On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Many thanks to JeffreyW for linking to this morning’s Moment of Zen:
The mechanics of hovering had been explained to me, but I’d never realized how much these little guys would look like swimmers treading water…
*****
For those who were impressed, and moved, by the Esquire profile of Roger Ebert, he will be debuting his “own” computer voice on Oprah today:
A company called CereProc has taken voice samples from Ebert’s DVD commentaries and created a computerized voice that Ebert can use to “speak.” This could even lead to Ebert using the voice for other media, including podcasts, video, and commentaries.
(h/t TV Squad)
*****
And finally, in my best “following the circus parade with a push-broom” style, I would greatly appreciate it if any of the more tech-savvy Balloon Juicers can tell me whether I should worry that my reaction to the NYTimes article “Striving to Map the Shape-Shifting Net”
In a dimly lit chamber festooned with wires and hidden in one of California’s largest data centers, Tim Pozar is changing the shape of the Internet. He is using what Internet engineers refer to as a “meet-me room.”… What Mr. Pozar does there is to informally wire together the networks of different businesses that want to freely share their Internet traffic.
__
The practice is known as peering, and it goes back to the earliest days of the Internet… Originally, the companies that owned the backbone of the Internet shared traffic. In recent years, however, the practice has increased to the point where some researchers who study the way global networks are put together believe that peering is changing the fundamental shape of the Internet, with serious consequences for its stability and security. Others see the vast increase in traffic staying within a structure that has remained essentially the same.
… is a heartfelt, “And this should mean something to me… because?”
Max Power
That “swimming” effect is an artifact of the photography. Hummingbirds beat their wings in unison, like all birds.
The network routing article I think is mainly of interest to internet networking engineers.
JGabriel
Anne Laurie:
There are only two reasons this should mean anything to you:
A) You have on-going intellectual interest in – and curiousity about – the structure of our computer communications systems (apparently not), or
B) If there’s a political/social issue involved, such as if this practice impinges on net neutrality, which doesn’t appear to be the case, yet.
Otherwise, if this ain’t your boat, I don’t think it’s anything you need to worry about it. It looks like an issue that would be of more concern to network engineers, academics, tech policy mavens, and some businesses.
.
Sly
It’s official: We won’t have Harold Ford’s sanctimonious ass to kick around anymore.
Napoleon
@Sly:
But we may Mickey Kraus who it is reported pulled papers to primary Barbara Boxer.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Wow. On top of everything else I’m impressed by jw’s ability to keep something the size of a large dragonfly in focus.
@Napoleon: Oh God, please let this be true. Comedy value aside, the goats need a break from the constant blowing.
Linda Featheringill
Good morning, guys.
It is back to the working world for me. This is so unfair! I am much too young and beautiful to have to work for a living! [and so are you :)]
Nice hummingbird, by the way.
demo woman
@Napoleon: What’s he going to run on? Health care for the Iranians after we bomb the crap out of them.
Napoleon
@demo woman:
Good question, a goat in every back yard?
JGabriel
@Napoleon: A goat in every mouth.
.
Sly
@Napoleon:
I’m sure his “Get Out the Goat” operation will be formidable.
jeffreyw
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
I had no part in the thing aside from seeing it somewhere and linking to it here. My own efforts are here.
arguingwithsignposts
@Sly: What a WATB. Leave Harold Ford ALOOONE!
Linda Featheringill
To jeffreyw:
I sent one of your hummingbirds to an ailing friend. Very nice!!
Adam
It looks like the reporter for the NYT got asked what a peering network was, decided to write a report about it and then ran out of stuff to write so crammed in a second story about the shape of the internet.
Seems more like an introduction to another piece. A bit of background knowledge before the meat of the story.
The only people that really care about peering are the carriers. They basically agree not to charge each other for the data flowing over their networks.
For the end user this might mean content downloaded on a particular site doesn’t count towards usage statistics.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@jeffreyw: My bad. But the pictures are impressive too. I hardly ever even see hummingbirds even though I know they come to the feeder.
jeffreyw
@Linda Featheringill: They are not a cure for what ails ya, but I do find that they have some palliative power. LOL
Brick Oven Bill
Doctor: “Mr. President, what is your daily alcohol intake?”
Barack: “Oh, um, uh uh probably [fill in half of whatever he drinks].”
Doctor: “Moderate your alcohol intake.”
This could get interesting. Keep always in mind that Barack Sr. was a very bad Muslim crashing his car, and that the Presidency is a real job.
You guys have a nice day.
donnah
RE: Roger Ebert; I was so moved by the Esquire article that by the time I had finished reading it, tears were streaming down my face. I’ve always enjoyed his work and lately his blog, and I think he is one awesome human being.
Never say die, Mr Ebert.
Chyron HR
@Brick Oven Bill:
Promises, promises.
kay
@Chyron HR:
It’s why we must never, ever give conservatives (including Andrew Sullivan) any kind of access to our medical records.
They’re completely incapable of minding their own business.
I’m not sure I want them employed anywhere with access to medical records, quite frankly.
Remember November
Mr Ebert is a testament to the tenacity of the human spirit. I recall some dumbass politico mocking him on twitter- to which I quickly linked the Esquire article( and Im sure he got spammed for it) in a reply. Basically I said to him – “you haven’t heard from him lately because your head is up your ass.”
Ash Can
@kay: I don’t think they’re completely incapable of minding their own business. I’m sure they’d fight tooth and nail to preserve the confidentiality of another conservative’s medical records.
Ash Can
And in other news, via the GOS, good news for Bill Halter: the AFL-CIO is endorsing him over Blanche Lincoln and donating $3 mil to his campaign.
Maybe he can win this. I sure as hell hope so.
drillfork
Holy shite what a wonderful article on Ebert. Thanks so much for linking it. It’s been so long since I’ve read something that well-written. Have to look a little harder, I guess.
And Disney is pure, molten evil…
geg6
Oh, lookie lookie. Guess Breitbart will be frothing at the mouth AGAIN today.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/03/01/2010-03-01_bklyn_acorn_cleared_over_giving_illegal_advice_on_how_to_hide_money_from_prostit.html#ixzz0gxn9q8uT
burnspbesq
@Ash Can:
I wish I could convince myself that it matters. Hard to believe that Blanche Lincoln can be portrayed as too far left for a state that once upon a time sent J. William Fulbright to the senate.
Face
Please check your map w/r/t Mason-Dixon and vastly lower your expectations accordingly.
Liz
Heard about the Ebert thing on NPR-they interviewed the owner/founder of the company. Great stuff.
cleek
@geg6:
ACORN should sue those two clowns for libel
FormerSwingVoter
@geg6:
Why would you think this matters? It must be part of the Vast Liberal Conspiracy. Any information which doesn’t confirm the biases of conservatives is a lie. You can tell its a lie because it would be inconvenient for conservatives if it were true!
This only proves that those police are part of the liberal media conspiracy, or the vast government super control fascist commie conspiracy, or whatever deranged set of hallucinations is necessary for them to discredit this while making themselves out to be the victims. Again.
gbear
Just wanted to repost an item that got lost in the flurry of threads yesterday evening.
A Luthern Minister tells Tim Pawlenty to just STFU about God after the state legislature fails to override a veto of a bill providing funding for a program that provides medical care for poor people.
The bill had initially passed in the legislature by a vote of 125 to 9 before Pawlenty’s veto. All the republicans stuck with TPaw to uphold the veto. It failed by just a few votes.
Cat Lady
Well, Mittens is gearing up again, and this time he’s really found the sweet spot that’s going to propel him all the way to the White House:
Poor Mitt. I guess this means it’s not going to be Romney/Palin 2012.
carlos the dwarf
Can someone tell me what the hell is going on in Bobo’s column today? Better yet, can someone tell me where I can get my hands on whatever he was on when he wrote it? It made no fucking sense at all.
Tim Pozar
John Markoff listed a couple of ways the shape of the Internet will affect things. One would be to less the impact of distributed DOS attacks. The thing I see that John didn’t mention would be that peering has dropped the cost of transit significantly. When I started out buying Internet bandwidth in 1990 it cost $5,000 a Mb/s per month. Now it is down to $5 a Mb/s per month. Peering has been a big factor in reducing that cost. If we were still at the $5,000 a month rate, your broadband connection at home would cost much more.
jron
I’m sure somebody else has noted this already, but don’t we already have a lot of “Bill Halters” in Congress? Can we afford another one?
geg6
Hey Texas BJers! Isn’t today election day down there?
Now that should bring us some crazy for tomorrow, eh?
bemused
@gbear:
The good pastor’s full remarks are great. I think I heard the whole audio on mpr.
bemused
@geg6:
Oh boy. The top of his head may explode.
Gravenstone
@cleek:
Hell, file an individual suit in the jurisdiction for every office they visited. If O’Keefe want’s to venue shop for his soundbites, then let ACORN venue shop for the most appealing sentencing conditions.
jeffreyw
@carlos the dwarf:
Today we’ve exchanged his regular coffee with Folger’s Cannabis Crystals–let’s see if he notices…
Gravenstone
@geg6: Maybe not so much. T’would appear Herr Breitbart saw which way the winds were blowing and introduced young Mr. O’Keefe to the underside of a large, multi-passenger vehicle. A shame, such a shame…
Anon
Well, presumably if you are reading an article about the security and stability of the Internet in the Science section, then you are indeed interested in the science behind the stability and security of the Internet.
Cat Lady
@carlos the dwarf:
You didn’t get it? Bobo read a nice story about a hardy Norwegian fella from 60 years ago which Bobo spent too much time reading with the Olympics on TV instead of writing his column, so Voila! Olympic medals + Norway + Column length book report + random Burkean bell bullshit conclusion = Bobo column. He’s Very Serious.
kay
@Ash Can:
Isn’t it so freaking predictable, though? Drudge and his idiot minions go after the personal life.
It doesn’t even matter that none of their allegations hang together. They were skulking around trying to find out what was in Obama’s glass because they think he’s a secret Muslim, who doesn’t drink.
They find out he does drink, and they just add that to the collected evidence for another specious accusation.
There is no difference between conservative leaders and your nosy neighbor. None.
geg6
@Gravenstone:
Well, like any good wingnut, Breitbart has calculated that it is better to look incompetent than admit a mistake. But I gotta say, I really do think he’s killed his career outside of wingnuttia, which is what this whole thing was about–burnishing his “investigative journalism” bona fides and his ability to move his “agenda.”
Think I might write me a letter to the editor at the NYT to ask their plans for their new anti-ACORN reporting unit in light of this. LOL
Common Sense
@geg6:
Early vote ftw.
Here’s some fun stuff for y’all. Texans or especially anyone familiar with the odious Perry Homes will appreciate it.
tomvox1
Rahm in 2012:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35658093/ns/politics-washington_post/
Shorter Kaplan: Obama would be sooooo screwed without Rahm-ey!
Establishment push back against the Cheetos-munching hippies me thinks…
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
OT, but I couldn’t help noticing the following this morning story (about medical ethics and the very difficult pain management and agonizing end of life decisions faced by parents of small children with severe illnesses) in google news, and the choice of what headline each news organization decided on:
HemOc Today (clinical news in oncology and hematology)
One in eight parents considered hastening death of child dying of cancer
Boston Globe
Study explores child end-of-life scenarios
Some parents had considered hastening deaths
Associated Press
Parents say doctors hastened death for dying kids
AP FTW! Death Panels! Death Panels! Look out parents, teh evil doctors want to kill your kids.
Guess which headline most people will see.
Just another day in our liberal media
asiangrrlMN
@gbear: How very refreshing. Thanks for sharing that link. I fucking hate Ratface Pawlenty. Good on Reverend Stevensen for metaphorically popping the governor in the mouth.
@Gravenstone: Yes. Double yes. Triple yes. And, I’m still waiting for the media blitz over the discovery that O’Keefe basically made shit up. I know, I know, I wait in vain.
@Cat Lady: Loved this description! Now, I don’t have to look at the damn column (not that I ever do. I usually just read the shorter David Brooks/Broder).