Archive for July, 2008
Stumbling Upon StumbleUpon.com
Thursday, July 31st, 2008There’s a site out there called StumbleUpon.com.
Categories: Blogging about Blogs | Comments Off on Stumbling Upon StumbleUpon.com
Measuring Earthquakes – Web 2.0 Style!
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Los Angeles had a 5.4 magnitude earthquake yesterday.
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging, Tech Talk | Comments Off on Measuring Earthquakes – Web 2.0 Style!
House Update: New Video!
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008Exciting news:
Categories: Family Matters, Random Acts of Blogging | Comments Off on House Update: New Video!
iPhone – the $200 Flashlight
Wednesday, July 30th, 2008How’s this for a lede in a Forbes article:
The geeks are at the gates, and they’ve brought their virtual light sabers. When it comes to nerdery, the legions who camped outside Apple’s stores last month to buy the iPhone have nothing on the developers Apple let loose to write software for it. At least three applications turn the $199 iPhone 3g into a flashlight. Another, World 9, lets out a vintage Nintendo bleep every time you bump the phone. In less than 15 minutes you can load up the iPhone with enough junk to make esthete Steve Jobs lose his vegan lunch of brown rice and broccoli.
The article goes on to describe several other App Store choices.
Categories: Tech Talk | 2 Comments »
Science vs. Religion
Tuesday, July 29th, 2008Two news articles in the past week:
Columnist Robert Novak has Brain Tumor
and
[Columnist Robert] Novak Cited for Hitting Pedestrian
Responses:
Science:
Categories: Random Acts of Blogging | Comments Off on Science vs. Religion
ISBS Review: South Pacific on Broadway
Sunday, July 27th, 2008As an anniversary gift, my in-laws bought us tickets to see the latest revival of South Pacific, currently playing at the Lincoln Square Theater in New York.
For those who don’t know (I didn’t until tonight), South Pacific was written in 1949 by the legendary team of Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Categories: ISBS Reviews, New York, New York | 3 Comments »
When is a Recession not a Recession?
Thursday, July 24th, 2008This from last week’s Wall Street Journal:
Federal Reserve officials marked up their outlook for inflation and economic growth in their latest projections. But their estimates suggest little expectation that underlying inflation trends will deteriorate significantly through 2010.
At the June policy meeting, officials projected that the rate of economic growth by the end of the year would be between 1% and 1.6%, up from 0.3% to 1.2% in their April estimates. The 2009 outlook was unchanged, with officials expecting growth between 2% and 2.8%.
Fed officials marked up their inflation projections for this year, measured by the price index for personal consumption expenditures, to between 3.8% and 4.2%, up from the 3.1% to 3.4% seen in April. The outlook for inflation next year was 2% to 2.3%, up only slightly from the 1.9% to 2.3% from the April meeting.
Expectations for the unemployment rate, now 5.5%, was unchanged at 5.5% to 5.7%.
Translation:
Categories: Money Talk | Comments Off on When is a Recession not a Recession?
Fighting for Victory in Iraq
Thursday, July 24th, 2008They told me that when the election came around, the central issue would be achieving victory in Iraq . . . and they were right!
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Another step toward iPod gold…
Monday, July 21st, 2008I’ve been saying for many years now that the killer app on the iPod has not yet been written.
Categories: Tech Talk, Words about Music | 1 Comment »
Pictures from Billy Joel’s Shea Stadium Concert
Saturday, July 19th, 2008I’ve posted a series of pictures that I took during Billy Joel’s “Last Play at Shea” on July 16, 2008. Click the picture to the left to see them (or check out my “Featured Photos” in the left-hand margin!)
Also, for those who haven’t heard yet, the guest stars in the second show (July 18, 2008 – the true“Last Play at Shea” were somewhat different than the show I saw. Tony Bennett reprised his appearance, but John Mayer, Don Henley and John Mellencamp were replaced by Steven Tyler (“Walk This Way”), Roger Daltry (“My Generation”) and the Sir Paul McCartney (“I Saw Her Standing There” and “Let it Be”).
From what I’ve read, the Who song was punctuated by Billy Joel smashing a guitar on stage – a nice throwback to that signature move by The Who. But it was the McCartney appearance that really tells a story: The Beatles were the first rock show to perform at Shea Stadium, and in doing so, they changed the face of American Rock & Roll forever. It was more than fitting that Sir Paul came out to sing in this, the stadium’s last rock show. Even more fitting was the way in which Billy Joel gave up his stage (and his piano) after the vaulted Piano Man, and allowed Sir Paul to close out the stadium with the classic Let It Be.
Billy Joel has always had a lot of class. That finale not only showed his class, but also his deep respect for the history of that great institution that is Rock & Roll.
Bravo, Billy! Bravo, Sir Paul!
Categories: Words about Music | 1 Comment »