Slashdot posted a story linking a highly speculative piece in The Guardian saying that high levels of radiation might be a sign that molten fuel has leaked through the reactor vessel (not the containment vessel, as the Slashdot summary breathlessly announces). I have not seen any confirmation of this speculation, or indeed seen this speculation repeated outside Slashdot and a few other newspapers in the UK, and it is not confirmed by the most recent IAEA report.
Things are plenty bad at Fukushima, but (with the caveat that I am not even remotely a nuclear engineer) I see no solid evidence to suggest that there has been even a partial meltdown, much less that the core has melted through the reactor pressure vessel, much less that the containment vessel has been breached. Indeed this statement from the IAEA report would suggest a better cause for the radioactivity spike recently observed: “The Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan suggests that higher activity in the water discovered in the Unit 2 turbine building is supposed to be caused by the water, which has been in contact with molten fuel rods for a time and directly released into the turbine building via some, as yet unidentified path.”
Japan suffered a real tragedy, with over 11,000 confirmed dead from the earthquake and tsunami, and Western journalists and bloggers seem unnaturally fixated on a serious but limited nuclear accident that hasn’t claimed any lives yet.
Airplane!, The Exorcist, The Empire Strikes Back and The Pink Panther are all great films, arguably among the top 100 ever made. I believe it was K. W. Jeter who said that the student version of THX 1138 was much better than the theatrical release, so I’ve always been curious to see that. Strangely enough, I’m also curious about Saturday Night Fever, despite my loathing of disco, as many critics (the late Gene Siskel among them) consider it one of the great films of the 1970s, and National Review‘s John Derbyshire says it’s one of the best films about blue collar American life ever made. I also remember Dwight being impressed with Malcolm X, despite not having seen Malcolm I–IX.
Of course, a lot of these are notable only for being early examples of the form rather than gripping cinema, such as Newark Athlete:
Or A Trip Down Market Street:
Let There Be Light is John Huston’s pioneering documentary on the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder following World War II:
And Our Lady of the Sphere is sort of like Terry Gilliam’s work on Monty Python, but not as interesting:
Then again, it was made in San Francisco in 1969, so there’s nothing about it that can’t be explained by the phrase “Dude, I was so high…”
I know it’s already been linked from Slashdot, but this interview with former Apple CEO John Sculley over on Cult of Mac is fascinating reading. It talks about Steve Jobs design-centric perspective, and how it’s lead to every important Apple product. Required reading for anyone interested in high tech, design, or business.
(I should note that I too had a problem activating my iPhone, but that my problem was considerably less severe and I was in the Apple store at the time.)
Well, this is quite worrisome: A phishing scam purported to be from Google, sent to my Gmail account, that Gmail didn’t flag as spam.
Warning!
Reply
Gmail Alert
Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043
The Gmail Team is working on total security on all accounts and because of this security upgrade, we require all Gmail members to verify their account with Google. To prevent your account from disability you will have to update your information by clicking the reply button and filling the space below.
Gmail is usually very good at catch spam and phishing scams. But given it’s purported to be from them, this is the sort of thing you think Google would be able to catch.
According to this study, people should consume 500 mg of caffeine a day (which works out to about five cups of coffee a day) to help ward off Alzheimer’s.
My caffeine delivery vehicle of choice is Diet Dr Pepper, which contains (according to this chart) 41 mg of caffeine. Now I’m clearly walking in the realm of the “caffeine achiever,” as I regularly down 6-7 cans of Diet Dr Pepper a day. However, by this new measure, I’m not getting enough caffeine, and should be downing a minimum of 12 cans a day.
I’m willing to give it a try, but I’m not sure I can do that without acting like this guy:
This is a video of a speech by game designer Jesse Schell called “Big Brother, Video Game Psychology & Obedient Humans living inside Skinner Boxes,” from the DICE 2010 gaming conference, and it’s awesome, scary, and awesomely scary. This guy is throwing off skiffy story ideas the way congress throws off wasteful spending.
Evidently Bruce has the whole thing up on his blog. I’m going to see if I can check out the rest of his talk when I get a chance.
After years of shilling for Microsoft and predicting Apple’s demise, only to see Apple pass Microsoft in market cap, Rob Enderle finally changes his mind and admits that Apple’s success is due to superior attention to detail and producing products people actually want to use.
Ha, just kidding. He says Apple’s success is due to spies at Microsoft deliberately sabotaging Steve Ballmer’s awesome genius. In truth, his column is actually stupider than it sounds, since some of the Microsoft technologies he holds up as being killed off by other Microsoft initiatives (like PlaysForSure) are among those that most consumers hated. It’s a veritable goulash of Microsoft-worship, Apple-bashing, paranoia, historical revisionism, and general cluelessness. In short: vintage Enderle.
In closing, I’ve often thought that companies could use an executive in charge of the “don’t do stupid stuff” department whose job is — wait for it — to make sure firms don’t do stupid stuff.
From the mid-1990s death spiral to King of the Tech World following the return of Steve Jobs is perhaps the most impressive business turn-around story…well, possibly ever.
In light of that, let’s take a moment to reflect on the awesome prognostication skills of one Rob Enderle, head of “The Enderle Group.” (Presumably he has a cat.) If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Enedrle’s work, he is the man who has predicted the demise of Apple more frequently than any other pundit. Let us sample the fruits of Mr. Enderle’s unparalleled insight, shall we?
“Apple has about 24 months to get its act together and position itself for the post-Longhorn world of Linux and Windows. If it doesn’t offer solutions that will play on those platforms the way iTunes currently does on Windows, it will probably become a footnote by the end of the decade.” – Rob Enderle, MacNewsWorld, May 13, 2004
“I also asked which companies would be dead. The panel agreed that it would be Apple, Sun and Novell.” – Rob Enderle, TechNewsWorld, November 24, 2003
“”The biggest long-term problem with moving to an Apple platform is that the company is in decline, which means you might have to migrate again at some point to another platform.” – Rob Enderle, TechNewsWorld, October 6, 2003
Which such startling powers of prophecy, Mr. Enderle is wasting his time as a tech pundit. He should be using his extraordinary powers in Las Vegas, where I’m sure he would soon amass a fortune the likes of which this world has never seen…
