CNet News.Com:
Report: More info needed on H1-B’s. “Defenders of the program view it as a way for companies to remain competitive by hiring foreign workers with specialized talents. Opponents have assailed H-1B visas for taking away scarce tech jobs from U.S. workers.” Most times, the stories I hear are of foreign workers hired for price alone, not for ‘specialized talent.’
CTV.CA:
The ozone hole is being quite persistent, raising concerns.
Science Daily:
As Carbon Dioxide levels double, data suggest US will see major climate changes. The first sentence got me excited, because Santa Fe draws water from a reservoir that collects snowmelt and runoff. But these increases will be at the expense of increased temperatures, too. Warmer, wetter, and grayer? Not exactly what I came to New Mexico for.
Boston Globe:
“Transformation,” a thoughtful analysis of US culture’s impact on religion. “Prizing character above brains” ... can’t there be appreciation for both? Think of Richard Feynman.
Guardian.UK:
Femme Fatale. Translating Antigone.
NY Times Travel:
A villa that defines Tuscany. Looks and sounds lovely.
NY Times:
Medicare plan lifts premiums for the affluent. Republicans, for a progressive Medicare? Remember this necessity, when they start spouting off about flat taxes again.
Santa Fe New Mexican:
Celebrating health. On our local “Women’s Health Services.” In which I find a friend of ours had a baby two days ago.
CNN:
Oxygen, not booze, draws students to bar. Puts me in mind of this.
Santa Fe New Mexican:
Well, all is not wine and roses [and balloons] in the Land of Enchantment. Los Alamos moves wrong waste to WIPP, and Relearning Life.
Earth, fire and air.
No water, unless you count the stuff you buy bottled. And a new gallery of images, from the 2003 Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta this morning. Can’t get any fresher than this:
Just a couple of minutes ago.
Rainstorms in the area, and I caught this just as I got out of the car. For those of you addicted to “The Weather Channel,” you probably realize the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is in full swing, as of yesterday. I’m trying to figure out if I have the energy to get up at 4 AM to get down there for morning ascension, and if I really have time. But there’s something TWC isn’t telling you ... the Sangre de Cristos are snow-covered, on the tops. Quite a surprise. Say hello to winter, above 10,000 feet. The aspens are just peaking in their fall splendour. I’ll see if I can get a representative shot of that, too, when I have time.
Oh, and once again, you can see the dead piñons on the mountainsides. That’s the brown foliage you see. Damn those beetles.
Invention of
Dixie Cups. I assume everyone knows what a dixie cup is, but these days, you can never be sure.
NY Times:
Report offered bleak outlook about Iraqi oil. Years of sanctions took their toll here, too. The glass half-full has become a dixie cup, with a hole in it.
NY Times Editorial:
Sound-biting the Deficit. I would start laughing hysterically, if not for the belief that the Right desires to drain the “Great Society” reforms by beggaring the country, and slam the gate closed with a well-timed amendment.
I think the country would prefer having the “Waltons” lifestyle remain voluntary.
Wikipedia:
Anti-intellectualism. Blame the Puritans.
CNN:
The President pens a poem. I’m embarrassed for our country. What’s next, his finger-paintings?
NY Times:
Wes Clark’s War. Written by a journalist who was in the Kosovo theatre, while history was being made. Debunks a lot of the misleading info that’s being circulated on the conservative media channels.
NY Times:
I warned this bit of PR was going to be adopted by the administration. I just hope we don’t have to hear it continuously over the next few months. I know, I know. The phrase was probably common currency amongst the Right; this isn’t a case of clairvoyance.
Blast from the past.
Bill’s got the goods on “Hunt the Wumpus.” I used to play that, on a dumb terminal [read: paper printout] at Princeton University. I think. My hunts were an unbelievably long time ago!
CSS ...
“Bare Bones, No Crap, CSS Text Control Primer.” Wendy Peck does the CSS newbie a great service.
NASA:
Scientists determine biological and ecosystem changes in polar regions linked to solar variability. This does not negate global warming arguments, but goes far in illustrating the difficulties of pinning down direct causes. This was a data point I’ve been eager to hear more about, personally. Solar radiation has to be the single largest factor on our planet’s temperature, and few reports have mentioned it, even as a variable. At least in the major media.
Redesign.
Methyl’s got a new look. Welcome back.
NY Times Letters to the Editor:
The Art of Persuasion, by Powerpoint. I wonder if anyone else caught that little irony there ... Aldus Persuasion having owned the market long before the bundled, less-powerful Powerpoint killed it.
As someone who spent many years producing speaker support, I would love to blame Powerpoint. It, and its ilk, virtually killed an industry. But all technologies at the time were based on building bullet points on the screen. I used a system called TVL, which used live video and ‘bullet-point software’ to build presentations.
Where the rubber hit the road, was the speaker her/himself. A poor speaker needed more bullet points, just to get the essentials across. An excellent speaker would handle all the bullet points in their speech, leaving the onscreen information to take a more general nature ... often, no bullet points, but photographs of the items being talked about, or video. We were able to illustrate the dry content, increasing the retention of information. When you got a presenter who could ad-lib fluidly, you knew you had a lot of creative leeway.
When Powerpoint became ubiquitous, there was a shift from the presentation industry to managers and their secretaries. They had no knowledge of color and contrast, they had no training in delivery. Color choices were limited. No gratuitous animations (for which I can thank our lucky stars, in retrospect). But gobs of really crappy clip-art.
Chalk up the failures of Powerpoint to the empowering of “everyone.”
I supported one Powerpoint presentation before I left the industry and transitioned to the Internet. I would not be working on the Internet today, or weblogging, if not for this incident. The CEO had created the presentation himself. Instead of 4-8 bullet points for each individual image, he had crammed about 35, in 6-point type. Readable on a computer screen ... even with the terrible color choices he’d made (green type on burgundy). Rear-project it on a 40 foot screen, however, and you got hash.
I cajoled, warned, plead, prayed ... when the images came up, the audience actually laughed. The presenter pulled out his laser pointer, and proceeded to talk to the ‘invisible’ bullet points. After about three images, you could hear the sighs, near-moans, in the audience.
When the presentation was over, the speaker came towards me with a determined walk. I was expecting a burst of invective.
He grabbed my hand, shook it, and said, “Now I feel I’m in the 21st century.”
Forgive them, Father. They have no freaking idea how awful they are.
NY Times Editorial:
Bob Herbert, Shaking the House of Cards. Halliburton, Brown & Root ... puts me in mind of one of the seven deadly sins.