Well, today was that Thursday that actually began at 10:00pm last night, flowing seamlessly from Wednesday, and save for about two hours between the end of one meeting at 2am and the preparation for the next at 5:15am, sleep for yr (justifiably) humble svt has been as scarce as home buyers.

So, we’re on a reduced blogging schedule, with just enough energy to faithfully observe the Prime Directive: Thou Shalt Blog Daily.

As we’ve opined in the past (recently, actually) one of our favorite bloggers regardless of topic is Sandy Szwarc.

The first time we found her was last October. Enjoy!

Blast from the Past!

A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…

From last fall, and always in season, originally posted October 8, 2007, and originally titled “mm165: Junkfood Science: Obesity Paradox No. 13 — Take heart.”

MUDGE’S Musings

Welcome to one of the newest members of the Left-Handed Complement blogroll, Junkfood Science.

Sandy Szwarc seems to have the credentials, and she has a point of view.

Points of view are not lacking in the blogosphere (although credentials may be!), but I was attracted to hers immediately.

Anyone glancing at the rendition of Yr (Justifiably) Humble Svt that graces the top of the sidebar of this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© can probably tell that one might charitably describe MUDGE as horizontally challenged.

Fat.

Obese even.

A war fought over all but six decades. Oh, a battle won here or there, but the trend is lousy. And, the implicit message has always been: get skinny or die early.

Well, heredity and Snickers bars have long impaired my ability to do the former.

And over the past decade, the promised life-shortening chronic diseases have appeared as threatened: diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, all controlled as well as can be expected through (to some extent diet, but mainly) the wonders of the pharmaceutical arts, which is pretty well indeed.

This past summer, a promising exercise program that played to the only exercise MUDGE can comfortably handle (other than blogging!), walking, turned into Achilles tendinosis, and the pounds lost so arduously over the past four years are packing on again, as the recreational and therapeutic walking halted while various medical professionals in MUDGE’s life attempt to figure out how to end the annoying ankle pain.

Then, the other day, thanks I believe to reddit.com, I encountered Sandy Szwarc.

For the first time in MUDGE’s time in the ‘Sphere was I tempted to write: “WTF!” But I won’t.

Take a look:

What is most amazing is how long it has been known that body fat doesn’t cause heart disease or premature death, yet how vehemently people hold onto this belief. “The notion that body fat is a toxic substance is now firmly a part of folk wisdom: many people perversely consider eating to be a suicidal act,” wrote Dr. William Bennett, M.D., former editor of The Harvard Medical School Health Letter and author of The Dieter’s Dilemma. “Indeed, the modern belief that body fat is a mortal threat to its owner is mainly due to the fact that, for many decades, the insurance companies had the sole evidence, and if it was wrong they would presumably have had to close their doors.” That can still be said today, although the obesity interests have since grown considerably larger.

But the evidence that fatness is not especially harmful has been shown from research that dates back to the 1950s — more than a half a century ago. While many remain incredulous, the soundest body of evidence has shown, and continues to show, that being fat is not a risk factor for heart disease or a cause of premature death, even controlling for the effects of smoking or cancer.

The people of the U.S. are simultaneously getting fatter, and living longer.

Well, knock me over with a feather (not too likely in practical terms; you probably would be more successful doing so with a 3,000-pound bale of feathers).

Quoted is Dr. William Bennett, former editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter:

“Detailed epidemiological studies, too, show no impressive connection between obesity and cardiovascular disease.

The occasion for Szwarc’s article is another new, very underreported study, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine, led by cardiologist Dr. Seth Uretsky, M.D., at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, showing the same counterintuitive findings: fat people survive cardiac episodes better than thin ones!

Take a look at the full story:

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Junkfood Science: Obesity Paradox #13 — Take heart

Is it really possible that I’m supposed to be losing this lifetime battle against obesity?

And if so, why have I been lied to– er, misled all of these years?

Bears researching further I’m thinking, and Sandy Szwarc’s Junkfood Science blog will now become a regular read.

Because, funny thing: Except for this pesky ankle, I feel pretty good.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

© Misty Pfeil | Dreamstime.com

MUDGE’s Musings

We wrote last post about John McCain’s electoral vulnerability. In the spirit of equal time, we cannot overlook Barack Obama’s slips, slides and stumbles in the month since he triumphed over Hillary Clinton and became his party’s presumptive candidate.

McCain’s crippled party knew what they were getting, and settled. Obama, though, raised up by the multitude of starry-eyed idealists and their grass-roots web sites and donations, has run into an on-line buzz saw as his passionate fans observe him taking positions that seem disappointingly like politics as usual.

So, they’ve struck back.

Obama’s online muscle flexes against him

Fans use his Web site to rip shifts in policy

By John McCormick | Chicago Tribune reporter | 11:48 PM CDT, July 8, 2008

The same Internet-fueled power that led to historic gains in organizing and fundraising for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is now providing a platform for fiery dissent in a most unlikely place: his own Web site.

Amid criticism from the left that he has eased toward the center on a number of issues in recent weeks, the presumptive Democratic nominee has angered some of his most ardent supporters while triggering something of an online mutiny. Thousands are using MyBarackObama.com to angrily organize against him because of a changed position on terrorist wiretap legislation that awaits Senate action as early as Wednesday.

The dispute has forced Obama to respond in ways never before seen in a presidential campaign, demonstrating the Internet’s growing role in the democratic process and the live-by-the-click, die-by-the-click potential it holds for politicians.

The last straw was the vote in the Senate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which threatens the privacy of millions of innocent citizens in an attempt to expand the government’s ability to monitor suspected terrorists, and indemnify communications carriers from the legal fallout.

While Obama promised to fight against the bill during the primary season, he has changed tack, and joined 68 of his colleagues approving it today.

For many, who bought into the hope for the end to politics as usual, at least from their candidate, this is shockingly disillusioning, and many are not taking it lying down.

Obama’s online muscle flexes against him — chicagotribune.com

Late today, the political blog of the NYTimes, The Caucus quoted chapter and verse.

Blogtalk: Obama’s F.I.S.A. Vote

The Caucus | By Michael Falcone | July 9, 2008,  5:54 pm

It should come as no surprise to Senator Barack Obama that his vote today in favor of expanding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is drawing cries of outrage from many corners of the liberal blogosphere. After all, the senator’s own campaign Web site had become a focal point for his supporters to express their displeasure with Mr. Obama’s stance on the bill.

That was the case again today. Carl from Ft. Worth, Texas, posted a message on Mr. Obama’s Web site this afternoon. The subject line read: “Obama just lost my vote.” He continued:

“I am disgusted. Obama will NOT receive my vote in November, regardless of whether it means McCain wins (at least HE’S being honest with us). Once again, Dems picked the wrong guy in the primaries. Time to leave the party I guess.”

Other comments struck much the same theme. Patrick in Chicago wrote “Can I get my money back this candidate appears to be defective” and Christopher from San Francisco put it simply “Senator Obama, you fail.”

Ouch.

Obama received some support from the blogosphere, where a few noted how tough it is for a candidate to vote against anti-terrorism security measures. But not much.

Blogtalk: Obamas F.I.S.A. Vote – The Caucus – Politics – New York Times Blog

It’s most interesting that much of the outcry has been given voice on Obama’s own web site.

Elections of any kind, from elementary school boards of education to president of the United States, require one to make evaluations of the candidates on a variety of issues. One usually chooses the candidate who makes the most sense on the one issue most important to the chooser.

Over the past 20 years, on the presidential scene, one has finally settled on the least worst candidate, with the expected outcome.

Young voters, and progressives of all ages, found Obama’s campaign so refreshing since he apparently represented a change from business as usual. And they flocked to his campaign, contributed sweat and dollars, and won him the primaries.

It remains to be seen whether the outrage expressed on Sen. Obama’s web site over the past few days will grow into something of substance, seriously weakening his prospects for what should have been a tip-in at the convention in Denver, not to speak of the general election in November.

Yr (justifiably) humble svt believes that, whether one is a delegate in Denver, or a citizen facing the ballot in November, voters will choose Obama regardless.

Because if he doesn’t quite represent their idealistic hopes for change that he originally represented, he certainly will be the least worst choice.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

There’s most read, and then there’s favorite. This is a post which yr (justifiably) humble svt is, regrettably, but not regretfully, not at all humble about.

Blast from the Past!

A post we really, really loved to write, and read, and re-read…

From our very earliest days, originally posted June 15, 2007.

mm022: Unblocked

guess it’s the sophomore slump.

It’s been more than a week since I last posted to this blog, vs. my strong beginning last month. See I read somewhere that you have to get into a habit of daily blogging, exercise like any other (and if you saw what I look like, you’d note immediately that blogging is not the only exercise I’m failing to perform daily!).

So the new has worn off, and no one seems to be reading this anyway, so what’s the point?

How about, I like to write! How about, I’d like to be read, and I certainly won’t be if I don’t write! Simple, right? On the other hand, jillions are blogging; who is taking the time to read them? I’m sure that, aside from the professionals and the few hugely talented amateurs, most blogs go unread except for family and close friends. Even then, how many people have good and/or close enough friends that they would have patience enough to read the most interesting blog on a daily basis? Based on WordPress statistics, I apparently do not!

And the pros have one on me, since they can get away with blogging on the job — perhaps their job is in part or wholly the production of a regular column — lucky them! Working as I do in the Heart of Corporate America, I have the nagging impression that blogging on the job (no sir, not me!) — even blogging offsite explicitly about the job — would be a terminating offence. So, the few times I have written about what I do I have forced myself to be most indirect, uncomfortably so, since I’m proud of the work I do, and absolutely proud of the company I work for and the work it does in its often under-appreciated industry. My employer and its industry, and the business conducted by our country, and its capitalist system, is certainly not above criticism, but the good outweighs the not so by orders of magnitude.

And although I’ve been told I’m diplomatic, my usual impulse is to be very, eloquently, shockingly, direct — and it’s sometimes painful to dial that back. But, I love my job, and I’d hate to risk it over a few words. See last month’s rant about my retirement plans — I don’t have any, so this is one boat I choose not to rock. So I’ll continue to try to find interesting things to say about what I do, which I am passionate about (even my bosses say so), constrained by not speaking too distinctly about where I do it.

So, it’s been a little slow there for me the past week or so, and isn’t it just so true that busy people get lots more done than those who aren’t so. I’ve been content to accumulate a few more links for a future clipjoint or two, which I hope is not the total copout it feels like! But, tonight, we’ll write a little more.

And, I’ve been working on a project at home, that due to its multimedia content has been quite time consuming. My older son’s wedding is coming up, and I’ve been working on a slide show for the rehearsal dinner. It’s been fun, but frankly something of a chore (a hobby with a deadline is a job, folks!), scanning in quite a number of photographs (let’s face it, snapshots!) from years long past, and wrestling with the software purchased for the purpose of combining the photos and a music track into a DVD playable at that event, now just three weeks away. My PC, seeming so powerful just three short years ago, seems often driven to its knees by the demands placed on it for such a project. Like any complex software, Roxio Easy Media Creator Suite 9 has a steep learning curve, but it has repaid my persistence with what I will modestly term a very nice result.

So far, the slide show has consumed the long Memorial Day weekend, this past weekend and still another couple of hours during evenings this week as I fiddle with the audio software, having beaten into submission (or at least as far as my patience has allowed) the visuals. I’m really happy with the results — but like any creative effort, viewed often enough it has become difficult to stay objective. Not the worst of its genre (amateur slide shows must be almost as numerous as blogs!), hardly the best. Ken Burns’ job is safe. But, I think my precious son and his darling bride to be, and our families, will appreciate it, or at least will be polite about it!

It’s it for now (whew! I wrote something at last!).

Thanks for indulging me.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

The ‘Sphere is awash with story after story about Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic governor of New York, who has implicated in a prostitution scandal.

The ironies are so obvious, yr (justifiably) humble svt needn’t work too hard to lay them out: moralizing attorney general, who took ferocious pleasure in bringing down prostitution rings, has feet of clay. The Democrat’s version of moralizing, bathroom haunting Larry Craig.

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring

By DANNY HAKIM and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM | Published: March 10, 2008

ALBANY – Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who gained national prominence relentlessly pursuing Wall Street wrongdoing, has been caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a law enforcement official and a person briefed on the investigation.

The details are everywhere; if you somehow have missed the story, the NYTimes has an evenhanded account.

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Spitzer Is Linked to Prostitution Ring – New York Times

As the Times notes, clients are seldom arrested during crime-fighting operations like this one. Except. The Mann Act stuff is details. This is a juicy target; they’ve taken him down.

But he’s not the victim.

The world knows that all guys are jerks. Mostly, their wives are free to deal with it as they must. Only a public official’s wife has to stand next to her creep with a stiff upper lip, in front of cameras and the world while he owns up.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

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Welcome to one of the newest members of the Left-Handed Complement blogroll, Junkfood Science.

Sandy Szwarc seems to have the credentials, and she has a point of view.

Points of view are not lacking in the blogosphere (although credentials may be!), but I was attracted to hers immediately.

Anyone glancing at the rendition of Yr (Justifiably) Humble Svt that graces the top of the sidebar of this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© can probably tell that one might charitably describe MUDGE as horizontally challenged.

Fat.

Obese even.

A war fought over all but six decades. Oh, a battle won here or there, but the trend is lousy. And, the implicit message has always been: get skinny or die early.

Well, heredity and Snickers bars have long impaired my ability to do the former.

And over the past decade, the promised life-shortening chronic diseases have appeared as threatened: diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, all controlled as well as can be expected through (to some extent diet, but mainly) the wonders of the pharmaceutical arts, which is pretty well indeed.

This past summer, a promising exercise program that played to the only exercise MUDGE can comfortably handle (other than blogging!), walking, turned into Achilles tendinosis, and the pounds lost so arduously over the past four years are packing on again, as the recreational and therapeutic walking halted while various medical professionals in MUDGE’s life attempt to figure out how to end the annoying ankle pain.

Then, the other day, thanks I believe to reddit.com, I encountered Sandy Szwarc.

For the first time in MUDGE’s time in the ‘Sphere was I tempted to write: “WTF!” But I won’t.

Take a look:

What is most amazing is how long it has been known that body fat doesn’t cause heart disease or premature death, yet how vehemently people hold onto this belief. “The notion that body fat is a toxic substance is now firmly a part of folk wisdom: many people perversely consider eating to be a suicidal act,” wrote Dr. William Bennett, M.D., former editor of The Harvard Medical School Health Letter and author of The Dieter’s Dilemma. “Indeed, the modern belief that body fat is a mortal threat to its owner is mainly due to the fact that, for many decades, the insurance companies had the sole evidence, and if it was wrong they would presumably have had to close their doors.” That can still be said today, although the obesity interests have since grown considerably larger.

But the evidence that fatness is not especially harmful has been shown from research that dates back to the 1950s — more than a half a century ago. While many remain incredulous, the soundest body of evidence has shown, and continues to show, that being fat is not a risk factor for heart disease or a cause of premature death, even controlling for the effects of smoking or cancer.

The people of the U.S. are simultaneously getting fatter, and living longer.

Well, knock me over with a feather (not too likely in practical terms; you probably would be more successful doing so with a 3,000-pound bale of feathers).

Quoted is Dr. William Bennett, former editor of the Harvard Medical School Health Letter:

“Detailed epidemiological studies, too, show no impressive connection between obesity and cardiovascular disease.

The occasion for Szwarc’s article is another new, very underreported study, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Medicine, led by cardiologist Dr. Seth Uretsky, M.D., at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, showing the same counterintuitive findings: fat people survive cardiac episodes better than thin ones!.

Take a look at the full story:

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Junkfood Science: Obesity Paradox #13 — Take heart

Is it really possible that I’m supposed to be losing this lifetime battle against obesity?

And if so, why have I been lied to– er, misled all of these years?

Bears researching further I’m thinking, and Sandy Szwarc’s Junkfood Science blog will now become a regular read.

Because, funny thing: Except for this pesky ankle, I feel pretty good.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Technorati Tags: health, blogosphere, medicine, weight loss, Sandy Szwarc, Junkfood Science, obesity, fat

Our British cousins take Burma more seriously than most, befitting its status as a former colony, I guess. Kind of the way the U.S. feels about Cuba?

At any rate, the Economist, the best magazine on the planet, has these observations on what they hopefully describe as a revolution there.

Sep 27th 2007
From The Economist print edition

If the world acts in concert, the violence should be the last spasm of a vicious regime in its death throes

Reuters

“FEAR”, the lady used to say, “is a habit.” This week, inspired in part by the lady herself, Aung San Suu Kyi, partly by the heroic example set by Buddhist monks, Myanmar’s people kicked the addiction.

Defying the corrupt, inept, brutal generals who rule them, they took to the streets in their hundreds of thousands to demand democracy. They knew they were risking a bloody crackdown, like the one that put down a huge popular revolt in 1988, killing 3,000 people or more. In 1988 Burma’s people were betrayed not just by the ruthlessness of their rulers, but also by the squabbling and opportunism of the outside world, which failed to produce a co-ordinated response and let the murderous regime get away with it. This time, soldiers are once again shooting and killing unarmed protesters (see article). Can the world avoid making the same mistake twice?

MUDGE confesses that, not being in any way shape or form British, he’s paid only fitful attention to Burma through the years. So, I didn’t know that,

it was an economic grievance—a big, abrupt rise in fuel prices—that sparked the present unrest.

Now it’s up to the rest of the world to “persuade” Burma’s military dictatorship to do the right thing.

[Please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Revolution in Myanmar | The saffron revolution | Economist.com

The crux, according to the editors of the Economist, and not a great surprise at that, is China. Just as China has supported its client, North Korea, which support has aided and abetted its insane leadership, so has China more than tolerated the Burmese junta’s iron fisted, ham handed control and leadership.

And, like North Korea, it turns out that such undemocratic leadership is really, really bad for the economic well being of a country and its citizens.

So, the U.S., distracted by its own attempts to suppress “terrorists” and insurgents 6,000 miles away, not to speak of suppressing the Constitution and its amendments closer to home, can’t be bothered to do more than posture at the U.N. and let China veto any even symbolic movement to support the unarmed monks and the afflicted Burmese they are fighting for.

And China, in its cynical way, dare not publicly criticize its client by supporting its suppressed citizenry for fear, I’m thinking, of the message it might send to its own awakening underclass.

And, just so you know where I’m coming from, I read, in the ‘Sphere this week, I believe, a writer deciding that since”M—–r” is an artifact of the current corrupt regime, using the old name of Burma is perfectly appropriate and indeed shows support for the time, hopefully very soon, when the generals fade away.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

As we’ve noted lately (here and indirectly, here), fewer and fewer corners of the planet are immune from that pesky virus: information.

Even North Korea has been .0015% more reasonable of late, and the bright lights of media exposure can claim at least a bit of credit (a persistently starving population gets a lot more, of course).

So, Myanmar, as repressive a tyranny as can be found (sorry guys, we’re not going to forget about you just because you changed your name; a Burma by any other name…) is once again experiencing civil unrest, and due to the pervasiveness of both MSM and alternative media, this time they can’t hide it or minimize it or freely crush it.

The photo that accompanied the NYTimes story is ample evidence of this, in and of itself.

By SETH MYDANS

BANGKOK, Monday, Sept. 24 — The largest street protests in two decades against Myanmar’s military rulers gained momentum Sunday as thousands of onlookers cheered huge columns of Buddhist monks and shouted support for the detained pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Winding for a sixth day through rainy streets, the protest swelled to 10,000 monks in the main city of Yangon, formerly Rangoon, according to witnesses and other accounts relayed from the closed country, including some clandestinely shot videos.

It came one day after a group of several hundred monks paid respects to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of her home, the first time she has been seen in public in more than four years.

And here’s the nub of the argument:

Myanmar’s military government has sealed off the country to foreign journalists but information about the protests has been increasingly flowing out through wire service reports, exile groups in Thailand with contacts inside Myanmar, and through the photographs, videos and audio files, carried rapidly by technologies, including the Internet, that the government has failed to squelch.

“… photographs, videos and audio files, carried rapidly by technologies, including the Internet…”

[Per L-HC's reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Monks’ Protest Is Challenging Burmese Junta – New York Times

There’s that pesky Internet again, screwing up the generals’ private party.

Our best, maybe only, hope for an end to tyranny:

• the retro Myanmar variety (and our Chinese, North Korean (and Cuban) friends would fit in this bucket);
• the more au courant Middle Eastern style as found in places like Syria and Iran;
• and even such New Age (and retro) tyrannies as practiced by Putin and his ex(?)-KGB brethren throughout Russia and its former empire;

… is the pervasiveness of information, as exemplified by the liberator of Eastern Europe, CNN, and maybe the liberator of the rest of the shackled world, the Internet.

And, let’s give credit: perhaps the (admittedly looking more spurious) Congressional revolution of 2006 wouldn’t have happened at all without the blogosphere.

Not the infinitesimal nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© that we ruefully acknowledge as this weblog’s permanent fate, but certainly the heavy hitters like Daily Kos  that help keep the kettle aboil, always a good state for the democratic process.

Small “d” democracy at work around the globe, powered by electrons.

Ben Franklin, Alessandro Volta, Nikola Tesla and all: the free (and hopefully soon to be freer) world owes you a monumental debt.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

It’s no secret to faithful reader of this nanocorner of the ‘Sphere© that we’re mammoth fans of Pandora.com (you can refresh your memory here, here, here and here to mention just the best instances — a Sequitur Service© of L-HC).

Today, an interesting interview turned up on CNET.com with Tim Westergren, Pandora’s founder.

The interview spans several interesting topics, including the state of musicians’ livelihoods today (not an idle concern for this writer whose No. 3 child knows that some day you’ll know his name).

newsmaker What will it take to create the middle-class musician?

By Candace Lombardi
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: September 18, 2007, 11:50 AM PDT

It’s an idea Pandora founder Tim Westergren thinks about a lot.

Between 100 town hall meetings and several sessions for seniors at this year’s AARP conference, Westergen has been campaigning for more Internet radio listeners for both Pandora and musicians in general.

Pandora uses the Music Genome Project, a tool that compares musical genetic codes of songs, to create personalized radio stations. You tell it what you like; Pandora plays those artists and others that have songs with similar musical qualities. With music from both big record labels and independent artists, listeners get more selection and increased knowledge about music.

So read about its history, Westergren’s analysis of what it takes to be a self-supporting musician in this country (spoiler alert: virtually insurmountable odds against — sorry, MUDGElet No. 3 — better line up a terrific day job!), and the current battles with the music licensing organizations over punitive fees, being fought with the help of Congress.

[Per L-HC's reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Revelations from Pandora’s music box | Newsmakers | CNET News.com

This writer remains an enthusiastic fan (in the original meaning: fanatic) of Pandora (ya think? the links at the top represent only about half of the references I found just in our own nanocorner etc).

The selection, the sound quality, the thin footprint (Lastfm requires you to download and install an executable file that runs separately when you want to listen, whereas Pandora runs very nicely in a tab within my Firefox browser) have all combined to make Pandora this listener’s non-classical music source of choice. And, when am I not running my browser?

What I respect most is the entire Music Genome Project. Most web business enterprises are pretty XML and CSS draped over a very straightforward financial plan (okay, some more fanciful than others, but regardless, one can always tell that the $ and ¢ and € are never far away).

Pandora is wrapped around a serious intellectual process, where it has analyzed zillions of artists and their songs in order to truly deliver on their promise: You’ve told us you like A; so now, listen to B, C, and D. We’ll bet you like what you hear.

And you know what? In this closet-pop music fan’s case, it seems to work, more often by far than not.

I’ve had one glass of wine tonight — it would probably take the entire bottle to loosen MUDGE up enough to disclose how pop is his pop — so don’t ask what I’m listening to.

But, if you haven’t tried Pandora yet — why not?

I’m awed.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Couple of months ago, we wrote about the process of blogging, as we understood it after about 2½ months of consistent posting.

Not sure that understanding has increased, although the consistency has remained. At least in frequency, if not quality.

The quality thing can always be improved.

Received a modest number of hits in the past four months; averages about 16 per day, day in and out. A couple of times about 90. A bunch of times, a loyal few. Some of the early weeks — totaled 20.

Thanks, loyal few!

Where do those statistics come from, you may wonder? From our weblog host, WordPress.com.

What a terrific organization! Hosting at this site is free. Support has been superlative.

Two examples: Recently registered at a site that promised to promote this blog. (Early days yet and the jury is still out — so a more complete mention will wait for a future process episode.)

L-HC was rejected. Why? They reported that L-HC was not interpreted correctly due to a bug (go figure!) in Internet Explorer v6. We never saw it, because we run v7 at the CurmudgeonDungeon (say that 10 times quickly!).

At work next day, pulled up the site on the office PC (something we try not to do because we’re not at all sure that freedom of expression in a blogging context exists there) to verify the issue; sure enough, the sidebar contents fell to the very bottom of the lengthy page. A very ugly look.

So, I contacted WordPress support. Got a prompt answer: Yes, it’s a bug in IE6, usually caused by graphic elements of excessive width in the main panel. Maximum such width for our theme, Contempt (wonderfully appropriate for a curmudgeon — and one of WordPress’ most popular themes) was stated as 460 pixels.

Thus, I needed to go back into the bowels of history to find the offending post(s). A big task, that took some time to get to (this is supposed to be a hobby, right?).

Finally, a couple of weeks later got around to rooting around in the past, a job made reasonably easy by WordPress and a member of MUDGE’s Blogging Process Hall of Fame, Windows Live Writer.

Found a couple of potential offending graphics, resized them with an ancient, paid for version of Paint Shop Pro, and all seemed okay in IE6. Reapplied to the promotion site, was accepted this time, and am gradually figuring out what makes that site tick.

But the point: the rapid response from WordPress support, considering that their census of blogs they host is up substantially from last reported on 21-July-2007:

Take a look at today’s stat:

A 20% increase in 50 days!

And yet, got an answer within hours to my query.

Last weekend, WordPress was experiencing some kind of problem, because several posts did not land cleanly. The result, a lack of synchronization between Windows Live Writer and the blog on WordPress. Thought it was me.

Sent off a query. Got a response within hours seeking further information. Replied with a clarification of the incident, and received a response to the reply within a very short time, promising some research.

Received another response shortly, admitting a WordPress.com server timing issue, since repaired, and all has been well since.

The point is not that they had an issue on their side. The point is, with nearly 1.5million sites, they still could respond so promptly, courteously and effectively.

Thus we proudly announce an update to MUDGE’s Blogging Process Hall of Fame:

WordPress.com has vaulted to the top of MUDGE’s list, not to make any less of numbers two and three, used to great effect every post.

And, the price for the entire suite is right: $0.00. Can’t beat that!

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Technorati Tags: WordPress, WordPress.com, Windows Live Writer, Picnik, Paint Shop Pro, Blogging, Blogging Process Hall of Fame

The concept of electronic books has always been promising, and never yet delivered in a practical, affordable form.

But, they keep trying:

By BRAD STONE

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Technology evangelists have predicted the emergence of electronic books for as long as they have envisioned flying cars and video phones. It is an idea that has never caught on with mainstream book buyers.

Two new offerings this fall are set to test whether consumers really want to replace a technology that has reliably served humankind for hundreds of years: the paper book.

In October, the online retailer Amazon.com will unveil the Kindle, an electronic book reader that has been the subject of industry speculation for a year, according to several people who have tried the device and are familiar with Amazon’s plans. The Kindle will be priced at $400 to $500 and will wirelessly connect to an e-book store on Amazon’s site.

That is a significant advance over older e-book devices, which must be connected to a computer to download books or articles.

Also this fall, Google plans to start charging users for full online access to the digital copies of some books in its database, according to people with knowledge of its plans. Publishers will set the prices for their own books and share the revenue with Google. So far, Google has made only limited excerpts of copyrighted books available to its users.

Amazon and Google would not comment on their plans, and neither offering is expected to carve out immediately a significant piece of the $35-billion-a-year book business. But these new services, from two Internet heavyweights, may help to answer the question of whether consumers are ready to read books on digital screens instead of on processed wood pulp.

“Books represent a pretty good value for consumers. They can display them and pass them to friends, and they understand the business model,” said Michael Gartenberg, research director at Jupiter Research, who is skeptical that a profitable e-book market will emerge anytime soon.

The concept is wonderful: in a package the size of one book one could tote around an entire library.

The reality: this has not been a product that has rewarded early adopters.

Let me count the ways: Too big; too heavy; not sufficiently book-like in readability and “feel”; way too expensive.

But, electronics keep getting: smaller; lighter; more energy efficient; cheaper.

So, why no world-beater e-book yet?

[Per L-HC's reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

Envisioning the Next Chapter for Electronic Books – New York Times

Were MUDGE a road warrior, an e-book would be tempting. Indeed, the older of two official younger brothers of MUDGE, a globe-trotting road warrior if ever was (actually both brothers maintain 7-digit frequent flyer miles accounts — a way of life older-bro would run screaming away from), glommed onto the RocketBook (I’m recalling) a decade or so ago.

Wonderful concept; okay execution for the late 90s. Probably soon discarded.

But, we know that there are zillions of road warriors out there, but who else, really, is a potential consumer of these products, even should [too big; too heavy; not sufficiently book-like in readability and "feel"; way too expensive] get solved? Amazon’s “Kindle” seems like an optimized version of a tablet computer — again, the road warrior’s weapon of choice.

But, if I’m at home, or at the office, wouldn’t I rather open up a book or magazine, and read that black type on white paper?

Of course, what does it mean that so many people spend so much time reading on their computers?

It’s different. I consider this short-attention-span reading, provided by folks like yours truly, a short-attention-span writer.

(BTW, the younger of the aforesaid official younger brothers is said to be working on a novel — a long attention span feat well beyond MUDGE’s capacity or ambitions. I’m impressed!)

Case in point: a favorite read, Gregg Easterbrook, writing as ESPN Page Two’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback, is good for 9,000 words per week during the NFL season. TMQ I print and read offline. It’s just more comfortable.

Is there potential value on the back end? Sure, in the same way that, in a perfect world, a fee for purchasing music on iTunes might be smaller for the buyer, and potentially more lucrative for the creator, since there’s less costly production and distribution between artist and consumer. Might. Sigh.

A way for writers to achieve readership without someone’s investment in the industrial revolution’s basically obsolete bricks and mortar of production, distribution and retailing?

Well, it’s called blogging. This nanocorner of the ‘Sphere just crossed 2,000 total lifetime (active for exactly four months today) hits. Obviously, and with my gratitude, a few loyal readers.

But more exposure than this curmudgeon ever expected to achieve in his short-attention-span writing career.

How would I look on paper? Certainly not worth the trees, even if paper is totally recyclable.

And how would Left-Handed Complement look on a “Kindle?” I wouldn’t spend $400-500 plus media fees to find out.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Danger! Western Cultural

Treasures Content!

Run Away!

So, I was cruising the blogs at BlogExplosion.com and I found this one, courtesy of YouTube, via Subbie.

When I’m all by myself, I seldom LOL. This video, I did laugh out loud.

YouTube – Rachmaninov had big Hands

So, last post, somehow I left Rachmaninov off (no, I’m not stuttering) of my desert island list. Inexplicable. What a genius.

The music, by the way, his Prelude, Op.3 No.2 In C Sharp Minor. Here’s a great recording performed by the incomparable Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Anyway, this video made my day. Pretty good for a couple minutes, huh?

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Non-commercial Note!: the link to Amazon.com used above is for the convenience of faithful reader and represents no commercial relationship whatsoever. Left-Handed Complement should be so fortunate as to ever collect remuneration of any kind for this endeavor. I can link, so I link. It’s technology. It’s cool. Deal with it.

Technorati Tags: Rachmaninov, igudesman and joo, subbie, BlogExplosion, classical music, classical piano, humor, Vladimir Ashkenazy

Had this thought yesterday.

Any of you regular reader of this nanocorner of the blogosphere are aware that MUDGE often is slightly link-crazy.

I believe I learned this style best from one of my most regular reads, Slate.com, and good teachers they’ve been.

What linking does for yours truly, and here comes that flash of insight –drum-roll please — linking sequiturizes.

We all think we know what a non sequitur is. My new toy WordWeb says that it’s “A reply that has no relevance to what preceded it.”

So, when MUDGE pops out a comment, like this one from a recent posting…

An ambitious plan, to be executed of course by the lowest bidder.

… you don’t have to be in the dark about what I might mean by that.

Because I’ve provided a handy hyperlink to let you know exactly what I had in mind.

Wikipedia’s article goes a bit into the history of the hyperlink:

The term “hyperlink” was coined in 1965 (or possibly 1964) by Ted Nelson at the start of Project Xanadu. Nelson had been inspired by “As We May Think,” a popular essay by Vannevar Bush. In the essay, Bush described a microfilm-based machine (the Memex) in which one could link any two pages of information into a “trail” of related information, and then scroll back and forth among pages in a trail as if they were on a single microfilm reel. The closest contemporary analogy would be to build a list of bookmarks to topically related Web pages and then allow the user to scroll forward and backward through the list.

Ted Nelson was a genius — I remember reading him in the fondly remembered Byte Magazine (I was a near-charter subscriber, of course), and thinking “this man is a way out futurist.”

So, the non sequiturs will keep on coming, gang, sequiturized (must be the process of negating a non sequitur, right), by Ted Nelson’s (and of course Tim Berners-Lee’s) marvelous hyperlinks.

New motto for this nanocorner:

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

[The 100th MM! Wow! Who'd have thought this guy had that kind of attention span!]

From the usually dependable most emailed list in this day’s NYTimes, a most fascinating story on highway signage. Take a look.

August 12, 2007

The Road to Clarity

By JOSHUA YAFFA

“So, what do you see?” Martin Pietrucha I asked, turning around in the driver’s seat of his mint green Ford Taurus. It was a cold day in January, and we were parked in the middle of a mock highway set on the campus of Pennsylvania State University in State College. Pietrucha is a jovial, 51-year-old professor of highway engineering. His tone was buoyant as he nodded toward the edge of the oval stretch of road where two green-and-white signs leaned against a concrete barrier.

What I saw, Pietrucha knew, was what we all may see soon enough as we rush along America’s 46,871 miles of Interstate highways. What I saw was Clearview, the typeface that is poised to replace Highway Gothic, the standard that has been used on signs across the country for more than a half-century. Looking at a sign in Clearview after reading one in Highway Gothic is like putting on a new pair of reading glasses: there’s a sudden lightness, a noticeable crispness to the letters.

The Federal Highway Administration granted Clearview interim approval in 2004, meaning that individual states are free to begin using it in all their road signs. More than 20 states have already adopted the typeface, replacing existing signs one by one as old ones wear out. Some places have been quicker to make the switch — much of Route I-80 in western Pennsylvania is marked by signs in Clearview, as are the roads around Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport — but it will very likely take decades for the rest of the country to finish the roadside makeover. It is a slow, almost imperceptible process. But eventually the entire country could be looking at Clearview.

The typeface is the brainchild of Don Meeker, an environmental graphic designer, and James Montalbano, a type designer. They set out to fix a problem with a highway font, and their solution — more than a decade in the making — may end up changing a lot more than just the view from the dashboard. Less than a generation ago, fonts were for the specialist, an esoteric pursuit, what Stanley Morison, the English typographer who helped create Times New Roman in the 1930s, called “a minor technicality of civilized life.” Now, as the idea of branding has claimed a central role in American life, so, too, has the importance and understanding of type. Fonts are image, and image is modern America.

The full article includes an interesting slide show (from which the images in this post have been captured), so why not check it out. Remember, though, it’s from the Magazine, so it’s long form, but worthy of your attention.

[Per L-HC's reformed process, please click the link below for the complete article -- but then please come on back!]

The Road to Clarity – New York Times

So, it’s about highway signs, but it’s also about one of this writer’s favorite subjects, typography. I’ve always been a collector of interesting fonts, and I’m guessing that there’s a lot of such interest out in the ‘Sphere, since there are a myriad of typography sites, both interest groups and foundries, to be found.

I’m imagining that there are many amateurs out there like me, whose Fonts file on their PC is quite full.

Just checked, and my C:\Windows\Fonts folder has 249 fonts currently; I’m surmising that there are many, many others tucked away elsewhere, since this sounds like only about half the number I’ve counted in the past (perhaps on one of MUDGE’s earlier PCs).

Can’t possible use that many, ever. And for L-HC, I’ve used a fixed width font (very typewriter like, in case anyone remembers what a typewriter was) called, appropriately, Lucida Sans Typewriter, because it seemed a distinctive choice at the time, when many choices were made.

Only 248 to go.

Just kidding.

I think.

Why is typography such an alluring topic for so many people? Because it’s more than just black letters on a white background.

Type is just as much about psychology as geometry. A letter’s shape, its curves, the way it sits next to other letters — all these factors give a font its personality and in turn create an emotion and connotation for the reader.

Personality, emotion, connotation. And I thought it was just some designer’s clever new way of looking at something quite old, the 26 letters of our English alphabet.

Who knew?

This story is on the Times’ most emailed list because most everyone drives (except of course, in the Manhattan home of the Times!), and can relate to poorly designed signage. Quick, at 75mph, do I exit for Smithton at the first exit, or the next? There’s glare, is that route 65, or 86?

Driving long distances at night is a task I seldom undertake as cheerfully as once I did, and glare and poorly worded and designed signs are part of the reason, though not the only one. But that’s a story for another time…

The lonely campaign fought by Meeker and Montalbano for so many years, is a worthy one, no question.

Of course, these days, the most pressing issue is going to be examine and FIX ALL OF THOSE GODDAMN BRIDGES ALREADY!

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Things I found on the way to finding other things…

July 27, 2007

With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking

By MIGUEL HELFT

SAN FRANCISCO, July 26 — On the Web, anyone can be a mapmaker.

With the help of simple tools introduced by Internet companies recently, millions of people are trying their hand at cartography, drawing on digital maps and annotating them with text, images, sound and videos.

In the process, they are reshaping the world of mapmaking and collectively creating a new kind of atlas that is likely to be both richer and messier than any other.

They are also turning the Web into a medium where maps will play a more central role in how information is organized and found.

Already there are maps of biodiesel fueling stations in New England, yarn stores in Illinois and hydrofoils around the world. Many maps depict current events, including the detours around a collapsed Bay Area freeway and the path of two whales that swam up the Sacramento River delta in May. …

Using new applications such as Google’s My Maps, and a startup called Platial, the Times reports that these annotations of existing maps are adding rich new layers of data to the way people understand their world.

“What is happening is the creation of this extremely detailed map of the world that is being created by all the people in the world,” said John V. Hanke, director of Google Maps and Google Earth. “The end result is that there will be a much richer description of the earth.”

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking – New York Times

In this case, once again the web is changing the world, which is changing the web — a true virtuous cycle (a typical outcome from the Internet).

We see this phenomenon everywhere we look: another great example, last week’s YouTube Democratic presidential debate.

As they’ve always said, information is power. Imagine the leverage we’ll gain as we add so many new potential sources of information (OLPC from our previous post, mm088) in places that are presently under-represented in our (Western culture?) collective world view.

Our world will simultaneously grow larger, and smaller.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE

Constant reader of this nanocorner of the ’sphere hasn’t had a long time to make this a habit. mm001 dates all the way back to the first week of May.

Guess the point is, MUDGE is quite new to this blogging thing, quite low on the learning curve as it were, and quite surprised that anyone beyond a small coterie of similarly inclined hobbyists even were aware of the existence of Left-Handed Complement.

Today, however, I was called to account for what probably should be classified as a rookie mistake.

Received a polite letter from Salon.com, asking me to remove the article that I posted a couple of days ago, as its reprint in full represents a potential violation of copyright.

Hi there.

I’m Walter Thompson, director of marketing for Salon.com. It’s come to our attention that your site features the full text of at least one article originally published on Salon.com. The original article may be found here.

The article appears in full on your Web site here.

Although posting an excerpt of copyrighted material is acceptable, republishing a work in full that’s owned by another party is a copyright violation.  Please remove this material from your site at your earliest opportunity.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line.

Thanks,
– Walter.
–
Walter Thompson
Director, Marketing
Salon Media Group, Inc.
101 Spear Street
Suite 203
San Francisco, CA 94105
walter@salon.com <mailto:walter@salon.com>

Guess my wide readership (Lifetime: 1,178 hits overall as of 20:45pmCDT on 27-July-2007) is just too scary for Salon.com. And I hope I haven’t just compounded the violation by printing Walter’s letter in full!

But, MUDGE always intends to do the right thing, so here’s what mm084 looks like now, in part:

Lesson learned.

It’s it for now. Thanks,

–MUDGE