Steve Jobs passes away

Steve Jobs has passed away. Coincidentally I was listening to Siegfried's funeral march on Böhm's recording of Wagner's Götterdämmerung.

Particle faster than the speed of light

OMG! Particles found faster than light found at CERN!

Spanish "killer bull"

2010 Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. No deaths on this run; not to worry, there's always next year.

Recently it seems Yahoo is becoming more inclined to use sensational headings on their stories. This one entitled "Killer bull in Spain fatally gores man" is completely misleading but it did its job in catching my attention. It turns out drunkard in Spain enters bull ring and gets gored to death by a well-known aggressive bull. Oh those Spainards and their death games. A comment by a "Ken" outlines a new business venture:

For once a sport pitting man against animals gives the animal the advantage, I love it. I'm thinking that here in America we should institute the running of the bears (preferably grizzlies and browns) and all the runners have to wear vests made out of bacon! There will be no shortage of idiots who'll do it and the proceeds from the broadcasting of it can go to the humane society!

China is not happy with the downgrade

• Can't tell if this is posturing or not:
  China tells U.S. "good old days" of borrowing are over"

US Downgrade

US debt interest payments as percentage of GDP. From usgovernmentspending.com.

Standard & Poor's downgrades US debt one notch to AA+. See WSJ and Bloomberg. Despite a "flaw" in the calculations, S&P appears to maintain its downgrade. Honestly, the calculation flaw probably does not make a big difference in American's current future prospects.

On the other hand, we are talking about the S&P ... the same people who gave AAA rating to certain mortgage-backed securities. Paul Krugman says as much.

China corruption and the railway

The Chinese take corruption to a whole new level. The man in charge of the high speed railways that crashed had pocketed $2.8 billion USD spread across accounts in America and Switzerland (oh Switzerland, how poor your country would be without money laundering).

Mama Mia!

Went to see this musical on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre.   I had no clue what it would be about and this show would be my first Broadway show.  I had previously avoided Broadway because I imagine there would be a lot of annoying overacting.  And in the prologue, my fears were borne true but fortunately subsided afterwards for the most part. A synopsis can be found on Wikipedia.

Music.  Well, it's ABBA.  The only number I was already familar with was Dancing Queen.  But none of the numbers were unpleasant. I especially liked "Mama Mia", "Dancing Queen", "Winner Takes It All", and "Honey, Honey". Some were very ... Continental European ... such as "Money, Money, Money". "Dancing Queen" first makes its appearance in Donna's bedroom with her friends; however the mood and choreography was small compared to the song's awesomeness.

One thing I absolutely hated was the band. Not that they played badly but that they were so loud. So many times I caught myself wanting to strangle whoever was at the control board. Everything was loud loud loud loud as if the dynamic markings are all marked forte, fortissimo, or blastissimo. I relished the short periods of time when the band was not playing tutti. I'm guessing the conductor, players, and sound engineers simply have hearing loss from repeat exposure. One consequence of amplification is that some of the musical numbers started sounding really homogeneous. The singing was always in tune but the amplification made the singers sound bland and soulless. Same with the band; they could save money by having a computer play the music.

Dancing. As my first Broadway show, I was surprised by how much detail went into the dances. Every second is occupied in a movement, gesture, or facial expression. When dancers pair off, they frequently have similar but slightly different routines from one another. The execution was seamless, quality and variety is high but difficult to absorb in one sitting even though I was in the mezzanine with a bird's eye view. In summary the dancers and the stage setup exude professionalism.

At the end of the show, they dance to a couple number of the most popular Abba songs one being Dancing Queen. However, the choreography for Dancing Queen is very simplistic and anticlimactic; it is nowhere near even what I could imagine.

	Sophie Sheridan (Liana Hunt) Sophie is the girl to be wedded.  Having never known who her father was, she invites the three men who had "..." her mother (as recorded in her mother's diary).  Liana Hunt is why I had avoided Broadway: she seemed to be hyperventilating in nearly every scene and all her lines were delivered with grating whine.
	Donna Sheridan (Lisa Brescia) She is Sophie's mother.  Lisa has a wonderful voice and acted convincingly and really had my sympathies.  However there was no spark between Harry and her.
	Tanya (Stacia Fernandez) A thrice-divorced millionairess and one of Donna's old close friends.  She acted the part perfectly.  She was a joy to watch.
	Rosie (Jennifer Perry) A staunch feminist and one of Donna's old close friends. I loved her costumes but there was an inconcistency in her physical character. She initially moves like she is 20 years old; clamoring on top of people and moving with vigor. Except when in the script it calls for her to show to her age. This occurs several times in the show and is jarringly different from her initial presentation.
	Sky (Jordan Dean) Donna's fiance. An important prerequisite for this role is 6-pack abs and a chiseled body. . When Jordan first walked out on stage, he looked like a Ken doll with golden red hair.
	Sam Carmichael (John Hemphill) One of Donna's ex-lover. He had no spark with Donna. And he didn't elicit any sympathy from me.
	Pepper (Jacob Pinion) He is one of Sky's friends and appears to have a thing for older women especially for Tanya.  Jacob's acting and dancing was natural and absolutely perfect in this role.
	Father Alexandrios (Bryan Scott Johnson) He is only on stage for a very short time.  But what caught my attention was Bryan's hilarious dancing.

Eddie (Andrew Chappelle), Harry Bright (David Beach), Bill Austin (Patrick Boll), Lisa (Halle Morse), Ali (Catherine Rica) Eddie is one of Sky's friends and something about Andrew's physical presence and movements made him stand out from the crowd. Harry and Bill are Donna's other ex-lovers and Ali and Lily are Sophie's close friends. They did a fine job for their roles.

(All cast photos came from Mama Mia's official cast page.)
Conclusion: Good to see once. Not appropriate for young teens because it might be hard for them to relate to the adult characters.

The new Littles

We all know where the traditional Little Italy is and where traditional Chinatown is.  But Little Italy is no longer populated with Italians.  In fact one day I saw a waiter in Little Italy trying to hustle some tourists for his restaurant.  He first speaks to them in Italian but they weren't convinced; and then he starts a Frank Sinatra impersonation completely with a song and swing and that frightened them away.  I'm not even sure he is Italian Italian.  The The Brian Lehrer Show has a very interesting 15 minute segment ("The New Littles: Guyanans, Italians, and A Map!") on where Italians and other ethnic groups really are. It also features an interactive map so you can see where the ethnic enclaves are.

KFC promotion

A ridiculous promotion from KFC:  Buy a "Mega Jug" (half gallon) worth of soda and $1 will go to the Juvenille Diabetes Research Foundation.

Seriously a demonstration of the incredibly superficial thought process of business people.

ding dong bin Laden is dead

Das Rheingold

 From left to right, Donner, Fasolt, Foher, Loge, Fricka, Fafner, Wotan.  Freia is in the hammock.

I found it extremely strange that the MET's cast sheet for Das Rheingold excluded the Rhein maidens.  Very strange since it is precisely the Rhein maidens and Alberich who make the first impressions in the opening.  I saw the MET HD Live performance on Oct 9, 2010 for $20 in Edgewater.  I could not afford the $1000 stage tickets.

Wotan.......Bryn Terfel
    Good singing. The straight man to Loge.
Fricka......Stephanie Blythe 
    I liked her singing but did not like her acting at all. At one point she caresses Wotan in a way that envokes 19th century French brothel.
Alberich....Eric Owens
    His physical presence and even facial description was so apt. Great singing and acting; he made you feel sorry for him.
Loge........Richard Croft
    Wonderful portrayal. His costume was very good; it looked futuristic.
Erda........Patricia Bardon
       Hauntingly beautiful alto voice. Her portrayal as a stone white face was very effective.
Fasolt......Franz-Josef Selig
Fafner......Hans-Peter König
    Both good. I liked their position on stage and their costume.
Freia.......Wendy Bryn Harmer
    She looked the part.
Froh........Adam Diegel 
    Handsome as Freia is beautiful. A bit Siegmund/Sieglinde there on stage. LOL.
Donner......Dwayne Croft
    Wow, what a thunderous voice!
Mime........Gerhard Siegel 
    I did not like his timbre. Not villianous enough.
Woglinde....Lisette Oropesa
Wellgunde...Jennifer Johnson Cano
Flosshilde..Tamara Mumford
    All wonderful.

Conductor....James Levine
    The intro was too slow. But otherwise very good. I liked how in the preview he told the orchestra to not hold back.

Production..........Robert Lepage
    The bubbles should have been bigger and more profuse. But otherwise I liked it; especially the abstract Valhalla and Donner clearing the clouds.
Associate Director..Neilson Vignola
Set Designer........Carl Fillion
Costume Designer....François St-Aubin
Lighting Designer...Etienne Boucher
Video Image Artist..Boris Firquet
TV Director.........Gary Halvorson 
       I wished he didn't focus so much on the sweaty faces of the opera singer and gave us more views of the Machine. I mean isn't that one of the big selling point for this production?

The economy is saved!

After years of being told by economists and business elites that middle class Americans should move away from manufacturing (because they are outsourcing your job) and instead they should go into the knowledge industry (before the Tech bust) and the service industry.  The American economy is saved!  The middle class misery is over because McDonald's has announced it will be hiring 50,000 new employees! 

Negative U.S. Credit Rating outlook

S&P warns about lowering the AAA rating of the United States.  See S&P Cuts U.S. Ratings Outlook to Negative.  This is extremely drastic as most students in American finance and business are taught that the US treasuries are essentially risk-free.  One thing that article does not mention is that last week a Congressional report came out that blamed the credit agencies S&P and Moody's for initiating the financial crisis of 2007-2010 when they started to correct the outlandishly high ratings that they had given to asset-backed securities.

Central Asia Institute donation

The Daily Beast article Is Three Cups of Tea Writer Greg Mortenson a Fraud? on a 60 Minutes report is disturbing in the sense that President Obama gave this guy part of his Nobel prize monetary award without first checking that the Central Asia Institute (CAI) was legitimate.  It says the CAI had only filed filed tax returns once in 14 years.  That Obama's people could not even do a basic check such as this before making a public donation is ridiculous.  I seriously question the competency of his inner circle.

cellphone tapping

I came upon this interesting article from 2006 that the microphone of certain (all?) cellphones can be activated remotely.  And a call can then be initiated to transmit surrounding sound without any indication to the owner that it is currently on a call (eg, the screen does not turn on).

Star Trek actors

I'm not a big Star Trek fan but I did see the Star Trek reboot which I enjoyed very much.  Anyway, I came upon this photo at Gothamist of the original Star Trek actors visiting the Enterprise Space Shuttle.  Only Capt Kirk (William Shatner) is missing.  Prior to this, I had never see a photo of the actors outside of the TV studio.  This photo is absolutely fantastic:  the wonderful and strange clothing of the time, Spock has a beaming smile, "Bones" McCoy and DeForest Kelly are one and the same, Gene Rodenberry seems to be in a Star Trek uniform and pose, Chekhov's "this space vehicle is primitive".

Tyrannies are doomed

This WSJ interview Tyrannies are Doomed with Bernard Lewis, a preeminent Islam scholar, is very interesting and what he says directly and between the lines is what I have come to believe in recent years:  1. democracy is not the ideal government for all, 2. democracy is not necessary nor sufficient for a functional and productive society, 3. conflict between Islam and the world will not end until one or the other gives up, and 4. the New York Times is full of liberal art majors (I remember reading an article on an African pygmy named Ota Benga and exhibited in a cage with an orangutan at the Bronx zoo in 1906, the NY Times declared this was an example of evolution).

Buses adjust to larger Americans

We are getting bigger: http://gothamist.com/2011/03/14/good_job_america_fta_wants_fatter_b.php

Earthquake hits Japan

Enormous earthquake hits northern Japan.  From viewing live coverage online, earthquake generated tsunami all along the coast.  One shown was very powerful sweeping far inland moving entire frigates into farmlands, smashing into buildings unabated.  A huge fire at oil refineries in Chiba just east of Tokyo.  Prime Minster of Japan gives a very brief understated message that to me does not exude credibility and connection to people.  I admitted went to Al Jazeera to watch live footage and English commentary.  1 m tsunami detected by buoys in the Pacific Ocean and Hawaii has been given a warning to evacuate to higher grounds.

Last vet of WW 1

Frank Buckles, the last Doughboy, has died at age 110.  The New York Times article is the best of the ones that I've read.

American Cronyism expand to US Mint

Since around the late 1990s, the US Mint had minted commemorative medals in bronze or silver for collectors.  The subjects for commemoration are usually important past events, people, and places.   For example, there is a medal commemorating the Navajo Indians who were used for communicating encoded messages in  World War 2. Because their language is highly complex in grammar and sound and spoken only in America, the Navajo codes were never broken by the Japanese.  Most people would agree that this is truly worth commemorating.

Now I find this:  medals for former treasury secretaries Henry Paulson and John Snow.  I mean what the heck have they done that is worth commemorating?  They were treasury secretaries only in the past 10 years!  Not even last century!  They have the same stature as Yosemite National Park?  Unbelievable.

Here we go again

Hedge funds borrowing record amounts to gamble invest in stocks:   http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a.zOaZV1dx10&pos=5

Sunset of the West

Interesting radio segment entitled Sunset of the West on the Brian Lehrer Show which is an interview with author Dambisa Moyo.  I had always thought that

1. democracy is not necessary for a thriving society,
2. democracy can not survive unless the masses are educated, and
3. the US has been pushing democracy as a way to allow US companies to enter foreign countries and exploit their resources.

Some notes:

• Numerous failed and failing democracies in South America and Africa and Eastern Europe and even India proves the point that democracy can not work overnight and can not be supported when the masses are uneducated.  The fact that the US continues to push democracy down the throats of other countries can only be explained by their need to get US companies into the country to exploit their resources.

• For thousands of years until the United States was formed, societies around the world advanced without democracy at all.  Thankfully democracy is not as incoherent and ruinous as Karl  Marx's communism and no one has taken an equally narrow-minded and ruinous "philosophy" of Ayn Rand's objectivism on a large scale (well unless you count Alan Greenspan).  But is it the only type of government that works?  You hear the phrase "democracy is not perfect but there is nothing better".  Although as a kid I accepted this statement, it seems to me now that it is plain rhetoric with  no substance.

Food for Black History Month

Fried chicken, collard greens, and "whipped" potatoes.  Nice. Is it offensive to honor Black History Month with fried chicken?

power

An extremely interesting article on power entitled "Could You Become a Dictator?".  Those experiments were quite clever.

capitalism

Want to know what kind of monster would be freely roaming the American food landscape if an effective FDA did not exist (an occasional Republican wet dream)?  Read about the notorious and unethical but highly profit driven Monsanto company in Missouri.  Two especially disturbing facts are (1) the idea that Monsanto believed that they (Monsanto) are not responsible for determining if their own food stuff (eg, GMO products) are safe, that is the FDA's job and (2) they tried to ban milk coming from cows NOT injected with growth hormones (that Monsanto produces).

a squirrel's thought

Last week while a blizzard was in progress, I imagine a squirrel stuck in a particularly cold winter with less than usual amount of food.  Would it remain in its little burrow determined to stoically take all the pain and hunger winter will dish out?  There are two possible outcomes: if it can withstand this winter, it will be weakened but happy to survive another season; if its corporal body cannot withstand the cold and hunger, it will starve and freeze lonely and helplessly.  But what would be the point?  It was given an evolved brain for survival.  It should seek out warmer shelter; or bunk up with another of its kind.  It should know winter from summer; that it can plan ahead and store food in the autumn in anticipation for the winter.  Its brain has evolved for this; so has the human brain.  Of course the human brain is more complicated but this allows many extraneous thoughts to taint the primitive and fundamental desire of living being to thrive.

Blog Revival

For the new year I will revive this blog.