Science news asks: Does sprawl make people fat?  and Could smart urban design keep people fit and trim? 

"As scientists investigate the relationship between sprawl and obesity, a compact style of city development sometimes called smart growth might become a tool in the fight for the nation's health. However, University of Toronto economist Matthew Turner charges that "a lot of people out there don't like urban sprawl, and those people are trying to hijack the obesity epidemic to further the smart-growth agenda [and] change how cities look."

For decades, housing and population growth in U.S. suburban areas have outpaced those in city centers. Shifts in commuting patterns reflect the trend toward people residing at a sizable distance from where they work, shop, and play. According to U.S. Census data, the average commute lengthened from 22.4 minutes to 25.1 minutes between 1990 and 2000, and the proportion of workers walking or biking to work dropped by one-quarter.

TIGHT FIT. Densely built urban areas such as Vancouver's downtown may encourage pedestrian traffic and promote physical activity. In contrast, cities of low density, where people depend on cars to get to stores and other facilities, seem to favor obesity.
Corbis

A few communities buck the national trend. For example, Frank says, "there is a great deal of new development in Atlanta that is walkable."

Source:
Weighing In on City Planning
Could smart urban design keep people fit and trim?
Ben Harder
Science News, Week of Jan. 20, 2007; Vol. 171, No. 3 , p. 43
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070120/bob9.asp

Posted at 06:01 PM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

From the Guardian's news blog, comes this tidbit.

One would hope that the president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz would dress appropriately for the job. Apparently, not so much:

Paul Wolfowitz: Embarrassing the United States since 1976

Posted at 05:55 AM in Current Affairs, Photo Caption Contest!, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Very funny: 

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Posted at 06:06 AM in Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

From a lovely website titled "lovegodsway" comes this lovely list of BANDS THAT WILL MAKE YOU GAY 

The Doors? The Rolling Stones? Frank Sinatra? (What is this guy smoking?)

Ted Nugent wants you gay? That's ridiculous. He may want to shoot you, but making you gay doesn't seem to be big on Ted's agenda. And I guess John Mayer sleeping with hottie Jessica Simpson is just a good cover for his musical attempts at gayification. Elton John is on the list twice; Once listed as "Elton John" and in case you missed it, a second time as "Elton John(really gay)."

How does this person think this works?  Some kid hears a song and goes to his friends, "Hey check out this tune? That's awesome! Who wants to sodomize me?"

I have decided that this is really negative side effect of societal evolution: We have now reached the stage where even if you are incredibly dumb, as long as you look both ways before crossing the street, you can live long enough to procreate. A few 100 thousand years ago, this degree of stupidity would have resulted in a simple but fatal demotion down the food chain.

~~~~
http://lovegodsway.org/GayBands

One of the most dangerous ways homosexuality invades family life is through popular music. Parents should keep careful watch over their children's listening habits, especially in this Internet Age of MP3 piracy.

Bands to watch out for

The Spores (endorse suicide)
Scissor Sisters
Rufus Wainwright
Merzbau
Ravi Shankar
Wilco
Bjork
Tech N9ne
Ghostface Killah
Bobby Conn
Morton Subotnik
Cole Porter
The String Cheese Incident
Eagles of Death Metal
Polyphonic Spree
The Faint
Interpol
Tegan and Sara
Erasure
Le Tigre
The Gossip
The Magnetic Fields
The Doors
Phish
Queen
The Strokes
Sufjan Stevens
Morrissey(?questionable?)
The Pet Shop Boys
Metallica
Judas Priest
The Village People
The Secret Handshake
The Rolling Stones
David Bowie
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Man or Astroman
Richard Cheese
Jay-Z
Depeche Mode
Kansas
Ani DiFranco
Fischerspooner
John Mayer
Angel Eyes
The Indigo Girls
Velvet Underground
Madonna
Elton John
Barry Manilow
Indigo Girls
Melissa Etheridge
Eminmen
Nirvana
Boy George*
The Killers
Lou Reed
Lil' Wayne
Motorhead
Jill Sobule
Wilson Phillips
DMX
Lisa Loeb
Ted Nugent (loincloth)
Dogstar
Thirty Seconds to Mars
Lil' Kim
kd lang
Frank Sinatra
Hinder
Nickleback
Justus Kohncke
Bob Mould
Clay Aiken
Arcade Fire
Bright Eyes
Corinne Bailey Rae
Audioslave
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Panic at the Disco
Elton John(really gay)

~~~

Here's what else that have to say:

In Our effort to keep this list up to date we'd appreciate your help. If you know of a band that is Gay or propogating a Gay message please email us so we can update. Donnie is handling this his email is: donniedavies@gmail.com

The response is overwhelming. You guys know of a lot more Gay Bands than I do. I can't keep up. Hopefully soon we'll have it so you can add them by yourself

Posted at 06:09 AM in Music, Religion | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

The Beatles - From Me to You -- live in Washington DC

Posted at 06:29 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

  One of my favorite Jazz musicians is Dave Brubeck. Its perfect music to chill to after a harried week such as this one.

Even if you don't know Brubeck, you probably know him via Take Five, off of the album Time Out, which was the first million selling jazz disc..  Take Five may be the single best known Jazz recording of all time (argue amongst yourselves whats better known in comments).

Brubeck is one of those rare musicians where you can just about randomly select anything he's recorded -- and its pretty great. If you want some suggestions, consider any of these favorite Brubeck albums:

Time Out
Concord on a Summer Night   
Jazz at Oberlin 
Jazz at the College of the Pacific   
Live at the Berlin Philharmonie

Even his "fun" stuff is terrific -- check out Quiet as the Moon. Its "Peanuts inspired" (except for a song or two, its not the actual Peanuts music -- thats Vince Guaraldi playing A Boy Named Charlie Brown).

Also worth checking out are Dave Digs Disney and Brubeck Plays Music From West Side Story.

Take Five

St Louis Blues 1961

Other Videos:

Blue Rondo a la Turk

Kathy's Waltz

Sounds of the Loop - 1964

St Louis Blues Brubeck Dave 1961

Strange Meadow Lark

Live At The Lincoln Center 1972    

via Crooks & Liars

Posted at 06:30 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posted at 10:59 AM in Art & Design, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Great Ad:

Adverbox via The New Shelton Wet/Dry

Posted at 06:41 AM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Posted at 06:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

YouTube: History of the Middle East in 2.5 Minutes

Who has controlled and conquered the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Persians, Europeans...the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question.

Posted at 06:09 AM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cool idea: 

"The United States could generate as much electricity by 2050 as that flowing today from all of the country’s nuclear power plants by developing technologies that tap heat locked in deep layers of granite, according to a new study commissioned by the Energy Department.

There are already dozens of power plants worldwide that have long exploited hot spots of geothermal energy to drive steam turbines, but they are restricted to a few areas.

The new report, published online yesterday, focuses on a process that it said could affordably harvest heat locked in deep layers of granite that exist almost everywhere on earth. The technique, called enhanced geothermal, involves drilling several holes — some two to three miles deep — into granite that has been held at chicken-roasting temperatures, around 400 degrees or more, by insulating layers of rock above.

In the right geological conditions, pressurized water can be used to widen natural mazelike arrays of cracks in the granite, creating a vast, porous subterranean reservoir.

In a typical setup, water pumped down into the reservoir through one hole absorbs heat from the rock and flows up another hole to a power plant, giving up its heat to generate steam and electricity before it is recirculated in the rock below.

There are successful plants harvesting heat from deep hot rock in Australia, Europe and Japan, the report noted, adding that studies of the technology largely stopped in the United States after a brief burst of research during the oil crises of the 1970s.

Source:
Study Says Tapping of Granite Could Unleash Energy Source
ANDREW C. REVKIN
NYT, January 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/business/23thermal.html

The Future of Geothermal Energy
The Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)
on the United States in the 21st Century
http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/future_of_geothermal_energy.pdf

Posted at 03:39 PM in Current Affairs | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Gorgeous car, huh?

"The consensus among enthusiasts is that Ford’s reign over Aston Martin has been largely benevolent. Still, the question among collectors is how a change of ownership may affect the value of older Aston Martins.

Just as Fender Stratocasters and Telecasters made before the company’s takeover by CBS are the only instruments that matter for collectors, most of the collecting activity in Aston Martins is with cars produced during the marque’s golden era of 1947 to 1972, when it was owned by David Brown, a British industrialist.

The DB4 and DB5 of 1958-65 are generally considered the apex of the David Brown era (he’s the DB in the model names) and are among the loveliest front-engine grand touring cars ever produced. Built using the complicated Italian superleggera method — draping hand-wrought alloy body panels over a frame of tiny steel tubes — they were built to blast safely across European motorways, autostradas, autobahns and routes nationale, at speeds in excess of 100 miles an hour. And they had to look good parked in front of places like Brenner’s Park-Hotel and Spa in Baden-Baden, Germany, or the Gstaad Palace hotel in Switzerland."

There's a lot more Astom martin info here, here and here.

>

Source:
Classic Aston Martins Holding Their Appeal
ROB SASS
NYT, January 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/21/automobiles/collectibles/21ASTON.html

Posted at 12:56 PM in Automobiles | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The recording of the song at Abbey Road Studios

Posted at 06:38 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

46 minutes of commercial free Extreme Machines:

via smashing telly

Discovery Channel Extreme Machines Million Dollar Motors

Posted at 06:27 AM in Automobiles, Television | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

flickr via Reddit

see the full size version here:

Posted at 05:50 PM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ray LaMontagne has a great concert up at NPR:

Concert (Real Audio)

Interview (Real Audio)

Gnarls Barclay Cover (MP3)

click for Audio

Set List
Empty
Be Here Now
Barfly
Gone Away From Me
Hold You In My Arms
Shelter
Three More Days
Trouble
Forever My Friend
How Come
You Can Bring Me Flowers
Lesson Learned
Till the Sun Turns Black
To Love Somebody
Jolene
Burn
Can I Stay

Enjoy the mellow goodness!

~~~

Trouble

Till the Sun Turns Black

Posted at 05:55 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The NY Post got its freak on yesterday, covering a sex survey by Esquire and Marie Claire.

Here are some of the findings of the random-sample survey of more than 1,700 people between the ages of 21 and 49:

• Frequency
90% of American men and 94% of women are having sex five or fewer times per week;

• Cheating
Nearly 50% of men said they have cheated (or would do so, given the chance)
34% of women cheat;

• "What do you want more of?"
Men:  Oral sex
Women: erotic massage

• Sex partners
Men: on average, have had sex with 14 people;
Women: 11

• Surfing the 'Net for pornography
Men: 2.5 hours per week
Women said they for 1.5 hours per week
(Men are more than twice as likely to peruse porn at work than women).

• Favorite Sexual positions
Men:  31% said Doggy-style was the preferred position;
Women:  31% of women preferred missionary position.

• Waxing
16% percent of women in their 20s go "all natural;"
45% percent of women in their 40s did;

• Masturbation
Men:  4.9 times per week
Women 2.8 times

• Peer Group
Women are more attracted to a man if they think other women like him;
The opposite is true of men - possibly because they're more competitive.

Source:
HOW WE 'DO IT'
DAN MANGAN, dan.mangan@nypost.com
NYPost, January 17, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/2738m6

Posted at 05:55 PM in Humor, Science | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Back in March of 2003, I posted this little blurb on Joshua Radin, with step by step instrcutions on how to get to the music.

Funny thing is, that was pre-YouTube. Now, I can just embed and go!

There's even a "making of Closer" video.

Posted at 06:09 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

I love the name of this band, Ferocious Bubbles. They have a new disc, "Save Yourself and Run Away," available on CD Baby). They are the band of the week on PASTE (where there is also a nice review

You can stream the entire disc here.

Other sites worth noting:

C/Net Download (2 free mp3s)

Download their album at iTunes Music Store.

At the Band's MySpace page, (4 streaming songs)

Official Website: Ferocious Bubbles

Posted at 06:15 PM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Go ahead -- I dare you . . .

Posted at 05:42 AM in Humor, Television | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack

TIme lapse of a guy driving across country in his convertible.

Very cool!

Posted at 06:26 AM in Travel, Video | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Quotes from MLK:

Together As Brothers

We must learn to live together as brothers
or perish together as fools.

Hatred paralyzes life;
love releases it.

Hatred confuses life;
love harmonizes it.

Hatred darkens life;
love illuminates it."

"You don't have to see the whole staircase; just the first step."

To Be Great

Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve.
You don't have to have a college degree to serve.
You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve.
You only need a heart full of grace.  A soul generated by love.

Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart. 

Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.

All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.

~~~

All quotes via Martin Luther King, Jr.

Posted at 09:31 AM in Philosophy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Indie cult classic The Tao of Steve is showing over the next few days on IFC -- perfect for our forecast rainy weekend here in the NorthEast.

I've always thought it was a great unknown date movie, along the lines of Chasing Amy or Kissing Jessica Stein (excellent script, great characters, very likable cast).

If you haven't caught it yet, the film is a charming romantic comedy about the prolonged adolescence of a paunchy womanizing slacker named Dex. The "Tao" are Dex's actual rules for how to seduce women, based upon the worldly wisdom of 3 famous Steves: McGarrett, Austin & McQueen.

Guys tend to love the first half of the movie (for obvious reasons); Its where the secrets of the Tao of Steve gets explained. The second act is all about why us guys have it so wrong. Its really a great date movie, but for your own sake, try not to whoop it up too much at an inopportune moment (trust me on this).

Indeed, let's not kid ourselves -- this is a chick flick. A rambunctious, charming rougue, an immature womanizing Man/Boy -- a guy's guy -- ultimately gets broken and domesticated by love. Hence, why the missus will enjoy it, too. 

Tao is one of those flicks made so much better by a killer soundtrack (think Garden State or Desperado).

The closest thing in a mainstream Hollywood version of the Peter Pan syndrome is either the Jack Nicholson/Dianne Keaton vehicle, Something's Gotta Give, or Matthew McConaughey Failure to Launch.

Neither of those are remotely as likable as the Tao of Steve. 

Enjoy!

DVD here

Posted at 06:33 AM in Film, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

classic:

Beatles performing "I Feel Fine" on Ready Steady Go (video) ;

Audio is a studio take

Posted at 06:22 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What follows is a line by line takedown of the President's speech on Iraq. When you read analyses of this sort, its startling to see the degree to which our political discourse has been reduced to manipulative phrases and empty rhetoric.

We used to have leaders capable of brilliant oratory, astute analysis, who could rally the nation to their side for a worthy cause. Now, the countr's leaders have been reduced to 10 second sound bites and Bumper Stickers.

The author (bio here) holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS).

He writes:  Below, I’ve selected a number of important phrases from the address that beg for more detailed discussion, and included my own analysis of the validity and practicality of what the president seems to have in mind.

***

President Bush: Tonight in Iraq, the armed forces of the United States are engaged in a struggle that will determine the direction of the global war on terror and our safety here at home.

Analysis: Iraq is only one element in the war on terrorism. The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the failure to suppress Al Qaeda globally are probably of equal importance, and the Bush administration seems to have no overall strategy for America's "other war" in Afghanistan or the broader war on terrorism.

When I addressed you just over a year ago, nearly 12 million Iraqis had cast their ballots for a unified and democratic nation. The elections of 2005 were a stunning achievement.

Analysis: The elections were anything but a "stunning achievement." The system used virtually ensured that Iraqis would vote by sect and ethnicity and that the outcome would further divide Sunni Arabs and Shiites, compounding the tensions created by American efforts to make Iraqis draft a new constitution.

But in 2006, the opposite happened. The violence in Iraq - particularly in Baghdad - overwhelmed the political gains the Iraqis had made.

Analysis: This statement reinvents history. The level of sectarian violence had built up steadily during 2005. The rise of sectarian and ethnic conflict was a major factor long before President Bush announced his previous strategy at the end of 2005, before the attack on one of the Shiites' holiest sites, the Golden Mosque in Samarra - an event whose importance the administration sharply played down at the time.

The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits. … Our enemies would have a safe haven from which to plan and launch attacks on the American people.

Analysis: This statement again tries to link Iraq to the broader war on terrorism. In reality, the risks are far greater that Iraqi Shiites and Kurds would end up fighting Sunnis, if not each other. Iranian influence would grow. Sunni nations would intervene on the Sunni side. The primary risk is civil war with broad regional implications, not a Sunni extremist victory.

The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad. Eighty percent of Iraq's sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of the capital.

Analysis: In reality, Iraq has about a dozen major cities, and there are severe problems in many, including Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk. It is far easier to measure the violence in Baghdad because there has been more killing there. But the kind of intimidation and softer forms of ethnic cleansing that are occurring across the country are equally important.

Our past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principal reasons: There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents. And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have.

Analysis: This is simply untrue. Other factors - which could also destroy the president's new plan - have been more important. The real reason previous operations did not succeed was that the Baghdad government would not confront the Shiite militias and Iraqi forces were largely ineffective when they did fight. This forced American troops to act alone, and the result was often a substantial local backlash.

Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does. They also report that this plan can work.

Analysis: This ignores the fact that reports have repeatedly shown that a significant number of commanders fear the United States will still not get effective support from the Iraqis, and will be perceived as the enemy by one or more sides.

Let me explain the main elements of this effort: The Iraqi government will appoint a military commander and two deputy commanders for their capital. The Iraqi government will deploy Iraqi Army and National Police brigades across Baghdad's nine districts. When these forces are fully deployed, there will be 18 Iraqi Army and National Police brigades committed to this effort - along with local police.

Analysis: While admirably specific for a political speech, this plan seems far too optimistic. Iraqi Army units still have major effectiveness problems. The police still have ties to Shiite militias and death squads, and often are corrupt and poorly trained and equipped.

I have committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq. The vast majority of them, five brigades, will be deployed to Baghdad. These troops will work alongside Iraqi units and be embedded in their formations. Our troops will have a well-defined mission: to help Iraqis clear and secure neighborhoods, to help them protect the local population, and to help ensure that the Iraqi forces left behind are capable of providing the security that Baghdad needs.

Analysis: This raises serious political issues since Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki's advisers and the leaders of the powerful Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq have gone on record as opposing an increase in American troops. The initiative will almost certainly mean a major confrontation with the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, who can now draw on as many as 60,000 fighters nationwide.

In reality, the United States forces will not support or "help" Iraqi forces because the latter are too weak and lack motivation. The Bush plan will add up to 17,500 troops to the 15,000 now in the greater Baghdad area, and calls for three Iraqi brigades. But it seems unlikely those Iraqi troops will do much - the Iraqi Army deployed only two of the six battalions it promised for last summer's Baghdad offensive. Embedding an American battalion of 400 to 600 men in each of the nine military districts in Baghdad may help, but it is still United States forces that will do almost all of the hard fighting and dying.

In earlier operations, Iraqi and American forces cleared many neighborhoods of terrorists and insurgents, but when our forces moved on to other targets, the killers returned. This time, we will have the force levels we need to hold the areas that have been cleared. . . . Prime Minister Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated.

Analysis: Mr. Maliki has been quietly put under intense pressure, but may or may not continue to comply. More important, he simply does not have the political power to give a green light to the cleaning of Baghdad. This has to come from the Iraqi people in the neighborhoods involved.

I have made it clear to the prime minister and Iraq's other leaders that America's commitment is not open-ended. If the Iraqi government does not follow through on its promises, it will lose the support of the American people - and it will lose the support of the Iraqi people.

Analysis: The plan creates a strong incentive for the elements hostile to the United States to keep up military pressure, and for sectarian Shiites to push the Maliki government to not cooperate.

Our enemies in Iraq will make every effort to ensure that our television screens are filled with images of death and suffering. Yet over time, we can expect to see Iraqi troops chasing down murderers, fewer brazen acts of terror, and growing trust and cooperation from Baghdad's residents. When this happens, daily life will improve, Iraqis will gain confidence in their leaders, and the government will have the breathing space it needs to make progress in other critical areas.

Analysis: The very real risks in the president's new strategy do not mean it cannot succeed. They simply mean the odds of success are probably somewhat short of even. The president clearly expects much more intense urban fighting, and understands that a more powerful American military effort to "win, hold, build" in Baghdad could significantly increase our casualties. What is not clear is what happens if the Iraqi people turn against American forces or the insurgents simply lie low and outwait the United States in what is fundamentally a long war of attrition.

America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.

Analysis: Benchmarks are important, but there is no real schedule here and no clear picture of what the United States will do if the Iraqi government proves unwilling and untrustworthy.

The Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November. To give every Iraqi citizen a stake in the country's economy, Iraq will pass legislation to share oil revenues among all Iraqis. To show that it is committed to delivering a better life, the Iraqi government will spend $10 billion of its own money on reconstruction and infrastructure projects that will create new jobs. To empower local leaders, Iraqis plan to hold provincial elections later this year. And to allow more Iraqis to re-enter their nation's political life, the government will reform de-Baathification laws and establish a fair process for considering amendments to Iraq's Constitution.

Analysis: These are laudable and ambitious goals, but the practical question is whether the Iraqi government can and will meet them. Assigning Iraqis responsibility for security in Iraq's provinces has so far proved to be a cosmetic gesture. Past pledges on oil revenues, local elections and de-Baathification have not been met. The fact is that Iraqis already planned to spend this much money on reconstruction, and the United States will actually have to finance most new job creation efforts.

We will increase the embedding of American advisers in Iraqi Army units and partner a coalition brigade with every Iraqi Army division. We will help the Iraqis build a larger and better-equipped army and we will accelerate the training of Iraqi forces, which remains the essential United States security mission in Iraq.

Analysis: These are potentially positive measures, but the statement disguises the reality that a coalition brigade has far more real combat power than an Iraqi division and would do most of the fighting. It also does not address the fact that at the end of December, the Iraqi Army had trained and equipped 132,000 men, but many had deserted (as have at least a quarter of new police officers), many of the remainder were ineffective, and even effective units were often largely Shiite or Kurdish and had mixed loyalties.

We will double the number of provincial reconstruction teams. These teams bring together military and civilian experts to help local Iraqi communities pursue reconciliation, strengthen the moderates and speed the transition to Iraqi self-reliance.

Analysis: The administration has had huge problems recruiting qualified civilians even for the present number of reconstruction teams and in effectively administering every aspect of its aid programs.

Our military forces in Anbar are killing and capturing Al Qaeda leaders, and they are protecting the local population. Recently, local tribal leaders have begun to show their willingness to take on Al Qaeda.

Analysis: Washington has been saying for two years that local leaders in Anbar were turning against the Islamist extremists, but there have been little more than token results. It is far from clear that 4,000 more American troops in the province will be enough to make a decisive difference.

Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria.

Analysis: This seems to reject the option of regional diplomacy and to tie Syria and Iran into a common threat. It's a hard-line position that may be justified, but it will certainly drive the two countries closer to each other.

We will use America's full diplomatic resources to rally support for Iraq from nations throughout the Middle East. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the gulf states need to understand that an American defeat in Iraq would create a new sanctuary for extremists and a strategic threat to their survival.

Analysis: Again, good goals. The question is whether major additional aid and support will be forthcoming. And there is no specific mention of any new Arab-Israeli peace initiatives.

Victory in Iraq will bring something new in the Arab world: a functioning democracy that polices its territory, upholds the rule of law, respects fundamental human liberties, and answers to its people. A democratic Iraq will not be perfect. But it will be a country that fights terrorists instead of harboring them, and it will help bring a future of peace and security for our children and grandchildren.

Analysis: This promises more than history is likely to deliver in Iraq in the near future, and far more than victory in Iraq can deliver to our children and grandchildren.

To step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government, tear that country apart, and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale. Such a scenario would result in our troops being forced to stay in Iraq even longer and confront an enemy that is even more lethal.

Analysis: This overstates the risks of withdrawal or "defeat," just as those calling for force cuts and withdrawal understate them.

>

Source:
Analysis: Bush's Iraq Plan, Between the Lines
ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN
NYT, January 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/12/opinion/12cordesman-text.html

About the author:  Anthony Cordesman holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). The author's full bio is here

Posted at 07:32 AM in Current Affairs, Politics, War/Defense | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Hey, its a Friday!

Salma Hayek -- So much more delightful than Friedrich von !

Posted at 06:21 AM in Photo Caption Contest! | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

via coolestshop

Posted at 06:19 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Michael Covel's site (he's the author of Trend Following)  offers up a PDF of Jesse Livermore's bio 'Reminiscences of a Stock Operator'  (complete PDF). (Its now in the public domain)

Its one of the best market based books you will ever read . . .

Posted at 06:22 AM in Books | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Posted at 05:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sure, half of this is CGI, but its still a lot of fun:

Christopher Walken

Posted at 06:13 AM in Television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

via wikipedia

Posted at 06:03 AM in Humor, Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

We've been posting Sunday morning Beatle videos for some time now. So perhaps its appropriate to do a tribute to the band on the 1st Sunday of the new year:

Posted at 06:20 AM in Music, The Beatles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Fascinating article discussing the purchase of  Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village by Tishman Speyer:

courtesy of the NYT

"WHEN the phone finally rang early on a mid-October evening in the New York headquarters of Tishman Speyer Properties, it startled Rob Speyer, the firm’s 37-year-old heir apparent. He and two colleagues had spent the afternoon talking nervously about anything but the call that they desperately hoped would come.

On the phone was Darcy A. Stacom, the broker handling the multibillion-dollar sale of two huge, adjacent Manhattan tracts — Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — for the properties’ owner, Metropolitan Life Insurance. Ms. Stacom asked Mr. Speyer to hustle eight blocks south from his Fifth Avenue conference room to a skyscraper on 45th Street, telling him to bring along representatives of his partner, BlackRock Inc., and his bankers and lawyers. She also cautioned him that they should arrive in groups of two, not en masse, to avoid any unwanted attention — there were eight other potential buyers waiting for the same phone call that Mr. Speyer had just received.

Mr. Speyer’s team and MetLife then wrestled through the night over the terms of a possible sale, with an occasional round of five-card stud during the lulls. A bleary-eyed Mr. Speyer finally signed the documents at about 9:30 the next morning, plunking down a $400 million deposit on what would be the biggest real estate deal of all time: the $5.4 billion purchase of 80 acres of prime Manhattan land that included 110 buildings and 11,232 apartments.

The price tag grabbed headlines around the world, generating commentary from the lobbies of Stuyvesant Town’s red brick buildings to the newsrooms of National Public Radio to the set of Bill Maher on HBO. The initial bidding had attracted an international Who’s Who in real estate and finance, ranging from the Rothschilds and the Safras to the Prince of Qatar and the investor Simon Glick, not to mention New York’s leading real estate families, various publicly traded companies and a host of international banks. By the time it was over, the bidders had collectively amassed a staggering $35 billion for bidding rights in the deal.

It was, as Daniel Garodnick, a New York city councilman who lives in Peter Cooper Village, put it, a “defining moment in city history.” International players who had single-mindedly pursued glamorous landmarks like the Chrysler and G.M. buildings in New York and the Sears Tower in Chicago were loudly proclaiming their appetites for humble, “plain vanilla” apartment buildings and a willingness to pay up — way up — to unlock future profits in the sprawling Manhattan properties."

Source:
Megadeal: Inside a Real Estate Coup
CHARLES V. BAGLI
NYT December 31, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/business/yourmoney/31speyer.html

Posted at 07:42 AM in Art & Design | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.): the person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted (adj.): appalled over how much weight you have gained.
3. Abdicate (v.): to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade (v.): to attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly (adj.): impotent.
6. Negligent (adj.): describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.
7. Lymph (v.): to walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle (n.): olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence (n.): emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash (n.): a rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle (n.): a humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude (n.): the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon (n): a Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster (n.): a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism (n.) (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent (n.): an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men.

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very,very high.
5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.
8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
10 Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.
12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.
And the pick of the literature:
16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole

Posted at 06:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

A timeless list of 5 best American Humor novels, circa late 19th eary 20th century:

1. You Know Me Al
By Ring Lardner
Scribner's, 1916

Ring Lardner thought of himself as primarily a sports columnist whose stuff wasn't destined to last, and he held to that absurd belief even after his first masterpiece, "You Know Me Al," was published in 1916 and earned the awed appreciation of Virginia Woolf, among other very serious, unfunny people. Ostensibly a collection of letters to a friend back home in Bedford, Ind., it traces the first season of a rookie hurler for the Chicago White Sox. Jack Keefe is at once cocky and guileless, suspicious and gullible, innocent and -- you get hints of this along the way -- doomed. But really, really funny.

2. My Life and Hard Times
By James Thurber
Harper, 1933

"The clocks that strike in my dreams are often the clocks of Columbus." This is easily the most beautiful sentence ever written about what is now the largest city in Ohio, and Thurber, alone among the Buckeyes, was the one who was destined to write it. Thurber's tossed-off cartoons ("Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?") seem to be wearing better than his painstaking prose, at least among highbrow critics. But this brief memoir of growing up in an eccentric family in Columbus before and during World War I is nearly perfect -- and still the funniest and most accessible Thurber.

3. The Devil's Dictionary
By Ambrose Bierce
Albert & Charles Boni, 1911

It is commonly thought that a deep vein of melancholy runs beneath most humor writing -- the tears of a clown and so on -- but it is truer to say that a kind of prettied-up cruelty is the essential element, at least in the funniest stuff. This is why the mean and mocking Ambrose Bierce refuses to die -- perhaps literally: No one has seen him since he disappeared into Mexico, in 1914, hoping to join up with Pancho Villa. He (Bierce, not Villa) left behind a handful of brilliant short stories along with this collection of diabolical definitions, a work of exhilarating and unrelieved cynicism. "Bigot, n.: One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain." "Forgiveness, n.: A stratagem to throw an offender off his guard and catch him red-handed in his next offense." "Self-esteem, n.: An erroneous appraisement." Once you start quoting, it is very hard to stop -- as you can see. Reading it has the same effect.

4. Westward Ha!
By S.J. Perelman
Simon & Schuster, 1948

Seventy years ago "nonsense" was an honored subclass of American humor, heavy on pointless paradox and wordplay for its own sake. The closest thing to nonsense that's worth reading today: the short pieces of S.J. Perelman, one-time scriptwriter for the Marx Brothers. His work can seem bloodless and slight -- he created nothing as heartfelt as Jack Keefe or as charming as Thurber's Columbus -- but for sheer verbal virtuosity, for his dizzy manipulation of language, Perelman deserves a place at the top of the trade. "Westward Ha!" is an account of a trip to the Far East ("The whole business began with an unfavorable astrological conjunction, Virgo being in the house of Alcohol"). As a travel book it is more closely tethered to reality than most Perelman stuff and thus easier to enjoy. The witty illustrations by his friend Al Hirschfeld are lagniappe.

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain
1884

Did someone say "lagniappe"? It was one of Mark Twain's favorite words, which he often used to describe humor in writing. "Humor is only a fragrance, a decoration," he wrote. It's a quality that emerges almost unbidden, as a byproduct of the writer's attempt to tell a story, preach a sermon, make an argument or draw a character. Nowhere was the point illustrated more convincingly than in "Huck Finn," a book known not only for its comic invention but also for its moral grandeur. I don't think there's a funnier episode on paper than the story of the Duke and the Dauphin, just for starters. What a pleasing thought that the greatest work of art that Americans have produced is also one of their funniest.

Source:
Five Best
Some humor doesn't age well, but these American
classics remain funny beyond compare
Andrew Ferguson
WSJ, December 2, 2006; Page P8
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116501376300638480.html

Mr. Ferguson is a senior editor of the Weekly Standard and a columnist for Bloomberg News. His latest book, "Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America" (Atlantic Monthly Press), will be published in May

Posted at 06:41 AM in Books, Humor | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

I've driven this little beastie (at Limerock) and its absolutely splendiferous

Excerpt:

When Audi engineers set out to build a competitor to BMW’s M3 sport sedan, they pretty much obliterated their target, too. The M3 is the highest-performance derivative of BMW’s 3 Series line of compact sport sedans. The RS 4 is meant to be the ultimate expression of Audi’s parallel A4 series. Instead, the RS 4 overshoots the mark by so much, it lands somewhere closer to the mighty BMW M5.

Certainly, care must be taken when comparing German cars; it’s easy to wind up comparing apples to apple strudel. The M5 is BMW’s performance version of its midrange 5 Series sedan, and its most direct competitor at Audi should be the A6-based S6. The S6 is a larger car than the A4/S4, with a larger engine — the V-10 adapted from the Lamborghini Gallardo — but the RS 4 can whip it, and whip it good.

So what monster lurks under the RS 4’s hood? One of the world’s great V-8’s.

Source:

Behind the Wheel | 2007 Audi RS 4
Mighty Morphin’ A4 Power Ranger
JERRY GARRETT
NYT, December 24, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/automobiles/autoreviews/24AUTO.html

TEXT:

THERE is a scene in ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' where the outlaws, holding up a payroll train for the second time, come prepared with extra firepower. When the boxcar is inadvertently obliterated, along with the safe full of money, Sundance asks, ''Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?''

When Audi engineers set out to build a competitor to BMW's M3 sport sedan, they pretty much obliterated their target, too. The M3 is the highest-performance derivative of BMW's 3 Series line of compact sport sedans. The RS 4 is meant to be the ultimate expression of Audi's parallel A4 series. Instead, the RS 4 overshoots the mark by so much, it lands somewhere closer to the mighty BMW M5.

Certainly, care must be taken when comparing German cars; it's easy to wind up comparing apples to apple strudel. The M5 is BMW's performance version of its midrange 5 Series sedan, and its most direct competitor at Audi should be the A6-based S6. The S6 is a larger car than the A4/S4, with a larger engine -- the V-10 adapted from the Lamborghini Gallardo -- but the RS 4 can whip it, and whip it good.

So what monster lurks under the RS 4's hood? One of the world's great V-8's.

Though it starts with the 4.2-liter engine block from the S6, the built-in-Hungary V-8 in the RS 4 gets ultra-high-compression 12.5:1 pistons, a new crankshaft, new cylinder heads, low back-pressure twin exhausts and the FSI direct-fuel-injection system that was developed for Audi's Le Mans-winning racecars. Though it produces ''only'' 317 pound-feet of torque, horsepower output hits 420 somewhere just south of the tachometer's howling 8,250 r.p.m. red line. (In contrast, the S4's engine is rated at 340 horsepower at 7,000 r.p.m., and peak torque of 302 pound-feet.)

It is important to explain where the RS 4 is meant to sit in the Audi line. In North America, Audi offers six basic model lines: the A3, A4, A6, A8, Q7 and TT. Within those lines Audi has what most Americans would consider differing trim lines and engine choices. But Audi considers these all separate models. The ''A'' indicates a base model, and ''S'' designations for the 3, 4, 6 and 8 series denote sport versions with suspension and engine upgrades. So a car company that we may think offers a limited range of models, actually -- as far as Audi is concerned -- offers dozens. There are 18 variations of the A4 and S4 alone, not counting the RS 4.

Think of the RS 4 as the über-A4. It starts life on an A4 chassis, but the finished product isn't even truly an Audi. It is made by Quattro, an affiliate of Audi, which in 1996 actually became a company manufacturing its own vehicles. Yes, quattro is the name for Audi's proprietary all-wheel-drive system; Quattro helped to develop the system but has branched out into sport and lifestyle specialty vehicles.

When Quattro was founded in 1983, it had 20 employees. Today it employs more than 400. Quattro is, in many respects, the Audi equivalent of the M performance division at BMW or the AMG arm of Mercedes-Benz.

''But we are not in the same league anymore,'' said Thomas Riffel, director of export sales at Quattro. ''We still do things in small numbers, much of it by hand. BMW, for example, has already produced 70,000 units of the M3.''

This RS 4 will have a short shelf life; the planned two-year model run will end late next year. Only about 12,000 are likely to be produced, and that would be a sales record for the RS series. The RS lines may be exclusive to Quattro, but they have such special cachet in the Audi world that only four such models have ever been produced. The first to carry the designation was the 1994 RS2 Avant, a boxy little station wagon into which Quattro inexplicably stuffed a 315-horsepower Porsche engine. Only 2,881 were made, and those that are left are prized, if homely, collectibles.

In 2000-1 came the RS 4 Avant, a compact wagon propelled by a 380-horsepower V-6 with twin turbochargers. Only 6,030 were made, and they were sold only in Europe. The first halfway handsome model was the RS6 sedan, which sold 8,081 units in 2002-4. The RS6, which is still spoken of in reverence around Audi, could be hurled into sublunar orbit by its 450-horsepower twin-turbo V-8.

The RS designation didn't reappear on the A4 line until 2005, when an RS 4 sedan, wagon and convertible went on sale in Europe. Early this year, the sedan was released to the North American market. The wagon and the convertible are staying in Europe; Audi do