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June 30, 2003

WORD ASSOCIATION

Thanks to S. Y. Affolee, I found something to blog about today.

I say, you think...

1. Trolling:: Nothing
2. Profile :: Bad
3. Tin:: Cup
4. Phenom:: LeBron James
5. Mug shot:: Never
6. Tubular:: 'Like Totally'
7. Six Flags:: New Jersey
8. Pickup:: Line
9. Auction:: Parents
10. Astonishing:: Life

Posted by Mikal at 7:10 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

June 27, 2003

FOUR FOR FRIDAY

Q: As Seen On TV... Have you ever ordered something from a television infomercial?

MEB's A: Yes, I am almost ashamed to admit that I have, twice. The first was one of those special pillows, filled with some sort of beans. It was supposed to help improve posture and circulation. I sent it back after just one night. It was easily 1/2 the size of my regular pillows, and I woke up with a massive crick in my neck the next morning. The other item I ordered from an infomercial... a set of video tapes for learning magic tricks.

What's your favorite pancake?

MEB's A: Call me weird, but I'm all about the plain pancake. Oh, I like the ones with blueberries, bananas, and even chocolate chips, but it's rare that I order those at a restaurant, and it's even rarer that I make them at home. (By the way, I'd like to thank Matt Holzmann for suggesting this particular question.)

Name just one thing you are truly grateful for?

MEB's A: Starting when I about 16 or so, the freedom given to me by my Mother to make many of my own decisions. I learned a lot about myself from the mistakes I was allowed to make at such an early age.

During your working career, have you personally observed conduct that you knew violated the law and, if so, did you report it?

MEB's A: I've observed it only once, and yes, I reported it. In my first real office job after college I worked with a woman who misappropriated funds. As soon as I found out about it I told my boss, who quickly told me that snooping around in other people's business was inappropriate! One week later I reported it again, only to find out that my boss never looked into the first reporting. Upon looking into the situation, my boss fired my co-worker and was shocked to see the extent to which the law and company's ethical standards had been violated.

Don't be shy... please click on the "Comments" link below to share your answers.

Posted by Mikal at 6:11 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 26, 2003

Check out The Free State Project. I don't know just yet how I feel about it, but it sure is an intriguing idea! (I heard about the "Free Staters" for the first time this morning on NPR's Morning Edition with Bod Edwards. Click here for the complete audio report.)

CNN is reporting that the United States has found evidence that Saddam Hussein's government concealed plans to reconstitute its nuclear program as soon as no one was looking. The 'evidence,' picture below, is weak at best (in my humble opinion). It was 'discovered' by US officials -- oh, sorry, members of the CIA -- who received a tip from an Iraqi scientist who claims the materials were buried in his backyard, under a rose bush no less, for the last 12 years. According to CNN, the parts pictured below constitute a centrifuge system for enriching uranium.

First of all -- and I wholeheartedly admit that I know absolutely nothing about enriching uranium or what it takes to make nuclear bombs -- but these materials look like they could have been made by anyone who knows how to bend metal or use a lathe. Secondly... give me a friggin' break... are we really supposed to believe that this stuff -- which has supposedly been burried in some guy's backyard for more than a decade -- is truly evidence of anything in particular?

If so, in a canister buried somewhere in western Connecticut, out behind the Sherman School, are some materials burried by my 2nd grade class that may prove useful to the CIA. Included in the canister -- which we called a time capsule -- is a frequency transmitter disguised as a battery-powered hand-held radio, which of course is conclusive evidence of a subversive attempt to communicate with the enemy when no one was looking. Similar canisters are buried throughout Connecticut (behind the Huckleberry Hill School in Brookfield and the Schaghticoke School in New Milford). Those jelly beans we buried... I'm sure they've turned into enriched uranium by now.

June 24, 2003

First of all, in this day and age -- where so many things seems to be hush-hush so as to avoid garnering any attention from potential terrorists -- I can't believe that this website is available to the general public. Second of all, it's just really cool! Check it out for yourself... Click here, then wait a bit for the Aplet to load.

This has to be one of the coolest online clocks ever.

June 23, 2003

Yesterday's New York Times (free access available, but it is password-protected) reports that corporate leaders are starting to publish their own blogs. The article goes on to profile Alan Meckler, CEO of the publicly held comany Jupitermedia. Meckler's blog, which has been up since the 12th of February of this year, provides an inside look at the inner-workings of a large respected company's annual conference / trade show. In his first post, Meckler wrote:

"My first entry for my Blog... This is a bold experiment! For sure it is the first Blog written by a CEO of a media company.

My hat is off to Meckler. Let's hope his blog catches on to the point where other corporate execs catch on. Perhaps this is exactly what blogging needs?

So I got to thinking... between the two technologies (for lack of a better word), which has had a more profound impact, Velcro or the Ziploc bag?

Truth be known, I'm a big fan of the Ziploc bag. Just the other day, while at the grocery store, I found myself expressly choosing products just because they were packaged in the Ziploc format. At the same time I've gone eight straight years using Velcro on a daily basis (it keeps a watch on my right wrist). If pressed to move forward in life with only one of the two, I think I'd choose the Ziploc bag.

You?

June 20, 2003

Q: Do you watch any of the reality TV shows? If so, which ones and why? If not, why not?

MB's A: Yes. I watch MTV's The Real World and Road Rules, and CBS's Big Brother and The Amazing Race. I also try to tune in for the last five weeks or so of Survivor. Having lived and worked as an outdoor educator, where room and board are a significant part of the compensation package, I am able to identify with the struggles, hardships, and joys that exist in these short-term televised communities. Click Here for co-worker Phil's most excellent view of MTV's current edition of The Real World.

Q: Do you plan on reading "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"? If so, will you rush out this weekend to buy it, or will you wait a little while to get your copy?

MB's A: I'm sure I'll eventually read it, but I won't be among the millions of people who attempt to get a hold of it right away (unless of course my sister tells that I have to buy it for my nephew!). As an acquisitions editor for a book publisher, I am hoping that the new Potter book sparks consumer's interest for buying books. It's been a pretty dark year thus far for book publishers.

Q: Have you ever been to a high school reunion (yours or someone else's)? If so, what was it like? If not, is it because you refuse to go to one? If so, why?

MB's A: I have never been to one (my own or anyone else's) but am dying to do so! I think it'd be a trip to see old friends and bullies alike. I keep surfing Classmates.com for notification of my reunions but nothing has appeared so far. If anyone's looking for someone to go with him or her to theirs, I'm available.

Q: Which country currently poses a bigger threat to the United States: Iran or North Korea

MB's A: Neither... the United States poses the bigger threat to itself than does any other nation.

Don't be shy... please click on the "Comments" link below to share your views

June 19, 2003

From a certain point of view, Iraq and Iran have a lot in common. Along with North Korea, they were two of the three members of President George W. Bush's "axis of evil." They have both been accused of sponsoring international terrorism. Some believe al Qaeda supporters are hiding in Iran. And weapons of mass destruction? Recent revelations indicate Iran may be further along in its nuclear program than was previously suspected.

Is Iran ripe for revolution? Thousands of students and other private citizens have taken to the streets in the last couple of weeks in Tehran, in what appears to be spontaneous and rare public protest of the unelected government there. How far should the United States go in supporting those protests? Should the U.S. take pre-emptive military action, at least against the suspected nuclear sites?

Is it better to try to contain Iran through closer ties, or should the Bush administration try to bring Iran's current regime down?

Is it really any of our business?

June 17, 2003

When a convicted murderer needs a kidney transplant, should he or she get one? What if thousands of working poor can't get the same level of care? Our convoluted and inadequate health care system sometimes means you might get better care if you committed a crime and were incarcerated; at least that's how I felt after watching last night's edition of Nightline.

According to Nightline's correspondents, Horacio Reyes-Camarena was convicted of committing a pretty heinous crime. He stabbed an 18-year-old woman to death. And that was not the end of the trouble he caused the state of Oregon. Two days before his sentencing, he and another prisoner escaped from jail. In the process, Reyes-Camarena fell four stories and eluded police for three more weeks. During the fall, he suffered serious injuries and now has such severe kidney damage that he must be hooked up to a dialysis machine three days a week, four hours at a time. His treatment while on death row, awaiting his ongoing appeals, is costing Oregon taxpayers about $120,000 per year.

Last month, Reyes-Camarena's prison doctor pointed out that he is a good candidate for a kidney transplant, medically speaking. But ethically speaking, should a convicted murderer awaiting a death sentence receive a kidney transplant?

June 16, 2003

A few weeks ago I wrote about the FCC and Ownership of American Media. The issue at that time was quite simple... with little public debate, the FCC was poised to approve a massive rewriting of the rules governing ownership of television stations and other media in the United States. As most everyone expected it would, the five-member Commission lifted a ban on owning a newspaper and a television station in the same city, as well as a ban on allowing ownership of two TV stations in most markets and as many as three in large cities. FCC Commissioners also increased the number of homes a media company can reach to 45 percent from 35 percent.

Now, two weeks later, an unlikely band of six Republicans stands poised to undo the new cap of 45 percent. A bipartisan bill, S-1046, sponsored by Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Senator Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina), would roll back the network cap to 35 percent. The bill will likely be voted out of the U.S. Senate's Commerce Committee to the Senate floor on Thursday, July 19, unhampered by the committee's chairman, Senator John McCain (R-Arizona.).

If you care at all about the growing influence of the media, the free flow of information, the benefits of local competition, and the power of a diverse media marketplace, then contact your U.S. Senator today to share your support for S-1046.

June 15, 2003

Jim Furyk just won the U.S. Open Golf Championship. His final-round score of 72 put the 33-year-old Furyk at 8-under par for the prestigious tournament, tying the record for the lowest total score in U.S. Open history. But itís not Furykís record-tying performance that lands him on the Beli-Blog. Rather, itís NBCís over-the-top commentary in trying to make Furykís win some sort of a gift to his dad on Fatherís Day thatís got me burning.

To hear NBCís golf commentators, Dan Hicks and Johnny Miller, tell it ñ repeatedly throughout the televised event -- Furykís only thought on this record-tying day was his father (as if they would even know, sitting half a golf course away in their comfy 18th hole commentators booth). Every chance they got, Hicks and Miller told the TV viewing audience all about Furykís special relationship with his father and how nothing quite matches the bond shared by father and son. And of course, for each televised image of Furyk striking the ball, there were an equal number of images of the golferís father walking the course with his wife and cheering his son along.

Now donít get me wrong, Iím all in favor of traditional family values, but not when theyíre shoved down my throat, which is exactly how it felt watching the telecast. Thatís why I was particularly delighted to see Furyk simply give his father a handshake and a light kiss on the cheek after sinking his putt on the final hole. It wasnít the huge emotional embrace that Hicks and Miller had built the audience up for. Rather, Furyk seemed more excited to hug and kiss wife and hold his one-year-old daughter than go in for the Fatherís Day bear hug weíd all been led to believe would happen. Whatever the relationship between Furyk and his father, itís their relationship to have and cherish, not NBCís.

June 13, 2003

Do allegations, firings, and resignations at the New York Times, involving reporters fabricating news and taking quotes out of context, cause you to question whether the Times or other newspapers are accurate and truthful?

No. For quite some time now Iíve had a discontented view of all news sources (with very few exceptions), including daily newspapers. The New York Times, as far as Iím concerned, is no worse of a source for accurate and authentic news and information today than it was one year ago. Frankly, I feel that all of the focus and deliberation thatís been placed on the NYT (both by the Times itself and others in popular media) is absurd.

Are you worried about the SARS virus?

While the virus itself doesnít worry me from a personal health standpoint, its domino effect on Asian economies and our own certainly is a cause for concern.

In which city would you like most to have a vacation?

San FranciscoÖ itís easy to navigate by foot, close to the water, geographically diverse, visually appealing, and packed with energetic people who make tourist traps feel like anything but.

Do you think some of the 505 home runs Sammy Sosa has hit over his career came as a result of him cheating by using a corked bat?

For Godís sake, yes! How could anyone not think so?

Bonus Question: Does it bother you when the 13th day of the month falls on a Friday?

No, not at all. I actually think it's cause for celebration and a time for throwing caution to the wind.

For all of you reading this posting, what are your answers to today's "Four for Friday" questions. Don't be shy!

June 12, 2003

He has them. The danger is imminent. We have to act now. Or not. In the run-up to the war with Iraq, the question of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) was THE central focus. But none have been found, and increasingly, there are questions about whether the intelligence was just wrong, or perhaps more troubling, was manipulated to serve a political end. Co-worker Phil has some interesting thoughts on the WMD issue. Briefly, Phil writes...

All together now: Saddam was a murderous tyrant whom his people are well rid of. But how does the world, and history, judge a government that does the right thing for the wrong reasons? Is it even possible, or does having the wrong reasons, in the end, corrupt the right thing done?

For more on this most excellently written topic, click here. Look for the post titled "if a wmd doesn't fall in the forest..."

June 11, 2003

When I was a kid my Mother used to keep me entertained on road trips by challenging me to a friendly game of "Geography." In the game of Geography, each player names a town, city, state, or country whose first letter is equal to the last letter of the place that the previous player named. So, for example, if my mother started off the game by saying "Indianapolis," I could come back with "Salt Lake City," to which she might have replied "Yucatan," to which I might have replied "New Rochelle," to which she might have replied "Evanston," and so on and so forth.

I loved playing Geography, so much in fact that when we'd reach our destination, unbenounced to my mother (or at least so I thought), I'd sneak a peak or two at her road maps in an attempt to gain the upperhand. But no matter how many names I memorized, I don't think I ever really won (unless of course I kept hitting her with town names that ended in "City"... those "y" towns can be a killer).

Towns that I'm certain I never played include: Hell (OH), Looneyville (W. VA), Eden (NC), Nutsville (W. VA), Eek (AK), King Arthur's Court (MI), Tightwad (MO), Ding Dong (TX), Gaysport (OH), Tingley (IA), Yorky's Knob (Queensland, Australia), Bitter End (TN), Dull (OH), Lickey End (West Midlands, UK), Dick's Knob (Australia), Breeding (KY), Gas (KS), Scratch Ankle (AL), Embarrass (MN), Suckerville (ME), Eclectic (AL), Cold Foot (AK), Tranquility (CA), Yeehaw Junction (FL), and my new favorite, No Name (CO).

Feel free to add your own by clicking into the Comments link below. Oh, and Mom, I think I'm ready for a rematch!

June 8, 2003

Two good friends, in two very different parts of the world, recently took to the air with the aid of a parachute. Pictured immediately below (on the left, in the yellow suit) is Elaine, whom I had the pleasure of working with at the American Camping Association's headquarters here in Indiana. Elaine's jump was done in tandem with her sister, who was celebrating her 40th birthday.

Below is a very proud Christoph, a former Boulder roomate now residing in Germany. Coincidentally, on the very same day that Elaine and her sister parachuted from an airplane, Christoph took to the air to try his hand at paragliding. He apparently enjoyed it so much that he glided twice.

My hat is off to both Elaine and Christoph. Way to go you guys. I hope to develop enough nerve to try parachuting and paragliding myself someday.

It was with disappointment that I witnessed CBSís own veteran reporter Morley Safer wrap up a story on Martha Stewart-- on tonightís episode of 60 Minutes -- with the following statement:

As bleak as things look for her today, do not count Martha out. She says she's ready for the fight to clear her name and challenge is what she has thrived on all her life.

Whatís the big deal, you might be wondering? Well, for one, Stewartís television shows are produced in partnership with CBS, and the only morning network show that Stewart ever appears on is CBSí own The Early Show.

You know, there once was a time when CBSís producers and correspondents would have gone out of the way to reveal their parent companyís affiliation with the subject of an interview, but those days have apparently been tossed to the wayside in favor of simply reporting whatís easiest to report. For some reason, I expect more from 60 Minutes, but then again I actually thought at one point in time that Martha Stewart was one of the good guys (in a manner of speaking).

June 5, 2003

Since I'll be swamped today and tomorrow, I've decided to take a short break from the blog. When I return, over the weekend, look for postings on the growing influence of the human-powered outdoor recreation industry, parachuting and paragliding, volunteering in Indianapolis, Martha Stewart and Sammy Sosa, a friend's bid for mayor of Houston, a Daily Shoutout or two, and the usual ramblings about this, that, and other stuff.

In the meantime, my good friend Christoph, now living in Germany but praying hard for a Post-Doc position back in Boulder at the University of Colorado, sends this link -- something mindless to help pass the time.

June 4, 2003

NPR's Margot Adler reported yesterday morning that the New York Daily News and other media outlets have been running readers' submissions of "silly summons" being issued by over-zealous city police to residents. One such resident, whose name I can't recall, was issued a $20 ticket for sitting on a milk crate in front of his store, while another received a ticket for sitting on the stairs in a subway station. New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, who was interviewed by Adler for the story, responded to charges that city hall has quietly set quotas for ticket writers by saying something along the following lines:

"We don't have ticket quotas for our officers. What we do have are 'performance measurements' that we hold our officers accountable to, but we don't have quotas!"

Mike, come one... is there really a difference? Click here to listen to NPR's report.

Thanks to Thea's blog, called 'S. Y. Affolee', I stumbled across explodingdog.com, a site that I can best describe under the heading of... well, I never would have thought of that!

At explodingdog.com, visitors are encouraged to leave titles to non-existent drawings, from which the site's owner, Sam Brown, draws something based on some of the suggested titles. For example, below is Sam's view of one such suggested title, "Reach For The Sky."

Some of my favorites on explodingdog.com include "That's All There Is", "You Don't Want to See This", and "Where's The Party At?".

June 3, 2003

Once again, the Journal of D. Lee Grooms (pictured here) provides significant food for thought. Please, click here to see what I'm referring to. Look for the thought-provoking post titled "What are you waiting for?"

Warning... the following is a rant... there's no real point to this post... just getting some thoughts out of my head and onto the screen.

While Christina asks if bloggers are the 'real' journalists of our times, Michael Hall at PuddingTime directs our attention to a Register article citing a study which finds that 42% of all bloggers in Poland are teenaged girls. The obvious Polish jokes aside, where exactly is the world of Blogging headed?

AOL.com is rumored to be developing an exclusive Blogging application for its 26.5 million registered users in U.S., and Googleís CEO recently announced that Blogs will soon get their own search tab on Google.com. Everywhere you turn these days it seems that Blogs have surfaced as a legitimate alternative form of news and information. From Warblogs and Pornblogs to Religionblogs and Natureblogs, more and more average citizens are choosing to share their views and insights, but whoís reading and who really cares?

My own site, for instance, registers a respectable number of unique visitors on a daily basis [for a four-month-old blog, that is], yet only a consistent handful of visitors choose to leave comments and become engaged in the banter and dialogue. For me, success hinges on the number of comments left on my blog, not on the number of daily visitors.

I wonder if yesterdayís 3-2 vote by the Republican controlled FCC-- to ease government rules restricting cross-ownership of newspapers, television and radio stations and the number of stations companies could control in any market and nationally -- combined with further acceptance of blogs as a valid form of mediaÖ I wonder if this will eventually lead to more and more people reading blogs, or if it will simply mean that more and more of the same people will read them more often?

June 2, 2003

Matt Holzmann may be onto something here:

The Congress impeached President Clinton for his sex scandals that "tarnished" the image of the White House and the American Presidency. Yet, we haven't called for the arrest or impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney for their involvement in the violation of domestic and international law, the manslaughter of our troops and the blatant disregard for fair - or special interest free - business practice while in office.

To read more of Matt's thoughts on this subject and many others, Click Here.

Three interesting developments from the world of aviation caught my attention this past week: 1) Air France's Concorde, that bastion of haute cuisine, speed, and overdone luxury, made its last supersonic trans-Atlantic flight Friday, bringing to an end an era of high-speed travel between the U.S. and France. British Airways will retire its Concorde fleet later this year. 2) Boeing introduced a new aircraft ñ the ìStratoclimber 7E7î / the ìDreamliner 7E7î / the ìeLiner 7E7î / the ìGlobal Cruiser 7E7î (a sweepstake is being held to determine the final name) ñ which promises to provide new benchmarks for efficiency, environmental compliance, and comfort. And finally, and hands-down the most interesting of the aviation-related happenings that I caught wind of last weekÖ 3) A little known organization based in St. Louis, Missouri ñ once a center of the aerospace industry ñ called the X-PRIZE Foundation, is offering up a $10,000,000.00 prize to jumpstart the space tourism industry through competition between entrepreneurs and rocket experts from around the world.

The X-PRIZE is billed as the first space travel competition, and is patterned after the hundreds of aviation prizes offered in the early 1900s that is credited with creating today's $300 billion-dollar commercial air transport industry. (The most significant of these prizes was the Orteig Prize, won by Charles Lindbergh for his 1927 flight from New York to Paris.) To win the $10 million X PRIZE, teams must finance, build and fly a three-person spacecraft 62 miles straight up to the edge of space, return safely, and then demonstrate the reusability of their vehicle by flying it again within two-weeks of the original flight.

The odds-on favorite to win the X-PRIZE is famed U.S. aviator Burt Rutan, the first pilot to fly a plane around the globe without refueling. But Rutanís team has significant competition from 24 teams representing Argentina, Canada, England, Israel, Romania, Russia, and the United States, all of which seemed poised to give Rutan a strong run for his, and the X-PRIZE Foundationís, money.

June 1, 2003

Thank goodness our President attended an Ivy League institution of higher learning like Yale University; otherwise we, the"American People," would never benefit from such startling economic insight as this:

When people have more money, they can spend it on goods and services. And in our society, when they demand an additional good or a service, somebody will produce the good or a service. And when somebody produces that good or a service, it means somebody is more likely to be able to find a job.

Yes folks, that's right... those very words were actually spoken by the President of the United States during last week's White House ceremony in which the much ballyhood $350 Billion Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 (you know, the one providing average American's with little to no economic relief, while the richest of American's benefit the most) was signed into law.

Click Here to read Bush's entire remarks.

Looking for someplace to store that extra 98,000 gallons of Aviation fuel you've been stockpiling? Have a yearning for adventure on the open seas? Well, look no more, because for a mere $4,500,000.00 you can become the new owner of your very own Aircraft Carrier. That's right, just imagine all of the possibilities, including the President of The United States landing on your Aircraft Carrier in full flight suit, being embraced and cheered by you and your closest friends. Click Here for a full listing of the carrier's features and capabilities.