This is an ABC 7 look at medical marijuana on the Venice boardwalk. It answered a few of question I had about these shops.
Who's NOT talking?
Catching up on the healthcare debate today I noticed that in all of the chatter on this topic the one group that has the most to gain and lose has been oddly silent - the insurance companies, the existing system. Have you ever once heard direct defense of the system from the system in any discussion? I know they are busy spending millions daily on lobbyists but can you imagine any other debate...
September 2009
There's an app for that - NFL edition
This past weekend we ended up in the car for the 4th quarter of the Bears game. Normally this would be a semi-tragedy mitigated only by Sirius Satellite radio carrying the Bears radio call out of Chicago. But this year there is a NFL app from DirecTV, if you have the right NFL package you can use this app to track games or even watch them live on your iPhone. We tried it and Jenn was able to see...
“The Meteor case has become a symbol of the shaky standing of the vfx industry...”
– Variety article
Video: Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs →
Nice analysis and notes that can be applied to any presentation
Gin, Television, and Social Surplus →
Nobody wins at casino except the owners →
An article about how promises that casino gambling will fix everything turn out. I would add the lotteries as well and the title of the article could be applied to many things.
Australian town ‘world’s first’ to ban bottled... →
WatchBill Clinton about same-sex marriage and the current tone of politics.
“Katie Couric’s annual salary is more than the entire annual budgets of NPR’s...”
– From an article at Columbia Journalism Review
“…experiments in mice found that binge drinking affects a protein in the...”
– News item on KTLA news tonight that was followed by a teaser for a story about a guy who tied a weight to his penis in an attempt to enlarge it. I think perhaps the mice were not alone in their binge drinking.
WatchThe Obama Plan in 4 Seconds (from Conan O’Brien)
Michael Moore was on Howard Stern this morning - we need to start listening to him. He pointed out the problems in the auto industry so long ago and told us that if other companies acted like GM we would have a lot of Flint Michigans. He was questioning the Iraq weapons of mass destruction before many. He was a couple of years ahead of the curve shining light on our health care problems. His new...
Microsoft Tablet Seems Cool, But Let's See It... →
Yesterday there was a lot of buzz over a demo of a secret project from Microsoft called Courier. Here is the story I saw and cool demo movie. I recently had a chance to play with a Microsoft table at a museum and found awkward and non-intuative so I am with this guy, I’ll believe it when I see it.
WatchProtect Insurance Companies PSA
Cel Phone Companies playing games
Before I left for China I setup a 50MB data Global Add-On plan for the iPhone, reset all counters when I went to airplane mode and did everything to monitor and turn off data usage when not needed. About mid week of the trip I got concerned I would exceed the 50MB and switched to 100MB.
The bill came this weekend. First, data is reported on the bill in KB, not MB… rep told me to just divide...
LA Times on our 34th water main break since 9/1 →
…some experts said a prime suspect should be the city’s recent decision to allow sprinkling only on Mondays and Thursdays.They said that if more water flows through the system on those two days, then pressure suddenly changes on other days, it could put added stress on already-aging pipes.
“The employee is a young, relatively inexperienced associate producer who...”
– Fox “News” Washington Bureau Chief throwing that producer under a bus after a video of her encouraging the crowd to cheer during a live shot surfaced.
Twitter marketing
Last night as I left work I saw a post from @hensoncompany that they were giving away a few tickets to their live Puppet Up! show for the first few followers who replied. I jumped on it and bingo two tickets.
Later we went to dinner at The Viceroy in Santa Monica and I tweeted that we enjoyed it and mentioned the restarurant’s name, Whist. This morning I had a tweet from @ViceroySM...
Big Picture - China Prepares for 60th Celebration →
When I was in Beijing they were doing construction and repairs all around in preparation for their 60 year celebration. A must see set of photos from the always amazing Big Picture blog showing rehearsals and preparations.
Why economics condemns 3D to be no more than a... →
Planet Money podcast #93: The Nightmare of... →
iTunes link to a great podcast
WatchRachel Maddow maps some statistics
The Atlantic: How American Health Care Killed My... →
Don’t be put off by the title or by the fact that it is a six page article - this is one of the best things I have read on the health care problem.
How to Present While People are Twittering →
Interesting article on the impact of a connected audience
The Awesomeness Manifesto →
“awesomeness is the new innovation”
50 things that are being killed by the internet →
WatchRachel Maddow: Fringe cranks, a brief history
“So why is Leno the future of television? Simple: because the future of...”
– from this Deus Ex Malcontent blog entry: Laughing Stock
South Park: Margaritaville →
This episode won an Emmy tonight - using a Margaritaville Blender to explain the economic collapse is what makes this show brilliant.
Sesame Street: Families Stand Together →
An hour long television special hosted by Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo to help families with children, ages two to eight, experiencing difficult economic challenges.
I got curious this morning about how many people die in the U.S. due to lacking health care… some estimates are that as many as eighteen thousand die each year. The lowest estimate I could find was around eight thousand… each year.
Yesterday we paused to remember the almost 3000 killed in the 9/11 attacks, today I will be thinking of the between 64,000 to 144,000 who have died since...
“Why is science debatable now? Science became debatable… when I was a kid...”
– Kathy Griffin on Real Time with Bill Maher
In case you were wondering how it turned out for So you think you can Dance since the “network” decided to air it instead of the President’s speech… last night’s show saw a drop of 21% from the premiere. The “network” is of course blaming the drop on it being on against the speech.