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It’s Rosh Hashanah afternoon (L’Shana Tovah to all), and I’m exhausted from the morning. Yet I have a bunch of news chum to post. Let’s see if we can braid it into something sweet and circular, coming back by the end to where I started. This time, we’ll just give headlines and a few comments.

• The O shaped iPod? On Rosh Hashanah, you dip Apples in Honey, so where else to start but with a circular Apple product. This article describes a new circular design for the iPod Shuffle that is quite cool, if a Shuffle has enough storage for your needs.
• The Taxonomy of Tech Holdouts. As we’re talking about iPods, here are the nine archetypes of planned non-obsolecence, from the Anachronist to the Careful Curator. I think I’m the latter.
• Navy scuttles sailors’ enlisted rating titles in huge career shake-up. Moving from holdouts to non-holdouts. The Navy is holding on to specialist ratings no more. Effective immediately, sailors will no longer be identified by their job title, say, Fire Controlman 1st Class Joe Sailor. Instead, that would be Petty Officer 1st Class Joe Sailor.
• New college at Onizuka Station pays homage to the ‘Blue Cube’. Moving from the Navy to their sister service, the Air Force. Those in the Bay Area might remember the blue cube, the former Onizuka AFS. It has been converted into a local college, but still plays homage to its history. The walkways leading from the parking lot to the campus are speckled with flecks of blue paint harvested from the cube. Once inside, there is the Onizuka Cafe for hungry students and the Satellite Lounge next door for relaxation and study. Two murals that previously had been inside the cube are now hung in campus hallways. One features the Challenger shuttle with a memorial poem. The other is signed by many former employees of the Onizuka Air Force Station and coincidentally features a large owl—Foothill’s mascot—with a lightning bolt in its talons.
• An Abandoned Hospital in West Adams Has Been Filled With Fine Art. Moving from an Abandoned Air Station to an Abandoned Hospital, although this one is still abandoned. The LA Metropolitan Hospital was one of the first black hospitals, but it close a few years ago and is pending redevelopment. However, for the next month, there is an interesting art exhibit in the abandoned hospital.
• Texas prisons ban books by Langston Hughes and Bob Dole – but ‘Mein Kampf’ is OK. A hospital is a pubic service building, and so is a prison. So here’s an interesting prison story: prisons in Texas have banned books by Bob Dole, Harriet Beecher Stowe or Sojourner Truth. But inmates are more than welcome to dig into Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” or David Duke’s “My Awakening.” The rationale: they ban offensive language or violence or sex, but not offensive ideas.
• Palestinians’ Abbas seeks British apology for 1917 Jewish homeland declaration. Moving from Hitler to another group that doesn’t like the Jews: the Palestinians. According to the Palestinian President, Britain should apologize for its 1917 declaration endorsing the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and should recognize Palestine as a state.
• Your Samsung washing machine might be about to explode. Moving from explosive ideas to explosive washers. The problem it appears, is a defective support rod that is causing washer tubs to separate, potentially launching wires, nuts and other parts.  Boom!
• The one step you shouldn’t skip when cooking with your cast iron pan. Moving from the Laundry Room to the kitchen, here are some tips regarding use of cast iron pans.
• Fat Flora? Gut Bacteria Differ in Obese Kids. What do you cook in a cast iron pan? Food. And what happens if you eat too much food? You get fat. Researchers have found that obese children have a different population of microorganisms living in their intestinal tracts, compared with lean children. These microorganisms appear to accelerate the conversion of carbohydrates into fat, which then accumulates throughout the body, the researchers said.
• Attack of the plastic eaters: Can mushrooms, bacteria and mealworms save the planet from pollution? Speaking of bacteria, it runs out they may be the solution to accumulating plastic. As it turns out, nature might offer us the solution to our man-made problems. Scientists around the world are harnessing — in test tubes, under glass domes, and within large bioreactors — the power of living things that can digest plastic without suffering harm.
• Inside Arizona’s Pump Skimmer Scourge. Of course, if you’re in Arizona, you should keep a close eye on your plastic — not due to bacteria, but criminals that are doing a lot of skimming of gas and other credit cards.
• Why the Hallmark Card Company Owns Thousands of Priceless Artworks. Plastic, of course, refers to a credit card, and who is one of the largest purveyors of greeting cards? Hallmark. Here’s the history of Hallmark, and why the company owns lot of priceless art.
• UC Berkeley mascot Oski celebrates 75th birthday. Of course, you send greeting cards on an anniversary, and it just so happens that Oski, the mascot of UC Berkeley, is celebrating an anniversary — his birthday.
• Horses can communicate with people using symbols. Oski is a bear, and another type of animal is a horse. It turns out that twenty three horses learned to tell trainers if they wanted to wear a blanket or not. Subjects were shown three symbols: a horizontal bar to say “I want a blanket”, a blank square for “No change”, and a vertical bar for “I don’t need a blanket”. They learned the meanings in a day or two and using them to convey if they were too warm or too cold, building the case for self-awareness.

Of course, a square is a simple polygon, and if you keep adding sides to a polygon infinitely, you end up with a circle. An a circle, of course, is the shape of the new iPod Shuffle, which permit us to spiral back to where this post began. Of course, circles and spirals are the shape of a round Challah, which we dip in honey as we wish EVERYONE a happy and healthy new year. May you all be written and inscribed for the happiest of years.

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This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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It’s Saturday, and you know what that means. That’s right — it’s time to go to Games Day 55. So while I’m playing games, you can enjoy some tasty news chum stew:

• Draining Out. Ever wonder what would happen if you were to drain the oceans? Wonder no more.
• Diving Out. Here’s a guide to some iconic greasy spoons in Los Angeles. I’ve eaten at quite a few of these. I tend to like Raes, Panns, and Apple Pan.
• Driving Out. Alas, it looks like the Petersen Automotive Museum on the Miracle Mile is changing its focus and getting rid of a lot of its collection. This makes me sad. But then again, it may actually be taking moves to improve its collection. On the third hand, there are those that think it is violating the museum’s trust. OK, now I’m just confused.
• Going Out. For my friends in the San Francisco Bay Area — go see this for me.  A theatre in San Francisco is giving the musical Camelot a very gritty makeover, moving it back in time and making it much more rough. Quoth the director: “It’s a favorite of mine, but I think ‘Camelot’ has always been a troubled show. The music is brilliant, but the book definitely leaves something to be desired. So I’d always wanted to try to reinvent it. I wanted to make Camelot a lot grittier. We’re setting it farther back, more in the Dark Ages, more ‘Braveheart’ – I’ve cut all the references to shining armor and that kind of stuff. These knights are a pretty rough bunch, like bikers with clubs.” Having seen an attempt at a bare-bones “Camelot”, I’m really curious whether this one works or doesn’t.
• Out at School. Here are 40 signs that you went to Berkeley. I already see a lot of them in my daughter.
• Out Above The Audience. Here’s an interesting article on how they make Mary Poppins fly… in a 6 acre, 10K+ seat open air amphitheatre (e.g., the Muny Opera).
• Outing Stupid Government Employees. The latest Freakonomics podcast sheds light on a very interesting government document: The Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure [you can get it here (2013 additions here)]. It is an ethics guide for  government employees, full of true stories about epic screw-ups. Sounds like interesting reading.
• Out of Sight. Here is a list of the final resting places of a large number of childhood icons. Yes, Howdy Doody is here (he was a little before my time), but also numerous others that were not.
• Out of Bed. I’m an early riser; the rest of my family sleeps in. Here are 14 things us early risers know that that late risers can only dream about. While they are sleeping. In the morning.
• Pigging Out on Fruit. Here is an interesting article from the Atlantic on a number of different types of fruit that are even more awesome than what you typically find at the market.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Today’s clearin’ of the links is dedicated to So Cal Games Day 54, which I’ll be heading off to later. The links this week just didn’t want to theme, so posts never quite came together. Here’s what accumulated:

• Interesting Kickstarters. Two kickstarters caught my eye; I was hoping that a third would show up to make a theme. The first was an Indegogo project by one of the original Kingston Trio who is working on a Kingston Trio documentary. They are barely at 5% raised, with 37 days to go. Haven’t decided on this one — seems a bit like a vanity project, and there was a lot of controversy about the KT and their mangling of lyrics and history. The second is also a documentary — this time of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, documenting its rise and fall. They are also way short of their goal — $8K of $150K with 38 days to go. An interesting subject, but one that again probably has no audience.
• Helmet Speakers. A post by Stormdog over on LJ reminded me of some searching I had done regarding bike helmet speakers. The problem is how to listen to podcasts and musics while bike riding, as technically earbuds aren’t legal. I found wireless speakers that fit in the water bottle holder, as well as mini-speakers that fit in a bike helmet. Of course, one problem is that the iPod Classic doesn’t have Bluetooth, but there’s a solution to that.
• Space Stuff. This one is a little work related. SpaceX and USAF have signed an agreement regarding certification of the vehicles. They don’t mention security in the post, but hopefully it is included. I had been hoping to accumulate some more either space or security posts, but it didn’t happen.
• Being a Supporter. While reading my RSS feeds, I came across this post about a majority in Israel supporting Reform and Conservative Equality in Israel. I wanted to tie it to a survey I had read recently about a majority in California now supporting Gay marriage, and then perhaps to other areas where support for something had changed. Didn’t end up having time to do the research for the former, and a new item related to the latter never caught my eye.
• The 405 Maze. LA Weekly had a nice post about all the detours that those of us driving the 405 (San Diego Freeway, I-405) face every day. Luckily, I no longer live on the westside, but one day the van missed getting on at Cotner, and it added an extra hour due to the subsequent detours. No other articles seemed to fit to this, and it had no information for the highway headline posts… so sit it did until Saturday.
• Bad Charities. There was a good post in Boing Boing about bad charities. It linked to investigative reporting on the 50 worst charities in America, with a lovely PDF cheat sheet. Given I’ve got a mother-in-law who keeps getting mail from many of these folks, I wanted to write a post about fleecing of our seniors… but it never came together.
• Apartment Life. My daughter is moving from the dorms to an apartment in Berkeley (she has the apartment now, but won’t be moving in until later in the summer). The Daily Cal had a nice piece I wanted to show her on apartment life. Again, it didn’t theme.
• And Lastly, the Laid-Off Life. Lastly, an interesting photojournalistic tumblr from one of the laid off photogs from the Chicago S-T. He is documenting his life as a laid off worker… in pictures.

Music: SMASH – The Complete Season Two (Music From the TV Series) (Katharine McPhee, Jeremy Jordan): “Rewrite This Story”

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Today’s news chum brings a number of items related to my favorite schools – UC Berkeley and CSUN:

• I’ve Got a Little List. The Daily Cal has published a number of interesting lists apropos for this time of year: (1) 5 Things You’ll Enjoy Now That You’re Home From School, (2) Things That You’ll Miss About Cal, and (3) 10 Great Things About Leaving the Dorms for Good.  What they neglected was a list of the things the parents will miss now that the children are home! Top of the list: Peace and Quiet!
• SNAFU. The Daily Cal also has an article on the message that was graduation, where students were frustrated by the process that took multiple hours to get diplomas. They weren’t the only ones. Parents and non-graduating students were also frustrated by the campus traffic mess that resulted from graduation being concurrent with the requirement to be out of the dorms by 10am on graduation day.
• Notable Graduates. I’m always impressed when Hollywood folk actually get real degrees — that’s one reason I’m so impressed with Mayim Bialik and her PhD. So I’ll bring you the news that Eva Langoria just earned a Masters in Chicano Studies from CSUN, with a thesis looking at the value of Latinas in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) Careers. Good for her!
• Medical Insurance. Berkeley has dropped UC SHIP, but premiums are still going up to over $2K/year. UCLA isn’t faring much better.  As for us, I think I’ll just keep my daughter as a covered dependent and not deal with SHIP.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Today’s lunchtime news chum brings together a number of articles related to happenings on campus:

• UCLA. A mural that has been covered up for at least 20 years (they say it was covered up in 1992, but I have no recollection of it from the 1980s) may soon be uncovered. The 40-year-old mural is called “The Black Experience,” and it has been blocked from view since installation of a false wall supposedly in the 1990s. The mural is currently located next to Panda Express on the first floor of Ackerman Union (perhaps this is why I never saw it — I never ate in the 1st floor dining comments — I ate the food at the Coop on the “A” level). The mural portrays the faces of the seven original artists of the mural. Within the shadows of the artists’ faces are superimposed images of key figures and events in black history, leaving the effect that these images make up the faces of the artists. The mural is an artifact of the 1970 Kent State riots, and the demonstrations at UCLA afterwards. After the protests subsided, seven graduate and undergraduate art students collaborated to design and create the mural. Students want to either relocate or restore the mural because they value its depiction of the historical black experience on campus, and because it is a reminder of social activism at UCLA.
• UC Berkeley. Disney has a new movie coming up: Monster University. Evidently, the campus as MU is based on the UC Berkeley campus. There appear to be glimpses of the Campanile in images of a reworked Sather Gate, and there might even be some buildings worked in as well. Pixar has stated that Berkeley was one of the schools it used to design its imaginary one.
• Emerson College. A fraternity at Emerson College has raised money for one of their own. That’s no surprise. What is surprising is the purpose: so this fraternity member may undergo a sex change operation from female appearance to male appearance. That’s cool, and it reflects both how some fraternities have changed, and moreover, how society has changed. In another transgender college story, Mission College in the San Francisco Bay Area has a transgender player on their women’s basketball team. This is more of an issue of a man who changed sexes later in life. The problems start early as well. Earlier this week there was the story about how the parents of a transgender 1st grader are having to sue so she can use the girls room — this is under equality laws in Colorado that you would not have seen 10 years ago. There’s also the increasing opposition to Proposition 8 being submitted to the Supreme Court (i.e., increasing support for same-sex marriage) from parties as diverse as Barack Obama, Meg Whitman, and Clint Eastwood.

Music: Once On This Island (Original Cast): “When We Are Wed”

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Alas, I seemed to have come back from ACSAC with a cold; that combined with a lot of backed up stuff has delayed any posts. Still, I do have a few stories about people getting furious about things that I want to share:

• A Hostage Situation. When I returned to the ranch here at Circle A, I eventually needed to visit the men’s restroom. Upon entry, I was presented with a wall detailing an odd hostage situation. Evidently, someone had left their reusable Starbucks mug on a shelf. They forgot about it, and came back and posted a note requesting its return. This was followed by a number of pictures showing the cup in various places (the top of A1′ with a gnome, at the top of a Christmas tree, with Santa). There was also a ransom note, done in the normal cut out letter font, indicating that the cup was still alive (and including a picture of the cup and today’s newspaper to prove it was alive). The note requested that 2 STE (staff-time equivalents) of charge number be deposited in a particular job order (9990-00) if the cup was to be returned alive. There was also a handwritten note from the cup indicating they were threatening to recycle it. I think some people have slipped over the edge. [ETA: The wall has grown with a note from a concerned party indicating that the cup is required to administer an critical chemical solution to its owner vital to the owner's technological output, a photoshop of the cup on the side of a milk carton, and a disposable Starbuck cup with a Post-It stating "Found in Stall #26". I'd take a picture, but we can't use cameras at work.]
• A Logo Situation. The University of California has redesigned their logo, and everyone is up in arms about it. Most people think it is undignified, and looks like a loading symbol. It has gotten so bad that memes have developed with people doing strange things with the logo. I agree with the Lt. Gov. — the new logo should be ditched. A simplified version of the current logo could easily be designed for webpages; not the radical silly redesign they have done.
• A Sexual Situation. There’s another furor about UC — this time about sex. Specifically, a columnist for the Daily Cal took advantage of the lack of people on campus the day before Thanksgiving to explore where she and her partner could, umm, conduct human relation experiments. Naturally, the prudish folks protested to the Daily Cal in the comments, and the story was picked up by the newservices. Insert predictable response about those crazy students at radical Berkeley.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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