Beware that toothbrush

Toothbrushes can be hazardous to your health:

They may look harmless with their soft bristles and Winnie-the-Pooh hand grips, but don't be fooled. A government study found that about 2,500 people a year are treated in hospital emergency rooms for injuries incurred while using a toothbrush.

A pillow's loving embrace

No comment.

			Junko Suzuki, a radio DJ, demonstrates how she sleeps with a "Boyfriend's Arm Pillow" in Tokyo. The pillow, manufactured by linen maker Kameo Corp., consists of a headless torso and a stuffed arm that curls around the sleeper. Kameo says the pillow is not only an emotional comfort, but its shape keeps the body balanced by supporting the sleeper from both sides. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
	AP

See this AP story for more details.

The worst jobs -- ever

British comedian Tony Robinson, best known as Baldrick on "Blackadder," has done a new TV series called The Worst Jobs in History. The show's Web site describes dozens and dozens of mind-bogglingly dangerous and disgusting occupations from times past -- enough ideas to power an entire season of "Fear Factor."

Robinson himself tried out about 50 of them for the show. In an interview with The Sun, he lists what he considers the seven very worst. One was being a fuller, whose job was extracting grease from wool by soaking it in a tub of stale human urine ... then stomping on it for two hours in bare feet. And no, that's not his pick for the all-time worst.

Be sure to check out the linked Q&A with readers in which he talks about prospects for more "Blackadder," among other things.

(Via Boing Boing.)

As Starbucks grows

In case you ever wondered, there's one Starbucks in Seattle for every 12,000 people. If you think that sounds high, consider this: there's one Dunkin' Donuts in Boston for every 8,000 people.

Those disturbing stats come from a Newsweek story examining the coffee giant's untamed expansion plans despite its already "almost comic ubiquity":

Today the company that weaned us away from the free mud in the office kitchen and hooked us on $3 tall double caramel macchiatos (with nonfat milk, please) has 5,945 stores in the United States and 2,392 more overseas and in Canada. While it may seem that there's already a Starbucks on every corner, chairman Howard Schultz says the company is just getting started. His previous goal of 10,000 stores in the United States, set in 2002, now appears "light," he says, and the company plans to double the current number of domestic stores to nearly 12,000.

Norah Jones vs. fire alarm

Is Norah Jones louder than a fire alarm? Sounds like a silly question but it actually came up last night when the klaxons went off during her concert at KeyArena. Anyway, the surprising answer is yes, reports P-I music critic Gene Stout.

Verdict: it's art

The city of Seattle, in its infinite wisdom, reconsidered and withdrew its objections to graffiti-style art on a public mural project.

(See previous item for background.)

Nighttime is sick time

A fascinating story in the New York Times looks at the very real biological reasons why we seem to feel sicker at night than during the day.

Too old to bare all

Over-50 nudity makes some flesh crawl is an interesting Cox News Service story that delves into our society's attitudes toward age, body image and mortality:

Whenever an actor over 50 bares all, or even partially, noses wrinkle. The actor is showing reality, not the mass-marketed Playboy version of life. And that can be difficult to handle for those who haven't reached a certain age.

"They don't want to see what they may eventually look like," explains psychologist Florence Kaslow.

"They fear the future. After all, they may be thinking, 'If I find that ugly and disgusting, what will people find when they look at me 30, 40, 50 years from now?' "

So much for telling older men and women it's OK to substitute passion for the bodily perfection of youth. It's a hard illusion to maintain when aged bodies are being viewed as taboo or frightening.

How we see the body we will all someday inhabit (if we age without plastic surgery) has a lot to do with our culturally developed sense of disgust and the lack of exposure young people have to their elders.

To lose weight, just inhale

Local biotech company Nastech is working with pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. to develop a nasal spray that helps fight obesity. The experimental spray distributes an appetite-suppressing hormone into the bloodstream. It's in early-stage human trials and isn't expected to reach the market for another four years.

God in a petri dish

Where does God fall on the tree of life used by biologists? Conceptual artist Jonathan Keats is trying to answer that question by engineering God in his apartment, Wired News reports. And many serious, reputable scientists are advising him in his quixotic quest:

"He's applying a rigorous scientific question to the absurd," [Berkeley geneticist Tom Cline] said. "That's where the irony comes in, what makes you think about it.

"But then the question is: What is ludicrous about it? It introduces people to the kinds of systems used to answer questions -- though this isn't the kind of question people usually ask."

Keats' project asks some serious scientific questions -- and no small number of religious ones: If evolutionary theory is accurate, then God's genetic makeup should most resemble Earth's first life forms. Or, if creationists are right, then God's DNA is more like the life forms he created in his own image.

Said another way: Is God more like blue-green algae or the fruit fly?

Wired News goes on to detail Keats' fascinating methodology, which includes playing recorded prayers on the theory that worship is essential to an environment amenable to fostering the growth of divinity.

Is it art or vandalism?

That's the pesky question facing the city of Seattle. Although the city sanctioned a public mural project by young artists in the University District, some officials now say portions of it look too much like graffiti and that's unacceptable.

	Mike Urban / P-I
This section of the mural is part of the artwork that some city officials say is just graffiti and ought to be removed.

"If we allow it, it will encourage graffiti vandals," said Dave Chew, manager of structures, maintenance and operations for Seattle's Department of Transportation. "I don't have a problem if these people want to do their graffiti in art galleries. I don't want to see it on a wall that is owned by the city of Seattle. I don't have any flexibility when it comes to graffiti."

Mural organizer Jill Rothenberger, 24, said she understands that the city opposes vandals who scribble their signs or "tags" on public buildings.

"Vandalism is illegal, but how can a style be illegal?" she asked. "Graffiti is a style. It's the visual manifestation of hip-hop culture. Hip-hop is youth culture. Does the city really want to be against that?"

Update: Well, the city changed its mind and said the mural can stay as it is.

iCanDoAnything

If there's any device that can challenge the cell phone's claim to being the all-purpose electronic gadget, it's Apple's increasingly multi-purpose iPod. The latest evidence: Griffin has released a combination flashlight and laser pointer that hooks onto the (ostensible) music player.

The iBeam's existence inspired one wit on the iPodlounge forum to suggest some other accessories that might be turning up on store shelves near you:

More great ideas from the labs of Griffin Tech and just in time for the holiday gift giving season!

* iBrush - The premier electric toothbrush attachment for your iPod. The MicroSonicOscillator™ scrubs your teeth to the rhythm of your favorite playlist! Perfect the on-the-go generation who prefer to travel light, or for when you need a quick brush-up for that serendipitous hook-up! Baby!

* iCan - Need to open a can of tuna and can’t find the can opener? Not a problem with this state-of-the-art iPod Accessory. Just pop it in your earbud port and BAAM! those finicky cans of tuna will never know what hit ’em. Also great for canned corn.

* iSlice - Forget your carving knife on Thanksgiving day. No sweat! The iSlice carving attachment is guaranteed to give you perfect slices every time. Truly a cut above the rest!

* iBrew - The iBrew is perfect for reheating those neglected half-consumed cups of coffee. Made with a space-age tungsten micro-filament, the iBrew is simple to use. Just clip the BrewStick™ on the lip of your standard coffee house paper coffee cup, replace the cap, and then plug the BrewBlock™ into your earbud jack. Your coffee is hot in minutes! Plug your earbuds into the BrewBlock’s patent pending earbud port and you are java-jammin!

(Via Cult of Mac.)

New uses for cell phones

You've probably noticed that the cell phone is being positioned as the all-purpose information appliance of the 21st century. People around the world use it to play games, look up stuff online, organize political protests, buy stuff from vending machines and photograph crime suspects. A friend of mine even used hers as a remote control to open her apartment building's door to admit delivery people when she was out.

But some recent reports suggest that they can help remedy body image issues as well.

Japan's Mainichi Daily News reports on an inventor who claims to have created a ringtone that increases women's breast size.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that researchers in Germany have developed a cell phone that can tell you if you have bad breath.

Most popular last week

Here's what caught the fancy of SeattlePI.com readers for the week of Sept. 20-26, 2004:

Top picks (most e-mailed articles)

1. The fall of AT&T Wireless
2. Study: Red wine cuts risk of prostate cancer
3. Interactive whiteboards save all kinds of schoolwork, and time
4. Bush's dismal policy failures in tax cuts and Iraq are being sold as achievements
5. Selective Service eyes women's draft
6. 1918 killer flu virus to be tested in UW lab
7. CBS: Censoring Broadcast System
8. Here's what happened to the Republican Party
9. Bastyr's foot-massaging walkway is a literal path to good health
10. Can you spare 5 minutes for democracy?

Top clicks (most read articles)

1. The fall of AT&T Wireless
2. California bans hand-pulling of weeds
3. 1918 killer flu virus to be tested in UW lab
4. A fan's agony over George Lucas' digitally altered 'Star Wars' trilogy
5. CBS producer on thin ice after Guard story
6. Video shows U.K. hostage's plea for life
7. Selective Service eyes women's draft
8. Which guides our Iraq policy -- political thinking or critical thinking?
9. Lucasfilm puts the kibosh on screening of twisted 'Star Wars'
10. Post-game fight in Idaho might have sparked player's killing, police say

For the record, the story about Britney Spears' surprise wedding almost made the list at No. 13.

Jacko's legacy

Whatever else you can say about him, Michael Jackson is a bona fide cultural icon. Exactly what that means was the focus of a scholarly conference at Yale this weekend, the Associated Press reports.

My favorite anecdote:

Megan Burns, who is pursing a master's degree in fine art, said she looks at Jackson as "a self-created piece of art."

"He's contributed to the national discussion of race and gender, and that is an invaluable topic for all of us to discuss," she said.

Lucasfilm strikes back

Take an iconic film like "Star Wars," dub it with a new, "twisted" soundtrack and then show it in public. Sounds like fun, right? Well, Lucasfilm's legal department didn't think so, as reporter D. Parvaz explains.

Update: Not surprisingly, this story has prompted a very active discussion at Slashdot.

Can Big Content be taught?

David Weinberger gives a fascinating -- but demoralizing -- account of his talk with a group of "senior people in the recording, movie and media industries" during the recent World Economic Forum meeting in New York. He tried to explain what consumers on the Internet want from them, but found a huge gulf in understanding:

The conversation doesn't lend itself to detailed retelling. But it sure was fascinating for me. I came away with four overall impressions:

First, these people are thrashing. They're floundering. They're desperate to find a way in which their organizations still add value. They are in denial but, it seemed to me, they know that there's just about nothing that the market wants from them. For example, at one point someone said, "Content is king." I replied that judging from the content they're producing, marketing is king; that's where their real value is. Further, I said, on the Internet, connection is king. But then they want to know how to "monetize" connection. There's nothing wrong with that, so long as you understand how monetizing it can kill it. ...

Second, they don't understand what the hell we're talking about. I can't say that I made any inroads. To them, the Internet is a transport for distributing bits they own. Its lack of DRM is a hole that they will plug. They have no doubt that strong DRM is on its way and that it's a good thing. ...

Third, they believe they're responding to the market. They do not recognize that their market has abandoned them. They think that file-sharing is an aberration. In some unthought way, I think they actually believe that the legislation they're back is something the market wants. They maintain this thought this by not actually thinking it out loud.

Fourth, they're going to win. They own Congress and neither Congress nor the entertainment cartel sees any reason to compromise. Their Lakoffian frame tells them that they're stopping theft, end of story. So they are going to kill the Internet and they don't even know it. ...

Depressed? You betcha.

Readers have started a thought-provoking follow-up discussion in the comments attached to his original post.

(Via Dan Gillmor's eJournal.)

PhotoStamps kaput?

If you're planning to order personalized postages stamps through Stamps.com, you might want to hurry. The PhotoStamps market test is scheduled to end Sept. 30 and News.com reports that it might not continue beyond that date.

From spam to spit

You didn't really think that VoIP would free us from telemarketers, did you?

New Scientist reports:

A new plague of unwanted messages threatens internet users, according to a US company. Spam and spim - spam by instant messenger – are about to be joined by "spit" - spam over internet telephony. Qovia, based in Frederick, Maryland, have recently filed two patent applications for technology to thwart spit.

There aren't any documented incidents of "spit" to date, but one security expert says that's simply because there aren't enough VoIP users yet to make it worthwhile.

Paper sleuths

We've been hearing from a lot of forensic document experts the past couple of weeks, because of the controversy surrounding the alleged Bush National Guard memos. The New York Times takes a closer look at this scientific specialty, which is common enough to have an official occupational description: questioned-document examiners.

Ordinarily, document examiners' cases are far more mundane than the CBS case. Examiners are hired by lawyers, police departments and individuals to analyze contested wills, determine whether medical or insurance records have been altered and authenticate handwriting and signatures in letters and contracts.

Document examination, like virtually every other line of work these days, has been fundamentally changed by computing. But many in the field say that digital technology has created nearly as many problems for them as it has solved. ... But document examiners have several counterweapons that can help detect sophisticated digital cut-and-paste forgeries.

It's science!

These are some of the more interesting science headlines from the past few days which I haven't noted previously:

• Study shows dogs able to smell cancer (AP)
• Likelihood of suicide 'determined at birth' (BBC News)
• MIT works to power computers with spinach (AP)
• Seismic surveys may kill giant squid (New Scientist)
• The silly science season (MSNBC.com's Alan Boyle previews this year's Ig Nobel Prize contest)

The 'CSI' Effect

National Geographic explains how the "CSI" Effect Is Mixed Blessing for Real Crime Labs:

The popularity of television shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Forensic Files ... has turned millions of viewers into real-life science sleuths.

The phenomenon has reached into both classrooms and courtrooms. Universities have seen a dramatic increase in applications to forensic science programs. Prosecutors, meanwhile, are facing greater pressure from science-savvy juries to present sophisticated forensic evidence in court.

(Via Alan Boyle's Cosmic Log.)

The human factor

Our best efforts notwithstanding, software is still no solution for human stupidity or carelessness. And yet, companies faced with data security issues routinely turn to high-tech solutions yet skimp on improving training and employee awareness, according to a new Ernst & Young report. CNet News.com has the highlights.

Best and worst sounds

The folks at Stanford's Persuasive Technology Lab ran a study to identify what sounds people love and hate the most. You can listen to the top three on each list here (they're in .wav format) or read details about the study in this article.

Note: Those sitting around you may not appreciate hearing the most hated sounds without warning.

Politics and news portals

iPod owners' paranoia notwithstanding, can software algorithms be biased? How about when it comes to picking which political stories to feature on a news portal? J.D. Lasica raises that intriguing question in Online Journalism Review.

In newspaper newsrooms, editors often go to great lengths to achieve a semblance of balance in coverage of the two major candidates for president. Some count the story inches devoted to both men. Others make sure that photo size and placement don't favor one over the other. Journalistic fairness demands equal treatment.

But what are the rules for online search engines, where millions of users are turning for their daily news fix? Does evenhanded coverage apply in the bottomless news hole of cyberspace? Does having an editorial team or an automated program get you a better sweep of important news about the political candidates?

These are tricky questions. To their credit, Google News and Yahoo News agreed to pull back the curtain and explain how they acquire and display political news.

One particular point he addresses: why human-editor-free Google News seems to offer up so many links to alternative news sites when you check its John Kerry coverage.

Macs a good deal

Over at Cult of Mac, Leander Kahney notes "a weird shift in the media concerning the cost of Macs. Instead of the usual Macs are 'more expensive,' I read several times that Macs are suddenly 'more affordable.'"

So, it's not just my imagination ...

More from Kahney:

For a lot of tech writers (and consumers), price has always been the biggest sticking point when considering a Mac; it's the ultimate deal breaker. But I think we'll see "suprisingly affordable," or "cheaper than their competitors," more and more, and that it will play a very important role in Apple's continued resurrection.

A puzzling business

Well, here's a niche business opportunity that could only exist on the Internet: The Answer Guys sells you answers to the New York Times Crossword. Yes, the Times publishes them for no additional cost the day after the puzzle runs, and runs a $1.20-a-minute telephone help line for those who can't wait, but the St. Augustine, Fla.-based site charges less.

Ron Bailis, the crossword fan behind the Answer Guys, tells The Business Journal of Jacksonville, Fla., that the answers he sells are his own, or ones contributed by other "solvers" trying to help him out.

Bailis doesn't post the actual Times crossword on his site and says he's confident that he isn't violating copyright laws. A spokeswoman for the Gray Lady tells the Business Journal that "there does not appear to be any basis for legal action," although the crossword editor views the venture less kindly.

Fashion flash

USB flash drives are more than just the latest thing in portable storage media: They're fashion accessories, too, the New York Times notes:

... when the devices, which can cost less than a music CD, are not being used to store or retrieve data, they often dangle from key chains and backpacks - or even from the necks of users - as if pendants signifying a cult of convenient computing. Some are built discreetly into pens or wristwatches; a maker in the Far East is now marketing them in the form of lipstick tubes. ...

In some cases, flash drives have suddenly become so commonplace that, as with cellphones, their owners are adding fashion touches to lend them a personal identity. Many are being made in iPod-ish ivory and a range of candy colors; lots are as shiny as new spoons.

Fowl-jet trade doesn't fly

Seeking new markets for its poultry, Thailand offered to buy JAS 39 Gripen jet fighters from Sweden -- and pay for them with raw chicken meat. The Swedish government said no.

Literal path to health

Talk about refreshing walks. Health reporter Julie Davidow reports today that Bastyr University, a local school for alternative medicine, has installed a reflexology path to help heal anyone who walks it. The "Walk of Health" modeled after similar walkways found in Asia.

Slowly traversing the winding trail studded with smooth river stones kneads sore muscles, breaks down toxins and helps build immunities, says designer Elizabeth Marazita, a licensed acupuncturist.

Morphine, naturally

Some "persistent researchers" may have finally proven the controversial theory that morphine occurs naturally in the human brain, Wired News reports.

George Stefano, director of the Neuroscience Research Institute, tells the news site that the study, if its results hold up, could have widespread implications:

Instead of pumping patients full of morphine, Stefano said, doctors could instead give a morphine precursor -- a molecule that would set off a chain reaction eventually resulting in increased morphine production in the brain. ...

The approach could circumvent dependency because it would increase an individual's own morphine levels instead of replacing natural morphine with a synthetic version. ...

The discovery could also explain why some people are more susceptible to addiction -- they may have a morphine deficiency.

Decapitations find audience

Newsweek columnist Brad Stone asks, and answers, an interesting question: Who watches the horrible footage of hostage beheadings that circulates on the Web? And why?

Rich = happy?

A new poll shows that, yup, Americans still link income with happiness. As the Associated Press writeup puts it:

Money may not buy happiness, but for many people it apparently puts a down payment on satisfaction.

No surprise there, although this runs counter to what the expert say.

'Star Wars' DVD changes

Curious about just what changes George Lucas made for the DVD release of the original "Star Wars" trilogy? Then check out these links:

• The Digital Bits highlights noticeable changes in all three films, comparing old and new scenes with nifty side-by-side screen captures.
• MovieWeb has compiled some extensive galleries showing rejiggered scenes and previous versions. Alas, they're not captioned so it's a little tough to figure out which is which.
• CNN lists five major changes in the trilogy, including redubbed voice parts.

Disunity in the EU

The "clash of civilizations" appears to be alive and well across the Atlantic. More than 300 years after the siege of Vienna, lingering anti-Muslim (or, at least, anti-Turk) sentiment divides Europe as Turkey seeks to join the European Union, the Guardian reports. The headline pretty much sums it up: In 1683 Turkey was the invader. In 2004 much of Europe still sees it that way.

Liechtenstein makes news

Here's something you don't see very often: Liechtenstein, the world's sixth smallest country by land area, is the focus of an Associated Press story today.

Measuring just 62 square miles, Liechtenstein is about two-thirds the size of the city of Seattle and has about 1/16th the population.

On a somewhat related note, About.com has a useful list of the world's 17 smallest countries, each taking up less than 200 square miles.

Net lures the young

There are few surprises in the Online Publishers Association's most recent Generational Media Study, gauging how different age groups view different media (download full report as 224K PDF). For example, the Internet is the top medium of choice for 18- to 54-year-olds, with 47 percent of respondents saying they spend more time online now than they did a year go. TV comes in a not-that-close second, but is used more for entertainment than information, which remains the Internet's bailiwick.

I did spot one interesting nugget, however: "Fifty percent of 18 to 24 year-old newspaper readers say they trust the news they get in newspapers, compared to only 35% of 35 to 54 year-old readers."

Encouraging factoid or symptom of youthful naivete? I'm sure the cynics and pundits will have fun with that question.

An anti-protest law?

In Thou Dost Protest Too Much, on Slate.com, writer Jonathan M. Katz looks at how "an old law turns protesters into threats against the president."

A CD built for sharing

Why would big-name artists like David Byrne and the Beastie Boys agree to contribute songs to a compilation CD whose content is intended to be ripped, copied and traded under a Creative Commons license? Giving into reality, for one thing, says the Wall Street Journal:

If Creative Commons were to catch on more widely, artists might decide to let some of their music be traded free on the Web to promote concerts and related merchandise, as well as to drive sales of CDs and digital tracks protected by standard copyright notices.

A giant stumbles and falls

This almost never happens, but the most read, most e-mailed and most printed stories on SeattlePI.com today are all the same: The fall of AT&T Wireless.

Reporter Dan Richman delivers a very good, very detailed examination of how the Redmond-based industry pioneer deteriorated into takeover fodder. Missed opportunities, bad gambles on technology, poor service and post-merger culture clashes were all factors.

Trust the jester

Is "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart the most trusted man in America? Steve Young, political editor for NationalLampoon.com, says yes:

Enter Jon Stewart. A fake news host. Funny and arguably the most entertaining interviewer in politics, Stewart has become today's Walter Cronkite. Actually not today's Walter Cronkite, who has been painted as an out-of-the-closet myopic liberal. Stewart is 1974's Walter Cronkite. The most trusted man in America. His "Daily Show" on the Comedy Channel is the most consistently funny show on television. It also just might be the most honest news show, fake or real. ...

Satire is criticism, but the humor used to challenge must be bathed in truth, poking fun while, at the same time, presenting honestly the inanity of a situation. More critique than criticism, you hold up the words and thoughts to the light so it becomes clear what is actually being said. With a good satirist, the powerful don't get away with hollow profundities or hypocritical talking points.

Get your towels ready

Douglas Adams lives -- or, at least, his twisted imagination and voice continue.

Over on the other side of the Great Pond, BBC Radio 4 today begins broadcasting a new adaptation of the late humorist's best-selling "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" novels. The "tertiary phase" (i.e., third season) adapts the third novel in the series, "Life, the Universe and Everything." Adams posthumously plays the role of Agrajag, which he recorded before his death in 2001.

Fans who are out of radio reception range will be able to hear Webcasts of each episode for seven days starting the Thursday after its initial airing.

Adams began his satirical magnum opus as a radio series and, personally, I think it's still "Hitchhiker's" in its purest, most wildly entertaining form. I first heard the original 12 radio episodes, comprising two series, when Seattle NPR affiliate KUOW-FM aired them in the early '80s. I eagerly waited for more, but had long since given up hope.

BBC 4's "Hitchhiker's" radio site offers extensive background on the new series, including an amusing audio teaser, behind-the-scenes video and an insightful interview with the director of the new series. (Among other things, he explains how he picks up the action from the second radio series, even though it followed a divergent narrative and ended on a cliffhanger that doesn't appear in the books.)

BBC Online's main Hitchhiker's site is also worth checking out.

High heels as DWI defense

Durham, N.C., attorney Bill Thomas managed to get a client's drunk-driving case tossed out of court by arguing that she failed the field sobriety test because her 3 1/2-inch stiletto heels made it impossible for her to walk a straight line and turn around without stumbling.

Thomas raised other issues as well, as the Durham Herald Sun notes in great detail, but it's his unprecedented argument about footwear that's getting the most attention.

Questionable career choice

A Florida anger-management counselor with a history of assault arrests was charged with aggravated battery for allegedly unleashing two pit bulls on people taking refuge inside his office building during Hurricane Frances, the Palm Beach Post reports.

Your data's all wet

"Is information technology putting us constantly under pressure or could it also have a calming effect?" That's one of the questions that Datafountain, an interesting experiment in real-world interfaces, tries to answer. It depicts fluctuating currency rates for the yen, Euro and U.S. dollar as a sort of kinetic bar graph using upward-shooting jets of water.

It also inspires some wonderfully snarky commentary from Brian McDonough at News.com's News.blog:

This is why the Information Age is better than the Industrial Age. Where they had open sewers lining the streets, we get excessive data clutter, which fosters only a spiritual malaise. Beats cholera.

Watch this space--we're expecting news of bonsai trees cultivated to reveal global employment trends any day now.

Playing ball, CGI-style

For most of my life, special effects in movies and TV shows have been all about creating spectacular imagery that doesn't exist in what we generally consider to be the real world. So I always find it refreshing to see examples of special effects being used to simulate reality instead of imagination.

Example: "Clubhouse," CBS's new fall series about a fictional major-league baseball team. The Associated Press looks at how the producers use state-of-the-art computer-generated effects to simulate a crowded ballpark for simulated games:

"The technology is just at the point where special effects are not being used so much to do the extraordinary but the ordinary," [Daniel Cerone, the show's head writer,] says. "I would argue that this series, even three years ago, couldn't have been done without actually going to a regular ballpark and filling it with thousands of extras," a financial and logistical improbability for a TV series.

Addendum: CGI technology was employed for similar purposes in the new movie "Wimbledon," where it was used to choreograph virtual balls in the tennis scenes, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

On the Bush memos

The big story today: CBS News has apologized for airing a story about President Bush's Air National Guard service based on some now discredited memos. The network no longer vouches for their authenticity and says it was misled by the source who provided them.

Some of the more interesting links I've found on the subject:

• In an interview with CBS News anchor Dan Rather, the former National Guard commander who supplied the memos admits that he lied about how he had obtained them but insists he did not forge them. He concedes that he can't verify their authenticity, either, however.


• CBS News says it will form an independent panel to investigate what happened; the Poynter Institute's Jill Geisler gets the details straight from its top exec. Meanwhile, the Washington Post already published its own reconstruction of the road to disaster: "An examination of the process that led to the broadcast, based on interviews with the participants and more than 20 independent analysts, shows that CBS rushed the story onto the air while ignoring the advice of its own outside experts, and used as corroborating witnesses people who had no firsthand knowledge of the documents."


• What happens next? Jay Rosen at PressThink offers some pretty good educated guesses, plus a couple of suggestions. He also notes that the strangest thing about this whole controversy, to him, was how long CBS kept its head in the sand: "Any bright CBS intern who understood the Net, read the blogs and followed the press could have read the danger signs accumulating day-by-day. But CBS made statements and took actions that showed a reading comprehension score of almost zero."


• One important question which has -- oddly, in my opinion -- become rather tangential is whether what Bush did (or didn't do) during the Vietnam War really matters to voters in 2004. Last Tuesday, we asked SeattlePI.com whether they really cared about what Bush and John Kerry did during the war in a poll on our home page. The results, although unscientific, suggest that quite a few people don't. Commentator William F. Buckley wrote an interesting piece articulating why questions about Bush's wartime service are much ado about nothing.

Last week's top stories

Last week's site traffic was dominated by A Time to Live, our special report on a local boy living with progeria, a rare disease that causes rapid aging. Aside from that, here are the individual stories that caught SeattlePI.com readers' attention from Sept. 13 to Sept. 19, 2004:

Top clicks (most read articles):

1. Direct hit by Ivan could sink New Orleans
2. Grand Cayman a scene of destruction in Ivan's wake
3. Ray Allen aims to give kids a shot at algebra -- and life
4. Marketing execs eye 'Oprah' car giveaway
5. KIRO-AM says Rather not the issue in show's cancellation
6. Miss Washington 2004 is pre-med, boxer, violinist and more
7. Mystery of missing WWII pilot may end soon
8. Hasselbeck earns West Coast raves
9. Alexander says knee will be fine
10. All it takes is a Bic to pick popular bike locks

Top picks (most e-mailed articles):

1. Garrison Keillor: Here's what happened to the Republican Party
2. Direct hit by Ivan could sink New Orleans
3. Grand Cayman a scene of destruction
4. Lessons from a boy growing old before his time
5. Outhouse Charlie makes kits for do-it-yourself coffins
6. All it takes is a Bic to pick popular bike locks
7. 'Indian Larry' said killed at bike show
8. Border inspector arrested in pot smuggling case
9. Gambling linked to good health in elderly
10. Miss Washington 2004 is pre-med, boxer, violinist and more

A real commitment to art

P-I art critic Regina Hackett wrote a fun story about Amy Ellen Trefsger, a local artist who's marrying herself this weekend -- her creative self, that is.

"Artists make art and often they stop and let their creative selves die," Trefsger tells Regina. "I want to declare myself committed to my art, that I'll always do what it takes to keep the art going."

Look, Ma, no gravity

Yes, you too can experience zero gravity for a mere $2,950 with the first consumer weightless-flight service approved by the FAA. Xeni Jardin writes evocatively of the experience in the Wired News story Farewell to Gravity:

The sound of floating is squealing. Our blood has been replaced with laughing gas. Everyone's giggling uncontrollably -- all there is to do when you float for the very first time is laugh.

Because it's impossible. Because it's unnatural. Because it feels like that dream of flying over rooftops in moonlight. And the joke in your bones is that all of this feels perfectly natural, as if all your life you were meant to float.

New nickels

The U.S. Mint has unveiled a redesigned 5-cent coin. Here are the changes at a glance:

Don't feed the decor

This week's irresistible headline comes from the Wall Street Journal: A Llama in the Yard Makes an Impression On the Neighbors:

People have used animals as prey, pets and food for thousands of years. Bored with conventional landscaping, some homeowners now are using bulls, sheep, chickens and other live animals as outdoor decor.

(Addendum: On a kind of related note, the Christian Science Monitor reports at a rise in the number of encounters between suburbanites and wild animals.)

Charlie Brown, savior

Seattle Weekly has a great story on how good ol' Charlie Brown proved the savior of specialty-comics publisher Fantagraphics. Long flirting with bankruptcy, it's now well in the black because of an ambitious 12-year project to publish every "Peanuts" strip in book form.

Writer Michaelangelo Matos details the company's history, set against the context of overall changes in the comic-book industry over the past quarter-century, and explores just how it landed the remarkable "Peanuts" deal:

What continues to guide Fantagraphics—what made the Schulz family trust them enough to do Peanuts justice—is the overwhelming sense of mission that emanates from everything they issue. [Company heads Kim Thompson and Gary Groth] are driven by what comics should be, not how much they might make.

This print edition has a really cute cover, too.

At the speed of blog

With CBS now promising to "redouble its efforts" to determine the authenticity of the now-notorious Bush memos, San Jose Mercury News columnist Dan Gillmor muses on just how big a role bloggers played in the controversy. His conclusion, which I agree with, is that even without the blogosphere, mainstream news media would have raised serious questions about the memos by now. But, the whole process happened much faster because of critical bloggers.

Regardless of what one thinks of the bloggers' politics, they advanced the memo story. And they did it fast -- no doubt more quickly than the mass media would have done.

They could fuel the firestorm for several reasons. First, they were passionate about their cause: looking for reasons to shoot down the CBS report, which turned out to be a huge target.

Second, they are many. We in the media -- at least those of us who might have been prepared to jump instantly into the question of whether the memos were real -- are relatively few.

Third, the velocity of information is so much greater with digital technology. What once would have taken days or weeks to make its way through the media sphere now ricochets around the world in hours.

One danger in such a world is the spread of misinformation, corrected too late to erase or even very much mitigate the damage. Some hard-core partisans don't seem to care about this, but the rest of us should.

And it's worth noting that this would not have become such a public controversy had the major media not picked up the story.

Even as we take care not to draw the wrong lessons from this episode, though, let's not debunk the genuine achievement of the bloggers. Their version of ``open source'' journalism is notable.

Warrior-librarians

Wired News columnist Adam Penenberg looks at "radical librarians" who most definitely will not be shushed when it comes to defending patrons' civil rights and resisting government snooping.

Bloggers as watchdogs

Glenn Reynolds and J.D. Lasica offer two roundups of coverage and commentary about the Bush memo controversy and the key role that the blogosphere has played in the debate.

As Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal.com columnist John Fund wrote yesterday, someone new is now watching the watchers:

In reality, traditional journalism now has a new set of watchdogs in the "blogosphere." In the words of blogger Mickey Kaus, they can trade information and publicize it "fast enough to have real-world consequences." Sure, blogs can be transmission belts for errors, vicious gossip and last-minute disinformation efforts. But they can also correct themselves almost instantaneously ...

PhotoStamps clampdown

In the wake of some high-profile hijinks, Stamps.com has issued new limits on acceptable imagery for its personalized PhotoStamps service, News.com reports. A company press release says the service will now focus on its most popular categories, kids and pets. Landscapes, nature, wildlife, business logos, and charity
logos are also OK, but photos of adults and teens will henceforth be accepted only from "trusted channels such as approved photographers or portrait studios." So, no more Unabomber stamps, alas.

DIY to the very end

Yes, you can buy a do-it-yourself coffin kit.

Tuning into reality

It's become quite fashionable to trash reality TV and predict its imminent demise. But, as Salon TV critic Heather Havrilesky points out, not many pundits try to explain why American viewers keep tuning in. To her credit, she tries and makes some excellent points.

On the one hand, Havrilesky writes, the better reality shows (e.g., "Survivor," "The Apprentice," "The Amazing Race") are actually entertaining, surprising and inventive -- unlike the majority of today's scripted dramas and sitcoms. But it goes deeper than that, she thinks:

The best reality shows transform ordinary places and people into dramatic settings populated by lovable heroes and loathsome enemies, and in the process of watching and taking sides and comparing the characters' choices to the ones we might make, we're reacquainted with ourselves and each other. Great fictional TV has the power to engage us, too, but the networks aren't creating much of that these days. When was the last time "CSI" sparked a little self-examination? Does "Still Standing" make you giggle in recognition at life's merry foibles?

Sour note for ringtone biz

Has Big Music learned anything about moving fast to take advantage of new revenue opportunities presented by new technology? Not if the custom-ringtone market is anything to judge by, according to the Wall Street Journal:

The ring-tone market, once seen as the industry's next cash cow, has become a dizzying free-for-all, stymied by nightmarish contractual disputes, conflicting technical requirements and the old specter of piracy. Losing out could be a big blow to an industry that most recently missed the opportunity to control the sale of music online.

Musicians have contracts with companies that own the underlying music and lyrics and also with companies who own the rights to a recorded performance. Sometimes many musicians are credited with writing one song. Getting all these players to agree on ring-tone rights can be a huge morass. Meanwhile, not all cell phones play all ring tones. No one can even agree on what to call the latest variants that play actual snippets of songs, as opposed to tinny beeps. They've been dubbed master-tape ring tones, ring tunes, true tones, hi-fi ringers and song tones.

Most popular, Sept. 6-12

Here are the most popular stories on SeattlePI.com last week:

Top clicks (most read)

1. Cheney backtracks on terror risk comment
2. Sony developing TVs that zoom in on image
3. Rolling wheat fields are also Wi-Fi country
4. Under new law, floating checks no longer float
5. Editorial: Where was George?
6. Ridge: Terrorists hope to disrupt election
7. Bush missed Guard duty, records say
8. Mystery man has Japanese island abuzz
9. Passengers help subdue unruly man on flight
10. Seahawks go big with final player cuts

Top picks (most e-mailed)

1. Garrison Keillor: Here's what happened to the Republican Party
2. Rolling wheat fields are also Wi-Fi country
3. Under new law, floating checks no longer float
4. The Obesity Crisis: A healthy diet often beyond the means of poor, hungry
5. Bush missed Guard duty, records say
6. Frank Olding dead at 40: Experienced climber fell in Grand Tetons
7. The symphony celebrates Gerard Schwarz's 20th season after a downbeat year
8. 'Ritual and party all in one' at Burning Man
9. Living Well: Blueberries trigger neurons that keep the brain sharp
10. In the Northwest: Victoria still treats Strait of Juan de Fuca as its toilet

Headway on hurricanes

How well can they predict the path of a hurricane? A Scripps Howard News Service story provides this not entirely reassuring answer: better than they used to, but still not as well as a lot of people would like.

Type makes headlines

For years it's looked as if typography is a dying art in the age of the Internet. But in the past few days a lot of people have been getting a mini-crash course in the subject. What prompted it? Questions about the authenticity of the documents CBS News unearthed (see PDFs: 1 2 3 4) that raised doubts about whether President Bush fulfilled his National Guard obligations during the Vietnam War.

Skeptics are pouncing on aspects of the documents' typography that appear to be anachronistic, according to Wired News: superscripted "th" glyphs, proportional spacing and a typeface that resembles the Times Roman and Times New Roman that are common defaults in today's word processors. None were common features of typewriters in the early 1970s. (This memo posted by CBS shows all of the above, while a Washington Post illustration points them out explicitly.)

However, follow-up reports -- such as this Boston Globe story -- have pointed out that at least one typewriter model extant in the early '70s, the IBM Selectric Composer, could have produced such typography.

For a good roundup of the criticisms, check out Daily Kos, which has raised some excellent points about the pro-forgery arguments and compiled evidence and citations to support them.

Meanwhile, Edward Mendelson chimes in at PCMag.com with an interesting demonstration of how the Selectric Composer's output compares with that of Microsoft Word.

(Update: Jim Treacher and Little Green Footballs follow up on Mendelson's comparison.)

Fathers and daughters

In A Fear of Hugging, WSJ.com coumnist Jeffrey Zaslow looks at the increasingly murky question of how much physical affection is appropriate between fathers and their growing daughters:

In many ways, we've become a more tactile culture. Families today see the value in expressing love through a hug, and a lot of people feel comfortable embracing friends, even strangers, which explains New York's latest fad, "cuddle parties." And yet, when it comes to dads and daughters, this new enlightenment is tempered by uncertainty, caution and fear. Confused about how and when to touch the girls in their lives, men are distancing themselves from maturing daughters who still yearn to be held.

The media's obsession with sexual improprieties and pedophilia, and the parade of men accused of abuse in divorce disputes, have added to fathers' inhibitions about showing affection. One reader recently e-mailed me to say that his daughters, ages 7 and 9, like sitting in his lap. But he's been reprimanded by disapproving acquaintances. "It's terrible that I have to deprive my kids of appropriate, non-sexual, physical affection," he wrote, "but I also don't want to get phone calls from child-protection agencies."

A smarter keypad

Just what we need: yet another innovative keyboard design. Research in Motion's new Blackberry 7100t smartphone has a radical one that sports just 20 keys. As New York Times columnist David Pogue explains, the 7100t uses software smarts to accommodate the 26-character alphabet:

Most of the keys have two letters painted on them; for example, the top four keys are labeled QW, ER, TY and OP. You just hammer away at the keys you want, ignoring the gibberish that may appear at first. By the time you complete each word, the phone's software has consulted its database of 35,000 words and deduced your intentions. It's a crazy, way-out plan, but it actually works.

For example, suppose you want to type the word pig. You'd tap the OP, UI and GH keys. Of course, those combinations could also trigger words like OUG, PUH and OIG - but pig is the probable choice, so that's what you get on the screen.

But what if you really want "pug," which requires the same three keys? (Maybe you raise dogs for a living.)

In that case, you watch a second, highlighted display just below your insertion point. It shows all possible letter combinations, no matter how strange-looking, that could result from the keys you've pressed so far. If the software starts to go off track, you highlight the correct interpretation using the side-mounted thumb dial or the Next button.

Pogue notes that the 7100t learns from its mistakes and preferences to make the typing process "even enjoyable."

It sounds like a fascinating technology although I wonder if road warriors will want to learn yet another way to tap out e-mail on the go.

Box office non-forecast

Is the popularity of our movie preview galleries a good predictor of how well the films will do at the box office? We've wondered that around the office. I decided to find out.

We posted galleries for 13 movies in August, each generating anywhere from around 2,000 to around 50,000 page-views last month. Since the number of photos in each gallery ranged from seven to 21, it's not fair to compare them on raw numbers so I concocted a quickie "Popularity Index," dividing the total page-views a gallery drew by the number of images it contained. For example, the "Vanity Fair" gallery's 21 images generated 49,860 page-views so its Popularity Index is 2,374.

Then, I looked up the opening-weekend box office for each film at Box Office Mojo.

Here's the list: