Archive for September 24th, 2012
Explaining the baby panda death – On Parenting – The Washington Post
Last week, my daughter came home from school talking about the baby panda. The next morning, I turned over the KidsPost to her and her older sister to see more pictures of the National Zoo’s giant pandas. We later called up videos of the pandas on the computer and I dug out the worn old copy of their storybook about a baby panda.
We, like the rest of Washington, couldn’t wait to get a look at the cub ourselves.
Yesterday, I happened to check my e-mail in my daughters’ presence and discovered the sad news that the baby panda had died..
I gasped aloud. My daughter’s asked me why and I instinctively lied.
via Explaining the baby panda death – On Parenting – The Washington Post.
Cartoonishly Evil Rich Guy Spends $50K Crafting a “Revenge” Youth Baseball Team for his 10-Year-Old Son
Sometimes it can be fun to imagine a classic story from the villain’s point of view. To gain new perspective, hear opposing arguments – maybe even shift your sympathies.
This is a story about a man from Long Island.
Robert Sanfilippo had a son—a young boy, of about 10 or 11—who liked to play baseball or, anyway, who played baseball, and his playing of it was liked by his dad.
Robert’s son played for a team called the Long Island Infernos. He spent his weekends criss-crossing Long Island, eating Quaker Oats bars and drinking Capri Suns, and putting the base in the hoop—hole in one—or however baseball is played.
However, while the other boys strolled ‘round the diamond like golden gods—their skinny arms hurling fastballs like meteors, their hand-eye coordination the stuff of legend—Robert’s son struggled.
He had, in the vague euphemism of the New York Post “failed to flourish.”
Perhaps the boy had other talents. Writing or building or videogamery.
But Robert decided his son’s talent was baseball.
Apple Maps: Damned If You Do, Googled If You Don’t | Monday Note
While still a teenager, my youngest daughter was determined to take on the role of used car salesperson when we sold our old Chevy Tahoe. Her approach was impeccable: Before letting the prospective buyer so much as touch the car, she gave him a tour of its defects, the dent in the rear left fender, the slight tear in the passenger seat, the fussy rear window control. Only then did she lift the hood to reveal the pristine engine bay. She knew the old rule: Don’t let the customer discover the defects.
Pointing out the limitations of your product is a sign of strength, not weakness. I can’t fathom why Apple execs keep ignoring this simple prescription for a healthy relationship with their customers. Instead, we get tiresome boasting: …Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world…we [make] the best products on earth. This self-promotion violates another rule: Don’t go around telling everyone how good you are in the, uhm…kitchen; let those who have experienced your cookmanship do the bragging for you.
The ridicule that Apple has suffered following the introduction of the Maps application in iOS 6 is largely self-inflicted. The demo was flawless, 2D and 3D maps, turn-by-turn navigation, spectacular flyovers…but not a word from the stage about the app’s limitations, no self-deprecating wink, no admission that iOS Maps is an infant that needs to learn to crawl before walking, running, and ultimately lapping the frontrunner, Google Maps. Instead, we’re told that Apple’s Maps may be “the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”
After the polished demo, the released product gets a good drubbing: the Falkland Islands are stripped of roads and towns, bridges and façades are bizarrely rendered, an imaginary airport is discovered in a field near Dublin.
via Apple Maps: Damned If You Do, Googled If You Don’t | Monday Note.
Meet The ReadyCase: The Frankenstein Of iPhone Cases, Plus Extra Stabby Bits | TechCrunch
Apple’s iPhone 5 was bound to shake up the accessory market, as it always does. That means new cases, with new features. One new one debuting on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo today called the ReadyCase packs more features than I think any I’ve ever seen, all into a low-profile design that actually only adds 3mm of thickness, and will ship in both iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 versions.
So what do you get with ReadyCase? Here’s a list:
Two kickstands, for both portrait and landscape orientation.
An interchangeable lens ring for macro, fisheye and wide-angle conversion lenses.
An 8GB or 16GB USB flash drive.
A multi-tool, complete with standard and serrated knife blades, a flathead screwdriver and bottle opener, available in either black or silver.
A headphone clip.
The case is made from a durable composite material that’s supposed to be pretty rugged, and the best part is that it doesn’t add bulk. There’s actually an opening on the back, though, so it’s not like it’s an Otterbox or anything and scratches are still a possibility, but for the survivalist, outdoorsy-type who also wants to carry important documents and media around on a readily available flash drive, this thing looks to be the tops.
via Meet The ReadyCase: The Frankenstein Of iPhone Cases, Plus Extra Stabby Bits | TechCrunch.
Samsung’s Black Galaxy S III Said To Launch In October With 64GB Of Storage | TechCrunch
Samsung’s Galaxy S III is a pretty lust-worthy gadget to begin with, but the Korean electronics giant just won’t leave well enough alone. First they put together a model that managed to combine both an LTE radio and an Exynos quad-core chipset, a combination that unfortunately hasn’t trickled out of the country yet.
Now it seems that U.K. phone retailer Clove has the skinny on yet another hardware revision. The folks at Phandroid spotted a landing page for Clove created for that handsome new black GSIII that’s been spotted in the wild that mentions it will ship with 64GB of internal memory in October.
Better late than never, I suppose. Galaxy fanatics may remember that Samsung promised a 64GB Galaxy S III at the company’s ostentatious London launch event, but the device failed to appear in due course. Naturally, many assumed that particular model got the axe at some point, a notion that Samsung eventually denied — according to them, the 64GB version was instead slated for a launch during the “second half” of 2012.
It shouldn’t come as much surprise that there isn’t much information on what the mildly-tweaked handset will cost, or when we can expect to see it embark on a world tour. In fact, Samsung hasn’t even officially confirmed the device’s existence, but that’s all right — third-party retailers and carriers (including T-Mobile USA, which is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser) are apparently more than happy to spread the word anyway.
via Samsung’s Black Galaxy S III Said To Launch In October With 64GB Of Storage | TechCrunch.
Nancy Pelosi: Payroll Tax Cut Should Expire
WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says Congress should let the payroll tax cut expire at the end of the year and instead work toward comprehensive tax reform.
“I would hope that we would not extend it,” Pelosi said of the tax cut, during a Friday sit-down with reporters.
The whole point of extending the payroll tax cut was to only do it for a year or two to ensure economic stability, she said. Now that things have stabilized, she continued, it’s time to get moving on bigger changes.
“Let’s deal with the budget issues. Let’s put the tax code on the table, simplify, make more fair and close a lot of the special interest loopholes that are in there,” Pelosi said. “I would not be among those advocating” to extend the cut, she said.
Critical Medical Treatment | Disasters Emergency Committee
DEC member Merlin is working in the Borena Zone in the south of Ethiopia near the Kenyan border. Merlin has been using funds raised by the 2011 DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal to support critical medical treatment for local communities afflicted by drought and the ensuing food crisis.
Poor rains in 2011 led to the deaths of many animals and crop failure resulting in very high levels of acute malnutrition. While the 2012 rains have been better, and a reasonable harvest is expected in at least some areas, herds are still recovering from last years losses. All this leads to a situation where local people get too little food and the food they do get does not provide a balanced diet. This frequently leads to malnutrition and all the associated medical complications.
In November and December 2011 using DEC funds Merlin provided training in emergency response for government health workers which included how to treat acute malnutrition and related diseases. Merlin’s work has continued into early this year providing critical medicines for treating health problems that can be deadly during food crises including measles, pneumonia, malaria and diahorrea.
In Dilo town Merlin is also supporting the government health centre running a special feeding programme for children under five years old and for pregnant and breast-feeding mothers. Children receive weekly rations of a ready to eat fortified peanut paste and mothers receive a package of corn and soya blend flour as well as vegetable oil every two weeks. This kind of preventative work, and rains which have renewed pasture for livestock, means that at present no children need therapeutic feeding at the health centre. Speaking about the programme Kedir Abdela, Merlin Co-ordinator, told the DEC that:
“In addition to the feeding programmes Merlin has also provided soap, jerry cans for water and disinfectant for water purification because people often rely on surface water when it is available and it is often contaminated. They work with volunteers who conduct home visits when patients miss medical appointments or those on the supplementary feeding programme do not seem to be putting on weight. In 2011 we had very high number of referrals but a very low death rate of 0.1% – this is much lower than expected for such malnourished children”
via Critical Medical Treatment | Disasters Emergency Committee.
Little Difference Seen in Asthma Strategies – NYTimes.com
There has been no general agreement on the best way to adjust the dosage of inhaled corticosteroids used by adults with asthma. Doctors determine the dose by assessing symptoms like lung function or by using biomarkers like exhaled nitric oxide, or they simply let patients decide how much is needed.
A study published last week in The Journal of the American Medical Association found little difference in the three methods.
Researchers randomly assigned 342 adults with mild to moderate asthma to three groups. Those in the first had their doses adjusted by symptom assessment and those in the second by nitric oxide measurement. Those in the third group were allowed to decide on their own. The scientists recorded how long it took before a mild asthma attack occurred.
via Little Difference Seen in Asthma Strategies – NYTimes.com.
Ed Parnell's Cunning Plan 