Andrew Clem ~ Culture and Travel Archives, <br> 2007

Site map

Contact

NOTE: "Culture and Travel" became a separate blog category on Feb. 1, 2007. Blog posts from January in the old "Macintosh and Miscellaneous" category include science and other topics.

January 1, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Happy New Year! (oops...)

As I wrote back on May 1, "I will have to do some more fiddling [with my homemade automated blog system*] before the end of the year, or else a sort of 'Y2K' glitch will result." Indeed, such a glitch came to pass, as I discovered to my chagrin after midnight last night. Because I wanted to complete the revised Olympic Stadium diagrams by the end of the year, I wasn't able to take care of that Web site maintenance chore in time, so it is remotely possible that a few people may have noticed a large blank space and an error message on my main blog page and the category blog pages. Sorry about that. I seriously doubt that very many people were browsing this site during the New Year's festivities or this morning, however. Fortunately, fixing the bug only took about 15 minutes of coding work, and that should take care of things for the rest of this century, at least...

* For a brief explanation, see my April 17 blog post.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo! / Bon Any Nou!*

As is our custom during the holidays, we had a rollicking good time with Jacqueline's family and friends in Northern Virginia last night. (¡Muchas gracias, Walter y Gloria!) I'm getting better at identifying the various genres of Latin American music, from salsa to merengue to cumbia. Maybe I'm just getting old and grouchy, but there is one relatively new style that grates on my nerves: "reggaeton," a sort of fusion of reggae and traditional Spanish-Caribbean folk music. See Wikipedia, of course.

* Those are new year's greetings in Spanish and Catalonian, respectively, the latter intended for our friends Montse and Josep, who live in the Catalonian region of Spain.

January 6, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Registration resumes

I have reactivated the Registration for this Web site, allowing new visitors to submit general remarks, blog comments, or stadium impressions. Hopefully the revised format will prevent the spam attacks that forced me to shut this feature down two months ago.

January 7, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Looking back on the year: 2006

Better late than never! As I did for the end of 2005, I thought it would be appropriate to summarize the year's main events and trends in terms of how I saw them at the time. You might say it was a bad year for Republicans and (small "d") democrats alike, as discontent with Bush administration war policy finally caught up with the GOP, and the cause of freedom and democracy in the Middle East stalled. The world became less secure, as Iran defied the United Nations and moved ahead with nuclear research, while North Korea test launched intercontinental missiles (a failure) and detonated a small (apparent) nuclear warhead. The White House strategy of mobilizing culturally conservative voters backfired badly, as multiple hypocrisies were exposed and the Republicans lost control of both houses of Congress in November. Fresh voices of ethical conservatism emerged during the year, however, offering hope for the future. Latin America continued to swing toward the Left, as new populist leaders were elected, but moderates and conservatives held on in key races, frustrating (for now) Hugo Chavez's bid to become the new Castro. In baseball, the Washington Nationals struggled mightily, but again finished the year in last place in the NL East, despite Alfonso Soriano's superb performance in home runs and stolen bases. The titles of the following blog entries (or photo gallery pages) are listed in chronological order, from January through December:

Major news items

Final respects

I noted the passing of the following notable figures over the past year. Three were brutal bad guys.

I probably should have mentioned Milton Friedman as well; he died during my two-week hiatus in November. To make up for that lapse, I plan to write an essay on his book Capitalism and Freedom soon.

Birding

Travels

Even though this blog post was produced on January 7, I am manually inserting it at the end of the December 2006 Archives page, where it really belongs.

January 10, 2007 [LINK / comment]

What's in Staunton's water?

That's what Slantblog asked in mocking reference to last week's blogosphere flap, so I thought I would do some objective, empirical research on the matter. I used CLR Enhanced Calcium, Lime & Rust Remover to clean out the mineral scum from our teapot yesterday, and this is the residue after it evaporated. It's about a tablespoon in volume, representing six or so months of buildup. I may want to have this sample tested in a chemistry lab just to be sure what's in there.

On a more serious note, a few months ago the Environmental Protection Agency presented the Region 3 Professional Operator Excellence Award to Christopher J. DeWald, the recently retired head of Staunton's water treatment plant. Region 3 includes Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, and Virginia, so this is a noteworthy accomplishment.

January 11, 2007 [LINK / comment]

iPhone: Apple does it again!

What won't they think of next?! Actually, most of us have been anticipating an all-in-one device like the iPhone for the last few years. "It slices, it dices, ..." Basically, it combines the functions of a cell phone, an iPod (with video), e-mail, and a real Web browser -- not one of those bare-bones Web readers found on newer cell phones. The touch-screen interface is one of the best features, allowing a bigger screen, and allowing users to type text without physical keys. The Google map and weather features will be very useful, and the automatic light and orientation sensors (which regulate the screen appearance) are superb innovation as well. What I found most astonishing was that the thing runs Mac OS X, allowing it to multi-task in an efficient manner! It definitely looks cool, and I'm sure it will be another big hit, but I wonder if talking into the silver box will seem strange for people used to talking into normal cell phones. And where's the antenna? For now at least, Cingular has exclusive rights to cell phone service with the iPhone. That makes sense, since they came out with a cell phone last year that works with Apple's iTunes program. For all the details, see apple.com. In connection with the new product announcements at the MacWorld show in San Francisco, the company is no longer called "Apple Computer, Inc.," but just "Apple, Inc." Nevertheless, they are gaining market share as more people get fed up with the security flaws and crappy functionality of "Wintel" machines. Will Vista change that?

Jobs' stock options

The iPhone announcement came at an awkward time for Steve Jobs, whose image as a high-tech rock star was tarnished after reports of securities infractions. As part of his incentive compensation package, he received 10 million Apple stock options on Jan. 12, 2000, but some of the options were apparently backdated to take advantage of lower prices. Such practices are considered improper, but not necessarily illegal. See Washington Post. In my mind, the very notion of stock options constitutes a moral hazard bordering on fraud.

January 12, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Best photos of 2006

As I did last year, I have compiled on one page the Best photos of 2006. [There are 18 of them in all.] The very best one, I've decided, is this montage of birds at the National Zoo in Washington and the National Aquarium in Baltimore. I originally posted it on Aug. 15.

January 13, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Air Florida crash, 25 years later

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 into the Potomac River, in blizzard conditions. A total of 78 people died, including four people in cars on the bridge, and five people were rescued. One of the biggest heroes that day in 1982 was Lenny Skutnik, who was hailed by President Reagan during the State of the Union speech soon thereafter. Today's Washington Post recounted the amazing feats of courage of Skutnik -- a decent, modest guy who was uncomfortable with all the praise -- and what has become of him and others. Yesterday's Post described the tragic flight itself, and what caused it. Mostly, it was a failure to ensure proper de-icing. Safety became a prime concern in the airline industry after that.

I worked in Washington back then, and I crossed the Potomac River very close to where the plane wreck had occurred within a half hour or so of when it happened. Ordinarily I took Metro home, but there was a fatal subway accident that forced major delays, so I caught a ride home with my friend Donna Ball. It is hard to describe to sickening sense of horror we felt as we passed all of the emergency vehicles, as rescue efforts were still underway. Several days later on the way into work, I saw the tail section of the Air Florida jet as it was being hoisted out of the water. It was all so surreal. Some of wondered what would happen if a jet ever crashed into the Pentagon...

Speaking of Donna, she has shown some signs of improvement as she gets follow-up treatment for the Wegener's Granulomatosis (see last May), but is now suffering from further complications. She hasn't let that stop her from going back to work, however. We'll keep praying for her to recover.

January 15, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Martin Luther King's birthday

The Rev. Martin Luther King would have turned 78 today had his life not been cut short by an assassin's bullet. More importantly, our nation would no doubt have achieved much greater progress toward racial harmony and social peace. His widow Coretta Scott King (who died last year) wrote an essay on the meaning of the holiday, on the Web site of The King Center, which is headquartered in Atlanta. She stresses that this day is not just to remember her husband, but is "above all a day of service," as a way to motivate citizens to help those who are less fortunate or have been victimized.

King's contribution was not just in bringing about justice for his people, but in maintaining a dignified, statesmanlike attitude, foreswearing any vengeance or score-settling. It was a model for South Africa's Nelson Mandela to follow. Neither man was ever a demagogic rabble-rouser. It is sad that some politicians opposed the creation of a holiday in honor of Rev. King, and that people still question the appropriateness of a national holiday in his honor. Think about it: What other leader in American history other than presidents or generals ever achieved as much greatness as he did?

Archives, 2007

Monthly links this year

Misc. archives

Annual archives (by topic)

Monthly archives (all topics)