Sunday, January 23, 2005

The Cheapest Way to Stream Video to a TV. On I4U [NewsIsFree: Popular Items] 8:35:25 PM    comment []

Rapid Rise and Fall for Body-Scanning Clinics. Hundreds of companies offering CT scans without a doctor's referral have opened, but the medical gold rush is ending abruptly. By GINA KOLATA. [NYT > Technology] The Cheat. Do home cooks ever really need veal stock? (Making do with meat drippings, cider and a bottle of pinot noir.) By SAM SIFTON. [NYT > Dining and Wine] 8:33:37 PM    comment []

Late-Night King Johnny Carson Dies at 79. LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Johnny Carson, the "Tonight Show" host who served America a smooth nightcap of celebrity banter, droll comedy and heartland charm for 30 years, died Sunday. He was 79. NBC said Carson died of emphysema at his Malibu home. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 5:52:51 PM    comment []

Oh. I neglected to mention about Carson: emphysema. 5:51:18 PM    comment []

Johnny Carson and An Era Remembered. Jeff Jarvis marks the death of Johnny Carson, and has an important observation: Carson also represented the golden age of America's shared experience in media. That era lasted about three decades, from the late '50s to the late '80s, when the three networks turned most cities into one-newspaper towns and we all watched the same thing. I don't regret that era dying; it means we now have more choice and choice equals control. But it was a unique time in our culture, when popular culture became a common platform, a common touchstone for Americans. [Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.] Awww, shoot. R.I.P., Johnny MORE... : Here is the official Tonight Show with Johnny Carson site. : A German blog's link to the news of Carson's death reminds me that he (more than Jack Parr or Steve Allen, actually) invented a form of TV not just in America but also in the world. There are Carsons across the globe. Harald Schmidt in Germany is really a bizarro German Letterman but the form is Carson. : Blogs responded quickly to Carson's death. So did Wikipedia. 5:49:29 PM    comment []

More detail on American host reject Iranians. While I admit that my last entry, especially its title, was a bit exagerated, I'm still looking into the story to figure out what exactly has happened. On a hosting-related forum, you can find some of the emails exchanged between The Planet and one of the blocked costumers. However, it's still a question to me that whether The Planet has terminated every account by anyone who has declared to be Iranian, or is it only limited to one or two specific accounts, which might have really violated the terms they'd accepted. I'm also trying to find out if there has been any other similar termination of service on other hosting companies, if they declare they are Iranian. But the bottom line, to me, is that all these restrictions are mostly limiting the free speech of ordinary Iranian people. Imagine a day when no American hosting copmany let any Iranian have an account. Wouldn't that only help the regime to silence its repressed people? Does the US really want to make a North Korea of Iran? The following are the tickets The Planet and at least two Iranian costumers (c19559noor and c13333oxyg) have exchanged: [Editor: Myself (English)] Check hoder's blog for specifics, but the key expression in the exchanges would appear to be: This is non-negotiable and is final. 5:44:41 PM    comment []

No Place to Hide: America's New Surveillance Society. This investigative documentary tells the story of the nation's quest to use data and surveillance technology as a magic bullet. It makes sense of how it happened and explores the implications. [WNYC New York Public Radio] 11:37:51 AM    comment []

BTD SUNDAY COMICS [Begging To Differ] 11:37:44 AM    comment []

Do the Math. We have much to catch up on. First, the so-called “crisis” in Social Security. As this is an inter-generational issue and one that affects women disproportionately (60 percent of Social Security beneficiaries are female; a quarter of ALL women over 65 depend on it as their sole income) I figure it falls within my mission on GITLR.   Since there’s some debate recently about whether we are innately good at math (see discussion below), I offer this excellent web entry from the blogger named Tunesmith: “Social Security for Dummies” that explains, using kid-friendly colored geometrics, how Social Security has a Trust Fund, built up over the years from the annual surplus in our wage contributions vs. payouts to current retirees. That trust fund, in the form of US Treasury bonds (the safest investment on the planet), will see us through as a society during the baby boomer payout years—if the Bush Administration doesn’t bleed the fund under the faux banner of an “ownership society” to underwrite its own expenses and put more capital into the hands of people who can well afford to hire money managers and make even more money, while the rest of us are forced to take stock market risks with our meager savings and hope we get lucky enough to finance our old age….and old women we will be, you can bank on it and you’d better, with the average life expectancy for women in the U.S. now standing at 80 and only improving. US men live on average to 75.   For activists, this website is also worth a visit: There is No Crisis. It’s becoming a movement.   [. . .] [Girl in the Locker Room!] 11:34:43 AM    comment []